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woah-were-halfway-there · 4 years ago

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Leafs in 5

A/N: I was inspired after game 4 against Columbus, what can I say

Word Count: 4.1k

Going into the NHL’s alternate version of the postseason playoffs that 2020 decided to sprinkle in on top of everything else going on in the world, you knew it was bound to be interesting. There was a plan set in motion to keep all the players and staff safe and strict rules that needed to be followed for everything to work the way it was supposed to. Both of these resulted in your boyfriend, Auston, having to stay in a bubble at the Royal York while you stayed alone in your shared condo in Toronto that was just a few blocks away, for who knew how long.

You were lucky that when the NHL season ended back in March, you were able to travel to Scottsdale with Auston and not be separated. At the beginning of the lockdown, your workplace closed down and moved to a work from home setting until further notice. After clarifying that it’d be at least a month until you could go back, you figured it wasn’t the worst idea to go along with your boyfriend back to Arizona after asking if you’d go with him. Little did you know the two of you would be there for almost four months.

Although it was a relaxing time, it was also weird. All you really did was hang out with Auston, his family and Freddie while waiting to hear literally anything about things going back to normal, but that never happened. Your work decided that going back wouldn’t be an option even as Toronto entered its reopening phases as a safety precaution. Therefore you’d be working from home for the foreseeable future.

It sucked a lot. You liked your job, your co-workers, and having your own way to be independent in a professional setting, but a global pandemic makes things a bit pretty difficult at times, and sometimes sacrifices need to be made. Lucky for you, though, it could have been a lot worse. And Auston played a massive part in you being able to adapt as well as you have.

The time the two of you spent in Arizona together was great. Obviously, during it, you worked, spent time with the boys and the Matthews family, but a lot of new things happened too. You and Auston welcomed Felix, a Bernedoodle puppy home to be part of the fam, and dealt with life as living in a pandemic continued.

Then the NHL announced its return to play action plan, and things got wild all over again.

Auston began skating and practicing intently again. Plans were being made to get back to Toronto for training before having to go to whatever hub city was chosen for the Eastern Conference teams. With all the talk of possible locations for the playoffs to take place, you weren’t expecting Toronto to be one of the cities in deep consideration, let alone for one of the so-called bubbles actually to be there. But, that was exactly how things played out, so you and Auston prepared accordingly.

After some deep consideration and conversations with your boyfriend, you decided that when the time came, you would go back to Toronto when Auston needed to go. However, there was a period where Auston was sick, and that changed things up a bit even more, but eventually, the two of you and Felix were all set and ready to head back to the 6ix without any further delays.

The two of you settled to being back in Ontario without difficulty. You followed the rules of self-isolating for two weeks upon arriving back to the country, and so did Auston. If he wasn’t at the condo with you, he was at the rink practicing alone, since it wasn’t safe for him to be around his teammates, or the public until those 14 days were up. That was fine though, you both just chilled with Felix, watched the entirety of Sons of Anarchy and Schitt’s Creek, and prepared for how things were bound to change again once the playoffs finally started.

“I feel bad,” Auston said loudly from the bedroom as you walked down the hallway towards it with the basket full of clothes you’d just taken out of the dryer.

“Why is that?” You asked once you entered the room, tossing the clothes on the chair, and got ready to fold them. It was his last night in the condo before having to relocate down the street at the Fairmont for the entire Maple Leafs playoff run. He was busy packing, and you were busy making sure everything was organized and ready for this transition. Even Felix was taking part by laying on the bed and demanding attention from both you and Auston every once in a while.

“You know why,” he deadpanned while looking at you pointedly.

At that, you sighed.

“Aus, we talked about this.”

“I know we did, but now that it’s actually time for me to leave, I’m dreading it even more.”

As much as you tried not to let the situation bug you, it still did. Throughout your entire relationship, there were many times when you and Auston would spend time away from each other, so that part was nothing new. However, you’d never been in the same city without being able to see one another or know when you’d be able to talk face-to-face and not through a screen again would be. And although the whole bubble situation was something you and Auston had talked about a lot over the last month or so, what it entailed still hadn’t quite set in until that moment.

“Me too,” you responded quietly and stared down at the pile of clean clothes, knowing that if you looked at your boyfriend, the tears you felt pricking your eyes would undoubtedly spillover. “But it has to happen, Auston. There isn’t much else we can do, unfortunately.”

“But-.”

“No buts,” you cut him off and snapped your teary gaze to him. “This is your career. And the playoffs! Those are no small things. Regardless of how crappy this entire process is, I’m still going to be here, cheering you on as much as possible. It just sucks so bad that things aren’t normal. That I can’t go down to SBA and watch you be the amazing hockey player that you are with our friends and family, or hug you as soon as you’re done your postgame interview and tell you how proud I am. I’m just so over everything right now, and I’m sorry to be taking this out on you, this is the last thing you should have to deal with before going into the bubble. I just-.”

The way your voice cracked at the end of your spiel had your boyfriend next to you and pulling you into his embrace in a second.

You were on an emotional rant, and Auston knew that. He knew that you had been holding in how you really felt about the NHL’s plan to go ahead with the playoffs, and it was time to let it all out. Although you never expressed your frustrations, you did have quite a few, and Auston was determined to get you to talk about them, especially before he had to leave.

“I’m sorry I’m a mess,” you mumbled while wrapping your arms around his waist and leaned against his chest.

“You’re allowed to be a mess,” he replied and squeezed you. “This isn’t an ideal way for the playoffs to happen, believe me, I know, and I’m still not sure how it’s all going to play out. But know I’m sorry you’re feeling the way that you are because of something I have to do.”

“That’s the thing though, Aus, there is literally nowhere else I’d rather be than here for you... but I’m worried. What if you, or another player, or staff get sick? What will the league do then? I get that they’re strict on how things in the bubble will work and everything, but we’re still in a freaking pandemic. I just don’t think it’s necessary. But regardless of what I think about the NHL’s decision to resume, it doesn’t matter. I’m the one who agreed to come back with you, and I’m going to be here still even if you and the team end up in Edmonton for the finals, and I won’t see you until October. Wow, it sucks, even more, talking about it.”

“God, I know,” he responded before pulling away slightly to look down at you. “I’ll never be able to explain how much I appreciate you coming back and being here with me for all of this. I hate that I’m going to be so closeby and not be able to come home to you and Felix and that you’re going to be here alone, but thank you for being willing to do this for me.”

“Of course, I want to kiss your stupid face again as soon as I can after this,” you pouted. “Even if I have to fly to Alberta in order to do so.”

“Wouldn’t exactly be opposed to that idea,” he told you before leaning down and catching your lips in a soft, sweet kiss. It didn’t take long for you to deepen the kiss by wrapping your arms around the back of his neck and pulling him closer. He smiled against your lips, letting his hands linger on your waist a bit as he waited for you to make the next move. But then, you unexpectedly broke the kiss and turned away from him.

“Well, I guess we better get back to packing, yeah?”

You had the goofiest grin on your face as you reached down to grab one of your t-shirts from the laundry pile, but then Auston let out a dramatic groan from where he stood, and you had to cover your mouth so that you wouldn��t burst out laughing.

“Now you’re just being cruel,” he said as he walked up behind you and leaned his head on your shoulder. You bit down hard on your bottom lip to keep yourself from smiling any wider than you already were as he wrapped his arms around your waist, before eventually turning around to look at him again.

“How so?”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I think I hear Felix getting into something,” you lied as you tried to worm out of his hold, wanting to mess with him a bit more. But he was on to you, which is also why you didn’t put up a fight when he didn’t let go.

“Babe,” Auston whined. “You’re killing me.”

“Well we can’t have that, you have to go into the bubble tomorrow-.”

Before anything else could be said, Auston pressed his lips against yours again, and you let him. You chuckled slightly before reaching up to tangle your hands into the curls forming due to him not getting a haircut. But you didn’t mind, loved it even, and used it as a way to keep him close.

“You’re full of jokes tonight, huh?” He mumbled against your lips as he slowly guided you towards the bed, all while tugging at the bottom of the hoodie you wore.

“Just for you,” you replied before pecking his lips and moving away just enough to pull the sweater off and toss it on the ground before quickly kissing him again. You then came in contact with the mattress and let Auston lay you back on it. It wasn’t long before he was leaning over you and letting his lips roam to that sweet spot along your collarbone that he knew would have you seeing stars. “I thought you needed to pack.”

“I’ll do it in the morning.”

“You’re going to regret that decision once you realize you’ll have to get up early to get ready,” you challenged.

“No, what I’ll regret is not finishing what we’re starting before I have to leave tomorrow,” he quipped and continued brushing his lips against your skin.

“Alright, fair,” you responded, figuring you’d given him a hard enough time and guided his lips back to yours; the night soon fading around you as melted into each other’s touch.

The next morning, you woke up alone in bed. The blinds were still drawn, Felix was asleep on the rug, and the AC was cranked for some reason. The cold air made goosebumps rise on your exposed skin, causing you to shiver as you pulled the bedsheet up higher to cover more of your body. Just as you started wondering where Auston had gone off to, you heard the shower turn on from the ensuite and suddenly knew where he was. Part of you wanted to just lay in bed for the whole day, but the other more logical part knew there was still a lot to be done before Auston’s departure and that you should probably get up.

You grabbed your housecoat from its place in the closet and put it on before sneaking into the washroom to brush your teeth. Auston didn’t know you were in there with him, but that changed as soon as you finished rinsing off your toothbrush and decided to join him in the shower.

Once the two of you were done in there, you eventually did get dressed and ready to start the day.

Leading up to his last day at the condo, you made sure any running around for him was done so that there would be no added stress, and that’s precisely what happened. The two of you shared a chill morning consisting of a homemade breakfast, packing, taking Felix for a walk, and simply enjoying the other’s presence before Auston had to leave.

And that time came up way too fast.

“I’m going to miss you,” Auston said in the parking lot of the Ford Performance Centre before pulling you in for a hug. You were dropping him off for his last team practice before going into the bubble, but you both knew it’d be the last time the two of you would see each other for a while.

“I’m going to miss you too, so much,” you replied and squeezed him a little tighter. “Even though you’ll be only a few blocks away.”

“It sure won’t feel like it.”

“I know.”

Gradually, some of Auston’s teammates started walking by, and you knew one of you would have to pull away sooner or later. Reluctantly, you were the first to do it.

“You’re gonna be late, Matts,” Mitchy stated as he walked by juggling his suitcase and bags he planned on taking into the bubble. “Hey, Y/N.”

“Hey, Mitch,” you smiled as you leaned back against your car, Auston’s hands still on your waist. “Is Steph still here?”

“She’s just about to leave, I think. Are you two still hanging out this week?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably take Felix over to your house to hang out with Zeus while we watch the game and drink some wine.”

“Sounds like a typical night for you two,” he chuckled and adjusted one of the straps of his bags. “Anyways, I gotta get in there. Actually, we both do.”

He gave Auston a pointed look, and your boyfriend just rolled his eyes.

“Get off my back. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Yeah, ok,” Mitch responded and started walking again. “See ya, Y/N!”

“Bye, Mitch, good luck!” You called after him before looking back to Auston and smiling at him sadly. “You really do need to get going.”

“I know,” he sighed and began picking up his bags so he could start heading towards the building. “I’ll call you tonight once I’m settled in?”

“Yes, please do,” you replied as he looked to you and nodded. “Just give me a heads up when. I’m supposed to Facetime your sisters tonight to give them a Felix update and catch up.”

“Fair enough,” he smiled, to which you returned before pulling him in for one last kiss.

“You’re going to do great, Auston. I love you.”

“And I love you,” he pecked your lips again. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sounds good,” you said as he began walking away. “Good luck, babe.”

At that, he smiled to you over his shoulder before continuing on his way. You stood there for a moment after he disappeared out of sight, clutching onto the little 34 necklace he had gifted you for Christmas two years prior, before sighing and climbing into your car so you could head back home.

~*~

After Auston entered the bubble, the two of you FaceTimed every day, it wasn’t always planned, sometimes just in the spur of the moment when you were both bored and missing each other, and it really did make the whole transition a lot easier.

The first night, Auston gave you a virtual tour of the Leafs floor at the Fairmont. Then, he told you all about the practice and how the guys chirped him for bringing so many clothes. You couldn’t help but laugh, seeing as you knew it was true, before asking you about your day. Your day was much less eventful, so the topic of conversation shifted rather quickly. You somehow ended up playing Mario Kart on the switch from your living room against Tyson, Kerf and Freddie, all while still on FaceTime with Auston. After a few rounds of that, you were more than ready to call it a night.

Once you had said goodbye to Auston, you curled up in bed with Felix and soon passed out.

That quickly became a routine almost every night the Leafs didn’t have a game. You and Auston would catch up about the day’s events before getting into some friendly competition with the guys over something that would sometimes involve other wives or girlfriends trying to keep their men at bay as well.

On the nights the Leafs did play, you always watched the game in some way. You watched their exhibition game against Montreal with Steph at her house, FaceTimed Auston’s family while watching the first game against Columbus from the condo, and so on.

You witnessed Auston’s goal against the Blue Jackets in Game 2 and couldn’t wait to express how proud you were of him once the two of you were able to talk again that night. You also got to see the 3-0 lead the Leafs lost in Game 3 and listened to your boyfriend vent about it, but still made sure to tell him that you were insanely proud, because you were.

And then Game 4 happened.

Going into that game, you didn’t know what to expect, think, or feel. Obviously, you wanted the Leafs to win. You didn’t want their (sort of) playoff run to be over so soon, but also, the selfish part of you couldn’t help but think about how there was a chance Auston might be home that night. The conflict you felt made you anxious for the actual game, which is why you opted to watch it at home alone with Felix.

You sat on the couch, clutching onto a cushion for the entire game. Before the game started, you decided that although you would have loved for Auston to be home, you wanted the Leafs to push a Game 5. You knew they were capable of going much further than just the qualifying round and were rooting hard for them to win. Still, you gradually became a little less hopeful leading into the last four minutes of the game when Columbus was up 3-0.

But then Willy scored. Less than a minute later so did John, and then Zach managed to tie up the game with just 22 seconds left on the clock. To say you were on the edge of your seat would’ve been an understatement because it was so much more intense than that. You didn’t think what was happening was real, but the flood of texts you received from friends and family about what happened proved you wrong.

During the commercial break, you called Ema, Auston’s mom, who was absolutely losing her mind. You stayed on the phone with her, talking with Auston’s family as your heart pounded in your chest while for overtime to begin.

Then Auston scored the game-winning goal, and you literally screamed. You stood up, staring at the TV in complete awe while his teammates engulfed your boyfriend, and all the Columbus players skated off the ice. Felix looked at you oddly, and you wasted no time in picking him up and pointing to the screen, telling him what his dad just did.

After the reality of what just happened settled in, you said your goodbyes to Auston’s family before texting Steph and some other friends, still losing your mind. You watched the postgame interviews, chuckling at how it was undeniable that even Auston still hadn’t entirely accepted what happened and couldn’t wait until you received the call from him you knew was coming.

About half an hour later, your phone rang, and sure enough, it was Auston.

“I am so proud of you,” you stated as soon as the FaceTime call connected. Auston was walking down the hallway of their hotel floor, smiling widely, and you could see some of his teammates in the background on the phone with loved ones as well. “All of you. Holy fuck, you guys did that!”

“It still doesn’t seem real,” Auston responded. “Like this is real, right? I didn’t dream it?”

“It’s real, babe, you’re going to Game 5!”

“Holy shit.”

You could tell he was in his room by that point with the way he flopped on a bed and couldn’t stop smiling.

“How’s the adrenaline?” You asked and patted the space beside you so that Felix would lay beside you and be in the camera frame.

“Hi buddy,” Auston breathed out, before chuckling. “And oh, it’s pumping. I think I’m going to be up for a while after this.”

“Then what are you doing in your room? Go celebrate with the guys.”

“I know, I will. But I wanted to say goodnight to you first.”

You smiled at how soft he was even after such a significant game, and couldn’t help the blush that burned across your cheeks.

“You’re too sweet,” you said while shaking your head.

“Only for you,” he replied and sat up as someone knocked on his door.

“I think you’re being summoned,” you laughed as he rolled his eyes.

“It’s Mitchy telling me to get out of my room.”

“I think you better listen before they barge in.”

“True,” he responded. “I guess I will go. I’ll call you tomorrow? We’re off for the day.”

“I’ll be here,” you answered him softly. “Now, go be with your team, and don’t forget to call your mom.”

“Oh, yes, right, I’ll do that right now. I love you. Thank you for always supporting me.”

“And I love you, babe, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Ok, bye,” he replied and blew you a quick kiss just before the call ended.

You stared at your screen for a minute until it went dark and shook your head. Your heart was bursting with how proud you were and how much you loved your boyfriend, that even you weren’t sure if you’d be able to fall asleep right away. After scrolling through social media for a bit and liking every Maple Leafs post that showed up in your timeline, you eventually called it a night and set your phone down.

Just as you did that, though, your phone buzzed with a goodnight text from Auston.

Auston

Sleep tight. I love you.x

You laid there, smiling at the device for a moment before texting back.

Y/N

I love you more. Goodnight Auston.x

Auston

Not possible

Your heart swelled as you read over his last message multiple times before deciding what to text back.

Y/N

Bet.

Now go, babe. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I love you.

Auston

Love you too <3

After shutting your phone off again, you finally let yourself relax even while being overcome by an emotional wave of just how much you loved your boyfriend. You knew that whether or not Auston came home after Game 5, the two of you would be ok. The distance hadn’t affected anything, and you knew it wouldn’t even if the Leafs did make it to the finals, and you and Auston were separated for a long time. It’d all be worth it in the end, and you couldn’t wait to see how the rest of the Leafs playoff run was bound to play out.

Hello friends! Somehow I managed to write this in a day, anyways, I’d love to hear what you think! And Go Leafs!

#auston matthews imagine #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagine #nhl writing #auston matthews fanfiction #nhl headcanon #nhl imagines #nhl rpf #toronto maple leafs imagine #auston matthews imagines #nhl fic #hockey fanfiction #hockey rpf #hockey imagine

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shinahbee · 4 years ago

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February Favs 2021

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GREETINGS

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March 6. 2021

Hello!

Another month has passed by really quickly, maybe because February had only 28 days.

This month also was lunar new years or Chinese New Year, so happy new year to all of you who celebrate it! Our household celebrated safely with just my family, in previous years we would celebrate with extended families, but of course every one’s safety is important.

There was also Valentine’s Day, which I helped my sister make some cheese tarts for her boyfriend as a gift. I’ve been working on a few things, including art for more of my manhwa recommendations, but I’ll put that on hold for now and work on a few for some recent anime that I have been watching. I feel like I’m winding down when it comes to filtering the shounen ai manhwa, there really isn’t much that I have read currently that I want to really want to share.

There are some of the ones that are popular that I dropped, I named two of them in my last favorites, but there have been a lot more since then, if you’d like I could add another segment under the hell segment that talk about the ones I dropped and why I dropped them, I feel like if someone had similar thoughts to a certain manhwa and why they dislike the content , It would honestly help me filter out a lot of the ones I never really should have read, if that makes any sense.

Not instagram though...it keeps showing me the pictures of manhwa that I dropped ...I’m like omg instagram your algorithm is screwed...I don’t even like these.lol. Thus this is how it thought of the new segment idea. I feel like I’m adding a lot to this segment alone.lol.

So how is everything going for all of you? Anything exciting happening? I’ll keep you guys updated when something good happens, but there is nothing currently. Thank you for taking the time to read my nonsense blabbering.

Enjoy reading!

Sheena

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DRAMAS:

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No dramas this month to talk about.lol.

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MANHWA/MANGA/WEBTOONS:

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Recap:

1) Whose baby is it? (ongoing)

2) Social temperature (ongoing)

3) Salad days (ongoing)

4) To be or not to be (ongoing)

5) Path to you (Completed)

6) Here u are (Completed)

7) BJ Alex (Completed)

8) No way, vampires don't exist (ongoing)

9) Unintentional love story (ongoing)

10) Karasugoka don’t be shy! (Completed)

11) Semantic Error (ongoing)

12) Tied up in Twins (Completed)

13) My Suha (ongoing)

14) Crash into me (Completed)

15) Dine with a vampire (ongoing)

16) Inner beauty (Completed)

17) False memories (Completed)

18) Hand in Hand (Completed)

19) Stanning 101 (ongoing)

20) Private lessons (Completed)

21) Behind the scenes (Completed)

22) Turn off the camera (Ongoing)

Updates on ongoing titles:

So I thought I would start off with some updates on some of the titles in the recap section since it has been a while since I last talked about them.

No way vampires don’t exist:

This is almost done soon so I’m glad that the manhwa updates are consistent, what I didn’t know is that there were extra chapters of side stories for this manhwa, and I discovered them through a Chinese manga site, I really hope the licensed site will be able to translate these as well cause it goes into the later lives of all the housemates and of course an in depth development of juwon and dongha’s relationship which I am living for since they are so cute. Lol.

I really hope these get translated since my Chinese is lacking, I’ve just seen the raws and thought I may be able to read them but of course my 8 years of Chinese school has failed me once again.

Dine with a vampire:

This manhwa is giving me so much gripe when discussing the story so far, the recent update of course was a little better in showing the relationship between chi hwan and sooin, so i’m happy they got their feelings across to each other and sooin was able to really begin to trust people again. BUT....I was spoiled by the raws for this week’s update, and let me give a big F*CK you to that harry potter asshole...I still don’t know his name, i think my memory did me a favor and selectively removed it for my mind. I obviously can’t spoil all of it for you but stuff happens and harry potter has found his way to sooin and basically kidnapped him while he was vulnerable and he’s trying to make him his partner...I’m like...great...In all honesty let’s look at this situation in modern society, think about a person who had made your life living hell, who then dies and you think that’s the end of it , but this asshole still haunts you even after death and still tormenting you...i’m not going to lie, I honestly think I would just kill myself at this point.

I feel like when I first read this manhwa , I thought it was disgusting but I still read it thinking that it will be better, it’s like watching season one of a show and being annoyed hoping that it will get better later and then finding out in season two is just...I need anger management.

I really hope what I think might happen will not but the author seems to be a sadist, so it might end up that way. Props to the creator for making one of the most detestable characters i’ve seen so far. I will watch out for people like this in my actual life.

Semantic Error:

This is updating a little slow and again I tried reading the raws, but of course that didn’t go too well, from what i’ve seen there is a bit of character development between the two main leads so far. Also I’ve seen on twitter that semantic error is going to get a mini anime adaptation, in Korean of course but that is so awesome either way! This is one of the manhwa’s I would like to see an anime of because it’s really good.

In terms of Japanese anime seiyuu who would play these roles I wonder? Sungwoo I feel like anyone can since he’s very ambiguous, but for jaeyoung, I think I’d like to hear sakurai takahiro ( cloud from ff7, miyuki kazuya from daiya no ace) play him, in all honesty it’s because of his role as miyuki in daiya no ace, jaeyoung is basically the same character but more intense.lol.

Turn off the Camera:

Oh this piece of work, i’m glad this is completely satire because if I were to take this story seriously I would have an aneurysm thinking about all the bad choices these people have been making. So recently, our boy jihoon who wanted to protect his virginity from the two co-stars has finally lost it to yoojin, one of the co-stars. I’ve heard a lot of people say they don’t know about him because his intentions are still very unknown, and I agree that I don’t know what his intentions are but from what I've seen, it’s not like he treats jihoon badly, he won’t do anything that jihoon would not like so i’m not opposed to it, but I really would like to see romantic development between jihoon and yohan because of how straight forward yohan is, he isn’t hiding his intentions and says whatever is on his mind, it’s reassuring knowing that there’s nothing he would hide.

Jihoon doesn’t really seem interested but it’s more like that push and pull relationship, where despite him not seeming interested he still had a wet dream about having sex with him...lol. Where as with yoojin, Jihoon does not oppose to having intimacy with him. So we’ll see how this dumpster fire plays out as it continues. I absolutely HATE love triangles cause this whole concept alone is so unrealistic, it’s hard enough to get ONE person interested in me, this dude has like 2 without really doing anything. Also it’s just really messy and annoying to read and I always want to route for the guy who never wins.lol.

This is merely a suggestion, but I feel like authors should make alternative endings with different characters, if you think about this in a realistic perspective, you can end up with different people depending on the decisions you make, which is why harems exist in this genre, because there is not just one person you can love, and how alternative timelines can exist. So if the author would consider this idea and make alternative endings for the main character, then I would feel more satisfied with the story overall, because i’m always wondering what if...he ends up with this person ? What would that be like? This only applies to love triangles where abuse doesn’t happen, because there’s no way I would be happy with an abuse victim ending up with their abuser...

Anyways, that is all the updates that I have for you, in this heaven segment I’m going to talk about some titles that I don’t really think is that popular but I decided to read them after reading the summary and they turned out better than I thought.

In the hell segment, I’m going to be discussing some manhwa titles that are a bit “ quirky” you know in my hero academia where these kids were each born with a super power, seem like some of these manhwa characters also have unique abilities, which I will refer to as “ quirks” in this segment. Let me tell you...there are some interesting ones out there.

So let’s begin.

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Welcome to heaven

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Murderous Lewellyn Candelit Dinner:

“Shevon is a writer who lives in a run-down apartment in the streets of the slums. One day, strange memos start showing up at his front door. Before he can uncover the mystery behind them, he encounters a beautiful young man that keeps peeling onions on the staircase next to his unit. After accepting a dinner invitation from the young man, Shevon discovers a dead body in his host’s bedroom...”

Okay so starting off with this one, it’s very different than the usual types that I would read. This story is more of a mystery drama with implied romance, but I have yet to see that happening in the story so far. It is fairly new so I suppose it will be a slow development. Like the summary for the manhwa says, it is a about a guy named Shevon, who I believe is a writer that is trying to get a job at a writing firm, but he ended up free lancing for a while with no luck of getting a paid job. He was being harassed by an ex boyfriend when he encounters his neighbor that is sitting on the stairs peeling onions. Since that day, Shevon would always run into his neighbor peeling onions while exchanging small talk with him, which makes him curious about why he does this at the same time each day, one day his neighbor wanted to invite him over for dinner and Shevon obliged due to being curious and other advances the neighbor has made to get his attention. As he went up to his neighbor's apartment he noticed that he had a bunch of candles lining every inch of his apartment and there was a very strong smell coming from here. Lewellyn (neighbor) just says that it was the onions that he had been peeling, he wanted to use them for tonight's dinner. Shevon didn’t want to just eat onions...I mean who does. So he told him that he will make him a proper meal instead. So he was in the kitchen making food when the door bell rang and Lewellyn went to check who it was. Shevon didn’t see him for a while and decided to just head back to the dining area, but before he could head there the smell from earlier was getting stronger and he noticed it coming from a certain room, he opened it and there lays a dead corpse surrounded by candles covered in blood. Being shocked accidentally took the candle he used to light up the room and left the room; just as Lewellyn entered he said he had to leave for the day.

After that incident there were suspicious activities involving Shevon’s apartment, such as the name plate on his door being moved, the feeling of being watched when he was alone in the room, and some creepy mail he had been receiving, which all points to the fact that he had a stalker.

Shevon starts to suspect Lewellyn as a murderer because of the obvious corpse found in his apartment, but there was no evidence he could find to report him, meanwhile the stalking had been getting worse he found himself getting more entangled with Lewellyn than he’d like to be.

So yeah, it was really creepy when you read those letters, so far we knew Lewellyn is involved in some sort of murder and although he has been helping Shevon find the suspect he himself is also one as well. It’s still too early to make judgments as to what actually is going on, there’s a lot of mystery behind Lewellyn that isn’t explained yet.

So if you like murder mysteries you might like this manhwa, I don’t see any romance involving them yet, but maybe curiosity will lead to something eventually.

Unripened Expression:

“Jaewon has known that he likes males since he confessed his feelings to a boy named Yoonsung in elementary school, but when Yoonsung tells him that liking other boys is weird, Jaewon tries to hide his "weird" feelings and push them away. Now in high school, he's developed a strong crush on his kind, handsome classmate Karam, and Jaewon decides it's time to finally confront the reality that he might be gay. He asks for advice over the internet and befriends another gay student named Junseo, who becomes Jaewon's emotional support in his quest to win Karam's heart.”

So for this one it was not listed as a harem but it actually is, all the guys you see on the cover is related to the main character so how. I usually don’t like harems in any genre, but this one wasn’t as bad as I thought. Actually every guy in here was a good contender and I was not upset with who he chose in the end even though it would be obvious in the first chapter who he would end up with...lol. and you know me, always picking the “ other guy” in these situations, I really do have bad second lead syndrome.

They guy I wanted him the end up with is named “ junseo ” he’s the gay friend that jaewon the main character met on an online forum while asking questions about his sexuality, they felt comfortable enough to exchange numbers but not give their identity away to each other. Jaewon realizes that from talking to Junseo that he went to the same school he did, coincidently, and found out his identity through his friend. Junseo didn’t want to associate with jaewon but he was really persistent. Junseo then gave up and decided to listen to jaewon whenever he wanted to talk.

Junseo had some trauma in the past involving a ex boyfriend and getting bullied at school when someone found him kissing his boyfriend in a room and started spreading rumors of them together, but instead of just denying it, his ex boyfriend accused junseo of leading him on and that’s why junseo ended up being bullied and shut himself off from people, even though he forced to leave school cause of all the bullying he endured he still understood why his ex boyfriend did that, everyone had to protect themselves first after all.

After opening up to jaewon and telling him his story, jaewon cried because he was sorry he had to go through that. Junseo was happy that someone would cry for him, who had just accepted everything until now. Their time together lead to some feelings developing between jaewon and him but although jaewon is aware he has feelings for junseo, it doesn’t compare to the feelings he had for karam..Which is the guy he ended up with.

Okay. Compared to karam who didn’t have much development, junseo had a much better chance to be perfectly honest. It’s not that I don’t like karam, he just didn’t have much back up story to convince me that his feelings for jaewon is real. Lol

But I guess that’s the trope in these types of manhwa right? The Main character always ends up with the guy that he meets first...OMG. Come on authors ...work with me here and try something different for once. Anyways, it’s all good it’s not like any of them were sexually harassing and/or abusing jaewon so I’m happy with whoever he chose.

If you are into harems with good characters, you might like this one.

Oh! My Assistant: (18 +)

“Naive comic artist Seonho, who draws R-19 series, hires beauty(?)-and-brains Muyoung with outstanding skills to be his assistant. However, working with Muyoung who is too task-oriented and has a prickly temperament, turns out to be a little difficult. Seonho asks Muyoung to pose for him one day to help with a sexy scene, but when he sees how erotic Muyoung's pose is, Seonho's "junior"... that hasn't stood in 2 years, got up. It's hard! It got hard! It finally got hard! This is an unpredictable, comical and chest-tickling BL story brought to you by Milla and Yalgae!”

The first thing that came to my mind was Oh! My goddess... LOL let me know if you guys have ever watched that anime, i’m really showing my age with that comment.

Anyways, so this is about an adult mahwa artist named Seonho and he was getting really popular and needed an assistant to help with his busy scheduled serialization. He held an interview with a couple of selected candidates after viewing their portfolio, and of course muyoung was chosen out of all for his pristine work. Of course there was several conditions that muyoung had listed in exchange to work here, most of which applies to a 9 to 5 job, but of course artists out there know that we make our own time...we don’t have a scheduled work hours, but of course seonho needed a person soon and he liked muyoung’s work so he hired him under those conditions.

Muyoung was actually the heir to a prosperous kimchi making firm and did not need money because he was already wealthy, but his grandmother wanted him to have some independence and so muyoung wanted to look for a normal job to get his grandma off his back. He quickly learns that not everything that you ask for will be complied there are times where you will need to work late for a dead line and such.

This made muyoung wonder if he should just quit, the only reason he doesn’t is because he liked seonho. He liked seonho since he first laid eyes on him as he is exactly his type.

Without realizing it seonho also thought muyoung is attractive and ended up in situations with him that are presumed romantic. In the end, the two of them ended up together, but of course there’s always an inconvenience that disrupts this romantic development, and this came in the form of his best friend, who is by the way married to a woman, but as you know in BL...that doesn’t matter...

His best friend was actually in love with him for a very long time and the marriage was just a family arrangement that he had no say in. He tried to separate muyoung and his seonho by trying to convince muyoung to quit several times and even got into an accident and used this as an opportunity to guilt trip muyoung to stay by his side.

He basically just said that he would die if muyoung left him alone...now, here is some advice from me, if anyone says that to you don’t believe them, you have no control over what a person does and you are not responsible for any of their actions, so call their bluff on it.

This incident caused some strife between muyoung and seonho’s relationship to the point where it was getting pointless for seonho to keep up something that not working, he wanted to break up with muyoung but after talking to muyoung’s grandmother he decided not to since what muyoung needs is his support at this moment. So they overcame it and muyoung made it clear to his best friend that he had no feelings towards him and that he only loves seonho, which made the friend only, had to accept it. So in the end muyoung and seonho moved in together and continued working as a mahwa company, and even hired a new assistant who strikingly had the same conditions as muyoung when he was first hired.

Lol. In the end this story worked out great, and it was really good read, the drama was minimal though that friend of his was an inconvenience. It was an overall a good story and the relationship development was really cute since muyoung was in love with seonho first, I’ve never seen that happened before actually, so if you like all of my recommendations so far you will like this one as well.

The Good Teacher: (18 +)

“Hojun’s recent breakup was pretty rough. His partner told him it wasn’t him, per say… Hojun just wasn’t good in bed. But it turns out Drunk Hojun is surprisingly resourceful; singlehandedly managing to find and set himself up with a sex tutor by the name of Mr. Ahn. Ahn Seunghyun was only half serious when he posted the sex tutor ad, but he quickly finds himself in too deep to call the lessons off. And the more he sees Hojun, the more he can’t help but notice how much attractive he is. Seunghyun is making it up as he goes along, so what will the final exam look like?”

This is basically “Sex for dummies” .LOL. I don’t know how your sex education went in school, but for me all I remember is that the teachers would leave he girls in classroom where they took the guys out and talked to them about masturbation. So needless to say I didn’t have much of a sex education until later in life. Or you can read this manhwa which basically taught me more that my sex ed teacher ever did.lol.

So basically Ahn seunghyun ( Mr. Ahn) was drinking with his friends and thought that they would pull a prank by posting an ad for a sex tutor, not thinking that anyone would fall for it. But Hojun found the ad and took his chances to reach out to seunghyun, so he decided to play along for the first meeting to see who he was dealing with, he made fake lesson plans and prepare a lot in order to make him sound convincing as a teacher. What started off as a joke became very educational for hojun whom had very little sexual experience and how his previous partners would claim him being very bad in bed. Seunghyun had a lot of patience and taught him from the ground up. I’m not going to lie, this was pretty educational and I think Mr. Ahn looking really fine does not help either.

So as the lessons progress they began to have feelings for each other, one thing that doesn’t add up is the fact the seunghyun is not a n actual teacher to begin with, although he did his research before every lesson he was not a an educator in trade, so he didn’t tell hojun the truth until the end and they had a fight, but made up quickly right after when they both realized their feelings for each other.

Now you’re probably wondering if there is a third wheel in this relationship, well there is a guy who is seunghyun’s ex boyfriend, he was a little bit of an inconvenience but not really causing too much trouble, just enough to make hojun a little jealous, the only thing he was out of line for saying was that three of them should have a threesome...LMAO not with you f*cker you look like Tarzan...lol. Hell no!

I say that but there is a special chapter at the end where hojun was having a nightmare where the three of them did have a three some and it was gross...i’m like wtf he’s so ugly...I can’t imagine anyone thinking this is hot.

Yeah take this as you will, if you lack sexual education I recommend this mahwa to educate yourself cause lord knows when that will be when you get proper education for that. If you liked reading BJ Alex, you may like this one because of the similar art style, if not then just read it for Mr. Ahn..cause he is so fine...lol.

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Welcome to hell

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*Warning *

These titles are suitable for 18+ audiences, because of the mature content in discussion, you have been warned.

So finally onto the hell segment for this month! This month we will be discussing some of the quirky titles, people born with unusual abilities, I have come across a few of them and from that I chose these three to talk about since their stories alone are interesting in many ways.

Whether these stories are satiric or serious, I enjoyed finding out by reading these more hellish stories. So here we go...starting off with...

My purrfect boss:

“Sunwoo is thrilled to be starting his new job! Full of energy and enthusiasm, he’s eager to please Manager Kang. The problem is, he keeps making dumb mistakes and getting in trouble. Things come to a head one night after work when he pours soju all over his boss. Typical! But hang on… Why is Manager Kang blushing like that? And what are those cat ears sprouting from his head?! After discovering his boss’ secret, it isn’t long before Sunwoo has him purring with pleasure.”

Let me start by saying that the funniest thing in this manhwa is that Mr. kang has both cat ears and human ears...lol. How is that possible?

So basically in this story manager kang is an anthromorph, which are humans with animal characteristics, they only make up of the minority of the population. He is basically a human with cat characteristics and has hidden his identity until sunwoo spooked him and his ears popped up from being surprised. This seems to be his “quirk” and of sunwoo being really innocent only wanted to find out what he was, then was caught by Mr. Kang having his heat cycle and sunwoo was dragged into the meeting room where he and the manager had jerked each other off.

Mr kang needs the cone of shame after the next day realizing what he and sunwoo had done. He started to avoid him until they were set up on a business trip together, in which they had to spend the night in the same hotel room. Manager kang looked apologetic for having sex with him just cause he was in heat but sunwoo said that he wasn’t repulsed by it and actually enjoyed it, therefore manager kang proposed they do it again...and so they did...lol. Many times after that too.

And sunwoo became a furry. The end. lol. I’m kidding, but sunwoo really liked manager kang and decided to make it official with him, they decided to see each other but not make it public since he was scared. Later there was another manager from another department who participated in a joint project and that other manager is also an anthromorph and knows manager kang as well. This manager cha was like an ex boyfriend but he calls himself his “owner”. He tried to force manager kang into this abusive play and now he’s scared of him. But even knowing that sunwoo didn’t really give up on manager kang but instead gave him courage to confront his fears and stand up for himself, and if anything it made him love him even more. Even if sunwoo didn’t know much about manager kang the way the other manager did, manager kang listed out all of his favorite things to him so that he does know now.

I really like this part of the story, just because a person’s past partners know more about the person you are dating doesn’t mean they know everything, people’s preferences can change over time and all you have to do is ask. So i’m glad they communicated with each other.

So in the end, sunwoo and manager kang was able to be together and he was thankful for having sunwoo in his life. There’s a lot that happens in between but you’ll have to figure that out on your own by reading it.lol. Can’t say that this story is relatable since I don’t have feline features but it was an interesting read in the end.

The Sales Departments Cupid:

“'Taejun', who has the ability to see auras from people who have been in contact with him since childhood, connects with people with similar auras, and at his company he is known as 'the Cupid of the Sales Department'. Then, Hongyeon, a new employee with a rainbow-colored aura, approaches Taejun...”

In this manhwa, Taejun’s quirk is that he has the ability to see people's auras in the form of colours and that way he matches people by the compatibility from complimentary colours between two people’s auras. This is why he is the match maker of the sales department, because anyone who he consults ends up married happily with their partner. The only thing taejun can’t see is his own aura which made him feel like he will be forever alone, Until the new employee Hongyeon showed up and started a conversation with taejun at a drinking party. There was a slight issue though...taejun also has this uncanny ability to kiss anyone who is in close proximity to him when he drinks, and hongyeon was told to sit next to him by his supervisor, basically they wanted to sacrifice him.lol.

But this development made hongyeon very happy and they kissed and did other things after wards. Taejun didn’t really notice it when he was drunk but took notice that hongyeon had a rainbow like aura emitting from him. Which he had never seen before.

I find it really cute to see people’s auras but not your own, which means nothing can be predicted in terms of who you end up with, but why was he able to see hongyeon with a rainbow aura?

Makes me think that is an indication that he is the “one” for him. This concept is really cute and the relationship between hongyeon and taejun started off really romantic for just having a first encounter, after things progressed they started to catch feelings for each other.

This manhwa is still ongoing so I’m not sure how and when it will end, but really liking it so far, even with the crazy amount of sex scenes, I can still feel the intimacy between to two characters and it’s not just showing sex for the sake of it. This is a really cute story so please read it if you are curious!

Pearl Boy:

“ Do shik is a host who ran away with a large sum of money and has a bunch of people chasing him down, he fled to the country side to lay low for a while and noticed that he was essentially running out of funds to survive. He tried to pick up a few men in hopes of getting some money for his services, but none have been taking the bait. He noticed a clam grilling restaurant and thought he would try his luck in getting a free meal, the boss of the restaurant over heard doshik’s plans and told his worker to pay attention to him in case he runs away. the restaurant’s worker jin juha was aware of his schemes and stopped him from eating and running at the very last minute, saying that he should make it up by paying with his “ body” doshik thought that meant sexual favors and began to touch juha inappropriately. Before juha says that wasn’t what he meant, there was a bunch of men coming towards the restaurant, which made juha panic and forced doshik to leave and forget about paying. After doshik left he was loitering around the restaurant and noticed the back alley had an entry way to the back of the restaurant, there he saw something that he should not have seen.....”

Shameless plug before we begin here, I did draw a fanart of juha from pearl boy if you would like to see it please do so, I explained in the summary that I would write my own synopsis since the one i found was really bad.lol.

I wrote a little summary of the plot up till now below:

so it goes Boss sexual abuse juha by making him work as a sex toy for old ugly bastards -> juha has ability to produce pearls from cuming after sex lol. i’m sorry this seems so absurd, but it is how the story goes, which the boss monopolizes him -> juha can’t run away because he is scared and owes boss money juha was about to be assaulted by the ugly bastards-> doshik shows up and saves him a couple times and ends up working at the shop as a co worker-> juha and doshik get to know each other after doshik saves him a couple times juha asks doshik to have sex with him ( in order to produce pearls for debt payment) -> doshik discovers juha’s ability but thought it was beads coming out of his body...LOL. he actually thought he had kidney stones and was genuinely concerned -> doshik had a pearl that he found at the beach earlier on and used it to compare to the bead that came out of juha and found out it as an actual pearl after getting it appraised by the bank person ->juha met up with doshik and wanted to tell him he wanted him to come over again cause he liked doing it with him -> juha and boss confront each other and boss is angry he didn't show up meet his business partners that night that juha and doshik were together -> juha says that he’s only going to pay it off by himself with his one partner, he didn't tell boss it was doshik, but i think he found out later -> juha and doshik became roommates ->Boss goes to doshik’s old work place to find out more about him

And that is the summary until the official licensed chapters, so I have a lot to say about this manhwa, since this one has been on my mind for a while, but juha’s “quirk” is to make pearls by cuming after sex.lol. Firstly that must hurt, it really would feel like having kidney stones wouldn’t it? It sounds so absurd to say “my ability is to cum pearls” although it’s quite unique, not really sure if you’d save any one with that power.

So the reason why I couldn’t tell if this manhwa is satirical or serious because the whole plot started off with juha being used as a sex toy for crusty old men, these people were getting paid by the boss to basically have sex with juha in order for him to produce pearls, it’s sounds so far-fetched when you explain this to someone, it sounds like some hentai plot line with ugly ass b*stards...but it’s not just one, it’s like 10 of them...so imagine the ugliest being you’ve ever seen in anime/manga but x10...

That freaken boss, I get that some of you would see him and simp over him cause he looks hot but he’s a terrible person, looks can’t begin to compromise for his actions, he’s involved with sex trafficking and sexual abuse, that alone is enough for me to hate this person. So just keep that in mind if you decided to read this.

That aside, he complains and hurts juha because he does not produce quality pearls after having sex with all those men...and i’m like can you blame him? Satirical point of view speaking, you only gave him crusty old ugly ass men to work with, i’m surprised he produced any at all, if you want quality then get better looking men, look at how much he made with doshik...doesn’t that tell you anything?...ugh. the idiocy...

Speaking of doshik, I really like his ballsy character, when one of the crusty ass men was assaulting juha he literally grabbed the ugly ass’s balls and says he will take care of it for him, since he’s good at this stuff. Lol. He is an awesome character and he cares so much for juha, even in the beginning when they were not close and always ended up arguing, he would be genuinely worried for him. Fast forward when juha and doshik were getting close and juha wanted to have sex with doshik instead of the dudes he was supposed to meet that night, doshik really showed how much he liked him and handled him gently and sweetly, I honestly blush every time they have any sort of intimacy, I could feel their affection projecting off of my screen, it’s really sweet. If you can’t tell I simp so hard for this couple and will probably continue to do so. You’ll need to read the manhwa to know what I’m saying but their love scenes are really passionate and affectionate. This of course makes me believe that juha was a person who only knew what pain and suffering was due to his situation and that led to his cold and indifferent expressions early in the manhwa, but after meeting doshik his expressions begin to soften and you can tell as a reader that he starting to develop feelings for doshik. The author actually drew an illustration on her twitter that was quite symbolic to the recent chapters and where the story was going, and I decided to write an entire tumblr post, breaking down the symbolism and foreshadowing in her art. If you’d like to read that post I’ll link it down below.

This manhwa is fairly new and currently is still ongoing so there is very much a lot of stuff to unravel as it continues down the line. Please read this if you have not you won’t be disappointed, I thought this was going to be some satire bull shit and I was proven so wrong... lol.

Alright, that is it for the manga and webtoons section this week, we ended off with the theme of “quirks” in time for spring when My hero academia season 5 will be starting again in the spring.

I hope you all are enjoying reading this since I don’t have any feed back after doing this every month. I do enjoy sharing these since not many people talk about manga/webtoons and I feel like this topic should be more popular. Like I said in the beginning please let me know if you’d like to see the titles of manhwa that I dropped and why I dropped it, in case there are some you are not sure whether or not to read it and would like some feedback, I don’t beat around the bush when I don’t like something so you can be sure that my opinions are 100% genuine.

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ANIME

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Kemono Jihen:

“When a series of animal bodies that rot away after a single night begin appearing in a remote mountain village, Inugami, a detective from Tokyo who specializes in the occult, is called to investigate.

While working the case, he befriends a strange boy who works in the field every day instead of going to school. Shunned by his peers and nicknamed "Dorota-bou" after a yokai that lives in the mud, he helps Inugami uncover the truth behind the killings but supernatural forces are at work, and while Dorota-bou is just a nickname, it might not be the only thing about the boy that isn't human.”

- Summary from my anime list

I started watching this because it reminded me of old series like inuyasha, and I thought I would try it out. I think it’s interesting so far, half demons living among-st the humans and a group of them are solving cases together, this is only my understanding so far. I think that main character is in need of some development because I can’t really read his expressions very well so he doesn’t have much of a personality. I’m not really getting the whole plot as of yet, but maybe when this show is over I’ll have a better understanding.

I’m not going to lie, there is nothing that is intriguing me in terms of new anime series, I have watched the same ones I talked about last month, plus this one. I am waiting for attack on titan to finish before watching it all at once. I don’t think waiting every week for a new episode is something I can do for this series.

I am also waiting for shaman king to show in the spring, I loved shaman king when I was younger and I really want to revisit this series since it was one of my favorites. Also my hero academia season 5 is in the spring as well, so looking forward to seeing that.

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MUSIC/PODCASTS:

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Music for this month is mainly a playlist called dandelions playlist, this YouTube channel has a plethora of indie k-pop music and I love listening to this while painting and drawing, it really relaxes the mind.

I did say in the last months’ favorites that would maybe include some podcasts that I have been listening to and it’s also on YouTube as well

This one is not a podcast, but she may as well have one since she has really interesting takes on bad movies, her channel name is KennieJD, and she talks about bad movies in her series called “bad movies in a beat” I watched a lot of them and I really like the one she did on the “death note” live action movie, this is why I avoided watching that movie, being a huge fan of death note back in the day. All the things she said in her video are valid and I whole heartedly agree with all of it.

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So you have reached the end! Congrats!

I hope everything was informative and if you decided to read/watch any of the things mentioned in my favorites for this month, please let me know down below what you thought about it,

I also am doing a draw 6 characters challenge so if you’d like to participate please see that post on my tumblr page for details!

With that being said, please take care of your selves, we are still in the mist of this pandemic and I hope you are all well and taking care of your selves and your loved ones.

I’ll see you in the next monthly favorites.Thank you for reading,

Sheena

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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Instagram: shinb_art

Tumblr: shinahbee

Deviantart: she-be.deviantart.com

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#shounen ai #manga review #monthly favorites #yaoi manhwa #bl manhwa #boys love #anime review #oh my assistant #pearl boy #my purrfect boss #the good teacher #anime and manga #bl manga

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fanfoolishness · 5 years ago

Text

Greg Universe’s biggest mistake

First thing’s first: Greg Universe is an incredible father. What I would have given to have a dad like him... he’s amazing. And I think he deserves an enormous amount of credit for doing his absolute best to love and care for Steven through everything, especially through his own grief.

But there’s one decision he made that I think is going to come back to bite him and Steven both in Steven Universe: Future. And that’s Greg’s insistence that Gem stuff isn’t his thing.

Long post ahead about how this has affected Steven, Greg, and their relationship, along with some musings for what it might mean for Steven Universe: Future.

***

In early seasons it seemed to have been a very hard and fast rule. Initially he states in Laser Light Cannon it was insistence by the Gems: “Wait, is that a magical thing? The Gems told me not to get involved with magic stuff. It... it could be dangerous or interfere with what’s left of my hair.” The Gems reinforce this rule by acting less than enthused when he shows up with Steven.

In Catfingers Greg excuses himself because the shape shifting is a Gem thing. “Whup! Magic stuff! Should I get out of here? Is there going to be an explosion?” he asks anxiously. While he helps Steven escape his predicament in the end, it’s clear Greg is pretty overwhelmed by the situation.

It’s probably for good reason Greg doesn’t go on many missions. Of course, as a good dad, Greg is willing when the situation is desperate. But he’s more comfortable helping Steven with things like transportation as opposed to leaning in to the magic inherent in the situation. While Steven’s glad to have his dad along in Ocean Gem, Steven also sees him get his leg broken, a good lesson in Dad and Gem stuff don’t mix.

There’s several possible reasons for why both Greg and the Gems enforced this rule. One is simply that Greg is human and more likely to be hurt on missions. But we get another possible reason why in Message Received. Greg’s hurt to see how the Gems see him as useless. “I think so highly of you... it just isn’t fair.” Which makes sense. Greg’s always known the Gems and their war were so much bigger than him. He’s looked up to them, even Pearl who often barely tolerates him. If this has always been their dynamic, no wonder he would feel inadequate when it comes to Gem stuff and he would want Steven to get the best information from them, instead of whatever he could cobble together. He’d also know he’s unable to protect Steven the way the Gems can.

In The Return, Greg tries to explain some Gem things to Steven, one of the few times he does so, and it’s only because the Gems themselves have pushed Steven away to protect him. It doesn’t go super well. Greg’s intensely uncomfortable, and Steven is horrified to hear some of the truth behind the Gems’ presence on the planet.

Then in Full Disclosure Steven really starts to understand how uncomfortable his dad is with this stuff, especially once Steven realizes how much bigger it is than just the Crystal Gems he knows and loves. “Now Dad’s really freaking out, what do I do...”

Greg, for his part, still does his best to stay involved in Steven’s life. He takes Steven to the Barn to help with working on the drill to use on the Cluster, he provides a loving and stable presence in Steven’s human life, and he routinely checks in with him when he sees things like Stevonnie or Steven hating Kevin. He talks to Steven about how much Rose loved him and wanted him.

Unfortunately, he messes up again during Steven’s Birthday. He doesn’t encourage Connie to talk to Steven about her worries. He doesn’t bring Steven into the conversation. When he does talk to Steven, it isn’t really helpful, and he doesn’t apologize to Steven for the “wait and see” comment.

Greg: Why are you doing this? It... really isn't like you. Steven: Because, Dad, I can't stay a kid forever, when Connie grows up and becomes president what is that gonna make me? First Boy!? Amethyst: Steven, you can't just keep stretching forever. If you hold it too long, you could really hurt yourself. Steven: Yeah well, I'm half human so maybe it works different for me, we'll just have to wait and see, right? Greg: *sigh* Steven...

This is par for the course. Greg understands when Steven’s stressed out from human problems. But Greg doesn’t see when comfort is needed because of Gem things (i.e. never growing up). Steven never discusses what happened to the Cluster or Jasper or Bismuth or even being lost in space in Bubbled with his dad. Not that we see. Did it happen off-screen? Maybe....

Except we know how good Steven is at repressing things. Even Connie, the human he’s brought most into his life as a Gem, didn’t know who Bismuth and Eyeball were when encountering them in the hallucination as Stevonnie. My guess is, no, Steven either never told Greg about these things, or downplayed them into funny anecdotes or quick asides.

After The Return, we only see Greg discussing serious Gem things when Steven brings it up, and it’s usually in relation to Rose, not about other things Steven has been through. In Steven’s Dream Greg tells him who Rose was when he knew her, but he doesn’t talk about what Steven’s really asking about. He wants to know what Rose was thinking when she shattered Pink, what the reason was, if it could possibly be justified. Greg tells him Rose was an amazing, loving being, but how is Steven supposed to reconcile that with her image as a shatterer and a liar?

Steven gets another important lesson in Dad-and-Gem-stuff-don’t-mix when Greg gets abducted. Steven absolutely believes this is 100% his fault, and is so panicked he left Connie behind despite her wanting to help, and almost crashed a spaceship. Does he need any more proof in why he can’t involve his dad in this part of his life?

Even after they get back to safety, there’s no evidence that Steven and Greg talk much about what happened. Steven uses Rose’s room to try and process a lot of what he’s been going through, but to frightening effect. He’s starting to feel like he can’t talk to anyone about these things. If he talks to Greg, he puts Greg in danger. When he tries to talk to “Rose,” he puts himself in danger from his own feelings. So he represses. Again.

Lion 4: Alternate Ending shows Greg for one of the first times that Steven is really struggling with this stuff. He’s supportive, but deeply surprised. He had no idea Steven was thinking along these lines... because this is the area they don’t talk about. Steven cries out in frustration that he doesn’t know what he’s for, what his magical destiny is supposed to be — what an enormous responsibility he’s trying to take on. Greg does try to reassure him.

At his core Steven still believes he was made to deal with Rose’s problems, even if he’d like to believe otherwise -- if he didn’t, how could he just give himself up to Homeworld like that?

Gemcation shows that unfortunately after so long of this, Steven’s starting to have problems opening up about even his human problems. He worries what Greg and the Gems will think if Steven admits he messed up with Connie. And Greg, convinced Steven is upset by what happened on Homeworld (you aren’t wrong, Greg, it’s just Steven hasn’t realized it yet!), keeps trying to make the Gems talk to Steven. Because obviously, Steven hasn’t talked to Greg.

“But I know it's not space lag. This is some Gem thing he knows I won't understand. I don't know anything about Homeworld. I don't know anything about your society. Whatever horrible things he saw out there, you guys have to put it into context.”

After all the emotions brought up in A Single Pale Rose, Steven and Greg get one line of discussion together about Rose. Steven asks how Greg’s doing and Greg tells him it’s fine. Greg most likely doesn’t want to worry Steven at all -- a valid impulse! -- but come on Greg, there’s no way it’s fine. By modeling that it’s okay, it doesn’t need to be discussed, Greg loses a chance to connect with Steven on something important and painful for them both. He doesn’t even ask Steven how he feels about it!

In the movie we see that Steven does reach out to Greg to help when the Gems get reset. This is typical of the pattern we’ve seen before. When there’s a physical problem with Gem stuff that needs help, Steven will feel okay asking Greg for help, and Greg will feel brave enough to try. Laser Light Cannon, Catfingers, Ocean Gem, Message Received, Steven’s Dream. If Steven needs him physically, he’ll ask and Greg’ll be there because he does really want to help!

But Steven never shares his dream of happily ever after with his dad. After all, that would suggest there was an unhappy past that needed to be overcome... and that’s not what they discuss, it’s not what they ever discuss. So Steven shares this dream with the Gems, he mutters it to himself at one of his lowest points, he longs for it after the Gems are reset, he even tells Spinel. He doesn’t tell Greg.

It may be important to have Steven and Greg face the ramifications of this head on. I fully believe SU:F is going to be about Steven learning to truly combine his Gem and human heritage and heart, because he is starting to lose the connection to his humanity in favor of all his work as a Gem and a Diamond. Hell, he almost died because he forgot about his human self in all the struggle to regain his Gem powers!

Humans struggle. They grow. They make mistakes. And as teenagers, they rebel, sometimes especially against the ones who have loved them the most.

But what would make Steven rebel against Greg?

Consider Greg seeing Steven suffering, struggling with new powers he’s afraid of, and Greg pleading with Steven to talk with him.

Consider Steven, furious that after all the things he’s been through, Greg is finally asking him how he feels about Gem problems. “You don’t understand what’s going on. You never do!”

And the most painful thing of all would be that Steven isn’t wrong.

TLDR: Greg meant well by trying to separate Gem and human parenting responsibilities, but in the end, he fucked up. As all parents do in some ways, even the most loving, kind and supportive. I think it’d be an important message from the show to see that parental relationship shaken to its core — and then made stronger than ever with real discussion between them of what Greg’s choices meant for Steven, with both of them working towards a more honest and adult relationship together.

It would show kids that their parents are human and they make mistakes. Sometimes as a kid you need to be honest and tell them when they've messed up — but you also can trust that a good parent will love you through all of that, and that they are doing the best they can.

If we don’t see something like this in SU:F, I’ll be disappointed, as every other main player in Steven’s life has grown and changed tremendously. Whereas Greg is always stalwart, supportive and loving, but not changing. Maybe this would be the catalyst for their father-son relationship to change and mature. I know I’d love to see it.

#greg universe #gregory demayo #steven universe #steven universe meta #steven universe future #long post #fanfoolishness su meta

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shirtlesssammy · 5 years ago

Text

2x01: In My Time of Dying

Then:

Sam and Dean Winchester: Monster hunters

Now:

We pick up right where we left off last season, only this time Netflix got the rights to the proper music. Bad Moon Rising, indeed. Sam, Dean, and John are all unconscious or dead in the now destroyed Impala. The possessed trucker jumps out to double check. Sam’s actually awake (aw, baby Sam Fucking Winchester emerges!) and threatens the demon with the Colt. The demon smokes out leaving Sam to call for his family while the horrified trucker looks on.

Cut to Rescue 911. The Family Winchester is airlifted to a hospital. Dean wakes in the quietest hospital ever. He starts wandering around trying to find somebody only to find the world’s rudest reception station. It dawns on him that the woman can’t see him. He races back to his room, only to find himself with tubes everywhere and monitors beeping. Oh dear.

Sam rushes in and Dean starts talking to him, but just like the receptionist, Sam can’t see or hear Dean. A doctor comes to tell Sam that John is awake. Sam wants to know about Dean though. He tells Sam they won’t know the full extent of Dean’s injuries until he wakes up --if he wakes up. Dr. Doom and Gloom doesn’t know Dean’s love/hate relationship with death. If he’s alive, he often wants to be dead and if he’s dead nothing is stopping him from coming back alive.

Sam visits John and discusses Dean’s status. He’s as determined as Dean to save him. (Go, codependency, go!). John says that they’ll look into alternative medicines and then he asks for the Colt.

That doesn’t sit so well with Sam. But he tells him it’s in the truck of the Impala and Bobby’s on his way to tow it back to Sioux City. John tells Sam to get the Colt and to pick up some things for protection (Oh, how young Sam had NO CLUE what the ingredients were for.) Sam asks if John knows anything about what the demon meant when he said he had plans for him and children like him. John doesn’t know.

Dean was watching the whole exchange through, and he ain’t buying it.

For Skeptical Son Science:

Sam and Bobby meet by the Impala and Bobby, needlessly cruel, admits, “This just ain’t worth a tow.” DEAN’S SOUL IS ALWAYS WORTH REPAIRING! (Natasha: Preach!)

Sam then gives Bobby the list of ingredients and tells Bobby they’re for protection from the demon. Bobby ain’t buying it.

John visits Dean. Ghost Dean starts pleading with John to help. He hasn’t called anyone, hadn’t done a thing but sit there. “I’ve done everything you have ever asked me. Everything. I’ve given everything I’ve ever had. And you’re just gonna sit there and you’re gonna watch me die?”

He hears a noise outside the room and checks it out. A flash of something rushes by and Dean heads to investigate.

He finds a woman choking on the floor. No one responds to her weak calls for help, and no one can hear him yell. (What kind of hospital is this, just letting a lady die on the floor like that?)

Sam comes back and Dean keeps trying to talk to him, with no luck. John notices Sam’s mood. Sam tells John he knows what those ingredients are for --summoning a demon. John’s got a plan (Good lord, Sam is his father’s son.) Sam is GOING OFF on his dad, and I mean, in retrospect, oops (but you kind of deserve this for not telling Sam your plan). Dean gets so frustrated watching the exchange he knocks a glass of water off the table. And then lets the audience know that he TOTALLY watches chick-flicks (I know, I know, Swayze always gets a pass). He starts to glitch out and people rush past John’s room. Sam follows them to Dean’s room where he’s flatlined and they’re trying to bring him back.

Dean sees a reaper hovering over his body and tries grabbing it but is pushed away. It then rushes from the room and Dean gets a pulse again. Whew. He tells Sam that he’s going to get it before it gets him.

Wandering through the hospital, he finds a woman yelling at others. “Can’t you see me?” etc. Her name is Tessa and she wants to know if she is dead. Dean takes her to her room. He tells her that they’re spirits but if they hold on, they don’t have to die.

Meanwhile, Sam is telling John he felt like he sensed Dean and wonders if it’s possible. John says anything it possible.

Dean and Tessa wander the Hospital of Young Adult Nearly Dead Angst.

Actually, Tessa is handling this whole almost dead thing really well. HMMM. “It’s out of my control. It’s just fate.” Them's fightin’ words, Tessa. Dean doesn’t take kindly to “fate”. “That’s crap, you always have a choice.”

Sam’s back in Dean’s room with his handy “Mystical Talking Board”.

Dean feels like he’s at a slumber party, but dives right in to talk with Sam. Remarkably, Dean doesn’t take the opportunity to immediately spell out B-O-O-B-S. He takes control of the pointer to spell the word H-U-N-T.

Through the board, he tells Sam that there’s a reaper after him. Sam knows that if it’s there naturally, they can’t defeat it. “You can’t kill death,” Dean says rather famously. LOL those were the days.

Sam spins into Winchester denial mode because there’s always another way! He heads in to talk to John but that little chicken has flown the coop.

Down in the boiler room (never go into the boiler room, kids!) John unloads a bag of supplies. He takes out a piece of chalk and begins to draw sigils on the floor.

Sam heads back into Dean’s room with John’s journal. Dean thanks Sam for fighting to save him (as opposed to his absent dad). Dean reads over Sam’s shoulder from the section on reapers, mutters “son of a bitch,” and then heads out on his own mission.

Dean finds Tessa back in her hospital room, but this time it’s empty and sterile. He drops some interesting facts about reapers, like that they can alter perception. A reaper can appear in any form, which is why we see Tessa in the form of Neil Gaiman’s Death.

Tessa explains her subterfuge as the only way to get Dean to listen to her (instead of stabby stabby knifey knifey). She’s the spectral presence he’s been seeing all over the hospital, gently reaping souls. “Death is nothing to fear,” she tells him. “You’re living on borrowed time.” Once I finish digging the knife out of my own heart because I just sat around remembering the episode Faith, we cut to John.

John has finished his craft project and slices his hand with a blade while chanting. (I pity the custodial staff who’s going to have to come clean this mess up.) His ritual appears to fail when a custodian does show up and orders him to get out of the boiler room. John levels the Colt at the guy. “How stupid do you think I am?”

Well...stupid enough to lone wolf this demon summoning.

Two other demons flank John. Yellow Eyes mocks John, pointing out that he only has one bullet left. John doesn’t care, though. He’s there to make a deal.

Upstairs, Sam talks to Dean’s body, telling him that he’s hit a dead end in trying to save him. “I’ll keep trying as long as you keep fighting. You can’t leave me alone here with Dad. We’ll kill each other.” Sam begs him to stay.

Dean begs Tessa for an exception to the reaping rule. They’re still in the middle of fighting Yellow Eyes; he can’t leave his family now. Tessa tells him that the world keeps turning no matter who she reaps. The world will go on without Dean in it. (Stares directly at the camera.)

Dean refuses to leave and Tessa drops her final bomb. Dean can’t get back into his body. He’s really almost very much mostly dead.

She gently explains that angry spirits are created by ordinary souls who try to stay behind and eventually go mad. If Dean stays, he’s gonna join their ranks.

John offers Yellow Eyes the Colt and its last bullet if he’ll heal Dean. Yellow Eyes scoffs at John’s offer. He doesn’t think much of Dean or Sam. He then asks John if he knows about the other children. YEAH DUDE. But John definitely hasn’t told Sam or Dean about it. John’s all business. He demands to see that Dean is healed before he’ll hand over the gun. Yellow Eyes is intrigued, but he demands one further concession.

For Vulnerable Dean Science:

Tessa tells Dean that it’s time to go, or time to stay. Whatever his choice, it’s decision time now. Dean turns to her, about to say…………..something. And the lights flicker. Black smoke floods in and possesses Tessa. She looks back at Dean with yellow eyes and smacks her hand on his forehead.

In Dean’s hospital room, he wakes up and gags on his life support tubes. YIKES.

Cut to later: the doctor reviews Dean’s miraculous recovery. “You’ve got some kind of angel watching over you.” (Listen, I know this is supposed to be ironic because har har a demon saved him, but…. DUDE Dean you’ve really got some kind of angel watching over you. Wink wink.)

Dean doesn’t remember a damn thing about when he was near death. He just has a bad feeling about…something.

John checks in with Dean, glad to see that he’s recovered. Sam grills him about taking off but John begs for them to not fight. It’s a mark of how little gentleness they see from their father that John begging quietly for peace makes Sam ask if he’s okay. (#JustSayin)

John sends Sam on an errand to get a cup of coffee. Once Sam’s gone, he tells Dean about something that Dean did when he was young.

When John returned from hunts, messed up and scarred, Dean would comfort him and tell him it was all okay. (I need a minute to cry right in your FACE.) John apologizes to Dean for putting so much responsibility on him at such a young age. Dean is being SEEN. John tells Dean that he’s proud of him. Dean double checks that it’s his father. I’ve drenched my pillow.

John gives Dean one last mission: to watch out for Sammy. He leans forward and whispers into Dean’s ear and when he pulls away, Dean looks horrified.

John leaves Dean’s room and walks up to Yellow Eyes. He sets down the gun. Says, “Okay.”

Sam, walking back with a cup of coffee and finds his dad lying dead on the floor.

______________________________

Quotes: The High Cost of Living:

Screw you, doc, I’m waking up.

Dude, I full on Swayzed that mother.

You’re much prettier than the last reaper I met.

______________________________

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 2x01 #in my time of dying #dean winchester #sam winchester #john winchester #tessa #azazel #bobby singer #supernatural season 2

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cartoonessays · 6 years ago

Text

Huey Freeman: What Could Have Been

I discovered The Boondocks in the newspapers around the early to mid ’00s. It absolutely blew my mind that something like it could exist on the comics page. As a little black kid who discovered and kept up with newspaper comic strips since the mid ’90s, I think the only black people I ever saw on the funny pages was Delta James in Luann and the once-in-a-blue-moon appearance of Franklin in Peanuts (my local newspapers didn’t run Jump Start). So when I came across The Boondocks, it was the first time I had ever read a comic strip that not only featured a black character, but starred multiple black characters. On top of that, but it blew my mind even further that this comic strip with black characters openly talked about being black and navigating white America in a way that was upfront and in-your-face.

In particular, I grew to love Huey Freeman. I loved that the protagonist of this comic strip was a militant, pro-black voice of reason within this silly and chaotic world he existed in. I loved that Huey also served as a scathing critic to George W. Bush’s war games and gross jingoism.

So imagine my delight when I first saw this!

youtube

Fast forward another 10+ years with The Boondocks having been over for years. As much as I loved the TV series, I never thought it lived up to the comic strip. The biggest reason I feel this way is because of how the show handled Huey. I didn’t like how the show removed Huey as the main focus after the first season and how he had gotten reduced to mostly a peripheral role by the third and fourth seasons. I suppose it fits the cynical outlook of the show to push their voice of reason into the background of a whole lot of nonsense. But I still think that’s a lazy direction to go in if that really was the intent.

I understand that Huey’s primary role in the comic strip was to riff on current events and how that’s not a role he can serve in an animated series (especially with how many years it took to produce one season of the show). I’ve wondered myself over and over on how the show could have fit Huey in. But I’ve finally come up with an idea of where the show could have gone with him.

I suppose one reason why Huey’s role in the show was reduced is that he had no other character he can intellectually bounce off of. He had Michael Caesar in the comic strip but he was never introduced to the TV series. But I think Jazmine DuBois could have served as a great substitute for Caesar.

Jazmine may not have been as knowledgeable as Huey or Caesar about socio-politics, but she is a temperamentally passive enough character to just sit around and listen to all of Huey’s socio-political outrage (whereas other characters like Riley or Granddad would immediately balk at him). I also imagine that Huey wouldn’t mind having Jazmine around to intellectually brow-beat since nobody else in his life is even willing to give him the time of day.

The relationship between Huey and Jazmine could have been used to explore opposing philosophical views. To make a reference to The Matrix, Huey and Jazmine have a “red pill vs. blue pill” dynamic between the two of them. Jazmine’s the blue pill: she blissfully lives her life uncritical of how the world is shaped around her. Huey’s the red pill: he’s all too aware of the all the systemic injustice in the world and has dedicated his life to fighting against it. The two of them constantly paired together could have produced a hilarious and insightful dynamic.

On one end, Huey could have been that one character in Jazmine’s life more than willing to pop that bubble she interacts with the world in. The comic strip above and several others show Huey challenging Jazmine on her ambivalent view towards her blackness and her Euro-centric standards of beauty. Huey also could have served as a dissident alternative to the more dominant views about politics and society she uncritically accepts from her parents, teachers, or whatever distinguished figure she catches on TV. On the other end, Jazmine could have also challenged Huey’s view of the world too. Although Huey is extremely knowledgeable and dedicated to activism, he lets it consume his life to a degree that is unhealthy. Several years ago I read a profile done of the late Gil Scott-Heron where at some point he sat down in his living room and put on a tape of Rocky & Bullwinkle. He explained that since he dedicated his music and his life to activism and political consciousness, that a little decompression from all of that once in a while is healthy for his psyche. What does Huey do for fun? Does he meditate? Relax and listen to Public Enemy or Elton John or something? Does he read any escapist comics or literature? As a matter of fact, the only time I can recollect Huey ever smiling is one small scene where he was happy to see Riley killing it at his basketball game (pretty surprising considering how emotionally detached the two brothers are to each other). On top of that, Huey’s perpetual mean mug does not endear him to others. Without Caesar around, the only friend Huey had on the show was Cairo back in Chicago, and even that ended with the both of them falling out. These are all things that Jazmine could have challenged Huey on. Why would anybody want to live their life angry and miserable about the world all the time, especially at such a young age? Does Huey think anything less than his 24/7 curmudgeonly attitude is complicity towards the structures of oppression he rails against? Does Huey even have a realistic grasp of what he has the capability of accomplishing in this regard as a 10 year-old kid who can’t drive or even be left home alone without falling apart? Something like this had unlimited potential to mine great jokes, provide insightful commentary, and beautiful character development.

The most frustrating thing about this is that the first season seemed to be going in this direction already. They bounced off of each other well in episodes like “A Huey Freeman Christmas”, “The Real”, “Wingmen”, “The Block Was Hot”, and “The Passion of the Ruckus”. But unfortunately, Huey’s role in the show got reduced after that first season and Jazmine’s role was severely reduced in the show after the first season and the comic strip after the ’90s (series creator Aaron McGruder later said that Jazmine was so shaken up by 9/11 that she spent all those years afterward hiding under her bed). Building on this would have been a better focus in those later seasons instead of wasting it on pointless episodes like “Smoking With Cigarettes”, “The Fried Chicken Flu”, or “The New Black”.

Oh well. It’s fun to dream.

Further viewing:

The YouTube channel TheStoryteller has done quite a few excellent analytical videos about The Boondocks.

#The Boondocks #huey freeman #jazmine dubois #politics #friends #cartoon essays #just my thoughts

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breeeliss · 6 years ago

Note

If you were put in charge of rebooting vld, what would you change? (Sorry of this is similar to the last ask)

i think if i had to only pick a few things to change, i would start with these six things:

1) Forgo the lion switch and instead give Allura the Black Lion personally this would’ve made more sense on two fronts. one, it maintains the original integrity of the lion-paladin connection which we were told was dependent on the paladin assuming specific character traits that attracted certain lions. Keith and Lance, arguably, were the perfect Red and Blue paladins based on the attributes we were given and i saw little need to make them switch out. Allura, on the other hand, embodies all of the qualities of the black paladin (and actually wanted it, as opposed to Keith) so it would’ve been a more seamless transition.

second, Allura being placed in the Blue Lion felt very much like a demotion. she suddenly didn’t know how to fly despite coaching the paladins from day one (and being able to fly a battle class altean ship), she became an insecure terrified little girl being hunted by the big bad guy, and she began answering to people she used to command and having her opinions be undercut by people who knew less than she did. placing her in the black lion would’ve solidified her as the definitive leader of Voltron, leader of the coalition, and provided a much more satisfying character arc for her.

2) Not had Keith leave the team in order to completely devote his time to the Blade of MarmoraKeith leaving the team had a lot to do with the fact that he a) was not ready to become the BP/didn’t want to, and b) was being forced to remain the leader of the team and neglect his desire to explore his heritage and culture through the BOM. i feel like keeping Keith in the Red Lion would’ve circumvented a lot of this. he would’ve felt secure as the red paladin and i don’t think he would’ve kept his feelings about his need to explore the BOM a secret from his teammates as a result.

i also think that it would’ve been possible for him to balance both. at the end of the day, Keith was a paladin first and he ultimately returned to being a paladin bc he knew that’s where he was needed. i don’t see why he couldn’t have kept his Marmoran blade and assisted on covert missions while also staying a paladin of Voltron. Keith learning to become a better leader was something he could’ve learned without leaving his friends.

3) Cleaned up Lotor’s characterLotor ended up being more confusing to me than interesting. it seemed like the writers weren’t sure if they wanted to make him a redeemable character or solidify him as a clear cut villain and it shows. i think the fact that he’s a charmer, a manipulator, etc. added a good deal of depth to his character, and made the decision to trust him very confusing. which is good! that’s one of the things i loved the most about Lotor. where he started to lose me was in his backstory where he wanted to spare planets, save lives, and do good things for the universe but needed to…farm and kill Alteans to do it.

it’s not clear how he went from wanting to preserve life to committing genocide. that logic jump was very sudden and never explained. they either should’ve kept his backstory and his desire to preserve life and made him an ally to Voltron, OR they should’ve nixed the abusive backstory and maintained him as an enemy who was set on ousting his parents and ruling the Galra empire the way he wanted. i personally would’ve gone with the latter if i was rewriting, but either works. i think the writers wanted to try and get us to sympathize with a imperialist murderer at the same time they wanted us to demonize a victim of neglect and abuse, and as a result we as the viewers weren’t clear on what we were supposed to think of him.

also, i just personally don’t enjoy the “neglected child becomes a raging homicidal villain” narrative since it’s overdone and isn’t a very uplifting message for victims of abuse and neglect.

4) Had Allura pilot the Atlas, and given Shiro the Black Lion back the Atlas was built with Altean tech, powered with Altean alchemy, and clearly become a Voltron-esque mech due to a combination of the Altean tech and the Altean magic that Allura used to bring Shiro back. it felt strange to me that Shiro would be the one to pilot this ship when a) Allura has experience piloting battle class ships, b) the ship was built using her culture’s tech, and c) it required Alten magic/alchemy/whatever to reach its potential. it’s more poetic in my opinion for an Altean to captain a human made ship made with Altean technology in a combined effort to oust the Galra.

and, honestly, Shiro’s bond with the black lion was the deepest paladin-lion bond we saw on the show. it’s only fitting that he should get his lion back considering how rewarding he found being a paladin and how much work he put into developing that bond. plus, it would’ve made both Shiro and Allura important leaders in the effort against the Galra which is honestly where the show should’ve stayed. Shiro and Allura co-leading was a really powerful dynamic that i wish the show kept.

5) Did something more interesting with Project KuronProject Kuron was the strangest plot device in the entire show. it was such a mystery when Shiro came back what this project was about, it turns out that this Shiro was a clone, but then the fact that hundreds and hundreds of Shiro clones were created was…..never explained. they were destroyed and that was that.

personally, this goes back to me wanting to elaborate on why Honerva was so drawn to Shiro (both enough to take his arm and use him during a cloning project). i wonder if something about his quintessence fascinated her. i wonder if, without his chronic illness, he would’ve been the embodiment of perfection and an ideal weapon for the empire. i wonder if this is why she outfitted him with Galra technology and planned to clone him to create an army of him for the sake of the war. i wanted a whole arc on just the clones, of Shiro finally grappling with Honerva and the hold she had on him for most of the season, i wanted the team to help in trying to destroy and defeat all of the clones before they were used as weapons against the entire universe, and then i think that would’ve added even more dramatic flair to the infamous black paladins episode (which i wouldn’t even touch, that was perfect).

6) Had Allura sacrifice the Lions in order to save all of the realities (thus keeping her alive)don’t think i have to explain why Allura dying was garbage. found family was one of the biggest themes of the series – was something that Allura herself acknowledged in the very last season – and it’s only fair that she be able to survive, see the fruits of her labor, see the reestablishment of the Altean colonies, be a ruler, be a leader, be alive, have a family, and get to be in love.

i feel like the lions would’ve been a very good alternative as a sacrifice. because it’s clear that after this Voltron isn’t needed anymore. so it would make sense that the lions final use would be to use their combine quintessence (which is likely more powerful than Allura’s) to save all those realities. and it would make sense that Honerva, as a way to atone for the damage she’d done, would be the one to redeem herself through this final sacrifice. it would’ve been a cleaner ending, it would’ve been more satisfying, none of the main characters had to die, and they all would’ve had beautifully happy endings.

#vld salt #vld critical #long post #Anonymous #ask

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douxreviews · 6 years ago

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Legends of Tomorrow - ‘Egg MacGuffin’ Review

"I’m sorry that our first date got ruined by Nazis."

The Legends of Tomorrow episode title game is really on point this year.

Forgive me in advance if this is overexplaining, but I'm not entirely sure how well known the terms are and it's going to become relevant in a minute. If you already know the terminology better than I do, and I'm sure many of you do, I beg your indulgence.

A 'MacGuffin' is the term for a plot device that exists solely to provide motivation to the characters in a story. The example that's most often cited at this point is the titular Maltese falcon statue in The Maltese Falcon. This is a subtly different thing than 'phlebotinum,' which we discussed a few episodes back. Generally speaking, phlebotinum is a made up thing that facilitates the character's journey, for example, polyjuice potion. A MacGuffin is a made up thing that motivates the character to make the journey, for example the sorcerer's stone. Or philosopher's stone if you live in a country where the publisher wasn't afraid of accidentally teaching children the word 'philosopher.'

The real takeaway is that Legends of Tomorrow has now given me an excuse to explain both of those terms, and regularly allows me pretentiously discuss semiotics, and is therefore the best thing ever broadcast. But I digress.

The genius of this week's episode title is that the golden egg that Nate and Zari are looking for at the Adventurers Club is unequivocally a MacGuffin with no significance of its own beyond that (at least this week). In fact, part of the plot of that storyline explicitly involves Nate and Zari questioning exactly that point, and they come to the conclusion that it is a MacGuffin that Sara planted just to give them an exciting first date. Which is clever because it isn't a MacGuffin within the story we're watching, but it absolutely is a MacGuffin from the outside perspective, and you know it might actually be possible to be too clever about these things. Whatever your personal tolerance for post-modern narrative gameplaying, I really enjoyed it.

Now, in the past I've complained a bit here and there about the fact that the Legends' reduced number of episodes in a season often makes them condense what could be two or three episodes worth of plot into one. I'm not sure if I've just gotten used to it or if they're getting better at it, but I've really begun to enjoy the fast, breezy clip at which these episodes move. Nate and Zari are really just doing an extended Raiders of the Lost Ark homage, and a nice zippy pace is essential for that kind of romantic adventure fiction. The Ark of the Covenant itself, while we're speaking, is another classic example of a MacGuffin. I'm certain that was not coincidental.

In any case, I think I'm pretty well sold on the Zari and Nate romance, and I think it's down to one particular moment in this episode. When they realize that Sara has set them up on a romantic mission, Zari offers to call it a night and return to the ship, and Nate says, 'Or we could see where this mission takes us.' What he's clearly really saying is, 'Hey, I'm open to exploring whatever this is going on between us if you are, but there's no pressure.' I don't seem to go a week without mentioning how refreshingly adult the characters on this show are.

In fact, part of why the aforementioned fast and breezy pace felt so appropriate this week all around is because the show has romance stories on its mind. We have Sara and Ava, thankfully post-argument, making an effort for one another in the little ways. We have Mick and Charlie at Romanticon, attempting to cash in on Mick's authorial alter ego, Rebecca Silver, without actually having to reveal himself to his fans. Which is so completely on brand for both of them that I loved every second of it. God bless Mick, both for actually caring about his fans and for being willing to admit the fact when pressed.

Then finally we have my current relationship on the show, Ray and Nate. I realize I went on a bit about this last week, but I just can't say enough about how great their friendship is. Thank you, whoever on the writing team made the decision that Ray would give up his soul to Neron in order to save Nate's life, as opposed to Nora's. Neron said he would make Ray kill someone he loved in order to break him, and the show went with Nate as that person. Is it possible to platonically 'ship a couple? Because I am totally team Palmwood.

That was an unfortunate first attempt at a couple name. Please leave alternate suggestions in the comments.

Which leads me to the painful part. There were a number of little clues as to what was coming for Gary, but I really only noticed them in hindsight. When Sara is discussing who the murderer could be in book club, she mentions that it must be the dogwalker because of his pent up frustration and being treated like a doormat. The shot transitions from her to the next scene halfway through the line, which means we're hearing her but looking at Gary. The subplot about Vincent the Adventurer's assistant is basically a mirror of Gary's position. And Gary is clearly crying in the bathroom – a thing that he had just told us he often did – when Ray calls him and he drops everything to go help.

Gary Green, on paper, should not work as a character. He should come across as a caricatured doofus, occasionally good for a comic relief moment. But Adam Tsekhman invests him with something undefinable and real, and he just fundamentally works as a tragic figure despite all the reasons that he shouldn't.

Also, whoever planned out that Gary's nipple returning from Hell would be the final temptation that makes him give in to Neron is a mad genius and should be our leader now.

Everybody remember where we parked:

The Waverider did some proper time travel for the first time in what feels like ages and took most of the team to the Adventurers Club, 1933, in order to retrieve that golden egg. Mick and Charlie, meanwhile, take the jump ship to Romanticon, 2019. Gary uses his time courier to flit between 2019 and the Waverider, and Neron and minion-Gary appear to lift Damien Darhk's old time travel stone from Constantine and use it to leave for destinations unknown.

Remember when time travel seemed like an exclusive and exotic thing?

Quotes:

Sara: "Honestly, with Neron gone, catching fugitives has never been easier. I thought it was gonna take all week."

Zari: "It was that awkward, huh?" Sara: "Even the mummy thought it was awkward."

Nate: "Excuse me, my good man, could you point me to the nearest facilities? I have an urgent need to… uh... relieve my bowel."

Nate: "Wait. Trip wires. This is going to require one of us to squeeze through these trip wires, maneuvering our bodies in unexpected ways." Zari: "Are you asking me to do that?" Nate: "No, I’m asking you to hold my coat."

Ava: "Honestly, I usually just drink rose and let Mona go on and on."

Gary: "I may not be a master of the dark arts, but I am an intern of the dark arts."

Ava: "Were you guys about to hook up?" Zari: "No. no, no, no, no." Nate: "It was definitely on the table."

Bits and Pieces:

-- This show just doesn't do misunderstandings for dramatic effect. Nora immediately told John that Ray was possessed as soon as she woke up. Neron repeatedly goes out of his way to clarify that he's the one doing evil things, not Ray, even when it would really be in Neron's best interest to let the Legends think otherwise, thus driving them apart. That might be the thing I appreciate most about the writing.

-- It seemed odd at first that Mona didn't already know about Mick being Rebecca Silver, but on reflection it makes sense.

-- Loved the Garima cosplay at Romanticon.

-- How many books has Mick had time to write by this point? I mean, I suppose time travel would help with that, but I lost track of how many different titles they mentioned. I particularly liked Raw Hides.

-- Mick's final speech to the con about how all anybody really wants is to feel a connection was a lovely piece of writing, well performed. And a hell of a good underscoring to what was happening to Gary at that moment.

-- I get why they didn't do it, but it would have been smarter for Charlie to have shape shifted into a neutral third party to portray Rebecca. That said, I adored the Rita Skeeter vibe she had going on with her outfit.

-- Outside of the Rita Skeeter vibe, we also had phoenix feathers and a dragon egg. I'm sure there were a few other Harry Potter nods that I missed beside those. Anyone?

-- And speaking of the egg, it's a neat bit of long term plotting that what was just a MacGuffin this week is clearly set up at the end to be relevant to a different plotline later.

-- It's entirely in character for John Constantine to be rude and speak to Gary like that in a moment of stress, but the whole sequence of events felt sadder to me when I thought about the considerate way that he sheltered Gary's feelings last week.

-- I've noticed that they've gotten into the habit lately of consistently leaving someone on the Waverider to 'Quarterback' the mission. That's not only hugely useful for splitting up the characters and facilitating different schedules, it's also a really sound battle tactic.

-- Note added after the writing of this review. Apparently 'Egg MacGuffin' is the official name of this sort of thing as cited on tvtropes, and not an original pun coined by the writers here. Ah, well. Still a clever title for how it was used here.

I loved this episode from beginning to end. How can we only have three more left?

Three and a half out of four, and the only reason it's not higher is I suspect I'm going to need a higher number to go to in the next few episodes.

Feel free to mention your favorite MacGuffin in the comments.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#Legends of Tomorrow #Sara Lance #Zari Tomaz #Nate Haywood #John Constantine #Ray Palmer #DC Comics #Arrowverse #Legends of Tomorrow Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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onlystatic · 6 years ago

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CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MITHC SEASON 3

Sooo something awful happened in Season 3, Episode 5, and I had to fix it. I haven’t felt compelled to write about these two since the end of the first season several years ago, and for some reason they are still the only characters that I’ve ever been inspired to write this sort of stuff about. I know what happens in the book, but I agree with what others have said, that they consider book Joe and show Joe to be two separate incarnations. Call me a hopeless romantic, but it just seemed like such a waste of his character development and potential storyline. So I fixed the scene...

"I'm sorry," Juliana said. The words hung empty between them. Joe's hostility was concerning, but she could tell by the way he turned his body to block his face that he was finally being honest with her. He was still hiding something, but she had clearly struck a nerve, and that was something to work with.

She lowered her purse to the floor, never taking her eyes from him, and inched closer. He stiffened and tried to lean away from her, but she slipped her hands behind his neck and pressed her forehead against his. He didn't try to resist her, and in fact she could feel the tension draining from his shoulders under her embrace. He savored every second of her touch, and as much as he was irritated with her for prodding at him, he wrapped his arms around her to draw her up against himself.

His vision went blurry with tears before he could think to stop them. Holding her had never stopped feeling like a cruel dream that he wasn't allowed to keep. He hated having to deceive her like this, to be right back where they started with all of the lies and duplicity, but his reconditioning would allow for no margin of error. Juliana moved to brush one of the tears away, and he looked at her. That was when everything… shifted. It was similar to all of the other visions Juliana had experienced while watching the films, only this wasn't just one alternate reality she had stumbled into, but multiple, all at once. Every time and place her and Joe had ever met, every smile and first kiss, every time they had made love, and every time he had killed her. Every time she had killed him. Hundreds of thousands of moments played out like multiple exposures in a shattered kaleidoscope, refracting and overlapping, crashing into the emotions that were dragged along behind. All of the joy, the fear, the pain and sorrow, the love, it was always them, and it always ended the same way. Blood. Collapsing under its own weight to settle in her chest, Juliana had to remind herself to breathe as reality shifted back again. She felt as if she had just been dissected, picked apart, and only mostly reassembled, and struggled to maintain the contents of her stomach.

Joe had obviously suffered the same experience. Shaking and gasping for air, he stared at her, eyes wide with panic and horror. She tried to think of something to comfort him, but instead she watched the color drain from his face as he began to process what had just happened. "Oh God," he breathed. He could feel pieces of himself, already barely patched back together by his reeducation, crumbling, fraying into paper thin fragments like all of the pieces of their lives that he had just absorbed, and there was nothing left inside to hold onto. There was only blood, and the deep black schism that was waiting to swallow him at the end.

"Oh my God," his face slick with tears, he started to lose his balance on legs that were no longer his own. But Juliana was there, holding him up.

"Hey! Hey, it's okay, it's -"

"No, no it isn't!" He tried to push her away. "It isn't - oh God, I'm a killer Juliana! It was me!" He was almost shouting now.

A shiver wriggled like a cold finger down her spine. "What?"

"I'm a killer, an assassin! That's why Himmler let me live. He forced me to kill my father, and now he has me eliminating high profile targets! I'm supposed to kill Tagomi, that's why I'm here! Oh God," the last few words were barely coherent through the sobbing.

Chills raced up and down Juliana's body, fear and outrage pounding through her heart. She wasn't entirely surprised, but it was still a shock to hear him say the words. She drew back from him, and he reached out and snatched her arm. His grip was hard enough to hurt. "Please don't go," he said.

Without thinking, her eyes flicked to her purse lying a few feet away, and the gun tucked away inside. It was a split second glance, but Joe still caught it, and realization sank into his face. "Do it," his eyes and face were still wet, but a stillness came over him. He let go of her arm and lifted his head in defiance "Do it! It's either me or you. And it's better than living as - as - whatever I am now. Just please -" the words caught in his throat again. "Please don't go."

Juliana looked at him, and it was just like seeing him again for the first time in Canon City. The man in the Nazi uniform was gone, exposing all that was left underneath. Yes, he was vulnerable and broken - and a killer, but so was she. Remnants of memories and decisions from alternate timelines tried to take root between her thoughts, but she plucked them out as quickly as they came. She was still angry and hurt that he had been trying to manipulate her, but she understood why. She could kill him, and maybe she should, but the man slumped over before her was no longer a threat, and he was staring at her like she was the last thing that mattered in the world.

It was always them, in countless lifetimes and countless worlds, pulled together by some force neither of them could hope to comprehend. She wasn't sure if she was in love with him or in love with the idea of what he could be, but it was something so absolute and undeniable in that moment that it was difficult to even look away from him. It was always them, but maybe it didn't have to end the same way.

"Please," he whispered. "I can't - I can't lose you again, Juliana. Please don't -"

Surrendering to the pull was like diving headfirst into the current of a rushing river. She threw herself back into his arms, almost knocking him off his feet, and stopped his mouth with a kiss "I'm not going anywhere,"

Joe was a bit caught off guard at first, and although he returned her passion with equal measure, he kept apologizing whenever she let him catch a breath. He knew that no amount of apologies could ever heal it all completely, but he desperately wanted to try. However, Juliana just kept shaking her head and telling him to stop.

Relenting, he cradled her face in his hands, following her mouth with his, pushing his tongue deeper to match hers. She broke away briefly to kiss his neck, and he let his hands slide to the small of her back to undo her dress, pulling it off of her shoulders to crumple on the floor. Her fingers fumbled on the buttons of his shirt as he ran his hands down over her curves to grab at her hips. Pressing her against him and lifting her up, she wrapped her legs around him and twisted her fingers into his hair.

With every ragged breath their bodies begged for each other, the momentum that had shoved them over the edge only growing in intensity the closer they came. And although they had made love before, this time was different. They both felt it. Their first time in her apartment had been wonderful of course, but it had also been hollow somehow, propped up by passion and deception, each of them searching for the weak spots in the other. This, however, was something else entirely, and something neither of them had ever felt before. There was nothing separating them anymore, no grimy mess of fear, no shame or regret. Torn open and stripped apart, they understood now what they meant to each other, and the rest of the world was inconsequential by comparison. Everything that they weren't allowed to feel before reverberated through them like an echo of a crescendo.

He stripped off her shift over her head. She helped him with his belt. They could feel the bed under them when they fell, landing in a tangle of limbs and skin, flushed with vertigo. For what felt like hours, they lost themselves in each other, in the frantic rhythm of their hearts eroding away at the center of it all. Two opposing forces, such as they were, entwined and indistinguishable. The further they went, the hazier the alternate timelines became, like a crack spreading across a mirror reflecting all they had ever thought they lost. Their fingers knotted together as the sheets parted on either side of them. He buried his face in her neck. She tightened her legs around his sides, and they clung to one another as it all unraveled around them. "I love you," he gasped as it came to an end.

"I love you," she replied, smoothing the muscles along his back.

Neither of them remembered pulling apart or falling asleep, but they both awoke some time later with the late evening light slanting through the windows. Juliana woke up first, eyes blurry and chest brimming with panic when she didn't recognize her surroundings. The garishly patterned wallpaper and cigarette stained lampshades were disconcerting and all too real. Joe stirred beside her, hair falling across his forehead, and had to blink at her several times before he realized that he wasn't dreaming. He actually had not dreamed at all, which was unusual. Normally it was the same nightmare that haunted him every time he closed his eyes, but instead it came seeping back in now the longer he looked at her. He searched her face apprehensively, and saw that she seemed to be considering the same things. There were no words between them, but she nodded as she acknowledged the vision they had shared, and the awful things that he had confessed to her. There was indeed a sliver of her old self that had thought about running, but she also understood that they had moved beyond that now, and she could tell by the amount of shame and desperation that he was struggling to contain behind his eyes, that he would not survive if she left him like this. She didn't think that she would either.

Before anything could be said, she slipped back under the sheets and curled up next to him, resting her head on his chest. His relief was as palpable as his pounding heart as his arms encircled her. He instantly relaxed, pressing his face into her hair with a heavy sigh. She closed her eyes and wished they were anywhere but here. This room, with its thin walls and acrid smell of sweat and stale perfume, was a sickly reminder of all of the things Joe had been hiding from her, and she hated it. Instead, she focused on the thumping tempo of his heart, and the way his body fit against hers. Juliana had always felt safe in his arms, ever since he had held her together that night on the bridge when her whole world was falling apart. Even before she knew why. And she had always been Joe's center, the only place that he belonged. He had known the moment he saw her that day in Canon City that he needed to protect her, even before he understood the significance of the films and their connection to them. And later, during his imprisonment in Berlin, he had thought about her every single day. He hadn't been lying to her earlier when he had told her that she was the reason he never gave up hope.

His heartbeat began to slow along with her breathing, and that was when Joe realized something else. For the first time since Berlin, his mind was quiet, with none of the Nazi reconditioning slogans blaring through his head like an air raid siren, where they had previously been drowning out his thoughts whenever he was alone with them. It was unbelievable, and their absence honestly made him feel more whole again, as if the last hidden door to that four by six cell he had spent so many months in had finally been opened.

He traced over the curve of her shoulder, and smiled in spite of himself. "I don't think I've slept that well in -" he paused to think, but couldn't come up with an adequate word. "- awhile."

Juliana raised her head to smile back at him, and he kissed her forehead.

"I'm going to take a shower," he said, only he hadn't said it. Not this version of him anyway. They both thought that it was another vision at first, except that it wasn't. It was more like a film strip had been laid over them, over reality, and they could both watch and experience what was happening simultaneously.

"Juliana, what -" Joe was sitting upright in bed now, muscles tense and trembling.

The room around them flickered and jumped forward like a faulty cut in the reel. Joe, or rather the other version of him, was now standing, fully dressed, beside the bed, and threatening Juliana with her own gun. She could feel the terror of her other self. Even though the gun was not pointed at her, it was like being held underwater in a dream, where the water wasn't real but you still couldn't breathe.

The other Joe was shoving the gun in her face. "First you're going to take me to Tagomi. And then you're going to take me to the man in the castle." Out of the corner of her eye, Juliana could see her Joe mouthing along with the words as if in a trance.

"I think I'm going to be sick," the other Juliana said, and pushed past him to stumble into the bathroom.

The scene lurched forward again to the other Juliana in the bathroom, turning on the faucet to mask the sound of her digging through Joe's belongings. Now Juliana really did think she was going to be sick, because she somehow knew what her other self was looking for.

"No, no, no," she started whispering over and over.

She felt it in her hand. The other Joe broke through the door behind her.

"Why aren't you dressed?" he said, and reached out for her.

"No!" Juliana shut her eyes, but the scene refused to stop.

The other version of her turned and slashed across his throat with the straight razor. The other Joe fell back, confused, and raised his hands to his throat. Blood poured out from between his fingers. He tried to breathe, to scream, but all that came out was a strangled gurgling. Her Joe could scream, however, falling out of the bed and clutching at his throat. There was blood everywhere, and the other Juliana stood there watching him die. Then, as abruptly as the playback of this alternate timeline had started, it stopped, leaving them horrified and reeling in its wake.

Joe staggered to his feet, cautiously pulling his hands away from his throat and still expecting to see blood there, but there was none. No blood, no gun, no razor. The sickening thoughts and feelings that had been spliced over their own receded quickly, but still lingered like the afterimage from a strobe light for far too long. None of it was real, they knew that. But had it been? Would it be? He couldn't bear to look at her until he was sure it had completely dissipated, and even then it was impossible not to think about how the blood had tasted in his throat.

"You, you - how could -"

"That wasn't me, Joe,"

"Juliana, what -" he swallowed, trying to catch his breath. "What the fuck was that?"

She shook her head. "I - I don't know. I think we might have - changed something."

He threw up his hands in exasperation. "But what does that mean? Changed what, exactly? The timeline? The world? Fate?"

"Maybe," a hint of a smile flirted at the edges of her mouth, and as confused as he was, he recognized the hope in her eyes.

"How?"

She shrugged. "Does it matter?"

He decided that it didn't.

"God, this is so crazy," he rubbed his throat again absently. "Well, I don't know about you, but I've definitely had enough of all that shit for this lifetime."

It was supposed to be a joke, but there wasn't much to laugh about. He needed to hold her against him again, and was gathering himself in an effort to finally try returning to the bed, when the heavy black briefcase on the desk across the room caught his eye. Even the shadow of it was repulsive. It was a weight around his neck, a vessel for all of the darkness they had coaxed out of him, and for a moment he considered tossing it through the nearest window. But then he thought of something better, a way to destroy everything that it meant.

He glanced back at Juliana, and then walked over to the desk. He lifted the lid, doing his best to ignore the phone's bone white receiver, and the fact that he had been speaking to Himmler only a few hours before. He ran his fingers along the underside of the lid, pressing at the corners until he felt a click, and then pulling it outwards. He reached inside this secret compartment, pulled out a stack of folders and papers, and carried it over to the bed.

"This is everything," he said as he handed them to her.

They felt much heavier than they looked in her hand. "Joe, you don't have to -"

"Yes, yes I do," he sank back down into the pillows next to her. "I don't ever want to have any secrets from you. Ever again."

She sifted through them, and he watched her intently, still unsure of how she would react. Most of it meant nothing to her, although she could tell that they were plans and correspondence of some sort. The folders, on the other hand, were more disturbing. They were dossiers compiled by what looked like the Kempeitai, and she recognized the photos as the two Nazi officers who had been gunned down in their homes. She paused at the last folder, letting her hands toy at the edges, because she already knew what she would see. Flipping it open to reveal Minister Tagomi's photo, it was like pieces of the emotions she had felt before were missing, and she was relieved that it didn't affect her as much as she had thought it would. It reminded her more of reading a work of fiction, something distant and unrelated to her that would never happen.

She looked over at Joe, and he was not handling it quite as well. His jaw clenched rhythmically, barely holding back more tears. "I almost did it,"

"But you didn't," Juliana said. "And that's not you anymore."

Joe wiped at his eyes and looked away.

The next paper she picked up from the pile was a folded map, and she almost discarded it, but as she turned it over to set it aside, she noticed that some of the terrain looked familiar. She unfolded it further in disbelief. It was the same map of Pennsylvania that she had been studying at her apartment. Several locations were marked and circled, and one of them was "Lackawanna," she hadn't meant to say it out loud. "Joe, this is -"

"Yeah,"

"What is this place?" she asked. "What's so important there?"

Joe sighed and rubbed at his throat again. "Himmler and Mengele, they think they've found something there. Some sort of doorway."

"A doorway?"

"To other worlds, other realities," he shook his head. "They want to use it to conquer… everything."

Juliana felt a fresh set of fleshless fingers closing around her throat. Her mind raced through all of the potential implications, and none of them could be allowed to happen. Helplessness was swallowed up by a shell of resolve.

Curious, Joe asked. "How do you know about it?"

"I-I saw it in a -"

"A dream, that's right, I remember you saying that."

"No, no, it wasn't a dream," she said. "I saw it in a film."

Joe hesitated, and almost didn't ask. "What did you see? What was on this film?"

She smirked at him. "I thought you had had enough of all this shit,"

He chuckled and gave her that look.

She took a deep breath and let it replay in her mind for probably the millionth time. "We're both there, only I'm a prisoner, a test subject I think, and you're in uniform. There are other people there too, Nazis, and you're leading me down this dark tunnel. There's a light somewhere at the end, and you stop to talk to someone, maybe an officer. Then you walk back towards me and raise your gun. You tell me to trust you, and then," she shifted uncomfortably and lowered her head. "You shoot me and then yourself."

Joe was staring out across the room as if he had seen a ghost. "That's not- How is that possible? That's the same dream I have every night,"

Juliana turned toward him to reassure him, and when she shifted the sheets, something small and round skittered out from between the papers, rolling and glinting in the light. She picked it up, and then almost dropped it again when she realized what it was. It was the same pin that the assassins at the farmhouse had been wearing, adorned with a symbol that resembled a "Y" with an added line in the middle.

"I've seen this before,"

"On the men that tried to kill you at the farmhouse in Colorado?" it was a statement more than a question.

She wanted to ask him how he knew about that, but all she could do was nod.

"It means Lebensborn," he said, spitting out the word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. "It was a Nazi breeding program."

Disoriented, she simply stared at him and waited for him to offer more of an explanation. He plucked the pin from her hand and held it out like an infected needle. "It means I was a part of it. It means I was bred to serve the Reich. That I was bred for this," and he gestured at the folders and papers spilled across the bed, wishing he could carve out the disgust that clotted in his chest. "I found out when I went to Berlin."

Juliana didn't know what to say. So many secrets, it was hard to know how to make sense of it all, digging through the ashes of so many lies. At least this one was not his fault, although she could tell that he still blamed himself anyway. This broken world had already destroyed so much of what she loved. Clenching her fists, she wished more than anything that she could erase what they had done to him, everything they had used him for, all of the pain and self-loathing and scars that she would never see. In that moment, she wanted to burn the whole goddamn Reich to the ground for him.

"This is who I am, Juliana," he said solemnly.

"No!" she reached over and grabbed the pin, pitching it across the room and as far away from them as she could manage. Then she turned and shoved at the papers, sending some of them off the edge of the bed. "No, it's not! Not anymore! It doesn't have to be! We both know better than that!"

Stunned and touched by her sudden anger, Joe extended his arms to her and let his hands curl around her waist. She resisted at first, wanting to let it simmer. Wanting him to be angry too. Then he smiled at her. "It's okay, Juliana," Everything was far from okay, but somehow hearing him say those words extinguished all of her fury and doubt. He caught her as she collapsed into him, kissing him feverishly and clinging to the hope she had felt earlier. The hope that they had changed things.

After a few moments she pulled back slightly, leaving their faces brushing against one another. "You told me once that you believed in people, not causes," she whispered breathlessly. "I know that was real. I never stopped believing in you."

She nestled into a spot under his chin, and he hugged her tighter. "And I always believed in you, Juliana. You saved me, you're still saving me. Over and over,"

There was more to it than that, so much more, but neither of them knew how to put it into words. He had saved her from the Fascists, she had saved him from the Resistance, and now they were both saving themselves from each other.

They laid there, curled up together, their clothes still discarded on the floor, and let the room darken around them. The shadows stripped all of the color from the walls like a slow bleed, dissolving into a heavy stormcloud void that was all too familiar. Almost like the tunnel in the mine. The streetlights wavered on the ceiling in brassy smears, and the quiet static of other worlds vibrated through the windows like the melody of a half remembered song. Joe unconsciously hummed along. Shivering, her breath trembled against his chest. He pulled the sheets up over her, his hand smoothing out her hair.

"We can stop them," her voice sounded much more fragile in the dark. "We can stop all of it. Together. We have to, Joe."

Joe shifted underneath her. "They'll come after us, Juliana. They'll hunt us."

She smiled. "Just like old times, right?"

"That's right," he laughed, and they hung onto each other and dreamed of being back at the mine again. This time, however, instead of being trapped inside, they were standing above it on a nearby hill, watching it crumble and burn to ashes beneath a new sunrise.

Bonus scene: Joe punches Frank in his stupid fucking face. And Wyatt/Liam too for good measure. The End.

#writing #my writing #man in the high castle #season 3 #fanfiction #joe blake #juliana crane #joe x juliana #season 3 ep 5 #joeliana #short story #romance #mithc #love #spoilers #i'm still recovering #they better bring an alternate version of him back next season

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summertime-children · 7 years ago

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Family Christmas

Happy holidays and New Year, Mika (@my-lady-bugaboo)!!! I’m your Secret Santa (not so secret anymore, since I’m like the last one to give my gift OTL) and I decided to present you this “little” (2k+) mekaquartet(mostly Kano and Kido)/kanokido thing. Hope you’ll like it! :D

It seemed that this year’s Christmas were going to suck. It was painted all over their faces. Had been for some time already - ever since the first decorations in the shops had been hung out (which, incidentally, had been way too early) Kano could feel the gloominess emanating from his two childhood friends presence that only grew the closer to that day it was getting. And he couldn’t really blame them, it was their first Christmas without Tateyamas and the contrast between the warm and snug atmosphere that was always so ever-present in their household during holiday season and the grey, sad reality that was so painfully noticeable in the base now was overwhelming.

Subconsciously he felt that they could feel the same from his presence too, even through under his crafted mask. Well, it’s not like he was trying much or had enough energy to hide it anyway.

It really seemed like it’s going to be this way the whole holiday season, until one innocent question was suddenly asked out loud, pulling out the rest three from their trance-like state.

“What is… ‘Christmas’?”

The trio suddenly stopped dead whatever they were doing (namely- nothing, or being even more specifically just empty activities intended to keep their minds occupied, like listening to music or mindlessly reading) and simultaneously turned to the little Medusa with completely dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

“They’ve kept talking about it in TV for a few weeks now. Is it some sort of a game…?”

The question may had seem simple, but all three just sat there in silence for a couple of seconds. They were alternately exchanging hesitant looks, unsure of what to say and looking down at their own feet, reluctant to be the first one to take the floor. Well, at least until Kano got an idea, seeing the opportunity created by Mary’s innocent ignorance. Suddenly a wide grin appeared on his face, wiping off any traces of previous confusion and dreariness.

“Well, Kido,” he said affectively bringing their Danchou attention, even if with still a little disoriented expression on her face, “it looks like we just got the new mission.”

“Is… here, ok?” asked Kano barely being able to speak. His body was stretched out from the tips of his toes that barely touched the stool underneath him to the tips of his fingers that in the contrast were holding tightly the bright green-red ornament to the wall and he was afraid that every false move could cost him hard landing on the floor. Even the move of his mouth.

Yet he still had took that risk as well as now when he shifted his gaze carefully behind him. With the corner of his eyes he could see unsatisfied grimace on Kido’s face (something he could guess was there even without seeing).

“Hmm a bit to the right.”

“What?! You just told me to move it to left!”

“But you moved it too much! A bit to the right.”

Kano sighed deeply, but obligated. He knew better than to oppose Kido (plus he really needed to get off that stool as fast as possible).

“How about now…?” he asked, but even though this time he didn’t turn to see her face, with every silent second he could feel something is wrong again.

“…You know what, it looked better before.” At her words Kano couldn’t help but grumble.

“Kido-samaaa~”

“Ok, ok, just hang it up there and leave it.” The little feel of guilt must had made her finally gave in Kano’s whines and he didn’t hesitate to use it as he did as she ordered and quickly jumped off the stool before she could change her mind.

“Maybe it could be a bit higher though…” Kido started thinking aloud and it made Kano stop dead in his track, cold sweat already forming on his forehead.

“Eh, we’ll just ask Seto to do it when he comes back if there’ll be a need.” She said under her breath and if Kano wasn’t so relieved by her decision maybe he’d be offended. Maybe. “He should have done it from the beginning.” He thought, but then remembered that fairly, he wouldn’t be able to do the taller boy’s task in the exchange.

Kano looked over at Kido to be sure if he was indeed finally safe. She was still contemplating over decorations, but the longer she was looking the more her expression changed from focused grimace to soft smile. For a second there, Kano thought that all of that was worth it and even forgot about the pain in his back and legs.

They were staring like that for a moment, Kido at decorated living room and Kano at Kido (and only one aware of their own action) until a loud beeping was heard.

“Ah, cookies!” Kido exclaimed in the voice so high and bright Kano hadn’t heard from her since they moved out. He giggled silently and wanted to comment it, but she didn’t even notice it, nor tried to hide it and almost bounced to the kitchen. In the end Kano just sighed fondly and trailed after her like a stray cat.

By the time he joined her in the kitchen, she had already took the cookies out of the oven and Kano was welcomed with the heave spicy sweet scent that quickly permeated the room. Kido laid the baking sheet on the table and Kano watched like her expression changed from fairly satisfied to the death glare directed (as expected) at him.

“Don’t even think about eating one before dinner.” He snickered and raised his hands in defense.

“Don’t worry. It’s not why I came here, I swear~” It didn’t ease her suspicions or glare, but she did give eventually him a silent permission to stay, as she sighed and finally looked away from him.

“I won’t need your help though, so you might get bored.” She said as she turned around to the prepared by her earlier frosting that rest on the countertop. “But I appreciate your…” she turned back around and abruptly stopped in her track. “You ate a cookie!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He replied with the innocent tone and matching it smile.

“Cut it! Who else could take it?” she pointed at the visibly empty spot on the baking sheet. “Besides, you can change the appearance of yourself, but you can’t hide the crumbs near you!” she moved her hand to point at them laying on the table near Kano and then quickly to his cheek as she leaned across the table and pinched it.

“Au! Au! Ouch! Ok! I confess! It was me! Can you please stop pinching my cheek? I have still some remains stored there.” He cried out and suddenly his cheeks became more puffy, his voice less smooth and more indistinct compared to before.

“Hmpf, why do you always do that?” she asked after she finally showed him mercy and let go. Kano laughed, rubbing his cheek from pain. “It’s honestly not my fault! You shouldn’t have made them so good-smelling and good-looking~ Also as found out delicious.” He added the last sentence after licking his fingers. Kido just shook her head at his antics (even though his complements did leave a faint blush on her face).

“Ehh, whatever. Just don’t do that again.”

“Ok, ok!~”

“Kano…”

“This time seriously! I promise.”

Kido sighed and decided to believe him (she always seemed to do that too often, but even so she had never trusted him even one time too much). Even if he did lie though, he wouldn’t be able to steal another cookie from before her eyes anyway. With that optimistic thought she finally proceeded to decorate the (already mostly chilled out) cookies like she originally intended.

Kano, like Kido said before, wasn’t much needed there and throughout the whole process just watched like she focused was covering the cookies with the frosting, adding on each one a different pattern. While doing so she had a partly stuck out tongue and Kano couldn’t help but think how adorable that was. But the main charm wasn’t even that, but a soft smile that would appear on her face from time to time.

It was so different to her gloomy look from a few days ago. Those days had been really depressing. They had been for him too, but what really had made them so unbearable was seeing his two childhood friends dried out of the joy and energy that had been always present in their eyes the previous years. Bringing back the light to their eyes was all he was wishing to accomplish by their “mission” and looking at the lovely picture before his eyes, it seemed like he had succeeded.

Seeing her so happy did make him feel so weirdly satisfied. He felt like helping her fix this Christmas was the only thing he ever did that matter.

And sitting in this kitchen with her, he decided that this Christmas wasn’t so different from the ones in Tateyamas after all. Kido with the way she supervised everything and how she was solicitously working in the kitchen and how she was singlehandedly managing everything in here really reminded him of Ayaka. The way the living room was decorated in the kind of western, but also very random and very inconsistent style, the way the kitchen smelled at the moment, it all reminded him of home. In the spirit of Christmas were even his antics with Kido- they reminded him of Kenjirou and Ayaka…

Kano suddenly stopped his thought-train, too embarrassed to go further. His embarrassment manifested in a bright blush that formed on his face and which he quickly covered up with his ability before Kido could notice it (which, incidentally speaking, would probably take a moment, since she didn’t seem to take her gaze from the cookies anytime soon) and he out of panic changed the subject that was never even there.

“H-hey, don’t you think that Seto and Mary are taking a little too long? They were supposed to just get a tree, right?”

Kido paused for a moment and spared a glance at Kano before returning to her work, this time with less vigor and her expression changed to slight concern.

“They did… You think so? How long they’ve been out?” “Crap.” He didn’t wanted to make her worry.

“A-ah! I don’t really know! It just kinda feels like it’s been long, but I guess this kind of task does take time so maybe…” Just as Kano was beginning to doubt if he should be worried about them too or not, suddenly a sound of unlocking door was heard followed by a few footsteps and a loud, vibrant as always (even though this time clearly tired) “We’re back!”

Kano and Kido just looked at each other and didn’t waste much time nor words before simply getting up and going to welcome their roommates back.

“Heey! Look what we hunted down!” exclaimed Seto when he saw his two childhood friends and motioned his head at the tree he was still holding. “It looks very healthy, doesn’t it?” he asked proudly.

“Seto, that’s not something you should say about the dead tree.” Kano thought, but then he guessed the dark-haired boy knew more about nature anyway. In comparison Kano couldn’t say about the tree nothing else other than that it was pretty small, which was actually a good thing. Looking at Seto though, he seemed like he was able to carry even a much bigger one.

He was wearing his paned out-to-woods coat, the one that a bit tattered from assumingly sharp branches and needles, below he was wearing his working trousers and boots (the latter so covered in mug they were barely visible) and on his head was a fur hat that prevented his hair from being snown on only partially as big drops fell from his frosted bangs. In one of his dressed in fingerless gloves hands he was holding a ax and with the other he was balancing the tree (that should be an actual center of their attention) on his shoulder.

If he only had a beard he would look like a real lumberjack.

And he most probably didn’t need Mary’s help (if anything she was the first suspect in the case of their delay), but she was excited to accompany him and in the end… the trio had decided to send Mary where she would disturb the least.

Speaking of Mary, she finally emerged from behind Seto’s back with a pleased smile.

“Doesn’t it? It will make a perfect sacrifice for the evil red Christmas goblin!” to her words Kano and Kido looked at each other in confusion] and then at Seto, expecting explanation, but he just gave them a look that said “don’t ask”.

After they all together rather quickly (and not without a few smashed baubles)decorated the Christmas tree, they sat out to the awaiting them, prepared by Kido earlier Christmas dinner. They spent the rest of the night laughing, talking and occasionally eating. It was truly a family Christmas.

#kido tsubomi #seto kousuke #kano shuuya #kozakura mary #kanokido #kidokano #mekakushi quartet #kagefics #secret santa #my-lady-bugaboo #PS there is some seto fanservice at the end ;3

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ladyloveandjustice · 7 years ago

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Summer 2017 Anime Overview: Re: Creators

Okay, time to review our next batch of Summer 2017 anime. I watched 7 anime this season. I’ve been ranking them from worst to best. Previously, I reviewed what I considered to be the weakest anime I watched this season. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we’re getting to anime that...well, kinda sits squarely in the middle of this season’s batch as far as “good”and “bad” go. I have a lot of mixed feelings and a lot of things to talk about. So let’s get down to it! This is a review, so it’s gonna spoil a bunch of things.

Re: Creators

Oh, Re: Creators. What am I going to do with you. You had such good ideas. You could have been so much better than you were.

Which isn’t to say Re: Creators is a bad anime. It isn’t. But it’s kind of in the area of “fine” rather than anything great, mostly because it couldn’t figure out how the execute the very interesting concepts it had going effectively.

Re: Creators was a story about writing itself. Basically, a bunch of animanga, light novel and video game characters were transported to the “real” world by a mysterious woman in a military uniform, who encourages them to take vengeance on their creators who made their lives hell.

Like I said, that a hell of a great concept, and Re: Creators does do some interesting things with it. The show is at its strongest when it’s discussing the struggles of writing and the power of stories. It also does really interesting things with how writing functions in the internet age.

For instance, the mysterious military woman character ends up being a very popular fan creation named Altair. A teenage girl named Setsuna created Altair as an alternate version of a character from a story she liked- essentially she was a fanfic. But then her design went viral and she morphed into a character all her own through the internet.

Since Altair is a collective creation of the internet, basically everything the fans on the internet do with her- all the scenarios, all the music videos, all the fanfic and fanart- is accepted into her “canon” which means she’s infinitely powerful and versatile compared to the other characters because she’s not bound to one author or continuity and is constantly being updated. Basically, she’s Hatsune Miku.

And that’s really cool, and shows a real understanding of how storytelling has morphed thanks to the instant and collective communication the internet has. It also shows the negative side effects has- the reason Altair wants to destroy the world is because Setsuna- the one who had the idea for her first place-was driven to suicide by the cyber-bullying and harassment she got as a writer and artist. So Altair’s here to take revenge for her author.

Again, REALLY cool and impactful concept for a story, something that really cuts to the heart of issues creators face in the internet age. And when it comes down to it I think the main issue of the anime is how it fumbled in telling that story. Basically, they felt the need to filter Altair and Setsuna’s story through the lens of a Bland Male Protagonist and that ruined everything. Setsuna’s story was told the point of view of her male friend who felt all guilty because he got jellus of Setsuna for being a more successful creator than him and stop talking to her and he feels that contributed to her suicide and YAWN I really don’t care about his manpain.

Basically, because of this filter, we don’t learn that much about Setsuna as a person, or Altair’s inner struggle, or the relationship between Altair and Setsuna. This makes the actually-really-cool-high-concept ending to their story have a lot less emotional impact than it should.

Seriously, this show well done and interesting resolution to its central conflict(so cool I screencapped it for imgur to show my gf. You can see it here.) It just...wasn’t built up to properly at all. It’s an ending that depends of Altair and Setsuna, but they were barely characterized throughout the show, so it falls flat- and that’s such a shame, because it is the kind of ending that DESERVES strong characters behind it.

I know it’s very easy to say this is “how I would have written” a story after the fact, hindsight being 20/20 and all, but if I’m going to tell you anyway. I would have written this story from Altair’s point of view. I’d have shown Setsuna’s struggle and her suicide from the point of view of the character she created. I’d have Altair enact her plan to destroy the world on her authors behalf, but at the same time she’d be using it as an opportunity to find out more about her author’s life.

She’d spefically attack Setsuna’s friends and loved ones who abandoned her and demand to know why they did what they did to her creator. Rather than it just be one boy manpaining over everything, I’d make it so Setsuna had a couple different writer friends and family members who treated her badly due to jealousy or insecurity over her success, and Altair’s encounters with them, where she used their favorite characters to bring them down, would have been central to the anime.

The story would have been so much more effective if it had actually focused on the characters who were at the center of everything. Instead it just ended up being a show with really good concepts and cool meta shit, but one that didn’t use it’s full potential in executing those concepts, and kind of threw the concept of “characterization” in the trash.

The show has a lot of meditative thought on writing, from the dark side of it- the struggle, the tears, the weird relationships creators have with fans- to the positive impact and powers of stories. “A story has the power to save someone” was a line in the show. As a writer I found it all very moving.

Unfortunately, though, as good as Re: Creators is with concepts- as good as it is when it comes to how it TALKS about characterization and writing and all that, the writing and characters on the show are actually pretty weak. It’s kind of hilarious that a story about the power of writing, a story that does this whole spiel about how the audience needs to be invested in a story for it work....also forgets basic things like “show, don’t tell” and “don’t include more characters than your story can handle” and “carefully build up your character arcs”.

This is an anime that would have benefited GREATLY from having less characters. We’ve got a huge sprawling cast and none of them are developed properly. Altair should have been a great character, but up until the very last episode she was basically a very 2D villain, alternately stoic or cackling, only to suddenly have this emotionally moving finale which would have been way more effective if the show had built up to it properly and explored her point of view more.

The show tended to communicate the character motives, backstories, feelings etc through boring exposition rather than showing them. A good demonstration of this is when one of the characters is making this heartfelt appeal and her writer says knowingly “she’s talking about her dead childhood friend”. OKAY THANKS. WHY SHOULD WE CARE. We don’t know this childhood friend, we don’t know anything about her story. Having a character randomly say “this is Significant” doesn’t make it actually significant.

Honestly it seems such a waste to have characters coming from all different kinds of stories and never showing what their stories they came from are LIKE, aside from a few extremely brief flashes. Ideally, this show would have cut to scenes from their stories, each in a unique art style, and got us involved in where these characters were coming from.

They have characters who TALK about having relationships and feeling all these emotions with these various other characters, but we never see them. One character came from a brutal dark fantasy and is all mad because of that, but the show never shows us a full scene of the story she came from. Who did she lose? What horrible things happened to her?

This really ended up badly hurting the show at a key points- and example is when the main female action hero’s mentor shows up to fite her, it’s supposed to be this big dramatic twist but it makes zero impact because we know nothing about this dude other than she’s mentioned liking him a couple times. The show quickly tells us he feels world weary or whatever and that’s why he’s opposing her and then they have a big fight. But the fight is not going to have any emotional punch if the very REASON for it is just stated hurriedly and randomly at the last second, if this relationship and character have basically no foundation. The anime needs to show the audience actual scenes that demonstrate and build these characters’ relationship, show this mentor character worn getting down by life, at least give us SOMETHING.

If the cast had been cut in half and if they’d given each character the time and care they deserved, this show could have been something really great. But it ended up focusing more on boring government meetings and dull explanations of the battle mechanics.

For a show that focused on writers interacting with the characters they’d written, it didn’t seem to care about its characters all that much when it came down to it. This stung especially because a few of them had some really good potential that was promptly wasted in a needlessly cruel way.

An example of this was the bond between this dark fantasy knight lady (Alicetaria) and a Precure-style magical girl (Mamika). It was one of the highlights of the show for a while and I was pleasantly surprised a show like this was paying so much attention to the friendship between two female characters- then I realized that, the way this show was going, the fact these two characters were getting any attention at all had to be because one of them was going to get killed off so the other character could swear vengeance and yada yada cheap drama.

GUESS WHAT, I WAS RIGHT. And it was even stupider and more manufactured than I expected- Mamika got killed in a totally idiotic way that was the show basically saying “LOOK her magical girl ideals are SO NAIVE she believed she could solve things with friendship and kindness but it just got her BRUTALLY MURDERED” (wow so edgy this has never been done before OH WAIT IT’S BEEN DONE TEN BILLION TIMES will these grown-ass men ever get tired of shitting on shows for little girls for daring to be optimistic and hopeful?)

And the most untrustworthy character on the show just HAPPENED to witness Mamika’s death and then for some reason Alicetaria believed this VERY OBVIOUSLY untrustworthy source when she said it was one of the good guys had killed Mamika and attacked the good guys. It was all so goddamn manufactured and pointless and accomplished nothing.

It led to some storyline where Alicetaria became a double agent and tried to bring down the bad guys from within that ALSO went absolutely nowhere- she didn’t like, weaken their team or get valuable intel or anything, she had no apparent strategy, and the villain knew about her plan the entire time. So she just ended up being killed off like a chump. So, this story about respecting the characters you create...had its character be unbelievably stupid for cheap drama and gave them utterly meaningless deaths. Nice.

Mamika in general deserved a lot better. The idea of a kids show character entering the real world and experiencing shock that things work differently is a cool concept. I liked the scene where Mamika was horrified her attacks made someone bleed because there’s no blood on her show. But I think that sort of story can be told without shitting all over the idealism of kid’s shows. It would have been a much more interesting story if Mamika survived and struggled to maintain her idealism in this harsh world. If it was tested time and time again and she lost hope and broke down and got angry, but in the end realized the world of kindness she wants is still worth fighting for. Killing her off is the absolute laziest way to go about it.

(Also the fact Mamika violently attacked a character who disagreed with her for no apparent reason and this was condemned as if it was something endemic to the magical girl genre made me think whoever wrote that ep had never seen Precure, even though that’s what she clearly based on. Magical girls, especially Precure style ones, don’t attack first and ask questions later. They try to reason with their opponents and don’t fight unless they are attacked or others are attacked. A Shonen hero might respond violently to someone arguing with them/ consider physical fighting the best way to solve a problem, but a magical girl never would. Sorry just a PET PEEVE I had as magical girl fan).

Sigh. I’m glad I watched Re: Creators. It was really moving in how it discussed writing. The ending was very good, even through it wasn’t built up to properly. How it wasted so much of its characters and ideas makes me really sad, but it also inspires me. I want to think of something like these concepts and execute it in a way that satisfies me. And that’s really what Re: Creators was all about- the power stories have to inspire.So while it was a very flawed show I have incredibly mixed feelings about, in a way, it did its job, and I commend it for that.

#re: creators #re creators #summer 2017 anime #anime overview #altair #alicetaria february #magical slayer mamika #setsuna shimazaki #shimazaki setsuna #gifs #this is a LONG post #suicide cw

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fyrapartnersearch · 7 years ago

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Fandom & Original request [10.28.17]

I have returned after a long and unforeseen hiatus, long story short some real life issues emerged [ one in particular being of the health variety, that had me back and forth at the doctor ] thus keeping me away from the roleplay world. So, I apologise to everyone who I was supposed to write with since back in June; it was honestly out of my hands. I have some spare time on my hands due to my on-going health issues and would like to find a few people to write and chat with. I just have a small forewarning, I will do my best to reply as swiftly as I can, but it might take me a little bit, so I ask that you have patience with me. In addition if you were someone I was speaking with at an earlier date, I apologise again. If you’re interested in continuing from where we left off, I’m open to it. ❤

What I’m looking for in a partner

Someone willing to take the time to sit down and plan out a story we’ll both enjoy.

Someone who will respect me in the same manner as I will them. It’s a two way street and I’m tired of being disrespected and harassed.

Someone who will take the time to read my rules and regulations. There have been too many instances where I’ve discovered people have either disregarded my rules or simply glossed over them. In exchange if you have any concerns please bring them to me.

Someone who understands that I won’t be able to respond every day. I’ve been dealing with an ongoing health issue since back in June and every month it’s been constant trips to the doctor. It will take me a bit, have patience with me, please. There are some days where I might only be up for talking OOC, then there are others where you might not hear me because I simply don’t feel well.

Someone who doesn’t mind talking outside of roleplay. Another perk of roleplay is finding friends and that’s what I seek. I would like to find someone who I can build a friendship with. We can fangirl over our story and our ships, talk about our day and slowly get to know one another. ❤

types of roleplay:

basic:

Contact me with what fandom(s) you're interested in, we'll make a mutual decision on the choice, before exchanging oc information and discussing plots. The format is what we're all used to: portraying our oc's, each other's love interest(s) and side characters.

doubles:

More or less the same as above, except if there is more than one thing you'd like to do and are up for doing more than roleplay, than we can. I will probably only accept 2-3 per person, due to time management.

split:

The format is similar to the basic formula, we both choose one fandom of our respective sides. Then, exchange oc information, love interests and plots.

split 2.5:

This is similar to the former, but different than the ones before it. Normally, a split roleplay is done where we choose two separate fandoms; but I can make an exception for a basic format if that is what you wish. Now, here is where it's different after we choose our respective fandoms, along with our oc information we will include a big or small write up of a plot for our character and their love interest(s). Now, I will give my partner full-rein in regards to what kind of plot they want. Want a storyline filled with drama and mayhem? Go for it. Want a reverse harem storyline with four characters vying for your character's heart? Fine with me. This is your opportunity to play out any kind of headcanons and storylines you wish. I only ask for nothing that violates my rules or limits, otherwise sky's the limit. I will may accept 2-3 per person. If you need help with a storyline, let me know.

rules and regulations

length:

Normally, I will write one to two paragraphs on both sides. However, that is not my limit for I can write anywhere between one to five paragraphs per sides. Length for a single paragraph can range anywhere between 200-500+ words, whereas each individual side usually equates anywhere from 400-800+ words. I like to consider myself a paragraph|multi-paragraph writer, although I know a lot of people are converting to novella writers, I can accommodate to a novella partner just beware that it will take me longer to reply to you as opposed to someone else. This is due to how much time and effort that goes into novella responses. I am the type of person who likes to take the time to construct a quality response, rather than rush and send someone a response for the sake of replying. Which is why I ask, please give me time to write your response.

format:

I can write in either first or third person, despite preferring first because I can connect with my character more; I will do whatever my partner feels more comfortable with and if that’s second so be it. Also, don’t forget that roles between the two of us should follow accordingly; I play my OC, your love interest(s) and additional side characters. While you play your OC, my love interest(s) and additional side characters.

love interests, mary sues, and spotlight:

I’m lenient when it comes to love interests, as I allow more than one suitor for our characters because love triangles make the story more interesting. However, I would ask that if we just so happen to have the same choice(s) for a love interest that we don’t fight about it; instead try to sort things out. I’ve literally had someone threaten me, simply because I liked the same person as them (I’m not kidding). Second, I’m not an extremist when it comes to characters; meaning I won’t knit pick about every little thing. All I ask is no Mary-Sues and no hogging the spotlight; this is a storyline created between the two us. Let’s share it please.

spelling and grammar:

There are a lot of people who tend to knit pick about this; but rest assured I will not. All I ask is that you have a decent grasp on both spelling and grammar. Do this and we’ll get along fine; this is something that I can and will promise you.

manners and etiquette:

This should be common knowledge, but all I ask is that during our time writing together that you treat me with respect and courtesy; I will return the gesture as it is only right. I’d like us to get along, I would hate for a disagreement to ensure and there was bad blood between us due to something frivolous.

patience and commitment:

I am a full-time student, attending college and leave for school early in the morning and return home later in the afternoon; I am usually quite tired when I return home, but I try to reply to my partners as frequent as possible. However there are times, unfortunately when I cannot reply when I’d like due to an abundant amount of assignments, health issues which can lead to me becoming sick or an emergency at home. I try to inform my partners of these occurrences, but if you don’t hear from me in two weeks time don’t be afraid to send me a message and ask me about it. What I won’t accept, is being spammed every five seconds with the same message; again and again because I’m not replying like you’d like me to. I do my best to get to you all, roleplay is supposed to be fun and enjoyable; an escape from reality for both of us. It shouldn’t have to feel like a job. I will do the same for you because I understand everyone here has different lives and schedules to attend to; but please don’t ditch me half-way through the roleplay. If you need to take a break or something; then please tell me. I don’t bite- I’ll understand.

limits:

Tell me your limits when sending a request, as the last thing I’d want is to make you uncomfortable. My limits consist of the following; malexmale/femalexfemale/incest/pedophilia/bestiality. This is where my limits stand, these may or may not change depending on future roleplays; however if you’re unsure about something please don’t hesitate to ask me. Now onto what I will do, I am open to mature themes within the roleplays; I actually encourage them. That includes; cursing, violence, blood, smut, alcohol and lemons. However, I would like to keep the language and lemons to a certain level, meaning no dropping ‘F’ bombs every five seconds and no roleplays dedicated to sexual activities and sexual activities alone. No, there is more to a roleplay than that and I will not engage in such.

canon, crossovers and au:

I can do strictly canon roleplays or an alternate universe roleplay. Alternate Universes can range from 'what if' situations, different settings and scenarios. If you have an idea let me know, or we can brainstorm ideas together; I also have a list of AU prompts so let me know if you'd like to take a look at it. I am also crossover friendly

location:

I can write through email, instant messenger (yahoo, aol, msn), Skype, Kik or Tumblr.

ooc chit-chat:

I'd like to chat on the sidelines with my partners, as it allows the two of us to get to know each other; thus making things less awkward for the both of us. Plus, I like to make friends with my partners and would enjoy the extra person to converse with.

cravings

Most Anime listed (inquire please)

Disney

Kingdom Hearts

Final Fantasy 15

Pokemon

Persona 3

Marvel

Once Upon a Time

★Plot Candies

★Alternate Universes

anime

•Bleach:

Ichigo Kurosaki, Byakuya Kuchiki, Ukitake Jūshiro, Renji Abarai, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Uryū Ishida, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, Ulquiorra Cifer or Sosuke Aizen (Early arcs or an AU for this only)

•CardCaptor Sakura

Yukito Tsukishiro/Yue, Syaoran Li or Eriol Hiiragizawa

•Death Note

Anime: L.Lawliet, Light Yagami, Mikami Teru, Mihael Keehl or Matsuda Touta

TV Drama: L.Lawliet, Mikami Teru or Light Yagami

•Diabolik Lovers

Reiji Sakamaki, Shū Sakamaki, Subaru Sakamaki, Ruki Mukami or Yuma Mukami

•Digimon

Season one: Yamato Ishida or Taichi Kamiya

Season two: Ken Ichijoji

•Fushigi Yuugi

Nuriko, Hotohori, Tasuki, Nakago, Suboshi or Amiboshi

•Hell Girl

Ren Ichimoku

•InuYasha

Sesshōmaru, Miroku, InuYasha, Kōga Bankotsu or Naraku

•Kamisama Kiss

Tomoe

•Magic Knight Rayearth

Lantis, Eagle Vision or Zagato

•Nana

Shinichi Okazaki, Nobuo Terashima or Ren Honjo

•Ouran Highschool Host Club:

Tamaki Suoh, Takashi Morinozuka or Kyoya Ootori

•Peach Girl

Kazuya "Toji" Toujigamori

•Sailor Moon (Includes Crystal)

Classic: Nephrite, Kunzite, Jadeite, Mamoru Chiba

R: Rubeus, Prince Diamond or Sapphire

•Samurai Champloo

Jin

•Say I love You

Yamato Kurosawa or Kai Takemura

Studio Ghibli(Includes individual movies and crossovers between other Ghibli films and Disney)

To be discussed.

•Yu-Gi-Oh

Seto Kaiba, Joey Wheeler, Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi, Bakura Ryou/Yami Bakura or Marik Ishtar

•Yu Yu Hakusho

Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke Urameshi, (teen)!Koenma, Toya or Jin

television and movies

•American Horror Story (Murder House, Asylum or Coven) (Crossovers between seasons is an option)

Tate Langdon (Murder House), Kit Walker (Asylum), Kyle Spencer (Coven)

•Celebrities

Tom Hiddleston, Jamie Dornan, Sebastian Stan, Michael Fassbender, Tom Holland, Richard Madden, Chris Pratt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alexander Skarsgård, Chris Hemsworth, Kit Harington, Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Raymond-James, Daniel Radcliffe

•The Covenant

Chase Collins, Caleb Danvers or Reid Garwin

•Degrassi: The Next Generation

Sean Cameron, Spinner Mason, Craig Manning, Peter Stone or Jay Hogart (season 01 through 08),

Eli Goldsworthy, Declan Coyne, Drew Torres, Jake Martin or Luke Baker (season 09 through 12)

•Disney | Animated Movies

John Smith, Naveen, Flynn Rider, Aladdin, Prince Kit (Cinderella 2015), Diaval (Maleficent), Li Shang, Phoebus, Prince Phillip, Prince Eric, Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians), Dimitri (Anastasia), Milo Thatch, Jim Hawkins, Kristoff or Hans, (open to others)

•Harry Potter

Harry Potter,Ronald Weasley Draco Malfoy, Cedric Diggory, Oliver Wood, Fred Weasley,George Weasley, Tom Riddle

•Marvel

Loki Laufeyson, James “Bucky” Barnes, T’Challa, Peter Parker, Thor Odinson, Pietro Maximoff, Clint Barton, Peter Quill, Sam Wilson, Grant Ward, or Tony Stark

•Once Upon a Time

Sheriff Graham/The Huntsman, Jefferson/ The Mad Hatter, Neal Cassidy/Baelfire, Merlin/ The Sorcerer, David Nolan/Prince Charming, Killian Jones/Captain Hook, Will Scarlet/Knave of Hearts, Victor Frankenstein/Dr. Whale, Peter Pan, Mr. Hyde, Hades, Aladdin or Gideon

•Original (*note: I haven’t done an original in a while, and it isn’t a big craving for me but I do have several original characters I would like to flesh out. Below, I’ll list some prompts I’m interested in doing, although you can fill free to suggest something as well. This will play out the same as a fandom roleplay, we’ll both be doubling as our OC’s. each other’s love interests and any side characters.Also, any of these prompts can be used as an AU for a fandom roleplay as well.)

Teacher x Student

Host/Hostess x Customer | Host Club setting

Supernatural x Human

Supernatural x Supernatural

God x Goddess

God/Goddess x Magical Being or Creature

God/Goddess x Human

Doctor x Patient

Doctor x Mental Patient

Patient x Patient

Single Parent x Single Non-childless person

Psychiatrist x Patient

Newlyweds or Just Engaged

Online Relationship

Sports (Includes non-traditional sports such as dance, figure skating and fencing) School | College/University

Haunted House Asylum Witches ‘Coven Kidnapping| Hostage situation | Disappearances | Escaped Criminal (s) Stalkers Nightmares Imaginary friends Dreams versus Reality Conflict between Supernaturals Mentality | Psychosis Ghosts Supernatural | Paranormal Experimentation | Laboratory Shapeshifters | Were-Animals Dark Supernatural Creatures: Vampires, Werewolves, Sirens, Shapeshifters, Witches, Succubus/Incubus, Doppelgängers,etc

Past Lives | Reincarnation

•Supernatural

(*note: I’m not caught up with the series, but would be interested in roleplaying it, I would rather doing a plot from scratch with my partner)

Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester or Castiel

•Twilight

(*note: I will only roleplay this under a few conditions: One, more mature and complex themes than the source material. Two, the vampires will actually behave like vampires meaning no sparkling. Three, you’re free to make your character a supernatural creature outside of a vampire or werewolf but make it believable. Finally, I can write for either the first three books or movies and obviously our story doesn’t have to follow any of these word for word)

Edward Cullen, Jasper Hale, Emmett Cullen, Riley Biers, Jacob Black or Seth Clearwater

•X-Men (Movie Verse)

Peter Maximoff/ Quicksilver, John Allerdyce/Pyro, Bobby Drake/Iceman or Peter Rasputin / Colossus

X-Men First Class: Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, Alex Summers / Havok or Charles Xavier / Professor X

X-Men Days of Future Past: Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver or Charles Xavier / Professor X

X-Men: Apocalypse: Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver, Charles Xavier / Professor X, Alex Summers / Havok

video games

•Catherine:Orlando Haddick, Jonathan Ariga or Vincent Brooks

•Final Fantasy (Crossovers accepted)

Final Fantasy IV: Kain Highwind Crisis Core: Genesis Rhapsodos or Zack Fair Final Fantasy VIII: Squall Leonhart, Seifer Almasy or Zell Dincht Final Fantasy X: Tidus Final Fantasy X-2: Shuyin Final Fantasy XIII: Hope Estheim Final Fantasy XIII-2: Caius Ballad or Hope Estheim Lightning Returns: Caius Ballad or Hope Estheim Final Fantasy XV: Gladiolus Amicitia, Ignis Scientia, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Ravus Nox Fleuret, Nyx Ulric, Ardyn Izunia or Prompto Argentum Dissidia (012 included): Kain Highwind, Squall Leonhart, Warrior of Light, Laguna Loire, Tidus, Vaan, Cecil Harvey or Firion

•Harvest Moon

More Friends of Mineral Town: Doctor

DS Cute: Marlin or Skye

Tale of Two Towns: Cam, Hiro, Dirk, Mikael

A New Beginning: Soseki or Allen

Story of Seasons: Klaus, Kamil, Raeger or Nadi

Story of Seasons (Trio of Towns): Ludus, Ford, or Hinata

•Kingdom Hearts

Birth by Sleep: Terra, *Vanitas or *Ventus (only in the situation of a love triangle)

Kingdom Hearts: Riku, Leon or Sora

358/2 Days: Riku, Roxas, Saix or Axel

Chain of Memories: Marluxia, Axel, Zexion, Riku or Sora

Kingdom Hearts II: Riku, Roxas, Saix, Axel, Sora, Demyx, Leon or Xemnas

Dream Drop Distance: Riku, Sora, Neku or Beat

•Mystic Messenger

*Warning, I’m new to this series, I just started to play.

*I’d actually like some kind of AU for this.

Zen, Jumin Han, open to others.

•Persona 3

Akihiko Sanada, Shinjiro Aragaki or Theodore

•Pokemon

Red, Blue, Yellow (FireRed and LeafGreen): Red or Blue Gold, Silver, Crystal (HeartGold and SoulSilver): Morty, Silver, Lance, Falkner, Red, Blue or Ethan Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire): Steven Stone,Wally or Brawly Black and White (Black2 and White2): N, Cheren, Hugh or Grimsley X and Y: Professor Sycamore, Lysandre or Siebold Sun and Moon: Grimsley, Red, Blue, Gladion, Guzma or Kukui Anime: James, Ash, Gary, Butch or N Origins: Red or Green (Blue)

final notes

★Respect my limits and I'll respect yours.

★This list will be updated when I see fit

★ If it’s not on my list, don’t ask me about it, no offence but you’re wasting my time and yours.

★Love interests are written in order of preference. If there is only one listed then that's the only one and I won't change it.

★Listed above are the fandoms I would be interested in writing for, with them are characters who I wished played against my OC. In return, I will play a character opposite your own OC.

★Please try to have at least two choices when contacting me. I will be thrilled if you have more than that.

★Seriously, don't contact me if you're going to ditch. I'm tired of having someone contact me, I get excited and then get dropped. It's even worse when I write a starter or reply that goes unanswered. If you haven't heard from me in two to three weeks time send a follow-up message. I cannot stress this enough. Odds are I didn't receive your message, my own message has gone astray or something simply came up. Either way, I will always get replies out to my partners.

★ DO. NOT. HARASS. ME. Spamming won’t make me respond faster, threatening to ditch the roleplay because I haven’t responded won’t make me respond faster. This will just turn me off from the whole thing altogether and I WILL end contact one way or another. I don’t mind a light nudge or friendly ask, but anything else won’t be accepted. I’m tired of it.

★Be prepared to plot.

★Split roleplays are an option

★Double roleplays are an option

★Plot Candies: Fandoms, Canon, Real world meets the Fandom world(aka: Characters from a fandom transported to the real world or vice versa), Action, Adventure, Superhero fiction, Crime, Fantasy, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Epic/High Fantasy, Magical Girl, Alternate Universe, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Slice of Life, Thriller, Psychological, Drama, Mythology, Fiction, Tragedy, Time Travel, What-If (prompts),Married-Life, Pregnancy, Family, Crossovers, Reverse Harem,

★ Upon contacting me please make sure to do the following. First, I believe that first impressions matter and therefore would appreciate if you could please introduce yourself to me. I find when people contact me with simply “Want to RP” or “RP?” to be very off-putting and therefore leave me with no desire to return the message. Second, please include the following information: what you’re interested in writing for, any limits that you may or may not have (this one is important because I know everyone is different) and what type of roleplay you’re interested doing. Lastly, it would be nice if you could include any ideas you may have. If you don't have any that's okay, if you do don't be shy to share. Thanks. ❤

★You may contact through the following mediums:

Email: [email protected]

Skype: x_keyblade.princess_x

Kik: Sailor.Nyx

Discord: Stray Cat #6885

Tumblr: miss-mischievous-minx.tumblr.com

#indie rp #indie roleplay #independent roleplay #oc rp #multiple paragraph #para #long term #email #messenger #tumblr #smut rp #submission

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another-rogues-paradise · 7 years ago

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Legends of Tomorrow 3x01 - Aruba-Con - Thoughts

This is an entirely separate analysis than what I posted previously, as that one was based more on initial viewing and reacting without the time for more critical thought.

I’ll probably make a post later about my thoughts and speculations on this season going forward, because I have lots of opinions and predictions.

Spoilers below.

Honestly, I kinda just wanna say this to get it off my chest - I had no expectations for this season. Sure, the trailer got me pumped, but I figured it’d be about the same quality we’d come to expect by the time this season premiered. I mean, season two looked extremely promising and even had lots of strong moments and good concepts that just weren’t executed well. As far as this premiere concerning that, I wasn’t wrong.

It started off where last season left off, and we learned Rip, while to the Legend’s and our perspective, had only just left them, he had actually been gone for five years establishing the time bureau. And also, apparently becoming a bit of a dick. Okay, a HUGE dick. What the hell, actually about that? There’s got to be an explanation for his utter character assassination. Surely. He’s always been a lovable asshole. Not this “by-the-books,” pencil-pushing asshole. Which, yes, to be fair, he’s been to a certain degree. But not /this./

And he spends lots of time this episode blaming the Legends (and teaching this to his fucking bureau) for breaking time, even though HE IS HONEST TO FUCKING GOODNESS JUST AS RESPONSIBLE. Did I fucking sleep through the finale, or did he pretty much agree to risk breaking time? Yes? I feel like this is either them making Rip shift the blame or them being shitty writers. At this point, I CANNOT FUCKING TELL. But it still seems like shit writing, and it’s only the first episode. I feel bad for Rip’s fans at the moment, and I sincerely hope this is temporary, otherwise...*sigh

Sara in retail WAS fun. Six months in, you could see pre-shipwreck Sara in the way she was speaking. I’ve always preferred her appearances on Arrow as opposed to Legends, because I’ve always felt like something got lost in translation when she was brought over to LoT. I don’t really have any additional comments about her, but I did like that her feelings about working in retail was relatable to a lot of people. Except in her case, she could literally do the things she was imagining. Which was hilarious.

Point to note, as it occurred to me - considering Kid Flash’s appearance, I believe we are actually looking at the original (Flashpoint) timeline everyone is currently living in. Wally being there instead of Barry suggested to me that Barry is still gone, which is happening in the original timeline they are from. Considering that, what with the time bureau having been at work correcting anachronisms, I’m guessing that their setting history back properly for the most part has made it so that it doesn’t affect the other two Arrowverse shows for convenience. I was wondering how they’d do this and be able to have the crossover this year if they were in an alternate timeline they screwed up

Ray’s appearance wasn’t exactly as fun as Sara’s but it was funny, but it obviously had more plot significance with the dating app and frat boys during Caesar’s capture later in the episode. Ray’s appearance was probably the saddest/most pathetic of the three. He lost everything when he died, his company, and very likely his fortune.

God, Martin, Martin...oh Martin. As many of you are keenly aware by now, Victor Garber is exiting the show, very likely during the crossover as there is a funeral currently being filmed as he’s done with the Arrowverse and he’s set to do Hello, Dolly! in January. Stein is one of my favorite characters and so this is upsetting, and it’s kind of shitty they’ve chosen to have his exit during the crossover. This episode has some not so subtle foreshadowing on something terrible happening to Stein. First, we find out Lily is pregnant. Stein seems to be so happy and really settling in to being a father and now soon a grandfather. Then Jax comes stumbling into his door, having an existential crisis (because honestly, us 20-somethings have been there) having dropped out of school and wanting to actually be an engineer again instead of just studying to be one. Then comes the Waverider, and Stein just doesn’t look all too happy, especially when he’s back on board.

The roles here have reversed. Initially, it was Stein that was so enthusiastic about traveling and doing new things that he literally drugged Jax and kidnapped him so he could have his adventures (and I could sit here and talk all day about how shitty that is but that’s another discussion) on a real time ship. Now, Jax is the one that is wanting all the adventure as Firestorm and kind of guilting him about it “I’ve got my whole life ahead of me,” but Stein is now completely comfortable with his life with his daughter and his wife. He’s just not at the same place he was when he first boarded the Waverider. And quite frankly, I’m guessing Victor has been planning on leaving for a while because since last season they’ve been hinting that something would happen to him. Of course, Stein eventually, against his better judgement, agrees to continue to travel with his old team. To say I didn’t cry, well, I’d be lying. Like, y’all had to have Lily pregnant, didn’t you? And Stein happy? I want to fucking scream.

Mick, oh, Mick. Okay, first thing - okay, sometimes, I get really pissed off with these writers at making Mick the butt of their jokes. The STD joke was a bit much. I’m sorry, but I can’t believe Mick would be so careless as to not just once but on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS while in Aruba need treatment for STD’s. I’m pretty damn sure he’s smarter than this. They make him out to be this nasty, dumb blockhead and I’m honestly...getting really tired of it. He deserves better than this bullshit. There were some good moments in this episode - I liked his taking initiative when he realized it was really Julius Caesar he was talking to and gathered the Legends. I also liked how unlike the rest of the team, he casually walked into the Waverider and took charge. That was 100% a Mick move. Also, them still subtly alluding to the fact he still cares about the Legends and deciding to stay with them. And him stealing those items...that’s exactly why I love him. And from Rip, of all people! Though he absolutely deserves it.

It seems as though the Time Bureau is going to be a huge fucking issue this season, and, I’m going to call it, they’re going to turn out to be not that much different than the Time Masters. You watch. And I’m wondering if Rip himself is going to realize what he created. While I do think the Legends deserve some of the shit they’re getting because, let’s be honest, they are the absolute WORST at what they’re supposed to be doing. I also think some of it is undeserved. And it almost seems appropriate to me that they are the nuclear option to whatever big threat is coming (I missed the name) but I’m assuming it has to do with magic.

I’ve made a post previously about my thoughts on Grodd and Captain Cold returning (and others), and I’m going to include that in my season post. Basically, we’re getting two Snarts - I’m still quite sure one is Citizen Cold. I think this one will be during the Crossover. The other one, from the trailer? I don’t fucking know. I just want fucking Oculus!Snart back god fucking dammit. Like. Is that so hard to ask?

#Legends of Tomorrow #lot 3x01 #spoilers #Arrowverse #DC #discussion

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a-woman-apart · 7 years ago

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Desperation

I wish that I had a goal in writing this. I should probably be in bed, since I get to bed so late every night and it really affects my ability to get up in the morning. The problem is that I feel somewhat disturbed underneath my haze of tiredness, and I want to get it out of my system before I try to go to sleep.

Today I slept until noon, so I really didn’t get up and get going until pretty late. Ideally I would go to sleep early and wake up early, as opposed to sleeping late and waking up very late, but that’s just one of the things that I’m bad about. I read about delayed sleep phase syndrome, and while I am not going to self-diagnose, I think that I would not be surprised if I had at least a mild form of that. If I don’t set any alarms or establish a strict bedtime, my natural sleep cycle has me waking up around 11am on average, and falling asleep at 1am or later. It is something that I have modified before, however, when responsibilities require me to do so. Changes have never been permanent, though.

Apart from the late start, the day actually went pretty well. I was able to work on the song that I would be singing for the recital, and I went out for a few hours and shopped for things for my sister-in-law’s baby shower. Fortunately, I was able to get everything that I needed before the traffic really got too bad (even though I feel like I pretty much got stopped at every traffic light that there was). When I got home, I had a pretty low-key evening. I just finished a season of an anime that I had been watching. I did end up also watching some politically-themed and anti-capitalist videos on YouTube, but I don’t think that I “broke my brain” with “serious stuff.”

That being said, it is pretty depressing to think that the democratic system that we live under in this country really isn’t free and fair for everyone. Sometimes the alternatives aren’t very appealing either, but I know that something has to be done. I consider myself a socialist, in that I believe in more government regulation on corporations and that the government should care for the basic needs of its citizens. I will also admit that confronting the flaws in our government system is extremely daunting and overwhelming, and very often I complain without taking direct action against them. I was taught from an early age that capitalism was the best and most moral system that there was. Now I can see that in many ways that is wrong, but I couldn’t just quit my job and stop working. I’m forced to participate for my own survival, even if I don’t agree.

The lie that is pedaled in capitalist propaganda is that there are equal opportunities for everyone, and that as long as someone works hard they will gradually ascend to the top. The problem with this is that this also means that there is always going to be a hierarchy, with someone at the very top and other people below them. This also fails to take into account inequalities between people across geographical and racial divides, and the persistence of class in the capitalist system. It is often not the hardest working person who prevails, otherwise there would be no one who had to work two or three jobs and still struggle to make ends meet for them and their families. Also, while it is true that obtaining a good education helps to break the cycle of poverty, education is not freely available to all people in the U.S. and the ability to get a good education is still based upon those same geographical and class factors. In other words, very often the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, because the rich are in a position to obtain better education for themselves and their offspring, as well as already having more capital to invest into economic ventures. Additionally, those who are already better off financially can afford medical treatment that can give them increased ability to remain a part of the workforce.

Until we somehow put everyone on a level playing field by making education and healthcare accessible to everyone, we do not have a right to smugly criticize someone who is running into difficulty financially. The whole idea that someone is only as valuable as the work that they can put out is not something that I think that we want to propagate. No one should have to live on the streets, and no one should have to die of treatable illnesses because they cannot afford to be treated. No child should go hungry in this country, and every child deserves access to a good education. Without regulation, corporations would raise the prices of goods to whatever they desired, while at the same time lowering the wages of the people that work for them. It’s happened before, and it could easily happen again without government interference.

Maybe that is part of what bothers me on a daily basis. I have all of these new ideas taking up space in my head. A lot of the things that I once believed in are being challenged. I know that in the end it is something that is good, and that it is much better to be informed about things than not. For example, right now I am really hesitant about giving to charities that say they are helping people, because some “charities” have been shown to participate in unethical practices (I’m looking at you, Susan G. Komen and Salvation Army). Even charities that may have every intention to help, like charities for children in third world nations, sometimes destabilize the economies of those countries by flooding the economy with foreign goods. Sometimes someone panhandling on the side of the road is a crook. Ultimately, this doesn’t stop me from giving because it’s in my heart to help people, but I want to make sure that the help that I am offering isn’t causing harm instead.

Then there’s the ever-present matter of religion. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Christianity has helped people, but it has also hurt a lot of people as well, especially with regards to sexuality. Also, the Christian teaching that wives are to be submissive to their husbands has been used by many men to justify horrific abuse and subjugation of their wives. The shame that people have regarding gender and sexuality in some Evangelical Christian circles is immense, to the point where people are unable to talk about their fears and concerns. LGBTQ+ people are unwelcome in church. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, addiction to pornography is rampant because individual sexuality is so repressed. It has actually become so prevalent that it is rising to the surface and there are many ministries and groups within the church for men dealing with pornography addiction and sexual deviance.

Christianity and science often butt heads, as well. Evangelical Christianity has very much been the enemy of the theory of evolution. Also, many Evangelicals are proponents of conversion therapy or some sort of spiritual “deliverance” for LGBT+ people, whereas science shows that sexuality is hard-wired into the brain. You cannot “cure” homosexuality through therapy or rituals. Christianity in general, including- if not especially- the Catholic Church has historically stood against scientific progress and technology.

God hasn’t personally failed me. If I am being honest, if I look at my life it actually seems like I have been experiencing divine protection over the years. Things have always fallen into place for me, even though I have my struggles. Maybe I do have the option to be angry at God that I have schizoaffective/bipolar disorder, or that I had such a miserable childhood, but I am not. My problem with the God of Christianity lies in the fact that I am supposed to believe that despite his infinite power, the only way that he could forgive my sins was to horrifically torture and kill his only son. This also requires me to believe that each human being is born in sin in the first place, that somehow things that you do- or in this case, didn’t do- somehow stain your soul beyond all hope of redemption. I am also expected to believe that this redemption was held back for thousands of years, all so that humanity could “learn its lesson” and “know how much they needed Christ.” I am also expected to believe that after this horrific death, Jesus was raised back to life and ascended in physical form to sit at the right hand of said all-powerful God in heaven. I am supposed to believe that unless I believe all of this I am going to go to a place that no one has any evidence of, a place of “utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth”, a place of fire where people will burn forever.

Finally, I am supposed to believe that despite 2000 years of being absent, Jesus will one day finally return in all of his glory and smite the wicked, killing so many unbelievers that “the blood reaches to the horse’s bridle”. Never mind that this is an action that seems in opposition to his previous character. The great part is that there are even more difficult things to believe than that, like stars falling from the sky, and a seven-headed dragon arising from the sea.

I don’t care if you say that most of it is allegorical. In my opinion, the things that I mainly have problems with are the basic tenants and concepts of the Christian faith. There is no way for me to get back to it, because the very basic concept of sin and redemption is one that is lost on me. I just don’t believe it anymore, pure and simple. I have not fully given up on the idea of God, however, and I still believe in miracles. I can’t explain why it seems like people get answers to prayer, but I know that for everyone who gets their answer, there are others to whom the heavens are silent. Either God plays favorites, he/she/it doesn’t have ultimate power, or there’s no God really listening and breakthroughs are coincidental.

I’m not going to lie and say that it’s easy, but it’s not. Sometimes I “want” to believe. It would certainly make things with my family so much easier. It would also give me comfort to think that I was specially created and that God has a special plan just for me. Whenever I think this, though, I just think of the incredible human suffering that exists in this world, suffering that cannot be explained away if God is both all-merciful and all-powerful. I think of how unlikely it is that the miracles in the Bible really happened, when there is no parallel for them today. Ross Blocher from the “Oh No Ross and Carrie” podcast described a “veil of time” that people create by thinking that fantastical things are more likely to have happened if they occurred a long time ago.

So yeah, there are a lot of heavy thoughts in the back of my mind at any given moment. Maybe getting older has helped me to put some things into perspective. I know I have a fairly high dose of naivete, but not when it comes to things like this. I think that people are generally good, but I do not think that it is religion that makes them so. My hope is that I can continue to be fortunate enough to see mainly the good side of humanity and experience mainly good things. I also hope that I will one day be able to use my knowledge of the dark side of things to help me stay on the path of good.

Okay, that’s it for my late-night rant.

#late night ramblings #deconversion #ex-christian #ex-evangelical #capitalism #socialism #privilege #veil of time #bipolar depression #delayed sleep phase syndrome #delayed sleep phase #late nights #late mornings #tired as hell #charities #bad charities

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hawksmoor17 · 8 years ago

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Physically Impossible Scenes in S4: Flashbacks + POV Changes

Guess who’s ascended to a whole new layer of confusion? It’s me.

At first I was absolutely convinced of EMP due to the fact that most of season four appears to be partially/wholly constructed. However, some scenes are impossible. Which makes me wonder if we are witnessing a collaborative retelling of events the perspectives of Sherlock, John, and Mycroft. An alibi. Or perhaps a version of John’s blog. Also, maybe there are drugs involved. It’s all very strange.

NOTE: I try to provide explanations for these scenes, however, the main thing is having them all laid out in a list. Whenever I’m coming up with theories these are always the moments I end up coming back to.

Additionally, an incredible amount of of dialogue, settings, characters, and plot lines within season four are all recycled from previous series. To keep track, downloadable PDF flowcharts with these interconnected memories can be found here along with an editable file to add relevant missing parallels.

1) Sherlock has a flashback in TST ...

... to John throwing the AGRA data stick in the fire at Christmas — an event he was never present for because he wasn’t even in the room; he was outside eating mince pies with Wiggins (or something.)

(Left: HLV. Right: Sherlock’s TST flashback).

Explanation 1: Sherlock constructed the Holmes family Christmas scene where John forgives Mary in his mind palace as an alternate reality/test scenario. Explanation 2: John and Sherlock have constructed this memory together as part of an alibi. Explanation 3: Although The Six Thatchers seems deeply rooted in Sherlock’s POV, it’s actually filtered through John’s. Explanation 4: Mary plants this scene in Sherlock’s memory through use of HOUND/TD-12. Explanation 5: ???

Considering the other weird POV scenes in S4/HLV I’m still not sure where I stand on this. But within TST when Sherlock has this flashback the lighting flickers exactly like it does when Mary is in Sherlock’s hospital room and says:

“You don’t tell John. Look at me and tell me you’re not going to tell him.”

Which leads me to believe that Explanation 4 may be correct and Mary has convinced Sherlock that John forgives her through drugging him with "TD-12″/a derivative of HOUND that renders the recipient extremely suggestible.

2) Sherlock has a flashback in TLD ...

... after seeing Faith!Eurus, to John walking off into the night with his cane — an event he was never present for because he was off dumpster diving for the pink suitcase. This scene is odd because John is seen from behind, from an outsider’s POV. In the next shot John gets the phone-booth call from Mycroft, who has been watching him through security cameras.

(Left: Mycroft watching John in ASiP. Right: Sherlock’s TLD flashback)

Explanation 1: This scene is from John’s POV and he’s imagining how he used to be before Sherlock from an outside perspective. In a flashback from Sherlock’s perspective. (?) Explanation 2: TLD has been filtered through Mycroft’s perspective as well and he’s working collaboratively to devise an alibi for John and Sherlock. Explanation 3: Sherlock had a flashback to something he didn’t see because it represent’s John in ASiP generally and it isn’t supposed to matter about where the shot is from itself. Explanation 4: Sherlock was secretly watching John leave somehow, hiding in an alleyway. Explanation 5: Season 4 is John’s blog/Sherlock collaborating with John in writing the blog. Explanation 6: ???

At the moment I’m quite interested in Explanation 2, just because it has relevant metaphorical implications considering how Mycroft represents the writers/writers of Holmes adaptations in general.

But to be honest, at this point I’m not sure how lenient this show is with it’s logic/suspension of belief. Explanation 3 does seem possible. It could be that the more simple answer is correct and that this really is Sherlock’s flashback.

Especially considering the fact that there aren’t that many good shots of John walking alone with the cane in ASiP that would fit the tone of this scene. This is a moment in which John feels isolated/alone, so it could just be representational.

Explanation 5 is also pretty interesting, considering how we haven’t seen the blog updating this season while it’s had a lot of attention drawn to it. It could be that the show has become the blog or some other variation of this.

3) “He’s better than a great man ...”

In one of the final scenes of TFP Lestrade says that Sherlock isn’t merely a great man, “he’s a good one”, which references what Lestrade told John in ASiP when they first met. A conversation Sherlock wasn’t present for. He was in the cab with Jefferson Hope.

(Left: ASiP scene with only John present. Right: TFP scene)

Explanation 1: TFP is Sherlock’s recurring dream from TST and/or he is unconscious/in a coma after overdosing. Lestrade/John says this at his bedside, the real-world dialogue bleeding into his dream. Explanation 2: Sherlock and John are collaborating by formulating an alibi which involves explaining Sherlock’s dream and they add this line in. (?) Explanation 3: TFP is from John’s perspective and Sherlock explained to him that Moriarty’s “final problem” was to kill him. Also the TAB waterfall scene was beamed into his brain somehow. (?) Explanation 4: It’s in-universe fanfiction/a movie/a TV series about Sherlock and John’s lives. Explanation 5: Sherlock’s dream is being recounted on the blog for whatever reason. Explanation 6: Sherlock and John are coming up with a ridiculous explanation of events on the blog as part of an alibi, because they think the mainstream audience will think it’s the truth. Explanation 7: ???

4) “That wasn’t the final problem.”

In TFP Moriarty introduces the episode with: “Hi! I’m Jim Moriarty. Welcome to the Final Problem!” John has never heard Moriarty say the phrase “the final problem” before. Only Sherlock hears this multiple times during Reichenbach — once at 221B over tea, again in the story of Sir Boast-A-Lot, and again on the rooftop of St Bart’s.

Considering TFP as primarily existing rooted within Sherlock’s POV, the whole episode seems very much like a lead in to the “Inmost Cave” portion of Archplot Story Structure in which the protagonist goes through the most emotional growth/has revelations about who they and how their flaws are influencing their choices.

(Left: TRF with only Sherlock present. Right: TFP)

“Deep water, Sherlock, all your life, in your dreams. Deep waters ...”

While Sherlock has flashbacks to his “past” we get a shot of the waterfall scene from TAB. If TFP were John’s dream, he would be unable to form a perfect visual recreation of a scene that occurred within Sherlock’s mind palace.

However, within TFP we also get these:

(Left: MHR, only John and Lestrade present. Right: TFP)

(Left: ASiP, only Sherlock. Right: ASiP, only John) (Both are shown during Mary’s final TFP speech)

(See #3) and additionally: Explanation 1: TFP is from Sherlock’s perspective and the ending references to ASiP and MHR are metaphorical/parallels. Explanation 2: TFP is from Sherlock’s perspective and he is telling it to John / it is being retold by John somewhere like the blog. Explanation 3: TFP is a fan-theory. Like Anderson’s in TEH or a movie/tv series/book/fanfic.

5) TAB is definitely from Sherlock’s POV ...

... because, again, narratively it wouldn’t make much sense any other way. A concrete link is that Moriarty tells Sherlock “Because it's not the fall that kills you, Sherlock. Of all people, you should know that. It's not the fall. It's never the fall. It's the landing” in reference to "I want to solve problems... our problem. The Final Problem. It's gonna start very soon, Sherlock... the Fall. But don't worry: falling's just like flying, except there's a more permanent destination” from TRF as well as “I-O-U a fall” — conversations John was not present for.

(Left: TRF. Right: TAB)

6) Gunshot flashbacks.

Within TLD both Sherlock and John have flashbacks to gunshots that look exactly the same. Which makes me wonder what the exact logic of this show is. Can two characters have the same memory of a gun going off? We already know that within this episode Sherlock has a flashback to something it’s likely that only Mycroft has seen — so perhaps these gunshots are also metaphorical, or part of a retelling of events by Mycroft/John/Sherlock?

Gun #1: Norbury’s gun. (Or Mary’s. They’re the same model.) Gun #2: Likely John’s gun. Appears after “Taking your own life” speech to Faith!Eurus.

The fact that when Sherlock is on the bridge with hallucination!Faith!Eurus, the shot of the smoking gun is superimposed over him means that Sherlock is the one who got shot at in this memory.

This matches up with the flashback. Ungloved, right handed, with a Walther PPK without a silencer. (As opposed to gloved, left handed, with a silenced Walther PPK like Mary in CAM tower.)

But TST is presented so it seems like John did not see Norbury’s gun go off at the aquarium.

Therefore, either: a) John was there to see the gun go off and he, Mycroft, and possibly Sherlock are crafting an alibi. b) The whole of TLD is from Sherlock’s perspective, including John thinking about the smoking gun, and he subconsciously knows that John was present to see it be fired in TST but his memory manipulated through drugs. c) The whole of TLD is from Sherlock’s perspective, and he imagines John dreaming about the gun going off metaphorically. d) John’s dreaming of the smoking gun is from his POV and the shot is completely metaphorical.

Summary of Main Points:

- Sherlock has a flashback in TST to Christmas HLV. Therefore the burning AGRA data stick scene is fabricated, the flashback is metaphorical, or TST has been filtered through John’s POV.

- The lighting in Sherock’s TST flashback matches the lighting when Mary snuck into Sherlock’s hospital room in HLV. (Possibly indicating that Mary has drugged Sherlock with HOUND/TD-12 at least once to manipulate his memories.)

- Sherlock has a flashback in TLD to John with his cane. This could be metaphorical, an indicator that TLD is filtered through Mycroft’s POV as part of an alibi, or an indicator that TLD is filtered through John’s POV.

- John and Sherlock both have the same flashbacks to gunshots. This could be metaphorical, or an indicator that TLD is filtered through multiple POVs. - TAB is definitely from Sherlock’s POV. (Thank God for this one concrete episode.)

- TFP has reference to TAB, meaning it has to be primarily based in Sherlock’s POV. There are dialogue references back to ASiP, meaning that either Sherlock is unconscious and in a coma with Lestrade’s words filtering in, or that TFP is breaking the fourth wall and is an in-universe fanfic/book/movie that Sherlock has somehow influenced along with John — or TFP is a collaboration between Sherlock and John on the blog.

@worriesconstantly @jenna221b @my-relaxation @drugsbust @the-7-percent-solution @inevitably-johnlocked @ti-ori-se @toxicsemicolon @teapotsubtext @misanthropic-acedia

#sherlock meta #tjlc #tfhc #i feel like that kid in whiplash who dies 4 his art

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