#and also consequently about as awesome in the original sense for both of them lol probably good they they take it slow

[vaguely-concerned]

ohhhhhhhohohoho taash half-accusingly telling rook 'what would you know? you act like you haven't lost anyone' is soooo good and hits so perfectly for rye in particular (who incidentally was showing his true credentials as varric's spiritual son in giving good advice he has never, ever, not once in his life, actually followed himself. and probably never will! (also the only option at that point in the convo that doesn't give you approval interestingly. taash rightfully doesn't quite buy what rook's selling there lol.) of course it's okay for you to be sad and feel abandoned because your parent figure is gone even though she never meant to leave you. not me though. obviously. that's just going to have to be an untended open grave of a wound in my heart forever there's nothing for it). it's such a good hint as to how odd rook's reaction to varric's death must seem to the rest of the team even as they eggshell tiptoe walk around it. of course no one wants to be the first person to broach the subject with rook. would YOU want to be the first person to break through that weird serene lack of reaction and find out what's hiding beneath it??? because none of the potential answers to that have the outlook of being entirely comfortable. (the real answer being, of course, 'oh shit blood magic empowered denial stage!!!'. which is also not great but would have been good to know sooner probably lol)

in general I LOVE the relationship I've been able to set up and keep developing between these two. there's such a solid throughline that there is so much affection in this relationship... but taash consistently picks up on rye's bullshit (as much about what he tells himself and thinks about himself as anything else, I don't think he means to be deceptive necessarily he's just out of touch with a lot internally), on the lack of complete authenticity that's there however well-meaning. and (probably wisely) keeps that last little bit of distrust and distance because of it. no one in the world could want to help them more earnestly than rook, and his protectiveness and tenderness for them is genuine and from the core. but beneath it all rye is not in a place with himself to be what they really need because at the end of the day and in many ways they're probably already further along in the quest to be true to themselves without apology or obfuscation than he is. and also he's going to get their gf killed inadvertently in a hot second so like. layers. layers of stuff and resentments and broken promises never quite made and reflections never quite faced going on here despite everyone's best intentions every step of the way lmao (which could be the subtitle of this game in many ways so that works out excellently thematically). 'I feel like I'm always letting you down and I'm so sorry' cycle keeps grinding on.

at the same time taash is working through ways to reconcile with and find ways to live with their mother and the memory of her in all her shortcomings because they love her and she means so much to them that they don't want to let it go completely, 'I just have to find a way to hold you that doesn't hurt me so much even if that means I can't clutch you as closely as I might have wanted once'... they're having to do some of the same process with rook. forgiving someone for what they couldn't be for you and finding other ways to get what you need -- not because this person ever meant to let you down, but because they simply don't have the capacity for whatever reason not to, a bit. there's going to be an oh how the turntables moment at some point down the line where taash rounds on rook to bark 'hey asshole forgive yourself already. you can't be everything to everyone and no one's asking you to be but you. and if anyone is asking you to be that they're dicks because that's unfair. stop beating yourself up I don't like having to watch my friends be bullied.' and rye will have to lie awake staring at the ceiling for a couple of nights after that probably. but maybe there's some hope he'll finally listen.

(I think the only person who gets rye completely unfiltered is lucanis by the end. which is not at all reflecting on the rest of the crew -- RYE rarely gets rye completely unfiltered all of those relationships are still very important no matter what lol. but I think lucanis has both the eyes to see through to and understand the truth and the unflinching 'I said all in and I meant all in' nature to accept what he sees without hesitation or quibble when he does, which makes rye finally let the walls come down after the fade jail when everything is in shambles inside. the full mutual People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'You're safe with me'—that's intimacy and so on and so forth deal. which basically is what that big romance scene is about and why it's. everything.)

[noodlepals]

Waaaah sorry I just saw Inside Out 2 and I just HAVE to talk about it, like Anxiety??? Omg her and Envy both my new fav Pixar antagonists.

Anyways Spoilers!

Sorry I know I don't normally write reviews, but for real I really loved how the new emotions were introduced and how they played off each other, especially Envy and Anxiety they gave off an almost sibling vibe with Anxiety unknowingly steering her in the wrong direction and Envy vying for approval. Also adored Embarrassment and how subtle his connection to Sadness was played in the beginning so it made sense for him to side with her and the og emotions later. And Ennui getting nervous that one time in the movie was so funny.

I will say to me the ending wasn't quite as impactful as the first movie, partially because for as much Riley's spiral is emphasized at camp it didn't feel like the stakes of her actions really came all that close to the original. Like one of the important crucial moments from the original is when Riley literally steals from her mom's purse. It's a major action that shows how bad it's getting. And while breaking into the coach's office was obviously also bad here, that wasn't like the big thing they emphasized, instead it was Riley dying her hair lol. I think the movie was at it's best towards the middle and rising action. Like Joy sticking up to Anxiety in imagination land, absolutely phenomenal, friggin loved it.

But yeah weirdly enough I almost think I enjoyed Inside Out 2 more than the original, I think the first movie has a more substantial message and a way better finale, but I'll admit I kinda always have enjoyed just watching the emotions working in Riley's mind and not as much them venturing outside head quarters so I was happy to just see more of that in this one.

But yeah Anxiety man, easily my favorite part of the movie. Her VA was awesome and I love how she literally just did a hostile takeover. Like whoops. I do kinda wish she had just a bit more like, consequences for the whole like trying to suppress Joy and Co, but I get that's not what they were going for with her character. It's very clear Anxiety meant well from the start and in a lot of ways she's a reflection of what Joy could've become had she not learned to appreciate ALL of Riley's emotions.

Also yes the emotions having their own lil rooms was ABSOLUTELY adorable. Bro they should shown the new emotions in their new rooms at the end I would've bawled 😭.

[hirazuki]

Ooo I'm curious about your hot takes on the Inuyasha reboot after reading your tags 👀

Ahaha, where to start XD Idk if they are hot takes, but here are my thoughts in bullet point form for coherency, I couldn’t figure out how else to organize them. Under a cut, as usual, because it got lengthy... as usual :D

We are 13 episodes in, and I still have no idea wtf is going on or what the series is actually about. And yes, I’m aware that we didn’t know of Naraku’s existence or of the overarching plot until at least episode 16 of that series either and Inuyasha was still very episodic in nature at that early point too, but here’s the thing: Inuyasha did not build upon a pre-existing series. For better or for worse, Yashahime has certain expectations to live up to that the original anime didn’t, by virtue of its being a sequel. Unfair? Maybe, but tough; that’s what happens when you make a sequel. Additionally, despite us not knowing The Main Plot™ of Inuyasha until later, the basic framework for it was laid out clearly by... episode 2? I think? Find and collect the Shikon Jewel shards. Boom, done. Were there distractions or fillers? Sure, but you never got the sense that the characters simply up and forgot about the shards. Even in fillers, the shards often made some kind of appearance. With Yashahime, there’s like three potential storylines going on: 1. The most obvious: most of our main cast from the OG is missing; where are they? Apparently no one in-story cares! :D Inuyasha, who’s that lol. I’m all for a sequel focusing on the new generation with cameos of the old crew; after all, they already had their own series. But this is like... no one cares about them? No one talks about them? And the more characters go about not mentioning them, the stronger their absence is felt. Like, for instance, Kaede knows Moroha is InuKag’s daughter. Moroha grew up on her own, doesn’t know her parents. Kaede doesn’t mention them to Moroha, doesn’t even spare a passing thought about them for the audience’s benefit, Moroha doesn’t ask. Kagome’s family in the present day meet Moroha, recognize her as Kagome’s daughter and... say nothing??? Souta shows Towa Kagome and Inuyasha’s old photos, but doesn’t say a word to Moroha?! Like. It makes no sense. By people not even acknowledging their existence, it makes the fact that they are nowhere to be found even weirder. Also the new gen girls don’t care about their parents or finding out who they were/are... like, okay, it would maybe be in character for one or two of them, but all three don’t give a fuck??? 2. Kirinmaru/the rainbow pearls: Idk how familiar you are with the story, but similar deal with Naraku and the shards here. Kirinmaru is being set up as the villain, still a mysterious figure; our new gen trio is supposed to collect the rainbow pearls that... some of his henchmen have? Or he is after them? Or is that Riku? Unclear. ANYWAY the new gen girls often forget all about the pearls’ existence :D 3. Setsuna’s memories: Setsuna’s dreams have been stolen by the dream butterfly and they need to get them back, because without her dreams she has no memories and is unable to sleep. Cool! Finally a solid, easy-to-follow plot line! Except wait! Towa, who supposedly made it her goal to get Setsuna’s sleep back, forgets all about it! All the time! Like, none of them make an effort to look into this other than being like “oh yeah, know anything about the dream butterfly?” to random folks every now and then. The Inugang back in the day was putting some grad school level research towards their goals, just saying. It just feels like everything’s all wishy-washy and there’s nothing really solid tying the series together. People just remember shit exists when it’s convenient.

.

Character development is MIA. I’m not expecting ground-breaking char dev in 13 episodes (though I do know 12 episode series that were phenomenal in that regard), but like... I do expect the series to focus on building the dynamics between the main three characters. So far, the series is more focused on teasing the audience with glimpses and promises of the OG cast instead. The creators are using nostalgia and bait (esp of a certain pairing) to drive interest in the series, rather than developing the new characters as fully-fledged characters for their own sakes. 

.

Moroha is was the only thing I actually liked about the series. She is a little spitfire and you can somehow instantly see both Inuyasha and Kagome in her, while she also remains very uniquely herself; I have never seen such a successfully developed main pairing child in any series. She featured quite prominently in the first few episodes -- and unlike both her parents, she’s got a great memory and knowledge of lore -- where she balanced funny moments with badass fighting moments and being the token supernatural encyclopedia. It was great! And then... they’ve like... forgotten her. She’s been left behind so many times by the twins. She’s the butt of every joke. She’s become the type of comic relief that’s, well, insulting. More like a buffoon than anything else. And it’s basically all for the sake of giving the floor to Towa :/

.

Setsuna is okay. Not offensive, but unremarkable. She’s got her dad’s personality but like way toned down due to her different growing up circumstances, which is nice, but like... I feel she isn’t given any room to grow or breathe or anything. She’s also basically there as a device to enhance Towa’s development.

.

Towa... oy. I tried to like her, I really did, but she just doesn’t work for me. They set her up having a very Kurosaki Ichigo type deal with beating up bullies and getting into trouble at school and shit -- I’m fine with that. That’s cool. Esp if it’s linked to not feeling like she fits in bc she’s a hanyou? Awesome. Except once she travels back in time to the feudal era it’s all “Oh killing is bad you shouldn’t kill people” and “even though they attacked me I can’t possibly hurt them” and “you need to empathize and talk things out” and “friendship is magic” and shit. It feels like she had a personality transplant, it literally makes no sense. Her design is totally nonsensical too -- out of everyone at her school, she’s the only one dressed in a bright white suit? Do protags not wear the school uniform? Someone should tell Kagome lmao. She’s a pro at hand to hand, and she can absorb demons’ powers and fling them back at them like a personified Tessaiga, and she has a lightsaber sword, and she’s immune to miasma, and -- like... you get it. It’s too much. It’s way too OP for the type of universe that Inuyasha/Yashahime is set in. She’s hanyou for fuck’s sake; remember all the training Inuyasha had to go through? When he couldn’t lift his sword? When his sword attacked him? Sango, Miroku, Kagome, even Sesshomaru all had trouble with their weapons and had to work to become stronger. But Towa? Nope. Towa is straight out of the Yas Queen/Girl Boss manual, so she gets a free pass on everything.

.

UGH they are doing the VLD/bad writing thing where things happen (like, BIG THINGS) and none of the characters actually react to them. Or stuff happens and there are no consequences. No one ever talks about anything. It’s wild.

.

Everyone has amnesia!! :D People either don’t know or don’t remember anything or anyone. People who absolutely should know things all of a sudden magically don’t know them. Like, Kohaku -- traveled with an undead priestess, spent years in the company of demons, traveled with Sesshomaru... and yet had NO CLUE that Setsuna is Sesshomaru’s daughter or that she is hanyou, despite her living and working with his team of demon slayers all this time. Like... how, man. How. And Kaede! Don’t get me started. Since when does she perpetuate random demon-boogeyman type stories as facts? Demon children will kill each other in the nest so that only the strongest one will survive, therefore Setsuna must have killed Towa when they were infants. O_O What are they, sharks? Has she been hanging out with Kisame? Wtf?? And she’s speaking about Sess’s kids as though she doesn’t know him or anything about him, when she has had Rin under her roof all these years. It just makes. no. sense.

.

Things that happened in the original series are happening again now! Because that’s the best we’ve got, recycled plot elements wooo! No, but really, characters that died or things that were resolved in Inuyasha keep coming back. Why? What was the purpose of bringing back Kinka and Ginka? To have a foil for Towa and Setsuna as twins? Someone please tell Sunrise they can just create new characters. Like, it’s one thing to have call backs to the original or cameos, references, whatever. But like... this is entire (dead) characters and interactions.

.

No one knows how long it’s been since the original series ended. Fans initially heard 20 years from promo material, then “over 15″ and “10 years since” in-series regarding two different events, and now in a future episode summary we’ve gotten 18 years since Hosenki II gave Inuyasha the black pearl. But like, which black pearl? Because the one in Inuyasha’s eye doesn’t exist anymore, but Hosenki II had told Inuyasha that it would take 100 years for him to produce one. So, are we retconning that or where the fuck did it come from? Also, this doesn’t help one bit, it just confuses things even more. Back to the point, though, we have no coherent timeline or real frame of reference whatsoever, and I’m betting it’s in large part to keep the mystery of who is Sesshomaru’s wife going, as it keeps Rin’s age very vague. Everything is vague and mysterious in Yashahime, to the point where no one knows what’s going on, in fandom or in-story even. It’s kinda like how too much plot twist/shock reveal ruins a story, too much mystery does the same. It’s insane that both shippers and antis of that ship can lay equal claim that the “18 years since” announcement works in their favor.

tl;dr: Idk man, Yashahime is a clusterfuck of a series. Even if the mother of Sess’s twins is either of the characters I ship him with, I will still not like the series. There’s no saving this writing. Every episode feels like this:

[emmabirb8]

Regarding Lucifer

I have a dumb, random question for the Megamind fandom. Have you guys ever watched Lucifer? If not, I think you'd really enjoy it. I just recently finished the available seasons and immediately regretted not having watched it sooner. It's insanely good!! 

Lucifer is based on a character from the DC/Vertigo comic series The Sandman, which is written by Neil Gaiman who ALSO happens to have co-written (with Terry Pratchett of course) the novel on which Good Omens is based, and I KNOW some of you Megamind fans are into Good Omens. (I personally haven’t watched it quite yet, but I plan to, and I know I’ll enjoy it.) Gaiman is not the showrunner or writer of Lucifer like he is with Good Omens, but from what I’ve seen, both are similar shows in terms of themes, subject matter, characters, etc.

Before I get into the Megamind-related bit, I gotta take a minute to plug Lucifer. :P 

So, being named Lucifer, the main character of the show is, logically, the Devil. Now, I know that might sound off-putting, especially if you're religious, but I promise the way the show goes about storytelling makes it just the opposite. 

It's very much a fantasy story that takes ideas from Abrahamic religions and shapes them into a mythological mishmash that totally challenges any previous ideas you might've had about the subject matter. It's fascinating! Lucifer himself comes off more like a Hades figure rather than… well, Satan lol. 

It's mostly... cop drama meets comedy meets mythology/religious ideas and characters and it's just overall a really fun time. Oh, and there are a lot of fantastic female characters and characters of color, so that's an added bonus as well. It’s kind of unexpected coming from a show about Satan, but it's such a welcome breath of fresh air.

The reason I'm bringing it to the attention of Megamind fans in particular (besides the fact that it’s similar to Good Omens and has its origins in Neil Gaiman) is because there are SO MANY similarities between the main character, Lucifer, and Megamind. I totally wasn't expecting that when I went into it, but I was delightfully pleased when I made the connection.

Just off the top of my head, both Megamind and Lucifer:

are not human

are bisexual

were forced into the designated roles of "villains" or "bad guys" of their stories, though neither of them is actually evil (quite the contrary - both of them care about right and wrong more than most)

put on elaborate facades in public to hide their true selves and because they love the Presentation™️

struggle with finding their purpose in life and who they truly are/who they’re truly meant to be

tend to be judged harshly by the people around them

struggle with self-worth issues and deal with strong senses of self-hatred  (believe themselves to be no good monsters)

fall in love with headstrong, passionate women with strong moral values who are able to see who they truly are on the inside and who love them back for who they truly are

call the women they're in love with by titles rather than first names ("Miss Ritchi" and "Detective" respectfully)

constantly banter back and forth with said women

have risked their lives to protect said women

act as though these women would automatically be attracted to them because they're just so handsome but in reality, they don't think of themselves as remotely genuinely desirable (in Lucifer’s case, anything on a deeper emotional level beyond the quick sex flings he has), and are honestly flabbergasted at the idea that they deserve to be loved authentically

And that's the other main reason I've grown so fond of the show. Lucifer and Chloe are practically a mirror image of Megamind and Roxanne. It's uncanny, really. Take a look at this scene from season 1 of Lucifer and tell me it's not eerily similar to the "Temptress" scene from Megamind.

Also this: 

I mean… right?!

Besides that, it's just an incredibly entertaining, complex, and emotionally intense show, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something wild and different to watch. 

Something I personally love about it is the fact that it places the blame for humanity’s sins solely on the humans themselves. This really struck a chord with me because in real life, people scapegoat far too often. Blaming “The Devil” or any other entity for your own wrongdoings is just an excuse to absolve yourself of your sins without having to face the reality that you have the free will to choose your actions, and you are choosing to do evil things. It’s certain people, NOT the Devil, who cause suffering in others, and those people need to own up to their actions and face consequences accordingly. This show fully embraces that ideology.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the soundtrack! This show has hands down the BEST soundtrack of any show I've ever seen. It adds a whole extra layer of awesome to it. :D

It originally aired on Fox, but the bastards cancelled it (of course). It would've stayed dead if it weren't for all the avid, determined fans who campaigned for its return, and it was (thank God! or perhaps Satan? ;P) picked up by Netflix who produced a fourth season. A fifth (and supposed final) season will be released later this year. 

Seriously y'all, give it a chance if you haven't yet. It's so worth it. 

(And Lucifer fans, give Megamind a watch. It does not disappoint. ^^)

[gasp-iwrotesomething]

Hello. So to start my day off could I please request a little something for Helena and mc where they discover mc possesses magic like the witch queen. I always thought it would be awesome if mc had magic too so that she could help Helena more with the magic side!

That sounds like a cool idea, anon! I would be happy to write this for you to start off your day (though this is coming out later than I originally intended to ‘start off your day’ lol). Thanks for requesting and I hope you enjoy!

Helena and MC Discover That She Has Powers Like the Witch Queen Headcanons

The discovery was made by pure coincidence and at a time where they were both in peril; mostly Helena.

She had been trying to fight against a wave of the Witch Queen’s soldiers while MC looked on, unable to contribute to a victory for Helena.

Enraged and deeply frightened for her lover, MC feels a sense of power brew in her chest and then all of sudden most of the goons fighting Helena go sprawling in a burst of blue flames. 

A wall of ice spears up from the ground and surrounds Helena protectively, which startles her and makes her believe that the Witch Queen had done so to seclude her from MC.

But that suspicion is doused when her love shouts that she’ll keep Helena safe and then it dawns on her: MC harbored the Witch Queen’s power.

After they had escaped, Helena immediately began quizzing MC on how she did that but the answers she’s given tell her little about the power’s origins and whether or not the Witch Queen had anything to do with it.

Instead, she opts to warn MC of the hell she could unleash if she uses her power; Helena had seen the wrath of the Witch Queen with her own eyes so she knew almost all of what could go wrong and the subsequent consequences.

MC agrees and their journey continues, with Helena occasionally conducting experiments with MC’s magic just to make sure that it is a replica of the Witch Queen’s--otherwise her years of knowledge will be of little use.

Whenever they had to fight their way out of trouble, Helena would permit that MC use her magic sparingly--if she used it too much, word would spread and the Witch Queen would better prepare her army.

Not to mention that MC shared the same appearance of the Witch Queen so if her magic was more widely known, people would distrust her and fear that she was the Witch Queen.

But also that Helena didn’t want to be faced with the potential fear of losing the woman she loved to nefarious lust for power.

As best as she can, Helena teaches MC about the extent and true power of her magic.

Any free time they could spare went to training MC to not only control her power but to demonstrate how she can fish out her power to use whenever she needed it.

But not every ounce of her power was used to save them from harm--some was used to instigate harmless antics with Helena.

MC had begun to relax with her magic and without considering the wight of her request, she teasingly asks if she could test her power in the bedroom.

Helena sunk into silence at that, her gaze filled with a tremor of past memories that all revolved around the Witch Queen’s abuse.

The Chicagoan is quick to refrain and comfort Helena, offering her a deep apology.

The sorceress is able to recover from the bad memories haunting her but she was still uncomfortable with being intimate with MC while she used her powers--it was too cruel of a reminder of the Witch Queen for Helena to withstand.

All in all, they take everything slowly and explore the true thew of the magic that also was affable in the hands of someone much more sinister than MC.

Helena didn’t like that fact but she’d rather focus on the benefits rather than the downsides, especially when one of her most lofty benefits was abreast with her every hour of every day--MC.

Thanks again for your request! I loved writing this for you! And if you want a fic of this, just send in an ask and I will deliver, lovely 😚

If you want to request something, here’s the Prompt List, here are the Guidelines, here’s Who I Write For, and here is where you can Request me.

[randomkposts]

Up the down way

So I once wanted to write a FFIV AU, with a very different universe and an OC Callian Jackson. here was my attempt at note taking.

Callian is here in the story as Kain and Rosa's best friend. Kain and Rosa are dating, and with Callian here, there is a different dynamic to their friendship, as Kain has two girls teaming on him to do things, and is probably not left alone to brood as often as he would like, among other things. Callian is mostly here, because Cecil was being raised elsewhere, and Callian is a girl who lost both her parents in the war, and chose to take up the way of the dark knight, and passed it, becoming good enough to be a Captain of the red wings. She is not a cannon clone of Cecil or Kain, though she may take some elements of the roles, she is ultimately her own weirdo in the story. I do not intend her to be an expy, and hopefully she does not come off as a Sue either.  Cecil is still in this story, just obviously not here in Baron. He'll probably show up briefly soon. The characters will not be as you remember, because the blue planet they grew up in is not the one we are used to, and there are some odd consequences to that. The social chemistry of the world is different, and so are they.

Is a bit of a parody and an AU Alice in Wonderland style, in that the characters can be downright odd.

Plot:  When Callian Jackson's invasion of Mysidia goes wrong, she is sent to be a delivery person as atonement. Callians invasion likely went wrong because of a stray berserk spell, and her soldier's went nuts on the people. Never less, a good commander should rise above that, and accomplish the mission, keep the men's respect. Kain, wondering what Rosa was talking about, Comes into the room to ask, and ends up getting sent alongside Callian to Mist. ---

The scene starts with Callin quietly but furiously questioning her men,  and her men too ashamed to say anything to her, beyond monster warnings. She begins, quietly, and intensely angry, getting details about the mission , until a monster attack distracts her, much to their relief. To the king, she is quietly upset, trying  to hold her temper. Kain wanders into the room, and gets sent along. She does let it out when Rosa comes to her room, as Rosa often serves as an outlet.

Differences from IV: Kain is dating Rosa, and is not nearly as broody or secretive in part to having two woman who would pester him if he was off. Rosa is a lot more outspoken, and has Scrying abilities, as well as being Paranoid of Troians.  Callian had a crush on Kain, but when Rosa asked him out, they talked about it, and Calians happy for them. I think in the original, Cecil was a peacemaker who asked Rosa to leave Kain alone,even when he deserved a chewing out.

Day two: They leave the castle with a  feeling of Destiny in their hearts. At Baron, Calian goes and finds stuff with "treasure hunter senses", and Kain goes to buy supplies, (bartering , an act learned from Rosa).  While Kain contemplates sporks, he runs into fan-girls and an eager dancer, and helps Calian take a tent from a river when he jumps. Once out of Town, the two decide to train like mad, then ride  the Chocobos to the mountain , so they go south. They earn goblin and cocatrice. Meanwhile, at the castle, a Scrying Rosa sees them going the wrong direction, and decides to catch up with them using many Hermes sandals, and remembering why using too many items outside of battle is bad (made her more susceptible to the illness later). Meanwhile, Callian and Kain reach the grove after fighting enough battles with goblins to win the summon , and grab Chocobos. When Rosa arrives after, she sees  a black Chocobo and uses it, much to the pale haired man's upset utterances. -(Yes that is Cecil, Lol)-She flys over the mountain and lands , deciding to rest in the grasslands. Meanwhile Callain and Kain arrive at the mountains, and take a rest instead of going in and facing zombies. (Rosa tells many horror stories) They get through the cave fine, and decide to rest in the tent before entering Mist.

Day two, part two: Well rested, our hero's enter the cave and run into porcupines and the dragon of Mist. Kain is not fond of attacking Dragons, so they try to run, only to have to kill it anyways.  Entering the village, bombs attack from the Carnelian Signet .Rather than Come to the logical conclusion, Callain concludes its a test and she is meant to be foiling a ninja plot , and begins shouting orders and getting people to safety "taking command" of a chaotic situation.She decides to evacuate. Following orders, Kain goes to help a little girl, who- furious her village is being invaded- summons Titan, separating Kain from Callian.  Meanwhile Rosa, believing they would be taken to Kaipo until they were transferred to Fabul and shipped to Troia, wanders around outside of Kaipo, trying to find the blasted place In the desert. She runs into Tellha, who informs her she is not the Mage he's looking for.

Day three: Kain wakes up, and decides to find a place for the little girl he accidentally orphaned to sleep, and perhaps be adopted. So he goes to Kaipo, a neutral city, and more importantly, close.  In the middle of the night, three Guards come for Kain and Rydia. Kain sends them away stating Calian asked him to watch this kid. The Captain then asks if Rosa was here, since she has been missing and that their  purpose here was a search party. Kain offers to take over the desert search party, much to their relief, and they go. Kain is glad that encounter could be solved by negotiating, as that was one of Callins competent Captains. Meanwhile Rosa collapses at Kaipos gates.

The next day, Rydia wakes up and can't remember the attack, or what she's doing here, and asks where her mother is. Kain informs her that her mother is dead. She is quiet after that. They hear some rumors about a girl with desert fever, and some more about the prophetic chick Anna who everyone had talked about the other day when they were looking for an inn. They find Rosa and discover she was the one with desert Fever.  Kain goes off to find a sand pearl, and Rydia comes with him. In fact she refuses to leave him, very assertively. Kain gets Rydia some weapons. Rydia proves competent at Healing, and distracting monsters with weak attacks for Kain to counter. They use this strategy since Kain can't jump and leave her. Beyond battle, Rydia is quiet and unobservant in terrain. Kain has to hold her hand to prevent her wandering off.

Randomly added note.(Edges difference in attitude comes from a more comprehensive training due to an attack on the palace he almost died at. He is quieter and more ninja like.)

R.A.N2(Edward is determined to get the prophet who tried to save him back! He is more determined than sad.)

R.A.N3( Palom is already a sage, spellwise. He had to learn some cure magic until someone gave Porem a cure staff. The problem with the twins is that they are five year old prodigies, who are probably pushed because of paranoia over Baron. They have some issues. Palom has high standards, is hypercritical of himself, and uses lots of false bravado. He needs the rest of the world to believe he's awesome.  Porem has a terrible bedside manor, and anger management issues, so carries a cure staff, so when she hits people, it heals them. They are quite nervous about teaching her hammer style fighting, even if she might be good at it, because no cure hammer has been invented. )

RAN 3.5: (Kain has to protect them on his way up the mountains. That means covering and countering the attacks directed towards them in battle, taking breaks for them, and giving them piggybacks. He also gives Rydia piggybacks. The trip up the mountain is a long and grueling journey. PS: Write a story about Cecil and the twins climbing the mountain, frame as elders revenge)

Finally Kain and Rydia arrive at the cage and meet Tellaha.

Rn4( Tellaha can see the future. Or at least possible outcomes of the future. Kain being here, makes him realize something is different, but he can't quite remember what. He has trouble differentiating between what is a possibility and what is real, leading him to sway between right for the wrong reasons, and completely off base. He seems to believe in the original timeline at the moment, and may leave on a quest for Cecil. Tellah is also amnesic, and can not remember past Anna's eleventh birthday)

Rn4.5 (This world's Anna is kind of Joan of Arc, and Callian’s main opponent, and they will clash more throughout the fic. Callin kind of sees her as worthy adversary, and keeps her alive, but gives her to Kain so she doesnt have to explain it.)

Tellaha informs  them they are late, much to their confusion, and they enter the cave. Throughout the cave, they find several potions, and pieces of dark knight armour and a sword . Kain notes he does not have to worry about getting Callin a birthday present now. Tellaha focuses on teaching Rydia thunder and ice spell words, as fire will not be very useful in an water cave. Rydia tells them the smell of smoke terrifies her.

Kain and Tellaha reconsider their plans to have goblin for dinner, in favour of smoked goblin. Then again, fire keeps away Zombies. Kain and Tellaha debate the merits of fire as they continue through the cave.

(RN5: Rosa has a crazily complex family tree that includes, but is not limited too, Tellaha &Anna, Palom&Porem& Sheila[ Yangs wife]. It debatably includes Rydia. Maybe. Callian of course has no idea of this when she sits down and tries to relate to Rosa just how odd this is.)

(RN6: Rosa hates Troians. Troia, in this universe, are the Amazonian-esque city. They are fierce magical archers who steal or entice men into their castle, in an attempt to sire strong warriors. As a magical archer (white) Rosa is often accused of being one, and has grown a tad resentful. It doesn't help that Rosas family is from Mysidia, Barons former close ally [before the attack], who is traditionally rivals with Troia. Kain has huge respect for ninjas, like Callain has for monks )

After a brief rest, Tellah attacks Kain, asking where they are, who they are, and what happened to his daughter. Kain reminds them of the current quest, and Tellah asks where Cecil is. Kain asks who Cecil is, and they continue  on through the monster packed cave, to face the Octomamoth. Kain has to keep to the strategy of defending Tellaha and Rydia, and countering the monsters attacks, while Tellaha and Rydia put their lightning based attacks to good use. It's a fairly long and painful battle, but they emerge victorious. Upon exiting the cave, they see an attack on Damcyan in the distance. They go to investigate.  

Upon entering Damcyan, they meet Calian at the entrance, with Anna unconscious. Tellaha is out of it.  Calian asks if they have seen Rosa, as she has gone missing. Kain affirms they have, and that she has desert fever, and they need a Damcyan person to get a sand pearl. Callian tells him, that although she still feels disturbed with Baron actions of late, she's happy to report, there were fewer casualties, her men were controlled in temperament, and once the tactician was knocked out, resistance fell apart. She believes Anna may be a genius tactician, and brilliant leader.  

Upon seeing the tactician Anna, Tellaha attacks Callian, accusing her of being a spooney bard who ran off with his daughter, married her without permission , and got her killed.

Callin tells Kain to keep his companions under control, and get their stories straight.  She also insists to Kain she is not a lesbian, and that she better leave if he wants help from the Damcyains. Before going, she tells him she found this among Mist, and gives Kain the bomb item hoping it will be useful to him.

Kain tells Tellaha he was attacking the wrong person, and they should go inside. They see people bringing a either pot downstairs to the wounded, and begin healing them. Rydia and Tellah spend time helping with magic, and Kain uses first aid, and helps with moving people downstairs. Eventually he comes across Edward mourning his mother and father. Kain, having some tact, leaves him alone for now. Once the cleanup is done, they begin moving the bodies Kain comes up, to talk with Edward. (Rosa has had him come on talks to patients families and he and Callian have also done so to their soldiers families).  Kain is still quite blunt, but has learned some thing about talking to grieving people. Sorta.

They have a talk, and he manages to convince Edward to both help them get the sand pearl, and warn Faboul, once his kingdom is better. Rosa being a healer is mentioned. Rydia has no outburst. Once a second for Edward is appointed, they go to move out. Tellah yells at Edward asking what he was doing with his eleven year old daughter, and is asked what he is talking about by Edward. The only Anna he met was the glorious savior of Damcyan.

Tellah gets mad and runs off, much to Kain and Rydias discomfort. Finally they set off for the anitolin den. Much to Kains annoyance,  he is still the group shield. The Antoilon is not a difficult foe, and after many battles they earn not only the sand pearl, but the elusive rainbow jelly for Edward, who is not going to give this one to Callain.

(RN7 Callain is crazy prepared in some ways.  She insists on fighting many monsters with Kain outside of town, to stock up on items & Gil harvester as an ability.  She and Cid had airships capable of invading the moon, that were destroyed by the red wings, because they left them with the RW in preparation to invade the moon. She also has oddly convenient timing, and a love of training people, with a dream to fill the bestiary. She buys every weapon, shield, ect.  It's why Kain had Goblin on him. )

They then battle their way out of the cave,  and take the hover across the shoals. They fight a few battles and get cockatrice summon.

Rydia is pleased. Rosa is revived.

The story goes on, but I haven't moved far past that point.

So some explanations and headcanons to make sense of this verse

Baron is at war with Ebalan. The crystals being stolen and the army, and Callian’s explanation of “foiling a ninja plot” are tied to this. The war started over a catastrophic failure in marriage negotiations.

Rosa is the current heir of Baron. She is tied to the lineage of the throne through her grandmother, a princess who married a mysidian mage, who had her mother, who married a dragoon in Barron. It was a scandalous story back in the day, although it is kept on the down low now that the king has fathered no children, and they are at war. Kain is looked at as the future ruler, because of this. Politics will play a part, particularly during the Fabul castle invasion.  Also Rosa needs to be depicted with more muscle please, she wields a bow for crying out loud. She should be soo buff.

There are rumors that Calian is the heir. Callian plays along with this to protect her friend.

Calian is loyal to her friends, but she is also loyal to her country and the people she leads. She is not leaving on Kain’s quest because she intends to take care of the people back home. I wanted to contrast the personal reasons of Kain being an antagonist from cannon, and avert brainwashing. She’s not as blind as she pretends to be, and comes up with some very bizarre explanations to others in the intention to subvert the malice in her orders. She won't be able to look away forever, but in the meantime she can use “alternative explanations” to do things like prevent Mist from being a genocide, or win Damcyan with less casualties ( Anna of Arc was a pretty big factor in this too). The surviving summoners will play a part later.

Who cast the Berserk spell is a small ongoing mystery. (The brainwashing is not contained to Baron)

At this point in the story, Rydia is amnesic, and I tried to include some realistic symptoms of that. She is also under the impression that Kain is her previously unmet Dad, who came for her after her mom died, and does not remember the invasion, probably the trauma from it. The “Kain is secretly my dad”  is not revealed until after the Faymarch, because it had no reason to come up, and it's pretty hard to dissuade her of it after she has lived with it for years.

Oh, heres some older notes

-“Honesty, my first attempt went from crack to serious, to crack. Like at the beginning, I decided there's no way the mages should be that easy to defeat, so I decided that a berserk spell had been cast on half of both armies. Of course, it's a pretty chaotic battle between being turned into frogs or pigs , and the fire spells, the mages berserking and everything. So, Calian decides, let's complete the objective, get in, get the crystal, get out.

So once she recalls her troops, she is on the airship, and trying to figure out WTF happened. Of course back home!e, she is responsible, and the king is questioning her competence there. He sends her on a milk run to deliver this ring to some nowhere village in the mountains.

Like in canon, Kain comes along.

Rosa talks to her to try to cheer her up that night.

The next day they go to town. Kain goes shopping, and Callian goes Item hunting. When Kain runs into a crazy dancer fangirl, he jumps off a bridge and finds Calian contemplating a tent in the water.

They decide it would be better to catch a Chocobo. Of course they run into so many goblins there they find a goblin summon. (Ffiv has a ridiculously low drop rate) . Then they set up a tent outside the cave.

The next day, they face the dragon, accidentally kill the summoner. Then they find out the purpose of the ring was to summon bombs on the village. Callin interprets it weirdly...

"It is an Ebalanese ninja plot. I must do what I failed last time and take control of the situation. Command it. Kain, help me evacuate."

So, more villagers survive, but Rydia still summons Titan

The nation of Barron is being taken over by Golbez, who is also possessed. He had the king brainwashed, then disposed of and replaced, and Barron is now making war for crystals of other nations, and bombing the village of summoners, and in cannon Cecil and Kain agreed this is not the king we want to work for. Then they are separated by a magic earthquake, and end up on opposite sides of the mountain.  Cecil is left caring for the child whose mother he inadvertently killed, and Kain is presumably taken back to Barron and brainwashed.

In this one , Kain will be with the kid, and Calian will be back in Barron not brainwashed, (yet,) but loyal and willing for the time. She's a capable captain, and as long as she is loyal to home, well someone needs to lead the army.

Like Cecil, she's friends with Kain and Rosa. Unlike Cecil, Kains group dynamic is changed, because I sort of get the feeling that Cecil let Kain brood too much. Like Kain and Cecil were said to be BFF\Rivals, but the game didn't really show it much. There was a love diagram with Kain crushing on Rosa, who was dating Cecil, so I get the feeling that tension was never properly talked out in Cannon, because Kain kind of behaves like a creep towards her when brainwashed,  and then apparently stays on a mountain for 30 years post game. Some shit needs to be said here.

So yah, different dynamic here

So Cailan takes Cecil's role at first, being captain of the red wings, Kains Rival, and generally regarded as essential for being a knight. She worked hard to get there, and is pretty competitive. Cecil is still around, and will show up later, as a different person with different teachings.

She is loyal to her home country and her troops, and that will get her into trouble and scapegoat in the long run.”

So Cecil. Here Cecil is still a dark knight, who grew up the apprentice of the wandering dark knight whose armor we find around the game, and is mentioned in Fabul. As an apprentice to someone who the dark knight class is a family style, he has a lot more battle techniques and equipment then in game. He is investigating why there are increasingly frequent monster attacks,  and trying to find out why the world is out of balance.

Edward sincerely admires Anna.

Anna and her father have hereditary clairvoyance. It takes a toll on them as they age. 

[sansanficrec]

Q&A  with ladytp

Grab a glass of wine and get to know @ladytp!

How long have you been writing fanfiction?

I actually went back to the folder of my first posted fanfic, and it was almost 6.5 years ago, September 2012… That was my first ever creative work I wrote as well, as I started quite late – being already adult, established professional and all that. So never too late to start, one doesn’t have to have grown up writing!

Did you write before that?

No I didn't - unless scientific publications are counted as 'creative' writing (well, to be honest, sometimes there was an element of creativity when trying to make one's data make sense, LOL!)

How long ago did you join Tumblr?

To be precise (as I like to be!) I joined March 1st 2013 – so almost six years ago… But it took me four months to make my first post (an awesome music video about ASOIAF and GoT), being initially a ‘lurker’ to observe and learn. I migrated there from Livejournal when things started to quiet down there – like a moth I was drawn to bright lights, moving images, and more of my fandom content!

What is the meaning behind your username?

My username is from the Livejournal times as well, as when I joined it, I didn’t grasp the significance of one’s url or username and just picked the first one that came to mind when filling in the details: “lady” and my initials. D’oh! Luckily I have been able to successfully have the same name in other platforms as well, which is great – it is easier than have many different names. I am also glad that it is not fandom specific, as my interests are many and varied…

What was your first fandom? First pairing?

Definitively ASOIAF – that was my introduction to the whole cultural phenomenon of ‘fandom’, devouring fics and joining communities (yeah, I am so far behind of everyone else – I used to have a life, LOL!). Sansan was my first ship, but I also had a brief period when I was very interested in Daenerys and Jorah (this was before I saw the show). Even though the show had a big negative impact on Sansan experience for me (not due to Rory, I hasten to add – but the storylines), it has still stayed my OTP in a sense that I feel most comfortable about writing them and their dynamic still fascinates me above anything else.

How/when did you first notice (or start to ship) Sansan?

My story is very typical; first reading their interactions after the Hand’s Tourney, then the scene of the Battle of the Blackwater – and I was hooked. Googling and finding fics, Livejournal communities and all the metas…no getting back from there! I mean; it is so blatantly obvious that I wonder who can read the books and NOT get the vibes??

Is there a SanSan fic you’re particularly proud of?  Chapter? Paragraph?  Plot?

Hmmm…’Which one of your children you love the best?’, in other words – always a difficult question! I guess I am still the proudest of “The Triangle”  It was one of my early fics, it was a long-fic, and it was about the subject I had been fascinated with for years and years; the complicated Arthurian relationship between 3 people who loved each other for different reasons (Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot in the original, Sandor, Sansa and Jaime in the fic). Chapter-wise I am very happy with the last chapter of the “Kiss of the Blade”, as hard as it may be for some due to the character death implied. It has melancholy but also beauty, I thought when I wrote it. Plot-wise I am excited and happy about my current WIP “This Time, We’ll Do Better”, as although it has some common trope elements, I think they have somewhat cool applications and it is nice to write something more plot-orientated for a change!

Any comments you’ve received that stick out, even now?

I have to admit that again, “The Triangle” inspired some absolutely wonderful comments, probably because of its unusual premise. Towards the end, and especially with people who had read it in one go long after it had been completed, there were some wonderful convos going back and forth. I especially enjoyed the ones where people either told that they had had some reservations starting it, but then ended up really enjoying the fic, or the ones where they might have had some queries and doubts and questions, leading to a mutually fruitful and eye-opening discussions on both sides. Those conversations really blew my mind!

Do you use a beta?

I have had the privilege of working with two wonderful betas, of which I am eternally grateful. The first one was wildskysheri / wildsky, whom I “met” via Livejournal, and who betaed for me for “The Triangle”, “A Chance Encounter” and “A Premediated Reunion”.  She taught me – a non-native English speaker/writer – so much about writing and what to pay attention to and what to look out for. I owe her so much! After our ways parted amicably as she moved on to other things, I was without beta for a long time, not really actively looking for one, but when my path crossed with the lovely @hardlyfatal, I have once again had the pleasure of getting my words scrutinised by someone knowledgeable, making them better on “This Time, We’ll Do Better”. I honestly can’t speak highly enough for a beta who can make any writer and fic so much better!

Are there tropes/styles/genres you struggle with?  Any that are almost too easy?

I do struggle a bit writing babies and children, and hence haven’t written much about them… I don’t generally care for modern AUs either and would struggle to write a full story in a modern times – although who knows, maybe in a right setting, replicating the high stakes situation of the canon, it could work. Haven’t tried so can’t say for sure! Very fluffy genre is also something I don’t feel particularly comfortable with, nor anything where the characters are very young. And porn without plot is neither a genre I relish. The most comfortable genres for me are the slow-burns, where mature people interact with each other in a mature way (whatever that means…). First realisations of feelings, hesitancy, and all that. I also do like plot-driven stories that have a start, middle and ending. I am all open for fake marriage, bed-sharing, ‘there was only one room at the inn’ kind of genres – any kind of ‘forced’ situations where the characters are obliged to spend time together!

When you start a fic, do you know where it will end?  Or do you figure it out along the way?

There have been fics along both scenarios – some were started at the spur of the moment, with only vague ideas of where and how far they would go (”The Prophecy” comes to mind, which I started as a random holiday scribbling – and repeatedly apologised and updated my chapter number as it grew and grew and grew…). And there were the ones where even at the end I couldn’t decide what the ending should be, so I wrote two (for example “Past Was Such A Long Time Ago“). But for most I would have some idea about the ending at the start, and for some I would gain it somewhere early along the way. So yeah, it varies!

Do you have any rituals/conditions for ‘getting in the mood’ to write?

I mostly write over the weekends when I have more time, after getting up and having breakfast, reading my emails and checking on Tumblr and doing all the routine stuff one does – and then I open my doc and start writing… With my internet radio blasting on the background on some jazz or lounge or classic channel. I find it hard to write during the weeks after getting back from work and being distracted by mundane home things and TV and such.

Have you ever had writer’s block?  Any tips for overcoming it?

I did have a period well over a year ago when I felt I had ‘lost my mojo’. It was largely to do with the way the Game of Thrones show had progressed and changed the characters so much that I couldn’t recognise them anymore, and my initial inspiration of writing about them consequently suffered. Especially as the show canon started to take over the original book canon so strongly in many platforms, including fics. The way I got over it was to distance myself from the show and partly, unfortunately, also from the fandom (so largely focused on show). I had a nice break, didn’t read many fics, focused on books and generally took a step back. Then I challenged myself to write a new type of story, a plot-focused ‘action & adventure’ story instead of romance focused only. That inspired me to write again, and I have been riding on that inspirational wave ever since with my latest long-fic WIP!

Aspirations of publishing one day?

No, not really. It is a tough world out there, especially as writing has become more reachable to many people who previously might not have even considered it (yay, fanfic and other forms of creative writing and platforms encouraging it!), and publishing world is awash with submissions and self-published stories alike. Although I don’t know for sure, I suspect that wanting to become published would take much more effort and determination and will than what I have for now, as for me this is a lovely hobby, nothing more.

What are your other hobbies?

My absolutely biggest hobbies are food and wine. I have loved cooking, eating and learning about food and wine for most of my life and it’s really important for me. Cooking meals ‘from the scratch’ from their base ingredient is what I love, as well as learning to master new techniques, new cuisines and difficult recipes. When I travel, food is one of the main drivers for that too, and holidays are largely built around restaurants, regions, cuisines and wineries. Holidaying in wine regions and wine tasting is the favourite kind of holiday! Yet I also love everyday cooking – the beauty of this as a hobby is that I get to do it every day and can challenge myself, be inspired by it and practice it all the time!

As for other hobbies…not really… I follow the transformative artform that is WWE, especially Dean Ambrose, and love visiting historical sites and reading about history, but that can hardly be called an active hobby… I also make some photo and video edits for fun, but lately my writing has taken much of the time I used to dedicate to that. Yet I feel that what I have is enough – I have no desires for an active life with lots of different hobbies and activities.

Any tips for writers looking to post their first (or second, or twentieth) fic?

I hope this doesn’t sound too harsh, but it would be really cool if even those who write only for ‘shits and giggles’ would do some basic formatting and language checks… Things like how to indicate dialogue, spacing between paragraphs and when to apply them, and of course, basic grammar. There are nowadays so many websites advising about those things, as well as free tools (for example Grammarly), that they are accessible to every person with access to sites posting their stuff – and a simple Google search is your best friend. I recommend this because ignoring those things may easily drown even the most amazing story in these times of fic over-abundance.

Other than that, write the stories you would like to read yourself, and the scenarios you would like to see in the canon. Study the writing style of the writers whose stories you admire and see if you could pick up a trick or two from them (but not plagiarizing, naturally). And if you can, get a beta – it is not absolutely necessary, but would give you a second opinion and advice from a trusted person. Oh, and give yourself a break between writing and final editing – ideally have a buffer of chapters in a draft phase before starting to post, so whenever you write something new, you can afford to let it rest for a while before getting back to it with fresh eyes. And have fun!

Anything you’d like to say to writers in general?

Don’t get hung up on statistics or comparisons. Think why you are writing – is it because everyone does it and you feel you should too, or because you truly enjoy it, or because of the stories themselves, or because you have an internal urge to do it, or it is part of your social networking activities… all are valid reasons, but once you define what they are for you, the easier it is to focus on it and the satisfaction it gives to you.

Anything you’d like to say to readers in general?

If you like a fic, don’t be shy about commenting, as it truly means so much to the writers… Even simplest comment is gratefully received. If you feel like wanting to pass on constructive criticism, first ensure the writer welcomes it, then formulate it in the politest possible way with positivism thrown in as well (and of course, make sure it is actually constructive). Marvel the choices and abundance of fic availability and acknowledge what a joy it is to live in this time and age when all that is possible. Enjoy!

Anything you’d like to say to the SanSan fandom in general?

Do not give up hope – Game of Thrones is over soon and we can get back to canon content, hopefully soon with The Winds of Winter. Whatever the further story of Sandor and Sansa is there, we know how important it has been already and nothing can take that away!

Read LadyTP’s SanSan here!

Read LadyTP’s full library here!

[poipoi1912]

Barba-centric thoughts on Ep 19x13

For the last time.

But first, to get it out of the way.

Sonny Thoughts

Who’s that?

No but, are we honestly expected to believe that Sonny would pass on observing Barba’s murder trial?

Sonny, who is a lawyer himself, would pass on witnessing a) any colleague’s MURDER TRIAL, b) BARBA’S murder trial, c) Randy Dworkin working his magic and d) the skills of Peter Stone, out of sheer curiosity? How does any of that make sense? Sonny as a law student was eager to shadow Barba just to observe a random trial he had no personal connection to, and he’d return to the precinct literally saying “court was AWESOME” while the others rolled their eyes, and now that he’s a lawyer, all he does is say “lol it’s a good thing I’m a cop”?

Remember when the conversation was “will Carisi join or even replace Barba at the DA’s office?” to the point where Peter was asked about it in interviews? Remember when Sonny’s law degree had a purpose? When it was building up to something, to a potential change? When Sonny actively faced a dilemma? Now it’s only good for a throwaway line.

What has Sonny done all season?

Nothing.

Which brings me to, what has Barba done this season?

A lot, and none of it’s good, unfortunately.

Barba Thoughts

Barba has messed up many times this season. Too many. Twice it’s been completely intentional (causing a mistrial with the jurors on that elevator, and this). We’ve seen him act way too emotional for someone in his position, and indeed we have seen his heart guiding him (like it did the other week, with the alt-right/antifa case, when he dropped the charges because his heart wasn’t in it). It’s a fact that Barba changed, a lot, over the years, and this season saw him going through even greater changes.

In the past, he always had his integrity. He may have misstepped before (like with Munoz, who was a very close childhood friend) and he may have held opinions which pitted him against the squad or the police in general (the Terrence Reynolds case), but he always held his positions with impressive, if firm, conviction. Just last season, he admitted to what was, at the time, his “deepest” secret, i.e. giving money for drugs to a witness who ended up OD’ing, and even then he believed he had done the right thing.

Because he did do the right thing. Then.

This season, however, Barba has been doing the wrong thing, way too often.

Part of me appreciated the focus on Barba’s decisions, and part of me was suspicious (as I mentioned recently) because I knew that, usually, when a character receives an unprecedented amount of focus, it means they’re on their way out, and all those “bigger” moments are meant to sett up their exit arc.

I was wrong.

Barba’s exit wasn’t the result of his longterm disenchantment with his work. Barba’s exit wasn’t set up previously at all. Barba’s prior mistakes were, in retrospect, simply meant to highlight the fact he has turned into Liv, i.e. he shows complete disregard for the law and just does whatever he wants wait no, I mean, he has grown a heart. also he could never fully become Liv because her actions never have consequences Because you can’t have a heart and still prosecute criminals? For some reason? Do the writers know Barba wasn’t a defense attorney?

Anyway,

This was no masterplan. Barba’s exit happened on a whim. Even though the writers have known about Raul’s desire to leave since literally before the season started, they did nothing to create an actual exit arc. They just used him as normal, and they came out with the most dramatic, far-fetched and soapy idea they could to create a single exit episode, instead. Which Barba then had to share with McCoy and his own replacement, both of whom took up valuable time which could have been spent on Barba himself, and on highlighting Barba’s importance to the entire squad.

When an actor leaves amicably, and when they graciously make themselves available for an exit “arc”, it’s customary to treat them with the analogous level of respect.

Barba deserved a tribute, and this episode was no tribute to Rafael Barba.

Case(y) Thoughts

Remember when I said a “right to die” case had some potential for an exit arc, even though it would never come close to (the actual best ADA) Casey Novak’s iconic exit in S9? Casey, of course, put her career on the line by knowingly lying about evidence (i.e. something a lawyer would conceivably do), because she wanted justice. Because she tried to help a friend and colleague (my fave, Chester Lake) who snapped and resorted to extreme actions when the system failed him and a victim.

“He deserved to pay.”

“And so do you.”

That’s how you write a morally gray exit.

You do NOT have an Assistant District Attorney literally turn off life support for a baby even though he is not a doctor or even a relative of the child. Truly no one would do what he did in real life. No one. No matter what half-assed and canonically inaccurate story the writers tried to spin about his father.

Can you imagine? Physically ending a life thus rendering yourself liable for homicide? When it’s not your place to do so? And you are fully aware of the legal ramifications? When the life in question is a child’s life, and the parents disagree on what to do? Can you imagine “siding” with one parent and taking that final (and irreversible) step, as the other parent is forced to forever live with the consequences of your actions?

Can you imagine any of us finding any of that ethical?

Can you imagine that, instead of having Barba passionately argue a case for the right to die, or find a smart, legal-yet-shady way to help the mother do the deed herself without being charged for a crime (which was what I thought was going to happen, when the episode began), the writers had him physically pull the plug?

With that one move, and with the fact Barba’s actions were attributed to (selfish) emotion, because of his father, Barba lost his moral footing, no matter what that opening eulogy tried to tell us. His position on the matter may well have been correct (it was certainly defensible), as was his instinct to help that poor mother, but his actions were wrong. And this is now how or why I wanted him to leave. Not because he was so very wrong.

Squad Thoughts

I admire Liv for personally and single-handedly manning an entire Special Victims Unit while taking the time to attend lengthy trials and also haphazardly inserting herself to any and all hostage situations in the Tri-State Area.

Stone Thoughts

Eh. That said, I did like his quip about the Class A Felony. My Barba thoughts aside, I’ve been saying it all along, SVU needs a prosecutor who does the job without being emotionally compromised every five minutes. It’s one thing if A Case hits home, but an ADA who can’t do his job because his feelings are clouding his judgment shouldn’t have a job oh wait he no longer has a job lol.

Also I can’t believe I’m saying this but I was Team Stone, not Team Liv (or Team Barba) and I kinda think that’s exactly what the showrunner intended? And I’m offended I fell for it? But Stone was right so I had no choice but to agree with him? is it because i’m a lawyer too omg

I’m conflicted. But Liv dissing him over not having children (I hate that more than I hate most things by the way) and then acting like Barba, who also has no children, “gets it”, I guess because he’s been around her long enough, and her parenting skills are so good they’ve transferred over to him? Ugh.

Seriously, Team Stone. Do you think there’s a chance the showrunner (who created the character and is clearly attached to him) will actually let Stone be his own person? And challenge Liv on equal footing? Because Liv might be Liv, and Mariska might be Mariska, but the showrunner’s love for Peter Stone might be enough to keep him from being swallowed by the Benson Vortex?

(and do I kinda like that? Are they gonna make me like Peter Stone by having him disagree with Liv every time she’s wrong i.e. all the time? Because I’m open to it 👀)

Religious Thoughts

Both Barba and Carisi have talked about their faith in the past. Carisi especially is a man of faith who regularly goes to church and has been shown to be a true believer. And yet, he had no insight to offer about what the Church might have to say about a case like this. In fact, religion was not mentioned at all. During this case, of all cases. In my opinion, that was because the writers knew that by religious standards there is no defense for Barba’s actions, and they didn’t want to give the audience a reason to think negatively of him. Still, this was a glaring omission.

Stray Thoughts

“Weasel”? They couldn’t find a better word lol?

RANDY DWORKIN. Not an obvious choice to defend Barba (oh, Rita, where art thou?), but definitely an entertaining one. I felt like I was watching the original Law & Order every time he spoke. Also, every single thing he argued was, indeed, defensible, and the writers made a decent (if schmaltzy) effort to paint Barba’s actions in a positive light, but the fact remains; having the right to die (which I personally support) is not the same thing as allowing a complete stranger to (technically) kill you “for your own good”. Even if it was the right decision, it was not Barba’s decision to make, and the trial glossed over that a bit.

Jack is still the DA? Since when? And why did they never namedrop him in all these years?

Both Peter Stone’s Class A felony quip and Jack’s quip about it being “unbecoming” to have his ADA’s killing people were great lines, but they rubbed me the wrong way because they were effectively making fun of Barba? But also they were accurate? And Barba deserved to be dragged? Again, I’m conflicted.

The new showrunner can write dialogue very well, but he cannot write season-long arcs (the Sheila mess confirmed that), he can’t write characters well or consistently, and he struggles with original episode ideas. For Season 19, I guess that’s not so bad. But for television in general, in its current thriving state, it’s pretty disappointing.

Liv, to an Assistant District Attorney: Forget the law for a minute.

me: *facepalm*

Peter Stone: lol how ‘bout I don’t?

me: u go gurl

The Barisi Corner

One last time, for old times’ sake.

The ship lives forever in our hearts. Where it’s always lived.

And also in Peter Scanavino’s heart ❤️

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

(back to masterpost)

Quite excited for the chapters to come. I’ve been wanting to read the full version of events from this time period and it has really delivered so far.

also: tumblr is being wonky with displaying the activity feed so if I didn’t respond to a reply or something, I probably didn’t see it rip. I’ll save them all up for later and respond all at once in a few days. 

Chapter 52: Courage (Part 2)

I’ve heard that the next chunk of chapters is going to be all flashback, which makes sense given how little the story has actually revealed about events from the Sunshot Campaign up until Wei Wuxian died. It also adds more life to characters who were only mentioned briefly *coughJinZixuancough*.

And, of course, we get some more quality banter between our main protags’ younger selves. The chapter opens up with Lan Wangji rebuffing all of Wei Wuxian’s attempts to talk to him, but hey, this time Wei Wuxian is genuinely concerned about his leg (though he probably still sounds like his normal playful, infuriating self) and not looking to make fun of him.

Still, Lan Wangji is on a mission here, and that mission is to pretend there is nothing wrong with his leg.

We finally get introduced to a female character other than Jiang Yanli and Madam Yu (another minor flaw of the novel: the awesome ladies are few and far between. enjoy them while they’re here.): Mianmian. Do we ever find out what Mianmian’s real name is or. I’ll put off adding her to the wiki for now.

Poor girl, confronted with Wei Wuxian’s absolutely shameless badgering. It’s cute how he bounces between conversations and groups of people though, as if they aren’t all human sacrifices/hostages of the Wen Sect.

This description of him is absolutely hilarious, and probably what Lan Wangji thought of him 90% of the time: “[He] swept over like a foreboding gust of wind”. Perfect description of Wei Wuxian. Flits about as he pleases, bringing wit him headaches and frustration.

“Seeing that he was at it again, Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes with emphasis.”

is he a drama queen or what. 

rolled his eyes with emphasis

lol at Lan Wangji ratting Wei Wuxian out with his “play on words”

‘its ceaseless bounds yearn for miles and miles on’

I do love play on words. I can only imagine thinking “wei wuxian you little shit” when reading that part in its original language. 

“Do you behave in such a frivolous way towards everyone?”

Wei WuXian thought for a second, “I think so?”

that’s precious.

aww but you do get to see that, for however much of a little shit he is, Wei Wuxian does care. seeing that his behavior is making Lan Wangji annoyed enough to push past his injury, he leaves so he can stop hurting himself more.

But....AHA this is the information I was waiting for: how the heck the Cloud Recesses got burnt down.

damn, Wen Sect. no wonder the rest of the cultivation world wiped you off the face of the earth.

So, interestingly, they only mention Lan Wangji who got beaten and his leg broken for protecting the Library Pavilion. In some past chapter, it mentions that Lan Xichen saved some of those books and escaped with them.

It’s interesting that Lan Wangji was sent here, instead of Lan Xichen who wasn’t injured as far as I know.

ahhh but Wei Wuxian actually took notice of what Lan Wangji was doing. do you do this to everyone or >>. well, he is an observant person, but he does pay some special attention to Lan Zhan here

then he just states “I’m gonna carry him.” I love how he totally doesn’t take into account that the last thing the proud Lan Wangji who “who valued proper conduct beyond anything” probably...would not want you to carry him. just a thought.

“It’s alright if he hates me—I don’t hate him. I’ll get him onto my back the second I get hold of him. Could he possibly choke me to death while on my back?”

this boy’s logic is golden.

“First, this isn’t a triviality. Second, things like this, somebody will have to care about them, sooner or later!”

I think this is significant in some way. >>

Wei Wuxian is the type to do something because it’s right, or what he wants to do, not because someone else wants him to do it. It’s one of the good parts of his shamelessness, but it’s also kind of dangerous.

geez, what dictators. who walks around holding a branding iron all the time to stick people with??

Also, this explains where Wei Wuxian got his.

lol how did anyone even get word that a beast thing was supposed to be in this general location. how did anyone figure this out. it’s hidden way underground in a lake.

Aahh poor Jin Zixuan, I feel a bit bad for him. He’s a bit of a prick, but not a bad guy. This is why the flashbacks are nice, we get to know a bit about guys like him. Also, Jin Ling shares several similarities with him in terms of personality...

“This time, Wei WuXian could relate to his feelings on a profound level. No matter what creatures haunted this cave, facing them would be much more comfortable than facing Wen Chao and the others.”

lool

I was really bored the first time I read this, so it was extra funny for some reason

Anyways, down the rabbit hole we go.

I once again wonder how anyone knew to even look in this general location for a beast. It’s pretty well hidden.

Poor Mianmian. I guess she doesn’t survive this whole arc, since there’s absolutely no mention of her in the present. But for now, at least, Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji refuse to let them use her as human bait.

geez, though, the Wen people don’t even care if the person is a disciple of their own sect: “he was certain that she wasn’t part of the sect’s clan. She was at most a disciple, so she’d surely be the perfect bait”

Not actually sure which sect she’s from but yeah

kudos to Jin Zixuan though! we finally get to know you!

actually, it seems that the two with the most pride end up being the ones who (literally) make a stand. both him and Lan Wangji are quite proud guys, in different ways.

“Although he didn’t say anything, the way he looked at the disciple was more than imposing. What such a look meant was clear to everyone—it truly is a shame that the GusuLan Sect has taught a disciple like you!”

ooh now we know how the scary Hanguang-jun that Jin Ling is afraid of came about lol.

And of course, Wei Wuxian must jump in and add his two cents. he really is a clever guy, haha, reciting their ancestors at them word-for-word.

“All those who oppress others and do evil relying on the power of their clan should be killed. Not only that, they should be beheaded for tens of thousands to revile so that those to come would beware.”

ironically, Nie Mingjue kills Wen Chao’s older brother, Wen Xu, during the Sunshot Campaign by beheading him as a warning to the Wen sect soldiers.

ha! it comes back to bite you guys in the ass

“You dared say that one of your ancestor’s remarks are absurd and outrageous? Well said, very well said!”

oh, Wei Wuxian, brilliant, but you sure know how to dig your own grave

Jiang Cheng is probably having an aneurysm next to him at this very moment

“Yes, very well, you can go die now.”

you’re going to get yourself killed

scratch that, it’s awesome of him to say all this, but it’s also really dangerous. I love how his character strength (shameless, not caring about the consequences) is a double edged sword. and, as a teenager, he has even less of a filter and capacity for thinking of the consequences

then he kidnaps Wen Chao and even if you manage to get out of this place alive, there’s no guarantee of what will happen afterwards. eep

the beast then rises out of the water, apparently offended by the little humans jumping on its back. lol talk about a cliffhanger! 

(quotes from ExR’s translations)

← back・onward →

[thebigpalooka]

Ah, my sweet Humanity, forgive me!  Regrettably, this take is too hot.  I don't have strong feelings about Longclaw, as we barely see her, but I must defend her honor, at least:

In the original movie, Longclaw was very explicitly HIDING Sonic from the echidnas, because his "power" made him a target. She doesn't really demand anything from him except to keep his power a secret, which ends up having negative consequences - he is lonely and isolated on Earth - but this is NOT because she was trying to raise him to be a weapon. In fact it's basically the opposite. We see her more willing to be overprotective of his power than exploit it. In the novelization, he actually wants to shock the echidnas with his powers when they attack and she STOPS him, saying he doesn't want to live only to destroy, and he's meant for more than chaos.  Her concern is fairly justified, too, in that Sonic does attract the wrong kind of attention by using his power and then has to defend himself. 

LOL I wrote like another eight paragraphs about Sonic 2 lore and EDIT: TRIED TO PUT THEM UNDER A CUT BUT I DON’T THINK IT WORKS WITH TUMBLR’S NEW ‘EXPAND’ FEATURE?? BUT I TRIED! Anyway read on if you like:

Now, the overall lore frankly doesn't quite make sense, but that is because the first film wasn't touching the concept of the Master Emerald/Chaos Emeralds, and all that stuff was retconned in. I don't believe the vagueness of the "Two Clans" backstory has anything to do with any SEGA mandates; it's only vague because it needs to take only a couple minutes of screentime and not make either Sonic or Knuckles' positions too unsympathetic.

So by the second movie, this is all retconned and now Longclaw is the guardian of the Master Emerald.  But even now, at worst, Longclaw was apparently planning to pass the guardianship of the Master Emerald on to Sonic once he grows up, or once she is gone, which unfortunately happens first. She knows he is special, has unique power, a good heart, and he is also the last of "their" clan, being her ward, so this feels ... pretty unsurprising?  Sonic WAS allowed to be as normal a child as possible for as long as possible, and Longclaw apparently did everything she could to both protect him, and guard the Emerald, without resting that additional weight on his shoulders. We have no idea HOW Sonic came to be in her care, but from what we've seen, all she did was, in fact ... take care of him. He was happy and felt safe with her. By contrast, Knuckles spent his life tormented by the burden of what he felt was his 'destiny'. Now, maybe the owls were responsible for the death of Sonic's birth parents, or something, but we're not actually told anything like that. Maybe the echidnas were responsible! Maybe neither. Maybe he was entrusted to her care for other reasons. I'm just not sure where the idea comes from that she was raising him to be a weapon. To the extent she was raising him to be 'a hero', I mean, the kid has superpowers. All we SEE her do is be mindful of that fact. His HUMAN parents are raising him to be a hero, by that token.  And so far as the Master Emerald goes, again, there are none of her clan left, and for better or worse, the Emerald IS incredibly powerful and she's the only one who knows where it is. (Similar to Sonic himself, the owls have been overprotective of the Master Emerald rather than trying to use its power: they have kept it hidden so well, most people apparently no longer believe it exists!) When she literally cannot be the one to guard this important secret any longer, Longclaw leaves it to the one person she trusts and believes in most of all: Sonic, her awesome kid with a heart like nobody she's ever known.   With regard to the owls vs echidnas in general: As far as "Sonic Lore" goes, none of the movie lore exactly matches the games or comics, but to the extent it does, the Echidnas were absolutely in the wrong, in that they were supposed to protect the Master Emerald, but ended up abusing its power for their own gain.   In the movies, unlike the games, the Master Emerald is forged explicitly to be a superweapon in the first place.  That's... kind of bad?  Dangerous, at least. The owls steal it, yes, but there's no suggestion they ever used it against the echidnas, or did anything else with it but hide it, which, again, is kind of a theme of theirs. It was basically a fundamental disagreement about how to handle a superweapon, and the two clans fought each other over it "for centuries". So I'm not sure where the idea of Longclaw massacring echidnas comes from, either. The only time we know about her actually fighting them personally is when they attack her first, in her home, with her child, and they were, by all appearances, willing to kill both her AND Sonic in pursuit of the emerald.  Knuckles even says she was the 'last of the owl warriors', so presumably, the echidnas themselves have already wiped out all the rest of the owls. (This is in the weeds, but the Prequel comic also strongly suggests that other Mobians or whoever, have admiration for the owl clan, or at least Longclaw personally, since Sonic's childhood home has been preserved as a memorial of sorts out of respect for her, EVEN THOUGH by this time, the Master Emerald is apparently considered a legend.) While the Knuckles Clan in the modern day apparently had noble intentions, Knuckles WAS misled about Sonic and by extension, the owls.  The owls also weren't wrong about how dangerous the Emerald could be in the wrong hands, but you could argue they had no right to hide it either. So nobody was evil, nobody was perfect.  That's what makes it so tragic, and the movie seems pretty explicit about this. So tl;dr: I think Longclaw did her best and she loved Sonic very much.  Thanks for your time and sorry for taking too much of it!

Hot, Controversial Take

I don't like Longclaw at all, and from where I'm standing she was essentially raising this kid as a weapon until he could steal the emerald next and continue on her journey massacring echidnas while the echidnas were out trying to get their emerald back.

So like... in that vein... Longclaw is an antagonist and I'm glad Sonic is with parents who don't raise him to be a hero or a guardian. They're raising him to be a kid.

So yeah, I feel like Sonic definitely does miss her, because she was a presence in his life, but I feel like if he ever actually figured out the darker story of why he was even there he'd probably start to feel very, very differently.

[beevean]

So what are your overall thoughts on Forces storywise? Positives and negatives? Where do you think the story ranks in the series?

Maybe it’ll be easier to just list positives and negatives (warning: long post):

Positives:

- Even by watching a low-quality stream of the Switch version, I can say the game looks gorgeous. It does suffer a bit from the Adventure 2 syndrome, where the art direction can bet too dull for you to appreciate the graphics, but some stages are breathtaking. Egg Gate in particular looks amazing.

- While the plot on its own doesn’t belong in this section, I appreciate the simple fact that they actually dared to break from the lighter and softer approach that’s been going on since 2010, and the fact that they remembered that the cast isn’t just made of Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot. The concept was awesome! The tone was perfect, serious but not depressing and too try-hard! There was some action! It’s a step in the right direction, and I hope people will criticize the plot for the right reasons and not because “lol sonic shouldn’t try to be edgy”.

- Shadow will be playable. Even if he’s at his core “Sonic with a OP Light Speed attack” this is very important.

- While at first I was annoyed at seeing old levels again, I’m actually happy with what they’ve done. They’re not just rehashes, they’re treated like actual dynamic environments. Green Hill is not just “hey remember this level”, it’s a place dear to Sonic that was ruined by Eggman. Chemical Plant is also ruined and repurposed as a space port, almost like a Sonic CD Bad Future. Only the Death Egg is pretty much the same, although I admit, the Classic level using the same gimmicks as the S3&K version was a nice touch that I forgave because it made sense in-universe.

- The dialogue! Aside from a couple of stupid lines, mostly by Sonic, there was no trace of childish, jarring humor, nobody was OOC or treated as simple comic reliefs, and the interactions between characters were genuine and believable. Some parts kinda reminded me of the Boom cartoon. “See, Infinite, now we het to know each other! So what’s your favorite color? Do you enjoy long, romantic walks on the beach? What’s the source of your powers? You can skip the first two questions if you like” “Maybe he’ll have more friends if he stopped talking about himself in the third person.” (maybe I just have a bad sense of humor idk :V)

- Eggman and Knuckles were perfect. We didn’t see them a lot, but their characterization was on point. Knuckles was just full of charisma and he radiated confidence, a far cry from the butt monkey he’s been since Sonic X. And Eggman was actually smart, with some clever ideas like having backup sources for the Phantom Ruby, rightfully chewing out Infinite for not killing Sonic, and… well, we didn’t see it, but I like the idea of him keeping Sonic alive in his cell just so he could see what happened to the world thanks to his absence (that’s perfect fanfic fuel). And Mike Pollock managed to sound badass in certain parts. “The sun will fall upon you. Boom! The end. Your pathetic lives… are over.”

- Speaking of Pollock, the voice acting was some of the best in the games this far. I can count on a single hand the times someone sounded fake or unconvincing (mostly Silver, sadly, and Sonic was a bit oscillating). I think I gushed about Liam O’ Brien enough, he clearly had so much fun with Infinite. I can’t wait to hear the Japanese version

- And finally I love Infinite way more than I should. His design, his voice (especially his voice

- I like that thing Infinite did in Capital City. You know, when he mind raped everyone in the city by conjuring those abominations of nature. That was a clever use of his powers.

- The last shot of the game, with the Resistance hideout shining under the sun’s light and a single flower at the center, with the instrumental version of the credits’ song in the background, is honestly moving. Even after the huge disappointment that was the ending, this part made me feel satisfied and like I accomplished something (and I didn’t even play myself). It reminds me of Wiosna from Katawa Shoujo, and if you played it you know how it feels to hear that music after finishing a route.

Neutral:

- The scrapping of lives. I’ve seen people complaining that it makes the game too easy, but

1) there’s still some punishment if you lose a life, just like in Unleashed the timer doesn’t reset and of course you lose all your Rings, so if you die you can kiss that S rank goodbye;

2) lives have been pointless since the introduction of save files. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you got a game over in a game that saved your progress? And what was the punishment for a game over? At worst you just have to restart the level you died in.

So while I’m not particularly happy, I’m not disappointed either and I welcome the change.

- The music. I put it here because it’s kind of a mixed bag, there are tracks that I hate with a passion and tracks that I can’t get enough of (and I’ve only heard a tiny fraction of the whole OST). So overall I would say it’s average-to-good. 

I really wonder why they’re insisting of forcing Ohtani to compose whole soundtracks - the guy is seriously talented and I admire his work, but why can’t he be helped by someone else? I know Kenichi Tokoi and Naofumi Hataya also worked on the soundtrack, but afaik their roles are minimal.

- The Avatar himself. I’d enjoy the idea a lot more if 1) they talked, and 2) the characters stopped shilling them just a tiny bit, especially since everyone else was relegated to the background. Still, the concept of a muggle wanting to help the heroes is cool, as it goes against that sort of “elitism” in the Sonic series. And I just grew too attached to Gadget the Wolf :)

- The level design, the thing people trashed for months on end… it’s okay. Is it good as Generations’? Absolutely not. Is it bad? I don’t think so, because when I think “bad level design”, I think of Knuckles’ Chaotix and Sonic CD. 

Forces is inoffensive in this regard. On one hand, it’s not as linear as it looked like, there are multiple paths and some nice platforming sections. On the other, the 3D parts are few, short and in general not that engaging, and yes, Classic Sonic’s stages are supported by too much automation because the physics engine can’t handle him apparently. In short, if you’re okay with shallow fun and you thought Colors was fine, then you’ll be okay with Forces. (and while we’re not supposed to judge the developers as people, considering the level designers were all newbies I’d say they did a good job)

Negatives:

- the fact that you can’t recollect your rings unless you’re playing as the hedgehog Avatar. That just flies against the very core of the Rings concept.

- The sheer lack of “show, don’t tell”. Most of this game is just told, in fact most part of the plot is told via walkie talkie convos. The majority of the cast is just there to comment and guide the characters during the levels, only Silver is shown actually doing something. The most offensive example is how Eggman conquering the world is “shown” by a simple text box (people are already speculating it’s another sign of troubled production). And we don’t even see that much of the conquered world, either, aside from City (no seriously that’s the name of the area).

- What happened to you, Tails? What happened to the boy who wanted to be more than Sonic’s sidekick? Why the mere sight of Chaos 0 sends you into a panic when you fought Chaos 4 before? Why thinking Sonic is dead makes you “lose it”, when the same thing happened twice already (or once, if you want to discard ‘06) and in both cases you were devastated but still managed to kick ass? Why are you just an exposition fairy? Who hates you that much in the writers’ team? :(

- THE. RUSHING. Oh my god I could rant for hours about how the game not only is too fast-paced, but outright misses chunkes. I already mentioned the text box part, but what about the part where Infinite sends Sonic and the Avatar into null space… and they get out of there in literally ten seconds? What about Fake!Chaos and Fake!Shadow being dispatched like that, without even the simples of boss fights? What about Silver, Shadow and Omega just appearing out of nowhere? What about the “fake sun” plan being thwarted simply by the Avatar after less than ten minutes? What about the relentless teasing of Infinite’s origins, all culminating in a big fat nothing (he didn’t even take off his mask for fuck sake)? What about Eggman just vanishing after the final boss? What about the fact that two thirds of the final boss are rehashes, and at this point I’m seriously insulted by seeing Egg Nega Wisp for the third time?

- Going hand-to-hand with the rushed plot, the wasted potential. Sonic gets tortured in isolation, so you’d expect some consequences to his characterization. Nope! Not even a reveal that he was just hiding his fear by acting tough. Why are Shadow, Chaos and Zavok on Eggman’s side? Lol, they were just illusions, the real Shadow is fine and the others just don’t appear. All the cool hints about a tragic past for Infinite in his own song? Nothing mentioned in-game. He’s an experiment, that’s it. The connection with Mania? Just an excuse to justify the presence of Classic Sonic, whose only purpose in the plot is to snap Tails out of his depression. This game is just begging, “Rewrite me, please!”, and if I could write decently I’d do it myself, I’m that disappointed.

- What’s the deal with Aqua Road? It’s the only gimmick level in the game and it looks like the unholy child of those horrible bingo tables in Bingo Highway and this part in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PC.

- Very minor, but if Eggman could see the fake sun, that means he would’ve been incinerated too. Considering how smart he was otherwise, that seems like a huge hole in his plan.

That’s everything I can think of. So, in conclusion, the game is generally good but overall mixed, and I dread the coming of November 7th because I can’t even imagine the kind of reception this game will get (and since it’ll come right after Super Mario Odyssey I don’t think it will sell well :\). 

I would personally play it if I had the chance because the game doesn’t look broken, boring or frustrating, and if I can manage to have fun with ShTH Forces will definitely be entertaining :V but it’s clear something went seriously wrong during the production and it feels like there are bits of the game missing, bits that could’ve elevated the quality from “good” to “excellent” - which is also why I hope Sonic Team doesn’t throw everything away but keeps the good parts and expands on them to create an even better game next time.

So if you’re planning on getting Forces, ask yourself what do you want to see in a Sonic game, because that’s the thing that makes the difference between “it’s not perfect but I can have fun with this” and “this game is absolute trash and Sonic doesn’t deserve this”.

[icespyders]

Favorite Godzillas, in order?

hmm! i’m only semi-qualified to answer this since i haven’t seen most of the classic godzilla movies, bc there’s a billion of them; i cobbled together a watchlist from a couple best-of lists i found online and i started slowly going through that. but i’ve really liked them so far! also i’m bad at ranking things in lists. so i guess i’ll just ramble about some Godzilla Feelings instead

all together i’ve seen the original, mothra vs godzilla, and ghidorah the three-headed monster, as well as the two recent american ones and shin godzilla. the original is a classic, obv, and imo shin godzilla managed to capture the social/political commentary of the original and translate it to a current-day setting. i really enjoyed the constant evolutions of the godzilla in shin godzilla, and how freaky he looked and how oddly he moved.

as mentioned i really liked mothra vs godzilla and ghidorah the three-headed monster, they’re both really engaging and funny as hell. in mothra vs godzilla, godzilla basically wakes up from a nap and gets hangry and wreaks havoc all over until mothra comes to beat him up (at one point she drags him around by his tail and it’s...it’s just so fucking funny), and then her kids silly-string him half to death. and he falls down all the time and rolls down hills and shit, and his body language is constantly like...oh for fucks sake. jesus. falling down a mountain again, fucking hell. also the closest thing to a moral of the story is Godzilla Says Eat The Rich, and i’m very in favor of that. ghidorah has some awesome sound design (ghidorah’s roar!!! he sounds like a spaceship, which works great since he’s...actually from space lol) and updates to the monster costumes (like how godzilla’s and rodan’s eyes move around!!), and the big Final Showdown is incredibly awesome, and also ghidorah has one of the funniest scenes i’ve ever seen on film, namely mothra begging godzilla & rodan to stop beating each other up for 1 second so they can all go fight king ghidorah before he destroys the earth and godzilla and rodan literally go like “that’s none of our business” and refuse to help until mothra goes by herself and starts getting wrecked. i fucking lost my mind. also the B-plot about the humans involves, for some reason, with little explanation, a space princess from venus or something, and it works somehow, also the main human villain just gets crushed by a rock in the middle of a gunfight with the protag which should be anti-climatic but actually it rules

i have more diverging feelings about the two recent american godzillas; there were parts of the 2014 one i liked, vaguely, a couple cool setpieces and moments etc, and the last fight is fun and almost makes it worth it, i like godzilla’s design, but overall it wasn’t as narratively coherent as it should have been, the human characters weren’t interesting and took up too much time, the MUTOs were like...boring lmao, and NOT ENOUGH GODZILLA, also everything was so bland and gray and boring in terms of color. i mean. godzilla did behead one of those MUTO freaks with atomic breath...but it was too little too late. i got really hyped on my first watch of it bc i was blinded by the adrenaline rush of Big Monster Punch Stuff, but was let down on my second watch when i realized the plot wasn’t that good, actually. but i super enjoyed king of the monsters, i thought it improved infinitely on the current american franchise. cooler fights, more interesting human characters/moments, a great monster line-up, really fun cool monster design choices, really cool music (i love the soundtrack for this movie, holy shit, can’t recommend “old rivals” or “mothra’s song” enough), more dynamic cinematography and colors. and lots of godzilla!!! honestly i love so many of the individual design choices for the monsters; i got such a kick out of ghidorah’s heads each having their own personalities, and i loved how graceful and regal mothra was, and how rodan’s got all those embers and fire accents on him. i thought they were really thoughtful about how to revamp the designs while still staying true to the representations i’ve seen in the classic films; i specifically made sure i watched ghidorah the three-headed monster before i saw king of the monsters bc it’s got the same monster lineup and i wanted to have a sense of the original itinerations of ghidorah and rodan before i saw these new ones. 

(speaking of american godzillas: i’ve never seen the 1998 abomination and i don’t plan on it bc idk what that monster is but it’s not my friend godzilla. that shit’s just a big ugly dinosaur. no thank you)

so i guess if i were to try and rank the ones i’ve watched in order...hmm. i definitely recommend the original, you really can’t go wrong, and the final fight in ghidorah the three-headed monster is incredibly worthwhile. watching the original back-to-back with shin godzilla as a double feature would be really interesting too. i really liked mothra vs godzilla and it’s a direct sequel to the original. maybe avoid the 2014 godzilla but definitely check out king of the monsters if you prefer modern sleeker monster flicks, i know some people can’t get into rubber suit monster movies and find them too cheesy (even tho the cheesy fun is...kind of the point for the vast majority of the franchise...i think godzilla films broadly have real morals about caring for the environment and the consequences of not doing so at their foundations, but also the core conceit is Wouldn’t It Be Sick If These Big Monsters Were Punching Each Other)

i have like a dozen more classic godzilla movies on my watchlist and i’m really excited to see them! next on my agenda is destroy all monsters. thank you for asking and god bless you if you actually read all this!

[sheikah]

What's your opinion on Jon Snow as a character? Stricly as a character, not count on his fans for obvious reasons.

Oh, wow. Thanks so much for this ask!!!!

Hoo boy. Here we go! Hold onto your butts because this is going to be a long one!

Okay, my opinion on Jon Snow is that he is actual perfection and my favorite character–in any fandom–of all time. Full stop. 

I get that some people might be given pause by that statement. On the surface, Jon Snow isn’t all that unique. He’s a standard issue “Romantic hero” character trope and many people probably like him purely because of the unfairly handsome Kit Harington and his portrayal of Jon on screen. And to be fair, that’s definitely part of it for me. His big, sweet, brown eyes and that slight Northern accent do things to me, yall.

But it is so much more than that for me, especially with recent season six developments. I love Jon Snow for a lot of reasons. So let’s break them down.

1. He’s loyal.

Let’s start with his family. Jon is incredibly loyal to his family and loves the Starks. Sure, in the first book and season we see some petulance from him because he resents his outsider status. He is treated appallingly by Catelyn Stark (moreso by book!Catelyn, of course) and is constantly reminded that he is Jon Snow and not Jon Stark. But he still loves the Starks. He particularly loves his siblings, like Robb. One of my favorite Jon moments is the conversation Jon has with Sam in which he reflects on Robb’s character. He talks about how Robb was better than him at almost everything, and that he couldn’t hate him for that because Robb was so good. This is just one example of how even though Jon is pushed to the margins, even when he is outshone and bested by Robb (who gets to be Ned’s heir over Jon), and even Ned won’t tell Jon much about his past and his real family, Jon doesn’t bear them any ill will. He loves them without conditions or reservations.

Compare this with someone like Theon. (Before anyone gets angry, I actually love Theon lol). Theon is a lot like Jon in his upbringing. He is raised in Winterfell, treated generally well, but never allowed to forget that he was not truly a Stark. Theon, like Jon, grew up as something of a second-class man in Winterfell, and is constantly in Robb’s shadow. So what matters here is how both men handle this. Jon continues to offer love to his would-be family. His own quest for self-realization and acceptance take him to The Wall, where he hopes to make a name for himself in a humble but meaningful way. Conversely, Theon ventures back to the Iron Islands originally hoping to earn Robb’s favor. But his dedication to the Starks is thin. A little bit of taunting from Balon gets Theon to turn on the Starks–who are really his family–so that he can finally feel like he belongs, taking his place as a Greyjoy. Jon’s loyalty would never allow this sort of treachery.

Jon is equally loyal to the Night’s Watch. His first real test of this comes when Ned is taken prisoner in King’s Landing, then executed. He wants to abandon the watch to join Robb in his assault on the Lannisters. But Maester Aemon reminds him of the value of loyalty to the watch, telling him of his past as a Targaryen who had to watch his entire family die during Robert’s rebellion. This teaches Jon that everyone at The Wall is an individual with a complex life and motivations and loyalties just like his own. And when he starts to see his brothers that way he becomes unfailingly loyal to them.

His loyalty is, of course, tested again on the range North. When he meets Ygritte, Jon falters in his duty to the Watch because he falls in love with her. But he listens to Qhorin Halfhand, infiltrates the wildling settlement, and never forgets his brothers and the most important of his vows. When it matters, he leaves Ygritte and returns to The Wall–because of his loyalty. But what intrigues me most about Jon is that he isn’t just blindly loyal like say, Allister Thorne. He understands that loyalty to the Watch should have limits, and that needlessly killing wildlings when a greater threat exists reaches that limit. It’s his compassion that brings about reform in the Night’s Watch and changes their relations with the wildlings, which was unprecedented. Because Jon shows mercy to the wildlings after a struggle lasting millenia, he somehow (in my opinion) manages to maintain loyalty to Ygritte and her memory in the process of doing right by his brothers. Because he’s amazing. He’s so loyal to Ygritte’s memory that he refuses sex with Melisandre because his ideals prevent him from entering into that kind of relationship without meaning. I think this quality in him is rare and awesome.

2. He’s a good brother.

I guess this may seem similar to him being “loyal to his family” but I think it’s more than that. Jon is just a better-than-average brother to his siblings and it’s adorable. Our early example is Arya, and the scene with the gif above is one of my favorites in the show AND books. He is observant and kind to his little sister, and understands her uniqueness and her interests. He values them. Jon and Arya are like the black sheep of the family together and it is so sweet! The significance of him getting her a gift that would ordinarily have been for a boy just shows the depth of their relationship and how he wants the best for Arya while he’s gone.

Jon is also considerate and brotherly toward Sansa when they reunite in season six. He is tired–and understandably so. He has just died for god’s sake. He has faced betrayal of the worst kind and is questioning everything. He wants nothing more than to leave, and (as he put it) go someplace “warm.” But when he sees Sansa, his responsibility to his family returns and he is willing to go to war just to help his sister get her home back. He risks his life and that of his men for Sansa’s safety and happiness.

He’s also a close brother and friend to Robb, as I mentioned above, and risks Catelyn’s hatred and scorn to say his goodbyes to Bran before going to The Wall. When Ramsay has Rickon in season six, Sansa pragmatically insists that they can’t save him, but Jon refuses to give up on his little brother and risks everything to try to save him.

So even though they aren’t his full siblings, he’s very dedicated to them and selfless in his defense of and love for them.

3. He’s a feminist.

Okay. This may seem silly in a show that is set in a fictional version of medieval Europe, but it’s true. Jon Snow is down with feminism. How do I know? Look at his relationship with Ygritte. His first relationship ever is with a woman who holds most of the power. She is fierce, outspoken, and very aggressive, and Jon accepts these traits without judgment. It isn’t because he’s weak. He isn’t “whipped” (to use a modern term that I absolutely loathe, by the way). We know this because he is the one to leave her when he must. But he loves her without needing to possess or tame her. Her “wildness” is what he loves about her. He likes that she fights and swears and that she is comfortable in her sexuality. He doesn’t expect a meek, submissive, courtly lady who would gladly and quietly be a good wife. He respects Ygritte’s opinions and arguably is influenced and changed by them–to the point of convincing the entire institution of the Night’s Watch to alter its stance on wildlings. Additionally, he is aware of her colorful sexual history, and rather than being put off be it, he accepts it. Because he knows that women are not just sitting about lying in wait for their husbands. He treats her like an individual, like himself. Plus, he’s a giver in other ways. How about that “Lord’s Kiss?” Lol.

We can also see Jon’s feminism in his treatment of his sisters. He knows that Arya doesn’t want to conform to standard gender roles, and that she doesn’t want to be a delicate lady like Sansa. Instead of chastising Arya for this as the rest of her family does, he encourages her to follow her heart when he gives her a sword, so she can hone her fighting skills like she wants to. When he sees Sansa again, he agrees to fight for her and values her perspective. It’s true that he doesn’t necessarily ask her for advice on the eve of the Battle of the Bastards, and she is angry about this. But when she calls him out on it, Jon accepts her criticism and hears her out. The problem here is that she doesn’t trust him, and doesn’t reveal her alliance with Littlefinger. So her input ultimately amounts to nothing. But Jon is willing to hear what she has to say about a battle. That’s more than we can say for many Westerosi men.

What’s more, after the battle, when Lyanna Mormont declares Jon King in the North, he actually looks to Sansa–almost as if seeking her approval–before standing to accept the praise from the Northern lords. He knows that Sansa is the true Stark heir and he respects her authority, even as a woman. He puts that before his own gain, even when he is set up to receive what he has wanted all his life–a rightful place as the head of the Stark family. He considers her own wishes even when killing Ramsay–realizing that Sansa deserves that revenge. He is so intent on letting Sansa be the one in charge that he asks her to take the Lord’s bedroom once they have taken back Winterfell. But Sansa, like a gracious sister, seems just as willing to let Jon take the lead. They seem set up to share governance and power in the North very well and I love that he sees his sister (yes I know they are really cousins–they don’t know that though :P) as an equal.

4. He’s just.

Jon’s compassion, loyalty, and general sweetness do not prevent him from displaying a strong, imposing character with a keen sense of justice. He has strong ideas of right and wrong and does not flinch on them, regardless of potential consequences. I have already outlined above how admirable I think it is that he defends the wildlings and brings them into the fold. But he can also be tough when it matters.

When Stannis is having Mance Rayder burned at the stake, Jon ends his suffering because he understands that a tortuous death is not fitting for a man like Mance who is not evil or dangerous. The scene is very Last of the Mohicans and really indicative of Jon’s strong character.

When Janos Slynt defies him in front of the other brothers, questioning Jon’s authority as Lord Commander, Jon executes him because it is necessary to establish his authority and maintain safety and order in the Watch.

After they assassinate him, Jon hangs Ser Allister, Ollie, and the other traitors even though it takes a serious, personal toll on him to kill a young boy. He knows that it is necessary and he values justice, as any good leader should. And like Ned, he understands that despite how hard it can be, he himself must always be the one to carry out the sentence and “swing the sword.”

5. He’s a total badass.

There is something satisfying about a character who is a badass fighter. Jon is sort of like a younger, hotter Aragorn haha. One of my favorite moments in the entire show is when he kills the White Walker in “Hardhome.” It was such an intense bit of action that is hard to forget. Jon is so impressive that even the Night King is threatened. That’s saying something!

6. He’s a romantic.

Jon’s dialogue with Ygritte, in both the book and the show, is some of my favorite dialogue in the whole series. It’s so sweet and one of the rare, meaningful ships we have had in the show. I love their relationship and how obvious it is that he loves her, and the whole “forbidden love” aspect–that he is willing to break this vows to be with her. That’s one of my favorite tropes, even if it is overdone. 

And it isn’t just while they are together, either. Jon’s continued dedication to Ygritte, as evidenced by him taking the time to give her a proper burial North of the Wall and his refusal to have sex with Melisandre, shows how enduring his love for her is, and how much love in general matters to Jon. I feel like since he spent a lot of his life feeling alone or left out, finding love and acceptance means more to him than it does to the average person.

This is one of the reasons why I am so excited for the potential he has with Daenerys in the future. I think that both of them could finally find the family they’ve always wanted in each other, and that it will be just as romantic and wonderful as his time with Ygritte. Probably even better :)

7. He is fucking sexy.

Okay I mentioned earlier that this is superficial, but I don’t care. It’s still true. I love Jon Snow in part because he is so pretty to look at. He is a smol god among men, and his smile is a gift that must be cherished. You could grate cheese on his abs. Seriously, Jon looks equally tasty all grungy and bloody as he does clean-shaven and young in season one. Thank the old gods and the new.

8. He isn’t perfect.

This one is important. All of the things I said above are true and awesome, but Jon has done some questionable things. It was silly for him to try to run away from the Watch in season one. It was foolish for him to keep Ser Allister close despite his obvious aggression once Jon became Lord Commander. It was reckless for Jon to charge an entire army by himself to try to save Rickon, who would clearly die. These are just some “wtf, Jon?” moments. But they are important. A character is (to me) boring and unrealistic if they are “too perfect.” Take for example Steve Rogers/Captain America. When I first got into the MCU I didn’t understand the hype because I found Captain America to be boring and vanilla because he was too perfect–too pretty, too kind, etc. After taking some time with his character in the comics and in more movies my opinion changed, but the point stands. A character needs some flaws to be interesting. And Jon’s flaw is that he is sometimes compromised by his love for others. But that’s okay. I love him anyway.

Some final thoughts …

I am not sure why in your question, anon, you said, not to count Jon’s fans “for obvious reasons,” when asking my opinion of Jon. Most people I have met on tumblr who share my love for Jon Snow are great people! There are some exceptions, of course! But take for example the jonerys fandom. I probably made it pretty clear above that I am a jonerys shipper. I am in the #jonerysnetwork now and it is the nicest group of people I have met in any fandom. ASOIAF are big books–mostly read by intelligent, adult people. So I feel like a lot of people in this fandom are intelligent, adult people. Being intelligent and a grownup usually requires thoughtfulness and thoughtful people are, well, nice! I love Jon Snow and for the most part, I love his fans! There are things like ship wars and whatnot, and I do hate that. Particularly when antis post things and tag them in the jonerys tag, etc. But overall my experience in this fandom has been great and I cherish the friends I have made here. So, anon, I hope that soon you find that you feel the same way (if you don’t already and if I’m not misunderstanding the intent of your question).Anyway, long story short: Jon Snow is the truth and we fans of his are quality humans. 

Thank you so, so much for asking about my hubby and absolute fave. Sorry for the essay!

P. S. I did add a cut to this so I apologize for the wall of text that shows up for some folks on mobile. Idk why that is. 

[luluuu-blog]

P.Jaisini-smiles-GIG-NYC2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MANIFESTO GLEITZEIT 2015 BY STELLY RIESLING Featured below is another original art work of mine in homage to THE PIONEER OF INVISIBLE ART — PAUL JAISINI. Forget all the copycats that came after him — Master Paul Jaisini was the *FIRST* of a totally original concept and the *BEST*. My favorite thing about him is that he’s a voice, not an echo, which is quite rare. DISCLAIMER: This is for anyone who is a hater OR wishes to better understand me, what I’m all about, so you can decide whether I’m weird or normal enough for you — a kind of very loose manifesto, rushed and unrevised, full of raw uncut emotion that I don’t like to be evident in my writing as lately I prefer a more professional, formal style, so we can consider this a rough draft of the more polished writing to come when I have extra time. I might return to this text later and clean it up or break it into separate parts. Right now it’s a long-winded hot mess, so if you manage to make any sense of it, BIG PROPS TO YOU. lol …and if you manage to read it ALL, you have my solemn respect!!! in a day when reading has been reduced to just catchy headliners and short captions of images once in a while. The consequence of this one-liner internet culture is non-linear, tunnel thinking, which is baaaaaad. There lives among us a most enigmatic and charismatic creature named Paul Jaisini who led me into the wonderful world of art, not personally, but through descriptions of his artworks in essays written and published online by his friend, which painted the most fascinating images in my mind. Early on as a kiddo, I experimented with photography, simple point and shoot whatever looked attractive to me. Digital manipulation of my photographs with computer software followed… and somehow I learned useful drawing techniques along the way to combine existing elements with nonexistent ones, which allowed me to elevate the context for my ideas. Later, I started creating my own digital art from scratch for my friends and family as a favorite pastime. They would shower me with praise and repeatedly encouraged me to share my “different” vision with the rest of the world… it took a while and wasn’t easy to overcome the insecurity of not being good enough along with a gripping fear of being harshly criticized, but one day I woman-ed up and started publishing my work on the web, reminding myself that my livelihood didn’t depend on a positive reception. Paul Jaisini’s role in all this has been to not disgrace myself, even if what I do is just a hobby. And I would never do him and other genius artists the disservice of calling myself a professional because I know I’ll never be as good as any of the GIANTS of pre-modern history. Be the best or be nothing, no middle ground. People’s jealousy in the past, future and present over my obsessive love of Paul Jaisini, which they are well aware is purely plutonic, has caused them to despise the man and has made many relationships/friendships impossible for me. I refuse to have such people in my life because by harboring any negativity towards Paul, they unknowingly feel that way about me and express it to me. It’s their own problem for not realizing this. Paul’s new art movement, Gleitzeit, shaped me into the allegedly awesome girl I am today, giving my art more edge, more “sexy” because it refined my vision of the world and propelled me to attain the skills necessary to not dishonor my family name through tenacious pursuit of perfection. Since the beginning of my life, I attempted to depict what I saw in visual, musical and literal forms, but continuously failed without adequate training and determination. Paul Jaisini’s Gleitzeit was the answer to my prayers. Who I am today I owe mostly to him and his selfless ideals of the artverse that I’ve given unconditional loyalty to (he has this cool ability for hyper-vision to see whole universes, not itty bitty worlds, hence I call it an artverse instead of art world, with him in mind). So again, anyone who hates Paul Jaisini hates ME because, regardless of what he means to you, he is the most important person in my life for making me ME. The way a famous actor, dancer or singer inspires others to act, dance or sing, Paul inspired me to become a better artist, better writer, better everything. More people would understand if he was a household name because they’re wired to in society. But we’re inspiring each other all the time in our own little communities without being famous, so if someone has the ability to change even ONE person’s life immensely with creativity, it is a massive achievement. And passionate folks like myself are compelled to scream it from the cyber rooftops. So here I am. It’s whatever. Furthermore, I’d like to address here a few pressing matters in light of some recent drama brought on by both strangers and former friends. To start, I never judge the passions, interests or likes of others, which are often in my face all over the place, so likewise they have no right to judge any of mine. It is quite unfortunate and frustrating how very little understanding and education the majority of people have or want to have. Their logic is as primitive as a chipmunk when it comes to promotion of fine art on the web: “spamming, advertising, report!” It’s their own problem that they fail to understand what it’s about due to the distorted lens through which they see the world or inability to think for themselves; an inherent lack of perception or inquisitiveness. Well, guess what? Every single image, every animation, every video, every post dedicated to Mr. Paul Jaisini and “Gleitziet” (to elaborate: a revolutionary new art movement Paul founded with his partner in crime and personal friend, EYKG, who discovered him and believed in him more than anyone) has an important purpose. Every one of those things you run across is a piece of a puzzle, a move in a game, an inch down a rabbit hole; the deeper you go, the more interesting it gets; the more levels you pass, the more clues unfold, the greater the suspense and nearer the conclusion (yet further). You earn awesome rewards like enlightenment, spiritual revelations, truths, knowledge, wisdom and the most profound reward of all: the drive to improve yourself to the absolute maximum, so an unending, unshakable drive. People often make a wrong turn in this cyber game and go back a few levels or get stuck. Those that keep on pushing, however, will come to find the effort has been worth it. And what awaits you in the end of it all? The greatest challenge to beating the game: YOUR OWN MIND. You will be forced to let go of every belief you held before you had reached the last level, to completely alter your mindset and perception of the world, of life, of yourself. But by the time you’ve gotten to that point, it will be as easy as falling off a cliff! (It is a kind of suicide after all — death and rebirth of spirit.) Paul Jaisini does NOT, *I repeat* does NOT use mystery and obscurity to his advantage as a clever marketing ploy, no, he’s too next level for that with a consciousness so rich, he should wear a radioactive warning sign (he’ll melt your brain, best wear a tinfoil hat in his presence as I certainly would.) The statement he makes is loud and clear, hidden in plain site for those who take the time to connect the dots and have enough curiosity to fuel their journey into unknown territory (an open mind and flexible perception helps a lot). Actually, anyone with an IQ above 90 is sure to figure it out sooner or later. Hint: You don’t have to SEE an extraordinary thing with your eyes to know it exists, to understand it and realize its greatness — you can only feel it in your bone marrow, your spinal fluid, your heart and soul. The moment you do figure it out, as the skeleton key of the human soul, it will unlock the greatness and massive potential buried deep within, changing the doomed direction humanity is undoubtedly headed. I don’t speak in riddles, I speak in a clear direct way that intelligent humans will understand, so I’m counting on them. GIG is an international group of artists and writers that support Paul Jaisini’s Gleitzeit. We started off as an unofficial fan club of Jaisini in 1996, comprised of only 6 individuals spanning 3 countries, and eventually escalated in status to an official fan group across the entire globe. A decade later it had grown to hundreds of fans. Nearly another decade later, there are thousands. Let’s not leave out another delightful group of vicious haters that have been around for nearly as long as us since the late 90s and have also grown in impressive numbers. Now, for the record (and please write this one down because I’m sick of repeating myself), Paul Jaisini himself is not part of our group and has nothing to do with us. He loves and hates us equally for butchering his name and making him appear as a narcissistic nut-job in his own words. He casts hexes on us for the blinding flash we layer over the art that members contribute to GIG — “disgusting-police-lights, seizure-inducing-laser-lightshow, bourgeois-myspace-effects retarded-raver shit” in Paul’s words. Ahh, how we love his sweet-talking us. In a desperate attempt to please him, those among us who make the art and animations have spent countless hours and sleepless nights trying to solve a crazy-complex quantum-physics type of equation = how to not create tacky or tasteless content. He does fancy some of it now, we got better, that’s something! In the reason stated below, our mission just got out of hand at some point. What little is known about Paul Jaisini, even in all this time, is he’s a horrible perfectionist who slaughtered hundreds of innocent babies — I mean — artworks of remarkable beauty created by his own right hand (mostly paintings, some watercolors and drawings). He’s a fierce recluse who wants nothing to do with anyone or anything in life. But those few of us who know of an incredible talent he possesses (one could go as far as calling it a superpower), could not allow him to live his life without the recognition he FUCKING DESERVES more than any artist out there living today and, arguably, yesterday. We use whatever means necessary to reach more people, lots of flash and razzle-dazzle to lure them into our sinister trap of a higher awareness. Mwahaha! The visual boom you’ve witnessed in both cyber and real worlds, that is GIG’s doing — two damn decades of spreading an art virus — IVA. InVisibleArtitis… or a drug as in Intravenous Art. It’s whatever you want it to be, honey. Our Gleitzeit International Group (GIG) started off innocently enough and gradually spiraled out of control to fight the haters, annoying the hell out of them as much as humanly possible. They don’t like what we do? WE DO MORE AND MORE OF IT. But never without purpose, without a carefully executed plan in mind collectively. If we have to tolerate an endless tidal wave of everyone’s vomit — e.g., idiotic memes and comics; dumbed-down one-liner quotes; selfies; so-called “art photography” passed through one-click app filters; mindless scribbles or random splatters by regular folks who have the nerve to call themselves serious/pro artists; primitive images of pets, babies, landscapes, random objects, etc… then people sure as shit are gonna tolerate what we put out, our animated and non-animated visual art designed for our beloved master, Paul Jaisini, who has shown us the light, the right path to follow, taught us great things and done so much for us — and so in our appreciation of him, we stamp his name on everything, for the sacrifices he has made in the name of art, to save our art verse, he’s a goddamn hero. There’s a book being written in his dedication where little will be left to the imagination about him. If Paul Jaisini was as famous as Koons or Hirst, for example, people would know it’s not him posting stuff online with his name on it but fans creating fanart like myself among others. But noooooo, such a thing is unfathomable to most people – the promotion of another artist. Like, what’s in it for us? Uhh, nothing?? This is all NON-PROFIT bitches, the way art should be. It’s a passion FIRST, a commodity/commercial product/marketable item LAST and least. Its been that way for us since the early 90s to this day. Not a single member of GIG has sold an art work (neither has Paul Jaisini who’s a true professional) and we want to keep it that way. We do it for reasons far beyond ego. So advertising? Really? How the hell do you advertise or sell thin air, you know, invisible paintings, invisible anything? Ha ha, very funny indeed. The idea here is so simple, your neighbor’s dog can grasp it. Our motives: replace fast food for the mind with fine art, actual fine art. You know, creativity? Conscious thought? Talent? Skill? Knowledge? All that good stuff rolled into one to bring viewers more than a momentary ooohand aaahh reaction. Replace the recycled images ad nauseum; repetitious, worn-out ideas; disposable, gimmicky, money-driven fast art for simpletons. Stick with the highest of ideals and save the whole bloody planet. Fine art is often confused with craft-making. This often creates bad blood between classically trained artists who put out paintings that leave a lasting impression, that make strong conversation pieces, that are thought-provoking and deep… and trained craftspeople whose skills are adequate to create decorative pieces for homely environments — landscapes, still lifes, animals, pretty fairies, common things of fantasy, and other simplicity. Skills alone are not enough for high art, you need a vision, a purpose, the ability to tell a story with every stroke of your brush that will both fascinate and terrify the viewers, arousing powerful emotions, illuminating. I have yet to see a visible painting in my generation that does anything at all for me, other than evoke sheer outrage and disgust. What a terrible waste of space and valuable resources it all is. Paul Jaisini leads, we follow. He wishes to remain unknown – so do most of us. I’m next in line, slipping into recluse mode, no longer wanting to attach my face, my human image to my art stuff. I wish to be a nameless, faceless artist as well, invisible like P.J., and in his footsteps I too have destroyed thousands of my own artistic photography and digital art made with tedious, labor-intensive handwork. The whole point of this destruction is achieving the finest results possible by letting go of the imperfect, purging it on a regular basis, to make way for the perfect. I love what I do so it doesn’t matter, I know I’ll keep producing as much as I’m discarding, keeping the balance. Hoarding is an enemy of progress, especially the digital kind as there’s absolutely no limit to it. It’s like carrying a load of bricks on your back you’ll never use or need. The watering down of creativity that digital pack ratting has caused as observed over the years is most tragic. For the creative individual, relying on terabytes of stock photos or OSFAP as I call them (Once Size Fits All Photos) instead of making your own as you used to when you had no choice, being 100% original, is a splinter in the conscience. It’s not evil to use stock of, say, things you don’t have access to (outer space, deep sea, Antarctica, etc.), but many digital artists I know today can’t take their own shot of a pencil ‘cause they “ain’t got no time for that!” How did they have time before? Did time get so compressed in only a decade? Ohhhhh, and the edits, textures, filters, plug-ins and what-have-you available out there to everyone and their cats… are responsible for the tidal wave of rubbish that eclipses the magnificent light of the real talents. I can tell you with utmost sincerity there is no better feeling on earth than knowing your creation is ALL yours, every pixel and dot, from the first to the last. It’s not always possible to make it so, but definitely the most rewarding endeavor. I’m most proud of myself when I can accomplish that. Back to Paul Jaisini, from the start there have been a number of theories floating around on what his real story is. One of my own theories is that he stands for the unknowns of the world who can’t get representation, can’t get exhibited at a decent gallery because highly gifted/trained artists aren’t good enough – those kind of establishments prefer bananas, balloon dogs, feces, gigantic dicks/cunts, and all kinds of what-the-fucks… So again, you don’t get the Paul Jaisini thing? That’s your problem. Don’t hate others for getting it. People are good, very good, at making baseless assumptions and impulsively spewing it as truth. They criticize and judge as if they’re high authorities on the subject yet they clearly lack education in fine art or art history and possess little to no talent or skill to back up their bullshit. My little “credibility radar” never fails. When they say I know this or I know that, I reply don’t say “I know” or state things as fact as a general rule of thumb – instead say “I assume/believe” and state the reasons you feel thus to appear less immature, especially about a controversial topic like invisible art. I have zero respect or tolerance for egomaniacs who think they know it all and act accordingly like arrogant pricks. Who can stand those, right? Once again, a good example would be: I, Stelly Riesling, believe everything I’ve written in this little manifesto to be correct based on personal experience and observation from multiple angles, thorough research and sufficient data collected from verifiable sources (and don’t go copying-pasting my own words back at me, be original). Just because you or I say so doesn’t make it so. Just because you or me think or believe so doesn’t make it true or right. I only ask that my opinions are regarded respectfully and whoever opposes them does so in a mature, civilized manner. We should only be entitled to opinions that don’t bring out the worst in us. I don’t normally take such a position, but the time has come to stand up for what I believe in! It’s quite amusing and comical how haters think calling me names, attacking me or my interests or members of the project I’m part of for years is going to change something. It only makes more evident the importance of what I’m doing so I push on harder still. Words of advise to those who can identify with me, with my frustrations over people’s reluctance to change their miserable ways, with our declining art world… DON’T waste time on people who sweat the small stuff, whose actions are consistently inconsistent with their words. DO waste time on people who always keep their eye on the ball—the bigger picture of life. Paul Jaisini’s invisible paintings are more than hype, more than your lame assumptions. Here’s one I got that’s pure gold: a cult! It started out as A JOKE OF MINE that was used against me. I told a then-good friend that he should come join our little “art cult” in a clearly lighthearted manner, and later he takes this idea I put in his head first and accuses me of being in an (imaginary) cult—the jokes on me eh?. But wait, aren’t cults religious? Our group consists of people around the world of different faiths (or none at all) so how could that ever work? If religion was about making fine (non-pop) art mainstream and bringing awesome, fresh, futuristic concepts to the collective consciousness, the world would not be so fucked up today because talent, creativity, originality and individuality would be the main focus, not superficial poppycock; those things would be praised and encouraged and supported in society by all institutions, not demonized and stigmatized. Here is one thing I CAN state as solid fact: only one person close to Paul Jaisini knows the TRUE story, or at least some of it: EYKG. Everything else that has ever been said about him is myth, legend, gossip, speculation, the worst of which is said by jealous non-artists (wannabes, clones, posers, hang-ons, unoriginal ppl in general) and anti-artists (religious psychos, squares, losers and -duh- stupid ppl). Sadly, people are unable to see the bigger picture by letting their egos run their lives or repeating after others as parrots. Commercial art, consumerism, and ignorance of the masses truly makes me want to curl up in a ball, not eat or drink or move until I die, just die in my sleep while dreaming of a better world, a world where real fine artists rule it with real fine art as they used to and life is beautiful once again…. Well I hope that settled THAT for now, or perhaps inadvertently made matters worse. I hope I didn’t sound too pissed from all these issues that keep popping up like penises on ChatRoulette… just got to me already! Can you tell? I had to put my foot down, stomp ‘em all! To be continued, still lots more ignorance and pettiness to battle… Till then peace out my bambini. MWAH! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MANIFESTO GLEITZEIT 2015 PROLOGUE Paul Jaisini was like a messiah, as you wish, who saw/understood the impending end and complete degeneration of Fine art or Art become and investment nothing more than that. He predicted the bubble pops art when everybody would eventually become an artist, including dogs cats and horses, because they as kids followed the main rule: express yourself without skills or knowledge or any aesthetic concerns. J. Pollack started pouring paints onto canvases; Julian Schnabel, former cab driver from NY, suddenly decided he could do better than what he saw displayed in galleries, so he started gluing dishes on canvases; A.Warhol, an industrial artist who made commercial silk-screen for the factories he worked in, started to exhibit "Campbell’s soup" used for commercial adds… and later the thing that made him an "American Idol": by copying and pasting Hollywood celebrities (same type of posters he made before for movie theaters). When Paul Jaisini stood out against the Me culture in the US by burning all of his own 120 brilliant paintings (according to the then-new director of Fort Worth MoMa Museum, who offered hin an exhibition of his art in 1992, and later the Metropolitan Museum curator, Phillippe de Montebello, in 1994).Paul probably assumed all fellow true fine artists would join him or stand by him against corruption of the art world. And after 20 years of his stand-off…the time has finally come today. Many artists and humanitarians around the world took a place beside him. His invisible Paintings became a synonym for the future reincarnation of fine art and long lost harmony. The establishment is in panic! The "moneybags" (as Paul Jaisini named them) are in panic, because they invested BILLIONS of dollars in real crap made by craftsmen. Now they realize that the reputation of American legends of expressionism was nothing but a copy of Russian avant-garde" Kazimir Malevich, Vasiliy Kandinsky and tens of others from France and Germany.. US tycoon investors were spending billions on "Me more original, than you". "Artist Shit" is a 1061 artwork by the Italian artist Piero Manzoni. The work consists of 90 tin cans, filled with feces. A tin can was sold for £124,000, 180,000 at Sothebys, 2007. EPILOGUE Before I resume promoting and admiring a very important art persona on today’s international art arena, I’d like to clear up some BIG questions; people ask continuously and subconsciously, directly & indirectly: "Why does the name Paul Jaisini, flood the Internet in such "obnoxious" quantities that it’s started suppressing some other activities that my friends might share with the rest of the Internet’s Ego Me only Me www society? I can’t just answer this… so I’ll try to explain why I’m writing this: Jaisini’s followers keep posting art and info about, He IMHO the only hope in quickly decomposing visual fine art. "Paul Jaisini realized many years ago, in 1994, when he declared (at that time to himself only) the start of a New era, a New vision, that he is trying to redirect from the rat race, started by an establishment in post-war New York, long before the Internet culture. Sub related information: Adolf Gottlieb, Mart Rothko, etc (after visiting Paris France in 1933): "We must forget analytical art, we must express ourselves, as a 5 year old child would, without a developed consciousness. Forget about results – do what you feel, EXPRESS yourself with your own unique style" With this statement Mark Rothko starts to teach his students, degeneration of fine art begins, and the generation of war of styles took a start signal of the material race, greatly rewarded by establishment "individual" – eccentric craftsmen – show business clowns. Sub related Information: In the summer of 1936, Adolf Gottlieb painted more than 800 paintings, which was 20X more than he created in his whole art career as a painter, starting from the time of Gottlieb becomes a founding member of "The Ten" group in NYC "Group of Ten" was a very peculiar, enigmatic group… Based on a religious point of view;(where a human figure was prohibited from being created) GLOSSARY IN 1997, Paul Jaisini’s best friend Ellen Y.K.Gottlieb started a cyber campaign by promoting on a very young Internet, back then, Paul Jaisini’s burned paintings as Invisible Paintings, visible only through poetic essays. She and a handful of people saw his originals and were devastated that nobody could ever see them again. "We, his fans, believe that someday Paul will recreate his 120 burned paintings if he has any decency and moral obligation to his fans, who have dedicated decades to make it happen, for their Phoenix to rise from the ashes and the whole world will witness that all these years we spent to get him back to re-paint the Visuals again were not in vain," – said E.Y.K.Gottlieb in 2014 during the 20th anniversary celebration of Invisible Paintings to GIGroup in NYCity. So now, hopefully, this clears up why I and others do what we do – our "cyber terrorism" of good art, dedicated to Paul Jaisini’s return, which is & and was our mission & our goal. We post good art to fight "troll art" which is worthless pics, after being passed through 1-click filters of free web apps. We are, in fact, against this www pops pollution, done with "bubble art" by the out of control masses with 5 billon pics a day: Pics of cats, memes, quotes,national geographic sunsets and waterfalls, not counting their own daily "selfies: and whatever self-indulging Me-ego-Me affairs, sponsored happily by photo gadget companies like Canon, Nikon, Sony…who churn out higher quality madness tools at lower cost. This way Government taking away attention from the real world crisis of lowest morality & economical devastation. The masses are too easily re-engineered/manipulated by the Establishment PopsStyle delivered to them by pop music and Hollywood "super" stars. In 1992 Paul Jaisini’s Gleitzeit theory predict such a massive, pops self-entertain madness, following technological explosion, but not in illusive scales. Uber Aless @2015 NYC USA NOTE Date’s numbers and events can be slightly inaccurate. #gleitzeit #paul-jaisini #invisible #painting #art #futurism #art-news,

Posted by E_Y_K_G on 2015-03-28 04:43:10

Tagged: , smile ,

The post P.Jaisini-smiles-GIG-NYC2015 appeared first on Good Info.

[ts-crossroads]

Episode Six - “No One Tell Karma Anything I Just Said” - Autumn

Ok i'm so goddamn bipolar. I trust Ned, alot. Ok Ned is amazin, like I see why Sarah liked him. So my problem is there is prob a swap, and I wan't my ass to go to exile. Like it is guarenteed saftey. So I claimed that shit. But I feel bad bc if I do, I leave Ned behind. Leaving Ned behind makes me feel like shit, and prob makes him like not like me as much. And I truly don't wanna leave him behind, I just wanna be safe. Like this entire game, I have felt wishy-washy. Like I don't know where anyones head is at. And furthermore, I love Brandon, don't get me wrong, but I feel like he would tell people that I am good w/ him and this is just my prediction bc his tribal q&a he went off. And he is bubbly and talkative, and just a bit too talkative. So I can just sense a target on my back bc of him. And just omg. I want to be exiled away 2 hell pls. And tbh i prob pissed off my entire tribe. Lol

I know I just said that I'll never trust Sam but I kinda trust her now. Me: I can't fall for Sam's tricks again. My brain: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/survivorsucks/imageproxy.php?url=http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah305/jeff_pROBOTst/lisi%20survivor%20fail%20gif_zpspbkboevo.gif?t=1433290937 Also JOHNNY went home?!!?! THE FRAT ALLIANCE NEVER EVEN SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY! I'll avenge you Johnny. A frat guy will win this season, mark my words.

I feel like there’s some kind of secret redemption island or outcasts twist happening tbh

Omf this swap couldn’t have worked out better. So it’s me, Jake, Chris, and John. Me and Jake are tight af and one of the first things Chris comes to tell me is he wants to work with me and Jake to get John out cuz John is pissed at Chris for lying to him about that last vote. So I’m like “YASSSSSS” in my mind. But on the outside I’m just like. O yea. That sounds cool. Let’s do that. Anyways. If we do end up losing this tribal it’s all good. I want me and Jake to be able to make it to merge. And John is one of the people I need to take revenge on for taking out Emily. He shows regret for it now. But in the end it doesn’t matter. He still did it.

Another swap and yet again I find myself in a tough spot. Last time I had at least autumn who I knew would vote with me. Now I have John who I just lied to and literally put on the block in case Johnny played an idol. Why the fuck would he work with me? The answer is he WONT. He’s gonna campaign to jakee and Bryan to get me out. Lucky for John, Bryan already doesn’t trust me! So my key here is Jake. If I get Jake on my side I stand a chance. Worst case scenario, I whip out my idol and guarantee I merge. I’m not tryna be like Johnny and get voted out with an idol... hell no. I’m here to make the merge. If I can just reunite with my people I’m set. I got autumn, ned, Haley, Ryan, and Brandon on lock. I possibly have Dane. I gotta work on jake man. Jake is my key to merge. 

OWEN HOW DARE YOU!!! WE WE ARE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!! http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/12/2691AE1E00000578-2991334-image-m-16_1426163660149.jpg He is so ugly for this/ I specifically told him not to. WE JUST FUCKING SWAPPED!?!?! Y'all don't understand I've been on every tribe in the past week and I'm tired. Every time I create a good spot and feel halfway good about myself, a twistos twist fucks it up and I'm not as young as these other kids. My trash iPhone 5S and I need to be seated and given a warning every time because we really do short circuit when things pop off. My Skype crashes as much as ocean waves whenever shit hits the fan and like my heart is already about to stop anyway from all the Coca Cola I drink and chronic stress I've endured for the past 23 years but like... that's all the more reason to not do so many swaps or at least give me a goddamn warning. I was at work and when I opened the app to see a Optio Tribe chat at the top of my messages?? https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D4K3XRRUIfI/WSs5kEir86I/AAAAAAAAEG4/O8CAhB5P57gO7RGi9aiGx_A7ZZxI0ReTgCLcB/s1600/giphy3.gif NOT TO MENTION work and Athena All Stars are competing to be the ultimate bane of my existence so if Crossroads could like not join the running, that'd be great. Like am I on a tribe of people I like trust? Yes, yes I am- miracles happen everyday. But am I now separated from Ned AND Chris?? Yes and that's not funny. Do I have to start over for the THIRD TIME in this game? Yes I do and the next announcement better be merge or I'll scream

I cannot believe I did THAT, I’m so proud of myself!!! I’ve never won a comp like that before! And I can’t believe chris got it a minute after me! Original impala is here to compete and win! I’m so glad we are safe especially during this double tribal, I’m shook. Ned and I will be the only ones to have never been to tribal after this!! And honestly I love ned so much, he’s definitely my f2. I’ve talked very little to Haley or Ryan so I’m glad we don’t have tribal here. 

I really slept in and woke up to find that not only did Optio lose the challenge, but now I have to pick between 3 allies and get a majority before they start talking and realize I know all of them well and am the smartest bet to send home https://media.tenor.com/images/1e425f0991c66cd840f78b389e84f5c9/tenor.gif I mean Brandon will read all of this eventually but the vote is him because Imperium ties run deep and feminism. I've been aligned with Dane from the jump #kidsnextdoor so when we got reunited, he was ecstatic to see me and was down to do whatever if we lost. That kinda loyalty is hard to find soooo I can't vote him out. Rebecka and I have history (which only Chris knows about) and played most of Athena Himalayas together so voting her out is just fake. I trust her waaaay more than any of these people so I have to put my money where my mouth is and prove my loyalty. Her and I never got it right in Himalayas so I'm not voting her out or dropping her name. Does this mean I'm betraying Brandon? Yes and that sucks. Is it better than the consequences of betraying Dane or Rebecka? Absolutely I've also learned that Brandon flipped votes to get Rhone out, which spooked Rebecka, and Dane is very committed to our old alliance so when I told him Chris and Brandon were tight, he wasn't having it. Also he's got bigger problems like his beef with Julia so he has to stay around I wanna watch that up close hahaha. Brandon's a great competitor so as great of a friend/ally as he is, I can't beat him in the end (not that he would ever take me over Chris). And I sure as hell can't let Brandon flip Dane or Rebecka on me because he's 100% smart enough and social enough. Sooo it's done- almost everyone has casted votes and I've made my peace with my ugly savage self. BRANDON IM SORRY BLAME OWEN ITS HIS TWISTOS TWIST!!! Highkey wouldn't have turned on you if we'd been put with other people so it essentially is Owen's fault. Ok done scamming for the day- no one tell karma anything I just said! https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/9WRvREpZJp5kMg4z8BwZqqC-XkQ/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2016/11/14/049/n/1922398/3167f7e419274941_57c736261700000011c76cb6/i/Bye.gif

This round has been a roller coaster of stress, excitement, disappointment, and terror. First of all, we had our suspicions that "teaming up" would lead to a swap, but I don't think anyone seriously thought we'd be put into three tribes of FOUR. In a tribe this small, there's nowhere to hide. Sam and I decided early on to team up, because at this point, I trust her more than both Dane and Bryan, and Julia wanted to be on her own team so she could be exiled. Sam and I were put with Haley and Ryan on Imperium. #Imperium4Lyfe I trust Haley because she aligned with Chris on the old Fatum tribe, but Ryan kind of sketches me out. I was already preparing to either blindside Ryan or play my idol, because the immunity challenge was frickin impossible and the TWO losing tribes are going to Tribal. We had to guess a 7-digit code to find a secret page on the blog, and every thirty minutes or so we'd receive a relatively useless clue like "the sum of the first three digits is less than the sum of the last three digits." Ultimately, I decided to use my challenge advantage, which gave us two extra hints. This morning, Sam and I created a system that listed every possible code. Once we realized we had narrowed it down to around 36 combinations, it became a race against time to see how quickly we could enter each code on our phones. It turns out that we NEEDED my advantage, as Sam found the secret page literally SECONDS before Chris did on another tribe. I'm slightly suspicious that the double Tribal may just result in the two people voted out switching tribes, but then Julia would be exiled for another round and that doesn't seem very likely. Either way, I'm just happy to be safe for another round. Sam and I were just talking about how awesome we are together, as the two OG Imperiums who haven't gone to Tribal at all. I was really starting to feel like we could dominate the merge together, but then she said "You're my ride or die." https://i.imgur.com/JKVZSFJ.gif Those are the same words I never wanted to hear from Sam again, because that's word-for-word what she said to me in our first game together right before she backstabbed me. I guess the old saying is true: keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Okay things are finally heating up for me! When we swapped tribes Chris told me he was happy we were on the same tribes blah blah blah but I've seen through him for a while now so I don't trust him. Bryan is the only person who swapped with me so we talked and he said that he was good with Chris and didn't trust John because of what happened when he got sent to their tribal. I talked to John and I want him to stay mainly bc we basically live in the same city and I think we have sort of a bond cus of that. Also because I think Chris is a social threat and I'd like to take him out now before merge in case he groups up with his allies. Things are really complicated and messy right now. I'm telling John everything that's going on. Chris is lying and saying that John wants to target Bryan to Bryan to get him to vote out John but I don't want that. I'm trying to get Bryan to realize that Chris is a threat. Bryan however thinks that he'll be an easy target at merge which could be true but I really want to merge with John because I think he will have a lot of trust in me for trying to save him. It's complicated and with only 4 people voting and the chance of a tiebreaker I am still nervous. Anything could happen. I could be getting lied to. It's complicated. The only person who I think I trust fully right now is John. I hope Chris doesn't have an idol an I hope the don't fake out and vote me out. The best cast scenario for me is that Chris gets voted out and I merge. Worst case is that I get voted out lol, but if I have to lose John to merge then I lose John. I just need to keep myself safe while going the route that I think will benefit me the most in the long run.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vgoUMfYTNY0

SOOO, I won a challenge. I won the reward. And bitch, guess tf what. I made merge, jury, and the f11. BITCH YES. SO I put my ass to work on that puzzle to secure thati could make jury. Took me like 3 hrs, but I did it. Next, NED WON IMMUNITY SO HE IS GOING TO BE SAFE WITH ME. HELL YES. HELL YESSSS. I am living atm. 

Ok. So looks like the vote is falling on John. Tbh I’d rather have both John and Chris go but alas that seems to not be the case. I don’t wanna vote Chris out just yet. John is a subtle player but Chris plays really hard, he did on og imperium and he is now. It’d be really easy to paint a target on his back at merge if I have to. But anyways I really like having Jake as an ally. We really click. But me and Chris told John that we are voting out Jake. So it’ll probably be a 3-1 vote with John going bye bye. But John gave me some tea. That Haley went after Emily and then Nicole. Honestly the girl gives me the “not like other girls” vibe. It’s not cool and I really want her gone come merge as well. 

Ok so I lied in my last confessional I guess. I’m voting out Chris now. Woo. I never trusted him anyways. But John seems really desperate for an ally and me and Jake talked it over and decided to change our decision to Chris. Hopefully my old imperium people don’t get mad at me...

Im glad we won. FINALLY. and i did nothing. Haley and I or just I was gonna use my idol if we went to tribal which we didn't. xoxo

Tonight is rough. I’d like to think Jake and Bryan are with me and are voting John out. John should be voted out tonight. I have a idol if I get bad vibes at tribal but I’m not sure I want to play it. If I save it I am in a strong position at the merge. But I really wanna fucking merge man. I have a tough decision. 

Voting Brandon out, this ones for rhone 

(beginning of round) WELL. That last vote did not go as I planned at all... Johnny is out of this game.. and EVERYONE lied to me last round. Every person. I am definitely a bit hurt by Stoner because he was telling me that he wanted to be a trio with Johnny and I just a few hours before our tribal. He really showed his colors. Ryan said he planned this right after Haley got back. I am a bit bitter but I can get over it with them cause I need to survive another day. I feel like I have nobody now. A lone coffey. I am ready to work my way back to the top.

(After immunity)I made it to my birthday without getting voted out!! I was so busy doing birthday things that I failed to realize we tribe swapped again!!! I am ona tribe with Stoner, Jake, and Bryan! I haven't seen Bryan since the very first tribal where we voted out Emily. Which now that I think of it, I think the curse of fatum all started with the blindside of Emily and Bryan. Jake lives 20 mins from me so we clicked right off the bat, and we rekindled the friendship we had formed in one world fast. Stoner came to me saying he wouldn't blame me for gunning for him, but I told him that I would not go for him if he wouldn't go for me. We lose the challenge. And Jake informs me that Chris is targeting me!!!! WONDERFUL! When Chris lied to me the first time I was hurt, but he has been continuously lying to me the entire day and now it is pissing me off and making me a vengeful boy. Jake suggested that I made a plea to Bryan, and that is what I did. I threw Chris's name out there and told him how he seems to have so many personal connections with people, and he makes them think they are his number one. I fell victim to him once. Not again. I explained the Emily vote to Bryan, telling him how Emily was trying to form a girls alliance, and I let him know that Haley was the one that planned that whole thing. It led to the discussion that Bryan would like Haley out first when we get to the merge. After a bit of talking to Bryan he told me he was down to vote Chris out and I couldn't be more ecstatic. This is the sweetest revenge at the perfect time. I am telling Chris that I will vote Jake out because I "never talk to him". Half my afternoon consisted of me telling Chris things and then Jake relaying them back to me LMAO. Tribal will be a fun one. This one's for you Johnny!

I have never left impala, I’ll truly miss this little camp. But I’m so excited for merge, and new people!! And connecting with original impala again! And John Coffey <3

[12/30/2017 1:50:05 PM] BDC: I feel like this might be my time hahah [12/30/2017 1:50:21 PM] BDC: I don’t feel confident whatsoever [12/30/2017 1:53:19 PM] BDC: I messaged both Dane and rebecka and neither have answered but they are talking in the tribe chat together [12/30/2017 1:53:26 PM] BDC: So like .... [12/30/2017 2:51:58 PM] BDC: Trying to get the vote at 2-1-2 [12/30/2017 2:52:06 PM] BDC: Me and autumn are voting rebecka [12/30/2017 2:52:20 PM] BDC: And we are telling them to vote me and autumn [12/30/2017 2:52:39 PM] BDC: I think Dane would be the one most likely to have an idol so [12/30/2017 2:52:48 PM] BDC: Not gonna risk voting him [12/30/2017 2:53:09 PM] BDC: Plus I already like insisted to rebecka that I wasn’t voting her because of old tribal lines

[12/30/2017 3:13:38 PM] BDC: Hoping for the best [12/30/2017 3:22:37 PM] BDC: Rebecka said she’s voting autumn [12/30/2017 3:22:44 PM] BDC: And autumn should be voting rebecka [12/30/2017 3:22:51 PM] BDC: So I should be in the clear? [12/30/2017 3:23:52 PM] BDC: If I can survive this I’ll hopefully make merge and jury [12/30/2017 3:24:07 PM] BDC: That’s all I need so I don’t care who I piss off tonight 

I really feel like I’m leaving tonight hahaha

[thepeakmoment]

Returns

On Jun 25, 2017, at 8:17 PM, Erik wrote: Have a good viewing. The damn internet saying EP 8 is extra noteworthy….

Your intel chatter proved quite right. This was an absolute landmark episode.

On Jun 26, 2017, at 6:18 PM, Dom wrote: Holy mother fucking shit! I hope you guys enjoyed that episode last night. I know I did. Maybe the best episode yet. About to watch for the third time.

Wow. What to make of that experimental film. Did Lynch make that or were they Kubrick outtakes from 2001?

I must say, after Lynch dove right in at the very outset of TR with a heavy dose of Lodge abstraction, the narrative has settled into “normal” story telling in P3–7. I was actually getting a little bored after the thrill of the first 3 parts, and began wondering if we would return to the Lodge with the same intensity, feeling like I want a little more Lynch experimental cinema in his newly encoded film language. I surely was not expecting nearly a full hour of full on Lynch experimental imagery and sequences as in P8. This one will no doubt be analyzed for quite some time, and easily rivals the pantheon of the classic Ep029 finale.

Love the music that Senorita Dido was listening too.

“30 Slow Music” that was playing in b/w room with Señorita Dido can be heard on Track 7 - Interior on The Air Is on Fire. It’s all I’ve been listening to since Sunday, on loop.

On Jun 27, 2017, at 11:12 AM, Erik wrote: I'm very conflicted with it.  Don't judge me! lol just being honest. Lets just say I am not a big lover of it....yet. At some points I felt he was ripping off Kubrick's stargate sequence in 2001.According to the internet, I think i am almost only person that was not into it. lol I did see one other guy on FB that was like, "this hero worship of Lynch is a blind endorcement." I also am not of the mind that Lynch can do no wrong. (Cause Inland Empire sucked!)…  I DID however like the NIN performance. :P

I loved the entire NIN performance, it was a great industrial noise piece, something I am completely into. See Mixcloud. For the first time, I really liked cutting to a band onstage at the Roadhouse mid-show. In fact, I like the randomness of where this segment appears. It totally worked in this P8 and served as an appropriate transition from the Cooper-Ray horror scene to abstract Lynch.

One thing I DO admire about Ep 8 is that Showtime bankrolled video art like that. They deserve a medal.  It's no secret out here that NO studio in this town would give him money to make another movie after Mullholland Dr. Which is why he said "I'll never shoot film again", and shot Inland Empire on a Sony PD150 (mini-DV camera) And he hasn't made a film in over 10 years * (all he has made are music videos and shorts) Cause the studios know if they gave him money, they would get back something like Ep 8 which every studio would lose money on. lol So Shotime is the place for the Arthouse directors. Awesome! I am glad Lynch found a home and I look forward to seeing what happens with the 2nd half of the season.

As TR progresses, I am finally feeling a need to read The Secret History of Twin Peaks. I could not wade through past 50 pages before TR on SHO in May. Now, I believe there’s enough relevant reading to connect with the series. My interest has been piqued.…

I'm really fond of the line BOB-Copper says to Ray while driving. After Ray thinks aloud “I think it might be worth some money. Maybe… quite a lot of money.” Cooper replies, "You think so, do you?” staring incisively at Ray.

On Jun 28, 2017, at 11:21 AM, Dom wrote: You have never fucking read the secret history of twin peaks before now? Holy mother fucking shit. I do not know how to even respond to that. That blows my fucking mind.

Easy boy — down boy, down!! I found the book real boring for some reason. Some of the dialogue from interviews written by Frost just didn’t come across as authentic. And I was feeling too much emphasis as a UFO backstory that wasn’t appealing to me.

The good part of this is it makes no difference when you read Secret History, before or after TR — or even TP. So I can read it now without penalty. Like I implied, I just wasn’t into it when it first issued, I was just wanting to see the episodes. Peaks has always been a visual and audio sensory experience for me.

What were some of the more interesting insights you gleaned from your various sources about P8?

On Jun 28, 2017, at 3:45 PM, Dom wrote: "Peaks has always been a visual and audio sensory experience for me."

You should bought the audio book then. Narrated by actual Twin Peaks actors.

Yes, I’ve read the Diary and Cooper’s Autobiography, and listened to Cooper’s Tapes, and do realize they are all canon. I’m just saying for me, the filmed episodes are my primary source of fulfillment. Specifically the imagery and soundscape directed by Lynch. The industrial noises that Lynch creates or has a hand in are beautiful compositions of dissonance.

"And I was feeling too much emphasis as a UFO backstory that wasn’t appealing to me." Never once in any twin peaks source material is UFOs ever confirmed or denied. They may exist, they may not.

Duly noted, Admiral Dom.

But the term "UFO" is stupid and 99% of all people who use that term, do so incorrectly. For example if I make a kick ass drone that looks super weird and fly it over the Vermont skies and someone takes a photo or video of it and they cannot explain what it is, then that is an UFO (unexplained flying object) by definition. The vast majority of people who use the term UFO, think it actually means a flying vessel made by aliens. Which of course is incorrect.

The Major Briggs storyline is an interesting enough thread for me to read Secret History with a better sense of context. It’ll be interesting to see where the Air Force’s side investigation reveals, and how it fits in with this new Lodge/BOB cosmology introduced in P8.

The three characters that I wish were still alive to tantalize my imagination of what could have been an even richer storyline: Davis/Briggs, Sylva/BOB, Bowie/Jefferies. Just imagine if these three were available to reprise their roles.…

Did you know that the actor who plays Warden Murphy (also from 24) is the the voice of the archivist in the Secret History of Twin Peaks audio book? That song we both love "Slow Thirties Room", was written by Lynch and Dean Hurley. I was thinking while listening to it, while the episode was playing that Angelo really outdid himself. But no.

There has been some new scoring by Badalamenti that has been dropped in here and there. They are only crediting non-Badalamenti tracks in the end credits. While Badalamenti is credited in the opening credits, all his tracks go uncredited in the end credits, just like the original show.

Interesting observation I read on Consequence of Sound that “Laura Palmer’s Theme" is played backwards while ????? is watching Trinity explosion on screen.

Douglas fucking Milford was present at the Trinity test. Right after EvilCooper was shot by Ray and the black stained guys come running out of the woods, my first thought was that they were dugpas. A bunch of people are calling them the woodsmen as opposed to the woodsman who recites the poem on the radio. I just looked at the end credits again for episode 8 and I did not see any listing for the group of black stained guys. Do either of you know what they are actually called? I would would be so happy to see the dugpas.

Here’s a comment in World of Blue about Dugpas, but no thorough or satisfactory explanation has been discussed on that forum yet, most are labeling them conventionally as Woodsmen.

"This is the water, this is the well, drink full and descend; the horse is the white of the eyes and dark within”

This is the new “Through the darkness of futures past…” soliloquy.

Possible correlation?

Of interest?

This is a really interesting post from Hockey Mask on Dugpa’s World of Blue forum, a timeline of the storyline so far (with all music attributes). Note the end of the post revealing Part numbers and titles of the next four parts. How does this guy know that?!

Apparently it is common fodder. Showtime has added new captions for four upcoming parts of the new Twin Peaks. I should be visiting WTTP more often.

Bummer, TR returns on July 9…