#and sometimes that hard fact changes the outcome of the climax

[firedragon1321]

This is only useful depending on what you need. The Brooklyn Bridge example is good. You don't need the length of the Brooklyn Bridge to keep writing. Anything with a number would benefit from this trick. For example- what year were computers invented, how many kings did such and such a country have before a historical piece was set, and so on.

But what if you're dealing with something a little trickier?

I recently had to write a scene in which a character had a heart attack, thanks to being old and stressed. The character had to deliver important information to another character. Because I screwed up with my timeline, he basically had to deliver it during the heart attack. Essentially, it was the "dying words" trope, even if the heart attack didn't kill him.

So I needed to know- what are the visible symptoms from an outside perspective? Would this character be able to say what he needed to? How much time would he have? This would change the behavior of the character and those around him.

All of this cannot be solved by putting TK in your draft. A small mistake for something this complicated could involve rewriting your entire book if you aren't careful. If your whole book hinges on these "dying words", that could be a problem down the line.

If you want to avoid mindless clicking for something of this nature- know what you need. I know it's hard, but try to stick to your original question. Don't click any links that would lead to unrelated material. Think of what you specifically need for your scene. In my example, I would not need "symptoms of heart disease". I already know the cause of the heart attack is stress and age, so I know this information will not help. If the link is not going to help the scene, it's trash. It may be helpful to write the important questions down before you begin.

Forever indebted to @mostlysignssomeportents for this one. 

[cinderella-ish]

Readers and Authors: What We Owe to Each Other

(Okay wow I started this post all the way back in August and am only posting it now 🤣 ANYWAY here we go)

So, I had two experiences in the past year or so that made me think hard about how I appraise the fiction I enjoy (in any form).

I read a story that made me so angry I still think about it sometimes.

I saw people angry about the ending of the JuJutsu Kaisen manga before it was even published.

Both of these experiences were kind of baffling to me, but they helped me articulate something that I've probably always believed, even if I hadn't put it into words yet:

Endings matter.

Okay okay, that's simplifying it a lot, but bear with me.

I've had a lot of conversations with friends and family recently, trying to tease out what makes a story successful in my view. Here's where I've currently landed:

Did the story say what it set out to say?

Did the story say something worth saying?

These are obviously very subjective questions, but I think they become easier to answer when using formal analysis structures.

In three-act story structure, the last 2% or so of a story is called the resolution. The climax is over, the protagonist has either succeeded or failed, and readers/viewers want to see how the outcome of that conflict has changed the protagonist's world.

Now, there are a few ways to understand three-act structure, and my favorites are catalogued on K.M. Weiland's website Helping Writers Become Authors. Here's what she has to say about story resolutions (in a positive change arc):

First is the function of each plot point and/or story beat.

The resolution's main job is to provide a sense of closure.

Second is the relationship of a given story beat to its mirror in the other half of the story.

The resolution should mirror the Hook (the very first scenes) in some way.

Third is the metaphorical "world(s)" of each act of the story.

The resolution gives us a look at the protagonist's new normal world after the events of the story. In this sense, it should feel like a new beginning.

Fourth is the character's relationship to the thematic question, truth and lie in each act of the story.

The resolution is where we see the protagonist's new life/outlook, firmly rooted in the thematic truth.

Notice some things that are missing from that list:

A resolution does not need to answer every remaining question or tie off every loose end.

A resolution does not need to solve all the protagonist's problems.

A resolution does not need to provide a satisfying end to every character's story.

(In fact, I'd argue that a resolution works better when it specifically doesn't do those things.)

So, I think we can't really judge a story based on my two criteria until we've seen the ending, aka the resolution, because the resolution's job is to put a point on the story's theme by showing us a glimpse into the protagonist's future that meaningfully contrasts with the beginning to show us how the protagonist has changed in relation to the story's theme.

And this brings me back to the title of this piece.

What do authors and readers owe to each other?

I think, when someone is telling a story, they're essentially making a promise to the reader (or viewer). What they're saying is "I have something important to say, and I will say it over the course of this story."

When someone reads (or watches) a story, I think they're accepting the terms of that promise and saying "I will trust that you will say what you mean to say in this story, and I will trust that what you have to say is important."

So why did that story make me so angry?

The short version:

I trusted that the author would say something important, and I stuck with their story to the end only to realize how utterly shallow and unsubstantial it was!

The longer version:

The story promised to explore an idea that I thought was really interesting, and I was curious as to how the author would do that. As I read, I thought I was picking up on clues that there was more under the surface waiting to be revealed; that there was some event or idea the story hadn't disclosed yet that would put everything that had happened thus far into perspective.

Nope. There was nothing.

In effect, the story was one big "telling, not showing." There was no basis given for the premise, no reason given as to why the characters made the choices they did. The main characters honestly could've been replaced with any characters from any story and it wouldn't have changed a thing - they were dolls that the author was making do whatever the author wanted, rather than characters with motivation and personalities. They were blank slates who didn't really change or cause the world around them to change.

This made me angry because I stuck with the damn thing until the very end only to finally realize that I'd wasted my time when I got to the resolution and it didn't offer me anything more.

What did the story have to say? That the author wanted this thing to happen. Is that something worth saying? For the author, probably. For me, as a reader, absolutely not.

I felt that I had held up my end of the promise as a reader, and I felt that the author hadn't held up their end. I had stuck with the story in good faith, I'd put my trust in the author, and they squandered that trust.

I read until the ending because I'd hoped the resolution would, at minimum, provide some clarity on the story's theme, but it didn't.

This brings me to JuJutsu Kaisen.

The ending of JJK was good, actually?

On the other side of this, I was really baffled by a lot of the complaints about JJK's ending, especially those that were circulating before the manga even finished!

It really baffled me, because I really thought the author had earned the readers' trust by then. There'd been so much analysis on the symbolism and intention behind so much of the story, I was genuinely shocked that anyone lacked faith in Gege Akutami's ability to, in his words, "...end the story in the way [he] wanted." Especially from people who'd otherwise raved about the story.

When I read the final chapters for the first time, I thought they encapsulated several of the story's themes and gave us a peek at the future of the JuJutsu world for the characters we'd come to love.

To me, the final chapters absolutely served the story well in saying what the author was trying to say.

Let's review what a resolution needs to do:

A resolution must provide a sense of closure.

A resolution should mirror the hook in some way.

A resolution gives us a look at the protagonist's new normal in a way that feels like a new beginning.

A resolution shows us the protagonist's new life/outlook, firmly rooted in the thematic truth.

I would argue that the ending of JJK did all of those things, and it did them well.

This is not to say that there are no valid criticisms of JJK, but that I think the ending followed through on the promise the author made to us.

When I go back and revisit some of the most common criticisms of the ending of JJK, they boil down to a few categories:

people who wanted the author to answer every single remaining question

people who wanted the plot-based conflict (rather than the characters' internal conflict) to be solved more definitively or differently

people who wanted more characters to have a complete arc

I think people in group 1 have clearly never seen a beloved series slowly turn to crap because it kept going long after it should've ended. The questions the author didn't answer wouldn't have helped him make his theme land any better.

Meanwhile, group 2 misunderstood the point of the story. JuJutsu Kaisen is not a story about fighting, or curses, or this particular magic system. JuJutsu Kaisen is fundamentally a story about love, and it always has been. Things like curses, magic, fighting, etc... only matter insofar as they help tell that story.

Group 3 can be split up into some smaller groups. I think some of this group might actually fall under groups 1 and/or 2, in that they either just wanted more content, or they over-prioritized plot-based character goals rather than internal conflict-based character goals. As for the rest of group 3, I think they either don't understand what a character arc is, or they forget that Yuji is the protagonist, and therefore his arc is the only one that must encapsulate the main idea(s) of the story in a satisfying way.

So, what is a character arc, anyway?

In a positive change arc, the character starts out believing a lie, and over the course of the story, they overcome that lie and embrace the thematic truth.

I would argue that both Yuji and Megumi experience a positive change arc in JuJutsu Kaisen.

Positive change arcs are the most common type of character arc, but characters can also experience a flat arc or a negative change arc.

In a flat arc, the character doesn't have a lie that they need to overcome. They already believe the story's thematic truth. Instead of this character being the one to change, they use the truth to change the world around them.

In JuJutsu Kaisen, I'd argue that Nobara and Gojo have flat arcs.

Nobara came to JuJutsu Tech to be true to herself. She already knew who she was. At the end of the story, she's still the Nobara we met at the beginning. With Megumi, Yuji, and her other friends and classmates, she succeeded in growing stronger and helping to bring down Sukuna.

Gojo, as the primary mentor character in JuJutsu Kaisen, also exhibits a flat arc. His desire at the start of the story is to fundamentally change JuJutsu society by teaching the next generation, thereby raising up sorcerers who are strong enough to stand beside him. He does this so well that his students are the ones to defeat Sukuna, and not him. After his death, his students are able to carry on his mission.

In Gojo's Past arc, Suguru Geto experiences a negative change arc.

There are 3 typical negative change arcs:

The Corruption Arc: the character starts out believing the truth. Over the course of the story, they reject the truth and embrace the lie.

The Disillusionment Arc: the character starts out believing a lie. Over the course of the story, they overcome the lie, only to find that the truth is tragic.

The Fall Arc: the character starts out believing a lie. Over the course of the story, they get a glimpse of the truth, only to reject it in favor of a worse lie.

Geto starts out believing that sorcerers' duty is to protect those weaker than them (non-sorcerers) from curses,. Through the course of the story, he rejects that belief in favor of the belief that non-sorcerers are not worth saving and must, in fact, be exterminated because they are the source of all curses in the first place.

Depending on whether you see either of his beliefs as the truth (and if so, which one), his arc could be seen as any one of the negative change arcs. I personally see it as a Fall arc, especially if you include the events of JuJutsu Kaisen 0 as part of his arc.

But what's Yuji's arc? What is the theme of JuJutsu Kaisen?

Well, here's where I say that I'm planning a series of posts analyzing JuJutsu Kaisen using three-act story structure. Because I don't have enough ongoing series, apparently. 🤣

If you read this far, thanks for sticking with it! And tell me, is there a story structure or analysis tool you prefer?

[idreamofplaid]

Transformation

Square Filled: Unexpected Gifts for @spngenrebingo & Sub Space for @spnkinkbingo

Characters: sub!Dean x dom!witch!Reader; Rowena

Rating: Explicit

Tags: bondage; blindfold; oral (male receiving); orgasm delay; wax play; nipple play; impact play; begging; cock ring; overstimulation

Summary: The reader becomes the most powerful witch in existence, made even more powerful because Dean is her true love.

Word Count: 3524

Created for @spnkinkbingo & @spngenrebingo

Her deepest truth had always been she knew she was different. It was a truth and a secret. Now she had a different truth, an even stronger one. The first truth made itself known to her when she was six years old. It was the result of an incident on the school playground. Sometimes children could be cruel. Whether it was intentional cruelty or just children being self absorbed, the outcome was the same. Y/N had been left out of the game, and it had left her little girl’s heart bruised and sore.

She had run from the playground to seek shelter under the trees that bordered the fence at the edge of the schoolyard. Y/N sank to the ground behind the trunk of the biggest tree, hoping to hide her tears from the other children and the nearby adults. She buried her face in the crook of her arm and let the tears flow. When she finally raised her head, she saw that she was surrounded by butterflies. They were all the most vivid blue; she would later learn that blue was symbolic of finding her own voice, but at the time all she knew was that nature had responded to her sadness. From that day on, it was from nature that she would draw her strength.

Strength eventually evolved into power, and it was that power that drew Rowena into her life. The seasoned witch had initially used the word beacon to describe her. Later she would call her a storm, and finally Rowena told her she was a creator, a catalyst, and a force. Her mentor had told her these things just before she had thrown herself into a fissure in the earth in what would have once been an uncharacteristic act of self sacrifice. 

It was now her place and her duty to honor Rowena, to mark her passing, and assume the mantle left to her by the great witch. Her second truth figured prominently into the role she would now assume. Her teacher had told her many times that magic had always been entwined with love, a fact that Rowena had denied. As a result, she had never reached the heights she could foresee that Y/N would attain. 

Back to the very oldest of spells, true love had been an element that was capable of feats to which nothing else could compare. Y/N cast her eyes upon her love. Dean had collapsed face down across the bed as soon as they reached her house. The day’s events had taken their toll on him. He had been tested, and he had won. For now. There would be more fights before he could claim ultimate victory, before they both could. 

She moved around the bedroom lighting the many candles that were strategically placed around the room, then opened the heavy drapes covering the window and tied them back to allow moonlight to spill into the room. A shafto of light fell onto the bed where Dean was sleeping, and she went to sit beside him.

Y/N combed her fingers through his hair. Dean stirred in his sleep and made a contented sound. She reached into the pocket of her silk robe and pulled out a tiny scroll. It was Rowena’s final gift to her. Her mentor had given it to her just before she threw herself into that hole in the earth. Once Y/N had completed tonight’s ritual, she would read it. 

She leaned down and kissed Dean’s cheek. He would play a large role in what she was about to do. She would assume her place as the most powerful witch alive. Dean, being part of her, would take on some of that too. 

Dean would submit to her tonight, willing and eager to release the burden of all the responsibilities he carried to her control. He would allow himself to be washed in her power, and he would surrender his sexual pleasure to her. In so doing, he would strengthen that power. She always had what he needed, and her love for him knew no bounds.

Y/N rose from the bed, leaving Dean there to continue his sleep. He would need it, and she had things to prepare. First, she would need to draw the bath.

Her bathroom was equipped with a large garden tub, perfect for her purposes. She turned on the faucet, and the tub began to fill. Y/N passed her fingers through the stream of water to test the temperature, and she made adjustments so it would be warmer. When the tub was almost full, she retrieved a jar filled with rose petals from her vanity. 

She turned off the water and sprinkled red rose petals into the bath. She pulled at the sash of her robe. It fell open; she eased it from her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor.

 This room was also filled with candles. Y/N walked around the room lighting them, keeping her intention in mind. She would honor Rowena by becoming everything she had taught her to be, and she would strengthen further her already strong bond with Dean. She took one last look around the room. Everything was just the way she wanted. Now, she just needed her true love.

Dean was still sleeping. This time when she lowered herself on the bed next to him, she was intent on getting his attention. Y/N kissed Dean’s neck, opening her mouth and sucking gently. He stirred, and moaned deeply. “That’s nice, sweetheart.”

She sat back, dragging her hair across Dean’s cheek. He opened his eyes and rolled over. When he saw that she was nude, a smile crossed his lips. “That’s even nicer.”

“It’s about to get even better, my love.” She slipped her hand under Dean’s t-shirt, slid it up his body, and started to rub over his chest. 

Dean closed his eyes and relaxed beneath her touch. His reaction changed when she moved her focus to his nipples and started to pinch and pull them. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Y/N knew Dean’s body. His nipples were sensitive, and it was easy to turn him on by playing with them.

Y/N took her hand away from the now taut nub she was teasing and pulled it from beneath his shirt. She took both sides of his open flannel in her hands, closed her fingers around them, and tugged. “Come here, handsome.”

Dean sat up; his hands went to her hips, and his mouth found hers. His need was already strong for her; the way his tongue tangled around hers told her that. She broke the kiss, and while she took off his shirts; her eyes stayed fixed on his. “Can you be patient tonight, Dean?”

His eyes caught the glow of the candlelight. They were deep and rich like a jewel, the most precious emerald or the rarest jade. Dean nodded. Y/N dragged a fingertip along the line of his shoulder, and Dean followed it with his eyes. Then, she caught his chin with that finger and turned his head so he was looking at her again. “Good,” she whispered. “Follow me.”

She finished undressing him by the bathtub. Her eyes lingered on his semi hard cock before she stepped into the tub and took his hand, inviting him in after her. The scent of myrrh essential oil filled the air, and the candle flames in the room danced. 

Y/N moved through the water, closer to Dean, in order to reach behind him for the loofah located there. He dipped his head to kiss her breast and swipe his tongue over her nipple. Pleasure and arousal rippled through her body. She settled back into the water; she could be patient too.

Y/N dipped the sponge into the perfumed water and wiped it over Dean’s collar bone. Rivulets of water streamed down his chest. She repeated the motion over each shoulder before leaving the loofah to float and dropping her hand below the water line. She wrapped her hand around Dean’s cock and stroked it languidly until he reached full hardness, then she stopped and turned, leaning back into him and pressing into his erection. 

Dean began to bathe her, cupping his hand to gather some water and pour it over her breasts. He caressed them, holding them in his hands and kneading them gently. She melted against him and enjoyed the feeling of his hands roaming over her body. When his fingers slipped through her folds, she drew in her breath sharply. Dean knew her body as well as she knew his. He knew the right amount of pressure to use and the way to circle his fingers until she was climaxing and shaking in his arms.

Dean held her after she calmed, and he left a trail of kisses along her neck and shoulder. After a minute or two had passed, she turned to him and kissed him deeply. Once again, she felt into the core of her being how right it was that they were together. 

They toweled one another dry, each taking the time to appreciate and worship the body of the other as the ritual required. Dean’s cock was fully hard now, and as Y/N wiped the towel over it; he groaned. The sound made her tingle deep in her center and intensified her already humming sexual energy. 

Back in the bedroom; Dean took his position on the bed and raised his arms to the headboard. Y/N secured his wrists there. He was giving himself as an offering to her and all she was, all she would be. She kissed each of his wrists below the cuffs that held him in place; then she held his cheek in her hand. “Are you sure you can do this right now? It’s been a long and difficult day.”

Dean leaned into her touch. “I can do it. I want to do it.” With his consent clear, she secured his feet, leaving him tied down and spread eagle on the bed. 

With a last caress of her knuckles against his jaw, she took away her hand and opened the drawer in the bedside table. Inside, there was a black silk mask they had used before. She slipped it over Dean’s head and kissed him lightly on the lips before she pulled it down over his eyes. The look he gave her before his eyes were covered was intense with love, adoration, and trust.

Y/N would test Dean’s limits tonight. She planned to repeatedly take him to the edge of pain and pleasure completing him with a depth of fulfillment that only she could give him.

Y/N opened the cabinet compartment in the table by the bed and took out everything she would be using on Dean tonight. It would all be a surprise to him, further heightening every sensation. She picked up the bottle of massage oil, clicked open the top, and squeezed a generous amount into her hand. The oil was cool when it touched her fingers, but it soon began to tingle. She avoided rubbing her hands together and contemplated which part of Dean’s body she wanted to stimulate with the tingling oil. His cock lay against his stomach, thick and hard. She would give that part of him her full attention later. Right now, she was going to see just how close she could get him to orgasm by playing with his nipples alone. 

She smeared some over each nub and waited for his reaction while the oil did its work. After a few seconds, Dean started to wiggle in his bonds. Any stimulation to his nipples went straight to his cock. Y/N alternated rubbing and tweaking each one until Dean lifted his hips from the bed seeking friction.

She dragged her hand down his torso. When it had almost reached his straining cock, she brushed it back up his body and circled a nipple with her fingertip, teasing it. On the second pass of her hand down Dean’s body, she noticed his breathing had become deeper and more labored.

This time, her fingers started to dance when they passed below his belly button, but she didn’t touch him where he most needed it. Instead, she dropped her mouth over his tip and tongued his slit. Then Y/N lowered her head and took him all the way into the back of her throat. After a few bobs of her head, she pulled back and licked the pre come from the end of his shaft. Dean moaned softly. Through her licks she told him, “Let me hear you, love.”

He didn’t disappoint her. As she sucked him down again, Dean moaned loudly; and she saw him clench his teeth. “Tell me when you’re about to come, and I’ll stop. I don’t want you to come yet.”

When she started to fondle his balls and lick a stripe up the underside of his cock, she felt Dean’s body tense. He was fighting it. “Can you hold it, my love? Do you need the cock ring?”

She stroked the inside of his thigh to calm him. “I...I can hold it.”

Y/N crawled up his body. She brought her face to within inches of his and pulled at his bottom lip with her fingertip. “Do you know how incredibly handsome you are? How perfect? Do you know how much I love you?” A soft smile turned up the corners of his mouth. He knew, and for a moment Y/N forgot about the fight with God looming over them and how she would need to use her newly acquired position to help Dean win that battle. 

She kissed him long, slow, and tender before she reached for the candle nearest the bed. This one was different from the others. The wax from this one wouldn’t burn him when she poured it on his body to form a protection sigil there, but it would hurt. She held the candle over Dean’s stomach and slowly tipped it. He hissed when the stream of wax touched his skin. 

She watched Dean carefully. He had never used his safeword because of wax, but she was always mindful of his reactions. Once the wax had hardened, she reached for the next implement. It was a small flogger with short tails. She dangled them over Dean’s chest and swished them over his nipples. This had the desired effect; pre come was beading at the tip of his cock again. She moved the flogger down his body and let the tails of it dance around his erect shaft.

With each motion of her hand, she became a little more deliberate. She wouldn’t hit him hard, just hard enough that the sting would heighten his pleasure and blur the line between pleasure and pain. After several swings of her arm, Dean’s dick was bobbing; and the pre come was flowing. His cock was a deep red; this was mostly due to his denied release, but not entirely.

His ankles pulled at his restraints as he tried to lift his hips higher than his bonds would allow. He was breathing heavily, nearly to the point of panting. “Ring...the ring. I can’t. I’m gonna….” And he would. She had seen him come from impact play alone. She fastened the ring around the base of his cock, and Dean let out a deep sigh of relief. He hated disappointing her, and it was about to get even more difficult to hold off the orgasm that threatened to overtake him.

She decided he’d had enough pain. It was time for the pleasure that would follow it, made all the sweeter by the pain. She kissed his throbbing cock all along the length. Her next surprise for him was a vibe she held to the end of his cock. 

His thighs shook with the effort to hold off his orgasm. She hadn’t given him permission yet. She moved the vibrator to that sweet spot on the underside of his cock just beneath the head. “Please, Y/N. Please….” 

Y/N put the toy away, positioned herself over Dean, and guided his thick and throbbing length to her entrance. She sank herself down on him and started to move. The fullness of him inside her was almost overwhelming; he stretched her to her limits, and she wanted so much more of him. Always more. 

She rode him right to the edge of her orgasm and held herself there, allowing the energy of it to build. As she climaxed, she spasmed around him hard. “Come now Dean. Come with me.” He cried out and filled her with hot spurt after spurt of his come. 

Y/N lifted herself from his body, and using his come mixed with her juices as lube she started to jerk him hard. Dean thrashed against the ties that were holding him down. “Give me another one, Dean. I know you have one more for me.” He grunted, groaned, moved with her hand, and tried to get away from it. Finally, he stopped fighting. Dean surrendered to her, and she drew his second orgasm from him. He spilled onto his stomach without the force of his first climax.

Y/N took the blindfold from his eyes. They were the green of sea glass, shining with the soft glow of candlelight reflected in them. They also had a faraway look in them. “Love you,” he whispered; but he wasn’t really looking at her. 

“I know you do. I love you too,” she told him while she unfastened his hands. “Are you with me, Dean?” She brushed her fingers over his face. His eyes were a little more focused. “You are so good for me.” She kissed his lips softly. “Give me just a minute, sweetheart.” Y/N moved down the bed to his feet and freed those too, then she went back to him and took Dean into her arms. She ran her fingers through his hair and whispered words of love and praise to him while he fell asleep.

Dean had been breathing quietly and evenly for several minutes when Y/N slipped from the bed and went to retrieve the scroll Rowena had given her. She put her robe back on, settled into the large armchair by the window, and tucked her legs beneath her. 

She removed the ribbon from the scroll and unrolled it. Y/N could hear Rowena’s lilting Scottish accent in her head as she read Rowena’s words.

The mistakes I’ve made in this life have been many. Ye aren’t one of them. Instead, yer my greatest achievement. Greater than what I’m about to do.It will not be that I threw meself into a crack to hell that makes the difference in the end. It will be that I taught ye what I did.

I know ye have honored life this day by experiencing all the glory of it as is our way. Ye coupled with yer man, and are ye no a lucky woman to have the man ye do? Chuck, God, wha’ever he chooses to call himself will not defeat you.Joined, as ye are, yer power is too great. There is only one thing that could stop you.Yer fear of losing him.My final gift to ye is to take that threat away.Say the spell and seal it with true love’s kiss. Dean will ne’er die, nor will ye, nor yer babes. With this immortality, ye will take back the world.

Y/N read over the words of the spell, then read them again, committing them to memory. She rolled the scroll back up, tucked it in her pocket, removed her robe, and left it at the end of the bed. Dean shifted as she climbed back into bed, but he didn’t waken.

Y/N let her eyes wander over Dean’s face. His full lips were relaxed in sleep, and the lines at the corners of his eyes were almost invisible. “I love you so much.”

The idea that he would have forever to explore and live any kind of life he wanted, have the experiences he’d been denied, appealed to her. Dean could finally relax and enjoy himself once Chuck was neutralized, and she would be there with him. Y/N only had a moment’s hesitation, questioning if this was something Dean would want. They could have happiness forever with their family. Sure of what she was about to do, Y/N took a deep breath and started to chant the spell.

Harm shall never come to thee

Nor shall it ever come to me

Protected by our love, forever shall we live

To you, my heart and my eternal love I give

When her lips touched his, just like in the fairy tales, Dean opened his eyes. He sat up to take her in his arms and kiss her more deeply. She held to him, knowing that beyond the coming battle; their endless life would be good. 

Everything Forever: @gambitwinchester​ @princessmisery666​ @onethirstyunicorn​ @peridottea91​ @logical-princey​ @emilyshurley​ @beenlovingromansincedayoneish​ @fangirlxwritesx67​ @waywardbaby​ @atc74​ @ledzeppelinsbonzo​ @shaniquacynthia​ @mariekoukie6661​ @tumbler-tidbits​ @67-chevy-baby​ @fandom-princess-forevermore​ @terrarium-jpeg​ @emoryhemsworth​ @crashdevlin​ @heycasbutt​ @jules-1999​ @mrsdeannafuckingwinchester​ @cosicas-cuquis​ @sammyimpala-67​ @queenoftheunderdark​ @dean-winchesters-bacon​ @mrs-meghan-winchester​ @timelordy-fangirl2​ @sweetness47​ @hobby27​ @awesomesusiebstuff​ @kickingitwithkirk​ @gh0stgurl​ @becs-bunker​ @sandlee44​ @supernaturalgrandma​ @lonewolf471​ @sea040561​ @dawnie1988​ @maddiepants​ @volleyballer519​ @outcastedangel​ @kdfrqqg​ @lizette50​ @daisymoder72​ @sorenmarie87​ @oldfreakything​ @triiitoo​

Dean/Jensen: @deansyahtzee​ @deanwinchesterswitch​ @waywardrose13​ @feelmyroarrrr​ @sammit-janet​ @winchesterxfamilybusiness​ @focusonspn​ @akshi8278​ @ladywinchester1967​ @sgarrett49​ @wingedcatninja​ @coffee-obsessed-writer​ @adoptdontshoppets​ @team-free-will-you-idjiot​ @ellewritesfix05​ 

[peachymess]

Hey Peach! About the Armin sacrifice ask, you have to remember that Armin doesn't remember the events of sacrificing his life and dreams for Eren and the others to defeat Bertohld. So if he had to be told he ate Bertohld to survive injuries he didn't remeber enduring, how can he remember his sacrifice/ thought process? This isn't me fussing, just trying to give you a different pov and possibly Isyama's thought process. :) - an old mutual who's been silently watching ❤

Hi, old mutual! ❤️

That’s a good point. Though I would argue it’s not good enough to justify having Armin go through the same lesson twice. See, Armin is aware that he made the sacrifice (through being told). It’s not as though it didn’t happen. It did. And I’m sure he’s been made clear on the details so he’s understood what he did. He knows he chose to throw away something to change something. He knows he did the thing. But that’s only one side of the coin. The other is the audience. We saw him make the sacrifice. This is a construction made for our consumption.

Granted, in real life, people don’t learn and grow after every L or W taken. People make the same mistakes over and over and sometimes they never learn. Just like they can fail to see what earned them a win, thus failing to repeat it.

However, like I said, this is fiction. It needs to be a bit more polished. What I have an issue with isn’t so much realistic psychology as it is the writing here. From early on in the manga - almost since the start - Armin began dropping heavy forshadowing about this “big sacrifice”. He talked about the philosophy of becoming a monster to defeat monsters, being able to throw away things important to you in order to change the world, etc. He pointed to people who mastered it and kept asking himself what to throw away. Several times he even offered to give up his life prematurely (in the battle for Trost, for instance). But we as readers could tell that at those times, it was misguided. That he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t giving up his life in order to move mountains; he saw himself as a burden, disposable, in the way. He wanted to find a way to remove himself while also making it count for something. “The sooner I die, the sooner Mikasa has an excuse to take over my gas and blades, and the sooner she can save more people. Ergo, me dying saves lives. Ergo me being alive is an obstruction of the betterment of mankind as a whole.”

For the time being, he hadn’t overcome what was in the way, in order to learn the lesson he was set up for. The way it was being built up, we knew a big sacrifice was on the horizon, but he wasn’t ready to make it yet. His character development was focused around him realizing his worth first. Only then could he take action with a clear and strong mind.

When that moment finally came in 82, the arc was building up to it, the death flags were there. We saw him stronger, yet fumbling - like a flawed hero - to remain standing strong in the face of his biggest test. After all these arcs, all that he had foreshadowed, talked about, grown towards - plus his trust based relationship with Eren - it all culminated in Armin using his skills of intellect/manipulation/resolve and strength, to go through with this massive sacrifice that moved the mountains and gave humanity that impossible win.

... it seems incredibly awkward to then roll back that resolution, to nullify that development, to rehash that lesson when the climax of it had already happened. The theme of making that big sacrifice was already built up and it already culminated in a big plot point/story beat. Doing it a second time, without any more organic build up than to ride off the back of the old resolved foreshadowing/character development, feels... repetitive and stagnant. How many times does Armin have to sacrifice until he “gets it”, then? If the next sacrifice is, let’s say, sacrificing Eren - does he learn it then and not the first time? If so, that would render the first massive sacrifice without effect character development-wise. That’s a lot of story focus for very little payoff.

Or is the point that Armin has to just... keep throwing away everything that matters to him? If so, Isayama needs to start beginning to plant more explicit seeds that what Armin needs to learn is that “I was wrong about throwing away something to changne something; the truth is any advance needs a sacrifice and in order to keep advancing, one needs to keep shedding the things you care about.”

What I’m trying to say is that the memory thing is one way to explain what we’re seeing here, but it’s just not... strong enough, craftsmanship-wise. Not strong enough to be a good excuse for why we should strip the first sacrifice of the weight it should hold. It was built up over several arcs. He had to grow as a character to get to the point. He used his “would I ever lie to you” card on Eren, a first time breach of their trust bond - something that has its effect in the fact that it’s a first (no “second lie” is as hard hitting as the first one). All so that he could still not have fulfilled that looming “sacrifice”? Isayama now rehashing Armin’s old mantra of what to sacrifice fees so hollow. We already had the answer. He gave his life and singlehabdedly changed the course of the entire story. Such a complex manga and at one point, his sacrifice/death was the SINGLE one thing the story was focused on. For what? How could that not be the defining moment? How could he not grow from that? What lesson can possibly be better established and hard hitting enough to justify getting through to him more than 82? No second sacrifice will have the same weight. Especially not when it’s leaning on the buildup he already used for 82. Either this new sacrifice is the “true/final” outcome of the pre-82 build up (which makes that 82-climax empty and undermined) and he will struggle to top the fake climax of the return arc, OR he means to build a new sacrifice plot point without much justifiable buildup. Either way, he’d be so much better served by making Armin approach this from a changed perspective.

Now, I’m not saying one sacrifice is/should be enough to fix everything. And at this point, possibly giving up Eren is a very relevant topic to have to reflect on. But it would have been so much better if Armin could approach it from a changed/developed perspective. If he could pull a lesson from 82, to bring something new. He’d appear to have grown more as a character since those four (?) years ago, plus it wouldn’t feel like a rehash of something we’ve already seen. All in all, I’m just not a big fan of 82 not culminating in anything character-wise. Has he seriously not reflected on it or grown at all since back then, on this topic? I find that hard to believe. And I find it very dissatisfying as an Armin fan to see Isayama put focus back on this demand for Armin to sacrifice, as though what he already gave wasn’t heavy enough already. Because now that he’s put it out there, he’s got to go through with it. It’s the law of the Chekhovian gun; if you mention a gun hanging on the wall in the first act, it has to be fired within act three. If Isayama makes Armin harp on about making sacrifices at the start of the final arc, a sacrifice has to be made within the end of the story. And I don’t think that’s fair, nor good writing, because it’s already been done.

I’m coming from the POV of a concerned parent. I love Armin like a son, and I frankly just don’t want him to have to sacrifice anymore. But as a writer, I feel like I have genuine reason to justify my dismay. That being said, it is what it is and whatever happens, happens. I have no say in it. Maybe Isayama turns around and throws us a curveball in regards to this. It just doesn’t seem likely. And I think - and this is my own opinion, not fact - that Isayama more likely just feel like this is Armin’s trope/base note at this point, rather than doing the detailed analyze of “memory loss would get in the way of this lesson”. Even though that analysis is a valid, realistic take. I think you thought more thoroughly about this than he did, to be honest.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. We might be seeing things differently, but I love a good conversation and it felt good to get this off my chest. And at the end of the day, Armin doesn’t need the further development to feel real and well developed to me. I’d love to see him have a new take on the whole sacrifice business, but I’ll settle for seeing him survive and thrive at the end of this (Isayama, I’m looking at you). Let’s cross our fingers, friend ❤️ And thanks for checking in on me! I hope you’re good!

[kingofthewilderwest]

Do you think Mabel gets too much hate? I noticed when a female character acts selfish she gets hated on but when a male character does the same it’s praised

We’re free to love or hate any character with or without reason. That said, I feel sad seeing Mabel hate and agree Mabel receives too much hate. I feel like the rhetoric claiming she’s unforgivably selfish is skewed. I think people have decent criticisms regarding Mabel’s character and how she’s presented. However, I don’t think they sufficiently describe the full picture.

Anecdotally, I don’t think this is a case of sweeping sexism because Ford also receives more criticism than I think warranted. My perspective on how much hate each character proportionately receives could be incomplete, though.

But anyway. Let’s talk Mabel.

First though: please don’t try to debate this with me. If you don’t like my opinion, no worries. That’s chill. I’m just not interested in using my recreation time debating this. Thanks! :) However, if you want further clarifications, analyses, case studies, etc. I’m happy to talk more, because this is NOWHERE close to exhausting my thoughts on this topic.

Mabel’s Selfishness: The General Critique

I think everyday anti-Mabel criticism tends to use points like:

When other characters act selfishly, they’re called out and the narrative punishes them. But when Mabel wants something, she gets it, and it’s a reward (The Deep End, The Time Traveler’s Pig, Escape from Reality).

Mabel never learns how to give up something important and deal with that loss. Even when she lets something go, it’s not something that would have been good in her life. For instance, her failed puppet performance is “dodging a bullet” rather than losing something meaningful, since Gabe’s just a puppet kisser. In the end, she doesn’t have to live with sacrifice (Boyz Crazy, Sock Opera).

Mabel even selfishly causes the apocalypse by giving Bill the rift. She’s never held responsible for that (Dipper and Mabel vs the Future).

The narrative reinforces that Mabel is a good person even when she’s not (The Last Mabelcorn).

People particularly look at Mabel in S2 over S1; many claim that’s when her character began to feel selfish and insufferable. 

This isn’t everything, but I have tried to characterize the rhetoric fairly based upon what I’ve seen.

I find these discussion points understandable. Mabel can be self-focused and sometimes ignores others’ feelings. Alex Hirsch admitted in DVD commentaries that he focused on Dipper learning lessons because he put himself in Dipper’s shoes. And some of Alex’s writing intentions could’ve been clearer, like instances where the twins resolve conflicting desires. We could talk about how the show could be improved or the character is legitimately not-selfless.

At the same time, I think how fandom uses these talking points isn’t 100% fair to Mabel’s character or the show’s full narrative. 

I want to point out that Mabel hate for her selfishness covers two fronts: one claim that Mabel is selfish, and another claim that the surrounding plot doesn’t handle her selfishness satisfactorily. I think there’s fair constructive criticism when it comes to narrative framing (even if I disagree), but I don’t think the same dialogue is good rationale against Mabel’s personality. At times I see the two concepts conflated. The narrative may annoy you if you think selfishness isn’t addressed in plot, and contribute to you disliking the character, but claiming “Mabel is selfish” because of that is flawed logic. 

In this analysis, I’ll cover both fronts. I’ll tackle the four points I mentioned above and explain why I find them too harsh. I’m not going to cover all my thoughts (yes, my original draft was longer!!), but I will argue:

Mabel reverses her selfishness - and that’s the big choice sealing the climax of multiple episodes. She doesn’t get off “consequence free” either (Boyz Crazy, Sock Opera)

Mabel sacrifices for others. The narrative does show that Dipper and Mabel meet in the middle, not that Dipper feels guilty enough to ameliorate his sister’s wishes (Sock Opera, Escape from Reality)

Mabel giving the rift to “Blendin” mirrors Dipper offering a puppet to Bill. Both twins are emotionally compromised and believe they’re making a harmless deal with an inconsequential item. Neither would’ve made these choices in calmer circumstances. Sock Opera doesn’t have Dipper deal with his culpability; relax up on Mabel (Sock Opera, Dipper and Mabel vs the Future)

Mabel’s selfishness is addressed, handled, and resolved. The moral of The Last Mabelcorn isn’t defending Mabel’s goodness; it’s Mabel embracing imperfection. Mabel learns she’s a bad person and changes her perspective of herself multiple times in canon (The Last Mabelcorn, Lost Legends)

I could also have talked about how selfishness isn’t required to be resolved in her character arc, all the times Mabel does nice things for others, how she doesn’t always obnoxiously hog the spotlight, and other things, but I want to cap the length of this essay.

So let’s begin.

Can Mabel learn from selfishness if she’s consequence-free and never handles meaningful loss?

Anti-Mabel Argument: Circumstances don’t adversely affect Mabel. This means she never has to sacrifice for her brother like Dipper does for her. For instance, in Sock Opera, Mabel sees that Gabe is a weirdo over-obsessed with puppets. Her failed puppet performance was “dodging a bullet” rather than losing something meaningful, so she doesn’t learn true self-sacrificial love. Mabel never learns how to give something important up and deal without it. So, she never changes.

Boyz Crazy not only is an episode where the climax is Mabel learning to act against her selfish desires, but it’s got an explicit apology in dialogue. “I’m sorry I went bonkers,” she tells Candy and Grenda. “A catchy song made me realize that you were right. Can you ever forgive me?”

While Mabel has to learn this lesson again in later episodes, it’s to note: most GF characters are fairly static, and Dipper also has to learn multiple times not to hit on Wendy. Character progress doesn’t happen all at once. And in the next episode I’ll talk about, not only does Mabel confront her selfishness, but it’s the last time she lets her boy chasing impact Dipper. It ends after this.

I’m talking Sock Opera.

Mabel’s sacrifice in Sock Opera is big. She doesn’t get off “consequence free.” She decides to sabotage her performance before knowing Gabe��s a weirdo. Mabel is fully willing to lose her most viable romance option… for Dipper. She realizes her brother would be willing to give something up for her, and she’s going to reciprocate by giving up something big for him. 

Mabel might’ve dodged the bullet of dating Gabe, but she still gives up something big and will feel it. Sure, she makes the puppet show to impress Gabe. But she’s also entertaining a full audience. She can feel the people booing her, see them storming out and leaving. Mabel is someone who wants everyone happy, so much that seeing everyone happy except Robbie puts her in Crisis Mode. I don’t know about you, but just because I saw some guy kissing puppets, I wouldn’t think, “Yay! I had a happy outcome to this play ordeal!”

Mabel VERY much says, in the dialogue, that her brother would give up something big for her. And that’s what her Big Choice comes down to. Every episode climax in Gravity Falls comes down to The Big Choice. Here, Mabel’s Big Choice… is to sacrificially watch her hard work burst into literal flames.

Mabel apologizes to her brother, “I’m sorry, Dipper. I spent all week obsessing over a dumb guy. But the dumb guy I should have cared about was you.”

In following episodes, Mabel does put Dipper in mind. She gets momentarily distracted by crushes in The Love God, but that’s in a quest to solve her own mistake - a mistake that came from trying to make everyone, from Robbie to Thompson to Dipper, happy. She wants to include Dipper, from the Ducktective finale to her birthday party planning mission. And if you’re focusing on how she teases Dipper, why aren’t you also targeting Stan, who makes the same action without change?

Mabel Hate rhetoric focuses on how Bill was “right” in Sock Opera and she still acts selfishly in the same patterns after that episode. But, the climax is Mabel resisting Bill and demonstrating self-sacrifice, and that arguably does influence her character afterwards. It’s one step in an incomplete process. She might not be ready to handle Dipper separating off with Ford, but that’s because her arc still isn’t completed.

We do see Mabel dealing with meaningful loss like the collapse of her puppet show. She does show sacrificial love for her brother. And, as I’ll talk about more, she continues to grapple with and grow in selflessness through later decisions like Escape Through Reality.

Does Mabel ever realize she’s a bad person?

Anti-Mabel Argument: Narrative reinforces Mabel is a good person even when she’s not. Alex Hirsch wrote with rose-tinted bias because Mabel represents Alex’s twin sister. The Last Mabelcorn showcases that. Instead of Mabel learning she’s a bad person who can’t receive a unicorn’s blessing… the unicorn’s criticisms against Mabel get nullified – the creature’s lying about Mabel’s impure heart. Mabel got affirmed for who she was rather than dealing with her imperfection.

First off: if you haven’t watched the DVD commentary for The Last Mabelcorn, you should. It’s a wild story how this episode got made. Alex Hirsch trashed the script of an entire episode 48 hours before it was due. He crunched to write a new episode - by himself - from scratch. So yeah. A few lines of final dialogue could’ve been tweaked to improve the message, but the fact he wrote as successful an episode as he did in that short of time is incredible. And the message of The Last Mabelcorn is there:

Mabel learns she’s an *IMPERFECT* person. She embraces being imperfect instead of groveling for impossible perfection and meaningless approval.

Maybe that’s not the “Mabel learns selflessness!” episode you wanted, but this is a fascinating lesson, and one I don’t see touted tons in media. I love it.

Mabel spends the episode attempting to be pure of heart through kind deeds. Wendy tells Mabel they should solve their problem the dirty way. Mabel keeps refusing until the unicorns anger her. This is the moment of triumph: she punches a unicorn. Mabel forsakes the route of “pure” good deeds to do what she first considered dirty. That’s the hero moment, dudes! 

Mabel says the unicorns are “worse” than her, not that she’s good and they’re bad. Mabel comes out of the adventure declaring, “Today I learned morality is relative.” That’s because the episode’s climactic Big Choice isn’t about Mabel accepting she’s a “pure” person; it’s about Mabel accepting she can make “impure” choices.

Ford is the person at the end who tries to tell Mabel she’s good. But Mabel contradicts what he says with that “morality is relative” quote. What she takes away is that she’s imperfect, she can make non-sparkly-decisions, and that’s okay. She’s become more aware of herself and her flaws, but also accepts she can make choices others might shake their heads at. 

So. Ford and Wendy might’ve called Mabel “a good person” in key parts of the episode, which is why I say Alex (not in a time crunch) could’ve considered tweaking lines to make the point clearer. But I don’t think the episode depicts Mabel as a selfish jerk who never learns her flaws.

And frankly? If I had to choose between a standard “you’re not perfect” episode and this? I’d MUCH rather have this, where characters learn lessons, but we also get the show’s humorous, slightly subversive, slightly truthful “anti-morality.” That’s a Gravity Falls thing, after all. (For other anti-morality examples: Stan saying Summerween is about celebrating “pure evil,” Mabel deciding it’s good to lie so Stan doesn’t get arrested, Mabel deciding being an asshole to employees is productive, etc.)

So yes, Mabel realizes she’s a bad person, even if it’s not in the way you expected. And that’s still not the end of her character arc. 

Does Mabel ever sacrifice for others Dipper?

Argument: Mabel only agrees to leave her bubble after Dipper promises to drop Ford’s apprenticeship. This apprenticeship would have been huge for Dipper. But all Mabel “sacrifices” is leaving a fake world she’s hiding in, goofing around instead of helping people in literal Armageddon. 

Much of Mabel and Dipper’s relationship is about how they’re opposites. We repeatedly see the best place for both of them is the middle. Alex Hirsch talks about this tons. Whether it’s perfectly implemented is a debate for another day. I do think these concepts can be seen even in episodes like Escape From Reality where there’s been criticism of narrative execution.

I’ve seen people say Mabel “gets her way” because Dipper turns down Ford’s apprenticeship when he sees it makes her sad. Hirsch has said in commentaries Dipper was making a mistake wanting the apprenticeship. Mabel wants to avoid growing up while Dipper wants to grow up too fast.

We don’t have to take Hirsch’s word-of-god for it: the story does show that Dipper was erring with the apprenticeship. Ford intends well, but his bias against siblinghood means he’s polluting Dipper’s values. He suggests that Dipper staying with Mabel is “suffocating.” He suggests that Dipper is “greater” and should be doing something with it. “Dipper, can you honestly tell me you never felt like you were meant for something more?” And later: “Listen to me, Dipper: this town is a magnet for things that are special. And that includes you and me. It brought both of us here for a purpose! Stay here with me, Dipper. Become my apprentice. Don’t let anyone hold you [back].”

When Mabel and Dipper make resolutions in Mabel Land, Dipper says he’ll drop the apprenticeship. This emotionally touches Mabel. But being emotionally touched doesn’t mean that’s WHY she makes amends with her brother. Instead, Mabel reassures him that he can take the apprenticeship if he wants. She leaves the choice up to him and is willing to let him live in another state during their teen years. She finds his needs and desires important.

And honestly? It’s Dipper himself who realizes the apprenticeship is bogus; it’s not because Mabel is forcing her brother to change. “Mabel, I thought you were living a fantasy, but look at me! I actually thought I was gonna stay here and be Ford’s apprentice. Spend my entire teens cooped up in a basement with a lab coat? How ridiculous is that?” He sheds the idea because he realizes it’s a bad one, not because he’s ameliorating someone too selfish to accept her brother leaving her.

It’s also to note Mabel Land tempts everyone. Calling only Mabel selfish when everyone else gets pulled in… seems incorrect. Bill considers it a diabolical, inescapable prison. People like Soos, Wendy, and Dipper who know it’s a prison get drawn to Mabel Land’s temptations. Heck, Dipper gets tempted with an old vice. He might have grown more mature, but that doesn’t mean he can’t trip occasionally (we can apply the same understanding to Mabel and “selfishness,” by the way - someone can both grow and keep tripping). Mabel, meanwhile, wants to use the bubble to help and comfort her visiting friends (which is, for the record, not selfish) and thinks reality should be avoided because both her and Dipper’s lives have been adversely affected. Dipper’s pain is important, too. Mabel has been in this prison longer than Soos, Wendy, and Dipper, and the prison was designed for her - ergo she’s going to be more manipulated by it. Lots of her actions are avoidance tactics because she’s scared of growing up, yes. The court trial is a lot, yes. But we should bear in mind that this is a child scared of growing up and feeling the burn of conflict with her brother. Emotional and psychological context is important. We all get vulnerable. Do our lowest lows define our entire personality?

When Dipper and Mabel make their compromise, both reject temptations. Dipper rejects a bad apprenticeship; Mabel rejects a bad reality. They offer each other solutions where they don’t get what they originally want. They meet in the middle, and this is the best way for both to move forward in the aging process. They’re both satisfied and confident with their choice. It’s not Dipper giving up everything for Mabel, ameliorating her because she’s sad. It’s about the twins learning they can make it through life together, through thick and thin.

Potentially muddled thematic framing does not erase the resolution the twins make. It does not erase that Mabel’s depicted as someone willing to give up major things for her brother.

Okay. But that rift thing. How can you excuse the APOCALYPSE??? JUST TO HAVE MORE SUMMER!?!

The point is that Mabel is emotionally compromised and outmanipulated.

She’s a terrified twelve year old going through a Very Rough Day. She’s terrified about the future, she’s learned bad news after bad news, and she’s afraid her life as she knows it will be wrenched apart. It feels like everything she loves - from her best friends to her brother - will be distanced from her. 

Would you have handled this well as a kid? Adults have issues with this, too.

When she meets “Blendin,” she’s told that trading one inconsequential item will save her future. It’s self-focused, but it’s important to understand: she wouldn’t have made this choice in calmer emotional states.

Compare this to Dipper making a deal with Bill in Sock Opera. The twins literally make the same mistake for the same reasons, duped by the same villain.

Dipper: Decides to give Bill one of Mabel’s belongings, a puppet, without her knowledge. Mabel: Decides to give Bill one of Dipper’s backpack items without his knowledge. 

Dipper: Irritated with Mabel because she isn’t helping unlock the laptop.Mabel: Frustrated with Dipper because it feels like he’s abandoning her to be “special” with Ford. 

Dipper: This is an inconsequential bargain. Bill is just unlocking the laptop. He’s just taking a sock puppet - Mabel has plenty of those.Mabel: Nothing bad will happen. Just a few more weeks of summer. And she’s giving an item Ford allegedly won’t notice is missing.

Dipper: The laptop counter is ticking. Only a matter of minutes before the data gets erased.Mabel: Summer is ending in a week. Separation from Dipper is imminent. 

Dipper: Not thinking clearly due to sleep deprivation.Mabel: Not thinking clearly, emotionally compromised from a walloping bad day.

Hirsch and company have confirmed that only this combination of factors convinced Dipper to make a deal with a demon. Mabel wouldn’t have shook “Blendin’s” hand in less severe circumstances. It’s ironic that, in Sock Opera and Dipper and Mabel vs the Future, rhetoric attacks Mabel in both episodes.

So yes, Mabel gave Bill the rift. But yes, Dipper jeopardized the town’s safety by letting Bill into his body.

I know that, at this point, people might argue there’s a narrative difference. Dipper learned from his mistake but Mabel didn’t. However, I disagree. There wasn’t dialogue in Sock Opera where Dipper explicitly confronts his transgression and works it out with Mabel on screen. Same thing with Mabel and the rift. I know fans wanted it addressed that Mabel started the apocalypse… and frankly I would’ve enjoyed that too… but it doesn’t make Mabel’s writing as a character suddenly, “OH NO SELFISH SELFISH! AND THE NARRATIVE IS LETTING HER GET AWAY WITH BEING SELFISH!”

It’s no different than how writing handles Dipper in Sock Opera. And again, give a terrified kid a break instead of calling a large emotional low “irrevocably selfish.”

By the time Take Back the Falls comes around, Mabel encourages everyone to work together to fight Bill. Mabel risks her life to save the town and her family. Mabel works together with Dipper and puts the people she loves first.

Lost Legends: Fixing remaining narrative holes

After S2 ended, Mabel’s selfishness is head on tackled. That’s the ENTIRE point of Don’t Dimension It in Lost Legends. I suspect Alex Hirsch read Mabel criticism and intentionally reacted through Lost Legends. In this story, Mabel acts out of self-focused energy and doesn’t realize her actions have negative consequences to others. It puts the Pines family in an interdimensional conundrum. Once Mabel runs into other Mabels from other dimensions, she comes to terms that she’s self-absorbed and needs to be attuned to how others feel. Mabel realizes she put everyone in this mess. She apologizes to her family and resolves to be better.

It’s great.

I’ve still seen people criticize it. And that’s where I think Mabel hate rhetoric definitely goes too far. I suspect there’s bias in how people responded to that comic. By the time Lost Legends came out, criticisms for selfish Mabel were rampant and people were set in their perspectives, so seeing a character arc about Mabel’s selfishness got unfairly nitpicky responses. 

I’ve seen people say things like, “Well, she only learns when she interacts with herself, not with others!” But that’s a cool way of presenting story! Mabel sees herself in a literal mirror and takes away truth. Sometimes we don’t see our flaws until it’s right in our faces. This is Mabel’s in-the-face moment. The “I’m selfish” revelation doesn’t have to be with Dipper to be relevant toward how she treats Dipper. She takes away the full lesson she’s self-absorbed and needs to fix that. She immediately makes sure to talk to Dipper about becoming a better person. She owns responsibility toward how she’s treated her brother - and mentions the entire summer as the scope of her fault.

“I’m sorry for being selfish this summer,” the comic ends. “I guess it took me dealing with myself to realize what you put up with. It’s time for us to start some new adventures! And this time I won’t always hog the spotlight.”

There are other criticisms about Lost Legends, which I feel boil down to “I don’t know, still doesn’t satisfy me, not enough.” It makes me wonder what would get people satisfied. Does every possible angle of how someone could learn selfishness have to be covered thoroughly? No franchise can cover that scope. Isn’t there still lots of takeaway with Mabel? Don’t Dimension It alone is an episode’s worth of material, the same amount of content which most fans deemed enough to wrap up Dipper getting over Wendy, Pacifica being a brat, and Gideon being creepy on Mabel.

Mabel’s selfishness gets addressed, multiple times, and gets a final-final resolution in the comics.

Final Thoughts

I think it’s an interesting point you make, anon friend, that male characters get praised while women get condemned. I haven’t talked about gender aspects or other selfishly-acting male characters like Stanley (whose selfishness people perceive as lovable). I said earlier I don’t think it’s rampant fandom sexism, but there still could be a point there. Maybe you’re right it’s a factor. It wouldn’t be the first time gender perception’s done that.

I think there’s also point to be made that Dipper is the protagonist. Mabel’s a deuteragonist. It’s more common to write life lessons for the protagonist. That’s fine. Dipper learning more lessons than Mabel and Dipper giving up a little more than Mabel is a result of being a protagonist, not narrative excusing Mabel for her flaws or letting her waltz around scott free.

So yeah. I think Mabel’s gotten too much criticism for that flaw. Constructive criticism is almost always interesting in fandom dialogue, but rampant hate movements make me sad. Talking about how narrative structure could’ve been improved I find cool; pinning it on the character’s humanity bothers me. I think lots of the dialogue turns into criticizing Mabel unfairly as a person, and given as other GF characters have glaring flaws, it feels imbalanced and uncomfortable that SHE gets disproportionate attacks. 

This is Mabel we’re talking about. Mabel Pines, who’s SO selfish she tries to rescue Mermando when that means she’ll never see him again. Mabel Pines, who’s SO selfish she knits everyone sweaters during the Apocalypse. Mabel Pines, who’s SO selfish she calls out Dipper when he’s leading on Candy. Mabel Pines, who risks her life in multiple daring moves to save the town, parachuting through the sky into the demon’s lair… acting as a decoy to distract Bill Cipher… and more. Mabel Pines, who spends an entire episode trying to make everyone happy, down to Robbie, whom everyone else didn’t care enough about (but Mabel did!!!). Mabel Pines, who encourages Soos to date women and find a romantic connection he’s satisfied with. Mabel Pines, who fights in Globnar and risks her life, just so Soos can have a happy birthday and forget about his dad. Mabel Pines, who decides it’s better to be friends with her enemy Pacifica than fight petty battles. Mabel Pines, whose love for her brother helps even the thirty year rift between Stan and Ford mend. Mabel, who couldn’t give up on Stan and found a way to restore his memories when all others thought it lost. Mabel. Fucking. Pines!

[ahgaseda]

the NSFW alphabet | Mark (Got7)

{ this post contains graphic descriptions and explicit content : please read at your own risk! }

A = aroused (how he acts when he's in the mood)

like a horny little fuck boy. but he also smooth as fuck. says the dirtiest shit. cant keep his hands off of you. will bring your hand to the bulge in his jeans like baby look what you made me do. goes right for the neck kisses. he knows thats the weak spot and hes not afraid to go for it straight away. pouts or sulks when you play hard to get but secretly loves it.

B = body (favorite body part of their partner)

he loves your skin. he loves how soft it is. he loves how warm it feels against him. he lives to trace his fingertips in mindless patterns up and down your body. from your head to your toes. he loves to nip and bite. he loves to lick and suck. if he can mark every inch of you he will. oh god and the warm sweaty feel of your skin when youre on top of him after a round of sex is his favorite.

C = climax (what he's like when he orgasms)

face scrunching up. teeth buried in his bottom lip. during sex and climax its like the only word he knows is fuck. if its a really intense nut he may just repeat that word until he finally comes back down. hes not afraid to make noise but its usually soft moans or heavy panting. he also the type to like staying inside after he finishes. youre very used to him getting comfortable on top of you.

D = dominance (is he dominant, submissive or a switch)

a very very good switch. he is the master of both sides. can be a rough and intimidating dom that puts you in your place and fucks you from behind into the mattress. or he can be the cutest brattiest little sub that lets you cuff him to the bed and do whatever you want with him until further notice. he doesnt really have a preference since either are good fun for him and he likes making you both happy.

E = experience (how experienced is he in the bedroom)

he definitely been at this a while and hes not opposed to one night stands. when hes in a relationship he gives his all to his partner but a quick fuck with a stranger not so much. because hes a Virgo he prefers sex with love but when hes single he will make do with what he has. but when hes in that meaningful relationship with someone he loves he will make it his mission to become an expert on pleasing them in bed.

F = fortitude (does he have a lot of stamina and energy)

yes and no. lots and lots of stamina. he can make a round last as long as needed. he can hold back his orgasm until youve finished even if he has to pull out and calm himself down when hes too close. as for multiple rounds well that might be reserved for special occasions. or if hes been away and the two of you are reunited after weeks apart. after sex he typically wants to settle down and snuggle and probably sleep. that being said hes also the type to do a lot before actual sex. like dry grinding or manual or oral. there can still be multiple orgasms before any intercourse which is like the grand finale of a long show lol

G = gratification (what really gets him off)

getting exactly what he wants. it sounds selfish but its not. if he got you all worked up and now hes got you right where he wants you and youre moaning his name and its all playing out exactly how he wanted and imagined then hes gonna blow really hard. even when hes subbing and youre doing what you want he still wanted to sub in the first place so it still taps into what gets him off. he can be a greedy little lover boy but its never at your expense. he will never leave you unsatisfied.

H = habitat (preferred place to get busy)

at home usually. or at least somewhere that a couch or bed is nearby. he will want to call it a day afterward. but he also likes quickies so this isn’t a strict rule of his. he definitely down for car sex if the mood is right. in fact it probably happens a lot more than he would care to admit. he also is a big fan of pool sex for obvious reasons. tbh if the two of you are getting it on he really doesnt give a fuck where it is in the heat of the moment.

I = intimacy (how emotional is he when it comes to sex)

it depends on the mood. if its a rough round and hes just chasing your highs then probably not at all. if youre celebrating an anniversary or something then there will be a lot of intimacy and tenderness. also there is a lot of makeup sex in this relationship and he will get very emotional about it. hes not the type to pick a fight just for the sake of makeup sex. the fights will be real and serious and so will be the making up making love afterward.

J = joke (how much does he play around)

during roleplay and foreplay there will be plenty of joking around. also during a quickie yes he can be a little shit and make you giggle. totally the type to get horny and poke you in the back with his dick like hey you asleep? if humor works on you then he will use it. he can be really funny when subbing so be prepared to laugh. he doesnt take the bedroom too seriously unless the mood calls for it. hes a pretty easygoing guy and that carries over to his sexy time too.

K = kink (toys or kinks)

loves toys. will gladly tie you up and slip some vibrating panties on you and then play some video games with you having orgasms over and over behind him. but he also the type to get lots of different toys and then never use them lol he tends to stick with the usual stuff. as far as his kinks he loves when you dom the absolute fuck out of him. pin him down and fuck the soul out of him. he wont readily admit it but he loves when you own him in every way possible. also marking haha no pun intended. he loves to give and receive bruises and hickeys.

L = lust (how often does he want it)

the sex drive is between average and high. sometimes leaning toward the high side when hes in a committed relationship. you turn him on almost constantly hes just so damn into you. yall fuck each other on the regular. he really likes showing how much he needs you through sex. there will be times though when hes exhausted from work and just does not have the energy for a fuck. other times work can stress him tf out so bad that he just needs to take some pleasure out of your body. he will always give you a heads up text on the way home when thats the case though.

M = masturbation (mutual and solo)

its not a big deal to him. he dont care if you get yourself off though he does like hearing all about it. you can call him up for some phone sex and he will do the bare minimum. but that deep voice is enough. he will give you a mmhm and good girl and yep a couple of those do the trick. he gets a little freaky when yall are apart though. he wants you to send him nudes and show him your boobs when you facetime and all that stuff. when hes a horny little fucker and youre not around he really is shameless.

N = never (what he will not do)

share. you are his and every other guy can fuck right off. if you suggest a threesome you can forget it. if one of the members has his phone and accidentally sees one of your nudes he may come out swinging. he loves you way too much and is too emotionally attached to you. he cant ever see another guy give you pleasure or even let them see your beautiful body that belongs to him. he doesnt care if youve been with other guys or been in love before you are his now and he is yours and thats that.

O = oral (giving and receiving)

oh god giving him head is the best because the sounds he makes. he isnt loud but hes not afraid to make noise when he feels good and your hot wet mouth is the good shit. he just loves tangling his hand in your ponytail and thrusting into your throat. you love feeling his legs tremble when you swallow him. and hes not above reciprocating. the kid will suck you dry. you wanna be a little brat alright this will change that attitude real quick. awe youre stressed out lemme make you sing. most of the time he eats you out before sex because he catches a glimpse of how wet you are and he just has to have a taste.

P = position (favorite position)

it may sound boring but missionary. he loves having you beneath him. the view is fantastic. he can watch himself sinking in and out of you. he loves the way your boobs bounce with his thrusts and he has perfect access to grab one or both. he can either drape himself over you chest to chest or he can sit up and roam his hands all over your thighs and hips. either way theres definitely nothing wrong with good ole missionary. he also loves to get ahold of your neck and pin you to the mattress. sometimes he will squeeze and sometimes not. its pretty good either way. he is very possessive of your body in the heat of the moment.

Q = quickie (what is a quickie like with him)

hot and messy and wild and rough and crazy and the best ever. he really gives it to you hard and fast in a quickie. he loves the way your body shudders from enduring his thrusts. the way you cant stop chanting his name. these occur in the car or in the shower most of the time. you need him right this minute and damn it hes gotta have you right now. it still shocks you how merciless he gets and youre suddenly aware just how much he holds back. and hell hath no fury like mark if he is interrupted. be prepared for him to fling something at whoever disturbs you both.

R = roleplay (favorite routines and tropes)

they change on a whim. it depends on what yall are in the mood for. though he does like to get his way more often than not and he knows how to push your buttons to get the desired outcome. a common trope is the playing hard to get. he likes when you make him work for it. he lives to tease and be teased. he really enjoys everything that leads up to the sex. hes actually a pretty good actor when it comes to dom or sub tropes. when hes in dom mode your body obeys his every command without a second thought.

S = seduction (how he gets you in the mood)

he knows how to finesse his way to some sexy time and he’s damn good at what he does. a little bit of that low deep voice does the trick. its unholy. the boy knows exactly how and when to get you worked up. he gets very vocal about what he wants. come on baby lets go play dont you wanna come for me i love watching you come and listening to you scream my name for all the neighbors.

T = teasing (what is the best way to arouse him)

flirt with him. get naughty. touch him lightly but intentionally. keep at it and get him all riled up. the most sure fire way to get him is to put on some lingerie and give him a lapdance or something like that. if hes playing games and pretending to ignore you put on something skimpy or racy and sit right in his lap. also tap into his mark kink. kiss his neck and start sucking. he will melt into a puddle in your hands.

U = underwear (lingerie and costumes)

will buy you lingerie he likes without hesitation. baby please wear this for me. he dies for how good you look in lingerie. and holy crap does he have dozens upon dozens of pictures of you in his phone in these outfits. lingerie is probably one of his biggest weaknesses. meanwhile he always prefers to be naked. if company aint coming around you can guarantee he will walk around the house naked as the day he was born. the kid is hot blooded and hates wearing clothes.

V = verdict (what do you think of your sex life with him)

sometimes you catch yourself blushing as you think about the sex with mark. its good. so so good. the two of you feed off of and into each other. after a while youre in sync with each others desires and needs. you can tell when he needs stress relief. he can tell when you need reassurance. its like he can read your body fluently. he gives you some of the most intense orgasms and holds you afterward like youre all hes ever wanted in his life.

W = words (how vocal is he and dirty talk)

his dirty talk is next level and im not exaggerating. he a whole fuckboy and he knows how lethal his deep voice is. expect him to make it even lower and to say the nastiest things. remember hes shameless and not much is off limits except things he knows you dont like. he keeps it going during sex too. loves whispering in your ear when he takes you. when hes subbing for you he makes sure to be extra vocal and does not hold back. as a dom he goads you and gets even more explicit.

X = x-rated (how does he feel about porn or sextapes)

oh yall have definitely made a few videos. hes gotta have stuff to watch at night when hes on tour and youre on the other side of the globe. he prefers photos of you but he does have a couple vids that are his absolute favorite. he watches porn occasionally and he doesnt care if you do too. yall have watched porn together no big deal. yall pretty much get each other horny enough you dont need any porn for that lol

Y = yawn (what is he like after sex)

sleepy and cuddly. he turns into such a snuggle bug. it taps into that need he has for your skin against his. you become his personal pillow after sex. he smushes his face against your breasts. he wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you flush against him. just cuddle the shit out of him. he needs and wants it so badly. as you both come down he really covers you in kisses. will lick every sweat droplet off of your skin. damn youre so beautiful and feel so amazing he just cant stand it.

Z = zodiac (what his sign says about him in bed)

oh the Virgo. greedy but needy. they want their wishes fulfilled but they also want to be good to you. its a steady balance. sometimes he gets a little too self centered and will pull your strings to get his way but he loves you so much that he will always make it up to you. he wants this relationship to last forever and ever and is therefore willing to bend over backwards to make you happy but he expects the same in return. this boy will never stick around for a one-sided love. match his effort or hes gone.

{ copyright 2018-2020 © ahgaseda // masterlist }

[knottymaverick]

Hello! Just wondering, are you analyzing classpects at the moment? If so, do you think you can tell me about a seer of rage? I really love your blog!!

It has been a very long while since I've done “proper” classpecting, but I can certainly try.

{Warning: I get rant-y, even with non-Seer stuff, so I'll color what is NOT specifically about the Seer.}

Seers are the passive counterpart to the Mage class, and as such, they not only “invite knowledge of [aspect]” but also “invite THROUGH knowledge of [aspect]”. Though many have speculated as to its (-)/(+) {active/passive} nature, I think it's clear to see once you look at how the classes are initially granted information.

You see, a Mage's capabilities shine through how they personally experience things: They are very much the trial-and-error equivalent of the two. An Heir, their “inverse”, unknowingly alters their aspect in the environment by way of their own being; a Mage comes to face every result [and therefore subsequent consequence] of their actions, consciously taking note of every cause-and-effect in order to understand where things went wrong and right; they know “what” happens/can happen because they themselves were a PART of the experiment, not researching an outside phenomenon. They don't really write down their findings, since it's pretty difficult and practically impossible to word the EXACT definitions of what they went through without having some part of what they said misinterpreted or ignored.

They'll wave their hands around and say, “What do you mean you don't get it?! It just HAPPENED–you didn't FEEL that? You didn't EXPERIENCE what just occurred?!” They are aware of what reality is doing to them, and the only ones who can ever understand the very depths what the hell just happened. It's visceral, unexplainable, but they KNOW it and have to DO something about it.

A Seer, on the other hand, is much like a researcher, analyzing the very essence of their aspect without necessarily being a part of what's going on. They answer the “Why?” to everything, watching as things unfold and recording their findings in a step-by-step process; they pinpoint the location of every place their aspect resides, chart its path as external factors make it react differently from how it originally was, and write their findings in a notebook for further study and possible experimentation. There's a reason for everything, and they have manuals upon manuals that explain in great {sometimes TOO great} detail how a desired outcome can be reached, just as long as the reader follows everything accordingly.

Once they learn the ins-and-outs of their aspect, the Seer will know every way in which they can influence things to, effectively, assure anything they want to happen, happen.

A Seer asks, “Any questions? You shouldn't because I covered everything, but just in case.” The reason there will be questions for them, however, is because the person will either not know which part(s) of the wall of text they're supposed to care about and which is just rambling on the Seer's end.

Their “inverse”, the Witch, doesn't bother with whatever state their aspect is in; they'll shape it however they want to, defying the very rules and having it be in whatever shape the Witch wants it to be without consequence. Everyone else has to deal with it and hope that the Witch knows what their doing, because whatever state the Witch leaves it in becomes the aspect's nature [and so new manuals will have to be written to record the new information presented, which is exactly what the Seer will do.]

Something I've come to realize that I haven't seen spoken about the knowledge classes:

Seers are Vertical Thinkers–they take a look at all the data, logically break down their options, and make sequential choices in order to meet what they think is the best outcome; they see the END goal and take the steps that MUST be taken.

Mages are Lateral Thinkers, they see every path that CAN be taken for a problem, choose which they WANT to take because THEY feel it's the best course of action, and meet it through–they see the NEXT goal and will deal with anything and everything that follows once it's reached.

Seers must objectively view every path possible, consider choices they may be opposed to in case of Last Resort, and be sure to not get so caught up in micromanaging and being an active force in everyone's lives; it's incredibly unhealthy for them to try and take control/guide every situation there is, expending great time and energy for the most menial of tasks. Since they'll also be aware of everyone's capabilities, the Seer may believe themselves unimportant in the grand scheme of what they envision, when in fact they are just as important and impacting as others.

Rage is the aspect governing falsehoods; denial, fear, and other negative feelings; the narrowing of options; primal instincts; mayhem; righteousness and conviction; etcetera. Remember that not every facet of an aspect has to or will be applied to a person, and they don't need to be. Also, while Rage can cover anger and fury, it is moreso in the name of disgust towards the disillusioned–towards those who absently believe in a system, deity, or belief that is JUST SO DAMAGING, VOLATILE, AND ///WRONG///!!! How can people be so BLIND to the INSANITY that the very FOUNDATION of their positivity is FORGED UPON?!?! Don't join in the chorus that sings of saints and fairies, CHALLENGE THE WRONGS AND CALL THEM FORTH TOWARDS THE VERY HEAVENS THAT HAVE SO CONDEMNED US ALL TO THIS HELLSCAPE!!!

Ahem...

A Seer of Rage is one who invites the knowledge of fear; disbelief; pain; etcetera, and invites knowledge through falsehoods; conviction; etcetera. They see everything for what it is and how it will be, ensuring that only the purest of meanings are interpreted as they are casted–they see through all the bullshit; truth-speakers.

They may know what makes you squirm–what writhes underneath your skin and causes you to tremble and cry in anguish or RAGE; but they also know how to get you riled up in all the right ways, to and how to get you fighting for the justifiably right cause; you don't just put your faith in something that may lead you to being victorious, you KNOW you'll win the battle–everything is on the line and there's no room to be doubting an outcome other than what you see as the TRUTH.

A Mage of Rage and a Seer of Rage are asked to make a horror movie. The Mage has surprising turns, jump-scares, an awesomely terrifying creature, and a climax to end it all.

The Seer sets up the setting and tone, slowly pacing everything to a crawl as music fades out and vanishes–the sound of everyone's breathing, the beating of hearts, the ambience of metal clicking amd scraping softly in another room...suspense, despair, all throughout, leaving you on edge to the point of always being prepared but never truly ready for what happens. That, is the Seer of Rage in action.

The Seer of Rage may be at an even greater risk of becoming metaphorically blind, their one-track mind clouding them from seeing anything other than what they deem as RIGHT and WRONG; maybe they come to learn of a danger so great that they can't seem to think of a single thing that'll help the team, and resort to caving in instead of trying even the most unlikely of scenarios due to the failure they see being the only answer–things can change, after all, if you believe hard enough in the impossible being possible.

[brendanmoviedate]

Yer fond of me lobster ain’t ye?

Another year, another broken promise that I’d write more often. I’m not going to fool myself going forward and expect I’ll be able to keep up with reviewing every movie I see. However, I’ll continue to write my year-end movie review and perhaps a couple here and there when I feel inspired. 

Looking back to last year’s post, I wouldn’t make too many changes, though I would certainly move Into the Spider-verse slightly higher up. I would also consider adding Upgrade to the list for how brazen it is.

Most of the films I called out as ones to watch for 2019 ended up being either on my list or in the composite image, which goes to show that it’s worth getting excited for new films more often than not.

Vancouver being the way that it is, sometimes we don’t get timely releases of films when other cities do. As a result, I haven’t had a chance to see 1917 and Uncut Gems yet. The latter of which I’ve been dying to see for months and would probably feature on this list. 

Here’s the 10 best films I’ve seen from 2019:

10. John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum

Whereas John Wick: Chapter 2 was the perfect escalation of its pared down predecessor, Chapter 3 is merely an excellent continuation of the newly minted franchise. However, while not bringing anything entirely new to the world of John Wick, it is still an intensely entertaining film. The first 20 minutes is some of the best fight choreography in the series to date and enough to secure a spot on this list.

9. Long Day’s Journey into Night

From director Bi Gan, Long Day’s Journey into Night is a noirish drama about a man (Huang Jue) returning to his hometown following the death of his father to track down his lost love (Tang Wei). The film is a slow burn that jumps between past and present before descending into a surreal 60 minute single take shot filmed in 3D. Regretfully, the only screening I could attend was entirely 2D, but nonetheless, the sequence was still enthralling. This is the type of film that proves that spectacle doesn’t necessarily need to be tied to tentpole movies.

8.  Booksmart

Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut suggests she has an effortless understanding of comedy. Written by a quartet of female writers, Booksmart feels like Superbad for a new generation (I can’t believe that film came out 12 years ago). Interestingly, Jonah Hill’s sister, Beanie Feldstein stars, alongside Kaitlyn Dever (daughter of the guy that voiced Barney the Purple Dinosaur). While it would be easy to say it’s “the female Superbad,” Booksmart is in fact much more than that. Replacing the misfits trying to get laid story with one about a pair of overachievers realizing almost too late that there’s more to life than good grades lets the film be looser and allows the comedy to happen more naturally. 

7. Midsommar

Ari Aster’s follow-up to 2018′s Hereditary began filming almost immediately after wrapping post-production on his previous film. As a result, Midsommar has that extra layer of a director exhausting himself by putting everything on the screen. Midsommar is a much more mature work than Hereditary and one that took a while to grow on me. My initial reaction was less enthusiastic than it is now, but it’s one of the films from 2019 that has stuck with me the most. I imagine a second watch or the extended director’s cut might raise my appreciation of it even more. 

Florence Pugh gives a knockout performance that when combined with her roles in Little Women and last year’s Little Drummer Girl prove that she’ll be a star in no time.

6. Knives Out

Rian Johnson’s first post-Star Wars film sees him reinvigorated and working with a bigger name cast than he has in the past. Essentially a whodunnit along the lines of Agatha Christie, Knives Out follows Daniel Craig’s southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc as he investigates the murder of a wealthy publisher (Christopher Plummer). In addition to playing with a few plot twists, Johnson includes a couple of structure twists as well that turn the film on its head. 

In addition to Craig’s hammy performance, other standouts include Ana de Armas and Chris Evans as the publisher’s caregiver and grandson, respectively. 

Johnson has hinted at the possibility of more Benoit Blanc mysteries, and as long as Daniel Craig is onboard, I’ll gladly watch them.

5. The Lighthouse

In Robert Eggers’ followup to The Witch, Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson play a pair of lighthouse keepers in isolation. As would be expected, The Lighthouse is a paranoia-fuelled chamber piece, with Dafoe’s gruff experienced lighthouse keeper getting on the nerves of the younger Pattinson. And while this setup allows the two leads a chance to really dig into the 19th century dialects, the film takes the occasional departure into the eldritch for a very unsettling film. 

As with Black Philip in The Witch, there’s a standout animal character in The Lighthouse - fittingly, a seagull.

4. Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s presumably penultimate film is perhaps his most mature work, ruminating on the idea of legacy and the film industry as a whole. Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood is almost a Tarantino hangout movie reminiscent of parts of Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction. A lot of time is spent on scenes that don’t necessarily lead to the film’s climax, but allow the characters room to breathe and feel real. Other than the historical event hinted at throughout the movie, the film doesn’t seem to have a particular direction, which allows you to live in the lives of these characters more than if it was purely plot driven.

The main cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margo Robbie is great, but it’s Pitt who puts in a career best performance. There’s a quietness and a sadness to his character that brings some added depth to an otherwise bold cast.

3. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt’s other great performance this year is in James Gray’s Ad Astra. Having seen Gray’s The Lost City of Z and purposefully avoiding trailers and reviews, my expectation for this film was a reflective voyage centred around the ideas of obsession, loss, and family. All of these ideas were present in Ad Astra, but the real surprise was how seamlessly a space opera was added into the story. I never thought I’d see a lunar shuttle chase, but I’m glad I did.

The amount of casual sci-fi world building in the film is staggering, with entire premises treated as banal. We get to see Pitt’s Clifford McBride travel from Earth to the Moon mundanely on a commercial flight. Most films would take the opportunity to spoon feed to the audience why this is odd, but Ad Astra treats it as normal as the characters do, making it all the more fascinating.

2. The Farewell

Starring Awkwafina, who has quickly shot to stardom after featuring in Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell gives the actress the chance to stretch her dramatic muscles playing Billi, who returns to China to visit with her grandmother who has cancer. Billi’s family insists on keeping the grandmother’s illness a secret from her so she can live out her life in happiness, while Billi struggles with the morals of lying to her grandmother. This premise allows for not only the comedy of misunderstanding, a staple in comedy, but also emotional tension and the devastation of preparing to send off a loved one. 

The comedy-drama balance is handled expertly by director Lulu Wang, making The Farewell the movie I both cried at and laughed at the most this year.

1. Parasite

Had you told me a couple of months ago that my picking Parasite as the best movie of the year could be considered a safe choice, I would have scoffed. Yet here we are, and Parasite has widely been hailed as the best film of the year. I suppose in hindsight it’s not hard to see why. It’s both a crowd-pleasing film and a film that’s deeply disturbing and thrilling.

After having seen Bong Joon-ho’s last five movies, one would be forgiven for expecting a linearity in Parasite. Most of his films tend to have a point A to point B element with an expected (though often subverted) outcome. Heck, Snowpiercer is about a group of people moving from the back of the train to the front, one car at a time. Yet Parasite is different. The film sets up a premise you only find out about as it happens and is quickly overturned once you’re comfortable with it.

I saw this movie the same day I saw Joker and the difference in how the subject matter of class is treated is stark. Whereas Joker wanted to go all dark and Taxi Driver with the theme, Parasite had fun with it and let the elements of drama, comedy, and horror slide along the theme of class.

Like Bong’s Memories of Murder, Parasite will be one of those films I endlessly revisit.

Honourable Mentions

Films that almost cracked the Top 10 that I wanted to shout out here are Us and Doctor Sleep for being really solid, exciting, horror-thrillers. As well as The Irishman for being a classic Scorcese film that gives De Niro and Pacino ample time to with each other. Finally, I wanted to applaud Avengers: Endgame for not only managing to pull off such an ambitious finale, but to make it so goddamned fun.

2020

This year I’m looking forward to new blockbusters from two of my favourite directors, Christoper Nolan and Denis Villeneuve - Tenet and Dune, respectively. 

Despite the stumble with Spectre, I’m extremely excited for Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond with No Time to Die, by auteur Cary Fukunaga. I can’t wait to see how his style meshes with the Bond template. 

Also of great interest are the new films from David Fincher and Edgar Wright - Mank and Last Night in Soho.

[professorprophetess]

Analysis

Why “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” worked where other video game themed movies fell short”

Jumanii: Welcome to the Jungle was not met with any sort of optimism whenever the sequel to the beloved Robin Williams movie was announced following the actor’s death. Yet despite all misgivings this movie turned out to be better than one might expect it to be, even standing its own and paying many moments of homage to the prior film. It managed to be a video game movie that actually worked, and that mostly comes from how it embraced its concept whereas other game movies tend to try too hard to take those half-real incoherences out of the equation and it more often than not weakens what is being attempted. In contrast I’ll be referencing these other movies: Spy Kids 3: Game Over and Ready Player One as well to compare and contrast how well each films handles their game elements.

First a few definition of terms might help those who are not as versed in the terminology as I am or as other game scholars might be. Whenever I say Incoherence, I am of course referencing Jesper Juul’s Half-Real. In it, these things are basically those parts of video games that are non-diagetic but are part of gameplay. The UI, the menus, the rules, the loading screens, the world maps, etc. It’s one of those reasons straight video game adaptations have such a hard time because a large part of what is going on with the game is those non-diagetic elements (Juul 121-162). I may also refer to certain games as MMO, MMORPG or just RPGs and while I know many know what those abbreviations stand for, I’ll spell them out right now. An MMORPG is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game whereas MMO is just to refer to any large game that is online. RPG is simply a Role Playing Game. Any game that has classes to choose from and the party system are generally RPGs. There are other types of abbreviations for games but for the games being discusses, these are the three most pertinent. The final abbreviation is VR or Virtual Reality.

I will start with the oldest film of the three: Spy Kids 3: Game Over. Its central conceit is child spy Junie Cortez had retired from spy work because he was feeling inadequate and just wanted to do something else with his life. Then the maker of a new VR MMO game turned out to secretly be an evil mastermind. They had sent another spy kid into the game but her mind had been trapped by him somewhere in it. Since the other spy kid is his older sister Carmen, Junie has no choice but to enter the game world and go after his sister and save the world while he was at it. In the end, the villain is stopped by Junie and then the virtual monsters somehow end up in the real world with the climax being that the mecha monsters are stopped by Junie and his family (Spy Kids 3). As far as video game adaptation movies go, this and the other films don’t technically count since the games in their plots aren’t real. However, Spy Kids 3 doesn’t also seem all that concerned as to how its central game’s rules work. Sometimes they’ll throw in the gaming concept of mini-games to advance —the robot fights, the racing game, the duel, I can only think of a few times where they faced monsters. Only three times did their life points count—the robot fight, the duel, and when the guy got blown up—. Emails are mentioned but it’s never shown how they exchange them aside from an awkward mimed handoff. Then there is the power up the bad guy gives Junie’s Grandpa AKA his old friend. These items, and the few elements of game play rules are there but they’re not really anything other than a plot point here or a beat there. They’re not central to how the plot is resolved nor how the story is playing out beyond a few bumps in their path to the climax. In fact the film version of incoherence AKA breaking the fourth wall plays more of a role with the climax as the 3-D glasses are used to see the monsters once they get into the real world. They’re not called those in the film but it is very clear with how they look that they are 3D glasses. Still, while it doesn’t resist the incoherences, it merely accepts them as a fact of a game movie and moves on (Juul 121-162, Spy Kids 3).

The next film I’ll look at is Ready Player One. Unlike Spy Kids 3, Ready Player One’s VR world isn’t actually an MMO. The OASIS is actually an internet interface that has many gameified elements to it (Ready Player One). In this film, the inventor of the OASIS died without any heirs about ten years before the start of the main plot and then added an extra gameified element to the OASIS. He left behind an Easter Egg Hunt for the whole of the OASIS’s user base to find. Winner takes the whole OASIS for themselves. This set off a bunch of people pouring over the things he loved in his life to see what kind of Easter eggs he hid to find the clues to get to that final prize. The hero, Wade, is a major Halliday—the OASIS creator—fanboy and finally manages to crack the code to get through the first challenge. From there, the race is on against his fellow gamers and Sorento the menacing head of a company that—should they get control—would make the VR world of the OASIS a pop-up filled nightmare. For the most part the rules of the game are not as important as the rules of the real world, as Sorento being the generic corporate villain that he is uses in game data to find the offline ID’s of the leaderboard to threaten them or, in one case, kills Wade’s not-all-that-lamented Aunt and Uncle as well as a bunch of innocent people who also lived in his trailer house stack (Ready Player One). Item inventories and passwords play a large role in the movie’s outcome as well as an extra life and the rules of the various mini games and challenges the players go through, but beyond that, I wouldn’t say the incoherences are ever used to anyone’s advantage beyond a plot device moment with that extra life Wade got from the Archivist (who turned out not to be just an NPC but an actual user avatar after all: the ex-best friend of Halliday) (Juul 121-162, Ready Player One). Ready Player One was far more concerned with pop-culture references than it was anything else. This doesn’t detract from things but it is what it is.The gameified OASIS  of the movie with its customizable avatars is interesting but doesn’t seem particularly efficient for anyone just trying to use the internet for data sharing or business. In fact it seems like it has a lot of wasted features to look cool instead of be functional. If it were a straight up VR MMO, that would make sense but here it creates more issues. Ultimately, the incoherences are there but not super important more than item collection—the keys and Wade’s 1-Up—,the moment where they steal Sorento’s password, and the chase scene at the end where the real-world jerking about it making it hard for Wade to get to his goal. Never once do they seem to be anything anyone—except the bad guys—can take advantage of and even then it was more by accident than design (Juul 121-162, Ready Player One).

I saved Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle for last. In the original film, Jumanji was just a board game. A possessed board game but a board game none-the-less. Yet, its rules affected the whole plot of that first film. That first film ends with two of its Protagonists, Allan Parrish and Sarah Williams, throwing it into a river for it to get washed away in the year 1969 (after having been adults in 1995 for most of the film’s plot). There is a post credit scene where two girls speaking French come across it on a beach (Jumanji). Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opens with a man jogging along a beach and finding the game in the year 1996, one year after a majority of the plot of Jumanji took place. He picks it up, takes it home, and tosses it on his sleeping teenage son, Alex, who remarks “who even plays board games anymore?” While he plays his vaguely Atari 2600-esque console, the game magically changes into a cartridge version of Jumanji. Alex picks it up and puts it in. The next that is seen is a flash of green light. The movie jumps ahead and now it’s 2017. The movie introduces our four new teenage protagonists as four types of teenagers: the wimpy nerd, the lazy too-cool-for-school jock, the introverted awkward girl, and the self-absorbed, selfie-obsessed, popular, pretty girl. Also, the father of the Alex is re-introduced and the consequences of his disappearance have made him a wary, angry man. The four kids all get in trouble and land in detention; pretty girl Beth for being on the phone in class, Awkward girl Martha for mouthing off, and the boys Nerdy Spencer and Jock Anthony “Fridge” are  in trouble because Spencer helped Fridge cheat on his homework. They find the old-quasi Atari console with its very Nintendo looking controllers and decide to turn it on to play Jumanji. It is shown to look like it’s an old school RPG for four players that can each choose from different characters to play. After pressing start, they all get sucked into the game and become their characters. Spencer becoming the handsome Dr. Bravestone, Fridge becoming the comically small “Mouse” Finnbar, Martha becoming the sexy Ruby Roundhouse, and Beth becoming the male Dr. Shelly Oberon (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle). The first instance of game incoherence being part of the actual plot is when they get into the game and Beth dies but comes back because the extra life system. They meet a helpful—to a point—NPC named Nigel who fills them in (enabling a flashback cutscene) which is even explained by Spencer to the others. He gives them the item they need to finish the game as well as warnings about the bad guy they’re running from/racing to the center of Jumanji and drives off repeating his voice lines. A nice touch, as after they’re done with any sort of major speaking, NPCs do repeatedly say the same thing due to programming (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162). The next incoherence is ability UIs that can be displayed by pressing their names on their outfits, and that Bethany being the character who is the cartographer is the only one who can use the map-item. Along the way, Fridge’s back-pack is an inventory for weapons that shouldn’t reasonably fit in it and the group has special attacks they can activate once conditions are met, like Martha using Ruby’s fighting skills or Spencer using Bravestone’s weapons(Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162). Other touches where the game incoherences are woven into the plot are when NPC’s only talk to Spencer’s Bravestone, shortcuts across the whole world from the bazaar to the jungle house of Allan Parrish, and the NPC guardsmen whom Martha has to distract with a radio that conveniently is there for here to use her character’s dance fighting with. Then there is the scene where Alex, who has been in the game since 1996, is almost game-overed permanently but Beth transfers an extra life to him. Finally, there is the climax of the film where Martha as Ruby uses one of her extra lives to get to the top of the giant Jaguar mountain where the stone needs to go to win Jumanji, because characters respawn in this world by dropping from the sky. She purposefully uses her character’s weakness to snakes to get to the sky and she slaps the stone into Spencer’s hand so he can end the game(Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162). This leads to them winning once he yells Jumanji and the kids are free to go. They leave school and see that Alex was sent back to 1996 and his family’s house is no longer the dilapidated mess but is now warm and full of life. The kids move on and the movie ends with them at school the next day smashing the console with a bowling ball and the credits roll. At no point were the rules of the game they were in ever ignored and as mentioned the characters of the movie were even able to use those rules to their advantage whether it be getting through the world faster via a shortcut or using how the characters respawn to get around the bad guy. It wove these in well and that is why, of the three films here, it implemented its game aspects the best. There were still moments where the movie deviated—since we would see what the villain was up-to from time to time—but otherwise it stuck to keeping the rules consistent (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162).

Jumanji: Weclome to the Jungle was a film I had very low expectations for and not only did it exceed those expectations, it very cleverly used parts of gaming that other films ignore —unless they have to deal with them—to their full advantage for the plot line. Spy Kids 3 and Ready Player One didn’t ignore these aspects per-say but they did not fully embrace them as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle did.  By doing things the way they did, the writers of Jumanji were able to side-step a lot of the problems movies with video games in them could run into while attempting to make an engaging video game based narrative. The other two films attempted this same tactic but with varying levels of success. Video games are hard to adapt, and that is just a consequence of their inherent interactive status. The player’s interactivity affects how the game is to them. Adaptations take this out and lose part of the game. What Jumanji ultimately did that the others didn’t was make it feel like this was a game someone could play and showed how it would be played. The others did not. That was why they fell short.

Sources:

Jumanji. Directed by Joe Jonhston, performances by Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bonnie Hunt, and Bradley Pierce, TriStar Pictures, 1995.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Directed by Jake Kasdan, performances by  Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart , and Jack Black, Sony Pictures, 2017.

Juul, Jesper. Half-Real. MIT Press, 2005. pg 121-162.

Ready Player One. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, performances by  Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, and Ben Mendelsohn, Warner Bros, 2018.

Spy Kids 3: Game Over. Directed by Robert Rodriguez, performances by  Daryl Sabara, Alexa PenaVega, and Antonio Banderas, Dimension Studios, 2003.

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

In and out (Part 1.) (Nathan Drake x Male reader)

Description: There was a deal between Elena and Nathan to make her way to Yemen for managing to get them to the city. But plans don't go so easily as they should. Well, isn't that pretty common thing for Nathan & Co.™?

@bechobbi , let me know if I should tag you in this! :)

A/N: So okay. Let me establish some things before we even begin.

I hate changing the game's/movie's official canons, so you gave me a proper hard time, darling.

So this is a bit AU like they'll happen events from the original game, but most probably NOT in the original order/how did they really happened.

But yeah, I think that my Nate Mate might be bisexual. He's not strictly gay, bc of Elena and Chloe and you can't deny that.

I will also use my old oc pal Florence, who has some posts somewhere in the hellhole of my Tumblr, for my own satisfaction and someone to make the goofball of. A lot of you maybe will not like who she is in this, but guess what - I don't care baby.

This will be written in the third person because I think it suits the story better, just as Golden's book showed us.

And also my adoration of Victor Sullivan will probably show too much. I don't care. He's my man.

Ok. That's all.

Warnings: Just Nate and Sully being the comedic duo we know and love. Also, the first three to four chapters are an establishment for the whole story.

Word count: 2 691 (+/-)

"Real “greatness” is what you do with the hand you're dealt." 

- Victor Sullivan, Drake's Deception

"Oh crap!" The man yelled as another shot was fired at him. He almost got shot, but he managed to hide quickly before that happened. No one knew how he was able to do so, but he guessed that he has an infinite amount of luck.

But even he got enough of everything at that point - he had to escape in front some black bullshit, which was actually afraid of fire, with a dying torch, almost died during that, the worst bad guy Talbot, who was working for their concurrent Katherine Marlowe, had stolen the amulet right from his hand and he was pinned down at gunpoint behind a stupid wall at some mansion in France. The only thing that kept his spirits up was that he managed to draw the amulet to his small notebook and that he wasn't completely clueless after all.

"Better watch your back before you get shot, kid!" A visibly older man shouted at him before he shot back from his revolver. Nathan owned his life to that man for an unfair amount of times, but he would be definitely dead if that man wasn't watching over him.

The old man's name was Victor Sullivan, whom everyone called Sully, and he had some serious amount of kicking ass behind him. He was notoriously known treasure hunter and an ex-marine who dedicated his talent for shady businesses to make a serious life-lasting job out of it. He became a treasure hunter in his late twenties and he was one of the most dedicated people to this kind of life you could ever meet.

He could sometimes seem like a cold blood jerk and Nathan sometimes thought that his decisions are not logical - and usually later showed that those decisions were very clever in fact. Sullivan, even in his sixties didn't show any sign of aging except few deep wrinkles and white hair. The only other fact you could consider was his Cuban shirts, but that man wore them for years, so you couldn't really count them in.

His partner, a lot of younger man in his best years, has been doing this job alongside Sully for almost twenty years. They became a truly coordinated team during that time, more like father and son than friends.

That man's name was Nathan Drake. He was a self-declared ascendant of the famous pirate Sir Francis Drake, whom he dedicated his whole. He was considerably pretty handsome with his wild, dark brown hair and eyes which sometimes seem to be blue and sometimes they looked almost green - so he usually tried to charm off the situations. And oh boy, wasn't he the goofiest man you'll ever meet?

Right now, they both went on a search for something great and most probably greater than great. Their adventure lures them into London and France to get the clues they needed and it almost cost their life a few times. And as it usually went, they weren't the only one who was after the treasure. And the outcome usually looked like this - a big loud shootout between Nathan, Sully and "the bad guys", as he called them.

Being a bad guy also truly depended on a point of view in Nathan's world, none of them was only white or only black, everyone had some motivations and some vision because of what they actually did that thing. Some of them wanted glory, some of them wanted money and there were even some of them that went into the fight just because they actually liked to fight. Nathan didn't judge, he didn't care in fact. Everyone in these shady businesses was partly black and partly white, so everyone was grey in the end.

Even Sully and Nathan were pretty grey. Nathan was in the business because of discovering the truth about the past, and yeah, he did that for the glory. And Sully? He went in for the money. There was actually a lot of money in that shady business, more than you would expect.

This world was just too big, it had many sides and nothing was only good or only bad, partially fucked up was maybe the best possible definition when everything went well. And now it didn't go well, oh boy, something went terribly wrong and Sully with Nathan was actually pinned at a gunpoint. They couldn't even move without increasing the chance of being shot right in the ass.

"It looks like they aren't exactly pleased to see us, Sully." Nathan looked at his older friend and throw a grenade in the direction of bad guys. "Haven't you done anything to them?"

"I'm only an old man Nathan. They are more afraid of you than they are afraid of me." Sully laughed with his raspy voice and shot again. And even though he was so much older, he didn't miss his target.

"It's getting ridiculous!" Nathan yelled to the bad guys with his teeth clenched together in almost hurting way. He slowly managed to sneak out of his hideout near Sullivan. Nathan has got enough, he just wanted to cut the chase and get directly to the climax. "Why don't you let us just pass without this theatrics?!" Nathan stuck out his wooden pillar which was getting a ridiculous amount of shots at that point. Big pieces of walls were flying around his head, there were, in fact, huge piles of it everywhere and that place was actually going to fall down in any minute. "You're ruining an archeological goldmine here and you don't even mind it, assholes!"

"Way to go, kiddo, they'll definitely listen to that!" Sully walked forward too and pointed his gun on another of those asshats. Drake had to stay low if he didn't want to die there. He went through serious loads of punches to the face kicks to the stomach, so handling a few of jerks wasn't really a problem for him. So he ran straight to the action, jumping at one man’s back, using him as a shield. But it didn't go as well as Drake planned. Another man hit him with his gun to the temple of his head and Nathan fell down to the dust as another ten men circled around them. He was trapped. 

If anything, Drake served as a great sidetrack of attention for Sully, who started to quietly put man after man down, getting to Nathan the fastest way he could, using literally anything. Even a pile of dust was great to blind the enemy. And as a bonus, he was tall and pretty heavy, so he was great at hand to hand combat.

But there was something, that didn't add up there. There was so a little of the men when they were in such a big mansion. But Nathan didn't exactly think of that that intensely when he had a gun pointed directly into his face.

Sullivan almost didn’t make it so save Nathan’s ass that time. They almost shot Nate to the head when Sully finally managed to get to him and Nate had to give him a grateful look with a small smile.

“You’re alright?” Sully helped Nathan to get on his feet and patted on his shoulder with the intention to clean him from the dust.

"Maybe shocked, but all right." Nate agreed and looked at Sullivan, making his way to touch his bum. The notebook was still there and he longly exhaled. That was the only reason why they got into the fight, after all. And when it was safe in his arms, he just felt relieved.

"You did pretty well, I would say." Sully looked around on that completely destroyed place. That mansion was completely ruined, it was a disaster.

So they slowly and quietly walked out of the room, slow and carefully and not to be seen or heard. It was a long walk through an abandoned sample of mankind's crafting talent standing up in the middle of nowhere in France.

Both of them stopped at a sort of balcony which was created from molded wood that was just corrupted by the time. When they heard voices and steps, both of them shut up and crouched behind semi-broken brick walls. Nathan stuck out his head and tried to find out what's even happening.

"Empty those cans!" They heard a husky voice with a slight feel of the British accent. "Every last drop." The voice said again and Nathan with Sully just looked at each other.

"What the hell are they doing?" Nathan asked. Confusion and a sort of fear could be heard in his voice. Sully had a suspicion, but he didn't say anything out loud because of the fear it could be the truth.

"Hey Sully," Nate smelled the air and frowned. He looked around them and he just figured out that there is something that doesn't add up. There was so little of Marlowe's men, they were just trying to leave that place as soon as possible when Nathan, who had Drake's map in his notebook, was still inside of that building. Normally they would try to chase out the soul out of Nate and Sully. "Can you smell that too?"

Sully breathed the air deeply, looking into Nate's frowned face. He knew that smell very well. "Of course I do know that smell. It smells like,"

"FIRE!" Nathan shouted at the sudden realization, hearing another of the men shout Torch the place down!

"Sully we gotta get out of here," Nathan stated, extending for his gun. At the moment, some of the men noticed them and they started to shoot at them, mostly at Nathan. Drake and Sully didn't have a hard time shooting back, because Sully showed off his shooting skills again.

There wasn't even place for jokes at that time - Nathan felt his heart pounding hard in his chest. He didn't want to burn alive. He kinda liked himself too much for just burning alive. And Sully had someone who would kill Drake once more if he was hurt by his side, that was another reason he had to get sure that both of them manage to escape from that building.

"Ok Nate, go first, I'll cover your back." Sully patted Nathan's shoulder and loaded the revolver up again. Nathan wasn't completely sure about Sully's judgment, but he nodded and started to find a way out, or more like climbing out of the situation.

"Sully shoot 'em down!" Nate shouted over his shoulder with a furious look. Then he jumped over the beam he was hanging on and started finding some soft spots to climb. Sully followed him carefully and even managed to shoot someone down.

Everything went as usual - they almost died like twenty times, punched and shot on some bad guys and Sully had some seriously interesting curse words on his lips. What house was falling down at the speed of the light, which was caused by the old wood which caught on fire easier than normal wood.

They entered some halls which were completely red because of the consuming it without any problem, almost killing them by the pieces of beams falling down. But the worst ones were the staircases which didn't even hold together, there was no chance that they could climb them and yet they had to.

Sully saved Nathan a couple of times just as Nathan did saving him from falling down to the hell made of fire. They actually somehow, don't ask Nathan how because he doesn't know, managed to get to the rooftop and get out of that collapsing building.

Sully practically collapsed on a log there, fighting for every gasp of air he could get. Nathan did too, but he managed to pull back together faster than Sully.

"Here Sully," he offered him help with standing up, but Sully shooked his head and a disapproval gesture.

"Just gimme a sec. You always seem to forget that I have twenty-five years up on ya." Sullivan looked at Nate with frown and Nathan suspect which turn is this conversation about to turn. And oh boy, he wasn't fond of it.

"Oh come on Sully, you're strong as an ox." Nate put his hands on his sides and laughed uneasily at Sully's direction.

"Anyway, what's the hurry? They think we're in that." Sully pointed at the burning mansion and looked at Nate with a serious look. And they were on the path of that speech again.

"We almost were," Nate whispered, looking at the collapsing building again.

"I gotta say I'm losing the point here," Sully admitted with his look directed to Nathan's back. "Remind me again, why are we doing this?"

"No, no, no, no, no. If you're gearing up for one of those "I'm too old for this" speeches, spare me." Nathan turned around and looked Sullivan directly to the face. Sully had his age, he truly did, but that doesn't mean that he'll stop, at least for him.

Victor loved and lived for this kind of life without the option of woking up the next day safe and sound. He loved having adrenaline in his veins, that satisfaction when he shot one of those asshats down. He lived for this and Nathan knew that. And giving Nate speeches about how old he is and feels was his favorite way of torturing Nate.

"Nate these guys are playing for keeps."

"Yeah, so? What? You're just goin' to roll over for 'em now?" Nathan almost shouted with an unbelieving look on his face. If Sully thought about chickening out of this gig, it was already too late.

"Nobody's talking about rolling over," Sully answered in a calming voice. But Nathan was already too angry to calm down instantly.

"Then quit acting like you're ready to lie down and die, all right?" Nathan asked Sully with a frown on his face. He wasn't enjoying that conversation at all.

"Listen, kid. I've your back for twenty years. I'm not going anywhere, obviously. I just wanna make sure we're doing this for the right reasons. You've got your pride all tangled up in this thing. It's making you reckless." Sully stated and Nathan had to turn around to not giving Sullivan other shots.

Victor was right in everything he said and Nathan knew that. But he also knew that it was his life and his pride to discover the legacy of his ancestor. It wasn't the right of some blonde lady who looked like she's about to turn into dust in any minute. And Nate wasn't planning to give up any minute.

"I taught you better than that. Gonna get yourself killed." Sully finally got up and slowly went to Nate. "Damn. Hell, probably get us all killed." Sully slowly cleaned himself from the dust and stood up, putting his hands on his sides and shook his head.

"Oh, no..." Nate whispered and his eyes widened in the realization.

"What?" Sully asked while Nathan turned at him.

"Cutter and Chloe." Nathan reminded him and Sully's heart almost stopped too.

"Sully if we were followed, chances are they were too."

"Oh shit," Sully whispered and knew what is Nate trying to say. "We gotta warm them."

"Yeah, and get to Syria fast." Nate agreed and the moments Sully looked like he just saw a ghost. He could see the fear in his eyes and him gasping for air.

"And what about her?" Sully realized slowly that she was in danger too. Nathan took Sully's shoulder to his hand and shook him in a calming way.

"Sully, she would definitely kick those assholes into one small ball if they tried to hurt her in any way. Don't worry." Nathan promised him in low voice and Sully looked little relieved. Nathan was sure that she would be ok.

That person was Sully's soft spot and his only other two soft spots were his ailments (like his cigars and airplanes or money) and Nathan's life.

"Sure hope you remember where we left the car, 'cause I've completely turned around," Sully exclaimed as they walked from the mansion at a fast pace.

[thrustingvibrator4-blog]

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Moving Sex Toys

On the most nicely known sex toys tend to be 'vibrators' which, as the actual name indicates, provide arousal of the penis utilizing vibration. They are mainly utilized to stimulate the clitoris, but may also become used to induce any kind of other part of the particular female entire body or which of a male's.

The particular simplest of these are usually notepad or wand formed (though normally thicker compared to a pencil). They frequently have an internal electric battery (or two) which forces a small electric electric motor. Occasionally the battery group and control are exterior and attached to the vibrator through a wire. This particular engine is fitted with a little, out of balance, bodyweight attached with the shaft. Because this excess weight rotates this throws typically the motor and also vibrator right into a small round movement that causes the coup you feel.

Having a massagestab that has a operator, since the power is improved the velocity of the motor unit increases along with it the two the rate along with power of vibration. Both energy and rate associated with heurt effects how revitalizing a person find the sex gadget. The very best effect may not really be as powerful in addition to as fast as feasible. The best settings may properly change as the degree regarding excitement builds. For the most powerful outcomes it is worth purchasing a vibrator which is controlled.

Various vibrators will possess different features and an individual may well find you like one combination much a lot more as compared to another and your own preference might even vary based on which portion of your current body you are rousing.

Recently electronic vibrator remotes have got appeared which supply not just the static manage of power/speed but furthermore allow you to choose designs of power pulses as well as surges. These could be very efficient.

Generally there are also other moving best vibrators such as puppies stimulators and also vibrating male organ rings.

Some other Powered Intercourse Toys

There are a few adult toys that use some other ways to provide mechanised stimulation. These usually rely on a motor that can make often the sex toy continuously change the shape that provides a sort involving rotational movement or tends to make it shift back along with forth. The back in addition to up movements are occasionally powered simply by an air flow pump rather than some sort of generator. The movements get been utilized to create, regarding example, mechanical licking tongues, vibrators that 'penetrate' the actual vagina and mouth area simulators to give a guy a new 'blow job'.

Upon a larger scale as well as much more expensive, you will find 'sex machines' that include thrusting and vibrating dildos.

Combination Sex Toys

Therefore far we now have covered penis-shaped, moving and also thrusting sexual intercourse toys. As you might include guessed these are generally all provided in the bewildering array of mixtures.

A common combination throughout many 'Rabbit Style' vibes is clitoral stimulation making use of vibrations along with vaginal pleasure using motion and at times a thrusting movement since well.

Many sex gadgets include varying textures to help their areas; a dildo or clit vibrator may possess ridges or smooth raises or a rippled form.

Sensation Change Sex Playthings

Several sex toys instead than provide phalic shaped or maybe moving stimulation, alter the really feel of sex.

For example generally there are a variety connected with sleeves to place over the particular penis to provide various sensations for both spouses while engaged in penetrative intercourse.

There are bands that press the foundation of the penis and tighten the scrotum that will assist the man's penile erection and also changes their idée. There are penile extenders and thickeners which usually may give a people's companion greater sensations throughout puncture.

There are any wide variety of lubricants and moisturizers that may significantly change typically the feel associated with sex.

Presently there are PVC in addition to Polyurethane bed sheets that usually are drinking water and oil evidence which you can use for slippery as well as untidy sex.

Why Utilize A Clitoral stimulators?

A great question is: the reason why perform people use a clitoral stimulators? Surely fingers, tongues, male organs, clitorises and vaginas and so on all provide great lovemaking stimulation and enjoyment.

Nicely, aside from therapeutic uses (eg hard-on assistance), sex games can generate the creativity (being used by some sort of machine), provide range (new ways to do aged things), vary the stirring effects in otherwise regular sex (penis sleeves) plus some can provide experiences certainly not possible along with 'normal physique parts' (particularly vibrating sexual toys and electro-stimulation).

Wherever To Start

If anyone have not attempted a new sex toy before and yet have an concept of whatever you might such as, try among the simpler premium vibrators first. Most likely you will certainly enjoy the experience after which start to wonder exactly what other pleasures can end up being found with more advanced vibes and other love-making toys...

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The dildo-shaped sex toy Sextoy is a high-end vibrator which has an outer shell with a base appearing like that of a small, vibrating penis. The device has actually been designed for both men and women who wish to experience the enjoyment that only a vibrator can give.

In order to accomplish a female's climax with this plaything, you ought to start with a comfortable and also solid genital location. It is best to utilize this for the very first time with a companion since the feeling in the vaginal area may be a bit as well intense. If you do not have any experience in operation a dildo, do not fret because the Sextoy does not call for much effort to do the job.

After inserting vibrators right into the vaginal area, carefully massage therapy the idea of the vibe inside the vagina till it reaches its maximum resonance. When the feeling is felt, hold it there for a few mins. Make sure you do not go as well much past the maximum degree of stimulation.

To aid lubricate the vibrator, you can carefully use some oil to the inside of the vaginal area before insertion but make certain it is not oil jelly products. If you desire to be also much more sensual, you can use some lube to this. You will certainly discover that when utilizing this product you have the ability to go much longer periods of time prior to you come to be sick of the sensation. Due to the fact that it is not made from a hard material, it is really simple to put as well as dismount of.

With the Sextoy, you should start by using a long, clean finger. Keep in mind to keep in mind that you will certainly need to exercise using this on a partner before trying it on yourself.

You can begin using the vibrator at the clitoris as well as g-spot. This is a delicate location that often tends to obtain really excited during sex. Beginning with a light touch at first, and then increase the strength as your girl gets aroused. If you are utilizing the Sextoy with a companion, you can try using your fingers as opposed to your tongue to stimulate these locations. This will give you much better control over the sensation as well as permit you to magnify the sensitivity of the areas that you prefer.

Allow the woman in on the enjoyment by making her a comfortable environment. You will be amazed at exactly how this can aid you both to attain an orgasm. See to it that both of you are relaxed prior to making love, as well as this can consist of using a cozy towel to cover the vaginal area to make it a lot more comfy.

While the sex toys might not provide you as much experience as a vibrator, they can still give you an amazing experience. For those that wish to try something new, there is no need to stress over this since there are many vibrators on the market today that have actually progressed modern technology and also are much more advanced than the Sextoy.

The fantastic thing about the Sextoy is that you are able to utilize different sizes and shapes to make sure that you get the excitement that you need. Regardless of what you are searching for, the Dildo Sextoy is mosting likely to have the ability to offer you a fantastic experience.

If you are concerned that the Dildo Sextoy is not risk-free to use with children, you can rest simple recognizing that you can use this product with them. The product packaging does not state this, it can be made use of with a youngster of any age. You simply need to make certain that the toy is well cushioned to ensure that it does not injure or cause pain when made use of.

Although this item may be brand-new to several ladies, the Dildo Sextoy has actually already been suggested sometimes. This is one method to give your partner with a great deal of pleasure. Remember that you are always seeking methods to include a brand-new component to your lovemaking that will help you have a lot more fun.

When I initially became aware of Dildo Sextoy, I was interested. The item description guaranteed that it is a band on penis extender that you band on to your body, as well as the product additionally promises a better penis dimension in only a few months. My first inquiry was, how would the item work? Would it offer irreversible gains or simply give me a longer penis in a few months?

In my experience, I located that Dildo Sextoy does have some one-of-a-kind claims. For starters, the product declares to offer approximately an inch in size as well as approximately 4 inches in girth. This is definitely excellent given that these claims are based on the item's case to be able to make your penis expand greater than 5 times bigger than your present size.

It is not clear if these cases are actual, or if the item is just selling a product that doesn't function. I determined to attempt it. It is important to recognize that this testimonial is my opinion, and also not medical advice.

The very initial point that impressed me regarding the product was the means the gadget looks. I can't recall a time when I saw a product that looked so specialist.

The Dildo Sextoy has a really smooth design. This is excellent since it does not remove from the look of the penis. Rather, it enhances the appearance, making the gadget more enticing to guys. I especially love the truth that it features a belt clip.

An additional factor I such as the Dildo Sextoy is that the product is extremely simple to use. I was able to wear the product for at least thirty minutes, which was plenty for me. If the product is too unpleasant to use, or if it has a tough time tightening up or extending the penis, after that I wouldn't advise it to any person.

I did locate that the product does take dương vật giả hít tường giá rẻ sinhly16 time to change. I needed to use it for a number of days prior to I observed any type of outcomes. Nevertheless, after I used it for several days, my penis began to grow back to its normal dimension.

Overall, I think that Dildo Sextoy functions, and the product goes over. For a cost of only around two hundred dollars, it is definitely worth checking out. If you want trying a penis enhancement product, I would absolutely advise it.

A great deal of males have actually attempted a lot of penis dimension enhancement items, but I believe that Dildo Sextoy is one of the best. The reason is that it comes with an assurance. If it doesn't function, after that they will certainly replace it for you.

If you have an interest in enhancing your penis size, then the largest item of information I can offer you is that it is extremely possible for you to attain a bigger penis in a matter of weeks. If that's the situation, then you can forget surgery. You'll be far better off making use of natural approaches to enhance your penis dimension.

What makes the penis enhancement method so effective is the reality that it is entirely secure and tested. That indicates you will not have to stress over adverse adverse effects, or other troubles that might include surgical procedure.

The only failure to this penis augmentation method is that it takes a while prior to you begin seeing any kind of adjustments. That said, if you continue to use it, after that you will certainly see results. At some point, your penis will certainly begin to grow.

There are a great deal of penile enlargement approaches out there, so it's an excellent concept to do some study and find a technique that will benefit you. Nevertheless, if you are willing to put in a little time, then you must see outcomes.