#and that the scripts were actually legit that’s why it was taken care of

[strawberrybyers]

it’s crazy to me that the hawkins family photos insta account hasn’t been clocked by netflix or the duffers when that account has thousands of followers posting high def pics where you obviously have to be near or on the set to capture them, but when we wanted the official scripts from that guy that would post scripts for MULTIPLE SHOWS FOR YEARS, he was taken care of with a swiftness 😭😭

i’m not saying hawkins family photos needs to be taken down. i’m just saying that it’s interesting they didn’t want us to see those scripts from episodes we’ve already seen, but high def pics where like obviously ppl who work on set would potentially see the person taking pics of season 5 is just going about their day???? nahhh something was in those scripts that was legit. something was in there they didn’t want us to see i swear. they told us those scripts were fake but idk something’s fishy 🤨🧐

[waitmyturtles]

TL;DR: My analysis of the quiet tone of the Cherry Magic movie -- the overarching theme of the movie was the development of family between Adachi and Kurosawa. 

Well, I’ve turned this space temporarily into a Cherry Magic hovel, a kind of messy sanctuary, really, maybe a cave full of hoarded passing thoughts, rising and cresting emotions, lots of SIIIIGGGHHS, at least two and a half re-watches of the movie, many reblogs, plummeting away my phone battery on consuming more and more gifsets. I regret not being here on Tumblr for the original series, but I feel like I’m more than making up for it by doing all I can to contribute to the dialogue around the movie, which I want to continue doing, meta-style!

Two things have cropped up in my reads of reviews here and on Twitter, one about the tone of the movie, and the other about the pace of growth between Adachi and Kurosawa. I think the first point goes into the second, so here we go:

I’ve seen a lot of comments about how the movie was quieter than the series. I reblogged a quick statement on quiet Japanese BLs earlier this weekend, and I also learned a bit about what the OG CM fandom hoped for with the original series way back when, when there were rumors of a real kiss for the final episode, and how the fandom was slightly let down. 

I think there’s an interesting dichotomy between heat and quiet in the kind of Japanese BLs I tend towards. If you read this space, y’all know my top three -- CM, Kinou Nani Tabeta, and Old Fashion Cupcake -- generally trend toward the quiet, with the slight exception of OFC, which turns up the heat in a panicked moment of revelation.

As I thought about this point, I asked myself -- why the draw towards quiet development and/or contemplation?

For me, all three of these dramas, especially KNT, center on family -- actively creating family, dealing with existing family, and/or��managing expectations of creating a future family. 

If you’re Asian, as I am, the thinking on and managing of family issues is, in my opinion, the dominant issue that you spend the majority of your life dealing with. That’s not to say that in Western lifetimes, less time is spent on family issues. What I mean to say is that family issues, I would argue, take up more of your brain space and your sense of morality and ethical engagement in humanity if you’re an Asian, as opposed to the manifest destiny of the West. When I was right out of college, for instance, and rolling with a majority white hipster crew at that moment, my friends would comment on how I’d visit my family’s house once a month. That was tooooo much for them. And they’d legit tell me -- you care too much about your family, you need to separate yourself from them.

These are surface-scratching statements, and if you’re Asian, I know you’ll immediately guffaw at how ridiculous and impossible it would be to even BEGIN contemplating how to “separate yourself” from your family. It’s taken me a LOT of my old lady years to even come to grips with the fact that I needed to live an independent life away from the expectations of my family. And for hundreds of millions of people in our Asian cultures, those Western notions of “separation” and “independence” simply don’t exist. You can cohabitate, be co-dependent on, be enabled by your family, and that is just fine. Family is the structure that gives meaning to the lives of many Asians, without question. 

So to say that the movie tends towards the quiet, I think, possibly bypasses what I think is a major point that the movie is trying to make, both in a cultural arc and in the actual storyline: We are seeing Adachi and Kurosawa making a family together, THEIR family together. 

IMHO, the king of family-oriented BLs was KNT. Both Yoshinaga Fumi, the mangaka behind KNT, and Adachi Naoko, KNT’s screenwriter, deliberately gilded the KNT script with the tadaima and okaeri greetings that you hear when someone comes home at the end of the day. That set-up was meant to indicate that Shiro-san and Kenji considered themselves family to each other -- because, you might be saying tadaima to your parents when you’re a child, or your spouse as an adult. 

The clues to Adachi’s thinking about family are apparent. There’s the moment where he gives advice to his chief about the chief’s complaining wife. There’s the moment in the office when Rokakku and Fujisaki are talking about their lives, the very moment in their lives where they are single but happy at work and with friends. There’s the moment when Adachi picks up the mail and sees his name and Kurosawa’s name, while coming home. 

And of course, the gorgeous moment in the kitchen when Adachi states his desire for a public and permanently committed relationship with Kurosawa. 

Adachi is creating his new family in that moment. 

I want to tie this together with a comment I read on Twitter about how Adachi’s personal growth matched Kurosawa breaking down his walls of perfection, and how he originally projected his perfectionist nature on their relationship. We remember in the series Kurosawa being ULTRA cute in the office after Adachi’s original confession, saying he was going to create the best first date ever; and then all the practice dates they had; and all the planning that went into the Christmas date. 

Those walls began breaking down a little bit in the last episode of the series, and we saw that even more as the movie began, when we realized that they had not, indeed, bonked, as we thought they had, on Christmas Eve. When Adachi’s hunger interrupted their potential love sesh, Kurosawa was like, WEEEEELLLL, through gritted teeth -- I’ll still be patient for Adachi. 

That’s life. But as I originally wrote in my first review of the movie, what I didn’t expect to see in the film was that the movie would be utterly dominated by Adachi’s internal growth INTO the relationship, and how that ultimately steadied Kurosawa to be okay to be weak in front of Adachi, and in his own (Kurosawa’s) life. We know this is a HUGE DEAL, a HUUUUGE DEAL for Kurosawa. He mentions it in the essay he writes for Adachi’s family. He states it as a major point of being devoted to Adachi to his (Kurosawa’s) mother. Breaking down his walls is a major life moment for Kurosawa -- and it would not have happened without Adachi becoming his family.

Because -- family, often, is about rejiggering and redefining one’s boundaries, and creating new ones with the people you’ve chosen. If you’ve chosen well, and right, like our boys did, then your partner gives you the strength to do this major lifting.

AND: where else do we see these boundaries being rejiggered, besides between Adachi and Kurosawa themselves?

We see them in the family scenes. I think that the movie devoted a LOT of time to the family scenes says a lot about what I said earlier about Asian cultures.

I swear to jebus that I nearly had multiple heart attacks during the family scenes. Besides Kurosawa’s mom’s very apparent sadness and confusion, Adachi’s mom had me at moments, even though she outed herself as a fujoshi, basically, lol, when Kurosawa showed up. Why the heart attacks?

These confronting kinds of conversations to family about things like marriage -- I mean, I don’t know if I have the words to describe HOW MOTHERFUCKING HUGE THESE CONVERSATIONS CAN BE FOR MANY ASIANS. Like -- these conversations can be the culmination of a lifetime. They can destroy you. Y’all, if I wrote about what happened to me when my family learned I was dating my husband (in a cishetero relationship, peeps! Interracial and interfaith, yes, but otherwise, not really rocking the boat here!), I probably wouldn’t finish writing without breaking down in tears for an hour. It was horrible. My family couldn’t handle the growth, simply put. 

This Asian family dynamic that an individual’s original nuclear family unit carries SO MUCH WEIGHT IN THEIR APPROVAL OF WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU DO -- I emphasize here that this theme was major in the movie. The movie NEEDED to spend time on this in order to achieve Adachi’s dream of permanence with Kurosawa. Adachi NEEDED to tell Kurosawa that he (Adachi) would be present in front of Kurosawa’s parents -- because Adachi KNEW that Kurosawa would NEED Adachi there, because of how BIG that BIG CONVERSATION would be. I’m talking BIG, here, BIG. And I believe that the movie’s OG Japanese audience understands this very implicitly and very, very deeply.

Adachi NEEDED to grow into himself -- he needed to lose his magic, his crutch -- and needed to FIND himself to be the strength and pillar that Kurosawa would need to face his family. I want to take this point, make it into a Cherry Magic teddy bear, brand it with Gelato Pique, and place it on a mantle. 

In order to face their families, our guys needed to become family. And that’s why I think the movie tended towards the quiet -- because THAT kind of growth takes a lot of internal work that comes out in the quiet moments of intimacy with the people you’ve chosen and you love. 

[jisoossmirk]

Do you really not see anything wrong with supporting and glamorizing Snowdrop? It’s right wing propaganda that’s downplaying a time in which the government murdered innocent college students. I don’t care if your bias is in it, it’s horrifying.

Have YOU actually SEEN the drama have you actually WATCHED it?? Do you know what right wing propaganda means?

If you have seen it you will KNOW that the drama has been highly critical of the ANSP. The corruption of the ANSP was touched on REPEATEDLY. Snowdrop repeatedly talks about (AND SHOWS) how the ANSP frames, tortures, murders innocent people not just students. It was also shown how they blackmail, manipulate and sanitise the media for their own cause and benefit, covering their corruption up. All that just to remain in power. since episode one, the villain of the show was obviously the ANSP and the corrupt government behind it.

Do you really think i wouldnt not have done my own research of korean history before i watched it? I was also concerned that the show did what it was accussed of. But jtbc insisted that they did not downplay history nor was it revisionist history. The horrors of what the ANSP was never downplayed nor did the show ever try to change that fact. In fact in ep 2 or 3 one of the characters legit talked about how the ANSP frames students to be spies.

So yes sooho turned out to be a nk spy but he never led any student protest as per what the original issue was when the script was supposedly 'leaked'. He wasnt even a student at the university. Nor did youngro led any protest. And if your ask is leaning on whether its nk propaganda then no too because the nk govt was also willing to do anything for money, showing how sooho and his team were just caught in the middle by duty, having to do what they were ordered to do or else their families will suffer by the hands of the nk regime

The petition sent to have snowdrop taken off air was rejected and since then the korean media have critisied how people flocked to hate on the show without even watching the show just because thats what everyone was doing.

If you really wanna come at me and the supporters of the show with this accusation if you were really confident that the show is like that why hide behind anonymity if you are sure you are right? Did you actually watch the show? If you did and you still think its propaganda then come back and tell me which parts and we will discuss it. I admit i am no expert on korean history and what i do know are from what ive read off the internet.

[disco-tea]

The scene where diego gets to hug Ben in Klaus’ body was so wholesome and made me smile :) diego looked at him with so much love. But then I remember that five hasn’t been shown the energy AT ALL from any of them...and I just, sigh. It makes me wonder if their relationship with him as kids was different than Ben’s, that would be a plausible explanation. If so, I’d love to see more of when they were kids. Because it’s just a bit weird, and I feel like the writers are doing it on purpose.

Honestly I loved that scene so much. The hug was so lovely and Diego just went instantly soft. Definitely a highlight of the season.

That’s really one of the things I love about Diego, he’s got his crafted persona and attitude but he’s actually such a softy and is honestly very affectionate. He’s hugged Ben and Klaus and leaned on Vanya. Human or robot, he cares about Grace so much and wants the best for her. I would actually seriously melt if he were the one to finally hug Five...

Like I have this scene idea in my head where Five gets taken to Hotel Oblivion and the siblings have to rescue him and they finally find him and Diego is the one that goes for the hug first. He just sees him and immediately pulls him in like he did with Ben, and Five is so shocked and a ton of other emotions because it’s really been 45 years. 😭😭

But yeah, anyway, before I make myself cry anymore...it definitely sucks that Five hasn’t gotten that same energy. S1 I can understand...they weren’t really *that* huggy in S1, but everybody was so much more open and affectionate in S2 bUT FIVE RECEIVED NONE OF THAT AND I AM LOW KEY A BLOCK OF SALT HE EVEN GOT A TON OF NEGATIVITY FROM VANYA OF ALL PEOPLE. It’s kind of mind boggling because it really makes no sense to me?? Like, even if they had a rocky relationship as kids, so did Diego and Luther but they worked past it and were actually so caring to each other in S2. So did Allison and Vanya but legit the first thing Allison does in the pilot is hug Vanya. I just??? WHY??? I mean... I get the reaction with Ben. He died a brutal death that Diego was probably there for. That was the perfect reaction and I’m so happy we got that little moment. But yeah, Five was as good as dead for 17 years and every one is “meh, okay. He’s back and he’s still an asshole🤷‍♀️” 

Five legit would’ve had to have been horrible to deserve the amount of indifference, and I truly don’t believe that a literal abused child (they all were) who panicked and ran back home yelling his family’s names (and also are those tears??) would be capable of truly being so shitty that no one even cared.

I just...it doesn’t click for me. Yeah, Five acted out during one scene (and Luther said he acted like he thought he was better than them. But that comes down to issues with numbers and ranks that they all had as kids) but it doesn’t really seem like he was just that horrible. I mean it’s the same Five that was nice to Vanya even when others weren’t. It’s the Five that apparently listened to her play while she was learning new pieces. The one who gave her a reassuring smile (in the script) even though he was actually very scared about getting the Umbrella tattoo. The Five that (according to Extra-Ordinary) Diego helped with his “technique.” The Five that was running around with Diego’s holster and various mementos to remember his family by and immediately befriended a mannequin because he was all alone. I mean this is a kid with robot posters and legos in his room and had such a smile during so much of the academy exposition material????

Idk. Maybe I’m reaching and biased but he doesn’t seem like he was just that horrible of a kid. No worse than the rest of them. Maybe it just comes down to personality. To being too strong willed. Or just how his personality is now and the writers never really thought too much about fleshing out his early relationships with his siblings. Or maybe it’s because of the front he puts up. Because it’s Five and he’s always okay, right? It makes me big sad. Idk, I think he’s pretty great and deserves love. But :/

[inadequate-nefelibata]

The cobra kai writers room in numbers

I guess I’m finally going to post this, because otherwise I made all those excel speadsheets for no reason. (if you just want the numbers, its under “Writers room in numbers”)

It’s my personal opinion that every discussion about representation in media should always include a conversation about who is writting those stories. One of the main reasons why we lack diverse mainstream stories is because a lot of the time this type of media is produced and written by privileged groups. 

This is something that has been mentioned before many times, in many fandoms, but because the writer’s room is not inmediately visible when you consume a piece of media, most of the conversations about biases and stereotypes tend to focus on the diversity and development of the characters: how many of them belong to a certain group, what kind of storylines they get, etc, etc. If this is deemed insufficient or inadequate, the writers are encouraged to do better. 

This is not necessarily wrong: constructive criticism can actually help people become aware of certain issues in their writing. But even when they do care, these people are still going to be much better at empathizing with and humanizing people from their own group, not just because of their personal experiences, but also because the media they grew up with and still consume today contains those same biases. So, for example, as much as I do believe that a well-meaning man could create some great female characters, his ideas are probably going to be heavily influenced by what he has already categorized as “good female characters” in mainstream media, unless he actively looks for stories that were written by women. 

I did all that long texty introductiong because I dont want to make it seem like im singling out one show: this is an issue of the entire... uh format? 

Okay, so with that out of the way: 

Writer’s room in numbers

(That speadsheet looks ugly as hell, but oh well. I hope it’s at least visible!) 

References: 

orange: writer/director is not a man

green: writer/director is not white

To make it accesible for everyone, the numbers are:

N° of writers: 

White: 12/13

Men: 10/13

White men: 9/13

N° of episodes (writers):

White: 25/30

Men: 24/30

White men: 19/30

N° of directors:

White: 6/8

Men: 7/8

White men: 5/8

N° of episodes (directors):

White: 26/30

Men: 24/30

White men: 20/30

N° writers + directors (I realize that this is redundant. But I only came to that conclusion after I did the math. so Im sorry okay, but I need to put it somewhere):

White: 15/18

Men: 14/18

White men: 11/18

N° of episodes (writers + directors):

White: 22/30

Men: 20/30

White men: 14/30

To summarize: most of the writers/directors are white men,  half of the episodes are written and directed by white men, there are NO women of color, and NO latines, or, at least, no latines of color.

All the information was taken from the US wikipedia page of Cobra kai (you can see who wrote each episode there), IMDb and  the social media accounts of the members of the staff. Truthfully, I have no idea if the information on wikipedia is 100% legit. I originally went to the spanish version of the page, cause that’s my native language, aand some things there didn’t seem right. So, I switched to the US one because it seemed more complete. But... I don’t know. Just to be clear. 

Also, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg are always in charge of the story to some degree. According to the wikipedia page of Cobra kai, most of the input from other writers takes place in the teleplay. I know nothing about how  TV shows are made, but according to wikipedia: 

“According to current Writers Guild of America guidelines, a television script consists of two distinct parts: "story" and "teleplay". The story comprises "basic narrative, idea, theme or outline indicating character development and action", while the teleplay consists of "individual scenes and full dialogue or monologue (including narration in connection therewith), and camera set-ups, if required".[2] Simply put, this distinguishes the contribution of ideas toward the story from the actual writing of the dialogue and stage directions present on the page in the finished product.”

So that’s the difference.

Anyway, Cobra kai is not unique in this regard, but I think this is a good thing to keep in mind, especially when we discuss the lack of development of characters like Aisha or Carmen, or Nate, or the issues with most of the characters who are women. 

Extra stuff I have on my brain

According to some interviews (which should be taken with a grain of salt, bc they are talking about their bosses in public), both Vanessa Rubio (Carmen) and Tamlyn Tomita (Kumiko) got to make some calls in the story of their characters. For example, Vanessa said that she decided to give her an accent because of her background. Tamlyn put some conditions for her appearence in the show. Specifically, she wanted to see a more accurate portrayal of Okinawa. I did not get the impression that she was super satisfyed with the result though:

(...)

Unrelated but:

!!! 

[imperiuswrecked]

To me, it doesn’t make sense to make Magneto the main villain because it has been done so much before and it would connect it so much to the Fox Films. Also I think there is a GREAT laziness in writing Magneto especially in films. He generally didn’t want to kill all humans, subjugate them yes because he doesn’t trust them. Which isn’t a ‘good guy’ move in itself and he slips in and out of.

He legit murdered genocide I think when he was going to kill all humans. Like no.

I also think that the average cinema goer likes Magneto too much… or maybe that is me. It would also require them to recast the most famous faces of the franchises?

Like is anyone going to care if they recast Jean, Scott, Iceman, Rogue, Kitty, Beast even Mystique but Magneto? I don’t know. I have long been a fan of an actual Jewish actor playing Magneto but following Ian McKellan would be difficult for the casual fans to accept. I don’t think Fassbender left such an amazing impression.

Even my most average MCU fans friends (and god they love the MCU 😤 but I see past it) still talk about how much they want to see a Magneto solo film.

To me I would put the focus on their reveal and sentinels. Then again I thought they’ll go through Krakoa stuff. Like it turns out the mutants have been living on this Island etc

With the ‘simpler times’ comment I have to for the sake of my sanity have to think that it was because Pietro knew where he was. Things were clear to him, as much as it hurt he had his sister. The following trauma had not occurred. Again I don’t think this is true but I am trying to reason bad writing. He didn’t doubt his morality but was indebted and controlled. Shitty actions were out of his control.

I don’t read Avengers so I didn’t know he was shelved for so long.

I think the Trial of Magneto is trying to ride on the coattails of Wandavision because even though she’s not a mutant a lot of the internet was wanting Magneto to show up. So what is the best way to get those fans who wanted to see that? Set up a family comic book where they establish the family again because I guess the MCU fans heard they’ve changed their background and themselves didn’t like it.

I see the Trial of Magneto as something poorly thought out as they saw what the audience was interested in. The timeline kind of clashes uncomfortably with Inferno. Which makes me think it was wedged in there to ride the Wandavision train and undo the retcon on the side of the main storyline.

Thank you for reading my essay/rant

Ok so I'm going to first say you have a lot of great thoughts and great on picking up the whole forced feeling. You are right, it does feel wedged in there and it does feel forced because that's exactly what Marvel did.

The Trial of Magneto was supposed to be an X-Factor plot, it was Leah Williams next arc, here's an article link talking about her podcast: link (yes I know it's bleeding cool but I don't have time to listen to the podcast)

Leah Williams tells us that X-Factor was canceled because Leah's pitch for the Magneto/Wanda story for X-Factor, now called Trial Of Magneto, became such a popular pitch at Marvel but they thought the reader numbers for X-Factor wasn't big enough for this story, so they wanted it as a separate comic. And canceled X-Factor #10 rather than seeing it run as originally planned, with the Trial beginning in X-Factor #15. Williams says she only learned about the cancellation of X-Factor when she was writing #9, so as she had to finish the series quickly, squeezing six issues worth of story into those last two issues, calling it "cramped and rushed".

So I'm not a fan of Leah but the way Marvel treats it's writers has always been terrible so this cancellation doesn't surprise me. Could this be about W*ndaVision? It's likely, but it's more likely this has to do with Hickman bowing out. It's no secret literally everyone hated the retcon and I always knew it would be undone but I didn't think it would take 6 years but here we are.

Hickman leaving is a bigger thing, he stated in an interview ( link ) that he had planned Krakoa and X-Men to be a 3 arc story, and he wasn't allowed to move onto the 2nd arc because the clowns at Marvel liked the idea of Krakoa too much and I'm so mad because that's exactly the kinda behavior that annoys me with the fans, them thinking Krakoa is just a fun playground for the mutants to mess around with.

"Oh, plans have changed entirely," Hickman says. "When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot." Hickman continues, "However, I also knew that I was cooking with dynamite, and it was very possible that what I had written in House of X, and the ideas contained within, was not actually the first act of a three-act story, but something that resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time. So, during the pandemic, when the time came for me to start pointing things toward writing the second-act event, I asked everyone if they were ready for me to do that, and to a man, everyone wanted to stay in the first act. It was really interesting, because I appreciated that House of X resonated with them to the extent that they didn't want it to end, but the reality was that I knew I would be leaving the line early."

I'm so MAD because the thing I was predicting, that Hickman would have it come crashing down and everything would be revealed to be terrible and Mutant Death Sex Cult Island wasn't a paradise is never going to happen because the fucking CLOWNS at Marvel don't want him to move past it. I may have my personal gripes about some of Hickman's writing but we can't deny the man wrote one of the best if only the best Marvel Event with Fantastic Four/Avengers/Secret War.

As for the simpler times comment, like I have my theories that I wrote out here, and that's what I think is most likely but I do think Pietro's life has never been easy or simple once his adoptive parents died. Pietro could be drinking to a time before the Brotherhood.

I would love for a Jewish actor to play Magneto and any other characters who are Jewish. I would love for a Jewish writer to be able to write them too. However Ian's performance literally set him in the minds of the people as Magneto, not even Fassbender's bleh one note Magneto could compare. Imo the only reason people liked the younger Magneto was because he was young, handsome (? ig idk i dont simp for him) and they could ship him with young professor X (cowards. where is the old man ship???) But I feel like a new actor could definitely fill the role if they are Jewish and the writing was good.

Magneto's writing in comics... well I just wish we could have a Jewish writer for him. There's some great stuff for him but I feel like characters like him and Doom could be written better by non white/american writers.

Although by today's standards the og X-Men trilogy doesn't hold up I will defend the first two movies with my life simply because after Blade these movies opened up the idea that a good serious, non campy version where characters called Magneto and Cyclops were taken seriously. X2 in my mind was the definitive X-Men movie. Was it totally comic accurate? No, but it doesn't do what the MCU does, it doesn't treat the watcher like they need to have their hand held through all the military propaganda and "hints to the comics". Also side note; the reason no one cared about any of the other X-Men being recast is because all through most of the X-Men movies the focal story point has been Professor X vs Magneto. If they really want people to care about those characters/actors then we would need stories that focused on them. Not like how Storm barely had any character growth or plot in the og X-Men and even young Ororo got mishandled by the script. This is why I feel we should have "origin movies" for the X-Men that don't do what Wolverine Origins did and try to make a whole new cast but instead should use the stories as they are. If it was Kurt's story then we would see him join the X-Men, and have the other actors revolve around that. Same with each of the others, the X-Men work best when they are working off each other and each given enough screen/page time to shine. Unfortunately we all have our favorites, even movies and writers, so those are who are going to be pushed for fans to love.

Thank you for your long rant and sorry for my own long rant/reply.

[lazysummers]

Someone jokingly stated that inukagmor might have had different scripts writers than the pedo family and I honestly believed that. How is it the inukagmor had such a heartfelt reunion, which the twins also cried at but when it’s came to the reunion between rin and twins it’s was stale. Inukagmor are given such cute moments where they are hugging or talking sincerely than you have the twins and rin stale hug with sesshomaru staring at distance or rin cheerfully saying the the girls will be attacked by demons just for being sesshomaru daughters. The contrast between the two families are very apparent.

The whole episode felt like it was InuKagMoro episode with their family scenes.

It's funny that even with Yashahime's bad writing family scenes were actually nice. They have this small little things that make the scene very wholesome.

Like not only Moroha hugs her parents, but Kagome petting Moroha's head lovingly was a nice touch🥺.

Then Sota making coffee for his family and the family looking over their child Mei.

Here we have MirSan talking about Hisui first (not in the gif), then looking over at their twins Kin'u and Gyokuto harassing Shippo, and thinking of how they can cover up their daughters' pranks.

Not wholesome exactly, but funny because even they have scenes where they both are talking about their kids.

After all these family interaction, then we have Sesshomaru family in one frame in here 😂😂😂

Twins are not even in the same plane as Sesshomaru and Rin. They just say their goodbyes from afar.

What were the shippers saying? That this was "s*ssr*n family" story? So why are they not getting the same treatment as others? Clearly Yashahime has proven that they can portray wholesome family moment, they just don't it with Sesshomaru's family.🤷‍♀️

These two are the only instances when the 4 + 1 of them are together. That's it. I am not counting the scenes from where Moroha is in the frame when they were in that alien butterfly/spaceship/palace.

Also not counting this because it is really embarassing🤭

One one side you have InuKagMoro looking at the rainbow together, on the other hand you have Sesshomaru surrounded by his three daughters, twins and their younger sister Rin.

I can't write it off as bad writing or them tip toeing around s*ssr*n. They should have taken extra care with this family, but here we are. They legit didn't give them proper scenes or any wholesome family scenes for some reasons.

[goblinconceivable]

braindump: betty/daniel

I’ve been living with them for a while, notes taken, a few stories significantly started but there’s a gelling issue, which I’m hoping is at least partially down to a lack of proper braindumping.  So, in no particular order and certainly not comprehensive:

Frankly I also got too hooked on the last 2 eps, which is likely where I’m blocked.  It’s an abrupt emotional twist for them (esp Daniel), and in trying to make sense of that I’m losing focus on the 4 previous years.

- I’m a little bit obsessed in the scene where Betty tries to convince Matt she’s fearless by pointing out her bang-less-ness.  And then runs into Daniel, who is at that moment half brain-washed, but yet when she asks about her fearless quotient his response is immediate and natural and entirely lacking in irony: “no bangs.”  It’s a tiny little moment that shows how well he not only knows her, but understands her.  Without judgment, without fanfare.  Were I to have a husband, this is the sort of response that would confirm I’d married the absolute perfect guy for me.

- They’re too close for mirroring to be an important indicator, but there are two scenes that stand out in this vein: the first is when Betty thinks he may have pushed Christina down the stares and steals the video.  She’s backing out the door, and he follows, matching her step for step.  I love the direction choices because from her perspective there’s a sense of menace, Daniel as potential villain is stalking her.  But from his guileless perspective he’s talking to her and if she’s moving, so is he.  The second is from the penultimate, talking about Trista, where Betty’s rolling back and forth and he moves with her, rather than simply turning his head.  It signals his full engagement in the conversation, seeking her attention, and is why the scene plays as flirting rather than their normal banter.

- That bulletpoint was getting a bit long, so second point on the flirting is that it plays against Betty shutting down the conversation “none of my business,” leading to the fight over involvement in each other’s personal lives, leading to the revelation that they know each other at that deep personal level so very, very well.  Which was a very clumsy leadup to Daniel’s revelation during Hilda’s wedding speech, that could have been handled so much more deftly but those last two eps were quite rushed, I don’t know when they found out about the shortened season but it feels like they’d planned for more space and had to jab in exposition.

- Becaaaaause: they narratively broke his ‘aha’ moment onto “know you better than you do” while the strength of the message is really in the “do anything to protect them.”  Which is, I believe, where they cut to his softened expression.  Not coincidentally, this is precisely what a lot of fan-readings of the characters focus on: Daniel will do anything to protect Betty.  Bobby might have said he’d throw himself under a bus for Hilda, but Daniel HAS done that for Betty- in fact literally doing so would probably have been easier than publicly shouldering the blame for the Tornado cover and giving away the profits.  Due to the fact that he had time to consider the consequences and did it anyway.

- Which is tidy segue into an admission that I’m flying mostly blind on the Molly arc because I basically skipped all her scenes, but it’s my understanding that Daniel doing this was a pivotal moment for them.  Ie, she was impressed that he did this thing.  I mean, I really appreciate that he spent the whole press conference scene looking for Betty, so the show in no way undercut their relationship.  But then they very clearly built the Molly relationship on the foundation of not only the man Daniel had become due to Betty, but choices he was making in large measure for Betty: it’s not that he saw Betty beaten down and resolved the situation: he was upset but lost, she yelled at him, and THEN he resolved the situation by taking the bullet.  Did I break grammar by ending up with two colon’d clauses in the same sentence?  It’s a braindump, ain’t gotta be pretty.  XP

- Quick sidebar that the same thing happens with Alexis.  She was expecting to come back to one brother, but then listens in on his pep talk with Betty and finds she’s returned to a different brother.  This may be where I got the “an assistant” phrasing, if so, my bad.  But basically, she was impressed with Daniel’s actions, not understanding that it was Betty specifically inspiring his actions.

- Follow that a step further and did Molly ever acknowledge how important Betty is to him?  Legit question.  I think her line here was about him doing it “for an assistant” (?) rather than even “his assistant,” establishing Betty as a non-entity for her.  (Quoting a summary but I think I’m in the ballpark.)  And I’m sure I’d have read about it somewhere if she brought Betty up during their discussion on who he’d date when she was dead.

- Just one last note on Molly, (okay it’s a multi-part though it veers off her as a character) but a possibly incorrect beef is that I hate the Daniel/Molly relationship because there’s no interesting or even real conflict?  It’s perfect?  I’m supposed to think this is magical “true love”?  Molly has apparently been engaged for years to a man she doesn’t really love (and um... that’s lazy not strong), and helps inspire a vengeance filled betrayal by her ex because she’s so awesome everyone loves her?  But she comes out squeaky clean because any emotional cheating on her part is balanced and thus “justified” by Connor falling for Wilhemina.  And then the only “conflict” is that she’s dying, and is perfect throughout it?  That’s...  weak.

-That poem thing WOULD have been an interesting point of conflict but it was resolved by Betty’s intervention, rather than within the relationship.  Which actually is an incredibly interesting beat.  The problem with that being it’s so entirely consistent with the role Betty plays in Daniel’s life that it’s treated as just another beat, as if it doesn’t MATTER that a fundamental moment of intimacy and growth of vulnerability in Daniel’s very important romantic relationship is a door opened by a third party.  There’s a strong argument to be made for something but I broke off to write the next point and now can’t remember what that strong argument is.  I might remember later.  It may have had something to do with Molly being a stepping stone in Daniel’s arc, but the cult-thing was so long and dominating that it didn’t work, it tied him too tightly for too long and coinciding with a loosening of his relationship with Betty there was flailing.

- Quick one: Daniel’s fast-forwarded and time-bounded relationship with Molly is the analog to Betty’s time-limited relationship with Henry.  Which is a discussion I would like Daniel and Betty to have.  Esp. noting that Betty and Henry had issues they worked through together (ice cream foreplay being one.)

- Player!  So going back to a happy place, when Betty’s on the phone trying to fix the apartment situation and the camera pans onto Daniel just leaning against the doorway: this may be a legitimate little moment of “squee!”  There’s so much denial in his laid back attitude at Player, but I still love watching how the informality of the environment reflects in the informality with Betty.  He gives her free reign, and there’s many answers to “why,” and I (almost) don’t want to go into them because I totally adore how this Daniel is basically a College!Daniel only he’s latched onto Betty, who, meanwhile, is just being Betty.  OMG how different his life would have been if he’d met Betty in college...

- Okay I actually don’t feel like going into whys, it’s just an arc to enjoy.  With a small mention of how he TOTALLY was playing with the MODE book and handed it to Betty knowing she’d understand and use it to get them back in.  Such a crazy subtle manipulation, to the point where I’m not sure it wasn’t almost entirely subconscious on Daniel’s part.

- The YETI recommendation letter.  What I love is that this is another time when Daniel fvcks up, but fixes it, and more importantly displays competence and ingenuity alongside authentic caring and effort.  Here’s the thing: YETI wanted Betty, even if it was just a quota thing (which it wasn’t entirely, at least one of the board was generally enthused.)  So all that was necessary was to have them re-label her as from Player.  Daniel knew this and did this.  And told Betty that.  BUUUUT that point was purposefully (by script and character) overshadowed by the gesture of the lengthy rec letter he put significant time into.  Whose real audience was... wait for it...  Betty.  He even did a second draft!  Which is more time and effort and a cleaner product.

-  Also flaking on her practice run.  I also enjoy how he (finally...) bounced back into the office clearly having forgotten her schedule, but having mentally shifted from Molly-space into Betty-space.  He’s enthused, he’s engaged, he’s sort of bantering and I’d like to see where that scene would have gone if she hadn’t immediately gotten the acceptance call.

- So there’s this moment somewhat early on, pretty sure when Betty’s taking the writing class, and wants Daniel to give her feedback.  And he’s all “why?,” coming from his “I don’t actually know what I’m doing” place.  She responds that he’s her friend and wants to know what he thinks.  And he does a little double-take at that word.  Because until that point Daniel totally sees Betty as HIS Friend, and they’ve referred to each other as friends, with a little “f,” and he believes that.  But it wasn’t until this moment that he even considered that HE might be HER Friend.  Presumably because he doesn’t believe he has anything to offer her, beyond the power he holds as EIC and her boss - ie, “here run this show” and other such responsibilities.

- Which is a recurring theme.  Pronounced on relationship stuff especially.  When she asks him for input on the Henry vs Gio situation, when she’s trying to date the playwright.  His response is always “I’m in no position to offer relationship advice/judgment on relationships.”  He sorta dodges the first and is permissive on the second.  I don’t know where to go with that so I’ll leave it (for now).

- When  he was supposed to be in Rio, Betty wasn’t even at MODE, she was working for the “enemy,” and he was sending her regular postcards?  First, they’d have been postmarked in New York and presumably with local stamps, so I’m not 100% on Betty not cottoning on.  But it’s super cute that he was thinking of her when he was incommunicado with literally everyone else.  Did he want her to figure it out (subconsciously)?  It’s an act of reaching out, but also of convincing: he’s created a fictional narrative of being in Rio, fed and embellished by the media and swallowed by coworkers, but it’s through Betty that he’s establishing the fiction in a definitive way.  He wants HER to believe it, because if SHE believes he’s there and having a good time, then he can believe it too, with a small piece of his imagination.

- Same convincing as in Player.  BTW, how did all those messages on her phone work?  He was 99% totally hiding the situation from her.  a) why wouldn’t he just call her from his phone, as he always did in the past?  b) he was creating another fictional space.  Where her “number” was literally on a post-it on his temporary assistant’s monitor.  It’s all play: “call Betty” happens many times, and every one is the act of doing it while knowing that he’s not really doing it.  c) Betty does not point out that he should have been confused he never heard back, or more to the point, that he never heard her voicemail message.  d) he was in a state of limbo waiting for her to come back, nothing is real until she does.  At which point there’s lovely dramatic tension since he both wants her to fix it and get them out of there, and wants to draw her into this new reality and thus make it feel viable.

- 100th Anniversary edition.  I love the idea that he’s hep on her writing his bio because he needs her name, at least, to be next to his.  His identity as EIC is predicated on her being his partner, and needs that shown, even if it’s functionally an “in joke” because it’s not like she can be featured.  In musing over his thoughts while flipping through the book right before deciding to quit, I usually come back to a realization of the transience of the role, but I want it to be a gutpunch of how he assumed, without being aware, that Betty would be next to him in picture, and that’s what they were heading for.

- I’ve actually got through most of my notes, so just a couple more.  Daniel is super impressionable.  He did what Becks told him to in the pilot.  He did what Natalie told him in the cult-situation.  Both against his better judgment - his look after Betty when he kicked her out for being “drama he didn’t need” - that’s the same look when he told her to clock out and was dragged off by the not-16-year-old.  I’m too tired to go check the pilot, but assuming similar look there.  He does what he’s told by anyone telling him to do something, but he WANTS to be rescued from the bad influences, who are so often so forceful.

- Final scene: okay so it turns out quick a lot of my thoughts are trying to understand Daniel.  His growth is blatant and deep.  So a second round will be more Betty-focused.  ‘Cuz I identify strongly with her and don’t have a lot of surface questions about her motivations, but I’m LOST on side of the romantic coin.  And plus she deserves a close look regarding how she grows during the series.

- I watched at least part of the reunion and very much like how AF answered the question of the final scene versus what EM says.  Because I think they each, as actors, see it from the perspective of their characters, which means it was played authentically and grants insight.  AF basically says that she saw it as Daniel coming to say thank you, and how it came down to Betty teaching him that he was good enough.  Which came across a little funny because her phrasing implied they’d never talk or see each other again or something and that’s an alarming finality.  But also implies that Betty really did see moving to London as a significant parting of ways, something that started as soon as she became an editor and their relationship changed.  Probably before.

- She then challenged EM as to why Daniel didn’t say goodbye (as if she didn’t know and hadn’t thought about it?  I’m guessing this was panel performance: asking the question “in character” and throwing the question to the other relevant actor.)  But anyway, EM’s answer was “Because things were just starting.”  Which is blatantly a shippy answer, and he even explains Daniel’s “revelation” as when he “really saw Betty for the first time through and through.”

- At some point in these things you’re like: oh but I thought of something else, and only stop when your brain falls asleep.

- I thought of something else.  And then I forgot it.  My brain is failing!  But not yet failed.

- After Betty gets her braces off there’s this scene near the end, at the shoot.  Daniel sees her and crosses quite purposefully to talk with her.  He wants to banter and share this exciting moment with her.  And the scene goes a little strange when Betty kinda goes “yeah, going now bye.”  I expected more eye contact, a big smile, more conversation.  That’s Betty.  That’s them.  But instead it’s a little awkward so Something Is Happening Here.  Is she self-conscious?  Did she see and hear something in Daniel’s look and comment right after she was detached from the bra and isn’t at this moment comfortable with him?  Is this all fallout from her dream in which she and Daniel slept together/he thought she was a bad person/rejected her only they chose not to explicate this/cut a useful scene/thought I’d get that right away but I’m obtuse?  I don’t think it’s the last one because while I can be horribly obtuse, I don’t think it was coded.  But that’s what the obtuse would say.

- At any rate they don’t pick up on it again, next scene (next ep) they’re back to normal.

- But Daniel does immediately chase after Amanda and let go of her.  Which is payoff for his convo with Betty earlier where she sort of disdainfully asks if he WANTS a more serious relationship with Amanda.  I did sort of wonder if he actually does, but Betty’s judgmentalness is what convinces him he doesn’t.  Usually I’d say Betty understands him so well she knows he doesn’t, but they’re not as close at this point, Betty is living her own life much more, so I dunno.

- But I don’t actually think Daniel was falling for Amanda, or that the show wanted us to think that was ultimately a viable path.  Because of that moment when he’s in a car, calls Amanda, says “I really need to see  you” and she turns him down.  It parallels his text to Betty when Molly died.  One text and Betty came over.  This was an actual distressed voice convo and Amanda doesn’t care enough about him to be there, which is really great development for Amanda even though we don’t see her!  She previously went after Matt when he was in jail, she’s interested in Tyler here, she’s not totally pining for Daniel!

- Daniel of course was using Amanda and their earned if mild emotional intimacy as a crutch, trying to fill the space Betty left.  Also note when Amanda turned him down for sex and he stayed to “hang out,” - this is not supposed to be an analysis of Amanda but I wanna note I like that moment because it felt like she was pleased to think she wasn’t just sex to him, while still being over him romantically. Because she does care about him.

- Or for pete’s...  I have this bad habit of writing notes which I later look at and am like... “huh?”  This is a fic idea, from Daniel’s POV: “Betty had moulded him, often by sheer force of her iron will, into being a man who almost deserved Molly.  And he'd turned right around and become a man who would never deserve Betty.”  And I DON’T REMEMBER WHAT THE SECOND HALF MEANS.  Specifically.

- Wedding dancing.  Happens twice.  Hilda’s wedding, we know what that is.  But at Daniel’s wedding.  I like that he wasn’t 100% Molly focused, ‘cuz, shipper.  And I know why the show had Matt cut in, because gotta keep things moving.  But isn’t it a thing that you don’t cut in on the groom/bride?  It’s their day.  Daniel just sort of nonverbally asks Betty if it’s okay (to leave her with Matt), but can’t help a) thinking he was a bit put out and b) want Molly to see his expression looking at Betty and have some sort of “aha” moment where she - do Molly and Betty have any scenes together?  I don’t remember seeing any and I think I did skim through all the eps, but I need to do that again.

- Ooh, one of the things I forgot en route!  I like that Betty has revolving love interests, because that’s textual argument for Betty never having feelings (romantic) for Daniel.  Which is super, super important in this iteration of the story.  There’s a couple moments - pilot and the first bridge scene - where she arguably has a momentary crush, which quickly settles into a developing platonic relationship.  

- Jump back to Daniel finally seeing Betty as a true equal = romantic feelings.  It’s a thing.  Look my brain is deteriorting and wording is hard!  So there’s two sided imbalance throughout.  Daniel always saw Betty with this veneer of youth, and a great deal of his use for her is helping her “grow into the woman she’ll be.”  And that’s the roadblock in him seeing her as a romantic possibility.  Which was initially quite awesome because he was sleeping with people younger than her, even the “she’s actually 20″ girl was younger than Betty.  And yet always saw her as in many ways more mature and competent than her.  And double-yet he still saw how much further she could, and would, grow.  His belief in her knows no bounds.

- Meanwhile Betty sees him as...  someone who’s also becoming.  Who has great potential.  Bullying him into it if necessary.  And because he’s guided by her, she can’t crush on him, he’s like her pet.  Were she to have a crush, much less fall for him, it would have been horrifying.  She needs to have a moment when she sees him as a true equal, someone who - look, everyone is always still growing so it’s not like he needs to be fully formed, and it’s a little murkier what the moment would look like when she finally sees Daniel “for the first time.”

- ‘cuz as noted, Betty has been there for pretty much every important moment of growth and crossroads in every facet of Daniel’s life.  Whereas Betty consistently had many things and relationships in her life Daniel was not involved in.  She’s always been way more self-reliant (not the word I wanted, is there one that starts with c?)  It’s why they did sort of need to peel away through a chunk of S4, because Daniel needed to learn to cope without Betty propping him up, because it’s like a Miranda-thing:

- “I don’t need Gary.  But I want him.”

- Daniel has to be able to be find without Betty before Betty can see him as a viable romantic partner.  She has to see something she never has before.  Daniel saw that the seedling he’d been protecting was not only strong enough to survive on its own had grown up and bloomed (process begun early in the season when he was being overprotective and she shut that down).  For Betty...  I guess Daniel...  ...  .....  it didn’t happen in the show.  As EM noted, for Daniel, the ending was the beginning.  Because his moment isn’t leaving MODE, that’s just the corresponding moment to Betty shaking him off.  His moment is further down the road when he puts into practice everything he’s learned and ...  something answered in fanfic because it’s spec and I’m tuckered.

[jq37]

The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 5  Lapin’s Big Day

Aftermath

Right before the stream for this episode started, I saw the title and I thought, “Lapin’s Big Day? After last episode, how could it get any bigger?”

…

So, anyway, as you remember, while Lapin was mic dropping over at the jail, with Theo and Cruller, the rest of the candy crew were en route to their quarters and everyone is feeling the gravity of the situation. Jet is trying to stand in the prime position to protect anyone who might need protection. Ruby (who has given one of the watersteel daggers she took--and which were apparently never confiscated from her--to Jet) is vigilantly looking for escape routes as they walk and she’s so anxious that Yak flies up and starts helping her scout. 

As Jet talks about the changes she wants to make once she’s “king” (including considering installing Ruby as queen--platonically--which Ruby feels sends too Lannister a message) the more magically inclined members of the party (Ruby and Liam) feel a swell of magic. Liam feels like the earth around them is speaking and Ruby feels a welling up of Candian magic. Not only that, she sees a ghostly glimpse of both Lazuli and Rococco (who is smiling at Jet), but she thinks she might be seeing things and doesn’t tell Jet.

Liam asks Amethar if he’s in trouble and wonders again if he should just take off. Amethar says that they’ll protect him and, if he has to run, they’ll find him. 

When they reach their quarters, they’re met by Amethar’s cheese friends who are clearly upset by the assassination attempt and offer their protection. Amethar says they can handle themselves and they should worry about Primsy. Once inside the room, the kids start full Home Alone-ing it full of booby traps and Amethar sends for Cruller, Lapin, and Theo. 

And, speaking of, they, along with Grissini and a garrison of imperial soldiers are on their way to arrest Alfredi. Grissini is clearly nervous and asks Lapin to tag-team the arrest with him so it will have the weight of the church. Cruller thinks it will look bad if there are too many Candians involved in this arrest so, when the Tartguard shows up looking for them, he decides to leave Alfredi to them. Before he goes, Lapin suggests he look into boats for a possible speedy exit in the near future. Lucky for them (presumably, though I guess we’ll see) the people most likely to have spare boats are their friends, the Dairy Islanders.

Everybody else enters the Great Food Pyramid where Alfredi is talking to Senator Ciabatta in the presence of a bunch of Ceresian military (the actual Ceresian military, not Imperials like Grissini). Grissini goes into business mode and starts the formal arrest and Alfredi isn’t pressed about it until Lapin jumps in and asserts his authority as Primogen at which point she is suddenly outraged. Lapin publicly asserts that she made the daggers (gasps from the crowd) which she denies. Ciabatta for his part steps aside and lets the arrest happen. Alfredi tries to run but Grissini’s men tackle her and perp walk her out.     

Ciabatta is being awfully chill about this whole thing and he kinda seems like he’s waiting for everyone to leave so he can talk to Lapin. Theo goes to make sure Alfredi gets properly jailed. Once they’re gone, Ciabatta says that Lapin was very bold to come in and arrest Alfredi basically on her home turf, a compliment Lapin demurs. Ciabatta suggests taking a walk and Lapin agrees. Before they leave, Ciabatta looks at some of the other senators who were also with them but on a Nat 1, gleans no info. Ciabatta says that it’s a little odd that with all the might of Ceresia, no one thinks they’re a big enough target to take down with back to back assassination attempts. He does not seem to have a high opinion of Alfredi and offers Lapin a chance to come with him on a sneak mission (along with anyone Lapin wants to bring) to figure out what’s what on Alfredi. Lapin agrees and gives him a card with Illusory Script so that whatever messenger he sends will hand it back to him as a calling card and he can verify it’s legit.

He tries to get a read on Ciabatta to see what this guy is about and on a 19 Insight and a 24 History, he knows that he clawed his way from the bottom of the social pecking order to become a senator 4 years ago. He’s a great fighter, a war hero, and he “rules”.

At the jail, Theo makes sure Alfredi is secured (she’s gagged in addition to being bound so she can’t cast spells) and then heads back to the Candian quarters.

Rewards and Recon 

Once everyone is back together, Amethar sends Lady Donetta to entertain the Swirlies so he only has the people he truly trusts in the room. They lock the door, Ruby magics up some music to mask their conversation, and then Amethar declares that, as of now, secretly but officially, they are at war with whoever is trying to kill him. The kids all offer themselves up as spies/protection but Amethar is not about them risking themselves like that. 

As they discuss that, a Tartguard shows up and announces that the winners of the unfinished tournament are being honored, meaning Theo (who unhorsed--unmeeped?--Plumbline) and Liam (who was leading the archery competition) have been summoned to the emperor to receive their boons. Liam’s is just a cabinet appointment basically but Theo’s requires thought because he gets to nominate a candidate for emperor. They consider nominating Plumbeline as a good faith gesture but Amethar thinks it will probably be bad for politics to have an unbroken line of succession. Ruby think about Annabelle but they all agree it’s a bad idea (and she’s cool enough as is). Theo suggests Caramelinda but Jet, knowing her mom and her isolationist tendencies, thinks it’s a bad idea. Theo’s name is thrown in but he doesn’t think it’s a good idea and Liam suggests his traitor dad which Cruller full, like, soda out of his nose laughs at. Cruller also suggests nominating Amethar himself as a safe option, even though he’s already a lock, because there are some legal/procedural protections he gets that way. 

Lapin tells everyone about the meeting with Ciabatta and Ruby and Jet volunteer to go with him (when Ciabatta sends for him) and Amethar goes with Theo/Liam to the emperor while Cruller holds down the fort. Liam casts Pass Without Trace on everyone for some extra sneaking mojo.  

The winners and Amethar make their way to see the emperor and run into Annabelle, the other champion, on the way. Plumbeline is there too and she apologizes to Theo who accepts it gracefully. Liam fully puts his foot in his mouth and asks Annabelle why she didn’t want to marry and she just goes off on him and his lack of tact, finishing with some Charm School 101 and the advice that he should, when he meets someone, give a simple compliment not related to appearance or anything personal and then bail from the conversation. Advice that he immediately uses in the next scene when he meets the emperor and says, “I really like your infrastructure,” and I cannot explain to you how good that setup/payoff was, you just have to watch it.

Annabelle says that there are two things she really wants (one for herself and one for her country) then asks that the emperor request that the Pontifex release Stilton Cordeau (the suspicious little cheese dude Primsy was flirting with) from his Bulbian vows (including celibacy)--he entered the clergy young and then his older brothers died at sea--so he can marry Primsy. The Candians gathered are flipping out internally but can’t really say anything without causing a huge scene and probably an international incident (AGAIN). Theo’s turn is next and he has a lot of angst about who he's gonna nominate to be emp--lol no I’m kidding. Murph pulls out a pre-made scroll irl, unrolls it, and rattles off all of Amethar’s titles, nominating him, obviously.

Official business taken care of, everyone but Amethar and Plumbeline leave. Once outside, Liam expresses surprise to Annabelle that Primsy has a love interest (I half expected Annabelle to accuse him of TMI again) and Annabelle says they’ve kind of been seeing each other since they were young but it was complicated what with her having other official suitors and him being promised to the church. Theo thinks this is a way for the Bulbian church to get into politics more directly by putting one of their guys in power but Annabelle thinks they’re pretty in it already. When asked by Theo, Annabelle says she doesn’t really care about Cordeau but she’s OK with him if he makes Primsy happy. When asked by Theo if she cares about Primsy (Charisma Check, disadvantage--rolls a 2) she gets really upset and basically tells him to F off and leaves.

Back in the room, Uvano tells Amethar point blank, get ready buddy. It’s you. Amethar asks if he can appoint Plumeline to his council and she seems very happy about that. Uvano tells his daughter to get the official papers to declare it but Plumbeline says the Pontifex is holding on to them for some reason. He says to get them, even if she has to disturb her.         

Speaking of, Onionpatch (the Primogen from Greenhold) shows up at the Candian Quarters to fetch Lapin on behalf of the Pontifex. That’s basically a summons from God so he has to go, even though he has that meeting with Ciabatta. He trusts Ruby and Jet to go in his stead and leaves with him. 

Ruby and Jet have a little chat about how they’re always treated like children (though it’s probably partially their fault) and Cruller is like girls, we let you in on the war council today and you’re going on a spy mission in like ten minutes. We respect you.  

A Tartguard shows up with Lapin’s note (Zac, with a successful roll, retcons that he in the moment made it so that his friends could read his secret message/watermark too) now with added info, the symbol of a bakery. They sneak over to the bakery (Ruby the rogue getting a crazy 36) and they spot Ciabatta dressed in peasant clothes (as they also are). They sneak to an abandoned but gated palazzo (big, fancy, Italian-y house) outside the Great Food Pyramid and break in. As they enter, an assassin tries to get the drop on them but Ciabatta ices him immediately and takes the guard as proof that this is Alfredi’s secret house. There’s a lot of Bulbian imagery but Ruby can tell that they’re mismatched and BS, like painting random hieroglyphs on a set piece for flavor.   

Ciabatta opens a door at the top of a set of stairs and they find themselves in an alchemical lab that’s just full of interesting stuff:

Ruby finds pure water and Jet finds mold both super deadly weapons. These are like tools for bioterrorism. They talk about how to get rid of it and Ciabatta says they’ll leave an anonymous tip to someone who can safely handle it. 

Ciabatta finds eye-droppers and, upon using them, his eyes glow like Alfredi’s do, exposing her as a fraud of a miracle worker (I wonder if she has artificer stats).  

Jet finds the schematics for making the water daggers and Ruby can tell that it’s instructions on how to make milk silk in a weird mix of Lacra and Fructerano (both languages she speaks--she must have paid SOME attention in school, or hung out with a bunch of multilingual circus peeps I guess) that would be common in the Yogurt Shoals. The recipe for milk silk is the same as how to make water steel, you just sub some ingredients. Also, Yogurt Shoals is the home of House Bleu! Home of Stilton--the heir--who is now, suddenly, able to marry. Emily feels very vindicated with her pasta/cheese connection from earlier.

Ciabatta finds a bunch of papers and starts burning them or taking them with him. He says that Alfredi was an expert on blackmail collecting (s/t very common in Ceresia) and the room is full of blackmail. He takes the Ceresian blackmail and implies that he’s gonna use it to clean house back home so Cersia can be honest again. 

Jet looks for Candian blackmail and finds none, though she finds notes from the Pontifex about the Profidian Heresy and the Ramsian Doctrine--two terms she doesn’t recognize. 

Anyway, they sneak back out, Ciabatta stone cold carves up the assassin's body for the birds (which begs the question of what the birds are made of but we still have a lot to get through so let’s just keep moving right along) and they part ways. 

Lapin’s Big Day (Part 2)

Lapin is brought to the Pontifex who is, in a word, livid. She asks Lapin where the power of the church comes from and his answer of, “The Bulb and those it shines on,” does not make her any happier. She full SLAPS him and starts ripping him apart for publicly arresting Alfredi--making fools of them and weakening their position with the public--instead of letting the church handle it privately. Lapin says, since Alfredi and Kerradin are in the church, he doesn’t have a lot of faith that the church, as it stands, can handle their own business which was NOT the right thing to say.

The Pontifex gives him an ultimatum: Are you a Candian or a Bulbian official first? Lapin, doing as he’s always done, lies and swears to the church. The Pontifex says that this situation can still be salvaged. Alfredi will be tried privately and hanged publicly (gonna be a real fig leaf of a trial it seems) and then there’s the matter of Candia which is not in good standing with the church. There’s still that little matter of the magic on the Sucrosi Road. Lapin is quick to defend Ruby but it isn’t Ruby she’s targeting. It’s the much easier scapegoat: Liam, the traitor’s son who publicly did magic earlier the same day. She tells Lapin that he will arrest Liam immediately who will be put on trial for witchcraft, a crime with the penalty of death. Obviously torn (to us anyway) Lapin agrees to do it with an, “As you see fit.” He walks out with a group of knights to get the job done.

Back at base, Ruby and Jet fill in everyone on what happened and ask about the two religious terms they saw in the letter from the Pontifex. Nobody knows but there would be records of this stuff in a cathedral somewhere--it’s a big city. Based on what Amethar knows about Pangranos (which he says swings between an ineffective democracy and a destructive imperitorship) it seems like he’s going to try and install himself as imperator--Cersian senators are notoriously corrupt we learned in an earlier episode. They discuss whether the church is trying to get Stilton on the throne for the aforementioned reasons which leads to the news that Amethar was named emperor coming up and everyone is really happy for him.

And then there’s a knock at the door. 

They open up and it’s Lapin with a whole mess of soldiers. The head soldier cedes to Lapin and lets him formally charge Liam of witchcraft on behalf of the church. Amethar (and Jet) are like absolutely not and stand in front of Liam to protect him. Theo Messages Lapin like, “Bro, what is happening? Please tell me this is some kind of plan,” and, Lapin, who knows that he can at least assure Liam a real trial with actual due process and that he won’t get disappeared in the night, thinks this is the lesser of all evils. So instead of fighting, Theo asks if she can give up his weapons and stay with Liam in jail overnight. The request is granted. Liam, in a delayed reaction, flips out (valid) and the princesses promise that they’re gonna be A+ witnesses for him. He asks if he can bring Preston to jail and I thought they would have a problem with that seeing as familiars are a thing but nope. The pig is all good.

Before he’s marched out, Amethar brings Liam close. Liam, so deer in headlights, whispers, “Don’t let them kill me.” Amethar responds that he would die before he let them kill him.    

Liam (with Theo keeping watch) spends the night in a jail cell and wakes up to the sound of bells. The emperor is dead. And, guess what? The papers were never signed. 

The Rocks family goes to the Emperor's chambers where Plumbeline is crying. Amethar comforts her. Jet says that she only took a short rest so she could look up those two religious terms from the letter. She found a book with the info but if she reads it now, she’ll miss Liam’s trial so she takes it with her. Amethar offers Plumbeline an out from going to the church but she wipes her tears and insists on going.     

Liam is brought out. The Pontifex speaks and says the trial is being slightly postponed to deal with the emperor's death. She days the paperwork wasn’t finished but a successor was reportedly named. Amethar kinda prompts Plumbeline who stands and says that she was there when the Emperor named as his successor...Ciabatta. 

Ruby instantly calls her a liar and Amethar stands up and makes his claim (not happy to have to speak against Plumbeline but also not happy with whatever BS she’s pulling). Ciabatta, btw, is not present for this. 

With two competing claims, the Pontifex brings out the Book of Leaves--a Bublian artifact formerly belonging to Amethar’s sister, St. Citrina--which basically has Lasso of Truth powers. Lapin does a check to make sure it’s the real book and not tampered with in any way and on a Nat 20, knows that it’s the real deal *and* that he can glean info about the true nature of the Bulb from it with some more time. While this is going down, Jet is reading and she learns that the Profidian Heresy is an old belief of the church that the Hungry One is as powerful as the Bulb and they eventually decided that couldn’t be true and it was discarded as an official belief. 

Back to the action. The Pontifex asks Plumbeline if her dad really named Ciabatta emperor and she is compelled to tell the truth. No, he didn’t. Amethar comes in for his easy lay-up but, as he walks up, in a little side room, he sees that Manta Ray Jack is chained up and he’s had the crap beat out of him. And the Pontifex has a different question for him: Who is your lawful wedded wife?   

Amethar hems and haws but eventually is forced to admit that he legally married a woman from the Dairy Islands when he was younger and it was technically never annulled because of the war making things complicated.

The Pontifex, who is playing 4-D lightning chess, says that because he never actually divorced his previous wife, his marriage to Caramelinda was never valid which means that Ruby and Jet as bastards and he’s an adulterer in the eyes of the church, grounds for excommunication which she performs at once. Excommunication means no ability to hold land or title which means the crown of Candia moves to the next in line which happens to be Joren Jawbreaker (Liam’s dad--Ruby and Jet can’t inherit bc they’re bastards and Caramelinda has no claim since the marriage wasn’t official) who is in open rebellion with the rest of Calorum. Which means that all of Candia is now in open rebellion with the rest of Calorum. Which means everyone in the room can now be arrested as enemies of the state! 

You *know* everybody’s rolling for initiative, and I’m trying to not hold my breath because it’s gonna be a LONG wait until next Wednesday.       

Things I’m Concerned About

I almost feel like I should have a Things I’m Not Concerned About list this week to save time. What a roller coaster of absolutely insanity. And it’s only episode 5 people. It’s episode 5! You know that chart we all learned in school about rising action, climax, falling action? We’re still way on the bottom of the rising action part! There’s still so much buildup left but where is there left to go? This is like the end of act two of another story! What is happening!? 

Annabelle said she had one request for her and one for her country. Then she asked for something for Primsy which sounds like the country one but I’m not convinced it is. Like, it certainly could be but the phrasing of that and lack of clarification has me wary. 

I’m concerned Jet only got a short rest going into this battle. She got hurt at least some during the fight and I know she doesn’t need to regain spell slots but, like, a million NPCs are gonna be at this fight. This is not the one to come in nerfed. Like, I trust Emily to make judgement calls and Jet probably doesn’t have that much HP so a short rest might have done it but mmm, don’t love this. (Upon rewatch, she did get another short rest during the “who do we nominate” scene so maybe it’s fine but still...). 

I really don’t see a scenario where everyone leaves this fight alive/OK. You know that Smash Bros screen where it’s like, “Everyone’s Here!” That’s what this is like. Like, can you imagine trying to escape the White House surrounded by secret service? Gah, I really feel like I’m gonna be writing a eulogy for a piece of candy this time next week. And, for everybody else, this isn’t a fight you win. This is a fight you escape. I really hope Calroy made good on getting that boat.

Gah, there are so many potentially shady NPCs to talk about. It’s not gonna dig too deep into any of them but just a quick look on where my head’s at:

Ciabatta: Is he corrupt? And it just within his country (and thus, not really the concern of the Candians), or did he put up Plumbeline to nom him? Where was he? Was he not at the trial because it was none of his business or did he not want to be there when things went crazy. What docs did he burn? Just the blackmail on him? What has he done?

Plumbeline: Who put her up to putting up Ciabatta? What does she have to gain from doing that (or lose from not doing it)? It was enough to give up a seat on the council and contravene her father’s dying wish. Did Ciabatta have blackmail on her? Did the church make her do it to have an excuse to question Amethar (maybe when she went to get the papers signed)? What did Ruby miss on her 7 Insight check right before they went to the trial?

Annabelle: Did she really make Stilton a viable heir just for Primsy’s sake or does she have ulterior motives? And are those motives personal or fully in league with some kind of conspiracy--possibly the cheese one in particular.

Pontifex B: OK, so obviously the church is shady. We got that. But what is their angle here? Is it as simple as Candia is doing the magic they don’t like, let’s remove them? And which parts of this (or, more likely, *these*--there’s got to be multiple things in play here) is she actually puppet mastering? I’m sure some of it is just the church being shady just because it is. 

Stilton: I simply do not vibe with anything about him.

Just to put a fine point on it, if I--me irl--was attacked by people back to back, I would assume the attacks were related, but Amethar is a BIG target. It’s very likely multiple sets of people are independently gunning for him and multiple gunners always makes a mystery harder to solve.

Lord and Lady Swirlie are always around but being sidelined. Brennan keeps mentioning them and Amethar keeps stiff-arming them. I don’t know if they keep coming up because they’re secretly relevant or if Brennan is just a good DM (second is true regardless) but hmm. Related but not really a concern per se, I would like to know what Lady Donetta is like. She’s rarely around because she’s usually keeping the Swirlies busy. 

OK, so Lapin. Yikes. He was in a bad position to start with but now, I don’t even know where he stands. He’s a Candian, but just the day before he said he was a Primogen first, right? So, hypothetically, he should be able to escape this and stand with the Pontifex. After all, he’s a miracle worker for all she knows (unless she *actually* knows). You would give your official who was specifically chosen by your god the chance to do the “right thing” right? Would that be a wise choice to make? I could see him doing that so he can be their man on the inside. Lapin doesn’t die but Zac has to use his backup because Lapin is MIA. But if he sides with the Candians, he’s fully persona non grata with the church and he’s already on pretty thin ice. Also, if the worst happens as I suspect and one of the Rocks’ family falls, what position does that put him in with his patron? Yeesh, I would *not* want to be Zac next fight.

Just to also highlight this, very possible that even if we have no deaths, someone gets captured, stuck in a dungeon, and put out of commission for a long stretch of eps. I don’t think the church wants them dead necessarily. Except for Liam who they for sure want dead.

I don’t know how fast news travels in Calorum but Caramelinda is in for a SHOCK. Also, I wonder what was meant by, “What the world took from her”? (Caramelinda’s reason for not really caring about the rest of the world when they’re discussing whether she should be nom’d). Like, is it just general war stuff or something specific? Oh and, in case it wasn’t mentioned before, she’s originally from House Meringue, and that’s her house again now that her marriage is legally invalid. 

I think it was said that Gustavo was a little more lucid this time then when they talked. Then the Pontifex gets the papers and he just dies? Could just be a coincidence, but poison has been established in this story already at least twice and Liam even thought to check for poison (though he wasn’t able to) so I’m keeping an eye out. 

OK, this episode was A Lot so, this week, I’m adding a section to shout out the funniest parts of this episode and it’s called:

Sunny Side Up

Theo barking at the Tartguard, “DO A SADDER DANCE” had me DYING.

As did Murph going through the motions of the nomination conversation like he didn’t have a scroll ready to go that he’d made in advance.

When they Home Alone their room, Ally says, “I have a bunch of micromachines and they’re peppermint.”

When Brennan/Ciabatta was going through pronouns and Jet was like, “Or a spaghetti person,” and Ciabatta was like, “Tbh, that will prob be the case regardless.” Also, the very Brennan double peace signs at the end.

When they’re like, “We should make Preston King,” and Calroy is like, “Emperor,” like that’s the only wrong part of that.

Five A Lot More Things

Lol at Brennan going through the mechanics of the trial like there was ever gonna be a trial. 

Grissini, man. He’s at the fight and while I would not blame him for following orders I would love for him to be exactly who I hope he is and if not fully defect, maybe throw the Candians a sneaky Help action. I know hope only exists to be destroyed in shows like this but I want what I want, OK?

What an exquisitely DM’d episode. Giving the players an agonizing political minefield of a decision in disguise as a reward is brilliant. The jump between the spy stuff and the church stuff and then the whole lead up to the arrest? Like, I knew Liam was gonna take the fall for Ruby from last episode and that was still a gut punch. And then making it seem like Liam’s head was on the chopping block and then BOOM, nope. It’s actually everybody? The uno post by @aydaspastlives is both the funniest D20 post this week and the best description on the insanity that we saw. Most fun I’ve ever had being womped. Well done Brennan.

I realized this episode when I accidentally typed Pete instead of Liam because of the Peppermint alliteration that Pete had a peppermint tooth from like episode 2 onward of TUC. Connections! 

If you follow me for non D&D stuff know I’m very into Six the musical and I can’t hear the word excommunicated with doing it in my head like in Don’t Lose Ur Head which was jarring, as I’m sure you can imagine. 

We were all bracing for bastards but the bastards were with us all along! Very wild. I wonder if/how that reveal would have gone down if Amethar had died. And I really wonder if there is still another child. The Pontifex didn’t mention, but that could be a good pawn for later, both for her or for Brennan. Or someone’s second character, who knows? Also, I very much want to know more about this milk maid and how literal that description is. 

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot to mention this before but the delicious monkey paw-ness of Ruby and Jet continually talking about how they don’t want to be royal and then suddenly being branded bastards in front of everyone? Amazing. Also the little, “Call me that one more time,” from Ruby. So good.

I wonder if the protections Amethar got by Theo naming him do him any good in this situation.  

What does bread bleed, Brennan? Please? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you making me consider this? Also, why would Ciabatta just stick his hand in water like that? My guy, there are better ways to check the deadly poison other than directly handling it. 

Brennan really likes naming important religious concepts, huh? No shade, I genuinely think it’s great. 

I don’t know why I heard, “bacon steel” and I was like, “Plausible,” and then I heard “fruit iron” and I was like, “Absolutely not.”

Oh and just a quick note: Ruby and Jet double leveled last fight so I think they’re all caught up with everyone else now (but Liam might still be one level behind).

One More Thing!

This has absolutely nothing to do with Crown of Candy but I am still, as always, on my BS re: the Abernants and y’all should check out this amazing animatic by @crayfishcoffee. It is, hands down, my favorite piece of D20 fan art, absolutely period. I could literally go off for another thousand words but I’m being indulgent as is so I’ll shut up now. Go watch it! 

[palmtreepalmtree]

Alright, this one is long overdue for an anonymous friend who really wanted me to review The Healer.  So after a short pause, here is another edition of

The Worst Movie on Netflix Right Now™

Heavy sigh.

Alright.  Let’s talk about this one.  

First off, I have to do some pretty serious content warnings, cause I know some people have been receiving some bad news recently and this review goes someplace you might not expect so, I love you guys, but please be aware that this review deals with: cancer, terminal illness, kids with cancer.  

Now back to the bullshit.

This is basically a movie about a fucking dumbass dude who has trouble making obvious decisions.  

SPOILERS AHEAD (are you new here?)

The main character Alec Bailey, begins the film as a total fuckwit.  He lives in England (somewhere about) and owns a failing electronic handyman business that he calls “The Healer” (in the most pathetic stretch of narrative bullshit, but okay) and is in deep gambling debts to the Russian mob. 

As our story begins, Alec discovers that he has a long lost rich uncle who makes him an offer: the uncle will pay off Alec’s debts if he agrees to live in Nova Scotia for a year.  The uncle will make all the arrangements: plane ticket, work visa, place to live, etc.  All Alec has to do is stay in Nova Scotia for a year.

OH NO!  WHATEVER SHALL I DO?!?  WHAT AM I GOING TO DO IN REMOTE NOVA SCOTIA FOR A YEAR AFTER ALL MY FINANCIAL CONCERNS ARE TAKEN CARE OF?  

HOWEVER WILL I SURVIVE IN SUCH A HORRIBLE PLACE?11?!?

I BETTER THINK IT OVER.

*eyeroll*

He finally makes his decision after getting chased by mobsters trying to collect on his debts.  ...like I said.  He’s a fuckwit.

So he moves into this beautiful house in Nova Scotia.  There’s no internet, which is a legit bummer, but his uncle has arranged a car for him to get to town.  Seems like a pretty good gig.  Even if it is going to be brutally cold come the winter months.  

Well as soon as Alec arrives in town, everyone seems to know and be expecting him.  He puts an ad out for his mechanical engineering services, again, under the name “The Healer.”  Well........... that goes awry in ways you would expect.  Suddenly, people start showing up requesting his physical healing services.

The thing is, the people from town seem to expect him to actually be a healer.  They keep referring to a secret and to him being “the chosen one.”  There’s no explanation for this.

Then there’s like... this whole weird interlude where Alec seems to kill the town priest, played by Jorge Ramirez (can someone please find this dude a good acting gig? my dude has decent comedic timing, he’s better than this shit). And Alec gets arrested.  Even though the priest got up and walked away.  All of this seems like a weird spinning of wheels before the actual plot.  Like why is this happening.  Why?  

Eventualllllllly......... his uncle shows back up and fesses up (in the most elaborate way possible).  People in his family have a gift.  Every other generation, someone is chosen.  And they have the gift of healing.  Based solely on being near to someone who is destined to be saved.

The gift can only be activated around their 30th birthday (if this sounds unnecessarily elaborate, that’s because it is -- and I’m even cutting shit out like the secret basement and portraits on the wall, blahblahblah).  The day after the birthday, the chosen one must decide.  They can choose to accept or decline the gift of healing.  Alec is given until midnight that night to make his decision.  WILL HE BE THE CHOSEN ONE?  WILL HE BE THE HEALER?!?!1?1

I mentioned that Alec is a fuckwit right?  

*Hagrid voice* YOU’RE A FUCKWIT, ALEC!

*squints*

Annnnnnyhow.  Alec goes to the town church where everyone is gathered at midnight (with thank you signs and a big round of applause) and he dashes their hopes.  HE WILL NOT BE THE HEALER, NO!  Even though it comes with no readily apparent downsides or costs.  And he’d be able to relieve the suffering of others with no cost to himself.  No, fuck it.  He’s going to go home.

The town takes it pretty well, all things considered.  The few people who had already been healed by being near him make speeches of gratitude.  They all wish him a happy birthday and tell him he’s welcome to stay.  Like these people are insanely understanding about him declining the gift of healing.  INSANE.

It’s worth noting that we’re about halfway through the movie at this point and we haven’t met one of the main characters of the movie.  

IN COMES ABIGAIL.  Cancer kid extraordinaire.  She is 14 years old.  Her parents have driven 7 hours to see Alec.  Their daughter is dying of terminal cancer, and all they want is for Alec to spend some time with her and give it a shot.  But she’s a pretty self-possessed kid.  She convinces the reluctant Alec to just hangout with her for the weekend to buck up her parents and give her parents some hope.  She doesn’t believe in the healing, so no harm, no foul.

And finally we’ve hit the meat of our story.  Will Alec be able to save Abigail now that he’s declined the gift?  Will he regret it?  WHY DID HE DECLINE THE GIFT!?1?

SPOILERS (really can’t discuss this movie without them)

It turns out, Alec had a brother who died of cancer.  And they were incredibly close.  In Alec’s words, “he was my everything.”  But now he deeply regrets giving up the gift.  Now he’s worried he can’t save Abigail.

You know what, man?  Same.

SO WHY THE FUCK DID YOU TURN DOWN THE GIFT!??!?

Listen.  Listen, listen.  I don’t know a single person who has been touched by cancer who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have a healing gift.  I mean, what the fuck.  Death sucks.  Losing someone you love from any kind of illness sucks.  Especially when it feels even remotely too soon.  And cancer is a particular type of FUCKING BULLSHIT.  It sucks.  

So it’s really fucking hard to understand why this FUCKWIT turns down the gift to begin with.  Death and suffering is not abstract for him when this movie starts!  So why we should feel sorry for his resulting anxiety, now that he has met someone who is directly negatively affected by his fucking BAD DECISION.

Anyhow, the rest of the movie is basically an exercise in how charming Abigail is and how much fun we can have with her before she goes off to die. Which like......... OH-FUCKING-KAY!

It should go without saying that this movie has a happy ending.  The music swells where it should.  The romance is consummated.  Abigail is healed.  All is going to be well with the world.

As a movie, this one has some weird fucking choices.  First, all of the music cues in this movie are just wrong.  “Faith” by George Michael is not a song about believing in something --- unless that something is having sex with someone who hurt you before.  And the lighting in this film is so beautiful all the time, it looks like you’re in a fucking ciallis commercial, even when you’re in the freaking police station, wtf?  

And last, the writing is just weird in places.  Like why have the love interest lie about being a lesbian through 90% of the film?  Why?  It’s not a good joke!  And  It is COMPLETELY fucking baffling to me why the good news of this story is delivered off-screen instead of on-screen.  If Abigail is going to be okay, why couldn’t she come back to Nova Scotia to tell him?  Why couldn’t she deliver that news in person!?  That’s just bad writing.  What the fuck is that?

But whatever.  

On the credit side, I think Oliver Jackson Cohen knows what he’s doing as an actor.  He’s not Oscar-worthy yet, but I believed him.  When he talks about his brother, I felt that.  And that could not have been easy in such a fucking weird script.

But as much as I’d like to end this review right here, there’s more.  Cause...

..........that’s not where the movie ends.  Not entirely.

As the end music plays, the movie is dedicated to Paul Newman who established summer camps for seriously ill kids.  And then we see images and videos of the kids all over the world enjoying activities at these camps.  

And that’s where this critique stops.  Sorta.  Paul Newman was a legitimately good person.  And his legacy of caring for sick kids carries on to this day, as was evident from all the footage.

But here’s the thing: healing as it’s depicted in this movie does not exist.  But easing the suffering of others does.  I wish this movie had been about that.  I wish it had been less focused on miracles and weird family legacies and selfish fuckwits and more about the kind of healing that Paul practiced.  But I guess that movie isn’t as fun, and it isn’t as hopeful and uplifting.

In the non-movie version of this story, Abigail Bryant died in 2014 at the age of 20.  Her obituary still appears online.  And it is still receiving comments and photos from cancer survivors and fighters, many of them who found her through the film.  And they talk about how the movie touched them.

On that level, it doesn’t matter what I say here.  It doesn’t matter that there are weird parts of this script or that healing like this is a fantasy.  This movie does its job.  It touches people.  And if it inspires just a few more people to give money to help relieve suffering, then that’s all that matters.

Ronald McDonald House Charities Cancer Research Institute Hole in the Wall Gang (Paul Newman’s org) Serious Fun Children’s Network (established by Paul Newman)

[aion-rsa]

The Power Rangers Turbo Deleted Scenes That Could Have Saved the Movie

https://ift.tt/3aDPrNw

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is, at best, a glorified TV movie. Made when Power Rangers’ popularity was in slow decline after the zenith of the Mighty Morphin days, the film makes no pretense that it’s trying to be any kind of cultural event like the first film attempted to be. Instead, it only half-heartedly tries to bring in a new audience with the addition of kid Ranger Justin and struggles to please hardcore Power Rangers fans.

The story –new villain Divatox makes her way to a mystical island to marry an ancient evil and the Rangers have to stop her — limps along with little forward momentum. Guest alien character Lerigot, who speaks in an alien language nearly the whole movie, gets equal if not more screen time than Justin. There’s little to no character development for the main cast. It also takes over an hour and 10 minutes for the Rangers to actually morph and fight.

The two saving graces of the film are Divatox, played by Hilary Shepherd Turner, who brings a demented joy to the baddie, and the return of former Rangers Jason and Kimberly, who provide most of the memorable moments.

Overall, it’s a fairly dull movie… but it wasn’t always that way. Hidden in two early drafts of the film (specifically the third and fifth drafts) are some deleted gems, which, while they wouldn’t have completely saved the movie, would have made it a more enjoyable one. The characters all get more moments to shine, Justin (sort of) gets a character arc, we’re given more reason to care about Lerigot, Kimberly gets some snappy one liners, and there’s even an explanation of the changeover from the Zeo to Turbo powers!

Like we did with an early draft of the MMPR movie, we’re diving into these earlier versions of Turbo, but we won’t be covering every single change from script to screen. We’ll instead focus on the biggest changes and deleted bits that shed the most light on what could have been for the Turbo movie.

The Zeo to Turbo Transition

Considering this film is very clearly aimed at fans, let’s start with the biggest sticking point for them at the time when this movie was released. In the final version of the movie, there’s no explanation regarding what happened to the Zeo powers from the previous season of the show. Power Rangers Zeo, the fourth season in the franchise, featured a set of powers that were supposedly the most powerful, able to grow stronger overtime. However, the Zeo powers were completely tossed aside in Turbo with no explanation as to why (maybe after they saw the Zeo morph sequence could be disrupted by water they decided to get something better). The Rangers accept their Turbo powers, and not much else is said on the matter.

For years this has bothered fans… if only they knew how close we got to a real explanation. The third draft starts out with a partial explanation, that the Zeo Zords don’t have the power to withstand passage through the Nemesis Triangle and, as Alpha lays out, “the force of the triangle has mangled many power sources.”

However, it’s a later line of dialogue that could potentially solve every single problem fans have ever had with this.

As the Rangers work on the Turbo Zords, which will take them through the Triangle, Alpha specifically says, “the transfer of powers is complete.”

Now you can be nitpicky and say this was only referring to the Zords but considering that the Turbo keys and morphers appear in the same room as the Turbo Zords, it’s close enough. Plus Zordon makes it clear in the fifth draft of the script that Justin’s powers can’t be transferred to Rocky and that, “from this moment on, you are the Blue Ranger” lending more credence to the idea the Zeo powers have become the Turbo powers.

(This runs contrary to what the show implied in “Shift Into Turbo Part 1,” which made it seem like Justin could give the powers to Rocky if he wanted them.)

Zordon also reveals they had the keys in their possession for safekeeping, which seems to solidify the idea they transferred the Zeo powers into the Turbo keys in a way that would allow them to cross the Triangle.

This is truly the best explanation fans will ever get. After nearly 20 years of endless theories, forum battles, and debates, there was truly a simple explanation for all of this.

Justin

Without a doubt the most controversial addition to Power Rangers at the time, Justin was a legit child who bafflingly got the chance to become a Ranger. Like the film, the early scripts provide no real reason why a child gets to be a Ranger, although it does try to have Justin explain.

“It was an emergency and all, Zordon said I had the right stuff to be a Power Ranger, even if I was a little young, and Rocky thought so too…”

Considering Zordon’s “right stuff” for recruiting the original Rangers was that they were “overbearing and emotional,” I strongly question his decision making process here. Does he just find the closest person who won’t ask too many questions and go, “good enough!”

At least the script does delve a little more into the idea of a child being a Ranger, with Tanya and Kat both unsure if Justin really knows what he’s going up against. Tanya reasons they’ll have to be his family now, which was a line that made it into the film (albeit spoken by Kat) but doesn’t carry anywhere near as much weight there, considering that both of Justin’s parents are dead in the scripts!

In the fifth draft, that backstory is downgraded to just his mom but it’s still given much more time to impact Justin. Tanya and Kat comment several times how much trouble Justin has had since she died and his dad moved away. He’s clearly taken to Rocky quite a bit and is really disturbed by Rocky’s injury.  This comes full circle at the end when, in a deleted scene, Justin worries he won’t be a Ranger anymore but Rocky reassures him that he deserves the powers. For someone who looked up to Rocky so much, this is huge.

Justin’s story even gets tied into Lerigot’s! It only happens at the very end but in another deleted scene in the fifth draft (that was briefly glimpsed in the film’s end credits) Justin gets to hold baby Bethel and sorrowfully observes, “it must be great to have your whole family together again.”

Damn, that made me feel things for Justin! I wish this connection had been explored a bit more but perhaps it was something they had planned to develop in the TV series. Still, these little glimpses into Justin’s life would have made the idea of a kid Ranger easier to accept and given him a more emotional arc.

Lerigot’s Backstory

Lerigot was… certainly a choice. Someone in the Turbo movie production office must have thought they’d be making some serious tickle me Elmo money off this alien but uh… he’s horrendous. His face is the stuff of nightmares. His eyes are that of a killer. His voice is what you hear as you’re slowly dragged into hell.

As mentioned earlier, he takes up way too much of the film’s runtime, especially the first half as we watch him play with animals in Africa. Both in look and execution, Lerigot is a huge misfire. However, the fifth draft of the script at least gave us more of a reason to care about him and, delightfully, tied his backstory to Maligore.

In the film, it’s revealed that Lerigot’s key can get Divatox through the Nemesis Triangle to Maligore. It was kind of strange how this specific key could do that but in the script Zordon explains to the Rangers that Lerigot’s ancestors, the Liarians, were the ones who exiled Maligore to the island Muiranthias in the Nemesis Triangle. Lerigot inherited the golden key, which, as in film, opens the gateway to the island.

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Speaking of keys, the keys the Rangers use to morph were also tied into Lerigot’s backstory. In the film, Zordon just calls them “similar” to Lerigot’s key but the script reveals that the keys and morphers were entrusted to Zordon for “safe keeping with the hope that they would never have to be used.”

So hey, uh, Zordon. Were you gonna… tell the Rangers about those powers at all? Could have been real useful all those times they lost their powers before now! Maybe you wouldn’t have even needed the Zeo Crystal if you just opened that wall and gave everyone the Turbo powers! Why do you have so many secret powers, Zordon?! We know you have a Zord fleet hidden away on an alien planet! I know you’re all about “don’t escalate battles” but people are dying!

Anyway, tying in Lerigot to the Rangers’ powers is a cool idea and does give both the powers and Lerigot more weight in the film since they’re the only things that can take on Maligore. The powers aren’t just something Zordon cooked up in a few minutes. It also conjures up images of ancient Liarian Rangers, possibly multiple teams who inherited the powers from each other.

That’s incredible! Even though it was scrapped, the idea of more alien Power Rangers out there isone I’m always open to, plus it gives us the image of Liarian Power Rangers beating up Maligore. This is an image I will treasure for all time.

Aqua Power Suits

One would think introducing the Turbo powers would be enough for a film but there were plans to feature a second set of… powers as well. Actually, it’s a little confusing so I’ll try to explain as best as I can.

In the script, Tanya and Adam are actively tracking Divatox’s landing on Earth instead of just kind of hanging around the Power Chamber while Tommy and Kat go off to Africa. Zordon instructs them to investigate and the two bust out the Aqua Power Suits, which are described as“five armored suits split down the middle and peeled back.”

Adam and Tanya don’t morph into them, they, as the script describes, “step backwards into their suits. The suits close from the feet up, snapping into place. The face shields show half of their faces as they step forward to reveal a small jet pack on their backs.”

No explanation is given as to where these suits came from; they were just hiding in a wall. At least, unlike the Turbo powers in the script, the team already knew about them and Zordon wasn’t hoarding them away until it was time to (sell some new toys) face a great threat.

Showing half their faces in the suits brings to mind the abandoned plans from the first movie, which featured open visors during fight scenes. It makes more sense here considering the suits, as written in the script, sound more like souped-up scuba gear than actual morphed suits. A later scene reveals that the suits have miniature radar screens, a button on the helmet that allows the wearers to talk to each other underwater, and a weapon attached to the hip.

The suits were mainly used in an altered scene where, instead of Jason and Kimberly simply being captured by Divatox, Tanya and Adam tried to save them in a thrilling underwater battle. The two former Rangers are taken into the subcraft, and before Tanya and Adam can try and get inside, Divatox electrifies them. It’s a great sequence that would have added some much needed action to the start of the film.

Aqua Suites, power up! #PowerRangers pic.twitter.com/YZcQgKIyiZ

— Jackie Marchand (@jackieyo) October 29, 2018

Concept art of these suits has been released by longtime Power Rangers writer Jackie Marchand but the images don’t match the script at all. The art features the regular Turbo Rangers, only with additional underwater equipment. They depict the aqua aesthetic as more of a power-up rather than a whole other suit.

So uh… how would that have all worked if the Aqua Power Suits were introduced BEFORE the Rangers got their Turbo powers? Would the Aqua Power Suits have appeared over the Zeo suits?

One explanation might be that in an even earlier draft of the script the Rangers did use the Aqua Power Suits later in the film. According to Power Rangers: The Ultimate Visual History, the original script for the film (which we assume is the first draft) was 150 pages, so there was ample time for the new suits to appear. (For reference the third and fifth drafts we’re covering are 87 pages and 91 pages, respectively.)

Another possibility is that, while the suits were designed for the film, Turbo didn’t really have the budget to film the scenes they were used in. As cool as an underwate fight scene would have been, it wouldn’t have been easy to pull off. Doubly so with actors in costumes like Ranger suits. Actor Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam Park) revealed in 2013 that, while some scenes leading into the Aqua Power Suits were filmed, they were ultimately cut during production.

Bulk/Skull/Lt. Stone

The unexplained change from Zeo to Turbo powers isn’t the only plotline that left fans of the TV series baffled when this movie hit theaters. In the finale of Power Rangers Zeo, Bulk and Skull were recruited for a secret detective mission off the coast of France, quitting their positions working under the former Lt. Stone. It was a seismic shift that was almost completely dropped in the film; the trio’s suddenly back on the police force that they’d been fired from with the only acknowledgment being Stone remarking they were lucky to be rehired.

While the scripts don’t address the France mission cliffhanger, it does at least provide some explanation for how the trio got back on the force. Stone tells Bulk and Skull at a baseball game that, “we are in the middle of the international summer festival. The department is short on manpower. Trust me… they must be if they hired you back.” It’s not much but… it’s something and does lead to a series of deleted scenes.

During the same baseball game scene, as in the film, Stone instructs Bulk and Skull to relieve him at the international danceathon. This is a reference to a subplot that never made the cut, with Stone stuck at the dance after Bulk and Skull were kidnapped by Divatox. Twice during the film we cut back to him being forced to dance, first to German polka and then a Jamaican line dance. This plot was to be wrapped up in a final scene where Bulk and Skull finally show up, only for Stone, in Kabuki makeup, to chase them down with a stick.

While I’m glad to see Stone get something more to do, these scenes are of little consequence and it’s no wonder they were cut. They were filmed though, and the footage that exists isn’t all that funny, especially since it features several cultural stereotypes that are downright offensive. 

The Malichians make an appearance at the festival in these deleted scenes  (seemingly having followed Bulk and Skull back from the island), and just like in the film, they’re a painfully out of date and racist depiction of native people.

Mandika the Mermaid

Ever wonder how Bulk, Skull, and Kimberly made it to shore after escaping the sub craft? In the film, it’s implied they floated back up but the script gives us a far more entertaining explanation. It was a mermaid! And not just a random mermaid but one that was going to share a subplot with Adam!

In the script, the Rangers face a much longer trek to get to the Ghost Galleon, needing to follow a river in the “Digathian Forest.” The Rangers drive there but can’t find their way until they spot “a beautiful young girl of about eleven. Her skin is the color of alabaster with long blue/black hair that trails in front of her bare chest.” (What a creepy description.) “She dives and a silvery tail flips out of the water.” The mermaid is named Mandika and is friends with Alpha! That robot must get up to some amazing adventures off screen.

Just after that introduction Adam is unnerved by a vision of Maligore at a campfire (the image of Maligore in fire recurs in the script) and goes for a walk. Mandika leads him to a pirate skeleton, which points the way to the Galleon. After that, Mandika pops up to save Bulk and Skull and then Kimberly before needing to be saved herself, which also helpfully fills in a plot hole.

In the film, as two missiles streak toward the Galleon, Kat suggests, “We can’t be detected inside the Turbo vehicles.” Which is completely pointless since the missiles end up hitting the ship anyway and the Zords simply withstand the blast.

In the script, the Rangers getting into the Zords diverts the missiles…to Mandika! She’s unaware of the missiles and Adam, on a recon mission, takes a bungee cord out of his power box and leaps down to save her in the nick of time. She thanks him and dives back into the water, never to be seen again.

Mandika is completely pointless. She has zero personality and is only there to help bolster the movie’s attempt at being a big adventure. But we’ve already got five Rangers plus the villains. We don’t need anymore side characters.

Notable Deleted Sequences

Director David Winning said in an interview for the Ultimate Visual History book that the script for the film was “massive – a series of one adventure after another. The original edit was over three hours long, so, realistically, it had to be cut down.” 

While that edit was probably a very early rough cut, it still means a lot of sequences had to go, even some potentially great ones.

Power Rangers fans have hungered for these scenes for years, clues to their existence slowly trickling out. The script finally sheds some light on what these scenes were all about.

One of the biggest of these is Kat firing a flamethrower, with Tommy looking on, an image advertised on the back of the Turbo movie VHS. The script reveals their target was a crocodile, which followed Tommy and Kat after they reunited in the water. Tommy gets Kat out just before the croc tries to attack, getting into a full on brawl with the animal, even grabbing it in “an upside down bear hug” and shoving a branch in its mouth. Tommy gets to shore and Kat scares the croc away with a blowtorch that was in a power box. This sequence was probably cut for time or maybe the image of Tommy wrestling a crocodile wasn’t as cool as the script made it out to be.

Another scene known to fans was of the Rangers traveling through several different chambers to get to Maligore’s temple. This scene was briefly featured in a short music video at the beginning of the Turbo VHS tape, and while it promised something exciting, the script makes it seem pretty boring.

Tommy opens a door to the temple with his Turbo key (which makes more sense than Justin just happening to find a random entrance in the film) and the team enters the “Serpent’s Temple.” There’s an oil slick lake covering the floor, and as they move through, they see cobra statues with real snakes all around them. Tanya hates snakes because Indiana Jones reference and then they just… run into the main chamber. They don’t even fight some snake monsters.

Much better are two scenes that did show up in the film but only in silent form in the end credits. The first is made up of several shots of Lerigot, his family, Jason, Kimberly, Bulk, and Skull entering the Turbo Megazord. Kimberly and Jason share a hug with Tommy looking on, leading some fans to speculate Kim and Jason were now a couple. The script does not mention or indicate that at all but it does contain a great bit where the Rangers react to Bulk and Skull’s weirdness, and Jason bemusedly observes, “I’ve known them since Kindergarten and I still can’t figure it out.” This is the kinda character moment the movie needed more of.

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The second is the shot of Justin getting to hold Bethel that we mentioned earlier, but it also ends with Alpha getting Lerigot to say in English, “Go… go… Power Rangers.” Ugh. I kind of love it.

Fans haven’t heard of all the deleted scenes, though. One particularly interesting one occurs as the Rangers are about to enter the Triangle but first have to pass through some fog. There they see a phantom ship appear and vanish, along with a “world war fighter jet” and even a UFO! 

This is a scene I really wish had been kept in the film. It gives the island more weight 

because it’s a place humans have at least tried to interact with (and earlier dialogue in the script makes it seem like the Triangle is a well known myth.) It makes Earth just as magical as any of the far off planets the Rangers have encountered. If our planet is hiding this kind of power, it’s no wonder villains are always looking to conquer it.

Another great scene is an extended version of the Putra Pod fight where the Rangers actually morph! In the film, they take out Divatox’s minions on the ship unmorphed but in the script the fight is longer and much more exciting. There’s much more action described, with my favorite bit being Tommy having to fight his way into the captain’s room so he can pull the Turbo keys out of the ship. We even get an early version of the morph call, “It’s morphin Turbo time.”

That’s a mouthful but I desperately wish this has been in the film. It still takes way too long but it gives us some Ranger action earlier, which the film badly needed. Even the first film, for all its flaws, knows it has to bust out a Ranger fight early on to keep you interested.

Deleted Character Moments

Without much action to break up the film, a huge problem quickly arises, there are very few character moments. When the film isn’t shoving Lerigot in your face, the Rangers are mostly given painful amounts of exposition or mind numbing dialogue that doesn’t feel specific to them as characters. One could argue the Rangers were never that deep to begin with but there was enough to draw on if they wanted to… and the script did.

Unfortunately, when editing a movie, the first thing to go are little character moments, and that’s a real shame because there are some fantastic ones here. One of my favorites comes early when the Rangers and the shelter kids are all at the baseball game and Tanya catches a speeding ball hit into the stands. It’s a perfect little bit that references her baseball skills from Zeo and gives her a moment with Justin where she gives him the ball, producing his first slight smile in the movie.  

There are actually several deleted little bits about Tanya. When Jason and Kim see Bulk and Skull acting strangely in the subcraft, Jason’s reminded of a report Tanya did about trauma and how people respond to it. Hey, they remembered Jason knew her! Tanya also tells Tommy and Katherine to “send my love to Africa” before they teleport there.

The whole team also gets an absolutely brilliant scene where they’re all around a campfire just before Justin shows up. They all talk about how they used to be afraid of the dark, with Tanya remarking, “That’s when all the monsters camped out under your bed.”

It’s such a sweet bit, especially with Tommy being the first to admit his fear. It also subtly feels like the team is comparing their childhood fears of monsters to their present day lives of fighting them all the time. This moment lets the Rangers feel like genuine people with the weight of the world on their shoulders. If this had made it in, it would have easily been the stand out moment of the movie.

Or maybe it would have been anything Divatox says. She was already one of the best parts of the film but the script gives her even more time. Early on, she gets Rygog to draw up a prenup for the marriage. Rygog dutifully confirms, “Everything that is yours remains yours. And everything that is his becomes yours as well” to which Divatox says, “Sounds fair to me.”

Later, during the big Volcano fight, she threatens to “throw a few Ranger wimps on the barbie” and adds, “You should appreciate that, Pink Ranger!” Divatox remembers more about Kat’s backstory than the final film did.

But none of these scenes even hold a candle to a line that should have been in every trailer because it would have sold this movie. Jason, having just been brought to the volcano, gives the very standard Power Rangers line of “Don’t you know bad guys never win?”

To which Divatox responds,

“Of course they don’t. Guys are complete idiots. Now women on the other hand…”

I LOVE IT. I ADORE THIS LINE SO MUCH. How could you not film this? How could you cut this? It’s brilliant! Perfect for Divatox.

How Much Better Is The Script From The Finished Movie?

Look, many of these deleted bits are great. The character bits help give the film more depth. It made me want to know more about Lerigot, and that’s a true accomplishment! There are some killer lines, acknowledgement of the TV show’s continuity, and Justin is far more likeable. For the hardcore fan, these moments do a lot.

That being said, these little bits don’t fix the film. It’s still a deeply flawed movie that, like the first film, seems to be ashamed of the TV show and tries to tell a story that is as far away from it as possible. But it’s just not that good a story on its own so the only thing that’s worthwhile are those moments that connect to the show and the characters we already love — which are few and far between.

The script gives us more of those but it doesn’t fix the major flaws, like the painfully slow start, the overuse of Lerigot, the lack of character arcs, and too little Ranger action, though the extra scene on the ship is appreciated.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

So yes, the script is better than the film but it wasn’t exactly a super high bar to clear in the first place. At least if some of these scenes had been included, the movie would have been more enjoyable for Power Rangers fans, which really are the primary audience for the film anyway. I’m not saying that’s whom the studio should have been exclusively catering to but the only time the script is able to shine is when nodding at hardcore fans. Without that, Turbo is just a forgettable ‘90s kids movie.

The post The Power Rangers Turbo Deleted Scenes That Could Have Saved the Movie appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[littlesliceofmarvel]

Manipulating a God | chpt. one

Request/Synopsis: Trying to break the information out of Loki during the attack of 2012 wasn’t exactly the easiest task, but it was a challenge you were willing to take head on. So, what happened when a master manipulator tried to get information from the God of Mischief?

Series warnings: Swearing, mentions of violence, blood and gore

Pairings: Stark!Reader x Loki

A/N: So, this story takes place during the Avengers (2012) but with my own twist. The story will be slightly different but following the main plot line of the film, so the dialogue won’t follow the script exactly. I really hope you guys enjoy it! xoxoxox

Since the day you were born, you had carried the infamous name Stark, which came with a lot of expectation.  Having grown up with a dad who was never around, and a mother who tried her best to resolve your family’s issues, you had turned to your older brother for any kind of advice or support, practically guilt tripping him into letting you do everything with him. He was smart - way beyond smart, actually - and all you wanted was to be the same as him. He inspired you, he was the ideal brother.

When your parents died in a car crash, Tony immediately stepped up and helped raise you to be tough, smart, strong-willed, and determined. You knew these were practically some of the only traits that you and Tony shared in common. While he flaunted his wealth, brains and charm, you tended to hide in the shadows. Years after your parents deaths, the two of you became very distant.

While Tony had decided to help build the company, you opted out, wanting nothing do with it. He was mad, furious even, that you left it in his hands and ‘abandoned’ the Stark family legacy, but part of him respected your decision. He took over with Pepper Potts and they managed it well for years and years - until of course, Tony Stark officially announced himself as Iron Man.

Your big brother - the man who would fill a mug with marshmallows and put in the microwave to watch it blow up when you were younger - he was now a world-renowned superhero. And you were just his sister.

With the amount of times Tony faced enemies and dangers, you had decided to step up and do something. Being persuasive was your skill - the one thing you took from your last name. You had developed the handy manipulation tactic with the amount of times you had to go rescue or find your brother from the countless kidnappers and crazed anti-fans. Finally, the duo of Tony and Y/N Stark was back together, and although you didn’t have any sort of metallic suit with blasters, only the tactical one Tony designed you, you did have your big brother on your side again. And that was all you could ask for.

So now, as Shield Agent Phil Coulson stood in your living room telling you about some out-of-galaxy man with a glowing blue cube who wanted to take over the planet, you couldn’t help but think of Tony.

“Thanks, um, Coulson, I’m just gonna - I gotta make a call,” you politely dismissed yourself and ran into your room, shutting the door behind you in a panic. You pulled your phone and clicked on Tony’s name.

“Come on, pick up, pick up,” you mumbled, and when he finally picked up, you let out a sigh of relief.

“Y/N?” He sounded confused by your call, which made you wonder if he even knew about what Coulson had told you.

“Tony! There’s something happening, um, this guy is going to attack? Or something? I don’t know, Coulson -”

“I know.” Tony sighed, “He came by not too long ago. I’ve got all the files here.”

You let out a deep breath - of course Tony knew already.

“Alright, I’ll stop by,” you hung up before he could reply and opened your door, facing an awkward-looking Phil Coulson who was rocking back and forth on the heels of his shoes.

“Hi,” you breathed out, speed walking out of your room, “Here’s the thing - I gotta go see Tony, um, we need to talk, you know. Thanks for coming by and letting me know,” you opened the front door and turned to face him, “Take care, and uh, say hi to Fury for me.”

Coulson started to walk towards the door, slightly befuddled, “Are you going to join or..?”

You sighed, pretending to think it over, “I need to talk to Tony, this is serious.”

This seemed to be a decent answer for him so he gave you a curt nod, adjusting his tie and walking out of the door. You shut it behind him and waited for the elevator to go down before you grabbed your car keys and a jacket.

Picking up an apple off the kitchen counter while putting on your shoes, you struggled to make your way out of the door but you eventually did, locking it behind you and taking a bite from your fruit.

You made your way to the carpark and found your car, hopping into the comfortable seat and starting the engine, taking off towards Stark tower. It wasn’t a long drive, you had a decent apartment right along Central Park, but it had been a while since you stepped foot in there so part of you wasn’t sure what to expect.

Turning off the radio, the constant hum of the engine being your soundtrack, you began to really think about what Coulson had said. You had always believed in life outside of Earth, but coming face to face with a danger like this was undoubtedly out of your paygrade. You had been approached by Nick Fury a few years back about forming a team of Earth’s mightiest defenders, called the Avengers Initiative - and if you were being truthful, this seemed like the right time for this to come into action.

The lights of Stark Tower caught your eye as you half-hazardly parked out front, rushing into the building and making your way up to Tony’s living space. As you reached his floor, he practically didn’t even notice your presence, too captivated by the hologram files he was looking over.

“Tony,” you announced your presence, making him jump, “So, what’s the deal?”

“Hm?” Tony turned to face you, “Yeah, not our problem.” With the swipe of his hand, the files had all disappeared into thin air. Rolling your eyes, you walked over to him, dropping the apple core in the garbage as you did so.

“How is this not our problem?” You crossed your arms, looking towards where the files once were.

“Remember when Fury asked us to join his uh, boyband thing?” Tony waved his arms through the air as if replaying the memory.

“Yes.”

“Well, I told him we wouldn’t do it,” Tony muttered, walking over to the bar to pour himself a drink.

“You what?!” You stomped over to him, taking the glass out of his hands and placing it harshly on the marble countertop, “Tony! You swore that as Iron Man you’d be this, ‘protector of mankind’ or some shit. And then the opportunity comes up for you to become a legit superhero and you say no? And you decide this for me too?”

“It’s not that big of a deal, Y/N-”

You cut him off, “It is a huge deal. Tony, listen, you gave yourself this amazing opportunity to help people - you’re world known, for god’s sake. I don’t have any special abilities or the brains to do what you do - I’’m just me,” you lowered your voice slightly, knowing you were getting to him, “This Avengers thing was my only chance at getting to help people, I wanted to do it.”

Tony sighed dramatically and you internally grinned, knowing your guilt-tripping had done it for him.

“Fine, fine,” he walked over to the place where all the files had been set up and pulled them up again, “This is what we’re dealing with.”

You looked everything over, seeing some familiar names and faces of the people who were going to be your teammates. Natasha Romanoff, the woman who turned out to be one of the world’s deadliest assassins after convincing you she was just some secretary, and Steve Rogers, the man who your father had never shut his goddam mouth about.

“Of course,” you pointed your finger to Steve Rogers, “Dad’s prized possession.”

Tony groaned, rolling his eyes at seeing the man’s name. Your father had talked about Rogers as if he were sent to Earth by God himself - sculpted by the brains of your dad, of course. You hadn’t taken it to heart completely, but you knew how much Tony despised the man. You didn’t blame him. Throughout your entire childhood, Tony wanted to build a father-son bond, wanting nothing more than to spend quality time and enjoy activities together. Which is why he took it so hard when your father spoke of Rogers as if he was the most precious being in his life.

“So, what are we doing, Tony? Do we contact Fury? Coulson?” you placed your hands on your hips, eyeing the video of the suspected ‘Loki’ holding a glowing blue cube and quite the extravagant staff in the other hand.

“Good question, call Coulson,” he clicked his tongue, walking over to the couch behind him and flopping his body down with a thump.

Rolling your eyes, you pulled your phone out of your back pocket and scrolled through your contacts, finger landing on Agent Phil Coulson. You couldn’t remember ever entering his number or even asking for it, but Fury had a way of hacking into your devices so you were well equipped with emergency contacts. Clicking his number, the phone started to ring and Coulson’s voice greeted you through the receiver.

“So, the Starks are on board.”

-

The helicarrier was quite the sight. Engines that could easily over power that of a commercial jet and bodies rushing around checking on all the equipment on board, it was slightly overwhelming. Sure, growing up in the Stark family, you had seen your fair share of technology, but this was next level.

Tony rushed on inside to let Fury know the two of you had arrived as you stayed out on the deck, captivated by the hustle and bustle of the people around you.

“A bit different than your Manhattan apartment, huh?”

You turned around to face the voice and found a smirking Natasha Romanoff walking up to you with her arms crossed.

“I’d say,” you grinned, “You’d think I’d be used to this by now, the technology stuff.”

She shrugged, looking around at the jets parked near the two of you, “I don’t think anyone could really get used to this.”

Conversation stopped between the two of you as you looked on towards where a group of men ran by in formation, resembling that of boot camp.

“This looks familiar,” another unfamiliar voice came up to the two of you and it belonged to none other than Steve Rogers. You smiled kindly up at the man, part of you glad that Tony wasn’t here at the moment.

“Steve Rogers,” you stuck out your hand, “We haven’t had the chance to meet yet. Y/N.” You specifically left out your last name, knowing that he had no idea who you were anyways. To avoid an awkward, uncomfortable greeting, your first name would have to do.

“Seems you already know my name so my introduction is unnecessary,” Steve shook your hand firmly, and you could almost feel the unease radiating off of him. Of course he was uneasy. He’s from the 40′s, duh.

“Anywho, I’ve got to go in and check up with Fury, catch you later,” you politely smiled at them and made your way towards the door Tony went in before.

Walking into the main control room was bright, to put it into one word. The large glass wall took up most of the room, giving you a view of everything on the ground. You hadn’t even taken off yet but you knew it would be quite the sight from the air.

“Y/N Stark,” Fury’s booming voice dragged your attention to him, “Welcome to our little sky-home.”

“It’s something,” you walked over to him with a smile on your face, “Hey Maria.” You greeted the brunette woman standing next to him, being unfortunately drowned out by the sound of the engines roaring to life.

Steve, Natasha and another man walked into the room and sat around a large glass table as the Helicarrier took off from the ground. You made your way over to the unfamiliar third man and stuck your hand out.

“I’m Y/N. You’re...?”

“Um, Banner,” the guy seemed unsure of his own name, but was probably more weary about everything going on around him, “Bruce Banner.”

The name clicked in your head and your eyes widened, “Oh! Right! The green anger thing - that’s cool.” Of course you had heard of Bruce Banner and the infamous Hulk, it was pretty damn cool if you had to admit.

He awkwardly nodded at your comment and sat down next to Natasha as the gigantic ship lifted off the ground with a bumpy start. Fury stood guard in the center of the control room, making sure everything was going smoothly.

“We’re at lock, sir,” Maria’s voice was the first to speak after a couple of silent moments. As silent as you could get for a massive take off, that is.

“Good, let’s vanish,” Fury stated and you almost chuckled at how dramatically he delivered the sentence. He walked back over to the table right as Steve stood up, amazement clear on his face as he took in all of the surroundings for the first time. He walked up to Fury and handed him a ten dollar bill, not saying anything else as he walked over to the windows. You let out a small laugh, lifting your feet and resting them on the edge of the glass table, earning you an eye roll from Fury.

“Doctor, thank you for coming,” Fury greeted Banner, who seemed to have an awestruck look on his face as well but he played it off as he faced Fury.

“Thanks, uh, how long am I staying?” Banner asked.

Fury let out a small sigh, “Until we get our hands on the tesseract.”

“And, uh, where are you with that, exactly?” You asked, speaking up for the first time in a while. Fury turned around and pointed to a computer.

“Well,” he began, “We’re sweeping out every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Phones, laptops - if it’s connected to satellites, it’s eyes and ears for us.”

You scoffed, “Invasion of privacy much? What if someone’s got a camera in the room when they’re having s-”

"It’s still not going to find him in time,” Natasha spoke up from next to another computer, ignoring your comment.

“Yeah, who’s him, by the way?” You asked, feeling slightly stupid, but you hadn’t really done your research before rushing over here, “It said Loki - but is it like, Norse Asgardian God Loki? Or like, just some regular-ass Scandinavian guy?”

Fury sighed, clearly fed up with your behaviour, “Yes - Loki. From another world.” He then instructed Natasha to show Banner to his lab and the two of them left without another comment, leaving you standing there with even more questions if that was possible. 

Phil Coulson entered the room and immediately rushed over to where Steve was standing. Clearly a fan of Captain America. You stared out the window as you processed everything in your head, wondering how the literal hell you guys were supposed to beat a God. A God.

You pulled out your phone and miraculously, the helicarrier had wifi. You pulled up Google and started looking into the mystical God of Loki. Some pretty weird results came up, but nothing really linked in with each other, so you put your phone away and let yourself find the information out first hand.

You weren’t really sure where Tony had buggered off to, only really noticing now that he wasn’t around, but he was bound to come scrambling back making a scene any moment now. He had said he was going to meet up with Fury.

“We got a hit,” a voice came up from the corner of the room catching everyone’s attention and making your previous thoughts vanish, “67 percent match. Weight - cross match, 79 percent match.”

“Location?” Phil Coulson took his attention away from his beloved Steve Rogers long enough to voice everyone’s question.

“Uh,” the man clicked a bunch of buttons until a location popped up, “Stuttgart, Germany. He’s not exactly hiding.”

You eyed the video and saw the man who you believed to be Loki walking down a long staircase. He was right about the ‘not hiding’ bit. Loki, dressed in a loose-fitting suit, carried the same large staff you had seen in the previous picture. His long, dark, greasy hair stuck out in little points and the man looked like he had seen the deepest pits of Hell. Dark sunken eyes and a pale complexion, he would stick out of a crowd like a sore thumb.

Fury turned to face you and Steve, “You’re up. The two of you. Go.”

You raised your arms in defence, “Ha, uh, no. I don’t do the field work, Fury.”

He glared you down with his one eye but you didn’t budge, “There’s a man out there ready to take over the world and you’re going to - what? Sit here and twiddle your thumbs like an ape?”

You scoffed, “No. I’ll just -” You stopped talking when you realized you actually had no idea what you were going to do. Of course, you were here to help save the world and all that jazz, but you had never experienced really working on the field. Only when Tony needed to be saved

“Fine, I’ll go with Rogers.”

“Suits are in room 11A and 11B,” Fury shouted at the two of your before you made your way towards the door.

You walked out of the room with Steve, who walked with such strut you had to rush slightly to keep up. At the end of a long hallway, he turned into the last door - 11B - and in the center of the room in a glass case was the Captain America suit.

“Spandex? What are we, a sex shop?” You joked, Steve responding with a dry chuckle. You rolled your eyes and walked over to the suit with him, opening the case with a dramatic gust. You looked around for anything else that could be stashed away in the room - any interesting gadgets or deadly toys.

Tony had built you a suit - nothing like his Iron Man one, but one that could sustain a bullet and wouldn’t burn in the unlikely case that someone threw a flamethrower at you. He designed it after you nearly got shot saving him from some crazed psycho. Of course, he hated putting you in danger with his life choice so you agreed to letting him protect you with what he was best at - technology.

You excused yourself and let Steve gear up as you went to 11A. Just like the other room, your suit was encased in a glass tube-shaped container in the center. You walked over to it and as if it had sensed your arrival, it opened up in the same dramatic noise.

The heavy black bodysuit stood perched on a mannequin and you immediately brought it down, not wanting to waste anytime before rushing off to Germany. You put the suit on, tightening it to the max so you were comfortable and secure. Slipping on the heavy duty combat boots that you had never worn before, you felt ready to go to battle.

You probably weren’t going to have any sort of impact, but you felt ready. That’s what matters, right?

Walking out of the room as you tied your hair into a ponytail, you caught up with Steve and the two of you made your way towards the jet. The long walk there was silent apart from the heavy sound of the two of you stepping in unison.

The jet was parked and open, ready for takeoff as the man sitting in the pilot’s seat gave a thumbs up upon seeing the two of you arriving. You made your way onto the jet and wondered if Tony knew you were heading off to go find the intergalactic maniac with Steve Rogers. You should probably send him a text but Fury was bound to inform everyone to head over to the same location, right?

The back door of the jet closed as the two of you strapped yourselves down and within seconds, you were off the helicarrier and off to save the day in Germany.

Taglist

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@appleappleton @what-a-fantasy 

[goodhypnoboi]

Side note: your gender or sexuality doesn’t indicate if you’re an abuser, but this is based on observed patterns.

The amount of cishet dudes in hypnosis that are fucking abusive, use abusive patterns or just want to control women are astounding. Like, you’ll read their bio on what they’re like or talk to them and they’ll be like, “2? Straight Male, hypnotist, msg me for more” and turn around and post something that’s obviously bad hypno-etiquette or do shitty horrible things and like, yeah, I can see why with how obvious some of the content they interact with are.

And this is coming from long time interacting in the community. I mean, I got into it a lot younger than I should have, and my only saving grace is a tist who decided to give me some protective triggers and help so I wouldn’t be taken advantage of during it. Even when I came back, finding tists to trance me, I’d be like, “trans male/trans dude” and some fuck would be like, “oh yeah let’s trance the person to be a woman” because he was straight.

And see, people who were hypnotists only we’re usually awful. People who were verses actually ended up being great conversationalists. And hell when I started getting my only 4 limitations- which is just based on what bothers me, I still found Bi/Gay tists and verses to be wonderful and actually respect it.

Then straight dude in their twenties, yeah I wasn’t impressed by the fact one of them tried to get me to send pictures and nudes in trance. The tist on being caught tried to drop me down into trance more and more in an attempt to get me to comply, and boy that wasn’t fun.

The reason I bring this up is because, “not all tists” and no, not all of them. I’ve met wonderful tists. But I didn’t want to limit to my own experiences.

I HAVE never met a horribly gay/bi/trans tist, doesn’t mean someone out there isn’t abusive. I’ve never met a horribly abusive female tist- I think I’ve met three actually so go me- but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Tists are horrible, but it’s not all of them, there’s just too many in the community and it’s a rampant problem. There are actual pedophiles as well in the community, and that’s a huge issue.

I give a generalization because if out of 100 tists I’ve met, 70+ ignored boundaries and shit, while others proudly spouted they’d be abusive, then haha, yeah I’m going to generalize to tists.

Tists are assholes, doesn’t mean them all. But holy fuck did my post get derailed more than three times.

This isn’t an informative post, this is a post on my trauma and what I observed. Added onto that, most of the reasons I made that fucking post was because someone legitimately decided he was going to be abusive in his hypnosis script and not warn people or discuss it, making him actually abusive.

Noting several posts on community predators. Like I’m sooooo sorry to the fucking insecure subs and doms who think I’m wrong, but there shouldn’t be a huge amount of abusers heralded as great people and followed by huge swathes of people.

Consent in this community is a mess, fucking derailing a post meant to help subs out so they can keep their consent is not only horrible, it misses the point.

Fucking context says, that the tists I’m talking about, are horrible and abusive and fuck

I SHOULDNT HAVE TO GIVE ADVICE THAT SAYS “WRITE DOWN YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IN CASE SOMEONE TRIES TO FUCKING MAKE YOU FORGET EVERYTHING ABOUT YOURSELF”

I’m absolutely still livid on this fact and glad for the people who actually fucking understood the purpose of the post.

Like I’m sorry you were offended, let me amend that.

Don’t fucking get your panties in a twist over me being upset fucking horrible people exist. The fact people have horror stories from tists that were abusive, predatory or generally god awful. The fact there’s consent issues and manipulation in a community meant of trust, is awful.

Fuck, there’s a subset community that’s very popular that’s just “covert hypnotism”- not the kink but rather an actual grouping- that legit doesn’t understand no means no. In fact the mods of that community will be like, “well you agreed to it by joining us” and if that’s not fucking god awful.

Let’s also take a moment and understand, I’ve seen more female subs then male subs, but you’ll have a slew of straight male tists that’ll complain about the amount of male subs. Why? Because half of these tists want nudes from the chick.

Keep in mind, this isn’t just tumblr, but it is just online on varied communities. I’ve found wonderful communities though, I know great tists and people who care a lot on consent, one dude literally added me on Skype, gave me protection from being abused, and for weeks checked up on me.

That’s not an asshole. It’s a concerned adult who gave a shit, and actually went out of his way to make sure I was safe when it was dangerous for me. He couldn’t convince me not to be involved so he actually minimized the damage.

I’m just livid people don’t understand that on a post about abuse, it’s not fucking okay to be, “not all tists”

Sorry that you took my generalized “tists” to mean “all tists”. No, it’s an unspecified amount, not known how many but a significant amount that it’s not some, but I can’t say if it’s most. I didn’t ballpark how many tists were abusive.

I just gave subs a good list to be safe, based on my own experiences and how I’d handle those situations now.

Rant over, I’m going to go eat food now, and glare at the derailment my post experienced.

FYI, if a post has one line you don’t agree with but the rest of it is an informational post about combatting abuse, and the line you have an issue with is “it’s too generalized, not all X”

Shut the fuck up and don’t comment. The post actually is referring to abusers and wow, you’re fucking derailing a post about how to protect yourself from abusers. I would think you’d have common sense.

[purplesurveys]

763

Why did you last feel like crying? My thesis was making me anxious and the songs off of Petals for Armor are still very fresh and are resonating with me very strongly for now, so those things happening at the same time nearly made me cry over breakfast.

How long ago and why did you last feel infuriated? Infuriated is a strong word. I suppose I last felt it when I heard the news of the police shooting a former soldier with PTSD for going out without his face mask on to get groceries. You don’t fucking KILL anyone for not having a mask, you educate them and you fucking give them one.

Do emotions control you or do you control your emotions? Uhhh it really depends. Most of the time I always want to address stuff maturely and make sure my emotions are in check before I respond to anything; but there are also times I’ll give myself a treat and allow myself to be petty, letting my emotions control me.

Do you keep your friends secrets/private information to yourself? Some secrets will make it to Gabie, but I mainly tell her only because she’s so forgetful and will forget most details in the next hour. I don’t tell her much more personal secrets, like if someone came out to me.

What negative quality do your friends bring up the most? We don’t really have talks where we talk about our negative qualities; my friends and I do have similar talks, but instead what we do is we’ll raise events in the past where one of us may have annoyed another and be like, “I actually didn’t like when you did/said this or that before.” I’m lucky to have good friends who can be honest and mature about this kind of stuff.

What quality do you think you have that others don't think you do? You’d have to ask them first. I don’t always keep track of how people think of me.

Do you often "jump" to conclusions? Only when I’m expecting a worst-case scenario to happen. I like to always expect the worst so that the actual outcome doesn’t disappoint me as much.

Do you find being alone with strangers scary, interesting or indifferent? It ranges from wary to completely uncomfortable. I never find the prospect of being surrounded by strangers ‘interesting.’

Do you think you know a lot about the world? Definitely not. I’m incredibly young and I know very little outside of my home and school, so I’m currently holding a weird excitement for graduating and getting a job and finally getting to know the rest of the world bit by bit.

What about the world do you wish you never found out? I don’t think like that. I embrace reality lol give me all the bad, worse, and worst news.

Do you know first aid? We had a) health classes throughout high school that taught us first aid and b) a couple of first aid seminars for NSTP in college. Our final exam in freshman year was for each of us to demonstrate CPR to a mannequin. But for some reason, I still haven’t gotten basic first aid down to a T. I think because I’ve never had to use my learnings in an emergency situation, I always end up forgetting them over time.

Does the sight of blood make you feel sick? Oh my god fuck yes, especially my own. Gabie’s nose also bleeds all the time and I always have to excuse myself because I can’t handle the blood, but it also makes me feel like shit that I can’t even help my own girlfriend lmao. I find it so weird because I’ll have no problem watching pro wrestling which has so much more legit blood in it.

Does your first name have an L in it? It does not, but my second and middle names do.

Middle name have a C in it? No. My last name does. You’re always one name off hahaha.

Last name have a R in it? No, but my first does. Catch up bruh.

Do your initials spell a legitimate word? If so, what? No.

The word above, does it have any connection to you at all?

Do you prefer classic rock or nope alternative? I have no idea what nope alternative is but that’s a hilarious typo if it’s one. I do listen to alternative music, but nothing classic rock.

Do you like Kings of Leon? Just their songs that went on to become popular. 

How about The Script? Ah no, was never a fan. I don’t get the appeal of their songs, but they’re so wildly popular here I can’t even begin to tell you just how much. They’ve been to Manila 4 or 5 times, which is already essentially equivalent to a million times when it comes to international acts coming to the Philippines. A lot of artists come here, but very very few come back.

Does crying make you feel better? It doesn’t make me feel better, but it does serve as a nice release.

Do you know a girl called Becca? Yup, one of Rita’s older sisters.

How about a guy called Gregory? Not that name exactly but the Spanish/Italian version, Gregorio. We called him Greg. He was a super brief member of our org but he ghosted us not long after he passed the application. 

Does someones background effect whether you'll be friends with them or not? Background effect made me imagine different auras that people would come with if that we’re possible, like stars or hearts hahahaha. ANYWAY it would definitely depend on what aspect of ‘background’ we’re talking about. Someone’s ethnic or racial background wouldn’t bother me at all, but if they just came out of prison for raping someone I wouldn’t want to be around them, especially if their behavior is still a bit off.

How about their religious background? I preferably wouldn’t want to hang out with anyone who’s a devout, by-the-book Christian because our beliefs would wildly clash and they’ll just ruin any conversation. I wouldn’t even be able to talk about my girlfriend, for instance.

If someone admitted cheating in a past relationship of theirs, would you trust them? No.

Do you drink tea and/or coffee every day? I used to drink coffee everyday this quarantine, but I had to stop because I was starting to get headaches often. I drink it probably 2-3 times a week now.

Did you ever want to be a cook as a kid? Not really. I don’t think I ever said “I want to be a chef like my dad,” or something along those lines as a kid.

How about a fashion designer? No.

Do you wish that magic was real? Not really. I’m fine with the fact that they’re all tricks, it actually makes it more entertaining that way.

What food would you love to wipe off the face of the earth? Eh, at least one person likes each kind of food and I wouldn’t wanna rob them of their joy.

Can you use a bottle opener? I haven’t even tried using one.

Do you own a cheese grater? Yup.

What time will it be in 38 minutes time? 7:18 PM.

What day/date will it be in 11 days time? It’ll be May 21st, a Thursday.

Have you ever owned a pet fish? Yup, just several goldfish as a kid.

Do you prefer fire or ice? Ice.

Do you rap along with rap songs? If I memorize the verses then yeah I can’t help but rap along.

When happy, do you become more talkative? I think so. I get very chatty when with Gabie so that’s probably why.

Bowling or sailing? Why? Bowling, only because I’ve never been sailing. I bet if I were to sail, I’d prefer that, though. < Yup, exactly this. Bowling is fun though!

What colour is your kettle? The one we have is silver. I don’t have my own.

How about your microwave? It is black.

Do you prefer sitting in the front or back of a car? Most of the time I’m the one driving, so that makes me pick front by default haha. When I’m not driving though I really prefer sitting at the back as I rarely get to feel like a passenger anymore.

How about in a train? On the bus? I’ve only ridden a train once but wasn’t able to form an opinion about it. When it comes to the bus, it’s always fun being at the back haha especially when I’m riding with friends.

Do you care about politics? Yes, but my concern is mostly for our own. I’m not up to speed with other countries’ governments; I only know enough to form a general opinion about their highest leader, like how Trump is a piece of shit.

Obama or Bush? Obama.

Blair or Brown? I don’t pay much attention to UK politics. < This. But the royal family, that’s a different story HAHAHA

When did you last cook something from scratch? I *helped* my dad bread chicken several few weeks ago, if that counts.

What things make you jealous? I don’t feel jealous a lot, but when I do it’s usually just FOMO.

Are you offended easily by non politically correct language? Sure, especially if the people using them aren’t willing to be educated.

Do you think the censors/fcc go a bit too far or are just right? Can’t relate.

Do you feel hungry, thirsty, sleepy or none of the above? I’m hungry since it’s time for dinner. I’m just waiting for my dad to finsh up cooking.

What's your I.Q?   I dunno, I’ve never had it checked.

What's your Mum's Mum called? How about your Dad's Dad? I call both sets of grandparents the traditional Filipino way, Lola for my grandmas and Lolo for my grandpas.

Do you prefer crepes, pancakes or waffles? Waffles > pancakes > crepes. I’ve never even had crepes before.

Do you have ice-cream in your fridge right now? Yeah I think so. We always have enough supply of it in the freezer because both of my parents love their ice cream.

How about chicken nuggets? I think we do but it hasn’t been touched in a while since my dad has preferred preparing real food throughout the quarantine haha.

Do you eat fish often? Yes, both cooked and as sushi. Fish is a huge part of Filipino cuisine because duh, we’re surrounded by water. My family will typically have tuyo, danggit, or dilis (kinds of sun-dried fish) for breakast and you can always find a fish dish or two at birthday parties, whether on its own or relleno (stuffed).

Have you ever taken a martial art? Which one{s}? I haven’t. There was a time I wanted to, but I didn’t pursue it because I thought I was too thin and unfit to try it out.

Do you know anyone who is scared of you? Probably.

What person who has died would you bring back and why? Nacho. It wasn’t his time yet.

Do you like watermelon? I like some watermelon-flavored stuff like popsicles, but I don’t eat the fruit.

Can you remember the month of your first kiss? January 24, 2015. Couple steps ahead of ya.

Do you make friends easily? I make acquaintances easily, but I choose who to let into my inner circle. I’d make more friends if I wanted to, but I just choose not to.

What makes you different from everyone else? I honestly don’t know. My interests are pretty common and I haven’t had anything super unique happen to me.

I give you a piece of paper. What do you draw/write on it? Practice my alma mater’s penmanship, which is always my go-to when I’m asked to write anything haha.

What pictures or photos are up in your lounge? Is this a Myspace thing? Lol I don’t really have my photos ‘up’ anywhere on my social media; my accounts just show the latest ones I uploaded.

Do you like purple and white patterned things? It wouldn’t be the first one I’d choose, no.

Do you know anyone called Pipa? No, but my sister went to school with a Pipay. I think her full name was Piper.

I say purple, you think... My great-grandmother. She loved purple and had it everywhere in her home.

What do you think is the most interesting thing about you? I don’t know. I’d rather people who know me answer this as they might be able to come up with different answers, and it’d be interesting to see how they see me.

Do you like being complimented or does it make you uncomfortable? It’s nice to be recognized but overall I’m shit at accepting them. 

Does the description of your starsign correspond with your personality? My astrology-believing friends tell me that they match, but I don’t believe in astrology so I don’t think about it all that much and mostly think of it as coincidence.

Do you have a photo album? Yeah my mom was big on albums from when my siblings and I were infants to when we reached pre-teen years. Each of us have two photo albums.

What artists’ paintings do you find the most beautiful? Monet’s.

What about the most disturbing? I find it more sad than disturbing, but I’ve always been affected by artists who made self-portraits as their health was deteriorating over the years.

Have you ever gone to a camp or summer school? I attended a summer sports clinic for swimming when I was 9.

What was your favourite cartoon as a child? Spongebob. Fairly OddParents was a very very very close second because it was just as funny as Spongebob.

What was your biggest fear as a child? Introducing myself. I always got bullied for my name and got called a tomboy/boy for it more than once, so I was conditioned to be nervous whenever I had to introduce myself and say my own name.

Would you rather be able to fly or breathe underwater? Fly, so I can travel anywhere hah.

What about invisibility or mindreading? Probably invisibility. There are stuff I’d discover in reading minds that I think I’m better off not knowing and I find it a tad bit invasive than being invisible.

Do you like what you see in the mirror? Sure. Just not so much these days since I never get to dress up or fix myself up anymore.

Which stereotype do you dislike the most? Offensive ones.

Can you remember all your past teachers names? There’ll be some grade-subject combos I’ve forgetten about by now, like I no longer remember my 3rd grade English teacher for one. But my memory in general is still quite impressive and I remember most of my past teachers.

Do you like talent shows? Which ones? I wouldn’t tune in to them religiously but I do love Golden Buzzer compilations from America’s/Britain’s Got Talent.

Have you ever failed an important exam? In what? Only in high school, and it was the more advanced math/science subjects that I really could not start to care for, like chemistry and calculus.

Do you find people taller than you intimidating? Kinda? Filipinos are very tiny people so whenever I meet a foreigner I always have to crane my neck all the way up and it does scare me a little bit hahaha.

Do you think you are better than people of a different country/background? Not at all.

What's your favourite thing about your country? I suppose the tourism side of it is wonderful. We’ve always been known for our hospitality, our tour guides are always so friendly and funny, we have beautiful beaches and islands, and Filipinos are generally a nice people and very easy to get along with.

What's your least favourite thing about your country? The colonization, the government, and people who continue to glorify the government as if they can’t do anything wrong.

Who is your favourite bzoinker? I have several favorite survey-makers but I’m too shy to mention them on here lol.

What websites do you have bookmarked? I have soooooooooooo many bookmarks.

Do you use bows and ribbons to decorate your gifts? I’ll stick a bow on a Christmas gift if I have one, but otherwise no. < Same, I only get real decorative for Christmas.

Do you listen to the same type of music as your parents? What type is that? Not at all. My mom is really into cheesy 80s and 90s love songs and I just can’t imagine myself listening to those on my own time lmao. My dad doesn’t have much of a music taste.

What TV show scared you as a kid? Mr. Meaty. What the fuck was that. < HAHAHAHAHAHA this fucking show. That was such a mess; I never understood it but I found it so hilarious. Anyway, I don’t think I was scared of any show as a kid.

Family Guy, The Simpsons or South Park? Why? The Simpsons. Family Guy’s jokes can sometimes go too far, and isn’t South Park just blatantly offensive? The humor in The Simpsons is just right for me.

[avelera]

Quick thoughts on Spider-Man: Far From Home:

CUT FOR SPOILERS

- 90% amazing. Had a great time at all the Teen Summer Vacation Comedy moments, it was a great genre blend for a Spider-Man film. So many great references and call-backs. I laughed a lot. 

- The 10% is... hard to express without sounding like someone who is just disappointed their theories got busted, which could (in the movie’s defense) very well be the case. 

- Let’s just start by quickly saying there was a similar sense of disorganization around the broader progression of the MCU via “Mysterio” that I felt in Captain Marvel, where now that the cinematic universe has gotten so big and could go in so many directions and have such heavy expectations placed upon each of them, sometimes it leads to jumbled motivations and story beats for the film. 

(Like in Captain Marvel it felt like the film was trying to pull double duty telling a story in space and a story about Carol and even triple duty with a story that advanced the MCU. In this case it felt like we needed to mourn Iron Man, advance Spider-Man, introduce the next possible wave of villains (which turned out to be a fake-out with the multi-verse, which left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth but I’ll get to that later), etc etc. So many possibilities of what it could be and what is going to be teased that some scenes seem set up for Misdirecting Trailer Moments in a very distracting way.)

- To that point, one minor critique I have of Mysterio is he felt a bit split on how much he liked Peter Parker. I think, personally, when they found out how much chemistry Holland and Gyllenhaal had, they should have leaned into it more and done some re-writes (or more re-writes than they did). Obviously Gyllenhaal adored chewing the scenery during the Villain Reveal of Exposition in the middle, but it was at the cost of some of the later emotional beats between him and Peter because he came across as so cartoonishly villainous, in contrast to his earlier hero persona. As such, it was hard to get a finger on just how much he really regretted the prospect of killing Peter. 

- Basically, it felt as if the script just planned Gyllenhaal’s character to be a Delightful Asshole, total evil dude who wants to be a bad guy to fill Iron Man’s shoes, very much in line with the Civil War ultimate “bad guy” of a person who is just obsessed with a hero and thus trying to bring him down or take his place, and as such had many of his flaws too.

- But because Gyllenaal seems genuinely distraught at the prospect of having to kill Peter, I feel they should have just gone with that sentiment a little more strongly? Maybe instead of him just seeming to crave becoming the next Iron Man for... idk, glory reasons? It’s not really made clear except that “being Iron Man” would be desirable and makes him Peter Parker’s foil with a similar goal gone about the wrong way? IDK, anyway, I think they could have given us a beat of him genuinely believing he could help people better than these, admittedly, rather damaged and/or immature heroes! 

- Like, it’s not unreasonable to look at Tony Stark (given his issues) or hear Peter given his immaturity (I mean, it’s unkind to say, but Mysterio basically saw him do nothing but whine about how he just wants to go on a date with this girl) and think, “Holy shit, I can do better than this! The world is at stake!” Especially if you’ve got your own team of smart people to help you that you trust. 

- Basically, his big cackling Villain Reveal scene was great! He had some legit, if unkind, critiques about the MCU heroes that leant weight to the moment and believability to his motivation! He seemed to genuinely like his team! Their plan was unorthodox but made a certain twisted sense!

- The scene after that, in the theater? Wasn’t so great. In that scene when he threatens his own team and his motivations go from wanting to “Be Iron Man”  to... what? Glory? Presumably they’ll make a lot of money, though how isn’t really clear and it’s sort of quickly dropped as a motivator. Given money was mentioned as a motivator, I’m a little surprised his team didn’t revolt when he started getting creepy about the whole thing. Also, helping people as a potential motivator kinda went away when he stopped caring about casualties.

- Anyway, that scene also kinda ruined a lot for me because it became a bit... masturbatory on Marvel’s part? A little too, “Look, we’re making a Marvel film about making a Marvel film because we’re such a big cultural touchstone now, aren’t we clever?” with how Mysterio’s suit is literally exactly what Marvel actors who do CGI wear behind the scenes? I loved the callback with the Iron Man 1 engineer being there, but overall that whole scene just took the magic out and reminded me this was a Marvel movie, because the movie itself wanted to remind me this was a Marvel (tm) movie. 

- As they say in Inception, it’s dangerous to remind the dreamer that they’re in a dream while they’re in the dream. Sometimes it can be pulled off, but normally it just takes them out of the dream entirely. Such is the rule with 4th wall breaks, no matter how clever. 

- Which gets me into my Big Issue with the film which maaay just be Disappointed Fan and less Artistic Critique. 

- I wanted multi-verse. Failing multi-verse, I would have accepted magic over technology as an explanation for Mysterio’s power, which is rare for me because I usually prefer the tech explanation.  But there was a moment when Peter is on the run from Beck’s illusions where it just wasn’t working for me, why? Because it was all drones. 

- This is a universe with Dr. Strange in it, there’s no actual reason Mysterio’s power couldn’t be magic instead of tech. 

- THAT SAID, the use of the projector tech we last saw in Civil War and the critique of Tony’s use of it, was an excellent callback and meshed nicely with the larger message of the film which is, “what to do now that Tony’s gone?” Which is the question the Marvel universe creators are facing right now (and again, struck me as a bit masturbatory like, we know you’re struggling with this question but it takes me out of the film a bit when you make a film about not knowing what to do next with the MCU?)

- THAT SAID, having them be drones instead of illusions made me feel during the fight scenes like I was watching a highlight reel of moments that would be “really cool in the trailer!” because they’d misdirect what was really happening, making the audience think it was magic instead of tech in order to conceal the Big Reveal. 

- Furthermore, the drone use raised a lot of questions like, uh, “spider senses” aside (which we’re apparently not saying for some reason?), what about sound, smell, touch, heat, taste? Is this drone wired into Peter’s nervous system? Why are they so convincing that he behaves as if he’s in a full sensory illusion (like if the illusions were magic) where we can never truly be sure if he’s awake, when this is all just Industrial Light and Magic technology at best? 

- So yeah I get it, magic is so passé, drones are cooler I guess, even if how they work so effectively with just projectors and guns makes zero sense. Mysterio is calling the plot of a Marvel movie with elemental creatures attacking dumb, thus reminding me I’m here watching a dumb Marvel movie, which by extension feels like calling the audience dumb for being here. 

- I dunno, am I crazy for wanting there to be a bit of magic? Or failing that, a bit of heart instead of a guy just villainously trying to get the perks of being a superhero by manufacturing the whole situation, never once asking if there’s good he could be doing or having deep second thoughts about the cost given a kid he genuinely likes will die if he continues with this plan? 

- Many of the scenes even looked as if they were directed and shot to be magic instead of tech, that leads further to the schizophrenic “made for the trailer” feeling of a lot of scenes, as if they were designed to be taken out of context. 

- I mean, it really was just the Iron Man 3 reveal all over again - there is no Mandarin, it’s just an actor with a guy behind him trying to become the next Iron Man. Except we’ve already had that reveal so this one felt repetitive. A more surprising reveal might have been, I dunno, Mysterio is a normal person who really does want to be Iron Man for altruistic reasons and just goes wrong along the way so he can have an honest emotional connection with Peter? Or actually from another universe but in fact a villain there and lying about it in order to become a hero in our universe? (Which was my first theory when I saw the trailer. Part of me actually wondered if Mysterio was Peter Parker from an alternate universe). 

Overall, I had fun. I think I’ll even like it more on the re-watch because my brain won’t be in overdrive trying to figure out the plot and thus be disappointed. But there was definitely a moment where they’re smirking about how stupid people are for being willing to believe a made up story about magic where I thought, “Would that really have been so bad?” 

[bdamanlover4ever]

borumitsu - boruto trying to discover mitsuki's likes/interests going thru like food, hoobies n stuff

Word count: 1,970

Blue eyes flickered, as they watched Mitsuki. The boy had always been shrouded in this unsolvable mystery. One that, Boruto was sure he could connect the dots to. Unfortunately, the more he watched him, the less clues on how to connecting them were being dropped.

He sighed, releasing a cloud of frustration in the winter air. “It would be too easy to ask, wouldn’t it?”

“Ask what?” Mitsuki responded quickly. The whole concept of people ‘talking to themselves’ was not quite something he comprehended yet. Any question asked deserved an answer or a follow up question. He blinked his yellow orbs curiously, awaiting for a response.

Boruto shifted on the bench, unable to tell if it was the wind nipping at his fingertips or the kind way Mitsuki responded that gave him goosebumps. “Nothing.” He blew it off, popping a french fry in his mouth.

The burger that rested in Mitsuki’s hand still only had one bite taken out of it. Which was in Boruto’s brain, ‘Insane, because who doesn’t like hamburgers?’ That bugged him.

The blue haired boy shrugged. Such an action made Boruto cut his eyes at him. Mitsuki just shrugged. He believed full-heartedly, in Boruto’s word. He always believed in Boruto’s words. That also bugged him.

It seemed that no matter how much he thought about it, Mitsuki pinned himself on Boruto. But at the same time, Boruto assumed that couldn’t be right. There was more to Mitsuki….There had to be more to Mitsuki.

Reaching into the shared container of fries, Boruto grabbed another one. This time instead of bringing it to his mouth, he brought it to Mitsuki’s. The boy raised an eyebrow, cautiously. His eyes stared into ocean blue ones, with confusion.

“You like fries, right?” Boruto spoke lowly, the greasy potato in his hand sagged. He poked the fry at Mitsuki’s pale cheek.

Mitsuki mirrored his questioned, “Well you like fries, right?” It was hard to tell if this sacrament or legit because Boruto had eaten half of the fries all by himself. Leaning forward, he took the fry from Boruto’s hand. “You eat it.” He changed up and pressed it to Boruto’s lips.

Unnamed emotions flashed across Boruto’s face. He appeared baffled by the sudden change of script. Hastily, he turned his head away. “I offered to share fries with you because, I thought you liked fries.”

“I do.” Mitsuki clarified, “I also like you thinking about me, Boruto.” He took the fry and placed it in his mouth. The salty slightly crunchy fry, he chewed slowly. Thoughtfully, minding how his friend might react if he scarfed it all down.

Boruto slowly drifted his pupils over in the corner of his socket, to catch sight of Mitsuki’s jaws at work. Doubt riddled his mind, as to why Mitsuki was acting all hesitant. It made him start thinking again.

Mitsuki was a draped in so much mystery, yet it was so comforting in his own special way. It drove Boruto’s ambition to discover more.

“I think of all my friends.” Boruto retorted in a matter-of-fact manner. “Thinking shows consideration and care for someone.” He blushed lightly, taking note of how Mitsuki ate a french fry all by himself. “It’s no big deal.” Fully turning his head, he watched the boy swallow.

“It’s big to me.” Mitsuki said bluntly. A new edge had embedded itself in this point, as he focused around it. “It’s a big deal.” This mattered to him.

Boruto inhaled shakily, “To you?” This was always intriguing, hearing what perked an actual reaction from Mitsuki. But the boy knew, he was skating on thin ice now. Once, Mitsuki cracked open there would be no way to return to the surface of a regular conversation.

“I want….” Shyness stole his voice away briefly. Mitsuki’s blank face changing into one of happiness.

“You want what?” Boruto’s ear twitched, yearning for the truth. He carelessly began naming off stuff he knew Mitsuki liked, “More friends? More adventure? More potato chips? More…” Helplessly, he hit a dead end. He held up three fingers, wiggling them to try and comprehend more of the open ended statement. “More spicy burgers?” He recalled the little burger, that only had one bite taken out of it. “I really thought you liked that. The last time, we got them as a group, you were the only one who didn’t freak out at the flavor.” His eyes melted into disappointment as he saw his friend’s lips were still locked tight.

Mitsuki pierced his lips, in deep thought. He observed Boruto, each sporadic action and frantic gesture, he did to prompt a reaction. But his last sentence was despair ridden and almost tormented. He wanted nothing more than to relieve his friend of such a burden. But he didn’t know how.

“Ya know…?” Boruto started grasping at anything to keep the conversation going. He pointed to himself, rambling, “I really like hamburgers, but it’s cool if you don’t. I also like training and hanging with my friends!”

Reluctantly, Mitsuki agreed. “I like hanging out with my friend’s too.” He nodded his head vigorously, blue locks bouncing. He wanted to channel more energy into Boruto, inspire him to be happy the best he could.

Bright blue eyes marveled at yellow. “But when we hang out, I also want to do stuff that…” Boruto grabbed the hamburger from Mitsuki’s hands, “You want to do! I want to know what you like!” A friendly smile slid on his lips.

Feeling his sunshine’s eyes on him, made Mitsuki cast his gaze to the ground. The dirt beneath their feet, just seemed to insignificant sometimes. It could any other substance below them. Would it matter? Would anyone care if the dirt was gravel, or wood chips? No one would really care long as it still did the job. Long as it covered the ground, no one would really care.

Mitsuki didn’t want to feel like some insignificant dirt. But he did sometimes… he knew he could easily be replaced. So someone wanting to know more about him…

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Mitsuki confessed, his little eyebrows knitting together.

“Well let’s start here,” Boruto tossed the burger into the trash can. “From now on, you be yourself.” His smile grew on his face, as a resounding ‘thud’ of the burger hitting the can rang out.

Mitsuki’s eyes shifted from the trash can, to Boruto, then back to the trash can, only to land on Boruto again. Words didn’t hit his tongue in any way to verbalize his predicament. All he could was repeat, “I don’t know what to tell you.” as if a broken record.

“Come on it’s not too hard.” Boruto gave a thumbs up at the face written in concern. A new bubbly hope stealing his vocal cords, “I know for a fact, Mitsuki likes his friends, he likes training, he likes french fries, he likes randomly popping out from nowhere.”

These so called, ‘facts’ slightly bothered Mitsuki. He titled his head to the side, “How do you know I like that stuff?”

Boruto scoffed, “I watch you.” That should have been obvious. “When you’re around your friends you can usually pick up on stuff like that.” A pouty look crossed his face, as he took another fry and poked it hastily at Mitsuki’s cheek. “But you’re an exception! You spend too much time trying to imitate me. You make it really hard for me to tell your likes and interest!”

“So you don’t know for sure if I like any of that stuff…?”

“Well, only you can declare what you officially like.”

“What if I don’t know?”

“Just choose stuff until you discover something you like.”

There was a bit of confusion encasing him again. A rumbling sensation in his soul, that was steadily being comforted but also separated him from the current event. Mitsuki looked so lost, so vacant, a shell of himself. “Sometimes, I wonder if my choices are really my own.” His voice was velvety soft as he spoke, sad, somber, tender with concern. “If my likes or interest are really my own.”

Boruto shared Mitsuki’s grief for a few seconds. He could sense his uneasiness just based off how withdrawn he seemed to be. He figured Mitsuki looked in mirrors now and questioned his very existence. There were no true words to comfort, something deep and thought provoking as that.

All the blond could do was uttered, “Well, you’re yourself.” Reassuringly, he placed a hand on Mitsuki’s shoulder. He gave him a friendly squeeze of admiration. “You think for yourself. You do what you want for yourself. Everything you do is because you want to, right?”

Mitsuki bit his bottom lip, anxiously. Stiffly, he nodded, so far everything Boruto said checked out factually.

“So what, somebody made you?” Boruto shrugged carelessly, “They didn’t make who you are, you make yourself.” He concluded, blue eyes blazing with compassion for Mitsuki.

The boy raised his pale hands up, “I make who I am.” Mitsuki uttered. He looked from his hands to Boruto, almost as if this was some dream.

Pretty blond locks bounced, as Boruto jutted his chin upwards with pride. “There is no one who can say what you like or dislike, because they’re not you.” He bragged, “They can only do what I do, watch, observe and assume. Only you have the final say.”

This time with more confidence, Mitsuki said, “I make who I am.” He ate the fry from Boruto’s hand.

“Yup!” Boruto agreed, “And I plan to unravel, who Mitsuki is!” He felt his heart swell up with joy from seeing Mitsuki steadily coming out of his reserved shell.

Mitsuki’s eyes beamed at Boruto. He stood up, with a new found enthusiasm. “Then you’ll help me, discover all I like?”

“You know it!” Boruto declared. It was an unofficial statement of, “I’ll always be there when you need me from now on. I won’t let any of my friend’s get so distant from me again. Especially you Mitsuki.” Helpfully, he offered. “We can start with little things. Like….” His eyes landed on the fast food bag loaded with condiments. “How about ketchup?” Boruto offered, trying to discover if Mitsuki liked that.

Mitsuki shook his head.

Boruto’s glee fell slightly, “No ketchup?”

“Tomato not being a vegetable makes me uncomfortable. I don’t know what to classify ketchup as,” Mitsuki tapped on his chin. “So no ketchup.” He smiled a bit. It was one of those rare to see smiles. A nice little moment, as he looked at Boruto endearingly. “But, I did discover something I know that I like today.”

“Huh..?” Boruto’s eyes shifted over to gaze into Mitsuki’s. “What?” He jumped off the bench, grabbing the soggy fast food bag. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Mitsuki let out a little hum. “Well I knew I liked who did it before,” He took a few steps as if completely enlightened by sunshine. “But now I know I like it.”

“How is this supposed to help me, uncover your mysteries?!” Boruto complained, “You’re talking all funny again!”

Mitsuki blinked at him, then poked his finger against Boruto’s cheek. “I like your smile.”

Boruto’s felt his face heat up, as he stood there looking like a homeless puppy. He reconsidered, his previous assumption. Mitsuki was still a mystery, but the dots were less confusing now. The dots seemed like they were connecting to reveal a huge heart, based off the clues dropped. But Boruto couldn’t be sure of that just yet…

Boruto smiled, “Well then, if you want me to smile to more, from now on all you have to do is ask.”