#and then Giles turns up and becomes the closest thing to it

[mycatismyfriend]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 4x22 "Restless"

[inconsistentlywrittensoul]

Lie to Me thoughts:

Drusilla: "My dear boy's gone all away, hasn't he? To her... The girl. The slayer." Writers, could you stop foreshadowing things you couldn't possibly know about for five minutes?

Another older romantic interest turns out to be untrustworthy. Writers, could you stop intentionally mirroring the Angel/Angelus arc for five minutes?

Ooh, it's The Most Important Character In The Buffyverse.

It's surprisingly nice to see Willow and Angel have a scene together. It might be the most open Angel's been with anybody so far - he talks to her about the century he spent doing basically nothing, and he manages to not mysteriously disappear for the whole conversation. I think it's that he's not trying to impress her - they're just friendly, and it's nice. (Aside from the moment of 'No, don't invite him in, that's going to be bad later in the season!')

(Honestly, it's always funs to see romantic interests outside their designated pairing. Tara's rare but oddly meaningful interactions with Buffy stand out, as do Spike's friendships with Joyce and Dawn. It's one reason Spike becomes way less fun in the last couple of seasons - he interacts way less with the non-Buffy castmembers.)

And we get an Angel/Xander/Willow teamup at the club. It's fun, though the treatment of The Most Important Character comes across a little weird - kind of hippie-bashing, though it doesn't land when her naivety relates specifically to a evil soulless monsters that doesn't actually exist.

And now Angel's actually communicating with Buffy! Yeah, he lied to her earlier, and what he's communicating about is the time he tortured a girl to insanity and then turned her into a vampire, but still, this is a big step forward for him. This episode is the closest Angel's come to being a functional person so far.

(Which also comes with him being undercut in the club by the vampire poser dressing just like him - it's a very Angel joke, and this feels much more like the Angel of Angel than the old Angel we saw in 'Angel'.)

That said, Angel asking if Buffy loves him, and her saying she does (albeit without trust) feels weird - they're barely in a relationship at this point? Kind of illustrates the immaturity of both characters. (Which, fair enough - she's a teenager, and he's a complete disaster. Though he is becoming less disaster-like by the episode - things are definitely looking up for this guy.)

The last scene with Giles is nice - the speech is iconic for a reason - and kind of mirrors Reptile Boy, with him giving her support that's less paternalistic but more paternal than his past Watcher-y role. With Halloween as last episode and The Dark Age as the next, these four episodes all have an underlying arc about Buffy's developing relationship with Giles; and there's kind of an ABAB structure, where this ep rhymes with Reptile Boy, and Dark Age rhymes with Halloween, in dealing with the Ripper of it all.

[neveronsundays]

Willow had an interesting trajectory with her teenage love life. Looking at all the men she had feelings for/an attraction to, they were all always very safe choices that normally would never become reality and therefore never having to be acted on. These attractions were always beneficial to her too.

With Xander, he was a safe and comfortable childhood friend, but most importantly he was someone who had never displayed an attraction to her. If you're young and secretly queer, that's a very safe choice that both makes you fit in as straight in your community, but will never actually happen. She could point to her attraction to Xander and desire to date him as evidence of being straight, and it will firmly stay in unrequited territory.

With Malcolm the internet demon boy, he's an internet boyfriend. Very my boyfriend that lives in Canada. She would never have to follow through on anything because the odds of him showing up are slim to none. She didn't foresee the whole demon in the computer thing.

If you want to count her crush on Giles, Willow knows him well enough to know he would never act on an inappropriate relationship with her and can still point to this attraction of evidence of being straight. She would never be expected to act on it, and if she did there would be enormous problems for everyone.

Then there's Oz, who in my opinion is the closest she ever got to being in love and attracted to a man. I'm not actually here to argue whether Willow is lesbian or bi. The text states she's lesbian. I've heard people say she was intended to be bi but due to biphobia and the networks input they chose to have her character as lesbian, but I've never seen a source on that. The thing about Willow's crush turned relationship with Oz is that for all intents and purposes Oz is someone that shouldn't like Willow. He's a cool musician, he barely shows up to school, he dyes his hair and is stoic. She didn't count on him liking her back or on him pursuing a relationship with her. However Oz very much fulfills other core needs that Willow has besides the appearance of heterosexuality, the need for status. Dating Oz gave her status as being chosen by someone, made her feel cool to date a guy in a band, someone people at their school found cool, something Willow never could claim. Even better that he was okay with her monster hunting with her best buds. And then there's the most important need of all, love. For all the issues they may have had by the end of their relationship, Oz loved Willow more than anyone else besides Tara. I would imagine for Willow, who had struggled her whole life to be seen, heard and loved it felt good to finally have those things.

I won't argue that Willow did not love Oz. Willow is someone that has shown she can love deeply. I will say that she loved Oz in a similar way to how she loved Tara, which is through the lens of what they can do for her. As far as Willow's love for the men in her life, it's hard to know if it was comphet or genuine attraction, she was always choosing conveniently unavailable people. Tara really did seem to be the one and only time that Willow actively pursued someone, especially someone that couldn't provide some sort of status symbol, either as straight or, as in Oz's case, someone that's openly recognized as cool. Even with Kennedy in season 7, Kennedy pursued her, and Willow needed comfort at the end of the world.

So is Willow gay or bi? It doesn't matter, she's fictional.

some people think willow rosenberg is bisexual and they are valid. but they are also wrong <3

[rockislandadultreads]

Picks for PRIDE: Queer Historical Romances

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

When Viola Caroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood. Only when their families reconnect, years after the war, does Viola learn how deep that loss truly was. Shattered without her, Gracewood has retreated so far into grief that Viola barely recognises her old friend in the lonely, brooding man he has become. As Viola strives to bring Gracewood back to himself, fresh desires give new names to old feelings. Feelings that would have been impossible once and may be impossible still, but which Viola cannot deny. Even if they cost her everything, all over again.

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley

As a master of disguise, Thomasina Wynchester can be a polite young lady—or a bawdy old man. Anything to solve the case. Her latest assignment unveils a top-secret military cipher covering up an enigma that goes back centuries. But when Tommy’s beautiful new client turns out to be the highborn lady she’s secretly smitten with, more than her mission is at stake... Bluestocking Miss Philippa York doesn’t believe in love. Her cold heart didn't pitter-patter when she was betrothed to a duke, nor did it break when he married someone else. All Philippa desires is to rescue her priceless manuscript and decode its clues to unmask a villain. She hates that she needs a man's help—so she’s delighted to discover the clever, charming baron at her side is in fact a woman. Her cold heart... did it just pitter-patter?

The Hellion's Waltz by Olivia Waite

It’s not a crime to steal a heart... Sophie Roseingrave hates nothing more than a swindler. After her family lost their piano shop to a con man in London, they’re trying to start fresh in a new town. Her father is convinced Carrisford is an upright and honest place, but Sophie is not so sure. She has grave suspicions about silk-weaver Madeline Crewe, whose stunning beauty doesn’t hide the fact that she’s up to something. All Maddie Crewe needs is one big score, one grand heist to properly fund the weavers’ union forever. She has found her mark in Mr. Giles, a greedy draper, and the entire association of weavers and tailors and clothing merchants has agreed to help her. The very last thing she needs is a small but determined piano-teacher and composer sticking her nose in other people’s business. If Sophie won’t be put off, the only thing to do is to seduce her to the cause. Will Sophie’s scruples force her to confess the plot before Maddie gets her money? Or will Maddie lose her nerve along with her heart?

The Pursuit Of... by Courtney Milan

What do a Black American soldier, invalided out at Yorktown, and a white British officer who deserted his post have in common? Quite a bit, actually. • They attempted to kill each other the first time they met. • They're liable to try again at some point in the five-hundred mile journey that they're inexplicably sharing. • They are not falling in love with each other. • They are not falling in love with each other. • They are… Oh, no. The Pursuit Of… is about a love affair between two men and the Declaration of Independence. It’s a novella of around 38,000 words.

[jupitermelichios]

S3E2: Phoenix

Oh Jesus it’s been a whole 2 months since I last watched any Smallville and in that time I somehow managed to forget about Lex living on a desert island with his imaginary boyfriend, so that recap section hit me like a sack of angry ferrets to the face

I think this episode opened with Clark murdering Jonathan, which I am so here for

Oh no, apparently Jor-El gave Jonathan superpowers off screen. Because that’s the sort of thing you shouldn’t show on screen obviously

Time to dramatic shirt rip, under 2 minutes, excellent

“If I could raise a son who could kill, I’d rather be dead” boy do I have some news for you about S1E1 Jonathan my dude

“Oh honey we never blamed you for me loosing the baby!” Hey Martha maybe you should check with Jonathan before saying something like that, given he very much did exactly that, or was gaslighting your son your whole plan?

Say what you like about Buffy, at least there were consequences for her running away from home at the end of season 2. Clark can apparently dose himself up on PCP, become a professional bank robber, and then try and murder his own father, and just waltz back into his life without consequences

God I love tiny gay Lex Luthor. I do have to ask how the fuck he got back from Jamaica though, given he’s got no money, no ID, and HE’S LEGALLY DEAD! How the fuck did he pay for flights?!

I do admire Jonathan’s consistency when it comes to anything being morally okay as long as it’s Lionel who’s the victim. “You can’t steal, Clark, that’s wrong!” “But it was from Lionel.” “Oh, lmao that’s totally cool then”

If a suicide is a real cocktail no one tell me because Lionel and Rutger Hauer apparently used to drink them when they were young and based on how it looks, I’m guessing the main ingredients are advocat and tango

Also I’m pretty sure Lionel and Rutger used to fuck, I’m getting strong Giles and Ethan Rayne vibes from this conversation

How do we tell people this is a flashback? Oh I know, lets cover everything with so much bloom it looks like a 360 launch title and no one can see what’s going on, you know, like the past looks

Angry-cupboard-sex-doctor (who is getting abbreviated cos she’s in this episode a lot) is serving strong season 3 Morganna energy and I love it. She’s like the straight woman’s Katie McGrath, I really hope she sticks around as a season villain

Oh Chloe’s hair is so much worse now! Given who the actress turned out to be as a person she deserves it, but it’s still phenomenally terrible. Hands up who remembers Balamory?

“We all do things we regret” yes but being a massive bitch generally has less consequences than TAKING PCP AND BECOMING A BANK ROBBER. He’s not running from himself he’s running from the law

Literally the first thing Lex says to Clark after 3 months of being legally dead is a pick up line. I appreciate your dedication to your brand tiny gay Lex Luthor

Holy shit actual confirmation that Lana doesn’t got to school any more. Go to school Lana! You can’t keep running an ancient Egypt themed coffee shop for the rest of your life!

Okay, I know she’s an objectively terrible love interest given the whole murder thing, but Lex just implied he killed his dad and ACSD was definitely into that, and damnit I just want them to be happy! She’s so much better than Clark, why the fuck is he still into this dickhead when he’s got this homocidal queen as an option?

I love that Rutger Hauer just takes it on trust that the thing Lionel is hunting for is a mason jar full of this random farm boy’s blood, he’s just like ‘yeah, that seems like a thing Lionel would be into’

Lana arrives at the Kent farm, walks up to the most gangster looking gangster to ever be a ganster, who is literally holding a gun and leaning against a black SUV, and is just like ‘hey didn’t know the kent’s had visitors’ and fucking immediately gets taken hostage

But then immediately fucking murders a guy, holy shit, Lana actually did something that contributed to the plot and it’s really sad that the closest thing to agency Lana has is when she stabs a guy to death with a pitchfork, what the fuck

I’m pretty sure Lex is about to kill ACSD, but fuck if I’m not enjoying the two of them standing on a private plane drinking champage and sniping at each other like they’re in a tenessee williams play

Oh my god they shot the fucking pilot. Lex has literally been back from the dead a day, and he’s in another fucking crashing plane, what the actual fuck????

Aaaand there goes ACSD right out the crashing plane. Goodnight sweet bitch, you were the only good love interest lex has ever had, may a flight of angels sing thee to thy rest

You’ve heard of day for night shooting, now get ready for we can only use this set at night as we’re just going to adjust the brightness and hope you don’t notice! (Spoiler, we noticed)

Clark’s jeans and plaid shirt are fireproof. They’re literally fucking fireproof. Which I guess makes sense given he sets shit on fire every time he gets horny but even so. Does explain where all the Kent’s money goes not they’re not going to the feed store every epsiode.

Oh to be Lionel, sitting in the dark drinking scotch and listening to opera, waiting for my son to get back from murdering his wife, so I can congratulate him on becoming a true Luthor

Credit to the makeup artists for giving lex scars and sunburn, and then remembering that they did it. That’s not the kind of consistency I expect from this show but I appreciate it

LEX GETTING FATHER FIGURES LEX GETTING FATHER FIGURES the only thing I want more than that is for them to bring back Lex’s long lost brother and for chloe sullivan to get possessed or something so I don’t have to deal with her. Where’s Joey Wilson when you need him?

I love how they managed to turn superman of all the fucking characters into a YA supernatural love triangle story

Lana has a new horse. She’s never owned a paint horse before. WHAT IS SHE DOING TO HER HORSES?????????????????? I need to know!

Clark just conclusively told Lana he’s not interested. Who wants to bet the writers have forgotten that by the start of next episode?

[grimelords]

There is no limit to how many good songs exist! There are just so many!

My June playlist is finished, and on time too! Please enjoy all manner of bangers from Dave Brubeck, Nelly Furtado and everyone in between.

listen here

Night And Day - Hot Chip: I’ve started a band with some friends and my friend Tiana (who has requested a special shoutout in this playlist and is currently receiving it!) suggested this as a song for us to learn and she was extremely right to do it! It’s extremely funky and probably the most i’ve ever liked Hot Chip because they’ve finally allowed themselves to be emotional and feel the most important emotion of all: horniness.

Infinity Guitars - Sleigh Bells: The other day a friend of mine said ‘hey whatever happened to Sleigh Bells?’ and guess what: they have five albums and continue to release new music as recently as last year. They seem to steadfastly refuse to advance their sound and you’ve got to give them props for that. When nobody else sounds anything like you the smartest thing you can do is double down on your own weird thing. I’ve always loved this song and am totally enamoured by whatever mixing trick it is that enables this song to start loud as fuck and somehow finish even louder no matter what volume you play it at.

Hurricane - Bob Dylan: I haven’t watched the Rolling Thunder Revue thing on Netflix yet but I’m excited to because this is a good Dylan era and I’m always down for more footage of the world’s freak Bobby D acting like a maniac. This song is a good example of how have no control over how music is consumed once you release it because this is ostensibly a serious and angry protest song about a great injustice but my greatest memory of it is for at least a month when I was in boarding school a guy in my dorm would play it every morning super loud and we would all yell the words along as we were getting dressed. Having a great time being fifteen and yelling happily about a miscarriage of justice.

Grindin' - Clipse: I started putting together a playlist of songs with super minimal or no pitched instrumentation that almost totally rely on the percussion and the vocals to carry it. Basically the Pharrell special because he did it on this and Drop It Like It’s Hot and I’m sure more songs of his I haven’t heard yet. But also songs like Lipgloss by Lil Mama, Fix Up Look Sharp by Dizzee Rascal, Tipsy By J-Kwon (almost if it didn’t have the baseline) and The Whisper Song by The Ying Yang Twins. There’s heaps more I’m sure. It was a real minimal style for a little while in the mid 2000s and I think it’s great. It gives you so much space in the mix and it’s a great lesson: if the beat is hot enough and you’ve got enough charisma to carry the vocal you don’t need anything else at all.

Rock Lobster - The B-52's: Did you know the guitar in this is tuned CFFFFF? Did you know this song is nearly 7 minutes long? Did you know The B-52s had a hit with this and then didn’t have another hit until Love Shack fully ten years later? Truly everything about this song is insane.

Johnny Irony - Bad//Dreems: I think ‘are you bleeding?’ is my favourite bit of pre-song hot mic dialogue i’ve ever heard. I love the energy of this song, and what a fun throwback it is to I guess reference Lead Belly’s ancient song about doing cocaine Take A Whiff On Me for a new modern twist on a song about doing cocaine.

Girls On Film - Duran Duran: Have you ever noticed how the bass in this song is absolutely popping off? It rocks. I listened to just the isolated bass track on youtube the other day and it’s my new favourite song. I’m having a big moment with this early eighties art-funk thing where someone figured out you could put huge funky basslines into rock music and completely changed the game.  

Love - Lana Del Rey: I figured out this month that my vocal range seems to be just Lana Del Rey but an octave lower which is absolutely great news for anyone that wants to hear me sing this song in a cowboy voice in my car.

Want You In My Room - Carly Rae Jepsen: I am absolutely in love with this song and also absolutely furious at it. Absolutely in love with the way it’s written like a duet with herself, trading lines and overlapping and harmonising. The big ascending guitar line that leads into the chorus. I love how horny the lyrics are, I love the very 80s robot voice in the chorus who also wants to fuck. It’s just phenomenal, which brings me to the the think that makes me so furious: this song just fades out? After the second chorus just as the saxophone comes in? Just as it’s getting good???

Genevieve (Unfinished) - Jai Paul: It's just unbelievable how good this sounds. The bass sound. The way the whole mix seems to float around. The cuts to silence that feel like someone took a razor randomly to the master. It all culminates in this frenetic nervous energy that feels like the song could just fall apart and stop at any point. And it does! It just fades to silence and then comes back in as a totally different song near the end before fading away again.

Elephant Talk - King Crimson: King Crimson is on Spotify now and I’m comically striking them off my list of Bands I Have A Grudge Against For Not Being On Spotify. It’s always kind of surprised me that for someone who loved The Mars Volta as much as I did I never really had a big King Crimson phase. I always liked them fine, and I love this song, but I never really sat down and gave them a proper listen. Maybe now they’re on streaming that’s all about to change and my girlfriend will have to suffer accordingly.

Kids In The Dark - Bat For Lashes: Very excited for Bat For Lashes next album if this is an indication of the direction. She's always had a very hazy 80s feeling, so purposefully leaning into it is only going to be great.

CHORDS For Organ - Ellen Arkbro: My favourite lady is back with 15 minutes of rock solid chords. Something I've been thinking recently in regards to Ellen Arkbro and Holly Herndon is people who make pretentious art unpretentiously, truly believing in their process and outcomes but very aware  of and fine with the fact that it's silly, useless or unlistenable to anyone who's not interested. Ellen Arkbro posted a photo of an organ on instagram the other day and wrote "turned out this was one of the biggest instruments in berlin and it was also connected up to two other organs in the same space. Despite that I ended up playing an extremely quiet version of my music. I don't really know how that happened. I will play a louder version in st giles cripple gate in london this saturday if you're around" She posts like Courtney Barnett about her experimental organ drone music, I just love it. As for the music itself I don't really know how to explain this other than if you let it it can be extremely overwhelming. It's also the closest I've come musically to Malevich's Black Square and how I feel about that, which is hard to explain properly other that to say I love it.

SWIM - Holly Herndon: I'm obsessed with this Holly Herndon album. It's just amazing though I think the marketing and a lot of the writing about it is sort of.. misleading? There's a lot of emphasis being put on the machine learning and AI aspects of it, which as undoubtedly good and cool as they are, are sort of overshadowing what's so good about this in a simple way which is that it's just choral music for the future. It feels like it reaches so far back and so far forward at the same time it's incredible.

Too Real/Television Screens - Fontaines D.C.: I really had to stop myself from putting the whole Fontaines DC album on here because quite literally every single song on this is amazing. Just when you think guitar music is well and truly dead it pulls you back in!! Also the way he says 'aaa' at the start of Too Real just absolutely kills me.

Dangerous Match Ten - Scientist: I forget where I read it but some bass player was saying she learned to play by listening to Scientist albums, and so that made me listen to Scientist for the first time and go on a long dub trail and have a very good and dangerous day where I thought “..what if I become a dub guy?”. It’s very good. I don’t know anything about dub really, we don’t really have the jamaican population here for it to have any cultural currency like it does in america and the UK so my biggest exposure is the Dub radio station from GTA III and San Andreas which I’m now learning was mostly made up of Scientist songs anyway. Anyway dub is good, please keep an eye one me and watch as this playlist evolves into me becoming an evangelical dub guy over the next few months and start calling everyone m’brethren in a racist way.

Lipitor - Longmont Potion Castle: Lipitor. This is unfortunately unavailable on Australian spotify which is a crime but if you're from anywhere else please enjoy.

A Lot’s Gonna Change/ Andromeda - Weyes Blood: I am having such a time with this Weyes Blood album. Yesterday I spent all day playing A Lot’s Gonna Change over and over and over and today I spent all day listening to Andromeda over and over and learning how to play it. I suspect this will happen to me with the entire album, it has a complete hold over me.

I’ve listened to Weyes Blood before and she’s never really grabbed me and so it took a lot of people rhapsodising about this one to get me to give it a go and I’m so glad I finally did. This album really took me by surprise, and looking back now I love the development of her sound: from her original spacy noisy thing to the bonafide soft rock of Front Row Seat To Earth to this - an expensive sounding 70s singer songwriter pop album of absolutely devastating beauty and inventiveness.

Wasting My Young Years - London Grammar: I think what's so interesting about this song is that it sounds like an acoustic cover of a trance song. I don't really know how to explain it better than that. The way the deceptively fast four on the floor drums come in, the sort of adult-contemporary The XX instrumentation, the whole structure of it, it feels like a BBC Live Lounge cover of some forgotten rave classic. I love it regardless but it's an odd song as well.

Left Hand - Beast Coast: Beast Coast is lames and I didn't make it more that halfway through the album. On the fourth song there's a verse where one of these guys is doing that rap thing of talking way to graphically about eating pussy. He says lick lick lick it's gross. Anyway this song rocks though. The beat is that perfect mix of hard as hell and a little bit spooky and I love any song where one million guys do like four lines each.

Hung Up - Madonna: In the wake of not listening to Madame X I've been reflecting on how it's been 15 years since Madonna's last true banger, Hung Up, and in my opinion she's a legend forever for this song alone. Do you remember the Madonna x Gorillaz performance at the 2006 Grammys? Where she walked BEHIND the hologram? She still has so much to teach us. 

Never Fight A Man With A Perm - IDLES: I love just how purely sweaty man muscle this song is. 'concrete to leather' are you kidding me?? That's the coolest shit I've ever heard. 'You look like you're from Love Island' also quite good.

Speakers Going Hammer - Soulja Boy: I was listening to this the other day and had to keep stopping and rewinding because of how advanced the flow is when he says 'Style swift hot like it's July 10th/Fly chick in my whip with nice tits/Her boyfriend paid for it, I didn't" he's like five minutes in front of the beat and combined with the internal assonance it just sounds sick as hell.

African Woman - Ebo Taylor: Man goes ham on toy piano must see

(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone - The Monkees: My friend Tiana (who I've mentioned twice now!) came to band practice and said she saw The Monkees last night. I thought no, that's impossible. The Monkees are all long dead, forgotten legends from a forgotten age. BUT I was wrong! Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz, the surviving Monkees tour to this day! And she introduced me to this great song which we learned for the band! Monkees forever!

Whoo! Alright! Yeah! .. Uh Huh - The Rapture: Somehow as time goes on this song becomes more and more important to me and more and more groovy.I used to think life’s a bitter pill but it’s a grand old time. Now that’s wisdom.

World Of Stone/Loinclothing - Hunters And Collectors: I've been getting very heavily into early Hunters And Collectors over the last couple of months.  I think I put Loinclothing on last months playlist as well but fuck it, it's great. It's so primal and raw it feels like the first caveman who learned to talk fronting a band of cavemen who sing songs about caveman issues and passion. I love the incredibly wide open sound the drums and bass have and the fidgety guitar combined with the unhinged vocals creates this really unique ambience of menace and power without ever getting particularly busy and losing the spaciousness. Feels like yelling about monkeys on a wide open desert plain.

Coisa No. 10 - Marcello Gonçalves and Anat Cohen: I found this song ages ago on ABC Jazz I think, and I absolutely love the intricacies of it. It twists and folds in on itself over and over and over without ever losing the groove or relaxing into anything easy. There's so much tension in it even though the melody and groove are so fun, it's a great mix. I also found out it's from an album that's a tribute to someone I'd never heard of before named Moacir Santos, so I got the great joy of discovering his music via this song as well.

Monologue/Nana - Moacir Santos: Moacis Santos, as I understand it, was one of Henry Mancini's film composition assistants and also the guy that taught all the Boss Nova geniuses like Sergio Mendes. I love this Monologue where he tells the story of a mystical vision that inspired this song, which you assume being inspired by a vision would be of mythical importance and weight and but instead sounds like the theme to a cartoon about a grandma who has superpowers.

Weird People - Little Mix: I need more info about the identity of the robot voice in this song. What is his relationship to the singer. He starts off antagonistic: “get off the wall” then commenting on what happened to her: “fell off the wall” then just echoing her: “on the other side” then becoming her “i’m living my life”. It’s complicated and hard to explain but I believe the robot voice in this song is god. Anyway this song is a masterpiece. It’s an incredibly goofy and great piece of 80s revival that imagines a glorious alternate future where Oh Yeah by Yello is the template for all pop music.

3 Legged Dog - Marisa Anderson: Marisa Anderson used to write songs with words here and there among her instrumentals but it seems that over the last couple of albums she’s decided to stick to instrumentals only which I think is a shame. She’s obviously brilliant at it but I’d hate to be missing out on beautiful little slices like this. I love how small time this song is, it feels like a song you’d sing to yourself more than a song for anyone else.

Nighttime Suite - Adam Gnade & Demetrius Francisco Antuña: Adam Gnade is a guy I’ve been following for about ten years now who seems determined to stay obscure. He self-releases all his stuff in limited editions or on cassettes, some of my favourite things he’s ever done don’t seem to be available anywhere digitally any more (if they ever were). I remember years ago he seemed hard up for cash and he ran a deal on his website called a ‘lifetime subscription’ where if you sent him I think $100 he would send you everything he’s ever done AND would continue to send you everything he made in the future for the rest of his life. It was absolutely great, I would get CD-Rs and tapes and zines and things delivered randomly to my mailbox every so often for a couple of years and they were all fantastic. I guess at some point my lifetime subscription lapsed because he’s released a bunch of stuff I haven’t heard or read but that’s ok, you shouldn’t be able to buy someone’s eternal soul for $100.

Adam Gnade has developed his own style of folk music where he just recites a sort of prose poetry over music and it’s incredible. In the hands of anyone else it could feel overly pretentious, and he pretty often rides that line. He’s reaching for a sort of poet laureate of Americana ideal but very often he actually grabs it. His writing is great and magnifies the minor details of normal life into larger symptoms of the American mindset, like depression-era songs of marginalised and exploited people individualised and updated for the modern era. Most of the time he backs himself on a lazily strummed guitar or banjo and his music sounds like sitting on the front step or laying down in the tall grass, but for this song he’s teamed up with Demetrius Francisco Antuña for some real Godspeed feeling dark soundscapes and it’s really something.

We Are The Same - Lurch And Chief: I think it's a damn shame that Lurch And Chief broke up before they even put an album out because this song is a damn classic and I have begun praying every day for the return of Lurch and/or Chief. I love a big voice and there's two distinctly huge voices in this song fighting for position.

983/Near DT, MI - Black Midi: Fucking hell I love this Black Midi album. I'm so, so glad it exists. It feels like the next generation of the Slint Hella, Tera Melos etc lineage of math rock and I simply can't get enough of it. Pump it directly into my veins I'm obsessed with it.

Take Control - Amerie: I just screamed out loud in my car hearing this song for the first time because it samples Jimmy, Renda Se by Tom Zé one of my absolute favourite songs ever. And samples it amazingly, totally transforms it into something new while keeping the spirit of the original. Do you ever feel like a song was just made for you personally? It’s a very kind thing of my vlogger wife Amerie to do for me but I guess that’s just how she is. Also, thanks to Spotify’s new feature where you can see the actual credits for songs I got to find out that Hall And Oates are credited on this because it basically interpolates the the whole verse melody from You Make My Dreams Come True which I didn’t even realise until I looked up why they were credited.

Unsquare Dance - Dave Brubeck: Dave Brubeck's brain is huge. I can't belive it's possible to make 7/4 this funky. How come nobody else ever ripped off this rhythm? It deserves to be a whole genre. I also totally love the piano solo near the end where it turns into like a funky 7/4 stride and then abruply ends with a shave and haircut like it's 1925.

Suddenly - French Vanilla: Get a load of this fucking slice of dance punk that Discover Weekly served me up. I haven't even listened ot the album yet because I just love this song so much I'm stuck on it. Singing "I like the nightlife! I'm in the spotlight!" like you're being hunted with a knife? Incredible. The impromptue glossolalia about halfway through? Incredible. Everything about the saxophone? Incredible

Maneater - Nelly Furtado: There's nothing deft or subtle about Timbaland. Everything he does is just so heavy handed and thick. The drums in this are so straightforward and they sound like garbage cans.. Nothing ever plays at he same time as anything else . It's like a gorilla learned to play and it's absolutely fucking sick. And then the whole rest of the song! His insanely thick buzzy synth lines against the big beautifully stack clean harmonies

I, The Witchfinder - Electric Wizard: I've been getting back into Skyrim because I have a little worm living in my brain and I've discovered a good trick is to turn off the game music and turn on Electric Wizard instead. It increases the ambience because it feels like if you did an x-ray of the Dragonborn's head this is all that would be in there. It's just stoner metal in there and no other thoughts.

Music Sounds Better With You - Stardust: Can you believe how lucky we are to live in a world where the greatest song ever written is finally available on spotify? You can just listen to this any time of the night or day and immediately improve your life.

Don’t Chew - Spilled Oats: Here’s a very good and underexplored idea: what if guitar music but it sounds like chopped and screwed? Absolutely dynamite.

 As an extra bonus treat here the absolute best ever chopped and screwed channel I’ve found on youtube, please explore Scobed & Robed: https://www.youtube.com/user/scottalexanderburton

listen here

[thenewbuzwuzz]

C, D, M?

Thanks!

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Oh, um, Buffy/Giles isn't my thing unless it's platonic (but if it is, I'm all over it!). That's because they have that father-daughter vibe (and also a very visible age difference & he is basically her teacher). Barb C once recced a Buffy/Giles fic where the Buffy came from an alternate universe and so that particular Buffy had formed a completely different relationship with her Giles from the start & didn't have any history with our Giles. This seemed to reduce my dislike from "please no" to "meh". However, I didn't do more than glance at the fic, so it's still a mystery if I could ever enjoy this ship. :)

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

WELL, the closest thing that comes to mind is Dawn/Spike as anything else than friends or found family. It squicks me, but I see no *real* reason why they shouldn't get it on if they so chose, once Dawn grows up some. Yeah, he "babysits" her, but it's really in more of a bodyguard capacity. The fact that they started out as friends could be the opposite of a problem. As for their age difference, if you count Dawn's human (cover story) age, it's bad but, tbh, not much worse than any vampire/human ship. If you count Dawn's age as a key (super old) or a memory construct (starting from s5), the concept of dating-appropriate age differences seems to become irrelevant because everything is just SO WEIRD. ANYWAY, I once saw a Dawn/Spike fic that I wanted to check out because of themes (*cough*possible period smut *cough*). I turned right back because of the ship. Then I came back, determined to make myself read it For Science. I got to the middle if the first paragraph, and then the barest hint of shippiness appeared and I just noped out. The fic looked like it could be good, though, especially if you're into the... themes! It's called Vivid Ways to Ripen.

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Tara, obviously. :)

[holocron-inthe-restrictedsection]

To Be a Jedi

They dropped out of hyperspace above a brown-tinged world that definitely wasn’t Naboo.

“Padmé, where are we?” Bail Organa asked, leaning over the console to check the navicomputer. “Did you put in the wrong coordinates?”

“No,” his fellow Senator responded as she instructed the shuttle to enter the atmosphere, “we’re right where we need to be.”

Bail frowned as he found the name of the system they’d arrived at. “But – this is Aargonar.”

The Aargonarian leadership had recently asked the Senate to send delegates to ease tension during the transfer of power ceremony. The existing governor was stepping down in objection to the Republic’s treatment of Confederacy of Independent Systems, and his successor had been selected due to his interest in exchanging the planet’s neutral status for a Separatist one.

He looked at her sharply. “What are we doing here?”

Padmé focused on adjusting the controls. “The governor requested for mediators to be present, to make sure things don’t get out of hand.”

“And the Senate voted to deny their request on the grounds that they are Separatist sympathizers,” Bail reminded her. He paused as they rocketed through the upper atmosphere, the shuttle humming slightly as they broke through and began slowing down. “From what I hear, they won’t be a Republic system much longer. Padmé, what are we doing here?”

Padmé hesitated. “I received intel that Senator Bonteri’s husband, Claydon, is here, seeking to establish a Separatist base.”

“Have you reported it to the Chancellor?” Bail demanded.

Padmé offered a small chuckle. “You think the Chancellor doesn’t already know?” She grew serious. “The Chancellor plans on issuing a strike force to wipe out the base. I’ve got to warn Claydon. I owe it to Mina.”

As much as he wanted to be angry with Padmé, he couldn’t. She loved Senator Bonteri, and Claydon was a good man, in spite of his political allegiance. Before the war began, Bail had actually become fond of the senator’s husband, finding him to be an excellent conversationalist during otherwise tedious dinners.

“They’ll hardly let two Senators waltz into a new Separatist post,” Bail pointed out gently. “I’m afraid we won’t get close.”

“Aargonar still holds the Jedi in high esteem, and would do anything they ask.”

“Well, yes, maybe. But we don’t have any Jedi with us.”

Instead of answering, Padmé turned the controls over to Bail and rose from her seat, exiting the cockpit. Bail let out a breath. Padmé was one of his closest friends, and he knew her well enough to realize that he was about to get roped into one of her escapades.

The cockpit door hissed open and he flicked on the auto-pilot. Bail turned to find Padmé holding out a bundle of clothes to him. Suspiciously, he took them and let them unfurl. A tunic, some leggings, a utility belt, a long cloak –

Jedi robes.

It took him two more beats before it sank in. He rounded on Padmé. “Oh, no. No, no, no. You can’t be serious!”

“Of course I am.”  

“We can’t pose as Jedi!”

“Why not?”

“It’s illegal! Have you forgotten that?”

“I’m sure the Jedi Council will understand.” Padmé smiled slightly. “You don’t have to come with me, Bail. You’re free to take the ship once I’ve landed, if you promise to return for me in three days.”

“I can’t leave you here alone,” Bail exclaimed. “I – Padmé, this is ludicrous. We don’t have Jedi abilities! If something goes wrong, if they ask us to prove ourselves, we’ll be caught.

“We go in and make it clear that we are only there for deterrence. That’s a large portion of a Jedi’s job anyway; their presence alone is enough to make most beings back down. We’ll earn the trust of some government official who knows about the Separatist base, and we’ll ask to see it. It’s a reasonable request, and they know Jedi would never use subterfuge to destroy it. It’s still at the stage where a Jedi could claim diplomatic immunity. I can get in contact with Claydon and… well, whatever he does with the information is up to him.” She looked up at him, determined. “I have to do this, Bail. I have to try.”

Bail sighed and shook his head. There was no argument that would sway her; she was, of course, right. “Very well.”

“Then get changed. We’ll be landing soon.”

*                             *                             *

The tunic was a bit small, but it would serve. The boots Padmé provided fit reasonably well, but didn’t match the arch of his foot at all. Bail hoped he wouldn’t have to do any running in them. His shoulders sagged.  I’m with Padmé. Of course I’ll have to run.

He caught himself as the ship touched down on solid land. He returned to the cockpit to find that Padmé had already donned a set of robes. Used to seeing her in senatorial garb and evening gowns, he found it strange to see her in the unembellished tunic.

“Where did you even get these?” he asked, peering at his own clothes. The darker color reminded him of Master Skywalker’s robes.

“Mine was made my seamstress. Yours I had to – ah, borrow.”

He shot her a look. “And you’ll return it, of course?”

“Of course,” she responded, avoiding his eye. “One last detail.” She reached into a crate at her feet and pulled out a smaller box. She opened it carefully and turned it towards Bail. Inside rested two lightsabers.

“What?” Bail recoiled, his eyes widening. “What have you –?”

“They’re not real lightsabers,” Padmé said quickly, picking one up and showing him. “Captain Typho designed it. If you hit the main button here, it releases a blaster bolt. Jedi don’t carry blasters, but he refused to go along with this unless I had some type of weapon. And this knob here, if you twist it, it emits a thick smoke that would give us some cover if we needed to escape.”

Bail took the false lightsaber gingerly. “I suppose we do have to look the part.” He clipped the weapon onto his belt, then spread his arms. “How do I look?”

Padmé regarded him thoughtfully. “Uncertain, uncomfortable, but the costume almost makes up for it.”

“I can’t act like a Jedi.”

“Just act like your normal self, Bail. You already carry yourself much like I’ve seen Jedi do. Just throw in some wry remarks and you’ll convince them.”

He caught her by the arm as she went to pass him. Irritation flashed across her face, but vanished a moment later. “Are you sure about this?” Bail asked quietly. “You’re putting yourself at risk.”

“So are you, by agreeing to come,” she said.

They stood in silence for a long moment. They were both nervous, Bail knew. Trying to go undetected into enemy territory impersonating Jedi was nerve-wracking enough, but if they were discovered to be Senators, here without the Senate’s permission, they would be accused of treason, or...

“Thank you.”

“You know I’ll always be here for you.”

She smiled. “Let’s go.”

Bail let her lead the way down the shuttle’s ramp. Waiting for them at the platform was a bald human male with a full beard and a blaster at his hip. Two security guards flanked him, black helmets masking their faces. The man stepped forward.

“Welcome to Aargonar, Master Jedi. I am Deean Corre, head of the governor’s security force. I must say, we were not expecting your arrival. We had been under the impression the Republic would have nothing to do with our world and its democratic processes. We are honored to have you here, Masters –?”

Padmé bowed. “Sola Naberrie, sir.”

Bail followed her lead, bending at the waist and dipping his head. “Giles Durane, at your service.”

Padmé clasped her hands in front of her. “We apologize that we did not announce our intention to arrive sooner. The Chancellor asked that we keep this matter under wraps, to avoid any unnecessary attention.”

“Of course, of course,” Corre responded hurriedly. “I understand the precaution. If you would follow me, Master Jedi, I shall escort you to the governor’s chambers. I am sure you will have much to discuss.”

Bail exchanged a glance with Padmé. She gave an encouraging smile. Bail allowed himself a deep breath. “I’m sure we will,” he responded mildly.

  **A submission for @finish-the-clone-wars writing Wednesday prompt, Infiltration**

[itsclydebitches]

Buffy’s “Empty Places”: Deconstructing Merit, Luck, and Betterment

Anyone who’s spent five minutes with me knows that I love ranty metas, and Buffy’s “Empty Places” is something I’ve wanted to tackle since I finished it. However, rather than try to unravel the entirety of that shit-show conversation I want to focus in on what Anya says near the end.

You really do think you're better than we are. But we don't know. We don't know if you're actually better. I mean, you came into the world with certain advantages, sure. I mean, that's the legacy. But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.

Here Anya lays out three important questions that I think are crucial to interpreting the Buffyverse.

Did Buffy “earn” her power? 

Is she “luckier” than her friends? 

Is Buffy “better” than her friends? And what exactly does “better” mean in this context?

Honestly, I still stand amazed that Anya can even voice the first two questions among Buffy’s friends and not get immediate, wicked backlash. Admittedly her use of “luckier” could be interpreted to mean “randomly,” but her word choice is still significant. Buffy is by no stretch of the imagination lucky. Does her calling give her purpose? Yes. Does it give her cool superpowers? Absolutely. But none of these benefits are free gifts—they’re balanced, even outweighed, by her responsibilities. This calling means that Buffy has no other options in her life, no career or family as a ‘normal’ person would experience it. Her powers are to keep herself and others safe, not to have fun with. Buffy didn’t win the freaking lottery here, this life was forced on her.

Throughout the entirety of the series we see the others’ (realistic) jealousy of Buffy: Cordelia views her as a threat to her popularity, Willow as the ‘cool’ girl she always wished she could be, Xander resents that Buffy always has the power to help, and Faith has a whole damn plot-line devoted to her jealousy, yet at no point does anyone acknowledge that Buffy is only the “lucky” one when things are going their way. They want to help, but they know she’s the only one who can finish things. Buffy announces that she’s the only one who can finish things… and everyone’s hackles go up. They don’t want her responsibility; they also don’t want to acknowledge that her responsibility makes her different from them. You can’t have it both ways. To say nothing of the fact that the rest of the Scoobies can leave any time they want. They can walk away from this life. Buffy can’t. She’s not the lucky one, she’s the one who’s trapped.

Now, did Buffy earn her power? Oh boy. Again, I don’t know how Anya can even ask that. Did she earn the power prior to receiving it? Perhaps not, but Buffy has absolutely earned her right to it since. She gave up the social life she desperately craved, a college education, she killed her boyfriend for the greater good, was ready to kill another friend (Anya) if the need arose, Buffy died, twice, and stuck around after she was wrenched out of Heaven to keep fighting the good fight. I honestly wanted to ask in that moment: what more do you expect of this girl?

Furthermore, there’s evidence that Buffy did ‘earn’ the Slayer power right from the start. She was chosen. Why? We don’t know exactly, but out of ALL the other Potential girls in the world Buffy was the one the legacy activated and I personally think she was chosen for a reason. It’s also telling that Season 7 throws Buffy into a houseful of other would-be Slayers and essentially let’s us compare them. One girl runs away. Another commits suicide. The others force out their leader and walk into a trap. Did Buffy make a lot of the same mistakes at their age? Yes, but it’s also worth considering that these girls aren’t ready in the same way she was at fifteen, that some might not possess the fortitude to be the Slayer, that seven years ago the magic chose Buffy for a reason. She was the one most suited for the position.

So is she “better” than her friends?

After Anya gave her little speech I had one, significant sentence running through my head:

Buffy is the only one who hasn’t been corrupted.

To lay out just a few examples:

Giles rebelled as a teenager by summoning a horrifying demon that eventually killed his friends. Buffy rebelled as a teenager by demanding that she get to go to the prom or out on dates with Angel.

Willow takes away the consent of her girlfriend, her friends, nearly kills Dawn, and when she suffers the loss of a loved one immediately seeks revenge, going so far as to try and destroy the entire world (something I think the show let’s her get away with far too easily). Buffy loses her mom and though there’s no person to seek revenge on, she also doesn’t release her anger on other innocents.

Years ago Anya happily chose to be a vengeance demon. She spent a thousand years torturing and slaughtering who knows how many. After being left at the alter she immediately turns back to those ways and attempted to seek revenge on Xander (and please picture for a moment how she might be received if that episode hadn’t been played for humor. If the whole ‘you can’t seek your own vengeance’ rule wasn’t in place and Anya had succeeded in killing Xander). She proceeds to murder a group of college boys before turning back to the good side.

Faith’s entire storyline revolves around her going dark. We can come up with endless justifications for her—from a terrible childhood to not fitting in with the Scoobies—but the fact remains that she is a clear foil to Buffy: the ‘bad’ Slayer to Buffy’s ‘good’ one. Ultimately, no one forced her to adopt that role.

Andrew very happily goes along with all the tormenting Buffy/killing women/taking over the world stuff, showing not an ounce of true remorse. Despite all his claims of ‘coming over to the light side,’ the only reason we’re given for him joining the gang was because he killed his only friend, was kidnapped by them, and literally had nowhere else to go. He’s not necessarily a ‘good’ guy now, he’s a lonely guy sticking with the only people capable of protecting him.

Xander and Cordelia are outliers in that neither ever achieves any real, formidable power (at least not on Buffy), but what power they do accumulate they don’t use well. Xander casts love spells, the magic equivalent of roofying a girl, deliberately falls asleep while he has the responsibility of watching Oz, or lies to Buffy to help get Angel killed. Cordelia uses her social power to harm everyone around her, as often as possible. 

What I’m getting at is that most of Buffy’s friends go through the same sequence of events: free will + power = a decision that harms others to an extreme degree. The free choice aspect is important because I think there are only three core group members that don’t fit this pattern: Oz—who resists being a wild werewolf who would kill others if not locked up—Tara—who carefully controls the type and extent of her magic—and Spike—who never does anything of his own free will, if we buy into the Angel/Angelus dichotomy that the show initially set up (and then admittedly muddled with Spike). But if we go by that lore, everything he did post-vampirism was the demon. The women he killed with his soul was the First’s doing.

Notably, none of these people are in the room with Buffy to back her up.

Instead she’s surrounded by others who at one point or another are corrupted by the power they’ve attained. Buffy is living with a group of people who have willfully committed heinous deeds - deeds she’s forgiven them for - while they’re more than happy to toss her out the second she makes a mistake with actual consequences. Importantly though, Buffy never goes down the road they did. To my recollection the closest she gets is with Faith—“We are better than them”—but even then all Buffy does is loot a deserted store, playing at the ‘bad girl’ role without ever actually becoming her. Does she make mistakes over the years? HELL YES, but unlike the others they’re always made with good intentions. Buffy releases Spike because he’s needed and she honestly believes he’s not a threat anymore. She gets some of the Potentials killed because she’s trying to save the world. She pushes everyone away and acts ‘cruel’ because she’s told time and time again that that’s what they need—an unfeeling “general.” At every turn Buffy puts the greater good above her own needs and desires, from the small (dropping out of college) to the unfathomably large (killing Angel, dying twice). Is this ‘realistic’ characterization? Perhaps not, but it’s what makes Buffy the hero of the tale. No matter what she’ll always put others before herself and do whatever is required of her to keep them safe. 

Honestly, her friends can’t claim the same. 

So yeah, in this respect I’d say Buffy is “better.”

(Anyway, this all makes it sound like I hate these characters when in fact I love them all lol. Forgive the new Buffy fan still working through drama 20 years late. @thepinkrvnger​ I’m tagging you again not with the expectation that you’re gonna read any of this shit, but to let you know your previous Buffy response got me laughing. Kudos 👍) 

[rimalupin]

50 More Interesting Questions

Rules: fill this out and tag at least one person you’d like to know more about! Or just fill it out! Or don’t! Answer only some of them! Make up your own questions! “What kind of requirement is that”, you ask? A reasonable one! Who am I to tell you what to do? Anything goes!

Thank you for tagging me @theempresskaizer & @kakihoden! :D <3

1. What kind of food can’t you stand?: Anything fermented. Like, ew. Also brussel sprouts (Then again, I have yet find someone who can cook brussel sprouts “well.” :b)

2. If you could choose one minor inconvenience to never have to deal with again, what would you pick?: Public transit schedules. They’re so darn inconvenient (And yet I’m commuting for the remainder of my uni career. At least I’m saving money..?). -.-’

3. Have you got any useless talents?: I try to make use of my talents, so I’m gonna say no. :b

4. If you could be really really good at one thing, what would it be?: Taking (good & worthwhile) risks because I’m always so darn careful so I end up not trying new things sometimes.

5. Name a few people you think are extremely good-looking: ALL THE FRIENDS AND FAMILY I KNOW AND LOVE. <3 Oh, also Emma Watson, Gal Gadot, Shawn Mendes, Tom Holland, and all the other celebs I tend to fangirl about (I can’t name them all rn, haha sorry~. :P).

6. What was your favorite way to pass the time as a kid?: Singing all the Disney songs (Which I still do nowadays, haha~.). I would also read books, write my own stories, and act as if I was on a Disney Channel show (I was quite the Disney fangirl back in the day. xD)

7. What is something you’re proud of?: My friends who are just starting college/uni this year. Most of them are already setting up their dorms and getting ready for classes. They’re growing up so fast! :’)

8. What’s one character flaw in people that you just can’t tolerate?: Dishonesty. I don’t associate with phonies.

9. Do you consider yourself to be more of a leader or a follower?: I’m a bit of both. Then again, being a follower makes you a kind of leader: you essentially lead people to follow your leader, if that makes sense Okay I’ll shut up about leadership theory sorry y’all. :P

10. What kind of student are/were you?: The diligent one (but people often claim I’m the overachiever even tho I’m not always a straight A student lololol).

11. Butterfly effect question! Has there ever been a seemingly minor decision you’ve made (at the time) that ended up having a profound influence on your life?: Ohhhhh yes. This kind of thing has happened to me many times (In like the best ways possible, thankfully.).

12. Name your most irrational fear/aversion: Being alone/left out (Even though “I’m never really alone” ((Which I know I’m not. Hence the “irrational” part of this particular fear/aversion.)).)

13. Are there any fictional characters you find especially relatable?: Yup. Plenty of ‘em.

14. If you drink, what kind of drunk are you? Alternatively, what sort of person are you at parties?: I don’t drink... Yet. My Canadian friends are trying to get me to drink with them since I’m now legal in Canada but I’m scared heeeeeelp. :b I’m usually the wallflower if I don’t know anybody too well at a party. However, if I find people I’m comfortable hanging out with, I’ll stick with their squad throughout the event, talking, eating, dancing and taking pictures/SnapChats to our hearts’ desires~. ^-^

15. Do you fall in love easily? Or does it usually take a long time for you to trust someone?: Nope. I have to get to know the person before I “fall in love” with them, let alone having a crush on them. Which is why the biggest crushes I’ve had were on some of my closest friends. But I’ve never told them because I didn’t want to risk our friendships IDK I’M A NOOB WHEN IT COMES TO LOVEY-DOVEY THINGS. :b

16. Would you rather have one close friend or 100 casual friends?: One close friend. <3

17. Do you consider yourself to be more of a slob or a neat-freak?: Neat-freak. Definitely a neat-freak. xD

18. Describe a place (imaginary or real) that you would find incredibly cozy: 

Both of these locations are places where I’d have more than enough room to move or think. ^-^

Outdoors: Somewhere near the sea, where I could feel the sand on my toes, hear the waves splashing onto the shore, smell the ocean breeze, and watch the orange sunset glowing along the horizon.

Indoors: An empty practice room. Wooden floors, large mirrors in front of the room, dance barres along the side walls, a few windows displaying the outside world, and a speaker/stereo system perfect for blasting the music around the room.

19. Do you have kids? If not, do you want them someday?: No kids atm, but I love working with them! Yes, I’d like kids someday~.

20. What was your favorite book as a child?: I read many books as a wee child. But one book I can clearly remember is Stellaluna. It’s an adorable story about a bat who discovers who she truly is thanks to both her adoptive and biological families (The former being a family of birds and the latter being a family of bats.).

21. Name one thing you just don’t get what all the hype is about: Fidget spinners. I’m still seeing people freak out about those things. Didn’t the trend die a month or two ago?

22. Name one thing that you think is tragically underrated: Myspace. *evil laughs despite the fact that I never had a Myspace account* :P Sorry I couldn’t think of anything else bahaha~

23. If you had to be glued to a person for a month, real or fictional (who you have never met), who would you choose?: I mean, I’ve never met MYSME’s 707 IRL, so I’ll stick with him And we can visit his space station, haha~ ^-^

24. What’s something you’d like the chance to do someday?: Act in a theatrical production. I haven’t done theatre in a year and I already miss it. T.T

25. Do you typically speak your mind when you have a controversial opinion? Or do generally prefer to not rock the boat?: I’ll definitely speak my mind if I’m well-versed in the topic and if I’m passionate about it. If I want to present a controversial opinion, I have to be sure that I can articulate my POV eloquently and professionally. I’m also more than willing to listen to the other side, as long as they fully know what they’re talking about (Frankly, I will not take any B.S. if I suspect B.S.).

26. What’s the dumbest fad you’ve been caught up in?: I’m blanking... Yeah, IDK, but I’m pretty sure I got caught up in some kind of dumb fad back in middle school. *shivers b/c I don’t want to relive those years*

27. What’s something you thought was cool as a kid/adolescent, but now cringe at yourself for?: When I was younger (like elementary/middle school-age), I dreamed of becoming a singer. In order to accomplish that dream, I joined my school and church choirs: however, that turned out to be a pretty toxic experience since almost everyone I was singing with treated every single practice and performance as a singing competition. Like, c’mon you guys: we aren’t on Glee. -.-’

28. What’s a trait you consider to be very admirable?: Honesty: I admire people who are genuine and true.

29. Is there a particular kind of item people always tend to give you as gifts? (For instance, people always get you things with ducks on them because you like ducks, etc.): Books (people know I’m a huge bookworm), clothes (b/c I’m usually too lazy/don’t have time to shop for my own clothes, LOLOL), stuffed animals (I’m a child at heart and I love cuddly & cute things), sweets (especially chocolate).

30. Do you speak multiple languages? Which ones?: 

English is my mother tongue.

I apparently used to speak Tagalog fluently when I was very young, but then I stopped speaking that language once I started preschool; however, I’ve picked up some terms over the years, so I can sort of dissect my parents’ conversations w/ the other adults (”Yes, Mom, I knew that you were talking about my uni stuff with Tita *insert name here*.” :P), plus I’m going to take a Tagalog 101 class in Autumn Quarter, so I’ll (hopefully) learn how to say complete sentences instead of just the names of foods, holidays, and Filipino Folk Dances. xD

I learned Spanish throughout my high school career, so I’m okay in that department even though I haven’t practiced speaking/listening/writing in that language recently. I’m still fluent enough to help my sisters with their Spanish homework, so that’s something. :P

I tried learning some French, Japanese, and Korean through various language learning apps, but to no avail.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

31. Would you rather live in the big city or the countryside?: Can I choose like a little town instead? Big city: the countryside would be MUCH too quiet for me (Plus I’d be much too tempted to run atop every hill Sound of Music style and start singing at the top of my lungs - which would probably annoy a lot of people, myself included. :P).

32. Has there ever been something you were certain you’d hate, but ended up loving?: Giles Christophe a.k.a my Midnight Cinderella bias. Ironic, huh? xD <3 Also Jumin Han from MYSME. :P

33. Do you mind being the center of attention, or do you prefer the spotlight to be on someone else?: I will hide from the spotlight like I’m a friggin vampire unless there’s a damn good reason for me to be under it.

34. Favorite holiday?: CHRISTMAS!!!

35. Are you a more go-with-the-flow type of person, or do you need to have things planned meticulously?: If I’m in charge of scheduling something, then I MUST have everything carefully planned. If I’m leaving the scheduling to someone else, then I’ll just go with the flow~.

36. Is there something you loved so much you wish you could forget it and experience it all over again? (A tv show, book, series–anything.): My first trip to Hawaii: I’d love to explore the islands and swim in its oceans again.

37. What hobbies do you have?: Reading, writing, singing, dancing, listening to music, playing the guitar or ukulele, checking social media (JKJK :P), drawing/arts & crafts (If I’m EXTREMELY bored), playing video games, watching TV/YouTube, exploring places both old and new Yeah, I do too many things, haha~

38. If you could have a superpower, but it was only mildly useful, what ability would you want to have?: “Mildly useful?” (O.o) I guess the ability to learn things VERY quickly - like, master an activity on the first try. I actually have a friend with that ability, which has allowed him to almost effortlessly master almost every sport he’s ever learned: he’s basically a superhuman and I admire and envy him for his “superpower.” :P <3

39. Something people are always surprised to learn about you: My age: people think that I’m much younger than I actually am, mostly because of my shorter-than-average height and my baby face. I’m basically an adult stuck in a teenager’s body. xD

40. Something that took you way too long to figure out: How to apply the Unit Circle to various math problems eff you precalculus and calculus never again ugggghhhhh.

41. Worst injury you’ve had?: My broken heart (JKJK, sort of. :P) I got burned by the metal tip of a very hot glue gun. Thanks to that, I have a tiny scar on my upper right arm.

42. Any morbid fascinations?: Does watching playthroughs of horror games through YouTube count?

43. Describe your sense of humor: Clever/witty, sarcastic, sassy. Oftentimes unintentional: jokes will usually come to me naturally through conversation. If we’re close, plenty of embarrassing stories, inside jokes, and horrible puns will be part of our daily doses of humor.

44. If you had to be born in another era/place, which would you choose?: I’d want to be born in Canada, mostly because I’ve got a lot of family living up there, plus I’d love to live in a place that isn’t completely messed up rn. #SorryNotSorryAmerica *crosses to the Canadian border like a badass*

45. Something you are irredeemably bad at: LOL, WHAT’S A SPORT? :b

46. Something that sucked but you’re glad you went through: Freshman year of high school. I first moved to my new home that year, so being the new kid sucked for a while, but I eventually made some friends and found more opportunities to grow as a person (through writing and theatre).

47. Would you rather have a really godawful ugly tattoo in a place that is only slightly inconvenient to conceal with clothing (upper arm, thigh, etc.), or the coolest, most beautiful tattoo ever in the middle of your face? (Neither tattoo can be removed or concealed with makeup, and the ugly tattoo will deeply offend anyone who sees it.): Ugly tat. At least I’d have a place to hide it. xD

48. Are you more of an optimist or a pessimist?: Realist. Leaning on the pessimist side. However, I do try to believe that things will get better, that there’ll be more bigger and better opportunities out there, etc. etc.

49. What would be the most flattering compliment someone could give you?: That I’m a hardworking and genuine person. Then again, I don’t do well compliments anyway: I’ll definitely blush and stutter and try to hide behind some kind of an object while complimenting you back. xD <3

50. Something you feel people often misunderstand about you: I’m often quiet and reserved when I’m meeting new people. Some may think I’m naturally calm and composed, others take it as slightly intimidating. But I’m just quiet because I’m awkward, plus I don’t usually start conversations. :b

Tagging: @princessofwysteria, @sukio-sakamaki, @allforthecrown, @o0w0o, @widzzicles, @rizosrojizos, and anyone who wants to do this! (I would’ve tagged more peeps, but I didn’t know if they had been tagged already. So please join in if you haven’t done this already~.). ^-^ <3

[theotherbackgrounder]

Ever After High: Deviations. What if...Cerise took her hood off?

There’s a theory of Quantum realities, a concept of infinite possibility where anything that can happen, does happen somewhere in the universe. A single decision can change the fate of those that live there. A simple turn to the left can avert catastrophe while the right turn can trigger an apocalypse.

In this story, in this moment, a small child was scared…

What really happened…

Less than ten years ago there was two young girls, they were Raven Queen and Ginger Witch. Out casted by their peers because of who their parents were, it was destined that they were to lead a childhood that was filled with isolation. To hide their nature, to hide who they really were, it was not a life one wanted to live.

But there was a third child. This child was scared, fearful of others and how they would treat her. Scared, she could only watch from the distance, watch as the other two were badly treated and ultimately were forced away and into their isolation. She continued to watching behind a mask of created by her own isolation. Because she was scared that others would treat herself the same just because of who her father is. She was scared to be so alone that she forced her own form of isolation…scared to be free.

So what if she wasn’t scared?

What if in their moment of need, that Cerise hood had taken them by the hand. What if she had the courage that she needed to show who she really was? What if she reached out to both Raven Queen and Ginger Witch?

What if Cerise took off her hood?

-The basic Change

First these three girls would have become friends and while the gazes they would have on them might be filled with disgust, to these three it wouldn’t matter, they would be friends – they had one another. While they wouldn’t interact with those outside of their group, they didn’t mind. Now that they had one another to rely on, they don’t actually find their destinies that scary because they will always be there for one another.

For a while it was just the three Cerise, Ginger, and Raven, it was around middle school when Faybelle joined the group. At first it was more of a pride thing for the soon to be ‘Dark Fairy,’ why lead a group of fairies when you could be the leader of what would essentially be a group of the most famous fairy tale villains ever: The Dark Fairy, The Evil Queen, The Big Bad Wolf, and The Gingerbread Witch.

Perhaps it was more of a need of “acceptance” between the three girl, and that Ginger already had been friends with Faybelle when they were younger, but the three decided to bring Faybelle into the fold. As Faybelle herself had become a bit of a bad influence on the others, in return it was the others that had been able to get her to chill. At first there was some kind of aggression towards Raven because of her mother, but as time went on their relationship almost became a bit of “frenemy” territory. Throughout middle school it was the four of them always hanging out or getting into some mischief, it didn’t matter what they did as long as they did it together.

In Highschool it was still mainly their group that they did stick too, but they were able to reach out some and had some friends from outside of their circle. Some of these would be characters like Melody Piper as well as Apple White.

Together, these groups of girls have a chant they say together. “We’re villain, We take what we want! And if there is someone we don’t like? We crush them!”

-The Timeline

Because of the promise between these four girls to always be together no matter what, Raven was no longer afraid of her future. Sure, she would still do her own thing, but she had no problem with playing the part of the Evil Queen so long as her friends were there. Because of this, everybody signs the fake “storybook of destiny” and no one realizes it’s a fake, Briar would never have a reason to look for it in her bedroom, as well as they would have never taken a trip to wonderland and be able to heal it from what the Evil Queen did – but Raven did decide she would try to find a spell to undo what her mother had done. There is a strong possibility that Courtly took over wonderland.

Because that Raven did decide to follow her destiny and ultimately help Apple, Apple was never coursed into helping the Evil Queen and Dragon Games never happened. Because that never happened, The Snow King never was turned evil and Krystal never learned to tie her own god damn shoes.

-The Characters

---Raven Queen

In this new timeline, Raven is the one that probably hasn’t changed that much, appearance and personality wise she is still mainly the same. Since being friends with the others, Raven has come to accept some of the darker side of her blood and because of this she has much grander control then she currently has.

Raven also has a better relationship with her mother now that she isn’t afraid of the darkness. She has even had moments where she would go against the schedule that was set up and just talk to her mother in the mirror, but still, she wouldn’t dream to ever free her mother.

Raven’s relationship with Apple is a lot rockier than it was now then it was before as now it seems that Raven had been so connected to the circle of friends she had in the original timeline and seem to come off as colder to her new roommate now than she was before

Original: Nice try, Apple. But I’m rooming with Maddie this year.

Now: Nice try, Princess. But I’m rooming with Cerise this year.

But of course time heals everything and Raven even learns to open up to Apple even more. Even a better chance for a relationship to bud.

---Ginger Breadhouse

Ginger is the second one to mostly change in this timeline. Since she was never bullied out of school when she was young; she had neither changed her name, dyed her hair, or pretended to be someone she was not. Now the green haired Ginger Witch she always was (if memory serves correctly, she dyed her hair) she was able to live a more enjoyable childhood with Raven and Cerise and never once had to worry about lying to everyone around her.

Now that she was able to be more herself she finds herself once in a while making a joke like her mother, though of course, like her mother, she always made sure to let others know she was just joking. Perhaps it was because of having a negative influence around her (Faybelle) but Ginger does have a bit of a short temper when it comes to her mother and friends that she is willing to protect, but it is her friends (even Faybelle) that tells her that “it’s okay” or “It’s not worth your time.”

She kind of likes picking on the Crumbs.

---Cerise Hood

Out of the three girls Cerise is probably the one that had the most extensive change in both personality and appearance. Now that she no longer has her secret that hindered herself throughout her life time she is able to live her life with her hood down and not be bogged down. So looking at “what may happen” to cerise in terms of appearance might be hard to get a grasp on, but in terms of what we have seen the closest thing would be a cross between Ramona and Cerise Wolf’s outfit. Cerise would also wear a hood, but it would be a hooded jacket. As for the personality, Cerise’s personality would be more closer to that of Ramona’s personality, a type that would prop up her feet on the lunch table.

Now that the wolf is no longer trying to be a sheep, she no longer holds back her own thoughts and concerns. She would often be one to tell Ginger to “calm down,” and then be the one to turn around and knock out the one responsible.

Currently, Cerise is in a prank war with Kitty. There may be no survivors.

---Faybelle Thorn

Not much of a difference here. Since being friends with the others Faybelle definitely has become more chill and open to those around as compared to her original timeline self. She still sometimes gets tricked by the Evil Queen, but only as for her frenemy rivalry with Raven to escalate.

-the others

---Giles Grimm/Milton Grimm

Since Raven signed the book the situation between royal and rebel never started. Giles Grimm would never have that babble spell removed, Milton Grimm would never be able to accept that perhaps a little change was good.

---Darling Charming

As Raven would have never inspired others neither would have she of inspired Darling. Darling would still be pretending who she wasn’t, acting as a doll for her family legacy. Since Raven never inspired her, she never would have been “out there” and neither would that kiss happen.

---Apple White

While not much of a change happens per se’ she would probably be more of the same from episode one. But the issue would be that because Raven never “rebelled” in the first place, when Raven poisons Apple and Daring comes to wake her up, she never awakens. Every knight in the kingdom comes to wake up princess Apple, but because of the above with darling never happened, Apple White is stuck in an eternal sleep.

---O’hair Twins

Since Raven signed the book, influence on others never happened. When the O’hair twins found out that they were switched at birth, they probably confessed. Now Poppy is Rapunzel and Holly’s dream is shattered.

---Lizzie Hearts

Lizzie is never to return home. She is never to see her mother ever again.

---Madeline Hatter

Madeline knows that the narration is wrong. She knows that the story that she is in isn’t the right one. She was never able to meet the isolated little girl that one faithful day that would have become her bffa. And you know what? That’s alright to her.

From her perspective, Raven is happier now than she ever was before. Raven has a smiled on her face and a gleam in her eye that Maddie had never seen before. And you know what? To Maddie, that is 100% okay. She is just happy to know that her friend is happy. She doesn’t mind watching from afar.

She doesn’t mind she isn’t sitting right next to Raven. She doesn’t mind that Raven doesn’t even know her name. She doesn’t even mind that she may never to return home. As long as Raven Queen was happy, Maddie was happy.

---Crystal Winter

She never learned to tie her own goddamn shoes.

[we-pay-for-everything]

Number 12 for episodes! (and why) :)

Hi! Thanks for the ask :)

For Buffy: 

1. Amends

First of all, this is an Angel centric episode and you know how much I love Angel! Second of all, it’s the closest episode to Ats that Btvs has, and you know how much I love Ats!

That’s it, really... This episode is great because it gives us insight into Angel’s mind post-hell and really turns him into an existential character. That scene between Angel and Buffy at the top of the hill is beautiful. It hits all the feels. I relate a lot to Angel and can understand Buffy perfectly. It’s beautiful dialogue and the acting is intense. I also love the part when they hold hands and look at one another! ´

Another plus of the episode is the theme of forgiveness. Xander and Buffy make up and Willow tries hilariously to loose her virginity to the sound of Barry White :P

2. Becoming

I think I like the first part better than the second one overall. Idk how to explain my love for this episode. It’s just so  c o o l. 

    1. I love Angel’s backstory. It really ends his mysterious guy phase. The audience learns how Angel met Buffy, what he was doing before Sunnydale, why he was in Sunnydale. A whole new dimension is added to the character. 

    2. I also looove Angelus. The scene where he does the spell and fails is hilarious. And the scene where he succeeds in performing the spell gives me chills. When he says “Witness me as I ascend. As I become” and vamp phases is so good. 

    3. It’s lovely to see Willow become a witch. You know the scene where Willow performs the spell and gets in a transe and then Willow and Oz are all confused? It’s epic!

    4. This order as nothing to do with my preference btw. The Bangelus scenes are awesome, but the last Bangel scene is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. The acting is fantastic and the music is excellent. And I’m running out of adjectives.“Close your eyes”. 

    5. Angelus torturing Giles and Giles seeing Jenny is a masterpiece. David looks so good when he’s being mean to Giles!

Etc.

3. Innocence

I love this episode from start to finish! Buffy is so sympathetic and Angelus is such a great douchebag! His first appearance is him killing a woman and expelling the smoke from her cigarette! Epic! I adore his reveal to Spike, the “You look spiffy” comment, the “I am Angelus. At last” bit, how he destroys Buffy in the most glorious way possible, the way he says “You can’t do it. You can’t kill me!”. And I especially love it when Buffy kicks him where it hurts! I always cheer for her there :)

4. I Only Have Eyes For You

Such a beautiful episode. I love the music, the parallels between Buffy/James and Angel/Grace, the Scoobies and that final scene between Buffy and Angel. Their chemistry is off the charts and the kiss is amazing. Great acting overall. Another plus is Giles mourning Jenny, and shirtless Angelus who was defeated by love, lol. Thematically, the episode just works. 

5. Graduation Day

Epic finale! I adore the fight between Buffy and Faith, the final battle, the momentum of the episode, how painfully nostalgic it is, etc. Most of all, I love Buffy and Angel and that bite scene. Hot. 

For Angel:

1. Epiphany

Usually, I list NFA as my favorite episode, but tbh, NFA has a lot of emotional weight and momentum but it’s not nearly as beautiful as Epiphany. 

Epiphany soothes my soul. The existential focus of this episode is so human. Angel realizes that the little moments are all we got, that the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world, and spends the episode proving that. He lets go of Darla without hatred, he saves Kate, saves Cordelia from a head injury... He’s inspiring and good, I love him to pieces. The whole episode is a beautiful ode to humanity. 

2. Not Fade Away

This episode is just so epic and iconic. Let’s go to work? The best last line ever. I love how everyone goes down like a hero and how the show is brought back to it’s original theme of “strong is fighting”, 

Also, Wesley conversation with Illyria is pure gold, Angel and Connor make me cry, everyone’s last day is beautiful and representative of the characters, and Wesley dying makes me sob so much!!

3. I Will Remember You

I’d usually put Sanctuary at number 3 - and it is an excellent episode, but I didn’t want to leave out IWRY - which is the episode I’ve watched the most ever. IWRY is beautiful. Like Epiphany, it’s calm and flows so well. Yet, it doesn’t lie. It doesn’t ignore Buffy and Angel’s problems or how Angel’s transformation is problematic. Buffy and Angel are mature and honest with one another. All of their scenes just bring me life and Angel’s sacrifice is lovely too, 

4. Home

I also adore this episode. I love Lilah/Wesley and Angel/Connor. Lilah’s last moments with Wes (and Angel) hurt me, not to mention how painful it is to see Connor and Angel all broken... The entire episode is just a gift. I love Tim Minear! 

5. Lullaby

Darla’s best episode. Pregnant Darla is so funny and moving. She cries hormonal tears which is so cute, and loves her son. All Darla ever wanted was to be loved, but she discovered the beauty of loving in Lullaby. Her sacrifice was just beautiful and moving. I love her a lot in this episode. 

[kyliafanfiction-archive]

☮ - Buffy & Amy (the brotp that should have been) and ♦ & ∇ for Amy

☮ - friendship headcanon

(This really really got out of control and because I can’t stop myself, ended up also going in a Radison direction bc reasons).

Buffy and Amy’s friendship begins more or less because Buffy feels sorry for Amy, after everything she went through - and she invites Amy over to her place to hang one time, and while she’s there, Joyce meets her and after getting a magicless explantion version of what happened with Amy, Joyce half-adopts Amy, sort of. Certainly, Amy gets to experience what a decent mother is (Joyce has her problems, sure, but she’s miles better than Catherine) at least indirectly. Plus, they end up bonding a little - Buffy is still kind of bummed about not getting onto the team, but Amy’s jokes about how absurd Cheerleading kind of is (see her line at the end of “The Witch” about the intellectual thrill of spelling words out with her arms) cheers her up.

Their friendship beyond that is kind of accidental, but they end up filling a niche each of them needs - Buffy really wants a normal friend early on, one that’s not involved in all this Slaying stuff like Willow and Xander are, and while she warns Amy about vampires, etc, she doesn’t bring her in (and initially, Amy wants to stay far away from that), and Amy finds a sense of safety and security that she quite desperately needs  Once Amy confides in Buffy that she has this overpowering sense of being weak and vulnerable, and how much she wants to not be, Buffy even teaches her self-defense moves.

Her friendship with Buffy becomes something of a lifeline for Amy that delays her temptations into magic significantly, but Buffy’s temporary death spurs Amy into studying magic because she wants to be able to help her friend. It’s also around this time, the summer between Sophmore and Junior years, that Amy realizes A) She’s Bi, and B) Has been crushing on Willow this entire time. This freaks Amy somewhat at first, and while she wants to tell Buffy, her closest friend at this point (she still hangs with Willow some, but not as often as she used to), she worries how Buffy will react - the handful of people that have ‘come out’ at Sunnydale High don’t exactly have good reactions, and Amy is aware of how a lot of people regard LGBT.

Buffy finds out that Amy’s starting to use magic when she drops by Amy’s house with a movie rental and a bag of popcorn while her dad is out of town on business, and catches Amy in her room practicing. Buffy is initially a bit freaked and upset - I mean, does Amy want to end up like her mom, but at the end of the day, after Amy explains why she’s doing this (A - so she can protect her friends, and B - magic is a part of her, she can’t just deny it completely, as it turns out), Buffy calms down - and really, it’s Amy’s choice. Still, Buffy does worry a little and convinces Amy to talk to Giles - if she’s gonna do it, maybe the advice of someone who knows this stuff well can help?

Anyway, so meanwhile, Amy’s getting more and more consumed with her crush on Willow, which she thinks is hopeless - less so in this AU because she thinks Willow is waaay too good for her and could never return her feelings (she’s more confident and has more self-esteem in this AU, though she does feel like Willow is too good for her, it’s a lesser degree than she does in my ‘normal headcanon’, as it were) and more because she assumes Willow is straight.

Anyway, eventually, Buffy notices something is up with Amy. She doesn’t pressure her friend, but she does try to figure out what it is. In the end though, around the middle of Junior Year, Amy confides in Buffy - she’s already come out to her dad, who is totally okay with it, and she really really wants to tell Buffy, and so she does. One day, while they’re hanging, she just basically spills it all out in one go - that she’s bi and that she’s got this crush on Willow.

Buffy takes a few seconds to process the news, but doesn’t treat Amy any differently. She sympathizes with Amy’s crush-related issues, and after seeing just how much Amy does have feelings for Willow, Buffy decides she’s going to see if there’s a chance that maybe Willow could return her feelings. In a somewhat misguided attempt to help (and also to distract herself once the whole Angelus thing comes down), Buffy decides to try to subtly sound Willow out on the subject of gayness and bisexuality. She actually inadvertantly makes Willow think that A) Buffy is trying to come out to her, and B) that Buffy has a crush on her. (For the purposes of this AU, Buffy at least believes she’s straight right now, whatever she is actually, and no, she doesn’t have a crush on Willow).

Buffy believes that if Willow does like girls (she kind of assumes Willow is straight, but also is like ‘I thought Amy was straight if I even thought about it at all, so what do I know?’) that she and Amy would be great together - for both of them. She used to root for Willow and Xander, yes (going by some of the things she says and does in Season 1), but she’s since realized that Xander is just not into Willow at all and has been trying to avoid hurting his best friend by ever saying anything. So Buffy decides to play matchmaker again. Because she wants to help.

Willow has no idea how to react to this assumption - but she starts taking a very rigourous and analytical approach to the subject, doing reading on the subject of homosexuality - and after consuming about a dozen books on the subject in short order, she starts to maybe wonder herself. Like, ‘am I… wait, am I gay?’ suddenly, a lot of things start to make sense. But at the same time, while she’s starting to realize she’s gay, she’s also thinking that… I don’t really think I see Buffy that way… like she definitely things Buffy’s attractive and whatnot, but like, she doesn’t have romantic inclinations.

So to compound this comedy of errors, Willow goes to talk to Amy about this - that she is starting to think she might actually be ‘Kinda gay’ and that she things Buffy might be gay (or at least bi) too and have feelings for her and Willow is in the position of being Xander to herself, sort of, because she just doesn’t think of Buffy that way. And Willow wants some help in figuring out what to do do.

Amy, after spending a few moments railing at the injustice of the universe, realizes what has to have happened - suddenly, a few things Buffy said make new sense, and Amy realizes what Buffy was up to. She’s more than a little upset - Buffy did get close to outing her, after all, without her consent - but at the same time, Willow might actually be gay holy shit! and before she can stop herself she tells Willow that she’s bi and then kisses Willow. She immediately freaks out because ‘oh shit, I just kissed Willow and like I didn’t even ask her, what if she thinks I’m some weird pervert or creepy or something’ and then Willow, after a few seconds of her brain not even working as a result of the kiss, realizes that she liked it, and shuts Amy’s babbling up with a kiss.

And so that’s how Buffy plays matchmaker to Willow and Amy. She’s totally happy for both of them, though she is somewhat apologetic after Amy does point out the ‘you almost outed me without me saying it was okay’ thing. Still. it all worked out in the end, right?

Fast forward years later, and come Willow and Amy’s wedding, Buffy ends up being Amy’s maid of honor.

[up-label]

The Ten Best Pizza Places in Denver — 2018 Edition

The Paulie Walnuts at White Pie burns through outdated notions about pizza. Grabbing a slice at Benny Blanco’s often means finding the first horizontal surface where you can park with your slice.

Benny Blanco’s Slice of the Bronx 616 East 13th Avenue 303-831-1346 This cramped joint, where you can’t even step up to the register to pay for your slice if someone else is using the Parmesan and pepper shakers, is perhaps the closest in spirit to a New York City joint. Only a couple of stand-up rails along the wall are provided so that two or three customers can knock elbows while eating, so stepping outside to wolf a slice (and we do mean one; only the hungriest customer would need more) is often the best option. The crust also has a certain ineffable quality that may stem from years of flour dust burned into the oven decks. Topped-to-order slices come out of the oven nicely crisped without becoming toast, so you can fold or not, as is your personal preference. High foot traffic on 13th Avenue and lots of nearby bars and clubs means the place is always busy and the pies turn over quickly, whether at lunch or at 2 a.m.

A classic Detroit-style pan, complete with stripes of sauce.

Blue Pan Pizza 3930 West 32nd Avenue, 720-456-7666 3509 East 12th Avenue, 720-519-0944 Who knew that Denver would embrace Detroit-style pizza when Blue Pan Pizza debuted in 2015 in West Highland? Under the focused eye of chef and co-founder Jeff “Smoke” Smokevitch (who now runs two Blue Pan locations with partner Giles Flanagin), the cozy pizzeria starts with a traditional base — an airy, crackly crust, Wisconsin brick cheese and a thick, tangy sauce — and adds toppings that modern customers crave, from paper-thin folds of prosciutto and fresh piles of arugula to burrata, green chiles and Tender Belly bacon. Beyond the Detroit-style pies, Blue Pan also offers award-winning Italian thin-crust, an even thinner Chicago cracker crust, and big slices of New York-style pizza.

Cart-Driver slow-rises its dough for a tasty crust.

Cart-Driver 2500 Larimer Street 303-292-3553 Cart-Driver opened in summer 2014 in a trendy, shipping-container development in RiNo. At 640 square feet, the 25-seat restaurant is smaller than some studio apartments, but the pizzas coming out of the tiny kitchen are big, big, big in flavor. Although the spot takes the fast-casual approach, with counter service, a tightly edited menu (no design-your-own pies) and a handful of small plates, the ingredients are top-notch and the food is produced with care. Bargain-hunters should be sure to hit the two happy hours.

We love DDD’s Chicago-style pies, but you can also get a thin, crispy crust if this one’s just not your thing.

Denver Deep Dish 1200 West 38th Avenue 720-619-3337 Tennessee boy Jason McGovern + Chicago-style deep dish pizza + North Denver = one damn good slice. What was once nothing more than a takeout window at the back of the Bar Car became a full-fledged restaurant in January 2015, and while sandwiches, wings and other bar food can be had at this Highland spot, the specialty is Chicago-style pizza built on a buttery, tender crust with high sides to contain the mountain of toppings. Unlike many of the Windy City’s notorious pies, those at Denver Deep Dish aren’t overblown, soupy messes, but rather well-balanced constructions that layer sauce, cheese and toppings in harmony so that tomato doesn’t dominate. Traditional ingredients like spicy Polidori sausage, spinach and mushrooms share space with Southwestern concoctions like the 505, kicked up with green chiles, chicken and Mark Schlereth’s Stinkin’ Good green-chile sauce. Thin-crust versions are also available, and weekend brunch boasts an outstanding breakfast pie loaded with scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, salsa and breakfast meats.

Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza is bound by Neapolitan tradition.

Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza 2129 Larimer Street, 303-296-7000 10111 Inverness Main Street, Englewood, 303-790-9000 Every restaurant is cooking with wood these days, it seems, but in the Ballpark neighborhood back in 2008, true Neapolitan pizza was unheard of. Owner/pizzaiola Mark Dym’s obsession with every step of pizza production led him to becoming the only restaurant in Colorado certified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the organization that makes sure the right ingredients, equipment and techniques are used to produce the perfect pie. Those exacting standards result in a light crust with just the right amount of bubbling and char, a delicate sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes, and toppings that capture the spirit of the old country. Over the past decade, Dym’s pizzeria has remained the first word in Denver pizza.

Pizzas in the wood-fired oven at Pizza Republica.

Pizza Republica Three locations George Eder, the exec-chef/owner of Pizza Republica, got started early in restaurants, tossing pizza dough at his uncle’s joint. "I was washing dishes, flipping dough and making pizzas — and I loved it, except for the fact that my uncle was incredibly secretive about his sauce," says Eder. "It was so damn good, but he never shared the recipe. Even now, he still won’t part with it." Undeterred, Eder opened Pizza Republica in Greenwood Village in 2008, giving the southern ’burbs a comfortable, stylish spot where customers can find one of the best personal-sized pies around. The business has since expanded to downtown (right next to the Colorado Convention Center) and Glendale, spreading the wood-fired love throughout the metro area.

Whether you’re at the Boulder original dining on wood-fired pizza or sampling the new specials (like this BLT pizza) at one of the fast-casual outposts, you’re in for something great.

Pizzeria Locale 1730 Pearl Street, Boulder 303-442-3003 After Frasca Food & Wine, founders Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson looked to another part of Italy for inspiration: the city of Naples. The first Pizzeria Locale, which opened in Boulder in 2011, attempted to re-create exactly the Napolitano pizzeria experience, from the custom-built imported oven to pies served uncut, meant to be eaten with a knife and fork. As Locale expanded, though, the offerings and cooking method were streamlined to fit the fast-casual model. For the most authentic pizza experience, stick with the Boulder original. But for the price, the two counter-service outposts (at 550 Broadway and 3484 West 32nd Avenue) are hard to beat, even if the high-tech gas ovens result in a slightly different flavor and texture.

A margharita pizza with added sausage at Pizzeria Lui.

Pizzeria Lui 5380 West Mississippi Avenue 303-922-3202 On the border of Lakewood and Denver, where tacos, burritos and tamales abound, you’ll find filling fourteen-inch pies (bigger than standard individual pizzas) with fresh, quality ingredients cooked in chef/owner Zach Parini’s 900-degree wood-burning oven. The pizzas are big enough for two, but order more than one for a little variety — that way you can sample seasonal combos like a butternut, bacon and pistachio number perfect for cool weather, or a bright heirloom tomato, sweet corn and pesto pie once summer rolls around.

Chef Andrea Frizzi readies a pie for the oven at Vero.

Vero 2669 Larimer Street 303-296-8376 According to proprietor Andrea Frizzi (who has turned out great Italian cuisine at Il Posto for more than a decade), Vero was born when Central Market developer Ken Wolf asked the Italian chef if he knew anyone who could do pizza. "I said, ‘Dude. The fuck?’" recalls Frizzi. And he signed the lease for a market stall the next day. Vero offers Milanese-style pizza, which is thinner and crispier than its Napolitano cousin, and topped considerably more creatively. (Frizzi says Milanese pizzas in Italy can be topped with oddities like hot dogs and french fries.) Vero’s crust is cracker-crisp, with a nice yeasty complexity; we like ours simply adorned with tangy tomato sauce, bubbling mozzarella and biting fresh basil, though pies here come topped with everything from ricotta and egg to tuna and olives.

White Pie serves New Haven-style pizza.

White Pie 1702 Humboldt Street 303-862-5323 At White Pie, brothers Kris and Jason Wallenta dish up wood-fired pizzas inspired by their childhood in New Haven, Connecticut. But even though their pizzas were inspired by an East Coast classic, they aren’t chained to tradition – just as their tacos at Dos Santos, the Mexican restaurant they run around the corner, aren’t bound by Mexican custom. Freed from expectations, White Pie’s crisp, charred, often garlicky, just-cheesy-enough pizzas open us to new possibilities for what else pizza can be, without straying into the crazy land of pineapple and barbecue sauce. Some are white, like the best-selling White Pie — with mozzarella sprinkled over crème fraîche, plus bacon, garlic, mushrooms and a poached egg — and the mind-boggling (in a good way) Paulie Walnuts, with cheese, mashed potatoes, candied walnuts and bacon. Others are red, like the Porky Porkorino, with sopressata that curls and crisps around the edges from the oven’s high heat, plus pickled jalapeños and chile-infused honey. Even if this style of pizza isn’t your thing, you’re sure to find something that is at White Pie, whether it’s creamy, ten-layered lasagna, cacio e pepe or a frozen Negroni.

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[yahoo-the-dagger-blog]

17 takeaways from the 2016-17 college basketball season

It’s time to look back on the season that was, from November to April. (AP)

The conclusion of a college basketball season always seems so abrupt. We as media and fans pour so much time and energy into the NCAA tournament. Everything builds to the Final Four. And then… poof. We have nothing. No games to watch. No controversial calls to debate. Nothing.

And after so many eyeballs and minds and souls hone in on the tournament, it’s easy to forget that an entire four-month season preceded it. That’s just the way the sport is structured. Three weeks in March are what matter, so three weeks in March are what we remember.

But as college basketball, or at least the on-court portion of it, goes into hibernation, it’s important to reflect on the full season, what it taught us, and what the lasting takeaways from it will be. Since this is the year 2017, here are 17 of those takeaways:

1. There are still so many different ways to win college basketball games

And there is no better example of this than the national champions, the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Tar Heels are winning big with bigs, which runs counter to an overall trend (more on that later). They also played fast with bigs. Of the four No. 1 seeds, though, Kansas played fast and small. Villanova played slow and small. Gonzaga was somewhere in between all three. North Carolina also maintained a top-10 offense while taking only 30 percent of its field goal attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. Three other top-10 offenses took over 40 percent of their shots from deep. There are no hard and fast schematic or stylistic rules for how to score and win in this sport.

2. There are still so many different ways to build college basketball teams

The best team on the balance of the season, Gonzaga, comprised one grad transfer, two other transfers, a McDonald’s All-American who could go one-and-done, a Frenchman, a Pole, a former three-star recruit now an upperclassman and a former four-star recruit still an underclassman. Others had success at either end of the spectrum. North Carolina and Villanova won with barely any contributions from freshmen at all. Kentucky and UCLA won chiefly on the backs of freshmen. Kansas and Duke won with a mix. No one philosophy for roster construction is superior to another. All remain viable.

3. Offense won the year …

Points weren’t just more plentiful; offenses were more efficient than they’ve been in a long time. Division I teams averaged 1.047 points per possession, a record for the KenPom era, and up from 1.036 in 2015-16. Part of this could be coaching. Part of it could be a prioritization of offensive ability over defensive ability on the recruiting trail. But a lot of it — including that second trend — are due to something that happened two offseasons ago …

4. … So did referees

And no, this is not a sarcastic take on the title game. Referees, on the whole, were outstanding this year and last year, and because they were, the sport is better off. I examined this extensively earlier in the season, but long story short, the NCAA implemented new “freedom of movement” rules in 2013. Offensive efficiency spiked, but mostly because games turned into foul fests. Coaches and players didn’t obey the new rules. The following year, though, refs backed off, and defense remained dominant because illegal physical contact was still being allowed.

So in the 2015 offseason, the NCAA reemphasized the rule changes. This time, referees stayed consistent in their enforcement of them. As a result, 2016-17, the second season since the reemphasis, not only set a record high for offensive efficiency and effective field goal percentage over the last 15 years; it set a record low for free throw rate.

Scoring data are color-coded on a green-yellow scale based on values dating back to 2001-02. Foul data are color-coded on a red-blue scale based on values dating back to 2001-02. (Henry Bushnell)

So, to recap: Better offense. Fewer fouls. More watchable. The rules committee and referees did their jobs, and did them really well.

5. The game continues to become more and more perimeter-oriented

Perhaps part of the reason for the offensive uptick is that 3-pointers are often some of the most efficient shots in basketball, and they’re being taken at a higher rate then ever. In 2016-17, 36.4 percent of field goal attempts were 3-pointers. That’s a full percentage point increase over last season, and, per kenpom.com data, more than two percentage points higher than the final season of the 19-foot, 9-inch arc. More teams are putting four or even five players who can shoot on the court together, and 3-point percentages are also the highest they’ve been since 2007-2008. It’s only a matter of time before talk of moving the arc back again begins to intensify.

6. The NCAA tournament wasn’t great …

Oh well. It happens. There’s no enlightening or groundbreaking takeaway here. The lack of early upsets was 5 percent good seeding, 10 percent poor matchups for potential Cinderellas, 15 percent a general lack of parity (more on that later) and 60 percent randomness. The lack of buzzer-beaters was mostly due to chance. The tournament also seemed underwhelming because last year’s was an all-timer from start to finish.

7. … It was, however, full of drought-ending

Two schools reached the Final Four for the first time ever. A third got there for the first time since 1939. South Carolina won its first NCAA tournament game in 44 years. And five teams earned bids to the Big Dance for the first time ever. The biggest story of the five was Northwestern, the last power conference school that had never been to the tournament, and one of five teams that had never made it despite competing for a place every year since the tournament’s inception in 1939. That list dwindled to four after the Wildcats’ breakthrough. The longest major-conference drought now belongs to Rutgers, which hasn’t received an invitation since 1991.

8. Gonzaga is here to stay

The Zags were the real story of March, despite coming up short on Monday night. Mark Few finally got the validation he deserved for two brilliant decades of coaching and program building. And just like all Gonzaga’s regular season success wasn’t a fluke, neither was this run. It has spent the better part of the past 20 years proving that new milestones weren’t one-offs, but rather signs of things to come, and will do so again. Gonzaga has the resources, the leader and the basketball culture to stay among the college hoops elite.

9. But true mid-majors? Not so much

The deck is stacked against the majority of the 276 Division I men’s basketball schools outside the big six conferences in so many ways. The selection committee’s seeding of Wichita State and non-seeding of Illinois State were two examples of one way. The scheduling roadblocks that those two schools run into are examples of another. The financial gap between the Power Six teams and all but a select few mid-majors is another. All the inherent advantages make it more difficult to operate at a non-brand-name school in a non-brand-name conference. There’s a reason Wichita State is bolting for the AAC. Only four teams outside the Power Six received at-large NCAA tournament bids this year, and only one, St. Mary’s, was really a mid-major. Don’t expect the number to be so low next year, but expect it to stay somewhat low unless the power structure of Division I college basketball changes.

10. In general, the 2016-17 season did not feature much parity

A big aspect of this, and a big aspect of the relative absence of mid-majors in the NCAA tournament, was the underperformance of leagues like the Atlantic-10 and Mountain West. But another aspect is that the good teams were better than usual. Remember when we discussed the lack of NCAA tournament upsets, and in particular first-round upsets? Here’s another reason for that: The average adjusted efficiency margin of KenPom‘s top 20 teams this season was the highest it’s been this decade.

The average margin estimates a given team’s strength compared to the average Division I team. Numbers in red highlight seasons in which the top teams were better, and therefore seasons in which there was less parity. Numbers in blue represent the opposite. (Henry Bushnell)

Of the 20 teams seeded 1 through 5, 16 came from this top 20. Somewhat unsurprisingly, 19 of those 20 teams won their first-round games.

11. One thing we never learned: How good Duke could have been

The greatest “what ifs” of the season concern Duke. What if Harry Giles’ knee had been healthy? What if Grayson Allen had been the player he was as a sophomore? What if Marques Bolden had been the one-and-done talent many thought he’d be? And what if the Blue Devils had a few more weeks to answer some of these questions? Duke’s season was one of unfulfilled potential. Because it was, we were never able to nail down what exactly that potential was. Duke never fully coalesced as a team, and that’s a shame, but it’s also why we don’t crown champions in October.

12. There was no one transcendent player in college basketball this season

Allen was the preseason player of the year, and obviously didn’t live up to that billing, but he was a somewhat underwhelming pick in the first place. In the end, Frank Mason was a deserving winner of most postseason honors, but the diminutive Kansas point guard and his closest competitor for individual awards, Villanova’s Josh Hart, were merely very good players on very good teams. Both, and especially Mason, had a ton of talent around them. Both had All-American seasons; neither was national-player-of-the-year good.

13. Lonzo Ball is going to be a tough act to follow at UCLA

Ball was actually the closest thing to a transcendent player. A better adjective might be transformative. Or revolutionary. The Bruins more than doubled their win total from 2015-16, and they did so because they were a completely new team with Ball at the helm. Ball didn’t just transform UCLA, he transformed Bryce Alford; he transformed Isaac Hamilton; he helped TJ Leaf excel alongside him. UCLA has an outstanding recruiting class coming in to follow Ball and Leaf, who are both off to the NBA, but it’s going to be really tough for the new group to recreate what Ball temporarily fashioned in Westwood.

Additionally, whether we want to admit it or not, Lonzo Ball is a much bigger name right now than he was a couple months ago in part because of his dad. LaVar Ball made UCLA one of the most polarizing teams in college basketball, which is ridiculous, but true. LaVar will still be around, because the second of three Ball brothers, LiAngelo, is part of the next six-man recruiting class. But LiAngelo is nowhere near as good as Lonzo, nor as good as he’ll be expected to be based on his dad’s outsize personality and his older brother’s exploits. It will be an interesting 2017-18 season at UCLA.

13. Never mind the tournament shortcomings; Kansas remains the most consistently great program of the 21st century

The streak goes on, and it goes on in style. Kansas won a Big 12 regular-season title for the 13th consecutive season. The conference looked set for a three-team race up until February; in the end, the Jayhawks crossed the finish line four full games ahead of the pack. The fact that that achievement isn’t more widely discussed and celebrated is, in a way, precisely what makes the streak so incredible. Kansas’ dominance has become boring.

The Jayhawks again came up short in the NCAA tournament. They looked like the best team in the nation for three games. They lost to a really good team in a fourth. That does little to take away from how successful this year’s team was, and how successful it’s been over the past decade-plus.

14. This year’s Big 12 wasn’t just the best conference in college basketball, it was arguably the best of the past 15 years

Seriously. This makes Kansas’ margin at the top all the more impressive. Statistically, the 2016-17 Big 12 was the second-best conference of the KenPom era, only slightly behind the 2003-04 ACC that featured Jarrett Jack’s Georgia Tech, Chris Paul’s Wake Forest, J.J. Redick’s Duke, Julius Hodge’s NC State and one-year-before-a-national-title North Carolina.

Some thought the 2016-17 ACC was one of the best conferences ever. Some opined that both the ACC and Big 12 were overrated because they flopped in the NCAA tournament. The first take was misguided, the second silly. Seventy percent of the Big 12 finished in the KenPom top 30. Sixty percent of it made the NCAA tournament. The seventh-place team won the NIT. The sixth- and seventh-place teams likely would have finished around fourth or fifth in the 12-team Pac-12 or the 14-team SEC. It was difficult to gage just how strong the conference was because teams like TCU kept falling short in games against the top five. There still is no definitive answer, even after four-plus months of evidence. But the most reasonable answer is that the win-loss records of TCU and Kansas State, and maybe even Texas Tech, woefully undersold those three teams, and therefore undersold what was one of the toughest conferences college basketball has seen in a while.

15. The West Coast resurgence happened… kind of

Prosperous seasons for UCLA, Arizona and Oregon finally coincided, which gave the Pac-12 more must-watch marquee games than it’s had in a while. Unfortunately, the rest of the conference was dreadful. Its bottom half was as weak as it’s ever been. Gonzaga rose from the left coast and, together with Oregon, snapped the West’s decade-long Final Four drought, but the WCC was a two-team conference, the Mountain West was way down for a second-straight year, and the other mid-major conferences based in the Pacific and Mountain time zones didn’t offer much. So while there was top-end quality out west, there wasn’t much depth.

16. Plenty of young coaches emerged as rising stars

This happens every season, but 2016-17 seemed to be a particularly good one for up-and-coming head coaches. The best of the bunch is Mike White. He just turned 40 in March, and already seems to have re-established Florida as a top-tier program only two years after Billy Donovan left. Alongside White on the rise are Chris Collins at Northwestern, Richard Pitino at Minnesota, Bryce Drew at Vanderbilt, Steve Wojciechowski at Marquette, Will Wade at VCU and now LSU, and Kevin Keatts at UNC-Wilmington and now NC State. There were also late-blooming breakout coaching stars, none more suddenly popular than Frank Martin at South Carolina. There were also Brad Underwood at Oklahoma State and now Illinois, and Tim Jankovich at SMU.

17. But the old guard still reigns supreme

The final AP top 10 of the season featured Jay Wright, Mark Few, Bill Self, Sean Miller, Roy Williams, John Calipari, Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino. Those might be eight of the 12 most successful active coaches in college basketball right there. And a ninth, Bob Huggins, was right outside the top 10. If there was one theme of the year — not of the tournament, but of the full season — it was that bluebloods, both programs and their head honchos, stayed at or returned to their place atop the sport.

[madpicks]

New Post has been published on https://www.madpicks.com/sports/ncaab/top-50-march-madness-players-know/

The top 50 March Madness players you should know

Lots of players will be heard from during the NCAA tournament, but none more than these 50.

Part of the beauty of college basketball is that you never really know. This is the sport with the highest roster turnover, the most ruthless recruiting process, and the least amount of clarity. If you want to see how much things can change in just four months, check out our preseason list of the top 100 players in the sport.

Grayson Allen was the consensus choice for No. 1 before he became swept up in the season’s biggest controversy. Caleb Swanigan, now a legitimate national player of the year candidate, checked in at No. 44. Ivan Rabb didn’t live up to the hype as our No. 3 player, and Johnathan Motley was much better than No. 84. Unfortunately, Harry Giles never came close to producing like a top-10 player in the country.

Everything resets in March, and so too will our list of the most electric players in America. It’s OK if you haven’t been paying attention until now — we’ll have you covered.

These are the players you need to know going into March Madness.

50. Devonte’ Graham, G, Kansas

Frank Mason III and Josh Jackson get all the attention for Kansas, but Graham deserves credit, too. The junior guard does just about everything well. He’s a tough perimeter defender, a reliable three-point shooter (38 percent) and a quality facilitator (4.3 assists per game). He simply takes nothing off the table.

49. Rodney Bullock, F, Providence

Providence looked like it was in for a rebuild without Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil this season. Instead, the Friars found a new leading man in the 6’8 forward. The junior led the team in scoring (15.7 points per game) and rebounding (6.4 per game). Bullock will be counted on for a big effort against USC in the First Four.

48. Devontae Cacok, F, UNC-Wilmington

The Seahawks nearly took out Duke in the first round last year and no one will want to see them this season. Cacok is their defensive anchor. He also averaged 12 points per game on 79.9 percent shooting from the floor. Hire Kevin Keatts.

47. Nate Mason, G, Minnesota

Minnesota might be the biggest surprise in college basketball. The Gophers finished 8-23 last season, but will enter the NCAA tournament this year at 24-9. Mason, a first-team All-Big Ten guard, has been their best offensive player. The junior averaged 15.5 points and five assists per game.

46. E.C. Matthews, PG, Rhode Island

Matthews was getting some NBA buzz before he tore his ACL just 10 minutes into last season. He returned to form this year and helped Rhode Island make the NCAA tournament for the first time since the days of Lamar Odom. He’s looking healthy:

E.C. Matthews made one defender fall and dunked on another https://t.co/1OHkSUhlIQ pic.twitter.com/nO5LpvOqMw

— SB Nation CBB (@SBNationCBB) March 5, 2017

45. Grayson Allen, G, Duke

Allen was No. 1 on our preseason countdown of the top 100 players in college basketball. What happened since? Well, a lot. In between the tripping incidents and the temper tantrums, Allen has also had to adjust to playing a new position at point guard. Still, he can be really good when he’s locked in. Duke better hope he’s on top of his game.

44. Bryce Alford, SG, UCLA

This has been a season of redemption for Alford. The senior guard moved off the ball next to Lonzo Ball and evolved into one of the best shooters in the game.

43. Jonathan Isaac, F, Florida State

It’s easy to see why NBA scouts love the FSU freshman. At 6’10, Isaac has the skill set of a wing. He shoots the ball from deep and slides his feet with ease defensively. He has a shot at being a top-five pick in June.

42. Cam Oliver, PF, Nevada

Nevada has three studs in senior shooting guard Marcus Marshall, sophomore forward Jordan Caroline, and the 6’8, 225-pound Oliver. The latter is the one showing up on NBA mock drafts because of his combination of strength, athleticism, and skill. The Wolf Pack can win a game or two if everyone is cooking.

41. London Perrantes, PG, Virginia

With Malcolm Brogdon finally graduating, Perrantes has assumed the role of leading man for Virginia. He’s averaging a career-high 12.5 points per game and has remained one of the game’s steadiest point guards.

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

40. Derrick Walton Jr., PG, Michigan

Walton has quietly been as good as anyone in the Big Ten over the last two months. The senior point guard is the engine that powered the Wolverines on an amazing run through the Big Ten tournament. After years of being slowed down by injuries, he’s finally playing the best ball of his life.

39. Zach LeDay, PF, Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech previously made the NCAA tournament just once in 20 years, but Buzz Williams has already turned around the program in his second season. The Hokies have six players averaging at least nine points per game, led by LeDay’s 16.3 points per game. He scored a career-high 31 points against Wake Forest star John Collins in the ACC tournament.

38. Jalen Brunson, PG, Villanova

Brunson’s freshman season ended with a national championship. As a sophomore, he’s taken on a bigger role in the absence of Ryan Arcidiacono to become Josh Hart’s strongest supporting actor. The former McDonald’s All-American is averaging 14.8 points per game on 54.1 percent shooting from the field and 39.6 percent shooting from deep. If he returns to school, he’s poised for a massive junior year.

37. KeVaughn Allen, SG, Florida

Billy Donovan is gone, but the Gators are back on the national radar in Mike White’s second season. The development of Allen, a 6’5 shooting guard out of Little Rock, Ark., has been key to Florida’s return to form. The Gators’ leading scorer had a breakout performance against Kentucky in February, when he went shot-for-shot with Malik Monk and finished with 24 points.

36. Jacob Evans, SG, Cincinnati

This is the seventh straight year Cincinnati has made the NCAA tournament, and there’s reason to believe this is Mick Cronin’s best team yet. Why? Because for once, the Bearcats have an offense to match their defense. That starts with Evans, the sophomore shooting guard who averaged 13.8 points per game this season.

35. Trevon Bluiett, SG, Xavier

The junior shooting guard has been a consistent scorer for Xavier since he arrived on campus. He averaged a career-high 18.1 points per game this year and carried the Musketeers after co-star Edmond Sumner tore his ACL.

34. Dwayne Bacon, SG, Florida State

This is the best Florida State team since Sam Cassell and Bobby Sura were running Tallahassee in the early ’90s, and that’s because of Leonard Hamilton’s ability to recruit and groom players like Bacon. In his sophomore season, Bacon has become the hyper-athletic go-to wing scorer Hamilton envisioned when he secured his commitment.

His game-winner in a 29-point performance against Virginia was one of the most memorable moments of the season

33. Markis McDuffie, SF, Wichita State

Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker are gone, but Wichita State remains a powerhouse in the Missouri Valley. McDuffie is the closest thing to a star on a team that had five players average at least nine points per game (none more than McDuffie’s 11.8 points per game). At 6’8, 212 pounds, he’s a quality defender and capable (38 percent) three-point shooter. The Shockers are better than people realize, and so is McDuffie.

32. Kelan Martin, SF, Butler

Yes, Butler is still a thing even after Brad Stevens left for the Celtics. The Bulldogs had a good season at 23-8, which included a clean sweep of the defending national champion Villanova Wildcats. Martin has been their best player all year. He isn’t the biggest or the quickest forward, but the junior has worked himself into being a reliable scorer (16.1 points per game). He’s also a tough rebounder.

31. Charles Cooke, SG, Dayton

After spending his first two seasons at James Madison, Charles Cooke transferred to Dayton and immediately became the team’s top scorer. The 6’5 senior averaged career-highs in scoring (16.1 points per), assists (2.9 per game), and field goal percentage (46.6 percent) this year. At 24-7, Dayton is really good and Cooke is a big reason why.

Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

30. Angel Delgado, PF, Seton Hall

Delgado was a unanimous first-team All-Big East selection in his junior year. He’s tied with Caleb Swanigan for the nation’s lead in double-doubles (26), he averaged a career-high 15.3 points per game, and he even started to become a quality passer.

29. Miles Bridges, F, Michigan State

Bridges might be the best in-game dunker in college basketball. He’s spent his freshman season compiling plenty of evidence:

Oh my, Miles Bridges. pic.twitter.com/4Mu40XXwO3

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 10, 2017

28. De’Aaron Fox, PG, Kentucky

De’Aaron Fox’s game is defined by his speed. The freshman might be the fastest player in college basketball end-to-end. He’s not just a track star, though: Fox is an elite defender, a good facilitator, and a crafty finisher. The only hole in his skill set is his jump shot. He’s one-half of the most exciting backcourt in college basketball.

27. Marcus Foster, G, Creighton

Few transfers in the country have made a bigger impact than Foster, who arrived at Creighton after two productive years at Kansas State. The 6’3 combo guard has grown into a go-to scorer for the Bluejays as a bull going to the basket and a solid three-point shooter (35 percent on six attempts per game). He hit a big one in the Big East tournament semis:

Trip to the @BIGEAST Championship on the line. Marcus Foster for three. Buckets. #GoJays #TakeFlight #BIGEASThoops pic.twitter.com/3Lyl5u6htq

— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) March 11, 2017

26. Lauri Markkanen, PF, Arizona

College basketball has never seen a 7-footer who can shoot like Markkanen, especially not as a freshman. The import from Finland has hit 67 three-pointers this season at a 43 percent clip. He’s the key to Arizona’s Final Four chances.

25. Keon Johnson, PG, Winthrop

Johnson set the tone for his senior season early by dropping 38 points on Illinois in an upset victory on Nov. 21. He kept that pace up all season, placing No. 10 in the country in scoring at 22.5 points per game. Not bad for a dude who is only 5’7.

24. Donovan Mitchell, SG, Louisville

It seems like every great Louisville team is led by a super-athletic two-way guard. Mitchell has filled the role this year. He’s broken out as a scorer (15.7 points per game) and perimeter defender (2.1 steals per game) as a sophomore. He’s also one of the country’s best dunkers:

Here’s Louisville’s Donovan Mitchell’s ABSURD dunk against Syracuse from earlier today! pic.twitter.com/FppqfWHYSF

— Chat Sports (@ChatSports) February 26, 2017

23. Melo Trimble, PG, Maryland

There was a time when Melo Trimble looked like a one-and-done. Instead, he returned to Maryland to lead a preseason top-five team as a sophomore. The Terps underachieved last season, but they’re making up for it this year because of Trimble’s late-game brilliance.

.@_STAYMELO, folks. https://t.co/BkwAKPoDuz

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) March 4, 2017

Trimble has become one of the sport’s great closers this season. If the game is on the line, Maryland knows who’s getting the ball.

22. Jock Landale, C, St. Mary’s

Years after Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova left campus, St. Mary’s Australian pipeline is still pumping out talent. The latest example is Jock Landale, the junior center who has emerged as a hyper-efficient scorer for the Gaels. Landale, who has been among the leaders in KenPom’s Player of the Year rankings all year, is averaging 16.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per game on 61 percent shooting from the floor.

21. John Collins, C, Wake Forest

No player in college basketball has enjoyed as dramatic a rise as Collins over the last two years. When he committed to Wake Forest, he wasn’t even in the top 200 of his recruiting class. After a solid freshman year (7.3 points, 3.9 rebounds), he’s become one of the most productive big men in the country.

Collins’ numbers are incredible: 18.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game on 62 percent shooting from the floor. He’s also about to be very rich. DraftExpress has him projected as the No. 15 pick in June’s NBA draft.

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

20. Mike Daum, PF, South Dakota State

When Daum got to South Dakota State, the coaches redshirted him because they didn’t think he was good enough. As soon as Daum became eligible, he proved them wrong. The 6’9 forward averaged 15.2 points per game as a freshman, and this season he finished No. 2 in the country in scoring at 25.3 points per game. Daum dropped 37 points and 12 rebounds against Omaha in the Summit League championship game to get the Jackrabbits here.

19. Sindarius Thornwell, PG, South Carolina

Among power conference players, only possible No. 1 NBA draft pick Markelle Fultz averaged more than Thornwell’s 21.2 points per game. The senior guard has become an impact player at both ends of the floor this season, improving his shooting stroke (39 percent from three) and growing into one of the SEC’s best defenders (2.2 steals per game). He was rewarded for it with the conference player of the year award.

18. Semi Ojeleye, PF, SMU

Ojeleye left Duke during its national championship season in 2015 because he couldn’t get consistent minutes. At SMU, he’s turned into one of college basketball’s great scorers. The junior forward has a rare combination of strength, shooting range (43 percent on threes) and touch around the basket. At 6’7, 235 pounds, he’s the matchup nightmare who makes SMU a sleeper to make a deep run in March.

17. Joel Berry II, PG, North Carolina

North Carolina lost Marcus Paige to graduation this season, but the rise of Joel Berry II has helped the Tar Heels maintain their status as one of the country’s best teams. The junior has become a consistent scorer (15 points per game) and knockdown three-point shooter (41.5 percent) this season. Alongside Justin Jackson (more on him later), he’ll have to carry the offense if the Tar Heels are going to get back to the Final Four.

16. Monte Morris, PG, Iowa State

Morris broke records for assist-to-turnover ratio early in his college career and has continued to be one of the game’s top floor generals even as he’s been forced to up his scoring the last two seasons. If you’re a fan of pristine point guard play, Morris is your guy.

15. Jayson Tatum, SF, Duke

Duke’s incoming recruiting class was supposed to be one of the best ever. That hasn’t materialized because of injury (Harry Giles) or lack of opportunity (Marques Bolden). Only one freshman has truly lived up to the hype for Mike Krzyzewski, and that’s Tatum.

He follows in Duke’s recent lineage of oversized, one-and-done wings, from Jabari Parker to Justise Winslow to Brandon Ingram. Tatum’s a smooth 6’8 scorer who is playing his best ball of the year right now. Pay attention if you’re a fan of an NBA team with a top-five draft pick.

14. Bonzie Colson, C, Notre Dame

Bonzie Colson has no reason to be this good. He was just a three-star recruit out of high school. At 6’5, he’s at a significant size disadvantage on the inside every night. He isn’t one of the best athletes in the sport, either. Instead, Colson makes up for it with skill and toughness. He’s the key to Notre Dame’s five-out offense and the rock in one of Mike Brey’s best defenses ever.

13. Ethan Happ, C, Wisconsin

Wisconsin turns a slept-on recruit into a college star almost every year. Happ is the next player in that fine tradition. The redshirt sophomore is a great passer, outstanding defender, and surprisingly adept at handling the rock. Just don’t ask him to take a perimeter jumper.

12. Jawun Evans, PG, Oklahoma State

It feels like a short college point guard gets compared to Chris Paul every year, but Evans is the rare player that actually deserves it. The sophomore checks every box: shooting, facilitating, defense, toughness. He’s one of the great floor generals in the sport.

11. Josh Jackson, SF, Kansas

Remember when five-star freshmen like Cheick Diallo, Cliff Alexander, and Kelly Oubre had trouble earning consistent minutes under Bill Self? That hasn’t been a problem for Jackson, whose elite athleticism, defense, and competitiveness has made him a staple for Kansas all year. Don’t sleep on his passing ability, either. There’s a reason he’s considered a top-five draft pick in June.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

10. Malik Monk, SG, Kentucky

When Monk is locked in, he’s the most electric scorer in college basketball. North Carolina found this out the hard way when he dropped 47 points and eight three-pointers on the Tar Heels in December. John Calipari has had a lot of great freshman, but he’s never had one that scores as effortlessly as Monk.

9. Dillon Brooks, SF, Oregon

Brooks had foot surgery in the offseason, missed Oregon’s first three games, and took some time to find his form once he came back. It didn’t feel like he officially arrived until the start of conference play, when Brooks drilled a jumper at the buzzer to give No. 2 UCLA its first loss of the season.

DILLON BROOKS.

BUCKETS. #Pac12Hoops

: ESPN 2

https://t.co/Sieu3mMQ5N

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) December 29, 2016

Brooks has been on a tear since February. He’s one of America’s premier two-way wings when he’s at the top of his game.

8. Nigel Williams-Goss, PG, Gonzaga

Williams-Goss represents the biggest change between this year’s Zags and the Mark Few teams that have fallen short in the past. For once, Gonzaga has a big, athletic guard who won’t be outclassed against the blue bloods deep in March. Williams-Goss was a McDonald’s All-American out of high school who spent his first two years at Washington becoming one of the Pac-12’s best guards. He’s Gonzaga’s leader in points and assists and has proven to be a quality defender, too. This is the player Gonzaga has been waiting for.

7. Johnathan Motley, PF, Baylor

Motley finally became a full-time starter this season as a junior and promptly blossomed into one of the country’s most productive players. He’s averaging 17.3 points and 9.9 rebounds and more importantly helped turn Baylor into a legitimate contender.

6. Luke Kennard, SG, Duke

Luke Kennard was supposed to be a role player for Duke this year. Instead he turned into their biggest star and one of college basketball’s most ruthless scorers. Kennard’s numbers speak for themselves: 20.1 points per game, 44.3 percent shooting from three-point range, a 128.1 offensive rating that ranks among the country’s best. Duke never did become the superteam we were expecting, but at least it found a superstar hiding in plain sight.

5. Justin Jackson, SF, North Carolina

Justin Jackson was a McDonald’s All-American out of high school and a solid starter his first two years at North Carolina. There was only one problem: His inability to consistently hit three-pointers was something of a fatal flaw in his skill set. Jackson has finally found his stroke as a junior and it unlocked his game. He’s hit more threes this year (90) than he did his first two seasons combined (63) and he’s done it at an impressive 37.7 percent clip. The Tar Heels are a favorite to win it all largely because Jackson turned into one of the country’s best scorers.

4. Caleb Swanigan, PF, Purdue

Swanigan got into the best shape of his life in his sophomore season, and it made him college basketball’s most dominant big man. He tied for the nation lead in double-doubles (26), put up four 20-20 games, and helped Purdue to the regular season title in the Big Ten. He’s quietly also become a great three-point shooter. Swanigan was thought to be the biggest recruit in program history when he arrived at Purdue, and he’s delivered on every bit of that promise this season.

3. Frank Mason III, PG, Kansas

Frank Mason III is basically a folk hero at this point. He hits big shots, gets rap songs dedicated to him, and enters the NCAA tournament as a leading national player of the year candidate. Not bad for a 5’11 point guard who was once committed to Towson.

2. Josh Hart, SF, Villanova

What could Josh Hart do for encore after a breakout junior year that ended with a national championship? He cleared the only hurdle left by becoming (arguably) the best player in college basketball. Hart, who was No. 23 on this list last year, has improved significantly as a shooter and playmaker while remaining one of the best perimeter defenders in the country. No team has gone back-to-back as national champs since Joakim Noah, Al Horford, and Corey Brewer did it 10 years ago at Florida. Villanova has a real shot at doing it now, and it’s because Hart has taken his game to a new level.

1. Lonzo Ball, PG, UCLA

UCLA was a mess only 12 months ago. The Bruins finished 15-17, attendance at Pauley Pavillon was in steep decline, and Steve Alford was squarely on the hot seat. Then Lonzo Ball showed up. In his freshman season, Ball transformed a joyless program into the greatest show in college basketball. UCLA plays fast, scores at will, and has a legitimate shot at a national championship. Ball hasn’t done it entirely by himself, of course, but his imprint is undeniable.