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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Dark”

Welcome back, everyone! Can you believe it's been six weeks already? I can't. Something something the uncomfortable passage of time during a pandemic as emphasized by a web-series.

But we're here to talk about RWBY the fictional story, not RWBY the cultural icon. At least, we will in a moment. First, I'd like to acknowledge that shaky line between the two, growing blurrier with every volume. A sort of good news, bad news situation.

The bad news — to get that out of the way — is that we cannot easily separate RWBY from its authors and those authors have, sadly, been drawing a lot of negative attention as of late. This isn't anything new, not at all, but I think the unexpectedly long hiatus gave a lot of fans (myself included) the chance to think about Rooster Teeth's failings without getting distracted by their biggest and brightest production. There's a laundry list of problems here — everything from the behavior of voice actors to the quality of their merch — but as a sort of summary issue, I'd like to highlight the reviews that continue to pop up on websites like Glassdoor, detailing the toxic, sexist, crunch-obsessed environment that RT employees are forced to work in. A lot of these websites requires a login to read more than a page of reviews, but you can check out a Twitter thread about it here.

Now, I want to be clear: I'm not bringing this up as a way to shame anyone enjoying RWBY. This isn't a simplistic claim of, "The authors are Problematic™ and therefore you can't like the stuff they produce." Nor is this meant to be a catch-all excuse for RWBY's problems. If it were, I'd have dropped these recaps years ago. I'm of the belief that audiences maintain the right to both praise and criticize the work they're given, regardless of the context in which that work was produced. At the end of the day, RT has presented RWBY as a finished product and, more than that, presents it as an excellent product, one worth both our emotional investment and our money (whether in the form of paying for a First account, or encouraging us to buy merch, attend cons, etc.) I'll continue to critique RWBY as needed, but I a) wanted fans to be at least peripherally aware of these issues and b) clarify that my use of "RT" in statements like, "I can't believe RT is screwing up this badly" is meant to be a broad, nebulas acknowledgement that someone in the company is screwing up, either creatively (doesn't have the skill to write a good scene) or morally (hasn't created an environment in which other creators are capable of crafting a good scene). The real, inner workings of such companies are mostly a secret to their audiences and thus it's near impossible for someone like me — random fan writing these for fun as a casual side hobby — to accurately point fingers. Hence, broad "RT." I just wanted to clarify that when I use this it's as a necessary placeholder for whoever is actually responsible, not a damnation of the overworked animator breaking down in a bathroom. Heavy stuff, but I thought it was necessary (or at least worthwhile) to acknowledge this issue as we head into the second half of the volume.

Now for the good news: RWBY has reached 100 episodes! For any who may not know, 100 is a pretty significant number in the TV world because, when talking about prime time programming, it guarantees syndicated reruns. Basically, networks don't want audiences to get burned out with a show — changing the channel when it comes on because ugh, I've seen this already, recently too — and 100 episodes allows for a roughly five month run without any repeats, making it very profitable. RWBY is obviously not a television show and doesn't benefit from any of this (hell, modern television doesn't benefit from this as much as it used to, not in the age of streaming), but the 100 episode threshold is still ingrained in American culture. Beyond just being a nice, rounded number, it is historically a measure of huge success and I can't imagine that RT isn't aware of that. Regardless of what we think of RWBY's current quality, this is one hell of a milestone and should be applauded.

All that being said... RWBY's quality is definitely still lacking lol.

Our 100th episode is titled "Dark" — keeping with the one word titles, then — and I'd like to emphasize that, as a 100th episode, it definitely delivers in terms of plot. There's plenty of action, important character beats, and at least one major reveal, everything we'd expect from a milestone and a Part II premiere. The animation also continues to be noteworthy for its beauty, as I found myself admiring many of the screenshots I took for this recap. There are certainly things to praise. The only problem (one we're all familiar with by now) is that these small successes are situated within a narrative that's otherwise falling apart. It's all good stuff... provided you ignore literally everything else surrounding it.

But let's dive into some examples. We open on Qrow starting, awoken by the thunder outside. Robyn has been watching him and makes a peppy comment about how none of them will be sleeping tonight, followed by a more serious, "Sounds bad out there." Yeah, it does sound bad, especially when they all know — thanks to Ruby's message back in Volume 7 — that this is due to Salem's arrival. I think a lot of the fandom has forgotten that little detail because people often discuss Qrow as if he is entirely ignorant of what is going on outside his cell. Even if we were to assume that he's forgotten all about the pesky Salem issue (the horror of Clover's death overriding everything else, perhaps) he still knows that Tyrian is running loose in a heat-less city with a creepy storm going on and, from his perspective, the Very Evil Ironwood is still running the show. So it's bad, which begs the question of why Qrow (and Robyn, for that matter) hasn't displayed an ounce of legitimate worry for everyone he knows out there. Thus far, their interactions have centered entirely around Qrow's misplaced blame and Robyn's terrible attempts to lighten the mood, despite the fact that a war is raging right beyond that wall. It's another example of RWBY's inability to manage tone properly, to say nothing of balancing the multiple concerns any one character should be trying to juggle. Just as it rankles that Ruby and Yang don't seem to care about what has happened to their uncle, Qrow likewise doesn't seem to care about what might be happening to his nieces. When did we reach a point where these relationships are so broken that someone can be arrested/chucked into a deadly battle and the others just... ignore that?

So Robyn's otherwise innocuous comment immediately reminds me of how badly the narrative has treated these conflicts and, sadly, things don't improve much from here. We are thankfully spared more of Robyn's jokes when Qrow realizes that what he's hearing can't be thunder. A second later, Cinder blasts through the wall — called it! — and Qrow instinctively transforms.

The only downside to this moment is that the whole ceiling falls down on Qrow and the others because APPARENTLY these cells don't have tops on them. Seriously. As far as I can recall we don't see the stone breaking through the forcefield somehow and this looks pretty open to me.

If it is... you're telling me these crazy powerful fighters who practice landing strategies and leap tall buildings in a single bound —

— can't just hop over this mildly high electric fence to get out? Qrow can't just fly away?

We're, like, two minutes in, folks.

We transfer to Nora's perspective as she wakes up, seeing Klein giving her the IV. He tells her not to worry, that "you and your friend are going to be just fine." What friend? Penny? Klein went upstairs prior to Weiss hugging Whitley or Penny crash landing outside. I had thought them bursting through the door with another unconscious friend was the first time he learned what the big bang outside was, but apparently not.

Penny is, obviously, a mess. While I now understand the choice to make her blood such an eye-catching color when that's crucial to the Hound's hunt, I still think it looks strange visually. Like someone has taken a copy of RWBY and painted over it. It doesn't look like it fits the art style. More than that, it implies some rather complicated things about Penny's humanity, especially in a volume focused around her being a "real girl." Real enough for Maiden powers, but with obviously inhuman blood that isn't even referred to as "bleeding." Penny "leaks" instead.

Toss in the fact that she's literally an android who is made up of tech — recall the running gags about her being heavy, or it hurts to fist-bump her, to say nothing of keeping things like multiple blades inside her body — yet Klein says that her "basic anatomy" is the same and he can "stitch up that wound."

I'm sorry, what? Whatever Penny looks like on the inside, it's not going to resemble a human woman's anatomy, and Klein might be able to stitch the outer layer of skin she's got, but that won't do anything to fix whatever metal bits have been broken underneath. Penny isn't a human-robot hybrid, she's a robot with an aura. Penny has knives in her back, rockets in her feet, and a super computer behind her eyes. When our clip introduced that Klein would be the one to help Penny, my initial reaction was, "Seriously? He's a butler and a doctor and an engineer?" But RWBY didn't even try to get away with a Super Klein explanation, they just waved away Penny's very obvious, inhuman anatomy. Yeah, I'm sure "stitching up" an android wound is just like giving Nora her IV. I hope the surgical sutures he used are extra strong!

In an effort to not entirely drag this episode, I do appreciate that Whitley is allowed an "ugh" moment about the non-blood covering his shirt without anyone calling him out on it. That felt like the sort of thing the show would usually try to make a character feel guilty about and I'm glad that, for once, he was just allowed to be frustrated without comment.

Then the power goes out and May calls, which raises questions about what state the CCTS is in and when scrolls are available to our protagonists vs. when they're not. But whatever. She's checking in because she just "saw another bombing run light up the Kingdom" and —

Wait. Bombing? Salem is bombing the city? I know we've seen explosions in the sky, but I'd always just attributed that to evil aesthetic. Why does this dialogue sound like it's from a World War II film and not a fantasy sci-fi show about literal monsters launching a ground attack?

May looks pretty against the sky though. I like her hair color against that purple.

I'm admittedly grasping at positives here because we finally return to her "You have to choose" ultimatum and — surprise! — May has pulled back completely. Ruby says that once they've helped Penny, "We'll...we'll do something!" which is once again her avoiding making a decision. Ruby still refuses to choose, instead falling back on generic, optimistic pep talks. They'll figure out how to stop Salem later. They'll think about the impact of telling the world later. They'll choose who to help later. Ruby keeps pushing these problems into the future where, she hopes, a perfect, magical solution will have appeared for her to latch onto. When that continues to not happen, others pressuring her to actually do something and stop waiting for perfection — Ironwood, Yang, May — she panics and continues stalling for time. Wait an episode and the narrative supports her in this.

Because initially May was forcing Ruby to decide. Now, May enables her desire to keep putting things off. "Don't beat yourself up, kid. At this point, I don't know how much is left to be done." That's the exact opposite of what May believed last episode, that there was still so much work and good to do for the people of Mantle. This is precisely what the show did with Yang and Ren's scenes too, having people call Ruby out... but then return to a message of, 'Don't worry, you're actually doing just fine' before Ruby is forced to actually change.

None of which even touches on May calling her "kid" in this moment. That continues to be a convenient way of absolving Ruby of any responsibility. When she wants to steal airships or Amity Tower, she's an adult everyone should listen to, the leader of this war. When the story wants to absolve her of previously mentioned flaws, she becomes a kid who shouldn't "beat herself up." I said years ago that RWBY couldn't continue to let the group be both children and adults simultaneously, yet here we are.

So that was a thoroughly disappointing scene. Ruby gets her moment to look sad and defeated, listing "the grimm, the crater, Nora, Penny" as problems she doesn't know how to solve. Note that 'Immortal witch attacking the city I've helped trap here' isn't included in that list. Ruby is still ignoring Salem herself and no one in the group is picking up where May left off, challenging her to do more than wring her hands over things others are already trying to take care of: Ironwood is fighting the grimm, May has gone off to help the crater, Klein is patching up Nora and Penny. Ruby, as one flawed individual, should not be expected to come up with a solution to everything, but she does need to stop acting like she can come up with a solution to everything when it matters most (office scene) and rejecting others' solutions when they ask for her help (Ironwood, May).

If it feels like I'm dragging the flawed, traumatized teenager too much, it's not in an effort to ignore those aspects of her identity. Rather, it's because she's also the licensed huntress who wrested control from a world leader and violently demanded she be put in charge of this battle. Ruby, by her own actions, is now responsible for dealing with these problems, or admitting she was wrong and letting others take the lead, without purposefully derailing their plans. She doesn't get to suddenly go, "I don't know," cry a little, and get sympathetic pats.

But of course that's precisely what happens, courtesy of Weiss.

During this whole scene I kept wondering why no one was celebrating Nora waking up, especially when Ruby outright mentions her. Have they just not noticed given all the Penny drama? Because Nora absolutely woke up.

Aaaand went back to sleep, I guess. What was the point of that POV shot? No worries though, she'll wake up again in a minute.

Willow arrives and announces that they can fix the power (and Penny) using the generator at the edge of the property. I'm convinced RT doesn't actually know what a generator is because the characters are acting like it's some super special device that only richy-rich could possibly have. Whitley says that it's the SDC executives who have their "own power supply" and that it's "extremely unfair." Now, don't get me wrong, a good generator powering large portions of your house can run you 30k+, but you can also get one that plugs into your extension cord and powers your fridge for a couple hundred. There's absolutely a class issue here, just not the one Whitley and Weiss seem to be commenting on. They make a generator sound like the sort of device that only a politician-CEO could possible have and it's weird.

Likely, it sounds weird because it's a choppy way of getting Whitley to bring up the wealth disparity so he can then go, 'That's right! We're crazy rich with a company housing tons of ships! We can use those to evacuate Mantle.' Awkwardness aside, I do like that the Schnee wealth is being used for good purposes, but... evacuate where? To the city currently under attack by a giant whale? In a RWBY that wasn't determined to demonize Ironwood, this would have been a great plot point during the office scene instead, with Weiss offering her services to Ironwood, even if the group decides that a continued evacuation still isn't possible.

Instead, we get it here from Whitley. Do I need to point out the obvious? That Whitley is the MVP of this episode? He's done more good in an HOUR than the group has managed in a year. Give this kid some training and make him a huntsmen instead.

We're given a (very pretty!) shot of the shattered moon because it wouldn't be RWBY if we weren't continually reminded that gods once wiped out humanity before destroying part of a celestial body... and absolutely no one talks about that lol.

Blake's coat might not make any sense for her color scheme, but it does make her easy to spot as she and Ruby run across the grounds. Oh my god, they're actually doing something together! It only took eight years. They even get a lovely talk where Blake admits how much she looks up to Ruby, despite her being younger, and once again I'm struck at how much more I would have loved this scene if it had appeared elsewhere in the series. It is, indeed, as sweet and emotional as all the RWBY GIF-ers are claiming... provided you overlook that this is the exact opposite of what Ruby needs to hear right now. She doesn't need to hear that she's more mature and reliable than her elders when she's functioning under a "We don't need adults" mentality. She doesn't need to hear that not knowing what to do is totally fine, not when that led to her turning on Ironwood, despite not knowing how to stop Salem. She doesn't need to hear that "doing something" — doing anything — is a strength, because Ruby keeps avoiding the big problems for smaller ones she's comfortable with, like standing by Penny's bedside instead of deciding between Mantle and Atlas. Blake's speech is heartfelt, but it's a speech that suits a Beacon days Ruby who is having some doubts about her leadership skills, not the girl whose impulsive — and now lack of — actions is having world-wide repercussions. Everyone is babying Ruby to a staggering degree. It's like if we had a med show where the doctor is standing by the bedside of a coding patient, fretting between two treatments. 'Don't worry,' their colleague says, patting their shoulder. 'I've always looked up to you. You'll do something when you're ready' and then they continue to watch the patient, you know, die.

Also: who does Ruby look up to? Everyone talks about how much they depend on and trust Ruby, but who does Ruby look to for guidance? A number of her problems stem from the fact that she has rejected the advice of everyone who has tried to help her improve: Qrow, Ozpin, Ironwood, even Yang. Ruby is presented as the pinnacle of what to strive for in a leader, rather than a leader who has only been doing this for two years and still has a great deal to learn.

Anyway, they get the generator on and the Hound shows up.

I am begging RT to just make RWBY a horror story. All their best scenes the last three years have been horror I am bEGGING —

Anyway, while Ruby waits to be eaten we cut to Willow and Klein, the former of which is reaching for her bottle, pulling back, reaching again, all while her hand shakes. This is good. This is what we should have gotten with Qrow. Which isn't to say that their (or anyone's) addiction should be identical, but rather that this is a far more engaging and complex look at addiction than what our birb got. Willow tells us that she doesn't drink in the dark despite bringing the bottle with her; tries to resist drinking when she's scared and ultimately fails. Qrow just decided to stop drinking after decades of addiction, seemingly for no reason, and that was that. Why is a side character we only met this volume written better than one of the main cast?

Blake manages to call Weiss about the Hound and she asks if Whitley can handle the airships without her. I mean, I assume so given that Weiss is looking at the bookshelves while Whitley does all the work lol. He makes a teasing comment about how he can if she can handle that grimm and she comments that they still need to work on his "attitude."

No they don't. Weiss stuck a weapon in her kid brother's face. Whitley made a joke. Even if Weiss' comment is likewise meant to be read as teasing, it's clear that we've bypassed any meaningful conversation between them. That hug was supposed to be a Fix Everything moment even though, as I've laid out elsewhere, it didn't even come close.

We cut back to Ruby getting thrown through a wall into the backyard and the Hound creepily coming after her. She's freaked out by this clearly abnormal grimm and Blake is weirdly... not? "It's just a grimm. Just focus!" Uh, it's obviously not. Have we reached the traumatized, sleep-deprived point where the group is sinking into full-blown denial? I wouldn't be surprised. They've been awake for like... 40+ hours.

Because the Hound knocks Ruby out with a single hit. Just, bam, she's down. "Focusing" is not the solution here.

Weiss calls to warn the others about the grimm, telling them to stick together. Willow (understandably) starts freaking out and flees the room (classic horror trope!). Klein is left alone when Penny wakes up with red eyes. Oh no!

Don't worry. You know nothing meaningful happens.

She shoves Klein before (somehow?) resisting the hack, her Maiden powers going wild in the process. Just when it looks as if Penny might cause some serious damage, Nora wakes up, takes her hand, and says, I kid you not:

"Hey... no one is going to make you do anything you don't want to do... It's just a part of you. Don't forget about the rest."

Okay. I want to re-emphasize that I love hopeful, uplifting, victory-won-through-the-power-of-love stories. Istg I'm not dead inside, it's just that RWBY does this so badly. I mean, what is this? It has similarities to the character shouting, 'No! Resist!' to their mind-controlled ally, but this is not presented as a desperate, last-ditch effort by Nora. She just speaks like this is the most obvious truth in the world. If you don't want to have your mind taken over... just don't! It's that simple. The problem definitely isn't that Watts has changed her coding and has implemented a command she can't override, it's that Penny has forgotten about the "rest" of her personhood.

And this works. Granted, not for long, but we leave Nora having successfully calmed Penny down and until her eyes unexpectedly go red again scenes later, we're left assuming that this is a permanent solution. That, imo anyway, is taking the Power of Love too far, overriding the basic reality of Penny being hacked. It’s not a personal failing she must overcome, it’s an external attack. I would have rather had Nora react to the scars she saw on her arm, or have a moment with Klein, or get some love from the group. Not a wakes up, falls asleep, wakes up again to save Penny with a Ruby level 'Just ignore reality' pep-talk, then back to sleep again.

So Penny isn't attacking her allies, or mistakenly hurting her allies with wild Maiden powers. Not that the group doesn't have enough to deal with, but still. Weiss arrives to help with the Hound and attempts a new summon, only to fail when two minor grimm burrow up into her glyphs. I really enjoyed that moment, both for the wing visual and the knowledge that Weiss' glyphs can fail if you break them somehow (which makes sense). Also, I just like that she failed in general? Weiss is, as per usual now, about to demonstrate just how OP she is compared to the rest of the team, so it was nice to see her faltering here.

The Hound tries to make off with Ruby and Blake does an excellent job of keeping it tethered. Ruby finally wakes, only to realize that the grimm is actually after Penny since it's staring at her power up through the window, no longer trying to escape. Moments like this remind me that there's someone on RT's writing team that knows what they're doing, at least some of the time. The assumption that the Hound is after Ruby as a SEW, the surprise that it's actually Penny, realizing it holds up because Ruby is covered in Penny's blood and Blake is not... that's all nice, tight plotting. More of that please!

The Hound drops her and Ruby's aura shatters when she hits the ground. I want everyone to remember this moment as an example of how strong the Hound is. The group may be tired, but unlike YJR they've been sitting around in the Schnee manor for a number of hours, regaining strength. We saw the Hound hit Ruby twice — once through the wall and once to knock her out — and then she falls from a not very high distance for a huntress, yet her aura is toast. That's the level of power and skill the Hound possesses. Decimating YJR, knocking Oscar out, same for Ruby, avoiding Blake and Weiss' hits, soon to treat Penny like a ragdoll. Just remember all this for the episode's end.

Blake tells Weiss she'll take care of Ruby, you go help the others. Yay breaking up the duos more! Bad timing though as the new acid-spitting grimm pops out of the ground and Blake is now left alone to face it.

Weiss re-enters the mansion, knowing the Hound is somewhere nearby, but not where. Suddenly, Willow's voice sounds through her scroll with an, "Above you!" which... doesn't keep Weiss from getting hit lol. But it's the thought that counts! Willow has accessed the cameras she's set up throughout the manor, watching the Hound's movements, and I have to say, that is a WAY better use of her separation from Klein than I thought we were getting. I legit thought they'd have Willow run away in a panic, meet the Hound, die, and then Weiss could be sad about losing her mom.

It does say something about RWBY's writing that this was my knee-jerk theory, as well as my surprise when we got something way better.

The Hound runs off, uninterested in Weiss, and she asks Willow to keep tabs on it. It heads for Whitley next (also covered in Penny's blood) and very creepily stalks him in the office with a, "I know you're here." Whitley is seconds away from being Hound chow before one of Weiss' boars pin it against the wall. He runs, then runs BACK to finish deploying the airships, before finally escaping assumed death. Goddamn this boy is pulling his weight.

I assume all these ships are automated then? I hope someone takes a moment to call May. Otherwise it's going to be super weird for the Mantle citizens if a fleet of SDC ships just show up and hover there...

I don't entirely understand how Weiss saved him though. She's nowhere to be seen when Whitley leaves and he runs a fair distance before he and Willow encounter Weiss again. We know her summons don't have to keep right next to her, but are they capable of rudimentary thought, attacking an enemy — and an enemy only — despite Weiss being a couple corridors down and unable to see the current battlefield? I don't know. In another series I'd theorize that this was a deliberate hint, a way to clue us into the fact that Willow, someone who we currently know almost nothing about, had training in the past and summoned the boar herself. Weiss and Winter certainly didn't get that hereditary skill from Jacques. Hell, we might still get that, Weiss reacting with confusion next episode when Whitley thanks her for the boar, but I doubt it. That scene with Ruby and the Hound aside, the show isn't this good at laying groundwork and then following up on it.

Case in point: Weiss says, "I didn't forget you" to Whitley after he gets away from the Hound, the moment trying to harken back to her promise to Willow. Key word is "trying." Because she absolutely forgot him! Weiss threatened and ignored Whitley until he proved his usefulness. I also shouldn't need to point out that, "Don't forget your brother" does not mean, "Don't let your brother die a horrible death by abnormal grimm." Weiss acts like her saving him is a fulfillment of her promise, rather than just the most basic of human decency. And also, you know, her job.

So that part is frustrating. The entire Schnee dynamic is a mess, from Weiss making a joke of her father's arrest, to Willow (presumably) fixing their relationship by putting a hand on her daughter's shoulder. Okay.

Then Weiss cuts off the Hound by summoning a giant wall of ice. My brain, every time this happens:

YOU COULD HAVE FIXED THE HOLE IN MANTLE'S WALL.

Moving on, Blake's fight against the acid... thing has some great choreography, including Blake using her semblance which we haven't seen in AGES.

I really like the fight itself, just not what Blake is shouting the whole time. "I need you, Ruby! We all need you!" This has really gotten ridiculous. Ruby is presented as everyone's sole savior despite failing time and time again. It's not that I don't think Blake as a character should have faith in her leader, it's that I don't think the writers should be crafting a story where everyone puts their unshakable hopes in an untrained, disloyal, impulsive 17 year old. I mean, Ruby is currently unconscious, yet Blake is acting like if she doesn't wake up — she, as an individual, if Ruby Rose does not re-join this fight — then all is lost. If Ruby doesn't save them, no one can. Which is, of course, absurd on numerous levels. Blake doesn't need the passed out, aura-less Ruby right now, she needs the still very healthy Weiss pulling out multiple summons and an ice wall! Use your scroll and call for backup again.

But of course, Ruby wakes up and kills the new, terrifying grimm with a single hit. It's a preview of what's to come with the Hound and it's just as ridiculous here as it will be there.

Speaking of the Hound, am I the only one who thought this was... cute?

I can't possibly be the only one. That head-tilt is exactly what my dogs do and my brain instinctively went, "Aww, puppy!"

Murderous puppy.

The Hound realizes none of the Schnees are who it's looking for and runs off. Penny, meanwhile, has been fully taken over because, well, that's just what's convenient now. She resists long enough keep Amity up, then succumbs, then resists to apologize to Ruby, then succumbs, then resists because Nora asked her to, then succumbs once it's time to knock her out. If RWBY was willing to commit to consequences, Penny would have been taken over and that was that. The characters would need to deal with whatever outcome happens as a result. Instead, the show very carefully avoids any of those pesky consequences by having Penny successfully resisting at key moments, despite no explanation of how she's managing that.

She shoves Klein again (Klein is having a Bad Time) and starts walking down the main steps. When Whitley wants to know where the hell she's going, Penny mechanically responds that she must "Open the vault, then self-destruct." I suppose the change Watts made was the self-destruct order? Ironwood obviously wants the vault open, though not necessarily Penny's death. Think what you will of his moral compass, she's a damn powerful ally — a research project, perhaps — and a Maiden to boot. At the very least, her death may give the powers to someone even worse.

God, please don't let them have brought Penny back and made her a Maiden just to kill her again.

The Hound arrives though and, as said, knocks Penny out. We're back to square one with her, then. Note though that this attack is near instantaneous. She grabs its hands one second, is hanging limply the next. Wow, the Hound sure is a terrifying antagonist!

Not for long.

"That's enough," Ruby says and one-shots it with her eyes.

Now, I want to talk for a moment about the implications of that line. "That's enough." Obviously Ruby is #done with this situation and emotionally unwilling to let the Hound kidnap Penny (congratulations, Nuts and Dolts shippers), but there's a meta reading here as well. Not intentional, but glaring to me nonetheless. Basically, the idea that the Hound has, from a plot perspective, done enough. It has served its singular purpose. It kidnapped Oscar and now it dies. Never-mind how insanely powerful we've established the Hound to be, never-mind how Ruby's eyes also work or don't work according to whether anything of actual import is on the line. From a plot perspective "that's enough" and the Hound can be disposed of instantly. It got Oscar and gave us an episode of filler creepiness. Move along now.

The idea behind Ruby's eyes isn't bad, but the execution absolutely is. RT has undermined a huge portion of the stakes by giving their protagonist an instant kill-shot that always works precisely when she needs it to. Starting with the Apathy, we have yet to get a moment where Ruby's eyes fail to save the day when she really needs them to, no matter how incredible the challenge. The Hound was very intentionally written to be a grimm outside of the group's current power level. It thinks, it talks, they literally can't touch it. This creates the expectation that the group will need to grow stronger — or at least become smarter — in order to surmount this new obstacle, yet Ruby's eyes undermine all of that. The group hasn't grown in years, the show just makes enemies weaker as needed (Ace Ops), or has Ruby pull out her eyes as a trump card. It wouldn't be that bad if we'd at least gotten a good battle out of it, one where the group gets close to defeating the Hound on their own, but needs Ruby's eyes to finish it off. Instead, she literally walks up without any aura, announces to the audience that this antagonist's time is up, and blasts it out a window.

Granted, Ruby's eyes don't completely finish it. The Hound pulls itself to its feet and we see this.

Yup, that's a guy and yup, those are silver eyes.

I would like to issue a formal apology to the "It's secretly Summer!" theorists in the fandom. I mean, I still think it would be ridiculous (and at this point highly improbable) that Ruby's dead mother has actually been a grimm mutant this whole time, just hanging out in Salem's realm while she waits for the plot to start before attacking the world, and then sends some no-name faunus dude after the group instead of their leader's mother for extra, emotional torture... but you all were definitely right about the “It's a person” part! I... don't know how I feel about this. Admittedly, it seems to be a logical continuation of the other grimm-human hybrids we've seen — namely Cinder and Salem herself — and it finally explains why Salem wants Ruby alive (even though it actually doesn't because WHY did she want more SEWs for Hound grimm when she wasn't even attacking back then? And already has all these other insanely powerful tools??), but at the same time, it feels like it's complicating a story that doesn't need further complications. The group fights monsters and has an immortal enemy. You don't need to add 'Some of those monsters are secretly human' to the mix.

It doesn't hurt that this twist is giving me Attack on Titan vibes, which, ew. A dark time in my fandom life, folks.

The Hound staggers a few steps before Whitley and Willow dump a suit of armor on it. That's all it takes to kill the most dangerous grimm we've ever seen: a single flash of silver eyes and some heavy metal. This also wreaks havoc with the implication that Salem wants SEWs alive because they create such powerful grimm. Obviously not. I mean yeah, normal huntsmen are going to have serious problems, we’ve seen that this volume, but any other SEWs nearby will take a Hound out instantaneously. For a villain with so many other powerful abilities — immortality, magic, endless normal grimm, her nifty soup — Salem would be much better served just killing SEWs straight out. Clearly, creating Hounds isn't worth the effort.

The Hound leaves some bones behind and Ruby collapses to her knees, overcome with the knowledge that this was once a person. Again, uncomfortable Attack on Titan parallels.

We finish our premiere with Cinder clearing away rubble to reveal Watts. Honestly, I like that we ended on this because her rescue is hilarious. She just slings him over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes and blasts off with her magic fire feet. Fantastic.

Note though that with this scene we've seen almost everything from the clip and the trailer. What's to come in the rest of Volume 8? No idea. Outside of Winter leading the charge with the bomb, we got it all here.

Time to update the bingo board!

I'm crossing off "Introducing new grimm that are quickly abandoned." Between the Hound and acid-dude both falling to a single blast/cut from Ruby, we've more than earned this square.

It doesn't look as if we'll get another Watts-Jacques team-up now that he's left, but you never know.

Maria's got me worried. I feel like her Yoda fight against Neo is the one thing she'll be allowed to do this volume, but given that we didn't see anyone except Ruby's group this episode, we don't yet know whether the story is now ignoring her and Pietro, or if they'll re-appear in another episode like YJR.

Qrow is free. Will he get a drink before trying to murder Ironwood? Perhaps.

Still no bingo :(

All in all, the episode was by no means horrible. I think there were lots of horrible parts, but also some legitimately well executed moments, fun action, and scenes that I can easily imagine as squee worthy if you lean back and squint. Everything is comparative and in the growing collection of bad RWBY episodes, this one isn't securing a top slot. Which doesn't mean I think it's good, just... not as bad as it could have been and primarily only bad due to long-running problems, not things this specific episode has done. That's my bar then, so low it has officially entered the underworld.

Still, RWBY is back and a part of me is eager to see where this volume takes us, for better or for worse.

Until next week! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps #rwby dark

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guiltyfandomtrashwonderland · 5 years ago

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MadaSaku WeekEND 2019 Submission

Title: Lost Things

@madasakuweek

Prompt: Soulmates AU

Warnings: it’s terrible lol (will clean up and post to ao3 later as full story and not a mere oneshot)

EDIT: Guess I should provide a link to the ao3 account.

There is no victory without sacrifice. Ancient words passed from clan to clan, tribe to tribe, ninja to ninja. Words meant to provide solace to those left behind, of no comfort for those on the receiving end of fate’s whetted axe.

Kaguya is wily, but in the end she is no match for the combination seal laid on her by Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura watches, her eyes never leaving Kaguya’s face, for a medic is every battle’s sentinel. While the boys’ eyes lock squarely on the threads of the seal that instantly begins wrapping around Kaguya’s body, Sakura looks into the woman’s face, and sees her smile wickedly before crumbling away into dust.

A few moments later, Sakura understands why.

The lines of the seal, hungry, fail to dissipate with the rabbit princess, and rush to Sakura, devouring her from the feet up. She can’t move, and time seems to pass slowly as the boys turn to look at her with twin looks of horror on their faces. This isn’t how it’s supposed to work, their eyes say, and then she vanishes into darkness.

It isn’t like passing out; it’s more like traversing a cave into its deepest point and turning off the light. Absolute darkness, so pure that she begins to hallucinate, her brain showing her images of what it thinks should be there in the absence of light to draw in.

There is no victory without sacrifice. And the success of the seal, it seems, requires such a sacrifice. Did it choose her? Or was she simply the closest one, caught up in the action by act of chance? She doesn’t know which feels worse.

Sakura strains against the darkness, feeling herself able to move again, but without earth, sky, anything, there is nowhere to move to, nothing to press against. She floats in an empty space not unlike the other worlds contained within some Mangekyo. It feels like eons pass, and she flexes her chakra here and there to remind herself she still exists, has a physical form, isn’t caught in a genjutsu.

And then, movement. A force grabs her entire body and pulls at the navel, drawing her in some sightless direction. She tries to fight, to struggle, but how can you fight against something that isn’t there? With nothing around her for comparison, she has no idea where she is going or how fast, but the way her hair spreads out behind her says forward and too damn fast.

And then, a pinprick of light. It grows larger faster than she can blink until the brightness is her whole world, and then she feels a sucking sensation as the force pulls her through what her body tells her is some kind of opening. A resting place for the dead? A final destination for all those sacrificed to the great causes of men?

But she isn’t the only sacrifice the seal will demand today.

She feels the severing of her soul bond like the snap of a bone when she passes through the void, and only then does she scream.

She wakes up to hard ground, a sharp voice, and an even sharper blade pressed against her throat. Her entire chakra network burns with the strain of use, and she feels a hollowness in her chakra reserves she hasn’t known in years.

“You are trespassing on the lands of the Uchiha Clan. State your name and purpose, stranger, or die.”

Trees. A forest. Scraggly plants clinging to the earth. Wet leaf smell wafts over her face with a gentle breeze, and sudden nostalgia wrenches her insides with incredible pressure. Home?

When she doesn’t answer, the flat of the blade presses against her throat harder.

“Who are you?”

She reaches out for her connection with her soulmate, a reflexive habit whenever she became anxious or hurt or scared. The nothingness from inside the void answers her, and Sakura despairs because she has never felt such emptiness. Was Ino dead? Am I dead?

“Sakura.” Her voice creaks like it hasn’t been used in a thousand years. “My name is Sakura.”

“Your purpose.”

Tsunade-sama, what is a medic’s purpose?

To live, to survive, to heal, to fix, to defend. And always to move forward, to advance the field.

Her purpose. Too deep of a question to pose to a lost woman with depleted chakra in a familiar forest surrounded by unfamiliar dark-haired men. But no, some of them almost looked like--?

“I’m a healer,” she says, hoping that if nothing else, they’d at least think her too valuable to kill.

She’s right.

Her eyes and mind clear a bit and now she can see. There are three of them surrounding her in a protective triangle, weapons all drawn and pointed in. They all have dark hair and Sharingan eyes, and from their stances alone Sakura knows to be cautious. These are shinobi, and high ranking ones, dangerous enough to wield stolen Sharingan eyes.

She reaches for the chakra in her Byakugo and doesn’t feel surprised when she comes up empty. At the end of the battle with Kaguya her seal hadn’t been depleted, but close, and the...journey to wherever she was now had apparently taken the rest. She isn’t helpless, but she’s close enough.

“We should take her to the council, my Lord” one of the men says. “Her sealwork alone will be invaluable in the fight against Uzushio. The mark on her forehead speaks of master’s work, and if she created the seals that transported her here…”

The man who demanded her identity, the one with the look of a leader about him, nods. “I agree. Fuyuki. Hirokazu.”

The two subordinates respond to his unspoken command and each form seals, and Sakura feels a sensation like a cold hand reaching down her back. She blacks out.

When she wakes up, she finds herself clean and reclothed in a cell. There is no space for embarrassment at the thought of being stripped and washed while unconscious. There are no bruises on her skin and no ache between her legs, so she knows that at least she wasn’t violated after being put under. Small mercies.

Sakura pushes the worry aside in favor of standing up to assess her surroundings, hoping the simple act of accounting for space will help center her racing thoughts.

The cell is small, maybe two by two meters, and made of stone. There is no window, so she doesn’t know what time of day it is, or even where she is in orientation to the earth. From the coolness of the air, she guesses underground.

The bars in front of her are deceptively simple--too far apart, too rusted--and so she hovers a hand over them to test her suspicions. A subtle heat emanates from them, and she knows that if she touched them the hidden seals would unleash burns on her skin that would go down to the bone everywhere she made contact. Probably she would be burned if she tried to slip a hand between them, as well.

The walls have a similar fire-based chakra effect, but only that of an uncomfortable heat, to warn her to keep her distance. If she breaks through them, she expects they will burn her also. An old-fashioned technique to keep a person imprisoned, when simple chakra-dampening seals both keep the prisoner from escaping and eliminate the danger of their attacking captors.

Her hand tingles uncomfortably on the exact point where her soul mark rests and she can’t bear to look down at it, already knowing what she’ll see when she does, but it will have to happen sooner or later. She looks.

On her palm there is nothing, no misshapen mark that matches Ino’s in every way and that once allowed her to feel Ino’s presence when the other girl was--is nearby. Looking at her palm feels a little like dying, and so Sakura closes her eyes and breathes deep. If she just keeps breathing, eventually she will calm down. Her knees decide to give out a bit but Sakura follows them down as gracefully as she can and hovers over the ground on hands and knees, continuing to breathe.

If she just breathes, everything will be okay.

Breathing doesn’t work for shit, and five minutes later she throws herself back on the futon and sobs and sobs, clutching her naked fist to her chest in denial.

It had to have been the work of Kaguya. That bitch. That smile.

Had Kaguya manipulated the seals, or had she just known what was coming? In the split second that they’d wrapped around her and her vision had gone dark, Sakura caught a few characters on the winding inky threads: time, fling, obliterate, soul. Now, lying in the fetal position in a cage with her chakra still gone, Sakura thinks of the worst: those men had had Sharingan.

In her exhausted state, she assumed the only thing she reasonably could, which was based on the information she knew: nearly all Uchiha-born Sharingan users had perished, so the eyes those men used had to have been stolen. Now, she isn’t so sure.

Where am I?

Well, she certainly won’t find out with her head between her knees like this. Sakura stands up on shaky legs, takes another deep breath, and walks back to the front of the cell.

Peering carefully between the bars gives her no clues as to her location. She can see several other cells, all empty, and a wooden floor with paper walls. Two doors mark the end of the walkway between the cells and both are shut. There are no guards. It is a clear attempt at disorienting her, she thinks. Or perhaps their attention is drawn legitimately elsewhere.

Pondering this feels somewhat pointless, and so Sakura returns to the futon (dry-eyed this time) and enters the lotus position, focusing her excess chakra into her Byakygo.

She ignores a burning feeling spreading across her upper back. A stress rash. It’ll go away in the morning.

The next day, as near as she can tell without the window, the man who led the squad approaches her cage and nods at her. It isn’t a bow, but it’s an admission of cordiality. Sakura does not relax. Fresh from the agony of her journey, she hadn’t paid much attention to what they’d looked like, she’d just noticed. But with her head clear, it’s as plain as day that this man is the spitting image of Sasuke, and the resemblance sends a feeling like jumping into an iced-over pond all over her skin.

Sharingan. They’d all had Sharingan. And this man, who looked so much like Sasuke, must have had his own, for his eyes were black as anything today. Only an Uchiha could switch the Sharingan off again.

“Sakura,” he says. “Is that your real name?”

Sakura nods. “Yes, it is. Will you tell me yours?” She feels herself shaking a bit, unsure what she will do if he says what she thinks he might.

He smiles. “I’d like to ask you a few more questions first, if you don’t mind.”

Sakura nods again. She’d been preparing for this.

The man sits on the floor in a crossed-legs position, looking for all the world like a friend eager to catch up on goings-on. She stares at him, and at the easy smile on his face, and wonders what he could possibly want from her. From the way he begins his questioning, what he mostly wants is very boring answers to boring questions.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes.”

“How is your back?”

My--? “Uh, fine. It’s not sore if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I see. Are you hungry?”

“Not really.”

Her answers are simple, not giving away more than is necessary, and she feels comforted by his apparent lack of care for this. It is absolutely imperative that she cooperate. The sooner he trusts her, the sooner she’ll be out of this prison, and then she can reorient herself and find her way back to Naruto, Sasuke, Kaka-sensei without needing to resort to anything drastic. All she needs is a moment to escape.

But then, his questions take a rather different turn.

“You were in quite a state when we found you,” he says. “Fighting a war, are you?”

Sakura makes a face. “Obviously,” she bites out. “Where have you been? Haven’t you noticed the strange things that have been happening? In the sky, it was--well, the sky went all red, and there was a genjutsu on...on the moon.” The man tilts his head, face completely blank. He doesn’t react either with recognition or confusion. “Maybe you weren’t near the fighting, but surely you encountered the Zetsu,” Sakura finishes.

He stares at her, but she senses something cautiously hidden behind the stoic facade. This isn’t the face of a man hearing the rambling of a brain-addled prisoner, but it also isn’t the face of a person who’s spent the last four days thinking the world might end. What’s going on?

“White men, they were all white men with green hair...everyone went to sleep. Please, don’t you know what I’m talking about? I’m Sakura, Haruno Sakura. I’m from the land of Fire.” She swallows hard, pressing her hands on the ground to quell the tremors. “You have to know about that, right? Don’t you know who I am?”

The man looks at her like she’s crazy, which is fair. For the past few days of fighting she’d felt slightly unhinged even at her best.

“Haruno Sakura,” the man says slowly. “You’re in the land of Fire. My clan members and I found you near the border of our territory, at the edge of where the Senju forest begins.”

“But that’s not--surely you’d have seen--the whole country was overrun with--”

“Sakura,” he interrupts gently. “You’ve clearly been through many things. Considering the state you were in when the transportation seal dropped you at the border, I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through. But you clearly need rest. The sky is not red, and there is not a genjutsu on the moon.” His face is devoid of deception, and her heart sinks like a pit into her stomach.

He asks her a few more simple questions, carefully avoiding any that would have her recount the manner in which she arrived. When he leaves, Sakura curls up into a ball on the futon and cries, again. The burning on her back is worse today.

He comes every day for a week (if she counts by meals), bearing her breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and always stays until she’s finished them all. The food does indeed remind her of Fire Country’s cuisine, but of the southwestern border, where tastes ran spicy and sour and sweet and strong, and the rice wasn’t rice at all but a type of wild grass that grows in flooded marshes.

The man is cordial to her, laughing and teasing at times, and she can’t help but relax around him as he reminds her a little of Naruto, whose ability to make a friend astounded her at times.

He still hasn’t told her his name, but she knows for certain this man is related to Sasuke. There’s something just so about the shape of his jawline and and the tilt to his eyebrows that couldn’t be from anywhere else.

She asks him about his family, about where they’re from, but all she gets is vague answers politely nudging her to change the subject. She feels brave enough once to ask him directly about the Sharingan, but all he does is laugh and tell her that if she’s from the land of Fire she should know already.

After a while she wonders if it’s his job to assess her mental state, because a suspiciously large portion of the questions relate to her emotional stability, ability to recall events, mood status, and some painfully obvious inquiries concerning her use of controlled substances.

In fact, his questions aren’t intelligence-seeking at all, but sound rather like the same sorts of questions she asks hospital patients suffering from head trauma or psychosis. They’re questions you ask a person that you intend to release as soon as they’re stable. This baffles her more than she’d like to admit. What did they plan to do to her, these Uchiha?

None of the questions remotely mention the shinobi arts until the 22nd meal, upon which he requests to know her chakra affinities.

“Earth and water,” she answers easily, though to be honest she rarely uses elemental ninjutsu, preferring to rely on her yin and yang release for attacks and defense.

“I see,” he responds, standing and setting his feet. “Would you mind doing a small demonstration? You see, there are members of my clan who would greatly like to meet you, and I’ve been asked to assess your proficiency in the shinobi arts.”

“And my sanity.”

“And that,” he agrees with a wry quirk to his lips. “You haven’t mentioned any more of this moon-based genjutsu, so I hope that means you’ve recovered from the disorientation the seal caused you.”

Sakura shrugs.

“Very well,” the man continues. “So with that, Haruno Sakura, would you please provide a demonstration of your abilities?”

Sakura gets an idea, and requests that he bring her something alive and injured. Anything would work, she says, animal or human, and he looks at her curiously but leaves. In his absence, Sakura takes a deep breath and slips into the child’s pose on the floor, centering her chakra in far too much preparation for a simple healing, but it certainly helped calm her nerves.

There is something bothering her. Something wrong. She can’t quite point it out, but it is there, poking at her incessantly. He’d said she was in the land of Fire. There’s always the possibility that he intends to disorient her and had lied, but something inside her says he was telling the truth back then. And what does that mean if he had? The seal had pulled her through space. Lots of space.

Had it truly pulled her through time as well? To a time when the Uchiha Clan still lived alone in their territory to the southwest, perpetually at war with the Senju? He’d mentioned the Senju forests. Uzushiogakure. No one talked--talks about the forests like that anymore. And Uzushio is--

It is all completely ridiculous. But with the things she’s seen lately, she feels fully prepared to believe it. The rabbit princess can turn humans to ash with a touch, so why can’t an ancient sealing technique throw a human sacrifice interdimensionally in order to power the sealing?

But she doesn’t believe anything, not yet. She needs to gather more evidence. Get out of this damn cell first. A demonstration of her healing abilities will almost certainly help with that. A good shinobi isn’t hard to find, but a good medical shinobi sure as hell is.

The man returns with a small kitten sporting an infected sore on its head. Easy to fix. It has a twisted back leg likely there from birth. Far less easy to fix, but kittens are small and biologically squishy and she’s feeling like showing off wouldn’t be a bad idea. Hands glowing green, she takes care of the infection in minutes and repairs the leg enough to splint it in two hours.

When she finishes she’s a bit tired out, her reserves having not completely gone back to normal and her Byakugo still depleted, and the man is looking at her with an expression of pure awe.

“What is that?” He gestures at her hands, the green fading silently into nothing.

“It’s chakra used for healing,” Sakura says, and then watches the man carefully.

He betrays nothing of recognition and the awe only increases. “That’s incredible,” he breathes. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Sakura closes her eyes, refusing to fall into despair. Not yet. The unsettled feeling of wrong wrong wrong begins to grow, bolstered by what she’d seen on the seals, but this is hardly an air-tight confirmation, she chides herself. There are plenty of rural areas that had never heard of--well, not in the land of Fire. But she still isn’t sure if--

“Please,” she speaks to the man, letting all the worry and stress seep into her voice. His head snaps up, away from the kitten he’d been watching roll about with four unmarred limbs, and his gaze connects squarely with her own. “Please, I want to get out of here. I don’t want to be kept in here.”

“I can help you,” she adds, gesturing to the kitten. Desperation claws at her belly.

The man approaches the bars and touches them with a single finger, making the sign for tiger with his other hand. She feels an odd shimmering in the air of heat and energy, and then the man opens the door.

“Haruno Sakura,” he says, “If it pleases you, the council of elders for my clan would like to meet you. The detention was a precaution, of course. I’m sure you understand.”

She holds her breath, hardly believing her luck and this man’s inexplicable trust in her.

“My name is Uchiha Izuna.”

Sakura begins to worry more intensely at the wrongness of it all as Izuna leads her out of the holding cells and into the light. After she squints the last bit of darkness from her eyes, she finds herself in the middle of an enormous domestic compound stretching in every direction for as far as she could see.

Stone houses with red clay rooftops line well-trodden dirt pathways, and everywhere she looks there are people bustling about. Two women in a house down the way put up laundry together, and in the space of an intersection five children tumble over one another in a mixture of tag and sparring. None of them could have been older than five but all have kunai in their hands.

But the people, and their questionable child-raising traditions, aren’t what stops her dead in her tracks just outside the cell block.

Red and white uchiwa fans emblazon banners and kimono and the backs of the children’s shirts. They decorate walls and paper lanterns on all the houses, and mark the barrier walls at steady intervals.

What’s happening to me?

Izuna leads her past the intersection and down a main thoroughfare, keeping a steady hand half an inch or so above her lower back, which she feels the pressure of every so often as she slows down to gawk at the next thing, and the next.

Izuna Uchiha...she knows that name, doesn’t she?

More anxieties push their way anxiously to the forefront, overwhelming her thoughts to the point where she barely looks where she’s going. He hadn’t asked her about any loyalties she holds, any family she has waiting for her, and no shinobi of his caliber would forget something so vital when interrogating a prisoner. In fact, her entire lock-up seemed like a farce, and she wonders if it had all been concocted to ensure her cooperation with medical ninjutsu.

Surely, she thinks, a clan would not trust an outsider around their children so soon without something hanging over their head.

But here she is, being led through--the Uchiha Clan compound--this man’s family compound, a man who claims the Uchiha and their Sharingan eyes, as though she poses no threat at all. He knows something, Sakura thinks, he just isn’t saying what.

When they arrive at the large central house, she lets herself be whisked in away from Izuna and into the hands of capable servants, who slip her out of her clean but plain clothing and into an elaborate kimono with a green base which she admires while being dressed. Bide your time, she tells herself. It isn’t time to run, not yet.

She enters the council room with little introduction and meets the grim faces of six elderly people all crouched on mats, and she sits on the lone empty mat at the center of the room. Behind the elders is a large black stone bowl at the center of which is a massive flame, and everywhere along the wall are uchiwa in various stages of antiquity.

By now, it’s clear to her that this family must be genuine, but before she accepts she’s been flung headlong through time she feels she needs something more convincing than some scenery. What that is, she doesn’t know.

The elders, in spite of their mood, are surprisingly unhostile and question her about her health, apologize for the necessity of keeping her caged for several days, and inquire after her ability to heal with chakra. It is only when they begin to question her soulbond status does Sakura feel a sense of gnawing horror, a ratlike terror in a darkened corner of a room filled with cats. The feeling makes her want to act out, to put herself out on the line to see what will bite her next.

“When I came through the seal,” Sakura says, and at this the elders lean forward as one, “my connection with my soulmate was severed. My soul mark is gone now, and--” Here her voice breaks, just a bit. “--as you see then, I have no soulmate.”

“You are wrong,” a deep, masculine voice cuts through the stillness of the room, silencing everything but the fire.

Uchiha Madara, very much alive and looking no older than thirty, steps into the room. The elders all immediately bow but Sakura’s back stiffens like a metal rod. Behind him she can see Izuna, changed into more formal attire. He nods encouragingly at Sakura but her eyes stay riveted on the wild-haired man in front of him.

Madara bows to her. Low, at the waist. Dryness overtakes her mouth completely. “Your name is Sakura. You came to this world from another, through a seal you had no part in making. You bring knowledge of healing chakra with you from a time beyond this one. In that place, the conspirator Zetsu succeeded in bringing about the end of the world. And your soulmate in this world,” Madara continues, “is me.”

He brings a hand up to his shoulder and presses his hand to his upper back. Burning chakra like dying embers overtakes her system until the invasion overwhelms her shaky reserves and she begins to black out. The last of Sakura’s doubt dies with her consciousness, and her last thought before her body hits the floor is well, shit.

#madasakuweekend2019 #day 1 #soulmate AU

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euphoriacrossing · 5 years ago

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Okay so, I see people working on their AC journals, and I want to work on mine, but I still need some things for it (since I am using discbound I need the covers I want and the right kind of paper... that may seem like the whole journal and it kind of is, but I have dividers and some of the paper and the discs themselves, so.. yeah...) and I don't feel comfortable starting drawing layouts or anything until I get my journal set up the way I want. But i see people working on their journals and they are so cool and i fear for mine because I'm not artsy, I'm not organized, I'm not that creative. I have stickers a few, anyway (I have the official sticker book and a few stickers from etsy... I'll honestly probably get more but I have to wait until I get next month's money to buy anything because I didn't spend responsibly this month and ended up with $17 in my bank account... honestly almost worth it because I have just about everything I need for my actual switch now, since I can't have the AC switch, it's fairly decked out, my favorite is the pink and green joy-cons, I think I like them as much as i would the ones from the AC switch anyway, so yeah)... uh, yeah that's about it. Stickers and some of the journal pieces, lol. I do have ideas for the journal and I jot them down in a note app on here, but executing them the way I want to is a different story so yeah I have concerns about my journal. Let's hope I can make it half of what I want to.

I also do think I have settled on an island name. "Euphoria". I am testing it out, anyway, it's subject to change since it's still a long way off and I had a dozen other names I was considering. But Euphoria seems to fit the bill for what I'm going for. So maybe.

But then I don't know because I also legitimately wanted to name my island "Spoons" as I am a spoonie, and the spoon theory is how i tell people what my life is like, and plus, it's a hella cute name. And it would match my blog title and all that. So... I don't know, maybe i haven't decided because that name is still definitely in the running.

So maybe it's best I haven't started my journal yet, as the best thing to start with is a name. I think anyway, I see a lot of people using their Island Name in layouts and such, but then I can be more generic to start, perhaps I don't have to copy everyone else. But it just feels like I am doing it wrong. Like out of order.

So I saw a post on a facebook group I joined out if excitement (really the only good Animal Crossing fb group is mine. 😉 and I would say I was kidding, but as far as I know, I'm not... I've seen some super toxic mindsets and ugly acting people on a lot of other AC fb groups, so if you want one that is non-toxic, kind, and fun check out "Spoonimal Crossing", we're not dicks there) that people don't realize that all this stuff we're seeing in trailers could take months to achieve.

I think this person is right, if it's anything like New Leaf or really if it is a GOOD game, it will take us a bit to unlock things. I hope it's kind of gradual, and at month two and three and maybe four there are STILL things to unlock and more to do. Maybe four months is pushing it. Don't want people to lose interest because it's taking so long to unlock something. And with a game you're almost destined to have to start over (because of the lack of cloud saves and transfers thing) you can only make things SO hard to unlock. I get that. I hope they found a nice balance somewhere. But I not only think it will take persistent work to get these kinds of Islands, but I do think people fail to realize it as in the trailer it all looks like it happens so suddenly. Remember how things took some time to unlock in New Leaf though, and I don't really see people complain about it. They can't give us everything right at the start or it wouldn't be fun.

I also see people say "oh I'll get there in a day, because I time travel" blah, blah, blah... I hope beyond all hope that time travel is much harder if not impossible in this game. Somehow I would like it to be taken out. Because one, I feel like it's cheating the game. And /I/ don't want to be tempted to cheat. I mean we have a 24hr. place to sell stuff, it seems like night time gameplay is encouraged, so you shouldn't have to time travel to sell something or because you got bored at night. I feel the only reason to tine travel would be to cheat the game and if it's easy and people are getting rewarded for doing it, it's easy to want to taint the game that way. I don't want any temptation to do that. Secondly, I don't want other people succeeding because of it, like oh they built the best town thr fastest because they time traveled and got all this for it. It just seems unfair.

And I know you could argue that time travel has been "part of the game" since the beginning but I mean, I think taking it out only improves the game, and they have made tons of improvements to the game since the first game.

I just don't think time traveling brings anything to the game. But I have been wrong before.

I mean, maybe it can be argued if you miss an event you could go back and experience it... but from the point of view of someone who misses out on LIFE because of illness, I mean, I can't time travel back if I miss it. One of the special things about AC is the events and they are more special if you are actually there at the proper time, I feel. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people missing things because then I feel like it gets to be something more special for those missing out on real of things because of either illness or lack of social life or whatever. It gets to be special at all if you can only experience it at that time or whatever. I feel in the past time traveling has taken away a lot of the "specialness" of holiday events. So I feel we could stand to lose time traveling.

Anyway, whenever I close my eyes these days I imagine being on an island. A real one, though, I think of it as my Happy Place (also kind of a name contender, Happy Place is sort of cute) my soon to be Animal Crossing island. I think of my best name ideas when I am falling asleep. I keep a note app open I case I think of something good for my Island when I am partially asleep. I imagine where I want my house to be and all that. This helps me get to sleep these days and helps me when I an having to endure something sucky, like the dentist. Animal Crossing is already becoming my Happy Place again, my safe haven for my dreams and my imagination. I feel grateful to have something like this in my life honestly.

Some people just can't be into AC in the same way and I hope for them, SOMETHING is to them like AC is for me. I hope they have somewhere to go when they feel crappy, something to turn to when they don't feel like pushing on for anything else.

But i can barely comprehend how they don't like AC. Like i have ONE friend (two if you count the friend i actually made on here) i know who likes AC and plans to play with me. Now i don't have many friends, but i have at least three that like AREN'T into the game specifically. Two aren't inti video games at all so whatever, but one is super into gaming and just not an AC fan and I don't get it. I feel like the game has something for everyone and things a lot of other games don't and yet somehow this person... who owns a switch even so is kind of into Nintendo... they aren't getting AC.

I find it more insane because they at least used to be into me, and they weren't even like, "oh yeah, I'll get it just to play with you". (And they have gotten and played other games I suggested if I remember correctly...) I mean, I don't want anyone to do that if they don't like the game, and I really don't mean to sound into myself, BUT it was something I half expected from them considering history, so I feel they must REALLY not like AC somehow to refrain from getting it to play with me.

Maybe that's better though because it means I will maybe be more active in the community on here, maybe I will have a chance to make more friends instead of just staying within my little circle, and branching out is never a bad thing so yeah.

But as I was saying, I hope the people who don't have AC, have something. Lately my mental health has been tough to deal with, but having AC to look forward to makes all the difference. It is a reason to continue trudging through the days because at the end there are New Horizons waiting.

Anyway, I'm gonna try to play some Pocket Camp before I have to leave for the doctor. So bye for now. ❤

#Animal Crossing #New Horizons #AC New Horizons #ACNH #animal crossing new horizons #personal

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thetypedwriter · 5 years ago

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The Queen of Nothing Book Review

Queen of Nothing Book Review By Holly Black

God, my thoughts on this trilogy are a true maelstrom. I hated the first book for a variety of what I still think are very viable reasons, but I was nonetheless indubitably intrigued. Meanwhile I found the second book to be the utter highlight of characterization, scheming, and toxicity, and then the third book I went back to hating.

Quite the journey, right? I certainly do feel like I’ve been duped with poison or stabbed by Madoc himself along this journey from Jude being an inconsequential little mortal to ruling them all. The last few books I’ve read (aka The Toll by Neal Shusterman) have been very long and detailed and descriptive and thought-provoking.

Queen of Nothing was none of those things.

I was so incredibly excited for this book, excited to see how Jude would handle her exile, how long being banished from Faerie would last, her resolution with Cardan, the battling with Madoc and the Court of Teeth-all of it was so sumptuous and deep and complex and I was ready.

Instead of delivering on this beautiful concoction of plot and characters, what Holly Black produced instead came across like a first draft edition of what should have been a measly outline of her book instead of the actual book.

In other words, the book was short and shallow. Half of the moments we don’t even get to see (*cough cough Locke being murdered by Taryn-which by the way seems incredibly out-of-character), Cardan going to the human world and a slew of others. It was like Holly Black got tired of writing about Jude and was like, “Eh, let’s end this as quickly as possible so I can move on to other things.”

That was essentially the tone of the whole book to me. Things didn’t make sense, the plot was all over the place, motivations for characters were skewed, other characters were shafted or you just had no idea who Black was even talking about, the action was short and pointless, the dialogue was tacky, and there were several parts where Jude as a narrator just came across as an emotionless robot as things would happen and we would get absolutely no insight into how she was feeling or why.

Now. I think Jude has grown a lot as a character since book one. If you read my first review on The Cruel Prince I outline why Jude is a terrible immoral character and how she lacks all redeeming qualities that make even antiheroes desirable to read about.

Then, in The Wicked King, she gained some traction. I felt like the ice in her heart was melting, that she was coming alive with spring and mercy and love and then. Well. We get this book, Queen of Nothing, where I feel like Jude has completely reverted to her past self, that she had gained nothing, if you will.

Jude is not a good person. I feel like in the first installment she doesn’t even try to hide it while in the second installment she’s generally trying to be better. In this one, she either stagnates or reverts.

When it comes to enslaving the man she loves and putting herself into eternal power and control, Jude legitimately considers this the correct form of victory for a good portion of the book despite her so-called love for the lovely Cardan. I just can’t back a character that I can’t find even a shred of humanity and dignity in.

In addition, this book, in a lot of ways, makes the first two books meaningless. Many of the big relationships, plot points, and intricacies are just tossed out the window in this novel, like Holly Black was trying a slew of New Year’s Resolutions and failing at all of them. The fact that Cardan betrayed Jude without her knowledge and exiled her to the mortal world is treated like this:

“Hey, Jude. I didn’t mean it. I love you.”

“Cool. Thanks, Cardan. I love you too.”

I’m not even kidding. That’s essentially how it was summed up in the novel. And the whole things with Lady Asha, and oh! The Ghost actually didn’t betray you, it was all Madoc’s fault hahah, and oh! Taryn is good again lol. And oh! Madoc is just banished to the mortal world where he can live a happy life, coolio. And oh! Fairies hate humans, but they’ll totally accept one as queen, that’s fine, that’s chill, that makes sense.

In essence, everything that Holly Black built up, for her characters, her world, her plot, was just completely dismantled and disregarded. The whole book came across as lazy and unrefined and uninteresting to me, which is a shame after the second book and all the positives that came with it.

Honestly, the most well-thought out and descriptive parts of this entire novel were the food and what the characters were wearing. I never knew what was going on or how Jude emotionally and psychologically was doing, but I always knew what food was on the table and what everyone was wearing, which obviously are very, very important details.

This actually reminds me of the infamous horrid fanfiction My Immortal, which if you don’t know, is an absolute terror of a Harry Potter fanfiction notorious for its abhorrent writing and nonsensical plot, but with very clear details about what the main emo character is wearing at all times.

Queen of Nothing is the My Immortal of the YA world. And with that statement, I will conclude the review here.

Score: 4/10

Recommendation: Take the title to heart. This book takes everything good about the first two and compacts it into a pile of nothing. Nothing that has happened matters, nothing that people say or do matters, and nothing but Jude’s wardrobe is given any kind of thought or consideration.

#queen of nothing #holly black #the cruel prince #the wicked king #cardan #jude #ya fiction #YA Books #YA literature #book blog #book review #book rec #teen books #fairies #my immortal

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nikatyler · 6 years ago

Photo

Technically I still want to stay on a break but also...yesterday was the worst and I basically needed to come back here to feel better. Did it help? Not really, but fuck real life, who needs it anyway, ya know? Sims are never gonna give me up, never gonna let me down, all that good stuff.

God, what a mood. I should shut up. Instead I’m gonna do the replies, yay!

alfalfalegacy replied to your photo “Screenshot Folder I did something very unlike me this week: I deleted...”

Must resist the urge to grab and edit all the Sammy shots ��

Go for it!

Side note, yesterday I added so many new screenshots to the folder. Some of them are really old and no one would ever possibly go and think “this one screenshot with really bad lighting? yup, gonna edit that one”. Unedited screenshots folder? More like a literal archive because simmeronnie is a freak for keeping things organized and in one place

simlovinggirl replied to your photoset “Yeah sure. Into the fire!”

That seems healthy. lolol

He scares me, to be honest. He looks like he’s the gift from heavens but I have a feeling he’s the exact opposite

dandylion240 replied to your photoset “Sunset: “Dad, guess what I want for my birthday.” Ross: “A dog. I’ve...”

Maybe there's hope for him yet!

Yes! He’s slowly but surely getting better. Kind of. We can’t call it a redemption arc but he’s getting better for sure.

green-productivitea replied to your photoset “One day, you’ll go to space, Sunset. I know you will. Keep dreaming...”

Oh, i'm melting

I’m weak for all the moments he shows he cares for her tbh

simlovinggirl replied to your post “tumblr you fucked up, just saying in case no one has told you yet I’ve...”

i just saw this too, i just requested like 50 posts from like 3 different stories, so we'll see how effed up my blog is now. Sorry your having issues too :(

elisabettasims replied to your post “tumblr you fucked up, just saying in case no one has told you yet I’ve...”

Almost nobody remembers when this happened before. It got straightened out but I had so many posts marked sensitive then. As, usual, they went too far. Also the new guidelines have gone too far, too.

Here’s a few things I remember getting flagged:

Sunset. Loads of posts with Sunset in it. Rude. What has she ever done to you, tumblr?

Ross and Valentine teasing each other (well, actually it was Valentine teasing Ross but still)

Why create this “female-presenting nipples” nonsense when the algorithm can’t tell so called female-presenting and male-presenting nipples apart

Basically sims in swimsuits are a big no

Sims travelling around the world? Sorry Ezra and Carrie, it’s dirty :/

Gen 2 of Raven Legacy was sooooo nsfw y’all. Maaaany posts were flagged

For some reason the algorithm doesn’t like Zoey??

My gen 4 pose dump got flagged as well

I have like two posts with sims kissing in bed in their underwear (Tyler and Sharon in the extras tag and then Miracle and Adam in the legacy) and they both were flagged DESPITE THE LACK OF FEMALE-PRESENTING NIPPLES YOU STUPID ALGORITHM THE GIRLS HAD BRAS FFS

Sorry that was aggressive. Wow.

The bras were really nice by the way. My bras are ugly compared to theirs

Did someone say big mood?

Also since it apparently picks the posts by colour as well, posts with a lot of orange/yellow/pink in them were often flagged as well

Surprisingly, only my posts from 2017 and 2018 were affected. The super super old stuff from 2016 wasn’t flagged at all.

jackssims replied to your photoset “Marika: “You’re still as stupid as I remember you.” Ross: “I’m stupid?...”

Oh fuck /off/, Marika

Me whenever I see her in the game

Also, fun fact, all of Ross’s lovers got married by MCCC later. Marika was the only one who remained single. Guess Ross has to pass up that “the Worst” title to her, huh?

jackssims replied to your photoset “Marika: “Anyway…how is my daughter? She’s going to be thirteen, isn’t...”

That ship has sailed? You just straight up left her? Bye ��

Y E S

I want to say something else but spoiler alert, those would be the exact same words Sunset says later, so I’ll just shut up here. Wait for Sunset to say it in a few weeks.

kupari replied to your photoset “Ross: “She has a family. This conversation is over.” Marika: “You...”

I'm glad I'm not the only Marika around heh

It’s a pretty name! Also I’m sorry that my Marika is a bit of a bitch D:

elisabettasims replied to your photoset “I don’t go upstairs to December and Kieran’s bedroom anymore…and this...”

LOL

I’m editing them out of the holiday for sure. They freak me out.

elisabettasims replied to your photoset “I should’ve told her about Marika, I know…but I just couldn’t do it....”

Eh, in this case, I don't think waiting a day or two will hurt.

I mean yeah, it took her years to change her mind too.

dandylion240 replied to your post “Not leaving, might be taking a break”

I agree its not the same right now. I think everyone is just waiting to see what happens.

elisabettasims replied to your post “Not leaving, might be taking a break”

I had to turn off seeing reblogs to get some peace from the anxiety and, frankly, dramatics coming out of this. LOL

I feel like things have calmed down a little bit? Which means I guess I can come back but also, I still have a lot of homework and it would really be for the best if I stayed away...but let’s be real I don’t have the willpower to stay away.

jackssims replied to your photoset “Wait nevermind…are you okay??”

I don’t wanna put the 👀 emoji bc he could just be legitimately sick, but I’m gonna go with the 👀 emoji anyway

👀

elisabettasims replied to your photoset “Caleb: My daughter has a girlfriend. That’s…that’s…I’m happy for her...”

Like any other mature, centuries old adult. You be happy for her.

He is gonna be happy once he’s over the surprise lol. He’s just too shocked to think straight right now.

jackssims replied to your photoset “I failed to get a good screenshot so here’s Sunset looking pretty much...”

Oh god what a mood

Me last year during my birthday party when I realized all my relatives had given me money to get a driving license when I’m in fact terrified of driving (to this day I still don’t have a driving license and I’m not planning on getting it unless I really have to get it)

Me this year...oh wait I’m not having a birthday party with my family this year, nice. And the only thing that was close to a birthday party got cancelled because my friend bailed on me. Really nice I love my life

stfu ron stop being so bitter literally no one cares

jackssims replied to your photoset “Lilith: “I’m surprised you finally decided to show up. What brings you...”

👀

👀 the only acceptable emoji when it comes to this generation

idk what I just tried to tell by that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#replies #alfalfalegacy #simlovinggirl #dandylion240 #green-productivitea #elisabettasims #jackssims #kupari

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tiny-little-bird · 7 years ago

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Y'all know what I get from the response I got to the post I published the other day, about Jon liking redheads?

Some people *cough* J0nerys shippers *cough* are pressed and really bothered by the fact that Jon clearly has a type; a type that IS 100% NOT silver haired “bend the knee” entitled dragon lady, BUT 100% IS red haired “You should take it.”, “You are to me.”, “You’re good at this you know. […] At ruling.” intelligent, kind and strong Sansa Stark, whom raised Jon up; unlike dragon lady, whom literally stepped on him and took away from him, pretty much everything he had accomplished, ever since reuniting with Sansa.

D@ny pretty much stripped him of all the things that were good in his life, that made him feel happy and accomplished.

“Epic romance” is ANYTHING BUT epic lol

- Jon had acquired the love and respect of the North and the Northern Lords. Thanks to dragon lady, that’s gone out the window now.

- The Lords named him King in the North and he left Winterfell and the North as a King. Dragon lady took his crown and title and “downgraded” him to a Warden.

- He gained Sansa’s affections, acceptance, trust, validation and love (all things he always dreamed of having) and, poor Jon, realized Sansa will be deeply hurt and disappointed by the news, he probably feels like he failed her, and for all he knows, she is also mad at him (she’s not mad at him, as seen in 7.07 when she gets his letter, but he has no way to know that until he reaches Winterfell). For all he knows, him bending the knee, giving her home, their home, the North to a squabbling (southern) “Queen”/”Ruler”, the home and country for which she bled, was raped beaten and tortured, might just be enough to destroy the beautiful relationship based on on love and trust that they had built. So for all he knows, due to dragon lady, he’s lost Sansa, just as he has lost the Northern lords and the North.

Have any J0nerys shippers stopped at any point to think about the fact that Jon reuniting and teaming up with Sansa was a blessing and only brought him (and House Stark too) good things, while “teaming up” with pyromaniac dragon lady brought and was a f*ing disaster? Probably not, since the majority of J0nerys shippers are Dany stans who don’t give af about Jon’s happiness and well being.

And don’t come at me with this, “But Lyanna and Rhaegar met and fell in love! They loved each other! So that means Jon and D@ny are just like them and are in love with each other too!!” BS, because Jon is Rhaegar in this situation, he was raised by the wolves, but he is the legitimate son of Rhaegar Targaryen, and that makes him a Targaryen, since children take their fathers’ names, and honestly, comparing them to R&L really doesn’t play in your favour…

D@ny: “Everyone enjoys what they’re good at.” (D@ny enjoys conquering, bullying and burns people alive like it’s nothing), Jon: “I don’t.” (he doesn’t enjoy war and he doesn’t enjoy killing people).

D@ny: “He (Viserys) told me Rhaegar was good at killing people.“, Barristan: "Rhaegar never liked killing.”.

So as I’ve said, Jon is literally Rhaegar. Now, y'all mean to tell me D@ny is Lyanna?! lol NO. She is not a Stark, she is not a wolf, she is not ice and she is NOTHING like Lyanna. D@ny is Aerys II Targaryen, commonly known as, the Mad King.

So let’s recap for a second:

Rhaegar was the rightful heir to the Irone Throne. Jon is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.

Rhaegar planned to swiftly dethrone his mad father, Aerys II Targaryen, who burned people alive and was not fit to rule the Seven Kingdoms anymore, to rule in his stead. D@ny burns people alive, and her incompetence in ruling (which she has proved time and time again) makes her unfit to rule.

You see where I’m going with this… so yeah… not sure why y'all want to go around comparing Jon & D@ny to Rhaegar and Lyanna, since their union caused chaos and war, it caused a bloody rebellion, that killed Elia, Rhaenys, Aegon, and almost got Viserys and D@ny killed as well…

And for the nonny screaming in my ask, “Jon and D@ny are equals you ignorant, uncultured b*ch!!!“ haha that’s a good one, maybe in an alternate universe lol

D@ny kept Jon on Dragonstone against his will, she took his ship and his weapons, and literally gave him no other choice but to give up his crown so she would be fully committed to the Great War. The North doesn’t need her, Jon is not a tyrant, Sansa is not a tyrant, the North is in very good hands, it doesn’t need to be saved politically, but what can you do, when someone is entitled and power hungry, is entitled and power hungry. So, not sure where y'all see they’re equals, cause dragon lady behaving the way she behaved, made sure they were not. Jon, instead of growing "bigger”, advancing, taking steps forward with her, he grew “smaller”, he went/took many steps backwards. Dany was for Jon what the Dragonpit was for the Dragons, he got stuck, “locked” on that damned island, and as a consequence he came out of it weakened and “smaller” than before he arrived. Dragonstone, was the beginning of the end for his happiness. It was made very obvious that he was absolutely miserable there, the whole time.

Don’t even want to get into the fact that the Night King has an ice dragon because of her, and that Jon’s family and those he TRULY loves and mean the world to him, are now in actual danger because of her stupidity and obsession for the Iron Throne and power.

But suuure, I’m supposed to believe Jon “fell in love” with a woman, whom not only isn’t his TYPE, but whom piece by piece took from him the things he held dearest. Good luck convincing me Jon is “in love” with pyromaniac dragon lady, and that theirs is some “epic romance” because omg, chickensex!! lol

You wanna keep shipping J0nerys, y'all do you, I’m not here to stop you, but what I personally want to see in a ship, is two people who bring each other up, who boost each other’s confidence, who help and support each other, who want the best for one another, who help each other succeed and accomplish what they want in life, who want to protect each other, keep each other safe, who grow stronger together, who make each other happy/smile, two people who are EQUAL in a relationship.

I DON’T WANT TO SEE a relationship in which one of the two people thrives by bringing the other down (D@ny), because that’s messed up and toxic, WHAT I WANT TO SEE, is a relationship in which either of the two people in love thrives when the other thrives and helps the other thrive, two people who thrive together and share that thriving.

And yeah… sorry… that ain’t J0nerys, that’s Jonsa.

J0nerys can’t relate.

D&D made sure to show us how Jonsa’s relationship is an equal one, full of respect, trust and love, they made sure to parallel Jonsa to Ned/Cat (and to other couples too) time and time again, over and over, so the audience could see which relationship is a genuine loving and healthy one, and which one is not, to show us who makes him SMILE, and who doesn’t, who makes him LAUGH and genuinely HAPPY, and who doesn’t, who UNDERSTANDS him, and who doesn’t. They showed us that unlike J0nerys, Jonsa isn’t toxic and unhealthy.

Jon and Sansa are literally two halves of a whole, they are the best thing that happened to each other, reuniting was the best thing that happened to each other after Ned was executed and their lives went to hell. Jon and D@ny meeting brought & will bring as much, or better said, even more disaster, death and destruction to Westeros than Rhaegar and Lyanna meeting did.

Jonsa is what a real relationship looks like, what a healthy and loving relationship is supposed to be like, and this is why I ship it, this is why I know our ship is happening and it is endgame, because the directors and screenwriters bothered to show us the two of them getting closer, understanding each other, this is why they bothered to show us Jon sweetly kissing Sansa and Sansa accepting his kiss, not pulling away nor pushing him away, Sansa reaching for him, initiating contact, why we got them taking back their home together, why we saw them laughing and smiling when around each other (listen, Jon hasn’t smiled in 5 whole seasons as much as he has smiled in season 6 and season 7 with Sansa and same thing can be said for Sansa), why we saw them arguing, why we saw them work on their relatinship, why we saw them build it, why we saw them bringing each other up, why we saw Jon being extremely possessive and aggressive towards any male who mentions Sansa, why we were shown Littlefinger teasing Sansa about a J0nerys marriage to get a reaction out of her, which he 100% got, why we were shown them thriving together.

D&D wanted to show us that they are meant for each other, that they are just perfect for each other, that somewhere between them reuniting, taking back their home and ruling the north together, they developed feelings for one another, they wanted to show us that they complete each other that they are exactly what the other needs to be happy, that they give each other exactly what the other needs. They are two pieces of a puzzle that perfectly fit together.

“When you’re a little older, I’ll make you a match with someone who’s worthy of you. Someone who’s brave, gentle and strong.”

“I’ll never let him touch you again. I’ll protect you, I promise.”

“The North is my home, it’s part of me. […] The North is yours.”

“You’re good at this you know?” || "At what?“

"At ruling.” || "No.“

"You are. You are.”

“And how should I be smarter, by listening to you?”

“Would that be so terrible?”

“You know him better than any of us, what do you think?”

“All my life I wanted to be Jon Stark.”

“I’m not a Stark.” || “You are to me.”

We got all the romantic tropes and all the interactions I mentioned above and in the paragraph above the quotes and more, because that’s how you build a romance, because that’s exactly what D&D have been doing, building them up for romance.

In conclusion, YES Jon has a type, he likes redheads, BUT first and foremost he is attracted to fierce, strong, kind and intelligent women, who don’t go around burning people alive and waging wars, death and destruction, so they can sit on a throne, wear a crown and rule over Kingdoms.

Y'all can come at us all you want, can keep insulting us all you want, can call us delusional all you want, and y’all can also keep your bland and rushed chickensex, we’ve got the real deal here. ✌️

#JonsaIsComing 💙

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tacticalshit · 7 years ago

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Parkland School Shooting, Real Talk about a Real Problem

The liberal left wing media constantly cries that shit like this happens way too much and honestly they’re partially right. The problem however is they are not addressing the actual root cause they instantly regurgitate talking points with out trying to find the solution to a problem. So lets take a moment to pause and discuss possible solutions to a problem that has gone on resolved for quite some time!

We failed those students. We ALL failed them. Social Justice warriors, Law enforcement, Gun owners, Mental Health professionals, Teachers, Everyone failed them

Many are coming out saying the shooter was Antifa, Democrat, threepercenter, republican but the truth of the matter is he wasnt one of us but he was on the nutjob side of the right wing. He hated antifa. He hated isis and made fun of muslims. so far as to say things like, ” Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad lol” His class mates even claimed he was racist towards muslims.

In fact there is over 2 years worth of violent post and threats being made yet nothing came of it. One YouTuber reported a comment in which Cruz stated, “I want to be a professional school shooter.” This was 5 months before the shooting. What else did you need to read to see that this is a threat?!?! This is not the only instance of this. These threats of violence go back quite a bit and he evens pays tribute to other active shooter situations.

CNN reports that a user named Nikolas Cruz left comments on several Youtube videos in which he talked about shooting people and violence.

Nine months ago, the user posted on a video clip from the NatGeo show “Alaska State Troopers: Armed and Dangerous,” writing, “I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people.”

Six months ago, the user wrote, “Im going watch them sheep fall f*ck antifa i wish to kill as many as i can,” on a YouTube video titled “Antifa Gun Club.”

Also nine months ago, Cruz commented, “I am going to do what he did,” on a video about the 1966 sniper shooting at the University of Texas.

CNN says the user wrote on other posts, “I whana shoot people with my AR-15 (sic)” and “I wanna die Fighting killing shit ton of people.” The user also wrote, “Elliot rodger will not be forgotten,” a reference to the 22-year-old California man who killed six people and wounded 14 others near UC Santa Barbara in 2014 before killing himself.

With all these algorithms being used by the NSA and even Facebook and YouTube, you would think that this would have pinged on their radar like a fucking nuclear threat and reported! That is far from what actually happened. The Algorithms Facebook and YouTube put into place to police its users failed miserably on multiple instances of content that should have been flagged.

Now He had been previously treated for mental health issues and we are not sure if he got his firearm before or after treatment but on the 4473 which you have to fill out before purchasing a firearm, it asks, “have you ever been adjudicated as a mentally defective.” This in essence means a judge said you are crazy and need treatment. Treatment often includes psychoactive drugs. These are the same drugs you see on late night tv with side effect warnings like “STOP TAKING IMMEDIATELY AND SEE A DOCTOR IF YOU GET FEELINGS OF SELF HARM OR SUICIDE. These big pharma companies never mention Homicidal thoughts, and think about it, if a company told you that if you take a drug and one of the possible side affects would make you want to kill your friends or loved ones would you take it? Probably not! So as soon as it comes out he was on what ever drug it was will quickly be swept under the rug and TADA, “BAN GUNS!” we have a scapegoat ladies and gentlemen.

We are not saying you should never have your 2nd amendment rights if you have had mental/emotional problems in the past, but if you are on these type of drugs you should probably not be in possession of a firearm during that time period. What needs to happen is there needs to be a cool down period afterward so it can be determined if you are a threat to yourself or others before your rights can be reinstated, much like DWIs and driveing privileges.

Discretion among the firearm industry is also a key factor. Just because someone passes a background check doesn’t mean you should sell them a firearm just to make that bottom dollar .in our opinion A great example of this happened a week after the Vegas shooting. Where a customer went into a vegas gun shop and asked, “how many rounds does that hold” The shop responded, “15” to which the customer made the comment. ” well I guess thats fine, it’s I’m not going to Mandalay bay.” The customer was instantly told to get the fuck out, the 4473 ripped in half, and the sale cancelled. It could have been a case of too soon for a joke or the guy could have legitimately had something wrong with him. Either way shops need to use their right to refuse service to individuals they deem irresponsible, and to use the highest form of discretion.

youtube

Another great article to take a look at the delves further into this is “Murder Marketing, Targeting The Ultimate Niche By Extremists” Which talks about social media and the ways it can be used to drive people to commit these atrocities, and horrible events.

The post Parkland School Shooting, Real Talk about a Real Problem appeared first on Tactical Sh*t.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Did your NFL team mess up by not drafting Lamar Jackson?

Lamar Jackson has been the crown jewel of the 2018 NFL Draft class.

Looking back at the 2018 NFL Draft to see who skipped over Jackson — and who’s paying for it.

The 2018 NFL Draft is far in the rearview mirror, but that doesn’t mean Lamar Jackson has forgotten about the teams that passed on him. Jackson was taken at No. 32 overall by the Ravens, and he had to see four quarterbacks in his class drafted before him.

By the end of that season, he was the only one of those rookies to make a start in the postseason. He’s kept that pace alive in 2019, when his Ravens stand atop a depleted AFC North and look stronger every week. Jackson planted his flag as a potential MVP candidate by becoming the youngest quarterback to beat Bill Belichick (and his 8-0 Patriots) in 15 years.

The former Heisman Trophy winner has had a better start to his career than the four quarterbacks selected ahead of him: Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Josh Rosen. If you compare their stats, Jackson has the best record as a starter, the best passer rating, the best TD-INT ratio, and most rushing yards (by a lot).

There’s no questioning that Jackson is a unique talent, one that many teams in the NFL wish they could have at quarterback. Most of them had a chance to draft him, too.

Let’s take a look at the teams that passed on Jackson and see if they would’ve been better off taking him.

Cleveland Browns: No. Theoretically, they’d be better off with Jackson and without having to face him twice a year. But c’mon, you know the Browns would’ve ruined him. Have you seen Baker Mayfield lately?

2. New York Giants: Yes. Saquon Barkley is a dynamic player. But you know what’s better? A dynamic player who can run AND throw! Plus, they could’ve started the post-Eli Manning era a year earlier.

3. New York Jets: Yes. The Jets opted for Sam Darnold over Jackson. This season, Darnold has had a slew of odd injuries, including being diagnosed with strep and mono simultaneously, an enlarged spleen, and needing a toenail removed. Jackson has stayed healthy — and doesn’t throw nearly as many baffling red zone interceptions.

4. Cleveland Browns: See No. 1. The Browns destroy everything they touch, and leaving Jackson to get his ACL exploded behind Cleveland’s porous offensive line would be a lesser tragedy.

5. Denver Broncos: Oh, hell yes. Instead, the Broncos settled for the quarterback the Ravens benched for Jackson.

But also no, because there’s no way general manager John Elway looked at Jackson’s 6’2 frame and thought anything other than “there’s someone I can mold into a 600-yard receiver.”

6. Indianapolis Colts: No, even though Andrew Luck opted for early retirement. Jacoby Brissett has done a nice job taking over for Luck and has helped put the Colts in good position to win the AFC South.

7. Buffalo Bills: Probably. The Bills chose to draft quarterback Josh Allen over Jackson. Allen has a winning record as a starter and is poised to get the Bills back in the playoffs. So yes, Buffalo is doing all right with a pretty good running quarterback — but what if it had a great one?

8. Chicago Bears: Lol, yes. The Bears already had Mitchell Trubisky, who’s proving he’s nowhere close to being a franchise quarterback. He’s near the bottom in the NFL in most major categories — as is the Chicago offense and running game. Yeah, Matt Nagy could use Jackson right now.

9. San Francisco 49ers: No. As much fun as it would be to watch Jackson in a Kyle Shanahan offense, Jimmy Garoppolo is lighting it up for the red-hot 49ers.

10. Arizona Cardinals: Yes. Picking Josh Rosen over Jackson proved to be a mistake. While they got Kyler Murray in 2019, imagine how Jackson would fit in Kliff Kingsbury’s freewheeling offense (assuming Jackson wouldn’t have won enough games in 2018 to keep Steve Wilks on the sideline).

11. Miami Dolphins: Tough call, depending on how much faith you have in 2020’s draft class. With Jackson, you wouldn’t have to worry about 2019’s inescapable tank job — although you run the risk of him being sold off for a future first, just like the team’s actual pick here, Minkah Fitzpatrick, was.

12. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Yes. Jameis Winston is a free agent in 2020. He’s also not very good as an NFL quarterback — he has more interceptions than anyone else in the league since being drafted in 2015.

13. Washington: Yes. The Alex Smith experiment didn’t work out for unfortunate reasons, but this team needed a young franchise QB even before the former Chiefs’ passer was knocked out of the lineup. Now Dwayne Haskins gets to deal with all this dysfunction instead.

14. New Orleans Saints: No. Teddy Bridgewater has been an excellent insurance policy for Drew Brees (and Taysom Hill has been an excellent insurance policy for Bridgewater).

15. Oakland Raiders: No. Derek Carr has bounced back to Pro Bowl form thanks in part to the left tackle the Raiders selected at this spot, Kolton Miller. Carr’s still just 28 years old and under contract through 2022. While it would have been fun to see Jon Gruden figure out the most creative way to waste Jackson’s talent, a game-shifting mobile QB doesn’t really fit with Gruden’s late-90s throwback roster approach.

16. Buffalo Bills. See No. 7. The Bills used this pick to select Tremaine Edmunds, who has become an important cog in their intimidating defensive machine. They’d easily make that choice again.

17. Los Angeles Chargers: No. Philip Rivers is going to play for 20 more years, making it back to the AFC title game once. Derwin James, who was drafted here, should be healthy again one day, too. .

18. Green Bay Packers: No. Aaron Rodgers still looks great in his mid-30s, even if he took a few games to get acclimated to new head coach Matt LaFleur’s offense. But the Pack fell apart without him in 2017, and stopgaps like Brett Hundley and DeShone Kizer proved to be low-wattage replacements. Jackson would help fill that hole — but he’s also be buried behind a two-time MVP on the Green Bay roster.

19. Dallas Cowboys: No. Dak Prescott is pretty good and occasionally great. He’s about to sign a mega-extension in Texas, and Leighton Vander Esch, who the Cowboys picked at 19th overall, was a Pro Bowler as a rookie. It’s safe to say Jerry Jones is happy with his decision.

20. Detroit Lions: No. Matthew Stafford is having the best season of his career and is, somehow, only 31 years old. In this draft, Detroit took Frank Ragnow, who should have a fruitful career keeping his veteran QB upright from the center of the Lions’ line.

21. Cincinnati Bengals: Hellllll yes. They have a legitimate chance to go 0-16 in 2019 and they benched Andy Dalton for rookie Ryan Finley. And they have to face Jackson twice a year.

22. Tennessee Titans: Yes. Tennessee swapped out Marcus Mariota for Ryan Tannehill, which is like replacing a Honda Civic with a Toyota Corolla. Neither is under contract for 2020.

23. New England Patriots: Yes. Bill Belichick would absolutely like to have a do-over, if only to keep Jackson from gashing the Patriots’ defense again. Plus, Tom Brady will need a replacement at some point (his passer rating has declined in each of the past three seasons) and Jarrett Stidham, for all his preseason glory, probably isn’t the answer.

24. Carolina Panthers: Kinda. It all depends on Cam Newton’s health going forward. Newton’s 2019 season ended after just two games, and his future in Carolina is a bit uncertain. While Kyle Allen’s been solid as a backup, Jackson working his way into the lineup in 2019 when Newton went down with injury would have been a revelation for the Panthers.

25. Baltimore Ravens: Yes, teeechnically. Baltimore should have drafted Jackson here instead of potentially letting another team grab him. The Ravens ended up selecting Hayden Hurst. He has 29 catches in 20 career NFL games, is already 26 years old, and has failed to outshine 2018 third-round tight end Mark Andrews.

26. Atlanta Falcons: No. Matt Ryan isn’t the problem in Atlanta. Everything else (minus the wide receiver corps) is.

27. Seattle Seahawks: No. Russell Wilson has never missed a game in his career and he’s finally getting the MVP hype he deserves.

28. Pittsburgh Steelers: Yes. Ben Roethlisberger might have a few good seasons left in him, but 2019 won’t be one of them. The team eventually made its exit strategy for Big Ben clear by selecting Mason Rudolph in the third round of the 2018 draft — and he’s been a capable, if unexciting backup. It would have been fun to see what Jackson could do for the Steelers, who now have to battle him in the AFC North.

29. Jacksonville Jaguars: Yes. Why draft Jackson when you could sign Blake Bortles and Nick Foles for a combined $130 million in consecutive offseasons? Minshew Mania is over, at least for now. They definitely goofed by taking Taven Bryan rather than Jackson.

30. Minnesota Vikings: No. Kirk Cousins got a fully guaranteed $84 million about a month before the 2018 NFL Draft, so taking a first-round quarterback was off the table. Sometimes it looks like a mistake, other times Cousins looks like an MVP. Either way, Jackson wasn’t a real option for the Vikings.

31. New England Patriots: Yes. See No. 23. Isaiah Wynn has been a solid left tackle when healthy and Sony Michel was a postseason workhorse who helped carry the Pats to a Super Bowl win as a rookie, but neither may be as valuable as a viable escape route

32. Baltimore Ravens: Hey, good job! The Ravens traded up from the second round to snag Jackson with the last pick of Day 1. It’s worked out.

As for the three teams that didn’t have a first-round pick:

Philadelphia Eagles: No. The Eagles passed up their chance to get Jackson by trading this pick to the Ravens on draft night and would do it again (only for a bigger ransom). Carson Wentz was briefly an MVP candidate. He might not get there again and has yet to play in the postseason, but he still looks pretty good in Philly.

Houston Texans: No, they’re set with Deshaun Watson.

Los Angeles Rams: No, even if Jared Goff is reverting to his rookie year, Jeff Fisher-coached form in 2019.

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game84cube · 6 years ago

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My Opinions on the Sonic Movie Trailer

Okay, I guess I better say something about this movie before I lose my credibility in the Sonic community. I saw the trailer at school and everyone was talking about how weird it was on campus. I loved it at first sight, since I thought Sonic was gonna look WAY worse. Anyway, let's go over the pros and cons.

Pros:

- The speed. They knew what they were doing with Sonic and his speed effects. I mean it makes sense, what with the people from Fast and Furious.

- That Spin Dash! Sonic's iconic move was displayed amazingly in that trailer and his strength was on full display. Also when he just plopped into his little hideout in the forest and he was that fuzzball, it looked great!

- Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. I get what they're doing. This is an origin story. Robotnik is gonna deteriorate into the classic crazy villain we all know him as. That ending shot proved it. But yeah. He was clearly not fat enough, but he isn't quite...egged out yet. Sort of a Kintobor thing before Robotnik/Eggman. My dad has issues with it, but I think it's fine. Plus he's got good material as well. Sassy and smart. That's how I like my Eggs.

- The acting. Marsala is giving it his all, and he sure has experience in this. I imagine he's gonna be a good focal point of the movie since title characters in these movies are NEVER the focus but are there to say that it is indeed a titled character's movie. I think Tim will be fine. A little snarky to play off of Sonic as well. Honestly I loved that bit with the "That's not your child in that bag?" This was also a good reminder that Sonic is a teenager. Good move. I forget who's playing Ann, but she seems fine. No comment yet. And then we have the Hedgehog himself. Ben Schwartz, I tip my blue spiky hat to you! You know just how to make Sonic sound like...well... SONIC! That cockiness is perfect. The voice is natural, and I want MORE! I'm sure they got some good lines for him (and some bad ones but that's inevitable sadly)

- The animation in general. Say what you will about the design, but in motion, everything looks awesome! It flows, it doesn't look cheap, and the mech designs look incredible. The effects are well integrated and seem like they're unintrusive on reality. I like it. And really, Sonic looks good in some shots, especially doing what he does best. I'm so happy they got Sonic looking cool when on the move. If they failed at that, the whole thing would be a complete failure.

-The Easter Eggs and nods! Listen to the voice of the Commander of the military again. Now imagine that voice saying something like... "Sonic Adventure 2, Hero Side Story: Farewell Sonic, Forever." Tell me that isnt the same guy! That's an amazing Easter Egg. Also I hear one of the guys in the meeting voiced Grounder in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Also cool! The pike of shoes in Sonic's hideout was a neat touch. He was looking for some good new shoes. Something tells me those Nikes ain't gonna last through the movie since they ain't frictionless. I also noticed something really cute they pulled off. When Sonic did that Fitbit joke? Looking at his wrist condescendingly? Sound familiar? Almost idle? Sonic 2 idle animation perhaps? All that's missing is him tapping his t- WAIT! Yep, that's another thing I think when I think Sonic. The classic impatient toe tap. They got his attitude DOWN and I love it! And! They remember something I'm so happy about! HE'S 90'S AS FUCK!!! Sonic listened to Gangsta's Paradise on a cassette tape! That song is from the 90's! They got it! Sonic is not a modern boi. He is so lost in the last decades and that's why I love him. That old fashioned nature? That's what makes him more timeless to me.

- Check that hair. They got his hair right. Good. That's it. Sonic is also very defined by the classic shape of his hair.

- The Ring. Okay, hear me out. Yes, we're more familiar with Rings being used as a shield to prevent Sonic from dying from a hit. Um, did y'all forget the Giant Ring at the end of the level in Sonic 1? Or the Flicky's Ring in 3D Blast/Flickies Island? It's just a portable version of that. I like the spin on it, okay? I'm sure it also protects Sonic like in the SatAM cartoon. Im just glad Rings are in the movie at all.

Cons:

- Elephant in the room, Sonic's overall design philosophy. I feel like there were two butting heads at the studio trying to decide how realistic to make Sonic look. They apparently compromised at "Make him anthropomorphic and give him human facial features including human teeth." Yeah, the teeth and eyes are my issue, and some coloring issues as well (I get that hedgehogs usually have white bellies, but Sonic has always had a tan belly, since he doesnt walk on all fours. Plus he needs to be a darker shade of blue.) The features all too human just kind of take away from what was meant to be more real. If they gave him sharper canine teeth, that would be an improvement, because that would be more animalistic. Also, I like how some people design Movie Sonic with a white tuft of fur between his eyes to make that classic illusion that his eyes are connected like the old days. (Actually looking back, I think Sonic's eyes were connected on accident before but they stuck with the design. Sort of an artist's idea of eye design in the old days. If he was to be created today, his eyes might be separated) I also need something to really come out of Sonic with his face. EXPRESSIONS AND PERSONALITY! You know, that thing Sonic was known for aside from his speed? That face is not very expressive and it leaves the emotions behind the delivery of the lines feeling flat. Perhaps a more defined brow for that redo, thanks. Otherwise, I have no complaints. The lack of gloves is odd, but again, this is most likely an origin story, so he doesnt have the gloves YET. I am glad that he has proper paws with the pads on his palms instead of creepy human hands. Also claws that he probably cuts/files/chews off himself so they're more like fingernails. Solid enough I guess. And the furriness of it all as well as the dropping quills? Eh, it makes sense. Plus it almost makes the rest of his body seem cuddly. I'm just not down with the rest of it.

-The music choice. Okay, I never heard Gangsta's Paradise in my life. From what I hear it makes no sense to have it have anything to do with Sonic. Now, maybe it was the only cassette he could find, since that boombox looks secondhand and so is the tape, obviously. However, if I were to choose a song for the trailer? I have one option. All I Want by Offspring! Think about it. The dates line up. It's a fast paced rock song. It's rebellious and against the system, like Sonic is in the movie apparently (yeah I didnt get that whole "delinquent" bullshit from the trailer, did you? He just seems like Sonic to me in terms of his actions,) and it was used in a SEGA game! It's from Crazy Taxi! Come on, that's PERFECT!

- the Flash lightning. Seriously? Is that the only thing Hollywood can think of when it comes to showing someone is fast? Come on, get your heads out of your asses. It's so easy. Modern Sonic has been more compared to the element of WIND! Tornadoes, Mach Cones, Sonic Wind, all that stuff. Sonic never really messed with electricity, so bleh.

- This isn't a pro or a con, but I really wanna know this. Will we see the Tornado? Don't forget that the Tornado is Sonic's plane. He just has Tails fly it when he wants to ride the wings. I feel like they could have had Sonic use the Tornado in a cool air battle scene but get shot down (because the Tornado kinda sucks since it always gets shot down, but it's iconic to me) since Sonic isn't exactly "a hell of a pilot" and THEN finds the Warp Ring inside. I dunno, thought it'd be cool. Look, Tim just met a 3 foot, blue, talking hedgehog that runs really fast and eats chili dogs. (please remember the chili dogs) Hedgehogs on planes wouldn't be that farfetched that day, would it?

- Some writing just felt off, but some can be explained. Let's start with everyone's FAVORITE scene...to wreck. The infamous "Uhhh...meow?" Here's my take. Yes, stupid, but what if he had no idea what to do? What if Sonic was just in his head going "What sounds do hedgehogs make? What sounds do hedgehogs make? Quick, say something, stupid!" And when he said it, probably something in his head was screaming "Dont say something stupid, stupid!" Also, I just didn't laugh at the "Smells like body spray and an old ham sandwich" line. I was like, Sonic, shut up. The joke was sold. Don't ruin it.

- Why is it the law where every live action movie with a CGI talking animal (that they didn't know about before you bring up Detective Pikachu, Christopher Robin, or even Peter Rabbit) must have the main character and the CGI character scream at each other? Sonic wouldn't freak out (unless he was more afraid of the gun and was kind of unsure how to react. Also great job dodging the tranq dart, oh Fastest Thing Alive)more than likely he'd be trying to talk his way out of this or just run away with a face like 😐😳 "I'm SO busted!" Just saying there was a better way to do that aside from the cliche.

- Robotnik, why did you try to taste the quill? You dont know where he's been. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Cool and Lickable. Lol. Pretty sure typos shouldn't be legitimized.

- Quicksilver? Not in my series he ain't. Oh... wait. Yeah. The whole stopping time thing. Eh, it's been done. Cool all the same, but again, done before. I appreciate Sonic's spin on it though, playing around like a teenager would. I dig it.

-Save your planet? Like...as in you're just an alien? I dunno, plus how do you know you have to save the planet? I'm chalking THAT up to "this is a trailer and probably wont appear in the final movie the same way."

- Did they REALLY have to make him say "Gotta go fast"? Again, probably just for the trailer, but really?

In conclusion, I have no hope for the movie. Can't be disappointed if you dont expect anything. Sort of my take on his design at first. I thought he was gonna look like COMPLETE garbage, but some shots look great, like when he was explaining that he had to save the planet? The lighting and such looked good for his face when the camera was on him. And again, the movie looks much better in motion. Yeah, I still have issues, but that's because I love Sonic. I love the characters and I want the best for the series. I care about the games that have been with me since my near infancy. They have fan service but it feels like you gotta be a crazy fan like myself to get the references, so it's lackluster because of it.

Sonic deserves a great movie! I just hope they impress me with something HUGE!

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eternaleve · 7 years ago

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You know how I said that the last two episodes made 1532 seemed like eighteen months long? Well, this episode just… you’ll see, it’s rather special in it’s own way.

Checkmate

Henry destroys all ties with authority and the past. After many failed attempts to have his marriage to Catherine annulled by the Catholic Church, Henry runs out of patience and marries a pregnant Anne Boleyn in secret. He appoints the young Lutheran Thomas Cranmer to succeed the deceased William Warham as Archbishop of Canterbury and strips Queen Catherine of her title and status, along with Princess Mary; they are hence to be known as the Princess Dowager of Wales and the Lady Mary, respectively. The Act of Restrain of Appeals is presented to Parliament by Cromwell and passes. As Sir Thomas More has resigned as Chancellor, Henry hands the position to the pro-Lutheran Thomas Cromwell. Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England to a small and uneager crowd and escapes an assassination attempt. Pope Paul III threatens to excommunicate the king and the church of England from the Roman Catholic Church if Henry does not return to Catherine, but Henry tears the papal edict in half. Henry is also disappointed when Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, instead of his desired son, and soon resumes his philandering with ladies of the court despite assuring Anne they will still have a son.

A Secret Marriage, A Secret Pregnancy, A Coronation – Oh My!

After one instance of the sex, Anne is instantly pregnant. And not just even a little pregnant, because she’s already suffering immense intense pregnancy cravings for apples. This is based on a real life anecdote, but I have to question the timeline here.

Anne and Henry went to France in September 1532 (another reason why they couldn’t have conceived Elizabeth there, unless Anne managed to be pregnant for twelve months. I screwed up the times last week, so my bad there. It’s been a while since I last looked it all up). They would not be married for the first time until November 14 1532. I know some women start to have cravings at two to three weeks, but for Anne to be ‘Yup, definitely pregnant, I’m so full of baby right now’, she has to be at least past a month or two. And there just isn’t the time to fit into what happened and when.

And yes, it’s still 1532! The year that never, ever ends!

Realising Anne’s condition (even though pregnancies were usually recognised from when the baby ‘quickened’ i.e. starting to move around three months and there’s no way Anne can be three months pregnant) Henry orders Cranmer to look into his marriage…

… but gets married in secret anyway.

There’s no need to rush Henry! This baby won’t be born for another ten months.

Anyway, after a second official marriage in January, and a little political wrangling, Anne can now be crowned queen. She’s the only queen consort in British history to receive a coronation separate from her royal spouse, and the only one to be crowned with St. Edward’s Crown. There’s some BS nonsense at her parade, but we’ll go into that later.

It’s also really off because of the warped timeline the show has decided to follow. It’s now June, 1533, and because Anne fell pregnant in September, she should be giving birth. Like, literally on that carriage, she should be deep in labour. But she’s managing to keep it in for another three months.

Henry places a crown on Anne’s head, and she’s anointed and invested as queen. I say ‘a crown’ because that tiny little pathetic coronet is not St Edward’s Crown.

It was remade in the seventeenth century, but the royal monogram is based on St Edward’s Crown.

This is Henry’s, so this is probably what the crown looked at during Henry’s time. It is not a single pathetic coronet that barely shows up. How do you ruin making an impressive and royal crown?

Henry gets aggressive and nasty with Anne at the coronation feast, because foreshadowing.

This aggressive side of Henry continues into the longest pregnancy ever experienced by any woman ever. When sleeping at night – and FYI, they shouldn’t share a bed. Royal couples had separate apartments in palaces, and completely separate bedrooms. Henry and his wives would not share a bed like a couple might do now – Anne is too tired and stressed out by the longest pregnancy in the world to have sex with Henry. He’s disgusted and angered by her rejection.

Because it’s only the most sexy and romantic of men who try to force their wives into having sex with them! (Even though Henry wouldn’t try anything like that for fear of damaging the child or causing a miscarriage)

Anne finally goes into labour, and luckily for her, it’s incredibly easy. She pushes exactly once and the baby just flies out. Unfortunately, it’s not a son. It’s a girl, and Henry is taken aback. But sons will surely follow, for they are both young and fertile.

Lol no, Henry is now sleeping with anyone else because how dare his wife have a child and it’s not what he wanted.

Do you play… chess?

Wait, where are you going to put that chess piece? Cause she doesn’t look very happy about it…

… oh. Oh. Hope you don’t plan on playing with it again.

The London Knoll

The Imperial assassin is revealed to be none other than William Brereton. Which makes pretty much no sense.

Not only was he almost fifty by this point, but he’s a longstanding member of Henry’s inner circle, serving as a groom of the privy chamber. He was a wealthy and respected member of court, and definitely not a twenty something devoted Catholic who wanted to kill Anne Boleyn. This assassination nonsense is exactly that – nonsense. Events are dramatic enough as it is without having an assassin running about.

After attempting to kill Anne, Brereton travels to Rome to beg forgiveness from the Pope. Instead, the Pope enlists him as a Jesuit and sends him back to kill Anne again.

The Jesuits aren’t formed until 1540. Even if you needed to add to this ridiculous mess, you didn’t need to add in Jesuits. And then the producers decide to recreate the assassination of JFK for no apparent reason.

Don’t tell me that’s not based on the death of JFK, because it looks so much like it. I find that a little cheap and distasteful, to co-opt a real life trauma to improve the shabbiness of your own writing. And I don’t think sixteenth century guns were accurate enough to carry out this sort of operation. Luckily, some random mook dies instead and is shoved under a choir stand to die alone and unnoticed.

He’s almost caught out by the fact he didn’t think to wipe off all the incredibly obvious and super noticeable gunpowder from his hands, but William Brereton escapes to assassinate another day!

Brandon VS The Boleyns

The tension between Charles Brandon and Thomas Boleyn gets worse because their servants get into a stupid fight and kill each other. After all, Charles Brandon needed an actual, legitimate reason to hate the Boleyns other than ‘the writers needed something for him to do this season’.

What Are You Up To, Thomas Cranmer?

Besides all this, there’s the question of the English Church and Henry’s first marriage. To force his second marriage through, he decides to make Thomas Cranmer his Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior religious position in England.

He transported his wife from Germany in a box. It is sort-of a true story. Cranmer was said to have hidden his wife from the King in a box, not taken her across half a continent, but it’s only a ‘it is said’ kind of truth. There’s no evidence that it actually happened.

The supporters of Katherine are not happy with this because Cranmer is a ‘Lutheran’. That’s simply not true. Cranmer was more Calvinist than Lutheran, because Lutheran is not a catch all for ‘not being a Catholic’.

Meanwhile, Cromwell has pushed through parliament The Act in the Restraint of Appeals which basically means that it’s illegal to apply to foreign courts of justice and to appeal outside of England as it’s an empire. Cromwell, it would seem, is completely in charge of government and Henry doesn’t have any say over anything as he’s a big doofus with no ideas of his own.

Cranmer, with little to no fuss, announces that Henry and Katherine’s marriage is not valid and that Anne and Henry’s marriage is good and legal. The Pope declares Henry excommunicated.

What About Katherine and Mary?

Katherine is told of this change. She will now be the Dowager Princess of Wales, and Henry will support her no longer. She proclaims herself to always be Queen of England.

And then there’s the Princess Mary. She’s now all grown up, but no longer a Princess. She is to be the Lady Mary, and royal heir no longer. She was told this in real life by the Duke of Norfolk, but he’s mysteriously vanished from the show.

Our New Gay Subplot

Mark Smeaton, in a public place, very loudly comes onto George Boleyn. I guess he’s going to be executed for sodomy in the next episode because it’s very illegal at this point. I highly doubt queer people were loudly shouting about their sexuality in a public arena because, you know, death is bad.

Come on, Vogue, Let Your Body Move to the Music

Those clothes are straight up pure Elizabethan. There is nothing of the 1530s about them. And take that purple off, Smeaton. You’re a common servant, and purple is for the royal family alone.

You ready for your villain song, Henry? Because that collar is straight from Maleficent. That collar is far too high for a man like Henry to wear.

Mary, that hood is not right. That is a very central Germanic hood and would never be found at the English court (at least, until Anna of Cleeves arrives).

This is another from the Katherine Willoughy ‘Lamps of Tudor England’ series, and it’s just as hideous as the first one.

Nice pregnancy sack. Anne, you’d be wearing exactly the same dress as you’d always wear, but with the ties and stomacher loosened to allow room for the bump. Tudor England didn’t have maternity sacks for women.

That is Jacobean hat right there. Take it off and burn it.

And that’s it for this week. Come back next time for more of 1532 (probably), bad dresses, and terrible writing decisions.

Unpicking the Tudors; S2 EP3 You know how I said that the last two episodes made 1532 seemed like eighteen months long?

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doshmanziari · 8 years ago

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Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance has one of the best soundtracks in the series

Above: a handful of responses in an awful (as usual) thread on NeoGAF. They are, of course, all wrong. Harmony of Dissonance’s soundtrack, written by Soshiro Hokkai, is wild and weird, and the bile it continues to inspire is most of all a testament to the extremely small cultural pool gamers, and nerds in general, tend to draw from rather than the soundtrack’s craft and technical merits. Heaven help these people if they ever heard Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (well -- that’s a bit of a delicious scenario, really; I love the idea of people still being scandalized by a composition from the early 1900s). Lovecraft’s writing isn’t a dominant reference point for analyses of Bloodborne because it’s the most pertinent or interesting one, but because gamers have almost no idea of how to draw connections between historical material and Bloodborne’s horrific and sublime elements. One funky hip-hop song is not necessarily akin to a given Persona song; it’s often just that the person doing the comparing has heard barely any funk or hip-hop outside of the Persona series. Similarly, HoD’s music confounds the gamer who has an apoplectic episode if less than 95% of the arrangements of Castlevania music on YouTube don’t involve an electric guitar. These people don’t have, and have no interest in acquiring, the means of engaging its music, so they dismiss it wholesale as a failure.

The critiques tend to come in patterns, and one of the stupidest is that Harmony of Dissonance’s music could be improved “if the samples were better.” The people saying this would almost certainly defend Mega Man 2′s soundtrack in a second, even though it also rendered through similar hardware; i.e., it is another “chiptune” score. In fact, HoD’s score is technically of a higher quality than Mega Man 2′s; the only 8bit Castlevania that can compare is the Japanese version of Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse, which is assisted by the VRC6 chip. These informed observations are irrelevant to those doing the criticizing, though, because they’re expecting something very particular that is being unmet. This myopic expectation was demonstrated by the release of Aria of Sorrow and the continual remarks about how much better, professional, and listenable its music sounded. You see, the instruments sounded like real instruments now. How couldn’t it be a victory? In other words, Harmony of Dissonance was damned from the start since it had the audacity to be a Game Boy Advance title that technically sounded like a videogame from a little over a decade ago. And isn’t all art linear? I’ll leave it up to readers here to decide which version of “Ruined Castle Corridor”, the opening area theme from Aria of Sorrow, they prefer: the original, or this “technologically dated” arrangement. For myself, the preference for one is unambiguous. We can find ways to argue for and against the qualitative details of something that is of an older mold, no question, but that can only be done once we accept that not every new thing has to advertise that newness in every facet of its make-up. “lol this sounds like an old videogame, fail” is not in itself a legitimate criticism, even implicitly.

If there’s anything I’d broadly find fault with in Harmony’s soundtrack it’s that I wish there were more thematic development among many of its pieces. Even though “Chapel of Dissonance” is about fifteen or twenty seconds longer than the typical environmental theme from Castlevania 3, it feels shorter in action and in my memory than, say, “Mad Forest.” It’s almost as if it’s missing a section after its first twenty seconds -- a minor bridge that would let the first section’s material grow out a bit more, not for formal coherence, just because it is so beautiful and deserving of embellishment. In this respect, “Offense and Defense” stands out: it is about a minute-and-a-half long (the game’s longest environmental track) and also covers as much ground as it needs to before looping. What fascinates me about this score is how much it exemplifies the counterpoint-like aspects of chiptunes while sounding like a fusion of modal jazz jam sessions and restlessly chromatic chamber music. Just listen to the the drums’ and basslines’ escalating activities in “Name Entry 2K2″, or the yearning chord progressions of “Epilogue 2″, so reminiscent of bittersweet, heart-trembling chamber works by Enescu or Rachmaninov. How anyone who has some familiarity with the formal quirks of videogame music, and is not repulsed by anything that doesn’t sound like what is played on the radio, can listen to these and not feel at least a bit of excitement or interest is baffling. This isn’t bad or janky music at all; it’s crackling stuff, pushing at the edges of its technological constraints and skillfully using them to its advantage (seriously, the percussive work in this soundtrack alone is a detail-oriented marvel).

You did good, Soshiro Hokkai.

#Castlevania #Harmony of Dissonance #Soshiro Hokkai #castlevania soundtrack #Videogame music #brick by brick #chiptune #akumajo dracula

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the314anoman · 6 years ago

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2018 sucked

it was probably the shittiest year of my life, and that’s not an easy title to claim. let’s recap:

it all started way back in early january, when our subway came under new ownership and we got a new manager, who had worked there for a shorter period than i had (yeah, i was part-time working during college, she was full-time, but w/e) and it all went downhill fast. our manager wasn’t bad, she just was just trying to deal with all the new regulations we were facing and the fact that we were Massively Understaffed™ for being located in a fucking mall. like, for contrast, our old managers let us get away with not turning the line coolers off at night if we were really busy, but under the new owners, we had to clean the legs of tables to get the salt of them. i decided to quit in march after having minors stay and help me close even though they were off the clock since they were required to punch out at 9:30 and still getting yelled at for staying too long and not making everything Perfect. it was so stressful trying to work both faster and harder, so i quit. then, college got out in april and i was looking for internships all over and applying everywhere, but i never got even so much as an interview request. so, june came and i just said “fuck it” and applied to other subways closer to home. ended up getting an interview the next day at a different subway, 2 miles from the old one. i got the job and starting working to find out the subway was also Massively Understaffed™ but the manager was more chill, so it seemed fine. turns out the reason the manager was chill is that he was high. like, all the time. this resulted in him having the memory of a goldfish. like, i specifically told him and his assistant manager that i couldn’t work one day and yet he still called asking where i was when i very plainly explained it twice. and he also scheduled a meeting on the day i request off for my niece’s baptism. at 8am. on a sunday. at the same time, i managed to get an interview at a local factory. it wasn’t really an internship nor in my field, but it was a job and it paid $12/hr so i was like, hell yeah, why not. i managed to get the job and started july 1st, which was great, buuuuuut... the job was super boring; it was pretty much doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again for 7.5 hours a day while ~~listening~~ being subjected to country music. BUT, we got 3 breaks a day and it was nice having a chill job. i came up with a lot of really good writing ideas for a novel that’s been a super long wip because my mind was mostly free during work since it was so repetitive. at this time, i’m still working at subway, mostly weekends and some 5-close shifts. i’m not getting a whole lot of sleep and so that probably explains what happens on july 25th, probably the single shittiest day of my life. i get into the factory and the normal manager is gone on vacation and one of my coworkers is taking over. she tells me that i’ve been missing the least important step in the process of making some parts that i’ve been doing for days now. so naturally, i mess it up a couple more times, but only when she’s watching, because ofc. this happens 3 times and the third time i kind of chuckle to myself because i’m literally only doing it when she’s watching. she takes this to mean i’m laughing at her and yells at me about how i think it’s a joke and blah blah blah, like that’s not what i meant at all but she won’t let me explain. THEN, i get out of work and i’m already on the verge of tears because i have a migraine from lack of sleep and i hate getting yelled at, and i see a text i got while at work (we’re not allowed phones on our person at all at the factory. national security stuff apparently) that my grandma is in the hospital and not going to make it. i just... lose it. i go home and just sit outside on a chair, cuddling my cat and gross sobbing for the first time i can recall. i’m supposed to work a 5-9 shift at subway tonight, but i am not in any state to work. i call them through tears saying i can’t work tonight, i’m visiting my grandma in the hospital in muskegon, an hour away. she’s unconscious when i get there. she dies an hour later, while me and my family are eating dinner downstairs in the basement where there’s no signal. eventually tomorrow comes. it’s now july 26th, which if you know me, is my birthday. my 21st birthday, in fact. you know how for most people, their 21st is the best day of your life? yeah, it was one of the worst for me. i still had to get up at 6am for the factory work, then run home, get changed, and work 5-9 at subway. the only bright spot were two helpful coworkers. one from the factory gave me a butterscotch shot, saying you should still try and enjoy your birthday and my subway coworker bought a hershey pie for me and gave me a hug and some helpful advice. (she had been through a similar experience with her mom passing, so she knew a lot about grief.) i took her advice on letting yourself be happy and decided to go to my friends’ meetup that weekend, which i had requested off from subway previously. it’s a while away, but this was planned a long time ago and i don’t get to see my college friends in the summer other than this, so i’m not missing this. but, when i’m almost there i get a call from subway insisting that i work this weekend to make up for missing my 4 hour shift yesterday. i’m furious because i missed it for legitimate reasons and i was already over 2 hours away and i was NOT driving back. (the reason they’re insisting is because they don’t want to pay my coworker overtime, despite the fact she’s living in a trailer park only off her subway income, too.) they say they might have to fire me and i’m like, sure, i have another job and i already put in my 2 weeks lol. so i go there and try to forget this whole week ever happened. the funeral is on monday, the factory gives me it off so i can attend. there’s lots of tears. lots and lots. my grandma touched a lot of people’s lives; she’s one of the kindest people i’ve ever known. she probably would have supported my sexuality if i ever told her, i regret not doing so earlier. i come back to my factory job on tuesday, and as if the universe is answering some unanswered “could things get any worse?” the hiring manager informs me i’m fired, as if it had to be july 31st, to add to the shithole that july 2018 was. this was a temp position to begin with, and i was leaving in a couple weeks anyway, but this is just another blow to an already grieving 21-year-old. i may have just lost both my jobs and my grandmother in the span of 7 days. i leave the factory and get in my car and just. scream. time passes. the pain of july slowly fades from a roaring inferno all over my body to a dull pulsing. good things start to happen again. i move into an apartment with 3 friends, get a job at the theatre after a lot of paperwork issues, i make the cut for an a capella group and find new friends, develop a crush on someone (something i haven’t really had since high school - but that’s a story for another time), and actually start getting my shit together. things are definitely looking up, despite the fact i had the worst month of life a couple months ago. ...and then comes december, as if it’s trying to challenge july to a battle for shittiest month ever. final exams are coming up, i spend a lot of the previous week leading up to exams rehearsing for performances (i had 4 performances in a week’s span), not much studying could be done. not that studying would help that much, as we would see, but w/e. i ended up forgetting my book with all the important formulas and relationships in it that are too complex to memorize, so i completely bombed that final, and therefore failed the whole class. i’m already having to take an extra semester, failing this class does NOT help. i barely stayed above a 3.0 gpa, a requirement for most internships. on the same day we got final grades back, my mom got a call saying my grandpa had died, only a week before christmas. my whole family went back up to do the whole funeral thing again. we are getting awfully familiar with this nursing home (my mom lost both her parents and an uncle in 5 months). finally, on new year’s eve i decide it’s either now or never to admit my feelings, so i ask my crush out. i get rejected, which is mostly what i expected, but it still knocks the wind out of me. so yeah, 2018 was super extra shitty for me. but at the same time, i feel like i’ve grown a lot as a person. i’ve made a bunch of new friends, gained a niece, learned a lot about pain, and done a lot of things i never thought i’d do. hell, i had the balls to ask a guy out, which was something that frightened me to my core. i went on a trip to dc and learned more about the injustices happening here, i went camping/hiking with friends, and went tubing behind a boat. so, i’m not gonna pretend it’s all bad.

#sorry about the super long post #but i needed to reflect on the past year #it's been life-changing #for better or worse

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