#both of these scenes have done such a good job with amping up the tension right at the start of the episode

[bikananjarrus]

i’ve really enjoyed how they opened the first two episodes not focused on our main characters at all, and showing us just how terrifying the cordyceps infection is.

the scientists at the beginning of the pilot on the talk show, and at first there’s that good-natured talk show feel, but the longer the scientist goes on explaining the cordyceps and how it would be possible for it to survive in humans and imagine thousands upon thousands being controlled, and the whole auditorium goes still and silent, and it ends with just two words, “we lose.”

and then in this episode, with the mycologist and her complete fear after examining the body. the shaking of her hands and the quiet terror in the way she says that there is no cure, no medicine. that the only solution is to bomb the city with everyone in it. and can someone take her home so she can be with her family, because she understands what the scientist said from the first episode. we lose.

[theoriginalladya]

(also. if you ever felt inclined to write a group hug. i'd be first in line to flail all over it)

from this prompt list

On AO3 here

Ask, my dear (and you always ask so nicely!!!) and you shall receive!!!!!  Enjoy!  

(also, you may have seriously helped me sort out a big part of their story with this prompt!!! THANK YOU!!!)   (under cut because it got long)

TW:  description of battle, blood mention

Translations at the end.

~~~~~

“Shit!”

The exclamation is the only warning Shepard receives before Vega ducks down behind cover next to him, his large bulk hunching in on itself as much as it can so it provides a minimal target.  That the ‘minimal target’ is now positioned right next to Shepard and puts him in danger as well, is completely beside the point.  It’s why they pay us the big bucks, right?  Out of instinct, he reaches over and pushes Vega’s head down just a little bit lower.  

The lieutenant takes it all in stride as the firefight continues around them.  “Hehehe, thanks jefe.”

“Not a problem, Vega. I watch out for my team.”  Their eyes meet; Shepard sees the glitter of determination of his reflected in the younger man’s.  “All of them.”  No one left behind, is more than just the four words themselves.

An explosion nearby shakes the walls and results in both men ducking lower for a good thirty seconds.  Slowly, Shepard lifts his head, peering over the top edge of cover, so he can he survey the battlefield.  A flash of bluish white energy from at least a hundred feet away starts in his direction; he retreats quickly while shouting, “Kaidan!”  The ball of energy flies over his head, barely missing the top; a deep grunt of indignation escapes his throat as he lands hard on his ass. Beside him, Vega shifts awkwardly in the cramped space.

“Kind of busy at the moment, commander!”

“Light me up, dammit!” Shepard shouts back.  Several moments pass without a response.  “I’m not being unreasonable here, Alenko!”

Vega moves to a crouching position and lays a wave of suppressive fire across the space.  Shepard pushes to his feet, keeping below the top edge as much as possible, this time peering around the side of cover.  Kaidan is off to the left, currently in the middle of what would look like hand-to-hand fighting to the uninitiated, but in reality, is just a bit more complicated, utilizing hand-to-hand techniques but with powerful biotics moves.  Flashes and flares of mass energy shoot out from them as their biotics connect, and from this position, it’s impossible to see who has the advantage.  It’s like nothing he’s ever seen before; then again, since arriving at this facility, that’s pretty much been the Cerberus approach.

With one last, heaving effort, Kaidan pulls his arm back as if to punch the person, but with a loud, growling roar a wave of energy flies from his hand as he thrusts it forward. The resultant explosion throws his opponent about twenty feet away where they hit a wall, crumple, and fall into an unmoving heap on the floor. 

There are still targets on the field that need removal, but many of them are worn down and this is his job.  Under normal circumstances, Kandra assists him in the process, lighting up each target for him so when he charges into them, they go down instantly or within seconds of his arrival.  It’s not a perfect tactic by any means, but effective in reducing numbers quickly, and it’s certainly an unexpected tactic, most of the time, anyway.

But Kandra has been missing for almost a week now along with three of Kaidan’s biotic spec ops people.  It’s taken that long to trace them here; as near as he can figure, being held hostage somewhere within this facility.  But that does him little good now, so he has to rely on Kaidan to light up his targets; sadly, a less efficient system when his skills and Alliance training are far better utilized in other ways.

That doesn’t mean Kaidan isn’t helping.  Not at all. The major turns, dark eyes connecting with Shepard’s briefly, and Shepard can see the toll it’s taking. Anger in Kaidan is … unusual to see first-hand, and intimidating as all hell if you’re on the receiving end of it, but it’s easy to understand the source.  Shepard nods at Kaidan while shifting his balance so he can move the instant the first target lights up.  

Barely is the wave of energy released from Kaidan’s fingers when Shepard starts forward.  His hand starts tracing the mnemonic even before he moves, and by the time he hits his third step, the world around him speeds up into a blur of motion as he shoots forward at full throttle.  The instant he connects, he’s looking for the next target to repeat the process.  And again.  And again.

At the end of the hall, no fewer than six more Cerberus troops lie on the ground, incapacitated. Kaidan hurries over to join Shepard while Vega brings up the rear, pausing by each target taken down just to make sure.  Any hint of a breath and he shoots, just once in the head.  It’s enough; these troops won’t ever see the light of day again, nor will they stop their retreat once the mission objective is obtained.

“Which way?” Kaidan asks as they rejoin at the T-intersection.

Shepard nods to their right.  “Floor plans say the heart of the facility is this way.  That’s my guess.”

Vega snorts softly. “Well, what are we waiting for, Loco? Let’s get moving.”

~~~~~

Hall by hall, they clear their way deeper into the facility.  The other teams, including the one with Emilio and Konstantin, are moving in from other directions; all teams have the same goal: reach the heart of the facility, find Kandra and the other spec ops personnel.  As they move, however, it’s becoming increasingly clear this place needs to be destroyed at all costs.  They might be able to do that on the way out, but the primary objective doesn’t change.  

The arrive at a door set back off the hallway in a recessed alcove and secured from the opposite side.  Kaidan drops to his knee and pulls up his hacking program.  James and Shepard stand off to each side, prepared to give fire support if necessary.  The minutes tick by, the air grows thick with tension.  Finally, Kaidan rises and steps back, in the process raising his biotic barrier field as he nods at Shepard but says nothing.  Shepard uses hand signals to communicate now, and they open the door and slip through.

The doorway leads into a short hallway that quickly opens into a much larger area … that is filled with signs of battle, but not directed at them.  No one in here, it seems, is even aware of their arrival.

“What the hell?”

Vega’s whispered exclamation registers fully with Shepard.  “Agreed, lieutenant.”  He glances over his shoulder at Kaidan whose gaze is focused solely ahead of them … and intently.  Shepard frowns.  “What is it?”

Kaidan’s shoulders tense and his biotic corona flares around his entire body; this isn’t his barrier field, this is something different, something raw, a reaction to what, Shepard doesn’t know, but he recognizes the difference and follows his lead. As he does, he closes his eyes and focuses…

“А щоб твоя дружинонька з кумом повелася!”**

He doesn’t understand the words, but he’s heard the language and that tone enough at this late date to know it can mean only one thing, and that’s not good.  He steps to the side and pushes Kaidan ahead of him and Vega.  “You take lead.  Now!”

As they near the opening, it’s easier to get a grasp on the scene before them.  The room is some sort of … medical amphitheater, set lower in the center of the room with what looks to be an operating table in the middle surrounded by surgical paraphernalia.  Three bodies in scrubs lie on the floor, unmoving.  Three more currently hurl mass effect fields at one another across the room from various points, changing position in between. One of those figures stands just to their left.  Dressed in some sort of hospital gown, her corona flaring so high Michael wonders that she doesn’t overclock her amp in the process despite being L2.  

Kandra Alenko, both hands raised, one aimed at either of the two remaining targets, lashes out angrily at her opponents using two separate waves of energy while bellowing a roar that would put any lion to shame.  “А бодай тебе чорти вхопили!”**

The three men rush into the space immediately.  Kaidan makes a bee-line for his twin, while James drops to a knee and without hesitation, takes aim at the person to their far right, unloading his weapon on them.  Shepard, spying the last target directly across the room and conveniently ‘lit up,’ charges over, a feral grin curling at his lips.

It doesn’t take much effort to bring these last two opponents down between Shepard’s biotics and Vega’s bullets.  When all is said and done, both reconvene with Kaidan who kneels on the floor with a collapsed Kandra in his arms.  “She’s overdone it,” he says in a voice that’s tight with concern as he looks up at Shepard.

“’m fine,” Kandra mutters, curling in toward her brother and tucks her head onto his shoulder.

But not before Shepard notices the blood trickling down from her nose and her ear.  Jabbing an arm in the direction of the lower level, he orders, “Vega, get something we can stop the bleeding with!”  He turns back to Kandra and reaches out to push some of her dark hair back from the left side of her face.  That’s when he notices more blood matted near her implant scar. Carefully, he points it out to Kaidan who pulls off his gauntlet and gently prods at the area.  “Kan?”

She winces, biting back a cry of pain unsuccessfully, and curls tighter to him.  “Don’t … please!”

He pulls his hand back.  “What happened?”

She mutters something unintelligible and slides her arm around his shoulder as he stands up, bringing her with him.  “Lean against me if you feel dizzy,” he says softly, holding her in place at his side as he sets her feet on the floor.  

She wobbles a moment and doesn’t bother to nod, simply rests her head against his shoulder. Vega runs over with a sheet from the operating table below and hands it to Shepard who takes it and rips off a portion of it, handing that over to Kaidan.  Kandra, however, reaches out and snatches it from her twin’s fist, lifting it to her face.  Several minutes pass in silence, during which James starts to pace and prowl around the room, eventually retracing their steps to the doorway, presumably to keep an eye on things outside of the room.  As quiet as it is inside here now, it’s easy to forget they’re in enemy territory and the battle still rages elsewhere.

Assured Kaidan has the situation with his sister under control, Shepard follows after the lieutenant. His agitated state is obvious. Walking up next to him, Shepard asks, “You okay?”

The lieutenant mutters something in Spanish Shepard doesn’t understand, but if his tone of voice means anything at all, it isn’t complimentary in the least.  “Yeah, jefe, I’m good.”  Vega looks back at the twins, watches for a moment, then shakes his head and mutters again.  “What the hell, man?  This shit’s so fucked up!”

Shepard nods his agreement with the assessment.  “Not sure yet, but I’ve got an idea.  Hopefully, Kandra will be able to tell us something.”  A burst of static burns over his comms, but nothing intelligible comes across so he doesn’t try to return it.  He looks over at Vega.  “She’s not going to be in a good place coming out of this, you know.”

Vega’s eyes meet his and for the first time, Shepard sees something hard, glittering there. It’s startling; it’s also clear it isn’t just because she’s a part of their group, it’s more than that.  James’ eyes trail back one more time in the direction of the siblings.  “Yeah, I know.”

The soft shuffle of padding footsteps nearing them has him turning toward the twins.  Kandra still looks a bit dazed, but if the grim determination and fiery spark in her eyes means anything, and Shepard knows from experience it does, it won’t be there much longer.  “We need to get you better clothing than that,” he says, nodding at the hospital style gown she wears with the rest of the sheet Vega had retrieved tied around her.  

“It’s not far,” she informs him.  “Through those doors and to the right.”  

Shepard nods once, watches as she visibly shakes her head as if clearing it, before releasing her hold on her brother.  It brings her to her full height, just at Kaidan’s shoulder.  All three men straighten as if standing at attention, each recognizing in their own way just how strong and resolute she is.  This isn’t the same woman who walked out of Vancouver with them just months ago.  Shepard meets her gaze head on and she seems startled for a moment when he opens his arms to her, inviting her in closer.  A half-second passes when a small smile finally appears at her lips.  As he wraps his arms around her, she murmurs, “Thank you.”

“For what?”  

“For coming to get … me.”  

None of them say anything about the crack in her voice.  Shepard’s arms tighten around her and Kaidan moves in and wraps his around the both of them.  “No one gets left behind,” Shepard insists quietly in her hair, repeating what he’d told Vega just a short while ago.  “You’re as much a part of this squad as we are.  Understand that?”

Kandra’s head rises and she looks at him, then her twin, and then over at James who stands awkwardly to the side.  Her eyes soften just a bit and she reaches a hand out, grasping him by his belt and tugging him into the group hug.  “Yeah,” she tells them as she slides her arm around his waist and he wraps his around her shoulders, “I get it.”

~~~~~ 

**А щоб твоя дружинонька з кумом повелася  - Wish your wife had an affair with your kids’ God father.

**А бодай тебе чорти вхопили  - May devils grab you.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: Escape from the Impossibin! or A Dark Night of the Soul

It’s a long dark night of the soul for everyone’s favorite family of ducks as our beloved family grapples with the revelations of last episodes. While Scrooge clearly smarts from the betrayal he pits his latest security system against Della and Louie, given the title it naturally goes wrong and forces all three to try to escape. Meanwhile Beakly sics Webby on Huey and Dewey, and Dewey gets a cool new sword he can’t use while Huey has a slow burn mental breakdown.. again. Someone get my poor boy some therapy.  Suprises, Also an exaustingly deep dive into the life of Bentina Beakly. Disguises but sadly not pies of all sizes insue under the cut.

Well.. this one was fantastic. Obviously i’ll explain why as we go but holy shit I was not expecting a master class of an episode just one week after the already great Let’s Get Dangerous. And yes I had my complaints there but none of them, especially on the second watch, really detracted from what was honesty an amazing episode. And after slogging through “Catch as Cash Can” over the past few days, this was a welcome return to the version of the duck family I love best and a crisp reminder of why this series is so frigging amazing. I may criticize, i’m a critic comes with the territory, but I genuinely and wholly love this show, and this episode is encapsulates why. So enough lollygagging, let’s dew it to it!

We open with one of those scenes where two characters give a similar speech and it flashes back between both as they finish each other’s sentences. It’s a storytelling choice I never realized I always loved as it’s always a good way to amp up tension or comedy. It’s a good way to start. At the Mansion, Beakly is lecturing Donald, Huey and Dewey, because both families likely talked Launchpad into just sharing different days with each of them after the first inevitable sleep driving car crash so he’s with his boyfriend and child right now. It’s also really nice to both have almost the entire main cast given something to do for an episode AND have the one missing member have a thoroughly valid reason for not being there that was set up last week.  It’s also really nice to see Donald and Della again. While it’s only been two weeks, both have only featured in one episode this block so far, and Della’s been kind of pushed to the side this season.. not unfairly mind as she was the focus for two solo episodes and a ton of episodes last season for obvious reasons but it dosen’t mean I can’t miss my disaster twins when they aren’t around.  So anyways back on the episode, Beakly is naturally assuming theirs more traitors in their midst, and she and webby have narrowed it down.. this dosen’t really come up aside for a gag in a second for the rest of the episode, but is both funny and two of them are clearly setup for later. Have a look

My thoughts in order: 

Little Bulb: He probably IS plotting to betray them, but for entirely unrelated reasons.  Donald: .........................................................................................................

Look I get it on some level, as he was away from the family a long time, hated Scrooge, and had every reason to betray him. BUT, and it’s a bit but, besides the obvious of Bradford and his goons being the reason they gave up looking for his sister, if for good reason, Donald would’ve TOLD them all about that by now if he’d been spying, or if he’d had any dealings with the man. The man loves his family, uncle included, more than anyone and even at their lowest point I doubt he’d sell the man out for the boys sake unless FOWL threatened them. Donald is principaled, hardworking, loving, and has both dove directly into a nest of shadows and sent himself hurtling to earth in a possibly lethal rocket to protect this family, so even if this is a funny gag, it does bother me Beakly and ESPECIALLY Webby, his surrogate niece, would even consider this. That being said while I felt the need to rant because he’s my boy and I feel protective of him, it was damn funy as Donald naturally tries to wipe it off because.. yeah everything above, only to get caught in the flipping board and ending up as above with Beakly forced to admit it’s probably not him. Plus yeah.. he’s also way too clumsy and anger prone for wetwork so there’s also that. 

Fenton: I’m TEMPTED to use the trunks picture twice in a row but besides that being obnoxious.. I get it MORE here. Donald has no motive anymore, would’ve told them by now if he had when he did, and has broken his back for all of them at one time or another. Probably literally in some cases. Fenton is sweet, loyal and another one of my boys.. but his obviousness has left him open to deception in three different episodes, not counting the tolkyolk one since that wasn’t BOYD”S choice: But he put blueprints out online for a mcduck industries project, got his armor taken by beaks luring him in to work for him, and had Gandra working for Beaks snuck into his lab.. and probably in the process also got any info on it Bradford couldn’t get through company files. He’s a good man, a kind man but he could easily be a leak without realizing it and also has a mother at home and could be threatened into doing stuff for them for her saftey.. and yes I know she can take care of herself but we’re talking a regular cop against secret agents who aren’t above murdering one. He  might panic even if rationally he knows she’s fine.. or they could do the inverse and use her to get secrets from him since she’s a mother and Gandra could probably easily hack fenton’s armor, since Bradford probably has the full blueprints at this point. The point is while I don’t see him betraying them WILLINGLY, I get him being a possible leak. Donald could be, but again is too obvious and likely reguarly checked for bugs anyway long before fowl, as is Launchpad I assume. 

Bluescreen Beagle: I don’t know this dude, but I’m betting he’ll be important soon enough since they brought him up at all and he is a beagle working for Scrooge so that alone is interesting. 

Louie: Yeah unlike my boys I have no excuses for him here. While Louie is family, and has proven his own loyalty plenty... he’s also selfish, greedy and shortsighted so like Fenton he could be an easy accidental pawn at best or turn on them for money or an adventure free life at worst. I don’t think he would mind, i’m just more understanding of this given just last episode his response to a clearly suspicious thing making machine was to ignore any suspicion entirely and whine about it while Huey looking into it ended up saving the universe. He also nearly killed them all last season, so fair enough.   

So yeah Beakly is going to train them to 

WHich the boys are all for while Donald gets all spinny eyed ont he floor. Cue credits... though obviously we have to cover the scrooge side of things too... 

Meanwhile at the bin, Scrooge has brought Louie and Della there because there the sharpest mind he knows, and their seeing all the angles means their the perfect test subjects for his new post-deeply cutting betrayal security system. He also obviously goes off on an alteration filled rant at Bradford that has to be cut before he can get to calling him shiteating. And given he’s a buzzard that’s probably not inaccurate. Point is they are genuinely the best ones for the job and both agree.. Louie’s not really enthuastic about any of this but hey it’s their money this is guarding so why not. So with that done since we have two full plots to deal with and they don’t intersect until the last few minutes, like with Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades, i’m going to be splitting this one and covering each bit separately since it’s also easier for me to recall and recap that way. 

Beakly, Brah, Making Kids (and herself) Cry, Brah!: 

A can of coke to whoever figures out that reference first. Or a free review comisson shipping Coke is expensive you know? But yeah as you can tell this bit is not going to go well for any of the kids, or the beakly or my heart. So this plot continues at breakfast, where Huey is meticulously going over both his guidebook and Finch’s Journal to see if there’s ANY signs of F.O.W.L. their connection anything.. it’s also very clear he’s panicking. Given his enitre life is built on logic and he’s now facing a threat he probably feels he SHOULD have seen coming.. I mean they clearly have access to the Missing Mysteries, there must be SOME tie to them SOMEHOW. He, in my opinon at least, feels blindsighted and scared, going up against a group using his own love of logic that blindsighted all of them INCLUDING Scrooge, the most clever and daring adventuerer of all time and Beakly, who was likely responsible for seemingly wiping out F.O.W.L. in the first place. If THEY can be blindsighted, what hope does he have? So he’s searching for it in his comfort texts, kind of like I did at his age: when theirs a crisis trying desperatley to solve it even if you really can’t, which he cannot, at leats not alone.  Dewey of course being Dewey, has decided the solution is to get a massive sword he can’t lift and hit people with it and mock Huey for his reading. Huey gets what’s clearly the start of his episode long emotional breakdown, the worst he’s had of SEVERAL this series and over the biggest stakes thus far, seriously get this boy some therapy, while Dewey just thinks the key to beating their worst menace yet is a giant sword to hit things with. He does break a pot with it in an accidental spin attack in a later scene though so I do apricate that reference. 

But when opening the serving tray they find an attacking Webby instead with Beakly explaining why she’s doing this to her surrogate brothers: Beakly is testing them by having Webby sneak attack them at some point and the’ll never know when, while Beakly herself works with Donald to secure the house.. sadly we don’t get to see any of that latter part, as it’s probably full of hilarious slapstick, but it’d also clash heavily with the rest of this plot which, while not lacking in jokes, is meant to be uncomfortable and have us on edge like the boys, so fair enough. Webby “Bringer of Death” hugs htem saying this is going to be fun. 

Naturally it really REALLY isn’t as Huey is still very shaken by this. And it cleverly ties into what’s been shown from day one and especially this season to be his greatest weakness, and very likely the crux of his character arc: Huey can’t improvise. It’s a nice contrast to Louie last season: Louie’s very talent is thinking on his feet, seeing every angle and making them bend the way he wants. I’ts how he schemes as well as he does, how he fits into the family and what makes him himself. What he needed was to think of others and think through the consequences of his actions. That’s what he gained from his arc last season: perspective, the ablility to improvise while also not shooting himself in the foot for later and to have empathy for people.  Huey is the oppoisite: Instead his ablility to think IS his skill. He’s a genuis, able to understand super science on the level of fully grown adult genuises, able to puzzle through confounding mysteries, to solve any problem. He and huey both are gifted with anyalsis, but Louie sees the small picture, the people, the moving parts at the moment, while Huey sees the big picture and how everything connects to lead to one thing and loves learning more and more. I REALLY relate to him that way. But this season has brillinatly drilled in where he needs to improve: He’s not ready for suprises or deviations from his plans or all the things that could go wrong. He can’t improvise, he just panics. It’s something again I relate to and something that each of his episodes has set up leading to this moment hammering it home and me realizing what his arc was:

Challenge of the Senior-Junior Woodchucks had Huey utterly lost without his Guide Book for a while and unprepared for a sudden challenge in Violet. Quack Pack had him unravel when he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the world, yet he was perfectly fine once he knew what was going on, Astro B.O.Y.D. was entirely about his intellgence and need for structure leaves him bullied and alone a lot of the time even among in his element with the woodchucks and how he finds friendship in someone like himself who gets him. Rumble for Ragnarok showed that while he can comment find for sports like golf where there’s rigid structure, rules and history, he fails as bad as Launchpad at calling wrestling because wrestling is just as much about sponteaniety as planning, with run ins, reff discrations and other chaos being part and parcel and even in real life matches often have to be changed on the fly due to injuries or someone simply coming up with a better finish at the last minute. At the same time the season’s shown how it is vital to him, as the next two, The trickening and forbidden fountain showed WHY his structure works and that it can in the right format, and that he usually has reason for it. And the final one showed that too, with him being the one to find out what Bulba’s up to simply by research, and while he didn’t stop it, his pulling at the threads of why Bradford was there and his hate of them forced FOWL out into the open which, while now putting him on edge, forced their enmies into the open where while their more dangerous, they can now at least strike back.  Huey’s arc is , hopefully if i’m right about this, about him having to learn to use his strengths with his weakneses, much like Louie last season: To adpat, to grow while not forgetting who he is and that not everything can be put in a box, as the creators put their interpretation of him. Not everything can be quanitfied or planned for and sometimes you just have to try and hope for hte best. It’s a damn compelling arc, my relating to it helps of course but it paints Huey as a fascinating character and tying it heavily into the main plot fixes how Louie was largely removed from the moonlander plot aside from one episode, as was glomgold’s quest. While the season has three main plots: A focus on Huey, the missing mysteries and FOWL, all three intertwine perfectly and are interconnected. The creators learned well from where they slipped up last time and the result is phenomenal, and they’ve clearly proven this is Huey’s season afterall: Even when he’s not been the a-plot who huey is, how he functions and being forced to grapple with the downsides of it are front and center and I am here for it. 

But yeah he’s breaking down, not helped by trying to go to beakly only to find out about the hidden bin and Dewey tries to help him calm down.. only for Dewey to walk in and unsuprsingly the one who can actually offer deep encouraging support was Webby who threatens this isn’t the attack. Nor is her dummy she leaves for them. The boys are left terrified hoping they won’t be attacked and holding Dewey’s sword, but Huey ends up convinced it’s just a test and that it’s the classic paranoia gambit: by telling them something will attack, the real lesson is to be prepared.  But Nerp, Webby attacks them with arrows and easily snares Dewey while Huey has a panic attack that’s genuinely hard to watch as he ends up running into the wall and breaking his ankle. This very real pain along with his clear trauma when he flinches at her genuinely trying to help him snap Webby out of it: She realizes she’s gone way too far and utterly terrified her own brothers, sending one into a full on mental breakdown, just to prepare them. Up till now it was probably normal for Webby: Beakly trained her rigorously, if understandably, kept her from the world, probably did this to her, and Webby just thought it was normal and it made her what she is. But it also came at the cost of any normalcy. To me Webby’s always been like a lighter, since she can at least speak, has toys and Beakly you know treats her like a human being rather than a weapon, of the second Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. Cassandra was raised from birth as an experiment to make the ultimate weapon, someone who rather than speak spoke in phsyical motion and could kill effortlessly.. but actually doing so shocked her and she escaped and Bruce took her in. Cass is as badass as Batman at a fraction of the age but dosen’t understand simple life things and can’t speak. Hence the parallel: While Beakly isn’t a monster like David Cain, she still took a small child and turned them into a weapon strugging to adapt to society, and only isn’t a monster because as said she clearly cares about webby and dosen’t want to loose her like she lost her child and in-law to whatever presumibly fowl related nightmare took them from her and left Webby an Orphan.  What i’m getting at with this is this feels like Webby realizing while this is her normal.. the boys can’t take it with Dewey terrified and again, Huey nearly broken by all of this and whimpering in a corner. This isn’t bonding between master and student, grandmother and granddaughter, partners in fighting.. this is just .. wrong. So when Beakly, not noticing how badly she’s damaged either boy, demands Webby continue attacking them, Webby refuses, stands firm.. and prepares to take on the person she loves most in the world, yes more than Lena she’s only 12 for christ’s sake, and Beakly gladly accepts. Webby’s training is in session.  When we next see them the fight is in full force, and it is awesome to see. After 3 seasons we not only see Beakly’s darkest aspects come out we see her granddaughter in the path. Though at first it seems like what their training sessions normally are, a friendly if lively and full force spar between two trusting combatants. But it becomes clear over the fight from Webby’s reaction that Beakly is going harder than usual, and doesn’t stop when asked. Thankfully her kind gesture paid off as Huey and Dewey whisk her up to the attic. Webby is genuinely SCARED, never having seen her like this but also worried for her: Acting like a monster or not.. Beakly is still her granny and it’s clear FOWL coming back has rattled her. The fist through the attick doors, barred with the sword proves that.  The kids head up to the roof with Beakly in persuit like some sort of slasher villian, again fist through a door, determined to still fight while Webby clearly just wants this to stop and so does the audience. This hurts.. intentionally so but I haven’t been cut this deep by two family members literally coming to blows since Amethyst fought Pearl in the first season of steven universe. It’s tough to watch but in a very good way. The boys break up the tension for half a second by  rushing her and she just tosses them aside... where their caught by Donald, who didn’t realize ANY of this was going on and is rigthfully pissed.. though dosen’t do the angry dance thing because then he’d kill his children but he’s sure thinking it loud enough. 

As Webby reluctantly readies for round 2, Donald calls at her to fucking stop already. While she counters with they have to be ready, which is true... Donald shuts her down. “Not like this”. She’s broken Huey and Webby and Dewey.. is traumatized but fine but this episode really isn’t about him.  What it is about is Bentina Beakly and her Dark Night of the soul. I brought up the term for dumb reasons admitely: Because it sounded neat and because Douglas Adams had spoofed it with the dirk gently novel “Dark Tea-Time of the Soul” a title that’s stuck with me and a book I own and still need to read. But I looked it up to make sure I wasn’t badly misusing it and it turned out to fit this episode: A Dark Night of the Soul, as defined by spirtual guru and thankfuly not scumbag Eckheart Tolle whose article explained the old expression better than wikipedia could. While he naturally pitches his book there, it was still helpful so thanks man for your spirtual advice helping me analyize ducks. I owe you one. 

The Dark Night of the Soul is essentially a person coming to their lowest point after having lost themselves or feeling lost, rattled by one event and awakening with a new sense of spirtual purpose and a new direction and a sense of self again after it. Having everything you know upended and coming out the other side with a new self, usually in a religious sense. And it works here because really that’s what Huey, Beakly, Scrooge and to a Degree webby face here. Louie, Della, Dewey and Donald are all fine in the face of FOWl and it makes sense: Louie and Donald are often outside the adventure bubble in terms of enjoying it, seeing it’s dangers to them and in Donald’s case his kids, Webby included, and how much chaos it is. Both have accepted it as part of their lives so while this escalates things, both just see it as just more of the peril and chaos that’s a daily part of their lives. Dewey and Della being thrillseekers and loving a good challenge simply see this as taking on an epic challenge: fighting the worst villians of the world off and having a daring story to tell. Webby similarly isn’t that effected at first because she sees it the same way likely and only starts to get bothered by it when it starts tearing her family, the thing most precious to her, apart over it. 

But for the other three it makes sense. Obviously we’ll come back to Scrooge during his part of the episode. But for Huey as we’ve seen this upends his world. There was a massive deadly secret just beneath him, an unknown beyond all unknowns, and it rattled him.. and having his own sister constantly terrorize him just made it worse. For Huey without consitencey his life falls apart as those prevoius episodes highlhted.l He can prepare for anything.. but he has to know it’s coming and having a villian group who strikes from the shadows is his worst fears manifest and preparing for that naturally breaks the poor boy. He gets through it though, as once it’s on someone else, his fear falls away and as we saw his focus is entirely on helping webby: Not on himself, not on the risk but on protecting his sister. It shows that Huey has the potenital for instinct, as seen with the woodchuck and wrestling episodes too, he just needs to get out of his own head and let it work with his gut instead of trying desperately to use only his head. 

For Beakly though it’s far worse... and really gets to the core of who she is in this series. She was, and probably still is, a Secret Agent, who fought long and hard to utterly destroy FOWL, at the cost of everything else, constnatly having to keep her guard up with spies all around her and with Scrooge apparently being the only friend from those days who lasted the whole time. SHe probably lost countless partners in both sense of the word, time and youth she’ll never get back and everything she had to stop them. She gave S.H.U.S.H. everything as far as I can tell.  And then she got her reward. FOWL was gone, she had a child, and possibly had a loving partner, provided they didn’t either leave her pregannt and alone or just grow apart from her eventually we don’t know at this point and i’m just spitballing. Point is she had a child, she had a happy ending.. except clearly.. she did not. According to the website, and it’s probably still accurate, Beakly was living in seclusion following her retirement, likely to keep anyone from harming her child.. but also because with her partner possibly gone, she had almost NOTHING left. A child that either kept her at arms length or she kept at arms length to keep their family safe, an old friend who was busy as is, and a safe world.. that’s all she had. Just her and alone. And that’s been clearly shown as Beakly’s biggest issue as we see: She has trouble letting others, even webby at times given how she lied at her, in and given all she’s lost it’s hard not to see why. After a life time of probably watching cold blooded killers kill people she loved and having people betray her and loosing the father of her child possibly, again it’s vauge, no wonder she is the way she is.  And then it somehow gets worse and better: She looses her child, one of the three people she has left in the world.. yet she finds herself in charge of Webby. And with that.. she has a purpose again, to protect this child. This baby girl who needed her more than anything. So she did.. a little too well as discussed. To quote the excellent song “Dark, Sad, Lonely, Knight” from the musical “Holy Musical B@tman!” which yes really exists: 

“I remember that horrible night that night you were split in two, and I swore I’d protect you. So I built a wall all around you, but the wall was too tall, it blocked out all the birds and the sun. I tried to raise you right! I tried to raise you proper! I tried to be a mentor and a friend and a mother and a brother too! I’d insulate you from any outside source of fright... i’d make bloody certain, you’d never see another, dark, sad, lonely night. “ 

And yes as you can imagine that was sung by Alfred.. but it fits perfectly. That’s how Beakly raised Webby, guarding her from the world, trying to protect her from the world the way she’d always guarded herself from it. She did hurt webby’s development.. but you can see WHY. She lost everything, she had two people left in her life at that point: One had given her home and the other had given her her soul back. She couldn’t loose Webby so she made sure she couldn’t and held her as tight as she could. It’s why she pushed Scrooge to let his young nephews into his life. She saw over her time with him he was doing what she did, pushing everyone out. She wanted him to avoid being alone like she was before Webby. And it worked.. and showed her Webby clearly wanted to see the world and that Bentina didn’t have to be afraid to show it to her anymore, and could let Scrooge share in doing so. She let her be free and opened up for the first time in likely a decade since she got a two year old dropped on her lap.  And soon wither she’d admit it or not she found herself part of the family. She found herself the voice of reason, sometimes sharing it with Donald, and the one to put both Scrooge and the rest of the family in their place when they nearly tore apart again, helping Donald realize that for all scrooge hurt him.. Scrooge hurt from loosing della too, and helping the boys realize Scrooge, much like herself, tends to lash out at people. She prevented them from getting distance from their family, knowing from experince you may never get them back or mend that wound. She was part of the family and for the first time in her life even if again, given her emotoinal distance she wasn’t really close to any of the duck family but Scrooge and her newly inducted Grandaughter, she still clearly cares and looks after them and even her harsh treatment of Della was well meaning and understandable.  And that’s why the F.O.W.L. revelation tears her apart to her very core, her very SOUL: Because not only is the enemy she thought dead, or may of known wasn’t dead we don’t know but this episode leans towards the former alive, not only is her worst enemy, one who nearly killed her grandaughter part of them once again, but their head was one of Scrooge’s most trusted advisors and associates, the man he trusted more than himself at times to do what the company needed and the only one who knew his deepest secrets besides Beakly herself. They now faced not only her worst nightmare reborn, but with vital info about them and everyone around them. And for all we Know F.O.W.L. took her family from her in the first place and now they easily could again and she NEVER saw it coming. It’s why she drives everyone including Webby so hard, because she can’t take loosing everyone she cares about again so they will be ready, they will be prepared even if it destroys them on the inside because she cannot take it again.. she can’t fail them AGAIN. I feel she puts a lot of the blame on herself because in this family it’s her job to be the suspicious one, to see things coming, to be ready, to be the one who knows EVERYTHING even more than scrooge.. and this apparently rattled her as much as he did and suprised her just as much. She failed and she can’t again even if Webby hates her for it.  But in trying to continue the fight.. she slips, Webby dodges and she falls off the roof.. and everyone helps her up. Even if they all have EVERY REASON to be mad at her they help. And Webby points out this can’t go on. They won’t get stronger tearing themselves apart.. their a family. They don’t need to do it like fowl, they need to be themselves and work TOGETHER. The one thing they have, the one thing they can trust is each other. Beakly is touched like this and realizes their right.. their not the enemy.. and there the one people,, for once in her life she can fully and completely trust. She tries apologizing to webby, they hug..and then gets an alert. What’s all that about? Well to get that that we kinda have to finish the other story.. which I would’ve put first had I realized this was going to be as long as it was but hey. 

Escape from the Impossibin 

Thankfully this won’t be as long or as emotionally complex.. entirely. So back at this plot about 20 minutes ago, Scrooge breaks down the challenge and the risk as it was made by the most devious and deranged minds he knows: Gyro and Quackfaster with Louie getting a good laugh out of me by pointing out “Why are the most devious minds in Duckberg friends of ours” to which I say because only Scrooge let’s them go all out, and on the friend part, at least for you, Louie...

I mean maybe Quackfaster, but you stole from Gyro multiple times now. And he hated Fenton for far dumber and more petty reasons why wouldn’t you assume he hates you too.. I mean he did help with Louie’s Eleven but there was also a good chance your head would explode there so I don’t really count it. 

Anyways Scrooge offers lunch if they make it, which Louie notes means he must REALLY not think they will. And the first test proves his overconfdience correct as we enter the most dangerous, devious and deadly trap Gyro could manage.. which given who we’re dealing with, i’d be very afraid. The ultra violent ultra violet trap seems at first to just be a bunch of purple, if really cool buzzsaws and sawblades, your standard super villian death course.. but Gyro being beyond your average super villian, I mean the only reason he’s not is he has a steady job that lets him build a clone army with company resources so why would he give that up, jazzed it up with an ultraviolet bit of bulbtech.. and due to the violet light it hides the traps ,meaning their invisible. And while Louie and Della try navigating them, they cannot get through as Louie runs out of PEP to spray them with and Della using her metal leg as a guide, which itself is awesome for her as she clearly and wisely made the thing nigh indestructible and we haven’t seen it tear or get destroyed once all series so good going, really should market that to other people in need of prostetics della and Scrooge. Scrooge is of course delighted as that’s the entire point even if his child and grandchild are understandably not as happy about it.  But naturally, as I hinted at in the teaser, it goes wrong as Scrooge’s password dosen’t work and he tries it too many times, been there, sucks. Granted Louie asks hilariously “Your the oldest man in the world why isn’t your password just 1234″.. and though the why is obvious, it’s still a good line. Point is their locked out and now have to escape it for real! Weirdly Scrooge dosen’t catch onto the fact of whose behind it, but we’ll get to that. He does have more pressing matters. Luckily Louie figures it out after an insult at the Bulbtech causes it to flash read, like most Bulbs do.. but since this Bulb’s entire purpose is to flash Purple, that means pissing it off makes the blades visable and while Scrooge is understandably sore that his 3 million dollar security system has such a big flaw in it, they escape. Though I get Scrooge’s frustration: Their going up against someone who knows how Gyro’s tech’s works, if Louie can figure it out so can Bradford and he wouldnt send FOWL in without a full briefing on Scrooge. 

We don’t see the next one as it’s a time loop room, it’s a time loop room, it’s a time loop room okay i’ll stop and so does Dell after Louie well meaningly smacks his mom. Next puzzle’s quackfaster and I like scrooge pulling a Dumbledore and having some of his most trusted advisors devise the traps for him. I may hate JK Rowling for good reason but I did always love that bit of the Sorcerer’s (Or phillosphers in the uk because the publisher’s weren’t as stupid) Stone. Death of the author and all that. Point is I like it here too even if i’ts truncated for time. But Emily’s trap is a bunch of tiles that fuck with gravity because apparently she’s magical now... who knew. I’m not questioning it though: She runs a giant library full of dangerous, and probably magical in some cases, literature.. if she didn’t know spells she probably woudn’t be able to sort some of them. It’s a new fact out of nowhere but it makes perfect sense. 

Point is they have to figure it out though Louie once again succeeds with some books and, in a really cool bit, using scrooge as a platform with the two walking in time and della grabbing on as they hit the master rune to shut them all off. It’s a damn cool sequence even if Scrooge is agrviated.  We then come, after they apparently fought a Squid Monster off screen, because Quackfaster can also apparently summon demons.. or gyro made a tentacle monster which dosen’t suprise me at all. Either way it’s the final challenge in the main room leading ot the bin and in the way of deactivating security: A Scrooge Robot! Because as we all know by video game logic, the Robot Version is always stronger. Of course Louie’s annoyed both at the spending of his inhertince and at Scrooge’s egotisim but he has a good point there and the thing looks hilarious clunky with 8-bit eyes.. till it morphs, to scrooge’s delight, into a giant purple robot with a cane and scrooge’s face on the front j jonah jameson style. I never see that spider-slayer refrenced but i’mg lad this one did. Granted it could be to arim zola or something but I feel the Spider-Slayer refrence fits here.. take a look if your curious. 

See? Anyways a fight insues with Scrooge, in a great bit, riling up Della when she fishes for him to admit she would’ve’ been a better base by bringing up Donald first instead. The trio get their asses kicked, and a pep can drops out, as naturally Louie was lying but it’s a rare flavor so I get it. I do. Thankfully his lies do save them however as the Cherry PEP he fires at the machine stuns it while Scrooge USES THE POGO CANE MOVE ON IT. Hell.. fucking yes. It’s about time we saw that again and in fully glory here too. I really want that game on the switch by the way.. where’s my disney afternoon collection.. WHERE CAPCOM WHERE.  But yeah they won.. and Scrooge is upset. Because this was SUPPOSED to keep FOWL out but if his family can beat it so can they. And now we get to Scrooge’s far less horrifying dark night of the soul as we get a sense of just how much this whole ordeal has rattled him: As he mentioned at the top of hte episode he TRUSTED  Bradford. It was clear he never liked him as a person, but Scrooge is a paranoid guy, he hardly trusts anyone and for someone to earn that it had to take a lot.. and it naturally stings. We see that while he may of been a necessary evil, SCrooge still liked the guy on some level and to have someone he trusts and respects betray him naturally shook Scrooge. He trusted someone.. and they knifed him in the back going against all he stands for. Instead of earning money, Bradford stole what Scrooge and others worked for while working to destroy him as soon as he feasably could and take his legacy for himself. To Scrooge, Bradford was revealed to be the worst kind of parasite and one that leeched off him for probably decades.  But what’s worse is the risk that creates: Bradford was one of his top guys and the only other one running the company: He knows EVERYTHING about Scrooge, every secret, every investment, where every treasure is stored, and everywhere he’s been. He knows about his friends, family, some of his darkest and most guarded for a reason secrets, secrets he’d never give away freely.. and can now use ALL of it to destroy his family and everyone they care about. That sheer level of betryal would rock anyone but someone like Scrooge, who BARELY trusts anyone and can even be paranoid of his own family from time to time? LIke beakly it’s easy to see why he spiraled and why he put so much into this: Because like Beakly, he was blindsided, and his buisness, his crown jewel, the thing he put his heart and soul into and worked hard to build up and CONTINUES to work hard on to this day.. was being slowly corrupted and he has no idea what parts or where or just what all Bradford did with his money and resources and what nasty suprises he has hidden in them. The one thing he could trust as almost entirely his is tainted, his sense of security tainted.. and his sense of self tainted. If Scrooge freaking mcduck can get blindsighted like this, just how powerful is his former friend? 

And we soon see Scrooge’s own fears manifest as Bradford hyjacks the robot, revealing this was, naturally him.. as of COURSE it was the guy who was revealed to be an evil mastermind who hates your guts. And because Scrooge didn’t change his password, which cleverly is the sum total of his money hence why it was a mass of numbers, which.. really dude? I don’t like doing it either and don’t change mine up if I can help it but even I did when someone tried hyjacking my spotify account. Yes that happened, I thought it was just a wifi thing, it was not. So yeah turns out Bradford was STILL one step ahead, and thus knew about the defenses and thus trapped Scrooge in them for reasons that will dramatically be revealed at the end of the episode. He also naturally attacks because just like JJ, he’s a crotchety old man whose yelling at our loveable rascals to in a sense, get off his lawn. Granted unlike JJ he’s clearly never came around, but the parallels are there. Point is it’s time for another fight this time using the gravity runes, with Scrooge hitting his despiar event horizon as if FOWL can outhink him on this what hope does he have. But like the rest of his family sans launchpad did for Beakly, Louie helps him through the other side and points out there are things they have they don’t.. and demonstrates as naturally the bulb tech used for the robot is just as irate so Louie tricks it into going after him then does a bin dive, with the massive amount of money destroying the thing and Bradford unable to get Gandra to stop it, so our heroes win... oh and Bradford left the company.. for some reason, because as his investors Scrooge can’t really remove him and I was curious how they’d get him out.. then again Scrooge probably, even as cheap as he is, had security cameras showing Bradford’s little talk with Bulba or any of his various rants as evidence. I mean Scrooge is stingy but he’s not STUPIDLY stingy. it’s the best I got, point is he’s to the wind now and our heroes have one! Except yeah.. the ending of the last segment. 

Lost the Battle, Time to Win the War

In an utterly amazing swerve we find out just what kind of alert Beakly got as the rest of this episodes cast have arrived at the bin and Beakly asks why Scrooge hasn’t answered his phone.. and when Scrooge does Bradford’s plan comes into view: Turns out he locked scrooge in as a DISTRACTION, keeping him in the one place no one could reach him. It also explains why he attacked Scrooge: Besides having the perfect weapon for it and getting to gloat, someone needed to keep him busy while the rest of his operatives finished his master stroke.  Turns out EVERYONE involved with one of the missing mysteries called: Goldie called to gripe about the fountain being gone and Scrooge taking it before she could, the Mervanans called to tell him the harp was swindelded by some eggheads and their good vibes did nothing to save her, we also get to see the pink one in full view which is nice but unimportant, and we get Drake back for a cameo! 

But sadly it’s because he just met Steelbeak for the first time.. again, and Beaky clearly beat the every loving shit out of him as he’s heavily bruised, and took the papers on Solgelo’s Circuit with him

And Gene called to tell them he was being kidnapped as the Blot, now with a fully functioning gauntlet got to him. So to sum it up F.O.W.L. in one night, took all the missing mysteries they’d gathered or found, beat one of their most trusted allies and made their new security system worthless. 

It was an utterly masterful story move: Firmly tying both plots together and confirming FOWL has SOMETHING bigger they want out of them. Some bigger plan, and as the last two weeks proved already knew where they were. Now it’s open war F.O.W.L.’s taken the first shot and hit hard. 

But Scrooge, now with his confidence restored thanks to Louie, instead of backing down, is galvanized: They’ve lost the mysteries they have but if F.O.W.L. wants the rest, their going to have to beat the greatest family of adventurers the world, and probably the multiverse if we’re being honest and yes that includes other versions of this family, has ever known to them first. Sneaking in the shadows, attacking them from behind, striking them while they were at their most vunerable? FOWL was in their element and won this round because of it. But now adventuring, traveling the world, finding rare artifacts lost to time? Now their in the ducks wheelhouse. As Beakly, finally accepting her place in the family and that she’s not alone, proudly states their not ready for them. And so we close on one badass group shot as Dewey tries to lift the sword again only for his siblings to help, minus Louie naturally who still looks on determined. Our heroes have been through their dark night of the soul, they’ve lost a lot and the villians are miles ahead.. but they’ve also come out of it together, determined, their doubts behind them for now, and FOWL firmly in their sights. They won the battle.. but the war’s far from over. Game on. 

Final Thoughts. 

God this was a good one, as you could probably tell from the way I went on and on about it but this was one of the series best.. and while I say that a lot, mostly because Season 3 has consistently been about them topping themselves again and again, this time it’s etched in stone. I thought this would be a good one but forgetable.. instead it’s easily one of the best dives into the cast, and one of the best bottle episodes i’ve seen, limiting the cast to just our heroes, a handful of cameos and our big bad and letting our heroes be their own worst enemies for most of it. IT’s a great character piece, with plenty of great fluid action set pieces, absolutely heartbreaking character stuff, and a hell of an ending that sets the tone for the final half of the season and possibly the series.  It also shut my mouth about the pacing, because as I hoped, much like season 2 it was slow on purpose: The first half, while also providing vital setup here and there, was also about telling stories they really COULDN’T once the FOWL plot kicked into gear for act 2. Getting trapped in a sitcom, a casual breakin of a gala where Donald meets the love of his life, a trip to tokyolk.. none of this would’ve really worked with Fowl at their heels. By taking their time they simply had more time to set the stage so when things kicked up with this act, things could stay intense.. minus the christmas episode but that takes place before these episodes so I don’t really count it. Point is the tone is firmly set, the stakes are high and things are at a level they’ve never been. This is one of the show’s finest and I expect i’ts only going to go higher and higher from here.  Also one last note Bradford, bud.. why did you out Gandra as an agent? You had to have known about the whole Fenton thing, you seem to know everything and a break in to Gyro’s lab would’ve been something Scrooge had to tell you about or you could learn about yourself. They didn’t know she was still evil or working for you or that she was even on their radar. Also related while Steelbeak and Blot’s missions were obvious it was easy to figure out who went where besides them: Heron went under the sea both because she was the odd one out and because Bradford was presumably still mad about the helicopter thing, while Rockerduck obviously took the fountain since he’d been there and knew where it was now it was properly restored.  Next Week: Kidcentric episode and the sabrewing sisters are back! Also while I don’t hate it, Lena’s blueform is simply a super mode.. phew. I mean I don’t dislike it but i’ts not a walk around in public thing. Point is kids teaming up for shenanigans, a mystic sword in the middle of x of swords AND the return of my two faviorite fowl agents. I’m pumped. 

Until then if you like this review there’s more reviews on the pages on my blog including a just finished this weekend review of the original Ducktales 4-parter, Catch as Cash Can. It was a trip. You can find that collected  into a handy series of links HEREEEEEEEEEE. Or if you prefer this series, as I do, you can find last week’s review of Let’s Get Dangerous HERE. If you like this review and want to here my thoughts on say an episode from the first two seasons (which I mostly haven’t covered yet), or another disney show, you can pm me on this very blog to comission an episode, just like one of my fans commissioned me to review catch as cash can. Or you can follow me on my patreon HERE.  Until next week stay safe, vote if your old enough and check your house for Gary Busey! 

[alyseofwonderland]

How to Make The Goldfinch a Good (read- Gay ) Movie

So @rollono had me watch The Goldfinch with her and then linked me to @wellntruly‘s post about the book it's based on. Then I read the wiki on the book. 

Here’s how to reshoot the movie so it actually works as a movie. (I see now that @wellntruly has done her own but I am not going to read it until I am done with this because these are my thoughts.)

(typed semi stream of consciousness style because the thoughts came at me so hard)

okay, so on my drive to work I spent a bunch of time thinking about how I would edit/change the movie so its a more coherent story with a tighter flow I think I have the answer but it will make fans of Andy sad. You have to cut the Boroughs from the story almost completely. at the front and the back of the plot. zero in on the Hobie/Pippa stuff and the Boris stuff. from the fanfic I have been reading it seems like Theo is like sorta obsessed with the concepts of "before" and "after" and I'm just like we should have one person for each thing. Pippa as a Before and Boris as After.

Open the movie with Pippa and Theo looking at each other across the painting. their guardians in the shot but they are the focal points. cut to credits was the explosion happens

Come back from the title credits to Theo and Welty. scene of Theo getting placed in the Boroughs home but don't linger on that. focus more on him at Hobie's and finding Pippa and maybe showing them bonding a bit more. give him a panic attack there or something.

have his father arriving be a phone call that like pulls him away from Hobie and Pippa.(yeah sad about Any but it gives us time for other stuff)

Spend more time with Theo and Boris just vibing in different ways. the movie did a decent job but it had so much else going on that we should have had some more time there. maybe even ignore the stuff about his dad trying to steal from him and just have the dad like abuse him or some shit and then go off and die.

phase two of why cutting out the Boroughs makes sense: CRIME

we don't see Theo passing off fake antiques as real just one guy threatening him. we should have scenes of Hobie struggling after Theo returns (maybe before he starts working there) and so we see Theo's motivation as doing crime to save Hobie. Only we make it apparent that like after one or two fake antiques he has gotten them out of the red and should technically stop now. only he can't because he likes the high of it. 

this crime element means that we then can see shady people lingering around the shop. He is slipping into a darker world. the return of Boris, while Theo is looking to get high, makes more sense tonally. With no Kitsey nonsense, the tension can be amped up with Theo and Boris. the angst, the heartbreak, the crime.

and it can be juxtaposed with Pippa and Hobie where he is trying to keep up the fake face of "before Theo". instead of having Boris interrupt and engagement party. he comes while Theo is out to dinner with Hobie and Pippa. (It can be her engagement party if we like the DRAMA  of it all which honestly we do.) So he has to choose. Make him a more active and semi like excited part of the heist. he's a criminal. The boy from ‘before’ is dead and we see it visually with his actions. 

maybe even like do some imagery with Boris and Pippa that both lean towards bird stuff. being like "oh so one of them is the goldfinch". Make the allusions from the book a visual thing because movies are a visual media. Pippa wearing feathery earrings. Boris flapping his arms like a bird. End the film still with Boris saving Theo from suicide attempt but like have it more emotional. Boris admitting to all the previous times he saved him. (give me like cry shouting and angry hugs) 

The final shots are Theo going to see the Goldfinch now on display at a museum. not even like inside just standing outside. if you want to make it really gay have Boris appear in the final shot, stepping into frame and taking Theo's hand. get someone with a big fan to make their coats flow out behind them as they walk up the stairs. They take flight visually, as the goldfinch never could. 

Other details. Lean heavier into the “I’m a hero from a novel that doesn't belong in this time.” Have Pippa’s boy maybe make a comment about Theo and Hobie being ‘of another time’ or visiting being ‘like time traveling’. The hilarity of an English man dragging these two NYC for being obsessed with history is golden. Do more with costuming to show some of the points that we should understand. As Theo goes from ‘before’ to ‘after’ his wardrobe should visibly change. Maybe even give him a different pair of glasses near the end, his view of the world is different now. 

 I get that dense books like this one (still haven't read it. might listen to the audiobook) are hard to adapt. But I think back to my MVP adaptation, Lord of The Rings. They slashed out major parts of the book and characters. The number of elves is drastically reduced. They removed an entire section about Tom Bomderdil that hardcore fans love.  Three different fights are cut out of the first movie and a new one of Arwin fighting the wraiths is added. This is done because books can meander, movies have to run. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk now go read @wellntruly‘s stuff because its so good I took my laptop into my pitch-black bathroom to keep reading when I needed to pee. and then my boyfriend looked at me like I was losing my mind. 

[elliepassmore]

A Court of Mist and Fury Review

5/5 stars Recommended for people who like: fantasy, Fae, vague retellings, Persephone & Hades, found families At the start of the book, we're back in the Spring Court, though some things have changed since Feyre brought Amarantha down. For starters, there's a lot more people around than there were in the first one. We get to see a bit what court life is like in Spring and the kinds of people who reside there. They turn out to be pretty similar to what we'd think of when we think of snobby human nobility, so, naturally, they grate on Feyre's nerves. Unlike ACoTaR, we also get to see two of the other courts: the Night Court and the Summer Court. The Night Court is...definitely not what it was set up to be in the first book. Not to give too many spoilers, but it has two faces. One side, Velaris and the moonstone palace, is luxurious and vibrant, but peaceful. The other side, Hewn City, is dark and cunning and cruel, the side that Amarantha modeled her domain after. I really enjoyed seeing the stark differences between the two sides of the court, especially since they provide us with two kinds of cities, both beautiful in their own ways, but so completely different from one another. We also get to see a part of the court that's somewhere between the two, which is the Illyrian camps. The camps are mostly tents with a few stone buildings, and they fit more with the cunning and darkness of the Hewn City, but not nearly as cruel. Seeing so much of the one court definitely helps get a better grasp on the feel and nature of the place, which I really liked. The other court we see is the Summer Court, and only for a couple of chapters. Similar to Velaris, we get to see a city in the Summer Court that's vibrant, with the people there enjoying their High Lord's presence and aid in recovery. Unlike Velaris, the city feels more light. It definitely has the feel of a city on the sea in a way that Velaris doesn't, despite it also being located on the water. They have obviously different feels and tones to them, and I liked the subtle details Maas added to make these cities different despite their similarities. We also get to learn a bit more about the traditions of Prythia in this one as well. Having seen Calanmai and Nynsar in the first one, we now get to see the solstice and the Tithe of the Spring Court, as well as Starfall in the Night Court. Each holiday has its own background and their introduction through Feyre feels natural. I think there's a tricky balance when it comes to authors introducing world building to their readers and characters. Adding the information too obviously makes it feel forced, but including too little information too subtly can make it confusing. I think we get a good balance here, with Feyre having the holidays/events explained to her as they're happening or having her give a little info and brushing off the rest as "I wasn't really paying attention," the latter of which can only really be accepted because of her state of mind at the moment the holiday is occurring, but it works.

The plot amps things up a lot. If we thought Amarantha was bad, Hybern turns out to be so much worse, and they’re cunning enough to get their claws in in places we wouldn’t expect. I love how the tension was built up over the pages and there were times of ‘wtf is going on’ sprinkled throughout. Since the main showdown wasn’t until the end of the book, most of it was spent strategizing and hoping against hope that things would go right for once.

In terms of Feyre's state of mind, Maas once again does a brilliant job of showing the different ways people deal with trauma and depression. Feyre, for one, definitely has symptoms of PTSD--nightmares, triggers, feeling trapped, needing a distraction, inability to do things that once brought her joy, apathy--as well as, separately, symptoms of depression. She starts out having a pretty rough time and the switch to healing happens gradually and over months at a time, so despite her body's quick healing, Feyre isn't completely better until near the end of the book, and 'better' doesn't necessarily mean 100% okay. I especially enjoyed how Maas showed Feyre changing as she healed, because, let's face it, we're probably all aware (and it you're not, you're about to be) that trauma changes people and that, equally, healing from said trauma can also change a person. Both of these things hold true for Feyre, so she isn't the same person at the beginning of the book as she was at the end of the last one, and she's not the same person at the end of this book as she is at the beginning of it. In terms of healing, we also get to see Feyre separating from the mentality of abuse that Tamlin had her in. For physical growth, Feyre discovers she holds powers from each of the High Lords who gave her life, and it's super fun to read the scenes where she's training/experimenting with them (like most people who've read the book, I'm especially partial to the water-wolves scene). Tamlin is another character who has to deal with his trauma in this one...though maybe we should accept now that just about every character in this book has trauma they're healing/have healed from. Anyway, Tamlin desperately tried to protect Feyre in the first book, and we saw how jealous and possessive he could get, but what happened with Amarantha just pushed him overboard. He's now 1ox worse than in the first book, and basically smothers Feyre trying to keep her safe, continually triggering her PTSD and leading to the events leading into Part 2 of the book. What I like about this is that there were signs in ACoTaR that Tamlin could very easily turn into an abusive person and a lot of people ignored them or fell into the trap of believing them to be romantic--I'm not saying everyone did, but a lot of people definitely did, myself included--so his attitude and behavior doesn't come from nowhere. It's a good example of how trauma causes different people to react differently, though it's not an excuse, especially when Tamli does some pretty terrible things in this book and tries to play it off as "it was rough" or "I love you" or whatever else he says. We get to see more of Rhysand in this book, as well as more of his court. As previously mentioned, he's one of the many characters dealing with his own traumas from Under the Mountain, and we get an explanation for his actions in ACoTaR, proving he wasn't just being a massive dick to be a massive dick, but to protect people and to help Feyre bring Amarantha down without Amarantha knowing. Knowing he was against Amarantha the entire time adds a rape/sexual assault element to his servicing her Under the Mountain, which is addressed by both him and Feyre during the book. It's clear he has trauma from that, it's expressed multiple times throughout the book, and Maas handles the situation well. It isn't romanticized or trivialized, and his reservations and trauma from it are considered valid and aren't brushed aside or made fun of. Rhys ends up being a very complex character, with different sides to him, much like how his court has many different sides. He has the cunning, cruel side he shows to Hewn City; the relaxed, kind side he shows to Velaris; the warrior he shows to the Illyrians; and the caring and friendly side he gives to his Inner Court alone. Inside Rhys' Inner Court are Mor, Cassian, Azriel, and Amren. Mor is his cousin in that loose sense that Maas has when it comes to cousins being related, and grew up in Hewn City. She's funny, acts irreverent, and fun-loving. She's willing to give people the space they need, but she's also willing to go to the mat for her family or push them when they need it. Like Feyre and Rhysand, she's survived darkness and trauma and came out the other side, though her healing was done centuries ago. Cassian and Azriel are both Illyrian warriors Rhysand befriended when they were kids. Cassian is fiery and pushes, but is unceasingly caring and would do anything for his family. He's the jokster of the group, definitely. Azriel is the more quiet of the two, the spymaster, and has a quieter method of caring for his family. Amren is a creature from another world who took the form of a High Fae. She's a bit scary, definitely otherworldly, and is surprisingly understanding about what others need in order to get things done. I wouldn't say she's caring, but she definitely cares for her family and people. We don't really see a lot of Lucien, but when he is around he mostly acts like Tamlin's lackey and not Feyre's friend. Nesta and Elain are in this book a bit more than the last one, and play a pretty crucial role in the middle and the end of the book. I liked the both of them by the time the last book ended, but Nesta's reactions toward Feyre and the rest of the Night Court made me dislike her a little, though her sparring with Cassian was hilarious and I treasure their interactions. Likewise, both Elaine and Nesta showed fire when it came to protecting each other and their people from the looming threat of Hybern. Tarquin, the High Lord of the Summer Court, makes a reappearance in this one too, along with some of his still-living family members. He seems like a decent enough guy, new to the whole ruling thing, but as he himself says, he hasn't quite learned the cunning tricks and backstabbery that High Lords and their courts often employ. This one's my favorite book in the series because we get to see more of the world of Prythia and we get to meet a lot of new, pretty awesome characters. I love the Inner Circle, they all fit together so well and have different methods and ways of doing things, but it works. I also really like the Feyre and Rhys we see in this book, so different from the ones we saw in the last book, but better for it. And Tamlin....when I first heard that he and Feyre were having issues(*SPOILER* and wouldn't end up together*END SPOILER*) I was disappointed, but after I read the book for the first time, I liked how it worked out much better. It’s a vague Persephone and Hades retelling, which may or may not have something to do with why I like it so much. The P&H myth has so many different renditions from ancient times to now and it hasn’t really been all that explored by YA fiction, so I love whenever there’s a nod to it somewhere, and if you know the more popular versions of the myth, there are more than sprinkles of it in the frame of the book. Honestly though, I think this is the best book in the series. ACoTaR was good, ACoWaR was pretty good too but with an...odd ending, and ACoFaS was an awesome bit of fluff, but this one is the richest in characters, world building, and plot.

[sweet-star-cookie]

Signs You May Be Watching a Hallmark Movie + Christmas Edition

Hey all, your friendly neighbourhood aroace here who is Tired of This Shit™ and needs to rant. I have been exposed to far too many of these movies for my own good and I am doing this to maintain my sanity, especially given the rampant Christmas season. For those who may not know, a Hallmark Movie or W (Women’s) Network movie is a general term for the generic schlock they call romance movies played on these eponymous channels, targeted towards middle-aged straight women and they are always terrible from a story / character / everything standpoint. These are genuinely some of the most predictable, generic, cookie-cutter pieces of media that I’ve ever seen and I’ve been itching to rip them apart for years so NOW’S THE TIME. If you genuinely enjoy these movies, ironically or not, I promise I’m not trying to take that away from you with this post, but please understand: you deserve better movies than this, even for passive entertainment. They genuinely make me uncomfortable and this post is to tell you why.

I’ve done my best to make this an exhaustive list, but feel free to add more yourself (lord knows I’m not researching it). ALRIGHT HERE WE GO

The Stale White Bread Main Leads - almost exclusively a white female protagonist who cannot be distinguished from any other generic white woman, usually with medium length blonde or brown hair, an hourglass figure and perfect teeth (only has glasses if she’s supposed to look Smart™, but she can take them off at will) She is a:

- Business Woman™ of two flavours: a struggling small business owner (usually a bakery, especially in the Christmas movies) or a high tier executive in a stuffy city job

OR

- hokey small town woman who is randomly prettier than every other person in this town because the rest of them are 50+ or are decidedly “less attractive” than her so it is clear to the audience that they are not supposed to be after the affections of the equally attractive love interest

OR

- journalist / writer who is lacking in Inspiration™ and just needs someone in her life who can give it to her again ~siiiighhhhhh~ OR - an extremely efficient wedding planner who can make everything work for everyone else but *~Can’t Seem To Find Her Own Prince Charming~* ———

- the love interest is a generic white man who cannot be distinguished from any other generic white man, usually with swept back hair, a chiseled jaw and a punchable face (seriously look it up) He is a:

- well-meaning mild-mannered guy who Just Happens To Bump Into the Protagonist at her business or festival because he’s new in town, sometimes in the form of being the Misunderstood Starving Artist Type™ (and if so he is a painter with a fine arts gallery, no exceptions) OR

- Business Man™ stuck in his dead-end office job, but only if the protagonist is not (though sometimes you get the rare Double Business plot and that is a ride of 75% business meetings during the film’s run time) OR - single dad whose previous wife left him / died, making him a lowkey Sad Boy and he has at least one child from the marriage (see the kids section for more on that plot device) OR - the friend of the groom in the wedding movies who always gets with the wedding planner protag at the end The Sidekick - usually a co-worker or a friend of the protag that somehow appears more often than the others - The only POC characters to appear in these movies (if any appear at all) are exclusively the protag’s supportive friend OR - the quirky (and usually old) townsperson who periodically appears to bring the protag and love interest together in a plot thread thinner than my patience - two flavours of sidekick: laid back and chill compared to the nervous protag but gets to say “I told you so” when the leads end up together, OR the impulsive one who pushes the protag to “chase her dreams” with the love interest - “Come on, live a little!” / “You only live once!” - the first time the protag interacts with the love interest, the sidekick swoops in like a fucking peregrine falcon to call them out on it - “OOOOooooooooh who was that guy????? Do you like him????? Ask him out!!!!!!” - sometimes the love interest has a male sidekick and when he does, either he or the love interest are Chads

- sometimes the male sidekick is an inexplicably old co-worker that tells the leads to “fall in love while they still can” (because he didn’t and regrets it) The Parents - one or both are dead for either the protag or the love interest to give the Tragic Backstory™ - this is usually used as a Bonding Moment at around Act 2 of the movie after the protags know each other well enough, but sometimes comes up on the first date for that first bout of ~Awkward Tension~ OR - both parents are alive and old and are exclusively used to tell the protag that they will find The One™

- the protag has a Look about them after they first meet the love interest, and the parents call them out on it immediately (similar to the sidekick) - the father will tell the protag that she is being too stubborn for not pursuing the love interest, and the wife will chime in to say “just like you were” - sometimes the parents are replaced with grandparents, though usually just one and it’s a grandfather for the female protag or grandmother for the male love interest Kids or Cats - either of these are used as plot devices to periodically bring the two leads together in the background without anyone noticing (seriously none of the characters notice that they are there for this purpose until at least halfway through the movie or later) - if there is a cat, that cat must be held in a person’s arms for at least 50% of the shots with the two leads because GET IT THEY BOTH LIKE CATS THEY’RE DESTINED TO BE TOGETHER YOU GUYS THE CAT IS THERE IT’S GOTTA BE TRUE - that cat will conveniently get lost at least once, leading to one of the leads finding it and bringing it back to the other, or they search for it together - if both of the leads like cats, the previous girlfriend of the love interest (or boyfriend of the protag) conveniently doesn’t like cats (that’s how you know the love interest is legit -wink wink-) - these cats (or dogs even) will inevitably cause mischief that inconveniences both of the leads, but then they make eye contact, laugh about it, and go “Oh, [pet’s name]” - kids exist to do two things in these movies: 1. “innocently” ask if the protag is gonna get together with the love interest after seeing him once, and often will do things throughout the film to make them see each other more 2. show to the protag whether or not the love interest is “a good guy” by being good with kids* * being good with kids is a prerequisite, because all relationships in these movies HAVE to be the lead up marriage + kids guaranteed The Music - flutes are used for added *~Whimsy~* when the two leads are spending time together - All music to denote awkward situations contains exclusively clarinets and harps (you know the ones) - said music flares up when one or both of the leads says their love out loud when they “weren’t supposed to” - sparkle sound effect when the leads touch hands or give each other The Look™ - bonus points if they do the thing where one of them drops something and they both go to pick it up, only to touch hands “by accident”

Other General Shit

- these movies are peak Straight Energy™

- every character and setting in these movies are impossibly saccharine, to the point where they don’t speak or act like real people (almost like a HALLMARK GREETING CARD HAHAH GET IT)  - central visual themes exist for incredibly flimsy symbolism, anything from butterflies to rainbows (YES RAINBOWS) - bonus points if the child in the movie is interested in this central theme and it somehow connects to the two leads (example: the daughter of the love interest has butterflies on her walls, and the protag just HAPPENS to be baking butterfly shaped cookies in the next scene) - extra Sad Boy points if a dead character in the movie used to love the central theme before they died (it’s usually a mom or grandma for extra Contrived Sincerity™) - every title of these movies contains “Love” or “Heart” in the title, or involves the central theme in the name - if any of these take place during Valentine’s Day HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS because everything I mention here is amped up by 10 in those ones - if families with children is central at all in the plot, you are guaranteed at least one (1) pregnant woman / expecting father in the movie

- the love interest is introduced almost immediately after the protagonist, and you know who the couple will be by the end of this train wreck by about 5 minutes in

- the camera work focuses on the side eye looks that everyone else gives the two leads when they’re in love but Don’t Know It Yet - obligatory walk in a park / sitting on a bench scene, to establish nostalgia or longing or both - “Huh, that’s weird.” (said after a very obvious romantic advancement is shown, OR when the flimsy symbolism just happens to appear somewhere)

- scenes pause frequently when an awkward moment happens, supplemented by the clarinets farting in the soundtrack - any time the two leads are seen together, there is always ONE PERSON who mistakes them for a married couple (usually a concierge at a hotel or an oblivious friend), to which they awkwardly reply with the following:

- “I’m not looking for marriage right now!” / “we’re just friends!” * *fun fact if you want me to rage instantly, use this line anywhere and I will be out for blood - “I’m fine with being single!” followed by a “suuuuure you are” look from the sidekick or parents* *you know what add this one to the “out for blood” list too

- if there is a restaurant scene the entire staff will retroactively try to make the scene more romantic well before the leads have any feelings for each other - the waiter of the restaurant will side eye both of them like “okay lovebirds” - “he’s just a friend, a boy…. friend, a friend who is a boy. Friend boy.” - “Did I just say that out loud?” - the “act natural” scene where the love interest is coming over and the protag spends too much time messing with her clothes, hair and posture before he arrives - The Misunderstanding™ that usually takes place before or during a party and drives a wedge between the leads for a maximum of 5 minutes - the obligatory “I’m sorry” scene after the misunderstanding, consisting of the love interest standing in front of the protag’s house while she stands on her porch with her arms folded. As he explains himself, he slowly walks closer until they meet and he proposes / professes his love to her, then they kiss as the camera zooms out and fades to credits - if they kiss during a festival scene, you’ve got at least a 50% chance of fireworks going off in the background - Flowers. There are always flowers, given or received.

If the movie takes the Business angle: - the “too busy to live life happily” plot is a prerequisite - every business job is automatically an office job with board meetings, and it is always portrayed as a dull or negative experience - the protagonist is assigned to the hokey small town and travels reluctantly from the city

- her reluctance is punctuated by getting stuck behind a tractor or a bad encounter with the townsfolk that would Only Happen Here - she has a previous relationship with a guy in the city who is Very Clearly An Asshole but she takes the entire movie to realize this

- side eye glances from the locals, especially if the protag is in heels / a blazer / a short skirt

- “you’re not from around here, are you?” - the love interest is, at the start, the only friendly person to the protag

- said asshole boyfriend continues to call her about her business duties, until later in the movie when she decides to ignore him / dump him without so much as a warning - there is usually a conflict of interest between business advancement / capitalism and The Passion For The Job™

- “are you really going to give up all we’ve worked for?” (this is the final straw for the protag to dump the asshole) - literally it’s like “fuck you i’m out” -hangs up-

- obligatory scene where the protag ignores her family / relationship opportunities for a business phone call, paralleled by a scene at the end where she ignores the call instead - eventually she decides to stay in the small town and run a farm / bakery / antique shop with the love interest If the movie takes the Wedding angle: - the protag is ALWAYS too distracted by her wedding planning to think about romance for herself, something that the sidekick / parents will point out ad nauseum  - the love interest is ALWAYS the friend or the brother to the groom - there are very rarely bridezillas, usually the protag is insanely good at her job to placate this anyway - there IS, however, the stuck-up mother-in-law who must test the skills of the protag because Reasons - the groom sweats nervously 24/7 (can you blame him really?) - if the bride and groom have any disagreements whatsoever it is always at the cake tasting or the flower / decoration phase - the “everything goes wrong right before the wedding and then it all works out” plot is compulsory - the bride’s dress doesn’t fit, the groom loses the ring, the catering is late, the gang’s all here - the protag has to navigate all friction with the bride, while the love interest does the same with the groom, thus bringing the two leads closer by proxy - whatever relationship issues between the bride and groom resolved by the two leads automatically translates to their own relationship as well - solving this bickering can also lead to a “maybe I was wrong” scene between the two leads directly after if they are fighting at this point too - the bride’s mother or father will give something important to the bride / groom every time, and the protag has to find a way to implement it into the wedding - the protag will always have a “window shopping” scene with the sidekick, and that window will ALWAYS have a wedding dress or ring in it - the day is saved by the love interest coming to the rescue last minute, solidifying the protag’s love for him - during the ceremony, the protag and the love interest have that Knowing Look as the bride and groom are celebrating - if there is a child present at all they will always be the flower girl / ring bearer for the two leads at the end - if the child is a little girl, there is prince / princess imagery all over the damn place - bonus points if the sidekick also hooks up with the only other named character in the entire movie by the end - extra bonus points if the only way you know they hook up is if they give each other a look like “yeah I’d tap that”

BONUS: Signs You May Be Watching a Hallmark Movie - Christmas Edition

- ambiguously placed mistletoe (someone has to kiss that’s just the rules my guys)

- if you don’t hear jingle bells in the entire soundtrack then you’re doing it wrong - either the protag or the love interest are Not in the Christmas Spirit and the other makes them get back into it by the end - “but what about your faaaaaamily” (used when the lead(s) are disillusioned about the holidays, can also lead to Tragic Backstory™) - the “too busy to live life happily” plot is still a prerequisite, but just about the holiday season

- town festivals and Christmas parties - turtleneck sweaters and scarves everywhere, not for the cold weather but for the protag to lift over her face when she’s embarrassed about liking the love interest, and then the sidekick notices and goes “OOOOOOHHHHHH” OR - the protag conveniently leaves the scarf or some other object behind thereby forcing the love interest to return it to her in person - there is always an old man character who either plays Santa at the mall or is an allegory for Santa in relation to the protags

- the leads will go skating, one will be reluctant and one will always fall on their ass immediately - bonus points if they fall on each other, and have a moment of staring into each other’s eyes before they’re like “oh shit” and frantically apologize as they get up - “let me show you how” *~holds hands as the music chimes~*

- if kids are around, the love interest will skate while the protag watches, and him falling on his ass is supposed to convey how he’s an easygoing goofball who can laugh at himself (this is usually used if the protag is the stuffy business woman with a sidekick telling her to lighten up) - obligatory snowball fight followed by hot cocoa scene - the protag and love interest are dressed in red and green respectively for that sweet, sweet Symbolism™ (*~because RED is the colour of PASSION~*) - angel symbolism for a dead parent or a “guardian angel” watching over the protags to make sure they get together by the end - bonus points if either the parents or the sidekick mention this guardian angel multiple times throughout the movie, until the leads kiss and they look lovingly at said symbolism somewhere else in the room at the end - other symbolism in anything from deer to snowflakes (yes really) - the struggling small businesses are almost exclusively bakeries and / or a family business that was owned by one of the leads’ now dead grandmother (insert Grandma’s Famous Cookie Recipe here)

- finding the right Christmas tree or perfect present is used as an allegory for finding The One™

- bonus points if either the protag or love interest awkwardly state the words “how do you know it’s the right one?” in the context of the tree and the other responds with “I’m sure I’ll know, in time” in a different context, and then they look at each other suggestively before the scene ends - house / room decorating montage that features some kind of upbeat Christmas song over it (Jingle Bell Rock, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, etc.), and always features the two leads who just happened to end up decorating together, usually with a child accompanying them - the two leads get snowed in and are Forced To Spend The Night Together

- there are still always flowers but because Christmas they’re poinsettias every time ——– - honestly if I can recommend anything go watch the murder mysteries that the Hallmark channel has now (YES THEY EXIST) - seriously they still do the stupid romance and will-they-won’t-they with the two investigators, and then one of the hokey townspeople gets shot or poisoned and the sheer tonal whiplash that causes makes it a fucking riot from there - make a drinking game out of these movies if you want to die instantly

[comicteaparty]

December 18th-December 24th, 2019 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from December 18th, 2019 to December 24th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

What tropes and/or clichés are you perfectly fine with seeing in the webcomics you read?

Deo101

Like all of the cutesy cheesy relationship tropes. I love them all and I always will! Plenty more, but I find myself getting caught up in the relationship tropes the most. Specifically friends to lovers, but I also really like the found family trope. I know there are more tropes that I love but I can't think of them off the top of my head, so I'll probably just agree with others as the week goes on

indogswetrust

pass me the slow burn romance please thaaaanks

Deo101

that one too. Also hurt/comfort. Pump those into my VEINS they are my lifeblood... I shamelessly put every trope I want into my work so I can't judge other people for doing the same

indogswetrust

i’m trash

I’ve become more sssssophisticated as I’ve gotten older but I know what I like in a webcomic.

And it’s Adorable Behavior (tm)

Deo101

I've gotten less sophosticated. I thought I got more sophisticated but turns out I just got less shameful about the things i like

indogswetrust

Haha

I mean I used to really be fixated on comedy and now I’m more okay with things being ambiguous and complex? Ingress is a good example. I might have put it down two years ago but now I wanna see where Spicer and Toivo’s journey takes them

Fixated isn’t the exact word. whatever

Deo101

No I get you! Realizing you like more than just one thing and expanding your horizons is really important!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I love the enemies-to-lovers trope. Any time a pair of characters goes from ‘I hate your guts’ to ‘take me now’ I’m loving it. That is, so long as one of them wasn’t being outright abusive during their ‘hate’ phase.

indogswetrust

Man that’s a delicate balance but also

Deo101

^ Fully agree. I just get a little too anxious about the "enemies" side of thing and worry they wont fully grow into lovers I guess! But if it's done well, Its an especially good one

carcarchu

i second the enemies-to-lovers thing i will never get enough of that trope

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

thirded

if I even smell a hint of it in a story, provided it's not overtly violent or abusive or otherwise horrible... I am hooked

kayotics

Fourthed... it’s a good trope

keii4ii

Now I feel like the odd one out for being neutral toward that trope. I definitely enjoy good examples of it, but otherwise completely neutral?

Evolving relationships is a good thing in general though, and enemies to lovers does fall in that category.

keii4ii

I have a soft spot for long lost superadvanced civilizations being unearthed. While it doesn't guarantee I'll fall in love with the story, it WILL grab my attention and at least get me to check it out.

renieplayerone

I dont really have any strong opinions on any tropes, but theres a really good channel on youtube that goes through and critiques tropes. I find it really useful for writing. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDb22nlVXGgcljcdyDk80bBDXGyeZjZ5e

keii4ii

(Please don't let my weirdness ruin anyone's enjoyment of the trope though, lol. I'm all for celebrating what you like! was just genuinely wondering if I'm the only one who's neutral about it!)

keii4ii

Also not an overarching story trope, but more like a type of a scene... I really like this thing (if this is a trope please tell me what it's called XD) A, B, C are friends. A and B are bffs. C is not as close. B talks to C about this while A is away. This is an honest conversation, not a malicious one. B learns to see A in a way they hadn't before, and it strengthens the B-A friendship. I'm not likely to start reading a story just because I know it contains this scene. But if a story I already like has this scene, it is likely to be my favorite scene!(edited)

I guess part of the reason why I like it so much is, it shows that the relationship (the B-A one in this case) is not insular. It's a real relationship between real people, who also have relationships outside of it, and the relationships have an influence on each other.

(And that's a lot of "relationship"s in a paragraph...)

eli [a winged tale]

Positive relationships and healthy navigations between relationship and life problems are my jam The enemies to lovers trope can be gripping because you get an additional conflict on top of tension. I thought the novel Red White & Royal Blue did a good job at that. Grant Snyder did a trope bingo for murakami and I thought it was fun to do the same for my works in progress. For reference: the murakami one https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.avclub.com/here-s-how-to-play-haruki-murakami-bingo-as-you-read-hi-1798271345/amp

keii4ii

omg

I NEED TO MAKE THIS for me/ comics I read

I mean I don't have a whole lot of stories, but it would be interesting to see what kind of common items get checked off across mine + my favorite comics combined

Capitania do Azar

wow I've been thinking about it a lot and I'm having a very hard time selecting the tropes I like best... I'm more of a "I know what I don't like and taking that aside I like being surprised"

Cronaj

All I can say is... Red Oni, Blue Oni (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedOniBlueOni). This trope is seriously so good. My favorite thing about this trope is that the "Red Oni," or the hot-headed one, and the "Blue Oni," the cold or level-headed one, can be either friends or enemies. So it makes for a beautiful dynamic no matter what type of story it is. Buddy cops, competitors in the workplace, brothers, enemies, the straight man and the fool, you name it. Typically these characters are foils of each other, and their differencesbalways make for exceedingly fun interactions. Another favorite trope of mine, which I don't really know the name of, is where the seemingly hot/handsome guy is actually a dork who has no idea what he's doing. Everyone in the story thinks he's done everything, but really he's just a dopey, niave possibly shy and definitely clumsy virgin. But the social awkwardness only makes him inexplicably more appealing to the other lead. Cute

Ah! Another trope I have to add because it's basically my crack: Androids Are People, Too (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndroidsArePeopleToo). I have loved this trope since before Detroit: Become Human, but the game certainly rekindled my love for it. Very genre-specific, but AI fascinate me to no end, whether it's in the real world, or in Sci-Fi.

eli [a winged tale]

Haha Cronaj are you me? Contrasting characters and robots who have feelings can get me hooked straight away

indogswetrust

lemme tell y’all about a trope I’ve noticed: the crazy lesbian. Like, The Favorite and Killing Eve and that Netflix movie about the violinists. Whoof. I am so tired of that

Cronaj

Hahahaha! I dunno maybe. I also have a protagonist in one of my novels named Eli.

eli [a winged tale]

The cute nerd who is fumbling but appeared to have it all together may lean towards the Mary Sue for me but if there is a true flaw (Tm) then I’m down

indogswetrust

I feel like gay men characters have been getting humanized and happy endings and that’s awesome! But lesbians have not been getting the same treatment.

bumbling and romantically inept nerds fuel me

eli [a winged tale]

What do you mean about the lesbian part, indogswetrust? I’m curious to know of the differences as I’m currently writing both

Cronaj

@eli [a winged tale] YES. I'm not gonna lie, I have definitely used more than one of these tropes XD And one of them may or may not be the fumbling hottie...

eli [a winged tale]

I wanted to link my trope bingo but thought it went against the pinned rules I can DM it to you if you’re interested and I’d love to play everyone else’s bingos

Cronaj

Oh hell yes. Lesgooooooo!

I have never made a trope bingo, but I really should

indogswetrust

Like, Love, Simon or Call Me By Your Name show gay men as people slowly falling in love and it’s tender and kind. But The Favorite literally has animal abuse in it and women sleeping with each other for power. I walked out of the theater. Same for Killing Eve, it’s about a spy and a murderer. High intrigue and drama but it’s obviously a toxic relationship from the premise

eli [a winged tale]

Oh no! You should check out Their Story by Tan Jiu)

It’s formatted like a webcomic as well though formally called manhua. It does the slow burn romance, humanizing aspect very well. I’m not well versed in the mainstream portrayal but certainly on the indie side, people are stepping up and writing very positive and healthy lesbian stories

indogswetrust

The indie side is great. Even “The Sea In You” (a webcomic) is frickin adorable

It just grinds my beans about mainstream portrayal

eli [a winged tale]

Loving the sea in you!

RebelVampire

A trope I will never get sick of is https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses , especially if https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReallyRoyaltyReveal this is what happens in the story. I just...I really love royalty. I can't help it. I love the pointless traditions, the fancy dresses, the palaces, etc.. And even if that's not part of it, I still like it when some rando girl realizes that she's a princess and now has to deal with that idea that she has subjects she has to protect or something. Bonus points if she's a magical girl. I even like it when it's a reverse situation where it's an evil princess. I will never tire of princesses ever because the concept is always fascinating to me no matter which way its spun.

eli [a winged tale]

I love the fanciness of it all. All those lovely eye candy designs

Cronaj

Same... I have also used the Really Royalty Reveal, like..... Several times

eli [a winged tale]

The royal reveal when done well can be so powerful and validating

Kelsey (Kurio)

I have a queen ant character but no princesses yet

Eightfish

ooh are we talking about tropes we like? I really like mind reading/ mind control. But consensual. It's feels like the theme of trust taken to the extreme, where a character has such belief in someone they'd trust their mind / body to them. But I've only really seen it in some kid's books I liked (Young Wizards, Animorphs), and the only webcomic I've seen with this idea is my own, and I haven't even gotten to that part yet. Anyone have any recommendations? Ooh or a tvtropes link?

Erin Ptah (BICP 🎄 Leif & Thorn)

It comes up in the Murderbot Diaries -- the main character is a construct, basically a really-advanced android, and there are times when it lets a more-powerful AI pilot its body to handle an emergency that's unfolding too fast for it to keep up with on its own.

Eightfish

I looked it up and I do like the themes of androids' humanity. And it's a series of novellae, which, wow, that's very rare. Not sure I've ever seen that before. Do you recommend the book as a whole?(edited)

Erin Ptah (BICP 🎄 Leif & Thorn)

I recommend the whole series, yes!

[isitovers]

1) Hi Fiona, I’m back for my chapter 2 review! And I have to say, this is probably my favorite chapter of the entire story (keep in mind I’m probably going to say that about all the chapters from here on out). So there are three things from this chapter that I mainly want to talk about and I’m going to save my favourite for last. So first of all in this chapter I love that we get to see a little bit more of Harry’s job and his work life.

2) We see it first with Chiffon which is done so well because we not only see how great Harry is with her but we also get to see more of how the magazine actually works and what he actually writes. The facade idea is really cool too. We also get to see a bit more of his relationship with his other coworkers. He seems to have a good relationship with Camryn, most likely due to him helping her out in chapter 1.  He goes for drinks with Eric and Jared sometimes

3) (btw I really love his friendship with Jared). But most importantly I love how you set up his relationship with Mallory. I really think you did such a good job with it Fiona, because I don’t think it’s something I picked up on when I first read Home. But it’s so clear to me that Mallory had some serious feelings for Harry. At first I thought it was just a mutual attraction kind of thing but through a lot of little things you do it’s easier to see that she would want something more.

4) The little happy smile she has when Harry says he loves her (in a joking way), the fact that she came into the break room all the time for coffee when Harry was there. And the thing is, Harry picks up on it too. And he might kind of have a connection with her but he doesn’t really like her in a romantic way. It’s just really good set up for things that happen later. Secondly, we get to see Harry bonding more with Taylor’s friendship group so that he’s more than just Taylor’s friend.

5) We know that he’s been going out with them more. He helps out Teo out with his shoot. He’s being invited to a friend’s sibling’s birthday party (lol can’t wait for that). And most importantly, he’s bonding more with Karlie and thus finding out more and more information about Taylor. She doesn’t let out a whole lot of info this chapter but it does a good job of cementing Karlie’s place in the story as the character who kind of pushes things along.

6) There isn’t much Sam in this chapter but from his one scene we get the picture that even if they’re both playing nice they both have the understanding that they don’t quite like the other. Ok, so thirdly is of course Harry and Taylor’s relationship and this chapter does such a good job at showing so many different things about their relationship and how it’s moving. I mean we’ve gotten the idea that Harry has fallen and he’s fallen hard.

7) But there’s also a few clues that Taylor might be heading in the same direction. I mean why does she spend so much time with him? Why does she want to look after him when he’s sick? Why does she care so much about making a good impression on his mum? Why does she take her shirt off and let him take pictures of her?? (Believe me I’m gonna talk more about that). Yes, part of it is just her personality but there’s also something more there.

8) Another thing that amps up this chapter is THEIR GODDAMNED SEXUAL TENSION!! LIKE HOLY SHIT!! Harry can’t go five minutes without getting a hard on. In that opening scene, when he’s trying to talk himself out of jacking himself off to the thought of her I literally die. Because I agree with him. It is creepy to do that to the thought of a friend but at the same time I love it so much. Poor boy is just so horny and he does have to listen to them fuck fairly regularly.

9) And then afterwards all he can notice is her boobs and and her legs and I’m dying of embarrassment  for him. None of that though is as good as the scene in her apartment. I mean sure at first they’re just innocently drawing on each other but before you know it he’s drawing on her ribcage, then she’s taking her shirt off and he’s taking pictures, then she’s just walking around without her shirt on AND I’M DYING!! Poor Harry. I mean Taylor had to know what she was doing.

10) This is where morally, it gets kind of iffy I think. Because I mean she could be doing these kind of things with her other friends but probably not in such a flirty way. Also the scene where Harry comes to sleep in Taylor’s bed is one of my favourites. It is so funny but also so heated. I love it. Harry thinking about how much better he would fuck Taylor than her boyfriend and giving himself a hard on while she’s sleeping next to him is so wrong but also so good!

11) I love it and honestly just reading it gives me blue balls (I’m a girl lol). The end to the chapter is also great. ‘I sleep naked,’ will certainly give Miss Swift something to think about during the day. Ok, this it. Sorry, it got so long I just have a lot of thoughts lol . Also I haven't edited so sorry if it makes no sense.

omg this is so long and I'm living!! this is exactly the sort of thing I wanted when it came out!

okay so again I was concerned that the work parts wouldn't be so interesting for readers who only wanted them but I thought it was important to show more about harry's life and what it's like in this au. I don't know how magazines really work so I just did what I always do: make things up and sound confident about it even when internally I'm like ???? also I'm glad you liked the theme thing because I actually sat down and wrote a whole list of possible themes at the time I was trying to get into planning at a time when I was kind of stuck, as well as a bunch of characterisation questions that I don't know if they actually helped but would be fun to go back and read

jared was the friend I felt like he really needed, meanwhile mallory was a bit of fun for me that also make it more realistic. because hello! a cute brit living in new york? there's no way someone doesn't have a thing for him! so I tried to weave that in as an extra plot that would hopefully make things more interesting

being a part of a friendship group outside of work was also important for him because, going from all his uni friends to a place where he was on his own, it helped him feel more like he belonged. I wanted to have him get along well with the others since even if things never happened with taylor, at least he would still have people in his life who made new york enjoyable and worthwhile

not featuring sam a lot hints at the amount of time they spend alone together and that it means something. sure they're neighbours and it's convenient and they get along well together but maybe it's a little too well. since it's only making his feelings for her grow and become harder to deal with (pun intended). which okay all the sexual tension was so much fun to work on and I regret none of it!! she shouldn't have been so flirty with him and he needed to control himself but where would be the fun in that? I made him suffer and it was worth it

[impandagrl]

Absence Of You

Part 8 of Home (Is Wherever I'm With You).

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 (contains smut) Part 7

At Jody's she finds some space and time to heal, but maybe there are some things that can't be fixed.

Sam, Dean, (female) Reader

Warnings - A/B/O, Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics, Miscommunication, Misunderstanding, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Some angst

Many thanks as always to my betas @justawaywardwinchestergirl and Edge_of_Clairvoyance who had a little more work than normal helping to untangle my pronouns.

Over the next months, she became comfortable staying at Jody's, finding it much better than living on her own. She both adored and respected Jody, found Alex sweet, if a bit reserved, and got along well with Claire - the feisty blond beta had a bit of a prickly disposition, but from what she'd gathered, Claire's past had provided more than enough of a just cause to make her defiant and suspicious. She was slowly winning her over and didn't push her or take it personally when Claire shut her down.

She herself was feeling pretty quiet. She'd gotten back on her suppressants as soon as possible, but still found herself unsettled and emotional at times. All the ladies in the house had proven they were able to discern and respect when she needed space and she was infinitely grateful for their acceptance and understanding.

She was also learning more about the supernatural world from certain conversations that came up every now and then. She almost wished this wasn't the case; each time such a conversation came up, she would inevitably have nightmares imagining the terrible things that could be happening to Sam and Dean in her absence. Not that she could keep them from danger, that was preposterous, but it still distressed her. At the same time, she was hungry for any knowledge of them, their “job”, and their whereabouts, even though she knew it was going to worry her.

It was a Saturday morning after breakfast, Jody had just got off the phone when she looked up with an indulgent smile. “The boys are on a case in the area. They said they'd be by for lunch; nice of them to give me the heads up I'll be needing enough food to feed an army.”

She scrambled to keep the whorl of emotions off her face. “S-ssam and Dean?” Jody searched her discerningly; she hadn't done as good a job as she'd intended keeping her tone casual, she just hoped she was doing a better job with her expression.

Finally, Jody nodded, “Yep. Is that okay?”

“Oh, yes, of course. It'll be nice seeing them again.” Which was true enough. And at the same time, couldn't be further from it.

She could tell Jody was inferring more than she intended to show her, but she apparently decided to let it go for the time being. “Do you want to help me with lunch?”

“I'd like that.” Something to keep her busy would be most welcome, and ideally prevent her anxiety from amping up to the point she couldn't hide it.

With no further comment, Jody began the meal prep. The alpha's ability to once again sense what she needed was most appreciated and they worked well together with few words necessary. Shortly before the Winchester's eta, they'd pulled together a lasagna casserole, french bread, and salad. Maybe not enough for an army, but possibly a high school sports team.

When the rumble of the impala was heard in the driveway, she chose to hang back, as Jody went out to meet them and get her hugs. They came in and hugged Alex and Claire, the latter pretending it was something she had to endure, but obviously enjoying it.

When it couldn't be avoided any longer, she found herself exchanging awkward smiles and pressed between them in a brief hug. She held her breath; as much as she wanted to soak up their scents and the security of being close to them, she didn't want to have some sort of embarrassing reaction. Thankfully, it was over quickly and they all filed into the dining room.

...__...__...__...

Jody always felt more at ease when her entire pack was seated around her table. It made for a lot of long weeks, her wolf claiming these two hunters that it insisted on viewing as motherless pups. Time spent worrying about where they were, what they were up to, if they were getting enough sleep, if they were injured, or had found some excuse to recklessly sacrifice themselves - again.

Her peace was marred by the fact that something was off with her newest addition. The girl had obviously been through a lot and was steadily piecing herself together, but something specifically was amiss since this morning. She was allowing her space for now, content to keep a close eye on her.

To add to that, Sam and Dean were at odds. She hadn't noticed it until after they'd sat down, but they were bristling at each other. The platter of food passed by one of them, was somehow subtly passed over the other, so it took a long time for both of them to be fully served. Mostly because neither of them would admit to what was happening and ask for what they needed. At the moment, the salad bowl was seemingly accidentally lodged behind Dean's elbow. Both brothers looked to be studiously ignoring it despite the fact it was the only thing lacking on Sam's plate and he most certainly wanted some.

She was about to intervene and put an end to this nonsense, when Y/N very casually and sweetly piped up. “Dean, if you're done with the salad, may I please have some?”

He jumped like a child caught with a hand in the forbidden cookie jar, but tried to cover it up quickly, reaching to hand her the bowl.

It was all Jody could do to hide her astonishment when she shot a mischievous smirk at both boys, “I just wanted a chance at it before Sam takes the rest.”

The tension was forgotten for the moment, both brothers displaying unaffected amusement at her statement, and Sam gratefully accepted the salad once she was finished serving herself.

Jody was left mulling over the scene she'd just witnessed. Y/N had instinctually sensed the tension building and effortlessly diffused it. Neither Sam nor Dean appeared to be aware of what had happened, and she couldn't be sure how aware the omega was of what she'd done, but the fact that she had done it was undeniable.

Later they gathered in the living room, minus Claire and Alex who were working on clean up. Sam and Dean tried to resume their silent feud, starting to shoot resentful looks toward each other. Dean began telling a story at a higher volume than was necessary, full of tiny barbs aimed at his brother. Sam, meanwhile, was trying to act as though he was ignoring what was going on, while his expression grew darker and more ominous.

There was a brief pause in the conversation and Jody was about to change the subject, when Y/N beat her to it. “What happened there?” she pointed to a small scar on Dean's jaw.

Dean immediately sobered, but tried to play it off, “Some two-bit monster thought he could get the drop on me, but Sam ganked him.”

Y/N searched Dean's face, then glanced to Sam. She nodded, with a knowing look like she'd read plain as day the true severity of the attack. Her voice was low and earnest, “Things might have ended differently; I'm just glad you two are together, so you can have each others backs.”

The boys shared a chagrined look, apparently agreeing to call a truce; there was almost no trace of whatever they'd been fighting about after that. Jody marveled again. The omega’s gentle reminder of their concern for and reliance on each other had been enough to put an end to the pettiness. Had she known that would work? How?

She went to refill her coffee, shaking her head. She wasn't certain about what exactly was going on here, but she was sure as hell going to get to the bottom of it.

When she returned to the living room, Sam and Dean were alone. “Where is Y/N?”

Dean shrugged, “She excused herself a minute ago.”

Jody frowned, she had a bad feeling all of a sudden. After a moment's hesitation, she turned and walked down the hall to find the omega. Jody wanted to respect her privacy, but also had a responsibility to take care of her. The alpha vaguely noted the boys had got up and were following her, but her main focus was obeying her wolf's directive to go check on the troubled girl.

The door to her bedroom was open enough Jody could see in - see Y/N sitting on the floor with her back propped against the bed, her legs drawn up, arms resting on her knees. There were tears in her eyes and Jody's wolf sprang into action. She knelt next to the distressed omega and lifted her up on the bed, sitting next to her and tucking her head under Jody's chin so she could surround her with comforting alpha scent.

It took a moment for the omega to be able to speak, “I'm sorry.”

Jody soothed a hand over her head, “What are you sorry for, sweetie?”

“Losing it; trying to hide it from you.”

Jody gently pulled apart just enough she could look into her eyes. She was swiftly regaining her composure, but there were still tears trailing down her face.

“You are allowed to cry; that's not something you need to apologize for. And when I asked you to tell me if I could help you, that was a request, not a demand. You have the right to your privacy. Maybe I should be apologizing for intruding -"

She shook her head, “No, I just didn't know how to . . . I'm glad you're here.”

Jody glanced over at the two by the door. They were frozen, a cascade of emotions and impulses warring across their faces. They weren't her primary concern at the moment, though. “Would you rather we were alone right now?”

She looked a little more conflicted about that, “You don't have to send them away.”

Jody beckoned them in, and after a moment's consideration they sat on the floor in near unison.

Jody turned her attention back to the girl. “Would it help to tell us what's wrong? You understand this isn't an order, or requirement, and no one's going to be upset if you don't want to.” Situations like this were touchy, with a distraught omega surrounded by three intensely concerned alphas. The boys’ purposeful choice to make themselves as unintimidating as possible by sitting cross legged below them was much appreciated here.

The omega hesitated. She turned inward and gripped at Jody's jacket, gathering up courage for what she about to say. Her voice was low but clear when she spoke, “My wolf thinks . . . that I belong to them. I know - I don't . . . I understand that's not the case. I don't expect anything, I already owe them everything. I'm not asking for anything or trying to manipulate anyone. I've tried, I just can't make it understand. Being near them just hurts. I don't want it to be like that. Maybe it'll get better with time, I don't know. I'm so sorry.”

Her heightened distress following this confession, prompted Jody to wrap her arms around her and just hold her until it had subsided. She tried not to glare at the two boys who were both in a state of shock. Everything had more or less clicked into place for her, but she wanted to confirm her suspicions. “Well? The omega has had the courage to speak up. Do either of you have anything you'd like to add?”

“I -" Sam was the first to manage to speak. His voice was subdued, sad, “My wolf feels the same way. For a long time. It's been really pissed at me for trying to ignore it.”

“And why would you be trying to ignore it?” Jody was having a hard time not rolling her eyes; exactly how long had they been dancing around this without actually talking about it?

“Are you serious? You know what we do; you know how dangerous it is. I can't drag her into this life. It wouldn't be fair.”

“What's not fair is you making this decision without her. And what about you? You've been awfully quiet.” She looked pointedly at Dean.

“I want her.” There was a brief flash in his eyes that spoke of the sincerity in his simple statement, then he looked down, somber and a little guilty. “She was Sam's, though. He met her first; I knew how he felt about her. I didn't mean to fall for his girl.”

“Sam had dibs? Really? Sounded to me like she was talking about both of you just now.”

Dean's eyes snapped back to hers, “We can't share her, Jody.”

“Why not? If I'm not mistaken, you already have.”

“That was . . .” he glanced at Sam. “She needed our help, so we made it work.”

“But you can't ‘make it work’ so the three of you can be happy? Look, I'm not trying to make this decision for you, I can't know what's best for you. I just want you to actually talk it out. This conversation should have happened much earlier.”

She took a breath and looked around at all three of them. “Here's what I know: your wolves represent your core instincts. If all three of you instinctively *know* you belong together, I'd at least take notice of that, and entertain the possibility that maybe it's because you do. A poly relationship isn't for everyone, but it's not unheard of, or against nature, so don't rule it out just because it's not something you considered before. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, but you two have been bristling and posturing at each other all afternoon because you were feeling possessive over her, and she broke it up like she'd been doing it her whole life. It seems to me like her wolf already knows intrinsically how to manage yours. You can make this work if you want to. That's up to the three of you to decide.”

She looked down at Y/N who was surprised, but hopeful at the turn the conversation had taken. “I think I'll step out, if that's okay, but the door will stay open so you can call me or come get me if you need to.”

She nodded.

“You have an equal say in this conversation; it affects your future. So don't be afraid to speak up.”

A small smile grew on her face, “Yes, ma'am. Thank you.”

Jody squeezed her arm affectionately and left them to it.

~s~s~s~s~s~s~s~s~s~s~s~s

You gotta love Jody! Sorry if the summary sounded foreboding, I was totally messing with you guys.

To Part 9

Let me know if you'd like to be tagged!

@luciisthebest @mannls @mogaruke @pinknerdpanda

[truthbeetoldmedia]

Shameless 9x11 “The Hobo Games” Review

With just a few episodes of the season left, Shameless is really amping up the drama — but it might be too little too late.

Episode 11, “The Hobo Games,” begins with Fiona in a motel room full of people. The viewer doesn’t know how she got here, as she was most recently seen being carted off to jail in a cop car, and it’s likely Fiona doesn’t have the answer either. She steals a bottle of oxy and is chased out of the building with a “Southside trash” thrown her way for good measure, an insult Fiona has certainly claimed with pride by now.

When she returns to the Gallagher house, Debbie is still making home improvements and needs cash to buy a furnace. So, Fiona wanders off to the street corner Carl used to frequent in his drug peddling days and sells the pills. She has to get creative after all, now that she’s out of a real job.

Meanwhile, Carl goes to work where he’s promoted to fry cook, though he’s distracted throughout the day by fears of Debbie attempting to seduce his girlfriend, Kelly. The two are getting suspiciously close and even Carl’s coworkers feed into his fears when they tell him the two look like lovers.

Across town, V has convinced Kev to get a vasectomy following their bad luck fostering Santiago. V believes he’s gone through with the procedure and when he’s acting strange, decides to drop off Amy and Gemma at the Gallagher house before going to work at the Alibis. Veronica later finds out that Kev had chickened out of the procedure and lied to her.

At the Hobo Loco Games, the last few competitors face off for the cash prize. As Frank attempts to focus all his energy on winning, Ingrid fears he will not stay loyal to her and her unborn babies. She decides to test Frank by lying to him, telling him she’s miscarrying. However, he’s more concerned with winning the money. After he loses the competition and Ingrid’s test, Frank returns home to find that she is leaving him and reducing the embryos to two — not that Frank will have anything to do with them as far as she’s concerned.

Lip, all the while, is attempting to adopt Xan who, in the last episode, showed up at the Gallagher house as her mom had disappeared (again). Though the initial appointment goes okay, Tammi is missing. And then, when Lip is out buying Xan a bunk bed, a social worker shows up at the house. A drunk Fiona answers the door and the social worker is left visibly unimpressed by the state of her and the house.

Lip’s bad luck continues when he waits outside of Tammi’s work to confront her about her no show and she reveals to him that she’s pregnant. The two have virtually no time to talk about their options because just when Lip thinks things can’t get any more stressful, his sponsee Jason calls. He reveals to Lip that he’s slipped up and needs to talk.

Jason later reveals to Lip that Fiona had stopped by the shop looking for him and offered him vodka, sending him into a downward spiral during which he also shot up heroin. Furious, Lip finds Fiona at home and confronts her about her interaction with Jason. After an icy standoff, Lip tells Fiona that he wants her out of the house.

There were so many interesting twists and turns this episode, but why are they just happening now?

This season as a whole has felt so oddly paced to me, with several episodes feeling like filler material and others being stuffed to the brim with tension and plot twists. For example, why has Fiona spent a quarter of the season drinking her days away with no intervention from anyone and is just now facing consequences, such as being fired from her job and kicked out of the house?

Why has Lip been doing nothing but hanging out with Tammi for several episodes in a row, only to now have three significant plot points dropped in his lap?

And what was the point of giving Frank the opportunity to be a father again and to win a large sum of money, only for both plotlines to be abandoned anticlimactically at the end of the season?

And meanwhile, the other characters in the show have been given lackluster storylines. Debbie especially has done next to nothing this half-season besides make improvements to the house and pay for the bills.

Carl, meanwhile, has shown no ambition to continue his military career, the dream he’s been chasing for three seasons now.

This episode was entertaining, don’t get me wrong. I love Lip and Fiona arguments with every fiber of my being. Jeremy and Emmy have such an amazing chemistry that makes these scenes absolutely electric. However, it almost felt like this scene should’ve happened a long time ago. Lip should’ve confronted Fiona about her behavior long before she gave his sponsee alcohol, especially because he knows what it’s like to be an alcoholic who needs help and support.

I enjoyed Lip immensely this episode, but part of me feels like I’m seeing a version of him I’ve never seen before, and not in a good way. He’s changed drastically without any onscreen development, and this makes it hard for me to believe who he is and what he’s doing. This is pretty much consistent for every character this season If I’m being honest.

The placement of blame on Fiona for everything going wrong feels unnecessary and solely ammo for Lip to get so angry he kicks her out, thus giving Emmy an exit. I suppose if Lip offered to help her, something much more in character for him or any of the other siblings, really, she wouldn’t have an out.

Perhaps Emmy’s decision to leave the show was last minute, but her exit has been written poorly and caused so many characters to do things they would never do. Even Fiona’s friends like Kev and V are absent from her life, which is extremely out of character for both of them.

I’m still looking forward to seeing how this season ends and how Fiona gets her final exit, but I’m unsure of how this leaves every other character moving forward. How will they continue to interact with each other, given that they’re suddenly so cold and no longer focused on being a family? With Fiona and Ian both gone, are we finally seeing the demise of the Gallagher clan?

I’m not sure how much longer this show can continue, quite frankly, and I’m more fearful than excited for what Season 10 may bring. I worry that Shameless has become unrecognizable, and is no longer the story of the dysfunctional but tightly-knit and fiercely loyal Gallagher family we’ve all grown to love. With that being said though, it’s been renewed for a reason. So maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the episodes to come.

Shameless airs Sundays on Showtime at 9/8c.

Jessica’s episode rating: 🐝🐝

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Le blues de Ma Rainey / Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 18 décembre 2020 sur Netflix / 1h 34min / Musical, Drame De George C. Wolfe Avec Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman Nationalité Américain

SYNOPSIS ET DÉTAILS Les tensions s'exacerbent et les esprits s'échauffent au cours d'une séance d'enregistrement, dans le Chicago des années 20, tandis que plusieurs musiciens attendent la légendaire Ma Rainey, artiste avant-gardiste surnommée "la mère du blues". Arrivant en retard, l'intrépide et volcanique Ma Rainey se lance dans un bras de fer avec son manager et son producteur blancs, bien décidés à lui imposer leurs choix artistiques. Tandis que les musiciens patientent dans la salle de répétition, l'ambitieux trompettiste Levee, attiré par la copine de Ma, est déterminé à faire sa place dans le milieu de la musique. Poussant ses camarades à se confier, il provoque un déferlement d'anecdotes, de vérités et de mensonges qui bouleverseront à jamais le cours de leur vie…

Adapté de la pièce d'August Wilson, lauréat du prix Pulitzer.

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Find all the movies that you can stream online, including those that were screened this week. If you are wondering what you can watch on this website, then you should know that it covers genres that include crime, Science, Fi-Fi, action, romance, thriller, Comedy, drama and Anime Movie. Thank you very much. We tell everyone who is happy to receive us as news or information about this year’s film schedule and how you watch your favorite films. Hopefully we can become the best partner for you in finding recommendations for your favorite movies. That’s all from us, greetings!

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[jaelyn96]

Matt Dinerstein/NBC 8:00 AM PDT 9/13/2017 by Kate Stanhope “[It feels like] a new show even though it’s season five.,” the actor tells THR about the cast and showrunner changes on the upcoming season.

Jon Seda is back at Chicago P.D. for season five, but a lot has changed at the NBC cop drama since he last reported for duty at the 21st District.

The actor left midway through season four to join the new spinoff Chicago Justice as a series regular. For Seda, it meant getting to help launch the latest part of Dick Wolf’s impressive NBC scripted slate, and also only have to split screen time among five series regulars rather than nine.

However, Justice was canceled in late May after just 13 episodes and now Seda returns to a very different P.D. Co-creator and longtime showrunner Matt Olmstead has since exited for a lucrative deal at ABC Studios, replaced by Rick Eid (Law & Order: SVU), and series regular Sophia Bush, who played the beloved Det. Erin Lindsay, has departed after four seasons, subsequently replaced by former Revolution star Tracy Spiridakos following a two-episode arc at the end of last season.

“It feels like I never really left yet it still feels new at the same time,” Seda tells The Hollywood Reporter of the season five refresh. “It’s like going back to an old team but it’s new, so it’s exciting.”

Ahead of the show’s return, Seda spoke with THR about Justice’s early demise, why he was almost ready to “move on” from Antonio and a possible rekindled romance with Brett (Kara Killmer).

READ MORE New ‘Chicago P.D.’ Boss Talks Sophia Bush’s Exit and “Politically Charged” Season 5 What was your reaction when you heard Justice wasn’t coming back? How surprised were you?

I was hoping for it to come back and get another shot. We only had 13 episodes, so [it’s] hard to really get the rhythm going with just 13 episodes in. It was kind of thrown all over the place where episodes we shot early appeared in the middle and some we shot late aired first. Yet it was doing pretty well, I think it was averaging six million viewers on Sunday. That said, I think had it been given another shot and another season, it would have done better. But you never want to see a show fail and not come back. But I don’t think we even look at it as a failure. It just didn’t get a second season but it did well. I got to work with great people, another great group of actors who were just incredible, the crew was amazing so it was a little bittersweet. I’m a team player. I was looking at it like, 'If I can help the One Chicago [universe] going over there, that’s great. I’m honored by the fact that Wolf [Films] and NBC looked at my character as a character that could help another spinoff.’ So, like I said, it’s bittersweet. I’m glad to be back, I’m humbled to be back, very thankful to be back but I kind of wish I could have brought everyone from Justice back with me.

How soon after Justice was canceled did you hear from producers about coming back to P.D.? How did those talks begin?

I believe it was in the same week. It was pretty quick which was cool. I was very thankful. If I had to move on, I was going to move on and then I was very thankful for the time that I had. Actors hope to get one year of a show and here I started on Fire and that turned into four years of P.D. and then Justice, so it was a great opportunity and if that was all it was going to be, I was very happy for that. But for them to come back and really show their support and wanting to have me back, it’s just really incredible. I’m really thankful.

READ MORE 'Chicago P.D.’: Jon Seda to Return for Season 5 How has it been adjusting to the changes among the cast?

The great thing about it is we try and get as close to reality as we can. In reality in these departments, people change. Some move up, some come back, some leave for a certain amount of time so it’s very similar. The heart of it is the unit itself and keeping that unit doing the job the best they can. So like with Sophia, [Erin] was a great character that she created and [she was] a great person to work with but you don’t look at it like you’re trying to fill those shoes. You just change things around and try to keep the unit going.

How does your character come back to the unit?

I think they ran through so many different possibilities sand it came down to something kind of simple. It’s, like I said earlier, in that line of work, people come and go for whatever reason. There’s a case that the Intelligence team is working on in the first episode where it kind of gets stuck with the suspect and how to get close to a certain suspect and they need someone that can really do great undercover [work], and hasn’t been seen by this suspect, has no connection and Antonio turns out to be that person. That leads to series of events that will land him back with Intelligence.

What can you say about that dynamic with Voight going forward? How do things change when Antonio comes back?

It’s like a yin and yang type of thing. It’s been five years now that they’ve grown with each other, from that place that they came from where Antonio arrested him. They’ve learned a lot with each other. Sometimes, like in life, you don’t choose the family you’re born into, but you get to choose the ones you call family, and who would have thought that that would be the case [here]. But yeah, they’re like brothers. They’re not going to agree all the time but I think that’s something also that’s going to be reflected in season five; they’re going to have a little more of that tension that was there between Voight and Antonio but it’s going to be different now because now it’s tension after five years of working with each other. It’s wanting the best for each other but sometimes, the hardest person to get to understand what’s the best way is that person that is so close to you. With all the changes in Chicago right now – which we are going to reflect on the show like with police reform – it’s tough to be a cop in the nation, let alone in Chicago. The Intelligence Unit has operated a certain way for a while and now things have to change. How well is Voight going to deal with that? That’s another big plus of having Antonio back because he’s able to balance. He doesn’t want to see the unit fall apart, he wants to help keep it One of the things people really latched onto this last season was the Brettonio romance. What do you think brought about that reaction?

Last year when they came to me with the idea of Antonio going to Justice, that was also presented that they had come up with the idea of pairing Antonio and Brett. I remember my initial reaction was, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” It’s not something I would have thought of. And I think that actually turned out to be the beauty of it. I think the fact that they’re not your typical type, that you wouldn’t think to pair them – that’s what made it really interesting. And Kara Killmer, she’s just such a great talent and I love working with her. I think she’s so great. I had a lot of fun with the Brettonio.

Has there been any talk of rekindling that this season?

There’s always that possibility. I’m back, she’s there. Antonio’s still single and I believe she is. Look, that’s not up to me but if they wanted to entertain that and bring it back, I’d have no problem with them wanting to do that so we’ll see.

You also have a new showrunner this season in Rick Eid. How has it been coming back to the show but with a new voice behind the scenes? Especially after having worked with Matt on both Fire and P.D.?

Yeah, a lot of changes. I wasn’t there last year when most of these changes were happening, which lends to it really feeling like a new show even though it’s season five. Rick Eid is an incredible talent, he’s done so many things and is so experienced with the Wolf shows. He’s someone that, in regards to law enforcement, has done so many projects so this fits with him well. He’s a real hands-on person, he’s there, and just really wanting to make sure that the well-oiled machine that was created, not just keeps running but runs even smoother and finding different ways to get it to go faster and stronger.

We also have Eriq La Salle who has come on now, and he’s not just a really good director but he’s someone who, from ER, knows this world and he knows both sides of the camera. So he knows how to talk to the actors, and he really cares and nurtures the stories and tries to make sure the heart of the show, which is the stories of these people, aren’t getting lost in the action.

Chicago P.D. returns Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 10 p.m. on NBC.

Credit: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/live-feed/chicago-pd-jon-seda-talks-season-5-return-1031816

[cameronwjones]

30 Team-Building Event Ideas

Use these creative team-building events as inspiration for your own engaging and fun company event ideas.

Team-building events are an essential part of a company’s overall health. Taking care to entertain, educate, and strengthen relationships within your business has a lot of benefits. From elevated performance to facilitating personal growth, corporate team-building games and events are a powerful tactic for leveling up your workforce. They can also be a staple to any company’s event strategy. But what, exactly, is a team-building event?

What is a team-building event?

Team-building events are a specific type of b2b event marketing where your primary audience is, in fact, your very own colleagues. The goal of this event type is usually to foster better communication and collaboration amongst team members. It’s also a great time to address and resolve conflicts in the present, while also preventing them in the future.

Team-building events are especially popular among businesses that have recently experienced a milestone—be that a merger, product launch, or round of funding. They can also be very useful in strengthening existing relationships before large projects or quarterly kick-offs to help obtain a more productive group mindset moving forward.

Why is a team-building event valuable?

In addition to the reasons already mentioned, team-building events accomplish what all great marketing strives to do: bring people together in fresh and memorable ways. Your team-building ideas can spark new relationships, create lasting partnerships, and set the tone for future success. They can even resolve tension and improve the productivity of the office as a whole.

Sound too good to be true?

Here are 30 unique and effective relationship building and team outing ideas to inspire your next event.

Team-Building Event Ideas

1. Have a field day.

LexisNexis makes it a priority to get the group moving outdoors when the weather is nice. They recently participated in a camp fun day. Their activities model was similar to what you’d find at a traditional high school field day. They played kickball and had a three-legged race. They even had a chance to shoot some cans. No matter what you choose to do, sometimes team-building events can (and should) be all fun and games.

Why not take advantage of a beautiful local park or the lovely sunshine while you have the chance? It’s a well-known fact that breaking routine and getting fresh air are two easy ways to boost creativity.

2. Surprise them with a treat.

The folks at Lever know they have more than a couple team members with a sweet tooth so they knew exactly what to get them—ice cream. The people ops team surprised their colleagues with this impromptu team-building treat in the middle of the work day when they least expected it, bringing out an ice cream cart that had a variety of toppings and flavors. The event organizers also played fun music and wore USA team colors to celebrate the Olympics at the time. And they even went as far as to plant toothpick flags in each serving with a Lever value written on it.

These organized yet spontaneous moments give employees a chance to take a break, stretch their legs, and enjoy some sweets with coworkers.

Source: Lever

3. Set a cleaning challenge.

Fantastic Cleaners is known for being experts at keeping things fresh and organized, so they looked to their strengths when creating this team-building activity. They wanted to choose an exercise that would require a high level of efficiency and group support. In the end, they settled on a timed cleaning challenge.

With only a limited amount of tools (2 spray bottles and a single roll of paper towels for a team of 10) and 5 minutes on the clock, employees scrambled to clean their own work stations. Resource scarcity encouraged them to help one another while the limited time amped up the stakes.

Source: Fantastic Cleaners

4. Get outdoors.

Even if you’re not able to host an entire day filled with organized games and challenges, you can still shake things up with outdoor team-building activities in more low key, manageable ways. Bonusly noticed that their sales cycles were dramatically slower during the warm summer months. The leadership team decided on creating a new set of routines to help employees get through the summer slump. Since employees already had an established pattern of meeting face-to-face with off-site teams every quarter, they worked hiking into their last iteration. Sticking to local trails and exploring nature together helped them get to know one another in a simple and cost-effective way.

With artisanal Jell-O shots and homemade eggnog in Boulder and après-skate hot chocolate in NYC, we're feeling awfully cozy with our #OfficeHolidayCheer!! pic.twitter.com/6V3Ql7o0z1

— Bonusly (@bonusly) December 20, 2018

5. Compliment each other.

Who doesn’t love to be acknowledged for a job well done? Community Tax knows we all appreciate being appreciated, so they encourage team bonding through peer recognition. This powerful motivation tool encourages employees to be more active participants in all aspects of their work.

The ongoing activity gives teams the option to share examples of something helpful or particularly impressive that another employee has done. Once they’ve nominated their peers, the compliments are publicly acknowledged. Employees bond together and become more productive in the long-term as they know their work is very much appreciated at all levels of their organization.

Source: Glassdoor

6. Film a sketch.

It’s easy to get so caught up with work that you tend to take yourself and your job a little too seriously. But, as MyEmployees soon learned, a little playfulness can go a long way. Pulling inspiration from their weekly book club (another great team-building event idea), the folks at MyEmployees decided to spoof a beloved novel in the form of a sketch video. Needless to say, they were all pleased with the results and the future blackmail fodder they now have on one another. Taking time to be a little goofy while working towards a common goal can help with future projects as well.

Source: Glassdoor

7. Take them to lunch.

Frank Recruitment Group has a standing “Lunch Club”, where employees get to indulge in an all-expenses-paid celebration. This monthly event centers around fine dining and, for top performers, usually involves a trip to major cities like London, New York, and Miami. With large events like these, you can use event software to help attendees engage with one another. Exclusive events can motivate employees to do their best in order to win a tangible experience. Those who qualify to join the “Lunch Club” get to bond over their shared victories and have plenty of inside jokes to pull from once they get back to the office.

Source: Frank Recruiting Group

8. Get crafty.

Blueboard knew they had a talented group on their hands, so for their team-building event they decided to get involved in some arts and crafts. To get the creative juices flowing they enrolled employees in a local block printmaking class. Their team enjoyed learning how to cut stamps, design unique patterns, and make prints on canvas bags that they got to take home afterwards. They also learned who in the group was secretly talented at printmaking. And their keepsakes continue to remind them of the fun and fulfilling experience they shared.

Source: Twitter

9. Start a tradition.

Adeva makes establishing team traditions a foundation of their workplace culture. Instead of using a single event to strengthen their workforce, they foster ongoing team-building with regular lunches, after work hangouts, and national holiday celebrations. It might not be that fancy or unique, but fostering team spirit in this way has helped them grow closer over time. Even the most trivial practices can do wonders for building a team that communicates and works together on a higher level. As long as your audience enjoys it and you regularly host events of this nature, you can basically use any of your other corporate event ideas to inspire a new tradition.

Source: Craft.co

10. Host a happy hour kickback.

Every week, without fail, the Smith Brothers Agency busts out the kegs, ping pong tables, and snacks for a rooftop happy hour. It gives their employees a chance to relax with one another, a luxury they wouldn’t normally get to indulge in. Even if you don’t have a rooftop or ping pong tables to spare, providing free drinks and fun games is possible in any office space. You can even take advantage of your local wine or beer scene by holding a regular tasting.

Source: Facebook

11. Reflect with purpose.

If you’re less intrigued by games and drinks and would prefer a deeper, more profound approach to team-building, look no further than Guidefitter’s weekly check ins. In addition to scheduling regular breaks, the Guidefitter team makes time for both professional and personal recaps every Wednesday. Employees have a chance to share two successes from the past week as well as their goals for the coming week. Giving them space to pause, self-reflect, and share has bonded the Guidefitter team more than any other activity as they continue to foster a culture of trust and respect.

Source: Facebook

12. Have a board game tournament.

Once they caught wind that their team shared a major obsession with board games, BambooHR had no choice but to put together a regular tournament. Rather than limit the fun to a single evening, they now offer an entire selection of games employees can play during their lunch breaks. Every department participates, so players gets a chance to mingle with people they normally wouldn’t see during a normal workday. If you plan to have board game-themed bonding time, you can’t go wrong with a mix of classic and indie games. Pro tip: If you’re not sure what indie games are hot right now, check any of the Reddit board gaming discussion groups or relevant and popular GoFundMe pages for inspiration.

Sometimes you just need to take a break, pull out some board games and nerd out. #bambooligans #breaktime pic.twitter.com/jon80YbMbp

— BambooHR (@bamboohr) August 3, 2016

13. Walk a mile in each other’s shoes.

Blinds Direct believes that strong teams are built on a foundation of mutual respect, solidarity, and understanding. This belief led them to create an event known as “Role Switch”. For an entire day, the web and marketing departments at Blinds Direct were paired up and told to complete each other’s tasks for the day.

During this event, employees were surprised to learn exactly what goes into each other’s roles. Spending the day together required them to work as a team. Each participant ultimately learned the effort their colleague’s role requires and to be more considerate of one another’s workloads when doing projects together in the future.

Source: Instagram

  14. Give them a thrill.

If your team is stacked with adventurous personalities like the ones at SnackNation, you might want to consider adding indoor skydiving to your team-building itinerary. In order to take the literal leap of faith, SnackNation employees pumped each other up and provided support when needed to improve event engagement. These brave employees made memories together, with keepsake videos of their laughter and excited faces to prove it. Even if your group is not into skydiving (of the indoor or outdoor variety) some other sort of physical activity that gets them outside of their comfort zones can have the same effect.

Source: SnackNation

15. Organize local hangouts for remote employees.

One of the most common team-building event obstacles is getting geographically distant employees to feel emotionally close to one another. In order to solve this issue, Buffer dedicates themselves to hosting recurring gatherings in smaller, more local venues. These scheduled hangouts are organized, paid for, and marketed by their core team so the only thing remote employees are asked to do is show up and enjoy themselves.

While working remotely has its lifestyle perks, getting face time with colleagues can make a huge impact on their happiness and encourage them to stay with the company long term. Hosting a lot of small events made it possible for attendees to travel to the location nearest them. For the best results, try communicating with your employees similarly to how you’d carry out any other multi-touch event marketing plan.

Source: Buffer

16. Do a traditional scavenger hunt.

Amazon recently had their summer interns participate in an organized scavenger hunt that helped bond these temporary team members. From trivia challenges, to local treasures, to charity fundraising, there are lots of themes to choose from when planning a team-building event based on scavenger hunts. Friendly competition helps bond teammates and the hunt itself is usually filled with challenges that stretch limits as well as imaginations.

Source: Glassdoor

17. Have a photo challenge.

If you don’t have the resources to hire a professional scavenger hunt company, why not try making your own? Not only is it cost effective, it also gives you a chance to challenge your own creativity. The team at Wrike came up with a series of challenges and silly tasks that required photographic evidence of completion. Things like getting a piggyback ride from a stranger and before and after shots of a beer were just some of the wacky challenges their employees had to capture with their cameras.

Source: YouTube

18. Try something new.

Workshops don’t have to involve the typical account-based event marketing topics. Instead, look to more unique options for educational team bonding, like the kind of events Happy Dancing Turtle likes to throw. Although they are focused on sustainability (and plan a lot of their events around this theme) they also branch out and do activities that are kinda-sorta related, like reiki classes and beekeeping. In doing so they bring new and fresh perspectives to old issues. No matter what you choose to teach them, team-building events centered around educational workshops help employees develop new skills while strengthening their relationships.

Source: Happy Dancing Turtle

19. Subject coworkers to terrible movies.

The employees at Process Street have a hilarious tradition — they nominate terrible films that they secretly love to the group, forcing them to watch and indulge in their own awful taste. The best part is that their remote teams also get to join the fun. Sharing these cherished but horrifyingly bad movies together gives them something to laugh about as they watch their colleagues squirm over outdated cult hits and poorly written blockbusters. It also serves as fodder for future conversations in and outside of the workplace.

Source: Process Street

20. Use technology.

Everyone loves playing with gadgets and gizmos, which is why KneeVR’s Virtual Reality event was such a hit. Teams were able to experience new technologies firsthand by playing with newly released products. You can even plan your event around an industry theme, like the one in this example which was, “Virtual Reality in Healthcare”. Opening their minds to never before seen possibilities expands an employee’s belief in themselves and the capabilities of their team. And don’t forget about event technology.

Source: Cronos

21. Have a Pokemon Go! competition.

Pokemon isn’t just for kids. This free app encourages players to get outside and capture augmented reality pocket creatures to raise and battle. The game’s structure is based on team work, which is why The Next Web chose it as their central team-building activity. They even made the event mandatory, although it didn’t really have to be since employees were in the habit of looking forward to these 30 minute challenges every day. The game gave them a chance to chat and build rapport with one another while indulging in a little healthy competition.

Source: The Next Web

22. Create an autonomous system.

Pandora encourages their employees to form their own team-building groups through shared interests like cold-brew coffee and kayaking. In order to participate, employees must form a group with a minimum number of participants. When they’ve reached that number, Pandora funds their group outings. Because the whole endeavor is free for them, employees have been extremely active in this program, participating and leading multiple groups at a time. The end result is a semi-autonomous method for facilitating team-building events on a consistent basis.

Source: Strava

23. Conduct personal check-ins.

Google understands that their employees have full lives outside of work. Lives that come with ups and downs, requiring them to hide their emotions for fear of workplace backlash. Instead of encouraging them to put on a happy face, Google sends out a ten minute pulse check at the start of the day. The survey is made up of five elements: psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact.

After they’ve completed the pulse, team members get to sit and chat about the test in-person with their colleagues. They then take turns suggesting ways they can help or provide resources that could improve each of the five areas for one another. This practice helps provide an element of emotional safety at work and can easily be duplicated at any company.

Source: Glassdoor

24. Raise the stakes with prizes.

If your team-building activity involves challenges or competition, consider adding some valuable swag to make things a little more exciting. At Insect Shield Repellent Technology, they host a weekly and monthly brainstorm session with all of their employees. Contributed ideas are placed under serious consideration and anyone whose idea gets picked wins a coveted prize. Their employees are encouraged and rewarded for thinking outside of the box. They also get a chance to piggyback off the suggestions of others and work as a team to problem solve.

Source: Insect Shield

25. Create a virtual water cooler.

Communication, however casual, is an important part of establishing employee culture. Which is exactly why Zapier uses a dedicated Slack channel to connect remote and onsite team members. By encouraging them to take breaks and chat in the freeform space, employees have a chance to loosen up and get to know one another. Employees get to share their favorite videos, memes, and gifs, forming inside jokes with people they may have never met in real life, but have to work with everyday.

Source: Zapier

26. Have a snow day.

Snow days aren’t just for school aged kids. If you live and work in a climate that gets cold during winter, follow UKSV Creative Communication’s lead and take your employees for a sled ride. Add other snow-related activities like a snowball fight or a snowman-building competition. Bonus points go to whoever builds a snowman or woman that looks the most like your CEO.

Source: Twitter

27. Organize a group improv class.

If you want to build up your team while having a few good laughs, improv is right for you. The Everywhere Agency decided to join an improv class to learn the basics. As a small business that works intimately with clients, they valued the experience because it helped them become better at active listening. They also learned how to take ideas from others and build on them in positive ways. Participants were also forced to put themselves out there, allowing for mistakes and receiving support from their teammates in return.

Source: Everywhere Agency

28. Get physical.

It makes sense that a gaming company like Genera Games would want to incorporate sports into their team-building events. Given that they spend most of the day seated at a desk, employees look forward to getting outside and playing some quick games of basketball with colleagues. It helps them break up their routine and take a much needed breather. They use professional outdoor courts for their games, but indoor hoops or even a well-placed waste paper basket could do the trick.

Congratulations to the team behind Barbie™ Fashion Closet who are celebrating the game's one-year launch anniversary! In just one year we've already achieved tens of millions of downloads for this game. Play now! https://t.co/aTxsuC8dgP #Barbie #BarbieGame pic.twitter.com/luO3uHoDAp

— Genera Games (@GeneraGames) September 12, 2018

29. Unleash your inner foodie.

The team at Watershed Communications loves to eat, so they developed a team-building event they call Foodie Fridays. The day centers around indulging in a food-related class of some kind. To date they’ve learned how to make chocolate, stomp grapes, pickle green beans, and even roast their own coffee. These experiences are truly unique and employees always look forward to them. Even if your group isn’t interested in food-related topics, finding another common point of interest can help turn peers into teams.

Source: Facebook

30. Take a page from your kid’s (coloring) book.

Plum Organics adds an element of fun to their special team-building meetings. Together they choose a day of the week for creative brainstorming. Then, when the time comes, they bust out crayons, colored pencils, markers, and — as you may have already guessed — coloring books. As the staff comes up with ways to improve their latest project they also color and decompress.

Coloring helps stimulate their minds while they work while also giving other areas of their brain some much needed relief. This example proves that sometimes the simplest team-building activities are the most effective.

Source: Twitter

Key Takeaways: Team-Building Events

There are lots of (big and small) ways to facilitate relationships. The next time you plan a team-building event, keep these examples in mind. Choose the ones that align with your brand and the needs of your employees. You should also find new and exciting ways to engage your audience with ideas not featured here. This list is intended to help motivate and inspire you as you begin your planning. How can you use ideas like mandatory Pokemon Go! outings and put your own unique spin on them? Use your event marketing skills to plan something amazing!

from Cameron Jones Updates https://blog.bizzabo.com/team-building-event-ideas

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A Narrative Arc

What is a narrative arc?

In the broadest terms, the narrative arc is shaped by the beginning, middle, and end of a story. You may already be familiar with one classic example of the story arc: boy meets girl, boy fails girl, boy gets girl again. This may sound oversimplified, and it is. Adding complexity to a basic story arc is part of what differentiates one story from another, even when they’re ostensibly dealing with the same ideas.

Boy gets girl, boy ends up on an island with girl.

It’s sometimes useful to think about the story arc as though you’re setting up a simple dramatic play. Ultimately, you’ve got three acts to tell your story.

In Act One, you set the scene and introduce your audience to the characters, the setting, and the seeds of conflict.

In Act Two, your characters grow and change in response to conflicts and circumstances. They set about trying to resolve the Big Problem. Usually, the conflict will escalate to a climax.

In Act Three, characters resolve the Big Problem and the story ends.

What’s the difference between a narrative arc and a plot?

While the plot is comprised of the individual events that make up your story, your story arc is the sequence of those events. Imagine every scene of your novel summarized on notecards: the entire stack of cards is your plot, but the order in which you lay them out is your story arc.

Thinking about your arc is essential around this point. What if your Scene 1 notecard actually belongs in the denouement? What if you have too many scenes based on internal conflict in a row (leaving the external conflict to wither)? Carefully ordering your plot into a cohesive story arc helps readers navigate your story, and sets expectations that you can either satisfy or disrupt.

If the plot is the skeleton of your story, the narrative arc is the spine. It’s the central through-line marking the plot’s progress from beginning to end.

How about the character arc?

The narrative arc is to the story what the character arc is to a character. The narrative arc involves the plot on a grand scale, and a character arc charts the inner journey of a character over the course of the plot.

Another straightforward distinction: while the story arc is external, the character arc is internal, and each main (and sometimes secondary) character will go through an individual arc.

A metaphorical representation of Superman's internal character arc.

Still, narrative and character arcs are part of a symbiotic relationship. Each plot point in the story arc should bring your characters closer to, or further from, their goals and desires. The circumstances and conflicts your characters face are part of the arc, but the way characters meet challenges and change as a result is “character arc” territory.

How do you structure a narrative arc?

So, remember what we said about the three acts that make up a story arc? If you try to visualize the progression of action in your mind, you may see something that builds up and falls as so:

That’s right . . . a pyramid. (One that's set upon a roller coaster, for your viewing pleasure.)

Freytag’s Pyramid

In 1863, Gustav Freytag, a 19th-century German novelist, used a pyramid to study common patterns in stories’ plots. He put forward the idea that every narrative arc goes through five dramatic stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Freytag’s Pyramid is a useful tool that reveals the structure of many stories, so it’s the framework we’ll be using in the next few sections. Feel free to use the diagram above as a reference as you follow along, or skip to your preferred stage below.

Exposition Rising Action Climax Falling Action Denouement

Exposition

The de-facto introduction to your book, the exposition is Act One of the story arc. You’re setting the table in the exposition: bringing out your characters, setting up the seeds of conflict, and imparting just enough background information to keep the reader clued in on what’s occurring in the story.

Here’s a brief overview of what else the reader should be able to extract from the exposition of your story (which, incidentally, ties neatly into the 5 Ws):

The characters. Who’s in the cast of characters? How can you differentiate among them?

The setting. Where does your story take place? Don’t forget that setting includes time — when does your story take place? What time period?

The mood. How will you set the tone of the novel in the exposition? A romance that suddenly goes sideways due to an alien invasion is going to confuse readers and cloud your book's genre classification.

The size of the exposition depends on your book. The Count of Monte Cristotakes many thousands of words to set the stage, while P.G. Wodehouse wastes no time galloping past the exposition.

Jeeves & Wooster galloping right past the exposition.

A word of caution: don’t mistake “exposition” for “info dump.” Even while Tolkien is busy introducing the reader to an enormous cast of dwarves in The Hobbit, there’s a booming party going on and poor Bilbo’s scrambling to serve tea! Readers will be interested in background information only when it doesn’t distract or detract from the plot. You must balance action and information if you want them to continue flipping the pages.

What’s a good story without a few (or more) wrinkles?

Usually, the rising action is prompted by a key trigger (also known as the inciting incident), which is what says to the reader, “Here we go.” It’s the moment Romeo sees Juliet, or it’s the split second in which Katniss’s sister, Prim, is picked during the reaping. Whatever the circumstances, the key trigger is the event that rolls the dice and causes a series of events to escalate, setting the rest of the story in motion.

As your exposition already set up your characters and conflict, it’s now the job of the rising action to:

Develop the characters while allowing relationships between characters to deepen.

Escalate the conflict and amp up tension.

In Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, everything that occurs after Hercule Poirot steps foot onto the train — up until the murder of R — constitutes the story’s rising action. In the book, this stage’s function becomes twofold: not only does it strengthen the suspense on the train, but the sequence of events also starts revealing the cast of suspects’ relationships and motives to the reader. How your characters respond to the changing situations in this stage will speak volumes about them.

Climax

A good climax will build upon everything earlier — the storylines, motives, character arcs — and package it all together. It’s both the moment of truth for the protagonist (the peak of the character arc) and the event to which the plot’s built up (the peak of the arc). When the outer and inner journeys come together and click, you know you’ve got the beginnings of a winning climax.

On the flip side, a bad climax is the easiest way for a reader to feel cheated and chuck your book at the wall. They’ll use your book as tissue paper in the future, or — worse! — never pick a book of yours up again. So the climax is one of the most important parts of your story arc. While it’s the beginning that sells ‘this novel,’ it’s the climax that sells ‘the next’ novel.

Falling Action

Okay, so you’ve gone and banged out a climax that knocks the reader right out of the park. What next? Your job definitely isn’t over yet, because the story can’t just grind to a stop. (FYI, that would make it every reader’s Public Enemy #1: the cliffhanger.)

Instead, you can follow this old axiom: what goes up must come down.

Let’s say that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone closes up shop right when Harry passes out after defeating Quirrell. But we need to see Harry wake up in the Infirmary and chat it out with Dumbledore; to feel satisfied, we need to see Dumbledore award Neville Longbottom the 10 House points that win Gryffindor the House Cup. In much the same way, you can show the reader the fruits of the protagonist’s toils. Think of this stage as the bridge between the climax and the resolution. How do you get your characters from the climax to Happily Ever After™?

Here are a few things to keep in mind during this stage of the story arc:

Your characters shouldn’t stop moving just because you’ve checked off the climax. The word “action” does exists in “falling action”; make it count.

Usually, this is the stage where authors start resolving any remaining subplots and mini-conflicts. In Shakespeare’s comedies, this is the stage where everyone merrily pairs off with the right partner. Use this space to tie up any and all dangling threads.

Denouement

And after all that? Well, you’ve made it to the denouement. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy are engaged. Bilbo returns to Bag End. Huck Finn settles down with Aunt Sally to be “sivilized.” Ishmael is rescued from the sea. Everywhere, readers breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Also called the resolution, the denouement is just a fancy way of saying that the book is now going to wrap up.

For an example of this stage’s function, take the old-fashioned detective novel. In the detective denouement, the detective gathers everyone in a room and reveals the whodunnit, explaining everything. All questions are resolved, all ends are wrapped up — and the reader can shut your book with peace of mind. Congratulations! That’s the whole arc business done and dusted. Isn’t it?

Well, sometimes. That begs the question of. . .

Does Freytag’s Pyramid work with every story?

History is dotted with novels that bucked the trend. On the Road possesses virtually no narrative arc while To Kill a Mockingbird arguably possesses twonarrative arcs (the arcs of Tom Robinson and Boo Radley). The Trial builds up to a complete anti-climax in the place of a climax; meanwhile, Catcher in the Rye casually drops a sentence in the denouement about (spoiler warning) Holden going to a mental institution before the book ends, abruptly.

All this is to say, there’s plenty of room within the arc to explore and experiment. Disrupting reader expectations isn’t always a bad thing, but successfully straying from the expected course requires comprehensive understanding of the traditional story arc. After all, you can’t break what you can’t build.

Another item of note: although the popular five-act structure of Freytag’s Pyramid does capture the chronology of many books’ plots, be aware that some authors use a three-act structure. One significant change that will result deals with the placement of your climax, which this post over at Vintage Novels analyzes quite thoroughly, through The Lord of the Rings.

Source: https://blog.reedsy.com/narrative-arc/

[flickdirect]

From the beginning, Homeland has pulled viewers in with its intense storytelling and the ability to surprise viewers at any turn. From the romance and drama between Carrie Mathison and Nicholas Brody (and to his eventual demise) to the life-changing directions Danes' character has taken both personally and professionally, viewers have been treated to a full-bodied array of emotions. We have watched the drama play out surrounded by an international backdrop of the highly volatile Muslim World. In season six of Homeland, we see Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes; Stardust) back in the US living in Brooklyn with her daughter. She has a new career working to help Muslims in the United States who have experienced mistreatment by law enforcement. While Carrie has technically escaped the profession of being a CIA Agent, she still finds herself in the center of all its drama. Her actual career is that of a social worker, helping Muslims adjust to life in America amidst much anti-Muslim sentiment. Through her job, she comes across Sekou Bah (J. Mallory McCree; Quantico) who was arrested based on suspicion of being a terrorist. Making things worse, he posted videos of himself at terrorist sites. We also see how Carrie deals with the trauma of having her daughter removed from her care and the behind-the-scenes manipulations in these matters. In other news… Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin; Wonder) and Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham; The Grand Budapest Hotel) still work for the CIA. They find themselves at odds this season, which makes for great TV drama tension. If all that wasn't enough, this season brings us the election of a female president, Elizabeth Keane (Elizabeth Marvel; Gifted). Chaos ensues after the election, and the season ends with many characters' lives in the balance. While this is something we have seen before, it is nonetheless gripping and exciting television that brings with it intensity and drama. Homeland Season six is encoded in with an AVC 1080p transfer in that is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect revolution. The color palette is a bit cool and normally warm colors are displayed as a bit muted. This is a deliberate choice by the producers that helps to convert the more chaotic feeling of this seasons as opposed to seasons past. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix complimenting the video is on par with past seasons and does a wonderful job separating the dialog and the special effects. The mix is well done and effective in drawing the audience into the unfolding drama. Homeland has never been heavy on its special features and unfortunately, Season 6 also continues this trend. Showtime has chosen to only employ three special features entitled: On Location: New York City, A slick marketing piece entitled About Season 6, and then finally a Q&A with the cast and creators during PaleyFest NY 2016. While informative, I always wish there was more than they choose to give.

While focusing on the drama of the Middle East that has been a focal point of this Country for years now, Homeland still has a basic premise at heart - good old human drama which always makes for thrilling television. After six seasons they till manage to make it fresh with new plot lines to continually entice audiences. Great writing, good production values, and a terrific cast make this show a must watch so grab your DVDs today and catch up since season seven has already started!

About Maureen Buccellato Maureen's taste in film and television is across the board; from horror to romantic comedies, drama to science-fiction, she likes them all.

Read more reviews and content by Maureen Buccellato.

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