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solecize · 5 years

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. . . 𝑩𝑨𝑳𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑼𝑺 (PT12) |

— — jung jaehyun is the beloved captain of your university’s basketball team. you’re a freshman in the school ballet company and somehow get roped into giving him dance lessons. the issue is that your brother is lee taeyong aka jaehyun’s on-court rival, who broke his little sister’s heart. that’s where you, revenge, and a little bet come into play.

MAY 12TH. 2:03 PM KST.

with a press of a button on your phone, you drowned out the voices of destiny’s child from jaehyun’s car. he pulled up to her parents’ driveway just moments prior when you directed him to park at the dusty old house. although you had been living away for university since the start of the school year, everything was anything but foreign. the grass was as emerald as your memories, taeyong’s window on the second story was still broken, and you could still remember the number of cracks on the steps to the front door.

“hey, doesn’t lucas live around here, too?” jaehyun questioned, as he turned off the engine.

you nodded. “down there,” you pointed further down the street lined with multiple houses, “at the very corner of the block. we’ve gone to the same school since elementary, you didn’t know?”

the history between you, lucas, and later sooyoung, was a long and storied one that originated in the second grade when you decided to befriend the new transfer student from hong kong with a stutter. he was one of your first true best friends and you’d have to admit that the two of you brought out the best in each other. the past ten years were ones filled with support and a close knit bond. sooyoung only brought you two together closer when she joined the friendship in seventh grade, transferring in from a preppy school in incheon. somehow, since then, the three have you have been steadily walking a similar path in life. it was odd and uncommon, as most childhood friends eventually split off and you could barely name three other people from high school that you kept in contact with.

exiting out of the car, you led the way while jaehyun trailed after you with a shiny bottle of red wine in his hand. he wanted to bring something for your parents and the two of you had almost been late because of a debate about it. (”i don’t want them to know that i drink!”) + (”it’s not like they’re going to assume that plus i’m the one bringing it”) then (”MY MOTHER ALWAYS ASSUMES THE WORSE OF ME, JAEHYUN.”) at the very end, jaehyun insisted because he didn’t want to seem rude.

“just play it cool, jae,” you said to him, but there didn’t seem to be a single trace of nerve on his expression.

he chuckled and nodded, “yeah, alright. do i look alright? i don’t want to look like a bum in front of your parents.”

you licked a bit of your hand and started to approach him, which he immediately attempted to avoid. “what the fuck— get away from me, you weirdo!” jaehyun couldn’t stop laughing, as you tried to fix his messy hair with your saliva. he swatted your hand away several times, tried to grab your wrist, but you ended up wiping your hand on his ear instead of his hair like you intended.

“god, you’re a mess,” the basketball player scrunched his nose up at you jokingly, which you elbowed him for.

at this point, the two of you had made your way right up to the front door. before knocking, you pulled out your phone and immediately turned on the camera app to check your own reflection. he looked at you inquisitively.

“uh, do i look alright?” the last thing you wanted was for your mother to berate your messy appearance as soon as you showed up on her doorstep.

a beat.

the corners of jaehyun’s lips twitched, before stretching out into a tentative smile, almost sheepish. he quickly snatched the phone out of your hand and stuffed it into his jean jacket pocket. you let out a grumble of irritation.

“you look fine. more than.” he quickly corrected himself. “y/n, i hope you know that you always look beautiful.”

the members of your family, both extended and immediate, were spread out across the backyard. the youngest of your cousins were skipping around in the back, some uncles and aunts gathered around the grill with gossip slipping from their lips, while others were relaxing on some benches with glasses of various alcoholic beverages. you joined your parents around a small table, with jaehyun at your side.

“you’re going to law school next year?” your mother gaped at jaehyun, who was busy wiping his mouth with a napkin.

quipping in, your father said, “ah, so is our taeyong!” your brother was a criminology major and originally you thought that it was merely a result of too many late nights binging true crime documentaries. however, taeyong seemed to grow passion for it and it surprised you, as you didn’t realize that he could have passion for anything but basketball.

“oh, you guys have more in common than i thought,” you muttered under your breath, which jaehyun unfortunately caught and he bumped your leg underneath the table. bad temper, basketball, and law. the two could’ve been best friends in another time and place. you grinned at that and jaehyun raised an eyebrow at you, probably wondering what exactly what going on in your head.

“but, you’re a marketing major? mmmm. . .” it had only been an hour or two, but you saw that your mother was already floating on cloud nine after meeting jaehyun and making up fantasies in your head about your wedding.

the door into the house suddenly slid open with a loud squeeeak, revealing the man himself, taeyong. clad in a hoodie and sweatpants, you could already see in your mother’s eyes how much she wanted to tell him off for not even bothering to wear a proper shirt. however, yelps from family members and aunties running up to kiss their “handsomest nephew” was prioritized. you looked over at jaehyun, who simply chugged down his beer at the appearance of your older brother.

“taeyongie,” cooed your father, who pulled in his favourite son into his arms for a hug.

when the crowd finally dispersed, it allowed taeyong to join you and your parents at the small table. he kissed his mother promptly on the cheek and sat down beside her, across from jaehyun. the male gave a tight smile towards you, which you did not return.

taeyong looked towards jaehyun. “hey. mind giving me a help with something in the back?” the request was abrupt and you were immediately suspicious, looking between the two. the two had already caused a ruckus at the last function they were at—hell, the last time the two were in the same room. all of a sudden, jaehyun started to stand up and out of instinct, you grabbed his wrist.

he looked at you and the eyes you were giving him. jaehyun looked at taeyong, then back at you. a small smile appeared on his lips and he leaned down to whisper something in your ear.

“it’s fine. don’t worry.”

the two men disappeared back into the house, ignoring the cries of both of their names coming from you. your parents questioned you as to how the two knew each other, but you were too worried about them leaving the house at peace. thankfully, they mysteriously exited back out just a few minutes later, seemingly in tranquility. the two males sat down at the table once again and began drinking, even conversing with each other. what the hell just happened?

the once clear sky eventually faded into streaks of tea rose and peach, while fluffy ivory clouds danced as if they had all the time in the world. that was exactly how you felt with jaehyun, with each minute frozen at a standstill in your mind. the spring-summer breeze slithered through his fluffy, chestnut locks and his plain white t-shirt. jaehyun walked with one hand in his pocket and the other touching various things in the vicinity: flowers, trees, and sometimes equipment belonging to the playground.

hitting just before the night’s baseball game, the party started to grow tired outdoors and made their way into your parents’ living room where it would be observed. neither you and jaehyun were quite fans of the sport and that led to him suggesting that they make an escape, even it was brief. you easily brought up the park, situated just in between your old middle and elementary schools.

“i was so scrawny as a kid, i could never lift myself up on these.” jaehyun’s laughter was loud, you could hear it from your position on top of the slide. the almost six foot male was really trying out the monkey bars, lifting his knees up to his chest so that he wouldn’t touch the ground, but he still crossed the course without any difficulty.

you pointed towards the spring rider in the design of a dragon. “that was my favourite. i used to stand on it and show off how well i could balance myself on it.”

he hopped off the monkey bars and you had to pretend that you didn’t see a flash of his muscular abdominal when he did so. jaehyun strolled over to where you were, kicking you to move aside. you swore at him under your breath, which he, again, heard and smirked at. nonetheless, you slid over to make space for him and he took a seat beside you.

“your family’s great, you know. and they have a great daughter.” he stuffed his right hand into his pocket again and his left ran a hand through his hair. jaehyun saw a side of you that he never saw before, through your childhood photos and the shelves of ballet trophies in your house. despite your mother’s open criticisms of you, he saw just how proud your family was of you.

you smiled. “i’m glad you came. you really saved my ass today.” the laugh you let out sounded a bit nervous and you weren’t sure why. you were very grateful that jaehyun agreed to coming with you today, otherwise you wouldn’t have known what to do. however, you started to enjoy yourself and forgot that you’d only invited him out of necessity. he charmed your parents today, there was no way that your mother wasn’t going to bother you about jaehyun for months to come. hell, he charmed you.

maybe it was the way that jaehyun flowed so easily with your father, talking about the upcoming nba playoffs and his own college career. there was also the moment when you caught him playing tag with the little ones of the family, letting them catch him and making jokes. it was jaehyun being so free, away from his apparent aggressive demeanor and rude jock stereotype.

“i’m glad i came today.”

a particularly cold wind passed and until that moment, you forgot that you forced yourself into a girly dress to please your mother. you didn’t mean to shiver so loud, but jaehyun instantly noticed and stripped himself of the jean jacket he wore, instead draping it over your shoulders despite your protests. you pouted at him and he chuckled.

looking into your fatigued induced half lidded eyes, jaehyun felt his heartbeat pick up. he didn’t know why, but he felt himself more and more drawn to you, until he was physically moving closer. his hand left his pocket and cupped your cheek instead, forcing you to meet the eyes that you’d been looking away from. this contact was nothing like the way you fixed his posture in the studio or the accidental hand touches you both ignored.

jaehyun’s lips were soft and damp from licking too often. he tasted like spirits and something so familiar that you couldn’t place your finger on. you didn’t realize that this was actually happening, that he’d finally made that first move to kiss you, until you unconsciously pulled him closer in and deepened the kiss. he responded immediately, gripping you by the waist.

you weren’t sure how much time had passed. both of your lips’ were swollen when he pulled away, but he was too concentrated on the fact that the skip of his heartbeats were joined with an empty, heavy feeling at the pit of his stomach. then again, his chest and unsteady breath indicated an additional feeling. the second feeling was completely alien and something told him that he didn’t want to know what it was. the first was unmistakable; it was the feeling of guilt.

tag list: @i-hate-these-people @glitterystanz @jkuwus @jenojae @csillagosegnelkul @imtaehyungry @theloouiisee @ikonictaelien @knisterlicht @seungkwanismyaesthetic @jaemingold @xysabella @sua246 @ireallyjustneedcoffee @p-platonica @just-a-dream-400 @fuckthatfeeling

#well that happened #thanks for 300 followers !!! :")#— BALANCE OF US.#nct #nct au #nct social media au #nct reactions #nct scenarios #nct imagines #nct angst #kpop social media au #jaehyun x reader #jaehyun imagine #ik the last written part was in third pov but i mean #lmao?

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Top New YA Books in March 2020

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

Type: Novel (Second in series) Publisher: Balzer + Bray Release date: 2/4/20

Den of Geek says: Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation was a buzzy historical zombie novel with a keen awareness of racial dynamics in Civil War-era America. The sequel looks to be just as intense as the first.

Publisher’s summary: The sequel to the New York Times bestselling epic Dread Nation is an unforgettable journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America.

After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother.

But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodemus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880s America.

What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears—as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her.

But she won’t be in it alone.

Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene. But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by—and that Jane needs her too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not.

Watching Jane’s back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it’s up to Katherine to keep hope alive—even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her.

Buy Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland on Amazon.

Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye

Type: Poetry Publisher: Greenwillow Books Release date: 2/11/2020

Den of Geek says: This unique book of poetry seems perfectly suited to today’s environmental and humanitarian issues. What happens to the things we throw away? What happens to the people who aren’t wanted? The metaphor is rich.

Publisher’s summary: Acclaimed poet and Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye shines a spotlight on the things we cast away, from plastic water bottles to those less fortunate, in this collection of more than eighty original and never-before-published poems. A deeply moving, sometimes funny, and always provocative poetry collection for all ages.

“Nye at her engaging, insightful best.”―Kirkus (starred review)

“How much have you thrown away in your lifetime already? Do you ever think about it? Where does this plethora of leavings come from? How long does it take you, even one little you, to fill the can by your desk?”―Naomi Shihab Nye

National Book Award Finalist, Young People’s Poet Laureate, and devoted trash-picker-upper Naomi Shihab Nye explores these questions and more in this original collection of poetry that features more than eighty new poems. “I couldn’t save the world, but I could pick up trash,” she says in her introduction to this stunning volume.

With poems about food wrappers, lost mittens, plastic straws, refugee children, trashy talk, the environment, connection, community, responsibility to the planet, politics, immigration, time, junk mail, trash collectors, garbage trucks, all that we carry and all that we discard, this is a rich, engaging, moving, and sometimes humorous collection for readers ages twelve to adult.

Buy Cast Away: Poems for Our Time on Amazon.

Rebelwing by Andrea Tang

Type: Novel Publisher: Razorbill Release date: 2/25/20

Den of Geek says: Robot dragons? What more to say? The fantastical war story setting and high-energy cast of characters looks like it’ll make this one a good read for fans of Pacific Rim.

Publisher’s summary: Things just got weird for Prudence Wu.

One minute, she’s cashing in on a routine smuggling deal. The next, she’s escaping enforcers on the wings of what very much appears to be a sentient cybernetic dragon.

Pru is used to life throwing her some unpleasant surprises–she goes to prep school, after all, and selling banned media across the border in a country with a ruthless corporate government obviously has its risks. But a cybernetic dragon? That’s new.

She tries to forget about the fact that the only reason she’s not in jail is because some sort of robot saved her, and that she’s going to have to get a new side job now that enforcers are on to her. So she’s not exactly thrilled when Rebelwing shows up again.

Even worse, it’s become increasingly clear that the rogue machine has imprinted on her permanently, which means she’d better figure out this whole piloting-a-dragon thing–fast. Because Rebelwing just happens to be the ridiculously expensive weapon her government needs in a brewing war with its neighbor, and Pru’s the only one who can fly it.

Set in a wonderfully inventive near-future Washington, D.C., this hilarious, defiant debut sparkles with wit and wisdom, deftly exploring media consumption, personal freedoms, and the weight of one life as Pru, rather reluctantly, takes to the skies.

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The post Top New YA Books in October 2020 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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clarabosswald · 7 years

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the last 24 hours or so have been strange

i’ve at long last reached the point in my life in which my national service is over (i’d talk more about it but it involves so much shit i don’t even know how to translate that i’m not gonna begin to try to) and since trying to resume my service was The Life Goal for the last few months and now it’s gone my mind suddenly got weirdly clear and i started thinking about a lot of shit and going to mental places i haven’t gone to in ages so like for instance a few days ago i stumbled upon a livejournal dedicated to being against the inheritance cycle book series and everything around it and like when i was a kid/teen i used to be fiercely obsessive about the first couple of books but when the rest of the series came out my interest for it just died and for a long time i didn’t quite understand why that happened and i just didn’t even think about the books for like... years then i accidentally found that livejournal and browsed through it out of curiosity then i realized that the writing just got really bad and that’s why i stopped being interested in it i just didn’t understand that that’s what i felt bc i naturally tend to look at things optimistically and it’s funny bc i was very much aware of critiques of the books back when they were my things but i was in different mental states back then and now (also by now i’ve also seen star wars and read lotr so i understand the plagiarism aspect much better) so this whole pointless story leads to me spending the last couple of hours thinking intensely about writing and how when i was a kid i was an avid writer and how i used to plan whole novels in my head and how what i did like about the inheritance cycle was the concept of the dragon+rider bond (the basics of it, not really how it was written eventually in the books) and how i’d really love to write about a bond like that (which is also similar to the person-daemon bond in hdm) but it just feels very... uninspired or unoriginal? i feel like i do have original things to say about it but i feel like no one would really find it interesting or original which is a huge mental obstacle to me and also why i don’t actually write - the aspects of what’s considered successful or interesting and how people view your creations, it’s terrifying to me (much more in writing than in drawing, which i’m more comfortable with) it also brings me back to the whole “well now that national service is behind you what are you gonna do with your life” shit that is getting thrown at me the last few days (mainly from my dad) and like... when i was in high school i reached the conclusion that i’m gonna be a teacher and studying education, that was the one thing that i was passionate about enough and that i could probably make a living out of but then i talked about it with my boss at the animal shelter and she said “i don’t think you’re capable of keeping that sort of timetable, having to come to school every morning, you’re terrible at that. you should freelance.” and damn does she know VERY well EXACTLY how bad i am with mornings and keeping times. and i realized that she was 100000% correct. so it brought me back to what i’m really passionate about in life. and basically all i can think of is 1. art and 2. animals. so i could go study art? which i was kind of seriously considering to do (it was like, study art for fun, then go study education as a career). and i even looked up how much tuition costs and requirements and everything. but when i shared it with my mom she repeated something i knew very well but tried not to think about - you don’t make money with art. not really. you can try. some people do. but it’s hard and you can very easily just fail. which kind of brings me back to my fear of my creations just not being interesting or original enough to anyone. so there’s animals - i could study training. for both dogs and cats. i’ve had a year and a half of experience in this world so far, i don’t intend to quit it anyway, i’m passionate about it. i could make it into a job. it’s certainly very freelance-y. there are a lot of dog trainers, but not many cat experts. obviously my techniques would be exclusively force free. i think i could absolutely make it work, social anxiety and all - it’s much easier for me when there are animals involved. i could even study animal behavior at uni as bonus. having that kind of credentials would make advertising myself even easier. honestly what’s mainly stopping me from proudly taking this route in life is that i feel like my parents that this kind of job is stupid and not a serious career and that i can’t live off it. and right now it’s making me hesitate. they had a similar attitude back when it seemed like i was gonna drop high school. then i finished high school. but this seems bigger. it’s my life, my job, my first job. so naturally i’m anxious as fuck. i can also mention yet again that i have this stupid passion for acting and this nagging need in the back of my head to just try it out. it’s not a case of a childhood dream of being famous. it’s me in my teens getting seriously exposed to tv shows for the first time in my life and suddenly realizing the fascinating subtleties in acting. how it’s a different kind of storytelling. mainly the part that involves portraying subtle emotions is what really fascinates and draws me. and i used to be really good at reading out loud during school, not just saying words but telling a story and conveying emotions. i can’t help but feeling super drawn to it. but it’s acting. it’s The Job that 0.1 percent of the population can even hope to succeed in. especially in a tiny country like this. especially when it’s me, a 21 year old (too old to start, maybe? it’s always about people doing this since they were kids), who can’t sing, with ever-nagging social anxiety, and above all - fat, ugly, repulsed makeup and jewelry - the antichrist of the glam world of acting. so yeah. i’ll keep dreaming about giving it a chance. and it won’t happen. also i guess i’m drawn to translating as well but that’s a world i know almost nothing about and for some reason doesn’t seem to me like a life-sustaining kind of job. like at all. which is why i never bothered even looking into it. although at this point maybe i should honestly. anyway i guess the point of this whole train of thought vent thing is that i’m at a crossroads in my life which is a point i haven’t been in in a very long time and just like last time i feel utterly fucking terrified and under a lot of fucking pressure. and i just needed to spill it out. it didn’t help much in terms of making my thoughts any clearer or anything. but there’s small relief in knowing it’s not exclusively just inside my head anymore. and yeah feeling lost is Fun

#this is long and rambly and makes no sense YAY

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baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa · 8 years

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ALRIGHTY it’s review time! I’ve finally finished RTTE Season 4 and MAN was I pleased. A vast improvement from the last two, much closer to the first season in quality and good enough that I think it could edge towards canon. From what I’ve seen from the fandom, there’s still a lot of controversy-- some people loved it and some still hated it. I have SO MUCH I could say about it, especially since a lot of the plot lines are continued from season 3 (which I did not finish, due to extreme annoyance and disappointment), but this will already be a long post with me condensing my thoughts. I tried narrowing it down to some of my favorite parts and some of my least favorite parts, but all in all, it was a fantastic season. If this is what the writing team can do, consider my expectations raised. So without further ado:

Cat’s Top 5 Best and Worst of RTTE S4

Best of the best

5. While the overall quality of the season was amped up, there were a few small shining stars that definitely excited me. The first is Ruffnut... who finally seems to be rounding out as a character! We get a lot of comedy relief from the twins and chicken, and this season was no different. Macey’s viking funeral cracked me up. But what I loved most was the way the twins seemed to grow. Especially Ruffnut. We get to see her trusting her intuition in Gruff Around the Edges, recognizing that her brother had been misplaced before anyone else. We get to learn from her interaction with Gruffnut that she values humility and honesty. And then later, in Twintuition, it’s Ruffnut that urges her twin to prioritize the dragon riders over Macey. It’s Ruffnut that humorously and bravely stands up to Viggo in his interrogation. They’re small steps for the twins, especially Ruff, but I think this season has been more characterization than any season so far.

4. My next favorite part was a little bit of a selfish, fangirlish kind of pleasure. We got to see Hiccup in tight black leather. I almost didn’t include this in my faves because it’s such a ridiculous little thing, but it made my heart do a pitter patter. Why? Because we’ve never seen Hiccup in black leather, but how much have we as a fandom loved to read and write about Hiccup in black leather? I can think of a few fics off the top of my head, including my own Sacrifice AU. There’s just something so dark and mature about putting Hiccup in black-- it takes him from our scrawny noodle cinnamon roll to a mysterious, vigilante sinnamon roll. It allows the imagination to play with ideas that we as a fandom (and, selfishly, me as a writer) never expected to get to see on screen. It’s not something I thought we’d get from our Y-7 show. And it’s not just the leather, it’s his demeanor sometimes. The tension and angst, the occasional ruthlessness, the table flipping, my goodness! Our baby Hiccup is growing from a noodley family-friendly dork to an actual young man with emotions that aren’t watered down by the PG rating. I didn’t think all of his outbursts were 100% in character, but at least for the most part, we’re getting some characterization that fits the tone of the first and second movies.

3. The last three of my five faves were-- I’m sure expectedly-- related to the Hiccstrid. Gods alive, it’s about time, right? For a couple of years now we’ve been impatiently waiting for the romantic development. Not just as squealing shippers who love a good romance, but as fans who respect the timeline of the canon movies. After season three, I’d started to give up hope, but S4 brought it back for me. I could do a whole post alone about the Hiccstrid, but for now I’ll mention my #3. I loved the riders’ reactions to the couple. Was it realistic that Fishlegs caught them kissing and thought-- strategy meeting? No. Was it goofy that the twins thought either Astrid and Hiccup were dying? Of course. And was Snotlout’s gambling theory totally out there? By Thor, yes. But I loved every minute of it. I loved the silliness, the obliviousness. My boyfriend and I died laughing at the twelve-step program line, and at every comment Tuffnut made about Hiccup’s frailness. It was light, it was fun, and I think it was super appropriate for the series. In my headcanon, I’ll probably keep a more mature take on it, but I think using a comedic approach was the best way for the writers to handle it.

4. I loved Blindsided. Which is where, I think, most of the fandom divides. You either adored it or you hated it. I have just one thing I didn’t like about it-- I thought it wrapped up too quickly. Other than that, I thought it was one of the strongest episodes for Astrid’s characterization in the whole series. Like Ruffnut, she kind of gets shafted so far as real plot focus goes. She’s too often shoved in the boiling cauldron in a volcano with Throk, too often the damsel in distress. Always falling off of something, always nearly getting hit by something. This episode was the first time that I didn’t roll my eyes and say, “Here we go again.” Because it didn’t just toss in a knight in shining armor moment for Hiccup. We saw Astrid lose her edge, her confidence, and then spit her self-consciousness in the face. My absolute favorite part of the season, even more than the kisses, was when Astrid jumps into combat with the Triple Strike and Hiccup sighs, “Of course she’s not going to hide. What was I thinking? She’s Astrid.”

The whole episode was just unapologetically her. It had her stubbornness, her wittiness, her relationship with Stormfly. We saw her be vulnerable without being a damsel, saw her take on danger despite a disadvantage. And we got a situation where Hiccup and Astrid were forced into close but casual physical proximity. Not just the “oops I fell on top of you” trope, but Hiccup guiding Astrid, her reaching for him. Why is that important? Because for the RTTE hiccstrid that they wrote, the two are very teenagery. Can’t be close or touching, because omg we’re just friends. But this kind of put them into a situation where I think they could subconsciously recognize how natural and comforting each other’s touch is. We see hand-holding, close contact, Hiccup sitting by her bedside (”until she falls asleep”, wink wink), and Astrid holding tight to him during flight. The biggest complaint I’ve heard is that the hiccstrid was rushed, but I think this episode is the biggest evidence that it isn’t (comparatively speaking). We get a few nods of hiccstrid in the first few episodes, but once Blindsided happens, it’s all bets are off. They realize how easy it is, how heart-pounding and real their relationship has become. That there will always be a Hiccup and Astrid. It’s not just a childhood flirtation anymore, it’s a bond that’s been long forming. And I think her blindness in this episode did a great job of showing her off as a warrior, but it also did a lot to connect the bridge from friends to more-than.

5. The one thing I did have an issue with, hiccstrid wise, was all the random setup the writers did in the last couple of episodes. What they were trying to do was position everything for Viggo to make Hiccup choose between Astrid and his passion for the dragons. But we had Hiccup and Astrid say, “Sorry I got so worked up” and “I just can’t focus when you’re in trouble”, but we never actually saw them getting worked up or losing focus because of the other being in danger. I thought that was weird and a little poorly executed. BUT while I didn’t like how it was set up, and while I thought that it was cheesy that once again Astrid was captured by the villain, I loved the way Viggo mentioned the future. I think his exact words were, “Are you really going to sacrifice your future-- all the wonderful years you have ahead of you-- for that?”

I mean, holy crap! Do you get any better foreshadowing from a group of writers? The villain calls Astrid his future, and Hiccup doesn’t blink twice. He doesn’t amend the statement, or go off on a tangent about protecting the dragons. That said, how did Viggo know what was going on with Hiccup and Astrid when the gang hardly did? But whatever, I thought it was a very poignant way of confirming that this is the same couple from the sequel that are clearly headed for marriage and a forever kind of love. They didn’t pansy dance around it or treat it like the new relationship that it-- at a glance-- is. They knew that hiccstrid saw each other as end game and they treated it as such.

And the worst...

1. Season four wasn’t without its flaws. There were a couple of spots where the writing was a little rushed, a couple where it was a little lazy. But as opposed to the past couple of seasons, which had one or two good episodes in a sea of awful, this season just had a few episodes that fell flat for me. One of those was Notlout. Question: How many times have we seen Spitelout be a jerk to his son? A thousand. How many times have we seen Snotlout react by being bullheaded and reckless? A thousand. I felt like Notlout was just this season’s reiteration of the same typical Snotlout-centric episode that they do almost every go around. Spitelout says something nigh treasonous, Snoutlout gets insecure, the gang and their missions are thrown into shambles because of his need to lead, and in the end he realizes that the team does value him after all. We get it. It wasn’t a bad episode or anything, but it’s so repetitive and unnecessary at this point. Would have much rather seen more of the twins or Berk.

2. Episode two that I really disliked-- The Longest Day. I thought it was silly. Apparently this week or whatever of sunlight is not unusual for Berk, so why was everyone so rattled and unsure of how to behave? Why did everyone just decide to stay up for 24, 48, 96 hours instead of boarding up windows and sleeping? That’s what people who actually live so close to the north pole do. And why on Thor’s flat earth would Hiccup send the riders home to “do something easy” and wash their dragons instead of getting some sleep in the first place? If you’re going to take a cultural event like the sunny and dark seasons of the north as inspiration, actually let your fictional nation utilize realistic means of coping. It was ridiculous and completely blown out of proportion. Frankly just bad. Sleeplessness causes silliness and moodiness and clumsiness, yes, but the extremes they took it to was really a mockery of the characters, in my opinion. It wasn’t funny, it was badly written. Did not enjoy it at all.

3. That was actually not my least favorite episode, though. The one that had me scowling at the screen and rolling my eyes and sighing with exasperation was Out of the Frying Pan. Could there be anything worse than dumbed down plot and terrible resolution? I’ll just make a list of things that were absurd. Hiccup and Fishlegs being stunned that they don’t think exactly the same. An uneccessarily difficult goal-line of a mysterious hatching ground in the middle of a volcano. The Eruptodon not being able to fly the egg to the mysterious hatching ground even though it’s been able to do so for a millennia of generations. HIccup, dragon master, thinking a NIght Fury was better suited for a lava-filled volcano. The fact that once he tried and failed, their first thought wasn’t immediately oh let’s try Fishlegs’ way. The necessity of Hiccup going with Legs and Mala into the volcano. The impatience of Throk and Astrid, which led to the idiotic idea of swinging a GIANT METAL CAULDRON over an active volcano with-- what-- a rope? Mala being so freaking one track minded, instead of humanizing her with some doubt or fear. The giant metal bowl tarzanning across the volcano. The damsel in distress moment where Astrid is fainting from the heat. Have I mentioned the giant cauldron in the lava??? LITERALLY nothing special about the lava in the hatching chamber. They could have chucked the damn egg into the lava pit and it would have been just fine. So many plot holes, so much lazy writing, such poor characterization. I was incredibly worried that the season had just taken a page out of season 3′s book. The only redeeming moment of the episode was where the mama Eruptodon was magically revived by some dank herbs from Throk.

4. The only real failure I found in the over-arcing plot lines (not the individual plot lines of each episode) was just how quickly the whole Viggo and Ryker thing was wrapped up. For such an adversary, they were disposed of a little casually. Ryker I guess was eaten by the whirlpool of lunch. Even though he and his crew have been shipwrecked a dozen times over the series and always seem to magically make it out alive. And then Viggo is expected to be this big mental combatant, but suddenly he’s chucked into a weird basement hole (instead of killed by his supposedly brutal brother?) and we have this back and forth of will he betray us? maybe not? oh yeah, he’s definitely backstabbing us? Nevermind haha he’s chucking a knife into the ocean. If we hadn’t had such a tease with whether or not Viggo was on the dragon riders’ side, it would have had much more of an impact when he actually did take Astrid hostage and demand the dragon eye. They set up the betrayal between the brothers well, with various scathing comments from Viggo in the approaching episodes, but the whole thing was a little confusing and rushed. In the end, Viggo falls into the volcano (at least he didn’t jump into a cast iron fishbowl), and we’re led to assume that he’s doneso. Maybe he lived? Maybe not? I think they were trying to be poetic with him jumping after the dragon eye, but it just came off a little poorly executed.

5. And that brings me to my last point. I needed more episodes! This season took me back to the first. It was exciting and fun, but there was also real emotion from the characters and real peeks into how they operate. We got the group using teamwork, Hiccup becoming a leader, the politics and dangers of dragon poaching, and a few hilarious moments in between. Like I said, there are a few weak points to the season, but it was a much stronger and much more satisfying set of episodes. We got to see a lot more realness from the teens, and finally finally some Hiccstrid that could be considered canon (if you squint at their ages). Even the Dagur and Heather side story didn’t annoy me (Why? Because they weren’t flat mary sues with traumatic backstories blah blah blah), which says a lot. Over all, this season did what it was supposed to-- it amused me, got me invested, and made me hungry for more. It made me impatient for season five, which is such a different emotion than what I was feeling at the end of season three. Now I’m sucked back in and all I can do is wait with bated breath.

#httyd #rtte #rtte spoilers #race to the edge #race to the edge spoilers #cat rants #gosh i miss talking about these doofuses

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