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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Ducktales: Woo-oo! Review! or From the Top

Hello all you happy people! And to those of you just joining this blog, welcome I review ducks, other animated shows and comics... and today’s review is special for me. For a number of reasons. For starters it’s a reminder how far i’ve come. See I always wanted to be a reviewer, ever since high school when a friend showed me a certain online reviewer whose now dead to me, and opened me up to a world of much better reviewers who i’m still fans of to this day, and ones who came after them , and after that and so on and so on. I so badly wanted a community to belong to I struggled to be a youtube reviewer but frankly lacked the talent or self confidence back then to try, so my attempts over the decade were a series of stops and starts. Of me starting to find my niche writing only to stop because I hated myself so much, and still struggle with that, i’d tell myself I could never do it, I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t funny enough and no one cared. I kept shutting myself down AGAIN AND AGAIN, for far too long.

But that all changed a year ago next month: I’d long been a fan of the Ducktales Reboot. I was caustiously optimistic when it was announced. The optimism came from a deep abiding love of scrooge as a character despite not having dove into his comics that deep, I didn’t have an easy way at the time, thanks to life and times and what comics I had read, and was excited to see a fresh reboot closer to the comics with my eternal boy Donald Duck back in the main character. The caution.. came from the fact that at the time we’d gotten a string of bad to medicore reboots: Teen Titans GO, Powerpuff Girl, and Ben 10 which started pretty meh but has turned into alirght from some of the later episodes I saw. I wanted to be hyped to all hell but I had no proof this wasn’t going to be another dumbed down reboot. Then comic con came, the first teaser poster dropped, and my skepticism died.

It was perfect: a barksian art style with it’s own twists! Donald full on display! And best of all the triplets FINALLY had not only unique outfits but personalities! I’ve long went on in my reviews about how much that annoyed me and while it worked for the barks comics ever since then it’s just felt like a waste to have three characters there.. and not even the SLIGHTEST difference.

My anticipation only grew with the full trailer, the promo posters as more and more info showed how good this series would be, how unique it’d be, and how much tw as taking what made the comics great, giving us a better distalation of that while still being very much it’s own beast. And once this episode dropped.. that faith was unfounded. Woo-oo! is without hyperbole, one of the best pilots i’ve seen, one that introduced the entire main cast perfectly, gets the series tone and mission statment out just right and in general set the stage for one of the best shows of the 2010′s (and 2020′s, even if it only lasted a year and some change). Wheras Teen Titans GO actively tried to take a dump on it’s source material, they thankfully have stopped that but it dosent’ make those early years any less grating, Ducktales was a breath of fresh air that honored the past while making i’ts own future. I tried talking about it but it was all in other failed attempts at reviewing: solo podcasts, my breif second video review career.. stuff no one rightly cared about and I just couldn’t get the hang of.

So this is where we loop back to last year: I decided to finally try and cover it one more time, not realizing this would be my last chance as it came out anyway, and since I was doing text reviews but my output had slid in the new year, I decided to review Season 3 as it came out. If it bottomed out I could always stop.... and I just never did. I kept going, eventually finding new fans, a patreon (The other one’s an old friend of mine), and not only got paid doing what I love.. but found some peace. I reviewed other shows as they came out, covered things i’d wanted to cover for years like life and times, scott pilgrim and x-men,. I covered other shows as they came out, found people willing to talk over my opinions and found my niche at long last.

So that’s why the long speech folks: After almost a year of reviewing i’m properly covering the start of something that made me happier than I had been in a long time and gave me hope during one of the worst periods of ALL our lives. Something i’ve wanted to cover since I finally got started last year, and something truly amazing. So i’d be honored if you’d join me under the cut as I talk about the genesis of one of the best series Disney has ever put out.

Behind the Scenes Stuff: Most details I could find were sparse. it took going back to the first month the show came out and looking at a LOT of unrelated questions to finally find out Frank and Matt outright pitched the show. This dosen’t suprise me as both are huge ducktales fans with Matt having drawn his own duck comics as a kid and Frank taking it an extra mile having sang the theme song in his first grade talent show, worked it into his vows and got his first daughter’s first word to be “Woo-oo”. It’s very clear this show as a labor of love for them something they dreamed of Disney made possible.

Otherwise I don’t have much on the genisis of the show: It was in the earliest ideas going to be a revivial but Frank and Matt both decided against it , deciding it’d be unfair to expect kids from 30 years after the original to know the source material, and instead just starting it over outright, which was the right call especailly with Alan Young’s passing.

Design wise I found quite a bit of concept art thanks to one website, and it’s incredibly intresting. This is why i’ve really gotten into art books: I like seeing this early stuff what characters used to be, figuring out or outright hearing from the creators mouths why they changed it that sort of thing.

Starting off we have some early designs for Donald, with him wearing the sailor suit as a kid but his Quackshot outfit as an adult, something I honestly wish they’d kept but get why they changed it: The iconic sailor suit both helps contrast him with della and fits his reluctance to adventure in season 1 more. I still wish that they worked the Quackshot outfit in somewhere, but they worked in so damn much, it’s hard to complain> Though I probably will make a list of “things I wished they’d worked” in at some point and i’d be lying inf I siad my mind wasn’t currently turning the gears to figure out how to work this into a fanfic. Oohhh maybe as Dewey’s outfit as an adult but blue, obviously.

Next we have Donald settled more into his final apperance as well as the boy’s first outfits. As you can tell from both of these the show originally went more with the classic art style before getting the one we’re familiar with now, one I love by the way and was made to combine a classic cartoon style with the visual of the comics. Donald originally had his classic outfit before they transitioned to the more barks style one, a good call.

The interesting bit though is obviously the boys original outfits which i’m honestly bummed didn’t make it for Huey and Louie, not so much Dewey minus the visor. I do get the changes though: The hoodie Dewey had fit WAY beter on Louie, and the lumberjack shirt didn’t quite fit the nerdier huey. Still look nice. Dewey’s is okay, but only the visor is something I really gregret them removing same with louie’s fedora. It would’ve been neat ot keep the hat thing, but have each hat be unique. Likely they simplified things to make animation easier and simply removed the hats for some reason, but it’s nice ot see these more detailed original drafts and it is VERY interesting to find that differentiating the triplets was something planned from the earliest concept art. Though given Matt and Frank said in interviews they wanted a more natural family feel, it’s not a huge surprise.

Scrooge like everyone BUT the boys thus far, naturally also had his original outfit at first, but like he ended up doing in the series rotated a bit, if not as much in the final product. We also see a protoype for his final design, the old coat but with a jacket over it in the last image. I also notice Donald seemed a lot more like his old comics self in the concept art with quackshot!donald.

Like everyone else, Webby and Launchapd were originally their 87 deisgns, though Launchpad’s slightly diffrent jacket and green scarf were changed from the start. Webby is the closest to her 87 design, and as shown in the previous Lena concept art from my “Spies Like Us and Dime after Dime” double feature, she still had her new personality. More on that in a bit.

Finally we have Flintheart, whose design is a bit diffrent from 87: He was a chub from day one it appears, though they’d exagerate it, and his beard was a bit longer at first like his other incarnations.

Beakly is largely unchanged form 87, only given a coat, which would gradually be mofidied, much liekt he boys into her current outfit.

As you can tell Beakly, Webby and Launchpad were all there from day one as they wanted them from the original ducktales just updated.

Production wise they wanted to go handrawn, chose the style they did to have something close to the comics that felt classicly aniamteda t the same time, I feel they succeeded and wanted a show that felt like the original. I do think this show has it’s own feel but it does feel ducktales. I badly hope for an artbook at some point though as this show probably hada LOT more intresting concept art. Seriously Disney I will PAY YOU to look at your neat art. Please.

So they created a fully formed world and put the characters in it, wanting it to feel like the world had existed before and had throughly been explored and letting our young heroes be the watson to Donald and Scrooge’s holmes.

Finally Della was indeed part of the initial pitch and a core idea from day one as every family has secrets and Della felt like one that had been lurking around the fringes of the story for 80 years. The rest of the production stuff i’ll weave in as we go but first one last stop, the STELLAR voice cast, none of whom outsideo f Tony i’ve talked about before sooooo...

The All Star Cast

The casting was outstanding here, with Matt admitting the cast brought a LOT to the characters, especially Ben Schwartz whose taken on Dewey was so unique and intresting they actually rewrote some of his dialouge for the pilot to fit this version better. This is far and away one of the best casts in western animation, most coming from comedy backgrounds and one or two coming from a voice acting background, but all bringing their absolute best. And since our main 8 are all in the pilot let’s run them down along with Keith Ferguson shall we?

Playing everyone’s faviorite billionare scotsman and one of the very few to ever do so, we have David Fucking Tennant. David was their “First and only choice” and for good reason: David is a talented actor with a MASSIVE amount of stage, tv and audio drama credits. His biggest and best known role is playing the 10th Doctor on Doctor Who, which while not my faviorite (That’d be matt smith, as he’s both the one I came in on and hte one who got me hooked) he’s still VERY close second and damn talented and I need to watch more of his tenure. Outside of that just to condense it to his ongoing roles on stuff and bigger roles: Filmwise he’s had starring roles in the Fright Night remake, You, Me and Him, Fish Without Bicycles and Bad Samartains, and is set to do a voice for the upcoming Loud House Movie, which excites me to no end.

TV wise where most of his roles have been he got his first big starring role on the Telly with the BBC Mini series Taking Over the Asylum in the late 90′s. He’d go on to make a career out of doing mini’s for a while, also taking part in He Knew He Was Right, The Quatermass Experiment Remake, Casanova, Secret Smile.. and Blackpool. I saved Blackpool for last before we move into the Who era as if you’ve never heard of it.. it’s REALY fucking weird. It’s a jukebox musical about a man who wants to make Blackpool, a real city, into the new vegas and Tennat plays a cop investigating a case around the guy and also trying to get with his wife because they used to date and because our lead is philandering jackass. That’s already kinda nuts.. but then you get to the fact the songs are sung OVER the original songs instead of making a new version of them. It’s surreal to be sure but if you can find it it’s worth it for the handful of good numbers and how weird it looks and you can find clips of the songs on youtube if your intrested. Here’s a starter.

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Your also welcome. He’d go on to play Detective Alec Hardy in Broadchurch to critical aclaim as well as be a part of it’s short lived american remake, would play the Fugitoid in tmnt 2007, Kilgrave in Jessica Jones, one of his few post who roles i’ve seen or heard besides Scrooge and easily some of his best work he NAILS that purple bastard perfectly, would make his own show Staged about a fictional version of himself putting on a Stage play that’s still ongoing, and is currently , along with Ducktales as it wraps up, the voice of Lord Commander on Final Space, with the character returning this season judging by the trailers to fan delight and terror. He’s a VERY talented actor and voice actor and I do hope he goes on to do more and more voice work in years to come as, with his background in radio, he was born for it.

He was also born for this roll, playing Scrooge perfectly and easily matching Alan Young in quality, not a small feat and i’ts VERY obvious why he was their one and only choice.

Next up is another legend, Tony Anselmo who we’ve talked about before when I covered legend of the Three Cablleros: He’s been Donald’s voice since shortly before Ducktales, hasn’t done much else but given he’s THE voice for the character and this show let him show off one hell of a range with teh voice, he dosen’t really need other credits. The man is a treasure and I fear loosing him one day and fear for whoever replaces him as they have a LOT to live up to.

Getting into the triplets, we’re going by age so starting off we have Huey, voiced by Danny Pudi. Like most of this cast aside from Toks Ogladyve and Beck Bennet (Who I probably HAD seen on SNL but didn’t really know or look out for him on there till after Ducktales), I not only knew Danny but was a huge fan of his going in. This is due to his breakout role on the glorious sitcom Community, which sadly only had a handful of i’ts cast show up on this show. I mean you got Lin Manuel Miranda I’m sure Donald Glover would’ve said yes too. He grew up with Ducktales. Regardless his role as meta guy Abed was easily the best of the cast on that show, with Glover as troy a very close second and the two working at their best as a duo. Outside of that he’s had a few roles being a regular on Powerless, which I forgot existed and currently on Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, and shockingly hasn’t done a ton of voice work. And given his performance as huey was one of the best parts of this show he REALLY, REALLY SHOULD. Please Danny. He’s also a loving husband, father and surprisingly a marathon runner. Never would’ve guessed.

Next up is SNL Alumn of 9 years, Bobby Monynihan. Bobby is naturally best known for that, my faviorite role of his being Ass Dan. That’s right bitch you know he’s going to live fore..

ASS DAN 1981-2021

He’ll be back. Outside of SNL he’s done a bunch of minor roles. He’s currently on the tragically mediocre sitcom Mr. Mayor, and voiced Panda on We Bare Bears. Hopefully he keeps up the good work as he deserves better than he’s gotten and Ducktales proves it.

Finally for the triplets we have a rising star in voice acting, Ben Schrwartz. At the time Ducktales launched, I was a fan of his from his roll on parks and Rec as Jen Ralphio, aka older scummier Dewey.

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Outside of his historic recurring role here he played a main role on House of Lies, a show I need to go back to, and has done other live action rolls but has REALLY hit his stride in voice acting. He started with voicing Randy Cunningham in Randy Cunningham 9th grade ninja and since then has hit the ground running: He was Rutabega on Bojack, Josh on Bob’s Burgers, and went on to complete the trifecta of blue nostalgic characters after voicing dewey by voicing Leo in Rise of the TMNT (and having one of the most unique and intresting versions of the character to play) and reprised the roll for the upcoming film. And of course he hit it HUGE by playing Sonic in the suprsingly fantastic Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and will do so again for the sequel and might even take up the roll for the games now Roger Craig Smith has retired. We shall see. Point is this guy’s at the top of his game and Dewey is part of that. Like with his brothers I can’t picture anyone else playing him.

Rounding out the kids is Webby, played by the wonderous Kate Micucci. Kate is a lovely talented woman who mostly showed up in smaller parts, was part of the musical duo garfunkel and oates which even got their own tv show, and is currently a fairly prolific voice actor with this being her best known roll. I also had a bit of a crush on her once can you tell? Regardless besides absolutely nailing it as Webby she’s voiced Julie Kane in the crimnally short and even more crimnally not on Disney+ Motorcity, “Irma” in the 2012 TMNT cartoon, and the fact that “Irma” is in quotes should tell you how big a waste I felt it was having her NOT actually be Irma, despite Kate’s massive talent, the fact that Irma hadn’t been in anything since the 87 cartoon, and the fact that for added “Fuck you audience points” her krang form was voiced by Gilbert Godfried, who I love but whose casting feels like they wanted to make the twist as grating as possible. Good job there.

Anyways her second biggest voice gig was as Sadie on Steven Universe, which took WAY too long to show off her absolutely tremendous singing voice. She started voicing Velma Dinkley in the mid-2010′s and has since, voiced Milo’s sister Sarah on Milo Murphy’s Law, Dr. Fox on Unikitty, and most recently voiced a sentient present on close enough who did this.

So yeah quite the career and like Ben she probably has a long and storied career in Voice Acting ahead.

Next up is Beck Bennet as everyone’s friend Launchpad where he excels. He’s best known as a castmember on SNL outside of this, and shockingly hasn’t done a ton of voice work. The only other time i’ve caught him is in the same season of Close Enough as Luc, aka dude-bro satan. But like eveyrone else here who hasn’t done a lot of voice work so far or has been more selective I defintely hope he keeps going with it as he’s amazing. He and Ben will be co-starring on MODOK in May so i’m excited for that.

Last up for the main cast is Beakly, voiced by Toks Olagundoye, who I hadn’t heard of before this show and hasn’t done a lot outside of the two season sitcom the neighbors, the aliens one not the really terrible looking one, and a stint on Castle, but like everyone here deserves much more and if Beakly is any indication, really should stick with voice acting.

Last up is Keith Ferguson as only he could as FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, whose a staple in the voice acting community ever since 2000, and has had a TON of roles some of which I was unaware with him. Given Frank worked with him on Wonder Over Yonder, where he voiced Lord Hater to perfection, the two clearly have a close working relationship. He also has a close working relationship with Wonder creator Craig McCracken and has worked on all of his post-powerpuff girls show, voicing Bloo as his first major role, something I never would’ve guessed, and currently voicing Papa G on Kid Cosmic.

Outside of Craig and Frank, he played both Karate Kid and Nemisis Kid on Legion of Super Heroes (Which really needs to come to HBO Max), Deputy Durland on Gravity Falls, and Thunderbolt Ross on Avengers Earth’s Mighteist Heroes. He’s damn good and deserves the world for Glomgold alone and i’m glad Craig rung him up again as so far through my watch of Kid Cosmic he’s great.

So with our cast in place, our past in place and you all likely ready to get on with it already let’s dive into the episode:

THE EPISODE: Part one Woo-Ooo!

We begin with a shot of a seagull flying overseagulls, a nice way to establish how this world works and how it bends expectations. They’d have to wait till season 3 to get a duck next to ducks but given that gag is one of the best of the series, it was worth it.

Inside a house boat we meet Donald, Huey and Louie and get a sense of their personalities: Donald is panicked trying to get to a job interview and insists the boys wear life vests, showing his overprotectiveness and responsibility exclusive to this version. Louie stresses that Donald wear a suit instead of his normal clothes to properly impress the interviewer, showing his skill at people reading and manipulation, and Huey is making a nice, if messy, breakfast with a heartwarming message showing his heart and dedication. After finding out said Babysitter was sent to the wrong address, the boys TRY to hustle him out to stay alone.. only for Dewey to blow the scheme by starting the boat too early, letting Donald know he’s been had. Huey’s attempt to lie about it is of course the classic “Who’s Dewey?” Dewey’s caught wiring the boat and Donald throws them in the car, with Donald livid and the boys upset as their chafing at his constant overprotectiveness.

Both sides aren’t wrong. tThe boys DID do something reckless, putting an old woman in the desert and risking their home just to go on a joyride. What they did was wrong.. but the boys AREN’T wrong for getting annoyed that he won’t let them DO anything and overly hovering over them when they CAN handle themselves as we’ll see. WE now know why: he lost their mother and his sister to her and scrooge’s recklesness. While he got therapy for his anger it’s clear he never properly got help about Della, and thus overcompensates by trying to keep what he has left of her alive. He means well.. but to them it comes off as him being manically overprotective with no good reason. They get into trouble because it’s the only way to DO anything away from him. He’s trying so hard not to loose them he almost has by the time hte series starts, and it’s telling that when they get context in Last Crash, they appricate him more from then on. They do love him, but their frustration is understandable even if what their doing is pretty damn stupid. But their also 10 and Donald’s the grown adult in therapy who should’ve dealt with this or tried to at least by now.

So with no other options Donald sets a course for McDuck manor which excites the boys who have heard of Scrooge McDuck and his exploits, each rattling off something they heard him do that fits their personality (Dewey picks him fighting a stone monster, Huey picks him uncovering a hoax and Louie picks his swimming in money. ) As Donald tries to get them to simmer down, they wonder what he’s up to

He’s up toooo.. depression. He’s in a room with his board, watching them with utter hate and sadness as they talk about cutting the invention and aviation departments. This scene plays ENTIRELY differently after the final two episodes of the season. Before it still plays well as Scrooge clearly resenting being stuck in a boring board meeting, having lost everything that made him him and just having lost his passion for life. Now? It plays as a man utterly disdainful of the men who made him give up on his daughter. While as far as he knows they did it to save his employees from his company collapsing, we know better now... and seriously where IS the rest of the board they just vanished after the Season 3 premiere.

I don’t mind only one being fleshed out, unlike the triplets we only NEED the one I mind that they just never explained it and still haven’t. Hopefully the finale will.

But back on the plot, it now plays as Scooge just full of hatred for them, knowing they had to do what they did, even if they weren’t emebzlling but still hating them and himself. He’s likely not even paying attention anymore because he just dosen’t CARE: he has all the money int he world.. and it couldn’t bring him his daughter back. As he sadly puts the coins he was fiddling with back and says see you tommorow he can’t even close the vault without a struggle. As we’ll see later the strength never left, it’s not like he stopped execrising.. but he has nothing left to fight for. Nothing left to care about. He could adventure agian so far.. but without Della or Donald, as we’d learn two seasons later the reason he enjoyed it again... what’s the point? He has nothing left except his money.

This is also a nice parallel to the final Chapter of LIfe and Times. I always felt the first half of woo-ooo was a spiritual adaptation of chapter 12 of that: Scrooge meets the boys for the first time and with their help, and Donalds in the story< Webby and Launchpad here, he regains his passion and more importantly his family after driving them away> The how is very different: he did in life and times due to sinking to his lowest point morally, then cruelly dismissing his family when they tried to welcome him home and bury the hatchet despite what he’d done. Here.. he made a HORRIBLE mistake, one that wasn’t entirely on him but still cost him everything and spent the decade instead of stewing or making more money trying desperately to undo it. The end result is the same, a dried out husk of a man with nothing left to loose and no will to gain anything.

This husk has launchpad though whose introduced as his driver and while good with subs and planes.. isn’t great on the road. After that though Donald pulls up hoping to drop the kids off before Scrooge arrives. Naturally this being a cartoon and Donald having tempted fate with that Scrooge shows up telling him to jettison that Jallopy at once. And finding out who it is, apart from asking how Donald is and Donald doing the same, dosen’t sway him. The boys however freak out after finding out Scrooge is Donald’s and there uncle, with my faivriote bit of that being Dewey exiting the car via a window and rolling across the roof back in. Amazing bit of animation. Wish I had a gif of that.

Donald makes the situation plane and angry and asks “Can you do that without LOOSING THEM”. And scrooge is so painfully disarmed by his reminder of his past mistakes and the fact his surrogate son still resents him, that he agrees before realizing “Shit I have to watch children now don’t I” as Donald drives off. As you probably guessed, this is another scene that plays differently in hindsight, if not by much: It still plays as two men too stubborn and bitter to reconcile.. but now we know the why behind both their rages it feels even sadder. They both lost the person they cared about most but as it sadly happens in real life both have dug in their heels to reconcile, both feeling their right when neither completely is. While Donald was right to be upset at scrooge and della for what happened, and is mostly taking it out on scrooge because he’s the one left... he’s held onto his anger for 10 years instead of going to help when he’s unemployed, living in a dilapidated houseboat and trying ot raise three children alone and could’ve used what help scrooge would give. Scrooge is right to be upset that Donald is just selectively ignoring everything he’s done to save Della, but is too stubborn and prideful to apologize for what he DID do wrong and feels that’s enough to make up for it when , while it is enough that donald should forgive him, still dosen’t mean he dosen’t have a lot to apologize for. Both are just too angry and too much alike, as much as it woudln’t seem so, to settle with each other and see too much of what they lost.

So the kids follow Scrooge.. who forgets to open the door, and Beakly lets them in. It’s a nice subtle bit. After some silence, Bentina TRIES to get her old friend and now employer to talk to them, but he naturally refuses and they do the talking, asking tons of questions.. and Dewey ends the conversation by accidently pressing the “imply he USED to be something rather than is something right now “ button

So Scrooge throws them in the twins old room, and Beakly gives them some marbles. You will give them b ack they will be counted. But another subtle touch I missed the first time is there... her sad look. She clearly doesn’t want to do this, but she has to play this carefully or else he might get mad and fire her on the spur of the moment. He’d obviously hire her back, where else is he going to get an ex spy who will both clean for him AND be his bodyguard and security. It’s a very small pool. Mostly because Beakly probably killed most of the other people who’d of fit that description during her spy days.

Scrooge meanwhile is still rattled by Dewey’s statment, wondering if he really is a “used to be” instead of a “never left”. The fire is starting to spark again.. he just needs more kindling. And more kin.

Meanwhile Louie and Huey marvel at Dewey’s “Brilliant’ breakout plan: hit the door knob with the sack of marbles til lit breaks. To be fair, they’ve known dewey as long as they’ve been alive and even by season 3 after he’s taken several levels in badass and cunning.. he still crashed a plane because his brother well-meaningly called him basic, and thought being nearly sacrificed the most times was an accomplishment. This is the best he could do and you all know it. It also works, so they can’t fault him for that... though he’s quickly kidnapped as are they. They wake up after the commerical break in a room with pure darkness, hung from the celing with a mystery person asking who they are and who they work for before Louie calls out for “uncle scrooge”... so she claps the lights back on and..

Well close. But it is Webby, who cuts them down, fangirls over meeting the nephews and asks who the evil triplet is. They all point to Louie who shrugs it off. I mean it was funny enough the first time but at this point I know he’s running several fradulent charites, almost all scamming his uncle. He’s earned that title. Webby puts them on the big board and then when asked they find out she’s Webby, her granny Beakly is housekeeper. She then asks the big questons “Are we friends now?” “If we say yes will you let us live?” “Ha good one new best friend”

She then explains she dosen’t get to leave or anything even eat a hamburger. The boys are moved by this and Louie asks what she does for fun. She leads them to the vents and while Huey and Louie are a bit relcutant, Dewey naturally goes first pointing out it’s better than the marble room. They agree and are on their way.

Okay unpinning that pin, the crew conciously updated Webby and Beakly as neither really had a lot of purpose in the original. It was also to conciously add more actiony females to the main family lineup, as both creators, both being fathers, preferred someone their daughters could look up to and would enjoy watching. Not someone perfect but someone intresting instead of someone who often got Kidnapped and whose main charactrisitcs were “Sweet and GIRL STEROTYPE” So cleverly they KEPT her being girly, having a skirt, liking ponies. .but also gave her all the training and skill of one Cassandra Cain, a sheltered background and an adorable personality that kept the sweetness but added her probably having killed a man at some point. It worked as Webby is one of the best parts of the show.

Likewise Beakly was upgraded from fuddy duddy housekeeper, to badass former secret agent whose also a housekeeper, and bodyguard and confidant to scrooge. Demonstrated by her talk with him as he tries to put on his diving suit and go after the jewel of atlantis, having spotted the signs to go after it in the paper.. and wanting to prove a child wrong. Beakly points out the flaws in this, and tries to get him to connect to his family. Having lost hers, it’s easy to see why.. though the how’s a mystery.. for now i’m guess. We’ll see in the finale. But she’s Scrooge’s concisence and the one who can easiest reign him in, to the point two episodes directly have our heroes have to NOT call her or else the plot was end, but have that worked into the plot so it works. She’s the calm in his storm and hte one person he needs more than anyone else even if he dosen’t always realize it. He calls family “nothing but trouble” just as Dewey passes overhead.

So naturally as Webby shows off Scrooge’s old treasures in a mysterious room, while the other Siblings are rightfully impressed, Dewey dismisses it as “fake” because he’s being a little shit, and they agree after seeing Donald, not knowing his reputation. The cutaway to him struggling with a stapler does not help> it’s only when Webby accidnetly uneleashes Captain Peghook, a vengeful ghost after scrooge, who gets his hand on a ghostly sword do they realize this time the monsters are real. Huey also accidently wakes up Manny, the headless manhorse!

Things somehow get WORSE as Scrooge finds them.. but is in no state to argue and as our heroes duck and Huey tries to divise a plan.. Scrooge get’s his spark back once agian.. it’s starting to become an ember now... and he charges in despite Dewey’s cries of “No come back your old!”. It then gets VERY badass Scrooge: Oi! Beastie! What's it gonna take to shuffle you off to the afterlife? Captain Peg-Hook: The head of Scrooge McDuck! Scrooge: [cracks his neck, flips his cane around to wield like a sword] Would you settle for his hat?

Now that is how you show how badass Scrooge is in a few lines and gestures. HE proceeds to take both out, as they’ve now teamed up, easily, tricking peghook into cutting off the head of a statue of him in the area, throwinng it at him and finsihing the ghosts buisnesss (”I should’ve been more specifiiiicccccc”) and then giving Manny the head, earning him a loyal employee for life. So our days saved, the kids have faith.. and Scrooge is still pissed. He also reveals this isn’t a treasure room but the garage in what’s easily the best gag of the first half, possibly the whole special but one iconic moment is very close in that one. Webby concedes what about the stack of old magazines or the hose or.. okay he’s probably right. He berates them only for the kids to fire back, pointing out he threw them in a room, they just wanted to spend time with him... but it’s only Dewey throwing his words back in his face that pisses him off. Scrooge bellows at them to get out, clearly having internalized everything with donald into rage and trying to justify pushing eveyrone away instead of working at it... but this dosen’t have time to actually work, nor would Beakly actually throw three children out on the curb, as he hits a mystic gong.. the third time it’s been hit. And after realizing it’s already been hit twice Scrooge is faced with Pixu, the gold hutning dragon! And guess who has a giant bin of it wanting to snack on? Scrooge naturally climbs on the thing and the kids naturally want to follow, with Webby getting her first development by proudly announcing “I’m going to eat a hamburger” then explains the metaphor. They just need a pilto.. and as Launchpad has been saying but I forgot to add in “I’m a pilot”

So we get a GORGEOUS bit of Scrooge riding the dragon over the city, getting banged up as he does before finally being thrown off.. only for the kids to catch him with the planes help and try and come up with a plan. Scrooge overcomes his anger at them not staying put, especailly since Webby brings up the right weakness: as a wise man once said...

So they need some.. like say the Medusa Gauntlet Scrooge had in the garage.. that Louie naturally stole. Huey and Webby eyeroll him but they have what they need.. and Huey brought the hose and quickly comes up with a plan, tying scrooge in, and swinging him to Pixu. The kids hold on tight, Dewey calls his family awesome and our heroes win the day as Scrooge turns the dragon to stone, slips and falls.. and then GRACEFULLY dives into hte bin, showing off his diving skills and his badassery. The day is saved, the gauntlet and the dragon go in the bin for safe keeping and Scrooge calls the kids trouble.. and chuckles fondly. “Curse me kilts how i’ve missed trouble”

He’s impressed: Huey’s quick thinking, Louie’s pickpocketing, Dewey’s drive, and Webby’s magical knowledge all saved them. For once. .he’s happy again. And for the second time in life it took his family to remind him why he does this and show him the true fun of adventure: Getting to share it with those he love. And he finally has people to love again. He has family back, kids who look up to him and want to learn from him again, a REASON to adventure. Money and treasure and eveyrthig couldn’t bring della back.. but he at least sees now that whiel they certianly couldn’t.. they can bring him closely with what he has left. She’s gone, for now.. but she left behind three great kids who could use a mentor and Beakly brought him a fourth. And he just found out he has a pilot. The ember.. is now a raging flame. Scrooge is back. Because i’ts not the money or the glory.. it’s the thrill of it, the discovery.. and the family that makes adventuring worth while and he’s learned that lesson again. So he calls Beakly to clear his schedule.. forgetting she you know PUT A FUCKING PIN INTHE WALL the last time he asked her to play scretary and the onlyr eason she dind’t drive over the choke him to death, is that she’s probably happy he’s back on track.

Back at the interview Donald is stapled to the wall and gets the job.. not as an accountant mind but his employer needs a sailor.. and his employer is FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Oh boy.

Part 2: Escape To/From Atlantis First the last bit of background I saved: Originally, Fenton and Gyro were supposed to show up here, starting a gag of Fenton showing up but not being named until “Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!”, setting up the sub. But the crew decided this took too much away from the focus on the duck family. The not naming him gag was also dropped, and I have two reasons why: Their given reason, which is it’d take up too much time and a logistical reason: While they gave a heartfelt pitch to Lin-Manuel Miranda, as frank wanted a strong Latino superhero to combat the lack of them on film, Frank and Matt probably thought they woudln’t get such a huge name or at least prepared for it.. and were delightfully suprised when Lin happily and tearfully agreed. So they likely scrapped it so they could properly promote the biggest name in their voice cast. Honestly it was for the best and they still go to do the idea with Drake in “The Duck Knight Returns!”, where it worked much better than it probably would have with Fenton.

We open with the Glomgold Industries Employee Training Video! Encourging IP Theft, making things cheaper and general scumbaggery, and claming your the world’s most beloved scottish billionare. IN short the perfect introduction to everyone’s favorite insane, fake-scottish, scheming, egotistical , short sighted billionaire. As i’ve made transparent before, I fucking love the reboot version of Glomgold and he’s easily one of my favorite parts of the reboot. They clearly needded to find a new place for Glomgold in the grand scheme of things as the show was more about globetrotting adventure and family and less about getting contracts or bets about whose bigger money and more about family. While they DID do a classic bet storyline with season 2, it’s clear the old glomgold was just a bit too stiff to properly fit into this new zanier and deeper universe.

So they instead remolded him as a half insane, knockoff scrooge, someone who PURPOSFULLY modeled himself after the guy to try and one up him, and instead of being a fairly low pitched schemer, was a bombastic idiot whose schemes were half baked, whose name was on everything he made, and whose only thing bigger than scrooge was his glorious ego. In short he was perfect for this series and perfect to show up way more often as a bumbling thorn in Scrooge’s side.. but one who COULD be effective in the right circumstances, as to not make him completely pointless. Keith was likewise the only person I could see in the roll now as with Hater he had a history of playing bombastic, egosticial morons, and made Glomgold into the enjoyable ball of ego, bombs, sharks and shouting we know and love. Some people didn’t take to this version after a while... I’m not one of those. I loved him here, I love him now, and he’s every bit as good in season 3 as he was at the start. He’s also wearing a kilt mcduck A KILT. A bit that’st STILL funny four years and 70 some episodes later.

So we meet Gabby McStabberson and the Smashnikovs as they and Donald file in, though Donald is busy wrapping up a call with Scrooge, who assures them he has a low key day planned.. while in the sub getting ready to go to atlantis. And nearly drowning when Dewey tells Launchpad to dive while he and Scrooge are still up top. Cue credits.

So on the sub we get our setup for the two main plots for the episode: While the main thrust of everything is Scrooge taking them to Atlantis, each leads to a diffrent plot. Louie talks to Donald and lies entirely about their day, worrying Webby.. who then reveals she just didn’t tell Beakly she took off or where she was going and encourages her to call and lie. To save time, i’m going to cover this subplot now minus the conclusion as it’s pretty simple and this review is already a day behind. Louie wants her to lie so she dosen’t worry, which is oddly sweet.. still a bit greasy, but it’s clear he means well and it shows in his own way the boy cares about Donald: Sure he’ll lie to the guy, and set up a fradulent charity to scam him.. but he also knows not to worry his dad-uncle and kows Donald is better off thinking their safe than knowing the truth. Granted it also prevents consequences for Louie.. but he’s not playing here here. He gets nothing out of Beakly not knowing the truth or helping some girl he just met, he’s just being NICE in his own twisty way. It’s a nice show of his depths: While louie will lie, cheat and steal Eddie Gurrero style, he does have a caring side underneath hit. He can read people well and while he primarily uses it to manipulate people, we’ll see time and time again that he can use it for good too and to help those he cares about. He’s nothing but supportive the whole plot, and even when he says “you can’t back that up” it’s more worrying about her and having a bit of crack than actually being a dick.

So Webby tries lying, but is about as good as Huey is at it, saying “I’m at a friends house nothing, then makes up a clearly fake name, then says their only talking in swedish for a grandpa. Launchpad DOES help, but only by accident and snake venom. We’ll get to that. As I said this wasn’t the most complex plot.

The main plot is our focus episode for dewey. In theory each of the kids was supposed to have one in the first five episodes: Dewey here, Webby in Daytrip of Doom, Louie in Great Dime Chase and Huey in Impossible Summit of Mt. Nevverest!. Given the last one was horribly delayed, he instead got Terror of the Terra Firmians, which in hindsight wasn’t the best spotlight episode for him. But it’s a good system; Introduce them all in the first half of the pilot then slowly focus on each one. So now Idoloizing Scrooge, Dewey is desperate to be his sidekick and be seen as an equal and is in deep denial as scrooge instead has them all buckle up for a 17 hour ride and when Dewey questions the route, which skips the direct path.. but is clearly marked with monsters, Scrooge just snaps at him and shuts him down and disapoints the boy who only wants to prove himself to Scrooge.

Naturally though, telling someone with that kind of need for attention and validation to wait goes poorly as he redirects the map while Launchapd is distracted.. and we find out WHY the trip is 17 hours as the direct route nearly gets them killed by mer-ducks, krakens and some sort of storm elemental. Dewey is bummed it didn’t work and annoyed to realize he’s just lumping them all together like Huey pointed out earlier. Huey is also delightful here, having brought travel bingo and sea shanties, clearly used to trips with his other uncle. And adorably taking after him.

But Dewey’s deversion has done more than make him even MORE determined to prove himself to Scrooge whose just trying to NOT loose the son of the daughter he lost...

The Merducks have taken up residence in the bathroom, so they have to make a pitstop. Scrooge, CLEARLY forgetting how to take a trip with children, wasn’t prepared for this but they find a frieghter and make a stop. Naturally it’s GLOMGOLD’S freighter, where his sub took off from, and he and his minons including Donald find Scrooge using the bathroom.. and the boys to Donald’s rage. Unfortunately saying ‘I’ll kill him” to a raging sociopath who takes that as a sign to kill ALL of them, isn’t a smart move.

So while Donald tries to plan to keep his family alive, said family arrives in Atlantis with a great bit of Scrooge trying to give a big speech only for them to see it first and ooh and ah. They touch down in the city.. which is flip turned upside down. Scrooge notes hti is odd but is able to read the hieroglypchs even upside downa nd notes there’s tones of deadly traps and that they shoudl stay back and..

Huey: Dewey ran in as soon as you said traps.

So while Scrooge tries to prevent dewey loosing his head, Donald prevents launchpad loosing his and makes up an excuse about “if their dead now we can’t tourture them later” to cover his ass. Glomgold is impressed. Dewey is Dewcipointed that the traps are upside down, though he does trigger some snakes that get launchpad. He’s fine just delirious. And possibly slowly dying but the fact he’s lived this long is a miracle. Maybe that’s why he’s missing for most of season 3 part 2, the snake venom caught up to him and drake and fenton need to find the cure. Anyways the rest of the party stays behind while Scrooge chases after Dewey, who naturally runs ahead AGAIN.

Donald ducks out to use the bathroom, as Dewey tries the old dance through the laser grid routine.. but forgets the part where your supposed to actually avoid it, leaving it to an unseen Donald to stop the fire traps from barbqueing his boy. IT’s a really awesome sequence that shows off Donald’s still got it even if he dosen’t want it. Scrooge naturally works smarter not harder and simply ziplines above like a badass and berates Dewey when he tells him he took “The easy way”

“Why would you want to take the hard way?” The argument that’s been brewing all episode bubbles up and once again both sides have a point: Scrooge rightfully points out Dewey’s being reckless, has no experince and needs to listen to Scrooge and learn something. Dewey claps back that Scrooge isn’t TEACHING them, just teling them to get behind him while he does things instead of trying to actively mentor them. He outright told them he was going to teach them so while Dewey’s been a wee bit overbearing, he’s right in being disappointed that Scrooge instead just wants them to be safe. I see it as his subconscious acting up: He wants and needs the kids along and is right ot keep them safe.. but is too scared to properly mentor them after what happened to Della and is just trying not to loose anybody. His methods have been right, to keep them safe.. he’s just been so determined to save them, he can’t properly TEACH them so he won’t have to forever or explain WHY. And given the First Adventure shows that while protective he did eventually let Della and Donald pull their weight.. but here he lost so much between adventures.. he just can’e bear loosing them. Dewey also rightfully points out he just lumps them together which in any other version wouldn’t be an issue, until the reboot I had no idea which one was which here? They have distinct outfits and personalities and you had 17 hours to actually get to know them. Probably less given the shortcut but still, several hours at a minimum. It’s things like this that make the series work: while there’s plenty of internal conflicts, at their best their nuanced ones, where if one character is clearly in the wrong they have a reason, and if both are right both are also a bit wrong, versus the original where it’d be scrooge or the boys grabbing the asshole ball at times (Not always mind you but when they did it was insufferable.

However they don’t have time to argue as the bridge goes out and Glomgold finds donald.. and another way around as a result and gets to the treasure first. Scrooge notices they have donald but once again Dewey charges in

“Unhand my uncle” “No” “Okay wasn’t prepared for that”

Naturally both sides are a bit livid, Donald for dragging his boys into danger after being part of the reason his sister is on the moon right now, and Scrooge for working with one of his greatest eneimies.. though Scrooge has less ground to stand on because as Donald points out “I can’t keep track of ALL of your sworn enemies” I mean he has lived like .. 200 years. That’s a long enemies list and Glomgold, while the most persistent, isn’t exactly the most dangerous they probably encountered. Given the guy’s an artist with Bombs and Sharks that does say a lot about how badass Scrooge is.. and how incompitent glomgold usually is. He’s just having an on day today I guess.

Glomgold naturally holds Donald hostage, takes what is suppsidley the jewel and leaves them to drown to death, hitting a wall to let it start leaking. HIs minons run into the rest of the heroes and a fight breaks out while naturally Donald, after even more naturally getting his ass stuck in a hole, literally, rails out at Scrooge for doing this telling him “I knew I couldn’t trust you and” “This is the spear of selene all over again”

Scrooge’s only response is “I was not responsible for the Spear of Selene!”

Dude you still paid for the rocket. While Della shoulders most of the blame, SHE choose to take an untested rocket, SHE choose not to come back during the turbulence YOU still built it and hid it from donald and didn’t make sure she couldn’t just take off in it. Your both to blame. And as I mentioned earlier to the least extent but still an extent, so was Donald telling his grown, adult sister whose as stubborn as she is what she could and couldn’t do. He had the right idea and was the only person trying to be an adult here in this situation.. but he still took the wrong approach with stopping her. Still he got far more ground to stand on than Scrooge, who also took his nephews out. Dewey stops both by pointing out that while yes Scrooge took them on an adventure he’s been doing NTOHING but keeping him safe and most of it was his fault which disarms donald a bit. Though Dewey is quickly distracted.. but for once by an obersvation: the gem glowing above thaem that glowed when they entered... and since the city got flipped turned upside down.. THAT’S the real jewel. Dewey asks Donald ot let it flood so they can get it and begs his uncle to trust him despite his doubts which he does. They get it and everyone’s okay and even more when they reunite with the others they find they’ve handily beaten them. To me this is where donalds walls go down a bit: he realizes he’s been smothering the kids, and that while he may hate his uncle for good reason... he’s not going to make the same mistake with them and while he lied.. Don probably realized if Scrooge had been honest Donald would never have let them go. He can trust him.. and he can trust his kids will be alright without him.

So Glomgold naturally leaves his minions to die, but our heroes manage to make it to the sub, and Gabby asks if they can bum a ride. Not wanting to do any murders they agree. On the surface Glomgold is showing off his jewel, only for Scrooge to upstage him second’s later with the real jewel, and point out his is “nice but defintly cursed”... and right on cue Glomgold gets dragged off with an octopus and let’s off his first “Curse you mcduck!”. Scrooge offers clean water and power thorugh it, for a price because of course he does, and has offically made his grand comeback.

We get back to Webby’s subplot, as she’s confronted by Beakly.. who naturally being a former spy easily figured it out immieditely but is only upset her grandaughter lied to her. And even at that she dosen’t raise her voice or anything about the matter, knowing it’d only make her feel worse and getting that her grandaughter needs to see the world and that much like donald, she walled her up to prevent loosing what little she had left. And since being with Scrooge is safe as with her, she can go with him anytime just tell her first kay? They hug. Awwww.

Donald likewise apologizes, admitting that whatever has passed, he misjudged his uncle here and while not forgiving him yet, is at least willing to let him back into his life and into the boys.. on holidays and stuff at least. But fate forces his hand.. or rather his 10 year old nephew-son having left the engine on and neither having turned it off, meaning his boat goes boom and is in no liveable condition. But Scrooge has the space in his heart and mansion for them.

So as we close the kids help move the artifacts all around the house instead of just the garage while Launchapd drops the boat. While clearing out Dewey notices the painting from earlier.. and finds part of it was flipped over...

“Mom?!”

Now keep in mind, while nowadays Della’s inclusion in the show is one of the most famous and treasured parts of the show.. back then this was a fucking shock. Disney never really cared about the boys mother and outside of one comics story never really went into what happened. So the fact she was not only an actual important part of the plot but we’d find out was a HUGE wham moment and left my jaw dropped after seeing the episode. Like I would with the finales I had read no spoilers and had no idea this was coming but damn was it a huge and welcome suprise and how far they’d take it and how much they’d flesh her out was an even bigger one. Easily one of the best big reveals i’ve ever seen. The only better one I can think of from this series itself... is the end of season 2. But that’s for another time.

Final Thoughts on Woo-Ooo!:

This two parter/hour long special.. is still one of the episodes best and easily one of the best pilots. It does slow down a bit in pacing in the second half, but otherwise is just an immaculate , beautiful pilot movie that introduces and fleshes out all 8 main characters, maybe Launchpad the least but enough to still work, gives us some big mysteries to work out, and even throws in Glomgold’s first apperance. It sets the tone, reverent and adventuerous but also with it’s own weird and wacky sense of humor and world building, and universe perfectly. I .. don’t have much else to say really it’s just THAT good and really worth checking out. If you somehow haven’t seen it go watch it and if you haven’t seen it in a while might be worth a rewatch before the finale. The absolutely perfect start to an amazing ride.

Next on the Della Arc: Dewey and Webby try to figure out where Della is while Louie learns a valuable life lesson and pisses off a killer robot along the way.

Next on the Blog: Amphibia Season 2 is back!

Until then if you liked this review follow for more and if you could please support me on patreon. Even a buck a month helps and juicy stretch goals give you na incentive to contirbute. We’re 5 bucks away from 20 dollars a month which means a review of super ducktales and a Darkwing Duck review EVERY. MONTH. So contribute now! Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure.

#ducktales #wooooo #woo-ooo #scrooge mcduck #webby vanderquack #donald duck #dewey duck #louie duck #huey duck #bentina beakley #launchpad mcquack #flintheart glomgold #della duck #disney channel #disney xd #disney plus #ducks

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sentient-stove · 4 years ago

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Ranking every Pixar movie

From worst to best. As an extra challenge, tag five people to do it too. @falling-oceans @sweetkirbi @briefstrangerchild @matchasweettea @tehhappypl-ace

22. The Good Dinosaur: I hate Arlo. As a character, he has no spine, spends most of the film whining about how terrible his life is and then when he finally gets a grip, the movie is over. As for animation, the dinosaurs were too cartoon like to feel right for such a landscape based film. I did like the Pizza Planet truck in the opening scene, ten out of ten for hiding it with the asteroid belt. 21. Monsters University: nothing interesting happened here. Moving on. 20. Finding Dory: sigh. This film was well animated, I love Pixar and water, but most of the stunts felt, too unreal. Where Nemo and Marlin fountain hop was what killed me. I liked Hank, but when the film had him drive a truck with all the fish inside, I gave up. I did like the closure on what happened to the fish from the tank in Australia, but however they got to Cali beats me. It was nice to see Crush again. 19. Cars 2: MATER IS A SIDE CHARACTER. Ok, rant over. I thought it was okay, but still, very disappointing for a Pixar sequel. 18. Cars 3: The trailer was better than the movie. Pixar should have stopped after Cars 2. I personally didn’t care for McQueen’s end paint job. 17. Cars: The idea is nice, the soundtrack is killer, I just don’t like the Cars movies at all. I’m sorry, but McQueen is egotistical and a jerk. Just because he got stuck in Radiator Springs, doesn’t mean he’s got character development. I do however love when he arrives that first night, easily the best five minutes of the movie. 16. Toy Story 4: It felt more like a marketing strategy, rather than a continuation of the Toy Story universe. Forky and his existential crisis is a solid mood. I’ll admit, I walked out halfway through the film, it wasn’t worth my time. I wish that they left it at three movies. 15. Monsters Inc.: I liked the idea of the movie. But, feels like the plot drops too fast and that the resolution drops as well. Mike’s comedy act is game though and Put that thing back or so help me remains one of my favorite things to yell at siblings. 14. Coco: the animation is Gorgeous. I loved this movie when it first came out. The story is beautiful, they handled the villain with grace and it gave me warm fuzzies. However, it’s overplayed. Every family reunion I’ve been out since this film came out, they’ve played this. Stop. I think the songs are okay, but I get tired when they’re stuck in my head. Pixar created a masterpiece that my relations ruined, which is ironic, since the movie is about family. 13. Toy Story 2: they reused the, ‘I’m not a toy!’ plot and that made it tired. I liked Jessie. And the horse licking Cheeto dust off of Al’s fingers. Al looked a bit like my middle school theater teacher, so that made me feel uncomfy. Other than that, decent film. 12. Inside Out: Joy is annoying. The idea is great, although they missed a great pun opportunity with when they had to walk through long term memory. Could have used a memory lane pun. The rest of the puns were amazing and I loved the concept, just wasn’t well executed. 11. Up: I don’t cry during movies (Frozen 2’s show yourself is the exception), so I didn’t really feel upset during the first ten minutes of the film. I love Kevin and Russel’s friendship and then the pleasant surprise that there were baby Kevins. Carl had great character development and I’m grateful Pixar showed real world challenges people go through. 10. Incredibles 2: Voyd is amazing. So is Violet and Dash, I loved the boat, but my favorite part is right before the battle with Screenslaver. You don’t talk, you watch talk shows. You don’t play games, you watch game shows.... The monologue over Elastagirl hunting the big bad gave me literal chills. I would pay to watch this again and again. I loved the limo driver that messed up his line to Frozone as well. And the little girl with the sign at the protest reminded me of similar signs I’ve seen, and made, before. 9. Bug’s Life: Very mature for a Pixar film. Held onto some ideologies I’ve studied and I personally think it’s a lot better than Antz, which took a similar direction but failed. 8. Toy Story: the animation may not have aged gracefully, but for when it hit theaters, it was something the world had never seen before. I love the magic eight ball, the aging of the room was a nice touch and the dog was a riot. 7. Toy Story 3:great finale. Great characters and development and great animation. I love Barbie and that she broke up with Ken instead of just being an airhead of a toy. 6. Finding Nemo: Cinematic masterpiece. Pixar and water is a great combo, and it’s got a great story. 5. The Incredibles: Violet is so relatable. Mirage is awesome, easily the most underrated bad guy to good guy I’ve seen. Mom and Dad hero pair, amazing. Dash running on water, amazing. Violet growing up and saving her brother from the Omnidroid, amazing. Edna Mode voiced by Brad Bird, amazing. This film was incredible. 4. Brave: yes, this movie gets a lot of hate. And I mean a lot. But I’m a sucker for a heroine who takes charge. Merida fights with her mom, we all fight with family and that makes it feel realistic. The music is amazing. Chase the wind is still one of my favorite songs. The will the wisps are accurate to myth and th amount of sheer detail goes unnoticed in this movie. DunBroch, Mordu’s fallen kingdom, the Stonehenge, the sky are all so artfully animated. The witch is an absolute riot and I love her. 3. Onward: DND references everywhere. I love it. Ian Lightfoot is a relatable character with his social anxiety and lists of what he needs to do, and his sacrifice is commendable. Barley is a supportive older sibling and he’s a role model with how he helps his younger brother learn to drive, learn magic and so many other things. The Manticore is excellent and a salty character I live for. The mom is bad a, and I think that it’s amazing she got so much screen time compared to other Pixar moms. Ride of the Valkeryies playing while Barley salutes his van’s final voyage? Tearjerker. The curse beast having the face of the high school’s dragon mural? I was the only one who laughed in the theater I was in. It was relatable and heartfelt, a Pixar masterpiece. 2. Ratatouille: this movie was the start of my love of baking and of Paris. I was young when it came out, but it’s so, so artistic and beautiful. Remy is a well thought out character and having Gusteau as his shoulder angel was amazing. Alfredo Linguini literally means white sauce pasta, but I’ll ignore that. The end with the new restaurant is amazing and Chef Skinner is salty and I like it. 1. WALL.E: space. This was my childhood. I’ve seen this movie maybe upwards of a hundred times. The animation is gorgeous, the characters beautifully scripted. For a movie that has only 22 minutes of speech, it conveys a message far more powerful than any words could. WALL.E is a sunshine child with his hyperfixation on humans and as someone who hyperfixates, this was amazing to see on a big screen. That it was okay to have quirks and unique interests and viewpoints. The spacedance is beyond anything and it still has bits of humor, along with heartwarming scenes and images. EVA fixing WALL.E at the end was painful, and then the Spark bringing back WALL.E’s life was the best ending I could have ever gotten. And his whole goal was just to hold EVA’s hand, it was soooo cute! I might have to revise my list when Soul comes out, but here’s the current!

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storytime-hoe · 5 years ago

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Tough Love Ch.11

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x O/C

Summary: Story picks up during season three as the group goes into Woodbury to rescue Glenn and Maggie from the Governor. However, they pick up another prisoner of Woodbury, Emma (O/C). She is a thief who fears friendships after her hard losses. She stays on the move, studying communities from afar and then robbing them blind. She has stayed alive this way for a while until the Governor catches her in the act. Now she finds herself with the group from the prison in a mission to kill the Governor for what he has done to her. She plans on stealing supplies from the prison group after the Governor is killed, but she might be growing a little too close to the groups members, especially one man in particular: Daryl Dixon.

Warnings: Slow burn, language, usual twd violence, mentions of abuse/rape

Authors Note: Hope you all enjoy this one! It’s a sad one I would say and we get some background info about Emma’s past. I kinda just made that part up without putting any forethought into it so it might be a little rough.

Previously: Ch.1 Ch.2 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch.5 Ch.6 Ch.7 Ch.8 Ch.9 Ch.10

It took me a few more weeks to recover from the bullet wound. I hated sitting around in my room, unable to go out on runs with the others. There were a lot of mouths to feed and I wished I could do something to help out. I had been a scavenger and looter from the beginning, so I obviously couldn't hunt down or track anything to eat like Daryl could. I really felt useless.

And that wasn't good for me because every day that went by that I wasn't able to be of any help, the more my thoughts started to become poisoned. I couldn't help but feel like a burden all the time like every other fucker here who had everything brought to them on a silver platter. It wasn't good for me or my mindset and eventually I slumped into a depression.

I used to have these periods of depression all the fucking time before the turn of everything. I lived in a shit trailer park with my mom and little brother. I would feel the crushing responsibilities of taking care of them both, even though that should not have been my fucking job, and I knew I would never surmount to anything more than a doublewide. I would end up just like my damn mother, and I couldn't stand her most of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I loved her, but fuck was she hard to love. She never held down a job, so my waitressing gig was all that brought in money for us. We kept our bellies full, which is all that we could ask for, but when we did have a little extra money for luxuries, Mom would blow it all on booze or gamble it all away.

As much as I hated her for her lifestyle, I saw myself becoming the exact thing. I already had my interest perked with gambling, but unlike her I still had some self control. Waisting money wasn't all on her either. I had to have a few smokes back then. Now those were what really got me through the dark times, that is before it became acceptable to chop down rotting humans, which is what I really needed to do if I was to get out of this slump.

When the day came that I could lightly run on my leg good enough, I made the decision to go out on my own. I took a gun and a backpack and marched myself straight towards the gates without anyone saying anything to me. That was to good thing about looking like a pissed off bitch all the time, people steered clear of you and never questioned your actions.

I thought I was going to get out free of curious minds until I heard the pesky little boy shuffle up behind me.

"Where are you going?"

I stopped in my tracks with a deep sigh. "I thought you might be happy to see me leave, Carl?"

The boy wasn't looking at me when I turned towards him, he kept his eyes trained on the gun at my hip. Rick had confiscated gun rights after he heard that Carl had shot an innocent boy in the fight against the Governor. There was some dark shit going on in his head, that was for sure.

"Well, don't get your hopes up too high. I'm coming back."

His lips pressed into a thin line. "Good."

My eyebrows raised in surprise. "Good? You want me around now?"

His expression was hard as he looked at me with a drawn brow. "Are you sure going out alone is a good idea? Daryl said we aren't sup–"

"I know what he told everyone," I interrupted with more anger in my voice than I'm proud of, but when it came to Daryl making rules for me I couldn't help it. "Listen, kid. Can you just keep quiet about this?"

"How long will you be gone?" He peered up from under his hat, interrogating me like the mini sheriff he was. There was no mistaking the worry in his words, however. I guess I really had grown on the little guy if he was actually worried about me.

I gave him a lopsided smile and said, "I'll be back before sun down. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I always am."

"I just think taking someone with you might be a good idea." He motioned back to the prison. "Michonne usually goes out around this time. Can't you just wait for her?"

I shrugged it off. I could've waited around, but I needed to be out on my own again. It was strange how I had sworn to be by myself for the rest of my life and then I was suddenly part of this group that was seeming to grow every minute. More and more people were brought in through the gates and it was becoming overwhelming, especially since I had not been able to escape. It was also exhausting trying to make everyone feel comfortable around me all the time. I tried being nice and smiling and to not be annoyed, but the more I tried the worse this stupor I was in got. For just this day I wanted to go out on my own and scream and hack down the dead and just feel what I wanted to. Not to mention how fucked up I was about what Beth had told me about Daryl liking me. I wanted my mind to shut the fuck up for a day, and the only way to do that was to be alone with a knife and some Walkers.

"How about I just meet up with Michonne once she heads out? I won't go far until she joins me."

He looked skeptical. This damn kid was always seeing through me.

"I promise," I lied, giving him a not so gently pat on the cheek, making a light smacking sound as I did.

Without another word I walked out of the gates of safety, ignoring the pang of guilt I felt about straight up lying to a child. Poor thing didn't deserve to worry over me so much.

I swallowed hard as I practically ran into the tree line, going much much farther out than I had intended. I really had wanted to stay rather close incase something did happen to me, it was my first day out after all, but being the mindless creature that I was I couldn't control the sense of freedom that swept me up and carried me through the trees.

I felt alive, like nothing could touch me now. I was an invincible motherfucker out here once again. An invincible motherfucker who was slightly lost.

It took me well past nightfall to see the lights of the prison shinning through the trees once again. I expected to walk back in unnoticed. To go straight to the newly fixed shower house and wash away the sweat and grime that I had accumulated. I expected no one to really notice or really care that I had been out passed when I claimed I'd return. But boy was I fucking wrong.

Whoever was keeping watch in the tower must have alerted everyone that I was approaching because inside the gates I was greeted by an angry looking Rick with Carl marching up behind him.

"You ratted me out," I accused the kid instantly.

"Carl did the right thing," Rick began, his voice reminding me of the tone my school principal would use when I got in trouble. Wow, what a throw back.

Just like back in school, I rushed to explain myself and make up a few excuses along the way. Talking myself out of trouble was a gift of mine. I had done in the previous world and in the current one on multiple occasions. I remember getting caught red handed looting some camps, but with a few well placed tears and a convincing story, people will let you get away with anything.

"I said I'd be back aft–"

"You also said you'd meet up with Michonne," Carl interrupted me before I could even get started.

Rick looked back at Carl and pointed at the prison door. "Why don't you go inside. Keep Judith company."

He wasn't too pleased that he was about to miss my scolding, but I was sure as hell happy he wouldn't have the honor. How embarrassing was this? An adult woman who was about to have a her ass beat because she went for a stroll. Pathetic.

"We were worried sick," he began after Carl had gone. "People were out looking for you."

I shook my head. "They shouldn't have been. Don't risk other lives for me. I didn't mean to scare everyone, but I needed to take a day by myself. This whole 'living in a community thing' is new to me."

"You're one of us now. We get concerned where the safety of one of our own is involved. Whether it be you or any of the others, going out alone isn't an option, especially if you just recently recovered from a serious injury. There are plenty of people who, I think, would be willing to join you anytime you wanted to go out."

I wanted to roll my eyes, but I reframed. This was a load of horse shit. "I don't need any permission to go where I want to. Hell, I could walk out forever right now if I wanted."

"That's true," his tone was much calmer, but the disappointment in his eyes ate away at me. "But it'd hurt an awful lot of people to see you go."

His eyes bore into me, making the guilt wash over me just before he turned to walk back inside. I had always been so petrified of losing people over and over again, that I had never thought about how they would feel if I was the one to disappeared. Beth had become a close friend, she would be heartbroken, I'm sure. More than she was when her boyfriend died that one time on a run. She hadn't been blinked an eye when she heard the news, but she was just unfazed by shit like that now. I saw the real sadness in her eyes when she would tell me about people from the past, it weighed her down like it did any other person. Carol too. I would chat with her some nights. She had all sorts of people that were taken away from her, we all did, and when she talked about someone like her dead daughter, the hurt was as strong as if it had just happened that day.

That's the thing about loosing people. The pain never really goes away. It chips away at a piece of your heart and that piece never fucking comes back, it's just gone.

I had been one selfish bitch to risk putting that hurt into anyone. God, Daryl would lose his fucking mind if I never came back. Or I assumed he would after how he had worried about my leg healing. He was really keen on being my protector after what we had gone through together, probably because he felt bad for me. Either way he no doubt was worried shitless when I was out alone. I cursed myself for doing that to him. Sure, he drove me crazy sometimes, but I never wanted to hurt him like that.

The cool wind blew hard against me and I went to take my first step towards the door to find Daryl. I owed him an apology, it was the least I could do. But before I got anywhere the door slammed open and out came one wound up Dixon.

I hadn't seen him in days, but he wore the same look that said "I'm going to fucking kill you". Why had I missed that look?

"The hell were ya thinkin'?"

Coming at me like that was not the best move. My defensive walls were up in a second and I was in his face yelling in a heartbeat.

"I was thinking I needed a minute alone. Sorry it got your panties all in a twist to see me enjoying myself instead of wallowing in a cell all fucking day."

"I would've gone with ya," he started, his eyes flashing with a hurt that I instantly wished I could fix. Why the fuck couldn't I calm down and explain everything to him like a normal person. I needed to tell him how depressing the prison was getting and that I know he wanted what was best for my by making me rest for weeks but that didn't stop the fact that I was losing my damn mind. But of course I wasn't that type of normal person.

"I don't think you understand what alone means." I wanted to keep the fire in my voice, but it was flittering away at a rapid pace. I felt like shit and he was making me feel worse about what I had done by the second. I cowered under his harsh stare slightly, my arms crossed over my chest in a lame attempt to make me look bolder.

"I don' think ya understand that ya coulda been fuckin' killed." He was still yelling at top velocity despite me backing down, his voice a graveling husk. I think he expected a heated argument from me like always, but I was in the wrong on this and I knew it. I know when to admit that at least.

"I'm sorry." He wasn't expecting a genuine apology, so he was taken aback by it. It took everything in me to swallow down my pride and continue. "I didn't think it would bother everyone like this. I didn't realize you all cared so much."

His throat bobbed with a swallow. I wished to fucking God that I could read what was going on in his head, but he hid it all so well. "Yeah," he huffed out, nodding his head slightly. "Our fucking mistake."

There it was, another piece of my heart breaking away.

I really fucked up this time. I wanted to make it better. I wanted to scream at him that I was fine and I wouldn't do it again and that I cared about him more than I was even comfortable with. I wanted to get over myself and wrap my arms around him like I had so many nights ago during my panic attack.

I didn't want to loose a friend like Daryl Dixon. I never wanted to hurt people like that. I didn't realize I had the power to hurt anyone anymore until Rick had told me so. I only wished I had realized it sooner.

I didn't want this hurt that pounded in my chest, not only from my own broken piece, but because I had been the cause of a piece of Daryl’s heart cracking away too.

Except maybe this time I could put the pieces back together somehow.

I doubt it.

***

Taglist:

@daryldixonandfrogs @jodiereedus22 @xchrisxevansx

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btsandvmin · 6 years ago

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Collection of asks - BTSandVMIN

Some of the asks I answer I personally feel are worth saving, for me personally, and perhaps for you as well. But I don’t want to put them all in my Masterpost since there are so many and I am sure the list will grow. So I am putting the ones I feel might have something worth reading in one place.

Thank you all for asking me interesting questions and liking my posts. Asks are written more in the moment than my usual posts, so they might be less accurate as it’s all mostly from the top of my head. The newest ones will actually be on top, and then they will get older going down the list. I’ll update it regularly as I answer more asks. :)

Jimin was so clearly in need of cuddles from Tae as soon as they saw each other

Odd if none of them shared what they did during vacations

It just feels scripted, just like when they're talking abt what each other did during their vacations

100 days of winter bear and jiminie wears something that makes him look like a baby bear

About BV4, do you think it’s weird that Taehyung only found out about what Jimin did during his vacation on the day Jimin was back?

Dionysus stage as battle of gods and V=Apollo(God of Sun) and JM=Artemis(God of Moon) and their dance and wearing twin earrings(as the gods r twins) and I just remembered your whole vmin sun and moon theory

Is Tae Jm's mirror in bighits's fictional world?

Do you know what is the full video of this youtube video "BTS Jimin chose V ? VMin Moment?

When BV: Malta was airing, Jimin would post pictures of each episode on Twitter and stopped on the episode that Taehyung arrives

I'm like a hardcore Km shipper (romantically) since 2016 but i have to agree every song Tae has written connects with Jm

We don't see vmin together often... so yeah jikook could be more real then vmin

I'm trying to find tweets that vmin send to each other on their birthday but I can't find the one that jimin send for tae in 2017 did he send one?

The new run bts episode was really filmed in May?

Did Jimin released Promise on Tae's birthday?

I am working on a Vmin analysis which is currently 24 pages just in text. O___o

He calls JM "My Baby" but the subtitles put in by BH say "Good Boy" Why would they change the translation.

Shipping sometimes seems pointless. Especially when "moments" between one ship can easily be spotted with another.

I can't believe that some fans thought that vmin were not friends anymore because a game!

It's so cute how Jimin and V talked about arguing with each other over small things because they are close friends

I think people who unfollow you are Multishippers who believe in other ship

Is it kind of weird that vmin has never went on a trip by themselves?

Seeing all the vmin interactions of this last concert, do you think this might be a reason why BH will not give us vmin duet?

I would love to read ur vmin story

Concerning the nightmare before Christmas thing

The Disney birthday project turned up to be false

Jimin thinks V is "mi bb' What does the question mean?

I don't think we'll get a Vmin song

BTS, 191009_ ICN INT' Airport Departure) at 40 seconds

Where do you write fics? I really want to read your fics...

It's interesting to see the way the bh editors work

Where is the vmin break up mini movie video from?

Do you ship Jimin or Tae with k pop girls?

The members trying to break off a vmin moment on cam?

Is it true that bts don't live together?

What do you think about the concept photos? (PERSONA)

What other vmin blogs do you follow or check regularly?

In an usa interview where jimin was kinda leaning on the male interviewer for a few seconds and suddenly tae was looking kinda tense

Did you catch up on everything for bts or/and vmin before the BS&T era?

You should see @vlovers19 blog

I'm sorry if you think I offended you or judged you

Do you know that Tae hold hands with other member even Suga or they all hold hands with each other so it's not only a VMIN thing

About bon voyage 3 and them not sharing rooms and the car

4 oclock is supposedly dedicated to jimin, why Tae waits for him in the park if they live together?

Imagine my surprise when i saw vk/ook,ji/kook were the most popular. I tried to understand but i still don’t get why

Do you think vmins lack of or th reduced amount of skinship comes from the fact that they are same aged friends?

Other ships (kpopidols) that you like?

Part of me wanted Taehyung to be in Paris too

The boys being apart of the lgbt community that's unrelated to their relationship

If someone in BTS is gay he will try to date girls or maybe marry a girl in the end?

If vmin are really together and if they were to come out, how do you think they would do that?

I feel like they use the word "friend" instead of, idk, "boyfriend”

You saw the hk concert right?

Unknown nickname in his thank you note for “Dark and Wild”

When did Vmin started dating?

Bv3, I ain't getting over it.

I feel like vmin have been sexually involved for a very long time

Any thoughts abt Tae's three rings on his right hand and always not wearing one on his ring finger?

In bts festa profile 2015 when jimin wrote tae's profile he drew a character that reminds him of taehyung

Did u see the second trailer for bring the soul documentary series?

In one of your asks you said jk wasn't having a great time in 2017

Are you gonna make a post about vmin sharing rooms?

What would be your top 5 favorite vmin moments? 💜

Run episode to Jm and JK "Are You Guys dating ?"

Barely getting any vmin content

Sometimes i cant help but feel really weird about vmin and feel insecure

Maybe you should just ignore all the asks about other ships

Sharing a car as proof

Docskim not being allowed to release the behind story of Lie

Getting it out of the way… (about various other ships and “proof“)

What are the moments that seems most like "proof" to you?

Have you seen the Vlive remember party?

At the end of the day, it mostly comes down to personal interpretations and preferences

Do you know why T/ae and J/imin toxic stans really hate each other?

Is it being "delusional" for some vmin fans to think scenery, promise and 4 o' clock are related to vmin?

When will u start answering anons again i really miss ur insight and wise words

I feel like jimin is forcing himself the affection he is showing is mostly forced

Do you have twitter?

The Rkive Vmin moment when JM ‘refused’ Tae’s cuddle

They were often looking behind cameras and it really shows like in episodes 59&60

Do you think there's a big reason that vm don't do Vlives together anymore

Vmin shippers spreading misinformation in aid of our ship?

Can I use one of your gifs? (I don’t make my own gifs, sorry)

Did you see what Tae said? ie I miss you even after being apart for 10 seconds

When one is clingy, the other will try to act as if it's bothering him

My friend is convinced Ji/kook is real

About namjoon's vlive, "it's a broadcast"

Oof is it just me or the sexual tension was through the roof between vmin in that vlive?

Tae says "our armys are watching this so... " so uhm was that..?

Where does the soulmate thing comes from with vmin?

Taehyung is more open both physically and showing affection wise with every member except Jimin

Have you seen the moments from today's concert? Fukuoka

They can do whatever they want people will say they're such good bros and won't look into it

Holding each other's hands is probably the least platonic thing that they keep doing

Do you know any good vmin analysis youtube account/videos?

why do you think jk and taehyung might not be straight?

Guys, I love vmin so much!

I really like your analysis!! a lot of good points. Can I add a couple things I noticed?

How long do you think vmin have been dating?

u really think vm is real?

Vmin are really bold these days

We get to see them bicker

The video jimin posted where he's sending hearts to Tae

Feel conflicted about the rise in popularity

I’m a bit worried about the attention Vmin is getting recently

U answered my jik ask so well

Tae being bold because he's bursting with affection

Jimin admitted he was jealous

About the families (+kimchi ep. mini analysis)

About vmin/ji/ook/tae/kook

The whole maknae line

Never seemed to be in the same team

When people "ship" them?

Showing their bond more

About Jikook

About vmin being the less popular ship

Flustered vmin

Yeontan vlive

About the airport moment

Do you think that vmin live together?

About vmin rising in popularity

Do you have a link for that moment during New Year's 2016?

Platonic/bro label on vmin

More than friendship between vmin

My reply - Making Vmin videos

Thank you! A small reply

About my bias

Opinions above people

Once again, THANK YOU ALL so much for loving Vmin so much and for coming to me with your lovely messages. <3

#vmin #btsandvmin #ask #vmin analysis #my post #collection #vmin answer #bts ask #btsandvmin answers #thank you #keep loving vmin

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sarakuper · 5 years ago

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Mt. Hood & Portland, Oregon

Stops #10 & #11, Aug 9-13

For the fourth morning in a row we packed up and hit the road. We’ve been on the go go go ever since I got back from NY and we have been looking forward to settling into a spot and having some downtime.

I’ve noticed our travel days can be rough and Sean and I often get hangry (anger caused by hunger). I also learned that I really dislike shopping at Walmart, but damn it’s so cheap. Either way, we decided after this stop that we will no longer food shop there. With their low prices and ample space for parking a trailer we will see if we actually stick to that.

While en route to Mt. hood we also had to stop at an auto parts store because Sean wants to fix something that’s leaking in the truck. After several stops along the road we finally hit the last hour of our drive and a storm rolled in. We saw Mt. Hood in the distance hiding behind dark clouds. All of the sudden the sky is raging with lighting and thunder. It too another 10 minutes before the rain reached us, but when it did it hit hard. The lightning was far in the distance, but we had a clear view of it. And damn, there were some epic lighting strikes. Jaxon was hiding in the back seat as best as he could, squeezing himself behind the bottom of his dad’s seat as much as possible. He’s such a daddy’s boy 😝

When we arrived at our camp spot we nestled ourselves in between the trees and scoped out the rest of the grounds. This camping spot is beautiful, but sadly there are signs warning of closures because too many people leave trash behind and don’t dispose of their waste properly. You have to bury your poops 6 inches deep, at least! And always pack out your trash. It’s a shame that people don’t follow these protocols. Anyway, I made quesadillas on the first night and they actually came out so yummy! One of the things we bought was a rotisserie chicken and we spent 5 minutes shredding it to keep in a container so we could add it to any meal. Why didn’t we think of this earlier? It’s so convenient and also so tasty!

The next morning Alexis and Dou (Mamadou) arrived to camp with us for the next three nights. I spent the morning cleaning the camper and Sean worked on the car. We are so excited to have company to be able to socialize with people other than each other. Unfortunately, just before they came, water fell off the awning of our trailer and right into my lap as I was working on my laptop. I put rice on the keyboard and as per google’s suggestion, leave it off for 48 hours. For this reason I’m super happy we have internet at this campsite... Once Alexis and Dou arrived I taught them how to play kaluche while Sean worked on the truck. Man, I forgot how slow this game moves when you play with people just learning. It reminded me how much I sometimes hate this game 😂.

Later in the evening we hiked over to Trillium Lake, about 1 mile from our campsite, to fish and relax on the water. Dou had never fished before and was so pumped to, even though him and Sean got no bites. I guess the Kuper curse follows me around! Everyone else around us was catching fish left and right...

The night ended with lots of food, snacks, and kaluche until we all fell asleep. We planned to spend the next day in Portland, and that’s exactly what we did.

Portland is such a cool city! We were all impressed and fantasized about moving there. It was way more diverse than I expected and while I could tell it’s similar to Denver in that it’s changed a lot in the last 5 years while several more people were moving there, it was also clear that it’s managed to keep its originality. After a very fattening brunch we headed to the weekend market where we shopped, people watched, and ate some more. I accidentally left my camera in the trailer back at our campsite, so I was only able to capture some moments with my phone.

At the market I got a henna tattoo from an awesome lady named Aisha. I chose an elephant because I cant get those majestic creatures off my mind ever since Africa!

We watched some live music, drank smoothies, and even ate ice cream stuffed donuts. Alexis kept saying how full she was but would then eat more. Preggo life.

Coincidentally my cousin Jesse from NY was also in Portland with his wife Kristen and kid Owen! We met up with them in the late afternoon to catch up.

That night Alexis and Dou made us some quesadillas as we hung out and just laughed a lot.

The next morning we did not wake up early like we said we would for a hike. Instead of setting an alarm like we planned we woke up whenever our bodies felt like getting up and slowly made our way to the trailhead. Tom Dick and Harry Mountain trail was 9 miles out and back with 1,700 feet elevation gain, and the views were beautiful!

If you haven’t noticed yet, Alexis and Dou are expecting a baby in Jan and so I encouraged us to feel her belly in pictures. Sean opted out 😅

When we got back to our site it had finally been over 48 hours since I started letting my MacBook dry out, and so I tried turning it in. Big mistake. I learned later that only fried more parts inside. That time it turned on, but the display was busted. After that it did not turn on again. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been super bummed about this ever since it happened. I feel like my computer is my outlet for so many things. It holds about 20,000 photos currently, at least half of those are from my childhood. It’s my way to download my photos in the highest quality now that I finally bought a DSLR camera, and using tumblr has been like writing a journal- reflecting on everything and showing everyone makes me feel good. And now I don’t have my laptop to do that with. It’s not the same from my phone for so many reasons. So yeah, I’ve been pretty moody. At this point I made the plan to bring my computer into a tech company that could fix it in Portland. We planned to drive through Portland to head to the coast anyway, but instead of heading north along the coast into Washington, we will now have to go back to Portland to pick my laptop back up, and hopefully fixed.

Anyway, it was so great to have Alexis and Dou with us, the four of us got along great... but also Sean and Dou have the cutest bromance. Anyway, they loved the camper trailer living and are thinking about getting one for their little fam. I can’t wait until that baby comes too!! They will have such beautiful mixed babies, me and Sam (our other bestie) have been waiting for this to happen for a while! Also I cannot get over Alexis pregnant. She is so small and yet so large. I even took a selfie with her belly 😍

Thanks for reading, love you all.

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thezolblade · 6 years ago

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tma meme

tagged by @sazandorable ~

Top 10 episodes

101: Another Twist 118: The Masquerade 119: Stranger and Stranger 81: A Guest For Mr. Spider 80: The Librarian 79: Hide and Seek 92: Nothing Beside Remains 39: Infestation 34: Anatomy Class 100: I Guess You Had To Be There

tend to enjoy the ones where we get a lot about the overarching plot; i’ve only listened to most of them once at work and i get the feeling i’m missing a lot of the connections that i’d get if i relistened to everything, though some pieces fall into place just browsing the wiki and transcripts a little. jon is so... ;.; i don’t think anything’s likely to displace another twist as fave.

(oh, and did you see my message on twitter the other day? had more feels about ep22 after talking about it on discord, but after the group chat moved on i felt i maybe shouldn’t go on and on about it in other people’s space, but if you’re interested in any more rambling then, guess i wouldn’t be derailing anything posting here... since the other people who lived in the same building as martin’s flat probably couldn’t see jane prentiss, same as most entities that are invisible to most people, would martin have been able to infer that, from hearing people walk past in the hallway outside his front door without screaming or attracting jane’s attention? would martin have been worried that the worms might have gotten people anyway? he went so far as to seal the cracks round his windows in case the worms got round the outside walls, but then when he got to the archives we didn’t hear him worrying about his neighbors. while he was trapped for those two weeks, do you think he heard his neighbors walking past, and had to avoid calling out to them for help, in case drawing their attention was enough to get them hurt?)

5 Episodes that scared you the most

mostly they’re effective as horror in that i feel horrified for the characters, to some degree, but not scared as if there was a real life danger - generally find it a bit weird that people talk about ‘horror’ genre and ‘scary’ things as if they were the same when they’re so different.

still, 94: Dead Woman Walking and 70: Book of the Dead had lines that were maybe a bit too unsettling, the inscription 'Life is a current that cannot be fought. It is a march with one destination. You cannot cease your step, nor move your course, to one that skirts the journey's destination. You have already read too much.' and "The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one." - left me thinking about how death is real enough. we’re bodies that are only very temporarily alive. and sure a story is only a reminder, but it can leave one feeling down anyway, kinda flat and nauseous. but georgie is a good symbol of one way of getting on with things anyway - accept reality as it is and let fear burn itself out, then live for the sake of it, even we don’t all have our fear completely cauterized.

Top TMA ship(s)

well jon and martin are interesting in canon and there are some very funny plays on that in the fanart here on tumblr, and feels for the episodes where they get protective of each other... but i guess i’m about as ace as jon, bc i didn’t interpret martin’s friendliness as a crush until elias explicitly described it that way and the actors confirmed it in the Q&A. even looking back now, i can see how having a crush could lead martin to act the way he does (...or if s4 is as bad as it looks, the way he used to...) but it’s not the only plausible explanation for that behaviour. i mean people can be fond of each other and determinedly nice without necessarily feeling romantic attraction. and i honestly just want to see them get more fond and protective of each other, to have each other’s backs more effectively and appreciate each other’s efforts, whether or not the ‘crush’ is ever ‘reciprocated’ in romantic terms - tho if romance was the form that all of that came in, i’d be just as happy as if it was platonic, especially as that’d make physical comfort more likely, since it’s a lot more common than cuddly queerplatonic stuff - tho i’m not really expecting the ship to sail far in canon since we already know that ‘nobody’s going to be okay’...

(i’m getting really worried about what martin meant by ‘goodbye jon’ in the s4 trailer; that guess someone made on the discord about how maybe martin gave up his own ability to connect with people seems horribly likely. if he had to sacrifice something once he was convinced that peter ‘was right’, would he be ready to give up unreciprocated feelings for someone who wasn’t going to wake up, and wouldn’t want him even if he ever did somehow recover, someone who thought too little of him to return his feelings even if he wasn’t completely disinterested in relationships anyway? would he be ready to stop feeling so attached to a parent that hates him and always will no matter what he does, and to coworkers who were caught on tape saying that he has to accept that not everyone likes him? at that point in time, could he even believe that anyone left alive actually cared about him?)

for other ships... daisy and basira sounded interesting, again mostly because elias said one of them cares deeply about the other even though i didn’t catch anything directly between them that felt necessarily shippy beforehand.

Favorite Monster(s)/Avatars

jon

michael shelley

helen richardson

Ex Altiora, it definitely counts

Favorite Entity/Entities

the descriptions of the vast whale-like creature underwater, the vast space entity, and jon’s dreams of a vast entity watching everything, have me wondering whether they’re one and the same - whether ‘the eye’ and ‘the vast’ are two aspects of it, like leitner’s metaphor about the eye, hand and foot appearing unconnected to an ant, and like that old story about blind men feeling different parts of an elephant and giving contradictory descriptions of ‘an elephant’ as a result, which i heard in the context of ‘a metaphor for god described by different religions’. considering the lonely’s effect on one of the astronaughts was kinda maybe triggered by another of them having an experience with the vast (the spacesuit floating away, and passing the window), maybe ‘the lonely’ is another aspect of that creature, the way it makes people feel...? it’ll be interesting to see canon delve further into all of this.

Any Entities that Don’t Scare You?

well mostly they’re not scary as mentioned above, though i often feel sad for the characters. the flesh often gets weird enough to just leave me kinda puzzled sometimes, like ‘where is this going?’, though on a meta level i like that it’s because it’s some kind of embodiment of animal fears, not human ones.

#sazandorable #the magnus archives #tma thoughts

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hersheyjoneswuzhere · 7 years ago

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Sweet Pea Imagine: ’Sweet heart 2′

Part 1 :)

Warnings: curses, intoxication with alcohol and drugs, please don’t read if that makes uncomfortable :)

His touch made my skin melt and my legs shiver and weaken with every move of his lips on mine. He held me close to his chest, kissing in the dark, while his large hands wandered all around my body. I was a mess under his touch, not being able to control my own body, nor my own feelings as my stomach was filled by flock of butterflies and my head was spinning. God, his lips felt so good and I wanted to got further, but I knew that I couldn’t let myself to.

As if for my own personal need, a loud thunder and a lighting struck near us, making me jump and scream. Well, I am terrified of thunder.

‘It’s just a lighting, calm’ he laughed, his face still close to mine.

‘Easy saying that when you ain’t scared of it...’ I mumbled, my anxiety rising.

‘Awh, you’re scared of thunder?’ he mocked me and I wasn’t even bothering fighting back as I was concentrated more on calming myself down.

‘There’s supposed to be thunder all night, so good luck’ he grinned and I felt humiliated for being scared of something like this.

Another energy discharge hit the Earth, creating a sinister loud noise, making my heart rate increase even more, what was shown in my fast breathing.

‘Fuck you’re actually terrified’ he said furrowing his brows as he seen my hands shake. It’s not the idea of thunder and lighting that I feared the most, but the idea of it in the night time was just traumatic. The loud, scary noises that it made reminded me of war and everything related to war terrifies me. Especially, at night, when you’re isolated, on your own with your own mind and thoughts which become dark during night time.

Another loud bang got to my ears and I jumped, furrowing my eyebrows.

‘I’ve got to go’ I exclaimed panicking, trying to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

‘I’ll walk you home, okay?’ he said and I just nodded my head as a ‘yes’. It begun to rain and thunder got even louder, making me near passing out of fear. And the idea that I’ll have to face it on my own at home felt life-ending.

‘You’ll be fine, just get a blanket or something and relax’ he said, as we were outside the doors of my block I lived in.

‘Can’t really relax tho, can I? Also, you’re coming in’

‘What?’

‘I am not letting you walk all the way back in this weather, after you just walked me here’

‘I’ll be fine, I’m a big guy’

‘Size wise- sure, mentally- you’re 10 years old’

‘Size? Why? Wanna know mine?’

‘Walk.’ I rolled my eyes as I opened the doors and waited for him to get in. He looked at me and walked inside, and then we walked to my small flat. Both of us were soaking wet, so I walked to what used to be my older brother’s room and got some of his old clothes and threw them at Sweets, instructing him to change in the bathroom.

‘You wanna sit around in soaking wet clothes?’ I asked raising my eyebrows and he stood up and walked to the bathroom to change. I went in my room and dug out some shorts, underwear and a crop top which I can sleep in. After he left the bathroom, I told him that I’m going to take a quick shower and said that he can watch some TV while I’m gone.

I got out after 10 minutes, hanging away my towels. I knew I’d feel too ‘exposed’ around him so I threw a sheer night gown over my shoulders and went to the kitchen.

‘Do you want tea?’ I asked and he confirmed, so I took out 2 mugs to make the drinks. After they were done, I placed the on the coffee table next to the sofa and sat on the other end of it. He looked at me and smiled.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘You look cute without makeup, like a little girl and with it, you look like a bitch whose about to kill someone’

‘That’s just my face’ I rolled my eyes.

‘Oh, don’t get me wrong, you look good both ways but without it you look innocent and fragile, and with it you look serious and more sexy’

‘You’re basically saying I’m ugly without it’ I bursted out laughing.

‘No, look at me’ my head turned his way ‘without it you look like a natural beauty, there’s a difference between being sexy and beautiful- sexy is when you want to fuck someone and beautiful is when you want to examine and admire their beauty’ I opened my eyes widely, not being sure what I just heard.

‘You want to fuc-’ I jumped and screamed as a thunder hit really loudly. He bursted out laughing and I sat with my right hand on my heart.

‘Shut the fuck up, this ain’t that funny’ I said throwing pillow at him. We ended up watching ‘Friends’ until it was like 12 and we were both sleepy, so I told him to sleep in my bed as he went to sleep in what used to be my brothers. The thunder stopped, so I could peacefully fall asleep.

I was woken up by a loud bang outside- thunder. I opened my eyes widely, trying to catch my breath as my body was paralysed with fear. It is all starting again. I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths, calming myself down, when another- much louder thunder hit and I stood up, running out of the room, not being able to deal with it. I went to my room, where Sweet Pea slept and walked up to his bed. The lighting struck and I could see him opening his eyes. He looked at me and smiled lightly as he moved further down the mattress and pulled the bedding up for me to get in. I lied next to him, picking up my teddy bear which found its place on the floor and hugged it, holding it close to my chest and burying my face in it. I felt Sweet’s hands wrapping around my waist and pulling me closer to his chest, his hands still wrapped around me. I have never felt this safe since I was a child in the arms of their mother, holding them close, protecting from the outside world. But this- this was different. I felt as if this was wrong, but so right at the same time. Wrong for my ego, and right for my heart...

The next morning I woke up with my leg wrapped around his hips and my arm around his neck, with my face burried in the crook of it. I looked up to see Sweet Pea on his phone, casually scrolling. I got up and looked away.

‘Why didn’t you move me?’ I asked, a bit embarrassed.

‘Why would I?’ he smirked.

‘Because I was basically choking you?’

‘Don’t worry, soon the roles gonna change’ he grinned and I rolled my eyes standing up and walking to my bathroom to wash my face etc.

*Later that day, school*

It was finally break- one more lesson and it’s home time. We were sitting on a field and I was fully engaged in a conversation with Fangs, laughing and joking around. I ended up between his legs when he was playing with my hair. I observed Sweet Pea’s ‘hateful’ looks. Is he jealous? Well, I hope so.

After school, I went to Toni’s. Currently, we were messing around, blasting some sexual Lana Del Rey songs while singing along and dancing in our underwear and shirts. None of us have noticed how Sweets snuck in and was quietly watching us messing arounds. I only, noticed him when I spun around and kinda fell into him, as he caught me and smirked.

‘Can’t you like knock?’ I roll my eyes, getting embarrassed, as Toni turns around and groans, and I get back up.

‘Fucks sake Sweet Pea, this is a girl area! Fuck off you wannabe Tall Boy’ I giggled at her response and Sweets gave me a cold look so I stuck up my middle finger at him.

‘Well was wandering if you two are interested in hanging around with us tonight? Maybe a bonfire gathering with Jug, Fangs and of course, the baddest of them all- me’ he pointed at himself and I picked up a pillow and threw it at him.

‘Take this, Sweet Pea’ I grinned as he looked at me with and evil look and then looked back at Toni.

‘Control your friend or it will end bad for her’

‘Um, excuse you, I still know you want to do all them dirty things to me’ I shouted as he laughed and left the room to go to the kitchen and drink some water.

‘Okay I missed out on something’ Toni whispered to herself and walked up to Sweets.

‘What time does the whole thing start?’

‘Seven, outside Fangs’ trailer. See you soon Topaz’

‘No goodbye for me?’ I asked, while crossing my arms over my chest, making the shirt rise up and him look me up and down, adding up to my satisfaction.

‘You’ll get some later’ he winked and left as I rolled my eyes.

‘You two will fuck so hard I cannot breathe’ Toni exclaimed and I groaned, trying to stop myself from laughing.

I wore a high waisted, light-washed shorts, a white cropped top and a lace cardigan. Me and Toni walked together to Fangs’ place, a little drunk.

We got there, and Jug was already there together with Betty and Sweet Pea and Fangs, who came running welcoming us, off his brains as well. Me and Toni sat down on the bench as Fangs passed us two beers.

‘Look what I got’ Sweet Pea said after a while as he took out a little bag with greens in it and 4 rolled joints. I smiled as I saw Betty look at Jug and whisper something in his ear.

‘You know guys, we think we’ll gonna pass and go’ she spoke as she stood up off Jughead and both of them disappeared after saying their good byes.

‘New girl’ I looked at Sweet Pea ‘can you take this?’ he said, while holding one of the joints in front of me.

‘Can take more than that’ I said as I took the joint and lighted it with a lighter Fangs passed me.

After a while, all of us were stoned and what feels better than Lana Del Rey songs while being high? Nothing. I convinced Fangs to let me play some music and the two of them were too stoned to care so me and Toni were swinging around with wild smiles along to ‘High by the beach’. Sweet Pea was staring at me with a slight smile while Fangs was on another planet, looking at the night sky decorated with many brightly shining stars. Toni went to lie down next to Fangs while I took some slow steps towards Sweet Pea while lip syncing ‘I've got a burning desire for you, baby’ and slowly flipped my head, letting my hair freely fell whether it wanted to, as I came to sit on his laps, placing my hand on his chest, letting them wonder up his neck and back down. My face got closer to his, as my hips were slowly moving to the beat of the song as I continued to lip sync along to ‘Have to touch myself to pretend you're there, your hands were on my hips, your name is on my lips’ as my lips lightly brushed against his, before he pulled me into a deep kiss, as his hands moved down to my hips.

The kiss turned more passionate as desire overflow the both of us, until we were stopped by Toni’s complains about us kissing in front of her. I looked at him and smirked, before resting my head against his chest, falling asleep not long after.

I was woken up by the sun rays in my eyes. I slowly opened my eyes an lifted my head, being unsure where I was. Well, I was sitting/lying on Sweet Pea as my hands were wrapped around his neck and chest. His hands found their place tightly wrapped around me. We were on a coach inside a trailer. I looked down at Sweet Pea’s face- his eyes closed as he was peacefully asleep. He looked like an angel while he was sleeping- his hair messy while his face rested in a cute manner. What is happening to me?

#sweet pea #sweet pea imagine #riverdale sweet pea #sweet pea riverdale #sweet pea imagines #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea smut #sweetheart #southside serpents #southside #jughead jones #toni topaz #fangs fogarty #riverdale

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everydayanth · 6 years ago

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Disaster-Movie Children -_-

Let’s talk about them! And why do they suck?

I was watching the new Netflix movie Extinction because the basic plot that I got from the trailer seemed interesting - in an attempt to balance strained family relationships, a hard-working man ignores his PTSD-nightmares about a trauma that hasn’t happened yet, but then it does.

Kind of like Arrival, these alien-invasion/mixed-timeline disaster movies often utilize extremely controversial anthropological theories to base the “problem” part of the story on, so I tend to hate them, but find myself watching them to reanalyze my understanding of the debates being tossed around in academia.

Like Arrival’s use of linguistic determinism and application to the classic sci-fi invasion plot. (Currently available on Amazon Prime if you wanna talk about it with me ;P)

Anyway, no spoilers, but I got real fed up with the children in Extinction right quick. I’m at 40:02 and I hate them. They are just so conventionally unrealistic. And this frustration got me thinking about a bunch of things - does how we portray our children in disaster movies reflect what we think about them? Are there common themes that can be gathered from the child-representation from many movies? I don’t watch enough to feel confident in this, but, from the few I have seen: obnoxiously unable to cope, devoid of instinct or rationale, and unadaptably stupid all come to mind, along with lacking a personality beyond being the “innocence” the protagonist attempts to save or protect - the children are almost always McGuffins, ugh.

These questions reminded me of a post-grad dissertation I edited for an archaeology friend of mine way back in 2012, which was about progressivist psychology and expectations of modern archaeologist that has created an astonishingly false narrative of the human past by ignoring or, more commonly, accidentally overlooking the archaeological contributions of women and children. That is to say that artifacts were regularly attributed to adult males without any evidence for or against such an assumption (buttons, teeth, socks, calendars, etc.) and she was using some applications of modern psychology in an attempt to address why that is (progressivism and lack of diversity/culture-training of archaeologists), as well as how to implement teaching tools and techniques to minimize these false assumptions.

But here we are in 2018, still portraying children as lacking anything resembling a personhood, existing for the sole purpose of parental struggle. Is this a reflection of society or just a bad film?

I love the Norwegian disaster film The Wave, it’s one of my favourites. The characters are generally all somewhat rounded with at least more than one dimension, the mother is struggling to survive as much as the father - he is no saviour here, he is more of the helper, an equal partner in the survival of the family unit, and so are the children! We see peripheral characters come together to help one another, and death to some of the side characters that do or don’t matter (and also I’m learning Norwegian and the dialogue was simple enough to follow, if it was in my native language, I doubt I’d find it as stimulating lol).

Extinction, so far (still at the 40:00), has shown a few of these somewhat balancing traits - the father fights off the alien, but the mother saves him by killing it (not important, really), the mom protects one child while the fathers go off to find another - and we don’t see competition between them, but cooperation, which is a nice switch-up, but the kids are so freakin’ dumb that their mother is relegated to herding them constantly. The mothers in disaster movies have been taking more of a part in the survival of the family unit, but are quickly distracted by unreasonable children while the father saves the day, we also see this in the recent film No Escape, which has a whole slew of other problems I don’t have time to get into (side note: why is the dumb kid always a Lucy? Is this some inverted Narnia shit or what?).

The problem with the portrayal of dumb children in disaster movies (beyond the unfair reduction of a person to a plot device), is that it reduces the caretaker’s role to mitigating impending disaster. That caretaker, who is almost always the female or the mother in American films (yeah, they’re different, sometimes the mother is a horrible person who dies and our like, totally awesome white female protagonist adopts the neglected child, but there was diversity, so... that one’s Ocean’s Rising if you wanna have a look, also, I’m starting to think I have much more experience with disaster movies that I realized, I’d like to thank the rise of teen-dystopians in the early 00′s) is put in constant position of guarding the briefcase, just in this case, it’s a child. Perhaps I’m only watching the bad movies because I’m a chicken and the good ones freak me out, but South Korea has given us Train to Busan and The Flu with male caretakers, and they were both incredible!

In our American films, however, it seems the mom/female caretaker is rarely contributing to the overall survival of the group, she’s the emotional support to the male, sure, but she’s not coming up with solutions and working out the best plan, nah, that’s a man’s job, because she has to make up for her stupid kids’ mistakes or lack of cooperation. Whoever made this movie has never seen a child in crisis, they are so resilient and capable of adaption. Journey to the Center of the Earth may be an off-genre comparison, but one of my favourite things is that the kid, Sean, gets separated and totally gets himself closer to where he needs to be, the female lead, Hannah, has a moment with Brendan Fraser, but he needs to go after the kid, and she’s not going to die waiting for them, so they go opposite ways, and if they hadn’t, we are lead to assume they’d be dead, this is further emphasized in the film by their initial counting of who saved whom and end decision on it not mattering, which may be an allusion to relationships, or else to the male-saviour trope. In the end, it’s Sean who ultimately “saves” them after they’re out of mortal peril, with his wisely-collected bag of gemstones. He had agency in the film, and while it’s not the most correlated example and probably a bit of a fallacy, I just want to know why disaster-movie kids are so... bad.

There are hundreds of theories that could be applied to Extinction’s portrayal of children in a pop-culture-disaster film (though it only has a 5.8/10 on IMDB and a 4/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, so can it even be considered as a representation?), from portrayal of gender roles (especially given the 50s/60s influence on fashion and society portrayed cinematically, like it was trying to be an updated 1984), to the insinuation of childhood, to the paternalism of the adults, or even the lack of identity/agency of the children. Were all the girls meant to be interchangeable? Why is it never a little boy? Are they not innocent enough to protect? *sigh*

But ultimately, my purpose in writing this post, beyond the fun of applying anthropology theories to films and finding that they often cherry-pick on the bad ones (lookin’ at you Mermaids by Animal Planet and your Water-Ape nonsense), was really to point out that when I got frustrated enough to google “why are movie kids so dumb,” Extinction was the first result, and I had a good laugh and then checked my anthropology at the door, because clearly not enough people thought this film a good enough representation of culture to interpret any further meaning from it.

And that was my lesson for today - not everything is bad anthropology, sometimes it’s just bad art. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Or is there no such thing as bad art...? 😱😲😧😬🙄

#bad anthropology #anthropology #culture #movies #extinction #arrival #children #representation #archaeology #theories #discussion #art #bad art #disaster movies

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bangtan · 7 years ago

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[Article] Meet BTS, the K-Pop phenomenon breaking world records

We speak to rapper RM of BTS, the seven-member boy group whose ultra-dedicated fanbase have made them the most prominent South Korean act to break the west

The phone line crackles out of Seoul where it’s nearly midnight, and where RM, the leader of seven member South Korean group BTS, is looking back at a crazy month in which they broke records – some their own, some they never even thought they’d achieve – one after the other in a relentless wave.

“I feel like we’re a balloon…,” RM says, surmising the time period, and there’s a tinge of disbelief in his voice. That’s unsurprising given their latest mini-album Love Yourself: Her is the biggest selling K-Pop album in pre-orders ever (over a million in domestic alone), and with the lead single “DNA”, they’re now the fastest K-Pop group to hit 10 million, 20 million, then 100 million YouTube views. Then there are those killer chart standings – #14 on the UK album chart, top 10 on the US Billboard 200 album chart – while DNA not only reigned over worldwide iTunes charts but rose to #67 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest position ever for a Korean group.

Expectations had, naturally, run high for their comeback; BTS (rappers RM, J-Hope, Suga, and vocalists Jimin, Jin, V and Jungkook) reached ‘phenomenon’ level last year with their second studio album WINGS and moombahton-style single Blood Sweat & Tears, yet 2017 has already provided an almost unbelievable new layer of success. Every day now brings another milestone, another article or another Western radio station playing the frisky, echoing electro-pop of “DNA”, adding to the feverish atmosphere around them. If their powerhouse fandom, known as A.R.M.Y, even felt momentarily overwhelmed by it all, then they’re not alone.

“Everything is going so fast,” RM adds with a small laugh. Intriguing and charismatic in conversation, he’s a rapid-fire lateral thinker who can whisk you on the mental equivalent of a gigantic wood-track rollercoaster. “We don’t know where that balloon is going but I’m just trying to enjoy it because there was so much suffering before. I’m trying not to lose (sight of) what we’re doing.”

Over the weeks since its mid-September release, pre-empted by a series of trailers bridging from the previous concept for the The Most Beautiful Moment In Life double album, Love Yourself: Her became trickier the more time you spent with it. Saturated in double entendre (both an exploration of love and a direct letter to their fans), its sound, for the most part, strides in a confident, glossy groove, yet peel back its shimmery surface and bruises and scratches lie along its limbs, even on the sweetest of tracks such as “Serendipity”.

While it’s not often that you get to step into an album’s lifecycle where hindsight begins to glimmer and perhaps shape an artist’s next phase, it’s a curious, illuminating and slightly vulnerable experience. But, without a trace of hesitation, we dive into Love Yourself: Her to explore the parts instantly indoctrinated into BTS lore, its impact, shadows and the wider reaching effect on its owners.

On release you called Love Yourself: Her a ‘turning point’ and BTS’s ‘chapter two’, pointing at the music as the primary cause. Have further reasons for these descriptors emerged over the past month?

RM: The concept of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, that was chapter one for us, it feels like that because we were starting from the bottom but on this concept, Love Yourself, we started to talk about some brighter things, like the real things in life. Professionally, we got on the Billboard and UK charts, and our stadiums are getting bigger… so both inside and outside, it’s a turning point for BTS. I’d like to say we’re just in a different universe now, I think, like a crab, we got a new shell.

Two of the album’s most emotional moments are the hidden tracks, the spoken word ‘Skit: Hesitation & Fear’ and ‘Sea’. They both deal with struggles in your early days as well as current concerns about fame and success. Why was it important to have them on the same album?

RM: We add hidden tracks when we want to add details, right? ‘Skit’ was necessary for ‘Sea’ to be explained. I think they’re reacting to each other. I actually first talked about those fears, happiness, the sea and the desert on our first album (2 Cool 4 Skool), they were the hidden tracks – a skit called ‘On The Start Line’ and a track called ‘Path’. Four years has passed and I’m talking about how we dealt with it, what is the sea and desert inside of us and what’s the future.

You’ve come full circle and, damn, I didn’t realise. So over those four years, using this latest concept, what have you had to accept or learn to love about yourself that you didn’t like back then?

RM: Ummm, I’ve had to accept that that everyone cannot love me. Because when there’s love there’s hate, when there’s light there’s dark. But it was really hard to accept as an artist that there’s a lot of people that hate me but, on the other side, there are many more people who love me. I think everyone goes through that.

Do you recall when you were able to say, ok, I can deal with this?

RM: Actually I’m still on the way (laughs). I don’t really feel like I’m really out of it, but I’m getting used to it. I’m like a surfer, first you just paddle and fall off the board but as time goes by you can stand up on the bigger waves (laughs).

Themes of fate and destiny run through this album. Have you always believed you have a set path?

RM: Nietzsche… one of his famous phrases was amor fati, or ‘love your fate’. Let’s say, me who is born in Korea, and you, Taylor who is born Australia, we can’t change that, we cannot have the same life. Amor fati isn’t just saying leave everything to fate, but to first accept things we can’t change. Love our fate, and our environment, then (think) we could do something with fate and turn directions. We’re on some path that’s set since we’re born, but I still believe we can change some things. So I believe in my faith but I still don’t believe in my fate (laughs).

The huge success you’ve experienced off this album, how is that impacting your creativity? Can you think ‘I’m gonna write a song and see how it goes’, or it is ‘I have to write a song and it can’t be anything less than amazing’?

RM: That is a pressure actually, I can’t say I don’t feel it. What’s happening is so much for me, and everything around BTS moves so fast, like making ten songs in half a year. Sometimes (it’s) too much, but I always remind myself of things back in 2007, I started this because I wanted to say something. There was a message inside me and I wanted to spread it as music, so when I’m in my studio writing I try to take it slow. I’m trying to take a deeper look, like what am I really trying to say?

Except with people knocking on the door going, are you done yet, have you got a song for me?

RM: (laughs) Ah yeah, that’s why people call it a deadline, cos you feel like you’re dead.

‘Mic Drop’, both song and performance, is already classic BTS. ‘My bag’s filled with trophies… / Haters are already giving up / My success is already so golden… / You’re rushing to run away.’ BTS have always stood up for themselves but what’s made this track integral to your new chapter?

RM: Hitman Bang (the group’s CEO/producer) wanted us to let out anger and pain on this track but it was hard ’cos there isn’t any anger or jealousy left inside, I’m satisfied right now (laughs). I love our fans, so many miracles are happening every day. I have no time for the haters. I think this goes with why Her is a turning point for BTS and ‘Mic Drop’ (helps) say that – we drop the mic and chapter one is over. It’s a lot of fun.

How many mics has Suga broken by throwing them down at the end of each performance?

RM: (laughs) Oh, no not (the good ones) yet, we buy cheap ones from the market, karaoke ones that cost like $30.

You’re clearly enjoying life right now but there’s darker emotions lurking on this album, so might we see more of those on the next one?

RM: Those (emotions) are still inside, they’re not going away but they’re now a different shape. I think love isn’t just made up of happiness and compliments and light. Love includes scars, a little bit of hate and some dirty things inside us.

And I guess no one is ever 100% happy 24/7, even when everything is going well…

RM: We do have darker emotions and sometimes we feel so heavy with these records and the articles and people going ‘Oh, you’re representing Korea, you’re, like, making Korea famous!!’, and every second we’re like ‘Thank you so much’, but, you know, I’m still just here in my small studio and I try to write some lyrics and that’s all I do. I’m still trying to deal with it.

So what, outside of BTS, makes you happy?

RM: Thank you for this question, not many people ask it! (long pause) I have no driver’s license, so I ride a bicycle beside the Han River. That’s what I really love because no one gives a damn about me for that moment. I feel so free. I also love to collect figures and watch a midnight movie ’cos I can watch it all alone and in the best seat.

Do you have to wear hat, sunglasses, and a face mask to avoid being recognised?

RM: I don’t wear a face mask, I just wear a hat because my hair is too colourful, it’s too shiny (laughs).

Critics had a conversation online that centred around the possibility of BTS being nominated for a Grammy. It didn’t happen this year, but next year… you never know! How does that make you feel?

RM: I’ve heard people are talking about it, I try to not think about it. If I start to expect something, I get disappointed. A Grammy is a whole other level, it’s a whole other world for us!

If you guys won, you’d have to wear seriously waterproof makeup.

RM: Of course. Everyone would cry. I think we’d have to prepare a waterproof suit as well.

Maybe just wear plastic from head to toe.

RM: (laughs) Yeah, we’d have wear a spacesuit or something.

You’ve had a gruelling month’s schedule in Korea, plus two concerts in Japan for 80,000 fans – what’s still the hardest thing during that, and who keeps you sane?

RM: Sleeping. No sleep makes a human into another human (laughs). Culturally, Koreans are used it, but still it’s really hard. We get used to but we can’t ever get used to it. J-Hope always tries to cheer us up and I’m so grateful. Actually I like to call him a new leader for the group.

After being together for years, who in BTS can still surprise you?

RM: V. His words are crazy and his English is crazy too. He makes new words and new grammar and he always surprises me. I feel like he’s quite good at English too because he can speak to everyone, he’s got confidence, he’s got the guts.

They say when you learn a new language you can’t be afraid of making mistakes.

RM: (sighs) I’m always afraid of making mistakes. I think I was born with that.

I’ve always wondered what BTS do before an album drops, is there a ritual?

RM: We gather in our living room, have a little drink and talk about how we should deal with the schedules and how we’re doing. It’s really nothing but it makes us feel different, it keeps us running and it keeps our attitude because we always remember when we were sad and poor (laughs). Popularity is a bubble. It’s a mountain, you can go up really hard but walk down really fast.

Okay, last thing… you are the king of high fives and handshakes that go slightly wrong.

RM: (laughs) Yeah, that’s what fans from Europe and America say! But they love those moments, right! It’s a cultural thing? I don’t know why, but no one pays attention to my handshakes and high fives. My hands are really big and I’m like six foot, so they can see me really easily. It’s very sad, isn’t it (laughs).

Source.

#bangtan #rm #t:interview #171025 #bts

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lumalaya · 6 years ago

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summer films ‘18

hi there! to clarify, this is a log of films i’ve seen this summer, not exactly films set in the summer, so if you’re here for that, i’m sorry?

anyway, here we go!

1. kasal (2018) / dir. ruel s. bayani ♡ 180525 ♡ girl is engaged to the son of cebu’s current mayor who is currently preparing for elections, but her ex comes back and tries to win her back ♡ cliche, i know, but trust me, this movie deals with this plotline in a very interesting way ♡ and come on, it’s bea alonzo and paulo avelino, two icons 2. high school musical (2006) / dir. kenny ortega ♡ 180614 ♡ iconic, i love troy bolton, thanks for reminding me ♡ i know sharpay isn’t that bad but she’s still a bully lol ♡ the choreography for when there was me and you got me dying i love it ♡ fave song: stick to the status quo 3. high school musical 2 (2007) / dir. kenny ortega ♡ 180622 ♡ my least favorite in the trilogy ♡ there was so much unnecessary drama they should’ve cut troy some slack ♡ i hate chad danforth, that’s all ♡ fave song: you are the music in me 4. high school musical 3: senior year (2008) / dir. kenny ortega ♡ 180622 ♡ my favorite in the trilogy! ♡ i still hate chad tho lol but i love taylor so much she’s my favorite character! ♡ i wish they elaborated more on gabriella though, because i like to imagine an alternate ending where she declines stanford and stays in albuquerque for another year which disappoints everyone and puts a strain on her relationship with troy. that would’ve been so interesting! ♡ fave song: i love all of them, but if i had to choose, the boys are back 5. kimmy dora 2: the temple of kiyeme (2009) / dir. joyce bernal ♡ 180626 ♡ the only reason i watched this was because i had a terrible pimple on my forehead and it reminded me of some horror movie then i realized it was this so i had to look for the particular scene ♡ the movie was really bad, as expected ♡ but i absolutely love eugene domingo!! she’s so talented i really admire her as an actress

6. before sunrise (1995) / dir. richard linklater ♡ 180630 ♡ this was the day my internet ultimately stopped working (for four days, if i may add) so i thought hey why not start that movie marathon i’ve been meaning to do ♡ i was excited to watch this because it’s a known pop culture reference, and also because it’s seulgi’s favorite movie ♡ it’s unique! it’s not easy to film a story that revolves around two people who’ve just met walking around in a city neither of them knows ♡ i liked this movie but it wasn’t that spectacular or anything, i think it lacks emotion and excitement ♡ but please, do not get off a train in europe with someone you’ve just met that is dangerous

7. before sunset (2004) / dir. richard linklater ♡ 180630 ♡ i knew nothing about this so i was actually surprised to see the same actors nine years after before sunrise’s release ♡ i like this better than the first one! céline shows the emotions i was looking for ♡ it’s much simpler and easier to follow because it really is just them walking around and talking to continue the story because of the short amount of time they have together

8. before midnight (2013) / dir. richard linklater ♡ 180630 ♡ this movie is the reason i watched the series! it was mentioned in it’s okay, that’s love so i thought i needed to watch this, and honestly, it helped me understand the characters from iotl a bit better! ♡ it ended up being my favorite film of the three ♡ it’s more complex than the first two because it introduces more characters and is set in more locations ♡ after years of watching and reading romcoms, this made me believe in love

9. gone girl (2014) / dir. david fincher ♡ 180701 ♡ i knew nothing about this film except that there was a girl and she was missing and the plot is unexpected? ♡ i won’t say much on this because it’s amazing when you watch it without knowing anything ♡ but it is CRAZY it hecked me up so much wow ♡ will try reading the book when i can!! 10. the grand budapest hotel (2014) / dir. wes anderson ♡ 180701 ♡ my first wes anderson film (finally) ♡ bored me at first because sadly, i can’t relate to rich european men who live in hotels and have sex with elderly women ♡ but it is so much more than that! it’s funny and deals with loyalty, the war, and crap immigrants go through ♡ yes, the cinematography is unique and beautiful, but i couldn’t appreciate it much from years of seeing wes anderson stills on my social media ♡ i went into this without knowing anything about it, but i wish i’d watched the trailer beforehand because that would’ve helped me appreciate it more 11. the fault in our stars (2014) / dir. josh boone ♡ 180702 ♡ i was bored and looking through my sister’s hard drive and i thought hey why not watch sad western teen books-turned-movies i used to glorify years ago ♡ it was alright but knowing every line, song, facial expression that would come next made it worse ♡ john green’s cameo is so awkward it’s almost funny ♡ i hope i never meet an augustus waters in my life 12. if i stay (2014) / dir. r.j. cutler ♡ 180703 ♡ part 2 of sad western teen books-turned-movies i used to glorify ♡ the story is pretty good but the film itself isn’t as good as i remembered ♡ i’m still so in love with jamie blackley after four years he’s so handsome and his voice is beautiful ♡ chloe moretz’s acting is really awkward though it’s almost painful to watch ♡ it made me want to reread the sequel where she went though! 13. she’s dating the gangster (2014) / dir. cathy garcia-molina ♡ 180705 ♡ i started this with an open mind and some expectations because although i hated on it for no reason years ago, i wanted to give it a chance ♡ but i’m sorry it really is bad ♡ kenji delos reyes is manipulative and selfish i hope i never meet a guy like him 14. grave of the fireflies (1988) / dir. isao takahata ♡ 180706 ♡ two siblings in the middle of a war ♡ watched this because a friend wanted to rabbit with me! ♡ i haven’t seen a ghibli film in a while so this was refreshing ♡ really sad though :( 15. 10 things i hate about you (1999) / dir. gil hunger ♡ 180706 ♡ guy is paid to date girl lol ♡ julia stiles is so beautiful :( i love her ♡ pretty funny actually! ♡ also watched this because friends wanted to rabbit with me :> 16. i’m drunk, i love you (2017) / dir. jp habac ♡ 180707 ♡ i finally, finally watched this ♡ not gonna lie it disappointed me? so many people loved it but for me it was eh ♡ paulo avelino’s character was pretty lacking for me, i wish they’d elaborated more on him ♡ but i liked the group dynamic because they’re not the wholesome, fake happy kind of friends, seeing them interact made me feel like they’re people i really know in real life (which made me miss my own friends) ♡ even jasmine’s character felt real because she’s probably someone i’d know HAHA ♡ fun fact: i’ve listened to the song lloydy long before watching this because i mean? a song about john lloyd? sign me up 17. that thing called tadhana (2014) / dir. antoinette jadaone ♡ 180708 ♡ another film i finally watched after multiple pop culture references ♡ i actually kinda liked it! it literally has a spiel about john lloyd of course i do but it gets better when the main characters become comfortable with each other ♡ i find it interesting that the director also directed love you to the stars and back which is another film that revolves around two people, both dealing with stuff, who’d just met and decide to go on a journey together ♡ the characters also feel pretty realistic/relatable once you get to know them 18. the spectacular now (2013) / dir. james ponsoldt ♡ 180709 ♡ part 3 of sad western teen books-turned-movies i used to glorify ♡ the only reason i rewatched this was because it was the shortest of the films i had at the time and i needed something to pass the time while loading episodes of svt club ♡ i mean it’s okay? not bad not good and i don’t even like miles teller ♡ shailene woodley perfectly plays the part of the awkward oblivious girl (and that’s not a compliment) 19. the breakup playlist (2015) / dir. dan villegas ♡ 180716 ♡ this film was so refreshing to watch?? sarah portrayed a youthful musician just starting out so so well i love her so much what a great first sarah g movie for me ♡ piolo made me fall in love with him and later on hate him, as he should ♡ i love opm kaya seeing the gig scene, some actual artists like ebe dancel, and looots of covers of songs like wag na wag mong sasabihin by kitchie nadal and with a smile by eraserheads ♡ i understand now why people love paano bang magmahal HAHAHA 20. barcelona: a love untold (2016) / dir. olivia lamasan ♡ 180717 ♡ alright so remember how i absolutely hated sdtg? ♡ I LOVED THIS FILM SO. MUCH. ♡ kathniel matured a lot in two years and i think they were perfect for this!! they really showed certain struggles of young adults and did not disappoint ♡ it also shows filipino values for family, utang ng loob, ofw struggles, etc ♡ and of course the cinematography is beautiful HUHU i mean it’s barcelona!! 21. my annoying brother (2016) / dir. kwon soo-kyung ♡ 180721 ♡ honestly took me a bit to get into it ♡ i expected it to be funny and although it did make me laugh a lot why were there tears :((( ♡ kyungsoo is so, so, so talented i admire him so much as an actor now ♡ really hits you in the feels! a really beautiful story about two brothers 22. so i married an anti-fan (2016) / dir. kim jae-young ♡ 180724 ♡ meh ♡ it took some getting used to seeing chanyeol being all snobbish and cool instead of his usual loud happy self ♡ of course it’s overdramatic for the comedy, but the hate-turned-love isn’t even that good lol it’s just unreasonable but whatever ♡ the lead girl reminds me of arci munoz HAHA 23. wonder (2017) / dir. stephen chbosky ♡ 180725 ♡ we watched this during my summer program and i was actually pretty excited because i remember loving the book! ♡ this honestly teaches you a lot not even just from the perspective of children but also as teenagers, parents, friends, etc ♡ i thoroughly enjoyed it!

#films #movies #recs #recommendations #reviews #film reviews #movie reviews #film recs #movie recs #high school musical #filipino films #i love troy bolton #sad western teen books-turned-movies i used to glorify #before series

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multifandom-hoes · 7 years ago

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The Lost Queen

Member: TaeYong // NCT

Genre: Angst, Romance, Royalty!AU, a bit of Gothic elements, I guess

A/N: Let me just quickly thank our Lorde and saviour for inspiring me to write this one, as well as the movie Dracula since it was the movie in which I heard this song being used(trailer anyway). Amen.

P.S. I hate this so much because damn it Cathy, you butchered a scenario again...

Words: 2.3k

The darkness in one’s heart had, is, and always will be that of the thicket colour, richest of coals and scariest of places to visit. The dark heart of a queen serving another country might as well be a whole another realm of darkness, so scary and lonely and murderous- you’d almost think there was no one to make that dark place bright again.

But there was. An insignificant little light in the castle made of blood and bones, where the dark queen sat atop a throne made of same materials. A light that would not go out- no, could not go out- under any circumstances.

The darkness that perished and the light that prevailed in the crumbling castle of death will await the two at the end of their journey.

10th of February, 1876

Dear whoever finds this stash of letters,

I am writing this letter in correspondence to the fact that the atmosphere surrounding me at this current moment in time is absolutely terrible. The Rightful Queen seems to have run off to only Gods know where, leaving the paperwork to Her attendants, and Her guests to the staff to entertain. So generally, I shouldn’t be writing this at all and instead go and amuse some pompous old men as they drink their expensive, hand-made wine. However, my English seems to deplete their interest in me and I was sent back to my chambers- or barracks, really; the humidity and stank of this place is barely bearable.

You might be wondering who, exactly, I am, to be in the castle and one of the escorts to the more powerful Dukes. I am no one, really. I was born into a family of servants, though in another country, and through the fall of that country’s economy, my family migrated to England and became servants of yet another powerful family. Through this and that, ties and connections, my assistance was gifted to the Rightful Queen and I was to serve as one of the many of Her butlers.

The rules of the castle seem to be quite strict, and I have already seen a numerous number of servants being executed for stealing bread, or wine. In terror for my own life, it was my decision to start writing letters to whomever my so called `successor` might become. This might be my only letter, there might be more. Hopefully, there will be more.

-Yours Sincerely,

Lee TaeYong.

17th of March, 1876

Dear future,

It has been a couple of months since I had been sold to serve the Rightful Queen, and to my greatest surprise each and every town gossip that I had ever heard about that woman had been proven absolutely ridiculous and too exaggerated of the actual truth that veiled the Queen.

She was a woman of witch-like features, bathing in the blood of young maidens once a month to keep her youth and non-existent beauty present for ever after; a clear exaggeration of reality, that one was. The Queen was simply a youth- barely the age of seventeen, being bargained off to the belated King of this kingdom and now having the throne all for herself. The `witch-like features` point was also false- that woman, or should I write girl, was of soft, baby-like contours, and her eyes shone with melancholy. She had a body of a woman that she didn’t have enough time to grow into.

She was a woman and a witch, cursing the belated King in the aims to get his throne and rule over his kingdom in vile ways, destroying all that was good under some kind of dictatorship; also false, since the Queen, as much as she possessed her title- which wasn’t that much at all, really- did not get to rule the kingdom at all. Instead, she was the figurine atop the doll house, standing as the face of the empire while behind her the advisors sent the orders and ruled the country. After all, she was yet only a child, and in their rightful thinking she was unsuited to the rule of their lands.

In a sense, her circumstances reminded much of my own- being there against her will, sold off, almost, and given away like some kind of possession, and then simply being discarded and put aside like some kind of play thing.

It was sad, really, and through her melancholy I had succeeded to discard my own. Why, you might ask, I know so much about that Rightful Queen? It was under the hands of one of the visiting Lords who forgot the fact that communicating in their twisted tongues had yet to become a skill of my own that She spotted me and decided to take up the burden of introducing me to their language; me, but barely a speck in Her sparkling castle.

I guess I was promoted since then, since a couple of days ago, and I am currently with the honour of serving the Queen directly, while at the same time learning the twists of the language that I came to despise. It doesn’t seem like such a bad language anymore…

-Yours Sincerely,

Lee TaeYong.

29th of July, 1876

Dear future,

I had barely found the right time to write, as serving under the Queen’s direct orders turned out to be more stressful than I had first anticipated. Her schedule was always full to the brim for the whole day, and yet my task had stayed the same all throughout these months as Her servant- to find Her and bring Her to Her classes.

That child was despicable. Always on the run, away in the forests with her good robes of silk and satin. She was a daemon of sorts, with her energy on high-levels at all times of the day. I felt more like a nanny than a servant. As if really taking care of a child. But then, yet again, she was still a child.

And still, her bouts of running away were accomplished with no childish malice, and yet with the mind of a runaway. Every time she got outside the walls of the castle her aim was to run away and return to her righteous home somewhere far away. It didn’t take me long to realize that, and yet as much as I wanted to let her run away, the punishment for that would have been the stake of my head perched atop the castle walls.

We had grown to learn to hate each other, and I was glad for it, since hating seemed like an easier option in such a situation. Hating her and making her comeback to the place she hated seemed so far easier than feeling pity for that child. Yet guilt still ate at my conscious at nights, particularly on the nights when her sobbing could be heard through the crack at the bottom of her door.

Yet despite hating me, the Queen still taught me Her language, and I am proud to confirm that She was certainly a fantastic teacher, since I was quite proud of my own accomplishments. I had begun to learn the very basics of a general conversation, and was on an even higher level of understanding when people spoke.

And yet again, the language that I came to enjoy learning brought me immense pain, since now that I began to understand the meanings behind the words being spoke in the castle, I realized that all of them, or most of them, had been about the Rightful Queen, and none of them were nice. It wretched my heart, yet I dared not speak out- not to the servants, and definitely not to the Lords and Dukes frequenting the castle.

As our lessons progressed, I had begun to figure out the Queen’s behaviour, finding out her secrets- for example how her late husband, the King of this wretched kingdom had never consummated their marriage, and had a mistress away from the eyes of everyone in the castle. The mistress bore Him children and they were to become the heirs of the throne. She was not that Rightful a Queen after all. Yet I supported her fully, and my heart went out to her favour, promising to stand by her side at all times.

As my promise was being made, she asked me to leave this castle together, but I had to reject and see how her face turned from hopeful to disappointed to irritate; how her posture stiffened and with a puff of her breath she stomped out of the room.

She was still a child, but I supposed that child had a flare of a real Queen, and I had come to adore the part of my own wretched being that seemed to grow an affection for her.

The thing that did scare me was the fact that the next time she would ask of me to leave together, I would not be able to reject, and risk our lives to escape into a better tomorrow.

-Yours Sincerely,

Lee TaeYong.

24th of December, 1876

Dear future,

I am afraid to confirm that there might very well possibly be not any letters for the future to write. The worst of things has happened, and though my knowledge of languages is yet quite poor, it was enough to understand the conversation that the royal advisors and Lords and Dukes had amongst each other. My dear Rightful Queen was to be assassinated and some other Lord and His wife was to take up the throne as a direct family line from the King’s side.

My entire being had flushed white in fear and that night I had started packing bags and some reserves of food, though sparsely so as to not attract any lot of attention to my behaviour. Yet of course my Queen had noticed my act of unusualness, my behaviour milder towards her, my sorrowful smiles when I thought she was not looking. But she was always looking, her eyes were always on me, and she had always been able to pick up on my mood changes. She was my Queen, after all, and I was unable to keep secrets from her, so I told her what I heard and in response only got a curt nod of her head as she walked out of the room.

I was confused and scared of what she was to do, yet she did nothing at all and instead walked around the castle with her head held high in proud façade, as if trying to show off any last bits of dignity she had left of this confrontation, living in the castle as a Queen for not even two years yet.

I then decided that I would not allow her death, soldering that determination further into my being and packed our bags with more fervour.

I write on this day knowing that this will be my last entrance of the many letters I had collected for whomever may be willing to find them, to let that person know just what kind of wretched a place they were entering, and what they should fear.

You, dear reader, should fear for your life and help those who seek asylum, forgetting your own pains if such a price is to be paid in order to help others.

Yet, how ironic is I, who tries to cover my love for my Queen with all that pompous speech.

I guess what I’m trying to writ is that to the person whom you fall in love with, give your all. Don’t regret things you couldn’t offer and instead live for the better future of your own, as well as theirs.

My story, I believe, had only begun with the love of my life, a shunned Queen of this kingdom who was barely a play-thing in the hands of these manipulators and thieves and liars. A lair of monsters, this castle was, made of bones and remains of all that was vile- just like the kingdom itself. Rumours and gossips is all that clouds these streets and walls- yet fear not, young reader, for there is always a solution to each problem, and that would be a friend, a lover, family. If you fail to have one or the other, then abandon your fear as well, since the happiest moments come unexpected and may very well mask themselves as torturous monsters of your nightmares. You’ll have to battle them to realize the relish they bring upon your spirit, yet all is fine at the end of the road.

Ah, I fear I have to go, since my Queen is standing at the threshold of my chambers; she looks so frail and even younger than she actually is in the moonlight illuminating this room. It’s hard not to think of my love for her in moments of those, and I can only console you by saying that once you will find such a love yourself, dear reader, and then life will become right for you.

My Queen and I may not live for much longer, but at least we’ll live the remainder of our lives in love and infatuation with each other. Maybe we will instead get to live an immortality filled days of youth, being chased yet not found by our pursuers.

This will be the end of my entries, yet you must only know that I lived through the happiest of my days while serving the woman whom I learned to love.

-Yours Sincerely,

Lee TaeYong.

#nct #nct reactions #nct scenarios #nct requests #request #kpop requests #kpop #nct reaction #nct scenario #lee taeyong #taeyong #nct taeyong #nct lee taeyong #royalty!au #kpop royalty!au #nct royalty!au

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lukes-writing · 5 years ago

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Chapter 8: A New Life

Project introduction | Previous chapter | Next chapter

Word count: 2700 Warnings: Soft drugs usage

September 23rd, 9:17 PM, Heap of Ashes, Trinity Gate

Sienna strides towards her car parked under the Heap of Ashes. Like all other members of the newly-formed Team Dreamcatcher, she’s trying to find out whether the events of the past hour have been just a dream. Maybe she just drank too much, blacked out and dreamt of the weirdest stuff.

However, Sienna makes sure to never get drunk enough to have a blackout.

Then, another thing - or, this time a person - confirms all of this was real. Suddenly, she sees Whisper walking next to her. Her walk resembles a dance just like her voice resembles singing. “Mind if I join you?” the barefoot girl asks. “I need someone to talk to about all of this… and I like you the best so far.”

Even though she still has mixed feelings about Whisper, she’s flattered about this statement.

“Okay, you can come with me,” Sienna says, unable to resist Whisper’s sincere eyes.

Whisper takes something out of her pocket. She puts a small marijuana joint between her lips and lights up its tip using a lighter. “Sorry, but I guess it can help me digest what happened,” she says to Sienna and blows out a cloud of distinctively smelling smoke. “I don’t do it often.”

“That’s okay, I’m not here to judge,” Sienna says.

“You know,” Whisper takes another drag on the joint, “I’m not afraid of those inhumans and stuff - even that Kirlian guy seems nice when you get to know him… and get used to him. I fear cooperating with Parker Skellinger. To be honest… I hate him.”

Sienna raises her perfectly trimmed eyebrows. “Hate? Why?”

“He has such a bad energy,” Whisper replies in all seriousness.

The older girl lets out a short laugh. “Energy? There are a million legit reasons to hate him, and you choose bad energy? Girl, you’re really a category on your own.”

“It’s a good answer!” Whisper justifies her words. “When someone has bad energy, there’s everything wrong with them. They’re just bad to the core. And I can sense it. Trust me.”

Sienna had never believed in esoterism, aura, energies and such, but after tonight, she’s willing to believe even in Whisper’s ability to sense someone’s energy. “To be honest, he also pisses me off,” she runs her hand through her short hair. “I presume you read a lot, so you know that most of the fantasy books have that one handsome, dark, mysterious bad boy. You know… a bit edgy, but knows how to treat a girl. And here? All we got is a skinny asshole who’s not even good-looking. It’s so unfair.”

Whisper giggles. “I guess that’s the difference between a book and reality. I think Gary is much nicer than Parker, but it’s hard to judge since he barely said a word during the meeting.”

“Yeah, he’s weird,” Sienna makes a face.

“Don’t use that word like this!” Whisper scolds her. “You’re saying it like ‘weird’ meant ‘worse’. And I know you were raised in a belief it’s just like that. But if we want to cooperate, you have to accept me - and everyone else - for who I am. I’m not changing to fit anyone’s taste.”

“Maybe I don’t want to cooperate with you. After all, I’m a Corwin. You are an Archer-Gutenberg. We should be rivals, don’t you think?”

Whisper scowls. “No. I don’t want to be rivals. I don’t care who you are or who your family is. Could you… try and do the same? We’re in the same team now and I would never feel good if there was bad energy among us. It’s incredibly draining.”

Sienna smiles. “I was just testing you. Of course I can’t condemn a person just because there’s a quarrel between our families, even though I have to admit… I probably would act like that if I met you this morning. You know… all this crazy stuff probably changed me sooner than I could have imagined.” In the meantime, they arrive at Sienna’s car. The older girl unlocks it. “Need a lift?” she asks.

Whisper brightens up. “I would love to.”

Sienna sits behind the steering wheel and Whisper takes the passenger seat. The younger girl is used to luxurious cars; she doesn’t have a driving license, but she often rides with someone from her family. Both Libby and Knight already have their own cars. However, she still enjoys rides in Wiccan’s old Chevrolet the most.

After she starts the engine of her Lamborghini, Sienna once again takes a look at Whisper who is curiously examining the car’s interior. Her reputation would suffer a lot if one of her friends saw her with such an… exotic person in her car. However, to her own surprise, Sienna is willing to take the risk.

Sienna’s car radio turns on and starts playing a song that is currently on top of all charts. Whisper immediately catches up and starts to sing along; it’s not a surprise that she has a beautiful singing voice. Every once a while, she bursts into giggling. Sienna catches the faint smell of weed coming from Whisper’s hair and realizes it’s probably the THC kicking in. Or maybe it’s not and Whisper is always like this.

Sienna drives into the Great Moors district where Whisper leaves the car and continues on foot. “Thanks for the lift,” Whisper giggles and, before Sienna can stop it, gives her a fleeting kiss on the cheek. Sienna’s face goes red - she had never been in any physical contact with a girl before, not even as an experiment or a dare, and she has no idea what to think about it even though it was meant in all innocence.

“Are you always so affectionate when you’re high?” she asks before Whisper leaves.

Whisper winks at her. “Usually even more, but I don’t want to rush it.” Then she dances away.

After another ten-minute drive, Sienna arrives home. It’s not like Whisper’s whimsy kiss made her question her sexuality, but it still lingers in her. Just like all other things that happened this evening. She needs coffee. Even though it’s past half to ten, she needs a coffee. Badly.

The Corwins don’t have a house like Whisper’s family. They live on the top of an elegant skyscraper in the center of the Northeast district, the Corwin Tower (yes, her parents weren’t much creative when choosing a name for this building). The biggest part of her father’s company resides here - most of the rooms in the skyscraper are offices, conference rooms, IT labs or auditoriums.

To get home, Sienna has to park her car in the building’s underground garage on a spot reserved to her, then go through glass automatic door to the skyscraper’s entrance hall and then use one of the many elevators to ride to the 52nd floor. As she enters, a scanner in the elevator recognizes her face and starts playing one of the songs from her own personalized playlist.

The Corwins’ personal suites take up two topmost floors plus the roof where they have a large pool that looks like a small tropical resort and even a helipad. James Corwin had to install several protection fields since several voyeurs have already tried to take pictures of Sienna or her mother sunbathing using a drone. It’s not bad considering the family consists of three people.

The elevator door opens, letting Sienna into the dressing room where she takes off her shoes and jacket. Then she goes through a sliding door with a metal frame into the living room, just as splendid and modern as the rest of the building. One of the walls is made of glass and offers an outlook on the whole city from above. This sight used to make Sienna nauseous when she was younger.

As Sienna expected, her father is in the room, working on his laptop. “Back so soon?” he smiles at his daughter. James Corwin is well-groomed as always, even now, when he’s wearing a simple long-sleeved black T-shirt and sweatpants. A lot of people tell him he looks like the actor Liam Neeson and Sienna has to agree.

He saves his work progress and comes to greet his daughter with a hug. He’s surprised since usually, he smells cigarette smoke and alcohol from his daughter. This time, there’s only a faint smell of wine and… is that marijuana? Sienna looks neither drunk or high.

He’s not the type of parent to scold his daughter for coming home late. First, he acknowledges that Sienna is already an adult and he shouldn’t be influencing her life. Second, it would be hypocrisy since he was doing the same at Sienna’s age. And third, he is aware that it’s necessary for Sienna’s reputation to show up on social events. Moreover, Sienna is responsible and never comes home plastered, a little tipsy at most. And when the situation asks for it, she also takes birth control seriously.

Sienna embraces her father - despite her age, she still has a strong bond with her parents (needless to say, she was a rather spoiled child.). “Hi, dad,” Sienna says. “The event wasn’t much, so I left and decided to take a walk instead.” Of course she doesn’t talk about Team Dreamcatcher. Not even her father would believe her.

James Corwin, as usual, doesn’t ask any additional questions; instead, he lets Sienna make a coffee and change her crop top and leggings for more casual clothes. Then, they continue with a friendly talk. Sienna feels guilty that she has to keep the whole business with The Society secret. She usually shares everything with her father. But this time, it’s just too surreal.

About an hour later, James Corwin returns to his work and Sienna disappears into her room where she has everything a young woman can ask for, especially the excessive wardrobe, 82 inch TV, high-performance laptop, a study corner and a beautiful outlook on the whole Trinity Gate.

She usually spends nights by studying, but today, she uses a voice command to awaken the HiFi set in her room and lay on the bed with the music sinking into her. She has a lot to think about.

September 24th, 10:26 AM, near the Heap of Ashes, Trinity Gate

Every morning reminds Parker of who he is. The trailer that became his home is rather messy. It contains one mattress he sleeps on, a small kitchen counter including a refrigerator, an equally small bathroom and several wardrobes used to store his personal belongings, even though his clothes are mostly scattered on the floor.

After the morning sunshine wakes him up, the sleepy man sits on the mattress and lights up the first cigarette of the day. Everything in the trailer smells of cigarette smoke, but obviously, he doesn’t mind.

Nicotine is the only thing which seems to soothe his frequent headaches. He thinks they stem from his special powers and their usage. Even though he’s strictly teetotal since alcohol dulls his extrasensory perception, almost every morning feels like a brutal hangover.

He gets up, stepping on an empty pizza box. Yeah, he probably needs to clean up a bit. It’s the moment he starts munching on a donut for breakfast he remembers yesterday. The official forming of Team Dreamcatcher. He also remembers the second meeting is scheduled for today.

“What if I just don’t come?” he mutters to himself. His older brother was involved with these people, which ironically only fans Parker’s mistrust.

If he agreed to take part, he would have to cooperate with those people… and that thing which inhabited the Star Wars action figure. That weird, lippy hippie girl already irritates him, just like that fat guy who barely said a word. Then there’s that tall girl with short hair and glasses. She’s hot, even though she certainly harbors some kind of revulsion towards him. But is she really worth staying?

He takes another look around him. All he has is this filthy trailer, a muscle car and about a million dollars cash. He would be able to live a comfortable life without even having to work, but still, he chose the life of a nomad, a fraud, a renegade.

Maybe this is finally the impulse to turn his life over.

It seems that The Society, no matter who they are, can make better use of his skills than just cheating in casinos. Parker always perceived his abilities as a curse rather than a blessing - especially when considering the means used to awaken them.

But it would also mean he would lose his independence. Freedom is what he values the most, so is it possible for him to sign up for working for that strange man with dreadlocks?

All the mess inside the trailer screams at him Your life needs a purpose.

Parker lights up a second cigarette and decides he will give it one more try today. If things get too uncomfortable, he can always take off and never go back. Just like he did so many times before.

September 24th, 3:47 PM, Heap of Ashes, Trinity Gate

Just like Parker, Gary spent most of his day deciding whether to show up or not. And, like all the others, he decided that this situation is just too strange to just let it pass.

However, the little man is afraid.

He remembers yesterday - that tall guy, Parker, started to pick on him right after he arrived. When Gary left school, he was relieved he won’t have to endure bullying any longer. And now - he’s supposed to be in a team with a man who is a prototype of a bully?

As he walks up to the chapel on the top of the Heap of Ashes, the insects start to gather around him. Ants under his feet, flies and even several bees fly around his head. When Gary is experiencing some intense emotion, he subconsciously transmits the waves which the insects react to. If it happens, he has to react quickly and send his little companions away, otherwise, he looks like the stereotyped hobo with flies circling around him.

When he arrives, he sees two figures in front of the chapel. Whisper and Sienna, the graceful beauty. A spark of hope brightens up inside him. Maybe Parker won’t come?

After she spots him, Whisper rushes in his direction. Today, she’s wearing a long, airy skirt with floral pattern and blue-and-green batik blouse with long, wide sleeves. “Hello!” she greets him with a curtsy, which seems to be her habit. “I’m glad to see you again! How was your day?”

Gary is speechless for a moment. He’s not used to anyone telling him they’re glad to see him, the less a female. He takes it as a compliment since Whisper seems to carefully choose which people will she treat nicely - Parker apparently wasn’t one of them, which made Gary like her even more.

While Gary thinks about what to say, Whisper opens her hazel eyes wide. “Wow,” she mouths, spotting three butterflies flying around Gary. She offers them her finger and Gary guides one of them to sit on it. Whisper lets out a jolly, ringing laugh.

Inspired by this, Gary focuses his mind and senses the consciousness of several more butterflies in the area. It’s all so natural even though Gary himself has no idea how does he do it. Maybe being a part of Team Dreamcatcher will answer this question in the future. But for now, he doesn’t care if it’s magic or if it has a scientific explanation. He just enjoys Whisper’s happiness as more butterflies swarm around her.

“Are you doing this?” she squeals.

“Well… yes, I do,” Gary gives her a timid smile. “It’s… like… my superpower of some sort.”

“But that’s awesome!” Whisper says as she spreads her arms and lets the butterflies, controlled by Gary, sit on her sleeves. “This is so beautiful.”

Gary chuckles. “It wouldn’t be so beautiful if I did it with wasps.”

The girl scowls. “Send the wasps at Parker if he arrives.”

Speaking of the devil…

A tall figure appears on the hill, walking with its typical limp. Gary steps back and the group of butterflies disperses. Whisper makes a disgusted face. They all secretly hoped Parker would back off.

“Yo,” Parker utters.

Author’s Note

I wholeheartedly thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you did, please leave a comment, send me a message or share and let more people know about this story! You can also consider a small donation at www.paypal.me/lukassladky. Have a great day and stay tuned for the next chapter!

#writeblr #writers #my writing #urban fantasy #original fiction #TeamDreamcatcher

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