#but thank god this one is excellent so far (i’m only 3 episodes in but still)

[fieldsofbone]

i already tweeted this but season 5 of fargo made the critical error of assuming i could ever dislike jon hamm

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone Abridged Review

Originally posted January 30th, 2016

A simple story with interesting characters.

Dead Zone Abridged is the toughest part of the series I’ve had to review yet, because I can’t come to a particularly clear conclusion on how well it works. Part of the problem is that the source material here contains the basis of the tropes present in the following films, so it feels similar to the other films, while being slightly off kilter from them.

The source material also demands that over sixty-percent of the film be spent in the same location, Garlic Jr.’s castle, which is certainly unlike any of the other films, as they have us hopping around to locations that don’t look exactly the same as each other. When you combine that with the low budget the original animators had to work with (I assume, based on part of the final fight taking place in a pitch black room for no apparent reason), the film aesthete in me has a very hard time wrapping her head around the idea that this could ever qualify as more than “decent.”1

It is pretty good though, thanks to Team Four Star’s decisions that inject comedy and make up for the weaknesses inherit to the story. For example, from the very beginning, we’re introduced to Piccolo’s desire to build a bitchin’ castle, and that combined with Goku’s quest for the meadery gives us a decent reason to accept the film staying in the castle longer than we might’ve liked otherwise (I’m of the opinion that they’re still in the castle too long, but I’d concede that it’s probably an arbitrary preference). It unfortunately isn’t as clever as the conceits that fuel their other films,2 but it’s enough to justify this significant flaw.

Team Four Star also leans into the setting of the film pretty heavily, taking full advantage of their story being set before any they’ve already told (save for “Episode of Bardock”). The three things they particularly capitalize on is Goku’s rivalry with Piccolo, Piccolo’s relationship with Kami, and Kami’s relationship with the world.

Goku’s rivalry with Piccolo is sold best near the end of the film, when the two of them are taking on a ‘roided out Garlic Jr. As they argue over which one of them is responsible for his perceived defeat, the tension grows as Piccolo becomes angry with Goku for his arrogance, and Goku grows angry at him for refusing to respect him.

Their fight is only stopped by Garlic Jr.’s summoning of the Dead Zone,3 and it’s pretty clear from their intensity that they would’ve gone on to destroy each other otherwise. This moment alone makes the film worth watching, and it has me convinced that, at least as far as the Abridged series goes, Piccolo and Goku are much more interesting as enemies than friends (Gohan and Piccolo’s friendship, of course, is still excellent).

The way Piccolo’s relationship with Kami is addressed serves primarily to establish that Piccolo’s death guarantees Kami’s death, and either one of their deaths will result in the Dragonballs becoming useless. The interesting way their relationship is explored is within Garlic Jr.’s dialogue, however, and this is how Kami’s relationship with the world is explored as well.

Throughout the film, Garlic Jr. refers to Kami as a god, and speaks of how he and the rest of the world have prayed to him and received no answer. This hints at a darkness within Kami that we both have yet to see explored and see explored plainly through Piccolo, who Garlic Jr. refers to as a demon. With it being made clear that Piccolo and Kami’s life forces are connected, it begs the question of just how these two are related to each other, and the implications of a “demon” and a “god” being so closely intertwined is unsettling enough to pique my curiosity, even though it’s something that Team Four Star refrains from explaining in this film.

Rating: 4/5

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Stray Observations

1I’d find it odd that this hasn’t happened elsewhere in the series, but KaiserNeko does a fantastic job of keeping things visually engaging.

2Revenge of Cooler’s conceit is letting us explore Freeza’s character through another lens, Christmas Tree of Might’s is in the title, and Lord Slug’s is that we’re tired of being stuck on Namek for so long (and that we miss seeing Piccolo kick some ass).

3This is thematically fitting, as Goku and Piccolo only became friends because the Saiyans, a seemingly unstoppable force, came to earth. Though that could be more accurately attributed to the specific act of Piccolo sacrificing himself to save Gohan, depending on your perspective.

I officially shake my fist in frustration, because goddamn, the film canon is confusing. I mean, first “Episode of Bardock” was a fever dream, and now Dead Zone is just a script Krillin wrote for Nappa? If Team Four Star wanted to capture the frustration of the films not making any goddamn sense, then they have certainly succeeded, and I am glad to be dumbfounded. With that said, their decision to adapt them out of order adds to the confusion, but they have good reason for adapting each film when they do, so I can forgive them for that.

Mr. Popo: “Drama Queen!”

Gohan’s side-eye as he received the books was fantastic.

Garlic Jr.: “Oh god, your father’s Goku.”

Gohan’s behavior in this film makes it abundantly clear that he indeed is the son of Son Goku.

Garlic: “Make me immortal!” Eternal Dragon: “Oh, really? I can’t remember the last time someone nutted up and asked for that. Congrats! Can’t wait to hear how you f*** this up.”

Goku: “I am Son Goku, and your name sounds yummy.” Garlic: “So I’ve heard.”

Krillin Owned: No official count increase, because confusing movie canon, but I think being pissed on by Gohan is grounds for an honorary point added to the count. Though I’m tempted to remove one since he had a column of stone dropped on his head and survived.

Badass Piccolo is best Piccolo.

Okay, I know Garlic brings up a clever counter to Kami’s attempt to suicide bomb him, but I think that it raises an important question: does immortality guarantee indestructibility in the Dragonball universe? Or does it simply mean that you’ll live forever regardless of how much your body is damaged (or torn apart/separated)? Because if it’s the second option, it sounds like a pretty bum deal to me.

Goku: “Piccolo, it’s not a competition. I already won. :3c”

Piccolo: “This victory is mine!” *gets shot* Goku: “You want I should take a turn?” Piccolo: “Shove it, Goku.”

Nappa: “Why did you write yourself getting peed on?” Krillin: “The better question is, how much are you gonna pay me to get peed on?” Nappa: “You’re gonna go far in this business.”

Nappa may not know why Garlic summons the Dead Zone, but it seems perfectly in character for me. Finishing off his enemies in the same way Kami destroyed his father is classic poetic justice (or revenge).

[swamp-world]

oooh how do u like it??? any fav eps so far? :3 (@oingomyboingos​)

ok days late but AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. i am just about done s3 and im LOSING my MIND i think i’ve gone a grand total of one (1) day without listening to it since I started and that’s only because i ran out of episodes downloaded and was without network connection.

when I started listening to it i had no idea what it was going to be like or what it really was at all; I just knew that it had been recommended to me a number of times and i needed something to listen to on a flight so. for the first few episodes i was really excited to have an anthology-style story and was actually a little disappointed in some ways when it turned out to be serialized instead BUT. but they have done it so masterfully. i think i’m just used to some pieces that don’t handle the integration of anthology type intros to serialization more clumsily, and I was absolutely delighted at the result.

Favourite episodes is. difficult to capture. i need to babble about this show and my thoughts on it so you’re going to get a long list separated by category of “why i like it” 

I just think they’re neat

007—The Piper

I love me some WW1 fiction. Where’s the post about the difference between WW1 and WW2 nerds and why you need to watch out. I fall into the first category and have fallen out of my warboy interests in recent years (thank god, for separate reasons) but still really really enjoy it. love Wilfred Owen’s poetry and putting it side by side with Otto Dix pieces. also this fits into the “foreshadowing done EXTREMELY well” and i adore it

###—Spider Episodes

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA i hate spiders. when i was four years old i nearly walked facefirst into the web of a saint andrew’s cross spider that was at perfect eye level, and i was stopped, and they’re not even particularly venomous, just like a bee sting really, but it scared the shit out of me so i have grievances with the fact that this podcast manages to be so good that i’m not even mad about all of the spider stuff in it

048—Lost In The Crowd

This one isn’t for any particular reason of plot or anything, though it’s very good, it just happens to overlap with one of my research interests which is uhh. we’ll summarize it as nonplaces and their ability to entrap. the title feels like a very deliberate reference to edgar allan poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd” which informed Baudelaire’s essay The Painter of Modern Life which (among many other things) informed Benjamin’s works in general and especially his Arcades Project and all of this goes forwards to Marc Auge and his work on nonplaces and that fits into theories of Agamben’s regarding elements of normalized space stuff and that’s all tangential to the fact that I just felt very validated in recognizing that and also enjoyed the story. i know too many australians who’ve gone on backpacking tours.

051—High Pressure

[leonardo dicaprio pointing image]

065—Binary

this also just fits into a lot of. i just love people who talk about tech like this. creepypasta aside i really love the opening to this.

085—Upon the Stair

[leonardo dicaprio pointing image] listening to how jon pronounces antigonish was extremely funny to me because he says an-TIH-goh-nish and every local i know who says it doesn’t actually enunciate it, it just becomes “annegunish” without any actual accenting or emphasis so that was amusing. end thoughts on that one.

AAAAAAAAA PLOT

033—Boatswain’s Call

chilling. excellent. love maritime horror. nothing more to say yet except that i don’t know how it factors into everything else and am excited to find out.

053—Crusader

need i say anything. aaaaa. love gertrude right now. love this statement. delightful stuff. properly setting everything up. love the historical integration.

080—The Librarian

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

089—Twice as Bright

i love jude perry. scares the shit out of me.

092—Nothing Beside Remains

oh dear. oh no. oh god. i desperately don't know whether or not to trust elias. jon is an idiot and his judgement is bad and iffy. i'm so bad at avoiding spoilers but i'm doing my best but oh my god they're all so fucked.

Tropes I adore (fanfic style)

really it’s just that i’m a sucker for any stories involving whump/angst/hurt(maybecomfort) and this podcast is rife with opportunities and examples for that

053—Crusader (again)

martin’s worry about jon with the bread knife :(

079—Hide and Seek

same thing. a heavier note but. aaaa. the writing for jon’s paranoia and the surrounding responses to it is so very good and the buildup was done so well. tim’s anger is extremely rational and i want to give him a hug. martin’s sympathy and jon’s exhaustion are also extremely understandable. the opening to this episode hurt because the impression i got from it was just. they’re going down to try to find and save/stop jon, and while tim is focused on jon hurting someone else, it reads to me like martin was worried that jon was directly suicidal and going into the tunnels to die, rather than just “going to do something stupid and get hurt in the process”, and Tim’s tunnel vision (again, not wholly unfounded) blinding him to both that possibility and martin’s worries. also, martin needs a pay raise and for his coworkers to get very long vacations and also workplace therapy.

I Relate To Jon Too Much

this isn't a particular episode but just i need to scream about it. this came at just the right/wrong time, because i very much am feeling the same as jon on a professional level. that is to say, i took a job that was supposed to be simple numbers tracking and has turned into a massive investigative project. i have zero training or experience with document and data preservation, or finances, and so hearing georgie say "well it makes sense that you're the head archivist because then no one can or has told you you're doing everything wrong" was WILD because that's literally the exact situation i find myself in. it's covering business law, accounting and finance, investigative journalism/reporting, and now document and data preservation and investigation. also i am very bad at taking care of myself when i get very deep into a project and am also used to having people come in and drop tea on my desk to try to help. i big time feel jon using a tape recorder too because whether or not that's actually anything remotely normal in archival work or just the framing device beyond realism, i've recently been understanding the extent of my visual burnout/aversion and am realizing just how much it affects me. it is much easier for me to dictate things to someone to type than it is for me to type them, and I can type at a hundred wpm; it's just easier on my brain. right now i'm trying to pull together some combination guide book/changeover manual/project outline/complete history, and in reality this thing should be 50k words minimum with the stuff i need to put in it, but as soon as i have to type it i freeze up, but if i speak it or dictate it (or speak it and then type it out myself later) it's leagues more doable. The idea of making audio recordings that function the same way honestly never occurred to me but I might just start doing that because i have a coworker who's offered to transcribe things for me for business purposes and it would be so good. also it just feels nice to talk into a microphone. feels less pointless than talking to air.

in fact this podcast has inspired me to start looking back into possibly pursuing library sciences, because it prompted me to look into the extent to what i am currently doing is more archival than accounting, and that's the part that really has me hooked. i'm currently drafting up a proposal to accompany our next archive submissions for a project-based position with the goal of. like. i have the most knowledge at the moment of anyone on my organization as far as i know? and also just want an excuse to see firsthand more of what it's like.

the other part of things that’s just. aaaaa. is that i’ve. hmmm. maybe this is just something i’ll encounter in further horror media as i’m not really that familiar with it but oh boy does a lot of this hit with life experiences and jobs that i’ve worked and stuff. i used to work as a housekeeper at an uncomfortably fancy and expensive care home for seniors with neurodegenerative diseases and so the ones about care homes are. um. a bit painful on a personal level there because it turns out that’s not a fun place to work. really amplifies the horror because of its familiarity. also, used to work as a funeral attendant and pallbearer and so any of the ones really involving funerals, especially the one by the mortician (again, overlapping care home) was just like. oh yeah i forgot most people don’t. don’t exactly think like this or have day to day exposure to dead bodies. likewise, spent quite a while attending burn clinics for recovery from injuries bc that’s where the plastics department worked most of the time, so while i’m not a burn survivor myself it’s. also very familiar.

this is all to say that oh my god i adore this podcast. it's been ten days since i started listening to it and i don't know already what i'm going to do when i'm done.

Also goddamn you all I’ve started listening to The Magnus Archives

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Lila Rossi: I’d Say She’s a Good Villain, but Then I’d Be Lying (300 Follower Special)

Deception and cunning are easily two of the most important traits an antagonist could have. It shows that even if they don't have the strength to overcome obstacles, their wit is more than enough. This kind of trait is why characters like Lex Luthor, David Xanatos, and Princess Azula are so beloved, simply because of how intelligent they can be as villains and pose a real threat to the heroes.

It's clear that the Miraculous Ladybug writers want Lila to be seen as this, but the writing seriously fails to back that claim up.

Easily one of the most controversial characters in Miraculous Ladybug is Lila, mainly for the writing surrounding her. But there was a time where she was actually more of an ambiguous character, mainly for the lack of screentime she had until Season 3. But unfortunately, the more appearances she's had have painted a very poor portrait of an antagonist.

Lila's Tragic and Sympathetic Motivation for Hating Ladybug

Lila's first appearance was at the tail end of Season 1, “Volpina”. She was a new transfer student from Italy, and quickly made friends with a lot of her classmates for the lies she told, including being friends with Ladybug (which Alya blindly believed without doing any research like any excellent journalist). But because of how close she was getting to Adrien, Marinette, in a rare act of selfishness, transforms into Ladybug just to chew out Lila for lying about knowing her, humiliating her in front of Adrien. And this is the only motivation we get for what Lila does afterwards.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for Lila to get upset at Ladybug for doing this, and I like the moment of weakness Marinette has, but this is literally the only explanation we get for Lila deciding to side with Hawkmoth, a literal terrorist. As much as I hated the way the arc turned out, I could still understand Chloe siding with Hawkmoth, as it was clear that Hawkmoth was manipulating her and taking advantage of her ego. Lila? Ladybug's mean to her one time, and that inspires her to conspire with a complete stranger who brainwashes people to attack the city, which endangers innocent people and causes God knows how much in collateral damage if not for Miraculous Ladybug fixing everything.

I just don't get how a single negative interaction with someone is enough to conspire with a literal supervillain. Even in Season 3, when Marinette and Lila truly became enemies, it was because she risked exposing all the lies she told, which could damage her reputation. Sure, it's petty, but it makes sense for Lila to want to keep up the illusion. If she was simply an antagonist to Marinette in her civilian life like Chloe was before “Miracle Queen” , I'd be fine with that, but the writers clearly want her to be seen as on the same level of evil as Hawkmoth. I'll get into why that doesn't work later on.

Why Lila is an Excellent Liar

In my Master Fu analysis, I had pointed out that despite all the flaws he had, the narrative insisted on portraying him as an incredibly wise mentor. The same problem applies for Lila as well. We're supposed to see Lila as an expert manipulator and liar, but her lies are insultingly obvious. She always claims to be friends with celebrities and does all these awesome things, and in an age where we can have almost any question answered thanks to the internet, nobody ever stops to question her.

It's even more frustrating when you hear Lila talk about saving Jagged Stone's cat, when Jagged Stone is established to be very fond of Marinette (evidentially more than his own daughter), and nobody ever points that out. I think if Lila's lies were more stories about her travels around the world than outright lies about real people, it could have worked. It'd still be hard to believe, but it's something.

But this is a problem with writing shows aimed at children. As much as we hate writers who need to spell out things to kids, sometimes, they just don't understand some of the media they consume. Seriously, I never got this joke in SpongeBob as a kid, and I can't believe Nickelodeon actually approved this.

So the dilemma when writing a show with children in mind is finding that sweet spot between assuming your audience can figure it out, but not being too vague in your details. It's even harder when you need to find a way to convey the fact that someone is lying without being too obvious. Unfortunately, the show clearly fails to do that

Okay, this is going to sound like an incredibly weird thing to cite, and I only know about it because I used to know someone who was a huge fan of the franchise, but the movie Monster High: Friday Night Frights does a better job of subtly explaining to the audience that a character is lying. Please, just hear me out.

The movie follows the main characters competing in their high school's roller derby for the season after everyone on the usual team gets injured, and the championship match is against another school whose team tends to cheat to win matches. How they manage to do this without getting caught is anyone's guess. While the main characters are practicing, their coach, Clawd, notices a spy for the enemy team taking video of them to study their moves. In response, he calls over one of the athletes, Operetta, to chew her out for her showboating attitude. In reality, he's alerting her to the spy. Only using facial expressions, he clues her, and by extension, the audience, in on the fact that they know what the opposing team is trying to do.

This soon leads to Operetta pretending to tell the enemy team about their secret plan for the championship match, which was really an attempt to outsmart them to gain the advantage in the final stretch. The brilliance of this is how the audience is informed of this with no dialogue, and there's no scene afterwards spelling it out for those who don't get it. It manages to convey deception without being too obvious that Clawd and Operetta are being deceitful.

I think if there were more subtle hints to show the audience Lila was lying, she would be seen in a better light. As it is, Lila's lies are just pathetic, and it's ridiculous that everyone believes her. Which leads me to...

Lila, the Master Manipulator

I once read a Star Trek: Voyager fanfic that poked fun at the series by claiming that the reason a lot of the dumber episodes like “Threshold” and “Twisted” happened was because one of the crew members was an alien who unintentionally produced mood altering pheromones, with Captain Janeway actually realizing they were all high because of said pheromones, while two of the unaffected crew members were wondering what the hell they were doing before they found out the cause. Why do I bring this up? Sometimes, it feels like Lila is an unintentional parallel to the alien in that story.

Like so many characters, it's clear the show desperately wants the audience to view Lila in a certain way, but her actions do very little to actually back up that claim. When she's not using lies to tell stories about so many famous people she knows like her uncle who works for Nintendo, Lila is using strategies to manipulate everyone that are so obviously deceptive, the Thermians could pick up on them. Everyone and their mother knows how ridiculous a lot of what Lila does in episodes like “Chameleon” and “Ladybug” are, and I've talked about them before, so I'll try to be quick.

First off, as someone who had access to accommodations through high school and has had assistance in college so far, there is no way in hell that Ms. Bustier should take Lila's tinnitus at face value in “Chameleon”. If a student has a disability that could interfere with the education process, physical or developmental, not only does the school have to evaluate their performance, and determine if they're eligible for an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, but her teachers would have to be notified in the first place. As her primary educator, Ms. Bustier would be part of the team to oversee Lila's IEP and determine what accommodations she needs to help her learn better with her tinnitus and arthritis. But because the writers don't know what Google is, they just ignore it,  assume that Lila can just say she has a disability, and have everyone believe it. Even when Eric Cartman pretended to be disabled to compete in the Special Olympics, he put in more effort to look the part, even if he looked like a caricature.

Then there's the fact that that in “Chameleon”, everyone just believes Lila when she says Marinette stole her grandmother's necklace when not only is said necklace from the Agreste line of jewelry, but Alya, who is Rena Rouge, can't pick up on the fact that it's a fake. All she does to justify these lies is come up with a sob story about how nobody believes her, yet nobody ever tries to defend Marinette except Alya one time, and it was after she got expelled.

Or what about in “Oni-Chan”, where Lila thinks having Kagami kill Ladybug while claiming she'll back away from Adrien is a good idea? Let's say Oni-Chan does kill Ladybug or at least take away her Miraculous, what then? We know Lila wouldn't go through with this promise, and as soon as Kagami sees her harassing Adrien, she'll be ripe for akumatization again. Overall, not a great plan.

And yet somehow, this last example is what made her worthy enough to become one of Hawkmoth's most trusted agents. I'm just going to say it: Lila is not a good fit for the power of illusion. Whenever she's Volpina or Chameleon, she always goes out of her way to make a big show instead of being subtle with her deceptions. “Chameleon” is the worst offender, as even though Lila gets the power to shapeshift into someone else, instead of being discreet and cornering people into kissing them and gaining their appearance, she just runs around to get Ladybug's attention instead of being subtle. Even Felix had the bright idea to pretend to be Adrien to catch Ladybug off guard. How do you lose to something that happened in “Felix”?

Despite all of these screw-ups, we're still supposed to see her as this master of deception worthy of allying with Hawkmoth in both his supervillain and civilian form, when really, she's a terrible liar on the schoolyard and on the battlefield.

Why Lila is an Important Character

In the grand scheme of things, Lila just isn't as important of a character that the show loves to parade her around as. She's nothing more than a plot device used to raise the stakes in an episode, given how much reality seems to bend over just to accommodate for her lies. Even when the show alludes to her being part of bigger things, like her deal with Adrien, or her rivalry with Marinette, they don't even go anywhere.

She just feels pointless when you remember Astruc's brilliant idea to force Chloe into being the final Akuma for the season while Lila isn't even mentioned once. She only really makes appearances whenever the writers feel like it, which is why it’s hard to take her seriously. Why should I take this character seriously as a threat if the writers refuse to take her seriously as a threat? Why build Lila up as a big threat and not give her a major role in the finale? Why even include her in the show in the first place when you could show Chloe being more manipulative to fill in the plots Lila plays a big part in?

As of the time I am writing this analysis, four episodes of Season 4 have aired, three of them have been about lies or deception, and Lila hasn't been mentioned at all. It honestly seems like she won't appear unless the writers need a easy way to drive up the conflict, so they can justify it by saying that Lila's “superpower” of lying is more powerful than the common sense of everyone else.

I'm sorry this post was shorter than the last one, but compared to Master Fu, there's not that much to say about Lila that I haven't already said. Even the show barely gives her any attention, so it's hard for me to really find a lot to talk about.

[garrothromeave]

let’s talk about minecraft diaries rebirth.

and why it’s literally amazing. (warning: this will contain spoilers. lots of them. also, long post ahead.)

i think a lot of people hate mcdr because they were expecting a remake; but the point of rebirth is for jess to rewrite it. it wasn't supposed to be exactly the same.

honestly i went into mcdr with a closed mind. as an og mcd fan, i thought that this was going to suck ass and that i'd rant about how bad it was to my friends later. but actually watching it, i just... couldn't help but immediately fall in love with it.

ik im probably the only motherfucker that likes mcdr, but honestly how could i not? for one, garroth and zenix actually have personalities at the beginning. AND; the villagers? actually amazing. donna made me smile, visher made me laugh and cry, brendan was just bein as good as ever. like... i even didn't despise emmalyn with every ounce of my soul like i usually do?? the characterizations of them were GOOD, man.

and honestly, aphmau like--the way she spoke, her whole thing. it was reallyyy well done in my opinion. she was oblivious to things, but it wasn't overdone and wasn't done in a way to make her annoying. she's a very appealing character in mcdr, a main protagonist i do not mind following along with. her dynamics to the characters are really cool and all very unique.  gonna cut it here so i don’t clog y’all’s feed cuz i got a lot to say :)

the early use of aphmau’s powers was actually pretty cool as well, it also really showed how clueless aphmau really was to everything going on around her. AND UH, THE FACT THAT SHE THOUGHT THAT GARROTH FELT FAMILIAR? GOLDEN. absolutely golden.

AND GENE OH BOY, the early introduction of gene? ik a lot of people are upset about it, but god DAMN i love it so much. his role in the story is very important in original, and i cannot express how much joy this brought me learning that he was actually getting the proper attention for it. and the fact that gene and aphmau were working together?? i mean ik gene was just trying to use her to get back to the "shadow abyss" (pretty pog replacement for the nether, gg) but god DAMN i loved every moment of it. i found their dynamic to be pretty fuckin funny to be honest, would absolutely love to see more of it.

i might be biased considering gene is one of my absolute favorite characters, but i honestly think that introducing gene this early on in the story was a good move. again, he's literally the right-hand man to the shadow lord. it makes you really wonder why he didn't have as much of an important role in season 1 or even 2 of the original mcd plotline. also, we get some of that good-ol-fashioned exposition with seeing early on how vylad and gene interact. vylad’s at a very strange point in the story right now; his motives are unclear, even to the side he’s ‘supposed’ to be taking (aka, a shadow knight.)  another early introduction to a character is zane! this, my friends, is good. really good. i’d say that zane is the main antagonist of season 1 in the original series--and he wasn’t even introduced until like, episode 50. it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but him being introduced this early on really gives the audience a better understanding of what threats are out there and what our protagonist will have to encounter in the future. in the original series, there’s not much explanation as to why lords are disappearing/dying left and right--and while yes, that was supposed to be the mystery of it, having some of that early information is a better move in terms of writing. 

AND IVAN?? BEING A PART OF THE JURY OF NINE?? I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR ANYTHING MORE LIKE GOD DAMN that was a very pleasant surprise i'll just say that, thank you jess :)

and no i did not loop the 4 minutes of screentime laurance got in that one episode haha who would do that i would never do that anyways

SPEAKING of laurance, im so glad jess actually wrote him in this early :) she totally could have just waited for the first time aphmau visits meteli and meets him there, but no! she put him in an early episode. i dont even care if she did it just to shut up the fans about laurance but man that made me so happy seeing him, even if it was only for a bit.

okay i kinda wanna go over the guards real fast firstly; garroth. ignoring how weird the helmet showing emotions is, i really like how garroth is portrayed. he's under a lot of pressure because the village is putting a lot of the blame on him for malik's death, and he's trying his hardest to keep things running. the fact that garroth utterly refused the to take up the position of lord and even got a little snappy about it was actually really cool to see as well. and while he doesn’t have that same “reserved, quiet, observant” feel as the original mcd version of him had, this version of garroth is absolutely awesome. he’s more direct and blunt, is significantly more sarcastic, and isn’t as stiff or as much as a pushover as he is in the original. he even has a sense of humour. also, no homo, but he’s kinda adorable.  plus, the desperation that he goes through during the whole thing is just--it’s really cool to see how hard he’s trying to prove himself and help the village. my rating for mcdr garroth? 9/10. the helmet... the helmet is the main thing throwin me off, i can’t lie. next, zenix. oh BOY do i have a lot to say about this man. first of all, his and garroth’s dynamic is incredible. when i saw how the interacted with each other, my first thought was: father and son. zenix has this immaturity to him that is so fucking fun and interesting to watch, and seeing how garroth scolds him is so fuckin good man. and! seeing how he interacts with the rest of the village... honestly, if jess ever picks this story up again, i would probably cry when zenix (literally) backstabs garroth. HELL, i hope that’s something that still happens, it’d be heartbreaking to witness this character that we’ve come to love hurting his mentor, the man who took him in. he’s just a really good character all in all, and much more appealing than the original mcd zenix. ...except season 3 zenix. no zenix can be better than that one.  either way, zenix is amazing written to be the comic relief and he’s just an all-out lovable character in this series.  finally, dale and brian. yes i’m going to group them up because there’s not much to say regarding them, but i do want to address them. for starters, we have brian; who’s already 16 when the story starts. good on jess for doing that, because in the original aphmau watched brian be born and age INCREDIBLY quick, haha. THOUGH i do feel like there’s a slight connection lost there--one of the hardest things about brian’s betrayal in the original series in the fact that we watched him grow up in phoenix drop. we were there from the moment he was born, to the second he betrayed phoenix drop. BUT OF COURSE, this version is a lot more realistic, so it’s understandable. i just think that if it’s brian who’ll be betraying phoenix drop again (if it even goes down that same route), it won’t hit as hard unless jess really takes the time to grow the connection between brian and aphmau.  as for dale; gotta admit, love it. and like, i think one of the main things about how good of a call it was to make him a drunkard from the beginning is considering how much the village is struggling. the fact that the second-in-command is literally drunk all of the time really conveys the message of, “yeah. this village needs help.” plus, he’s another good comic relief character. i loved seeing molly and dale’s relationship too, it was very funny.  PLUS. we were blessed with a well scene, in which aphmau had to help villagers out of the well. i don’t know about you guys, but that was one of my favorite nods to the original series. i cannot thank jess enough for that, there was a smile on my face the entire time. another amazing thing--visher’s character. instead of just being introduced to this quirky lil merchant who only had one or two interactions with aphmau like in the first one, we got to sit there and really get a feel for someone worth remembering and worth mourning over. we had a reason to be sad over his death, it wasn’t just some npc getting blown up suddenly. this was different, and this hurt.  one of the major things that i hope is to come out of this is for jess to fix the major mistakes she had when writing the first series. she’d expressed how unhappy she was with some of the decisions she made, and i’m glad that she’s getting that second chance to undo the things she didn’t like. this series also gives her a second chance to really, really dig into characters and their motives. like, gimme laurance backstory in better detail. or like, garroth and zane’s relationship from back when they were kids? or how vylad died and who killed him? etc etc. she’s already done an excellent job so far, and i can’t wait to see where this goes. that is, if she ever continues it. god, i wish there were more episodes so that i could seriously let you guys know how beautiful of a series this is. there’s so much i want to say about rebirth, but i think i’ll stop here. i might say some more shit about it later, but if there’s anything i’d want you to take away from this, it’s: give minecraft diaries rebirth a chance. there’s a lot of potential, and this is a chance for jess to really change things for the better! ... but again, that is if this ever is continued. 

[popculturebuffet]

Amphibia Weekly Reviews and Analysis Mid-Season Finale!: Froggy Little Christmas: The Keith David Murder Santa We Deserve

Happy Holidays all you happy people! I”m Jake, I review and analyize stuff and things and i’m in a heck of a christmas mood.. not the least of which because one of my dearest friends @jess-the-vampire​ bought me this lovely fanmade tuca and bertie merch featuring my boy

But warm heartfelt gifts aside I just love Christmas, how it can bring out the best in people, the warm memories of christmas past, and relevant to this blog the sweet sweet ichor that is Holiday Television. We’ve gotten tons of great Christmas episodes, a handful of great hannukah episodes and far less Kwanza or Ramadan episodes than they deserve. Writers tend to break out their best stuff, so it’s fitting that much like last year we kick off full holiday hyjinks with a great chistmas episode that’s a capper to a great round of episodes in general... and one of the last hurah’s of the series before it enters the final stretch.  Last year Ducktales did the honors with it’s all time classic third christmas episode, this time it’s Amphibia’s. 

It’s also time to say goodbye to the show for now, and thus a time to reflect on how awesome this season has been thus far. Granted we have half a season left for things to go south and while you’d THINK a show couldn’t entirely botch things for it’s final season THAT fast... THIS still exists 

But I also know my fears are likely unfounded: Season 3 is easily the show’s best, taking what makes the show great, it’s slice of life mixed with fantasy feel, great characters, gorgeous animation and top shelf humor, and added some new things in that make it better. 

For starters this is the series best pacing period: each episoe feels important, but it keeps the series slower pace to allow it to have fun with the new setting.  The resulting mix allows the plot to move at a steady clip, while still having the episodes feel like you aren’t wasting your time waiting for something good to happen. Given how much of a mess season 2a was this is a welcome change.  We get plenty of answers while still having some room for some one off fun. It’s perfect

Not only that but thanks to having a looming villian instead of having to wait for the finale, we get frequent conflict: Andrias isn’t sitting around anymore and our heroes are in constant danger from him or X and it adds a nice sense of tension: any slice of life episode could turn into a life or death struggle and has.

The next is the setting: Moving to earth was a brilliant move and a geninely shocking twist back in True Colors as I assumed, via standard fantasy tropes, that Anne wouldn’t go back till the story ended and if she did before then, it’d be in the endgame. 

Instead shifting to earth allows us to learn more about Anne’s life outside of her disfunctional realtionship with her girlfriends. The best part of this is meeting Not-Jeff and Mae, Anne’s parents. Yes we finally got a name if on Brian Sonaluth’s twitter. God bless him. But since i’td be weird to still call him Mr. B i’m calling him Not-Jeff, since Jeff turned out not to be his name, until we get one. The two just add tons with Not-Jeff filling the unlucky dad void in my heart left by Donald, and Mae being tons of fun. The two are just adorable as heck while still being hilarous and often the highlight of their episodes. Especailly not-jeff.  I also have to give props to On Braly: as far as I can tell this is her first voice acting role but she steps up to the plate with the rest of the main cast like it was nothing, as does Sonaluth though he has a tad more experience. Not EVERYONE can pull that off, only select few like Olan Rogers or Alex Hirsch have really stepped up to the plate that fast, and i’m proud to welcome Mrs. Braly to the club. 

So yeah, Season 3 is  excellent and I can’t wait to see where it goes... but before we can get to that next year and say a tearful goodbye, we have to say hello to the newest episode so join me under the cut for that! Full spoilers as always and happy holidays!

We open with CHRISTMAS! Mae is decorating up the place at a rapid place and is easily the happiest i’ve seen her since her daughter came back. She’s just so dang gleeful as she christmases the hell out of places and it’s so nice to see her just so happy given all the crap she’s been through these past 6 months. 

Anne and Not-Jeff are naturally compeltely stoked. The plantars.. are taking things less well...

With this new tradition confusing them Anne TRIES explaining it, but it’s difficult as you’d expect. It’s also cut off by some big news as Mae gets an important call: it’s from the parade board. The downtown LA Parade wants her to take part at long last. Turns out this has been a lifelong dream of hers... and one she reluctantly turns down to her husband and daughter’s shock.

The explanation for this is the obvious one: She dosen’t want to risk exposing the Plantars, as having the three frogs in such a public venue, and one that will likely be recorded and threw up on youtube immediately by thousands of people, while their actively being hunted is just too risky. This is her lifelong dream sure.. but it’s not worth risking their lives over. And i’m sure some of you watching it thought: “Well why doesn't she just not include them?” And the answer.. is as obvious as it is so heartwarming there’s a tiny sun where my chest used to be (it itches slightly): She dosen’t want to do this without her family.. and the Plantars ARE family. She’s gone from wanting to get rid of them so she can forget about all this... to seeing them as so much a part of her world that leaving them out, even if it means her dream, just isn’t an option. Their part of this too. It’s all of them or none of them. While she’s visably crushed to be giving this up, if trying badly to hide it.... it’s worth it to protect the people she cares about. 

Naturally Anne can’t let this slide and spirits the plantars off to her room. She uncancel’s the float, and explains why to her froggy family: Anne feels she’s already done enough to her mom with her absence, having to stash the plantars, and that porthole to hell she opened up last week. She’s not costing her her dream. So Anne’s going to sneakily build the float and unveil it as a suprise and the Plantars are naturally in. She even has a beautiful design ready to go that has the plantars incorporated in a way that keeps them safe by passing them off as just part of the show. And really the town buys the ninja turtle logic of them being just humans in coats so this is somehow MORE of a disguise than usual. 

Meanwhile at the Legion of Doom er... at Andrias Floating Castle, the three Newt Advisors are still working for andrias and unlike Olivia and Yunan seem to be fully on board with their bosses horrifying new ambitions. 

Their also dressed as elves, having been told about Christmas by Marcy. You know the girl whose currently being used as a horrifying meat puppet, something you three Schmucks clearly have no issue with. And no i’m not letting them live that down: Oliva and Yunan may be MIA but at least they TRIED to do something instead of kissing Andrias titanic ass. 

Speaking of which they have a gift for him: a new dragonfly drone , complete with wireless controler and headset to send after anne. Andrias tests it out on them, as he should, and prepares to send it after our heroine. 

Meanwhile Anne is putting her plANNE into action. You can’t hate me for that pun on christmas it’s .. yule law... yeah. That’s it yule law..... .... just let me have this. 

So she gets help from their various allies. First up she needs tech support and Polly knows just the gays for the job so it’s time for a ROBOT PARTY!

At the community college their apparently headquartered out of, the IT Girls are throwing a robot rager. Anne even hits on ... whatever this is

Good to see her get a rebound while she waits to get her girls back. Good for her. The Gals naturally gladly agree to help, sweethearts they are. The Plantars are naturally even more confused as Christmas now apparently involves mechanical men, so they ask the Gals what Christmas is. The two try their best to explain it but at best get out that you shouldn’t light trees on fire and that you should get people you care about nice gifts..  and we get this as a result. 

Well my heart just collapsed on itself from adorable.. it’s a dwarf star now. This naturally sends Sprig into a panic about getting his best buddy Anne a good enough gift. 

Onto their next stop Dr. Jan, who turns out is nuts about christmas and is intense about explaning it as I am about explaning marvel history. Fun Fact: Vision and Wanda’s wedding in the comics was a double wedding with Mantis, whose a space jesus in the comics, and the Swordsman, who was a bad guy who turned good then died then got reborn by fusing with a plant monster and the marriage was procided over by Immortus, one of the various kang variants. Why any of this happened.. I have no idea. No really I geninely don’t. 

Jan is naturally happy to help Anne and gleefully allows her young friend to raid whatever she needs for her float, which Anne gladly does. So while Anne pilfers valuable historical displays for her float, Jan tries explaining christmas to the Plantars.. but has the opposite problem of our technogays. Instead of underdoing it, likely not knowing exactly HOW to unpack something like christmas for someone who has no idea what it is, Jan OVERDOES it and goes deeply into the history of it so much it makes Sprig’s brain grow three sizes.  Thankfully Hop Pop at least finaally has SOME grasp on it as it’s like their own holiday, swamp hollow’s eve.. just without the ritual sacrifices. 

So with our heroes slightly less confused they set to work and we get a montage.. set to a minty fresh new song from none other than Rebecca Motherfucking Sugar. If you don’t know who that is first off...

And secondly she’s the creator of Steven Universe, having run the show, written the vocal songs for it, and in general being a delightfully nice and thoughtful person. While she’s currently between shows because making a show is exausting and she needs a break before doing a new project, she gladly did a song here, showing up as herself casually singing an often odd but still heartfelt christmas song as the episode goes on. It feels perfectly fitting given this show has a lot of Steven Universe’s dna in it: it’s also a slice of life show that slowly builds to universe saving levels, while never loosing it’s focus on character growth or empathy. So I feel this is a wonderful way to tribute it by letting the show’s creator have a cameo. 

While rebecca strums Sprig struggles with gift anxiety and the Thai community helps Anne with her float because their just the best. With that Anne’s masterwork is finished, a loving wintery tribute to her culture. The next morning she shows it off to her mom whose brought to tears by it and her daughter’s efforts, with Anne also showing the Plantars in a crows nest, with Hop Pop as santa.. and a great runner about him forgetting the final ho. Mae hugs her daughter and graciously accepts the gift and they head out for the parade. 

A the parade, which looks downright gorgeous by the way, our heroes gladly celebrate and work the crowd... .and we find out WHY Mrs. B wanted this so long. We find out that she and Mr. B immigrated here and thus she’s always felt getting into the parade meant finally being accepted by this country. It adds a shocking and suprising amount of depth to the story, and as Anne points out she can relate having gone through the same in Amphibia, her trip there itself an allegory for Braly’s own trips to thailand. It feels like Matt is , through mae, letting his mother tell her story and it just warms my heart back up to supernova. It’s truly beautiful. 

So our heroes party on the float like their the joker. But since we have a chunk of episode left we can’t just leave it there. Andrias has been hunting them, but while he can now fly the drone properly, it dosen’t have the fancy scanners the annesterminator did so he can’t find them as easily. Lucky for him Anne just happens to be on a giant float, with her last name on it screaming her full name for the crowd for no reason, so it’s time for our big climactic fight. 

So Andrias finds a santa float and jingle jangle hey chris kringle’s now got nanites in his veins for a reason. So thus we get keith david piloting and voicing (since the drone has speakers.. despite not having a mic. ) a murderous santa claus. They say the best christmas gifts are the ones that suprise you and this proves them right. 

So after the giant santa attacks the crowd Anne has the IT gals book it as their driving.. once Polly snaps them out of their giant robot stupor because as we all know, Chicks Dig Giant Robots. 

So an awesome chase/fight insues as the nanites allow santa to have tree themed sheileds, candy cane lasers.. it’s just so wonderfully insane. Our heroes throw everything they got at it even the kitchen sink but eventually Anne realizes the way to stop it is a chekvos gun: light the tree on fire. Polly’s time has come. So they use the old video game standby of attacking it when it’s weakpoint is open and fire it into it’s mouth leading to the best two bits of the episode in rabid succesion. First...

Anne: Merry Christmas!z Andrias; (geninely and reflexivley) Merry christmas! .... wait OH NO!

This destroys santa which a young child sees and asks if santa is going to be okay to his dad... who says no reasuingly. Back on Amphibia, Andrias blames the controller.. before the Core gets him to compose himself. Once he has Andrias decides his master is right and that this loss dosen’t matter.. their army is almost complete... and is terrifyingly massive. 

So with that our heroes escape and now it’s clear SOMETHING’S going on to the public, and everyone’s worn down.. and Mae STILL enjoyed it because they were together. And because let’s face it who WOULDN’T love killing a giant robotic santa. Anne finally explains the true meaning of christmas: it’s not the getting, i’ts not the getting, it’s the loving. It’s spending time with those you love most and the presents and trappings are just to celebrate that. Sprig gives anne her gift, a handmade action figure and she loves it. Awww. Our heroes go for cookies.. and clearly the fact the invasion is happening SOON isn’t enough of a wham for one episode as we FINALLY tackle one of the most obnoxiously hanging plot threads of the season. But I was patient since I figured Matt had some sort of plan for it.. and he did... as Anne writes anonomus letter’s to Sasha and Marcy’s parents, promising their okay , telling them about the other dimension thing.. and saying she swears to bring them back, singing it a friend.  Because SURELY four grown adults can’t spot the handwriting of one of their daughter’s best friends. Surely. Also we find out Sasha’s parents are divorced so that’s a thing. 

We go out on some closing credits, as we see something fans kept bringing up even AFTER a christmas episode was announced finally also resolved: Anne gives her mom the pin she got her last season, to tears. Mr. B is just as generous giving Sprig a Tarantulaman figure, HP a book on directing and Polly a nerf machine gun because she apparently wasn’t terrifyign enough. Add in domnno perched on frobo’s head and it’s just.. so fucking sweet. Merry christmas, see you next year Plantar-Boonchuys. You’ve earned a break. 

Final Thoughts: This special is terrific: sweet, heartflet and featuring Keith David in the part he was born to play, this will be required viewing every year for me here on out. 

If you enjoyed this review consider jingle jangling a few bucks over to my patreon which has exclusive reviews and just ONE contributor means i’ll start covering the first season monthly, so you get a nice gift too. 

LINK TO MY PATREON IS HO HO HERE

And if you want to talk frogs while we wait for the rest of the season, dash in a one horse open sleigh over to my discord, which is open to all

INVITE LINK IS HERE. JOIN THE PARTY. 

[dameronology]

tea and whiskey {jack daniels x reader} - 6

summary: despite his best efforts, it appears as though you're completely slipping through jack's fingers. it appears as though he has no choice but to put everything out on the table in a last ditch attempt to keep you by his side. {series masterlist}

warnings: swearing, mentions of drinking, mentions of death

this one's a bit of a rollercoaster, but i promise it's fun <3

- jazz xx

You'd told Jack that things between you were fine.

They didn't feel as much.

You had meant it when you'd said it - it was just that the more you thought about it and the more you pondered on your concerns, the more worried you became. Did you even know Jack Daniels at all? His mysteriousness had been attractive at first but the closer you got to him, the more you found yourself wanting to hold him at an arm's length until you had your answers. When the situation between you had been a co-workers-with-benefits affair, it hadn't mattered so much. But now, you'd agreed it was something more intense, something more meaningful. Was it unfair to think that you deserved to know a little more? To get a more substance than just it's fine, trust me?

Whilst you hadn't wanted it to get in the ways of things, you couldn't help it. It hadn't changed anything the first few days after your conversation about where you stood, or about his seeming vendetta against Ginger, but the more you thought about it, the more it got to you. It had been almost 2 weeks since then, and you'd spent most of the second one lying to him. Telling him you had to call Eggsy, or your mum, or that you had to work late to get some paperwork done for Merlin.

Tonight had been no different - it was a Friday, the last six of which you had spent at Jack's. You'd given him some ridiculous waffle about timezones and reporting to the Kingsman. He had seemed to believe it; if he didn't, he'd chosen not to comment on it.

You were sat in your shared office, heels kicked to one side and feet propped up on the table. There was a glass of wine in one hand and your phone in the other (you were exchanging memes with Eggsy), and an episode of the The Crown playing on your computer. It was a nice way of getting your mind off of the situation with Jack, and the fact that you had a mountain of Calahan-related paperwork.

"So, this is the important meeting that you ditched me for?"

You froze at the sound of Jack's voice. He was leant against the doorway, arms folded over his chest and a look on his face that didn't seem too far off of pissed. Your first instinct was to lie, but the urge quickly faded. What was the point? He'd already caught you in one. Might as well just rip it off like a band-aid.

"I lied."

"That's clear as fucking day." Jack shot back. "Am I boring you all of a sudden?"

"Jack." You sighed. "I just needed some space to think."

"I thought we were good?" His brown eyes fell to the floor. "What's with all the lying? I admire your brutal honesty."

"I was only brutally honest with people I didn't mind hurting." You paused your laptop, pulling your feet down from the desk. "I care about you and I don't want to hurt you-"

"- I have pretty thick skin." He cut you off. "Be honest - you have my blessing."

"I thought I was okay with how intense things were getting," you began. "But the more, I think about it, the more I'm not sure."

Jack's face fell. "That's why you've suddenly been distant these past two weeks, huh?"

"Yeah." You nodded.

"What brought this on?"

You were silent.

"I know." Jack sighed. "It's the thing with Ginger, isn't it?"

"Not just that." You said. "You asked me to trust you and I agreed to, but I'm not sure I do."

"What have I ever done to make you not trust me?"

"Nothing, but that's my problem." You replied. "This is all on me."

"It sure as hell is." He sniffed. "If you want space, I'll give you space. Just don't count on me to be here when you get back."

--

The tension in Champ's office the following morning was almost fucking suffocating.

The poor man had no idea what had gone down between the two of you. Heck, even you were struggling to understand it. You'd got yourself into situations before with your tendency to overthink, but this one might have taken the cake. Relationships - or whatever the hell you and Jack had going on - had never been your area of expertise, and you had no idea how to navigate your situation. It had seemed like a good idea to act on your doubt and be honest with him, but now you were just worried that you'd ruined it.

"You two are making excellent progress with your mission to get Calahan." Champ said.

"Thank you, sir." Jack nodded.

"We need to discuss the matter of when you catch him."

"I appreciate your faith in us, but if we catch him, rather than when we catch him might be a little more realistic." You replied.

"I'm not certain of many things, but I am absolutely sure that you and Jack have this in the bag." Champ shot back. "And when you do, I'm afraid there is only room for one name on the arrest forms."

You sat up in your seat. "What do you mean?"

"I know that you two have made a completely join effort in this matter." He began. "But as far as Interpol, and every international agency has seen it, only one person's name can be on the paperwork."

"But we can both take credit, right?" You urged. "Surely, they can recognise us both for our work."

"I'm afraid not, Percy." Champ sighed. "The paperwork can only be processed under one name-"

"- why?" Jack cut him off. "I mean, why, sir?"

"Traditionally, only one agent would go into the field, to keep the casualties as low as possible." He explained. "Things have changed in practice but on paper, things still stand."

"So what are we meant to do?" You asked.

"You'll have to decide between yourselves who gets that recognition." He replied.

"Right." You murmured and stood up. "Thank you, sir."

Champ gave you a nod. "And you, agent. I'm sorry it has to be this way."

Me too, you thought.

You stalked out of Champ's office, Jack hot on your heels. If things had been a little tense before, they were going to be strangling now. The cowboy was already hurt by your revelation from the night before, and now, that was only going to get worst, because there was no way in hell that you were about to give the reins over to him. You'd make it clear from day one that your job came first, so that shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.

Heels clicking loudly against the floor, you sped up slightly in an attempt to lose him. It had been foolish, though, because before you could sprint into the ladies' room, Jack grabbed you by the arm and pulled you to the side.

"Lying to me and running away from me?" He asked. "You're breaking my fucking heart, baby."

You swatted his hand away and puffed out your chest. "I'm taking credit for Calahan."

Jack thinned his eyes at you. "We should talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about." You said. "I chased his ass all the across the Atlanic and I've been working on this project longer than you. Personal feelings aside, it makes sense."

"It sounds like you're saying you've done most the work."

"That is what I'm saying."

"I've done most the physical work." He shot back. "The chasing, the jumping over walls, the field work."

"None of which you could have done without me."

"Is this because of what I said last night? Are you mad?" He asked.

"No, I'm mad because you know how much this means to me!" You shoved him. "A win like this is all I've ever wanted. You know that!"

"It means a lot to me too!"

"I am putting my name on those papers." You snapped. "I've spent my whole life living in the fucking shadows at Kingsman and I'm tired of it. This is my win."

"With an attitude like that, I don't blame the damn redcoats for wanting to keep you in the shadows."

Your mouth fell open. If that had come from anyone else, you could have dealt with it. But Jack? The man who had always encouraged and loved your fire? The man you'd opened up to about how suffocated you felt at Kingsman? It was though he'd thrown your trust right back in your face.

"Wait, I didn't mean that-"

"- fuck you, Jack."

--

Drinking was, essentially, the thing that had gotten you into this whole situation in the first place. It was this very bar, in fact.

It was beyond you why you'd gone to Jack's favourite cowboy bar to simmer; probably because it was the closest thing you could get to actually being in his presence right now. Which was quite funny, because if you were in his presence, you no doubt would have decked him right there and then. His stupid fucking words were playing on a loop in your head, and it felt like a punch to your gut every time they circled back around your pre-fontal cortex.

You could have called Eggsy and vented to him, but that would involve recounting the whole story to him. He'd want to whoop Jack's ass for going near you in the first place, and eject him into outer space entirely for his petty jab. God, you missed your best friend.

Despite your anger, you hadn't even drank that much. Maybe a beer, or three - way below the amount you needed to even get tipsy. Drunken rage barely did you favours at the best of times, and right now was definitely the worst of times. It was just that sitting in a bar was a much better alternative to wallowing in your pity, alone in your larger-than-life apartment.

You sighed and took another sip of your drink, glancing over at your phone. There were three texts from Jack; a please call me, a I'll explain everything and a I fucked up, I know. You couldn't help but snort - what reason did he even have for talking to you that way?

With a twenty tossed on the bar and an empty glass, you shrugged your jacket on and began the walk back to your apartment. The air was cold and everyone was rushing around you to get back to their own respective homes. You had never wanted more in your life to go back to yours - your home in London. The one filled with pictures of you and your family, with memories of dumb sleepovers with Eggsy and late nights with your favourite films.

"So you're stalking me now?"

You could't muster up any other words when you saw Jack waiting by your door. Apparently his ignored texts and calls hadn't been a big enough sign.

"I didn't know where you were." Jack murmured.

"I was out." You shoved your way past him. "You can go now."

"We need to talk."

"Not right now." You groaned. "I'm tired, no thanks to you."

"I don't like when things are like this." He continued, following you inside as you unlocked the door. "I can't stand the idea of you being mad at me."

"So why do you do shit that makes me mad?" You shot back.

Jack sighed, leaning against your kitchen earlier. "I shouldn't have said what I did earlier. I was hurt-"

"- you were hurt?!" You snorted in disbelief.

"It fucking killed me when you said that you didn't trust me, sugar." He admitted. "I get why. I've been holding a lot of stuff back from you and I...I don't think it'll excuse my behaviour, but it might at least give you a reason."

"Okay." You murmured.

"I've barely told anyone this, but I trust you." He reached out and took your hands in his. "It's a lot."

"Jack, you don't have to-"

"- I used to be married." He cut you off. You froze at his words. "Her name was Georgia, and we'd been in love since high-school."

"I..." you trailed off. "Used to be?"

"She was killed in a shoot-out during a robbery." Jack's voice wavered slightly. "She was pregnant at the time. I lost two people that day."

"Shit." You murmured. "I'm sorry, Jack."

"It's fine." He replied. "Not your fault, sweetheart."

"Who else knows?"

"Ginger." He said. "She was a friend of mine, long before we were at Statesman. Georgia's best friend, too."

"You're trying to protect her, aren't you?" You glanced up, eyes meeting. "By keeping her out the field?"

"It's a shitty excuse." He half-heartedly shrugged. "She's all I have left of Georgia. The only person who really shares my pain."

Jack was right -- it hadn't been an excuse, but it was an explanation. You couldn't even begin to get your head around the kind of pain he must have felt then, or even the kind he felt now. You'd had weeks worth of deep conversations and late-night talks but he had never, ever even remotely mentioned Georgia, or his unborn child. You couldn't blame him for that. Not in the slightest.

You were struggling to find the words, really. A thousand new layers had just been added to a man you were already struggling to understand.

"That must be a real weight on your shoulders."

"It is." Jack nodded. "But it lifts slightly when I'm with you."

"Really?" You asked quietly.

"Completely." He countered. "That's all I've wanted my entire life -- to feel again, and I do with you."

"That's deep." You tried to crack a joke, to lighten the mood.

"Even if this ends when you go back to London, I'm still grateful." He continued. "You gave me that, so I should give you what you've always wanted."

"A real-life Batmobile?"

Jack snorted, despite the emotional atmosphere. "Your name will have to go on those papers. It should never have even been a question."

"Jack, I-"

"- that's all there is to say." He shook his head. "There'll be other arrests and missions, but I'll never find someone like you."

Without anything to say, you placed your hands on either side of his face and pulled him into a kiss. That in itself said everything you needed to- thank you, I'm sorry, maybe you don't suck that much, etc. The entire conversation marked a definitive shift in your relationship, and even though it was one that neither of you could quite work out, that didn't matter. You'd thrown yourself back into the deep end, even though you'd been so hell-bent on breaking to the surface just hours earlier.

There was no doubt that it would only complicated the whole let's not fall in love promise you'd made -- but that was something to worry about later, right?

taglist: @b0nnyzz @xremember-me-notx @somenerdyuser @demigod-dragonrider-schoolidol @javisjeanjacket @phoenixhalliwell @no-droids-on-sunday​ @paintballkid711​ @waatermelon-sugaar​ @hepburnwritess​ @haileyybird​ @xjaywritesx​ @jabbajambler​ @the-mandalorian-clone-lover​ @likeshootingstarsinthenightsky​ @welcometothepedroverse​ @wickedmuse​

[mackeydoodledoo]

Inferno

Pairing: Sylvie Brett x Quinn Maxs (Fem! Paramedic)

Summary: You’re living life with Firehouse 51. But, you begin to feel feelings for your Paramedic-in-charge; Sylvie Brett. You don’t know how to tell her, understanding the history of her past relationships. Most of all, you don’t want her seeing you differently, should you tell her. You only told your fellow paramedic; Gianna Mackey and your best friend and firefighter; Stella Kidd. However, you beg them both to not tell Brett. However, once Hermann’s fill-in comes in, you believe you’ve waited too long to tell Brett how you really feel about her.

Warning: Chicago Fire Season 9 Episode 9: Escape Route spoilers

A/N: Quinn Maxs is my OC for Chicago Fire! Enjoy my first Sylvie Brett imagine!!

Theme: “MAYDAY” - coldrain/Ryo (Fire Force Opening 2)

-------------------------------------------------------

As you close your locker and bid Hermann a farewell and to enjoy his vacation you pass by Brett, but a familiar face.... Grainger.... 

"Hey, I remember you, Y/n Y/l/n right?" He asks, smiling 

Hiding your emotions well, you casually salute three fingers to him before hearing the alarm go off. 

"Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, structure fire," 

As you heard the address you head to 61 to deploy for the call. 

"Hey why don't you ride shotgun Y/l/N," Mackey suggests, smiling 

"Sure, thanks Mackey," you say, opening the passenger side door 

"Mackey wanted to ride back?" Sylvie asks 

"Yeah, I guess so," you sigh, not looking at her 

"Hey, are you alright? You've seemed to be moping for a little bit." Sylvie asks 

"Oh I'm fine, a little tired. Lack of sleep," You lie 

You were kind of accurate but also very inaccurate. You realized when Sylvie and Grainger were flirting before the call. 

"Tell you what, why not tonight after shift I treat you to Molly's?" She suggests 

"You sure?" You ask 

"Totally," Brett smiles 

81, Squad 3 and 61 arrive at the fire. You notice Grainger giving orders out already however, Casey angrily tells him to wait for his orders. Both you and Sylvie watch that unfold but you think nothing of it as Casey is Captain. But you're assuming 40 doesn't have a captain. 

After the call, 61 running a severely burned mother to Med, you voluntarily hopped in the back, to avoid Brett seeing your emotions become unfolded. Although they could hear you, you were crying on the inside. 

Brett's POV "Hey Mackey do you think Y/l/n is okay?" She asks 

"What makes you think that?" Mackey replies back 

"On our way to the call earlier she wasn't very talkative like she usually is," she says, "I just wanna know if she's talked to you about anything." 

"Nope, she's been quiet about that," Mackey says

Y/n’s POV You lay down on your bed in the quiet area of 51, contemplating life choices. With a handful of Med runs n such, nothing happened out of the ordinary. 

"You doing okay kid?" Stella comes over 

"Well aside from my jealousy of Grainger easily wooing Brett, I'm fine," you sigh 

"You need to tell her before anything happens Y/n," she replies, "You're going to regret it once you decide to tell her when its too late." 

"She is inviting me out to Molly's after shift if that means anything.." you say 

"That’s the perfect time to do it" Stella smiles before walking away

Once the end of shift came and you make your leave. You try to avoid Brett as much as possible. 

"Y/l/n!" Brett calls 

You silently sigh to yourself but put on a happy face for her. 

"You ready to go love?" She asks, slinging her arm around yours as she drags you along 

"For sure," you force a smile 

"Hey why don't you join us later, once your done with inventory?" Sylvie suggests to Grainger 

"I'd love to," Grainger smiles 

On the inside you were freaking out. But you also believed this was the time to tell her, as Stella says. 

"Have you been doing okay y/l/n? You're not as talkative as you usually are," Sylvie asks 

"Just a long day, like I said this morning Brett, I have had a lack of sleep," you sigh, "Hey I'm gonna get a drink from Stella do you want anything?" 

"Just a beer," Sylvie smiles 

You smile back, you realize that's the first time you've smiled around Brett. 

"Have you told her yet Y/n?” Stella asks, coming over to you 

"No," you sigh, "I don't know. You are right by telling her now but I’m just so-" 

You notice Stella looking over your shoulder, "Grainger is there isn't he?..." 

Stella nods, "Sorry Y/n." 

"Two beers," you request, "Might as well be a peace offering." 

"Are you gonna stick around?" She asks 

"I'm just gonna give them the beers and pretty much lie," you say, "Hey, I'll text you if anything happens." 

Stella nods, in approval to your plan. She walks over and gets the beers. You slip her a $10 tip. 

"Half of it is working in a full house, the other is... Well, being my Partner in Crime," you smile as you shake off your sadness and force a smile onto your face as you put the beers between the two supposed lovebirds. 

"For me?" Grainger smiles 

"That's a thanks for today, Welcome to 51," You forcefully smile 

My god I want to leave! You begin to feel an inferno build up inside of you. You wanted to punch him in the face but that would not look good on a report. 

"Hey, I just remembered I left something at the station. I'm going to run and go grab it and I’m gonna call it a night," you lie, "see you later Boss." 

You take your jacket and your helmet and make your leave, putting on your helmet and then gloves. You first make your stop to your apartment, which wasn't too far from Molly's. Grabbing a backpack that would be big enough to store clothes in and essentials. You leave everything clean. As if no one was there. You make haste getting out of your apartment and to your motorcycle, making another leave.

You knock on the door to Boden's office. Which he looks up and greets you how he always does. 

"Chief I need to talk to you, if you have a minute," you say, sitting in a chair 

"What is it Y/l/n?" He asks 

"I know you’re probably not one to listen to somebody's relationship life but um.." You stammer, figuring out how to tell him, "I don't know who else to turn to but only two other people know; Mackey and Kidd. I told them-I told them I really like Brett. However, I’m beginning to see her attraction towards our fill-in Lieutenant; Grainger. But the point is, I'm beginning to feel jealous. On the call this morning I was barely in it until either Mackey or Brett brought me back. I'm not sure if I've ever requested to take time off work. But, I feel that this is the time to. I don't want my emotions getting the best of me again Chief." 

"Who else knows about this kind of request?" Boden asks 

"Just you and me sir," you reply 

"I appreciate the heads up Y/l/n and I appreciate your need to work with your emotions," he says, "How long do you want me to make you absent for?" 

"One month," you request 

"That's um... That's quite a big request Y/l/n," He sighs 

"I understand that completely Chief, but Brett and Mackey are doing an excellent job as a two-person Ambo team, I strongly believe they can do the work in my absence," you say 

"If you strongly believe it then so do I," He says, adjusting something on his laptop, "Is there anything else you need?" 

"Yes," You sigh, "Don't tell Brett anything of what I told you in this moment. I don't want her feeling guilt over this when she and Mackey have lives to save. But if she does happen to ask, just tell her that I have a family emergency. If-if that's too much I can-" 

"It's okay Y/l/n," Boden says, "Go clear your head." 

"Thanks Chief," you smile, making your exit

You stop at a gas station to fill up on your motorcycle and eat before your long drive. As you wait for the gas to fill your tank, you hold your phone up to your ear. 

"Hey, Stella, it's me," you start 

"Hey kid. You doing okay? What's the update?" She asks 

"Well, I first went to my apartment to get some things. I then went to the station and requested the Chief for some days off." You say 

"How long?" She asks 

"A month," you say 

"A MON- oh, sorry. A month?" Stella says 

"Yeah," you say, "I told Boden that Brett and Mackey and manage without me. It's not like I'm leaving 51." 

"That's true," Stella sighs 

"Hey, can you pass the word to Mackey too? I told her about this whole thing too," you say, "But neither of you tell Brett. I'm not having her feel guilty over this. This is for me." 

"Got it kid, I gotta get back to work. Call me if you wanna talk at all," Stella says 

"Noted, bye." You say, hanging up the phone as the gas had just filled up 

As you pull off into a parking spot, you make another call. 

"Hey, it's me," you smile, "Do you have any space in your house for me to stay in for now? You do? Okay, I'll be there in... God, 3-4 hours. Pull off into a hotel for the night? No, I'm good thanks. I'll make the drive. So long as I'm not in the city anymore. Thanks man, I'll try to keep you posted." 

You put your helmet back on and set up your maps into the destination and ride off into the night. Though, you really only made stops at 24-hour gas stations.

Brett's POV The next morning at 51, Brett comes into the station right next to Grainger however, split once they go to their respective engines. 

"Hey where's Y/l/n?" Sylvie asks Mackey when she noticed she's not in the ambo 

"Family emergency," Mackey replies, clearly lying 

"Oh... She didn't tell me," Brett sighs 

"She was in a rush, she only figured out last night," Mackey adds 

She walks over to Stella, "Hey did Y/l/n tell you-" 

"She has a family emergency," Stella says, exactly the same story as Mackey 

"She told you too?" Brett asks, "How come she didn't tell me?" 

Stella looks at Brett, feeling bad she has to lie to her best friend. However, it was for the best for both you and Brett. 

"Who didn't tell you what?" Grainger comes up behind Brett and hugs her 

"One of my paramedics had a family emergency and didn't tell me," Brett says 

"Well let's not worry about that right now," Grainger smiles as he gives Brett a cheek kiss 

"If you guys kiss I’m gonna puke," Stella gags as she walks to the common room, Mackey following

Stella's POV "You're doing a great job Mackey," Kidd says, high-fiving her 

"I'd never tell someone's personal info, unless they told me I could. This isn't one of those times," Mackey smiles 

"Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Battalion 25, multiple hostile situation at 600 E Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60611" 

"That's Navy Pier," Stella realizes

51 deploys to the coordinates that are set in and by the time they get there, different firehouses and police stations are lined at the entrance. 

"Voight, talk to me," Boden demands as he walks with them 

"Seems like there's more than one perpetrator in this situation," Voight explains, "No casualties thus far, but possible injuries."

Y/n's POV As you get yourself some coffee you pull up the Chicago news radio on your phone. 

"This just in, a multiple hostage situation is currently happening at Navy Pier. All civilians near the vicinity must evacuate immediately." The news reporter explains, "All CPD departments and multiple CFD houses are here at the scene. 

"Sounds like one crazy adventure," your sister says, "glad your home and away from that." 

"Sis, I'm worried," you sigh 

"Is it about that Brett girl?" She asks, "forget her. She's missing one hell of an opportunity." 

"Thing is I don't know if she's Bisexual." You state 

"Even if she is and still sees you differently, she's missing out on a cool little sister," she says, messing up your hair, "I have to head out for work, if you're going out just lock the door and you remember where the spare key is?" 

"I do sis," you smile 

"See you later," she smiles and she closes the door 

You turn back to your phone for the love broadcast of the situation back across Lake Michigan. Your sister was pretty much right on the edge of Michigan, great view of the lake. However, you look out to the window and hope, your house is doing okay. You wish you saw the situation happen from right across it but it was too wide for you to see it happen with your eyes. You sigh, wishing you could leave already. However, you realize your sister has a power boat. You quickly write down a note saying you'll be back and that you're borrowing her power boat. With no sailing experience, turnout gear or medic supplies. Only your bag and communicator, you rush out the door.

"Where's Y/l/n?!" Brett demands Mackey 

"Brett you're so blind, Y/n is so into you!" Stella says, blurring out, "She left because she didn't want you to press her into talking to you about it. She didn't want you to see her any different if she told you. Let alone questioning if you like girls and you're beginning to go with hot-shot Grainger over there, so she wanted to get her mind off of her emotions." 

Brett stands there, dumbfounded. Why didn't you tell her. 

"Stella!" You call into your walkie 

"Y/n?" Stella calls back 

"On your six!" You say, smiling, "can't stay away." 

She runs up to you and gives you a big bear hug. 

"Listen up 51, I'm no commanding officer but I do sure know the place on the back of my hand. Captain Casey and Chief Boden... With your permission may I give the orders?" You ask through the walkie 

"Yes ma'am," Casey answers 

"What's your plan Y/l/n?" Chief Boden asks

"Okay, I scouted the perimeter and there's only, assuming they're away from the windows. Squad 3 you take the Northside, you try to get CPD officers into the building to clear the field for you. Engine 51, to Grainger with any room you have, get your hoses ready should any form of fire start. Truck 81, if shots are fired, move in, get as many civilians out as you can. I'll move in with you guys and give extra arms to help." You announce 

You take a giant breath as you finish out your speech. Stella, Brett and Mackey look at you in awe as you've never taken initiative before. 

"Y/l/n, I thought I have you on vacation," Boden comes up to you, "And you're not usually one to give orders." 

"Apparently can't stay away sir," you sigh, adjusting your belt, "And I know this place all too well." 

"Very well Y/l/n," Boden smiles, "You heard the lady men." 

You watch Squad 3 and follow Truck 81 as you meet up with Burgess and Ruzek. 

"You're gonna need this," Burgess heads you a 9 milimeter 

"Thanks..." you say, taking it and concealing it 

You hear screaming and gunshots. And hear a blaze begin. 

"Grainger fire! I don't know where it is! Find it!" You demand 

"You got it kid," he says 

"Move in!" The muffled walkie screams as you, along with 81, Burgess, Ruzek and many other CPD officers barge into the building, ringing shots, killing nearly all the perpetrators. 

"Hey kiddo it's okay it's okay," you tell her, checking for any signs of injury 

"Y/l/n!" Kim yells, you immediately shield the kid as a shot rings out 

You let out a strangled scream as your arm is bleeding; a severe gunshot wound. It didn't go into your skin and damage your bone however, the bullet made a real "good" indent in your skin as it rang out. Kim pulls the trigger on her glock 17 and kills the guy immediately. Kim helps you cover your wound as you still hold onto the kid, hoping any parental unit would claim her. 

"Mommy," the girl cries 

You turn over and see the mom, on the ground. You hand the kid over to Kim as you go to help Severide and Casey. You all get her onto the board to get her to 61. 

"Brett, Mackey need the Ambo ready," you speak into your walkie 

"Hey Burgess, you can let the girl into the ambo," you say as she helps the little girl into the back 

"Aren't you coming with us?" Brett asks 

"Can't, I have to take my sisters' power boat back across Lake Michigan," you sigh, "My sister is a doctor over at her local hospital, I'll drive myself over there." 

"You're gonna bleed out, you need to get to med," Brett demands, calmly 

"I can take care of myself Brett, don't worry about me I'll be fine." You say, trying to walk away 

"Y/n!" Brett yells your first name

You never heard Brett call you by your first name. You shake it off before settling back to your stoic self.

"Let me go, please," you say calmly, "I'm only gone for a month." 

"Did you tell Stella and Mackey to lie to me?" She asks you 

"I didn't want you worrying about me," you sigh, "Besides, I'm going to be fine." 

She lets go of you as you walk back to your sisters boat. She felt tears welding into her eyes. 

"Brett, we gotta go," Mackey calls out 

Mackey shuts the doors as Brett hops into the driver's seat and activates the sirens. 

You arrive to your sisters workplace as a nurse rushes over to you. 

"What happened?!" She asks 

"Zoomed across Lake Michigan and helped my firehouse, but unfortunately I got grazed," you sigh 

"Y/n?!" Your sister calls out to you, "oh my god Y/n you took my power boat?!" 

You nod, "They needed my help." 

"You have never changed," she laughs, "I can check you out."

Once your sister had stitched up your wound she discharged you from the hospital. Once you get back to your sisters place, you open your Chicago news app. The first article that comes up is the one from earlier. 

"Firehouse 51 paramedic makes a chief-status plan while on this call today," The news reporter says, "According to 51s' Captain Matt Casey, it was an astounding plan. Girl's a hero." 

You sigh as you don't really feel like a hero, just another day as a paramedic.

Your sister comes home late at night however, doesn't find you anywhere. 

"Called Chief Boden and told him I changed my mind on my one month vacation, I'm heading back to 51 right now." Your sister read aloud, "Bought you something that’s in the fridge for taking care of me for a short time."

You park your motorcycle in one of the street parking slots as you keep your helmet on for secrecy. Without knowing it was you, Brett walks past you. Once you get to your locker, you try to make a quick haste to get yourself ready. 

"In a rush?" Stella smiles 

She comes up to you and gives you a big bear hug. 

"Missed you kid," she smiles 

Before you could say anything else you hear arguing from afar. You and Stella go to the garage and notice Brett and Grainger arguing. 

"So you led me on?" He asks 

"Not exactly, I wasn't aware of Quinn's feelings and I wasn't sure how to process it," Brett starts, "I just-" 

"Just what Sylvie?" He asks, angrily 

You notice she's beginning to falter. 

"Y/n left, and for what?" He asks her, "She isn't a Lieutenant, Captain, or Chief! What makes her so special?! I don't think you made the right choice of making her on your paramedic team. How are YOU even the paramedic-in-charge?" 

You've had enough, "HEY!" 

They both turn to you, Brett almost crying years of joy. You place a gentle hand onto her shoulder, reassuring her that you'll settle this. 

"You have NO RIGHT to question her position as Paramedic-in-Charge Mr. Hot shot Lieutenant." You spat in his face 

He was about to open his mouth to say something else, but closes it when you give him the look of: 'oh I'm not done mister!'. 

"She’s one of the GREATEST PICs I have ever worked with in my years of being in the Fire Department service. She’s one of the VERY few, that I am honored to be working with, one I come to know and love." You continue, "You question that position? And for what? The most beautiful Paramedic is beginning to question herself and what SHE wants? No, one should always be supportive. No matter what, you should leave my guy." 

"Hate to tell you rookie, I'm not leaving yet," he tries to sound smug 

"Oh you're leaving alright buddy," Hermann says, walking into the firehouse 

He doesn't say anything else but give you one last look of disgust before leaving. You let out a breath of relief. Stella and Mackey applaud for you. 

"You stood up for me?" Brett asks, looks at you, "Don't you hate me for hurting you?" 

"Brett," you smile, "I never did hate you. I left so I could clear my head." 

She smiles as she hugs you, "my god oh how I've missed you." 

Your head drops down and rests on Brett's shoulder for your head to be cradled. 

"I'm sorry Sylvs," you call her by her nickname, "You remember how I used to act... I didn't want that happening again." 

"You could've just talked to me love," Brett whispers

After shift you head over to Molly's with Stella. 

"How's your arm kid?" She asks 

"Hurts but my sister stair to be careful, and then just have someone at med undo the stitches." You say 

"That's good, that's good," Stella states, "You know, Brett was worried sick on that call this morning." 

"Really?" You ask, leaning in towards Stella 

"Speak of the Devil, there she is," Stella smiles, waving her over 

"You look great Quinn," Brett smiles 

"You look beautiful Sylvs," you smile back, sipping your whiskey 

Stella looks at you, a look you know too well. That says, "go get your girl!" 

You make fun if her look and then turn your attention to Brett. 

"So Brett, how you been doing the last couple of days?" You ask 

"Worrying about you," she sighs 

You nearly choke on your drink as that though has never crossed your mind. You only thought that Sylvie had eyes for Grainger. Of all people, she worries about you.

“Really?” You ask, clearing your throat, “Why’s that?”

“you didn’t talk to me before heading off to your sister’s,” She says, “Also for telling Stella and Mackey to lie to me.”

“I didn’t want you to worry about me,” You say, “I wasn’t about to have my emotions get the best of me again.”

“You remember last time?” Sylvie asks

“Of course I do,” You say

“Do you want to get out of here?” Sylvie asks, “I know you don’t want that kind of thing to be talked about in public.”

“Sure,” You smile

You get a glance at Stella and she gives you a face of ‘go get your woman girl!’

Once the both of you reach your apartment, you follow Sylvie into hers.

“Remember that time I helped you calm down?” She finally asks

You nod, “I never did.”

“As soon as I touched you, you instantly calmed down,” She explains, “So, if what happened between us the other night affected your emotions, how come you didn’t tell me sooner?”

“Because I wasn’t sure if you were also into girls,” You confess, “You’re THE Sylvie Brett, one of the greatest people I’ve come to know and love in my life. And I’m just... Me... A paramedic with anger issues.”

“And I love you,” Sylvie confesses

Realizing what she had just said to you made her cheeks heat up. You look at her the same way. You gently press her against the doorframe to her room and place your lips along hers, building that inferno in your heart that burns for her.

[sometimesiwritebadly]

Rogue Thoughts (Spencer Reid x FBI Agent!Reader)

Summary: Soulmates can occasionally hear each other’s thoughts. You happen to hear the thoughts of a fellow FBI Agent while you’re interviewing for a position at the BAU.

Check out the series

Warnings: Some language, but it’s just fluff

Notes: SOULMATE AU MOTHER HECKERS

Word Count: 2k

Masterlist

After nearly 30 years of listening to your soulmate’s thoughts, nothing could surprise you at this point. While most of your friends or family heard relatively normal things from their soulmates before they met, your head consisted of random facts about anything from mental illnesses you’d never heard of to Greek philosophy. Once, you had what you learned to be some of Friedmann’s equations stuck in your head for a week. Despite how little you cared for mathematics, your curiosity had given in eventually and you ended up googling it after 3 days. Whoever your soulmate is, he’s an absolute genius. 

Sometimes the thought of just how smart your soulmate is feels a little daunting; You’re not dumb, you have a master’s degree in Criminology and worked for the FBI, but you couldn’t help but wonder if your soulmate would be disappointed when the two of you finally meet. There’s no way of telling which of your thoughts your soulmate had heard from you over the years; maybe he learned about your study of criminals or some of the bad guys you’d managed to catch over the years...or maybe he learned about how you have almost every episode of Friends memorized. Recently, the thoughts you heard have become more frequent. Back when you were a kid, the thoughts you heard could be weeks or even months apart, but as you got older, you heard his thoughts more and more often. Your mom had said that must mean you’re going to meet your soulmate pretty soon; the same thing had happened with her and your father. 

“17 interviews and we still don’t have a replacement…”

The thought entered your head for a moment, but flickered away before it completed. “Don’t distract me today, soulmate. I’ve got a job interview.” You thought. Even though you don’t have any control over which thoughts he would hear, you hoped he had gotten your message. You currently worked in Crimes Against Children with the FBI, but after 4 years excelling in that area, one of the higher-ups, Strauss, had suggested applying for the renowned Behavioral Analysis Unit. You had become a profiler of sorts within CAC; when you were in college you had attended multiple lectures on the subject matter. Even though you weren’t officially trained, your bosses all agreed that you had the potential. Plus, the BAU had been down an agent for a while, so today you were meeting with SSA Hotchner.

When you arrived at the FBI headquarters today, instead of heading to your usual building, you went to the building where the BAU was held. Your nerves were getting the best of you as the elevator slowly made its way to the 6th floor, and to make matters worse, your soulmate’s thoughts were flying through your head at an astronomical rate. “I should book a flight to visit mom soon…” “Maybe we’ll finally get a new agent today....” “if Morgan tries to make me do his paperwork one more time…” Clearly, he hadn’t heard your plea to try and keep it down today. Or, he has just about as much control over which thoughts you heard as you did with his. Despite the foreign thoughts filling your head, you tried your best to stay focused as you exited the elevator and made your way towards Hotchner’s office. 

As you walked through the room, your eyes were pulled from your destination to the various people sitting at the desks. Or, more specifically, to a certain guy filling out paperwork diligently. “Holy fuck, he’s cute.” You thought. Almost immediately, his head snapped up towards you. “Did he…?” “Wow.” You both thought at the same time. This time, you stopped walking, and he pushed away from his desk to get a better look at you. Your interview had almost completely slipped your mind until you heard someone call your name.

“SSA Y/L/N?” You turned away from the guy, who you were now incredibly intrigued by, to the man you recognized as Aaron Hotchner. 

“SSA Hotchner, it’s good to see you again.” You said, giving him a wave. You weren’t a fan of shaking hands, although you were nervous your avoidance of the motion would come off unprofessional. Luckily, Hotchner didn’t seem to mind.

“Please, call me Hotch. My office is just this way, if you’d like to follow me.” Hotch led you to his office, where you took a seat in the chair across from his desk. Luckily, the thoughts from your soulmate - who may or may not be sitting right outside this office - had calmed down, so you had a clear head for your interview.

~~~

“Garcia!” Spencer burst into Garcia’s batcave, shocking the girl. Morgan stood next to her, looking at Spencer like he was insane.

“What’s wrong, pretty boy?”

“I need to know the name of the agent Hotch is interviewing right now.”

“Ok, you could’ve just asked like a normal person instead of giving me a heart attack!” Garcia grumbles, sitting in front of her computer to pull up the information. “Do I at least get a reason as to why you need to know about,” She paused, reading the name that had popped up on her screen, “SSA Y/N Y/L/N?” Spencer leaned down next to Garcia, so he could see the picture of you on the screen.

“Y/N Y/L/N…” The name felt perfect coming from his lips. It was like he never wanted to say another name again

“Reid? Seriously, what's up with this girl? Do you think she’s bad news?” Morgan asked, clearly concerned about Spencer’s actions

“N-no, I, um, I think she’s my soulmate.” Spencer whispered, not really registering what he had said until Garcia’s excited squeals finally tore his eyes away from the computer screen

“Oh my god this is the best thing that’s ever happened! Are you sure? Oh my god I need to do more research! No wait - if you think she’s your soulmate what are you doing in here with us! You need to be with her and fall in love and get married and name your first born after me like yesterday!” Garcia began rambling, grabbing Spencer’s hand and practically dragging him out of her office and back towards the bullpen. She continued talking as they walked over, while Morgan trailed behind with a wide smile on his face. 

Prentiss and JJ had been chatting at their desks when Garcia dragged Spencer in. “Code Red, ladies! Spencer Reid met his soulmate and she’s with Hotch right now!” Garcia announced, finally letting go of Spencer’s arm. 

“Holy shit!”

“Oh my god, Spence!”

Emily and JJ both gave Spencer a hug, while a blush rose to his cheeks. “I-I don’t know for sure yet. I just, it was like something was pulling me to her. And this time when I heard her thoughts it just felt so…” Spencer was at a loss for words, which was very rare for him. He couldn’t describe this brand new experience.

“Like everything suddenly made sense?” JJ suggested, as the only one in the group who actually knew what the experience of meeting your soulmate was like. 

“Yeah.” Spencer nervously began to play with his hands, turning to look at the door. Through the blinds of Hotch’s office, he could just make out where she was sitting. “Good luck.” He tried to send her the thought, knowing that if they really were soulmates, he should have more control over which thoughts she would hear or not. He may have been imagining it, but he swore she saw her figure get less tense through the blinds.

~~~

“Well, Agent Y/L/N, you’re certainly one of the best candidate’s I’ve interviewed so far. I know you still have an active case to finish with CAC, but once that’s resolved we’d love to have you transfer over here to the BAU.” Hotch said with a small smile.

“Thank you so much, Hotch! My current case is almost wrapped up, so I should be able to officially transfer within the next week or so.” You said with a smile. The both of you stood from your chairs, and Hotch opened his office door for you. Immediately, your eyes found the man again, and you found he was already looking at you. 

“Did you want to meet the rest of the team? Clearly, they’ve all decided it’s social hour anyways.” Hotch suggested, clearly not too pleased with the group that was very clearly not doing any work at the moment. He had mentioned that the team didn’t have a case right now, but you were sure there was still plenty of paperwork to get though.

“Yes! Please.” You said, maybe a little too enthusiastically. Even though you did want to be on good terms with the whole team, right now the only person you cared about was the man in the cardigan.

“Guys, this is SSA Y/N Y/L/N, she’ll be joining us here at the BAU soon. Y/L/N, this is SSAs Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, and Dr. Spencer Reid. Penelope Garcia is our technical analyst, and SSA David Rossi should be around here somewhere-” 

Hotch was practically cut off by Penelope, who immediately pulled you in for a hug. You did your best to hide your discomfort, but you had always been a bit of a germaphobe.“Oh my God it’s so lovely to meet you, we’re all so excited for you to join our little family…” Penelope began to ramble as she pulled away from the hug, which you found endearing. 

“Is she like this all the time?” You thought. 

“Yes. You’ll get used to it.” Your eyes immediately move to Spencer’s. Dr. Spencer Reid.

“I’m sure I will. Don’t know if I’ll get used to talking in our minds though.” You think. You were completely tuned out of the conversation the other Agents had started, now focusing only on Spencer.

“Well, studies show that transitioning to life with a soulmate can be jarring, but not because of discomfort of hearing thoughts. It usually takes couples a long time to learn how to turn it off, which can result in soulmates getting to know each other’s secrets rather quickly. That’s why nearly 38% of soulmates will break up within a few months of starting a relationship, although it should be noted that 87% of those that break up will end up getting back together at some point in their lives.” Spencer’s thoughts began racing, and you suddenly understood all the random facts you had learned from him over the course of your life. As he told you the facts and figures of soulmates breaking up - not the best subject for a pair of soulmates that just met, but you didn’t mind - you noticed that the rest of the team had stopped talking and were now just watching you and Spencer converse in your heads.

“That probably explains why we’re talking with our thoughts instead of out loud. And why your team is staring.” Spencer’s cheeks reddened when he looked away from you and realized you were right.

“Honestly, I forgot they were there. Which is rare for me, I have an eidetic memory.” You laughed aloud at his remark, earning more confused looks from everyone else.

“Sorry, guys, I guess we got a little...distracted.” You spoke aloud for the first time in a few minutes. Spencer moved closer to you, his hand itching to take yours.

“Oh, please, don’t apologize, I was the same way with Will after we met. I know how overwhelming it can be at first.” Jennifer waved off your worries, and extended a hand towards you, “You can call me JJ, by the way.” 

“Oh, um, I don’t really shake hands, I’m a bit of a germaphobe.” You worried once again about coming off as rude, but this remark only made JJ, and the rest of the team laugh.

“Wow, you two really are soulmates, aren’t you.” Derek remarked, swinging his arm over Penelope’s shoulder as he spoke.

“I’m the same way.” Spencer explained to you, “It’s actually safer to kiss.”

“I’m sure we’ll put that to the test when we’re alone.” You didn’t think it was possible, but Spencer’s face became even more red after your thought entered his own head.

~~~

tagged: @dr-reid-ismyspiritanimal

[thecarrieonokay]

Macgyver 5x10 Rewatch: My musings...

Hey guys. I was so completely distracted by Mac’s golden retriever puppy face at the end of the episode that I’ve basically forgotten everything else that happened. Any excuse for a re-watch, am I right?

So. Here are all the things I missed the first time round, in case anyone is interested. And no. I’m not done talking about how awesome Bozer is.

-First off. The opening Macsplain has LAYERS. “Pressure”? “... Something beautiful and strong that I really hope I can replicate...” Dude. Some things are better when they form NATURALLY. *cough* Riley *cough* [FYI. This is not a dis at lab diamonds. No blood diamonds for me, ta very much.]

-On that note. Are we all just going to collectively ignore the fact that Mac pulled a FULLY CUT diamond out of that chamber?! Yeah. That’s not how that works but... cool. cool.

- Also, Boze. My one disagreement with you this ep. If my dude told me he MADE me a diamond I would combust on the spot. OF COURSE HE SHOULD TELL HER HE MADE IT HIMSELF!! THAT’S MAC’S BRAND, DUDE!!

-The war room is like the inside of Russ’ head. I would hate to live there. “Darling” to one of the rando Phoenix guys. Love it. But “donkeys”? Not a thing. Even in England.

-The first time we’ve ever actually SEEN their comms and how they work. Guys... I think these are going to be relevant...

-Yellow filter... we must be in Mexico! (oi. WHY?!) And my film brain can’t ignore the space between all the extras. Covid y’all...

- Only a psycho would wear trousers that short. Must be... yep. It’s him!

- I REALLY wish I hadn’t know that Andrews was going to be in this ep. I feel like his appearance would have had slightly more impact.

-”So you wanna play.” Dastmalchian playing with his favourite toy. And he JUMPED A MILE when Mac got hit by that car... dude was genuinely concerned.

-”Yes that’s definitely it isn’t it.” Salty Russ is a mood. I love it.

- Mac on a bike. More of this please Macgyver gods.

- Guys. It makes total sense that the FBI didn’t loop Phoenix in on Murdoc’s break-out because the last time they tangled with the FBI Phoenix illegally broke Andrews out of prison and then LOST HIM.

- Andrews makes a painting reference. Nice touch.

-”Magnitude Murdoc” HOW DID I MISS THIS THE FIRST TIME?! IT’S HILARIOUS.

-”Aw shucks. I really thought we had it there boy scout.” I want this on a t-shirt.

- “The only thing I have up here are cigarette butts and chewing gum (beat) and ROCKS.” How did I miss THAT the first time too. Dude uses the rock in his pocket. Excellent script.

- Oh Riley. V. deliberate & CONSTANT use of past tense for her to hide behind.

- Desi’s face here was important. She’s not in any way angry... which is her default defense mechanism. She just feels for Riley.

- I know we all really want to know this but WHAT ELSE DID RILEY SAY ON THAT RECORDING?! Must’ve been bad because she wanted to preempt their reactions.

- Ring emerges from pocket and THIS IS THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE THEY’VE LOOKED ALL EPISODE. And that’s saying something.

- I love that it’s Bozer and not Russ that spots they connection with the symbols.

- Desi is a fucking badass. AND Desi & Riley get to work together against Andrews & Murdoc. Plus Riley gets to throw tools at Murdoc. Yaaaas get him gurl!

- Did Andrews kill Leland? Is that implied??

- Phoenix support team all filing into the war room to watch the showdown.

- “...Truly only worthy companion.” I still maintain that Murdoc would not have gone through with killing Mac. He loves playing with him too much.

- I think the Phoenix staff were in the room solely so that BOZER COULD GET A LITERAL ROUND OF APPLAUSE for saving the day. He deserves it. BOZER IS MVP.

- Subtle change in expression when Riley says “I decided to bury it until the feelings went away.” Mac’s thinking wheels are in motion.

- Riley exhales like it’s a huge weight off her shoulders to talk to him.

- Desi. “Do what you feel is right”. She’s scared. She’s trying to bury it. But a ‘clean slate’ is easier said than done. I GET IT. And for the first time in a while I really empathize with her character.

- HIC brings huge gravitas to Russ. In less competent hands his apology could have felt hammy. It wasn’t. It was poignant and moving.

- This ending. The moment Mac realizes he can’t pretend nothing’s changed he doesn’t even hesitate. He needs to talk to Riley so he just DOES.

-CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT HE WALKED TO HER PLACE! How close does she live?!

-“I gotta ask”- No eye contact. But he doesn’t stumble over the words either.

- “Did they go away.” - SUCH eye contact and a zoom shot no less... and THAT’S the GOLDEN RETRIEVER MOMENT RIGHT THERE. Gurl He’s asking if you still love him! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! (obviously I know it’s not that simple but surely she can’t lie to that face for long...)

Okay. I feel better having gotten all of that off my chest. Now back to my WIP. If you made it this far... THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO MY RANT!! <3

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Marvel’s What If Episode 7 Reaction

No no this is the opposite of what I wanted. More Loki! Not less!

If they don’t have Thor being an absolute idiot without Loki being his voice of reason I’m gonna be upset

Wait what the hell I saw Seth Green in the opening credits lmao??? Now I’m just thinking about Chris Griffin

DARCY

Wow they got Jane back too

Soooo how do they know about aliens?

“HOLY MOLY” lmao

Hey thor my life isn’t that dull… okay fine that’s a lie

Sooo Thor is a frat boy?

YOOOO I NEED A SCREENSHOT OF THAT ART WITH THOR AND LOKI

ALL OF IT

Soooo in this world, Odin was a good dude and didn’t kidnap Loki and gave him back to Laufey? (Didnt Laufey abandon him tho since he was too small? I guess in this universe they simply… lost their prince? Lmao?)

Thor didn’t have Loki as his voice of reason I called it.

Night night Odin

Lmao Chad Frigga dipping Odin as soon as he’s asleep

I wonder if they got Idris Elba back for Heimdall?

“We are going to the most backward, backwater planet that not even Heimdall pays attention to.” D,: Thor why you gotta do me dirty like that???

Chris Hemsworth is definitely a better voice actor than some others

Oh yo it be Skurge

Darcy into probing huh?

(Romantic Music Playing) lmao

Man I love Darcy

Poor Howard the Duck lmao (oh yea that’s Seth green)

Skrulls huh

Honestly surprised Thor knows all of these planets. Including the grandmaster??? In the sacred timeline he didn’t even know Sakaar existed.

Wait so, are the Asgardians on good terms with Jotunheim then? If so, I wanna see party loki. Or maybe he’s too reserved for that. I wonder how Laufey raised him? IF WE DONT SEE JOTUN LOKI IM GONNA RIOT

Thor destroyed a star. That sounds about right

“Now that was an excellent party. You know, we lost Fandral for three days. Found him in a barn, curled up next to a baby goat. It was classic. Isn’t that right, Fandral?” “I NAMED HIM GARY!” “Yeah, you did.” “YEA GOATS!” Okay. Screw everyone else in the MCU. I love Fandral now. He’s the GOAT, pun intended

Oh not a star, he killed a whole planet.

I thought Asgardians were supposed to be more advanced than earth but making a tablet is so complicated?

Howard and Darcy was not a pair I thought expected

Yo it’s nebula and korg? So where’s Thanos? How is nebula allowed to go partying with Thanos looking for the infinity stones?

Drax too? Isn’t he in prison? And then Valkyrie? Seems like a lot more than just Thor being an only child is different in this universe. Most of these dudes should hypothetically be in prison or on super serious missions. And I just thought, isn’t Howard the duck imprisoned by the Collector? What’s the timeline for this?

DARCY MARRIES HOWARD THE DUCK? GIRL YOU DESERVE BETTER THAN HIM AND HIS CORKSCREW WANG!

Aaaaaand Jane and Thor got magic and science tattoos. Mighty fast character progression.

Oh? Hookups? That took a turn.

Awwwww Fandral snuggling with a bunch of Chinchilla looking animals <3

Unknown caller?

Dammit Rumlow

Rocket???

Acting director??? What happened to Nick???

KORG NO

Damn everyone crashed at Jane’s

I mean, didn’t seem like too much of a threat

PHIL!!!

Lmao the world isn’t gonna be destroyed by parties?

Oh Carol Danvers?

Okay so…. Lemme get this straight..

Loki and an army of aliens attacking the world? Shield: “nah not a threat.” Robot with robot army threatening to destroy the whole planet “nah Carol has better things to do.” A partying dude from space with no ill intent but just doesn’t seem to understand consequences? “CALL CAPTAIN MARVEL WE NEED HER!!!” Yea okay Shield

Thor loves waffles

LOKI

JOTUN LOKI

HES HERE

LOKI!!!

HOLY CRAP HES HUGE

HE HAS ICE HORNS

See everything would be better without Odin’s interference.

(That’s what she said)

YAY THEYRE FRIENDS

“You’re my brother form another mother man.” YOOOOOO

Loki just sang “Brothers foreveeeeerrrrr!” I can’t—

Aaaaaand fart jokes… “did you boom?” “I never boom. I only boom in private.” Dammit marvel I hoped you were better than this.

LOKI MAKE A WISH

White snake? Lmao where did she get that name lol.

What’s wrong with a party tho? Is this really top priority? Yea they destroyed another planet, but you never explained how

Why doesn’t she sound like Brie Larson? She’s still acting for Marvel Studios so it’s interesting they couldn’t get her for it… unless it is her and I just can’t remember how her voice sounds

Was that punch really necessary? Dude wasn’t posing a threat to anyone.

“You know, there’s a Midgardian word for women like you.” THOR NO—

“PARTY POOPER!” Oh thank God

“This ones for fury” but it wasn’t even Thor that hit him? It was korg and on accident! Cmon carol, I had hoped you’d be smarter than this and more reasonable. Not resorting to violence when nothing has even escalated…

Haha hammer to the face

And the back of the head lmao

BAHAHAHAHA HE JUST SMACKED HER INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY

THOR DONT BOOP STONEHENGE

Dammit Thor

Lmao I love that the countries have their names on them.

Okay just stay and fight here away from civilian population

Marvel really giving us what we want with the most powerful characters fighting

Mary Sue Captain Marvel

Her lipstick has stayed perfect somehow

Fighting in a storm eh? Can’t see how this could go wrong

Haha hammer timeout

Lmao I wanna see Frigga put Thor in a timeout

They’re chanting pooper at her. Is this elementary school again?

Bruh I just realized, Thor is supposed to be acting king while Odin is in Odin sleep lmao. I bet Asgard is going to either be in the best peace ever without Thor or utterly destroyed.

Leave south and north Dakota alone lol

Lmao I love Darcy

YAY GARY THE GOAT WAS SAFE

Wow Jane used the L word fast

Kicking Jane out of the helicarrier? Yea smart move kicking off the person who actually knows anything about this albeit she is a little blinded by love

Giant Loki holding a tiny phone

BAHAHAAHAHA “hey earth girl, you haven’t got a friend, have you!” YES LOKI ITS ME. MARRY ME

Stop throwing phones lmao

BRUH HOW IS SURTUR NOT EVIL EITHER? AND STOP FLIRTING WITH THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.

NO HE DESTROYED HER ARM LMAO

There goes the power grid

NOT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Lmao there he goes

WHY DID KORG HAVE A PACIFIER IN HIS MOUTH

Bout time Heimdall popped in

Aaaaaand Jane got abducted by heimdall

Seeing as Heimdall hasn’t said anything, I’m assuming they didn’t get Idris back lol.

How is shield so chill on murdering Thor? Yes he’s destructive but they’re resorting to killing him so fast instead of talking to him! No one has even told him he’s putting the planet at risk! Dudes too dumb to know on his own!

JANE STOP DRINKING

Damn Maria Hill I had higher hopes for you

Lying Thor

Okay so shield trusts Frigga to help, but still irks me that shield was so trigger/nuke happy… seems the opposite of what we’ve seen of them (ugh just gotta ignore it and chock it up to this being an alternate reality)

Ew Drax

Loki calling the other jotuns “ice bros” lmao

It’s also mantis and Yondu!!

wait how did grandmaster just teleport away like the bifrost?

Nice going thor. You big hunky dummy

“MY MOTHER IS COMING.” Good lord is this high school now lmao???

How do they all know Frigga and why are they all afraid?

Damn the bifrost takes a lot longer than I would have expected

No no Thor the tower of pisa is meant to be tilted—oh whatever

Wait, but I don’t see loki helping, is he gonna be up to something last minute to ruin Thor’s cover up lmao?

I don’t believe Frigga would be tricked this easily lmao

Thor you are such a bad liar

Lmao here comes carol

Hahaha how did mjolnir get so trashed

Wow thor is so much taller than Jane

Wow this Jane and Thor seem to have more chemistry than the sacred timeline version ever did

Wait I want resolve for Loki!!

Uh oh

WHAT

ULTRON VISION WITH THE INFINITY STONES?? HOW

No resolution for that??? Well then. Rip this universe too lmao

Damn I wanted more Loki

There better be a Loki centric episode sometime. If they didn’t it’d a huge missed opportunity from marvel

Okay yea looking at the credits, Carol Danvers wasn’t played by Brie Larson but a lady named Alexandra Daniels. Odd they didn’t get Brie Larson.

Probably my favorite episode so far even with how absurd it was. A lot more upbeat than the past few ones with a better resolve to the story imo.

Also, if anyone can provide me of screenshots of Loki from this episode I would be very grateful

[notcrowfacts]

I Rate The TTRPG Shows I’ve Watched

Critical Role (53/114 cr1 & 97/99 cr2)

8/10

The og show. I love cr so very much. The pcs are always so wonderful and the crew plays them so convincingly. I wish I could DM like Matt Mercer my god. Genuinely such an entertaining show with a lovely cast. Also Laura Bailey exists so

-2 points for 4 hour episodes. -1 point for being PURE dnd with less overarching narrative. +1 point for a podcast option

Dimension 20 (all caught up on every season)

9.5/10

I’m gonna fight Brennan Lee Mulligan in a Denny’s parking lot. FUCK. This show is so good, it’s had me go from bawling my eyes out one second to hysterically laughing the next. The role-playing is excellent, the episodes are a more manageable length (1-2hours), and Brennan is also such an excellent DM. The cast is great, Ally, Lou, and Zac are so fucking funny, Emily is chaos in human form, Siobhan could murder me and I’d thank her, Murph SAYS he’s a good lawful boy but I see him play he can’t fool me.

-1 point for emotional damages. -.5 points for not being able to talk abt it with my friends bc you have to pay for dropout. +1 point for free trials and the amount of free content on YouTube.

NADDPod (100/100 main campaign 7/16 Trinyvale)

12/10

Genuinely I think this is my favorite dnd podcast. It’s truly so good. Murph is an excellent DM, his NPCs are amazing, his narrative is beautiful, it’s impossible not to fall in love with this campaign. It’s so funny while still having an ongoing theme of love, forgiveness, and mercy and it just makes you feel better after listening. The cast is also wonderful. Emily Axford exists and my heart goes 🥰🥰🥰. Jake is so funny and his portrayal of Hardwon was so GOOD. Caldwell is amazing and it’s real nice to see him get more comfortable dming trinyvale and see him live out his anime boy dreams through Beverly.

-3 points for dragon pussy. +5 points for moonshine cybin existing

The Adventure Zone (12/16 graduation caught up on everything else)

7.5/10

This and critical role seems to be everyone’s baby’s first dnd podcast. Balance was what got my into ttrpg shows in the first place so TAZ will always have a special place in my heart. That being said, I’ve sort of lost interest in graduation, Travis is a wonderful dm don’t get me wrong but I’m just not ~into~ it anymore. Still, Balance and Amnesty are wonderful, I adore those campaigns and I hope Graduation will grow on me too. I’m not giving up on this podcast yet!!

-5 points for Garfield related crimes. +1 point for the PCs. +1 point for Clint

Rusty Quill Gaming (all caught up)

9/10

Fuck me guys. This podcast has really done me a new one recently. The story is really wonderful, the PCs have my whole heart, and the cast is just really really great. There have been such wonderful portrayals of mental health struggles, the loss of a loved one, and just being real people who are complicated and trying their best. And STILL the podcast is really really funny!! They also do a bunch of specials using other systems (they do a bunch by Grant Howitt with Grant Howitt!). It’s just a good time all around. Rusty Quill is also the company that makes TMA so if you’re into horror you’d probably like it? Idk I don’t do spooks.

-3 points for Ben Meredith and his Grizzop related crimes -1 point for Pathfinder and it’s stupid rules -2 points for all the TMA crossovers +2 points because Alex is a monster (but we respect his craft) +3 points for Sasha, Azu, and Cel

Dungeons and Daddies (14/35)

8/10

I’m only partway through but I’m loving this show so far!! The cast is so funny and the premise in general is fucking genius. I can’t wait to see how these characters grow and become actually good fathers (god Ron and Henry are s o c l o s e). I’m in love with their kids and wives (blows a kiss to Samantha and Mercedes). I’m just super pumped to keep listening.

-3 points for child murder. -1 point for poor parenting. +2 points for Beth May

[veliseraptor]

2020 Fanfiction Round-Up

I do one of these every year! And have since I think 2016. Can’t break a tradition even if it’s been a clusterfuck of a time and filling this out was in some ways an exercise in remembering the ways I have failed myself as a writer this year. 

But oh well!

Total Year-Long Wordcount: I’ll post the final final number tonight after I finish the writing I want to do this afternoon (and plan to do this afternoon), but it’s currently 451,803 words written this year. Guessing I’m going to land somewhere around 453,000ish. (AO3 claims a higher number than that but that’s because it is counting the entirety of fics where I posted chapters this year.

This year I wrote and posted: I wrote a fair number more than I posted (there are five fics finished but for various reasons unposted on my hard drive) but based on Tumblr I posted 78 posts in my fic tag, which, not including chapter specific updates and three sentence meme answers (but including at least two Tumblr-only longer fics), probably comes out to about 60 or so “full length” fics that saw the light of day in 2020.

Overall Thoughts

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? 

Well, I wrote more than I did last year, which is sort of a surprise to me (all things considered) but also maybe not, because I was doing a lot less of most other things that could’ve been occupying my time, including two hours daily of commuting. 

But still less than I did in 2018. Which is fine.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? 

Lord, I don’t know. It depends on when you ask me. Lately I’ve been in a bit of a “I hate everything I’ve written ever” state of mind, so that makes it sort of hard to do any kind of...reasonable assessment. 

I know I’m proud of With Absolute Splendor but I have all these reservations about it and I can’t reread it for the most part because I always notice new things I wish I’d done differently. I feel pretty good about efforts in a common cause but something about it still makes me cringe, which I suspect has to do with my general self-consciousness. I have a hard time feeling unreservedly proud about...anything I wrote this year, really. 

I feel like the closest I get is maybe nor autumn falter which I am pretty pleased with and also which does hurt me a lot personally. Or I did end up overall pretty pleased with what came out of By Proxy.

But also the more I look at this question the more I start hating all my own work, so...guess this is kind of coming at a bad time.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I mean, I started writing in my first non-English fandom in many years, and specifically one where I was trying to engage more with the cultural background of the setting (in a way I wasn’t with, say, Death Note, when I was writing Death Note fic). So that was a risk. And I learned that it’s very stressful and there’s so many ways to make mistakes and I am, in many ways, a coward. But also I think I’ve learned a fair amount thanks to a lot of very patient people on the internet, so...there’s that.

Otherwise...I mean, I got ambitious with a few projects this year (the Big Bang fic and With Absolute Splendor stand out), but I’m not sure how much I really tried new things. 

I feel like I had to fight myself a little on writing straight up bad sex for By Proxy - I planned on it being hot, and it really wasn’t. It was mostly just miserable. Which made for a better fic, but was a new experience for me as far as ‘I thought I was going to write porn and that isn’t what I wrote.’

From my past year of writing, what was….

My most popular story of this year: 

By far, With Absolute Splendor. In fact, it has now become my second most kudosed fic of all time, behind only fuckin Life in Reverse. So like. That’s a thing.

(It is still less than half as many as Life in Reverse, but for context Life in Reverse has been around for going on eight years.)

Most fun story to write: 

Most fics where I feel like “I’m having so much fun writing this!” also go through a “oh god I hate this it’s terrible” phase which makes this sort of hard to assess. But I did have overall a lot of fun writing Mutual Friends despite all my frustration with the canon-wrangling I had to do to make it work in my head. 

But also I feel like both Retributive Justice and Embedded were in different ways deeply iddy fics that were just fun to write. That actually goes for a lot of the Whumptober fics. That was a very self-indulgent month. Excited to do it again in February (hopefully, if I can write things in a timely manner at all).

Story with the single sexiest moment: 

I feel like the beauty of your repair might be my personal favorite smut I posted this year, but I think my personal favorite that I wrote is in the big bang fic nobody will see until January. 

I feel like most of the sexiest moments I’ve written this year are in the porn fics I’m going to start posting in January also. But just generally I feel like the beauty of your repair is the sexiest thing I wrote and posted.

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: 

I mean, I Come With Knives is definitely up there. It’s not that wrong or anything, but it got pretty intense in some ways I wasn’t expecting. Mostly in how much blood got involved, which was actually more than I’d had it involved in a sex thing before! Kind of surprises me that I haven’t previously done more with bloodplay stuff but. Well. First time for everything!

I don’t think this was a year that really had any “wow, what the fuck, Lise” things in it. Nothing on the level of last year’s winner. I’m almost disappointed in myself.

Abattoir was definitely the story that generated the weirdest conversation and creepiest search questions, though, so it does get points for that. 

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: 

I feel like the writing of everyone else is spring bound was a lot of...me thinking through my Jiang Cheng feelings and specifically my Jiang Cheng post-canon feelings. 

the martyr, the victim was pretty formative in shaping how I think about both Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji and their relationship with each other. It was the first fic I wrote that really dug into them in any way, I think, and definitely one that informed how I thought about writing Lan Xichen later.

Hardest story to write: 

I was thinking it was the one that I haven’t posted yet but I did technically finish, aka my Big Bang fic, the terrible threesome fic, the massive “I’m gonna keep everyone in the Yi City arc alive” AU that I started shortly after finishing The Untamed and finished in December. So I spent most of the year writing it.

But then I was like - no, I’m going to have to go with we live until we die even though it’s technically been ‘in progress’ for five years and really kicked into gear in 2019 and I just finished it and posted it this year, because that fic was like. The culmination of a big arc in an enormous verse dealing with a whole lot of balls in the air and trying to tie up a whole lot of threads. It was ambitious and the stakes were high and it was full of plot and action which are not two of my strengths...frankly I’m still amazed I pulled the damn thing off.

Biggest Disappointment: 

I think it is better if I refrain from going too in depth on this because it would just end up as me listing a bunch of my perceived failings. But I think off the top of my head I’m frustrated by the fact that I still haven’t really managed to write a XueXiao smut fic that quite hits the spot for me, myself. I’ve written two and for various reasons I don’t really like either of them. 

Biggest Surprise: 

The fact that my Jiang Cheng fic took off the way it did. Legitimately did not see that coming! At all! I mean, I’m delighted by it but it wasn’t what I saw happening as far as “niche I’d find in this fandom” or “thing I’d write that people would really enjoy reading.”

Particularly with By Proxy. That fic got a lot more attention than I would’ve expected. 

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: 

I feel like every fic I write with Xue Yang in it tells you something about me and most of those things are things that make me, on some level, deeply self-conscious, but I try not to think about that too much.  

I feel like the most telling story is maybe we all drift sometimes because I literally wrote it out of a depressive episode about a bad brain day but that wasn’t unintentional.

Favorite Opening Line(s):

1. So it turned out that if you touched the tendons of a dead person’s wrist and channeled a little bit of spiritual energy just right, it made the fingers twitch and curl like they were still alive. (Abattoir)

2. Here’s the thing: your Daozhang is glorious when he kills. (tear out all your tenderness)

3. Turned out that a sect leader’s head came off like anyone else’s. (Unnatural Selection)

4. The first hint that anything had gone awry was the letter from Lan Wangji (His Excellency Hanguang-jun, pardon me) that simply said have you heard from Wei Ying? (some good mistakes)

5. What Jiang Cheng wanted to do, more than anything, was to go home and take a nap. (everyone else is spring bound)

Favorite Line(s) from Anywhere:

I usually keep this to 10 but because I’ve been in such a :| place about my own writing I indulged myself this once.

1. Sometimes it felt like all he had done since descending the mountain was shatter his own dreams and accumulate regrets. (nor autumn falter)

**

2. It felt like she was holding all the components of a bomb in her hands, half assembled. If she moved the right way they would stay just that: components. But if she moved the wrong way… (til my judgment day)

**

3. He should have killed him. Should have been the one to strike that blow, in revenge for Jin Zixuan and their sister and everyone else dead for Wei Wuxian’s pride. Maybe then there would not be this gnawing, aching thing embedded in his chest; this itching, unfinished feeling. Maybe then he would not feel torn in two, sometimes like he should have reached out with his other hand and sometimes like he should have struck truer and sometimes both, in the same moment. (Interstitial)

**

4. He owed Wei Wuxian more than he could ever give back in this lifetime. Forgiving him felt like betraying his sister’s memory. Not forgiving him felt like trying to walk with a thorn in his foot. He was just - stuck, caught like a demon in a spiritual net.

Jiang Cheng thought of the way Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Wangji, with warmth and trust and love, and the aching, sick jealousy he had no right to feel returned. He felt a little like a child watching someone pick up a toy he’d abandoned and suddenly realizing that he wanted it back. (everyone else is spring bound)

**

5. You close your eyes and think about how he looked back in that town, Shuanghua slicing clean through a man’s neck, opening it to the spine, and think dizzily that he could open you like that and it’d be good, as long as it lasted. (tear out all your tenderness)

**

6. When Wangji loved, he loved with his whole being, without reserve. And now he had been placed between the rock of his convictions and the hard place of his devotion to Wei Wuxian. (the martyr, the victim)

**

7. He spent a week turning the idea over in his head. Studying it like a corpse he was going to dissect, poking at it, cutting it open and examining its insides. (dead reckoning)

**

8. When the world hurt you, that was the only thing to do, after all. Hurt it back, harder, worse. Spill rivers of blood for every drop it squeezed from you.

And when the end came, never go quietly. (the blood in your mouth)

**

9. I would stand with you through the end of the world, said Loki’s voice in his head, and Steve’s heart wasn’t in his chest anymore, was somewhere off on another planet where Loki was lying dead in a ruined city. (we live until we die)

**

10. Was it always going to be like this? Stumbling into traps, tripping over familiar skeletons, slicing himself open on the edges of old hurts. Was there really such a thing as leaving the past behind? He still felt stuck in it, unable to move, and every time he thought he might be finally dragging himself free something pulled him back. (With Absolute Splendor)

**

11. His chest was full of poison. His throat was full of grief. And he was still a little drunk.

Jiang Cheng went to his room, sat down on his bed, put his face in his hands, and cried until he couldn’t breathe. (By Proxy)

Top 5 Scenes from Anywhere You Would Choose to Have Illustrated:

I think the scene from nor autumn falter of Xiao Xingchen just crying his heart out over Xue Yang’s dead body would be up there.

The Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian hug from the end of With Absolute Splendor.

Okay, just gonna say it: Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao having sex by the table with Nie Mingjue’s headless corpse on it. So sue me.

The scene in the blood in your mouth where Song Lan has stabbed Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen is following the line of Fuxue to the latter. I have a very clear visual of it in my head and if I could art I’d art it.

Xue Yang with the hallucinatory Xiao Xingchen from liberate spirits, liberate souls.

Fic-writing goals for 2021:

Finish Walking Far From Home.

Maybe I’ll finish some of these MCU WIPs? I’d kind of like to, on an abstract level if nothing else.

Become a more well-adjusted human being about the relationship between my productivity and my self-worth.

[chalkrevelations]

OK, so, episode reax of WoH Ep 4 is briefly delayed – may be out Sunday, but more likely post M-W workweek. It is coming. Meanwhile, have some more Street Dance of China? S3, Ep 2.

First of all, I have to say that if I had any way of figuring out what some of this music is, I’d have a new Spotify playlist 300 songs long.

ANYWAY, we get a recap of … Wang Yibo being incredulous about coming in last place in a dance competition. Wang Yibo vowing to get back the three colorful towels he lost by coming in last place in a dance competition and therefore can’t use to send three more of his team’s dancers on to the next round. Hip-hop freestyle battles for TOWELS. Wang Yibo getting his colorful towels back. Ridiculous unnecessary drama over whether Lay Zhang is going to win his battle and get EVEN MORE colorful towels, given his competition is Wallace Chung (oh dear. that was kind of blunt.). And that’s what you missed on Glee Street Dance of China 3 Ep 1.

 Snapshots of what’s coming up this week: Everyone has shot their wad on towels and is sweating the fact that they have 59 more dancers they want to send through to the next round and a single towel left. (I TOLD YOU SO. ALL OF YOU.) The only way to get more towels is to battle for them. A hip-hop battle has NEVER BEEN SO IMPORTANT.

Cutting here, I guess, for ridiculously detailed nattering. Hashtag long post (remorseful):

Team Lay Zhang: First of all, Lay Zhang, I just have to note that you’re getting an edit that doesn’t make you look like the brightest bulb in the box. I don’t know if this is just the edit, or if it’s … well. You. I guess we’ll see as the season goes on. Also, in the interim, I have found out that you also are Zhang Yixing, which a lot of your fandom seems to actually call you, so should I call you Yixing instead of Lay? You seem to be going by Lay for this show, so it seems polite to stick to that? Anyway. Gongsun Wu Ming & Hei Zai start us off this episode, and they get off to a little bit of a slow start, but once they pick up, they’ve got a lot of nice air in their moves, that effortless(-looking) almost anti-gravity effect that good breakers can get. Then we almost immediately get a series of ok, that’s fine, oh, wait, no, THAT is actually pretty mediocre poppers, none of whom gets a towel, thank god, because the supply has to be running low. And then Teng Zai appears, claiming to be the best popper, and … OK. OK, alright. Fine. He might be right. His technique and control are fantastic, but you want to know what really sells me, in the middle of this generally fantastic performance? It’s that series of chest pops followed by the little heart held out right on the fk’n music. It’s little details like that, that make or break a performance, and he pulled it off beautifully. I went back to re-watch, it was so slick, yet so charming. OK, maybe I went back to watch more than once. You can’t prove anything. (Also, he gets called their little “Ares” - in quotes, in the subs – by other contestants, more than once, but I can’t pick out the actual sound of that name, which makes me think the subbers have inserted “Ares” as something that will give the flavor of what he’s actually being called. My 1st level Duolingo Mandarin is absolutely not enough to figure out what people are actually calling him, so is there anyone who’s able to give me some insight, here?) Aaaand, Towel Battle 1 (see Footnote 1). Post-battle, we’ve reached the point when all the captains are sweating their lack of towels, so e’rybody is just going to have to battle for towels from here on out. Yuan Ye faces Momo, and a little bit, this is where I expect the knife fight to start (Momo’s bringing the knife). I’m honestly not that impressed with either of them and probably would have saved my towel for someone else, but Lay Zhang decides to send them both through, so what’s the point of a battle to begin with? BUT THEN (dun-dun-dun) some dude calling himself Bon shows up to really cut a bitch, waves away both Yuan Ye and Momo to the sidelines, describes himself as “a boom” and proceeds to give a performance that imo is kind of mushy and all over the place. Lay Zhang looks a little taken aback as Bon sort of grinds up on him but can’t even really commit to that, just before Lin Zi Jie shows up. Lay Zhang makes Zi Jie change his coat - thank god, because you can’t see half of what he’s doing and he actually seems like the most towel-worthy performance out of this whole cluster of flail – and asks for a freestyle battle, which turns out to not be that great on Bon’s or Zi Jie’s parts, actually. I feel like the dance vocabulary here is kind of limited, and we’re left with a bunch of hip-shaking, grinding, and supposedly seductive looks, which is NOT going to cut it in the battles we’ve seen already. Towels to Momo and Zi Jie, rather than putting them in reserve and waiting to see who else shows up, which I think is probably a mistake, but OK, I’m not a pop idol with the clout to star on this show, so. (I know what I like to watch, tho’, and none of that was it.) A promise to Yuan Ye that she gets a Battle Towel. Time for Towel Battle 3 (See Footnote 3).

Team Wallace Chung: So, first off, there’s George, who dances before he’ll introduce himself, and I guess I have to respect a guy who’s going to let his performance be his introduction. And then we get a series of OK that’s fine but not really great poppers, and Wallace, unlike Lay, is handing out towels like candy. OK, my man. If that’s really what you want to do, I guess, but it doesn’t seem like the greatest idea to me. You’re also really fucking with the morale of the dancers who haven’t performed yet, who are gradually realizing that you’re going to run out of towels before you even get to them. Hilariously (for me, if not the contestants), I paused at this point to go refresh my bourbon and managed to freeze on a random contestant, identified as Wei Ming - who I don’t know if we’ll ever get to see actually perform, but he deserves the bolded name for this, alone – looking baffled and concerned, with the English subtitle on his comment reading “Sir, what are you thinking?” I suspect he is not using “Sir” in the sense that I use it when my cat (or Zhang Zhehan) has done something appallingly adorable, but rather when the cat has knocked yet another gd pen off my desk while I’m trying to take notes, just to be a bastard for attention. (OTOH, I guess if you weren’t one of the dancers bold enough to swarm up there in the first couple of hours, you take what you get. Fortuna fortes adiuvat.) We finally get to Lin Meng, whose reputation precedes him, but seriously, if Wallace is just handing out towels to every popper, what does it even mean? Wallace – Wallace – proceeds to basically call Lin Meng an old man before making him bargain for a towel, which is a shame, because Lin Meng deserves to get not only this towel but the four towels you just gave away to some guys who should still be holding Lin Meng’s jacket, Wallace. I mean, seriously, this guy’s technique is fantastic. Even if he does fumble his jacket lapel that one time. Aaaand, Towel Battle 1 (see Footnote 1). Post battle, we get A.K. Dong, who’s got some excellent musicality and a face that apparently resembles a variety show star (Hank Chen?). I mean, I guess it gets him noticed, but it sucks that it seems to overshadow his dancing, because he’s really good. Then we notice our towels are running low, and everybody is just going to have to battle it out. Wallace promises the Battle Towel to some dude who we don’t see perform and don’t get a name for, and with my prognisticatory skills, I’m going to say we won’t need to know his name, because this is the last we’ll see of him. Time for Towel Battle 3 (See Footnote 3).

Team Wang Yibo: First up, we get Bing, whose reputation precedes him, prompting other teams to look around and wonder what all the commotion is about. Bing has a motorbike moment with Yibo, before giving a performance that starts off the tiniest bit mushy before he puts some fantastic technique on display. Yibo pulls out his Perpetual Student schtick and asks for some freestyle with some motorbike elements, which at first makes me suspect you might be fucking with this guy just a little bit, Yibo, but Bing is both game and versatile, and he eventually gets his towel, along with a wish from Yibo to ride together sometime, and oh. (As we say, in A Very Significant Tone, on AO3.) All of that was flirting. OK. On the heels of Yibo giving me yet another clue as to his taste in men, we roll into a seriously uncomfortable segment that stomps all over my embarrassment squick because they’ve cut together several women to look desperate and starstruck and comical and dumb, while Yibo looks increasingly uncomfortable, and I am super not down with this, show. I’ll admit that from what we can see, none of them are great dancers, but I suspect there were a lot of not-great male dancers, too, and I just. Ick. This was unnecessary, you haven’t done it to any of the other captains, and it frankly doesn’t make Yibo look that great, when you set his reactions here against the fact that not only have we not seen approval from him for any female contestants so far, but this segment is the only interaction we’ve seen from him with any female contestants so far. Hard on the heels of this segment, we get Chick, who is very good when he wants to be but also super-extra and annoying, and who fucks around more than he really dances, but the audience seems charmed with him, and Yibo doesn’t give him any of the smackdown he deserves, which doesn’t improve my impression of the previous segment, given the varied ways Yibo iced out some of the women. Meanwhile, Jackson Wang strolls over, and Yibo acts super weird about it, for a guy who was the first one to wander into someone else’s territory, which was – oh, yeah, I remember, Jackson’s – to watch his dancers, and Jackson says that he would give Chick a towel before heading back to his own street, and then Yibo does, even though he fucks with him a little bit first, and then there’s a bit of footage cut in of Yibo making dumbass excuses for this guy, so. I’m not entirely feeling you right now, Yibo. Also, all of this is certainly doing nothing to disabuse me of the notion that you’re about 1000000x more comfortable in homosocial situations, for whatever reason. Anyway, we then get a montage of Yibo handing out some towels to various dancers (including a woman, finally, although she’s intercut with some other people and doesn’t actually get a full segment of her own), and then we get Tao and Cici, who are both good, but Yibo now discovers that he only has three towels and there are two people standing in front of him, so he gives a towel to Tao and promises one to Cici after the next towel battle, which, yeah, Tao is probably better, but this is a hell of time to decide to be circumspect with your towels, Yibo, when you can leave a woman sitting on the sidelines but send her husband through to the next round. :hands: Anyway, it’s time for Towel Battle 2 (See Footnote 2), and I do have to give Yibo props, again, for his teambuilding, because he takes a minute to say, hey, there aren’t a lot of towels left, and there are quite a few of you, so what we’re going to do is all go over there together, and get another towel, as a team. Post-battle, Yibo is still concerned about his lack of towels, and everyone left is going to have to battle it out, although, frankly, the way Yibo’s been going on about how much he likes battles, I sort of think he might secretly be a tiny bit excited about this. He ends up putting person after person into reserve, waiting to see everyone, probably, and then Meng Di shows up, and she’s already got the rest of the group behind her. They know her, they know she has cochlear implants, they respond immediately when she shushes them so she can hear Yibo and the music, they call for the DJ to turn up the music for her, they clap together to emphasize the beat. She’s smart enough to keep six feet between her and Yibo while she dances, so that she doesn’t spook him like the fragile and shy homosocial forest creature he apparently is. She immediately gets her cha cha on when her battle partner holds out his hand to lead her out for her turn. Good technique, even though there are a few bobbles. None of these four performances in the final battle are the best we’ve seen so far, but they’re solid. Yibo is clearly torn about what to do with his one towel, although the audience starts getting kind of insistent that he needs a waacker, and a female waacker at that, and he ends up making Bullet and Meng Di battle again. She’s performing for the audience at this point – I mean, she’s not even pretending about it, she spends most of this round facing them, with her back to Yibo - and she’s also versatile, genre-wise, so I think we can all see where this is going. I think he really wanted to give that towel to Bullet, who definitely is very good, but he knew that he’s painted himself into a corner where he ought to give it to Meng Di, so that he’s got some genre-versatility on the team, if nothing else. Towel to Meng Di, and a promise to Bullet to win another Battle Towel for him. Time for Towel Battle 3 (See Footnote 3).

Team Jackson Wang: First up is Bai, who apparently is a favorite from season one, but I haven’t seen season one – or season two - so I don’t have any history on any of these people. Bai is doing a bit, here, but he’s also generally got some good technique, so OK. Why are they blurring out his left wrist, though? Yang Yu Ting is really good, some more good technique, good musicality. And then we’re already on to Towel Battle 2 (See Footnote 2). Post-battle, we get Shen Kai Xiang, who apparently looks A LOT like Jack Ma, which seems to be little bit like if some Bill Gates-lookin’ mf’r showed up to audition for SYTYCD. Lyrical; good technique; much like Bai, appears to be doing a bit. And, then, as with all the captains, the dearth of towels sets in, and Jackson is going to put everyone in the gladiator ring and make them battle it out. Maybe we can win another Battle Towel. Time for Towel Battle 3 (See Footnote 3).

***

Footnote 1, AKA Towel Battle 1, Team Lay Zhang vs. Team Wallace Chung, 3v3: Team Lay Zhang is San Jin, who they throw up some B-roll on, since the show has spent no time on him so far although he seems to be in cahoots with Xiao Bao (see Ep 1 recap); Gongsun Wu Ming, who’s spoiling for a battle after no one would take him up on it during his initial performance; and Teng Zai, because I mean, come on. Team Wallace Chung is Lin Meng, which should be interesting, since he and Teng Zai are apparently from the same crew, George, and Qin Yu, who we not only haven’t seen before this, that I can remember, but don’t even get B-roll on while Wallace is talking strategy, unlike the other two. Qin Yu, this does not bode well for your future on the show, if they’re not even bothering to give you B-roll, let alone an edit. Both captains are very weird about introducing their dancers, like these guys are some big surprise and aren’t going to dance in front of everybody in a minute and half, anyway. Possibly this is some kind of attempt at a dominance display? I don’t know. It’s won by the host, anyway, who eventually enforces his will and gets some introductions out of the captains. Anyway, Gongsun is up first for Team Lay Zhang, and this dude is just fun to watch, with great musicality and flow, and Wallace’s face while watching him is a picture, let me tell you. He’s up on Qin Yu almost immediately, possibly sensing the weakest link of Team Wallace? Team Wallace counters with George, who’s not having any of that, and gets the first point for his team. Second round, Teng Zai is once again impeccable, so even though someone has lit a fire under George, who spends half his time upside down, he nevertheless loses the point to Teng Zai. Round three, Teng Zai and Lin Meng face off, and they’ve both got great technique, although I feel like Lin Meng has a slight edge there, but I also think Teng Zai did a better job of showcasing strength and control, so I’m not surprised when the judges go for another round, in which Teng Zai is still super-fun to watch and definitely on his game, but Lin Meng steps up with some incredible precision, so I’m a little surprised when the judges give it (unanimously) to Teng Zai and Team Lay Zhang. One more round, and Teng Zai … is maybe wearing down a little bit, coasting on this one, and oh, hey, we’re finally going to get to see Qin Yu, who has some nice fluidity but maybe doesn’t really match up to Teng Zai in the charisma department, which may be why we haven’t seen him before this, and also why he loses the round. Round, battle, and two towels to Team Lay Zhang, and we still haven’t seen more than 15 seconds of B-roll of San Jin. But wait! There’s still a moment to be had, in which Teng Zai suggests donating one of their towels to Team Wallace, namechecks love and peace as a vital part of street dance, and quite possibly cements his place in my – and everyone else’s - heart. Both sides go home with a towel.

Footnote 2, AKA Towel Battle 2, Team Wang Yibo vs. Team Jackson Wang, 3v3 captain-led battle: Oh, they get to choose a song for each other. This should be interesting. I feel like there’s some shit-talking going on here, although I’m not really equipped to catch it and am at the mercy of the subtitles. Does Jackson really ask Yibo, “You WERE a dancer when you were young?” because lol. And Yibo is all, “Eh, kind of?” I do love how neither of them can hold still for songs two and three. So, Team Yibo is also Bing and Tao, while Team Jackson is also Bai and Ting. The thing that strikes me immediately during the minute or so that they get to plan and quickly choreograph is that Team Yibo has everyone there – there’s no point during this planning stage that the entire crew isn’t involved. They’re all part of this. Meanwhile, Team Jackson is just the three of them, separate from everybody, working out their choreography. The whole-team approach IMMEDIATELY pays off, when Team Yibo slams out of the gate with an energy and power and fullness to their performance that Yibo will later comment is fueled by the atmosphere that the dancers at the back create, and he’s right, it’s just like a wave of pressure pushing them forward, not even getting into the fact that the three people actually in the battle are fucking good. Team Jackson is also good, but they don’t feel like a team, the crew in the back doesn’t seem to have it together, and the loss of that – it has an impact. No surprise that Round 1 goes to Team Yibo and their Attitude, which is like an entire fourth dancer on its own. Round two coming up, and the entire Team Yibo is still involved in the planning stages, Yibo’s flannel has come off and we’re down to T-shirt sleeves, and Tao is surprising me not only with his moves – I honestly didn’t expect him to come as hard as he does, given he and Cici were more lyrical in their initial performance – but in his killer instinct, because he’s the one who suggests getting up in Jackson’s face, lit. and fig., by yoinking one of his signature moves. Meanwhile, Yibo is playing gay chicken, and it is just as great an idea as it sounds like (and this is that performance that a clip of it was making the rounds a few months ago); meanwhile Jackson is going high (?) concept, and that is just as bad an idea as it sounds like, although he does attempt some charming self-deprecation when it’s all over (also, omg, one of the contestant reactions later is that he’s “short of brain trust.” I’m not actually sure what the most eloquent way to translate that comment would have been, but it certainly gets an idea across.) Chick actually earns his pay in one of the best moments of the battle that – as much as I hate to encourage it – actually does profit off his general air of douchery, Team Jackson continues to lack the kind of cohesive team feel that Team Yibo is bringing – and second round, battle, and towel to Team Yibo. THIS is the advantage of team-building from the very first minute. Also, fuck, Yibo and the dancers he’s collected are good. Technically, yes, but also, the auditions are getting kind of interminable, but after this battle, I’m excited again, and that kind of audience reaction is a good measure of whether your dancing is successful. (Towel goes to Cici, btw, which, yeah, Tao did fucking earn that for her, so I’m glad you came through on your promise to her, Yibo.)

Footnote 3, AKA Towel Battle 3, all four captains. Cypher. Four rounds. Everyone else’s face when the cypher is announced:  D:   Yibo’s face when the cypher is announced:  >:D  They each get to choose a style of music. Wallace chooses locking. Yibo and Jackson both choose hip-hop. Lay Zhang chooses krump. Yibo’s already moving before the music even starts, to whatever music lives inside his head. The music actually starts, and Yibo is in the center before anyone else gets the chance (probably before anyone else can get up their nerve …) My sound drops out right here, which, wtf, but I can still tell Yibo’s throwing down the gauntlet. He’s beatable, but not by anybody who’s going to coast. Also, goddam, he has legs for days. Lay Zhang is in next, with some good speed and power and crispness to his moves, although I’m having trouble taking that cap with the fake dreads seriously. It’s … actually super interfering with me getting on board with your vibe, my dude. Jackson’s up next, and he has somehow managed to bring my sound back, and he also lands, frankly, the best forward Salto we’ve seen from anyone so far this season, which I have to admit even though he is my inexplicable mortal enemy. Yibo and Wallace, ffs, ice him out in the follow-up, although he then does the same thing to Lay, so who tf knows what’s going on with the actual interpersonals between these guys and what’s for show, at this point. Wallace finally gets his turn and is super-game but horribly out-classed. Yibo gives him props anyway, which, good on you for respecting your elders and their efforts, I guess, baby, but let’s all admit that was an “E” for effort. Judges are frantically scribbling their points down as round 2/4 begins, and Yibo is the first one in the middle, again, and wtf gdi my sound really picks this point to drop out again? I feel like Youku may be fucking with me, at this point. ANYWAY, Yibo is finally, actually all in, and he’s got a fantastic Harlem shake, it’s like his joints are barely connected. I honestly could watch this boy dance all day, that’s how smooth he looks. Here’s the thing about Yibo, and it’s something the other captains haven’t yet achieved, or have only accomplished in slivers of time – he makes me want to dance, too. I watch him, and I want to be doing what he’s doing. You could say that he literally, not just figuratively or emotionally, moves me. And his ability to stoke that is something I really appreciate. Jackson Wang is up next and is pretty good, but I’m honestly more impressed with Lay Zhang, who manages to look almost like he’s being special-effected, that’s how staccato he gets at his best in this round. Wallace dances. The other captains are polite about it. More scribbling from the judges. Jackson’s the first one out there in round three, and he’s honestly looking the least tired of all of them. Stamina is maybe an issue, here. Even with Jackson, some of the finer control is gone. Y’all are maybe a little soft? How long has it been since any of you idols had to endure the workout of an entire concert? There’s a whole ‘nother round to go after this, so you better get your oxygen masks. Lay Zhang is still fairly crisp and pulls off a literal hat trick, although he’s doing a lot more upper body work that lets him stand in place than he is actually moving around. Jackson, with his baby boy enthusiasm and energy, is magnanimous enough to fill up some of Wallace’s time by “pulling” him into the center and then getting out there and dancing with him. I am old enough that I understand what Wallace is going through, but there’s just a noticeable difference in ability, here. Yibo is clearly waiting until last this time, to those of us paying scrupulous attention, although it’s nothing too obvious, and it does buy him enough time that he’s basically recovered by the time he gets back into the middle of the circle, although he’s a little less expansive than he’s been in the previous two rounds. So, strategic, then, too. Judges scribble as we move into the last round. No time for weakness, all of you. DID YOU HEAR ME, because most of you are looking, to be frank, just a little bit WEAK as you circle around and hang out on the edges and try to get your breath and energy back. I’m just sayin’. Lay takes the hit first, and he’s really trying, although he’s not as strong as he was back in the second round. I’m a little bit afraid he might fall over by the end of it. Yibo is sweating but pulls some random dude’s hat right off his head before … at least going all in, even if he doesn’t quite know what he’s doing, krump-wise. He ends by falling on the ground, in a credible WWX-passing-the-fuck-out imitation, which is probably a relief, by that point. Jackson probably has the most energy left, although he’s reduced to pulling off his shirt and posing by the end of his time. Wallace does some dancing. Look. I’m just going to leave it at that. Jackson is still being polite enough to encourage his elder. It’s maybe a little bit endearing. Final result is that Lay Zhang wins, which. OK. I would have placed him second, after Yibo, but I also seem to remember that he won the initial captains’ performance, back in Ep 1, so I guess I can’t be too surprised at this, based on trends. Show director was apparently so impressed, he’s gonna give up four extra towels, one to each captain, which means Lay gets two towels. So I guess towels go to Yuan Ye on Team Lay Zhang and Bullet on team Wang Yibo, if they keep their promises, although don’t know who Wallace and Jackson are planning on giving their extra towels to.

Next ep: Mystery Guest.

[sanstropfremir]

kingdom episode 3 baby!!!!

listen. i’m not gonna lie i was nervous as hell for this episode. i saw that preview like everyone else and unfortunately i have ears so i was convinced the ateez stage was going to be a trainwreck. i was absolutely banking on sf9 and skz to do something even mildy interesting to save me from the ear damage and having to talk to extensively about why that disaster happened. but somehow i woke up in an alternate universe and you know what? with the exception of that high note the ateez stage fucked. i know. i don’t believe it either. i think i’m still in shock.

i’ll do individual breakdowns in order of favourites within the episode and then at the end i’ll put my personal ranking of all six. thank god i don’t have to do a stage breakdown again; if they change it again for next week i will scream.

ateez

a miracle happened. i don’t have to fight any of the staff at kq. i don’t understand either. jongho is so fucking lucky that the rest of the group pulled all that energy out of their asses because if they had been even a single iota less serious about it that stage would have flopped worse than a dead fish. i can’t believe we got this level of camp b movie schlock in the first full stage, and they stuck the landing. incredible.

fine i’ll address the elephant in the room. personally, i don’t think jongho is that good of a vocalist. he’s not bad, and he does have the potential to be a good vocalist, he just doesn’t have the training, and this is the issue with all of ateez. hanya talked about this before and i’ll say it again: he can’t switch to his head voice and he’s destroying his vocal cords by attempting to hit notes in his mid range that he should just jump to head voice for. frankly i’m surprised he got anywhere close to that note in his mid, but his technique is just not there and he’s gonna do some real damage to his voice if he doesn’t take a break and also get a good vocal coach. you can already hear the degradation in sound from their debut stage to now, and that’s in less than three years. ok i’m done talking about vocals that’s hanya’s turf, i’m pretending that that high note doesn’t exist and we’re moving on. also im in love with btob’s reaction it was fucking priceless.

costume

look, i have a one track brain and that brain can only think about seonghwa corset. seonghwa corset? seonghwa corset.

i know it’s not a real corset nor is it properly laced and i know this would never happen in a million years but a kpop mr pearl trend? i would die. just fully expire. there’s no coming back from that for me

yes i have laced boys into proper corsets before and yes it is as hot as you think it is (when it’s not work related, obviously)

ok now that i’ve got that out of my system for the moment, the costumes are actually pretty good. i’m a little obsessed with hongjoong’s coat although I know it’s stupid. fur? always, I love it, you’ll never change my mind it makes everything better. i own a lot of it and i wear it all the time. this is also a pretty good example of how to do a more modern styling within a very specific and recognizable genre.

i don’t hate the backup dancers’ costumes either, even though they would look a lot better in a not-pirate themed hiphop stage. because there is already a modern tint with the boys’ costumes, it’s not that much of a leap to the dancers, and they actually use the dancers and the camera really strategically to not put much focus on them.

the only real standout issue is the blacklight/contortionist moment, which is too gimmicky for me and doesn’t fit the rest of the theme. i do understand the purpose of them: you need a transition point from the upper deck to the more fantastical inner ship area, and blacklight paint is a really easy, cheap, and fast way to get four new costumes instantly. do i think they could have done something better though? yes.

set

this was actually a smart reuse of that pirate ship set. i know i clowned on them in the first stage that they could move on from the pirate gimmick but honestly? i’m glad they didn’t. this was fun as fuck. but also two stages was enough you can move on now.

i love how they actually used the weird double stage function that the false prosc creates for an actual architectural and narrative effect, instead of just sort of operating as though it’s just another place to travel just because you can. we are on the deck of the ship, and then we go inside the ship. it’s simple and effective. you don’t need to do a crazy amount of crossover to establish a dynamic sense of place.

i hate the ateez kingdom logo. i hate the ateez logo in general. get it out of there, at least you could have made something more fun and pirate themed.

would have loved to have seen them return to the hourglass at the end, especially if they got one that was specifically set for 4 minutes. would have been a nice bit of symmetry but i suspect it was struck before the kraken bit.

the kraken bit??? i was not at all expecting that and honestly? dope as hell. that big tentacle is just a custom inflatable santa claus that you see around christmastime and what a brilliant use of such a simple mechanic, especially to have it come through that weird little triangle arch they have upstage. smart way to use the existing architecture.

yes it is a gimmick but here’s why it works rather than just looks tacky like every other gimmick we’ve seen so far: it had a function within the narrative. this is so important. show us there’s a reason it’s there!

lighting

i didn’t love it but they did actually make some smart choices. the outer deck is warmer toned and has some good atmospheric effects, and the inner deck is cold tone and specifically lit with pin lights to imitate the light coming through portholes in an actual ship, which is so smart thank you lighting designer

also a very clear arc with the lighting, blue -> orange -> blue/red -> orange/multiple -> blue

sound

i actually kinda liked this remix? it fit theme and had a very clear dramatic arc. also i like wonderland, so sue me.

staging

WE DID IT, WE FINALLY GOT A CLEAR NARRATIVE FROM AT LEAST ONE GROUP! wonderland was actually a great choice for them because it’s a really good indicator of exactly how hungry they are. i was a bit worried that it would fall flat because it kinda rides on mingi but they actually pulled it off. i have literally no idea where they pulled all that energy from but holy shit you can practically lick the attitude off the screen. i’m also very impressed by the amount of information they managed to fit into that four minute narrative. we had a full conflict/climax/resolution, as well as a really clear understanding of the tenacity and drive of the group, as well as the desire to support one another in achieving their goals. bravo.

ok so like i said in the set section, they used that pirate ship bridge really effectively to create two different but connected spaces. this is a really smart way to make it seem like you have two spaces while having to only build one set. it was also one of the best ways to utilize this dumbass stage so it doesn’t just look like you’re running arbitrarily from area to area because you can.

also levels! levels are so important for staging but also hard to do in this context because you have to be able to move really quickly in and out of full group formation, but I think they did a really good job here.

continued point: the kraken arm worked because it was the conflict they needed to overcome in the narrative, so it had a function within the performance. also related: all the tricking and jumping also served a purpose within the narrative too. it was either used for fighting (yeosang kicking all those dancers on beat) or a demonstration of teamwork (jongho flinging yunho around on the floor). also frankly excellent use of choreographic formation with the backup dancers, each formation had a specific function and was meant to highlight ateez without being overbearing.

not a whole lot of camera choreo, but a fairly good long take at the beginning and the editing wasn’t too obnoxious which I think was more chance than intent, but i’m not gonna look a gift kraken in the beak.

sf9

i actually really liked this stage, and i really like that sf9 has established their colour as effortlessly elegant, which does set them apart from the rest of the groups. this stage was really choreographically complex and they made it seem so easy, so real props to them. however, like with ikon’s stage, there were a lot of good ideas that just weren’t followed through enough for me.

like ateez, song choice and theme were very well intertwined with this one, there was a lot of thought put into this stage. the pun with ‘jealous’ and ‘jilleosseo’ and having a fairytale/magic mirror narrative? fuckin GALAXY BRAINED. incredible. the implication that not only taeyang but the entire group is the evil queen from snow white? chef’s kiss. should have committed harder and put one of them in massive cloak à la king taemin mama 2020. instead it was subtle enough to not try to step on ateez’s schlocky camp toes but still just as serious and i love that. do i wish they pushed it farther though? also yes.

costume

not gonna lie, i had my reservations on the costumes when we saw the previews of them in the waiting room, but the thing about stage costumes is that they always look bad when not on stage. if they look good in the waiting room you’ve done something wrong. and i loved them on stage. big fan of that quilted vest/pseudo stomacher. please can we have a corset trend? y’all already adopted bondage harnesses, c’mon a little corset won’t hurt. also a good example of a modern spin on a recognizable genre.

i wish the backup dancers weren’t in all black but i am fighting single person battle against the entire entertainment industry on that one.

set

extremely simple with a few smart utilizations. had a feeling this might have been a budget thing, as it had a similar kind of vibe with ikon’s stage, but the use of the mirrors was smart and a fun device that served the purpose of the narrative.

working with mirrors on stage is really fucking hard, so kudos to them for giving it a go. for the most part it was pretty effective. especially with the combo of moving mirrors and moving lights AND moving camera, you’re kind of asking to either blind your audience or at least give them a headache. i once saw a production of the magic flute that had a rotating mirror setpiece and i swear i nearly went blind due to the constantly flashing reflections. you have to really be careful with directionality and reflection, especially with the added element of a camera. also you never use real glass mirrors on stage, it is unbelievably bad luck and theatre people are the most superstitious demographic on the fucking planet.

i kinda loved the draped gold dais. i have nothing else to say about it other than fun!

lighting

a lot of this was very weirdly lit and i’m not sure why. the quality on youtube is terrible and cameras already have trouble picking up detail in low light, and throwing a whole bunch of primary red over that (the colour with the longest wavelength and therefore disappears the easiest in the dark. also human eyes are not very good at distinguishing variations in the red spectrum) and the red costumes made it extremely difficult to tell what was happening.

i will give them props for dramatic lighting usage, especially for the two way mirror trick and for using the floor as a primary lighting source at the end, which i think groups should be using more of. how often do you have a lighting source in your floor!!! almost never!! use that opportunity!!

sound

i actually enjoyed this remix too. it was well suited to the dramatic nature of the stage. i think the sound byte at the beginning is ‘mirror mirror on the wall who’s the worthiest of them all’ but it also could be ‘who’s the worst of them all’ and that would be also fitting and kinda funny.

staging

again, not a lot of consideration for camera choreo in a meaningful way, and like the tbz stage I think the clarity in the actual choreo got hampered by the editing. because there was a lot of choreographic precision that went into making this work and it wasn’t totally obvious from the way mnet edited it.

a lot of them are actors so it works that they’re leaning more towards dramatic stages rather than the sort of performance type stages we’ve seen so far. i like this choice for them as it gives them a very obvious colour but they’re almost on the verge of making it look too easy, which does them some injustice.

next to ateez, using that long uninterrupted traverse was my favourite use of this stage. doubles as an easy way to build the atmosphere of a palace corridor/throne room with the rug, and to feed the drama of the piece.

skz

ok i have some…..things to say about this stage. so far i have not been kind to skz which makes me look like i hate them and i don’t, i promise. there were a lot of really interesting things happening in this stage and there some really successful ones, and i liked this a whole lot better than their intro stage, but their overall choreo and thematic dedication is really killing me. i’ll explain.

costume

I don’t hate them but also…….why? I got the good self vs evil self/internal struggle theme but the costumes don’t really have anything interesting to say about that. as far as modern style costuming goes i think they’re on the more interesting end, but they don’t push it far enough. there’s a few western art history visual motifs and honestly? they should have gone whole hog and whited out their faces/hair and made them look like classical sculptures. that would have been hella fun, especially with that little statue and marionette sequence, plus the shadow/leash manipulation.

this time it was actually intentional that the backup dancers were in blacks and i appreciate that.

why on EARTH did they have that ridiculous makeup that didn’t read on stage? theatre makeup and tv makeup are different, you can’t just do a light purple eyeshadow and expect to read under blue and red light. someone needs to bring an actual theatre makeup artist in and get these boys in some real crazy looks. see previous point about full-face white pancake. more extreme makeup please and thank you!

set

i liked the use of internal architecture within this massive weird stage space and they used the corridors quite well. i didn’t really like the mix of baroque scrolling and also graffiti, it wasn’t quite connected for me. this has been a common theme among this round and i think it comes from budget/props pulls rather than anything else.

also there was a distinct feeling of trying to fill the main stage space with bodies as opposed to atmosphere. this can work in some specific cases but the intent wasn’t strong enough for me. it just felt like a lot of people on stage, especially in the end choreo.

lighting

the general lighting was fine but not particularly inspired. the low light in the beginning was actually quite well done, especially combined with the fog, but in my opinion was not dramatic enough. you have a pseudo art history theme happening, pump that contrast and push the chiaroscuro!

ok stay with me, i’m gonna say something extremely controversial that might actually get me cancelled. s*per j*unior’s burn the floor did everything this stage was trying to do on a smaller scale and better. look i know ok, this is a like, a double atom bomb hot take. just forget everything you know about them and watch the performance video. tell me that’s not some of the most interesting choreo you’ve seen in kpop. if you’re going to work with practical light you need to COMMIT. not just steal the solar lanterns out of my mom’s back garden.

i have a lot of opinions on using practical light and alternate light sources in performance because it’s a huge part of my practice and this just....wasn’t interesting enough for me. push it further!

(I will wait for the subs on the full episode because there has to be a reason they chose that specific shape of lamp. if not i gotta ask jyp why he’s raiding my mom’s garden)

sound

god’s menu has such specific imagery associated within the lyrics and choreography that this stage was a bit dissonant for me. especially when seen in conjunction with two stages where the narrative was tied explicitly to the lyrics of the songs. i think maybe if it hadn’t been grouped with these other two stages i would have felt differently. the other groups chose to do songs were a little more abstract and allowed for more visual experimentation, but to go so blatantly against the food metaphor didn’t really work for me and i had a tough time divorcing the association. I found the arrangement to be a little lacking in energy for me towards the end but otherwise it was pretty interesting.

staging

Definitely a better performance overall that the intro stage. almost all of the gimmicks this time had relevance to the theme which i appreciated. the marionette bit and the shadow/mirror were probably the most interesting but i wish they were better lit.

 there was a lot of back and forth in the blocking that made the stage feel repetitive and also aimless? like there wasn’t a very clearly established directionality within the internal space, so it felt like treading over the same ground for no purposeful reason. and again, not a lot of intentional camerawork.

i really liked having the dancers under the big sheet, it fit well enough within the ‘war between internal selves’ theme, but also had a loose tie to the art imagery. again, i really wish they had stuck to a clearer visual theme. it makes them stick out especially in this grouping of stages, but also across all the groups as whole because almost everyone had a clear(ish) visual idea.

holy shit that’s a lot of backup dancers. i don’t really feel like that many were necessary and the sheer number of them took away from the emphasis of the group. with all of the other stages (except for tbz) it was very clear who the centre of attention and emphasis was, and with both skz and tbz they got swallowed by the sheer scale they were trying to operate at. bigger is not always better.

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this is a tough round to rank because none of these stages are bad, there’s just some that are, in my opinion, more successful than others. all of these stages do very well in specific elements but fall short in others which also makes this ranking difficult. i’m evaluating these based on whether they were successful to me, as i’m pretty sure this ranking will probably not all be popular opinion, but whatever i like to live on the edge.

btob – visuals, vocals, narrative, swords? what more do you want me to say? also i watched the full episode and minhyuk did rehearsal with a real bokken and i think i am in love with him now.

ateez – honestly not sure if i would have ranked this first if that high note hadn’t been a mess. i love camp nonsense and i genuinely think this was a well designed stage. i can’t believe i keep saying that but it’s true.

sf9 – this stage was really solid, just could have been pushed farther. i think it has a really good sense of drama and it’s a pity that sf9’s colour is more subdued, because i think they’re going to be stuck around the 3rd/4th position for the rest of the show.

ikon – ikon is only ranking this high because although i am disappointed in the wasted potential of this stage, they NAILED the camerawork and actually brought in someone to block the steadicam into the choreo. also they’re incredible performers. i say this every time, but their stage presence, although maybe lower energy that they normally would be, is still not to be fucked with.

skz – i think this one is the most ‘meh’ for me. while i liked a lot of the elements here they just didn’t push it far enough and the lack of narrative and general aimless choreo led to me not having any strong feelings yea or nay.

tbz – to be quite honest the lack of costume unity is a big hit for me. all elements of design are equally as important but because of my personal practice and experience i tend to put a lot of weight on good costume and spatial design. i don’t actually like game of thrones also, so I feel mildly offended on behalf of michele clapton, who had did a fucking incredible job and doesn’t deserve to be slandered like this. also the lack of cohesive choreography and the overblown lighting made this difficult to watch, no matter how good i thought the rear projection/stretch fabric dance was.

 any questions or opinions you wanna share hit me up! see you next week!

[snkpolls]

SnK Episode 66 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 244 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

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RATE THE EPISODE 238 Responses

“Assault” was a total hit with the fans, with 93.7% of respondents rating it a 4 or 5. Nobody gave the lowest rating this week, and only a couple of people weren’t as impressed with the episode. 

I wasn’t a fan of previous episode but GOD I’M BACK TO HYPE! This episode was so full of awesome scenes that picking just one favourite and one that made me most emotiona seems unfair

Incredible improvement. Almost reminded me of Season 1 with all the impact/shockwave flair at times

Was amazing

THIS IS THE BEST BY FAR AND EVERY CHAPTER IS FREAKING GOOD

It was a banger 

One of the best episodes in the ENTIRE SERIES. At first i was skeptical because the cgi often kept throwing me off but i was PLEASENTLY surprised how fantastic the last episode was

it was awesome

So proud of MAPPA with what they've done so far! Appreciate them! 💕

It was breathtaking and MAPPA did tje manga justice!

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING ACTION MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 237 Responses

Armin making his entrance by blowing up the harbor took the edge this week, with 28.7% most hyped up about the scene. Following closely behind with 26.2% of the vote is Eren using Porco as a nutcracker to eat the War Hammer Titan. 19.8% most enjoyed watching Mikasa fillet Porco’s legs, and 17.3% liked the scene where Sasha and Jean help take down Pieck and the Panzer Unit. 

Jean vs. Pieck was epic!

Levi was so awesome!  It was great hearing his voice again, just everything about him made my day.  this episode was perfect <3

NUTCRACKEREN

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS MADE YOU FEEL THE MOST EMOTIONAL? 237 Responses

To counter the breathtaking action this week, some scenes also brought out our emotions. 25.7% were most affected by Gabi and Falco desperately calling out for Reiner to save Porco and help them. 20.7% felt the same pain as Mikasa as she watched Eren brutally kill another person. 15.6% were pained to see Armin’s reaction to his horrific action of destroying the harbor. At some smaller percentages, people were also emotionally touched by these scenes, in order: Seeing the Panzer unit’s pictures in their cabins, Porco’s desperate pleas for Eren to stop using him to kill Lara Tybur, and Reiner’s continued desire to end his own life. 

Seeing hange onscreen again has added 100 years to my lifespan.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW EERIE DID YOU FIND THIS IMAGE OF THE WAR HAMMER TITAN? 232 Responses

Overall people weren’t too spectacularly creeped out by the haunting image of the War Hammer Titan at the beginning of the episode. About 45.7% of respondents feel they’ve seen things much creepier, while about 33.7% felt it was more close to the thing of nightmares. 20.7% were simply somewhere in the middle.

REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT GABI’S CHARACTER, HER SEIYUU TRULY WENT ALL IN ON HER SCREAMS FOR REINER. ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW BONE CHILLING WAS HER PERFORMANCE? 228 Responses

Gabi’s seiyuu truly sold this scene and the fandom seems to overwhelmingly agree that she did a fantastic job, with nearly 93% of respondents ranking her performance a 4 or 5. Only a small handful were less enthused, finding the screams more annoying than impressive. 

I’m usually a defender of Gabi, but Falco and Gabi’s screaming annoyed the f out of me

SOME FANDOM SPACES SEEM TO BE MORE POSITIVELY RECEPTIVE ABOUT THE CGI IN THIS EPISODE. WHERE DO YOU FALL ON THE SPECTRUM? 225 Responses

After much disappointment in the previous episode’s usage of CGI, people in the fandom are feeling a lot more pleased with it this week, with no one even ranking its usage as a 1. The majority felt that MAPPA did a good job, likely hoping that the trend continues.

I Thought the CGI Section in the opening bits looked incredibly wonky, But after that it was used well.

I've been fairly tepid on the CGI while acknowledging its necessity. However, this episode used in amazingly after I was a bit dissapointed with its use last week. Very satisfied with pretty much everything this episode.

DID MAPPA DO ONYANKOPON JUSTICE? 228 Responses

Onyankopon finally makes his appearance and the fandom is overwhelmingly positive about MAPPA’s character design for him, with just over 87% of respondents either stating they are super happy with the design or that they’re straight up starstruck and in love. Only a small handful felt he could have been done a little better. 

Nailed it! Though I had to come back and see him in the rewatch. Was too focused on Hange and Armin. 

I honestly don’t care as he’s a relatively minor character in the manga

They did onion coupon really damn well

ONION COUPON!!!

He is significantly more bad ass looking than I assumed he would be 

He looks super cool but his voice is too soft. 

He looks even more like Finn than in the manga, and as a John Boyega fan I think that's a good thing!

Onion

Idc about his appearance, hope his character will just be portrayed correctly.

MAPPA HAS AVOIDED KEEPING IN SOME OF THE IMPLICATIONS THAT ZEKE COULD BE WORKING WITH ANYONE BUT MARLEY UP UNTIL THIS POINT. WHAT DO YOU THINK - WILL ANIME ONLY VIEWERS BE THROWN TOTALLY OFF GUARD NEXT WEEK? 223 Responses

One of the joys for some manga readers when the anime seasons are running is seeing the way that our anime-only counterparts react to the story developments. One of the big plot twists next week will be that Zeke was working with Eren/The Survey Corps and people are eagerly anticipating the fan reaction to the revelation. 44.4% feel that anime only watchers will be totally thrown off guard and that MAPPA has done an excellent job of concealing this plot twist. 27.4% feel similarly positive about the fan reactions for this reveal, though a little disappointed there was a bit less room to theorize. 14.8% aren’t sure as they don’t really keep up with anime-only fan reactions, and a few either feel they’ve probably already pieced it together, or just don’t care. 

The Jaw might be down for the count, but jaws will still drop next ep.

I've been watching reactions from anime only people for this season and some are definitely putting together correctly that Zeke is in on the plan.

I listen to an “Anime only” podcast Where are you they literally called Zeke working with Paradis, but I’m not sure about others. 

I've already seen several theorize that Zeke is working with Paradis. The suspicious nature of his death in this episode clinched it for some of them.

Some of them will be surprised, but the ones who watch the anime more carefully and like to think about things most likely know that Zeke might work with Paradis.

MAPPA ADDED PICTURES OF THE PANZER UNIT TO THE INSIDE OF THEIR CABINS. DO YOU THINK THIS MADE THEIR DEATHS MORE EMOTIONAL? 227 Responses

A small addition, but impactful nonetheless. 53.7% felt more saddened about the Panzer Unit’s deaths after seeing how strong their bond with each other was (or, alternatively, how hard all of the boys simped after Pieck). 37.4% agree that it added just a little more depth to the characters, though it ultimately didn’t do anything to move them too much emotionally. A handful don’t care or were just salty about the addition in general. 

Their screen time was short in general. It was a nice touch, definitely made me pause to get a better look and feel a bit bad for them.

That, and them screaming for Pieck as they get blown up :( amazing additions. 

I gotta be honest, I didn't even notice until I saw this question. I was too busy screaming over Sasha being amazing. It's a nice addition though.

Yes. It shows that the marleyan warriors were not emotionless monsters, but they had their lives, families, friends and were normal people overall. I felt really sorry for them. 

I didn't notice until I saw this question, but I do think it adds to the sadness. 

I was upset by their deaths because they and Pieck were a team and looked out for each other

I loved to see it! It really added more to their characters. The entire Panzer unit being Pieck simps, that is. 

They cut out the scene where the bullet actually HIT Carlo.

it just shows once again how complicated attack on titan is and how much their actions have consequences. no side is innocent

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW DISAPPOINTED ARE YOU THAT MAPPA CUT THE PANEL OF PORCO SANDWICHED BETWEEN BURGER-CONSUMING PIECK AND COFFEE-DRINKING ZEKE? 225 Responses

In the manga, we see a shot of Porco having a meal with Pieck and Zeke while he becomes distraught over the assault on his comrades. MAPPA omitted it, though for the most part fans didn’t really seem to care. Only about 21% of respondents felt something was missing without the small flashback, while the rest were indifferent or felt it never really fit in anyway.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW HAPPY ARE YOU ABOUT THE INCLUSION OF AN EXTRA LINE FROM PIECK TELLING FALCO TO RUN AWAY? 228 Responses

As expected of the fandom, they agree that any new Pieck content is good content. Even though it was a small one-liner addition, the vast majority were very pleased with MAPPA’s scripting of this moment. Only a small handful felt it was unnecessary.

EREN USING PORCO AS A NUTCRACKER WAS SOMETHING THAT SURPRISED A LOT OF US WHEN THE CORRESPONDING CHAPTER WAS PUBLISHED. WHICH MEDIU, DO YOU THINK THE SCENE HAD A BIGGER IMPACT IN? 227 Responses

A rare occurrence, but the fandom seems to agree that MAPPA excelled at adapting this scene and made it even more impactful than it was in the manga, with nearly 50% stating that they preferred the anime’s take on this moment. 35.7% feel that the impact was of equal strength in both mediums, and only 10.1% still prefer the original manga portrayal. 

I feel like the anime dragged it out a little bit and some angles were meh bc the cgi was more noticeable. I'll have to go back to the chapter to see how many panels were dedicated to the scene

Porco's seiyuu SOLD it. 

I think both are pretty equal but hearing Porco scream and beg for Eren to stop made it a bit more nerve racking.

titan eren’s face during the nutcracker bit was legit terrifying in a way I can’t quite explain 

The music, the voice acting, the scary CGI attack Titan. This scene was impeccably strong! I give it 100%

I felt more surprised in the manga because i didnt expect it, but in the anime porcos reaction made it more horrifying 

Hearing Porco made it even more impactful

Ngl, I was much more grossed out watching it animated than in manga form. Just all that blood and the swallowing...*shudders*

Eren was absolutely in the right here

The swallowing noises and the weird thick blood was absolutely disgusting 10/10

PIECK AND JEAN ARE CURRENTLY WORKING TOWARD THE SAME GOAL OF KILLING EREN IN CURRENT MANGA EVENTS. DO YOU THINK SHE’S FORGIVEN HIM FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE ATTACK ON HER AND THE PANZER UNIT DURING THE EVENTS OF THE LIBERIO ATTACK? 225 Responses

Unrelated to the episode itself, but remembering that Jean was partially responsible for the deaths of people Pieck loved was something that had us thinking, and we were curious what others thought as well. 39.1% feel that Pieck would never be able to forgive Jean for his part in the assault, but is big enough to move on and leave it in the past. 25.3% don’t want to make a call either way, as Isayama hasn’t done much to explore this facet of her character. 14.2% feel she’s moved past it completely and has forgiven Jean for his role. Smaller percentages either felt she doesn’t hold him responsible at all, or that she will always resent him and is only working with him insofar as to reach her own goals. 

It's war.

dont care fuck pieck

I mean there's no indication that Isayama has even considered this in my opinion so the answer is completely speculative. So like my answer is "She forgot and moved on" :D

She still has a pain in her heart after losing the Panzer Unit, they were her friends after all. But Pieck is smart and she understand why Jean did that. Also, the world is in fire so she doesn't have a time to think about it now.  

The Alliance characters are not allowed to keep grudges (thought at least it fits for Pieck)

The scene with Panzer Unit was so powerful in anime that it detroyed all my Jeanpiku hopes I had after the last chapter :’) I think Pieck could come to an understanding and blame others more than Jean but I’m not sure if she’s ready to fully forgive

I think that Pieck doesn't hold Jean responsible, understanding that it wasn't personal and just counts it as a tragedy from the war.

Pieck seems to be really understanding character and full of empathy. She’ll forgive Jean as soon as he shows he’s sorry for what happened (and he probably really is as long as he hates the idea of killing people)

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 233 Responses

We’ve got a heavy episode coming, and a number of things to look forward to. As expected, 40.8% are most anticipating the scene where Sasha dies by Gabi’s gunshot. 31.3% are looking forward to seeing Levi confront and arrest Eren. 23.6% are most looking forward to the big reveal that Zeke was working with Eren all along. Only a small handful are looking forward to the Gabi and Falco content before they board the blimp. 

I'm NOT ready for the next ep...

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON THE EPISODE?

This is where the fun begins both in anime only reactions and in seeing fantastic scenes brought to life.  

So good. Chills everywhere. Watched it so many times and still getting chills. The 3 minute sequence starting from Armin blowing up the port up to Pieck falling from the rooftop is mindblowingly good. Perfection. 

I remember being really sad when the WHT left the plot so quickly in the manga because it had the best titan design imo. I know we've seen her again in the recent chapters, but the WHT was even better with Lara seen controlling it. She looked so cool, calm and collected in that crystal the whole time. RIP Lara Tybur :( 

Ost are awesome !

Thought it was the best episode of season 4 so far. They kinda gave Hange the mappa egg head syndrome in their first full face shot though. 

It was phenomenal!! And really, if people still don't understand why Gabi goes off, they have their head in the clouds. Everything was so visceral and I genuinely felt fear for the warriors. It moved so quickly just back to back; I could taste the kids desperation. 

I think ending the episode with Reiner transformed is misleading yet strategic since it will tear apart the audience in the next episode.

This was the best episode by far! For a long time I couldn't get over how awesome the attack on Fort Slava in the first episode was and it remained my favorite, but this episode potrayed the war so well and you could totally feel the terror of the war with them!

So, so, so, so good. I was surprised by how emotional I got over it. Mappa is really making everything hit so hard!

Loved the episode! I believe this adaptation has even improved on some scenes (like Armin's tranformation and Gabi's screams), the ost and voice acting give it so much more power and the CGI looks better than in previous episodes. Really looking forward to ep 8 and the little surprises Mappa will give us with it 

This episode was really great, the 1st to get me truly hyped. I was very disappointed last episode because it felt very underwhelming was I watched it, so much so I didn't even want to participate in the poll last week because there was enough negativity about it out there and I didn't want to add to it. After staying away from others opinions and having watched this week's episode i gave 65 a rewatch and I honestly think it's a good episode, with small flaws here and there. I guess all the negativity can really affect how we perceive this adaptation. I realized I watched that whole episode looking for any moment mappa had messed up, moments that I knew people would complain about. This week I didn't and I enjoyed it a lot more. So even though it may not be like this for everyone, distancing yourself from all of the exaggerated "criticism" might just make you enjoy and appreciate it a lot more. 

I still strongly dislike how the CG Attack Titan looks but this episode looked MUCH better than the previous one and was even better lit, IMO. Armin looked beautiful, the colossal titan looked amazing and Levi looked the best he's ever looked to me. JEAN! He looked so good and so did Sasha! I absolutely love the character design this season and everyone looked fantastic. Loved it!

makes me wish porco hadnt died 

I think that I was so disappointed with the previous episode that I just lowered the bar. Either way I enjoyed this episode. I'm still very disappointed with the music choices and much they faded in the background even during climate scenes. But I did feel a lot better about the CGI specially since the barely used it in this episode aside from the titans. Oh man I cant wait the anime fandom reaction to Sasha getting shot. 

The episode was much better than the previous one. I loved it. I loved the moment of horrifying silence after WHT was eaten. The lack of music made the scene more serious and dreadful. Gabi's seiyuu made an excellent work as well. I didn't know I was going to say that but I think that Armin is pretty hot. In the manga he still has his cute baby looks, but MAPPA made his appearance more mature. Now I feel jealous of Annie ;P

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 215 Responses

Thank you again to everyone who participated!