#day of the dead was interesting with the differing opinions on its origins

[obsidianpen]

After reading No Glory and Hauntingly, it's hard to enjoy hetero romance, and it's not just because your way of writing is elite; there could be so many reasons that I went hardcore m/m and f/f shipper. Like, I am dead serious when I say my favorite telenovela pairing is Luisa x Rose from Jane the Virgin. So, I am really, really excited for your original work, and even more stoked that you decided it to be an m/m pair. But yeah, would love to know why you decided that?

you know, it was an interesting thought process that involved a lot of self reflecting. There’s definitely controversy around women writing gay male romance. Most of it is, I think, bullshit, and the arguments such as ‘its fetishizing’ are way off base (no, that would be male directors and producers creating plotless w/w porn, imo). But it was a Big Question: why should I, J…Jamie (lmao I’m almost more OP than myself anymore when I’m online) write a story with a bi male lead, when I’m a female (I love writing bis okay we need more of us!!) ? The reason I like writing Harry/Tom has everything to do with their dynamic and roles in the canon, and nothing to do with the gender. Id ship them regardless. In fact I probably would have realized I shipped them sooner if it was f/m; I was just too young at the time to realize that’s what I was rooting for because I was a bit sheltered in that regard.

anyway - so yeah, why am I still interested in m/m outside of fanfiction? I asked myself, staring at the mirror. So I wrote a little bit out of this original idea, one version as a female lead and once as a male, and you know, it was a pretty interesting exercise. When I was writing a male protagonist, I was… calm? Idk, I didn’t overthink him. I knew who he was and I just wrote what he did and what he thought. But when I was writing a the female version, my anxiety was so much higher! I found myself agonizing over every bit of her personality, worrying if people would find her ‘too this’ or ‘too that’, too predictable, too pretty, not pretty enough, too tough, too weak, etc etc. I felt like no matter who I made her, people would be upset and fucking hate her. And then I realized, oh. This is probably why so many women authors like writing male leads. Because that agonizing feeling, that’s how it is to be a woman, all the time. And it’s so relieving to get to leave that behind when writing a male lead. Maybe this is all deeply problematic on my part, I’m not sure. Internalized misogyny? I don’t think so, just the bleak reality. But yes I likely have issues lmaaao

Another reason was simply that the last original work I wrote has a female lead, so I thought I’d switch it up again. Writing an m/m story is what got me into writing in the first place, so it feels weirdly like have to acknowledge that in new projects I take seriously, too?

and to acknowledge that story I already wrote with the female lead - Starlings - I agonized quite a bit less over her, and in hindsight, I think it’s because she’s a child. She goes through puberty during the story, surrounded by older women, and there are almost no men in the whole thing, so the dynamic is totally different. It’s not big on the romance, either, which also helps. So yeah. No anxiety there. But with a grown ass woman in a story that’s centered quite a bit around a super problematic romance? Anxiety. Anxiety for days. I also feel this anxiety when I write Hermione, btw.

there will definitely be a different kind of worrying writing this new original thing, though - writing a gay magical romance set in southern 1920s America is gonna require a TON of research, and I’m not taking that lightly. But that worrying isn’t nearly as personal, which makes a lot of difference.

I’m interesting in other people’s opinions on this! So please share if you’re willing. 🌸

[sapnapsimparc]

hi im doing a presentation about indigenous traditions in latin america (in the 19th century but thats not that important) and i was wondering if i have any followers from latin america and if you have any pointers for me,

[rubensmuse]

having meditated on it, the issue with the lords of fortune isn't that they're doing repatriation now, it's how it's being handled as a piece of storytelling. and the way it's being handled is fucking BORING.

the thing about returning looted artifacts to their cultures of origin is that, in real life, it's an extremely dicey issue. and when i say that, i'm not saying "and that's why we should not do it in real life nor depict it in fiction", because obviously we should do both of those to the best of our ability. but it isn't straightforward.

in real life, arguments made by museums in looter countries against repatriation often bring up how there isn't always a solid record of which pieces of art and culture were stolen or parted with via coercion, and which were traded for willingly; or refuse to recognize the sovereignty of a nation of people who claim ownership of an item and prefer to return it to a modern-day government that does not represent them; or, alternatively, bring up the fact that the modern-day country requesting the artifact "back" was not the same country that created it, and use that as evidence that they don't have any claim to it at all. there are political considerations, there are diplomatic considerations, there are military considerations. it's a whole thing.

in the setting of dragon age, you don't have all of these exact problems. but in a scenario where we're to understand that this semi-decentralized guild of treasure hunters has recently shifted gears toward repatriation, we don't have zero problems. the principle one is that thedas as a continent and the states within it don't actually function the same way our world does, meaning "repatriation" might not even be a consideration for anyone who isn't an elf, but i don't wanna get into that. there are far more granular issues instead.

for example, one story in tevinter nights follows a band of lords pulling off a heist. does this mean stealing from the living is above board, but robbing the dead is frowned upon unless you give some of it back to the descendants? how old does an artifact have to be before it stops being fair game? how culturally significant does it have to be, and how do you even measure that?

what if you're a long-time member just in this for the plunder, and now that your guildmates are advocating all this scholarly and/or culturally respectful stuff, you're just pretending to go along with it and palming smaller relics for resale? what responsibility does the lords of fortune as a guild have to penalize you? what ability?

what if you proudly present a dalish clan with a burial urn you found outside of its context, and then their keeper gets fucking pissed at you because that was supposed to stay in the ground, you idiot, and now you and your guildmates are suspected of defiling a grave? on the flip side, what if you DO defile that grave, and return the relics inside for a finder's fee alongside the lie that you got it from the real graverobber, because offering a bounty for returned cultural artifacts creates a demand for them?

what if your opinion of what counts as "sacred" is different from someone else's, on a cultural in addition to an individual basis?

what if two dalish clans who hate each other place a claim on the same relic?

what if, perhaps, you have a kossith contact in your guild, living the qun outside of a qunari community. and you've been giving her all of your qunari artifacts to study, in the spirit of goodwill and cultural exchange. and then one day on your way to her house a ben-hassrath steps out of the shadows and politely requests the tablet you're holding, and also directions to your contact's residence, because as far as the ariqun is concerned, you've been giving vital pieces of qunari culture and history to someone who isn't a qunari?

what interesting scenarios! what rich stories we could get out of them! even the barest reference to some of these issues would suggest a more multifaceted view of a faction, and entice players into selecting it for their character.

and at time of writing, i'm still waiting to see anything like them in the game.

[danjaley]

Evolution of the Revolution Storyline (long read)

I still can't quite believe it all made sense in the end - I've been working on that Revolution storyline from the moment I decided to continue the McCarrics open-end. And that was in 2020 (or in 1738).

First there were these famous two lines:

Rosalie's son: Would you like to take on a charity case? Fergus' son: I've learned to be cautious when people ask me like this.

The charity case was a French refugee priest whose story I later split between Sœur Thérèse and Père Leclerc. Fergus' son wasn't cleft-lipped at the time (but always half-orphaned), and Rosalie's son wasn't gay. I don't remember exactly, but I think that happened when I was trying to work a French nobleman into the story. We're getting closer to the point where it will clash with the other gay male storyline. Which I plotted even earlier because it connects to Alasdair's story in the end.

It took me ages to think of marrying Nicolas to Marianne's daughter. Originally Marianne had three children, the oldest being named after his father Charles. Originally, Marianne arrived at Rosalie's place in a state of indignation, before the war broke out:

Marianne: … so I said to Charles, this was the last straw, if they’re starting to arrest people for any opinion whatsoever, I’m not staying in this country a moment longer. Charles being a Scottish Royalist made a difference so far, but I wouldn’t rely on it any longer. He does though – funny, as he always wanted to be so French. I just hope he won’t come to regret having his own way. So I said, give me the children, I’m going to visit Rosalie until this nonsense is over. You cannot be careful enough with your heir, don’t I know it? Oh and I brought Lucie’s governess as well. I’m sorry to intrude upon you with such an entourage, but she wouldn’t have stood a chance on her own, poor girl. I’m only glad the other two are safe. Roseanne went to Cologne with her husband and André had the good sense to join an English trading company.

Charles jr. was then the father of Lucie and the governess was already Sr. Thérèse. Much of the closing-the-school dialogue is from that time, although it didn't include Béatrice then. One or both of the Charles were to die in the Revolution later.

Marianne: It – it says Charles is dead. Rosalie: Good Lord, did they behead him? Marianne: Mercifully not. He was arrested and then they weren’t sure what to do with him. But he took ill in prison and … I should have been there! Remember how Father sat with Fergus day and night – Rosalie: No I don’t – remember? And Fergus died anyway. Charles knew he was risking his life. You’d probably have died before him in prison. You did what you could with offering to take him to Scotland and at least you got the children away.

Rosalie is alluding to the fact that she only learned of Fergus' death several weeks later, which I was writing at the same time then.

At that point, the unrelated Nicolas died in the same wave of executions as Charles. Rosalie, as usual, was trying and failing to read Jonathan's emotions.

Rosalie to Ysobel: Do you think Mathew has time to come for a visit? I’m worried about Jonathan. He takes it awfully hard about Charles – more so than Marianne, and she’s his mother. At least I think it must be about Charles, as there weren’t any other deaths in the family recently; but I didn’t know they were particularly close; they only met a couple of times.

At that time Matt sometimes communicated by writing into his notebook – until I realized how much work that would be to pose!

Jonathan: Don’t you dare write anything down! It’s exactly what you think it its. (hands him the paper) Matthew: Gawd, I’m shorry. Jonathan: I’m glad you’re here. It's good to have someone who knows what’s the matter. Matthew: Ye should dalk ‘o yer barentsh though. ‘ell ‘em y’ lost a loved one i’France. ‘hat’sh almoshd ‘he truth, and ‘hey might let y’ off ‘he hook wi’ marrying.

Another interesting point is that I transcribed Matt's speech differently then, than I do today. Also I reused several motifs of that dialogue in other places.

Then I was completely stuck where to go from Nicolas' demise. I was thinking of his wife or sister turning to Jonathan for help. At some point it struck me that Roseanne could double as this wife, which would also provide a story how they first met. Since the two Charles were nothing but confusing, the youngest brother André became the heir, so those lose ends were tied up. At this point I wrote the prison-scene and the argument between Jonathan and Roseanne. Originally I wanted to leave it a mystery what he told her "alone, outside":

Jonathan: I want a word with you. Alone. Outside. ... Roseanne (returning, blushed): Pack a bag each. We’re going to England.

Only in England it would have turned out that he told her Nicolas was in the crate, not that he was the Italian lover. But that proved too complicated and artificial.

Then there was a phase in which André came home to die and his father Charles survived. Originally, Marianne's outburst of anger at Matt is from that context and it was Charles who spoke. There was a lot more bitterness as they realized Nicolas had been smuggled in a crate, but their own son won't come alive again. In this version, Lucie was orphaned and adopted by Roseanne and Nicolas.

André: You must be very brave and do everything your aunts and uncles say. They’ll take you to Scotland. It’s beautiful there, and safe. You have a wonderful family there too. I couldn’t think of a better place for you. Lucie: But I want to go to Scotland together with you! André: I wish we could go together. But I must go and be with your mother now. You’ll always be our little girl. Don’t forget that.

In the end it was all too similar to Fergus' story. And there's more tension with André knowing Nicolas' secret now.

Lord Alfred Benjamin Clarke is named after an inconsiderate English tourist in a 19th century German morality tale. He ordered a customized engraved glass with his initials (ABC) and never picked it up. In the end they give it to the school-teacher as a present. With Jonathan being completely inspired by the classicist movement, it was the most logical thing to send him on an art-related rescue mission. It took me another while to figure out the fastest way would be for Richard to engineer the whole thing:

Rosalie: I’m writing to Richard immediately. Jonathan: There’s no time to send a letter to London and wait for a reply. Besides I doubt if Richard can leave at a moment’s notice. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. This foppish member of parliament, whom he’s counselling, wrote me just recently about a Roman torso he wishes to acquire. Probably Richard gave him my address. I haven’t felt like replying to this nonsense yet, but now I think I’ll take the commission. The torso is in France, just a few miles outside of Paris.

The idea of claiming to be Scottish subjects was inspired by how the Schottenkloster in Regensburg avoided being disbanded. They weren't exaaactly Scottish property, but it took decades to contact the Crown about it, and then they obviously kept the free monastery offered to them. It's disbanded now anyway, but half of its archive is kept in Edinburgh and a nuisance to all researchers.

Béatrice was there as a name for a long time, but her storyline is fairly new. It was clear from Nicolas' earlier behaviour that he wasn't particularly interested in his daughter. And it was clear from later scenes I've already written that she adores him (somewhat undeservedly).

The very latest addition was actually Matt killing the prison warden. I felt that there was a decisive incident needed at this point, one that would get them all away safely, but at a high price. Before, Matt wasn't very closely involved in Nicolas' rescue. That's why I cut his longer speech as he comforted Jonathan after the break-up. Now he only says "Bloo’y ungra’eful idiot!", because of his own share in saving Nicolas' life. He did it so that Jonathan could be with his love, and now he just goes ahead and breaks up. I felt Matt would be less than ever in the mood to see Nicolas' point of view.

Matthew: There were timesh when I deshpished the arrogan’ idio’ for having a wife an’ children an’ not being con’ent. Bu’ don’’ forge’ he wash imprishone’ for weeksh, facing exshecution. No’ody deshervesh tha’. Eshpeshially no’ for being with you. If he wantsh ‘o reform hish life, he migh’ shtart by being more tac’ful an’ grateful ‘o you.

[redwiccanrobin]

I keep seeing people say the live action show is going to be bad only because Bryke is no longer involved. Now, I’m not particularly interested in the show because live action remakes just don’t do anything for me, personally. But I think y’all are giving Bryke way more credit than they deserve. Let’s discuss.

First, I think we should acknowledge the more problematic aspect of them creating the show in the first place. While I love Avatar, Bryke are two white men who took the aesthetics of many different Asian cultures to create their world. And most of the voice cast were also white. If there were Asian voice actors, they were either a background character or a villain (besides Iroh and Zuko, of course). Now, I know that some of you may have read that and thought about how the actor playing Sokka is not only white but lied about his ethnicity. Don’t worry, I’m mad at that as well and I’m beyond frustrated that Sokka has been whitewashed not once, but twice in the name of a live action interpretation.

And speaking of live action interpretations, let us not forget Bryke’s role in the 2010 movie. They announced their decision to leave this new show due to it not matching their vision. But they had no problem with the film that casted almost exclusively white actors to play characters of color. Again, if there were POC in the movie they were either background actors or villains (again, besides Iroh and Zuko). When people bring up the movie, they blame Shamalan for every aspect of it. Yes, he did not direct a good movie. But, at the end of the day, Bryke wanted this movie to happen. Everyone else, including Shamalan, wanted a season four but they were dead set on the live action movie that whitewashed most of the characters. And they were fine with that. That didn’t clash with their vision despite relying very heavily on non-white cultures to make their show.

Outside of the whitewashed movie, their creative choices are… interesting, to say the least. And we didn’t get to see those because the writers pulled their weight and tweaked the original concepts. Toph? Bryke wanted her to be a boy and be in a love triangle with Aang and Katara. It was the writers who made her a girl. Azula? Again, Bryke wanted her to be a boy and, again, the writers made her a girl. Katara fighting sexism in the Northern Water Tribe? They wanted her to be fighting for Aang, not herself. It was the writers decision to add in Katara fighting against a patriarchal system. Many of the episodes that people point to as their favorites (Zuko Alone, The Puppetmaster, The Southern Raiders) were not written by them. Yet, they get the pats on the backs from casual viewers and even some dedicated fans.

Do you know what happens when they do have creative control? At best, it’s mediocre, at worst, it’s bad. Let’s first take a look at their continuation of this universe by looking at Legend of Korra. The writers that made those iconic and beautiful episodes in ATLA? For the most part, they’re no where to be found. And it shows. LoK was a mess from the very beginning and never quite got its footing. Yes, I will acknowledge that Nickelodeon fucked them over. Yes, I do have respect for them for sticking to their guns and making Korrasami an item and giving us not one but two bisexual women of color. But besides that? It’s just a very mediocre show with mediocre writing.

But we see how truly bad things can get with the ATLA comics. Now, I do need to acknowledge that they didn’t work on that comic alone. So, like the movie, there are others to blame for the mess. But Bryke signed off on everything and wrote some of it themselves. And, boy, are they bad. A large number of the ATLA fandom do not like these comics and there’s definitely a reason why. Including out of character moments, prominent sexism with how the women are written, and just downright bizarre discussions, it’s not that much of a surprise that we don’t like to acknowledge it. In my opinion, no one got screwed over more in those comics than Katara. They make her a trophy girlfriend. A shadow to Aang rather than being her own character. That girl we watched in the show, the one who was vibrant, layered, complex, was gone. In her place, a hollow shell. And they would continue to show disrespect for their own character in LoK where she has been upgraded from trophy girlfriend to trophy wife. They didn’t even care enough about her, besides her being the wife of Aang and the mother of his children, to give her a statue! All the feminism we see in the original show? It definitely wasn’t Bryke.

I don’t know how this new live action show is going to pan out. It could be great, it could be bad. It could just be meh. But none of those outcomes have anything to do with whether or not Bryke was involved. Because they may have created ATLA, but they weren’t the ones who truly breathed life into it.

[blackjackkent]

Rakha waits until they're back at camp to talk to Wyll about Ansur.

(This conversation actually turned out quite interesting for Rakha imo, although for reasons quite liberally seasoned with headcanon.)

She has been trying to sort out her own thoughts about it. Her attention has been so much on her own problems - on Orin, on Gortash, on the most direct route to the brain and the problems in her own mind - but she is aware that this mission was deeply important to Wyll. It was his father's wish that he seek out Ansur and bring him back to protect the city, and even though it was no fault of Wyll's, they could not do that.

Rakha... is really pretty familiar with the idea of disappointing her father, after the last few days, but her father is, to put it mildly, very different from Wyll's. This is not a situation she has a lot of relevant experience with.

Luckily, Wyll speaks before she has to figure out how to open the conversation.

"Ansur is dead."

(A/N: The game bugged and hung the dialogue on this line until I hit space, and it was very amusing that it seemed like Wyll said that and then just fell silent and looked depressed. Valid, my dude.)

"There will be no great tempest roaring through the skies, no dragon redeemer to save us. What hope, then, for Baldur's Gate? Without the great wyrm's aid... is the city doomed to fall?"

Rakha can hear the anxiety in his voice. The strain and despair is unlike him; he has always been a steady presence at her side, guiding her along a path of hope even when she's felt the world shaking apart around her. But not here, not now. He has focused all his hope on finally making his father proud, doing his duty by the city he was thrown out of, bringing back an unstoppable weapon to fight the evil that threatened it.

And now none of that will happen. Rakha swallows, fumbling for some words that might soothe his fear and anger and grief as he has so often soothed hers... but though her mind is quieter now, she is no more facile with comfort and soft words than she was before.

And someone else speaks up before she can find the right thing to say.

"You braved the wyrm's lair seeking a savior," the Emperor rumbles through their minds out of the Prism. "Yet it was you - all of you - who vanquished the undead abomination which Ansur became. You are more powerful than you understand. It is you who are the tempest. It is you who are the Heart of the Gate."

(A/N: Fascinating.

So... I'll be honest - I really don't like this set of two post-Ansur conversations for Wyll. The particular circumstances of Rakha's run, however, do make this really interesting.

It's an open point of discussion in the fandom that a lot of Wyll's quest, particularly in Act 3, feels haphazardly done and unsatisfying; these days I am somewhat intrigued by the theory that he was originally supposed to have story opportunities in the Upper City which then got scrapped. It would certainly explain a lot, because the business with Ansur does not really feel like a thematic conclusion to his arc.

But imo these two conversations are by far the weakest part. As you can see if you look at just the dialogue in this post without my context and descriptions, he bounces ALL over the place from depression to ambition to valor to a weird sort of manic celebratory air, all pretty much without the player's input at all (or regardless of it). Left to its own devices it's a pretty lackluster set of dialogue and in my opinion serves to make the ending of this quest feel even weirder than it already does.

HOWEVER. This really is fascinating in the context of Rakha's run specifically and considering the events that have directly led up to this.

Rakha has been for most of the game loyal to the Emperor and thus able to be manipulated by it.

Ever since meeting Minsc and particularly since their argument in the Astral, that partnership has broken; Rakha now sees through the Emperor's manipulation and has 180'd to pretty much hating it.

Rakha has now also been stripped of her Bhaalspawn heritage - meaning that another thing binding her to the Emperor (the mental peace offered in the Astral) is now also no longer relevant.

The Emperor and Rakha just had ANOTHER fight in the aftermath of battling Ansur, in which they both made it super clear that one of them is probably going to kill the other eventually.

And now... Wyll is in a state of clear despair. (Well, clear-ish. Poor Theo Solomon does his best but this dialogue is, again, so weirdly written that he clearly had trouble figuring out what emotion he was supposed to be going for - but for our story purposes, that first line is definitely despair.) And of all people, the Emperor chimes in out of nowhere and starts talking him up about how cool he is and how it doesn't matter that Ansur is dead because actually Wyll is the Heart of the Gate.

And look how that plays out.)

Rakha's eyes narrow, hearing the Emperor's strange and unexpected words of encouragement - but she sees how they work on Wyll. His head lifts, and some of the bleak despair goes out of his eyes. His lips curl up at the corners in a cautious smile. "You're right," he says, squaring his shoulders. "We are the warriors who'll slay the Absolute. We are the guardians who'll defend this fair city."

Nod along silently.

"The brain will fall." Wyll is warming to the discussion now, his eyes going brighter with eager energy. "And the people will hail us as champions." His eyes widen and his breath catches. "I could even claim my father's own ducal title and carry his banner after this! 'Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard.' Marshal of the Flaming Fist, the city's truest defender!"

(A/N: You see what I mean, maybe, about how fast the tone flips in this conversation. I am very much aware of what they're going for here but the execution just ends up feeling extremely weird.

But... specifically in this story's context, this really ends up reading like the Emperor (who heretofore has shown zero interest in buttering up Wyll) realizing that its goose is cooked as far as Rakha is concerned and instead fixing on this new target at a moment of extreme emotional vulnerability.

And for a moment here, Wyll comes very close to buying it, hook, line, and sinker. Because Blade of Frontiers or not, there is a part of him that does desperately want to return to the city, his city, and take up his father's mantle. The Emperor has played on that subtle aspiration and for just a moment it almost takes over.

I am glad, though, that unlike the business with his pact, we actually do have the option to let Wyll make his own decision here.)

Rakha listens to this speech in silence. She can hear the desperate hope in his voice, the need for her to say yes, yes, you will return to the city and they will love you, they will cheer you for what you did for them, after so long away. But... she doesn't understand it. In all the time she's known Wyll, he has never shown the slightest bit of aspiration for a seat among the patriars. In fact, he's spoken disparagingly of the city's emphasis on the nobility over the less fortunate. He has sacrificed everything of himself for others (including her) on more than one occasion.

But now he pictures a world where he is not only a noble but a Duke, the leader of the Flaming Fist, standing in his father's shoes. Is that what he wants? Does he believe it is required of him? Or is there some other element of this that she does not understand?

Perhaps it is simply that he wants peace, just as she does. Perhaps he is tired of adventuring and wants to return to the city for good. She has no right whatsoever to judge him for that - and yet she wonders. What is the place for me, in such a future?

She feels conscious of the Emperor watching them both. Watching Wyll. She can just barely see the outline of how it is pulling the strings of this conversation, just as it has pulled hers.

But Wyll has never listened to the Emperor. He even warned Rakha away from it. Surely... surely he is stronger than that... And she loves him. She will follow him down whatever path he chooses, as he has followed her.

"Follow your heart, Wyll," she says quietly. After a moment's pause, she reaches out cautiously and grips his hand tightly in hers. "I trust you to make the right decision."

Wyll frowns, looking down at her hand on his. A muscle works in his jaw. Then, after a long moment, he shakes his head. "I fought to right the wrongs of the Coast. To slay the monsters that hunt the helpless," he murmurs. "What good is a champion who puts himself above the people? What good am I as a politician, just out of reach?"

He lifts his head and squares his shoulders firmly. "There will be no Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard. And there will be no Blade of Frontiers. I am now the Blade of Avernus. For as long as demons and devils imperil the Sword Coast, they will be my prey."

(A/N: And now we've whiplashed back the other direction. XD Honestly I think this part of the conversation would be LOADS improved by an actual pause before I fought to right the wrongs of the coast; I described one here but there isn't actually one in game and it just sounds like he changed his mind INSTANTLY. The Blade of Avernus thing also seems to come out of nowhere since he hadn't mentioned any dissatisfaction with being the Blade of Frontiers at any point previously.

It's just odd. But - GO WYLL! IGNORE THE EMPEROR'S MANIPULATION! \o/)

Rakha relaxes. Good. That sounds more like Wyll, like the man she knows, the man who helped guide the broken pieces of her towards something better. She nods again soberly, her hand tightening around his.

Narrator: A calm settles over you. The elder brain is a menace - but with the Blade of Avernus at your side, you know you will triumph.

-----

(A/N: Glad the narrator is so confident about it. :D The other followup conversation is much shorter; it's also tonally weird, but only in the context of everything happening around it. As it stands alone, it is very cute. :3 )

"The Blade of Avernus. A new name for a changed man. The four pillars finally rise within me - Courage, Insight, Strategy, Justice. I'm not to abide them, but to become them. Ah, but enough reflection for today. I'm of a mind to celebrate. A hearty meal would do the trick. A few hunks fresh venison, a round of brown ale - what do you say?"

"Sounds heavenly."

"Wonderful. You hunt the deer, I'll scrounge up the ale. Prepare your belly for roast a la Blade! Let's hope Gale doesn't take offense if I assume cooking duties, just the once."

(A/N: Hector definitely got extra dialogue here about how Wyll has an ulterior motive for wanting to go to Avernus - hunting down Mizora. I'm not sure why it's not popping for Rakha. But we will leave it with this cuteness because this whole conversation has been weird. :P )

[mrcowboytoyou]

The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay (the comic)

The City on the Edge of Forever is arguably a pretty popular episode of TOS and with good reason. It's a pretty dramatic episode and it was influential in forming Kirk's character and inspiring future ST material, both in the beta canon and in fan works.

Fun fact (though a bit off-topic): Edith Keeler is brought up in the novelization for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Bones mentions her and it results in a pretty emotional altercation with Jim. The scene isn't in the film but I think it adds an interesting level to the story especially where Gillian Taylor is concerned. Makes her parting in the end sting a little worse.

"She had a mission in her life, and she wouldn't have given it up to go with you."

A bit of foreshadowing aye? Anyway, this aside, I actually have something else entirely to talk about.

Recently, a trek artifact found its way into my lap. And that is the comic version of Harlan Ellison's original script for The City on the Edge of Forever. The comic isn't that old really, but I'd seen other people talking about it and was excited to of found it out in the wild myself.

For those unaware, the script underwent a lot of changes resulting in pretty different experiences between it and the episode that aired. I think even more than what's in this comic version, which came out in 2015. I've not actually read the original script though.

I did read some commentary from Ellison who's original script apparently ended with Kirk deciding he would save Keeler, because fuck it, he loves her, and Spock saves the day by physically holding him back from doing so.

The episode ended with Kirk stopping McCoy, and by extension himself, from saving Keeler; the comic ends with Kirk hanging back as Spock stops Beckwith (instead of McCoy) from saving Keeler. I do have my opinions on which ending I like best but I'll get to that a bit later.

Since I've not read the original script (except for one exchange which is in the comic and was wholly responsible for my excitement in finding this comic to begin with), I will avoid comparing it to this comic for the most part. While, I'm sure there are differences, at present time I don't know all of them besides what I've already said above.

Instead, I will compare this comic experience to the episode. Besides, there's going to be a lot more differences I think between this and the show rather than this and the script.

So first things first, let's actually talk about the conflict here. I mentioned that instead of McCoy we have an antagonist of the week type named Beckwith. Beckwith is a drug dealer in karkow, which is a drug that resembles comically big, colourful crystals. Seems an unfortunate thing to have to ingest, but it apparently sends you on quiet the whirlwind.

Beckwith has some larger agenda surrounding this drug and has gotten one of his shipmates hooked so that they might, in a drug induced daze, assist him. This other lieutenant references that Beckwith caused a slaughter on Harper V, but I don't know what the details of this are. Looking it up only brought up a dead ensign, may he rest in peace lol.

So, while I'm curious, I don't think that bit of info is important beyond just detailing Beckwith's track record. It's a bit of a strange setup to me in some regard. Like it feels too big of an issue all on its own to just be a component of a story. I mean there was a "slaughter" on a planet because of very expensive and illegal drugs.

Additionally, there is something else very interesting about an antagonist that we aren't attached to, like McCoy. For one, we do not care if he lives or dies. Really we only care that he sees justice, because we care about the motivations of Kirk and Spock.

But in keeping with the episode, the conundrum ultimately becomes about the life or death of Edith Keeler. Beckwith, like McCoy, saves her and now Spock and Kirk have to prevent that. That's interesting because, we are given information that paints Beckwith in no uncertain terms, as a very bad person. Additionally, his saving of Keeler is something one of our leads wants very much to do himself. So it's a interesting dichotomy.

I sorta like that aspect of it a lot. McCoy wants to save Keeler because he's a good person and a doctor. We know that his ignorance and desire to save others motivate him. With Beckwith, its a bit of a mystery, and as an audience we must now think about what it means that Kirk and him might share a want or an instinct to save.

The comic ends with Kirk and Spock discussing this very dilemma. Why might Beckwith of done that? This may be the only part of the comic you'd know at all because it is in the original script, and pictures of the text circulate ST tumblr every so often.

Following this bit of a dialogue Spock asks Kirk why Beckwith would try to save Keeler. An appropriate question given what we know. I think the answer is a bit cryptic but the long and short of it is- humans are capable of good and bad things.

Beckwith, a horrible man, was still capable of saving a woman's life. And Kirk, noble and level headed as he is, can still be selfish. At the end there they mention Keeler and a soldier whom Kirk paid for information. The soldier is homeless and legless but saves Kirk's life when Beckwith fires at him, dying in the process. When they go back to the Guardians Kirk asks if the soldier's life, just as Keeler's, might have affected reality but the answer is no, he was inconsequential.

This cruel uncertainty about the value of people weighs on Kirk. He wasn't inconsequential to him. That man saved his life, and was paramount in finding Beckwith.

I think the ending dialogue is a bit confusing and I don't know if that's just me, but at the end Spock assures Kirk that Keeler was not negligible. Kirk replies, "...but, I loved her".

I think there is a thought which remains unsaid here about the loss of these two. Part of Kirk's confusion and hurt comes from the fact that if Keeler was so important to the future, why couldn't she be saved in some manner? Why was her fate to also die like the soldier, whose loss was labeled as negligible by the Guardians?

In response to this, Spock says:

"No woman was ever loved as much, Jim. Because no woman was ever offered the universe for love."

It's very touching. The value of life isn't lost because someone dies, and your feelings for her aren't without purpose or meaning because you didn't save her. It's something he needs to hear. Shortly after, Spock leaves, and Kirk now alone in his quarters screams into the inky darkness of space as the Enterprise hurtles on to boldly go... Good ending.

There are a lot of parts of the story which hit similar beats to the episode. The plot largely is intact after all but even in the way of dialogue. There are cute moments where Spock doesn't understand the lingo of the time period in both, for instance.

Additionally, the tension that builds between them, and which has been the source of so much fanfic, is very much alive and well in this comic. Some of those scenes play out pretty similarly as they do in the episode. Even the panel designs are reminiscent of shots from the show at times. But there's also bits like this only in the comic that I couldn't stop rereading...

"Captain, fooling me is simple. Just give me the order, I will change my opinion."

WOOF WOOF. Just an absolutely great line. It's the sort of thing only Spock could and would say. There's something about it that is so rich with understated emotion, like the way a dam holds back a flood.

So would I recommend this? Oh, easily!

Is it better than the episode we got? This question is harder to answer so readily, but I think after much thought, I would say no.

So much change is taking place between these adaptions that they're different enough stories to both be fulfilling to experience. There are parts of this comic that I'd of loved to see acted out, for sure. Obviously there are some amazing bits of dialogue that did not make the final cut and that's disappointing; they'll always be in my heart, but I like the canon ending a lot more.

In the show, Kirk's choice to stop McCoy is really very significant. It's not just that he's stopping Bones, he's also stopping himself. He went back to save Bones and also the entire rest of the ship's crew after all. In my mind, Kirk was always going to make this choice no matter what. Yes, he loves Keeler, but it's not like he loves his ship, friends, or crew less. He just loves them in a different way. Ultimately though, he would always do what he needed to do when there proved to be no other option.

So I'd of hated an ending where Kirk defies the beliefs he's consistently maintained throughout the show to save Keeler. I also don't really like that Kirk hangs back in the comic's rendition and that Spock ends up stopping Beckwith. It's less significant for Spock to be the one doing it.

I don't mind Beckwith being there instead of Bones but I do think the drug dealing component to his character feels a bit out of place. As I said in the beginning, something about it feels too large to be just a mere component of an episode. It feels more deserving of its own episode entirely.

In any case, I really liked this comic. The art is beautiful and the back of the book included a bit of how J.K Woodward (the artist) went about creating panels and poses. Despite the fact that I ultimately like the episode we got, this comic is still a great story, so I think it's a nice addition to any Star Trek collection.

[beevean]

I figure your question why Prime has to be canon in a rhetorical one, but I see it as having two intertwined sides:

The people who clamour hardest that spin-offs like Prime and IDW are canon know very well that the games are the true, unshakeable canon that everything else is based off of, and that Sonic will first and foremost remain a game franchise;

We've seen with Archie that, once it was dead, it was dead-dead. The only people with power over the Sonic franchise who care still about it are those who worked on it, like Flynn and Evan. From SoJ, the "lmao we don't care at all" could not be greater. Same with Boom, except no-one in power cares about that anymore, and it is never ever brought up in anything ever again. Sticks got nuked from Tokyo 2020 after appearing in Rio 2016, and her mention in Frontiers is English-only (aka probably at the hands of Flynn).

Thus, once Prime and IDW die, they will most likely die-die as well. Forgotten, unmentioned, with zero interest from those (ultimately SoJ, I figure) who could bring them back, and maybe with some characters appearing in a mobile game and some more toys made of it until it fizzles out and they never show up anymore. I don't get the feeling SoJ is particularly interested by either. Thus, the people who like these spin-offs surely must know that there will be a day that the spin-offs in question are dead in the water.

But if it is canon, if it is a true part of the games, then they can never be forgotten. Then they will always exist, because Sonic as an active franchise will only cease to exist once there are no more games being made!!! (Of course, the franchise will remain, but no new content will be made for it anymore.) That is why I figure it's so important for the true hardcore "but it's CANON😤😤" fans that their spin-off is canon: because if they are not canon, they'll eventually disappear with zero new content for them, while the actual canon part of the franchise will continue. I can understand why that is saddening, but in the same vein, it's also a bit of a delusion considering the many canon-breaking differences between the actual games and the spin-offs that have been extensively doven into already. Not to mention the fact SoJ just might not care for either.

I understand what you said, and from that point of view, it makes sense.

But... that's simply not how it works? Again, Sonic X is arguably the most "canon" adaptation so far: SEGA was more directly involved, and it straight up adapted some of the games of the time. And yet, it's not relevant anymore. Flynn had to confirm, as if there was any need, that he can't bring back anything from that anime, because they don't own the rights.

Canon is not a badge of honor you can earn! It doesn't elevate a work above others. It simply is a collection of "official" material that a newcomer might need to catch up on to understand a franchise. Not even all games are canon - Knuckles' Chaotix, for example.

IDW was originally pitched as being an alternative timeline of sort, splitting from Forces, and it still is since Frontiers came out more than a year ago and IDW doesn't seem to have any intention of including its events. It's not canon. Whatever your opinion on the comic is, it's its own thing. Tangle being namedropped in Frontiers, in an easily missable optional line, is about as canon as the SatAM characters appearing in the bonus stages of Spinball.

Archie might be completely dead, but it's still kept alive in the hearts of many fans. That's the most a spinoff can get. That's just how it works.

[smilepebble]

6, 7 & 10 for the pmd ask thingy?

uhhh this one got long so it's under the cut. i have many thoughts and opinions on the pokemon mystery dungeon franchise

6. which game has the best soundtrack?

that's a tough question... i feel like all the games have extremely well done and unique soundtracks. they're just all really good and made by very talented people. that said, my personal favorites definitely come from the 3d games. i think psmd's soundtrack is my favorite, mostly bc i have such a personal connection to it. but i am also a huge fan of gates' ost too, especially with its use of leitmotifs. the theme of hope and magnagate arrangements make me go crazy every time i hear them

7. which game has the best postgame?

this is a hard question for different reasons... bc really pmd2 has the most substantial postgame out of the whole series. the rest of the series' postgames are just "do some special missions and get legendaries" and/or "bring back the hero/partner". ive only played the pmd2 postgame in its entirety once (which... is very surprising considering it's by far my most replayed game), and i found that it explores the relationship between the hero and partner in a really interesting way!

but honestly i think that the postgame i'm most passionate about is psmd's. i mean... if you need proof, just look at the huge psmd hero analysis i made and the (sadly unfinished) psmd epilogue rewrite i was working on early last year. i care about psmd's epilogue not really because i thought it was good, but more because i think it could have been good. like... it's fine as is i guess, but i was very disappointed about two things: how mew's character is handled, and how nuzleaf's redemption arc (or, let's be real, lack thereof) is handled.

mew, as a character, is only really there to service the hero and partner. they're used as a constant reminder of partner in order to explore hero's grief. by itself, this isn't a bad writing choice, but mew as a character is not really developed beyond this point. i think it would be interesting to see how mew is different from partner, and that hero won't be able to find partner through them (other than the very literal way). we never really get mew's feelings on being compared to partner either, which could have created a very complex relationship between them and hero! imagine you're just a little kid, and an older kid is your only friend and caretaker, but you constantly remind them of the dead friend they were looking for when they found you. are you really wanted, then? do they actually care about you, or do they just care about what you remind them of?

i feel like i've already talked about how nuzleaf was handled here at length, but it's just disappointing how his redemption is just "he played the villain again but it helped partner come back so he's all redeemed now". plus the fact that "he wasn't actually evil, he was just possessed by the actual bad guy!". it's just... i don't know. he was a very important character to me when i first played psmd on release, because it was the first time i really experienced a character resembling an abusive parent that wasn't like. comically evil. not to get too personal, but it did help me make some realizations in my own life. so i wish nuzleaf's redemption involved more effort on his end to better himself, instead of "oh he's acting evil again but it's justified this time".

10. what starters would you add?

OH MAN HAVE I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS... especially back in 2022 when me and a few friends were playing around with an original pmd game idea. i spent entire days making so many portrait sprites of potential hero/partner characters and i had to like... physically make an effort to take breaks. fun times!

anyway, aside from the gens 7-9 starters and the obvious fan favorites (alolan vulpix, both zorua forms, rockruff, growlithe, both sneasels, etc.), here were the new starter ideas we were throwing around for that pmd game idea: ralts, glameow, buneary, pawniard, misdreavus, kubfu, trapinch, deerling, joltik, pikipek, mareep, deino, tinkatink, helioptile, bagon, dwebble, minccino, murkrow, fidough, swablu, and venonat.

personally id love to see more ghost, flying, and bug type starters. and like less popular more quirky starters too! like of course your pmd team can be whatever you like, but i sometimes get kinda bored only seeing teams that are just a combination of like... eevee, riolu, vulpix, shinx and fennekin over and over and over again. it's fun to branch out and try new pokemon from time to time! you never know what new favorites you'll get! also just imagine playing as dwebble. have you seen how adorable she is? imagine how amazing that would be

[chenfordsbby]

"The Ride Along"

Season 1 Episode 7: “The Ride Along”

“Sergeant Grey informs Nolan and officer Bishop that they are going to have a movie director as a ride-along.  Bradford learns that his wife has been arrested for drug possession”

Original Air Date: December 4th, 2018

Written By: Robert Bella

Directed By: Cherie Nowlan

Before we start another episode, I just want to express all of the continued love and support and likes and re-blogs and thought and opinions on everything that I have shared so far!  I know there has been a multitude of re-watch blogs this hiatus so for everyone who has stuck with me and will continue to stick with me, the appreciation is endless so thank you!!  With that being said, shall we begin!

This is the best cold open we have seen so far, with the cutest premise of why it was done, “Make-a- Cop Wish Foundation”! One of the many reasons why this show is flat out amazing.

Ben is back, and putting Nolan in his place, get out there and stop being a sad little puppy.  I mean, Nolan is acting like a whiny child.  If this is how he is acting after the breakup with Lucy, who he was only dating for a few months, I can only imagine how he acted after his divorce from his wife of 20 years. 

Im glad there is another episode with Lucys hair still in her braid buns, I wish they lasted longer.

Grey asks what one of the worst days on the job can be with the vets giving all different answers, but according to Grey, it is The VIP Ride Along.  The officers have to limit the calls they take as to not put the VIP in any danger, have to make sure the VIP is getting treated as such, but also while still doing there job as well. “He doesn’t get anywhere near danger” Sounds like its going to be a slow day for Bishop and Nolan.  Every call that comes in over the radio gets bypassed by Nolan and Bishop until they get a less than thrilling one, no action to put the VIP in danger.   They respond to the call which seems to be innocent, but Bishop and Nolan enter a house unsecured which reveals a dead body.  VIP continues to want to toss money around to make this house call pass by, which shows his arrogance, this is something exciting for him, but for John and Talia, this is the proper protocol for what they have to do when put in this situation, this is still their job, and they need to do it the right way, no matter if VIP is there or not. 

Bishop and Nolan respond to another call, a family disturbance.  Nolan and Bishop both see that the distressed man has mental issues and they quickly de-escalate the situation without any force.  They inform the family that he will be placed in a 24 hour mental facility hold which is better suited for their brother than putting him in a jail holding cell.

Taking Ben’s advice, John accepts the invitation to go to VIP’s house party that night and maybe it was a good thing he was there too- he saved a girl from being roofied!  I still appreciate that Nolan is still the comedic factor of every episode in some way. The next day, while out on patrol John and Talia answer a personal call on Johns phone and it is VIP under attack from the family of the disturbance call from the previous day. Turns out maybe VIP isn’t such a bad guy after all- he called up the family from the previous days arrest and offered to pay for a spot in a mental facility and they took it completely the wrong way and attacked him.  Ive said it before and I’ll say it again, as much as Nolan is the comedy relief, he also has a way with his words and he knows how to use them well- he could talk himself and others out of any situation.  At the end of the episode, John video calls his son, and it’s the first time we see him being a dad!  Obviously we are going to see him again soon as John mentions he will buy tickets to fly his son out to LA!  This show continues to have a good balance between the professional and personal aspects of all of their characters!

This is the first we hear of Angela being interested in the open detective position.    Angela wants to move up, and thanks to Jackson, she has some inside intel.  When Angela and Jackson respond to the 9-1-1 call, they see a kid electrocuting himself, solely to get an adrenaline rush.  Jackson is quick to make an arrest, but Angela stops him after doing a quick canvas of the scene.  She spots all stolen hospital property,  and is already thinking 5 steps ahead: you have to go through all of the minnows to get to the big shark. 

Angela’s detectives skills are very visible and apparent this episode, she knows how good she can be as a detective and she wants to make it known.  Not only is she putting her potential detective skills in use, but she is also teaching Jackson how to long for a bigger picture in making certain arrests happen, also like thinking of a food chain, how to use the bottom feeders to get to the top.  At the end of the episode though, it turns out that Angela got way ahead of herself and the big guy on top turns out to be a dead end as Captain Anderson informs them.  The prospect of Angela potentially getting the tap and becoming detective got the best of her that day and she got a little over her head?  It’s upsetting for Angela, but Jackson is there for her every step of the way and continues to support her.  It is nice to see Angela and Jacksons budding friendship in this episode, it seems to be evolving into a really special bond. 

Now onto the #Chenford of it all (our favorite part of every episode)!

Tim and Lucy are still at the station, with Tim un-patiently waiting for Lucy to grab their shops gear when Grey summons Tim into his office.  Once in the office, Grey informs Tim of a recent drug bust, and the arrested suspect is Isabel.  You can see Tim’s heart drop into his stomach at that news.  I wish we could be inside Tim’s head here, because he is clearly reeling from this information.  Tim hasn’t seen or heard from Isabel in a year, and then after one random day while on the job, she’s back in his life and not the way that Tim was hoping for.  Every time he’s seen her since, its been at the police station, and it is evident she is till on drugs, which continues to cause major stress on their already strained marriage.  How much more can it take?  How much more can Tim take?

It’s like Tim is in the twilight zone for a bit this episode.  He doesn’t know what to think, act or feel, and is kind of just there.  For a man who claims to never show no emotion, you can see every one written across his face and in his eyes when he watches from afar, the detectives bring Isabel into the station.  I wish I could jump though my screen and give Tim a hug.  I feel like that’s what he needs right now, a hug from someone who will never let him go. (Ahem Lucy!!!)

The detectives let Grey and Tim in on what is going on with Isabel and what will happen with her now that she was arrested.  Isabel is deep with heroin, and with other heroin dealers. The detectives do make a good point, “Is he a cop or the suspects husband”; Tim is really caught between a rock and a hard place in this episode.  Does he put his feelings aside and practice what he preaches to Lucy and be the cop, or does he put his professionalism on the back burner and be Isabels husband in her time of need and help her out, even though she probably doesn’t deserve it.  What is Tim to do, or feel? 

Tim and Lucy bring in a suspect for public urination, but I think it is a ruse for Tim to get himself bak to the station to see Isabel, I mean, even Lucy knows this arrest is nonsense but she has Tim’s back, so she just does as he says.  Lucy spots Tim looking at Isabel and lets him know that shell keep an eye out for the detectives so he can have a conversation with Isabel.

We know what Tim and Isabels relationship is like now, but it makes me wonder what their relationship was like for the past 10 years.  How long was it good until it got bad?  How were they at work together? How were they like at home?  This episode makes me want to know so much more about Tim.  Isabel knows she’s in big trouble for heroin possession, which is why she asks Tim to do the unthinkable and get rid of the stashed heroin at her ‘sometimes boyfriends’ house so the cops don’t find it when they raid the apartment. I can only imagine how that made Tim feel- having your current wife talk about her boyfriend, like a knife to an already bleeding wound.  In my opinion, I think Isabel begging Tim to help her is out of pure selfishness.  She knows what will happen to her if she goes to prison, and she will do any means necessary to stay out of it, and that includes begging Tim to help her with this. In no way does she ever think about what she’s asking Tim to do will affect him, but why would she though.  It’s an interesting choice when the camera pans to Lucy right after Isabel asks him to hide her stash, I wonder why?

Later that night, a stealthy looking Tim breaks himself into Isabels apartment, he opens the heating unit and finds the heroin exactly where Isabel said it would be, and in that moment we don’t see what his decision is as he’s back on the streets.  Is this rock bottom for Tim and Isabel’s relationship?  When they exchanged vows 10 years ago, I don’t think Isabel asking Tim to confiscate kilos of heroin from her sometimes boyfriends apartment was a thought.  How does not only a strained relationship, but also strained marriage recover from a situation like this?  I mean, can it ever recover and go back to what it used to be?

Tim almost gets in his car until Lucy steps out of hers.  My first though when Lucy gets out of her car is how did she know that Tim was going to be there, but it brings us back to when Lucy was listening into the conversation between Tim and Isabel in the holding cell, Lucy has always been listening, this entire time. 

Lucy is there for Tim.  Just like we don’t know what Tim decided to do, neither does Lucy, but that doesn’t matter.  Tim and Lucy have only known each other for 2 months, but in those 2 months, Lucy has learned who Tim is.  I mean he doesn’t make it easy for her to forget.  Lucy knows that if he does help her, it will completely change him as not only a cop, but a person and maybe even as a husband.  That is why Lucy is there, to remind Tim of that, and after she does, is silence is loud. There is no response from him, he just walks away and I really do believe it’s because he knows that she’s right.  Lucy knows that if Tim did this for Isabel, it would just put her back on the streets, and right back into a cycle, learning nothing from it.  Lucy just knows. There was no reason why Lucy needed to show up that night to talk to Tim, she just knew that she had to, no matter how much shit she would get for it from him the next day. This was one of those moments that furthered their friendship, even though neither of them realized it at the time.  

The next morning, Tim pretends as if nothing happened from the previous night. His  decision is revealed that he actually didn’t help Isabel and he left the heroin in the apartment as told to us by Grey.  Lucy tells Tim that he did the right thing, so why does Tim look like he didn’t.  Not that Isabel deserves anything from Tim, but he apologies to her that he didn’t or couldn’t help her and she is quick to dismiss it; which just shows how much she isn’t willing to change.  At no point in this entire episode was Isabel thinking of anybody but herself whereas Tim was thinking of everybody but himself.  And by everybody, I mean Isabel.  She claims that because of what Tim didn’t do, that they will never know if she could’ve actually changed and gotten her life together, but I think that deep down, Tim knows that she would’ve just ended right back in the streets, repeating the same cycle.  And that’s why he made the choices that he made.  Isabel’s lashing out at Tim is misplaced and uncalled for and Tim just takes it, what else can he do, he just signed over a prison sentence to his wife. 

At the end of this episode, Tim is sitting in silence in his car when Angela and Talia show up and enter his space.  They already know what Tim is going to say, but that doesn’t mater for them, whether he likes it or not, the girls are there for him, jus like they have been and always will be.  That is what friends do.  Angela and Talia were friends with not only Tim, but Isabel as well, and watched the marriage start to fall apart and they are going to be there to pick up all of Tim’s broken pieces and help put them back together again; well mainly Angela, and a lot of Lucy, because Lucy is and will always be exactly who Tim needs, he just doesn’t know it yet!

______________________________________________________________

Honorable Mention: Lucy’s baby, her car!

Episode Peak: Jackson & Angela

Episode Pit: Distraught Tim

Quote of the Episode: “No, I came here to remind you that you’ll regret helping her.  Because it’s not gonna change her, but it’ll sure as hell change you” ~ Lucy Chen

Episode Rating: 8/10.  I enjoyed this episode.  Not only did it give us one of the best Season1 Chenford scenes, but it also shows the blooming friendship between Jackson and Angela! 

__________________________________________________________

Another episode down! Thank you, thank you, thank you again for reading and chiming in! I truly appreciate it! 7 episode down, only 91 more to go!!!!

Until next time on, "Get in the Shop"...

[catflowerqueen]

I am glad that Sun survived, and that he actually isn’t in as bad a shape as I’d feared. Yeah, his physical body is messed up, but his programming, memory, and basic functionality seem fine, which is the more important bit. It will be interesting to see what the brothers’ new upgrades look like. I just hope they won’t be too… extravagant? Like, that they will still retain the essence of their original selves. If that makes sense.

And speaking of their original selves, it was actually pretty cool to get the answer to Moon’s question from way back in the “Moondrop’s Sad Origins” episode on whether or not Sun could actually still do the bodily transformation into Moon’s form—yes he can. Or at least he partially can. Still no confirmation on whether or not Moon put that functionality into his current body, though. I think it makes more sense for him to have let them out, but if the computer is saying that his body/shell is similar enough to Sun’s that both are able to be upgraded in roughly the same way, then he might have just done an exact copy when making his current body. Well, expect for not including a knife arm, but that was never in the original plans, so…

I will also be curious about what they do as far as the messed-up memories of everyone else subplot goes. I mean. I feel like Glamrock Freddy and Circus Baby were the only ones left who still had an absolute negative opinion, but there are a few different avenues they could explore. If Monty’s theory about the star’s destruction undoing the spell is correct, then the question becomes whether or not whoever was still affected would even be aware of the revert to normalcy, or whether it is a situation where they can’t remember ever holding the negative opinion and things just get rewound—so basically a reverse of what Eclipse did. If the star’s destruction has no effect on the spell—which is equally likely since they were thinking that the solar base is still functioning despite needing star power to shield it—then the spell might still be in effect and need to be manually removed, which could lead to some interesting situations if Glamrock Freddy finds out that Eclipse is dead and Sun and Moon killed him.

Of course, the more likely scenario in either case is that he just never bothers to show up or talk to the two of them one way or another. Like. This isn’t exactly a situation where I would expect anyone to come apologize—or at least, I wouldn’t be upset with them if they didn’t, since it isn’t like its their fault that their memories got messed with—but… still. Some acknowledgement of their existence would be nice. Like. Moon didn’t count any of them when he was listing off his allies to Eclipse, and I’m pretty sure only regular Freddy is the only one who even knew about Lunar’s existence. And even he didn’t get informed of Lunar’s death. And none of them knew about Moon’s own memory situation, even though Glamrock Freddy actually interacted with him the same day he woke back up. Golden Freddy is an exception to all of this, of course, but he is also kind of an outlier in general, so he doesn’t really count.

Other notes… Timeline-wise I’m thinking that yesterday’s Monty and Foxy channel episode where Earth was a special guest actually takes place after todays lore episodes on both that channel and the Sun and Moon one given that Earth went to Monty for help with Sun and Moon asked them to let her stay over for a few days while they waited for Sun’s (and Moon’s) upgrades to come in. Technically it would also explain why Foxy is no longer kidnapped by various entities, but without Moon asking for her to stay over that could just be explained away as their using up some pre-recorded gaming videos.

And speaking of the Monty and Foxy channel, it was actually rather heartwarming today to see just how much Monty really does care about Foxy. Yes, they were still being jokesy and brusque with him, but the care and concern was obvious. And, like, they intended to give Foxy a magical, flying pirate ship for a birthday present. That’s not the kind of present you give someone you don’t really care about. It also seems like Foxy might not hold too much of a grudge toward Ruin over getting beaten up, which is kind of nice if Ruin really is engaging in some sort of “battle of the mind” and fighting from within and is actually trying to be better. It was also hilarious to see—well, hear—them deliberately damaging the ship.

It is a bit sad that we never got to see them interact with Eclipse, though. It also makes me wonder if they will consider their debt to regular Freddy paid now, or if they’ll feel honor-bound to help him in some other way.

Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention in my analysis of the Sun and Moon show episode is that they seem to have forgotten—again—that they do, actually, know someone who is monitoring star power. And… honestly, they kind of missed an interesting direction to take the plot on that front. Like… when the computer said that Earth ran off, my first thought was that her sleeper-agent protocols were activating and she’d gone to make a report to the Creator on what Sun just did. And I suppose there’s still a bit of wiggle room in that if they want to say she stopped to make a call on the way to Monty/will still do that later, but… it just felt like a missed opportunity to me. Not that I actually want Earth to be a villain, unknowing or otherwise, but I would like the writers to at least not forget that plot point exists. Because, really, unless this is some sort of “heat of the moment/panicking over Sun’s condition” deal, Sun and Moon should definitely at least remember that the Creator was looking into the star’s situation when Eclipse was messing around with it.

Oh, also, one more thing—I had to laugh when Sun seemed most upset about his ribbons getting messed up. It’s a nice reminder that he used to willingly play model for Chica and Roxy’s fashion shows and has mentioned dressing up before.

The next arc is sure to be interesting.

[lunanoc]

Is there a dmbj fandom space of sort that's... Not focused on Liu Chang characters? Or to put a positive angle on it, I'd love to talk about dmbj canon and its characters and their on page/screen interactions or how the books and sites compare but I'm not really sure where to do that? Do you have a discord or tumblr tag or blog suggestions? (Or if that doesn't exist, this is a marker of interest if you make one. I think there's actually if nothing else a lot of people in this fandom who are interested in pingxie who don't know where to go to talk to each other because it seems like most of the fandom spaces apart from the yucun discord are pretty dead)

hi anon! i’m both glad and sad you asked because i get that feeling and i’m sorry to say there’s… not really much of a good answer i can give you 🫠 though i can offer the start of one at least

a lot of the problem is the people you’re talking about, for reasons i don’t fully understand myself, have come to take up most of the visibility in the public fandom spaces to almost the exclusion of anyone and everything else. this is definitely a hot and likely unpopular take, but it’s gotten to the point where ironically (as far as the english speaking fandom goes at least, the chinese fandom is very different) in some respects, pingxie has become something of a “rarer” pair these days by comparison to ships involving more minor characters, particularly ones involving the characters you mentioned, and i find wu xie and xiaoge themselves are less talked about outside of the context of those ships than the characters you mentioned as a whole. and this isn’t a post meant to dunk on those particular interests, just my opinion on what the dmbj fandom is like at this point in time. the issue is, like you said, it leaves the people who aren't interested in that lost and with no one to talk to despite i'm sure there being a lot of us that would love a place to actively engage with each other

as far as places to talk about pingxie and the dmbj canon in general outside of that, in my experience tumblr doesn’t have all that much to offer apart from a few isolated people unfortunately. just checking the main tags tells you as much, but there are a few people. but i also know tumblr isn’t necessarily the best space for genuine conversations as i get the feeling that’s more what you’re looking for (correct me if i’m wrong). there’s a bit more going on on twitter, but it’s also fairly marginal and it also depends on what it is you want to talk about (and also, it’s twitter).

for discord servers, i can suggest 3 options, two of which i’m sure you’ve probably heard of:

the “dmbj (盗墓笔记)” server (https://discord.gg/xjTSVdUP), which was the original server created before the yucun one was and is technically the largest one (the yucun discord server actually broke off from it in part to be a space more dedicated to liu sang and liu chang characters and eventually became the fandom’s most active hub). fair warning, it’s pretty dead in the sense most of the minimal talk that goes on there isn’t really about dmbj at all, and is more generally drama-oriented. it’s also not strictly dedicated to pingxie

the “dmbj book-centric fun times” server (https://discord.com/invite/z7ZNNEbv3P), which as its name suggests, is book-oriented rather than drama-oriented. it’s also pretty dead apart from one or two sporadic posts from time to time, which i see as partly the consequence of a good chunk of the dmbj fandom either not having read the books or not particularly caring about them by comparison to other things. that being said, if enough people went there, i’m sure it could be more active. this one is also not strictly dedicated to pingxie

the “盗墓笔记 - changbai mountain” server, which is going to be my biased suggestion as it’s a tiny server started somewhat recently by myself and a couple of other friends who felt the same and wanted to try and create a safe space to talk about pingxie (and other ships if relevant, though by this i mostly mean heihua for now) and the dmbj canon and its characters as a whole. it’s very small atm and as active as it can be given that, and while it’s open to anyone interested, because of previous experiences with some people in the fandom, i would need you to get off anon and dm me if you (or anyone else reading this) is interested (as long as you’re comfortable with that ofc) as i don’t necessarily feel comfortable posting a public invite. for the record, anyone interested is very welcome to dm, we really do need more alternative fandom spaces

i’m sorry i can’t help more anon, but i hope this is something of an ok answer even if it’s not the best one

[cousticks]

what makes arthur rimbaud your favourite bsd character?

Alright this is the first of my set of asks I'm answering today. And also possibly my most fascinating. Rimbaud is a character I post a lot about, sure, but I'm really curious as to what makes you think he's my favorite? If anything, from my profile, I'd expect someone to assume its Verlaine.

Now, as to why he's a compelling character I like to write posts about? That I can certainly discuss. And its gonna be long, so I'll put a break in here.

Here's the thing. I don't anymore, but when I was first introduced to Rimbaud (when S3 came out) I absolutely hated him. This was back in 2019, but boy oh boy. That's the thing though, he still made me have a pretty strong emotional reaction, even then, before I'd even read the novel.

I want to detour for a second and talk about one of my favorite classes I've taken, with my favorite literature professor. The class itself doesn't matter here, but for it, we read Gone Girl. And if you've never read Gone Girl or seen the movie, all the context you need to know is that almost every single character in that sucks. They're all terrible people. And the next day I came into class literally stomping and screaming about how much I hated how it ended, and everything leading up to it. And my professor laughed and told the class about how after she'd seen the movie she was so mad about it she kicked a wall coming out of the theatre. She had the same reaction as me. And that's exactly why she taught that book. I still think about it often, because really, it was incredible how much emotion I got from it. I was downright pissed. And that's how I knew it was, in my opinion, well written, to get that much out of me.

Circling back to Rimbaud, I didn't really have as strong of a reaction as I did with that book, but he made me uncomfortable. I didn't like him. (I had similar progressions with Dazai, where I used to absolutely hate him, and with Verlaine as well after my first Stormbringer read.) A lot of the characters I originally despised are some of my favorites now. They get some emotion out of me, they give me a reaction, they catch my attention. Sometimes hate makes you think about something far more than more positive feelings do. (Even if that hate later converts into something kinder.)

Rimbaud... isn't my favorite, as far as which characters make me happy or so, but he's very very interesting to me and I do love to think about him. When you think about the grander scheme of BSD, we don't know the full backgrounds of a lot of characters, they just kind of show up as they are and we don't know much about their lives before the series. Rimbaud, we actually know a good deal, about how he had to give up his family and be presumed dead to work as a spy. He's also a little different, because we get a really interesting insight to his inner thoughts via his journal in Stormbringer. We don't get such an open, honest look into a character like that very often in this franchise. Between his lost, memory addled appearance in 15 and virtually his entire life fleshed out in Stormbringer, I didn't hate him anymore. He was interesting. There was so much to work with, and his own motivations and loyalties were fascinating. I made a post earlier about how sure, he tried to kill Chuuya (and Dazai in association) but really, both he and Chuuya were looking into Arahabaki for similar reasons, to unlock their past. All of the times we actually see Rimbaud, he's not that much different from a ghost, including at the end of Stormbringer when he's akin to an actual ghost, but we learn so much about him through his journals and Verlaine's memories.

He's lost, he's trying his best to figure out who he is based on what he could piece together, he's trying to find out what happened to the dear friend he thought he killed, he's likely been a spy during the Great War since his early teens, and he and Verlaine's entire story in the background of Stormbringer is such a special shade of tragic.

So, anon, I hope you kind of got your answer here about why I talk about Rimbaud so much. TL:DR, its hard not to when there's so much to talk about.

[walpu]

so for her name, i went with the animal breeds because i originally planned to flesh out her planet a little bit more and establish an almost animalistic society within, where the main species was like the foxians with long life spans and animal qualities like ears and tails. so calico was named after her hybrid species, a calico cat. she originally had ears and a tail and i scrapped it for a little while but now im bringing it back because i am cringe but i'm free.

tabby was named as a parallel, another cat breed, but also different at the same time. since she was a replica of calico *without* the wounds and mental scars, she's almost like an idealized version of calico. tabby is almost everything that calico could have been, and yet failed to be.

so there's calico and tabby, the latter being a replica of the original. and her older sister's name was corgi, the dog breed. i've decided on a last name for them but i don't think i'm gonna reveal that juuuuusssttttt yet. i mean, calico herself doesn't even know about her last name. her sister's baby's name was going to be lykoi, which is another cat breed and her sister's husband's name was going to be shepherd, a dog breed, but ultimately i decided not to name either because it felt like too tiny of a detail to share in a dream.

so calico doesn't hate the ipc, unfortunately. they were the ones who ultimately found her on her dead planet, and then they took care of her when she was in that coma, and then even after while she was recovering. unfortunately, most people within the ipc were just mostly curious about her state of being and not actually caring about what happened to her. she'd been exposed to a stellaron burst for over 200 years and lived on a desolate planet with virtually no food or shelter and no human interaction ( aside from,, well the aeon but does nanook even really count at this point ? ) she was far, far too interesting of a study.

you can imagine how she felt being poked and prodded and tested every single day while she was in recovery, and there were definitely some invasive screenings done that she definitely didn't enjoy, but as long as the doctor's said that they were required, she didn't question them all that much. who was she to question who saved her life ? why would she ever think about why these tests where done when they were telling her it was because they needed to properly understand her to help her ?

regardless of how friendly or not friendly she is with the ipc, she enjoys her job at the planetary protection division, and it brings her solace knowing that she could be saving someone in her exact predicament with each world that she steps onto. what she doesn't know is that her offers for help dont come from for free for these planets, and she's usually got a member or two of the strategic investment department there to handle the business side of things while she got her hands dirty and actually helped the planet recover from their crisis. sometimes these planets are able to pay for these services, sometimes they get put on a loan plan, it really just depends on how the planet was fairing. her job is to be those people who offered the ipc's assistance to belobog which gave them some of their technology but ultimately almost got them in serious trouble if it weren't for topaz and the trailblazers.

oh she absolutely compares tabby and corgi subconsciously. calico doesn't remember anything about her sister or her life before she woke up with the ipc, but her body does. sometimes she'll find herself longing for something, missing something that she can't grasp. maybe a lost memory, maybe a lost person. that feeling only grows when she's around tabby, someone who's so much like her its scary. corgi was a loud and opinionated person, and she didn't shy away from saying what's on her mind, often embarrassing calico in the process, exactly like tabby. i kind of want tabby to be like corgi in some ways, and like calico in other ways, something that unnerves calico.

tabby reminds her of someone that she can't remember, giving her a longing sense of deja vu. ratio does too, to be fair. not only did she know him from her past when he went to school at veritas prime, but in her original story, i had planned for her to be on that flight when the stellaron burst because a man had gone missing, and she was the only one who hadn't given up looking for him. that man wasn't ratio, but he was someone like him. intelligent, a little tsundere and mean, but ultimately he cared for the good of the world. calico sees this man that she had been trying so hard to find in ratio, even if she doesn't know it herself. her past will always catch up to her.

ultimately i want her to find peace. but whether that peace is a long life or.... a shorter one, i haven't decided yet. on one hand, i find it almost cruel to kill her within any story plot simply because she's survived for so long, and it would feel like all of that was for nothing just for her to die. on the other hand, she struggling internally with a lot of problems. her body is scarred, her heart is scarred, and she can't recall any memories of who she was. she had to build her personality up from scratch, while dealing with recovery and invasive testing from the ipc. her entire life for a long time became centered around her lost memories and her wounds, and that's still very much prevalent in her life, although she doesn't talk about it much.

if you look at her, you wouldn't think that she had gone through anything. she's bright and cheerful most times, with a ' we can always find a way ' attitude who's always willing to push through any obstacles to find the way forward. but those are her coping mechanisms for her heart inside. i think its mean to say it, but i think she was almost cheating death by surviving, and i think cheating death will never go right in the end. eventually its going to catch up to her, and she wont be ready when it does. she's lived a long life as a long life species, but it can always be cut short.

im torn between two options for her end :

1) nanook's power comes to her aid when she's on her last leg, but tapping into the emanator's power that had laid dormant within her tears her body apart. she'd gone through too much and her disposition was too weak to unleash such a power, and she just couldn't hold on anymore. it's a physical manifestation of everything coming out at once, and its not pretty. she dies within ratio's arms, her run towards death finally slowed down as she reached the finish line. and shes content. she'd lived too long, and too hard of a life to continue any further. she was no closer to happiness than when she started, but.. she felt something akin to happiness when she's in ratio's arms, when he looks at her. its only fitting she dies in his arms, considering he had saved her life once before, he should be there when it ends as well. in this ending, they are not lovers, and she never confessed her feelings for him, but inside, they both knew.

ratio lives knowing that she spent her last moments as happy as she could be. whether that's any solace or not is up for debate. maybe he throws himself into his work, because he could have done more. maybe he grieves her silently, maybe he doesn't grieve her at all, knowing that her pain has finally come to an end.

tabby, in the end, takes her place as the head of the planetary protection division, and picks up the name calico because no one would know the difference between the two of them. well. no one except ratio. she lives as calico, and 'tabby' was the one who died that night, not calico. this isn't the clone taking her life, this is her clone living the life that calico would have wanted for herself. and who knows, maybe ratio could even learn to love the imitation of the woman he lost, too.

2) the happier ending !! but ultimately a little less resolving. she continues her job within the planetary protection division, and makes friends within the ipc. however, the ipc eventually figure out that she has the power of the destruction within her, and they have to make a choice. a lot of people choose to support her from the shadows, like aventurine. other people, however, their loyalties lie too close with the ipc, and they cut her off, like topaz and jade. and they will hunt her down and strike her like an enemy if they see her, even if it hurts. ratio's given the choice, but he declines because he cares about her far more than he had ever cared about the ipc. aligning himself with the ipc was a means to the end, a way to spread knowledge around the world. it was not ever his goal to be loyal to the company, merely to use them for his own means.

tabby stays behind within the ipc, and she takes over as head ( you'll notice this happens with both endings, this is on purpose ) and it causes almost a rift between the people within the ipc. those who stand by calico, and those who stand by tabby. there will be some type of conflict in the end, and one of the girls will lose their lives at the end of the day. the girl who comes out of it.. well

who knows ?

they look exactly the same. they act exactly the same. they are exactly the same, just one has no trauma, and the other is a deeply scarred individual. so who knows at the end of the day which girl came out alive during that conflict, the clone, or the real one ? the ipc issues an official statement that after a thorough investigation, ' calico ' had been cleared of any suspicions of having a relationship with the aeon of destruction, and she's cleared to start working with the ipc again. ratio is obviously distrustful but maybe its better this way ? living in blissful ignorance, sometimes even the doctor of truth knows when to not search for the correct answer. sometimes life is better when you simply dont know something. all he knew was that the girl in front of him smiled warmly at him in the mornings, and she would be there when he came home from work with food on the stove ready for him. and that was enough.

alternative, secret possible ending of the second one : tabby had been the victor of that fight, but calico didn't die. instead, the aeon saved her when she was on her last leg again, but she survived bringing back the power of the emanator. now she's aligned with the shadows as a ghost, watching the world that had condemned her and waiting for its inevitable demise. after all, theres only so much one can go through before they snap mentally.

PLEASE LER HER HEAL

It's very cool that her lore is so detailed!! I'm a huge fan of stories about healing so hope she'll find her peace and survives in the end😭

btw i don't think Topaz would actually cut her off, she doesn't even speak badly about the stellaron hunters so I really don't think her opinion about calico would change, she'll just won't be as open about their friendship. plus i'm still praying for hoyo to do something with Topaz's arc and let her see that she's deluded herself about their good intentions

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Nostalgia is a fleet of tug boats in the front and rear of a massive ship or tanker. They will lovingly push and guide the ship forward into familiar waters, but they can't carry it the entire way home. They have a limited distance of travel and don’t sail past the point of no return. Unfortunately, many franchises have yet to learn that lesson and rely on those tug boats for life. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was guided perfectly and went full speed ahead into new and uncharted waters with curiosity and warmth in its heart. I walked into this film knowing that the waves of nostalgia would brush up against this new story, but I felt this time that it started pummel the otherwise overly crowded ship. At first, I was loving the day to day ghostbusting with the new team and where they all ended up. Shortly after, the film started to take a turn in relying on too many reused moments, lackluster comedy that stopped the tension dead in its tracks and a vast number of characters that were given too little to do or were contradictory to one another. There were 4 out of the 6 plotlines that should've been the main focus of the film and would've driven the plot home to a more powerful conclusion. The amount of character development would've been more interesting and not so watered down and unfocused.

Mckenna Grace returns as Phoebe Spengler and she exudes the same amount of charm she had from the previous film. She begins to showcase that teenage rebellious angst in this film and it was interesting to see her befriend someone unexpected. She has a lot of pent up rage and its on full display at times. Finn Wolfhard as Trevor Spengler this time around nails that "I'm an adult now so treat me like one" attitude and it was fine, but that's really the extent of his development and I was a little saddened by that. Carrie Coon returns as their mother Callie Spengler and I still liked her protective and sometimes chill nature. I do wish she was a bit more stern and not so easy going when it came to some of the sass she receives from Phoebe. Paul Rudd returns as her boyfriend Gary Grooberson and I loved his chemistry with the family. He truly shines when he is trying to be a bigger part of the Spengler family and I found that was truly the heart of the film in many ways. Logan Kim continues to steal scenes as the loveable and intense Podcast. I would totally watch an entire film about his adventures with Phoebe and Ray Stanz or the rest of the younger ghostbusters anyday. Celeste O'Connor returns as Lucky Domingo and I liked that she was given the ability to play with some of the new equipment and be proficient at it. Her chemistry with Trevor is still palpable and I want a teen love story between them because they are too much fun together. Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Annie Potts and Bill Murray all return as Dr. Winston Zeddemore, Dr. Ray Stanz, Janine Melnitz and Dr. Peter Venkman and they all get to have fun and shine in the best way. The chemistry between Winston and Ray has never been stronger. Their "Judgement Day" scene from the original film was my favorite and their conversation in this one was just as fantastic and important. Ray and Podcast have also have an amazing bond that I want to see expanded upon in a mentorship capacity. William Atherton returns as now Mayor Walter Peck and he was still delightful to watch. It fits that he still has it out for the Ghostbusters after 40 years. He was that grumpy old man you see on a porch that never stopped hating everyone.

There are a alot of new characters that join the franchise and this is where I meant it got crowded. Kumail Nanjiani was wonderful and funny as Nadeem Razmaadi. I liked that he was a driving force behind the plot and did get to have his comedic time to shine, but a bit too much in my opinion. There is a difference between a one liner that perfectly buttons a scene and a one liner that just lingers for too long. He has at number of the latter and I hated seeing that happen to a great actor and comedian. James Acaster was fascinating as one of Winston's engineers, Lars Pinfield. Through him, you are introduced to the possible future of the paranormal investigative side of the Ghostbusters that I hope will be the focus in the future and with him leading. I would watch an entire series just with him and a science team doing studies on the different classes of ghosts they capture and examine. Patton Oswalt as Dr. Hubert Wartzki was as good as you'd expect. He had the expositionary lore position of the film that I felt was wrongfully given to him. If Ray has studied the paranormal legends, folklore and beyond for his entire life, then why not make him the source of all knowledge for Podcast and Phoebe? I just felt Hubert truly stole alot of the thunder from Ray and you honestly could've cut his character completely. Just imagine for a second that Phoebe, Podcast and Ray work together to investigate the new villain and it would present a moment for Ray to have another chance to study with Egon through his granddaughter and you see that glow of happiness in Ray’s eyes and heart. Sounds awesome right?! Emily Alyn Lind was good and melancholy as Melody. I'll try not to spoil too much, but I'll say that she presents a interesting perspective on ghostbusting and possibly the humane nature of it. Her chemistry with Pheobe was a highlight of the film and gets a decent payoff.

Composer Dario Marianelli takes the helm this time around and delivers a fun score that incorporates the classic Elmer Bernstein score motifs while delivering his own themes. I do miss Rob Simonsen's touch from the previous film though. The use of more practical effects is always been a staple of the franchise and it continues here. I liked seeing the new and creepy ghosts in the film and wanted to know more about them. So what are my final thoughts on this new chapter in the GB franchise you ask? Afterlife was a welcomed and heartfelt return to the franchise, but this film felt like it wasn't handled with the same amount of care. Yes, it was more an adventure and more like an episode of the original animated, but it lacked a fully focused narrative that could service each character purposefully. There should've been less nostalgia, trim off the one liners and the many different plots at hand. You have too many characters on a single case and it came together in the end, but you still feel that void of logic in its essence. What I wish this film had done was let the tension and fear build and actually let the audience feel as if any of them could die. Don't be afraid to have that level of terror, darkness and seriousness that comes with facing these dangerous spirits. Stop adding all these characters and focus on the ones you already have. If this film was the many building blocks sprawled across the table that it felt like, then the next film needs to focus on the blocks that fit and not add more blocks to the pile. In the end, I still liked the film and I had alot of fun with this messy and scattered entry, but I hope the next film truly lets the tug boats of nostalgia return to the docks and allow the franchise set sail into more mature and fresh waters. I’m curious to see a director’s cut of this film because it truly felt like it needed another five minutes to clean up some of the mess. There is one mid credits scene that was fun, but its not that important. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

[neon-green-reagent]

Ranked: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

So in all my franchise devouring, this is definitely one of THE most disappointing series I've covered. To be fair, nothing can touch what watching all the Paranormal Activity movies did to me, and there is more to love here, but this is going to be kinda rough all the same.

Texas Chainsaw 3D : So at bare minimum, most of the movies are genuinely well-made and look good. NOT THIS ONE. This was the cheesiest and most sellout, oddly enough, that the series ever gets. Imagine if TCM was the Friday the 13th 2009 remake with less charm. Now that's some stinky shit right there. The concept is interesting, a long lost Sawyer rediscovering her roots and meeting Leatherface, but the execution is downright dumb. It makes it so there are no heroes and no villains and everyone's just a gray lump. A notion that a movie with better production values maybe could handle. But that ain't this. Oh, and Leatherface looked like total shit, which is the only time I can honestly say that of this series. Even the bad entries get that basic part right.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) : What was I just saying about no heroes, no villains, just gray blobs that get turned into tomato bisk? Yeah, that. I don't quite know what the point is of making a film with intensely politically charged talking points and making every character be in the wrong, but I can tell you what it makes. A MESS. Where if you root for someone, chances are they'll do something awful, stupid, backwards, or go against their own principles at some point. This is probably the goriest entry, but who gives a damn? Gore is supposed to serve a story or characters (or ideally both) that you care about. Without that, it's corn syrup.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning : So... this is a prequel to the 2003 remake. About a quarter of the way through, I found myself going, wait. I thought they said in the previous movie this is the first time anyone ever made it out alive to report the murders... YEP. A prequel where it was preordained there will be no survivors. So they made sure to make everyone very thinly written so you wouldn't be too worried about that. The main thumbs up I have here is that it's one of my favorite Leatherface designs of the entire series. Otherwise, it's easily skipped.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation : The reputation this movie has is a bit off in my opinion. It's starting to get "so bad, it's good" cred. Yes, there are things about it that I would say fit that description. Particularly Matthew McConaughey's performance. All the over-the-top acting in general. But at the end of the day, the movie plays all of its extremely weird gags very straight. So the tone is dead serious while we introduce such non-TCM concepts as the illuminati. And it turns out, no, this isn't a comedy. The cocreator of the entire franchise was absolutely sincere. It shows, and it really brings the fun way down. It's ridiculous and way out in left field, but it doesn't mean for you to laugh. Yikes.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) : We're finally in watchable territory. And yet when I say that... The last half hour just becomes what it always is for these movies. A girl screaming non-stop while chased or tortured, and after several rounds of that, you start to check out. I've also never seen a final girl fuck up her own escape as much as this one does. Also, and this goes for TCM: The Beginning too, R. Lee Ermey is one of the most one-note, overrated actors I've ever seen, and his presence here is not helpful in making me enjoy the film. Otherwise, this is serviceable if TCM is your thing.

Leatherface (2017) : Of the later sequels/remakes/prequels, this is pretty fun. Imagine, a TCM movie having fun with the premise. Trying something different. With an origin story that wants you to guess which character will be our big ole chainsaw boy. While him turning out to be the least likely suspect might put some people off, I thought the transformation was pretty dang cool. There's a lot of strong acting going on here from Lili Taylor and Stephen Dorff. The absolutely wild girl with the burn scars was a welcome addition to rather a lot of nutty characters, so it's a real feat she managed to make herself stand out. Overall, a stronger film than I could have hoped for that late in the game.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (OG) : WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT NUMBER ONE!? I mean, it's not. Not for me. I find this movie to be a pretty difficult sit. There are a lot of tiresome and forgettable characters. Our villains are loud and annoying. But the grit this was filmed with, the determination to get it made, the messages that lie underneath, and the character of Leatherface all shine through. It's an important film that ushered in a new era of horror, so while I don't find it that watchable, I deeply respect it.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 : This is the movie The Next Generation wishes it was. Tobe Hooper decided he could never follow the first film, so he decided to make a parody of his own work. Genius. It's hilarious, disgusting, lurid, wild, and extremely fitting with the decade it was made in. Stretch is by far my favorite final girl in the series. Dennis Hopper knew exactly what movie he was in. And the soundtrack is great, too.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 : Sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. But I love this one best. You've got Ken Foree kicking ass. You have Viggo Mortensen serving cunt. The Sawyer family actually manages to feel like a loving and supportive family in a twisted way, which is a trope I love. They realized they can't up the ante when Hooper has already set the bar so high, so they don't try. They make ridiculous fights, silly dialogue, and have fun. Fun is always the biggest component for me as to whether or not a film will be a winner. So uh... winner winner, chicken dinner?

Thus my journey ends. I want to add that aside from that dead last entry, even when I didn't love whatever movie I happened to be watching, they did right by Leatherface. He's one of those Jason-y slashers that you want to hug, because he probably deserves better than being used like an attack dog by his own family. I always enjoyed watching him, and every actor brought a different physicality and presence. So, no, I didn't hate every second. And if Leatherface seems intriguing to you as a character, you'd definitely get something out of going over this franchise, too.