#does she come back ? does damon manage to revive her ? does he find her with no memory of him some time later?

[nightskied]

au in which bonnie existed along with the salvabros while human , and her and damon were in a courtship / newlyweds . katherine falls for stefan and wants damon 2 play with / wants him to be around her ( maybe they became friends and katherine went a lil ... awry ) , too , so she not only turns them , she kills bonnie .

or so they think .

[blazenka]

Forthcoming

Returning to Mystic Falls for a visit, Elena awakes to find she's been sent unwillingly into the past. Not only does she have to avoid changing past events; she must also deal with a cold and detached Damon who is the only one who knows she's there.

Original source: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7073903/1/Forthcoming

Chapters: 17

Published: June 12, 2011 - December 31, 2011

Words: 41434

Rated: Fiction M - Language: English - Genre: Romance/Supernatural - Characters: Elena G., Damon S. - Reviews: 117 - Favs: 132 - Follows: 95

Exported with the assistance of FicHub.net

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

Chapter 5

~Ѱ~

Elena didn't sleep much that night. It's not like she didn't want to sleep with everything weighing down upon her, she just couldn't. After all the drama and deaths, it was almost comical that once Elena had found happiness and some stability in her life - it all goes to hell. She wasn't sure she could stand reliving through her past again. She felt like emotionally it would destroy her even if she wasn't the center of it again.

Elena sighed as she took out a pad of a paper knowing the only way she was going to get any sleep is if she exhausted herself trying to figure out the time line and events from years past. Then possibly she could avoid changing things while she was here.

By the time morning came, Elena had managed to get some slumber even if it wasn't the deep reviving kind she desperately needed.

The day followed with severe thunderstorms and pounding rain that drowned out every other sound in the small room. Strangely, Elena remembered this storm - Stefan had asked her to stay the previous night so they had spent this day cuddling in his room. It was always a beloved memory because it was one of the days Stefan and she just talked about nothing at all. It was days like those that made their relationship seem so real and stable.

Of course, memories of Stefan lead to memories of Damon. Elena tossed the note book back onto the table and moved into the kitchen. She felt guilty that the two brothers always seemed linked in her memories… and her heart.

Yet the more Elena thought about it she realized that even though memories of Stefan led to Damon, memories of Damon only led to more times Damon and she spent time together.

Elena quietly made herself a simple sandwich to eat before she settled in the reclining arm chair. She watched the rain pelt the glass window before she lost herself in the memories.

2012

Damon sat close to Elena, rubbing her back in comfort as she calmed down from crying again over Stefan. Never inserting one of his innuendos or quips about how he was in her room, he would just sit and be there with her - letting her know she wasn't alone.

Then when her senior year was coming to a close and friends were choosing their futures, Damon encouraged her to take up writing when she hadn't a clue what she wanted to do. Was her future supposed to be all planned out at this point? Without Stefan? She didn't know. Her life had been filled with the supernatural and death for so long, she wasn't sure if she could do anything remotely considered normal.

Yet, Damon insisted with applications and even submitting a couple short stories to some magazines, he was always reassuring her - always there for her. Eventually she got into a writing program at some local satellite college.

The multiple times her dragged her out of the house to do something 'fun' so she wasn't mopping when they were not looking for Stefan. The way he made sure to say something offensive and sarcastic to her that, in a strange way, always seemed to make her laugh for a moment right before she slapped in the arm.

The night she wishes she could go back.

Elena (or rather Caroline and Bonnie) decided to have a send off before they went off to college. They started to play pool, drinking, flirting shamelessly with boys they didn't know and would never see after that night. Of course, Damon made an appearance - saying he only showed up to put Tyler and Jeremy's fears to rest but she knew he was worried too.

She poked fun at him, telling him he was becoming a jealous boyfriend.

He smirked before informing her, "All of the duties but none of the benefits". Sure to include that thing he did with his eyes that always made her knees go weak.

It was a stupid drunk idea to take him back to her room later that night with the lie that she wanted to just talk. But her friends (and her brother) were together and gone for the night, and she was feeling so lonely.

She still felt the heat of him behind her on the back of her neck as when he had attempted to teach her how to play pool at the bar, silently wish he would just turn her around and kiss her while she drunkenly tried to land the ball with the uncooperative cue.

Finally gathering enough courage and stupidity to reach up and kiss him. Fighting with him as his first reaction was to pull back in surprise.

Wearing him down before he gave into the pressure and desire, climbing into her bed after her. The desperation and build up as they stripped out of each others clothes. Only sparing touches to runs her hands down his chest and through his hair. Frantic kisses so there was no need to speak. Yet, in the back of their minds there was the nagging feeling that the timing of this whole ordeal was wrong.

Unfortunately, this was realized consciously in the morning light.

Damon slowly untangled himself from Elena before retrieving his pants, silently moving around her room even though she was already awake.

" You're leaving?" she asked, not bothering to move to look at him.

" Elena… this was a mistake," he rationalized, sitting on the bed to pull on his boots.

" Mistake? Really Damon?" Elena hissed as she sat up only to be answered with Damon's cold shoulder.

" Elena… you never broke things off with Stefan, really never got over him. I shouldn't be with you… like this. I can't have a relationship with you, Elena."

" Oh there is no relationship. It was just sex, Damon." She mocked him, hurt and bitter by his choice of words.

" Elena…" he stressed, even though he could say cruel things at times - he wouldn't allow her to.

" Don't worry about it, Damon," Elena mocked as she moved around her room, collecting scattered clothes, "Just a send off before I leave Mystic Falls behind."

After her statement, Damon finally spared a look her way - skepticism evident in his eyes.

" I'm moving out of here and into an apartment so I'll be closer to campus. I'm leaving this town, the memories… and you, Damon," she clarified for him.

Damon quickly sped to her, gripping her shoulders, looking sternly into her eyes, "You keep thinking you can just kick me out of your life whenever you want to Elena. Fine then, I'm out. Glad you gave me one hell of a send off before you go."

He let go of her with a harsh shove before he moved towards her window before finishing, "Just remember - I'm not going to save your life if I'm no longer a part of it." Then he was gone.

Elena couldn't remember at time she cried as hard as she did whilst packed her things. She wondered if she had broken the final straw in Damon and her fragile relationship. Or possibly worse, what if she finally broke him?

He kept to his words and even after two months later, after she settled down in her place Elena didn't hear anything from Damon until she heard from Alaric and Jeremy.

Her knees gave out as she clenched the phone, mouth gaped wide as her breath hitched.

Stefan had come back to Mystic Falls to collect his brother for Klaus.

Despite Ric pleading with Elena to come home where they could protect her, she stayed in her small apartment until Stefan appeared for her as well.

The scent of metal overwhelmed Elena as she returned to aware thinking. Iron… copper… rust mixed with the salt of sweat replace the air in the room.

" Elena… I thought… but you wouldn't… let them… What is with you… self sacrificing your… Elena?" she heard a dry masculine voice call out to her from across the room. Thought, she seemed to be having problems making out his words as she slipped in and out of consciousness.

Elena couldn't move her body, not yet, but could tilt her head in the direction of the opposite wall where the voice originated from. Only, she wished she hadn't.

The image before her was something she could never unseen and it broke her heart. Every word she said in bitter distrust to him before in their stupid tryst she wish she could take back - especially if it meant he wouldn't be in the position he was in now.

Elena needed this to stop… she wanted this to end.

~Ѱ~

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, thank you for reading.

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[bastardtetsu]

{day 03} people will say we’re in love | kuroo x reader

pairing: kuroo tetsuro x f!manager!reader

genre: fluff, friends to lovers, confession

wc: 1.2k

warnings: f!reader, a tiny bit of swearing, soft k*roo being a jackass as usual

⍋⋆*❅｡. 25 days of fic-mas mlist .｡❅*⋆⍋

don’t sigh and gaze at me your sighs are so like mine your eyes mustn’t glow at mine people will say we’re in love

—people will say we’re in love; oklahoma! (music & lyrics by rodgers & hammerstein)

the first few times it happened you just played it off. people assume incorrectly all the time, and you honestly couldn’t blame them for assuming that the handsome young man you seem to be around all the time is your boyfriend. besides, it was easy enough to explain that he’s actually just the (incessantly annoying) captain of the boys volleyball team you manage, whom you have no romantic feelings for whatsoever.

that is, until that stopped being entirely true.

you’re not sure when it started, but you began to realize when you noticed that benign misunderstanding starting to fluster you more and more each time. there’s a reason people always mistake you for a couple, after all: kuroo not only dotes on you, but he is shamelessly flirting every moment he’s around you, even when you negate his flattery with exasperation - which just makes you seem even more like an old married couple

of course, being flirty and teasing is just a part of kuroo’s personality, so it’s not like that makes you special, and what might look like fondness towards you is actually just him sucking up to his manager for extra gym time. but, it’s enough to get you thinking about what it would be like if you were really together like that, and once you start thinking about it, you find it hard to stop.

you still try, though, reminding yourself that getting romantically involved with the captain of the team you’re managing is messy and unprofessional, and you don’t even know if he has any feelings like that anyway. this is all just a joke that’s been blown way out of proportion.

at least, that’s what you try to tell yourself when the same convenience store clerk mistakes kuroo for your boyfriend the 3rd time this week.

“why does she keep doing that??” you huff in frustration once you’re out the door, “how many times am i gonna have to explain that we’re not dating?”

“people sure do that a lot, huh?” kuroo muses, “i wonder why.” your face burns at his provocative tone.

“well it’s not my fault,” you retort defensively, “you’re the one who’s always doing shit, like—“

“like what?” he challenges, smirking down on you with an entertained look in his eye. you glare back at him.

“well first off, maybe don’t throw flowers at me in front of the entire cheering squad at a game.”

“those were from the team!”

“hush. you could also lay off sucking up to my family—“

“whoa. if you’re trying to get between me and your mom’s cooking right now we’re gonna have a huge problem.”

“that’s not the—ugh,” you groan, your exasperation mounting, “just stop acting so in love with me, okay? don’t laugh at my jokes or look at me all lovey-dovey like you do, just cut it out so people will quit suspecting things!”

there’s a brief pause as your words hang in the air. kuroo cocks his head.

“who laughs at your jokes?”

you deliver a hard smack against his chest with your bookbag.

“hey!!” he cries, “not fair! you know, some might say that you’re just as much to blame as i am.”

“excuse me?” you glare at him.

“what about the time you went out of your way to bake my favorite dessert?”

“i made that for the team,” you protest.

“or the time you made me carve our initials into a tree like we were a couple?”

“ok yeah, but i didn’t ask you to draw a HEART around them!”

“well what other shape was i supposed to draw?? an octagon!?”

“GOD you’re hopeless,” you groan. just then, you begin to feel raindrops start to come down. kuroo notices too.

“i’ve got an umbrella,” he says, pausing to rummage through his book bag. you stand there waiting for him as the rain begins to fall, dampening your hair and jacket.

he finally finds the umbrella, popping it open and holding it out for you first.

“you shouldn’t wait in the rain for me if you don’t want people suspecting things,” he purrs.

“shut up,” you jab, subconsciously taking his arm as you attempt to fit both of your bodies underneath the small umbrella.

“probably shouldn’t do that either,” he grins impishly, glancing down at your hand gripping the crook of his elbow. you just roll your eyes, trying to hide your embarrassment but keeping your hand firmly in place.

as the two of you continue your walk home together, the breeze picks up as the rain continues. you rub your hands together, starting to feel chilly. kuroo notices, just like he always notices everything.

“here,” he says, moving his free hand to wrap it around your cold fingers. you can feel your face flush and your heart speed up at the loving gesture. ordinarily his hands aren’t much warmer than yours, but this time you could swear you feel some sweat on his palm as he heats you with his touch.

“i guess this should probably be off limits too,” he says, “you know. if we don’t want people saying things.”

“it— it’s ok,” you mutter hesitantly, “this feels nice.”

“yeah,” he almost whispers, hoping you don’t notice the heat rushing to his own face as he musters up the courage to say what he’s thinking next. “i don’t mind when people say those kinds of things, you know.”

“huh?” you look up at him, stunned.

“like when they think that we’re dating,” he says, “i don’t mind— i guess, um, i wouldn’t mind—if it were true.”

your heart skips a beat. you can see the flush of pink dusting his cheeks now that you’re looking at him straight-on, even though his own eyes are currently glued to the pavement. your hand is still enveloped in his, the warmth now permeating much more than just your hand.

“i… don’t think i’d mind either,” you utter in the smallest voice possible.

it’s loud enough to get kuroo’s attention, though. his head jerks up to meet your gaze, eyes incredulous.

“what was that?” he presses.

“i— i wouldn’t mind either,” you repeat a little louder. his eyes are practically glowing now.

“y/n,” he breathes, “you… want me to be your boyfriend?”

holding your breath, you gather the strength to look him in the eyes. all you can manage is a tiny nod.

this is enough for him though, his face lighting up in an uncontrollable grin. he takes a deep breath, then, lifting his head up and out,

“HEY!!! IF ANYONE OUT THERE CAN HEAR ME, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT Y/N IS MY GIRL!!!!”

“tetsu—“

“SHE WANTS ME TO BE HER BOYFRIEND!!!!”

“KUROO!! shut the hell up, they’ll hear you all the way in miyagi!”

“let ‘em.” he turns his gaze back to you, grinning as his strong hand squeezes around yours, having never left its place.

you can’t help but smile back at him. despite your embarrassment, the feeling of that hand intertwined with yours is enough to assuage any concerns of what other people might say.

as long as you can keep holding onto him, nothing else matters.

a/n: aight this was absolutely one of my favorites to write for multiple reasons: the first is obviously that i am a big simp for the rooster head man. but i am also a big simp for the sexy 2019 oklahoma! revival and its entire company - ESPECIALLY damon daunno, whose interpretation of curly fits kuroo’s character so well it makes me sick, and could also make me c*m untouched with just his voice. seriously. i am begging you to click on the linked songs at the top of the post (i kinda combined the song with its reprise in act ii for this fic - i suggest listening to both for the full experience) you will thank me i promise. if you want visuals i like this concert performance they did - there’s no staging, but you’ll get to see damon daunno (warning: he is as hot as he sounds) and rebecca naomi jones (equally hot, unfortunately) and that should be enough to ruin your life for now. i’m not even gonna bother linking any performances or recordings that aren’t the 2019 revival, no other version of oklahoma! exists in my mind. n e wayz sorry this author’s note was so long lmao i am very passionate about this one, but i hope you enjoyed it too <3

taglist: @izagraceee @musicgetsmeoutofbed @azo-musxas @tsumurai

[wrongeddeadthenevermourned]

Kai Parker was born in 1972, Portland, Oragon, along side his twin sister Josette Parker. To the Gemini Witch Coven. Kai was discovered to be a Siphoner more than likely before he was even born. Something that was often treated terribly by witches. As these others witches had seen Siphoner’s as 'abominations'. This lead to Kai's parents mistreating him from the moment they found out what he had been. Often ignoring him, or preventing him from touching others, or others touching him. Since the time he was four years old, or when ever his siphoning powers had begun to manifest, he had been 'needing a fix' to absorb magic. The absence of which had caused him to feel like he was on fire. So, as he grew up, feeling unwanted, feeling wrong, and feeling disgusting. His parents were plotting to screw him out of the one thing he was promised, the one solitude he did have to look forward to. Merging with his twin sister the supposed 'Glinda' of witches, as far as Kai had seen, with the way Josette was treated in comparison to himself.

Eventually all the mistreatment and need for a fix had driven Kai to become angered and sociopathic, as abused children tend to become given the stipulations. Which fit perfectly, Kai is a product of child abuse. Upon finding out what his parents had planned to do, and apparently having been causing worry from his parents with his activities leading up to the moment he was supposed to merge with Josette. Joshua had felt that Kai was much more powerful than Josette and so together, Josette, Joshua, and the rest of the Gemini coven plotted against Kai. Thus Lucas and Olivia were born. Four years later, Kai would, upon figuring out the reason for their births, try and murder them. But he only managed to murder four of his other siblings before being mislead by Josette into believing she would finally merge with him. But this had turned out to be a lie. Once Josette had lead him to the trap, and the two had begun the merging ritual, the rest of the Gemini Coven had started casting another spell. Kai also in this moment found out that Josette had hidden her magic somewhere. Kai is then, moments after, sent to a Prison World, by his own family/coven, where he would spend the next eighteen years in solitude. Not even attempts to kill himself would free him from. He was forever trapped in the year of 1994. Or so it seemed.

Eighteen years after his coven betrays him. Bonnie and Damon appear in his prison world. Kai watches them for several months as they fuck off for a while doing stupid shit and god knows what, arguing mostly. Who honestly fucking cares. Anyway, Kai finally revealed his presence to the two of them one day and then starts attacking Damon, then he fucks with the two for a couple of days. Bonnie finds a news paper and goes " OMG, he murdered four people of his family. Let's do the exact same thing his family did to him, and nothing bad will happen. HAHAHAHH!" So she fucks off with Damon and murders Kai. It's fine, not like he hasn't died plenty of times already in that prison. Later, in a cave, just as the pair are about to fuck off, Kai comes back and shoots Bonnie in the diaphragm and send her flying out of the moonlight. Damon tries to man up for a minute and he and Kai have a dick measuring contest, who cares. Bonnie eventually sends Damon back to the real world, alone. Buh bye.

Anyway, Kai, having now gotten off to a bad foot with Bonnie, officially. Starts trying to fix the artifact that will help them both get out. Bonnie, being a genius decides " Nah, I don't want to do that. Because how dare you." Or some piddly ass moralistic petty reasoning. Bonnie then stabs Kai in the neck with a fork, takes the artifact and runs off to a nearby hospital as Kai seems to bleed to death. Because that's never happened before. Anyway, Kai catches up to her and reveals he has the last piece to the once broken artifact and is like " Yo what up mama, let me show you what you forgot. I'm smart too. Sometimes." Then Bonnie starts freaking out again, because apparently that's what she's best at,...being JUST angry at Kai, a person she's just met, and doesn't know, for doing bad things. Because she DOESN'T know him, she has every right to be a bit of a bitch.

Everyone else she does know can murder people all they want. But she'd be damned if she let Kai do that. Nuh uh, not on her watch. Anyway, Kai catches her in Damon's car that he drove all the way to 1994 in order to fuck with Damon and Bonnie earlier, and he strangles her there, because why wouldn't he at this point, honestly. They aren't friends. She doesn't even GO here. Anyway, after kidnapping her and stuffing her in the trunk of the car, for safety reasons one must assume, since Bonnie is almost as insane as Kai is, clearly. He probably wants to avoid being stabbed in the neck again. Probably, who knows, MAYBE he enjoyed it. Maybe he's a masochist. You don't know! Anyway, they have thanks giving. It's fun. Bonnie is moody, because how dare she not get what she wants. How dare Kai want freedom, even if it is at the cost of murdering his entire coven. No one but her has any right to do wrong, unless she likes you. Then you can do all the wrong you want. She'll be like "Aight, you do you, Stefan." So, anyway, Eventually she makes a deal with Kai, who lies to her about letting her go her own separate way. Because of course he fucking lied to her. And she's about to spend the next few months or so of her life figuring out why.

Anyway, Kai stabs Bonnie in the gut, because all he needs is her blood and magic. Which the hunting knife he used to stab her has magic in. Because that's where Josette hid her own magic just before fucking Kai over and sending him to that prison world to begin with. He then had all of the things he needed to perform the ritual, without Bonnie. Which I mean, is literally her own fucking fault. Had she of just let him out the first time and ignored him. She wouldn't have had to be shot with an arrow, drugged, kidnapped, stabbed, abandoned and left to rot in Kai's Prison world for months. But instead, genius that she is, she basically in more or less eloquent terms, deserved everything she fucking got. Change my mind. You won't. Soooo Anyway, Kai is freed, he does whatever Kai wants to do murders a few people, finds his siblings. Pisses them off by trying to kill Olivia. Then he changes his mind and offers to merge with Josette and...leave them alone. Which is growth, motherfuckers. Because that is basically what he does. Well, once he merges with....Lucas. Instead of Josette. Lucas had offered himself up, to protect Josette. The other was pretty confident that they could possibly, maybe beat Kai in the merge. And Josette had also seemed to hope for such a thing to. However, nope. Lucas lost and merged with Kai instead.

Then he didn't murder his entire coven. But instead went about doing whatever it is that Kai generally does when he's not murdering people. Annoying them. But now he his younger brothers 'empathy' and 'emotional' range. So that's fun. He has 'grown', so it seems. Then it shows when he offers to HELP Damon, Elena, and Jeremy get Bonnie out of the prison world he left her in, because he feels bad for what he did. During the last of the attempts to try and save Bonnie however, Olivia stabs Kai and the two start kicking the shit out of each other. Because Oliva has as many brain cells as Bonnie does. Which is about two. Olivia begs for death and Kai tries to kill her, but because he is merged with Lucas, the others emotions stops Kai from going through with it. Then Kai just moves on and continues to help Jeremy with reaching Bonnie, thus stopping her from killing herself. Kai almost dies during this incident, but is saved when Damon and Elena get to him and Jeremy in time for Damon to feed Kai his blood, which heals Kai.

Life goes on, mundanely for a little while before Josette gets sick and ignored a phone call from Kai, trying to tell her he is sick. Which turns out that he just needed some magic, it's all good after that. Also Josette is pregnant with some babies of which Kai is like "Hey stupid, you're preggers, hows that for Irony." Then he fucks off to do whatever Kai does when he's not annoying or killing people. Probably enjoying his freedom and the new stuff he can toy around with in the future. Eventually however, Bonnie makes it back. Kai comes along then and tells Demon, who has just found out his mommy is alive and well in another prison world. He wants Kai to bring his mommy back and Kai is like "For a price, sure. Let me reconcile with Bonnie though." And Demons like " Sure yeah, sounds like a great Idea, let's just go do that." And they do that. Bonnie, with her two brain cells, and a bit of murderous insanity, decides to not do what's probably best for her and tells Kai he can go fuck himself for what she has done to him. Because, no one has ever felt that before, in their life. Besides Kai, who she stabbed in the chest with Pick axe, and killed him, compared to him shooting her in the chest with an crossbow bolt and then stabbing her with a knife while fucking with her.

Which one could say she did just as equal damage to him, despite his ability to revive and heal from it quicker than her. He also spent eighteen years in that prison. So if she gets to be a bit pissy about it. So does Kai... Kai decides to reveal stuff about Damon's mommy anyway. Like that she's a fucking psychopathic vampire that people in this stupid show call a 'ripper' because they are about as creative as a toddler with a marker. Messy, not too creative though. Anyway, Bonnie throws her tantrum off somewhere else away from Kai for a little while. Tries to make her point with Damon by hurting Damon the same way Kai hurt her. Which is fair, I suppose. Since she's fucking stupid and doesn't realize that her PTSD is just as valid as Kai's abuse and PTSD. So she needs to get off her fucking high horse and join the rest of the world, honestly.

Anyway, Eventually they go on the quest for Damon and Stefan's Mommy because Stefan is murdering the fuck out of people or something. Bonnie is all " Aight. I'll go. That's cool. Cool cool cool. Kai, let's hold hand." So they do that, they go to the year 1903 where Lily, Damon's mommy and her Heretic vampires are. Damon and Elena go " Nope." to it all but still want to bring Lily back so they lie to her or something, who cares. Kai and Bonnie are on a misleading mission that Bonnie suggested because she wants to fuck Kai over the way he fucked her over. Because she's still got only two brain cells, guys. Let's be real, as trash as Kai is, Bonnie becomes just as much trash in this instance as Kai times his entire fucking coven combined. Because without her petty behavior...AGaIn. The next part wouldn't have happened! Anyway, she dispatches Kai in the middle of the woods, during winter. Almost stabbing him in the heart before he vanished himself away from that.

Some time later she meets up with Damon and the plot device of conveniences. They all start the ritual to leave that prison world and just as they are about to peace out Kai screams toward them, Bonnie see's him and smirks at this. By the way, Elena and Damon are completely okay with what's happening, fully aware of it. So they are just as much to blame for what happens next as Bonnie herself is, honestly. Every last one of them is a shitty person. But this show is kind of really garbage so, let's move on- Kai is abandoned in 1903 by people he wanted to clearly be close to, maybe even befriend, after the terrible things he had done to them. BUT NOPE! He ends up finding his way to Lily's place, where the heretics remained. There he is bitten by one of the Heretics inside her house. Some time later, he manages to control the Heratics or some wacko ass shit that happens.

What is important about that moment is that he's getting out of there, 1903 that is. He's clearly no longer influenced by Lucas' empathy or emotions. But let's say that Lucas, after witnessing all the bullshittery and filtering through it was like " Nah. I'mma just let Kai fuck you all over. Peace Bitches. I'm going to get out the way." Anyway, Kai free's himself, again, and makes his way to Josette's wedding where he repeatedly stabs her in the back before revealing his presence to all and being like " Miss me?" Before killing the ceremony participants. Or well, mostly fucking them up. He also puts Elena to sleep, because hello, she and Damon ABANDONED him in a PRISON WORLD. HELLO!? Are you all idiots? He's clearly a lot smarter than these three individuals in particular, and it shows. Despite his pension for falling for traps and dumb tricks.

Anyway, he kills Josette, and Joshua is like " Kai, don't! Stop being a bad child. What's wrong with you?!" Which Kai replies with stabbing himself in the neck. Clearly, what's wrong with Kai is that he was born into a shitty family who treated him badly and got what they deserved in the end, punished for their sins. The executioner, being no one else but Kai Parker, himself. Kai then revives, wOoOW, why's that? Oh, he's a vampire witch now. It's fine. His coven is still going to die. Which, fuck them, anyway. He then gets bitten by Olivia's boyfriend Tyler, who is a werewolf. Which Bonnie later tells him and he goes " Bye Bye Bye Werewolf Blood." And then he breaks Bonnie. Damon, having had a conversation about being bitten by vampires earlier and telling Damon that Elena won't wake up as long as Bonnie is alive, arrives. Shocker. He then proceeds to save Bonnie and kill Kai, smacking Kai's head off his body, decapitating him. Which it would have been funny, if he didn't die and he was just a talking head. Wouldn't that have been funny...Anyway. Kai Dies. That's the end of that. Right? Right. Everyone gets to be idiots and continue living and doing stupid stuff. Who cares about any of it, honestly. Bonnie hooks up with Enzo, who was also doing terrible things the entire time this Kai Bullshit was going on in her life. But hey, that's ENZO, she likes ENZO.... He can do whatever terrible thing he wants to do.

Anyway, one thing leads to another and Kai is eventually like " Here, have Elena's Soul, Damon clearly doesn't want it, and I'm pretty bored with all of this. Send me back." And trades Elena's soul in order to get a get out of hell free card. Which he does, and starts bugging Damon immediately after, for some reason or another, because he's afraid of going back to hell. He could have just, fucked off, and not bothered with any of those people, since he clearly knew the entire time they couldn't help him, realistically. But whatever, its Vampire Diaries. Who gives a god damn, I guess...Logic doesn't fucking matter! Kai pisses around for a bit and then he gets captured and taken to some...magical, stronghold where conveniently enough Caroline, Josette’s baby's daddy, and Gemini Twins Next Gen are all residing. He is locked in a prison where he's like " I know what's wrong with your Gemini twins.....They are going to be great, to kill." Then everyone just, ignores him for a couple of hours. It's fine. Not like anyone has more than two brain cells in this show anyway.

SO eventually Caroline, who had the twins transferred over to her when Josette was dead, because why not. Is all "Help me with my not babies." Kai is then all " Sure, why not. Let's do this." and proceeds to explain to her that the entire building is dripping with magic and then he explodes the fucking window in her face. As she fucking deserves. Then he knocks her the fuck out. Because, why...ARE YOU. STUPID! Kai then starts running around the place, calling Baby Daddy and idiotically gloating about killing the Gemini Coven Next Gen. Picking up an axe that is perfect, for executions, and dragging it along the floor because he's still twenty two I guess and wants to be edgy, okay? So he just tralalalala's the way to whatever the fuck and gets tricked. This is the moment where you slow clap at the moronic shit that this show has exposed everyone to.

Anyway, Bonnie soon comes back into the picture and is like "I'll take that, he's actually cute. I hate him. But he cute." Then she locks him in a prison world in 2018, chains him to a chair where he can listen to a song he hates, every day, over and over again. Which I mean, congratulations Bonnie, you continually fuck it up. Along with everyone else. When you could have fixed all of this by just letting him out first, let him get his revenge and then NOT do any of the other bullshit. Because Bonnie would have had no reason to. But here we are and Kai’s back, and so is Lucas’ personality traits/Empathy, for that matter. Because I fucking said so, that’s why.

[psychotickol-a]

TVD / TO VERSES

CLICK HERE FOR ALTERNATE UNIVERSES

PRE-VAMPIRE KOL

794-818 AD, the Viking Age

the Original Family are still human

Kol has a reputation among his people, the English and French as Kol the Blood Drinker

Kol is the fourth son of Esther and Mikael, younger brother to Finn, Elijah and Niklaus, and the older brother of his sister Rebekah and youngest brother Henrik. He's young, ambitious and impulsive. Married at fifteen, he's a prodigy with magic and accompanies his father on raids on the West (England and France).

Kol worships the Norse Gods and is a fierce and reputable warrior. There are many  tales of his savagery and prowess in battle and rumors that say that he is Bodir reborn or that he is god-touched. Kol sails often between what will be known as the Americas and his former home Denmark often, building his own reputation and striving to one day annihilate the Kings of England.

VAMPIRE HISTORY

10th-19th centuries

this verse is for period threads

any interactions that happen after Kol has been turned into a vampire but before his final daggering in the early 19th century

Kol is one of the first vampires in existence, living in the dark spaces of history, Kol and his siblings have been advisers to Kings and Queens, conquering heroes and hellish invaders. Kol has traveled the world and spends his time learning various forms of magic and ritual across the globe, etching what he learns onto his body in ritual tattoos and is one of the only members of the Original Family to venture out into the world on his own without his siblings.

Like his brothers and sister, Kol is being hunted by his vampiric father for his crimes committed as a vampire, this is what forces Kol to remain in the dark, in the shadows, rarely able to remain in one place for long. Kol's bloodthirst and hunger for battle and death is insatiable that often puts him at odds not only with those around him, but his siblings as well.

VAMPIRE DIARIES DIVERGENT

The Vampire Diaries seasons 3-4 divergence

this verse is for anything following the Mikaelson ball up until his imprisonment at the hands of Bonnie Bennett

Kol is accumulating to the 21st century

Undaggered after a century of endless darkness, Kol awakens into the 21st century and is reunited with his brothers and sisters. Kol does not hesitate to begin making up for his lost time in annoying his siblings and tormenting his enemies however after confronting his mother, Esther, and his eldest brother, Finn, for their schemes in wiping out all vampire kind, Kol leaves Mystic Falls. Kol promises his siblings to come to their aid should they need him but chooses to explore the new age on his own but returns soon after Finn's death in order to enact his revenge.

With Elena off limits, Kol goes after the next best thing. Kol Blood Eagle's Matt Donovan and leaves his corpse outside the Gilbert residence before Klaus asks him to babysit Jeremy Gilbert in Denver. When Kol beats Damon it's only the cherry on top of an already satisfying quip of vengeance.

Kol eventually returns to Mystic Falls to help his sister find the Cure for immortality but turns on his siblings when he attempts to stop the rise of Silas. In his efforts to kill Jeremy Gilbert, Kol burns the Gilbert residence to the ground and prowls the surrounding area for the Gilberts until Bonnie, using Expression magic, traps Kol within a prison world.

Bonnie, able to channel Kol through this mirrored prison world is able to tap directly into Kol's sireline, allowing Jeremy to wipe out over a third of Kol's sired vampire line in a single blow without having to kill Kol and even sparing thousands of other vampires. Jeremy completes his Hunters Mark and their search for the Cure is renewed.

IMPRISONED

The Originals seasons 1-2 divergence

any threads that take place while Kol is trapped within his prison world

Kol has the ability to "Astral Project" his consciousness using Dark Objects found in his prison world

Imprisoned by Bonnie Bennett for attempting to kill the Gilberts, Kol finds himself isolated from the real world, completely alone in a mirror universe of the real world. As an Original vampire Kol can survive without blood far longer than the average vampire but he knows that time is not on his side and that eventually he will desiccate. Kol travels across this mirrored universe and finds copies of the Dark Objects he had witches craft for him in the 14th century and uses these objects to attempt communication with his siblings only to witness Rebekah working alongside the Gilberts, Elijah has abandoned him and Klaus shows no signs of avenging him as he had promised. Furious, Kol begins to attempt to find his own way out of his prison.

Kol would eventually find a way to the real world when the Veil falls, allowing him to feed on living people once more and once again attempts to kill Elena Gilbert. Before he can succeed however, Bonnie, now dead and a ghost visiting the real world due to the veil having fallen, banishes him back to his prison.

Kol eventually uses Dark Objects to commune with a powerful witch in New Orleans, a young girl with a direct link to the ancestral magic that runs through the city, Davina Claire. Kol communicates with the witch, teaching her spells, enchantments, curses and rituals, working with her in order to squash his siblings under heel.

When Esther manages to revive herself in the body of a witch, she attempts to convince Kol to help her stop his brothers and sister, promising to place Kol's spirit within a body of a witch and free him from his prison. Kol rejects her offer, refusing her aid as he has no desire to be her pet dog. Esther reaches into Kol's prison world and destroys the Dark Objects in his prison, effectively cutting him off from the world for good and trapping Kol in an endless expanse.

Davina eventually manages to pull Kol from his prison world but the act is only temporary as the spell is not enough to pull all of him through and thus Kol begins to be torn apart between worlds. Kol confronts his siblings in a maddened state of fury and grief before finally having that dance with Davina and getting his siblings to promise to help him. Davina is forced to banish Kol back to his prison world or risk Kol facing a true death.

Due to the prisons instability following this event, Kol finds himself able to move between his mirrored world and the Afterlife, putting him in direct contact with the ancestors of New Orleans. Kol finds himself at war with the dead until he is finally freed from his prison after Davina aided the Strix in unlinking Klaus' sireline.

THE ORIGINALS DIVERGENT PT. 1

The Originals seasons 3 divergence

threads that take place in this verse are set during the events of the last two seasons of the Originals but is highly canon divergent

any interactions while Freya, Elijah, Kol and Rebekah are living within Freya's conjured dream world also takes place in this verse

Finally freed from his prison, Kol works closely with Davina and even reunites with his siblings against their enemies whom have come to New Orleans to take revenge against Klaus. Throughout these events Kol proves an invaluable asset but his warnings and advisement's are often ignored or shut down. Kol also faces another trial of his own, during his time with the dead witches of New Orleans, they manages to place a curse of hunger on him. His lack of control and his quick temper proved so out of character that Kol knew that something wasn't right. Discovering the curse and knowing that it would only be lifted if he killed Davina, Kol asked her to dagger him.

While the action stalled the curse, the ancestors were determined to strike Davina down once and for all. Kol was awoken and the curse forced him into a blind and uncontrollable rage and an unquenchable thirst in which Kol killed Davina Claire against his own wishes.

Kol mourned the loss of Davina, having grown to care deeply for her and worked to find a means of resurrecting her and protecting her from the New Orleans ancestors. His efforts proved a waste however as he and Davina were betrayed by Freya and Marcel.

This severed the efforts made by Kol and his siblings in rectifying their past affronts to each other, Kol lashed out, turning on his siblings in anger.

However blood proved thicker than water, as in the end Kol fought against Marcel and was bitten. Poisoned, Freya managed to seal them within another world to save their lives and Kol finds himself once again, trapped within a prison now forced to live with the very people he holds responsible for Davina's death.

Eventually returned to the land of the living after five years, Kol's anger has tempered slightly but is instantly reminded of his pain when they return to New Orleans to save Klaus from Marcel. (under co)

THE ORIGINALS DIVERGENT PT. 2

Pre-season 4 & post-season 4 of the Originals

this verse focuses on interactions after the Original family is forced to separate due to the hollow and during the events of season 4 of the Originals

this verse is currently under construction as I haven't actually watched season 4

After their forced separation, Kol travels in large part while within the company of Davina Claire, taking her to see the world. During their travels, they create new alliances and contacts with covens and individual witches all over the world, studying magic and sharing what knowledge they have to further those they find. Eventually, Kol and Davina's paths diverge from one another and the pair separate on good terms, as Kol was incapable of fully committing and how he was unable to give Davina the true love that they both know that she deserved, Kol wished for her to find someone who could well and truly be the soulmate and the love of her life that she needed.

Kol remained in contact with his siblings, his relationship with his family repaired after a thousand years of strife and pain. He also remained in contact with Hayley and Hope, though not nearly as much as Rebekah or Freya, Kol always answered her call.

(under co)

LEGACIES

set pre & during Legacies

this verse is under co

After the deaths of his brothers, Elijah and Klaus, Kol falls into a devastating spiral of rage, grief, hunger and madness. Having believed that his siblings would always be there, his foundation for his entire life was destroyed in a single night as Kol was forced to come to the disturbing and heart wrenching realization that the people he believed would live until the end of the world at his side, had died and were going to die, Kol descended into a quick and brutal pit. Maddened by grief, Kol is a vengeful and uncontrollable plague, he sweeps across the planet in a biblical disaster and is satiated only when confronted by either Davina or Hope.

Hope represents the last fragments of his family and she always manages to pull him back from the darkness but these moments are fleeting and last only as long as Hope needs him. The moment that Kol is away from her, his madness returns. For Davina it is even more difficult to keep Kol anchored, his fury and blind grief broken only by intervals of clarity that leave him guilt ridden and disgusted.

This verse is under construction but it is also the verse in which Kol is at his most unpredictable and most dangerous.

[vieuxnoyesrp]

Magic hums throughout the city with all the incandescent beauty of a winter's snow and all the devastating potential of a nuclear bomb. The dead have come to claim what's theirs. New Orleans is a city on the brink, and when daylight comes, you may be surprised to see how few are left standing. 

                                        ⚜  ~ T H E   F A L L E N ~ ⚜

Beneath the cut, you’ll find an extensive summary of the character-specific plot drops that will occur during our event.

Please note that while we have laid out this guide, we are open to making changes and taking suggestions if anything doesn’t sit well with a player. It is up to the individual roleplayers to decide when and how to start these threads. In order to do so effectively, please makes sure to read or at least skim each other’s threads on the dash, so as to make sure your character jumps in at the right time (in the case of a three-way para, for example) and doesn’t interrupt the flow/chronological order that is roughly set out in the summary below. Also, please read ALL of the developments under the cut; not just the section that pertains to your character. This is especially important for this event.

This is the last stage of this event. Open/casual starters are permitted aside from the plot-threads listed below, though please manage your time accordingly so that the plot-threads are completed by the end of the event. Note that not every character got a role in this event. We tried to fit in at least one of each roleplayers’ characters, but it wasn’t possible to fit everyone (for those roleplayers with multiple roles). If you see an opening for an additional character, you are welcome to propose it to us so they can be included, but remember, activity is doubly important in a coordinated event, and no one will be penalized for prioritizing event-related characters.

Please tag your starters with VNFallen and VNStarter! If you have any questions, ideas, or concerns, please do not hesitate to message the Main! We know there is a lot going on and a lot left vague, but we are here to help!

Most of all, remember to be inclusive to as many people as possible (without biting off more than you can chew), get creative, and enjoy!

~ The Admin Team @ VN

Jennifer Blake's powers seem to have gone to her head, literally, and she has wasted precious time gloating when she should have been finishing the ritual she had come for. Allison Argent, Cora Hale, and Lydia Martin are a bit worse for wear, but still alive, and luckily for them, their team of rescuers is hot on their trail. Derek Hale arrives first, and throws everything he has at the witch who would put his family in chains once more. It's a battle for the ages, and as he distracts Jennifer, the girls frantically try to escape their bindings. Lydia Martin has a vision the moment he enters the room, and begins to thrash, though she cannot speak with the duct tape over her mouth. Malia Tate and Tyler Lockwood find them shortly after and help the girls to freedom, but not before Jennifer exacts lethal revenge for the interruption. Derek is killed in the battle, and it is enough of a sacrifice to count for Jennifer's plans. Martyr, traitor, one is as good as the next. But the power she absorbs is too much for even her to handle, and the personalities inside her begin to dramatically destabilize. 

Unable to console Cora, or get her to leave her brother's body, Tyler calls Hayley Marshall, who was already on her way to the scene, having felt something ripple inside her the moment Derek was killed. It's only with support from Malia and Tyler that the two women eventually find the strength to leave.

Allison has helped Lydia to get upright, and down to the street, where Stiles Stilinski finds them. Lydia has another vision before losing consciousness, and she and Allison are both rushed to the hospital. 

After an alarming vision that he simply can't believe, Alaric Saltzman makes his way to the Lalaurie Mansion as well, stumbling in as it spits out all its victims. He finds Jennifer inside, raving mad, and losing control of her magic. Luckily for him, he came prepared. While helping Camille O’Connell pack for her departure from the city that brought her so much pain, he came across a box marked as belonging to her late twin brother. The instant he touched it, he knew the box carried more than nostalgic mementos. Unable to help himself, Alaric took the pair of powerful shackles he found nestled among dusty sweaters and knick-knacks. He knew exactly what they were. Back in the present, they’ve come in handy much too soon, as he confronts the witch responsible for the murders, the same one who spent the last few months warming his bed. He manages to apprehend Jennifer, voiding her magic with the shackles and ultimately ushering her towards the Mansion’s exit. He looks away for barely a second to get his car open for one psychotic witch, when suddenly she’s gone, leaving only the shackles in her wake. Unbeknownst to Alaric, it’s her most-hated sister, Mary Sibley, that she has to thank for the timely delivery - and Jennifer hates it.

Jennifer isn’t the only wayward sister Mary has had the onerous chore of dealing with tonight. She’s also managed to successfully co-opt Freya Mikaelson's attempt to contact her missing brothers. The spell has found Elijah, Rebekah, and Klaus Mikaelson instead, knocking them unconscious into their individual dreamscapes. Each sibling stands at a separate metaphorical proximity to the spell: On one end, the spell caster - the forgotten sister, Freya. At the other, the two brothers the spell couldn’t quite reach. As a result, each sibling finds themselves with a different conversational partner. Elijah comes face-to-face with a woman he hasn't seen in a millennium: his mother, Esther, the one closest to Finn. She warns him of what will happen if Davina is not sacrificed, and how it will spell the end of the Mikaelson family forever. Klaus finds himself caught between both ends, back at the beginning of it all; in the woods with his little brother, Henrik. The young boy speaks about the dangers of making promises to children who trust him to keep his word, but soon learn better. Rebekah, however, stands at the opposite side of the spectrum, perhaps from a thousand years of loneliness. She meets someone she's never met before; Freya has succeeded in contacting one sibling directly, but it's not any of her brothers. 

As the Mikaelsons lay unconscious in the cemetery, Davina Claire approaches Marcel Gerard with the truth she's been hiding all this time: she knows she won’t survive this, and he needs to let her go. Marcel refuses to believe that's true and tries to convince her otherwise, but he is running out of time. Sophie Deveraux finds them then, followed by Frederick Egrid and Isaac Lahey, as well as Damon Salvatore, carrying an unconscious Mercy Lewis. Sophie is not taking any chances this time. Isaac's throat is slit first, as it should've been so many months ago, followed by Mercy and last of all, Davina. But for all her conviction, Sophie is once again left as the one who’s gambled and lost the most by the time the ritual is complete, because it results in... Nothing. Rather than strengthen New Orleans’ connection to the ancestors and revive all six of the Harvest Children - including her niece, Monique - the last of the city’s magic flickers out like a candle in the night. 

Damon doesn’t give a damn, however. What he cares about is finding Stefan. But when he does, gagged and bound with vervain chains in a mausoleum, he finds his brother weakened and raving about a vision from The Beyond. Stefan Salvatore has had a bone-chilling encounter with his deceased best friend, Lexi Branson, who has taxed him with one very simple mission — purge the Crescent City of its Salem influence, and she will be able to return. Damon is as suspicious as Stefan is determined; after-all, what does a dead vampire care about a foreign witch coven impinging on New Orleans?... Unless it isn’t Lexi, unless it isn’t Lexi at all.

Quentin Herrera arrives too late to save Isaac, but just in time to catch Egrid as he leaves the cemetery in defeat, unfortunately for the ambitious witch. A few meters below the streets of New Orleans, Christopher Argent has managed to free his sister, Kate Argent, but they’ve yet to escape Marcel’s garden. What should’ve been an quick in-and-out rescue mission becomes something else entirely. One Argent will make it to the surface, but which one will it be? The fate of New Orleans may hang in the answer. 

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Home and Drive-In Edition June 26, 2020 – MY SPY, IRRESISTIBLE, THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS and more!

June comes to an end as we passed through the summer solstice over the weekend. The 4th of July is next week, and the opening of movie theaters in New York and L.A. is edging closer, yet it still feels like the summer of 2020 will be forever known as the summer that never happened. I’m not even sure if I’ll be trying to predict the box office until things settle down, and we get into some semblance of normalcy, and that may never happen if scientists are to be believed that COVID will return in the fall.

The big release for the week isn’t actually coming to theaters but to Amazon, and it might be the biggest movie to air on the streamer to date. As you may have guessed from the title, I’m talking about the STXfilms action-comedy MY SPY, starring David Bautista, which was one of the first movies to be delayed when COVID hit back in March, but that was after it was already delayed a number of times before that. The simple high-concept premise has Bautista playing super-spy JJ, who is demoted to keep an eye on the wife of a suspected gunsmuggler with his tech assistant (Kristen Schaal). No sooner do they start this surveillance mission, the woman’s 9-year-old daughter Sophie (Chloe Coleman) catches them and she blackmails JJ to teach her how to be a spy.

Yup, this new comedy from Peter Segal (Get Smart, Second Act) is as high concept as you can possibly get, and yet, and quite surprisingly, My Spy is rated PG-13, as opposed to be a straight-up kiddie friendly PG, but you can read more about that in my review.

Mini-Review: It seems like every potential muscle-bound action star has to have one of these movies in their filmography where they’re teamed with a young child co-star that inevitably steals all their scenes – I won’t bother to list them all. Former WWE star and Marvel regular, Dave Bautista, has a precocious co-star in Chloe Coleman, who is so delightful as Sophie you can easily forget that this is straight-up formula comedy  

I’ll be honest about the fact that totally unironically, I’ve been looking forward to seeing My Spy since I first saw a preview at Cinema-Con back in 2019. It was a bummer to miss the press screening in March, because it meant having to wait three extra months to finally watch it on my computer. Surprise, surprise, the movie more than met up to my expectations, as I found it funny, cute and from time to time, it even throws in a few unexpected surprises.

I’m definitely in the camp that Bautista hasn’t done anything particularly great as an actor outside playing Drax in the MCU, and JJ isn’t that much smarter or less muscle-bound. The set-up for his character to connect with Coleman’s Sophie is pretty obvious, but there’s no denying that Bautista and Coleman are so adorable and hilarious as an on-screen duo that it more than makes up for any of the misgivings one might have about what is meant as an accessible movie with mainstream appeal.  (In other words, this was never meant as an artfilm, so if you’re one of those snobby critics who gushed all over last year’s Uncut Gems, and you refuse to accept that there’s an audience for My Spy, then you’re a fucking hypocrite, plain and simple.)

Speaking of the F-word, I have to mention My Spy’s rating, which is not the PG one might normally expect, though it’s not due to violence or bad language or anything that awful that you couldn’t watch and enjoy this with your 8 to 10 year old. I felt I should get that out there in case any parents have misgivings.

Besides the main duo, there’s some nice added comedy from Kristen Schaal, as well as the seemingly obligatory gay neighbors, played by Devere Rogers and Noah Dalton Danby, who somehow manage to avoid stereotypes while providing a recurring bit of humor.

The movie starts getting a little predictable when Sophie pushes JJ to start dating her now-single mom, and things start losing a little steam as the movie gets away from the JJ/Sophie bonding and back to the actual plot, and that’s where the movie’s biggest problems lie. When the “villain” of the piece shows up, things get back into the usual formula that most will be expecting anyway. I will add that director Peter Segal seems to be particularly well suited at directing this, particularly when it gets into some of the action in the last act.

Sure, some of My Spy’s funniest jokes have shown up in various trailers, but turns out that it’s a fairly warm and funny movie that does its job in providing solid family entertainment.

Rating: 7/10

Jon Stewart returns to political comedy with his new movie, IRRESISTIBLE, (Focus Features), starring his former “Daily Show” correspondent Steve Carell as Gary Zimmer, the Democratic strategist who failed so horribly running the 2016 Presidential election. Undaunted, Zimmer hopes to revive the party by rallying behind a likeable everyman, Col. Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), as he runs for mayor of the small town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin. It would seem like an odd decision but clearly, the Republicans know that Zimmer has something bigger planned so they send their own strategist, Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), to get behind the incumbent Republican mayor.

It’s pretty obvious this movie is probably more in Stewart’s wheelhouse than his previous film, Rosewater, but it also has more mainstream appeal and could help Stewart continue to get directing work in the future. Sure, there have been many similar political comedies like this that have tried to find the audience -- Bob Roberts, Primary Colours, Wag the Dog,Swing Vote -- but I’m not sure any of those came out when the country has been as divided as it is now.

It’s pretty nice seeing Stewart reuniting with Carell, who does a decent job in this fish-out-of-water comedy that mostly relies on how a DC bigwig might acclimate to a sociable smalltown – think Groundhog Day to the Nth level – which makes this comedy fall more into the vein of  Matt Damon and John Krasinski’s Promised Land, which I thought was a very underrated political film.

I’m a big Rose Byrne stan, and once again, we can see how delightfully funny she can be when playing such an awful person like Faith Brewster, but there’s quite a bit of fun awkward sexual tension between her and Carell. Another part of the equation is Hastings grown daughter, played by Mackenzie Davis, and most people watching this will probably hope this doesn’t go too far into that romantic realm, and thankfully, it doesn’t.

Irresistible may be a little predictable at times, but there’s a nice turn towards the end that makes up for some of the more obvious aspects of the storytelling, and Stewart certainly seems to be enough in his element to make this not too horrible an experience.

This week’s “Featured Film” is Peter Medak’s documentary, THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS (1091), about how Hungarian filmmaker ran into problems with Sellers while trying to make the 1973 pirate comedy Ghost in the Noonday Sun, an experience that almost ruined the filmmaker’s career. It’s kind of interesting for a filmmaker to take an in-depth look back at his own failures, but Medak’s story is particularly touching, only because it didn’t seem like he stood a chance when Sellers refused to show up on set and then brought in his equally eclectic best friend Spike Milligan to work on the script and create even more chaos.

Honestly, I have never seen Ghost in the Noonday Sun, but I enjoy a lot of Medak’s films that followed, including The Changeling and the excellent Romeo is Bleeding, so I went into this doc knowing that this incident didn’t completely kill Medak’s career, but obviously, it had a huge effect. It ends up being a fairly emotional film as Medak interviews some of the producers on the film as well as Milligan’s widows and others who were around during that period. He also learns new things about how he was dismissed from the project and used as a scapegoat for all the problems faced by the production, which began when the boat built for the movie crashed upon arriving in Cypress.  I generally like movies about the making of movies even when I haven’t seen the original movie, and Medak finds a way to offer some true sentiment and emotional insight into his tenuous relationship with Sellers.

Out now on VOD is Laura Holliday’s DADDY ISSUES (Gravitas Ventures), starring Kimberley Datnow as a Henrietta, a 20-something stand-up who has moved from London back to L.A. to take over the family business after her father dies and leaves her the company. She takes on this challenge in hopes of earning her now dead father’s approval.

I knew from almost the minute this started that I was going to hate this twee high concept indie that seems like so many other indie movies where the person putting it together had so many ideas but not enough actual story glue to hold all those ideas together. It’s fairly obvious from the slice of “Henry’s” stand-up set that begins this movie that she isn’t particularly funny. On top of that, she seems like another one of those spoiled and entitled Millennials who just isn’t happy unless she’s getting her own way. When the story quickly shifts  to L.A., and she’s surrounded by even more annoying Millennials, it gets even worse, especially because it feels the need to follow her best friend and housemate on their own journeys as well.

I have to say, as someone who didn’t automatically hate the recent Valley Girl remake, that Daddy Issues is infinitely worse, not only because it doesn’t have the fun musical numbers but just because it seems like such a precious endeavor that doesn’t seem like it will really be able to connect with anyone other than the filmmakers.  I found Datnow’s Henrietta to be so pathetic and again, not very funny, so getting through this movie was grueling, to say the least. At one point, Henri falls for an asshole named Hunter whom she had one date with. When that doesn’t work, she tries to reconnect with a couple other idiotic guys, but then she goes back with Hunter, and the whole time I was watching this movie thinking, “What’s the point? Are there really people this stupid and annoying on the planet?” (That’s rhetorical.)

Jon Swab’s RUN WITH THE HUNTED (Vertical) stars Michel Pitt, Ron Perlman and Dree Hemingway, and it will premiere On Demand this Friday. At first, it follows a young boy named Oscar (Mitchell Paulson), who commits a murder and runs away from home, leaving his childhood friend Loux wondering where he went after saving her from an abusive father. Oscar joins a band of misfit kids who pick pockets and commit crimes, but 15 years later, Loux goes looking for Oscar (now played by Michael Pitt).  

I’m not even sure where to begin with this indie crime-thriller that’s so flawed from beginning to end, it was tough to get through most of it.  The first hour deals with the younger Oscar and much of it deals with him getting in with a teen girl named Peaches and a young gang of hoodlums, led by Mark Boone Junior and Ron Perlman. It’s kind of interesting seeing Perlman playing the leader of a group of young pickpockets and thieves since he played the protector of those sorts of kids in one of my favorite movies, The City of Lost Children. That’s really the only thing those two movies have in common, as this feels like another poorly-realized attempt at… possibly modernizing Oliver Twist? (I mean, the band le by Pitt’s character are even referred to as “The Lost Boys,” so it’s obvious that Swab didn’t care too much about originality.

The sad truth is that Pitt has been fairly mediocre as an actor lately, after showing so much promise in his early days, and Run with the Hunted doesn’t really offer anything particularly new to what’s generally a pretty tired genre. Perlman is one of the better parts of the movie along with Isiah Whitlock (last seen in Da Five Bloods), and they have a fine scene together, but otherwise, the material is weak, and it leads to a dull and often outright dumb offering.

I still haven’t figured out what Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is, but apparently, it’s a spoof comedy starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams that will debut on Netflix this Friday. It also reunites McAdams with her Wedding Crashers director, David Dobkin, so I’ll definitely check it out, since it looks very funny. 

Mini-Review: I have to admit this movie seemed to come from out of nowhere. I really felt like I only started hearing about it when the trailer debuted last week, but otherwise, I had no idea that Ferrell had reteamed with his Wedding Crashers director and with that film’s romantic lead, Rachel McAdams. What this spoof comedy has going for it is that it combines a number of things I enjoy, including music and Iceland.

Will Ferrell plays Lars Erikson, one half of the synth duo Fire Saga, with his childhood friend Sigrit (McAdams), the two of them having the life-long dream of representing Iceland in the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Lars also has to contend with his disapproving father, played by Pierce Brosnan, but in general, everyone in their Icelandic town thinks they’re awful. They seem like longshots to represent Iceland in the song contest but an unfortunate incident leaves them as the only option.

We might as well get out of the way the fact that this is essentially a one or two joke comedy that follows the formula of so many other Will Ferrell movies, including Blades of Glory, but if you’re a fan of his comedy, then you’ll probably enjoy his latest offering, which he also co-wrote and produced. When Dan Stevens shows up as the Russian competitor, Alexander Lemtov, who has machinations for Sigrid, it’s pretty easy to figure out where things are going.

Either you like what Ferrell does while in full-on “idiot mode” or not, and Fire Saga’s on-stage mishaps probably offer the biggest laughs. The other level of humor involves just how silly the actual Eurovision is, even though it’s obviously more of a European thing than it is something that Americans will understand. I’ve always loved Rachel McAdams, and I generally think she’s better when she’s doing comedy, as she makes for a great counter to Ferrell’s zaniness.

In general, the movie allows actors like McAdams, Stevens and Brosnan to goof around and have a fun time being as outlandish as Ferrell.  (Just watching Brosnan trying to pull off an Icelandic accent may be worth the price of admission alone.)

Make no mistake that this is not a small movie, and it’s quite a huge production when you consider all the enormous musical numbers representing the different international contestants. I could have easily seen this doing decently in theaters, although its 2-hour run time does seem a bit frivolous since there’s also quite a bit that could have been trimmed.

As much as Eurovision Song Contest leans heavy on its main overall joke about Fire Saga being quite inept, particularly Ferrell’s Lars, I generally enjoy this type of spoof of comedy even when it ventures into very predictable territory. In the end, Eurovision Song Contest offers as many laughs as Popstar: Never Stop Stopping, even if it’s not quite as heady as a movie like Walk Hard.

Rating: 7/10

Former lawyer turned filmmaker, Cam Cowan’s documentary, Madagasikara (Global Digital Releasing), takes a look at three women in Madagascar fighting for the survival of their families and education of their children amidst domestic political instability and the poverty that’s been caused by it. Cowan made his first trip to Madagascar in June 2014 and spent four years filming and doing post on the documentary which will debut on Amazon Prime and Docurama Friday after its festival run, but will be available platforms down the line.

The Blind Melon/Shannon Hoon doc All I Can Say (Oscilloscope) has the singer returning from the grave by compiling the many videos he filmed of himself between 1990 and 1995 before his death at the age of 28.  Co-directed by Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould and Colleen Hennessy, it will hit virtual cinemas as well as record stores and music venues this Friday.  (Not quite sure how that all works, but hey, I was never really a Blind Melon fan anyway.)

Coming to Virtual Cinema on Friday is Ina Weiss’ The Audition (Strand Releasing) that follows a violin teacher named Anna Bronchy (Nina Hoss) who finds talent within Alexander, a student at the music-focused high school, neglecting her own family in the process.

Opening in Virtual Cinema Friday through almost 50 arthouse theaters across the country, including Brooklyn’s BAM, is the British-Nigerian drama, The Last Tree (Artmattan Films) from filmmaker Shola Amoo, which received a number of awards at the British Independent Film Award after its Sundance 2019 World Premiere.

Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema will present Three Short Films by Sergei Parajanov (FilmLinc), featuring work by the Armenian-Georgian filmmaker that range from 1967 through 1988. FilmLinc will also premiere Bora Kim’s 2018 South Korean film, House of Hummingbird (West Go USA/Kino Marquee), a Berlinale prize winner set in that country I 1994, as it follows a 14-year-old through a series of romances and indiscretions.

Film Forum’s own Virtual Cinema will conclude its Alaistar Sim trilogy with the 1951 comedy, Laughter in Paradise, directed by Mario Zampi, as well as screen Zhang Yimou’s 1995 film Shanghai Triad, starring Gong Li. (There’s actually a lot of movies available via Virtual Cinema that will end this Friday, including two series of Kid Flicks shorts, so definitely try to go through the listings and catch what you can!)

This week also sees the third and final volume of Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All-Time with Volume 3 looking at “Comedy and Camp,” once again hosted by Joe Dante, John Waters, Ileana Douglas and Kevin Pollak. Some of the movies covered in this volume include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Rock and Roll High School, Office Space, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Showgirls with guests that include Gina Gershon, John Cleese, Fred Willard, Jon Heder and many more. I really have enjoyed this documentary series, and if you’re a fan of movies that are just a little outside leftfield, this is a great addition to your library.

Available on DVD this Friday is the documentary No Small Matter (Abramorama), co-directed by Danny Alpert, Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel, which looks at early childhood education and how that has changed how kids learn, now at an earlier age than ever.

This week’s big virtual festival is the 25th Nantucket Film Festival, which will be running from June 23 – 30 with a combination of films and events like a number of “In Their Shoes..” talks with Norman Lear and screenwriter Eric Roth (both hosted by my pal Ophira Eisenberg), as well as one with improv comics, Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz, that one moderated by Michel Ian Black. Also, the Oxford Film Festival will screen two features virtually starting on Friday, Mindy Beldsoe’s The In Between and Braden King’s The Evening Hour, although the latter can only be viewed in Mississippi.You can get tickets for both on Oxford’s Eventive site.

Also this weekend, there are a few returning shows, but they’re coming to HBO Max only, and that includes the third season of Search Party and the second season of Doom Patrol, which originally premiered on DC Universe. So yeah, there’s definitely a lot to watch this weekend.

Netflix will also release George Lopez’s new stand-up special, George Lopez: We’ll Do It In Half on Saturday and the third season of the German series, Dark.

Next week, it’s the 4th of July weekend, and we’ll have more movies not necessarily in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from A Reel of One’s Own by Andrea Thompson: It’s Mia Wasikowska versus the patriarchy in ‘Judy & Punch’

By Andrea Thompson

The way I first became aware of the grisly history of Punch and Judy was through the novel “Gone Girl,” which used the misogynistic history of the puppet show to inform a philandering husband just what his brilliant, calculating wife had in store for him. In a time when old properties being revived is practically a compulsion, this chapter in our past is being revisited as a way to subvert the patriarchal norms that would see women suffer male violence on a mere comedic whim.

“Judy & Punch” uses much the same methods as a part of a new wave of female filmmakers who explore the past in an effort to take back a narrative so often dominated by men who often view women as objects to be disposed of accordingly. Sometimes it’s less than successful, per the 2018 dud Ophelia, but “Judy & Punch” manages to at least make a case for upending tradition by centering not only women, but how their efforts for a better life can likewise prove uplifting to the system itself.

If that uplift feels a bit too utopian by the end, the journey there is at least worth watching, especially for a feature debut. Director Mirrah Foulkes, who also wrote, has worked steadily and impressively as an actress over the past 15 years, but “Judy & Punch” proves she has real prowess, and hopefully a future, on the other side of the camera as well.

Judy & Punch

A running joke is that the 17th century town of Seaside is nowhere near the sea, but it is drowning nonetheless, bleakly reveling in superstition and catering to the mob instinct for bloodlust. So sharp has this instinct become that Seaside has become a place which celebrates Stoning Day, complete with festivities such as boxing and stoning women for offenses as wide-ranging as looking at the moon for too long, getting a rash, or all their chickens dying at once. A similarly violent puppet show, run by a husband and wife team who share names and much else with the puppets they manipulate for the town’s amusement, would only be welcome.

It’s quickly clear just how much that show depends on Judy’s (Mia Wasikowska) impressive puppetry skills, but her husband Punch (Damon Herriman) is the one who receives all praise and credit for their work. Hardly surprising, then, that their life would imitate their art, with their ambitions on hold due to Punch’s drinking habits and temper, which is preventing them from achieving the career heights they’re clearly capable of.

Punch may twirl his mustache, but he’s not a one-dimensional villain. It’s not his intentions that are his undoing, but his inadequacies, as he inadvertently causes a tragedy that culminates in Judy being beaten and left for dead, then bent on revenge. The great irony in “Judy & Punch” is just how much that revenge rings hollow, due in part to how little interest the film takes in Judy’s healing process, which is baffling considering it occurs after she ends up in a community of outcasts who find freedom and safety in the woods that the Seaside residents fear and avoid. But there’s little focus on Judy’s interactions with them, or the various rules and histories of the place and the people.

Judy & Punch

Rather, the latter half of “Judy & Punch” unfolds like something of a crime drama, focusing its energies on the fallout from Punch’s bloody actions, and his efforts to rebound from them. When his comeuppance finally does come, it’s with relative ease, with the violent atmosphere that has haunted most of the film almost supernaturally transforming into an egalitarian paradise. If Wasikowska’s and Herriman’s performance elevate the material, Foulkes likewise incorporates modern touches that incorporate the present into a past that feels like something more sinister than a safe distance away. Her hopes feel too high, but at least there’s at least a sinister edge that keeps it enjoyably in the realm of fairy tale, complete with a retribution that is poetically, diabolically Machiavellian.

Grade: B-

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[ramajmedia]

10 Comedy Actors From The 90s We Wish Were Still Making Movies

The ‘90s were a decade that really defined the comedy movie genre. Iconic film franchises emerged, like Ace Ventura and Austin Powers. And, on the small screen, popular sketch comedy series like Saturday Night Live and In Living Color kept fans laughing hysterically as they watched hilarious sketches and recurring characters.

And while comedy films continue to bring the big bucks and audience laughs today, and we have a new slate of comedic actors showing their talents, such as Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, and Amy Schumer, there are some classic comedic actors we really miss.

RELATED: Rotten Tomatoes: Every Comedy Movie That Got 100% 

Some of these actors are still active today, appearing in TV series, voicing characters, or working behind the scenes. Some have sadly left this world. Nonetheless, here are 10 comedy actors from the ‘90s that we really wish would make a comeback in comedy film.

10 Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy was a staple on the comedy film scene back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, appearing in films in the latter decade like Beverly Hills Cop III, The Nutty Professor, and Doctor Doolittle. He continued through the early ‘00s, most notably voicing the character of Donkey in the Shrek movies.

But we miss his crass humor, stand-up comedy specials, and signature laugh and style. Luckily, we’ll see the comedian on the small screen again as he returns to host Saturday Night Live, on which he was a cast member from 1980 to 1984, for the first time in 35 years this December.

9 Robin Williams

Since this comedy icon passed away in 2014, there’s zero chance of him returning to movies. But when you think of comedy films from the ‘90s, Williams is one of the first names to come to mind. He appeared in memorable movies during that decade like Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Patch Adams, as well as the voice of the Genie in the animated film Aladdin.

The actor and stand-up comedian was one of the funniest of this generation, first rising to fame on the small screen in the sitcom Mork & Mindy. While we might never see him again in film, his movies, performances, and characters will go down in history as some of the best.

RELATED: Ignore The Critics: 10 Good Comedy Movies With Bad Rotten Tomatoes Scores 

8 Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey proved he has serious acting chops after appearing in films like I Love You Phillip Morris and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And he’s still active on the scene today, most recently in the TV series Kidding. But we miss the signature comedic styling, facial warps, and spastic moves that helped define comedy films in the ‘90s with movies like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Dumb & Dumber, and The Cable Guy; not to mention his many memorable characters from the sketch comedy series In Living Color.

Carrey did reprise his goofy role of Lloyd for the 20-years-later-sequel to Dumb & Dumber, Dumb and Dumber To. But we want more!

7 Steve Martin

One of this generation’s comedy greats, Martin appeared in a long string of comedy films in the ‘90s, including Father of the Bride, Mixed Nuts, and Bowfinger. He has continued to act since then, including as himself in the 2016 series Maya & Marty and makes appearances on Saturday Night Live.

His comedic run ran through the early ‘00s in films like Cheaper By the Dozen 2, The Pink Panther, Baby Mama, and It’s Complicated. While he also does writing work, and plays music, we miss seeing this funny man showcase his talents on film.

Related: The 10 Most Memorable Characters From Your Favorite ‘90s Teen Comedies

6 Damon Wayans

All of the Wayans brothers ruled the television scene in the ‘90s on the sketch comedy series In Living Color. But Damon broke out as a bona fide superstar, appearing in films like Mo’ Money, Major Payne, Bulletproof, and his own TV series called Damon, followed by the sitcom My Wife and Kids that aired from 2001-2005.

He was most recently starring in the series Lethal Weapon, a buddy copy comedy-drama based on the film franchise of the same name. But he hasn’t appeared on the big screen in some time, and it’s due time we get some Wayans humor once again.

5 Billy Crystal

Becoming known as much for hosting the Oscars as for appearing in movies, Crystal has film credits to his name from the ‘90s that include City Slickers, Fathers’ Day, and Analyze This, and appeared In iconic films in the late ‘80s like When Harry Met Sally…, The Princess Bride, and Throw Momma from the Train.

He became known to a new generation as the voice of Mike Wazowski in the animated Monsters, Inc. films starting in 2001. But it has been a while since we’ve seen this Emmy and Tony award winning, and nine-time Academy Awards hosting, actor grace the big screen in a comedy film. We will get to see it, thankfully, as he’s set to appear in an upcoming comedy called Here Today opposite Tiffany Haddish.

RELATED: The 13 Best Romantic Comedy Movies Of All Time, According To IMDb 

4 Whoopi Goldberg

Appearing in comedy films in the ‘90s like Ghost, House Party 2, Sister Act, Made in America, and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, as well as playing Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the ‘90s was Goldberg’s era.

And while we continue to get to see her talents every day on daytime talk show The View, she discusses serious, real-world topics there. We’d love to see her head back to film to reprise some of her best roles (a reimagined version of Ghost, maybe?!) or create some new ones.

3 Charlie Sheen

A once comedy movie star, appearing in films in the ‘90s like The Rookie, Hot Shots!, Loaded Weapon 1, The Three Musketeers, and Major League II, Sheen shifted to the small screen and became the highest paid television actor when playing Charlie Harper on the sitcom Two And A Half Men.

He went on to star in another sitcom, Anger Management, from 2012-2014, but he has been completely absent from film for far too long. We’d love to see him bring back some of those famous movie roles, and show these new comedy actors how it’s really done.

Related: 5 Action Films From The 90s That Are Way Underrated (& 5 That Are Overrated)

2 Michael Keaton

With a long and successful career in acting, Keaton appeared in tons of comedy movies in the ‘90s, including Much Ado About Nothing, Multiplicity, and Jack Frost, as well as dramas, crime, and fantasy flicks including his notable role as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman and Batman Returns. But we haven’t seen his comedic talents in a while.

Most recently appearing as Julian Assange in a sketch on Saturday Night Live and voicing the character of V.A. Vandevere in Dumbo, we need more of the comedy Keaton to satisfy our ‘10s comedy film appetite.

1 Mike Myers

Let’s face it: Wayne’s World is the ‘90s. Mike Myers helped define comedy films of that decade with hilarious and highly quotable ones like Wayne’s World, So I Married an Axe Murderer, and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. But since the early ‘00s, he’s only appeared sparingly on the big screen, but for his starring role as the voice of the title character in the Shrek movies.

He hosted a revival of the game show The Gong Show in 2017 and had a cameo in the Academy Award-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody, fitting since it was Wayne’s World that helped popularize the band’s song of the same name for a new generation. Myers reportedly has an untitled project for Netflix in the works, He’s also rumored to be working on the fourth Austin Powers movie, but it seems unlikely to come to fruition after the unfortunate death of Verne Troyer, who played the key character Mini-Me, unless they can find a way to appropriately honor the late actor. Fingers crossed.

RELATED: The 10 Most Memorable Characters From Your Favorite ‘90s Teen Comedies 

source https://screenrant.com/comedians-90s-wish-making-movies/

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Vampire Diaries: I Was Feeling Epic (8x16)

I cried so much, you guys. So much. I don't even care that that was the cheesiest effing thing I've ever seen in my life. I cried a lot. I can't. I fucking cannot. I feel emotionally manipulated but I'm just letting it sink all over me. This is just a teen soap. This is one of the first shows I ever got emotionally invested in. I can't believe they did what they did. I can't believe I cried SO. MUCH.

Cons:

I don't know, man, I would have liked to see Jeremy and Elena interact a bit at the end? They got the actor playing Jeremy to appear for like 0.2 seconds. Couldn't they have had them reunite? The whole thing was a sob-and-cheese-fest, and that was one moment that I missed out on seeing.

The only thing that got a LITTLE too cheesy was Enzo and Bonnie. I felt like we got a good scene of Enzo being Bonnie's cheesy little spirit guide in the last episode, and then when he kept popping up it felt a little bit like overkill? But that might be because this episode was so teeth-rotting in its cheesiness that the Enzo stuff was what pushed it over the edge? I don't know. Small complaint.

The other thing is this: virtually every itty bitty little thing about the last ten minutes of this episode made me cry. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot. With one exception: Matt and his family still didn't feel like they got a proper place in the story. Matt said a bit in his voice-over part about Vicky finding peace, or whatever, and we even see that Tyler found peace too, but all the stuff about Vicky and her estranged father reuniting, and Vicky continuing to ring the bell to save herself from Hell... it was all soooo much less important to me as a viewer than I think it was meant to be. It's not like I hated it, but I just didn't care all that much in the face of all the other stuff. I wish we could have seen Matt and Elena share a moment, or Matt and Caroline, or Matt and Bonnie. Really, if we had just seen Matt have one moment of connection with the rest of the gang, that would have been nice.

Oh, and since I'm wishing, the most important relationships got a lot of really juicy and sappy screen time. Stefan and Damon took the cake, which, just, thank you. And Caroline and Stefan got a lot of good stuff, and we got to see Damon and Elena's epic reunion. Then there's all the ending moments which had me sobbing inconsolably. But you know who didn't get any time? Bonnie and Damon. Also, Alaric and Damon. Two friendships that were such a big part of this show, and they weren't even really referenced. I feel like we didn't get to see Ric and Damon get closure after all the stuff that went down. Probably a small, pedantic point in the grand scheme of things, and since we flashed forward over the human characters' long lives, I'm sure Damon and Bonnie became closer than ever, and I'm sure Damon and Ric bonded over the Salvatore boarding school. But some small visual reference to this sure would have been a treat.

Pros:

The plot is... complicated. But I don't even really want to go into it all that much. I just want to talk about the characters and say goodbye to them. Suffice it to say, the gang finds a way to defeat Katherine's evil plan to destroy Mystic Falls. It involves Bonnie doing some hella impressive magic, and then it involves Stefan sacrificing his life to make sure that Katherine, and Hell with her, are destroyed for good. Bonnie wakes Elena up using her newfound intense witchy magics, and Elena and Damon grow old together - did I mention, Stefan managed to pass Damon the cure just before he died? We get lots of cheesy montages showing how Bonnie traveled the world to keep her promise to Enzo, Caroline and Alaric helped open the school for gifted children, and Caroline got a large donation from a certain Original we all love to hate to love, and Elena went to medical school and then came back to Mystic Falls. She and Damon lived a long life, and then we get to see that when they died they reunited with their families. Elena sees her mom and dad, her Aunt Jenna, and even her biological father. And Damon, against all he believed about his own afterlife destiny, got to reunite with his little brother. We close on a shot of Damon and Stefan embracing.

I'm. Emotionally. Compromised.

I mean, where to even start? I guess let's start with Alaric, Caroline, and the girls. I love that Ric puts the girls first and doesn't even hesitate to get out of Mystic Falls when the danger starts. Alaric got one of the least significant roles in this finale, but I think it was fitting in that he's spinning off to The Originals, so this didn't have to feel like a goodbye to his character. I love that he gets Caroline away from the situation, and I love that he's the one to tell her the devastating news about Stefan. Ric is honestly such a good guy.

I'll have more to say about Caroline in a minute, but let's turn to Bonnie. As this episode starts, we see her "die" for a moment, and actually reunite with Elena in some sort of afterlife. Elena is devastated, because Bonnie isn't supposed to be dead yet. With Enzo's help, Bonnie decides to live, and she wakes up to a very relieved Caroline and Stefan, who had been trying to revive her. From here, Bonnie is the one to come up with the plan to destroy Hell and defeat Katherine. Stefan makes his sacrifice, but Bonnie is the one who has to be a bad-ass. She uses her newly found powers to redirect the hellfire that Vicky released, syphoning it through the tunnels to the Armory. She then uses her power to hold the wall of flames back. Just as it seems she's not strong enough, Enzo shows up to encourage her. She finds that her Gran is with her, and then the rest of the Bennett witches.

There was something so powerful and heartwarming about watching this incredible, strong black woman and all of her black female ancestors stand together to defeat the evil. The magic on this show might be hokey, but the fact that Bonnie gets to save the world at the end is just such a fitting way for her character to finish her run on this show. I'd also just like to thank the creators of this show for not killing Bonnie. There were about three moments in this episode where I thought she was going to die so that Elena could finally wake up, but no. She lives. She gets to live the long and happy life that she has always deserved. Sure, she lost Enzo. But she gets to keep him with her always, in a way. She gets to be happy, and content, and powerful as all hell. I think back over the treatment of Bonnie on this show, and I'm just so grateful that it ended the way it did.

And then let's take a break from all the warm feelings to talk about my queen Katherine Pierce, who came back to sass it up one final time. We actually get a fake-out here, where the Elena/Damon reunion we saw in the promos is actually Katherine up to her old tricks again. I love the moment when Damon is hugging "Elena," then suddenly realization strikes, and he just unceremoniously drops her. She says "rude," in that perfect Katherine tone of voice. Her snark is the thing of legends. It was so fun to get Nina Dobrev back as both Katherine and Elena. She really is such a talented actress. It's hard to believe she stepped out of these roles two years ago, because her return felt so seamless. The show did a really smart thing in not spending too much time with either Elena or Katherine. They made their presence felt in a really big way, but they didn't overshadow the other characters.

Let's talk Stefan and Damon. They get into yet another argument about who's going to sacrifice themselves to destroy Hell, and it's just everything one could hope for.  We get lines like this:

Stefan: "you have quite literally an eternity with Elena ahead of you." Damon: "which means a lot less without you!"

Damon: "I love you, little brother." Stefan: "I love you too."

Damon: "I am the big brother. I'm sorry I wasn't better at it until now."

And we get Stefan saying that although he doesn't want to leave Caroline, he has to do this for Damon. In the two centuries since Stefan forced Damon to become a vampire, he's wanted him to become a person who deserved happiness. And now he has, and Damon is going to get to live that life. He's going to get that happiness.

Stefan: "Let me do this for you." Damon: "No." Stefan: "Then let me do this for me."

It was at this devastating point that I knew Stefan was going to be the one to die, but they do trick us one last time. Damon compels Stefan to leave the cavern, leaving Damon to finish things with Katherine and the hellfire. Of course, Stefan had been taking vervaine since becoming human. He shows up, sticks Damon with his blood, thus giving him the cure, and kills Katherine, sending her to Hell so that she, and it, are destroyed with hellfire. Stefan Salvatore is dead.

I'm... I can't explain what this scene was like. Damon and Stefan both crying, their voices cracking... it was the most emotional performance from Ian and Paul of the entire show, and it worked wonders. And the sappy sadness does not stop there.

Elena's first appearance with Bonnie in the afterworld place sets up Stefan's death really nicely. Elena appears to "wake up" at the high school, where Katherine had trapped her, and she comes out into the hallway, bumping in to Stefan the very same way she does in the first episode of the show. And then Stefan explains what happened. He tells her that Damon wanted to sacrifice his life, but that Stefan wouldn't let him. We realize that Stefan is dead. He hugs Elena, and asks her to deliver a message when she finally wakes up. Stefan says it was really good to see Elena. This scene makes me really emotional. It manages to capture the nostalgia for the early days of the show, without sucking us back into the Elena/Stefan romance. These two are really important to each other, and it was touching to see them share this final moment.

Of course, then Stefan goes outside, and... Lexi is waiting for him. They hug, and Stefan lifts her off the ground and spins her around. I'm. I can't believe it. Lexi. I love this character so much. Stefan had to leave behind Caroline. He had to leave behind his brother, even if he hopes he'll be able to see him again someday. But he gets Lexi. He gets to see his best friend again. I can't believe how emotional this made me.

I said I'd be pissed if Stefan was the one to die in the finale, but when it happened it felt right. It felt like he'd already started to die the minute he was turned human, and this way we get to see him redeem himself for all his crap, and he actually gets peace. We also don't have to contemplate Caroline, the Only Vampire Left spending 60-some-odd years with an aging husband. Instead, we get to say a real goodbye to Stefan, and we get to see him giving a real goodbye to Elena, a real goodbye to Caroline, and a real reunion with his big brother, the most important person in the world to him.

Let's turn back to Caroline for a moment. She promises Ric that she'll survive this whole hellfire thing so she won't leave her daughters without a mother. When Elena is trapped in Mystic Falls, Stefan has to stay behind to try and convince Damon to leave without her, even knowing it's probably a lost cause. Caroline and Stefan have to say goodbye, and it's pretty heartbreaking. They just got married, and yet the situation demands they part. Caroline has to be there for her daughters, and Stefan has to be there for Damon. As Caroline, Ric, and the girls flee, Alaric breaks the news to Caroline that Stefan and Bonnie have a plan that involves Stefan sacrificing his life.

This is where my heart is just completely ripped out of its chest. Caroline gets out of the car and she calls Stefan, leaving him a message. She tells him that she understands. She tells him that she'll love him forever, but that she understands. I don't think I can underscore what a big, huge deal that is. Caroline and Stefan have always had this very selfless love. Stefan has always been the selfless one. He was willing to let Elena die when she and Matt went over the bridge in the car, and now we see that Caroline is willing to let Stefan die to help save Mystic Falls, and Damon and Elena's future. There's something so depressing about realizing that Caroline is the last vampire left, but it also feels so right. She's the only one of these people who was good at being a vampire. She was supposed to be a vampire. And she's brave enough to say goodbye to the people she loves. She's brave and strong enough to let Stefan go, and carry him in her heart forever. I'm just so emotional about this.

So then we get Bonnie, in her awesomeness, waking Elena up by breaking the spell. I don't know why I never thought of that as a possibility, and despite the deus ex machina-ish aspect of it all, I really don't give a shit. Bonnie is just the best, okay? She could do anything and I'd buy it. There's something so powerful and wonderful about Bonnie being the one to save Elena. These two besties were there at the beginning of all of this mess, and now they actually get to grow old and be in each other's lives. Once again, I'm super emotional. They hug in joy at seeing one another again, and then pull back, each with grief in their eyes. Elena doesn't even have to say anything to let Bonnie know she's aware Stefan is dead. She just says: "where is he?" and Bonnie says: "with Caroline. Saying goodbye."

And we get another amazing scene with Caroline and Damon. The two of them stand at Stefan's memorial in the Salvatore crypt, and Caroline says she knows they will see Stefan again someday. Damon says he's sure Caroline will, but he's destined for the other place. Caroline encourages him, and the two stand there together, remembering Stefan, holding each other. These two just... I mean, Caroline is a saint. As I think I mentioned above. I love that they can stand there and be united in their love for Stefan, even as Damon knows he'll be living out a human life, while Caroline still has a long eternity stretched in front of her.

Of course, we get some slow-motion reunion stuff with Elena and Damon, as they share their first kiss as two humans who are going to spend their lives together. I love it. It's cheesy, it's overwrought, but who cares. We see Elena passing Stefan's message on to Caroline. He got her message about understanding, and says he'll love her forever, too. We see the gang at Stefan's funeral. And then we transition into our final montage.

The ending montage turns back to one of The Vampire Diaries' least consistent story elements: the diary thing. In voiceovers, we hear how everybody's lives shake out, and we see everybody being watched over by their departed loved ones. It's the cheesiest thing in the world, but... I don't give a damn.

Matt gets a bench made in his honor, and continues as the sheriff of Mystic Falls. He sees Vicky and Tyler watching over him, both at peace.

Bonnie is going to travel the world, the voice of her love Enzo there to help her through the rough moments. She's determined to live her life to the fullest.

Alaric has my favorite of the little voiceover lines, since it made me laugh and cry at the same time: "Caroline and I got what Damon decided was Stefan's last wish," that is, funds to open the Salvatore Boarding School for gifted children. We see Jo watching over Ric and the girls as they play and goof off, and we see that setting up the school requires help from some old friends, and that Dorian and Jeremy are both enlisted to help.

Okay, and back to Caroline. This episode so brilliantly set us up for a world in which every character we love and care for is either dead, or is human, which in this finale means you get to grow old and die. We can assume that Bonnie, Alaric, Jeremy, Matt, and of course Damon and Elena all live long and happy lives and die peaceful at an old age. So where does that leave Caroline? I was so curious in the buildup to this last episode as to how they were going to reconcile all the different characters and their various states of mortality. So, what do they do? They set Caroline up for future happiness in the best way imaginable.

We see her working hard to make the school great, to make her mother proud. We see Liz watching over Caroline. And then we see that Caroline has gotten a note from... Klaus. He donates an obscene amount of money to the school, and basically implies that he wants to be a part of her life once more, "however long it takes." This is great. We take Caroline, the only immortal left, and spin her off into future potential happiness. She'll always love Stefan, but that doesn't mean that she and Klaus can't be a thing. I'm a happy camper.

Elena gets the last voiceover portion. We see her writing in her diary at her parents' grave, within sight of the Salvatore crypt. She writes about her crazy, wonderful life. She went to med school, then back to Mystic Falls. She's truly happy with Damon. She says that she owes it all to Stefan, since when she met him, she was dead inside, and he brought her back to life. I mean, I'm tearing up just writing about it. Elena says that she knows Damon is still worried he'll never see his brother again, but Elena knows he's wrong. They live a long life, and we see that Elena finally dies, and gets to have peace - she gets to find her family again. Her mother. Her father. Aunt Jenna. John. I really want to praise Nina Dobrev's acting in this moment, because all of the cheesy hugs and the music swelling and all that would have been a hard pill to swallow if the performance hadn't been genuine. Elena is so happy and blissful to be with her family again, and it's honestly just the perfect resolution for her character.

I thought they were going to close on Elena hugging her whole family, (sans Jeremy, who I guess outlives Elena. That's a good sign!) and I would have been happy with that. I mean, it was Elena's show, right? But no.

They give us the thing. They give us the ending that I didn't hope to dream of. After living a long human life with Elena, when Damon dies he gets to go to the afterlife. And in the afterlife he goes to the Salvatore mansion and he gets to see his little brother again, something he worried he'd never get to do. And they hug. And that's the closing shot of The Vampire Diaries. Not Damon and Elena. Not Stefan and Elena. Not even Elena and her family. It's Stefan and Damon. They echo their words from the pilot. Stefan opens the door and says "Damon." and Damon says "hello, brother." And they just hold each other tight and it was all they were both waiting for. I can't handle this. Just... thank you.

Before I go, I guess I should say I totally understand why a lot of people hated this finale. It's sort of a cop-out way to end a show, to just show everybody in the afterlife. And a lot of people hate that Stefan died, because for some reason Damon gets absolved of his crap while Stefan has to keep feeling guilty about it right until the end. But I honestly think this whole story can be framed as being about Stefan and Damon's relationship. Stefan always loved Damon more than anything else, it just took him a while to get there. And in the moment when Damon was willing to give up his life, his future with Elena, for the sake of a little brother who was mortal anyway, Stefan knew he'd finally succeeded in getting the brother he always knew was in there. And also, this is honestly the only way I feel like Caroline gets the ending she deserves. It was always going to be difficult, ending with a couple where one was immortal and one was not. So now we get a human Damon and Elena, and an immortal Caroline ready to move on to other things, in time, while still loving Stefan forever. And Stefan gets peace. It's hard to believe, but I'm actually pretty happy with how it all shook out.

I guess this review is probably long enough, huh? I fully acknowledge that this show is a silly, campy, soap opera full of pretty people running around being gorgeous and dramatic. And I fully acknowledge that this finale was doing everything in its power to make me feel nostalgic. And I fully admit that it worked on me. I don't know, man. The stars aligned. All that sappy stuff about a promise of peace, and the reunion at the end... it was just what the doctor ordered. In short, it was a shit show. But it was a shit show that got through to me. My emotions about The Vampire Diaries are so tied up in high school, and the very beginnings of being a fan. I think this was the first drama I ever really binged, other than Gilmore Girls. But that show was ending as I was just entering high school, while with The Vampire Diaries, I started it when I was sixteen years old, and I went through college and now young adulthood still watching it. This finale managed to put a big focus on the one aspect of this show I loved the most, that of the Salvatore brothers' relationship, while also making me feel weepy and nostalgic for the beginning of my fandom days. I'm really happy with it.

This complete mess of crazy stupid awesome ridiculousness gets high marks from me.

9.5/10

The show as a whole? I feel like I should wait a few days so I can be more objective, but I'll force my way through and think about this entire mess. I still maintain that Elena Gilbert is one of TV's finest female characters. I still maintain that Nina Dobrev is a gifted actress. But those two things aren't enough to actually make this an objectively good show. At most, it's a fun show. A silly show. A teen soap. And without it, I never would have discovered the other CW content that I watch, so I have to give it props there as well. This really does feel like the end of an era. And while it wasn't always a good era, or an era with particularly high quality material, it was, in a word... epic.

7/10

[whitewolfofwinterfell]

I stopped believing in a Stelena endgame when Elena took away her memories of Damon but she fell in love with him without them - It seemed like a message. That she, in her current state, let go of Stefan and wholeheartedly fell in love with Damon all over again. I'm curious to hear your thoughts about this storyline cause to me, that was the nail in the coffin of reviving any romantic notion of Elena and Stefan being together. That her love for Damon overpowered anything she felt for Stefan

I do completely understand why you’d feel like that was the nail in the coffin for Stelena, but honestly, that entire storyline was a disaster from beginning to end and I’ve never been able to take it seriously. I’ve discussed it before in previous posts (x), but never really in depth, so I guess now is my opportunity to do that.

If the writers wanted Elena to fall in love with Damon without memories, fair enough. I’d understand why they might want to do that since the sire bond did always cast shade over their relationship and by having Elena fall in love with him without any memories, it would prove that it was real for her. The problem is that it was written so poorly and it made no sense. 

To do that storyline justice here’s how it should’ve been written: Once Damon came back from the Other Side, he goes to Elena and introduces himself to her, she’s nervous, but also excited and eager to see him since she knows the truth that they were together. Damon shares memories with her and despite the fact she can’t remember them, she can’t take her eyes off him and there’s a clear attraction and pull between them. Elena tells Damon that when he tells her about the things they did together she can’t recall any of them, but at the same time there’s a deep part of her that feels a sense of familiarity when he talks about them. Over the days and even weeks the two of them spend time together, going on dates, Damon shares more memories, he tells Elena about himself so she can get to know him all over again and eventually they kiss. Elena is confused about how she could feel such a strong connection to someone she doesn’t remember and turns to Bonnie and Caroline for advice. They’re honest with her and tell her about some of the bad things Damon’s done, which obviously Damon hasn’t mentioned, and Elena is hurt and upset. She confronts Damon and they argue. Damon comes to her again and is completely honest with her, somehow they manage to resolve their issues and they take things slow. I could continue writing this, but you get the idea. 

Instead of this, we went from Elena calling Damon a monster and saying when she looked at him it was like looking at a stranger to her literally risking her life to get her memories back of him (don’t even get me started on how utterly pathetic that was) and her practically falling flat on her face in love with him, despite absolutely nothing happening between them. Like is it just me or did that just happen over night? There was no progression that led to Elena developing feelings for Damon, it just happened. Explain to me how that’s possible considering she had no memories of Damon and he was literally a stranger to her, because I don’t get it. Elena didn’t take the time to get to know Damon and what’s weirder is she didn’t even consider the possibility of just not being with him. I mean, that wouldn’t have been so crazy since she had no memories of him, so it wasn’t like she was letting go of something important to her, he was nothing and she’d been living quite happily without him, plus her journal entry to herself specifically said that she wanted to try and find herself in the absence of “the one that defined her”. In Elena’s position I would be so conflicted and the fact that I knew I’d been with this person before wouldn’t be enough for me to give up on the contented life I’d been living just because I could love them again. Elena was under no obligation to give her relationship with Damon another try. Just because they’d been together before didn’t automatically mean she should drop everything to commit herself to fixing their relationship. We should’ve been able to see her struggling with the choices she had to make, but instead it was almost like she just swung straight back into the old patterns of behaviour, with Damon being the one that defined her. 

There were just so many plot holes and unexplained things in this storyline that I could never take it seriously. Even the idea of erasing an entire person from Elena’s memory seemed ludicrous to me, because how do you do that? They tried to explain it by saying that pin-pointing the moment that Elena first fell in love with Damon and erasing that would create a “domino effect” (those were the actual words used hence the quotations), but the question remains: how? That to me, just isn’t a satisfactory enough answer. When you think about erasing Elena’s love for Damon it sounds simple and not many people question it, but when you think about how complex that is, it’s really not simple at all. Every single moment Elena spent with Damon from the second she met him up until his death in 5x22 was significant in Elena’s life, not because she loved him or he was her boyfriend, but because he was just such a big part of her life for so many years. I think I’ve touched upon this before, but even before she loved Damon and she was with Stefan, he was still involved in pretty much every aspect of her life. How did Alaric compelling her effect her memories from the entirety of those years she knew Damon? No memories Elena clearly knew her and Stefan were broken up, but why did she think they broke up? She broke up with Stefan purely because of Damon, Elena herself even admitted that. If Damon wasn’t in the picture romantically, Stefan and Elena wouldn’t have broken up at that point, maybe ever. So how does Elena remember that? How was it that she was such good friends with Stefan and in such a healthy place with him yet we didn’t even get a basic explanation for this? How about all the times Damon helped them defeat an enemy or he saved Elena’s life? Did she just forget about them? Or did the memories simply get manipulated? The writers just didn’t think any of this through. If they had they never would’ve gone through with writing it, because anyone with half a brain could see that it was just way too complex to pull off and explain. They were already overreaching purely by writing in that Alaric could suddenly compel vampires, just because he was made from the Originals. I mean, what even…it’s stupidity. The writers constantly manipulate the mythology and history of the show so as to suit the new plots that take their fancy and that’s what they did with this. And it’s also why it felt like a fanfiction story written by an inexperienced writer, that had done little to no research and was inconsistent in their own narrative, because they simply wanted to romanticise D*lena’s relationship by throwing a cliched obstacle in their way. Because let’s face it, that was the only purpose for Elena losing her memories - to create unnecessary conflict for D*lena to be able to work through to prove they’re “true love”. Seriously, wasn’t Damon being dead for three months enough conflict in itself? I honestly can’t take it with the stupidity of this show sometimes haha. 

[thesnootyushers]

Welcome back Ranger fans, following the series high point of Power Rangers In Space, we enter a new era in Power Rangers lore.  Welcome to Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy.

Set  a year after the events of Power Rangers In Space, the Galactic Space Alliance has launched the space colony Terra Venture in search of a new world to colonize for Earth’s people. Across the cosmos, the evil forces of Scorpius have invaded the planet Mirinoi to steal a set of legendary relics called the Quasar Sabers that sit in a stone altar.

When Maya, a young native of the planet escapes through a dimensional portal to find help, she arrives on Terra Venture.   She finds workers Kendrix, Kai, and Mike who are currently trying to stop Mike’s little brother Leo as he tries to smuggle his way onto the colony and begs them to help.  All except Kai agree, but in the long run he is unable to ignore the situation and employs the Astro Megaship and its caretaker Damon to take him to the planet and help his friends.

When they reunite on Mirinoi, Leo, Kai, Damon, Maya, Kendrix, and Mike try to fight Scorpius’s minions and in doing so draw the Quasar Sabers, allowing them to become The Galaxy Power Rangers!

In anger, Scorpius’s general Furio turns everything to stone. Mike gives his life to protect his friends as they escape, and Leo is given the Red Quasar Saber from Mike to become the Galaxy Red Ranger. Aided by new Zords known as Galactabeasts, The Rangers protect Terra Venture from Scorpius and his generals Furio and Treacheron.

This series sees The Magna Defender come to help The Galaxy Rangers. Having lost his son Zika to Scorpius long ago, he is driven by vengeance . It is later discovered that The Magna Defender had saved Mike from his death by absorbing his life into himself, and it is Mike’s noble influence and Zika’s memory that ultimately drives The Magna Defender to give up his life and save Terra Venture from a disaster that he had blindly created. Having found peace in his death, The Magna Defender gives his powers to Mike, allowing him to aid The Rangers in battle.

Meanwhile, Scorpius has woven a cocoon to be used by his spoiled human daughter Trakeena so that she can embrace her true power. In a fit of selfishness, Trakeena refuses and flees to the planet Onyx, where she meets the warrior Villamax and his aide Kegler. As they train Trakeena in the ways of combat, the manipulative villain Deviot sides with Scorpius in an attempt to take the cocoon’s power for his own. Knowing that he won’t let him near the prize so long as he lives, Deviot manipulates Scorpius into attacking The Rangers by claiming that they have his daughter and he is critically wounded in battle. Trakeena returns to her father’s side as he dies from his wounds and Scorpius leaves all his power and forces to her, infuriating Deviot.

Swearing to avenge her father, Trakeena continues to attack Terra Venture and has the infamous Psycho Rangers revived to destroy her enemies. When word of their revival reaches Earth, The Space Rangers rush to the colony to aid The Galaxy Rangers in destroying the dangerous doppelgangers. Psycho Pink manages to survive their attack and escapes to obtain a deadly weapon known as the Savage Sword, but Kendrix gives her life to destroy the last of the Psycho Rangers. Her Quasar Saber is later found by Karone, the woman who had once terrorized the galaxy as Astronema, and she is chosen to become the new Pink Galaxy Ranger.

Deviot eventually takes extreme measures and recites an ancient spell to send Terra Venture into uncharted and very dangerous territory: The Lost Galaxy. This cursed realm is ruled by Captain Mutiny, who wants to enslave Terra Venture’s crew to work his gem mines. To make matters worse, Terra Venture’s systems become damaged, putting it and The Galaxy Rangers on an urgent mission to escape and find a planet before the colony dies. Mike is ultimately forced to give up his Magna Defender powers to ensure Terra Venture’s survival and escape from Captain Mutiny’s forces.

Upon escaping the Lost Galaxy, Terra Venture finally finds a habitable planet and sets course for approach, while Deviot tries to kill Trakeena and drags her into the cocoon. Deviot is destroyed as his body is absorbed into Trakeena’s, but the fusion also destroys Trakeena’s sanity and she begins an assault to wipe out everybody and everything in Terra Venture. The Rangers are forced to sacrifice the Astro Megaship in order to protect the evacuating colonists, and Trakeena resorts to using the cocoon as a final act of defiance. Now incredibly powerful, she attempts to drop the colony wreckage onto the planet, and The Rangers are barely able to fight her to a standstill. Leo seemingly destroys Trakeena in a point-blank energy blast that nearly kills him, and the Galactabeasts are able to catch the wreckage in time to save the day.

With the colonists safe and Trakeena gone, The Galaxy Rangers explore the planet and discover that they are right back where they started: Mirinoi. As The Rangers return the Quasar Sabers to the stone altar, the petrified world and its people are restored to life, and Kendrix is revived as well. Their mission done, The Rangers and their friends celebrate.

The Lost Galaxy season in interesting and serves as a transitional series and a unique one in Power Rangers history. It is neither completely self-contained nor a direct continuation, but instead is a bit of both. The show would not begin to have completely independent stories until the following series, Lightspeed Rescue.

The main reason being,  although it’s a stand-alone story, there were several ties to previous seasons (or Zordon Era). There were allusions to Zordon being the source of the Galaxy Power Rangers’ powers; Paul Schrier and Jack Banning reprise their roles as Bulk and Professor Phenomenus, respectively. Alpha 6 and the Astro Megaship were used again and Melody Perkins reprises her role as Karone (Astronema from In Space)midway through the series. This is also the first season to have sentient Zords and feature the demise of a Power Ranger in battle, though Kendrix would be revived in the finale.

This season had a lot to live up to, given the almost deity like appreciation In Space had heaped upon it. The writers knowing this, adapted the Sentai Series this was based on to have a space theme so it could strike while the space opera iron was still hot. The Super Sentai series Seijuu Sentai Gingaman, a nature themed (The title Lost Galaxy was thought significant because the word “Ginga” is a Japanese for “Galaxy”.) This was often difficult for the writers as the stock footage was of a nature-based show with no space elements. Really though this has lots of mystical and even legendary overtones. In particular the swords in the stones, the Zords and enhancements all come from mystical as oppose to technical origins. What’s more, all the changes resulted in stories being scrapped and footage that was filmed not being used. It caused several narrative issues.

Lost Galaxy had a solid story, it was just a bit vague due to lack of information on the Galaxy Powers and Mirinoi and there were plot holes which isn’t surprising since lots of this story was dropped in lieu if the space motif. Still it had an excellent cast of heroes and villains and in a Power Rangers series, that is the key.

Starting with The Rangers all were very well rounded, in particular Kai (Blue Galaxy Ranger), who was a loyal soldier and a man who stuck rigidly to procedure.  Throughout the series, he begins to follow his instincts, his morals and his friends to become an even better officer. He reminds me of a watered down version of Simon Pegg’s Sgt. Angel character in Hot Fuzz.

Kendrix (Pink Galaxy Ranger) was great, despite her  hyper intelligence and deep science knowledge she was never a nerd or social misfit. She was bright, friendly and helpful.  The reason Kendrix  was killed was that the actress was diagnosed with leukemia and had to leave the series to undergo treatment; Saban still credited her, however, so they could assist in paying for her treatment. After thankfully recovering, the character was resurrected at the end of the season, and she reprises her role for a guest spot during the show’s next incarnation the following season.

I also like the addition of Karone from the previous season. She was a good link to In Space but taking on the mantle of The Pink Galaxy Ranger helped develop her already pretty deep character. We saw her finally doing good and not evil. We also saw her dealing with the guilt of some of her past mistakes. It’s a shame she was replaced again by the resurrection of Kendrix.

Now, do not think I am heartless, I am so thrilled that the actress Valerie Vernon recovered from Leukemia,  I also understand why they brought her back to life. However just like with the resurrection of Astronema last season, this weakened the narrative a bit. It was such a moving and noble death scene and it really had an impact on me. It showed the serious nature of The Rangers task. So to bring her back this time with no explanation I felt spat on everything they had done mid season.

Leo (Red Galaxy Ranger) was an okay leader. He was very impulsive and rash usually acting without thinking. He also had the screw up younger brother complex. He didn’t have the hardened lone wolf mentality of Andros or the sheer awesomeness of Tommy. He functioned well in the team, he learned and developed over the series but stands by most of the decisions he made.  Leo is not The best Red Ranger but he is not the worst either.

Damon (Green Galaxy Ranger)  is interesting, he is bold and definitely willing to risk his life to fulfill his duties but he can be insensitive to others feelings and looks at what he can get for himself. This is the first time we see a Ranger with less than noble intentions. They are not inherently bad just a little introspective. It adds some nice dramatic moments and like the others  he does work on this and becomes a bit warmer. I didn’t like it as a kid, but thinking about it now its really creates a diverse group. They are not all super perfect people.

Maya (Yellow Galaxy Ranger) is an empath, highly sensitive to the world around her. Her connection with nature allows her to understand everything and everyone around her, particularly the Galactabeasts . On occasion, she’s received clairvoyant dreams or feelings concerning  Mike, Kendrix and Trakeena’s rise to power after the death of Scorpius.  On top of her emphatic abilities, Maya is also a skilled fighter, fueled by an unwillingness to back down (especially when slighted for her gender) or forced to retreat from battle when she believes she has the upper hand. On more than one occasion, she clashed with Trakeena’s general, Deviot, often attacking him first upon arriving on the scene.

Mayas development suffered because of the change in story, since lots of the mystical material was dropped in favor of the Sci-Fi elements, what I imagine would be more backstory was also altered or cut. Something else that arise as a consequence of this is not much is made of the planet Mirinoi. Don’t forget Maya’s home was attacked, her people turned to stone and she was pulled across the galaxy into an entirely new environment in which she had no idea of. Yet it never affected her. Once again I think this is due to the bigger focus being on making another space opera as oppose to a mystical tale.

Heroes wouldn’t be heroes without villains and once again the villains are up to the task.  Most of these villains are very much warriors with a code, Samurai or Knights loyal to their respective King or Queen. The politics and interplay between these villains is equally as entertaining as The Rangers drama. There was a huge emphasis on swordplay in this series.

Villamax is another amazing lieutenant, in the same vein to Ecliptor, he trains Trakeena and swears loyalty to her. Even though he disagrees with her methods as the series continues and even refuses her orders. He allows her to kill him refusing to raise his weapon to strike her out of honour. There is a scene where he saves a child in Terra Venture and she gives him a  blue flower.   It’s Oscar worthy….okay, maybe not that far…but it is a great scene.  Treacheron is similar too, his loyalty to Scorpius is unyielding and he challenges The Red Ranger to a one on one sword fight to the death. It’s brilliant.

Trakeena

Treacheron

Villamax

Trakeena is also brilliant as a villain. She is basically a spoilt little brat. She always wants more and goes further and further in her quest for power and control. She cares only about herself. Like Astronema before her she is a great fighter, cunning,  able and completely heartless. Unlike Astronema however she is just evil to the core. She looks even more sadistic and villainous next to all these warrior generals.

This series features one of my favourite episode called Loyax’s Battle.  Loyax is an aged and powerful warrior.  He wants one last fight against a worthy adversary. He asks Trakeena to give him a shot at The Rangers.  On Villamax’s endorsement, she sends him to battle.  He is angered when he meets Maya. He is sexist towards her as a fighter, she discovers Loyax  once fought for good but now serves evil. During the battle, Loyax and Maya fall into a cave and are forced to work together in order to escape, but Maya convinces the disillusioned warrior to again become the hero he once was.. the final scene is incredible.

The Lost Galaxy would start something here that would be a staple of each series that followed.  The Team up episode. Every series, The Ranger team from the previous series would show up for a crossover and this was one of the best.  Firstly because I love the Space Rangers but also because it was a very well told story hat showcased both teams. There is always a risk of one outshining the other.

Some brief aesthetics I always like to talk about is Zord and costumes. This time the Zords were called Galactabeasts (animals once again) and were sentient unlike Zords of previous generations. They were good but for me not as good as the Astro Mega ship or the original Megazord.

I hated the new Galaxy Rangers costumes. Too much white, not enough colour and the way the accompanying Galactabeast features were emblazoned on the helmets mage them look goofy. This is the first incarnation of The Rangers in which I haven’t liked the suits. The rest have all been quite sleek. Even the Turbo Helmets with car design were still quite polished.

All in all, this was a decent series, the story was good and featured some great character work.  It was always going to be compared to In Space and I reckon had they followed the original motif of the series which was a mystical adventure it could have been equally as good. The changing and editing to make it another space opera really threw up some gaping issues with flow of the narrative, backstory and character development.

A major plot hole remains, in as much as I don’t actually know what the Lost Galaxy is. If it was just some place they went for several episodes, why was that the title for the series? It confused me then and it confuses me now. Yet again the viewing figures took a  down turn, people were a little confused with the story and also found it slow to start.

I didn’t hate it, but reiterate, I would have loved to see where they could have gone if they had followed the Sentai more. A series based on sword and sorcery would have been novel. As we have never had that in a Power Rangers series.

Although the audience numbers  fell slightly, they were still much higher than Turbo. The profits were still growing and merchandise was still churning out the green. The new formula was working. The writers and crew decided next series to go back to more earthly mundane roots and look at the rescue services. Sooooooo that is all from The Lost Galaxy, all that’s left to say is…..

Tune in next time when I look at Power Rangers  Lightspeed Rescue.

The Power Rangers Legacy Volume 7: Lost Galaxy Welcome back Ranger fans, following the series high point of Power Rangers In Space, we enter a new era in Power Rangers lore.