#edit: it's okay the episode was poorly adapted my feelings are okay

[aphroditestummyrolls]

hope its okay for me to just shoot you an ask but, oh my god, hard yes to your post about people hating the writing for sab s2. it especially irks me when i see posts claiming that inejs trauma was "erased" when there are clear choices in the writing and performance that allude to it. just because something is not stated outright does not mean it is absent from the text!! and something as massive and awful as what inej went through shouldnt be crammed into an already busy show, imo. in s2 a choice was made to focus on kaz' story because its most immediately relevant to the plot, and god knows there wasnt a lot of time. i think the writers are doing inej and her story a service by saving it for when they can do it properly. overall i think sab is a fun adaptation, and the writers (and performers, and everyone involved really) so far are doing really the most with what they are given, in the production constraints set up by netflix.

Hey hi! This ask is totally fine, thanks for sending it!

I made a whole separate post about Inej’s trauma when I was doing my season 1 rewatch, I totally agree with you. In fact, not only is it masterfully indicated by Amita without words, but the writers literally spelled it out. In the FIRST EPISODE of the show. And it made sense and suited her and her trauma is in everything she does. That makes sense.

I really just don’t understand a lot of the complaints. Like, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to like it. But why are you bending over backwards to nitpick these problems, when there are plenty of things that Netflix could have actually done better?

I think the real crux of my issue with it though, is that these things getting blamed on “writing problems” are really editing and pacing problems that are ultimately Netflix problems. Folks, we just went through a longggg writers strike in which it became abundantly clear just how little control writers have and how poorly they’re treated. Why are we going after the writers for things that they are already doing, when what the show really needs is more time and care from the studio?

All that to say, I absolutely agree with you. Both about your frustrations, and especially about how you feel about the show! I think it’s super fun, perfectly cast, well written, and preserves the spirit of the books!

Thanks for stopping by! ❤️

[franeridart]

you made me start shipping bakugou, kaminari and Kirishima (i forgot their ship name). They're sucha good ship and your drawings for them are amazing!!!!!!!

Oh man thank you!!! I’m super happy I could make you like them!!!!!! They got amazing dynamics, don’t they? :D

Anon said:Your ocs are always so cool and cute i love them??!? Do u have more information about them?

THANK YOU!! And yesssss I do, actually! And I’ve also talked about them a while ago already!!! If you’re looking for more info specifically about Josh and Chris I blabbered about them here!!!

Anon said:I love your art ! And I love your Bakugo, but, have you ever thought of a undercut Bakugo ??

I sure have!!!! Tho I guess I do draw him more often with a side shave haha

Anon said:This is probably annoying, but I just wanted to say that I LIVE for your art! Its so amazing and I love it so much!! You’re one of my favorite artist on Tumblr. Plz continue to be awesome

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! why would it be annoying anon!!!! Thank you so so much for the good feelings!!!!! :D

Anon said:What u think about Traitor Theory in BNHA :,)?

I find all the theories going around incredibly interesting and well thought, actually! But they all feel pretty unrealistic to me, after all, and as of now Horikoshi still hasn’t given me any reason to change my mind about the traitor actually being Tsukauchi

Anon said:Oh honey.. everytime i got a notification of your art, my day become better. Stay safe, happy and manly💛💪

A Kiri anon ;O; ohhh boy this ask made me seriously happy hahaha thank you!!!!

Anon said:I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I REALLY want to hear your opinion on this. What about a Bakushima Star Wars AU wherein bakugou is a badass Sith warrior who feels the pull of the light-side and Kirishima is the only Jedi Knight who actually trusts him enough to help him with converting to the light-side of the The Force. Oh and Bakugou dual wields red light sabers and Kirishima only has the one Blue saber but wears heavy armor. What do you think?? Thanks! Love your art!!

It’s a pretty amazing concept, actually? :O one I wouldn’t mind thinking about more, even though Bakugou as a sith………….. does feel pretty unrealistic to me, not gonna lie haha he’s such a good guy in the soul, Katsuki~

Anon said:oh my god i absolutely adore your linearting. it’s so neat and smooth. i hope i can achieve that kind of smoothness one day

Thank you!!!!!! A good stabilizer setting and a lot of ctrl+z might help you in your endeavor, anon hahaha my linearting is more about the patience to erase a line sixty times than it is about skills lol

Anon said:yo! have you ever watched digimon or yugioh??

DIGIMON!!! YES!!!!! My first fandom ever!!!!! I was five when I got into it!!!!!! I’m behind with a couple of the movies, atm, but I still love it a whole damn lot!!!!

On the other hand all my knowledge about yugioh comes from when I watched it on tv as a kid and from my dash obsessed with it, so I can’t say I’m well versed in the topic haha

Anon said:YOUR SERO IS SO CUTE

THANK YOU!!!!!!

Anon said:AAAAAAA I CANT BELIEVE YOU MADE A CUTE COMIC THING FOR MY BAKUGOU ASK! omg ty :‘0 and yeah, i see how it could stand for king or katsuki! seems like something he’d do lol

IT WAS A GOOD INSPIRING ASK ANON thank you for the involuntary prompt!!!!

Anon said:A FULLY COLOURED COMIC!!??!? WOW GOOD JOB!!

THANKS!!! Sometimes it seems like I can actually manage to put together the patience for that sorta things too haha

Anon said:You know the bnha ending where all the characters are in this au fantasy world? I’ve been curious to know what type of mythical creature or fantasy being deku and kirishima are…? :/

Uhhhhh aren’t they just humans? Well, the fandom as a whole has decided that Kirishima’s probably the dragon, but I think the general, original concept was that most of them are just humans haha

Anon said:Kiri’s dragon tail looks fantastic!!! I love the way you colored it.

;O; thank you so much ohhhh boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:i literally l i v e for your kiribaku and bokuroteru art 😍😍😍

THANK YOU!!

Anon said:I came for the art, stayed for the wonderful person you seem to be, then scrolled down to fangirl over more art. Your art is a blessing and I hope you know how great you are! 🎉

Oh my gods thank you so much this is such a sweet message !!!! ;O;

Anon said:How do you usually find your inspiration?

Hmmmmmmmm what a question. I guess, through life? This sounds like such a bullshit answer haha but yeah, I found that the best way to keep your inspiration going is to live life and experience new things. Most of the ideas behind what I draw come from things I did myself or saw or said or heard and so on - talking to my friends and family inspires me, books inspire me, music inspires me, going out and looking at people/places inspires me, other people’s fanworks inspire me a whole damn lot too! As far as I’m concerned, inspiration is sort of everywhere - there’s days in which I’m more receptive to it, and days in which it flies right over my head and I sit there wondering where the hell it went, but in general as long as I’m living and doing things ideas in the end will come my way haha

Anon said:Hmm…If Bakugou wants to be the best at everything…would he be the best at playing the flute? :o

I wouldn’t say Bakugou wants to be the best at everything, it’s more like he wants to be the best at everything he’s interested in doing - so if he had any sort of interest in playing the flute, he sure as hell would make sure to be as good as he possibly can at it haha

Anon said:have u ever considered: tokoyami/tetsutetsu OR tokoyami/shinsou

You know, this is actually an interesting question because I’ve actually been asked about both these ships already? Are they actual ships that exist in this fandom? :O I can’t say I’ve ever thought about them - well, tokoshin does interest me in the sense that I’d really love to know if Shinsou’s quirk works on Dark Shadow, but that’s about it haha

Anon said:I really like what you said about trans Bakugou! Like…I know it’s canonically improbable but I still really like the idea of Izuku being trans, because that’d add another layer of adversity and self doubt he’d be facing while trying to become the top hero. So I think it’s neat when people acknowledge that something isn’t canon but still completely accept the headcanon of it. Love your work! Keep it up~

It’s why it’s called transformative work, after all!! If you want to keep as close to canon as you can then all the power to you, but once you start transforming the canon (shipping non-canon is included in it, of course), putting a limit on how much you can transform it would just be unfair! As long as we’re all on the same page about the fact that it’s not canon, and therefor no one can force the idea on anyone else, I don’t see a problem with it!

[davidmann95]

Superman & Lois Pilot Script Review

I’ve been reliably informed that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and indeed as my laptop and everything on it have been unusable for a couple months after a mishap, I went from ‘maybe I’ll write something on the pilot script for Superman & Lois’ to ‘as soon as I can get my hands back on that thing I’m writing something up’. I’m actually surprised none of you folks asked about it when I’ve mentioned several times that I read it; I was initially hesitant, but I’ve seen folks discussing plot details on Twitter and their reactions on here, so I guess WB isn’t making much of a thing out of it. Entire pilots have leaked before and they just rolled with it, so I suppose that isn’t surprising. Anyway, the show’s been pushed back to next year, and also the world is literally sick and metaphorically (and also a little literally) on fire, so I thought this might be fun if anyone needs a break from abject horror. 

(Speaking of the world being on fire: while trying to offer a diversion amidst said blaze, still gonna pause for the moment to add to the chorus that if opening your wallet is a thing you can do, now most especially is a time to do it. I chipped in myself to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and even a casual look around here or Twitter will show people listing plenty of other organizations that need support.)

What I saw floating around was, if not a first draft, certainly not the final one given Elizabeth Tulloch later shared a photo of the cover for the final script crediting Lee Toland Krieger as the director rather than a TBD, but the shape of things is clearly in place. I’m going for a relative minimum of spoilers, though I’ll discuss a bit of the basic status quo the show sets up and vaguely touch on a few plot points, but if you want a simple response without risk of any story details: it’s very, very good. Clunky in the way the CW DC shows typically are, and some aspects I’m not going to be able to judge until the story plays out further, but it’s engaging, satisfying, and moreover feels like it Gets It more broadly than any other mass-media Superman adaptation to date.

The Good

* The big one, the pillar on which all else rests: this understands Lois and it really understands Clark. Lois isn’t at the center of the pilot’s arc, but she’s everything you want to see that character be - incisive, caring, and refusing to operate at less than 110% intensity with whatever she’s dealing with at any given time, the objections of others be damned. Clark meanwhile is a good-natured, good-humored dude who you can see in both the cape and the glasses even as those identities remain distinct, who’s still wrestling with his feelings of alienation and duty and how those now reflect his relationships with his children. The title characters both feel fully-formed and true to what historically tends to work best with them from day one here in ways I can’t especially say for any other movie or show they’ve starred in.

* While the suit takes a back seat for this particular episode, when Superman does show up in the opening and climax it absolutely knows how to get us to cheer for him; there’s more than one ‘hell yeah, it’s SUPERMAN, that guy’s the best!’ moment, and they pop.

* While the superheroics aren’t the biggest focus here, when they do arrive, the plan seems to be that they’ll be operating on an entirely different scale than the rest of the Arrowverse lineup. Maybe they scripted the ideal and’ll be pared-down come time for actual filming and effects work, or maybe they’re going all-out for the pilot, but the initial vision involves a massive super-rescue and a widescreen brawl that goes way, way bigger in scope than any I’m aware of on the likes of Supergirl. I heard in passing on Twitter from someone claiming to be in the know that the plan for Superman & Lois is that it’ll be fewer episodes with a higher budget, more in line with the DC Universe stuff if not exactly HBO Max ‘prestige TV’, and whether it’s true or not (I think it’s plausible, the potential ratings here are exponentially higher than anything else on the network so they’d want to put their best foot forward) they seem to be writing it as if that’s the idea.

* This balances its tones and ambitions excellently: it’s a Kent-Lane family drama, it’s Lois digging in with some investigative reporting to set up a major subplot, it’s Superman saving Metropolis and battling a powerful high-concept villain, and none of it feels like it’s banging up at awkward angles with the rest. There are a pair of throwaway lines in here so grim I can’t believe they were put in a script for a Superman TV show even if they don’t make it to air, and they in no way undermine the exhilaration once he puts on the cape or the warmth that pervades much of it. This feels as if it’s laying the groundwork for a Superman show that can tackle just about any sort of story with the character rather than planing its feet in one corner and declaring a niche, and so far it looks like it has the juice to pull it off.

* While the pilot doesn’t focus on him in the same way as the new kid, Jonathan Kent fits well enough for my tastes with the broad strokes of his personality from the comics, albeit if he had made it to 14 rather than 10 without learning about his dad being Superman. A pleasant, kinda dopey, well-meaning Superman Jr. - the biggest deviation, one I approve of, is that he can also kinda be a gleeful little shit when dealing with his brother in ways that remind you that this is very much also Lois Lane’s boy.

* We don’t know much about the season villain as of yet, but it’s an incredibly cool idea that I��m shocked that they’re going for right away, and I absolutely want to see how they play out as a character and how they’ll bounce off all the other major players.

* The way this seems to be framing itself in relation to the Superman movies and shows before it feels inspired to me: there are homages and shout-outs to and bits of conceptual scaffolding from Lois & Clark, Smallville, Donner, and more, but they’re all shown in ways that make it clear that those stories are part of his past rather than indicators of the baseline he’s currently operating off of. We get a retrospective of his and Lois’s history right off the bat with most of what you’d expect, and combined with those references the message is clear: this is a Superman who’s been through all the vague memories that you, prospective casual viewer, have of the other stuff you saw him in once upon a time, but this series begins the next phase of his life after what that general cultural impression of him to date covers. It strikes me as a good way of carrying over the goodwill of that nostalgia and iconography, while building in that this is a show with room to grow him beyond that into something more nuanced (and for that matter true to the character as the comics at their best have depicted him) than they tended towards. Where Superman Returns attempted to recapture the lightning in a bottle of an earlier vision of him in full, and Man of Steel tried to turn its back on anything that smelled of Old and Busted and Uncool entirely, perhaps this splitting of the difference - engaging with his pop culture history and visibly taking what appealed from some of those well-known takes, while also drawing a clear line in the sand between those as the past and this as the future - is what will finally engage audiences.

The Bad

* This is the sort of thing you have to roll with for a CW superhero show, and that lives and dies by the performances, but: the dialogue varies heavily. There are some really poignant moments, but elsewhere this is where it shows its early-draftiness; a decent amount is typical Whedon-poisoned quippiness or achingly blunt, and some of the ‘hey, we’re down with the kids!’ material for Jon, Jor, and Lana’s kid Sarah is outright agonizing. I suspect a lot of it will be fixed in minor edits, actor delivery, and hopefully the younger performers taking a brutal red pen to some of their material - this was written last January and the show’s now not debuting until next January, they’ve got plenty of time for cleanup - but if this sort of the thing has been a barrier to entry for you in the past with the likes of The Flash, this probably won’t be what changes your mind.

* There are a few charming shout-outs to other shows, but much moreso, Superman & Lois actually builds in a big way out of Crisis. Which is a-okay with me, except that what exactly that was is rather poorly conveyed given that lots of people will be giving this a spin with no familiarity with that. Fixable with a line or two, but important enough to be worth noting.

Have to wait and see how it plays out

* The series’ new kid, Jordan Kent, is so far promising with potential to veer badly off-course. He’s explicitly dealing with mental illness, and not on great terms with Clark at the beginning in spite of the latter’s best efforts, the notion of which I’m sure will immediately put some off. Ultimately the commonalities between father and son become clear, and he’s not written as a caricature in this opening but as a kid with some problems who’s still visibly his parents’ boy, but obviously the ball could be fumbled here in the long term.

* Lois’s dad is portrayed almost completely differently here than in the past in spite of technically still being her military dad who has some disagreements with her husband. There are some nice moments and interesting new angles but it seems possible that the groudwork is being laid for him to be Clark’s guy in the chair, and not only does he not need that he most DEFINITELY doesn’t need that to be a member of the U.S. Military, especially when one of the first and best decisions Supergirl made when introducing him was to make clear he had stopped working with the government any more than necessary years ago. Maybe it can be stretched if his dad-in-law occasionally calls him up to let him know about a new threat he’s learned about, and maybe they’ll even do something really interesting with that push-and-pull, but if Superman’s going to be even tacitly functioning as an extension of the military that’s going to be a foundational sin.

* As I was nervous about, Superman & Lois has some political flavor, but much to my delighted surprise, there’s no grossly out of touch hedge-betting in the way I understand Supergirl has gone for at times. As of the pilot, this is an explicitly leftie show, with the overarching threat of the season as established for Lois and Clark as reporters being how corporate America has stripmined towns like Smallville and manipulated blue collar workers into selling out their own best interests. Could that go wrong? Totally, there’s already an effort to establish a particular prominent right-wing asshole as capable of decency - without as of yet downplaying that he’s a genuinely shitty dude - and vague hints that some of the towns’ woes might be rooted more in Superman-type problems than Lois and Clark problems. But that they’re going for it this directly in the first place leaves me hopeful that the show won’t completely chicken out even if there’ll probably be a monster in the mix pulling a string or two; Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder’s Action Comics may justify Superman punching a cop by having him turn out to be a shadow monster so as to get past editorial, but it’s still a story about how sometimes Superman’s gotta punch a cop, and hopefully this can carry on in that spirit of using what wiggle room it has to the best of its ability.

So, so far so good. Could it end up a show with severe problems carried on the backs of Hoechlin and Tulloch’s performances? Absolutely. But thus far, the ingredients are there for all its potential problems to be either fixed, subverted, or dodged alright, and even when it surely fumbles the ball at junctures, I earnestly believe this is setting itself up to be the most fleshed-out, nuanced, engaging live-action take on these characters to date. And god willing, if so, the first real stepping stone in decades to proper rehab on Superman’s image and place in pop culture.

[fireleaptfromhousetohouse]

Howcumzit?: Dracula

How come the show never followed up on the idea that Jonathan Harker had fucked Dracula?

They pretty much opened the show by bringing up the idea, after all, which lent an unpleasantly '80s frisson to Jonathan's emaciated appearance - one thinks of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and that immortal line "the cosmic spores, of course, represented AIDS". But then Jonathan's interactions with the Count end up playing out, if not exactly like the novel, then more or less played straight - you'll pardon the pun, I'm sure.

Dracula does of course go on to gin up sexual tension with pretty much everyone else he meets, no matter their gender or religious leaning, but what makes it particularly surprising here is that in the first episode he's actively becoming sexier in every scene. Yet even when Jonathan is completely in his power, it all seems quite innocent and chaste. Perhaps those aren't quite the right words for being held captive, but nonetheless it doesn't seem to have any particular undercurrent of sauciness. Stephen Moffatt has been quoted as saying that rather than bisexual, this incarnation of Dracula is "bi-homicidal...he's killing people, not dating them". Which would seem to put a pin in the thrust of my complaint here, until you recall - as Moffatt really should have - that the show ended with Dracula banging Van Helsing.

_

How come Gatiss and Moffat couldn't resist slipping in that painfully clunky reference to Sherlock Holmes? And by Sherlock Holmes, what they really mean is their BAFTA-award winning series Sherlock®. 

What makes it so obviously shoehorned in is the much better reference to 'Inside No. 9' in the following episode. Inside No. 9 is of course the comedy-horror anthology series made by the non-Mark Gatiss parts of the League of Gentlemen, which has, so far, not needed nearly as many frantic, flailing fan interpretations to make its plots make sense.

_

How come Dracula's meant to pick up traits from the people he feeds on, but doesn't start speaking in Sister Agatha's silly Dutch accent?

_

How come in episode two, the little mute girl didn't immediately tell her dad that Dracula was the killer?

This is more a straightforward plot hole than a wider point of pondering, but it's one that will probably occur to even the most casual viewer. The show's clearly hoping there's enough other stuff going on that nobody will notice, which is obviously a misstep when what's going on all revolves around there being a killer at large.

Now, there's an obvious fan interpretation to be made here that the little girl - angry with the world - simply wanted to see them all die horribly. I'd watch that, and so, I suspect, would most right-thinking people. It would certainly have made for a better episode three than the one we got.

_

How come the snobby twink's boyfriend spends most of the time resenting the guy's sham marriage, then doesn't seem to care when Dracula feels him up in front of everyone? Come to think of it, why doesn't anybody else care about that?

_

How come Gatiss and Moffat couldn't resist leaping into a contemporary setting?

And why, if they wanted to do it so much, did they have to do it so poorly? Thanks to some confusing editing and omissions, it came off looking like Dracula had been struggling along the sea bed for 123 years.

This is a recurring feature of their work - Sherlock, too, was taking a classic bit of Victoriana and transplanting it into the modern day. The Sherlock Christmas special, though, did put it in its natural setting, which if nothing else worked as a fun, campy thing - and that, despite what Gatfat might think their work is, is the tone that runs right through it like a stick of Brighton rock.

Episode two took a part of Stoker's book, stitched it onto a familiar Murder On The Orient Express-style setup, and then turned Claes Bang's Dracula loose to bounce around in that framework - and it worked beautifully. This could have been a winning formula for any number more episodes, but instead they pissed it all away in favour of a tired Hollyoaks-style relationship drama and a secret institute which definitely isn't Torchwood.

_

How come modern-day Van Helsing didn't have the same silly Dutch accent?

Just to harp on a point, this makes the problem with the time jump quite clear. Van Helsing is pretty much the same character even before they literally inject the original Van Helsing into her - which makes it seem oddly like the sexual tension between her and the Count was somehow heritable. And having already demanded that willing suspension of disbelief, why not go the whole hog, and have Jonathan and Mina's identical great-great-great-descendants turn up too?

_

How come they thought putting a bit of off-coloured prosthetic on the incredibly attractive Lydia West would put anyone off?

The TV and film industry in general has an issue with this, fumbling to present unattractive people while staunchly refusing to even think about casting anyone less than conventionally beautiful. Dracula, however, had already presented some suitably ghastly ghouls, and here went through an overlong sequence of coyly refusing to show us what the post-cremation Lucy Westenra looked like - then the shocking reveal was that, uh-oh, she's got a bit of latex on her face. I'm a man of the world and let me tell you, it would take more than that to change my mind.

_

How come Mark Gatiss didn't stay behind the camera where he belongs?

This isn't to say he's a bad actor, but if he wanted to do Renfield, he should have done it properly. A show that's already had Dracula dressing up in another guy's face before tearing it off (for my money, one of the funniest things on TV in some time) doesn't need wacky comic relief.

_

How come everything about the conclusion?

Okay, that may be a little vague. Let me rephrase it to at least be making a point, rather than inarticulately shaking my fist in the general direction of the TV screen - why'd they even need to have a conclusion?

Gatiss and Moffat are not good at overarching storylines, yet they will keep using them, and I simply don't understand why. The appeal of Sherlock Holmes is to see the guy solving mysteries - so Sherlock had the mysteries take a back seat in favour of examining the ever-more-complicated relationships of the Holmes family.

The last five minutes or so of Dracula's third episode crumble when exposed to the light, which is ironic, because this Dracula doesn't. Given any thought at all, it's clear that the inspiration here was that Gatiss/Moffat thought 'oh shit, we need to wrap this up'. It tries gamely to tie everything together, which is somewhat undermined by at least one dangling plot thread - which the writers have openly admitted was left there in the hopes of getting a second season.

Bram Stoker's novel, spoiler alert, ends with the Count getting staked - but this adaptation went off those rails long ago. The central charm of it is the battle of wits between Dracula and Van Helsing, seeing them try and one-up each other while trading sexually charged barbs in much the same way as Sherlock and Moriarty (or at least the Sherlock and Moriarty that Gatfat gave us). This is a dynamic which could carry on indefinitely, and would have done better if it had, rather than been sidetracked into an unnatural-seeming ending.

[r1ku]

@notchy tagged me! 🤗

🎂: May 28 !

Zodiac: Gemini ♊

Height: 5'3

Last Song I listened to: Gurenge - LiSA

I woke up thinking of this song today lol, because I'm still shocked Brendan Urie from Panic! At the Disco sang to it and watches the show lmao

Hobbies: talking to gaming pals on discord, playing mobile games, working on that webtoon recommendation document on Google doc, playing toontown rewritten, day dreaming, always typing down ideas and dreams to write or draw ONE DAY, in Google notes on my phone.

Favorite color: Purple ! 💜

Favorite Book: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Tis the only book I have read a few times for sure. You know, I often thought I'd love to be a bookworm and wholeheartedly have several favorite books, but I'm not. I like the idea of it tho, I haven't read books in a long time. I mainly read manga and webtoons.

Last film I watched: The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson

My friend and I have a lot of movies to check out, mainly horror flicks of korean or japanese films or martial arts films to watch. But that day he dropped this film to watch and I was able to and had never watched before actually. And we enjoyed it, it's very whimsical and comical.

I almost debated putting the last episode of kanata no astra, since it was like an hour long finale and One can watched several hours of 30 min episodes and not think of it as a movie, but when u think of an episode longer than 23 or 27 minutes, it FEELS like a movie lol even if its not 2 hours long. But nah lol

Dream Job: I haven't really, really thought about it. I've seen a few inspirational, thought provoking posts and tweet threads.

About how for some people you shouldn't make your passion your job, cuz you might end up hating your passion.

Or the one post that said they admired the character, Garry Gergich from Parks and Rec, for choosing a job that's decent pay and few but full hours, that allows him to spend time with his family.

Or the one tweet that talked about you should have several passions to look forward to like boxing or some other activity so you can spread out your feels and not be in a pit of negativity.

That said, I find myself to be a jack of all trades kind of person, I adapt well and if taught well, learn quickly to do just about anything right.

If anything, I will not think of the chains of reality and honestly answer this question focusing on dream part of dream job.

And thats to be a CEO of my own company that I made and create an animatiom company that can revolutionize the animation industry and crack the hammer of justice in various places that mistreat and mismanage and poorly pay hardworking animators and give them the lifestyle they deserve and lift people up and support them and not become a gate keeper. Da Drem *drops mic*

Meaning behind my url: I've had various urls, this url came from my bestfriend cat, who wanted the namine url, when i got her into kingdom hearts, but it's in limbo hell, I remember she waited 9 months for its release but its still like unavailable to obtain, idk now tho, that was a year ago.

I forgot what my url was before, maybe it was hong-seol and I finally, after 8 years, moved on from the spiel I had in firmly loving the character Sul, I still and always will even tho I dislike the comic's last season and how heavily the author suddenly gave us flashbacks all at once.

I told cat that KINGDOM HEARTS IS LIFE, I LOVE RIKU SO MUCH and she said "oh i was typing around and found r1ku is available" and i was like WHAT and i typed it and surely enough, it was available to my great surprise. And I am forever grateful for her and her mind. I ain't letting this go, as such its a personal blog and riku appreciation blog, I'll reblog all that I see and like.

I recently updated the mobile look, desktop look is perfect so i wont change that, but i had destiny islands gif from khnyctophiliac and that riku icon, that I have sources for in my about l sadly dont have time to update my about pages.

But I updated the icon to this destiny islands trio that has amano's kh3 manga art since it has riku in it and i love trios, from the khinsider website that posted icons ro choose from.

The bg is Phoenix Ikki from the Netflix Saint Seiya adaptation's ending, I love how dramatic that shot was with the song. I wish it could be longer, but I have no idea how people edit out credits for gif segments. I only used a quick gif making website that requires the video and can make cuts and speeds.

As for my sideblog, pink4walls, I am still, to this day enamored by f(x)'s - 4walls and especially their pink outfits in their live performance. This blog ia dedicated to hopefully making a thorough navigation system to find specific posts that inspire me to create. A creativity blog, if you will with things that caught my eye and references I want to use.

Thank you Notchy! A well deserved break from routine, helped me try to get more reblogs put there from my enormous 22k drafts, and gives people an update of sorts of me.

I tag @antheiafemme @ughliegirl @alfiethesnip

You may if you choose to, and its okay if you don't ! But first three mutuals to tag off the top of my head.

[superultrachicken]

Zombie Land Saga First Impressions

So, let’s take a look at the minds behind the anime, including the original artist if there was one. I like to get a feeling for who worked on an anime before I really get into watching it so I can know what to expect or compare it to their other works.

Okay, so I took a look into this and it looks like this is intended to be a multimedia project with both a manga and an anime in production telling roughly the same story. Taking a look at the manga’s author, Megumu Soramichi, they’ve only got this and other anime to manga adaptation under their belt, with them having adapted Chivalry of a Failed Knight as well. Honestly, looking at the manga, it features vastly more sexualization than the anime has featured within the first two episodes.

The primary director for the show is Munehisa Sakai. He also does sound direction. His other work is Sailor Moon Crystal (which I wasn’t overly fond of but it wasn’t poorly done by any means), a good portion of a couple PreCure anime, and a small chunk of One Piece. So he’s definitely a veteran in the industry with some really notable series under his belt, even if he doesn’t have as much as some others. And I have to say that he does a good job with this series. There’s a fair amount of fluidity in the story beats which would come from the writing, sound, and direction working really well together that’s present in this series.

The chief animation director is Kazumi Fukagawa. Her other works are Bleach, Danganronpa, and YuGiOh 5Ds among a few idol and moe anime. Just having the three named anime under her belt shows a fair amount of versatility in her art style, even if they were only doing key animation or in a secondary leadership role. And the animation is really good good here, I am giving this series a fair amount of praise right out of the gate but that’s only because it does a lot of what it does well. Even the scenes that don’t have much going on are really well animated and the characters are really expressive in their movements, which is needed in an anime centered around this sort of idol group.

Kazuo Ogura does the art direction in the anime. He’s worked on a lot and has been in the industry since the 80s at least. Some of his other works as an art director include the recent Dragonball movie, the Fullmetal Alchemist movies, the Fire Emblem OVA, and the Final Fantasy XV OVA. He’s worked as a background artist on countless others including Claymore, the JoJo OVA, and Escaflowne. Much like Kazumi Fukagawa, he has a lot of experience in an extreme variety of series. And, again, this shows in the final product. Though, while Ogura has worked on some anime that have heavily sexualized elements, this anime seems to lack those. As I mentioned before, you see a bit more of it in the manga that’s being released alongside the anime, but mostly due to uncomfortable angles and overall shorter skirts than we have in the anime. I could be proven wrong later down the line with overly sexualized imagery in future episodes, but from what I’ve seen, aside from some of the characters having large (but realistically large) breasts, the anime doesn’t go out of its way to sexualize the characters. It is very much just a comedy anime featuring zombie girls so far and I’m happy it didn’t go the way of the manga.

The music is done by Yasuharu Takanashi. He also did music for a bunch of PreCure series, Naruto Shippuden, Sailor Moon Crystal, Hell Girl, Shiki, Fairy Tail, and Gantz. This guy is talented. The music within the first two episodes of this show varies between literally screaming death metal to idol music to insult based rap battles using beat boxing in the background. Even without his extremely long and varied career in anime soundtracks, I’d argue that these two episodes along have enough variety that I have to have respect for Takanashi’s technical and creative skill.

So, all that said, what do I actually think about the series so far.

Well... I couldn’t find a writer anywhere but I have to say that I really like this recent trend of idol culture criticism that gives a critical, yet comedic, de-mystification of the idol industry in Japan. From what I’ve gathered, the idols are actually treated quite a bit like the girls in this anime, they are yelled at if they don’t do things perfectly during rehersal or if they gain a little bit of weight at any time. It’s a very abusive industry and they don’t hold back on the caricature of an idol manager. I appreciate this, I really do. While Backstreet Goku Dolls has a crime boss force his subordinates into gender re-assignment surgery to become idols as a punishment for messing up really bad, we have a guy who practices dark magic to create zombies using famous women and girls from the past. Once you start looking at it that way, this series really does lay on that commentary. Especially with the only actually idol member of the group attempting to run away the first chance she got.

But, if I had one criticism, I can see all the twists coming with  maybe a few. I think I’ve guessed who two of the other girls are to the protagonist. One is extremely heavily foreshadowed while the other’s foreshadowing is a bit more subtle. I guess that’s it for my first impressions of the series.

It’s pretty good so far, though I’ll come back with an actually well thought out and edited criticism in a while. But these were just my autistic ramblings about the series

edit: (before you call me ableist, I have autism)

[tmcastandcrew]

Simon Baker on his directorial debut Breath

Source / Thanks to daisa‏ @dais_sa

Best known for the smooth-talking Patrick Jane in the TV series The Mentalist, Simon Baker was in Calcutta as part of the Australian delegation to showcase his directorial debut Breath at the Kolkata International Film Festival. We caught up with the handsome Australian actor for a chat after watching Breath, while he was on his way to Taj Bengal for a Bengali meal.

You got mobbed by the crowd right after the screening of Breath!

Yes, that was pretty intense (laughs). I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for Shah Rukh Khan or someone.

What are you liking about Calcutta?

You know, what I really like is actually how friendly everyone is… incredibly friendly and there’s such warmth. Everyone is in a very pleasant mood and in a pleasant state of mind. Don’t you think? I think that’s impressive. The other thing that I really love is how proud everyone is of this city. I have just been eating Indian food since I got here. I’m about to go and eat some Bengali food now.

Breath is an adaptation of Australian author Tim Winton’s novel. What excited you about the story that made you choose it as your directorial debut?

I did not immediately think that this was going to be my directorial debut. I knew that I wanted to be involved straight away when I read the book. It was probably the best writing that I have ever read about a relationship with, not only the ocean, but masculinity and the idea of growing up by the ocean in Australia.

You also played the pivotal role of Sando, an avid surfer, in the film. How challenging was it to act and direct at the same time?

Well, I have acted in and directed episodes of TV shows that I’ve worked in. I was familiar with working in front of the camera and behind the camera at the same time. So, it wasn’t so difficult.

Was it difficult for you to don the director’s hat after being an actor for so many years?No, it was good. It was fun. It was exciting and a nice, natural kind of development. It was particularly something that I cared so much about and felt so much for.

Breath is a story about two teenage boys, Pikelet and Loonie. Was it challenging to direct kids?

It took years to find and cast these boys (Samson Coulter and Ben Spence). They are both very good surfers and really great people. As a director, it was really about trying to create an environment for them so that they felt relaxed and comfortable and being able to be those characters. Once they understood that it was a safe and comfortable environment to work in, they had a good time, I think.

The panoramic shots of the ocean were beautiful. Which part of Australia was the film shot in?

It was all shot in the Great Southern region of western Australian, in Albany and Denmark. Not Denmark the Scandinavian country but Denmark, which is a small town in the south-west of Australia. It’s a beautiful place.

You’re an avid surfer. Which other adventure sports or outdoor activities do you like?

I’m getting old, so I don’t try as many adventure sports! It was a big formation of who I am as a person… my relationship with the ocean and surfing.

Now that you’ve donned the director’s hat, which one do you enjoy doing more — directing or acting?

Acting is fun but I think directing is more stimulating and exciting.

Your new film Here and Now just released. It premiered at the Tribeca film festival. How was the response there?

I wasn’t there but I think it was pretty good because they adore Sarah Jessica Parker in New York. She’s a real staple in New York. That was a fun job to shoot.

You play Sarah Jessica Parker’s ex-husband in the movie. Can you talk a bit about the role?

Yes, I play her ex-husband and I have the custody of our child. It’s little bit of a heartbreaking story.

You shot on the streets of New York City, interacting with real people and real surroundings. What was it like?

It’s good. I like it like that. If you ever shot a film in Calcutta, it’d be good to shoot a film that way… where you almost conceal the camera so that you can just get the environment. I’ve been taking a lot of photographs here because it’s so photogenic. There’s just so much for your eye to pick up everywhere you’re looking.

Does that mean that you may shoot a film in Calcutta sometime?

I would love to shoot something here. That kind of a thing is never out of the question. I love that Calcutta is not too modern. It still feels like it has got its own sort of time and space.  

You’ve worked in Hollywood, notably in Devil Wears Prada. For an actor, what’s the main difference between the American and Australian film industry?

The American industry is enormous and fiercely competitive. It’s an industry; it’s largely about making money. The Australian industry is more of a cultural imperative to keep the culture of the country being expressed through the art of cinema and telling stories. I think that’s really important and the evolution of cinematic history is very important. There’s a lot of great young indigenous directors that are telling indigenous stories in Australia that are so exciting and mind-blowing. That would be the new wave in Australian cinema.

We loved your character Patrick Jane in The Mentalist. Will there be a reboot?

I don’t think so. I can’t imagine! No one wants to see an old Patrick Jane.

Apparently, you came up with the costume for Patrick in The Mentalist?

Well, because I just like to engage in the process, I think.

Since you’re so good with it, how would you describe your personal style?

These days? Pretty much whatever is comfortable. That’s what my approach is most of the time. It’s always slightly dishevelled (smiles). I care less and less!

Were there any reference point for playing Patrick Jane?

There were always reference points… that’s just my process of working. The whole idea of the costume and the uniform and all that stuff was based on the American TV series Columbo. There were similarities but things always evolve.

The Mentalist was such a hit. Would you do another TV show if you’re offered one?

I don’t know, maybe. I might do another TV show. I always think about everything. But it’s not a priority for me. I wouldn’t mind doing something that’s maybe like six parts that I direct as well. That’d be fun and challenging. Netflix, Amazon Prime… they are all great platforms. It doesn’t really matter where it is, what matters is what it is.

Which are your favourite Netflix shows?

I’m always on the lookout for something interesting to watch. Most of the time, I watch films. Oh, and I do watch a lot of documentaries!

Nicole Kidman is the godmother to your younger son. You guys are very close friends. How do you look at Nicole as an actress and as a friend?

Oh, she’s very professional as an actress. She’s very committed and devoted to what she does. And as a friend she is very loyal and caring.

Which one is your favourite Nicole Kidman performance?

To Die For by Gus Van Sant in the ’90s.

Which filmmakers inspire you?

I’m very inspired by Martin Scorsese and Phillip Noyce. There are many great Australian directors that have inspired me over the years.

François Truffaut is always a big inspiration for me. Watching his films actually is a major inspiration. I’m a massive fan of Alfred Hitchcock. Oh also, Stanley Kubrick.

Which ones are your favourite Hitchcock films?

I think it’s a tie between Rear Window and North By North West. North By North West is such a spectacle.

Any Indian filmmakers whose work you’ve followed?

Satyajit Ray! His Pather Panchali is a beautiful film, Jalsaghar is an amazing film and Mahanagar was a strong feminist film. For the time, it was pretty amazing. In contemporary Indian cinema, it’s Shekhar Kapur and Mira Nair. But I haven’t watched a lot of Bollywood stuff. I haven’t been exposed to it.

What are the other projects that you are working on?

I have another book that I am working on adapting at the moment in Australia. But I don’t know if that’ll be the next project. There are a couple of other things here and there.

What’s your writing process like?

I like to write long-hand instead of type. I just like to write with a pen. I try to visualise things completely and then come backwards from there. And then it’s just the process of editing. But I try not to limit myself when I first have the idea, so if I write it out poorly that’s okay. Then I just come back and refocus it. I try to stay true to the idea and then try to make the language meet the idea. That’s where my weakness is… in making the language meet the idea.

Which ones are your favourite films of all time?

They are like music, they change. I go through different periods where I really obsess on one filmmaker and I watch all his films. Other times, I’ll obsess on Bob Dylan for six months or obsess on one album for like three weeks. And then I won’t pick it up for four years.

[shebeafancyflapjack]

Thank You (A John Rant)

Okay so. I’m not over Sherlock. But I am over Johnlock...happening in the show. I accept that. Not the story they wanted to tell. Fine. There’s many, many questions about the choices they made if that was the direction they were going and things I have trouble liking but...whatever. I have fics and RPs, it will do.

But you know what I want now, if there is a Series 5?

I want John to tell Sherlock; “Thank you.

Thank you for curing me of my limp and giving me a purpose in life again.

Thank you for giving me access to your debit card after knowing me for a couple of months and taking cases that you know will give us money so I don’t have to worry about finances.

Thank you for saving me that time I was kidnapped and almost killed.

Thank you for going through two years of hell in exile, involving suicide missions and torture, just to save my life and a couple of our friends.

Thank you for saving me that time I was kidnapped and almost killed. 

Thank you for organising my wedding and writing the most beautiful best man speech and then saving someone else I cared about.

Thank you for showing me the truth about who my wife is and then persuading me to be with her, despite what she did to you, because you just wanted me to be happy and with the woman you thought and I loved and was carrying my child.

Thank you for shooting the man who was threatening to destroy our lives and thus sentencing yourself to yet another exile and more likely suicide mission. Additional points for not telling me about this to save me further grief.

Thank you for babysitting my daughter and being a good godfather because I have trouble remembering she even exists half the time.

Thank you for almost killing yourself and putting yourself in harms way all because my wife suggested it would be the only thing to pull me out of my grief after she died even though I wrongly blamed you for her death.

Thank you for comforting me and embracing me after I beat the shit out of you and confessed to having cheated on the woman you had tried so hard to protect for me.

Thank you for standing up for me to your brother and calling me family.

Thank you for saving me that last time I was kidnapped and almost killed. I doubt it will be the last.”

Where is this? Any of this, in the entire show? 

When does John ever show ANY gratitude or recognition for Sherlock as a person? The only moment I can think of is when he hugs him at his wedding, only after Sherlock has poured his heart out, and John has had some wine to curb his inhibitions. The rest of the time he just bitches and snaps about how much of a madman or inhuman monster Sherlock is. That’s when he’s not physically assaulting him. When are we going to get to see John do something for Sherlock?

Okay he saves him once in the first episode. Good...is that it? In four seasons, are we ever going to see that again?

We see him save Sherlock in TAB! But, oh wait, that’s all in Sherlock’s head.

We see him save Sherlock in TLD! Oh, except he’s the one who beat him up and abandoned him there in the first place. Also he apparently only went to save him because Mary: Blu Ray Edition told him to. Also, the policeman could have kicked that door in!

We are TOLD in TSOT that he’s saved Sherlock ‘so many times and in so many ways’. We’re only shown one or two of these times. And the other ways he apparently saved Sherlock...well, I don’t think we honestly see a lot of John trying to explain and teach Sherlock to be a better person, it’s just nagging and snapping and then implying that causes him to change. It’s hardly Beauty and the Beast. I’d argue Sherlock wasn’t that much of a monster to begin with. John is hardly a saint or someone who can tell others how to be moral either.

I suppose John does help rebuild Sherlock’s flat in the end....Call it even? :P

The reason I’m focusing so much on this is because, before watching that ‘Why Sherlock is Garbage’ vid, I was beginning to think I was alone in seeing how John was poorly used in this show. I rarely saw anyone else complaining at how many times this supposedly badass army doctor gets kidnapped and needs Sherlock to rescue him, especially in contrast to how often John gets to be the hero (almost never). But I got to see someone else rant about it at last and I hate it because he also pointed out how the show really is about making Sherlock out to be this superhuman hero rather than a clever detective. Watson goes from being a hero in his own right to being a tool used to show off how awesome Sherlock is.

And not just Sherlock, but Mary as well. In TST, Mary nearly takes John’s place, with Sherlock stating she is ‘better at this than him’. Because that’s what Holmes and Watson fans want to see! Watson being replaced and seen as useless! It’s the same anger I have in how they turned the three badass fairies whom I loved from Sleeping Beauty into three neglectful idiots in Maleficent; unnecessarily tearing down a beloved character in order to build up another.

But, despite this all, I do still love John Watson. Before Series 3 he was my favourite character. Maybe it’s Martin’s amazing acting or maybe it’s the potential I saw. Maybe it’s me confusing ACD!Watson (which is NOT fanon Watson, thank you!) with Mofftiss’ Watson. Maybe it’s because John starts out as the character we are first introduced through and who we are supposed to see their world through so there’s a need to identify and like this character. So I really, really want the writers to start giving a crap about John and stop sacrificing his potential as a good friend and true hero for the sake of making Sherlock the big, amazing Christ figure who always saves the day and everyone else is a damsel in distress. 

I love Sherlock too, I do, and I do like the journey his character has gone through. But it’s supposed to be a show about BOTH of them as heroes. And, you know what, it’s not even that big a problem if you do have John just as a damsel in distress. It’s kinda insulting to the original Watson but, whatever, it’s an adaptation and a new spin, you can do what you like. Lois Lane, April O’Neal, Xander from Buffy, these are likeable characters despite ending up needing to be rescued a lot. But if the character being saved can not even be grateful to the hero - then how we, as the audience, see them as worth saving, let alone remaining ‘best friends’ with?

If this is supposed to be a show that is about a great friendship - then make that friendship great! Because at the moment it feels painfully one-sided and the idea that this could be the last series, that the show could end with them in this unhealthy state, makes me way more sad than the idea of them not getting together romantically. 

[feverhalo]

@thefevertrope said:

Here's a prompt, not super good at them so I hope it's okay! The gang goes back to the space mall (reason being of your choosing), but part way through Lance begins to feel really pretty bad, everyone is split up, and Lance accidentally falls asleep in one of the stores he isn't supposed too, queue security, and the rest of the team ends up having to break him out, only to realize how bad of a fever he has.

This one was super fun too! I kind of took a few liberties and made it a kind of different trouble. I hope you like it! Its a little long at 3711 words. I fully intend it as a one-shot too (but if anyone wanted to work off it go for it). I know the ending is kind of, like, leaving it open. I just felt bad sitting on it for so long- I had some trouble with netflix when i kept going to check out some stuff from the mall episode.

I do apologise too for any errors, Its late and I haven’t edited, so if you see any please shoot me a message and let me know and I’ll fix them up.

quinteb= made up alien word for “brat” sort of. kinda like how quiznak is kind of “fuck”/”damn it”

Space Mall, Take 2 

 “I don’t know why you even brought the cow back with you in the first place,” Keith sighed.

“What do you not understand about ‘it was free with purchase’. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you,” Pidge had their arms crossed and was kicking the back of the seat in front of them. “We better get that adapter while we’re here.”

“Okay, first we are returning the cow. Second, you two are apologising for raiding the coin fountain,” Shiro pointed towards Lance and Pidge. “Third, we need to figure out how to earn some GAC, unfortunately. And no. Not from the fountain. We’re paladins. Find some quick work, unfortunately the Galra have too tight a control on many planets. And if we want to help them, and supply ourselves, we need to be able to keep our presence under the radar sometimes. I know, it sounds less than ideal, but sometimes it’s more dangerous to start a revolution. Not to mention we’ll burn out if we do it every time.”

“You need to stay away from that knife shop,” Shiro jabbed his finger towards Keith before turning to point at Hunk. “No more trouble, Keith. Hunk, I need you to go see if you can strike up a deal with Sal. Maybe take Keith with you, its far enough away. I don’t know if that guy would remember your face, but he sounded way too interested in your knife for me to be comfortable. And Hunk could probably get this guy to vouch for you, after hearing the story.”

“Ok, and? What do we do after we take back the cow, make Lance sing for coins?” Pidge raised their eyebrows.

“Offer to sweep stores, see if theres a contest with a cash prize somewhere. If you wan’t the adapter, you need to earn the GAC, like I said, we’re trying to earn it so we can do things like this more easily, more covert. No more cows. No more security chasing you out.” Shiro prodded the screen, double checking their progress. “We’re almost there now. I’m going to go apologise to security. Despite everything Coran said, this could be a good stop for us, to learn new information and pick up necessities. Better to not draw unwanted attention.”

“Okay, Shiro, I hear you. But wouldn’t walking right up to Galra security be a little… maybe just a teeny bit… the opposite of what you’re saying?” Hunk, proudly sitting shotgun, looked over to Shiro.

“I think its reasonable. It was about a week ago this all happened, on Earth you’d get a mall ban. If I go in and explain that it was ‘kids being kids’ and how ‘sorry’ you all are, we might be able to use this to our advantage, right under the Galra’s noses.”

“That’s kind of badass,” Pidge stopped kicking the back of Shiro’s chair for a second, “Its kind of great, actually. We’re kicking their butts and they can’t even find us in their own territory!” Pidge cackled to themselves for a second.

“Exactly.”

 ---------------

 “Shiro, do we really have to take the cow back?” Lance was patting the cow, pouting up at Shiro.

“Lance, we can’t realistically keep it,” Keith snapped.

“Even though its cute?”

“Lance, you need to take it back. Its not fair to the cow, we have nowhere for it to live,” Shiro unconsciously stepped between Keith and Lance to diffuse the situation before it escalated. “Come on, guys. Go on.”

With some grumbling, everyone dispersed. Keith hung back for a second, staring at Shiro, before following Hunk.

“I can’t believe he was serious,” Hunk surprised Keith by saying it first. “I mean, I am super excited- don’t get me wrong. I just can’t believe it. It was actually pretty cool to work at Sal’s, up until that security guy showed up-“

“Hunk.”

“It was kind of awesome, to sort of, forget for like an hour that we’re supposed to be- well, you know.”

“…” Keith was taken aback by how honest Hunk was, and how it was surprisingly sad. “Yeah. I guess, you’d probably be doing something like that while on a break from the Garrison, right?”

“Yeah,” Hunk smiled a little, “Actually, I kind of helped out one of my uncles once at his restaurant….”

 ------------

 “Do you think theres an arcade?” Pidge looked around the mall, trying to find the Earth store. “Do you think we could try hustling pool? I think we could pull it off. You kind of make people want to talk to you, or hit you. Lance?”

Lance was just pulling the cow along, looking around for himself.

“Lance! Hello? Are you ignoring me on purpose?”

“Huh? Sorry, spaced out.” Lance blinked and shook his head a little. He wasn’t feeling his best, but Shiro wouldn’t take no for an answer. Coran and Allura were going to be busy readjusting the warp drive again, and it was ‘strongly suggested’ that they go out for the next several vargas. “Sure, we can try that. I know a little bit about pool, though I’m better at skee ball.”

“People don’t bet on skee ball. I’ll be the cinch for it, anyway.” Lance quirked a brow as he stared at Pidge, “Look, before I met you and Hunk at the Garrison, I didn’t really have a lot of patience to try and make friends. I had to do something.”

 --------------

 “Hello?” Shiro knocked at the door to the security office. The maps had pointed him in the right direction, and he took a steeling breath.

“What?” The door opened, revealing the rather short Galra guard. Shiro kept his face carefully schooled, “Something to report? Lost and found is dealt with by the information centre.”

“Um, actually, I am here to apologize for my… siblings.” Shiro swallowed, “They came by… earlier. And caused a little havoc. We’re new to the area, and they dealt with the changes poorly.”

“Your siblings?” The guard narrowed his eyes, “Well, I’m busy. It’s a big mall. I’m not going to remember everything. And besides, kids aren’t on my radar, we’ve had pirate issues in the past and I’d-“

“They, um, thought it would be funny to dress as pirates. And from my understanding, caused quite a scene. I do apologize.” Shiro felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. This seemed like a terrible idea, the guard wasn’t responding how he had hoped.

“Are they back?” The guard shouted, startling Shiro into a slight jump. He calmed his initial reaction, stopping with his hands up, gloved palms facing the guard. It was still scratching in the back of his mind, this was trouble, this needed to end, he needed to run. He stilled his shaking.

“They came back, with me, to work to make up for the trouble they caused.”

“That’s… Responsible. I can accept that.” The guard backed off, and the alarms in Shiro’s head eased just a bit. He leaned forward with one last burst of aggression, “I’m keeping my eye on them. One more incident and I’m banning all of you. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.” Shiro took a step back and felt surprise break over him, this just might work. “I’ll make sure they work hard.”

 -------------

 “He’s a hard worker,” Hunk was nearly pleading with Sal, “Really knows his way around a knife.”

“I’m not cluttering up my kitchen.” The man was large and rather intimidating. His had his arms crossed and a snarl on his face.

“Oh, oh I’m sorry, your kitchen?” Keith smacked his hand to his face. “Your kitchen was a disaster. Your employee died in your kitchen and you strapped me to it, and I laboured and made you what you are now. Are you even still following my instructions? Have you gone all Kitchen Nightmares on me, and took the good I gave you and thrown it out behind my back?”

“What I do in my kitchen is my own business.” The man leaned forward, jaw jutting forward and chewing on a crumpled straw.

“Unless you’re doing it right, it’s a business doomed to fail.”

“Huh,” Sal, the huge intimidating guy wielding a knife while Hunk felt the need to get all up in his grill and kitchen quite literally, leaned back and barked out a laugh. “There you go, that’s how you veil a threat, kid. Not bad.”

“What the fuck did you manage to get up to in one, single, varga?” Keith asked from behind his hands.

“Who’s this schmuck again? Some friend, knows knives. Can he cook. Why’d you come back anyway, thought you were on the run.”

“We were, but now its all like, community service this, make up for the hassle that.” Hunk waved his hand dismissively. “You think I was trouble, this guy really pissed off one of those fancy sword shops upstairs. He’s not allowed anywhere without someone now.”

“Shut up,” Keith slapped his arm, “Its not that bad. You all act like I’m going to go buy an arms ship if you turn your back on me or something.”

“Would you?”

“… Just shut up and show me how to make this tuber paste.”

 ----------

 “That was surprisingly easy, I thought the guy would have been all offended we were returning the free gift,” Pidge looked back over their shoulder at the store.

“Yeah who would have thought the guy wanted it back,” Lance tucked his hands in his pocket, he was shaking no matter how hard he tried to hold back on shivering. “He seemed a little relieved. I mean, he did give you that.”

“Yeah, I’m surprised. Guess he grew attached,” Pidge tossed the small brick they held in the air, “Still, our gain! We can finally play Killbot Phantasm.”

“Yeah, that’ll be pretty cool,” Lance answered on autopilot, “Think Shiro still wants us to try and earn some GAC?”

“Ugh, probably. Pool?”

“Sure, sounds easy.”

 ----------------------------------

“Pay up, nerds,” Pidge held out their hand, waiting for the other two to hand over the GAC. “We agreed. I get the 80 tickets for that duck, too.”

“Nah. It was kind of a weak game, honestly. Don’t want to pay you now.”

“No way,” Pidge shook their head, “I won, fair and square, and I even sunk them all in order.”

“Nah, we said nah,” The taller alien with 4 arms shoved Pidge. They were knocked back into the table. “You’re not hustling us, quinteb.”

“Lance-“ Pidge turned to make sure Lance was on his way. He was still sitting across the arcade, where they agreed he’d sit to make sure nobody tried anything funny. He was asleep. Pidge felt a jolt of panic, “Lance!”

“Stop crying for your guardian,” The alien shoved Pidge again, “Shut up, okay. Don’t make a fuss.” They backed off, not really wanting to fight, it seemed. The two alien’s walked away, laughing together.

“Assholes!” Pidge yelled after them before whirling and stomping towards Lance. “Lance!”

Lance startled and fell out of his chair. He shook his head, bringing his hand up to cover his eyes. The quick movement made the world spin, and the arcade’s bright lights were dancing all over his vision. It was disorienting and made his head throb.

“What the hell! You were supposed to be watching,” Pidge was red with fury, and their eyes were watering ever so slightly. “What if they didn’t walk away!”

“What if who didn’t what?”

“I can’t believe you right now!” Pidge was starting to cause a scene, “They backed out on our game, and you were asleep, and things could have gone really badly and you just-! You just decided to have a nap!”

“I’m-“ Lance was having trouble following. The girl behind the prize counter was walking over now, looking less than impressed. Did he do something? Shit, the last thing he remembered was making a deal with Pidge to sit back and make sure nothing went wrong, since he was feeling so crummy.

“Excuse me,” the counter girl broke in, cutting off another tirade from Pidge, “You need to quiet down, little kids play here. I don’t want to make you leave, but you need to chill out.”

“Oh! So those guys can shove me over a game, but I can’t be mad about it!”

“Pidge, you need to calm down, okay. I’m sorry.” Lance stood up, none to steady, and put his hand on Pidge’s shoulder. It was as much to steady himself as to calm them down. Pidge shrugged him off, and he lost his balance.

“You know what, on second thought, you two need to go.” The employee crossed her arms, “Like, now.”

“Fine!” Pidge huffed and grabbed Lance’s hand to pull him up.

“Han’on” Lance slurred, it was too fast. He felt the room spin again, but he wasn’t on his ass on the floor already, so it was even more disorienting. “Pidge, hann’n-“ Lance’s vision was totally blacked out and he felt the blood drain from his face right before he dropped.

 ------------------

 Shiro had walked around a bit, and found some information on different colonies that might come in handy. Other places they could maybe trade physical labour for supplies, on the down low. A lot more places where the technology had adapted to be more like some of the cities on Earth.  

It was a lot harder to find something he could do for a few hours in this mall though. Most shops and stalls were staffed by disinterested twenty-somethings or teenagers. He got a lot of ‘let me call my manager’ type answers. And, he really wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He had basically gone right from graduating at the Garrison, to working there, to Kerebos, to… everything that happened, and then he found himself here.

He was just checking one of the maps again, trying to figure out if anyone else maybe had better luck than he had. Then he heard the mall scooter, and a newly familiar voice shouting. He spun on his heel and spotted the mall cop puttering off to some neon lit storefront, and he took off running.

The chances were slim, but trouble always seemed to follow them, so he wouldn’t be surprised.

 ------------------------

 “What happened?” The Galra guard climbed off his scooter. At his feet were the two pirate children, and the arcade employee was standing there wringing her hands.

“He-“ The one spoke, “He just dropped.” Pidge was sitting on the floor beside Lance, hand still hoolding his from when they tried to pull him up earlier.

“Pidge!” Shiro’s voice cut across the arcade. The music was quieted, and the lights had been turned on after the counter girl hit the silent alarm to get help. “Pidge, whats going on?”

“Shiro, he just, he just fell. He won’t wake up.” Pidge deflated as soon as Lance went limp and was shaken with the immediate loss of their anger.

“Hey, Lance,” Shiro brushed Lance’s bangs back, he could feel warmth through his gloves. “Come on, time to open your eyes. Can you go grab Hunk and Keith, Pidge? I think we need to head back...” Pidge just sat there for a moment under Shiro’s gaze.

“I-“ They swallowed uncomfortably, “I yelled at him.”

“Its ok, I kind of want to yell at him too, right now. He’s burning up, but right now we need to get him back to bed, okay?”

“Yeah.” Pidge stood up and brushed off their knees, “Yeah, you’re right.” They swiped their hand under their nose. It was scary to see someone dead faint for the first time, but the shock of it was wearing off a little.

 ------------------------

 “Here you go!” Sal served another customer with a huge smile. Things were going twice as fast as the last time now that Hunk was back and brought help. The two of them seemed to be able to read each other’s minds, it seemed to him.

“Another one up, Sal!” Hunk slip another plate across the metal counter. “Hey, Keith, prepped those cuts of meat yet? Got a handful of orders for those.”

“Yeah.” Keith nodded the affirmative. He turned back to the ingredients he was preparing, and to Sal’s prep employee. He was demonstrating how Hunk needed everything prepared for this new dish, one of the team’s favorites back at the castle. It was a little rough, they basically had to go it in silence with some gestures since neither of them spoke the other’s language.

“Awesome. Okay, now you guys need to pay real close attention here. You want to make the flavours sing just right,” he sprinkled on some shredded tree fruit, “It takes a gentle hand and this stuff is really potent. You can’t over do it or it’ll overpower the spice underneath.”

Across the food court, Pidge was coming through at a sprint. Hunk caught the flash of their hair and green sweater and perked up to see what was going on.

“Hunk! Keith! We gotta go!” Pidge was panting, and slammed into the order counter with full, bruising, force.

“What happened?” Hunk vaulted the counter before he even got the words out, and Keith was right behind him.

“Something’s wrong with Lance, we gotta go.”

“Sorry Sal, you got a new recipe, master that before I come back, got it?” Hunk put his fist up, and Sal bumped Hunk’s with his own. He did the same to Keith as the other boy passed by too. “Get it perfect, otherwise I’m letting this guy take his liberties with your kitchen sets.”

“You better come back, I ain’t messing around, kid.” Hunk gave a wave as he followed Pidge away.

 -----------------------

 “Hnn,” Lance stirred, finally, “Hold on, feel like I’m gonna pass out.”

“You kind of already did,” Shiro had his hand on Lance’s shoulder to keep him laying down. “Take a minute. You okay?”

“I’m,” Lance paused. Shiro was the one talking. Where was Pidge? Did he really pass out? “What happened?”

“Looks like you fainted from that fever. Why didn’t you tell someone?” Lance looked up and saw Shiro’s face swimming above his. He blinked a few time, bringing the other paladin into focus.

“Didn’t feel so bad til we got here.” He felt drained. “Didn’t realize it’d be so long.”

“Well, I’m cutting it short now, we’re gonna head back.” Shiro moved his hand to start to shift Lance to sitting, slowly. Lance stretched, feeling sore and sick down to his bones. Shiro held him still for a moment. “Thanks for calling for help for him.”

Lance looked up to see the counter girl, she looked much more relieved. Just to her left was the Galra mall cop, and Lance nearly startled seeing him. He jolted slightly, and it brought back that sickening wave where he wasn’t sure if he’d throw up or pass out and his vision swam for half a tick again before settling.

“You doing okay? I want to carry you out, but I need to make sure you’re going to be able to hold on to me first.” Lance nodded a little numbly, still feeling that wave recede. “I need to hear your answer, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Give me a minute, ‘m okay in a minute.” Shiro gave him a few minutes, he waited until Lance started moving of his own accord. Surprisingly, the Galra security guard helped get Lance situated on Shiro’s back. Shiro just stepped into the main hall again when the other three paladins ran up to join them.

 --------------------

 “103.7,” Shiro blinked in surprise, “Jeeze, you really were feeling fine before we left?” Lance nodded from the bed.

“Yeah, just a headache. ‘N then in the ship I started getting cold, but thought it’d be okay.”

“Well, take it easy. Rest up.” Shiro patted Lance’s chest. He left the boy under a pile of blankets and went into the hall outside his door. He shook his head, they’d have to be more careful about things. He thought on maybe having Allura start them on that ‘open-ness’ training again.

“Shiro…” He turned, Pidge was standing behind him.

“Hey Pidge, Lance’ll be okay. Heck of a fever, but he’ll bounce back. I think he still feels bad for falling asleep on you like that.”

“That’s good…” Pidge nodded. Something seemed a little off.

“Everything… okay?” Shiro started walking towards the common area where they had all separated.

“Mhmm,” Pidge looked a little out of it, “Uh. Keith said he wasn’t feeling right. So they asked me to come get you. Just in case.”

“Oh?” Shiro felt a little spark of worry start up.

“Yeah.” Pidge rubbed at their eyes, they seemed a little pale. Oh, quiznak.

“Come here for a tick,” Shiro turned, and Pidge blinked up at him. He placed his palm on their forehead. Two down. “You’re warm, feeling okay?”

“Keith said he felt sick.”

“And I think you’re sick too. Go on, bed.” Great, the mall was some sort of vector for disease. “I’ll go check on him.”

 Shiro ended up walking back to the common area with Pidge still trailing him. Keith was sitting on the couch with his head lowered between his knees, and Hunk was rubbing his back. Shiro ran his hand through his hair.

“He’s alright, just lightheaded,” Hunk answered. Shiro was glad he seemed to be okay. He sighed.

“Well, I guess we’re all taking it easy now.” Shiro shook his head, he hoped these two were just overcome with the excitement of the day, but felt like he’d end up with Lance demanding a movie day where they’d all sit on the couch in a shivering pile of misery. “Looks like we’re in for a fun week.”

Hunk gave a broken laugh.

[janeaustentextposts]

What is your favorite non-Austen period novel? Movie?

Okay I’m gonna do a rundown of all my favourites because making me pick one is just mean. (Also at one point in my notes on the following books and films I just wrote “Bagels” and I can’t for the life of me think what I might have meant or autocorrected that from. Maybe a shopping list started to take form. I don’t know.)

(If the film Miss Austen Regrets and book Longbourn by Jo Baker count as non-Austen then include them.)

Films:

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India - 2001 (Sports! High stakes! Sticking it to the Colonial Man!)

Mozart’s Sister - 2010 (Beautiful music! Gorgeous androgyny! GIRLS CAST TO PLAY THEIR ACTUAL AGE AND NOT SOME 20-SOMETHING PRETENDING TO BE FOURTEEN!)

Possession - 2002 (I’ve tried the novel, and A.S. Byatt has some beautiful prose but her structures sometimes do my head in, so never finished it. Ignore Paltrow as best you can and enjoy lush Victorian Gothic mystery and the ending is one of the most poignant things I’ve ever been pleasantly surprised with on film, and it leaves you wondering about many, many things…)

Jodhaa Akbar - 2008 (You could put Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in the worst commercial ever made and I would watch it. Costumes, scenery, and, as a friend once put it “I’m not sure how they did it, but they just had a sex scene without any sex.” Bravo.)

Water - 2005 (Deepa Mehta is such a fantastic filmmaker and I loved this whole trilogy but Water is my favourite.)

Elizabeth - 1998 & Elizabeth: The Golden Age - 2007 (The costumes! The caMERA ANGLES!!! The compli-fucking-cated mess that is Elizabeth I.)[Okay Tumblr won’t let me embed any more trailers, but those ones are easy to find, they’re out there.]Vatel - 2000 (Any foodie who is also a fan of The Sun King and his era will dig this one. A great score, baddie Tim Roth.)Alternatively, in the same era: A Little Chaos - 2015. Storyline is a little weak, but it’s so beautiful and the cast is great and the M U S I C. Kate Winslet. Alan Rickman. Helen McCrory. STANLEY TUCCI.)Also: they’re not films, but TV shows - honourable mentions to the Spanish series Gran Hotel. It’s like a good version of Downton Abbey, only sorta on crack and with a tonne more murder mysteries; and while I have some Issues with its so-called hero and some comparatively weirdo plot-points in S3, overall, it’s fantastic and I’m obssessed. Please don’t mix it up with the Italian re-make which looks horrible in every way. Like, main actors dressed in a poorly-sewn-table-cloth-bad.And shout-out to the new CBC/Netflix series Anne. I will defend this show to the DEATH, alright? They’ve gone bolder and fresher and have managed to involve period realism in a moving way while retaining the sunshine-and-pinafores element that so many people love about L.M. Montgomery’s work. There’s heaps of women with production credits, and I think it shows. Geraldine James is already my favourite Marilla after one episode, and I feel like R.H. Thompson (HEY JASPER DALE HEEEEY!) and Amybeth McNulty are likely going to become my favourite Matthew and Anne, too. People have complained about this series going off-book and in particular some have condemned it sight-unseen because the writers/directors are putting a feminist spin on it and OH GOD THEY SAID FEMINIST QUICK WE GOTTA SET EVERYTHING ON FIRE BECAUSE CHILDHOOD IS RUINED, but honestly it’s just perky and gorgeous and scrappy and nobody can tell me to my face that Kevin Sullivan didn’t go all the fucking way off-book from the very beginning so I am not gonna sit here and insist that the Megan Fallows Anne of Green Gables was perfection which could never be improved upon because that’s just a plain lie. It was nice and it has its place but it’s time for some new blood. (And NOT the telefilms they’ve also come out with recently with Martin Sheen, bless his heart, but they took a brunette child actor and dumped an atrociously stark box of red hair-dye on her before drawing on her freckles and then telling her to please play everything theatrically to the back of the house even though there is a camera ten inches from her face.) I am HERE FOR ANNE. RIDE OR DIE.

AND NOW, FOR BOOKS!

After that you might assume my L.M. Montgomery recommendation would be Anne of Green Gables and sure I won’t say DON’T read them, but for my money the Emily of New Moon trilogy is more my jam and I wish to God and Netflix in all my prayers that there might someday be a decent adaptation of them.I was really into Cassandra Clark’s Abbess of Meaux mystery series for a time, but then things went a bit pear-shaped in what I think was the fourth(?) book and everything was OOC and honestly I haven’t caught up on the later books after that and they seem to be self-published now but I am a sucker for nuns and mysteries so I’ll probably get back into it when I have time.

The Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight and The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim. Vacation-reads! Beautiful prose, some wry wit, and fun hijinks. If you’ve ever wanted to run away and live in an isolated cottage in the wilderness for a little while, these are for you. [ETA: I recently got my hands on a copy of The Jasmine Farm so THANK YOU to one of you who recommended it I am loving it so far only I don’t see the appeal in Andrew so wtf Terry you can do better.]Edward Rutherfurd’s geographical history novels–Sarum is the classic to start with, but the others I’ve read are very good, too. (London, New York, and I’m now working my way through a first-edition of Russka.)Amy Levy. A M Y   L E V Y. Criminally under-recognized Jewish Victorian novelist and poet. Novellas Ruben Sachs and The Romance of a Shop. (RS a beautiful and bittersweet story about the conflicts between love, identity, and expectations, and some would say a response to George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda. TRoaS reading a bit like a less treacle-sweet variation on Little Women, where four sisters try to make their way in the world by setting up their own photography studio in late 19th century London.)The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgkin Burnett. Colonialist racism appears in this one, so be warned. Still the book is a THOUSAND times better than the utterly dreadful adaptation known as The Making of a Lady. Jane is better, Emily is better, Walderhurst is better, pretty much EVERYONE IS BETTER. The pacing is better. The plotting and suspense make actual sense.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. A classic, and the grand-daddy of every secret-identity superhero.

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. Like, it makes me MAD how good these books are.

And last but not least, a non-fiction selection in Vere Hodgson’s WWII diaries: Few Eggs and No Oranges. Nothing else has ever brought the experience of living (or trying to) under the shadow of the bombs and the threat of invasion quite like these diaries. Fascinating details, engagingly written, and at times a stark reminder that the Allied victory we take for granted in our history could by no means be counted on by the millions who dwelt in daily uncertainty.

[sage-nebula]

oohhh, pokemon games or your personal pokeverse for the meme?

OOOOH, this is going to be really hard, since there are so many characters that I’m sure I’m going to forget some, but I will try! Also, these two things are kind of one in the same for me, because I adapt the games to my personal ‘verse as they come out. So like, for me, even if they’re technically not, the Red and Green we see in the Gen VII games would be, in my ‘verse, my versions of Red and Green. (And Leaf is also there, but she was drawn to the Aether Foundation because she was curious about Ultra Beasts . . . oh Leaf, what did you get yourself into?)

But hmmm, okay, let’s see---

Zinnia --- MY GIRL, MY LOVE, THE LEGEND, THE LOREKEEPER. BEST CHARACTER IN THE GAMES HANDS DOWN, 500/10, BEAUTIFUL, FANTASTIC, ASTOUNDING, A++++, WHY DOES NINTENDO KEEP TREATING HER LIKE DIRT, I’LL NEVER UNDERSTAND.Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I love Zinnia. Okay? I really love Zinnia a lot. She’s hands down easily my favorite character across the games, period, and I am beyond salty that Pokémon Generations denied her an episode. Like, honestly, my salt for this exceeds even my salt that they used Blair instead of Lea in the B2W2 shot, and that’s saying something. (Even if it just barely surpasses it. Just barely.) I love everything about Zinnia. I love that she has the best Trainer Class in all of the games (LOREKEEPER, how cool is that?!). I love that she comes from what is heavily implied to be an aboriginal race of people in the Hoenn region, that this is just a part of her character but does not define her (and that this is even lampshaded, with this exchange:STEVEN: “You’re the---!”ZINNIA: “The Draconid, yup. But you can just call me Zinnia.”This is after she has introduced herself, so Steven really has no excuse---and Zinnia calls him on it in a way that feels completely natural and flows with the script. Love it. I love her sass, and her snark. I love her determination. I love that she knows she has to sacrifice herself and she tries to look for another way, suggests that the others come up with another way, but when she sees that there isn’t she does what must be done anyway because she knows she has to. And I relate to her, too, in her grief over Aster; Shiloh died shortly after the ORAS games came out (they released in November of 2014, and Shiloh died in my arms on 9 January 2015), and so I was playing the Delta Episode right around that same time. Zinnia’s speech about the original Aster hit me hard, becuase that is exactly how I felt about Shiloh, right down to:“We were always together, in good times and in bad. I loved her . . . I loved her with everything I had, but . . . I still lost her.”Word for word, that’s how I felt about Shiloh. Her grief, her desire to do anything to see Aster again---I empathize, oh so deeply.I love Zinnia. I love everything about Zinnia. Fandom hates her, but of course they do, fandom always hates my faves. But I love her. I just wish Nintendo could show her the same amount of love. //salty4life

Leaf Tyler --- I am always, always, always going to have a soft spot for Leaf, the girl who I honest to goodness wish had been in the original Kanto games (and she was originally going to be, but it was either a time issue or a cartridge space issue or both that kept her out), the girl that I know eight-year-old me would have latched onto with a grip so tight you’d think she had rigor mortis on top of being frozen solid. I’ve of course fleshed her out far beyond anything Game Freak has done, but I love every bit of this girl that I’ve created.She’s whip-smart, she’s incredibly determined, she’s headstrong when it comes to what she wants and what she chases after. She doesn’t let the criticisms or condemnations of anyone get her down (and boy have there been a lot of those given her insistent belief in legendaries that the rest of Kanto---or at least her home town of Pallet---scoffs at). She’s incredibly passionate about what she loves and nothing, not even eldritch abominations or legendaries that can and will kill her, will frighten her away from her goal. She is a myth hunter who is determined to be a lorekeeper in her own right (even if not in the same way Zinnia is), and she chronicles everything she knows in extensive journals. Professor Oak probably suggests at one point that she try her hand at being a professor herself in an effort to get her to settle down, but nah. Nah. There are ruins to be spelunked, there are eldritch abominations to chase. She’s not stopping for anything.Professor Oak just sighs.

Whitlea “Lea” Fiona Fair --- How could I not mention my girl Lea? Lea, like Leaf, is rather headstrong and determined---but she’s always determined about all the wrong things (well, usually). This is a girl who sees life as a giant adventure and, if it isn’t, then she will make it one. She hates sitting still. She eats nachos for breakfast. She legitimately traded her Pokédex for a special Zelda edition DS Lite because she wanted to play Spirit Tracks, and she has forbidden Bianca from telling Cheren because Cheren will tell Professor Juniper and then Lea will get in trouble. She’s being followed around by a Victini she calls Thing because Thing imprinted on her, thinking she’s its mom, because she accidentally woke it up in Liberty Tower. She has dubbed N “Captain Unova” because he never understands any references. The only books she reads are comic books, she loves sports and games, won’t tolerate it at all if you fuck with her friends and, as of the latest chapter, is feeling seriously conflicted over this whole “pokémon liberation” dealio.Basically, Lea is a helluva lot of fun to write and, since I know all of Reversi even if I haven’t written it, I know all about her character development and think it’s great. I love Lea. I’ll always love Lea. And I still think she has the best design out of any of the female protags, hands down.

Mortimer “Morty” Matsuba --- I’m never going to ever stop loving Morty. Morty is a character I always loved due to his design, but I really fleshed out his character when writing liveblog drabbles of SoulSIlver back in the day, and I absolutely love him for being the deadpan snarker straight man to Eusine’s . . . Eusine. But even as he is a deadpan snarker who legitimately believes Eusine will get himself arrested one day, he still loves Eusine with all his heart and will always bail him out of whatever trouble (or prison) he gets himself into. (He would just rather Eusine not get himself into that trouble / prison in the first place.)

Eusine Minaki --- And of course I can’t mention Morty without mentioning Eusine. Again, I fleshed Eusine out a lot, and bouncing him off Morty was so easy, their banter came so naturally. So much of it was childish bickering despite the two of them being adults, but that’s what happens when you’re childhood best friends. As energetic and ridiculous as Eusine can be at times, however, he has a serious side to him as well that I like, and I took Lyra stealing his dream from him a lot more seriously than the game did. I like to think my version was better, even if it would definitely need a re-write now.

Gladion --- Gladion was a character I knew was going to be a fave from the moment I saw him, and while I still think that his development was rushed and poorly written in-game (and while my version of Gladion is far more temperamental, heh), I still adore him and his incredible theme music oh so much. The way Gladion reacted to the abuse Lusamine doled out on him is very similar to how I’ve reacted to the abuse I’ve gone through in my life, and so I find Gladion to be a pretty relatable character---including and especially when it comes to his scathing sarcasm, because damn. I can in fact be that way at times if someone aggravates me. There have been times when I’ve taken no hostages, I can freely admit that.

N Harmonia --- I love so much about N. He’s such a complex character, and perhaps one of the most complex characters Game Freak has written into their games---which is why it makes me sad that fandom tends to focus on only one or two of his traits and ignore all the rest. N is many things; he’s an older teenager / young adult who was abused and sheltered for pretty much his entire life, but he’s also an older teenager / young adult who was raised to believe that he is a King and a Chosen One and acts accordingly. N is one of those characters that is very difficult to write correctly, but I think he’s brilliant all the same. I love him. (And the fact that he is just as headstrong, blunt, and passionate as Lea makes them delightful to bounce off one another, let me tell you.)

Brendan James Anderson --- Brendan, son of Petalburg City’s Gym Leader Norman, is as surly and salty as they come, and I love him for it. He’s absolutely that moody teenager who is salty about anything and everything, and while some of his woes are understandable (e.g. he didn’t want to move to Hoenn, he’s salty at his dad for separating from his mom over work, et cetera), the truth is that he will complain endlessly about stupid things as well, and he damn well knows it. He likes writing poetry and reading, which is why he named his mudkip Moby Dick . . . aaand his mudkip appreciates this about as much as you would expect, so. Brendan complains about their vitriolic best buds relationship frequently (especially as Moby, once a swampert, routinely bucks him off mid-Surf and sends him careening into the ocean). I love writing Brendan because, personally, I find the fact that he is perhaps even saltier than the oceans that surround Hoenn to be hilarious. His complaining isn’t whining so much as it is just bitching, and sometimes you just need a salty af protagonist to get you through. (Also, it makes for a nice contrast with his cheerful neighbor, May Birch.)

Iris de Nadder --- A DRAGON PRINCESS, I love Iris, I love her so much, and I wish we got to see more of her in the original Black / White games, though I do love what we do get to see. I love how she protects Bianca after the incident in Castelia City, and though I definitely upped that scene in Reversi (wherein she flat out kicks the shit out of the Plasma grunts assaulting Bianca, mocks them for getting their asses kicked by a twelve-year-old girl, and sends them packing), I do still love what we see originally. I see Iris as being unwilling to take anyone’s shit, but also generally being upbeat and friendly, because honestly, a human’s life is too short to spend being prickly and unpleasant. Dragons? They live ages. But humans? Practically babies from birth to death in a dragon’s eyes. Iris only has a human lifespan, so she’s gonna live it to the fullest and encourage others to do the same. She’ll encourage others to be their best selves while being her best self, and I think that’s awesome.

Karen Noir --- Finally, the last spot will probably have to go to Karen of Johto’s Elite Four. Not only does she spout the truest words in any Pokémon game (that you should battle with the pokémon you like), but I love how I fleshed her out with regards to her relationships with Morty and Eusine. (Basically, she was Morty’s rival in childhood, but Eusine felt that Karen was stealing his BFF, so he and Karen actually have a rivalry in which Karen mostly just makes fun of him and Eusine gets angry, and meanwhile Morty just honestly doesn’t want to know what’s going on, he just wants the yelling to stop.) Plus, I mean, she’s a total badass and has a houndoom named Lilith that can and will fuck everyone up, so. I love her.

This is super long but I always have a lot of Pokémon feelings, so. It’s to be expected, I suppose!!

[recentanimenews]

THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Nears the Finish Line with Episodes 211-217

  Welcome back once again faithful readers to the penultimate edition of the GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! I’m Nicole Mejias, and It is hard to believe that we’ve nearly reached the end of these ninja adventures, and next week will be our final outing into the world of Naruto. Before we hang up our ninja headbands, though, we’ve still got a week’s worth of episodes to discuss! 

Before we get started, I wanted to briefly mention how amazing this entire process has been. When we posed the idea of a group rewatch, I didn’t think it would evolve into something as fun as this was; to be honest I was kind of dreading going through all of these filler arcs, but doing it together has made this into a pretty fun experience! I hope you all at home enjoyed following along and watching with us, and stay tuned for any future adventures we might have! 

That said, let’s get on to this week’s episodes and questions! We’ve got the end of one mission, the entirety of another one, and the beginning of the last one to tackle, so without further delay, let’s get to it! 

Boy, am I glad that arc is over. What are your closing thoughts on the Gantetsu Escort Mission storyline? 

Kevin: I mean, in theory I liked it. An impulsive police officer who wants nothing more than to kill the criminal he is escorting isn’t a story that we’ve seen in Naruto, as best I can remember. Unfortunately, then everything else happened, and it was all obvious and boring.

Paul: Gantetsu should have turned himself in at the end. He was penitent and prepared to accept death as punishment for his sins, but Todoroki not only let him go, but encouraged Gantetsu to continue acting as foster-father to Akio and the other children that the Ninja Dropouts left as orphans. That doesn't balance. There should have been serious karmic consequences, considering the severity of the Ninja Dropouts' crimes and the breach of Todoroki's duty.

Danni: Yeah, I agree with Paul. There are some weird inconsistencies in this arc. Gantetsu knew Akio had an older brother, but still effectively kidnapped him in the name of saving him? Plus I can’t get over the fact that all of the kids are super okay with the fact that Gantetsu effectively assisted in the murders. AND in the end Akio abandons the only family he has left to keep living with his kidnapper. It’s one thing to nitpick plotholes, but this is just plain bizarre. 

Jared: It certainly happened. I feel like half the time it was going on I was just completely checked out and then it ends on some pretty baffling notes. Plus, Gantetsu and Todoroki just felt super one dimensional with their characters and everything around the plot was way too predictable.

Kara: Have you ever watched something and then afterwards had no idea whether you liked it or not? That was me. I have literally no discernable feeling on this storyline. I do remember watching it, though.

David: I usually love characters like Gantetsu and their arcs basically as a rule, but this was handled unbelievably poorly for reasons others have stated. I’m pretty disappointed. 

Carolyn: I’m a little torn. The ending is a bit messy, for sure. But I did like seeing Rock Lee and Sakura trying to figure out how to handle adversaries who are literal children. (Although, aren’t they also technically children?) It’s just a different dynamic versus immediately jumping into a fight.

Noelle: It really just felt all over the place? It started out strong but then it really dissolved. It kind of felt like they didn’t want to commit to too dark a story, which seems strange considering some of the things they’ve thrown at us.

Joseph: I didn’t love the arc but I did love that it featured T. Hawk from Super Street Fighter II. Such an unexpected yet welcome cameo, and I knew he would turn out to be a good guy who fostered youth in the end.

Something that kind of bothered me as this show lurched on is that for all of the amazing things that Naruto and others can do: a lot of filler arcs have them acting weaker or sillier than the norm. What’s your take on that? 

Kevin: Sillier can be amusing, actually. Please let me have a filler arc like the Ninja Chefs, where we see the gang using legendary ninja techniques to make really good ramen. It’s dumb, but at least its entertaining! Instead, we get a lot of arcs where the main cast is just being stupider than normal, and it’s just aggravating because we’ve all seen that these characters should be more competent. 

  Paul: My biggest complaint is that during the filler, they aren't introducing any variations on Naruto's training. He's still confronting every challenge with Shadow Clones and the Rasengan, and I lament the lack of creativity, because Naruto isn't learning anything, developing any new Jutsu, or polishing his skills as a shinobi. He doesn't feel so much “weak” as “static”, since his growth as a character is in suspended animation.

  Danni: Sillier is fun, but too much of the filler has them acting weaker and dumber. The Rasengan has been so flippantly used in all of these arcs that I’ve effectively forgotten how powerful and novel it was when it was introduced. That being said, using it to make ramen was absolutely inspired. 

Jared: I think silly can totally work, especially in filler, but sometimes the show really pushes it in the wrong direction. Such as having somewhat serious arcs end on something that makes it end up more as a joke. I get that they kind of can’t add a ton of new moves to everyone, but that doesn’t help the fact that everyone’s attacks and especially Naruto’s have gotten kind of stale due to that.

Kara: I don’t mind silly, but this seems like they’re regressing him to his early series “I’m gonna use Disguise Jutsu to embarrass Sasuke, also I need to potty” self. I think there’s a way to do that effectively with characters (late-era Phoenix Wright is a great example of someone who’s grown in skill but can still believably be a doofus sometimes). I don’t think that’s what is happening here. Also, I can’t be the only one noticing the literal Hanna-Barbera sound effects.

David: Well, it’s filler, they sort of can’t give them anything that would actually challenge them or make them grow without bumping heads with the inevitable return to the manga-adapted episodes. Or they can, and it turns out really messy. I’m reminded of a filler arc in Bleach where one character had used a technique in the previous arc that stripped him of his powers, so they had another character invent some nonsense plot device to “temporarily” give him his powers back so he could participate. That is worse to me than just not trying.

Carolyn: I don’t mind the occasional comedy and slapstick but I suspect downplaying the characters’ strengths is just a shortcut to keeping them from moving forward. We have to stall and overpowered ninja won’t let us do that.

Noelle: There isn’t anything wrong with comedy. Too serious for too long ends up being depressing. It really does feel that for the majority of the filler arcs, the characters end up reverting to elementary school level jokes. It’s not witty, it just feels lazy. I could really do with some more serious filler arcs. 

Joseph: Echoing Paul, because the biggest downside to filler for me—besides the abysmal writing and lackluster animation—is that it restricts growth by design. Naruto is stuck in stasis for 100+ episodes and it totally kills the momentum and energy of the end of the main storyline.

This week we get to the small storyline of the Menma Memory Search Mission. I have to admit: I did not remember this arc at all, which is maybe ironic. How did y’all feel about it?

Kevin: For most of it, I didn’t care too much. It was basically a standard amnesia story for the most part. The ending reveals, basically from when Menma wakes up until the end of the episode, were actually engaging in my opinion though. We see him genuinely try to repent for what he’s done, and see that the opening scene wasn’t just showing that he was a bandit in a boring attempt to create suspense, but it also had another hidden moment that I legitimately did not think was coming (although admittedly if I had kept in mind that he showed up almost dead in a river, I might’ve seen it coming).

Paul: The key detail of the Menma storyline that didn't come across as boilerplate was the reveal that Menma had been faking his amnesia in order to manipulate Naruto into helping Menma to atone for his crimes. That added extra punch to the character and story dynamics. Naruto got played, and perhaps he'll eventually realize that he's not the keenest judge of character, and that not everyone with a kind face has pure intentions. Also, the principal villain, Shiin, is a palette-swapped Orochimaru, and Menma was voiced in the English dub by Wil Wheaton. Make of that what you will.

Danni: I honestly wasn’t that into it. The reveal that he always had his memory and his sacrifice at the end were both interesting points, as was Naruto’s silent decision to take Menma’s deception to the grave, but the ending kind of flew by. After getting bested by Shiin twice, suddenly Naruto is just finally able to beat him? Overall it felt like a really weak arc.

Jared: The end was perhaps the most interesting part, but even then it wasn’t as if it made it good. I was sort of surprised since it was basically another arc introduced by fire and something being ransacked, which didn’t give it the best start since we’d just saw that. Combining this with the end of the previous arc was a rough set of episodes to get through. 

Kara: Naruto filler villains have like three modes: pushovers, not actually bad after all, or part of Orochimaru’s downline. None of those is necessarily bad on its own, but I’ve seen these plates go by on the conveyor belt over and over and over again. The “No one trusts a potential villain but Naruto just knows they’re good” shtick has been done fairly recently, even. I get that Naruto has heart and understands misunderstood people and that’s why he’s gonna be such a great Hokage someday, but never challenging that trope ever means every story is broadcast from the first episode and the eventual info-dumps come across as comical. 

David: What really frustrates me is that in canon material, characters meant to be redeemed show some sort of connection or flash of goodness to Naruto that allows it to feel natural when he defends them later on. In filler he basically just guesses and is always right, or everyone except Naruto is clearly being irrational. There isn’t much if any attempt at convincing the viewer the conflict is meaningful at all, and Menma is a prime example of this issue.

Carolyn: A blonde guy who plays the ocarina and starts his story by waking up from a deep sleep? I think we all know his real name.

Noelle: I think that the ending was probably the best part. Like people said, it was a decent twist that exposed one of Naruto’s blind spots. At the same time, it felt like far little too late, as the rest wasn’t that enjoyable. 

Joseph: I liked the ending, and it certainly wasn’t the worst of the stories, but I dunno, like, who cares at this point? Naruto has defeated me.

Something about filler arcs in anime that has always bothered me is how tenuous they are; Naruto mourns Menma’s death, but we know that will never come up again ever, and it feels like a wasted opportunity for character development. Naruto is roughly 40% filler, so do you feel all these arcs damage the overall series? 

Kevin: If anything, I wish there was MORE damage to the overall series. Sure, a lot of filler Hell was boring or stupid, but there were also some legitimately interesting character moments and abilities. Imagine if Hinata had another three years to perfect her Protective Gentle Fist, or we saw Naruto take a moment after coming back to the Hidden Leaf at the beginning of Shippuden to mourn the people he’s lost while eating ramen next to the KIA stone, almost like a variation of Iroh’s Story from Avatar: The Last Airbender! Instead, it takes the likes of this massive Rewatch for even me, a longtime fan of the franchise who grew up watching it, to even know about those gems.

Paul: Now that we're near the end, I don't think the filler arcs are that damaging to the series overall, but I do lament certain missed opportunities. The arc where Anko regains her memories demonstrates that it's possible for filler to build proper character development, but it's a difficult task and I don't envy the show-runners that responsibility.

Danni: As much as I’ve liked some of these arcs, I think the filler is absolutely damaging, because a version of Naruto where we go straight from the Sasuke Retrieval arc to Shippuden definitely sounds better than one where you have to watch three full seasons of filler. I don’t normally recommend skipping filler sections in anime, but I will 100% cosign skipping filler when recommending Naruto.

Jared: It’s perhaps slightly damaging because it sure is a grind to watch all the way through. Maybe if it was tighter, had better written arcs as a whole, and was less episodes, it could be a lot better. With what was made though, I think there’s a few arcs that could be recommended to someone new, but going through all of the filler is tough because of how much of it will ultimately be meaningless.

Kara: I’ve never minded filler as a whole from a story standpoint. But I’m also used to watching shows where “filler” means “not progressing the main plot but still part of the intended experience” as opposed to “killing time until we have more main plot to adapt.” I think in a show where those side stories are there by design, or even with some minor degree of forethought, they can be really rewarding. Especially since then you do get those little callbacks, or the writer may bury a nugget of info for later amidst the “unimportant” stuff. But this is very obviously time-killing… and full disclosure, I am distracted a lot by my brain going “I wonder if these decisions are going to clash with the main plot when it starts up again.”

David: The filler isn’t damaging because it just washes over me. Once it’s over and we’ve written about it the details seem to magically leave my mind.

Carolyn: I definitely think it’s damaging. I had remembered the show as being a lot stronger than it is. I think I was mostly remembering the exams, to be honest.

Noelle: I think it’s a little bit of both. Plot-wise, it’s not really damaging, because filler lets characters that don’t do much in canon have some limelight, and it lets some new ideas get around. Audience experience-wise, it totally is, because there’s nothing in filler worth emotionally investing in, we’re just waiting for Kishimoto to push out more chapters and what a long wait that was. 

Joseph: The filler fully turns this into an anime I can’t recommend beyond a certain point. It’s pretty bad when you have to tell someone to avoid around 100 episodes of a 220 episode show. I would recommend reading Masashi Kishimoto’s excellent manga and watching some highlights, or just watching the first 100-and-some-change eps.

Finally, we leave off this week midway through the Sunagakure Support Mission, which unlike the Menma arc, was almost entirely about Naruto, features a lot of the supporting cast in what seems like a last hurrah. Are there any supporting cast that you like more now than you did when the show started? I find I really grew to love Gaara a lot more than I did when he first appeared. 

Kevin: I’m a bit spoiled on this one, because the arc is essentially giving us the characters’ Shippuden selves before going into Shippuden. As a result, I actually hold off from talking too much about the characters, for fear of spoiling stuff from the beginning of Shippuden. All I’ll say is that I really like the idea of Gaara actually trying to train and support a student. 

Paul: Gaara is still a precious baby cinnamon roll, albeit one that is slightly less murder-flavored. I wish that the filler episodes had focused more on the Jonin characters. It's been so long since I've seen Kakashi that I almost cheered when he summoned his horde of ninja dogs. Anko and Kurenai got a chance to shine, so I'd like to see more of that. I'd even accept a Might Guy episode, especially if it reveals what makes him tick. There must be something tragic beneath his bluster. His eyes are filled with sadness now and then.

Danni: I liked Gaara from the start, but I think he’s shot up my list of favorite characters. Seeing him struggle to connect with his students really makes him more sympathetic of a character. Giving him someone that he wants to protect is exactly the kind of cathartic development that his backstory warrants. I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of this arc. 

Jared: I was actually thinking about this when watching these episodes since when Gaara first showed up I couldn’t stand him. Now, I’ve pretty much flipped all the way around on him. Probably the whole sand crew as well now that I’m thinking about it. Where’s the weird Naruto sports spin-off where Gaara is just the strange coach that has a good team, but no one understands how?

Kara: One of the things I’m enjoying about Naruto 200+ episodes in is that characters who were Rivals or Bad Guys are now allies and friends, or maybe rivals in a healthier sense. Really, it’s cool to see the Sand Kiddos being awesome and not feeling divided about it.

David: Most of the supporting cast is who I liked going in, so actually the character I have grown fond of over the course of this journey is Naruto himself.

Carolyn: My favorite side characters are still my favorites. I have found myself liking Naruto himself a lot more this time around, which I definitely did not on first watch.

Noelle: I think that my feelings on the characters maintained relatively the same from my first time watching the series when I was young. Gaara is still great, Itachi is still great. And Gaara is fun here! I do think overall, as an adult, I appreciate Rock Lee a whole lot more. I didn’t give him a chance when I was young but now? Fantastic.

Joseph: This was a decent little portion of this week’s batch. It’s just more “fighting in the same forest set” from before, but I enjoyed seeing a bunch of these long lost characters again. Felt more in line with Naruto proper.

For (almost) the last time: Highs and Lows from this week? 

Kevin: High - Menma’s redemption. Especially in a show that loves to have its characters loudly proclaim what they’re doing, having a character who we’re not entirely sure if we can trust stand up and start helping build town defenses while barely able to stay conscious was a really good moment. Same goes for most everything else that followed.

Low -  The reveal and resolution of the Ninja Dropouts. First, did none of the other Dropouts realize that Gantetsu kept disappearing after they attacked? Second, why didn’t Gantetsu mention any of this earlier, since it would’ve come out in trial as evidence to prove his innocence? Third, how is that thread stronger than steel, but a single drop of sweat noticeably loosens it? I have many other questions, but most are either the same logical fallacies or about how predictable and obvious the ending was. 

Paul: My low point was the scene where Todoroki stumbles from the flames of his family home, having just witnessed what he assumes is his younger brother being horribly murdered, and the little bundle containing his books and that wooden fish key-chain that he keeps as a memento of Akio is trailing a cartoony streamer of smoke. It was visually dissonant, reading as comedy instead of tragedy. My high point is the pay-off of the Leaf Village kids helping the Sand Village kids in their pursuit of the Celestial Four. I know it’s filler and it doesn't really count, but I appreciate when story elements come full circle like that.

Danni: My low point is the moment I realized that Gantetsu is 100% just a kidnapper that the show tries to redeem. High point is everything in the Sand Village Assistance arc so far. It goes hand-in-hand with the Sasuke Retrieval arc so well that if you told me it was canon I would *ahem* believe it. Also, it seems like Shikamaru finally attended a gender studies class and realized that women are people too. Hooray! 

Jared: High point would be the Sand Village trio returning and seeing Gaara try to be a teacher in his own way. Reintroducing them with how they showed up in the Sasuke retrieval arc made me remember just how dang good that was and also how good this show can be. Low point would be the other two arcs that just fell completely flat for me.

Kara: High point is the Avengers rollout to help the Sand Village trio. This is one of those cases where mirroring previous episodes works, because we have a one-to-one comparison for just how far they’ve come. It’s so cool to have these very obvious moments at which we can measure everyone’s growth. Low point is just straight up the existence of Todoroki in the Gantetsu Arc and his very Heavy Rain-y “Press X to Akio” behavior.

David: My high point was all the callbacks to the Sasuke Retrieval arc, including when Naruto outright asks if they’re going to do the line strategy Shikamaru implemented last time. Low point was slowly realizing no one in the Dropout Ninjas arc was going to understand how messed up the situation was.

Carolyn: Naruto dumping Menma off his back when he found out he was lying was great. I would have to agree with the kids’ weird dedication to Gantetsu being a low point. That’s just kind of sad.

Noelle: Gantetsu’s arc just seemed messy and confusing. It really felt like they weren’t committing to anything, so that’s my low point. High point, I think was seeing Gaara again! Gaara trying his best is genuinely good. What a great kid. 

Joseph: The low point was the resentment building up within me for Pierrot producing so many bad episodes of an otherwise excellent show. Also, the whole Gantetsu storyline was weak, even though I love the idea of Ninja Dropouts. High goes to the return of Kakashi, Gaara, and some others I’ve sorely missed. 

  COUNTERS:

Ramen:  7 bowls + 3 cups Hokage: 0 Clones: 28

  Total so far:

Bowls of Ramen: 208 bowls, 20 cups (Wow... that's a lot of ramen!)

“I'm Gonna be Hokage!”: 62

Shadow Clones Created: 940

  And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched the original Naruto! Watch Naruto today!

  Here's our upcoming schedule:

- On August 23rd, CAYLA COATS will wrap up our GREAT NARUTO CRUNCHYROLL REWATCH! 

CATCH UP ON THE REWATCH!

Episodes 204-210: Escort Mission Time

Episodes 197-203: Solving a Mystery

Episodes 190-196: Matchmaking Gone Wrong

Episodes 183-189: No Laughter Allowed!

Episodes 176-182: Reach for the Stars!

Episodes 169-175: Anko’s Backstory At Sea

Episodes 162-168: The Tale of the Phantom Samurai

Episodes 155-161: Quickfire Curry

Episodes 148-154: The Forest is Abuzz With Ninjas

Episodes 141-147: Mizuki Strikes Back!

Episodes 134-140: The Climactic Clash

Episodes 127-133: Naruto vs Sasuke

Episodes 120-126: The Sand Siblings Return

Episodes 113-119: Operation Rescue Sasuke

Episodes 106-112: Sasuke Goes Rogue

Episodes 99-105: Trouble in the Land of Tea

Episodes 92-98: Clash of the Sannin

Episodes 85-91: A Life-Changing Decision

Episodes 78-84: The Fall of a Legend

Episodes 71-77: Sands of Sorrow

Episodes 64-70: Crashing the Chunin Exam

Episodes 57-63: Family Feud

Episodes 50-56: Rock Lee Rally

Episodes 43-49: The Gate

Episodes 36-42: Through the Woods

Episodes 29-35: Sakura Unleashed

Episodes 22-28: Chunin Exams Kickoff

Episodes 15-21: Leaving the Land of Waves

Episodes 8-14: Beginners' Battle

Episodes 1-7: I'm Gonna Be the Hokage!

  Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! We hope that you'll join us next time as we conclude our Naruto rewatch adventure. Have a wonderful weekend, y'all! 

Have anything to say about our thoughts on Episodes 211-217? Let us know in the comments! Don't forget, we're also accepting questions and comments for next week, so don't be shy and feel free to ask away!

----

Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com