#episode four was a beatdown

[respectthepetty]

The third and fourth episode of Happy of the End emphasized that Chihiro is no Heavenly Human.

But he is the right person to help Keito.

I mentioned during the first two episodes that Chihiro isn't as dark as Keito.

He has color.

He has light.

Keito is dangerous because all of his interactions have been transactional and violent.

So when he reacts to Chihiro chatting with his ex, he becomes colder, he becomes crueler, and he becomes darker.

But when he sees how bothered Chihiro is with this treatment, he steps back into the light.

Because that's what's special about Chihiro. He isn't all light. He isn't so pure and bright that Keito hates him or has trouble understanding him. Chihiro has darkness as well, so for him to react to Keito's actions by crying and leaving makes Keito question how awful he must be in that moment to ignite such an emotion.

Keito is still dangerous, but, once again, Chihiro is fine with Keito's darkness. It's the cruelty that hurt.

So for the third episode to end with Keito in all black after realizing Maya was stalking him was worrisome.

Because although Keito is a Black Brooder, Chihiro has a way of bringing out some color from Keito.

But Maya is a reminder of Keito's past and that's the darkest thing about him.

I had to sit with the fourth episode for a bit because it's a painful visual examination and record of Keito's descent into darkness.

The episode began with Keito leaving his bed and Chihiro behind to stare out the window and think about his past in all black.

Although circumstances would never let him be pure, completely innocent, or blindingly white, Keito, as a child, was once light.

And in an act of desperation, after weeks of starving, he made a shift.

He still had hope that his situation would improve and that he would find security, but that quickly evaporated.

And he remained dark.

Because his life doesn't allow for hope to exist.

So a dark teenager turned into a dark adult.

And even when Keito escaped that abusive life,

He was still completely dark.

But the fourth episode ended by reminding us that Chihiro moves Keito to the light and brings out long-buried color from Keito.

So even at the every end, when it appears Keito will desert hope and embrace his darkness as he is faced with another one of life's cruelties,

And even when he begs for his suffering to end next week at his darkest moment yet,

He will wear a color, he will sit in the brightness,

And he will embrace the light.

But it'll take someone who isn't afraid of the dark to help him.

[mlsofh]

Theory Six - How Heaven Will Be Defeated

Hello Wayward Sinners!

!!!SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT FOR EPISODES ONE THROUGH FOUR OF HAZBIN HOTEL!!! Everyone I have a theory to add on that was made by this amazing user MaxemiumDamage It clicked something in my brain that Charlie's theory about how bonds, trust and boundaries are the key components to the war. Camellia was able to kill an executioner angel because she was overtaken by protective intentions. She doesn't even like killing. She is against it completely. It seems to be implied that Camellia was more powerful than the angel in that moment because her love for her family/friends was more powerful than whatever the angel was filled with. I think this is the buildup to how hell will defeat the angels. I think Hell is going to put trust and faith into Charlie and her efforts. I have a thought that the reason Lilith's reign over hell was so powerful was because the people had hope in her. People put trust into their leader. Maybe that's why Heaven is so powerful. They have trust in Adam, and whoever else is leading. Whenever the people of hell put their faith and trust into Charlie they'll become stronger: able to go to war properly. Charlie is going to get hell to put faith in her work. The demons who don't want to put their trust into her won't be enough to outweigh the demons who do. Heaven will find itself maybe not outnumbered, but outpowered because of the sudden power Charlie will have gained. Furthermore, to support this theory, in the next episode Charlie seemed like she was going to show Valentino his own ass with a beatdown because of the care she has for how Angel Dust was being treated. It was love and care that fueled her power. Funnily enough we have seen this whenever Adam was singing/talking to her and she got upset with how he was talking about her people. Her care fuels her powers. Her love for her people is the fuel to the fire. I think when her people put more care into her as well we will see Charlie lead a full throttle against Heaven because that will drive her to be more powerful than Adam and most angels in Heaven.

Anyway those are my thoughts what do you think? Comment and reblog! Stay Tuned!

[theminecraftbee]

ooooh ygo? :D do you have any thoughts as to what sorts of decks the hermits would play?

THERE ARE SO MANY OPTIONS but here are a few thoughts i have. i am thinking a LITTLE competitive game but also. if they were an anime character from like, gx. you know, one of the bizarre one-off episodes from season one kind of character from gx. what would they play. like okay. here are four suggestions here,

if cleo were in the anime. she would be playing a zombie deck. YES I KNOW that is the obvious option. YES I KNOW there are more creative answers. but you have to understand. this is hypothetical ygo. she is a zombie. she would play a deck with zombies. it is that simple. anyway i think she'd play a beatdown style.

joe would play ghostricks i'm not taking questions on this.

i think grian would play some wild combo deck half the time but, and this is key, it does not actually work like 98% of the time. but when it DOES go off. oh man. then you're sorry.

mumbo plays a combo deck that WOULD work if he could remember the combos. unfortunately he keeps on fucking up his lines. one of these days, though, he'll actually finish his combo, then he'll be unstoppable,

[psychicbergara]

Hii this might be a lot to ask but I haven’t been able to keep up with all their content so I don’t know about most of the bingo card🤣 is it okay if you mention from which ep each thing that was crossed or like post a snippet of it? Thanks!

hi anon!! im not gonna lie i had to dive DEEP into my blog to find the reasonings behind some of the crossed out ones because i simply did not remember a lot of them since there are SO many moments and theyre just crazy in love idk what to tell you.

also shoutout to @littlekingbergara for helping me out GIVE HER ALL THE LOVE they're my boo <3

so im gonna go row by row for these reasonings!!

1. cute instastories: not sure when the date or time was, but this was when shane uploaded an instastory of him and ryan playing pool in chicago!! either that, or maybe it's another instastory and it's slipping my mind, regardless they post about each other a lot :D

2. shane "heart eyes" madej: ok so let's be real... heart eyes madej is just a constant at this point LSDKJF. but the moment i marked were these: the zoom screenshot was in a ww+ 103 and in the most recent season of top 5 beatdown!! the zoom one is so cute because ryan was ranting about annoying people in movie theaters and shane was just So Fond

3. the mamma mia mentions were in ww+ 116 :D

4. another weird thing in common: i recently marked it off it in this post right here about the butterfinger moments if you wanna take a quick look

5. blatant flirting on camera: THE ENTIRETY OF BERRY BOYS 2 EPISODE!!! literally that video IS SO MUCH I STG!!! i cant watch it again without collapsing into a million little piece it was JUST OOZING WITH LOVE AND FLIRTING LIKE WTH!!

6. ryan accidentally making a sexual joke about him and shane: WHEW this one was a DOOZY when this came out SLDKJF it was in ww+ 113 where ryan jokes about shane 'dominance humping' him in the office,,,, you read that correctly and yes it did happen DFGFJG here's the clip of that moment :D

7. denny's hug: it was in the top 5 beatdown chain restaurants episode in the most recent season when they BOTH had denny's as number one and they hugged :D

8. an adorable hug: we actually got FOUR hugs in the most recent season of too many spirits... it was so gay so like watch that whole season its SO worth it THE HUGS WERE TOO CUTE

9. they stare at each other like theyre disgustingly in love: ONCE AGAIN IM SCREAMING FROM THE ROOFTOPS THE! BERRY BOYS!! TWO!!! EPISODEEE!!! like literally that video is my life blood at this point that whole video was just them looking at each other like this:

yea... GOD anyways before i die thinking about it lets continue..

10. ryan calling shane big boy: even though ryan did in one of the ghost files eps, he also did it in one of the episodes in the most recent season of too many spirits!! so watch those eps ;)

11. they go on spooky dates: *gestures at the entirety of ghost files* they also filmed alcatraz on valentines day... so thats a whole ass date if i've ever seen one LSKDJF

12. steven wishing he left watcher: ww+ 108 and 109!! if you watch those, you can so clearly tell that steven wishes he could sink into a hole so he doesnt have to see ryan and shane blatantly flirt in front of him ever again. literally he stares at the camera like he's jim from the office or gregory from abbott elementary sldfjdf

13. shane calling ryan "little guy" + hand holding: these moments were both from the powerpoint party one-off!! that video is such a gem :') while calling ryan little guy he gave him his cape (one of shane's FAVORITE things) as a blanket it was ADORABLE

14. "shut up shane" (threatening): this was from the we try spicy chicken sandwiches feat. korean englishmen video!! ryan says this when shane is sitting on the side relaxing while theyre all dying eating spicy sandwiches DFGLKG

WHEW!! and that's it :D i sure hope we get bingo by the end of this year or i will lowkey riot ngl salskdjfsdf

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 36 Review

Originally posted January 15th, 2016

Goku is benched, and Vegeta takes his place.

So far, Dragonball Z: Abridged has worked its way through two arcs of the original story, and in the new arc as well as the previous two, there have been plot contrivances designed to keep Goku out of the battlefield for as long as possible, given how powerful he is. I didn’t mind it in the Saiyan Saga, since he literally died and spent most of that time training, and I didn’t mind it in the Freeza Saga, because the “contrivance” was a mixed body situation that led to him experiencing some pretty severe injuries.

Now, however, “heart problems” being what takes Goku off the battlefield feels frustrating more than anything else, because as much as I understand that there isn’t a story if he’s just wailing on the bad guys until he wins, I feel like it should be something more significant than basic medical issues that prevent him from fighting (though a potential thematic significance might undercut that critique1).

None of that is to critique Team Four Star, oddly enough, even if the specifics of Goku’s illness are their invention (I think it is, but feel free to let me know). They handle Goku’s third “benching” pretty cleverly, with his heart attack coming right after (Yamcha lets him make) a mistake that give Android 19 a lot of his energy, and his reasoning for not taking his medicine being that “it was grape flavored.” Despite the bullshit that is exiling the main protagonist, they pull it off with humor and grace, making his departure feel mostly natural and driven entirely by his character.

The rest of the episode is all about Vegeta, and more importantly, all about making “Super Saiyan Swagger” the perfect title for the episode. Vegeta’s arrival and subsequent transformation into a Super Saiyan removes all of the tension surrounding Gero and 19, and what follows is one of the most satisfying beatdowns of a robot that I have ever seen

As Vegeta meticulously counts down from five the number of blows to deliver to 19, we’re left with the thrill of waiting to see just how Vegeta is going to destroy this machine as well as whether or not it will feel fear at its upcoming destruction. It’s one of the best scenes Team Four Star has made, and it’s ultimately sold by the confluence of music and editing with Lanipator’s unshakeable confidence as the Prince of all Saiyans.

Rating: 4/5

If you enjoyed this review, consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

1To put it simply, it could be read as signifying the banal, ordinary things affecting us the most, with a Legendary Warrior’s greatest flaw being that he didn’t take his cholesterol medicine. But I don’t think that Toriyama or Team Four Star are interested in actually exploring this, which is unfortunate for Toriyama but probably a good call on Team Four Star’s part. (Yet again, I feel it’s necessary to mention that I haven’t read the manga or seen the original anime.)

Gero: “Why is dodging a subroutine!? It’s not that complex!” *Piccolo looks at Gohan*

Gero: “But enough about hypothetical erections. 19! Suck! Him! Dry!”

Gohan: “I thought you had to have a pure heart to become a Super Saiyan?” Vegeta: “My heart is pure. Pure, unadulterated, badass.”

Krillin: “Senzu bean!”

I always feel somewhat bad when I don’t include many plot details, but with this series, it’s kind of common, since episodes are short and often don’t consist of more plot than “Character A fights Character B.” Hopefully next episode is more conducive to detailed analysis.

[littlekingbergara]

Hi! New Watcher fan here. I just discovered Watcher this Halloween via the Ghost videos. And I’m quite surprised by the active and very pleasant fandom. Shane and Ryan remind me a little bit of my best friend and I, so it is very enjoyable to watch their content. But I’m a bit curious about their private life as well. I hope it is all right to ask questions about it?

Are their wives friends as well? I watched a few videos where they appeared, but so far never together and I would like to see them gang up together on S&R. I’m aware that it is somewhat of an old cliche that the partners of best friends are friends as well. And sadly I know from my own personal experience it isn’t always the case. My partner for instance doesn’t get along with my best friends partner.😔

I just hope to see the four of them together in a video at some point.

I really enjoy your blog, btw.

hi!! welcome!! it's so sweet that you see bits of yourself and your best friend in them omg 🥺 i love that and i really think that's part of their appeal!! i love this fandom so much everyone is so funny and kind and Gets that we're all just here to have fun. <3

as for sara and mari they're definitely friendly with each other, but i don't know that they hang out on their own without the boys. i don't think there's any animosity or anything though; sara and ryan are really good friends and there's this livestream from the beginning of the pandemic where they're all just chilling together <3 i would Love to see them gang up on ryan and shane in some kind of video lmao i think that would be so much fun.

as far as any of us know there isn't any interpersonal drama within the watcher crew and their partners or friends. they built a company of lovely people and everyone is so supportive of each other.

since you're new, you should definitely stick around and check out their other content!! shane and ryan have other non-spooky shows that are so much fun and show their best friendness even more. puppet history starts back up this coming friday, you've probably seen posts about their tumblr series called tumblr top 5, and they have a show on their regular channel called top 5 beatdown which is almost the same but they have a guest with them.

also, if you're interested in food content, the third watcher co-founder steven lim has several food series on the channel! he showcases the different things that food represents for all of us especially in terms of comfort, family, culture, tradition, and love. not that you asked skdjfdk but i recommend starting with dish granted, where he makes dream meals for his friends and guests (shane is the guest in episode 1 and ryan in episode 2), and homemade, where he tries a restaurant version of a dish and then joins a family who has a tradition of making that meal. it's very sweet and heartwarming and sadly has not been renewed after its first season but i miss it every day.

and thank you!! <333

[yaytheboop]

I posted 2,615 times in 2022

201 posts created (8%)

2,414 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fandoms-princess

@marinettepotterandplagg

@succulentcucumber

@stan-the-cinnamon-roll-uris

I tagged 412 of my posts in 2022

#ida speaks - 127 posts

#st4 - 31 posts

#watcher - 20 posts

#watcher entertainment - 19 posts

#young royals - 11 posts

#ryan bergara - 7 posts

#puppet history - 6 posts

#try guys - 4 posts

#taylor swift - 4 posts

#top 5 beatdown - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i was so close to hitting enter and also every time i'm going to hit delete i end up hitting enter too so it's a miracle i didn't actually

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

new meme format dropped whatup?

332 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

#4

oh look, it's 16 year old me and 20 year old me's fandoms interacting... this should not be allowed

470 notes - Posted May 6, 2022

#3

ryan during the sponsor part of ays: "my browsing history is something i definitely need to keep private"

what that makes me think ryan's browsing history looks like:

744 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

#2

the professor: and the winner is... ryan bergara!

ryan, who had to kill the professor to win an episode the last four seasons and go through the whole internet hating him for a year because of it: 👁👄👁

978 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

the professor really looked at the most beautiful sea of stars not yet diminished by light pollution, probably one of the most beautiful things a person (or puppet) can see, and went: ❤️beef boy❤️

1,800 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[omegawhiskers]

DYNAMITE 18/10/23

Sting announces retirement

The big news coming out of Dynamite is Sting announcing his retirement for the Revolution PPV 2024. My mind started jumping to who Sting's last opponent would be, and I think there's one or two matches that could happen.

Adam Copeland had a sit-down interview. Copeland talked about how he and Christian became friends forty years ago, that he helped Christian get into the business and that refuses to fight his friend. He also stated he will be there when Nick Wayne and Luchasaurus use and drop him. That leads me to believe that Copeland will turn heel because let's face it, Adam is not as hot as he was weeks earlier. I believe that has to do with him going from WWE to AEW without a gap in his absence. There was also a sit-down segment where Wayne disrespects his mother and leaves the scene with Christian only to be attacked by Darby Allin. The fight continued ringside where Sting came to the rescue. This leads me to believe that Sting will team with Darby to face Adam and Christian. Will it be at Revolution 2024? That's four or five months away, so it may be too far off. I think Sting's final match could be against Darby. It would cement Darby as a bigger name and I think Darby can also use his ability to cover up Sting's speed.

MJF's story continued with The Bullet Club Gold. Firstly, Adam Cole finally left Rodrick Strong's house. Cole wheeled outta there once Roddy criticised his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Roddy tells The Kingdom that he will need to be nice MJF now in order to get into Cole's good books. Meanwhile, MJF refuses to be friendly to Max Caster who now claims he will win The Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale. It was obvious Juice Robinson was going over, but adding Caster into the picture made this a bit more exciting. Ultimately MJF and Caster both end up getting the beatdown by The Bullet Club Gold post-match. This could lead to The Bullet Club Gold and Wardlow (turned heel and wants to put the hurt on MJF) versus MJF, Caster, Roddy and The Kingdom.

As for matches, Pénta El Zero and Jay White had a good match. It amazes me how Pénta isn't given more depth in AEW. I'll also toss Johnny TV into this as he comes off as a goof. Pénta and Johnny TV could be utilised so much better. New AEW Women's Champion, Hikaru Shida had a great match against her former teacher, Emi Sakura. The knee as the end was BRUTAL. We also got Kyle Fletcher and Kenny Omega. The big takeaway here is that Don Callis is not happy with Fletcher, but an aggressive Kyle says he will beat Omega and will be worthy to stand with the Don Callis Family. Fletcher lost...BUT it looks like this could be a babyface run that he needs.

Lance Archer came back to TV without sizzle, and for some reason Hobbs has a new reason why he hates Jericho. Apparently, when young Hobbs was taken to a show by his grandmother, Jericho told them to shut up and sit down. This was unnecessary.

This episode of Dynamite didn't quite hit the peak I was expecting it to. Everything just fell a little short.

[news4usonline]

A poignant 'Twilight' explores the LA riots

LOS ANGELES (News4usonline) – There were a couple of things that triggered the Los Angeles riots in 1992. You had a Black motorist getting the snot beat out of him by four white Los Angeles police officers after a routine traffic stop. This incident blew the already simmering tension between law enforcement and the Black community right out of the water. The beatdown of Rodney King at the hands of those sworn to serve and to protect generated outrage both nationally and globally as footage of that fateful night was caught on videotape.

From L to R: Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Jeanne Sakata, Lisa Reneé Pitts, Sabina Zúñiga Varela, and Hugo Armstrong in “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” at Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum March 8 through April 9, 2023. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography This was in 1991. Black people were angry. Folks were ready to tear things up then as the friction between the police and the Black community hit a low point. Adding to that inferno was the unjustified killing of a Black teenager by a local grocer over a bottle of orange juice in South Los Angeles only a couple of weeks after King found himself being pummeled by wildly swung batons wielded like Thor’s hammer. The murder of Latasha Harlins by Soon Ja Du and the fact she did not receive any jail time for shooting the teenager in the back of the head burned a hole in the relationship long forged between the Black and Korean communities. It was also a premeditated and contributing factor to the riots of 1992, an ugly upheaval that would cost Los Angeles more than $1 billion in property damage. With the city on edge and Los Angeles teetering on revolt, the acquittal of Timothy Wind, Sgt. Stacey Koon, Theodore Briseno, and Laurence Powell was the final straw to break the Black community’s back. Kindness would have to take a backseat to disgust. Rage was now the champion over humility. The official date or anniversary of the Los Angeles riots is April 29, 1992. The jury’s verdict of the four police officers sent Los Angeles to a point of almost no return. For those who can remember, the rioting became five days of mayhem, chaos, and utter destruction. Actor Anna Deavere Smith knows firsthand what that period was like. Drawing from more than 300 interviews, Smith first put together a one-woman show three decades ago about the unrest. Today, Smith is reliving her one-woman show in the form of a cast of five people in “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” playing at the Mark Taper Forum through April 9 in downtown Los Angeles. “Being asked by Gordon Davidson to move through the embers of the Los Angeles uprising was a watershed moment in my life as an artist and as a human being,” Smith said. “The can do must do spirit of Gordon, the entire institution and the community, sparked something I had never experienced and have not experienced since. Center Theatre Group provided a way for me, in tandem with other drama professionals and with local intellectuals/activists, to respond to the civic disaster through theatre.”

From L to R: Hugo Armstrong, Sabina Zúñiga Varela, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Jeanne Sakata, and Lisa Reneé Pitts in “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” at Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum March 8 through April 9, 2023. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” traces back to the pivotal moments that would eventually lead Los Angeles down the path of seeing individuals trying to burn the city down and create an atmosphere of criminality, including looting. Adding a layer of depth to the play that resonates deeply are the videos of the shooting of Harlins and the King episode that is played to the audience. The visual campaign of those two dramatic moments of American history serves as a stark reminder of what led to the riots in the first place. Both videos are raw and unflinching. Both hit hard like a Mike Tyson uppercut. The stage play, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, unabashedly hone in on the video beating of King and footage of young Harlins being killed. But the actors make all things go with stellar performances.   Hugh Armstrong, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Lisa Rene Pitts, Jeanne Sakata, and Sabrina Zuniga are dazzling on stage as they bring to life or re-create individuals who were major players in the upheaval.     Daniel praises Smith for bringing this project to life.      “This show is about such a consequential time in Los Angeles and Anna poured so much effort into making it a transformative, radical moment in theatre,” Daniel shared. “Her journalistic approach to writing revolutionized theatre when she wrote ‘Twilight,’ and I am honored to work alongside her to breathe new life into this historic and revered play.” The Center Theatre Group, which the Mark Taper Forum falls under, has held a plethora of community engagement activities to coincide with the playing of “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.” The next event is on April 4.

Sabina Zúñiga Varela in “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” at Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum March 8 through April 9, 2023. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography April 4: Radical Hospitality: Moving towards Hope & Outwrestling Despair Dr. Cornel West tells us “Those who have never despaired have neither lived nor loved. Hope is inseparable from despair. Those of us who truly hope to make despair a constant companion whom we out-wrestle every day owing to our commitment to justice, love, and hope.” In this culminating conversation, we return to the spirit and the body to assess how each of us can cultivate a fortitude that allows us to fight the good fight. Among artistic and civil rights giants, we ask how each and every one of us can discover our role in the movement toward liberation. ACCESS Performance – 2:30 p.m., Saturday, April 8, 2023 Center Theatre Group’s ACCESS program is committed to accessibility for all audiences. CTG offers a number of services to accommodate persons requiring mobility, vision, and hearing access. One Saturday matinee for every mainstage Center Theatre Group production is designated as an ACCESS performance. These performances are designed for patrons who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and/or have low vision. ACCESS performances offer American Sign Language interpretation, Open Captioning and Audio Description. For more information on the ACCESS program visit CenterTheatreGroup.org/Access. Read the full article

[whoviancumberbunny]

FANDOM POST -EVAN PETERS

FANDOM POST -EVAN PETERS

UPDATED 6/11/19 @ 9:15PM CENTRAL TIME Central Time

Updated: 4/1/21 @ 8.06PM Central Time

Updated: 10/18/22 @ 12.04PM Central Time

1. AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASONS 1-8, SEASON 10

2. SLEEPOVER

3. XMEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

4. LAZARUS EFFECT

5. SAFELIGHT [WHICH I PLAN TO ADD TO MY LIST OF FAVORITE MOVIES]

6. ADULT WORLD

7.  CLIPPING ADAM (THIS WAS HIS FIRST MOVIE I WATCHED IT YESTERDAY 11/5/16 A THE DAY AFTER IT ARRIVED IN THE MAIL)

8.  REMARKABLE POWER [STARTED WATCHING ON 1/21/17 ~ FINISHED 1/22/17]

9. NEVER BACK DOWN

10. X-MEN APOCALYPSE (RECEIVED 2/1/17 STARTED 2/7/17, FINISHED ON 2/8/170

11. NEVER BACK DOWN 2: THE BEATDOWN (STARTED A FEW DAYS AGO/WATCHED MORE OF IT YESTERDAY AND FINISHED 4/16/17. IT IS ON NETFLIX STREAMING VIDEO)  MY SECOND FAVORITE CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE TURNS OUT TO BE VIOLENT BUT I WAS MAINLY WATCHING IT FOR MAX COOPERMAN

12.  CRIMINAL MINDS: MOSLEY LANE [WATCHED 4/23/17]

13. INVASION COMPLETE SERIES DISC ONE [RECEIVED 8/10/17/STARTED 8/15/17/FINISHED 8/22/17]

14.   INVASION COMPLETE SERIES DISC TWO [RECEIVED 9/2/17/STARTED 9/22/17/FINISHED 10/2/17]

15. INVASION COMPLETE SERIES DISC THREE [RECEIVED 10/12/17: STARTED 10/22/17: COMPLETED 10/25/17]

16. INVASION COMPLETE SERIES DISC FOUR [RECEIVED 11/3/17: STARTED 11/13/17: COMPLETED 11/21/17]

17.  INVASION COMPLETE SERIES DISC FIVE [RECEIVED 12/2/17: BEGAN ON 12/6/17 & FINISHED 12/7/17]

18.  INVASION COMPLETE SERIES DISC SIX [RECEIVED 12/13/17: BEGAN ON 1/8/18 & FINISHED 1/10/18]

19.  AMERICAN ANIMALS [RECEIVED 12/11/18, VIEWED 2/25/19]  

20. POSE [SEASON 1: STARTED  5/13/19 ~ COMPLETED 5/28/19]

21 X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX [WENT TO THE MOVIE TO SEE IT TODAY 6/11/19 @ 1:10PM CENTRAL TIME]

 22. WANDAVISION [Episodes 5-9 As Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver & Matt Bohner] [2/5-3/5/21 Every Friday]

23. MARE OF EASTTOWN [Colin Zabel 4/18-5/30/2022]

24.  DAHMER: MONSTER: THE JEFFREY DAHMER STORY [Episode 1 Watched 10/1/2022-Episode 10 Watched 10/13/2022]

[stillness-in-green]

MVA In Memoriam (4/5)

The Comprehensive Account of the Butchering of My Villain Academia

(Introduction and Part One, Episode 108: My Villain Academia) (Part Two, Episode 109: Revival Party) (Part Three, Episode 110: Sad Man's Parade)

Part Four, Episode 111: Origin: Shimura Tenko

Chapter 233 – Bright Future

• Twice clearly having arranged a Skeptic puppet to where its arm can be used as a pillow for Toga’s neck. A cute little character detail while also being kind of disturbing? Very on-brand for the League! A not-immediately-plot-crucial visual of a member of the League demonstrating obvious care for another member? The guillotine awaits!

• A little explanation about how clones’ physicality and memories work relative to the last time Twice saw the people the clones are based on. This is a very useful little nod of explanation to something that remained unclear from the dialogue of Mr. Clone-press last chapter. Twice’s quirk is pretty arcane in its ins and outs, frankly, and the clearer those details are, the fewer plot holes you’re leaving for later.

• The scene of Skeptic being right on the verge of confronting Twice. Skeptic has, oh, about five moments where he’s obviously a big tense neurotic who’s unpleasant to be around if things aren’t going his way, and the anime deleted or downplayed all but two of them. As ever, it’s obscenely damaging to the characterization of the MLA cast, who we have little enough time with as it is. Further, it was a particularly weird choice to make with Skeptic, who is as of this writing the only major MLA character who’ll emerge still free and active from the War Arc. Why shaft the characterization of the one of new characters who’s going to be getting the most attention out of any of them in the next arc, with yet more scenes yet to come after?[1]

• A full page’s-worth of Spinner’s rationalizations on targeting Trumpet and ordering the Twice doubles to do the same. This lays out the details on why targeting Trumpet stands to relieve some of the load on Shigaraki. It isn’t because Trumpet’s quirk makes the crowds more dangerous, though that is true. Spinner targets Trumpet because he’s seen enough to know that attacking the MLA’s leaders gets them crazy riled up; he knows that if he makes himself a threat to Trumpet, then all Trumpet’s followers’ attention will shift focus to Spinner, leaving Shigaraki with less to deal with.           Spinner also knows that that is ludicrously dangerous to him personally, given his weak quirk, but he actively makes that choice anyway, because that’s how much he’s devoted himself to Shigaraki without (yet) quite articulating the nature and reasons for that devotion. Targeting Trumpet without any of that reasoning made for a perfectly sound tactical decision, but it missed the regard Spinner shows the unnamed mobs of the MLA, and it really missed the probable savage beatdown and even possible death that Spinner consciously chooses to risk for Shigaraki’s sake.           Of course, a chunk of what the episode deleted is flashbacks to scenes the anime also cut, so they couldn’t figure into Anime!Spinner’s reasoning. This does not excuse yet more cuts to Spinner’s arc and characterization; it only adds to how badly the anime maimed him.           Also, on a less salty but still confused note, deleting all the Twice clones from the beginning of the scene and just having Spinner running along a wall past mobs of people instead of laboriously fighting his way through the street to the van was really dumb. Why did all those MLA people just stand there and let him run by? Where did all the Twice clones that just helped save Spinner from a huge flurry of long-distance attacks disappear to? Come on.

• Trumpet’s thought that using Sevens Loud will draw every bit of strength from their warriors, but that it’s necessary. Setting aside that it looks far less necessary when there hasn’t been a crowd of Twice clones fighting Trumpet’s people this whole time, just Spinner by his lonesome, we still lost quite a bit to this cut. Firstly, a nuance on the trade-off Incite gives—that its stat-boost is temporary, and that it’s borrowing from the future to pay for the present, a stock that is limited and a bill that will come due when the effect wears off.           Secondly, it’s another demonstration that the MLA leaders aren’t just thoughtlessly wasting their followers’ lives; they’re very consciously doing cost/benefit analysis on how much danger their people are in versus what stands to be gained by the potential exertion or outright deaths those people will suffer. It’s cold reasoning, yes, but that’s how the Liberation Army operates: not for the personal gain or lackadaisical ease of the people on top—Trumpet would just have been in the tower speaking through city-wide loudspeakers, if that were the case—but for the advancement of the group’s ideals.           It also just grants Trumpet some interiority, but of course the anime can’t have that.

• The note in Trumpet’s meta-ability explanation that the more his voice causes the air to vibrate, the stronger Incite’s effect. This is—good god, it is literally the entire design mentality behind Sevens Loud! Sevens Loud purpose isn't to make his voice louder so more people can hear him (which I would think is the most logical assumption an anime-only person would make as to why he puts it on); it’s to make himself louder because being louder enhances the boost. It’s about the quality of the effect, not the quantity of targets. This is why Trumpet has the thought about how using Sevens Loud will drain the strength reserves of his people. There’d be no correlation there if Sevens Loud were only about boosting his range.

• When Spinner got porcupined in the anime, they did a close-up on his face, possibly to avoid the gore of showing the spines piercing through his forearm. That’s fine, but they also emphasized the reaction by having him lose his grip on the huge fuck-off knife he had clutched in his teeth. In the manga, sure, he yells in pain, but he doesn’t lose the knife. Indeed, he gets the guy off him by slashing at him with it—a shot the anime dropped. So Spinner doesn’t even get to keep displays of his pain tolerance, a trait he doubtless improved during those six weeks against Machia. Why does the anime hate Spinner so much, you guys? Why did it go out of its way to make him look lamer, when Dabi and Toga were out there getting anime-original flourishes to make them look cooler?

• Spinner’s thoughts, “When I get inspired to act, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing! I’m just a loser jumping on a bandwagon. Or at least that’s what it looks like.” A humorous bit of self-awareness from Spinner here. The anime got at the self-awareness. The humor, as we’ll see, not so much.

• Spinner’s thoughts, “Look at me. Look at me!! With all that prejudice in your eyes!” Hah hah, laughed BNHA the anime nervously, what prejudice are you talking about, Spinner? No idea what you could possibly be referring to there! This one’s particularly annoying because, while one might think that the anime was just dodging the heteromorphobia angle it eradicated all references to back at the beginning of the arc, the prejudice line isn’t even about heteromorphobia, not really.           See, the Japanese line there literally translates to, “With those colored glasses!”—to see with colored glasses being a Japanese idiom for seeing something from a biased viewpoint. So aside from being a wordplay jab at Trumpet’s choice in eyewear, it’s also about Trumpet’s expressed view that Spinner, having been a shut-in with a weak quirk who decided to take his resentment out on the world, can’t possibly amount to anything much. So, what, did the people in charge of making those cuts think Trumpet was right? Why even keep the line where he disparages Spinner if you’re not going to let Spinner call it what it is? He’s not calling out fantasy racism there, anime! He’s calling out the bias against weak quirks that even the good guys in this world sometimes partake in!           Possibly it’s because non-villains in the world[2] sometimes use reasoning that leads logically to quirk supremacism that the anime got gunshy with it, or it was more reluctance to give the villains—and the Too-Real Iguchi Shuuichi especially—moral ground for accusations against their society that get too close to real life. Whatever the motivation, it’s a bullshit cut.

• Shigaraki calling RD “Detnerat,” presumably because he neither knows RD’s real name nor cares to dignify him by using his code name. The anime, again, made neither the connection nor Shigaraki’s recognition explicit, so it lost the specificity and pettiness of that little snub.

• A little exchange between Giran and a Twice clone as they flee. It doesn’t give you much you wouldn’t assume just from seeing them flee, but it always feels more immediate and empathetic when the characters talk and you can see their expressions, instead of just a quick shot of them from behind as they run away in complete silence. Heck, running away in complete silence is actively out of character for Twice!

• Because the anime has some kind of aversion/restriction on showing hand-related violence, it radically changed how Shigaraki lost his fingers,[3] resulting in the loss of several important shots. To the best of my parsing, in the manga, when Re-Destro makes that first big jump to avoid Shigaraki’s decay wave, he comes back down specifically aiming for Shigaraki’s outstretched left hand, spread wide and flat on the ground. Shigaraki tries to evade (you can see the blur of his left arm in the panel where RD lands), but either RD does manage to clip the hand or he simply hits the ground with so much force that the sheer explosive burst of rock shreds Shigaraki’s hand and part of his coat sleeve. Being so much larger, RD then simply snags Shigaraki by the wrist before he can get out of range. It’s very fast, a burst of speed and violence, and very different (read: cooler) from Shigaraki flipping end over end in slow motion in a way that seemed to imply visually that he was thrown well out of RD’s grabbing range.           As to the shots we lost? I counted three. First, Hana’s hand crumpling amidst all the flying debris. Second, that big dramatic panel of Shigaraki’s maimed hand ribboning blood into the air as the narration box finally drops Re-Destro’s identity and code name. Third, the shot of him catching Shigaraki, almost delicately, between one thumb and forefinger and delivering the, “Was it this hand that committed such evil acts?” line—a clear threat to what of that hand Shigaraki has remaining—as we find out what his meta-ability is.           This is all hugely dramatic in the manga, because, of course, readers always assumed Shigaraki needed all five fingers to activate his quirk, and here Re-Destro nigh-effortlessly robs him of fully half his capacity to use it. It’s a shocking turn-around and instantly ups RD’s threat level by allowing him to permanently maim Shigaraki in a way that no one, hero or villain, has done before or since. Robbing Re-Destro of the immediacy of that seemingly devastating blow—inflicted within moments of meeting the real Shigaraki—did immeasurable damage to his credibility as an arc boss.           The shot in the manga is also just arresting visually, with RD finally getting to properly loom over Shigaraki. Most of the shots up to this point have been framed such that, while RD is obviously bigger, he and Shigaraki have still been moving and fighting in a pretty level way. This is the first place where the viewer is situated so squarely behind Shigaraki that they can really feel how massive RD is in comparison. It’s certainly a more impressive visual than this mess—thanks, anime; thanks, whatever broadcasting standards forced overworked and uninspired animators to undertake a redraw of RD’s quirk reveal panel when every other member of the MLA brass had theirs carried over directly from the manga.

• A chapter-ending cliffhanger of Slidin’ Go helping direct traffic on the outskirts of Deika and the warning rumble as Gigantomachia approaches. Aside from being a nice little tension boost—Will Gigantomachia roll up just in time to see Re-Destro making a mess of Shigaraki? Who will he target? Will Shigaraki ever be able to win him over if he sees a scene like that?—it’s good foreshadowing for what the news reports will eventually be saying. Remember, the claim is that a bunch of villains lured Deika’s heroes away and then attacked the city while it was defenseless; that’s why we never see any of the MLA’s heroes involved with the fight once it starts. And now, here, we find out where they’ve been the whole time: making sure no outsiders get in who might be able to undermine that narrative.

Framing Shifts

• Once again had an MLA member using their Detnerat item say its name out loud, when it’s clear in the manga that they’re just thinking the names internally. Once again, it was kind of silly.

• When Spinner flashes back to watching Stain on TV and being inspired, the manga uses a shot of Stain’s face, snarling and defiant. The anime used—a shot of Stain from behind, only visible from the shoulders to the knees, hunched so that his lower back and ass were towards the camera. Bones… What exactly were you implying lit Spinner’s fire there? Or did you just not have the time or budget to go pull Stain’s reference sheets for drawing his face?

• A tone issue, but a major one: Spinner should be grinning, face alight with accusatory challenge, as he hurls his accusations of the MLA/Trumpet being the same bandwagon-jumping nobodies that he is. This is the moment in the manga where we see Spinner truly throw his hesitations and his doubts to the wind and embrace Shigaraki’s nihilistic fervor and the beauty, value and profundity of emptiness. So what if I’m empty? So what if he wants emptiness? Who cares about other peoples’ ideals if their ideals leave no room for me? It’s not a heroic triumph, but it’s a triumph all the same, and losing Spinner’s smile made the moment far too bitter.

• Meanwhile, in exactly the opposite problem, Shigaraki by this point is not smiling. In fact, he’s barely on his feet, swaying violently in place with accompanying sound effects. While his words are openly mocking, he seems to wholly lack the energy to back them up with his usual verve. The anime didn’t have him smiling, admittedly, but the whole time the ‘camera’ wasn’t directly on his face, his voice actor was reading the lines with an uneven, chuckling cadence that suggested Shigaraki was seconds away from breaking into howls of laughter. He was also, of course, impossibly clean, at a point at which his manga counterpart is muddy, bloody and tattered from the horrifically extended combat he’s been living for six weeks. It’s stuff like this that made it so impossible to take the Army or even Machia as much of a threat in the anime, when, other than the red cords on his hands being broken, Shigaraki looked absolutely no different than usual.

Additions

• Gave Spinner a tiny bit of new animation when he got mobbed by people hopped up on Incite. It was nice, but if they were going to give him a flourish, I’d rather it have come when he swipes Porcupine Dude off him with a combat knife. Or, you know, just kept the bit of him telling the Twices to attack and his reasoning on why.

• Cut inside briefly to show a ballerina girl dancing through a darkened apartment right before she sliced a neat circle out of the wall. I love it, A+, exactly the kind of expansion on the action of the manga I wanted to see. My only complaint is that her manga self looked more like Pearl from Steven Universe.[4] XD

• A quick new shot of RD when Shigaraki was hounding him about his feelings. His teeth were visibly gritted, the corners of his mouth pulled down. It stands out because there’s only one shot of RD there in the manga, and in it, he’s smiling, close-mouthed and calm. The anime copied said shot, smile and all, then cut away, and when it cut back, Re-Destro had a totally different expression on his face. Baffling. Anime!RD having a dour scowl everywhere manga!RD is smiling in a tight, controlled way was all over the fight scene, and it detracted from the sense of RD’s menace every time.

Chapter 234 – Destruction Sense

• The illustration(s) accompanying Re-Destro’s, “Let’s not judge people by their quirks,” line. The pictures are cute, but the real loss there was the note informing us that they’re excerpts from a children’s book published by Shoowaysha—Curious’s outfit—called Quirks and Us. That’s a very concrete illustration of the kinds of things the MLA is getting up to in the world, and an equally concrete thing an anime-only viewer lost. Of course, that viewer never even found out Curious was in publishing, so it wouldn’t have meant anything on that front, but there is one other thing I think is notable: the way that book implies that the only people explicitly pushing a “don’t judge other people by their quirks” message are the radical Liberationists.           See, the rest of the story touches on the virtues of a nonjudgmental attitude here and there, but actually finding people willing to say it out loud is—unprecedented, I think. Deku comes across situations where he could say something like that multiple times and he never, ever does—not to Shouto, nor to Shinsou, nor to Eri, nor to the giant fox lady. And that’s not even touching on Shouji’s mask, or the discrimination Spinner faced, or the CRC “losing support” without being declared illegal. I think the manga itself is against judging people by their quirks, but it’s interesting that it doesn’t make its characters into mouthpieces to say as much. This is because its characters are thoroughly enmeshed in a society that very much does judge people by their quirks, regardless of whether or not it will say that doing so is bad or rude or prejudiced.           Re-Destro and the MLA aren’t immune, of course—Re-Destro himself says that quirks are linked to personality—but they adhere to a different set of values than the larger society does. While Hero Society talks about quirks in terms of being heroic and/or useful versus villainous and/or useless, the MLA spectrums instead emphasize how capable a person’s quirk is of helping them exert their will and how ambitious the quirk’s bearer is in that exertion. That is, their ethics are less about morality and utility-to-society than they are about aspiration and utility-to-self.[5] Both worldviews have their pros and cons, but that, I think, is what the children’s book is getting at when it says not to “judge”—don’t assign an arbitrary moral value to a quirk; judge a person by their actions.           And isn’t it interesting, that the only explicit verbal statement of that value comes from the leader of a radical cult descended from a famous insurrectionist quoting a children’s book published by a member of selfsame radical cult? The value is not ever stated by a member of the heroic cast, so are we to assume that the heroes don't actually believe it? Do people profess to believe it but everyone knows it’s only for courtesy’s sake, with only the MLA willing to breach that wall of “things we don’t talk about in polite society” to actually talk about it in anything other than platitudes? Obviously, you lose this entire line of discussion when the "don't judge people by their quirks" value is just never mentioned at all.

• The phrase, “In that case,” from RD’s, “You will never measure up to me.” It establishes continuity to what RD was saying before. He’s not taking breaks from talking while Shigaraki has flashbacks; the two are happening concurrently.

• RD’s, “Cracking apart…?” reaction to his Decayed fingertip, and the dripping blood from the injury. I’m not hugely fussed about the former, but I like the latter as indicative of what Re-Destro’s Stress powers actually do. That is to say, he isn’t covering himself in a thick shell of Stress power or something; his Stress powers make him physically larger, infusing his body and swelling his size. That’s why he bleeds when Shigaraki touches his fingertip.           Admittedly, the size distinction was more obvious in the anime, where the audience watched RD’s shoulders inflate like balloons last episode, compared to the manga, where you don’t get in-between animation. Still, given that RD still has that wound even when he goes back down to normal size, and is still wearing bandages for his speech a week later,[6] it’d be nice to mark the severity of the wound with a bit of blood. Oddly, the anime did keep the wound for the crater scene, visible red slices opened in the flesh along the length of his finger, very obviously the sort of injury that would have bled upon being first sustained. Maybe RD ran afoul of whatever the studio mandate is on when Decay has a dust effect and when it leaves gore? (More of that later.)

• Shigaraki’s, “Mother!” for the first panel we see of her. It’s obvious enough who she probably is, but odd that we got a whole bunch of narration for Hana, and likewise an acknowledgment of his grandparents, but not even a single word for Nao.

• Very significantly drops the grandfather’s, “Eating yummy things helps make the sadness go away.” Grandpa’s not just randomly handing Tenko his favorite snack in that memory—he’s trying to treat some kind of grief or wrong without actually addressing the wrong, opting to just put a flavorful band-aid on it. That could be fine if it were something outside Grandpa’s control, but we’ve already gotten some early hints from Hana’s phrasing that things are not okay in the household, and thus the grandfather’s attempt to bribe Tenko with sweets is just as ominous a sign of what’s to come as the grandmother’s attempt to guilt him into not crying lest he make her cry too.

• A little shot of Shigaraki stirring in the rubble when RD answers the phone. It’s a nice demonstration of their size difference, especially comparing both of them to Machia, who we just saw tearing through buildings like the kaiju his theme music declares him to be.

Framing Shifts

• When Shigaraki narrates that Hana always took him by the hand when he got weepy, she actually does take his hand in the manga, her fingers wrapped around his, his clasped over hers. It emphasizes that this is what he can’t do anymore, simply hold hands with people, the innocence lost aspect, and it suggests the closeness he once had with his sister.           In the anime, she reached out a hand but wound up taking him by the wrist instead, his hand splayed open beneath hers. This suggested, albeit very implicitly, that maybe that innocence was something he never had from the beginning; it also suggested less reciprocity in his relationship with Hana. Even though Tomura said in narration that their hands were joined, what we saw was that Hana just pulled him where she wanted him and he didn’t fight her on it, not that he held her hand in return.           Alternatively, the anime could have been drawing a parallel to how her hand would eventually be gripping his wrist in a much different context (a more necrotic one, for starters) later in life, though if that's what they were going for, they could have stood to tweak the dialogue so it actually matched the onscreen action. (Credit to @robotlesbianjavert and @aysall respectively for these two theories!)

• Shigaraki still having his fingers when Re-Destro squeezed his hand made RD look like a real moron. I assume the intention was that he assumed he’d done enough damage—broken bones, torn ligaments, etc—to prevent Shigaraki from being able to move his hand in more than spastic twitches, but like, if all it takes is a hard enough spasmodic clench to dust you, you are playing much riskier games than the MLA is generally portrayed as favoring. (Not that the anime kept many of the scenes that demonstrated all the planning and prep that the MLA did as groundwork for their attack, as I have complained about at length.)           In the same sequence, Anime!RD turned and bodily hurled Shigaraki away from him, while Manga!RD threw him a similar distance with nothing more than a flick of a finger. Anime, why you gotta make Re-Destro look so lame all the time?

Additions

• Just one episode prior, the anime managed to turn in an entirely reasonable assemblage of swiping and dodging between Shigaraki and Re-Destro while RD was rambling on about the Mother of Quirks. What the hell was the excuse for this episode’s ridiculous shot of Shigaraki literally running circles—big, broad circles—around RD multiple times in the time it took RD to finish one (1) thought? For heaven’s sake, if you don’t have the budget for flashy, just use slow motion or more flashback animation or something. I know there’s more leeway for long thoughts in manga, where the reader understands that thoughts are moving far faster than action, and that it can be hard to bridge that gap for anime, where motion is motion but voice acting still has to rattle its way to the end of a sentence. I understand that measures have to be taken to account for that. Still, I promise, something that just looks a bit padded is much preferable to something that looks outright dumb.

• I admit to having found huge Stress monster RD pulling out a teeeeeny-tiny cellphone very funny—even more so the distinct cracking sound it made when Skeptic reported in bad news and RD’s fingers tightened infinitesimally—but the manga suggests fairly strongly that RD’s just answering on some kind of earpiece or micro-receiver, the same kind of thing Ujiko hands out and that Skeptic is associated with on multiple occasions. It’d be nice if RD could have kept more of the jokes he actually makes, the ones that stem from his native good humor, rather than the anime making up new ones based entirely in the contrast of Re-Destro and the viewer’s expectations of Re-Destro.

Chapter 235 – Shimura Tenko: Origin

• The man at the door, whom Nao is apologizing to at the beginning of the Tenko flashback and the apparent reason Tenko got busted for playing hero. I don’t love the way deleting this obscured that Tenko, in some fashion, troubled someone to lead to Kotarou dragging him down the hall (the anime also dropped Kotarou’s subsequent line, “Causing trouble?!” that’s supposed to supplement his, “Playing hero again?”), but it’s not like the manga doesn’t imply that the same thing would happen for any hero-based rules infraction, regardless of whether it troubled strangers or not. No, the much, much funnier thing to me is how it just fuckin’ torpedoed the most obvious thing people point to when they posit that All For One gave Tenko Decay, kicking off the entire tragedy: the man at the door with the conspicuously shadowed face and the even more conspicuously AFO-like suit and dress shirt with the top button unfastened.           Listen, I hate that theory and what it would do to the narrative of Shigaraki Tomura/Shimura Tenko as Hero Society’s long-overdue reckoning, the villain they can’t put down and the victim they can’t silence, so watching the anime summarily cut out the scene that really kicked the theory into overdrive was very validating! Conversely, I still can't deny that it's a plausible theory, so if it does turn out to be true, that means the anime shot itself in the foot on the most obvious bit of foreshadowing this side of AFO addressing Tenko by name when he finds him in the alley. The schadenfreude of that would also be very funny. Really, unlike every other cut this season, I regard this one as win-win for my personal experience with the anime.           Incidentally, I was very prepared to complain about the anime dropping all the changes of clothes the Shimura family goes through over the course of the flashback—I regard the timelapse as one of the major points against the AFO Gave Tenko Decay theory, since it’s never taken a quirk bestowed by AFO multiple days, maybe even multiple weeks, to kick in before—but it turns out I’m a lot less bothered about them not taking the time to change the side characters’ clothes when the anime also deletes the dude at the door who is the only reason I care about clarity re: how much time the flashback covers! But just for the record, while they had more outfits than I was expecting them to, the family did go through fewer changes of clothes in the anime than in the manga.

• The full echo of the line about kids being sneaky and simple in favor of Narrator!Shigaraki just letting out this exhausted, rueful, “Ahhh, kids are…” I actually rather like it. It’s a clear reference back to the earlier line without having to restate the whole thing, and Uchiyama Kouki’s delivery is really excellent.

• Kotaro’s first slap of Tenko, the only one directly portrayed on-panel, and Mon-chan’s barking in response. On the one hand, I think there’s an argument to be made for the scene flowing a bit better like this—why wouldn’t Grandpa try to stop him from going for that second slap; why wouldn’t Nao pass Hana off to Grandma and do something instead of just standing there yelling for the entire scene? It makes a bit more sense if they’re hesitant to intervene because Kotarou has “only” grabbed at Tenko’s collar and they don’t yet know how that it’s going to escalate to naked physical violence in a way that it never has before.           On the other hand, that first slap is so visceral and shocking. Nowhere else in the manga is domestic violence portrayed more sharply and directly, in greater detail or more cruelly generous panel space than in this moment. It’s in the difference in size between Kotarou and Tenko, the force behind the hit that’s enough to knock Tenko clear off his feet, the pages upon pages of gut-churning lead-up to this moment and what we know will be following soon after.           Also too, it makes the family’s failure to help Tenko much worse that no one else acts when Kotarou pulls back for a second hit. The first one, you could almost excuse because no one saw it coming; the second throws those justifications out the window and spits on them afterward. Two hits are important—not only for what they tell Tenko in the moment about his family's inaction, but because two hits speak in ways one hit doesn't to how wildly uneven the power balance is in the house, that Nao and her parents could witness something like that and not only fail to intercede, but then take who knows how long to work up the courage to confront Kotarou afterwards.           I understand very well the fear of showing this in a family TV timeslot—the violence is so much more real than any big fantasy beat-‘em-up could ever be—but it’s the kind of thing that really drives home what Tenko needed to be saved from even back then, a social issue that heroes as they currently exist were in no position to address. Far from demonstrating that heroes aren't at fault for what happened to Tenko, though, what this scene truly does is vividly illustrate the flaws in All Might's social contract, in which his power and smile seem to promise that he can save absolutely everyone, only to leave children like Tenko out in the cold with no explanation as to why. It's brutal because it has to be, and the anime shying away from depicting Kotarou's physical abuse undercut that.

Framing Shifts

• There was a bizarre, nonsensical change to the scene at the beginning of the chapter where RD is figuring out how Shigaraki survived/got back up after taking a Burden attack head-on. The manga’s explanation is that Shigaraki didn’t actually take a full force hit because he was Decaying it even as it was blowing him back. This is somewhat silly, given that even a reduced-strength Burden is still strong enough to put him through multiple buildings. It is, however, less silly than the anime’s take, in which Shigaraki touched Re-Destro rather than the corporealized Stress of Burden. How Re-Destro survived a full-fingered touch from Shigaraki’s completely uninjured right hand[7] went totally unexplained; the problem was then compounded by Re-Destro delivering manga-accurate lines about Burden not being an evadable attack despite “evasion” having nothing to do with Shigaraki’s actions.           Anime!Shigaraki didn’t dodge the Burden attack any more than Manga!Shigaraki did; unlike Manga!Shigaraki, however, Anime!Shigaraki also did nothing to reduce the impact of the attack. So not only was how Shigaraki survived the Burden attack not explained, the change to the material also opened up the plot hole of how Re-Destro survived a direct touch attack that Shigaraki in the manga never lands.

• There was also an extremely weird decision made to give Tenko dark, gray-blue eyes, obviously reminiscent of Nana’s, and suggest that they became red at the same time as his hair was changing to white. But in the manga, other than the size, there’s no difference between young Tenko’s eyes and how Shigaraki’s eyes have always been drawn—an unshaded iris with a visible pupil and a relatively thick line delineating the iris from the white of the sclera. Tenko’s eyes never matched those of anyone else in his family, least of all his dark-eyed grandmother. His hair changed color because of a trauma response,[8] but his eyes were always red.

• Relocated Shigaraki’s first, “Little kids…are sneakier than you’d expect. And simpler,” to underscore Hana showing him Nana’s picture in the study, squarely centering the line on her. And like, yes, that line does get its bitter echo later when Hana panics in the face of her father’s fury and throws the blame onto Tenko—but that line isn’t just about her; it’s also about what Tenko wanted to hear from the other adults in his life. It didn’t matter that his father didn’t approve; if he could get at least one adult to say he could be a hero, to take his side, then he could feel vindicated.           It’s a child’s sneaky, simple reasoning: if an adult’s words are absolute, you just have to get one (1) adult to agree with you. It’s asking Dad if you can do something you don’t think Mom will agree to, and then going to Mom with Dad’s permission held defensively in-hand. Laying the line over Hana obscures that it’s as much about Tenko’s craving for external validation as it is Hana’s (entirely understandable) deceitful streak.

• After half a season full of internal monologue being voiced aloud even when it made little sense to do so, the anime decided to render clearly talk-bubbled dialogue—Tenko’s chatting at Mon about how he feels like he could take on the world—as internal monologue instead. Who talks to their animals in their heads when they could be talking at them directly like pet owners the world over?

Additions

• Added a few extra stills of Kotarou rebuking Tenko and dragging him around. I don’t think they’re inaccurate to the situation, though I wonder if it really needed to be underlined two more times than the manga did. Maybe they were trying to make up in advance for deleting the first slap?

• Added a few new stills of Nana and child!Kotarou. They hurt my soul and I love them without reservation.

Chapter 236 – Shimura Tenko: Origin, Part 2

• Hana’s second apology. What needs to get across was communicated with her first apology, but I do think the second one adds some naturalism to the dialogue. It feels very normal for a child feeling extremely guilty to apologize multiple times, like the more times they say it, the more true/convincing it will become.

• A bit of Tenko’s internal monologue—thinking Hana’s name, and Mon’s, and that he can’t talk. The anime slipped some attempts at verbalizing “Mon” into the dialogue, and it was painfully obvious just from listening to him gag and choke that he was too horror-struck to get words out, in ways that would be a little harder to convey on the page. Also, he thinks again that he can’t talk just as Hana runs away, so it gets across regardless. No real complaints here.

• Some thoughts about how he’s itchy, which, given what his itch represents (or at least what he thinks it does), they probably should have kept for continuity’s sake.

• Tenko’s last, “Hana-chan!” just as he grabs for her. I can imagine it having just that little bit more desperate impact, especially given Sekine Arisa’s great delivery of the first “Hana-chan!” but his delivery of the first one was great—weeks later, I can still remember it clearly—so it’s not a snip I’m inclined to doomsay about.

• Hana’s verbalization as the Decay hits her. Given that they kept Mon-chan’s last whimper, it’s kind of inconsistent not to keep this. It’s grueling, sure, but no more so than the rest of the horror show shortly to follow.

• An echo of Nao’s defense of Kotarou’s anti-hero stance. Frankly, I think anime already over-indulges in echoing dialogue we’ve heard not ten minutes prior, so I don’t mind losing this—in the manga, the moments would have fallen in different chapters, so it makes more sense to squeeze in the little reminder, but that wasn’t necessary for the anime, in which the original moment and the callback happened barely more than five minutes apart. It was obvious what the mental image was meant to draw attention to, since Tomura was narrating about exactly what his grievance was, and the image was followed by the two equivalent moments with the grandparents. (Admittedly, it hurt that correlation a bit that Grandpa’s line about the ohagi being intended to make the sadness go away got cut, but the sentiment was pretty clear from the man’s expression of nervy, abashed guilt regardless.)

• The line of Decay that splits Nao’s eye, one of the more vividly horrific little grace notes in the chapter. It undercut the grotesquerie just the tiniest bit, but the scene’s grotesque as-is, so I can understand that slight edit for TV standards. The discrepancy between Decay-to-dust and Decay-to-gore, discussed below in Framing Shifts, was much more damaging.

• A shot of Kotarou just after he hits Tenko with the tree pruning shears in which he looks, briefly, incredibly distraught, like he’s just realized what a monster he’s become. The anime didn’t make the slightest of attempts to keep that spasm of horror, grief, and regret, and thus lost that last moment of sympathy for a man deeply traumatized by a heroic character’s actions. It’s my only complaint about Anime!Kotarou, who I was otherwise far more pleased with than I was afraid might be the case, but it’s a complaint I must register nonetheless.

• A bit of inarticulate yelling before Tenko screams, “You... Die!!” It helps get across Tenko’s rage overflowing, to have that wordless garble before he can actually wrap words around it. He was still having trouble talking, too, so it makes sense that his first vocalization would just be a long, incomprehensible screech. That said, with the music there to supplement the mood in a way the manga would lack, I don’t think the anime’s rendition of the scene suffered overmuch from its absence.

Framing Shifts

• The anime, of course, has always gone the dust route for Decay because Decay is a little too gruesome for family hour TV, and anyway, when Tomura gets as fast with Decay as he is in Deika, he really is just insta-dusting people, such that not even blood remains. But he wasn’t that fast or that thorough as a child, hence why it’s all so much gorier—and it needs to be, because it’s hard to imagine Hana freaking out like she does if all she sees is a pile of dust instead of, well, dog gobbets. (Also, if his family had gone the dust route, it would have been very hard to convince the audience that Tomura’s hands are his family hands and not fakes provided to AFO by Ujiko.)           This obviously put the anime in a difficult spot, but apparently the decision they settled on was—to not decide? Everyone we saw in the active process of decaying decayed into dust as usual, but then once they were done decaying, once that transition from person to ruin was complete, there were all these heaps of gore everywhere. It was a very strange and distracting inconsistency that hurt the scene much more than any of the nearly invisible cuts, and I hope the blu-rays will change it.

• Added Grandpa catching Grandma as she staggered at the sight of things in the yard. Since his body language in the manga (the only non-Decayed shot of him in the sequence) has him leaned more forward, like he’s still halfway through running towards the kids, I thought this was a nice little touch on why he stopped, for reasons other than just the obvious.

                                                         ---

Episode 111 was about half of a really strong episode. Most of my complaints about the Shimura Family flashback are very minor, and most of the ones that are less minor are still easy to overlook when the rest of the presentation was so strong. Unfortunately, the non-flashback half of the episode had as many problems as ever, and those aren't over yet.

Come back next time for Part Five, Episode 112: Origin: Shigaraki Tomura. Assuming my complaining about the finalized gutting of Spinner's arc doesn't get too out of hand—which it may; if so, I'll tack on one final part to wrap things up—I'll also be running down a quick overview of the Paranormal Liberation Front scenes in the Endeavor Agency arc and some various odds & ends.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Yes, I know the Skeptic Confronts Twice scene goes nowhere, but maybe, instead of deleting it, they could have patched it up by showing Skeptic turning away from the confrontation when the tower went down? You know, actually made an effort to improve on the material?

[2] Bakugou, of course, but also Inko, Kotarou, and, very prominently, even All Might. Deku circa MVA has an entire arc lying in wait for him about how much he’s internalized All Might’s paternalism re: having the strongest quirk.

[3] Indeed, as of the scene in the crater, he still hadn’t lost them at all! He had his prosthetic by the time of the speech, so I guess we’re meant to assume that Ujiko or some MLA doctor declared them past saving and amputated them. I hope I don’t need to tell you how unbelievably lame it is to have a shounen manga character sustain a permanent injury like that off-panel.

[4] It’s the pointy nose.

[5] That, at least, is the best way I’ve found to reconcile all the related-but-distinct values professed by the various members of the MLA brass, from Re-Destro’s focus on liberation and purpose, what exactly Trumpet chooses to cite when he’s talking about Spinner not “amounting” to anything much, Geten’s open extolling of quirk supremacy, and so on.

[6] In the first big double-page spread. Oddly, no bandaging is visible in the other panel that has a good shot of that hand, possibly because Horikoshi was more focused on drawing RD’s empty pant leg. The anime kept the obvious wound during the crater scene, but not the bandages during the speech.

[7] I assume, anyway, that Re-Destro only survives Shigaraki’s first touch because it’s a weaker Decay, coming as it does from only from two fingers rather than five.

[8] The fabled Marie Antoinette Syndrome. Never been scientifically documented as such (hair can whiten because of extreme stress, but not overnight) but it endures in fiction because it’s pleasingly dramatic. Trauma-based eye-color changes, not so much.

[tsuki-sennin]

Good morning, Delicious Partaaaaay! I've got a feeling that it's gonna wonderful day!

The sun in the sky has a smile on his face, I forget the rest of the lyrics but it's probably okay!

Anyways, Episode 22 is out, I don't really know what else to say.

Spoilers, I guess...

-Damn, right in with the action.

-Get fucked, Takumicchi.

-No projectiles, got it.

-"Run along, boy! The girlbosses are playing~!"

-Damn, Finale said "get outta here."

-Shortest Ubau-zo fight ever. Didn't even get to see Kokone and Ran be cool.

-"I can't wait to laugh at your cringe epic fail fighting style again!" -Narcistoru, 2022.

-Minato-san... the legendary crepe...

-Grandma Nagomi, I realize we're all about food, but Takumicchi's having a bit of a crisis.

-Mmmm... crepe...

-Awwwwwww, his friend's hurt :(

-Never underestimate Yuin's genius, Minato-san. She's our only hope.

-Sweet Shiny Luminous, that sweetstack's fruitier than Rosemary.

-Oh, Rosemary. I uh... didn't mean "fruity" in a bad way.

-Kome-Kome! Got even bigger!

-Oh yeah, Amane probably didn't notice.

-How long until her teenage rebellion phase, do you reckon?

-She can speak like people now!

-The Legendary Crepe... I hear the

-"Ehhhh? Your friends!? Errrr... Idk, I'm probably a bit too fail cringe..."

-Sold out in minutes.

-It's probably like a good couple thousand yen, too...

-Well, Ranchi... would you say it had... tropica-shining flavor?

-Awwwwwww, Kome's becoming more sociable~!

-That's adorbs.

-"She's my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate!"

-Koko-neechan, I think "same one" is a bit beyond our current capabilities...

-"Let's do this!"

-That's it, Takumicchi! A real man knows how to cook!

-There's a ton to the fine art of dessert baking. KIRAKIRA Patisserie would be proud.

-...I really hope they're all not wasting all these crepes...

-They're definitely not, but like...

-"What, no! I don't like helping anybody, I'm evil! I'm a supervillain!"

-Secretoru, you've been doin' nothing this whole season, who died and made you leader?

-...proably Godatz, but still

-"Aw, crepe..."

-We're hitting our ultimate stride!

-Oh c'mon man, your friend got hospitalized and you didn't visit her once? That ain't cool, man.

-Maybe apologize to her? Stay with her for a while?

-An apology card! That's the ticket!

-Yoooo-chan!

-Oh wow, these guys're... pretty old!

-Recibepis.

-Oh nooooooo, they've been snatched!

-"Oh fuck, it's that annoying blonde man."

-Yep, there they are!

-...wow, reusing monster designs in the same episode? Goddamn, Narcistoru, no wonder you're getting your ass kicked so much.

-Ooooooooooh, epic! A proper four-way sequence! At last!

-Tablespoon Cutting Board!

-You just made him thicker.

-Hello, Black Pepper!

-Hell yeah, cure that amnesia!

-Let's wail on that bitch!

-Ayyyyy, he's calling his attacks out! Good for you, man!

-Ohhh, Pepper Mill... and it's a Spin Kick... very clever, lad.

-A proper Precious Spicy Yum-Yum Flavor beatdown.

-...kinda sounds like a Jamba Juice supplement.

-"Heh-heh-heh... you're not so cringe fail after all! One day, you might become a based giga chad like me..."

-Awww...

-Good job, Kome-Kome, very cool :)

-Vegetables!

-Yeah good job Takumicchi.

-...so wait, did Yui know Takumi was Black Pepper, or did she just hand it off to him next Ubau-zo? I'm a bit confused.

-Awwwww, Kokone :(

-Ayyyy, the banger ED again!

-Yeah, my stance on this is unchanged, this fucks.

-Oh shit, Kokone's mom is a proper MILF.

-Her dad ain't bad either.

-Oh yeah, Kokone's relationship with them is fairly distant, that's uh... not good. Guess I'll be seeing you all again soon!

[anthurak]

So I feel we’re all pretty much expecting a big, climactic Qrow vs. Ironwood fight at some point in the future. Which is likely when Ironwood is finally going to get a reality check beaten into him. However, I’ve been thinking about an alternate version of such a scenario that I feel could honestly be a lot more interesting.

Namely, a Ruby vs Ironwood fight.

The thing is, CRWBY have actually done quite a bit to set up Ruby as being the one who stands most directly opposed to Ironwood. Despite all the talk the fandom has made of Ironwood being Qrow’s or Robyn’s personal nemesis, it’s interesting to note that neither of those two have even spoken to Ironwood since his villain turn. They weren’t even in Atlas when it happened.

Ruby on the other hand was not only present when Ironwood made his villain turn, she places herself in direct opposition to him. When Ironwood finally becomes a villain, it is RUBY who is the first to oppose him, complete with epic staredown and a glorious ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ glare.

And in Volume 8, we see this Hero-Villain dynamic reinforced further during the phone-scene in episode 1. We see here Ruby again being framed as the one directly opposing Ironwood, specifically in how she completely denies his attempts to coerce Penny.

Also, Ruby being the one to deliver the physical/psychological beatdown needed to finally bring Ironwood around would make for a very nice contrast to Oscar’s failed attempt to convince Ironwood last volume, continuing the theme of Ruby succeeding where Oscar and Ozpin fail.

And finally, Ruby vs. Ironwood would just be a really cool fight to see. Ruby hasn’t gotten a real 1v1 showdown since Volume 3 and even the one she had there against Torchwick wasn’t exactly a great showcase of her skill. And sure, she had her fight against Harriet last volume, but that was clearly not so much a ‘fight’ so much as it was simply Ruby keeping Harriet occupied and distracted. Also, I get the sense that fighting Ironwood in particular would give Ruby the opportunity to... cut loose a bit if you would. A while back I talked at length about how Ruby seems to hold back quite a bit against human opponents compared to the more ‘Human Blender’ style she employs against Grimm. And Ironwood now having three out of four limbs being prosthetic means Ruby could indulge in a bit more RIP-AND-TEAR than usual. Finally, Ruby taking down one of the headmasters and one of the greatest huntsmen of the previous generation would be a serious mark in just how much she’s grown as a Huntress.

Also, I think we can all agree that the ensuing collective MELTDOWN of all the Ironwood apologists/bootlickers would be hilarious.

[drunkkenobi]

Happy Holidays from your local neighborhood spreadsheet gremlin! I come bearing stats and good news!

First up, you may have seen that Watcher hit 1 million subscribers on Thanksgiving, which was also Ryan’s birthday! I couldn’t be happier for them, and for it to hit on the resident pessimist’s birthday in this shitty year was just an extra cherry on top of the sundae. *chef’s kiss*

Also as of today, three outta four TMS have hit 1 million views! The final two episodes didn’t have the meteoric rise the first two did, but I think we as a country (and a lot of the world too, tbh), were all hyped up on election anxiety around that time so I don’t think it’s concerning. They still got crazy good views and continue to rise.

I cannot WAIT for season 2, it’s going to be ridiculous and fun (the costumes!) and to see how it compares.

I would imagine by this time next week we’ll have our first million view episode(s) of Puppet History s2! Hapshepsut and Donner Party are neck and neck, but 7 out of 8 episodes are at 850k+ so I imagine we’ll see a lot hit that mark before the end of the year. (not sure why Policarpa’s ep didn’t pop off as much but it’s still done pretty dang well)

S2 of Are You Scared? is performing very consistently against itself, which is nice to see. AYS does similar numbers to Puppet History and I can’t imagine it’s all that expensive for them (all the cost has to be in paying their illustrator and the editing, which they gotta pay for editing anyway), so I love that it’s such a success for them.

Watcher Weekly (RIP...for now?) remained unpredictable to the end. I will never truly get why some of those did so much better than others. Will be so interesting to see how it does if/when it comes back.

I am also SUPER duper interested in the Watcher Holiday specials this month! We’ve yet to see second seasons of Homemade and Top 5 Beatdown, so I cannot wait to see how these episodes do (also so happy they were able to make them work, especially Homemade!). I also predict that Puppet History will somehow make me cry. 

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. As always, feel free to hit me up for any questions or observations! 

[elldell1204]

Nightmare - Upstead Fic

This is my first Upstead fic, so I really hope you like it as I am so proud of it 😊 It’s starts towards the end of 7x09 and is an alternative, more tense ending to the actual episode/storyline, in my opinion. Enjoy!

wc - 3,688

“Angela.” It was almost a whisper, that’s how dry his throat was and how weak he had grown over the last twenty-four hours of almost constant beatdowns. Not only did Jay have to deal with the physical torture, but the mental one too. Every moment that led up to where he was right now was being replayed in his head, seeing as he has nothing more to do. Being the type of guy who always tries to find a way to improve himself in every way possible, he’s picking apart each second, imagining the hundreds of different ways things could have gone differently if he had just let the call go to voicemail, told his partner where he was going, gone in with backup, heard the guy’s footsteps behind him, fought him off. Hell, he was even going back as far as to question his quick decision of Marcus West being the one responsible for the murder of two young boys. He sees now though that he was getting too involved, being too emotional, trying his absolute best not to slip into the cold, heartless shell of a man that returned from Afghanistan all those years ago to the point where he went too far and got an innocent man killed. 

“Angela.” He tried again, prying the eye open that wasn’t glued shut with dried blood from the gash on his forehead. “Kick one of those pipes over to me.”

The woman that sat slumped against the pipes across from him raised her head. But she didn’t meet his eyes. How could she after what he had just revealed to her? The man before her had murdered her husband, in her mind. And even though her only chance at survival was to work with him, she had absolutely no desire in her heart to do so. He deserved to die, and if that meant that she would too, then so be it. But every time her thoughts ventured there, she reminded herself of her son. He already lost his father, so he needed his mother more than ever.

“C’mon, Angela.” He had managed to free his left hand by now, the ropes that once bound him hanging loose from his wrist as he gestured towards the objects in question. “We gotta work together if we’re gonna get outta here, so you have to kick one over, c’mon, please. It’s the only way.”

It was then she lifted her eyes to his. The dark chestnut pools had lost all life and purpose and were emotionally empty, barring the harsh disgust that was boring holes straight through to Jay’s soul, so deep he could sense it bubbling inside him, the feeling so undeniably familiar, being that he felt it towards himself the night he discovered his mistake, unable to correct it as it was too late.

***

Unbeknownst to Jay, his beloved unit was rallying outside the very building he was being held prisoner in, ready to take down an army if it meant they’d save him.

Voight was dishing out orders to each of them, but Hailey wasn’t listening, not really. She knew she’d do anything to get to Jay, even if it meant going against the boss’ orders or putting her own life in danger. Thoughts of how she could be so stupid to let him go without backup or to get her hopes up that he’d be in the van for the exchange kept swirling around in her brain. But she had to be totally focused on the now. The next few minutes could land anywhere on the spectrum between the most ideal scenario of finding him perfectly okay and finding him in a lifeless heap on the floor. She had to be alert and ready for anything.

That’s why she didn’t hesitate when Kevin hoisted her up to crawl through the vent in the wall.

***

It was now or never. The weaker of their two captors had come down the stairs a few seconds ago, armed with a water bottle and a fresh dressing for Angela’s wound. Now he was knelt down beside her, applying it whilst trying to keep down whatever he had for lunch. It was pretty much useless. She needed a miracle after the amount of blood she had already lost, and still it kept gushing out, even though Jay was pretty sure she didn’t have a much left.

“There you go.” The man announced, getting to his feet but staying crouched.

“Can I have some water?” Jay piped up, adrenaline starting to seep into his blood at the mere thought of the feat he was going to have to pull off.

The man simply looked over his shoulder at the battered and bruised body behind him, showing no objection nor acceptance.

“Please, man.” Jay begged now, his voice breathier to play the part.

The man’s gaze returned and stayed on Angela as he grabbed the water bottle, stepping backwards towards Jay when the harsh ringing of the metal pipe echoed throughout the murky basement as it collided with his head.

After he dropped to the floor, Jay checked he was out cold before sliding the rope, tied to his right wrist, off the pipe. He attempted to get to his feet, but he felt the room spin and decided on crawling until his blood pressure went back up. He once again checked the man was unconscious along with casting a glance over to the stairs to make sure the other guy wasn’t on his was to beat the crap out of him. Satisfied with the answer to both, he searched his victim’s pockets for a weapon of any kind. He found a switchblade, and although he would have preferred a gun, it would have to do. He then grabbed the pipe before crossing the short distance to Angela, kneeling down beside her.

“You did good.” He said, a little out of breath, as he used to knife to cut through the ropes that tethered her to the pipes like he was. The only acknowledgement he got was a helpless whimper and a sad little nod.

“Okay, stay here,” he gave the pipe to Angela, then laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I’m going after the other one.”

And he was up. As stealthily as he could, he climbed the stairs, attempting to stay flat to the wall and out of sight. He could hear the words flowing from the other guy’s mouth, anger lacing each one, along with heavy footsteps reverberating across the floor above him. Then after a deep breath, he emerged, sprinting towards the guy who had his back turned. That was until Jay was about three feet away, when he promptly turned and fought back, blocking the slashes of Jay’s hand with his forearm and landing a punch to Jay’s gut with his other hand. It didn’t stop Jay though, he swung and he swung, and he knew, he knew that he’d have this guy by now if he wasn’t so goddamn weak and in pain.

The guy managed to forcefully shove Jay away from him, long enough to raise his revolver and fire a shot off. A lucky shot. One that ripped through the flesh of Jay’s shoulder like it was paper.

And he screamed.

A guttural scream that resonated from somewhere deep inside of him as the pain ripped through him. He staggered backwards, clutching at his wound whilst the agony set in.

And he was so goddamn close to getting out of there.

“Jay!”

He heard it. And though it was fairly far away, he couldn’t mistake that voice for anyone else’s.

Hailey.

Oh, how he cursed himself for not telling her how he felt before. He knew how unreliable tomorrow is, he’d experienced it first-hand with too many people, yet still he had assumed it was going to come around. Now all he had left to ease the pain of his stupidity was to convince himself that she would be better off without him. She deserves so much better than him. He was a murderer, essentially. And we’re not talking the bad guys, here. Marcus West had been on his conscious since the day he died, and despite the numerous assurances from multiple people that it wasn’t his fault that he died, he knew in his heart that at least some part of it was. He reverted his mind back to Hailey as he waited for the second and fatal shot to come his way. After all, if he was going to go out, he knew it would be a lot more peaceful if his thoughts were filled with bright blonde hair, bright blue eyes that remined him of the sky on the most perfect of sunny days and the infectious smile that could make him feel whole when he caused it.

***

She heard the gunshot. She’d heard hundreds before, but this one, the one that was most likely the difference between life and death for her partner, was the loudest. So loud it made her heart stop and legs go weak at the same time. It felt as if the walls were suffocating her, coaxing her into an unconscious state where nothing was real. Not like a dream, but less of a nightmare than the one she was living in now.

But she clutched onto reality, staying awake and hauling herself back into the moment.

“Jay!” She screamed as powerful as she could, her legs finding the strength to sprint in the direction of the gunshot. It was her only way of telling him that she was there and begging him to hold on, for her.

She needs him alive. She needs him to have her back, in every aspect of life. She needs him to make her smile when everything else seems dreary.

She needs him.

***

“C’mon, pretty boy.”

Jay was only partially conscious as he was half dragged, half stumbling up the steps to the roof. He had no idea what this guy was doing. Why didn’t he just finish him off when he had the chance?

They practically burst through the door and onto the roof, the guy shoving Jay so that he fell to his knees in from of him. He groaned, but still managed to get to his feet, albeit achingly slowly. Turning to face his captor, he was met with the barrel of a gun.

“Who are you?” The man seethed. “You told us your name was Jim, but that girl shouted Jay.”

Jay didn’t say a word. He just maintained eye contact with his one good eye.

“And the way you fought me...I have to give it to you; you were pretty damn good.” The man chuckled sadistically before stopping abruptly. “Which makes it very likely that you’re a cop.”

Jay’s eyes must have flickered, because the man soon cocked the revolver, taking a step forward and urging Jay to take a step back.

“Fuck.” The man grimaced. “I knew it.”

“You’re done, man.” Jay said, seeing his chance to negotiate. “It’s over, you can’t win. So either shoot me and get charged with the murder of a police officer, or let me go. You can escape, if you’re quick, and no one will even know you were here. I’ll tell them your buddy was the only guy and he was the one who shot me.”

He genuinely seemed to consider it, only for a second, before a rage burned in his eyes stronger than Jay had ever witnessed before.

“Why can’t I have both things that I want? You, dead, and escape.” He inched further forward, the barbaric smile returning, and Jay stepped further back. “As far as I know, you fell off the roof trying to let your cop buddies know you were up here.”

That’s when Jay realised how close to the edge he was, and a lump grew in his throat.

***

“Where the hell is he?” Hailey shouted, slamming her hands down on the table beside her. The rest of the unit, which had recently regrouped after sweeping the warehouse, flinched at the loud bang but understood her frustration as they felt it themselves. Hailey found the spot where the gunshot had happened; the blood splatter on the wall tipped her off. The first place she looked was down the stairs, but she had only found Angela, slouched against the wall, and one of the captors, laid out unconscious. But no gun, and no Jay.

“There’s only two exits, and Kim and Rojas have them covered. Let’s do another sweep of the warehouse, they can’t have just disappeared.” Voight ordered, and they all dispersed, except Hailey, who still had both hands firmly planted on the table as she breathed deeply, grasping onto the little composure she had left.

That’s when she realised there were more than two exits. There was one leading onto the roof.

She sprinted off towards the stairs that she’d memorised from the blueprints and climbed them faster than she thought humanly possible. When she reached the roof, she couldn’t help but to throw open the door, her gun raised ready to fire. And as she stepped out onto the roof, she took a split second to thank her past self for taking an extra few minutes to look over the blueprints one last time.

***

Both men heard the door open, only Jay had the advantage of being the one facing it. Which is why he had a few second lead of seeing the flurry of blonde hair rushing out. And also why he had the chance, whilst his captor turned to see what the noise was, to grab the gun and attempt to pry it from his hands. But the attempt was unsuccessful, mainly down to the fact only one of his arms was currently operational, so it resulted in a struggle of tangled limbs and grunts as each man tried to claim the gun as their own. That also meant that Hailey didn’t have a clear shot in fear of shooting her partner.

But suddenly she wished she had taken the chance and trusted her skills when both bodies tumbled off the roof.

She couldn’t move. She was fixed in place in fear of seeing her partner, her best friend, falling to his death. That’s when she heard the crack, the one from the bodies hitting the sidewalk, and it was then that every fibre of her being wanted to shatter. She wanted to fall to her hands and knees and wail and howl until she was hoarse and her tears had formed puddles below her.

But she didn’t. She ran to the edge of the building where she braced herself before looking over, ready to confirm her worst nightmare. And down on the pavement were mangled limbs and spattered blood surrounding them.

And Jay grasping onto a protruding metal pole with his right hand, his body dangling precariously as he grits his teeth to endure the pain.

Hailey couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t religious, but she thanked whoever was looking down right now for the miracle that just occurred.

“Jay!” She shouted, and you could tell she was on the threshold of breaking down from the way even the single syllable she spoke wobbled with unshed tears. She reached down her hand to grab his wrist, but she knew she wasn’t going to be able to pull him up on her own, even if she had all the adrenaline in the world pumping through her veins. “Help! On the roof!”

She screamed it once. Twice. Three times. All the while, keeping her grip on Jay’s wrist as he hung helplessly. But she could tell he was getting tired, and he was already weak to begin with. The next time she spoke she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

“Just hold on, Jay, please. Please hold on.” It came out almost in sobs, but she was so desperate for him to stay strong that she didn’t care.

“Oh my god, Hailey!” Kevin shouted from the top of the stairs behind her. She heard his footsteps racing across the gravel before he dropped to his stomach beside her and looked over the edge. He didn’t hesitate to grab Jay’s arm, both him and Hailey heaving the man up and onto the roof.

And that’s where he gave up, falling to his back as the agony washed over him in full force, the adrenaline wearing off in its entirety.

“Jay, stay with me. Stay with me.” Hailey cried out, her bright blonde hair and fresh blue eyes as crystalline as the lake on a summer’s day being the last thing he remembers before slipping into unconsciousness.

***

The next thing he knows, the repetitive beep of the monitor and the chemical smell that lingers in the air is what he’s waking up to, along with the warm hand that is interlocked with his own and keeping him close. He flickers open his eyes, letting them adjust to the harsh white light before opening them fully and looking around. His brother is leant against the doorframe, watching him as he stirs before catching his eyes and smiling gratefully. To his right is a mess of blonde hair splayed out over the covers as Hailey rests her head and her eyes. He can tell she’s asleep from her slow breathing, but she looks anything but peaceful. He turns his attention back to Will, who is now walking gently towards him.

“Hey little bro,” he whispers. “You gave us quite a scare.”

“Can’t get rid of me that easily.” Jay quipped, his voice hoarse, managing a small smile.

Will merely smirked before explaining what happened when they got to the hospital, speaking quietly at Jay’s request so he didn’t wake Hailey. Once he was done, he left with a nod and a remark about letting the two lovebirds have some time together.

Jay inhaled and exhaled deeply before gathering the courage to wake Hailey. He ran his fingers through her hair then caressed her cheek with his thumb until she stirred. She sat up, a little disoriented at first but she soon came back to earth. That’s when she realised what woke her, and any remnants of sleep were quickly shaken away.

“You’re awake.” She breathed out, a little disbelieving despite the surgeon saying he was due to make a full recovery.

“So are you.” He smirked.

Silence hung in the air once more, but it was neither comfortable nor awkward. Both of them could tell there were words that needed to be said, but they couldn’t find the right ones. Somewhat luckily, that’s when Voight decided to grace them with his presence.

***

It was a little later now, and Hailey had just returned from work to sit with Jay again. He wasn’t being discharged for a least another few days, much to his dismay, but he was glad that she was there to make the wait more enjoyable. Whilst she was gone, he figured out what he wanted to say to her, the exact words, only when she stepped into the room a few minutes ago, they seemed to escape him. But it was now or never, so he threw caution to the wind and went with what his heart was telling him.

“Hailey?” It was a little louder than a whisper that he managed at first, but she heard and was up on her feet in no time.

“What is it? Are you in pain? Should I get a nurse? Or are you thirsty? I can get you some water…” She was a little on edge. She wasn’t used to seeing her partner, the war vet, the first person through the door, so incapacitated and…weak.

“No, no, I’m good.” He chuckled, and she relaxed, exhaling deeply and sitting down on the edge of the bed before meeting his eyes. He smiled softly, as did she. “You saved me.”

“Well, Kevin was the one to- “

“No, Hailey, you saved me. When that guy shot me, I was so close to giving up. I was so sure that that was it, that I was going to die on the cold, stone floor of a warehouse. But then I heard your voice. It gave me hope, it reminded me I had something, someone, worth fighting for, so close to me that I could hear you. And I was devastated when he dragged me up to that roof, but I knew that you’d find me if I just kept him talking, and you did, and you saved me again. And then when we fell, I grabbed onto that pipe, but I was so tired, Hailey, I didn’t think I was going to keep hold of it much longer. But then you told me to hold on, and I knew that I had to because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to hear your voice again, I wouldn’t see your smile light up a room again or hear your laugh and have it make my day. And I realised, Hailey, that I couldn’t let go, because that would mean giving up on a chance of having the most amazing life with you, and I could never pass that up in a million years. So, yes, Hailey, you saved me.”

That’s when he realised that she had silent tears streaming down her face, but a small smile graced her features.

“Jay…I…” She started, but she too was unable to put her feelings into words, as none seemed to convey the immensity of them. So she leaned down and captured his lips with her own, cupping the back of his head with her hand, kissing him so sweetly and passionately that she poured a thousand words worth of her feelings into that one kiss. It was like everything around them vanished, as if nothing else existed but them. He returned it immediately, holding her cheek in his palm, and they bared their souls, showing how much love they have for one another, and suddenly they both felt utterly complete.

[whitmore]

I love that the finale came full circle for Jordan and Yolanda. Jordan getting killed by a truck when that's how he killed Joey and Yolanda being scared to jump off a building and then surviving the jump (off the same building she almost jumped off originally)

i didn’t notice the jordan one tbh but i DID notice the yolanda one !!! i thought it was a really neat way to bring her arc full circle

i think a lot of characters (most if not all) got a really full circle arc in the finale? courtney giving pat the mug (while still calling him pat, but referring to herself as his daughter, which i was really happy about), beth being loved and supported and having friends that finally fuckin listen to her, rick’s forgiveness and sense of self shining through, yolanda’s jump, brainwave dying too; stuff like that.

this being said the finale is definitely not without it’s critiques; where it excelled in emotional depth & comeuppance, the eventual big fight of it all felt shallow; it really did feel too easy. looking at it as meta-medially as possible i think it’s partly because it’s a family show, but holistically, there have been wholly more terrifying & high stakes moments on stargirl than that “big fight” in the isa lair. the fight didn’t feel nearly on the level of starsquad vs tigress n sportsmaster, or even yolanda court hank jr vs isa drones. i get the feeling there’s a couple minutes of that fight we’re not seeing; it felt like too small of a chunk of the episode to be the big battle. on the contrary, as this episode IS a two-parter, looking at it holistically as one episode, it was paced well, and their wins seem more feasible when viewing the episodes as one? everything seemed awful in part one. it really, really looked like starsquad would NOT win. from pat’s horrific beatdown to fleeing to the cabin, the 30 minute mark being the start: things were REALLY grim in that episode, but part two was the win. i think viewing it as it airs actually dampers that experience, because the two episodes which ARE a two parter, don’t meld as well with a week of thoughts in between. while this angle doesn’t excuse part two of it’s faults, it certainly leavens them to a point.

everyone seemed to shine as an individual character rather than as a unit; both jsa and isa alike. neil jackson fucking SMASHED his scene on the roof, holy FUCK. it was so stomach churning to see; the way he clutched barbara, hugged her; i felt SO scared for her. the way amy smart cried but couldn’t pull away in fear of her life; that was GOOD CHARACTERIZATION. the jsa shone as individuals, not as a unit? each of their fights were fairly individualistic, which made them out to be less of a team in a sense; yolanda vs brainwave (also yolanda vs tigress), rick vs solomon grundy (also rick vs sportsmaster), justin vs dragon king (ft. cindy ex machina), pat vs grundy, pat n court vs icicle, court vs cindy. it was very individualistic in most senses; the team didn’t exactly work together. i don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, it just wasn’t what i was expecting.

i can’t remember the exact lines but there’s that exchange between pat & barb that’s just “so it’s all over?” “yeah thats how it looks” which i think is PRECISE writing; combined w luke’s statement that the isa isn’t truly gone n that the threat is still there, i think a lot more of the isa survived than meets the eye. calls for speculation? yeah. this isn’t a courtroom ur honour

also the last like,, ten minutes of the ep was dedicated PURELY to teasers for season two, which we could have done with like,,, maybe two of those four? (for clarity i think the four are justin’s departure/search for the seven, shade, eclipso, and sylvester) (*edit: also worth noting i think justin’s fit narratively. i think justin’s was necessary!! the other three we could pick & choose from but justin’s departure IS a s2 tease but it’s also essential.) and i would have honestly been happy with just syl and justin? those two specifically would have rounded out the season without making it feel like we were just pushing season two for ten minutes? i’ll be honest i would have preferred eclipso’s name reveal to be next season, shade i’m not too bothered about either way but i don’t think he HAD to have that tease? idk. the pacing of the ep felt weird bc i feel it spent a LOT of time teasing next season and not nearly enough on the final battle sequence; i would have traded those minutes.

this turned into a long essay im sorry but overall yes stargirl good but could have been better