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syncogon · 4 years ago

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[QZGS meta] what’s in an OP? dawning glory (pt 3)

(part 1) (part 2)

This is the third and last post in my little series analyzing the opening theme of The King’s Avatar Season 2! Honestly, this whole thing became way longer than I was expecting. I guess this is what happens when all my immense amount of love for this series, accumulated over years of no-donghua-updates, overlaps with my immense amount of love for anime openings.

Watched the first and second episodes yesterday, and they really sparked a lot of joy. :D I missed Blue River so much :D

Yesterday, they released the OST for Season 2, which includes the TV cut and full versions of the OP and ED, as well as two insert songs, and the instrumental versions of all of the above. I’ve yet to find anywhere that lets me download the audio files (hoping they’ll be reuploaded to youtube or bilibili soon), but in the meantime you can listen here. They’re really good songs! https: //www. kuwo. cn/album_detail/15792659

Anyway, let’s finish up this OP analysis!

Now here, we reach the true climax as we enter the chorus section. This next segment is definitely the highest-energy part of the entire opening. It’s a montage of Happy’s characters showing off their moves, timed to the music; there’s not too much deeper meaning, but damn if it doesn’t look fantastic. The animation flows from one character and scene to the next so smoothly, so beautifully, it’s just incredibly hype to see. This is what you get when you specifically choreograph/animate sequences for the opening instead of just reusing shots from the main show! (Parts of some of these shots appeared in episode 1, but I do honestly think that it’s more likely that the show reused shots from the opening than the other way around, just because of how perfectly the OP fits together. I also don’t think it’s super noticeable in-show; I’ve just been watching this obsessively.)

In particular I love the line that kicks this all off: “just put on your battle armor and step onto the road to the unknown.” Specifically, though, the rhythm of the lyric is, “jiu pi shang zhan jia ta shang wei zhi qian fang,” with emphasizing accents on the -ang sounds. This isn’t how you would divide the phrase naturally, but because the (syncopated!!) melody accents these notes/syllables, the rhyming effect really stands out and it feels as clever and satisfying as a rap lyric. Moreover, the emphasis times juuust right with the attacks of Soft Mist, Steamed Bun Invasion, and Windward Formation, a perfect example of how music and visuals mutually reinforce each other for maximum cool effect.

It’s generally easier to rhyme in Chinese than English, because of a smaller phonetic vocabulary. From the chorus onward, the key rhyme is on the “-ang” sound (think “ahng” or “ong”, not “aang” like the Avatar), which is a good choice - powerful, reverberant. The asymmetry of the syllable’s use in this section - the song’s lines are all different lengths at this part, so you’re kept on your toes as to when the pattern will reappear - helps add to the engaging excitement of the song. This is also the syllable used for most of the rhymes in the second half of the first OP.

jiu pi shang zhan jia ta shang wei zhi qian fang

hui qi shou zhong wo jin de na shu guang

you ni men zai lu shang__

shi li liang

I really love One Inch Ash’s design. Concealed Light had a big redesign for this season, and honestly I like it as well. And notice here that he’s holding a book - exactly how we left Luo Ji when we saw him last!

“Waving the light clenched tightly in our hand” - that is to say, brandishing our light as our weapon, no matter what form it may take - a sword, a book, our hope and determination.

On a purely musical note (ha), right at this point, specifically the measure beginning with “那束光,” you can hear a three-note “ooo” harmony line in the background, and wow it’s so subtle but I love it so much! A similar three-note line actually appears earlier too (during the “crossing the frozen finish line,” right as the music is building up), also to great effect.

We follow Concealed Light’s gaze upward to the building to see Deception running along the wall, from which he does a flip and slashes downward with twin blades. I love that transition a lot, but my favorite transition of this entire sequence has to be the following one:

Yes! Deception’s cross slash resolves perfectly into the cross held by Little Cold Hands. It’s so fast and so natural you don’t even notice it, and that’s the absolute beauty of it. The first time I saw this, I was in awe - the animators really brought their A-game to this, far better than I ever would have dared hope for this series.

And Little Cold Hands is so pretty! When we got our first art of her official design, the comments were filled with people simping for her, and honestly, valid. I’m surprised her hair is purple instead of pink, but that’s just a minor thing.

There’s something especially powerful about how she raises her cross in time with the lyric “having you all here [with me] on this road,” and then the cross flashing brilliantly with “it’s power.” More than any other role, the healer is a team player. And this theme of team togetherness is particularly important for An Wenyi, who is deeply moved by the team’s perhaps illogical faith in him. Remember that analogy Ye Xiu tells him, of the straw tied to the deluxe mitten crab?

An aside: listening to this, I always thought the line should be 有你们在身旁 instead of 有你们在路上, because it still fits the rhyme, because my past experience has somewhat conditioned me to expect that phrase, and because the full message of “having you by my side is power” just makes me wanna tear up like what a good line! So it felt like a missed opportunity that they didn’t use that. But as it turns out, the final iteration of this chorus in the full version of the OP does, in fact, use “by my side”! And I think making this tiny tweak to the lyric the final time you here it just makes it that much stronger :’)

I’m also just a big fan of the “it’s power” melodic flourish in general, since it comes as a surprise. You kind of expect the melody to end with the previous phrase, but the extra notes here add a really nice emphatic beat to finish off the line.

So to recap the transitions: we see Soft Mist falling from the sky and get a close up of her face as she stabs her spear; this takes us to a closeup of Steamed Bun’s face facing roughly the same direction before we zoom out to his torso and he slashes from lower left of the screen to upper right; following the motion of that slash we see Windward Formation’s torso rotate in that direction as the camera zooms out farther; we follow the rays of his attack to see One Inch Ash drawing his sword; we zoom in on the flashing blade and zoom out on Concealed Light’s glowing book; we follow his gaze upward to see Deception running along the building behind him; Deception leaps and slashes and the slash becomes Little Cold Hands’ cross, which raises up and triggers an explosion. It’s just so dynamic and smooth even without taking place in one continuous setting, and it just really, really gets you hyped.

Also, starting from Happy’s team picture at the start of the chorus, which is during the day, it feels like Soft Mist and Steamed Bun’s moves are at late afternoon, Windward Formation and One Inch Ash take us to nighttime, and then you can see the first rays of morning in Concealed Light and Deception’s segments. This continuity also definitely helps with the feeling of natural flow through these scenes.

Anyway, this entire action segment is just so beautiful, I could watch it on loop. But we still have the final segment of this OP to analyze, so let’s keep going.

After the action sequences of the climax, we settle down a bit now as we approach the end. Here we see the Excellent Era team picture, in the same style as the team pics we saw earlier, but presented separately. It makes sense, as the role they play in the story is different from the roles of all the other teams.

Sun Xiang, Liu Hao, and Cui Li are at the bottom. Because we’re panning up, these three are the first we see. At first glance, the way they’re positioned is fairly consistent with the team pics we’ve seen already: Captain Sun Xiang at center-right, the largest figure; vice-captain Liu Hao, manager Cui Li in the background.

Sun Xiang’s position and expression is really the only one that fits the healthy pattern of the teams we’ve seen already - looking toward the camera, a confident (though arrogant) smile. He might be misguided, but there’s hope for him yet. Notice how Liu Hao isn’t even looking at the camera, which as we’ve seen before is somewhat of an indication of how unified and focused the team is toward its goal; instead, Liu Hao is doing his own thing, determined to prioritize his own desires over what’s best for the team. And manager Cui Li is in this image too, despite not even being a player. His sinister presence reflects the unhealthy interference of the business side in the gaming side. Excellent Era’s downfall comes about because of its prioritization of profit over victory.

As we pan up, Excellent Era’s logo comes into view. It’s larger than any of the other team logos we’ve seen so far, spanning around three-quarters of the screen whereas the others looked to span no more than half. Excellent Era’s legacy is a weighty one, to date the only team to have ever won three championships, and consecutively to boot.

It’s this immense, shining logo that seems to be casting Tao Xuan on the left into shadow. He cuts a large figure, reflecting the deep impact his actions have had upon the main plot of this story, even though he’s only now appearing for the first time in the donghua.

However, he’s also turned away from the camera, such that we can barely even see his closed eye. Because of that, it’s difficult to read his expression, but the impression given by this pose is not one of vindictive pride, but one of shame, as though he can’t quite bear to face what he’s done. On some level, no matter how he might try to rationalize it as necessary, Tao Xuan knows that his profit-driven betrayal of Ye Xiu was a pretty awful thing to do. It might be this amount of guilt that leads him to offer Ye Xiu a wish granted, a tribute to their years of friendship and partnership before their ties are severed completely.

In the end, Tao Xuan’s greed leaves him with nothing really to show for it. What had he gained? What had he lost? Those realizations are still a ways off in the story, but I like how this OP is already hinting at the depth of his character. Tao Xuan isn’t some glasses-flashing, evil-laughing, one-dimensional antagonist; he is in fact very realistic for the setting. We can condemn his actions and priorities, but at the same time we can understand how he ended up here.

As for Su Mucheng, her eyes are closed as well. She’s brightly illuminated, but pointedly turned away from all of the others in Excellent Era; she knows the direction of her future, and that it no longer lies with Excellent Era. Her loyalty was always to Ye Xiu, and as soon as he was banished, her relationship to the team was professional and nothing more.

“This light hidden in my heart is burning” - there are many ways to read this lyric and what exactly the light referenced here is, but because the line is paired with this image, I naturally think about Su Mucheng’s situation. Despite her pretty-vase, sweet-girl appearance, she holds a deep, profound anger at everything that happened regarding Excellent Era. It’s a testament to her immense strength of character that she lasted the remaining one and a half years of her contract in this hostile environment.

Yet even as she resolves to cut ties, there’s a sadness in her expression. She was here from the very beginning as well, when Excellent Era was no more than an internet cafe, and it pains her immensely that the powerhouse, championship team that they and her brother had built from the ground up would ultimately meet this tragic end.

It’s interesting to note that both of the “redeemable” characters here (namely Su Mucheng and Sun Xiang) are on the right, more brightly-lit side of the screen, so there’s a nice little dividing line you can draw there. Sun Xiang’s eyes are still looking toward the left, though, revealing how his character development still has yet to play out.

From there we cut to Ye Xiu holding Lord Grim’s account card. He’s standing back on top of the roof from the beginning of the OP, now in full daylight.

As mentioned… the animators really went ham on the bangs animation.

Ye Xiu turns away from the railing, the camera cuts to an image of Happy’s logo on a flag waving in the wind, and then we zoom out to see the current members of Team Happy gathered together in uniform, standing proud in the light of day. Left to right, Steamed Bun, Tang Rou, Luo Ji, Ye Xiu, An Wenyi, Wei Chen, Chen Guo. Presumably, this will be Happy’s lineup by the end of the season.

Up until now, we’ve only seen the real players separate from each other - they’ve all been in different places, never even in the same frame together. (This, of course, also contrasts the pro team pics that we have, which show everyone together.) Halfway through the OP, we got the group shot of them meeting in game with their characters. And now, they’ve finally met up in the real world as well.

One thing I like about this final pose is how it compares to the final pose of the OVA OP. It’s the same kind of power-pose vibe, but there we only had Ye Xiu, Chen Guo, and Tang Rou. Look at how we’ve grown since then! They’re well on their way to being a proper pro team!

And that’s a wrap! With this final image of Team Happy gathered together, we’re ready to enter the episode proper.

So let’s talk about the OP as a whole. Generally, an OP serves a couple of main roles: a) tells you a bit about what the show is about, b) gives you an overall feeling / mood for the show, c) gets you hyped and ready to watch the upcoming episode.

How well does this opening achieve those goals? Pretty well, as we’ve seen. Past OPs did a pretty good job of setting the mood, but they honestly just put some pretty visuals on the screen, only vaguely aligned to the music, and called it a day. This OP, however, has a cohesive storyline to tell, framed around Team Happy’s coming together (following the tagline of this season). Even in such a short span of time, it manages to convey so much information about its story and characters, both overt and implicit (as I hope this series of posts has managed to convince you). Paired with the music, which has its own deeper meanings encoded in the lyrics, the OP becomes incredibly effective and memorable as it makes its statement.

I mentioned an “interest curve” earlier (interest in the sense of interesting, not the money); this is part of the standard formula for anime opening songs, in my experience. I’m a little too lazy to draw a graph myself, so take a look at this image:

(source: https: //www. researchgate. net/figure/Example-of-an-interest-curve-for-a-successful-entertainment-experience_fig1_333917625 )

Although not all of the relative heights and segment lengths are accurate in this specific case, hopefully the general shape of the interest curve is enough to demonstrate my point. You’ve got the A-B peak at the opening instrumental segment, the C-D peak/arc over verse 1, the D-E-F peak/arc over verse 2, then the sharp F-G-H peak over the chorus before dropping off for a smooth landing right into the episode. This general pattern is effective at holding the viewer’s focus and managing their excitement over the course of this one and a half minutes.

Visually, the OP is just such a treat for the eyes. I’ve already talked about many of the little details I love - lighting, character designs, animations, transitions, etc. - but all in all the new animation studio is doing a really good job here. An OP is how you hook people, and I’d definitely feel comfortable using this to try and bait people into watching this show.

One comment I want to add is about the incorporation of the credits, which we didn’t see until the episode premiere. I don’t think there’s anything too exciting to say (and I also don’t have access to any images right now since the OP was only shown in episode 2), but the fonts and styling were a nice choice - it gave a gaming vibe, but if I recall it still used a serif font, so it didn’t feel overly modern - and the text positioning generally complements instead of distracting. I also liked how they showed the lyrics! I didn’t really expect them to include them onscreen, or if they did, I thought they would just be plain subs like they were in this video. But in the actual OP that plays at the beginning of the episode, they’re as much a part of the art as the credits!

If I had to make any criticism, my biggest complaint about the OP is, I think, the singers. I think having two different singers trade off can work nicely, but in this case, the switches are jarring because their voices are so different. The first singer has a lower, gravely voice, while the second singer’s voice sounds much brighter and more nasally. Furthermore, the first switch doesn’t come until we’re fully halfway through the song, which means that by that point we’re already used to this first singer. It’s also strange that they’d switch back to the first voice at the climax of the song, when I think the second voice would suit the high-energy segment much better. Switching from second to first right at this point feels like we’re actually taking a step down in energy, which is the opposite of what should be happening here.

Still, my main problem isn’t with the voice switching but with the voices themselves, and I think the voices are something I could get used to. The third switch, going from the first voice back to the second voice during the shot of Excellent Era, is much less jarring than the others - I actually like how it feels like the solo is passing naturally from one person to the next, emphasizing the ideals of this not being a single-player game and all that. For that transition in particular, I think (because of the added “it’s power” flourish) it happens too quickly for one person to sing it comfortably, so having another person pick up the line works best. And I do like how the voices sound when they overlay together for the final lines of the song.

So, overall? Overall, this OP is really damn good. It’s everything I could have asked for and more. After such a long wait, the OP, at least, does not disappoint, and I’m extremely excited to see what the series has in store for us.

If you’ve read to this point, thank you! I like this series a lot, as you can probably see, and I’m treating it as my glory :)

#quan zhi gao shou #qzgs #the king's avatar #tka #全职高手 #mine #qzgs commentary #synco talks

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reilly310 · 6 years ago

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The Rule of Coincidences

Kona wasn’t their first rodeo, kids.

I’ve seen a few posts recently that talk about coincidences as they relate to Sam and Cait’s whereabouts and relationships. Is it a coincidence that they both made Los Angeles their home base during the last few months of the hiatus after Sam finished his filming duties? Is it a coincidence that, after leaving LA, both ended up in NYC? Is it a coincidence that they both vacationed in Kona or that the resort Cait thanked followed both of them? Is it a coincidence that they posted pictures with pretty much every current and former OL costar/production team member they saw while in LA but, oops, forgot to take a picture with each other? Is it a coincidence that Sam makes pancakes in Cait’s kitchen on Valentine’s Day or watches her run a marathon from her bedroom (and bed) with Eddie in his lap?

I was reminded of something I read a while back from Seth Abramson, who is an attorney, professor and author that I follow on twitter. He posted a simple “rule of coincidences” that he used in his criminal investigations. Obviously we’re not talking about something as serious as a criminal investigation here, but the general principle of this rule can apply to any set of coincidences, including those surrounding SC. When looked at individually, some of the things we’ve witnessed might be viewed as mere chance, but when these individual occurrences pile up one after the other, can they truly still be considered coincidental?

The rule is:

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1 coincidence? Yes

2 coincidences? Yes, maybe

3 coincidences? Likely not

4 coincidences? No

“Yes” means a coincidence may be just that. “No” means what you think is a coincidence isn't.

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Through the years, we’ve amassed a plethora of “receipts” and observed a multitude of things that some choose to dismiss as coincidences. How many? Well that’s up for debate.

Sorry, Sam, you need a better source. It’s way more than 4 total. In fact, sometimes, even looking only at an individual event, there can be 3 or 4 coincidences surrounding it which, according to the theory above, would mean they’re likely not coincidences at all. Let’s try it out on Sam’s trip to Big Sur in June 2016. Were Sam and Cait actually there together?

The Beauty of Big Sur (June 2016)

1 coincidence (Yes): After finishing their Season 2 promotion is Los Angeles, they both more or less “disappear” for about a week.

Yes, they posted a bit on twitter (less than what would be considered normal for them at the time) and once each on IG during this period, but after June 9th for Sam and June 16th for Cait, we don’t see either again real-time until the LA Dodgers baseball game on June 22nd. ( Of course, we weren’t supposed to see one of them there and we most definitely weren’t supposed to see them together.)

2 coincidences (Yes, maybe): Cait follows Audi’s Tonya Meli in mid-June 2016. Sam posts his first Audi promotion in the US (in Big Sur, CA) later that same month.

On June 14th Cait did a web interview with Gold Derby. The interview was posted on twitter the next day (June 15th) by Robert Licuria. He tagged Cait, who then began to follow him on twitter. Her follow list also showed that, right before Robert, she followed Tonya Meli from Audi UK. At this point in time, Sam had endorsed Audi but Cait had not (and wouldn’t until January 2017) so the follow was curious.

3 coincidences (Likely not): Cait’s favorite vacation destination (per a 2014 interview) is the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur. Sam takes his June Audi picture in Big Sur...just a few miles from Post Ranch Inn.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/sns-201409160000--tms--celebtrvctnct-a20140916-20140916-story.html

Although Big Sur stretches for 75 miles along the California coast, Sam’s Audi pics are taken just 4 miles from Post Ranch and 2 miles from one of Cait’s favorite restaurants in Big Sur. (Deetjen’s)

Closer view of that 4 mile stretch.

Views from Post Ranch Inn, looking south.

View from Deetjen’s (correction: This is Nepenthe), looking south.

Notice the familiar land mass jutting out into the ocean in all of these pictures? It’s the same one that is in Sam’s Instagram pictures.

And here is the lookout spot with both that familiar land mass and the large rocks we see in his pictures.

Closeup of the narrower pull-off spot just in front of where Sam took his pictures.

SIDEBAR:

Before we move to coincidence #4, let’s talk about latergrams. We know they both post them and, of course, it’s a smart thing for them to do, especially in their industry. I always assume that any picture posted by Sam or Cait that includes their images (unless tied to official promo events) is a latergram.

On August 3, 2016, for example, Sam posted a picture of himself thanking MPC members for that year’s campaign but didn’t reveal the location of the picture in his post.

By August 3rd, Cait had posted pictures at least insinuating that she was vacationing on the Amalfi Coast and, if memory serves, there was at least a bit of speculation that this August 3rd picture of Sam could possibly be from there.

But a close look at both Sam’s June 27th Audi posts and this August 3rd picture reveals that they were actually taken in the same place…and at the same time (likely within minutes of each other)… in Big Sur.

So Sam simply took off his jacket and sunglasses, rolled up his sweats and sat on one of the rocks for the MPC picture, but he didn’t post it for several weeks. With that in mind, it’s also likely that his Audi pics were held for a bit before posting. He’s not going to want to announce his stay in Big Sur in real-time and risk fans coming in search of him. (Remember that fan who, after Sam posted his picture in front of the sign in North Carolina later this same year, drove 4 hours just in the hope of finding him there?)

On to coincidence #4...

4 coincidences (No): The person who took his pictures in Big Sur is a woman who resembles Cait.

Yes, I base this observation on a reflection (I can hear some of you groaning now.) but, as reflections go, this one is pretty clear. I just adjusted the picture’s lighting a bit and then highlighted the reflection in sepia so it’s easier to see.

Here is just the reflection as it’s further lightened/enhanced.

So we have a woman with long, dark hair and a long neck who is wearing comfy-looking clothes in her downtime. Hmm, who do we...and Sam...know that matches that description?

So, in summary, (1) Sam and Cait are both in California in June 2016, but their whereabouts are unknown for several days after their promotional duties end mid-month. (2) For no apparent reason, Cait follows Tonya Meli just before completing her final promo interview on June 16th. Sam posts an Audi pic, tagging Tonya, later that same month. We know he posts latergrams, so he likely took the picture earlier than it was posted. (3) Sam’s Audi pic is taken in BIg Sur and just a few miles from Cait’s all-time favorite vacation destination. (4) The person who took the picture is reflected on the side of the car and she resembles Cait.

Conclusion: 4 coincidences = No coincidence.

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esotheria-sims · 5 years ago

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As promised, here’s the floorplan for Gatehouse Inn + a few additional pics that I hope will be useful to those of you who’d like to re-create the lot in your own game.There are a few tricky portions that you’d have to fiddle with to get right (the bridge, the attic…), but overall, it’s a relatively simple build. I’m going to make a second post where I’ll list all the cc necessary for the exterior (and parts of the interior), but this post is about laying down the foundations (proverbial and literal) for your inn. I’m tagging it ‘tutorial�� for my own organization purposes, but it’s really more of a lazy compilation of suggestions than anything else.

Start with a 2x3 lot and plop it down on the corner of an intersection. Enter your lot and make any small change, then save and exit the game.

Fire up LotAdjuster, select your lot, and add 20 squares to the right side. The road will take up 10 squares, and you’ll have an additional 10 squares of land to build on.

(*It’s no biggie if the road to the right of your lot suddenly disappears - just plop down one of CuriousB’s deco road pieces and you’re good to go. I suppose you can also use the Portal Revealer to make the mock-road usable again, but I haven’t play-tested my lot yet so I can’t tell you much about this step. @12raben has a really neat tutorial which you can check out, though!)

Start building! I’ve outlined the floorplan for the ground floor above to make things easier for you (hope y’all can make some sense out of my scribbles, haha. Feel free to ask if you need additional info!)

The pic of the bridge I’ve shared above is the final product - you’ll need to use a makeshift scaffolding in the form of columns to get floor tiles you can build on (in case anyone’s been wondering what those weird blue thingamajigs were doing in my WIP post - now you know!)

(*Pro tip: remove the columns only after you’re 100% sure you’re done building the bridge, because once you’ve removed them the tiles will disappear again and you won’t be able to add any more changes to your bridge… unless you put the columns back, but why do double the work? Work smarter, not harder!)

Speaking of the bridge, it’s a tricky little bastard. I used MLC’s crescent column to give the bridge that arched look, and two sets of crescent columns on the upper floor (one placed on a 11 degree OMSP - see pic above) to make the line of the arch ‘flow’ better. No pro tips for this one, just turn moveobjects on and snapobjectstogrid off and move the columns around until they align properly.

I don’t remember if I had to change the roof height on the main building or not for the attic, but if you can’t fit another wall underneath the roof just mess around until you make it happen.

And that’s more or less it! Follow-up post with cc links coming soon(ish) available here!

#sims 2 #ts2 #sim exterior #tutorial #BACC #wyverns bay #building wyverns bay #gatehouse inn #mine

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thevampirediariesdiary · 6 years ago

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2.07 Masquerade (part I)

There’s a lot of plotty-nonsense in this episode, so let’s consider the alternate title for this recap “The Vampire Diaries, and How To Have a Satisfying Arc Finale, Unlike Other Shows I Could Name (I’m Looking At You, Teen Wolf)”.

The episode begins in the Salvatore living room, where Caroline relates to Stefan the message Katherine asked her to deliver (she already told Damon, because he was the only person home when she got there, and at this point in the narrative they’re still lowkey friends, he gave her a drink to calm her nerves and everything): “Tell Damon and Stefan that I want the moonstone, and I will rip this town apart until it rains blood. Tonight, at the masquerade ball.” “Killing Mason threw her off guard,” Stefan says. “She’s running scared, what she did to Jenna was desperate, she’s out of tricks,” Damon says. “Can’t we just give her the moonstone so she’ll leave?” Caroline asks. “No,” Damon says, indignant, “Katherine’s not getting dick. I’ve had it. I’m gonna go to the masquerade ball, and I’m gonna kill her, tonight.” “You’re not gonna kill her,” Stefan says. Damon points at him, says, “Don’t give me that goody-goody crap.” “You’re not gonna kill her,” Stefan repeats. “Oh, really,” Damon says. “Because I am,” Stefan says.

Meanwhile, Elena, Jeremy, and Matt are bringing Jenna home from the hospital. “You don’t wanna rip your stitches, hemorrhage, and die,” Jeremy says, helpfully. “The only thing I’m going to die of is embarrassment,” Jenna says. “I walked into a knife, how does somebody do that?” “It was a freak accident,” Elena says, nervously. “It happens,” Jeremy adds. “Yeah,” says Matt, deadpan, “I’ve done it like twenty times at the Grille.” Everyone laughs. “Yeah, I’m being nice,” Matt admits, and gently deposits Jenna on the sofa.

Matt is a good, good boy, and Jenna is an angel. “What are we going to do about Katherine?” Jeremy hisses to Elena in the next room. “She tried to kill Jenna, we can’t let her get away with that.” “Yes, we can,” Elena says. “If it keeps us safe then we can. Katherine hurt Jenna because I wasn’t doing what she said. Well, I am now. Me and Stefan are over, she wins. The end.” “You’re being naïve and you know it,” Jeremy tells her, and backs out of the room. “Where are you going?” Elena asks him. “Out,” he says, calling to Jenna, “I’ll be back!” This is a weirdly good episode for Jeremy. He’s mature and fairly sensible for basically the whole thing.

Katherine has been shopping, and her kindly landlady Miss Flowers helps her carry her bags up to her room. Katherine’s friend Lucy is waiting for her there; we learn Lucy is a witch, Katherine wants her to come to the masquerade with her, and Lucy is dubiously free in this matter. Everybody has now said “masquerade ball, tonight” approximately a million times. Katherine straightens her hair and complains that she has to impersonate “dull-as-dishwater” Elena, who has no taste. “Except in men,” Lucy says. The early seasons of this show are hilarious because all the side characters are always like “ooooh those Salvatores are so sexy and impressive”, whereas by the end of the show side characters are more like “oh no, it’s those pretty-boy guys who famously bring chaos wherever they go”.

Bonnie arrives at the Salvatore house, having rushed over with her grimoire. “I got Stefan’s message,” she tells Caroline, and stops short when she sees Damon and Alaric pal-ing it out over a pile of weapons. “What’s going on?” she asks. “We’re gonna kill Katherine,” Jeremy says, walking by her looking tough. He pauses to give her a weird once-over, and wanders off to join the bro-fest. “I can explain,” Stefan says. “Please,” Bonnie says expectantly.

“We’re…gonna kill Katherine,” Stefan admits. “I know you love Elena and you wanna be with her, but it’s risky, too many people could get hurt!” Bonnie argues. “Look, I want Elena back, yes, but it’s more than that,” Stefan says. “What Katherine did to Jenna, it crossed the line, she has to be stopped before it happens again.” Bonnie agrees to do a spell trapping Katherine, isolated away from the rest of the party, like the spell at the tomb.

Elena invites Matt to hang out with her, Jenna, and Alaric for pizza and bad tv; he says he’s going to the Lockwood masquerade party, there’s something he has to do there that he can’t talk about. “Well, have fun,” says Elena. “Yeah, me in a suit?” Matt says, self-deprecating. “You look good in a suit,” Elena tells him. He smiles at her, soft, and says, “You and Stefan will work it out.” “Um, I don’t think so,” Elena says in a small voice. “There’s so much about me and Stefan that would never work.” Matt steps closer, tells her, “You know I’m here for you always.”

He’s really over her, and he really, really still loves her. Matt is a hero among men.

The war council at the Salvatores’ continues.

Damon is posing; google earth, always takin’ pics. “Are you sure you don’t want me there tonight?” Alaric asks the assembled strike team. “No, I need you to stay with Elena, I don’t want her to know about this,” Stefan instructs. Jeremy looks at the floor; he knows how it feels to be kept in the dark, and he isn’t a fan of it, but he says nothing. “Alright, if anyone wants to back out, I’ll understand,” Stefan says. “Yeah, cold feet, speak now,” Damon says, “I don’t want this going wrong because someone chickens out – Caroline.” “I won’t,” Caroline says, firm. “She killed me! Fair’s fair.” “Bonnie?” asks Stefan. “You with us?” Bonnie nods, shakily. “But no one gets hurt,” she says. “Except Katherine!” Damon adds. “Tonight Katherine gets a stake through her heart.” Everyone gets an individual Dramatic Closeup. Except Alaric. His part in the plan, eating pizza and watching tv with his girlfriend, isn’t important enough to merit a closeup.

Katherine and Lucy arrive at the party, and Katherine runs into Matt. “You really are hot in a suit,” she tells him. He grins bashfully, and then she asks him to repeat his compelled instructions: “I’m going to get Tyler Lockwood really drunk, I’m gonna start a fight with him, and then I’m going to beat him until he snaps. I won’t stop until he kills me.” “God, you’re hot,” Katherine says. “Now go away.” “Thank you,” Matt says, polite as always.

Damon does a weird little dance down the stairs to meet up with his brother.

It’s ridiculous, and hilarious, and totally in-character for what Damon would be doing a few minutes before killing the once-love-of-his-life, and it might be the best part of this whole episode, which is excellent from start to finish. “See her?” he asks. “Nope,” Stefan says, shortly. He’s not in a dancing mood (but then, when is he ever). “Sure you can do this?” Stefan asks. “Pssh,” Damon answers. “Who are you talking to?” “Well, I had the chance to kill her and I hesitated,” Stefan says. “Well, that is the fork in the road between you and me, my friend,” says Damon, attempting to look dangerous in his butterfly mask, “I don’t hesitate.” “You spent a hundred and forty-five years loving her,” Stefan points out, “it could happen.” “I won’t hesitate,” Damon repeats.

Matt feeds Tyler shots, they’re hanging out with those two girls who are always hanging around and whose names I can never remember.

Bonnie and Jeremy stake out a convenient room in the upstairs of the mansion – I say “stake out” because Jeremy is hiding wooden stakes all around it, and I’m hilarious. “Can you do all the stuff that’s in there?” Jeremy asks, looking at the grimoire. “I mean, it takes practice,” Bonnie answers. “I’ve worked on some small spells, spells that only do good, but I don’t wanna know too much. I don’t particularly enjoy any of this, in case you haven’t noticed.” “But you’re one hundred percent witch, that is so cool,” Jeremy says. “It’s anything but cool,” Bonnie says. “It never ends well for people like me.” “If you feel that way, why help?” Jeremy asks. “Because I don’t want anyone else getting hurt,” Bonnie answers. “And I don’t know how to stay out of it.”

“I feel like an invalid,” Jenna whines, as Elena fetches her mug from the coffee table a foot away. “That’s because you are an invalid,” Elena tells her. “Where’s Jeremy, isn’t he hungry?” “He already left, for the Lockwood party,” Jenna says. “He went to that?” Elena says, spidey-senses tingling. “I’m glad,” Jenna says, oblivious, “he needs to have more fun, lose some of that emo-thing.” Elena confronts Alaric, whose cover story falls apart immediately because he concedes that everyone is at the party, and too many people in Elena’s immediate group of friends would only attend a party if there were a violent plot involved.

Bonnie and Jeremy reenter the party, she asks, “Do you feel that?” “What’s the matter, are you cold?” Jeremy asks, placing a hand on her back and practically vibrating with the hope that he’ll get to give her his suit jacket. “No,” she says, and goes over to tap Lucy on the shoulder. Lucy says no, they don’t know each other, and wanders off. “I just got a weird vibe,” Bonnie tells Jeremy, “let’s go find Damon.” Because Damon is the king of weird vibes.

Stefan scans the party for Katherine; Digital Daggers’ “Head Over Heels” starts to play. It’s eery and wonderful. Katherine appears behind Stefan, says, “Dance with me.” He turns to look at her, that particular, almost playfully dangerous glint in his eye that only comes out around her.

“No,” he says. “Fine,” she says, bored. “Then tell me who I should kill. Him? Or…mmm, she looks delicious.” Stefan rolls his eyes, smiles, and offers her his arm, and leads her to the dance floor. It’s difficult to say which of them looks more smug. “It’s a beautiful night,” Katherine coos in her Elena impression. Stefan chuckles ominously, asks, “Why the charade?” “How’s Jenna?” Katherine asks. “I certainly didn’t expect her to survive that. Lucky girl. Clumsy. How does one stab oneself?” “Katherine?” Stefan says. “Hmm?” “I don’t want anyone to get hurt tonight.” “Okay,” she says, reasonably, “then give me the moonstone and nobody will.” “Well, see, I don’t have the moonstone on me,” Stefan says, oh-so-smoothly, “so you and I will have to go get it together.” “I have a better plan,” Katherine says, impatiently. “You go fetch it, and I will try not to kill anyone in the meantime.” “My way, or you don’t get it,” Stefan says. One of the girls whose name I can’t remember comes over and asks Stefan if he’s seen Matt, and compliments “Elena”’s dress. Katherine pretends she’s going to fix a twist in the girls necklace, and instead breaks her back. “Paralyzed from the waist down,” she says, matter of fact, “and – dead.” Stefan catches the body, shocked. “The moonstone, Stefan,” Katherine says. “Tick tock.” Side note: remember how in Miss Mystic Falls they shot Elena and Stefan’s dance scene in alternate individual closeups, and the Damon and Elena dance scene with both of their faces in frame simultaneously? Both Katherine and Stefan are in frame the entire dance.

Make of that what you will.

Elena sneaks out; Alaric is a terrible bodyguard.

Stefan starts to spiral, and says collateral damage like whats-her-name (I’m so sorry) is why they should call the whole thing off. “Now who’s hesitating?” Damon says harshly. “Hey, this woman ruined our lives, she destroyed us. Tonight it ends.” He takes Stefan’s shoulders, looks at him intently.

“We can do it together,” Damon says quietly. “I got your back. Alright?” “Alright,” Stefan says. It’s so big brother-little brother it hurts.

“So can you do a hocus-pocus to ace a test?” Jeremy asks Bonnie, twirling his cell phone and waiting for his cue. “I don’t know that spell,” Bonnie says. “That’d be like the first one I’d learn,” Jeremy says, “or maybe like a sex spell or something, I don’t know.” Bonnie is quietly alarmed at this turn in the conversation. “You wanna dance or something while we’re waiting?” Jeremy continues. “No,” says Bonnie, laughing.

“I mean…no thank you,” Bonnie amends. Jeremy gets the text from Damon he’s been waiting for, and strides off.

Lucy finds Katherine and complains that there’s another witch involved. “No one was supposed to know I was involved, this changes things,” she says. “This changes nothing,” Katherine says. “You’re here because you owe your dear friend a favor. You wouldn’t wanna lose my friendship, now would you?” “Elena?” says Jeremy, coming over. “Could I talk to my sister?” he asks Lucy, politely. Lucy wanders off. “What is it, Jeremy?” Katherine says, Elena-bright. “I have a message from Stefan,” Jeremy says. “He and Damon want you to meet them at the edge of the lake by the woods; they brought the moonstone.” “And why are you their little messenger?” Katherine says derisively. Jeremy grins, says, “Because they know I’m not afraid of you.” “Oh, you Gilbert men. So courageous,” says Katherine, mocking. “How’s John, by the way? Were they able to sew his fingers back on?” She and Jeremy part, Jeremy texts Caroline “your turn” and promptly gets pulled into the bushes by his actual sister.

In the party, Caroline and Matt exchange longing looks while the band in the soundtrack wails “I understand if you’re afraid, but people change”.

It’s very affecting, but then Matt follows his drinking buddies back into the late mayor’s office, and Caroline has her own part to play. She goes off on her own and is promptly cornered by Katherine, who slams her against a wall and asks her what’s going on. “I don’t know,” Caroline says, weakly, “nothing.” “Don’t lie to me, Caroline,” Katherine says, grabbing her by the throat, “they’re up to something, what is it?” “I –” Caroline says; Katherine squeezes, and something in her neck cracks. “Wait, no no no,” Caroline pleads, then admits: “They’re trying to kill you.” “I figured as much,” Katherine says, “where’s the moonstone?” “Bonnie has it,” Caroline says, sounding defeated. “And where is Bonnie right now?” Katherine asks, imitating her voice. “I don’t know,” Caroline snaps. Katherine picks her up by the neck again, Caroline breaks: “She’s upstairs!”

“You guys are trying to kill her here?” Elena says, disbelieving. “We saw an opportunity and we knew we had to take it,” says Jeremy, who is clearly feeling like James Bond in his suit. “Okay, stop with the ‘we’,” Elena says. “Are you guys crazy, you’re going to get yourselves killed!” “We know what we’re doing, Elena,” Bonnie assures her. “And how am I supposed to feel if one of you guys gets hurt because of me?” Elena asks. “It’s not just you, Elena,” Jeremy says, coolly. “She’s messed with all of us, she needs to be stopped.” Bonnie nods. My one and only complaint with this episode is that Bonnie is in this short little scene – she doesn’t contribute anything to the conversation, and her presence ruins the suspense for what’s going on with Caroline.

“Why are you dragging me into this, I don’t want any part of it!” Caroline sobs as Katherine pulls her through the upstairs hallway. “Shut up,” Katherine says. “Which room is it?” Caroline sniffs, says miserably, “It’s that one.” Katherine kicks her way through the double doors and says, “Where is she?” There’s a giggle behind her; she turns back around. Caroline is beaming. “I did it!” she says. “I didn’t think I’d be able to fool…you, but…I did it.” Katherine lunges at her, but is trapped in the doorway. “What the?”

“Stefan,” Katherine says, and turns around. “Hello, Katherine,” says Stefan, tauntingly. “Goodbye, Katherine,” says Caroline more tauntingly, gives her a wiggly-fingered wave, and saunters off. Go Caroline!! Stefan twirls his stake; Katherine says, “You don’t really think you can kill me with that?” “No,” Stefan says, watching Damon emerge from the closet behind her with Alaric’s compressed-air stake gun, “but he can.”

Damon shoots Katherine in the back, and out on the lawn, Elena screams. Stefan lunges for Katherine and catches her in the arm; Elena’s arm starts to bleed. “Jeremy, it’s Katherine, she’s linked to Katherine!” Bonnie realizes. “Get them to stop!” The best freaking vampire fight this show has ever seen continues – seriously, they upped the fight choreography so much for this episode and I love them for it. Stefan throws a stake at Katherine, she whirls and it hits the wall behind her; he throws another, she catches it and throws it back at him. There’s a horrible moment when Katherine’s gripping Damon’s arm and forcing his own stake toward his heart before Stefan grabs her from behind and throws them both onto the floor.

I haven’t seen the finale but I’m pretty sure it ends just like this?? Damon lunges.

Jeremy runs into the doorway and shouts, “Stop! You’re hurting Elena! Everything you’re doing to her is hurting Elena.” (This line will forever make me think of this spectacular fic.) Damon’s face crumples.

He did hesitate - but not because he loves Katherine.

“You think you’re the only ones with a witch on your side?” Katherine says, getting up. “Wrong. And something tells me my witch is better than your witch.” Stefan sends Jeremy to check on Elena. “Let’s make sure poor Elena’s okay,” Katherine complains, and cuts her own palm open with a stake. Stefan smacks it out of her hand. “Bonnie, it hurts,” Elena says. “I can’t break the spell, Elena, but I can try to take some of the pain away,” Bonnie says, and begins chanting. (I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: the fact that tvd witches have apparently no spells for healing is the most bullshit plot contrivance ever – healing is totally coherent with the whole “looking after the balance” thing witches are supposedly called to do, and the only reason healing spells don’t exist is because then nobody would ever have to drink vampire blood and nobody would ever accidentally become a vampire.) Katherine finds another stake, goes to stab herself in the stomach. “Wait!” growls Damon.

“Okay,” she says, taking a seat and crossing her legs dramatically. “How ‘bout that moonstone?”

part two here

#rewatch #tvd #2.07 #masquerade

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troubleisfree · 6 years ago

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this is going to be like a very long, detailed, and mostly my personal observations and notes. as it was my first time seeing neymar and the brazil nt in person, i want to remember everything i can while its still fresh. it was a very exciting and at the same time surreal experience because i see those people all the time on tv games and now there they were few feet away from me...

i took the photos and videos. i am usually pretty good at that but i guess the excitement got the better of me because they did not come out fabulous. tumblr is being stupid with not letting me upload more then one video in a post, and i wanted everything together, so i ended up putting them up on youtube.

the hotel 9/3/2018.

so first i went to the hotel (very close to where i live) on monday 9/3. as it was labor day, i was off work and at a bbq/pool party abt 10 miles from home for the day. brazil nt was scheduled to leave the hotel for their first training at 4pm so i left the party early and, after some traffic drama, made it to the hotel little after 3.40pm. there were not too many people so i had a decent view but i also moved around a bit. some of the support staff was coming out already. a few minutes later, firmino was the first i saw, he waved and went straight to the bus.

then a group of marquinhos, douglas costa, fabinho etc came out together. only marquinhos paid any attention to the fans, waving and smiling but didnt stop.

then another group, including casemiro.

then alisson came out. he was really sweet, smiled, stopped with the fans, signed stuff. interacted the most of anyone else with the fans.

then another group - i think richarlison (idk him really), filipe luis, thiago silva. thiago was just as nice as alisson, stopped with the fans, signed stuff. he looked to me a bit shorter irl then on tv...

willian came out alone next.

at this point, it was almost 4pm, my excitement had totally built up and i was so anxious to see my boy ney. i started thinking that maybe he will get there separately cuz i hadnt seen coutinho and tite either. but there he was! coming out last with barely a minute to spare before 4pm (the timestamp on my photo is 3:58:59pm lol). he was the very last one to come out, chewing on something, with his typical swagger. he waved but didnt stop and the bus left as soon as he got on. he looked just as hot in person as on tv, the cameras dont lie lol. really handsome and very very sexy! i mean, i expected it, i have seen his photos lol but omg he looks so damn good you cant help those dirty thoughts! i felt like an absolute fangirl! this is neither here or there, but he looked to me a little bigger then i expected. just kinda...fuller?

i only took one photo of him cuz i wanted to look at him with my own eyes rather than thru the camera ;)

it was such an incredible experience seeing neymar and the rest of the guys in person so close that i was shaking after! like for real my hands were shaking, my legs were shaking. and i couldnt stop grinning for a good half an hour after. i went to the boardwalk to calm down a bit and just absorb the experience. people passing by probably thought im crazy or reading love letters on my phone or something cuz i just couldnt stop grinning but i didnt give a flying fuck what they were thinking - i had just seen neymar!

my notes and impressions:

1. OMFG I SAW NEYMAR FROM FEW FEET AWAY. just that, my brain was really way too frazzled to process any other impressions lol

the game 9/7/2018

so after some c. drama, despite my initial hopes, i had accepted that i am not going to go to the game. and then the day before i find out I AM GOING!!! i was so freaked out with excitement lol!!!

getting there was so frustrating! first i had forgot to charge my phone before leaving work so i only had like 30% which was nowhere near good enough for my plans of copious pics and vids. so i had to run into a bodega to buy a charger for the car. then for some complicated reason we had to leave from the ues and fucking DRIVE. crosstown. on a friday. at 6pm. straight thru freakin time square with its gazillion tourists. on top of rush hour. even though the schedule said 8pm, the tickets said the event starts at 7.30 and i wanted to be there early to see the warmups and at 7.02 we were still not even inside lincoln tunnel ffs! i was FUMING and ready to jump outta the car and start yelling at the other cars to get a goddamn fucking move on i got places to be people to see! just ugh. so frustrating. the only upside of taking so long to get to the stadium was that by the time we got there my phone was almost 100%...

anyway, finally at 7.25pm we got there and thru all the checks etc (my joke of a miniature purse was shown as an example to another girl with a slightly bigger purse and praised by security for being perfect size which pissed me off because of their dumbass rules it had is smaller then my regular WALLET ffs and it barely even fits my phone so in no way is it a ‘perfect size’ except maybe for dolls or tiny aliens. but they had the stupid clear bag / tiny purse rule in effect and all i cared at that point was getting in so whatever. still, fucking terrorists. obviously also for more important reasons than just being the cause of my having to have a tiny purse but yeah fucking terrorists).

the stadium was buzzing already. apparently the 7.30 start was for the warmups so perfect for me. this was the view from our seats.

when we got to our seats, the usa team was out already. and the canarinho was interacting with fans. and then brazil came out.

youtube

ney was warming up with coutinho

after stretches, he did some practice shooting. this one didnt go in.

after that the team went back inside and the canarinho came behind the barriers to interact with the fans (photo below especially taken for a.)

time for the teams to come out. for some reason the tunnel was on my side of the stadium but the benches were on the other side and they lined up there for the anthems. (again, for a.)

youtube

then the us anthem and, since we dont do things here on a small scale, the flag rolled out was the size of the whole stadium lol

in the first half neymar was playing in front of me. in the beginning of the game i took a few photos and then i stopped because i wanted to watch the game and see with my own eyes not concentrate on the phone... still, here they are

here is the penalty. i didnt catch it go in because i was looking at it happening rather then my phone. i also removed the sound cuz there was screaming when it went in lol. it was a VERY soft penalty btw...

youtube

my notes and impressions:

1. it was a friendly so not surprisingly, it was not an edge-of-your-seat game. still brazil dominated the crap out of the usa team. the difference in class and quality was glaringly obvious.

2. it was strange not supporting my country’s team. but only when i thought about it. otherwise my soccering heart belongs to brazil 100%, without a doubt.

3. watching a game live vs tv: both have pros and cons. again, after watching every week on tv, seeing these guys live in person is simply incredible. just absolutely surreal. like, they are moving, running, kicking right in front of you. you can hear the ball being kicked. feel the tension. see what they are doing without the ball. watch their interactions away from the camera. feel the power of the crowd. its just so much more immersive. at the same time, watching at home the curated game content is... convenient. you get closeups. you get facts from the commentators. your bathroom is nearby (i did carefully time my liquid intake that day to avoid venturing into stadium bathrooms and thank god it worked lol). so imo, watching a game on tv is not really that much worse then watching it live. i always felt like i am getting a completely filtered version on tv and it is filtered but it is not horrible. yes, you are missing out on stuff but its not a total loss.

4. the stadium was about 40% full, 32k of 82k capacity. but it felt more like 2/3, probably because on the other side many sections were not even open so most everyone attending was spread out in one long side and the two goal sides.

5. brazil fans were out strong! i’d say about 70% of the people were brazil fans, and of those about 90% had on brazil jerseys. yellow galore lol. the usa fans were constantly chanting but when the brazil fans decided to make the effort they drowned them out easily and completely!

6. the usa fans were in the section behind one of the goals. throughout most of the game i thought oh cute they are constantly singing their hearts out supporting their clearly outplayed loosing team. then they did iceland’s viking chant. yes, it is a cool chant but its iceland’s. idk why so many have been plagiarizing it! first portugal did it in the wc, then i saw another, and now the american outlaws (the usa ultras)... let iceland have its thing people. i did not appreciate it but no big deal. BUT then they did something that pissed me off - few minutes before neymar was substituted in the 80 min they chanted fuck neymar. i was not best pleased to say the least! lick sweaty balls jealous motherfuckers!

7. we did a wave that went around the stadium like 4 times!

8. there was a small group of 13-14yo girls right behind us that whenever ney touched the ball or looked our way screamed ‘neymaaaarrr, neymaaaaarrrrrrrr, vaiiiiiii, vai neymaaaaaaarrrrrrrr’. one girl in particular was especially shrill and vociferous in her dedication to ney. no sense of decorum whatsoever lol. my bf was smirking at me and was like why dont you go sit with them. i on the other hand was thinking that while i wouldnt go sit with them, if some of my tumblr girls were here.... well those girls wouldnt even know what hit them!

9. i would definitely go to a game again!

10. while the seats we had were really good, i wish there was an option to be even closer and still see the whole pitch. then again, for me it would probably only qualify as ‘close enough’ if im allowed to run along the sidelines lol. but then i wont really be able to watch the game. (hey maybe i can hang from the skycam hahaaaa!). yes, i am a neymar fan but i am also a fan of the game so i want both. i did not have any input in the choice of these seats but i think it was a good trade off - the closest where you can both see the guys and actual game. if i have to pick the tickets for the next game (hopefully i will go again some time!), i would be tempted by the lower levels but the barriers are pretty high so... i would probably go for the same - second level first row.

11. there was a guy sitting next to me with his date and he was trying to be all knowledgeable and impress the girl but half the stuff he was telling her was wrong lol! he kept pointing to douglas costa and telling her its firmino. i was cracking myself up listening to him talk complete bullshit but with such grand authority about technical game stuff.

12. at some point a loose ball ended up into the stands, some guy caught it, and 2 min later security came to take it away from him :/ why not let the guy just keep the ball?!? stupid. if it was me, i’d have made a fuss, maybe pretended that it hit me in the face and threatened to sue the stadium cuz they have not ensured the spectators’ safety or some such crap lol. see if they dont let me keep it to avoid a lawsuit.

13. the canarinho (for a.) - he was really great! interacting with the fans, dancing, hugging fans. really a fantastic mascot and absolute joy to watch! during the halftime he was out on the pitch, doing keepie uppies (in those shoes too!!! showing his brazilianness lol), and kicking balls into the stands

14. i was totally impressed by neymar. it was just so obvious how good he is and no, not because i am biased, which i admittedly am. i expected him to be good, duh, but to see it so clearly was amazing. he is not a fluke, he is the real deal. he stands out among even such quality peers as the rest of brazil nt! just something in the way he interacts with the ball, the way he moves, ‘sees’ his teammates without looking, turns on a dime, does the unexpected. i dont think he ‘thinks’ or ‘calculates’ at all his moves or that it is just a lot of practice, i think it is pure instinct in the moment, i.e. phenomenal natural talent. even though this was not one of his greatest games for sure, he just looked... special and different from the rest. most of the brazil players were displaying their clearly high quality but there is just something unique in the way neymar plays. even if you dont know who he is, what teams are playing, anything at all, you’d still pick him out and know that there is something extraordinary about this guy. if you unfocus your eyes so you see just all same yellow shirt figures, you would still be able to pick out which one is neymar. he did a bit of his skills and tricks and of course i wished he had done more. what i took away from watching him play live was that, in this average game, he looked as good playing live as he has in the past when i have watched his great games on tv. i dont know why. but watching neymar play live was an experience of its own. it felt like his average ‘live’ performance is as good as his great ‘tv’. i cant even imagine what it would be like watching one of his great performances live. while i dont feel im loosing so much watching games on tv vs live as mentioned above, i definitely feel that watching neymar in particular play live is on another level and im missing out when i watch him on tv instead of live. he is absolutely worth the price of admission. i was so disappointed in him for his wc antics but thats in the past now, and i have been reminded how right it feels to be his fan, not just for the nice things he does for kids/charity, his fun personality (and lets not forget the good looks, and oh boy they are SO GOOD lol) but his undeniably outstanding talent on the pitch. his game is just incredible. i hope he keeps healthy. i hope he gets his temper under control not just for a few games but for good. and i pray he always has the freedom to shine like he rightfully can. i am rooting for him to get the appreciation and acknowledgement he deserves, unadulterated by behavioral issues or personal drama.

ok, imma stop now. this post is huge, even by my standards.

#brazil nt #brazil vs usa #neymar #thiago silva #marquinhos #alisson #filipe luis #willian #roberto firmino #9-7-2018 #game

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mary34blog · 7 years ago

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The Heaven’s Feel PV Frame by Frame: an Analysis

I would post these types of posts on dreamwidth usually, but inserting pics into your posts is a lot easier on tumblr for me at least, so I’m gonna post it here first.

Note this is only approximately frame by frame. Also spoliers incoming so if you know nothing of Heaven’s Feel or Fate/Stay Night as a whole this is your official spoiler warning, proceed at your own risk.

One last thing, my memories of HF’s plot are quite a bit fuzzy so I may get things wrong. Sorry about that in advance.

Our very first shot of course is the fire. And now I’m already sad, thanks guys! (Seriously whenever I see those flashbacks I get very sad and instantly feel the urge to wrap Shirou in the biggest blanket I can find.)

Following it is the first proper shot of Shirou. I find it interesting that while in UBW they went out of their way to hide his face until his proper introduction but here they actually show it from the get go. Then again this time they don’t have to play fake out with who’s the real protagonist like with the UBW prologue/beginning of ep 1 so there is that. (I admit I’m not sure if that was supposed to be a fake out but it def felt that way.)

There isn’t anything important in this next cap, It’s just my usual ufotable scenery porn appreciation.

Three things:

One, everything about this shot is absolutely breathtaking. No really, this shot is just… beautiful.

Two, I find it amusing how much they go out of their way to make Sakura look as pretty as possible in this scene especially compared to UBW. Here the UBW version for reference:

While I’m pretty sure this has more to do with the differences in budget, I like to think the peeps at ufotable HQ went “Alright she’s the heroine now, we gotta make her as gorgeous as we can lads!”

Three, let us take a time out to appreciate that this is an exact almost picture perfect replica of the original VN CG, I always love when VN adaptations do this sort of thing.

I am skipping a few scenes here cause I don’t have much to say about them, they are a brief clip from the Archer vs Lancer fight and Saber being dramatic in her yellow raincoat of doom.

The next scene I wanna talk about is of course the now iconic Money ShotTM of the Fate series. It’s always fun to see the different renditions of this scene. Also they somehow added even more fog to it, I didn’t think it was even possible but here we are.

After that we have Sakura walking down the street while being sad, and now I am sad too once again, thanks guys!

And don’t think I didn’t notice how during the closeup she’s slowly covered in shadows as she’s walking forward, ufotable ya sly dogs with your visual foreshadowing.

The next shot is the return of the CGI servant chess pieces. I like how they positioned in a way that they look like they are all reaching towards the black hole in the sky representing the grail, nice touch.

After more Saber-in-a-raincoat-being-dramatic scene we have some more of the Lancer vs. Assasin fight from the previous trailer. I am glad the adaptation gives one last dying moment of awesome to Cu before axing him off unceremoniously right at the first third of the story, cause this is Heaven’s Feel where servants just drop like flies.

Then we get a brief clip from the Rider vs. Saber fight. I find it amusing how much they build up this fight considering from what I remember Saber curb stomps Rider very hard. Then again the scene mostly meant to show off how piss poor of a master Shinji is but still, I can’t wait to see peeps reactions whom haven’t seen or read HF yet to that part, cause this trailer just builds up this big confrontation moment between Shinji and Shirou only for the actual scene being Shinji Gets Owned Exhibit Number 137. Then again Shinji getting owned is good civilization so I approve.

We arrive at Illya’s first proper appearance in the trailer, and sure enough they already headfirst establish her Creepy Child personality. Although I am curious what’s up with them being surrounded with flames.

Then we have Rin, intercut with sad Sakura OH GOD WILL YOU STOP STOMPING ON MY HEART UFOTABLE WAS THE TOUKEN RANBU FINALE NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU ahem. My apologies for that.

So anyway Rin. She looks more antagonistic this time around in some of these shots which kinda makes sense, from what I remember her relationship with Shirou in this route is a bit more strained. It’s still a little sad thought.

Our next sequence is-oh look who it is guys, it’s the golden arsehole himself! God I am so glad you get killed off early this time around.

Also that shocked look in Sakura’s eyes makes me worried GILGAMESH YOU MOTHERFUCKER I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU HURT MY CHILD I END YOUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE YOU SON OF A BITCH ahem, excuse me I lost my composure again. Gee I need to stop doing that.

And speaking of motherfuckers, hi Shinji! Can’t wait to see you die a horrible crushing death either thought sadly that’s farther away. (God his face looks so punchable here.)

Hi Caster! Can’t wait for you to make me cry again! (God people die left and right in this route holly hell.) Also you know there’s gonna be trouble when you can see Caster’s eyes.

And speaking of trouble, this transitions us into the teasing of the grand appearance of The Shadow itself. I like how during the scenes it’s shown the screen briefly glitches out into a static, as if the eldricht nature of it affects the trailer as well. It’s also obscures it enough to make these otherwise spoilery scenes a lot less spoilerish.

Oh shit, Sakura is pissed. I can’t really recall which scene this could be but I def find this familiar from somewhere.

And here’s Archer the One Scene Wonder. After him pretty much being the "true heroine” so to speak in UBW it’s quite amusing to see him get like one second of footage in the trailer.

I… I think I know which scene is it and I am not ready GOD SOMEBODY GIVE EMIYA A HUG JEEBUS

I have no commentary for this one, it’s just a very pretty shot.

Okay this brief handholding scene is actually kinda sweet, I may not ship you two but I like this bit, it’s wholesome.

I am not sure when this scene is supposed to take place, but I like that pink jacket she has.

Final shot before the title and gee if it isn’t the most massive foreshadowing ever. Well time to prepare for the suffering everyone!

In all honesty I really liked this trailer, it’s a nice balance between getting the newcomers hyped and play with their expectations but also shows some more spoilery content and foreshadowing to longtime fans without actually spoiling too much.

#mary34's musings #fate stay night #Fate/stay night #heaven's feel #spoilers #somewhat long post #meta

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whitecatcrime · 8 years ago

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progress (?) with compulsive skin picking

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this here yet (probably have), but my compulsive skin picking has been worse than ever over the past few months. Before then, I was constantly touching and twirling my hair because it didn’t feel “right.” And there were some other similar body-focused repetitive behaviors (or whatever they are) before then. This one is the worst as far as I can remember.

I’ve been spending every almost every waking moment picking at my scalp--basically always as long as both hands are free. Then sometimes I’ll use one hand instead of two, even when it’s a really bad idea, just so I can keep picking. Now there are obvious signs (at least to me), such as 1-inch hairs at the beginning of my hairline and balding spots in specific places. Luckily, the baldish spots only really show when I pull my hair back. Ugh. The lack of control I have is scary.

Then it spread to my face, which was starting to break out. (This might’ve been longer ago than I thought. It began soon after I started SIBO antibiotics.) I started to get rid of the “dirt” that was stuck in my face... or that’s how I saw it. It’s not this bad now, but eventually I spent hours in front of a mirror repeating, “Stop stop stop stop stop” in my head while my hands continued to work on their own. I tried to stop, but part of me felt like nothing mattered anyway--that this wouldn’t make my life much worse than it already is.

I also started washing my face and splashing it with water throughout the day. Then I got stuck in a routine: Every time I was in a bathroom with a mirror, I would pick at my skin and rinse my face right after... then repeat the process, often 5+ times (guessing low so I don’t accidentally exaggerate). Then I would regularly wash my face two times a day and spend a lot of time washing it in the shower. I suppose you could say that I was pretty obsessed.

It got really dry and started peeling at some point, along with carrying skin damage that healed very slowly, blood, and pain. Even when it was sore, I would get a rough-feeling wash rag and scrub my face over and over again to try to get the dry skin off. It didn’t work well.

Then more of the natural skin issues spread to my chest/shoulder area... along with my obsession. I lost the ability to wear a lot of shirts I liked. I felt disgusted with myself.

Things are getting better (in some ways at least... possibly worse in other ways) now. The either continuous fluids, birth control pills (which are still making my cycles all weird so idk), low-dose doxycycline, some other factor, or all of the above have made my skin calm down a good amount. I mean, compared to before, wow. Now I’m finding it harder to pick at my face, but there is still enough damage on my chest to uh... make it even worse. And I’m still constantly picking at my scalp.

On the bright side, I feel much better about my face now, though it still probably has healing to do before I can wear makeup. (No matter how much you moisturize or remove dead skin, there’s always more, and it sticks out with the foundation I own.)

Anyway, I have felt (and still do feel) much more disgusting than usual. One thing I found surprisingly helpful was hearing about others’ experiences with compulsive skin picking / dermatillomania. I even got to see a few pictures, and they made me feel much less alone with this issue. It’s so easy to hide it and look down on it, and not many people want to admit that they do it--let alone take pictures of the state of their skin. In a weird way, it was empowering. I kind of felt united with these people as we all privately focused on quitting. It reminded me that other people can’t control themselves either, and that it’s not really my fault.

Anyway, I thought I’d put up pictures of the current state of my skin just in case others struggling with similar issues are interested... and also because, in a way, it’s liberating. Please don’t look at the images below if they might be triggering or even disturbing to you.

[Image description: A redhead whose curly but wet hair is reflecting the sunlight on the right side. They have a generally feminine appearance and light blue eyes, messy eyebrows, and no makeup. Their nose and the space around it is pinkish red with darker red specs spread throughout it. The skin on their forehead is starting to flake off in the center, and red spots and open sores are scattered throughout the skin.]

It took me a while to find a pic of when it worse. And I even upped the clarity so you can see the whole mess! Anyway, I don’t know how bad the skin picking was at this point. I can’t remember what my face looked like at its worse.

[Image description: A closeup of a redheaded person wearing a black-and-white wavy striped shirt. They have a generally feminine appearance and splotchy, uneven skin. The forehead skin is covered with red/pink bumps, and slight hair loss at the hairline might be visible.]

I look pretty unhappy and... not alive in this one. This might’ve been taken before the previous picture. Possibly after. It looks like I was probably wearing a little makeup, too... probably right before I just gave up on it.

[Image description: Selfie of a pale feminine person with curly red hair, blue eyes, slightly messy thick eyebrows, and a light gray shirt. They’re faintly smiling and tilted their head slightly to the left. A few darker spots are faintly visible on their face. Their face may also look fuller and more healthy.]

Annnd here’s a picture I took today. The lighting hides a lot of what’s left over (annd all the fuzzy hair between my eyebrows), but even in person my skin is looking much better. (I really need/want to get my eyebrows done. The Natural Messy Brow look--though I finally started to like it--is kind of unpredictable and can make doing makeup harder... if I do get back into that at some point.

[Image description: Two fingers can be seen pulling down a light gray shirt to reveal a square area of skin under the collarbones. The pale skin is splotchy red and covered with different types of bumps and sores. It starts to return to its natural color lower down.]

Annnd this is gross. And kind of hard to post. And it’s been worse. My mast cells aren’t happy about the destruction of my skin either.

Anyway, this one was actually taken today. Still got a ways to go. I should take progress pictures just to see how things have changed and maybe be more motivated to work on quitting.

Sadly, I’ve started picking at other parts of my body, too, but that hasn’t gotten out of control... yet. I don’t think it’ll spread much more than it already has, though. To anyone going through the same or similar things, I really wish you the best, this is not easy to quit, and I fully support you (though I’m horrible at responding to DMs or replies OR asks sorry!!!!).

#personal #medical adventures #health tracking #mental health #compulsive skin picking #dermatillomania #maybe #captioned #tw #long post #recovery

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drewxmay · 8 years ago

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Contestshipping Masterpost - Part 8 - WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WYNUAT???

and now… the best contestshipping episode of them all!!! yell it loud and clear (even though your parents will think you are weird)

WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WYNAUT!!!

Link to episode can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbLuBt3YaKQ

whenever I say Why not I say it like a wynuat. This is the best episode.

Episode starts off with Ash yelling at a river. Wonderful.

0:06 Oh Pikachu too?

0:20 Best of luck to you on your contest May!

0:27 Hi Drew :D

0:37 hmm. Interested I see?

Masqurain Uses waves to complete his technique

1:27 Drew won 5 a while back! Remember when he had 3?

1:37 Well May will win the contest you two will battle for the 4th time!

1:42 Fancy words will only give May more determination to win… Drew knows this.

1:57 Okay so we have Mr.Perfect, Mr.Know-it-all, and Mr.Rose. Wonderful.

I REMEMBER THIS THEME SONG! I REMEMBER EARLY 2016! MUST SING! gha

3:08 Ash saying the titles sometimes makes me laugh. “MAY WE HARLEY DREW’D YA!” Imagine him saying that. ya.

3:11 Narrator, she is working hard at her skill because Drew convinced her too in his own way. ADVANCED SHIPPERS HE WAS NOT BEING MEAN AND THAT IS WHY SHE IS TRYING, SHE IS TRYING BECUASE DREW TOLD HER TO AND MADE HER WANT TO IN HIS OWN WAY.

3:23 Masquain flap your wings not your legs

3:26 Flirting!

3:35 Drew is teaching May some tactics :3

Also, May has really improved! Character development and attack skills, and based off these episodes it was mainly because of Drew!

3:51 … that was not somersault. Translations…

3:57 MAGICARP. this is just the best team rocket entrance. Ever. Just imagine a big magicarp jumped into the beach and said “MAGICARP" I laughed at this the first time I saw it~

4:06 :pulls up image of face swap:

4:19 Welp, it was a good run pikachu. Goodbye :)

4:21 NO NOT BEAUTIFLY AND MASQUAIN!!! ANYTHING BUT THEM!

4:22 :TAKES SCREENSHOT: Omg they are so scared for their pokemon

4:24 SO YOU HAD TO TAKE MASQURAIN, AND BEAUTIFLY BUT NOW YOU ARE TAKING MAY AND DREW????

4:30 WELL THEN FIX IT JESSIE!!!

4:36 I love this pic… so much…

4:42 silly max! You pressed the hypo turbo engine switch! You should’ve known :P

4:56 they are now standing next to each other even though last time they were almost across the room, they walked next to each other and called their pokemon at the same time. This is what writers do when they foreshadow.

5:00 I dunno :Looks up I am going to on google: I am going to die. Jessie you are going to die!

5:15 and then you hear wabbafet

Hi team Rocket!

5:25 Imma look that on google… You are at my house.

5:29 No you are in my house

5:35 Thank you Wabaf- I mean James

5:40 but James was trying to cheer you up by being Wabbafet :P

5:49 Thank you Wabaf- I mean Meowth

5:54 Don’t worry, they’re having fun Max.

6:08 People might say that Drew is being mean here and that Drew doesn’t like May but this has a second meaning and May didn’t get it (just like how she never noticed him flirting)

6:19 :Screenshots:

I cursed myself with faceswap

6:25 So ye ol’ pirate likes eh story o’ contest shipp'n?

6:30 :Looks up mirage: mi·rage m?'räZH/ noun noun: mirage; plural noun: mirages

an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of water in a desert or on a hot road caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air.

okay I get it now! The wynuat!!!

6:42 Leechy berry?

6:50 Teaching May about Leechy berries in his own way.

6:58 I find it amazing that May says she knows everything about them, proceeds to pronounce it wrong, and then Drew point that out. I didn’t expect him to.

7:03 :Takes screenshot

7:05 great! I BET THAT IT IS WYNUAT

7:19 ShuuHaru

I told you I love this episode AND WE AREN’T EVEN HALFWAY DONE MWA HA HA AH AHA HA

7:36 Swellow did you find contestshipping

7:43 Don’t worry Max!

7:52 wynuat? Also while listening to this I heard Max say "Ya! They might’ve decided to-” finish this sentence please :3

8:21 Mudkip: points with fin

8:23 “You don’t get out much do you…” "Well you just don’t know how to have fun!“ -Contestshipping

8:33 you know what I want this man to be a chaperone at a school field trip.

8:48 in the time you were gone, James, Jessie and Meowth turned into wabaffets! :D

9:00 WYNUAT WYNUAT REGRET IT? WHY SHOULD I REGRET IT?

9:03 No james. did you hear it say Wabafett? No. It said wynuat.

9:08 at least Meowth knows!

9:12 let me tell ya’ lads ye ol’ story of how I got ‘ere

9:58 People say Drew never gets exited.

10:08 DON’T DIE GUYS YOU ARE MY LIFE

10:20 HOLDING HANDS OMG LIFE SAVER SHIPPING BULBAPEDIA!!!

One scene includes a closeup of May and Drew holding hands while falling down a cliff and into a river.

… I’m disappointed in you Bulbapedia

10:27 YOU CAN MAKE IT!!!

10:34 NOT THE WATERFALL FROM ALL OF THE MOVIES!!!

10:45 NOT DREW!!! (MAY GOT DREW SHE WANTS TO HELP HIM D:)

10:49 Bulbapedia: Then May sees that Drew has been knocked out from the impact of the waterfall, she becomes extremely concerned and tries to keep Drew’s head above the water while telling him not to worry because she’s got him.

You missed something, when somebody passes out they stop holding their own weight, meaning that Drew is actually way heavier than if he were conscious, let’s see an average 10-year-old boy weighs about 90 pounds… May is carrying an almost 100 pound weight, above water, while also trying to keep herself over water

THE THINGS ADRENALIN CAN DO MAN.

10:58 WYNUAT!!! HELP!!!

11:03 the mirage island.

11:15 SAVE THE CHILDREN

11:24 Hopefully safe with the wynuat!

11:34 AHOY MATES I 'AVE FOUN’ 'UR FRIEN’!

11:46 You did as much as you could…

11:54: "Drew… are you okay? Say something please!” May said in a destressed tone of voice

12:02 omg I ship it so much Bulbapedia? how about you?

After being pulled out of the river by the Wynaut, May is seen begging a still unconscious Drew to say something. When he finally wakes up, she is visibly relieved.

12:06 No May… you don’t have to be so modest. If it weren’t for you he would be dead. he would have drowned.

May is too modest.

12:10 Well the wynuat… OMG I WANT ONE NOW! I WANT TO TRAVEL WITH ALL OF THEM! THE WYNUAT REPRESENT CONTESTSHIPPERS!

12:22 Wynuat is a light pokemon, so is there body an illusion? I saw somewhere a theory that their tails are the pokemon and their blue body is a shield… so the blue part is an illusion?

“They travel in herds and at night sleep together in groups”

all of the contestshippers are wynuats. We stick together.

12:30 Drew is happy :D

12:33 omg the wynuat are so nice!!! “Are these for us?” “Wynuat!” Omgggg I love them so much

12:39 I love Drew in this pic I dunno why

12:42 Your ship is strong.

12:48 yes. GodI just wanna hug May and Drew. So. Flippin. Much.

12:54 aww poor team rocket

13:02 Why hello there

13:07 num num num num

13:12 Wanub nub nub nub nub nub nub nub

13:16 oh well hi there

13:19 nub nub nub nub nub nub nub

13:27 There right there

13:31 spin spin spin spin spin spin spin spin

13:34 ye’ ol’ lad ta'tst'a 'tory if I ever said i’

13:58 Imma not mention how his last statement was incorrect because this episode is so great.

14:04 You studied their shoes max?

14:08 actually Drew was unconscious so he didn’t walk, and the wynuats were in the trees and picked up May and Drew. You are wrong guys.

14:16 WYNUAT HAVING A JUNE 10TH PARTY???

14:23 wynuat join us?

14:30 Let’s join the contestshipping celebration!

14:39 wynuat join us too Drew X3

14:47 Bulbapedia? Do you wanna say something?

During the Wynauts’ “party” shortly after, Drew is seen watching May intently.

Watching her intently ya say? He must be happy that she is having fun :D (btw he likes her)

14:53 After a long journey… we have finally found the thing we have been looking for: food. it has been many mins we have walked around this forest, searching and searching while following our mentorour, Wabaffet, but finally…

nvm I’ll stop.

14:58 James is great, so is jessie. Now have sour tastes :3

My shoulders heart from typing so I won’t tag as much… :’(

15:29 Drew is still watching her have fun :3

15:33 wtf is that! D:

15:37 oh no!!!

15:40 Jessie you love romantic stories give them the berries

15:46 Dew: Oh no! The person who I helped grow as a trainer and saved my life is about to be taken away D:

15:47 unless y'know. You sell her as a slave.

15:55 The wynuat our us, the contestshippers, remember that. Also I love the episode and all, but I’m sick of the female being in danger, wynuat it be the male for once???

16:03 you wait for the wynuat of course :3

16:07 great job guys!!! Keep it up and we will help in the advencement of contestshipping!

16:14 DO YOU TRUST ME?

16:27 you said sift her out at the end… why is she on a rope and you are still vacuming?

16:40 Shiiipppiiiinnnnnggggg

16:50 Aye re'ember 'is cave 'iketha back o’ me ol’ 'and

17:13 remember kids, an Arbock turns into a Saviper!

17:23 Death by leaves

17:29 protect our ship!

17:50 ya but Drew didn’t tell rosellia WHERE to shoot it, what do they talk telepathicly now?

17:57 Rip a rope with peatals. Sure I’ll try that.

17:59 LOOK AT ALL OF US WYNUAT

18:07 and then I remembered Advencedshipping and started to cry becuase even though this is the best contestsipping episode people are going to advanced ship becuase of this scene.

and then they beat team rocket :skips to after that:

19:52 Enjoy the rest of the contestshipping in this episode!

19:54 So Rodrick is actually older Pual. Cool.

20:23 And Drew got May to make pokeblock, in his own way :3

The end (that took me 4 hours to make wtf)

#contestshipping #drew #may and drew #drew x may #pokemon drew #may x drew #May #pokemon may

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qindaskurdi · 5 years ago

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The Miracle Of Orange Chrysanthemum | Orange Chrysanthemum

The Miracle Of Orange Chrysanthemum | Orange Chrysanthemum – Chrysanthemums were first harvested in China as being a flowering herb as far back as the 15th millennium BC.[11] Over 500 cultivars had been recorded simply by 1630.[9] By the year 2014 it was estimated there are now over 20, 000 cultivars in the world and about 7, 000 cultivars in The far east.[12] Guarana is renowned as one of the Several Gentlemen in China’s and East Oriental art. The plant is especially significant during the Double Ninth Festival.

Chrysanthemum cultivation began inside Japan during the Nara and Heian intervals (early 8th to help late 12th centuries), and gained recognition in the Edo period of time (early 17th to help late 19th century). Many flower forms, colours, and versions were created. The way the flowers were harvested and shaped additionally developed, and chrysanthemum culture flourished. The particular Imperial Seal associated with Japan is a chrysanthemum and the institution from the monarchy is also referred to as Chrysanthemum Throne. Several festivals and demonstrates take place throughout Okazaki , japan in autumn if the flowers bloom. Chrysanthemum Day (菊の節句 Kiku no Sekku) is just about the five ancient sacred festivals. It is recognized on the 9th day time of the 9th four week period. It was started in 910, when the imperial courtroom held its initial chrysanthemum show.

Chrysanthemums entered American garden in 1798 when Colonel John Stevens imported a cultivated variety known as ‘Dark Purple’ from The united kingdom. The introduction has been part of an effort to grow attractions within Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Modern cultivated chrysanthemums are showier than their untamed relatives. The blossom heads occur in a variety of forms, and can be daisy-like or decorative, like pompons or buttons. This genus is made up of many hybrids along with thousands of cultivars designed for horticultural functions. In addition to the traditional yellow, other colors can be purchased, such as white, purple, and red. The key hybrid is Chrysanthemum × morifolium (syn. C. × grandiflorum), derived primarily coming from C. indicum, but involving other variety.

Over 140 cultivars of chrysanthemum have gained the Supérieur Horticultural Society’s Honor of Garden Worth (confirmed 2017).[14]

Chrysanthemums are broken into two basic organizations, garden hardy and also exhibition. Garden healthy mums are fresh perennials capable of wintering in most northern latitudes. Exhibition varieties aren’t usually as stable. Garden hardies are generally defined by their own ability to produce an abundance of small blooms with little if any mechanical guidance, such as staking, along with withstanding wind and rain. Exhibition kinds, though, require staking, overwintering in a fairly dry, cool surroundings, and sometimes the addition of nights lights.

The exhibition varieties can be used to make many amazing herb forms, such as significant disbudded blooms, spray forms, and many nicely trained forms, for instance thousand-bloom, standard (trees), fans, hanging bins, topiary, bonsai, and also cascades.

Chrysanthemum types are divided into tough luck different bloom kinds by the US State Chrysanthemum Society, Inc., which is in keeping with typically the international classification system. The bloom sorts are defined furthermore in which the ray along with disk florets are arranged. Chrysanthemum blooms are composed of many unique flowers (florets), each one capable of producing a seed starting. The disk florets are located in the center of the bloom head, and the kitchen tools florets are on the particular perimeter. The beam florets are considered imperfect flowers, as they merely possess the female reproductive system organs, while the drive florets are considered great flowers, as they have both male and feminine reproductive organs.

Infrequent incurves are bred to produce a giant mind called an ogiku. The disk florets are generally concealed in tiers of curving ray florets that suspend down to create a ‘skirt’. Regular incurves resemble, but usually having smaller blooms as well as a dense, globular type. Intermediate incurve flowers may have broader florets and a less densely flowered head.

Inside reflex form, all drives florets are hidden and the ray florets reflex outwards to create a mop-like appearance. The decorative form is just like reflex blooms, however the ray florets don’t radiate at greater than a 90° angle on the stem.

The borla form is fully double, of little size, and very globular in form. Solitary and semidouble plants have exposed disc florets and one to be able to seven rows of kitchen tools florets. In the anemone form, the disk florets are prominent, usually raised and overshadowing the ray florets. The spoon-form storage florets are apparent and the long, tubular ray florets are usually spatulate. In the search engine spider form, the disk florets are concealed, along with the ray florets are usually tube-like with connected or barbed comes to an end, hanging loosely round the stem. In the remember to brush and thistle variety, the disk florets may be visible.

In Japan, a form of bonsai chrysanthemum was developed over the generations. The cultivated plant has a lifespan of around 5 years and is usually kept in smaller size. Another method is to use pieces of deceased wood and the flower grows over the again along the wood to own illusion from the the front that the miniature sapling blooms.

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jelantiahilma · 5 years ago