#for some reason I didn’t really pay attention to the subs of episode 5 but I still understood everything that happened

[ressyfaerie]

OKAY YALL. 

I haven’t been paying attention at all. 

Do you want to be really angry,

Like really, really angry? 

I’m putting this in a read more since there’s going to be a LOT and it may start a FIRE.

It was a lonely snowy night in the north of British Columbia Canada.

Just kidding.

For real though- I had no internet! We could only watch TV on satellite (the only anime I watched was on YTV). If it snowed in the winter we had to go outside and brush the snow off the satellite to continue watching Beyblade or Inuyasha. 

So I was 5-6 when I first started watching Beyblade. Of course I LOVED IT. I would rush home to try to watch it everyday. Beyblade has just airing and it was a HIT. I watched season 1 religiously, I actually don’t remember watching much of V-force or G-rev but that’s probably because it wasn’t made yet lmao. 

I grew up in a small town, whatever you’re imagining, imagine it smaller. (I could write a whole essay on the social hierarchy of Port Ed in the early 2000s but I’ll keep it short for now) White kids= rich/ pretentious, Native kids=poor. I didn’t like the attitude of most of the white girls, so I mostly made friends with the native kids (I miss yall btw) but anyways, this is where you’re going to get angry.

So I didn’t know what Japanese WAS. Like I knew what Chinese was (Small town surrounded by racists? Who would have guessed?) I don’t even think I knew Japanese existed, but any other anime I watched (Sailor moon, Inuyasha, Gundam Wing) most of the characters were white representing or had extremely light skin tones.

So what the heck was 5 year old me supposed to do with beyblade? Which was a show filled with lots of different ethnicities? 5 year old me was obsessed with beyblade, tearing apart every episode I saw, so I gathered: Max=American, Ray=Chinese, Kai=Russian (Because that’s what matched with all their championships, makes sense to a kid right?)

But what WAS Japanese? I dunno? But you know who Tyson looked like? 

My chubby native friends.

THAT’S RIGHT

YALL ARE DEBATING BIRACIAL KAI

LITTLE ME THOUGHT TYSON WAS NATIVE FOR YEEEAAAARRRSSSSS.

I’m laughing as I write this, when I learned Japan was indeed a real place, it didn’t dawn on me immediately. It still took finding beyblade online when I was like 11, re-watching it and being like ‘huh’. (Note: Remember when beyblade was on youtube but each episode was like 4 parts? Good times.) 

So, on the topic of Kai.

First of all, I need to point something out that I deem obvious, but must be said. 

Beyblade (As well as many other shows from long ago (Yugioh, Naruto, Inuyasha, and Sailor moon come to mind), a lot of us latched on to these shows so hard because of trauma or lonely childhoods. Which means a lot of us find our connections to these shows or characters very personal, which is why it’s hard to break headcannons. It’s more than a fandom for us, and any of us who feel this way, are risking their comfort show to involve themselves in the fandom (This is why I believe a lot of beyblade fans don’t interact with fandom, and I go out of my way to warmly welcome all whenever I can)

It needs to be said, that you owe no explanation to anyone, and neither do I, nor do I apologize for my headcannons.  

With this being said, I knew eventually the fandom would blow up (as it has many times, over the idea of biracial Kai/ Kai with Russian ancestry/ Japanese Kai), now that it has hit so close to home, I feel the need to validate my decision to make Kai biracial in my two long main fics. However, it needs to be stated, I am not doing this to validate myself, but because I simply want to talk about it, I’m not explaining, or apologizing, simply stating some facts, and how I feel. 

For a lot of us, these characters are so personal and we’ve kept them for so long that they’re verging on OC’s, this is NOT YOUR JOB to point out! Although I believe my Kai is very close to canon, there’s many things that aren’t, regardless, myself and many others, still belong to the fandom. 

Back to my childhood:

FINALLY DIAL-UP INTERNET!

The first thing I did when I learned how to read and had private access to internet was google ‘Kai Beyblade’, if you asked, I probably would have said a child’s equivalent to ‘“fuck you that’s why”. 

I learned his last name was Hiwatari, and man, I thought that was SO COOL. But that wasn’t a Russian name was it? I dived further, I don’t think the beyblade wiki even existed at this point, I think I was reading everything off of wikipedia. What I read was: Kai’s father was Russian and his mother was Japanese. I didn’t think too much of it, I mean, it made sense. It would explain Voltaire’s connection to Russia. Later on I realised it made more sense for Kai’s mother to be Russian since the Hiwatari name is Japanese and would most likely come from his grandfather, and for some reason, I was convinced Susumu was Voltaire’s son. The idea of Voltaire marrying his son off to some Russian heiress made so much sense to me. I never read fics, my ideas were definitely influenced by wiki edits, I had no reason to doubt it, or think any differently, I think a lot of people followed the same footsteps. It’s interesting to think that’s how headcanons became universal back in the day. 

I learned the manga existed after a trip to Metrotown Vancouver where I bought every volume they had (3 lmao) (I still haven’t read every volume, and will when I can afford them). 

I just always assumed Kai was biracial, IT JUST MADE SENSE. Kai’s family’s deep ties to Russia, the reason why he knew Russian (regardless of the Abbey), his figure compared to Tyson’s in season 1, I had no reason to doubt it, and it seemed the Dub side of the internet agreed! 

When I wrote my fanfics at 18-19, 5 (years ago now, wow), I still assumed Kai was biracial. Only recently have I dived into the fandom and got into every side (Sub, Dub, Manga). I learned there’s 3 things Dub/Sub/Manga people will instantly fight over: Kai’s race, character’s names, and their ages. 

The reason these three things are so debated is because of the dramatically different storylines/ differences in language versions. The Dub and Sub are two completely different shows when played side by side. I am most familiar with the Dub, as it stays close to my heart, which influences most of my headcanons.

I still headcanon Kai as biracial. We actually don’t know much about his parents, and canon is very loosey goosey. We’re learning more in Rising, but I highly doubt Takao Aoki is going to be like “AND THEN KAI’S MOM WENT TO VISIT HER RUSSIAN FAMILY IS RUSSIA BECAUSE SHE IS RUSSIAN” I’m not going to go into super detail why I think it’s likely that Kai is biracial, but you know what? It doesn’t really matter. This fandom is old, and being from the early 2000’s that means the dub is much different, which means there are MULTIPLE versions of canons. I guarantee you, in every version there is something problematic, and one of the least important ones, is whether or not the fandom white-washes Kai by making him biracial (Maybe full Russia could be an issue, but you know what? Does it really matter?). You know what DOES MATTER. What they did to Eddy, they did that boy dirty. 

I mean they LITERALLY white-washed him. LIKE. 

Also changing Tyson/ Takao’s skin tone in G-rev/ V-force will forever annoy me; that might be an asian skin whitening thing though, still, problematic.

But anyways, in the end I’m sure the reason why the English fandom so frequently headcanons Kai as biracial is not because of white-washing, but because of the time the Dub was created. 

The early 2000’s was an interesting time. Some towns were still stuck in the 90’s, lots of kids had no access to the internet, and when they finally DID, they did not use it wisely. Misinformation was spread easily. Not many people in America read the manga, and very few people watched the Sub.

People like me, young and old, filled in the gaps that were missing.

It’s been 20 YEARS GUYS. A lot has changed. Headcanons that aren’t problematic will stick. As long as it’s not hurting anybody, or anyone else, it’s really not a bad thing. 

Our main focus should be to keep the fandom going! We can’t die, we’ve been together too long to die and I refuse to let it happen, where will I get my serotonin from?? 

Here’s a pic of my love to end it off:

Dumb idiot loser fuckin smiles fucking lunatic.

[bitch-for-a-rainbow]

Supergirl 6x08: Thoughts, Defense, and Criticism

I will say the episode mildly exceeded my expectations. I was very please to see them actually exploring trauma in a semi-realistic way.

I’ll start with my most positive— and most widely agreed with opinion: that Danvers sisters scene kicked ass. It is the kind of content that the show has been sorely missing. From Alex’s failure to open the wine bottle to Kara’s breakdown, there wasn’t a single beat that didn’t work in that scene. I LOVED Melissa Benoist’s performance— the halting, hesitating speech and lack of eye contact— you could feel just how painful it was to talk about the phantom zone, let alone admit she was still afraid. Chyler Leigh played her part wonderfully— the care with which she spoke every word just oozed love and worry. The casting of those two together was just a miracle.

(More under the cut. A lot more.)

There was some awkward dialogue (did they think the audience wouldn’t know who a reporter named Iris was? They had to include the full, hyphenated last name?) but honestly it was pretty good for a supergirl episode, so I can’t really complain.

Melissa Benoist is just a powerhouse of an actor and it showed this week. I could go on and on about her perfomance but there’s a lot more to say about the episode so I’ll just say she’s the bomb and move on.

Brainy and Nia were delightful as always, providing much of the humor of the episode and still shouldering some of the more dramatic beats. Brainy’s welcome home hug for Kara was something I felt in my soul don’t @ me.

The Nia/Lena friendship. I didn’t expect it, but I am certainly enjoying it. Hoping to see them hang out more (though maybe with a different topic than dead moms)

Lena continues to be a seedless addition to the Superfriends. Her leaving is, however, one of the few major issues I have with the episode. It’s weird. And random. From a purely character standpoint I don’t understand why she wouldn’t even wait a week for Kara to get settled back in before leaving. From an overall plot standpoint, I just don’t care about the Lena mom arc. I never have, and honestly I think there are better uses for her screen time— then again, removing her opens up that time for other characters and let’s the writers move along her character development offscreen— it worked for Mon El!

But seriously, i don’t know if Lena is going to just disappear or if we’re going to have a separated sub plot of her doing things and I don’t really care. I just want her to do something that I have any vague interest in, like have her finally pay back that debt to Andrea from 5x01 (did that even still happen? They called Kara a Pulitzer winner this episode.) Or have her work with Nia to track down information about interpreting her magic dreams, or go on a team bonding subplot with Alex where they get over the mind control and attempted murder via satellite thing (maybe talk about Alex’s experience with Myriad, or maybe, you know, have her resolve anything with Kara. Try and bridge icy awkward gap that happens when you realize your best friend was a lying asshole and you slightly overreact by trying to make it physically impossible for anyone to be mean to you ever again.

And speaking of Andrea— I’m actually really enjoying her character for the first time since crisis. She was fun in a way that made me laugh and worked well to both further herself as a character and push the plot. I’m genuinely excited for her scenes next episode. And they wrote all this without changing her at all as a character. Something just clicked this time, I’m not sure if it was how unstable Kara was so her aggression was actually effective or that her subplot actually had consequence this time, but it was nice.

And Zor-El was there, I guess.

I have, personally, been against any Kryptonian resurrections since season 1. Supergirl had their go of it, and it worked very well, and they used up their slot. Reign earned an exception for being a bamf and giving us what the best fight scene supergirl has ever had. The other worldkillers did not. And Argo made me unreasonably angry, especially when it was so painfully wasted.

Zor-El is just the new, shiny version of Argo and equally useless. (Also, Argo is alive again? Did we know that?) This is not to say I didn’t enjoy him at all, this episode is the first that I’ve liked him. But still. That one throw away comment about the phone calls and superhearing being hard to deal with could have led to a really interesting conversation with Kara: tackling the really unpleasant parts of her childhood, the difficulties she has pretending to be human, and ultimately the pain and suffering her caused by sending her off, alone, to care for an infant on a foreign planet. They knew it would give her powers; did they know what those powers would mean? Did they care?

I wanted that conversation, and I wanted the others, Nia in particular, to hear it. (Nia grew up a half-alien in Parthas, Kara grew up with the DEO hanging over her head like an ax— that difference has always intrigued me.)

Zor-El and Sesame Street was sweet, though I don’t know where he found the time to binge that and learn to control his powers all while Kara was still asleep.

Kara saying Clark used to beg to bring her to the fortress is a blatant retcon of seasons 1 and 2, but I think the writers make copies of the show bible just to set them on fire each episode.

And again— very interesting possible conversations. What does Zor think of his so very not Kryptonian-Kryptonian nephew? What does he think of Kara’s distant relationship with him? What does he think of Clark dumping Kara on the Danvers (for very arguable reasons) and then barely acknowledging her existence (for considerably less arguable, I’d totally in-character reasons)? What does he think of Clark’s data crystal that built a whole fortress, while his contained the recipe for his bio-weapon and a hologram of his wife? (What kind of person sends their teenage daughter off with a baby and a bio-weapon? The fuck did he think she’d need that for?) Was it so important to him to preserve his work?

Would it KILL THEM to have one conversation acknowledging Astra and Non’s existence. Just to explain how Kara knew her father was responsible for Krypton’s destruction. Could I have that instead of Oscar the trash monster? (Trash robot? Trash robot monster?)

Overall, I enjoyed the episode— it was better than I expected. I’m cautiously optimistic for next week.

And one more thing:

Where the fuck is Lex?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been praying for his character to go away for over a year, but like???

His abuse victim just left him.

The abuse victim who he torments for the fun and attention of it.

That victim.

Just told him he doesn’t get any more attention.

5. Episodes. Ago.

And he didn’t blow up half the city?

No “Look at me! Look at me!” destructive rampage?

Are they building up for something? They haven’t even mentioned his name. Even if he doesn’t lash out, he’s still a supervillain. Who’s got all this power and money, and is in controlling of a bunch of government stuff.

Idk.

Just.

Feels like someone should get on that.

[spidercakes]

SpiderCakes Masterlist

People have asked about masterlists before and I’m usually too lazy to make them but I decided I’d organize today so here goes! I’ve made the list according to the themes/ tropes of the fics I’ve written. Starker unless labeled otherwise. A lot of these are ABO and also something else but they’re labelled accordingly. Appropriate warnings are attached to each story.

The list is below the cut because its very long.

ABO

Confessions of a Slutty Omega- ABO AU in which Peter is a YouTuber and Tony watches his channel. More of a synopsis than an actual story.

Best Friend’s Kid: fic preview in which Tony is fucking his best friend’s kid.

Random ABO AU- based off this prompt: the first time Tony really holds Peter down with his entire weight as they fuck. Peter absolutely loves the loss of control.

Traditionalist Peter: older alpha Tony and young traditionst Peter in which Peter.

Another Random ABO AU: high school AU, based off this prompt: An Abo in which omegas when severally distressed emit an high pitched call that alerts their alpha.

Prep School AU: Big ‘ol pile of smut tbh.

Young Peter: based off this prompt- 16 yro omega!peter massaging tony's knot with his hands.

Bitchy Tony: fem!Omega!Tony and alpha!Peter where Tony is well known for being a real bitch to anyone who tries to court him.

Angst AU: based off this prompt: Tony is an alpha but Peter is a beta. They can’t be together as laws prevent alphas from mating with betas so they pine in silence.

Cheerleader!Peter Punk!Tony: HS AU cheerleader Peter and punk Tony, smut.

High School AU: what’s on the tin, including a little pining.

Slutty Peter AU: Peter is used to being in charge, but Tony takes over.

High School AU: fem!omega!Tony and alpha Peter.

Gossip Girl AU: Peter is surprised to find himself on a gossip blog he’s never heard of.

CNC Young Peter: 16 year old omega Peter and alpha mob boss Tony.

Married Tony: omega Tony is married unhappily to Justin Hammer and cheats with younger alpha Peter.

50′s AU: fem omega Tony and alpha Peter.

Heat Fic: Peter helps Tony through a heat.

Beauty Queen AU: beauty pageant AU with omega!Peter and alpha!Tony.

Playmate: omega Tony teaches omega Peter how to please an alpha. Intended as multichap but I have yet to write more.

Young!Peter: Tony needs to be married by 21 or he doesn’t inherit Stark Industries.

Tease Peter: best friend’s kid trope featuring Peter the tease.

High School AU: coy Peter makes Tony work for his attentions.

Intern: Tony takes an interest in his new omega intern.

Omega Run: Peter tries to outsmart the alphas only to get outsmarted by Tony.

Just The Tip

50′s AU- ABO also, based off this prompt: how about tony letting peter put just the tip in him as a reward, and they both like it so much they go all the way.

Young Peter- based off this prompt: Mmmm how about horny 16 yo Peter using the “just the tip” argument to convince guilty!Tony.

Late Bloomer Peter- based off this prompt: Omega!Peter is a very late bloomer. Neither he nor Tony realize Peter’s going into heat until it’s too late.

Just the Tip: ABO AU, dubcon, the one that started my fascination with this trope.

Teacher Student: This fit into like four categories on here but I put it here. Just the top with teacher Tony and student Peter.

Bratty Peter: ABO AU, based off this prompt:  maybe Peter is being a brat and says he wants to ride Tony but Peter teases him by only putting the tip in.

Half Asleep Peter: ABO AU, based off this prompt: Peter is half-asleep and Tony comes home late from work, Peter tells him he’s tired. Smut ensues.

Fic Ideas (feel free to adopt any of these!)

ABO fic Idea- Meant to be long form, may never get to.

Whatever this is- WinterIronSpider, mentions of incest.

Prep School Idea- definitely starker, more than likely would have included a lot of smut and drug use lol.

Bodyguard AU: half crack half serious.

WinterIronSpider: ABO WinterIronSpider idea.

Urban Fantasy AU: vampire!Peter and incubus!Tony.

Funky BDSM YouTube AU: Tony and Peter do BDSM demonstrations and occasionally themed episodes where they try to use holiday objects as like BDSM equipment.

Royal AU: Tony loves Peter, shouldn’t because blacksmiths can’t love princes.

Naive Peter: young very naive omega Peter who gets fucked by older alpha Tony.

Mob AU: Peter gets involved with Tony after he gets in over his head with Quentin.

Random AU: Peter has had a crush on Tony ever since May started working for the Starks.

Actor AU

Karma Got is Kiss for Me

Age Difference: fic snippet in which Peter, looking for a little adventure, runs into Tony.

Mob AU

Angelic Peter: ABO, based off this prompt: angelic little omega peter who mob boss or biker tony takes a liking to.

More Bratty Peter: based off this prompt: You can’t lose your temper like this every time you get a bit upset.

Kidnapping AU:  Tony deliberately kidnaps Peter because he has no patience for domestic violence and is basically offended that Beck sucks.

Smol Omega Peter: ABO AU featuring jailbait Peter.

Prequel to Smol Omega Peter: How they met in the above fic.

Shifter AU: based off this prompt: shifter au where everyone has a designated animal as well as abo.

Heir to The Mob: high school ABO AU featuring Tony as heir to the mob boss throne.

Barely Legal!Peter: ABO featuring mob boss Tony with barely legal! Peter.

Kidnapped!Peter: Peter gets kidnapped, Tony does something about it.

Mob Boss Peter: ABO Peter sleeps with Tony to intentionally fuck with mob boss Steve, whom Tony is married to.

Kept!Peter: Tony finds Peter in trouble and saves him, then chooses to pamper the hell out of him.

Stripper!Peter: mob boss Tony favors Peter when he visits the club.

Bratty Peter: Tony has to leave to take care of some things, Peter doesn’t care for that and reacts badly.

Mob Boss Peter: mob boss Peter featuring subby Tony who adores him.

Baker!Peter: Tony stark is a well known mob boss and he meets and falls in love with Baker! Peter.

Figure Skater Peter: mob boss Tony takes a liking to figure skater Peter, marriage to Quentin Beck be damned.

Harassed!Peter: mob boss Tony sees Peter being harassed and steps in.

Soulmates: mob boss Tony didn’t think he had a soulmate.

Superior Iron Man

Merperson Peter: based off this prompt: Tony takes down a rival corporation and discovers a hidden aquarium where they have captive merman!Peter. 

Manipulative!Peter: based off this prompt:  SIM being manipulated by an evil and/or mischievous Peter?

SIM AU: SIM!Tony manipulates MCU!Peter into coming home to his dimension with him.

Kidnapped Peter: based off this prompt: SIM had kidnapped Peter from the MCU dimension to replace his Peter that was murdered- SIM uses Extremis to wipe Peter’s memories.

WinterIronSpider

Pre WIS AU- based off this prompt: Peter and Tony love each other but Peter is worried about his super strength when they fuck so Bucky steps in.

High!Peter AU: WinterIronSpider high!Peter and soft Dom Tony AU feat. Bucky, the Added Element.

CNC Fic Preview: badboy type Tony and cheerleader! Peter with a splash of Bucky in there too. Incomplete.

Taboo

Stepbrothers AU: ABO featuring jealous Tony and a dash of winterspider.

Sequel to Stepbrothers AU: more jealous Tony and a dash of spidershield.

Another Stepbrother AU: WinterIronSpider- Alpha Tony shares his omega step brother Peter with alpha Bucky. 

Age Difference: based off this prompt- Peter at a picnic with Tony, Peter in little daisy dukes or something similar and summery while eating watermelon.

Non-Con Politician AU: based off this prompt- Tony comes across something shameful the young, up and coming, idealistic politician peter parker has done in the past, and holds it over his head.

Teacher/Student

Tease!Peter: based off this prompt:  Peter’s flirting not so subtly and tony ignores it until peter shows up in a short skirt and he can’t take it anymore.

Established Relationship: Peter and Tony discuss the future. D/s elements, smut.

Bathroom Fun: pure smut.

BDSM

Across The Stars: WIP, Peter takes a job as Tony’s sub to pay Ben’s medical bills after he's shot and falls into a coma. I’m only tagging this one as it links to all the other chapters.

Dom!Peter: 5 part series in which omega Peter learns he has a thing for domination and alpha Tony learns he has a thing for submission. Incomplete.

Teacher/Student AU: based off this prompt: Teacher/student (maybe an established relationship) with a whole lot of teasing. Dom Peter.

Dom!Peter: based off this prompt: Tony’s had a really long and horrible week at work and just wants to be good?

Sub!Tony: Peter accidentally becomes Tony’s Dom.

Edging: Tony edges Peter within an inch of his life.

Dom!Peter: Tony meets Peter in a club.

Drabble: Dom Peter and subby Tony.

Met Online: wherein Peter and Tony met online and decided to recreate a fantasy or two.

Miscellaneous

Trans!Tony AU- exactly what it says on the tin, smut.

High School AU: Exactly what’s on the tin, with smut/ fem Peter.

Serial Killer AU: exactly what’s on the tin.

Exhibitionist!Peter: Tony isn’t looking forward to his trip home because he knows he’s just going to be compared to his brother Steve the whole time. Peter helps.

So Sorry, Mr. Stark: Rumor has it Tony hates being called ‘Mr. Stark’ but that’s not the real reason he doesn’t want anyone calling him that.

5+1 honeymoon AU- based on this prompt: 5+1 honeymoon in which they stop their honeymoon five times to save the world and one time that they do not.

Acolyte Peter: Tony needs a replacement for Pepper and she suggests Peter.

Sensitive!Peter: based off this prompt: Peter trying to top but he's too sensitive so he either has to stop or ends up finishing too fast. 

Rock Star Tony AU: exactly what's on the tin with a moodboard.

Wedding Fluff: exactly what it says on the tin.

Crack AU: Peter and Tony have been in an on again off again relationship since high school and they both happen to be in town for the same event.

Rabbi’s Nephew Peter: literally exactly what’s on the tin, preslash.

Spoiled Peter: exactly what’s on the tin.

WingFic: based off this prompt: a wing fic/soulmate AU where when you meet your mate, your wing colours combine so that you get your mates colours on your secondary feathers.

Zoom AU: Peter introduces his class to all his pets with funky names.

Vacation AU: Peter, Ned, and Liz all vacation in Italy before going off to college.

Bratty Peter: based on this prompt: bratty!Peter possibly with an over accommodating Tony?- in which Peter mostly only pretends to be a spoiled brat.

Diety!Peter: Tony is chosen as that years sacrifice to his village’s god by priest!Howard.

Urban Fantasy AU: urban fantasy starker AU featuring vampire!Tony.

Possessed!Peter: crack AU- Tony possessed Peter, Peter forces him to deal with the consequences. 

Sex Slave AU: Headcanons around what this would look like.

Witch!Tony Familiar!Peter: Exactly what’s on the tin.

Sequel to Witch!Tony Familiar!Peter: Tony want to propose.

Camping!AU: Tony fucks Peter against a tree.

Prompt!Fic: Peter teases Tony.

Umbrella Sharing: exactly what’s on the tin. Fluff.

Possessive!Tony: Peter teases possessive Tony and it goes in his favor.

Snowball Fight: Peter hits Tony with a snowball by accident and that’s how they meet.

Pop Star!Peter Rock Legend!Tony: exactly what it says on the tin.

Media: media outlets have a heyday with Tony’s new relationship with 22 year old Peter.

Dumped!Peter: Tony comforts Peter after he gets dumped.

Cat Burglar Peter: based off prompt: Peter is a famous cat burglar and Tony is a police officer trying to catch him.

College AU: fluff mostly.

High School AU: 3 part series in which punk Tony gets with seemingly innocent Peter. The last part is linked, but all three parts are attached to the third.

Sleepy Starker: fluff piece that’s exactly what’s on the tin.

Soulmates: you don’t see in color until you meet your soulmate.

Random AU: Peter is upset that Tony never seems to mention him on social media.

Non Powered AU: Peter’s friends are really confused on what his new job is.

Moodboards

Serial Killer!Peter Detective!Tony

A Star Is Born

Kept!Peter Mob Boss!Tony

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Manga vs Anime: Episode 30 “Bad Sign”

So let’s start with Ep 6 of the 3rd series… which is the 30 Golden Kamuy animated episode.

Some data first.

This episode last 23:40 minutes and has an opening and an the ending. It covers 3 chaps and a half of the manga, chap 163, 164, 165, & half of chap 166 for a total of around 69 pages (I’m discounting the covers) basically covering half of Vol 17.

The episode is titled ‘Bad sign’, which is actually the title of chap 164, chap 163 being ‘Wanted poster’, chap 165 being ‘Flag bearer’, and chap 166 being ‘Request’.

NB: I’ve noticed the subs in this episode diverged in some points quite a bit from scanlations and official translation (like Yuusaku saying he was avoided by others in the barraks when it was more that OGATA was avoiding him or similar things). Japanese is often vague enough to allow for both meaning even if one is more obvious than the other to who knows the plot. I didn’t cover them in this analysis as I focused only on the animation and voice acting but consider yourself warned.

And now into the anime.

ASIRPA’S GROUP

Manga & Anime: Asirpa checks the wanted poster Ilya had, which matches with Kiro. Kiro tells her of his involvement in the facts of Saint Petersburg and of how Wilk was involved as well.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga we see Ilya throwing up blood before dying, while in the anime this scene is cut, possibly because they showed Ilya throwing up blood previously.

- In the anime, after Shiraishi says the guards were after Kiro, we see an image of a clearly dead Ilya. This wasn’t in the manga.

- In the manga Shiraishi comments how it’s not surprising the Russians are angry. In the anime this is cut.

My two cents: I’ll say this bit is well done. Not only the images are faithful enough to the manga but the way they’re presented gives the scene the right rhythm and atmosphere. The colouring, which gives in the idea of a flashback, is a nice touch and is also nice to watch and the final panning on the statue is a good idea. The background too is very nice. If anything the only thing is that apart from Kiro and Wilk people are absolutely still and will remain absolutely still. I get animating them would take more work but they really feel like dolls. On a positive side I loved how they handled Asirpa discovering Wilk was involved. The revealing of Wilk face alternated with Asirpa seeing the poster,

the rhythm of the scene, the music… well it was very good… and since they didn’t want to animate the people around them I think it was a clever trick to show all that smoke around Kiro as he carried away Wilk so as to cover the other people and make unnecessary to draw them. The panning on the statue was also a nice touch.

Oh, since the anime had sunset happen in the previous episode now the characters are shown with the colours implying it’s night. To be honest I should praise their eyesight as it seems pretty dark but I guess it was clear enough to allow Asirpa to see the poster.

THE OPENING STARTS HERE

VASILY KEEPING WATCH

Manga & Anime: It’s night. Vasily keeps on observing who he thinks to be Ogata but can’t catch him moving or breathing. Plus his hiding spot is bad as he could easily be seen, which isn’t a mistake he believes a veteran sniper like the one who killed Ilya would make so he decides to keep on observing.

My two cents: The anime well transposed this scene in animation. Not only it’s faithful to the manga but it gets you in the right tension.

KIRO’S GROUP IS WAITING

Manga & Anime: Kiro’s group is waiting for Ogata. Shiraishi, holding what was likely Ilya’s Mosin-Nagant, comments Ogata is late and wonders if they should go to back him up. Kiro says since Ogata told them to let him do it on his own they should just believe in him and wait.

My two cents: This is also well transposed. As Kiro’s talk was long they even redrew him in a different position and even had him move. Well done!

PREPARATIONS FOR THE HUNT

Manga & Anime: Vasily keeps on studying his opponent. Sunset comes and Vasily notices tracks near the body of his adversary. He follows them and see they lead to an Orok casket. He then assumes this means what he had been observing is just a scarecrow made using a corpse and Ogata is actually hidden in the casket therefore he shoots at it, the noise waking up Asirpa’s group. Only it turns out he was wrong, Ogata was really under the cape and now it’s his turn to shoot. He hits Vasily’s jaw, causing him to fall on the ground then tries to move but fall on the ground, panting.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga there’s an explanation about the battle of two snipers during the battle of Gallipoli. This is cut in the anime.

- In the manga Vasily shoots 6 times at the casket, in the anime only one.

My two cents: I would have said this is a beautiful transposition as not only it’s faithful (actually cutting the explanation allow the tension to rise more) but it pays good attention to the characters’ expressions and to the rhythm of the scene. Ogata moving slowly and then the shoot hitting Vasily is great as a choice,

the bullet hit Vasily in a scene that delivers what had happened without being too gory and even the splatter of blood work.

Ogata’s colouring hints at how he’s already feeling ill, well combined with the way he breathes.

They even darkened his eyes to make them more faithful to the manga

and his fall as well as the way he pants are also well done

so it would be a great scene if it wasn’t for an AWFUL mistake. Vasily didn’t shoot just one time to the casket, he shoot 6. The whole point wasn’t just to make him shoot first, but to make him shoot all his bullets so that Ogata, who only had a single shoot rifle could use that at his advantage. I really, really hope they’ll add the sound of those 5 more shoots in the dvd version because this is a pretty bad logical mistake. On a positive side this time, differently from the previous episode, you can see the traces in the snow and the colouring is very nice.

CHAP 163 ENDS HERE.

BACK TOGETHER

Manga & Anime: Asirpa notices Ogata is back to where the Orok/Uilta are waiting so they reach him to discover he looks really pale and has a fever. Ogata tries to wave him out as him merely eating too much snow when, looking at them, he hallucinates Yuusaku.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga Kiro says it looks like everything had been taken care of. In the anime this line is cut.

- In the manga Shiraishi crouches down to look at Ogata when he says Ogata looks really pale, his expression surprised and a little worried. In the anime he’s standing and looking normal.

- In the manga Asirpa isn’t in the panel when Ogata sees Yuusaku, even though she was standing right in front of him. In the anime she’s present.

My two cents: While the previous scene was good this one isn’t that great for various reasons. Shiraishi doesn’t sound really like he cares here, while in the anime he seemed to do so. While Tsuda Ken well deliver Ogata is not feeling well, the anime had Ogata raise his eyes before he finished speaking. It can work in the manga, where time works differently but in the anime we’ve the impression for 5 second he wasn’t seeing anything abnormal then BANG he hallucinated Yuusaku, combined with ghost sounding effect. The ghost yuusaku effect is nice but the worst thing the anime does which will be a mistake through the whole of it is that they add Asirpa to the scene when Ogata was instead hallucinating that Asirpa was Yuusaku (in fact even though she was standing right in front of Ogata till a moment before as soon as Yuusaku appear she suddently disappear and only Kiro and Shiraishi remain), something that in the manga ties well with the ending of Ogata’s fever dream but that doesn’t do so in the anime.

HALLUCINATION

Manga & Anime: Ogata hallucinates being on a sled trained by ghostly reindeers, Yuusaku leading it, turning to him and asking him if he feels cold. This causes Ogata to remember of the time when Yuusaku was alive and they went to visit a brothel together. Once he suggested Yuusaku were to have fun with the women there, Yuusaku refused, apologizing and Ogata let him go, making sure he wasn’t seen by others.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga, when Ogata asks Yuusaku to come with him, Yuusaku blushes. In the anime he doesn’t.

- The anime adds a scene in which one of the women caresses Yuusaku’s hand.

- In the manga Yuusaku sweats before answering to Ogata. In the anime he doesn’t.

My two cents: Okay so I liked the run on the ghostly sled, with that odd red colouring which I think was inspired by the cover for vol 17.

Even the idea of Yuusaku’s blood spraying all around is somewhat well done in it’s creepiness.

The transition to the flashback is well done with the camera moving on Ogata’s eye which close and open and then we see Yuusaku in the flashback.

Yuusaku’s voice is always very kind and the music, while not great, well underlines the mood of the scene. I like the choice to make a beautiful very starry sky, which seems to imply hope. Yuusaku doesn’t blush but his joy at having been invited is evident. The scene at the brothel sets up the atmosphere perfectly, with Yuusaku greatly uncomfortable as Ogata goes on. The first clenching, the lips trembling, the exhaling, everything is perfect.

THE OROK/UILTA CAMP

Manga and anime: Kiro’s group reaches an Orok/Uilta camp of a relative of the men that were with them. Asirpa helps Ogata getting down from the sled while Shiraishi observes. Once inside the tent she uses Ainu remedies to try to get Ogata feel better. An Orok/Uilta shaman also joins them trying with his music, to chase away the illness, with Asirpa and Shiraishi helping to make the healing music.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- The anime expanded the scene in which Asirpa helps Ogata, adding Ogata almost falling then slowly walking toward the tent, supported by Asirpa.

- In the manga Shiraishi merely observes the scene, his face shadowed, sweating a little. In the anime he also lowers his head and turns away his gaze, as if torn.

- The anime added an image showing Shiraishi and Asirpa listening to Kiro’s explanation.

- In the manga we see an image of Ogata sweating and, next to him, Yuusaku. In the anime we see Ogata sweating and then, among the steam, appears an image of Yuusaku all curled up, and then Ogata’s eyes.

My two cents: The scene of Ogata having troubles standing is well handled, they almost had him fall and then walk really slowly which is perfect. I also like how they delivered Shiraishi’s inner turmoil. It’s also good how they transitioned from Shiraishi and Asirpa listening to Kiro to them making noise as loud as they could. Sure, the scene of Ogata saying ‘silence’ is a bit less funny as Tsuda Ken delivers it in a sick yet creepy way but it works well. I’ll even go so far as saying that the way the anime chose to make Yuusaku appear during the music scene is better than the one of the manga.

THE SECOND HALLUCINATION/FLASHBACK

Manga and Anime: We’re back at the brothel, with Ogata sitting alone with one of the girls when he’s reached by Tsurumi. At this he sends the girl away and makes his best to look proper. Tsurumi comments the rumours on Yuusaku’s personality seem to be true, Ogata counters he was probably frightened by the atmosphere and insists he can manage to deceive him. Tsurumi says if he has a strong sense of justice it would be difficult to get him on their side, after all Yuusaku comes from a noble bloodline, which pushes Ogata to reject the notion of ‘noble blood’.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga Ogata’s face is deeply shadowed when Tsurumi says Yuusaku has noble blood. In the anime it’s not but they add Ogata’s eyes widening and then lowering.

- In the manga the shading on Ogata hinted at how he was in an emotional turmoil. No such hint there’s in the anime.

My two cents: This too is well done. I must praise Tsurumi’s voice actor because he’s great in delivering his quotes and we own to him most of the success of the scene but a good moment is also when the anime had Ogata’s eyes widen slightly at the mention of noble blood, showing how Tsurumi hit the mark and then lowering, showing how that remark hurt. Good is also the pause before Ogata delivers his quote.

THE ANIME PLACES HERE AN EYECATCH

SHIRAISHI, ASIRPA AND KIRO’S TALK

Manga and anime: Shiraishi leaves the place with an excuse and manages to lead Asirpa to follow him. Once she reaches him he tell her to escape with him. He believes Kiro took them there to try to get Asirpa to remember the key and that’s why Shiraishi kept silent but now he believes it’s too dangerous to stay in Russia. Shiraishi explains her his reasoning but Asirpa insists she’s staying. Kiro joins them, explaining them his old name was ‘Yulbars’, which was his past and why they killed the emperor. They’re fighting for minorities which includes his son and the Hokkaido Ainu. Asirpa says she wants to know more about her father and that she might remember the code then wonders if the killing to get the gold will continue with an even bigger killing once the gold is found and wonders if the gold really need to be found.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga isn’t clear if they are or not but the anime showed how Shiraishi and Asirpa were still making noise, albeit more calmly.

- In the manga Shiraishi points out to how there should be someone watching them as Kiro killed the emperor 20 years ago yet the Russians were right there to wait for them and that the Orok/Uilta man had almost be killed. Plus he mentions how when in the past they asked Kiro what Wilk might want to do with the gold, Kiro said he didn’t know but it was a lie as he had to know Wilk wanted to use the gold to fight against Russia. Kiro had to know as they killed the emperor together so it’s possible Kiro’s aim is the same, which was what Inkarmat was saying. In the anime he says one Kiro is hiding things from them as he and Wilk were trying to steal the gold to fight Russia.

My two cents: I liked how they remarked Asirpa and Shiraishi were still playing for Ogata... not so much how Shiraishi’s entire reasoning got cut but I get the anime needed to cut here and there to save time. I also like the transition in which everything turns to blood which rises toward Sugimoto’s image as well. I was curious how the anime would have handled this and I’ve to say they did it really well.

CHAP 160 ENDS HERE.

BATTLEGROUNDS

Manga and anime: Russo-Japanese war. Yuusaku, holding the flag, encourages men to march forward. Later Ogata is alone shooting Russians who wanders on the now empty battlefield. Tsurumi approaches him telling him Yuusaku is brave and everyone loves him. Ogata summarizes he doesn’t have to kill him.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga the two panels showing Ogata during the battle show him aiming. In the anime only the second does and between the two there’s an image of Yuusaku.

- In the manga we see Ogata shooting then a Russian falling, Ogata recharging, then another Russian falling then Ogata recharging. In the anime we see a Russian falling, Ogata shooting, another Russian falling, Ogata recharging.

My two cents: The transition here is a tad abrupt. I’ll admit the anime managed to deliver the general madness of the war, with soldiers drunk on the belief they won’t get hit due to Yuusaku. Sure, I would have appreciated less still scenes during the battle but whatever, at this point I guess the anime thinks they’re cool. The transition from the battle to the empty battleground work well and the dialogue between Ogata and Tsurumi is well done. I’ve to admit I like very much the contrast between Tsurumi’s voice and Ogata’s but it might be just me.

AT THE OROK/UILTA CAMP

Manga & Anime: Ogata is sleeping, Asirpa cheeks his forehead and comments his fever has gone down. As Kiro thanks the shaman Asirpa is gifted with a protective charm for Ogata. They give a protective charm to Shiraishi too, for a child’s penis.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga a box explains what the headband is for. In the anime it’s Asirpa who does so, saying it seems to work.

- In the manga the protective charms are shown in a box. In the anime the shaman shows them.

- In the manga Kiro says that they’re going to give that charm to Shiraishi because he was staring at a woman’s breast while she was feeding a baby. In the anime this is cut.

My two cents: Not bad. They’ve to adapt some things as they decided not to use the narrator but I’ll say it works just fine.

THE LAST FEVER DREAM

Manga & Anime: It’s night and Ogata and Yuusaku are walking on the now empty battleground, ogata leading Yuusaku somewhere. Yuusaku worries they’ll get scolded if they’re discovered. Ogata shows him a prisoner of war completely tied, then points out since he got there Yuusaku had never killed anyone and wonders if he’s using his role so as not to get his hands dirty. At Yuusaku’s denial asks him to kill that man and Yuusaku explains him his father told him not to kill so he would become an icon that would give them courage because killing fills others with guilt. Ogata says nobody feels guilt, they’re merely faking it, everyone doesn’t and is the same as him. Yuusaku hugs him and, crying, tell him he’s sure Ogata feels guilt as it’s impossible for people who not feel guilty when killing to exist.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga Ogata’s face is shadowed as he asks Yuusaku if he had ever killed someone with a darker shadow falling on his eyes. In the anime it’s not.

My two cents: This too is a good transposition. It’s faithful to the manga, it well used the corpses around them to make atmosphere, the voice actors generated a nice contrast between Yuusaku being so emotional and Ogata so calm and flat… yet as if he had something bubbling under the surface. If I’ve to nitpick I can say I’m a bit annoyed at the anime using a still image again when showing Yuusaku in ‘action’ and that Yuusaku hugged Ogata a tad too slowly so it felt a bit odd. Also the background music is nice and fitting but it would probably work better if it was on a higher volume as otherwise it can go unnoticed. Still, this is good.

THE END OF THE FEVER DREAM

Manga: At the next charge Yuusaku gets shoot from behind, the implication being Ogata did it. Yuusaku falls. However he’s then standing again and turning toward Ogata. Only it’s actually Asirpa as Ogata has woken up from his fever dream.

Anime: At the next charge Yuusaku gets shoot from behind, the implication being Ogata did it. Yuusaku falls. However he’s then standing again and turning toward Ogata. Ogata wakes up and Asirpa turns toward him.

My two cents: And this is where the anime screwed up BIG TIME. The whole implication of the scene wasn’t that Yuusaku, despite the bullet going through his head and the fact he had fallen stood up again to turn and look at Ogata… it was that as Ogata was about to wake up he saw Asirpa turning toward him but at first he exchanged her for Yuusaku turning toward him. How anime viewers are going to understand Ogata’s meltdown on the ice if they aren’t told Ogata has subconsciously superimposed Yuusaku and Asirpa’s images? I could give the anime a pass for not figuring it when Ogata started hallucinating Yuusaku, as that one wasn’t that easy but this wasn’t so damn hard to get, the page with Ogata and Yuusaku and the page with Ogata and Asirpa are drawn so similar exactly because you have to get this point! Really, if it wasn’t for this single one mistake this episode would be SO GOOD! Why did they have to mess up this? When Asirpa turns and Ogata is staring he doesn’t look like he’s surprised to see her, it looks like he had been frozen there ages ago and isn’t defreezing yet. -_- Well… at least they understood the Yuusaku who turns isn’t real as he starts to have the red tinge of the hallucination. Ogata’s pose as he watches him though is a bit unnatural and if it was made in an attempt to mimic the one he had in the manga, in the manga his pose was hardly visible so it could work while here it feels off.

CHAP 155 ENDS HERE.

FORTUNETELLING

Manga & Anime: The Orok/Uilta divine the fortune for Kiro’s group using the shoulder blade of a reindeer. The result is someone is coming from behind. Shiraishi wonders if this is a good or bad sign and Kiro says it’s good then shows him the shape the crack should have to point out someone is going to die.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga they showed the various cracks all in a box, in the anime the showed them on the screen one after the other.

- In the manga Asirpa has a doubtful gaze (Asirpa has a long story of not believing in divination), in the anime she’s just serious, then seems to squeeze her eyes a little as if in thinking.

My two cents: It’s nicely done, except maybe for the lack of Asirpa’s disbelief but I fear the ones behind this episode might not remember it (or since they made that horrible prophetic dream at the end of ep 24 they want to retcon Asirpa as believing in this sort of things).

THE TRAVEL RESUME

Manga & Anime: Kiro’s group is ready to leave the Orok/Uilta. Kiro apologizes for the troubles then tells Shiraishi he’ll remain there as yes, staying with Kiro would put him in danger and he doesn’t need to escape from him. Ogata agrees they’ve no reason to stop Shiraishi and Asirpa thanks him for what he did and says goodbye to him. Shiraishi watch them leave, thinking a smart move would be to join Tsurumi but… ultimately ends up running after them as Sugimoto told him he was counting on him to protect Asirpa. Shiraishi joins them saying he thinks in Russia there could be many pretty girls waiting for him and that if penis were to hurt he can use his charm. As he says so the shoulder bone crack further, showing the sign that was meant death of one of them.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga Kiro looks a bit sad when he says Shiraishi doesn’t have to run away from him. In the anime he’s just serious.

My two cents: I really liked the way Asirpa greeted Shiraishi. Her expression was sweet and her voice actor did a good job. The musical background this time was more noticeable and worked better. They also took care to keep Shiraishi moving and expressive as he explains his plan. Shiraishi running after them is a beautiful moment (too bad the flashbacks aren’t up to the same quality but whatever, they’re from the second series) and Asirpa’s expression and voice as he sees him is beautiful. I like how they showed Kiro smiling too and the way he asked Shiraishi if he changed his mind. The ending with the bone cracking came out powerful so it’s really good.

TO SUM IT ALL

I think this is probably THE BEST GK episode of the 3rd series, if not of all the series. Not only it’s a good transposition of the story, but it’s one that’s not rushed and that uses the times in the right manner, with a good animation and a good care of the character expressions plus a good storytelling and an attempt to use the music that needs to be improved but shows an initial care. Really, a good work. So I really hate how they missed the tie between Asirpa and Yuusaku, which was an important part for the future developments. I could pass over how Vasily didn’t shoot 6 bullets, it’s not clever but whatever, it does no harm if Ogata tempts fate more than necessary or if Vasily is actually more careful than in the original but this.... this wasn’t meant to end here but be tied to the ice field scene and now... not it won’t be, which makes me wonder if the writers are regular readers of GK or just read the bit they need to transpose, and so it’s harder for them to figure out the characters and what they’ll do. Whatever, except for this, it was a good episode, I would love if they were to fix the mistakes in the dvd version though I don’t dare to hope they’ll do it in this case and now I really, really hope the series will manage to keep this standard and, if possible, to improve it.

And also that it won’t completely and utterly screw up the ice field episode. Really. Please, no.

[skellebonez]

Smoke, Flasks, and Unfinished Tasks: Chapter 5

AO3 Link!

Chapter 1 Link! , Chapter 2 Link! , Chapter 3 Link! , Chapter 4 Link!

Summary: There’s nothing that brings opposing sides together like a mutual enemy, though who that enemy is...

Warnings: None for this chapter.

Author’s Note: I wanted to take a short break after THE SPECIAL to retool, replan, and rewrite some stuff in the next few chapters and make sure they would fit with what I have already posted, as well as wait for the last episode to be subbed so I could double check what I had in this chapter before posting. This fic is already canon divergent (and now a full on AU) so that helped a lot. All you need to know now is that in SFAUT another year is added in the timeline and 1 New Year has already passed. I will provide spoiler warnings for any chapter in the future since some stuff in the special will be relevant to this fic now. (There are none in this one! No Spoilers Inside!)

Chapter 5: Gladly, your journey ends here with me

“Come on, come on Jin... Ah ha!” Yin let out a triumphant yell as the two Calabashes finally connected remotely, one hidden tucked away where their now unwanted business partner hopefully couldn’t find it, and he quickly closed out and hid all the windows he could on the computers that would give away their plan. It was a long shot... but hopefully this would work. He just had to trust that his elder could handle this on his own.

----------

“You weren’t kidding when you said everything smelled dull,” Mei said with a frown. They were walking around the city looking for anything that could possibly help them get out of here. So far no luck, everything appeared to just be as normal as normal could possibly be. MK had even tried breaking something with his staff on “accident” and only got a slightly angry but forgiving shopkeeper once he paid for the broke table out of it. “Now that I’m really paying attention to it I can’t help but notice it.”

“It’s bizarre,” Red Son chimed in with a growl, true frustration having long since started to bloom in his expression. “Nothing’s happened! No one is attacking us, no one is trying to make everything perfect. It’s just... Normal!” The last word was screeched out, his hair flaming up before he took a breath and calmed back down. “I don’t think this is Jin and Yin anymore. It’s too different from what you described to us.”

Despite not wanting to, MK couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “I think you’re right... this has to be a Calabash, I’m sure of it! But unless they got really good at making more than two step plans really quickly, someone must be helping them.”

Though who that could possibly be they had no clue. As far as the three of them knew the Gold and Silver Demons weren’t really affiliated with anyone specifically. They seemed to run around doing their own thing for the most part.

“There’s got to be some kind of clue around here about how to get out, nothing technological is perfect!” Mei chimed up with a wide smile. “Who knows, maybe the solution will just hit us when we least expect i-”

“WATCH OUT!”

The trio jumped in surprise at the yell, voice familiar but sounding just off enough to startle them. They looked up as a cloud barreled down and ducked right before it flew right into an alley behind them, a series of yelps and crashes and curses being let out by whoever had hitched a ride on it.

“God bloody damn it how does he even fly this stupid thing?” They heard from inside, and they all carefully stepped into the alleyway. MK pulled out his staff, Mei her sword, and Red Son lit his hands on fire in preparation.

“UH...” MK lowered his staff just a bit when he caught sight of the figure in front of them, turned away from them and brushing dust and dirt off his clothes with his tail swiping madly at the air like he didn’t exactly know what to do with it. “M-Monkey King?”

“Monkey King” tensed, turning quickly with an uncharacteristic look of surprise and... fear? Fear on his face. “Uh... you’re sorta right, MK.”

“Ok, you are definitely not Monkey King, he NEVER calls me MK and he definitely does not have an accent like that,” MK said as he raised his staff back up with a raised brow. “And you are definitely not the fake Monkey King we just left who did call me Bud and Kid instead. Who the hell are you!?”

The new fake Monkey King raised his hands in a sign of surrender, laughing awkwardly. “Whoa, whoa! No need to attack, I’m here to help you! Surprised you don’t recognize me already, do we really sound that much alike?”

“Wait a- JIN!?” “THAT’S Jin?” “But how?” MK, Red Son, and Mei all shouted one right after the other, looking between the Jin-Turned-Monkey-King and each other.

“Change back!” MK shouted, extended his staff just enough to poke Jin in the chest. “Stop looking like that right now!”

“I can’t,” Jin sighed out, taking a step back and away from the staff jutting into his rib cage. “I mean, I can if I try for a minute, but it’s not safe! I need to be disguised and apparently using this digital form already made up with your info this is the best disguise the program decided for me.”

“AH HA I was right this is a Calabash!” MK shouted in victory before realizing this just confirmed what they had already agreed to. “Ahem... OK... why do you need to be disguised? And why did you say you were here to help us? Isn’t this one of your plans?”

Jin winced at the questions and looked away, rubbing one of his arms. It looked... bizarre and wrong to see on the Sun Wukong’s face. Sure, MK had seen the ancient being look vulnerable before but it was never anything like this. “Yin and I were... tricked into helping someone we shouldn’t have. She’s got control of everything right now, except an extra Calabash Yin has me in that I’m remotely connected to you from. I can help you get out of here if you just trust me for a bit.”

“Oh, like we’re just going to trust you like that!” Mei growled, taking a step closer. “How do we know this isn’t some kind of trick? That this isn’t part of your plan?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna admit that me and Yin aren’t really that good at plans,” Jin deadpanned with a frown. “I mean, we’re pretty smart! We made an entire virtual reality system that can hold multiple people shrunk down with magic and replicate anything from their own memories after all! But we’re not really good at more than 2 step evil plans.”

“He has a point,” Red Son interjected. “We fought them 2 months ago and even then their plan was ‘take control of the city water supply, fight Monkie Kid’. They didn’t have a plan aside from just... holding the water and hoping they’d win.”

“See, bad at plans!” Jin pipped up with a wide awkward smile, and that felt more natural if a little exaggerated to see. “But! We’re good at tech, and the problem here is tech we personally made. So I can help you!”

“Again, why though?” MK asked, lowering his staff cautiously. “Why help us? Wouldn’t whoever you’re working for getting rid of us be good for you?”

Jin frowned again, looking down at his (Sun Wukong’s) hands. “... It was my idea. A week or so ago... A woman came by asking for a job, told us to just call her Vapor, learned real quick that wasn’t her name after she dropped her disguise... We needed the extra cash to fill a tech order for another demon and it sounded easy enough. Make a Calabash convincing enough to trick the Monkie Kid’s senses so that he couldn’t get out from the inside. And it was easy, we already had everything being worked on ourselves! But then...” He scoffed, crossing his arms and looking away. “She started to want to get all three of ya. Started talking about wanting it to be ‘worse for him, more painful’. We didn’t know what she was talkin about, but we knew from context clues that whoever ‘him’ was wasn’t you.”

MK let his staff down entirely but didn’t put it away, earning odd looks from Mei and Red Son. He shook his head, gesturing to Jin and then their weapons to urge them to stand down for the moment.

“Then she started to get frustrated,” Jin continued. “She pushed us to work harder, faster, and when we tried to cut off the deal she... she pulled out this kind of smoking pipe and I don’t know what the hell she has in it but that stuff knocked us out harder than any drink ever did. When we woke up we were... stuck.”

“Stuck?” MK asked. “Wait, you work for other demons?”

“Yeah yeah, we make tech for other demons, that ain’t the point right now!” Jin cleared his throat, continuing his explanation. “She had some kind of... of sealin charm on the building. No demons gettin in, no demons gettin out. ‘cept for her, she’s got some kinda charm around her neck that lets her leave whenever she wants. We’ve been stuck in our little hidden HQ ever since and whenever we get too rowdy or annoying she just puts us to sleep again. I don’t know how much more of that we can breathe in before it starts to actually hurt us, and whatever she has planned wasn’t for you. You’re just some kinda-a pawn. To hurt someone else. That’s why I want to help you, she’s hurtin my brother and as much as we want to take you down the Gold and Silver Demons will not be used as pawns in other’s schemes.”

“So it’s a pride thing,” Red Son said as he crossed his arms. “You’re helping us because this Vapor woman hurt your pride.”

“Yeah, and what of it?” Jin crossed his arms in turn, glaring at the fire demon. “Need a better reason or do you not want my help?”

“We want your help!” MK jumped in with a sigh. “Any help, even help from pride alone, is probably needed right now.”

“Great!” Jin smiled wide again, and the quickly changing expressions he was showcasing on the Monkey King’s face were starting to give the trio tonal whiplash. “Should be simple enough, she’s out and about right now so all we gotta do is get to a little something Yin and I added in while she wasn’t looking before she gets back.” He smirked, prideful and eager to brag. “An emergency access hub. Didn’t have time to program it to pop up on command, but once we get to our hidden HQ we can access it and force this Calabash to just spit us out! You probably could have found it yourselves... eventually...”

“That’s... surprisingly easy and simple,” Mei said, but smiled after a moment. “But worth a shot I guess. If you’re lying we can just kick your butt and get out of here the old fashioned way!”

This caused Jin to laugh nervously again, raising his hands up. “No lying, promise! Just follow me-EAGH!” When he took a step he stumbled, righting himself as he flailed his arms and sighed. “Stupid tail, how do you balance with this thing?” He took another careful step, then another, and after a moment he just grabbed his tail and yelped at the sensation and wrapped it around his wrist before walking normally. “This is bloody weird.”

“I’ll say...” MK muttered as he watched Jin step out of the alley and wave his free hand, the air in front of him glitching in a familiar way before a digital floating map rested before him. “... ok, that’s kinda cool.”

Jin paused, looking back at them with a bit of a flushed tint on Monkey King’s ears. “Uh... thanks? Just follow me, this will tell us if anything pings the system to alert it that I’m here or she comes back.”

They followed Jin for a moment, fake people staring at the full form of Sun Wukong in awe. The same way MK and the others would have expected them to in real life.

“Wait, hold on!” Mei piped up after a moment. “You said you found out Vapor wasn’t this mystery woman’s name, but you never told us who she was! What’s her real name, maybe we already know who she is!”

“Yeah, if we know who she is we can plan on how to kick her ass!” MK agreed.

Jin shook his head. “I don’t know if even you three can fight her at this point, she’s strong. Way stronger than I already knew she could have gotten over the years. You’re gonna need more than a little help to take her down.” He turned to Red Son.

“What?” Red Son questioned, tips of his hair sparking as he tensed in confusion and worry. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because Vapor was-AAAAAHHHHH!”

And Jin fell to the ground screaming.

----------

“And to what do we owe the.... honor of your visit,” The Demon Bull King growled lowly, arms raised slightly at his sides as Princess Iron Fan stood on his shoulder. Her own glare was even more formidable than her husband’s.

“Brother Ox,” Sun Wukong greeted as he bowed in respect. “I-”

“We stopped being brothers in name long ago, Sun Wukong,” DBK growled low again. “Now state your business here before I lose my patience and we continue our last fight.”

“I’m surprised we aren’t already fighting...” Pigsy whispered to Tang. “This is weird...”

And Pigsy was right, the situation was weird. They had snuck in, Wukong ready to fight and get them out of there if things had gotten out of hand. Instead, they were greeted with a very annoyed but subdued Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan who looked ready and willing to murder all of them if given half an excuse... but for some reason were holding themselves back.

“Demon Bull King,” Wukong corrected himself with a small frown, holding his bow for an extra moment before straightening himself. “I have come to ask for a temporary truce... and your help.”

DBK grit his teeth, leaning down until he was nearly nose to nose with the Monkey King, PIF holding onto his horn on her side to remain stable. “And what makes you think I would ever agree to that?”

“The reason I am asking for it,” Wukong continued, not even reacting to the snorted breath in his face. “MK, Mei, and your son were supposed to join me on Flower Fruit Mountain this morning. We... have not been able to find them.”

This immediately got both parents attention, DBK narrowing his gaze dangerously as he stood up straight so fast PIF had to hold on tighter to not fall off. “What are you implying?”

“MK, Mei, and Red Son are missing. We want your help to find them.”

[bipabrena]

Beneath x the x Ice (AO3 HisoIllu fic) Chapter 5

A fic where there’s more to Illumi than meets the eye. Hisoka goes to great lengths to help him realise he deserves better than the Zoldycks and being a puppet to his parents, even at the expense of their friendship. Slow-burn HisoIllu. Read the whole thing here. 

X

Illumi stopped in his heel for a couple of seconds. He had to squint, to evaluate if the redhead that looked from side to side every now and then, leaning against the diner’s window, was Hisoka. His mouth formed a small “o”.

It really was.

He stuck his hands in his pockets, and approached him.

“Hisoka,” he called, halfway to the diner.

The redhead perked up, and looked at the direction the voice came from. He smiled as the assassin walked towards him.

“Illu ♥!”

The Zoldyck stopped, now face-to-face with the magician. He subtly scanned him from head-to-toe, even though he had already done that when walking to him. Hisoka was fashioning a teal cardigan with a grey sweater underneath, khaki pants, and a sage coloured scarf. His hair was layered down, and he wore no make-up.

“So,” Illumi broke the silence, “I take it you’re cold tonight.”

Hisoka’s shoulders shook in laughter. “I have no idea how you could tell. ♠”

Now it was the magician’s turn to eye the assassin. He fashioned the same clothing from lunch. His smile stretched.

“Hm?” Illumi inquired, noticing Hisoka’s foraging eyes.

“You’re looking lovely. You have an interesting fashion sense for an assassin, I must say. ♦”

“As do you,” Illumi replied. “You’re like a rainbow with all those colours on you.”

Hisoka was expecting the assassin to mention how he wasn’t wearing make-up, how his hair was down, or how he wasn’t dressed the way Illumi complained about days prior. Well, he was disappointed.

“Are we going to see the meteor shower here?” Illumi asked, knowing that a city was the worst place to see such an event due to the light pollution.

“Oh, you offend me, Illu. I’m not so cheap! ♠” he ran fingers through his hair, cheeky smile on his face. “I have a very nice night planned for us, you see. ♥”

“I understand,” Illumi replied. He enjoyed the way Hisoka looked right now. “I suppose I’ll allow you to lead the way.”

“Oh?” Hisoka brought his fist to his mouth, chuckling. “So, you’re a sub? ♦”

“What?” the assassin didn’t understand what he meant.

“Nothing,” Hisoka waved his hand with a grin, shrugging off his previous statement. If he had to explain the joke, it would obviously lose the humour. “Come on, Pacific Park is nearby. The meteor shower shouldn’t hit until midnight. ♣”

“What?” Illumi repeated.

Hisoka cast a backwards glance.

“That’s five hours, Hisoka. Why couldn’t we have met at nine as originally planned? Or ten?”

“I told you, Illu,” he smiled “I have a nice night planned for us. ♥”

Illumi blinked at him.

“Will you trust me? ♠”

“I’m hungry,” the assassin announced. “I skipped supper because of this, so food better be in your plans.”

Hisoka moaned, drawing the attention of people walking near-by. A mother tightened the grip on her daughter’s hand, walking faster to get away from the odd redhead.

Illumi seemed indifferent to yet another one of Hisoka's eccentric episodes.

Hisoka placed a hand on his chest. “You skipped supper for me?” He squinted his eyes in a long smile.

“I suppose so, yes.”

“Oh, Illu… ♥”

Illumi’s sight wandered, from side to side, eyeing every person walking past them. Two pedestrians, in particular, ogled Hisoka as if he were disgusting. For some reason, this upset Illumi.

“Are we leaving or not?” he asked.

“Yes, of course! ♥” Hisoka led the way.

Illumi followed. They walked for various minutes. The city lights gleamed their faces. They walked past people, pets, bars with neon signs—and during the entire trip, Illumi could see Hisoka talking.

He talked, and talked. He swirled his body, looked back at Illumi; always fashioning that cheeky smile. The Zoldyck followed Hisoka mindlessly, but he was, quite frankly, not listening to him. Then, they reached their destination. Pacific Park.

It was an amusement park located on the coast. It wasn’t large, but it was cosy, and housed very entertaining attractions. The most visually appealing ones, or, in other words, the first you would notice immediately, were the neon-lighted roller-coaster that whirled the park, and the Ferris wheel that sentinelled the ocean.

Hisoka was about to do a spectacular, charming introduction to the park, but Illumi beat him to it and spoke up first.

“Are we going to eat here?” Illumi asked.

Frankly, Hisoka wasn’t planning on taking Illumi to dine until ten. His original plan was to spend time together at the amusement park, ride some attractions, chat, attend one of the stage shows, to then dine at one of Illumi’s favourite restaurants. The final act of the night would be the meteor shower, which they would see on a lake five-miles from here.

He figured that, being isolated from the world as a child, Illumi was never taken to places like this. He thought it’d be interesting for the lonely assassin to experience it.

“Yes! ♥” Hisoka responded with pride. “But!” he emphasised, “not dinner per se, because first—"

“I don’t like this place,” Illumi decided.

“Sorry?” Hisoka didn’t appreciate being interrupted.

“I don’t want to eat here. What was the plan? To eat, then ride something? I would get nauseous. Or to ride something, then eat? I don’t see the fun. This is not a nice place to eat. I would’ve much preferred a restaurant.”

Hisoka felt offended over Illumi’s critiquing of his plan. Why couldn’t the assassin not be dense for once, and allow things to flow?

“Now, Illu, don’t be impatient!” he rose a hand. “We will dine, at Mirazur to be precise. However, the reservation is at ten, and don’t you agree it would be fun to do something else first? This is a spectacular place! ♠”

The assassin looked around. “I don’t see the big deal,” he lied. The place looked gorgeous, and he enjoyed the visually appealing night-lights.

Hisoka bolted towards Illumi, positioning himself behind him. He gently grabbed his shoulders. “There’s a lot to do! There are these rides,” he pointed to the rollercoaster and Ferris wheel, then a pirate ship on the far left, “there’s a shooting range,” he pointed to the distant right. “There are stage-shows up ahead,” he pointed to the front.

He rested both hands on Illumi’s right shoulder, and leaned his chin on them. “It will be fun. I promise. ♥” He smiled.

Illumi pierced him with his large and impassive, black eyes. He wondered why Hisoka was so close to his face. “Okay.”

“Good! ♦” Hisoka clapped once. “Let me give you a tour, shall we? But,” he rose a finger, “let’s get ice-cream first.”

Illumi’s eyebrows rose. “Ice-cream?”

“Yes. ♥”

“I am okay with that,” Illumi approved.

He loved sweets. Being thoroughly denied them as a child, he developed an itching need to consume them often. He would take advantage of this.

They approached one of the ice-cream stands. It was massive. There were several people in-line, and Illumi wished he could stick his needles in them to make them leave. By the way the assassin observed them, Hisoka was able to deduce, immediately, his intentions. He smiled. Suddenly, Illumi felt a gentle touch on his wrist. He looked to his left, where Hisoka stood.

“Now, now, Illu… don’t try anything funny. We’re in public. ♠”

“Who are you to say that? You moan in public all the time.”

“Mm, but that’s not the same as trying to kill people. ♣”

How ironic of Hisoka, of all people, to say such a thing.

“I wasn’t planning on killing them,” Illumi muttered. “Just make them leave.”

The magician grazed his thumb over the assassin’s wrist, much to the latter’s discomfort. “You are very lucky to have me,” Hisoka stated proudly. “Don’t fear, Illu, I will teach you how to behave in public! ♠”

“Excuse you?” Illumi interjected. “I very well know how to behave in public. Who are you to—” he stopped in his tracks.

Hisoka narrowed his eyes with a long smile.

He’s just trying to rile you up. It takes two to tango.

“You are correct,” Illumi looked forward.

“Ah?” Hisoka’s smile reverted, puzzled.

“Yes,” Illumi responded, not making any sense.

Hisoka opened his mouth to say something, but his dense friend interjected.

“I will have three scoops, all different flavours,” he announced. “What will you have?” he looked at Hisoka.

Oh, this man was so endearing. Hisoka could barely contain himself.

“Oh, Illu… ♥” his smile stretched.

“Hello,” the female cashier greeted.

“Oh, hello,” Hisoka boldly leaned forward, resting his elbows on the counter. He bore a coquettish smile. “A banana split, no whipped cream. I want almonds for a topping. Please do sprinkle them everywhere. ♥”

Illumi caught the flustered look on the young cashier’s face. He supposed she wasn’t used to having such a charismatic, bold customer.

“And you, sir?” she looked at the assassin. His impossibly large, onyx eyes made her feel uneasy. He was quite attractive, but she’d rather look at the redhead that bore a much more inviting expression.

“I want a large ice-cream cone, three scoops. One cookies and cream, one caramel and one chocolate.”  

The cashier nodded, smiling. She announced the price, and Illumi sought his wallet to pay for his snack.

Hisoka stopped him in his tracks. “How silly of me! ♠” he slapped his forehead. “Did I not mention I would be the one to pay, Illu ♥?”

While his intention was to be the same old-fashioned, quirky Hisoka, the cashier couldn’t help but believe these two were a couple.

Illumi spoke, as impassive as ever. “No, thanks, Hisoka. I’ll pay for my own." He was about to hand the money, but Hisoka held his hand and pulled it down.

“I insist. ♥” He purred.

That whispery, half-growl tone definitely stirred something strange in Illumi’s belly. Hisoka was weird…

“Oh, well,” Illumi shrugged, getting off the line. If he had free ice-cream, better for him.

He walked towards one of the nearest attractions. His eye shifted from the ride to the sign. It was called “King’s Dominion,” a 305 foot drop-tower with a 72mph descent.

Currently, people were mounting the ride. It would begin shortly.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned, and it was Hisoka, offering his ice-cream cone.

“Thanks,” Illumi muttered, eyes shifting back to the ride.

Hisoka noticed something curious. The more time passed, the more Illumi’s guard eased. Right now, he was alert enough to anticipate any sort of danger, but he was relaxed enough to enjoy his surroundings. In fact, he was so relaxed, he didn’t notice the way Hisoka was looking at him. Hisoka was fascinated, taking small spoons of his banana split.

He wasn’t paying attention to the crazy night-lights, the people screaming in near-by rides, or the people walking past them. His attention was, irrefutably, focused on no one but Illumi and Illumi alone.

The ride was about to commence. Illumi leaned forward expectantly.

“Illu,” Hisoka chuckled, “you haven’t tasted your ice-cream. ♦”

Illumi did not respond. He watched as the tower went up. He could see the people getting smaller and smaller, some wiggling their legs. His lips were parted, eager to find out what would happen next.

Hisoka never took his eyes off him.

The tower stopped. Faint “yeah”s and “whoo-s” could be heard from above.

Illumi quickly took a bite of his ice-cream, as to not miss a single second of what was about to occur. He licked his lips.

Hisoka was dying.

Then, screaming ensued. The tower dropped, and all Illumi could see was hands and feet wiggling in the air.

The ride stopped midway. The fascinated assassin gasped quietly.

Then, it went back up.

“Oh!” Illumi uttered, surprised.

It went back down. The motion was repeated three times, until the ride finally dropped for the last time, stopping. The riders unbuckled their belts, and ran to the exit, some quite tipsy.

Hisoka loved how disbelieving Illumi looked. In a way, he couldn’t understand how Illumi had never seen something like this before.

Illumi finally noticed the way Hisoka stared at him. He turned to look at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” he smiled, taking a spoonful of his banana split. “You simply haven’t eaten your ice-cream yet. ♣”

“I took a bite,” Illumi refuted.

“Yes, but that’s not eating it. ♠” Hisoka repositioned his scarf. “It’s melting! ♥”

“Oh, yes,” Illumi agreed, looking at drops run down the cone. He licked the ice-cream, from the second scoop to the third. “That is very good,” he concluded.

“Yes, I can see… ♥” Hisoka hoped Illumi would continue doing such a gesture.

Illumi’s nose tickled. He inhaled, then sneezed gracefully. Hisoka couldn’t believe how he could look perfect doing even that. He felt something cold hit his shoes, and that’s when he saw Illumi’s ice-cream. The sudden movement made the scoops drop from the cone.

Illumi eyed it, and blinked. “Oh, no,” he stated, in the most monotone voice possible. He sounded robotic, and like he couldn't care less. But truly, he really was bummed his ice-cream fell. It was rather amusing to Hisoka how that hollow, robotic tone betrayed Illumi's words of despair. 

“That’s okay,” he shook off his feet, ignoring what just happened. “I can get you another one. ♦”

“No, but thanks,” Illumi announced, throwing the cone in the stand’s trash can. “I would like to ride something now.”

Ride me. Hisoka thought. “Mm. Would you like to ride that one? ♥” he pointed at the drop-tower they just observed.

“I believe so, yes.”

“Okay,” Hisoka grabbed a large spoonful of his ice-cream, and offered it to Illumi. ”Here! ♥”

Illumi stared for a couple of seconds. “What are you doing?”

“Hm? I’m offering you a spoonful of my ice-cream. ♣”

“Yes, I can see,” Illumi looked at the spoon. “But why?” his eyes shifted back to the redhead.

“It’s ice-cream, Illu. You dropped yours, and sharing is caring. Why wouldn’t you want it ♥?” he chuckled.

Illumi blinked at him.

“It’s not poisoned… ♠”

“Yes, but you ate from that spoon,” Illumi remarked.

“Sorry?” Hisoka pulled the spoon away from him.

“You put your mouth there. Why would I eat from there?”

Hisoka’s lips parted. Was Illumi implying he disgusted him? He felt very offended, something he didn’t know was possible for someone like him.

“Can we ride the drop-tower now?” Illumi asked.

“Go ahead, I’ll watch from here,” Hisoka stated, looking forward at the ride, eating the rejected spoonful of ice-cream.

“You’re not coming?” Illumi inquired.

“Well, I did just say I’d watch from here. That means I won’t go, no?” he kept the spoon in his mouth for a couple of seconds.

Illumi only began to notice something was off. Hisoka was acting different, all the sudden.

“You’re acting strange,” Illumi stated matter-of-factly.

“Ah,” is all Hisoka responded. He still looked forward, avoiding Illumi’s gaze.

“Oh!” the assassin brought his fist to his palm, believing he figured out what changed Hisoka’s mood. “I splattered ice-cream on your shoes. Is that why?”

Hisoka finally looked at him, lips pursed in annoyance. Illumi gazed at him expectantly, to which Hisoka could only laugh. Laugh at Illumi’s denseness, laugh at himself for feeling offended; laugh at how Illumi was making this night not-too-easy to enjoy the way Hisoka expected. It would be a waste of time trying to explain the simple-minded assassin why the magician felt offended to begin with.

“I haven’t finished this glorious treat, Illu, ♥” Hisoka chuckled, in attempts to lighten the mood again. “I can’t ride while eating it.”

“Oh,” Illumi felt silly for believing something was wrong to begin with. “I’ll wait for you.”

“Are you sure? ♦” the magician inquired.

“Yes.”

He waited in silence as Hisoka took his time eating his ice-cream. He was almost done, now eating the bananas. They watched a second round from the attraction.

“Okay. ♥” Hisoka threw the empty container.

They waited in line. Hisoka peeked at Illumi, who was blankly looking forward. He broke the silence by chuckling, drawing the assassin’s attention.

He tried to softly run fingers through Illumi’s hair, but the latter pulled back before he could touch him.

Oh, Illu… why must you make this so difficult? “You should tie your hair, otherwise it’ll be rather uncomfortable. ♣”

“Oh,” Illumi muttered. “I didn’t bring a hair-tie.”

“What about your needles? ♦”

“They’re a bother to tie my hair with,” he brought his hair up and gathered it around itself to make a bun. "But I suppose I've no other choice," he kept it in place with two needles.

He looked intimidating, but in an enigmatic, attractive way. And Hisoka loved it.

“Mm. Scary. ♥” Hisoka purred, observing him intently.

There it was again. That tone, and the slight narrowing of Hisoka’s golden eyes. It stirred something in Illumi, something he couldn’t identify. A strange, warm feeling.

They were next.

Hisoka was incredibly excited, hoping that the vertigo would produce an expression in Illumi. Oh, he couldn’t wait!

They sat next to each other and buckled their belts, waiting for everyone else to accommodate. Hisoka looked like an excited child, which Illumi found amusing. Could he blame him, though? The assassin felt a dull hint of excitement himself.

They went up.

Hisoka held Illumi’s hand, and rose his arm. Illumi immediately pulled it back. “What are you doing?”

“Put your hands up, Illu! ♥” Hisoka smiled. “It makes it more fun,” He insisted, grabbing his hand again.

Hisoka’s long, slender fingers felt warm and delicate wrapped around Illumi’s. It was odd to the assassin how these deadly fingers capable of crushing bone and stone could feel so… inviting.

He complied.

The ride, now at the top, remained still for five seconds.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Illumi heard piercing screams, and wind abruptly hit his face. A tingly sensation overcame his stomach, but his expression remained the same. It felt similar to when he jumped off a building. He suddenly felt squeezing in his hand, and recalled Hisoka was holding it. He turned to look at the redhead, and found a strange child-like innocence in him.

Hisoka bore a huge grin, his scarf flew up his face. He swung his legs, yelling “whoo-s". He looked relaxed, and happy. Illumi found it strange, but endearing. He found himself, reflexively, squeezing his hand back. Had you asked Illumi why he did it, he wouldn’t know what to reply. His answer would simply be “because it felt right.” 

Read the rest of the chapter here.

[babyboy-bangtan]

By Chance Chapter 12

A misunderstanding gone viral puts you on BTS’s radar, which leads to a series of events that finally culminate with you meeting them for the first time.

✚ Pairing: Sub!BTS/Female Reader ✚ Word Count: 5.4K ✚ Rating: M ✚ Warnings: None. ✚ A/N: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Dialogues spoken in Korean when English is also being spoken will be bolded and italicized. Read on AO3 / Chapters 1-4 /  Chapters 5-8 / Chapters 9-10 / Chapter 11

The Meeting: Part 2

Thanks to some good, old fashioned bribing with tickets to the premiere of your next movie, you managed to get your hand on a couple of the pictures from BTS's SNL shoot, and you were able to have your assistant get you a custom made card for them. It's a pretty simple design, but you think that makes it look just perfect; it's one of their group photos, with 'HAPPY SNL DEBUT DAY'  written at the bottom. It's a cute, well-made card that they can open to see what you've written inside— the problem only being that you don't know what to write just yet.

As you delete yet another sentence you've written on your notes because it doesn't feel right— this has been going on for at least half an hour— an incoming call from your assistant suddenly startles you.

"Fuck." You say, clutching your chest before answering it. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hey, I'm right next in line at the flower shop— do you want me to give the phone to the florist when it's my turn?" 

"Yeah, please do. I'll just wait on the line. Thank you!" 

"Okay, no problem." She says, while you distract yourself by trying to come up with a nice, not too personal message to write to the boys.

They were absolute sweethearts when you met them, much more so than you thought they were going to be, not to mention much more breathtakingly beautiful in person than on screen— and that truly is saying something. It was a bit hard to keep yourself together while they were around you because of how stunning they looked, and when they told you that Jungkook and Jimin were actually your fans you almost lost it. Jungkook was especially adorable— he got so shy around you that it made you want to hug him and tell him it was okay, but you knew that would've been an invasion of his personal space you doubt he would've welcomed.

You almost made a fool of yourself when they asked you what your favorite video of theirs was; you answered Blood, Sweat and Tears so quickly that you were sure they would realize why it was your favorite. You ended up covering it up by saying it was because of how artistic it was— which is not a lie per se, only a partial truth— and they seemed to fully believe you. You couldn't go ahead tell them the true reason was because seeing them hanging from swings, being tied up and blindfolded while kneeling or wrapping their hands around their own throats makes you want to go wild— because they would've rightfully run for the hills.

So, because of how lovely and sweet they were, you want to give them something that might ease their nerves even if it's just a little bit. You know what it feels like to be nervous on SNL for the first time as a host— but they are the first South Korean band to ever perform there and you can't imagine how much pressure they must be feeling over that.

Since you don't know them that well, you went for the safest bet you could think of: a nice arrangement of flowers. You would've loved to go into the shop yourself, but if word got out that you were in a flower shop buying a arrangement with 7 different types of flowers, it'd be only a matter of time before someone put two and two together and fucked up your gift by telling some news outlet desperate for any kind of celeb gossip.

"Hi, sir." You hear your assistant say. "Would you mind speaking with my boss over the phone? She couldn't come here but she wanted to order an arrangement herself—"

"Sure, no problem." You hear a male voice say, a bit further away and muffled. "Hello?" Now his voice is perfectly clear.

"Hi! Thanks for accepting the call."

"No problem, ma'am. What can I help you with?"

"Okay, I wanted to order an arrangement that I need to be ready by... let's say Saturday at noon—"

"Uh, that's very soon—" He says, but you interrupt him because you knew this was coming. The flower shop is quite famous— and that fame is well earned because their work is stunning— but you know from someone that it's not impossible to get them delivered in a couple days, if you're willing to pay the price. Which you are. That's the reason you sent your assistant— so she would try to persuade him if in case you couldn't yourself through the phone and to avoid the possibility of him hanging up on you before hearing you out.

"I know— but I'll pay whatever it costs to get it by this Saturday."

"It's going to be a bit expensive, ma'am—"

"I know." You repeat. "Money won't be an issue."

"Uhhh... okay, then." He says. "What kind of arrangement do you have in mind?"

"I need a big arrangement that must have 7 different types of flowers— and I need it to be noticeable that they are 7 and they're different, and they all need to be given the same importance. I don't want any sticking out more than the others."

"Right, do you have any type of flowers in mind?"

"No because I don't really know anything about flowers— except that they have meanings. It would be perfect if you choose flowers that symbolized greatness, success, longevity, beauty, elegance— that type of things."

"Got it. Any particular color combinations, maybe warmer colors or...?"

"Oh, yes. I want the color you notice first to be pink. Maybe different types of pink? And if you need to add other colors, they should be pastels. But pink has to be the main color. I just want it to look really beautiful. I want the people getting it to feel valued when they see it."

"That I can do, ma'am. Anything else?"

"No, that's all. Thank you so much, my assistant will take care of the payment."

"My pleasure."

"Hi, boss." Your assistant says, always careful to not say your name out loud, just in case. "I got it from here."

"Oh, wait! Did you get the vase already?" You almost forgot to ask.

"Yes. I picked it up before coming here. It looks just like you wanted it. I'll text you a picture later."

"Thank you! See you soon!"

You also had her order a custom made glass vase inspired on the cover of their latest album, but you don't know yet if it's going to look good or clash with the arrangement the florist will make for you. If it doesn't look good you'll just discard the idea, even though you really hope it does. You want them to know you just didn't ask for a generic arrangement of flowers, you want them to be able to tell that you put some thought into this so they know they're appreciated. You know a thing or two about feeling like an outsider, and you also know the relief you can get from knowing that someone from the other side is on yours too, supporting you.

When you hang up, you suddenly have an idea for what you want to write. When you went down a rabbit hole of BTS compilation videos that ended up with you laughing so hard that your stomach hurt and there were tears streaming down your face— who would've thought that the same guys who look like sin personified on stage and music videos were so damn goofy and hilarious?— you noticed there was a word they kept saying, but you forgot to search what it meant.

You open your browser and search 'what does fighting mean in kpop', because even though you're pretty sure that based on the context they used it you understood its meaning correctly, it still doesn't hurt to make sure.

"... a Korean word of support or encouragement. It is frequently used in sports or whenever a challenge such as a difficult test or unpleasant assignment is met. It derives from a Konglish borrowing of the English word "Fighting!"

You were correct.

화이팅— you will definitely use that. You start typing again, and for the first time you actually feel like what you wrote is appropriate for the situation.

You just hope the boys will actually like it, instead of thinking it's too much or that you crossed a line.

Much to Jungkook and Jimin's displeasure— although, to be fair, after meeting you the rest of them wouldn't have minded to spend more time with you either— they had to wait until Saturday before they could see you again. Sadly, even though the day is already upon them, they're now too focused on being completely prepared to really think about anything else. That's the reason why they hoped to meet with you again before the day of the episode; they hoped to interact with you one more time without having to worry so much about giving their best for their performances just yet.

To tell the truth, apart from Jimin and Jungkook who already were very aware they liked you and were really looking forward to meet you, the rest of them hadn't really had any set expectations when it came to you meeting them. Namjoon had been worried about Jin maybe getting flustered— which he didn't because he didn't really talk to you at all to make sure that didn't happen— and Yoongi was hoping to see Jin getting flustered, but he just settled for enjoying how shy and nervous Jimin and Jungkook got when you paid attention to them. What Hoseok loved the most was how quickly you made them feel at ease with you— like you'd known each other for a long time. Taehyung loved that too— and he also loved that you shared your experience with them to make them feel better. It really helped him feel a bit less nervous about their performance.

They had known you'd be nice— how could they think otherwise with Jungkook constantly reminding them about your kind personality— but they felt they weren't really prepared for how easy it was to be around you, even if there were embarrassing moments for several of them. Embarrassment was unavoidable, but any sort of awkwardness was nonexistent. You made them feel comfortable and welcome immediately, and they really appreciated it and were thankful for that.

After you shot the promos you had to leave and gave them all a hug goodbye, which was more than Jungkook ever thought he was going to get. And when you told them you were dying to see them perform live on Saturday, Jungkook felt like he was going to melt into a puddle on the floor. You kept telling them all how amazing and talented they were, and at that point they were all blushing and feeling embarrassed at your praises, not knowing what else to do but saying thank you as you rambled on about how incredible their choreographies and voices were. Namjoon got so shy when you told him his English was incredible that he could barely say another word after that.

When you finally left and they returned to their dressing room, Jungkook had to sit down to process everything that had just happened. He met you, you hugged him twice and to top it all you said they were great and told them how much you loved their songs and music videos.

Both him and Jimin got a good amount of teasing from the others on their way back to the hotel because of how flustered they'd gotten when you talked to them— Yoongi said he thought Jungkook was going to faint when you told him to sit next to you and Hoseok laughed at how charming Jimin tried to be and how immediately shy he got by you just talking to him.

"Namjoon-Hyung got shy too when she said his English was good!"  Jimin had blurted out, trying to divert the teasing to someone else while the others laughed.

"Why are you dragging me into this? I didn't say anything!" Namjoon had complained, blushing deeply.

The teasing went on through the rest of the day, and by the time they had to go to bed, Jungkook started daydreaming about the possibility of you and all of them becoming actual friends. After getting to spend time with you and because of how nice you were, it slowly stopped feeling like something unreachable.

Now, the day of the show is finally here, and even though their performances are at the forefront of their minds, knowing that they'll get to see you again is also something that makes them feel excited. Some more so than others, but they're all excited nonetheless.

When they arrive to the studio the feeling of anticipation starts to truly settle in, and with it nervousness and excitement as well. They are well prepared— they've rehearsed the songs over and over again— but the possibility of something going wrong and affecting the performance negatively is always a worry.

Namjoon walks into the room first, but he suddenly stops his movements when he catches sight of what's on the table.

"What? What's this?"  He asks, shocked, looking around their staff for answers. "Who left this here?"

There's a beautiful, huge flower arrangement waiting for them. 

"Wooooow."  Taehyung says right behind him. "Is this from the SNL people? It's so pretty."  He smells the flowers, closing his eyes as he enjoys their lovely perfume. Someone from their staff answers that someone from the SNL crew left it a little while ago without saying anything else.

The rest walk in and marvel at the arrangement as well, but it's Hoseok who finally realizes there's actually an envelope positioned between the flowers.

"Oh, guys, I think there's a card." He opens the envelope and smiles at the image on the card, showing it to the others."Cute." 

"Who is it from, Hyung?"  Jimin asks, going to smell the flowers as well while Taehyung takes a picture of them.

"It's from [Y/N]-Noona!" Jungkook suddenly exclaims, reading over Hoseok's shoulder. 

"She wrote a message." Hoseok says, handing it to Namjoon, who quickly reads it and translates it for the rest of them.

It's normal to be nervous, but remember you're here for a reason: You already made it. Don't worry, you're gonna kill it! 화이팅! [Y/N]

"She wrote 'fighting' in Korean, that's so thoughtful of her."  He says with a smile, handing the card to Jimin when he asks for it.

"Ah, [Y/N]-Noona is so nice."  Taehyung says as he reads the card with Jimin, who nods in agreement.

"Ah, wait—"  Yoongi suddenly mumbles, crouching down slightly to take a better look. "The vase looks like the cover of our album." 

"What, really?"  Jin says, resting his hands on Yoongi's shoulders and crouching as well. "Oh wow, it does."  In the middle of the soft pink of the glass vase, they can see the distinct heart shape of their album cover art. "This looks very expensive."  He finally adds, standing upright again.

"Hyung, we don't have anything like this for her!"  Jungkook suddenly says, almost panicking.

You got them this incredibly thoughtful gift, and he worries that you might feel they are ungrateful because they didn't get anything for you. How did it not occur to them to get you a flower bouquet as well? It's such a common thing to give, even if it still would've been a smaller gift than the one you gave them. It would've been something, at least.

"Well, we've got the album to give her."  Namjoon says, scratching the back of his head. Until Jungkook mentioned it, he hadn't really considered that they might look rude for not getting you something like this as well.

"Don't be silly, she obviously didn't get us this because she was waiting for something in return."  Yoongi interrupts them before Jungkook starts to have a meltdown. "You can tell she's not the kind of person who'd do something like that."

"He's right."  Hoseok agrees. "I think she just wanted us to feel welcome."

"I think so too."  Jimin says, with Taehyung nodding at his side. Jin and Namjoon also agree, and Jungkook can't really argue against that. You're too kind to be bothered by something like that and you definitely wouldn't get them something because you wanted something from them. You did this because you wanted to, and that's it.

When they start getting dressed for their Boy With Luv performance, Jungkook can't help himself and keeps glancing at the TV on the wall to check if you're there already, even if he knows the show hasn't even started yet. In your first SNL episode you were hilarious, and he knows this time will be no different.

Once you do appear, Jungkook's eyes are firmly glued to the screen. He's vaguely aware a stylist is working on him, but he's just letting her do whatever she needs while enjoying your monologue. The rest of the boys end up watching it as well, even though they don't all understand what you're saying on the same level. Namjoon, however, is laughing so hard he's almost crying.

"Oh my god, she's hilarious."  He says, clutching his stomach. Jungkook had mentioned more than once that you were funny, but he had no idea you were this funny. The way you deliver every line you're saying makes it just perfect. As far as he knows you're not a comedic actor, but looking at you so at ease standing there, he feels like you definitely could be.

Jungkook grins at him, nodding in agreement. 

After that, the there's not much more to do than practice the little details and wait for the time of the performance to come.

When you were told that you only had to be at the main stage a couple minutes before you needed to present BTS, you have to admit you were a little disappointed. You wanted to see the boys again before that, but work is work and you needed to do several outfit changes through the night. You're now dressed in regular clothes again, but after their performance is done you need to rush out of there and start getting ready for another sketch once again. So far everything has been going smoothly, except for one moment where you almost broke character and started laughing, but you managed to work it out pretty well and continue without much trouble.

Once you finally get there, the boys are already waiting on the stage and you manage to wave at them with a smile before a makeup artist pulls you away and starts fixing your face, and soon enough you're standing in front of the camera, ready to introduce them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, BTS." You say, moving away to the side so the camera can focus on them instead.

You, of course, are immediately enraptured by their performance and can't take your eyes off of them. Your brain still has a hard time processing that the boys who got so shy while just talking to you are over there now, being incredibly sexy and seductive like it's the way they are 24/7. They absolutely know what they're doing, and they know how to do it perfectly. They own the stage, and they love it.

You find yourself mouthing the "oh my my my" part of the chorus and dancing on your spot, because it's too catchy not to. The song is great, and you know for a fact it's gonna be a hit, and the performance is even better. You'll definitely be listening to it over and over again after this.

When the song is done, you only manage to give them two excited thumbs up when they look at where you are, before you are ushered away to get dressed for your next sketch. Things thankfully continue to go by without a problem; the audience's response is very positive and you feel quite confident about how everything is turning out to be.

It's not long before you're having another wardrobe change to present BTS's second performance of the night, and you're even more excited about this one than you were before. This song is actually one of your favorites, it's so fun to listen to and you can't wait to see them perform it live.

"Once again, BTS." You say, smiling widely as the camera moves away from you and goes to them.

You can actually sing this one— except for the parts in Korean— so you're really enjoying yourself this time. Dancing to their songs is pretty much unavoidable, and you can't help but mimic some of the easy parts of their choreography as well. They take your breath away through their entire performance— those damn hip rolls could give you a heart attack— and when they finish you start clapping and cheering for them like there's no tomorrow. They do get to see you right before someone takes you away so you can change again, and you manage to give them another thumbs up as you walk away to the dressing room.

When you're finally done with the last sketch, you feel the tension slip away from your body almost immediately. The last thing you need to do is get out of your costume and wrap up the episode with BTS and the cast, and you'll be finally done.

Your final outfit is a simple, not too tight dark blue suit with a white shirt and high heels, and the moment your makeup is fixed up you go back to the stage to get on position for the ending.

The boys are already there when you arrive, and you quickly greet them before someone from the production team starts to place them in the spots that work best for their height in relation to yours. When the cameras start rolling again you deliver your words of thanks for the opportunity to have so much fun with the SNL cast again and thank them, BTS and the amazing production team before saying your final goodbye so the credits can roll in.

You waste no time in hugging the boys one by one, immediately telling them how absolutely amazing their performance was, and then move on to the SNL cast who compliment you and tell you that you did a great job, which you say right back at them. They invite you to the after party, but you politely decline because you actually have a flight to catch in a few hours— and also because you're tired and don't really want to go.

Before you can start saying goodbye to them, Namjoon stops you to speak to you.

"Hey, would you mind to come by our dressing room in a bit? We have a little gift we wanted to give you—" He says, and you suddenly remember your assistant had told you that someone from their staff had asked her that already, and they told her they were going to film it.

"Oh, yes! Of course." You nod. "You guys go ahead and I'll be there in a sec." You want to switch your heels for something more comfortable before that.

They go in the direction of their dressing room, whereas you go find your assistant so she can give you your sneakers and take your high heels from you. Once you're done, you ask someone to lead you to where BTS's is staying.

"Come in, [Y/N]!" You hear Namjoon say when he sees you at the door, and you walk in and bow slightly to their staff before greeting them.

"Annyeonghaseyo."  You say, and they reply the same to you. "Hey guys!" You say, waving at them. You hold yourself back from touching them too much because you don't want their fans to react negatively to this interaction, or maybe take it the wrong way. They all greet you with bright smiles, and suddenly Namjoon asks you to stand in the middle of them so they can take a picture.

"Oh, of course." You position yourself between Jungkook and Jimin. "You guys were so great tonight!" You say once the picture is taken.

You hear a chorus of thank you, and before you can leave Namjoon stops you and hands you a copy of their own album.

"We wanted to give you this—"

"You guys!" You say, genuinely touched at the gesture. "That's so sweet, thank you so much!" You clutch the album to your chest. "I love it."

You have to leave the room shortly after, and you wave at them as you walk through the door while they all yell goodbye to you. 

You look at the album on your way back to your own dressing room; they all signed it, and even wrote little messages like 'thank you for the support', which you find to be absolutely adorable. Your assistant is waiting for you with yet another change of clothes— never in your life you have changed so often in such a short period of time, including your previous SNL appearance— so you can be actually comfortable once you're on your way to the airport.

Today was a long day, but a really fun and exciting one nonetheless. You just hope you'll be able to get some sleep on the plane, because otherwise you'll be fucked tomorrow.

It's not until after they are done filming the ending of their episode that Jungkook has a sudden thought, and waits no time to blurt it out to everyone in the middle of the room, startling even their stylists.

"We didn't thank [Y/N]-Noona for the flowers!"  He cries out, looking like the world is about to end. He was just staring at the arrangement thinking about what a nice gesture it had been and how happy it made him, when he realized they never even did so much as mention it to you— and you didn't say anything about it.

"Oh shit."  Namjoon says, realizing he's right and feeling angry at himself for not realizing it sooner. He had the entire night already planned in his mind and he did everything he had to do meticulously— but your gift was something he hadn't expected at all and his own nerves and excitement made him forget about it with everything else going on. "Do you think she's already gone?"  He turns to their staff. "Can you find out if she left?"

God, they wasted so much time changing into their clothes that it's a very big possibility that you already left the building.

"She's still here, her assistant said she would make sure she doesn't leave yet, but you have to be fast because she has a flight to catch."  Someone from their staff says, slightly breathless.

"Come on, let's go. We can't leave without thanking her."  Namjoon says, and Yoongi frowns from his place on the couch.

"Do we all have to go? I'm sure it will be fine if only you go and thank her for all of us—"  He complains, not wanting to get up.

"We're all going, Hyung. Get up."  Namjoon says, leaving no room for discussion for anyone.

"I didn't really forget to thank her, I just thought they had decided not to and didn't say anything."  Taehyung whispers to Jimin as they walk, who covers his mouth to stifle his laughter.

"Don't tell them that."  He manages to whisper back.

When they finally arrive to your dressing room, they find you sitting there scrolling through your phone without a care in the world. 

"Guys, hi!" You greet them with a smile, standing up once you see them enter. "What happened? My assistant told me—"

"We are so sorry!" Jungkook blurts out, looking very apologetic. You look at him like you have no idea what he's talking about— which, to tell the truth, you probably don't.

"Huh?" You say, frowning in confusion. "Sorry about...?"

"We forgot to thank you for the flowers." Namjoon quickly says, taking the reins of the apology. "We were very grateful when we saw them, and the message on the card was very thoughtful." 

"The flowers— that's what this was about? You are very welcome guys, but it wasn't necessary to come all the way here, I promise." You laugh, lifting up both of your hands as if to make sure they understand you don't mind.

"No, no, it is. You went through all the trouble of getting them and it would be very rude to not thank you for them." Namjoon argues while the rest of them nod in agreement, and you bring your hands to your chest.

"That's incredibly sweet guys— I'm very happy you liked it. I just wanted you to know you are very welcome here. I know there are some people here that can be— how do I put this?" You look like you're trying to find the right words for a couple seconds. "Literal pieces of shit when it comes to talking about you." They all laugh at that, they can't really help it because of the deadpan way you say it. "But so many people here love you and appreciate you, and I hope you never forget that even if sometimes the worst people seem to be the loudest, they're not the majority. Not at all." They are all really touched by your words once Namjoon translates for them, but when he's about to reply to you he's interrupted by your assistant.

"[Y/N], the car is here. You need to go." She says, speaking from the door.

"I'm so sorry, I have to get going." You say, and they all nod in understanding. You sling your bag over your shoulder and start hugging them goodbye, but as you let go of Jungkook who is the last one, you suddenly say something that surprises them. "We should keep in touch."

"I can give you my number." Jungkook says immediately, pulling out his own phone so fast the others don't even see the movement. Jin has to look down in order to not burst out laughing right there, while the others do a slightly better job at hiding their reactions. "Or you give me yours." He unlocks his phone just in case, as he feels his ears starting to get hot. He doesn't care about embarrassment right now, this is more important.

You take the phone from his hand with a smile and quickly type your number, leaving it like that for him to save it himself. 

"[Y/N]—" Your assistant calls for you again.

"Sorry guys, gotta go." You say, smiling apologetically. "Text me so I can save your number." You tell Jungkook with a smile right before walking away, leaving him just standing there looking down at the phone on his hand.

Jimin has his own phone out, quickly copying the number for himself before saving it as [Y/N] 누나. 

"She gave me her number."  Jungkook says, looking down at the screen in a daze.

"Yes, she did."  Namjoon says, squeezing his shoulder while trying not to laugh at his reaction.

As they go get their things to finally go back to the hotel ,Jungkook's mind is focused only on the fact that he got your number, but not only that— he got it because you were the one who wanted to stay in touch with them.

He doesn't think he'll be able to sleep tonight.

While you relax and try to enjoy the car ride to the airport, your phone suddenly vibrates on your lap.

      Is this [Y/N]?  

It's a message from a number you don't recognize, so of course you assume it's Jungkook.     

      Yes. Who's this?

What you get in response is a selfie, but not from the person you were expecting.

It's Jimin. He's giving you a finger heart and has a puppy filter on, and you can't deny that your heart skips a beat at how adorable he looks.     

      Looks like someone stole my number.

Your phone vibrates immediately after, but this time it's a new number.

      [Y/N]?       Jungkook?

Much like Jimin, he sends you a selfie to confirm his identity— but unlike Jimin he has no filter on and is just looking at the camera with a grin instead. You feel your heart skip a beat again, and this time you send a picture of yourself in response, smiling as well.

Before you can even lock your phone it vibrates again, and this time it's Jimin.

Fuck. 

He just sent you a selfie of himself pouting.

     I don't steal :(

You have no doubts anymore. These boys will be the death of you.

This is the final chapter of the first arc of the story! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! 

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Moriarty 5 - 7 | HypMic 10 - 11

Moriarty 5

Saito’s Moriarty and Gentaro voices are quite similar, now that I compare them.

“…he’s a good egg at heart.” – LOL, never thought I’d be reading subtitles that said that.

Oh, so that was Frida on the bridge?

I wonder, is Moriarty like Bon and nursing a weak leg with that cane? Or is the cane just a symbol of nobility?

Moriarty 6

The Titanic? Wasn’t there a Black Butler arc based on it?

LOL, these people in the foreground are CGI.

…is that the grapefruit guy? (Beats me, I haven’t watched this in weeks and am only returning to it because Scott keeps mentioning spoilers. The only thing I’m keeping up with properly is HypMic and my Kanon watch with #AniTwitWatches…and soon I’ll add the final episodes of Sailor Moon to it.)

Found him! Sherlock Holmes! I sort of triangulated from buzz around me that he appears in this episode.

What’s with the skull ring Holmes wears?

…ah, the golden ratio!

…Oh, this is gonna get interesting! You can tell this Holmes is adept in fighting due to his build, but…how did Moriarty figure out Holmes played the violin? Calluses on his hands?

Is this Holmes a womaniser…? I thought the guy was often characterised as an asexual, or at the very least aromantic. That’s part of what makes the guy so intriguing to me - because he still has Irene.

A colliery is a coal mine. It’s been a while since I heard that word.

Moriarty 7

The anime’s sense of colour is probably one of the most striking parts of this. Not just red, but blue and green where it counts too.

Not a fan of the 1st person cam…

That knife came out pretty clean for something so blood-stained.

I wanted to say “’Right,’ said Fred”…but Fred didn’t talk, so I can’t do that. (Dangit!)

I somehow found it slightly funny that France was ahead of Britain (America?) in forensic pathology, although I dunno what made it funny exactly.

I squealed (…just a little bit) when the iconic quote came up: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” I have it memorised from my Detective Conan days still, see?

Next time: A Study in S (according to stuff I read, the S stands for Sherlock this time).

HypMic 10

…I can’t believe it’s almost over already. I’ve basically been in a dream this entire season…but then what happens once the anime is over…? Waiting for the 2nd DRB to happen, I guess.

I didn’t even realise, but Jiro’s varsity jacket has an owl on the bottom of the logo.

…”[H]it the head”? Wassat mean? *checks up* Oh, so it means to go to the bathroom…Right. It’s US slang, which might explain a thing.

Notice Ramuda uses “Jakurai” and not “jijii” or something like that during his time with Ichijiku. Also, there’s a lot of his deep voice going around…

You can see MTR on the poster behind Ramuda at one point.

*anguished noises* Ramuda!!! Please don’t do this!!!

LOL, Sadamezuka and Kazuha.

Is “bum-rush” even an appropriate word for this situation…? US slang is weird…

…Doppo’s performance almost seems like a Rosho foreshadowing. Also, I love how Doppo’s screens disappear with his motivation.

…I saw a spoiler today on Twitter regarding Dice and meat…now I get it.

“detarame” – I know this word means “nonsense”, but for some reason I memorised it as meaning “s***” at one point due to the context of Scenario Liar. I find it interesting Hifumi used a word from Scenario Liar in the first place, even though it’s not necessarily meant to be taken in that context.

“the King of Normies” – For some reason, that made me laugh pretty hard. That is an accurate translation of “riajyuu no ousama” though.

Gentaro’s smile puts a smile on my face as well.

“colours you’ve dyed” – Note Shibuya is constantly referred to by colours, including how PCCS (in the Shibuya 1st DRB team song) apparently means “practical colour coordinate system”.

I find it interesting that Saburo was the one who mentioned holding hands as a sign of camaraderie first in the anime and then the Funi translation makes Ramuda use the same symbolism here. It may have been unintentional, though.

…the subbers keep using “OMG” and I’m like ????. Is OMG outdated slang in 2020?

…wow, that holy imagery…they really went all-in on Jakurai’s godliness there.

…even when knocked down, Jakurai’s hair is still 100% gorgeous.

I noticed one of the lyrics the translators cut out of Doppo’s rap was “borderline”.

Ahhhhhhhhhh! This anime just kicked me where it hurts! (<- As in, it used the trope I love so much – where the underdog causes a sudden turn-around in the battle and they’re not even aware of it!) This is why I love you, Doppo!

LOL, FP spent their countdown gossiping. That’s such a FP thing to do.

Hifumi seems to carry the beat in MTR’s Kizuna. Jakurai gets drowned out quite a bit, although Riou (who has a similar voice) was less drowned out.

“No pain, no gain.” – That’s a good saying.

HypMic 11

2 episodes until the end! (Yikes!)

I still take some issue with subbing the laughing. Well, then again I’ve been half-deaf lately with my ears being clogged (accidentally clogged my ear up again…), so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

If I’m hearing it right, Ramuda goes “nee-san” and not particularly anything to do with “Beauties” or “Beasts”, which seems to be exclusive to the subs.

Stone guardian? I guess this has to do with jizo in Japanese. Hifumi does go “namu” (short for “namu amida butsu”) towards Doppo at the end there.

That bed is…why is it so empty if it’s meant to be the room someone’s staying in?

Is Jyuto’s hair black or brown? I’ve been colouring it a deep brown because I think that looks nice, but it might actually be black…

I have a newfound respect for Komada ever since I found out his birthday is [secret censored – maybe if you follow the hints I leave behind, you might find out what I mean].

LOL, I spotted the fire extinguisher in one corner and was immediately reminded of how someone once translated “fire extinguisher” to “hand grenade”.

…how does Jakurai’s hair work from the back? There’s this coil of hair that seems to go places it shouldn’t be…

For some reason, the subbers keep translating “sensei” as “the good doctor”…or is that the first and only time it happened?

I think it’s appropriate they discuss bonds on the day Kizuna (the ED) goes out on streaming.

…*thinks about 2nd DRB, where BB vs. DH is going to happen next month* …Yeah, you better pay attention or your daddy’s gonna come spank you boys.

Jakurai summoning his mic is always freakin’ cool. Aspire to be like this elegant man.

The wolf hand sign again.

There’s a pun between kizukizu (wounds) and kizuna (bonds). Update: The phrase is actually gisugisusa (stiffness, unsociability, coldness [of atmosphere] etc.), but...there’s the same rhyming scheme, so it’s not wrong.

Doppo’s bit about Jakurai(-sensei) being a kasugai (hemostat) is, surprisingly, quite faithful, as you can tell from how those words rhyme. Hifumi’s verse mentions a monkey wrench, though.

…kasumitai ore ga yoi… - that translates to “…[Jakurai is] better than us, who are like scum…” It’s a very Doppo sort of line, noting that kasu literally means “residue”.

I didn’t realise this until now, but Riou has a piercing in one ear (his right). It’s just in an unconventional place in the upper curve, so I never spotted it.

Samatoki’s death aesthetic really contrasts against Jakurai’s healing one. I can see why people really liked the MTC vs. MTR fight now.

It seems the strategy to win in this series is to keep spamming your attacks. It seems hugely suitable for my pseudo-Pokemon AU, which emphasises attack over defence.

Oh! I never noticed the blue gem on Jakurai’s mic!

Note how Samatoki said “lightning rod” – Jakurai’s name means “lonely thunder”. It’s one reason why I fell head over heels for the guy – his stupidly awesome name.

“horse/rabbit/bush warbler” – These refer to MTC. Samatoki, Jyuto, Riou. On that note, ARB currently has an event where Ramuda hangs out with MTC and he calls Jyuto “usa-chan” as a pun. I find that so darn cute!

“And the winner is…Matenro!” - *cue the song, The Champion*

Notice how they put BB and FP before MTC and MTR in the ED…it’s foreshadowing!

[inmyarmswrappedin]

DRUCK reactions - s4 ep2

With special thanks to Michi ( @wodrueckts ) for looking over it to make sure I didn’t say anything glaringly wrong. 💛

CLIP 1: It’s hard out there for a hijabi

Here’s one thing I like about this episode: the shot of the tiara spinning in the air. That said, it’s kind of inexplicable. It’s been like a month since the Abiball, so what’s the tiara doing here? Was Amira holding onto it all this time? Did she have this vision of, like, sorting out her shit as she prepares to move out of her parents’ home, and remembering how her gay friend gave the tiara to her because he hated that his boyfriend was so hot he just naturally won all popularity contests? And she was like, “Imma do a solid for future Amira and get rid of this dollar store tiara right now”?

Anyway.

So far, Amira M.’s season has been the only Sana season not to drop during Ramadan. Seems like the Druck team thought they might not even get to Amira, and then they got renewed at the eleventh hour. So they needed to put that shit out quick because the character was set to leave for Australia and anyway it would’ve been really weird to do an Amira season in uni, and then go back to high school with the next gen. So this season is set in summer, and depending on what Wtfock does with Yasmina, it might be the only Sana season to do so.

I think setting this clip lakeside was pretty clever. Plenty of chances to show people in swimming suits or skimpy clothing, as well as people’s reactions to Amira’s burkini. It very quickly sets the stage for the season, same as the bus montage did for Sana in Skam.

I’m not sure how to feel about Sam thinking cunnilingus is boring. Is she sure she’s having it done right? I thought Abdi had a longer than average tongue.

And thanks to Michi, I discovered that this was a reference to Skam, which I didn’t even know because I still had the gdrive subs for s2, where Chris says getting eaten out in Gran Canaria was fun, as opposed to the new subs, where she says it was boring as shit and she fell asleep.

I can’t remember whether Sana’s prayer app ever went off in front of the girl squad. When Skam España did it, the girls immediately freaked the fuck out at the thought of Amira praying right in the middle of a street party. In this case, Kiki looks at Amira for a second. Amira turns the app off though, so we never find out what the girls would’ve done if Amira were to pray right there. Or if it’s happened before. (I’ve been told by Michi this has happened before but the girls didn’t have a reaction then either.)

“Girls, why does it always have to be about boys with you guys?” GO OFF, AMIRA. I remember when I watched the season live, I became exhausted at all the boy talk, so it’ll be interesting to see if I still get this feeling watching the episodes.

In comparison to Vilde, Kiki is also a good sport about Amira wanting this topic to be over. I mean, she laughs a little (perhaps knowingly?), but Kiki is always up for changing the topic to something else about her… Like her and Carlos’ house hunting!

And also, Druck has sent Mia off to Spain to reassure viewers that this Noora won’t take over the season like other Nooras. (Ahem.)

For lack of something to talk about, Amira brings up boxing. Kiki is immediately interested, since she loves working out. Amira is really not into the idea of her brothers getting to know her friends, so she uses Hanna’s reticence to shoot Kiki down.

Her mood has been spoiled all in all, so she stays back to feel alienated as the girls splash around.

She does look cute as hell in her burkini and sunglasses though.

CLIP 2: Am I a bet? Am I a fucking bet?

I really like the blink and you’ll miss it shot of (I think is) the customized snow globe with the Nadia and Amira pic.

Some other stuff in Amira’s room: A polisci book, a list of lodgings in Sydney open on her browser, and what I’m pretty sure is a save the date card from Nadia and her fiancé. This is a very smart way to set up Amira’s character for people who might not have been paying a lot of attention to her so far. It’s always fun to get a peek at a Skams character’s bedroom for the first time.

Amira’s season came after Imane’s, and one thing I immediately liked more about Druck was that they spent time with the prayer scenes. I remember ONE (1) scene where Imane prayed in Skam France, and we only got to see the tail end of it.

I’m pretty sure the game the Mahmoodis play doesn’t actually exist, which probably has to do with having to pay royalties to show a real game. Interestingly(?), when I searched Dr. Whoo and Chopstick on google, it led me to Doctor Who pages, so I wonder if it’s all an elaborate Doctor Who reference on the part of someone in the Druck team.

In Skam, Sana misses the shot because the balloon squad are talking throughout the whole song, but Amira loses because Mohammed literally leans into her line of sight to make eye contact. In general, Mohammed is a lot more suave and savvier than Yousef ever was.

CLIP 3: This apartment is gonna kill somebody

And on a similar note but related to Amira, she is set up as someone the other girls rely on for advice. Kiki needs her help with the renter, while Sam asks her for romantic advice. I think the reason for this might be that while the girls didn’t exactly rely on Sana for advice in Skam, Sana was the one with the ideas since the start. Amira doesn’t necessarily take charge of situations the way Sana did, but there’s this notion that without Amira, the squad would fall apart.

The Berlin housing market = shantycore goals.

I also like the bit of subtle social commentary in Amira’s speech, about middle aged people helping young adults get started with life, so the latter can support the former when it comes to pensions, etc.

CLIP 4: Huh.

So even though Amira didn’t want the girls at the gym earlier, they are here now.

The day before, Amira posted a story on ig reminding the girls about the boxing class, with no indication that she ever tried to get them not to come.

Hanna gives a quick bit of exposition when she mentions Stefan is already working full time (and in a job that presumably requires a uni degree) while she just graduated high school. Which she finds weird.

As in Skam, Essam calls Amira ‘slave,’ which Kiki and Hanna notice. Amira quickly says it has to do with a bet, and the subject gets dropped.

When the season was airing, I thought for sure this wasn’t the end of it, and it would be brought up again, either through Kiki, Hanna, or possibly Stefan via Hanna. But no, this is really the end of that storyline.

My question is, why? What is the point of recreating this storyline from Skam (even going through the trouble of setting up a week during the hiatus between episodes 31 and 32, where Amira wins and Essam has to be the slave) if you’re just going to drop it in the same episode? It’s bad writing because we’re still in the stage of the season where storylines are being set up for later. It’s bad writing because Kiki and/or Hanna literally never bring up this bet/slave business again after devoting several clips and a bunch of social media to it. It’s like the writers didn’t really want to adapt this storyline from Skam, but they also didn’t have a ton of ideas for this week. Or maybe they were going to go somewhere with it, but then they changed their minds because it made some character look bad, but they forgot to take it out.  

Like okay, fine, it wasn’t my favorite storyline in Skam either. It made Vilde look like an idiot at best, or a racist and a traitor at worst. But then why even have Kiki and Hanna overhear Essam? It’s not like they had to do it for adaptation reasons. Skam France didn’t.

It’s frustrating as fuck, and it won’t be the last time this season will pull this on the viewer.

Speaking of which, Sam thinks Mohammed is hot as hell (she ain’t wrong) and invites Essam, Omar and Mohammed to Jonas’ birthday party. This bothers Amira, because she doesn’t want her brothers to hang out with her friends. Even though she apparently just invited the girls to the boxing class that takes place at the gym her brothers attend.

[SIGH]

But anyway, Sam is being characterized as someone who is in charge of her sexuality (throughout the whole show, but specifically in this episode). While Amira is pining from a distance, getting flustered just from eye contact, Sam sees a hot guy and immediately creates an opportunity to see him again.

CLIP 5: Barbecue pining

There’s such a summer vibe about always finding reasons to hang out at a specific place because your friend got a summer job there.

I gotta give it to the writers. Essam is such a well-constructed younger sibling character. He’s a brat exactly in the way younger siblings are, and yet… That’s also the reason he’s so endearing.

And, on that note, Omar gives off such dad vibes. Not even older brother vibes. Every time I see Omar I feel like he’s thinking, “ha-ha! These little brats are acting out because they’re going through a lot! We just have to understand them!”

The conversation Amira and Mohammed have around the barbecue is so dumb, but you gotta love how pleased Amira is that she has Mohammed’s attention. Though she’s also unused to liking having a guy’s attention.

David and Matteo are back, and they’re still adorable! Good for them.

The way you could describe this moment as, Amira literally turned around for a moment and Sam was already touching Mohammed’s hair, and have it be accurate, sums up what they’re going for here.

Social media

There was a lot of social media content to keep people fed in the hiatus between episode 31 and 32. David and Matteo backpacked through Europe, Mia left for Spain and Kiki made a video about it, Stefan was invited to a game night with the crew, Kiki and Carlos looked for an apartment, and as I mentioned earlier, Essam lost a bet to Amira and had to be her slave for a week. I think that’s about it!

Abdi suggests that he and Carlos give Jonas supplies to make a protest sign as a birthday present and I almost lost it.

I think the piece of social media that most pissed off Skam purists was a chat where Jonas assures Amira he’s already thought of buying halal meat (as well as vegetarian and vegan options) for his birthday, because apparently Druck wanted to show up Skam or something, but like… It’s not like this storyline went anywhere on Skam either, like at no point do the girls learn to order pizza Sana can eat. So what does it matter if Jonas is already aware that Muslims eat halal meat.

I love that Hanna went to boxing class once, posted a bunch of stories about it and then never attended again. What a mood.

And to close the week, Kiki texts Amira that Essam started following her on insta.

FINAL THOUGHTS

When the season was airing, I found these clips cute enough. But on rewatch, I didn’t care for this episode and the reason is that so much of it ended being irrelevant to the season. What this episode did well was setting up the Kiki/Amira friendship, setting Kiki and Carlos’ apartment and the boxing class as recurring settings for the season and some character details. Essam is a really solid character from the get go, and I like the details in Amira’s room. They could’ve left out just about everything else.

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 5-Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Hey there, hope you’re doing well, whenever/wherever you’re reading this. We’re on the fifth episode of the Ranma Rewatch, and I just realized that you can pretty clearly delineate the last three episodes into one arc, all about introducing Kuno. This episode and the next few, judging by the title, look like they’ll be focusing on Dr. Tofu and Akane’s crush on him. I...really cannot recall a lot about these episodes, so it’ll be interesting to look at them with a fresh perspective. See you all again in a second, once I’ve finished watching the episode!

Wow, uh...I am finding my memories of this show are definitely blurred in ways I hadn’t expected. Or rather, when I saw it as a younger person, I didn’t notice the same things I’m noticing now.

The episode starts with Ranma brooding over how often Akane gets angry and violent at him, which ties into Akane training in the dojo with her dad. For a second, she remembers Ranma’s rude comments from the day before, and the anger makes her hit her dad so hard he’s left pretty hurt. Kasumi, the eldest of the Tendo siblings, tends to his injury, but pleads with Akane to reign in her violent tendencies, even if the exact specifics of that promise change from the Sub to the Dub.

Later, Kasumi sends Akane out to get meat for dinner, at the same time Ranma is brooding in the same area. They run into each other, and Ranma provokes Akane so much that, even after trying to restrain herself to Kasumi’s promise, she gives up and clobbers Ranma so badly she has to take him to a doctor. Specifically, Doctor Tofu.

This is actually the good doctor’s first time seeing Ranma as his uncursed form, so they’re formally introduced. Tofu reasons out that Akane is responsible for the extensive damages, looking serious...only to happily point out that the injuries make that clear, since the way she fights is so distinctive. To Ranma’s surprise, Akane is in a hurry to leave once Ranma is okay, and before they go Tofu tries to tell Ranma that Akane’s actually a pretty nice person, which Ranma is skeptical of.

Seemingly to prove his point, Tofu hit a pressure point on Ranma’s back just before they left, so that halfway home his legs would go out. Despite the fact they’d just been arguing, Akane immediately offers to carry Ranma home, something he only accepts after being splashed with water, thanks to his pride as a man. It’s there, being carried piggyback style, that he considers whether Tofu may have been right after all, but just isn’t sure.

This whole time, their dads have been trying to think of some way to make them get along, since things are only getting worse between them, but it seems they don’t have any ideas. At breakfast the next day, Kasumi asks Akane if she can take a book she’d been borrowing from Dr. Tofu back to him, only for Akane to refuse. When Ranma questions why she’d do that, about to spill the beans on her crush, Akane hurries to school with Ranma in toe, not even noticing that Ranma gets splashed as they sprint down the street.

Once there, she realizes the curse has activated as she starts chastising Ranma for what he did, namely by opening up Ranma’s shirt...revealing his breasts in front of all the guys who usually fight Akane. Not that they seem to notice. They’re not about to fight Akane anymore, telling her that they’ve decided to honor her engagement to Ranma, since he beat Kuno, their best fighter and biggest pervert.

Not that Kuno himself is going to honor that agreement, even if he’s still covered in bandages from all the hits Ranma got on him, and can barely seem to stand. But when he notices Ranma there in his cursed form, he goes from toting the virtues of Akane to his red-headed love in seconds. Ranma is annoyed, and that only gets worse when Akane pretends to support the two getting together, in the hopes that maybe that would maybe get Kuno to leave her alone. For a few seconds, Kuno is struck with indecision...only to once again reiterate that he’s in love with both of them.

During gym, a few guys in Ranma’s class hassle him over his luck in being engaged to Akane, and needle him over whether they’ve ‘done anything’ yet. Just when he’s about to mention that Akane already loves someone else, she hits a softball right in his face, though it’s unclear whether this was on purpose or not.

This means another trip to Tofu’s clinic, though this time they run into his newly hired assistant: Ranma’s dad in his panda form. Tofu laughs to hear that this panda is apparently Ranma’s dad, but it’s unclear if he actually believes that or not. Ranma is getting more and more curious about why it seems like Akane is trying to avoid the person he knows she likes, when the phone rings. Akane answers and talks to that person, before finally telling Ranma that Dr. Tofu already has someone he’s in love with, and that woman is one the way to the clinic, that’s who Akane had talked to on the phone. After a fake out, it’s made clear from how the scene cuts to her that the woman Akane’s talking about is Kasumi.

There are a few things this episode has really brought to mind for me. To start with what I alluded to earlier: when I have thought about Ranma 1/2, for the longest time, I’ve thought of it as a very episodic storyline. Throughout it’s very, very long run, I mostly remembered it being unrelated little stories, aside from the small arcs that populated the various seasons, cropping up from time to time. I do remember enough specific episodes to come that I do know there are one-off episodes later on.

But as I look at the five episodes I’ve covered so far, I’m kind of staggered by the continuity. Each episode flows seamlessly from the last, even as we’ve kind of moved on from an arc about Kuno to one about Akane and Dr. Tofu. Now, whether this is something the show will outgrow with time, as it drifts farther and farther from the manga, isn’t really something I know for sure, so it’s a thing I’ll have to keep an eye on.

So much of this episode is devoted to Ranma and others thinking about his relationship to Akane. He’s clearly very skeptical about any idea that they might work out as a couple, already seeing the rough ways they tend to hit each other where it hurts when they bicker. Still, there are other moments where he can clearly see her better traits, such as when she immediately moves to help him when his legs fail him.

In that same vein, I was very much befuddled at first when Akane just opened Ranma’s shirt to check he really was in his more feminine body. Like, that just seemed out of character for her, but then I realized a better way to read that. Akane has no problems doing something like that because she considers Ranma a guy, for better or worse, regardless of what he looks like at the time. Unlike so many characters, who tend to treat Ranma differently depending on if he’s in his cursed form or not, Akane always sees him as Ranma. Here, that made things awkward, but on the whole it’s kind of a big plus from her. She validates Ranma for who he really is, in that way.

Oh, back when I was recapping things, I mentioned a couple of guys hanging out with Ranma at school. Well, fun fact, those are Hiroshi and Daisuke, and I think this is their first appearance in the anime. They become Ranma’s default two friends at school, and later on Akane will get her own similar pair of friends to match. If you’re not paying attention, they might seem like extras, but Hiroshi and Daisuke actually have consistent designs and personalities, which I find pretty neat.

This week, for the character spotlight, I thought I should round out the Tendo siblings with the oldest, Kasumi. After all, she’s getting more attention in the plot right now, and there really aren’t a lot of characters worth focusing on introduced yet.

Now, as best as I can tell, her voice actresses in the original Japanese and the English dub are doing the same kind of thing. Namely, a very sweet, if restrained, kind of performance. In English, she was played by Willow Johnson, another fairly minor Canadian voice actress who doesn’t seem to have done a lot of work recently, though she is also Kikyo from the Inuyasha dub. In a strange coincidence, she also played Lalah Sune in Mobile Suit Gundam, which I’m going through for the first time right now, and her character literally was just introduced a few episodes ago, so that’s cool. Her Japanese voice actress seems to be more well known and well regarded, Kikuko Inoue. She’s done a ton of roles, including more recent work. She’s even worked for Japanese dubs of American series, such as playing Blue Diamond from Steven Universe. And, like I said last week, she was a member of DoCo.

Of the three Tendo sisters, she’s definitely the one that’s gotten the least attention and development so far. Sadly, I’d say that’s also generally true throughout the entire series, as far as I can recall. Akane is one of the protagonists, after all, and Nabiki is a great source of conflict. In contrast, Kasumi is mostly...there.

That said, even if she isn’t the most well developed character, she’s at least clearly defined. It’s obvious already that she’s the one running the house, seemingly with more authority than even her father. She acts more like a mom than a sister most of the time, which from personal experience is definitely a thing that happens with oldest sisters sometimes, even without dead moms in the picture.

Kasumi cooks their meals, cleans their house, and just seems to be the one making sure everything gets done. She’s also very kind and accommodating, and comedically her strength is her nonplussed reactions to the madness going on around her. Kasumi is nearly always unphased by things like houseguests sparring in the yard. The exception did appear in this episode, however. When her father was injured, she did try to lay down the law on Akane, even bringing up their dead mom to try and make clear how serious this was.

That’s...really all there is I can say about Kasumi, at least so far. I can really only think of one really interesting thing they ever did with her character, and I’m sure other fans know exactly what I’m talking about.

Okay, so, what did I really think of this episode? On the whole, I’d say it was fairly strong. I appreciated seeing Ranma really thinking stuff over a little bit, and that scene with him and Akane at night was very cute. That said, I also do kind of find this Tofu plot a bit boring, since he as a character hasn’t really done a lot for me. So, in the end, I’d say this episode is middle of the pack.

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

But what will I think of the second (and only other) part to this small arc? We’ll see next week with the sixth episode, “Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know”. Man...I really do love these kinds of episode titles. See you then!

[wilddaydreamingcat]

The Untamed 陈情令 - Translation of Chinese Subs - Episode 5

Please do not post this outside Tumblr, thanks!

Notes:

The line breaks mostly correspond to each line of mandarin subtitles within the episode. However, I have switched some around so that the English translation can make more sense and flow more smoothly.

 The Untamed – Episode 5

Wei Wuxian:

Does the back mountains of Cloud Recesses really have a secret?

Brother Ji, it’s you!

Oh, Brother Ji, I didn’t do that on purpose just now.

Seriously, you too,

were so silent and didn’t say a word,

you made me so unprepared.

Brother Ji,

I’ll tell you a secret.

I heard something in the back mountains just now.

I suspect that someone sneaked into the back mountains.

Do you think all this has anything to do with the soul-snatching...  

Hey, what are you doing?

Dragging me like this, isn’t it improper behavior?

It hurts!

 ==============================================

[Book Pavilion]

 Wei Wuxian:

Wow, beautiful handwriting.

It’s really beyond the highest grade.

Brother Wangji.

Lan Wangji.

Lan Zhan!

There’s really no need to look at me like that!

It’s because you didn’t answer when I called you “Wangji”,

that’s why I called your name.

If you’re not happy,

you can address me in the same way.

 Lan Wangji:

Put your leg down.

Wei Wuxian:

Sure... putting it down.

Oh right, Brother Wangji,

I want to ask you a question.

Why do you dislike me so much?

Second Young Master Lan,

don’t ignore me after saying a couple of sentences!

I’m specially apologising to you,

and admitting my wrongs.

Yes, that night,

I shouldn’t have climbed over the wall,

shouldn’t have drunk liquor,

and shouldn’t have fought with you.

But I swear,

I really have no knowledge

of the rules of your clan.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have drunk that jug of liquor

right in front of you.

(I would have hidden it, brought it back to my room and drank it secretly.)

Also, let talk reasonably.

Who struck first?

It was you.

If you hadn’t attacked first,

we could have had a good chat.

With my temperament,

if someone else strikes first,

I will absolutely retaliate.

So this incident

cannot be totally blamed on me, right?

Second Young Master Lan, are you listening?

Second Young Master Lan, bestow a glance at me, please?

Lan Wangji:                    

Transcribe one more time.

Wei Wuxian:

Oh no, please,

I’ve already apologised to you.

 Lan Wangji:

You have absolutely no sense of remorse.

 Wei Wuxian:

I do.

I’m sorry.

I can apologise as many times as you want.

If not, I can even kneel down and say it.

 ==============================================

Wen Ning:

Sister.

Sister, where have you been?

Sister?

Ever since you arrived at Gusu,

you are often not around.

Are you...

really searching for something?

 Wen Ruohan:

(Remember this,

the fragment of Yin Iron

is exactly the same as the piece from Dafan Mountain.

So you should not forget this.

Find it,

and bring it back.)

 Wen Ning:

Sister,

I’ll stop asking.

Don’t exhaust yourself.

 Wen Qing:

A-Ning,

ever since you came to Cloud Recesses,

have you sensed anything unusual?

Wen Ning:

N...No.

Sister, I have eaten all the medicine that you gave me.

 Wen Qing:

Those of our bloodline have practiced medicine for generations,

Yet, I cannot heal my own brother of his illness.

If not for that year...

 Wen Ning:

Sis...

Don’t mention it anymore.

 Wen Qing:

A-Ning,

one day, I will definitely take you

and leave Nightless City.

 ===========================================

Lan Wangji:

You have finished transcribing?

 Wei Wuxian:

It’s done.

I won’t be coming tomorrow.

This...

is for you.

Oh right!

I forgot to add something.

Finished!

“Boring”, right?

I knew you were going to say “boring”.

Can you change the phrase

or add a couple of words?

 Lan Wangji:

Extremely boring.

 Wei Wuxian:

You really did add some words.

Thank you.

 Lan Wangji:

Wei Ying!

 Wei Wuxian:

I’m present!

Lan Zhan!

Pay attention to your bearing!

I also brought my sword today.

Do you want your Clan’s Book Pavilion to be destroyed?

 Lan Wangji:

You have no sense of shame.

 Wei Wuxian:

Why should we be embarrassed by this?

Don’t tell me you haven’t seen such things?

I don’t believe it.

 Lan Wangji:

You! Go outside.

We’ll fight again.

 Wei Wuxian:

No way!

The Cloud Recesses forbids fighting. Don’t you know that?

Lan Zhan!

No!

Lan Zhan!

Lan Zhan...

What a reckless waste! Seriously, you...

 Lan Wangji:

Get lost!

 Wei Wuxian:

Fine. Lan Zhan, you...

Everyone says that you are the perfect gentleman,

the pearl of benevolence,

and courteous beyond comparison.

I’ve seen for myself today that you’re just average.

Cloud Recesses forbids loud disturbances.

You actually dared to tell me to get lost?

Right, I’ll get lost right now.

I’m really good at it.

No need to see me off.

================================================

Nie Huaisang:

He actually told you to get lost?

Brother Wei,

You are really too brazen.

It’s my first time hearing Lan Wangji telling someone to get lost.

How did you manage to do that, Brother Wei?

 Wei Wuxian:

It’s worthy of celebration.

I must let everyone know

that I am the first person

to help him break this rule today.

 Jiang Cheng:

Why are you so pleased with yourself?

What’s there to be proud of?

Is being told to “Get lost” something to feel honoured about?

The face of our clan has been totally lost by you.

 Wei Wuxian:

I even apologised to him nicely.

Not only did he not accept it, he cast the Silence spell on me for so many days.

Why can’t I tease him in return?

But it’s a pity about that “Collection of Great Beauties” Brother Nie lent me.

I haven’t managed to read it yet.

On the contrary, he wasn’t happy when I let him look at it.

It was really wasted on him.

 Nie Huaisang:

It’s not a pity.

I can give you as many as you want.

Oh right,

I hope you didn’t tell on me?

 Wei Wuxian:

Am I the kind of person who betrays a friend?

 Jiang Cheng:

Now that you’ve thoroughly offended Lan Wangji and Lan Qiren,

just wait for death tomorrow then.

No one will collect your corpse for you.

 Wei Wuxian:

Jiang Cheng,

why are you so bothered by it?

Let’s tease them first and worry about it later.

After all,

you’ve collected my corpse so many times,

so you won’t mind if it’s just this one more time, right?

 Jiang Cheng:

Next time, if something like this happens again,

don’t let me know,

and don’t let me witness it.

Get lost.

 Nie Huaisang:

Isn’t that the owl reared by the Qishan Wen Clan?

What is it doing here?

 Wei Wuxian:

Qishan Wen Clan?

How do you know that it’s reared by them?

 Nie Huaisang:

Qinghe is situated at the foot of Qishan,

so we often observe these birds flying around.

According to rumours,

the Qishan Wen Clan use these birds for surveillance.

Jiang Cheng:

Then why have these birds flown to Cloud Recesses?

 Nie Huaisang:

I don’t know either.

Perhaps the Wen Clan want to keep control of everything,

even our lectures?

 ===================================================

Lan Wangji:

Elder brother,

there has been some strange activity on the barrier at the back mountains recently.

Though it has not been broken,

it has been disturbed.

 Lan Xichen:

Did you find out who has been to the back mountains?

 Lan Wangji:

Wei Ying.

Elder brother, should the barrier be strengthened?

 Lan Xichen:

This barrier was created by our ancestors.

As long as she doesn’t go there,

the barrier will not dissipate.

 Lan Wangji:

She?

 Lan Xichen:

Let’s not speak of this for now.

Wangji...

 Su She:

Clan Leader.

Greetings to Clan Leader, Second Young Master.

 Lan Xichen:

Please forgo the formalities.

What is it?

 [Su She, courtesy name Min Shan]

 Su She:

A villager has just reported

that recently, Caiyi Town has been repeatedly harassed by water spirits.

Many villagers have been harmed.

They have requested

for the assistance of the Lan Clan to exterminate them.

 Lan Xichen:

Water spirits?

The people of Caiyi Town are very able swimmers.

It is rare for drowning incidents to happen.

How could water spirits be created?

 Su She:

This...

I do not know.

Clan Leader,

would you need me to go ahead with the extermination?

 Lan Xichen:

Please reply to the villagers on my behalf,

that I will personally go there tomorrow morning

to exterminate the water spirits.

 Su She:

Clan Leader has been overworked lately.

Small creatures formed by plant life in the water,

like these water spirits,

allow me to purge them on your behalf.

 Lan Xichen:

This may not be a simple incident.

Go and make preparations.

 Su She:

Yes.

Lan Xichen:

Wangji, come with me tomorrow.

 Lan Wangji:

Yes.

 =============================================

Wei Wuxian:

Senior Sister?

Senior Sister.

Young Lady Wen?

 Jiang Cheng:

Young Lady Wen.

 Wen Qing:

Young Master Jiang.

 Jiang Cheng:

Young Lady Wen,

what are you doing here?

 Wei Wuxian:

Hey, Young Lady Wen,

why are you only paying attention to him and not me?

 Jiang Yanli:

A-Xian, you are both here.

 Wei Wuxian:

Coming.

Senior Sister, what’s wrong?

 Jiang Yanli:

I felt dizzy when I was at the riverbank this morning,

due to the rain that has been drizzling these few days.

Fortunately, I met Young Lady Wen,

who not only brought me back,

but also prescribed me some medicine.

I’m much better now.

 Jiang Cheng:

Sis, why didn’t you tell us

that you were ill?

 Wei Wuxian:

It’s all Lan Zhan, that little stiff antique’s fault.

He confined me for three days!

Senior Sister, you must have missed me so much that you fell sick.

Jiang Cheng:

Young Lady Wen,

please accept my thanks.

 Wen Qing:

Young Master Jiang need not stand on ceremony.

I am a doctor.

Treating sicknesses and saving lives is my duty.

 Wei Wuxian:

Senior Sister, I heard that Master Lan

has gone to Qinghe to attend the Discussion Conference.

We won’t need to attend lectures

for the next few days.

I also heard that Zewu-Jun is going on a night hunt to exterminate water spirits.

If we set off now,

we should still make it.

 Wen Qing:

Water spirits?

Jiang Cheng:

That’s right,

we heard that Caiyi Town had a disturbance of water spirits recently,

which is extremely abnormal.

 ===================================================

Wei Wuxian:

Zewu-Jun!

 Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, Wen Qing:

Zewu-Jun.

 Lan Xichen:

Young Master Wei, Young Master Jiang, all of you...

 Jiang Cheng:

We heard that recently, Bi Ling Lake was being disturbed by water spirits.

Since we do not need to attend lectures these few days,

we wanted to accompany Zewu-Jun to obtain some experience.

 Wei Wuxian:

Right! Please let us come with you.

 Lan Wangji:

It is not in accordance with the rules.

 Wei Wuxian:

Why is it not in accordance with the rules?

Yunmeng is full of water and lakes.

Jiang Cheng and I have played along the lake banks since young and are accustomed to it.

Water spirits are nothing but small fry to us.

Also, we won’t need to attend lectures for a few days.

 Jiang Cheng:

That’s right, Zewu-Jun.

Yunmeng has abundant lakes and water.

I’m sure that we can help.

 Lan Wangji:

There’s no need.

 Lan Xichen:

Then, I request both young masters to accompany us down the mountain.

 Wen Qing:

Clan Leader Lan,

I would also like to gain some experience.

 Wei Wuxian:

Zewu-Jun,

Young Lady Wen has excellent medical skills.

Exterminating water spirits may be a small issue,

but if the villagers

have met with any accidents,

she can still assist with treatment.

 Lan Xichen:

If so, I request Young Lady Wen to accompany us down the mountain as well.

 Wen Ning:

Sis! Wait for me!

 Wei Wuxian:

Wen Ning?

 Wen Qing:

Why have you come?

Didn’t I tell you, I...

Wen Ning:

Sis, I heard that

you were going to exterminate evil spirits.

I want to come along with you too,

to gain experience.

 Wen Qing:

A-Ning,

this trip may be extremely dangerous.

I asked you to stay in your room. Why didn’t you listen to me?

 Wen Ning:

I...

 Wei Wuxian:

Young Lady Wen,

your brother is naturally gifted,

and has superb archery skills.

There should not be any problems if he accompanies us this time.

Also,

I’ll be there to protect him.

I’m sure nothing will happen.

A small thing like exterminating water spirits

shouldn’t have any issues.

 Wen Qing:

Clan Leader Lan,

my brother is young and does not understand the gravity of things.

Because Qishan is mountainous and has little water,

he feels that purging water spirits is fun, and rushed here without thinking.

However, Clan Leader Lan may rest assured,

A-Ning and I will definitely not participate in the extermination.

I hope that Clan Leader Lan can make an exception,

and let my brother come along with us.

 Lan Xichen:

Young Lady Wen is overstating it*.

Since that’s the case, let us all go together.

*Translation Note: 言重了(yán zhòng le) is a very polite, gentle way of saying that the other person is making a big deal out of things/exaggerating her words.

Lan Wangji:

Elder brother, why are you bringing them along?

This is not a small matter.

It is not advisable to take it lightly.

 Lan Xichen:

I just saw your expression,

and it seemed like you wanted both young masters of the Jiang Clan to come along.                    

That’s why I agreed to bring them.

Is that not so?

 Waiter:

Honoured guests, please come in.

 Wei Wuxian:

I say, this place of yours,

is there no one cleaning it?

 Waiter:

Sir, please bear with it for a while.

To be honest,

ever since the lake started eating people,

this inn

has never received an overnight guest staying here.

You honoured guests are the first.

So I’ll have to trouble you to clean by yourselves.  

 Wei Wuxian:

Eat people?

Aren’t these water spirits just water plants causing mischief?

How can they eat people?

 Waiter:

I have no idea what’s in the lake.

The Bi Ling Lake

has been peaceful and calm these few years.

I don’t know why,

but two months ago some foreign merchants came here,

and their boat sank.

At first, we didn’t take it seriously.

But after that, it happened more and more often.

Many local boatmen have even had their vessels sunk.

Nothing like that has ever happened before in the past few years.

 Wei Wuxian:

How about the people in the boats?

 Waiter:

Eaten! Those people were eaten!

 Lan Wangji:

Has anyone seen what is eating the people?

 Waiter:

This...no one has.

 Wei Wuxian:

Then how can you be sure

that it was done by the creatures in the lake?

 Waiter:

Of course those people were eaten.

So many have fallen in but no one has ever surfaced after that.

Even the bodies are missing.

 Wei Wuxian:

Brother Wangji,

do you think that the creatures in Bi Ling Lake

are water spirits?

 Lan Wangji:

We do not yet know the whole picture, it is better not to speculate.

 Wei Wuxian:

But I don’t think they are.

You reckon

if the creatures in the lake

are not water spirits, what would they be?

How about this,

let’s make a bet.

We’ll see if both of us are thinking in the same way.

 Lan Wangji:

Boring.

Wei Wuxian:

Lan Zhan!

Lan Zhan!

So humourless.

 =============================================

Wei Wuxian:

I heard that a fisherman died last night.

 Jiang Cheng:

I would definitely like to battle those little creatures

to see how long they’ll last.

Normally these water spirits only play tricks on people.

Now they even dare to eat people.

Wei Wuxian:

Zewu-Jun,

Regardless of what the villagers were thinking of yesterday,

has anyone seen what kind of creature

is causing trouble in the lake?

Lan Xichen:

Those creatures are extremely cunning.

Once a person has been pulled into the water,

there is little chance of surviving.

No one has actually seen what the creature looks like.

 Wei Wuxian:

Then, Zewu-Jun,

is there any progress on the spirit-snatching case?

 Lan Xichen:

Young Master Wei, why are you asking this?

 Wei Wuxian:

The spiritual veins in Cloud Recesses

has flowed endlessly with energy since the ancient times.

But now

all at once, cultivators have had their spirit snatched,

and after that, water spirits appeared to cause trouble.

Do you think that these two incidents are connected?

 Lan Xichen:

The Lan Clan are still investigating the spirit-snatching incident.

However, one is a spirit-snatching and the other is caused by water creatures,

I do not think that they are related.

 Wei Wuxian:

But...

 Lan Xichen:

Young Master Wei,

purging the water spirits is more urgent right now.

 Jiang Cheng:

What Zewu-Jun said was correct.

Let’s stop wasting time.

 Wei Wuxian:

Lan Zhan.

Do you want a drink?

Lan Zhan,

let me ask you.

Is there any progress on the soul-snatching incident?

 Lan Wangji:

Not yet.

 Wei Wuxian:

But I still feel that

your brother is hiding something from us?

You think so too, right?

You also think that your brother knows something that he’s not telling us.

And I also feel that

this is definitely not a small incident.

Otherwise, how can it...

 Lan Wangji:

Liquor is forbidden

when night hunting.

 Wei Wuxian:

Lan Zhan!

How come I didn’t know of such a rule?

I haven’t even drunk a drop yet!

Return my liquor to me!

 [Bi Ling Lake]

Translation Note: 碧灵湖(bì ling hú) lit – Jade Spirit Lake

Lan Xichen:

Everyone, be careful.

The area ahead is where the hauntings are.

 Wei Wuxian:

Zewu-Jun,

these water spirits are so intelligent.

If they

continue to hide under our boats,

must we still keep searching for them?

If we can’t find them, what should we do?

 Lan Wangji:

This is our duty.

We must find them.

 Wei Wuxian:

Lan Zhan!

Look at me!

 Lan Wangji:

How senseless.

 Wei Wuxian:

What is that thing?

 Jiang Cheng:

I’ve never seen water spirits like that!

 Wen Qing:

Perhaps

they have been mutated by something?

 Lan Xichen:

Young Master Wei,

how did you know that they were under the boat?

Wei Wuxian:

That’s easy!

The waterline was strange.

 Wen Qing:

How was it strange?

 Wei Wuxian:

There was only one person’s weight

on his boat just now.

However, the waterline

was much heavier than that of two people.

So there must have been water spirits hanging below his boat.

 Lan Xichen:

You are truly experienced with this.

 Wei Wuxian:

Lan Zhan,

I didn’t splash water on you on purpose.

Only, those water spirits are too cunning.

If I spoke out loud,

they would have all fled.

Hey, Second Young Master Lan,

when you snatched away my liquor just now,

I didn’t say anything much.

Let’s treat it as we’re both even, all right?

 Lan Wangji:

Stay further away from me.

Jiang Cheng:

They’ve appeared!

Capture it, quick!

 Wen Qing:

There’s another on the right side!

 Lan Wangji:

What is the name of this sword?

 Wei Wuxian:

Suibian. (Whatever)

Sui-bian. (What-ever)

 Lan Wangji:

The sword has a spirit.

It is disrespectful to call it whatever you want.

 Wei Wuxian:

I’m not asking you to call it ‘whatever’ you want.

But its name really is “Whatever”.

Ah, read it yourself.

There’s no need to say anything, I know

you are definitely thinking why I gave it this name

and would there be any special meaning to it.

Actually, there’s no special meaning.

It’s because when Uncle Jiang gave me the sword,

he asked me what name I wanted to give it.

I thought of more than 20 names,

but I wasn’t satisfied with any of it.

So I just casually answered “Whatever”.

Now that I think of it,

The name “Suibian” is not too bad.

 Lan Wangji:

Ridiculous.*

*Translation Note: Unfortunately this joke really does not translate well from Chinese to English.

Wei Wuxian’s sword is called “Suibian” 随便 (suí biàn), which in English literally means: whatever / do as you wish. So when he tells Lan Wangji that his sword’s name is 随便, Lan Wangji misunderstands and thinks that Wei Wuxian told him to call it whatever he wishes. Lan Wangji thus replies “it is disrespectful to the sword to call it whatever he wants”. Hence, Wei Wuxian goes on to explain the origin of the name, which Lan Wangji finds to be ridiculous.

 Wei Wuxian:

I think that it’s all right.

 Lan Xichen:

The fog is getting heavier.

Everyone, be careful.

 Wei Wuxian:

Jiang Cheng! Are you all right?

Jiang Cheng, where are you?

 Jiang Cheng:

I’m fine!

 Wen Qing:

Young Master Jiang.

 Jiang Cheng:

Young Lady Wen.

 Wen Qing:

You’re wounded.

 Jiang Cheng:

Young Lady Wen,

I’m all right.

Wei Wuxian:

How on earth are you?

 Jiang Cheng:

I’m fine!

 Wen Qing:

Fortunately, it’s just a flesh wound.

It should heal after 2 or 3 days.

 Wen Ning:

The colour of the water...

 Lan Wangji:

Go back at once!

The creatures in the water

deliberately lured the boats to the centre of Bi Ling Lake.

Leave, quickly!

 Su She:

What’s happening?

 Jiang Cheng:

Look! They are gathering together.

 Wei Wuxian:

A waterbourne abyss!*

It’s a waterbourne abyss!

The water spirits mutated, and gathered together

to form an abyss!

They want to consume all of us!

*Translation note: 水行渊 (shuǐ xíng yuān) lit:

水 water

行 current

渊 deep pool

I’m using the translation that Exiled Rebels Scanlations provided in the source novel because the Netflix subtitle “Aqua Demon” is just wrong. I guess it can be translated as water vortex or whirlpool but ‘waterbourne abyss’ just sounds cooler.

 Wen Ning:

Young Master Wei! What should we do now?

 Lan Wangji:

Ride our swords!

 Wen Qing:

A-Ning!

 Wei Wuxian:

Lan Zhan!

Lan Zhan, thank goodness you acted on time!

But why did you grab me by the collar?

Couldn’t you just hold onto me?

It’s really uncomfortable with you like this!

How about this,

I’ll hold out my hand,

you can grab it!

 Lan Wangji:

I do not touch strangers.

 Wei Wuxian:

We’re so familiar with each other,

how can we be considered as strangers?

 Lan Wangji:

We’re not familiar!

Wei Wuxian:

How can you be like this!

 Jiang Cheng:

How can you be like that?

When you’re being held up by the collar in midair,

can you talk less?

 Wei Wuxian:

Shut up!

 Jiang Cheng:

You...

 ==============================================

[Jinzhenhe Inn]

 Wen Qing:

Wei Wuxian!

What are you doing here?

 Wei Wuxian:

I’m here to visit Wen Ning.

The door wasn’t locked.

But what’s wrong with him?

Why is he still unconscious?

 Wen Qing:

Young Master Wei,

A-Ning needs to rest.

If there’s nothing else, please go back.

 Wei Wuxian:

This is for you.

 Wen Qing:

This is...

 Wei Wuxian:

It’s for Wen Ning’s protection.

 Wen Qing:

Protection?

 Wei Wuxian:

Although my medical skills cannot be compared to yours,

but when it comes to spells,

I’m pretty good at it.

Wen Ning is a cultivator.

He should not be so weak as to be unconscious once he enters the water.

Young Lady Wen, don’t you think that it’s strange?

 Wen Qing:

Wei Wuxian,

what on earth are you trying to say?

 Wei Wuxian:

Did Wen Ning

have some kind of unusual experience before?

That should be why it resulted in

him being so easily affected by evil spirits.

Young Lady Wen,

I don’t care why you are here at Cloud Recesses.

But I hope that you will let him carry this protection charm.

I also hope that this protective charm can help him.

Of course, you can choose not to believe me.

If you think that this protective charm is useless,

you can throw it away.

 ===============================================

Woman:

Combs for sale!

Combs for sale!

Combs for sale!

Young Sir, buy a comb to gift to your lady.

 Jiang Cheng:

No thanks.

 Woman:

Young Sir, don’t go yet!

A comb represents lovesickness.

It’s a most suitable gift for a lady.

 Man:

Come here and look!

Have a look.

Look.

 Customer:

Shopkeeper, give me a bowl of noodles!

 Shopkeeper:

Coming!

 Man:

Lotus seedpods for sale!

Lotus seedpods for sale!

Lotus seedpods for sale!

High quality seedpods!

Delicious seedpods!

Come here and have a look!

 Lan Xichen:

Wangji,

what are you thinking about?

 Lan Wangji:

The waterbourne abyss.

What Wei Wuxian spoke of

was not unreasonable.

The spirit-snatching,

and the trouble caused by the waterbourne abyss;

Does elder brother have any clues

regarding the connection between them?

 Lan Xichen:

Wangji,

I have yet to fully understand it.

I only hope that

this incident is not what I think it is.

But if it really is,

I’m afraid that neither of us can act on it.

 Man:

Here!

 Wei Wuxian:

Lan Zhan!

Have a loquat!

 Lan Zhan:

No thank you.

 Wei Wuxian:

He’s so unfeeling.

Jiang Cheng, catch!

 Lan Xichen:

If you want to eat loquats,

I’ll buy a basket of it to bring home.

 Lan Wangji:

I do not.

 Man:

Emperor’s Smile!

Gusu’s Emperor’s Smile!

Top grade Emperor’s Smile!

Emperor’s Smile!

Top grade Gusu’s Emperor’s Smile!

 [Emperor’s Smile]

 Emperor’s Smile!

Top grade Emperor’s Smile!

[overthinkingkdrama]

Jona’s 5 Worst Dramas of 2019

A couple words about this list. I’m making this for fun. If a drama you love ended up on this list, it doesn’t mean that I hate you or I think you’re stupid or have terrible taste. But these are dramas that inspired strong negative reactions in me for one reason or another, whether that be disappointment, rage or disgust.

I’ve only included dramas that finished airing in 2019 in my selection process. If you have some dramas that hated, feel free to share them in the replies or send me an ask. It’s fun to complain about things for some reason.

Also, I have included major SPOILERS in a couple of these. So read at your own peril.

Dishonorable Mention: Melting Me Softly

I sincerely tried to limit myself to only dramas that I--for whatever misguided reasons--finished in their entirety for this list. Mainly because I don’t think it’s fair to brand something as the “worst” of anything without actually giving the thing a fair shake. That’s the only reason Melting Me Softly isn’t higher on this list. But I felt that it wasn’t right to leave it off entirely, if for no other reason then out of respect for the fallen Ji Chang Wook stans out there who lost their lives trying to make it through this trash fire. Somebody needs to stand up for those brave soldiers, out their gifing trash dramas while people like me are safe and sound on our couches, watching the tag like it’s a train wreck.

I made it through only two episodes of this drama, and despite my goodwill toward the majority of the cast, they were two of the most bafflingly bad hours of television that I forced myself to sit through this year. From what I could tell while side-eyeing the drama on tumblr and twitter it didn’t improve much over the course of the run. There were a couple steamy kisses that I enjoyed in clip form, but I don’t think it would have been worth the brain cells lost to sit through any more than that.

Bottom Line: Painfully unfunny, overwhelmingly expositional with no character development, confusing pacing and sloppy editing. Two episodes was two too many.

5. When the Devil Calls Your Name

It pains me to put this on the list because it was just last year that a Jung Kyung Ho, Park Sung Woong collaboration (Life on Mars) ended up in my top 5. And giving credit where it’s due, the two male leads seem to have a great deal of fun working together and I believe that all the actors gave this drama everything they could and sincerely tried to make it work. That’s one of the things I like about Jung Kyung Ho, he picks unique, risky projects that either pay off in a big way or fall flat on their faces (like the amateurishly written and edited Missing 9) Unfortunately, this script just too messy and too bizarre to work. Ha Rip as has a deeply frustrating character arc. He’s such a self-centered jerk for the vast majority of the drama, which is fine for a Faust type story if it’s written with conviction, but every time you think he’s started to turn a corner or grown as a person he reverts back to his old ways. The writing and tone are whiplash inducing. Plus the vague “soul mates” relationship between Ha Rip and Kim Yi Kyung seemed to want to have it both ways, flipping between implied romantic potential and a father/daughter dynamic, which made me quite uncomfortable.

Bottom Line: This drama’s bizarre mythology and world building barely makes any sense at all, but at least they’re easier to follow than the character development. Attempted something unique, but couldn’t pull it off. The OST is super dope though.

4. Love in Sadness

When I watched the first teasers I got the distinct impression that this wasn’t going to be a good drama, or at best it was going to be a guilty pleasure, but at the time when I started it I was hungry for a melo and there wasn’t much airing to hold my attention so I started it on impulse. I think in this case I got what I deserved for continuing to watch something I didn’t think was very good.

The first few episodes were actually pretty gripping and intriguingly dark, but that petered of quickly and the drama became and infuriating wheel spinning exercise with barely any perceptible plot development from episode to episode. The protagonists in this are all so stupid that in the final few episodes the female lead gets kidnapped not once, but multiple times because she keeps meeting her unstable husband alone. Plus nobody in this drama seems to know how to call the police when a madman is waving around a gun. It probably wouldn’t have made me so very mad except that in the last few episodes the writer became unaccountably preoccupied with how sad the psychotic, wife-beating husband’s family life was and how lonely and pathetic his life was when he wasn’t allowed to stalk, assault, and psychologically terrorize his wife. Seriously, in the last leg of the drama the villain is the only character who gets any character development at all. The drama pulls out all the stops to try to make use feel sorry for him. It’s disgusting.

Bottom Line: When a drama about a woman trying to escape domestic violence becomes completely preoccupied with painting the abuser as tragically misunderstood, you’ve got some serious problems.

3. The Lies Within

If it wasn't for the last two episodes this drama would not be on this list, but that isn't because it was in any way an exceptional drama, or that it otherwise would have ended up on my best list. Without the last two episodes The Lies Within is a merely adequate thriller, somewhat heightened by the brutal nature of the premise. I picked this show up largely to fill the void that was left by WATCHER and it was more or less successful, plus it helped that I liked the cast. However even at the beginning this drama I felt like it had some pretty glaring tone problems. There were parts of the drama that were standard OCN dark and gritty thriller, and there were other parts that felt like a campy police sitcom. The humor, when it does crop up in this drama always feels super out of place. But then that last big twist happened and man...I can't remember the last time a drama made me that angry or cratered quite so hard with a twist.

[And this is where I spoil the HELL out of this drama...]

Before this drama decided to go all M. Night Shyamalan in it’s last two episodes, there seemed to be at least one, if not two really reasonable candidates for the kidnapper. Actually all the ground work they’d done up to that point would seem to have pointed to Young Min and if he had turned out to be the perpetrator, I would have completely bought it. Instead they decided to blow everyone’s mind by making the kidnapped husband complicit in his own kidnapping and dismemberment. Which might seem like a shocking twist until you think about it for even half a second.

What it winds up doing on a narrative level it makes everything the characters have done to investigate this series of crimes up to this point feel pointless, resulting in a huge anticlimax. It makes the ambiguous figure of Seo Hui’s husband not only hopelessly stupid, but also cruel and unsympathetic. Because he thought somehow simply sharing the information with her would put her in more danger than threatening and psychologically terrorizing her into investigating the very people he was theoretically trying to protect her from. The explanation that he was already terminally ill doesn’t to anything to mitigate the stupidity of his plan for me. Seriously, you couldn’t think of any solution aside from cutting bits off yourself and sending them to your wife in the mail? I could rant about this ending at length, but I’m going to try to stop here.

Bottom Line: As far as I’m concerned, if you choose to sacrifice the emotional and narrative coherence of your story for a cheap and dirty twist to surprise the audience, you deserve every ranty review you get.

2. Love Affairs in the Afternoon

I’m really not sure what possessed me to watch this drama to begin with. That I continued to watch it is on me. The fact that I watched it despite hating the shallow characters, the thin story and the abortive message at the core of the drama is simply a lapse of judgement for which I shouldn’t be forgiven. Why did I do it despite not having a single nice thing to say about this show? Well, there are two reasons. I was curious to see if they would do anything compelling with one or two of the characters, (specifically the serial adulteress housewife an the broody artist) and I was surreptitiously watching this drama at work and it was really easy to follow the plot while only actually keeping my eyes on the screen about half the time. I watched the last episode before the subs were available and had no trouble understanding what was going. Which could be a sign that my Korean is improving, but is more likely a sign that the writing was so predictable and simplistic that you could follow it if you didn’t speak the language at all.

[Spoilers beyond this point.]

It’s my understanding that in the Jdrama that this is based on all of the characters basically wreck their lives and end up miserable, pointing toward the emptiness of the lives of these people who try to find fulfillment through extra-marital affairs. If that’s how this drama had ended, I still wouldn’t have enjoyed the execution but I could have respected the intent. But in this watered down Kdrama-fied version all the couples’ issues are resolved in the whitewash of a last episode time skip that makes the suffering and bullshit that led up to it feel completely pointless.

Bottom Line: Maybe this level of trashy, uninspired tripe would be somewhat justified if the chemistry between the leads had been better, but somehow they even managed to screw that up. The leads are just bad, vacuous people, a fact which is rendered all the more unforgivable by them being utterly bland. Everybody needed to divorce, nobody deserved to end up happy. Please be wiser than me and avoid this one.

1. Memories of the Alhambra

Initially, I was on the fence about even producing a “Worst List” this year, because in the past few years I’ve tried to be better about dropping dramas the moment they start to disappoint me, rather than hanging on to them and winding up burning myself out. I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough material to write this list, or at least not enough material to make it worth reading. Then I remembered that Memories of the Alhambra finished airing in January of this year (2019 was impossibly long, wasn’t it?) and I thought, “Aha, I can make this work.” I knew at once this drama was going to be the shitty tinfoil star atop my Christmas tree of suck.

I’ve already written a full review of this drama, where I got about as mean as I felt I could reasonably be. You can go read that if you like, I’m not going to retread all my many complaints here. What I will say is that Memories of the Alhambra took my mixed-to-favorable opinion of the writer, Song Jae Jung, and turned it to a negative one. She’s someone who clearly has a lot of interesting high concept ideas, but the execution is just not there. You can hook an audience with a concept, but you have to keep them with craft and structure. 

Maybe the industry can be blamed for that. Maybe she just has a hard time ending her stories, or maybe writing on a deadline doesn’t agree with her. Whatever the reason, I can no longer trust her to deliver a satisfying story. And that’s deeply saddening to me, because Queen In Hyun’s Man is in my top 10 favorite dramas.

To be front-to-back terrible is one thing. The joke’s at least half on me for bothering. But to have potential, to have an interesting hook, a budget, a cast, but then to be either unwilling or unable to live up to that potential feels like a con. That’s how I felt about his drama, like I had been willfully deceived by special effects and flashy editing, all orchestrated to disguise a narratively bankrupt, unsatisfying drama.

Bottom Line:  Is Memories of the Alhambra objectively the worst drama on this list? No, it’s not. Is it the most disappointing? Absolutely, it is. And that’s the more heinous crime, in my opinion.  And that’s why it’s my worst drama of 2019.

[whatadaze]

shan writes another long ass post no one asked for: 

so unless you’ve been living under a rock, you MIGHT have heard about skam nl + its recent decision to remove the geoblock on its youtube videos. if you have never watched skam nl or am on the fence about it pLS PLS PLS keep reading okay!? PLEASE 

I’m not the best at articulating my thoughts and suck at writing but i’ll try my best so PLS read :-) 

1. THE CAST

skamnl’s girl squad has a WOC playing noora (liv), a bisexual chris (janna), the least problematic vilde (engel), an AMAZING eva (isa), and even though their sana (imaan) could only be in the show for one season PLEASE do not let that deter you from watching. the actress left due to personal reasons and they left her character’s storyline open ended so if there ever was a chance for the actress to return, she could! i know there are many people who want a sana season with muslim representation but skam nl introduces another character, esra, who is also a muslim woc and FUCKING AMAZING. that aside, the cast members have great chemistry with one another. the way the characters interact + talk feel so real and genuine, largely because of the fact that the cast members are very close irl. one thing that i love about skamnl is the way they portray the friendships within the girl squad. i’d even go as far a saying that they are the best girl squad (even surpassing og) because they are so open and honest with one another + actually TALK to each other when problems occur. i don’t want to get too into specifics because you just need to watch the show but UGH i love how the show promotes POSITIVE girl/girl friendships without all that unnecessary catty drama we usually see in teen shows. 

2. THE WRITING + PRODUCTION 

so season 1 follows isa (eva) and i’m not going to lie, season 1 was always the season i didn’t care for as much but i was drawn to isa from the very first clip. she is just SO relatable and i would’ve loved to have watched a show with a main character like her when i was a teen. the dialogue feels so raw and real—the writing isn’t cringey or sound forced/straight from a script. and let me tell you, the PRODUCTION IS OFF THE CHARTS. skamnl has a unique way of telling its story through eVERYTHING. what the camera chooses to focus on, what colors are included in the scene, the song they choose for certain scenes, EVERYTHING has a purpose and i love when people analyze clips because it just shows how genius the skamnl team really is. they all work so hard on this show and it’s truly a shame that they don’t get the recognition they deserve. 

3. THE SOUNDTRACK

i’m not sure how it is with other remakes, but the spotify playlist for skamnl gets updated after each episode and that will tell you how long an episode will be. it’s actually one of my favorite parts of the show—waiting for the next group of songs to drop, listening to them, and trying to figure out what might happen in the next clips. they have introduced so many songs that i listen to on the regular from all over the world. in season 1, they had a song by kpop group TWICE and as a korean person myself, i was s h o o k when that happened! if you love music and discovering new songs, you’d love what skamnl has to offer because their soundtrack is A++++++ 

4. THE CHEMISTRY 

i touched on this in my point 1 but i just need to delve a bit more into it. so i mentioned that the cast members hang out outside of filming and they are genuinely all good friends. this makes their acting feel more genuine and real, their dialogue sounds more natural, and as a viewer, you really feel like a fly on the wall when you watch the show. it feels like you’re watching a real group of friends hanging out, going through typical problems you might be facing yourself, and for those of you who aren’t in high school, watching them really takes you back to your own high school days. i always get this warm, nostalgic feeling i just can’t really explain whenever i watch season 1. 

right now, it’s liv’s season and i know that many people who watch skam+remakes don’t like william or noora/william or think it’s just a season where two het couples making out all the time but IT’S NOT. first of all, season 2 has so many important themes that people (especially teen girls) need to be aware of: sexual assault, eating disorders, relationships, and like season 1, touches on the importance of friendship. also, noah IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE LEAST PROBLEMATIC WILLIAM. you just have to watch to understand but I PROMISE YOU you will not be disappointed. i have talked to so many people who HATED william and now they hate themselves for loving noah so much. not to mention, zoe (liv) + monk’s (noah) chemistry is INSANE. these two dorks are friends irl and in order to prepare for their season, they spent a lot of time getting to know each other and building a relationship so that their interactions on screen feel more natural. the cast just goes above and beyond to deliver an authentic performance and it FUCKING SHOWS

5. THE FANDOM 

this will be the last thing i touch on + may be the most controversial so pls don’t hate lol :-) one positive thing about skamnl being underrated is the small fan base. i’ve gotten pretty familiar with the regular group of people who frequently post in the tags and they are some of the sweetest and talented people i know. it may sound cheesy as hell, but the people in this fandom feel like a small family + i LOVE THAT. there’s no drama, there’s no hate, and we all just love discussing the show, promoting the show, and freaking out over clip drops, hiatuses, social media posts, and sharing theories. the fan base is one of the main reasons i enjoy watching skamnl so much, and i’d say it’s the least problematic as well. and that’s not me saying other remake fandoms are toxic or horrible, because for the most part, THEY AREN’T. i enjoy watching other remakes as well + am familiar with people in those fandoms as well but the environment seen in the skamnl fandom is just so.......different. i’ve developed genuine friendships with people from all over the world through this show and i think that’s just SO amazing. we’re small, but we’re a warm, inviting bunch and would love to have more and more people join us! 

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW? 

skamnl has removed its geoblock from all their youtube videos which is how they gather data on viewership and all that so it’s SUPER important that if you decide to watch this show, you do it through their official youtube channel. the clips are usually subbed within 30 minutes of being dropped by the amazing @skamdutch team, social media posts are translated within 15 minutes, BASICALLY waiting for translations has never been a problem okay? they are released super fast so don’t let the waiting deter you. 

i personally love watching it the first time without subs and use that time to freak out and let all my excitement out of my system + once the subs are released, i watch it again and actually pay attention LOLOL 

but anyway, i know a lot of people didn’t want to watch skamnl because it was geoblocked so if that was your excuse, you LITERALLY have no excuse now. and we don’t know how long this will be going on for but i have a feeling they will block it again soon so THE TIME IS NOW. the cast have spoken out about it, the production team have spoken about it, so go go go and watch it!!! 

even if you can only watch one or two clips a day, do it! anything and everything helps at this point! this show deserves to have its season 3 and many many more in the future. 

ok all of this probably didn’t make any sense because like i mentioned before i suck at writing and articulating my thoughts BUT if you actually read all of this then THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and please click HERE for a surprise.

byeeeeeeeeeee

love, shan

me after writing this post: 

[twilightvolt]

Twilight Thoughts (BEASTARS Episodes 1-4 Part I)

Note: I realized this stretched FAR too long altogether, so i decided to break it up into two parts. that way it’s a tad less intimidating to read.

WARNING: SPOILERS IMMINENT FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO'RE DECIDING TO WAIT FOR NETFLIX TO RELEASE THE SHOW FROM PRISON. But hey, if you don't mind, then let's get this show on the road!

Just know for those who've just found me now that I've never read the manga (although I've known about it since last year), so this is from the perspective of an outsider going in completely blind. While I normally am an anime only dude considering I'm not much of a reader, I DO have plans to read it. But, only AFTER the anime has concluded. I gave my reasons in an earlier post.

Ok, so episode 1 gave me feels I didn't ask for but know I'd welcome anyway cuz I just luv torturing myself with a n g s t .

Episode 2 threw all my expectations out the window and made me question if I was even ready to continue watching this show with that ending.

Episode 3 made me truly invested. (as if I weren't already. lmao)

But episode 4 just now?

....goodness, I don't even know WHAT to think if I'm being honest. I still had to process everything long after.

Hmm....where to begin....I guess I'll just start with things I reacted to in episode 1 and go from there. I'll try to recall as much as I can. Grab the popcorn my dudes, you're in for a long ramble. ^ ^'

Episode 1: The One With the Long Ass Title

- Not even three minutes in and someone already dies. Like, b o i . Sure hope that dude wasn't important. Yeah, it's probably n-

- "When the time comes, I'll tell her how I feel!"

.....why would you do this to me, Itagaki? TT__TT

- Right here was also when I learned what Legoshi was like as a character. He was such a sweet cinnabun that he already made it on my list of good bois. Ngl, he reminded me of an old Digimon OC I created way back in 2016 who was a werewolf with the same sorta personality.

- when I saw Louis (Or as I started calling him, Bambi Senpai), I thought "Ok, he's the popular bishie who's probably gonna be a huge asshat." But later in the episode, I started thinking that might not be the case? I mean in this one, he was grade A jerk material. But there was something there. And I'm not just talking about that scene of him pulling on Legoshi's tie. Lmao

- Why y'all gotta be so mean to Haru? Like god, sometimes high school teen drama like this makes me so.....ugh.

- A mongoose voiced by Bakugou was something I never knew I needed to hear.

Overall, a pretty fun and engaging introduction imo. For something that's supposed to be Slice of Life, at least.

Episode 2: Oh Lord That Ending....

- Legoshi not wanting to get out of bed cuz of being depressed felt relatable, but I also felt bad for him despite not knowing what went down at that moment.

- I also wanna see more of his friends, but considering one of them was 2D and the only friend I know that had a spot in the trailers was Jack, I'm not holding my breath about that.

- Legoshi fighting his instincts in a nutshell:

I swear I started hearing Who's There and Borderline of Madness from P4 playing during this moment I am not even kidding. Lmao

- Ok, here's where I noticed Louis was actually nicer than I thought. Cuz even though he seemed mad at the goat boy for eating his script instead of reading it, he still helps him get his lines down.

- The cafeteria fight scene was so funny. "You sound stressed! MAYBE YOU SHOULD TAKE A NAP!" XD

- "Ok think, how can I lose in a natural way?" I luv how Legoshi KNOWS he can kick his ass, but tries his best to strategize how to lose in a believable way. Lmao

- More nice guy points for Bambi Senpai. Though, he seems to be curious about Legoshi for some reason.

- I always like rewatching that scene where the anteater guy ditches Legoshi at the Gardening Club. It's hilarious and the poor wolf acts so cute during that. ^ ^

- To my surprise, Haru didn't seem to remember that night. Which was weird, but then I realized when I went back that the subs threw me off and the goat actually said "Senpai!" so she didn't even know it was him.

- Legoshi too lost in his thoughts to pay attention to what's about to happen and overthinking just wanting to talk was such a mood. *sigh* social anxiety sucks.

- ....You know what I'm about to talk about next.

Like, it's the thing that keeps me from properly recommending this show cuz I have to stop randomly and say "Don't be alarmed by the end of episode 2. I swear it doesn't go anywhere the following episode!" After that, they ENDED THE EPISODE THERE. And I was like "....Wait, thAT'S IT? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" I was both concerned and dying. inside and out. Lmao

- Oh hey, I forgot to talk about the OP and ED sequences! While the ED songs are kinda just ok, their sequences, while very similar, change themes with every episode. This episode was about him and Haru, so it was pretty cute. The OP tho? GOD, I luv Wild Side so much. It's such a bop and I can't wait for them to release the full version. I haven't heard something so jazzy since Wake Up Get Up Get Out There from Persona 5 and I feel like that genre is criminally underused in anime OPs. The sequence itself? SO cute! But also kinda sad cuz it seems to be showing what goes on in Legoshi's mind. He hopes he could get to know Haru and be with her, but it ends with him afraid with a skull and blood everywhere. Almost as if he's thinking "What've I done?" The art direction was really creative too. It reminded me of the stuff you see from Coraline or uhh....Fantastic Mr. Fox? Yeah, that.

Well, i guess that’s that for now. see you guys possibly tomorrow with the second part where i talk about episode 3 and 4!

[yinzhengs]

xia talks about 绅探 | detective l

— where i’ve been watching detective l: eng sub (YT) || raws (maplestage)

— so i’ve finally made my way thru all 8 eps that have been released thus far. i know some people have been asking for my opinion, so here’s a post that’s meant to hopefully sum up everything i’ve been feeling about this show, personally. any spoilers in my review are very minor!

if you’re not familiar with the show, it’s a sherlock holmes inspired mystery/crime show set in the shanghai french concession during the republican period, starring bai yu, you jingru, and ji chen. at the moment, the show’s at a 7.3/10 on douban, and it was trending at #5 for web-series, so it’s definitely enjoying popularity.

disclaimer: this is just my personal opinion — no matter how i feel about the show, i heavily encourage everyone to check it out for themselves before coming to a conclusion!

+ setting

you know, if there’s one thing i do dig about this show (in theory), it’s the setting. while i’m not a big fan of the set, for reasons i’ll go into below, i think the time period lends itself to some interesting setups and unique cases. as mentioned, it takes place in the republican period in shanghai’s french concession. if i had to guess, it takes place in the 30′s — but my chinese history is shaky, and this is entirely based on some throwaway details mentioned in later cases. suffice it to say that it's a pretty cool setting, and while i was skeptical at first, i did find myself getting into it.

+ characters

another thing i like about the show is the character concepts — in theory, if not always in practice. we have a kind of triumvirate in the main trio. 

first, we have luo fei, the sherlock of the series and arguably its main character, who serves as a consulting detective for the shanghai police department. while he’s occasionally (mostly accidentally) an asshole, he’s generally likable and a far cry from the more eccentric/socially inept portrayals of sherlock holmes in modern adaptations. we start seeing a hint of his backstory in recent episodes, and cases soon start getting tied into his feud with an elusive “captain,” likely the show’s moriarty.

next, we have qin xiaoman, a rookie officer newly assigned to the dept, who has a fiesty temper and a fierce passion for making sure justice is served. in an enjoyable twist, she’s generally the one that does the heavy lifting: chasing perps down, aiming down sights, slamming suspects to the ground — she also soon learns to make deductions of her own, as well. 

finally, we have........................benjamin (本杰明). his name / its transliteration makes me laugh a little bit whenever i see it, so generally i just refer to the poor guy as ben. anyway, he’s a reserved forensic examiner who also serves as the department’s forensic analyst — he pretty much lives in the morgue, and is more comfortable with the dead than with the living. (also, he has a pretty cute bromance with luo fei...) his backstory’s interesting, and i like his character a lot because it plays perfectly off of the other two’s preexisting dynamic — here’s hoping that he gets more screentime and development! 

(ot3? ot3.)

+ cases

there are mixed opinions about the cases, but my personal take is that they’re pretty enjoyable to watch. while they’re not super hard to figure out / generally don’t have a whole lot of killer twists, they’re also not terribly unrealistic. they can get a little convoluted, but such is the eternal curse of mystery shows, i suppose. a lot of the smaller puzzles that luo fei solves are also contingent on some Pretty Chinese elements, which i found very cute (麻雀/麻将, 简谱, to name two). so yeah, they do a pretty okay job of taking classic mystery cases and making them fit in the setting given. more importantly, the process by which they unravel the cases is generally fun to watch, which is really the crucial part of any good mystery/crime show.

that being said, as someone who’s watched quite a few crime shows, i’m entirely not convinced that the writing for the cases is sufficient to keep me watching — even though they’re fun, i haven’t seen much so far that makes me feel like the show’s doing anything different from the usual formula. of course, that’s fine — crime shows don’t need to reinvent the wheel, they just need to make themselves worth watching, one way or another (normally thru character chemistry/acting, etc).

- some familiar sights/sounds...

why did they use the cinemasins stock sound effect multiple times

anyway, that aside, there are obvious nods to sherlock (bbc) — the main theme, luo fei’s initial appearance, the deduction scene in the car...

well, is it plagiarism? i guess not (or well, sina doesn’t think so), but what detective l’s doing here is less reinventing the wheel and more... repainting tires, if you catch my drift.

also, if you’re someone who pays a lot of attention to film ost’s, you’ll be assaulted with a LOT of familiar sounding melodies, be warned. this isn’t necessarily something that detracts from the drama, but it’s definitely something that’s thrown me for a loop / broken my immersion multiple times.

? tone

here’s where i start getting a little hesitant about the show, one of my main gripes: i’m really not sure what kind of tone the show is aiming for. while it’s clearly not a show that takes itself too seriously, and certainly not a dark/hard-boiled noir, occasionally there are moments included where characters rail at, for example, the imperfection/injustice of their supposedly impartial justice system — and while i’m not saying that the show can’t go there, it came off to me as just very thin attempts to increase the show’s depth while also not elaborating on those issues at all. and that’s what’s bothered me the most: the illusion of depth. 

i’ll be the first to admit, though, that this is probably because i’m watching this directly after OS, which definitely tackled those issues from the start and had a radically different tone — i just feel like detective l, at least so far, hasn’t settled into one yet, and so i felt like there were some definite moments of tone incongruity / moments when i thought the show would continue with issues it’d raised ... but it didn’t.

- cinematography / lighting

take this with a disclaimer: i think the lighting and design in this show is gorgeous... for stills.

for a moving film? not so much.

i’ve said earlier that i felt like some of the lines felt scripted — but if anything enhances that artificiality, it’s definitely some of the set design. it’s clearly a studio set, and i can’t really begrudge them that part, but some of the lighting is so clearly artificial that it’s been starting to get to me — characters inside a normal room (lit by an innocuously dim overhead lamp) shouldn’t have three separate colors reflecting off their faces like a hobbyist artist’s color study sketches (though it does do a good job of highlighting bai yu’s jawline unnecessarily, in like, every other scene). 

they’re clearly trying to create a mood through coloring / lighting, but ... often, i find, it’s at the cost of realism and could definitely be toned down a bit. (i find that over-the-top coloring is pretty common in cdramas, though, so this is probably also very subjective.)

(also, as with most cdramas.. they could probably do with less cgi.)

- acting / directing

alright, i’ll be honest: i’m not a fan of the acting in this.

in my personal opinion, something about the leads’ acting comes off as overly dramatized (esp. in xiaoman’s case) or slightly forced/artificial (in bai yu’s case). this could just be me not really being used to these two actors, but there were multiple times when i was surprised at how overdramatic/unrealistic some lines were delivered. same goes for minor characters, as well — something about the entire show just strikes me as extremely scripted, to the point where it breaks my immersion a lot. this might just be me, though, because i’ve def. heard some praises of the line delivery in this that i couldn’t wrap my mind around: take my words with a grain of salt, i suppose. 

(also, of course, i’ve been watching this directly after coming from white deer plain — which has some really down-to-earth acting and a setting/tone that’s worlds apart from detective l. maybe i’m drawing too many direct comparisons: white deer plain definitely has some amazing acting, and it’s a high bar to set, esp for a drama filled with more younger actors.)

directing-wise... i definitely wish i could ask why they made some of the choices they did. while the subs haven’t reached that point yet, there are definitely some cliche tropes that they start throwing in around ep. 6 that heavily detracted from my enjoyment of the show, esp. with the show’s (perhaps over-the-top) use of slow motion at times + (imo) forcing chemistry before it’s had time to develop.

as a result though, i really can’t find myself getting attached to either of the main two (i like ben, probably because he hasn’t had enough screentime for me to be turned off yet, though) — i think that the acting choices for qin xiaoman definitely made her more unlikable for me despite me being a fan of her character in... theory. similarly, luo fei often feels too thin as a character — i’m constantly searching for depth there that i’m not sure i’m finding. so far, while these two are foils, they really feel like nothing more. maybe it’s too early to tell (but hey, i’m a third of the way through, aren’t i?), but i’m definitely finding myself wishing at almost every turn that there was more to the acting there — though they’re definitely being stingy with releasing characters’ backstories / hints to their backstories, which could help contextualize their behavior a little more. 

overall: would i recommend it?

my very eloquent answer is... it depends. if you’re looking for a fun mystery romp that doesn’t always take itself too seriously with a unique setting and some interesting cases, then by all means: detective l might be up your alley!

that being said, i think it has a lot of flaws — notably, veteran crime show fans might not find enough flesh on the show’s bones to justify watching it for the cases alone — but if you can overlook them, it’s a fun show to watch: just don’t go in looking for stunning acting or dark moral quandaries. 

[rwbyconversations]

The weaknesses of Volume 6

As someone who had sub-zero expectations going in, Volume 6 was overall a really good season of RWBY- in fact I’d called it the best overall Volume since Volume 3, if not overall, the best season we’ve had so far. Everything seemed to come together for this season, and most of the fandom has agreed that the opening salvo of episodes was the best the show had, and that the season hadn’t had a dud episode until the group reached Argus. I know some parts of the fandom don’t love the Argus episodes but I found something good in nearly all of them so I can’t say it was a complete waste of time. 

But, every cloud has a silver lining, and while Volume 6 was unmistakably a huge improvement over the previous Maya seasons, especially Volume 5, there are still several areas the show can seek to improve on as the show moves to the chilly frozen north of Atlas. So in this essay, I’m going to highlight the (ultimately small but notable enough to warrant talking about them) weaknesses I found in Volume 6. 

1) The show needs to more efficiently handle its villains (and why Cinder and Neo’s plot was a drag)

Weird that I’m saying this in the season that gave its longest episode to exploring Salem’s origin story, but Volume 6 had a lot of difficulty managing the pacing of its villains, and the largest subject of its focus arguably didn’t need to be in this Volume. I’m talking of course about Cinder and Neo’s plot this volume.

Now on paper, giving Cinder more spotlight should be what I want. After all, I wrote an essay last year detailing why parts of the fanbase weren’t fond of Cinder, so giving her focus should ideally be able to remedy those problems, right? 

Well, that’s the problem. In that essay, I talked about how Cinder’s two biggest flaws as a character were that she was very boring, and how her lack of backstory made it difficult to really care about her as a character. Cinder has effectively been the same character for six volumes in a row and much like Volume 4, the show has a golden opportunity to finally change that and give her a new narrative arc only to waste it.

Volume 6 should have been a drastic wake-up call for Cinder. Unlike at Beacon, where she lost due to Ruby’s sudden intervention and the awakening of her Silver Eyes, Cinder lost at Haven entirely thanks to her own failings. Raven beat her handily in straight combat and goaded her into the entire train-wreck of an operation to begin with, which for a power-focused individual like Cinder, should have really been an igniting spark to get her to begin seeking some introspection on why she’s lost twice in a row in failing to burn down the Academies. But sadly, just like in Volume 4, right as Cinder appears to be getting an arc about her recovering from her loss at Haven, she just ignores it and goes right back on her murder-Ruby train, as if she’s stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. 

Cinder’s refusal to move on from a basic arc of “Plan to destroy an academy, enact the plan, get slaughtered, blame Ruby, rinse and repeat” has made her easily the least interesting villain in the entire show. At this point we’re six years in and barring a few contextual clues, Cinder has no backstory, no sympathetic traits, not even any character development to differentiate her from her Volume 1 self. And this after the season where she dominates the villain screen-time until the final third when Adam hijacks the plot.  

Cinder’s plot in Volume 6 is therefore largely just setup for Volume 7, in that it explains how Cinder survived Haven and how she reaches Atlas. Along the way, she encounters the in case of bad season break glass button Neo, whose out for revenge and gets a really cool fight scene that’s ultimately just there for fanservice. 

Let me repeat. Good fight, really liked it. Let me also repeat- just there for fan-service. This is not an inherently bad thing, but it does have weaknesses. 

Neo was always coming back to the show and part of me feels like she was always being held in reserve in the event of a really bad season, so that the next one could have her return and generate some hype since her fan-base are that loyal. And sure enough, Neo’s return did see a notable collection of fans who had dropped the show after 4 and 5 coming back to see their ice cream queen return in a non-Chibi format. I won’t fault the crew for using a plan that worked. Where I take umbrage is that this fight was not necessary. It was a good fight, but I’d have much rather taken a Cinder scene of her actually recovering from Haven and thinking about why she lost again. Instead, Cinder and Neo effectively hijack all the villain screen-time for the rest of the season. And as someone who doesn’t adore Neo like her fans, this made their arc very tiresome, especially when the hints we got of the other villains were far more intriguing. I could talk a lot about the symbolism and thematic choices of the Mercury/Emerald scene in Chapter 9 but I’d struggle to find a lot to say about Cinder’s plot that wasn’t just “Setup for Volume 7.” 

The other problem of course is that the rest of Team WTCH are sorely underdeveloped. Hazel at least is interesting again now that he’s several miles away from Ozpin, Tyrian came back and was a delight and I loved seeing him all-but-begging Merc and Em to run so he could hunt them, but Watts remains crucially underdeveloped. He really needs to step up in agency in Atlas because his sardonic wit can only carry him so far, and the man’s voiced by Christopher Sabat, what more reason do you have to give him more to do? The man made the virus that Cinder used to cause the Fall of Beacon, can he be given some agency now please? 

Ultimately, Cinder’s plot didn’t need to be the focus for the villains and yet again, the fragments of focus they got showed how much more interesting they were as antagonists. While ultimately Volume 6 did finally give Mercury and Emerald more screentime than Volumes 4 and 5 combined and reminded the audience why you should be paying more attention to them, the rest of Team WTCH desperately needs development, Watts in particular. Cinder remains the worst villain in the entire show in my opinion, and it’s a shame that she’s almost guaranteed to be the one that makes it to the end of the show. I can only hope in Atlas she finally gets time devoted to what makes her tick, but at this point I’m almost at the point of not caring. It’s been six years, I won’t start caring for Cinder now if the show finally remembers to tell us why she joined Salem.  

... also I just think Cinder’s new costume sucks and I’d rather Em and Merc get new ones over Cinder and Neo buying extensions for their wardrobes.

2) Cordovin was a joke and she really shouldn’t have been

Show of hands, who actually took Cordovin seriously? Yeah, me neither. 

Even during the fight scene, the heroes don’t take it seriously. Having a fight the characters aren’t taking seriously isn’t an inherent flaw but it does mean you can’t expect us to turn around and take it seriously five minutes later.

Cordovin was a wasted character, and one that the show shouldn’t have undershot in all of her scenes by making her the punchline of nearly every joke. Her long-winded rant at the gate scene in Dead End is a huge factor in why a lot of fans, myself included, consider it the weakest episode of Volume 6 despite picking up in the back half. It just drags on for so long that Cordovin outstays her welcome from her first scene. 

Additionally, the show not taking her seriously steals a lot of gravitas from the mech battle, and plays a large role in why I think the mech fight failed to really excite a lot of fans outside of key moments like Ruby’s missile run and canon shot. Being alongside Adam’s confrontation with Blake and Yang didn’t help but even on its own, the mech battle drags. Not quite to the same extent as Haven dragged, but on rewatches I was making liberal application of the skip button. That lack of gravitas itself goes on to hamper Cordovin’s serious moment in the season finale where she realizes that her ego allowed the Leviathan a straight shot on Argus and undergoes a soft redemption to let team RWBY leave the city. However, this moment of taking Caroline seriously comes after the plot has made it clear that the entire reason the Grimm attacked Argus was because of Caroline over-reacting to Maria and breaking out her mech instead of scrambling fighters as Qrow predicts they will. Caroline is solely at fault for the Leviathan getting as close to destroying Argus as it did, so it’s difficult to care when she pulls her head out of her ass to do her job. 

A lack of investment also means a lack of emotional dedication, which I think showed in the lack of fanart Caroline has generated since her reveal. Her design being very drab and militaristic doesn’t help matters but unlike say, the Yang/Adam rematch where the stakes were present on an emotional and thematic level, Caroline failed to excite the audience beyond a few funny memes. 

The additional problem with lacking in emotional dedication/investment is, again, we don’t have enough interest in Caroline to take her seriously, she goes in one episode from the Kooky Racist Grandma to someone we’re expected to sympathize with. And additionally, asking the fans to sympathize with a character whose opening scene includes a not-too-subtle dig at her Faunus traits was asking a lot of the fandom, especially after the previous years showed that the show’s handling of the Faunus racism plot was... varied in quality. 

In short, Cordovin basically took a shotgun to her own foot in her first scene. Establishing her as an over the top comic relief character before expecting the audience to care when she broke out a walking advertisement for gen;LOCK was an extensive reach for the writers to try and unfortunately they fell flat. Trying to make the audience care for the problem she herself created is a similar long-reach. Hopefully this extended comedy sequence depiction of the Atlas military will be left behind as Volume 7 heads into the heart of darkness itself. 

3) Oscar desperately needs limelight

Oscar’s been in the show now for three volumes. He spent much of Volume 4 on his own, much of Volume 5 as Ozpin’s meat-sack, and now in Volume 6 he finally gets to... get some clothes. I like them, but they’re not suitable compensation for the character development that he clearly had stolen from him.

Oscar is easily the most underdeveloped main hero right now, and it’s a problem that’s haunted the series since Volume 4. Oscar wants to be a hero much like Ruby herself did as a child, but this sole fragment of backstory is never used to make a connection to Ruby. Aaron Dismuke, bless his heart, is giving this show his all and his impression of Shannon McCormack’s tones must be applauded, but much like Cordovin he’s not given much to work with. In a way, he’s almost the hero’s version of Cinder- a character who keeps finding themselves in situations where they should realistically develop as a consequence... only for each time they do, it either gets shuffled into the next volume or relegated to offscreen happenings. 

Volume 6 really should have had Oscar undergoing some kind of arc, be it his fear at being persecuted by Team RWBY and Qrow due to harboring Ozpin, his fear as his days as himself become more and more numbered, his acceptance of the fight against Salem or, most glaringly, his running off while the team is in Argus. But every time, Oscar just powers through these circumstances and never gets to develop from them. He never holds it over Qrow that he attacked a child, that Yang indirectly called him a bastard, he never thanks Ruby for having his back after the train crash, and he brushes off Jaune’s apology for smashing him into a wall and alleging he’s Ozpin masquerading himself as Oscar. 

Argus is really where Oscar should have stepped into his own. I was looking forward to him going solo and having to fend for himself for a short while, maybe have a scene where he forces Ozpin to come out and talk or gets to chat with Ozma himself about his place in the war against Salem. Have him be scared of losing his personality and just becoming another body for Oz to inhibit, have him be angry that his dreams of being a hero have been cruelly dashed on the rocks for some agenda he never signed up to. Oscar should be an emotional hurricane and instead he’s just a gust of wind. 

Seriously show, you had a golden opportunity for an Ozma and Oscar scene since we know Oz can speak to his past selves, and you know Arron has enough range to do both roles at once, why do you spite my farmboi. 

But he got a coat now so I guess that’s technically development. Kerry admitted in the Rewind for Volume 6′s finale that some parts of the season got pushed to the next one as they usually do, and I can only hope that Oscar finally expressing emotion was one such scene because Christ alive, he needs it after all the times he just got over crap offscreen this year. I want to like Oscar, he could easily have one of the most tragic arcs of the entire show if they went with it, but the show really needs to give me something to like about him in the first place. Or else he really will become the heroic Cinder, trapped forever in a nightmarish world of never getting to properly develop in spite of countless opportunities being handed to them on a silver platter.

... I still think Oscar lifted Qrow’s wallet for that costume btw. 

4) The reaction to Jinn’s story felt lockstep

I don’t have as much to say on this point but I find it rather saddening that all of the characters have much the same reaction to the truth of Ozma’s past- “Salem can’t be killed, you were leading us on for nothing”- when the weeks around the Ozma reveal had the fandom reacting to the story in a far more diverse way. Even in the hiatus we still have arguments over whether Ozpin was truly in the right or if the story was painting Salem as the true innocent party, to say nothing of the takes that Salem and Ozma’s relationship could be seen as an early iteration of Arkos or even Taruadonna with Salem as the abuser. 

The fandom had such a diverse range of reactions to Jinn’s story, with everyone seeming to have their own take on the episode and the truth wherein. Some people even used this to ponder if Summer Rose had learned the truth during her time and tied it in with Red Like Roses 2, where she laments having made a necessary sacrifice, to ask if Summer had learned the truth and bitterly signed on to the war against Salem in the hopes that she’d be able to turn the tide thanks to her Silver Eyes. 

“Just because I have to give you this origin story doesn’t mean you’re gonna take the right lessons from it.” 

Some idiots even decided that this meant Oz was the main villain now, but I’ve learned to drown those people out. 

But the show itself has a very flat range of reactions, with nearly everyone in-universe only taking away from the story that Salem cannot be conventionally killed and that therefore their entire journey is pointless. Everyone had the same reaction, with the only levels of variance being how angry they were at Ozpin and Oscar, ranging from Ruby’s “ask first if they have a plan and then be angry at Oz specifically” to Qrow and Jaune’s “physically assaulting a fourteen year old child.”  

It almost makes me wonder, if the characters themselves didn’t take anything from the lesson barring Maria connecting the Silver Eyes to the God of Light and that “SALEM CAN’T BE KILLED,” why should the fans? No one took this and went “OK so we can’t stop Salem with force, maybe try talking her down?” Their minds all immediately went to not just being able to shoot her.

Jinn’s story was great, but the reaction to it in universe felt very lacking and I only worry that the more people are told about it, the more chances we’ll get to hear a variant of “Salem can’t be killed.” It’s a shame that such a morally gray out of universe debate has been stripped to its raw components in-universe. 

Conclusion

Volume 6 was really good, I really liked a lot of it and it still warms my heart that I can say that about a season of RWBY post Volume 5. But there’s still a lot of work that can be done behind the scenes to fix up the flaws remaining. I chose three big flaws here but there are a few more I could bring up for quick points (mostly: Weiss getting shafted entirely in V6 feels like an overly corrective backlash to her constantly getting slaughtered in V5, Ruby’s agency does not substitute for a character arc and she still needs one, the introduction of the Faunus in Ozma’s flashbacks felt very contrived, Ren and Nora continue to feel useless to the wider plot but at least this time Ren wasn’t getting bodied every fight, so on and so forth), but ultimately we got more good than bad, and you don’t throw out an entire batch of apples just because of one rotten one near the top. I can forgive a lot more when the overall product is good, and Volume 6 certainly was a good season. Hopefully with these smaller problems fixed, which mostly just extends to “Give Cinder and Oscar onscreen development,” Volume 7 and onwards can keep the show moving forward into a brighter future and a better tomorrow.