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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Ducktales Reviews: Escape from the Impossibin! or A Dark Night of the Soul

It’s a long dark night of the soul for everyone’s favorite family of ducks as our beloved family grapples with the revelations of last episodes. While Scrooge clearly smarts from the betrayal he pits his latest security system against Della and Louie, given the title it naturally goes wrong and forces all three to try to escape. Meanwhile Beakly sics Webby on Huey and Dewey, and Dewey gets a cool new sword he can’t use while Huey has a slow burn mental breakdown.. again. Someone get my poor boy some therapy. Suprises, Also an exaustingly deep dive into the life of Bentina Beakly. Disguises but sadly not pies of all sizes insue under the cut.

Well.. this one was fantastic. Obviously i’ll explain why as we go but holy shit I was not expecting a master class of an episode just one week after the already great Let’s Get Dangerous. And yes I had my complaints there but none of them, especially on the second watch, really detracted from what was honesty an amazing episode. And after slogging through “Catch as Cash Can” over the past few days, this was a welcome return to the version of the duck family I love best and a crisp reminder of why this series is so frigging amazing. I may criticize, i’m a critic comes with the territory, but I genuinely and wholly love this show, and this episode is encapsulates why. So enough lollygagging, let’s dew it to it!

We open with one of those scenes where two characters give a similar speech and it flashes back between both as they finish each other’s sentences. It’s a storytelling choice I never realized I always loved as it’s always a good way to amp up tension or comedy. It’s a good way to start. At the Mansion, Beakly is lecturing Donald, Huey and Dewey, because both families likely talked Launchpad into just sharing different days with each of them after the first inevitable sleep driving car crash so he’s with his boyfriend and child right now. It’s also really nice to both have almost the entire main cast given something to do for an episode AND have the one missing member have a thoroughly valid reason for not being there that was set up last week. It’s also really nice to see Donald and Della again. While it’s only been two weeks, both have only featured in one episode this block so far, and Della’s been kind of pushed to the side this season.. not unfairly mind as she was the focus for two solo episodes and a ton of episodes last season for obvious reasons but it dosen’t mean I can’t miss my disaster twins when they aren’t around. So anyways back on the episode, Beakly is naturally assuming theirs more traitors in their midst, and she and webby have narrowed it down.. this dosen’t really come up aside for a gag in a second for the rest of the episode, but is both funny and two of them are clearly setup for later. Have a look

My thoughts in order:

Little Bulb: He probably IS plotting to betray them, but for entirely unrelated reasons. Donald: .........................................................................................................

Look I get it on some level, as he was away from the family a long time, hated Scrooge, and had every reason to betray him. BUT, and it’s a bit but, besides the obvious of Bradford and his goons being the reason they gave up looking for his sister, if for good reason, Donald would’ve TOLD them all about that by now if he’d been spying, or if he’d had any dealings with the man. The man loves his family, uncle included, more than anyone and even at their lowest point I doubt he’d sell the man out for the boys sake unless FOWL threatened them. Donald is principaled, hardworking, loving, and has both dove directly into a nest of shadows and sent himself hurtling to earth in a possibly lethal rocket to protect this family, so even if this is a funny gag, it does bother me Beakly and ESPECIALLY Webby, his surrogate niece, would even consider this. That being said while I felt the need to rant because he’s my boy and I feel protective of him, it was damn funy as Donald naturally tries to wipe it off because.. yeah everything above, only to get caught in the flipping board and ending up as above with Beakly forced to admit it’s probably not him. Plus yeah.. he’s also way too clumsy and anger prone for wetwork so there’s also that.

Fenton: I’m TEMPTED to use the trunks picture twice in a row but besides that being obnoxious.. I get it MORE here. Donald has no motive anymore, would’ve told them by now if he had when he did, and has broken his back for all of them at one time or another. Probably literally in some cases. Fenton is sweet, loyal and another one of my boys.. but his obviousness has left him open to deception in three different episodes, not counting the tolkyolk one since that wasn’t BOYD”S choice: But he put blueprints out online for a mcduck industries project, got his armor taken by beaks luring him in to work for him, and had Gandra working for Beaks snuck into his lab.. and probably in the process also got any info on it Bradford couldn’t get through company files. He’s a good man, a kind man but he could easily be a leak without realizing it and also has a mother at home and could be threatened into doing stuff for them for her saftey.. and yes I know she can take care of herself but we’re talking a regular cop against secret agents who aren’t above murdering one. He might panic even if rationally he knows she’s fine.. or they could do the inverse and use her to get secrets from him since she’s a mother and Gandra could probably easily hack fenton’s armor, since Bradford probably has the full blueprints at this point. The point is while I don’t see him betraying them WILLINGLY, I get him being a possible leak. Donald could be, but again is too obvious and likely reguarly checked for bugs anyway long before fowl, as is Launchpad I assume.

Bluescreen Beagle: I don’t know this dude, but I’m betting he’ll be important soon enough since they brought him up at all and he is a beagle working for Scrooge so that alone is interesting.

Louie: Yeah unlike my boys I have no excuses for him here. While Louie is family, and has proven his own loyalty plenty... he’s also selfish, greedy and shortsighted so like Fenton he could be an easy accidental pawn at best or turn on them for money or an adventure free life at worst. I don’t think he would mind, i’m just more understanding of this given just last episode his response to a clearly suspicious thing making machine was to ignore any suspicion entirely and whine about it while Huey looking into it ended up saving the universe. He also nearly killed them all last season, so fair enough.

So yeah Beakly is going to train them to

WHich the boys are all for while Donald gets all spinny eyed ont he floor. Cue credits... though obviously we have to cover the scrooge side of things too...

Meanwhile at the bin, Scrooge has brought Louie and Della there because there the sharpest mind he knows, and their seeing all the angles means their the perfect test subjects for his new post-deeply cutting betrayal security system. He also obviously goes off on an alteration filled rant at Bradford that has to be cut before he can get to calling him shiteating. And given he’s a buzzard that’s probably not inaccurate. Point is they are genuinely the best ones for the job and both agree.. Louie’s not really enthuastic about any of this but hey it’s their money this is guarding so why not. So with that done since we have two full plots to deal with and they don’t intersect until the last few minutes, like with Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades, i’m going to be splitting this one and covering each bit separately since it’s also easier for me to recall and recap that way.

Beakly, Brah, Making Kids (and herself) Cry, Brah!:

A can of coke to whoever figures out that reference first. Or a free review comisson shipping Coke is expensive you know? But yeah as you can tell this bit is not going to go well for any of the kids, or the beakly or my heart. So this plot continues at breakfast, where Huey is meticulously going over both his guidebook and Finch’s Journal to see if there’s ANY signs of F.O.W.L. their connection anything.. it’s also very clear he’s panicking. Given his enitre life is built on logic and he’s now facing a threat he probably feels he SHOULD have seen coming.. I mean they clearly have access to the Missing Mysteries, there must be SOME tie to them SOMEHOW. He, in my opinon at least, feels blindsighted and scared, going up against a group using his own love of logic that blindsighted all of them INCLUDING Scrooge, the most clever and daring adventuerer of all time and Beakly, who was likely responsible for seemingly wiping out F.O.W.L. in the first place. If THEY can be blindsighted, what hope does he have? So he’s searching for it in his comfort texts, kind of like I did at his age: when theirs a crisis trying desperatley to solve it even if you really can’t, which he cannot, at leats not alone. Dewey of course being Dewey, has decided the solution is to get a massive sword he can’t lift and hit people with it and mock Huey for his reading. Huey gets what’s clearly the start of his episode long emotional breakdown, the worst he’s had of SEVERAL this series and over the biggest stakes thus far, seriously get this boy some therapy, while Dewey just thinks the key to beating their worst menace yet is a giant sword to hit things with. He does break a pot with it in an accidental spin attack in a later scene though so I do apricate that reference.

But when opening the serving tray they find an attacking Webby instead with Beakly explaining why she’s doing this to her surrogate brothers: Beakly is testing them by having Webby sneak attack them at some point and the’ll never know when, while Beakly herself works with Donald to secure the house.. sadly we don’t get to see any of that latter part, as it’s probably full of hilarious slapstick, but it’d also clash heavily with the rest of this plot which, while not lacking in jokes, is meant to be uncomfortable and have us on edge like the boys, so fair enough. Webby “Bringer of Death” hugs htem saying this is going to be fun.

Naturally it really REALLY isn’t as Huey is still very shaken by this. And it cleverly ties into what’s been shown from day one and especially this season to be his greatest weakness, and very likely the crux of his character arc: Huey can’t improvise. It’s a nice contrast to Louie last season: Louie’s very talent is thinking on his feet, seeing every angle and making them bend the way he wants. I��ts how he schemes as well as he does, how he fits into the family and what makes him himself. What he needed was to think of others and think through the consequences of his actions. That’s what he gained from his arc last season: perspective, the ablility to improvise while also not shooting himself in the foot for later and to have empathy for people. Huey is the oppoisite: Instead his ablility to think IS his skill. He’s a genuis, able to understand super science on the level of fully grown adult genuises, able to puzzle through confounding mysteries, to solve any problem. He and huey both are gifted with anyalsis, but Louie sees the small picture, the people, the moving parts at the moment, while Huey sees the big picture and how everything connects to lead to one thing and loves learning more and more. I REALLY relate to him that way. But this season has brillinatly drilled in where he needs to improve: He’s not ready for suprises or deviations from his plans or all the things that could go wrong. He can’t improvise, he just panics. It’s something again I relate to and something that each of his episodes has set up leading to this moment hammering it home and me realizing what his arc was:

Challenge of the Senior-Junior Woodchucks had Huey utterly lost without his Guide Book for a while and unprepared for a sudden challenge in Violet. Quack Pack had him unravel when he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the world, yet he was perfectly fine once he knew what was going on, Astro B.O.Y.D. was entirely about his intellgence and need for structure leaves him bullied and alone a lot of the time even among in his element with the woodchucks and how he finds friendship in someone like himself who gets him. Rumble for Ragnarok showed that while he can comment find for sports like golf where there’s rigid structure, rules and history, he fails as bad as Launchpad at calling wrestling because wrestling is just as much about sponteaniety as planning, with run ins, reff discrations and other chaos being part and parcel and even in real life matches often have to be changed on the fly due to injuries or someone simply coming up with a better finish at the last minute. At the same time the season’s shown how it is vital to him, as the next two, The trickening and forbidden fountain showed WHY his structure works and that it can in the right format, and that he usually has reason for it. And the final one showed that too, with him being the one to find out what Bulba’s up to simply by research, and while he didn’t stop it, his pulling at the threads of why Bradford was there and his hate of them forced FOWL out into the open which, while now putting him on edge, forced their enmies into the open where while their more dangerous, they can now at least strike back. Huey’s arc is , hopefully if i’m right about this, about him having to learn to use his strengths with his weakneses, much like Louie last season: To adpat, to grow while not forgetting who he is and that not everything can be put in a box, as the creators put their interpretation of him. Not everything can be quanitfied or planned for and sometimes you just have to try and hope for hte best. It’s a damn compelling arc, my relating to it helps of course but it paints Huey as a fascinating character and tying it heavily into the main plot fixes how Louie was largely removed from the moonlander plot aside from one episode, as was glomgold’s quest. While the season has three main plots: A focus on Huey, the missing mysteries and FOWL, all three intertwine perfectly and are interconnected. The creators learned well from where they slipped up last time and the result is phenomenal, and they’ve clearly proven this is Huey’s season afterall: Even when he’s not been the a-plot who huey is, how he functions and being forced to grapple with the downsides of it are front and center and I am here for it.

But yeah he’s breaking down, not helped by trying to go to beakly only to find out about the hidden bin and Dewey tries to help him calm down.. only for Dewey to walk in and unsuprsingly the one who can actually offer deep encouraging support was Webby who threatens this isn’t the attack. Nor is her dummy she leaves for them. The boys are left terrified hoping they won’t be attacked and holding Dewey’s sword, but Huey ends up convinced it’s just a test and that it’s the classic paranoia gambit: by telling them something will attack, the real lesson is to be prepared. But Nerp, Webby attacks them with arrows and easily snares Dewey while Huey has a panic attack that’s genuinely hard to watch as he ends up running into the wall and breaking his ankle. This very real pain along with his clear trauma when he flinches at her genuinely trying to help him snap Webby out of it: She realizes she’s gone way too far and utterly terrified her own brothers, sending one into a full on mental breakdown, just to prepare them. Up till now it was probably normal for Webby: Beakly trained her rigorously, if understandably, kept her from the world, probably did this to her, and Webby just thought it was normal and it made her what she is. But it also came at the cost of any normalcy. To me Webby’s always been like a lighter, since she can at least speak, has toys and Beakly you know treats her like a human being rather than a weapon, of the second Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. Cassandra was raised from birth as an experiment to make the ultimate weapon, someone who rather than speak spoke in phsyical motion and could kill effortlessly.. but actually doing so shocked her and she escaped and Bruce took her in. Cass is as badass as Batman at a fraction of the age but dosen’t understand simple life things and can’t speak. Hence the parallel: While Beakly isn’t a monster like David Cain, she still took a small child and turned them into a weapon strugging to adapt to society, and only isn’t a monster because as said she clearly cares about webby and dosen’t want to loose her like she lost her child and in-law to whatever presumibly fowl related nightmare took them from her and left Webby an Orphan. What i’m getting at with this is this feels like Webby realizing while this is her normal.. the boys can’t take it with Dewey terrified and again, Huey nearly broken by all of this and whimpering in a corner. This isn’t bonding between master and student, grandmother and granddaughter, partners in fighting.. this is just .. wrong. So when Beakly, not noticing how badly she’s damaged either boy, demands Webby continue attacking them, Webby refuses, stands firm.. and prepares to take on the person she loves most in the world, yes more than Lena she’s only 12 for christ’s sake, and Beakly gladly accepts. Webby’s training is in session. When we next see them the fight is in full force, and it is awesome to see. After 3 seasons we not only see Beakly’s darkest aspects come out we see her granddaughter in the path. Though at first it seems like what their training sessions normally are, a friendly if lively and full force spar between two trusting combatants. But it becomes clear over the fight from Webby’s reaction that Beakly is going harder than usual, and doesn’t stop when asked. Thankfully her kind gesture paid off as Huey and Dewey whisk her up to the attic. Webby is genuinely SCARED, never having seen her like this but also worried for her: Acting like a monster or not.. Beakly is still her granny and it’s clear FOWL coming back has rattled her. The fist through the attick doors, barred with the sword proves that. The kids head up to the roof with Beakly in persuit like some sort of slasher villian, again fist through a door, determined to still fight while Webby clearly just wants this to stop and so does the audience. This hurts.. intentionally so but I haven’t been cut this deep by two family members literally coming to blows since Amethyst fought Pearl in the first season of steven universe. It’s tough to watch but in a very good way. The boys break up the tension for half a second by rushing her and she just tosses them aside... where their caught by Donald, who didn’t realize ANY of this was going on and is rigthfully pissed.. though dosen’t do the angry dance thing because then he’d kill his children but he’s sure thinking it loud enough.

As Webby reluctantly readies for round 2, Donald calls at her to fucking stop already. While she counters with they have to be ready, which is true... Donald shuts her down. “Not like this”. She’s broken Huey and Webby and Dewey.. is traumatized but fine but this episode really isn’t about him. What it is about is Bentina Beakly and her Dark Night of the soul. I brought up the term for dumb reasons admitely: Because it sounded neat and because Douglas Adams had spoofed it with the dirk gently novel “Dark Tea-Time of the Soul” a title that’s stuck with me and a book I own and still need to read. But I looked it up to make sure I wasn’t badly misusing it and it turned out to fit this episode: A Dark Night of the Soul, as defined by spirtual guru and thankfuly not scumbag Eckheart Tolle whose article explained the old expression better than wikipedia could. While he naturally pitches his book there, it was still helpful so thanks man for your spirtual advice helping me analyize ducks. I owe you one.

The Dark Night of the Soul is essentially a person coming to their lowest point after having lost themselves or feeling lost, rattled by one event and awakening with a new sense of spirtual purpose and a new direction and a sense of self again after it. Having everything you know upended and coming out the other side with a new self, usually in a religious sense. And it works here because really that’s what Huey, Beakly, Scrooge and to a Degree webby face here. Louie, Della, Dewey and Donald are all fine in the face of FOWl and it makes sense: Louie and Donald are often outside the adventure bubble in terms of enjoying it, seeing it’s dangers to them and in Donald’s case his kids, Webby included, and how much chaos it is. Both have accepted it as part of their lives so while this escalates things, both just see it as just more of the peril and chaos that’s a daily part of their lives. Dewey and Della being thrillseekers and loving a good challenge simply see this as taking on an epic challenge: fighting the worst villians of the world off and having a daring story to tell. Webby similarly isn’t that effected at first because she sees it the same way likely and only starts to get bothered by it when it starts tearing her family, the thing most precious to her, apart over it.

But for the other three it makes sense. Obviously we’ll come back to Scrooge during his part of the episode. But for Huey as we’ve seen this upends his world. There was a massive deadly secret just beneath him, an unknown beyond all unknowns, and it rattled him.. and having his own sister constantly terrorize him just made it worse. For Huey without consitencey his life falls apart as those prevoius episodes highlhted.l He can prepare for anything.. but he has to know it’s coming and having a villian group who strikes from the shadows is his worst fears manifest and preparing for that naturally breaks the poor boy. He gets through it though, as once it’s on someone else, his fear falls away and as we saw his focus is entirely on helping webby: Not on himself, not on the risk but on protecting his sister. It shows that Huey has the potenital for instinct, as seen with the woodchuck and wrestling episodes too, he just needs to get out of his own head and let it work with his gut instead of trying desperately to use only his head.

For Beakly though it’s far worse... and really gets to the core of who she is in this series. She was, and probably still is, a Secret Agent, who fought long and hard to utterly destroy FOWL, at the cost of everything else, constnatly having to keep her guard up with spies all around her and with Scrooge apparently being the only friend from those days who lasted the whole time. SHe probably lost countless partners in both sense of the word, time and youth she’ll never get back and everything she had to stop them. She gave S.H.U.S.H. everything as far as I can tell. And then she got her reward. FOWL was gone, she had a child, and possibly had a loving partner, provided they didn’t either leave her pregannt and alone or just grow apart from her eventually we don’t know at this point and i’m just spitballing. Point is she had a child, she had a happy ending.. except clearly.. she did not. According to the website, and it’s probably still accurate, Beakly was living in seclusion following her retirement, likely to keep anyone from harming her child.. but also because with her partner possibly gone, she had almost NOTHING left. A child that either kept her at arms length or she kept at arms length to keep their family safe, an old friend who was busy as is, and a safe world.. that’s all she had. Just her and alone. And that’s been clearly shown as Beakly’s biggest issue as we see: She has trouble letting others, even webby at times given how she lied at her, in and given all she’s lost it’s hard not to see why. After a life time of probably watching cold blooded killers kill people she loved and having people betray her and loosing the father of her child possibly, again it’s vauge, no wonder she is the way she is. And then it somehow gets worse and better: She looses her child, one of the three people she has left in the world.. yet she finds herself in charge of Webby. And with that.. she has a purpose again, to protect this child. This baby girl who needed her more than anything. So she did.. a little too well as discussed. To quote the excellent song “Dark, Sad, Lonely, Knight” from the musical “Holy Musical B@tman!” which yes really exists:

“I remember that horrible night that night you were split in two, and I swore I’d protect you. So I built a wall all around you, but the wall was too tall, it blocked out all the birds and the sun. I tried to raise you right! I tried to raise you proper! I tried to be a mentor and a friend and a mother and a brother too! I’d insulate you from any outside source of fright... i’d make bloody certain, you’d never see another, dark, sad, lonely night. “

And yes as you can imagine that was sung by Alfred.. but it fits perfectly. That’s how Beakly raised Webby, guarding her from the world, trying to protect her from the world the way she’d always guarded herself from it. She did hurt webby’s development.. but you can see WHY. She lost everything, she had two people left in her life at that point: One had given her home and the other had given her her soul back. She couldn’t loose Webby so she made sure she couldn’t and held her as tight as she could. It’s why she pushed Scrooge to let his young nephews into his life. She saw over her time with him he was doing what she did, pushing everyone out. She wanted him to avoid being alone like she was before Webby. And it worked.. and showed her Webby clearly wanted to see the world and that Bentina didn’t have to be afraid to show it to her anymore, and could let Scrooge share in doing so. She let her be free and opened up for the first time in likely a decade since she got a two year old dropped on her lap. And soon wither she’d admit it or not she found herself part of the family. She found herself the voice of reason, sometimes sharing it with Donald, and the one to put both Scrooge and the rest of the family in their place when they nearly tore apart again, helping Donald realize that for all scrooge hurt him.. Scrooge hurt from loosing della too, and helping the boys realize Scrooge, much like herself, tends to lash out at people. She prevented them from getting distance from their family, knowing from experince you may never get them back or mend that wound. She was part of the family and for the first time in her life even if again, given her emotoinal distance she wasn’t really close to any of the duck family but Scrooge and her newly inducted Grandaughter, she still clearly cares and looks after them and even her harsh treatment of Della was well meaning and understandable. And that’s why the F.O.W.L. revelation tears her apart to her very core, her very SOUL: Because not only is the enemy she thought dead, or may of known wasn’t dead we don’t know but this episode leans towards the former alive, not only is her worst enemy, one who nearly killed her grandaughter part of them once again, but their head was one of Scrooge’s most trusted advisors and associates, the man he trusted more than himself at times to do what the company needed and the only one who knew his deepest secrets besides Beakly herself. They now faced not only her worst nightmare reborn, but with vital info about them and everyone around them. And for all we Know F.O.W.L. took her family from her in the first place and now they easily could again and she NEVER saw it coming. It’s why she drives everyone including Webby so hard, because she can’t take loosing everyone she cares about again so they will be ready, they will be prepared even if it destroys them on the inside because she cannot take it again.. she can’t fail them AGAIN. I feel she puts a lot of the blame on herself because in this family it’s her job to be the suspicious one, to see things coming, to be ready, to be the one who knows EVERYTHING even more than scrooge.. and this apparently rattled her as much as he did and suprised her just as much. She failed and she can’t again even if Webby hates her for it. But in trying to continue the fight.. she slips, Webby dodges and she falls off the roof.. and everyone helps her up. Even if they all have EVERY REASON to be mad at her they help. And Webby points out this can’t go on. They won’t get stronger tearing themselves apart.. their a family. They don’t need to do it like fowl, they need to be themselves and work TOGETHER. The one thing they have, the one thing they can trust is each other. Beakly is touched like this and realizes their right.. their not the enemy.. and there the one people,, for once in her life she can fully and completely trust. She tries apologizing to webby, they hug..and then gets an alert. What’s all that about? Well to get that that we kinda have to finish the other story.. which I would’ve put first had I realized this was going to be as long as it was but hey.

Escape from the Impossibin

Thankfully this won’t be as long or as emotionally complex.. entirely. So back at this plot about 20 minutes ago, Scrooge breaks down the challenge and the risk as it was made by the most devious and deranged minds he knows: Gyro and Quackfaster with Louie getting a good laugh out of me by pointing out “Why are the most devious minds in Duckberg friends of ours” to which I say because only Scrooge let’s them go all out, and on the friend part, at least for you, Louie...

I mean maybe Quackfaster, but you stole from Gyro multiple times now. And he hated Fenton for far dumber and more petty reasons why wouldn’t you assume he hates you too.. I mean he did help with Louie’s Eleven but there was also a good chance your head would explode there so I don’t really count it.

Anyways Scrooge offers lunch if they make it, which Louie notes means he must REALLY not think they will. And the first test proves his overconfdience correct as we enter the most dangerous, devious and deadly trap Gyro could manage.. which given who we’re dealing with, i’d be very afraid. The ultra violent ultra violet trap seems at first to just be a bunch of purple, if really cool buzzsaws and sawblades, your standard super villian death course.. but Gyro being beyond your average super villian, I mean the only reason he’s not is he has a steady job that lets him build a clone army with company resources so why would he give that up, jazzed it up with an ultraviolet bit of bulbtech.. and due to the violet light it hides the traps ,meaning their invisible. And while Louie and Della try navigating them, they cannot get through as Louie runs out of PEP to spray them with and Della using her metal leg as a guide, which itself is awesome for her as she clearly and wisely made the thing nigh indestructible and we haven’t seen it tear or get destroyed once all series so good going, really should market that to other people in need of prostetics della and Scrooge. Scrooge is of course delighted as that’s the entire point even if his child and grandchild are understandably not as happy about it. But naturally, as I hinted at in the teaser, it goes wrong as Scrooge’s password dosen’t work and he tries it too many times, been there, sucks. Granted Louie asks hilariously “Your the oldest man in the world why isn’t your password just 1234″.. and though the why is obvious, it’s still a good line. Point is their locked out and now have to escape it for real! Weirdly Scrooge dosen’t catch onto the fact of whose behind it, but we’ll get to that. He does have more pressing matters. Luckily Louie figures it out after an insult at the Bulbtech causes it to flash read, like most Bulbs do.. but since this Bulb’s entire purpose is to flash Purple, that means pissing it off makes the blades visable and while Scrooge is understandably sore that his 3 million dollar security system has such a big flaw in it, they escape. Though I get Scrooge’s frustration: Their going up against someone who knows how Gyro’s tech’s works, if Louie can figure it out so can Bradford and he wouldnt send FOWL in without a full briefing on Scrooge.

We don’t see the next one as it’s a time loop room, it’s a time loop room, it’s a time loop room okay i’ll stop and so does Dell after Louie well meaningly smacks his mom. Next puzzle’s quackfaster and I like scrooge pulling a Dumbledore and having some of his most trusted advisors devise the traps for him. I may hate JK Rowling for good reason but I did always love that bit of the Sorcerer’s (Or phillosphers in the uk because the publisher’s weren’t as stupid) Stone. Death of the author and all that. Point is I like it here too even if i’ts truncated for time. But Emily’s trap is a bunch of tiles that fuck with gravity because apparently she’s magical now... who knew. I’m not questioning it though: She runs a giant library full of dangerous, and probably magical in some cases, literature.. if she didn’t know spells she probably woudn’t be able to sort some of them. It’s a new fact out of nowhere but it makes perfect sense.

Point is they have to figure it out though Louie once again succeeds with some books and, in a really cool bit, using scrooge as a platform with the two walking in time and della grabbing on as they hit the master rune to shut them all off. It’s a damn cool sequence even if Scrooge is agrviated. We then come, after they apparently fought a Squid Monster off screen, because Quackfaster can also apparently summon demons.. or gyro made a tentacle monster which dosen’t suprise me at all. Either way it’s the final challenge in the main room leading ot the bin and in the way of deactivating security: A Scrooge Robot! Because as we all know by video game logic, the Robot Version is always stronger. Of course Louie’s annoyed both at the spending of his inhertince and at Scrooge’s egotisim but he has a good point there and the thing looks hilarious clunky with 8-bit eyes.. till it morphs, to scrooge’s delight, into a giant purple robot with a cane and scrooge’s face on the front j jonah jameson style. I never see that spider-slayer refrenced but i’mg lad this one did. Granted it could be to arim zola or something but I feel the Spider-Slayer refrence fits here.. take a look if your curious.

See? Anyways a fight insues with Scrooge, in a great bit, riling up Della when she fishes for him to admit she would’ve’ been a better base by bringing up Donald first instead. The trio get their asses kicked, and a pep can drops out, as naturally Louie was lying but it’s a rare flavor so I get it. I do. Thankfully his lies do save them however as the Cherry PEP he fires at the machine stuns it while Scrooge USES THE POGO CANE MOVE ON IT. Hell.. fucking yes. It’s about time we saw that again and in fully glory here too. I really want that game on the switch by the way.. where’s my disney afternoon collection.. WHERE CAPCOM WHERE. But yeah they won.. and Scrooge is upset. Because this was SUPPOSED to keep FOWL out but if his family can beat it so can they. And now we get to Scrooge’s far less horrifying dark night of the soul as we get a sense of just how much this whole ordeal has rattled him: As he mentioned at the top of hte episode he TRUSTED Bradford. It was clear he never liked him as a person, but Scrooge is a paranoid guy, he hardly trusts anyone and for someone to earn that it had to take a lot.. and it naturally stings. We see that while he may of been a necessary evil, SCrooge still liked the guy on some level and to have someone he trusts and respects betray him naturally shook Scrooge. He trusted someone.. and they knifed him in the back going against all he stands for. Instead of earning money, Bradford stole what Scrooge and others worked for while working to destroy him as soon as he feasably could and take his legacy for himself. To Scrooge, Bradford was revealed to be the worst kind of parasite and one that leeched off him for probably decades. But what’s worse is the risk that creates: Bradford was one of his top guys and the only other one running the company: He knows EVERYTHING about Scrooge, every secret, every investment, where every treasure is stored, and everywhere he’s been. He knows about his friends, family, some of his darkest and most guarded for a reason secrets, secrets he’d never give away freely.. and can now use ALL of it to destroy his family and everyone they care about. That sheer level of betryal would rock anyone but someone like Scrooge, who BARELY trusts anyone and can even be paranoid of his own family from time to time? LIke beakly it’s easy to see why he spiraled and why he put so much into this: Because like Beakly, he was blindsided, and his buisness, his crown jewel, the thing he put his heart and soul into and worked hard to build up and CONTINUES to work hard on to this day.. was being slowly corrupted and he has no idea what parts or where or just what all Bradford did with his money and resources and what nasty suprises he has hidden in them. The one thing he could trust as almost entirely his is tainted, his sense of security tainted.. and his sense of self tainted. If Scrooge freaking mcduck can get blindsighted like this, just how powerful is his former friend?

And we soon see Scrooge’s own fears manifest as Bradford hyjacks the robot, revealing this was, naturally him.. as of COURSE it was the guy who was revealed to be an evil mastermind who hates your guts. And because Scrooge didn’t change his password, which cleverly is the sum total of his money hence why it was a mass of numbers, which.. really dude? I don’t like doing it either and don’t change mine up if I can help it but even I did when someone tried hyjacking my spotify account. Yes that happened, I thought it was just a wifi thing, it was not. So yeah turns out Bradford was STILL one step ahead, and thus knew about the defenses and thus trapped Scrooge in them for reasons that will dramatically be revealed at the end of the episode. He also naturally attacks because just like JJ, he’s a crotchety old man whose yelling at our loveable rascals to in a sense, get off his lawn. Granted unlike JJ he’s clearly never came around, but the parallels are there. Point is it’s time for another fight this time using the gravity runes, with Scrooge hitting his despiar event horizon as if FOWL can outhink him on this what hope does he have. But like the rest of his family sans launchpad did for Beakly, Louie helps him through the other side and points out there are things they have they don’t.. and demonstrates as naturally the bulb tech used for the robot is just as irate so Louie tricks it into going after him then does a bin dive, with the massive amount of money destroying the thing and Bradford unable to get Gandra to stop it, so our heroes win... oh and Bradford left the company.. for some reason, because as his investors Scrooge can’t really remove him and I was curious how they’d get him out.. then again Scrooge probably, even as cheap as he is, had security cameras showing Bradford’s little talk with Bulba or any of his various rants as evidence. I mean Scrooge is stingy but he’s not STUPIDLY stingy. it’s the best I got, point is he’s to the wind now and our heroes have one! Except yeah.. the ending of the last segment.

Lost the Battle, Time to Win the War

In an utterly amazing swerve we find out just what kind of alert Beakly got as the rest of this episodes cast have arrived at the bin and Beakly asks why Scrooge hasn’t answered his phone.. and when Scrooge does Bradford’s plan comes into view: Turns out he locked scrooge in as a DISTRACTION, keeping him in the one place no one could reach him. It also explains why he attacked Scrooge: Besides having the perfect weapon for it and getting to gloat, someone needed to keep him busy while the rest of his operatives finished his master stroke. Turns out EVERYONE involved with one of the missing mysteries called: Goldie called to gripe about the fountain being gone and Scrooge taking it before she could, the Mervanans called to tell him the harp was swindelded by some eggheads and their good vibes did nothing to save her, we also get to see the pink one in full view which is nice but unimportant, and we get Drake back for a cameo!

But sadly it’s because he just met Steelbeak for the first time.. again, and Beaky clearly beat the every loving shit out of him as he’s heavily bruised, and took the papers on Solgelo’s Circuit with him

And Gene called to tell them he was being kidnapped as the Blot, now with a fully functioning gauntlet got to him. So to sum it up F.O.W.L. in one night, took all the missing mysteries they’d gathered or found, beat one of their most trusted allies and made their new security system worthless.

It was an utterly masterful story move: Firmly tying both plots together and confirming FOWL has SOMETHING bigger they want out of them. Some bigger plan, and as the last two weeks proved already knew where they were. Now it’s open war F.O.W.L.’s taken the first shot and hit hard.

But Scrooge, now with his confidence restored thanks to Louie, instead of backing down, is galvanized: They’ve lost the mysteries they have but if F.O.W.L. wants the rest, their going to have to beat the greatest family of adventurers the world, and probably the multiverse if we’re being honest and yes that includes other versions of this family, has ever known to them first. Sneaking in the shadows, attacking them from behind, striking them while they were at their most vunerable? FOWL was in their element and won this round because of it. But now adventuring, traveling the world, finding rare artifacts lost to time? Now their in the ducks wheelhouse. As Beakly, finally accepting her place in the family and that she’s not alone, proudly states their not ready for them. And so we close on one badass group shot as Dewey tries to lift the sword again only for his siblings to help, minus Louie naturally who still looks on determined. Our heroes have been through their dark night of the soul, they’ve lost a lot and the villians are miles ahead.. but they’ve also come out of it together, determined, their doubts behind them for now, and FOWL firmly in their sights. They won the battle.. but the war’s far from over. Game on.

Final Thoughts.

God this was a good one, as you could probably tell from the way I went on and on about it but this was one of the series best.. and while I say that a lot, mostly because Season 3 has consistently been about them topping themselves again and again, this time it’s etched in stone. I thought this would be a good one but forgetable.. instead it’s easily one of the best dives into the cast, and one of the best bottle episodes i’ve seen, limiting the cast to just our heroes, a handful of cameos and our big bad and letting our heroes be their own worst enemies for most of it. IT’s a great character piece, with plenty of great fluid action set pieces, absolutely heartbreaking character stuff, and a hell of an ending that sets the tone for the final half of the season and possibly the series. It also shut my mouth about the pacing, because as I hoped, much like season 2 it was slow on purpose: The first half, while also providing vital setup here and there, was also about telling stories they really COULDN’T once the FOWL plot kicked into gear for act 2. Getting trapped in a sitcom, a casual breakin of a gala where Donald meets the love of his life, a trip to tokyolk.. none of this would’ve really worked with Fowl at their heels. By taking their time they simply had more time to set the stage so when things kicked up with this act, things could stay intense.. minus the christmas episode but that takes place before these episodes so I don’t really count it. Point is the tone is firmly set, the stakes are high and things are at a level they’ve never been. This is one of the show’s finest and I expect i’ts only going to go higher and higher from here. Also one last note Bradford, bud.. why did you out Gandra as an agent? You had to have known about the whole Fenton thing, you seem to know everything and a break in to Gyro’s lab would’ve been something Scrooge had to tell you about or you could learn about yourself. They didn’t know she was still evil or working for you or that she was even on their radar. Also related while Steelbeak and Blot’s missions were obvious it was easy to figure out who went where besides them: Heron went under the sea both because she was the odd one out and because Bradford was presumably still mad about the helicopter thing, while Rockerduck obviously took the fountain since he’d been there and knew where it was now it was properly restored. Next Week: Kidcentric episode and the sabrewing sisters are back! Also while I don’t hate it, Lena’s blueform is simply a super mode.. phew. I mean I don’t dislike it but i’ts not a walk around in public thing. Point is kids teaming up for shenanigans, a mystic sword in the middle of x of swords AND the return of my two faviorite fowl agents. I’m pumped.

Until then if you like this review there’s more reviews on the pages on my blog including a just finished this weekend review of the original Ducktales 4-parter, Catch as Cash Can. It was a trip. You can find that collected into a handy series of links HEREEEEEEEEEE. Or if you prefer this series, as I do, you can find last week’s review of Let’s Get Dangerous HERE. If you like this review and want to here my thoughts on say an episode from the first two seasons (which I mostly haven’t covered yet), or another disney show, you can pm me on this very blog to comission an episode, just like one of my fans commissioned me to review catch as cash can. Or you can follow me on my patreon HERE. Until next week stay safe, vote if your old enough and check your house for Gary Busey!

#ducktales #escape from the impossibin #scrooge mcduck #bentina beakly #webby vanderquack #huey duck #louie duck #della duck #dewey duck #donald duck #bradford buzzard #gandra dee #darkwing duck #drake mallard #ducktales spoilers #reviews #revew

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crazyspookies · 5 years ago

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ZRS7M33-34

Ah yes, RECAPS, IMPRESSIONS, OPINIONS, THEORIES click here to get ur fix ---->

M33

1) SAM YAO: Okay, Five, you’re approaching Pittaway Farm. It was a fungus farm owned by Comansys, the company Moonchild used to run. So yeah, sorry. With this and the Glass Protocol, it’s been like a revisit of your greatest life traumas. But we think Moonchild’s gone now, right? Or just along for the ride.

TRip down memoery lane eh. But Honestly if it were me i would have asked her to call herself a different name and change her voice?? I know we players like moonchild in a way but lets be fair, if brain moonchild says she’s not like the original one anymore then im pretty sure it would be much less damaging to have her in Five’s mind as a new person and not, you know, a constant, inescapable direct connection to their trauma. The literal voice of the source of their trauma.

Like, i’ve always imagined this whole thing with brain moonchild to be the worst thing they could have done to five when it comes to moonchild? And even if your five still hears her for trauma reasons, like they’ve heard sarah before, they at least would have the knowledge that its their own head playing tricks. But in this case? There’s a literal, alive entity inside five’s head. and she still can just, control their body if she really wants to! The threat that their autonomy could be taken away at any moment by the voice of their abuser. Imagine being unable for your very thoughts to be private ever again. I dunno, i think it was a really shitty thing to do.

2) Obviously, I saw that present he sent you, Five. Amazing! Heart’s desire stuff. Did you know he sent Janine Field Marshall Montgomery’s actual desk to say sorry for rogue ANNIE? [laughs] She can’t fit it in her office, so it’s sitting in the greenhouse now.

The idea that valmont sent us presents is so weird and not in a good way. Don’t trust a bitch.

3) MOONCHILD: Five, I never like to interrupt. I’m a very peaceful person, but -

4) MOONCHILD: Those lights are going to erase some of your memory.[...] The bulbs burn out every six days, so someone else has set them up here recently

WELL, GREAT. As i don’t have enough people i suspect with no evidence except extremely vague clues i have never felt so undecided about.

6) an enormous AK-47-style Nerf gun? MOONCHILD: Sorry about that, Five. When we get that memory retrieval device, you’ll understand why you’re holding it.

(can we all just take a moment how dope and funy going around with an ak-47 NERF GUN is because i def would want one)

7) There are 12 levels of that building, Five,

Oh my god. It’s like a videogame. Each level is different, nice pixel art, whole building filled with spores and shit, five with a ak-47 nerf gun dealing with the things they find in the building and the weird things they encounter that are part of it.

8) MOONCHILD: [...] are hallucinogenic if I know my shrooms, and you know I do.

9) "If you knew what you’d seen here, you’d want to remember it.”

WELL YES IM SURE I WOULD HOW CONVENIENT THAT YOU CAN’T TELL ME. Why Can’t she tell us though? Did the thing that just happened mess with our minds in some indescribable way with the effect of messing moonghost up? Or was it the UV lights that had that effect instead? That would be weird, moonghost can rememebr and know things five can’t so i don’t see what could interfere with Her process...does it mena there could be a way to render her mute for good?

10) “But that one is still thick as two short ones. It’s going to walk straight into that spilled liquid”

Nononononononono we shouldn’t be ANYWHERE close to that thing this is a bad idea why do we always do this

SAM YAO: And there it goes, into the puddle! Oh crap, Five. Five, you have to get out of there.

NO SHIT HONEY

SAM YAO: Yes! It’s killing the V-type. Wait, no. No, it’s not. But the V-type definitely doesn’t like it. It’s recoiled like a cat when you spray it with water

WEll at least that’s useful??? Could come in handy later. Also if we keep in mind the thing about the giant fans veronica found out, maybe we could use something like that as a weapon to slow v-types at some point in open field.

M34

1) COLONEL SAGE: Thank you, Sam. It’s good to be back in the field and running alongside you, Runner Five.

He’s...so nice and polite......maybe....im wrong about him.....

2) Jones asked me to pass on his sincere and heartfelt apologies for being taken in by that rogue element in the ANNIE device. He has good in his heart, but he’s suspicious where he should be open and trusting where he should be cautious. I’ve had a chance to talk with him as he works on the cliff excavations, and I think he’s understood where he went wrong. I’m sorry you went through that, Five. I’m pleased to see you.

I mean. The man IS a bit of a wild card...a bit too instense...could have been a trap..or not???? But it COULD. I’m usually so sure about who is a villain but this time i keep goig back and forth not being sure. Like, the whole annie thing felt SO much like being herded towards a death row like sheep to the slaughter by jones it was uncanny....But Sage always sounds so considerate of other people...hnggg. Jones is so intense that maybe he just sounded creepy?? Sage’s way of thinking is useful but something that could so easily be turned into cult blabber. So, either a) Sage is deceptivly nice and actually a cult leader and told Jones to do it, b) Jones was acting by himself twisting what he learned from Sage , c) They are both innocent and something else is to blame (meh).

3) SAM YAO: Still, lots to celebrate today. Veronica’s got some good leads on the V-type problem. The country’s coming together at last, and the Exmoor Militia are welcoming the Undaunted home.

AwWww They deserve it, its been so long and they’ve had such a hard time, it’s nice that they’re finally together :’) Not that there won’t be trouble, of course... Like, there’s only 2 options: cute fluffy mission where you enjoy the party and the problems are minimal like, ohno the champain’s beens stolen! or it will be the kinda missino that goes oh no there’s assassin’s on the roofs!. We’ll see.

4)COLONEL SAGE: Yes, and I -

JULES: Five, good to see you. As for your company, any friend of Abel’s is… allowed within our borders.

safsdafsfsdafsd is it bad that i felt so smug about this lol. The game has been trying to make me love sage and everyone has been singing praises of his numerous kindnesses and i’ve been both charmed and been a bitter peter about him but it just feels terribly funny that jules is completley unaffected by him and is like“move over My Friend FIVE is here and we don’t know you or care much about you” and it’s so terribly delicious i feel like an old rich woman being shown favoritism and being all smug about it

#zombies run #zrs7 #zrs7 spoilers #fennel's zr recaps #i always forget i have these in my drafts #mostly because i forget Drafts EXIST

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codetrainwreck · 5 years ago

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Cs’ World, Geass fragments, and the ending of Re;surrection

Long post is long.

Reviewing Ragnarok

First off, let’s refresh what has happened in the anime with Cs’ World. During R2, CC says that “Cs’ World is also called the Collective Unconscious, some call it God”. This definition has seemingly changed during the movie, but honestly the fact it changed isn’t really important, it just makes this line weird in retrospect.

The Collective Unconscious is made up of all of the people who ever lived, hence why Charles and Marianne keep telling Lelouch and Suzaku, “you can talk to the dead!” etc, and also explains why Charles has a line where he says, “past present and future, there has only ever been one person”. Charles’s plan in R2 was “kill God” by adding humans to God (like... they literally show chains of humans being shoved into Jupiter). For this plan, Charles required at least one Code, but two Codes to make it 100% successful. Lelouch called his plan stagnation and “a closed world”. Lelouch tries to prevent his dad from “killing God” by requesting a tomorrow and allowing time to continue ticking.

The result of asking for a tomorrow

During the movie, in the scene in the truck, CC’s dialogue reveals that when Lelouch asked for a tomorrow, he killed God. To phrase it backwards, Lelouch did the same thing his dad was trying to do, but in a different way. In her convo wKallen, CC also attributes Lelouch’s wish for a tomorrow as to why she can no longer enter Cs’ World. However, when CC finally enters Cs’ World, this assumption turns out to be incorrect and she corrects herself in her own dialogue and identifies the real reason why she couldn’t Cs’ World freely.

When CC enters Cs’ World for the first time during the prison sequence, she remarks on how everyone’s individual consciousness (this is honestly probably not how you’re supposed to use this word, but it’s 1am) is scattered around, but they aren’t moving anywhere or doing anything. So, when Lelouch killed God, he did the opposite of what his dad was trying to do. Charles wanted to kill God by adding humans to it. Lelouch killed God by requesting a future, and this caused the consciousnesses of the dead people in the collective to split apart. Since they were a collective before, this would make them individuals now, hence CC’s dialogue.

In the convo w/Kallen in the truck, CC attributes Lelouch’s wish and him killing God as to why she can’t enter Cs’ World freely anymore. However, when she actually gets to Cs’ World, she finds a spooky purple orb with the shadows of Marianne and Charles, and deduces that it’s actually Charles who was preventing her. In her dialogue, she likens him to a wall; a divide between the “meta” world and the “real” world.

Don’t leave your heart behind

While floating through Cs’ World, CC begs Charles, “don’t leave your heart behind”. Funimation I believe translated it as like, “stop this already”? For the context she says it in, there’s nothing wrong with this translation. I am noting this because this line comes up again later but Funimation translated it completely different when it comes up here.

Spooky clouds

During CC and Lelouch’s time in Cs’ World, there are spooky black-orange-gray clusters of stuff that come out and try to swallow Lelouch and separate him from CC. The pamphlet for the movie describes this sequence as, “Lelouch being surrounded by human consciousnesses in Cs’ World”. Putting 1+2 together, Charles’s influence on Cs’ World must give him the ability to move the consciousness around.

In Lelouch’s words, Charles’s wish was to stagnate time, so I think it makes sense that now that Charles has influence on the consciousnesses scattered in Cs’ World, he would choose to make them freeze in place (remember how CC saw them when she enters and she comments about consciousnesses not moving around? Lelouch’s wish was for a tomorrow, and I sincerely don’t believe people’s souls would be frozen in place in a post-Lelouch’s wish world). And, upon finding Lelouch, the source of all of this bullshit for Charles, Charles’s influence would also cause the souls to try and swallow Lelouch.

It all links back to what CC says - Charles just can’t let Lelouch go.

The shadows in Cs’ World

After CC flies through Cs’ World, she reaches her hand out to Lelouch, but seemingly can’t reach him. Suddenly, a sequence with shadows that take human shape also throw out their hands. Recall that Cs’ World was previously occupied by the Collective Unconscious, and the Collective Unconscious was made up of the souls of everyone who ever lived and died.

The shadows we see here are easily identified as multiple dead characters from Code Geass. The first one is Euphy, the second is Rolo. Others seen are executed members of the Kyoto group, OG BKs Inoue and Yoshida, Urabe and Senba from the 4 Holy Swords, and a last figure that doesn’t seem as recognizable (maybe it’s Clovis....... he waited for you, Lelouch). These figures all reach their hands out, as if they were symbolically reaching towards or helping CC reach Lelouch. The last shadow we see is Charles’s, and he doesn’t throw his hand out of course as he’s still trying to block CC.

As an aside: Was Lelouch accidentally breaking down the Collective Unconscious into individual souls a bad thing? Knowing that this work was made in Japan (a collectivist society), I would honestly say... no, I don’t think so. It actually appears to have been a good thing. Like, honestly, the movie itself enforces the idea that this is positive, both through the way the shadows representing individuals save Lelouch here, as well as another sequence later in the ending.

Shamna’s plot with Cs’ World

Shamna’s plot in the movie is that has kidnapped Nunnally. She says during her dialogue that Lelouch fucked up Cs’ World and that Nunnally has the same wavelengths of Charles.

What does this all mean? Well, recall that in the TV show, Charles needed 2 Codes to successfully do the thing and make the Ragnarok Connection happen. Or rather, there was a chance of success with 1 Code, but it was 100% success with 2 Codes. Shamna has one code (a lot of English viewers seemingly missed this, but Shamna has a Code on her lower belly...), and then she collects Nunnally because “she has the same wavelengths as Charles”.

Seemingly, while this is not literally said in the movie, I think the implication is that Shamna, like Charles, would require 2 Codes to do what she wants to do to Cs’ World, but she doesn’t have a second Code, so she’s trying to use Nunnally as a make-shift Code.

I think the movie also supports the idea of Nunnally as a “make-shift second Code” during the ending.

Shamna’s chat with CC in Cs’ World

When CC speaks with Shamna, CC tells her, “don’t leave your heart behind”. (Funimation translated this as something about regrets, which honestly is better than heart IMO. Regrets is a more contextual word, both in the instance w/Shamna and Charles.) Anyway, as we saw before, Charles warped Cs’ World and caused the souls there to freeze. So this line of CC’s to Shamna reads like CC is telling her not to fuck up Cs’ World like how Charles did.

And, as we see later, we’re led to believe that Shamna took this advice from CC.

The rainbow hands that save Lelouch and Nunnally

While CC talks to Shamna, Lelouch goes off on his own and finds Nunnally. As they stare at the gray ball in the distance, Lelouch calls it the hearts of many (smth like regrets of many in Funi tl).

After finding her, the orange-gray Charles stuff come out of nowhere and attacks him again. I think this just serves as a reminder that, again, these things are here to mess w/Lelouch because of Charles’s influence on Cs’ World. Like... Shamna used Nunnally to get in to Cs’ World and the Charles influence kept Nunnally there as a way to bait in Lelouch. Blah blah.

At this point, Lelouch and Nunnally are being swallowed, Lelouch calls his Geass his own sin (I believe the context for this is that Nunnally wanted to use FLEIJAs to “wipe away Lelouch’s sins”; perhaps her thoughts and guilt also warped Cs’ World?), and rainbow hands form around them. Nunnally has a realization of some kind that causes her to start crying, and Lelouch remarks, “Ah, so they’ve saved me again?”

“Again” as in, recall when the individual shadows reached out for Lelouch alongside CC. They were the shadows of Euphy, Rolo, and many others. Lelouch is saying that those people have all saved him once more. How do we know for sure? I mean, I think “Euphy is here now” gives context to Nunnally’s facial expressions during this part. Also Taniguchi was being coy about this at Sakuracon and said, “no comment about who helped Lelouch but hey Euphy miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight be part of it” as a person with a Euphy tattoo specifically asked about Euphy’s involvement.

So, erm, rainbows beat dad...?

What’s more is that this rainbow sequence seemingly dispels all of Charles from Cs’ World. But... what exactly does it mean now that the power of rainbows exercised Charles from Cs’ World?

CC said before that she can’t get into Cs’ World. She later identified this was because of Charles. If Charles’s bullshit is gone now, does this mean she can freely enter Cs’ World again? And since Lelouch has a Code, does that mean he can freely enter Cs’ World? And, furthermore, if people can freely enter Cs’ World, does that mean that immortality is back? After all, CC attributed her access to Cs’ World as being tied to her immortality in the conversation with Kallen.

I assume these things will be addressed in whatever Code Geass thing is next...? Or not.

How does one do things to Cs’ World anyway?

Why did the rainbows appear anyway? As we see in the movie, Shamna attempted to use Nunnally as a make-shift Code. In this sequence, we have Lelouch (one Code) + Nunnally (make-shift Code), and they seemingly affect Cs’ World once they are united together. Perhaps that’s why? Or is it more related to Lelouch’s dialogue about his sins?

In the anime, they don’t really define why Lelouch’s wish is accepted by Cs’ World either. For example, since he has there with 2 Code users (Charles + CC) and you need 2 Codes to do stuff, perhaps that’s why Cs’ World took the request for a tomorrow. I’ve always been a fan of the idea that Cs’ World willingly took the request because it’s a pile of dead people who probably died w/regrets, w/o being able to accomplish things, etc. But really, Code Geass really doesn’t touch on its metaphysical realm much.

Fragments of Geass

As CC chats with Shamna, Shamna expresses her desire to stay in Cs’ World and see Shalio when he dies. Shalio dies pretty shortly after, and immediately after his death, we see a sequence in Cs’ World (you know it’s Cs’ World from the setting) where Shamna screams after his death then turns into a black-gray orb.

Corresponding with Shamna’s body being blown up in the temple (recall Lelouch set an explosion), her orb in Cs’ World explodes as well, causing things to rain over the sky. When CC and Lelouch talk at the end, CC says she is going to collect the fragments of Geass left behind by Shamna. Based on the appearance, I think the “Geass fragment shower” is supposed to symbolic of tears, and represents Shamna mourning Shalio.

Recall that CC had also told Shamna, “don’t leave your heart behind” aka “don’t fuck up Cs’ World like Charles did”. This is seemingly the result of that - she wanted to stay and await Shalio, Shalio died, and then rather than staying behind in Cs’ World and warping it as Charles did, she heeded CC’s words, turned into an orb and then unleashed a bunch of Geass fragments in the physical world and is about to create a bunch of new Geass users which LL and CC will deal with for the next 10 years.

I... guess...? If there are this many Geass users, it’ll be like a Pokedex of Geass users or JoJo’s but a new Geass user of the week.

Why can she cry tears of Geass? Idk, but one would assume it’s related to Cs’ World. Perhaps it’s related to Lelouch saying that his Geass is his own sin. Perhaps the # of fragments / # of meta-tears is related to the # of people Shamna has sacrificed, or the # of times Shalio has died and she went back 6 hours to save him.

The post-credits scene

In the post-credits scene, LL seems to be offering someone a Geass contract, but with 2 differences from the speech CC gave him. He states that the power of kings MAY isolate you, and that if you aren’t prepared then your Geass will be taken from you.

Seemingly, this scene is set up so that LL and CC are looking down at a pile of corpses in a ditch. There are fans who think that LL and CC killed these people. However, as alch observed, there is actually a girl attempting to climb out of the pit. With this context in mind, LL is offering her a contract, mirroring the sequence where he too was on the verge of death and CC offered him one.

#code geass #lelouch of the resurrection #jupiter brain #tl;dr

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duhragonball · 5 years ago

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: Broly -- Second Coming

The tenth DBZ movie premiered on March 12, 1994 at the Toei Anime Fair, after the airdate of Episode 220, and before 221. So presumably there was some kid in Japan who watched Dabura turn Piccolo and Krillin into stone, and then this movie, and then the episode where the Saiyans enter Babidi’s spaceship.

The original title was “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Rivals” or “Dragon Ball Z: Dangerous Duo! Super Warriors Never Rest.” When Funimation dubbed it in 2005, they simply named it “Broly -- Second Coming”, emphasizing that this is a direct sequel to Movie 8.

For my part, I didn’t wait for 2005 to see this movie. Cartoon Network had finished airing DBZ way back in 2003, and I was getting sick of waiting for Funimation to release the last few movies. I think Movie 8 and Movie 9 were released a year apart, to give you an idea. So I downloaded the fansubs of Movies 10-13 and watched those. I didn’t watch them in order, though, because 12 and 13 were of greater interest to me, and I was curious about 11 because I knew nothing about it. Turns out Movie 11 was the third part of the Broly trilogy, so I kind of goofed on that, but we’ll get into that later. If anyone from Funi! is reading this, rest assured that I legally purchased all four movies once they became available. As a matter of fact, I bought them again on Blu-Ray around 2009, and again in 2019 because your shithead streaming service doesn’t have them, and I can’t take screencaps from the Blu-Ray editions. So I think we’re more than square. Support the official release, kids!

So let’s cut to the chase. This movie is about Broly coming back to get revenge, kind of like how Movie 6 was about Cooler coming back after losing in Movie 5. The difference is that Movie 6 at least tried to explain how Cooler survived certain death in the previous film. Movie 10... doesn’t do this. At all. When we last saw Broly, Goku punched a big hole in his abdomen, and I’m pretty sure he exploded (!!) and then the planet they were fighting on got hit by a comet. Movie 10 just stone cold doesn’t care about any of that. It opens with a Saiyan spacepod drunkenly heading for Earth, and then it crashes on a mountain.

And here’s Broly, still glowing green and muttering about Kakarot. He’s badly hurt, but he looks a whole lot better than he did at the end of Movie 8. So I guess he just didn’t explode after all? How did he heal his wounds? Dd he heal himself, like Cell? Where did he get the pod? We only saw three spaceships on Planet New Vegeta in Movie 8. Paragus had a pod, as well as a larger ship, and Broly destroyed them both. Then there was the Capsule Corp. ship Piccolo used to join the battle, and all the good guys rode home on that.

To be fair, it would make sense for Paragus to have had a few extra spaceships handy, except the whole point of his scheme was to keep Vegeta (the prince) on New Vegeta (the planet) long enough for the comet to hit it and kill him. This is reflected in Paragus’ final scene in that movie, where he tries to make a run for it and leave Broly to die, and Broly catches him in the act. Paragus claims that he wanted them to leave together, but Broly knows that there isn’t enough room for them both in the pod, so Paragus’ betrayal is clear. The tragedy of the movie is that Broly kills Paragus, who he had once saved, and then he dies in the same trap that Paragus had intended for their enemies.

Only Broly didn’t die, because he’s here in Movie 10. There was a spare pod on the planet, and Broly somehow crawled into it and escaped before the comet hit. Then he rode it all the way to Earth, and somehow survived the trip. To be sure the only part of this that really adds up for me is that Broly wound up on Earth. Paragus planned to conquer it after killing Goku and Vegeta, so it makes sense that the coordinates would already be laid in. And Broly would want to go there, because he wants revenge on Goku.

But then the crater around the pod gets filled with water and freezes. How did Broly not drown? How did he not freeze to death?

I mean, I get that they were going for this Captain America thing, except they show the crater filling with water, and then they cut to Broly gasping for breath as the water freezes around him.

And here’s the title screen. Okay “A Pair in Peril” makes a lot more sense than “Dangerous Duo”. I never understood who the duo was supposed to be. Goten and Trunks? They’re hardly dangerous at all in this movie. But they are in danger, so maybe this is a big translation mixup.

The story picks up seven years later, with Goten, Trunks, and Videl gathering the Dragon Balls. Continuity-wise, I assume this movie was intended to be set after the Babidi crisis wrapped up. It couldn’t be set before the 25th Budokai, because Videl and Trunks hadn’t met yet, and they’re awfully chummy here. We never find out how Videl learned about the Dragon Balls. For that matter, how did Trunks and Goten know about them? I think Toei just assumed that they would find out about them eventually, which is fair.

The big thing that disqualifies this movie from canon (other than being a sequel to Movie 8, which also wasn’t canon) is that Videl doesn’t know very much about DBZ stuff yet. She can fly, and she know about ki, but she still doesn’t know about Super Saiyans, etc. But she gets a crash course in all of that over the next fifty episodes of DBZ, and by the time it’s all over this movie just wouldn’t make sense. The post-Buu Videl has seen Gohan and the others transform, she’s been on a Dragon Ball hunt and seen Shenron, and she’s died and come back to life. But no one knew all that would happen when Movie 10 was written, so they made due with what they had.

As far as wishes go, Videl just wants to see Shenron, while Trunks plans to wish for his own amusement park so he won’t have to wait in line for the rides. Goten wants to wish for infinite chocolate, and he hasn’t seen that gif on Tumblr yet.

One sidebar on their quest are these naturally forming crystals that Videl finds in the area near the final Dragon Ball. Trunks and Goten don’t care, and I’m not really sure why it’s supposed to matter. Videl remarks that the people who live in this place could make money off of the things, but their village looks very poor, so something doesn’t add up. And there is something afoot in the village but the crystals never seem to have anything to do with it.

The trio enters the village to check it out and maybe get some food, but they find a ritual human sacrifice taking place instead. This is sort of the same deal as Oolong’s first appearance waaayyyyy back in the Pilaf Saga, where the townsfolk would hand over a bride to Oolong to save their community. Only here, the monster is supposed to eat the girl instead of marrying her.

The sacrifices are organized by this dude, who never gets a name in the story. The subtitles call him “Prayergiver-sama”, and I think the dub called him a “Shaman”. The Dragon Ball wiki identifies him as Maloja, but I have no idea where that name came from. I’ll run with it, though, since I need to call him something.

Basically, the deal here is that things were pretty cool in this village until about seven years ago (hmm...) and then the climate became harsher, which apparently caused the emergence of some monster from the mountains. When the local wildlife became depleted, the beast started attacking the villagers, and Maloja convinced them that the only hope for their survival was to appease “the mountain god” with these human sacrifices.

Videl dismisses the whole thing as superstitious nonsense, which is kind of rich coming from a girl who used ki energy to fly to this place so she could summon a magic dragon. I mean, she’s right, but for all she knows Maloja’s plan is perfectly sound.

The kids offer to defeat the best and save the village from having to do any more child sacrifices. Specifically, Trunks demands Maloja’s ceremonial necklace as payment, which seems kind of random to me. There’s a big orange sphere on the front, so when I first saw this I assumed it was the Dragon Ball they were looking for, but that shows up later. Maybe it was originally intended to be a Dragon Ball in one of the early drafts and they ended up changing it but keeping Maloja’s design. But now you have Trunks asking for the thing for no apparent reason. Does he really like it, or is he just looking to humiliate Maloja by taking his stuff?

So their big plan is to hide in the buffet the villagers left for the beast, and then whenever it shows up to eat, they’ll jump out and kick its ass. Videl seemed to think she could handle this alone, but Goten and Trunks wanted to be there to see her get eaten, or so they say.

But the boys are hungry, and there’s food sitting right outside of this pot they’re in, so Trunks reaches out and swipes an apple. When Goten tries to do the same thing, Videl smacks him in the face, and then he starts throwing a tantrum.

Eventually, Videl gives up and hands Goten a roll or something to shut him up, because she’s worried that Goten’s cries will give away her trap. Trunks tells her that Goten was only pretending to be upset, and she fell for it. I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I’m not big on this movie, but Goten and Trunks are pretty awesome. I love these little shits.

But Goten’s wailing has unintended consequences. Somehow Broly heard him from all the way up in the mountain. Even though he was unconscious. And submerged in a frozen lake. Sigh...

Of course, as we all remember from Movie 8, Broly was traumatized as a baby when he heard Baby Goku crying back on Planet Vegeta, and just being near Goku as an adult was enough to drive him into a murderous rampage. So it does kind of make sense for Goten’s crying to be the one thing that disturbs his hibernation.

Moreover, Goten’s cries also remind Broly of when Goku wrecked his shit in Movie 8, so if anything, Broly’s original trauma was compounded by the events of that movie.

So Broly busts out and goes on another rampage, right? Wrong, first we gotta wrap up this “beast” subplot. Turns out it was just a dinosaur the whole time, and Goten and Trunks kick its ass.

Then they... eat it? Savage. I thought Trunks was only trying to punish the dinosaur and scare it away, but unless the villagers had some other dinosaur already curing in their smokehouse, they must have killed it and brought it back here for the victory feast.

Ok, this place is called Natade Village. Good to know.

And Trunks has Maloja’s necklace. See, I’m pretty sure this guy didn’t have a name in Movie 10 or 11, because Trunks refers to him by the chant he was doing during the sacrificial ritual.

But by the next morning, Maloja’s at it again, begging for the mountain god’s favor, because there’s some other disturbance in the village, and when Videl goes to check it out, she runs into Broly.

And they just star throwing down. Okay, so here’s where the movie really starts to get stupid. I like both of these characters, but it makes zero sense to have them fight like this. Broly spends much of this movie in Super Saiyan 1, as opposed to his jacked up “Legendary” mode. But that’s still strong enough to kill Frieza with one blow. Videl just learned what ki was a month ago, so how on Earth is she able to survive a hit from Broly?

To be fair, Mr. Satan took a hit from Perfect Cell and survived, but I think it was clear that Cell had no interest in killing him, probably because he wanted to terrorize him later. But Broly’s a deranged lunatic. He never showed mercy before, and he’s even more unhinged now. Even if he wanted to spare Videl here, I don’t know if he’d have the self-control to hold back.

Then Goten and Trunks show up, and Broly immediately goes after them, because he notices Goten’s resemblance to Goku.

So you might be wondering, where the hell is Gohan during all of this? Well, the movie doesn’t know either. We just cut to him in some far-off location, and he senses Broly’s ki and heads off to investigate. Did he just not want to join Videl on this Dragon Ball hunt? That seems a bit weird.

As for Goten and Trunks, they seem to do okay on their own, at least starting out. Their attacks have no effect on Broly, but they’re agile enough to stay one step ahead of them, at least while they’re in their Super Saiyan form.

But then Broly starts using stronger attacks, and the boys quickly find themselves outclassed. They land in this abandoned mine, which I guess was for those same crystals Videl found earlier? This is never explained. Did the villagers operate this?

The thing is, Broly clearly has these boys dead to rights, but he never bothers to finish them off. This is the same problem I had with him fighting Videl. If Goten and Trunks are in base form, Broly should be way out of their league while he’s in SSJ1. And yet he keeps tossing them around like ragdolls, and they never die and he never bothers to try harder. Is he just screwing around?

So then he just starts walking menacingly towards them, and the boys notice the seventh Dragon Ball lying nearby, so they devise a hasty plan. Trunks moons Broly to distract him, while Goten grabs the Dragon Balls and wishes for Shenron to defeat Broly for them.

So there’s a few problems with that plan, but besides all of that, Goten loses the ball in a pile of spherical crystals in the mine, so it takes him a while to find it again. During his search, he stops to take a whiz.

Meanwhile, Trunks does surprisingly okay fighting Broly alone. I guess the conceit here is that Goten and Trunks can hold their own against SSJ1 Broly, but they lack the stamina to maintain the form the way Broly does.

Eventually he has to take cover in a cavern behind a waterfall, and I guess Broly can’t sense ki or he would have found him a lot more easily than this. While he waits for Broly to leave, Trunks considers how his father would react to him hiding like this. So where is Vegeta during all of this, anyway? I used to think this movie might have been set after his death against Buu, but that hasn’t even come close to happening yet in the anime, and I’m fairly sure the manga hadn’t gotten there either. Are we supposed to believe that Vegeta just doesn’t know this is going on? He sensed Trunks was in danger in Movie 9, and he showed up in Movies 6 and 7 without an invitation.

Look, if they just didn’t want Vegeta to be in the movie, that’s fine, but they should have at least explained why he isn’t here. It doesn’t make any sense for him to sit this one out, and I have a hard time believing he would have no idea that Broly’s running amok on Earth.

Anyway, Goten finally tries to make the wish, but nothing happens. I don’t know if he just isn’t summoning Shenron correctly or what. Goten decides that he needs to move the balls out of the cave so that Shenron will have more room to manifest, and I guess that makes as much sense as anything.

So that leaves Trunks in the same bind he was in before. Broly starts doing... whatever this is supposed to be. Seriously, was this the most lethal manuever he could come up with? Even if he’s trying to hurt Trunks before killing him, there’s got to be better ways to go about it. Besides, why did he let Goten leave a minute ago? He’s the one Broly really hates right now.

Also, this screencap gives us a good look at the scar tissue on Broly’s chest. This is maybe the silliest thing in the movie. I remember in the Budokai 3 game, there’s a mode with a Red Ribbon Army theme, and Commander Red is there to introduce it, and he has a little bandage on his forehead, covering up the spot where Staff Officer Black shot him. That was a cute little joke, but this is supposed to be somewhat serious. Goku ripped Broly open in Movie 8. The scar tissue runs all the way up to his clavicles for crying out loud, and we’re supposed to believe that it just healed over like a hangnail?

Anyway, Trunks breaks the hold by peeing on Broly, and no, that’s still not as dumb as Broly growing back half of his chest.

Broly finally gets fed up with the boys and tries to finish them off, and then Gohan finally arrives to save them. Gohan’s surprised to see they lasted so long against an enemy as terrible as Broly. No, it’s not that amazing, Gohan, this movie just really sucks.

He tries to fight Broly... in his base form. Why? Why would that be a good idea? Then Videl shows up and kicks Broly in the head. Okay, so here’s why this movie is stupid.

To me, the whole point of bringing Broly back was to show how he’d fare against Gohan as a Super Saiyan 2. Movie 8 couldn’t deliver on this idea because it was made before SSJ2 was introduced. Then Gohan dominated Cell as a Super Saiyan 2, and he did the same thing to Bojack in Movie 9. Broly only lost in Movie 8 because the Z-Fighters donated their power to Goku, which made him strong enough to turn the tide.

But in this movie, it’s seven years later, and Goku’s dead and Future Trunks is gone, so it’s basically up to Gohan, with a lot less backup. But that’s okay, because he’s a lot stronger than he was in Movie 8. Sure, he’s slacked off on his training, but he still knows how to turn into a Super Saiyan 2, so maybe that’s all he needs. And Broly’s been out of action for a while too, so maybe the playing field is more even than it looks. Of course, Gohan would have to win against Broly, or the movie couldn’t have a happy ending, but most of the battle would be this suspenseful thing. Both Broly and Gohan have forms that surpass Vanilla Super Saiyan, but which one is superior? That’s what this movie should have been about.

But instead, Toei tried to do the battle from Movie 8 all over again, only it doesn’t work because most of the guys who were in that fight aren’t here for this movie. Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, and Piccolo have been swapped out for Goten, Trunks, and Videl, and they can’t look credible against a monster villain like Broly. That’s why they spend most of the fight doing comedy spots with him, and that’s why Gohan has to skip the first leg of the battle, so that he can rescue them here. In Movie 8, that was Piccolo’s job, but Gohan has to do double-duty because there is no Piccolo this time around.

The whole fight strains Broly’s credibility. He has to be at Super Saiyan 1 most of the time just to keep it from looking too ridiculous, and even that’s pushing it too far. If Videl can kick this guy in the face, why was he ever a problem in the last movie? You had four Super Saiyans fighting him at the same time and they couldn’t do anything to him. This movie has Videl survive his attacks and Trunks peeing on him. What was the point of bringing Broly back if they were just going to make him look like a joke?

So then, finally Gohan turns Super Saiyan 2, prompting Broly to whip out his Legendary form. I’m pretty sure Toei recyled the animation from Movie 8, since Broly’s clothes aren’t tattered like they are through the rest of this movie. But whatever, we’ve finally gotten to the part that I wanted to see.

And Gohan still can’t win. I wouldn’t have a problem with Broly being stronger, but Gohan can’t even get in some decent offense, which is all I wanted out of this stupid movie. If I wanted to see Broly clobber Gohan, I could have just watched Movie 8 again. I realize that this is kind of Broly’s deal, but thewhole point of doing a sequel set seven years later is to change things up.

Is Gohan using Super Saiyan 1 or 2 in this movie? You never see the lightning arc around him, which is kind of the tell or SSJ2, but the movies seem pretty inconsistent about this. Personally, I think this looks like SSJ2, but it’s open to interpretation, to say the least. My thing is, why would Gohan not use his strongest form in this fight? He knows how dangerous Broly is, and it’s not like he can’t use SSJ2, so why wouldn’t he? And this should have been clarified in the movie. This is where another character should have said “He’s gone beyond the Super Saiyan, just like he did against Cell!” Or if he’s not using that form, then someone should have made that observation instead.

Likewise, no one knows if Broly is stronger or weaker in this movie than he was in Movie 8. If he can dominate a Super Saiyan 2 like this, then maybe he’s gotten stronger. His power was out of control seven years ago, so maybe now that he’s finally recuperated from his injuries, his ki is increasing again like before. Or maybe he just got a zenkai boost from Goku nearly killing him.

On the other hand, he might be weaker. Look how lethargic he was against Goten, Trunks, and Videl. Movie 8 Broly would have slaughtered them without a thought. Maybe Movie 10 Broly is still suffering from the beating he took, and that’s why it took so long for him to ramp up to his Legendary form. And while he is dominating Gohan, it’s still a one-on-one battle. Broly never had this much trouble against a single opponent before.

I’ve lurked on message boards where fans tried to argue both sides of this, and I used to have opinions on the matter, but now I realize that it doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t have to ask these kinds of questions, because it’s the movie’s job to communicate that information. Nobody had to ask how strong Broly was in Movie 8 because they showed us. Here, it’s ambiguous, because no one bothered to go into detail.

I mean, this shouldn’t be so complicated. Each movie villain is supposed to be stronger than the last, mainly because the heroes get stronger as the story progresses. Logically, Broly ought to be stronger in Movie 10 than he was in Movie 8, and the selling point should be that Gohan is stronger too, but will it be enough? And then it is enough, because that’s what the fans want to see.

The closest we approach to this is when Gohan escapes a hold by kicking Broly in the face. I think this is one of the few times Broly actually experiences pain from an attack. From here, Gohan realizes that he can beat Broly by luring him into a river of molten lava, which was brought to the surface by one of Broly’s prior attacks.

So it seems to work, but then Gohan passes out on a patch of land right as it’s about to get swallowed up by lava...

And then Piccolo shows up to rescue him. Well it’s about time.

Only it’s not Piccolo, it’s Krillin disguised as Piccolo. Okay, that’s cute and all, but why isn’t the real Piccolo here? This stupid movie would have me believe that Krillin was sitting at home, sensed Broly’s ki, went upstairs to get out his custom-tailored Piccolo costume, put it on, and flew out here, but Piccolo and Vegeta have no idea what’s going on? This is bullshit.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I’m pleased with Krillin’s cameo here, but it just raises more questions than answers. Broly’s kind of a big deal, and this movie seems to revel in the notion that less than half the cast would notice if he showed up on Earth. Where’s Tien? Yeah, he probably wouldn’t be able to help much, but he’d be one more guy for Broly to knock around. It’d make more sense than having him fight Videl.

Anyway, Broly survived, because he has the same force field he used to survive Planet Vegeta’s destruction as a baby. For that matter, Gohan used a similar force field earlier, so maybe this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to him.

So then Broly catches Gohan in a bearhug. Why are there restholds in a cartoon? Seriously, it’s like Broly suffered a career threatening neck injury after Movie 8, and he had to tone down his style so as not to aggravate it. Only that’s dumb because he’s an anime character who doesn’t exist. Just punch the kid already.

Then Videl wanders over and tries to help by throwing a crystal shard at Broly. Well, I can’t fault Videl for being all heart, but that’s not enough to save this turkey.

Broly swats it away, which gives Gohan an opening to escape. But why? Wouldn’t Broly just let the thing hit him? It’s not like it could hurt him anyway. This guy took a Kamehameha to the face.

So Gohan decides to end this now with a Kamehameha, and Broly decides to do the same with his.... Gigantic Meteor? Omega Blazer? Gleaming Sagitarius? The video games had all sorts of stupid names for Broly’s moves, even though they all look the same. This one is, “Toss some more green shit at things.”

So then we get to a halfway decent part of the movie. Goten runs over to help Gohan, and they do a beam struggle with Broly. Cool.

But it doesn’t look good, and in desperation, Goten prays to Shenron for help.

Then Goku shows up. Is this because Shenron heard Goten’s wish? That’s the general idea here, but the movie refuses to say for certain. What I do know is that Shenron never actually manifests to grant wishes. The Dragon Balls just glow, and then this happens.

Also, Goku doesn’t have his halo, so I have no idea what this means.

Meanwhile, Trunks gets up from wherever he’s been laying, and he fires one last ki blast at Broly, for spite’s sake. This turns out to intercept one of Broly’s attacks, which seems to give the Son family an opening. It’s basically like how Vegeta attacked Cell right before Gohan finished him.

Actually, now that I write all that out, this all seems pretty derivative. We saw a Father-Son Kamehameha in the Cell Games, and a lot of this “Goku returns to help” stuff was covered in Movie 9. Even so, I dig this version a little better, because Goten is here. I still would have preferred it if Gohan had just beaten Broly on his own, without all this overbooked nonsense.

So the triple-Kamehhameha manages to break through Broly’s bullshit armor and it sends him flying into the sun, just like how Cooler lost in Movie 5, only all this green crap spews out of Broly as he dies.

Then he explodes, and the blast comes out of the other side of the sun, so maybe that’s enough to finish him this time?

Then the sun turns green for a second, like it has to burn off the last vestiges of Broly’s Gary Stu ki.

After the fight, there’s no sign of Goku, although the Dragon Balls have scattered, indicating that a wish was granted. Then Videl starts questioning how Gohan beat Broly, and she chases after him, demanding a full explanation.

As the movie closes, the narrator asks how Goku appeared during the battle, but claims that no one can ever know for sure. That’s horseshit, frankly. We know how the Dragon Balls work, and we know they couldn’t bring Goku back to life, so none of what happened makes any sense. Goten didn’t even say the wish out loud. He just thought it and Shenron heard that? It’s dumb. You had the whole movie to explain these things, and you blew it on piss gags.

Oh, and Krillin’s still embedded in the rock where Broly hit him.

So yeah, this movie isn’t very good. Team Four Star ranked it near the bottom of the list of movies and specials, and they often talk about how everyone says Movie 11 is the worst, but they actually dislike this one more because it’s more boring. Personally, I think 11 is worse than 10, but I’d hate to live on the difference.

I’m pretty sure Movie 10 is the main reason people dislike Broly. That’s not to say that Movie 8 would be universally loved if Movie 10 weren’t around. But I think Movie 10 cemented a lot of the worst aspects of Broly’s character. He comes back, surviving what should be certain death, then he survives several other predicaments, and he just says “Kakarot” over and over again for the entire movie. The only other line he speaks is when Gohan gets ready to Kamehameha him, and he’s about to fire back. Otherwise it’s all grunts and “Kakarot!”

In Movie 8, the guy at least had a personality, even if it was twisted and cruel. In this movie, it’s like they were trying to imply that he suffered some sort of brain damage. It’s just so dull watching him fight. He moves like he’s in slow motion sometimes, and he never seems interested in actually defeating his enemies.

And this is a complete inversion of how they brought back Cooler in Movie 6. Remember Cooler? He came back as a cyborg with unlimited spare bodies, just so he’d be strong enough to cope with fighting Goku and Vegeta at the same time. Movie 6 is far from perfect, but at least it understood the need to raise the stakes. Movie 10 brought back Broly and took a bold step backwards.

But at least Broly was actually in this movie, and I think that at least puts it ahead of Movie 11. I’m not sure that should be the only criteria for rating Broly movies, but I think it should be a major one.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #dbmovieliveblog #broly second coming #broly #goku #gohan #goten #trunks #videl #krillin #piccolo #well not really #maloja

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curestardust · 5 years ago

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if you want: (bad) sci-fi comedy with drama / lots of boring characters but cute waifus / weird and overcomplicated plot

Watching the anime from the top of the Seasonal pile is always a gamble. Somehow an anime about horse girls (x) that I assumed to be fanservice-galore ended up being one of my favourites and then a sci-fi mystery which I was quite looking forward to ended up being a fucking trainwreck.

“Kanata no Astra” is, to put it plainly, a plot twist factory. We have like 3 episodes of the characters just doing stuff then every fucking episode ends on a cliffhanger and ups and ups and ups the story to where it goes from shocking to “you can NOT be serious”.

But lets roll it back a bit, to the very first episode. After an overdrawn sequence introducing us to Aries and Kanata, we finally meet the rest of the characters. The year is 2063, and apparently they have camps now where they just drop off a bunch of students on another planet to survive for a week and this is normal. Cool. Immediately, you know the personality of each main character as they’re as cookie-cutter as it gets and we’ve seen it a 1000 times. The clumsy one, the one with the hero complex, the cool and smart one, the tsundere, the brooding one, the shy one, the charming one and the always cheery one. There’s also a 10-year-old with them, who’s cute. Of course, all of them also have their random skills that will make them useful for the trip. Which of course goes as well as you would expect. Like 2 minutes after landing on McPa, their camping planet, a random ass sphere appears and sucks each of the characters in, who find themselves in deep space. Somehow, all of them managed to put their helmets back on so now their main problem is that they’re floating in the middle of nowhere! But do not worry, dear viewer, as a old ship is for some reason floating very close to them and after a bit of dramatic struggling they all manage to board it. Then comes the shocking reveal! They somehow ended up 5,000 lightyears away from their home planet! There isn’t enough food or water for a full trip. Oh no! But do not worry, dear viewer, as somehow there are 5 habitable planets just on their way back home where they can restock (and at this point the possibility of food and water shortage is immediately forgotten). What a coincidence! And this is where we start our story, a group of teens, lost in space, against the elements, having to visit dangerous planets and the mystery as to how this all happened. Sounds interesting enough, right? Well, prepare for all that potential to be squandered.

This is where the spoilers start as I need to talk about all the nonesense I’ve been subjected to.

First of the planets they visit all blend together. There is only one thing that’s a threat and it’s always the fucking plants. There is one time an animal is a threat to one of them but that’s solved in a few minutes. It doesn’t matter anyway, as it’s quite obvious that none of them are going to die. This anime tries to blend lighthearted humour with drama and it really doesn’t work. The humour always comes out of nowhere at the worst moments possible, always undercutting the seriousness of any situation. The characters also get their backstories revealed, usually in boring flashbacks, and I could basically see the “Plot Armour Unlocked” achievement pop up in my peripheral vision whenever that happened. Then these characters get thrown into the background and are relegated to random remarks so we don’t forget that they still exist as we move forward with the story. These backstory reveals are supposed to make us really feel for these characters which would be carrying the emotional weight of the upcoming dramatic moments but it doesn’t change the fact that all of them have 1 personality trait. The anime was basically asking me to care for characters with the personality of a pebble. I didn’t. And that’s bad because everyone is always CRYING! Speech? Crying. Reconcaliation? Crying. Dramatic backstory? Crying. Danger? Crying. Anything? Crying! I was rolling my eyes so often I almost gave myself a migraine.

Then the main story. First, the “smart one” (Zack) and the” hero complex turned captain” (Kanata) find out that there’s a traitor among them who was the cause behind the sphere. Then they do the logical thing and keep it to themselves and observe everyone with a close e- OF COURSE THEY DON’T DO THAT. They immediately tell everyone on the ship about it! There’s an uproar that lasts about 30 seconds then they all settle on the fact that they’re all companions and friends now UWU and they shouldn’t worry about it. Anyway, anyone with half a brain could narrow the potential suspect down to 3 characters. Luca, the DIY master and cheery one, Ulgar, the always brooding and mysterious one and Charce, the charming chef who doesn’t seem to have anything bad about him. Well, Luca and Ulgar have a show off on like the second or third planet where their backstories get unlocked and they can be crossed out from the list. Meaning, that you knew who the traitor was halfway through, making their reveal pretty lackluster.

But this all would’ve been fine, has it not been for the plot surrounding their “attempted murder”. Through everyone’s stories one thing becomes clear: they all had shitty parents (except for Aries). If I had known what the actual reason ends up being I’d have been screaming “NO this is good, this is an interesting concept!!!”. As we get a few scenes with the parents back home, this could’ve been so interesting. Maybe, they sent their kids they didn’t love to die and then someone regrets it and threatens to report it and then they have to stop them! THAT would’ve been great. The actual reason though, not only is ridiculous but comes from complete speculation. The 10-year-old with them, Funi is another member’s adopted little sister, the tsundere Quitterie’s. The 2 look literally the same. Same skin colour, hair colour, eye colour but somehow this didn’t peak Quitterie’s curiosity in the slightest as when Zack does a DNA test she is like “omg what if we’re actually related wow”. Except, Zack finds something else: the 2′s DNA are a complete match. So he reveals to them that they’re “the same person”. Interesting. Then he jumps about 1km forward and arrives to the conclusion that they are, in fact, ALL clones of their parents and as a law was passed tha made cloning illegal, it was the reason for wanting to kill them in deep space. Wha...

Ok...ok. Now we’re going into a weird territory but I can deal with this. Not a bad concept. Aight.

Except it doesn’t stop here. On their last planet, they find an astronaut who’s been in stasis after her ship broke down. When the team finds her and unfreezes her she is like “OMG I can finally go back to Earth!!!” and they’re like “...what’s Earth?”. Now this storyline was what completely broke me. They apparently live on a planet that looks very much like Earth, called Astra. Which is fun cause they named their ship Astra...and they acted like they didn’t know what it was? There was a plaque with the quote “Per aspera, ad Astra” in the ship (which I’m quite familiar with as it’s one of my favourite quotes). Then Kanata is like “Astra....I like that.” ISN’T THAT YOUR PLANET’S NAME??? Imagine naming your ship “Earth”, like????????

Khm, anyway, Polina, the astronaut, explains to them that an asteroid was supposed to crash into Earth and this is why they were looking for another planet to migrate to. Jump a little forward and we get the info that the sphere is actually a warp gate humanity used to move over to Astra, however there was war and crime and shit over land and they deactivated them. Then humanity was so ashamed that they “rolled back history” 100 years and erased that part from human history......and this somehow worked.....oh and they also abolished all countries and unified the whole planet and made everyone speak the same language. Oh, and they also banned guns...

Anyway, all this is kept secret by the only place they allowed to keep the Monarchy system which is where Charce is from and is how he knows all this. Then he goes and completely KO’s me with his final revelation that Aries is the clone of the daughter of the king??? And was being raised by one of her handmaidens??

Let me also finish this complain-fest off with the stupidest moment in the whole anime. Charce, after realising that he does actually want to be with his friends, activates the warp gate to commit suicide. Kanata jumps to him and he....he.....puts his arm out toward the warp gate and shouts “Stay back!” at it. Then when that OBVIOUSLY doesn’t work and his forearm gets sucked in Charce panicks and deactivates the gate, ripping Kanata’s right forearm off. This is all pretty hilarious in itself but then Kanata dramatically says to Charce “You promised to be my right hand man” as we get a shot of his bloody amputated right arm. [Key Smash]. I laughed for almost 5 minutes at that.

If you skipped all that here’s a short summary: can’t balance the drama and the humour, the humour is pretty bad, the characters all have 1 personality trait, the emotional moments don’t carry any weight, incredibly stupid and overcomplicated story with a lot of plot holes, predictable outcomes.

But for some reason people do like this anime. I’m guessing half of them are there for the cute waifus and the other half hasn’t seen actually good sci-fi comedy with drama (cough Cowboy Bebop cough) but whatever. Watch it, don’t watch it, this was more of me complaining than an actual review.

[3/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

#dusty reviews #Astra Lost in Space #Kanata no Astra #long post #sorry yall #but i had to get this all out of my system

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murasaki-murasame · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Ep3: “Let’s Play Rich Man-Poor Man!”

There’s a whole lot going on in this episode, and there’s a lot I wanna say about all the neat things it did to tie different scenes from two separate chapters together to make a surprisingly cohesive whole.

I’m also getting more and more unsure of what the pacing and structure of the reboot is gonna be like in the long run, but that’s a whole other post I wanna make. I’ll just talk about this episode in this post for now.

Also, I’m probably gonna put a disclaimer in all of these posts from now on to warn people that I’m not gonna hold back from referencing stuff from the manga that hasn’t been adapted yet, if I ever feel like it.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

This episode, and the last day or two leading up to it, sure was one big rollercoaster of me being continuously surprised and confused about how they were gonna handle this episode, in terms of what chapters they’d adapt. Initially I figured it’d just adapt chapters 4 and 5, then I thought that maybe it’d work better to adapt chapters 4 and 8 together, then once I started seeing the preview images for ep3 and the Kagura-centric gifs that I found from Funi I thought maybe it’d adapt chapters 4, 5, and 8, and in actuality it turned out that this episode really did just adapt chapters 4 and 8, and that apparently those gifs I saw are all gonna be in episode 4 next week, lmao.

It’s worth noting that they technically didn’t include the final bit from chapter 8 where Momiji talks to Hatori about having met Tohru, but that might just be in the next episode, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if they just cut it out entirely, since at this point it isn’t really necessary. They showed Momiji meeting Tohru, figuring out who she is, and seeing the flyer for the school festival, so there doesn’t really need to be anything else with him between now and the part where he and Hatori show up at the festival later.

And along with that they also didn’t include the part where the girls at school show off the dress that they want Yuki to wear, but that’ll probably just be in the next episode. It’s the sorta thing that I kinda hope they just cut out, but I doubt it.

Since this ended with the part at the end of chapter 4 where Kagura first shows up, that’ll probably be the first half of the next episode, but I don’t think they’re gonna pad it out into an entire episode like the 2001 anime did, so I think they’ll then move into adapting chapter 9 to have the festival start, and then we’ll probably go into the Hatori backstory stuff afterward.

At this point it seems very likely that they’re going to push the events of chapter 6 back a fair bit, which I think is a good choice. It’d work better if they spend more time building up the central group dynamic before getting to that point, so it has more impact. I’m not entirely sure when I think they’re planning on having it actually happen in the reboot, though.

Anyway, as for this episode itself, it was surprisingly great. I was initially worried because I thought they’d be trying to fit the whole Kagura chapter into the events of this episode, but I’m glad they didn’t. Spending the episode just on a combination of chapters 4 and 8 worked REALLY well. I honestly think it flows even better than it did in the manga. The events of these chapters tie together very nicely, since they focus on the two sides of how Yuki and Kyo both resent and envy each other, and like I kinda said just before, I think it works well to have these character development moments happen early on so that stuff like the events of chapter 6 have more weight behind them.

I think it’ll initially throw some people off, but I actually like how they went back and forth between material from the two chapters, and actually started it off with stuff entirely from chapter 8. Framing the entire episode around the festival preparation was a really good choice which helped tie things together nicely. Since a lot of the scenes take place in basically the same locations, they can be tied together surprisingly easily. I also liked how they combined the two different scenes of Yuki picking Tohru up from work into one big scene, so that we went from her meeting Momiji to Yuki talking about his insecurities and stuff, which were two completely different scenes in the manga. At the very least it’s really interesting to see that they’re willing to shuffle scenes about and even combine them when they think it’s necessary. Thankfully it isn’t making the pacing feel rushed or anything, thus far.

And on the note of Momiji, I feel like there’s gonna be so many people who just watched the original anime who are now incredibly confused about why he’s suddenly German, lmao. It’s one of the many details that the 2001 anime decided to completely ignore. And the more I think about it, the more that this specific choice they made in that one baffles me. I get why the 2001 anime cut out stuff that was just there to set up way later plot points, but Momiji being German is just a character trait of his, so I think they just didn’t want to bother finding a voice actress that could even just speak broken German, which seems kinda lazy to me. I also noticed recently while watching someone react to the 2001 anime that it unintentionally set up this awkward situation where they make a big deal out of Kisa’s unnatural blonde hair, but there’s nothing that contextualizes Momiji having blond hair as well, and why nobody seems to mind it with him. Whereas in the manga you can tell that the difference is just that his hair’s naturally blond since he’s German and everyone’s fine with that, but Kisa’s hair is more obviously unnatural and strange.

Anyway, that aside, another thing I liked about that whole scene was how well it got across the sense of space within the building Tohru works at. We never really see too much of it’s interior in the manga, and I remember being a little confused about parts of it’s layout, especially in this scene with Momiji, but it worked really nicely here.

In general the background layouts and scenery and whatnot are still really great. It gives a lot of the scenes a distinctly different feel from the manga, which is often more abstract and floaty, so to say, but I really like it. In particular, the scene with Yuki rejecting that one girl in the library had some really nice camera angles, and the whole sequence of him and Tohru walking through the city and on the bridge was just really pretty [and the part where Yuki talked about being caged by his family while being framed behind the bridge railings was a neat detail].

I also really liked the overall flow of this episode, especially in how it moved back and forth between focusing on Tohru’s different scenes with Kyo and Yuki. It’s the sort of thing that I was worried might feel jarring and choppy, but it all flowed really nicely.

I said before that I’m glad they put the plum scene this early on, and I do indeed think that it works really nicely to have it happen this early on, since it’s such an early major step in Tohru and Kyo’s relationship. It also establishes some central themes the story’s working with, and in general it’s really neat to have it happen right after her whole speech to Yuki about the nature of kindness.

Also, before I forget, I just wanna say that I love how they drew the cats that got drawn to Kyo in this episode. They’re so adorable, I love them.

Which also reminds me that, even though this episode meshed some of the more subdued and emotional parts, there were still a whole lot of really nice comedy moments. In general the reboot is actually a lot more comedic than I thought it might be. They’re keeping like 99% of the jokes from the manga. A lot of people have already complained about not thinking that it’s funny enough, but I think that’s only true if you just compare it to the 2001 anime, which made up a lot of jokes, and often took the jokes that existed in the manga and did them way too many times. So in comparison to that, this might not seem as comedic, but still. I appreciate that they’re not leaning entirely into the drama and emotions, at least not at this point.

One thing I also wanna mention, that’s more about the series as a whole but also kinda about this episode, is that I’ve always liked how this series starts out with a relatively small, tightly-knit cast, and then slowly introduces side characters one after another as time goes on. It just gives the pacing more of a relaxing flow, instead of it being the sort of series that tries to introduce like twenty main characters in one episode and gives half of them like one line of dialogue each, lol. And I think this episode went a bit further with that, by bringing up the events of chapter 8 so that we got a whole episode focused almost entirely on developing the whole main trio, while sowing the seeds for some future characters to come into the story later.

And that’s about it for this episode. Like I said, I have a feeling that the next episode will adapt chapters 5 and 9, but we’ll see. I might end up making a separate post about my more extensive thoughts on how I think the pacing/structure of the entire reboot might go, including the next stretch of episodes, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Either way, I was a bit worried at first that this episode might mark the beginning of them rushing through the manga more than I’d like, but in fact it ended up feeling even more nicely paced and cohesive than the manga did, so that’s cool. The fact that they’re still sticking to an average of two chapters per episode does make me apprehensive about if this pacing quality will keep up in the long run, but for now I think they’re making some really smart decisions that are at the very least alleviating the rather episodic feeling that the manga had early on.

#murasaki rambles #fruits basket

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xxx-cat-xxx · 6 years ago

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Blue skies fade to grey

Anonymous asked:

If you're still taking prompts how about Peter sick at decathlon practice with Ned and MJ. Your fics are always a delight!

Thank you for that prompt! I added some Irondaddying at the end because I´m not yet at the stage where I would write a Peter fic without Tony showing up, but I hope you like it anyways! Emeto and fever ahead.

“Because Columbus didn´t discover America,” MJ says pointedly.

“Of course he did! That´s like, primary school stuff,” Ned replies, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

“You can´t just discover a place in which millions of people are already living,” MJ points out, “Just because most of them were slaughtered by the settlers doesn´t mean they didn´t exist. That´s white arrogance at its peak.”

Peter sighs. The two of them have been arguing about that question since Mr. Harrington had sent them into a break from their weekly Decathlon practice.

“God, MJ...it´s just a silly question.” But even Ned doesn´t know how to counter her anymore. He turns to Peter.

“Dude, say something. You´re awefully quiet today.”

Peter really doesn´t feel up to human interaction. He´d woken up with a sour throat and a heaviness in his limbs that have by now turned into what he is pretty sure is a fever well into the triple digits.

The only reason he didn´t leave school early was that going to the nurse and having her call aunt May had seemed more strenuous than simply dozing in his chair at the back of the classroom, which is what he has been doing during the larger part of the day.

Now, however, he regrets his decision. He feels dead tired, his head is throbbing in rhythm with his heartbeat, and on top of all his stomach is starting to feel funy. He swallows, which hurts.

“She´s right, Ned.” he says tiredly.

“That´s all you´re gonna contribute?”

“He's sick, dude.” MJ interrupts.

“Huh?” Ned seems honestly surprised.

“Come on, it's really obvious, isn't it? He must've caught that bug that knocked out half the school last week.“

Peter just glares at her. The way MJ often simply knows things noone else does reminds him of Black Widow, which reminds him of Iron Man, which reminds him of the fact that their last mission together had been more than two weeks ago...

As if on clue, his phone beeps with a text from Tony. Peter squints at the screen, the bright light searing his eyes. Lab afternoon today. I´m in the area, will pick you up from school.

If he wasn´t feeling so miserable, he would laugh at Tony´s unquestioned assumption that Peter doesn´t have anything better to do in the middle of a school week. But then again, both him and Tony know very well that Peter would shift absolutely everything for a few hours of tinkering in the lab.

"You want a biscuit?” Ned offers, pushing a juicy chocolate cookie into his direction.

Peter just shakes his head. His stomach clenches at the mention of food. He takes a tentative sip of water, but realizes that it was the wrong decision when the droplets clunk together to form a heavy stone in the pit of his stomach. He could swear he can feel it moving around.

“Wow, you are turning green.” Ned observes with far too much enthusiasm.

Why does this always have to happen when he's sick? Since he was a kid, Peter could never just have a cold like normal people, but would instead get feverish and nauseous every time he caught something.

He swallows again, but it´s more like a gulp this time.

“You´re gonna barf?” MJ glances at him with something like scientific interest, while Ned looks outright disgusted now. Great friends he has.

There´s an ugly taste in his mouth which alone is enough to make him sick. Peter can feel saliva pooling under his tongue. Without answering he bolts upright and makes a break for the toilet, but he is hardly out on the corridor when his mouth fills with vomit. He presses a sleeved hand across his face when the first gag forces bile through his lips.

Peter pushes the door of the common bathroom open with his shoulder and barely makes it over the toilet before a gush of liquidy vomit explodes from his mouth. He has no time to breath before the next heave comes up. It contains large chunks of something he ate last night, and the sight of it is enough to make him retch again.

He hangs his head over the bowl and gasps for air when his stomach contracts once more, pushing hot and bitter bile up his throat. He coughs and spits a few times until he's sure he's empty, but even then he can't bring himself to move.

The ongoing pain in his stomach adds to the pounding of his feverish head. Peter feels dirty. His jacket sleeve is soiled and reeking of sick, and he´s got stains of vomit on his T-shirt as well.

When Peter decides that he will simply stay on the bathroom floor until the next morning unless someone beams him home directly, he suddenly hears a commotion from outside. He can make out Tony's voice.

Peter knows he needs to get to him before Ned or MJ say anything embarrassing. Like telling about the videos he shows to Ned, for example, or recounting the slightly exaggerated stories of fighting side by side with Iron Man.

Peter is already out of the door before the vertigo catches up with him and his vision turns black for a couple of seconds.

“Whoa, kid!” Tony catches him at his shoulder when he sways heavily.

“You know you could've just texted that you're sick, right?“

“I´m - I´m sorry, Mr. Stark,” Peter says sheepishly. He suddenly feels very stupid.

“Your friends were helpful enough to tell me what´s going on. After asking for an autograph, that is.”

Peter feels his cheeks turn red. That is precisely what he´d wanted to avoid. There´s an awkward silence for a moment which is interrupted by MJ elbowing Ned in the ribs.

“You can close your mouth now,” she comments.

Ned, who had been staring at Tony with the same mixture of fascination and disbelief that Peter is sure he displayed that first day the older man showed up at his appartment, blushes deeper than Peter would have ever thought possible.

“OhmygodItalkedtoironman,” he squeaks, a little belatedly.

Peter knows he should probably say something to make the situation less awkward, but he doesn´t really have the strength to come up with ideas right now. The cold wall in his back is sending shivers up and down his spine, and his legs are growing a little weak beneath him.

“I think I´m just gonna sit down,” he murmurs, while letting himself slide onto the all-but-clean school floor.

“I sure as hell think you´re gonna go home now.” Tony states, a hint of irritation in his voice. “I don´t even know why you´re at school in the first place with a fever like that.”

Only the thought of the long bus ride is enough to make Peter tired. He doesn´t even want to get up, let alone walk the near infinity till the station.

“In a little bit,” he says, avoiding Tony´s eyes.

“You could just ask me, you know?” the older man sighs. “God, kiddo, you´re a handfull.”

He pulls Peter up and motions at Ned, who´s still standing frozen on the same spot.

“Hey, fanboy, make yourself useful and get his backpack. I´m dropping him home. And no, you can´t ride with me. Interns only,” he adds before Ned has even opened his mouth. Despite feeling ill, this makes Peter chuckle a bit.

“Thanks, dude,” he mumbles when Ned hands him the rucksack. “See you tomorrow.”

“Take a day off, Peter.” MJ says, and although her tone is cool, Peter is almost sure he sees a bit of concern flashing in her eyes.

He tries not to lean too much on Tony while they walk the short distance to the parking lot. There's a heavy bruise on the older man´s jaw that hadn´t been there the last time they met, and Peter longs to ask about it, but he's not sure whether he would be able to follow a lenghty story right now.

“You´re off from the internship until you are cleared from any danger of contaminating my lab.” Tony says in a serious tone, but with a wink of his eye.

“Of course, Mr. Stark.” Peter answers. He hesitates, then: “Thank you, for, like, dropping me.”

“No worries. But next time you´re sick, just stay at home.” Tony replies. “It´s not worth the trouble if you pass out in a public place. Trust me, I´m speaking from experience.”

He opens the door of his car and ushers Peter inside. Maybe he´s imagining it, but Peter thinks that Tony´s hand stays on his shoulder a little bit longer than necessary.

“And just to make it clear, if you puke in my car, I´m never letting you ride with me again.”

#sickfic #fanfic #peter parker #tony stark #mj #ned #vomiting #emeto #flu #fever #emetophilia #prompt fill #hurt/comfort #h/c #song: bad day #irondad #spiderson

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midnightluck · 7 years ago

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all those ... i have an another idea! ace and haruta are trying to bake a cake and the kitchen explode by this action! :D some funy stuff? :D

“Okay, Thatch does this all the time; it can’t possibly be that hard,” Haruta says, opening the book. “Hm, vanilla, lemon, pound, chocolate—chocolate!”

“Chocolate,” Ace agrees. “Can’t go wrong with chocolate.”

“Right, I’ll get the bowl, you get, let’s see, flour, sugar, and baking…uh, soda.”Ace hums and moseys over to the pantry and Haruta starts going through the list. “Oh, get the vanilla while you’re in there!”

“But it’s a chocolate cake!” Ace calls back. “Why are we putting vanilla in a chocolate cake?”

“That’s a good point. Yeah, don’t mind that then. Oh, is there chocolate powder in there?”

“There’s powdered chocolate and also cocoa. Which one?”

“What’s the difference?”

“I dunno, hang on. Huh, this one’s sweet and this one’s blech.”

“The sweet one, then? It’s a cake after all.”

“Gotcha. What else?”

“That’s all from the pantry, I think,” Haruta says. “We also need eggs and milk.”

Ace makes his way back, arms full of bags and containers. “Cool,” he says, dumping everything on the counter. “How much of what goes where?”

“A cup of flour and a cup and a half of sugar in that bowl,” Haruta says from the refrigerator, gesturing blindly with the hand holding the milk jug.

Ace leans up to the cabinet and gets down a cup. “One of flour and one and a half of sugar,” he repeats, and starts pouring the flour into the beer mug. When it’s full, he dumps it into the bowl and has to take a break to cough away the cloud that’s risen.

Haruta comes back over with the milk and two eggs. “These go in too; scoot over.”

“But I’m not done with the sugar!”

“Order doesn’t matter; it’s all getting mixed together anyway.”

“All right,” Ace says and takes a step to the side, using the other counter to pour the sugar into the mug and dumping that on top on the milk Haruta’s added. “Oh, and how much baking soda?”

Haruta breaks the eggs in, and Ace dumps another probably half mug of sugar on top. “I think it said a spoon,” Haruta says, so Ace digs up a spoon and scoops out some baking soda to put on top. “Oh, and apparently we need salt.”

“Salt in a cake?” Ace says, making a face. “No thanks. We’re skipping that too. What kind of recipe is this?”

“One for chocolate cake,” Haruta says back. “So add the chocolate.”

“Right, how much?”

“Let’s see, the recipe says two thirds of a cup.”

“Sure,” Ace says, topping the mug up to full because more chocolate means more delicious. He adds that in too, and this time doesn’t get caught in the powder cloud.

“Okay, now you stir this up and I’m gonna get the pan, which we’re supposed to flour.”

“What does that mean?” Ace asks, looking up and moving the spoon around the bowl. Yet more powder explodes upwards into his face, and he accidentally inhales it again. “Blech! Ugh! Who knew baking was so dangerous?”

“You’re probably doing it wrong,” Haruta says, dumping a handful of flour into the square pan.

“How do you stir things wrong?” Ace asks, looking up from the congealing lump of black coming together in the bowl.

Haruta places the pan down next to him and says, “Okay, now put that in here.”

Ace obligingly tilts up the bowl and scrapes the lumpy dough out into the pan. “Is it supposed to be that thick and gritty?”

“The oven will melt it together,” Haruta assures him. “We just gotta bake this at…what temperature does the book say?”

“Uh…350 degrees. And we’re supposed to preheat the oven first.”

“Preheat? Like, make hot?”

“I guess?”

Haruta stars at him over the pan, and Ace blinks back until Haruta sighs and says, “Well, go on, Mr. Fire Logia. Preheat the oven.”

“Oh, right,” Ace says, and opens the oven door. “Huh, this thing is huge!” He leans his head in and looks around. “I don’t see a place to hold the heat or whatever.”

“Heat the entire thing, then,” Haruta says impatiently. “Look, this is getting heavy, okay? Hurry up.”

“Okay, okay,” Ace says, sticking his hand in and lighting it up. “Oven is heated; there you go.”

“Great, now move.” Haruta slides the pan in and closes the door, then turns the knob on the front to HIGH.

Ace squints at it. “Is that 350?”

“Higher temp means it’s done quicker, right?”

“Right,” Ace agrees, and starts gathering the bags to take back to the pantry. “So that’s baking, huh? That’s not so hard.”

“I dunno what Thatch is always complaining about, if that’s all it takes to make a cake,” Haruta agrees, putting the bowl in the sink. “And in twenty minutes, it’ll be done!”

“All right,” Ace says, and starts patting himself down. “Now how do I get this powder off me?”

“It’s powder,” Haruta says, closing the book. “Burn it off or something.”

Ace nods but before he can, the door to the kitchen slams open to reveal a panting Thatch. “You!” he says, pointing from one to the other. “What are you doing in here?”

“Noooothing,” Haruta says, leaning back and putting on an innocent expression.“Really? Cause it doesn’t look like nothing,” Thatch says. “What with the dirty dishes and the fact that Ace is covered in flour.”

“Oh, right,” Ace says, and lights up his finger.

“No!” Thatch yells and lunges for him. “Oh no, do not, don’t you dare put flour near an open flame! Do not use your fire in this kitchen!”

“What? Why?”

“Flour,” Thatch says, one hand still wrapped around Ace’s wrist and the other flying out for dramatic effect. “Flour is explosive.”

“What, really?”

“Mmhmm, in high quantities and when under pressure and exposed to high heats, it goes boom very well. Which is why I want to know what you two troublemakers are doing in my kitchen that involves covering the walking match with boomdust.”

“Uh,” Ace says, and casts a glance at the oven. “We wanted a cake but didn’t want to bother you…”

Thatch stares at him, then closes his eyes. “Okay,” he says and lets Ace’s hand drop. “Okay, that was…sweet. But please don’t.”

“Too late,” Haruta says. “It’s probably almost ready.”

“Almost—” Thatch whirls towards the oven and zeroes in on the knob. “Tell me there’s nothing in there.”

Ace fiddles with his fingers. “Exactly how much flour does it take to explode?” he asks meekly.

“Right,” Thatch says, grabbing the towel that’s tucked into his belt and waving it. “Out! Out! Everyone out!”

“Hey!” Haruta protests. “But that’s our cake!”

“It sure is,” Thatch says, cracking the oven door open. The noxious black smoke that comes pouring out makes both Ace and Haruta recoil, but Thatch just moves grimly forward. “And you can eat it. Every bite.”

“Ah,” Ace says, falling back another step.

“No thanks,” Haruta says.

“You wanted cake,” Thatch says, and the thing he pulls out of the oven is bubbly and crispy and uneven, and as they watch, half of it expands and the other half caves in.

“I’m not hungry after all,” Ace says, trying to subtly angle for the door.“Yeah, I think I’ve got something to do—”

“—gonna go do paperwork—”

“—wait for dinner, no problem—”

Thatch grins and it is not a nice expression. “But it would be such a waste to not try it.”

“I’m good, really—”

“Oh, someone’s calling me—”

Thatch takes a step towards them and they both turn and bolt. “Get back here!” he yells after them in a voice to rival Pops’. “Come eat this cake!”

“Never!” Ace yells over his shoulder, and Haruta nearly bowls over Blamenco and Marco as they flee.

Blamenco stares after them, then turns to look towards the howls of anger coming from the kitchen. “I feel like I missed something.”

Marco keeps his gaze straight ahead and does not look around. “If I don’t ask, I won’t have to deal with it, yoi.”

“Does that actually work?”

“I live in hope,” Marco says as Thatch yells for Ace and Haruta to come eat cake and the two flee in terror. “Hope and denial.”

#Portgas D. Ace #haruta of the whitebeards #thatch #answer in the form of a story

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grimelords · 7 years ago

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My March playlist is finished and posted on time for once! Please enjoy three and a half hours of my new and old favourite music. A lot of post-hardcore, country of a few different flavours and a thirteen second long song that goes beep beep boop. Enjoy.

Old Money - Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Who among you will join me on my podcast ‘Omar Podriguez-Locast’ where we discuss one of Omar Rodriguez’s 60+ insane solo albums every week and grow gradually infuriated with the very existence of each other until listeners are just tuning in each week for the episode where one of us finally snaps and attacks the other with a microphone?

America’s Most Blunted - Madvillain: It’s weird that this song about the wild and wacky world of jazz cigarettes opens up with a Steve Reich sample before moving into some real Reefer Madness type lameness at the end. Songs from so long before any type of legalisation are so lame like 'recent research shows that it’s not so darn harmful!’. This song is still very good though. I only found out that Lord Quas was just Madlib recently but I really respect the idea of having a rap alter-ego that’s just you with a pitch pedal.

Love My Way - The Psychedelic Furs: An underrated part of Call Me By Your Name is when Armie Hammer hears this song playing from a car and sprints over to dance with a woman who looks like she’s doing the monster mash.

Seven Stop Hold Restart - Bear Vs. Shark: Despite their bad name Bear Vs. Shark are a very good band and the best lyric in this song is when he says 'I am nine years old with short legs and arms.’ What I like about this song, and this band, is that the screaming is not the sort of affected scream-singing of a lot of their contemporaries it’s just a stocky guy absolutely yelling his guts out, which I appreciate.

Turncoat Revolution - Hot Cross: I think that’s close to what I like so much about Hot Cross too, I’ve never listened to Saetia either (the other band this guy sings for) but maybe I should because I just love this guy’s voice. The central hammery riff is so appealing to me but my favourite part of this song is the ending where the three chords just shrink away as the whole thing mellows down, it feels like realising you’ve been mad at something that happened in a dream this whole time.

Mag11 P82 - Venetian Snares and Daniel Lanois: Venetian Snares is apparently doing an album with Daniel Lanois who produced a bunch of U2 albums so my dream of a Bono/Venetian Snares team up is one step closer to reality. I like collaborations like this where you can very clearly tell who did what part. It’s hard to mistake when and how Venetian Snares is involved in a song a lot of the time. I really like this team up because freeing Snares from any kind of melodic responsibility allows Lanois to give the song a huge amount of space, unprecedented in a Snares song where the melody is often just as frantic as the rest of it.

Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos: Do you remember when Tori Amos had that album called American Doll Posse where she was doing a bunch of characters or something and it’s got one of the worst covers of all time in my opinion and I think about it a lot. Had a song called Big Wheel on it that I get stuck in my head a lot. But this isn’t that song so never mind! I was thinking about the production on this song, and how crazy it is to have whistling as a big part of your song while avoiding having everyone think of it as 'that whistling song’. All the instrumentation on this is great, the mandolin and acoustic next to each other making a huge bed for the piano to move under, then the harpsichord sounding keyboard and the guest vocal near the end, there’s just so much happening I love it.

The Field That Touches My House And Yours - Sarah Louise: This is probably the upcoming album I’m most excited about right now. Sarah Louise (who’s one half of House And Land who I’ve posted about before) is pulling a real James Blake by releasing a lot of amazing instrumental music and then suddenly revealing she’s an absolutely incredible singer and songwriter as well.

Jezebel - The Drones: The Drones have a lot of good songs about how it’s the end of the world and we’re all fucked and we’re all gonna die but this is one of my favourites. The sort of wide ranging scientific nihilism of an opening line like 'strontium 90, removed from milk’ really sets the tone for the rest of this song as it lays out every war like an ongoing nightmare that you have no option but to participate in as your body and the earth turn to muck in their wake.

How Sweet It Is - Karen Dalton: Everyone always talks about Karen Dalton as this mercurial folk phenomenon but I really love her second album where she just does standards with a full band. Hearing her bring her insane, complete chaos sense of rhythm to these regular-ass songs is such a delight to me. The way she just swoops in on the first line with absolutely no regard for whatever else is going on really cracks me up. That the song has backing vocalists for the chorus just makes it better, I imagine them singing while glancing at each other with panicked eyes as she just wildly darts around the microphone and sings absolutely whenever.

Bang Bang - Vanilla Fudge: Pitchfork had some video about the origins of heavy metal and I lasted about ten seconds becuase they mentioned a 60s psychedelic metal forerunner named Vanilla Fudge and my brain went 'funy’ so I looked them up instead. This song is a nightmare I absolutely love it, there’s simply not enough organs around anymore. The organ sounds absolutely immense and balanced against their cursed harmonies it sounds even bigger, what a jam.

Ride For Me (feat. Young Thug & 24 Hrs) - A-Trak and Falcons: Young Thug has finally brought back his insane Harambe voice and I for one couldn’t be happier. I have no idea who 24hrs is but he for real sounds like when Justin Beiber first came out so that’s a thrill.

Space Song - Beach House: This might be the platonic ideal of a Beach House song, it’s just beautiful and I don’t think I really have anything more to say about it. Beach House put out two albums in 2015, they put out the on that this song is on and then like three weeks later they surprise released another one and I was so shocked by the deluge of content that I have never listened to the second one. A powerful lesson for Beach House.

Anna - Will Butler: This song is so good I have no recollection of what the rest of the album sounds like, I just listen to this song over and over and over. Every part is good. The brass, the 'ba ba ba’s, they way he says 'you Got to get Mo-nay’, the piano breaks that sound like he’s just slamming it with flat hands. What a gift.

Hawkmoon 269 - U2: Here’s the straight up truth that nobody wants to hear: Rattle And Hum is U2’s best album. It’s literally just The Joshua Tree except better. It’s every bad instinct of U2 turned up to 11, which is what makes it good. He mentions preachers like twenty times on this album and there’s a gospel choir on two songs, it’s all happening all the time.

Silver And Gold - U2: Here also, is the straight truth: this is U2’s best song. A proper straight up political song about a specific idea, incredible instrumentation and Bono realising halfway through his speech that the crowd unfortunately does not care about Desmond Tutu’s request for economic sanctions against South Africa.

Hunting For Witches - Bloc Party: Post 9/11 war on terror indie is such a good genre. Kele’s always been a bit of a lame-o and he’s really on display here but when the instrumentation bangs like this it’s forgivable. Bloc Party have always seemed like a band where absolutely everyone is pulling their weight and doing the most in every single song and this is a good example. The drums! Matt Tong deserves a trophy!

All Of The Lights - Kanye West: I literally remember where I was the first time I heard the drums in this song, that’s how good it was. I can’t believe I only just found out that every single famous person features on this song. I thought it was just Rhianna but it turns out it’s La Roux in the 'fast cars shooting stars’ bit, Cudi in the 'getting mine’ bit, and fucking Fergie in the 'unemployment line’ part PLUS Elton John and Alicia Keys in the outro? This song is ridiculous. It’s almost a shame that such an incredible song in every aspect features some of Kanye’s most boneheaded verses but I suppose that’s what I love about him.

Let’s Hear It For The Boy - Deniece Williams: I’d like to invite you all now to stand and give a round of applause for my dipshit miser boyfriend that dresses like shit and can’t sing, I love him. I love this song a lot because I feel like she’s talking about me. This is a great song that’s right at the top of my long list of potential wrestling entrance themes.

Hey! - The Go! Team: I was premature when I said that new Go Team album wasn’t that great because it is in actuality very very good. This song would make a good wrestling theme too now that I think of it.

Monument - Royksopp & Robyn: I put the T.I.E. version of this song on my list last month and that prompted me to give the original another listen because it’s honestly just as good in a totally opposite direction. A long bit of space-jazz instead of a monolith threatening to crush you.

Merrymaking At My Place - Calvin Harris: My friend sent me this song and said it reminded him of Mother! which is very funny in my opinion. Loads of people come to my house, they take stuff inside of my house, and smoke stuff outside of my house, lots of people at my front door, lots of people in my front door, trying to get into my house. At my place [leaning into the mic] Baby. [panicked] Baby at my place.

Precious Lord (Take My Hand) (Parts 1 & 2) - Aretha Franklin: I was searching spotify for a good version of The Day Is Past And Gone and ended up finding this Aretha Franklin album that is absolutely incredible. It turns out it’s her first ever recording from when she was 14, which is mind boggling. It sounds like it was recorded from the back row of the church so it has this incredible amount of space to it and she just completely fills it with immense power. Even her piano playing is amazing. The whole thing is just an astonishing piece of music.

Big Iron - Marty Robbins: I was camping this month and thinking about country music, and so this and the next few songs are the result of that. I think Taylor Swift should not only pivot back to county for her next album but pivot back to this kind of cowboy story-song country. She should, in fact, just cover this song. This is The cowboy album and I feel like Marty Robbins may have been the most American man that ever lived, he used the money he made from cowboy songs to finance a NASCAR career.

Country Dumb - Josh T. Pearson: I spent a long time on the fence about Josh T. Pearson because music like this always raises the question of authenticity. He sort of feels like the country version of Nick Cave to me, straining for a very very authentic thing but in actuality a Berlin art boy. The main difference between Pearson and Cave though is that Pearson is actually very good. So I reconcile it by telling myself he’s a sort of Lana Del Rey character singer or something like that. This song is so great and I especially like his guitar style of letting the words lead and the guitar follow, where the lyrics are at the forefront and every part of the music is purely in support of them.

Angel From Montgomery - John Prine: I’m so glad that John Prine is enjoying a bit of a late life resurgence in popularity among the Youth right now because he really deserves it. He feels like the songwriter that every songwriter loves but nobody else has ever heard of. I love this song, it feels like it was custom built to be some 70 year old country woman’s 'Hurt’.

Bogota Affair - Kid Creole And The Coconuts: A good and tropical song about getting cucked on an island and absolutely loving it.

Mientras La Veo Sonar - Rx Bandits: I figured out the reason I like this song and it’s honestly just that it sounds like watered down Mars Volta and I’ll take all of that you’ve got.

Joan, I’m Disappearing - City Calm Down: The way the first line of this song is an unexpected anacrusis makes me laugh cause it feels like the guy from The National just suddenly stepping into your room and collapsing into a seat to complain. I absolutely love this song, I’ve been listening to it on repeat. It’s melodically brilliant in the chorus, it just keeps giving, and structurally it never gets boring by just getting bigger and expanding the entire time to this huge emotional outpouring. I love the lyrics to this song because they’re so pathetic, which sounds like a strange and cruel thing to say but it’s true. It’s such a specific misguided melodramatic plea for a childish love that went on for too long and it’s just so heartbreaking and pathetic, and when it’s turned up to the emotional peak it’s believable and you sympathise. I wish this song went for five minutes more.

Footsteps - Dardanelles: This album was the critical darling of Australian music in 2006 and then this band just totally disappeared and I couldn’t find it for a long time before someone added it to spotify last year and now all their songs have <1000 plays. Very mysterious. I go through stages of being totally obsessed with this song, every part of it is just my favourite kind of pretentious art rock shit. 'This trail of breadcrumbs below your feet whispers like muscle cars on heat’? That’s good lyrics!

Queen Majesty - Techniques: I heard this song late at night when I was listening to ABC RN to fall asleep and some old guy was explaining how rocksteady was better than reggae and now I agree with him.

Opal (Four Tet Remix) - Bicep: The way this song builds around the central strong chords is just incredible, it’s a really simple motif and the way it comes back and sits foundationally through the whole piece. I love in the later half how the extra off-time melodies that seem to have no relation at all to the just come swooping through and almost destabilise the whole thing before those strong strong chords come through again. Also I have a strong suspicion that the snare sound in this is just Four Tet slapping his desk which I respect.

Jesus Came To My Birthday Party - The Middle East: I can’t overstate how much this song is directly wired to my brain stem. It is just perfect. This song is so simple but it feels like it came from another dimension to impart wisdom to me. It honestly makes me feel crazy. This whole album feels like the long lost brother of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea thematically and it really deserves a similar spot in the canon in my opinion. Please listen to it.

Eden - Talk Talk: The dynamics in the guitar playing is what really gets me in this song. The huge crescendo where it feels like the sound is being pulled apart from the inside dissipating to steam as soon as the groove kicks in. I don’t know, there’s not much to be said about Spirit Of Eden that hasn’t already been said, it’s transcendental music. It’s cliched but this is great driving music, music to space out and think about the universe to.

Outlaw Blues - Queens Of The Stone Age: What a treat to suddenly discover that one of my favourite bands has covered my favourite Bob Dylan song and done a great job of it too!

No Condition Is Permanent - Marijata: Ok this is embarrassing but the way I found out about this song was some goober on the overwatch subreddit had made playlists for every hero (Torbjorn’s was all electo-swing and pirate metal so who knows what the fuck was going on) and this and the next song were both on the Doomfist playlist, which was a lot of 70s afro-funk and highlife music which personally isn’t really telling the full story of Doomfist but that’s a whole other post. Anyway this song is great, and I’m glad I listened to this whole dumb-ass playlist to find it. I have a real affinity for songs like that that feel like the recording only ended cause they ran out of tape or the singer collapsed from exhaustion. This song could go for another 20 minutes and I’d only love it more.

Love And Death - Ebo Taylor: The groove of the drums in this song and the melodies of the horns are just hypnotising, and combined with the lyrics this feels like some very dark magic that I completely love. The guitar is really amazing in this as well actually, especially the solo where he switches back and forth between jazz soloing and just frantically strumming open chords.

Automatic (12" Version) - The Pointer Sisters: Huge fan of the extremely powerful megaman synth that comes in about halfway through this song and just charges the whole place up. I love how rich and deep her voice is, how it’s built on by the harmonies in the prechorus and then unleashed in the chorus. I also love how simple the chorus is, it doesn’t overshadow the rest of the song and the verses are just as good which is exactly what you want from a long mix like this. Huge fan of the deep guy’s voice just saying 'au-to-ma-tic’ during the fade out too, give that guy some more to do.

White Girl - Soul Coughing: Lyrically most Soul Coughing songs sound like somewhere between echolalia and reading out every street sign that you see, which is very appealing to me because that’s essentially how I communicate, but this one feels like a dire warning about an approaching conqueror. Also the ending of this song make me laugh because it’s the same as at the end of New Noise by Refused where he just screams 'THE NEW BEAT’ over and over and over after the instruments have all finished and in my eyes that’s a very very funny thing to do with the phrase 'white girl’.

Tone Tone Tone & Tone Tone Two - Shuta Hasunuma and U-zhaan: This album feels like some real Tiny Mix Tapes-core; a collaboration between two Japanese composers - a found object orchestra composer and a tabla player but against all odds it’s actually good. Unfortunately my favourite part of it is this 13 second piece of music that sounds like the brand ID for a very high-end podcast network.

I Won’t Be Found - The Tallest Man On Earth: I listened to this song eight times in a row and sang along the whole time on my drive home from work the other day. His voice is so uniquely good, a cowboy yodel with a slight swedish accent. I’m hooked right from when he sings 'morning’ as 'morning-AH’.

Now U Got Me Hooked - A.A.L: I can’t get over how good this new Nicolas Jaar side project album is. It’s just wall to wall bangers, a perfect party album. I love the really raw sound of a lot of the drums in this song; the huge clap that’s on the edge of being over-distorted mixed with a huge rumbling kick blowing out the low frequency that eventually cleans up and brings the sample back in and almost eliminates the bass entirely before it drops again and the sequence starts over. I love how long a lot of the songs on this album are, every idea is given so much room to completely stretch out.

Ride - Lana Del Rey: I saw Lana live last night and as soon as the first notes of this song played the girl in front of me absolutely screamed 'BITCH!!’ and I felt a real kinship with her. I really think this might be my favourite song of hers. It makes me so emotional every time and I can’t even pinpoint why. The way she sings 'fucking crazy’ the huge, sweeping chorus. It’s just amazing, I love her so much! Bitch!!

listen here

#playlists

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