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ks-caster · 4 years ago

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It’s Like Watching Fanfiction – An (Un)Necessarily Long Critique of The 100 Seasons 6 and 7

Ah, the familiar cry of the content-starved fan, particularly as our favorite shows descend into the depths of mischaracterization, unexpected ships, hiatus, abrupt cancellation and shock-value death endings. I’ve said it myself about so many of my shows, while wanting to spend some time watching the characters but not wanting to re-hash episodes I’ve nearly memorized: “I wish I could just watch fanfiction!”

But the further into seasons 6 and 7 I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to realize that my dream of having new and exciting possibilities for the characters come miraculously to a screen near me wouldn’t be the pleasant experience I’d imagined.

Now, depending on the type of ending you like – hopeful but with a lot of lose ends left to your imagination, or bittersweet but more definite, you could consider either seasons 1-4 or 1-5 their own complete stories.

Both seasons 4 and 5 ended in a way that suggested an unknown but likely positive future. They could have been considered conclusions for the main characters’ developmental arcs, and while season 5 went a little off the rails in terms of offscreen character development and sudden new characters, they both stayed fairly close to the original concept: survivors living in the ruins of the apocalypse. All four (or five) seasons emphasized the importance of the found family dynamic (although those dynamics shifted radically in season 5 due to the time-skip, they remained an important source of character motivation).

But seasons 6 and 7? Those feel like I’m watching fanfiction. And I don’t love it.

A story told on a whole new planet with a new environment, culture and cast of original characters was always going to feel like an AU – it sort of is, no matter how you swing it. If that was all that had changed, then I think the story would still feel cohesive.

If it weren’t for the timey whimey bullshit.

Now, fun fact: when reading fanfiction, I love time travel stories. I haven’t posted any myself but I’ve sought out and read them voraciously, for every fandom I’m in. I love the idea of characters meeting themselves or their friends at radically different ages, plot points and levels of experience and the way that changes things for both groups. (Yes, I’m also a Whovian if that wasn’t blatantly obvious). I also love a good amnesia arc. And I DID think that the Josephine/Clarke body possession thing was pretty cool.

So why did season 6 and most* of season 7 fall as flat for me as they did?

The simple fact is that some things – and characters’ emotional dynamics are one of those things – are so much easier to get across in writing than on screen. A good actor can make us feel the character’s emotions, but unless the film goes full-on Clarke’s mind space, we can’t really know what they’re thinking in individual moments. For the most part film as a genre has ways around this, but if it’s mishandled, then the emotional beats come off all wrong. (See for reference Tony Stark’s funeral where half the actors didn’t know what was going on due to Disney’s spoiler fears.)

If you’re going to include time skips in which things have happened and character dynamics have changed, you cannot handle it wrong.

Which brings us back to seasons 6 and (so far) 7 of The 100. So far to date we’ve had all of this occur either offscreen or asynchronously enough to be confusing to an audience watching the episodes in real time:

Jordan’s entire life prior to meeting Napkru in the waking world

Octavia’s character development while living on Skyring with the Diyozas

Hope’s first 22 years of life, on Skyring and (I presume) Bardo

Echo, Hope and Gabriel living on Skyring for 5 years with Orlando

Going back a little further, we also have the season 5 timeskip, which brought us Spacekru as found family, Clarke adopting tiny!heda, and Octavia building Wonkru. Now season 5 took care to show us Wonkru flashbacks and dedicate time to show Spacekru and the Griffin family loving on each other, making inside jokes etc. But it was still incredibly jarring for the audience in a lot of ways, because at the end of the day, we’ve spent four years with the character dynamics and development doing one thing, and no amount of telling us that they’ve had 6 years to do another thing while our time with them only lasted about one year in comparison is ever going to undo the importance of “show don’t tell.”

Let’s take Bellarkers’ beef with Becho for example. (Disclaimer: Since I don’t really have a strong opinion either way on the popular Bellamy ships, I hope that I’m representing what I’ve read from other people accurately.)

I understand cognitively that Bellamy and Clarke knew each other for one year (during which they were in a lot of intense situations that really didn’t leave them the emotional space to figure out how they felt about each other outside of “I don’t want to lose this person”) and Bellamy and Echo knew each other for seven years (six of which they had plenty of low-stress time to get to know each other, grow and mature side-by-side, etc.).

But that doesn’t compute on an emotional level when I as a watcher went straight from watching Bellamy and Raven tearfully eulogizing Clarke on the ring, to him turning up with a coffee mug and a plucky attitude to rescue her the second he finds out she’s alive and in trouble. I don’t think that could compute emotionally for me without having spent the last few years watching the dynamics shift and Becho happen. And that was with the writers giving me as a watcher an episode at the end of season 4 where Bellamy stops Echo from killing herself and connects with her on an emotional level, and then one at the beginning of season 5 where we got to see the spacekru dynamics, including them being together.

So we’re watching this show, many of us for the found family character relationships (god knows it’s not for all the positive happy feeling I get from watching *checks notes* ah, yes, characters having to constantly choose who to kill off in a string of increasingly huge and horrible genocides. *Side-eyes my life choices for getting into this fandom in the first place.*) Okay, we’re watching this show for the characters, and between seasons 4 and 5, many of those dynamics radically shift offscreen. Becho is the easiest and probably most talked-about example (well, and the Blake siblings, but the radical change shown in Octavia’s character between 4 and 5 makes that at least a little easier to choke down) but there are plenty of others, take your pick.

Although it makes perfect sense for a lot to change between separated groups of people in a half dozen years, it makes a lot less sense to an audience watching week to week, particularly when the show’s limited amount of screen time was too focused on plot to really delve into those changes and let us see and understand them. That was what made me think that the show was headed into jump the shark territory in season 5, but I really wanted to know what happened to my faves (Octavia, Raven and Memori, to be specific) so I kept watching.

Our fandom’s excellent writers spent the hiatus crafting mid-time-skip vignettes and missing character moments, and I spent the hiatus reading them. And I remember thinking that it would have been great if even a quarter of this content could have been put into the show to ease the audience into the dynamic shifts – but of course they’d never have the screen time to do all of that.

Especially, coming back to the main point, since written fiction allows the audience to see inside the characters’ heads, while television (usually) does not. It’s much easier to write a scene in which, say, two characters who have known each other for 7 years show that they’ve gotten into a relationship some time before the scene, and convince the audience that their relationship is good and healthy and genuine, than it would be to produce one for TV.

And then we come to seasons 6 and 7 – the 2-part AU longfic, stuffed full of OCs, loosely connected to the “science” of the original show, and heavily reliant on memory-bending time travel as a plot device.

As season 6 airs, the audience hasn’t really had a chance to process all the radical changes from season 5, and already we have a Marper child running around furthering the plot, and Octavia walks into the Green Flash from Pirates of the Caribbean and walks back out with a personality transplant.

Meanwhile, Clarke gets an actual personality transplant, and it takes even the people closest to her a concerningly long time to notice. Now, if I’d read that in a fic, the writer might’ve taken care to remind me as a reader – particularly after a long hiatus between seasons – that with the exception of Madi none of Clarke’s friends have seen her for more than a couple of weeks in 6 years, so them not noticing for a while that she’s behaving strangely isn’t really all that strange. But on TV, I don’t get to see Gaia’s thoughts when Clarke lets Madi go to school despite the danger – Tati Gabrielle’s facial expressions can only do so much to make up the difference. Because the time spent apart was not (and really could not be, based on the structure of the show) properly acknowledged on screen, scenes like that one leave audiences floundering and pointing out bad writing.

Having watched 7x02 The Garden, I think if I went back and watched season 6 after Octavia returns from the Anomaly, her conduct – especially around Bellamy – would make a lot more sense. (That was the plan for this weekend actually – but my damn Wi-Fi conked out…) However at the time it just seemed weird and unnatural. Had it been the only example of off-screen or asynchronous character development, it would have been a lot easier to swallow. However, season 5 happened, meaning both that I was still getting used to all of the new dynamics and that I had a higher standard for Octavia’s off-screen development, because we got enough bunker flashbacks that I felt like I at least understood Blodreina.

What would have made the whole thing make a lot more sense a year ago would have been if the hair and makeup department had made an effort to make her look older, so that we could see time had passed for her. Now, Marie is 33 in real life, and so was the Octavia who figured out that up is down and got Davy Jones Locker to send her back ran out of the Anomaly, so yes, that is what an actual 33-year-old looks like, and the media has distorted my perception of age. But from an audience perspective, I saw an actress playing a 23-year-old go in, and the same actress playing the same 23-year-old come out.

Gabriel pointed out that her hair was longer, but that only accounted for a few months of time. Since she went in looking dirty, wounded and exhausted, and came out clean, healthy and energetic, she could have passed for younger before I would have thought she was older. (In fact, I want to say there was a theory circulating at that time that the Octavia who came out of the Anomaly was actually a younger version of herself, and she was missing memories because she’d never formed them. I don’t remember whose theory this was though. If you know or if it’s your content I’m referencing please feel free to let me know and I’ll edit!)

In addition, the shifting loyalties in Wonkru near the end of season 5 complicated the character situation – in season 6, the majority of Wonkru peeps (lookin’ at you, Miller and Indra) switched over to the commander’s side. While Indra didn’t really have enough screen time to express an opinion about Octavia, Miller was very clear in season 6 that she was anathema now – which although that was probably a semi-reasonable step for his character, it just felt like someone took his Bellamy-and-or-Clarke-following season 1-4 character and popped it into his season 6 costume without taking the time to address the road he took to get there.

Post-lockerAnomaly Octavia had to face and slay her demons. (Grumbles and links the interested reader to this POST from @osleyakomwonkru regarding that horseshit.) Afterwards, she shows a major shift in personality, particularly towards her brother. Because we as the audience wouldn’t see her time on skyring for about year in real time (or learn that she was ten years older and therefore a lot more mature, the chemical changes of which would account for at least some of the difference even if she couldn’t remember anything else) we had no choice but to associate her change with the slaying of Blodreina, which seemed like a ham-fisted way of forcing her a quick and slick redemption arc and prepping The Blake Siblings to go back to being ride-or-die for each other in season 7.

Raven’s season 6 personality was also radically different from her 1-5 development – while I understand her having a remaining beef with Clarke and being emotional due to Shaw’s death (RIP!) the fact that the writing in season 6 reduced her to the nagging shrew trope until they needed her to do a coding deus ex machina just added to the feeling that I was watching someone take the characters around, change them to their own preferences (even if that preference was to push some into the background and make them tools for the B-plot) and toss them into an AU story. Which I could have enjoyed more if I had been reading it and therefore seeing inside the characters’ heads – and if I hadn’t paid for the privilege with ad revenue instead of voluntary clicks of the kudos/like/reblog/comment buttons.

Another issue with time skip relationship is exposition for the lesser known characters’ backstories. Both seasons 6 and 7 have so far had dramatic character mother death reveals that were conveniently not told to their most important people specifically because the appropriate time to tell those stories would have been during the offscreen time skips. I will (grudgingly) accept Echo, an adult making a conscious (and familiar) decision to change up her personality to fit into and survive within her environment, choosing not to tell a traumatic story that reminds her of her past. (She’s my next meta – stay tuned!)

I will not in a million years, however, believe that the Clarke Griffin who I watched for four seasons be set up as the blatantly obvious “compassionate mom-friend protagonist” adopted a traumatized 6-year-old, moved into said child’s village, burned or buried the bodies of everyone who lived there, and never ever brought up the child’s dead birth parents.

No way. The ONLY reason that could have possibly been scripted in that way was because that conversation needed to be there for plot reasons and the appropriate time for it to have been had was during the 6 years they spent off screen. Similarly, while (again) I’ll buy that Echo chose not to talk about her mom’s death with Bellamy before he decided to be a dick about it, I fully believe that the timing of that conversation was only there because if it had occurred on the ring where it would have been more appropriate, the audience would have missed it.

Now, picture this: if the scene with Madi had been in a written fanfic, Clarke could have said “you didn’t lose me,” Madi could have said “I didn’t mean you,” and Clarke could have remembered Madi telling her the story of her birth mom dying in her arms. Then Clarke could have mentally made the decision that she didn’t want Madi to relive that in an attempt to empathize with her, and she makes an effort to convince her that she’s fine. In just 2 or 3 paragraphs a written story could have effectively conveyed both the exposition and the emotional beats of the scene, concluding with Clarke making a (maybe misguided but still sweet) attempt to be a good mom by not dredging that up for Madi (or something – I’m not defending the crappy and inconsistent writing of Clarke’s parenting we’ve on screen so far).

Moving right along, we had a lovely flashback montage of Hope and Dev, which was sufficient to make me (and several of the tumblrs I follow) care about Dev at least enough to be saddened by his death. However, what we didn’t get was a damn crumb of flashback showing Orlando and Anomalykru developing any kind of familial relationship between him agreeing to train them, and whatever dynamic we were supposed to pick up on at the end of that episode. I got a little protective big sister vibe from Echo and Hope but that’s it. They apparently expended their allotment of emotion-inducing flashbacks on the dead guy, and failed entirely to make me give a shit about (as it turned out) the next dead guy.

Now we’re going into an episode with Octavia on (presumably) Bardo in the promo, so I’m guessing we get to see her skyring-self link up with her return-to-Gabriel-with-clean-hair self. As least with Octavia’s jumping storyline it seems like the writers have consistently made some kind of effort to fill in the blanks.

But we’re also looking at the rest of the season where Echo, Gabriel, Hope, oh hi Jordan I forgot about you again, Diyoza, Octavia, and probably Bellamy and Hoth!Kru (AKA team let’s follow Raven onto a strange planet without putting on suits or having an exit strategy, yay!) have all experienced asynchronous development over periods of multiple years. Given the show’s track record from seasons 5 and 6, I strongly suspect that this won’t be handled any better, meaning that the final season of this show is going to try not only to resolve all the plot points, but to toss in a bunch MORE offscreen character development and hope we catch on.

Beyond character development jumps, we also have Raven and Murphy losing their seasons 1-5 development in season 6 only to have to re-learn and re-change back to who they already were in seasons 4 and 5. Murphy learned to value his spacekru family and stop putting himself first 100% of the time, and yet his arc in season 6 happened. Raven has always been involved in the big life-or-death decisions, and had her being-the-bad-guy moment in season 4 with the rationing, but as we saw in 7x03 the writers really wanted to… redo all of that for her? The girl blew up a bridge full of guys and flash-fried a 300-person army when she was 18; blood on her hands may not be fun but what’s with seasons 6 and 7 acting like it’s something new?

While I’m aware that Jason said his seasons are individual movies (don’t admit that you’re bad at continuity buddy ‘cause that’s what it sounds like) seasons 1-5 and 6&7 are clearly telling separate stories (or 1-4, 5, 6-7 if you prefer). The trouble with 6&7 is that unlike seasons 1-4 (and sort-of 5) we no longer know the characters. Every time someone sits still too long, character-development wise, plot comes along and hits the reset button, tosses them into a wormhole for a couple of years and they come back with the same face but no continuity. It was difficult enough to deal with in season 5 – between 6 and 7 I just can’t keep up. (Even writing this meta, I have to keep going back because I remembered another character who fell into this trap.)

Now if a fanfic writer had done the exact same thing – same plot, same time skips, same organization – it would have played out completely different to the readers. We could have gotten to see inside the character’s minds when they arrived back on screen, seeing things with new, older eyes. We could have had minimally invasive flashbacks to show important exposition (like the disaster that was the conversation about Madi’s mom) and verbal descriptions to point out differences like Octavia’s ten-years-older body. Additionally, the plots of seasons 6 and 7 are so different yet full of overdone callbacks to the earlier seasons – if a fan was writing their own AU story but still wanted some of the trappings of the original plot I’d get it, but on a TV show written by the same people it just feels like they ran out of ideas.

Watching seasons 6 and 7 is exactly like watching fanfiction would be – but without the written and fan-made advantages of fanfiction, they fall flat.

*I do like season 7 better than season 6 because the content of the individual episodes containing Murphy/Emori/Raven and Octavia/Diyoza/bbyHope was still enjoyable content, so 2 out of 4 I have liked so far, despite this very very long rant I’ve just written explaining why as a whole I rather hate the season overall.

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hithelleth · 5 years ago

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Ship history meme

Embrace your past and get to know your friends’ fandom origins!

Rules: Post gifs of your fandoms / ships starting with your most current hyperfixation and work backwards. (Bonus points if you share any stories about how or when you got into that ship! But not necessary!!) Then tag anyone whose fandom history you’d like to learn about!

I was tagged by @jadedbirch - thank you! <3

Under the cut, because my history of shipping, or multishipping (because you know me, but I only put in gifs of single ships, b/c tumblr gif inserting function hates me), is a bit long even with only hyperfixations.

1. Victoria Hughes/Lucas Ripley (Station 19)

Ah, yes, I’m back in this hellhole, rereading fanfic, because Grey’s & 19 are back and easy to watch legally without jumping through hoops and I know I’d said I wouldn’t but then I was bored and now I have all these feels again. (I’ll say a few things on it in a separate post when the season’s done in three eps.)

Anyway, this one slammed into me last spring out of the blue, but how could I not ship it when it checks all the right points?

2. Garcia Flynn/Lucy Preston (Timeless)

Another Kripke show, and third time being the charmed, Kripke and co. actually learned from their past mishaps and actually made a good show (except the finale, but what finale? I don’t know it.)

So, there’s this tall, dark, brood, and bad (or maybe not) and lil’ miss goody two shoes (or maybe not) who get each other, what’s not to ship?

3. Bellamy Blake/Roan (The 100)

(No gif, b/c it’s a minuscule ships with maybe 5 gis and tumblr is a bitch, nothing shows up in search and apparently now you can’t save & reupload gifs - which is a good thing, finally, should’ve done it sooner.)

Oh, boys! My boys. I love(d) them so much. The last ship I have written extensively for - even the most extensively after Revolution (I, mean I only published one short oneshot, but the 35K monsterfic that is 3/4 done is still there in my drafts and I still think about it and them, because dammnit.)

Also very good with Clarke thrown in, or just Roan and Clarke (which I also managed to publish a fic for and kudoses that still come on the regular keep my writing heart at least hibernating and warm - here’s to hoping it wakes up from hibernation one day and I can write again.)

4. Shelby Wyatt/the Haases (Quantico)

Yes, all of them. Even Claire, because why not. And I’m sure if they had had the sister on the show, I’d have shipped her with her, too.

(I mean, I’d say I only shipped Shelby separately with each of them and I didn’t think of also poly shipping them, but that would be a lie and hardly the worst thing I’ve ever thought of shipping.

I hardly said anything about it on here because that was the peak of Moral Purity Wars time on here and Shelby was wildly hated across fandom, ugh, so I jsut squealed a lot inwardly.

5. Grant Ward/Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons/Sunil Bakshi (Agents of Shield)

Ugh, then there was this shitshow I loathe. But for a while there, there were good things. And now we’re really getting into my multishipping tendencies.

I started with Fitzward, surfed Skyeward, and then hurled straight into Bakshi/Simmons, also managed to write a ton of fic for the first and the last, but none for the middle.

(That was also the era when I was into highly questionable stuff, like I may or may not have half a notebook of a Ward/Simmons/Rumlow fic somewhere, oops. But I have no regrets, so we understand each other. And that isn’t the worst thing that’s ever come across my shippery imagination, either.)

6. CM2 or Charlie/Miles/Bass (Revolution)

(gif mine)

The best fandom had the best ships!

Who even got me into this show? It may even have been @lglorien who mentioned the new Kripke show when we were both binging SPN that summer. And then she didn’t even watch all of it and left me to suffer on my own.

Well, not on my own, because I found the best fandom along the way, so yay!

Anyway.

If you think knowing Miles was Charlie’s uncle stopped from shipping them from the moment she stepped in The Grand in the pilot and he was an asshole to her, you don’t know me. Then Miloe flashbacks happened in ep. 3. And I simultaneously started shipping that and noticed Charlie and Bass have things in common (mainly, Miles being an asshole to them, as it turned out later.)

But there were so many other good ships (Jeremy x everyone, yes?) and some random minor ones, including one or two of only my own concoction.

And nobody hated anyone for shipping. The best of times, really.

7. Elijah Mikaelson x everyone (TVD/TO)

Elijah is very shippable with anyone, but Elijah/Elena - there’s a lady who’s not on tumblr anymore (Hazel) that got me into this, and Elijah/Elena/Klaus - the fault of Sandrine_Shaw on AO3′s fics - were on top of my faves (and still are, TBH.)

You know, when itsy bitsy vulnerable human dares (the nerve! negotiate with a big bad original? Elijah was impressed. And so was I. The rest was history.

And for the second, well, when the two Original dumbasses keep falling for the same version of one woman, the solution is rather obvious.

8. Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester & Dean Winchester/Castiel (SPN)

Yes, I was a Wincest shipper, that shouldn't surprise anyone. Because the early seasons had their charm. And then Cas showed up and jumped onto a Destiel bandwagon as well. So, yeah.

9. Buffy Summer/Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

There were a few years when I had to much work and studying to watch things, so now this trip into shipping history brings us to early 2000s/1990s.

I liked Buffy/Angel well enough, but Buffy/Spike was it! I mean, he went to get his soul back for her. That scene when he’s hugging the cross haunts me to this day. Enough said.

10. Harmon Rabb Jr./Sarah MacKenzie (JAG)

Oh, god, Harm and Mac! Ship of all ships. The show tried to throw three different women at him and the third stuck. And we had to go through 8 seasons of slowburn then. A+++++

And, um, yes I shipped Mac with Webb for a while, too, because it’s me.

But yeah. As far as I’m concerned Harm and Mac are happily married and managing their careers and NCIS: LA can bite me with their BS in last season finale. .

11. Xena/Gabrielle (Xena: Warrior Princess)

Back when my very catholic grandma watched Xena and Hercules with me and also shipped Xena/Gabrielle, because ‘sometimes girls like girls, it’s nice’. Good times.

I also crosshiped her with Herc, a bit. and definitely had a thing for Xena/Ares. Yep, my ship type started showing early.

***

I’ll stop here.

Obviously, there have been a lot of other ships, but I tried to stick with the major fixations, otherwise we’d be here all week. (I haven’t even mentioned Marvel, or for that matter, books, so many books.)

Tagging: @lglorien, of course, @eveningspirit, @wellwhataboutme, @bea2me, @stargazerdaisy, @vesperass-anuna, @elemenopew, and anyone else who wants to do it, my mind is drawing blank, forgive me. And, as always, feel free to ignore.

Anyway, this took a lot of work, but it was satisfying. What a trip down the memory lane! So many feels!

#shipping #tag meme #about me #shipping history

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grigori77 · 5 years ago

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2019 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD – while I love Disney and Pixar as much as the next movie nut, since the Millennium my loyalty has been slowly but effectively usurped by the consistently impressive (but sometimes frustratingly underappreciated) output of Dreamworks Animation Studios, and in recent years in particular they really have come to rival the House of Mouse in both the astounding quality of their work and their increasing box office reliability. But none of their own franchises (not even Shrek or Kung Fu Panda) have come CLOSE to equalling the sheer, unbridled AWESOMENESS of How to Train Your Dragon, which started off as a fairly loose adaptation of Cressida Cowell’s popular series of children’s stories but quickly developed a very sharp mind of its own – the first two films were undisputable MASTERPIECES, and this third and definitively FINAL chapter in the trilogy matches them to perfection, as well as capping the story off with all the style, flair and raw emotional power we’ve come to expect. The time has come to say goodbye to diminutive Viking Hiccup (Jay Baruchel, as effortlessly endearing as ever) and his adorable Night Fury mount/best friend Toothless, fiancée Astrid (America Ferrera, still tough, sassy and WAY too good for him), mother Valka (Cate Blanchett, classy, wise and still sporting a pretty flawless Scottish accent) and all the other Dragon Riders of the tiny, inhospitable island kingdom of Berk – their home has become overpopulated with scaly, fire-breathing denizens, while a trapper fleet led by the fiendish Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham delivering a wonderfully soft-spoken, subtly chilling master villain) is beginning to draw close, prompting Hiccup to take up his late father Stoick (Gerard Butler returning with a gentle turn that EASILY prompts tears and throat-lumps) the Vast’s dream of finding the fabled “Hidden World”, a mysterious safe haven for dragon-kind where they can be safe from those who seek to do them harm. But there’s a wrinkle – Grimmel has a new piece of bait, a female Night Fury (or rather, a “Light Fury”), a major distraction that gets Toothless all hot and bothered … returning writer-director Dean DeBlois has rounded things off beautifully with this closer, giving loyal fans everything they could ever want while also introducing fresh elements such as intriguing new environments, characters and species of dragons to further enrich what is already a powerful, intoxicating world for viewers young and old (I particularly love Craig Ferguson’s ever-reliable comic relief veteran Viking Gobber’s brilliant overreactions to a certain adorably grotesque little new arrival), and like its predecessors this film is just as full of wry, broad and sometimes slightly (or not so slightly) absurd humour and deep down gut-twisting FEELS as it is of stirring, pulse-quickening action sequences and sheer, jaw-dropping WONDER, so it’s as nourishing to our soul as it is to our senses. From the perfectly-pitched, cheekily irreverent opening to the truly devastating, heartbreaking close, this is EXACTLY the final chapter we’ve always dreamed of, even if it does hurt to see this most beloved of screen franchises go. It’s been a wild ride, and one that I think really does CEMENT Dreamworks’ status as one of the true giants of the genre …

9. TERMINATOR: DARK FATE – back in 1984, James Cameron burst onto the scene with a stone-cold PHENOMENON, a pitch-perfect adrenaline-fuelled science fiction survival horror that spawned a million imitators but has never truly been equalled. Less than a decade later, he revisited that universe with a much bigger and far bolder vision, creating an epic action adventure that truly changed blockbuster cinema for the better (or perhaps worse, depending on how you want to look at it), but, with its decidedly final, full-stop climax, also effectively rendered itself sequel-proof. Except that Hollywood had other ideas, the unstoppable money machine smelling potential profit and deciding to milk this particular cash cow for all it was worth – on the small screen, it was the impressive but ultimately intrinsically limited Sarah Connor Chronicles, while on the big screen they cranked out THREE MORE sequels, Sony Pictures starting with straightforward retread Rise of the Machines and following with post-apocalyptic marmite movie Salvation, while Twentieth Century Fox then tried a sort-of soft reboot follow-up to T2 in Genisys. These were all interesting in their own way (personally, I like them all, particularly Salvation), but ultimately suffered from diminishing returns and whiffed strongly of trying too hard without quite getting the point. Cameron himself had long since washed his hands of the whole affair, and it looked like that might well be it … but then Skydance Productions founder David Ellison thought up a new take to breathe much needed new life into the franchise, and enlisted Cameron’s help to usher it in properly, with Deadpool director Tim Miller the intriguing but ultimately inspired choice to helm the project. The end result wisely chooses to paint right over all the pretenders, kicking off right where Judgement Day left off, and as well as Cameron being heavily involved in the story itself, draws another ace with the long-awaited ON-SCREEN return of Linda Hamilton in the role that’s pretty much defined her career, hardboiled survivor Sarah Connor. I’ll leave the details of her return for newcomers to discover, suffice to say she gets caught up in the chase when a new, MUCH more advanced terminator is sent back in time to kill unassuming young Mexican factory worker Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). Of course, the future resistance has once again sent a protector back to watch her back, Grace (Blade Runner 2049’s Mackenzie Davis), a cybernetically-enhanced super-soldier specifically outfitted to combat terminators, who reluctantly agrees to team up with the highly experienced Sarah in order to keep Dani alive. Arnold Schwarzenegger once again returns to the role that truly made him a star (of course, how could he not?), and he for one has clearly not lost ANY of his old love or enthusiasm for playing the old T-800, but revealing exactly HOW he comes into the story this time would give away too much; the new terminator, meanwhile, is brilliantly portrayed by Gabriel Luna (probably best known for playing Ghost Rider in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD), who brings predatory menace and an interesting edge of subtle, entitled arrogance to the role of Rev-9. Ultimately though, this is very much the ladies’ film, the three leads dominating the action and drama both as they kick-ass and verbally spar in equal measure, their chemistry palpably strong throughout – Hamilton is as badass as ever, making Sarah even more of a take-no-shit survivalist burnout than she ever was in T2, and she’s utterly mesmerising in what’s EASILY her best turn in YEARS, while Reyes goes through an incredible transformative character arc as she’s forced to evolve from terrified salary-girl to proto she-warrior through several pleasingly organic steps … my greatest pleasure, however, definitely comes from watching Mackenzie Davis OWN the role of Grace, investing her with an irresistible mixture of icy military precision, downright feral mother lion ferocity and a surprisingly sweet innocence buried underneath all the bravado, thus creating one of my favourite ass-kicking heroines not just for the year but this past decade entirely. Unsurprisingly, in the hands of old hand Tim Miller (working from a screenplay headlined by Blade and Batman Begins scribe David Goyer) this is a pulse-pounding thrill ride that rarely lets its foot up off the pedal, but thankfully the action is ALWAYS in service to the story, each precision-crafted set piece engineered to perfection as we power through high speed chases, explosive shootouts and a succession of bruising heavy metal smackdowns, but thankfully there’s just as much attention paid to the characters and the story – given the familiarity of the tale there’s inevitably a certain predictability to events, but Miller and co. still pull off a few deftly handled surprise twists, while character development always feels organic. Best of all, this genuinely feels like a legitimate part of the original Terminator franchise, Cameron and Hamilton’s returns having finally brought back the old magic that’s been missing for so long. I’d definitely be willing to sign up for more of this – such a shame then that, thanks to the film’s frustrating underperformance at the box office, it looks like this is gonna be it after all. Damn it …

8. DOCTOR SLEEP – first up, before I say anything else about this latest Stephen King screen adaptation, I HAVE NOT yet got round to reading the original novel yet, so I can’t speak to how it compares. That said, I HAVE read The Shining, to which the book is a direct sequel, so I DO know about at least one of the major, KEY changes, and besides, this is actually a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s MOVIE of The Shining, which differed significantly from its own source material anyway, so there’s that … yeah, this is a complicated kettle of fish even BEFORE we get down to the details. Suffice to say, you don’t have to have read the book to get this movie, but a working knowledge of Kubrick’s horror classic may at least help you get some context before watching this … anyways, enough with the confusion, on to the meat of the matter – this is a CRACKING horror movie by any stretch, and, for me, one of the strongest King horrors to make it to the big screen in quite some time. Of course it helps no end to have a filmmaker of MAJOR calibre at the helm, and there are few working in horror at the moment with whom I am quite so impressed as Mike Flanagan, writer-director of two of this past decade’s definitive horrors (at least for me), Oculus and Hush, as well as a BLINDING TV series adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix – the man is an absolute master of the craft, incredibly skilled with all the tricks of this particular genre’s trade, and, as it turns out, a perfect fit with King’s material. Following on from The Shining, then, we learn what happened to the kid, Danny Torrance, after he and his mother left the Overlook Hotel in the wake of his father’s psychotic break driven by monstrous apparitions “living” in the cursed halls, following him from childhood as he initially shuns the psychic gifts (or “shine”) he was taught to use by the hotel’s late caretaker, Dick Halloran. It’s only in later years, as he fights to overcome his alcoholism and self-destructive lifestyle, that he reconnects with that power, just in time to discover psychic “pen-pal” Abra Stone, an immensely powerful young psychic. Which leads us to the present day, when Abra, now a teenager, becomes the target of the True Knot, a group of psychic vampires who travel America hunting and killing young people with psychic abilities in order to consume their “smoke” (basically the stuff of their “shines”), thus expanding their already unnatural lifespans – they’re tracking Abra, and they’re getting close, and only her “Uncle Dan” can save her from them. Ewan McGregor is PERFECT as the grown-up Dan, delivering one of his career-best turns as he captures the world-weary seriousness of someone who’s seen, felt and had to do things no-one should, especially when he was so very young, the kinds of things that colour a soul for their entire life, and he’s clearly DESPERATE not to become his father; newcomer Kyleigh Curran, meanwhile, is an absolute revelation as Abra, bringing depth and weight far beyond her years to the role, but never losing sight of the fact that, under all the power, she’s ultimately still just a child; there are also excellent supporting turns from the likes of Cliff Curtis as Dan’s best friend and AA sponsor Billy Freeman, Zahn McClarnon (Longmire, Fargo season 2) and Emily Lind (Revenge, Code Black) as True Knot members Crow Daddy and Snakebite Annie, and Carl Lumbly (Cagney & Lacey, TV’s Supergirl), who beautifully replaces deceased original actor Scatman Crothers in the role of Dick. The film’s tour-de-force performance, however, comes from Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat, leader of the True Knot – they’re an intriguing bunch of villains, very well written and fleshed out, and it’s clear they have genuine love for one another, like a real family, which makes it hard not to sympathise with them a little bit, and this is none more true than in Rose, whom Ferguson invests with so much light and warmth and intriguing, complex character, as well as a fantastic streak of playful mischief that makes her all the more riveting in those times when they then turn around and do some truly heinous, unforgivable things … as horror movies go this is the cream of the crop, but Flanagan has purposefully kept away from jump scares and the more flashy stuff, preferring, like Kubrick in The Shining, to let the insidious darkness bubble up underneath good and slow, drawing out the creepiness and those most unsettling, twisted little touches the author himself is always so very good at. Intent can be such a scary thing, and Flanagan gets it, so that’s just what he uses here. As a result this is a fantastic slow-burn creep-fest that constantly works its way deeper under your skin, building to a phenomenal climax that, (perversely) thanks in no small part to the differences between both novels and films, pays as much loving tribute to Kubrick’s visionary landmark as the original novel of The Shining. For me, this is Flanagan’s best film to date, and as far as Stephen King adaptations go I consider this to be right up there with the likes of The Mist and The Green Mile. Best of all, I think he’d be proud of it too …

7. SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME – summer 20019 was something of a decompression period for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with many of us recovering from the sheer emotional DEVASTATION of the grand finale of Phase 3, Avengers: Endgame, so the main Blockbuster Season’s entry really needed to be light and breezy, a blessed relief after all that angst and loss, much like Ant-Man & the Wasp was last year as it followed Infinity War. And it is, by and large – this is as light-hearted and irreverent as its predecessor, following much the same goofy teen comedy template as Homecoming, but there’s no denying that there’s a definite emotional through-line from Endgame that looms large here, a sense of loss the film fearlessly addresses right from the start, sometimes with a bittersweet sense of humour, sometimes straight. But whichever path the narrative chooses, the film stays true to this underlying truth – there have been great and painful changes in this world, and we can’t go back to how it was before, no matter how hard we try, but then perhaps we shouldn’t. This is certainly central to our young hero’s central arc – Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is in mourning, and not even the prospect of a trip around Europe with his newly returned classmates, together with the chance to finally get close to M.J. (Zendaya), maybe even start a relationship, can entirely distract him from the gaping hole in his life. Still, he’s gonna give it his best shot, but it looks like fate has other plans for our erstwhile Spider-Man as superspy extraordinaire Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) comes calling, basically hijacking his vacation with an Avengers-level threat to deal with, aided by enigmatic inter-dimensional superhero Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has a personal stake in the mission, but as he’s drawn deeper into the fray Peter discovers that things may not be quite as they seem. Of course, giving anything more away would of course dumps HEINOUS spoilers on the precious few who haven’t yet seen the film – suffice to say that the narrative drops a MAJOR sea-change twist at the midpoint that’s EVERY BIT as fiendish as the one Shane Black gave us in Iron Man 3 (although the more knowledgeable fans of the comics will likely see it coming), and also provides Peter with JUST the push he needs to get his priorities straight and just GET OVER IT once and for all. Tom Holland again proves his character is the most endearing teenage geek in cinematic history, his spectacular super-powered abilities and winning underdog perseverance in the face of impossible odds still paradoxically tempered by the fact he’s as loveably hopeless as ever outside his suit; Mysterio himself, meanwhile, frequently steals the film out from under him, the strong bromance they develop certainly mirroring what Peter had with Tony Stark, and it’s a major credit to Gyllenhaal that he so perfectly captures the essential dualities of the character, investing Beck with a roguish but subtly self-deprecating charm that makes him EXTREMELY easy to like, but ultimately belying something much more complex hidden beneath it; it’s also nice to see so many beloved familiar faces returning, particularly the fantastically snarky and self-assured Zendaya, Jacob Batalon (once again pure comedy gold as Peter’s adorably nerdy best friend Ned), Tony Revolori (as his self-important class rival Flash Thompson) and, of course, Marisa Tomei as the ever-pivotal Aunt May, as well as Jackson and Cobie Smoulders as dynamite SHIELD duo Fury and his faithful lieutenant Maria Hill, and best of all Jon Favreau gets a MUCH bigger role this time round as Happy Hogan. Altogether this is very much business as usual for the MCU, the well-oiled machine unsurprisingly turning out another near-perfect gem of a superhero flick that ticks all the required boxes, but a big part of the film’s success should be attributed to returning director Jon Watts, effectively building on the granite-strong foundations of Homecoming with the help of fellow alumni Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers on screenplay duty, for a picture that feels both comfortingly familiar and rewardingly fresh, delivering on all the required counts with thrilling action and eye candy spectacle, endearingly quirky character-based charm and a typically winning sense of humour, and plenty of understandably powerful emotional heft. And, like always, there are plenty of fan-pleasing winks and nods and revelations, and the pre-requisite mid- and post-credit teasers too, both proving to be some proper game-changing corkers. Another winner from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then, but was there really ever any doubt?

6. US – back in 2017, Jordan Peele made the transition from racially-charged TV and stand-up comedy to astounding cinemagoers with stunning ease through his writer-director feature debut Get Out, a sharply observed jet black comedy horror with SERIOUS themes that was INSANELY well-received by audiences and horror fans alike. Peele instantly became ONE TO WATCH in the genre, so his follow-up feature had A LOT riding on it, but this equally biting, deeply satirical existential mind-bender is EASILY the equal of its predecessor, possibly even its better … giving away too much plot detail would do great disservice to the many intriguing, shocking twists on offer as middle class parents Adelaide and Gabe Wilson (Black Panther alumni Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke) take their children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex), to Santa Cruz on vacation, only to step into a nightmare as a night-time visitation by a family of murderous doppelgangers signals the start of a terrifying supernatural revolution with potential nationwide consequences. The idea at the heart of this film is ASTOUNDINGLY original, quite an achievement in a genre where just about everything has been tried at least once, but it’s also DEEPLY subversive, as challenging and thought-provoking as the themes visited in Get Out, but also potentially even more wide-reaching. It’s also THOROUGHLY fascinating and absolutely TERRIFYING, a peerless exercise in slow-burn tension and acid-drip discomfort, liberally soaked in an oppressive atmosphere so thick you could choke on it if you’re not careful, such a perfect horror master-class it’s amazing that this is only Peele’s second FEATURE, never mind his sophomore offering IN THE GENRE. The incredibly game cast really help, too – the four leads are all EXCEPTIONAL, each delivering fascinatingly nuanced performances in startlingly oppositional dual roles as both the besieged family AND their monstrous doubles, a feat brilliantly mimicked by Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale-star Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker and teen twins Cali and Noelle Sheldon as the Wilsons’ friends, the Tylers, and their similarly psychotic mimics. The film is DOMINATED, however, by Oscar-troubler Nyong’o, effortlessly holding our attention throughout the film with yet another raw, intense, masterful turn that keeps up glued to the screen from start to finish, even as the twists get weirder and more full-on brain-mashy. Of course, while this really is scary as hell, it’s also often HILARIOUSLY funny, Peele again poking HUGE fun at both his intended audience AND his allegorical targets, proving that scares often work best when twinned with humour. BY FAR the best thing in horror in 2019, Us shows just what a master of the genre Jordan Peele is, and it looks like he’s here to stay …

5. KNIVES OUT – with The Last Jedi, writer-director Rian Johnson divided audiences so completely that he seemed to have come perilously close to ruining his career. Thankfully, he’s a thick-skinned auteur with an almost ridiculous amount of talent, and he’s come bouncing back as strong as ever, doing what he does best. His big break feature debut was with Brick, a cult classic murder mystery that was, surprisingly, set in and around a high school, and his latest has some of that same DNA as Johnson crafts a fantastic sleuthy whodunit cast in the classic mould of Agatha Christie, albeit shot through with his own wonderfully eclectic verve, wit and slyly subversive streak. Daniel Craig holds court magnificently as quirky and flamboyant Deep South private detective Benoit Blanc, summoned to the home of newly-deceased star crime author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) to investigate his possible murder and faced with a veritable web of lies, deceit and twisting knives as he meets the maybe-victim’s extensive and INCREDIBLY dysfunctional family, all of whom are potential suspects. Craig is thoroughly mesmerising throughout, clearly having the time of his life in one of his career-best roles, while the narrative focus is actually, interestingly, given largely to Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049 and soon to be seen with Craig again in the latest Bond-flick No Time To Die), who proves equally adept at driving the film as Harlan’s sweet but steely and impressively resourceful nurse Marta Cabrera, whose own involvement in the case it would do the film a massive disservice to reveal. The rest of the Thrombey clan are an equally intriguing bunch, all played to the hilt by an amazing selection of heavyweight talent that includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette and It’s Jaeden Martell, but the film is, undeniably, DOMINATED by Chris Evans as Harlan’s black sheep grandson Ransom, the now former Captain America clearly enjoying his first major post-MCU role as he roundly steals every scene he’s in, effortlessly bringing back the kind of snarky, sarcastic underhanded arrogance we haven’t seen him play since his early career and entertaining us thoroughly. Johnson has very nearly outdone himself this time, weaving a gleefully twisty web of intrigue that viewers will take great pleasure in watching Blanc untangle, even if we’re actually already privy to (most of) the truth of the deed, and he pulls off some diabolical twists and turns as we rattle towards an inspired final reveal which genuinely surprises. He’s also generously smothered the film with oodles of his characteristically dry, acerbic wit, wonderfully tweaking many of the classic tropes of this familiar little sub-genre so this is at once a loving homage to the classics but also a sly, skilful deconstruction. Intriguing, compelling, enrapturing and often thoroughly hilarious, this is VERY NEARLY the best film he’s ever made. Only the mighty Looper remains unbeaten …

4. CAPTAIN MARVEL – before the first real main event of not only the year’s blockbusters but also, more importantly, 2019’s big screen MCU roster, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and co dropped a powerful opening salvo with what, it turns out, was the TRUE inception point of the Avengers Initiative and all its accompanying baggage (not Captain America: the First Avenger, as we were originally led to believe). For me, this is simply the MCU film I have MOST been looking forward to essentially since the beginning – the onscreen introduction of my favourite Avenger, former US Air Force Captain Carol Danvers, the TRUE Captain Marvel (no matter what the DC purists might say), who was hinted at in the post credits sting of Avengers: Infinity War but never actually seen. Not only is she the most powerful Avenger (sorry Thor, but it’s true), but for me she’s also the most badass – she’s an unstoppable force of (cosmically enhanced) nature, with near GODLIKE powers (she can even fly through space without needing a suit!), but the thing that REALLY makes her so full-on EPIC is her sheer, unbreakable WILL, the fact that no matter what’s thrown at her, no matter how often or how hard she gets knocked down, she KEEPS GETTING BACK UP. She is, without a doubt, the MOST AWESOME woman in the entire Marvel Universe, both on the comic page AND up on the big screen. Needless to say, such a special character needs an equally special actor to portray her, and we’re thoroughly blessed in the inspired casting choice of Brie Larson, who might as well have been purpose-engineered exclusively for this very role – she’s Carol Danvers stepped right out of the primary-coloured panels, as steely cool, unswervingly determined and strikingly statuesque as she’s always been drawn and scripted, with just the right amount of twinkle-eyed, knowing smirk and sassy humour to complete the package. Needless to say she’s the heart and soul of the film, a pure joy to watch throughout, but there’s so much more to enjoy here that this is VERY NEARLY the most enjoyable cinematic experience I had all year … writer-director double-act Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck may only be known for smart, humble indies like Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind, but they’ve taken to the big budget, all-action blockbuster game like ducks to water, co-scripting with Geneva Robertson-Dworet (writer of the Tomb Raider reboot movie and the long-gestating third Sherlock Holmes movie) to craft yet another pitch-perfect MCU origin story, playing a sneakily multilayered, misleading game of perception-versus-truth as we’re told how Carol got her powers and became the unstoppable badass supposedly destined to turn the tide in a certain Endgame … slyly rolling the clock back to the mid-90s, we’re presented with a skilfully realised mid-90s period culture clash adventure as Carol, a super-powered warrior fighting for the Kree Empire against the encroaching threat of the shape-shifting Skrulls, crash-lands in California and winds up uncovering the hidden truth behind her origins, with the help of a particular SHIELD agent, before he wound up with an eye-patch and a more cynical point-of-view – yup, it’s a younger, fresher Nick Fury (the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson, digitally de-aged with such skill it’s really just a pure, flesh-and-blood performance). There’s action, thrills, spectacle and (as always with the MCU) pure, skilfully observed, wry humour by the bucket-load, but one of the biggest strengths of the film is the perfectly natural chemistry between the two leads, Larson and Jackson playing off each other BEAUTIFULLY, no hint of romantic tension, just a playfully prickly, banter-rich odd couple vibe that belies a deep, honest respect building between both the characters and, clearly, the actors themselves. There’s also sterling support from Jude Law as Kree warrior Yon-Rogg, Carol’s commander and mentor, Ben Mendelsohn, slick, sly and surprisingly seductive (despite a whole lot of make-up) as Skrull leader Talos, returning MCU-faces Clark Gregg and Lee Pace as rookie SHIELD agent Phil Coulson (another wildly successful de-aging job) and Kree Accuser Ronan, Annette Bening as a mysterious face from Carol’s past and, in particular, Lashana Lynch (Still Star-Crossed, soon to be seen in No Time To Die) as Carol’s one-time best friend and fellow Air Force pilot Maria Rambeau, along with the impossibly adorable Akira Akbar as her precocious daughter Monica … that said, the film is frequently stolen by a quartet of ginger tabbies who perfectly capture fan-favourite Goose the “cat” (better known to comics fans as Chewie). This is about as great as the MCU standalone films get – for me it’s up there with the Russo’s Captain America films and Black Panther, perfectly pitched and SO MUCH FUN, but with a multilayered, monofilament-sharp intelligence that makes it a more cerebrally satisfying ride than most blockbusters, throwing us a slew of skilfully choreographed twists and narrative curveballs we almost never see coming, and finishing it off with a bucket-load of swaggering style and pure, raw emotional power (the film kicks right off with an incredibly touching, heartfelt tear-jerking tribute to Marvel master Stan Lee). Forget Steve Rogers – THIS is the Captain MCU fans need AND deserve, and I am SO CHUFFED they got my favourite Avenger so totally, perfectly RIGHT. I can die happy now, I guess …

3. JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 – needless to say, those who know me should be in no doubt why THIS was at the top of my list for summer 2019 – this has EVERYTHING I love in movies and more. Keanu Reeves is back in the very best role he’s ever played, unstoppable, unbeatable, un-killable hitman John Wick, who, when we rejoin him mere moments after the end of 2017’s phenomenal Chapter 2, is in some SERIOUSLY deep shit, having been declared Incommunicado by the High Table (the all-powerful ruling elite who run this dark and deadly shadowy underworld) after circumstances forced him to gun down an enemy on the grounds of the New York Continental Hotel (the inviolable sanctuary safe-house for all denizens of the underworld), as his last remaining moments of peace tick away and he desperately tries to find somewhere safe to weather the initial storm. Needless to say the opening act of the film is ONE LONG ACTION SEQUENCE as John careers through the rain-slick streets of New York, fighting off attackers left and right with his signature brutal efficiency and unerring skill, perfectly setting up what’s to come – namely a head-spinning, exhausting parade of spectacular set pieces that each put EVERY OTHER offering in every other film this past year to shame. Returning director Chad Stahelski again proves that he’s one of the very best helmsmen around for this kind of stuff, delivering FAR beyond the call on every count as he creates a third entry to a series that continues to go from strength to strength, while Keanu once again demonstrates what a phenomenal screen action GOD he is, gliding through each scenario with poise, precision and just the right balance of brooding charm and so-very-done-with-this-shit intensity and a thoroughly enviable athletic physicality that really does put him on the same genre footing as Tom Cruise. As with the first two chapters, what plot there is is largely an afterthought, a facility to fuel the endless wave of stylish, wince-inducing, thoroughly exhilarating violent bloodshed, as John cuts another bloody swathe through the underworld searching for a way to remove the lethal bounty from his head while an Adjudicator from the High Table (Orange Is the New Black’s Asia Kate Dillon) arrives in New York to settle affairs with Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of the New York Continental, and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) for helping John create this mess in the first place. McShane and Fishburne are both HUGE entertainment in their fantastically nuanced large-than-life roles, effortlessly stealing each of their scenes, while the ever-brilliant Lance Reddick also makes a welcome return as Winston’s faithful right-hand Charon, the concierge of the Continental, who finally gets to show off his own hardcore action chops when trouble arrives at their doorstep, and there are plenty of franchise newcomers who make strong impressions here – Dillon is the epitome of icy imperiousness, perfectly capturing the haughty superiority you’d expect from a direct representative of the High Table, Halle Berry gets a frustratingly rare opportunity to show just how seriously badass she can be as former assassin Sofia, the manager of the Casablanca branch of the Continental and one of John’s only remaining allies, Game of Thrones’ Jerome Flynn is smarmy and entitled as her boss Berrada, and Anjelica Houston is typically classy as the Director, the ruthless head of New York’s Ruska Roma (John’s former “alma mater”, basically). The one that REALLY sticks in the memory, though, is Mark Dacascos, finally returning to the big time after frustrating years languishing in lurid straight-to-video action dreck and lowbrow TV hosting duties thanks to a BLISTERING turn as Zero, a truly brilliant semi-comic creation who routinely runs away with the film – he’s the Japanese master ninja the Adjudicator tasks with dispensing her will, a thoroughly lethal killer who may well be as skilled as our hero, but his deadliness is amusingly tempered by the fact that he’s also a total nerd who HERO WORSHIPS John Wick, adorably geeking out whenever their paths cross. Their long-gestating showdown provides a suitably magnificent climax to the action, but there’s plenty to enjoy in the meantime, as former stuntman Stahelski and co keep things interestingly fluid as they constantly change up the dynamics and add new elements, from John using kicking horses in a stable and knives torn out of display cases in a weaponry museum to dispatch foes on the fly, through Sofia’s use of attack dogs to make the Moroccan portion particularly nasty and a SPECTACULAR high octane sequence in which John fights katana-wielding assailants on speeding motorcycles, to the film’s UNDISPUTABLE highlight, an astounding fight in which John takes on Zero’s disciples (including two of the most impressive guys from The Raid movies, Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian) in (and through) an expansive chamber made up entirely of glass walls and floors. Altogether then, this is business as usual for a franchise that’s consistently set the bar for the genre as a whole, an intensely bruising, blissfully blood-drenched epic that cranks its action up to eleven, shot with delicious neon-drenched flair and glossy graphic novel visual excess, a consistently inspired exercise in fascinating world-building that genuinely makes you want to live among its deadly denizens (even though you probably wouldn’t live very long). The denouement sets things up for an inevitable sequel, and I’m not at all surprised – right from the first film I knew the concept had legs, and it’s just too good to quit yet. Which is just how I like it …

2. AVENGERS: ENDGAME – the stars have aligned and everything is right with the world – the second half of the ridiculously vast, epic, nerve-shredding and gut-punching MCU saga that began with 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War has FINALLY arrived and it’s JUST AS GOOD as its predecessor … maybe even a little bit better, simply by virtue of the fact that (just about) all the soul-crushing loss and upheaval of the first film is resolved here. Opening shortly after the universally cataclysmic repercussions of “the Snap”, the world at large and the surviving Avengers in particular are VERY MUCH on the back foot as they desperately search for a means to reverse the damage wrought by brutally single-minded cosmic megalomaniac Thanos and his Infinity Stone-powered gauntlet – revealing much more dumps so many spoilers it’s criminal to continue, so I’ll simply say that their immediate plan really DOESN’T work out, leaving them worse off than ever. Fast-forward five years and the universe is a very different place, mourning what it’s lost and torn apart by grief-fuelled outbursts, while our heroes in particular are in various, sometimes better, but often much worse places – Bruce Banner/the Hulk (Mark Ruffallo) has found a kind of peace that’s always eluded him before, but Thor (Chris Hemsworth) really is a MESS, while Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has gone to a VERY dark place indeed. Then Ant-Man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) finds a way back from his forced sojourn in the Quantum Realm, and brings with him a potential solution of a very temporal nature … star directors the Russo Brothers, along with returning screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, have once again crafted a stunning cinematic masterpiece, taking what could have been a bloated, overloaded and simply RIDICULOUS narrative mess and weaving it into a compelling, rich and thoroughly rewarding ride that, despite its THREE HOURS PLUS RUNNING TIME, stays fresh and interesting from start to finish, building on the solid foundations of Infinity War while also forging new ground (narratively speaking, at least) incorporating a wonderfully fresh take on time-travel that pokes gleeful fun at the decidedly clichéd tropes inherent in this particular little sub-genre. In fact this is frequently a simply HILARIOUS film in its own right, largely pulling away from the darker tone of its predecessor by injecting a very strong vein of chaotic humour into proceedings, perfectly tempering the more dramatic turns and epic feels that inevitably crop up, particularly as the stakes continue to rise. Needless to say the entire cast get to shine throughout, particularly those veterans whose own tours of duty in the franchise are coming to a close, and as with Infinity War even the minor characters get at least a few choice moments in the spotlight, especially in the vast, operatic climax where pretty much the ENTIRE MCU cast return for the inevitable final showdown. It’s a masterful affair, handled with skill and deep, earnest respect but also enough irreverence to keep it fun, although in the end it really comes down to those big, fat, heart-crushing emotional FEELS, as we say goodbye to some favourites and see others reach crossroads in their own arcs that send them off in new, interesting directions. Seriously guys, keep a lot of tissues handy, you really will need them. If this were the very last MCU film ever, I’d say it’s a PERFECT piece to go out on – thankfully it’s not, and while it is the end of an era the franchise looks set to go on as strong as ever, safe in the knowledge that there’s plenty more cracking movies on the way so long as Kevin Feige and co continue to employ top-notch talent like this to make their films. Eleven years and twenty-two films down, then – here’s to eleven and twenty-two more, I say …

1. THE IRISHMAN (aka I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES) – beating smash-hit superhero movies and unstoppable assassin action-fests to the top spot is no mean feat, but so completely blowing me away that I had NO OTHER CHOICE than to put this at NUMBER ONE is something else entirely. Not only is this the best thing I saw at the cinema this past year, but I’d be happy to say it’s guaranteed to go down as one of my all-time greats of the entire decade. I’ve been an ardent fan of the filmmaking of Martin Scorsese ever since I first properly got into cinema in my early adolescence, when I was first shown Taxi Driver and was completely and irrevocably changed forever as a movie junkie. He’s a director who impresses me like a select few others, one of the true, undisputable masters of the craft, and I find it incredibly pleasing that I’m not alone in this assertion. Goodfellas and The Departed are both numbered among my all-time favourite crime movies, while I regard the latter as one of the greatest films of the current cinematic century. I’ve learned more about the art and craft of filmmaking and big-screen storytelling from watching Scorsese’s work than from any other director out there (with the notable exception of my OTHER filmmaking hero, Ridley Scott), and I continue to discover more about his films every time I watch them, so I never stop. Anyways … enough with the gushing, time to get on with talking about his latest offering, a Netflix Original true-life gangster thriller of truly epic proportions chronicling the career and times of Frank Sheeran, a Philadelphia truck driver who became the most trusted assassin of the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family and, in particular, its boss (and Sheeran’s best friend) Russell Bufalino, particularly focusing on his rise to power within the Philly Mob and his significant association with controversial and ultimately ill-fated Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. It’s a sprawling epic in the tradition of Scorsese’s previously most expansive film, Casino, but in terms of scope this easily eclipses the 1995 classic, taking in SIX DECADES of genuinely world-changing events largely seen through Sheeran’s eyes, but as always the director is in total control throughout, never losing sight of the true focus – one man’s fall from grace as he loses his soul to the terrible events he takes part in. Then again, the screenplay is by Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Moneyball, Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), one of the true masters of the art form, with whom Scorsese previously worked with on Gangs of New York, so it’s pure gold – tight as a drum, razor sharp and impossibly rich and rewarding, the perfect vehicle for the director to just prep his cast and run with it. And WHAT A CAST we have here – this is a three-way lead master-class of titanic proportions, as Scorsese-regular Robert De Niro and his Goodfellas co-star Joe Pesci are finally reteamed as, respectively, Sheeran and Bufalino, while Al Pacino gets to work with the master for the first time as Hoffa; all three are INCREDIBLE, EXTRAORDINARY, on absolute tip-top form as they bring everything they have to their roles, De Niro and Pesci underplaying magnificently while Pacino just lets rip with his full, thunderous fury in a seemingly larger-than-life turn which simply does one of history’s biggest crooks perfect justice; the supporting cast, meanwhile, is one of the strongest seen in cinema all year, with Ray Romano, Bobby Canavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Harvey Keitel, Stephanie Kurtzuba (The Wolf of Wall Street), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) and Jesse Plemmons among MANY others all making MAJOR impressions throughout, all holding their own even when up against the combined star power of the headlining trio. This is filmmaking as high art, Scorsese bringing every trick at his considerable, monumentally experienced disposal to bear to craft a crime thriller that strongly compares not only to the director’s own best but many of the genre’s own other masterpieces such as The Godfather and Chinatown. It may clock in at a potentially insane THREE HOURS AND TWENTY-NINE MINUTES but it NEVER feels overlong, every moment crafted for maximum impact with a story that unfolds so busily and with such mesmerising power it’s impossible to get bored with it. The film may have received a limited theatrical release, obviously reaching MOST of its audience when unleashed on Netflix nearly a month later, but I was one of the lucky few who got to see it on the big screen, and BELIEVE ME, it was totally worth it. Best thing I saw in 2019, ONE OF the best things I saw this past decade, and DEFINITELY one of Scorsese’s best films EVER. See it, any way you can. You won’t be disappointed.

#how to train your dragon the hidden world #terminator dark fate #doctor sleep #spider-man far from home #us #us movie #knives out #Captain Marvel #john wick chapter 3 #avengers endgame #the irishman #2019 in movies

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animatical-fandoms · 6 years ago

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Kwami Swap Week Masterpost

Long post ahead; buckle up!

TIKKI

Adrien/Catbug- Well, it’s going to be canon. He needs to call Mari “Kitty” and hearing him say “miraculous ladybug” will be amazing

Alya/Ladybird - My personal design for @lunian‘s Ladybird AU. It’s awesome, go read their work!

Nino/Ladybeetle - In this AU, Mari was too nervous, despite Chat’s belief, and gives Nino the ladybug miraculous. He and Chat!Adrien are the best of friends, and Adrien lowkey crushes on him almost as bad as Mari!Ladybug.

Chloe/Lady Scarlet - My interpretation of the wonderful @zoe-oneesama‘s Scarlet Lady AU.

Luka/Redbug - Plain and simple, Master Fu showed up a few years earlier, and ran into this kindhearted musician before Mari. TBH Luka is one of my faves, so he’s going to show up for the majority of the week because I loved playing around with designs for him

Felix/Lord Coccinelle- He doesn’t get cursed with bad luck, but with a kwami that insists he be responsible and help poor Lady Noire (Bridgette) break her curse. He’s gentler, kinder as a bug than as Felix, always happy to help others and to calm akuma victims after a fight. He’s drawn to Lady Noire, ever melancholy and mysterious, and lets himself loose with an edge against Bridgette because that’s how he’s always been.

PLAGG

Marinette/Lady Noir - Again, based off of the leaked art. I just really, really hope she’ll call Adrien some version of My Lady, and make at least one cat pun.

Alya/Nina Noir - Instead of Master Fu picking Adrien, he asks New Ladybug who she would like by her side. Obviously Alya is the first choice, and she’s ecstatic to be a superhero, keeping the Ladyblog focused on Ladybug because, you know, she can’t record herself. Nino and Adrien crush HARD on the new superheroes, and while that frustrates Mari, Alya is absolutely delighted.

Nino/Felus - Adrien pulls a Marinette, afraid that he’ll get caught since he’s under so much scrutiny as a model with a ton of visibility, and though it physically pains him to not fulfill his magical girl dreams, he knows Nino would be an amazing hero. Nino takes it in stride, and he and Mari!Ladybug are the bros to end all bros. Alya, crushing on Chat!Nino, creates both the Ladyblog and another blog dedicated to Nino’s alter ego. His thought? Best girlfriend ever.

Chloe/Duchess Noir - Adrien did the above, but with Chloe, thinking her confidence would be an asset Mari as Ladybug would be irritated by Duchess, but it becomes a series of growing moments for Chloe, because she gets to see what a force she really can be on people’s lives and gets better at the Friend Thing.

Luka/Pantheon - My boy omg this one was fun to draw. Kinda similar AU to him as Ladybug.

Bridgette/Lady Noire - Reverse PV - Bridgette thought her luck was bad enough with her being unable to speak at a normal pace and pitch in front of her crush, not to mention her clumsiness makes her look like a fool during their dance classes. Now she’s cursed with a god of destruction and a Perfect Superhero Partner - well, at least her clumsiness disappears when she’s Lady Noire. A shadow to Lordbug’s light. She knows it’s as hopeless to try and break her curse with him as it is to get together with Felix, so she just stands aside as his protector.

TRIXX

Marinette/Fennette - See the Ladybird AU with Alya; I couldn’t help myself!

Adrien/Kitsune - In the world where Alya is Chat and Mari is Ladybug, the two need help against the multiplying twins, same as before. Except Mari goes to lonely Adrien who she knows would be amazing. And the nerd goes for an anime name immediately.

Nino/Volpino - The above babysitting disaster happens to be Nino’s little cousin, Chris, rather than Alya’s sisters, so Mari offers the fox miraculous to him. He and Adrien get to be bros for all sides of the mask. Alya makes an entirely new blog dedicated to the new fox.

Chloe/Mistress Amber - She made like Queen Bee and stole it, thinking: I can do way better than Lila because I won’t be faking it.

Luka/Vulpes - He probably would get this if another akuma was the reason they needed the Fox - maybe if Fu gave it to Ladybug while his mom was akumatized and he was worried about everyone’s safety.

Felix/Reynard - He was free of the Black Cat’s curse, and the miraculous could no longer be his. It got passed to Adrien through Fu without him knowing, and as soon as he sees his little brother vaulting across the city in a catsuit (without stripper boots, what the hell Plagg why did you make me suffer this way) he storms up to Fu’s place and says give me the fox those are small children my god and becomes Mentor #1 to the new Chat and Ladybug. Naturally, no one catches on that he’s himself. He’s a professional at this secret identity thing.

WAYZZ

Marinette/Mlle. Bouclier - In the world where Nino and Adrien are Ladybug and Chat respectively, Alya has been chosen as the fox. During Anansi, though, she’s captured - so Nino’s like omg Marinette could be the turtle and Marinette, upon receiving it, is having major panic mode set in, but you know, she does her best. Adrien takes a look at her protecting them and is like omg my Lady, a la Alya knowing exactly who Carapace was, but he keeps it to himself, and becomes more comfortable and flirty with Mari.

Adrien/La Tortue - Don’t know if this fits in with any of the others … but probably Chat!Chloe verse, and Marinette is like please can you be my partner forever

Alya/Turtledove - Instead of her getting kidnapped during Anansi, it’s Nino, since Nora had a beef with him being too girly. She totally saves him and fangirls over being a superhero and he just knows.

Chloe - How did this happen? I’m not even sure.

Luka - Both Alya and Nino are unavailable during Anansi, so Marinette is like, Luka was super helpful on the boat and is super nice let’s do this.

Bridgette - Fox!Felix verse - she sees her boyfriend, who was once Chat, as a fox teaching the two bb heroes the ropes. She goes to Fu, stands in the door with her eyebrow raised. Fu had meant for her to succeed him as guardian anyway, and she takes up a job at his place so he can still hang out with Wayzz. She becomes Mentor #2 and is basically Mulan in fighting style - totally unexpected strategies. (It’s her fault that identity reveals happen, idk how, but it is)

POLLEN

Marinette/Marigold - My version from the Lady Scarlet universe!

Adrien/Goldenbee - From the universe where Chloe ends up as Chat, Marinette is super protective of this sunshine bee boy

Alya/Honeybee - Marinette actually? Gets the Bee Miraculous to Alya instead of losing it to Chloe?

Nino/Bumble - Mari’s mind goes to Nino instead of Alya when the Bee is needed, and she makes it to him.

Alix/Piquer - After seeing her do so awesome with Reverser, Marinette turns to Alix for help as the Bee.

Max - well, I don’t have too much of a headcanon for him, but @kwamiswaps did a fanfic, so that’’s what this design is for! (I did little suspender stripes without meaning to omg I really do like how it turned out)

DUSUU

Marinette/Bluebird - The Peacock wasn’t damaged, just disappeared - and, while visiting Adrien for a study session, she ends up with a new bird friend.

Adrien/La Paon - He inherits it from his mom okay??? Like, Fu has it and knows and is like your mother would have wanted you to have this. And this pisses off Hawkmoth to no end because he thinks whoever stole it is Definitely Not Adrien and is disgracing his wife’s name. Obviously a lot of drama.

Alya/Ava Azure - Swap the Peacock for the Fox - let’s just say Hawkmoth had a direct source to mess with Lila. Instead of illusions on the night the twins start multiplying, she creates a summoned creature to lure them all together.

Nino/Plume - The Peacock was damaged still, but Nino was willing to risk that to save his girlfriend and the city after a really nasy attack

Chloe/Royal Blue - Somehow, since the Mayor was friends with Gabriel and his wife, he ended up in possession of the Peacock before Gabriel knew what it was. Chloe gets her hands on it relatively at the same time she would have gotten the Bee and is just as Extra(TM).

Jagged/Pavo - He deserves to be a flashy birb. His suit would have sequins if I’d had time.

NOOROO

Marinette/Mariposa - Mayura is the main villain in this universe, and Emilie is comatose because of a damaged Ladybug Miraculous. Adrien is still Chat, but he makes “my wings” and “my little butterfly” comments rather than “My Lady”. Gabriel has Nathalie generally doing his dirty work, and he calls Emilie his lady. Mari uses her friends’ best qualities to fight against the beasts Mayura creates.

Adrien/Papillon - He’s been Chat for some time, but now Gabriel has been revealed to him and Mari, and he gets really, really angry, and steals the miraculous as Adrien. This is a Problem. Plagg is concerned Adrien is getting too angry to deal with powers of destruction full-time, so Adrien brings him to Fu and alternates between Plagg and Nooroo, and he confronts Gabriel a lot as the Butterfly because betrayal reasons. Ladybug is concerned, but she trusts him and that’s what gets him through.

Nino/Wingbeat - He is So Supportive of his friends, okay? He gets chosen as the Butterfly holder when, say, Bridgette has the Turtle and they manage to take it from Hawkmoth but still need help getting the Peacock or some other stolen one.

Chloe/Madame Monarch - Okay, this version of Chloe does not get a redemption arc, like, ever - she’s Hawkmoth. Straight up. She starts every akuma purposefully, becomes a villain, etc. Don’t ask why; I don’t know - attention? I prefer Redeemed!Chloe, but I feel like she’d totally be past saving as this particular supervillain.

Kagami/Painted Lady - Adrien gets to pick some new holders in my personal headcanon. Let’s say while the Mouse and Snake go to Mari and Luka, they get the Butterfly so Adrien chooses Kagami because she tried to help him and she wouldn’t let her emotions get in the way when she chooses people with her powers.

Felix/Hawkmoth - Brother!AU. He was Chat Noir when he was younger, has been abroad with Bridgette, and comes home to see the canon situation. He is Not Fooled by Adrien, Mari, anyone - he’s been there, and he has distance of not knowing most of the people involved, so he gets very, very, angry. He knows his father is Hawkmoth. So he steals the butterfly and sides with Ladybug and Chat Noir, who are both thankful but confused at this new Butterfly who’s So Angry - Adrien doesn’t figure it out, but he comforts Felix without meaning to and Felix is so touched. Felix eventually reveals that he knows who the previous Hawkmoth and the current (insert new villain identity) is - Gabriel Agreste. Obviously disbelief and angst, but he reveals himself and is like I am the last person to want Gabriel to actually be a supervillain and Agreste brotherly bonding and HawkDad butt-kicking.

Another universe idea I had was that Felix and Adrien share the cat and the butterfly, trading depending on what’s needed.

That’s a wrap!

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someone-elses-star · 5 years ago

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The 100 6x12: Adjustment Protocol Personal Narrative

Only TWO episodes LEFT! AHHHH! This is where everything is coming to a close! That means tons and tons of DRAMA and ACTION! I know they said we are going to be left on a cliffhanger with more questions than answers, but I am so ready to have all those questions! I believe that will get us through until season 7. Without further ado:

Eliza Taylor introducing the episode is my aesthetic. Also proof she is too popular to ever get rid of.

Poor Clarke dealing with angry/distraught Madi

Russell is being very dictator-y

Poor Madi looks like death warmed over

Madi is seriously going nuts

Uh-oh. Raven’s plan being made known.

Russell suspicious?

Abby feeling guilt? Kinda my aesthetic, too. Harsh. But true.

I would pay to see Abby kill Russell. Just for fun.

Raven could look a little more guilty. Just saying.

I love Jackson though. The boy’s a saint.

Yay it’s Bellamy!

Wow. They are already at the gate waiting? Damn

Blake sibling time.

Have some faith!

Emori and Murphy being treated well.

Murphy being very manipulative.

Emori loves Echo. That’s sweet.

Clarke is such a good actress. She should win an Emmy. If they still had Emmy’s. Lol

New identities? Eck

Raven and Jackson teamwork.

Abby using herself due to her remorse over Clarke. She has nothing else to live for.

No you shouldn’t have. Jackson is a saint.

Anyone else forget his name is Eric?

RIP Marcus Kane.

Is Clarke about to reveal the truth to them?

Yup.....

YAY!

Aw. Raven looks so relieved.

Clarke and Raven team up!?

Plus Riker is dead.

Aww Griffin family love!

Now, go save us all. Again.---SO TRUE!

Poor Clarke deserves a vacation after this.

COMMERCIAL BREAK THOUGHTS #1: Not much to say so far. Love that she revealed to the others that she is still alive. I think Raven should have shown more....idk....emotion? It was subtly there, but I wanted more.

And now she knows Riker is dead. Now what?

Ope. She is going to take his mind drive. Who would she put it in, though?

Ah. His mom to help in exchange for his mind drive.

Shoot to kill. Damn.

Russell is just another proof that the parents of this show suck at recognizing their children.

Hmmm. Why would the AI protect that evil Heda?

Aww....The hosts.

Russell vs. Abby. Love it

And now Gabriel is going to be the old friend that Russell sees.

Ouch. Way to call out Bellamy, Gabriel.

COMMERCIAL BREAK THOUGHTS #2: I really hope that Gabriel doesn’t kill their plan and get everyone killed. I understand his POV completely, but damn. And things are really going to all happen in the last ten minutes like usual. I know it! This is going to be crazy nuts! Last two episodes, people! I can’t stand it! Where did this season go? Also, anybody thinking about the pic where Clarke and Echo are standing next to each other in the Primes Naming Day outfit? That can’t be good for Echo more than anything. But I feel Clarke will let her know that she is not Josephine. They looked pretty calm standing next to each other. Hmmm.....I don’t know. Didn’t look like Simone was in Echo at that point, but who the hell knows? I think we’ll get to keep Echo, but I’m really not super certain at this point. Especially from what we’ve been hearing from the cast at cons. I want to have Ruby Rose’s babies (Unrelated)

Ope. Delilah’s parent’s want to kill Priyah.

Badass Echo and team.

Clarke is back.

Awe. Echo and Clarke hugs! I love it? New favorite thing?

Those skeletons would be so cool if it wasn’t so demented.

Yes, serial killers is a great way to describe it.

At least Abby is seeing past her mistakes now.

Aw. Abby and Raven love!

If only we could get Raven to apologize to Clarke.

Poor Jackson just sitting in the corner.

Daniel and Kayley? Really?

This is all so messy.

And I knew Abby would be taken for a host!

Will we actually lose her.....I’m thinking so because of the life flashing before her eyes. Poor Clarke is going to be heartbroken!

COMMERCIAL BREAK THOUGHTS #3: So with her life flashing before her eyes, and with all the apologies with Jackson and Raven. We’re thinking she is actually dead, right? And that was not a paralysis, but like an instant brain death serum? How do you think Clarke will react? Will she break her act as Josephine? I kinda feel that would be enough to break her. But....okay....did anyone else just absolutely love her flashes of her life? Like baby Clarke?

Gabriel being a creep in his old home.

That music is so fucking creepy. Make it stop!

Gabriel has a plan. I’m sure. I hope.

Okay. What’s leaking into the water? What is the significance?

Damn. So Abby is definitely dead. And Emori and Murphy? They’ve gotta be sorta gone, right? Or did they just not keep their names in order to get put on to mind drives for future resurrections?

So die....

Oh....yes. That’s what was in the water. Gabriel stuff.

Bellamy is furious. Damn it Gabriel is right.

Clarke....you’re Josephine is showing. Lol

So tense!

Damn. Gabriel is so weak.

Wow these people are so brainwashed.

Kinda love their outfits.

Gabriel laying it on thick. Good.

And the shield is down.

Bellamy having so much faith in his wifey. Love it!

COMMERCIAL BREAK THOUGHTS #4: SO much happened. Couldn’t type up my thoughts on it all. But....Emori and Murphy are still themselves, but it seems their bodies will still be taken over.....by siblings? Weird. Or are they just going to fake it for the people? I’m kinda confused at the plan the Primes have for them. Also not sure if Murphy and Emori are actually betraying. I know he said something to Echo that showed differently, I’m just really unsure how it is going to play out for him and Emori. Super confused. Still think that we’ve lost Abby. Which means a definite break of Clarke’s dignity and Josephine act most likely. Oh...and Bellamy being so certain of Clarke coming through? Such proud hubby vibes!

Bellamy and Echo hugs. Not my fave couple, but that is not what this is about at the moment.

Bellamy has Riker. Oh how will this go.

Here are the last ten minutes. All the drama is coming!

Don’t hurt Bellamy! Take your guns off of him!

Bellamy spreading some truths.

And the truth is out!

What is Russel doing? Ope. Is her releasing the Red Sun toxin?

Is everyone going to go ape shit on each other?

He’s disappointed?

And there goes the toxin.

At least some of them have anti-toxins.

Yes, make sure your people kill each other. Who ever is left gets to stay?

Awe Gaia loves Madi so much!

Kill the invaders! Oh no!

LAST COMMERCIAL BREAK THOUGHTS: So everything is going to shit and they are all separated again! Why must Clarke and Bellamy always be separated for their plans to work?! Also, do you think Clarke is about to find out about Abby? Because that will surely break her cover! Oh geeze! These last five minutes are going to be intense! And then we’ll get the trailer for the finale. Damn. At least we know season 7 is coming. That’s nice with everything. Just what characters will be joining us is the real question.

Kill or be killed.

Madi looks better.

And now she knows.

Crap.

Don’t break Clarke. Don’t break!

And she is breaking. But good for Gabriel to give her cover.

Damn. Now they’re going into space. Again. But only the Primes. Interesting.

And now Murphy and Emori know that Clarke is back.

And Gaia has been caught.

Clarke is so good. This is why she is the leader.

And the army is waiting. But cannot hold their ground due to prisoners. Nice.

Trailer: A little genocide a long nap. What the hell. Sounds like the Primes are going to try to use cryo.

#The 100 6x12 #the 100 spoilers #the 100 #bellarke #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #beliza #echo #raven reyes #abby griffin #emori #john murphy #jackson #madi griffin #heda madi #russell lightborne #6x12 #adjustment protocol #nightblood

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madrut16 · 5 years ago

Note

Tell us about your BB MC 😋

Thanks for the ask! You have no idea how much I wanted someone to ask about her (she's my favorite canon version and with all of my add ons). For those who don't know, my Bloodbound MC is Isabel Martinez.

How tall are they?

I'm going off of my face claim, Eiza González (I know everyone uses her for Priya but I really love her for Isabel and this MC face) who is 5'8". It definitely helps when she wants to look intimidating, esp when she wears high heels.

How do they tend to dress?

Her style is very classy chic with light and pastel colors and some neutrals as well.

Do they like how they look?

As a child she used to be very insecure about her height because she's always been taller than a lot of the girls but she eventually learned to embrace it and use it as a strength. Also she has some left over general insecurities from when she was with Derek (her horrible ex) who put her down a lot and made her feel super unconfident about herself including her appearance. But over the past year since leaving him she's worked really hard to regain that confidence and now she's really starting to love herself and realize her worth.

Are they an only child or do they have siblings?

Isabel has one actual sibling, Gabriel who's three years younger than she is and is at culinary school in Texas. She is also related to my TRR MC Delilah who is three years older. They're biologically cousins on her dad's side but consider each other sisters because Delilah's parents died after getting hit by a drunk driver when she was 10 and Isabel's parents assumed custody. So, Delilah is really attached to all of them but is really close with Isabel who helped her out the most in dealing with the deaths of her parents.

Are they a morning person or a night owl?

Isabel is a night owl for sure. It's a good thing she loves coffee because she needs it after waking up. This allowed her to adjust to Adrian's schedule and become somewhat nocturnal without much difficulty.

Are they a cat person or a dog person?

Both! She honestly can't pick one or the other. Because she grew up on a farm, she had two dogs, two indoor cats, three barn cats, a horse, and a bunch of livestock animals. It was practically a zoo. When she saves enough money and gets a big enough place, she wants to adopt one of each because she misses having them around now that she's in New York.

Got any favorite foods?

She's a major foodie in general so she enjoys most types but she especially likes southern and Mexican food because they're from a side of her family and she's grown up with it. She really enjoys anything fried, seafood, and garlic which is an obvious problem sometimes with Adrian. She's definitely had to cut back on how much she consumes. But, it also becomes her way of punishment whenever she's mad at him and she'll just eat so much garlic so that he can't get super close to her until whatever she's peeved about is resolved.

How about favorite drinks?

For the alcoholic kind she likes a lot of different things but her favorites are wine (every type depending on what she's eating and mood) and whiskey for when she wants something stronger. Her non-alcoholic favorites are Coca-Cola and super sweet lemonade.

What are their favorite movies/tv shows?

For movies she tends to like historical ones (history nerd), good adaptations of books, musicals, and certain action flicks. Her faves include the Night at the Museum series, To Kill a Mockingbird, Indiana Jones, the Post, and The Darkest Hour. She is kind of a movie buff but isn't obsessed.

For tv shows her favorites include a lot of vampire/supernatural ones such as Shadowhunters, Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and Grimm. She also loves a couple crime and procedural shows like Criminal Minds and Sherlock.

Do they have any hidden talents?

She does have some. She used to do Track and Field in high school and she also competed in dance and she still has a lot of moves from it. She can also sing pretty well which is why she loves kareoke so much. She also can play the piano pretty decently since she took lessons from elementary school all the way through to 12th grade (something Adrian finds out in an upcoming fic).

Do they believe in love at first sight?

While she's pretty optimistic and idealistic with her head in the clouds, she doesn't necessarily believe this. She can know that someone is her type and can develop crushes and feelings at first sight but that true love takes at least some time. It comes pretty quickly for her but not as soon as she meets someone. She needs to get to know someone first.

Who is their love interest?

Adrian if you couldn't tell by the times I've mentioned him above. Because she's such a history lover and intellectual she was immediately drawn to his love for that as well. She also believes that despite what Gaius has said about him and his actions at the club, etc that while he does have a layer of darkness that he can overcome it and that deep down he's ultimately a good person.

She also has a lot of platonic love for the others and she's becoming super close to all of them.

What are they afraid of?

She isn't really afraid of many things, especially after everything with Derek and becoming involved with the vampires. She's discovered a new, courageous side of her and has done things she never thought she would. But, she is afraid of failure and letting people down which is a lingering side affect of being with Derek that she'll probably always have with her. It's part of what makes her such a workaholic and perfectionist.

What are their guilty pleasures?

Again, the garlic can kind of count for this because she feels bad when she eats a lot of it around her vampire friends (unless she's mad). Also, sour candy especially sour gummy worms bc they're really unhealthy but she's addicted to them.

What was their dream job as a kid? Is it still their dream?

At first in elementary and middle school her dream job was President of the US and/or politician bc even then she was a low-key feminist and wanted to break glass ceilings. Then, in high school is when she first wanted to a career in business and to become a CEO or top executive. She loved the idea of getting to brainstorm and help run a company and make it better.

Have they ever broken a bone?

Quite a few times. As a kid she was pretty reckless and adventurous which led to injury prone hobbies. She's broken each arm and her nose twice, as well as her collarbone and leg once. And she's sprained her ankle and received a lot of bruises, cuts and black eyes.

Seriously, she found herself in the ER so many times, her parents still hang it over her head.

Have they ever broken the law?

The actual law, only for minor offenses like speeding tickets and one underage party where she found herself detained until her parents could come get her. In school, she had a huge phase when she was younger where she would get into fights to defend Gabe who got teased a lot or when boys said she couldn't do something bc she was a girl.

Even after she grew out of it by the time high school rolled around she wouldn't hesitate to intervene and verbally tell them off when he first came out and some students would call him horrible things. She scared them so much that eventually she went with Gabe everywhere and they didn't dare touch him.

Three random facts:

She's been managing things since high school when she ran a Taco stand with her brother Gabe where she took care of the logistics and sales while he made the food and it was really successful. Looking back it's still one of her favorite memories from her childhood.

She really loves reading classic literature especially Shakespeare. Her favorite works of his include Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III.

She also has a huge musical theatre obsession after going to watch all of the ones Gabe and Delilah were in. Her favorite thing to do since moving to New York is going to see the shows on Broadway. She tries to save up so that she can attend at least two each year.

Sorry this is so long and I accidentally posted this unfinished early. This basically became an essay about Isabel (and Adrian somewhat) so, hopefully you're still reading!

If anyone wants to ask about another MC, if I have enough brainstormed about them I'll be happy to answer it too. 😘❤️

#playchoices #choices stories you play #bloodbound #adrian x mc #adrian raines #adrian x isabel

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kadywicker · 5 years ago

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Good Omens//Star Trek//Brooklyn Nine-Nine :)

good omens

favorite male character: well aziraphale and crowley are both nonbinary so theyre my fave characters but they cant count for these two fasdfasdf sooooo adam, probably.

favorite female character: anathema!

least favorite character: gabriel. well. i love to hate him, anyway. he’s a fun character and i love jon hamm but i love so much to loathe gabriel.

prettiest character: aziraphale

funniest character: oh crowley absolutely so many of his lines just send me into a fit

favorite season: there’s only one im so sad

favorite episode: EPISODE 3 EPISODE 3 EPISODE 3-

favorite romantic ship: aziraphale/crowley ofc

favorite family ship: look okay i know the raphael thing isnt canon but it is in my head and i would die for the relationship between crowley and his siblings SPECIFICALLY lucifer like this all exists in my head but dont talk to me about it or i will cry

favorite friend ship: hmmm. probably crowley & anathema?

worst ship: okay again this is raphael hc specific im sorry but ppl in that fandom that actively make crowley & the archangels siblings AND THEN ship him w gabriel or lucifer im like literally are you okay are you fuckin- are you alright? lets not do that lets stop that. like for the love of god Enough. yall are giving us a bad reputation. like on their own crowley/gabriel or crowley/lucifer is- its weird its not my cup of tea but Whatever u kno but any of u freaks that make them brothers and THEN KEEP ON SHIPPING IT I-

star trek

favorite male character: JAMES TIBERIUS KIRK, MY SON BOY. but, also, i fucking LOVE q. tho i guess q is more nonb but i do have to profess my love for q at some point here. also, data. fucking love data.

favorite female character: oh this is a hard one. probablyyyy kira or deanna

least favorite character: FUCKING DUKAT.

prettiest character: oh great question. hmmm. uhura (aos & tos). or bashir.

funniest character: neelix bc he seems like he makes really bad dad jokes and i respect him for that. but in general probably worf but like. usually on accident. lov u worf.

favorite season: OH HM. i dont know that i have one but thats mostly bc i dont really keep track of things like that?

favorite episode: oh man. theres so many i cant pick one. any q episode ever but specifically tapestry, MEASURE OF A MAN i love measure of a man SO much, amok time of course, the wire, mirror mirror, aaaaaaaand conscience of a king

favorite romantic ship: again i cant pick just one bc i have one for each of my fave series lmao. for tos, definitely kirk/spock. for tng, q/picard. for ds9, garak/bashir

favorite family ship: benjamin and jake r so sweet i love them theyre a good father/son duo

favorite friend ship: miles & julian are excellent. i also love tos spock & uhura. picard & beverly (no i dont take criticism).

worst ship: i really really really REALLY REALLY hated garak/ziyal like it was SOOOO uncomfortable he was her dad’s age. picard/beverly got a little tiring. deanna/worf was just weird. odo/kira was a mess bc shes a lesbian and hes supposed to be w quark u kno. i also dont understand the surge in the aos fandom for kirk/khan like literally What.

b99

favorite male character: JAKE.

favorite female character: rosaaaaa

least favorite character: idk that i have one tbh i just hate the characters we’re supposed to hate u kno

prettiest character: also rosa

funniest character: holt fucking kills me

favorite season: again i dont usually pay attention to these things tbh

favorite episode: ooooh. i love the stakeout one its so fucking funny. any halloween episode of course.

favorite romantic ship: holt/kevin

favorite family ship: oh u kno i dont think i have one actually? a lot of b99 is about found family and i think thats more important than the familial relationships on the show

favorite friend ship: holt & jake :’)

worst ship: i dont think ive seen any weird ships actually so like. thank god.

send me a fandom and i’ll tell you...

#riddleblack246 #*answers

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seenashwrite · 6 years ago

Text

Walkthrough for “There But For The Grace”.

If interested - Go read it first before continuing on. This is about the plot point stuff (i/e - hints for the end, amongst other things) and the theological drops I sprinkled throughout.

I genuinely did not intend for this to cause brain freeze. Hoo-boy. Many sorry. There’s about a 40/60 split at this point of the “got its” vs. “didn’t quite got its”, so that’s on me. Not that it was incredibly necessary to catch the loop-di-loop in order to like it, though you might like it more once you know.

So I'll walk you through my thought process in the least disjointed manner I can manage. Which... hoo-boy, part deux. Tagging folks who commented on the story/to me directly, certainly no expectation on my part for you to read and/or reply. Seriously. Legit. Etc. And stuff.

This took longer to write than the story. #no lie

Okay, lotsa screencaps, so I don’t (a) end up c-p’ing the whole damn thing, and more the reason (b) so can underline.

And for ALL our brains’ sakes, I’ll call our dude Michael, and other world’s dude Mike from here on. Plotting stuff in red, theological stuff in blue, randoms (Nash Be Nashin’ and SPN canon stuff) in green.

The title is from that proverb “There but for the grace of God go I”, and as ye olde wiki explains....

....and then, there’s this:

Hopefully you picked up on something being “off” with how I was writing ol’ Mike as the story went on. I got slightly tricksy in some places on purpose regarding characterization, but hey - Mike and Michael are essentially the same angel in concept, just on different planes, right? And stuff apparently took a left turn when the apocalypse went through over yonder. So while they didn’t really re-tell the history of Apocaland beat-by-beat (thank Chuck), the inference I got is that the basic shit went down - he boots Luci after he rebels, etc. Blah blah blah, y’all know this.

Quote from Michael:

So maybe Mike came at it from the same angle when he killed his Luci. Who knows. Though I will say - if it was some sort of duty for him and not pleasure, I wouldn’t think there’d be boasting about pulling Luci apart, nor would the knee-jerk be to string him up and torture him, at least, if he’d suddenly re-appeared before me one day. YMMV.

This is good summary from the wiki, whoever wrote it did a bang up job:

Michael is meticulous. He slow-plays things. It’s not about being power-hungry; he had power. He was essentially God. For him, this is tied up in honor and loyalty and righting wrongs and all that jazz.

Again - that hesitation. He never stopped loving Lucifer - and Lucifer never stopped loving any of them, we see this big time in the Elysium ep when he “killed” Gabriel. Much internal conflict with these folks. And then there’s Mike, who iced (our) Gabriel and tortured (our) Lucifer in the blink of an eye.

There’s my characterization base of operations.

---> Could be interpreted as Michael or Mike - applies to both. Mike would find pleasure in taking inventory of what he planned to rule, how we aren’t worthy of anything but being subjects; Michael is perhaps glad to see plenty of justifications for what he feels he’s still destined to do.

---> “Learned” for Mike = the observing we saw in the finale, comparing-and-contrasting to his world; “learned” for Michael could be (a) via Dean’s mind, and / or (b) what he could’ve seen from Mike’s mind when he whooped his ass, a.k.a. Nash’s Sneaky Twisty Thing, re: Michael is now in Dean’s body.

So, how is that, Nash? you may ask.

Dunno.

Perhaps the distraction of Mike getting wailed on by Michael allowed Dean the opportunity to eject him, maybe Dean’s been wearing Mike down mentally. And though Dean/Sam - being the ideal hosts - have greater tolerance than us regulars, it’s gonna leave them weakened, it’s just got to. Hell, just being possessed by fill-in-the-blank leaves ya with the weeble-wobbles for a bit. Primo chance for Michael to set up shop in Dean.

Then, Nash, since angels need permission, how’d Michael do that? you may ask.

Occam’s razor --> Dean gave Michael “the soul”/”the entity”/whatever permission, and that goes across the realm, alt timelines/dimensions/whatnots. Or, maybe Dean chose the lesser of the two evils, so to speak - he’s boned at this interval anyhow, so if the opportunity arose, if it’s me, I’m choosing the frying pan over the fire - at least I’ve bought myself (and my loved ones, and the world) some time. Either of those work for what I intimated in the story.

Bottom line: however it went down, that’s for your imagination to choose.

A point that’s called back to later, as well as Nash Be Nashin’, RE: I’ve no idea why they opted to dress him in that style. There’s other stylings that are stark contrasts to Dean’s without going full-court-press cosplay, but whatevs. In any event, assuming my premise is taken - that the worlds played out the same for the most part and the ‘20s were a fave and would explain the wardrobe - this can apply to both Mike and Michael.

For those of you fortunate enough to have missed slogging through Sunday school, allow me: S&G was apparently a hotbed of sin, and they were gonna get the fire-and-brimstone treatment. Abraham asked angels who visited him if they’d spare the righteous, because there was at least one group there who was: his nephew Lot’s family. Two more angels were sent to investigate, Lot was awesome to them, welcomed them in without knowing they were angels, etc. So when time came to fire things up, the angels fessed up about who they were and why they were there, and told them (Lot and his crew) that they needed to just leave and not look back. And whoopsie, Lot’s wife found out that wasn’t metaphorical, as when she turned to get one last look at her home going up in flames, wha-BAM! She got turned into a pillar of salt.

So here might be the first subconscious “Hmmm” from your mind - that doesn’t really sync up with what we know of Mike. I don’t think he gives a shit about how much he sins to get what he wants. I bet he can’t even spell benevolence. Read this in Michael’s voice, though, and I hear that whole justifying thing again, the “don’t really want to, but got to” mindset.

See above, RE: “...but I labored more abundantly than them all”. Plus, speaks to arrogance, applicable to both Michael and Mike.

---> “The” earth, eh? ;)

---> Theology-wise, Michael’s only named a couple times, if memory serves... actually most of them are name dropped just a handful of times... did they namedrop Gabe as the one who told Mary she was preggers? I’m not looking it up.

Anyway, theologians have assigned certain “messages” delivered and punishments as being enacted by specific angels, I won’t go down that road here, I’ve no clue how they managed to arrive at those conclusions. Point is that Michael was a guardian, of heaven and of certain places/people on earth, depending on where God assigned. I wanna say Daniel and the lion’s den was one of them. Not looking that up, either.

---> "Temporarily”, hmmm.... that other world looked plenty definitively apoca-sized to me. In any event, floods is a ref to the Noah story, and if memory serves, Michael is thought by some to have been the “angel of death” that struck down the firstborn sons during the plagues of Egypt.

Also also - I’d speculate he’s taken on some self-imposed blame for Lucifer sneaking into the garden and tempting Adam & Eve, as he is so convicted in SPN land about righting the wrongs Lucifer brought upon the world, and that’s the event that kicked shit off.

---> O.T. (old testament) God took no shit, got smitey on a dime. New Testament God (a.k.a. - post-Jesus time) flipped a switch to a more fatherly figure.

---> The absence thing is SPN canon.

---> The differing legends is me thumbing my nose at their neglect of both their own canon and theology. #dammit Dabb

---> So, again, choose your poison - Luci getting into the garden, then Michael having to wage battle in heaven to boot him (and, let’s be real, he likely had followers that got nailed, too), etc. etc. etc.

---> The plans refer to the stuff up there from the wiki - that was an intricate damn plan. Deceptive, sure, but again that whole “bigger picture” mentality.

---> RE: beloved - yeah, that’s not sounding like the Mike we’ve been presented with.

Now that’s a pretty detailed thing to know about a random coffee joint in a random town in a random state in a strange world, wouldn’t you say? ;)

---> Trinities, trifectas, triples - threes are trendy numbers in stories and legends and oral tradition, so it comes up here multiple times, as well. And he’s talking about Jesus, of course, and the green Nashy line is me thinking “Wonder what he thought about Amara?”

(’Cause I’m of the thought that Amara + Chuck = God, yin-yang and all, but from the very black-and-white Michael’s perspective, I could see him playing nice but not buying into it, and I mean, he was part of the crew that banished her on Chuck’s orders, so there you go. He may not have even been privy to the scoop that they were the corporeal forms of light/dark, maybe just of the understanding that she was his meddling aunt, and of course he was gonna do whatever his dad told him to do. Anyhow, I think that adds additional texture to why it frustrates him so much that Luci couldn’t fall in line, why Luci always had to ask questions. ---> and that’s just me, there’s no way y’all could’ve inferred it from just that, you’re not psychic, I’m just sharing. I digress. I’m good for some heavy digressin’.)

There is a specific things-come-in-threes story that’s my baseline, but I’ll tell you further down after #3 hits.

On we go...

The chick we come to know as Grace does not catch his eye because she is pretty or sweet or in need of assistance or pouty or flirty or super-smart, or even beautiful or too shy and bookish, but if she’d just take off those damn glasses and let her hair out of that ponytail she might be, whatever trope you wanna throw on her - she’s a sinner, another hopeless sinner in a long line of humans who were/are fucking this joint up.

---> There’s several feet-washing stories in the Bible. I hate feet. That’s not in the Bible, and has no bearing here. Add it to your Nash factoids. Moving on.

The one I had in mind is below, and Imma c/p the pertinent parts because lazy. Bolding is mine, natch. In Luke 7....

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!”

40 Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.”

[parable]

44 Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [...] “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”

The other 4 gospels - Matthew, Mark & John - tell a similar story. (But in John’s the woman isn’t a random - it’s one of the sisters of Lazarus, the guy Jesus raised from the dead. #cool trivia digression)

--> “Hot as hell” and “thank God” is just Nash Be Nashin’.

--> Start of the main trinity (1A)

--> Again, he’s not digging on her because she’s so awesomesauce in some typical way; she’s a dichotomy to him, sin with sweet. He’s a black-and-white kind of guy (and pretty much every angel we’ve met). It’s interesting to him, that seeming heel-turn. We’ll call back to those verses above here in a bit, with respect to how he feels about her as he spends more time with her.

Quickie trinity.

Nash Be Nashin’.

Recurring theme, forgiveness; also - that sound like Mike to you? At least, at this point? Eh. Maybe. If he’s trying to manipulate. But on the other hand - if this were Mike - has she got something he wants/needs? Manipulate Dean, sure; manipulate rando server chick? Possible. But nah.

---> Would Mike ask that? Why would he care? But Michael might, trying to get a bead on this human. ‘Cause remember, this is an angel who has had sparing contact with humans since he’s been in charge, he’s been dispatching angels for the heavy lifting, he’s not been boots on the ground takin’ care of business for quite awhile. His only in-depth contact has been the Winchesters, and that was only when he had to step in.

---> Also, close siblings recurring theme (close because able to joke around as well as later, when she mentions he’d vent to her about his time in war but not to the same degree as he did the rest of their family)

---> the main trinity of this story, part deux (and don’t get ahead of me; fine, I’ll do it for you: no, Michael having the nickname I mention later isn’t Biblical)

---> Lucifer was called The Morning Star (see also dictionary, re: “luciferous”)

---> Now that would be a really pretty damn specific thing for Mike to know.

---> The keep an eye out - again, reinforcing the theme that Michael whiffed not seeing the Lucifer thing coming; also lawbreakers looking out for the authorities, a contrast with an authority - God/Michael/et al - looking out for wrongdoers.

---> Park with a sandbox, Nash Be Nashin’

---> Bit tricksy; could go to Mike coming from his world to here, could be Michael feeling like this is a world he doesn’t know anymore after all his time in the cage; regardless, sets a tone of “She gets me”

Whether you cotton to my assertion that Michael may feel guilt for not seeing the Lucifer stuff coming and preventing his initial ingress (Eden), it’s theology 101 that Lucifer brought all things evil and sin and demon and hell and blah blah blah to humankind. And Michael beat him in heaven, but it’s been less offense and more defense ever since; reacting to Luci vs. bringing the game to him. Which is what Michael was finally doing, when the Winchesters didn’t agree to be vessels and let it play out like he’d planned.

So, Saint Michael on the theology end, ruling heaven in Chuck’s absence on the SPN canon end, and Michael’s arrogant, to be sure. He assumed his plan would go off without a hitch, and maybe if it’d been the Hardy Boys instead of the Winchesters, it would’ve [shrugs]

---> Nash Be Nashin’ - trying to poke your subconscious to think about that shot of them falling into the hole, to the cage

---> Could we describe Mike as “broken”? I couldn’t. More to the point, does he behave as if he might consider himself “broken”? Hmmm.

---> I guess that last bit could go either way; for me, I’m thinking of how Lucifer must’ve behaved in the cage, which we got a taste of via Sam’s hallucinations, and perhaps it being too quiet once he was gone. Sometimes being left alone with your thoughts is a bad time.

Again, canon - Lucifer never met a quiet moment he didn’t wanna fill.

So this is just me doing a second sin in the sin trilogy for Michael, as well as adding another piece of common ground between him and Grace with the nickname thing. The only Biblical truth there is the whole “Mark of the Beast” thing. Next time you get drunk or lit on whatever, read you some Revelations, it’ll either knock you out the rest of the way or give you fantastic nightmares.

What I just said, RE: second part of the Michael Lies Super Easy When It Comes To This Chick trilogy. I mean, not really - it’s coming from a good place, he doesn’t want to scare her, and if he told her the truth, where would he even start? Especially with her not being religious. He’s so far behind the eight ball, he’s under the pool table.

---> So here’s the trinity tale that’s the base for why I put this in the story. It’s in all four gospels (Matthew/Mark/Luke/John), and it’s about how at the Last Supper (which happens right before the crucifixion of Jesus goes down), they’re talking about how one of them would betray Jesus (re: Judas), and an apostle named Peter speaks up.

(Oh! Speaking of, there’s another triple play for ya - Jesus ends up on a cross between two criminals. Okay, back to the passages)

Matthew:

Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

Mark:

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

Luke:

But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

John:

Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

---> Grace be shinin’, Nash Be Nashin’

---> What made him kiss her / risk the “sin”? She walked with him. (”Lord I am ready to go with you...”). She listened. She comforted him. She forgave him when he asked for it (re: for scaring her). She believed he wasn’t a horrible “person”. Prompted him to consider there might be a place/time where he wasn’t (see below, RE: “perhaps”).

A la....

But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [...] “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”

---> You may’ve noticed I didn’t call him Michael until Dean was gone during the kiss - that was on purpose. Because that was him making that decision, no (potential) Dean influence on board. And I didn’t have him call Dean by his name, being very distant throughout, until they talked about brothers, their common ground. He’s finding common ground with humans - a new kind of hallowed ground - versus being solely their guardian or their punisher, depending. This is (likely, hopefully) a good thing.

---> RE: sin - see below

---> This is your call to make - was it actually apple-flavored lip balm? Or was it strawberry/random fruity-flavored lip balm like Dean thought, and it just tasted like apples to Michael?

In any event, RE: “tasted like sin” - apples have been commonly used in art/stories as representing the fruit Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil back in the garden, a.k.a. - the original sin

HOME STRETCH!

[Full disclosure: based on early feedback, from here on out - if you were an early reader - you may notice there’s been a few tweaked lines since original publish, so I may be about to clarify things that are now - with the tweaks - obvious to you. I’m just sayin’.]

By this point, I’d hope you’d been kinda thinking, “I appreciate Nash’s effort to make Mike be not a complete asshole, but holy moly I have been suspending my disbelief like a mo-fo as this went on, why does he give a shit about this chick or about chatting with Dean all friendly, etc.”

---> That “Why didn’t we....” part should scream “THIS ISN’T MIKE”. I hope.

---> It’s been about 10 yrs. since Stull / when Michael took the dive

---> “Is there...” / “Perhaps” -- and maybe it’s this one. Maybe it’s the world he’s always known, but not been part of; remains to be seen. He’s a different dude. This ain’t the same angel that went into that cage. Like Chuck said - he’s a mess. Or maybe, now, could we say... was a mess? Hmmm. Different, though. Definitely different. Not terribly un-canon, not a huge jump to make, in my mind.

And, you know, The Cage was Luci’s big punishment, right? And he’s fine. Anytime we saw him, in the caboose version or just-been-sprung, he’s been same-ol’, same-ol’. So maybe it’s simply an isolation room, and it’s only been BAD-bad for Sam and Adam and Michael, because Luci was there messing with them, because he’s bored off his ass. That’s why I posit The Cage may not be anything beyond blank space, as it were, if Luci’s not present.

What Mike would “likely” bring? Nah. Mike’s on the express train to domination. He’s not messing around.

Nash Be Nashin’. I am, on occasion, poetic. “His” is a callback to “my Michael”, and the “g” in “grace” is lower case on purpose. [clears throat, c/ps from up yonder....]

Grace don’t come in just one form, yo. There’s lots floating out there. Just gotta pay attention. Know what to watch for.

And here’s the hammer:

Hmmmm....

---> Dean knows Mike’s been thinking of it; to quote Black Widow, that’s not a question that needs answering.

---> “Still”? “Do-over?” - Mike’s had his apocalypse. Do-over of what? That implies Mike’s tried to pull off Apocaworld, Part Deux here, and... he hasn’t tried at this point. He’d said they were already looking into what all other worlds they could get to before Jack’s birth caused our rift and they saw an opportunity for a better way, but Mike’s not taken a run at our world; Michael has. (Bit of a misleading, open-to-interpretation / could apply to Mike line, though, I grant you.)

---> “over there” - already mentioned “head to the cage”, ergo “there” is “cage”

---> “act” / “figure it out” - thaaaat’s nooot Miiiike, your subconscious sings!

---> Say I’m Mike.

I’m a tactical mofo. I know how to spot an enemy, it’s why I was gonna take out Jack emotionally if I couldn’t cripple him or kill him. I hit this new world. I’m inside a very handsome I MEAN powerful bod. I am locked and loaded. What’s first on the agenda now that I’ve got the ammo?

I take out potential threats. Dean’s an obstacle, true, but he’ll be tucked away going night-night for at least a bit, and I can likely wash-rinse-repeat as needed. Obstacle, though - he’s not an inherent threat to me. Lucifer’s out of the way. Raphael’s out of the way. Gabriel’s out of the way.

Oh. Oh noooes, FML: I’m not out of the way.

And holy shit - the holiest of all the shits - I could take myself out. Isn’t he in the Fort Knox of binding-thingy-traps-whatever?

But wait. Waaaaait, wait - that cage must be made of aluminum foil, I can see Dean’s memories. Some tacky decoder rings opened it up, his brother Sam got pulled from it, then the angel of death got Sam’s soul out of it, rando witch called up the caboose of it like it was Uber, Lucifer popped Dean and his crew in-and-out of it, and didn’t that demon Crowley use parts of it for some ill-explained ingredient to hold Lucifer hostage like it was melty MacGuffin cheese? Is there not a doorman or something?! Can they get pizza delivered down there, too, I mean TF?

Ooooh, now this is interesting. Chuckie told Dean Michael’s beyond his repair. Lucifer said Michael’s a mess... well. Consider that source. But still. Risk not too high, reward could be very high.

Yeah. I’m totes arrogant enough. This is gonna be a cake-walk.

---> Except... time moves differently in the cage, we know that. So Lucifer’s been gone for... hell, who knows how long. What state Michael might be in now is a mystery. He’s had time to regroup, at the very least, without his chief antagonist lording over him. So is it implausible that Michael could be the key to nailing Mike’s ass to the wall? Might it even be probable?

The board of directors at NashHole, Inc. voted “Yeeeeessss”.

Again, bro-love, evergreen recurring theme. So, here it is:

If I’m Michael, my perspective would be that Mike can handle his world how he pleases, and he did. But now he’s on my turf. I’m taking great umbrage with this power-hungry twin of mine coming over here and having the audacity to make decisions, take over my destiny, etc.

And then another part of it - Michael’s not only had a lot of time in the cage to get his mojo back, he’s also had time to process the whole situation, what led him to this place, the part he played. I’d imagine a part of him is still gripping onto his convictions, while on the other hand starting to realize that there are parts of this world - and people in this world - that already make it a paradise despite all that Lucifer/demons/the supernaturals have done.

Maybe an apocalypse isn’t the answer. Maybe Lucifer doesn’t have to die. Bottom line, that ain’t Mike’s call to make; it’s Michael’s.

Last thing!

Handful of you asked about how Mike would’ve opened the cage, how a fight would’ve gone down if Michael’s still in Adam, what about Adam, and my answer is - does it matter? I know, I know, that sounds snotty; it matters in the sense that you asked, so it matters to you. Where I’m coming from is that this isn’t what the story is about, not for me. But hey - you fill in those blanks however your heart desires, truly. Or pretend that twist at the end never happened, and think of this as Mike the whole way through. :)

.....

That cage is made of chewed gum and pipe cleaners, a hamster could get in there, I’m done, I’m DONE, okay bye.

@ellen-reincarnated1967 @waywardjoy @copperseraphim @bumbleball13 @inlovewith2dcharacters @impandagrl @theoriginalvicki @mrswhozeewhatsis @littlegreenplasticsoldier @butiaintgonnaloveem @salt-n-burn-em-all @sixtysevenandwhiskey @anticipate1003 @juppschmitz @smi727 @casismybae @jalove-wecallhimdean @salvachester

#Nash Responds #Nash Elaborates #and all over your faces #it's long #but interesting I hope #on god I didn't mean to make this complex #I wrote it over a few days #like maybe three hours #quick for me is my point #the graphic was more time consuming #so I assure you #'twas not intended #as a deep dive #oof #I'm so apologizing #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days

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miraculouspaon · 6 years ago

Note

8, 9, 24 and 28 for the fic thing!!

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

This is probably my favorite bit of dialogue I’ve ever written, it’s from Your Princess is in Another Castle, during the scene where Marinette is about to help rescue Adele from her captors, but Adele doesn’t know that:

“It’s interesting,” Adele said, ignoring the request. “You’ve clearly had some kind of training in this regard. If it were just you, I’d have a very difficult time doing a reading, but her,” Adele pointed to Marinette, “she’s clear as a bell. She’s barely had any training at all, right?” She studied Marinette for a moment. “Since when does the FBI hire thirteen year olds?” she asked.“I’m fifteen,” Marinette snapped before she could stop herself. Oh, God, that was officially the first thing she'd said to Adrien’s mother. Adele raised an eyebrow.“The question stands,” she said. “What is an untrained fifteen year old doing on this very dangerous mission? What, is it Bring Your Daughter To Work Day at the FBI or something?”“Ma’am, I sincerely hope I did not just hear you imply that I look old enough to be the mother of a fifteen year old girl,” Miller said. Adele didn’t answer, but instead just stood there silently in thought for a moment, before her expression narrowed.“You’re not… you're not a superhero, aren’t you?” Marinette started to turn bright red as Adele's eyes widened. “Well, that is interesting. Of course, now the question is, why on earth would you volunteer to help the FBI?”“Ma'am, I am really gonna have to ask you to leave my partner alone.”“Oh, but we have so much in common,” Adele said mockingly. “We’re both from Paris, we’re both-well, I'm not a superhero anymore, but I used to be, we…” Adele trailed off before narrowing her eyes yet again at Marinette. “Wait. A superhero from Paris… do you have a Miraculous?” Again, there was no need to wait for Marinette to give any response. “And you came here? Well, I certainly hope you people know what you’re doing, because if I just spent four years in captivity in order to keep my Miraculous away from Henrik only for you to come along with and hand him another one, I am going to be extremely put out. Which one do you have, anyway? Fox? Bee? Too much to hope you found mine, I suppose… good Lord, you don’t have one of the big ones, do you? Jesus, you do. Do you have any idea what kind of damage Henrik could do with a major Miraculous? I rejected mine because with it he could have taken over the world in a week, with yours it probably wouldn’t even take him until the end of the day, and you-”“Oh my God,” Marinette exclaimed, finally snapping, “I cannot believe I have been listening to everyone singing your praises nonstop for like a month now, you are the most annoying person I have ever met in my life.”

What I love about this scene, other than it just being like my favorite brand of awkward-in-the-middle-of-a-crisis, is that Adele is not behaving at all like how anyone would imagine in this scenario, she’s certainly not behaving anything like Marinette imagined when she imagined heroically rescuing Adrien’s mother, but it makes sense. She’s been held captive by her enemies for four years, she knows something is up but she doesn’t know what, and nobody’s fucking telling her anything. So she’s upset and she’s lashing out. I love playing with characters having limited information, and how that affects their decisions and behavior.

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

Heroes has certainly been the most work, no contest, it’s my most ambitious story, but aside from the final action-heavy chapters it didn’t fight me very much. No Happily Ever Afters might have had the most emotionally difficult scenes to write, particularly the one where Adele confronts Jonathan over everything he’s done, although Just Before Losing Everything is a close second on that-heck, I originally started writing Heroes to put off writing the Gabriel/Jonathan falling out. And The Diamonds in the Rough was difficult just because it got away from me, it was for a gift exchange with like a 1500 word minimum and it wound up being 12k-and it very much wanted to be longer, but there was a due date and I’d already gotten an extension. That fic might be the one I’m least happy with, just because the ending is rushed and could have been better if I’d had more time or if it hadn’t completely run away from me to begin with.

24. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

Mmmm not since I started writing for ML, but I think there were a few cringy fics I posted on ff.net back in 2002 that I managed to delete before my ability to log on to that account was forever lost to time.

28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Disclaimer: I read very little fic! There are, I’m quite certain, many many many very talented writers in this fandom that I don’t read. This is mostly because it’s difficult for me, as a writer, to stay in the headspace of my own fictional worlds if I am constantly indulging in the fictional worlds of others. I make very few exceptions to this, so don’t feel bad if you’re not one of them! That being said:

@gabriel-fucking-agreste: My fandom bff, her fics about my problematic faves are always the perfect mix of sexy and compelling. She’s the one who made me see the light on Nathalie! She inspires so much of what I write in turn as well. Definitely go check out her stuff!

@metawohoo: A Witch’s Familiar is easily the most emotionally devastated I’ve ever felt reading any fanfic, possibly just any story ever. If you like anything I’ve ever written, you will love this story, go read it right now.

@seasonofthegeek: Just For Tonight is killing me on like a daily basis at this point, it’s a problem. I love the world she’s created so much. Season has an incredible talent for taking the characters we all know and love, putting them in an entirely new world, and remaking them as her own.

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you-and-i-overwatch-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Jesse McCree X Reader - The First Training Session (drabble)

Hey there. This wasn’t a request, per se. I just had a cute idea going on for an O/C and my fave Cowboy and I wanted to put it out in writing. also I love young mccree ufff

Ana cleared her throat before speaking. “As you both know, this mission is critical. Gabriel and McCree have both gathered enough intel to move forward with the plan three weeks from today when our target returns to Dorado.” You simply nodded your head.

“Y/N, while you have been briefed with all the details, it is essential that you and McCree are able to communicate and work together since you two will encounter the target head on.” At this point Ana let out a small sigh, facing the cowboy.

“McCree, I trust you will be cooperative and act appropriately as I assign you both this training time together, is that clear?”

The young brunet sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, quickly wiping the smirk off his face, “Of course, ma'am. Will do…”

You rolled your eyes. This little shit, you thought.

As handsome and charismatic the young man was, from the minute you met him, he did nothing but shamelessly flirt with you, paying no mind to whoever was nearby and it seemed like he didn’t get the clue that you weren’t taking the bait no matter how much your body language screamed at him to back off. Still, it felt wrong to act rudely towards him. He wasn’t hurting anyone, but you did find him somewhat entertaining and unlike anyone you have ever met. He was… different.

Ana’s dark eyes met yours, “Y/N, I am sure you will be able to keep McCree here in place, but just in case he does get out of line…” she paused for a moment while Gabriel took a step closer to the cowboy.

The man placed a hand on McCree’s shoulder before speaking. “… You report any misconduct to me,” his voice low and almost threatening.

The young man let out a faint chuckle, “Don’t you go worryin’ ‘bout me, boss, I’ll be on my best behavior.” He looked at you and gave you a quick wink, making your face grow red.

Ana and Gabriel simultaneously let out a sigh at his remark.

The two of you both agreed to meet up at Overwatch’s training facilities at noon. You arrived early to prepare the equipment and load the necessary weapons the two of you would train with for the day.

You looked at your wristwatch and it read exactly 12:00PM. Not a moment had gone by when you suddenly heard a click, the door opening to reveal McCree. He wasted no time coming in.

“Hey there, partner. You’re here early, eager to see me?” he smirked.

You only scoffed, “uh… no. If anything, I’m surprised you actually showed up,” you retorted back while continuing to reload the gun you had in your hands.

“Now darlin’, that hurt.” He playfully pouted, “I wouldn’t let the team down… or you,” his dark chocolate eyes met yours, and he flashed a handsome smile.

You stammered before getting your words out. You tried to quickly change the subject, “S-so, McCree… Commander Reyes says you have serious skills with guns. Care for a demonstration?”

“I’d love to, darlin’,” he started, “and by the way…” he quickly unholstered his Peacekeeper, pointing it at a nearby target with incredible speed, all while his eyes stayed locked onto yours. “Name’s Jesse. Call me Jesse.” He then fired at the target, and you could swear he did all of this without batting an eye.

You both looked towards the target. A perfect mark. He let out a small chuckle, “Bullseye!”

You tried to hide your reaction, trying not to boost his ego, “Impressive… Jesse.”

He only smirked, “Much obliged. Now I been hearin’ from Ana that you’re not too bad yourself. Wanna show me what you got?” his tone sounding cheeky.

With the loaded weapon in your hands, you copied his fast movements, but chose a target that was much further away placed towards the back of the large, football stadium-sized room. Within seconds, you fired the weapon, hitting the target. Poor Jesse had to squint his eyes to see where you had shot.

“What? Thought I missed my mark?” you asked in a playful tone.

He let out a whistle, “Well I’ll be damned… I think you’ve been spendin’ too much time with Ana. That was right on the dot!”

You chuckled, “I do okay.”

“More than okay!” he started, “they sure weren’t kiddin’ when they said you had it all.” His remark definitely slapped a pink blush on your cheeks.

“Why thanks, cowboy…” you grabbed a heavier weapon and loaded it as well.

“Let’s say we really get started now?”

He flashed another smile at you again. So cute, damn him, you thought.

“I’d love to, darlin’,” he picked up his Peacekeeper and prepared his stance, aiming for another target to challenge yours.

The hours had seem to pass by so quickly. While this was considered training, no other previous training session had caused you to laugh and giggle nearly as much as this one did. Jesse was very much talented, and his time working alongside Gabriel and Ana had more than benefited his work ethic and skills. He cracked many jokes and sweet sayings in between, and you found him trying to rub an elbow or hand near yours, finding any possible excuse to make a little physical contact. You noticed this, of course, but you couldn’t find any way or reason to avoid it. Your initial impression of Jesse was not a good one, and you felt so guilty for judging him before getting to know the cowboy.

In between breaks, you both conversed about anything and everything that came to mind. You found yourself letting your guard down and couldn’t help but feel so smitten by the young man, and he was more than smitten by you, of course. The last conversation of the day, however, was nearing.

You spoke about the importance of this mission and why you were specifically chosen. It was then that Jesse discovered this mission signified a kind of closure for the death of your parents and marked the imminent downfall of the man responsible for their fates.

As you explained to Jesse how you had found your parents when you returned home that terrible night, you looked out the window at the sun beginning to set and all the horrible images of their lifeless bodies came rushing in. You could feel your eyes beginning to sting, tears threatening to fall.

You felt something warm softly tug at your hand. It was none other than Jesse’s hand, cupping yours. Your glistening eyes met with his as he sat on the ground next to you, something in his gaze looked so sad and mournful. “Oh, Y/N. I’m so sorry, darlin’…” his hushed words sounded ever so sincere, like he understood the exact pain that had scarred your soul.

All your sad thoughts suddenly paused for a moment as you looked at Jesse and took in the view. His gleaming eyes were sad, accompanied by his thick, furrowed eyebrows. There were a few, long brown strands that framed his face, and his hat slightly lowered. His mouth was slightly ajar, as he awaited your response.

A few seconds had gone by before you realized how long you were in this position. You quickly shook your head and broke eye contact, retreating your hand back out of his grip and into your lap.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making you feel all sorry for me…” you let out a sniffle, followed by a small chuckle, trying to ease the atmosphere.

He looked towards the window and noticed the setting sun. “Look here, darlin’. I know I’ve been quite the screw-up here, but I promise you, everything will go exactly accordin’ to plan when mission day comes. I won’t fail you,” he said softly.

With that he stood up and leaned down, signaling his hand to help you up. You gripped his large, soft hand, pulling you up.

“Thank you, Jesse. I really mean it…” you whispered, your hand still in his.

He cleared his throat, “Besides, doll…” he brought your hand towards his lips and placed a small kiss on the back of your hand, “I need to be there to make sure you can keep up with me.”

He smirked as you pulled your hand out of his grip. You could only roll your eyes at him, “Jesse McCree, I swear you’ll be the end of me…”

Jesse chuckled and headed towards the door. “Darlin’, I need to be headin’ out now. Gave my word to Reyes I’d be back before nightfall.”

“Of course. Don’t want you to miss your curfew,” you teased, sticking your tongue out at him, earning a smirk from the cowboy.

“You know somethin’, darlin’?” he opened the door and paused for a moment before walking out, “I’m gonna marry you some day,” he flashed you a wink before leaving, closing the door behind him.

“Whaa-” you started, but he ultimately left you speechless, your jaw dropped at his statement. You felt another blush coming on, but not before you looked at all the weaponry laid out on the table that needed to be put back in place.

“Jesse McCree, at least help me clean all of this up before you leave!” you yelled at him, knowing damn well he wasn’t going to pay any mind to that.

You only smiled. Damn that cowboy.

#mccree x reader #jesse mccree x reader #overwatch x reader #jesse mccree #mccree #ok i really love this cowboy

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kellendriaaa · 7 years ago

Text

Fate and choices

Chapter 1

Cast: Jack Kline; Rose Ceallaigh (Main OFC); Sam Winchester; Castiel; Dean Winchester; Gabriel; Lucifer; Tara Zendey (OFC); Clark Barker; Victoria Wellagan (OFC); Dolby Murray (OMC); Mitchell Inkle (OMC); Loris Lichens (OMC)

Pairings: Jack Kline/Rose Ceallaigh; Castiel/ Dean Winchester; Gabriel/Sam Winchester; Lucifer/Sam Winchester; Clark Barker/Tara Zendey and others...

Summary: Rose Ceallaigh, a student and part time waitress found an innocent boy, not that innocent in front of her building. Knowing that he ran away from his family not to escape them but to protect, Rose try to help him discovering a world she did not know who was right in front of her eyes.

He know basically nothing about the world, so Jack will learn what is love, burn, passion, joy and being hurt. He will learn how to be human, how to feel every emotions.

While Dean, Sam and Castiel are still trying to find him and finding that girl who is immune to supernatural powers when dealing with their own preoccupation.

Okay I sucks at summary too. I'm sorry please give it a try

Notes: I don't own Spn neither their amazing characters only mine so all the OFC and OMC. English is definitely not my first language (I'm french) so sorry for my many mistakes.

It's really slow, and basically nothing happens, I'm placing the characters and the context of their lives but I always put hints into my chapter. Sooo enjoy ! ^^

The music was ringing in the dinner. Heat of the moment by Asia was making her move her head while reading her document on the global warming; it is not that she did not like it. C’mon, she definitely love studying and learning about the environment and water and all of that but making a whole project about it seems heavy and way too much in her mind.

Except, that asshole naming Brennan, Mr. Brennan, do not even wait for her to come in the class to choose what she had to do.

Well, not exactly. Yes, global warming was the last subject but there was another one.

Fate and choices.

C’mon, how the hell were we supposed to do something with that. She was not really a fatalist (sometimes she was, after watching sappy movies. And knowing she will passed another valentine’s day watching other sappy movies) but apart from that she was believer and did not think everybody deserves hell.

…

Okay reading fanfiction on the net was enough for everybody to go straight to hell but at least she knew and was ready to run to hell with her fanfiction friends. However, all these peoples with a rough life do not necessarily deserves this. After her class discuss the subject of “Fate and choices” she was pretty sure, her classmates were demons or at least some dark creatures even if she do not believe in that.

So is she really a believer? That is a good subject! Better than all of them actually.

“Rose!” her boss shout, “less brooding and more working lil’ girl.”

“’m coming” she answer tying the knot of her apron correctly.

She was working as a waitress in the diner when school was over or before. For now 2 years and she freaking like it, everything was cool and people were kind (not always but most of them!) so was her boss. Mitch Inkle, soon to be, 60 years (they were preparing a little something for the event) and four marriage in the counter, well four-failed marriage so four divorce. He was immune to marriage now.

“Why don’t you shout Vic name when she’s obviously sleeping in some corner of the house huh?” she complained while dressing the table, “’m pretty sure she’s your fave here.”

“Yeah maybe, she gives me chocolate cake every day not like you and the rest of this damn house.” He shout the rest of the sentence so everybody hear him, then everybody laughed.

“We, on the contrary, care about your health old man so don’t complain,” says Loris, another waiter.

“Yo Loris,” start Vic finally out of her beauty sleep, “can we talk about all the cigs you smoking? We should have another big conversation about how your ass will burn with these things.”

“My ass will be cooked perfectly just waiting to be eat hon’,” he says laughing.

This was her day, joking around before the opening. Her coworkers became her family.

Today was a chill day, clients were calm and all, no problem happen.

Yet.

Nothing happen before these guys came into the diner. ‘They look freaking weird’ she said to herself. They were four, a guy with a trench coat (like who still wear that?) giving his soul with his eyes to the guy who look a squirrel. Actually, they were giving each other heart eyes but seems deep in Narnia. Then there was the giant one and goddamn it he was tall as hell. Probably Eiffel tower height.

How did he even walk correctly and the hair! Is he doing an ad for L’Oréal or what? Well, the giant one was in front of a young guy, looking like the trench coat guy. Seems lost, like a kid.

Did they kidnap him?

“Rose! I’m tired of screaming your name all the time,” Mitch, who was right next to her scream laughing, “go ask these guys what they want lil’ girl.”

“I’LL GO!” she screamed in his ears going to the weird team. “Hey guys! What can I get you?”

“What is the most delicious and greasy thing you have?” The squirrel asked. She laughed while the giant one just rolls his eyes.

“The Mr. and Mrs. Is the biggest and greasy thing I eat here and it makes regret it the day after. But hell it was all worth it.”

“Yep,” said Vic staying next to me, the smile on her face becoming bigger showing all her teeth and she got so many teeth. “Big, delicious and mouth orgasming. You’ll feel it all over your body, trust me I know.”

Was she flirting with the squirrel? He is way too in love wi-

“Well, I’ll take it then,” he says winking at her with a smirk.

Not so in love I think. Or just too much in the closet. That done, she wrote down his command and went for the others while Vic went to tell Dolby, the cook, what she needed.

“Soooo, what about the others?”

“Egg and bacon,” said the giant one, “with water.”

“Nothing for me.” The trench coat.

The last one seems to search very deeply, what he wanted to choose. Rose feet were hurting her in these damn shoes. Too small for her feet but what can she say when it was calling for her, screaming her name for her to come and buy them.

But right now, she regretted it more than anything, how something so pure and beautiful could be so evil. The fact that the young one seems to be searching excessively long did not help at all, even if he was cute when he was concentrating.

“Ooooookay, he’ll take egg and bacon,” the savor, who was the giant one, say.

She nodded then go to Dolby while she saw Vic adjusting her clothes, opening the button of her shirt then going to serve the squirrel. Rose thought that she should probably tell her that he was not that type of guy but then she thought about how he reacted to her poor attempt of flirting then let it go. She sit at the bar checking her text.

Tara

Hey booboo, your still in work or?

11.17AM

She loved that woman but she hates her grammatical errors. She answered rapidly.

Rosie

You’re* and yup still. What about you?

11.26AM

Tara

Shut up, just finished some stuff, about to go to you. Need some burger with a lot of bacon asap

11.28AM

Rosie

It’ll be waiting for you. Love ya xx

11.28AM

Tara

Same here xx

11.29AM

She put her phone into her apron and take the plates, sighing when she knew rush hour is about to come. She walk toward the team giving them their plates.

“So 2 eggs and bacons for the two of you and hot sauce for the guy here,” she gives the hot sauce to the squirrel, “’m sorry she forgot it.”

They nodded and started to eat. They really really freaking really seems weird and she was pretty sure she saw a blade in the giant one coat but maybe eyes were becoming tired. Anyways, she waited for Tara and not long after she saw the old red mustang parking and her best friend coming into the diner hugging her closely.

“I don’t know how that old car is still rolling.”

“My baby is tough, she’s the strongest person I’ve ever see in my life,” Tara answered, her car was her life literally, she was taking care of that car more than herself sometimes. “You done? ‘m taking the food home.”

“Just wait until this table is done then ‘m all yours.”

She was about to tell Mitch that she was done then something inside her twist. Maybe her instinct but she take Tara and throw her down, using her body as a shield against whatever that happen. Probably an explosion, her head was tripping, she hears gunshot, then a big light in the dinner but her head was too dizzy to focus, she tried to see if Tara was good but her face was full of blood, same for her arm then nothing.

TV was on, probably SpongeBob because she knew every episodes of this show. The smell were horrendous, it was a hospital. She was in a hospital. What the hell was she doing in a hospital, she tried to move but every part of her body hurt even part she didn’t knew exist were hurting her.

The first things she saw was white, too bright, too white and too clean. There was a face smiling at her, face she recognize as Tara. She try to smile back but her lips was drier than the Brennan bald ass so she tried to move but Tara stopped her.

“Hey easy booboo, you take some good shot here.”

Rose wet her lips, her mouth feels weird, disgusting just like hospital. Like death.

“Stop being overdramatic about the hospital, it’s not death,” Tara say laughing slightly.

“Ho… How?”

“I know you, how do you feel?”

She adjusted herself in the bed.

“Like a 2 trucks went over me then a train came and end the job.” She respond scanning the room, there was SpongeBob at the TV and men in front of her, men in suit. Black suit and sexy suit. Weren’t the guys from the dinner? Tara saw Rose confusion about the two men standing and watching her like a mouse in a laboratory.

“Booboo, these guys are the FBI and they want to ask you some questions if you want.”

She nods quietly. She knew something were weird with these guys but FBI, she did not except this.

“Hi Rose I assume,” say the giant one, Rose nod, “I’m agent Smith and this is agent Wesson,” he continue pointing the squirrel. “We want to ask you some questions about the attack at the diner.”

She nodded again.

“What do you remember?” asked agent Wesson.

“Not much, I was about to tell my boss that I was going with Tara then… then… I don’t know I felt something coming so I pull Tara away, then nothing much after that.” Rose answered. “By the way, Tara your face was full of blood and… and… how?”

“How what?” She answered not sure.

“How did all the blah on your face is gone, it looks like nothing happened.”

Tara looked at the agents then at Rose.

“You protected me, which is by the way the last time you do such a stupid thing, you were the one who was damaged booboo.”

Rose was sure and certain that Tara’s face was disfigure but she did not remembered a lot so she let that go. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks. Still, she was curious about what could have happened.

“Do you know what happened?” Rose asked.

“An attack, we’re working on these missing people, did you hear about it Rose?” Asked agent Smith.

“Yeah, they’re talking about it at school apparently these guys were going in and out the old house, at the end of the street. A haunted house or something.”

They seems interested, the three looked at each other then at Rose.

“Which one?” Asked Wesson.

“Pink with an angel on the porch, you cannot miss it, it’s the only old house around.”

“Thank you, we’ll let you rest now,” said agent Smith.

She didn’t hear about them after that. C’mon agent Smith and Wesson, were they that obvious? Why not agent Beyoncé and Jay-z?

Months after that, life was still the same nothing more or nothing less. Tara was in one of her many traveling, so Rose was mostly alone at home but she likes it. She loved chilling on her big comfy couch while watching TV, with some shows or Marvel movies. She loooooooved Marvel since the day Tara bought her, her first comic book as a birthday gift, it was almost 5 years ago. She was 18 years old and it was her first gift. She still have it, cherished it since this day. Since her 17 she lived alone, ran away from abusive parents and found that beautiful woman who helped her and raise her up when everything was down. She owed Tara her actual life even if she was working in a little diner, struggling with school, she has never been happier than right now.

Today was Mitch’s birthday surprise. The regular customer knew about it, so they were acting differently on purpose. The old lady, Mrs. Marks, was upset about everything, complaining all the time so Mitch would take care of her, living the employees to plan the surprise. Dolby did an amazing cake who was in the fridge, Vic took care of ours and Mitch’s clothes, Loris make sure that Mitch was away during the preparation.

“Goddamn! Where is Rose? Or Vic?”

“Calm down Mitchie, Loris is in the place why don’t you go and see what Mrs. Marks needs huh?”

He shook his head, refusing to go again and hear about how stupid those teenagers, being taller and provocative than ever are.

“No, hell to the no, I love her but not today,” he begin then whispering the last part, “I just want slit her throat and burn her at the moment, go with her and I’ll see the new one.”

Loris laugh, it was amusing to see how the charming and loveable Mitch could be when things get out of his control. Loris went to Mrs. Marks thanking her then went to see how things were going in the kitchen with the girls and Dolby.

“Yo! Is everything ready ‘cause Mitchie is about to freak out and kill everybody.”

“Yup, almost done,” said Rose, “go and change ‘m gonna shut down the power.”

They all nodded, so she did it and called for Mitch to see what was happening, he was almost relieved to get away from the constant stress and check everything making sure it was alright but he and Rose came back, there was no light in the dinner just a little bit the cake’s candle then everybody screamed.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITCHELL!!”

Rose has barely seen Mitch crying and it was one these moments she will forever keep.

The party was good, they were so many gift it took him 1 hour to open them all, from the customers, the employees, his kids and even ex-wives, same for his family. Mitch is someone you cannot not love. He was like that and Rose like it this way.

After the cleaning, Loris dropped her at the nearest bus station so she could take a bus go straight home. It was late and very dark and that part of the city was not full of light. So she took her phone from her backpack and use the lamp torch to see through her way home.

Everything was fine when she saw a body sitting on the ground, her first reflex is to run to him and see what is happening because he seemed hurt. The truth, he was full of blood and there was a cut on his lips. She tried to wake the guy up but he was totally down.

So she shake him a little bit, trying to have a reaction from him, he open his eyes, looking at Rose. She try to make him stand up but it was hard since he was about to collapse.

“Damn!” She curse and put him on his feet nevertheless. “Yeah, that’s it hold onto me big guy. ‘m taking you to my house. Do you understand?”

He nod so at least he was still conscious. She hold him through the way his arms around her shoulders while she was holding him from behind, going upstairs slowly until they make it to her door so she try her best and open it taking him directly to her room so he can sleep on the bed. She close the door and lock it twice to be sure. Then run to her bathroom taking all the medical care she got. She put some alcohol on a compress, cleaning his head and his lips.

The guy was beautiful, soft pink lips, beautiful features. Looking like an angel.

But she didn’t stop, she keep searching for other marks or cut but his clothes full of blood did not help at all so she try to find something that could fit him. And there was her ex-boyfriend’s clothes who can fit him so trying her best to not look, Rose undressed him, cleaning the bruises every time she finds some, and put the fresh cleaned clothes on him.

After putting the bloody clothes in the washing machine, she put the covers on him and turn on the heater so that he will not be cold then clothes the door letting him sleep.

She start questioning herself. First of all, what the actual fuck? What will happen if the boy was a killer or something like that? However, a killer would not be in that state huh? He would’ve been the one putting someone in that way so no, well she hope no.

Trying to keep her mind out of this, she started working on her school project. Doing research and writing down everything that seemed important in no order, after she will put all the ideas and information in order.

When she looked at the watch, it says 02:54 AM.

She scratched her eyes not being sure of what she was watching.

And indeed it was not 02:54 AM but 06:24 AM, it was worse so she stopped everything and let her body fall on the couch and sleep.

Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4

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animatical-fandoms · 6 years ago

Text

Upcoming Fanart Info!

I finished my @kwamiswaps week art a few minutes ago, and boy let me tell you, it took forever. It’s just tagged and put in my queue for each day (I think each is scheduled for like 9-10 AM or something my time? So a few things to note about each character if y’all are interested, I have basic info below the cut about each swap and my basic headcanons about it.

If I tagged you below the cut, it means I used your existing au as inspiration for some of my designs in the coming week, and I wanted to credit you as inspiration before my queue catches up!

Tikki

Adrien - Okay just, whatever happens in canon, all that I ask is that Adrien calls Mari “Chaton”/”Kitty” it will warm my dead, dead heart understand?

Alya - basically my personal design for @lunian‘s Ladybird AU. It’s awesome, go read their comics and stuff! I just like Alya’s Rena cape thing, so I went for ladybug wings - Fennette will be a thing too for Trixx’s day!

Nino - The fact of the matter is in this AU, Mari was like Nino is the responsible level-headed person of this friend group he’d make the best superhero and gives him the ladybug miraculous. He and Chat!Adrien are the best of friends, and Adrien lowkey crushes on him almost as bad as Mari!Ladybug.

Chloe - yeah, my interpretation of the wonderful @zoe-oneesama‘s Scarlet Lady AU. My version of Marigold will get featured, too :)

Luka - Plain and simple, Master Fu showed up a few years earlier, and ran into this kindhearted musician before Mari. TBH Luka is one of my faves, so he’s going to show up for the majority of the week because I loved playing around with designs for him

Felix - He doesn’t get cursed with bad luck, but with a kwami that insists he be responsible and help poor Lady Noir (Bridgette) break her curse. He’s gentler, kinder as a bug than as Felix, always happy to help others and to calm akuma victims after a fight. He’s drawn to Lady Noir, ever melancholy and mysterious, and lets himself loose with an edge against Bridgette because that’s how he’s always been.

Plagg

Marinette - Again, based off of the canon leaked art. I just really, really hope she’ll call Adrien some version of My Lady, and make at least one cat pun, either unintentionally or specifically for Adrien’s benefit so he can squeal over it.

Alya - Instead of Master Fu picking Adrien, he asks New Ladybug who she would like by her side. Obviously Alya is the first choice, and she’s ecstatic to be a superhero, keeping the Ladyblog focused on Ladybug because, you know, she can’t record herself. Nino and Adrien crush HARD on the new superheroes, and while that frustrates Mari, Alya is absolutely delighted.

Nino - Adrien pulls a Marinette, afraid that he’ll get caught since he’s under so much scrutiny as a model with a ton of visibility, and though it physically pains him to not fulfill his magical girl dreams, he knows Nino would be an amazing hero. Nino takes it in stride, and he and Mari!Ladybug are the bros to end all bros. Alya, crushing on Chat!Nino, creates both the Ladyblog and another blog dedicated to Nino’s alter ego. His thought? Best girlfriend ever.

Chloe - I don’t really know how this would happen unless Adrien did the above, but with Chloe, thinking her confidence would be an asset? Mari as Ladybug would be irritated by Mistress Noir, but it becomes a series of growing moments for Chloe, because she gets to see what a destructive force she really can be on people’s lives and gets better at the Friend Thing.

Luka - My boy omg this one was fun to draw. So

Bridgette - Reverse PV like Luka’s - Bridgette thought her luck was bad enough with her being unable to speak at a normal pace and pitch in front of her crush, not to mention her clumsiness makes her look like a fool in front of him during their dance classes. Now she’s cursed with a tiny god of destruction and a Perfect Superhero Partner - well, at least her clumsiness disappears when she’s Lady Noir. A shadow to Lordbug’s light. She knows it’s as hopeless to try and break her curse with him as it is to get together with Felix, so she just stands aside as his protector.

Trixx

Marinette - See the Ladybird AU with Alya; I couldn’t help myself!

Adrien - In the world where Alya is Chat and Mari is Ladybug, the two need help against the multiplying twins, same as before. Except Mari goes to lonely Adrien who she knows would be amazing.

Nino - The above babysitting disaster happens to be Nino’s little cousin, Chris, rather than Alya’s sisters, so Mari offers the fox miraculous to him. He and Adrien get to be bros for all sides of the mask. Alya makes an entirely new blog dedicated to the new fox.

Chloe - I really don’t know how she would get her hands on the fox, unless she made like Queen Bee and stole it, which I suppose is plausible. Maybe I can do way better than Lila because I won’t be faking it kind of thing?

Luka - He probably would get this if another akuma was the reason they needed the Fox - maybe if Fu gave it to Ladybug while his mom was akumatized and he was worried about everyone’s safety.

Felix - He was free of the Black Cat’s curse, and the miraculous could no longer be his. It got passed to Adrien through Fu without him knowing, and as soon as he sees his little brother vaulting across the city in a catsuit (without stripper boots, what the hell Plagg why did you make me suffer this way) he storms up to Fu’s place and says give me the fox those are children my god and becomes Mentor #1 to the new Chat and Ladybug. Naturally, no one catches on that he’s himself. He’s a professional at this secret identity thing.

Wayzz

Marinette - In the world where Nino and Adrien are Ladybug and Chat respectively, Alya has been chosen as the fox. During Anansi, though, she’s captured - so Nino’s like omg Marinette could be the turtle and Marinette, upon receiving it, is having major panic mode set in, but you know, she does her best. Adrien takes a look at her protecting them and is like omg my Lady, a la Alya knowing exactly who Carapace was, but he keeps it to himself, and becomes more comfortable and flirty with Mari.

Adrien - Don’t know if this fits in with any of the others . . . but probably Chat!Chloe verse, and Marinette is like please can you be my partner forever

Alya - Instead of her getting kidnapped during Anansi, it’s Nino, since Nora had a beef with him being too girly. She totally saves him and fangirls over being a superhero and he just knows.

Chloe - How did this happen? I’m not even sure. But her being on the defensive is so out of character that I can’t even begin to rationalize it.

Luka - Both Alya and Nino are unavailable during Anansi, so Marinette is like, Luka was super helpful on the boat and is super nice let’s do this.

Pollen

Marinette - Marigold from the Lady Scarlet universe!

Adrien - From the universe where Chloe ends up as Chat, Marinette is super protective of this sunshine bee boy

Alya - Marinette actually? Gets the Bee Miraculous to Alya instead of losing it to Chloe?

Nino - Mari’s mind goes to Nino instead of Alya when the Bee is needed, and she makes it to him.

Alix - After seeing her do so awesome with Reverser, Marinette turns to Alix for help as the Bee.

Max - well, I don’t have too much of a headcanon for him, but kwamiswaps did a fanfic, so that’’s what this design is for! (I did little suspender stripes without meaning to omg I really do like how it turned out)

Dusuu

Marinette - I suppose in this AU, the Peacock wasn’t damaged, just disappeared - and, while visiting Adrien for a study session, she ends up with a new bird friend.

Adrien - He inherits it from his mom okay??? Like, Fu has it and knows and is like your mother would have wanted you to have this. And this pisses off Hawkmoth to no end because he thinks whoever stole it is Definitely Not Adrien and is disgracing his wife’s name and just more angst than I expected for this Bird Boy (which, of course, makes the running gag that he’s allergic to feathers hilarious - Dusuu does make him sneeze if they get in his face, but when he transforms he doesn’t have his allergy.

Alya - Swap the Peacock for the Fox - let’s just say Hawkmoth had a direct source to mess with Lila. Instead of illusions on the night the twins start multiplying, she creates a summoned creature to lure them all together.

Nino - The Peacock was damaged still, but Nino was willing to risk that to save his girlfriend and the city.

Chloe - Somehow, since the Mayor was friends with Gabriel and his wife, he ended up in possession of the Peacock before Gabriel knew what it was. Chloe gets her hands on it relatively at the same time she would have gotten the Bee and is just as Extra.

Jagged - Who knows? It was necessary to make this once it was suggested. Let it happen. He deserves to be a flashy birb.

Nooroo

Marinette - Mayura is the main villain in this universe, and Emilie is comatose because of a damaged Ladybug Miraculous. Adrien is still Chat, but he makes “my wings” and “my little butterfly” comments rather than “My Lady”. Gabriel has Nathalie generally doing his dirty work, and he calls Emilie his lady. It’s very sad and angsty. Mari uses her friends’ best qualities to fight against the beasts Mayura creates.

Adrien - He’s been Chat for some time, but now Gabriel has been revealed to him and Mari, and he gets really, really angry, and steals the miraculous as Adrien. This is a Problem. Plagg is concerned Adrien is getting too angry to deal with powers of destruction full-time, so Adrien brings him to Fu and alternates between Plagg and Nooroo, and he confronts Gabriel a lot as the Butterfly because betrayal reasons. Ladybug is concerned, but she trusts him and that’s what gets him through.

Nino - He is So Supportive of his friends, okay? He gets chosen as the Butterfly holder when, say, Bridgette has the Turtle and they manage to take it from Hawkmoth but still need help getting the Peacock or some other stolen one.

Chloe - Okay, this version of Chloe does not get a redemption arc, like, ever - she’s Hawkmoth. Straight up. She starts every akuma purposefully, becomes a villain, etc. Don’t ask why; I don’t know - attention? I prefer Redeemed!Chloe, but I feel like she’d totally be past saving as this particular supervillain.

Kagami - She’s a fencer, the Butterfly has a sword/cane, it’s a match! Adrien gets to pick some new holders in my personal headcanon. Let’s say while the Mouse and Snake go to Mari and Luka, they get the Butterfly so Adrien chooses Kagami because she tried to help him and she wouldn’t let her emotions get in the way when she chooses people with her powers. (I didn’t like my original Alya design for the butterfly, so we get Kagami instead!)

Felix - Brother!AU. He was Chat Noir when he was younger, has been abroad with Bridgette, and comes home to see the canon situation. He is Not Fooled by Adrien, Mari, anyone - he’s been there, and he has distance of not knowing most of the people involved, so he gets very, very, angry. He knows his father is Hawkmoth. So he steals the butterfly and sides with Ladybug and Chat Noir, who are both thankful but confused at this new Butterfly who’s So Angry - Adrien doesn’t figure it out, but he comforts Felix without meaning to and Felix is so touched. Felix eventually reveals that he knows who the previous Hawkmoth and the current (insert villain name) is - Gabriel Agreste. Obviously disbelief and angst, but he reveals himself and is like I am the last person to want Gabriel to be a supervillain so yeah and Agreste brotherly bonding and HawkDad butt-kicking and there.

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