#good and wonderful forever the end

[the-halfling-prince]

Rewatched BMW episode Cult Fiction for the first time in like 6 years. Thoughts below

Ough

[turtleblogatlast]

Leo learns something about himself 🏳️‍⚧️

Based roughly on this old post.

Bonus:

[Leo is taking the fact that he was born biologically female simultaneously very well and also not so well but overall he’s mostly coping with the fact that it was Draxum that just essentially gave him the turtle equivalent of ‘The Talk’.]

[suddenly-stickmin]

"Woah, it's really coming down." ___________

It's been raining a lot here lately, the clouds turn to this really nice sea-green color, so I wanted to make something inspired off of that! The music used here is "Learning Spy". I was listening to it while coloring n thought it suited the rain-vibes nicely.

[proodence]

I'm rewatching Alex Rider for like the 7th time but with my boyfriend and guys season 2 is so fucking good SEASON 2 IS SOOO GOOD

Alex being such a cheeky brat with the department and Alan Blunt losing his mind because Alex is being so clever and annoying

The slowly building mystery with all the pieces that gradually come together

Alex and Kyra being so cute with the washer and "survivors club" and "keeping score" of who has saved each other's life the most (and the end scene where he's looking up at her from the stage🥹😭)

Jack having her own storyline that actually serves the story and gives her character a purpose

Tom and Kyra both helping to progress the plot in ways that are genuinely required from them and makes sense for their characters

The subtle hints that Yassen is going to wind up helping Alex in the end, the way his character gradually becomes more complex with each episode

Alex just generally being so smart, so resourceful, so capable and just really encompassing his character, not to mention the genuine depth that comes from his trauma + him accidentally getting people killed over the course of the season (Blunt telling him he has blood on his hands)

The tension that builds within The Department as Smithers and Mrs. Jones start keeping secrets from Blunt about Alex

Damian Cray just getting absolutely dogpiled by Alex and the gang who just keep screwing over his plan again and again

Alex and Yassen FINALLY having a full conversation and it holds so much weight and hits so good

The part where Sabina cracks Anders over the head with her own laptop (honorable mention)

All the cheeky light hearted bits where the kids are just being shitheads with too much power, like cutting off the electricity to the whole postal code just to use the computer lab

And then on the flip the angst that comes from literally no one believing Alex about anything for like 60% of the season

It's just scene after scene of "oH THIS PARTS SO GOOD" and it doesn't stop until the very end

has it been long enough that I can say that season 3 just doesn't hit the same😭

[skunkes]

if life is categorized by Before Loss and After Loss then I exist in the before but with a countdown to the after. and the countdown is always always present and debilitating. the loss will be debilitating too but i cant help myself. i will always suffer twice.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 18 thoughts

although i tend to care less about episodes that center upon aliens, i found myself intrigued by this episode and constantly wondering what was going to happen next- which i would take to be the mark of a successful episode! when we can get some big plot gears moving AND insightful character analysis, i'm gonna be sat

there were a few moments in particular that made me lose my MIND. you will see what i mean.

but let's return to the me from a few hours ago, who did not know what was coming, and was writing live on the scene:

we’re BACK. after a pause of… however many days??? 4, maybe? too many. i will need the little recap they stick on the second half of the two parters this time. and just to be safe, i’ll go over my notes again, too.

okay, i’m refreshed. there was diving, there was pendrell, there was a guy named frish who i still don’t trust.

reading the episode description… mulder getting placed under arrest… fork spotted in kitchen. let us resume.

the recap reminds us that somebody stole a bunch of watches, mustache man was spray painting one of the bodies from the plane crash (?) and then he burst into the bar where frish and scully were hanging out. and you may recall, that Things Went Down.

but now we begin with the new events.

mulder in the lake…. damn, filming that had to be awful. he is being approached underwater!!! by two divers…. he seems to have narrowly escaped them

oh they are looking for HIM, it appears. at first, i thought they were alien divers coming for their lost comrade. not sure if the aliens understand solidarity like we do. each time one of 'em dies they seem to just... leave their body on earth.

here we see a sad man in a wetsuit (mulder) being caught by a jeep. despite racing a moving vehicle and therefore being destined to lose, he gives it his best go. only to be arrested!

how undignified, to be arrested in a dive suit…

(intro time)

hey- the intro was different again!! don’t think i didn’t notice…

(they must have a version that is a few seconds shorter that they bust out for the really jam-packed episodes, because by this point i am not surprised by it, but it still is jarring that the typical rhythm is broken up)

back to the bar with scully, pendrell, frish, and mustache man. 

it appears that pendrell was shot in the chest, which is not promising. scully tells him she will be right back as she makes a break for the mustache man.

but where did he GO?!?!? how did he get away!! he was dripping blood!!!

(is HE an alien???? we may never know)

the police roll up and scully flashes her badge to them as they arrive late and confused as per usual!! smh!!!

a guy from the EMT squad is telling people to let scully through the crowded bar, and i appreciate him for that. we need more people advocating for her. it is hard to be a genius and also small.

AWWWW pendrell no... oh sweet scully :( she’s trying to stop the bleeding and she keeps saying he’s going to be okay and “we still haven’t celebrated my birthday, pendrell, i’m not gonna let you off the hook like this” <- the way she was trying to comfort him and give him hope is going to make me cry

(i know he’s busy dying, but it also must be insane to watch the woman you have a crush on shoving towels into your gaping bullet hole wound while she is covered in your blood. might need to try that sometime if the chance ever comes)

and he smiles because he’s down bad. but at least he smiles.

she says he has a puncture in his right lung. which sounds very bad. but she tells the EMT he’s FBI and will NOT die. i wonder if she believes that, and that is her Firm Doctor Opinion, or if she is just saying that because she knows he can hear

BUT NO!! scully!!! her nose is bleeding :(((( she looks very scared...

(are her nosebleeds stress induced? is that even possible? i mean, all things considered, it's not the wildest plot point to take place on this show)

despite being scared, she goes back to frish, who is still waiting at the table, and gets down to business. if he didn’t tell his girlfriend he was in DC, that means there’s someone inside, she says. wiping the blood off of her face and saying that like she didn’t just have to shoot someone and save her coworker. damn. she is very good at pretending to be made of steel.

they’re taking pendrell away and skinner arrived. skinner!!!

she is still covered in blood and she is asking him why wasn’t there someone to escort frish!!! that order was cancelled because frish is being put under military arrest for suspicion of murder and false testimony in a federal investigation! ohhhh!

(tbh, i don’t know what the difference between regular and military arrest is except for that maybe military arrest means you were in the military. that’s my best guess. follow for more educated guesses ❤️)

anyway, scully is gagged by this!!! and rightfully so. now, i still don’t trust frish, but it does seem like someone is trying to censor him because he can attest to the government’s crimes. hmm….

and skinner says that this comes from high up in the government, who also put mulder under military arrest!!

(well, there goes my theory on what "military arrest" means!)

scully is very pissed as she explains that the military SHOT THAT PLANE DOWN. and skinner says they admitted as much!!!! omg why????

they’re having this sort of face off, until skinner notices the bloody tissue in her hand, and asks if she is alright

(STOP. STOP I’LL CRY??? god, whenever skinner interacts with them tenderly.... i will fall to my KNEES with emotion when they care about each other)

oh my GODDDDD. wait you have to hear about this next part.

(grabbing her hand and looking at the bloody tissue, then into her eyes) “i have a responsibility for the safety of the agents under my supervision, agent scully. i’m not going to put another agent’s life in jeopardy just to keep her out in the field” 

WAHHHHHHH... HE CARES ABOUT HER AND SHE IS TRYING TO KEEP WORKING AND NOT THINK ABOUT HER SICKNESS, BECAUSE TO THINK ABOUT IT WOULD MAKE IT REAL... BUT SHE NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, AND HOW DO YOU MAKE SOMEONE TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES WHEN THEY FEEL HARDWIRED TO TAKE CARE OF OTHERS??? AND WHEN THEY HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO BUILD THIS FACADE OF BEING OKAY AT ALL TIMES?

the doctor needing the caring is always going to get me. a thankless task it is, to tend to the dead and dying, and how much more awful it must feel to her knowing the limitations of medicine

she has tears in her eyes and assures him she’s okay, but skinner has banished her to the hospital with pendrell. "thank you skinner", we all say in unison.

stop. stop. skinner :( he loves them both…. and she needs to rest :(

cutscene NOT TO HER IN THE HOSPITAL but to her at an air force reserve installation finding mulder 

GIRL HE CAN BE OKAY!!!! YOU NEED TO GO TO A DOCTOR PLEASE!!! 🙏 HE GOT HIMSELF INTO THIS MESS LET HIM GET HIMSELF OUT WHILE YOU GO TAKE A NAP

“mulder.” “hi, scully. you come to spring me from the joint?” <- he’s such a fucking loser (said with love)

is that all it takes to get someone out of military arrest? the bestie rolling up? damn. i thought it would be a lot harder than that.

so the military confessed to being responsible for the crash. that's surprising.

and oh my god, he’s getting undressed. just right then and there with her right in front of him. you see, at first i thought he was just unbuttoning his weird military arrest shirt, because maybe he was hot, but then scully turned around like they have done this a million times before (and they probably have) as he unzipped his pants. i’m taken aback by the intimacy of such an act. 

doing all of this while arguing, btw. deeply impressive.

they are so married. it's not even funny. not even just married. some weird soul tying thing is going on there.

the military is claiming that there were faulty coordinates given to the flight that had max on it. and they were the only two planes on the screen. 

and i appreciate them spelling this cover story out for us very clearly, because i was playing mental ping-pong trying to keep track of the amount of crash sites and planes last episode.

this cover story lays the blame on the man who was working with frish, who allegedly ended his own life- convenient to lay the blame on a dead man- and it also posits that frish lied to save himself, and came to the FBI to blame the military. 

hmm. it’s a cover story, alright. not even sure if it’s a good one, but it sure is a cover story.

the military is claiming the second plane that crashed into flight 459 was military, but then mulder reveals he has burns on his head that scully quickly realizes are from radiation!! he got them while he was underwater looking for the mystery craft!! this does NOT seem like a feature that the US military would want to have in their planes.

ooookay, so he says it was a UFO (well, we did see a little alien in there, may he rest in peace) that collided with flight 549- and when the military shot the UFO down, the passenger plane went with it.

see, this makes sense to me now. thank you for making it incredibly clear!!

plane man gets a name reveal!!! his name is mike millar. scully points out that he says there was no evidence of a collision, and while he could be lying, he seems to be the only one that really wants to know what actually went down. 

plane guy. i have called you this for a whole episode. and now, you have become plane guy mike. it would have been nice to know that last time, but we cannot change the past, a fact i struggle with daily.

and mike went to scully to tell her about finding sharon wandering about the crash site!! he didn't have to do that. so it adds more evidence to the "he seems to genuinely want to know what happened" camp

mulder asks, he found sharon, max’s sister? but PLOT TWIST: she’s NOT his sister??

maybe it’s a “blood siblings” sort of thing??? swearing loyalty? found family? because lying about being someone's sibling feels odd. there has to be some sort of story there.

well, whatever their dynamic may have been, here is what we know about sharon: she is an unemployed aeronautical engineer who has spent time in and out of mental institutions. WHERE SHE MET MAX!!!

omg….. the truth raises only more questions…

NO!!! scully tells mulder that pendrell is dead. oh my god. she did the best to make him smile right before he died…

scully, you are the best friend in all the world. i have said this many times before, but it still bears repeating.

mulder is shocked and grabs her shoulder, asking how pendrell died. she explains he was shot by mustache man, who was aiming for frish

“mulder, what are these people dying for? is it for the truth or for the lies?” <- i love her Need to be righteous and stand for the truth, even though she lives in a terrible and corrupt world, and how it drives her, how it vexes her to live in such a lawless place, but how her own moral compass keeps her oriented

he says it has to be the truth they’re dying for, and they owe it to those who died to find it out. damn. if that isn’t his whole life in a sentence.

they go to max’s trailer, where i recall mulder tenderly holding him through a seizure a few seasons back.

(i didn't even pick up on the fact that we had seen max before last episode. my b.)

scully hates his trailer LMAO “i remember being amazed at what some people will call a home” <- ohhh she wants a nice, comfy place to live... write that down, write that down

she presses a button and some music starts playing and then says “i think you were actually kindred spirits in some deep, strange way” “what do you mean?” “men with spartan lives, simple in their creature comforts, if only to allow for the complexity of their passions” <- OHHH you better analyze him!!! read him like a BOOK!!!

mulder wants to find whatever it is max wanted to tell him so badly, badly enough to get on the plane even though he knew it was dangerous. this seems like a reasonable thing to be searching for in such conditions.

they find a tape of max recounting his life story, how no one believes you when you’re an alien abductee, and how he wants to expose the people who have recovered the UFOs in the military and the FBI. and they’re using the alien tech in military operations!!! which is crazy.

we see the military taking pieces of the craft from the lake AND AN ALIEN BODY!! MANY ALIEN BODIES!!!!!!

and guys passed out and throwing up from all the radiation!!!

(musical flourish) IT’S GONNA BE CSM, RIGHT? 

NO!!!! it was mustache man!!!! maybe they went to high school together.

mustache man is just straight up watching this dude die but announces “we found it” as if that answers any and all questions

plane guy mike is working to identify the bodies from the crash of the flight, and announces they really cannot find any other evidence to figure out what happened. he asks his team to please wrap up tonight and then go home. 

plane guy seems nice… i know his ass is gonna die.

(author's note: rejoice!!! he might have made it!!!!!)

mulder and scully are here to talk to him!!!!!!! actually, plane guy mike called THEM!! he wanted to say thank you for the lead that it was the military’s fault. but he has no other ideas on what could have gone down.

WELL! mulder is going to tell him his story.

mulder thinks that max was followed by someone who wanted whatever he had on him. and what was the object? proof of the existence of aliens!!

(now what type of object could that be....?)

(plane guy mike glances back at scully) (she looks at him and raises her eyebrows as if to say “yeah, i know”)

then, mulder thinks that the flight was taken over by a craft that never appeared on any of the radars (because it was a UFO and clearly they don’t show up on radars)

((wait, they definitely have before in the past… well. i guess they didn’t this time. i'm sure there are plenty of different alien species with varying technological skillsets))

if all had gone to plan, the UFO would have taken Max right from the flight.... but the third plane shot the UFO down, and since the UFO had control of flight 459, it went down along with the UFO!

we then see max getting taken out by the aliens…… while time stands still and everyone on the flight watches. it is very creepy. 

he thinks that had the military plane not shot the UFO down, everyone on flight 459 would have had their memories wiped and no one would have known that max was ever abducted!

but the missile hit, and (plane crash scenes) (incredibly horrifying plane crash scenes) (people just keep falling and falling and someone is saying a prayer)

(quite upsetting to watch this, actually)

but back to the modern day. awaiting a plane guy mike reaction to such an outrageous tale.

plane guy says that even if it WAS true, they can’t prove it. damn. just can't get a read on this fellow.

scully says that while she had the same reaction, there is something that needs to be explained: the seats and the door showed traces of radioactivity!!!!!

woaaaaah… plane guy, you didn't find anything radioactive in the crash, did you?

surprise! he did find something from the wreckage that had some radioactivity… and he pulls it out… it’s max’s bag!!! it has his hat in it!!!! but seemingly nothing else beyond the hat.

plane guy says he has to write his final report, and that basically mulder is crazy, and goodnight.

ohhhh, said about the deaths of pendrell and max: “and if we don’t find out, what meaning do their deaths have, or their lives?”

sighs. the pressure these two put upon themselves to right every single wrong in the entire world. they mean well, but they cannot fix everything, and this will only disappoint them.

mulder proposes starting their renewed quest for answers with sharon, who is in a mental institution. he says he’d go with scully to find her, but he’s afraid they would lock him up, and she jokes “me too”. and i’m thinking, girlie needs to get to the hospital!!! now!!! mulder, YOU go!!!

(i think we were supposed to understand that scully DID, in fact, go to the hospital with pendrell, where she got checked out and learned of his death- we just didn't see it onscreen. however, as i was watching, i wasn't really processing what they were trying to say and was instead in "someone help scully" mode, which explains a lot of my thinking at almost all times)

but no, rather than going to the mental hospital to ask sharon some questions and letting scully rest, he instead goes back to max’s trailer, where he finds things all torn apart and scattered. someone must have broken in!!!! omg these bastards!!!

the trailer park manager asks what he’s doing here and mulder has to break the news that max is dead…. and the manager is deeply sad, but also (very practically) asks what he should do with his mail. 

WOAH!!! in the back of the video where max was talking about himself, you can see sharon!!! it looks like she was the one filming!!

mulder has max's mail…. and he is opening it. can you open a dead guy’s mail? maybe if you’re in the FBI?? it has this sort of badge thing with numbers on it.

(this was later revealed to be a luggage tag, or perhaps the writers and prop team expected people to immediately recognize its purpose. but i didn't. and you know i require honesty when recounting these things)

scully is here to visit sharon, who is sitting up on her bed in the night. a little spooky of her. and she immediately confesses to not being max’s sister. 

scully sees she is covered in blisters like max was!! so they were exposed to something… something sharon stole….

she stole something radioactive from her job!!! but what was it??? and how do you even DO that??

allegedly, it was alien tech. that was divided into three parts. but where is the third one???

that piece with the numbers on it was a luggage ticket!!! so mulder is taking it to find the bag, and presumably the radioactive part within.

but who arrives after him, but some people in suits!!! watching him take max's bag! and beginning to chase after mulder!

he uses the federal agent card to get out of there, which i fully support, and scully calls to tell him that this mystery thing was stolen from a military contractor. and i’m thinking, TELL HIM NOT TO OPEN IT, PLEASE

and she’s trying to tell him this, but the cell signal is breaking up!!!! PLEASE DO NOT OPEN IT BRO. it looks like he is about to, but he sees it a little through an x ray instead. PHEW!

scully says this must be high tech industrial espionage… which would be fascinating. but i don't think that is what is going on here.

and mulder’s getting on the plane with the mystery object!! BE CAREFUL- THEY’LL GET YOU!!

NOOOOO, MUSTACHE MAN IS ON THE PLANE!!!

did he regenerate the parts of him that were shot or something???!!!

mulder is sleeping on the plane…. mustache man comes to sit next to him…. and he sees that he has a gunshot wound on his leg… ah, so no regeneration

mulder clocks his nonsense very quickly, and says he has a weapon pointed at him!!

“what if you miss?” “i won’t” <- LMAOOO king has been practicing in the range!!!

but mustache man says he’ll depressurize the plane at 30,000 feet and jump away on a parachute. rude as hell. 

mulder guesses that it is perhaps alien energy in the bag he carries that so many people had to die for… and he tells mustache man to get to the back of the plane, NOW, so he can be exiled to the bathroom 

he calls scully from the plane (you can do that???) and tells her that he has the man who shot pendrell locked up!! and can she please give skinner a head’s up to get to the airport? thank you

“hey scully?” my watch just stopped” (he drops the phone and runs) “mulder? mulder?!” <- oh the DESPERATION in her voice…

he is always dropping calls and running, leaving her to yell with worry on the phone. we need to train him to stop doing this. in fact, the one time he did not do this was when he was on the phone with scully's mother, and it was remarkable for how much effort it probably took

mulder tells the flight attendant that the flight is about to be boarded, but mustache man comes out with his gun!!! saying to put the bag down NOW!! all the passengers are shocked to see this happening.

so he does set the bag down… and then the plane is rumbling… and the lights….. the UFO!!!! everyone is screaming!!!! 

mulder pulls a gun on mustache man as the door starts to get blown off, just like he thought it happened to max. and then everything is very very quiet…..

scully and skinner are RUNNING to the plane as the people disembark. 

and mustache man isn’t there anymore!! and his watch is off!!!! omggggg!!!

the alirans got him!!!

he seemed like a dick so no real loss on that end. but i'm sad mulder cannot use that mystery part to prove they exist.

although, it seems that claiming "it's just super advanced tech from (insert country that is not the USA here)" would be the government's first move. not sure how much the actual object would have helped if they had that trusty excuse hanging in their back pockets.

“would you like to tell me what’s going on here, agent mulder?”, asks skinner (scully intercepts) “i don’t think you want to know the answer” 

skinner looks very very confused. my poor guy.

back to the video of max, where he is talking about the secrets the government is keeping. sharon is watching it. WITH SCULLY AND MULDER!!! my besties :)

she asks if she can keep the tapes and he says yes, she should start a collection of all of max's things

when sharon mentions that scully also lost someone very close to her, she has to leave the trailer…. and mulder follows behind in his white sneakers

“you thinking about pendrell?” “i realized i didn’t even know his first name” <- OUCH. queen please do not feel guilt over this, because that is just how having coworkers is.

but she was really thinking about HER BIRTHDAY GIFT FROM MULDER??? OMG?? she’s looking at it and smiling

wait, this next monologue NEEDS to be copied down….

“you never got to tell me why you gave it to me, or what it means, but i think i know. i think that you appreciate that there are extraordinary men and women and extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals… that what can be imagined can be achieved… that you must dare to dream… but that there’s no substitute for perseverance and hard work and teamwork… because no one gets there alone. and that while we commemorate the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible”

“i just thought it was a pretty cool keychain”

(soft music as the camera turns to the stars and fades to black)

WAAHHHHH

oh scully, i mumble for the hundredth time... she makes my heart hurt. she has so much good in her and yet nothing good happens TO her.

i love that she is so analytical and finds meaning in everything, even the little keychain <3 and i love that she is both dedicated to science and an idealist, and neither of those things are mutually exclusive even if you might imagine that the hard realities of the world do not mesh with optimism and faith.

and i don't fully believe that mulder just thought the keychain was cool... he knew what he was doing there. at least a little bit. now i will imagine it dangling from her keys for decades, jingling each time she unlocks her door, a little piece of their connection made physical.

so, what am i thinking about the episode?

well, we didn't get any closure on plane guy or frish, and i know better than to think we will get some in any future episodes. so that feels a little unfinished.

in terms of plot development, we are introduced to this mustache man and an object that could prove the existence of aliens, but both of those get wiped away, and we leave off sort of where we began. that left mustache man feeling underused, or sort of like a waste of narrative focus. unless he comes back?

still, while i might have qualms with the plot not being entirely wrapped up, i enjoyed this episode! the moment with skinner absolutely got to me, as did scully's kindness towards pendrell and her analysis of mulder's gift. the moment where he just started changing clothes and they had that unspoken understanding also killed me.

i was also glad that this episode explained things a bit more than the last one did. i was confused with the constant switches between theory and fact, that while i'm sure some viewers were annoyed with how they spelled it out so clearly, i was pleased.

i love the tales of mulder and scully's spooky job. it was a good episode!

[lumibye]

goodnight 3ds servers ♡ i love you forever

[florbelles]

finished hera & started lady macbeth and we have got to start blaming women for shit again for real

[themyscirah]

Heard about TK wanting to write WW for 100 issues and do a Trinity spinoff?

Yeah.... that's the word on the street 😔

To be honest with everybody though, I don't think he's hitting 100 issues. I think Tom King THINKS he will be writing 100 issues of WW comics, but I'm very skeptical. Like it's true he got pretty close to 100 issues when he was writing Batman, but that was during Rebirth, when comics were being published twice a month. At a normal monthly pace, 100 main title issues works out to be a bit over EIGHT YEARS. Even with specials and annuals and possible events (or the Trinity spinoff) compressing that timeline, there's still no way in my mind that Tom hits 100 issues in any less than five years. He spent three on Batman. You know, Batman, his #1, the guy he has to bring up every issue? Do we really think he's going to spend over twice as long on Diana?

Like personally I'm just not convinced that Tom King cares enough about Wonder Woman to write her for that long. Like I think he likes her, and I think he thinks she's cool, but reading his book he seems to love to put the focus anywhere except on Diana. Like all the narration is done by the villain (meaning we don't get Diana's actual thoughts on any of this) and the backup are all TK's audition to write supersons (so we're losing page space that could be utilized to develop the current narrative in favor of possible future stories with no plot relevance)

Like idk. Tom King is talking the talk and I think he has the power at DC currently to walk the walk if he really wants to do it and his hype squad keeps sales high, but he hasn't convinced me so far with his work that he has it in him to see out so many issues of Wonder Woman, especially when Diana finally defeats the Sovereign, and if Trinity gets her own book, like what is he going to do with his remaining 80 issues? Actually telling WW stories?

It seems to me from what I've read of his WW and interviews abt it is that this "100 issues of Wonder Woman" thing is coming from his opinion that Diana deserves a 100-issue run, rather any great, passionate love for Diana that would actually motivate him to write her for that long.

So anyways, my stance is that if he's really putting in a long one (however long it may be) we just hope for the best, (Diana getting her narration boxes back and being central in her own story again, Trinity getting booted back to Themyscira to be forgotten raised offscreen, etc.) and try to make the most & wait it out

[r7inyz]

could u try drawing reed n Julius from the breaking wheel ?(if ur fine with it)

THE BREAKING WHEEL.....😰😰YEAAAHHHHHH‼️

honestly i liked that story even though it made me fear for my life

(drew these today in school sorry if they aren't the best, BUT THANK YOUUUU FOR THE ASK)

[thedrotter]

Do any of you remember a Youtube video about Re:Kinder talking about how the game is seen and percieved by some people (mostly touching upon and arguing against how it has been treated insensitively as some sort of weird legend like "ooo disturbing game with a hidden truth behind it" due to it's creator being dead), as well as talking about the charm of the game (even mentioning it's art at some point) and sadness of the themes without spoiling anything at the same time?? I remember the video avoided saying any spoilers at all and only touched on the literal plot as the kids being stuck in a dire situation in the town with all the adults dead without really getting into the why (it didn't even say one of the kids themselves was the cause— as thus, spoiler free), other than that it just touched on the emotional side of it and vaguely mentioned some scenes.

i also remember at some point the later half (at the very least if not in all of it) of the video, music by Siinamota was playing in the background. Does anyone remember seeing a video like this?

I can't seem to find it anywhere and don't even remember the exact year I watched it.😭 It was the way I found out about this game a while ago, which eventually ended up in me playing it, and I really wish I could watch it again. I thought it was a deleted video by someone called hazel as it was mentioned by a lot of people, but I found that one and it isnt it.😓 I'm wondering if anyone remembers watching something along the lines of what im describing and knows if it's still up.

[legogender]

caught up finallyyyy. that shit was FIRE

[herearedragons]

A non-exhaustive list of possible alternative endings for Devil of Caroc:

the Watcher is a cipher; they use their mind reading abilities to download Devil’s maintenance routine directly from Galvino’s brain and then teach it to her

same as above, except the Watcher (any class) uses their soul reading ability to watch the moment from Galvino’s past when he came up with said maintenance routine

the Watcher is and/or knows a brilliant mechanic; they reverse-engineer Devil’s maintenance routine and then teach it to her

a restored Abydon offers the Watcher a boon as thanks for helping his restoration; the Watcher asks him to bless Devil’s body so that it wouldn’t rust. Optionally, Abydon empathizes with the experience of being stuck in a metal construct and also gives her the ability to sense/smell again.

same as above, but Abydon straight up turns her back into a flesh and blood human, mirroring his own restoration

[ssiegfriedsystem]

「A hundred years had passed. So, so much has changed in the world, but not as much to Kazukiー

And the golden vestiges of someone still donning an all too familiar scar, smiling on the back of his mind.」

[two-wizards-in-a-trench-coat]

insomnia again and now i'm thinking about von karma taking miles and fran out to karaoke

[loregoddess]

finished the final map for Unicorn Overlord (well, not the final final Lv. 45 map in the epilogue section but ah, it's late so I'll do that tomorrow)

the ending was so good, and the final battle sequence was so cool, probably one of the coolest final boss sequences for an srpg that I've yet played (it's hard to get srpg final bosses on the same level of coolness as can be found in jrpg final bosses or just, final boss fights for most other genres of game in general)

Absolutely astonished by how much I loved this game. At first it was a bit baffling that a few people saw the game trailer and came to me like "Hey, this looks like a You game", enough so that I did actually go pick up the game bc I kept hearing good things about it, and then it was a bit embarrassing that not even fifteen minutes in I was like "Ah shit, this is exactly my sort of game" bc I really am just that predictable, but honestly? UO went above and beyond even those first impressions.

Like yes, this is one of the most "things I love in a narrative, and super fun game mechanics that I adore" my type of games I've ever played, but it's also genuinely so well-crafted and fun, and so much more than I imagined it would be from my initial impressions. Absolutely excellent game, excellent gameplay, excellent narrative, excellent characters (maracas are no longer enough, I need to stick these characters in a centrifuge). Can't wait to finish up the epilogue and see the final-final conclusion to everything.

some more thoughts under the cut bc spoilers

as part of my revised attack plan, I had spent a few hours grinding aux battles for gold so I could buy a shitton of healing/revival supplies which I then.......did not use at all. Didn't use a single item, except I think a strengthening serum once, during any phase of the final map.

Apparently? being a couple of levels higher due to those gold-seeking aux battles and rearranging Alain's unit for peak damage output and debuff negation (instead of balanced defense/offense like I had it all game) was enough that when I went to fight Galerius I was uh....able to finish his battle in one go, while only losing like, 20 hp for the entire unit. The same was true for Batlro during the third phase, the unit I had arranged for Galerius was able to one-shot Baltro and his six-party unit in one battle (but damn his special spell had such a cool attack animation).

So alas, I spent all this money and hunted down so many curative items.....for nothing (although maybe not, I have no idea what awaits me in that epilogue map battle).

I had actually seen a spoiler out of context so I knew about Illenia, but it's still really cool that she was alive like, that entirely upends the "dead parent" trope in a really weird way, and given how Not Okay Alain was about missing his mom, it's like, well this is nice actually. Probably a bit awkward, there is a lot of baggage to unpack, but nice. Glad she did not suffer the dead parent fate to its fullest potential.

(Also knew about the two endings beforehand, which was good bc I would have had a minor crisis if I had seen that decision w/out spoiler knowledge, bc until this point choosing the "1" option was always the best outcome, for the entire game except this one decision, where the "1" option actually leads to the bad end and also sounds a bit worse than the "2" option; but yeah I would have been pausing the game and running off to search for a guide if I had gone in entirely blind).

I ended up choosing Scarlett for the rite bc it seemed to fit the story beats the best (my temptation to go for Lex bc he also fit the story beats in a weird way aside), although seeing Scarlett foist the pontifex role onto Sanatio was kinda funny (sure, give the role to this guy who's so guilt-ridden he makes Renault's not-great coping w/ guilt look okay, and not I dunno, Nigel, the guy who was running things for a bit; I unsurprisingly love Sanatio so I say this all in good humor of course bc that was the wildest outcome honestly).

I wasn't unhappy w/ the Scarlett ending though, although now I'm curious about all of Alain's other paired endings since he can marry (or uh, become life partners with) basically every single character including characters he only has one rapport convo w/, which I was not expecting but which is super funny (everyone's a little in love w/ Alain, whether romantically, platonically, or in a familial way).

Gotta say I was not expecting Gilbert to marry Virginia though, that ending card hit me out of left field bc I would have sworn, based on the RCs, that he would have married Leah in absence a paired ending w/ Alain, but eh. All the other endings were either what I was expecting, or if they weren't, something really neat that still fit the character (Hilda becoming an apothecary was not on my bingo card, but damn does it actually fit her so well; thought Clive and Monica might hook back up, but it's cool that they each go on to rule their respective domains each in their own way while still remaining close friends). Really enjoyed all the character endings actually. Totally forgot the coliseum was a thing so I uh, never picked up Amalia, so I dunno what her deal is, but I'm sure I'd like her just as much as I do all the other characters.

Honestly really loved the entire story and all the characters. I'm surprised how well-balanced the narrative feels, since in my experience with other large-cast srpgs, there's usually a bit of narrative imbalance (minor characters only get minor character arcs or minimal extra writing, sometimes worldbuilding gets out of hand and details get lost, etc.), but everything about UO feels like it ties together really nicely, there weren't any loose ends or glaring ???s I had about anything regarding either the main storyline, the lore and worldbuilding, or even the side-stories and character arcs for the playable characters who weren't part of the main cast. (Although I do definitely want to review some of the exposition stuff from the endgame, bc hot damn that was interesting and tied into the story well, but it was a lot, and I'm still not over the nuclear unicorn).

(Okay there were some questions I had but they're uh, useless questions like, "Do angels have hollow bones and larger lungs to be able to fly so high?" or "How the fresh hell does bestral anatomy work?" or "Why are there human NPCs who are very open about wanting to hook up w/ the elves, but none who want to hook up with the bestrals or angels? bc I KNOW there would be humans who would want to" and not like, questions relevant to the main narrative).

Even when things were more hinted at then outright stated (i.e. Lex being in everyone's business bc he shows up as a guest in so many random RCs that are not his own), it felt organic in a "yeah well, they're all part of the same army so makes sense they'd show up in each other's RCs even if they're not directly involved" way. Even the late-game recruits who have the fewest RCs feel well-written and fleshed out.

And honestly, what a cast of characters. Usually w/ larger character casts I end up kinda indifferent towards like, 25-50% of the characters, but the UO cast gets the writing right in just such a way that I surprised myself by enjoying basically every single playable character in some way or another, and all the non-playable ones as well (the villains, despite starting off seeming generic, ended up being really cool from a narrative perspective, and I love that Baltro is the actual final boss bc like, he should be! fucked up scientist-mages doing unethical experiments are untapped potential for final bosses).

Loved the game so much, will be thinking about it for a long while yet I'm sure.