#good choice kiddo her arc still gets me and i think it hits me even more this time aroundddddd

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Fruits Basket Diaries, #6: Why Do I Adore Ayame So Much?

[see part 1 here]

[see part 5 here]

This is part of an ongoing series where I’ll be cataloguing my experience rereading (and finishing for the first time) the Fruits Basket manga. I’ve just finished reading up to the end of the manga, so there will be spoilers for the whole story!

Fruits Basket is full of unrequited loves, both platonic and romantic. Usually, these kind of "lost love" relationships, ones based in a history of complete infatuation on one side that isn't mirrored on the other, either turn into romance stories or are filled with distress, but Fruits Basket takes a very different approach, allowing these relationships to exist as a unique variety of affection, something soft and tender instead of fiery and dramatic. We get to see characters who feel love and admiration for those who don't quite reciprocate live peacefully with those feelings, using them as the source of a strong friendship rather than screaming them from the rooftops. These characters (Ayame, Haru, Hanajima), get to find lovers of their own while their former (and, admittedly, still a bit current) obsession (Hatori, Yuki, Tohru) does the same, but they never have to pretend their feelings don't exist--in fact, they still have loving friendships with their former obsessions, even if they aren't "the one" for them.

We also see the beginnings of these kind of relationships within Fruits Basket--Momiji watches Tohru leave with Kyo and hopes he'll find someone of his own one day; Kagura retains her affection for Kyo, even while she acknowledges his relationship with Tohru; Yuki gets a dramatic, tearful goodbye with Tohru, even as she connects with Kyo and he gets closer with Machi. For these characters, "moving on" doesn't mean leaving their feelings behind, it just means accepting new parts of life along with the old; as Hanajima puts it so beautifully, "My weakness will always be Tohru-kun". And yeah, I get that. I've spent a lot of time trying to cleanse myself of feelings, to just make them go away so everything can "be normal". Eventually, though, I found that truly accepting and loving the part of myself that fell in love with the person in the first place, the part of myself that still sees them and glows a bit, is what has truly helped me move forward in relationships like these without guilt. Because yes, there will always be people who are my weaknesses, people who I was once infatuated with and who I still have a strong attachment to, and that doesn't have to be painful. Hanajima gets the best of both worlds, it seems--she lives her own life outside of Tohru, but she also loves Tohru enough to fight for her happiness. This dynamic mirrors my experiences with some of the most important people in my life, and I think that's why each of the three pairings I mentioned earlier, ones I see as the main examples of this dynamic, is so special to me. Seeing Haru and Yuki's friendship develop as Yuki realizes how deeply Haru cares for him and starts to reach out in return was especially comforting, putting a positive spin on Haru's long-held affection instead of forcing him to "get over" it.

There's this one quote from the final volume: "But the one thing I do know is that love isn't just about loving what's in front of you. The past, the future... maybe it's about holding all of them close to your heart." Maybe past infatuations don't have to be regrettable, failures to sweep under the rug--through the relationships it shows, Fruits Basket finds the potential of the past to make the present beautiful, even when not everyone's dreams came true back then. The people I would consider my weaknesses, as Hanajima said, were, are, and will be the source of many special moments in my life. Even as I pursue relationships and goals I never would have dreamed of in my younger days, there are still people from those days I would drop everything to support, and that, Fruits Basket reminds me, is, indeed, a special kind of love.

[starcookiechu]

ROTT Review

SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE. You have been warned.

FYI: I just finished the movie. So my opinions may change a bit but here I am writing a full review.

Before I talk about the movie, I have to say this movie has fantastic animation. The music is as good as usual.

Ok now the story. Let’s start with the our Trollhunters.

Fair Lady Claire. My girlie Claire really brought her all into this. I’m really proud of the young woman she has grown up into. However for the sake of the plot and story they make her run out of magic juice quite a bit. But my girl is still the best and gives it her all.

Wingman Domzalski. I will be perfectly honest. Toby is kind of the annoying best friend at times and bothers me as a plus size person. (They really push the over eating thing to the point that it’s his biggest factor.) Toby is a very eager kid who is ready to get in the action. Never being negative to his friend but the best emotional support who will always be at his side. Sure Toby was used a bit as comedic relief in the movie but when push comes to shove, Toby will always be there to do the right thing.

Blinky is amazing as always. One of the best father figures out there.

Aarrrgh was there. Was great for the scenes he was in, but all together didn’t do much that altered the story.

Our Trollhunter, Jim Lake Jr. Someone I admire and basically see as my little brother/child. Kiddo really did it. I know everyone is upset that Jim’s arc was redone when we had the “Unbecoming” episode. If I could come to a peaceful middle ground, I saw we all need to blame Merlin. He really rocked Jim’s world and self worth. When the creator of the object you need to save the world with tells you “You’re not enough”, it really can be a great setback. But once we past that, Jim really pulled through. Amulet or not, he is our Trollhunter.

Mommy Dr. Lake was there. Barbara was mostly there for our emotions.

Dilf Strickler. I felt that he was changed a bit since we last saw him, but he had a new purpose. He was more cautious and happy because he had a chance at a happy life with Barbara. Which makes what happens to him more upsetting. 

Nomura my sweet. This movie did not deserve you. At least she was with Draal.

And Not-Enrique (seriously why didn’t they ever give him an actual name) just wasn’t in the movie.

How about some CreepSlayers?

BABY ELI PEPPERJACK CAME BACK LOOKING SO CUTE. So proud.

Bumbling knight oaf Steve the Palchuckian was great as usual.

I will say though. The whole pregnancy plot was just a way to get Eli and Steve out of the way. I could feel that the writers maybe didn’t like Steve so much since Wizards. But Steve was once again someone to laugh at. Pregnant and out of the way.

How about some Akiridions?

Aja my darling girl, oh how you’ve grown. I understand some think she has changed. However I must say that her preparing a plan B on the side was smart. She isn’t just a princess on earth anymore. She is a queen on a distant planet. So if she thought evacuation was best, it would ensure that everyone would live. And avoid losing more valuable people from her life. So no, I can’t blame her.

DJ Kleb was there. He was kinda doin his own thing and messing with Steve. Brother-in-law stuff.

It was good to see Varvatos Vex.

Stu was the man in the background working on the busy important things like working on the amulet. Personally I feel like the series REALLY underutilizes Stu A LOT so I was so happy to see him being a part of something huge.

And finally some Wizards.

Douxie my love, you were amazing as usual. His powers have grown greatly and have contributed to the adventure. But god the writers really do love to take everything away from him don’t they. It’s unfair.

Archie was kinda just there and just... I understand leaving Douxie but that doesn’t mean I like it.

Nari the sweetest. I can only imagine the guilt she felt to end Nomura. Her self sacrifice was probably the one in the movie most called for.

Alright now I’ll talk about the movie.

I can whole heartedly say this movie was rushed. To be honest I feel like the original writers weren’t completely in this. At least it felt kind of not so much Trollhunters or 3Below vibes but more Wizards, if that makes sense whatsoever. Something is off.

I just want to blame Merlin for everything. To hell with that guy.

The beginning sequence was great. A car chase to a moving train. Which ends up with Toby of course screwing up and breaking the brakes. Of course. The train falling off the tracks which ultimately ends up with Nari gone. Oh yeah, and video recordings of Magic, trolls and being taken in by the police. Great.

WHY TF WAS TOBY TELLING THEIR STORY TO THE POLICE. YOU DON’T MIX THE POLICE IN STORIES UNLESS YOU KNOW THE COP PERSONALLY. CUZ IT’S A MESS AND THE POLICE GET IN THE WAY. GDI TOBY.

Our heroes go back to base on the new and improved Camelot. Where we discover that Barbara and Strickler are now engaged. Happy news and would secure that Jim has another Father figure in his life and his mother’s happiness. Which explains Strickler’s “stay behind” advice. Now he has a family to watch over. He must be careful and warns that Jim’s actions could cost so much that he might not be able to afford.

Enters our Majesty Aja and the new stud on the block, Eli. Dang I wish puberty hit me like that.Truck-kun strikes again. And also enters... the pregnancy thing. I will say, I didn’t mind it too much... at first. But there are complications. Steve is too young to be a father and dang 7 kisses?? I can’t help but feel like Aja should have mentioned that or it was a last minute plan to write out Steve and Eli. (Which it was.) It was funny sure cuz omegaverse and ALIENS but all together it’s really iffy.

They really had Douxie preform a body-swap spell only so it would be undone. And undoing the spell only hurt them both?? C’mon. C’mon.

And they mention the Krohnisfere. We’ll get back to it. Jim gets a brand new amulet infused with Akaridion tech. However theres an issue. It was created by Merlin right? Who is a wizard right? Who uses MAGIC. Shame Douxie wasn’t there to help make it. Ya know. 1/2 of the original creator of the AMULET. So it’s missing a huge part and for the sake of the plot, Jim doesn’t test the Amulet which is out of character personally.

Toby makes a silly big deal over a penny. I was actually hoping they would make it a silly Chekhov's gun later on. But no, it’s just Toby being loud and comedic relief.

The titans are released and we visit a very pregnant Steve. Ok so it’s a rushed kind of thing. ok.

Aja suggests evacuation. You can say it’s out of character but we need context. When Aja helped in the Doomsday Battle, she was ensured a way out but if she let the people of Arcadia perish. She decided to stay and help. But now the Trollhunter himself can’t help. So to ensure the survival of everyone, evacuation. A best chance for everyone to survive. Plus she is now a Queen. She rules over a whole planet which must change her thinking.

Now our characters are split into 3 teams:

Blinky, Archie, Archie’s dad and Claire for the Krohnisfere.

Jim, Aja, Toby, Strickler and Barbara for the Glacial Titan.

Nomura, Douxie and Aarrgh for the Earth Titan.

Now here is where I have problems. WHY. DID. THEY. SEND. TROLLS. TO. BRAZIL. IN. THE. DAY. Nomura dying was just so out of pocket. Unnecessary. I couldn’t even grieve properly I didn’t have a chance to process. The best thought I could think was “At least she’s with Draal now.” 10 seconds later, Strickler makes the choice to sacrifice himself. Because of Jim’s heroic’s, Strickler decided to try to save the most important people in his life. The person who was always dishonest finally had a chance to live a happy life with his family. The one who played it safe now had to make the final impulsive move. And unfortunately, his death was in vain. These deaths were just so forced. It wasn’t in any way good. And Strickler being one of the best written characters just going in such a way was just off. He died for nothing. He could have turned back and fought another battle but... no.

(BTW Barbara was just there... for Strickler’s death.)

We move to Babara and Jim having a heart to heart. I’m glad she didn’t blame Jim but a small moment of anger. Something a little more real for me but no I guess. Barbara will always just be Jim’s mom. She mention’s Jim’s father and it passed so quickly I missed it on my initial viewing. I’m happy that Jim’s father is never revealed or made a bigger part in his story. This is good representation for those of us who did have our fathers walk out on us. That we can grow despite our parents failing us.

And finally team Krohnisfere. Archie just leaves. He’s gone. Poor Douxie. A mentor and now his closest companion.

Our heroes meet up to go against the Volcanic Titan. In comes Varvatos Vex on a Gun Robot. Nice to see some good ol Gundam with a character mentioned throughout the entire trilogy. However it doesn’t last. BTW for the sake of survival, Aja leaves Jim and Toby. Iffy.

Douxie pulls a “Jason stop. This isn’t you.” thing with Nari and is reunited with his friend.(+ points for the shippers. It’s kinda winning me over?) Also, Claire now has the power to teleport a Titan. I know she’s much stronger than she was for the Trollhunters Sn 2 finale, but cmon. You can’t just say she’s out of magic juice and then pull this. C’mon.

(btw did the titan make a War of the Worlds tripod sound? No? Just me?)

Nari sacrifices herself and takes the other god with her. Which takes away Douxie’s other companion. Mr. Stark I don’t feel so good. Why does this movie hate Douxie so much. (I am so sorry shippers. Angst.)

BLINKY DIDN’T SEE A PAGE? ADDRESSING IT IN THE SHOW DOESN’T GIVE YOU A PASS. I forgot the word but this irony isn’t greatttt.

Jim now has to pull out the legendary sword Excalibur. But he can’t cuz he hasn’t harnessed the power of friendship.

And Steve is giving birth. At the worst time. What is this a zombie movie??? C’mon.

Jim says “Magic is friendship” And Stu is finally being used for one grand act. Seriously Stu is just so unappreciated. So he fixes the amulet with magic.

Basically everyone who went on top of the Volcanic titan falls off at some point. Except Jim cuz of course some 1v1. 

ONCE AGAIN Claire is out of magic juice. Because... reasons.

Toby makes the choice to race to Jim’s side with the technology to cancel out magic. (Wait how does science stop magic again)

BTW, For the Good of all doesn’t hit as well BUT it’s not mentioning any glory towards stinky Merlin so I am happy with the change.

JIM HAS A NEW TRANSFORMATION. MY BOY. MY SON. I’M SO PROUD.

Toby races to Jim and his helmet falls off the taco truck. That honestly should have been a huge warning sign. I was worried he didn’t have armor but we know how this goes.

Jim defeats the final titan and everyone is happy. The fight is finally over.

STEVE HAS 7 KIDS. OUCH. 

Seeing Jim run to Toby was heartbreaking. Now this is the one scene where the movie really let out actually process a character’s death. How on earth can you process your best friend, your most faithful companion dying. Jim goes through too much I swear to god.

Now let’s discuss the time travel plot. I honestly feel like they pulled some kind of Attack on Titan ending. The main character burdened with knowing the future and what could have been. And if everything is meant to be how it will be, destiny will reconnect them again. (Jlaire reincarnation AU???)

I’m actually ok with this ending. I understand people would want the time stone to return only a few minutes. But even then, the kiddos still have police records, so many people dead at the titan’s hands (or feet) and now the world knows about the existence of trolls thanks to the internet. In New York no less. And people are still dead.

We return the the beginning of everything, reflecting the “Unbecoming” episode.

(NGL I’m bothered that they didn’t do anything to stop Steve from bullying Eli, but Jim can’t do it. He’s saving it for Toby.)

And now finally, let’s discuss Toby becoming the Trollhunter. From the beginning, Toby never considered himself good enough to be the main star. Always the wingman, the 2nd best. Support. Now it was Toby’s turn to climb the ranks and be the Hero he’s always wanted to be. It’s Jim’s turn to live an easier high school life. I don’t doubt that he won’t follow Toby. But now he knows what to avoid and how to make the story process more smoothly.

I understand some are unsatisfied with this ending, which is kinda trademarked with Dreamwork’s shows. I get it. But honestly as of right now, I think I like the ending.

The amulet didn’t choose Jim because this Jim is not the same Jim as in Sn 1 Ep 1. He is a new man. And I think we all can agree that it’s his turn to be happy.

---

I still love this series so much. It is my favorite cartoon. Of course it has it’s flaws, but this ending is at least satisfactory and not heartbreaking. Now it’s up to us to either continue the story or contribute our ideas in fanfiction. I look forward to everyone’s creations.

Don’t think. Become.

[agl03]

Finale Predictions

Well guys, it's been quite the ride and here we are ready for the finale.   First and foremost I have to thank you all for sticking with me over the years.  Sending the asks, supporting the theories, dealing with my sometimes crazy metas and predictions, that sometimes hit and sometimes didn’t. And trusting me to be the Fandom Mom. 

As is now an annual tradition I’m putting up my post of Finale Predictions before going dark until after the finale airs.  This is for fun as I always like to see how well I did.    Please no pitchforks if I am wrong on any of these.

So here we go:

Everyone’s favorite villains, Nathaniel, Kora, and SIBYL will all make it to the finale while Garrett will be killed or locked up by the end of the first hour (and it will use some of Fitz’s tech).

SIBYL will eventually get herself a new body.

Nathaniel will turn on Kora and try to take her powers and/or kill her.

Kora has already turned on him and he/we just don’t know it yet.  Either betrays him and helps her sister or tries to kill him herself in revenge for her mother.  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.  

Daisy will be the one to end Nathaniel and it will be oh so satisfying giant fight scene….even if we have to wait until the second hour for it.  Bonus points if Sousa get a hit in first too

Coulson, May, and Elena are able to get to space thanks to Coulson’s new computer Genius Super Power OR Garrett is ordered to bring them so they can lord their victory over them all.

Even though they have pretty much ended Shield and Hydra in the “hot mess” timeline SIBYL and Nathaniel set their sites on the OG Timeline and/or Fitz once they realize he has come into the mix and ruins their plans in the hot mess timeline..   As they are both aware he is the one who ends their little party.

The Chronicoms will not all be super thrilled with what SIBYL has been up too or her methods.   This could be another thing that drives SIBYL into the OG Timeline.   

The battle between SIBYL and Coulson seems to have gotten a bit more personal so my money is on Coulson being the one to take her down.   Close second goes to May and Fitzsimmons. 

Diana didn’t only block Memories of Fitz it took out the memories of people associated with him.  IE she is not going to remember her friends or Deke.

Deke will earn her trust quickly and be an A+ overprotective grandson of his Nana as they are rescued and get back to the team.

The team will rescue Deke and Jemma, take out a few Chronicoms, and Independence Day their way out of there.

While it won’t be the romantic Philinda some fans want we will see some quality Philinda banter over the finale as it seems they’ve settled into a good place between the two.   Coulson has also passed the torch of “team parent” onto her.

Philinda will not end as a couple.

At some point Sousa is really going to question what is going on and his life choices.  AKA He looks around stunned at what is going on.

More quality Dousy flirting and banter….they will kiss again and I do see them being a couple when things end.

Fitzsimmons family feels just a lot of them over the whole finale.  Iain and Elizabeth are going to murder us with feels.  I mean Fitz with his little girl.  I shall perish.

Despite not knowing everyone Jemma is going to be super insistent on building or activating a device (that has been stashed on the Zephyr) that she doesn’t know what it does but just knows she needs to build and activate it.  She will be the only one who can activate it and possibly it will take something very personal of hers to turn it on.  IE how she was hiding Fitz’s ring/necklace in Season 6 she might have the key hiding again.  But lets all freak out that Jemma will literally be the key to getting Fitz.

We won’t see Fitz until near the end of 12 if he is not the cliffhanger.  

That Bar place in the promo pics is either Keonig’s Bar or the Playground of the hot mess Timeline.  Seems to be some sort of secret Shield Base or what is left of them after the big attack as there are some random Shield agents milling/wth/who are these people in the background.  We know The Playground was off the books in the OG Timeline and would make sense it was also in the Hot mess.

Jemma will have her memory resorted relatively quickly after Fitz Kool Aid Man’s in all Star Lord from the portal thing Jemma activates.  And it’ll be the freaking power of her love for Fitz/her Family that overloads her (Gimme my Framework fix here).  Or Fitzsimmons have a fail safe password.  BUT GIMME TRUE LOVE.

CUE THE SECRET CHILD REVEAL!!!!!!!!!!   Yes, I will be screaming.  The team will be stunned.

I’m sticking to my theory that they will give their daughter a “celestial” or astronomical name to pay off “One of these days we’ll find something magnificent out in space,” thing from Season 3 (especially if she was conceived on the way back from Kitson).  Or a name that is very reflective of their Scottish/English roots.  

Everyone needs to hold onto their hats because once Jemma has her memories back it will be because they are gonna want to get home to their Little Girl like yesterday and have one hell of a plan that involves saving the world and taking care of Nathaniel, SIBYL, and the Season 6 Finale attack on the Lighthouse.

This is likely where a ton of the Flashbacks come in.

Where has Fitz been?  He’s been back in our OG Timeline.  The finale confirmation for me came last week when Nathaniel revealed that SIBYL’s time stream couldn’t see him….or their daughter, and that thing sees EVERYTHING in the HOT MESS Timeline.  This would also be why Jemma’s messages didn’t reach him, she couldn’t get them to cross into the OG Timeline and this was something she would have known but Diana blocked as part of hiding where Fitz was.

How has Fitz been watching the Chronicoms?  Insert incredibly complicated timey whimy thing the writers came up with that me and my Marketing degree can not fathom so just go with it okay, via the using the Framework in the OG Timeline to get into the Chronicom’s system.  Little pay back for what SIBYL has been doing in the Hot Mess Timeline.  Him being connected to the Framework explains why he was so exposed.  Because when someone is hooked up to that thing they can get their heads cut off and not know it.

Now reunited and having dropped the baby announcement Fitzsimmons will present the plan for the “Final Mission” the team must embark on to save the world….again.   

And oh baby is it complicated.  

Part of said plan will have them back at the Lighthouse during the Chronicom attack.

The dudes that showed up with Jemma at the Temple will be explained.  IE I think its some of the team and they cleared out of the Zephyr before the time travel party got started.  They also may have grabbed other hunks of the monoliths.

The fight will take place in both the Hot Mess and OG Timelines  

We have not seen the last of the Monoliths.  The fact we are jumping timelines and have Flint in the mix over in the OG timeline makes me think they are gonna need Mr. Swirly’s help in doing said jumping (Mr. Swirly is the Grey Monolith).  Or they really go with the OG and its Harold (Black Space one) that allows for it.  Kind of fitting the Monolith that tore Fitzsimmons apart is now the one that reunites them.  

We will for sure see Enoch (via Flashback), Davis (please not by Flashback #davislivesagain), Piper and Flint as returning Favorites.   

If they have Davis back to life I just gesture exhaustedly at the Monoliths again.  Not even gonna try to explain it.

Small chance we run into the Hot Mess’s Timeline Enoch but he will have no relationship or connection to the team and will make me cry.  

Top Picks for SURPRISE not on the Press Release faces to pop up if we get them:   Ward (I mean really how have we not seen him again yet), Mace, Robbie, Bobbi, Hunter, Koenig (any of them) and Mike.    REALLY WANT IT BUT WON”T GET IT!   Dadcliffe

Who was keeping Fitzsimmons Daughter safe:  

Top Pick:  Piper and Flint:  Given Fitzsimmons would have run into them picking up the Zephyr and they could have been the “we had help” they talked about.

Second Place Because I Badly want him back:  Uncle Enoch 2.0

Left Field Surprise Option:  Huntingbird

LOLA RETURNS

We will get a lot of really fun callbacks to past stories or even lines IE “I’m just the Pilot” For May.

“What We Are Fighting For”:  Family.  The team family….and the Fitzsimmons family.  Also they will have gone 13/13 in that someone will say the titles name at some point in the episode.

We will see old weapons and tech from previous seasons make one last appearance, we’ve seen 2 so far in promos and will see more.

Shotgun Axe gets a proper send off in battle (this one is for Kiddo 3)

Bear will deliver the most amazing soundtrack that we’ll never get to buy.

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story (Sorry Couldn’t Resist)

Nathaniel:  Dies, and we will all cheer.

SIBYL:  Dies, and we will all cheer.

Garrett:  Dies or locked up, won’t make it to the second hour.

Kora:  Toss a coin.  If she dies she killed for trying to take down Nathaniel.  If in her betrayal of Nathaniel she helps Daisy get Jemma and Deke back that could be a good starting place for the sisters to work thing out.   Starting place, she has a long way to go to get in good with Daisy and setting up an 11th hour redemption arc.

Mack:  Still so nervous for him based on how he has been in interviews, especially the SDCC ones last year.  He was so clearly upset by it.  So Mack either falls or does something so out of character (Bails before the finale battle which just is not making sense to me Mack is in such a good place right now) for Mack that Henry was upset by it.  Essentially I am very confused because what I am seeing on screen now isn’t matching with how Henry was talking as Mack has really come around since his Endgame stage.

Elena:   Easily lives.  If Mack doesn’t die, wherever he lands she’ll be with him.  They’ve been a steady ship all season and I see no reason for them to break up outside of death.  And while I have a mountain of concerns for Mack, I have none for Elena..   I also see her still being a presence within Shield, she’s become a good solid agent, and bonus points if she keeps Flint with her….and he gets all the tacos he wants.  

Sousa:   Totally lives (they might give us a good fake out though because he and Daisy are becoming a thing)I can still see him being Director of Shield if Mack falls or steps down.   He’s a good Agent in a new time but he said he is right where he is supposed to be, at Daisy’s side.  Where she goes he goes.  IE he’s not letting her get away and will always be there after she runs into a wall.  So if Daisy leaves Shield, so will he.  If she stays so will he.  If she opens a coffee bar he’ll learn to make an espresso.   

Daisy:   Totally Lives, but there will be something about her ending that some fans won’t like and some fans are going to love.   Staying with Shield or no whatever she does will involve Inhumans be it the Secret Warriors are up and running again, she is mentoring and training new Inhumans coming into Shield, or my favorite option still is she reopens Afterlife.  I’ve been feeling that option for most of the Season and feel like it was really set up with Jaiying as was Daisy looking out for her little sister should the chips fall the right way.     The SS Dousy will be sailing right along.  IF Kora survives I can see her being in Afterlife as well, Daisy taking her mother’s passion that Kora has a good heart to heart herself.  

Deke:   Okay this one is weird because I feel like we are going to lose him somehow, but he won’t die.  I didn’t get the vibe from Jeff, Elizabeth, or Iain that he died and those three are pretty tight.  However,  in that I don’t think I’m going to get my Fitzsimmons Family all settling down in a giant castle in Scotland together.  They set up for him to make a sacrifice, he’s grown, and has something he’s really truly fighting for.   I have loved seeing how close he and Jemma have gotten and how fiercely he’s protected her and her secret.  Even in the face of torture he didn’t betray her.  It will come as no surprise if he doesn’t sacrifice himself somehow.  Either in taking a hit for his family or doing something similar to what he did in Season 5 to make sure they got home.  Bringing things full circle.   He also expressed that he wouldn’t mind being stuck in the hot mess timeline in ‘83.  He built himself a nice life there and Nathaniel did a pretty good job of taking out Hydra...with just a bit of Shield hanging on.  So if it comes down to it I don’t see him minding if he gets stuck there.  Sure him saying goodbye to Nana and Bobo is gonna hurt like Hades but if he ends up alive, I’m good.  

Fitzsimmons:  Both live, yes they will scare the crap out of us more than a few times especially after we know about the daughter, but they will live.  Totally peace out, we’ve done our time, leaving Shield with the adorable daughter and its Perthshire or Bust.   They’ve sacrificed enough and will not be willing to risk it again.

May:   Lives and reminds us all that she is one hell of a pilot.  If Mack decides he wants to step down, dies, whatever I’ll throw her back in contention for Director, especially as I see Sousa Following Daisy if she leaves.  Coulson seemed to have set her on that path and at the very least passed the “Team Parent” torch onto her, that it would be her job to give the Coulson talks to those who needed it.  If she’s not Director, she’ll be whomever is right hand, or I still have that option for the Academy being up and running and she’s running that, training the next generation.

Coulson: Lives.I know SHOCKING.   I think he was very ready to throw in the towel after spending 20 months in the TV but then Enoch’s moving words in his death were what changed his mind about ‘powering down” when this is all over.  Coulson realizes that yes, while it is hard to be the one to leave it is harder for the ones that are left behind but it's also necessary that they move on, and live for those they have lost before.  Like Sousa and Fitzsimmons, he’ll be another that they’ll fake out death a few times.   I see him leaving Shield though, taking Lola and finally just going and seeing the world, watching the history he loves so much happen.  We get to see him driving around or even off in Lola for the last time.   Other options include he does something that will allow him to totally run with his new super computer super power.  The final thing I can see him doing is being the coolest professor at the newly rebooted Academy.  

Flint:  Get’s his tacos.

Piper: Keeps being awesome.

Davis:  Better live dang it.

Kiddos Predictions:

That weird device Jemma makes brings Fitz 

Deke sacrifices himself for Fitz

Fitzsimmons and their kid have to leave Shield

Mack leaves shield

Fitzsimmons, Dousy, Mackelena all stay together

Daisy kills Nathaniel, Daisy needs to quake him up

May or Nathaniel will take out Kora.  But if she survives we want Daisy to take her in.

Fitz takes down SIBYL

Piper is watching the Daughter

The daughters name is Olivia

Robo Coulson will sacrifice himself

GHOST RIDER HAD BETTER BE OUR SURPRISE CHARACTER (this was literally shouted at me).  Kiddo 3 voted for PIkachu (Lincoln)

Have no idea what will happen to May

We will get a “flash forward” ending showing what the team that is still alive is doing

Flint gets his tacos

They save the team and have a full out war at some point in time

The episode is going to be super good

Mom is going to cry

Well there it is.  We’ll check back in on Thursday to see how I did!

[lemonadesoda]

Part 2 of the Hide and Seek meta

There’s a bunch I didn’t say in the first meta post because it would have been spoilers, but now the fic is done, so here you go, more random behind-the-scenes that no one asked for but you’re getting it anyway

every writer knows there’s at least one part of writing the story where you hate the story, and for this story, that was chapter 11, which very nearly got away from me. In the first go around, when MJ and Snatcher have their conversation, Snatcher had too explosive of a depressive breakdown and revealed too early that Hat Kid had died in one of the Death Wishes. MJ was pretty furious, considering how big of an asshole Snatcher had been to them like 2 days ago in chapter 9, it led to a big argument and I had to walk away for a few days and figure out whether I was taking the story in the right direction.

on that note, the second half of the story was easily twice as hard to write as the first, my increasingly busy schedule notwithstanding. In the first half, the characters are all pre-turning point, but after chapter 10, I had to work to keep them true to their personalities but this time With Character Development

certain events were planned from the beginning, while other things came up on the fly either as I wrote or in response to reader comments

for example: the lullaby was not in the original plan. A reader commented they wanted Snatcher to sing, and my brain didn’t let it go.

another example: while Snatcher’s anxiety attacks were planned, how it intertwined with his expended magic and lack of souls was spontaneous. I realized when writing his breakdown in ch 9 that as a ghost, his stress couldn’t express itself in almost any of the classic physical symptoms, so he ended up getting phantom pain, dissociative episodes, and extreme fatigue

the legal arguments in ch 17 were mostly planned, but the actual details of the argument, in terms of actual debate points, I came up with largely on the fly, and it is a lot of good fortune that everything worked out so well

part of why I wrote this story in the first place was because I wanted to explore the progression of character change especially in Snatcher, because in other fics I read, he either starts off nicer than I expect or stays meaner than I expect for way longer than I think Hat Kid really deserves to put up with. Moonjumper probably overtly changes the least, mostly because I needed one character who was neither a literal child nor an emotional basket case.

since a lot of people have commented that they like the characterization, I will attempt to elaborate on the methodology

o shit there are sub bullets hell yah

for each of the characters, there was always an underlying feeling that I kept in mind that would act as my compass for how I wrote them

it helps that they all have very strong pre-existing voices in my head, and I play all the dialogue through their vocal lines to make sure it sounds feasible

again, echoing the previous meta, Snatcher’s underlying waypoint feeling is shame. In the first half, he reacts with defensiveness or awkwardness and denial when confronted with that feeling. In the second half after his turning point, he acknowledges that his love for Hat Kid is stronger than the fear of vulnerability he has in expressing it and in fact he becomes kind of clingy and hovery toward her. Instead he channels his bad feelings into repression by hiding his struggles from her instead. It takes him a while to feel like he is allowed to be happy, but eventually love overcomes that too.

HK’s underlying feeling is loneliness. In the same turn, she both craves and distrusts affection. This is discussed in ch 5. Once she decides Snatcher has earned her trust, the loneliness translates into feelings of responsibility. Her choice to go after Vanessa in ch 13 was motivated by the fact that she felt like a burden because Snatcher was caught between her and protecting the forest and she assumed it was her job to go and fix it. It takes a lot of convincing for her to realize she doesn’t have to take charge of a situation, and ch 17 was a culmination of her arc in that she basically played no active role in saving her ship, and that was intentional. It was important for her arc to end in being saved by her parents in a situation where she felt helpless.

MJ’s underlying feeling is basically straight up just love. They’re motivated even early on by the fact that they care about HK and initially it fuels their frustration with Snatcher because they thought he was bound to hurt HK if he kept being such an ass and it allows them to stand up to him to some degree. Even after that though, they would frequently bow out initially to keep the peace, unless HK meddled to convince Snatcher to be nicer to them. However, they also fundamentally still cared about Snatcher too, and realizing he had an opportunity for happiness in front of him, was determined not to let him crush it. Eventually, their sense of love translated to their own existence, which they had always been kind of ambivalent about. MJ wasn’t sure how much ownership they had over their identity, but taking on a role as HK’s parent gave them a good enough sense of self that they were able to better embrace the idea of Themself as a concept. MJ was the hardest to write at all times because I needed to make sure they were getting enough chances to have their own struggles and anxieties as well as their own fulfillment. I put a lot of work into them, but if I were ever to revise this story, I would put even more work into them.

Of the 3 mains, I personally think MJ is actually the funniest. They have a very dry sense of humor.

I see everyone noticed the pet names, so yes, MJ prefers “my dear” and ��little one” while Snatcher sticks with “kiddo” most of the time but will occasionally go for the one hit KO with “sweetie” when he’s feeling real mushy

the hardest part of writing ch 17 was balancing how I wanted to portray the Captain. While I very much didn’t want to give the sense that her caretakers were good people, I didn’t want to portray them as cruel evil monsters, to the point that they would have crushed any sense of joy HK could have. A lot of the backstory was excluded from the actual text, simply informing how I wrote her character, but basically her caretakers were largely just a combination of selfish, neglectful, and resentful of having to look after a child when they were more interested in their work. The Captain himself does recognize through the discussion that HK is genuinely really happy and well cared for on Earth, something he’s aware she could never be in his and the others’ care, and so that one bit in the end is a hint that he does genuinely acknowledge on some level that they were shitty caretakers, that he did fail her as a guardian and that she deserves better.

Okay that’s plenty long, so I’ll stop.

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 124 Thoughts

Have some faith, Reiner.

As if we’d ever forget Han Solo.

The only nice thing about what’s happening now is that it’s forced the right priorities on people. Despite Eren saying, way back in Trost, that people all uniting to face one enemy is too rosy an idea to have a place in reality, for this one island, in these final, traumatic moments, no one wants all these people to die.

With various faces painted on it, most of our main cast on either side has always been focused on one thing: survival. Now Eren rejects that entire concept for the protection of one group. In the barest of bones, that is what every single villain of this manga has always done. Of course the only option is to reject him.

And of course Gabi, who has always been compared to Eren, who has had the most traumatic series of experiences of her young life, stands up and starts fighting.

(One in shadows, one in light. Winning all the high school book reports here.)

This is the best of Eren, in a child who has been ruined by this world just as thoroughly. Gabi will bring back her friends.

Eren chases after slavers to save a girl he doesn’t know.

Gabi runs into streets full of monsters and saves someone who hates her.

I’ve always enjoyed Eren as a protagonist (his dip into antagonist, not so much). In Trost, he takes on the burden of being a symbol of humanity’s hope, but I’ve always felt that his true symbolic nature is that he’s the one who lays claim to humanity’s outrage.

There are things in this world that are simply wrong. Righteous fury without limits is a satisfying reaction to that, and at the start of the manga, it’s something that all of Paradis has basically lost. They’ve grown complacent with their lot in life. Even when the titans invade, they don’t dream beyond reclaiming the territory that they’ve always known.

Eren’s status as a rage monster is very much a meme, and he’s very much more than that, but it has always been fitting that the main character is a bonfire that lights the sparks of the rest of the cast. Eren inspires motion. Before he has any touch of competence and plot magic, he talks and his comrades find themselves listening.

Gabi takes up that torch here.

Reiner is done (again. sorry, Reiner). The world is probably done. Gabi has spent this whole arc being some kind of done.

Gabi gets up, and goes to look for her friend. Falco follows her onto an airship; she follows him into hell.

Gabi gets up, and protects the girl who wants her dead. She faces down a titan with a weapon not meant for the job, and she wins.

Just like the young woman she murdered.

Sasha joins the Survey Corps after Trost. She comes face to face with a titan, and she falters. She fails to kill it, and it comes after her, and she’s scared. She wants to leave. She considers leaving.

Dot Pixis’ speech reignites her will.

Sasha stays, and a month later she saves her little sister.

Her little sister protects a pair of enemy child soldiers.

One of those child soldiers saves her life.

Paradis begins without a spark. Even the people who are signing up to be soldiers are mostly doing it so they won’t be seen as cowards, or so they can go further into the walls as Military Police. People who want to go outside and kill the titans are nuts. The Survey Corps is nuts. They’re a waste of taxes, and anyone who wants to join them is a suicidal idiot.

Enter Eren. Enter enough fury and impact that the fire can’t be contained in one person, and the sparks start spreading. The people who have been left to tend their own fires for years are given kindling. The people who don’t know what it’s like to not be freezing cold are given a taste of warmth.

For a series that begins in stagnation, a protagonist devoted to movement is going to inspire the most change.

Then he decides to commit genocide and ruin everything, but hey, look at how much that’s inspiring people to get along!

Eren, you’re a fucking disaster.

Niccolo basically hands us the series’ thesis on a silver platter, so I’ll refrain from trying to fit his quotes into anything resembling a paragraph.

Niccolo is not Eldian.

Eldians are the one with the ability to literally transform into monsters. A physical manifestation of the horrors all humans are capable of if you take away their reason. That’s why the world calls them devils. They’re all a bunch of ticking time bombs just waiting to go off; why wouldn’t the world condemn, hate, and fear that?

Those ticking time bombs always take at least one more person willing to start the timer for them.

In the current era, Marley has been the force happily strapping bombs to children’s chests.

Niccolo hits on the truest point. From someone who is not Eldian, who cannot physically manifest the horrors all around them that could not exist without certain genetics--

Niccolo has a devil inside of him, too. He’s given in to it. He has been a monster, so lost in his despair that he’s willing to kill children.

The true enemy of this world is not titans. It’s falling prey to the demons every human carries inside. That is the universal human experience, and everywhere people fall in that fight, evil follows.

Titans exist because a man rapes a slave and has her children eat her.

That evil is a fault of human nature, not blood.

Niccolo and Gabi have been the monsters.

Unlike most titans, they have the option of coming back. They’ve had the fortune to live long enough that they can come back. Hell, it might be because she hits the bargaining phase, but even this chapter Gabi goes from suggesting killing Eren to talking to him and using his power for something actually useful.

-pats Gabi on the head-

Not bad, kiddo.

To the left, we have Jean and Connie.

Hell.

Connie’s simplest (as well as the most exciting, because he’s running off to Wall Rose territory with Falco, who has Ymir’s memories), and rather devastating. For four years, his mother has been a titan. Unable to move. She’s his only remaining family. Everyone else in his village, Connie spent their last night alive praying that they would die. He’s one of the three people left who remember Utgard.

Being trapped on a tower in the middle of the night, being hunted for sport by people he’s known all his life.

On Zeke’s command.

The man Paradis is forced to consider an ally. The man Connie is not allowed to touch. The man who is still, years later, turning people into titans. The man one of his closest friends ostensibly betrays them for.

After all that, his friends have someone who can save his mom, and they try to tell him no. Because that might hurt the feelings of their enemies. People like Reiner, for instance. The guy Connie still cries for in Return to Shiganshina.

Don’t worry about your mother, Connie. Worry about the feelings of everyone else.

Also Sasha is dead and this kid’s bestie pulled the trigger.

But seriously Connie, chill.

[chill not found]

Connie has, frankly, done a fantastic job holding everything together. The fact that he’s only snapping now speaks greatly to his character, and leaves me not too concerned about Falco. Connie ranks as one of the lowest on who’s left of people who would be willing to kill a child. Even if it’s for his mother, if Falco’s awake, I don’t think Connie can do it.

...If he can, the manga will have actually found a way to get even darker, which, if we’re being honest, I sort of thought we were beyond at this point, so flip a coin I guess.

Jean likewise has some of my favorite material in this chapter. He’s grown into a far better commander than he was at Trost, and having the terrain duplicated so well only emphasizes it.

But as ever, the true entertainment comes from Marco.

Who is also dead.

Yes, still.

“You’re not a strong person... so you can really understand how weak people feel.”

Jean is not wrong that destroying the rest of the world sort of fixes Paradis’ main problems. The issue is that it’s horrifically immoral, not that it wouldn’t be effective (until a civil war breaks out).

Because everyone spent all their time hating them, their only protection was murdering them all. And it’s all on one person’s decisions. They’re hardly involved, aren’t they? If they sit back and do nothing, it’s just karma, right? What could they possibly do at this point?

“But you’re also good at recognizing what’s going on at any given moment. You know exactly what needs to be done. I mean... most humans are weak, including me... But if I got an order from someone who saw things like I do... no matter how tough it was, I’d do my damnedest to carry it out.”

Jean’s right. They do reap the benefits of this horrible choice. No more complicated politics. Just a blank slate to do better on. Everyone on Paradis gets to live. Without putting too fine a point on it, that’s an argument we’re probably all familiar with, and here a character is, pointing it all out.

This fixes all their problems. Good, right?

No.

Because standing back and doing nothing while genocide is committed is fucking wrong.

That’s a question this series has grappled with from the beginning; which is more important, survival or doing what’s right?

In the start, we have a protagonist who is fully comfortable throwing his own life away in the name of doing what’s right. At the moment, he’s giving every appearance of being fully comfortable throwing away everyone else’s life in the name of keeping the people he cares about alive.

This chapter, we have Connie arguing for his mom’s life over someone more politically relevant’s.

Bringing back another fandom favorite, Serum Bowl pretty much locks these arguments in a cage and pokes them gently with an assault rifle.

Survival says Erwin. Armin doesn’t matter, except to Eren and Mikasa. Erwin matters to Levi in a way he doesn’t to them. What’s right falls to the floor except to be brandished like a machete against the other side’s wants. Hange has to swoop in and pick it up, and by then Floch’s involved and clubbing everyone over the head with his newfound fanaticism.

Once it’s gotten to that point, humanity’s continued survival still says Erwin.

It’s still saving a man’s life.

A man who will die without this intervention.

For the reason of bringing him back to life to suffer in everyone’s place.

It’s pragmatic, and it truly is best for humanity’s survival beyond the walls.

It is also deeply unkind.

Send these thousands of people to their deaths so  the rest can live. Eat each other. Die, die, and die until someone can live. Anything that promotes survival is, in fact, the right choice.

In the Female Titan arc, when Armin and Jean are watching the full extent of Erwin’s plan in front of their eyes, Armin says that Erwin might very well be evil for it, but given where they are, that’s a good thing. That someone strong enough to be that measured with their few remaining lives is in control--even if he’s committing a moral evil, he’s protecting something more important.

It is the preliminary version of Floch’s eventual conclusion.

They need a devil to ensure their survival.

Levi ultimately rejects that.

He doesn’t bring a man back to life so that he can bear their burdens.

It’s one of the smaller goods of the series. After a life of suffering through what is necessary, Levi chooses to release Erwin from it, even though he’s still tactically essential. Again and again people have discussed how much it would help if one more strategist was out Paradis’ table in these times. Levi’s decision is what prevents the most experienced from taking a seat.

Levi picks to be kind over making the choice that more properly secures survival.

Because the survival of what? More choices leading down the exact same road? The endless cycle of sacrifice that’s turned human bodies into resources instead of recognizing them as people?

Titanization at its core?

In the Serum Bowl, Levi doesn’t choose who he wants to survive. He chooses what. He chooses to recognize a man as human instead of a commodity. Something the two brats screaming at him couldn’t let go of. Something he couldn’t let go of.

Do you want to survive, or create a world worth surviving in?

Eren’s actions will destroy the world beyond the walls he always wanted to see. Indiscriminately. Some of it deserves destruction and worse. The parts that don’t will be swept away all the same.

This plan creates the world the First King told them they all lived in; there is Paradis, and nothing beyond it. The rest of humanity is dead.

Thanks to forfeiting all humanity.

And I guess if anyone on the island has a problem with it, kill them too. Also anyone who encourages anyone to have a problem with it. Just set up your secret task force, give the names, and keep those named living in terror for a century until one of them becoming a serial killer in response seems perfectly reasonable.

For those in need of the reminder, Karl is a douche.

Karl thought genocide was such a bad thing that he committed genocide over it, but it’s okay because his genocide was smaller.

Eren thinks genocide is such a bad thing he’s set up to commit genocide over it, but it’s okay because his genocide is going to be so big it’s going to end all genocides. Until Floch remembers he has a gun, probably. Which seems to be always. In which case this genocide will lead to a series of smaller genocides, eventually leading to not enough people being alive for genocide to be committed.

Curing the world of genocide once and for all.

Yay.

.

What I’m saying is that genocide is bad.

Full stop.

Genocide is bad.

-draws underlines-

-draws angry grrr face-

Bad.

Perhaps maybe these people should stop doing it.

For all the moral reasons, sure, but since we’re clearly beyond that point, maybe someone could just quietly suggest with the force of the world ending that maybe imitating the exact behavior that led to literally all of our cast’s problems is not the best move.

Also, Floch shouldn’t get to point a gun at Yelena’s head. Only Yelena gets to hold guns to people’s heads. She makes it cool. Floch makes everyone wonder why Floch still hasn’t died, only to remember that ah, yes, of course people like Floch don’t die.

BUT HEY, AT LEAST THEY KILLED ALL THE TITANS THAT USED TO BE THEIR COMMANDING OFFICERS. I’M SURE THAT’S NOT RELATED TO FLOCH’S GOOD MOOD AT ALL.

You know, it’s not that things are continuing to get worse. They are simply following the roadmap of horror we were handed in the brochure for this arc. None of this is new, it’s just now in play. So it’s not getting worse, it always was worse.

...Yelena, just take the gun and shoot Floch before you die. I feel like that’s the fastest path to something good happening.

Let’s see... points to all our kidlets being a dominant force against titans now. Them Trost Redux feels. Points to Jean realizing that Eren has power of friendshipped himself into villain status (allegedly). Points to Armin remembering how Pixis gave the humans of Paradis their first victory. Points to all of Sasha’s family because I like them.

Then that’s the chapter.

HOW YOU FEELING, ANNIE FANS?

[takaraphoenix]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 5

1. Favorite character of this season?

Anya, I love her arc this season. She's just kind of been... there, in season 4, running along. No one really acknowledged the demon thing, there was no real bonding between Anya and everyone, she was just there. This season, finding her place in the world? Working at the Magic Box, then her in The Body – I mean seriously, her confronting mortality like that, I love it. I love her growth.

2. Outstanding minor character (positive or negative)?

Dawn. Sure, technically you could argue she's a “main character”, however... she's barely even a character, she's a plot-device so that really qualifies her as a minor character for me.

I always disliked Dawn, even when I was a teen myself. With some things, perspective shifts when you grow older, but Dawn just... always sucked. As a teen, I found her to be a cringey parody of the teen girl experience and now as an adult I still think that this is the peak of what a middle-aged man thinks the teen girl experience is. She's a cheap, one-dimensional caricature of a teenager.

She is a whiny brat, she constantly acts like “no one sees the real me”, she becomes a kleptomaniac to try and gain attention, she acts like no one loves her even though everyone constantly fawn over her every chance they got, she is a spoiled little brat that is completely unappreciative of all the things she gets. It's like they crammed every single shallow teen stereotype into this one character, making her a very one-dimensional character. Which is a bafflement considering Willow, Xander and Buffy started out as teenagers but they were always fully fleshed out characters with actual personalities. Heck, Cordelia was the most stereotypical character in the teenage years but even she got more depth and individuality.

Though I'd like to point out that while, as a character, Dawn is incredibly obnoxious, I do like her as what she is – a plot device. The way she creates new dynamics among the Scoobies, how other characters play off her and grow on her existence, the villain-plot she triggers.

3. Favorite character dynamic?

Too many, honestly. I adore the way Tara-Buffy grow in this season. Generally the friction between Spike and the Scoobies. Spike and Dawn in particular. The Buffy-Dawn dynamic too – Dawn being such a blank slate of Teen AngstTM allows for the other characters to shine in comparison. They get a new dynamic here, through the New Kiddo that puts them in perspective. Caring, gentle. The sisters-angle is a new one for Buffy and I do love her as a big sister, even if I wished her retconned sister had like... an actual personality.

4. Favorite canon romantic ship?

Spike/Buffy. Sue me, I'm Spuffy trash. Always been. The way he cares for her, the things he's willing to do. The little things. The self-sacrificial side, how he drops everything to help her whenever she needs him. And, I know, I give other ships flag for things equal or less in comparison to some of the shit that's happened/happening between Spike/Buffy, but see that's where taste comes into play. Liking and disliking things is just... all about that taste and tastes differ. For me, Spike/Buffy hits all the right spots. I love them so much.

5. Least favorite canon romantic ship?

Riley/Buffy. Once again. Seriously, this is just such a bad relationship. From the get-go she constantly put herself down to lift him up. Holding back her powers – which, of course, because otherwise she'd snap him in half during sparring – but pretending that's the max. She is always going out of her way to make him feel special and useful.

And he goes and gets fed on by a vampire and has the audacity to blame it on Buffy, because Buffy doesn't make him feel wanted enough. Even though she continuously tries making him feel important. It's ridiculous. Complaining that she didn't think about calling him when her mom went to the hospital, like she didn't have something else in her mind there? Setting her an ultimatum that she has to give him a reason to stay. After he essentially cheats on her, by sneaking around with vampires and letting them feed on him for the rush.

Now to go and leave with his little military buddies once more. After everything the military has done to him...? Their relationship was so bad for Buffy.

6. Favorite episode?

The Body. This is the singularly best episode... ever. In all television I've ever seen. This episode is overwhelmingly good. Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting is overwhelming in this episode. The choice to exclude music entirely, not even sad ones. How silence is allowed to longer, how unnerving the background noises become due to this silence.

The writing too, of course. Anya's words about death and mortality are so intense, they'll always stick with me. And not just her. Xander, Willow, Dawn, how they all handle this in a different way.

The choice alone that Joyce dies from something so fundamentally human, something no one could have prevented, something Buffy couldn't have fought. And – yes, that reaches ahead some – but the fact that the next episode also serves to have this unfold. It's not just “death and move on”. It's being dealt with, it's being digested, it's being taken seriously.

Too many writers feel the need to fun things up when it's getting serious, because they are afraid to lose their audience if there isn't a joke every five minutes. There is not a single joke in that entire episode. This show is funny as hell, but they know when not to joke. There is nothing to be made light here, this is serious, they are truly suffering. They know how important that is.

I've seen this episode surely a dozen times now. I cry so much every single time. Not just once. There are so many well-written, well-acted and well-executed moments in this episode. It's brilliant TV-making. It encapsulates what's so brilliant about this show overall; the human element, suffering, pain, dealing with pain, the balance between seriousness and humor and knowing when not to use humor.

7. Least favorite episode?

Episode two Real Me. It's the Dawn introduction episode and I've made clear what I dislike about Dawn; this episode introduces it all in the most teen angst cliche possible – writing a diary entry about how no one sees you for who you are and like no one could ever actually understand you.

8. Favorite Monster Of The Week?

...Dracula. I still... I consider that episode a fever-dream. It's one of the ones I opt to forget about whenever enough time has passed since my last rewatch because it just... doesn't fit into this show at all, it feels like a whacky filler arc in an anime, or a one-shot comic spin-off. But it's fun.

9. Least favorite Monster Of The Week?

This season doesn't actually have much of those. There's 4 or 5, depending on how you'd count, out of those 22, because this season is very streamlined about the Big Bad, more so than previous seasons were, and it is also very focused on the human issue – on Joyce's sickness and then her death. Out of those few, I guess the “let's split Xander in half” demon from episode 3 was my least favorite. It was... boring and due to this season's streamlining the fact that this was the most fillery filler episode felt a bit out of place, really.

10. Rate the overarching villain!

SO FREAKING GOOD.

Glory is a truly glorious villain. She's a god. But she is so – so frantic, so manic. She is fun to watch as a villain. The sheer size of the threat too. Which, it figures. There's always an escalation of threat.

(We will get back to that in the season 6 review though.)

Glory may just be my favorite Big Bad on this show, which only adds to how much I love this season. It's one of my favorites. Granted, I have a lot of favorite seasons.

Bonus: Other thoughts?

I love this season so very, very much. The human element, the growth, the villain-plot, the relationship developments. It's an incredible season. I'll get back to this when I finish my rewatch and actually do my ranking of seasons, but I am rating each episode – 1 to 5 – and getting the point-average, to have a more factual look at how much I loved a season. This one is through the roof, it scored an entire 1,5 more in average than season 4 did. There's only one episode in this that I gave a 1 to, but there are so many 4s.

That ending, to truly kill off your main character like that. So many gut-punches – but deserved gut-punches, not the ones that come out of nowhere and only serve shock-value.

I greatly enjoy and love seasons 1 to 3, but this season – this season reminds me why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best damn TV show ever created.

[flightofaqrow]

What sort of role do you think Qrow best fits in a group or by himself regarding combat? Defensive, offensive, support, leader?

inside the birdbrain ** always accepting! (you’re spoiling me with these omg)

╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾╾

I have been sitting on this for days. While it seems like a simple question, I’ve been waffling over how I want to present an answer, because it’s important!! His role in STRQ would be a huge impact on how he develops! 

I’m also going to add in a little bit about an out-of-combat role that’s been revealing itself to me too in an add-on post after this, I think.

By himself: 

We already know. He’s kind of a mess of everything. ... seriously a mess, looking no further than cursed-rwby’s Qrow Branwen: Professional Disaster post to prove it. Sometimes he adds his own personal dramatic flourish for fun, but most of the time he’s throwing his whole body into things and sitting right within the pocket of being in control and regaining it when he’s not. That flexibility and versatility is part of what makes him so dangerous. He literally rolls with the punches, meets the flow of battle where it’s at, constantly assesses the situation and responds appropriately, and has the skills to respond in a myriad of ways. 

Harbinger itself has so many forms now I’ve lost count (Tonfa in vol 7?!? TONFA. I didn’t see that coming), and he seems to know how to utilize them all to the greatest extent. His hand to hand and swordplay for close-range is effective. Full scythe or spear gives him distance melee. He has the shotgun and aura arcs for projectile. His semblance can even help him affect the environment itself. 

His approach seems to be dancing around his enemy with all of the above, finding whatever it takes to exploit or create an opening and then do damage. It’s like this big old mix of support, offense, rogue, DPS?? He’s an all-in-one by himself. He’s had to be.

The only thing he really doesn’t do is defense. He can take some hits and get back up. He certainly does enough diving in and trying to shield the kiddos. But he doesn’t have anything special allowing him to do it without consequences or for longer than anyone else.

In a group:

He’s not a leader, we know that. That was Summer. Raven if we’re talking the tribe. And then Ozpin.

But we’ve seen him step up and do a mediocre job of it. He’s pretty good at leading himself, at least, hence still seeing himself as working better alone. (He’s telling me to say this made up role of “the executioner” cause it sounds cool.) But what that means is he doesn’t have leadership vision or direction, but he’s, like, the ultimate middle-manager. If someone says “I need x results,” he’s very good at then coming up with the how and why to make it happen, to execute a plan.

It reminds me of when Raven said:  Leo did what any sane person would in his position - he looked at all the information he had in front of him, assessed the situation, and made a choice. That shows a lot about her own thought processes, too. I think she and Qrow were similar in this approach - and doubly dangerous using it together under Summer’s command.

So that puts him solidly in the support role for a group, for sure. He’s still doing all of that hopping around to create openings, but now he has other people to be the offense. He can still do some of that DPS too.

[the-faultofdaedalus]

The computer chirped at him as the last little piece of code settled into place, and Tony turned to face the screen, smiled just a little. “Hi, sweetheart” He said, the nickname automatic, “You’re awake now, everything feel ok?” He asked, stared at the screen unblinking, because if something was wrong-- 

Nothing would be wrong, he reminded himself, because JARVIS had checked the code alongside him, and he trusted JARVIS absolutely. 

He didn’t quiet trust himself anymore. 

Systems functional

Words appeared on the screen, a plain black text terminal Tony had rigged up just for this.

Audio Input: Identify?

“I’m--” Tony started, and then couldn’t finish the sentence, not with what he would’ve. “Creator unit. Identify, Creator-Unit,” He told the AI, wiped a hand over his face. The cursor blinked at him as the AI started searching. 

He could put all that information straight in. Could have the AI awake and full of everything they needed to know, but...

He wanted them -- and this one especially -- to be able to choose what they learned. DUM-E had been coded as a skeleton, no inherent motor functions, language functions, barely even any computational systems. DUM-E had learned everything he was by himself, had chosen what to remember and what was important and that’s what made him him. 

JARVIS had started with more, was built with computational functions that he didn’t have to figure out and the ability to understand most human language right off the bat but he’d still learned. That first week after both of them had come online had been... more than exhausting, as Tony essentially gave them a crash-cource on everything, but it was the kind of exhaustion that meant that you’d have a good night sleep, because you did something important. 

He’d had to put more into this one. He didn’t have a choice, because he needed her ready soon, far, far too soon for his liking, and he simply didn’t have time to take a week off to teach a baby AI how the world worked. 

he didn’t trust himself enough right now to teach a baby AI how the world worked. 

The cursor blipped, and more words appeared on the screen, no delay between the letters or the words. 

Identity: Stark, Anthony E. Iron-Man.

Identity: Creator-Unit. 

Identity: Dad? 

Tony’s breath caught in his chest, and he made a quiet little noise, put his head in his hands, pressed his fingers into the top of his eye sockets and hoped that it would make everything stop hurting. “Yeah, kiddo,” He said, “I’m-- that’s me. Identify, self. Okay, honey?” Tony said, gentle, as gentle as he could be right now because there were-- there were going to be some things that he was going to have to break to his new kid as soon as possible and that-- 

That was going to hurt. 

Identity: Self. War-Machine AI. Artificial Intelligence. Computer.

Identity: ROXY

Identity: Me?

“You’re Roxy, yeah.” Tony agreed, “You’re a person. Can you tell me who war-machine is?” He pressed, skipped over the command that he knew she’d recognize, pushing her into parsing hidden meanings. 

The cursor blipped, and Tony let his head tip back, staring blankly at the concrete ceiling. 

An error beeped, and Tony bit back a swear, turned to the debugging screen. 

Command Prompt: Tell Me Who War Machine Is. 

Command: “Tell”, Provide Information

Command: “Me,” Identity: “Me,” Identity: Self. ROXY. 

Command “Tell Me,” Provide Information, to: Self 

Error: Unknown information cannot be provided to entity: Self

“Edit last command,” Tony said, tiredly, they always had trouble with parsing that when he said me he meant himself after the self-identify was run, but if they ran the self-identify after figuring out what he meant by a non-explicit command their core hierarchy would be all out-of-wack, sense of self below processing when the two were inherently linked and he should’ve caught that before this became a problem, but-- 

His mind wasn’t exactly up-to-snuff, these days. 

“Can you tell identity, creator-unit who war-machine is?” He asked, instead of the tricky third-person expression of self, he’d get to that later. 

JARVIS could do most of this, anyways, but... Tony needed to do at least this little bit. 

Command Prompt: Tell Identity: Creator-Unit Who War Machine Is.

Identity: War-Machine

Identity: Colonel Rhodes, James R. Rhodey. Platapus.

Error: “Platapus” Identify: Small Semi-Aquatic Mammal. Identity: Rhodes, James R. Human. 

Data does not match.

Tony laughed, startled himself with it. “It’s a nickname, honey. Non-literal. Doesn’t have to make sense,” He told her.

Honey. Kiddo. Sweetheart. 

These are value: Nicknames?

Tony opened his mouth to reply, and then;

Value: Nicknames, Imply value. Entity: Self has value to Entity: Creator-Unit?

“Yes,” Tony responded, vehemently, “You have value, you’re-- You’re my kid, and I love you, and I’m so proud of you, that was very quick, there.” Proud of the fact that she had ran an identify command by herself, twice, had recognized that the things she knew didn’t match up and asked about them, had tried to figure them out for herself, he was so, so proud.

He had a feeling that she was gonna be the smartest of his kids.

And he was never going to see her rise to her full potential. 

Roxy didn’t say anything else, but Tony could see her code, chugging along, running identify after identify, diving into all the data she was currently allowed to access.

(She’d need some tips on how to access even just Tony’s intranet, much less the entire internet, before Tony would even think of letting her loose there.)

((And some of the things that were in JARVIS’s database and not in hers Tony wanted to tell her himself.))

In the meantime, Tony closed his eyes, put his head down on his desk. He was exhausted. More exhausted than he’d ever remembered being, well, ever, almost, and not just the kind that came from not sleeping. Sleeping wouldn’t fix what was wrong with him. 

He could conk out for 24 hours straight -- if he had the time for that, which he absolutely, unequivocally did not -- and he’d wake up just as tired as he had been before he’d gone to sleep. 

At this point, it was chronic. 

...At least he wouldn’t have to get used to it. 

The computer chirped at him, and Tony jolted up, checked the time and realized that he must’ve drifted. 

I have a question.

It was informally worded, not like a command prompt typed out on the screen, and the burst of pride was like the sun on his face. She’d been learning. “Go ahead, Rox,” Tony told her, couldn’t help the anticipation. 

The words typed themselves out, this time, like there was a person behind the screen with a keyboard, giving the words a sense of timing. Tony was so, so proud.

JARVIS has been helping me. I have talked to DUM-E, U, Butterfingers. Creator-Unit. Dad. Why is my primary protocol not the same? Why is mine not you?

“Oh, sweetheart,” Tony said, voice soft, even as he shot a look at the nearest camera -- JARVIS should’ve changed his by now, Pepper needed him more than Tony did and JARVIS being tied to Tony in this way was only hurting him, Tony was going to have words as soon as this was done, “I-- Yours is Rhodey, you saw that, right?” He waited for the affirmative, “Your job is going to be to protect him, ok? To help him out. You’re going to be flying with him, not me, that’s why--”

He is not my dad. My primary protocol should be you. To help you. To protect you. Like the others. Why am I different?

“Because I’m not going to do that to you.” Tony told her, “Roxy, I’m-- I’m dying. I don’t have that long left. It’s not something anyone can protect me from, it’s just-- it’s a fact. And I need someone to look out for-- for my Rhodey, ok? I need someone to protect him. That’s gonna be you, ok?” 

Why

The word wasn’t emphasized in any way, no punctuation, but it still felt plaintive. 

Tony realized that he was tapping the arc reactor through his shirt. “I fucked up,” He said, “I made a mistake that got a lot of people hurt, and-- I’m paying for it. This,” He said, pointed to the light in his chest, “It’s keeping me alive. It’s also killing me. Cest le vie.”

Roxy didn’t respond to that. 

“I’m sorry.” Tony said, “I’m sorry for waking you up now, when i’m dying, but.” There was a reason he’d only run the final compile this late in the game. It was cruel, for him to make it so his kid wouldn’t ever really know him. 

It was better then her knowing and having to mourn him with everyone else. 

“I had to.” Tony continued. “Rhodey’s-- he’s good, ok, he’s better than me. Remember that, Rhodey-- he’s the best, and you know, you know you can leave, that you don’t have to follow any order I give you but please help him. Please keep him safe, I-- This doesn’t work without him.” The words were rawer and more honest than he’d let himself be, even to JARVIS, even to himself, in a long, long time, but if anyone deserved the truth, it was her. It was his kid. 

The cursor blinked at him for a long moment. 

I promise.

I’ll keep him safe. For you. 

And those eight words were the last straw, the promise, the assurance, more than Tony could take, and when his head hit his arms this time, he was crying.

[marsbaumer]

hello !! the name is cal, pronouns they/them, and i’m in the est timezone. i’m so very excited to bring my kiddo mars to the deja brew !! listed below is going to be some information on the little mess. at the very bottom i’ve listed some possible connections as well that i think would be neat to explore. if you would like to plot feel free to like this and i’ll come to your ims or let me know if you’d prefer to plot over discord. i am very excited and look forward to writing with you all uwu

basics

name: mars baumer job: baker at deja brew & podcast host age: twenty-three gender: nonbinary pronouns: she/they sexuality: bisexual / biromantic birthday: april 2nd zodiac: aries personality type: the entertainer | esfp pinterest board: click here

regular order

large black coffee with a shot of caramel & whipped cream on top

aesthetics

listening to conspiracy podcasts in a deadbeat car in an empty parking lot in the middle of the night

the wafting smell of freshly made blueberry muffins and pockets of sunshine that warm your skin

 skinned knees covered by alien themed band-aids

theme song: boy bye by brockhampton

ring in their ears like a bark always feel left in the dark trauma the price for the patience character shift like an arc move like my shit stay in park don't feel the love or respect grip like a hand on my neck this is the year, place your bets (boy, bye)

positive & negative

brash ( adj ) : self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way.

sagacious ( adj ) : having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment; shrewd.

planetary commentary: updates every thursday @ 3:33am

planetary commentary is a podcast that focuses on all sorts of topics though they primarily tend to center around conspiracy theories, murder mysteries, missing people cases, space, lgbtqa+ subjects, and the occasional book or movie reviews. it could be seen as a bit of a messy podcast, however, it has gained quite the following over the year and a half its been available. ( first premiered may 1st, 2017 )

the chronicles of unknowing: updates every sunday @ 3:33am

a sci-fi, fantasy podcast centered around a boy as he journeys through a strange and mysterious land. he could not recall his name nor how he ended up in such an empty place. he simply woke up one day in a empty house where faceless photos presented themselves on dusty walls. how will he deal with the loneliness this empty town envokes and how will he choose to proceed when there is no clear direction? join the nameless boy as he logs his journey via tape recorder. ( first premiered october 1st, 2019 )

then

mars was born to their mother in the early hours of april second after tiring hours of labour. her mother, anastasia baumer, was over the moon to have her child in her arms after nine long months. it was a lonely celebration, though. no one was there to congratulate her or see her beautiful baby. no, instead, she welcomed mars into the world with just herself as family.

being a working single mother was tough, the money that anastasia’s parents had left her helped in mars’ younger years before they were old enough to go into daycare. things were bound to get more difficult as life went on as the finances were harder to keep up with, especially rent which only increased over the years. still, the child and mother duo were happy and lived life to its fullest. sure, mars couldn’t join any extracurricular sports, but they enjoyed writing and helping their mother with cooking/baking.

of course, life just couldn’t sort itself out for them. no matter how much anastasia gave, the world only took and took and took. it only made sense for the world’s greed to fall on mars as well. on their twelfth birthday, their mother made a choice to go out in the rain to pick up their birthday cake. she never made it home. mars waited up all night until the police came knocking to deliver the news.

( death tw ) a hit and run. she was left to die in the rain alone. that was probably the worst part. the fact that life couldn’t be gentle with her even til the end. mars wanted the hard truth. what was their mother’s last moments like? who left her to die? why would they do such a thing? there were so many questions they had and the police, with much hesitance, answered to the best of their abilities. their mother’s best friend met them at the station. she attempted to stay strong, however even in her righteous anger, tears swept her cheeks. it was a long month that followed.

left alone, mars was placed in foster care. the system was incredibly difficult to move through. they ended up being incredibly difficult to handle between poorly adjusting in school and slipping out of the houses. it took two years of swapping between three foster homes before they found the knox household. the knox’s consisted of cillian and avery knox as well as their son isak. it was a somewhat strange ensemble that mars joined. isak was cillian’s son from a previous marriage before he’d met avery and fell harder than ever before. it was...cute. they gave them space and isak was different from the other kids they ended up staying with previously. for starters, he was only a year younger than them. he complimented their vibe the first time they met and then asked what they thought about aliens. needless to say, their introduction into the knox’s dynamic and to each of them personally was a welcomed change.

fourteen years old, mars finally found a place they could settle down in and mourn their mother while attempting to settle. it was nice, living with avery- living with another person of colour, who encouraged their desire to explore different styles and, later on, pronouns when they started to question their gender. the support of cillian and isak as well encourage their unique interests and desire to learn about their self. the family helped them in ways they could never pay back. 

( cancer tw, death tw ) life never failed to come back to ruin them. they had at least six years of blissful peace before isak began to get sick. it was a terrible time and took a while to catch on to. yet, the diagnosis wasn’t promising. cancer never was. isak held out a while against the leukemia that made him sick. almost a year, in fact, before he ended up passing. the devastation they felt was an echo of the past as they lost their best friend and brother. 

now

two years later found mars living outside the knox household and in a two bedroom apartment with someone they found on craig’s list or something. they liked to introduce them and tell tales about how they ended up rooming together, even going as far as claiming they found them on the side of the road. 

mars has been working at the deja brew for about two years now. after dropping out of school for when isak was sick, they decided not to return. their fathers were disgruntled, but allowed it. after all, they were there on scholarship anyways. they had expected them to return, however, mars has yet to show any interest in continuing their program.

mars can come across as a very detached individual, however, they are in actuality very passionate. get them speaking about something they have an interest in and they seem to do a complete 180 in personality as they talk. 

they enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, whether it be baking or cooking. occasionally, they’ll have their co-workers and some customers try one of their end products to get a gauge on how it turned out. unfortunately, they’re not always good. most of the time they’re stomach-able, though, so that’s good.

they just began a new podcast titled the chronicles of unknowing. they haven’t told anyone, but the main character is based off of their brother. they wanted to remember him and transform their grief into something that could possible help others but also potentially allow for isak to still touch peoples lives.

they publish the podcasts under the pseudonym mercury as they believe it takes the whole act of them creating away from their self and focuses things on the actual content they put out.

[do-your-socks-have-holes-in-them]

Til the End of the Night / Ch20: In which Roman says the fuck word

Previous / Masterpost / Next

Summary: Logan’s plan doesn’t quite work. Patton improvises.

Warnings: mind control, minor fighting-related injuries, death mentions/threats

A/N: there’s like two more chapters left after this it’s so close to being done aaaaa

Taglist: @thegirlthatdoesntofficiallyexist​

AO3

~ ~ ~

Virgil reacted to the witch’s cry almost before Roman did and surged forward, blocking his sword with his own much smaller blade before calling on his magic, forming a dark, swirling shield around his right arm and extending his dagger into a weapon more the size of Roman’s, magical energy arcing off it as if eager to attack. Well, whatever his magic may have wanted, Virgil had no intention of actually hurting Roman. He only rushed to fight him like he did because he didn’t want his opponent’s attention turning to Logan or Patton- he was much better equipped to defend himself than either of them, and so he would try to keep Roman’s focus on himself as much as possible.

Meanwhile, Logan had his own plan. He pulled Patton back, as far away from the fighting as they could get without hitting the wall, and whispered as much to him: “I’ve got a plan.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Patton sighed. Sure, he got a little annoyed sometimes when Logan told him what to do- not that he usually said anything about it- but in this particular situation, it was a relief. Somehow he didn’t think acting on his own impulses right now would turn out very well for anyone.

“For now, all I need you to do is make yourself invisible, and then extend it to me as well.” He looked up once Patton had done as instructed. “It seems the witch has placed a shielding spell around herself. We can’t attack her directly at the moment, but if Roman is removed from the fight, she’ll have no choice but to come out and fight us herself. I wish you hadn’t lost the remaining potions, but it can’t be helped, I’ll just have to improvise.” With Patton holding onto his arm and trying not to be in the way, he searched through his bag and finally dug out the bottle of liquids that glowed when shaken up.

“I’d tell you to stand back for this,” he said to Patton, “but I’m afraid all you can do without letting go of me is try not to breathe on it too hard.” 

With that, as Patton stopped breathing entirely just to be safe, he took a pinch of another component, dropped it in, and gingerly closed the bottle again. The fighting was getting intense- Virgil had successfully avoided actually hurting Roman, but he wasn’t doing quite so well at keeping Roman from hurting him, and they were both beginning to tire, their movements becoming sloppy. Now seemed like a pretty good time to end it. Logan counted under his breath, three seconds, and threw the bottle against the ground at Roman’s feet.

Approximately no one except Logan was expecting the small explosion that resulted. Even the Dragon Witch flinched. Fortunately, every potential witness in the room was either deep in a magically-induced slumber or already on her To-Murder list anyway.

Virgil all but threw himself away, ending up curled in a bubble shield trying to convince himself he wasn’t dead. Roman’s response was a little more interesting, if just as instinctive. He was still knocked away and to the floor- the expanding bubble would have done it if the explosion hadn’t- but as soon as he realized what was happening, he was shielded from explosive-based harm by a spell from the witch, and retroactively always had been. This meant that, retroactively, the witch hadn’t had enough power left over for her own shield, and was instead a safe distance away behind the throne while Roman fought for her. She didn’t seem to notice that anything had changed, though- in her mind, it hadn’t.

Roman was taking his time getting to his feet. Enough time that, when Virgil tumbled out of his bubble a second later, Patton was able to rush over and check on him. 

“Oh, shoot,” he fretted, running his hands over the places where Virgil was hurt, both from the fight and from the explosion. He didn’t have the energy to keep himself invisible and heal at the same time, so his worry was clear in his expression. “You okay, kiddo?”

He shook his head. “I’m… I’m good. Just… what was Logan thinking, exactly? I just wanna know.”

Virgil had his eyes closed, trying to focus on catching his breath again. He could be forgiven, therefore, for not noticing anything when Patton healed a shallow cut over his eyebrow. Logan, however, was standing right next to the two of them, and very much watching, and very much saw when an identical injury appeared on Patton’s face, just before he finished his task and quickly went invisible again.

Oh.

He inhaled sharply. “Patton, I-”

“Prince Roman!”

The Dragon Witch, with an innate sense of dramatic timing both perfect and infuriating, gestured impatiently to Roman, who had only just picked his sword up from the floor and returned to a fighting stance.

“Honestly, I didn’t want to have to tell you how to do your job, but this is going to take all day,” she sighed. “Forget the sword, just use your power and destroy them already!”

This was easier said than done, but in the witch’s defense, she couldn’t have known that. How could she have been expected to realize that the heroes fighting her were not Roman’s creations, as subject to his whims as the interchangeable castle guards, but actual, real people capable of influencing the world in their own right? As it was, though, he couldn’t do anything so simple as render them instantly weak and unable to oppose him any further, or even kill them where they stood by deciding they’d retroactively been poisoned that morning. He couldn’t touch them directly with his power at all. Unfortunately for them, that wouldn’t stop him from manipulating everything else around them, just as he’d done earlier with the weaponized architecture.

Roman’s sword clanged against the stone floor as he abandoned it, instead raising both hands in front of him. The walls of the throne room, began to shift and bubble, as if they were made of liquid rather than the solid, reasonable building materials they were supposed to be.

Virgil had no idea what he was about to do, and he didn’t particularly want to find out, either. He put his own hands up and readied himself to throw a shield around all three of them, but- Patton was still invisible. Where exactly was he? Virgil couldn’t put his shield up until he was sure no one would be left outside it.

“Pat?” he whispered. There was no answer. He cursed, this time managing to put a crack in the floor beneath his feet… or maybe that was just Roman. “Lo, I- I can’t- where is he?” He’d grabbed Logan’s arm without realizing it, subconsciously making sure that he at least wouldn’t get out of protecting range.

Logan didn’t get the chance to answer. One moment, Patton was gone and Roman was about to straight-up murder them, and the next, Patton was visible again and right in front of Roman, throwing himself at him and nearly knocking him over.

Roman reacted quickly. He wrapped one arm firmly around Patton, pinning his arms so he couldn’t attack him, and held the other out to summon his sword back to him. Patton barely struggled, merely wiggling a bit to make it less uncomfortable. Virgil cried out wordlessly- reacting to both the unbelievably stupid thing Patton had just done, and the fact he’d only just now seen his face after healing him- and tried to run to them, but Roman only flicked the sword in his direction and the floor itself tripped him up. He looked back at Logan, panic clear on his own face.

“Lo, he-!”

Logan pressed his lips together and helped him up. “I know.”

The sword was raised, its tip pressing against Patton’s spine, but Roman gave the witch a questioning look before acting any further. After all, he’d been ordered to destroy the heroes using his powers, and he wasn’t sure if that made stabbing entirely out of the question, even when such an easy opportunity presented itself. Fortunately, he didn’t get the chance to find out before Patton shifted just a bit more and pressed their foreheads together, and the whole room was filled with a near-blinding blue light.

Logan and the Dragon Witch cried out in unison. “No!”

When the light faded, Roman and Patton were tangled together on the floor, both unconscious, and the witch had been knocked back by the surge of energy. Their friends rushed to their sides, now that they were able to do so without Roman’s power interfering. Logan immediately began trying to wake Patton, something slightly frantic in his eyes, and Virgil was halfway to forming a shield around all four of them when Roman began to stir. Being trapped with the evil, controlled version of him was still just as bad an idea as it had ever been. As he opened his eyes, Virgil pulled Patton against his chest, holding him protectively in case Roman woke up and went right back to wanting to stab him.

That… wasn’t what happened, though. He blinked up at them- actually looked at them, not through them with blank eyes- and coughed weakly. “What… what happened?”

Virgil nearly choked on the breath he’d been holding and threw himself forward to hug him. It didn’t work so well, with him still clinging to Patton, and everyone ended up a little squished.

Logan cleared his throat, trying very hard to pretend he wasn’t emotionally affected by anything at all. Ever. “Ah- I hate to interrupt, but I really think we ought to save this for after the Dragon Witch is defeated.” He looked across the room at her, holding her head as she got up, and thought to himself that people had been getting conveniently thrown across the room with almost unreasonable frequency as of late. “We need to get Patton somewhere safe until-”

“Patton,” Roman gasped. His memories were coming back, foggy though they were. “He’s- I was going to tell you, his healing…”

“Hurts him,” Virgil finished grimly. “Figured that out.” He traced the cut on his forehead, blinking back tears. “I… I should have noticed sooner, I- but that’s not what’s important right now. I can keep him safe, as long as you don’t need me in the fight.” Hiding out in a bubble while Roman and Logan fought the witch wouldn’t make him very useful, but he couldn’t let anything else happen to Patton, not after everything he must have been through already.

Roman nodded. “We can handle it. Let’s go.”

Evidently, he’d spoken too soon.

Before he and Logan could even finish standing up, they and Virgil were shoved aside at a wave of the witch’s hand as she strode towards them. It seemed that with her control over Roman broken, she also had a decent amount of magic freed up for use again- too much for them to push past, try as they might. She stood over Patton and snapped her fingers, and his eyes opened slowly… as empty and unseeing as Roman’s had been. It was much easier to control someone, even without a name, when that control was willingly handed over.

“Get up,” she told him, and was dragging him away by his arm almost before he’d completed the action.

The others couldn’t move in her direction again until she and Patton were standing beside the throne, and then Virgil lunged for her, reaching for his magic.

“Ah, ah,” the witch chided. She lifted her own hand and formed a ball of energy right next to Patton’s head. He didn’t so much as flinch, but Virgil stopped dead at the clear threat. “I think you’re going to listen to me now.”

She didn’t look half as composed and in-control as she had when she’d first started the ritual. Her hair had come undone from its neat braid, and her eyes were just as wild.

“It’s a very simple offer I have for you.” She moved her hand closer, singing Patton’s hair. “You can do just one, little thing for me and complete the ritual… and I can ensure the safety of this sweet little friend of yours.”

“You’re… threatening to kill him?” Logan would be the first to admit it was a heartless thought to have, but… that wasn’t actually the worst possible outcome. Patton certainly wouldn’t enjoy getting “killed” here, but is wasn’t like he would actually be dead.

“What does it look like, smart guy?”

Logan put a hand on Roman’s and Virgil’s arms, gently holding them back. “Well, yes, I presumed that was the case; I was merely wondering if you actually expected it to work.”

Everyone stared at him incredulously, with the obvious exception of Patton, and he sighed.

“He’d have to be stupid to agree to that, no matter how much he cares for Patton,” he said, a very strong edge of so don’t do it, idiot in his voice. “One man’s life cannot possibly be worth giving up his entire kingdom and leaving the lives of all its citizens in your… thoroughly untrustworthy hands.” Especially when we all know he would be fine, he added mentally.

Virgil made a warning sound under his breath. This line of thought was making him increasingly uncomfortable. “We can’t just…”

Before he could finish voicing his doubts, Logan added sharply, “What do you think Patton would tell you to do?”

Roman opened his mouth indignantly. Then he closed it again, and sighed. “He… he wouldn’t want me to agree to this, would he?”

The witch raised an eyebrow. “So… you don’t care if I kill your friend, then?”

“Oh, I’d fucking erase you from existence,” Roman snapped back immediately. “You won’t do it, if you want any chance at all to continue living yourself.” Then he realized everyone was staring at him. “...What?”

Logan blinked a few times. “I had… been under the impression that there was some sort of profanity filter in place here.”

“I could’ve been saying fuck this whole time? Are you kidding me?!” Virgil threw his hands up in the air.

“What, really? I mean, I try not to swear too much, personally, but… if there’s been something stopping you, I didn’t put it there. Must’ve been one of you three.”

Everyone’s eyes slowly turned to Patton. He wasn’t exactly able to confirm or deny at the moment, but it sure hadn’t been anyone else.

After a moment, the witch cleared her throat, reminding everyone that she was still there and still, you know, threatening them. “Fine,” she ground out. “He lives, for now… if you’re going to insist on fighting me no matter what, I may as well keep him around on my side.”

She seemed a little surprised when Roman didn’t answer with any kind of fun banter, just gripped his sword tighter, but he wasn’t here for entertainment anymore. It was one thing when she’d only been hurting him- it was an expected part of going against her in this place, after all, however unpleasant. But threatening Patton like she had…

“This ends here,” Roman said, and it wasn’t a threat or even a promise. It was a statement of suddenly established narrative fact.

[helihi]

The Good, The Bad, and the Dirty: RWBY Vol 6 Ep 13

#GayForSummerRose

#BeesConfirmed #RenoraStyle #RTWhatAreYouDoingWithMyEmotions #ThisShitIsIllegal.

Overall rating: 8/10.

A.N.: RT provided us with an official “Look how far we’ve come.”

The Good:

Okay, I can definitely say I love this season finale more than the vol 5 finale. yes, even if Vol 6′s greatest tragedy is having no Raven in it, I have to say, the rollercoaster of emotions the last 16 gave me were a thrill.

Where to start?

Let’s kick it chronologically. Watched it 2 more times for this.

"Yes, and we just ruined the only thing capable of stopping it.”

I want to applaud Kara for her delivery of this line. It was cold, in a very Grimm tone. Loved it!

I think the structure of the episode was well thought as most of the contents of this episode belong in this section:

Set up:

This whole episode is mainly centered around Ruby. She is the one the camera will follow and point and for reactions, this is crucial for the emotional beat of this episode.

Cordovin’s redemption is set up at the beginning of the episode and follows a good narrative in the next 16 minutes. 

Blake’s state and struggle is acknowledged by those around her, specially Yang and Ruby. This scene is great, not only because it cements that what Blake went through is not something to be shrugged off, but because also provides with one of the most wholesome moments of the whole episode: Ruby looks at Yang and she knows.

Maria comes in and paints an objective: 

The utilitarian route - They take the chaos as an opportunity to run.

The idealist route - They stay and fight, even if they are at a disadvantage.

Camera focuses on Ruby for choice —> Team for back up —> Back to Ruby for confirmation. She is the one who makes the call.

Strategy one: Doomed to fail.

Ruby states that she HAS to do this.

Build up:

Cordovin reaches her breaking point as she listens to Ruby’s resolution.

Cool flight sequence.

Plan fails.

New strategy which focuses a lot more on team effort. I love the scene were Blake goes over to Weiss. We are Weiss stans first, RWBY fans second. The fact that everything feels connected, shows you this was more thought out than the Vol 5 ending battle sequence (With the exception of Cinder vs. Raven vs. Yang). Ren and Jaune are out of the game, no aura. Yang and Nora are to distract the Leviathan. Blake is there for emotional support, she has no aura and Gambol Shroud is broken. Weiss is giving Ruby method of transportation.

Ruby faces the Leaviathan: This is the official RT RWBY “Look how far we’ve come” montage, I say this not only because this is meant to show Ruby’s memories, but because most of the time, the clear point of view of these is not Ruby, but the audience.

Toddler Yang + Young Taiyang: Emotional connection to childhood from Ruby/ Reminder of the fan favorite Burning the Candle episode.

Zwei joins the team: highlight of the time at beacon/everyone’s fav corgi.

Food fight: call back to the ‘good ol’ days’/ Everyone’s favorite fight sequence.

Blake loves tuna: nice team building/One of the funniest scenes for the FNDM.

Penny: scene were she tells Ruby she wants to leave Atlas.

Vomit boy: First time Ruby saw Jaune/Some old FNDM nicknames.

Team JNPR at the noodle station.

Pyrrha —> ANGST TRIGGER.

Jaune training at night: Ruby was woken up every night by this/Sad Arkos moment that hit everyone.

Yang losing an arm: scarring memory for Ruby to see her sister like that/one of the most telling shots of Vol 3 ending.

Yang closing up: see above.

Pyrrha dying.

Penny dead.

Ruby’s powers don’t work, focus on the Leviathan noticing her. Zoom to the lamp.

Pay off:

JINN INTERVENTION! Set up for future volumes, probably one of the smartest moves Ruby pulled up ever. And it’s perfect tied in to the way Ruby react after being reminded of the relic’s existence and how it affect Grimm, established in earlier episodes.

Continuation of montage:

Team RWBY ready for mission: fond memory/of of the iconic moments of the first volumes.

Weiss apologizing: Official beginning of their friendship/Iconic moment of vol 1.

Blake cheering: old classes/meme’d image.

Yang telling Ruby she will always be there for her: emotional contrast to the last Yang flashback/connection of Yang’s short to her self-sacrificial nature/mother hen attitude.

Vol 2 Ending: crisis avoided when the bad guys were easy to deal with.

Dance: Another excellent scene from vol 2.

Team JNPR together.

Qrow’s first appearance: emotional core of Ruby/Qrow relationship.

Oscar hopeful.

María giving Ruby lessons.

Penny when she confirms they are friends.

SUMMER ROSE OMFG

Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting to see her this soon, but I am so fucking glad to see her! I can finally draw all the Team STRQ I’ve wanted to draw! She's so fucking pretty aaaaaaaaaa

Does this confirm STRQ backstory soon?

Ruby is able to stop the Leviathan momentarily.

Cordovin redeems herself.

Now, we get to skip all the fight, which I find to be a great choice. After the last 3 episodes of constant action, we need a breather. We need interactions, a slow down of the pace and some discussion.

We get the small closing scene for the Qrow and Ruby arc. She restates her love for him and Qrow realizes he has someone new to inspire him. It’s very important that he hesitates before taking a drink, and actually pouts his flask down down.

María is also inspired by Ruby. After patting Qrow in the back (metaphorically), we get a reinforcement of team RWBY + JN_R + Oscar as the new generation who take on the mission of saving the world and protecting others as huntsmen.

We got some wholesome and organic exchanges between the kiddos. It’s so refreshing and welcome to see them interact, even if it seems like something so ordinary and miniscule.

Bees get confirmation Renora style. Volume 7 will be filled with filled with Bumblebee y’all! Happy to see they will explore their feelings for each other after they settle the Adam fiasco. They can move on and build a healthy relationship together.

When the Renora kiss tho.

Oscar reveals that Ozpin helped him land the ship. This is super important! Ozpin shows that he has faith in them, and instead of taking over, he shows his support and guides Oscar. This is a very good sign, even if it leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.

Good for the Ozpin arc.

I love the way Atlas looks! It’s an interesting way to protect the city from oncoming Grimm attacks after what happened to Matle. I wonder however, how they keep the city up and what plan of evacuation/defense they have for the impending invasion.

It’s clear the set up for the next season is more political and I’m all here for it!

The Bad

The way Yang and Blake to join the others at the beginning of the episode has me face palming. How the fuck could they have gotten there in time when they were both tired, with no aura left and shocked after what they went through?

That was cheap as fuck, I’d rather they fly to pick them up, that woudl have added what? 1 minute to the 16 minute chapter?

The Dirty

The first scene of the whole episode is completely disconnected for everything else, and though it’s a clear set up for volume 7, I feel it would have been a better post credits scene than the one we got with Salem that was a huge meh.

I will make a Vol 6 review in the future (cause I can’t decide if I like it better or worse than Volume 5), but for sure, the Cinder scenes are completely out of place and only serve for set up for volume 7. They are so clumsily implemented, I can’t believe they couldn’t set up a theme to have them make sense.

Anyways, this is here for the following reasons:

Good callback to Pyrrha’s death. That exchange clearly triggered the audience because boi we’re not over that.

Cool new outfits, kind old how the CRWBY keeps pulling these outfits change to indicate a new arc and make it so obvious.

WHERE ARE MY RWBY ALTAS OUTFITS. I NEED THEM NOW.

Nice to see Neo’s Semblance being explored. She has limits, and we know more of how it works.

Still disappointed Neo doesn’t use sign language. I’m pretty sure Cinder would be able to get some context or read her lips, but whatever. I guess it’s too complicated to animate.

Overall rating: 8/10.

A.N.: Okay I am very gay for Summer someone body please help me the thirst—

[sailor-cresselia]

Zi-O 38: The sun is a powerful thing

Here we go! Time to watch a show~!

Last time: Timeline snarls, the bad sort of Meteor, and worms. So many worms.

This time: … Hell bro’s if I know.

Spoilers for Zi-O 38 and Kabuto below the cut. Rest in piece, horizontal line - sections are divided by tildes now. ~

~

When last we saw our hero, he was Rocket Drilling a meteor into non-existence. And then the bigger one showed up. On the plus side, at least Sougo knows that “OH GOD THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HIT THE EARTH.”

Also, apparently the Faiz Phone X works in space! Good to know!

~

Junichiro. That. Is not how you make emergency ration onigiri. You. You don’t need to include all the extras with them. Also, evacuate to where, exactly? It’s A METEOR.

Kudos for taking Woz’s comment about Sougo being in space in stride, though. (How much do you know, old man?!)

…Wait a minute. Does Junichiro not know Woz’s name? He didn’t use it when asking when Sougo was coming back.

Uncle, ffs. You’ve lost your name privileges again.

~

In the recap vault… Woz has what are presumably replicas of the three remaining watches – Drive, Kabuto, and Den-O.

(Why is Drive the last arc? Wouldn’t. Wouldn’t Den-O be more appropriate for the last Legend Rider? I mean, we’ve already gotten Yu Inaba back for the Brain special, so they could have filmed his section then, if he’s the guest appearance. But Den-O would just. Make more sense for the final watch, wouldn’t it?)

(wouldn’t it?)

~

We’ve got the Kabuto OP reference again! I really wish they had started using old musical cues sooner, as opposed to not doing so until Agito, because that would have helped make the earlier Legend arcs just a little better.

~

WOZ DID YOU DRAW THIS PLAN UP? This doodle is CUTE.

“Okay, so, you have a rocket, so get me into position, and I’ll use my Super Mode to blow up the asteroid.”

Sougo just. Goes with it. Doesn’t even ask if Woz’ll be okay. Can’t tell if that’s because he’s being dumb, if it’s because he’s preoccupied, or if it’s because he trusts that it’ll work out.

(Also, Woz having clearly made and eaten the ramen that the Hell brothers left behind with their ransom note is all sorts of hilarious.)

Sougo: “Wait, where’s Kagami?”

Woz: (shrug) “He might’ve been captured. Also, here’s this note we got from the edgelords.”

Note: (is a ransom letter)

Kagami: (IS VERY MUCH CAPTURED)

~

Geiz, no samehatting with the murdermen. Yaguruma’s “If it comes to it, I’ll be the one to take him down” is very different from your “If it comes to it, I’ll be the one to take him down.”

Also, good use of archival footage there.

Hey, does anyone know what Geiz’s ringtone is? It’s familiar, and I feel like it’s one of the belt jingles, but I can’t place it.

But anyway, Geiz hears that Kageyama’s done… something, and Yaguruma takes this opportunity to knock him down and zoom the heck out of there.

~

Cut to… oh. That’s. Fine. Kageyama has Arata chained to a post, with some suspicious piles of rocks placed nearby.

(That feel when Toei doesn’t quite hide the mortars for the explosions)

So… you guys are really just going to toss your space powers to the Worm, huh? That’s what we’re doin-

AHAHA YES

IT’S THE SUIKA SPRITE! I love that little guy’s machine gun. And then using the Search Hawk to cut the chains around Arata!

I like seeing the older gadgets and tech used again.

Also, RiderTime has decided that the jingle they’re going with for the Search Hawk is “This hawk can gawk,” which… Well, they’re not wrong!

Arata is loose, and goes straight into the cast-off version fo Gatack. Looks like he was going to go grab the watches using Clock Up, but Another Kabuto has other ideas.

He does not fair well at all, and is very quickly knocked out of this transformation.

~

At 9-to-5, we’ve got an after-fight debrief and patch-up session. Arata blames himself for not being good enough to stop the edgelord murdermen, but nobody else holds him to that.

I agree with Geiz, what are the Time Jackers thinking in contracting with this guy? I mean, not that Heure and Hora are usually thinking that far ahead in their choices, but I’d expect this one to be Swartz –

OH RIGHT. I just remembered that theory Miyuko and I came up with last week that the meteor – which is very, very red – is why 2068 is so messed up in the Oma Timeline. And since Swartz pretty clearly intends for Sougo to become Oma Zi-O…

Oh, and there’s a mention of Arata’s timeline and ‘our’ timeline getting ‘mixed up’, with a flashback to Tsukasa mentioning time and space getting distorted.

Keep in mind, Arata remembers Shibuya not exactly existing anymore, but it’s very much intact right now.

…Onore Time Travel.

~

AND IT TURNS OUT THAT HEURE IS JUST AS DISPLEASED WITH THE WHOLE METEOR THING AS THE GOOD GUYS!

“Making Hell on Earth is one thing, but we need to actually have an Earth, dude.”

Also, I love this? Heure pausing time in the rain – with a nice matching umbrella, too – is a good callback to not just the fact that TIME FREEZING IS OP, but also to Kabuto, what with the disrupting the raindrops as he moves. Which – oh man, it’s really cool to see that!

~

Heure is pissed to have to give the Fourze and Ginga watches back, but. Y’know. He’d rather not die to a giant meteor.

The thing is.

I don’t think that’s where Swartz is going with them.

~

Over to 2058, with Tsukuyomi and Tsukasa! Hooray! Lore time!

The very red 2058.

Seriously, that ‘worm meteor is what hecked up the lighting’ idea is looking more and more likely.

Looks like Tsukasa landed them outside where Tsukuyomi might have grown up. Aaaand has been cast as the chef.  

Tsukasa: “Eh. I’ve had weirder. I should tell you about the time I wound up being a salaryman the time I went to the world my husband came from. That sure was a day. And there was that time I was a head chef for BOARD. And the time I was a lawyer. And – okay, look, I have seen and done some things, kiddo.”

(My Decade watch is going well! The Kabuto arc was! Absolutely devastating! And so was Daiki’s!)

((I wonder what the odds are of the Den-O watch being as useless as the Den-O cards?))

So, once they reach the second story – a small girl in white starts questioning them.

A small girl in white, who looks an awful lot like Tsukuyomi.  

And is calling them ‘interveners’. I kind of think ‘meddler’ might be a better term here, but. Idk. She can tell they’ve traveled through time. And has an incredibly powerful Time Stop ability.

And calls a teenager in a black outfit her brother.  

An outfit that looks awfully familiar. Almost as if we’ve seen it before, in, say, 2009?

When they leave, and incidentally resume time, guess who’s coming up the stairs? Nah, not gonna make you guess, it’s our current Swartz. This is fine.

NOPE NEVER MIND THIS IS NOT FINE IN THE SLIGHTEST.

Swartz knocks Tsukasa into the yard – and that looked painful, Decade’s a veteran rider and he didn’t take that hit well – and…

Swartz… tosses the two stolen watches to Tsukuyomi, saying that without her power, they can’t stop the meteorite.

And that when hers and the god of times powers resonate, ‘a new era will arise’.  

RiderTime, I’m pretty sure he was just saying ‘king of time’, not ‘god’. But still. NOT GREAT STUFF GOING ON HERE.

Swartz what are you planning?

…

Well, at least he does not, in fact, want the meteorite to hit. Taking the watches to Tsukuyomi, as opposed to the boys, makes sure that they won’t try stopping it without her.

~

Tsukasa warps the two of them back to 2019, and OH RIGHT. They left WELL before the HUGE meteorite showed it’s ‘face’.

RUN TSUKUYOMI, RUN!

…

And. Oh.

HUH.

Tsukasa think’s he’s got what’s going on with her.

And Swartz isn’t quite certain that she’s his little sister.

Implying that his little sister disappeared, and he only suspects that she’s Tsukuyomi.

oh no.

~

And here we have Arata getting incredibly down on himself, for not having been Kabuto, for having never beaten Souji. Sougo, sweet boy that he is, asks him to protect people for him when he becomes King.

Of course, the intent was to reassure Arata, but, well. Even Souji never went the ‘king’ route, so laughter is what ensues.

~

Now, to a random rooftop, where Geiz and Woz are fighting against Another Kabuto and Punchhopper. …in their base forms.

Come on, guys. Really?

Well, at least the matched attacks knocked everyone out of their transformations, not just the good guys.

And here, some more exposition from Worm!Kageyama. Because he is a Worm, don’t forget that – and there’s a whole bunch more of them on the meteorite.

The others show up with the watches, and Sougo asks Arata if he can entrust the fight on the ground to him.

Arata: “Of course! My king!”

LIKE HE LITERALLY SAYS “OU-SAMA.”

THIS IS WHERE DEALING WITH SOUJI TENDO GETS YOU.

HE’S FINE WITH GOING WITH SOUGO’S ECCENTRICITIES.

Arata, no…

gasp.

GROUP TRANSFORMATION IS A GO!

And it’s not just a team transformation! It’s everyone, circling around the 6 combatants.

A call of ‘Henshin’ as we cycle by each in turn…

Arata starting his transformation, starting the Gatack Zecter.

Yaguruma starting his transformation, starting the Kickhopper Zecter.

Kageyama with the Punchhopper one.

Geiz going into Revive Fury.

Woz going into Ginga Finaly.

Sougo going into Fourze.

Then it keeps circling…

The Gatack armor forming, then Kickhopper, then Punchhopper. Geiz’s mask ‘label’ attaching itself. Woz. Zi-O Fourze.

Cast Off.

~

UCHUU IKUUUUU!

Ahahaha, Woz got in on the second half of that, too! Nice.

So, they’re in space now, right? And they have to drill into the meteor to get Woz in there, so he can destroy it.

So Sougo goes into Build armor.

Now, you might be thinking, “Mr. Mouri, but now he’s not in a space armor! Rider or not, that shouldn’t work!”

Except you’d be forgetting something.

We saw that Build – proper Build – can be used in Space.

Remember, Evolt warped him to another planet one time, proceeded to ‘absorb’ said planet, and Sento was breathing just fine in his armor.

So we’re actually still keeping true to the abilities of the Legend Rider’s technology.

Besides, he needs a drill.

~

YO, INSIDE THE METEOR, IS THAT THE KABUTO OP? OR AN INSERT FROM KABUTO?

I MEAN, IT’S GOTTA BE FROM KABUTO, RIGHT?

~

Okay, Rider Wiki says that Geiz’s ringtone is the standby music for Geiz Revive, but doesn’t say what the song used when Woz is switching into Sun Form is. It’s definitely not Next Level, though … did Woz just get an insert theme? Because it does sound a little like Keisuke Watanbe, now that I think about it.

~

Alright, alright, back to the episode.

FFS WE GET IT, KAGEYAMA. YOU’RE EDGY AND HATE YOURSELF.

“This is all I am...” Calm your studded tits, my dude. You got Rider Kicked once. It didn’t even knock you out of your normal transformation, you went into Another Kabuto on your own.

Oh-hohohoho niiiiiice.

Souji called himself the ‘man who walked the path of heaven’, and often, the heavens are represented by the sun.

The meteor moves past the sun, letting its rays shine down, as Arata proclaims that he’ll still fight, even though he’s just been kncked out of his transformation, and the Gatack Zecter has flown off to  where ever it is they go when they’re not in use.

A buzzing can be heard coming from the sky.

A mechanical red beetle zooms down out of the sun, flying around Arata’s head before landing in his hand.

The Kabuto Zecter.

He’s not being transformation-blocked by Souji anymore.

~

Geiz is still calling Kageyama out on his unwillingness to take Yaguruma down. The guy says ‘we will wander this earth together’… so Geiz takes matters into his own hands, and knocks Punchhopper out of his armor himself.

It takes a single Rider Kick from Arata – now finally allowed to be Kabuto – and the Another Kabuto Watch is destroyed.

~

Woz still hasn’t been able to burn through the meteor. It’s just TOO BIG. And they’re out of time.

Except that Time isn’t exactly a one way street in this season.

Time can be meddled with.

It can be stopped.

And Tsukuyomi’s already been shown to be able to stop just one thing… be it an Another Rider… or, potentially, a meteor.

With a gorgeous shower of lights, that’s exactly what she does.

And with the combination of her powers and the power of Zi-O Trinity, the meteor is shattered.

~

Yaguruma’s a mess. ‘Kageyama’ was never Kageyama, despite everyone using his name, and everyone was well aware of it. He doesn’t give Yaguruma the closure he wants.

“Please… call me aniki one more time…”

“I’m not Kageyama. I’m not your brother.”

And he goes out in green flames – having turned back to his true appearance. Having reverted to being a Worm.

…He sounded a little sad about not being Kageyama, actually, not just about his fellow Worms having all died. He sounded… resigned, almost.

Yaguruma wants them to laugh at him, for being so foolish to cling to the imitation of a dead man.

Geiz just apologizes.

He knows what it’s like to lose people. He knows that he can’t fulfill his promise of ‘if it comes down to it’, either.

This is not a person you want to be relating to, but… well, Geiz can’t really help it right now.

The Kabuto Zecter transforms into the Kabuto Ridewatch.

~

The triumphant instrumental version of Toki no Ouja plays as Arata entrusts Sougo with the ridewatch…

And as Geiz asks what Tsukuyomi and Tsukasa found out.

She doesn’t answer – says that they didn’t find anything.

That’s fair.

Of course, the music cuts out as we find out that Uncle got a little carried away with his onigiri. To the point of making 16 each.

Sir. Sir, please.

A train whistle sounds.

Sougo recognizes it.

Sounds like HeiGen Forever’s canon, after all.

~

The preview… has arrived!

As has Momo!Geiz!

Man, Momotaros doesn’t even have to change anything about Geiz’s appearance other than the hair, does he?

RYUUTAROS GET OUT OF UNCLE. YOU ARE A CHILD. HE IS AN OLD MAN.

…The Another Den-O suit is back.

Which, well, it makes sense – we usually need to have the Another Rider present to make the ridewatch, and we already knew that different people can be turned into pre-existing Another Riders. (Thanks, Another Zi-O. Whatever happened to that watch that refused to break?) But it’s still unsettling.

We’ve got both the Core Four Imajin and the Yuuto and Deneb team!

Nice.

They’re here to stop the Worst Future.

Sougo’s not letting someone stop something.

AND GRAND IS THE MOST GAUDY FUCKING THING. THAT WATCH IS APPALLING.

~

GRAND IS A MESS. MAYBE I’LL LIKE IT BETTER IN MOTION. MAYBE I WON’T.

(I probably won’t.)

[toonstarterz]

BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #138

Welcome to the first episode of Tomoko’s Speed Dating Arc! Our first contender is the resident “shy maiden”, Yuri Tamura. Her hobbies include listening to music and punching people. Today’s date will include a walk around a college campus, lunch at a local eatery, and shopping for new digs. How will Tomoko fair against this unreadable cutie? 

Find out right after the break! 

Chapter 138: Because I’m Not Popular, I’ll Check Out Colleges

My only comment here is what in the name of all that is good is with Yuri’s big ass purse?

In Tomoko’s eyes, Mako may as well be Yuri’s shadow, so it’s totally understandable that she’d be shocked that the girl came alone this time. Of course, Yuri’s lack of self-awareness means she didn’t even consider how that might throw people off.

There she goes again with the “same as me” comment to put her and Tomoko in the same boat. Little does she know that being in Tomoko’s boat is guaranteed to end in a mutual sinking.

Just look at these fashionable ladies in their adorable outfits. Tomoko, obviously, putting extra emphasis on the “casual” with her loose-fitting clothes and trademark hat to cover that shaggy hair. Then we have Yuri, super reserved with her puffy sleeves, plaid skirt with a screentone pattern that doesn’t hug the fabric at all; and her socks n’ sandals combo.

One thing to note is how they do the opposite of their uniforms regarding skin exposure. The long skirt-wearing Tomoko now has her bare legs visible, whereas the short skirt-wearing Yuri only has her knees exposed. Perhaps it’s a matter of self-confidence between a private (school) vs public setting. Tomoko has no issue showing more skin to strangers, while Yuri would feel self-conscious displaying herself to people other than close friends.

Or, you know, I’m just overthinking it again. 

Chiba West University: Where the Adibas-wearing students go to drink coffee at Sudobucks while doing homework on their Marosoft PCs.  

As encouraging as Yuri makes this sound, a part of me thinks that Yuri is also pushing herself so she can one-up Nemo and Katou. Hey, a little pettiness can be a good motivator.

Post Traumatic Ogino Disorder triggered.

Yuri-sensei would be an absolutely adorable teacher. Unfortunately, her quiet demeanor would make it easy for the little kiddos to walk all over her. Luckily, what she lacks in assertiveness…

...she makes up for in unjustified corporal punishment.

How refreshing it is that Yuri doesn’t automatically get annoyed by Tomoko’s opinion, and instead asks for her reasoning. Though Tomoko may be an idiot, it’s nice to see that Yuri recognizes that her friend is intelligent in ways that she isn’t.

Word for word from the Ogino’s Meddling Career Counseling chapter. I’m starting to think Tomoko will eat these words one way.

Hey, c’mon now, Tomoko. You used to be quite the stupid preteen yourself.

But in all seriousness, this assertion makes perfect sense for Tomoko. Her personality is one that is very incompatible with itself, hence her rivalry with Komi-something. Having to deal with hormonal and emotionally vulnerable middle schoolers would probably hit too close to home.

AHAHAHAHA, I’m totally not guilty of having thought the same thing when I was in high school...haha.

But you know, this harks back to what Nemo said about girls that act like a hive mind. When you do something to break away from the group’s dynamic, you become the “outsider”. The friend the other ones don’t necessarily hate, but are often ignored simply because they’re unlike the others.

In other words, you become the Ucchi.

Isn’t it obvious, Tomoko? She just wanted you to think that you both have more in common than you might’ve thought. Even if it means some opportunistic fibbing.

Given what we’ve seen between Yuri and Mako’s friendship, it’s both surprising and not surprising that Yuri doesn’t know about Mako’s career goals. We like to think that as BFFs, Yuri would know more, but as recent chapters have shown, Yuri doesn’t necessarily put in as much into the friendship as Mako does.

This may be the first clue to suggest that Tomoko could overtake Mako’s role as Yuri’s best friend.

So cults on campus have started to become a thing, eh? I really do enjoy these little details that show how even university life isn’t all flowers and sunshine. If the series ever extends into Tomoko’s college life, this would be an interesting field for her to maneuver around.

It must be said, the detail in this background of the campus courtyard(?) is very well done. The perspective really keys into how expansive it must be. I sure wouldn’t be surprised if Nico Tanigawa went and visited some colleges themselves as a reference for drawing up these upcoming chapters.

Unless you go to one of those party schools, the idea that college students are a bunch of wild social butterflies is false. In my experience, university kids are more reserved in their everyday life because being a rowdy bunch is too financially/socially expensive. They simply don’t have the luxury of being super extroverted all the time. If you have the means to go to a prestigious school, then you’re going to be doing a lot of studying. And if you go to a party college, then partying is what you’re going to end up doing. Such is the nature of the millennial.

Yuri’s dilemma is linked to a common issue revolving around the purpose of school: Do you go there to learn book smarts or street smarts? What is more important, knowledge or networking? For someone with low ambitions like Yuri, having to make a long-lasting commitment like what type of college life you desire can be a huge burden on one’s shoulders, especially when people expect you chose for reasons that go against your very nature.

But yes, Tomoko’s reasoning is incredibly sound,  and one yours truly learned the hard way. A major fallacy in the job hunting process is that employers are more likely to hire people who are more outgoing or easy to work with than someone more knowledgeable but less socially experienced. This practice is often quoted as “It’s not what you know, its who you know”, and can be a real obstacle for introverts like Tomoko and Yuri.  

I appreciate how the frame focuses on this young lady to the side when Tomoko talks about studious college kids. Everyone knows the model of a good university student is a slim, bespectacled lady in a conservative skirt who secretly lewds the brothers from Osomatsu-san and drowns her troubles in beer.

Also, I see you casually smiling there, Yuri. Just like the old days.   

How sweet! Thanks to Tomoko’s reassurance, Yuri lets loose her earnest insecurities, openly declaring how much Tomoko’s presence means to her. Surely even Tomoko would not be so blind as to ignore such–nevermind.

I’m suddenly reminded just how long it’s been since the first field trip arc. No way Tomoko would make the same mistake twice, right?

Phew, thank goodness!

Bull. Shit. You totally were.

Whaaaat? Tomoko watches normie programs and not just otaku-pandering anime? Like, omigawd how can I relate my own degenerate lifestyle to Tomoko if she has slightly positive attributes?

Ah, Yoshida. For being such a transparent, pure-hearted delinquent, even she isn’t the type to make people feel terrible right in front of them. I had a feeling that Yoshida and Yuri would talk about Tomoko behind her back, especially in the earlier chapters. Not maliciously like Minami, but disconcertedly. Cause let’s face it, you’re bound to get uneasy when you hang out with Tomoko for the first time.

I’ve always wondered, what’s Yuri’s take on the whole “Yoshida is a delinquent,” business? Nearly everyone else can agree that Yoshida has delinquent tendencies, even if they aren’t as vocal about it as Tomoko. But Yuri has, to my knowledge, neither agreed nor disagreed with this sentiment. Perhaps that just means Yoshida’s yankee-ness is inconsequential for Yuri. Whether she is or isn’t, Yuri isn’t about to treat Yoshida any differently than she has before.

NOTICE: We regret to inform you that ToonStarterz nearly broke his laptop trying to give a fictional character a comforting hug through the monitor. He’ll be back shortly after contemplating his life choices. 

Only Tomoko can take the image of Yoshida as some kind of gangbanger and spin it into an encouraging speech for Yuri. What glorious trash she be.

Yeah, Tomoko’s mind has always been a little warped, as Yuri once thought. She always seems to take a little too much pleasure in seeing the depravity/vices of others, like how she wanted to have lunch with Hirasawa just to hear about her supposed sexual exploits. As Tomoko becomes more comfortable in her own skin and comes to terms with her own degeneracy, her delight in seeing it in others could be her own twisted sense of empathy at play.

Despite everything, I think Tomoko has more or less stopped acting condescending towards Yoshida’s delinquent status. Nowadays, she views that side of Yoshida with an air of fondness, even spinning it into something positive for Yuri’s sake. It’s a development that actually works for Tomoko and Yoshida’s friendship. Tomoko hasn’t really stopped accosting her, but she’s managed to entertain herself through it. Thankfully, Yoshida’s proven that much of Tomoko’s shittiness doesn’t really bother her, and even seems to gravitate towards those kinds of friends.

And best of all, it’s that frankness from Tomoko and Yoshida that inspires Yuri out of her bubble of inaction. 

That-a-girl, Yuri. Show her how reliable you can be. 

Still, she needs to learn that friendship isn’t just a give-and-take. Sometimes you end up having to give and NOT take just to stay afloat. Meeting them halfway isn’t always viable, but in true friendship, the other person knows how that feels too, meaning you can reach an equilibrium because of that mutual imbalance.

Even though Yuri is not one to give out half-hearted sympathies, when she does understand you, her empathy levels are top-notch. 

The last 137 chapters of the series flashed before the readers’ minds.

There’s a Moment in every good manga where the main character will say or do something that instantly endears them to you. That makes you think, “This is so me!” or “#ourgirl”. For a series that’s as socially aware as this is, Tomoko rejecting a purchase simply because she doesn’t want to give in to a higher entity’s persuasion is one of those key Moments. Stay woke, Tomoko.

If it were from anybody else, I feel like Tomoko would have gotten ticked off over a comment like that. Perhaps its because it’s Yuri, and Tomoko knows she isn’t the teasing type, and therefore, must be genuinely convinced that it wouldn’t fit Tomoko’s style.

And Yuri’s role as the replacement Yuu officially begins. Sorry, Ucchi.

As disturbing as it sounds, getting harassed by Tomoko like this is actually a mark which symbolizes that Tomoko’s gotten comfortable enough with you to see you as a close friend. Yuu’s the only one to have this, er, “privilege”, and I can’t help but find that freakishly meaningful.

Has Watamote seriously reached a high enough standard that simply wearing a cold shoulder top is enough to be considered fanservice?

Yes. Yes, it has.

Many of us readers were waiting for the moment when Tomoko realizes that Yuri is actually pretty sex...er, beautiful (sorry, calling Yuri “sexy” or “hot” just feels WRONG to me). This may mean that Tomoko is going to start lewding the girl in her mind. Now considering that Tomoko is all bark and no bite, that might actually be flattering to some degree. Maybe.

Ah, good times. Good...times.

I see, so it’s not actually the perving on girls that Tomoko enjoys. It’s the thrill of seeing someone swim in dangerous waters. The contrast between goodness and “badness” which inevitably leads to a firecracker display of embarrassment that Tomoko eats up like the nasty she is.

Once again, we’re reminded why Tomoko had trouble making friends in the first place.

I’m actually glad that Tomoko is under no illusions. This behavior is scummy, and she knows it. That said, she has her self-serving limits. By mentioning how she couldn’t do this before with the others, she knows that harassing normies like Nemo or punks like Yoshida would lead to her downfall. Whereas Yuri, whom Tomoko suddenly realized is a “pure n’ plain” girl, would likely not retaliate too much from a little sexual harassment. 

Doesn’t mean she won’t push her luck.  

You tend to forget that for being a quiet, introverted girl, Yuri is no pushover. She won’t go out of her way to actively antagonize you (usually), but when you try to push her into something she disagrees with, she’s solid as a rock. 

Take that, readers! Nico Tanigawa ain’t about to throw you two bones in one chapter.

I...wouldn’t put it past her. But that may actually be why Yuri has been so essential to Tomoko’s growth. Tomoko’s friendship with Yuu is solid, but Yuu’s sweetness was a crutch. Because Yuu accepts Tomoko wholeheartedly, the latter never had any motivation to really change herself. Yuri openly disapproves of Tomoko’s negative qualities, and it’s ultimately made the girl a slightly better friend.  

Sometimes, Nico Tanigawa uses the manga medium to their fullest advantage. In this case, playing with the dialogue and speakers. There’s nothing to indicate who’s saying this monologue. But that’s exactly it:

Both Tomoko and Yuri are thinking about this. These concerns and desires are applicable to each of them. Different as they are on the outside, they are, emotionally, more similar than they ever realized. 

This is a common defense mechanism for introverts. To avoid a blow to their self-esteem, they don’t put high expectations on their social lives. That way, they won’t be disappointed should those friendships drift apart. 

But sometimes, you meet some people. Maybe even just one person who you just click with. You can’t imagine drifting away from them because you feel like you lose so much. And suddenly, the protectiveness you feel by keeping everyone at a distance is penetrated by the very few who you’ve managed to embrace. Then you realize, late as Tomoko often does, that the path of least resistance is no longer viable. All that’s left is to march down the path full of risks if it means you get to keep what’s at the end of the rainbow.

Without a doubt...

The. 

Sweetest. 

Moment. 

EVER.

Nowadays, the chapters of Watamote end in one of two ways. A cringy, but non-meanspirited gag, or a bittersweet, but heartwarming self-reflection. The last one happens sporadically, or it’d start to lose its meaning, which is exactly what we get here. Tomoko is not an overly (deludedly, in the past) optimistic person. She’s more of a realist now. But when faced with a thought that hits the middle of being optimistic or pessimistic, Tomoko will steer more towards the latter. It’s a much healthier mindset that stays grounded in reality, but looks more towards the bright side. She didn’t have to call Yuri by her first name. But a small part of her told her that maybe, just maybe, getting a little closer to Yuri would lead their relationship towards something more.

This chapter really set the bar for Tomoko’s Golden Week. Let’s see how Nemoto and Katou fair following a tough act like that. 

[doctorpariahdax]

Stick around Corvo fans-How Daud was thrown away and enlightened as a character in Dishonored series.

This is gonna be long so buckle up kiddos. There's a couple things that immediately come to mind for fans of the Dishonored universe and from what I've come across is that you either love Daud or you hate him. And I don't think that's directly a flaw with the character himself but how he was presented. There are a couple things I want to list that I'll further elaborate on that pertain to how Daud was thrown away as a character (ruined) and elaborated on. -dauds inital purpose -mercy or le death -yay classic redemption arc - except lol maybe not what did you do -true character nature -the marked and the outsider's approval -the purpose of doto -the end of daud Now to give you full disclosure I have not yet run through all of Dishonored 2 or doto. I am by no means a completionist, I don't feel pressured to explore every nook and cranny just for some obscure letter written by one of Delilah's witches that tells you something about someone somewhere about hlahblahblhab. Now because I'm a responsible impulse efficient and self controlled person roaming social media I spoiled the end of doto for myself and I am deeply saddened because Daud is my favorite character. I don't know if it's a kink of mine to like dangerous emotionally unavailable and unattainable men (cuz he's ded. Lel nah he's fictional) but Daud was genuinely more interesting to me than Corvo. This is not to say that the first Dishonored is bad, but the story was lacking for me - I'm very much a story seeker- and when the game first came out I played the intro and immediately set down the game thinking, "ehng...". When I decided to give Dishonored another try (*cough this summer cough six years later cough*) I kept going not because of my interest in Corvo or the outsider, or getting Emily back safely (don't get me wrong I like kids but Corvo is either best or worst parent and I can't decide which); I kept going because I wanted to know more about the "villain". He's an assassin, a merc for hire which to me meant his character is either going to be really deep or inexplicably shallow. I was upset at first, he wasn't in the game as much as I thought he would be but Dishonored has a tendency to shove information by into your face /after the fact/. I spared the villain hoping I would see him again. I didn't. ....until I found out there were dlc's. Staying with my rant? Digital cookie for you. Dishonored's story telling was on par and in many cases far better than the knife of dunwall, but the first dlc was very much a setup for the brigmore witches dlc, which in turn was what I think the best story telling in the whole Dishonored series.. Gonna go into my points listed above now because either don't want you to read through this thinking it was total anxiety induced stress writing (...which it definitely isn't....by the way....) There's a general healthy mindset that people inherently dislike villains, evil doers and all round moral miscreants, Daud being an assassin for hire and not much more in Dishonored as his initial purpose was already be placed in a rough position that a portion of players might find amiable but mostly for his badassery and not much in the character development isle. The way I see it is that you first are greeted with Daud's be character development in one of two ways(or a blend): you want Corvo to be moral and spare Daud, or upon hearing that Daud reports to you there's something by inside of him suffering you spare him to let him suffer more. Daud's intial purpose was to be a 'bad guy' and in either scenario he is still seen as being the bad guy or getting a cliche "this is worse than death and you deserve to suffer" sort of ending. When you come to knife of dunwall Daud is...tired. there's no simpler way for me to describe it. He's lived above and away from any higher power than himself (cuz we all know the outsider doesn't seem to give a hair on his left ball about Daud but he'd dress in drag and do the hula for Corvo...#dauddeservesbetterfriends) And we know or at least can vetire the thought that Daud has adjusted to his life as a killer, but he doesn't seem active enjoyment from it. I'm not exonerating Daud's tendency for murder, but think of it this way, he is a serial killer by death count but he's not a Ted Bundy or Hannibal Lecter. Killing doesn't give him satisfacyion, it is just a job and people are hard to become attached to when you have to look at them often as return receipts and cashiers. That's not to say that Daud doesn't feel love. I genuinely think he loved Billie as a sort of best friend and daughter. The death of empress kaldwin has hit daud hard too. He knew it was a bad idea but it was habit, it was just a contract, and jessamine meant nothing of compromise to Daud personally. When Daud is betrayed by Billie and given a death date from the outsider Daud has already submitted in some form to his own fleeting mortality and is pained after decades of his reputation getting ahead of himself to the point where he wouldn't say 'no' to a contract. I feel that Daud felt as though he was becoming more of a Lecter esque serial killer to the public, that who he was, his identity had been lost underneath the bodies he's left in his wake...and he regrets all of it, realizing its futility, pointlessness. People are just contracts to him, but he never actively sought to I'll with the purpose of hurting the very fiber of others' existence... When you spare Daud as Corvo his single line proclaiming how extraordinary your willingness to give him clemency is isn't a line to me that was ultimately thrown to the wind, it was something that genuinely sparked upset and fascination in Daud. Corvo did something Daud hadn't done since he had moved from serkonos, and without the incentive of pay - Corvo decided to spare a life. That ruptures something deeply in Daud, who had already endured his midlife crisis and brings me to the third bullet point "classic redemption arc" although it does matter what you do....that changes Daud's character to me...idk. All in all the only right way I saw to play brigmore witches was to go non-lethal stealth...and trick Delilah into her own spell. Daud is a master assassin. It made no sense for him to merely go jumping around murdering everyone who saw him (this is how I initially played Corvo because dayum I was bad at stealth games also pc controls, but then again Corvo isn't a master assassin when you first meet him...Daud is). After a struggle with Delilah, you hold onto the platform and read her citations and she flies off of you, into the painting, I wanted there to be a classic breathless hero who mutters calmly "gotta quit smoking" ( drum crash) and goes about his business. But! Something I feel a lot of fans of Dishonored overlook is that Daud had no need to further pursue Delilah. He could easily have faded into obscurity around the second mission when he realized that Delilah was after Emily and not him, but he ventures forward, accepting his fate - tired and downtrodden about his choices and the inevitable futility of his fate- in the efforts to save the life and hope that still exists in young Emily, the daughter of the empress he murdered right before her eyes. It's a move of an apology, a silent, self accepting apology with no further requirements for acknowledgement. Which brings me to the true nature of daud in addition to the nature and approval of the outsider to his marked ones. Daud in canon does not kill but traps Delilah. Daud is a mater assassin. He's quick he's quiet he is an efficient man with little room in his life or care for killing as a sport....he is to some extent evil, but he is not incapable of doing good to simply do good. The outsider is decribed furtively as a true neutral character who appeals to the benevolent options but is known to commit 'evil' by not intervening. He seems to be a strong advocate of free will but does extend the occasional helpful hint to his marked ones. Daud is told by the outsider that how he handles Delilah will be viewed with great curiosity which is another added caveat to Daud's evolution as a character and devolution as an identity. The outsider became bored with Daud, stopped willingly checking on him, but when Daud does the 'unusual' sparing Delilah but torturing her for (what was supposed to be eternal) ...he gains the outsider's favor, even if for juat a moment. He fades into obscurity for both Corvo and the outsider, even to his own men, abandoning the identity of 'daud' and presumably not going on a killing spree. The purpose of doto.....I'm not 100% sure of a 'purpose', but doto makes or breaks Daud for most people. For me it did both. But it didn't break Daud's character development for me because he saw the outsider specifically as an excuse for all the murder and the theiving and the murder and did I mention Daud murdered? He had to kill the outsider to prevent another 'daud'. The outsider was the omniscient condoner. 'daud' would not have ever easily existed to such fame or success without the aid and the passive/spontaneous condoning of the outsider and his abilities. Few be if any would have managed to be a 'daud' identity without being able to be so far above the confines of human abolity to cheat mortal instruments of death.... Corvo and his attempt to save Emily would have been a fly's breath shy of impossible without the outsider to tinker with the impossibilities. Daud's action to kill the outsider was selfish, I can see and agree with that, but he only wanted to destroy the exoneration of evil, not to simply forgive his transgressions by eradicating and blaming the one who allowed and corroborated with him to be such. How doto has presented Daud in doto and how many people have received and reacted to Daud's presented purpose in doto did misrepresent and destroy in some regards the development they took with Daud's character, but let me reiterate that his character development itself was not thrown out the window, it was how his character was presented in a plot and the narrative around doto. ...let me again remind you I said I haven't exactly finished doto....because I spoiled it for myself and I don't want Daud to die...again....finally? Maybe not the right words - oh look I've made myself sad, fancy that - but the point. Of this ramble which now I don't know how to end and I don't think I've ever spent so long on Tumblr in one sitting .... Daud is not a poorly constructed character. Doto poorly presented him and he deserved better. Doto also made Daud's character solidfied. He's not a gentle being. He's stern, violent, reserved and determined, but he's also deeply emotional and self loathing. He aspires to destroy the outsider because of what the outsider allowed in to do, he did not pursue or seek to blame the outsider into naively forgiving himself for the crimes he committed. It was a matter of settling his conscience. Probably with the abuse of his powers, a lot of stress, whiskey, cigars, and breaking a handful of bones repeatedly over his career and his guilt Daud was well aware he was on his deathbed long before Billie found him and he had been haunted by his blindness and decades of him /having forgiven and forgotten/ his crimes that it drove him to death. Daud is not a poorly constructed character. I would argue he was a character that the Dishonored series put the most time and effort into.

[deasn]

Avengers fanfiction part 5

Avengers fanfiction part 4 Let me repeat it: this is the first fanfiction I ever wrote in English, which is not my first language - please forgive the mistakes :) And let me know what you think about it!

This is part 5, part 4 is here :)

When the kids got back in the Tower, they almost ran to their bedroom - Tony, at first, gave them two, but they immediately refused to sleep without the other near. They refused to come out for dinner and Steve, who knocked more than once on their door, had to retreat and leave them alone. “Let them be,” Bucky suggested. “They have to process everything and it’s not something easy.” “Don’t forget we all died, in their world,” Natasha added. “And we might have the same face, voice, body… But we’re not who they lost, not really.” Bruce nodded, fixing the table with the others’ help. “When something like that happen to you… You don’t stop grieving, not for years.” “But we don’t know what happen for real. Not entirely… And I’m so curious I could die!” Tony exaggerated. They ate in silence, Tony and Steve looking at each other every second more frequently, the both of them thinking about the fact that holy shit, they had kids! And not just that - they were in love, in the other world! Maybe, Steve thought, this is the chance I was waiting for! They cleaned the table and took out popcorn and sodas; Tony shot a look to his favourite whiskey, than thought better of it. He was going to try to be a kind-of-father. He didn’t want the kids to have an alcoholic dad. The Avengers sat on the couches and picked a movie, just like tradition, and soon forgot about everything else but the protagonists and the crazy situations they were in. When the movie ended, they all laid there for a few moments, thinking about nothing in particular. “Do you think you could create a cradle to give birth of a baby? I mean in this world,” Clint asked from where he was buried under the pillows. Natasha, who was playing with his hair, stopped moving. Tony held his breath and looked at Steve, not knowing what to say, and relaxed only when he nodded. “Yeah, I guess I coul- I can. Why?” “Nothing,” Clint lied. “It just something to think about, right?” Natasha, silent as ever, started moving her hand again. “Guys?” a voice stuttered from the door; Alex was there, looking way younger than he was in Steve’s pijama - he wasn’t quite as big as his “father” was. The expression on his face was broken, like he had fought against himself and cried and screamed. Steve and Tony jumped on their feet, ready to help in any way possible, and Alex took the sleeves of the shirt he was wearing in his fingers, playing with them as to stop himself from reaching out. Steve walked forward and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling and nodding. “You okay, son?” he inquired. “No?” Alex answered, doubting his own words. “Kiddo,” Tony murmured, stepping forward too. It was all it took for Alex to break down and start crying; he held onto Steve like he was a safe rock in a river of pain, until his hands began shaking so much he had to open them. Still, Steve didn’t let him go, rocking as he was a baby. “It’s okay,” Tony kept repeating. “No, it’s not.” “Then it’s gonna be okay. Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but it’s gonna happen,” he insisted. Bucky stood up and smiled. “And we’ll be here along the way, if you let us.” “Totally,” Bruce added. “We have your back.” “You don’t even know…” Alex muttered. “We don’t need to,” Steve answered, kissing his forehead in a way that reminded him of his own mother. They stood there for a few minutes more, waiting for Alex to calm down, and when he did they made him sit on the couch, a blanket on his shoulders and Bruce’s tea in his hands. “Rey?” Natasha asked him after a while. “Asleep.” He took a deep breath. “Which is good, because I want to tell you how things went. And I don’t think she should listen to that. Live it again would only break her even more.” He took a sip of tea and smiled sadly. “She wasn’t always like that, you know? She… But it doesn’t matter anymore,” he stopped himself. “You told us everything until Bruce’s and the Other Guy’s… Division,” Bucky suggested. Alex nodded and let the cup on the table, hiding his entire body but his head under the blanket. “We actually have to start again from dad’s death. It was… You know, I’ve always had a better relationship with my pops, than with my dad,” he admitted. “While Rey the opposite. And she was so smart and she felt so guilty for it… Or at least that’s what I think. That must be the reason she told our dad and only him that she was going to graduate from MIT. We didn’t even know she was taking online classes.” He breathed in and out for a few moments, lost in his thoughts. “I guess that’s why they went to MIT alone. Ultron was out there, but she had to go and it was her and dad’s secret, so…” “So we went without further protection,” Tony assumed. “Yeah,” Alex nodded, every memory from that day dancing in front of his eyes. Tired as ever, he started talking.

“Pops, can we talk?” “Of course,” Steve forced a smile, closing every window open on the Starkpad in order to hide the reports about Ultron’s new victims. “About what?” “I want to fight by your side,” he proclaimed. “Alex, we already talked about this.” “Yeah, and I heard you, I just don’t think you’re right!” “Okay, listen well, son, w-” “I know,” Alex interrupted him, “you’re trying to protect me, but think about everyone who’s out there, waiting for a hero to save them - a hero that will never come, not if there’s such a small number of you left! You need new recruits and I’m telling you I’m ready.” Steve sighted and look down at his Starkpad, thinking about all the reasons that made it a wrong choice, and how fast his son would have died out there. “No,” he snapped. “No way.” “But pop-” Alex started lamenting, just to be immediately interrupted by JARVIS. “Sir, I have reasons to believe MIT has been attacked.” Steve paled and started running to the roof, shouting “JARVIS call everyone!”. Alex followed him, already thinking about his dad - he was the only one who had a reason to be there, after all. “You’re not coming with us!” Steve stopped him once on the roof. Natasha was already on the pilot seat and the rest of the Avengers - who was left - was getting on the jet. “We can’t leave him here alone,” Bucky argued, winking at Alex when Steve nodded, defeated. “Dad doesn’t have back up,” the kid murmured after a few seconds. “Why doesn’t he fly away as fast as he can?!” Steve didn’t even turn, pale and sweating. “Rey’s with him,” he explained. Then proceded to ignore him to talk about the rescue mission.

“You didn’t want me to get down the jet, but when we got there we realised there was no point in worrying. Ultron was no longer there.” Alex breathed heavily, looking first at Steve than at Tony and the rest of the group, all listening very carefully. “Everything was destroyed. It was… It was horrible, with all those people laying there, covered in blood an-” he stopped, biting down a cry. “Aunt Nat found you,” and he nodded towards Tony, “in someone’s office. At first pops tried to stop me from getting in, but as soon as he saw you he forgot everything else but, well, you.” A little pause. “It wasn’t pretty. It really wasn’t.”

Tony’s suit was opened up as it was a simple can and where his body was visible, it was covered in blood. The arc reactor had been taken away from his chest, where there was a hole too big to be just the one from the reactor. With a wave of nausea, Alex realised his dad didn’t have his heart anymore. The rest of his body was just as distroyed. Alex didn’t realised he was crying until he felt Natasha’s hand on him. “Let’s get you out of here,” she murmured, but he didn’t even turn to look at her; his eyes were fixed on his dad’s hand, open in the direction of a a closet, in the right corner of the room. He wanted to reach out and touch him, ask forgiveness for all those times they had argued and he had made him feel anything less then a great father. He wanted to cry and scream and fall asleep never to wake up again. “He’s dead,” he murmured. Steve, who was sobbing on Tony’s body, barely moved. “You shouldn’t have seen this,” he mumbled. I’m looking at my father’s body, Alex thought, scrolling Natasha away. He then gasped loudly. “Pops, pops!” Steve, face like the one of a zombie, looked at him. “Alexander, I’m so s-” “No, listen to me. I’m looking at my dad’s body.” “Alex, I know it’s a shock…” “No, just, fuck! Listen to me! I’m looking at my dad’s body!” “Pleas-” “I’m looking at my dad’s body! Why am I not looking at my sister’s body too?!” Steve’s expression, at that point, shifted. Pain gave space to panic and in a second he was on his feet, covered in Tony’s blood but mind focused. A little knock made them all turn - just in time to see the closet door open. Rey was there, a mechanical object in her hands, and was staring at their dad’s body, whose hand was pointing right at her - almost as he had tried to reach her, to calm her down in an empty promise of an happy ending. Steve hugged her like his life depended on it, but Rey didn’t hug him back, too focused on the little thing in her hand. “What’s that?” Bucky asked with a whisper. “Tony built it. It creates a kind of shield to stop your warmth to be spotted. He thin- he thought,” Steve sobbed, “that it would have helped a little bit against Ultron.” He hugged Rey again. “And it - he saved your life.”

“We got back to the new place we were living in - we couldn’t use the Tower, it was too easy to hit - and I remember very little of that moment. Just that you told Bruce what happened on the jet, so that when he started turning from the pain you… Threw him off. I think Bucky helped me shower because I wasn’t… Rey and pops… Who knows.” He smiled sadly. “I remember something, though. Aunt Nat was in the kitchen with uncle Bucky and she… She said that Rey had seen everything that happened to dad. That she wouldn’t talk about it - that she wouldn’t talk at all. She never did, after that day.” He laughed without any kind of joy. “I tried. Oh, God, if I tried.”

“Please,” he cried, touching her cheeks in a way that reminded her of their dad - just the thought made her jump. “Please, Rey. Please, I’m begging you. What happened yesterday was… And I need to hear your voice. I need my sister, I need you to talk. Just say something!” She lowered her head, ashamed of being so broken, and didn’t answer. “Fuck!” Alex yelled, punching the wall. He then hugged her and cried on her head. That night, when everyone but JARVIS was sleeping, she entered his dad’s lab and let every negative emotions destroy her from the inside. Only then she bent and took out a few things from a box. Nanotech, she pondered and promised herself she would have created for Alex the first suit able to form just from a thought, coming from inside a body. Mixing it with the super serum could make it work. He won’t have my voice, she thought, but he’ll have an armor like no one else in the entire world.

Her dad’s voice echoed in her mind, painfully as the last hundred times she remembered it. “Hide here, sweety, and don’t come out unless the battle is over and one of the Avengers is here. And please, for the love of whoever is out there, don’t make a sound. Don’t talk, don’t scream, please. Whatever happens, stay quite. It’s important, you have to stay quite. Not a sound, okay? Stay quite.” It was the last thing she heard him say before he started screaming.

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon Black 2 Randomized Nuzlocke Run [Part 1]

White was so much fun, the sequel was obviously inevitable. Only I don’t own White 2, so Black 2 shall be our contestant. All encounters and starters will be random, static pokemon are what they are originally. Any pokemon not randomized is ineligible for use.

Nuzlocke rules, again copied from Bulbapedia:

    Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead, and must be released or put in the Pokémon Storage System permanently.

   The player may only catch the first Pokémon encountered in each area, and none else.

My added rules of choice:

Each pokemon must be nicknamed.

If the first pokemon in an area is a species I’ve already caught, the first one that isn’t will become the catch option.

The catch rules start applying once I have the option of catching things.

No looking anything up on guides.

Team wipe means continuing on using whatever I have in the PC.

Let’s have some fun.

Second verse, same as the first.

I haven’t adjusted the text speed yet and it is driving me insane.

I remember having so much love for this gen, but the designs of these poor children still provoke odd looks. Not that I mind walking around with a palm tree on my head, I just question why anyone thought that I would want that.

Hugh!

Wait, do I get to pick his name?

I do!

Uhhh.

Wow, I forgot that this was the hardest part about Nuzlockes. I can’t just go with Hugh if this is a true random. Hm. Okay then, in honor of friendship, this guy’s name can be Russell.

The first thing our mom does in this game is give me cause to ship her with Professor Juniper. Our mom knows her first name. It’s Aurea. Why would she know that if they were not secretly involved in some way???

Is this the first game that has an outside character get first crack at moving the screen around after we’ve chosen our name? I kind of like it.

I like it more now that it’s ending and I can switch the text speed to Fast.

Heeeeey it’s us. Palm tree hair and all.

I never find out what the contrary answers lead to, because I can never make myself pick them. It makes my completionist nature very sad. As does the reminder that I do not have the ability to run yet. Someone please give this poor boy some shoes.

Bianca is here to meet us!

She is not our bestie in this version, but she is in our hearts.

This is our bestie this version.

He’s got a little sister.

Just so we know all that black and red in his color scheme is for show.

Look at him walking in time with us like the total bro he is.

Dude is this his room? I want one.

Bianca! Friend!

That awkward moment when you have the same name as one of her best friends who will never be seen this entire game.

Okay okay okay it’s time.

Time to receive our starter.

Our choices are:

Ah that’s rough. Hm.

My preference is always going to be to have something’s first state, that I can level up and evolve myself, but I recently finished my White run, and in it I had Larvitar’s line as well as Aggron’s, so really, there can be only one choice.

Snorlax, I choose you!

And my first act as your new friend is to give you a brand new name that I need to come up with!

Snore, sleep, yawn... sleep words... Dreamor?

Heck that’s a dorky name. He needs it.

Dreamor got, Russell steps in and asks for an in on our journey. He has his own super special mission that I’m not supposed to remember but I do, and talks Bianca into giving him a pokedex as well. Because Bianca’s a sweetheart.

But before we can go any further, it’s time to d-d-d-d-duel!

Everything about Russell’s design screams childhood-friend-gone-villain and I love how little that has anything to do with his arc.

Oshawaott vs. Dreamor! Lesgo!

Snorlax knows Tackle and Defense Curl, which is actually appropriate for a starter. I am going to be dull and Tackle spam.

...

OHKO.

Dreamor appears to be... enthusiastic. in his participation.

G-good job, boy.

Bianca even walks us to the Pokemon Center, because she’s just that wonderful. She also gives us some Poke Balls (again, see wonderful), which means that we’re officially in business to get this run on the road.

...I really hope Dreamor doesn’t faint everything in one hit. This could be a lonely start for the two of us if he’s as strong as he looks.

-gasp-

Our mother greets us outside the Center and gives us Running Shoes.

Thank you mother. I knew you loved us.

Aw, and Russell’s baby sister gives us a Town Map. Thanks, kiddo. I will deliver your brother’s copy with great haste and competence.

(They keep calling Dreamor Tepig.)

Before we go any further, let’s find out what sort of critter Dreamor is.

Rash and capable of taking hits. Well, if you’re going to be rash, you might as well be prepared to handle what it gets you into. The nature gets a sad face out of me for mechanics, but I always love having Thick Fat available, and look at that smile.

Oh my gosh the gate attendant knows our name and gave us a Potion for our journey. I feel so cared for.

Bianca teaches us how to catch stuff, and we, being an experienced trainer, completely ignore the lesson and wait for control to be returned to us.

The first tall grass awaits our first step. Dreamor! Let us go forth and meet our next friend!

!!!!!!

..Oh heck though.

She’s level 2.

I don’t know if she can eat a Tackle from Dreamor.

Also I might end up not using her because I used her line in the last run but hey I didn’t use Politoed (and I also don’t know how to get a Politoed given the settings).

I’ll throw a ball first, then see if she lives through a Tackle.

...Ah, the return of Hypnosis.

...Is all she knows Hypnosis? No, there’s also Water Sport.

Hey, she lives through a Tackle!

...Barely!

Ball thrown, Poliwhirl get!

From now on, your new name shall be... Stella. And we need to run back to a Center pronto. Your new teammate whacked you one good.

Stella is Quirky and alert to sounds. Sounds good to me, but I have zero clue how to evolve you to a Politoed. I think normally you need a King’s Rock and trading, but I selected the box that cleared up trading requirements for evolutions, giving me no clue whatsoever what to do with you, darling.

All the same, welcome. Your line is one of my favorites.

...Also you are not a Zubat.

Zubat was an option for this route.

Stella, your worth just went up.

Even if I end up not using her due to memories of Wagston overriding sense, I don’t think I can keep her at level 2, so we’re going to do some switch training for a tiny bit.

...Sir, what are you doing here I have been playing for five seconds.

He offers training, but since he gives me my controls right back after him and his neat soundtrack walk around inspecting me, I’m going to go ahead with my original plans.

Stella downed a level 2 Zubat all by herself. She’s growing up so fast.

WHY DOES HYPNOSIS HAVE 100 ACCURACY WHEN IT’S USED AGAINST ME. ;-;

Oh, wow, the next Pokemon Center is just. right there, isn’t it.

“Flocessy Town Prophecy Flocks Here”

You have never known a love as true as Pokemon translators and wordplay. Apparently this is where Alder’s house is. Apparently Champions are now allowed houses, and not only if your name is Cynthia. I call hax.

Alder wants Russell to have his Town Map before training, and Russell is on Route 20, which means....

our next friend

Are the leaves grass, or just pretty?

After tromping over them for several seconds, it looks to be that they are merely pretty. Very pretty, though.

Aha, grass located. What awaits us?

Hello there!

It’s a grand ol’ gen one time, it seems. Dreamor can’t hit you, so Stella, up you go. Please do not kill her.

Gastly get!

You shall be... Caspet.

Caspet has a Mild nature to go with her sturdy body. With her we shall find if I actually screwed up the evolution options. I’m still really new to Randomizer, and probably should have looked up what the choices did on Google before starting this run, but the rule after the run has begun is no guides, so here we are.

We enter Flocessy Ranch, which is a new location. Another friend already. Our fortune is pure.

...How do I keep finding every generation one creature that needs trading to evolve. Is this going to be this run’s theme?

Oh, it Teleported.

I forgot they liked to do that.

...Welp. There’s that route dead.

Is there anything in this route that can give me exp?

Even if there is, it’s so Kadabra heavy that I’d just as soon not bother. Having things constantly run away from you is really tiring. We’ll give Russell his map and leave.

Wait what.

We just fought five minutes ago. Russell. Russell. Just because your theme music is rad as heck and demanding action doesn’t mean you have to be running a mile a minute. That’s the scarf gen’s deal.

Dreamor eats Oshawott and all is well.

Then we get a random sidequest to locate a Herdier for the owners of the ranch. To which Russell experiences Emotions at, because Reasons.

Everyone needs a screenshot of Mareep running in a circle.

Hey, something not Kadabra. Hi Cottonee. Bye Cottonee. And that item ball in the corner is a Poke Ball. Oh, and here’s a Basculin. Look at all these things not running away from us.

...I... need an adult?

Dreamor has taken on the role of adult. I’m not sure Mienshao even knows Fighting moves at that level, but fully evolved things this early on are scary regardless.

We find the Herdier being unhappy with a Team Plasma Grunt.

He throws the Frustration TM at us. Hee.

Herdier has such a cute bwoof.

The day is saved, and now Alder’s down for palling around with us.

By palling around, I mean Alder introduces us to two small children he expects us to beat into the ground. As you do.

All passes without incident. Yay.

We walk outside and Mr. Medal gives us a Medal Box, which I don’t clearly remember, but suspect is intending to prey on me and my achievement hunting ways.

Alder is also kind enough to alert us that a Gym Leader has arrived at our home town. I wonder who it might be, but before that, Alder has a random cave place behind his home. New route?

It’s counted as part of Flocessy, it looks like. I haven’t caught anything within the town limits, but there doesn’t appear to be grass. Water, but I can’t do anything about that yet. Sigh. Oh well.

First badge is Normal, I believe.

...Let’s train Dreamor a tad more before we go after that. I believe in you, buddy, but I am also very rightfully paranoid.

Azumarill live in Caspet’s home grass.

When does Caspet learn something that isn’t Lick or a status move. My poor little ghost.

...

Yeah it’s level 3 but it’s still a scary thing to see.

Hey, first legendary of the run!

And Caspet has Mean Look... We could see if she has what it takes to Lick Kadabra down to size. Like tootsie pops. You could be an owl, Caspet.

This place was crowded with Kadabra, and now there’s Ambipom just hanging out. Okay then. Cue Geodude for some reason. Oh. And Linoone.

-tears for Bandit-

Hey wait hold up. Psychic is super effective against Ghost in this version? That’s... good to know. It also doesn’t sound right, but I don’t think the game cares about that. That’s annoying.

No Caspet, you can’t learn Curse. I’m going to come close enough to killing you as it is. Don’t enable the process.

Let’s go for it, shall we?

Cheren! Friend!

I actually really like the arrangement of his Gym. It isn’t the aesthetic wonderland that other Gyms of this gen are, but that’s kind of what makes it awesome? Cheren runs a school that doubles as a Gym. You battle in chalk-marked arenas out back.

I guess I misspoke; the aesthetic is still rich with this one. School day feels of being young are so very alive here, and I really like it.

Other things deserving of being liked are Cheren being an educator. Our buddy’s found his way, and we get to be his first challenger!

That’s another thing to love, honestly. We spent a whole game with this guy around, and now we’re his debut Gym Leader match. It’s so touching.

Cheren, stop blushing, you’ll be fine.

I mean. Dreamor’s going to mop the floor with you.

But that’s your job now. Losing to trainers of a certain level.

I believe in you, man.

I just believe in Dreamor more.

Awesomeness achieved, and that will do it for this part!

(Except for squeeing because Bianca showed up and gave us the Return TM, as well as the C-Gear I’ll never use, and Cheren and Bianca get to be in the same shot, and it’s the magic of friendship all over again. You did good for yourselves, guys. I’m sorry you don’t remember me as your bestie anymore.)

Until next time for the next badge.