#have not seen a single ep of season 4 yet

[praetorqueenreyna]

Fully in TEARS at TUA walking back Allison/Luther bc of fandom outrage at the faux incest only to drop Five/Lila in the last season

The redemption arc we didn't know we needed

[bigolbard]

A lot of immediate thoughts about Legend of Vox Machina EPs 7-9. Spoiler galore. Get outta here if you haven't watched yet.

Did not like the song choice at the end of Ep 7. This is probably hit or miss personal preference, but felt very tonally disconnected with what was happening in the scene.

THE MOTHERFUCKING CERBERUS ASSEMPLY HOLY SHIT

I'm shocked that they didn't resurrect Percy before fighting Thordak. Genuinely shocked. I have no strong feelings about it from a narrative standpoint, but that's a massive change and just...a lot to chew on.

I didn't like that they changed the tone of Grog's "Fix him" line. That line is iconic, and I'd bet most people have that in their Top 3 most emotional moments from C1, and Grog's forceful tone is the entire reason for that. Changing it just...didn't land for me.

And also Scanlan isn't even dead? Just...in a coma? I don't know how I feel about that change -- it'll probably be dependent on how the last three episodes go.

Vex's coversation with her father was heartbreaking and beautiful and holy fuck Laura Bailey, goddamn it.

Ripley still being alive after Thordak is dead is a very interesting change that I currently have no strong feelings about, but will probably have more feelings about when the season has concluded.

I have two thoughts about Pike Trickfoot. Thought number one is that I don't love this whole "actually her power is intrinsic and not from the everlight" thing, but maybe I'm just misreading where that'll go. Though number two is that every single scene with Pike is either beautiful, hilarious, or the most fucking badass thing I've ever seen in my life. Seriously, she got the Divine Nuke in S1 and now she gets the Dawnmartyr Plate power up scene? Girl, save some badassery for the rest of the team!

I assume the last three episodes will be one devoted to killing Ripley, one devoted to killing Raishan, and one dedicated to resurrections and fallout. However, I have no idea what order that will happen in. On one hand, it's very hard for me to imagine them fighting Raishan without Percy or Scanlan. On the other hand, this batch of episodes changed enough narratively that I no longer have any idea what is and isn't off the table.

I still believe this season will end with Bard's Lament, but given that Scanlan hasn't made his promise to Kaylie yet, I'm...ever so slightly worried about how it's gonna be handled and if they're gonna stick the landing. I have faith, I'm just slightly nervous. There's a lotta shit left to tie up in three episodes.

Killing Kashaw sucks, but I don't hate it. Especially if it gives us a reason for more Zahra in Season 4.

Rest in peace, Lance Reddick. You were fucking amazing as Thordak, and I'm devastated you're not around to receive your deserved praise.

[icy-watch]

Hey so, you’ve been doing live blogs for awhile, and covering Ninjago like this was crazy with how many seasons it has, I was just wondering, why like this tho? Wouldn’t it be easier if you watched the episode then typed up your thoughts with any screenshots you want in a single post? Why in so many pieces? I guess maybe you find it harder to remember your live thoughts if you wait after the ep, I get that, but maybe pausing to type it all up in a document as you watch, and adding in the screenshots later? It takes you two and a half hours to live blog a single episode. You watch 2, sometimes 3 episodes a day while spending several other hours just, replying to everyone’s tags? Isn’t that exhausting and time consuming? Surely there are easier and more efficient ways? I totally understand liking to be engaged with people but every little tag on every little post, I think I’ve seen you go at it for five hours(?) if you like doing that, well. Aren’t there better ways or do you prefer this? I do livereads for fics when people ask, and that’s how I always did live ep reacts, so seeing how you do it is like :O how do you stand this without becoming physically ill from the work strain…

I've been sitting on this ask since this morning when I saw it. I hoped that spending some time with it on the back burner I would have a good answer for you. But honestly?

I liveblog like this bc it's fun.

I just... I want to have some fun. I'm mostly watching the episodes before I need to get ready for bed at night, and I'm replying in between things at work.

There's def easier and more efficient ways to go about this, but I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Yeah, my brain goes to mush every now and again when I'm reblogging peoples tags and comments, but I love seeing what other people have to say. And I love sharing their thoughts, opinions, and reactions to my liveblogs.

My current job is about 10x's more relaxed than when I worked in customer service 2 years ago. I have a lot more freedom now, and I can spend more time just kind of vibing. (Except when it's close to the end of the month. Then my mind is like a lump. RIP.)

I do try to limit myself on how long I liveblog - trying not to go over the 4 hour mark - without taking a break, but sometimes I'm just having too much fun. 💜

[blogger360ncislarules]

It’s become somewhat of a tradition for CBS’ Ghosts to end on a cliffhanger.

And Season 3 was no different. While audiences are going to be left waiting anxiously to know what, exactly, is going to happen to Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are delighting in the latest pickle they’ve gotten their characters into.

Not only has Isaac decided not to get married to Nigel (John Hartman), he’s now in the clutches of Patience the Puritan ghost, who struck up a friendship with Flower (Sheila Carrasco) while she was stuck in the well and has a bone to pick with Isaac since he let go of her hand while they were escaping from their own hole on the grounds a few hundred years ago.

“We really just enjoyed the possibilities of Patience,” Port said. “She’s become sort of a favorite in the writers room as we discussed what she could be like. So we just decided to have that be a turn that happens at the end of the of the season finale. I think it was just such a big part of the prior episode that we found it enticing to bring her back and finally meet her.”

Having already been renewed, the Season 4 writers room is officially open. The first order of business is “how we get him back,” Port said.

No doubt, there will also be some retribution for the basement ghosts, who were somewhat culpable in Isaac’s kidnapping. Although, Wiseman is quick to come to their defense. After all, the upstairs ghosts do treat them pretty awful — and they never intended for Isaac to really get hurt.

“We thought it was too far if they knew that Isaac was going to be kidnapped, but I don’t think they would have literally lured him into such a precarious situation,” he said. “You could argue that they had a right to be upset. They weren’t invited to a very big event in the house. They’re very much treated as second class citizens all the time. But we wanted to make sure that they didn’t know it was going to be so crazy. So we’ll see if they come clean next season or not.”

Among those relieved to hear that the writers plan to bring Isaac back to Woodstone Mansion is Brandon Scott Jones, the man behind the character.

“That means I still have a job,” he joked. “I have no idea how they’re gonna play it out. I don’t know if we’ll ever see Patience. But I think it’s a cool way to expand the world and remind people that there are so many more ghosts on this property than we’ve even seen just yet.”

Jones did have some ideas about where Isaac’s story could go in Season 4, now that he’s single once again and (probably) escapes the clutches of Patience the Puritan. He discusses all that and more in the interview below.

DEADLINE: When did you find out that Isaac and Nigel weren’t actually going to get married?

BRANDON SCOTT JONES: Somewhere towards the end of the season. I can’t remember where, but I think Joe Port and Joe Wiseman came to me and they said that they were thinking about breaking Isaac and Nigel up. Things change, so I knew that there was a chance before we even got the script that it was going to happen. But when I got the script, I just didn’t know what the machinations were going to be. I think even as we were filming it, it went back and forth a little bit between who left who at the altar, so I was a little bit…unsure of which way it was going to go, which kind of made it a little fun. I’m sad to see the relationship end, but I think it’s probably the best thing for both characters.

DEADLINE: Joe Port and Joe Wiseman mentioned to me they felt that maybe Isaac and Nigel rushed into their engagement. Did you feel the same?

JONES: Yeah, I always felt that, when he proposed to Nigel, it was a little bit of like a panic proposal. Isaac spent 250 years not really being himself, so he finally gets this opportunity and he kind of admits to at least the other ghosts, who he really is as he’s exploring that. He immediately finds himself in this relationship with Nigel, and I think it’s funny because it’s almost like he decided to go right back into the traditional steps of a relationship rather than exploring any other new thing. He just kind of felt like, ‘Alright, well, I guess I’m now gay, but I’m still going to propose to this person and live with this person and do all the necessary things.’ But I don’t know if he’s doing it because he wanted to or just because he felt like he had to because of the traditions of his era. When the stripper comes, it was definitely one of those things where I think it started to open up his eyes of like, ‘Oh my god, could I even find myself attracted to somebody else?��

DEADLINE: The stripper-turned-DJ being Isaac’s moment of awakening is quite funny and somewhat touching. It seems like he’d never considered there was anything else out there for him.

JONES Yeah, I think so. I think he probably has comfort in tradition. The idea of deviating away from any of that…it’s probably the reason he stayed in the closet for so long, even after he died. And I think the idea that this guy opens up his eyes, but also Pete really opens up his eyes too. He has this awesome story, which I think poses a really great question. What do you have to live for if you are already dead? What really, to me, made it cool it was that how they connected those two storylines and the wheels started to turn for Isaac.

DEADLINE: I thought it was quite beautiful how the other ghosts were reassuring him that there have been so many ways that they’ve met knew people and ghosts they never knew existed, and there is still so much for Isaac even though he’s dead.

JONES: Right. All these ghosts are stuck in purgatory. I think in Episode 3 of the entire series, they mentioned how their dream is to move on from this existence, no matter what. I think, as an actor, that’s sort of like your supreme motivation in almost anything you do on this show. This might be an opportunity where Isaac’s finally starting to wake up and realize, ‘Oh, I don’t have to just check boxes. Maybe the reason I’m stuck here is something a little bit larger that I have to go out and seek and find.’

DEADLINE: Do you think this is really the end for Isaac and Nigel? They do still have to exist on the same property basically forever.

JONES: It doesn’t sound too fun to be trapped in the same space as the person who left you at the altar. If there is a path forward for the two of them, I can imagine it’s not going to necessarily be smooth sailing. But then again, I also don’t know. Maybe it’s good that they spend time apart and if they never get back together again, that’s okay. But hopefully they’re both better because of this relationship, and they can find some common ground somewhere, either quickly or down the road.

DEADLINE: Isaac has to come back first, though. That cliffhanger at the end. What did you think of it?

JONES: The easiest way to describe it is that it feels like Isaac gets what he deserves, because he left this woman literally in the dirt. Then he recently left this man at the altar. He was, even in this episode, just a little persnickety with Sam the entire time. He’s a messy, messy dude that has a lot to figure out. Anytime he’s called out on his bullsh*t, or he has to pay the price for some of the things that he does, I think it’s a good moment because it’s funny, hopefully. But also, hopefully, he’ll be able to either learn or at least figure something else out. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have no idea where this is gonna go, but I hope he does have to atone for something.

DEADLINE: Did they tell you they were going to do this to Isaac?

JONES: No, no, I didn’t get a heads up on that. I read that in, I think at the table read. It was definitely right before we were filming. I wasn’t sure if that was going to stay or not. But yeah, we filmed it and it’s in there. I’m excited because I think it’s gonna be a cool opportunity.

DEADLINE: Isaac is now the third ghost to ��disappear’ in some way from the property this season. What do you think that means for the rest of the ghosts?

JONES: I don’t envy the job our writers have of sort of being like, ‘Well, these people can’t live or die, or hold anything. They can’t touch anything. They can’t talk to people that aren’t also dead.’ How do you tell the stories? But they always find a way to do that. I love any opportunity that we can to just deepen the mythology of the show. It is funny you actually pointed that out. I hadn’t noticed that, but yeah, this is the third person to go missing.

DEADLINE: Since the show has been renewed, what are you hoping is in store for Isaac once he’s back?

JONES: I try not to think too far ahead because the writers always keep us guessing. But I guess I hope this experience of leaving your fiancé at the altar, getting dragged into the dirt by a woman you left for essentially dead — if you can leave a ghost for dead. I hope that it sends Isaac on a new path of self discovery. There’s something really, really funny to me about somebody really trying to make a hard right turn into being a better person. That could be really interesting.

DEADLINE: I do think Isaac trying to be a nicer person would be a hilarious story.

JONES: Exactly. It’s really coming to terms with the atonement of all the bad things that he’s done. Like he killed so many people when he was alive. I would love to see him start to really try to figure things out and see how difficult it really is to change in the afterlife.

[lookingforcactus]

Live action Yu Yu Hakusho liveblog (ep 2)

Okay listen. Whoever wrote and whoever is voicing the little kid Yusuke saves has never heard an actual six year old talk in their lives

Also forgot to say last ep but liked the move to age yusuke up a bit. Also Botan's digital file of Yusuke talking back at her is hilarious

Botan's voice (Eng dub) isn't quiiiite as expressive as would hit the mark for me compared to the anime but whatever she's adorable I forgive her

Also forgot to say last ep "Maybe it's better you're dead" BOTAN STOP ASDLKFJADS I love her your honor

Fights and vfx on Goki are actually kind of shockingly good, esp given how much I Did Not like him in the anime

VERY annoying and unfortunately typical that the darkest-skinned guy we've seen so far is. very specifically. the demon that eats children and that the anime makes uh iirc a lot more directly than I ever wanted to watch into a Certain Allegory

Interested that Reikai doesn't seem to know who Kurama actually is. Was that the case in the anime/manga?? I feel like no, they knew who he used to be from the initial briefing on the thieves but idk season 1 wasn't exactly my favorite to go back and rewatch literally ever

My favorite was 2 and 4. If you even care. lol

Kurama standing there during the fight like a creeper go

Actually fight with Goki is very epic. Again super creative and impressively believable way for Yusuke to survive and fight back against a guy with WAYYYY superior strength

Also wow is Yusuke underqualified for these fights rn lol. I mean we knew that but he's lucky he pulled that one out in the end. And esp lucky that Kurama won't want to fight, obv

YUKINA

Her wig is sadly Not as impressive as Botan's, and I'm not a fan of what looks like her contacts. Did they make her eyes green??? Bc her eyes being red is kind of narratively. you know. Relevant

Wait is that guy helping Yukina Hiei???!!! Human-form Hiei??!!!

Wait no of course not Hiei would've just killed everyone and gotten her out

(Listen we don't have any good shots of his face yet okay. That little sister line made me think!)

Interesting new jagan origin + (presumably?) moving up Yukina as Hiei's motivation. Makes sense given how everything about Hiei's first manga/anime appearance was ignored afterward lol when he was too popular to kill off

I hope they got rid of his original plan/motivation, anyway. I hated the mind control arc thing with him esp on Keiko. Dickhead

Well. Eyehead. Technically. But yknow

Pfft Kurama 100% staging that entire encounter and stalking ep meaning Yusuke thinks he's being sooo sneaky

Kurama's outfit is really pretty actually btw. I like it better than his anime outfit by a lot. The pink always clashed with his hair sooo bad

Also the pink in the preview images made me think/hope he was a girl (who actually got to fight in a shounen anime!!!!) and you have no idea how disappointed I was when I realized that wasn't true

Pfft Kurama using his demon powers to?? Pull a quickchange?? Amazing

His hair continues to not work nearly as well as in the anime but that was a lost battle from the beginning let's be real. At least it's better than Hiei's

(Which is so actively bad what was that shadow with his hair in the knife scene what)

Shiori benefits a lot from being played by like. an actually human person who also is older and has visibly aged. Gives her Character, makes her less of Just An Archetype

Momma's boy Kurama excellent as always. Meanwhile Yusuke's just flat out not replying to a single thing Shiori is literally saying to him lol

Wait does the quickchange imply that Kurama only uses that outfit on demon business. Bc in the show it's just his (ugly) school uniform but here it's clearly not. I really desperately want that to be his On Demon Business outfit in this show lol

Also makes the fact that he had Yusuke stalk him in that outfit funnier. then. boom. quickchange. Mom can't see the Demon Business Outfit

Hmm something about Kurama and his delivery isn't rly landing for me here. But to be fair he is being super Performative and Deliberate about all of this so that may be on purpose

I hope it's on purpose. Bc Kurama's great and I'd REALLY like to buy him/his lines as a character in this

He does successfully pull off "casually menacing" (you know, without murdering someone first) much more easily than his anime counterpart tho so that's cool

Meanwhile, Yusuke's face. Great face-acting there. Also great face

The scrapes on Yusuke's face really are v aesthetically arranged lol. but still look legit enough. I'm a fan

Okay I'm buying Kurama now. Excellent

"I've been deceiving that woman for many years" genuinely love that he put it that way. He's come to care about her so much but he's not trying to make himself sound better or lying to himself about the situation

It is killing me that he used the phrase "fertilized egg" in this explanation. It's killing me. It's also raising Fucking Questions. (But does at least give an explanation for how Kurama didn't like. Kill the original Shuichi's soul when he took the body.)

Oh the pattern on Kurama's outfit is roses!!! love it

Kurama: Sees Kuwabara following them

Kurama: ...Anyway.

The mirror of darkness looks like a fucking ipad. I can't take it seriously why does the mirror of darkness look like an ipad!!!

IT DOESN'T EVEN REFLECT ANYTHING

What's with the weird scifi aesthetics here and on the other artifacts? This is a fantasy show, fantasy aesthetics would fit better

The mirror-realm life-taking sequence is just. so much. lol it's so much once again I am unable to take it seriously!

Wait Shiori! You don't know there was magic saving you!! Don't take off your oxygen mask without a doctor's permission!!! Practice self-care!!!

Okay Kuwabara looks super different from his anime/manga self-from the front, but from the back he has the EXACT same silhouette as anime!Kuwabara, so much it's EERIE. I'm learning lots of things about what pompadours look like in real life-

hsb, ig???

HIEI HAS BLUE EYES?!!??!?!?!!!!

I mean at least they didn't only change Yukina's

But this is WEIRD

Also making the jagan not purple anymore, just an actual third eye, was the correct choice

Hmm I don't like how they translated Hiei's outfit as much as I do the others. (I like how they translated literally everyone else's outfits. This is so disappointing, esp since Hiei's aesthetics go off. There's too much white and too much detail in his outfits. Give me his cloak!!! Also changing the scarf into a turtleneck is highkey Not Working For Me

Anime!Hiei would literally never wear a turtleneck

Why is he wearing a turtleneck, he's a FIRE DEMON, it's not like he can get cold

The scarf is okay because it was clearly not primarily for keeping him warm

Give him the cloak I want the cloak!!

And he should be wearing all black underneath it! I mean I know he wears other color shirts under it in the dark tournament arc iirc. But live action won't have the control over the cloak for that lol

At least give him something all black (except the scarf or something similar) (NOT a turtleneck) with a similar silhouette to the cloak

And idk compared to the others I think his costume looks kinda cheap

OOF effects on the Toguros are NOT convincing. Oof. I admire their commitment to taking their physicalities literally but uh. They should've been less ambitious and focused more on translating the vibe. Imho

Okay! Time for episode 3!

[kaitcake1289]

i love your MQ art so much and i love seeing it in the tags! how have you been liking S3 so far?

first of all thank you so much anon! secondly you did not ask me to rant about this season but its the perfect opportunity to so forgive me lol

so far this season has unfortunately felt really off for me (save for the first 2 eps + most of the christmas ep + sarian) and now this may just be me being overly critical since these characters are so near and dear to me but here are what i think are some of the main flaws with this season:

the constant metaverse and nft promotion. this one is the most evident and the main reason why the first half of this season feels like a miss for me. it becomes a problem when every single character is shown openly endorsing anything crypto related, even characters that would realistically never in a million years like nfts (rachel mythic quest im looking at you) and the one character who is at all negative about nfts gets sent down to the basement never to be seen again. they even state in show how nfts have done explicitly good things! (giving carol a promotion) now i understand that this may have some part to do with ubisoft's involvement in the show and how pro-nft they are but if they weren't gonna do a fair honest critique about the subject of nfts/the metaverse i'd rather them not do it at all!

scrapping the foundation made in season 2. now listen i really didn't like them basically throwing away rachel's writer arc, brad's reserved janitor act and hera entirely AND HEAR ME OUT it could've worked a lot better if they stretched out this development over the course of the season but it all just feels soooo rushed. like take hera for example, the decision for poppy to give it all up could've had a much better effect if the game was shown more to be a primary focus of the season (an issue that's the next point) to up the emotional attachment the audience can foster for the game, theres so much they could’ve shown of poppy genuinely pouring her heart out into the flawless system shes constructing all to the build up that thats all the game can really be, a system, missing that it factor. with brad he essentially reverts back to the HOMIE with extra steps in less than 3 episodes, which is a bummer since seeing brad coming into the season humbled, confined to a role with significantly less power could've built on that fear, that grasp for control and even his raw power, HOMIE or not. with rachel as well scrapping her writer arc felt forced especially after the heartfelt speech she gave to see her giving up essentially because she wasn't excelling right away

too much happening and yet not enough somehow???? episode 3 and 4 especially feel really short to me like they feel like filler which i would be okay with but as the season stood we had also so many arcs being set up, janitor brad, david being in charge, grimpop, and a whole movie but it felt like all of it was the B plot for me at least

I'm not saying the season doesn't have things it does right; jos character this season has been the funniest shes ever been + some bits were really funny + the christmas episode and sarian helped me like the season a lot more (mostly bc those eps were detached from the main plot and were about the characters) and the cast stay stunning but yea. im curious to know others thoughts on the season and whether you agree though!

tldr more like midthic quest am i right /hj

[anotherghoul666]

Under Our Black Cult tour primer

@battiestbelfry as promised my dear! Now, I don’t have info on Gaerea yet because I don’t know them yet, Imma deep dive in the next few days. But the other 3 bands on the bill I know well, so here we go!

Under the read more: primers and my personal opinions on the bands Uada, Carach Angren and Rotting Christ. Song and album recommendations to start off. And the mask kink thing, with pics. 3/4 of the bands on this bill are or can be confidered masked bands, you know I gotta touch on the mask kink in there!

UADA

Uada, which means “haunted”, are a melodic black metal band from the United States. They are based in Portland, Oregon and have been active since 2014. They are currently signed to Eisenwald records, an independent music label from Germany. In this house we love and support independent labels! They are specialized in black metal and have a very fun roster.

Uada have 3 releases out so far, all full length albums. They don’t do singles, they don’t do demos, they don’t do splits, they don’t do EPs. They make full albums and drop them on a roughly 2 years cycle, though with the pandemic we are at 3 years since the last record, so these mysterious hooded figures are ripe for new material! Their debut album Devoid of Light in 2016 was well received by the metal world as a promising debut, albeit very classic black metal that didn’t surprise much. 2018’s Cult of a Dying Sun seems to be their album with the most acclaim. The sound quality difference between these two is astounding. The tracks tend to be longer, which helps some songs and doesn’t help others. 2020’s Djinn is their latest release and the reception’s been this: Djinn is way more niche, as in, you have to be down for 14 minutes atmospheric black metal songs to like it, but if that’s your vibe? It’s fucking good. Quality up, marketability down. They still don’t do anything super different, but it’s good black metal. It feels like European black metal despite being American, which is what I love, because I’m intensely biased towards the EU scene. US bands have to be either 1)extremely fucking special or 2) European-sounding to get in my good graces XD

The guys are “masked”, in the sense that they play with hoods over their faces with the aim of not being seen, for atmospheric purposes:

They also do “the hand thing” when taking pictures.

But they’re ok being approached in public by fans, as long as you don't pressure them to take a pic with their faces showing. They are not anonymous, their names are out there if you wanna know.

As far as recs go, I would rec all of the albums honestly cause it’s less than 3 hours of music and there’s nothing truly bad in there. My favorite album personally is Djinn but that’s because I fucking love atmospheric albums that make me lose track of time. I’m aware that’s not everyone’s cup of tea xD So, to my previous recs of Devoid of Light, Black Autumn White Spring and Cult of a Dying Sun, I’d add all of Djinn, but specifically the title track and In The Absence of Matter as a first contact.

CARACH ANGREN

Carach Angren are a symphonic black metal band from the Limburg province of the Netherlands. They’ve been active since 2003 and they’re currently signed to French label Seasons of Mist, one of the few major metal labels I feel positively about! The Seasons of Mist roster is INSANE. They specialize in the darker genres of metal, black, death, gothic, doom and some prog. Many of my favorite bands have been on them through the years.

So. Listen. Carach are one of my absolute darlings in the black metal world. When I began my exploration into black metal in the early 2010s, their first three records have been instrumental in making this genre my favorite. I would not be where I am today without them. I will forever have a very special in my heart for these guys. I hung out with them several times, I’m attached, ok? But. And there’s a huge But. Dear fucking god did these guys fall off. I’m still reeling from how perfect their music used to be, and how fucking atrocious the output has been since 2015. In my opinion. These primers are only my personal opinions and ramblings ok XD They’re doing fine, their latest albums did get decent reviews which I? Don’t understand? But you do you, boo? XD They’re one of the big names in black metal right now, they’re headlining tours, they’re doing good on the new material ok. But I can’t fucking stand it hahaha.

The main problem for me was the vibe shift. Carach Angren’s themes are horror stories. They recount fantastic tales of horror, fright and gore, psychological horror, body horror, historical horror, the like. The storytelling in their first three albums is stunning. There was always a sense of realism there, of horror being grounded in reality. It’s classy, it’s tasteful, it’s striking and horrifying but it’s never cheap and nothing is played for shock. 2008’s Lammendam is about “true stories” in a 1700s an 1800s backdrop, a historical version of our “I heard from a friend of a friend that…”, tales from the crypt and all that. Ghost stories that we’ve heard before, la Dame Blanche for example, but set to music. 2010’s Death Came Through a Phantom Ship is about nautical horror. Historical stories of phantom ships, captain-less ships, mutinies and their disastrous bloody consequences. It’s so grounded. Their masterpiece, 2012’s Where the Corpses Sink Forever, is about the horrors of war. We follow soldiers in trenches, feel their desperation, their fear of death yet longing for it. The heart-wrenching beauty to be found on battlefields because they are so human, yet the absolute bone-chilling reality of it. It’s so fucking real. This album, no joke, is one of the best albums I have ever heard in my life. It’s a 10/10 record for me, and I do not give out 10/10 easily. I’m rather critical. I have less than 20 albums that I’ve ever rated as perfect in my life, and this album is unanimously recognized as the pillar of this band, and one of the pillars of symphonic black metal altogether. This is one of the albums that made black metal click for me. It changed everything.

And then, there was a tonal shift. I suspect, coming off from such a resounding success, the band didn’t know how the fuck they could live up to it, and they crumbled under the pressure. 2015’s This is no Fairytale is, as the title suggests, bases in the Grimm fairytales. It’s a weird modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel and like. Yeah. It started to get cheap. The language used in the lyrics shifted. There’s a ton of unnecessary cursing all over this album, graphic depictions of SA, p*dophilia, incest, drugs abuse and overdose, and like, yes, Hansel and Gretel is a tale about child abuse, of course, but there’s a way to approach those topics you know? With feeling, with emotion, with realness, and here it just feels cheap. Ghastly “twists” are constantly played out for shock value, it’s surface, it’s plastic-y. The stage show changed from refined hustorical costumes and atmospheres to, like, female-bodied mannequins being dragged around and getting their throats cut on stage with copious amounts of fake blood, and for what? It’s just, tasteless now. The band lost its delicacy. That’s where it started to feel cheap, and it only went downhill from there. 2017’s Dance and Laugh Amongst the Rotten is a joke. Legit, this album sounds like a joke. The songs are boring, uninspired, structure-less. The lyrics are so cheap. It’s like we went from a museum quality horror painting that moves and inspires, to a cheap clown trying to be scary at a kid’s birthday party. 2020’s Franckensteina Strataemontanus was very “meh” to me. Less offensive than the previous two, and the story is inspired by classic horror literature like Mary Shelley and the strange scientists that inspired her Frankenstein. There’s potential, but the magic is dead for me. Bad taste in my mouth. I can’t do it anymore, but maybe a fresh pair of ear that doesn’t have the baggage I have with this band will like it? You let me know.

In this context, you’ll understand why my recommendations will only be from the first three albums. If you want to go for it, just listen to all three. There are no duds in any of them. But for specific songs, from Lammendam: Haunting Echoes from the Seventeenth Century, The Carriage Wheel Murder, Heretic Poltergeist Phenomena and my absolute favorite La Malédiction de la Dame Blanche. From Phantom Ship: The Sighting Is a Portent of Doom and Bloodstains on the Captain's Log. From Corpses? Listen to the whole thing man. For real. It’s a concept album, so grab the whole thing, sit down, close the lights, get the lyrics out, and follow along. Prepare to be sobbing by the end. I could recommend every single song, but they hit so much more powerfully within the context of the story.

In terms of aesthetic, there guys are “masked” in the way that they have a very unique look of corpse paint (the face paint typical to black metal).

They coined this look, not corpse paint as a whole, but their style of it. It’s been copied a million times since (like by Cradle of Filth notably, though they'll argue to the ends of the world it wasn't copied. It looks the exact same, it's a bit ridiculous), but it was Carach who did it like this first. The band members have character names, though they are not anonymous. Their real names are out there, but on stage, they’re not themselves, they are Seregor and Ardek (Namtar used to be their drummer. He quit in 2020. I have no clue how the band will record anything else in the future without him because he was the CORE of the band for me. Absolute drummer crush. I digress.) Seregor is a hobbyist mask maker and he makes masks for his different characters from his stories, like these:

Imo they still hit on the mask kink somewhat. The guys on and off stage feel like they are radically different people, and to have met them masked at the end of a show and unmasked at more proper events, there’s a world of difference in the vibe. I love it.

Oh also they have spawn a good few big metal memes like this one XD :

Which they found funny enough they turned it into a shirt XD :

(and yes of course I have one hahaha)

ROTTING CHRIST

Rotting Christ are a seminal band in black metal’s history. They have been at it for 36 years under the Rotting Christ banner, 39 years if we count the first iteration of the band under a different name. Dare I say it? I’ll say it. They’re the black metal daddies. I’m so sorry, I said it, it’s out there now XD They are daddy and I don’t make the rules. Anyway! They’ve been active since 1987, as I said, and they are signed to, yep, Seasons of Mist. I wasn’t kidding when I said this label’s roster is nuts. They are from Athens, Greece and they’re more towards the melodic / gothic side of black metal. They influen ced black meal heavily because this early in the 80s (black metal as a genre really kicked off in the 90s), there were no other bands who did what they did, and especially not in Greek. Rotting Christ have a lot of songs in Greek, in Latin, later in their career they made songs based on Hindu mysticism, their lack of fear when it comes to singing in everything but English at the time was genre defining. They made many songs in English since, but man the ones in Greek just hit different you know? They changed the game before the black metal game was even a thing.

Currently there are only two original members left in the band, brothers Sakis and Themis Tolis, vocals/guitar and drums respectively. Everyone else right now are tour musicians or session studio musicians. As their band name suggests, their themes are of anti-christianity, satanism, occultism of many different cultures, mysticism, it’s all good shit. One more band we traumatized christian kids can heal our religious trauma through, weeeee!! They have 13 full length records out, their latest one being The Heretics from 2019 (we are starving from new material, please feed us) though they haven’t paused during the pandemic, re-recording older material and releasing compilations instead. There was a new single in 2022 called Holy Mountain, and I hope and pray that means new album soon. Sakis Tolis also released a solo project in 2022, Amongst the Fires of Hell, which was fucking DELICIOUS my dude. More laid back, but so fucking crunchy. Highly recommend if you feel their sound.

In terms of recommendations, you’re in luck because they released a massive best of for their 30th anniversary called Their Greatest Spells: 30 Years of Rotting Christ. That’s the must-listen. If you want into this band, start here. You’ll get a taste of the sound of every single full lenght that came befoee. It’s 2 albums, 33 songs: find your favorites, check which album they're from, and go from there! Non Serviam, Grandis Spiritus Diavolos, In Yumen-Xibalba, Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy, everything’s on here, besides my personal favorite song of theirs, Apage Satanas. It’s a weird chanty, trance-y song but it’s the one that made me fall in love with the band. It scratches at something deep inside my brain idk.

Rotting Christ are not masked, nor is there an aesthetic to latch onto, really. They’re just cool dude doing cool things and doing their part spreading the message. They’re honest and raw. No frills. What you see is what you get. They’re the OG.

And that's the bill! Lemme know if you listen to anything and if the bands catch your interest :D

[elastijubilee]

Favorite TV Shows Ever (in no exact order):

Frasier (1993-2004)

Cheers (1982-1993)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

Angel (1999-2004)

Schmigadoon! (2021-present)

Pushing Daisies (2007-2009)

Fringe (2008-2013)

Westworld (2016-2022)

Alias (2001-2006)

I Dream of Jeannie/Bewitched (I couldn't pick, ok?) (1965-1970) (1964-1972)

Honorable Mentions (Some who honestly may be faves depending on how I feel):

That Girl (1966-1971)

The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

Saturday Night Live (1975-present)

30 Rock (2006-2013)

Bob's Burgers (2011-present)

The Middle (2009-2018)

Poledark (2015-2019)

The Muppet Show (1976-1981)

Key & Peele (2012-2015)

Grimm (2011-2017)

Doctor Who (2005-present, and I'll watch classic at some point)

Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001)

Community (2009-2015)

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)

The Big Bang Theory (be mad) (2007-2019)

Daredevil (2015-2018)

Other TV Shows I've Enjoyed A LOT:

The Owl House

Gravity Falls

Dead Like Me

Lost

I Love Lucy

Futurama

Supernatural

Arcane

Parks and Recreation

The Office

Firefly

The Nevers

WKRP in Cincinnati

News Radio

Wings

The Nanny

Married with Children

MadTV

M*A*S*H

Big Brother US

That 70s Show

The Burns and Allen Show

My Hero Academia

Black Clover

She-Ra: Princess of Power

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Plus, there are others that I have liked and enjoyed throughout my life but these are the top ones and ones I've watched the most...in some cases I'm still finishing some and they could change placement in this hierarchy.

TV Shows I Hope to Start Someday:

True Detective (hopefully soon)

Miami Vice

Poker Face

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

Black Sails

The Expanse

Yellowjackets

Yellowstone

Weeds

Breaking Bad

Better Call Saul

Star Trek Discovery

Wonderfalls

Crystal Lake (whenever that comes out)

Mare of Easttown

That 90s Show

Timeless

Revolution

Dark

1899

Orphan Black

A League of Their Own

Fraggle Rock

Barry

Top Shows I Saw the Potential or What Others Like But Either Wasn't for Me or I Had Strong Critiques of:

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Centaur World

Star Vs. the Forces of Evil

Voltron

Single Parents

The Great North

Once Upon a Time

Glee (haven't finished yet but s1 was great with some fun stuff in s3 and everything else I've seen has been up and down and really awful in places)

Galavant

Dollhouse (though I'm thinking about picking up again bc I remember ep 4 being a lot better than the first 3)

Scream Queens season 2 (but maybe nobody likes that one?)

American Horror Story

The Muppets (2015)

Series I need to start watching again to know how I'll feel and it's been awhile:

Black Clover

Central Park

The X-Files

Battlestar Galactica

[angelsdean]

I think one of the biggest complaints about 15x16 was the timing - with so few episodes left in the series, it felt like such a weird departure from the momentum that was building. I think if it had aired earlier in 15 or a previous season, it would have been better received. Or at least wouldn't have been as hated. I don't think it was an amazing ep, but it wasn't terrible. Just weirdly placed in canon.

yes agree! that's my main complaint abt it and why i hated it immediately. LIKE, it's your last season!!! there's limited time to tell the MAIN story and wrap up plot points. every single moment should count. i love a filler episode from time to time but 4 episodes away from the finale is Not the time for filler eps. i also am just, not a fan of brother centric eps in the later seasons esp when there's bullshit excuses for why the other characters like jack and cas aren't there. if i had things my way the later seasons would've been the ensemble cast show we deserved, but anyways.

i wouldn't have minded this ep if i came at the start of s15 like during that time when cas had left the bunker and jack wasn't back yet and chuck was supposedly "gone." it would've fit perfectly there bc what else would dean and sam have to do at the time other than work cases?

my other big gripe is that i just do not like the kids cast as dean and sam, or how young dean was written at certain points in the episode. that young dean just does not fit well with other young deans we've seen and it bothers me a lot as a young dean enthusiast lol

[chuluoyi]

Pity 60?! ALMOST THERE! You can do it! 🥳 2 ?! Goodness how even 😭😭 The lowest I got was 6... Not any better but 2 is so close to being flat broke...

Yeahhh her dad is such an ass Maxi is the sweetest! And she's got a super hot husband now so I guess she DID benefit from being married off 😚 Oh I've read that too! Edna is such a girlboss I love her! It's different from the normal damsel in distress kind of Female lead, and it's really refreshing. What else have you read?

I hope so! But I'm still 18 and I wanna enjoy being single hahaha! I've seen my friends cry and weep over guys and I feel like I want to stay unburdened by the weight of a relationship till I'm like 19-20-ish? Thanks Chu! haha it's getting super rainy where I'm from... It's so cold istg...

Ahaha! I'm not THAT young. But I do agree that my watchlist is soul-sucking dhdhdh. Though, there's something about sad animes, don't you think?

HAHAHA you're young too! And you finished Naruto during your summer break?! Omg just how much did you watch per day you're amazing.

Right?! We deserve to know, Gege! Have mercy please was killing off our 3 JJK daddies not enough-

Hmm I honestly preferred the old art, even if the animation wasn't on par with Mappa's. I did pick it up after awhile, but Instagram spoiled me so I lost motivation after 2-3 episodes of season 4... I should really delete all social media accounts before watching a new anime...

Oh no is he okay HAHAHA was the ending that sad I'm slightly tempted to binge the rest of AOT after my exams are over hmm... How could he?!?! Gojo dying is one of the few anime deaths that shook the world 😭😭Or is he just jealous 🤭

Omg a fellow monkey! Sugu's monkey cult is expanding- Ngl I would gladly be a monkey if it means I can get slightly closer to Suguru-

Also I've received your TOT req!! The bakerlon card is legit so cute ahhh 😫😫

-🪩

i… gave up🥲 seems like there’s no hope for me 😩 i’ll wait until next year then and save the s chips i get from the monthly pass for the upcoming events🤧

HAHAHAH the benefit is right there!!🤭 i love maxi’s progress though and YES I LOVE EDNA SO MUCH omg she’s so badass, takes care of her own shits and the plot twist is soooo omg i finished that manhwa on one night and was left sooo full😩 it was one of the best manhwas for me

hmm i think i’ve read quite many arranged marriage stories but suddenly i can’t think of any of them🥲 but another great manhwa i read is unholy blood! i love hayan sm she’s also badass and her romance with euntae drives me almost insane bcs of the slow burn🤧 but it’s so so great by the ending i was sad to let it go. have you read it?? and do you have any other recs?

so true! i honestly don’t think there’s any benefit for us to force ourselves to have a boyfriend/girlfriend that early (especially if they say it’s for the status—a classmate of mine once told me that she was dating this guy just to know how being in a relationship was like💀 she’s messed up) because in the end, we are looking for the real thing. the real thing doesn’t come easily, it takes time. fyi my current boyfriend is my first bf, we started dating just last year, which means i have my first bf at 23🥹 and i’m so glad i heed my mom then, that it’s no use to have boyfriends when you were still in high school or college as chances are they are still immature themselves.

but if you do find someone who is good in school, then it’s okay to try! just don’t be discouraged if you don’t because nah we need the true ones😉

(aw sorry to come off as lecturing i can’t stop myself but my mom’s advice is what saves me🥹 and i really do think it’s so good)

me too!! it’s rainy and cold nowadays *sigh* but at least it’s not as hot?🥹

THERES 🗣️ SOMETHING 🗣️ ABOUT 🗣️ ANGST 🗣️ that made me feel like i want to jump out of the window yet satisfied my inner soul at the same time🤧🤧🤧

HAHAHA i felt old bcs now i’m paying for my own bills and impulse buying😭 JSJSJS nono i watched naruto from eps 300 onwards actually🥹 still, that’s quite a lot 😭 but yeah, i could watch at least 5-10 eps per day back then 🥲

PFFT DADDIES so true 😔😔 *sigh* my life has never been the same ever since that gojo sukuna fight. i started looking for spoilers (i didn’t follow the manga before), installed twitter and reading theories. my heart used to be thumping so hard each time i went over the spoilers you know? like i know gojo was going to lose somehow but i hope so much he didn’t and then when chapter 235 dropped and gege took a break i was like “!!!!” only to 236 to reverse it in the most brutal way💀

ahh i see… i’m starting to think that aot is for boys😭 like most of my guy friends are like “this is the best anime of my life” while my girl friends are just bamboozled with everything🥹

he’s mourning and coping the way we do for our jjk daddies🤭🤭 save to say that karma gets him bcs he doesn’t follow the manga HAHAHA maybe both i don’t know but he gets 🙄🙄 when i swoon over gojo ahahhaha

oh? good luck on your exam disco anon!! i know you’ll do well!!🫶🏻

HAHAHAHAH OMG that’s the term he used too!!🤣 like he’s okay being suguru’s monkey just because🥹

waah! that’s good then!! the card is so CHIC but i haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet along with the side story card🥲🥲🥲 i will after this weekend i think bcs work has been so tiring *sigh*

[balsamfir-fics]

a hope at risk (part 2) [M]

Genres: angst, 99% canon (eps 6-9), more angst, smut, established childhood crushes to strangers to lovers, post-pining, becoming machine herald (sort of)

Pairing: Viktor/Female Reader

Warnings: Minors DNI; explicit smut in this chapter!

Summary: For nearly two decades after you waltzed out of Viktor's life as the childhood friend who broke his heart, he hoped to forget you. Now that you're back, firmly settled in his life and his arms, he wants nothing more than to live, to love, to dream. With a terminal diagnosis you've yet to learn about in a city waiting to erupt into war, however, Viktor realizes this is a fight for survival against all odds. But he can't lose you again. He won't. He hopes.

Chapters: Prelude | Part 1 | Part 2 [M] | Part 3 | Part 4 [FINAL]

Chapter Word Count: ~6.3k

Author Notes: Unedited. Sequel to a hope never forgotten. This work can be read independently of its predecessor – though reading that first will more thoroughly contextualize Viktor and YN’s relationship. Prequel summarized below for those who don’t have time to read it!

Prequel summary: If you are reading this without having seen the previous work, this is the debrief: YN is Heimerdinger’s adopted daughter; YN and Viktor are childhood friends who grew up together between the ages of 10-16 and separated at 16 immediately after an unspoken confession of love. The uncertainty and cowardice of youth prevent YN from keeping contact until twelve years pass. Over the next five years the two keep orbiting each other, gravity pulling them closer, until Viktor’s hospital stint as per Episode 5 forces YN to reckon with their lifetime of love. The end of A Hope Never Forgotten sees Viktor’s seventeen-year-long hope and longing fulfilled.

A Hope Never Forgotten follows Arcane canon up to Episode 5; this work will follow Arcane canon until the end of all currently available content (Episode 9). This piece borrows themes from prior League of Legends lore, but following the events of Episode 9 it will become an imagined ‘what comes next’ as we wait for the events of Season 2.

The prior work deals primarily with holding onto hope; this one deals with themes of loss and survival. Both are about decisions made and avoided.

-------------------------------------------------------

My darling Sparrow, I am concerned for you; news of Bilgewater’s infighting has reached the Academy gossip circles and you’ve not updated me since you mentioned having to extend your trip. Please do respond at earliest convenience, or otherwise return home to my open arms. All my tests are going poorly. I’ve only a few options left to try from the complete list of possible rune functions I enumerated. It’s more than frustrating, more than you would ever know, because it’s a very important matter for me to figure this out. This has all got me rather cross and I fear for Jayce’ life in the lab more than I fear for my own. I need you, darling, as uncomfortable as it is for me to lay out this vulnerability. I miss you. Be safe. Come home soon. Vitya —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A barely-there nub of graphite strikes a slow line through the last rune function Viktor previously calculated as an option. His breath hangs in his chest as he stares at the empty space below it; there are no more combinations for him to try, no more options to place hope into. The air around him is still with the emptiness of Jayce’ absence. There’s no point going home; you’re on another trip. There’s no point staying here – he’s tried every single one of the rune combinations and still – every plant dies within seconds of initial flourishing. This, Viktor knows, is the end of the line. Both for the Hexcore, and for himself. He sits in the silence for a few, trembling beats. Then, surprising even himself, he stands with a fearsome energy he didn’t know he had in these ailing months, letting out a carnal scream that echoes off the cavernous walls of the lab. (He hears footsteps scurrying towards the door; then notices a sliver of light enter and a worried voice – “it’s nothing, Miss Young, just stubbed my toe,”  he says to the voice, and Sky shrinks back into the hallway, taking the sliver of light with her). This can’t be it, he snarls inwardly. But he knows it is, knows it in his bones. You’re not here to kiss away his woes, and even if you were – he hadn’t yet told you about his time-bound lifespan, and knew you would take it poorly if he told you now, after so many months of hiding from you. In a fit of desperate rage, he grips his crutch, knuckles turning white as he clenches his fist around it with the kind of strength that only comes from anger. Viktor throws the crutch, not caring where it lands, though he does instinctively throw it towards an area of the lab with no specialized equipment. The sharp clatter of the metal and wood against the stone floors pierces the air and reverberates off the walls, a discordant sound that strangely soothes the creature of fury now living in his heart. Then he hears the crystalline clicks of glass rolling on smoothed stone, and glances down. Glittering purple stares back at him from the vial he procured weeks ago. Another sign of deception, he thinks wrly, a vivid memory of Jayce’ insult to his Undercity heritage as the two men interfaced on the bridge now coming to mind. He’d lied to Jayce then as well, too shaken by Jayce’ poor opinion of undercitizens to confide in his partner about the specialized Shimmer his first mentor provided. Singed’s reply rang in his mind – that single ‘perhaps,’ a seed of doubt that Jayce would understand. Maybe the councilman would have understood the need to investigate unconventional options. Maybe you would have understood Viktor’s need to test out possibilities in endless laboratory hours before coming to you with the truth of his health. Too many maybes, not enough answers. Only empty hypotheses, untested and unproven. The vial rolls all the way towards him, stopping with a light clink as it halts against the metal footwell of his leg brace. He bends to pick it up, lifting the vial to see it against the light emanating from the Hexcore. Viktor sits back, drained of energy from his brief standing session, and lets his hands fall to his knees. He knows that this vial is his last chance, but a polarizing one – a decision he can’t take back. Piltovans might see him as yet another drug-seeking undercitizen if word gets out; and yet, after exhausting every possible rune function, he has no other options if he wants to at least try to get a few more years with you. He pleads with the universe as his body moves of its own accord; his mind asks for just a little bit more time, a little more vitality – just a few more experiences with the love of his life, while his hands search for a syringe and load the vial into the device. It responds to organic matter, he thinks as he grits his teeth, hissing as his precision blade cuts into the skin of his leg. With my health waning, this leg is… disposable, Viktor lies to himself now, telling himself anything that might convince him that the mutilation is worth the risk of a possibility. I have nothing left to lose. It’s not even a guarantee that placing runes on a living organism would help it channel the power of the Hexcore – it’s a shred of hope, and if there’s anything Viktor has learned in the last seventeen years, it’s that hope is sometimes enough. He scratches at the metal of his leg brace now, etching in the lines of a diamond shape a little bit deeper. Then he picks up the syringe, his breathing erratic and worried. But a scary sense of calm settles into the recesses of his mond as he thinks through the scientific method. What’s the worst that can happen? He could die, for one, without saying goodbye, but without telling you about his diagnosis he’s as good as done that already. Viktor thinks about a letter he’s written to you, tucked away above the one he keeps in the depths of his toolbox – one that sorts out his last will and testament, one that tells you everything he wished he could have written to you had you sent your letters to him when they were written. She’ll understand, he tells himself now, and he winces at how it echoes his own words to Singed, words that he now believes were a self-comforting lie. Maybe that’s what this is now, a sad attempt at consolation as he approaches the point of no return. Perhaps legacy was a worthy sacrifice to make for progress, but he tries to console himself now and tell himself that he will not need to offer up love as well. But he’s a doomed man, and he knows it. You’ll understand the necessity of taking this risk, he hopes. Viktor presses down on the trigger, flooding his veins with the contraband, and gasps in pain as the liquid immediately alters his body chemistry for good. Every nerve in his body is on fire for a split-second, then an eerie sense of control and desire flood him. He knows it’s the Shimmer; he knows it’s the high it provides, that helps its users forget their woes or find superhuman strength. In his own body, he knows it only regulates him to a reasonable, average tolerance for pain, but that alone might be enough to get him through this. Panting in staccato breaths, he worriedly reaches towards the Hexcore, mind racing as he feels every beat of his heart powered by Shimmer. He’s not dead yet, so clearly Singed’s new formula works, but he now has the mental clarity to think through the next few possibilities. Breathing heavily, he pulls his hand back and grasps his precision blade. Thoughts flash through his mind, thoughts of choices and decisions – the decisions to make ‘weapons’ in the name of ‘self-defense,’ decisions to turn to life-altering substances in order to survive, choices to run away from love and hide from it as an act of self-preservation. But he thinks, too, of the choices to hold onto hope against all odds; of the decisions to try and do the right thing after so many failures and wrongs, and of pointed efforts to believe in oneself despite public opinion. Viktor reminds himself that he, and Jayce, and you are all flawed, trying to make the best of a complex and troubling world, and notes that some decisions will always have consequences no matter which direction is chosen. With that in mind, he digs the blade into his hand as he hisses through the sensation, and reaches for the Hexcore again. The next few seconds halt all his thoughts in their tracks. It’s unceremonious and sudden – the Hexcore seems to scream and expand, flooding the room with brilliant violet light, and it reaches for him. His fear overpowers the Shimmer and he tries to pull back, but the magic is stronger and all but drags him back to it. It’s violent and terrifying, and it occurs to Viktor that all the suffering he’s endured and ignored throughout his life have never equaled this. It’s all over before the clock strikes another minute. When Viktor comes to, he finds himself slumped against his workbench, and his leg brace totally gone. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He glances at the clock, noticing at once that his senses are sharpened. Not, he thinks, because the Shimmer is still augmenting him, but rather because the fog that has swirled in his body since he fainted seems to have cleared. Viktor feels the dart of his eyes as they move around the lab. Looking down, he sees a foreign object of indigo and gold; it hums with energy and his brain registers the thing as his – as a part of his body, not as an extension of it. He traces his fingers over the plates, then points his foot. Then he gasps – he can feel everything, and what he feels is like nothing he’s experienced in that leg for his entire life. There is strength to this limb; Viktor can feel its capability, and it takes his brain a few more seconds to understand that this is him now. There is no turning back. And even if it were possible to undo this, Viktor hasn’t the slightest idea now. He doesn’t look back at the Hexcore, too concerned with running a battery of tests against the modified limb. Out of instinct, Viktor grabs his crutch and staggers out of the lab, heading towards a part of town that is always quiet at this time of night: the docks. The trip there is short but quiet; a dense mist covers Piltover and hides his tracks. Viktor doesn’t dare put his full weight on the Hexcore-built leg yet; he still leans onto his crutch with every step and takes care not to try his luck. But when he reaches an empty part of the docks, he stands still, shifts his weight until very little of it is supported by the crutch, and finally – finally! – lets it fall to the ground. Viktor takes a deep breath, eyes full of worry as he gazes forward into the mist covering the end of his runway. He takes one step forward with his good leg, then tries a very tentative step with the metal contraption that’s become a part of him. He limps, more out of muscle memory than true capacity, for the first few steps. He takes a few more, watching the ground carefully; his hands are out at his sides, ready to catch himself if he falls. Viktor places a little more weight on his right leg, then in the next step a little more – each new hypothesis tested, proven, and accepted. Then Viktor realizes that this leg can handle his weight in a way that it couldn’t before; he picks up the pace at this discovery, having accumulated enough evidence to take the risks for his next experiment. He leans forward into a slow jog, marveling at each strike of his heel against the floor. He stumbles a bit mid-stride, but catches himself immediately. Bolstered by this surprising lack of failure, he puts more power into his steps and breaks into a full sprint. His lungs let loose a primal scream as the cold, misty air runs through his locks, and it occurs to Viktor he has never once felt alive, like this, before. His life thus far has never been lacking, but tonight’s energy is a stark contrast to the past few months of his declining existence, and it, he finds, is exhilarating. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the edge of the dock, he crumples to the floor at last – not because his leg cannot support him, but because his ailing lungs are still unable to supply the oxygen he needs for the rest of his body (or possibly even his metallic leg) to continue. He sags against a pylon, his legs dangling over the water. He… survived. Not only did he survive whatever it was he did with the Hexcore, but he came out the other side with a limb that was stronger than its predecessor. Not in his wildest dreams could such a thing happen, in part because Viktor had never cared to entertain the what-ifs – he’d lived with his leg his whole life, and it simply was. The only reason he’d chosen it for his experiment was because he knew he could survive (even if only for a few months) if something went wrong and he lost the limb completely. But now, on the precipice of the future, Viktor isn’t sure what to think. This is different from the instant wilting seen with every one of his plant-based experiments. Nearly an hour has passed and he’s still alive, the leg still attached to him. And yet his lungs remain to struggle and his spine still needs its supports. Is he more alive than dead now? May he dare to dream? He weighs his options once more, a routine mental exercise for him after receiving his prognosis. He’s run through this several times; he thinks about a future he might have whenever he embarks on a new test. He thought about his options before he tried a new page of rune functions; he thought about them before he injected himself with Shimmer, and he thinks about them again now as he tries to determine whether follow-up experiments will be worth the risk of losing everything. When Viktor closes off factual evidence of his deterioration from his mind, he always thinks about the same three things: a future that is mundane, a future in which you and he have a family, and a future in which his legacy of helping the needy with Hextech is secured. It’s utopia, perhaps, but what are dreams if not wishes for a brighter future? He lets his eyes flutter shut now and blocks out the chill of the midnight air. In his mind, children with unruly hair and bright amber eyes dance around his apartment; they flash toothy smiles at him in a way that reminds him of your own cheeky grins. Other children, who look less like his progeny and more like the peers of his undercity youth, play in a crystal-clear river, breathing in clean air. Citizens of the undercity walk under bright, sunlight-intense lights that facilitate better health in the Lanes; people bustle back and forth across the bridge between Piltover and the undercity easily, and Viktor cannot easily tell who belongs to which region. Hexgate ships travel overhead, and machinery whirs to keep living conditions ideal. His mind takes him back to his apartment, where he sees you curled up with his children on the couch; they are asleep and you are secretly tipping a bit of liquor into your own hot chocolate, before extending the cup to him. He sees his own hand come into view, the mug lifting to his lips, and when he looks down with his mind’s eye, he sees the glittering purple of his foot instead of the brass metal of his brace’s toe-cap. All he’s ever wanted is to live a life of normalcy while working a job of incredible impact. This, he thinks, might just be worth the risk of further augmentation. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A week later, you arrive at Viktor’s apartment after dropping off some things at the Heimerdinger Estate. To your surprise, your father had been nowhere to be found when you tried checking in on him earlier, but you know his councillor ousting had been difficult for him as he loved Piltover so much. The staff tell you he’s left the house shrouded in mystery every morning, a cloak pulled around his small frame, and a part of you wonders if he’s heading to the undercity in these turbulent times, doing the same work you do – meeting people in need where they are, offering assistance if they’ll have you. Your fingers worry at Viktor’s latest letter, crumpled in the depths of your pocket. You’d sent a reply, telling him you expected to be home within one to two weeks with the way your projects had been going, but you’d heard nothing in response. He was usually prompt with his replies, always better at sending word than you were, but he’d been silent. The only thing preventing you from completely falling into anxiety was your run-in with Jayce earlier that morning on your way to Viktor’s; the Councilman had been surprised when you asked after Viktor, but told you your love had been surprisingly peppy in the past few days and that he was probably home taking a nap after a few very excitable days he’d had in the lab. You knock on the door, body too weary to dig into the abyssal depths of your knapsack for your key. A strange sound greets you from the other side of the door; you’re used to hearing the ring of Viktor’s brace on the floor, in a cadence of three: crutch, foot, brace. Today you hear three, but the sound of his brace is strange. It’s muted, yet humming with static energy; it sounds heavier, and you nearly go diving into your bag for your key so you can throw the door open in concern. Instead, Viktor beats you to it, and opening the door himself. You look up at him, eyes worried, but you blink the expression away immediately as you find him standing a bit taller than usual. Your eyes scan his form, trying to understand what’s different, and when you look down, you find him braceless, though he still leans slightly against his crutch. But you can tell his weight isn’t fully on it, and you point at the shiny purple sheen covering his foot. “Exoskeleton,” he says, lying effortlessly through his teeth despite the sharp bite of guilt that pangs him, and he bends in half as his lungs produce a horribly dry cough. Remarkably, as terrible as his lungs sound, they do appear to be slightly better off than before. Viktor tucks away his handkerchief quickly, making sure you don’t catch a glimpse of blood. “New experiment.” You raise your eyebrows at that, your hand on his shoulder from his coughing fit. “Are you alright?” You know he’s been taking his medication, and there’s a different flush to his cheeks that wasn’t there before. The gasping, rattling noises from his lungs still bother you, but you know better than to challenge him on his health. You take victories where you can find them, like in the flickering energy behind his amber irises and the light pink in his gaunt cheeks, and you step forward into his embrace. He’s still impossibly thin, but you certainly feel that his posture is different, that he truly does stand a bit taller than he has in the past few months. It’s an encouraging sight, one that delights you so much that you pepper his cheek with I-just-got-home-and-I-missed-you kisses. Viktor decides right then and there that another round of Hexcore experiments is due. This is what his ideal future feels like, Viktor thinks, but when another series of coughs threatens to erupt from his chest, he remembers that he has yet to resolve the issue of his limited time on Runeterra. “Did the doctors say anything about your lung damage?” You ask, and Viktor presses a kiss to your hair. “It’s slow progress,” he says, and this much is true, though it’s not so much about progress in their medical treatment as it is progress in his understanding of how the Hexcore might absolve him of his physical deterioration. “But it’s getting there.” “Lovely,” you sigh, wrapping your eyes tighter around his body and resting your cheek on his chest. He fully agrees with your sentiment. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the next couple weeks you are lucky to have no trips scheduled, a fact you and Viktor both relish in. This gives you time to cook for him and with him, overseeing his nutrition despite his glorious scowls of indignance that he, too, is a grown adult and is capable of feeding himself. He still spends long hours in the lab, poring over this Hexcore he keeps talking about, but he’s careful to be home by dinner. Some days, he asks you to meet him near campus and have dinner at a collegiate greasy spoon; other days, you dine by the pier and watch boats float idly by against a watercolor sunset. His gait is different, and though he still uses the full-length crutch he’s grown accustomed to in the past few years, you can tell that the exoskeleton is helping. Walking is less laborious, if still unevenly balanced, and you wonder if Viktor has always been this tall or if perhaps his scrunched-up, shrimp-like posture had stolen inches from him as his health declined. Perplexingly, he refuses to remove his exoskeleton attachments, something you find rather strange at first but eventually shrug off. Vitkor had always leaned into his experiments with great intensity, and if they were helpful to his physical health with round-the-clock wear, then so be it. He finds his slightly more-able-bodied frame thrilling; it’s been years since he stored trinkets in higher cupboards or helped anyone hoist boxes. And while the matter of his struggling lungs fails to improve, his elation at returning to a brace-free life is one that encourages him to the point that his stagnating experiments don’t bother him as much as they should. To live out the rest of his life with no more than a crutch or a cane (as he did in his youth) would be a benediction he never expected to receive. Hope, it would seem, was restoring for Viktor’s health as much as it had been for his relationship with you. He was confident that he would soon figure out a way to harness the Hexcore for the betterment of his failing organs. An answer would come. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps the most interesting part of Viktor’s new medical devices is his initial shyness in bringing them into the bedroom. His previous, clunky leg brace had been much more difficult to work around, but its engineering made it more complicated to remove than to leave on (this was something Viktor had learned years before you returned, the first time he attempted sex after having the brace affixed — a frustrated gentleman caller stormed out of his apartment because the pre-coital attempt to remove it had taken nearly two hours and resulted in failure). He’d never once been ashamed of it every time you’d slept together, starting from that first confessional night until a few short weeks ago. But the first time you’d dragged him down to the couch with you, your lips on his, he’d initially refused to let you divest him of his pyjama bottoms. Not being allowed to rid your lover of his pants seemed a bit silly—especially when you were very nearly naked yourself, having long strewn away most of your clothes somewhere on the coffee table. You tugged at a very shirtless Viktor’s bottoms, too excited to wait any longer (he’d said he missed you deeply in his last letter!). A firm grip around your wrists stopped you in your tracks. “Not yet, Sparrow,” he murmured, lips attached to that groove in your neck that rendered you nearly inert. “It looks a bit odd with the… exoskeleton. Leave them on.” “Who said I was going to spend any time looking?” You retorted, but he shushes you with a languid kiss. “What if I said I wanted to watch this time? You’ve only just returned from nearly two weeks away and I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about what I’d like to do to you.” “You mean, ‘with me?’” But Viktor only gave you a wicked, knowing smile in return to your query. ‘To you.’ And sort of with you, but mostly to you. A shiver of excitement ran down your spine at his enthusiasm, and you dropped your request to pants him. As he noticed your curiosity fading behind your growing desire, he made a satisfied little noise in his throat before nipping lightly at the skin behind your ear. His teeth grazed down the column of your neck, his lips taking gentle pulls from you and drawing out your soft moans. He trailed inquisitive fingers at the fabric of your underwear as you raised your hips in search of more contact. Viktor all but licked a trail down your chest as he expertly freed you from your bra, shifting himself lower as he went. His knees hit the floor and he was personally surprised (though scientifically nonplussed) to find the posture somewhat comfortable; his ‘bum leg’ wasn’t screaming in protest the way it normally would have if he so much as attempted to dig his kneecap into the hardwood floor of his apartment, if the previous leg brace would have even let him. Encouraged by the obvious lack of physical pain, Viktor sank his weight into his heels and shuffled himself backwards. His talented fingers danced over your skin, making sure not to neglect you even in the midst of his personal discovery. Then he hooked his fingers into your panties, unwilling to waste a moment longer, and began trailing his lips even lower. He pulled away to watch you whine at the loss of contact. When you hissed at him, straining against the sofa cushions, he smiled; his grin widened when you ran a hand through his hair as a silent plea for him to give you what you wanted most. He was more than happy to oblige. First: a kiss right above the apex of your legs. Second: a tentative tongue passed over your still-hooded clit. Third: enjoying your reactions as he lavished attention to the rest of your core before returning to coax your clit out for him, goading you into greater sensitivity. Your sighs of pleasure filled the silence in the room. He had been taking a deliberately slow pace, in part to exert control over the part of his brain that wanted nothing more than to see you to your oblivion, and in part to keep the lurid sounds of his mouth on your wetness quiet enough to allow him to hear you better. But higher-pitched your whines became, the more Viktor found himself unable to keep his own desire back. Pace quickened, Viktor added a long finger to his handiwork — first testing your interest with no more than a fingertip, then slowing pushing into you and curling his finger back as much as you were receptive. When you whispered for another, he obeyed, his tongue making tight circles around your clit all the same. He added a third finger not long afterward, at your breathy insistence that you ‘needed it.’ At some point in your rising action, Viktor’s other hand gained a mind of its own and had found its way to his cock. He became vaguely conscious that he was stroking himself over his thin cotton pyjamas, likely in a fruitless effort to appease his own desperate need. You constantly had that effect on him. You always had, from the first time you made out with him at sixteen, to the present, where all you needed to do was level him with that gaze in order to ignite him. It was an awkward position for him, with limbs all askew and his body scrunched up in the effort to give you pleasure, but he didn’t mind any of it if it meant you were feeling as good as you were sounding. Careful, deft laps from his tongue had you squeezing around his fingers and seeing stars within minutes—then he eased you through the comedown as you gasped for air, your fingers still clutching desperately at the sofa cushions. Aftershocks rippled through you as he pointedly softened his movements, and it’s only after the haze partially clears that you noticed Viktor’s own neediness. You gestured for him to sit on the couch, wanting to give back as much pleasure as you got, but Viktor shook his head. Puzzled, you sat up, watching as he licked your wetness from his lips all the while maintaining eye contact. Curiosity piqued, you then shifted yourself forward in order to bite gently at Viktor’s collarbones, opting to follow that with small, wet kisses across the expanse of his naked shoulders. He twitched at the contact, back snapping ramrod-straight. Viktor pressed himself closer, wanting more. You grinned against his skin. Your fingers danced around his delicate frame, relishing in the textures and shapes that made him who he was, and his body shivered into your touch. Not wanting him to feel self-conscious, you slid one of your hands down to yourself, right where Viktor’s mouth had been not moments before. He gazed down at you, watching with great interest from widely-dilated eyes as you coaxed a moan out of yourself. With your other hand, you hastily pulled his pyjama pants and boxers down, but he stopped you from dragging them down too far. “Still not going to take them off all the way?” Your gaze heady, you gestured aimlessly at the fabric bunched at hips, noting the sliver of visible exoskeletal purple at the top of his thigh. You took his hand in yours, replacing his palm on his cock, and wrapped his hand around his length. Viktor choked out your name at that, upper body falling forward into you with his forehead resting in the crook of your neck. His reply exited his body in staccato bursts. “Not now—don’t worry—too much,” Viktor said in between rather loud kisses down your décolletage. The effect was immediate; he was so incredibly distracting that your remaining protests died on your lips as a new wave of pure need crashed over you. You gasped together, hands on yourselves increasing in tempo, watching the other fall into oblivion mere inches away. “I’m going to—” he started, but found himself unable to complete his sentence. You leaned back into the sofa cushions, smiling at him in encouragement as you brought yourself to the brink. You lifted a finger to beckon to him, suggesting that he was better off cumming on you than the hard-to-clean fabric of his sofa. Viktor immediately rose, half-leaning over you as he came with a muffled shout—you followed suit quickly while writhing beneath him. He tried valiantly to catch his breath after all but collapsing beside you, still half-dressed with his pyjamas pulled below his ass, still hanging half off of the seat. A bright pink dusted his sharp cheeks—you wonder what got him so uncharacteristically bashful right after masturbating in front of you. You briefly thought to ask him, but he leaned up to kiss you so softly that your query vaporized quickly—forgotten until the next round of sex, but forgotten again after that, too. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These days, he’s much less concerned about covering up his supports. You were glad to see him more comfortable in any regard, particularly in bedroom activities. You gasp for breath after a particularly intense tryst, sticky and trying to steady yourself while Viktor remains pressed up into you while processing his own post-coital haze. Neither of you make any effort to extricate yourselves from each other’s limbs despite the sheen of drying sweat that covers your skin. Viktor’s own recovering breaths sound by your ear; his hair tickles at your neck as he rests his forehead against you. His arms remain tight around your waist. “This is terrifying,” you exhale. Your breath begins to even out and slow as the adrenaline fades away. He hums against your neck, then kisses your shoulder. “What is scaring you, darling Sparrow?” “This,” your fingers trace patterns into his arm. “How much I love you. How much you make me feel, and how close we were to never finding any of this. There’s so much we have to lose, and I’m still in awe that we’re here in the first place.” Viktor ponders that. It’s not entirely off-the-mark; your relationship hung on a fraying thread of hope for seventeen years, and even now, he was acutely aware of the precipice he stood on. If he didn’t find a way to survive his physical condition, then… Viktor didn’t want to think of the alternative, but his mind takes him to a vision of you in mourning black, standing over his grave in the near future. He shivers, goosebumps covering his bare arms. You nestle back into him in an attempt to share your warmth. Clearing his throat in an effort to similarly clear his mind, he produces a question. “What can I do to help?” You’re touched by his selflessness, and pull his arms around you tighter as you rub your fingers over his skin and warm him. You lift his forearm higher. “All you need to do is recover fully and be healthy,” you murmur into the skin of his forearm. Your lips mouth at him, peppering his arm in soft, shy kisses. “I just don’t want to lose you, again.” Behind you, Viktor is silent for a bit, before you feel him shift and prop himself up to rest his chin on your shoulder. His fingers trace featherlight designs below your belly button, absently drifting as he tries to work through his thoughts. When he finally speaks, his voice sounds tentative. “At all costs?” You ponder that. It sounds like he’s asking you what you’re willing to give up in order to ensure his wellness, and the answer to that question is easy. “You’re you, Viktor,” you reply. “We all make sacrifices to become who we are. I gave you up seventeen years ago when I was lost; I think I could only have returned to you after I found who I was meant to be. And now, I have to sacrifice my fear and my guilt in order to become someone you can trust with your heart. None of this comes easy, Viktor, but I know you’ll understand what decisions to make when you come to them. All that matters is that you get better and stay by my side.” With that, you turn in his embrace and snuggle in close, wrapping your leg around his. Viktor twitches a little, then settles as he realizes you’re thankfully curled around his unmodified limb. You feel soft lips press to your forehead; you smile against his shoulder in response. “I adore you,” Viktor murmurs. “Longer than you have known.” You let out a light laugh; you both know that ‘long’ for you both is quite an impressive duration. The implication behind his words goes unspoken, as does your echoed sentiment in your reply.  “I love you too, Vitya.” Something cracks in his chest as he registers the affection the nickname, lighting him up with a burst of energy. Ever since you’d verified your love for each other, you’d started addressing him as such in your letters — a sign that you remembered his birthday wish, long ago in the history of time before you left him. This, however, is the first time you’ve spoken the nickname aloud. Bolstered by the endearment, it’s Viktor who jumps up and dashes for a washcloth this time (an intriguing event; usually he’s far too spent from any intensity of lovemaking and it’s often you who happily fetches something to wipe with). He returns quickly—a lot more quickly than usual, but you don’t pay this much mind as he carefully and somewhat dangerously begins to clean you up. It’s a comfortable sensation at first, because you’re too spent to read much into it, but as he continues you begin to realize that he’s a little too interested in his actions. Propping yourself on your elbows, you lift up to get a better look at his handiwork, only to see him gazing out at you from beneath lowered brows with a darkened stare. “Viktor, what—“ you start to ask what’s gotten into him again (again, shouldn’t he be more than exhausted?) when he (gently) interrupts you by lowering his lips to your still-sensitive core. A soft yelp of surprise leaves your throat and you fall back onto the bed, wondering what possessed Viktor. As if he can sense your question, his lips lift from you and you grumble at the loss of contact. A light rumble of laughter sounds from somewhere near your hips, and you hear something about “a study of the female refractory period” before his tongue is on you once more. As he laps at you, with a distant part of your brain realizing he must also be tasting himself in the process, you think you hear something that sounds like a quiet declaration of gratitude before he works you into an unexpected (though certainly not unwelcome) release. 

[tipsyjaehyun]

I was tagged by @dribs-and-drabbles and @someonek111me [I'm sorry for seeing this so late Phi and Eve, please forgive me :(]

1. Your all time favourite bl and why: Bad Buddy (for now). It had been that constant thought which lingered in my mind for 13 long weeks. This was the show which turned me into an official essay writer and defend Pran, anytime and everytime that I could. I do not say this lightly, Bad Buddy was a constant high because I had a blast discussing absurd theories (yes, they were absurd. but am i ashamed of them? no!!), seeing fanarts and edits that made me cry in between my classes. so, yeah...

Also, honorary shoutout to The Untamed (it's a masterpiece).

2. That one bl that scarred you for life: I don't think I've been scarred by a BL yet because I tend to look up the kind of ending a show has and avoid it if it's anywhere unsatisfactory.

3. Is there any bl that made you feel very single: There are so many! Let's start with Bad-fucking-Buddy. The domesticity and the kind of comfort that both Pat and Pran had with each other, I was like... I WANT THIS!!!

4. If you could change one thing from a bl, which one would it be? The whole top/bottom trope, husband/wife thingy... basically heteronormalising lgbtq relationships. Also stop villianizing girls! I think we've had enough of that as well.

5. That one bl you detest (don’t hold back): I'm gonna agree with Phi here and say that 'detest' is a strong word. Some of the BLs that I did not enjoy (as much as I though I would) or some that I dropped would be Word of Honor (could not get past ep 5. maybe I was not in the mood for it or something but I could not complete it), WBL season 2 (I adore season 1 but I was a bit let down by season 2), SOTUS season 2, IPYTM (I'm seeing a pattern here XD).

6. Your top 5: 1) Bad Buddy, 2) The Untamed 3) Lovely Writer 4) HIStory 3 - Trapped, 5) Manner of Death

7. That trashy bl that you lowkey like: Am I allowed to say Love Mechanics here? It was messy but it was sooo good!

8. Your favourite Korean bl (it’s important we know): I have seen very few of the ones currently available, so I'm gonna go with To My Star.

9. But also your top 3 for kbls: Can I choose top 2? 1) To My Star, 2) Light on Me

10. Season 2? Which One? Right now, I'm hoping for a season 2 for Bad Buddy (for obvious reasons).

11. A bunch of dramas will air soon. Which ones are you most excited for? KinnPorsche, Love Mechanics (full length), Never Let Me Go (the pilot trailer is so beautiful!!!). I'm also looking forward to a chinese BL named Immortality.

12. Tag them! Please only do it if you want to, no pressure!

@theoneandonlyabu, @ablazenqueen, @patpranism, @jiminieejamzz, @frostluvrs, @gramsblack, @jemmo, @ghostvalleymasters (and anyone else who wants to, please considered yourselves tagged! also @/people i've tagged, I'm sorry if you've already done this! (￣ ‘i ￣;))

[taki118]

Go Watch the Venture Brothers

So just heard the complete and utter Bullshit news that Adult Swim has cancelled one of (if not the best shows) they have the Venture Bros. This series is one of those shows that for WHATEVER reason never got to the level of fandom Rick and Morty has even though they’ve been at the genre parody game longer and in my opinion better. 

The series is about Rusty Venture former boy adventurer and failing super scientist who in an attempt to keep his head above water in debt goes around with his two boys Hank and Dean, and bodyguard Brock on misadventues while various legal archnemisis go after him, such as the Monarch. 

So if you never watched or never heard of this 7 season series let me give you a break down on why you should, 

1) Art Style & Animation

Venture bros is one of those rare Adult aimed animated series that that really truly tries to utilize their medium to the best of their abilities. Season 1 had like such a small budget and corners had to be cut so it can be a little hard to watch at times. 

But with each passing season they get a little better, a little more fluid, go just a little harder and it truly feels rewarding to watch. Like seeing an artist you follow online improve over the years. Like they COULD have stayed with the choppy and stiff animation from season 1 it fit right in with its fellow adult animated shows but it didn’t. They strove for quality to have something that matched the story they were telling.

2) The Writing 

Venture Bros has some of the tightest and consistently great writing of ANY serialized show I’ve seen, adult, animated or other wise. Wanna know why? Cause it’s all done by TWO people (save for like one ep each season where one other person is allowed to touch their baby). Yeah TWO people and they work their asses off every season to interject, humor, refrences, parody, plot and character development in equal measure. 

3) Character Development

Um yes in case you were wondering that’s right an adult animated show has CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT  that holds as the series goes on. Not to give spoilers but characters will go through changes in alignment, relationships will develop and change, some characters will go through negative arcs where they are straight up unbareable for a season before coming out the other side even better than they were before. There is no end of epsiode or even end of season reset. Characters, settings, and dynamics all change over the course of the show and it feels just so god damn good.

4) Story Development 

Just like the characters the story of the Venture Bros grows and changes each season. Things that are set up even as early as season one are paid off as the series goes on. Like not to be that bitch but you know how RIck and Morty teases an overarching plot ALL THE TIME but like will often just spit in the face of fans hoping for more than like one episode a season addressing it? Yeahhhhhhh that doesnt happen here, fans are consistently rewarded for putting the time in to rewatch and really think about what happened in the series. Characters that are seen in the background or are just referenced by other characters will be brought in to be recurring characters, things that start off as a small detail or gag will be given larger relevance and each time they do this you get that “OH I remember that from last season! So thats what it was!” The writers WANT you to rewatch, they WANT you to analyze and they WANT you to theorize, and they give you a show that gives back the time you put in.

5) Parody & Reference 

This series does a great thing with parody. They make real characters  who are just as enjoyable as the characters they parody, they make story lines that both poke fun at the absurdity of the media but shows the writers love for it. So often parody and references are just used to mock the thing but with Venture Bros you feel the love and care so when you know the thing being parodied you can laugh but feel good about laughing cause they are never laughing at a thing maybe you cared for in your youth but rather laughing with it.

And it’s never just one thing. When they parody a thing its often layered with other things to make it even more unique. Scooby-Doo is overlayed with famous criminals, Laura Croft is mixed Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, GI Joe is given the look of the Village People and so on. They never go for the easy joke or reference. Hell theres an episode that starts with them reciting the lyrics to David Bowies Space Oddity for really no reason other than they could. They weave these things in naturally with their setting and characters so nothing feels out of place. Like if you dont catch a reference or parody you dont feel like “I think this isa reference to something?” like a LOT of things do not just adult animated shows. You arent taken out of the moment cause it all feels so natural. 

6) The Characters 

God damn these characters, I could go on for hours about these characters. From main to one off these are some of the most likeable characters you can find. I mean it when I say I can’t think of a single character I wish they had cut cause they are all so well created. Even the ones I hate i have fun hating cause they were made to be that way. I’ll be good though I’ll only talk about my absolute top faves.

- The Monarchs

You ever sit and wish villain couples could have functional  healthy relationships? Well look no further than Malcom Fitzcarraldo aka The Monarch and Dr. Shelia Girlfriend (yes that is her last name). The Monarch is a high strung impulsive saturday morning cartoon villain whos tendency to over react is only matched by his unspecified hatred of Dr. Venture. And Dr. G is his nonsense partner in crime who will cut a bitch if they don’t play by their admittedly weird rules. Both characters are great on their own but are better together. Though that doesnt mean they always get along. Like a real couple they have their ups and downs they fight, break up, make-up and grow stronger in their relationship with each season. 

- Shore Leave

Ok ok so I want you to imagine James Bond, mixed with GI Joe simmering in a cocktail of the most flamboyant gay men you have ever seen and you have one of my favorite gay characters/characters in general. Shore Leave is a member of OSI (the shows SHEILD/GI Joe parody organization) he’s loud, brash, flippant, sassy and highly competent at his job loving every second of getting to beat bad guys down within an inch of their life. I love seeing him play off the stoic Brock and the two have this great brotherly dynamic that’s never called into question. He also gets to have a very cute romance with Al the Alchemist (who is also great). I could talk about this man all day.

- Dr. Rusty Venture

They did such a good job with this man. He’s a self serving, sexist, perverted, whinny, self important asshole and yet you feel pity and genuine sympathy for him and want him to succeed. You can see how Dr. V was given a raw deal by his father who seemed to care more about his adventures than his sons well being and how this molded him into the bitter man he is today, but on the flip side you can see where he chose to use that as a crutch for his worst behaviors and impulses. Seeing him slowly grow and change and be an actual good father to his boys while all the while still be a giant dick is actually really great. 

- Dr. Byron Orpheus 

Ahhhhh Dr. Orpheus part Dr. Strange Parody part busybody stay at home dad, he’s just such a delight. Dr. Orpheus is a divorcee, with an unfulfilling job of maintaining order to the cosmos (which isnt as hard as one might think), and uses his magical ablities in ways most of us would (ie menial tasks and home chores). Overly dramatic and affectionate Dr. O is a delight whenever he appears, but he’s at his best around his daughter and old friends The Order of the Triad. 

Again I can go on but all these characters ranging from main to recurring are crafted with the utmost care for you to want to see them succeed or fail, to see them again even if you know it’ll never happen, and want them to cross paths with other characters. 

The Venture Bros is one of those series that I will ALWAYS recommend even to the pickiest of humor tastes. But if you don’t believe its as good as I said or don’t think the concept is to your tastes I’ll recommend a few eps that I think best show off the base idea of the series without giving much away. In terms of plot and spoilers, though somethings wont make a lot of sense. 

- S1 ep10 "Tag Sale – You're It!" - Dr. V is having a yard sale so of course all manner of costumed weirdos show up.  - S2 ep5 "Twenty Years to Midnight" - basically a fetch quest around the world to save the planet with daddy issues - S3 ep2 "The Doctor Is Sin" - Again daddy issues but with one of the best recurring characters and a great showcase of the series deeper emotional plots - S4 ep6 "Self-Medication" - Really embraces the parody as Rusty goes to a former boy adventurer support group.  Anyway the show is 7 seasons with 80 episodes, please go watch it. I will never forgive @adultswim​ for cancelling what was to be their final season. And in closing GO TEAM VENTURE!

[ackermanshoe]

Just a few things to talk about here: lengthy 😩

Levi being a 2 in teamwork meaning he never had chemistry while fighting alongside others, like ever. But then mikasa happened. As if isayama spelled it out for us that Levi and mikasa’s connection is so special, particularly to Levi, from the beginning. So now you realise that Levi has experiences with mikasa that he has NEVER had before with anyone, ever.

So you have seen this picture before but I’d like to take the time to dig deep into this. It’s from erens point of view and it most likely shows how he remembers these characters to be most of the time. Connie and admin being playful with each other, Sasha laughing at them, floch and marlo talking and hitch (?) just existing there because eren prolly never interacted with her.

Hanji in the background smiling at the group and Erwin giving them a soft smile. However there’s something particular about both Levi and jean isn’t it? Yeah you guessed it, both of them are looking at mikasa’s direction. ( I saw a post where they were trying so hard to refuse the FACT that Levi was looking at mikasa, even though they acknowledged that Jean was. 🤥🤥)

And lastly mikasa softly smiling at eren. You can clearly see Jean being glaring at that and the fact that isayama drew ALL of their eyes so crystal clear EXCEPT both Levi and Jean,,,, gets me. So you’re going to draw faces of people being themselves but what purpose does it serve you to draw both Levi’s and Jean’s( Jean who is a known mikasa simp) face looking at mikasa’s direction but not draw their eyes ( pupils ) clear? Was it forshadowing their mutual feelings towards her? Since “eyes are the window to the soul” and the drawing does not allow for us to get a clear view of their eyes was isayama implying that both Levi and Jean had hid their feelings for her?

Of course jeans face has a certain darkness to it because everybody is aware of his unrequited love and isayama does little to hide that. But notice how both Levi and his faces are tilted in a way. And the most obvious connection to both Jean and Levi are the way Levi is positioned almost in a line behind Jean, which creates a vector line from their eyes leading straight to mikasa.

Let's talk about this shall we? See how by placing the dark haired people on the front and centre has created a salient within this frame? Yeah the rest of the people in there are either blonde or light haired, Isayam placed each character there with a purpose. Now I'm not saying the 4 heads makes it look like a heart shape but that's excatly what I'm SEEING. maybe, just maybe this was a forshadowing of mikasa's choice, since she was placed in the middle of both Levi and Eren. Eren, whose face is not placed on the same level as Mikasa and Levi could possibly represent "dream" or a reality which would be hard for Mikasa to reach, therefore giving a hint of chapter 138 and mikasa's headache AU.

Whereas Levi, despite his height, face is on the same level as mikasa's. A form of equality, sameness, familiarity and most importantly symbolising reality.

Since he isn't hard to reach from where is Mikasa is placed. And lastly Gabi, we have all seen rivamika parental mode kicking in the recent chapters and here Gabi being in between Levi and her could possibly hint their parenthood, an option that will only be available if Mikasa choose reality: Levi. Therefore Gabi representing quiet simply Levi and mikasa's possible kid. Ackerbaby 👶

This panel, I'm dying to talk about this.most important question: is it Levi's tears that's falling?

I have stared at this for houRS, and I still don't have an unbiased answer. Although most would discard this as spit or sweat Levi probably has from yelling, I'm not fully convinced by it. Maybe it's my desparate rivamika mind that's refusing to let it go but how would spit or sweat end up where his bandage is?

On the too right corner we see multiple drops but why would anything but a tear be where you can see that single droplet of water on his bandages? It's literally so suspicious which is why isayama makes me mad, he teases so much and so subtly. He doesn't show Levi's eyes there, he could have, to emphasize on Levi's level of worry which could have been more effective when reading his expression and yet isayama chose to show his widened mouth to showcase Levi's anxiety.

I'm still debating on this however there's no mistaking it that Levi cares for Mikasa more than anyone.

Which brings me to this:

The similarities that I can not call parallels just yet, between erehisu and rivamika is really comforting as cruel it maybe to mikasa and historia. Levi is willing to have historia eat the beast titan without remorse, without thinking. Where as eren as we all know will do anything but sacrifice historia. Yes, anything. Even if it means putting mikasa ( and admin) on the boat as everyone else and letting them do whatever they want. In a way both of them are treating both mikasa and historia the same way.

Note Levi’s eyes while talking about historia almost looks psychotic which is unlike Levi and his eyes while looking at mikasa.

Eren who is pressed down to one single choice which might risk mikasa’s life but he won’t sacrifices historia. Protecting her.

Levi who decides to help mikasa has made a choice without any regret, relying on her.

And as for their respective person, both eren and Levi’s gesture and behaviour changes when they are around them. As eren said historia is the girl who saved him and the same way mikasa is the who may bring meaning into Levi’s life. I feel like these two couple has always developed together, take s3 aka rivamika season 🥵

The same way rivamika found trust and a way to bond, so did eren and historia. In their own way they. It’s funny because both of their development are so weirdly ignored by the aot general fandom, gee I wonder why 😒 anyway through these similarities or whatever you may call it you can really see who they each really care for and value over the other.

Lastly

LMAO idk how much people considers pieck and Porco canon as potential lovers but this shot of porco really reminded me of Levi’s jealous look. Not to mention pieck resembled mikasa with that ponytail

Although I support jeanpiku I always had this feeling that porco and pieck might have been shipped together and they are, in this scene ( I haven’t watched the ep) I ASSUME porco is looking at her this way because of these men around looking at her and blushing, well it does resemble another grumpy old man. Anyway I’ll never shut up about that scene with both historia and Levi looking at their partners, jealous and shit 💆‍♀️💅💅💅

Okay I’m done talking for now, thank you again for reading as always idk what this post was tbh I didn’t have it planned at all I just really wanted to talk about these that’s been on mind to spark new conversations about them.

I just wanna say I wish i was part of this fandom sooner, not only does this fandom has the best theorists but also such amazing people. I hope our shitposting and analysis of rivamika will not end with chapter 139. Rivamika will always make me happy and this place will always feel like home, thank you for creating this community 😭💜💜💜💜

[xaibaugrove]

Addressing the Casual (and Direct) Biphobia in the Korrasami Community

So this will either get a lot of flak or fade into obscurity. I am a member of the Korrasami community who has not been here for nearly as long as the more notable members and I am not very active to say the least. But this platform gives me the ability to speak my mind and after letting this topic fester within me for as long as I’ve been in this community, I am going to speak my damn mind because this shit needs to be said.

The Backstory

I won’t bore anyone with my whole confused bisexual life story, because this isn’t about me. But just for some background here, I was a confused bisexual for my entire life until Korra and Asami basking in the light of the Spirit Portal made me see the actual light and recognize my sexuality. Which was a little crazy for me to realize that, yeah, there is a way to be attracted to men and still be attracted to women.

I saw so much of myself in Korra. She was super awkward around guys she thought were cute, she was buff, she was tough and sometimes she just blurted out all her deep seated feelings towards guys she just met and you know, I felt that. She also fell in love with her female best friend and I felt that, too. Naturally after rewatching the series as an adult, I wanted to see if there were others out there who appreciated this couple as much as I did.

The Issue

While I found a vast online community that had as much love for Korrasami as I did, I quickly found that there were a large majority of lesbian/WLW fans who didn’t have as much love for Korra and Asami’s very real attraction to Mako. 

Take a look at the Korrasami AO3 tag. I’ve actually had someone tell me that no one who reads Korrasami fanfic wants to read anything featuring Korra or Asami with Mako. I’ve seen fics that have a timeline that starts with both women being toddlers growing up into adults without one single mention of them being attracted to boys or men at all, nonetheless attracted to Mako. And in the rare scenario that a relationship with Mako or any male is mentioned, then comes the frustrating storybeat that they either dated men because they were too shy/scared to approach each other (thus rendering the men as just things to do in the meantime) or worse yet, because they were CONFUSED OR CONFORMING TO SOCIAL/GENDER NORMS.

In the 3 or 4 years I’ve been part of the fandom, I’ve had actual conversations with lesbian friends who have found every way possible to wave away Korra and Asami’s attraction to Mako. Or even reacting in disgust to Makorra or Masami at every mention of it. Which is fair, if you’re a KA fan of course that’s an expected reaction to another ship involving your OTP but, to completely dismiss the importance of it...? There are those who would call those parts of the series “pointless” or “ridiculous”. It’s really disheartening to know that a lot of lesbian KA fans consider the queer rep in the series soured by the 2 seasons where they had to watch Korra and Asami, two bi women, be attracted to a man.

It was jarring to say the least, to have conversations with friends where I couldn’t bring up Korra or Asami’s relationships with Mako during discussions about their development without being shot down and having the relationships be dismissed. The reaction to Korra and Asami’s attraction to men was so strong that I even started to feel ashamed about how “frivolous” or “trivial” my own attraction to men was perceived. 

Not too long ago, I saw a meme on Reddit that sent me over the edge and inspired me to write this post. The user has since deleted the post, but I remember it very vividly, only because I’ve seen some version of it many times before. The meme basically referred to how frustrated the viewer had been after being told that TLOK had great queer rep, but feeling as though they were cheated having to watch them “fuck around with guys for 2 seasons” (their words), only to be saved at the end, when Korra and Asami finally get together.

When I saw it, I was immediately fuming. Because at that point, I had seen this shit so much, it hurt more than anything else. And the pain mixed with the rage but...I think the pain still comes through in my reply to the post. 

I’ve seen sooo much content and sooo many posts or comments where a user asks whether TLOK has good LGBTQ+ rep, only to have someone reply that it’s a letdown because the queer rep doesn’t happen until the finale. Another all too common discussion I’ve seen is where fans call Korra and Asam’s bisexuality into question. One example 

I understand that it sucks that we didn’t get more romantic interactions between the two women during the show for external reasons outside the creators’ control. I wish there had been a kiss here, more blushes there. But the crushes on Mako were real. And their interest in each other, albeit all too short in its depiction, is also real. And that means something to me, a bisexual woman. To say the rep is a letdown is...sad. Because Korra is featured in every episode starting from the first and Asami is featured in every ep from the 4th or 5th episode. And they’re both wonderfully, beautifully bisexual. Seeing that mattered to me. 

So, to anyone who is a lesbian or WLW and a Korrasami fan and you’re reading this post and feel attacked, just stop instead to examine your language within the fandom. I understand you want “pure” WLW content or whatever... but just stop making me feel ashamed for being a wlw who is also attracted to men... and please stop erasing that attraction from two of the few bisexual characters I have that are like me... I’m tired, so tired of having to defend my attraction to both sexes with people outside the LGBTQ+ community and those within it. 

[littlespoonevan]

Top 5 Buddie moments? ☺️🥰

oh my godddd where do i start???? can i even pick 5????????? *Edit upon finishing writing: most of these ended up focusing on Eddie’s feelings towards Buck I feel??? and I definitely have Things to say about their reunion in 3x06 and the kitchen scene bc they’re also up there as my faves so I could possibly also do an alternative top 5 that’s more Buck caring about Eddie but anyway here you go!

5. 2x04 - Buck introduces Eddie to Carla

Honestly every single interaction between them in this ep is my favourite because Buck supports Eddie so much throughout the whole ep????? Taking him to the hospital, telling Maddie what a great dad he is, giving Bobby the heads up when Eddie has to bring Chris to the station, it's all So Good. Especially when you remember they're still only just becoming friends at this point. But Buck introducing him to Carla has to be the icing on the cake for me. It's just- we've seen how smothered Eddie has felt in the past when it comes to caring for Christopher, how his parents have continually tried to take over or make him feel like he's doing something wrong, and I just really, really love that Buck offers him this support and this magic fix but in a way that doesn't undermine Eddie as a parent at all??????? Like he helps him but not because he thinks Eddie can't handle it but because he thinks Eddie deserves a break and wants to make things easier for him. It's amazing and I loVE IT

4. 3x18 - His fiancée's AbBy

sakljdfhs okay look. Listen. I love this scene so much and I think only recently sort of understand why. It's the first time we really see Eddie lose his calm during an emergency and the first time we see him specifically lose his calm over Buck. Because Eddie clearly knows how to compartmentalise and because of that we generally only see him look worried but not really outwardly react when Buck is in danger. But this scene akjsdh he's so aNNOYED and frustrated and it's fascinating because you have to wonder how much he knows about Abby and who's told him what. But what we do know is he knows Abby broke his best friend's heart and he knows Buck is willing to sacrifice himself for anyone but no way in hell is Eddie about to let him become collateral damage for someone who doesn't deserve it (and now we know he'd already changed/or was changing his will during this time *screams*). And yeah it's fun to call it jealousy but ultimately I think it was a lot of worry and a lot of frustration on Eddie's part because it's a very clear example of Buck believing he's expendable and Eddie wanting to shout, "You're wrong!!!!". Just. What a good fucking scene.

3. 3x03 - There’s nobody in this world I trust with my son more than you

I mean how could I not include this scene?????? It’s just- everything. All of it. From Buck’s voiceover to photograph playing in the background to the way Eddie all but bulldozes his way through casual conversation in the hopes of not having to explain. It’s about the absolutely unconditional way Eddie forgives him, like it’s not even a question, and the way Buck is so clearly torn up and can’t understand why Eddie doesn’t toss him aside. I’ll never get over “A few choice words can be the life raft that gets you home” combined with “There is nobody in this world I trust with my son more than you.” And obviously we know just how true that is later on but in this scene, you can tell Buck hears him even if he can’t quite allow himself to believe it yet. And it’s so soft and so gentle and just another one of those examples that prove to us that Eddie always seems to know exactly what to say to Buck to bring him back to the surface :’)

2. 4x04 - The gym scene

Honestly if it wasn’t for the season 4 finale this would be my number one. How do I love this scene? Let me count the ways. Just sakdjhfa fuck!!!!! it’s the first time we’ve ever seen Buck angry and I know obviously Eddie’s his confidant but it’s so good to actually see Eddie being his confidant. To see that Eddie’s the one he wants to vent to and that Eddie’s the one he trusts with his anger and Eddie just remains such a calming presence in the face of it all????? From the gentle way he talks to the way his foot holds down the punching bag while Buck hits it - I am on the floor. And also!!!!!! Eddie just repeatedly validating Buck’s feelings - “What do you have to apologise for? If that’s how you feel - how they made you feel - then you have every right to say so.” askdjfhas I think it’s really important actually because Buck is always called out for thinking before he acts and yeah, obviously sometimes he should apologise but I really love that Eddie takes the time to make it clear this is different. That Buck didn’t do anything wrong and is allowed to be upset. Also Eddie stopping Buck from hitting the punching bag when Buck says “I just want to hit things” and saying “I’ve been down that road. I don’t recommend it” goodbye???????????? He cares about Buck so much let me be. 

1. 4x14 - You think you’re expendable...but you’re wrong

askdjfha is there anything I can say about this scene that hasn’t already been said?????? It’s stunning. It’s so beautiful and so significant and I will never recover. Eddie is someone who struggles so much to talk about his feelings but he’s the one who initiates the conversation because this is important to him. And I said this yesterday but it really is a declaration of love????? I’ve written before about how the scene sort of parallels/answers Buck’s “Love me anyway” plea but one thing I noticed when rewatching Buck Begins is that when Buck gets hurt Margaret yells at him and says “You think you’re indestructible but you’re not” and it’s such a contrast to Eddie saying “You think you’re expendable...but you’re wrong.” even though the two sentences are almost identical. I’ve talked a lot about how significant the word “expendable” is and that parallel sort of reinforced it for me because Margaret is chastising Buck. She’s admonishing him for being reckless with himself and his body and it’s inarguably tied to Daniel. Whereas Eddie uses the word expendable because he knows Buck’s recklessness comes from a place of not feeling wanted. So he tells him I want you and I love you and you can’t get hurt because me and Christopher need you and Buck hears him. And I mean, that’s not even getting into the wILL of it all???? Like, hello???????? but I’m gonna stop now because I’m rambling but aksjdfhsja honestly this scene has broken me beyond repair and I for one am so grateful