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labarch · 4 years ago

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Attempt at a Witch Hat Atelier timeline

We are still missing a lot of backstory for our main cast, but I thought I’d try and write a timeline based on what we know so far, and explore where their storylines might intersect.

I am pulling these numbers out of my hat for convenience sake, but here are some approximate ages for the characters: at the start of the manga, let’s say Coco, Tetia and Agott are all 12, Riche is 11, and Qifrey and Olruggio are 28.

20-23 years ago: Olruggio leaves his birth town Godley and moves to the Great Hall, maybe as young as 5 years old.

While many witches are born in the Great Hall, Olruggio comes from a town called Godley in the North. Yet he doesn’t remember Utowin, who came from the same place. We know that young witches usually start their training between the age of 7 and 10, but since witch society is awfully elitist, Olruggio would have been sent there as soon as his talent for magic became apparent.

Being ripped from his home at an extremely young age could explain his fear of being unwanted and left behind: he overworks himself as a way to feel useful and validated, is defensive about his own feelings, and he gets agitated and sometimes aggressive whenever Qifrey hides things from him.

20 years ago: arrival of Qifrey at the Great Hall at age 8. Olruggio befriends him soon afterwards. The both of them start sneaking out at night to chase Brimhats.

8 year old Qifrey was one fierce little thing, you have to give him that. His abuse at the hands of the Brimhats was brutal enough to break a grown man, but he picks himself up and goes right after them like “Alright jerks, you’ve got some explaining to do and I want my eyeball back!”.

Also it cracks me up that Olruggio was carrying this massive book in their flashback. Gotta love that his reaction to Qifrey’s “Let’s go chase some terrorists!” was “Sure, let me just pack my homework =>”.

Finally, there might be a slightly more selfish motivation for Olruggio’s fast friendship and devotion to Qifrey. Olruggio’s self-esteem lies in his ability to help people, so he would naturally be drawn to someone helpless. It’s unclear how much of Qifrey’s memory was missing: apparently he didn’t know about birthdays. How many other basic concepts was he missing? Did he know how to read? Between that, his lack of knowledge about magic and his injury, he was probably completely dependent on Olruggio at the beginning. Given Olruggio’s wish that they go back to “the good old times” when they were always together, I am wondering whether some hidden part of him misses being essential to someone. It’s well-intentioned, but not entirely healthy, especially if he is using Qifrey as a coping mechanism for his own insecurities.

14 years ago: Olruggio and Qifrey make a pledge of (betrothal) friendship, exchange tassels and attempt the Librarian test at age 14. It is their last adventure together, but Qifrey will continue his investigations on his own, to Olruggio’s disappointment and betrayal. Qifrey starts wearing his half-tinted glasses.

In the pledge flashback, they are wearing their old tassels, but they have swapped them by the time they undertake the third test. Also, when he remembers that pledge, Olruggio says that Qifrey’s investigation “should have ended at the Tower of Books”. The tower is the last likely place where Qifrey could have found answers about his past and a non-forbidden way of getting his eye back. Olruggio probably made him promise that he would stop his search afterwards.

Beldaruit says that he thought Qifrey had given up on his search after the third test, but Olruggio tells a slightly different story. Apparently he thought Qifrey “finally stopped causing trouble” after taking in apprentices, which means he was still behaving suspiciously right up until he became a teacher. Alaira also comments on Qifrey’s interest in the Brimhats in the first volume, so clearly his investigations were common knowledge among his friends, even as an adult.

Olruggio’s anger whenever the Brimhats are mentioned would then be caused not just by his own fear of forbidden magic, but by the reminder that Qifrey broke his promise to him, and refused to leave his past behind. Naturally, Olruggio doesn’t know about Qifrey’s change in circumstances: he is no longer looking to retrieve what he lost, but trying to stop an impending threat.

Qifrey’s discoveries in the Tower of Books also seem to have renewed his disgust towards his own scar: he starts wearing glasses shortly afterwards, even though his eyesight hasn’t yet started deteriorating.

14-5 years ago: in that interval, Coco’s father dies of illness. Olruggio becomes more and more famous for his magical items, and is given the title “Shining Torch” / “Master of Lights”. His glowstone paths become widely popular, and are installed around the castle near Coco’s mom. Both Qifrey and Olruggio pass the fourth test and complete their training.

At this stage, I really doubt that Qifrey intended to become a teacher. Whatever information he found at the Tower of Books convinced him he had to stop the Brimhats’ plan. He was probably planning to complete his training and then go straight on to his quest, not really expecting to return alive.

There are also hints that this was a strained period for Qifrey and Olruggio: Olruggio mentions that he would like them to confide in each other “just like old times”, which implies that they grew more distant after the Librarian test. I’m suspecting that Qifrey was trying to slowly remove himself from Olruggio’s life, hoping Olruggio would be so famous and beloved by the time they graduated that he would forget about Qifrey and barely notice his disappearance. Qifrey’s self-esteem isn’t the best y’all.

5 years ago: Coco receives the magic picture book from Iguin at age 7 at the Silver Night Festival. The Brimhats stop showing signs of activity. Qifrey takes on his first apprentice (probably Tetia, age 7). He interrupts his investigation of the Brimhats and creates the atelier. Olruggio becomes his Watchful Eye.

We don’t know exactly how old Coco was when she got her book, but her tiny chubby face makes me think she was 6-7. Alaira also tells us in the first volume that the incident with Coco’s mother is the first sign of Brimhat activity in five years. I am thinking that after Iguin gave away the book, he instructed the other Brimhats to keep a low profile until his scheme could hatch.

I also wonder whether Coco getting her book might coincide with Qifrey becoming a teacher and creating his atelier. Given that Qifrey is probably tied to Iguin’s schemes, how coincidental is it that Qifrey wandered into Coco’s village and set her fate in motion? Perhaps Iguin contrived for them to live in the same area so that they would meet eventually. Either he somehow influenced Qifrey’s choice of location for his atelier, or he selected Coco as his “child of hope” because of her relative proximity as well as her love for magic.

7 years old is when we could expect Tetia to have passed the first test. For now we know little about her backstory, but we can guess a few things: she is enthusiastic and ambitious, but gets easily side-tracked by pet projects and struggles to stick to the curriculum. She craves positive feedback and is worried her spells and interests will be condemned as frivolous. It makes me think that she passed her first test early, but was then mistreated by her first teachers for being too childish.

We’ve seen that Qifrey has a compulsive tendency to adopt children in distress. It would fit his character if he became a teacher on impulse. Maybe he had to pass the fifth test in a rush to be allowed to keep Tetia by his side. This also brought Olruggio back into his life, as he was the only one willing to follow him away from the atelier as Watchful Eye.

The complicity between Tetia and Qifrey, and Tetia taking on the role of a big sister for both Riche and Coco, also make me think she was Qifrey’s first apprentice. Tetia is often shown teasing Qifrey, quoting both Qifrey and Olruggio, and imitating Qifrey’s teaching style: I can totally see them as a little family of three at some point in the past.

4 years ago: Riche starts training under her brother’s master, a creepy asshole, at age 7.

We actually have a clear timestamp for that one in chapter 25, woohoo! Riche’s old teacher can eat a brick.

3-2 years ago: Qifrey and Olruggio learn about Riche’s mistreatment in her old atelier and promptly adopt her. Beldaruit takes on Ririfin as an apprentice. Qifrey’s eyesight starts deteriorating. He adds the light protection glyph to his glasses.

Before that time, Qifrey might have intended to put his quest on hold until after Tetia’s graduation, but now his impending blindness puts him on a time limit. He can’t do a lot about it however, since the Brimhats have been keeping a low profile for years and are not leaving him any clue.

It’s unclear how long Riche stayed at her old atelier, and whether she joined Qifrey before or after Agott. I’m hoping she made it out as soon as possible.

2 years ago: Agott passes the first test at age 10. She gets accused of stealing someone else’s spell, is rejected from her prestigious family’s apprenticeship, and joins Qifrey’s atelier.

Agott has been treated harshly by her family for not being enough of a genius. She mentions passing the first test at 10, the upper end of the normal age range. She was probably given a hard time for starting her apprenticeship so “late”, which explains why she is now adamant about passing the other tests as quickly as possible.

I wonder whether she felt ambivalent about joining Qifrey’s atelier at first. On the one hand, Qifrey was taught by the Sage of Education himself and is clearly very powerful. On the other hand, he has only a couple students and lives in a weird little school in the middle of nowhere, a big fall from grace compared to her prestigious upbringing. I wonder whether Qifrey went to find her after he heard she was the object of nasty rumours (he knows a thing or two about those), and Agott didn’t feel like she had other options.

0 year ago: Coco and Qifrey meet. Iguin goes “F***ing finally, I thought I’d have to watch that humdrum one-eyed twink bake potatoes for another five years. It’s dragon-slaying time now baby!!!”

#witch hat atelier #witch hat meta #qifrey #olruggio #tbna #coco #riche #agott #everyone has a horrible time at the Great Hall: a wha timeline #Olruggio the wonder child arriving at the Great Hall at age 5 wrapped in an anxiety blanket and clinging to a plush toy #protect him #no mention of treefrey this time what are the odds

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couchpotatoaniki · 4 years ago

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One Year ❣︎ Three: The Execution

Chapter Summary: Trying to cool off, you decided to spend the day by yourself. This couldn’t have gone any better for San’s plan.

Pairing: Mafia!San x Fem!Reader Genre: Mafia AU, fluff, angst, eventual smut, lotta crack and stupid shit ngl Chapter warnings: swearing, stalking, kidnapping Word count: 2.5k+ A 365 Days parody

Previous: Chapter Two For the rest of the series, click here

Speech in bold means they’re talking in Korean

Speech in italics is whatever the reader wants their native langue to be that’s not Korean or English

Speech without either means they’re talking in English

Buzzing came from your pocket, initially thinking your phone got a notification until it continuously vibrated. Yunho was calling you.

“Yo, where are you? Mingi told us what happened between you and Dom--and before you say anything, he’ll be having hell to pay, regardless of whether you approve or not.”

Chuckling, you sighed as you looked at your surroundings. “Fine by me. Do what you like to him.” Slowing down in front of a cute-looking coffee shop, you answered his first question...partially. “Just taking a stroll in the town.”

“Wanna be left alone?” You hummed as you entered the establishment, being hit with wafts of bakes goods. “Very well then. But we’re gonna hunt you down if you’re not back by midnight.”

“M’kay, Pops,” mumbling absent-mindedly while overlooking the menu on the screens above the counter.

You couldn’t see the gentle bitter smile on his face, knowing very well that you weren’t as stone-cold as the façade you masked yourself in. Had an idea that you just needed space. “Alright then. Look after yourself.”

“You too.”

Beeping over the line indicated to you that he had hung up. Shoving your phone back into your coat pocket, you let your feet carry you to the till, where a young teenager dressed in a pale blue polo shirt and evergreen apron on top greeted you with a nervous smile.

Must have been new, or had some sort of social anxiety, from the way they avoided your eyes and fidgeted with their hands. “U-Um, hello. Welcome... What would you like?” the taller kid practically whispered, but you caught on to their words.

Sending a soft, warming smile, you answered, “can I have a buttered croissant with a mango and passionfruit iced tea, please? Actually, would you mind adding a chocolate muffin to that too?”

Nodding, they tapped the till, pressing various buttons before saying, “that’ll be 6,500 won, please.”

Pulled out your wallet and paid the employee. As you sat down, waiting on your order, you began to reminisce from when you used to be that age too--then again, it was not hard at all since it wasn’t too long ago.

Seven years ago, you were only 16, enjoying life just before things took a turn you never expected and you were never the same air-headed, happy-go-lucky kid you once were.

All you needed at the time was someone who was kind, who gave you a breath from the onslaught you faced all around you. Mingi was probably the only reason you’re still alive.

Thinking about the old days did more damage to you than you’d like to believe, but almost seemed impossible with the Dominic situation.

Being betrayed again hurt like hell, and although he wasn’t as bad as what you had experienced, he still broke your trust. Trust you tried to rebuild after all you went through the last time.

Thoughts you spent so long trying to get rid of grew back like weeds of the concrete walls you put up five years ago.

And despite what you tried to convince yourself and Mingi, you actually really liked the guy.

“Here you go, miss,” the young employee mumbled as he placed a tray with your order on it. Almost everything was right, except that there was a vanilla and chocolate chip muffin instead of a complete chocolate one.

Oh well, a muffin’s a muffin.

“Thank you,” you grinned, handing the teenager a tip of 10,000 won.

Their eyes widened at your strange generosity before hesitantly taking the money you held out between your index and middle fingers.

Your lips wrapped around the straw as you took a sip of your ice-cold drink. Strong tones of mango, with a hint of passionfruit, slight sweetness from honey and faint tang of fresh lemon.

Iced tea was something you had grown to love over the past five years, first time being too bitter and flavourful for you. Then again, the events prior left a bad taste in your mouth. Seonghwa was the one who helped you, always getting you an iced tea every time he went to a nearby coffee shop.

Learned quite quickly that your tongue was sensitive to heat after being so concerned how you refused piping-hot meals he cooked for you often. Waited until it cooled a lot before digging in.

No doubt the four boys would do anything for you--Mingi the most out of the rest since you wouldn’t be where you are without him--but sometimes you needed to breathe by yourself. Enjoying the little things you like croissants and muffins rather than focussing on your soon-to-be ex boyfriend cheating on you for a reason that eludes you.

That’s how the rest of the day goes.

Aimlessly walking, window-shopping, sight-seeing. Nothing registered in your mind but it was better than something negative.

Your phone was on silent, growing cold in your pocket from the lack of heat being transferred from your hand. Even then, you doubt anyone (except Dominic) would be texting you since you told them you wanted peace.

Before you realised it, the sun crawled above your head and began to set in the horizon, a clash of beautiful blues, oranges, pinks, and purples hovering in the sky. Lampposts along the streets lit up and the sky grew dark, yet that didn’t stop the hustle and bustle.

Irritated by the noises of people, you turned to an alleyway which had significantly less lighting but also significantly less humans.

As you walked, you were deep in thought, not thinking much of your surroundings. Then the hairs on the back of your neck stood up and a chill ran down your spine.

Someone was following you.

You were about to turn around and defend yourself--and you had no worries that you would lose. But then bright LED headlights of a hidden black SUV had highlighted the hair of a rather short person who stood in front of it.

Shocking electric blue stands brushed against his porcelain-smooth skin from light wisps of wind passing by. The same colour hair you realised had been barely peeking in your peripheral since the airport.

Next to a man you had very briefly met on you birthday dinner while searching for the bathroom.

Exactly how long have they been following you?

Though you chided yourself for not noticing it sooner--despite all the excuses of being ‘on a holiday’--you found yourself pondering. You had never met those two funky-haired people before in your life, and you sure as hell made sure any dangerous people couldn’t find you (not without going through one of the other boys first) so who exactly were these people?

Perhaps you were like a bee, drunk on the honey in your tea, or maybe you wanted to get your mind off the situation, needing a thrill at the moment.

You felt the need to destroy something--or at least toy with it for a bit--and these cocky assholes seemed perfect.

Either way, you relaxed your muscles (only a little, as to not raise suspicion of the young man before you).

One foot stepped behind you as you kept your eyes trained on his coco ones, only to rip them away a moment when you turned to ‘run’. As expected, something else tried to stop you. Another black SUV with blinding lights swerved into the other end of the alleyway as you tried to leave.

You’d prided yourself on good acting, and it always seemed to pay off. Right now, to sell the part of a scared girl, you stumbled backwards--planning to fall of the cobblestone path, but only to be saved by something hard.

The mysterious man’s chest, his hands holding your arms as support.

“Sorry about this,” he whispered in your ear, covering your mouth with a chloroformed cloth. You didn’t really put up much of a fight (to your standards, anyway) and succumbed to the strong chemical.

At first you were floating in a sea of black, unable to connect with your senses. Slowly, after moments of nothingness, you could feel the world materialise around you.

Soft fabric was cushioned beneath you, cradling your body with warmth. Light began to seep through your closed eyelids as the gentle, sweet smell of sugared almonds filled your nose with every deep inhale. And finally, a headache that began to pound harder with every pulse.

Grunting, you pried your eyes open, immediately noticing what appeared to be a shower room in front of you. There were two shower heads on each side, with only pillars of soft light embedded into the tiled wall rather than a proper partition. To add to the lack of privacy, the only material separating the shower room and the eyes of the bed was simply a thin pane of sliding glass which hid absolutely nothing.

“What kinda perv decided to design this monstrosity?”

Propping yourself up on your elbows, you looked down on the bed you were lying in, thankfully still in the same cotton dress, phone no longer in its pockets. The mattress was significantly softer than the one at the hotel--yet another indicator that your kidnappers were rich.

On the tables dotted around the space were lilac candles. Most likely the culprit of the amazing scent in the room.

Your eyes then caught the daylight peeking through the curtains, enlightening the room in a soft apricot glow. “Fuck,” you muttered, remembering Yunho’s words in the previous call she had, “they’re gonna kill me for staying out.”

Pushing yourself off the illegally comfortable bed, you inched towards the only door you saw. Fingers wrapped around the cold metal handle and pushed down, finding it much to your surprise that it was actually unlocked. Pulled it open without hesitation, though making sure you peered out to see if there was anyone.

There wasn’t.

“Great security, guys,” you sighed, actually feeling disappointed in the lack of effort you had to put in while walking openly around. After all, it was the reason you let yourself be taken.

Then again, this could all be a trap.

Now that was exciting.

You let yourself become familiar with the surroundings upon one glance, noticing the obvious luxurious colour scheme of gold and cream that had your eyes rolling at the basic rich vibes it gave you.

Then you found your breath catching in your throat as you continued to explore, eyes frozen on a portrait hung up on a wall.

Though the fact that it was a portrait of you had initially shocked you, it wasn’t the defining feature that had your heart palpitating at a dangerous speed. Your hair was short again, a pixie cut, while you were sat on a beach that looked a lot like the one you visited in Santorini.

“Fuckin’ hell.”

In fact, the painting was an exact replica of you from five years ago, down to the clothing of ripped jeans and loose top you wore. You, from one of your darkest and lowest moments.

“Are you lost, babygirl?”

The same voice rang in your ears, repeating the only sentence you heard spill from his lips. When you turned around to confirm who it was, it was indeed the same man you saw.

The damn muscular guy, with pitch-black hair and a lock of platinum blonde brushing just above an eye.

The blood was rushing too fast, fear in your eyes no longer an act. Just who the fuck was this guy?

You took one step back, knees buckling instantly but before your brain could process it, the man had wrapped his arms around you, catching your body before hit the ground.

San could smell the delicate citrusy aroma wafting from your skin and he tried so hard to not bury his head in the crook of your neck, to kiss the area and whisper sweet nothings into your ear.

Taking advantage of your frozen state, he lifted you up and place you on a nearby armchair, one beside a fireplace since he felt you were too cold for comfort.

Only until he had a ice cube pressed against your lips, did you snap out of it. “You should have it. Maybe you had a bad reaction to the chloroform. Sorry about that, by the way.”

Head turning the other way, your guarded eyes stayed locked on him rather than your painting behind his form. “English.”

“Why? You spoke perfectly good Korean at the dinner two days ago,” he said, pressing the ice cube onto your mouth once more.

“Simply because I feel more comfortable with English,” you remarked, swatting away his hand. “And stop putting that on my mouth.”

Sighing, he dropped the cold, melting cube back in the glass of whiskey before putting a bit of distance between the two of you. He could feel himself getting angry, that you won’t trust him, that you won’t listen to him.

But could he blame you?

“I feel like explanations are in order,” you said, narrowing your eyes down on his figure, flickering firelight resting on him to make him seem even more good-looking, shadows casted to make each feature appear sharper. But that wasn’t what you were focused on.

You wanted to deduce this stranger by his body language.

Stood tall, maintaining good eye contact, showed that he was confident. Classic black suits--expensive by the look of the fabric--showed that he as rich. Tattoos littering the skin of his hand showed a bit of a bad-boy nature. And the aura he emitted was that of a leader.

Corner of your lips twitching, you realised who--or what--he might be. The boss of a fairly powerful crime syndicate.

San, on the other hand, couldn’t see what you were thinking as you looked at him. Did you think he was as hot as he did you? Fuck, he hoped so--clearly not understanding how a normal person would react in such a situation.

“Hello? Earth to whoever the hell you are?”

“If you want answers, you certainly won’t be getting them if you act like a brat.”

Scoffing, you tilted you head, eyes boring into him with a cold glaze coving them. Like a lifeless doll. “Then how do you suggest I act then? Hmm? After seeing that you’ve been stalking me for the last five years,” you nodded towards coloured canvas, growing more unsettled every time you looked at it.

“Fair point,” he said, taking a seat on the chair opposite you. “But you should know that I haven’t been doing that. Stalking you, I mean.”

“The fuck do you call that creepy-ass portrait, then?”

“I call it a precious memory.” San shifted his focus from your gaze to the flames lazily dancing on charred wooden embers. Tongue swiped over his lips before chuckling, almost bitterly. “Doubt you’ll believe me, but I’ll tell you anyway.”

Lips pursed, you sat quietly as you listened to his story.

☕︎ Tag list: @little-precious-baby , @sparklychangbin ,

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precuredaily · 4 years ago

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Precure Day 204

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 Go Go! 06 - “King Donuts Awakens!” Date watched: 8 January 2021 Original air date: 9 March 2008 Screenshots Transformation Gallery Project info and master list of posts

mood

The character re-introduction arc reaches its epic conclusion and shows us where Rin has wound up after her moment of self-realization in the Y5 finale. It turns out, she wound up constantly tired. Relatable. Let’s dig in!

The Plot

Nozomi and Rin are on their way to Natts House to prepare for the grand re-opening. Rin is visibly very tired and confesses that she was up late the previous night.

images with sleepy auras

As they arrive at the store, they run into Syrup.... or more accurately, he runs into them, carrying an urgent letter from Milk. (Remember this, because Syrup sure doesn’t) However, just then, a brilliant light erupts from inside of Natts House, so they all rush in to see what’s happening. They find everyone gathered around a table with the Rose Pact in the middle, glowing, and then it opens up and King Donuts emerges, fully awake. Then he yells at everyone to stop staring at him.

blinded by the light...... how does that song go again?

After the opening, the gang tries to introduce themselves to King Donuts, but he assumes it’s another Eternal trap until Coco and Nuts reveal themselves. Instead of being relieved, however, he just pivots his anger onto them for being incompetent and letting him get attacked by Eternal. So yeah, not off to a great start here. While they watch the goings-on, Rin yawns, and this further annoys the already irate king. Growing frustrated, he tries to leave, but finds that there’s a barrier around the Rose Pact that’s trapping him until he fully recovers. As you may imagine, this does wonders for his good mood.

I’m not yawning because I’m bored, I’m yawning because I’m bored AND tired.

Cut to Eternal’s headquarters and a very fatigued Scorp drops a huge report on Anacondy’s desk, mentioning he hasn’t slept for six days while writing it. However, she dings him on numerous minor errors, deeming it unusable, and tells him to combine it with the previous report and redo it. Exhausted and holding a stack of paper half his height, Scorp collapses and the pages fly everywhere. I have to say, Koyasu acting tired is a fun change of pace for him.

these are the eyes of a man who has lost all hope

Back at Natts House, everyone is still trying to appease King Donuts. He insists he’s fine already but in attempting to demonstrate this, he wears himself out quickly. Karen offers him the apple she snapped a few episodes ago, but he refuses to eat it because he doesn’t trust them. The girls give up on him for now, because they need to get to work opening up the store, but they notice Rin has fallen asleep.

Nozomi advises them to just leave her be, trying to get Syrup to help them pass out fliers instead. He refuses and wants to know why they don’t wake Rin. Nozomi explains that Rin was busy all day with sports clubs, tending to the family shop, and watching her siblings, so she stayed up all night designing accessories because it was the only free time she had. (I am very familiar with this concept.) She also admits that Rin didn’t tell her this, she deduced it because she knows Rin and how she works.

With that settled, the remaining girls, as well as Coco and Nuts, get to work handing out fliers. Syrup, however, stays behind to look over Rin, because he refused to help any other way. He muses over his situation.

At that moment, Rin wakes up, and Syrup asks if she really was up all night designing jewelry. She realizes her old friend Nozomi has read her like a book. She admits to feeling guilty that she not only stayed up late working, but she couldn’t come up with any ideas, and now she’s missed out on handing out fliers as well. She feels useless (big oof) and contrasts herself with Syrup, who she says is working hard to get to the Cure Rose Garden. Syrup disagrees and insists she works way harder than him. At this point, King Donuts, who has been listening in, interjects and commends Rin for being critical and analytical of herself, saying it’s the key to self growth. I feel like there’s a missing line in here about not slipping too far into self-doubt, but regardless, Rin remembers she’s supposed to be at futsal practice and runs off before the end of the King’s speech.

“Gah!” - Natsuki Rin, 2008

After she’s gone, the king and Syrup discuss how hardworking she is, along with the other girls. Also there’s a gag where King Donuts didn’t recognize Syrup until he turned back into his fairy form which further establishes that Syrup has a bit of a negative reputation far and wide.

Meanwhile, at the practice field, Rin isn’t doing a whole lot better at futsal than she was at jewelry design. As a result of staying up late, she’s still tired, so she’s missing passes or overshooting goals. She even accidentally kicks the ball over the fence and into the woods, so she goes to retrieve it while yawning some more.

It’s here that she is confronted by an equally sleepy Scorp, who asks her to hand over the Rose Pact so he won’t have to write up his report, and he can sleep. It’s kind of pathetic, kind of comical.

Scorp turns the futsal ball into a hoshiina, so Rin transforms as well. Syrup swoops in to save her from Scorp but drops the Rose Pact, so King Donuts tries to talk down the villain. However, Scorp is undeterred and even sees more value in having one of the monarchs inside the Rose Pact. The other girls show up and transform, temporarily distracting Scorp (as well as the king, who is surprised that they’re the legendary warriors) but he then continues his advance until Rouge punches him away. Then she hears Lemonade screaming as the Hoshiina tries to fling her off, so Rouge rushes in to kick it and rescue her friend. Scorp once again tries to capture the Rose Pact, so Rouge separates from the team again to protect the fairies, but Scorp captures her instead and taunts her about trying too hard to do too much by herself and says she’ll only ever be halfway finished. This hits Rin at her core and she is unable to resist an attack from the Hoshiina, but at the last moment her teammates jump in front of her to defend her. They remind her that she’s not alone, they’re there to help her, and then Dream gives an inspiring speech about how Rin always challenges her situation and works harder than others, so they’ll always support her. Scorp is unimpressed, but Dream rushes him with a Shooting Star. Feeling newly motivated, Rin also performs her new finisher on the Hoshiina: Fire Strike! She summons a fireball at her feet and then kicks it into the monster, which of course dissolves back into a normal futsal ball. Scorp flees, muttering about how he’ll have to include this in his report as well.

As the dust settles, King Donuts admires the Precures, and then has a seemingly random realization about the Rose Pact and the Red and Blue roses, or rather, the lack of blue rose. In case you had forgotten that plot point.

the answer will surprise you

Back at Natts House, King Donuts opens up a bit more to the girls and they chat back. However, he quickly reiterates that he doesn’t acknowledge Coco and Nuts as rulers yet. When they ask Syrup to help them with the shop, he reminds them that he’s only here to deliver a letter from Milk, and he finally hands it over to Coco. (took him long enough) It turns out the letter says there’s an emergency in Palmier Kingdom and everyone needs to come there quickly! They want to go but aren’t certain how.... until they remember Syrup has the convenient ability to travel between worlds. He initially refuses, but King Donuts cleverly appeals to both his pride and his kind-heartedness, causing him to think about the conviction all the girls have shown in their solo outings thus far, and he agrees to take them. So just as quickly as it opened, Natts House is closed again and the gang boards Syrup to fly to the Palmier Kingdom. As they rise into the air, they soar forwards into a watercolor warphole, surrounded by floating lights. They fade to white and the credits start.

The Analysis

Something I truly appreciate about this episode is that it picks up from the first series finale, and shows that Rin hasn’t magically become a top tier accessory designer, she still has moments of artist’s block, and she really struggles with just finding time to create, which impacts her social responsibilities. (sounds familiar) Rin’s struggle is a recurring theme, and I'm always glad that unlike certain later shows, they don’t glamorize her sacrificing sleep, they just portray it as something people sometimes do even if it’s not in their best interests. Contrast with that episode of Go Princess, you know the one. It’s a straightforward cause and effect: Rin stays up late designing, so she’s tired the next day, and that influences her interactions.

It has some positive responses, such as getting King Donuts to recognize how hardworking she is and swaying his opinion on the girls; and some negative impacts, like kicking the futsal ball too hard and over the fence. With all that said, I must once again remind you all not to sacrifice your well-being for your goals, even if I’m bad at following my own advice.

King Donuts (or Doughnuts if you prefer) is an interesting character. At first he’s paranoid that he’s in another Nightmare trap, but as he grows to accept his circumstances he warms up a bit, especially when he hears about how hard Rin is working. He remains critical of Coco and Nuts, understandably so, since their negligence led to him being attacked previously. However, he doesn’t dislike them, he is sharp-tongued because he wants to make them better kings. Physically he resembles a diminutive dragon. It’s not the most apparent visual but when all four Rulers are together the pattern begins to become obvious. More on that ~eventually~.

although they’re all in the OP so, ya know, clues

A secondary theme throughout this arc has been to show Syrup starting to acclimate to the girls and begin appreciating their hard work and way of doing things. He’s still stubborn and wants to do his own thing, but it takes less arm twisting to get him to go along with the girls’ requests. Usually. As he admits to King Donuts, he respects their work ethic and their devotion to the causes they love. He entered the picture as a loner delivery boy who just wanted to do his job, but getting roped in with the Precures’ misadventures has opened his eyes somewhat. He’s going to be fun to watch as the show continues. However, he has a reputation, as we’ve seen. We don’t know exactly what the details are but several characters seem to have a low opinion of him, and we’ll find out more about that in coming episodes.

The fight in this episode is interesting in how..... not interesting it is. It kind of fools you into thinking more is happening than actually is. There’s a lot of talking and not as much action as you would expect. The Cures and Scorp or the Hoshiina will exchange a few blows and get thrown around, then one of them starts lecturing the other side about their beliefs. Sure, all Precure shows have elements of this, I can remember a few other fights that were more talk than combat, but it seems particularly egregious this episode. I do like how Scorp’s mocking has an effect on Rouge though. She’s already feeling really unaccomplished and then he goes and tells her she’s useless without her friends. It starts to weigh on her heart, but her friends quickly step in and say hey, we love Rin, she has us to support her, it’s okay if she can’t do it all by herself. As a result of this quick pep talk, she unleashes Fire Strike, her new finisher, and boy does THAT shine. It’s the first soccer-themed Precure attack in the series, and more will follow in subsequent years.

Compared to some of the other finishers, Fire Strike is more straightforward. Rouge creates a ball of fire and kicks it directly into the Hoshiina. It’s less over the top than her teammates attacks (flying into the enemy, twin whips, flying discs, or an arrow made of water) but the animators manage to punch it up a bit with some suitably dramatic effects that sell how fast, hard, and powerful this kick is. Also I have to say, the shot of Rouge bringing her leg all the way back to ready the kick is really cool.

Her leg is cocked and extends past her head. If you’ve ever tried this you know it’s hard, so even if you can make a drawing do anything, it still looks impressive, and the next shot where she’s kicked it is gorgeous. The flame walls, the way she’s lifted slightly off the ground, the way the ball is warped, all convey a sense of power and motion. Yeah, she’s just kicking it straight ahead, but you get the sense she could kick it through a brick wall.

I do have to say, on the negative side, the framing device of the episode feels a little forced. If this letter from Milk was so important, Syrup probably should have pushed it on the girls a little sooner. Maybe just dropped it off with Nozomi when he first met her in the morning. They still could have seen King Donuts awakening but they would have made moves to go straight to the Palmier Kingdom instead of doing all that work advertising and opening the shop only to have to close it again right away, and skipping Rin’s moral quandary. Since those are at the root of the episode, it might be hard to cut them, so alternatively, to keep them, the episode could have been written such that Syrup could have received the letter at the end, so he wasn’t holding onto such an important and urgent letter all episode long. It’s the little things. And on that topic, I find the third act (fourth act?) after the fight to be a little too goofy. Syrup finally hands over the letter, then they all hem and haw about how they’re going to get to Palmier Kingdom and they beg and plead Syrup to do it until he finally agrees. The only truly funny part to me is Nuts lamenting that he has to close Natts House after he just opened it.

Also there’s this ending sequence.

vimeo

This is the single worst thing I have ever made in the name of this project.

It’s overall a well-thought out episode and it smartly moves between story elements, smoothly concluding the character reintroductions and setting up the Blue Rose arc that follows. I appreciate how seemingly unconnected events flow into each other and they lead to the King seeing that the girls are legitimately good people. It’s probably the most cohesive episode of this arc, although I still think the character reintroductions peaked with Urara’s. The others have been good in different ways, but there’s a deeper bit of heartfelt emotion that episodes 2, 3, 5, and 6 just haven’t been able to match.

Next time, Milk’s emergency turns out to be largely imagined, and we meet a new villain. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 kettei!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 Go Go!#YPC5GG06 #PCD204

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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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Hello again, everyone! This is a long one so let’s dive straight in.

We open up on Fox who, like everyone else in this novel, is upset about one thing or another. In his case it's that he wound up watching a club/gambling house (the exact nature of the establishment is murky) with Coco instead of patrolling the more lively restaurant and club district (even though this place, as said, is referred to as a club at time). Which, to be fair to Fox, is a legitimate complaint when you're blind and can't really do the whole "watching" part of the activity. Initially he believes that Coco must have a good reason for choosing him... “Unless he’d done something to get on her bad side."

In fact, this is such a likely possibility that Fox begins questioning Coco on where everyone is (a convenient way to let the audience know too), what they were assigned to do, and whether that assignment came about due to petty revenge. He complains that Team SSSN has gotten all the "fun stuff"—are you doing a job or goofing off, Fox?—but Coco reassures him that they're not being rewarded and he's not being punished. It's just that any other combination didn't sit right with her. Would Fox have enjoyed going off with Sun? No. If Sun was paired with another would they have wanted to watch Neptune? Not really. Does Fox even trust Sun? Not as of yet:

"I don’t know Sun yet. Not really. I guess I don’t trust Team SSSN to not mess things up for us. They’re sloppy and off-balance right now.”

Coco follows this up by saying that Scarlet and Sage get to guard the Academy wall because she doesn't want Scarlet near Sun after their argument at the group therapy meeting, and he himself is "too zealous" about protecting the Academy. So it's just easier not to fight him. “If we don’t want them to get in our way, or worse, raise a big enough stink that we can’t continue our investigation, it’s better to keep them involved in a limited capacity.”

Now, there's a lot to unpack in that statement and I'm not particularly impressed with any of it. First, it bears repeating that we're now four chapters in —about 60 pages in my PDF—and we're still dragging Team SSSN to the shattered moon and back. I'm not claiming that, as Fox says, they're not dealing with stuff right now, or that their emotions are clouding their skills and perception (I called Sun out for that just last chapter), but I certainly question the "friends" who discuss those problems in such a smug manner, rather than wondering if and how they might help. Thus far, the criticism of Team SSSN serves only for Team CFVY to continually paint themselves as the superior group. They assume that, unless handled delicately, SSSN would inevitably "mess things up" because they, at their core, are a worse team than CFVY. These comments exist only to boost CFVY's ego. Thank the gods we're not like that.

This is the same Coco who thought that she knew something about regaining the trust of her team. But does she extend any sympathy and understanding here? Nope. It continues to amaze me how often RWBY writes characters going through very similar, difficult circumstances and yet so few of them admit to those similarities, let alone act on them.

Second, in a franchise rife with themes about earned trust and manipulation, it's worth acknowledging that Coco moves everyone around, including her own team, based on pretty unsubstantiated emotions rather than logic. As someone who has done nothing but insult Sun to his face thus far, she hasn't exactly earned his trust either, yet she's willing to prioritize this assertion that he'll "mess things up" over the best choices for this mission. Meaning, Fox initially thinks that Coco, as a brilliant leader, has a persuasive reason for giving him this task. We learn she doesn't. He then thinks Coco gave him this task as a form of punishment. She didn't. So what are we left with? Coco claims she gave her orders based on her and Fox being able to chat (yay telepathy), but her explanation says it’s really about what she thinks SSSN might do, rather than what she knows her own team can do. At the end of the day (or night in this case) we've got the blind guy on stakeout using his telepathy to keep her entertained, rather than taking the mission he's both better suited for and enjoys more. Coco spouts a lot of stuff that sounds like leader-ly strategy, but in the end she made these calls primarily because she doesn't like SSSN.

So why are they working together again? Because the plot demands it? I wish the novel had done more to justify this partnership other than, 'If we don't let SSSN help they'll rat us out because they're terrible like that.' If the teams hate one another this much just let them work apart. Otherwise, please start the process of having them grow and begin to appreciate one another. As it stands, we have a few buddy-buddy moments that imply they’re “really” friends when the rest of the novel has done little to demonstrate that. It’s confusing at best and uncomfortable at worst, in the same way that watching the group happily invite Oscar to the movies after volumes of ignoring/attacking/using him as an Ozpin scapegoat is uncomfortable. It’s weird. I’m glad it exists, but how did we get here?

However, this growth isn’t going to happen tonight because Coco likewise ensured that no one is mixing. As Fox points out, "conveniently enough, this way you don’t have to break up our team, or mix them and us.” Nor has Coco broken up the usual partner teams of Sun and Neptune, Scarlet and Sage. Anyone who follows my other metas know that I'm waiting for the webseries to mix up RWBY and JNR more (thank you, Volume 8 preview), or at least have Blake work with someone other than Yang and Weiss work with someone other than Ruby, so I was disappointed to see this same trend not only repeated here, but celebrated by another character. Though not as overt as some of the problems in Volumes 6 and 7, this is what I mean by RWBY introducing conflicts but doing little to resolve them. It's a decent setup to pit SSSN's problems against CFVY's bias—When will Sun apologize to his team? When will Coco acknowledge that her intense criticism of him is born far more from assumptions than proof? When will both teams extend a hand to one another that isn't done in the name of self-preservation?—but thus far it's nothing but setup. And the longer it goes on the less a single scene of growth can stand up against that. The less space we have for that growth, period. This is my problem with many villain redemption arcs: a few episodes of contrite behavior cannot emotionally outweigh whole seasons of horrific actions. It's a presumed redemption based on audience expectations, rather than something we see earned throughout the course of the story. For me, there has to be a certain amount of time and effort put into that change. The worse the actions, the more time and effort needed to, if not absolve them, at least get everyone to a point where they can be set aside. Before the Dawn feels like a very mild case of this, in that I'm wondering how long everyone is going to act this way towards one another before things start getting better. The longer it goes on, the more I expect of the story in order to dig the characters out of it. Though serviceable, a scene like "Then Sun realized he was pushing everyone away and Coco realized she'd been too hard on him, so they both decided to change. Maybe for persuasive reasons, maybe not. The end" isn't emotionally engaging. The disagreeable characteristics across this cast are numerous, yet RWBY doesn't feel like a story where I'm suppose to dislike everyone in an entertaining way—a la Mean Girls.

Thus, I'm wondering when we'll actually start the work of getting me to like this group more/getting them to like each other more, as well as how much of that work we’ll see overall.

Right, I've blathered on about this quite enough. The story (unconsciously I assume) continues to emphasize how expected it is that Coco would give awful jobs to teammates because she's annoyed with them, which doesn't say great things about her leadership, but that at least is something I could easily see a teenager with that kind of power doing. She and Fox round out the list of bad jobs by mentioning that Velvet and Yatsuhashi got stuck with grimm watch, "the duty of the low-rent Huntsmen who worked loosely with local law enforcement to help keep the peace." Given how they discuss this, the implication seems to be that this is an insulting job to give their teammates, which is hilarious considering that these four aren't even huntsmen yet. They're second years! 'What'd they do to deserve a job for low-rent huntsmen?' asks the guy who isn't a huntsmen at all yet.

We learn though that there has been a rise in grimm across the city. How did Coco get that information?

Coco laughed. “I snuck into [Professor Rumpole's] office.”

“Coco!” Fox said.

“Don’t lecture me, Fox.”

Fox smiled. “How dare you do that without inviting me,” he sent.

I get it. I honestly do. It may not seem at times that I understand that a story about a bunch of students has to find a way to get those students involved, or that these students, as teenagers, will do stupid things, that as humans they’ll even do horrible things... but surely there's a way to achieve all this without having our heroes constantly treat their allies in such a callous, disrespectful manner. Breaking rules is not inherently a bad thing. Some rules are unfair and upholding them does more harm than good. Some rules, while important from one perspective, can be broken without any serious repercussions. I never had a problem with Harry, Ron, and Hermione constantly breaking their curfew because kids sneaking out of bed isn't hurting anyone (overlooking the potential of the magic castle hurting them, but I digress). The rule exists for reasons like "You need enough sleep and are unlikely to get that unless we make you" and "A bunch of 11-year-olds shouldn't be left unsupervised in the magic castle" and "Learning how to follow some simple rules and listen to your guardians helps build basic skills needed for adulthood" but really? At the end of the day the Trio breaking that rule—particularly for good reasons like "We suspect nefarious Dark Lord shenanigans are afoot"— is far from the end of the world. Harry Potter also has the added benefit of making the adults actually useless and/or indifferent a lot of the time. We had a story where the kids, more often than not, were the last line of defense.

Rumpole? She is not useless or indifferent. Two chapters ago we established that she is conducting an investigation, Team CFVY just decided that wasn't enough because they want to be involved. And breaking into her office to snoop through her desk? That's not a harmless crime! Beyond the fact that Coco is looking for info she's not allowed to have and finding additional information she's not supposed to have, that's a serious breach of privacy. Clearly neither of them have enough respect for Rumpole to care about that though. Casual rule-breaking like that should be reserved for characters who have failed to earn the respect of the characters or the audience, demonstrating a lack of ethics that (arguably) justifies whatever they get. Basically, the Umbridges and the Lockharts of the world, not the Rumpoles who—far as I have seen so far—have done nothing but take their students seriously and adhere to not unreasonable expectations like, "Please don't get involved in something that might get you killed [cough-Sun taking on three goons-cough] and/or don't ruin the investigation I've already started." Or, at the very least, have the characters feel contrite and guilty about what they felt they had to do.

Why do I like these characters again? It would at least be more satisfying if the story acknowledged that the vast majority of our cast has turned into anti-heroes. I'm fine with that story! But not the one that claims it's "necessary" that our "classic" heroes pull stunts like breaking and entering, theft, lying, etc. without actually providing compelling reasons for those actions. Let Coco break into Rumpole's office, but do the work first of convincing me why she should be involved in this in the first place, why this info is necessary, and why doing that to an ally is necessary too. Kindhearted heroes should have a different reaction to unnecessarily breaking their instructor’s trust than laughter and jokes.

In considering how Before the Dawn intersects with the main webseries, I think it's also worth highlighting that casual line about how more grimm are getting into the city: "There’s been a rise in incidents of Grimm wandering into the city lately." That was one of the major conflicts of Volume 7 and one of the things the fandom uses as a means of mapping Ironwood's downfall: grimm were getting into the city and he failed to stop it, ergo he's a terrible leader, ergo he’s a terrible person, shooting Oscar is something I’d expect of him. Yet the same thing appears to be happening in Vacuo and, thus far, the story isn't interested in giving it the same gravitas. How are the grimm getting in? If the situation is bad enough that Theodore is sending both huntsmen and students to deal with it—“So that’s why Theodore’s been sending more students out lately, clearing the immediate area of Grimm"—isn't he a failed leader as well? Either one of these perspectives work, just not both at once. Either grimm attacks are an inevitable result of living in Remnant and the people deal with them without assigning undo blame, or both headmasters should be facing heat for failing to keep this from happening. So I'll be interested to see if this comes up again and, if so, how. Because right now Coco and Fox are treating it like a casual occurrence, whereas Volume 7 painted it as a serious failing.

We finally learn that Coco and Fox are watching this club because there are two huntsmen gambling inside instead of out doing their job. Except maybe they're off and just like gambling? How do they know there are huntsmen inside to begin with? Or, if they're unsure of that, why are they staking out this specific club? Did they pick one at random because clubs have been associated with the baddies? I feel like I'm constantly playing catchup with this novel. Details are mentioned like Meyers introduced them earlier (he didn't) but then those details still fail to help me make sense of the scene or the characters’ motivations. As I mentioned in the last recap, I never have both pieces of information: what exactly the characters are doing and why they're doing it. Fox and Coco's entire conversation revolves around Fox not know why they're here or what anyone else is up to, but instead of answering his questions we get pieces of information—huntsmen, clubs, grimm attacks, the Crown—that don't easily fit together but are presented as if they do. Then the plot just lands in their lap. Meyers never needs to explain why Coco took the time to stake out this particular club out of an entire city's worth because, of course, it just so happens to be the club where something nefarious is going on. Once they're chasing two baddies it's too late. We've moved on.

Before we get into that chase though, I'd just like to point out the exceedingly odd anti-huntsmen sentiment in this chapter. subtle, but there. As mentioned previously, we have a potential dig at low-rent Huntsmen and the kinds of jobs they do. Then we're told that

"Nothing much happened in Vacuo, and when there was an argument or a crime, people tended to sort things out on their own—with their fists. But when it came to Grimm, Vacuans depended on Huntsmen to fight their battles for them."

This one is admittedly me reading into things a bit (in case anyone missed it: I don't hold this novel in particularly high esteem lol) but "fight their battles for them" is usually a phrasing meant to carry another subtle insult. You need someone else's help and that's bad. Which makes a certain amount of sense for Vacuo's focus on strength, but I wonder why the huntsmen are getting brought into this for... doing their jobs? The explicit purpose of huntsmen is to fight grimm, so it's pretty weird to have a line that implies any negativity for them doing that. Oh, you need huntsmen to fight your battles? How horrible. Even though the huntsmen as an institution exist to fight those battles. It's like saying the first department has to “fight your battles” because you’re not capable of putting the fire out yourself. It carries an implication that, ideally, huntsmen wouldn’t be needed at all. Not because grimm go away, but because people would be able to fight grimm... even though, again, that fantasy already exists within the huntsmen. It’s just weird.

Finally, Fox outright theorizes that maybe there are more grimm because “the Huntsmen are getting lazy" and I'm just ????? You want to be?? A huntsmen??? What is this characterization? At best it reads like Meyers forgot that this group playing detectives are training to become a part of the institution they're criticizing. At worst it reads like the team simply believes themselves to be better than other huntsmen for undisclosed reasons. Like there are normal huntsmen doing grunt jobs and being lazy, and then there's Team CFVY who experienced A Battle and consider themselves vastly more experienced as a result (despite others like Scarlet trying to remind them that they're still only students). I doubt Coco and Fox will come to realize this, not unless something in Before the Dawn really knocks them down a peg, but I honestly wonder in these recent installments why most of these characters want to be huntsmen at all. It’s a job that requires adhering to a hierarchy of authority, obeying the laws of the kingdom you're in, and working closely with what allies are available to you. They don't seem to want any of that, but nor do they frame this as a flawed institution that they hope to improve: “Huntsmen do have a reputation for being lazy, but we’ll fix that once we get our licenses.” As it stands, they want to be vigilantes, getting praise for their deeds but being able to break the rules whenever they please.

Their theorizing is interrupted though when two huntsmen exit the club. How does Coco know they're huntsmen? Huntsmen don't wear uniforms and lots of non-huntsmen folk carry weapons... I simply don’t know. But these two offer to walk one of the gamblers home, considering he's won a fair bit of lien that night. Fox gets interested because their auras are bright enough that he can see them and they're identical, which isn't normal.

But wait. Back up.

Can everyone see auras? Obviously we as the audience can, but the RWBY folk in-world potentially can't, not if Coco doesn't see how "vivid" these auras are herself. Fox is the one providing this information and Fox is the one who needs to track the huntsmen when they flee. This ability seems to be unique to him.

Why can Fox see auras then? That's not his semblance and, far as I can tell, it isn't logically a byproduct of telepathy (like how healing is a byproduct of Jaune amplifying aura). Honestly, it feels like 'The blind character has a special way of seeing the world' trope without actually explaining what that special way is or where it came from.

Why is Fox emphasizing that he can see the auras? The implication is that they're so powerful he, the blind guy, can actually see them... but how is he 'seeing' them the rest of the time? This isn't the first time Fox has been aware of someone's aura because he informs Coco that they're not normally the same color, but if these auras are unique because he can see them, what's happening every other time he comes across non-identical/powerful/weird auras? Does Fox just feel them somehow? Is it a non-visual sense and strong/weirdo auras propel it into sight as well? I'm very confused by all of this.

Regardless, it quickly becomes clear that these huntsmen are actually kidnapping the guy. Fox uses teamspeak to call everyone to him... including SSSN. So much for this remaining a secret until Fox trusts them! It would be one thing if Fox was forced to cast a wide net, but far as I can tell there's nothing stopping him from taking an extra two seconds to just contact his team. In the span of about a day in-world we're given two different explanations here. First it's

Velvet whispered a description of what they were seeing to Fox, avoiding teamspeak for SSSN’s benefit. No one found out about Fox’s Semblance until he trusted them enough to let them in on it.

then it's

Velvet jumped in. “It’s Fox’s Semblance. He’s telepathic. And he likes surprising people with it.”

So which is it? Does Fox treat his semblance as a closely guarded secret in an effort to protect himself, get an edge in battle, all that jazz, or does he just like waiting to spring it on people as a practical joke? Because if it's the former, Team SSSN haven't done anything in the last couple of hours to suddenly earn Fox's trust. Nothing we're shown, anyway. Rather, we just finished a conversation where Coco basically goes, 'You trust Sun?' and Fox's response, though somewhat noncommittal, basically amounts to a, 'Nah.'

Well, SSSN knows now. Everyone starts heading Fox's way while Coco interrupts the two huntsmen in the midst of their kidnapping. The kidnapee, a merchant, blurts something about not being helpless and Coco threatens to leave him.

"Coco had a real sadistic streak sometimes. Just one of the reasons she and Fox made great partners."

Hello, friends, family, and people of the internet: am I insane for thinking this is not how you write heroes? It's one thing if you're using "sadistic" as an obvious exaggeration—Coco playfully teases Velvet about her supposedly awful clothes. She's got a real sadistic streak—but threatening to leave someone to be kidnapped because, what? People need to act helpless enough for her to deem saving? Who writes their supposedly classic hero like that and then makes her partner go, 'Haha yeah she's mean. That's why we're friends :D'

Real badasses are kind and I stand by that.

Of course, the merchant immediately backtracks and Coco demands his release. Sun and Neptune arrive, recognizing the two huntsmen as the goons that Sun fought. There's some talk about a "She" who they're expected to deliver the merchant to and Velvet—again—brings up the rescue.

“You mean the ones we rescued Sun from?” Velvet asked. “Come on!” Sun sent.

Recurring jokes like this are only good when 1. The characters are established as actually liking one another (otherwise they're not jokes) and 2. It doesn't come up every other chapter. When the chapters are roughly ten pages each.

Before a fight can start though the goons give up, dropping the merchant and making a run for it. Fox is sent after them. He uses his ADA machine to navigate his surroundings, which is a detail I really like and appreciate. He's blind. There's no reason why he wouldn't use accessibility tools to assist him. So well done there.

The goons disappear into an abandoned building that ADA identifies as a former dust refinery. There's also a comment about how tall it is compared to the other buildings in Vacuo. Fox loses them because of the number of people inside—all those auras blending together—and, like the goons themselves, a lot of those auras "seem the same." Velvet and Yatsuhashi arrive to assist Fox... but their assistance amounts to Yatsuhashi trying and failing to cut down the door with his sword?? Then all those potential baddies know they've found the super secret hideout. Well done.

They're lucky they just asked for a password. Which, of course, the group doesn't know.

With more time to observe the mass of auras, Fox drops the bombshell that he thinks one of them may be Professor Rumpole's. The group quickly decides that she must be conducting her investigation, but the other obvious possibility that they don't seem to realize (yet) is that she's working with them instead. If Rumpole does end up evil or something I just want to say that my previous points still stand. It’s not okay for the group to twist her 'Don't get involved' into a 'Well, she just doesn't want us to get caught.' Not okay for Coco to sneak into her office and snoop on official reports. Sometimes people will retroactively absolve characters of bad decisions because much later the person who bore the brunt of those decisions turns out to be bad... but the characters didn't know that at the time. The Lockhart and Umbridge examples above work because they were introduced as terrible people who were then later revealed to be even worse than the characters previously knew: Lockhart moves from an inept, overbearing idiot to a con artist erasing others' memories; Umbridge moves from a cruel instructor to a torturer whose rhetoric aligns with the Dark Lord's. Rumpole? Far as the group knows she's done nothing but assist and teach them.

So the three are just standing around, wondering what to do and what it all means. Coco calls Fox only for Fox to immediately hang up on her because everyone is already using teamspeak. Why bother to call in the first place? I don't know. But they fill Coco in and she decides not to ruin Rumpole's (presumed) investigation. Which is good! Yes, Coco does it partly for self/team-serving reasons

Coco shut the idea down quickly. “If we interfere in her investigation and blow whatever she’s doing, we’ll get worse than detention. She’ll probably kick us out of Shade. And we’ll have ruined the usefulness of the information she’s gathering. I say we give her time to do her thing.”

but if fear of expulsion gets them to make a smart call, I'll take it. Besides, as Coco herself points out, they now have some leads to follow. They can continue their investigation without diving headfirst into the danger pool. Like Yatsuhashi apparently wanted to do. Attacking the door with his sword.

(Seriously what was the plan there? Cut open metal, barge your way inside, and take on a massive group yourselves—two of which you already know attacked Sun? It's an Experience™ to be in the heads of teens who think they're hot shit, but act so, so dumb. Admittedly this is something to praise about Myers' writing: of course the personal PoV of these characters is going to contrast reality. What they think they’re like and what an outsider sees will often differ.)

Coco goes on to reiterate that the merchant was "rude" about being rescued, threatening to “report us to the headmaster, once he found out we’re only students, not licensed Huntsmen." Which yeah, that's a dick move. Coco was awful for threatening to leave him, but if a bunch of kids saved me from a kidnapping I wouldn't threaten them with punishment because they're not the police. The implication is that he's xenophobic, given that he was a little too interested in how they're from Beacon/Haven and would only talk to Sun. Coco is "smug" about it.

Note the pattern again: Coco threatens something horrible, later the guy is revealed to be an asshole for unrelated reasons, so she's smug about her actions. See? He deserved what he got. But that's not how this works. If I walk up to someone and randomly punch them, then it's revealed they’re a criminal, I don't get to act all pleased that I spotted an asshole and took action early. I still punched someone without provocation. For anyone, but especially for a hero, ‘They were vaguely sort of mean/rude to me’ is not a good justification for objectively cruel acts. I’m looking at you, RWBY and Witcher.

More important for the plot, Coco reveals that the merchant doesn't have a semblance and the club owner claims the two goons really are huntsmen—though who can say for sure. With little else to do, Coco makes plans to return to Rumpole's office tomorrow.

“And snoop around some more?” Fox asked.

“No,” Coco said. “I’m going to ask her some questions.”

I suppose that's an improvement? I cannot possibly express how not engaging this mystery is though. It's vaguely confusing and feels all-around cobbled together. Every action the group has taken so far hasn't just been unnecessary (I prefer heroes who have a good reason—or at least perceive they have a good reason—for getting involved when others are already working to solve a problem), but it’s also dependent on coincidence to a frustrating degree. Even in a story where I know and accept and welcome some coincidence to move the plot along. But this? Sun gets involved because he follows a woman when he doesn't actually know if she's in trouble or not, but of course she is. Then they stand around a wall until the story drops a crying girl in their lap, because of course a person will have gone missing the second they need a lead and are in the perfect place to receive one. Then Coco seems to pick a club at random to stakeout, because of course that will be the one club where our two huntsmen/goons will be trying to kidnap someone new. None of their intellect, knowledge, or skills lead them to the next phase of the investigation, with the exception of Coco breaking in to steal info about the case. Obviously RWBY is not meant to be a classic mystery, but as a massive Sherlock Holmes fan this is a slog to get through. We have no compelling reason why the group is investigating and the investigation itself isn't teaching us anything compelling about them. This could have been the place to demonstrate how a huntsmen's skills go far beyond just throwing a punch. Instead we see... what? That Yatsuhashi can try to break down a door and say "Ow" about it? At least the webseries gave us two faunus donning grimm masks to sneak into the extremist, faunus-only meeting. Comparatively that's a leagues better investigation than the one we’re getting here.

Am I surprised? No. Do I still hope that this book will improve? Always. We'll see what Chapter Five gives me.

Until then! 💜

#rwby #rwde #BTD Recaps #Before the Dawn #mymetas

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nemossubmarine · 4 years ago

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Warhammer 40k: Wrath & Glory RP #27

Coco inspects the strange burned-out thing in a glass-case she got from the Countess’ place. It looks awfully similar to stuff from her brother’s murder scene. Closer inspection and taking it out reveals it to be a burnt-out arm and a shoulder blade of unknown origin (could be human, but just as likely eldar or even tau). Inside the shoulder blade there is writing in eldar runes, that reminds her of the vein in the Countess’ hideout in Treshan. Unfortunately Coco can’t read eldar, so she packs the arm back into the box, because it is rather gross.

Izarak has been watching over the psykers in his care. The woman who does not have spikes is the first to wake up. She’s a bit surprised to see Izarak and clearly quite guarded as she asks where she is and who Izarak is. Izarak says that they’ve escaped Comorragh, the city of the dark eldar, and that he is a priest. The woman then asks where she is exactly, and Izarak says they stole an alien ship. The woman goes to sit by the unconscious man and asking if he’s going to be okay. Izarak says he should. It turns out that the woman (named Amantha) and the man (named Galion) are friends. They do not know the third psyker. Amantha says they work for the Administratum, and well, they are not from around these parts. She requests they be dropped off at the nearest Imperial planet, so they can contact their people. Izarak goes to get some food and water for Amantha. Eventually Galion wakes up as well. He is a blind older man. Him and Amantha seem to prefer communicating in High Gothic. Izarak shows them their room. They seem content staying there.

Coco finds Ferrus in the mesh hall, copying down his maps that have been left worse for wear by the encounter with the Countess. He has changed into clothing provided by their xenos hosts, including a headscarf that covers up his third eye. Coco asks how he is doing to which he replies that he hasn’t been exactly okay for several years, but doing better. Coco wants to know what the Countess exactly did to him, and Ferrus tells that she wanted him to look for something from the Warp. Other than that, he spent most of the time hanging from the wall, no torture, no gladiator battling (which is good, Ferrus hasn’t had fencing lessons in like 15 years). Coco wonders why the Countess put the contraption on Ferrus’ head, and Ferrus surmises it had to do with her knowing exactly how dangerous he could be, if he was left to look where-ever he pleased. (They have a brief tangent about whether the holes in the sides of Ferrus’ face will fill. Neither of them knows, they hope Izarak might.) Coco admits that she found Ferrus’ gaze more than a bit terrifying and then asks what it’s like. Ferrus asks if she has travelled in warp, and she says she has, being a Rogue Trader’s daughter. Apparently he sees pretty much what everyone sees within Warp, except just more (since there’s no Geller field), and with the added bonus of the Astronomican. What people see when they look into his third eye is just about the same. Except they’re not able to withstand gazing into the Warp. It’s apparently not a pleasant way to go, not that no one has ever lived to tell the tale. That’s why the Navigators usually have their third eyes hidden with hats or head-dresses, and why Ferrus is sporting the headscarf. He says that he sometimes eschews out of his because he is a bit of an asshole. Coco disagrees with that, he’s saved their lives a couple of times at least, to which Ferrus says that they’ve known each other for maybe a week or two, so she really shouldn’t be so sure she knows. Coco says she’s sure. Coco asks Ferrus if he is still interested in looking for Ada, and Ferrus says he isn’t quite sure if Ada is even alive (and if she is alive, whether that’s any better, if she is in the Countess’ clutches), but Roberto should probably be informed. Coco also asks Ferrus if he knows any eldar, but Ferrus says no, only a little bit of kroot (and even then it’s apparently basics). Coco wonders where Ferrus learned it, and Ferrus tells he had a kroot friend. Coco says that kroots she knows don’t really speak their own language around humans, and Ferrus said that his friend didn’t either, only in private. Apparently he thought it fun to listen to Ferrus attempt to pronounce the kroot language.

Alice goes to check in on Michael. As she approaches the door to his room, she can hear music coming from inside and mournful singing. When the song ends, Alice knocks on the door. Michael answers and invites her inside. Inside, there’s some kind of a Tau harp. Michael has found out that he apparently knows how to play an instrument, and when he began to play a song came to him. Alice says it’s good to have artistic aspirations. When Michael asks what Alice’s artistic choice is, she says she has a very particular taste in literature. Michael admits to Alice that he is feeling apprehensive about returning to Baal, as he has no way to prove to them that he indeed is a Blood Angel, especially if none of his comrades yet live. Alice says that then he can choose a new chapter for himself. Michael tells Alice that she is a kind woman.

Larry goes to visit La’awali and Tirak in their room. Their conversation is a bit halted but possible with La’awali’s translation technology. Larry wants to talk with the xenos about the humans on board, most notably that some of them are not happy about being on the same ship with the xenos. They seem undrestanding of the situation, saying they can hang around their room and make sure they won’t be running into any humans on their way. Larry asks if they’ve any knowledge of humans and La’awali says there are humans within the Tau empire, but she personally hasn’t met any. In general they don’t seem to be very aware of the vastness of the human empire. Larry asks about this greater good that La’awali keeps mentioning. She bemoans the fact that she isn’t as good at explaining these things as the leader of her expedition. She explains that basically the Tau feel that if people would work together, life would be better for everyone. It turns out La’awali is a soldier and Larry asks how that vibes with this “working together, diplomacy” thing. La’awali explains that she protects (used to) an ambassador and sometimes there are people you can’t talk to, Tyranids for example. Larry knows Tyranids all too well, and tends to agree (though technically you could talk to Genestealer Cultists).

Larry offers to take La’awali and Tirak back to their home, once he manages to find a ship that is a bit faster. (apparently Tirak has heard from Ferrus about how far away they are and about how damn slow their ship is). The pair appreaciates the offer and says the Tau empire would be grateful for that. Larry mentions that they’re in a bit of hurry (well, he personally is), and though the stealth tech is nifty, a faster ship would be nice. La’awali mentions that the ship can’t run the stealth tech forever, without having its solar-powered batteries re-filled. Tirak can route some of the power from unnecessary stuff (like the karaoke machine, or indeed the plane simulator).

After this chat Larry invites the rest of the party to talk about what they’re doing next in his room. Izarak lets everyone know that two of the psykers are up. They appear friendly, but seem to like to hang out on their own in their room. They haven’t seen the aliens yet. Speaking of the xenos, their ship is nice, says Alice. Though a bit small, Coco adds. It’s a bit slow, says Larry, referring to the spores inside him that he should be getting out. Larry says he has spoken with the two aliens. He admits to being a bit worried about them, being surrounded by humans. He says that they need to decide their stance on them. Izarak (or Coco?) says hopefully they could part soon, but Larry mentions they’re quite far away from home. He does mention hoping to help them back home. Coco asks if Larry is truly planning on taking them into Imperial space, but it’s not like they have much choice, most all space is Imperial space.

Larry points out that everyone seems super chill with harboring some xenos and straight out asks people’s opinions (Alice he knows is chill). Izarak says he is okay with them but for obvious reasons can’t say it out loud (Larry comments that Izarak is a rad priest). Coco says that she has worked with aliens before, but of course she’s not on her ship anymore, so she understands the danger. Izarak promises to keep silent about this. Larry says he’s worried about Michael too, true, he doesn’t remember anything now, but when he does, well, Astartes are not famous for being xenos-friendly. Coco asks if they want to help Michael get back his memories. An idea of having him not remember is brought up, Alice says maybe he could become a sheep farmer on Treshan. Or a body guard to them, Larry says. Izarak says he can take Michael back, take the full responsibility and let the others escape.

Izarak mentions the psykers wanting to be dropped off at the nearest Imperial planet. Larry suggests offering to take them closer to where they were going, so they’ll stay on board a bit longer. Larry says he’ll talk with them and try to find out what they think about xenos, before they run into them.They also agree that Izarak should probably talk with the Imperial family to maybe make them not immediately sell them out as soon as they get out. It is suggested that Michael tag along as the Imperial family seems to like him quite a bit.

They discuss what they’ll do next. Obviously getting to Mpandex and getting the spores out of Larry is a priority. They can’t really arrive to the planet officially, but they figure they can use the stealth-tech of the Tau ship to get on the ground, and afterwards just claim they’ve been there a while. After that they can move on. Larry says he wishes to get to Obsidia to let his mom know he’s alive as soon as possible, and maybe drop off the xenos while he’s at it. Izarak says his priority still is saving Ada. Considering they’ve still friends there as well, Treshan seems like a good next stop. They surmise they could maybe contact the station around Treshan to see if they could find out what happened to them. They’d need an Astropath for that of course. But at least now they’ve few next places to go figured out.

When this chat is over, Izarak approaches Ferrus who is still copying his maps. He wants to apologize for dragging Ferrus into this thing, as he was the one who hired him to help Ada. Ferrus points out that this arrangement was only made because Ferrus slept with Roberto. Nevertheless, Izarak apologizes as Ferrus was dragged along rather hastily. Ferrus asks if he could ask Izarak a priestly question, and when Izarak says yes he asks if there is meaning in suffering, if there is some force in the world, the Emperor probably, who makes people who have done bad things suffer. Izarak ponders this for a bit and says there’s a difference between suffering and punishment, and Ferrus asks what the difference is. Izarak says is that punishment is supposed to teach something to the person being punished. If nothing is learned, then it’s just suffering. Ferrus thanks him for his answers, and then that conversation is done with.

#nemo roleplays #long post #wag rp s2 #wag rp writeup #i was about to go to bed #and then remembered i havent posted this #i was supposed to reread it since im p sure i didn't get everything down #but ah well #will add tomorrow if ive the time #campaign tag: mom always said you'd end up a circus performer

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gadgetgirl71 · 4 years ago

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No Regrets by Tabitha Webb

I enjoyed this book. It’s funny and light hearted. It made me snigger a good few times. With these troubled times we find ourselves in this book is a good one to read. I could also associate with all of the characters as well, as they are all getting to the end of their 30’s. It reminded me of my friends and I at that age. I absolutely love the cover of this book as well. It’s so bright and cheerful.

Meet Stella, Dixie and Ana. They have been best friends for a very long time. We meet them as they are all approaching the big four zero. Where they all realise that they aren’t really in the places they expected to be in.

Stella is a stay at home mother, She spends most of her time running around after her family. Wishing she was more like the other mum’s who seem to manage family life effortlessly.

Her husband has made her get rid of the paid help and she is struggling even more than she did before. Stella however has other ideas about getting new help, she’s actually thinking of pinching someone’s nanny. Along with hopes of going back to work and being a bit more glanderous.

One day when she’s at the park with the kids. She becomes friends with Coco a young nanny. She finds Coco a breath of fresh air and she’s also introducing Stella to some new experiences.

Ana is in a relationship with the most boring man, but on paper he is just the sort of man to settle down with. He has a decent job, he’s reliable, caring and not bad looking. Ana has decided that now is the time to start trying for a family as she’s so desperate for a baby.

Ana has also decided that she wants to speed up the process, so they pay to go and see a private specialist. Just to make sure everything is working. It turns out that Rex is the one that is going to cause them problems in conceiving. So they pay for one round of fertility treatment. Which then starts making Ana wonder if she really is with the right man. Due to her having fertility injections her hormones are all over the place. So no matter what Rex does she finds him irritating and he constantly gets her back up. Which in turn Makes her think about Joel her now famous ex boyfriend. Everywhere she goes his music is playing or he’s on the TV, she can’t get away from him and their past.

Dixie is the wild a child of the bunch. She’s single has a good job. She gets to travel with her job too, as she manages her bosses properties which are all over the place. She’s also on Tinder and has numerous one night stands and has no intentions of stopping any time soon, as she’s not going to ever get married.

On one particular flight to New York Dixie gets upgraded on her flight and ends up with her cabin near a really cute guy. She ends up getting a bit tipsy and ends up telling him things that she never tells anyone. She total forgets to update he Tinder account with new photos of herself. So she could hook up with some cute New York guys.

Dixie doesn’t tell the girls anything about Freddie the next time she meets up with them as he has her in a spin. Which has never happened to her before. It’s like she is under his spell.

When she does mention him though she ends up asking the girls over to the Hamptons to celebrate Freddie’s Birthday. Where things don’t go quite as expected.

Stella gets blind drunk and tells them what is really going on in her life. Dixie and Freddie set up Ana with her famous ex, which lead to unexpected things. Then the rich wives of Freddie’s friends pull a fast one on Dixie and everything comes tumbling down.

Will the girls get their lives back on track? They may do eventually with some great hilarity along the way.

If you need a good laugh and some escape then this book is for you.

Pages: 384, Publication Date: 25 June 2020, My Rating: 4 Stars

#arc #bookblogger #bookclub #bookreview #books #bookworm #contemporary #edelweiss #generalfiction #goodreads #NetGalley #netgalleyUK #NGEW2020 #NoRegret #reading challenge #romance #romcom #TabithaWebb #womensfiction

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thenamesreader · 5 years ago

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RWBY OC #1

NAME: Jade Belladonna

GENDER: Female

RACE: Faunus

PHYSICAL ANIMAL TRAIT: A black cat tail

AGE: (V4-V6) 17

(Atlas Arc) 18

(Vacuo Arc) 19

HEIGHT: 5′4″

EYE COLOR: Left: Blue; Right: Green

HAIR: Short and dark blue-green

COMPLEXION: Honey

BIRTHPLACE: Menagerie

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Kingdom of Vacuo

OCCUPATION: Student at Shade Academy

PERSONALITY: Jade is kind, dorky, mischevious, and witty. She’s also brash and somewhat impulsive.

SEMBLANCE: Boulderdash

It’s basically geokinesis. She’s still learning all she can do with it, but so far she’s been able to cause small earthquakes, make objects out of sand, and throw rocks at people with her mind. She’s also summoned pillars of earth to hit people when she’s annoyed. She can use it for long periods of time but that ultimately drains her and she might pass out if not careful with it.

TEAM: JSPR

TEAM POSITION: Leader

PARTNER: Sonia Seraph

WEAPON(s): Lapis and Agate- Two twin dust-infused katanas, one blue and the other green, that have retractable blades. The scabbards can be used as pistols.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Phoneix Soleil

HISTORY: Jade is the younger cousin to Blake Belladonna and only daughter to Tendua and Bismuth Belladonna. She and Blake practically grew up together. They were always with each other as their family moved from place to place. At the age of 11, after Blake ran off with Adam, her family moved. Her father believed it was the right thing to do since the White Fang was different under Sienna’s rule and he wasn’t too fond about it. She was particularly hurt by Blake’s actions, but she kept her hurt to herself.

After moving to Vacuo, her life seemed to get even worse after discovering that her father had an affair and then her parents getting divorced right after. Her older brother, Sphene, became distant and angry for a while. He claimed he never wanted to see him again. Jade felt betrayed, as well. But despite this, her father was still very involved in her life.

After a few months, her brother applied to Coquina Oscuro Academy to learn how to be a Huntsman. Jade thought it was pretty cool and always asked him to teach her the stuff he learned. After he graduated Coquina, he went off to Shade, while Jade applied for Coquina to follow in his footsteps.

At the age of 16, Jade watched with ever-increasing dread as the Fall of Beacon started while she was watching the Vytal Tournament on live television. First was watching as Mercury Black got his leg broken and then the death of Penny before her mother turned it off. With that, she became even more determined to become a Huntress.

After graduating, Jade went to Shade and passed the entrance exam with flying colors and became leader of Team JSPR. She clicked with her team pretty well, especially Phoenix Soleil and her partner, Sonia Seraph. They soon all became the best of friends, Jade and Phoenix starting a romantic relationship by their second-year.

Jade is currently a third-year at the Academy and works as a teacher’s aid at Coquina during the summer.

Relationships

Family

Bismuth

Unlike her siblings, Jade still has a pretty strong relationship with her father after their parents' divorce. She knows that he regrets it and wishes he could change it. She was always quite understanding of people and their actions even when they didn’t make sense to others. She gets very excited when he visits and was happy when he told her he was in the dating pool again.

Tendua

Jade has a stronger relationship with her mother than her father and absolutely adores her. She’s always wanting to help her mother out and always visit home on the weekends to see her since she gets homesick so easily. Her mother has always been a big part of her life and has always been an inspirational figure in her life. Sometimes people can’t tell if the two are mother and daughter or sisters because of how close they are.

Sphene

Jade loves her older brother with all her heart. She looks up to him so much and followed in his footsteps to become a Huntress. Sphene and Jade might have drastically different personalities- Sphene being stoic and quiet while Jade is loud and brash- they are the best of siblings. Sphene is highly protective, though, and does background checks on everyone she associates with.

Jasper

Jasper is Jade’s younger sibling. They and Jade get along pretty well. Because they are blind, Jade tends to be gentler with them so they don’t get hurt. While Jas is appreciative, they get annoyed when they feel like Jade goes too far with it. Otherwise, the two have a typical sibling relationship.

Crystal (Crys)

Crys is the youngest of the four siblings and the absolute sweetest. But, he can be just as mischevious as his older siblings. He and Jade love to hang out and he always gets excited when she visits home on her breaks. Because of his deafness, Jade is fairly fluent in sign language and the two use it to talk about people behind their backs if they’re being assholes.

Ghira

Ghira is another of Jade’s role models. Her mother comments that she gets her stubbornness from him since she and her father are nothing like that. Since she was always around her Uncle Ghira when she was little, she always loved him. When she was younger, she was always trying to wear her uncle’s clothing or imitating his speeches. She sometimes memorized them, too.

Kali

Kali is pretty much Jade’s second mom. Jade often thinks that if her aunt hadn’t gotten with Ghira, Tendua would’ve been her perfect match. Kali’s always giving her great advice and is always loving on her. But, unlike her mother, Kali will let her get away with things she would usually never get away with. Like pulling pranks on certain teachers or saying things that she shouldn’t have said.

Blake

Jade and Blake are thick as thieves. Jade might’ve been hurt when Blake ran off with Adam, but she still lived her. Once Blake came to Vacuo, she was excited to see her. They act a lot like sisters, too. Blake isn’t afraid to tease her about certain things and the two tend to playfully wrestle with each other, the older of the two coming out on top most of the time.

Significant Other

Phoenix Soleil

Phoe is Jade’s soulmate. These two idiots are always getting themselves in trouble and always have each other’s backs. When one is sad, the other is there to cheer them up. When the other is angry, the other is there to calm them down. They love to be around each other all the time and get somewhat anxious when one has to go on a mission without them.

Team

Sonia Seraph

Sonia is Jade’s best friend and can be highly protective of her because of Sonia’s naïveté. When they had met, they had clicked instantly. Jade was a bit wary at first, considering Sonia was an Atlas elite, but got rid of that wariness when the other girl proved to be quite kind.

Jade really cares about Sonia. An example of that is when Sonia’s older brother died during their first year. Jade had offered to go with her to Atlas, but Sonia had told her that she didn’t want Jade to miss anything. Throughout Sonia’s grieving, Jade was by her side until she felt better.

Sonia’s done the same with Jade whenever she started getting homesick or missing Menagerie, making the two the best of friends.

Rogue Hellion

Rogue was an interesting person to Jade. He’s strange, yes, but he was pretty nice to her. They bonded over their love of animals and Jade introduced him to her dog, Coal, when she went home once.

Others

Domino

Domino is Jade’s best friend from Coaquina. Domino didn’t have many friends and was a bit of a recluse. Because of the skunk faunus’ low self-esteem, she was an easy target for bullies. After saving her from said bullies, Jade and Domino became good friends.

Yang Xiao Long

Jade really likes Yang. She thinks she’s pretty nice for Blake. Way better than Sun. Or Adam for that matter.

Ruby Rose

Jade and Ruby get along easily being able to relate to the struggles of being the younger sibling and Jade treats her like her little sister, too.

Weiss Schnee

Jade became quick friends with the Schnee. She was glad that a Schnee was working close with a Belladonna when they met.

Sun Wukong

Jade does not like Sun. She finds him a nuisance and was very upset when learning he followed Blake to Menagerie. She can only tolerate him so much before needing to go somewhere else.

Neptune Vasillas

She doesn’t like him, either. She dislikes him more than Sun because he continuously flirted with her even after she told him he had a boyfriend.

Sage Ayana

Jade seems to get along with him pretty well. They became friends after a patrol mission in the city.

Scarlet David

Jade gets advice about boys and makeup from him. Though, she’s not that into makeup.

Coco Adel

Jade and Coco’s relationship is pretty much that of a fan and a celebrity. Jade loves her fashion sense and is always asking her questions about how she looks that good all the time.

Velvet Scarlantina

After hearing that she was Blake’s upperclassmen, she became interested. Since she hadn’t heard from Blake in years, she wanted to learn everything about their relationship. She was kind of surprised that Blake had left the White Fang and laughed when she heard that her cousin had tied up a whole team of bullies just to help Velvet. Jade is very fond of Velvet and can’t get over how sweet she is.

Trivia

Jade has dyslexia and dysgraphia. She gets frustrated with it a lot and gets even more frustrated when teachers treat her differently.

Jade might dislike Sun, but she was the one to stop her older brother from killing him.

Jade is not afraid to fight Blake over tuna. She thinks it’s fun to playfully wrestle with Blake.

Jade is terrified of cucumbers

Jade’s glad that Shade doesn’t have gendered uniforms. She always felt uncomfortable in skirts or dresses.

When Jade gets mad, you better run. You do not want to be caught in her sights.

The amount of times Jade’s used her semblance on Neptune are too many to count.

Jade’s favorite colors happen to be orange and purple.

#rwby #rwby oc #oc #jade belladonna #team jspr

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hongkongdramas · 5 years ago

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Barrack O’ Karma

Yay to creepy and mysterious themed dramas! I have always liked such drama themes. So currently I’ve only watched till episode 4 and I have started to like it. The first two episode under the story ‘梦’ wasn’t impressive to me. It was exciting at some point in time but excitement level went into a flat line again... I would assume that it was an opening to show how Siu (Joel Chan) has this connection to his past life through his dreams. But it was a little too draggy by the some what random robbery case and a murder case in the prostitute house. And I was bored out of some unnecessary conversation going on which was a tad bit too long...

Episode 2 to 4 was way more interesting compared to the first two. I liked how Candice Chiu portrayed the mother that lost her child. That story for ‘婴’ kept me really curious as to what Mrs Ho wanted and the paranoia that the baby’s mother went through was so pitiful. Even though there were a lot of conversational scenes on some baby care methods, i think it was necessary for them to show the transition of how the baby’s mother trusted Mrs Ho to starting to suspect her weird behaviors. Now i’m looking forward to the other stories and now how they ended episode 4 with a flight turbulence!

The next story “娃” was interesting too. What started off as an uncomfortable involvement with dolls for men’s pleasure ended up to be a sad story about how a father felt so lonely after his daughter grew up. But this episode is filled with so much jokes that are so not for children.. 🙂 Anyway kudos for having an interracial couple and the first I’ve seen in a hk drama. Speaks so much about being accepting and diverse.

Following that was “鴉烏” (is it on purpose that they put the name the other way round? Or should I be reading it from right to left instead...) which has a pretty sad ending. Deep meanings in this story... the pressure from society and high expectations from parents on kids nowadays are really prevalent. The moment Tung-Tung said he didn’t want to grow up to face the hardship as an adult related to me so much. It was sad to see everyone losing their memory about Tung-Tung and finally even Tung-Tung himself losing his memory about his parents.

“異夢” was refreshing because it finally brought us back to the past to understand more about their past life (if there is some reincarnation thingy going on). It was so cool to see the opposite of what was happening like how it was Sis Coco dreaming of future Siu while in present life was Siu dreaming of Coco. And also Law Lan Jeh’s cameo!!! The lesbian case was ordinary but I guess it was necessary to link up the stolen $ and the release of Brother Hung.

Finally I got my question answered in these episodes. During Tung-Tung’s case, I was wondering so much on why Tung-Tung’s parent didn’t bat an eyelid when Alex came in to find out why they were arguing so loud. It felt like Alex wasn’t there at all... and I finally found my answer at the end of “洞”. Is Alex dead??? Mmmmm. Have to watch on I guess. Anyway, IMO, there wasn’t much of a supernatural thing going on in “洞”... (other than the fact that the hole in the wall was the creepy element to it) I guess there was an inspirational message going on throughout the story of pursuing one’s dream like how Mia finally found her calling and decided to put in effort in achieving what she wanted. Of course it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of that guy {forgot that guy’s name.. shall call him chicken little like how Siu called him}. Chicken Little was the one who made Mia realize her goal in life despite been an annoying keyboard warrior his whole life...

Next was “金丁” which was the weirdest shit story ever... I was totally baffled at the entire story with that weird ass theory of getting happiness after sleeping with that guy... I think this was the worst story ever that I have nothing to say about it..

Yuki Jeh is actually very pretty!! Her “美魔女” story was interesting because it linked back to her mum in the past. So we get to toggle back and forth between past and present to see the reason for her obsession with beauty. Too bad Yuki Jeh went bonkers till the end.. I wasn’t expecting her to use the cotton wool to wipe it on her face when Shui left 😅

DR POONNNN! Like everyone else, I was anticipating and waiting and waiting for Dr Poon to appear and there she is!!! But she appeared for such a short duration :( Anyway, the story of “Simone” was so cute!!!! I really like the part when they enter the gaming story. The augmented reality they were in was so interesting! And the story really shows how scary technology can be in our digital world. The manifestation of technology, especially in the world of augmented and virtual reality, can be dangerous where our personal data are constantly being collected for other purposes... the love story was just an added feature.. Hahahah KELLY CHEUNG was gorgeous!! And that Big White Duel reference there was cool! Plus also, they were finally revealing the ultimate story behind Siu, Alex, Fai and Coco. Teacher Lam is super mysterious and I’m really wondering what is that “thing” that he refers to suspiciously.

Last story!! 夢遊. Okay actually I’m only till the last second episode. Wow mind blown. They actually came up with some sci-fi thingy where you’d have to almost drown to time travel...? Okay that was out of the blue.. and omg don’t tell me Lam Gor Zai is some cat demon that kills people.

Finished Barrack O’ Karma and I was a little confused at the ending and also annoyed at the fact that they spent a whole 3-5 mins nearing the end to show flashbacks other then providing us with a little more details for the story.

Instead of looking at Lam Gor Zai being a real cat demon or some sort, I would rather view Lam Gor Zai suffering from mental illness as a result. His horrible past (the sacrificial burial) might caused him to suffer from PTSD and resulted in him having DID (dissociative identity disorder) hence the “cat demon”. The cat demon was the other personality he had that harms people. Just like M. Night Shyamalan’s Split movie starring James McAvoy having 24 split personalities, the “Beast” was just one of the personality that goes around harming people.

The final ending was the confusing part. Initially, the part where Coco and Siu (who time traveled) were almost dying on the boat, I thought that if Coco were to die and Siu to survive, Siu would not drown in the present time and Alex would have been declared dead from the missing flight. And if Coco were to survive and Siu to die, Alex would have survived in the present time and found from the missing flight while Siu would have drowned in the water tank. Boy was I wrong... instead, I would think that for Siu to time travel and have altered the past, it has created a whole new dimension in the present where characters we have seen had a whole new story in their lives but yet a striking similarity to what we have seen in the past episodes. (e.g Mia who is now a star with that chicken little who may have a special connection to her, Yuki Jeh who is now blind and unable to “appreciate” the beauty she has, Tung-tung who is now with his family and his dad a common bus driver etc.) As for Alex, she is now (coincidentally still) a flight attendant while Siu now a pilot. The eye contact and tears in their eyes may have brought forth the familiarity both had for each other just like how Alex said that she felt this homey feeling when entering Twilight Mansion and that it felt as if she had been here the whole time.

Oh there was this weird scene where we see Lam Gor Zai and the older version of him (played by Lau Kong) carrying on to Lan Po. Seriously confused by this... I need some explanations here... That was so out of the blue...

Overall, I really enjoyed myself watching this drama with every subplot and ultimately the main story on reincarnation and time travel. Kudos! Looking forward to the sequel which has been green-lit!

#金宵大廈 #李施嬅 #陈山聪 #barrack o'karma #selena lee #joel chan #hkdrama #hk drama

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thatluckyrabbiit · 7 years ago

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Okay but Coco/TBoL crossover au idea

So I just watched Pan’s Labyrinth again which is one of my fav movies and it got me thinking of an au idea with Héctor and Ernesto and Imelda, as well as Xibalba and La Muerte but with some changes (also forgive me for my lack of history knowledge but yE, I tried my best):

• Xibalba and La Muerte happen to be the two rulers of the afterlife/underworld much like in the story in Pan’s Labriynth, only instead of a daughter, they had a son who happened to sneak out into the human world. The son got blinded by the sun and as a result lost his memory before dying and being reborn as a mortal, but his parents always knew his soul would return one day to the underworld even if centuries later.

• instead of taking place in Spain during their war in the 40s, this would take place near the end of the Mexican Civil War (that was from 1910 to 1920, and so this au would take place probably around 1918 or 1919, right near the end)

• Héctor is nearly a young man, just about 18, and, you guessed it, he’s the one who happens to be the reincarnation of the lost prince of the underworld (I thought this especially since he grew up an orphan and didn’t have parents in the actual movie, so y e)

• Ernesto is his best friend who is a little older than him, who happens to be a general in one of the factions during the civil war, and a well respected one at that. He has Hector come stay with him at his place which is also where many soldiers happen to be stationed at.

• Imelda is around a year older than Hector and happens to be one of the main housekeepers tending to Ernesto’s home (but she’s actually an informer helping out another faction, but is able to get away with it unnoticed).

The rest of the idea goes along with what happens in the movie—Héctor finds out from a magical being that he’s a lost prince and he believes it, and has to complete three tasks in order to help him gain immortality and so he can return to the underworld where his parents are. Things go wrong along the way—he meets Imelda and starts to fall for her, while Ernesto gets drastically more dangerous and tortures more captured enemy soldiers and whatnot and starts to catch onto the fact that there might be an informer working under him, he just doesnt know who.

And then of course near the end, a confrontation happens—Imelda is found out, and she and Hector try to escape together but are caught. Hector is locked up while Imelda is tied and about to be interrogated by Ernesto, but she fights him and gets away to be with her family again. They manage to get the upper hand and attack Ernesto’s base, and Imelda hopes to get to Hector, but as he tries to escape to make it to one of the portals left by Xibalba, his father, (a labyrinth near the base), Ernesto runs after him, and right as Hector makes it there, the magical being who has been instructing him the whole time tells him he has to make a blood sacrifice with an innocent in order to open the portal. Hector refuses, and the being tells him ‘as you wish, your highness’ and disappears.

Just then Hector turns around and sees Ernesto, who shoots him in the chest (still haven’t really figured out a reason why but tbh I think in this case since the au differs from the actual plot of Pan’s Labyrinth, Ernesto probably started to think Hector was betraying him somehow and was on the other side). Hector collapses and bleeds out over the portal.

Then Ernesto leaves the Labyrinth only to see Imelda and the enemy soldiers there waiting for him. And he gives up then and there, knowing he’s been defeated, and it’s Imelda who shoots him. Then she goes into the Labyrinth and sees Hector lying there, dying, and sings to him as he dies, and he opens his eyes and finds himself in the underworld. He gets welcomed home by Xibalba and La Muerte and there’s an empty throne right next to Xibalba’s that belongs to Hector and has been waiting for him for centuries for his return.

Back in the real world, Hector dies in Imelda’s arms and all she can do is hold him close and cry.

—

Aaaaaannnnnd that’s all I’ve got so far for this au. Tbh I’d write it myself but I have no time anymore to write BIG chapter stories, but if anyone wants to write for this then by all means GO FOR IT, I’d read the heck out of it!! Or drawing for it, either one, I’m so for it. Cause damn it this idea wouldn’t leave me alone after I watched the movie

#this got really long and rambly wHOOPS #coco #pixar #pixar coco #coco au #coco crossover #tbol #tbol crossover #tbol au #the book of life #book of life #hector rivera #ernesto del la cruz #imelda rivera #xibalba #la muerte #hector x imelda #xibalba x la muerte #au idea

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moldygreenblue · 7 years ago

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Coco

I ended up watching Coco with most of my family Coco yesterday. Mostly because my sister and I know nothing about the film other than the trademark controversy + one trailer so we went ‘let’s watch it’. And small way, because our dad is from the Oaxaca State and the one trailer my sister told me ‘it looks like Oaxaca’ and after looking up that Oaxaca is one of the locations inspirations, we went ‘let’s keep this from him and make it a surprise’.

(He actually didn’t realize it until after the credits was done).

So because we went in blind, we had no expectations (well, other than the Frozen ‘Short’ which really should have been keep on TV ). As a result...

I LOVE THIS FILM. This is one of the best Pixar films in the last few years. The characters are believable, the story is wonderful, and the music...oh it is fantastic! And heck, we had no idea who was in this film until the credits when we recognized a few names. I have two problems with it (one my sister agrees with), but they are kind of minor and it doesn’t really deteriorate from the experience.

And that’s the spoiler free review. A more in-depth and spoiler based review is under the cut, which also goes into detail on the two problems I have.

I’m not going to talk much about the characters because I legit have no problems with them, but for the sake of needing to talk about them, I’ll just go over the protagonist(s) and antagonist. Miguel is a believable child protagonist who grows over the course of the film and still manage to get his dream in the end (by the help of his family both deceased and living). Hector might seems like the comical conman, but he suffered about 70+ years of being alone, rejected, and border line forgotten, and gets his long deserved happy ending as he re-falls in love with Imelda (great character as well, and actually, it’s the other way around), and finally reunites with his daughter*. Ernesto is like the other surprise villains Pixar had (old man from from Up and the pink bear of death in Toy Story 3, but he’s better than them both. He managed to trick the world (living and dead) he’s a wonderful person, to covers up the fact he murdered Hector (Pixar killed characters before, but this is the first time they confirm a real murder in their film) and his real dark personality literally sets the stage for the final act.

The plot is like the typical ‘kid wants to fulfill their dream but family doesn’t want them to do it’ film, but the reason the family doesn’t want them to do it works with both ‘great-great (two greats right) grandfathers’ in mind**. That makes the scene of Miguel’s guitar smash in front of him more powerful, because reasonable reason it is, it had the opposite affect causing everyone (especially Abuelita Elena) to go ‘what have we done’ moment when Miguel runs away. Miguel’s goal of wanting his ‘ great-great grandfather Ernesto’ blessing is juxtapose (?) with him bonding with Hector, and seeing their relationship grow from ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine’ to ‘I’m going to protect this guy/kid I just met five minutes ago’. As a result, when the film shows Hector is the real great-great grandfather, it’s makes the relationship more powerful because surprised kid! You pretty much got your potential blessing back in the ‘Un Poco Loco’ number***! This familial surprise just makes the ending all more better because both Miguel and Hector get what they want together.

The music is dang good, no question ask. The background score is great (then again, it’s from the LOST composer so...), and the lyrical songs will get stuck in your head for a good few hours, and in some cases, cry. ‘Remember Me’ is the main one, because in it’s true form, it’s a personal, special song from father to daughter, not the cheesy if catchy earworm Ernesto turn it into. In fact, hearing the cheesy version made me go ‘It has such deep lyrics. Something off.”

I didn’t talk about the animation in my spoiler free review, but let me say I find it great as well, if still shown in the Pixar style. Yeah. It’s that’s short.

Despite all the positive things I have, there is two (minor) problems I have.

Dante being an alebrijes (thanks Google for spelling) is a good twist because something was supernatural about him. However, Dante fell into it the ‘retarded animal’ trope Finding Dory had with another animal character. My sister flat out hates that trope and say Coco was a great film minus this problem. I had problems with this trope as well, but I let it slide for Coco since it wasn’t as bad as Finding Dory (no seriously. that film was worse with it).

The ending. I’m glad that Hector is getting the recognition he is long overdue, and Ernesto being ‘forgotten’ is great justice. However, I can’t tell if Hector got world wide recognition or just local town recognition because the tour guide part threw me off. Like, assuming he got local town recognition, Ernesto is still going to be ‘alive’ for the next hundred year at least because the world still sees him as a hero Hector is like, barely holding on (then again, I don’t think he would mind since he really just his family to remember him and hey, Land of the Dead shunned Ernesto to who know where and can’t get his final death). If it’s world wide recognition, then Hector is like, going to be remembered as being murdered (but hey, in this scenario Ernesto is remembered as being a fraud and still can’t get his final death so win-win).

And that’s about it. I guess the only thing I have left to say is that the whole ‘rivalry’ between Coco and Book of Life is silly since Hector’s actor Gael Garcia Bernal, and Manolo’s actor, Diego Luna, are friends in real life, and the director for Book of Life is telling people to chill.

*Remember how I said I went in blind? I legit had no idea why the film is name Coco until her name was stated in the beginning. That’s right, I knew no one’s name.

**Let’s make this clear, the banning of music is justify with Hector since he left to be a musician and never came back alive (the family had to know he died young or suspected it), barely destroying the family. If Ernesto was related to Miguel, the banning of music has a even bigger justification because there’s the possibility the family learned he may have hurt someone or worse and are like ‘nope nope nope no one is going to be the ambitious musician like him’

*** Un Poco Loco was the number that made me think ‘maybe Hector is the real great-great grandfather’ and heck, my sister thought of it here as well.

#pixar coco #coco #moldy watching movies #spoilers #under the cut

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hopelesslyshippingthem · 8 years ago

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Would I be able to get some more of the Godzilla au fic with some of your infamous Angst™ thrown in? Love your stuff.

CAUTION! WARNING! CONTAINS MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, AND SUICIDE TRIGGERS! Read at your own peril!

Yang sat in the dining hall, lookingover the employees who had been able to crawl out of bed, noting justhow utterly miserable most of them looked. It was probably one of theworst cases of the flu that had ever gone around their Monarchfacility, hitting most of the security guards, a good amount ofresearchers, and almost all of the Faunus. The handful of employeeswho were either cleared to work or had been spared of the virus wereworking harder than ever to keep everything afloat, but some of themwere already starting to show signs of exhaustion.

Blake sat at the table across from herwith no lunch tray, flopping her head into the table with a groan.“You finally got it too, huh?” Yang teased.

Very tired amber hues met her ownlilac. “How in the flying fuck did you not get it?”

Yang flexed her very defined arms witha grin, “I work out, eat my veggies, and am lucky as shit.”

Blake lift her arm from her side tothrust her middle finger at her girlfriend, groaning at how ill shefelt. How could Yang be so okay while she felt like she was dying?Damn Neon and Sun for getting her sick. And damn Yang for not beingas miserable as her.

Nora sat down with a bowl of broth onher tray, Ruby grinning at the ungodly large plate of cookies on herown; she must have bribed Junior to get him to give her so many.“Just got cleared for work.” Nora commented idly, slowlysipping on her broth. “God, I hated being bedridden.”

Yang grimaced at her friendapologetically. “Really glad I missed this bug. Seems reallynasty.”

“Well,” Blake grumbled, herears a bit limp, “when everyone lives and works in one place,everything that goes around has the chance to get worse. Not tomention it has the peds unit to mutate it. Probably why almost all ofus got it.”

The others nodded a bit blearily,chatting while others sulked at how terrible they felt. Cinder walkedby, coughing as her skin glistened with a bit of sweat, nodding atCardin as he waved at her tiredly, grumbles and coughs erupting atrandom around the room.

“Yang…” Blake ground out,tugging on her uniform sleeve. “Yang, can you take me back downto peds? Really want to rest up before feeding later.”

“Yeah, of course.” She stoodup, helping to haul Blake to her feet. “Let’s go. You look likeshit.”

“Fuck you.”

“When you feel better, sure. Untilthen, let’s go.”

Nora made teasing kissing sounds, Rubypretending to wretch as the pair made their way out past Coco, slowlywalking towards the elevator. “Let me know if you need to puke,okay?” Yang whispered kindly, “I’ll carry you to a trashcan, or something.”

“Nnn..” Was the non-committalsound in reply.

Yang grimaced as she hurried towardsthe door to the elevator, hitting the button a bit more forcefullythan was needed; Blake really didn’t look good, and she had nointention of being puked on. She loved her, but not enough to bewilling to wear her vomit. The doors dinged open, Yang leading thesomewhat heaving Faunus into it before pressing the button forbasement two.

The doors slid closed, Yang sighing toherself as they began the descent down five floors, looking up at thescreen in frustration. If her glare could hasten the machine, theywould already be in the Faunus living area by now, Blake being tuckedinto her bed.

“Almost there….” Shemuttered soothingly as the screen illuminated basement one.

Blake heaved again, pushing away fromYang as she attempted to vomit twice, bent double. “Hairball?”Yang tried to tease, her tone a little worried.

Suddenly, Blake slammed her hand intothe emergency stop button, cracking the plastic button as shetrembled. The elevator jarred to a halt caught between floors, bothof them swaying slightly.

“Blake, what the hell?”

“Yang…” She whimpered,heaving again. “I’m sorry….”

Yang tried to find a button to restartthe elevator, brow furrowed in irritation. “It’s fine. You’resick, mistakes happen. Let’s get this bucket going so we can get youlooked after, sweetie.”

The Faunus used the sleeve of herblouse to wipe away the sweat from her brow, shaking her head. “No…Y-yang, it’s…. it’s time…”

Yang jerked around to look at her inconfusion. “Whoa. Did I get you knocked up last week? Time forwhat? Giving birth?”

Blake’s body shook softly, a softsniffling revealing that she was crying, holding herself tightly, asif afraid. “No…. It’s…. Yang, it hurts…..” Shewhimpered, looking up at her girlfriend.

Yang felt her breath catch painfully asher stomach plummeted to her feet. Blake’s eyes had a very faint tintof red, small plates growing along her left cheek. She was changing,but for the first time, it wasn’t a jarring one; it was a slow,gradual one. A torturous one.

Blake whimpered in pain as anotherplate forced itself through her skin, this time above her eyebrow,snapping her out of her shock. “Blake! Blake hang on, okay?!”She looked around the elevator frantically for….. she had no idea,but she needed to find something to fix her. “Please, we have toget you to the medics. This….. This isn’t like the other mutations.We could reverse it!”

Blake looked up at Yang, silentlycrying. “No…. It’s…. I’ve felt it…. I knew since I askedyou to take me back…” She cried out in pain as another plateburst from her forearm, tearing at her shirt sleeve. “Yang!Yang, please! It hurts!”

Yang took firm hold of Blake, drawingher tightly into her own body, locking her into an embrace. She shookher head, tears burning her eyes. “No, no… I can’t. Ican’t, Blake. I can’t kill you…. Please, you have to fight it. Youhave to beat this.”

“I’m… trying.” Sheground out, shrieking when another plate sprouted from her skin, thistime her back. “I can’t! I can’t, Yang!”

“Yes, you can! You have to,Blake!” Yang demanded, her own face streaked with tears. “Ican’t lose you!”

Blake’s body shook violently, trying topush away her lover, the red hue of her eyes growing steadily moreapparent. “It’s…. I can hear it pulling at my mind…. Yang,it hurts! Yang, please make it stop!”

Yang stood and began franticallybeating on the metal doors, screeching, “Help us! Please,someone help us! Somebody, get this thing moving! Blake needshelp!”

“YANG! Yang, please make itstop!”

Yang began to slam her own body intothe doors in a blind panic, desperate for someone, anyone, to helpthem. “SOMEONE PLEASE GET THIS THING MOVING! BLAKE NEEDSHELP, PLEASE!”

“Yang! Yang, can you hearme?!”

Yang froze at the voice coming throughthe metal doors, looking upwards for the source. “Yes! I hearyou, Director!” She didn’t care that the woman wasn’t callingher by her last name like usual; the sound of her voice was like arope to a drowning man.

“Talk to me, Yang! What’s going onin there? We’ve pried open the doors and are trying to manually pullyou to our floor!” Weiss shouted, her voice slow, deliberate,and even. “When the emergency stop activated, it blew one of thepanels, and we are working to get you out!”

“Blake’s hurting! She needs help!”She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t say the truth; she couldn’t bearbeing told to execute the woman she loved.

“Keep her stable! We’re doingeverything we can! Blake, hang in there, understand? I need youto hang on for me.”

They heard a creak as something forcedthe cables to slowly move the car upwards, one fraction of an inch ata time. Yang hurried back to Blake, her heart almost exploding withrelief; they would be pulled out of the car, and someone would saveBlake. Someone had to be able to fix this.

Blake pawed at the band around her arm,hissing in pain. “Arm… Arm hurts…. Why does it–AAAUUUUGHHH!”

Another plate burst from her back,tearing a large hole in her shirt. Yang was panicking, not knowingwhat to do to stop the mutation. “DIRECTOR, PLEASE HURRY!”

“We’re trying! Yang, keep hercalm!”

The voice was a bit closer now, louder,clearer. “Hang on, Blake.” She pleaded through a soft sob,cradling the shaking Faunus in her arms. “Just a few moreminutes, okay? They’ll get us out of here.”

“Yang….” Blake croaked out,her glowing red eyes full of a hollow pain, tears pouring from them.“Yang, please…. Please kill me…” She gasped outa sob as a group of plates slid out along her jaw, the sound hoarsefrom her earlier screams. “Please…. Don’t let them see mebecome a monster.”

Yang shook her head, pressing theirforeheads together firmly. “No, please. Please don’t give up…You can beat this, I know it.”

Blake shook her head once, slowly. “No.I can’t.” She took one of her hands as plates sprouted along it,jerking in pain as she placed it on Yang’s gun, whispering weakly,“Please, end it.”

Yang tried to take Blake’s hand off ofit, shaking her head frantically, sobbing hard enough to wrack herbody from the force as she looked between Blake’s face and theirhands on her weapon. “No. No, no, no, please no….” Shebegged piteously. “Don’t make me do this…”

“Yang! Blake! Just a few moreminutes, okay?”

“HURRY UP, PLEASE!”Yang shrieked in desperate fear as she looked at the door, not caringif the whole building heard her crying.

Blake took advantage of Yang’smomentary lapse of focus, freeing the gun and putting it in herlover’s hand. “Yang, Yang please. Let me die as me.”Her lower lip quivered harshly, her voice wrought with sorrow andfear, “I don’t want to die a monster. I don’t want to kill youtoo. Please, please kill me before I change completely.”

Yang could feel Blake guiding herweapon towards her chest, aiming it at her own heart. She was sobbingtoo hard to fight the pull, barely able to see Blake’s face throughthe fog of tears in her eyes. “I can’t!” Shesqueaked between shuddering breaths.

“You have to, Yang.”Blake tried to take a breath in to steady herself, but she could onlycry harder. “I’m begging you; let me die as Blake. Let me die asthe one you love.”

Yang sagged in defeat against Blake,nodding weakly. Her hand was shaking, her face a mess of tears, snot,and her own hair stuck to it all, her vision barely clear enough tosee her lover when she pulled back slightly. “I… I l-love you,Blake…. Oh God, I love you. I love you.” She whimpered in achoked sob over and over again. Maybe if she told her that she lovedher enough, it would save her. Maybe it would give her the strengthto stop the impossible.

“I love yuh-you too, Yang.”Blake replied with just as much desperation in her words.

Yang leaned in, offering Blake one lastpassionate kiss as she pulled the trigger, the gun firing directlyinto her heart with a horrifically loud boom of thunder. The soundlasted a second, Blake gasping against Yang’s lips, jerking in shockat being shot as the scent of gunpowder wafted from the weapon. Forseveral moments, Blake’s eyes were wide with fear, pain, and a glintof regret, her bucking body locked against Yang’s by the crushinggrip of the arm wrapped around her shoulders. But then, she wheezed,took three shallow breaths, thrashed only once, and went still as ahushed breath left her body.

Yang remained frozen as she sobbed intoBlake’s lips, finally pulling away to wail in grief as Weiss shoutedat her through the door, rocking Blake’s body in her arms.

“I said get that damn door openthis second!” Weiss shouted in desperate fury to Neptune andScarlet.

The gunfire had caused everyone tofreeze before jumping them into double time, and Weiss hated how slowprogress had been. Her digital bracer had notified her of the rise ofBlake’s mutonin levels, and she had managed to grab Pyrrha on her waydown to peds, only to have it go off again about the elevatormalfunctioning. It had become a race against time, which now shefeared they had run out of.

“Yang! Yang, we’re going to pryopen the door!” Muffled sobs were her only reply from theelevator car. “YANG, ANSWER ME!”

When there was still no verbal reply,Weiss tore the crowbar out of Sun’s hands, thrusting it between thedoors and shoving at it. “Help me, damn you!” She snappedat Neptune, watching him jerk into action hastily.

Together, they slowly pried open theelevator, a gaggle of onlookers gathering curiously. Weiss forced herhands into the gap, wrenching it open with all the might in her smallframe, Neptune joining her to fully uncover the terrible scene.

Yang was wrapped around a partiallymutated Blake, sobbing and rocking the corpse in sorrow, bloodsplattered across the floor and Yang’s uniform pants from what had tobe the bullet wound. Weiss turned abruptly, shoving Neptune away.“Get back! Just get back, all of you!” She commanded to himand the horrified crowd.

Slowly, cautiously, she walked towardsYang, placing a hand on her shoulder very gently. “Yang, lether–” Yang slapped away the hand and released the body, surgingto her feet and spinning to face Weiss, her eyes wild, gun still inher hand as she staggered out into the hall. “Yang! Yang,please, look at me.”

Yang sniffled, squeaking and whimperingas her eyes darted around, her body twitching. Weiss had to be verycareful as she stepped towards her, hands held where Yang could watchthem. She moved to put Yang’s back to facing the elevator, her voicesoft and even as she spoke, “Yang, it’s me. It’s Weiss Schnee.Tell me what happened, please.” Yang started to turn to face thebody, Weiss leaning forwards to catch her attention. “Ah, ah.Focus on me, Yang. Please focus on me, and tell me whathappened.”

Yang looked around the floors andwalls, clearly in a state of shock. “Blake…. She….. ohGod…. She was sick. Flu, she caught the flu.” Shelooked at Weiss’ shoes, focusing on them to ground her. “Sheasked me… asked me to take her back to…. back to peds. She didn’tfeel good, she s-said.”

Weiss moved a fraction of an inchcloser, managing to get Yang to walk farther away from the elevator.“Keep going, please. I know it’s hard, but I need you to keepgoing.”

Yang nodded absently, her eyes now onWeiss’ necklace. “She got worse. Hit the…. She hit theemergency stop button. She started….. changing….” Herheartbroken eyes met Weiss’ concerned ones. “She startedchanging, Director!”

Another slow step. “It took awhile, it seemed like. Is that true?”

A slow, shaking nod as a sob leftYang’s lips. “It wasn’t…. Wasn’t like before. Took ages. Shewas hurting so bad.”

“I’m sorry, but did she sayanything unusual, Yang?”

“Sh-she could feel it in herhead…. She was so scared…. Even her band was hurting her….”She looked at Weiss desperately, trembling from shock and sobs, thegun in her hand clattering vaguely. “I didn’t want to! I didn’twant to kill her! She kept begging me!”

Weiss’ eyes were full of compassion andempathy. “You loved her, I know.” Yang started to turntowards the body again, Weiss inclining her head, “Yang, focuson me. That’s it. I need you to come with me, okay? I need you totalk to me in my office.”

Yang nodded, taking a shudderingbreath. She took a step away from the bloody scene, complying withthe gentle order.

“Yang?” Ruby’s voice chirpedfrom the crowd. “Oh my God….. Blake? Blake!”

Weiss inhaled sharply as she watchedthe barely held together woman turn towards the elevator, looking atthe body of her lover once more. Yang went both rigid and limp,taking several shallow, panicked breaths in, not able to trulybreathe at the sight before slowly turning towards Weiss again.

She saw the exact moment that all thelight fled those lilac eyes, the dead, hollow blankness replacing it.

She saw the exact moment that herbreathing seemed to ease; a slow steady exhale replacing the uneasyones.

She saw the exact moment that Yang madeher choice, rooted to the floor helplessly, moving as if in slowmotion to raise her arms and stop her.

She saw the exact moment Yang broke,and all will to live had left her.

Yang swung the gun up to her head witha vacant, haunted expression, pressing the muzzle to her temple.

“Yang, noooo!” Weissscreeched, her plea and the screams of the crowd cut off by themighty crack of gunfire, the bullet exploding through Yang’s skull.

The blood, bone, and brain sprayed ontothe corridor wall beside Yang, her body dropping to the floorheavily, her eyes still open, staring at nothing from a tear streakedand bloody face.

“YANG!” Ruby cried outin horror, suddenly rushing forward only to be caught by Weiss.“Yang, NO! Yang, please no! No, no! YANG NO,NO, NO!”

Weiss struggled to keep the youngerresearcher from escaping her grip, looking at the crowd that waswatching in horror. “Get out of here! All of you, get out!”She raged, then turned to Pyrrha, “I want them all out of thisdamn corridor! Seal it off!”

Pyrrha nodded, turning towards the nowretreating group. “You heard her! Get out now! I don’t care whatfloor you go to, just go!”

Weiss held Ruby firmly as the womandropped to her knees from sobbing, whispering softly to her in anattempt to save just one life out of this whole mess.

Weiss sat at her desk tiredly, a filein front of her as the other directors joined the conference call,her screen showing more and more faces until the company directorOzpin appeared in the center of the ten others.

“Good afternoon, everyone.”He stated.

“Good afternoon.” Theychorused back, all clearly attentive.

“This meeting is in directresponse to the incident at facility number five, four days ago.Director Schnee,” both Weiss and Winter looked up before theelder woman realized it wasn’t for her to reply to. “you saythat there was an anomaly in the mutation when one of your Faunuschanged. Number 583906; Blake Belladonna, I believe.” He readfrom a paper, likely the report Weiss had sent to him.

Weiss opened the folder in front ofher, everyone now watching her via the video feed. “Yes. Itappeared that the change had been unusually slow, giving the lateGuard Yang Xiao Long time to prevent her from fully changing. Theemotional toll did become too much for her, however, and she…. tookher own life very shortly after explaining what had happened.”

Ozpin waved off the information of theguard. “Yes, yes, very noble and tragic. But did the Faunus haveany warning signs?”

“That’s nearly impossible todetermine, Director. She had the flu, as did most of my facility. Anywarning signs that may have arrived were easily covered by the virus.And, as in my report, Yang said that it was a sudden change after noother signs. But, as mentioned, any signs were likely masked by theflu symptoms.”

Ozpin nodded sternly, taking a deepbreath as he looked up on the screen. “These Faunus gave becomean increasing liability. It’s too much risk, not enough reward, andfrankly, the creation process takes too long. As of this moment, allMonarch facilities are to terminate all of the Faunus, and dispose ofall MUTOs. This is a class one directive.”

Weiss frowned, tilting her headslightly. “I…. I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve never fired a Faunusbefore. Is there a specific form I use?”

Almost all of the other directorschuckled, Winter sighing, “No, Weiss. You don’t fire them.You’re to dispose of them. They have to be exterminated to protectthe facilities, and the world.”

Weiss frowned, but nodded slowly. “I…I understand.”

“Director Schnee’s naivete aside,”Ozpin drawled, “I will be going around with the Elder Schnee topersonally ensure one hundred percent compliance with the newdirective. I will be starting in two days time with facility five. Iexpect to see everything in order, am I understood?”

“Yes, Director.” They allchorused again.

“Very good. Winter, you’ll findyour itinerary has changed, and you are to catch the six thirtyflight to the Richmond facility. You’re promoted to my personalassistant effective immediately.”

“Thank you, Sir. It’s an honor.”

Ozpin nodded in acceptance. “Verywell. Begin the termination, and I will see Director Schnee in twodays time. Good day.”

He vanished moments before thedirectors all logged off in near synchronized timings.

Weiss sat at her desk silently, handsclasped under her chin as she glowered at nothing. For severalminutes, she remained like that, until with a heavy sigh, she pulledopen a drawer in her desk. Inside lay a silver revolver, intricatelydecorated with whirling filigree and snowflakes, the mother of pearlhandle shimmering innocently at her. For a moment, Weiss looked atthe gun blankly, flinching as the sound of Yang’s gunfire echoedacross her mind. Slowly, as if trying to steel her resolve, shereached in and took a hold of it before looking at the phone on herdesk; it took another few minutes before she could bring herself tostart the page.

“Attention all security staff;report to my office immediately. All security staff, report to myoffice.”

As she set the phone back onto thecradle, she placed her gun in front of her, resuming her position ofher hands clasped under her chin in contemplation. Soon, one by one,security began filing in, standing at attention before her, untilthere was no one left to wait for.

“We have received a new directive,level one.” She stated blandly. “As of this moment, we areto terminate all MUTOs, both creatures and Faunus.”

Coco shoved her way to the front, pasther clearly also unwilling coworkers. “You’re telling us that wegotta kill the Faunus? You want me to kill Velvet?” She snarledin fury, “No fucking way. Take your directive and shove it upyour ass.”

Weiss locked eyes with Coco. “Youwill do as I tell you, Coco. Now, quiet.”

Coco slammed her hands on Weiss’ desk,baring her teeth like a rabid animal. “Quiet? Go fuck yourself. I’mnot going to do it, and I won’t let you hurt any of the Faunus.”

“Adel, I am warning you…”Weiss hissed, looking at Neo. The smaller woman nodded and moved tostand behind Coco, simply waiting.

When the guard surged forwards as if toattack Weiss, Neo lunged as well, grabbing her and wrestling her toher knees. “Torchwick, get her to the cells. She’s staying thereuntil she cools off and we’re finished.”

Neo nodded and began to drag theshouting, struggling Coco from the room, Cardin moving to help hertake her to the cells by the incinerator. “YOU FUCKINGMURDERER!” The woman screeched before the door shut, cuttingoff anything else into a muffled yell.

Weiss sat rigidly at her desk, as ifher resolve was near breaking point. It was clear that her staff wasnot happy about what they had been told, but they knew that they hadno choice in the matter; her word was law. She took in a slow, steadybreath in, releasing it in a measured fashion, and then inhaledagain. Finally, she spoke, her voice firm and leaving no room forcompromise, “Ozpin and Winter will be coming to ensure onehundred percent compliance in two days. So, we need to get started.These are your orders.”

#MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH #death tw #suicide triggers #rwby quick fic requests #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #wiess schnee #muto au #dark as fuck

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precuredaily · 4 years ago

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Precure Day 197

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 48 - “Hope VS Despair: The Final Showdown!” Date watched: 16 June 2020 Original air date: 20 January 2008 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/nfV2ySD Transformation Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/6k6SzS0 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Fly, my monkeys!

When we left off, the girls were fighting Kawarino in the Nightmare Colosseum. He tossed the girls around in a show of strength, and he managed to manipulate Milk into despair so he could place a Nightmare mask on her. Despariah used the Dream Collet to restore her youth, rendering it useless. Nightmare hasn’t completely won yet, but they’re damn close to it. How will our girls get out of this?

The Plot

As Despariah revels in her new eternal youth, Kawarino taunts the Precures that all hope is lost for them, and all that’s left is despair. They’re beaten, battered, and bruised, but nonetheless, Dream finds the energy to stand up and declare that she will never despair, and she lunges at Kawarino. However, he knocks her back into the ground, and then throws around the other cures, until they’re all collapsed on the ground, barely able to move. Notably, a bead bracelet lands beside Rouge.

He mocks the Precures and points out that even if they somehow beat the odds and manage to defeat him, they still have no way to restore the Palmier Kingdom, so they’re fighting for nothing. Throughout all of this, Coco and Nuts can’t do much but watch, and through tears they thank the girls for everything they’ve done to help them so far. Then they turn and face Kawarino themselves, but he blows them away with minimal effort while smirking. He pulls out five pieces of the black paper and throws them at the girls, where they land on the ground and quickly expand to encompass them. He explains that this is the Darkness of Despair, which picks up on people’s hopelessness and traps them forever. It surrounds Rouge, Lemonade, Mint, and Aqua, but it’s slow to cover Dream, the Precure of Hope. She uses the last of her strength to barely stand up, and tells Kawarino that she never wants to feel the way she felt when all her friends were captured and had the masks put on them, and she knows they’ve always pulled through when they banded together. This slightly stirs something in her teammates, but Dream collapses from exhaustion while Kawarino continues to taunt.

This time, however, it’s Rin’s turn to be inspirational. She stares at the bracelet and starts talking weakly to Karen, admitting that she finally found a dream for herself after discovering that she enjoyed making accessories. Karen sits up a little bit and admits to Rin that she also found a calling, after helping Milk made her realize she wants to help the sick and injured of the world by becoming a doctor. The other girls sit up and get in on the chatter, with Urara admitting that her friends helped her realize that she could pursue and enjoy singing as a second goal aside from her acting. Komachi chimes in that her novel, Pirate Hurricane, won an award and she attributes it to the help she got from everyone. To return the favor, she wants to put all her effort into making her next story one that everyone can enjoy, and tells them about her shared promise with Urara to create a story for her to perform in when she’s a better actress.

Now that they’re all talking about their dreams for the future, they’re not despairing anymore, and the Darkness of Despair begins to retreat away from them as they stand up, declaring that they need to see these dreams through to fruition. Together, they can do anything, so they won’t give up on their dreams, and they will rebuild the Palmier Kingdom! Coco and Nuts are overjoyed to see them recover, and after a group pose the girls charge Kawarino. He tries to shoot dark energy at them but they dodge and deflect it, coming together for a five-way kick on the chameleon monster!

He knocks them away, slamming them into the walls of the coliseum, and then tries to drown them in despair with the black paper again, but this time, they just stand up and break out of it. Kawarino starts to crack, worrying that the Precures won’t follow “their” path, as he glances at the masked employees packing the arena. Dream starts to realize what’s going on and he takes this chance to try to reclaim the high ground as he reveals that Nightmare’s rank and file are none other than the inhabitants of the Palmier Kingdom! However, this doesn’t have the desired effect. Instead of being upset at seeing what’s happened to their citizens, Coco and Nuts are instead relieved to learn that they’re alive and safe. They launch into speeches about how hurt and lost they were when they thought everyone and everything they loved were gone, and how the five lights of the Precures restored their hope and optimism and faith in other people. At this point, Milk twitches a little, and Despariah, still watching from her throne, glances at the small fairy.

The Princes of Palmier continue to encourage their citizens to believe in the precure and shake off the depression, since they’ve all experienced the power of their hope firsthand during the girls’ visit to Nightmare, and they go on to say that with all the people, they won’t need the Dream Collet to rebuild after all. One of the audience members sheds a tear and a crack forms along its path, and then Milk begins to cry through her mask before breaking out of it. Kawarino is flabbergasted, and looks up at Despariah for guidance. She merely glares at him disapprovingly.

if looks could kill (and the award for original caption goes to..... not PCD)

Desperate to regain his boss’s rapidly declining approval, Kawarino grumbles about how hard he tried to lead the girls to despair, and then yells that he’s done playing around and he’ll destroy everything they love. He attaches five sheets of black paper to himself directly (as opposed to in mask form) and begins to grow. He grows to fill the Colosseum, much like Girinma all those episodes ago, but the difference is that when Kawarino is done mutating, he still has his consciousness and his appearance is exactly the same, just larger. Undeterred, the girls fight on, managing to land a few blows on his body, and they help each other avoid his various attacks.

Their teamwork inspires Milk to turn to the bystanders, Nightmare’s employees, and encourage them to have hope. The team performs a rush on Kawarino, each performing their special attacks in turn. Mint Shield protects Mint and Aqua from his tails, Aqua Tornado focuses his attention, Rouge Burning and Lemonade Shining blind him, and then a Crystal Shoot to the face knocks him back. This display of Precure’s power to reject despair is enough to push the employees over the edge, and their masks begin to break one after the other. The fairies of the Palmier Kingdom fill the stands and Milk directs them to send their energy to Precure.

no miracle lights needed

The team bathes in the light of thousands of hopes and dreams as Despariah watches in disgust and Kawarino loses his composure. Milk joins Nozomi as the team begins to perform Precure Five Explosion, now glowing with the light of hope. Kawarino tries to resist, but the power overwhelms him, and as he’s overcome, he looks over to Despariah one last time, hoping for her to acknowledge him and save him. However, she merely smirks, and he dissolves into sheets of black paper.

He died as he lived: a simp

The fairies flood the arena, surrounding the Precures, Coco, Nuts, and Milk, and it’s a joyful reunion, but short lived, as Despariah rises from her seat. She remarks on the fearsome power that the girls possess to destroy Kawarino and shatter all the masks of Nightmare, and then says she’ll show them true despair! (how many more despairs are there?) The coliseum falls into darkness, and hundreds of vaguely humanoid Kowaina, with Despariah’s old mask, begin to emerge from the shadows. Coco and Nuts usher the citizens to safety, and the Kowaina charge forward at Despariah’s command, surrounding the Precure, as she gleefully tells them to taste true despair to their hearts’ content! With that, the screen fades to black.

The Analysis

This whole arc is the absolute peak of what makes Precure so good, but this episode in particular stands out among the three parts of the finale. The girls start out at the lowest possible low. It looks like the bad guys have won. They can’t use the wish of the Dream Collet, Milk has been cast into despair, their greatest enemy has had her strength restored, and Kawarino is proving to be a very tough opponent himself. It really seems like there’s no hope left for the girls, but nonetheless, they press onward. They manage to find light in the darkness, and their perseverance weakens their opponents and awakens their allies. The strength of their hope leads them down a path to achieving their dreams even in the greatest adversity and lets them weaken their opponents. They eliminate Kawarino and the entire Nightmare employee base, leaving only Despariah herself to be reckoned with. It’s such an incredible turnaround from where the last episode ended, the team climbed out of nothingness and they’re nearly at the summit of the mountain.... or so they thought, as the episode ends with Despariah finally taking matters into her own hands. It’s an ending that leaves you worried, but at the same time, the girls have overcome everything else that stood in the way of their dreams, surely they can overcome this too.

I’m really glad that Rin and Karen’s subplot about being unsure about their futures is used as the turning point of the episode. It would be easy to have Nozomi give another inspiring speech about hope, but instead, they use the two girls who have the least concrete ideas of what they’re aiming for in life and build on that. They fulfill a season’s worth of character growth, with Rin explaining she wants to make fashion accessories while Karen wants to be a doctor. Since the major theme of the show is dreams against despair, it’s so emotionally satisfying to have the conclusion of their arcs, where they find their dreams, as the foundation of the team’s revitalization. The two girls have finally found what they want to strive for, and they won’t let Nightmare get in the way of them achieving those goals, so they inspire each other and that inspires Urara and Komachi to talk about how their dreams have evolved since the start of the series, and now they all have a bright future worth fighting for and nothing can take that away from them! They encourage and uplift each other and they have each other’s backs, so despair has no room to take hold anymore. And that moment, when Kawarino realizes he can no longer bring them to despair, is wonderful.

There are two aspects of this episode I absolutely love, and they are closely related to each other: The first is how the girls keep fighting and manage to inspire the Palmier citizens out of the darkness. The other is Kawarino’s rapid downward spiral, culminating in his defeat. They are inversely connected and represent a major theme of this arc, and possibly the entire series, which I’ve only realized this late: control vs partnership. Kawarino just wants control: control over his underlings, and control over the Precures. When the girls’ unshakable support for each other snaps them out of despair, he has no other tools to control them with, and their teamwork trumps his individuality. He tries to use the truth about Nightmare’s rank and file being the residents of the Palmier Kingdom against them, but it backfires and he loses his control over them as well, and the combined teamwork between all the fairies giving their power to the Precure is Kawarino’s ultimate undoing. Conversely, the girls rise higher and higher once they realize Nightmare no longer holds any power over them, and they work in harmony to thwart Kawarino and free their allies. Nothing symbolizes this better than their final rush on the giant Kawarino before they perform Five Explosion. He is clearly powerful, but they manage to get the jump on him by deflecting his attacks and pulling his attention in all different directions before Dream knocks him back and leaves him open for the finisher. Also, I believe this is the first time all five of them have used their Symphony Set attacks together with no stock animation.

The fairies also get some great speeches in. When Kawarino reveals the truth about the Palmier citizens, both he and the audience expect Coco and Nuts will despair from this, but instead they turn it around into gratefulness and explain how great the Precures are, and why everyone can rely on them. It’s this particular speech that breaks Milk’s mask, and then she turns around and gives her own inspiring speech to the crowd about how she could do it and so can they, because the Precure need their support. These efforts further the ideas of hope and trust in your friends being stronger than control or despair.

The rapid escalation of events after the girls free themselves from despair is great, because it reinforces the idea that dreams and friends are the key to overcoming everything. It also contrasts nicely with Kawarino’s fall. It's a battle of control against partnership, and when Kawarino stops being able to control the girls, he loses his edge. He has always sought Despariah’s approval, but as soon as he loses his control, he gets sloppy and inadvertently gives the forces of hope more ammunition when he reveals that the Nightmare masked employees are actually the citizens of Palmier. This is supposed to be his trump card, but Coco and Nuts turn it around and use it as a source of hope against him. As he stops being able to overpower the Precures, he quickly loses favor in Despariah’s eyes, and he realizes how little she really cares for him. Since his entire character up to now has been built around his adoration for her and winning her favor, this revelation that he’s actually as disposable to her as the other Nightmare subordinates is beautiful tragic irony.

Now that Kawarino has assumed his monster form and his giant form, I want to revisit all of Nightmare and compare what he did differently from his predecessors.

Girinma

Arachnea

Gamao

Bunbee

Hadenya

Bloody

Kawarino

I don’t remember if I pointed this out before, this project has been underway for a long time and I can’t remember everything I wrote, but all the animals that Nightmare represents are predators of butterflies, which is some excellent symbolism. But what I’m really here to discuss is their transformation between their normal and black mask forms (where applicable). For Girinma, Arachnea, Gamao, and Hadenya, who all donned black masks, they were mutated into giant and more monstrous versions of their bodies, and lost sapience, seeming to revert to a more feral mindset. Kawarino, however, didn’t apply a black mask, but rather the black paper that was previously shown to become black masks, and is now revealed to be concentrated despair. He applied 5 strips of it to his body, which caused him to grow and swell similarly to the others, but when he was finished, he retained his same body proportions and his intellect, essentially just becoming larger, and presumably stronger. It is very telling that he’s not willing to subject himself to the torture he put his subordinates through, which really describes his whole character. He’s willing to force others around, because he considers them disposable, but he protects his own well-being so he can have a future with Despariah, only to realize too late that she doesn’t value him any more than he valued his subordinates.

Despariah herself is enjoyable to watch in this episode for that same reason. Even though she’s now restored her youth and could presumably stomp the Precures herself, she chooses to just sit back and watch Kawarino do what he does, only offering occasional commentary and dirty looks. She really does just see it as entertainment, presumably because she believes that Kawarino has it in the bag, and if he doesn’t, she can step in without issue. She doesn’t really care about Kawarino except that he makes her job easier, so the colosseum setting is actually very fitting in that regard, because the life or death fight between her warrior and her enemies is just a show for her. By putting her a little closer to the action but still acting as a passive observer, the show actually manages to make her more threatening than she was when she basically cooped up in her office, because now we can actually see her and her reactions, and her indifference to the proceedings is haunting, however, this makes the few reactions she does provide that much more fun. At the end, when she’s the last member of Nightmare still standing, when she decides to get serious and unleashes her army of Kowainas, that’s an incredibly chilling turnaround after the ever more inspiring events of the episode up to that point, in a way only Despariah can deliver.

This episode started with the team at their lowest point, dragged them to the pits of despair, and then pulled right back out as they cheered each other on and inspired an entire kingdom’s worth of people with the strength of their hope. I could write forever about how beautifully inspiring it is for the audience, but it’s not over yet. Their greatest obstacle remains in front of them, and it’s going to take every ounce of courage they have to defeat her. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 kettei!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 #YPC548 #PCD197

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emikostudio2018 · 6 years ago

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Emiko Sheehan 213.463 Fine Arts Research Seminar Martin Patrick

One Lonely Moonchild transmits 70’s Disco vibrations, in hopes of your company.

Is it the Gravity of Darkness that pulls one mind close to another? When there is nothing but longing, can one find comfort in the dark? Gravity is different on the moon, where weight escapes, emotion floods the soul, like the rising and falling of the tides.

This semester I have been exploring through space and time, to bring you the finest experience of a moonchild, low on energy but way high with potential, reverberating sound and colour through a late 70’s disco space vibe. ‘wow, what a change from last year’s work Emiko’ is what you might be thinking, and that wouldn't be wrong at all. This year I have let go of all standards, and preconceived ideas about what I thought good art should be, and what I should be making, this is the era of me making whatever the fuck I want.

I’ve never really had a solid idea in my mind of what kind of artist I want to be, or even just being an artist. I don’t think being an artist or fine art holds the same value in my mind as some of my other peers, maybe. I ended up studying art by convenience really. I didn’t enter the degree with great hopes and aspirations to be an artist, I wanted to do this degree because it looked fun. It’s malleable and creative, which seemed very attractive to me at the time, little did I know that I would be faced with critical theory and self analysis that would destroying any ignorant delusion and blind enjoyment of every kind of media, art and people that I encountered, and there’s no going back to sleep once you woke......it’s not a bad thing though, just more work, that I think makes you a better human probably anyway.

Is this what makes a good artist though? thinking critically and consciously, seeing creative possibility, questioning one's daily life, their environment, the world, the universe. The world is the artists oyster, the universe is the artists seafood chowder. This kind of artistic critical engagement with the cosmos can open portals to good art I think, it can also open portals to existential crisis’ and a cynical glum with the world. For me it leaves me with a niggling feeling of dissatisfaction. I don’t particularly like this human reality, and it shows no signs of redemption. A quick mention to some of the shit things in the world would be; Empiricism, capitalism, consumerism, racism, actually all hierarchical tendencies, waste, pollution, and then all the stuff that spreads from those things... This is not a kind world, this is a human world. It makes complete sense for people outcasted and rejected by society, or those systematically disadvantaged to then reject their reality and look to fictitious predictions of the future, and alternate worlds for comfort and hope. I live a reasonably good life, I’ve never had to go hungry or be homeless, I have a family who love me and good friends, mostly I’m in good health, I get to go to university, I have a loving beautiful man, it's a good life. But I hate the capitalistic systems of the world we live in. I hate systematic racism, I hate the continued effects of colonisation, I hate superiority of knowledge, and established hierarchies, and i feel the effects of these things, not immensely, but enough. This niggling feeling can grow and shrink depending on the day, or the situation, but they never fade, and maybe this is why I am so attracted to science fiction and fantastical stories.

My interactions with sci-fi, happened by chance. I never notice the genre and thought, there’s something I like and want to know all about, probably because it is so broad and hard to define. I haven’t read any of the big classical sci-fi names, I entered through the back door, it just happened that my ex-boyfriends mum was a huge Ursula Le Guin fan, and she successfully converted me to Le Guinism. At a formative time of my life, Le Guin help me to work through a lot of socio-political issues and ideas, and to think critically about them. Through made up worlds with close to home narratives, Ursula Le Guin highlights political issues that we have on earth—such as binary gender norms, and capitalistic greed—as way of critique. This is one of my favourite tools of science-fiction. You can use this fiction to overtly deal to matters in our realities.

One point of difference with Ursula Le Guin than other science-fiction writers, is she does not tell stories of the future, and shies away from the term futurist[1]. So much of science-fiction is prediction of what could happen in the future, given the right/wrong technological/scientific advances. But Le Guin says that she only ever writes about the present, because all we have is the present. I’m guessing her Zen buddhist beliefs, and the tao ching, work their way into this self-analysis.

I think, like most things, I have a very left of centre approach to sci-fi. Being Maori, and having gone through the majority of this degree, somewhat deep in critical thought about art, media, and people in general, I’m always sceptical about what I read/watch/listen to, and like most things, there is a mainstream, dominant voice in science-fiction, which is….. two guesses…...that white male centricity. In some cases, science-fiction has given (fictitiously) justification for ‘othering’ certain peoples and claiming ‘normality’ for some [2]. Narratives that talk about alien invasions, and humanity bonding together for the greater good, can, if you look closer, permit ideas of racism and/or segregation. Scientifically defining what is ‘alien’ or ‘only 2/3rds human’ has lead to nasty behaviors amongst us human animals. This is ofcourse not always the case, and part of the greatness about Sci-Fi is that is can also work in the other direction and highlight issues of racism or classism etc. or dismiss them completely. As a fine arts Major, I am constantly looking at the world and how to respond. Thinking about how to incorporate science-fiction or science-fictiony themes into my art, leads to many fun mind games, basically because there are no limits, or the sky’s the limit, aaaayyyyeeee.

Ursula Le Guin pushed at the boundaries of science-fiction, when there weren’t many celebrated female writers. One of my favourite quotes of hers—which is from her fantasy series, rather than her more classically sci-fi books—is from The Earth Sea quintette, where Tena is talking to Moss, they are discussing the power of men, and Tena asks about the power of women? Moss gives the answer, that is the answer that the patriarchy like to bestow upon women, that women’s power and magic, it is mysterious, who knows where it begins and ends, it is deeper than the roots of trees, and goes back into the dark, who dares question the dark?... to which Tena replies, “I will! I lived in the dark long enough, and I will have the light too!”[3] In this conversation, Tena is answering back to the place that men have left for her, and saying yes, but I’ll will have what you have too. This is what Ursula Le Guin has done in so many of her books, she knew what she wanted, and wasn’t afraid to say it.

I guess this is what makes science-fiction so exciting for me, it is a place that exists, but has no rules, and is free for anyone to use. Movements such a Afrofuturism—or over this side of the world Astronesians—are spaces where minority communities have taken advantage of what science-fiction has to offer.

In a world, a global society that was not built for them, minority groups, such as blacks in America, and people of the pacific, have built their own narratives and worlds through the use of science-fiction, constructing alternative realities. This was what Sun Ra did, around the 1950’s in Chicago. Sun Ra would play with his Arkestra, a big jazz ensemble and preach his vision of peace[4]. Sun Ra had an experience with some extraterrestrials, where he was teleported to Saturn, told to quit university and embrace his alien status to teach America and mainly black people in America how to teleport to saturn, where Sun Ra set up a colony that was peaceful and welcoming to everyone one. He taught his disciples to construct their own narratives through music[5].

Underneath all my experimentations this semester has been a base of writing, and thinking about writing my own narratives and alternate realities. This seemed like a logical step for me, since I started the year off with the main ideas in my head expanding from the idea of ‘Astronesian’ and ‘Space Māori’. It also seemed like a good idea, because I find studying very difficult and fitting my unique creative process into the structure of the 12 week semester doesn’t always work for me, so why not just make up my own shit, and do whatever I want, because who says that I can’t? Collecting terms like ‘Astronesian’ and ‘Space Māori’ gives me a way to feel comfortable in expressing my discomfort, and weird outcast tendencies, I mean you could do this with any genre and area of art, I’ve just chosen a sci-fi approach.

I first heard Coco Solid using the word Austronesian when she came and put on a show in the engine room a couple years ago. I was inspired by the way she approached an exhibition, it wasn’t like anything I had seen before in that space. I volunteered to help, and when I got there, there was big roles of brown paper, printed pictures of coco cream and a life size print out of Steven Adams. I was asked to make a waka out of cardboard and shiny chrome plastic material. Coco Solid wanted a chrome waka like on the cover of The Patea Maori club single, Aku Raukura, a great example of some Space Māori art. The time that Coco Solid had the engine room for was mostly spent most constructing the huge wall collage of things that tied Māori traditional legend to modern day legend’s such as Steven Adams (Coco loves him). The wall had a fresh flavour, a solid political and social stance, while also being fun and collaborative. Coco Solid, just did what she wanted, and everyone else rolled with it. This was an experience that showed me how someone can be in the ‘art world’ and still do whatever they want, not having to necessarily follow the standardised formula of an exhibition. This wasn’t like a hugely defiant exhibition, but it was very much a fun time that coco solid constructed. Using the art system to her advantage aye.

I often am confronted with responsibility, and privilege. I feel like, because I get to spend all of my time making art, and living pretty comfortably, I should be using my time to like, give back to the community or something. I want what I’m doing to be useful and to cause no harm. I think these are good things to keep in mind when making art, but what I need right now, is to develop and grown in myself, have some me art time, and make the things I want to, self love and care, spiritual connections.

So this has sent me on a path of completely new work. its pretty classic Emiko, to up and start a new art practice, that I don’t really know anything about. I begun this semester making video based art, and have ended up in performance, both areas of fine art that I hardly have any experience in. My familiar element is that I am still writing poetry and prose, but even writing as a practice I’ve only been doing seriously for a year. I feel like a child, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing. In this environment, where I have so many resources available to me, why would I only stink to one area of art making. I want to try everything, maybe I’m just indecisive. It sometimes does leave me feeling like I only know a little about everything, but not actually good at anything. In past years, I’ve tried very hard to make things, that I think will be good, and smart, have a political stance, uphold Māori values, I am still doing that, but not overtly. This year, I’ve opened up myself, and I’m serving up all the raw bits of my creative energy, following my spirit journey.

My spirit journey has led me to performance art. When I was in high school, I use to play in a band, I was never that good, but it was fun. My boyfriend at the time—who was also in the band and a natural musical genius—would sometimes make me feel incompetent in my music abilities. After a messy break up—where we probably both made each other feel pretty incompetent as humans—I was left feeling pretty insecure about playing music and performing. Though I think that performer/entertainer inside me has just been hibernating, and maybe now I’ve come full circle. This is the year for indulging all my inner kinks, and not giving a fuck about ex boyfriends.

My final performance for studio this semester was working with themes of isolation, space, the moon, dancing, and language, and of course a telling of these things from an astronesian point of view. It takes me a while to form a coherent idea or narrative of my work, at the beginning of the semester, I only knew that I wanted to go to space with my creations. I looked at artists such as Coco Solid, the Witch Bitch collective, The Pacific sisters, Lisa Reihana, Rosanna Raymond, Patricia Grace, Ursula Le Guin. I began by trying to create fully formed ideas and narratives of how I might put some Maori in space, but that ended up being very difficult. I already knew that I am not someone who creates a complete picture before construction, I work more organically, small particles reveal themselves into the light and slowly come together to form something whole from the dark. I had to step back and send out my aspirations into the cosmos, become an open vessel for celestial vibes to flow in.

This was no easy task, the harshness of this reality has strong gravity, I worked hard at my meditation, with little success. Then I was visited through telepathic fate, by a distant celestial relative. She was from a world very similar to ours, a planet and moon close in size to our own. This wahine lived on the moon of her world, too far away from the earth to have connection to anyone, but close enough to feel all the activity and love and heartache of the people on her earth. This moonchild explained to me that we were like an isotope, we had the same chemical properties, but existed in physically different planes. The moonchild told me how her moon rotates on a interdimensional frequency which picks up signals from any number of planets in the universe. The moonchild had had contact last with our earth in 1978. Sun Ra had actually picked up her frequency, our planet happened to be positioned perfectly to receive her vibrations. The moonchild and Sun Ra exchanged stories and philosophies, culture and relatives they both encountered on their astrological travels. The moonchild played me back a mixtape she had from 1978, amongst the songs on it were; September by Earth wind and Fire, Zodiac Lady by Roberta Kelly, Toon Poo by Yellow Magic orchestra, Oh Honey by Delegation and Diamond in the back by Curtis Mayfield. The moonchild told me of how she was so thankful for the multiplicity of communication she can have with other worlds in the universe, but often loneliness and melancholy brought attention to her isolation on the moon. her longing to be with other people on earth was sometimes overwhelming.

It seemed fortuitous that meeting this moonchild coincided with critique week, and I was able to use this experience to feed into my studio practice. Different to Sun Ra and other Afrofuturist, my performances have not been about preaching a message, or predictions of a better future. Within science-fiction there lies a lot of futuristic thinking, be it utopia or dystopia, but I make no predictions of the future in my work, not yet anyways, My relation to science-fiction, rather than being of the future, is that it is celestial, astrological. It is science-fiction on a personal level. Softcore, space bodies. No advanced technologies, except the moonchild’s moon I guess. This might fall under Arthur C. Clarke's third law, that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic [7].

In the Moonchild’s words, I found many similarities within my own life. Often feeling distant and disconnected from my Japanese whakapapa, because I don’t know that side of my family. I feel like I am away on a moon, not close enough to have grown up ‘Japanese’ but also feeling very ‘Japanese’ at times unexplainably, genetics huh. And then of course the effects of colonisation and not knowing my Māori culture very well, going through the stages of being ashamed of being Māori, understanding where that shame came from, understanding why many Māori are disconnected from their whakapapa and then being proud to be Māori and having to actively engage and learn about my Māori culture—which I am still doing—because so much of it was pushed into the dark. These themes fed into my final performance.

What is in the dark must be a terrifying beautiful collection of things. When the Nazi’s burned thousands of books, they sent them violently in to the darkness. When Maniapoto tribes were under attack and were going to be defeated, they buried their war atua, Uenuku, safely put him in the dark, and he waited there until it was time to come back into the world of light. All the unnamed emotions and inaudible experiences lie in the dark. Though, this is not the kind of darkness a scientist would talk about, but scientists don’t know anything about the dark anyway. We humans know so much about the light, and what lies in the light, but we know nothing of the dark, only what it is not, yet darkness is the biggest entity in our universe. It is undetectable, but because of its gravity, we know it exists [8].

I have been thinking about dark matter and dark energy, the unknown in so intriguing to me. I thought that where science is failing, spirituality must come in, and all this darkness cannot be perceived by scientific technology and thinking, because it is a matter of the heart. The darkness is the love of the universe, eminence and unpredictable, it is the force that unites. The collective consciousness of love that reaches beyond time and space. I found this idea transmitting through my mind one night, and then did some soul searching on google to see if other people have had this idea as well, which they have, I am not the only one [9]. I also found one hypothesis, a scientific one, that dark matter and energy is the gravity of a parallel universe, where there can be no communication between the universes, except for the gravity leakage [10], and this makes sense, because we know from Interstella, that gravity can defy space and time.

Dark matter as the gravity of alternate universes, and dark matter as the uniting love of the universe are both very interesting ideas and things to think about as my art practice continues………….this is the kind of process I go through when I make art. I have let go, and let gravity take me on my spiritual space cadet voyage.

Cited Works

[1] Le Guin, Ursula K.

Words are my matter, writing about life and books, 2000-2016

Easthampton, MA, Small Beer Press, 2016.

[2] Womack, Ytasha L.

Afrofuturism, the world of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Cuture

Chicago, Lawrence Hill Books, 2013.

[3] Le Guin, Ursula K.

Words are my matter, writing about life and books, 2000-2016

Easthampton, MA, Small Beer Press, 2016.

[4] Womack, Ytasha L.

Afrofuturism, the world of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Cuture

Chicago, Lawrence Hill Books, 2013.

[5] space is the place

Sun Ra, John Coney

1974.

[6] Aku Raukura, Patea Maori Club, album cover.

Joe Wylie.

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws

[8] https://futurism.com/images/what-is-dark-matter/

[9] https://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/06/13/dark-matter-and-energy-is-really-love-and-the-urge-to-unite/

[10] http://www.physics-astronomy.com/2015/03/is-gravity-from-parallel-universe.html#.WyNSZlOFPOQ

Bibliography

Coco Solid (Jessica Hensell).

Cokes. Kuini Qontrol, 2018.

http://www.cocosolid.com

DeGrasse-Tyson, Neil & Goldsmith, Donald

Origins, fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution

New York, Norton & company Inc. 2005.

Grace, Patricia.

“Moon story”

Small holes in the silence.

Penguin group, 2006, p. 111-118.

Hau’ofa, Epeli.

“Our Sea of Islands.”

A New Oceania: Rediscovering Our Sea of Islands,

edited by Vijay Naidu, Eric Waddell,

and Epeli Hau’ofa.

School of Social and Economic Development,

The University of the South Pacific,

1994, p. 147-161

Ihimaera, Witi.

Sleeps Standing: Moetu.

Translated by Hemi Kelly,

Penguin Random House New Zealand,

2017.

LeGuin, Ursula K.

The Lathe of Heaven.

St Albans, Panther Books Ltd, 1974

Le Guin, Ursula K.

Words are my matter, writing about life and books, 2000-2016

Easthampton, MA, Small Beer Press, 2016.

Matamua, Rangi.

Matariki: The star of the year.

Auckland, Huia Publishers, 2017

McEvoy, J.P & Zarate, Oscar,

Stephen Hawking, for beginners

Cambridge, Icon Books, 1995.

Meredith, Courtney Sina.

Tail of the Taniwha.

Auckland, Beatnik publishing 2016.

Ngata, Sir Apirana,

P. Te Hurinui editors.

Nga Moteatea.The Polynesian society inc, 1959.

Whaitiri, Reina, and Sullivan, Robert

Puna Wai Korero: An anthology of Maori poetry in English.

Auckland University Press, 2014.

Wilson, Sophie, and Taipua, Dan.

Aotearoa Futurism part one:

Space Maori and Astronesians

Aotearoa Futurism part two:

South Pacific Futurists

www.radionz.co.nz

2015

Womack, Ytasha L.

Afrofuturism, the world of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Cuture

Chicago, Lawrence Hill Books, 2013.

https://fafswagvogue.com

NZ on Air,

2018

Stuff about Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

https://futurism.com/images/what-is-dark-matter/

https://futurism.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-universe/

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/06/13/dark-matter-and-energy-is-really-love-and-the-urge-to-unite/

http://www.physics-astronomy.com/2015/03/is-gravity-from-parallel-universe.html#.WyNSZlOFPOQ

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precuredaily · 5 years ago

Text

Precure Day 160

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 12 - “Protect Urara’s Stage!” Date watched: 23 November 2019 Original air date: 22 April 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/KiGZvA2 Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

When did this become the Precure stage show?

As I indicated in the last review, this is one of those episodes that just really sticks out in my memory, but it turns out I don’t actually remember much about it at all. It’s not as impactful as I recalled, but it represents a step forward for Urara and it has a kickass fight. Let’s get started!

The Plot

Urara has been tapped to host a stage show at an amusement park, which is a big break in her career. She meets her friends at the park, along with her overly prepared manager Washio and Masuko Mika, who’s there to write about her for the paper. Mika and Washio hit it off right away, speculating about where Urara’s career could go from here, culminating in a Hollywood movie and an Oscar nod.

Urara arrives at her rehearsal, goes through wardrobe, and starts going through her routine. Unfortunately the star of the show has had an emergency and called out. Nozomi quickly volunteers to play her part in the show, to save Urara’s debut. Unfortunately, she isn’t a very good actress, but it’s too late to cancel the show now. Outside, we see Girinma handing out fliers for the show and making ominous remarks about its content....

At showtime, the stadium is filled with children and their parents, wanting to see the forest animals show. Nozomi is extremely nervous, despite Urara’s reassurance, and trips and falls during her entrance.

Before she can recover, Girinma drops a mask onto a prop tree, which turns into a giant Kowaina. Out in the crowd, Mika is confused by this strange story direction but the audience all thinks it’s part of the show. (no magical falling asleep here!) Rin, Karen, and Komachi all rush onto stage with Nozomi and Urara but aren’t sure if they should transform with all these people watching. However, Urara’s actor instincts kick in and she tells the audience to look at up just as Karen convinces the stage manager to turn on the spotlights, blinding the audience members momentarily. The girls seize their opportunity and transform into Precure. They fight the Kowaina as the opening theme starts playing, and it’s a very visually spectacular fight as they run, jump, and dive through tree branches and vines to try to land a few solid hits on the monster. It tries to shoot a leaf storm at the audience but Mint blocks it with her shield, and then Girinma tries to attack a nosy Mika, who is protected by Aqua. Dream manages to shoot off a Dream Attack, defeating the Kowaina, as Girinma retreats. There’s a gag during all of this where Washio is worried because he can’t see Urara, and somehow didn’t connect the dots when the five girls transformed on stage.

Mika, recognizing the Pretty Cures from her first meeting with them, takes lots of pictures of the battle and plans to write a piece about them. They’re sure that this time they’re busted, but once again Nuts runs interference, going up to her in his human state and saying hello. The next day at school, all the students are crowded around the newspaper again, and wouldn’t you know, it’s an expose on Nuts and Mika’s fated reunion, with a tiny article about Urara’s stage show at the bottom. Washio comes up and asks Urara to put on that show again, because the Precure fight was a smash hit with audiences, but the other four girls wave it off, and the episode ends.

The Analysis

I don’t know where to start. Urara is giving it her all in this stage show, and she even improvs a bit to keep their cover and distract the audience while they transform. She’s really good at what she does, and she has a promising future as an actor ahead of her. She presents a really energetic performance for the kids and tries to mitigate the danger by making it seem like the monster attack is part of the show. The show must go on, indeed! Additionally, when Nozomi steps up to play the part of the rabbit, despite fumbling in the costume and having trouble with her lines, Urara just rolls with it. I love that all the girls are really rooting for this to work out for her, and during the fight they defend the sanctity of the show and Urara’s part. And honestly, props to Nozomi as well. She’s trying her best here. She’s clumsy and has been kicked out of the drama club before, but her heart is in the right place, and there are no better options so the other three girls agree to help her with cue cards.

there’s a new kaiju in town

The battle itself is action-packed and filled with some dynamic scenes that I will turn into gifs. It’s one of the better fights in this show so far. I love how the girls fly around through the vines and branches, delivering some swift ass-kickings. There is some reused footage from the opening, namely the part where the five girls line up as the song counts off “One, two, three four five!” The kowaina makes itself a difficult target, despite its large size, and that keeps the battle interesting. It takes some work for the girls to actually get to the mask and break it. The large amount of civilians keep the stakes high, as they’re easy targets for a massive attack. This lets us see Mint use her shield in a more interesting way than normal (because I’ll be honest, a lot of the times she blocks the enemy’s attack when she could just dodge). I love getting to see her make use of her strengths. Shield cures are highly situational, but this was a situation in which it was very effective. Also, I liked how Mika’s insatiable lust for a scoop put her in danger. She won’t learn from it, but it’s an action that had nearly fatal consequences because Girinma was out for her head, and it took Aqua intervening to save her. When she did that, she referred to her by name, which might cause Mika to recognize them down the road... I don’t think so but we’ll find out.

Speaking of special attacks, there’s something I want to discuss about them. In the FW shows, the special attack was only ever used as a finisher. They never used Marble Screw or Twin Stream Splash to attack in the middle of a battle, but they do use their special attacks in Yes 5 as both attacks and finishers. Some of their attacks simply don’t work as finishers (I mean, I’d like to see them TRY to finish a monster off with Mint Protection, that’d be cool), and pink rules so you usually see Dream Attack used to take down the monster. What they don’t have is a clear group finisher. That will change, of course, but as long as this persists, I get a sense of inconsistency about what will and won’t destroy a Kowaina. The use of special attacks that aren’t finishers is a bit of a deviation from the original concept but it’s still tame here. I don’t think they ever go too far down this rabbit hole, but it’s worth noting.

This episode manages to mix in a good amount of comedy on the side, without overwhelming the main plot, and I admire the balance. Washio is a fun manager but he is really over-prepared. He appears carrying two giant duffle bags for Urara, despite the fact that her outfit is provided, and among the many things he has brought are some charms for....

Nono Hana could use that last one

He and Mika play off of each other really well, they’ve got a nice comic relief duo schtick going on. Mika, of course, is mainly in this to get a good story for the paper, and having a local celebrity at school is a good outlet. Reporting on her career advancements is a big step up from reporting what she ate for lunch. Both of them readily buy into the fight scene, assuming it’s part of the show and not that there was some kind of actual danger, and Washio is just distressed that Urara has disappeared instead of fearing for his life. At the end of the episode, both of them ramp up the comedy in their own way. Mika’s crush on Nuts has not yet gotten old, and probably won’t for a while yet (don’t quote me on that), so continuing the running gag where she gets distracted from a big story by a chance (or intentional) encounter with him gets a thumbs up in my book. I don’t get tired of seeing Nozomi and Rin’s exasperated faces when they see her reports.

Also, Urara has a nice little gag there where she’s hopping up and down trying to read the paper because she can’t see over their shoulders. I’ll gif that soon.

Urara gets a couple of other moments of note, where she seems to be breaking the fourth wall. At the very start, when she’s sort of practicing her introductory speech to the crowd, she turns to speak to the show’s audience, and Rin questions who she’s even talking to. (Rin makes a good straight man, by the way).

The last gag of note is when Coco and Nuts say they tagged along because you never know when a Pinky could show up.... and then a Pinky shows up right then. Yeah, Pinkies, remember them? They’re kind of supposed to be driving the plot. There’s more of them than there are Heartiels and Miracle Drops combined, yet they’re barely mentioned.

Just some other small observations before I wrap this up, I love everybody’s street clothes in this episode. They’re a little different from what we’ve seen them wearing before.

except for Rin

Urara’s sailor blouse and knee-length skirt make her look a little more mature than her normal attire of puffy shorts and sleeves. The other four are wearing outfits strongly reminiscent of their clothes from the ending. Rin and Nozomi’s outfits are exactly that, except for the butterflies. Komachi and Karen’s outfits are the same as what they wear in the ending, but the colors are a little different.

for reference

And for some reason the art in this episode is very hit-or-miss. A lot of good shots still seem slightly off model. It’s a little jarring, it’s not low-detail (except for one laughably bad frame), it’s just that faces are drawn with warped shapes. Yes I am going to chronicle every time this happens in every show, it’s notable.

What happened here is that they quickly zoomed out to show the whole stage, and they wouldn’t need to show much detail, so to achieve the effect, they started way zoomed in on the cell before pulling back, rather than create a new drawing for one just frame. It’s not really visible when watching.

So, animation stuff aside.... this was a great episode! Since the major theme of this show is finding and chasing your dream, showing each girl’s different progress in that regard is important, and they do it so well. Urara is a bit further ahead than the others, but she still has a lot of work to do to become a famous actor, and her friends want to help her however possible. It’s what this show does best, and this was a fun stepping stone.

Next time, Rin is getting pulled in every direction at once! Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 “kettei” by Nozomi herself, 1 each by Washio and Mika (spoken together)

NOTE: I’m going to come back to add some gifs to this post at a later date. I really wanted to include them the first time around but due to unforseen circumstances, this review was delayed several days past when I wanted to get it out, so I didn’t want to delay it any further. I’ll make a post on @pcd-status when I update this.

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! Precure 5 #YPC513 #PCD160

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