#he sentient house thing was kinda interesting but also after all that the plot seemed easily revolved in the epilogue.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places

contemporary romance with a light paranormal mystery

follows a woman with ESP who gets onto a reality tv show where she has to stay in a mysterious house and document her stay - and every previous occupant has only lasted three days - and she’s determined to figure out what’s going on and get her abilities taken seriously

she’s quickly drawn to a man working on the show, and they begin a relationship - and she gets caught between him (and his cute 10yo daughter) and the house and her career goals

Black ace MC

[dragonherder2030]

Smaugust Day 9: Galaxy

I’m leaving tomorrow morning, my sister is going to look over the farm while I’m away. Echo Bel and Kory are coming with me, they can help with transportation and have separation anxiety. Xandra is showing me her camp, she has many followers, I’m going to be the first lizard to join it. That fact will be kept secret from the rest of the “humans” as to not cause hysteria, she has done the same with herself, hiding herself as an amphibian. I’m bringing my journal, I need to be able to write my thoughts

See you soon, Niki~

*we find out who the narrator is 👀. Another first person written segment, hopefully this one won’t be as long XD. Also, if by the end of Smaugust I feel there are some odd unintended plot holes or threads that need to be resolved I’ll make sure to do so. Ik it’s confusing right now, but I will continue right where we left off on the last writing segment for easiness*

Half my tea was gone in under a minute, it was jasmine green from what I tasted and was made very well.

“Please do explain what you mean by non-lizard kind though… Are you talking Amphibious sentience?” I ask, leaning back on the couch I had been placed on.

“No not sentient Amphibians that walk like us, I mean a species on another planet called Humans. They are a scaleless race with no tails, and can grow fur at an alarming rate. They can be dangerous to us, but not all of them. If you join me you can meet them, but many of them do not have the best interests of the dragons in mind.” Her creature tightened itself onto her neck. Has it experienced these “humans” before?

“Does that planet have dragons too? Also how do you, uh, go to another planet? Do you have access to a rocket?”

“No, I have something much better and easier to fuel… but you have to commit before learning of that. Keep your questions to a minimum till I finish explaining please, it will be easier.” Saying with a small hand wave. I nob in agreement.

“The planet is called earth and is very similar to ours. But dragons do not live naturally there, and have been brought there by a lizard who wanted a new environment for sport hunting, and didn’t get them all… They ended up breeding and creating homes for themselves, few and far apart. I used to monitor and catch some of the dragons to bring them back when I could along with my brother. When he passed I couldn’t do it by myself anymore, so I seeked the assistance of other lizards to return the dragons to their natural habitat. Not many believed me, and those who did I knew didn’t have the intentions of the animals in mind. So, I decided to start recruiting humans using my magic-“

“Wait wait wait, you have magic abilities?” I ask, needing to know more about this.

“Yes I possess magic, I’m no lizard, but we don’t need to know about that for now. All you need to know is that I can give objects the ability to transform a human into a lizard or amphibian sentient if worn, that’s what I can do,” Xandra says with a sigh. I speculate what she could be, and remember a legend about the creation of our world, something similar to that happening, where a being gave sentience to all of the lizards, and later some of the amphibians. There was another part of it where they wiped out a different race beforehand but I couldn’t remember it too well.

Xandra continued her explanation, “I chose humans because they would do the best capturing dragons in the human planet, since they are not killed on sight when seen… The humans I choose were specifically selected by my familiar, Davey here,” She pointed to the amphibian around her neck, it seemed to smile in admiration of its role.

“They are small enough to avoid detection from the humans, and not popular enough to be sought out, and they are very fast. Easily able to escape a human. I’ve gotten quite the following from animal lovers around earth, and luckily most of them speak English or know sign language, Davey doesn’t go far from our camp.”

“What do you guys Uh, do? Do you go to the human world and just, catch the dragons? And why don’t you just tell the humans that the dragons are an invasive species and, I guess take them back?” I ask, confused what I would actually be doing and why the humans are a problem.

Xandra’s calm demeanor shifted, and her eyebrows furrowed, “Most humans want the dragons, but I know they aren’t safe there. They would be hunted for sport and put in cages. I’ve watched them for thousands of years, they will never accept the dragons as any more then a fantasy creature for decoration. And for some reason now there are more being found, species that weren’t brought to earth from that initial leak. There’s another source, someone from this planet that has access to Earth and is exploiting it to bring dragons there. You can help me find them, and allow me to have more allies on this side. Plus the place I’m keeping the dragons isn’t safe anymore, I need somewhere here I can put them with someone to take care of them.” Her voice had raised slightly, this is a subject she is angry about. She must have witness terrible things. I think it’s an amazing idea, I have the whole farm I could keep the dragons. Acres of land I’m not using right now could be put to this. I didn’t care if she was legit or not, I believed her.

“Ok, I’m convinced… I want to help. I have a farm that can serve as a holding place for the dragons until we can bring them to their rightful places,” I say, trying to hide the excitement in my voice. She smiles at me, looking satisfied.

“My camp, it is all humans, they do not know of our reptilian existence, to them they are the last of the reptile kind. So to them, your just another new human recruit. That means,” Xandra gets up, walking towards the closet I had noticed before, “that means that you have to pick out an accessory to simulate the effect of you being a fake lizard.”

I stand up and walk to the closet as well. Xandra escapes into the inside of it, I follow closely. The inside wasn’t meant to hold more then one person, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Along the walls is an array of shirts, jackets, pants, hats, bracelets, necklaces, etc. in every color imaginable.

“Take your pick, it doesn’t matter what it is, other then u will need to be able to wear it for long amounts of time,” she says, picking up a hat and dusting it off, then hanging it back up.

I look around the room, spinning in place, then think of something, “Do you have a piece? How do you hide that your not a lizard?”

She thinks for moment, “Davey helps me with that too, as you know they are my familiar, and they aren’t just any normal dragon either. They become a wonderful necklace whenever I need them to. And when I wear that, I become what they would be if they were a sentient Amphibian,” she explained to me. So far she has shown me no proof of the magic she claims to have, and this seems like a simple test. Even if I was all for the cause, no reason not to speculate.

“Could u show me?”

“Of course,” Xandra said, glancing at Davey. The creature climbed to the front of her neck, then sitting still right there for a few seconds. I await the transformation. Then, they stiffen and fall loose, a small chain connecting to their mouth and tail holding them onto Xandra’s neck. Her body poofs into one of an sentient Olm, her body much longer then previously. I stare up at her in awe, it all must be true.

“Wow…” I say, stunned by the display. She smiles down at me and quickly exits the closet, since she had taken up most the room.

“I need to show u our transportation tomorrow, since it is getting late. You will be seeing the camp, and meeting the members. You may stay for a couple of days to get familiar with them,” she says, looking out the window. I understand her reasoning, my sister can watch over the farm while I’m gone, I’ll be returning there soon with suitable dragons.

I return to looking at the room and behind a puffy jacket is a bronze glimmer. I walk towards it and grab it, it’s a tail ring. A dragon spiraling around a few times. And it’s adjustable, I try it on, tightening it to my liking. I decide it would be to heavy to stay on, and I don’t really like these kinds of jewelry. Placing it back in it’s spot, I try on a few other things, including a puffy jacket(after taking my shoulder armor off), a muzzle, and a necklace with an odd diamond like pendant on it. Then another thing caught my eye, a blue bandana with a cool looking pattern on it. I tie it around my neck, I think this one will work very well.

Exiting the room I look around for Xandra, spotting her on the couch reading a book. Davey was wrapped around her wrist and she was back in her original state.

“I have chosen this bandana!” I announce, walking towards her. She looks up from her reading and smiles brightly.

“Oh wonderful sweet pea, I only ask one more question of you before you go home to rest up for tomorrow,” she says, putting her book down.

“What’s that?” I ask, holding my shoulder armor tightly.

“What’s your name?”

“Oh- oh yeah you don’t know me very well yet. I’m Niki,” I say with a smile. She smiles back at me.

“Thank you hun. One more thing though, if you have any drakes I would recommend you bring them with you, they would help with the travel aspect. Tomorrow won’t be a walk in the park,” she says, picking her book back up. I nod, looking to my left and realizing the door is right next to the couch. I mentally scorn myself for not realizing this sooner, and exit the house. I know these woods, and have seen this cottage before. It looks worn down on the outside, abandoned… but making my way home is easy. It was evening by the time I made it back.

I call my sister, “Hi Bryn, I need you to watch the farm for a few days.”

—————————

This was fun, writing wasn’t the best, I was kinda zoned out while writing it lol. My main focus was to explain stuff and set up character motivations, sorry if it’s a bit messy, and like, long dang.

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews Halloween Special: Fungus Amongus and Ghoul of My Dream

Happy Halloween! Halloween Havoc races to the finish with another Darkwing Double Feature! Love is kinda crazy with a spooky girl like Morgana, and in this case “kinda crazy” means a board of ghouls stealing pizza, sentient mushrooms, grumpy spiders, student lone debt, and a gremlin who somehow sees himself as a valid romantic option. It’s a Darkwing Duck Halloween under the cut.+

We’ve made it! While I got less Halloween reviews done than I would’ve liked, I’m still happy with the ones done and there’s still two more to get in the pocket before the day’s up. So with Halloween today it seemed fitting to talk about the Justice Ducks resident sorcerer and Darkwing’s Girlfriend, Morgana Macawber. Morgana was the only one of the four to stick around as a recurring character out of the four Justice Ducks: Gizmoduck would show up once more after the four parter, and sadly Neptunia and Stegamutt just seemed to vanish but the crew clearly liked Morg a lot and her relationship with Darkwing, so she stuck around for the rest of the series, and is even the focus of the final episode “Malice’s Restaurant”, as well as a sizeable part of the comics. And it’s easy to see why as Kathie Sourcie had great chemistry with Jim Cummings and Morgana’s very presence, being a sorceress raised by the munsters and living in a creepy mansion, allowed for diffrent stories than what Darkwing usually dealt with. While magic didn’t feel like it contrasted with the world, as Darkwing’s world feels like your standard superhero fantasy kitchen sink where anything is possible, most of his foes were either super villains or the kinds of super spies you’d find in a comic book. So fighting ghoouls, goblins, and Satan himself, yes that’s an episode that actually happened, no it’s sadly not on Disney plus, and yes I will be covering it eventually, was a nice out of genre experience and a nice way to put our daring duck of mystery out of his element.

She brought something diffrent to the table, both forcing Darkwing to grapple with letting someone into his life, and with having something to focus on other than Gosalyn or crime. So I wanted to see how this plays out, so expect me to cover all her episodes and not just the Satan one or the Valentine’s Day one, though like my Tom Lucitor retrospective, expect this one to also take some time. So with that all set up, Halloween is the perfect time to begin our journey with her first two episodes.. and Morgana’s Villian Career. Yeah while she only had about 9 episodes to her name, 2 of them are as a Catwoman or Black Cat style antagonist, someone whose likeable and who are hero is attracted to, but is on the wrong side of the law.

She eventually came around, but it’s still an intresting way to start things and an intresting dilema for our hero I wish stuck around for just a smidge longer. These aren’t bad episodes with Ghoul of My Dreams being a pretty good one. If I had to guess though the reason the dynamic fizzled out.. is they simply didn’t have a lot of ideas of how to use her as a bad guy. Part of the reason i’m covering these two episodes together is that they follow basically the same plot beat, the only differences being Darkwing meets Morgana in the first one and they know each other in the second, and that the evil entity who ends up turning against her she works with is different for both. The third act is also entirely unique to each episode, so it feels less like them lazily repeating themselves on an episode and more like they genuinely realized they didn’t have a ton of ideas for Morgana as a villain and thus had her reform with the Justice Ducks two parter. And I can’t blame them: fan would get annoyed if basically every Morgana plot played out the same, and this way she could know Drake’s secret identity, and thus allow the stories to use Gosalyn, though I do wish she’d shown up in one of the villian ones just to see how that played out. But still her time as a Villian is there, and is even a plot point in the valentine’s episode, so let’s see how it played out and see what I think.

Fungus Amongus

The plot here is fairly simple: there’s been a rash of mysterious thefts in St. Canard, and Darkwing is stumped.. until Launchpad asks if they can go for pizza, because he’s hungry and Darkwing is the terrible kind of boss that doesn’t’t care about meal breaks. It makes our hungry hero realize that each of the thefts are connected to PIzza Toppings, and after thwarting the bats and spiders stealing some anchovies, figures there’s only two left: Green Peppers and Mushrooms, and so he decides it’s time to split up gang and while Launchpad guards the peppers, Darkwing goes to visit the head of the mushrom company, who naturally turns out to be Morgana. The two end up taken with one another, to the board’s annoyance as Darkwing is onto them and could stop their whole evil plan and they want to just murder his ass and be done with it. But Morgana proves seduction’s a bit more useful as she sweetalks our hero into leaving, and points out given he’s also a creature of the night in a sense, she plans to turn him.. or kill him if she has to. More on that in our next episode. The facade dosen’t last long as Darkwing goes to help launchpad at the pepper place, and ends up finding out oh no the hot lady he met five minutes ago is bad! While the board plans to feed Launchpad to mutant mushrooms, while Morgana seemingly turns Darkwing into her mindless slave.. but really just played the board and switched sides, not wanting to hurt the guy she just met because he’s cute, they defeat the mushrooms and the board who turn into mushrooms in the light because....

The day is saved though we do get the one standout bit of the episode. Darkwing despite his attraction to her, wants to turn her in, while Morgana simply teleports her house away. And thus the dance begins. As for the episode... as you can tell by how brief I was... for one i’m not doing my usual died in wool recapping for these two to get them out on time. And i’m also not because this one.. is pretty thin. The mutant mushroom and boards’d esigns are cool and Morgana is intresting.. but having seen Ghoul of my Dreams first.. it’s just not as fun, funny or good on the Morgana Darkwing dynamic. Morgana just decides because she wants to ride that dick she’ll be good for a moment, and throw away her hard worked scheme, and the board is turned into mushrooms because.. well see the lex luger pic above. It’s not a TERRIBLE episode, just not a terribly intresting one. It has good elements, but they just don’t come together well and the pizza scheme isn’t as funny as the episode thinks it is. I can kinda see why this one was buried deeper into the series and Ghoul of My Dreams is where they put focus. I just don’t have a lot to say about this one, it’s just bland and uninteresting. It’s kind of why I just sorta plopped it next to Ghoul, I needed to review it for completion’s sake, but lord if I can think of a lot to say about it that isn’t tied into the next one. So since I can’t...

Ghoul of my Dreams:

Now this is better. The basic plot is still simple but allows for a lot more intresting set pieces: It’s a slow night in St. Canard, to Darkwing’s natural annoyance, until a bunch of fire fighters start sleepwalking and throwing gold to some spiders and bats. Something is afoot and since the bats belong to Morgana, Darkwing goes to investigate her. Granted we just MET eek and squeak, but it’s easy enough to assume Morgana struck again off screen and some time has passed. And i’ts honestly what makes this episode more interesting: now it’s more of a cat and mouse game, with Morgana using their chemistry against him, but still being genuinely drawn to him and not wanting to hurt him. It’s better than “I met you five minutes ago might as well throw away my money for you”.  Instead Morg truly likes Drake, but wants to keep doing crimes to, in easily the best joke of the entire series “Finally pay off my student loans”.. which makes her already not really a bad guy. I may not haves em but I know people who do. Those loan people do not play around. It’s investing and Sourcie and Cumming’s chemstiry really makes it pop. Sourcie really is what makes the character, giving her energy, sedcutivness when called for and a really sympathetic quality that makes her face turn, sudden as it is, believable. It’s why I really like the character. And I get why some don’t: Her romance with darkwing is sudden,  her face turn is even more sudden, and she gets in the way of Drakepad shippers. The first two are valid criticisms, while the last one is understandable.. depending on motive. If your just bummed this relationship you don’t like is forced into the show and gets in the way of the one you actually enjoy.. trust me...

BEEN THERE. And far far worse.. I didn’t start up an entire retrospective on the guy who DIDN’T get the girl here for nothing. But if you say “oh well it’s homophobic or you hate gays” if you don’t ship drakepad, which I have actually heard for both this ship and delpad.. kindly go fuck yourself and stay away from my posts. It’s NOT homophobic to ship a character who is CANOCIALLY into women, with a woman. Launchpad had a girl of the week or two in ducktales, Drake’s attraction to morgana is canon and he also had some ship tease with Neptunia. They both like women.. but there’s nothing saying they DON’T like men, don’t want to date men, or aren’t attracted to them.

Been waiting to reference Schitt’s Creek at some point here now i’ve started watching it. It’s biphobic to say this sort of harmful shit, and it doesn’t’t help there are plenty of gay people who genuinely believe bi and pan aren’t sexualities and harm their own community by doing so. Saying this kind of shit just fuels their fire and bi people like me and pan people like my firend have a hard enough time with straight people being dicks about this. You should know and be better. Don’t bring that shit into this fandom. We’ve already ridden incest out on a rail we don’t need this. I already put up with enough bullshit being a loud house fan and having to deal with ACTUAL homophobic ships like Sam/Lincoln, aka setting up a character you don’t know to be anything but gay, versus her girlfriend whose canocially been shown to be bi if preferring women, whose the proment and well like love interest of a woman, and pair her with her younger brother to clearly troll people. Now that’s a homophobic ship and that you shoudl be angry about, not “oh no the person who likes women in canon.. LIKES A WOMAN IN FANON”. It’s part of what made shiping delpad hard at times because people got really dumb about it to the point someone drew some very horrible fanart just to clog up the tag. Knock. it off.

And if your curious for my actual thoughts on Drakepad: in the classic series.. i’m not a fan, but I get it, and I do think they could work... it’s just. that Drake treats Launchpad really bad, including throwing him out of the house for a year without telling him why over something that really wasn’t his fault, not feeding him, not treating him as an equal after a while. This would have to change for them to work but I could see it happening, as the comics and one of the peisodes make a point that Drake can be a pretty shitty partner to Morgana too.

And just to show i’m equal opprtunity, despite shipping Delpad in the past, i’ve moved on to Penpad and Drakepad , ironcially enough, i’m not as big a fan anymore. LIke the above, Della just dosen’t respect launchpad as a human being. She was willing to keep the Halloween thing up JUST to scare children, looks down on him, and whie is his friend, is not all that close. I could see them happening, and do still think it’d be cute, it’d just take a ton of work and there are better ships for both. And yes I do ship Drakepad in the reboot, but there the two aren’t employer and employee, but equals who genuinely love and respect one another, listen to one another, and value each other. In the Reboot they have genuine chemistry and I could see them together, while in the original Launchpad and Morgana both really deserve better.

Now that’s settled, we get a fun scene of the two primping for each other. then flirting a bit, though Morgana, in AWFUL looking black lipstick wins with the move above and has her spider web launchpad, who hates morgana.. which is one part common sense given how darkwing gets around her and one part ho yay. But yeah this is pretty much Launchpad for both these episodes.

And darkwing dick is calling the shots so fair enough. But Morgana is once again nto wokring alone and is working with a creepy, well designed gremlin, named Nodoff... eh i’ve heard worse, whose giving her sleeping dust to knock out her targets and hits on her constnatly. Naturally he plans to betray her as soon as he can, and is likely only tolerating her because he wants to hit that.  There dynamic boils down to this.

There’s also tons of fun dream sequences including one at the top with darkwing being confronted by his enitre Rogue’s gallery before seeing morgana, NOdoff using baseball on Morg’s next target and some great ones at the climax. It’s part of hwy I like this episode better: While someone using dreams for stuff has been done a lot, it’s given a creative spin here as instead of killing them, Morgana’s simply using them to steal. Good stuff.

Darkwing foils their first attempt, though gets blamed for it because St. Canard is about as grateful as New York when it comes to superheroes. Morgana knocks darkwing out with some dust via Eeka and Squeak and admits Nodoff is working for her, though fobids him to harm Darkwing. This.. dosen’t last and we get another great setpiece, of sarkwing on a high dive. Thankfully, Launchpad finds him, and they find Morgana, who gives off the student loans comment. But in the struggle to stop her, Darkwing accidently puts her and the city to sleep.. and Nodoff is now super powerful and imprisons morgana. Darkwing i s back at her house, wondering what to do, but the bats give him a clue.. by flying him thorugh the door to fight Nodoff. It goes about as well as you’d expect with him freeing Morgana.. then trying to murder them both. Darkwing however pulls an Elm Streett 3 and says to think happy thoughts and take control of the dream.. which ends up at Darkwing’s Wedding to Morgana to his horror..... remind me whose the hero again. The woman who, while doing crimes is trying to pay off unfair debts, or the guy who finds the idea of commitment horrifying.  

Anyways we get some more great bits, I brush over them so I don’t ahve to talk about them conantly, including darkwing getting a cake on him, before Darkwing turns the tables by finding the hourglass full of the dust.. and in a clever finale, loading it into his gun and firing it on nodoff. This puts him to sleep.. which puts him in the real world, while Launchpad uses a giant alarm clock to wake everyone. They throw NOdoff back into the dream world.. for some reason.. and the episode ends iwth morgana kissing darkwing and the episode possibly having been all a dream.

This one, while I was again breif, is a classic, with a much more interesting dynamic. Instead of a morgana who goes from willing to kill we get one whose conflicted over things, who clearly wants to be a crook but may like darkwing more than that, as evidenced when he talks her out of taking Nodoff’s offer of riches. It’s good stuff and the gags are back to the show’s usual top notch level. It’s a creative, fun episode that really helps Morgana come into her own and I look forward to more of her. Overall i’d recommend skipping fungus amongus, but DEFINTELY check out ghoul of my dreams, as it’s throughly fantastic. I’ll be back in a bit for one last Halloween review and as always you can find my backlog on my blog. i recently covered Tiff of the Titans and there’s regular ducktales coverage every monday. Until then make sure to vote, wear a mask and check your house for gary busey till we meet again! Play us out Gerard Way!

[cordycep-creations]

Still no readers, still more posts because I’m hyped as hell.

Alright. I’m freakin out, we got more SU Future stuff. I’m gonna look at all the episode descriptions and say what I think about each of these ten tidbits. I have not watched any youtubey things about this yet so this is unbiased first thoughts.

1)  “Little Homeschool” Welcome to Little Homeschool, a place on earth where Gems from all over the universe can come learn how to live together peacefully! But there’s one Gem who refuses to attend. Alright this one interested me from the start, as I was homeschooled up until 6th grade. I assume that this is going to be focused on adapting to life on earth, except later it’s implied that Steven is participating so I’m not quite sure. I also believe that this is most likely what the tour in the trailer is about. Pink Gem is definitely gonna be a major character here. As for the one gem who refuses, I’m kinda conflicted. Obviously my first thought was Jasper but that seems a little... Unfitting with what we’ve seen in the trailer. More likely someone we know who was directly invite and doesn’t want to partake. Amethyst? Lapis?  Maybe Nephrite? Gonna have to wait and see. 

2) “Guidance” Amethyst has been helping Little Homeschool Gems find jobs on the boardwalk, but Steven isn’t sure about her approach. Oh, Amethyst. I can see this going a variety of ways but I think somewhere along the line it involves her being overly pushy with the gems, or more likely the people they’re supposed to be working with. Honestly I’m not sure why this is my first conclusion. Amethyst is usually pretty chill, but it just seems to be what comes to mind here? 

3) “Rose Buds” Steven gets a surprise visit from some old friends, and an even more surprising introduction to some new ones. Oh hell yes. We all know what this is. Welcome back Famethyst, welcome to the show bubbled rose quartz gems! It’s gonna be really interesting to see how they react to the pink diamond situation, and they’re going to have some massive culture shock finding out everything that’s changed. Of course I’m interested in seeing how Steven handles all this, but I think I’m even more interested to see how the Rose Quartz gems react to this new world. They missed out on a whole era of gem history. It’s like that trope where someone comes out of cryo hundreds of years in the future only this time it’s over 6,000 years an it’s a huge group. 

4) “Volleyball” Steven is determined to help Pink Diamond’s original Pearl heal the scar on her face.  This one seems interesting but there’s not too much to go off of. I think this is definitely gonna be another one we got glimpses of in the trailer, with PP reminiscing about Rose. Maybe this will be where we get the part of pearl rushing into protect her? I’m almost positive she’s protecting her from Steven in that scene but I ain’t gonna go into that here. My biggest confusion about this episode is what the hell it has to do with volleyball. 

5) “Bluebird” Steven questions the motives of a mysterious fusion that suddenly shows up at his house. Heeeeere’s Pieterzite! Pitersite? Pizeterite? However it’s spelled, an be that their name or not, that’s undoubtedly who this is. Where does she come from? Where does she go? Jasper rebellion? Working on her own? Or genuinely here to help? I’ve been rooting for the rebellion theory for quite some time. It really would be a perfect loop around but I’m not sure if that’s going to be the case anymore. There’s no mention of Jasper in this episode descriptor (Or anywhere else) and those two Lapis gems seem to be part of a later episode... I expect our tux-wearing demon princess is going to be working on her own, but I don’t think her intentions are anything good. 

6) “A Very Special Episode” Rainbow Quartz 2.0 promised to hang out with Onion the same day Sunstone scheduled a home safety Geminar! How can Steven be in two places, and two fusions, at once? Not gonna lie, I’m kinda meh about this one. Looks like the first filler episode of the new spinoff/season. I’m moderately interested to see what circumstances lead to Steven fusing with Pearl and Garnet again. Maybe this was a regular thing over the 2 year timeskip, I’m not sure. Regardless, colorful britts and 80s flashbacks is something I can get behind, but not something I’m gonna overhype about. 

7) “Snow Day” Steven and the Crystal Gems get some time to catch up when they’re all snowed in together. Another filler episode. Also, It’s winter now! I can’t remember what time of year Steven’s birthday is in. I wanna say late fall or early spring? I’d imagine the reason they need to catch up would be due to the homeschool stuff, but there could be other factors. Should be an interesting one, and could give us a brief excursion from the Steven-only perspective of the show.

8) “Why So Blue?” Steven has heard rumors of a pair of Gems that are still destroying worlds. If he can’t stop them, maybe Lapis can. This is what I was talking about earlier. It really seems like the repeats of history won’t make an appearance this time around. By no means does this dampen the episode or the show for me. It’s gonna be great, and I’m especially interested to see how Lapis interacts with her homeworld counterparts after being away for so long. Also if there’s an episode focused on Lapis we can almost guarantee Peridot is gonna be there, and who doesn’t love seeing those two interact? Honestly I think this is one of the ones I’m looking forwards to the most. Lapis is a very well-written character, and I would love to see more of her origins told this way. 

9) "Little Graduation" Steven and the Gems celebrate Little Homeschool’s first graduating class.  I think this one’s gonna be moderately interesting to see, though I still don’t know what Little Homeschool entails. A friend of mine mentioned that Future seems to have more “Slice of life” content and I think that this is a good example of that. I do partially expect and/or hope for something major to happen during this. Be it something good like a new fusion, or something ba like jasper coming out of nowhere and using the fact that there are so many people in one place to her advantage. I do hope we get cool outfits though. Let the hats fly!

10) “Prickly Pair” After leaving Little Homeschool, Steven has found a new hobby, plants. Sigh. We all know how this is gonna end. Did someone say “The boardwalk being wrecked by a giant sentient cactus?” Because I was thinking about watermelons. Kidding. I’m not sure how much plot relevance this is going to have, though it could touch onto the theme of an enemy Steven can’t just talk down. It does seem like an odd note to end the announcements on though. I would’ve stopped at Little Graduation, though ten is a nice number. 

And that’s that! I hope whoever sees this enjoys, and I would love to hear your ideas on the situation as well. Have a good evening/morning/day, and I’ll see you whenever I post on here next. I promise there will be some non-steven universe stuff on here. In fact I’m working on writing something up that I’m going to post when I’m done, but I wanted to strike here while the iron was hot. Redundant endings are redundant, goodbye!

[artnerd1123]

okay, so im the anon who asked about the plot of batim, but what is the plot for down the rabbit hole au? how'd you come up with the title for the au, too? sorry if this is too many questions, but your art makes it so interesting and i want to know what you like!

Hfjfhd!!! It’s all good anon!!! I adore getting asks about the stuff I’m interested in/making :D

First things first, here’s a ramble from earlier that goes a lil more in depth than what I’m boutta tell u.

TLDR: the plot of my au is that Joey Drew (aka that boss friend dude I mentioned in the canon lore post) made a kinda pocket dimension version of the studio with black magic as a place to house the toons (bendy, Boris, and Alice) who he also made with black magic. He ended up adding toon versions of his old coworkers after awhile, Bc he missed them n most of em moved on or aren’t around as much as he’d like. He controls the whole environment with a script that he can rewrite/edit whenever he wants. While it started out wholesome, he eventually slipped up and turned the whole thing into a horror show script bc that’s... how he copes with all this. The au follows Henry (a toon version of him, not the real deal) around as the only toon that’s fully sentient in the world. He got that way after way too many rewrites n Joey screwing around with the plot. He knows he’s stuck in a nightmare world, and wants to “wake up” the other “characters” who live there so they can maybe not live in a hellish inky landscape. Also the toons have been corrupted and he wants to save them/make them their normal cute and happy selves again.

There’s more nuance there, but that’s the short version of events/background. And I’m not gonna add any more bc it’d get super super long n it’s already long hfjhdj

But!!! As for the name of the au!!! I called it down the rabbit hole as both a reference to how I’m going “down the rabbit hole” into batim again after awhile not really touching it, and how- like a rabbit hole- things are much deeper in the studio than they seem. It’s not just a horror script with characters who play roles. The characters are alive. And they’re starting to realize they don’t have to play along.

[ascension-soliloquy]

First time read of Mistborn book 1: The Final Empire

This is my first time doing something like this. I’m not sure how interesting it will be for anyone else. Usually when I read it’s more, well...I don’t know if passively is the right word, but I don’t normally take notes or write my thoughts down. I’m not doing a recap, I’m expecting you to have read the book and be familiar with it. I’m not doing in depth analysis on every chapter or every little plot point, I’m just writing down things whenever I think of them. 

 •So far I’m on chapter 17 and right now I only have one prediction. Reen will show up again at some point in the series, he will have power, either Misting or Mistborn, and there will be a confrontation between him and Vin. Either that or between both of them and their father. Or just between Vin and her father. I’m probably wrong. Haha

 •Also, I’m guessing the blurbs at the beginning of each chapter are from the book Sazed is translating.

 •Chapter 28.

“The Deepness must be destroyed... Many do not realize that it is sentient, but I have sensed its mind...the few times I have confronted it directly. It is a thing of destruction, madness, and corruption. It would destroy this world not out of spite or out of animosity, but simply because that is what it does.”

My guess is that rather than destroy the Deepness, he was possessed by it.

 •From the start Vin reminded me of a combination of Min and Egwene from the Wheel of Time. I only know about BS from him finishing the WOT series, so I suppose comparisons are inevitable for me. When we first meet Vin she has short hair and wears boy clothes, so that’s like Min, and she is ambitious about learning magic, so that’s like Egwene. All three characters seem to be in the habit of doing what they want, rather than what they are told to do. I always liked Egwene and Min, but so far I think I might actually like Vin better. Maybe because she has a lot of POV in this book, whereas we had to wait a while to get POV from the other two in WOT.

 [The next paragraph sort of contains spoilers for the last three books in the Wheel of Time]

 I hope Elend doesn’t turn out to be the Gawyn of this story. When she was telling him about how skaa are intelligent, I was thinking, “no Vin! I don’t like the questions he’s asking you. Don’t trust him!” Then when he defended her to his friends, I was like, maybe he’s okay. Oh, but now he’s going to have her followed. Going behind her back, kinda getting Gawyn vibes. (I’m talking about what Gawyn did in the last three WOT books, so if you haven’t gotten that far, spoilers, so I won’t get into it here.)

 •”Be careful, Mistress —become too fond of reading, and you may just turn into a scholar.”

Vin shook her head. “Not if all the books I read are going to end like this one!”

Rather meta, isn’t it?

 •Chapter 30

F***

“And so the house war starts, Vin thought. Didn’t think I’d be the one to officially begin it.”

Indeed.

Maybe Vin is the Gawyn in this situation. Hahaha

It is pretty badass that she was able to defeat another Mistborn on her own, but I can imagine this will come back to bite her.

 •”You’re no skaa—you’re just noblemen without titles.”

Dang, she told him. That whole speech was astounding.

“He stood, dumbfounded, feeling a surprising flush of ashamed guilt. And, for once, found himself without anything to say.”

 •chapter 32

 “Marsh said he’d leave a light burning if the other obligators were gone.”

I don’t like it. Ever since Marsh got the face tattoos I’ve had a bad feeling about him. I think he’s going to turn on Kell.

 Oh...Or the Inquisitors will turn on Marsh. I wasn’t expecting that. Never mind. Though, who knows what information they got out of him before they killed him.

Then again, how do we know for certain that is Marsh’s body? It could be a ploy to make them think Marsh is dead. It could be anyone and they would never know. They couldn’t exactly get a DNA test done, and his skin has been ripped off, so a positive ID is difficult.

 •Chapter 34 [LOTR, WOT, and Harry Potter spoilers—don’t want to assume everyone has read those]

 So Kell is the Gandalf/Moiraine of this story. One difference is he left behind a body, unlike those other two, so not sure if there will be any coming back for him. I suppose Dumbledore didn’t come back (at least physically), so it wouldn’t be the first time.

 •Chapter 36

In which Vin gets herself captured. Of course. In WOT it seemed like in just about every book someone was getting captured. It was one of my least favorite tropes of the series. Sometimes it was handled in an interesting way, but other times it was just annoying. I hope Vin is able to escape on her own rather than have to be rescued, and I hope this doesn’t become a recurring theme in this series.

 I made the mistake of looking at someone’s cosplay photo in the Mistborn sub-reddit, and it was an alternate reality version of Vin where she had been made into a Steel Inquisitor. When the Inquisitor was holding something, hit Vin, and it faded to black, I was terrified she was going to wake up with spikes through her eyes. I guess I won’t be clicking on anything else in that sub for the time being. It’s funny, for the most part I avoided reading anything online about WOT while I was reading that series, but for some reason I’m being more daring with this one. Of course, I didn’t have a reddit account at the time, so this is all new to me.

 Vin meets her father. Such a joyous family reunion. Aw, that didn’t last long. That wasn’t the confrontation I was expecting; more like a confrontation between him and the Inquisitors. There’s still time for a confrontation between Vin and Reen, I suppose.

 The Lord Ruler orders her execution, but the Inquisitor convinces him to let them use her for a while longer. There’s no way possible that plan will backfire and allow her to escape or be rescued.

 [The next paragraph contains spoilers for Wheel of Time book #2 The Great Hunt]

 As much as I would prefer Vin to escape, I have a feeling Elend is going to be the one to rescue her. Then again, [WOT spoilers] Rand didn’t rescue Egwene from the Seanchan, it was Nynaeve, Elayne, and Min, something that set that scene apart from the typical damsel in distress sequence. That said, I wish there were more major female characters in this book. A Nynaeve, Elayne, and/or* Aviendha to Vin’s Egwene/Min. So who else is there besides Elend? Maybe one of the other Mistings, I suppose, but it seems like they might be busy with the rebellion at the moment. Sazed already rescued her once, so I don’t see that happening again so soon.

(*and/or...Andor haha WOT jokes, I crack myself up. Sorry, I’ll see myself out.)

 •I’ve seen complaints about BS’s humor, but I’ve laughed at few things in this book, so maybe his sense of humor is similar to my own.

 •Chapter 37

“Valette...she went into the palace a few hours back. I’m sorry lad. She’s probably in the Lord Ruler’s dungeons right now—assuming she’s even still alive.”

I can see my suspicions about where this is going coming true already. Elend to the rescue! Oh well, at least she rescued him once already, even though he wasn’t aware of it.

Reen is dead, unless the Inquisitor is lying. So much for my predicted confrontation. I did say I was probably wrong. He died protecting her. Some part of him must have cared about her.

For a minute there I thought Sazed was going to need to be rescued as well, but looks like he might be the rescuer after all. And now Vin gets to protect Sazed. Out of the available outcomes, this was probably the most satisfying. And here comes Elend. So he has his part to play. But Vin gets to save them all, so once again, best possible outcome.

 •Chapter 38

“The Inquisitors would no longer bow before the dictates of inferior men.”

I wonder if the Inquisitors are the Terrismen the Lord Ruler was in contact with during his journey to the Eye of the World Well of Ascension. Some of them seemed to think they were superior to other men.

“A command of Allomancy...”

I guess not, since Terrismen don’t use Allomancy.

 •Turns out that wasn’t Marsh’s body. Marsh the Inquisitor. Rather disturbing. At least he’s still on the side of the good guys.

 •Ba’alzamon the Lord Ruler is defeated, but the Dark One Deepness is still left to threaten the world. For all this snark comparing it to WOT, this ending was satisfying.

 •The Lord Ruler turned out to not be the person who wrote the journal, but one of the Terrismen. I still wonder if he was possessed by the Deepness? The Lord Ruler used both Allomancy and Feruchemy, so maybe it is possible at least some of the Inquisitors were Terrismen. I guess that remains to be seen.

 •Vin came to the same realization about Reen that I did. That’s sweet.

 •Earlier I compared Vin to Egwene and Min, but obviously there is an aspect of her that is like Rand as well, seeing as how she is the main character, and she is the one who defeats the Lord Ruler.

This has been fun, at least for me. On to the next book.

[bipilots]

sooo i got these very cool questions on anon but im replying on here to make it look neater and to separate them properly, also because they’re gonna get long,,

What's your favorite scene from Voltron? there are a lot of super cute and aesthetically pleasing shots, but im horrible at remembering specific scenes and the first thing that comes to mind right now is the one where lance is about to be shot into space because the Caste is “haunted” and keith saves him riiiight in time. It was thrilling and i screamed a little, i think. Oh, and i like the one where Lance is literally knocked out cold and wakes up for the two seconds needed to shoot the bad guy because big mood and i love him?? I also really like every scene of them training because i dream about having a wing of my house dedicated to fighting with cool murderous robots too. let me dream. In general, the Castle is my fave setting for anything. 

Why did you start watching it? my tumblr dash started screaming about it approximately two days after the first season came out and i got curious about the mecha setting ((after evangelion if a thing has really big robots im automatically sold)). i made a quick google search and binge watched it all in a night and long story short now i’m here, ta da! i stayed for the giant cats tbh (and because it’s light hearted fun and i like space)

about the ships: i realized that i’m actually pretty simple minded about it, and that the only one i really care about is lance and happiness. sooo,, there’s that. i rest my case. but klance is the love of my life and hance is cute and keith and mothman are a match made in heaven

Favorite character? AHHH well i guess it’s no secret that my absolute favorite is lance. I just find him really interesting, both because of his flaws and the glimpses of his deepest feelings we’ve seen; he has a really outlandish/goofy sense of humor, which appeals to me greatly, and he’s stubborn and outgoing but in a kind of “fake it till you make it” way and that’s exactly what i need in my life. also, because liking the “i joke about things to feel better about shit and i’m really sarcastic and brash but have an actual crisis going on 24/7” character has kinda been my thing since forever. I’m really excited about seeing how he’s gonna grow up and evolve during the series, i think he has a lot of potential. the same can be said about every other character too, honestly. I guess my favorite part about anything is seeing the character development unfold, and this goes for other shows and fics and books as well. I have the annoying habit of taking characters and wanting to dissect them (figuratively, cough) to see what makes them tick, overthinking way too much about little things and quirks they might have. A well thought out plot isn’t enough to engage me if there aren’t complex characters to sustain it, i’m picky. 

Galra Keith or Altean Lance? why must you hurt me so?? i don’t think there’s a real reply to this. well, i mean, galra keith is a little bit canon, but i would be lying if i said that him in purple and with giant fluffy ears wouldn’t appeal to me, for aesthetical reasons,, i guess I’m gonna have to go with altean!Lance? because in that particular au he’s royalty, which suits him (im not smitten, what are you saying) and... no, that’s totally just because i’m smitten. My son looks so good in the altean garments, what can I do. It’s also a very cool take on the whole “everyone is an alien someway but they still meet each other and form a great team because of destiny” thing  

Who do you think would take the first step in Keith and Lance's romantic relationship? I would love to think about their romance as them taking small steps towards each other equally to meet in the middle? In a very slow burn way, classic “enemies (in lance’s head) to friends to lovers” trope that you can pry from my cold dead hands. I think they’re both very cautious when it comes to love, for different reasons. Keith is closed off, a little wary about human contact, even if we see him gradually warming up to the team, but he’s also a driven character and seems to me his focus right now is on saving the universe. Which is good, but it’s already a lot on his plate, without adding the whole “half galra” thing which further complicates the situation. Lance is exactly the opposite, he barrels on through human (and alien) interactions and flirts shamelessly, but I think that’s more of an ingrained reflex than real pursuit of a romantic relationship? From little clues, we can guess that he knows his flirting is almost never taken seriously (and just how sad is that wtf lance, baby) and that’s why he does it, because he knows nothing is really going to come from it. The only way I see them going is at a relaxed, almost frustrating pace in which they discover themselves first and then each other, as teammates, then friends and finally lovers.

In the more immediate sense of the reply I think you were asking, it could go both way: once they’ve done their share of self-discovery, Lance may accidentally blurt out something about how he thinks Keith is good at something (his compliments are not often based on physical appearance as much as they are on practical things/personality traits which is very sweet and awesome) and then his babbling escalates in way over the top justifications until he actually confesses the deepest, fluttery feelings he’s hiding in his chest; or maybe it’s Keith to take the first leap of faith, kissing Lance square on the mouth (maybe after a particularly taxing mission where Lance does a stupid heroic thing like trying to sacrifice himself // I’m a fan of clichés and that’s romantic af besides being something that Lance would totally do) because he’s not much of a talker and he’s tired about circling around it. Mark down my words, there’s lots of super cheesy ways it could be done, and I love them all. These two are just the first that came to mind. 

Favorite lion (overall shape+colour)? My favorite color is red and I like the smaller lions merely because of practical/aesthetic reasons; besides, the way Red leaps right into action to protect her baby (Keith) is adorable and,,,, my fav is still Blue. I don’t know what to say, it doesn’t make sense, it’s what my heart is telling me. But Red is a close second, let’s call it a tie so i feel less bad about it.  

Favourite Coran life stage? teenage emo/you don’t get my feelings you don’t know my life and everything I’ve been through!Coran is my entire life

Favourite planet they've been so far? the Balmera, that’s a really wholesome sentient planet, if i do say so myself. I love it.

Favourite episode out of all seasons? again, i’m calling a tie between the “bonding moment” one for obvious, lame reasons and the space mall because Lance is a dolphin and they literally found a cow and fueled a lot of my headcanons where they can totally buy weird things needed for shameless fanfiction-y purposes  

Haggar or Zarkon? Zarkon is a grimy, wrinkly turtle and I really want to get his backstory but Haggar is a pot of unraveled mysteries and she’s way cooler in my opinion

Is Shiro a dad or a big brother? Shiro tries so hard to be a big brother (even if he likes making dad jokes) but he’s just mostly done with everything and overall bad at adulting,, just give him a piña colada, a raunchy romantic novel, put him on a beach lounger with sunglasses and let him rest

Princess Allura or Paladin Allura? both are good. She’s a fundamental asset to the team either way, by backing them up during the battles, piloting the Castle and being their support system (helped by Coran) with stuff they don’t understand - which is a lot because they’re basically going blind into the whole thing. Paladin Allura is something that I love, and she will absolutely kick ass, but I reserve my judgement for when I see what the team is gonna make of it. It surely is gonna change the dynamic a lot and depending on what role she assumes it could be good or absolutely amazing. I’m just really curious about how they’re gonna go about it. But yeah, both are cool. I’ll get you back on what is my fave once I've seen both the options in action.

ooook,, whew, im done. AHH this surely was something. Thank you for asking??? They were super interesting questions, sorry it took me a little while but I tried to reply to the best of my possibilities and hope that you got the answers you were looking for. ♥

[letsliveblog]

Dragon Ball 012 - THE ONE WITH THE MONKEY

This is it, isn’t it.  This is the weremonkey episode.

Screw the previous episode summary, skip the themesong, I CAN’T WAIT ANY LONGER!  Let’s liveblog Dragon Ball!

Considering we saw the dragon get summoned at the end of the previous episode… no.  They’re not going to make it in time.

Do not let him look out that window.

Ah well it’s overcast, you’re probably fine.

For now.

The stakes are so high right now that Yamcha doesn’t even seem to realize how close to Bulma he is.  Their shoulders are touching and he’s not freaking out.

Man, they put a lot of effort into making this moment look big and important.  I don’t think it’s ever going to be treated with this much weight again, but this first time has to be special.

Aaaaw.

DID WE MENTION THAT IT IS A FULL MOON

DID WE MENTION

Pilaf gets this little imagine spot of himself as supreme ruler of the world as he’s about to make his wish and really, I share in his excitement.  I want this for him.  Pilaf for mayor.

Now, if he’d just made his wish instead of standing around imagining this, this show would have turned out very differently.

“Sup guys, whatchu’ want?”

Bulma and Yamcha despair that it’s too late, Yamcha shocked that the world is about to become this madman’s plaything and Bulma in defeat that despite all her hard work and suffering her wish has been taken away, but Goku doesn’t accept it.  He repeatedly fires Kamehamehas at the wall, trying to break out.  As far as Goku’s concerned, it’s not too late until someone makes a wish.

Oolong, the Plan Guy, is about to save the day.

Interesting how quickly the goals have gone from “we want our own wishes” to “we don’t care anymore, as long as Pilaf doesn’t get HIS.”  There’s a degree of selflessness to how they’re desperately trying to salvage the situation.

Just as Goku finally manages to break through the wall (you know, now that it’s plot convenient), and Pilaf begins speaking his wish, Oolong leaps forward and screams the first wish that pops into his head.

You could have bought that at a store, Oolong, you didn’t need a magical wish granting dragon.

To be fair, the wish itself didn’t matter.  The point is that Oolong prevented world domination, and this is his crowning moment in the story.

Hey, you know this whole situation could be avoided so easily if the dragon only granted a wish to the person who actually activated the balls, but that would make too much sense.

This whole group is acting like a TEAM now!

“Yo cool, deuces.”

Nobody told Goku he wasn’t gonna get his dragon ball back after the wish.  :C  Oh Goku.

“THAT’S IT WE’RE KILLING THEM ALL”

You guys.  You were so close.  :C :C :C

I feel like Goku is just very Done with this whole adventure.  He lost his grandpa’s dragon ball, he’s not having fun anymore, he’s hungry and tired and his heart’s just not in it.

Yamcha goes back for him.  Yamcha does care.

Shu, who apparently has the power to control dogs (but not the ravenous wolves from episode two?) summons a pack of vicious dogs to hunt our heroes down!  They’re not, like, supernatural, powerful dogs or anything.  They’re just normal dogs.

Yamcha’s dragging Goku.  Awww.

Luckily, Goku’s vicious vendetta against animals kicks in.  GOKU KILL COUNTER IT’S GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK

Goku kill counter:  Sentient fish, talking dinosaur, like 100 wolves probably, one centipede, mohawk tiger bandit, Shu’s empty robot suit, Shu’s pet dogs.

Just for comparison with our villains of the arc:  Pilaf, Mai, and Shu’s kill counter:  nobody.

Yamcha also gets in on beating up the dogs.  Why did you send the dogs, Shu?  What made you think dogs would be effective?  Goku and Yamcha are going to SLAUGHTER those dogs.

Those dogs are going to SLAUGHTER Oolong and Puar.

Boy, I sure am glad that we’re up here and those dogs are down there and that they’re the sheriff and that we’re frozen up here and that we’re down there and I just remembered we’re up here.  What I wanna know is

How are we going to get to the window!?

Mai and Shu suddenly attack, and they look awesome doing it.

Yamcha hits that dog with another dog, but while he’s doing that, Mai and Shu take Bulma hostage.

“No!  Not that girl I just met!  You fiends!”  Seriously, take Puar hostage, it’d be more effective.

Really though, I like that this episode plays Yamcha as the protagonist.  Goku’s pretty much been benched to give Pilaf and the Squad a fighting chance, so the cinematography is all focused on Yamcha’s actions and motivations.  It’s cool to see that.  For one episode, YAMCHA was the main character of Dragon Ball, and we all need to appreciate that.

DID

WE

MENTION

Captured again.  This time with an adequately explained reason as to why they can’t just break down the walls, THANK YOU.

Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw… Goku.

Bulma gets into more of the worldbuilding for a bit.  I wonder if you can destroy the dragon balls while they’re made of ordinary stone?  Not that you’d WANT to, but you’d think it might happen by accident at some point.  Some guy with a tractor plows over one, and poof.  Death as a concept regains meaning in your universe.

Yamcha just casually announcing his phobias to the group.

I kiiiiinda get the feeling Pilaf is a liiiiittle ticked off at them for some reason.

You know, I know it’s just a convoluted deathtrap for the sole narrative purpose of allowing Goku to see the sky, but it’s absolutely in character for Pilaf so I’m cool with it.  Also that is DARK.

Their panic turns quickly to a desperate struggle to get out before the sun rises, and this is DARK.  This is Pilaf suddenly becoming a legitimately threatening villain.

Death and kisses!

DID

WE

MENTIIIIION

Pilaf’s drinking a coffee and it’s cute.  Look at these baddies just hanging out in the castle rec room.  They’ve got a ping pong table.

Here we go.  This is it.  This is the scene.  We’re HERE.

Ah yes, the scene where we learn that Puar is secretly a werecat wait no.

“…And that’s the backstory as to why I hate animals!”

No but who’s gonna tell him?  :C  :C  :C  :C  :C  :C  :C  :C  :C

REALIZATION HITS

“This explains so much and yet so little!”

This.  Is an OMINOUS SHOT.  Can we all just appreciate the way this scene is directed?

Like okay, this shot right here positions the camera so that Goku already appears to tower over the others.  It’s angled to focus on his tail, which while usually still, is animated in constant motion throughout this entire scene.  The audience realizes what’s about to happen at the same time as the characters, and now the camera work is just working to build the tension higher and higher until the other shoe drops.

“HEY GOKU DON’T LOOK RIGHT HERE AT THIS THING RIGHT HERE THAT I AM POINTING AT AND DRAWING ATTENTION TO, DO NOT LOOK AT THIS SPECIFIC THING, YES THIS ONE.”

I can actually remember the exact tone of Bulma’s english voice actor from watching this episode as a kid, when she pointed at the moon and screamed “It’s right ABOVE you!!”

This is a good frame of animation.

“Well, Oolong, now that you mention it…”

“YEAH, KINDA.”

YEEEES

YEEEEEESSSSS

You know, this show came out around the correct time for this scene to be a direct reference to the transformation sequences in “The Howling.”  And this looks a LOT like “The Howling,” so I gotta wonder if it’s a deliberate reference or just a coincidence.

But anyway YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS

It’s a fun detail that Mai and Shu sleep in beds right next to Pilaf’s, the only difference being that Pilaf’s bed has a fancy little canopy.

The episode ends as Goku smashes through their little prison cell and starts wrecking Pilaf’s castle, and DANG I have been HYPE for this, I remember how COOL this was when I was a kid, and it did NOT disappoint.  Giant weremonkeys are AWESOME.

We’ve got one more episode of the Pilaf arc, so I’ll meet you right back here to watch Goku’s rampage as we continue to liveblog Dragon Ball!

(YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS)

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[colonel-crapshot]

ISLAND Episode Two

Crunchyroll is determined to make me look at Maihime's cousin's ass 

Friend:  [Aliens.jpg] Fanservice

I mean, there are worse asses to stare at in this life. But there is more to it than just the booty.

Normally I'd say something demeaning about myself but I can't have an opinion of my own ass since I can't look at very well and even if I could it would probably be a resounding "Meh"

AH AT LAST WE PAN UPWARDS FROM THE BOOTY

Friend: My eyes are up here

Funny thing is we are facing her back and even when we get some of her face her eyes aren't in sight

Also, she's apparently a fucking vampire

A disease? You mean VAMPIRISM?!

"Soot blight syndrome" aight. I'll bite, THE FUCK ARE Y'ALL SMOKING HERE THAT THE SOOT MAKES VAMPIRISM?!

Aight lady you're fast balling a lot of things at us. And no, we're not going to contract vampirism to keep you company as a "Prince of the night"

Well that's an opener. Granted it follows neatly on from last episode so I can't complain

OH LOOK. A FLIER FOR THE MAID JOB. I WONDER WHAT SHE'S DOING AFTER SCHOOL TODAY

... you know thinking on it. I might be able to understand a slightly more territorial policy like the one Mayor Butthurt propogates if they have cases of FUCKING VAMPIRISM on the titular Island

OH COME ON SETSUNA. THIS IS LAUNDRY FOR A HOUSE OWNED BY A WOMAN (or at least with one woman known to be present) KNICKERS WERE ALWAYS GOING TO BE PART OF THE THINGS TO HANG ON THE LINE

It's not like you went into your own undergarments drawer and procured them

GROW UP

You were mopping anyways. A spill isn't the worst thing to happen

Half the usual and he's got at least one 10,000 yen bill present

I mean, failing all else they are making sure their maids get to fucking live off of working for them

Sweet christ they were a unified chorus

You should go to the shrine library to get them checked for evil spirits

Well no-one can say he isn't putting his back into it. Completed the days work AND it's still very sunny outside

Must be like early afternoon

Maybe ask your Vampire princess once she's roused from her slumber with a fresh bag of AB negative

Odd that the library would be closed at the end of a school day. You'd have thought that they'd have someone at least holding the fort for the inevitable bout of students who'd want to get some studying done

Granted I appreciate Setsuna trying to seek the information elsewhere. Though I do wonder if he'd even recognise the kanji for Soot Blight Syndrome if he just read it in the library and might misread it and be left scratching his head

The library on the Island might well have the resources to research their island specific vampirism

Oh shit an Oonusa. I’ve no idea what one DOES with an Oonusa. But dat be it

... Aight child. We need to have a talk about the abuse of the Gods powers for assassination attempts

"Let's go to my honey zone in the library." Assassination doesn't work so well when I know what you're up to you know?

Wonder what Mayor Butthurt's game is adopting a sodding shrine maiden

Granted this COULD be yet further hammering in the idea that this guy is a douche nozzle. But I'd like to think better of this. I've seen Visual novels with asshole characters actually having reasonable motives for acting in such dickish ways

Good grief. Who'd go to burn down a freaking shrine of all places?!

I suppose the Three Families in Urashima are something of the driving force behind the Barbatossian "NO! OUTSIDERS! EVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" which probably would make people a little miffed at them

OH BOY. STORY TIME

Okay. That's a nice dodge of the pendulum of bullshit. Well done Sara

I think Loli Maiden’s name is Sara anyways

OH BOY. INCEST LORE

Friend: WHA

THE ISLAND HAS INCEST LORE

Friend: https://i.imgur.com/GleCwqI.mp4

JESUS. I mean... to some degree I understand. BUT CURSING MONSTROSITY UPON THEM?!

Friend:  Hits red button and runs away

This is a long ago thing

They're not trying to champion it. But still, I respect the nope

Uh huh... interesting lore

Kinda counter to our boys instructions that "Setsuna must die"

Friend:  Oh I know you'd be going into convulsions if they had championed it. My nope comes from that sort of lore typically being used as edgy drama-bait rather than legitimate storytelling

Luckily this is lore and they were rather swift to go over it and the repercussions of it, or more so the repercussions of both it and jealous women

Friend:  Hand still hovering over the red button

The thrust of the lore is the idea that since Rinne topped herself the Shrine Maiden who cursed her said "Yo. She'll be reborn later in time, and if y'all can re-unite I'll undo the curse." Which seems to be good since it won't be incest at that point and they can let their love go about itself

RATHER than "INCEST" and hoping that we all press 800 nope buttons stacked atop one another and fire ourselves into an alternate dimension where we can keep watching it

That's convenient. I mean granted the library on the Island probably WOULD have books about their local vampirism disease

"I'm ready, so lets do this." Oh, you've finally finished setting up your honey trap? 

I don't have the heart to tell her that she REALLY should do this when her hopeful victim isn't present and aware

Oooh. Are we getting actual plot or is our Shrine Maiden ACTUALLY more cunning than an upturned cup of milk

"The reason why you exist." I could have given you that reason ages ago with Sex Ed 101

Tab A into Slot B, jostle as necessary until goop. Wait 9 months and hopefully a sentient potato falls out of Slot B

BECAUSE SHE HAS READ THE SCRIPT SETSUNA

OH SHIT SHE MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN THAT CUNNING

That was your plot armour reacting to potential plot ending events

You're being awful rude, Setsuna. 

You know there can be more than one maid for a house. Whilst it may not necessarily NEED more than one maid since Setsuna pretty handily did everything before the sun was even close to setting

Oh look. Vampire princess

She set out incense when she was setting up a honey trap to murder me

Get with the program Rinne

Setsuna, you can't drag people in for an interview. Even if they're leaving in a huff

LOSING MEMORIES AND CAVING TO YOUR PARENTS BULLSHIT ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS! I CAN MAKE MORE MEMORIES. IF YOU GIVE IN TO YOUR PARENTS ISN'T THAT THE END OF YOUR FREEDOM?!

D'aw, that's nice Setsuna. You haven't put your best foot forward about it though

... GOD FUCKING DAMNIT SETSUNA.

At least you're reflecting upon your acted self importance

That's not a bad way of looking at it Rinne

"It's destiny." There's been a lot of that talk. I wonder if we're going to get a story I like where Destiny gets fucked and Setsuna forges himself a relationship of his own choosing. Or if Destiny in this is actually benign and just wants to help get lovers get into a healthy romance rather than one made of nope

"You'll remember soon enough." I thought you didn't have much in the way of memories from before you hurtled counter to time either?

Ah plot summer break

The ultimate hand wave to highschoolers gallivanting about at all hours

Why must you push Karen's buttons Setsuna?

I mean. YEAH, I DID. But 1,000,000 YEN?!... granted Setsuna did get a hefty paycheck even at half of the rate he would normally get it seemed

Yeah. I'd imagine your mom wouldn't take kindly to Mayor Butthurt's bullshit. Especially if she's anything like the basis for some of your personality

It may well have been 5 years ago honey but you don't sound exactly over it

He's been on Urashima for like 3 days Karen, how do you expect him to know the best places to be

I'm not even sure how far 1,000,000 yen will GET you. Assuming that you can even convince someone with a boat to take you there

HEY I WAS FUCKIN' RIGHT. HE COULDN'T READ IT ON HIS OWN

Still does put the idea of this vampirism and its things into check. Do wonder though why Rinne doesn't take the anti-vamp meds

"You went on a secret date with Karen?" If by "secret date" you mean doing the sodding shopping, then yes, secret date

Christ, you sound almost spurned for someone who was TRYING TO MURDER ME YESTERDAY

Ooooh. Cutting right to the thick of it. I like you Setsuna

CALLED IT

I'm unsure about how... wait. I think I get it. They were originally persecuted for cutting them off from the mainland and they put in those ideas to help assuage the peoples rightful ire

Aight I re-read it and it lost me again

Still I can see Karen's idea that Rinne contracting it is just an excuse. But by the same token IT'S FUCKING VAMPIRISM. YOU DON'T WANT THAT SHIT SPREADING

But by the same token. HOW HAVEN'T THEY DIALED UP THE MAINLAND AND ASKED FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE?!

"To protect the island" I can see how cutting themselves off protects the mainland. But not the island

Setsuna, come back to earth with us. YOU CAME FROM THE FUTURE! YOU TOOK THE NAME SETSUNA SINCE IT'S ALL YOU REMEMBERED THE REST WAS ALMOST WHIMSY

I mean... maybe? But on a different note, like 90% of that was twisty turvy nonsense

I'm gonna go back and listen again

Nope. Still don't get it

SHE ISN'T A VAMPIRE

Aight, that makes sense

D'aw that's sweet that she wants Setsuna to save Rinne

Nice. We're gently kicking the "Prophecied couple" routine in the head early

Less nice, Setsuna that's not a great way to approach it

... I mean granted I'D probably do it that way, But still, not good. I mean heck, Rinne may well have something more going on rather than just thinking "I'm the Rinne reincarnation."

Ooof! That looks like it hurt

Oh good. Mind palace. Not actual speech

Alrighty. He's handling this better than in his mind palace

You're awful hooked on this idea of Destiny, Rinne

... THAT'S NOT HOW THIS WORKS LADY! LETTING THINGS REMAIN AS THEY ARE WON'T KEEP SETSUNA AS "YOUR" SETSUNA

Good thing is. She's aware that she ISN'T actually a vampire. Bad thing is: She thinks that if things remain as is then everything is fine

Aight, this is proving interesting

Even if I don't get their idea of Island prosperity

Link: ISLAND Episode 2