#his first solo episode did a really nice job of humanizing him but before that... eesh

[femininomen0n]

#oh the irony

[appleb18]

I Wanted Believe in Steven (A Critical Steven Universe Post)

Steven Universe, a popular show that has won the hearts of so many people. It had good songs, talks about mental health and relationships, a lovable cast of characters and it’s revolutionary for representing LGBT. As the show finally wraps up with Steven Universe: Future being the series finale, I want to say this… I used to believe in Steven Universe. I truly got into it when it first came out and then I started to appreciate it more as the show progressed even with the flaws. However, as time moved on, the show’s flaws have outweighed the strengths, making my enjoyment decline and become critical and nitpicky towards it. So I believe it’s time to point out the many problems with the show.

The Glory Days of Steven Universe 

Before I begin ranting about the show, I want to talk about when I actually liked Steven Universe back in seasons 1-3. It was when everyone actually enjoyed the show before it went downhill. 

- So before Steven became really annoying, I actually liked him when he was developing in season 1. He was very immature at first but he gradually grew. He became a member of the Crystal Gems and finally summoned his shield. 

- Peridot’s redemption was handled very well and I enjoyed her character throughout the whole show.

- The show once balanced filler and plot. 

- I enjoyed the Crystal Gems chemistry back in seasons 1 - 3. They acted like a family with Garnet being the wise guardian, Pearl being overprotective, Amethyst laidback and Steven maturing.

- The songs are great.

- The messages are relatable such as “Love Letter.” Garnet tells Jamie that love-at-first-sight doesn’t work. It takes time and a lot of work. You must know the person first before you begin to love someone.  

Those are the reasons why I enjoyed the show back in the day. Now it’s time to talk about how the Crewniverse messed up everything. 

Inconsistencies. Are. Everywhere 

Steven Universe is well known for having no consistency and that’s one of the major problems with the show. While I can forgive season 1 animation because let’s face it, not every show has good animation like Phineas and Ferb. Though having characters go off-model consistently gets really irritating to watch. It’s irritating because most of them are professional storyboard artists and yet they’re doing a very sloppy job.

The reason behind unprofessional animation is Rebecca Sugar wanted her crew to have artistic freedom and have their own stylistic choice. They can draw whatever they want as long as the viewers can recognize the characters. There are many problems with this. 

While it’s nice to see the artist's own style it doesn’t work with a cartoon that’s story-driven. You’ll probably argue that some shows like Adventure Time and American Dragon go off-model. However, it’s just redesigned and they stick with it till the very end of their respective series. 

Also, shows like Ren and Stimpy and Flapjack go off-model because for comedic effect.

So stylistic choice doesn’t mean artists can draw whatever they want. It means that a character has their own style. 

Terrance and Philip from South Park 

Elmore characters from The Amazing World of Gumball 

Each of them has a unique character design. It’s not the Korean animator's fault for it, they’re given what the Crewniverse drew, trace it and just animate it and they can’t fix their errors. What makes it upsetting is that animation pilots and shorts made by a single person or independent team with very little funding have more consistent and appealing animation than Steven Universe. 

I ain’t an animator, but I know when animation goes off-model. Sadly, it’s not just inconsistent art that the show suffers from, but inconsistent writing and discontinuity as well.

Such as in “Are You My Dad?” Aquamarine and Topaz knocked out Steven and then she abandoned him while they took Lars, Sadie, Onion, Jamie, and Connie. Then in “I Am My Mom” they lure him and The Crystal Gems out for information to find Greg. So if you wanted to get information to find him, why didn’t they just grab him when he was knocked out? 

Also, why did Aquamarine agree to Steven’s terms? Her wand is the most broken weapon in the show. She could’ve grabbed everyone including The Crystal Gems.

Garnet couldn’t tell Steven about her future vision because it wanted him to go more? If she just told him about Greg's capture, he would have understood. Also, she gave him future visions in “Jailbreak,” “Snow day” and “Future Boy Zoltron.” Why didn’t she do that for that kind of situation? 

The Crystal Gems, who have special abilities, summon weapons and powers that fought Gems and Corrupted Gems and yet they were beaten by a freaking Steven Catus, Really? 

We saw Lapis control the freaking ocean in “Mirror Gem”, “Ocean Gem” and “Why So Blue”, so why didn’t she use that to remove the injector?

After 6,000 years of waiting for Pink Diamond, Spinel got news about her Diamond and that she gave up her physical form to give birth to Steven. It changed her appearance from happy go lucky to edgy. Now she wants vengeance. So I’m wondering how was she able to get an injector and a scythe, then go to Earth in under a few hours? 

In “Giant Woman,” Pearl explains that two gems have to decide to fuse together and they have to sync with each other to do it. In “Change Your Mind,” Steven fuses with the Crystal Gems midair while they are in their gem state.

How the hell did Connie get affected by Blue Diamond’s pathokinesis when Lapis Lazuli arrived in “Reunited”? 

She was fine when BD did it the first time.

Mean Lapis and Bluebird are still on the loose. I know most shows leave things unanswered but you can’t leave two villains out there. They can still do harm to others 

I really wish the Crewniverse showed more professionalism because there are so many errors in the show and some of them are so simple to fix, yet they don’t and that’s what I call lazy. 

The Cast of Characters Don’t Do Much

I used to like the cast of characters, even the humans I enjoyed watching. When season 4 - Future came in, they got ruined. Most of them don’t do much in the show. I feel like they got sidelined because the Crewniverse had no idea what to do with them. 

Let’s first talk about The citizens of Beach City and how they are the most boring characters in the show. At first, they weren’t so bad because they did have a role to play in the story like when The Cool Kids talked to Steven about his mother when he found out that she was a war criminal and he blamed himself for his mother not being around anymore. They also helped him not get scolded by The Crystal Gems when they found Peridot’s escape pod. 

There’s even some slice-of-life episodes that I did enjoy watching such as

“Sadie’s Song” 

 And “Historical Fiction”

But now they don’t react to any Gem situation anymore. They just stand around and serve no purpose to the plot. Look at “Future”, throughout the whole epilogue mini-series, the humans didn’t do a dang thing in the series. For example, The Cool Kids, Lars, Sadie, and Shep don’t talk to Steven about his mental health when he was about to crush them with his force field. It just makes it feel that they don’t care about him or oblivious about that experience

Then they didn’t do squat when Steven became a monster and I know they're just humans but their friends and the show focus on them a lot, so they have to use them. It made me wonder why they even focus on them in season 4 and season 5 if they're not going to serve their purpose in the story. 

Now let's talk about the more interesting characters and how the Crewniverse wasted them. Many Gems and few human characters (Lars, Greg, Connie) get them characters to grow, face struggles and have moments that can make a character likable. After all that, the Crewniverse had no idea what to do so they just left them. 

Peridot’s redemption was well written. from season 1 - season 3. From a villain that has unknown technology and feels more alien than the Crystal Gems to a member of the Crystal Gem. As much as I love her development and she’s my favorite, however, she doesn’t do much in the show. Most shows that give a lot of development to a character are part of the main cast but in Steven Universe's case, she gets put in the barn with Lapis Lazuli and does nothing. She’s never involved in major story arcs such as she didn’t come along to help Steven to get his dad back in Zoo Arc and didn’t help with beach city citizens getting kidnapped in Wanted Arc. 

Even in the Pink Diamond Arc, she has no part to play. All she was in that arc was a punchline and a hyperactive character with no defining moments. While it’s nice she has a new outfit, it doesn’t change anything. 

Peridot had the potential to be a really great character but she got wasted because they had no idea what to do with her.

Pearl and Garnet never got their own character arc. When they fused with Steven to become Rainbow Quartz 2.0 and Sunstone it was rushed. I know they didn’t have time to do their arcs but if they cut townie episodes and focused on their bond it would’ve felt more impactful for him to fuse with them. Season 4 could’ve been Garnet and Season 5 could’ve been Pearl. Just look at Amethyst where she finds mutual respect and love for Steven and that’s really great to see. With them, we don’t have a moment like that.

A good example of using characters is Regular Show. They used their characters pretty well, giving each of them a good amount of screen time. 

Benson’s drum solo 

Getting to know more about Skips history

Muscle Man setting his ashes free at Great Trucker Graveyard 

High Five Ghost reunited with his love interest 

Pop’s proving that he’s part of the guys for Guys Night 

Rigby graduates high school

Mordecai painting for Benson

And what I like the most about is they all have a moment together as best friends. Such as in “Parkie Rewards,” although Benson doesn’t win an award, the gang made their very own award and paper trophy. Benson made a speech about how he appreciated his staff workers. 

I really wish Steven Universe had something like that and I really wanted to see more of Lapis, Garnet, Amethyst, and Bismuth but sadly the writers aren’t giving them much to do anymore. 

A Shift of Pacing 

Steven Universe really wants to tell a story like most cartoon shows are doing such as Over the Garden Wall, Adventure Time, Owl House and many more. They keep adding episodic episodes in the middle of unresolved conflict and have the concluding rushed. An example of this is the Cluster arc. 

Peridot tells The Crystal Gems that the Cluster will emerge at any time… AT ANY TIME! So the gang planned to create a gem drill to destroy it to save the Earth. So instead of working on the drill, they kept delaying it like 

Garnet told her story to Steven of how Ruby and Sapphire met 

Celebrating Steven’s birthday 

Peridot processing on becoming a “Crystal Gem”

I know Peridot was working on the drill and I like Peridot’s redemption but it’s a life or death situation. You can’t do other things when the Cluster can emerge at any time. The way they resolved the arc was really rushed. The Crystal Gems finally locate the whereabouts of Malachite and so Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl go to Watermelon Island and fuse to Alexandrite to defeat her. Then the Cluster emerges and it’s up to Steven and Peridot to deal with it. Instead of destroying the Cluster, he talks to it and it stops itself from emerging by bubbling itself. The way the writers conclude the arc was so anticlimactic and rushed. It ended two major plots, Malachite and Cluster in two episodes and Steven just talking to it was ridiculous. The Cluster arc should’ve at least had two episodes and Malachite should’ve come after the event because she was briefly mentioned in three episodes. 

Adventure Time has a mini-series that primarily focuses on plots. It resolves conflicts and it doesn’t waste any time such as Islands, Stakes, and Elements. 

People tend to blame the network for the inconsistent schedule and hiatus. While it may be true, however, it’s not really a big issue with the show. Gravity Falls isn’t consistent with its schedule but it has better pacing than Steven Universe. From Nov. 26, 2014 - Feb 16, 2015, the ep “Northwest Mansion Noir” was released, another month of waiting for “Not What He Seems.” Then we have to wait for four months, July 13th, 2015, for “The Tale of Two Stans.” Then there’s Steven Universe where we have to wait for six months for the next episode and it is just Towney episodes and it doesn’t even matter to the plot. So I pretty much don’t understand why people are complaining about the Steven Universe hiatus when Gravity Falls, a well-written show, has a hiatus as well. 

They could’ve had a well-written story if only they weren't so focused on the human side of Steven and cut most of the filler out. 

Action Doesn’t Have Consequences 

In most shows, movies, and video games, characters will make rash decisions that have other characters disagree and even have a bit of a falling out.  

Look at Gravity Falls “Land Before Swine.” Stanley doesn’t like Mabel’s pet pig, Waddles, and he left him outside when there was a Pterodactyl in town. Stan left Waddles unattended and caused him to get captured.

Soos messed up a lot in the episode. Without thinking, he barged in as Dipper developed the film which ruined a good picture of the dinosaur.

He tries to be optimistic when Mabel finds out Stanley left him out however it ineffective when he ravels the yarn back up and thus cut the clear path and accidentally break the lamb

To prove their worth is by Stanley fights the pterodactyl to save Waddles 

And Soos and Dipper make up when he apologizes and he admits he made mistakes.  Dipper and Mabel then took Soos advice to follow his lead and walk in a straight line as for dinosaurs' eyes are so far apart and that it can’t see in front of itself and the plan went well. 

So with Steven Universe, most characters in the show have done pretty terrible things and the show never atoned for their actions. 

In “Island Adventure”, Sadie trapped Lars and Steven on an island by hid the Gem portal with leaves so she can hit on him.  Although she saved his life by poofing the gem monster with a pointy stick, it doesn’t help the fact that she trapped them for a month! It is also idiotic that the show treats Lars as he’s the bad guy where in reality, Sadie is! 

Amethyst, although I do like her character development in the show, however, she did pretty a messed up thing and they never resolved it. In “Maximum Capacity”, Greg finds out that he’s missing the fireworks and Amethyst shapeshifts from Steven to Greg to cheer him up. She changes back and gets mad at him for not spending time with her. So she shapeshifts to Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond which causes Greg to look away and it’s the second time she has done it, and then Steven comes in to stop and question both of them. Amethyst feels guilty and left. So in order to make things up, she came up with an idea to clean that the Crystal Gems can clean out Greg storage. So this is really messed up. She shapeshifted as his wife and not only it scarred Greg but Steven as well and yet the writers never decided on how they can properly make it up. That’s so horrible. 

Lapis Lazuli took the Earth's water, almost killed Connie, broke Peridot's tape recorder and called it garbage, and she took the barn. When she finally comes back to help the Crystal Gems to fight against the Diamonds. Her response to everyone was “hey”. She never apologized for anything she has done. I know she has PTSD but it doesn’t excuse her actions. 

The only character that actually feels guilty and has to make amends of her wrongdoing is Pearl. She deceived Garnet by keeping rebuilding Gem communicator so she can fuse with her to form Sardonyx to make herself feel better. Steven and Amethyst find out and spill the beans which gets Garnet mad and Pearl feels guilty. In the last episode of the Sardonyx arc, they get trapped by Peridot. When they were about to get crushed, they two finally talk and Pearl apologizes to her and calls herself “just a pearl” and Garnet tells her you are your own gem and that makes her feel better and fused to Sardonyx once again. 

Now it’s time to talk about the second major gripe with the show that everyone has and it’s the Diamonds being redeemed. The Diamonds are tyrannical fascist dictators that caused genocide many species, colonized many worlds, corrupt gems, shatter gems that don’t obey, have an army, gems that are off-color are put to the underground, and force fused shattered gems into a Cluster. After what they have done, you think they need to pay, right? Unfortunately, since Rebecca Sugar said ``there are no villains' ' and the show is about empathy, the Diamonds, especially White Diamond, get a clean slate. So it’s fine to have a villain be sympathetic and have a sad backstory, it makes them more human but having them redeemed is something you should never ever do, especially what they’ve done. They have very little screen time to show their development and have doubts about their empire. 

Then they made them worse when in Steven Universe: “The Movie” and “Future” 

In Steven Universe: “The Movie”, The Diamonds become clingy aunties to Steven and tell them don’t do evil things anymore like calling other species “equal lifeforms”, disband their arms and not shatter gems.

In Steven Universe: “Future”, The Diamonds abilities have a completely opposite effect towards Gems such as 

Yellow Diamond’s ability to change from poofing gems to fixing 

Blue Diamond’s ability to change from sad blue orbs to happy blue clouds 

White Diamond's ability changed from manipulation to control her for a brief moment. 

Having them become good and having emotions won’t cut it. They can’t atone for what they’ve done for the past millions of being fascist dictators and just saying “I’m a good Diamond now” can’t wipe away their past actions. It doesn’t work like that! 

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, A SHOW FOR LITTLE GIRLS, have a better-written villain redemption than Steven Universe and I ain’t kidding. Discord was the main antagonist for “Return of Harmony”. All he wanted to do is cause chaos. He was defeated by the mane six at the end of the second part of the episode.

In season 3, “Keep Calm and Flutter On”, Discord was reformed by Fluttershy because Princess Celestia believes he can be a good ally and knows that she can do it. 

Throughout season 4, everyone still doesn’t trust him even though he’s friends with Fluttershy.

In the season 4 finale, he sided with Tirek and he betrayed them because he thought he’ll be rewarded for it. 

Then he was betrayed by him. After Tirek and Twilight fought, she gave up her magic to save her friends, including Discord. It made him realize that friendship is more precious than anything of what he’ll give him and that’s when he’s been fully accepted as a friend to the mane six. 

I also want to talk about Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond. While many fans in the community and the Crewniverse always point that she’s terrible and I agree she is. Such as leaving Spinel for 3,000 years, cracked her first Pink Pearl, abandoned her Diamond duties to be free, started a Gem war that cost many Gems to shatter to pursue her own goal, bubbled Bismuth, gems got corrupted, and left Steven with the burden. It is indeed bad but when compared to the Diamonds, she’s more of a saint than them. At least she does develop, doesn’t shatter gems and save the Earth from the Diamonds. 

With story pacing being all over, villains and even characters aren’t paying for their actions and a cast of characters aren’t doing much, what’s the most problematic of the show? Well, it’s a combination of all my problems into one and that is…

Steven “Center Of” Universe

The major problem with the show, the one that brings down the show a lot and it’s Steven Omnipresence. First off, I don’t mind when a show has a protagonist point-of-view like Ben 10, Phineas and Ferb, Over the Garden Wall, etc. As long as it's written well and keeps the story moving, it’s fine but with Steven Universe, it has tons of problems. Steven's point-of-view is the cause of all its flaws and I can’t stress it enough about it. 

So let’s first talk about the obvious one and how it’s only Steven's perspective. The problem with this is we only see things if Steven is there to witness it. The show introduces a fascinating world of Gems and yet the show doesn’t dive into that because Steven doesn’t care about and all he does is hang around Beach City. Steven will never explore unless he chooses to and some major plot points are offscreen which you should never do, especially it’s a story-driven show. An example of this is “Wanted Arc’” and yes I’m using it the third time as my example because it really is a terrible arc. When Steven comes back home, he had some information about Homeworld, discovered that there’s a mystery about Pink Diamond shattering, Off Colours, Steven can bring back people from the dead and Lars in space. With all that, what does Steven do? Nothing. Throughout his adventure in space, he never mentions it to the Crystal Gems and instead of that being the main focus, it’s townies and Connie. While Steven is doing Beach City fluff, Lars is actually progressing the plot by him developing and escaping Homeworld with the Off Colours. I truly wonder why the Crewniverse believes that Beach City is more important than Gems? 

They got interesting lore and I truly want them to explore it more but they had to waste all that and have the most major plot points be offscreen for Steven's perspective. 

The second problem with Steven p.o.v is his contestant presence. The show will always be about him, no other characters get the spotlight or do anything unless he’s there. There’s rarely a scene that doesn’t have Steven and it’s frustrating when there’s a well-rounded cast of characters that I want to see more than him. We’ll never see them interact with other characters nor explore different parts of the world. Other shows have done it such as 

Amazing World of Gumball - “The World”

Adventure Time - “Varmints” 

Avatar: The Last Airbender - “Zuko Alone” 

Rick and Morty - “Tales From the Citadel”

Imagine how great it will be if explore more of the cast like  

Uncorrupt Gem characters and Curley Lapis going by their day in Little Homeschool. 

Lars becoming a space pirate 

Lapis and Peridot becoming friends 

Pearl meeting up with Mystery Girl

Volleyball recovering from her trauma

Ruby and Sapphire being their own individuals 

They got a lovable cast of characters that I want the show to further explore and yet the Crewniverse don’t do anything with them and that’s such a missed opportunity.  

Then the third most egregious problem with Steven p.o.v is he’s the communicator. The show tries to message that talking things will work but no one really talks to each other unless it’s Steven. Characters barely make their opinion or a chance to speak for themselves while Steven's opinion will and shall always be in the right and we barely see characters talking to one another. Examples of these are…

When Steven bubbles Bismuth, Pearl and Garnet don't say a thing and just let him. They don't question why he did or lash him out for it. They just went along with it. Steven decided to unbubble her in “Made of Honor “ for a wedding without talking to anyone else about it and again, they still haven’t asked questions and they just went along with it. 

In “Reunited”, instead of Crystal Gems look at each other to find their strength like Garnet telling Pearl she’s her own Pearl, Pearl telling Amethyst she’s isn’t an accident, and they tell Garnet that she’s a great leader, Steven has to remind them what they are supposed to be. 

Blue and Yellow had issues with the Gem Empire but too afraid to say to White Diamond. Until Steven arrived and that’s when they tried talking to her.

The Diamonds become good because Steven tells them being a fascist dictator is bad and they agree. They disbanded the Gem Empire and changed their abilities to help Gems under two years. 

Steven made Pearl talk to Amethyst. 

The message the show tries to tell that people should communicate is completely flawed because rather than have other characters improve their lives by talking to one another, they made Steven the messiah that every character looks up to. Steven will change your mind and you have no choice in the matter. 

Conclusion

With the end of Steven Universe, I  want to say that this show could’ve been better. Steven Universe was created by Rebecca Sugar, a former storyboard artist for Adventure Time and the one who mainly writes episodes about Marceline and wrote songs for the show. When she announced that she's left AT to make her show, I was excited and had such high hopes for it. I really want this show to succeed and it could’ve been the next Adventure Time, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic or Gravity Falls but sadly it failed to do so. The show flaws outshined it the strength by it was handled unprofessionally, wasted their characters, the pacing is all over the place, no character pay for their past actions and Steven’s point-of-view. I don’t think it’s the worst show I’ve ever watched nor a masterpiece, it's just a disappointingly average show in my personal opinion. I hope Rebecca Sugar and her crew not just see this as their progressive show by representing LGBT and messaging but also see what they would have approved of on the show and how they could’ve made it better. I had a lot of good memories when I first watched the show. It had the potential to be better but it never filled the promises they made.  

[heathered-beinn]

BTS American Hustle Life Ep4

Ep 3 recap: BTS are in LA to learn about hip hop. During that episode they met their dance teacher, Jenny Kita. She set them a few challenges including a solo demonstration, a dance battle against professional dancers, and the task of choreographing a dance routine in small groups. J-Hope’s dance skills shone the brightest throughout which was both a surprise and a delight! Jin, despite being the least proficient dancer in the band, tried really hard and it paid off in the final challenge – he and J-Hope were deserving winners.

We also started to see the friendships between the band members more, which was quite lovely. I really hope this continues in the series.

 On to Episode 4!

Holy cow, that dorm is an absolute pigsty. Ewwww! The amount of water bottles alone makes me want to cry.

Lol, I wonder how RM and Jimin ended up having to clean the dorm up?

They did a good job with it though and somehow managed to find some fun in between. The bathroom scene was hilarious!

Like last episode Jimin appears to have dropped some of his mask. Maybe I’m just seeing things but in this ep he just seems a little softer around the edges - more playful rather than loud and over-the-top. I think RM is good company for him. I’m not sure how to word it without accidentally making it look like I think the other lads treat him poorly (which I don’t believe they do!!) but I think RM is quite respectful to Jimin? As the leader RM’s attention will be pulled in many directions and when he can give spare undivided attention he probably spends it more on his elder bandmates as they are closer to his own age. However, I get the sense that when he does focus on Jimin he does it with the kind of patience and gentleness that the others are maybe not quite so liberal with? That’s not to say he won’t tease Jimin or joke around with him (he does) but so far it comes across as a little warmer than the others perhaps because he’s naturally gentler in nature? I’m probably talking out my **** here but that’s just what I’ve sensed.

One final thing: Jimin’s English is really improving!

So while Jimin and RM are cleaning the dorm, Suga, V, and Jungkook are on laundry duty. LMAO how is that fair? I was thinking that the “chores” were punishment for losing the challenge in Ep3 but Jimin and RM were so close to winning and yet seem to have been given the worst chore?

LOL, how can those three lads make laundry seem so complicated??

They really are big kids – I’m glad they can find ways to have fun though. But ewwwwwwwwww Jungkook, the 3/5/7/10 second rule is a myth, don’t eat things off the ground – particularly in a foreign country!!

Woah!!! they licked each other’s ice creams without hesitation!

To be honest I think it is more of a reflection on my own culture rather than theirs that this seemed so surprising to me. Generally sharing food without the ‘ew that’s got your spit on’ and other hang-ups – particularly between boys - ends around 8-10 years old here.

Jungkook sweetie, I really doubt you’ve put on much weight – are you sure you haven’t just grown another few inches? It certainly looks like you’ve grown. At this point you might end up towering over Suga and Jimin.

Ah so Jin and J-Hope are food shopping. So maybe these chores are not punishments for losing the challenge. I’d still like to know how Jimin and RM got the short straw to clean the dorm lol.

Oh good grief, BTS cooking – after their challenge in the first series I dread to think what poor concoction they’re going to come up with.

OK so J-Hope’s cheese sticks verdict… V = X, RM = XX, Jimin (so cute as he bounded over like an excited puppy) = too polite to use his new English word “disgusting”

Jin’s ham on toast concoction: LMAO at Jin blowing on the forkful before feeding Jimin. No comment on Jimin’s tongue action though…

It seemed to taste okay judging by Jimin’s reaction. RM does not agree lol. It was cute how Jin was feeding the rest of the toast to Jimin and Jungkook like a parent feeding infants.

After what I wrote earlier about RM it’s nice to see the other lads interacting with Jimin more. I wonder if some of the impatience that occasionally comes across is simply down to the editing?

So we move on to a new day and the whole group are heading to Long Beach by foot. Crikey, Jungkook looks like he’s grown another inch over night!! Why on earth is he wearing two layers in the LA heat???!!

It’s great to see that BTS are still ‘star struck’ by celebrities. I guess, back then, the band were not that well known – at least not like they are now. They certainly did not cross my radar – not like 1D did.

LMAO – V randomly saying he drooled when he saw Warren G. What?????!!!!

Warren G seems a great guy; very chill and calm with the band. *Again I’m going to say it but I love how BTS have the confidence to say another man looks handsome like they did when admiring the photo in the record store*

Yeah Warren G is a really decent guy.

There’s something fundamentally poetic in the way that Jimin said of Warren G, Snoop Dogg, Nate, (in a tone of amazement and disbelief) “They were just elementary kids but became legends”. I mean, BTS were once ‘elementary school’ kids and while, in that moment, Jimin did not know how big the band would get, the same sentiment applies to BTS.

So their new challenge is to write lyrics based on their own lives to Regulate.

Good boys; slapping on the sunscreen – thumbs up for skin care!

Oh good grief Jin, if the American dorm is slowly becoming like your Korean dorm then I shudder to think what state your Korean dorm is in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oooh so the band are opening up a little about their lives in order to make lyrics for their rap.

After a bit of travelling by bus and making friends with the locals, Jin and J-Hope settle down in a park to talk. We learn Jin started off acting and not singing? Now that’s interesting! Not all of BTS had joining a band or even BTS’ music style in mind from the beginning. Jin also has a brother and he was into hip hop so Jin had some knowledge of it before joining the band.

J-Hope’s turn and he admitted when he first joined the band everyone was a rapper and he was the only dancer which made him feel remote.

This, again, is really interesting to learn as this was the scenario I was pinning on Jimin – unless there were different BTS members back when J-Hope joined? I really don’t know how the band was formed so I hope at some point they talk about this. I liked how Jin admitted he was surprised to hear about J-Hope feelings. They should talk like that more often.

RM and Jimin travel to another part of town – near the school/college that some of the most famous rappers in the music industry attended. I really like the motto of the building “Enter to learn go forth to serve”. I’m not American so I don’t know it’s true connotations but to me it’s simple and strangely compelling. Like; ‘We don’t care who you are either come in and learn and repay by using it to serve the community - or travel forth on down the street and sign up for the army and serve that way. There’s a purpose for everyone.”

RM and Jimin talking <3

Jimin’s answer to what he found difficult when he joined the band is fascinating. While the translation felt a little off, it reads as he cares a lot about what others think of him and doesn’t want to let anyone down or let any of his (self-perceived) shortcomings hold others back. In order to achieve this he spent a lot of time trying to catch up or improve so that no one could easily spot his weaknesses. Ultimately, he wants to care less what others think of him so he can lose some of the pressure? I really think there is a lot more to this “want to care less about what others think” than the vague answer he gave (or was edited in). His starting phrase “I should live quietly for the sake of my team” was quite a loaded sentiment and didn’t quite follow what he said next – definitely some careful editing there.

RM’s sentiment echoes this. He talked about seeing a very over-weight man walking around LA topless and admired the man’s confidence to not care what other people thought. RM wants some of that confidence to stop constantly watching out for what others thought about him. This is the type of pressure many celebrities talk about a lot. In my opinion, any one remotely “famous” are seen as role models (rightly or wrongly) and society holds them to ridiculous standards. Make one mistake and that’s you cancelled like you are some item in a shop that can be returned for a refund. I personally think people have a very skewed idea about what makes a ‘role model’. For me, a role model shouldn’t be perfect but when they do make mistakes they should own up to it, apologise, and attempt to fix or make up for any hurt caused. We, as their fans, need to relearn how to accept an apology, forgive human errors, allow people to learn, and move on. Min rant over.

Moving on: Suga, V, and Jungkook are down near the beach front discussing their lyrics. The way V instantly thought of his Dad tells me he’s quite family orientated. It was touching the way he said he made him the person he was today.

Jungkook’s thoughts where based more on his internal thoughts of himself as a person and a musician. It was very honest of him to admit that back home he’d been pretty confident of his talent but once he joined (BigHit?) he quickly realised there was a lot of people with as much, if not more, talent than him and it knocked his confidence. I wish Suga had spoke more about his own thoughts rather than just write the lyrics.

 Challenge Day:

To be fair, all three groups rose to the challenge and not only had some great lyrics but sounded polished and rehearsed. We only got snippets of the songs but from what we did hear I would struggle to pick a winner. I guess, for me, it would feel like picking one’s persons’ struggles over another’s. Hard to judge.

Lol at Suga oversharing about being in the toilet when he was writing *crying with laughter face*

Awww, Suga, V, and Jungkook won. They definitely tried harder with this challenge than the one in ep 3 so I felt it was deserved.

Final musings:

Another interesting episode. I think the band learned a lot more about hip hop this episode and Warren G was a real gent. We also learned more about each band member in terms of their thoughts and experiences when joining the band. We (I) also learned more about their personalities which hadn’t been so clear in previous eps and series. I think the editing can misconstrue some moments so I’m probably going to re-evaluate my musings on each band member from time to time – this is a good thing though!

Looking forward to ep 5!

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Reflecting on Agents of SHIELD

So here we are at the end of 7 years. I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the show. There are times when I really haven’t liked the show and there are times when I have loved the show. Unlike many fans in the fandom, I don’t think its a perfect show. It has had more than a few missteps along the way. But it deserves credit on the things it has done right.

I remember the excitement when I hopped on board for season 1. Just coming off Avengers, this was supposed to be the tv spinoff where a whole world of exciting things were supposed to happen, interlinked with the movies. Turns out, it was a huge mistake to market the show like that. Thinking about it know, the potential challenges of that working out were obvious. Movies are written far before tv episodes are so doing that type of synchronization would be extremely difficult even if there weren’t tensions between the tv and movie divisions. In any case, season 1 was a clear case of a show treading water. The first 2/3 of the season was truly dull, barring a few good ones likes F.Z.Z.T. It wasn’t till T.R.A.C.K.S that the show started to find its footing with any sort of quality. The cast also seemed to be getting a handle on things. Clark Gregg smoothly transitioned without a problem as a lead but initially Ward was too blank a slate to really connect to, Skye was really annoying, FitzSimmons were just a bickering couple, and May was just the deadpan badass stereotype. But slowly the actors started to get a handle on things. The first sign of Elizabeth’s talent could be seen in F.Z.Z.T. Ming Na and Brett Dalton started to find more tinges of humanity in their characterizations. Iain really started to open out towards the end of the season and delivered what is still one of the most powerful scenes of the show in his confession to Simmons under water. I will be honest and say that Chloe wasn’t very good initially. It was partly the character and partly that the others seemed significantly better at the dramatic beats. The big Hydra twist gave Brett Dalton a huge boost as a performer. Its as if his handcuffs were taken off and he was suddenly freed and he became the most interesting character on the show for me. The Hydra plot of season 1 may still be the best story arc the show did, rivaled only by the Framework arc. I still don’t know which I rank higher, but that arc was the height of fulfillment that we got from the premise as originally pitched to the fans where the show synchronized with the movie story very well. And it was really the last time it happened. While most of season 1 was unfortunately handicapped, the final arc ended the season on a high which left me with great anticipation for what was next.

As we started second season, the thing that immediately struck me was that the show had completely changed. What again struck me was how Iain and Brett had really become the MVP’s of the show for me. Iain was heartwrenchingly brilliant in the first half of season 2. Again, one of the scenes of the show for me is when Fitz finds Ward in the basement. Brett and especially Iain just acted the hell out of that scene. The story arc of SHIELD vs Hydra was always one of the strong points of the show. That’s where the strength of season 2 lies. They played on the toxic Ward/Skye dynamic really well in those interactions in the basement. Brett really found the perfect balance of creepiness and sincerity in those scenes. In the midst of it all, we got some new additions in Bobbi, Hunter, Mack, and Kyle Machlachlan as Skye’s father and the transformation from Skye to Daisy happened. Honestly, Kyle was the highlight of the new additions in the season. He was there throughout and was kind of the emotional heartbeat of Skye/Daisy’s story in season 2. I wasn’t a huge fan of Mack in season 2. He had this passive aggressiveness towards anyone who wasn’t Fitz. I liked his dynamic with Fitz. Definitely the FitzSimmons stuff was hard to watch with it being so heartbreaking. Little did we know how much more there was to come. Bobbi and Hunter I was largely indifferent to. Bobbi was a badass and Adrianne Palicki is gorgeous but I never got overly invested in her. Hunter was hilarious at times and sometimes annoying. I liked how he was with Fitz. I felt Iain brought out the best in everyone this season. I wasn’t a huge fan of the second half of the season. I think the whole SHIELD vs Real SHIELD arc was pretty dumb and even the Inhumans story could have been better executed. Also, they took a wrong turn with Ward by the end of season 2. They had real potential with Ward being a wild card character who could be on hero’s side or villain’s side depending what benefits him, but instead they made him pure villain by season end.

Season 3 started off ok. Again, Iain was heartwrenching in the season premiere and Elizabeth turned up in full form in her solo outing. I honestly did not care about the whole Will drama. It felt very soap operaish for them to use this to create a love triangle which actually goes nowhere. Again, I felt they didn’t do enough with Ward even though Brett Dalton gave it is all. Certainly it was the most straight up villainous version of the character. Powers Boothe came in and did a great job with all his gravitas as a Hydra leader. It was in season 3 I started feeling Chloe Bennet started stepping up to the plate. In all fairness, one of my issues with some of the initial seasons were that it was so heavily Skye/Daisy dependent and everyone else felt more interesting to follow than her. This season allowed Ming Na and Clark Gregg to show some shades of regret and anger respectively. I was annoyed when they killed Ward because of wasted potential but Brett stepped up to the plate with an excellent turn as Hive. Bobbi and Hunter’s goodbye was sad though, as I said, I never got a personal attachment to those characters. One of the big misfires unfortunately was Lincoln. I have seen Luke Mitchell be compelling in other roles but Lincoln just did not work. Not as a character independently and not as a love interest for Daisy because they shared no chemistry. In a way, his death at the end felt like the writers dumping him and just admitting they didn’t know how to make the character work. We also got introduced to Yo Yo who would last the remainder of the show. It was kind of an uneven season but overall enjoyable. Didn’t reach the heights of the best parts of season 1 and 2 but maybe more consistent overall. I was really sad to say goodbye to Brett Dalton who was my second favorite cast member after Iain at this point.

Season 4 probably stands as the overall best season in terms of quality. Splitting the season into three pods really helped with the pacing with an increased amount of story. It was also the first season since season 1 where SHIELD existed as a functioning public agency and not just a bunch of agents working in secret. Robbie Reyes was incredibly badass as Ghost Rider. His pod was probably the weakest of the season but his presence overshadowed all the regular SHIELD cast members. The villain story was kind of weak but the backstory with Robbie, his thankfully platonic dynamic with Daisy, and the story of the developing technology of AIDA was fascinating. The LMD arc was better because AIDA and Radcliffe became serious legitimate and realistic threats. The acting also was top notch. The finale of this arc, Self-Control, is one of the show’s top episodes where Chloe Bennet was amazing as was Elizabeth and Iain was genuinely frightening as the LMD in the few minutes he had. But Framework just killed it. Brett Dalton coming back was wonderful. I really wished they had found a way to bring back this version to the real world. Iain delivered a seriously terrifying performance as the Doctor. Elizabeth, Chloe, Clark, Henry, Ming Na, John Hannah, and Natalia were all great. But the season’s MVP was Mallory Jansen, who played multiple iterations of the character throughout the season. My one issue with season 4 was I felt that she was built up in the finale a lot but then got taken out too easily. But overall, great season.

Season 5 is where the show kind of lost my interest. I am genuinely not a fan of the season and don’t have much to say about it. I felt it became outlandish and silly, while simultaneously becoming overly grim and morose which just didn’t work tonally for me. The acting continued to be top notch across the board. Iain continued to be a highlight all season with his breakdown episode being one of the most painful to watch. FitzSimmons wedding was lovely and kind of a welcome relief in a very dark season. Clark Gregg, Ming Na, and Chloe Bennet were excellent towards the end when playing out Coulson’s deteriorating health. Natalia also got to have some meaty story for really the first time on the show. But the budget constraints were clearly showing with the entire season being played out in the same grey halls and honestly I just never felt invested in the story. I knew the world wouldn’t end and it just became unendingly morose. Enoch was kind of the highlight in terms of humor in the season. Deke was introduced and I felt the same way as I felt about hunter. He was fun at tmes and other times annoying. The grandson revelation was kind of cool but I feel they have never done all that much with that connection. Maybe if the entire season was half a season’s plot, it would have been more palatable.

Season 6 was a minor improvement though still not great. The villains were again the big downfall of the season. I felt the show showed an inability to let go of Clark. Sarge was really not compelling and not a character that utilized his Clark Gregg’s best traits, which is his easy every man type nature. I could care less about the Shriek and Izel. We got to see May as a badass several times, which was nice but it was the space advanture that I enjoyed more. Whether it was Daisy and Simmons getting high on space mushrooms, or Enoch and Fitz being BFF’s in space, it was the show getting back to having some humor. Certainly a shorter season helped with regards to pacing. But it was still a rather unremarkable season which ended on a promising note.

Season 7 has been the best season since season 4. I feel that the first half the season was awesome. Rediscovering the fun, natural lighting, and better character interplay. Not having Fitz around was a bummer since Iain’s my fav cast member but we got the delightful surprise of Enver joining the cast as Sousa who I absolutely loved on Agent Carter. He has helped fill the void for me. Certainly has brought more than his share of humor and heart to the show. Again, the season’s weakness has been its villains. The chronicoms were initially good physical threats and certainly what they did to Mack’s parents was horrifying, but when Nathaniel Malick took over, the season has kind of stuttered for me. He just doesn’t cut it as a villain, especially for the final season. Chronicoms also don’t really cut it beyond the physical threat. The new additions of Kora and young Garrett are too last minute for me to feel any sort of threat from them. Certainly the time loop episode was amazing and the developing relationship between Daisy and Sousa has completely taken me by surprise. Its a mixture of good writing, good acting, and natural chemistry that this pairing has been something I root for, even though I loved PeggySous. But the show inexplicably got stuck in the 80′ and I really felt they should have gone through the periods to catch up to present day. Certainly the Jiaying story helped with some character reconcilliation for Daisy but I think there could have been more interesting stories had they progressed to more modern times. In any case, that leads to the finale. Hopefully the show ends on a good note. I don’t think it will be everything I want it to be because there are too many things on my wishlist, like a Ward return, which are unlikely to happen. But I hope for that its largely emotionally satisfying. Its been a good, if uneven ride. I would say its probably my second favorite Marvel show after Daredevil, but its longevity shows that it has developed a loyal core of fans. I may not get as emotional as a lot of the core fans, but it will feel weird that there will be no more Agents of SHIELD. It is the end of an era with it being the last of its brand of Marvel shows with all future marvel shows being direct movie spinoffs. I don’t anticipate we will see these characters in this form again, but who knows? Maybe someday?

Edit: My thoughts on finale

Overall, it was.... fine. I don’t know what I was expecting. I liked how the characters ended up but the whole thing felt oddly safe and a little emotionally hollow. They should have been a little braver and genuinely killed a couple of characters. Like I said earlier, there were a lot of things on my wishlist that didn’t happen, but I had kind of reconciled to that. The action was really good, but my apathy for the villains led to me being less interested in the whole story and the whole “empathy being the savior” was a little goofy for my taste. Regardless, far from the worst finale around but also not the greatest but reasonably enjoyable. Kind of like the show in a way, which makes it fitting. 

[toku-explained]

The Swordsmen Aligned

SSSS.Dynazenon: We see Yomogi's perspective on the change to DynaRex and the battle climax. Chise, running to catch up to Dynazenon, finds an odd item. Dynazenon returns to being 4 small models as she catches them. Gauma is still annoyed at Yume. Introductions are made, and he explains Shalbandes will have been controlled by the Kaiju Eugenecists, Kaiju users like him. He gives each of the pilots one Dynazenon component, insisting they meet next day to train, but wonders to himself if Dynazenon is a Kaiju and why was he given it. Things are a mess at school, Yomogi heads to work, Yume messes with her friend, Koyomi wonders if Dynazenon counts as a job. Gauma is upset Yomogi doesn't show, a sparkling item appears in the river. Gauma invades Yomogi's bath to talk, in her own Yume contemplates apologising, Gauma is invited by Yomogi's mom to stay over. Next day Yume shows Yomogi she can now activate the DynaWing, has him activate DynaSoldier, and has them combine into "DynaWingSoldier", while they fly she makes an apology, and shows him the result of the battle on foot. On the train she mentions Kaho dying by where they met when she was a kid. People gather at a new Kaiju, Greyjom, called by the thing in the river, watched by the Eugenecists, Juuga, Onija, Mujina and Sizumu, Juuga controls it. The heroes grab Yomogi so Dynazenon can fight, but when they're forced to split Yomogi is helpless until Koyomi realises the secret to it warping, and by again forming DynaSoldier Wing Combine they are able to give Gauma his shot. Yomogi asks Yume about her feelings towards Kaho, she's unsure now. The Eugenecists greet Gauma, appearing to the team.

Heroes' Odyssey: The look at Battle in Hyperspace continues.

Saber: Rintaro explains what he learned about Master Logos and his goals, and earnestly apologises, but they all welcome him back with open arms. Zooous is itching to settle his score with Rintaro, but Storious insists the Seiken and joining Wonder World comes first, Zooous has a new Megido in mind. Northern Base discuss their foes, Yuri apparently hasn't encountered Kaiji before. Master Logos' book is part of the original book, passed to each new Master, Yuri, deciding Touma can separate the Megiddo, goes to seek Tassel, Sophia has Ogami find Ren while she will meet Kento. After mentioning the key she gave Mei, a Megiddo is detected. Saber Elemental Primitive Dragon and Blades King Lion Daisenki fight the Megiddo, Touma about to separate when he notices the charms on it's body are living humans, then reveals it's host is Mei, escaping when Zooous attacks Blades. Rintaro is really freaking out about the chance of Mei dying. Since we last saw him, it looks like Ren has been followed by Desast, who suggests he learn from him, Desast vanishes when Ogami appears, Ren lashes out and leaves. Rintaro finds Mei on the roof, Zooous attacks, joined by the Megiddo, despite Rintaro's desire to save her Nagare doesn't glow, Zooous torments him claiming he always gets stronger. Kento nearby says that Mei will be lost and Rintaro killed, Sophia tries to get him to not be so defeatist, Touma arrives to help Rintaro. Rintaro sinks into depression, but holds Zooous so Touma can act, but he has to block the killing blow instead, as Zooous and the Megiddo leave, Rintaro acts as though his own life is worthless.

Zenkaiger: Magine is really messy it turns out. Vroom discovers while out the mess made by Gomi World. The team actually force him to flee, but his trash will keep growing. Boccowaus is actually annoyed at Barashitara for this because he doesn't want to rule a garbage world, Ijirude is still working. The team prepare a clean up, but Vroon makes more progress than the rest combined and decides to take it solo. New character Stacey makes his first appearance, as Kaito starts declaring his resolve everyone is sapped of their will. Magine still has energy, and Vroon powers through and draws Gomi World out. The others get placed as trash, leaving Vroon beaten until Magine finds him. After some Go-Busters power, they defeat Gomi World. Dai Gomi World is defeated despite initial setbacks. Barashitara contemplates another lost World when Stacey approaches, claiming to be his son. With this episode we are now caught up the the All Red Battle and ZenkaiRed special, ready for what comes next episode.

Genms: So somehow despite Kamen Rider Brain happening, I somehow never expected this to be real. Not unhappy with it though. Don't expect Thousers The Presidents to be real as a separate thing though. Super Sentai Villains Next Year? Now obviously, in the original joke the meaning of the title was that it was to focus on Kutoto, Masamune, Amagasaki and Tsukuru, here though the double meaning makes it a reference to both Kuroto and Amatsu being company presidents. My understanding on timeline setting is that for Zero-One this is between the two installments of The 01hers, and for Ex-Aid it's about a year after Another Ending and a couple of years before Mighty Novel X. Kuroto is awakened by the Ark. Amatsu is launching a new company, Thouser-Intellion, and to help him acquired a Secretary-type Humagear, who he names Rin. He explains that ZAIA Enterprise Japan was shut down, and he intends to create a new IT company. He's been under the weather since moving to the office, and suddenly shows Bugster Virus symptoms, as Dan Kuroto emerges. Ark has apparently allowed him to produce a Gamer Driver, Bugvisor and Proto Mighty Action X, and he relates his awareness of the sort of pressure Amatsu must experience as President, as he once did. He infects Rin and takes her as his own secretary. Kuroto, you should only have been gone a year, Humagears were everywhere by the time you "died". As Amatsu struggles to pursue Kuroto, he doesn't notice another figure emerge from himself. Kuroto tries to tempt Rin when Amatsu reaches them, becoming Thouser, black due to infection, and Kuroto becomes Genm Level 2. Genm has the clear advantage, with a Mighty Critical Strike beating Thousand Destruction. Genm's killing blow is foiled when time suddenly freezes, and Dan Masamune appears on the scene.

Dogengers Nice Buddy: We start with an acknowledgement of the events of the first series, and the Dogengers becoming celebrated, a second season announced, and then Scandal! Kitaqman's SNS-ing, El Brave using a step to appear taller, Fukuokaliber not being good at Kendama, Yamashiron not eating Bell Peppers, Ohgaman not sleeping after taking his medicine, and a dating scandal involving Tanaka and Yuki, the team are made to apologise, and a Final Stage is announced at a park. Shaberryman MCs, the audience is just Yuki, Eboshi Musha and El Brave's Yahata Construction colleagues. Fukuokaliber beats some Karamis, then faces Shuraomaru. Aoiron and Daidairon take the stage fighting Nectaris, Redron joins late, then forms Yamashiron, still in Tsuyobi Mode. El Brave takes over, beating first Nectaris then Uzagi. The Marou Kaijin appear, Tanaka appears, changes and swiftly defeats Gulf, the heroes then celebrate but Yabai Kamen ambushes them, but Ohfaman appears via roller coaster. The assembled heroes defeat the Villains and celebrate, disheartened by the small crowd as Yuki is handed adverts for Great Z. After a certain man says something the heroes are knocked off stage by a red energy ball, and the stage is taken by Great Z and his cheerleaders, accompanied by at least 3 floating cameras(?) which can warp him along the stage. The devices come from his back. The audience seem far more interested in him. He knows who they, but he's hear to take their villains for his own show, really beating Yabai Kamen so he can take him hostage. Kitaqman rolls up late in the Kitaq Machine, but Great Z uses a rocket to warp them all to a quarry, explaining his Effect System, announces himself as the new justice, and shoots and destroys the Kitaq Machine, to Kitaqman's Horror.

[poc-movie-supremacy]

Watcher AU: Cryptids

A.N.: This is the Shyan perspective on this little Au I wrote. Mothman Ryan is sent to Earth to hunt demons, along the way he picks up Buzzfeed’s resident skeptic Shane. Can Ryan keep Shane safe with all the demons around them? For @mousemadej I hope you like it

A similar fic but standrew perspective will also be written. 

Do not tag or @ anyone from Watcher, I highly doubt any of them like rpf and nor do I want them to see this. It was a fun fic to work on, but I don’t need them finding it, please.

---

Jake Bergara deserved to go to heaven. He was the good, the pure one out of the two of them. He shouldn’t be blamed for Ryan’s faults. Heaven didn’t seem to think so though. Just the idea of Jake being like Ryan horrified them, but Ryan was nothing if not stubborn. Fed up, he barged into heaven demanding for them to let his brother in, be a guardian angel, like he’s always dreamed. They agreed, on one condition.

He was to do their dirty work: hunt demons. 

Internally Ryan was baffled. That was an easy job, why would that be the one condition needed? Since it was an easy task though, Ryan didn’t verbally question it. Externally his face was neutral bordering on dark and he agreed. 

Ryan Bergara, Mothman nicknamed by some real creative guy on earth, is Heaven’s latest demon slayer. 

Jake wasn’t extremely happy about this turn of events, and frankly neither was Steven. The two getting a little buddy buddy after Jake earned his white wings and golden halo. Ryan didn’t know if he was entirely okay with it, but Steven was keeping his brother safe and what’s better than that. The night before Ryan’s job, Steven, Adam, and Jake through him a little party. He can tell there’s an underlying tension within the small party, but he ignores it in favour of spending his last moments of normal with some of his favourite people. Jake, with some help from Steven, thought about another way around this mess, but what’s done is done. You can’t exactly break a seal with heaven, so he accepts and gets assigned a human. 

Ryan misses his brother, but he knows he’s safer in heaven. One can’t get injured in heaven. On earth he quickly realizes he’s going to need a job to be able to hunt demons inconspicuously. He gets a job at Buzzfeed. With the Try guys a thing, hunting demons can’t be that odd right? Anyways, Steven’s there too on and off to keep an eye on his human, Andrew Ilnyckj. It’s nice to have a friend there. 

He means to demon hunt alone, he really does, but there’s this guy. Tall, lanky, white guy who’s a skeptic yet thinks hunting ghosts and demons is a hoot. Ryan bergrudengly takes him along. Jake and Steven think this new development is hilarious and never waste a moment to tease him.

Shane’s... odd. He doesn’t believe any of the ‘BS’ Ryan is trying to convince him. At first it angered Ryan to no end, but then he realized that he could kill demons in secret easier with Buzzfeed’s resident skeptic. 

The show’s original intent was just two boys hunting demons, but Shane really loved crime cases. Thus, Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime was born. Ryan got some help from some coworkers and compiled Theories on unsolved crime cases. This set up was less adrenaline fueled than Supernatural is. Ryan likes it, it’s a pleasant reprise. They sit down in an little makeshift office with a corkboard in the back. It’s filled with future supernatural or true crime cases and updated info on Jake. Viewers like compiling theories what the cork board means. Ryan finds their ideas hilarious. 

Ryan finds great enjoyment in riling Shane up so he makes sure to include outrages theories. One of his favourites is a zombie plague that killed the colonists of Roanoke. Shane looked so disappointed in him, it made Ryan laugh. As the years go on, Ryan finds this job more enjoyable. He feels more free when he gets to sit down and tell Shane his stupid theories. He enjoys coming up with bits with Ryan and pretending to be a serial killer. In truth it’s just him letting another side of his personality free, a part that he has to keep hidden lest Heaven smite him. He hears the internet call Shane a demon and he laughs about it with Jake and Steven. 

Shane isn’t a demon. Sure he dissociates from his emotions, but he still has them. Also if he were a demon, then Ryan would have to kill him, and that’s the last thing Ryan wants to do. It’s terrifying, but Ryan’s starting to care for him. It’s an odd feeling in his chest, caring for someone. It feels different from how he cares about Jake and Steven. 

Being able to work with Steven is always amusing. He has a different personality at work, so Ryan loves to poke holes in that persona. Andrew looks at them oddly at them when Ryan alludes to something from Steven’s childhood that makes him blush all over. Andrew thinks it’s a nice color, that blush, but he doesn’t think he could ever say that out loud though. (Ryan knows Andrew likes Steven and Steven likes Andrew. He has a running bet with Adam when they’ll finally get together. In the meantime Ryan finds great enjoyment in teasing Steven about said crush.)

On off times, they tell their co-workers that they go to play basketball when in reality they drive to a large empty field and stretch their wings. Usually it’s a competition on who can fly the highest. Ryan’s black and blue wings stretch out wide behind him. Steven joins him, unfurling his white and gold wings. It feels nice to use their wings after days of keeping them tucked away. They do play basketball sometimes, but not often. Steven loves to take this time to tease the hell out of Ryan. It shouldn’t be as effective, but when they get back to the office, Steven loves to almost flirt with Shane. Ryan and Andrew get jealous for different reason and Shane is a mix between baffled and curious. It’s utter chaos. Adam loves it.

On some level Ryan knew he had romantic attraction to Shane, but he was... wrong. He was at the very best a genetic disorder at the worst a monster. Heaven’s told him so despite Steven and Jake’s attempts to change his mind. He doesn’t- he can’t bear to see Shane’s disgust when he finds out the truth. So he lets his walls down, but not enough to form any romantic relationship with Shane. This job, their relationship, it’s good where it is. Ryan’s fine where they are, he has him like this, and that’s enough.

Today they were filming an episode for Unsolved Supernatural. They were ‘investigating’ a haunted house (killing a demon). It didn’t seem as bad at first. Ryan just needed to catch a lone shoe-stealing demon. Low stakes right? 

ha.

Ryan did his solo investigation and couldn’t find the little demon. Unhappily, he sent Shane in next and continued to try and find the demon. His ears turned towards Shane, but he just heard the usual taunting. That was one thing Ryan wished he’d stop doing. One day Ryan won’t be enough to stop the demons and they’d come for him. 

That day was today, go figure. 

Ryan was listening to Shane laugh, easing his worries until the laughter turned to screams. 

“Shane, Shane?” 

Nothing but absolute utter silence from Shane, yet there was noise. Grunting, slobbering, heavy breathing filled Ryan’s senses. He dropped his camera, possibly breaking it, and sprinted. Cold dread filled his heart at first but was soon replaced with hot anger. His wings sprouted from his shoulder, fingers turning to claws, and eyes glowed blood red. 

Easily bursting through the doors, Ryan tackled the ugly demon to the ground. He cursed his stupidity, the demon was a lot worse than he thought. It put up a good fight, but nothing could stop and angry Bergara, even Heaven bent to his will. 

Ryan sunk his claws into the demon’s ‘heart’ and it fell down dead. Ryan let the adrenaline dwindle from his as he caught his breath. Slowly like he was walking through water, Ryan turned towards Shane. Then everything speed up. Using his wings, he knelt by Shane and checked him for wounds. There was a burn on his left side from his shoulder to his navel. Over his right chest was a big bleeding cut. Ryan took off his shirt and did his best to dress Shane’s wounds. Then he gathered him up and flew.

~~~~

Ryan sat quietly in Steven’s living room. Shane lay sleeping in Steven’s bed. They had gotten here a little over two hours ago, but the shook still clung to him. The sofa dipped and Steven’s forever warmth clung to him. 

“He’s going to be okay.”

“He’s turning into a demon.”

Steven didn’t know what to say to that. 

“I’m supposed to be hunting demons, my job is to kill them. I can’t- how can I kill him? This is, this was to keep Jake in job. Can you even break a promise with heaven?” Ryan’s voice brooke with unshed tears.

“If one could, I’m not surprised it would be you,” Steven commented.

“I- I he’s mine. He’s so good, and he doesn’t believe in demons and now he is one. How am I supposed to explain this to him?”

“He’ll probably figure it out on his own, you know, when he starts growing horns, a tail, and gigantic scaly wings.” Steven points out matter of factly.

Ryan would’ve laughed at the absurdity of it, but one thought kept bugging him. “What happens when Heaven sends me to kill him? I can’t kill him Ste, I just- I can’t live without him. He’s confident and he’s caring and he makes me laugh and he gets my sense of humor. And now he’s going to be disgusted and dead.” With that Ryan just let’s himself sobb. Instinctively Steven curls himself around Ryan to console him. He just holds him as he cries and rubs out a soothing pattern on his arm. 

“Heaven won’t get him. Just as you promised to protect Andrew, we’ll protect Shane. He’s head over heels for you. Even if he was disgusted with you, he’s not worth it. You’re great Ryan, you deserve someone who knows that.”

It makes sense to Ryan on some base level, but it’s hard to wrap his head around. Ryan busied himself with helping Steven clean their feathers before passing out on the couch. 

~~~~~

Shane woke up to absolute darkness, yet he could vaguely make out the objects in the room. Possibly a bedroom he thinks. For the life of him, he can’t remember how he got there. He remembers an old decrepit house, someone screaming and fighting sounds before passing out. Maybe someone was fighting him because his upper back is sore and he thinks he might have a fever. Gingerly, he gets out of bad and stretches to his full height. Then he promptly fell over. 

Shane screamed in pain when his upper back collided with the floor. His weight distribution is all off for some reason now. The door burst open to one of the most confusing sights in his life. Ryan with hands for claws, glowing red eyes and ginormous black and blue wings. Next to him is Steven, literally glowing with a halo over his head, floating with the help of white and gold wings. Lastly pale as a sheet of paper Andrew, muscles tense and fangs out. Shane thinks he should’ve just stayed in bed, asleep, cause clearly he’s sleep deprived. 

“Shane. What’s wrong? ARe you hurt.” Ryan’s voice was an octave lower than usual and vibrating. Steven swept a white light over the room only pocketing it when he looked satisfied. Shane was not satisfied. 

“Ryan, the room’s empty.” “What the hell-” Steven promptly got cut off. 

“How- Then why was he- why were you screaming?” Ryan focused his sharp almost angry gaze at Shane. It wasn’t angry, well not angry at Shane, it was anger at the situation, anger at whatever tried to hurt Shane. Not that he had any idea. 

“I fell on my back trying to get up. Felt lightheaded,” Shane explained. Steven folded up his wings and slowly approached Shane who was struggling to get off the floor. He shied away from Steven’s touch, wary, afraid. 

“We’re not here to hurt you, Shane. It’s okay,” Steven tried to say as soothingly as possible. 

“People aren’t supposed to have wings. Their voices can’t vibrate. And they definitely don’t have fangs.” Shane spit out. 

“Some can. Those from other wordly places can.” Steven’s voice doesn’t break away from it’s soothing calmness. He sounds like he’s talking to a spooked client. Ryan’s face is a deadly storm, all emotions trying to show on his face at once. His arms are crossed barring his large biceps. Shane doesn’t know wether to be scared or feel... safe. Even with the inhuman appearance, he’s still Ryan. 

“Like cryptids? The one’s Ryan’s always ya-talking about?” 

“Sort of like Cryptids... think more of cultural myths that you could have heard.” Shane finally stops shying away from Steven’s touch, and stills long enough for Steven to place an hand on his arm. 

“But- they’re not real.” Shane tries to rebut weakly. 

Ryan’s facial expressions tightens and he just barely bites back a sigh. “I’ve heard a lot of things about me, but after seeing my true appearance, questioning my reality isn’t one of them. Yelling in fear is one though. I knew you were stubborn Big guy, but I didn’t think it was this bad.”

Shane likes that nickname. It warms his already sweltering heart. He could call anyone that, they happen to know a lot of tall men, but Shane got that nickname. No one else, him. 

He gaped at Ryan, unable to say anything. 

“Hey, Shane, let’s get you onto the bed. I need to give you a check up.”

“You’re a doctor?” Shane asks Steven as he lays out on Steven’s bed. 

“I’m going to go finish the food. Feel better Shane.” Andrew the possible vampire nodded at Shane and exited the room. That left Steven and Ryan still in the room. 

Finally calm, Ryan sheathed his feathers but didn’t dare to step any closer. Shane didn’t know if he was okay with that. It was Ryan, but also a completely different Ryan than the one he knew for years. He hated it. They had a connection, they had a relationship whatever it was, and in one night it was broken. 

The room was still and almost silent while Steven gave Shane a checkup. Small noises of  displeasure were heard here and there, but Ryan didn’t think, well he hoped everything was okay.

He never gets what he want does he?

“You’re symptoms are perfectly normal under the circumstances. The pain will be bad for a while, but eventually it’ll pass.” Steven stood up. “I’m going to go get you some medicine. Stay with him Ryan.” Steven tried to communicate that they should also talk while Ryan was cursing him out for not letting him stew longer. 

Slowly, Ryan inched closer to Shane. “What does he mean: under the circumstances?”

Ryan knew what was going on, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Shane. “Just get some rest big guy.” Ryan hoped that was said as soothing as possible. The last time he had to be this gentle was when he had to take care of Jake after a bad day. It’s been years since that. 

“No.” Shane groaned in pain. Ryan gingerly placed a hand on his upper arm and shushed him. 

“Rest, Big Guy.”

“What’s going on? Ryan, what’s happening to me?” Shane pleaded with Ryan to help him understand. He didn’t want to tell him, telling him would mean having to accept what happened, that he wasn’t enough to save him, but Ryan couldn’t say no to those eyes.  

“You were hoping to cause a ruckus in the demon’s lair while I planned on exorcising the thing during the solo investigation. I didn’t think it would be that bad.” Ryan swallowed composing himself before continuing. “I couldn’t do it during the solo investigation, so I sent you in while I searched the rest of the house. I kept an ear out for you, teasing demons... anyways, I kept an ear out for you and I heard you scream. It was the scariest sound in my life. You never scream Shane, and then you do, and it. It was blood-curling. Busting down the door, I caught the middle of a fight between you and the demon, you lost.” Pausing, Shane laid trembling fingers on Ryan’s thigh. Sometime during the story, Ryan ended up sitting on the other side of Shane on the bed. To feel Shane on him felt like both a blessing and a curse. “I tackled the demon and we fought until it died. You weren’t, you weren’t breathing Shane, so in a panic, I took you to Steven’s house.”

“And now I’m here. But what was Steven talking about, under the circumstances? Is something happening to me Ry?” Shane’s voice shook as his mind ran with possibilities. If vampires and angels were real, what could have happened to him?

“It burned you from the arm down to the navel and a big claw cut over you right chest. Because of it, Shane you’re turning into a demon.”

Shane wheezed, agitating Ryan further. “I’m not joking Shane. This isn’t the time for jokes. Heaven hunts demons, my job is to hunt demons, and now you’re one and I can’t kill you or see you die at all...”

At that moment, for better or for worse, Steven entered the room carrying medicine. He paused halfway through seeing Ryan worked up, and Shane a mix of pain, confusion, and... delight? He held the tray with one hand and walked over to Ryan. “You okay man?”

“He doesn’t believe me, I know he wouldn’t but it’s so fucking frustrating.” Ryan’s feathers were literally starting to get ruffled, so Steven tried to diffuse the situation before something bad happened. 

“Hey, He’s Buzzfeed’s biggest skeptic, you know this is going to take a minute especially with him in pain. Patience, we got this.” Steven gave Ryan’s arm a squeeze before heading over to Shane. 

“Hey Shane, I need you to take this. Here’s some water and food. Eat. Andrew made it just for you.” Steven silently asked Ryan if he wanted to stay with Shane. Ryan nodded a little forcefully to convince Steven, and didn’t leave the room when Steven did. 

“Is this safe?” 

“Yes you big baby eat it or die.” Ryan paused at his words but didn’t take them back. Shane stared at him, neither of them saying a word for a while. 

“I’m turning into a demon?” It was phrased as a half question half statement. Slowly he ate the food Steven gave him. Shane usually wasn’t a picky eater, but after finding out the truth about the supernatural, a new hesitense came over him. 

“Yup, the fever will subside into slightly reddish skin and horns will poke out of your skull. Wings, scaly, skin like wings will protrude from your shoulder blades. Etc.” Ryan tried to keep his voice as even-toned as he could to mask his panic. 

“Etcetera? What else will happen to me?” Shane did not try and mask his panic. 

“I’m not sure! Every demon turns out slightly different! You could get hooves, you could get a tail maybe red eyes like mine or solid black eyes. I don’t know!” Ryan almost shouted exasperated. 

Shane looked at him slightly terrified and Ryan realized his voice took on the buzzing quality. He ran his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry, ok. It’s just, when Andrew got turned into a vampire it was fine. Heaven doesn’t hate vampires just finds them annoying. You’re a demon now, and heaven wants to kill you and that’s worse.” 

Shane wanted to tell Ryan that of course it was worse, but the little guy was already worked up so he kept it to himself. “Breath Ry, I’m going to be fine.” 

Ryan scoffed. “Easier said than done.” He looked over at him really looked at him and frowned. “Finish your food. Mother hen Steven wouldn’t be happy if you don’t.”

Shane grumbled quietly, “Are you sure the mother hen is Steven?”

“What was that big guy?”

Shane changed the subject, “Tell me about yourself, about this supernatural part of you. Are you also a demon? Or an angel?” 

Ryan took a seat on the edge of the end of Steven’s bed. “I’m an angel with a genetic disorder. Instead of... being born like Steven, white wings with a halo, I got red eyes, black wings and no halo. We’ve been friends since we were kids. He found me and was the first person to offer to play with me, never left me afterwards, even when people didn’t take to kindly to me and my deformities. My brother Jake, also an angel sans genetic deformities, wanted to be like Steven. Heaven told him no though, because of me. Thought it something in the genes. I knew that excuse was shit so I fought tooth and nail to get him in. After a while they relented on the condition that I do their dirty work, hunt demons. Jake, Steven and Adam weren’t happy about this-”

“Adam’s an angel? That’s the least surprising thing I’ve heard.” 

Ryan chuckled. “No Adam’s a merman.”

“Mermen can’t be real.”

“Oh they’re real big guy. Why do you think Steven and Adam live near the beach?”

“Because it’s California!”

“Not all of, nevermind. Anyways, they weren’t happy about my new job, but they were too late to do anything about it. I was sent to earth and got a job at Buzzfeed to hunt demons easier. Funnily enough, Steven’s newest charge, Andrew, also happened to work at Buzzfeed, so he could keep an eye on the both of us."

Shane mulled over Ryan's words as he finished his food. "He really is a mother hen. Also I don't think you're a deformity. You're Ryan, Wings or not." 

"These," Ryan stood up and unfolded his wings and went full Mothman, "Don't scare you?"

"Not at all, although now I get why Mothman has the reputation he has, egoist." 

"Oh says, you." Ryan paused and took a deep breath. "Thanks, for not being disgusted with me or anything."

"Ryan, you're my friend, other things about you disgust me, not this.” Ryan let out a wheeze making Shane smile. 

~~~~~ 

The rest of the year and change was a flurry of events. Jake came down from Heaven to warn them of God’s wrath. They decided to pack up their jobs at Worth it and Unsolved and head out on the run until God’s bloodlust calmed down. They stayed close to the coast so that Adam didn’t have to follow them in a bathtub. Jake offered to stay behind and delay God’s army. Ryan wasn’t happy about it and outright refused until Jake promised that they would keep semi-constant contact, and immediately once it was safe, Jake would join them. 

Shane’s transition into demonhood went as smoothly as one could hope. His wings were similar to Ryan’s black, blue, and even some green just more scale-y instead of feather-y. Being six-four and now adding six inch horns was something to get used to. He didn’t end up getting hooves or glowing eyes, but he did end up getting a tail. 

Shane and Ryan’s relationship didn’t suffer much after the initial argument. There also might’ve been a kiss when Ryan was helping manicure Shane’s claws and horns. Shane initiated it. Ryan didn’t think he ever smiled that wide. (For a second he thought he was dying until he realized there weren’t actual butterflies in his stomach. Shane had a good laugh at that) Steven gave Andrew money, saddened slightly that he lost the bet.

Living on the run wasn’t easy. They missed their family and friends. It hurt to cut contact from them completely. But off-roading together made it bearable, made it okay. Listening to Shane’s odd songs to pass the time, eating Andrew concoctions that always ended up a little too raw if he wasn’t careful, giggling when Ryan and Jake get into arguments, it almost felt... domestic. 

They mainly worked odd jobs to get some pay, never in the same place for over a year. Ryan, Steven and Jake never could stop helping people even if Heaven renounced their status, and would help helpless cryptids like themselves whenever they could. They almost adopted a fairy and had a run in with elmo’s know-it-all blue cousin (who really didn’t like Ryan) but that’s a story for another time. 

Life wasn’t easy, not by a long shot, not by a mile, but it was there and they had each other, was that not enough?

[ghostgirlvii]

Ok first time doing this, but I need to take all of this out my system. I never did such thing before, but I really want to make some sort of review.

So, I was excited to know that we would have more Pacific Rim content after Uprising and I was really looking forward to it. I did not do much research about anything because I love to keep everything a surprise and of course when Netflix dropped the trailer, I didn’t watch it. Today I binged watch the first season of Pacific Rim The Black with only 7 episodes. It was… interesting. I’m kind of glad I didn’t hype myself too much for it. Don’t get me wrong it was good, but not exactly the best. The only + points I would give now are the animation/design and story. Music vibe with the Pacific Rim universe but not that much. Uprising did a better job at catching the ‘main theme’ vibe. This series have good soundtrack but doesn’t have the catchy theme that make you feel like every thing you do is in a jaeger and you can fight anything. Also, the story take place in Australia. The first movie was a bit a let down with actor not having a real Australian accent, but hey the Hansen are still my favorite! The Black has only 2 (two) characters with Australian accent and it’s two bad guys. Not even the main characters. I’m very disappointed by it.

I guess that was the less spoilers-y part of all that’s coming, so heads up spoilers coming next. I don’t want to describe each episode fully, mostly just talking about general stuff and spoilers come from moment that made me went ‘WTF’, so I won’t spoil everything but probably some major moments.

First episode opens with a jaeger that looks very much like Striker Eureka, which turn out to be Striker Berserker (because we all know what happened to the beautiful piece of metal was Eureka!) Thing happened and the PPDC initiates something big (later reveal to be some sort of protocol that everyone call The Black) We also get introduced to our main character, Taylor and Hayley. Isn’t very clear at the beginning when this take place, however a few episodes later it said that it takes place years after the Uprising war. For now, it is safe to assume 5 years has the story is 5 years after the event of the blackout. Kaiju seems very easy to kill also, then again some are only Cat. 3 so maybe? Even then, I’m not super comfortable with this when we saw how all other pilots always struggled to kill their kaiju. Breaches also seems to appear on land now!

After some events, episode two force Taylor and Hayley to wander off the safe place their parents told them to stay 5 years ago while they went looking for help with their jaeger (Yup Mom and Dad are pilots!) Taylor and Hayley end up in a weird city with dog like kaiju after them and found out an old PPDC lab/place. They found a boy (named ‘Boy’ all season long) in an experiment lab. Oh no is the PPDC the bad guys now?! Well, answer later. We also see a kaiju/jaeger hybrid kind of fully transformed/evolve. That is just so weird at first.

Remark on episode three are small, mostly the usual people selling kaiju part or jaeger part and that feels very normal, honestly that just normal stuff. Also imply some worshippers which is then again nothing new. What’s knew is interrogating someone via drift and store everything on ‘mermory drive’ ? Cool, I guess? I don’t know, drifting always feels more ‘intimate’ it’s weird to force yourself in someone mind to find the intel you want...

Episode four is the moment where I had to check back on info about Uprising, I only saw the movie once, so I had a lot of piece and bit missing. But at this point it sort of made sense that the world would be infested of kaiju because at the end of movie Newt says the Precursors will keep attacking over and over again. So okay at this point I made peace with the idea of the world, no excuse me, Australia being invaded by so many kaiju and left in a post-apocalyse place. Also, I forgot to mention that there’s one kaiju named Cooperhead who sort of is the main kaiju who always find Taylor, Hayley and their jaeger. Which come to the point that is seems like kaiju can hear from VERY far away. Maybe this was always a thing, but it never felt like it would be like 100 kilometers like the series make it feels like.

Fifth episode is by far my favorite for one reason only…. Herc Hansen baby! Yup he made a cameo, voiceless, struggling to fight a kaiju and very old. We learn this because Taylor need to learn solo drifting via ghost drifting (using the memory drive we talked earlier, how did they get his last memory??). Turn out he is the one, under the order of I don’t remember who of the PPDC to initiate the blackout protocol and it has to be in a dramatic way. He fought solo a kaiju while making sure he could succeed his mission. Oh they also included Raleigh and Stacker when they were looking for candidate. The one who survived, although technically Herc died? If this is really canon, yup no original pilots are alive anymore. We learn that trying to drift too much with failure can cause lose of memory and ghost drifting side effect is you gain memory of the pilot you drifted with. Yay, joy! Or not. Because this mean they can, with the help the ‘memory drive’ , change the memories of someone to the point they don’t remember who they are (guess what it happen to one of the side character!)

Episode 6 gave me a headache! It is the episode with the most inconsistency. Uprising was better. I mean this episode had inconsistency coming from both movies, hard to beat. But first may I point a breach open in the middle of ground and no kaiju come up? Ok… At some point, Taylor and Hayley found a cave with jaeger and kaiju remains. Oh, that looks interesting. Wrong. The graveyard it somewhere in Australia, on land, right? Well, here’s the three kaiju found; Leatherback, Slattern and Mutavore.

Mutavore was indeed killed on Australian ground by Striker Eureka, but that was in Sydney and this cave seems very far from any city. Leatherback attacked Hong Kong! How did he ended up always the way there? Slattern was killed near/in the breach by Gipsy Danger. Once again, how it finds the way in the cave?!

Unless we are talking about the ‘cloning’ theory of Newt and there are kaiju with the same DNA has those three but then maybe precise it?

Then our jaegers; Titan Redeemer, November Ajax and Omega Valor.

Omega Valor was damaged during the attack of the Moyulan Shatterdome, then the remaining part used to fix Bracer Phoenix. All of this also took place near Japan, very close to inland Australia. I suppose we could assume Bracer Phoenix had a fight in Australia at some point and when the AI scanned the part, she tought it was Omega Valor.

But then come Titan Redeemer. Taylor has now Herc’s memory because of ghost drifting and he is sure that he knew the pilot of Titan Redeemer and helped/took down Yamarachi. Wrong. Yamarashi was taken town by Gispy Danger aka the Beckett brother with another unknown jaeger. Herc was no part of this fight.

Also remember Boy and the kaiju/Jaeger? Well Boy and him sort of drifted and we learned that the K-J is actually a surviving drone from the uprising war who fully merged to become a actual biomecha. He also eats kaiju. But at this point, Boy feels very not normal for the kind of universe Pacific Rim is. Too ‘magical’ and ‘OP’.

And the final episode, where everything resolves, in away. The kaiju who have been following Taylor and Hayley since the beginning is finally defeated, they found clues about their parents whereabout and Boy turns into a kaiju that looks like a gremlin. Yay everyone happy. Hmmm hold on. Human found in PPDC lab who turn into a kaiju? Could it be that the Precursors found a way to introduce kaiju that look human in our world? That’s what implied at the end. The worshipper called ‘The Sisters’ are revealed too and they seems to have plan… for season 2!

 That’s it! Overall, it left very unfazed. I did not hook me up as much as I hope. A lot of elements feel too magical/fantasy for the world of Pacific Rim (that’s my opinion) and errors in episode 6 really threw me off. I know that there was already some inconsistency between some infos in the first movie and the (not canon) novelization. But there were small. Also, that whole thing of be able to change people memory, I didn’t knew I was in Total Recall. The characters are nice, the story is okay, just some classic tropes, but some stuff just don’t seems to fit. And then again, would it have been hard to find actor with Australian accent? Not everyone but at least for Taylor and Hayley and not just the big bad guy and his assistant, sort of not sure who he was but definitely not the big boss’s right arm. In the end, I would give this series a 6/10. It wasn’t bad but wasn’t not as good as it could have been. I’ll watch season 2, because of the story, I’m curious of those worshippers and their business.

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

THAT’S RIGHT BITCH! It’s October and I am still watching and inexplicably blogging about Supernatural - a dinosaur of a television show that’s been on the air longer than most children I know have been alive. 

I know I’m An Old because I don’t think kids these days understand the struggle it was watching television before streaming. We had to wait for episodes. Hell, I don’t think kids these days even really have to wait for seasons. I mean, Voltron premiered on Netflix in 2016, capped off their seasons at 13 episodes a piece and, oh yeah - aired seasons 5 - 8  all in 2018. Was I mad about that? No of course not. Do I also say phrases like “kids these days? Yes, so who even knows if what I think is relevant anymore. 

Alright, so speaking of seasons, last time I looked at pilots and pilot seasons and how the streaming era is changing everything we know about starting a TV show. But once you’ve got your pilot down, now what? 

Not this kind of pilot. Also, based on the prerequisites for demon possession, we’re all agreed this co-pilot’s like, an alcoholic, right?

There’s a rule in TV (sort of) that the first six episodes (some might argue the first season entirely) should be a kind of rehash of the pilot. The pilot sets up your premise and once you’ve got your pilot down, your job as a TV writer is to re-establish that premise over and over again. You’re building your world, you’re writing it’s rules. You’re setting up a template, a formula for how your episodes are gonna play out. This helps your audience get to know the characters, get familiar with your world, get comfortable spending time with them. Essentially, you’re getting your audience to trust the show that they’re going to be tuning in to for at least the next 20-some-odd episodes. 

I’d also argue that this is important so that later, you can break that format later. I’m not saying you should break the trust your audience puts in you, and that’s probably a real fine line of distinction. But if you break your rules right, it can hit the audience with a big emotional sucker punch. Or, it can stand out as a real breakout, tentpole of an episode - I’m thinking specifically about Ghostfacers! In season 3, or Once More, With Feeling, from Buffy. Those episodes work, really work, because they deviate from the formula, but they only work because we know the formula so well.  And these aren’t big changes to the way episodes are done, they’re just shifted ever so slightly that they felt new again.. 

So what is the premise of the first four episodes Supernatural? What’s the formula they set up for the rest of the series? 

Brothers. I said it in my last post, I’ll say it again, Sam and Dean/Jensen Ackles and Jared Jared Padalecki are what makes this show. Full stop. I think we could have gotten 5 seasons out of a show starring two other dudes. I do not think this show could have gotten 15 seasons with two other dudes. So from the pilot through Phantom Traveler, we learn that Sam and Dean have a sh*tty home life - their mother was killed by some mysterious evil thing and their father raised them to be little demon-hunting child soldiers while they look for the killer. Oh yeah, and Sam’s girlfriend died the exact same way which we will never forget because Sam’s gonna have a dream about it almost every episode from here on out. We set up the tension between the brothers - that Sam got to go to college while Dean stayed with their dad like a good boi. We learn that everybody hates each other probably because they are deeply and unhealthily codependent love each other so damn much. 

Next we get the basic rundown of the season arc: 

Dad’s on a hunting trip and he hasn’t been home in a few days. The Winchester brothers are looking for him and by extension, looking for answers as to what killed their mom/Sam’s girlfriend. We also get the basic rundown of every episode: dad is a mysterious and elusive sonuvuabitch, so every episode they go about, say it with me now:

“The family business.” I would also accept “Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can,” but why can’t I find a gif for it?!? 

Backtracking on this but you know what else gets hecking established with the Winchesters? Sam is the cute one with the people skills and the puppy dog face, so you’d naturally assume that he’s the soft one. No. Not the case. Dean is the Sofffft Boi. The SOFTest boi. Dean wants Sam to talk about his feelings, Dean wants Sam to not keep things bottled up, Dean is the one who desperately wants to keep a hold of his family and also is just deeply broken and traumatized on the inside and oh no, I told myself I wouldn’t do this but I did it anyway. Sorry not sorry. This watch, I’m really picking up on the fact that Dean is, weirdly, the Mom Friend in this first season. Like, he’s basically a Trailer-Trash-Teen-Pregnancy Mom who’ll give you spaghettios five nights a week and a shot of whiskey so you’ll quit yer bitchin’ and go to sleep faster, but he’s the Mom nonetheless. Later in this season and in other seasons, I think you even see him do his dumb-baby-best filling in as the Mom when John went off the deep end. Anyway, I have a lot of feelings and we don’t have time to unpack all of that so I’ll just move on.

RUDE.

Next we set up our Supernatural Bag of Holding - what’s in it? What are the mystical artifacts they use to kill those evil sons of bitches? First up is The Car. Damn, I am not a cars girl, but that 67 Chevy, it does things to me. 

This car has some weird pavlovian trigger for me, it’s not NATURAL. 

The journal. 

John Winchester, you journal the way I imagine a psycho killer journals and I would just really appreciate it if you could be ANY MORE ORGANIZED THAN THIS.

The Trunk Full of Weapons - I love that in these first few episodes (and possibly the rest of the series???) they give this HELLA conspicuous look every time they open the trunk full of weapons. It’s hilarious EVERY TIME.

No, you’re not being obvious at ALL, guys.

The Fake ID’s - from credit cards to impersonating feds, these boys are not afraid to break the law to save some lives and I feel like that’s...that’s the theme of the show maybe? They’re here to save people and they’ll do what they have to to do that? In a world that clearly establishes a dark vs. light/good vs. evil dichotomy, the Winchester make it their job to live in a world of grey? Basically? 

Next on the checklist for this first season of Supernatural - it’s spoopy. *Spoop mileage may vary.* I said it last time, but I’ll say it again: this first season aired at 9:00pm at night. That means it’s primetime stuff for the 18 - 25 year old crowd, but they don’t want to risk some 13 year old watching it and getting too scared before bed. 9:00pm is X Files time slots, Fringe time slots. 9:00pm says you’re gonna get something a little more gruesome and gory and shocking than at 8pm. 8pm is for Friends. Vampire Diaries aired at 8pm its first season. 9pm is for the real adult content (but not too adult because the audience is still mostly children). 

SPOOP!

But yeah, let’s look at the real horror vibe that you get off of these first four episodes. We talked about La Llorona from the first episode - this is a legit ghost that they fight. The kids at the end that literally drag their mom to hell? Pretty spooky stuff. The Wendigo in episode 2 is a literal monster of the week and so for me personally, it’s not that scary, but it is a cannibal monster that eats human flesh. Dead in the Water has vibes from both Jaws and Friday the 13th. Everything from the lighting to the sound design let’s you know this is a horror show, or as horror as you can get on network television. Listen to the scenes just before somebody dies and you get a nice creepy “Come play with me” whisper coming out of the water. I’m a little spooked just thinking about it now. Yes I know I’m a chicken, and I’m OK WITH THAT. And if we go past my season 1 disc 1 into episode 5, Bloody Mary is STILL terrifying and I STILL watched that episode with half my face covered. That’s where I am these days. It’s 2020 and the world is a nightmare but imagining Bloody Mary creepin’ out in my mirror does not need to be a part of it. 

SHE F*CKIN CLIMBS OUT OF THE MIRROR GUYS! I DIDN’T KNOW SHE COULD DO THAT!!!

Then we get Phantom Traveler and our very first case of black-eyed-demonic possession. Watching this episode now, it’s like watching someone’s home movie of their first steps as a baby. They’ve never even done an exorcism before guys! They have to read the exorcism rite out of the journal! It’s so cute!!! Let’s not think too hard about how they got that full sized bottle of holy water past TSA in a post-9/11 world. And try to ignore how poorly these special effects have aged - the smoke from the demon possession?? OMG! THIS EFFECT! I’m pretty sure I could make that effect with my first ever graphic design software on my, like, 2009 mac book pro. So cute and soooo good! I’m gonna leave that CG plane alone, they’re doing their best. 

SO cute and SOOO good!

You want to know what my favorite established staple of Supernatural season 1 is? The extras. LOOKIT these guys - 

Wendigo you have Cory Monteith who later goes on to star in Glee. 

You have Alden Ehrenreich, Debatable Han Solo, doing a lot of face work with very little dialogue. 

You have Gina Holden who is in SO. MANY. Spooky-type things! My personal favs are Blood Ties and Harper’s Island, but she’s in Fringe, she’s in the SAW franchise, she’s in the Final Destination franchise, she was in some deleted scenes on an episode of Teen Wolf! I LOVE seeing Gina Holden, anywhere she pops up. 

And speaking of Harper’s Island, you’ve also got Callum Keith Rennie who played John Wakefield in Harper’s Island, a show that was A+ Great and I highly recommend if you like Agatha Christie and/or murder mysteries. 

Honestly, Rennie looks like he’s about to murder a bitch in this episode of Supernatural, it is not a stretch to believe he’s a psycho killer.

Dead in the Water you’ve got Amy Acker, a regular in Joss Whedon and Whedon-adjacent type shows.

Good LORD, this wardrobe was SO 2000′s WB and it PAINED me.

And finally in Phantom Traveler, you have Jaime Ray Newman who also shows up in a lot of the shows that I like to watch. She was in Eureka, she was in Midnight Texas, both kind of terrible shows that I love because they are terrible, but she was ALSO in Bates Motel and Veronica Mars, which are generally considered to be more quality, so there’s that. 

This still implies that they actually LIT scenes, which is a SURPRISE TO ME. 

Point is, seeing these actors in Supernatural back in the early 2000’s felt like I was seeing the start of their careers. That may or may not have been the case, but as a viewer it was exciting to see them pop up again in other things.

So what about TV now? Do we still use those first 6 (sometimes more) episodes to re-establish the premise? Well, it certainly hasn’t gone away. Look at any network show that still produces 22 - 24 episodes a season and you’ll still see that the pilot season just keeps re-iterating the premise established in the pilot episode, specifically in anything that’s procedural - that’s you’re monster/problem-of-the-week shows. Think sitcoms like Brooklyn 99 or Superstore or dramedies like Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. The reason being that these shows play in the traditional model of television - on a network, once a week. They are not releasing episodes all at one time or relying on their audiences to stream a whole season in one sitting. These are shows that still assume that someone out there is going to tune in or stumble across their show one night while they’re surfing channels (lol) and need to be told, no matter what episode they’ve just turned on, what the premise of the show is. They need to be formulaic so that people can pick it up anywhere at any time.

But what about shows that don’t follow this traditional model? I mentioned in my last post that seasons are getting shorter and shorter, so when you’re writing a show that only has (8) episodes instead of 22, how much time do you really want to spend establishing the premise? Because of these short seasons, you’re also dealing with shows that are more serialized and less procedural than their predecessors - meaning, you’re dealing with a show that focuses on a season long story (think Game of Thrones or Stranger Things where each episode is an important chapter that you can’t skip) vs. a procedural (think the shows I mentioned above or any cop drama really) where each episode is it’s own contained story, neatly wrapped up at the end. These are shows where you can skip an episode and still know where you are in the show no matter where you start or stop watching. Supernatural is a little bit of both - procedural with their monsters of the week AND serialized with a season long arc. We’ll talk more on that in a later post. 

Not only are we getting shorter seasons, but we’re also dealing with shows that are not released over long periods of time. A few streaming channels, like Disney+ and HBO Max, make a deliberate point to slow-drip their seasons, but most streaming channels will release entire seasons in one shot. You don’t need to worry about your audience missing an episode because they have 24/7 access to all the episodes all at once. And for the most part, they’re designed to be binged. They start at full speed and they don’t slow down to keep driving you to the finale. 

Do I think the procedural is ever going to go away? No. As much talk as there is about dropping the cop drama from TV all together, I think audiences still love a good mystery series. And you can’t just think of procedurals as cop dramas either - a procedural also covers most if not all sitcoms. New Girl, Letterkenny, Parks and Rec, Superstore - these all have a premise that doesn't change from week to week. They may make tiny shifts away from what they set up in the pilot, but by and large, you know what you’re getting into any time you turn on an episode. I think we as an audience still like that kind of familiarity. We may be seeing a bigger swing towards more serialized content, but that doesn't mean that the procedural is dead and gone. 

So that’s what we’ve got for Supernatural - two dudes, driving around in a car full of spears and hand guns, killing bad guys. Some day, they may even find that father that’s missing. What could possibly go wrong? A lot. Stay tuned. 

[strxga]

Thoughts & Review on V7C12

This is my personal review for the latest chapter of RWBY. I tried to keep my points objective and organized, and to not take too much time discussing each, and I would sincerely appreciated if it could be given a read. Thank you if you do read it.

Well. It’s finally happened.

After a hazy but relatively positive start, I can say that Chapter 12 is yet another tipping point in a direction. The last chapters of Volume 6 were certainly… A lot, but compared to this one, Volume 6 pales in comparison. This one is… A doozy for several reasons. Let me preface by saying this: I love this show.

I sincerely adore it and the characters, and the reason I’m writing this think piece is precisely because of that. Because it could be so much better, it could be truly a love letter towards Fantasy, anime, and its fandom… But the writers specifically seem to not know how to balance that… But enough ranting. Off to the meatier sections, which I will progressively go from what I liked the most to what I liked the least.

Penny & Winter Scenes

This was, by far, the best written scenes in the episode, and coming from an unlikely pair of friends. Penny has always been emotional despite being a robot while Winter, despite being human, has always acted mechanical. This episode provides a nice contrast between the two, with Penny emphasizing with Winter and trying to get through to her only for Winter to refute her claims, but doing so with a sadness to her face because deep inside she knows James Ironwood’s plan is flawed. In a way, one acts as the other should, but doesn’t. Their awkward but working friendship makes that its mold and comfortably rests atop it.

It’s flawed, but realistically, it’s the best option to take over having to fight Salem with depleted and exhausted forces. The two play off one another marvelously, and this keeps up until Cinder’s entrance (which is another point I’ll discuss later) and the entire time they keep up this great dynamic. Penny asking if it’s going to hurt Fria to transfer her Aura directly to Winter, only for her to once more act as Penny’s foil and say that it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is following orders and keeping the Relic and Maiden Powers safe.

Team ORNJ Scenes

Thankfully this time, it doesn’t take an entire episode to figure out where Oscar is. Frankly, there isn’t much to talk about here, but what little there is of it is good! A problem is established, and then it’s swiftly solved by Neopolitan’s confidence only for everything to fall apart when the real Oscar appears, confirming he wasn’t taken away but had been actually fighting solo against Neopolitan for the lamp.

It establishes he’s no longer the wimp he once was and is making full use of Ozpin’s cane, but I honestly do feel like it was mostly a cat-and-mouse game with Neopolitan stealing the lamp and him chasing after her, because I don’t think he could’ve beaten her on his own. Team ORNJ then sets up to fight Neopolitan, spicing up the fight between them that’s going to take place in the upcoming chapter.

(Upcoming) Neopolitan vs. Team ORNJ

There honestly isn’t much to talk about this regarding on what happened in the episode, but what it did amazingly is set up the fight. We know Neopolitan is an experienced fighter, and strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Cinder without her using her Fall Maiden powers. We also know that Jaune and Ren aren’t the strongest fighters, but they can still hold their own, and them accompanied by Oscar who is slightly below-average but still powerful enough to hold his own and Nora who is, now that Pyrrha’s gone, the strongest member of what remains of Team JNPR, I think the battle between them and our favorite ice cream girl is going to be a highlight of this season, especially with how it was set-up.

Cinder’s Entrance

This is when we start to get into the ‘meh’ section of this episode. Cinder is usually compelling in small doses, but extremely dull, boring and irritable in extended scenes due to how confident, smug and self-assured she is despite her multiple failures ever since the Fall of Beacon. But from a writing perspective, she was amazing. She showed how fearsome she is yet again and that her cleverness is part of her character and not just a plot device. She sent Ironwood into a paranoia and then tracked Winter knowing he’d send her after Fria.

Now, the only thing I don’t get, but this might be just me having forgotten, is if there was one point in which Cinder actually learned Winter was the next candidate to be the Winter Maiden… After all, prior to this point, Cinder had never met or encountered Winter or even less have known of her affiliation with Ironwood in the sense that she is her second-in-command. I have difficulty following that thread of logic… Unless Neopolitan told her at some point? I don’t know. Not knowing is what makes me ‘meh’ about this scene.

Clover, Qrow & Tyrian’s Fight

Taking away the connotations and context from the fight and looking at it purely from a choreography perspective, the fight was amazing and showed all of the fighter’s individual styles and strengths. As per usual, Tyrian was shown as crazed and psychopathic. There is no rhyme, reason or logic to his moves, and therefore there is no pattern or proper way to attack other than improvise. Qrow was versatile in using both his hand-to-hand skills and Harbinger to get the job done, but who stands up the most to me is Clover.

Clover really shows why he’s the leader of the AceOps. He was strategic in using Kingfisher to constantly tie-up Tyrian a few times (I cannot remember if he caught Qrow though) and managed to actually keep up with both of them for a long time! Had it not been for Tyrian’s interference while Clover and Qrow spoke, well… I’ll mention that later. But the point is, Clover was an absolute king in the battlefield and despite his weapon being a fishing rod, he was able to use it tremendously.

Furthermore, what surprised me the most is the fact Qrow and Tyrian worked so well together. They made-up for each other’s flaws whenever Clover had one of them against the ropes, and this surprises me even more considering the fact Tyrian was responsible for Qrow’s closest brush with death. It was… Surprisingly bittersweet.

(Upcoming) Cinder vs. Penny & Winter

Nothing much to talk about here given that this hasn’t yet happened, but as per usual Cinder is flaunting and showing off her power while severely underestimating her opponents. It has been approximately three years since she last saw Penny and since she was rebuilt stronger than before, not to mention the combat experience she’s accrued defending Mantle from the Creatures of Grimm and the occasional bandit and the like.

Winter has also presumably gotten stronger since then, but the scope of her abilities are still unknown since she only engaged in combat once and it was against Qrow all the way back in Volume 3. There’s so many ideas up in the air regarding this upcoming fight that nothing’s stopping me from theorizing Fria will wake up and use her Winter Maiden abilities to kick the snot out of Cinder.

But I am looking forward to what the fight has to offer. I don’t think any of them will die though. Cinder is still too important to the plot as are Penny and Winter for as long as the setting is Atlas.

Clover, Qrow, Robyn & Tyrian Scenes

Yeah. This whole encounter was… It wasn’t exactly ‘bad’ but I felt like the characters here acted completely out of character. Well, sans for Tyrian of course, given that at his core, he is simply a psychopath.

Clover has always been one who acted as one of the most morally-upstanding member of the AceOps as well as the one who was, arguably, given the most screen time. But for some reason, this episode had him betray everything he stood for and wanted to arrest Qrow even though Qrow… Well, what did Qrow even do for Ironwood to want him arrested? That’s another minor nitpick I have about the situation. But with how closely Clover and Qrow had bonded, you’d think he’d try and make sense of the situation instead of acting as a drone even though before he had never done so.

Robyn went from a pragmatic and understanding leader-like figure to, well… Whatever that was. I sincerely can’t understand her character because she isn’t cohesive at all. The only trait about her that remains is her loyalty to Mantle… But that’s it. One moment she’s against Ironwood, the next moment she’s siding with him… Then she sides against him and then once more sides with him. It’s honestly very boring and for someone who is supposed to be based on Robin Hood, she’s never done anything Robin Hood-esque. Even her aesthetic doesn’t match him. She feels like an incomplete character and the only side of her we see is a temperamental, indecisive leader. She couldn’t even tell it wasn’t Penny who attacked her at the election party even though almost every single part of her, weapons included, are bioluminescent. It’s frustrating, really. She should’ve known something was wrong from the get-go when Ironwood gave the order instead of immediately resorting to blind anger.

Qrow… There has never been an instance in the show when Qrow reacted with direct violence ever since Volume 3 while he was drunk. He saw Robyn attack Clover first and decided that he was going to attack Clover when he was the one being assaulted. Robyn and Qrow, as far as I know, never even had a single interaction together one-on-one, and even if he did, he’s always been one to stand against wrongdoings despite his shady demeanor. It honestly sucked seeing him being so out of character this entire chapter because he is a fan-favorite and for good reason. He has had a good amount of development. But he acted on violence instead of simply sitting down and having a talk with both Clover and Robyn. It simply didn’t make sense to me.

AceOps vs. Team RWBY

Just like before, I will focus entirely on an unbiased analysis of how this fight went and criticizing the things that particularly stood out for me whether bad or good. I’ll also be dividing this into subsections because it’s going to be a more direct and easier way for me to do so, and in case anyone’s reading this, that way they can skip ahead to their favorite fight. I watched this battle several times in an attempt to breakdown as best I could. So, let’s start with the main show and the one we saw the most of:

Ruby Rose vs. Harriet Bree

Arguably the most balanced fight out of the four short ones we saw. While I am apprehensive of aspects such as Ruby’s Semblance being able of breaking through iron barricades so easily despite never having alluded or shown her Semblance doing something like that before… I can give it a pass if anything because it made the environment more malleable. Despite that, however, I did like the fast paced match between the fastest members of their respective teams. It’s a very fast battle, but we can see it fully and what we see… Is a fight in which Ruby is on the defensive the entire time, and a battle she should’ve completely lost.

Ruby landed exactly zero hits on Harriet. Zero. Well… Not entirely. She does push Harriet down once but Ruby… Isn’t good at hand-to-hand combat and it’s been shown time over time that she’s not very physically strong so I’d hardly say that counts as a hit… But it does happen. Yet we’re supposed to believe that she was taken out by running into an ice wall created by Weiss at the last moment and that her Aura broke from that? Harriet landed exactly 5 very powerful attacks on Ruby and yet her Aura never even budged. I find that hard to believe. First Ruby got kicked on the face with enough strength to send her flying towards an elevator and break the doors off the wall.

Then he got double-kicked by Harriet on the gut and sent flying back. Then she got punched right on her back by Harriet’s weapon, Fast Knuckles, which are basically Yang’s gauntlets. An attack like that should’ve, at least, done significant damage to her Aura given it was strong enough to buckle her legs and crash her against the floor, which in and of itself should count as another impact given how hard she hit it. Then after that, Ruby got headbutted on the face by Harriet and then choked on the neck by Harriet with her legs and once again slammed with tremendous force on the floor. But her Aura is unscathed for some reason?

Then in comes Weiss, puts an ice wall in front of Harriet for her to crash into, and somehow that takes her down and breaks her Aura. Objectively, this battle was amazing, but Ruby never even once had the advantage. Ruby should’ve been knocked out by Harriet when her Aura broke, but for some reason… That didn’t happen. Good choreography, however.

Weiss Schnee vs. Marrow Armin

I frankly can say this one was expertly choreographed as well. We finally get to see a fight in which Weiss gets to use her Semblance at its full capacity, and this time she doesn’t abuse ice dust only. While it’s still in the vast majority of her attacks, she also relies on fire dust, which does add a degree of excitement and a fresh take to her battle style. Not to mention she now isn’t as reliant on the Arma Gigas only. It was a good balanced diet of everything Weiss can do! There still was very little of her in actual close-quarters combat, but that’s never been her specialty. She’s more of a mid-ranged fighter than anything else with lots of tricks and gimmicks. As for Marrow– well, Marrow… Could’ve made things so much easier if he had used his Semblance effectively.

When it comes to the battle itself though it was… Very lackluster on Marrow’s end, but then again it is heavily-implied by Harriet that he’s not fighting seriously at all and was purposefully holding back, so perhaps the fact he was defeated so easily really isn’t that hard to believe considering his heart wasn’t on the fight and even then he still put up a good fight. But like with Harriet… I find his Aura breaking so easily to be… Weird? He only got hit one time by Weiss’ homing fire dust… Flames? Bullets? Rays? I don’t know what to call it, but he got hit just once with Weiss’ dust and I don’t really count it as a hit but he got pushed to the wall once, but nowhere with near the same intensity as Ruby getting slammed and thrashed all over the environment by Harriet.

But ultimately while it is a nice fight… Again, I find Marrow going down to a single attack borderline offensive and humiliating for one of the members of the AceOps, but then again this was the only battle that felt like a member of Team RWBY deserved to win, and that’s saying something given Weiss’ battle track record isn’t exactly the cleanest and she’s lost the most fights out of any Team RWBY member when it comes to one-on-one encounters.

Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long vs. Elm Ederne & Vine Zeki

Honestly, this is probably the best fight out of the ones regarding Team RWBY vs. the AceOps. It is nice to see this fight’s choreography because it was quite enjoyable. It was very dynamic and there was a lot of movement which made it flow just like a river of water, but there were also… Lots of inconsistencies regarding the character’s power levels and how they performed in this fight, especially regarding Elm and Vine who, from an objective standpoint if one sits down and analyzes the fight as I did, it’s also easy to tell that… Elm and Vine should’ve won.

While it’s disappointing that we didn’t get to see Vine’s weapon in this final bout, we did see Blake and Yang working together as well as Elm and Vine despite their personality conflicts. There really wasn’t a lot of team coordinating, but both sides performed admirably. Yang & Elm with their brawn and ferocity as well as Blake & Vine with their strategic minds and nimbleness. Now… While I can only praise the dynamics, the battle was, again, stacked against Blake and Yang. Like I did with the battle between Ruby and Harriet, I went through this one thoroughly and counted the amount of hits each character received.

Yang landed a total of three direct blows against Elm. A punch to the face that sent Elm staggering back a few steps, and then she didn’t land a single hit on Elm until she punched the ground with her Semblance, destroying it and sending her flying, but this doesn’t count as a hit because Elm wasn’t harmed when Yang did this. She was only sent flying in mid-air and then Yang and Blake both delivered a single attack on Elm before she fell to the floor, shattering her Aura. Now, we know Elm is basically the Yang of the group, except bigger, stockier and presumably stronger, so with how tough she’s been portrayed up until now, that she was defeated so swiftly surprises me… Especially when she herself beat Yang down to the point her Aura should’ve broken as well.

First she headbutted Yang, knocking her off-balance and later swinging her hammer with enough strength to send Yang, the strongest and bulkiest member of Team RWBY, flying a considerable distance with her massive hammer. This didn’t happen just once, twice or thrice though. Elm hit Yang on the chest with Timber, her hammer, four times, and every single time she was sent flying. We’ve seen the ridiculous feats of strength Nora Valkyrie’s performed with Magnhild. Well, Elm is at least twice stronger than Nora. The fact Yang’s Aura never even budged despite getting hammered on the chest with the heaviest and most powerful hammer we’ve seen in the show is beyond me. It doesn’t help that she got also hit directly by Vine with a rock the size of her entire body and pushed back. If anything, Elm and Yang’s fight is the most balanced one so Elm being defeated is not the issue. The issue is how despite receiving double the punishment, Yang’s Aura never broke while Elm’s broke with just three hits that didn’t pack the same punch and power all of Elm’s attacks which connected did.

Now regarding Blake’s encounter with Vine… Like Ruby with Harriet, Blake landed a total of zero hits against both Elm and Vine. Coincidentally, however, Blake also was also hit the most in this battle to the point her Aura actually did break. Why only her’s though is not something I can answer. I could describe how Blake got hit, but two of those times she got crushed by Vine’s Semblance and slammed against the wall twice, the second time enough to break the wall as well, and the one time she got hammered on the chest by Elm with enough strength to send her several feet on the air, which likely hurt a whole lot since every single one of Elm’s hits pack two massive punches. Now if any of you are curious about how many hits Vine took before his Aura broke…

It was one. He got sent flying to the ground by Yang and his Aura broke. I don’t count the explosives that detonated near him because he was using his Semblance to hold onto them, reducing the explosion’s power and size, but it still destabilized him and sent him careening to the air for Yang to grab. But Yang’s explosives aren’t exactly the strongest anyways so even if they did do some damage, it was still extremely minuscule damage for his Aura to break from a single hit like Marrow’s did. It was honestly disappointing, especially after we got to witness how strong they truly are by perfectly fighting against a Geist in the earliest episodes of the Volume.

My overall rating of the fight is that, objectively, it was amazingly choreographed… But the power level in RWBY is still awful and largely-irrelevant, since there is no instance in which Team RWBY will actually lose a fight even if throughout the encounter they are taking more hits than their opposition. This is an issue they still need to fix…

Team RWBY’s ‘Plan’

This one is… Upsetting. Even more so than the above because, at this point, Team RWBY is devoid of any and all potential consequences of their actions, and frankly I’m tired of it. Ever since Volume 6 their ‘plans’ if they can even be called that, have been compromising even more things for the sake of their so-called righteousness. In Volume 6 they endangered all of Argus and attacked an entire military base, and to this day they’ve suffered exactly zero consequences for their actions. If anything, they got rewarded for their criminal activity by getting a free pass to Atlas. Ironwood didn’t even look in their direction after they did that too. All for their selfish righteousness too, which in most occasions isn’t even right. They just do whatever they can even if it comes at the cost of other’s safety as long as it serves them

Now they even refuse to even see where Ironwood is coming from. They don’t offer him help, all they do is judge him and criticize him both to his back and in front of him and only side with him when it benefits them. They are, physically, mentally and emotionally incapable of sympathizing with others yet they want others to sympathize with them and their hypocrisy only continues to go rewarded. The narrative is very obviously in their favor and attempts to sway the viewers into thinking Ironwood is the villain for… Doing the only few remaining things he can do to try and keep not just Atlas and the Mantle survivors safe, but all of the world. They don’t even bother to see his point. At no moment during that confrontation do they go ‘we see your point and where you’re coming from, but that’s just playing into Salem’s hands and we can’t do that.’ No, all they do is yell at him and tell him he’s wrong, that he’s an awful person.

They don’t see the greater scheme. All they see are their own lofty ideals. They physically cannot save all the people of Mantle. They physically cannot keep the Lamp and the Staff, and they certainly, at this point in time, physically stop Salem if she is coming. They need ships to save the people of Mantle, they need to be on guard duty to protect the Staff and the Lamp. They need to keep Fria safe to keep the Winter Maiden powers from being robbed, but how are they physically going to do that? By ‘standing their ground?’ That is such a nonsensical, idyllic solution. They can’t do all of those things, but somehow, someway, they are ‘right’ because they want to do ‘the right thing.’ Except. There is no right thing thing to do. Not everything is as black and white as they want it to be. And every single time they do this and experience zero consequences while reaping many rewards for their hypocritical and catastrophic reckless decisions, the more faith I lose in the writers and the show.

Team RWBY defeating the AceOps

Like I said above, this was something I really didn’t enjoy… As I’ve mentioned above, it seems Team RWBY’s recklessness and inconsiderate behavior that endangers far more lives than they save will always go rewarded, and here is no different. I’ve gone through the battle several times and the only fight which deserved to be won by a member of Team RWBY was Weiss’ battle against Marrow, and this was largely because Marrow was holding back and implied he could push Weiss more against the ropes if he wanted to. Not to mention that it was due to Marrow’s hesitation Team RWBY even had a fighting chance. Had he used his Semblance at the very beginning he could’ve frozen all of Team RWBY where they were and have them apprehended immediately because they’d be unable to move.

Besides that one, the only other one who could’ve gone in Team RWBY’s favor is Yang’s fight against Elm, but even so it was… 75/25 in Elm’s favor. But the proof is in the animation, and it shows Elm landing far more attacks on Yang than Yang ever did on her, but since Team RWBY’s victory is required for the plot to progress, they were able to defeat the AceOps. Blake’s fight against Vine and Ruby’s fight against Harriet is not something I can even justify if I tried to do so because it was entirely one-sided on the AceOps’ favor. I try to give a lot of leverage to the show and its writing, but I cannot suspense my disbelief for such a one-sided fight, especially when the AceOps dished out punishment after punishment for Team RWBY and none of their Auras broke nor did they look even remotely tired while the AceOps all went down with two-to-three hits that I find hard to believe would take down the most elite Hunters in all of the Atlas continent.

We don’t know the AceOps’ members’ age, but what we do know is that they’ve been serving directly under James Ironwood for years now, and as the most elite, that makes them the strongest military platoon in all of Atlas with several years long specialized training years under their age while Team RWBY received not even a year of formal training at Beacon Academy and fought some Creatures of Grimm on the way to Mistral, had very limited and minor training under Ozma/Ozpin and then had small bouts against Salem and Raven’s forces in the Battle for Haven. Then after that they faced off against more Creatures of Grimm on the way to Atlas except for the one time they teamed-up to fight against Caroline Cordovin’s Colossus. Compared to the AceOps’ rigorous daily training and constantly having to carry out extremely difficult tasks under Ironwood’s leadership, Team RWBY’s training really pales in comparison.

There are many other ways that Team RWBY’s physical, mental or emotional strength without having them win fights they don’t deserve, because at this point it simply feels like no matter what happens, no matter how gray the situation the writing team behind RWBY attempts to portray, the narrative always tries to portray Team RWBY as being in the right even though for the past two Volumes they have been wrong in their methods without suffering any consequences. It’s exhausting and frankly, not good writing. I understand this is said a lot, but in this case, it can really be attributed to bad writing. Team RWBY doesn’t have to win every fight, they don’t have to always come out on top. They don’t always have to be right. And they most certainly don’t have to always be at the center of everything. That’s what side characters are for, side characters that they rarely use at all but keep around and keep increasing the amount of side characters for the plot. It’s overwhelming in all the wrong ways.

By the way, it was Team RWBY who attacked the AceOps, not the other way around. They could’ve stood down, they could’ve calmed down and realized they were in the wrong in this scenario, and Harriet herself said it first. They decide what happens next. Ruby draws out her weapon and escapes the room, forcing Harriet to chase her. They were the ones who forced the AceOps into acting, not the other way around. But the next moment Ruby is begging Harriet to team up with her to fight Salem even though a moment ago she was challenging Harriet to a fight because of her arrogance and unjustified massive ego. At this point, Ironwood might be paranoid and making bad decisions, but Team RWBY certainly poured gasoline all over his paranoia.

Qrow

I think most of the FNDM can agree that what they did with Qrow makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are a lot of things wrong with his character this chapter. For starters, at no point since he was introduced did Qrow try to solve the problems he faced with outright violence. He always preferred the diplomatic and peaceful approach because that’s what Ozpin taught him to do and what he genuinely believed was the right step today, because violence leads to panic, and the panic leads to Creatures of Grimm… Except in this case where he… Decided to rely on violence.

But the greatest offender was the fact he teamed up with Tyrian of all people– that’s right. Qrow willingly teams up with Tyrian, the same person who has tried to slaughter both Ruby and himself and has successfully murdered dozens of innocent civilians for his own amusement to attack Clover… What? Then he has the audacity to blame Clover for what happened and feels awful when, to no one’s surprise, Tyrian betrays him and stabs Clover with Harbinger when it was him who knocked out Clover’s Aura in the first place.

It’s awful, and I can understand why so many Qrow fans are enraged by this, because even I was and I don’t relate to Qrow that much. Just as the meme goes, ‘everything happens so much…’

Clover’s Death

Didn’t need to happen. Literally that’s my entire point on this section. It didn’t need to happen, it shouldn’t have happened, and this was RWBY’s writing team attempt at shock for the Volume. Because Qrow is just not allowed to have happy endings or friends. Qrow has no rights mourning Clover’s death when he himself was the direct catalyst for it to occur in the first place. But there is something else that is horrifyingly atrocious in the writing department going on with Clover in the last moments of his death. Seconds before getting stabbed with Harbinger, Clover states that he would trust Ironwood with his life… Then, all that changes right after he is nearing the end of his life.

The moment he realizes his life is fading away, once again, Clover goes against anything and everything he stands for by wishing Qrow good luck when the other claims he’s going to make sure Ironwood takes the fall for what happened, when Ironwood is doing nothing wrong. Ironwood keeps getting painted as the villain even by his most loyal soldier, the one who claimed he would trust the general with his life, but that ultimately doesn’t matter based on the show’s writing. Clover previously also talked about how Ironwood was doing the right thing by making the toughest decisions, the decisions that realistically could and would save thousands of lives unlike Team RWBY’s lofty goals.

Goals which by the end of the episode continue being unanswered. How are they going to accomplish all the naïve promises they want to fulfill? From a non-biased opinion and how they tend to solve the writing’s plot holes in past volumes, what most likely’s going to happen is yet another Deus Ex Machina. In Volume 4 it was the ‘random’ troops that just happened to arrive to Kuroyuri on time to escort the group all the way to Mistral and seek medical first aid for Qrow. In Volume 5 it was Blake showing up with an entire militia of the reformed White Fang as well as Vernal, somehow, still living to get that cheap shot in for Raven to have an opening to knock Cinder off the vault’s cliff. In Volume 6 it was Ruby’s empty speeches somehow convincing Cordovin to give them a free ship so they could travel to Atlas even though Team RWBY and company were responsible for everything bad that happened to Argus because of their selfishness.

[charlotteisnotthechosenone]

Star Wars Ramblings #3 - The Dark Side

Damn it Star Wars. 

Liking a villain is not a new concept. I have heard people talk over and over about how quite often the villain is the most interesting character in the story. They are the ones with the most complex motives and backgrounds and they are often the ones who you are left wanting to find out more about once the story has ended. It seems we are fascinated with the dark side. While I totally understand that view I have not ever, until now, really experienced that for myself. 

If you had asked me about the dark side pre my voyage into Star Wars I would have simply have dismissed them as a bunch of evil dudes in masks who go around attacking people. I would have also gone as far to admit that I was absolutely terrified of them! I have never experienced fear quite like the imposing, 6 foot 3 figure of Kylo Ren stood over me questioning my allegiance to the resistance in Disney’s Star Wars launch bay! I was very nearly in tears!! But what Star Wars seems to be able to do is to totally take those perceptions and turn them on their heads. There is absolutely no denying that these characters are not nice people and they should in no way be totally redeemable but I can’t help feeling some kind of emotion towards them that isn’t outright hate. 

I had very few feelings/opinions on Darth Vader for the majority of the original films yet when he died I got very emotional. I had such adoration for the rebellion that shouldn’t I have been celebrating when  they were finally able to defeat the Empire? Instead I found myself flooded with upset, not happiness. Darth Vader presents a very blank emotionless presence throughout these first three films and yet I still managed to feel some sort of sadness for him. The minute that his helmet was removed I found myself screaming at the screen that he was not evil, just misunderstood, and he didn’t deserve to die. Surely a connection like that should not have been my reaction. 

Fast fowards 30 years and there is a new brooding villain on the scene. Before I knew much about Star Wars my feelings towards the character I simply knew as the Kylo bloke with the funky lightsaber was how utterly ridiculous I thought he was. One of the things I loved about the villains in Star Wars was the fact that both the leaders and the storm troopers all wore these identity wiping masks and armour which only served to increase that air of fear and coldness surrounding them. It was this detachment from humanity that made them appear scary to me. Having heard talk of how attractive the internet appeared to find Kylo Ren I was confused. How could you possibly find someone who takes fashion/facewear advice from Darth Vader attractive? So when my friends joined this club insisting that we must meet Kylo Ren whilst at Disney because he was ‘fit’ I started correcting them. What you mean to say is that you fancy Adam Driver I insisted because yes, let’s be honest, his face is above average. That was very quickly denied while images from the movie were thrust in my face to me depicting Kylo Ren not only without his helmet but without his shirt! This is Star Wars am I right? A film series I knew for its action and adventure and not for its sex appeal. I was absolutely outraged that this was how they had chosen to depict this new villain. The whole illusion of these masked characters seemed slightly shattered to me. 

Believe me I have had many rants over my feelings towards Kylo Ren and his lack of clothing (I mean I still stand by the fact that losing the shirt is a little much). He is a character I really wanted to hate and damn you Disney - by taking off that helmet I am ashamedly melting a little inside towards the character I know is going to cause me so many emotions beside the hate I so know I should feel! In interviews Adam often refers to Kylo as being both reckless and unfinished as well as remarking that villains should not be seen as outright evil. They should instead be seen as someone who believes they are doing the right thing and this is what makes them all the more dangerous. From the outset I think it is clear that Kylo holds a lack of authority when it comes to the dark side. In episodes VI-IV it was Vader and no one else giving the orders and more fool anyone who questioned him. The dynamic within the first order however is totally different to that. It is both Hux and Snoke who appear to be the ones giving the orders around here which Kylo is expected to follow. While he may look tall and menacing that appears to be where it stops. A look behind the scenes reveal that it is really Hux who appears to be pulling the strings. 

It was however his interaction with Han that absolutely broke me and honestly made me such a firm believer in the fact that there is still light in him. Han is most definitely my favourite Star Wars character and I feel like his death should have been the one thing to upset me in that scene. What affected me most though wasn’t his death but the words Kylo says when he is reunited with his father. The minute he started to tear up I did too. It was like the whole Darth Vader situation all over again. Kylo tells Han he knows what he has to do but doesn’t have the strength to do it. He truly believes that by killing his father it will make him more connected to the dark side and I think that proves how conflicted and unsure of himself he really is. He previously remarks that he feels the pull to the light and that he needs Vader to show him the darkness, proving that he potentially doesn’t 100% believe in what he is fighting for. While he may believe it is the right thing to do it doesn’t mean he has to totally agree with it. We all do things we may not want to but we do them because we feel they are the right thing to do.

The prequel films did an excellent job of highlighting the transition to the dark side and what Anakin showed was someone who truly believed they were doing the right thing. He was convinced of what he wanted and how he was going to get it and he was going to let absolutely nothing stand in his way - hence the anger, destruction and hate so commonly attributed to villains. When comparing Kylo to Anakin they could not be more different. There is no doubt that by the end of Episode III Anakin is the embodiment of the dark side and those traits are absent from Kylo’s personality. He also remarks that he is ‘being torn apart’ and ‘wants to be free of this pain’. To me they definitely don’t sound like the words of somebody who feels as if they are in the place that they should be. By the end of this scene I was in tears and not because Han Solo had died. Yes that was upsetting but I found myself crying for Kylo, not because of him. I believe he is so conflicted within his own mind and that is what makes him so dangerous. He is a loose canon. While he appears to be the puppet Hux and Snoke are using as the face of the first order he is also acting on his own thoughts. This is evident in the scenes between him and Rey. Bringing Rey (and not BB8) aboard was his little moment of defiance and humanity. It is through the conversations they have together that you can see him cracking a little and his emotion finally beginning to surface. Rey also appears to bring out the more reckless side of him. During their lightsaber fight in the forrest Kylo continues his attack on Rey with pure drive and anger, even once he is injured. His moves do not appear at all tactical or thought through. All he appears to be doing is blindly wielding his lightsaber in her direction with only anger behind it. I do actually know where the story for these two characters is heading and I am very excited for her to bring out more of this human side to him. 

[d6official]

Day6’s Jae Park is leading K-pop’s vital mental health conversation for Dazed Magazine

The musician discusses his solo project, eaJ, and reveals how a panic attack led him to tackle his own mental health issues and launch a social initiative.

He may have played his father’s guitar in the living room as a kid, but a career in music always felt like a pipe dream for Jae Park. Raised in Cerritos, California, Jae was pursuing higher education when he got the chance to audition for a Korean American Idol-esque survival show. Through this experience, he was able to carve a space for himself in the Korean music scene by ultimately joining Korean rock group Day6 in 2015.

Making their debut almost six years ago, Day6 created a space for a different type of idol group, a band. The five-member group has each member on an instrument: a drummer, two guitarists, a bassist, and a keyboard player. The members are heavily involved with the lyric writing and production of their songs. A trip to one of their live performances will surprise you with a member shredding a solo on the electric guitar instead of an intricate dance break. Their first EP, The Day, peaked at number two on Billboard’s World Album Chart, and since then, each succeeding release has found a home in the top 10.

Outside of the day job, Jae’s been busy with various projects: he’s a part-time streamer on Twitch, a co-host on the How Did I Get Here (HDIGH) podcast and, most recently, a solo artist, posting a string of self-penned songs under the alias eaJ to his YouTube channel from early last year. These side projects give us an insight into his personality. HDIGH explores a playful side to Jae; he and his co-host begin with a topic, start by sharing their opinions and beliefs, and slowly, they spiral into a deep dive on Google, diverging into a completely new topic by the end of the episode. It leaves them asking “How did I get here?”

Feeling lost and uninspired, Jae began writing the tracks as a way to reconnect with his love of music. These solo tracks sound different to his work with Day6. While Day6’s high energy work is reminiscent of early 2000s pop punk bands like All Time Low, the aeJ project tracks are tranquil, almost dreamlike, revealing a softer side of Jae’s musicality.

But amid this new venture, Jae faced mental health challenges that he feels changed his life, beginning with a panic attack in the back of a taxi. In recent times, more K-pop idols have become outspoken about their struggles, but there’s still a stigma attached to the topic in Eastern society. Compared to artists in the West, K-pop idols are more reserved about their relationship with mental health. Jae believes that continuing this cycle of “toxic positivity” and perfection can be destructive to today’s youth, fueling the global prevalence of adolescent mental health disorders.

These confrontations with what he calls “feelings of death, doom, and finality” encouraged him to become a mental health advocate and, through that, From Friends was born – a clothing line created in collaboration with REPRESENT, which helped the star raise £100,000 for mental health charities.

We caught up with Jae to talk about his projects, mental health, and why From Friends was such a valuable experience to the 28-year-old artist.

You began the eaJ solo project last year. Could you talk a bit more about that?

Jae Park: I came to the conclusion that I’d forgotten what kind of music I liked. (I wanted) to find my identity, so I started spinning out track after track; it came almost like word vomit. I was throwing up all this emotional baggage I had (built) up over the years. I just ended up releasing it. I took everyone for the ride, because (I thought), ‘If I’m gonna make it, I might as well take you with me’.

Can you talk us through some of the issues you were dealing with at the time?

Jae Park: I ended up breaking down in a taxi ride on the way home from a video shoot for the eaJ project, on a song called “Truman”. At first, I felt my body go numb. And then my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. So I said, ‘Oh, panic attack… nice. I’m gonna die’. And this impending feeling of doom and death and finality was just drawing so close. And I started hyperventilating, I was freaking out. I told the taxi (driver), ‘I’m going to need to go to the hospital’. I was almost out of my mind when I reached the hospital; I’d been hyperventilating the whole time. They took me into ER, did all these tests, and told me there was nothing wrong with me. I was like, ‘You’re lying, there’s no way. There’s something physically wrong, I feel like I’m going to die. I can’t breathe’. Turns out I had some pretty severe panic attacks.

“(I wanted) to find my identity, so I started spinning out track after track; it came almost like word vomit. I was throwing up all this emotional baggage I had (built) up over the years” – Jae Park

Oh wow, that’s quite a journey. Especially when you’ve never felt that way before. Your brain is telling you, ‘Oh my God, you’re gonna die’. Sometimes the wires in your brain just get crossed a bit. And there’s not necessarily anything that causes it.

Jae Park: Sometimes there’s no trigger.

A part of your job is to almost seem like you’re perfect, right? Because people idolise you. And when you have these little cracks in the armour, it’s seen as a weakness. Could you talk about how you turned this thing that could be perceived as a weakness into something good, with From Friends?

Jae Park: This actually segues perfectly into what I wanted to talk about. That’s why it’s called ‘From Friends’. The mission statement is (about) extending a helping hand to whomever, wherever there’s a need. It’s very personal and it’s from a friend. Friends are people who tell you, ‘Hey, you don’t look like you’re doing well’, or, ‘Hey, you seem a little bit off’.

I thought this was something that was going to positively affect people. When the car incident happened, I thought, ‘Damn, if only someone had told me that a panic attack can make you feel like you’re about to die, that it usually comes with impending feelings of death and doom, and you start breathing really fast’. If I’d known those things, which I’m sure that 90 per cent of celebrities have gone through, I wouldn’t have freaked out as hard as I did. And I feel like that day carved a couple of scars in me that aren’t going to be healed in the near future.

What kind of reactions did you receive after the launch?

Jae Park: I definitely received a lot of positive reactions. And it’s incredibly rewarding to be a part of this. To be completely honest, in a big corporation (the idol group Jae belongs to, Day6, is part of South Korean multinational conglomerate JYP Entertainment, which has represented some of the biggest acts in the industry), it’s not the easiest to be able to start projects like this. It’s one hand to the next hand, and the next. Then it gets rejected, all the way back down and you do it again. It wasn’t easy, but it felt good. Especially when I used to read my DMs, a lot of people were like, ‘Thank you so much, I thought it was just me’. And it’s not just you. Those are the people I want to reach. Those are the people we wanted to educate, and let them know it’s OK not to feel perfect. Your idols try to look perfect because their company told them to look perfect! But I (guarantee) you, they don’t feel perfect.

What are your personal goals for 2021?

Jae Park: So I’ve been doing these unofficial releases on YouTube, and people liked them so I thought I might as well make a video. It was purely for entertainment, just to see how people would react. And I think I had a really positive reaction and I feel like I’ve garnered some of the respect that I wanted when starting the project. I’m planning an official release sometime soon.

I think my next venture is (for) my number one (job), Day6. We’re always working on an album. I’m, like, 99 per cent sure we have a solid album for you this year.

We’ve talked about mental health, your solo projects, and Day6. Is there anything else about yourself you think the world doesn’t know, that this ‘idol’ world doesn’t capture authentically?

Jae Park: I feel like I’m pretty damn transparent, especially these days, after the ‘incident’. I’ve probably shared every opinion that I have online somewhere; they’re always a little bit controversial. I’m known as a bit of a problem child these days in the K-pop realm. Something the world doesn’t know about me? I’m not sure if there’s anything. Everyone knows I’m a dumbass and I make mistakes; I am a hypocrite (who contradicts) what I’ve said the week before, because I feel different a week later. I’m just me, I’m just a human being, and that’s just how it is.

©️DAZED Magazine

[ariainstars]

Why I Don’t Want Ben Solo to Die

Look, I am aware that Kylo Ren is a widely unpopular character with Star Wars fans. And that seems only legitimate, after all he killed his own father.

But reading and listening to fans’ comments, I come across the same judgement all over again: he is simply hated because he’s not badass.

The moment he destroys the ship’s console in a fit of rage it was already clear to most fans: what a baby.

When he took off his helmet so we could see his vulnerable features: that is supposed to be the villain?! He’s neither ugly nor beautiful enough! He looks normal!! (How awful.)

Kylo Ren / Ben Solo after the patricide, obviously traumatized. What a sissy. He did not enjoy the terrible thing that he did. He’s in pain and sorrow because his father is dead by his own hand, which means that he did love him.

A villain who loves someone? Who doesn’t enjoy the terrible things he does? My, my, how uncool is that. What a bad example to kids watching the show.

Ben watches Rey leave with the Falcon, tears on his face. He’s more miserable than ever, kneeling on the ground, literally having hit rock bottom.

But he’s the Supreme Leader now, folks!! Wasn’t that what he wanted all along? Why isn’t he triumphant?!

Ben Solo / Kylo Ren, like Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader is a split personality. Many fans have never seen Ben behind the mask, not even in his interactions with Rey, because hey, if he was secretly a hero, he ought to be badass. And Ben is not badass, the son of Han and Leia is vulnerable and timid. So there can’t be a good guy in there somewhere, am I right?

Sorry, but I can’t help wondering how people can be so blind. It has been staring us in the face from the start that this man is not the story’s villain, that he is on a painful but ultimately successful way to redemption.

And by “redemption” I don’t mean coming back to the Light, but finally finding and sharing the balance the Force and the galaxy so desperately need. It wasn’t for nothing that he had promised his grandfather that he would finish what he started.

A guy I know claims that the wide-spread sympathy for Kylo / Ben (mostly coming for females) springs from the fact that for some unexplainable reason the role was given to Adam Driver, and that the actor’s personal charisma is leading fans to unhealthy and illogical conclusions. He never wondered why Disney gave Driver of all people this role in the first place, and that there actually might be a very good reason for that.

It’s easier to pretend that the saga is ruined, that Lucas has lost his magic touch and Disney is defiling the saga’s miserable remainders, than to sit down and try to think about it for just a minute. To listen, instead of believing to know everything by breaking down a 9-film-3-trilogies story to “it’s always black against white, ka-boom, the white ones win, the end”. Maybe, just maybe, Lucas had a good reason for telling the prequels the way he did and for selling the rights for the sequels to the Disney studios of all places.

One of the things that annoy me most is that so many fans keep calling Ben “Kylo Ren” and simply refuse to accept that actually they are speaking about Ben Solo, the son of Han and Leia and the nephew of Luke. Hence, also, the stubborn and unrelenting “it will turn out that Rey is a Skywalker / Organa / Solo / Kenobi”, even if in the first three cases these fans would actually be expecting her to kill her own cousin or half-brother.

Many of us have grown up with and loved the Star Wars original saga. I can understand that a lot fans are irritated by both prequels and sequels because used to stuff like Jaws, Rocky, Rambo, Alien etc. they of course expect a diluted and warmed-up rehash of the original story and not a development of themes and characters.

But these antis never seem to consider that Ben dying, and dying unrepentant, is the very worst service the saga could do to the original story. It has been said and shown over and over that Rey is a nobody from nowhere. Ben is, thus, indeed the last scion and heir to the heroes from the original trilogy. If he “gets by his deserts”, all that his family suffered and went through was in vain.

His father sacrificing himself - for nothing.

His uncle - ditto.

But to these fans, Kylo’s miserable death would be the only thing that could still halfway reconcile them with the allegedly disastrous, or at least very unsatisfying, sequel trilogy. If they were “real fans” like they claim, in my opinion they rather ought to pray day and night for Ben’s redemption. If they would dare to look beyond their noses, they would realize that Ben has his uncle’s learning, his father’s slyness, his grandfather’s protectiveness and his mother’s empathy and that these qualities are only waiting for the right spark to ignite inside of him and light the galaxy.

I have my own, personal reasons why I’m hoping for Ben Solo to be redeemed, and I’m going to admit that they are pretty personal.

Yes, I like Ben Solo and I like Adam Driver: not because of their pectorals and arm muscles (although they’re nice to look at 😊) but mostly because I identify with them. I want Ben to change and be happy and I hope for Adam to make a marvelous job of this role. I know he and the rest of the crew won’t be capable to convince everyone, but I do hope that they will make Ben Solo’s character, life and development understandable to as many viewers as possible.

I don’t want Ben Solo to fail and die miserably, unrepentant.

Nor do I want him to become Rey’s pet, only good enough to have kids with her so that she will finally have her own family.

I don’t want Ben Solo to die “because that whiny sissy deserves it”.

I don’t want him to die because he’s sensitive and ���a real guy isn’t sensitive”.

I don’t want him to die because “he’s done so much evil and doesn’t deserve to be forgiven.”

I don’t want him to die by Rey’s hand because she’s badass so whatever she does, it’s ok.

I don’t want him to die because “he’s not good-looking so he can’t be the hero”.

I want the last scion of the Skywalker saga, the oversensitive, doubtful, patient, emphatic, funny-looking Ben Solo to prove to the world at large that you can be a hero and find your place in your own place, as a man, even if you don’t come up with any of the common prerequisites for a hero in the common sense of the word.

I want him to show the galaxy and the audience at large that it’s never too late, that you can change, grow beyond your wounds and weaknesses, find your own place among humanity and a happy ever after.

I want him to be a role and an encouragement for everyone like me who is introverted, insecure, thoughtful, sensitive and overall not badass.

For the same reason, I was happy when I saw that my theory that Rey would take a plunge into the Dark Side was founded. Rey is being mistaken by most fans as the true heroine of the saga because we see the story unfold mostly from her point of view, so we tend to identify with her and to overlook the arrogance, stubbornness and aggressiveness that were already hinting at her personal development.

I hope that Episode IX will finally make abundantly clear down to the last fan that even the most pure and intelligent and well-meaning heroine can still go down a dark path. (Louder for the people in the back: Anakin and Ben had all chance to be heroes and they were turned evil by the events around them.)

I want the Star Wars saga to end on the note “you don’t have to be badass to save the world.”

I want Love to be the triumphant end note.

I want vulnerability and empathy to be portrayed, in this action science-fiction world-wide known saga, as qualities that do not necessarily make you weak but can make you strong if you’re in the right place and employ them in the right way, instead of denying them and secretly admiring who has no qualms with going over corpses.

I know that many, many fans will never have compassion for Vader or Anakin. For some reason, if someone is frightening, they are likely to bow down before him and to think he’s right with everything he does, even killing and torturing.

Most fans hated the prequels’ depiction of Anakin Skywalker because he wasn’t a fearsome person like Vader but so desperately human.

They similarly hate Kylo Ren and wish him to end in the most horrible way because he’s conflicted and suffering instead of “enjoying” his crimes.

I know I’m being mean now: but I really hope that the expectations of these fans for “the badass wins” will explode in their faces when Episode IX comes out.

I predict that countless viewers all over the world will howl to the moon in frustration, claim that Disney ruined the franchise for good and sign petitions to start everything all over again.

But I hope that viewers who are less prejudiced will listen with their heart and find confirmation for what, in Lucas’ own words, the saga is all about: compassion and family.

And I also hope that future generations who will watch the saga on the whole, in particular boys and young men, will grow up with the message that you don’t have to be canonically handsome, formidable, violent and cruel in order to be a hero, but that loyalty and belonging to something bigger than yourself are more important; that a true hero is not someone who saves the world all by himself but who overcomes himself and creates a better place for other people and together with other people.

I don’t need to watch the lonesome hero, the cowboy riding away into the sunset. There are more than enough action films like that. Let Star Wars be a glorious exception for that cliché. I want it to give encouragement to people who, like me, are not cool and badass but for this are not useless, weak and have nothing to give to the world. If the saga ends the way I hope, I will assuredly not sign petitions for some of its chapters to be removed from canon but send George Lucas personally an enormous bouquet of flowers together with a card offering him all of my admiration and gratitude.

Do it for us, Kylo, Ben, Adam, George, please. Show the world that it’s always love that ought to win, not violence. Prove in a convincing way to whoever watches the saga that emotionality and doubts are not weaknesses but virtues, and that you can be a worthy and happy person without being cruel, vicious and creepy. I’m right here rooting for you and waving your flag.

See you in December. 😊

[dreamingsushi]

Before we get married - Episode 1

Before I start my recap of this episode, let me mention that it is not the first time I watch it!  I first had a look at it a few weeks ago with a friend and I must say it was quite a weird experience.  Anyways.  Whan I saw the previews of the drama, I was quite intrigued by it because the theme and the plot seemed a little bit different from what we are used to and I thought it would be interesting to watch.  We’ll see from now on.

The first episode starts slowly by outlining for us the characters.  On one side, we have Chu Kehuan, apparently a very successful business man, while on the other side we have Zhou Weiwei, your average white collar it seems.  Both main characters have their first encounter in and out of a cab.  Zhou Weiwei is hurrying out of the car while Chu Kehuan is trying to get in.  On her way to meet some director, Zhou Weiwei bumps into a kid on a skateboard and spills the whole content of her purse including the taxi bill.  Since she needs to keep it to get reimbursed by her company, she runs after it.  That little piece of paper does have a will of its own as it flies from left to right back and forth.  Naturally, it’s Chu Kehuan that picks it up for her and as a quite arrogant little rich guy, he makes fun of her.

There, I’m already a little bit disappointed : the male lead is a rich little jerk and the female lead is scrapping every penny to live. I wish we wouldn’t have the rich-poor pattern, even though I don’t think Zhou Weiwei is poor, from her apartment and job I guess she would be from the middle class.

Destiny could have stopped her magic right there, but after they part and Chu Kehuan get in the cab, he finds Zhou Weiwei’s red planner.  Instead of asking the driver to wait and to get off the car a few seconds to hand it back, he keeps it.  That scene is really weird.  It’s like “Oh! A planner!  Nice, I’m going to keep it!” Maybe Chu Kehuan is just a really indifferent person?

Well not when it comes to his work and his opponent.  Apparently Chu Kehuan is the run for a CEO position against Shu Mingge, another investment expert I believe.  To build up the tension, we have then getting set up in their office, as if going on the finals on a box-ring.  I think the whole preparation could have been edited out, it’s a waste of time.

We switch right away, before knowing who is going today’s big bet, to another office filled with overexcited workers trying to buy some camera that’s at a really good price.  Nice product placement there!  This scene is to introduce another character though and probably the most boring character ever : doesn’t own a credit card, believes cellphone is enough to take pictures, paper money is better than virtual money.  I think we have here a guy very much in love with money.

Better news! That office is also Zhou Weiwei’s office and boring guy... Well it’s obviously her boyfriend.  While on the bus, previously which I didn’t mention, she texted him, saying she wanted to meet with him after work.  He answered : “Even though today is a week day that we are not appointed to meet, I also want to see you.” I can’t stand the guy already.  He is a bore.

Up till now, it seems I really hate that show...  Well it only has been 12 minutes, maybe it’s going to get better!

Another little scene of the competition between Chu Kehuan and Shu Mingge.  Chu Kehuan is obviously losing with the value of the stocks he invested in going down, but he looks quite confidente still.  Pass.

Good.  Zhou Weiwei finally realizes that she lost her planner.  She goes to her roommate asking about it.  Han Kefei really is portrayed as a sex-addict.  Earlier in the morning, she’s showering with a guy that slept over, now she’s in a conference room trying to seduce (it looks a lot more like she’s forcing him to be there though) an employee.  Shouldn’t a manager like that be fired?  Why is she doing this in the conference room?  Why is she so violent about it?  I mean, what is happening there... Abusive boss in every way and Zhou Weiwei just tells her “you even eat what’s raw.”  I know they are roommate, but shouldn’t she report her to high ups?  I really don’t understand a thing about this.  Why is everybody so abnormal?

Again to the competition, Shu Ming gets cocky and naturally, that is when his stocks start dropping as Chu Kehuan’s are climbing higher.  No big surprise.  Lots of shocked faces, lots of slow motions to show the face expressions.  And finally, Chu Kehuan looks human and he waves his fist for victory.  So unlike him, but thanks for the effort for not being too sure of yourself.

And what better to celebrate this big win than playing tennis with a friend!  I must agree with you, being a CEO is the best.  Money making wise.  Workload wise, I can’t say.  And is anywhere better than the locker room to look through Zhou Weiwei’s planner?  He says he’s looking so he can find her, but by the way he’s flipping through, he’s going way too much in detail.  Her name and phone number are probably on the first page...  Ah, no, her business card is a the bottom of the planner.  Good job.  I must remark here that it looks like a bullet journal and I really love that because I love bullet journaling myself.  Bonus point for the bujo.

Well it seems Zhou Weiwei has a really bad memory and that’s why the planner is so important to her.  During her meeting, she can’t open the ppt for her project because she doesn’t remember the password for it.  The meeting is about to be cancelled when she is called by... no one else but Chu Kehuan!  So nice of him to bring the planner to her at her office building.  Not nice of him to try to hit on her.  Is it true that in western country, inviting somebody for coffee means you want to hook up?  To me it has always been a way to thank somebody for something they did for me.  I don’t know, maybe I should change my thanking methods...  Well, let me tell you that we are going for another love-hate relationship.  No clichés.  But at least, the meeting is saved.

So on her date with her boyfriend, she is clearly embarrassed by how cheap he is.  Then a collegue pass by the street and the try to hide : turns out it’s forbidden to date somebody from the company.  What a crappy rule : where do you expect your workers to find their partner if not at work?  Anyways.  It’s their three year anniversary, they are happy and the best way to celebrate is... by scanning old receipts to see if they can win some money.  Haha, Weiwei’s face is so funny, how romantic.  She definitely hates that her boyfriend is so cheap.  I can’t believe she still puts up with him.  Well at least it’s to buy a house together, I guess he is serious about her at some point.

Oh... I totally forgot.  The guy started dating her because on their first date, she paid her part of the meal they had together.  Darling, dump him.  This is so cringy, it’s not romantic.

Her three year anniversary gift?  A cup he bought with points he saved...  CHEAP.  CHEAP. CHEAP.  And when she wants to stay the night, he says no because it’s not Saturday and they agreed they would spend the night together only on Saturday.  DUMP HIM.  I know she most likely will somewhere in the future, but it’s already taking too much time...

At least she is unhappy with it so after she leaves she goes to a solo KTV.  I so want to try these, it’s like my dream.  Naturally, outside the cabin, BAM!  Chu Kehuan is there.  Fate is really strong between those two already, they bump into each other pretty much everywhere. Kehuan obviously also thinks so.  Three meetings in one day, that’s an amazing fate.  But he needs to ruin it by reciting by heart everything he saw about Weiwei’s finance.  He is so annoying.  Weiwei’s reaction in that particular moment the most realistic part of the whole episode so far.  I have to congratulate Puff Guo for her acting, I enjoyed it very much.  Well actually, even though Weiwei’s reactions are most of the time weird, I have to say the acting is on point.  At that point, I think the script is just strange.

Anyways, she gets mad and when she tries to go, she rips her shirt open.  I watch the scene a few times, I don’t get how it happened, she didn’t touch anything.  Maybe it was too tight on her, I don’t know.  Anyways, her underwear is showing, she’s shook.  For the first, Kehuan acts like a gentleman and cover her breast with his jacket.  If they were a couple, it would be such a sweet moment.  Please redo it 15 episodes later.  Thank you goodbye.

So she goes back home, tells the story to her sex addict roommate, gives herself a pep talk in front of the mirror : girl, it’s about time you realize you’re not happy.  Kehuan is annoying, the character is so unrealistic to me up till now, but at least, he knows how to turn somebody’s mind upside down.

The next, dear Kehuan keeps on calling Weiwei on the phone.  It’s really childish honestly.  Doesn’t he have anything more important to do?  Like, maybe... I don’t know... working?  Well at least we know he has a party that night and he makes his subordinate make sure that Weiwei attends.  Naturally, because it’s fate, the guy knows Weiwei’s roommate, seems like they had a thing sometime.  Well anyways, he convinces her to make Weiwei attend the party so they can find her a boyfriend.  This is so twisted.

So they go to the party, Weiwei tries to leave when she sees Kehuan, her friend threatens her to end their friendship if she leaves, twisted, twisted, twisted.  Lots of wine drinking.  Somebody teach them how to drink wine.  Please.  I don’t even drink wine and it bothers me.  And then they... THIS IS TWISTED OKAY?  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS DRAMA??  They bring a crane game.  It Kehuan grabs a teddy bear successfully, he gets to sleep with any girl he wants at the party.  IT’S DISGUSTING!  I JUST CAN’T. NOPE.  THIS IS WRONG!!

As expected, he grabs one.  I don’t need to see the reste of the episode to know who he will ask out.  Yuck.  Dude, your morals are wrong.  Yup.  Of course, she doesn’t want to.  So instead he gives her three chances to grad a teddy bear to refuse him?  Okay.  NO.  And the crowd is cheering so she wouldn’t catch it?  What is this?  This is so inappropriate.  I don’t think something like that should be allowed in a drama.  And it wouldn’t be a drama if she didn’t loose.  They end up in a BDSM room and I am just thinking... what the hell am I watching...  At least, he just handcuffs her to the bed.  AS IF THIS WAS NOT BAD ENOUGH ALREADY...  He leaves the key hanging too far away for her to reach it.  In the process, we learn that he has a girlfriend.  Poor girl, I wouldn’t want to date somebody like that.  Dirtbag.

After he leaves her like that, he sees on his phone thousands of phone call, from whom I assume is his girlfriend.  I feel another twisted relationship coming.  Maybe it makes him regret or whatever, but he goes back to free Weiwei.

She runs to her boyfriend, but she can’t bring herself to tell him what happened even though she insists on staying over even though it’s not a Saturday night.

Kehuan gets home to his girlfriend, locked outside because she forgot the door’s key.  I can already tell the relationship is so unhealthy.  She basically worships Kehuan and if she could, she would be his slave.  That’s really not a good start.  I can already see he’s bored with her.  Two unhappy couples.

The episode ends on Weiwei deleting Kehuan’s invitation on a social media to be friends or to follow her, I couldn’t recognize the app.

Overall...  This is twisted.  I will try the next episode, the preview are still intriguing me, but so far I am not enjoying it so much.  I hope it gets better soon.  If ever you decide on watching, just be prepared : this drama is kinda more adult like.  It is definitely not for a younger public.

Thanks for reading, see you on another episode!

[yourereallyhere]

6x04 reaction post

HI I JUST FINISHED WATCHING THE EPISODE and im SO EXCITED to see everyones posts because I've being avoiding social media since 8 pm EST,, that was the best episode of the season by far and im FREAKING OUT so enjoy all the thoughts I had while watching since I was able to do this when I didn't watch live as I usually do and also come scream in my inbox (under the cut bc its pretty long)

⁃ Diyoza is a #sav

⁃ This convo bt Russell and Simone hmmm we know where this is going 

⁃ MADI AND JORDAN ARE SO CUTE

⁃ Raven in a mechanic shop? This is an au fic

⁃ Everyone is so happy

⁃ “It will be like it never happened”..so if Clarke does it Josephine wouldn’t have her memories

⁃ But then Delilah wouldn’t remember Jordan 

⁃ Poor Madi

⁃ Bellamy and echo where did you come from 👀

⁃ Bellamy’s smirk at Jordan

⁃ Oof Clarke is really warming up to sanctum 

⁃ Bellamy follows Clarke what a good little night and e.cho is pissed

⁃ They’re all still in murder gear 

⁃ HUNGER GAMES AHAHAHA DLCIWJFKXI

⁃ Simone is 😡😡 angry

⁃ Repent renew rejoice rebirth

⁃ THE B.ECHO SHOT AND THEN THE CLARKE SHOT AS SHES TURNING AWAY FROM LOOKING AT THEM

⁃ Russell is so cute yay for men showing emotions!

⁃ Oh clarke you’ve hurt people but we love you anyways

⁃ OHHH THE PRINCESS MECHANIC FIGHT I WAS RIGHT I love when that happens

⁃ HONEY don’t apologize for Shaw you didn’t do shit and you were the only one who even tried to save him pls spare me this bs jroth

⁃ Don’t make Clarke feel bad for having impossible choices that’s so fucked up everyone puts responsibility on her and as she’s said MULTIPLE TIMES she. Didn’t. Ask. For. This.

⁃ WHOOP there it is: bringing Bellamy into the convo 

⁃ THAT IS NOT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLARKE AND OCTAVIA ANS CLARKE DOESNT PRETEND

⁃ Awe Octavia is protecting Clarke that’s so nice

⁃ Errand boy is hot hot hotttt he should get with Octavia

⁃ Rose and Octavia is a duo I stand by

⁃ Xavier left that knife there on purpose

⁃ THE LANTERNS

⁃ Omg clarkes said “Leaving Bellamy in Polis” that’s her darkness of the past I’m not crying you are

⁃ And now they’re talking 

⁃ AND SHE CONFIRMED IT

⁃ Clarke stop was literally the cutest thing to come out of that boys mouth ever

⁃ The Talk™️ but not really because The Real Talk™️ will have to be alone

⁃ WE BEEN KNEW THE IM SO SORRY BELLAMY WAS FROM A DIFFERENT CLIP

⁃ you’re,. my. FAMILy TOO ANJCICIWKJDJS. AAAHHHHHHG

⁃ YOURE TOO IMPORTANT TO ME

⁃ this is going down as one of the most iconic scenes ever

⁃ I have to pause every two seconds to type I’m too excited and don’t want to miss anything

⁃ HES SO HAPPY

⁃ THE HUG

⁃ THE HUG

⁃ THE HUG

⁃ Bellamy stop beating yourself up

⁃ They’re standing SO CLOSE

⁃ Xavier’s smirk I knew he left it on purpose

⁃ Awe raven found her lil hub maybe she’ll find a way to take the giant stick out of her ass

⁃ OOO a boy maybe he’ll replace that stick for his

⁃ I’m so sorry about that idk what came over me

⁃ But yea they’re gonna bang 

⁃ He’s the prime from the pic raven was looking at

⁃ What’s their ship name ?? They both start with R .. Raver?

⁃ CLARKES A RAVER

⁃ AND SHES HERSELF

⁃ AT THE RAVE

⁃ oooo Bellamy’s gonna get jealous

⁃ that’s the wrong man clarkey 

⁃ We need a reaction shot

⁃ CLARKES SMILING SO MUCH

⁃ omg Bellamy’s watching clarke and doctor man

⁃ E.chos watching him watching clarke ANGST

⁃ Don’t lie bell we know why you’re upset

⁃ B.echo fight gimme

⁃ Also bell that wasn’t the last time you were at a party the last time was in Arkadia at the end of the world with your blue solo cup and the girl who looked suspiciously like your wife

⁃ Omg BELL CALLING E.CHO OUT FOR BEING A ROBOT

⁃ how would the e.cho you knew on the ring do that if no one was in trouble or dying ?? Unless bell was dying of sadness

⁃ Also weird thing to say right after clarke apologized to him showing that she does in fact care when people are in trouble or dying

⁃ FINALLY TALKING ABOUT MONTY AND HARPER (HARPER HARPER DONT FORGET HER)

⁃ Wow Bellamy that was a lot of sass

⁃ I kind of feel bad for e.cho

⁃ Octavia is SO GOOD in this episode

⁃ FEAR IS A MOTHERFUCKING DEMON love that callback

⁃ Oh good grab the stick

⁃ YAS DIYOZA

⁃ NICE STICK THATS WHAT I SAID AHHAH

⁃ omg I knew rose was gonna die now clarkes gonna become the host but I’m sad bc she was so cute and smol 

⁃ Octavia we know you’re gonna end up having sex with him

⁃ Diyoza is a cockblock

⁃ The ponytail is back YAS with braids this time

⁃ OOO I KNEW IT RYKERS A PRIME

⁃ I love being right

⁃ YES CLARKE ITS BEEN 132 YEARS GET THAT DICCCCCC

⁃ Clarke is so hot

⁃ And *invisible ink* horny

⁃ Delilah doesn’t want to forget that’s #sweet

⁃ Oo good job clarke he’s got abs

⁃ Banned by the primes hmm is this guy a spy 

⁃ HE IS THE SPY

⁃ POOR CLARKE THE FIRST GUY SHE HOOKS UP WITH WANTS HER DEAD

⁃ Clarke couldn’t release her sin of leaving Bellamy

⁃ Poor Jordan

⁃ OH YAY CLARKE IS BEING SAVED FOR ONCE even if it’s by randos 

⁃ That tear. Kill me.

⁃ I miss Bellamy come back to my screen bby

⁃ Also murphy Emori Abby Miller Jackson were just kinda kicked out of the episode lol

⁃ They’re gonna turn Clarke into Josephine at the end of this episode and the next or next few will be everyone else having to save her for once I think so it’s good that she and Bellamy talked a little bit before

⁃ I am all for e.cho showing emotion

⁃ I don’t like that everyone is drinking their problems away though

⁃ Oo they obva haven’t been together that long or e.cho would have told Bellamy the truth about her parents before this right

⁃ Ok the b.echo scene was cute but their physical interactions just look so awkward and I wasn’t a big fan of Tastas acting although it was better than usual

⁃ RUSSELL NO they’re not even giving her a choice

⁃ They bad bad

⁃ NO CLARKE

⁃ the flaaaaame destroy that stupid piece of shit already

⁃ How can Eliza Taylor show SO MUCH EMOTION while paralyzed

⁃ Queen of acting

⁃ They’re calling Clarke a vessel like she’s not a human being

⁃ OMG this is so good like bad for Clarke but plot wise SO good (even though we saw it coming) and when she was screaming I thought it was her getting clarkes pain but I guess it was just being reincarnated 

⁃ THE HAIR TWIRLING 

⁃ Yes you can work with that it’s Clarke motherfucking Griffin

⁃ that was the best episode of the season. scream with me in my inbox.

[calyssmarviss]

Supernatural 14x02 - Gods and Monsters

(You mean like that Lana del Rey song that I put on my destiel playlist after watching the Purgatory Arc?)

"In the land of gods and monsters, I was an angel. Living in the garden of evil, Screwed up, scared, doing anything that I needed. Shining like a fiery beacon..."

THEN:

I struggled for hours to fall asleep now I can’t get out of bed… Wait isn’t there a Supernatural episode to watch????????????? We Friday, right? Urgh that show really gonna make me go downstairs to make coffee and come back upstairs and power up my laptop and download the episode and sit at my desk and actually focus isn’t it? I hate Supernatural. *a full minute of contemplating death by giving up later* Ok man let’s do this. *gets up and puts on plaid shirt over my otherwise scantily clad figure* (sorry i just love the words "scantily" and "clad" and i only ever get to use them together) COOOOFFEEEEEEE

NOW:

OH IS THIS GONNA BE A DEAN POV THING???? BECAUSE THOSE LOOK LIKE THE LAST THING HE SAW AND DID BEFORE MICHAEL TOOK OVER (i mean in the recap)

Children, I think it's torture time. Lol he put down the cap. Don't wanna stain it, right? Well I for one am delighted by this decision. You're doing good so far today Dinkle. Oh yeah it's definitively torture time. Look at those poor chained saps.

Uhm, yes.

Ahah I thought for a wild sec that he was going to spit in that blood, I don't know why.

What kind of soup are you making Dinkle?

DUDE ARE YOU TRYIN TO MAKE ANGELS

TITLE CARD

Mhm. Lil’ wings.

Bobby: "Who goes to Duluth in October?"

Me, who has watched Fargo and hence looked up the towns in the area: "Oh, nice continuity! Remember how he said that he wouldn't live as far north as Sioux Fall?????" 

D'you think Cas is agreeing like "yeah you're right my bros and sis are fucking liars" or more like "yeah beware me I'll lie to you so I can go on solo suicide missions in order to prove my worth to Humanity".

Somehow I paused at the perfect moment where you can see that Cas thinks it's total bullshit and will come anyway because that's his husband we're talking about he ain't just gonna stay there Sam.

Framing.

*snickers at the pistol cocks caption* I should stop hanging with barely-out-of-their-teenage-years boys.

Anyway who wrote this episode I should check it out. Man there are a lot of producers and co-producers on this... And i managed to miss the writer's name 2 times in a row. Let's go ask the wikia. Ew, gross. A Bucklemming. Eh at least RSJr directed it. OH WAIT A SEC BUCKLEMMING WROTE HELL'S ANGEL! I'll will forgive (almost) everything if they do us a reverse.

Blah blah blah Nick Drama.

No, he can't look at you because, having this dickface? It's on you bud. I mean Cas can look at Sam alright, and I'm pretty sure he didn't mind looking at himself in the mirror more than he did before getting his ass possessed by Lucifer. Nah, Nick, it's just you and your Mark Pellegrino face.

Oh, okay, the writer and director's name are just arriving now.

NO THAT'S WHAT HE TELLS HIMSELF SO HE CAN LIVE WITH SAYING YES AND LET LUCIFER OUT OF THE CAGE OH MY GOD WHY ARE YOU BEING SO MEAN TO CAS RN

Seriously what's the fucking point of the Nick Drama? Because I know Bucklemming they're not doing this for Cas. They're maybe doing it a little bit for Dean (who is the one being possessed by an archangel rn)... But they’re probably mainly doing it for Nick himself and: WHO CARES.

Wait what? He doesn't remember what happened to his family? Does he think that Lucifer killed them? 

God this is pissing me off.

Mortician: "We don't usually see this kind of action in Duluth."

YOU LIAR I'VE SEEN FARGO I KNOW ALL ABOUT THE CORPSES THAt LittEr thiS AREA

"Five star smitting."

*cries over the stars Cas lost* he’s, like, a two stars right now *sobs*

Jack: "I'm researching how long it takes archangel grace to replenish."

Oh you sweet summer child. You ain't gonna find anything about that in *books*.

Jack: "The books say it can take from a month to..." Cas: "A century."

THIS IS BULLSHIT. THERE'S NO WAY HE FOUND THAT INFO AND THAT IT'S CORRECT. I mean first who the fuck met an archangel with low grace levels before the Winchesters? NO ONE THAT'S WHO BECAUSE THOSE GUYS WEREN'T BUDDIES WITH HUMANS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE OMG I HATE ALL OF THIS.

Except Cas and Jack. They're good boys. Not their fault their dialogue is shit.

Jack: "You don't understand what I'm going through."

Well that's fucking rude buddy. You at least have a home while you're going through it.

Jack: "What did you have left?"

"That one time Dean came to see me and we spent the night together and Jack, there was only one bed..."

Cas: "I had Sam and Dean."

BULLSHIT Sam was Gadreel half of the time and Dean was like "fuck off" and "fuck me" all at the same time .

Cas: "As Dean would say..." 

Kill me now.

I hate how I knew it was Jensen just by seeing his hands.

I also really resent his hotness right now. It feels like, you know, a weapon in the wrong hands? When he's playing Dean, I know he won't harm me (through the screen lol), but this asshole? I wanna stay away.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

This is like, next level meta here. I'M FEELING ATTACKED.

URGH CAN WE DROP NICK ALREADY.

I.

DON'T.

CARE.

Oh great now Cas is touching his shoulder.

Wait I know the actress that plays Lydia... OH. YES. It's Abigail Ashe from Black Sails!

Ooooh girl, those are some really ugly teeth.

You're right Nick, nobody cares.

People @ Cas: "You don't understand."

Bitch he probably does better than you.

Nick: "You're just a stone cold body snatcher."

I HATE THIS I HATE THIS I HATE THIS.

Nick: "You're no different than Lucifer."

I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS.

Because, yeah, it's a bit true but: 1) Cas actually regrets it 2) YOU HAVE NO FUCKING RIGHT TO HAVE MARK PELLEGRINO SAY THOSE LINES TO HIS FACE

Michael, channeling the Dean: "There's a purity in that."

MAN, LANA DEL REY

OH NO NOUGAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU CAN'T DO THAT. YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL THE TRUTH. SEE IT'S SAD AND TERRIBLE THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW SHE'S DEAD.

Hey... do they think their daughter is working for Trump now? Wait more important: did Jack learned to drive? Where are the Klines living? Didn't Cas notice he was gone? Did Nick talked to him all day about his Nick Drama so that Cas didn't even notice his son was gone for hours???

WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN TO CAS TODAY JACK. YOU CAN'T JUST GO AHEAD AND TELL HIM YOU WANNA KILL HIS HUSBAND (tho I guess that now that Nick is a thing *eyeroll* they'll end up killing Michael without killing Dean but somehow i doubt that it's what Jack is suggesting).

Jack: "Dean doesn't matter."

WELL FUCK YOU VERY MUCH JACK WINCHESTER-KLINE AS OF RIGHT NOW YOU'RE ON MY SHIT LIST YOU BETTER MAKe IT UP TO ME, CAS AND DEAN ASAP OR ELSE

HOW DID NICK WENT FROM KANSAS TO DELAWARE SO QUICKLY??? It's half the states' width! (I mean, assuming this guy lives in the same area Nick is from and this is the evening of the day all the Nick Drama happened - and we have no reason to think it isn't)

Oh yeah they're in Delaware.

I didn't really payed attention to the fight sequence because I was painting my nails purple (to go with the plaid shirt) but MAN GIVIN WEREWOLVES SILVER IMMUNITY IS CHEATING.

Is it me or Sam was pretty silent this whole episode? Bucklemming gave all his lines to Nick.

Uh, what.

What are you playing at Dinkle.

HOLY OIL RING HIM!!!

Oh, look at that, Nick killed Arty. What a surprise.

Aaaand, it's over. I'm disappointed. Cas didn't go after Dinkle :( YOU HAD ONE JOB BUCKLEMMING

[ezilyamuzed]

There’s no place like home - Part 9

Summary: The reader has had a unique gift all her life. While considering it a curse, she discovers the identity of her real father after her mothers passing. Journeying towards her new life, she finds herself thrown within the Winchester’s world. Is it her destiny?

Setting: End of season 13. This takes place after episode 13.18.

Warnings: Language. Some angst, fluff, drama- a typically SPN episode.  POV may switch after certain sections. 

A/N: We are reaching a part that I’ve held on to since the beginning... 

Any grammatical mistakes are all my own, because I am human. Remember all comments and feedback are welcomed! If you want a tag in future posts regarding this series or other writings please send an ask! As always thank you for reading! Enjoy!

Series Masterlist

(Listening to Paramore’s That’s what you get.)

No sir, well I don't wanna be the blame, not anymore It's your turn, to take a seat we're settling the final score And why do we like to hurt, so much?

I can't decide You have made it harder just to go on And why? All the possibilities Well I was wrong

Tapping along to the rhythm on the steering wheel as you ventured on your 20 minute drive to your destination. You could feel anxiety radiating off of Dean as he sat quietly next to you watching the scenery pass by the window. He shifted in his seat as his eyes fixated on the road ahead while you watched him out of the corner of your eye. He looked good in that tux, it would look better tossed on the backseat floor of your baby. Wait what? You shook your head while trying to rid yourself of the lustful thoughts that started to grow inside of you. Grumbling to your mind to stop it, which was only making them continue to grow. Less than 4 hours after wanting to punch him, now you wanted to jump him and feel those strong arms pull you into him in a rhythmic motion. How the hell did he do that? How could he make you hate him one moment and want him the next? To distract yourself from the sinful thoughts flooding your mind, you reached over to the turner and turned up the radio.

“…I drowned out all my sense with the sound of its beating, and that's what you get when you let your heart win, whoa…” you sang unconsciously.

“I can’t believe you cheapened her up by putting in that,” Dean chuckled while shaking his head in disbelief when the guitar solo started up. You scrunched your nose at him while looking down at the touch screen media center that you had installed.

“Whatever,” you rolled your eyes. “I swear I had given my dad a heart attack when I had asked for a CD player when he first gave me her after putting so many hours into rebuilding her to new.”

“Your dad huh? I guess your mom had a type,” he lightly laughed.

You nodded as you continued to bob your head along to the song, finding the lyrics resounding in your head, escaping your lips in harmony.

“Pain, make your way to me…to me, and I'll always be just so inviting. If I ever start to think straight. This heart will start a riot in me. Let's start, start, hey. Why do we like to hurt so much? Oh why do we like to hurt so much?...” 

You heard the low sound of a snicker next to you, making your voice trail off. You gave a sideways glance to Dean while raising your eyebrow at him.

“Something to say there Winchester?”

“No, I am just appreciating being serenaded sweetheart,” he replied with a wide smirk on his lips.

“Whatever,” you scoffed. “I need something to distract myself from the hell I’m about to walk into.”

“So why are we going?” he laughed. “I mean, we could easily go grab a beer somewhere instead. Maybe get free drinks if we pretend we just got hitched since I have the monkey suit on and everything anyways.”

You shot him an annoyed glance, snarling your upper lip. He just shrugged in defense while tilting his head slightly, pursing up his lips. Honestly that sounded like a fantastic idea but you would definitely end up rolling around the back seat with him after then and that was not going to happen. Shaking your head you followed your turn towards the University, where dozens of people who were sure to prod into your life waited, wanting to know more about you and your interests. The judgmental stares you could already see in your mind, without even meeting them yet. It was going to be a night of acting and sugar coating the truth if you wanted to make damn sure you weren’t going to be ostracized at the door.

“It’s a part of the job Dean,” you finally replied to his question. “Smile, shake hands, and pretend to be someone you are not. You should already be good at that.”

“So no need for the holy water, rope, and silver bullets huh?” he smirked.

You gave him a noticeable once over of his body, which made his face flush a little as he adjusted himself in the seat. You just gave him a little sideways smile.

“I’d like to see where you are hiding those Winchester,” you purred while you flashed him a smirk and winked.

“Keep your eyes on the road there Doc.”

You let out a full body laugh while the signs letting you know the University was only a couple of miles away appeared in the distance, making your stomach tighten in knots. Although you were reluctant to being alone with him, having Dean next to you was the only reason why you hadn’t turned the car around already. Everything about him was calming, almost like he was a missing piece to the puzzle of your courage. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be so bad?

“So when we get there, how are we going to play this? I don’t really want to smile and tell people that I just met you less than a week ago with adding that you helped me burn and bury a werewolf.”

“How do you want to play it? I’m following your lead. This is your world, not mine,” he spoke with sincerity in his tone. His words made your heart ache. Your world? Yeah right. This was an illusion. Your world was filled with all the darkness that nightmares were made of.

“Um, family friend that has been helping me settle in?” you suggested.

“Alright, that works,” he nodded. “What should I say I do if they ask?”

“I would say that probably won’t happen, but I am sure you will attract all the female attendees to you who will definitely take interest,” you replied while trying to keep your eyes on the road as you turned again. “So what are you good at Dean? Besides ganking monsters, stopping the apocalypse, and dying?”

He huffed at the last word that fell from your lips. “Oh sweetheart, you forgot the other thing…”he purred seductively.

You could feel the heat rise to your cheeks that made you take a deep breath in and exhale loudly. His devilish grin flashed in your peripheral view. Thank God you were about to be around other people or else you were going to find yourself tumbling into bed again with him. You were repeating to yourself over and over to just keep driving, making you chuckle to yourself as you thought of Dory singing to just keep swimming. God, you loved that little fish.

“Anyways…I’m not too bad under a hood. If someone there actually knows the difference between an alternator and a carburetor, I could handle myself,” he proposed.

“Dean-the old family friend auto mechanic here to save the day from towering stacks of cardboard boxes,” you joked, while verifying the story you would both tell if the time came where you had to.

Driving up the road a little longer you saw the Universities front gates appearing in the distance. This was it, last chance to turn around. You must have looked a little nervous because Dean reached over and gave your knee a squeeze in reassurance, feeling the heat of his hand through the soft silk of your dress.

“Come on, I’m sure they have a bar in there,” he proposed making you turn your head to grin at him.

“After I meet the president of the University and the chair of the department that is our first stop. Deal?”

“Oh Doc, you’ve read my mind,” he declared with a wink.

You followed the winding pathway of the Universities road, watching for the signs that stated where Murphy Hall was. The vision of cars lined up in front of the large building with young men in little white coats moving them informed you that you had reached your destination. You pulled up to the front steps where one of the young men had immediately ran up to your passenger door to open it. The look on his face was priceless as the 6 foot wall of muscle stepped out. Dean gave him a shrug while looking over to the other side where you were already in the process of getting out yourself.

“She’s the boss,” Dean laughed while gesturing to you as the man ran over to you to try and assist like he was told to do for the women guests. He made it over too late, as you were already closing the car door. You tossed him the keys while moving over to Dean.

“Scratch it and I will kill you,” you warned coldly. Dean violently nodded his head in agreement, probably making the poor guy pee himself right there. Wrapping your arm into his, Dean led you up the stairs where the night was just beginning.

 __________________________________________________________

Dean felt like he was sweating bullets profusely as he walked through the entry way with her arm wrapped around his. She glanced around the few people in front of them, probably making sure that everyone in the place was of human descent. There was a larger man at the next entrance ahead of them that was smiling and shaking hands to greet everyone that came through the line. Must be the Grand ‘ol Marshall of this rodeo Dean assumed. As they inched closer he noticed that Y/N was tapping her fingers along his forearm rhythmically. He grabbed her hand and gave it a tight squeeze before it was finally there turn in line.

“President Miller, it is so nice to finally meet you,” Y/N politely smiled while stretching out her hand to meet his. “I’m Dr. Y/F/N Y/L/N.”

“Ah yes. The new addition to our psychology department,” he hypothesized.

“Yes sir. Thank you for the invitation. I look forward to starting in the fall.”

“Well I’ve heard great things about you from the rest of the department. Have you met Dr. Frankl the chair?” he questioned while watching the others making their way past the two of you. “Oh speak of the devil now.”

Both of you turned your heads to where he was glancing, Y/N’s body froze in place. Dean watched as her pupils became increasingly dilated as the tall and dark stranger approached her. Was that lust in her eyes or fear? Sure he might be a handsome man, but Dean sized him up quickly knowing that he could easily take him down both in looks and in strength.

“Dr. Y/L/N I presume?” the stranger asked as he neared her side while extending his hand.

“Um, yeah…Dr. Frankl,” she stuttered. When did she ever have a loss for words? Something was definitely up with this guy. He flashed her a genuine smile as she shook his hand firmly. “Very nice to meet you sir.”

“Call me Joe,” he replied while letting go of her grip. “We’ve admired you work Y/N for many years. I am so glad that you have finally decided to join us here. Who is your friend here?”

She opened her mouth, but Dean could see that the words were trapped inside like she wasn’t exactly sure how to respond. Dean held out his hand to him stating that his name was “Dean.”

“Bobby Dean,” she blurted quickly while staring hard at Dean to play along. “He’s an old family friend who has been helping me get settled in.”

“Everyone calls me Dean though,” he smiled politely as he gripped Dr. Frankl’s hand and shook it hard.

“Very nice to meet you Mr. Dean,” the doctor nodded in reply. “Well Y/N, there are a lot of your fellow colleagues that would love to meet you in there already. Go mingle and enjoy yourselves. We will set up a time where we can have more of a personal conversation. My secretary will call you.”

“I look forward to it,” she smiled a tight lip smile, like she was holding back words that she wanted to scream out loud.

As Dean watched Dr. Frankl walk away from the two of you, he went to ask her why she called him Bobby Dean but Y/N quickly turned on her heels into the large hall, only to stop quickly in her tracks making him bump right into her back while trying to keep up. She stood there and shifted her eyes from one side of the room to another, her breathing becoming shallower.

“Y/N?” Dean whispered while resting his hand at the small of her back. “What is…”

She looked at him quickly before making b-line straight to the bar in the corner. Her eyes were now fully blown open, making Dean dread the worst as he followed her and glanced through the crowded room. What did she see out there?  She order two whiskeys neat from the bartender while Dean leaned on the bar next to her, holding his hands together. She took one of the drinks in gulped it down straight in one shot.

“Y/N, what is it?” he quietly questioned again, now on high alert as it seemed like she wasn’t even breathing while staring off ahead to nothing behind the bar.

“Two werewolves, a vampire, wraith, four demons, three shifters, and a half dozen skin walkers including my new boss,” she exhaled in one breath quietly so that only he could hear.

Dean just stared at her blankly, not knowing what to even say as he reached for the other whiskey and shot it back just as quickly as her. She gave him a look of disapproval, like he had just taken that last piece of pie. Now he really regretted not packing his usual auxiliary.

“So how do you want to play this Doc?” Dean softly whispered to her while raising his hand for two refills from the bartender.

She took another deep breath, making her chest rise. Dean couldn’t help but to notice the way the dress had pulled down just slightly along the plunging neckline. It was the wrong damn time to be looking, but for all he knew it might be the last chance he ever has if there were that many things surrounding them in the same room they stood. Finally she just shook her head slowly, like she had just internally agreed on the stupidest plan ever.

“We mingle and put on the best performance of our lives, Bobby Dean.”

He shook his head in confusion to what she said. Why would they even stay here a moment longer? He actually wished that Sam was there, maybe he would talk some sense into her or at least have a better plan.

“So I’m Bobby Dean now?” he mumbled while watching the bartender pour the much need amber liquids into their glasses.

“I sure as hell wasn’t going to let you say Winchester,” she quietly snapped. “I really don’t want to die tonight. Let’s hope to God that no one recognizes you.”

As much as his name was famous among the dammed he knew that his face was almost as equally popular. This so called perfect night was quickly turning into one of his worst nightmares. He grabbed the drink that stood in front of him and shot it back, hoping that it would at least take a little edge off of this completely fucked up situation.

She was watching him carefully as he stood silently in his thoughts, preparing himself. She grabbed the other drink but this time only sipped it slowly, allowing the taste to fill her senses.

“Well than doc, I’m following your lead. After you,” Dean motioned to the room as he sat down the glass.

____________________________________________________________

As soon as you had seen the violet light coming towards you could feel your heart stop and muscles tighten as he drew closer to where you stood. Surrounded by innocent civilians your gut told you to quickly draw out the silver switchblade you had tucked into your garter before leaving the house. When he reached out his hand while introducing himself, you found yourself quickly putting on the best performance of your life, pretending that everything was just a normal activity. That having your new boss be a skin walker was just another day at the office.

When Dean started to offer out his name you quickly blurted out the first name you could think of, Bobby. Saying Dean Winchester was your date for the night was sure to get you fired, if not killed in a slow and torturous death. There was relief that Dr. Frankl didn’t recognize who he was as they shook hands. Maybe the crisis had been averted, at least for the moment. Boy were you wrong. Walking into the grand hall filled with the bright lights of the university’s faculty, you stopped dead in your tracks as the various colors shinned through. It looked like a freaking rainbow of creatures amongst a clouded sky of humans. You counted them one by one before the sight of the bar appeared in your peripheral. There was no way that you could do this sober now, and you needed to think of a plan of action.

Dean rapidly and quietly keeping with you was only somewhat a relief. At least if things went wrong you had some back up although you were outnumbered and you had brought one of the two worst possible people to bring to a monster gathering. Trying to gather up any type of courage in the whiskey, you knew you had to tell him, hoping to God that he didn’t freak out and bring attention to the two of you.

So what was the plan going to be? Hell if you knew. One thing for sure is that there was at least 80 if not more humans scattered throughout the room that were innocent bystanders, most likely clueless about their cohort’s meal preferences. Being vastly outnumbered even if you did manage to get everyone out without causing a riot, there was no way that you would come out of this unscathed. So what do you do? Pretend that you don’t see them? Make-believe that you don’t know what they are? You looked around again quickly at the room, double checking your count that you spat out to Dean quickly and quietly. At least nothing was signaling dinner time, which meant that these were well fed creatures…great. Just fucking great. How the hell were they here? Why were they here? You needed to know. You needed to get close. Definitely a bad idea, but honestly there were no good ones in this situation. You had to actually talk to them.

As Dean followed you close behind you moved yourself on the edge of the crowd, watching where each creature stood amongst the people. If only Dean could see it too he would probably be as amazed as you were to the fact that they weren’t all staying together by kinds, but actually enmeshed with others that were so different than they were. A vampire and skin walker both wearing gorgeous designer dresses laughing with two older women. The wraith in a dark black tuxedo engulfed in a conversation amongst a few demons and another man that was probably around the same age as you. It was definitely a sight to behold as you took in a deep breath, feeling every nerve in your body twitch and scream to attack.

“You must be Dr. Y/L/N,” you heard a feminine voice to your left comment. You turned your head to a women, whom was dressed in a flowing golden dress with her salt and peppered hair pined back tightly. Mustering a friendly smile you nodded in reply.

“Yes, but please call me Y/N,” you stated while keeping track of what was moving around you from the side of your eye. She reached out and grabbed your hand to embrace it, clasping her other one on top of yours holding it steady which made your anxiety heighten that you couldn’t move it fast enough if you needed to in her grasp.

“It’s so lovely to meet you,” she smiled brightly. “My husband teaches in your department, Dr. Edwards. I’m Gina. Oh you must come and meet everyone.”

Before you even had a chance to respond she was pulling you into the crowd where the eyes of all to be feared shifted towards you. Swiftly reaching behind you pulled on Dean’s jacket arm to follow as she led you towards the center of the room. There was no way in hell you were about to enter the middle of purgatory’s playground alone. 

Keep reading Part 10 here

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