#i ended up watching a bunch of scenes again to try and find that annie and greg one and OH the overwhelming sense of affection i had

[pynkhues]

I'm the G/A shipper lol. Thank you for ur answer!! I do think it would've taken Gregg and Annie more time to come together, and even if I get what you're saying, of it could be them regressing (going back to what they'd already done), it just seemed like it was made to be. Gregg also just didn't seem like he really loved Nancy, and Nancy deserved better.

I had a related question. Why do you think it was SO hard for G to come up with what he liked about Annie? Like I wrote in my original ask, I didn't buy it for a second, and while it seemed to say much more about G to me than G and A's connection, I still hated it. It just seemed to really brush off/completely take out meaning of G and A's connection like it didn't mean anything, which even if they betrayed Nancy, and were very immature about it (with again G deceiving his wife while they were trying to conceive???? NOT OK), they clearly had a real connection, and I do think had genuine feelings for each other. Not to mention their history. What's your take?

(x)

I agree that Greg never seems like he's really in love with Nancy, but I also think it's important to remember that we only ever truly see them as a couple through Annie's POV. We're actually robbed as viewers of moments of intimacy or connection between them because at the end of the day, Annie herself doesn't really want to see it.

I do think there's a fair speculation too that Greg probably wanted the opposite of Annie when their relationship imploded and so sought a person like Nancy as a sort of marker of an 'adult' relationship, which is especially interesting because I think the show does a good job of depicting Greg as pretty immature still himself. There is the sort of vibe that Nancy probably parents Greg a bit in that relationship, but for a man who became a father himself when he was a boy, it makes a lot of sense.

Which really comes to your question of why Greg couldn't come up with anything he liked about Annie when she asked. I totally agree with you that I think he could probably list a lot of things he liked about Annie, but I tend to think there are a few things at play.

Firstly, and funnily enough, if I were to compare Greg to other characters in the show, the one I tend to think he's most like is actually Beth. He maintains a performative life that it's clear he's not happy in, he tries to be a good father but doesn't always make it work, he's prone to being selfish, finds himself backsliding into a relationship he thinks he needs to move on from, and is overall reluctant to being vulnerable or emotionally available. That's Beth! And honestly, I think it makes sense for Annie to seek that in a man given her most formative relationship in life is with her sister. (It's why I'll forever be mad too that we never got any Beth + Greg scenes!)

Of course, Annie's not that much better - she deflects with humour and he lets her, but when she circles back to vulnerability, which she usually does, he can't bring himself to be open with her about his feelings which is I think clearest in their scene together in 1.09.

And then she deflects, again, with a joke.

I talk about it a lot in the context of Beth and Rio where I think the show does a really good job of depicting that some dynamics are really hard to change. Whether its Beth and Rio's inherit omissions of truth and their games, or hell, even Beth as the placating, mothering housewife and Dean as the philandering breadwinner, a dynamic established can sometimes feel like a dynamic immovable, and I do think a part of that is what's at fault with Annie and Greg. It's why they so often become kids when they're together again, but I think is also why the space to be honest and open with each other is often seen as a chance to joke or shrug off or make light of everything that was once, and still is, real between them.

It's not to say they don't feel it, or that they don't know. It's just easier to not say it and to not have to deal with the consequences of what it actually means.

[jerrienelock]

Outhouse Kiss - Sheila (Fear Street 1978)

(Couldn’t find a gif of Sheila or the actress Chiara Aurelia who plays Sheila)

***

Sheila, Sunnyvale queen, holds her head high as she saunters across the campgrounds of Nightwing in search of her red-haired victim. Her posse trails behind her, their heads too held high and eyes darting across the way glaring at any Shadysiders who even dared to send a glance their way.

Nick Goode stands ahead of the group, an eyebrow raised and eyes squint while he stares at them. Will catches the eye of his older brother and a relentless huff is sounded as the older boy calls for him.

"Continue on," Will mutters to Sheila and heads off after his brother.

It was just a few hours after the incident of Nurse Lane turning psycho on one of the camp counsellors, Tommy Slater. Sheila finds it ironic. The mother goes insane just like her murderous daughter.

If you were ever to ask her about the happenings of Mary Lane, Sheila would say it's predictable; every Shadysider is bound to snap, being driven by the inability of escaping Shadyside and the curse trailing on their backs. But she doesn't have to worry about such a thing happening in the luxury town of SunnyVale, they have the fortune, the goodwill and the ability to leave whenever they like.

All the luck that her town has, gives all the kids a big head, even her but she would never admit it. It gives them this feeling of power that they use for the opposite of what their town stands for, Sheila uses hers to torment Ziggy an unlucky Shadysider.

Since she had first started Camp Nightwing at the age of eleven, she had found it her duty to make Ziggy's camp life as miserable as she possibly could (Ziggy doing the same back at her.) Until Nick came along with his younger brother Will when she was just thirteen and made a counsellor strike her.

The bullying died down for a short while until it started back up again. But Sheila wasn't the one who re-initiated it, in fact, it was Ziggy with a canoe ore that ended up with the redhead having a black eye and Sheila a split lip.

Sheila thinks that the counsellors had given up on the situation- them not doing anything about it, or just giving Ziggy a strike.

"Sheila," Annie nudges the leader. Sheila tilts her head back to the girl, "Arts and Crafts."

Sheila turns to the cabin and there she spots her victim, sitting at one of the tables. A devilish smirk marks her face, only to drop as she spots you sitting across from Ziggy, your hands stirring a pot.

Her heart skips a beat at just the mere sight of you.

You had only joined camp a year before and Sheila had immediately taken a liking towards you. She hadn't an idea as to why you had pulled her in so suddenly, and she wasn't complaining. It was something about the feeling of her possibly liking a girl that made her have this sort of rush that just sent her in a spiral. It was as if she became addicted to just the sight of you. Just a glance could send her off track of what she was initially doing and she wouldn't be able to find the motivation to continue.

It wasn't until that she spotted you wearing a blue colour wars t-shirt to have her realise that you were Shadyside, but even then the rush grew stronger and fantasies of a possible forbidden love came flashing through her mind.

She hates Shadyside with a passion, but when it comes to you, all that leaves her mind.

Jealousy fills Sheila as she stares on confused, you and Ziggy had never even spoken before so she hadn't a clue as to why you were hanging out with the redhead.

Her jaw clenches and her teeth grit together, "She's got company," her eyes roll as she sees Ziggy laugh, teeth-baring in the process. A sudden smirk flashes across her, "I've got an idea."

***

"They went to Y/n's cabin," Becky informs the group, slipping in through the arts and craft doors.

When Ziggy had left with you in tow much to Sheila's dismay, she had sent Becky to follow where you both were going. And the fact that it was your cabin made the desire for the actions that Sheila was about to commit even more prominent.

Sheila smirks snapping her fingers making Annie and Will (who had just come back from Nick) immediately start grabbing paint cans and spray paints. Sheila does the same tossing them into a black bag.

Will is the one who kicks Cabin Five's door in. The emptiness of the accommodation was a good sign for the group- especially Becky. Sheila tosses the bag on Ziggy's bed and opens it.

"Quick before she gets back," She urges tossing a can of spray paint over to Will, and then to Becky and Annie. "Write anything that comes to mind,"

Will smirks, shaking his can of paint before swiftly painting across the wall, 'The Witch sucks cocks in hell'

"Real mature," Sheila mocks with a hint of amusement in her tone shaking her can of paint.

Soon all across the cabin walls, painted in both colours red and black lie the words.

Monster

Ziggy is a witch bitch

Witch

Shadyside trash

Slur after slur overpowers one another, some more likely to cause damage to the redhead. Sheila takes a step back admiring the work until she is ripped back and pulled out of the cabin by Will. Sheila spots Ziggy jogging over to her cabin, disdain covering her face, a hint that she had seen Sheila and her posse standing in the cabin, and immediately Sheila understood why she was taken away.

She can already imagine the look on the girls face as she reads the graffiti. She can imagine just how she will act, stomp her foot and run out of her cabin to go and tell someone, and that's exactly what Sheila can see. Not even a second later, Ziggy runs out and heads in the direction of Nick Goode.

Sheila pays no attention to it anymore, the jealous feeling in her gut now gone as she heads off to join the start of colour wars.

Colours Wars so far was a bore to the SunnyValer, more than half of her group had been captured and it was only a few minutes after dark. Being the prison guard was not what she had signed up for this year, having to handle a bunch of kids was supposed to be the least of her worries but here she was looking over a bunch of thirteen-year-olds.

"Where is Y/n?" One of the kids whispers to another. Sheila perks her head slightly at the mention of your name. Squinting she questions the girl, "What's happening with Y/n?"

The young girl smiles, "Oh she's the bailer, the person who gets us out."

"What if she's been captured?" A young boy pops up.

"This is the only jail, James. But if she was, Derek or one of the other bailers has to come and get us."

"Wait, there she is! Y/n!" James yells for you making Sheila spin around.

And there stands you at the door of the Arts and Crafts cabin. Sheila freezes, her voice getting caught in her throat.

You step inside, cautiously looking around before settling your gaze on Sheila. You smile at her, "You wouldn't mind if I take my teammates back right?"

Sheila just stares at you, your voice not registering in her head until you usher the group of captive kids out of the building. "Hey! You can't do that!" She yells, rushing out of the cabin to try and stop you.

At the sound of her moving, you yell for the kids to run before turning around, "Yes I can," You say with a laugh and runoff.

"Damn it!" Sheila kicks her foot against the ground, rushing back inside of the Cabin only to see a note lying neatly on the nearest table.

'Meet me in the Outhouse - Y/n'

***

"Y/n, this is so cute," Sheila sighs dreamily, eyeing the rose petals scattered on the floor of the outhouse. "I didn't realise you liked me back," She slowly follows the petals to an empty stall that holds a note, curved, flipped and coated with her name in neat cursive. Curious she picks the note up and reads the words aloud, Look up xoxo - The Witch, automatically her head shoots up and before she can register anything a series of critters is dumped on her head.

Staggering back, a shriek is let out and laughter bellows out of two assailants fleeing the scene behind her. The door to the building slams shut and Sheila is left pounding against the door, merciless cries begging travelling faintly through to the outside world.

Her fists collide with the wood a few more times until she admits defeat, sliding against a nearby stall pulling the insects out of her hair. She sits there for a few more minutes and then the door swings open and Sheila jumps to her feet.

"You came," Your voice saunters through the building, head tilting around the open outhouse door. You smile at the sight of Sheila but frown at the sight of the black beetles scattering across the floor. "Ew," You grimace, "Did they not clean the outhouse today."

"It was Ziggy," Sheila tattletales, her foot crushing one of the critters. You step into the building, shutting the door behind you.

"What a horrid girl," You spit, copying Sheila's action of taking a bug's life. Your eyes scan the bugs for a few more seconds before you spot the rose petals. "The rose petals are quite lovely aren't they."

Sheila raises a brow, "You don't like Ziggy?"

You ignore the question and reach down for a petal and gently place it against Sheila's shoulder, "It matches your shirt," You smile. "Did Ziggy do this as well?" You step into her pushing the camper against the corner of one of the stalls.

Sheila gulps, the action going unnoticed by you, "I thought you did," She mutters and you quirk your eyebrows.

"I did so. Was just seeing if you thought it wasn't," You reach a hand up to her jaw and place your other on her hip. "Do you want to know why I brought you here?"

Sheila nods with the stammer of her heart.

You stroke your nail against her jaw tantalisingly slow, your other hand squeezing her hip gently. You stare into her eyes, soft and delicate searching for the recognition that you felt the same way as her. Sheila gulps as you lean further into her, heart rate picking up when she hears those words.

"I know," You pur watching as her cheeks flush. "I see you flouncing around out of rooms I'm in," Sheila squirms in your grip, her heart thundering against her chest. You drop your head down slightly, inching closer towards the girl. "Your stares, even when you're supposed to be focused on Ziggy," Sheila's cheeks flush deeper, her pink tint becoming more prominent.

"I noticed everything," Your finger travels down her jaw and onto her neck, where the noticeable dip of a sharp breath is taken. "You're nervous," A smirk paints its way onto your face, "SunnyValers are never nervous."

Sheila shakes her head, her trapped voice breaking free of its chains, "I'm not nervous," She says calmly trying to ignore your gentle touch.

You push further against her, bringing your lips to her ear. "Prove it," You husk out and a visible shudder travels through Sheila.

Eyes drop down to lips with her mind in a haze. Sheila raises up in a moment of confidence and leaps her mouth onto yours. Instantaneously you reciprocate, your hand dropping from her chest down to her waist to accompany the other.

Sheila keeps hers at her side, your body weight against her pinning them down. You both stand there for a few more seconds until you move slightly and Sheila is able to move her hands, moving them to land around your neck successfully deepening the kiss for a short amount of time.

The kiss is then broken and a forceful push from you sends Sheila hurtling into another stall. You cling onto a nearby rope and pull sending the bucket holding up top of the roof to dip and paint come hurtling down.

Sheila shrieks wiping the liquid away from her eyes, "Why?" She groans with a hint of hurt.

"You never fuck with a Shadysider," You laugh and then call out for Ziggy who lets you leave the building.

***

Masterlist; Movies

[blxetsi]

modern sasha braus dating headcanons

lowercase intended !

college!sasha braus x gn!reader

had to write something for my queen 😌✨

- she shares her food with you. I Dont Care She Does

- also since this is a modern au i dont think she would have such an obsession with food as she does in the canonverse (if we can even call it an obsession) i still think she would have a big appetite (and she'd be proud of it tf 😏���) but i just dont see her always being hungry as the fandom makes her out to be

- really likes to hold hands with you

- i think itd be really cute if she was studying to become a baker ?? maybe taking a culinary course at the university you two attend ?? maybe you somehow met there or through a friend

- i think she'd still be insecure about her accent (ig if this is au is set in america she'd be from the south 😐🤚) and would speak kind of like a robot to people she didn't know that well

- connie and jean ALWAYS bring out her accent tho,, like with them she can really be herself

- i think when you were starting to get to know her she would be speaking very formally, and youd take it like shes being kinda stand offish or like,, just doesnt wanna talk so youre thinking "okay maybe she doesnt wanna be friends 😁👍" and would back off

- now sasha's upset because you are so cool and unique and she just wants to know so much about you but youve been very distant lately ?? like did she do something wrong ??

- she tells connie, jean, marco, and niccolo one night and connie and jean are on the side of "find y/n and demand to know why their behavior has changed" while marco and niccolo are on the side of "respectfully dm y/n and ask why they havent been wanting to see sasha recently"

- sasha goes with the latter of the two and dms you after passing you in the dining hall, you two literally keep glancing at each other, texting while you sit with your respective friend groups

- after everything gets cleared up sasha is immediately inviting you to hang out with her crew, and even getting some of her other friends like eren, mikasa, and ymir and historia to come join too

- if she has all the people shes comfortable with there, itll be less scary talking with her accent !

- You Love It. You Think Its Adorable.

- you guys would definitely have a friends to lovers type relationship

- like friendly hugs turn into slightly longer hugs, and now sasha will constantly ask to sit next to you during movie nights

- loves to rest her head on your lap while she spreads across the couch

- i think you two would have your first kiss in niccolos apartment

- you two were sitting in his kitchen, with sasha munching on the leftover food he made that night for your get together

- his mom had called him so he decided to leave to go to his bedroom to answer it

- and slowly you guys just kind of,,,, leaned in 🙈✨

- it was slow and really romantic, kinda rough with the crumbs that were around sasha's lips but you didn't mind

- niccolo barged in and ruined the moment 😐🤚 good going pal 😁👍

- you two were so shocked that you two tried to leave

- ended up just walking down the road in silence like wtf i thought yall were trying to get away from each other 😭😭😭😭

- sasha ended up staying the night 🤩‼️

- NOT in a sexual way

- but in like a,,,, rue and jules kinda way where jules comes in through the window (but only sasha didnt come in through the window she came in the front door with you) and you two held each other and gave each other smooches for the rest of the night

- sasha woke up late and missed her morning classes 😐🤚 didnt even care and went back to sleep with you

- i think for the most part you get along well with her friend group

- youre definitely closer to connie, jean, niccolo, marco, and historia

- ymir teases you guys a lot and you cant tell if what she says is just jokes (it always is) or if shes completely serious

- eren, mikasa, armin, annie, along with reiner and bertholdt are more of aquantances to you, just because you dont see them as often as you do the others

- she has such a weird relationship with her english professor

- will literally complain how much work he gives his class and then the next day will gush about how great he his bc he gave her a granola bar for her effort in her assignment

- girl pick a script and stick to it 😐🤚

- has a collection of stuffies on her bed. i dont make the rules.

- anytime theres a carnival in town she drags EVERYONE there.

- you all agree to split up into groups so you can all check out what you want, but you always agree to meet up and eat funnel cake together 🥺

- sasha tries to get you to win her new stuffies

- if you cant do it, or just want some for yourself, shes calling connie and niccolo up PLEADING with them to come find you guys,

- then she claims theres been an ACCIDENT and that you two need help

- niccolo is zooming bc he cares abt his besties 😌✨

- connie texts jean and marco to come find you guys too 😭😭😭

- who gets a kick and a lecture for lying courtesy of niccolo ? sasha. but who also gets a bunch of stuffies won for her courtesy of niccolo ? sasha.

- for your anniversary i think she'd want to do something really fun with you

- she'd set up a pillow fort and have a bunch ot string lights and stuff, have all of her favourite stuffies (which are the ones she thinks of you when she sees) in there too.

- she has chips, she baked little pastries and cookies, and she ordered your favourite takeout

- you guys just watch whatever you want on netflix or whatever and its such a nice night

- it becomes a tradition for you guys, but you two always take turns with setup

- one year sasha did all of the planning, baking and whatnot ? okay now its your turn 😁👍

- you guys even started doing themes now 🤩

- if you guys play board games with your friends youre on sasha's side whether you want to be or not.

- shes also the kind of person that says "i can win fair and square !" but then when bertholdt starts kicking her ass in monopoly her script changes real quick 🙄

- now its "y/n,,, give me some of ur money" and "y/n, buy this property for me" like girl,,,, what happened to playing fair 😍⁉️

- will try and do all of those s/o pranks you see on tiktok

- its hard to get a genuine reaction out of you bc you can TELL SHES RECORDING but she tries anyways

- we love a perservering queen 😌✨

- will call you at random times of the day asking if you guys can see each other

- "y/n ??? are you there ??" "sasha its 2am wtf do you want 😐" "do you wanna ride your bike with me down to the park 🥺"

- also is very observant, knows when youre overworking yourself

- will try and pull you away from what youre working on like "lets go get you something to drink, or maybe we can watch an episode of that show you like before you continue working !"

- if youre persistent that you just HAVE to finish it tonight and cant stop and take a break she'll respect that, until you stay at your laptop for over an hour 😐

- just softly pulls you away like "no lovebug, lets get some sleep okay ?"

- is also very protective of you

- overheard someone making fun of you ?? talking shit ??? her besties better hold her back before she gets suspended 😤‼️

- and since connie and jean absolutely ADORE you, you better believe theyre helping their girl sasha out

- those three are the LEADERS of the "protect y/n club"

- it just becomes niccolo and marco trying to dissolve the situation before it gets physical, and then reiner and armin joining when they walk directly into the chaos

- armin tells you what happened and as much as youre thankful that sasha cares about you so much that she'd defend you like that, you lecture her, jean and connie on not making scenes like that again

- sasha's love language is kind of like,, a mixture of quality time and physical touch

- she just really loves spending time with you, but also very much enjoys being in your arms

- she doesnt shy away from it, and is usually the one to initiate those things

- will hold your hand PROUDLY down hallways or on streets

- always hypes you up too, shes very much so your personal hypeman

- "oh lovebug you look SO GOOD rn oh my god" "sasha pls im in my pyjamas" "and you look like a model baby !"

- sasha is very stubborn however, and if you guys ever fight she is NEVER the one to apologize first, or seek you out to talk about it

- even if shes in the wrong she cant bring herself to admit it, she dug herself into such a deep hole with the stance she took that she doesnt want to take the walk of shame in admitting that she wasnt right

- this can cause a lot of problems in your relationship, but after you explain how much it affects you, shes trying to change

- will always work on her stubborn-ness and pride

- and it actually makes her feel a lot better being able to admit defeat, or being wrong

- she really likes being communicative and honest, especially with you

- i think overall your relationship with sasha is very very fun, filled with good memories, good food, good friends, and most importantly, love.

no bc i really do love her 😐🤚 lemme marry miss braus rq 😏✨

hope u guys enjoyed !! remember requests are open so if you have anything youd like me to write DONT BE SHY ❤️‼️

[aotopmha]

The extra pages for chapter 139 seem to be pretty much finally out!

And they're a bunch panels relying on visual storytelling which need to be put in context by the reader/you need to maybe think about it for 10 seconds instead of 2, something I've learned the internet does not like in storytelling. (Or in general, considering how much misinformation is out there.)

I think Kunihiko Ikuhara's works were my first exposure to this element of the internet in full force; they're some of the lowest-rated stories in some of the typical websites where anime is discussed and they're all mostly very reliant on metaphor and visual storytelling.

I've seen 12 episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena and a little bit of Yurikuma Arashi and I think you really need to completely engage with those stories to get what is going on. Almost all of the dialog in those stories seems to matter and to need as much of the context as possible to understand.

And to me a story which asks you to engage and put things together for yourself is what I look for in art and I think is art.

The reason why I have yet to go back to those stories is because they are so very dense and you really just need to be in a certain mindset to watch them.

AoT Chapter 122 and now these new pages are 100% visual storytelling.

AoT Chapter 122 in particular is still one of my favourite manga chapters ever because of how it portrayed a character's perspective with very limited dialog.

The thing with AoT is that I think these moments of visual storytelling are like a less dense and complex version of Ikuhara's storytelling, but they have the same elements.

A lot of context-dependent information in relatively few panels is in 122 and 139, that's why I think people get the sense the story is excusing Eren, for example.

Most of those complaints I've felt are very bad faith, but if I believe in the good and intelligence of humanity for once, maybe it really is that awkward prose that confuses and offends people, not the desire to be morally superior over a comic.

In that sense I think people read the words "thank you" Armin says to Eren and nothing else around it or just find the phrasing to be strange.

They don't go to reread the previous chapter or arc just in case they might've missed something.

Months/years-long breaks between material also assist in not really considering anything else but that one chapter in that one month.

And it just so happens art is also a very individual emotional experience, so "monkey brain" just fully kicks in, too.

To me if you think about it, what the story is saying is pretty obvious the moment Eren became the antagonist. This shift happened in Marley, 40 chapters or so ago.

But this is just what *my* mind leads me to and makes connections with based on the information I have absorbed from the story.

And it's not just that, too. I make connections to what the story was trying to do with Reiner, Kenny, Bert, Erwin or Annie because they were also serial killers/murderers the story took effort in humanising.

The importance of individual perspective and what these characters individually think and how they view themselves seems to be one of the most important aspects of the story.

Because ultimately one of the most important thematic threads of the story seems to be understanding different perspectives.

So why is Eren any different than all of the other mass murderers in the cast?

Because all of the big murderers in the cast get empathy and moments where characters try to understand them, no?

To actually address the pages, here's the general points and my thoughts:

-The whole deal with Mikasa and OG Ymir is that I think Mikasa tries to again, find the good in OG Ymir's suffering.

Her having her children lead to the lives of many people, including hers to be born and Mikasa thanks her for that.

This is a parallel to Eren, whose actions at least gave his friends their lives back. This also ties into Armin's point in chapter 137 about living life for those good moments and Mikasa's promise in chapter 138 to remember Eren for all of the good he did for her.

-Mikasa having a family with probably Jean (which is probably implied with the small scene on the boat) is such a minor thing that I just find hard to care about it at all. The focus on Mikasa really wasn't with it the point to emphasize how she now has kids.

And Mikasa and Historia are still the only characters we see get kids. There really actually isn't anything with anyone else (the spoiler about Armin and Annie doesn't seem to be real at all).

-People visiting the tree is a much more limited panel than the initial leaked images lead on. It's not a tourist attraction, it's something I think the families of Eren's friends ended up visiting. So this also gives it a much more "selfish" vibe.

-Armin's talk with Eren and the scene on the boat with Pieck now gets some pretty nice additional context (makes sense considering Isayama considered it one of the bits to be clumsy himself) because of the panels of Paradis at war in the future.

Those panels don't necessarily say Paradis was completely destroyed by war (we see the black-haired kid), but the alternatives also make the same point: Eren's methods didn't really bring peace.

It sort of gives the promise Armin made to Eren and his words on the boat a more sadder tinge.

Armin tried so hard to make something good out of the mess Eren left everyone. He tried hard for diplomacy to triumph, but war still happened because that's how humanity works.

There's also the layer of violence begetting violence and extremism also hurting your own people. The Jaegerist movement Eren ended up creating probably caused this war on Paradis. I think that's the implied thing with Historia's speech.

The final layer to Eren's actions is the giant Titan tree that literally grew out of his grave: what he did just lead to more cycles and the whole mess might just start again.

But we don't really actually see that happen. It's only a possibility.

Will the kid go in there to get the power and save his people from misery or will he consider the past?

We don't know. It all depends on what he knows of the past and this tree, how his parents presented the past to him, how the world shaped his perspective and yes, also his nature, too.

But the point is, Eren's actions had some good, but mostly bad consequences.

Puts Annie's and Pieck's comments in a stronger perspective, too.

I still maintain this ending is good. Not my favourite material from AoT, but good.

And I'll repeat what I said before that repeating the story's point in more concrete ways gives satisfaction in its own right.

[ryuichirou]

Can you make your top 10 aot characters that have a good development? Like Eren and Reiner are considered to be the best characters as 'characters' themselves

Anon… dear Anon, you’ve been waiting for like a month I think, I’m so sorry. I took this ask waaay too seriously lol, but yeah, I can’t postpone it for any longer…

I know you asked for top 10, and this is a numbered list, but I wouldn’t call it a proper ranking, so the place doesn’t really matter all that much. Otherwise this list would’ve taken even longer, I’m very serious about lists, it seems lol

Before I start I want to mention (just in case): I feel like “character development” isn’t always about becoming better at something. Sometimes you can become “worse”; sometimes you can get “better” and then fall back to your old ways. It’s just how the character changes, and the trajectory of that change can be very different for different characters.

1. Eren. I can talk about Eren for hours and hours, and I have talked about him a lot, so I’ll try to be quick this time.

Eren’s journey is very interesting and enjoyable to read. He’s such an unusual main character. So aggressive at first, unlikable to some (not to us lol we adored him since day one), loud and stubborn. But it’s super cool to watch this hurricane of a person, especially as he gets calmer, starts controlling his emotions little by little, learns more stuff and understands the situation around him better.

I think I’ll talk about how perspective and knowing a bigger picture change the way character acts a lot in this post, but Eren is an ultimate example of this. He got every single thing: past, present, future, drilled in his head at one fucking moment. He didn’t get a bigger picture, he got the biggest 5d picture with special effects. And he had no one to share that with: he had to deal with it himself, knowing that he himself is the reason for everything that’s happening. It makes my head hurt to even think about that lol It’s cool and unnerving to watch Eren, who’s used to be such a fireball of a character, to just get… quiet and apathetic. We don’t know what he’s thinking about, we don’t know what’s going on anymore, even though his emotions were always the most obvious thing about him. It’s almost scary.

And the interesting thing about it is that nothing really changed about his feelings, at least I think so. Ultimately, the only thing he wanted is for his friends to be happy and live long lives, and who knows, maybe he saw that the “freedom” he was initially seeking for himself doesn’t really exist. This is up to debate and definitely not for this post though lol

2. Reiner. Ohh Reiner. He was one of the characters who wasn’t all that interesting to me personally at first, but as he got more and more complex and emotional, I fell in love with him more and more. This isn’t a numbered list, but he is definitely one of the best written characters. And what’s cool about him is that we see the reason for him being the way he is throughout the story: why he wanted to become a hero, why his mental state got so bad, why he was conflicted, why he got so depressed and why he was able to take responsibility for his actions. I love it when the story breaks its characters, and Reiner is certainly one of the most broken ones. His lower point (when he almost killed himself + cried and asked Eren to kill him) was very beautiful and painful to read, because we know why he feels that way and we know how smug and brave he was at the very beginning of the show/manga. And we know that it was all a lie, which makes everything even tastier.

And as much as I love broken characters, I’m kind of glad Reiner found strength to continue fighting and to take responsibility for his actions (to some degree, at least). Not only he saw a bigger picture, he actually learned how to live with it. I’m so happy they discussed the Marco incident with Jean, and that after Annie told that it was her who took his gear, Reiner stood up and said that Annie was following his orders. He also apologized to Annie for everything he did to her and Bert.

Basically, Reiner went from wanting to be a hero to acting like a hero, then to being an actual hero to Marley and feeling like shit anyways, then to just being a human being, something like that. And that scene with his mom hugging him and being happy for him being alive is actually a very sweet and satisfying moment. Especially considering how much Reiner wanted to die lol

3. Zeke. I’ve talked about it in one of the replies about ch137, but I love how Zeke went from “I shouldn’t have been born” to “maybe small moments of happiness make everything worth it” at the very end of his life (what a cruel irony to realise that just before you die). Not only the character develops and changes, our view of him changes as well: I think Zeke was universally hated when he first appeared, but then he became more fun (dude’s too charismatic), and then he became sympathetic and vulnerable. All of this was always inside Zeke, but it was hidden since Zeke is a lying snake. See, Zeke is smart, but he’s super sure that his views are the only valid ones and that his idea of freeing Eldians is the only solution. His views are surprisingly black and white: I suffered, Eren suffered and our dad is bad. And no one challenged his beliefs until they walk through Grisha’s memories with Eren in ch120-121, and then he realized that Eren didn’t suffer at all and their dad is actually just a person who really regretted being a horrible father to his first son. I love that he got some closure with Grisha because he held that grudge for his entire life.

4. Grisha. He has a rollercoaster ride of a development lol: at first he was an innocent boy, then he became an angry boy, and then he kind of calmed his anger down for some time? But after learning what actually happened to Faye, his emotional wounds got open and all that rage blinded him again. And then, after being outed by Zeke, he lost everything, but had a harsh realization that by being driven by his anger only, he completely forgot not to be a shitty dad. He basically had a second chance in life, with a much better perspective about what’s going on, but now he has his younger son’s ghost haunting him and telling him to do thing he never thought he’d do. At different points of the story Grisha feels both like a mastermind behind things and like a pawn who doesn’t have a choice even if he just wants to live a peaceful and happy life with his wife and kids. The irony of him killing a bunch innocent kids when this whole story started because he got his little sister killed? Delicious. Oh, and I really love the fact that he realised that he screwed up as dad and apologized to Zeke. He loved his kids a lot: Zeke, Eren and Mikasa too (he called her his daughter after all).

5. Erwin. Way more interesting than people give him credit for. He’s mostly adored for being a badass, but he also has his own flaws that he had to deal with. He’s like a moth that’s drawn to the light, but right after burning himself and dying he kind of did “the right thing” that he had to do as a commander. Now, for me it isn’t really about Erwin ending up doing “the right thing” to be honest: we would probably adored him is he ditched everyone and ran to the basement because his selfish desires ended up being more important to him. But that scene where he confessed to Levi that he really wanted to find that basement and just told him everything about his capricious and selfish childish desires, talked about how he lied to everyone including Levi basically just to prove his dad’s point… it was beautiful, because it was basically “I have to do it, haven’t I? But I really don’t want to”. His character development is interesting in a sense that at first he was getting gradually more and more psychotic about his dream, doing crazy things even when he knows it might not be the best choice possible (like him risking his life instead of staying behind), but at the very end he stopped to think and… well we know the rest lol

6.  Armin. I remember people saying that Armin is just a narrator-like character who is here to explain thing (I probably thought so too at first), but this is so unfair. It’s easy to make someone like Armin into this trope, and to leave him being a very one-dimensional dreamer who’s smart but naive. And Armin is so much more than that. Throughout the story he has a lot of “I should have been the one who died” moments, and I love that this is such a prominent issue for him, but he still got over it somehow. Armin was kind of lost at the beginning, but found his role. And wow, he had to go through it again after he was chosen instead of Erwin, because the burden on his shoulders just got 100 kg heavier lol He also got less naïve and more cunning with time and got much better at emotional manipulation, I think. While preferring a dialogue over violence, Armin still isn’t pure, and he acknowledges that constantly, especially after his first kill, and things got even worse since that point, which definitely changed him. But his violence-loathing (kind of…) core is still there.

Armin ended up playing a much bigger role in the story than I thought he would be, I really love it. He has his moments of weakness, but he still pushes forward and takes responsibility and does his best. Oh and let’s pretend that the Annie thing never happened, it doesn’t contribute anything to his character anyway.

7.  Jean. I think Jean is the first character who starts showing character growth, and I believe his development is the reason he was Isayama’s favourite for some time. Tbh, I don’t find Jean annoying even at the very beginning: yeah he’s selfish, but he’s self-aware about it, he’s a realist. And he’s still a realist, but his conscience wouldn’t let him just have an easy life while everyone else’s suffering. I always feel like Jean is a spoiled mamaboy, so it’s great to see him showing that he can put others before himself. He also had an inner conflict similar to Armin’s: is it right to kill innocent people if you have to? Is it ok to kill not-so-innocent people because they’re against you? I really like this theme in SnK just in general.

8.  Gabi. It’s no secret that I adore Gabi lol, and I think her character development is great. She was in her element when we first met her: she was confident, she was doing her best and succeeding, she knew the world around her so well, and then Eren took everything from her. People like to hate Gabi for killing Sasha and for being aggressive on Paradis, but I think it’s great that she didn’t have an overnight change of heart. It’s great that Isayama showed us her shock and her raw emotions, it’s more than natural for a child with her upbringing, even if it’s messed up. But I love it when stories take characters that are great at what they do, and they take them out of their element, to show them at their worst: lost, angry, broken and confused. I love that she understood everything herself and not because Falco told her “hey they’re people too” that one time. She had to go through this hell to figure everything out, and I think it’s great.

9.  Historia. Historia was one of the least interesting characters for me (and for a lot of people, Yams included) at the beginning, and tbh I think it’s brilliant: we never saw anything in her; she was just a waifu material who’s nice to others. It felt fake and boring, well, because it was indeed fake and boring, and to this day I cannot believe that that was the entire point. I love how Ymir made Historia realise that she needs to think for herself, but what’s interesting about all that is that after Ymir left, she almost came back to her old habits. Which is also a development, and a very interesting one. The end of S2 was a high point for her (when she told Ymir that she isn’t scared of anything when they’re together), and then there was a very low point (when Ymir left), and then a high point again (when she remembered Ymir and Frieda and decided to act upon her own desires). She’s one of my faves now because of all that… It’s sad she didn’t have a bigger role post-timeskip, but I still appreciate her story for what it is.

10.  Oh god this is so hard to pick one and this post is already so long… can I just give you a bunch of quick honorable mentions?

Annie (who was a loner that couldn’t really trust anyone but ended up showing her vulnerable and emotional side), Hange (started out enthusiastic and eager to learn more only to meet more pain and disappointment, crumbling under the pressure, but ultimately remembering her amusement with titans), Levi (granted it’s very subtle, but him going through Kenny’s death, Erwin’s death and his promise to him, realization that he’s been killing people all this time and other stuff fascinating and huge leaving a mark on him), Ymir (who got hurt and decided not to trust anyone anymore and to act selfishly, but ended up sacrificing herself anyway lol)…. God, these short description sucks, they can’t describe them properly. Also there are so much of them that I think have good development, and I’m 100% missing someone… but I think I’m done for now. Katsu I’m sorry for making you read all this.

That you for this ask, Anon <3 and sorry again for being so late

[the-cult-of-russo]

Push and Pull (Part 5)

Pairing: Matt Murdock x OC

Warnings: cursing, gunshot wound and stitches

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A lot of people might think Daphne was cold or heartless. Sure, she had a bad attitude and it was hard for her to form meaningful relationships, but it didn't mean she was a complete bitch. Which is why she felt bad as she looked at the photos of Mr Lee's son, Keiran, and young wife making out. She'd be seeing him later in the week and have to break the news to him. She was planning on breaking into the Keiran's apartment and snooping once he was at work in the day. She still had that gnawing feeling something was off with the adulterous couple. 

She'd never had a real relationship herself. She never let herself get too attached. She wasn't sure why, she'd just always been that way. Even as a kid with her older brother and sister, she was the snarky sarcastic one. Her love to push people's buttons left her with little to no real friends and guys didn't like a girl that talked back. She didn't mind. It meant she didn't get hurt. She'd just have sex when the opportunity arose and then wash her hands of it. But she'd be a liar if she didn't sometimes wonder what it would be like. To have that someone who cared. Who treasured her and made her feel special. But then she'd think about how most of her PI work was looking into cheating spouses and how most of the time they had been right. Was true love even real? 

She sighed, kicking her boots up onto her table. It was scuffed enough so she didn't care too much. Her boots were paired with a long black summer dress with a slit to her thigh and some thick tights, a black wool cardigan on top. Goth chic her sister Lisa would call it. It made her snort. Her hair was slightly wavy from the shower she’d taken earlier and it had dried naturally. Standing up, she grabbed her backpack and camera  and decided to head out to Keiran's apartment. Only this time she was really hoping not to find something. 

On her way there, she thought about the guns. It had been a couple of days since the disastrous outing with the Devil himself and the morning after she’d given her evidence to Brett. He was worried, so was she. But it was out of her hands now. And thankfully she hadn't been contacted by Mr Moody to accompany him again. Pulling her phone from her cardigan pocket, she was satisfied Keiran would be out of the house and at work. As she stepped up to the shitty broken intercom at the front, she heaved a sigh. She hoped someone would let her in. Glancing at the names, she just settled on any of them. There was a dull beep as she pressed the button for 'Mr Meyers'.

"Hello?" The sound of an old man sounded. 

"Hi there, would you be able to buzz me in please?" She asked politely. She bit her lip  holding her breath as she prepared to think of an excuse for him.

"Annie, is that you?" He asked, sounding confused.

"Mhm," she lied, rolling her eyes and getting impatient. 

"You forgot your key again, dear? I keep telling you to make another," he chuckled through the intercom.

"I know. I'm just forgetful I guess," she snorted. The shrill buzz almost startled her, that had been so easy. Thank God for Mr Meyers. She slipped inside and jogged up the stairs to the third floor. Her steps were light as she tried to listen for any noises. She didn't need anyone suddenly appearing and wondering why a weird girl was on their floor. She idly wished she had Matt's super hearing. It sounded quiet though and she got to the door she was after. 

A few quick moments with her lock pick set and it was open. Her search was quick and efficient. Always making sure to put things exactly where they should be. She felt like she'd searched everywhere and hadn't found anything. She knew she should have felt relieved but she couldn't shake that nagging feeling in the back of her head. She stood for a moment, closing her eyes as she tried to think where something would be. When she opened her eyes again, they glanced around until they settled on a piece of modern art of the wall. She wasn't a fan of the modern stuff. It looked like a toddler just threw paint on a canvas. Her art preference was the more detailed skilled work. She padded over, lifting it from the wall. Sure enough, behind the canvas was a safe. 

"Bingo," she muttered.

It took longer than she liked to crack it, but she did in the end. She wasn't happy with what she found. Along with a handgun that had the serial number scratched out, she found copies of Mr Lee's life insurance. It was for $2 million and it would be split between Keiran and Mr Lee's wife. She started to see just why this guy was getting in her pants. Were they planning something together? Or did she have no idea she was being pulled into this? She snapped some pictures quickly before putting everything back where it should be. Before long she was on her way home again with a bad feeling. It wasn't concrete evidence of any plans but she'd learnt a long while ago to trust her gut. Maybe she should move her meeting with Mr Lee up and speak to him.

Her train of thought was interrupted when her phone started ringing. It was Brett.

"Hey, got news?" She asked, walking down the street and weaving through the people. 

"Bad news. Last night a whole bunch of people were gunned down. Some biker club. Ammo matches some of the heavy guns you got on film," he stated grimly. She stopped walking and the person behind her who almost collided with her scoffed as they moved past.

"Well that's not good. I guess they weren't for selling then? Why would the Italians have beef with those guys?" She asked warily. As bad as it would be, she'd been hoping that the guns were just being sold. But this was war and she had a feeling the bikers wouldn't be the only ones facing the wrath. 

"Not sure yet. We're trying to piece it together. Whatever it is, it seems like the Italians are trying to take over some turfs. I'll keep you updated," he sighed. After they bid their goodbyes, she trudged up her stairs trying to figure it out. 

Sitting on her sofa, she wondered just how bad this war the Italians were waging would be. She'd never set out to investigate organised crime. She stuck with her small time thing for years and she was fine with it. But a few years ago Brett reached out when he was hitting dead ends. He'd heard about her skills and he shouldn't have asked her for help but he did. Now she did bits and bobs for him every now and again, especially with her interest in the Italian case. He was a detective now and even though it was still off the books, everyone knew she helped them out. She only dealt with him though. She didn't trust most of the other cops after the whole thing with Fisk. She'd kept out of that shit show as much as she could after one of the crazy Russians caught her and she got a lovely stab wound in the thigh. Then there was the whole mess with The Punisher. All of it had changed the gangs of Hell's Kitchen. Some of them wiped out, others coming back and others even stronger than ever. She hated that sometimes she wondered if she'd grew a pair and didn't shy away from it after being stabbed, if she'd have saved some of the lives lost in the chaos left behind from Fisk and Castle. Maybe that's why she couldn't say no when Brett had asked her to start looking into the Italians. 

Either way, here she was. In the middle of a war that was just beginning. And her curiosity wouldn't let her back out now. She wanted to know what was going on just as much as the cops. There wasn't much she could do now anyway. She'd let Brett call her when he had some news and a lead to go on before she threw herself in the line of fire again. 

She found herself preoccupied the rest of the day with thoughts on the Italians. She switched between trying to distract herself watching Netflix on her laptop and then looking at articles about the biker massacre. Her phone had been resting on the coffee table. She doubted Brett would be calling her today with news but she waited anyway. She wasn't sure just when she got so invested in trying to help with this. She just wanted something, a lead from the evidence at the crime scene or to do with HCL with the money laundering. Anything that would give her a direction to go to dig deeper. 

Trying to block the Italians from taking over her restless mind, she snuggled on her couch with a thick blanket in her pyjamas as she watched Breaking Bad on Netflix. She loved the show and she’d watched it multiple times. She kept dozing in and out of sleep as night drew on. She wasn't sure what time it was when she heard a banging in the open plan apartment. She shot up, glaring at the door as her heart hammered in her chest. A quick glance to the large clock on the wall told her it was 3am now. The banging came again but she realised it wasn't from the door. Looking to the large window, she was startled by Matt in his suit, leaning against it from the outside. Her annoyance glared at him for dropping in at this time. Dropping in at all, honestly. She told him to stay the fuck away and here he was at 3am and waking her up. She found it hard enough to get a decent sleep on the best of days. 

Throwing the blanket off her, she stood up and stomped over to the window. She wasn't even paying attention to him really.

"What part of stay the fuck away don’t you get?" She snapped impatiently. He didn't say anything through the glass but then she noticed how his hand was clamped over his chest, how his chest was heaving. Something was wrong. She opened the window to see him better and the moonlight glinted off his suit that seemed wet. Oh. Blood.

"Jesus, you're bleeding?" She asked, her voice getting a little higher. It was a lot of blood. 

"Are you going to let me in or not?" He bit out, wincing as he did. She had half a mind to close her window and let him bleed out on her fire escape. But as annoying as he was, she knew she couldn't. She stepped aside and he carefully climbed inside. She took note of how slow he was moving and she wondered how much blood he'd already lost. He stumbled once inside and she quickly wrapped an arm around his uninjured side, making him groan in pain. With a tut, she led him to her couch and helped him sit down.

"Why are you here? I mean I get that you can't exactly go to the hospital, but here?" She asked, feeling irritated. She hadn't expected to have a half dead vigilante bleeding out on her sofa.

"I didn't have anywhere else to go," he muttered, shifting as he tried to take off his suit. She wanted to ask about Foggy but she guessed the happy go lucky best friend wasn't his go to for stitching him up. With a heaving sigh, she knelt on the couch next to him, helping him remove the top half of his suit. There was a gunshot wound under the front of his left shoulder. She tried not to be concerned. 

"It's still in there, can you get it out?" He asked weakly. She tried to temper the anxiety at how bad he sounded. Not like she cared or anything, she'd worry no matter who it was.

"I can try," she muttered. She jumped up and ran to the bathroom, grabbing the tweezers off the side, the first aid kit and then the bottle of whisky that was on the side in the kitchen. 

When knelt next to him again, his mask was off and it was jarring to actually see his face when still in his devil suit, even if it was only partially. 

"Don't think this is a routine. You get hurt again, you can go somewhere else," she snarked. Honestly at this point it was more to cover her nerves at trying to keep him alive. He chuckled a little, leaning his head on the back of the sofa as she doused the tweezers with alcohol. One hand carefully steadied herself on his chest and she glanced at his pale face. His unseeing eyes were on her ceiling and his hair was all over the place.

"This is gonna hurt like a bitch," she murmured. Honestly, she felt a little bad for him. He just nodded, closing his eyes in anticipation.

She took a deep breath before digging the tweezers in his wound. He cried out. One hand gripping the couch tightly as the other flailed for a minute before he settled on fisting her shirt. She bit back a retort since he was in pain and she focused on fishing out the bullet. Thankfully it wasn't too long before she yanked it out. He was breathing deeply, sweating and looking awful and now the wound was oozing blood at a worrying rate. She grabbed some gauze and pressed it to the wound with a worried frown.

"I need to stitch it, hold this," she said firmly. Still fisting her shirt, his other hand came up to put pressure on the wound. She dug around and got the needle, cleaning it with the whisky before threading it. She tried to ignore the tremor in her hand as it brushed against his, moving the gauze.

When her eyes flit to his face, he was already looking at her with his unfocused gaze.

"You look like shit, Murdock," she muttered with a wry smirk as she started to stitch him up. He chuckled a little, scrunching his eyes closed as she tried to make quick work of sewing him up.

"I feel like it," he replied with a sly grin. She shook her head as her hands delicately thread the needle through his skin, stopping occasionally to soak up the blood with the gauze.

"You're good at this. Not your first time?" He asked. She wondered if he was making small talk to try and take his mind off it. Since he was injured she decided to go along with it. Her anger at dropping in like this would wait until she was done.

"Not a gunshot, but I had to sew myself up after a gnarly stab wound," she murmured in reply. 

Her hands faltered as his hand let go of her shirt and settled on her bare thigh, his fingers running over the jagged scar. It startled her how he'd even know where it was but she shook it off. He was weird after all with his super senses. She tried to ignore the fact his hand was on her thigh at all. She tried to reason that his hands were kind of his eyes since he was blind. But the touch was light, gentle almost, it made her feel weird and she didn't like it. She didn't think anyone had touched her with such gentleness before.

"Who stabbed you?" He asked with a frown.

"Got caught snooping by one of the Russians a few years back. Taught me a hard lesson in being more sneaky," she snorted mirthlessly. His frown deepened and his hand stilled on her thigh. A few stitches later and he was all done. She wiped his wound clean before bandaging him up. 

His gentle touch to her scar had rattled her and she hopped off the sofa the second she was done. She started stuffing everything back into the first aid kit.

"I wasn't joking when I said this won't happen again. Teach Foggy first aid or something, but don't drop by here like this again," she said shortly, maybe harsher than intended and his frown let her know he was confused by it. He didn't reply, just nodding curtly at her. After putting the bloodied gauze away she noticed him standing from the couch, he was swaying on his feet though and she bit her lip as she walked over.

"What are you doing?" She sighed, annoyed.

"Getting out of your hair. That's what you wanted right?" He bit out. Yes, it was. But as he took a woozy step forward he almost collapsed again. She felt a pang of guilt and pursed her lips as she walked over, pushing him gently to sit back down.

"You lost a lot of blood, you need to rest. Just stop being annoying. You can take the couch and leave tomorrow," she relented. He didn't look any happier than she was about the whole thing but there wasn't much they could do. They both knew he was in no condition to get home just yet. He gave a curt nod, staying where she pushed him back down. This would be awkward as all hell. Her apartment was all open plan except the bathroom and a small closet. Her bed was on the other side and she felt uneasy with him being so close if she was to sleep. But she also didn't want to stay awake and be forced to spend time with him with this tension. 

"Go to sleep," she huffed, padding over to her bed. She had some blood on her shirt and a bloody handprint on it from where he'd gripped it. But she paid no mind to it as she climbed in bed, burrowing under the blankets. She fell asleep that night to uncomfortable silence.

[touchingoldmagic]

Comic Review

Okay first an apology. Due to COVID and then my own 30-day challenge, this review got very delayed. But here we go, let's look at the fourth and final issue of GB Year One! As always, spoilers under the cut.

As is tradition, we start the comic with interviews. But instead of minor characters this time, we have Janine, Ray, and Peter talking about Egon. Janine says he's hard to get to know but generous with sharing his knowledge. I think that's a really in character thing to say, I can definitely hear it in Annie Potts' voice.

We cut to Winston chaperoning Rebecca to the firehouse, where Egon is working. This takes place a few weeks after the end of the movie (as established by Dana in the first issue) so the firehouse is still blown up. I have to say I really like that they included this, we rarely get to see the firehouse with this much damage. There's a police officer stationed outside to keep looters away, which I also thought was a nice realistic touch.

I guess this is a good place to point out that I find Egon in the IDW comics to be written quite a bit differently than Egon from the movies (or from RGB/EGB). Even in GB1 and 2, where Egon was very reserved and deadpan, he never came across as unsympathetic toward other people. To me, anyway. In the comics, I feel like Erik Burnham always writes him as a man without any patience for "normal people." Even his comic bio states Egon is someone who "isn't interested in what you have to say." I dunno, I just never got that vibe from him in any other GB media and it bugs me a bit. -shrug- Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, Egon immediately tells Rebecca he's only speaking to her because it's part of the contract for them getting paid for this book deal, and they need the money to rebuild the firehouse.

Rebecca asks why Egon got started in the paranormal, and Egon basically says he wants to explain all the things that mankind finds unexplainable, and ghosts were just the first thing he was able to prove. He'll move on to something else when he loses interests in ghosts.

Rebecca then asks why he built the Containment Unit so that it exploded when the power was cut. Personally I'm like "Wow rude much?" but I guess it's a legit question. Egon says it was because of the unexpected increase in ghost energy due to Gozer, and that he's going to rebuild it so it won't happen again.

I find Rebecca in this issue is a lot more antagonistic than she was in previous issues. I guess Egon pushes her buttons LOL.

When they start talking about their first case at the Sedgewick, Winston brings up the story that the green ghost escaped when they were putting it into the Containment Unit. Rebecca is very interested in hearing this other story of the Unit failing to work right, and Egon is not very appreciative of Winston speaking up.

Great lines: Egon: Thank you so much for bringing that up, Winston. Your memory is a real asset. Winston: Uh... I think I've got an errand to run. -leaves-

We jump to a flashback that takes place after the Sedgewick scene in the movie. The GB's return to the firehouse. Peter has a hilarious cowlick from the slime, which I love.

Ray and Egon go to the basement to put their first ghost in the Containment Unit.

But the button gets stuck and Slimer escapes. (His name isn't really Slimer in this universe, but I'm just going to call him that for simplicity's sake.) Slimer appears upstairs where he picks up a prototype proton grenade from Egon's locker and then... phases right through the front door, carrying the grenade?

I don't know if this is an oversight on the part of the comic or if they're trying to purposely show us that ghosts can take solid matter through other solid matter, but it really confused me. I mean, we don't see Slimer doing that in the movie. He drinks a bottle of wine and it goes right through him onto the floor, and when he goes through the wall dragging a food cart behind him, the cart crashes into the wall. So why does the grenade go right through the firehouse door? I have no idea.

Anyway, Egon and Ray run out after him to protect the neighborhood. (Peter and Janine apparently aren't there now to see this happen.)

Ray: Why would you store a prototype proton grenade in your locker? Egon: I don't feel as thought that's important right now, Ray.

Slimer zips around the streets, stealing people's food and brandishing the grenade. Egon cautions Ray not to take a shot at him, since their beams could make it explode. Ray runs off to a dumpster to find some food to bait the ghost, leaving Egon to stall him alone.

Egon: Luckily it was driven more by impulse than intelligence--sort of like Venkman in college.

And for some reason there's two times where the artist forgot to draw Slimer holding the grenade? It seems like an obvious mistake to make, so I dunno if they really forgot or if it was on purpose. The quality control in this issue seems to be lacking.

Egon tries to sneak up on Slimer, but the ghost sees him and clonks him with the grenade. He then gets distracted by a pizza and drops it. Egon ducks, but the bomb fizzles out, a dud. (How anticlimactic.)

With the spud distracted, Egon fires his thrower and catches him. He compares reeling him in to a memory of reeling in a fish as big as he was when he was a kid. That was a cute reference, at least. I'm trying to picture tiny!Egon and his reserved father on a fishing boat.

We cut back to Egon and Rebecca as Egon wraps up his story. Here he says that this incident proved to all of them that they should never take solo calls, ever. That comment felt weird to me because... nothing bad happened? Egon was able to wrangle Slimer by himself just fine. How did this incident prove that? But I guess the writer just wanted to slip in a reason why we never see the GB's going on busts by themselves, in any media. (As if it's not obvious how dangerous the job would be by yourself...)

At this point Rebecca is ready to leave when suddenly a red ghostly light swirls around her and she grows fangs and claws. I was super excited at first because I thought this was going to be a twist ending and Rebecca was going to be a ghost this whole time! Trying to get inside info on how to take down the team. How awesome would that have been!?

But no, Rebecca is only momentarily possessed by...something. Something that has a vague message for Egon that the Ghostbusters will be killed sometime, someday. That's it. I'm not even kidding, the ghost literally uses the words "Sooner or later, doom!" Like... yeah, buddy? That's just life?

The ghost vanishes and Rebecca is overwhelmed and quickly leaves. Peter shows up just as she's leaving, asking what that was about.

(Narrator Voice: He did not find out.)

So that's it! I'm a bit disappointed in this issue, I have to say. The story was okay, but there's a bunch of little things that don't make sense, things that look like drawing errors, and a weak ending. It all adds up to a disappointing feeling.

I think they are implying something about Afterlife with the ghost at the end? Is there going to be a ghost in Afterlife that claims to have been watching Egon since the founding of the Ghostbusters, and perhaps even eventually killed him? Man, I know ghosts can be patient but that's a pretty long stretch of time to wait before sealing somebody's doom.

But there we go, the four issues of Year One. I do think it's good to have oneshot stories. A comic series shouldn't be entirely made up of long storyarcs. I like a little variety. And I liked seeing some scenes that we only heard about in the past, even if it made the comic feel like a "clip show" sometimes, where they were just filling in things that were mentioned offhand in the movies.

I think the comic was strongest when it was giving us thoughts and motivations for our favorite characters and seeing them interact (like Ray training Winston for 15 min and calling it good, and Winston telling him how crazy that is). And I felt it was weakest when it was just redrawing screenshots from the movie or doing those interviews with minor characters at the start of each issue (I liked it at first but it got tiring quickly). All in all, I did like this series and I am really excited to see what is coming for the IDW GB's next!

[thenerdyunhealthybrit]

So......I saw a bunch of reblogs of Jenna Coleman in period clothing on my dash & immediately thought @fictionxlover is at it again but then I looked properly at the post & was shocked it’s you lmao

Lol. I feel like I should explain.

So I recently got a month’s free trial of Britbox over here, and while the catalogue is lacking the stuff I wanted to watch (that’s on US Britbox), I got it regardless to watch some stuff on it and it recommended me ITV’s 2012 miniseries of Titanic, which I haven’t watched since it originally aired back in 2012.

Now all I ever really remembered from the series apart from the Titanic sinking becuase its the Titanic, was that the miniseries had a high budget, high production, Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame and high expectations which it didn’t live up to ratings and critically wise. But also all I ever remembered all these years was Jenna and Glen’s storyline as Annie and Paolo.

Like this was back when Jenna was Jenna-Louise Coleman and the only thing I had seen her in was her short stint as a student in Waterloo Road, I think that was in 2009? 2010?

So anyway, for the nostalgia for Annie and Paolo and how much I loved them in a short time, and also cause I watched a Laurence Fishburne documentary about the behind the scenes of the Titanic (which made me mad at people).

And I decided that when I was gonna watch this I wasn’t gonna get attached because I know what happens to Annie and Paolo (especially Paolo) and I’m like, I’m older now. I’m not gonna cry.

Wrong!

So 14 year old me only cried once, and that was when Spoiler! A lifeboat picks up Paolo and by the time it goes back to the other lifeboats where Annie is, she realises he’s dead and is like “We we’re gonna get married. I hope he knew that. I hope he knew I loved him”.

2021 me was getting chills in episodes 1 and 2, emotional in episode 3, which had most of the Annie/Paolo scenes so it was just the knowledge. And episode 4, I was a wreck. And this time I was crying over different storylines.

So three times I broke down in the episode.

1) When The Irish dad from Steerage manages to find his little girl (she jumped off a lifeboat onto the ship and left her mother and siblings because she’s afraid of the water and the lifeboat splitting) and he tries to open the gate to go up the stairs because he found her by a stairwell, but he can’t. So he’s like here’s what we are going to do. We are gonna sit here and hug and she’s like what about the water, and he’s like don’t worry about the water.

It was just that moment he realised that he can’t get his daughter out. Cause with him being a man, he probably thought there was a good chance he wouldn’t make it but wanted to make sure his fam did. But the realisation his daughter can’t be saved...I mean I don’t know why he couldn’t get out the way he came from but it was still sad.

2) Barnes/Watson. So they are the servants of a first class family. And Barnes has this affection for Watson, it’s like a playground pull her pigtails kind of affection. And it’s how made sure to find her and save her then gave her and letter of his appreciation. And we don’t see his body, the last we see of him is when the Titanic starts sinking and a lot we’re trying to hold on the collapsible that they wasn’t about to turn in time. But we never see him again but we get Watson reading his letter on the lifeboat where it’s revealed to contain his Will which had been witnessed by two passengers and he’s pretty much given everything to her (not much) and that there’s a small cottage for her father to live in and all he asks is that she thinks of him sometimes.

3) Then as you can guess, anytime Paolo appears and then when Annie finds Paolo and it’s too late. Also his brother Mario survives and I loved the brief relationship we see of the Sandrini brothers but Mario didn’t have a subplot, not like Paolo.

I would watch a spin-off around Annie and Paolo where a Londoner and Italian immigrate to America in the early 20th century, trying to make it big and start a new life. They were both such innocent characters, Paolo with his big dreams, wanting a better life while Annie doesn’t have dreams and is content with what she has and makes the best of a situation.

The miniseries as a whole, isn’t the best telling of the Titanic. There are too many characters and subplots going on and it’s all brief. Plus because it’s a Fellowes piece you have Class issue. Like the problem was the First Class stuff was the weakest stuff and that opened the series. The lowest class stuff (The workers, officers, the Irish family and servants of first class) was more interesting.

Also it was how Fellowes decided to tell the story. So the first three episodes tell the same days (From boarding the ship to hitting the iceberg) but from different perspectives, so the first episode focuses on the First class, the second episode is more Second Class (and a bit of steerage) then the third episode is more Steerage.

So because of this method of storytelling to try and be fresh, it kind of doesn’t work because everything is rushed. Because everyone only gets one episode with significant develop and it takes across 4-5 days and it just feels rushed whereas it could have been paced more across the 4 episodes. Like I would have liked more Annie/Paolo. And they don’t feel rushed even though they meet and Paolo proposes cause you feel like he’s an innocent, naive character, like he feels like he knows she is right for him and doesn’t want to waste time. Then Barnes/Watson they have that backstory and is more what’s between the lines with them. But then you have this romance storyline between the fictional Georgiana and the real life Harry Widener and it falls flat and feels rushed as they are sharing love declarations so quickly. While the subplot with the Steerage Irish wife being so cold to this man in Steerage then later on it’s revealed that it’s because she and him have an attraction and feelings and kiss, it feels very left field and I felt zero chemistry. Plus he turns out to be a cop killer on Wanted posters.

Like for that kind of storytelling with only 4 episodes, there are too many characters to follow. Like it would have probably been better to tell the story with every episode covering a day on the Titanic.

I will say this it did feel a bit more real rewatching that I do watching the James Cameron film in recent times. Cause the 1997 film is kinda lost in the epic romance of Jack and Kate and a lot of fictional characters. But the miniseries, I think the romance and drama is more subdued, the only one that felt a bit off for me was the serial killer and wife of an Irish fam falling in love/being attracted to each other. Like the scenes were they try to get passengers off the titanic and the political power plays, the mistakes made by the Titanic crew in dealing with the disaster as well as preparing for its maiden voyage, and the moment the ship starts to go down the water starts hitting the deck, it felt a bit more realistic and less spectacle than the Cameron film.

And I haven’t rewatched Titanic the film recently but I liked how they addressed the actions of some of the real life people like Ismay jumping on a lifeboat last minute to save himself. Molly Brown and the women taking charge of a lifeboat and turning back for more survivors, Lightoller getting passengers on the boat and trying to get women and children first, and also the mistakes made with the first boat not being full. Him being afraid boats might split. Then when the ship sank the men holding on and climbing on top the overturned collapsible. Jack Thayer and this other guy agreeing to jump and swim to a boat as soon as it starts to sink. And then the Duff-Gordon’s (I believe that’s there name) deciding not to go back to look for more survivors and bribing the sailor and all the people on their half-empty lifeboat with £5 each if they don’t go back. The only one I wasn’t big on was Harry Widener’s rushed romance with a fictional character.

Anyway I’ve gone off. I mentioned to Autymn that I started rewatching it and I think she’s never seen it or heard of it despite claiming to be a period hoe and a Jenna stan. I think after episode 2 I was telling her a bit more about my nostalgia for Annie and Paolo or Desdrini as I’m coining it now (It’s either that or Pannie or Sandmond), and how I know it’s not gonna end well. Then by episode 3 I was recapping why was going on cause she lost it at the serial killer cop killer reveal with one of the characters, and then I was wondering if their was gifs, clips or pics on Tumblr because I wanted to explain how cute they were and how pure Paolo was and how he was too innocent to die. And off I went into the rabbit hole sending them to her and also reblogging it.

Now I’ve gone down that rabbit hole, while it’s great to see Jenna thriving in British TV dramas in more leading roles now and not supporting. I can’t watch anything of Glen’s cause most of his stuff is Italian and not on Netflix etc and a lot of his TV roles are more recurring or guest roles. Not much leading etc. Who knows, maybe if the show was a bigger success, more opportunities might have come out of it.

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

A winter wonderland wedding

The thing about new beginnings is that it marks the end of something. It's a bittersweet thing, a mix of joy, fear, excitement, and sadness. That moment when you have one foot forward and the other a step behind. As soon as you take that next step, there's no going back.

Every time I come home, I always notice something different about Rosevine. The different shades of red and pink roses surrounding the trellis at town hall. How the sun first shines at the windmill in Hydrangea Creek early in the morning. The way the snow gently blankets the sidewalks in the downtown area, like a scene out of a snow globe. It's the little things that make me appreciate my hometown in a way I wouldn't have if I had stayed.

So much has changed since I left home. Or maybe things were constantly changing but I didn't notice because I was too used to seeing the same old everyday.

Today I watched two childhood friends get married. Emmaline and Minnie have grown up a lot since they were an unlikely pair running around the streets of Rosevine. Emmaline with her heart of gold and Minnie with her stubborn determination. Through the ups and down, the good and bad, they always stuck together, bringing out the best in each other no matter how low it gets.

For years they've been traveling the universe together, exploring new places, searching for new insights, finding themselves - even now there's still so much they have yet to discover. And here they are, ready to embark on a new journey, one that marks the start of something greater. Sweet Emmaline and tough as nails Minnie, all grown up.

As expected, the number of guests at the wedding has more than doubled since the invitations went out months ago. Along with a bunch of familiar faces, there's a lot of new ones too. From old neighbors like Almie, Pippa, Luna, Robin, Andrea, Soph, etc, friends like Jamie, Steven, Mariposa, etc, - let's just say that it's a good thing the wedding's outside!

Although it's winter, the weather has warmed up a bit these past few weeks. It's cold but not so much that we're freezing. Besides, it doesn't snow much around this time of year, we've got another month before we have to worry about snowstorms. Plus with all the dancing we did at the party, there's no need to worry about the cold!

It was nice catching up with old friends. I haven't really spoken to Robin in a while so it's nice to hear that he's been seeing a therapist for the past year. He's still living with Andrea and Selene - who's almost a teenager now (what?!) - both are doing fine, along with the others - Emilia, Paget, Luciana, Annie, Kate, Malka, Lena, and Rini.

Everyone seems to be in a much better place - especially Robin, Andrea, and Paget as Serena's death has been the hardest on them - and living out their lives. Selene's been out adventuring with Arianne and Vitoria, a happy-go-lucky duo known as the Troublemakers. Paget is recording music again and making an effort to stay sober. Emilia's been baking sweet treats with her daughter, who's taken an interest in it. Annie's studying magic and consulting experts like Luna and Shara for research. Luciana, Andrea, and Lena are keeping the archives up to date as usual - no doubt this wedding will be a special one in Rosevine's history!

With all the lives Emmaline changed for the better, she deserves nothing but the best on this special day. That, and the same peace she's given to others that she rightfully deserves. She's been through a lot, always helping others at the expense of her own well being, responding to adversity with kindness and compassion - as she has proven over and over again, no matter how hard you fall, there's still a chance to pick up the pieces and find your way again. It's not easy, but it's worth a try.

The days leading up to the wedding have been a whirlwind. Not long after the Toy Day festivities ended, Daisy Jane and I were on the road back to Rosevine with Almie, Pippa, and Mariposa. So along with catching up with the old gang, we were setting up for the big day.

Robin and I were responsible for setting up chairs and tables. Daisy Jane, Rini, Angie, and Selene made the bouquets and garlands. Steven and Emilia took charge of catering. Willow and Mariposa finalized the programs. Almie, Luna, and Skully ran errands - Soph felt it was best to keep them out of trouble while not turning down the extra help. Andrea and Kate got the stage set up while Paget and the Rosevine choir rehearsed. Jamie helped Soph with the official stuff like marriage papers and such. It takes a village to prepare for a big celebration!

Rehearsals were shaky at best. While that was frustrating, it was to be expected. After all a bad start that gets corrected early on usually leads to smooth sailing - better to have everything that could go wrong happen at the rehearsals instead of the big day. Once we got the stressful parts out of the way, everything fell into place.

As expected, the ceremony was absolutely beautiful. Minnie and Emmaline looked gorgeous in their elegant suits and their vows were absolutely sweet! It was romantic - not in a sappy or saccharine way, more like how a flower blooms through a crack in an old abandoned road, reaching out towards the sky. Emmaline is the gentle sun, Minnie the blossom bursting through the concrete.

Being back home with the friends I grew up with, sitting with the others while the two kids I watched running around the sidewalks of Rosevine walk down the aisle. I think this is the closest I've felt to being somewhat sappy at a wedding. Man I feel so old, these kids, they grow up so fast.

As expected, a party isn't complete without some magic,  shenanigans, and a combo of the two. From Pippa, Willow and Angie putting on a light show to Emmaline, Mariposa, and Luna making snowflakes and accidentally creating a mini blizzard - there was never a dull moment! Skully was hyped up on sweets, resulting in Luna having to chase him around before he caused too much damage. Selene and Paget put on a dance competition and everyone had a blast - Malka won first place, Willow second, Skully third. Almie, Minnie, and Daisy Jane arranged a fun scavenger hunt that we might have gotten a little intense about - sorry to everyone in the south end of town for the noise disturbance and the running around! And of course, a lot of dancing, music, and having a grand old time with great company!

I'm too hyped up to sleep - I think everyone is. The wedding was absolutely magical, the perfect way to end the year. In a few days we'll all be meeting at town hall for the fireworks show and new year celebration.

It all still feels so surreal. The end of an era and the beginning of a new one. A landmark to mark how far we've come and the trials we faced to get to that point. There's no way of knowing what lies ahead for us in the future, but moments like these encourage us to step forward, to embark into the unknown.

Here's to Emmaline and Minnie, to a bright future full of hope and wonder, may they continue to fulfill their dreams and ambitions. I wish nothing but the best for them.

And here's to the future, a new start, a new year - the beginning of something new, maybe something greater.

A shooting star just passed by - how fitting!

[seirei-bh]

Yes, I still love Eren

Ok, I didn't want to write this whole post because I don't like to discuss with other people and I always try to be patient, be quiet and just ignore this kind of stuff and keep moving foward with my life, but this is getting on my nerves.

Sometimes I wonder if some people on this fandom are a bunch of kids or teenagers who never have read/watch cruel and complex fiction stories before, like Berserk, Game of thrones, Evangelion, The last of us, etc, or just people so dumb they can't differ ficction from reality...

Repeat with me: people can love villains, people can love drama and horror in ficction and that doesn't mean those people are bad :)

It's frustating being an Eren's fan, because some people just can't understand that you can love villains and characters who are assasins or a bad person IN FICTION without being pro genocide in real life. Seriously, people SHOULD know the difference between fiction and reallity.

I love Eren Jaeger, because he's complex, well written and one of the most interesting MC I've seen in my life. I love the "hero-to-villain" arcs (like Anakin Skywalker). I love a lot of characters who are not good people because of their complex backstories, personnality or conflicted development. Ex: Joel of TLOU murdered a lot of innocent people at the ending only to save ONE person, but you can understand why he's doing that, despite you don't like his actions.

Besides, you know what? "White and perfect" heroes are boring.

A lot of people is saying now "I hate Eren, uuuhhh, you're a bad person if you love him uhhhh, Eren is the worst, he's the baddest of all the characters, the members of Alliance are the only good ones, Eren must die" only because in the last chapter we've seen the collosals trampling babies... seriously?? Yeah, I was shocked too and I feel sick and sad the first time I read it, but I can deal with it because SnK was ALWAYS cruel.

I guess people just conveniently decided to forget a lot of details of the first arcs and seasons.

Heeey, remember when Annie killed a lot of soldiers, all the Levi's squad and a lot of innocent people in the Central district while she was fighting agains Eren and the Survey Corps? She even played to yo-yo with one the the soldiers hahah :D Do you remember that Eren DIDN'T want to fight agains her and only did it because his comrades Armin Mikasa, Jean, Connie, Levi and others FORCED HIM to fight? oh, and innocent children suffered and died too in the middle of that fight. But of course, people just don't talk about it, because now Annie is now one of the cute wifeys of the "group of good heroes" :) (I love Annie and aruani, btw, but I just hate when some people are so hypocrytes to love Annie, Reiner and Bert, and also the members of Alliance and just sentence Eren for do something he was obligated to do to save his people, same as the Warriors tried to do to before to save people of Marley)

Eren tried to find a pacific way to resolves the problems during 4 years. He infiltrated in Marley alone, cutted his leg and hurt his eye, and talked with Reiner, only to try to understand his actions. But while he was forgiving his enemy and old comrade, he was listening a lot of people of the world clapping and smiling when Willy Tybur declared the war and extermination of Paradis. And in that moment Eren got a sad expression on his face, because he understood the entire world was their enemy so he was forced to become in a mass murdered and the devil of the world to save his people.

People of this fandom no longer talk about all the innocent people who were eaten by the titans that Marley dumped on the island. They don't talk of the number of Eldians that nations elsewhere have locked up in concentration camps, who are tortured and humiliated every day, simply for being Eldians, just like Jews in WWII, as we saw in Zeke's and Grisha's flashbacks. People forget Erwin, Carla, Armin's granpa, thousands of innocent people who lived inside wall Maria, and hundreds of soldiers died without even know the real reason why.

People in this fandom don't talk enough about Armin was the one who told Eren "to defeat your enemies, you have to become a monster", that Levi was the one who told Eren that he will have to take difficult choices if he wanted to survive, and that other people might die but he should be prepared to deal with it. That it was Mikasa who fought without hesitation against Annie and urged Eren to fight vs their enemies, along with Armin, Jean and Connie. That Hange and Levi tortured, killed and manipulated other soldiers in season three to archieve their purposes, that Reiner admitted in front of Eren that he destroyed the wall not because they forced him, but because he wanted to be a hero, so his parents could be together and be proud of him.

No. Because it's much easy only to throw shit at Eren because he's killing babies of background characters who were totally fine with the idea to exterminate the eldians of Paradise, and yes, that includes inocent eldian children, Historia's baby and all the kids she saved at the orphanage. But I guess people is not ready to talk about this.

People don't talk about the fact Armin, Jean, Connie and the rest of the cast admited in ch 133 that they are sinners too. That they forced Eren to do this, that despite they wanted to stop him, they couldn't give him a realistic and a good alternative solution. That the Alliance killed their own comrades and ignored Eren's depression for four years. Now they regret ir but it's too late.

Btw, Armin is my favourite character of snk, and I LOVE Jean with all my heart and I like the rest of the cast. But all these things are true. Eren is the one who is commiting a global genocide, but the rest of the cast are not heroes, they're guilty about this as well. So stop picture them as heroes and Eren as the only villain of the world. This story is much more complex than that.

 If you can't deal with characters with complex moratily and cruel actions, perhaps you should go to read Fairy Tail, Bleach or Naruto, where things are solved because the perfect and heroic main character is a saint who can solves all the problems of the world with the power of friendship and/or is able to change the mind of everybody just using the "talk-no-jutsu". And I'm not saying this like a bad thing, Naruto is one of my faves mangas and I like B and FT too.

and about the ending, I see a lot of people expecting some kind of cliché and easy ending, like the typicals about heroes-vs-villains stories of most Marvel's movies and mainstream animes, despite of Isayama himself has said in lot of interviews he wanted to hurt his readers and he loves controversial stories of murderers and monsters.

I don't know how Isayama will finish this. I wish it could be a peaceafull ending where eldians and humans can solve all their problems, but snk was never so positive. If Alliance wins and kills Eren and Isayama still is able to do a realistic and logical ending, giving the world convincent reasons to forgive the eldians of Paradis after that, I will be satisficed. But if Eren wins and kill all the people of the world because that's really the only way to save eldians... I won't blame Isayama. I love bittersweet, different and controversial endings.

I don't want the Alliance to die, specially my babies Armin and Jean, I love them too much, but  whatever if is either Eren who wins or either the Alliance, I would like to see an ending where Eren's survives, because I think that would be very interesting, to see him dealing with the guilt of his crimes during the rest of his life, with some kind of PTSD and trying to keep moving foward with his life despite of that. That would be a million times more interesting than "just kill him because he's bad". No, he deserves to suffers the burden of his actions, same as Reiner did after he back to Marley. The scene when Reiner tried to suicided but didn't it because Falco and Gabi were his reasons to keep living made me felt a lot of emotions, I know a lot of people considered that scene like a meme now, but the emotional impact was amazing. So, if I could choose, I prefer to see a scene of Eren like that, instead ot just being murdered.

[bathroombreaks]

gg 1x02 rewatch

the questions are from @pynkhues, you can find them here.

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

that scene where ruby and stan are watching sara’s game. i love them so much!!! the look ruby gives him just ends me every time, it’s peak heart eyes. and sara answering back that no, they’re not winning is hilarious!!

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

no scene really missed the mark, i think?? but there’s some things that i thought were dumb and would like to talk about so i’ll just put them here: the girls should have just sold the collectibles themselves and given the gang the money. i know they didn’t remember for dumb plot related reasons but like... that’s no excuse, it’s stil dumb as hell. also the fact that annie took off her shoes because nancy wanted to keep the house clean and then immedeatly set them down on the dining room table!!!! that is not keeping things clean!!

3. This episode features Beth’s iconic! gamechanging! monologue! Do you think Rio was intending to kill the girls? And if so, at what point in Beth’s speech do you think he changed his mind?

yeah, absolutely, he was going to kill them. there was no reason not to?? i think he changed his mind when she talked about the hashtags?? it was completely dumb but also valid in a way. like, absolutely no one is going to start a hashtag because 3 women were murdered in a random home invasion but like it does bring up the point that at least the police would care about 3 suburban moms (especially when 2 are white) being murdered (way more than they would about someone who looks like him or one of his boys) and that’s more attention than he needs.

one note that doesn’t fit in anywhere else: i think maybe beth took the whole we have children thing she keeps doing from ruby?? ruby says it first when she decides they should ransom boomer and then again immediately when rio’s guys start breaking stuff. i think beth heard that and ran with it hahaha

4. This episode also introduces Marion to us! What do you think of her? And knowing how her story ends in 3.08, what do you think of her arc and her relationships with Boomer and Annie respectively?

uhhh i am conflicted. she’s a lonely old lady, i feel bad for her. but also she’s racist. i wouldn’t really condone robbing her. but also like they thought the options were rob her or die so i think beth should have taken the money. would they have gotten caught? probably, yes. but they would be alive!! but yeah coming back to marion, i really dislike the fact that annie was cool with eating with her and talking about her grandkids while ruby did all the work and then sought out a relationship with her all the while knowing she’s racist and only ended that friendship when marion personally betrayed her. it’s like that line from community, except modified, y’know: i can excuse racism, but i draw the line at lying to me. i don’t like it. and i don’t think they did enough to at least try to explore that side of it?? we got comments from ruby in 1x02 and then 3x08 but not much else, at least not that i remember. idk, i think at best it’s insensitive of annie not to consider that maybe her black best friend wouldn’t like that she’s friends with a racist woman, even if she’s a lonely old lady??

and when it comes to her dynamic with boomer. boomer really does like her and that’s sweet but he’s an asshole who was taking advantage of her and robbing her blind. it’s yet another case of a woman coddling a man. i like that in the end she stopped coddling him and forced him to do the right thing. i don’t really feel much one way or the other i guess?? we explore the mother figure coddles man-child dynamic with judith and dean too so i don’t think the show really loses anything by losing the boomer/marion dynamic.

5. Ruby has her only (so far at least) direct interaction with Rio in this episode! What do you think of that dynamic in this episode, and where would you like to see it go in the future?

first i wanna say that it’s very dumb that he and his boys somehow managed to walk in and sit down without her noticing. and i loved that she was so brave, going up to him. i guess i don’t have much to say?? she still seemed pretty scared of him in 2x10 and i don’t think that’s changed at all in season 3. i’d love to see how they’d interact now?? but i think it’ll probably be more of that. i would love for the girls to reach a point where they realise that he’s not going to murder them, because i’d love to see what kind of whacky, “no drugs up my butt“ type comments ruby would say then lolol

6. How do you think Beth and Annie got Boomer into the treehouse?

obviously magic. or one of them got up there, threw down some ropes, which they tied around his middle and then they pulled him up the slide with their amazing combined upper body strength. i know everyone emphasises that you can’t miss leg day, but beth and annie are all about arm day, clearly

7. This episode seems ambiguous about Greg and Nancy’s roles in Ben’s life up to this point. How long do you think Greg and Nancy have been together, and how close do you think Ben is with them at this point?

i have no idea. they did not explain this at all.  i guess they must have been married for at least like 2.5-3 years now?? because if she’s doing ivf then they must’ve tried before that. enough time needs to have passed since they married that they’d want kids, which i think would be at least like a year, maybe?? and then enough time for them to try and not be able to get pregnant and then do tests and start ivf. so yeah. 2.5-3 years.

edit: realised i didn’t talk about how close ben is with them. so... i have no idea what their custody agreement is like, but i assume annie is the primary caregiver and it’s more of a seeing each other on weekends and vacation type of thing?? either way, ben likes nancy and gregg. like i said, i think they’ve been together a good while so ben is used to nancy at this point, i think. and he probably thinks she’s sweet. because she is. and i think he probably does find annie’s scathing comments somewhat funny but he mostly goes along with it because he knows annie feels lonely without him, is jealous that gregg is much more put-together and has found himself a serious relationship and finds nancy’s comments off-putting and annoying. with season 2 in mind, i really don’t think nancy means anything by them, but i mean, it’s hard not to be annoyed when someone constantly accidentaly implies you’re not clean.

8. Do you think Beth ever went back (or thought about going back) for Dean’s grandmother’s ring?

uhmmm. no. maybe when he asked about it looking all sad and stuff but after that, no. it’s done, there’s no point thinking about it. “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” and all that jazz.

9. What do you think Stan was thinking when he woke up to Ruby making all those lasagnas? What do you think he was thinking when he, Sara and Harry ate so much of it?

i actually don’t think they ate that much of it tbh?? i don’t see them wasting food. and ruby did at least like 6 trays of lasagna. i didn’t count but she had a bunch already made and then was making more so at least 6. i think at most they ate 1 between them. they might’ve given the other trays to neighbours or something i guess?? but i kind of figured it was more like a symbolic thing and that they kept the rest of the trays in the freezer or something. and i think he probably figured she was back to freaking out and not believing that they were winning. you never know what happens, she could get sick or in a car accident or something. because what else could it be?? i mean if there wasn’t a gang wanting to kill them, i feel like the logical reason why you would do that would be if you were freaking out about your own mortality for non-gang related reasons

10. Has Beth ever seen a dick pic before?

maybe?? if annie got an unasked for dick pic i think she totally would show it to beth and ruby and make fun of the guy. but i don’t think she’s ever gotten one.

11. Is Greg still in love with Annie at this point in the series? Or does he fall in love with her again later in the season? Or not at all?

i have a hard time believing that gregg is love with annie at all?? he’s very in love with the idea of her, y’know the cute eyebrows and stuff, but i don’t really buy that he loves her. and like he needs to have been with nancy for years now at this point so if he’s still in love with annie that somehow makes him even more of an asshole in my eyes?? like i know he cheated. but it’s one thing if he cheated and fell back in love with annie (or thinks so, anyway) and then that didn’t workout and his wife has his kid so they decide to try and work through it, but it’s another thing entirely if he decided to marry nancy and start trying to have a kid with her while still (thinking he’s) in love with annie.

12. That! Hook! What do you think made Rio go back to Beth’s house? What do you think made him take a chance on her?

i think he decided to give her chance because she called him an idiot and he was intrigued by that (read, got a boner). and y’know all that stuff she said about p.f. chang’s and orange slices is true. and that is much easier to ignore than a guy who looks like him. and he figured he could take advantage of that and make that particular job a little easier this time.

[septiembrre]

A non-exhaustive list of all the things I liked about GG 3X04

This was the first episode this season were I solidly liked the whole episode and I wanted to celebrate that for a minute. Here’s my list and futile speculation for future episodes. 

It’s under a cut because... I have a lot of feelings. 

- I loved the Ruby+Annie+Beth scenes in this episode. This was the first episode this season where I felt they finally nailed the dynamic between the three. From the scenes in Beth’s house to the sports bar, to washing cash - funny, wonderful, I want more! 

- I’ll get Dean out of the way here at the top - I didn’t even mind Dean because it was a cementing in of his dumb-assery. The guy might as well be signing the divorce papers. I also was somewhat entertained about Rio the moose, and overall the commentary on how easy it is to buy a gun in Amerikkka. 

- Speaking of guns, Ruby and Annie’s reactions to Dean walking in with a shot gun! So good!  

- I loved the caper in the sports bar. It was fun and funny. I love it when Retta does drama, I love it when Retta does comedy, I love Retta and I liked that she got to shine in this episode.  I also loved that the caper wasn’t ultimately successful but it moved Ruby’s storyline further. I also loved the nod to how much Retta irl loves hockey.

- “I like to see the whole number” - my sweet baby Beth. 

- Annie in the bar saying, “Do you still want to hear it?”

- Mick. His friendship with Mrs. Karpinski. The deep-seated faith I have that one day he’ll be friends with Beth, Ruby and Annie. I can’t wait. 

- Beth asking Mick to drive her to go see Rio.

- THE SCENE. My tired babies are just so tired. I love it. I love Rio actually being vulnerable in that scene. I loved that Rio had a visible reaction to Beth’s line about how he could get someone to chop her up into pieces any time he wanted. Their dialogue. I wondered at how we could ever get a vulnerable Rio again and have it make sense and they just went there last night. I know it didn’t land with everyone watching, but I just loved it. I love them. Easily one of my top scenes between Beth and Rio. Also, I can’t believe we’ve already gotten another bar scene between them! Season 3 - who knew? 

- I adored the music choices this episode from, “Mind your own business” to “Morning Train” to “El Musgo”. A total win for Jonathan Leahy. 

- Beth’s glasses! My sweet queen! They need to come back. 

- The washing cash to “Morning Train”. I loved it. It fully landed with me. It had me laughing along with the ironic lyrics and really feeling for the girls and how much they’re busting their asses. A lot of the time, I don’t feel like the show lets us seem them work enough, and I really liked the montage last night.

- Sarah stashing her money in the same place as Ruby. I love her acting out. Lidya is so great in her role! Also, Ruby’s reaction to finding the cash. 

-  Rio at work in the bar! I can’t believe we hadn’t gotten a scene like that yet, but still consider myself #blessed. 

- The overall posture Manny brings to Rio. 

- The mover guy saying “it’s just a bunch of bitches” while he’s gagged, LOL. 

- The sinister lighting in the bar scene, and the way they half-lit Manny’s face. Just superb.

- The Dean kiss being completely underscored by the Brio scene. Thanks GG team!

- Rio showing up to the Paper Porcupine. The tones of their voices when they talk to each other in this scene. Him not leading with the gun but ultimately taking it out. Him putting it down.  Christina and Manny are so damn beautiful in that scene.

- The song culminating in those big brassy tones when it is revealed that Beth has saved her life.

I was on such a high after that ending scene that it took a minute for it to sink in that Rio’s probably going to swing back into his extra-salty behavior next episode. How much do you want to bet he’s going to buy out the elderly person who owns the Paper Porcupine? 

Personally, if I was Beth, I would be grateful to still be alive considering the ridiculousness that has happened over the past 4 episodes, but the episode summaries indicate that she’s going to try to get out from under his thumb again. I’m sure this will be well-prompted because I can only see this moment of vulnerability passing and him being back at 100% asshole. But, as a person who grew up in an area that has high cartel activity, I’m just like girl!!! Keep your head down and survive. But, regardless, I’m excited for their drama (and holding my breath because I’m sure it’s also going to be painful especially with words like “grisly” being used in the descriptions).  I can’t help but feel bad for Beth - that she finally set up this business and he’s going to completely strong-arm her in it. Eesh, we know our girl is going to fight back. 

[jswdmb1]

24 Frames

“You thought God was an architect, now you know

He's something like a pipe bomb ready to blow

And everything you built that's all for show 

goes up in flames - in twenty- four frames”

- Jason Isbell

This may come as a shock, especially to those who know me well, but I can be very stubborn. Sometimes this can work into my favor as it helps bolster confidence when I take a difficult position that I know is right, or it can help me persist when odds are long such as starting a new business.  But this often is a character trait that I know can hold me back.  In particular, I bristle at things I am told that I “should” do even when it clearly would be in my best interest to do whatever is being suggested.  It usually takes someone equally stubborn to get me to move off of my position, but this did happen recently.

My wife is always on me to watch various different television programs, but I always balk.  I watch some TV but is it well documented (on this blog) that it is pretty much limited to PBS and reruns of old game shows and sitcoms.  I don’t like to leave that comfort zone, and it takes a lot for me to try out a new show – especially one that is episodic that expects you to come back week-after-week. I know that means I miss out on a lot of good stuff, but I’m okay with that as it allows me to keep my time on the tube under control and I don’t get more involved with something than I really want to be.  But on this one particular show, she was quite persistent, and I was challenged to at least give it a try.

The show is Schitt’s Creek, and I am sure you have heard of it if you do not already know it well. If you haven’t seen it, do not worry, as I will not be disclosing too much about the program.  Even if you have heard a lot about it and feel you know the story, part of the charm of the show is watching the characters develop throughout the series, so plot turns and the such are not as important as in some other episodic series.  The basic plot is that an extremely wealthy family of four, including two adult children, are forced to move to a small town when they lose everything overnight due to a business manager not paying taxes.  The series starts with the scene of revenue agents raiding their mansion as the family frantically collects a few belongings, so no time is spent on their past life.  Every moment from the first scene is spent on their life afterwards which involves living somewhere in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of regular folks.  It sounds like a typical fish-out-of-water setting (think the second Bob Newhart show for the closest example), and that is certainly mined for plenty of laughs, but it quickly becomes clear that the show is about much more than this.

That is all you are going to get from me about the actual show, because no more details are relevant to the rest of this post.  Except that the acting in this show is brilliant and worth watching for that alone.  The father and mother are played by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, both of whom I have been watching for decades in their various film roles and on the hilarious SCTV program.  The chemistry between the two is so natural and genuine that you quickly adopt them as Johnny and Moira Rose and forget their 40+ years in show business as other characters.  The children played by Levy’s son Dan and Annie Murphy are equally good and get a lot of the laughs as their clear lack of reality in their past lives plays to insane results when applied to the real world of the town of Schitt’s Creek.  The supporting cast is not just a bunch of wacky neighbors but add much depth to the show and develop themselves over the course of the series, especially the character of Stevie played by Emily Hampshire. The character of Roland Schitt, played by Chris Elliot, may be the best second banana on television since Cosmo Kramer. Again, none of this gives away much if anything about the show or the various plot arcs, but it should give you extra motivation to watch as talent like this collecting in one place is rare indeed.

And why exactly am I so intent on you watching this show?  While the quality of the program and the enjoyment it will provide you is enough reason to dive in, I have discovered a much greater purpose to following the evolving journey of the Roses.  Even though the show was created over five years ago, and largely wrapped production on its sixth season before 2020, it has become for me the perfect allegory for the United States right now.  Our country is going through the same experience that the Roses went through much of the first two seasons.  After the sudden event of COVID-19, we found ourselves much in a place like Schitt’s Creek. Over seven months into this pandemic, we are still stuck in what life was like before and when will it ever return. I do not think this is much of a spoiler alert for anyone who is rational, but how the way things were is never coming back.  COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on our society, and we like to blame it for all of our current problems, but it simply laid bare all of our faults and weaknesses almost overnight.  We are now no longer able to push those existential problems aside and have to face them head on. Many of us are not up for the challenge and would like something to change things back overnight, but that is not happening.  It doesn’t matter if there is a vaccine, or a new president, we have to face that we collectively lived lives that were not grounded in reality and our fates hung delicately in the balance just waiting for something like COVID-19 to come and bring it crashing down.  Just like the Roses lost everything in one quick raid, we now find ourselves building our lives all over again in a strange place where we are very uncomfortable.

Now I know that is difficult to hear and very depressing, but here comes the good part.  Just because things have changed does not necessarily mean that we can’t grow and develop into something even better than we had before. Obviously, a deadly disease like COVID-19 is not something we ever wanted, and it has brought countless suffering and death to too many people, but it does provide for a starting point to helping us grow beyond some of the shallower lives we lead previously.  It may take a lot of tough love, but we will eventually get the virus under control and the big question will be what is next.  For me, there needs to be an evolution past wherever we were before this all went down. I think our guide can be the Rose family in Schitt’s Creek.  The a-ha moment for me came at the end of season two titled “Happy Anniversary”.  I will disclose nothing more about it other than to say it was a transformative episode not only for the Roses, but for my own outlook on things as we move into what will be a very dark winter.  

If you are a watcher of the series, some of this may make more sense to you, but I think even you could benefit from another viewing to see if you can apply some of this to your own life as well.  I am actually only through Season 3 so far (I know enough about what lies ahead to be able to write this post, but it hasn’t ruined a thing for me), but I am already making plans for starting over to pick up things I missed the first time around. And it is important that you start in the beginning and move through the episodes sequentially.  Not so much because you will lose the story, as many of the stories are self-contained within an episode, but because you will miss out on the character development along the way (again, kudos to the actors and actresses in this show who so brilliantly developed these characters). I know this is playing it up quite a bit but trust this one-time reluctant viewer to be assured that your time is going to be well spent.

This many come off as a review, but it really is not.  I mean, if I were a reviewer, I would include some of the above in my story (and end with four stars or whatever the highest rating is), but this has become so much more for me.  It has served as a life-saving antidote to the poison spewed in traditional media and social media that makes me nauseous on a daily basis.  I find myself occasionally daydreaming about a funny scene I saw, or a subtle profound moment in the show, which has replaced some of the constant worry about the pandemic, or economy, or the election, all of which have a life-or-death feeling to them.  It has proven to be a rare new tool in my arsenal against anxiety and it will end up being one of my lasting memories of 2020.  That is a lot to say for one show about a year as particularly disastrous as this one, but I sincerely believe that.  

So, don’t be like me and be stubborn if you haven’t seen this show.  As soon as you read my last sentence, get yourself on Netflix and start watching with Season 1, Episode 1.  And make sure you don’t have anywhere to be tomorrow because the one negative is that it will be hard to stop once you get started.  But I think it is okay right now to binge on something that is finally showing us that there is a way to succeed in life without putting others down or placing selfish pursuits over relationships.  So, dig in and enjoy and I promise that I have learned one other thing throughout this experience – keep an open mind.  Because when you keep your mind closed, you shut out a world of possibilities, even when that world seems to have none.  

Enjoy,

Jim

[meladis]

The Boys: Season 1/ Spoiler Free Review

So, I just finished watching the new TV-show (which I have been waiting pretty much since its very announcing) and, boy (haha), it’s was diabolical.

That a very bad feeling, when you’re waiting for something for too long, getting excited for every piece of information you receive and then when it comes out, you realize that your expectations were much bigger than this show/movie/book can offer you. Fortunately, watching this show (especially first 5 episodes of it) I couldn't stop but feeling some kind of relief as the show was surprisingly good. 

Without any further discussion let me try to tell you what good and bad sides of the show are.

1. Visual effects

Though I believe the show didn’t have a big budget, the visual effects were pretty good, all this blood and supe’s “stuff” looked very cool and pleasant for eyes to watch. Moreover, I really liked the colouring the creators decided to use which gives this show its very unique style. And every “the boys” opening was just as perfect as you can only imagine it to be. That’s all I can say, like, really.

2. Music

Oh, boi. I can’t describe how AWESOME the music in the show was. I’m not talking about the original soundtrack which really suits the whole atmosphere but the songs that were used there. It not only introduces every character with his/her own character-describing theme but makes every shot diabolically stylish. I mean I’m listening to those songs on repeat. Very cool stuff. Even better than The Umbrella Academy’s, though, it’s very hard for me to admit it. 

Btw, my favs are “Iggy Pop - The Passenger”, “Daniel Pemberton - Take You Down”, “R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts” and “Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine”.

3. Characters

That’s gonna be a very big topic, prepare yourselves to this. 

Billy Butcher. Played by diabolical Karl Urban this character stole my attention with the first trailers, promos etc. Man, he’s good. He’s awesome. Though I can’t tell that while watching the show itself Bucher was my favourite because there were some moments (especially with his wife) that weren’t emotional enough (comparing to the more or less the same theme in Punisher, for example). I wasn’t on his side fully. That’s why the ending didn’t play to me as it supposed to. Though yeah, he’s diabolical.

Hugh "Hughie" Campbell. So, Hughie was definitely the one who had a character developing line in the show and with that said he was growing as a person throughout the whole season. I really like what the creators did with him, and his line was never boring, always understandable and interesting. Really into what is going to happen with him in the 2nd season.

John/Homelander. Antony Starr did an amazing job showing this very complex character. My thoughts towards him were changing constantly during the process of watching. Closer to the end he was stealing every scene. What a character, what a story. You bought me, I’m waiting for the 2nd season.

Annie January/Starlight. I was afraid her line wouldn’t be as complex as it could have been, comparing to the others. I was wrong. I really sympathized her, her story was actually sad and inspiring at the same time. Cool. 

Frenchie. That was a “surprise” character for me. I mean, I didn’t expect to worry about him, but his line turned out to be very interesting and very enjoyable to watch. 

A-Train. I hate this character from the beginning to the end. Maybe the final episode’s stuff changes him and I won’t be so certain about my feelings? We’ll see. 

“Can you teach me to run out cancer?”

Marvin "Mother's Milk". I don’t know if it were just my thoughts but while watching I felt like Marvin was really left out. Maybe it was because of the number of the characters the show had or the creators decided to leave something for the 2nd season, but there wasn’t a lot of him on the screen and his character's development. I don’t know him that much.

Kimiko / the Female. Her storyline was actually something very new to me. I was into her story and every new piece of information we were given gave her a very new perspective look. Hoping to see more of her in the future.

Queen Maeve. As in the situation with Marvin, there is something in her, and we were shown her character changing (the plane scene and its consequences) but still, could have been more? 2nd season, ha?

Kevin/The Deep. That was a very weird part of the story, I didn’t get it, really. So I have very mixed up feelings about this character and... cough *gills* cough scene.

Madelyn Stillwell. She was a person with her own motivation, she had her view on everything, she knew what she wanted. Maybe, that’s why I considered her as the main villain of the season.

Hugh Campbell. They got Simon Pegg!!! Yaaas.10 unexpected cameos out of 10.

There are much more characters, some of which were more interesting than the others, but everybody felt like they belonged there. Diabolical cast.

4. The Main Plot

Attention! I haven’t read the comics, so all that I’m going to talk about is the show. I don’t know what’s going in comics and I’m judging just by what I’ve seen in the show.

As you could have noticed, I said at the very beginning that the first 5 episodes were good. I didn’t lie. In fact, they were perfect. The structure, the dynamic, character’s development, their relations with each other, diabolical actions scenes, blood and stuff. 

The first 5 episodes were iconic, very stylish, unique. The authors really decided to make a satirical story on superheroes and the real situation in the world, showing some stuff that is happening or more likely to happen within the circumstances. The people, events were so down to earth it was very easy to believe that such things really could have happened. 

And the plot. It was interesting, so much mystery, unknown and I was sitting, asking myself a bunch of questions and hoping to find astonishing answeres later in the season.

And the Spicy Girls’ reference - I laughed so hard. Awesome.

Unfortunately, something went a little bit wrong and starting with the 6th episode it wasn’t as exciting as it was before. I can’t tell that everything went wrong and it was impossible to watch, no. Just the tone and the style were gone, for some reason, plot twists didn’t work for me that much (not all of them, of course). I just found myself looking on the timeline of the episode (you know what I mean). 

Also, I thought, in the end, there would be a big diabolical fight between two characters (spoiler-free, hehe), but there was a scene of them just talking. Don’t get me wrong, I like talking stuff, it just didn’t feel like those character’s actions. Maybe again, the budget. But first five episodes worked with it, so why?

In the end, it was a very diabolical TV-show, and I’m going to watch the 2nd season, hoping that the creators won’t lose their style and motives closer to the end of it, ‘cause people are likely to remember last moments than the first ones)

Gonna give it 8,5 diabolical supes out of 10 (for the first five episodes).

[annavolovodov]

so i recently binged all of home fires (i knew what i was getting in for and yet,,, still can't not watch a period drama w 12 women as the leads) but like can you give me a run down of what happens to the character's (esp Teresa's) plots in the books as i don't have the time to read them but i need to know what happens to everyone!

(anon abt home fires again) so i jsut found your rundown of everything that happens in the second part. I honestly cried reading the shit that happens w teresa. having her and annie together would've been so good and the way you ran down how they could've done it was exactly what i was thinking. god i'm pissed w shows doing things like this. what happens w Sarah? is she in the other part? have you read the other part(s?) yet?

Welcome to the fandom! 

Bear in mind it’s been over a year since I last read the books and I gave up after volume 3 because I literally couldn’t deal with the poor writing anymore but I’ll try to give a quick summary.

Spoilers under the cut!

It starts a little before the end of the finale but you don’t get any new or important information. The way the chapters are written means that some prominent characters from the show don’t get that much focus or development and Simon Block has a really irritating habit of retconning stuff from his own series. I also got the impression throughout that he doesn’t quite know his characters as there were some severely OOC moments (Alison leaves Boris behind during a bombing!!!!! wtf!!!!!!!!!!) so yeah, you haven’t missed much.

Everyone survives the plane crash, albeit with some injuries. We don’t spend much time with the Brindsleys but the baby was a girl (called Vivian) and while Miriam is certain that the worst is over for all of them, Bryn isn’t so sure.

We don’t hear much from Joyce, either, though she has anxiety issues from the accident. Pat and Bob have moved in with her temporarily due to the destruction of their house and Bob is enjoying having someone new to fuss over him. Pat receives no letters from Marek and worries about him, then starts writing anonymously to the Mass Observation service that’s recording life during the war. She details Bob’s abuse, how much she hates him and discusses her affair with Marek. At the very end she finds out that Marek has been trying to contact her after all but Bob has been intercepting the letters.

Erica and Will both survive but the accident has exacerbated Will’s condition to the point he has only mere weeks left. Erica has to deal with the knowledge that her husband will soon die and the family decides to bring him home to the village. These chapters were some of the best written imo. Also, a new doctor arrives and doesn’t quite fit in.

Frances decides to send Noah to boarding school but evidently misses him as she keeps calling the headmaster. She eventually comes to love him like a son but receives word that he’s ran away from school and went missing.

The very little content we get on Sarah is often from Frances’ storyline but she doesn’t get much focus on her own. Likewise for Steph and Laura: they get practically nothing.

Alison is depressed after the events of last season. She misses Teresa and Frances still won’t forgive her for the factory drama. A bunch of people from Liverpool show up in the village taking shelter in the fields from the bombing. Some villagers are angry about this and others want to help them. This one guy shows up and starts hanging around Alison and I just know some forced het nonsense is on the horizon there.

Teresa’s stuff, well, you already know, but I want to reiterate how garbage it is. As you know, there are details we really did not need on her sex life with Nick and she eventually loses her job due to her marriage, too. Essentially she ends up completely isolated from the rest of the village and her whole life revolves around Nick 🙃

Annie still has hardly any development and is Just Kinda There. I’m sure there’s some sort of scene between her and Teresa that I think was supposed to be romantic but I found quite horrible, I can’t remember what it was though. I think there’s some sort of argument, Annie basically calls Teresa a coward for marrying Nick and then kisses her. Idk but I remember thinking “wow what a mess” followed by “we have to ban straight men from writing”.

Honestly if you want to know what happens next just read some fanfiction. Most works on the Home Fires AO3 are Teresa-centric and do a much better job of continuing the storyline than the actual books.

I hope this has answered some questions for you and if there’s anything else you want to ask (or if you want to discuss Home Fires in general) please just message me!

[snkpolls]

SnK Chapter 103 Poll Results

The chapter 103 poll closed with 2,013 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Another month, another chapter that left people feeling excited! 98% of poll takers rated chapter 103 from good to excellent!

I just cant wait for the next chapter. I'm so HYPED

I like that Isayama for the first time since rts showcased a fast-paced action-packed chapter. Too many questions rn, but imo zeke is 100% w/ paradis, falco won’t die and the female titan will appear, regardless of its inheritor. Eren’s transformation was jizz-worthy

This chapter was both so thrilling and yet so frustrating.  On one hand, so much is happening in just the right amount of panels and it seems Isayama has learned the art of pacing in this arc more successfully than others.  I'm a sucker for tragedy, so the conflicted misery of what is going on is satisfying given the history of the series.  On the other hand, I am still very frustrated in figuring out what exactly is going on, what is being implied, specifically anything involving Zeke

I don’t know what to say. I feel so empty. But the chapter is great!

This month it was a tie for most emotional moment between “Falco trying to encourage unconscious Reiner” and “Armin finally appearing, looking haunted”. We are happy to see that people who love both sides of the conflict were able to have a good emotional tug with this chapter! 

Pretty much every panel that included Falco.  This poor, traumatized child who ran into a literal war zone to get help.

Why are all my waifus getting killed.

With Reiner having no will to live, I guess he’s just going to stay in that crystal thing. Why do we have so many shifters in crystals now (Annie, Lady Tybur and now Reiner)?

I absolutely loved the scene between Falco and Reiner. That was one of the most emotional and sweet moments in SNK. Reiner was ready to sacrifice himself to save the child. I truly love how warm and protective he is towards children. I hope that both will survive. I want Reiner to find happiness and see how great person he really is. He made mistakes but regrets them. He learnt his lesson. Now is time to move on.

This one was a landslide win with Armin’s entrance taking the victory. It seems that months of waiting to see his return finally paid off! We’re sure many of you guys are hoping to see his Colossal form next month!

Eren transforming three times within a half an hour is incredible, but the most amazing part of the chapter was Armin's entrance as the colossal titan. The explosion looked catastrophic, can't wait to see it animated!

I literally screamed when I saw Armin, I’m so happy to see him with the Survey Corps, but his face worries me slightly. I’m also sad we didn’t get to see his titan form.

Not as epic as the last one but so glad to see Armin again. Sasha's sniping skills and Eren mindblowing everybody (Porco in particular) were the best parts.

While the majority of you guys are certain Zeke is only acting on his own agenda, there’s plenty of division on whether he could be siding with Eren alone or with Paradis as a whole. One thing that does seem certain to the majority is that he’s definitely not working in Marley’s favor. 

Zeke probably thinks he and Eren are the same because they were both manipulated by Grisha or so he thinks. If he realizes that Eren probably doesn't hate their dad, Zeke's attitude towards his brother will possibly change. 

Zeke's the one with most awareness that the cycle will repeat so long as shifters exist, his unique perspective is knowing what Grisha taught him as well as having the total trust of the Marley from a young age, and having physically gone and seen the island and witnessed their struggles with the titans, and met Eren who is the direct result of Grisha's continued plans.  There is no one who should be more impartial and aware that this is a unending cycle, it seems he's finally coming to terms with having to do something about it after all his life simply being a pawn of people in what he assumed was a more influential position than him.

Every chapter I say "This is definitely the chapter we finally see what Zeke is up to" and every chapter it just gets more confusing...

I seriously doubt that Zeke is working with Paradis. One thing would be to act like an enemy but he literally killed a bunch of SC soldiers, I doubt the SC would be ok with that. Also, Levi looked PISSED AF! I doubt Zeke died and he's still suspicious but I'm betting on him having his own ulterior motives.

I don't think Zeke is working with the SC. It was hard to answer these questions when the options contradict my feelings and understanding of the chapter so much.

So. Good ol' Zeke. He's like David S. Pumpkins; he's his own thing. I'm still of the belief that he's working towards his own objective but now I'm more open to the idea that he may have something set up with SC via Eren as his point of contact (who, of course, is definitely working with/for SC). But it's clear that even if they are both aware of the chain of events unfolding before their eyes, both sides have something they want badly in the end and will probably "betray" each other without hesitation to get it at some point.

The survey corps has a plan but Zeke and Eren also have a separate plan they're not aware of. And on top of all of that Zeke has his own plan for his own personal agenda.

Zekerets

The general consensus is that there’s more in store for Zeke in this story, even if it means he managed to transfer his consciousness to his Eldian ass. ;) Most of you are positive we will be seeing more from Zeke in future chapters!

If Zeke is dead, I will watch the live action movie 10 times in a row

Levi cut Zeke out of the Beast Titan's neck while everyone was distracted by Armin's transformation. Then after Zeke made his getaway, Levi blew the shit out of the rest of the nape to destroy the evidence and make everyone think Zeke was dead.

Zeke escaped upwards using 3dmg right as levi was supposed to attack him, causing zeke to be assumed KIA

Well, looks like Zeke has been vaporised, playtime's over kids, let's head back home now!

I find it hard to believe that Zeke got taken down this easily again. I also find it odd that we don't see the clothing he's wearing inside his titan, but we do see what the others are wearing in their titans. Looking back, it seems that's the way it was before, too. But I think it would be a cool plot twist if he had 3DMG equipped this time, considering he did take Mike's 3DMG a while back.

While the majority believe that Levi is working along with Zeke, there is division on whether Levi has decided to let go of his promise to Erwin to kill Zeke. Over half of the voters believe that Levi still intends to kill Zeke when all is said and done, but a good 31% of you believe that he may have decided to let it go for the greater goal.

If the Zeke-Survey Corps alliance isn't real then Isayama must be the biggest troll ever. Also, I believe Levi has always shown that he'll do what's best for humanity/Eldia (even if it means doing unpleasant things) so I don't think the alliance is as far-fetched as other people believe.

Still waiting for that sweet Levi's Revenge™

Levi!   I love how emotional Levi gets when it comes to keeping his promise to Erwin; nothing can get a rise out of him anymore or get him to max rage except Zeke.  I hope we find out sooner rather than later what Zeke is up to, but there is no way that Levi is going to let him walk out of this alive, even if he is part of the current plan.  

Regarding Levi wanting to Kill Zeke, while he'd prefer to kill him by his own hands we already know he'd be willing to feed him to someone so the Titan power isn't lost. I personally think Zeke agreed, since he has a a year left at best,

While there was a small shift in ratio, the majority of you guys still believe that Pieck is not totally trustful of Zeke. There have been plenty of analyses floating around believing that she may have seen Zeke leaving the Beast Titan after Levi’s attack. 

The question about Pieck being mistrustful of Zeke isn't worded very well because if I answer yes it makes it seem like I'm part of the 70% and haven't changed my mind when I'm in fact part of the 30% and haven't changed my mind.

This question was mainly for fun, but Lady Tybur decidedly wins the award for Best “Bitch Please” Face™. Hopefully we get more fun looks from her next chapter! 

Imma let you finish, but Lady Tybur has the best side eye in all of SnK

Ms. Tyber has the best death glare!

There’s some division on this question, but it’s a near-tie between Armin getting involved in the fight and the Paradis crew’s ticket out of Marley showing up. 

They'll drop sour cream bombs

At this point John Cena might as well show up.

Annie will arrive (let me dream)

I think time is running for them to scape "safely", but not necessarily through a zeppelin

I think what Jean & Zeke mean by "It's almost time/times running out" is that Eren needs to make contact with Zeke before the Colossal Wall Titans arrive so Eren will be able to control them. If Eren doesn't touch Zeke before the Wall Titans arrive, everyone including the SC & Eldians will die.

I believe that the question about the lights up are relationed with Hanji, after all, Armin is too distance. In fact, I think that the thoughts about an escape through a zepplin are a little bit awkward.  And I think that zeke escaped using the DMT, wich he took when he said goodbye to piecke and porko, before eren showed up.

Most of you still believe that Jean is clinging onto his humanity (and with good reason after he called Floch out in the previous chapter for being too zealous). The expectation is that he will avoid harming Falco or that someone else will step in and do the dirty work instead. 

I noticed that jean is only attacking the shifters on shiganshina battle arc. which can tell a lot about his war ethics and strategics. he’s only fighting those who declared war on them first, almost as if trying to ignore those who got caught up into it.

Jean will kill Falco. I think becasue it's a callback for that girl from MP that Jean couldn't kill from Uprising

Last month nearly all of the scores were tied with both pessimism and optimism about Annie’s fate. This month, there seems to be more optimism, but most people are still hanging out in the area of uncertainty. We hope to get a clear answer soon!

Since Eren said that the crystal was, as expected, unbreakable AFTER pointing out it was like Annie's, I take that to mean he has tried chewing Annie's crystal open but failed like he did this time. I'm not sure why so many people seem to be taking this to mean that he was able to eat Annie when the scene actually reassures me that he hasn't

I had absolutely no hope for Annie being alive, but seeing Lady Tybur being conscious while inside the crystal changed my mind. Annie could still be alive. And if she is, she spent YEARS in the crystal while being aware of her surroundings??? I am shook

It has already been hinted several times that Annie would eventually return. I don't think Isayama would forget about her, and if it appears to be true, that she's returning next chapter, I hope to see her work with the Survey Corps, or a backstory/flashback, which explains the reason why she'll be working with the Survey Corps from now on.

Almost 35% of you are ready to just see Lady Tybur kick the bucket already, but a good 28% of you would at least like to see her have a chat with Eren first.

why do so many people want lady tybur to die?? i don’t understand?? she’s cool and has done nothing wrong to anyone like ever??? she’s even called a villain?? excuse me tell me one villainous thing she did?? she’s a decent human being but i guess how dare she beat eren’s ass up and defend her people... 🤦🏻‍♀️

Eren needs to swallow her whole (insert lemmy face)

Over 60% of you believe that the Survey Corps’ goal is to kill the enemy titan shifters.

I strongly disagree with having only 2 options in the "capture or to kill them?" question. The real answer, is, I believe, either one. If they can deprive Marley of a weapon and add it to their strength, is clearly the ideal. But, if the choice comes down to kill or they escape, they'll absolutely just kill them. Depriving your enemy of a weapon is always a better choice than letting them continue attacking you with it, in the hopes you could take it later.

I still maintain that the goal was to avoid any and all combat with the shifters; hence Pieck and Porcos trap. (Why bother setting the whole thing up? Why not just kill them?) My guess is that capturing them for their titan powers was the next step, although that's obviously failed. I feel like the end game here is to gather all the titan somehow and unite them for...??? Something??? World peace??? Shit, that sounds like a good idea. Unrealistic but good.

It’s a near-tie between believing that either Zeke orchestrated capturing Porco and Pieck or believe that he did it as a larger plan with the Survey Corps.

Maybe Zeke wanted to isolate Pieck and Porco in the trap, to save their lives?

Most of you seem to have given up on figuring out Trapdoor-kun’s identity. But a fair chunk of you think it could have been a current day Eldian restorationist! There’s still a good amount of you who believe it’s Connie as well.

Hiroyuki Sawano

Erwin it was erwin. You thought he was dead? You fool he's not!  He's immortal,  he's still here and  with the strength of his eyebrows he will kick everyone's ass.

I really don't care at this point

One thing is certain, at least 65% of you guys believe that the Jaeger Brothers have the best Eldian asses! It seems nice booties run in the family! 

I can forgive people supporting  Marley, but WHO THE HELL VOTED ON ZEKE ASS?????

Everyone who chose zeke’s Titan as having the best ass is a furry goodbye

Levi is jealous of Zeke's Eldian ass.

porco got a nice ass uwu

That question.... I don't care about titan's butts -_-

I like Eldian asses

Predicting who Isayama kills off has always been difficult, but over half of you believe that Pieck is going to be toast in the next chapter, with Jean following in  second, Porco a distant third.

Gabi you better not be aiming that rifle at my husbando Jean also can everyone of Paradis and Eldia have a party at the newly created bay, I want the warriors AND the SC to live please and thank you

Pieck and Porco will likely die next chapter 😪

I swear to god Flocke if you lay even one finger on little Falco or Gabi I will personally hunt you down, you'll be lucky if I find you first though. Because other wise the Armored titan will kill you dead. You will then, rest in pieces.

Protect Jean and Falco 2k18

pieck cant die, nor can any 104th  members

At 57%, a majority are thirsty for answers on the Paradis Crew’s last 4 years. 

I need Paradis flashbacks but first I'd like to be sure no one major dies, thanks.

I stg we'll have that fucking Paradis flashback right before Levi's death. Fucking Isayama.

I really don’t want a crap ton of flashbacks I’m Ngl I just kinda wanna get moving I know the q and a said stuff but like that’s my thought at the moment.

I really hope the next chapters a flashback to paradis i mean it would be neat for the 104th chapter to be a flashback ABOUT THE 104TH

As expected of the redditors, you’re still the overwhelming majority of the poll takers! ;)

ANY OTHER CHAPTER THOUGHTS YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?

So chomping down on Lady Tybur's crystal won't break it and apparently neither will the thunder spears. We still haven't seen Eren try to use his hardening ability to break it but honestly, I think his only option now is to use the coordinate. It could be revealed soon that only the person inside the crystal can break themselves out and by using the coordinate, Eren can order her to do so. After all, we've seen Eren control mindless titans, but would unlocking the full powers of the founding titan allow him to control shifters as well?

Bertholdt's death was such a surprise to Porco... When Reiner returned to Marley, he gave his full report about what had happened, so if he was aware of Bertholdt's death, then he would have reported it, thus leading to Porco knowing that Bertholdt was already dead. Does that mean that Reiner has no idea that Bertholdt is dead? Was he hoping that Bertholdt managed to escape and was still alive on Paradis?

"Friendship ended with mr Kruger, now Reiner is my best friend." - Falco

Personally I'm not a huge fan of action heavy chapters like this as they take a few read throughs to get a good picture of what's going on. Although I do think the intention at the minute is to make us feel a bit lost as to motivations and who is supporting who. So I'm going to roll with it and be surprised when the reveals happen.

I think Porco will get Marcel's confession memory soon.

Even if it's all a plan made by Zeke and Scouts, the fact that SC soldiers still died , unaware of the bigger plan, makes me really sad. It's like with the plan to capture Annie back in the Giant Trees forest and Stohess. Back then it was Erwin who organized the plan, now it's Hanji's turn?

I. WANT. ANNIE. TO. RETURN.

I want Bert to Mufasa the fuck out of Reiner

Zeke is lucky he had royal blood as a bargaining chip to convince Paradis to team up. Otherwise he stood no chance if they had to fight for real. I don't think Zeke is a master planner, maybe he has an end goal, but he isn't a genius who has planned every step to get there. He gets lucky and bailed out by others and his conveniently relevant Senju DNA too often to be a keikaku master.

GIB COLOSSAL NO-LONGER-COCONUT

In before Jean's thrust into mortal danger via Gabi and Armin shows up to save his ass at the last second YET AGAIN

everyone simmer down like people in this fandom need to steal some of erens drinks from his apparently extensive alcohol stash like gdi I’m losing it guys I have a family and stuff I have alife and y’all losinf it and making me go crazy too like w t f.

Honestly, I was over the moon when Levi took down Zeke, but it did seem a little too easy...I highly doubt Zeke would go down easily. Also, Armin's haunted expression broke my heart. You can see the pain in his eyes, and that makes me even more curious about what's happened on Paradis over the last few years.

In my first read i thought that Armin had a ponytail and i got excited. Some users corrected me and when i re-read the chapter i found it was just his hand. I feel betrayal

Eren has more stamina than the Energiser Battery Rabbit: he can just keep on going, and going, and going...

I spent the entire chapter going "Get back in the damn titan, Porco!" I died with the panzer squad. RIP me."

Low key I have had no idea what’s been happening since 101