#i ​think this was supposed to be based on the final battle 2010 but it may have some inaccuracies 💖

[kippdipp]

goin through it 😮‍💨 ("it" being a very sudden and overwhelming pro wrestling fascination)

[marshmallowprotection]

Combining my special interests together and you get to hear about it. So, everyone who was in the early 2010s mlp fandom has probably heard of Vannamelon. In 2016 she started this Halloween series, and one of the characters from it reminds me so much of Saeran. For some context, basically there’s sentient fruit? Well, basically fruit gijinkas? Living in societies like us. Each fruit has their own powers. Sour fruits are discriminated against, called “evil” and considered weaker than sweeter fruits. This causes a character named Lemon (this one reminds me of Saeran) to develop a hatred for sweet fruits. She sees another character, Melon (the channel mascot) gain this huge fanbase and decides to try and take everything Melon has for herself. Lemon is hellbent on revenge for everything she’s gone through. I don’t think there’s a single moment in the series before (spoilers) she gets redeemed that we see her even THINK about anything else. She sees Melon as stronger than her and thinks that if she just takes everything Melon has she can become strong. After a couple years of trying different elaborate schemes and failing every time, Melon and Lemon have a final battle where a third party intervenes and steals both Melon and Lemon’s power. Whereas Melon still has her audience, Lemon is left with nothing. For the past five years, her entire life was based around getting revenge, but now she can’t do that anymore. She doesn’t even know who she is outside of it. Melon lets Lemon stay with her because she doesn’t really have anywhere else to go, and we get to see Lemon trying to adjust to having a normal life. She essentially turns into a domesticated but still sort of feral cat. Anyways! Literally everything she does reminds me of Saeran, they’re so much alike and I love both of them so dearly

I've never heard of this before but I could definitely see where you could find a genuine overlap.

Somebody fixated on revenge and nothing else for years at a time? Yeah, we all know who that is. But at the same time, we know that that desire for revenge is more nuanced than hating someone for the reason we're given at face value. I suppose, in this case, the full photo requires a lot of care.

There's always an underlying reason, and most of the time it has something to do with something they were tricked about by another person (here's looking at you, Saeran Choi) or something they've just internalized about themselves that they're insecure over that another person has that they don't (here's me assuming that's the plot here.)

[adamwatchesmovies]

Pixels (2015)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Based on the 2010 short of the same name by Patrick Jean, Pixels has some neat visuals… and nothing else to offer. Even video game and arcade enthusiasts won't like it, as the film is more concerned with giving Adam Sandler’s posse pay checks and indulging in nostalgia than utilizing the tools at its disposal to full effect.

As a child, Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler) became a champion of arcade games until he was defeated by his rival Eddie Plant (Peter Dinklage) in the world championship’s final round. Years later, Sam has a chance to make a name for himself when aliens misinterpret old video game footage as a declaration of war and attack our planet with arcade-inspired creations.

Kevin James as the President of the United States. Pixels is a sci-fi comedy but even so, our suspension of disbelief only goes so far! The man just doesn’t fit the role. For the most part, however, everyone else who appears in the film - Adam Sandler as himself, Josh Gad as the conspiracy-theory obsessed nerd who lives in his basement, Michelle Monaghan as a weapons developer who will inevitably fall for Sandler’s character even though they hate each other upon first sight - do fine with their parts. It’s the material they’ve been handed that spells "game over".

There are many unkind words we could use to describe Pixels. “Self-indulgent”, “unfunny”… but I’m going to choose is “lazy”. It’s a movie about arcade games which gets basic things about the games it’s showcasing wrong. Cheat codes for arcade games? Why would those exist when the machines were designed to eat quarters? A Smurfs arcade game? I couldn’t find evidence that one ever existed. Apparently the barrels and fireballs in Donkey Kong move without pattern… even though they do in real life. And that’s just scratching the surface. This film operates without any semblance of logic. In one battle between mankind and the aliens, the players must operate under rules which emulate the game - Pac Man being a good example. In other scenes, like when the heroes play a jumbo-sized version of Centipede, our “team” is allowed hundreds of players. When we get to the final challenge (Donkey Kong), anyone can do whatever they want regardless of whether it’s possible in the game they’re supposedly playing.

This is a significant disappointment from director Chris Columbus, whose career has had its ups and downs but doesn’t typically churn out this type of Happy Maddison slop. Every fifteen minutes, the film seems to be think that someone screaming is the pinnacle of hilarity. Over and over, a lame sex joke gets snuck in there and we get a speech from someone about how the good old days were awesome and how today, well things just aren’t the same. Many aspects of Pixels feel like they’ve been pulled from a time long gone that we'd rather forget. Most notably, the romantic sub plots, who are so awful you’re tempted to give the actresses standing ovations for playing their parts without cringing.

If you’ve seen the 2010 Pixels short, there’s no reason to see this full-length film. Adam Sandler’s usual comedic antics add nothing to the cool voxel look and the visual gags in its 2-minute running time isn't improved by cameos by Serena Williams or Nick Swardson. I suppose Happy Madison fans may find some of it enjoyable but that's just a theory. (May 10, 2019)

[mythicamagic]

Sesskag Week: Day One ‘Green’

Title: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before

Summary: Kagome witnesses Inuyasha and Kikyo in another loving embrace and runs away, stumbling straight into Sesshoumaru that moonlit night. (My attempt at an old fandom trope.)

Rated T

Words: 4,000

You can read this on Ao3, Dokuga and Fanfiction.net 

AN: I just wanted to try my hand at an old sesskag fandom trope that I reckon was in the height of popularity from the early 2000s- 2010s. Other tropes from that time included Abusive Inuyasha, no one knowing what the canon end or final battle was like, and mokomoko being sentient. Ah...old memories. If this fic feels like it's from a bygone era, well...that was the intention lol. For Sesskag Week Day One - Green.

-----

Standing frozen stiff, Kagome stared ahead. A gasp remained locked behind her teeth. Slim fingers dug into the bark of a tree she'd hidden behind, gazing around the trunk towards a couple cradling each other tightly.

This was the second time. The first had hit harder inside her chest, the slam of heartbreak cracking the fragile shell of first love that had closed around her heart.

But she'd made a promise to Inuyasha; to remain by his side. She needed to get over this haze of green misting her eyes, the jealousy roaring through her veins. Inuyasha and Kikyo used to be lovers, it was perfectly natural and humane to want to hold his lost love.

That didn't make it any easier to see.

In fact, the emotion welling up in her throat threatened to burst louder than before. Fearing the strength of her own reaction, Kagome stepped back. She took another, then another, whirling around to flee into pitch-black darkness.

I wanted to be more mature about this, she thought. The tears stinging her eyes bespoke of her anger, worry, and heartache- like an old wound had been freshly ripped open anew.

Kagome couldn't be understanding or mature, not like poised Lady Kikyo likely could. Kagome was 15, emotive and sparking. She was fire, passion, a roaring flame of anger that could climb so high nothing would stifle it.

Stumbling over tree roots in the dark, quiet woods, Kagome ran blind. When she felt that she'd covered enough ground, far away from the lover's embrace, she stopped abruptly in the middle of a meadow. Sweat beading her temple and throat burning, she threw back her head.

And yelled.

She threw all turbulent emotions into it, crying so loud her windpipe protested. The noise became horse and broken before she stopped.

Standing within that moonlit clearing, Kagome caught her breath, tears threatening to spill over.

"Must you make such noise in the dead of night?" a steady voice drawled.

Her chest constricted, breath halting. Shadows peeled off from the trees, a figure revealing itself under the moonlight.

Kagome blinked hard, trying to fight tears as Sesshoumaru stepped closer. She moved back to keep distance, vaguely wary. Shit, she'd forgotten her weapons.

He wasn't an enemy per se anymore but they weren't exactly allies either. Since he'd adopted that human girl, they seemed to be in more of a stalemate. Nonetheless, the caprice of the Killing Perfection's moods were unpredictable.

"M-my bad, I didn't think anyone was around."

"You cried like a wounded animal," his lips curved, as though enjoying the thought. "Take heed, girl; such wailing will disturb demons with keen hearing- and not all are as forgiving as I tonight."

"Right, duly noted," she mumbled, rubbing her arm. Damn it. She'd just wanted a place to cry. Sesshoumaru was the last person she wanted to feel vulnerable around.

Golden eyes slid up to observe something beyond the trees. Turning to follow his line of sight, her chest constricted- glimpsing a trailing soul collector in the sky.

"Inuyasha's dead priestess uses those creatures, does she not?"

"Y-yeah, they're Kikyo's soul collectors."

His attention returned to her face, resting heavily there. It disquieted her until at length, he finally made a noise. "...Hn."

The Daiyouki smoothly pivoted, walking out of her available vision to meld within thick darkness again, but she sensed him linger beneath the trees, perhaps taking a seat.

"Keep the snivelling to a minimum."

Kagome startled, blue eyes widening. The first tear fell- closely followed by the second. Soon a stream of them flooded down her face, and she crumpled to her knees, palm clasped tight over her mouth as she tried not to sob.

She wasn't sure how or why. How she could suddenly fall apart in front of him when Kagome prided herself on not crying in front of anyone if it were possible. The why also remained a mystery- why did he invite her to stay? Sesshoumaru was not a charitable sort. Perhaps his sadistic streak enjoyed the salt of endless tears.

Kagome stayed there, quivering in the moonlit clearing for a good while, grass cushioning her bare legs, arms wrapped around herself protectively. When at last the sobs abated, she shakily stood.

Without a word to the demon who had watched her like a voyer of her pain, Kagome headed towards the village after piecing herself back together.

She couldn't see Sesshoumaru's expression, nor the way in which citrine eyes followed her figure until she stepped out of sight.

---

It wasn't like Kagome cried after every damn encounter with Kikyo, though they did leave her worn and exhausted. She felt mighty proud of not bursting into sobs the second Inuyasha's eyes lingered on her a little too long. But Kagome could bear that. She could bear many things.

It was fine, totally fine. She was fine!

Until she wasn't.

It had been two months since that emotional night and thankfully Sesshoumaru hadn't acknowledged her fine display of despair and teenage hormones. In fact, he seemed a little quieter during their encounters while hunting for Naraku, pinpointing her amidst her friends and eyeing her carefully sometimes.

So it was with mild surprise that Kagome stumbled into him again on one such occasion where she needed a good cry. And then again a few weeks after- followed by another encounter near a waterfall a month later. Every time, Sesshoumaru said nothing. He merely waited a respectable distance away, not particularly looking at, nor acknowledging her sorrow as she let out pent up frustrations.

What should be an immensely private thing had changed. Kagome wasn't sure what to feel about it, especially when he began erecting barriers around the area.

Almost like he was ensuring her privacy while continuing to invade it himself.

"W-why…?" she choked out one evening, sitting upon a log with only the Daiyoukai for company. Inuyasha and the others were none the wiser, sitting back at camp further within the forest. "Why are you here, hanging around? Is it fun for you to watch this?" her anger simmered, misdirected.

Sesshoumaru's lazy gaze slid over to her, reclining at the base of a tree. He huffed, drawing a knee up to gracefully drape an arm over it. "Your wailing is an assault on my hearing, I derive no pleasure from this."

"Then what's the deal? I find it hard to believe you're doing it for me."

"Hn, you are correct, I am not," he freely admitted. "This act of concealment is out of acknowledgement. Warriors must not show weakness in battle, nor to anyone but a select few. I am merely ensuring your wish to hide your pain is successful since you are so terrible at doing it yourself," inhuman eyes pinned her in place. Her breath stalled at their intensity. "Your desire to conceal tears and weakness is unexpected for one as emotional as you."

Kagome picked at her fingers. "It's not out of a sense of duty or warrior pride as you seem to think. I just don't like burdening people with my problems. Only...all this energy piles up and explodes out as anger at Inuyasha anyway, I'm not suppressing or hiding anything at the end of the day," she gave a self-deprecating smile. Letting out a long whoosh of air from her lungs, Kagome turned to him.

"For what it's worth, thanks. For uh- concealing me. I still think it's odd that you're going to all this trouble but I'm grateful."

He arched a brow, unruffled and outwardly placid.

Wiping the remaining tears away, she gave a weak smirk. "Urgh, I blubber so loudly over a guy I really shouldn't be in love with. Kinda stupid."

"Indeed," he drawled without sympathy, glancing away.

"And you're still a jerk," she hummed, smiling slightly. But a weird, considerate one. Was it possible to be both considerate and a jerk?

Sesshoumaru did not look at her, tilting his head back to gaze at the branches overhead.

"You 'blubber' so loud a 'barrier' is necessary in order to keep your privacy. Inuyasha would catch your scent otherwise."

"Can Naraku see us like this?"

"The barrier does not mask us from sight, it merely hides scent. It is effective on Inuyasha and other demons but the spider could easily survey us from a distance."

Kagome sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Gotcha," she murmured, falling into a strangely companionable silence with him, before asking; "have you ever been in love?"

His reply was immediate and crisp; "no. Such things are for fanciful beings."

Biting her lip to keep from mentioning his 'Great and Powerful Father' had fallen victim to such fanciful things too, she hummed.

Sesshoumaru frowned in her direction. "Speak."

"I just think- when you do experience love, it's gonna knock you off your feet."

He sneered, "you think yourself an expert on the subject?"

"Gods no! Do I look like one?" Kagome grinned, gesturing to her tear-stained cheeks.

Sesshoumaru searched her face, visibly relaxing slightly. He tilted his head, surveying his sharp nails. "For what it is worth, if I had an opinion on the matter- which I do not," he assured. "I should think your fanciful 'love' emotion is not supposed to cause such pain. I question your dedication to it."

"My feelings for Inuyasha aren't something I can turn off. Believe me, I would if I could," shifting she gazed up at the stars, smiling gently. "Wow, Ursa Major looks so clear and close tonight."

Youki brushed her senses, her only warning. Soft grass crunched beneath boots as Sesshoumaru joined her on the log, sitting beside her. Mokomoko brushed the exposed skin of her knee. His eyes narrowed. "You are referring to the stars?"

Kagome blinked with surprise at his sudden piqued interest, raising a hand to point them out. "Yeah, a constellation. Ursa Major starts there and ends there," her finger drifted.

Sesshoumaru's blank features became lofty, huffing. "That is the incorrect name for it. Those stars are called Satoko."

"Who told you that?"

"My instructor when I was young. And this collection," he reached out, plucking her hand out of the air and redirecting her point to another constellation, "is Mineko, a volcano spirit."

Her skin burned at the contact, feeling his calloused palm, rough from years of training- clasping the back of her hand. Kagome blinked, feeling strange. Her stomach jumped, and she felt grateful and confused when he released her.

"I-I see! Tell me more about them, are they linked to your demonic heritage?" Kagome asked, flexing burning fingers in her lap.

Even hours afterwards, the sensation of warmth and strong youki flitting over her flesh continued to itch at her skin.

---

"I don't want to talk to you! JUST BACK OFF!"

Inuyasha's expression flickered, open hurt briefly appearing before white ears pinned flat to his skull. "FINE! Go running home again, see if I care!"

Kagome stormed away, hands balled into fists. She didn't call for Kirara to fly her to the well, she couldn't be bothered to haul herself back to the future and continue their long and tired trend of long-distance pining followed by disgruntled reconciliation.

She was tired.

Miroku, Sango and Shippo were tired too, judging from the multiple sighs sounding out behind her.

Before she could step out of earshot, she heard the monk murmuring to Inuyasha, encouraging him to follow her and make up. Likely to save everyone the hassle of another drawn-out spat.

Oh no.

Hadn't anyone listened to what she'd said? She didn't want to be chased in some coy 'let's have a fake argument' way. Real hurt and bone-weary annoyance soured her mood.

Hurrying away, Kagome began to run alongside a stream, jogging through a sparse forest and hoping to put distance between them. So lost in her thoughts of avoiding the Hanyou was she that Kagome burst through a youki barrier without noticing, glancing over her shoulder with paranoia.

By the time she detected wafts of steam brushing her skin, it was too late to stop. She gaped upon facing forward, almost crashing headfirst into a well-sculpted chest.

Long strands of silver against bare skin caught Kagome's dazed attention, gaze travelling up to find golden eyes staring down at her. Sesshoumaru paused half-naked before a hot-spring he'd likely intended on bathing in, tipping his head to one side in a silent demand for explanation.

"Kagome!" a distant voice resounded through the trees.

Panic erupted inside Kagome's heart and she turned to the demon. Her hands latched onto his remaining arm, blue eyes stinging.

"Please..."

She couldn't articulate what she wanted, even though it was so simple. Something thick clogged her throat.

The Daiyoukai lifted his attention to the trees. He then moved swiftly.

Sesshoumaru tossed his red and white hankimono over her, enclosing it tight around her body. It shielded Kagome from sight as her vision became swallowed by white silks.

Kagome jolted as a hard force shoved her down into dewy grass that perspired from heady steam saturating the air. Before she could react to the plains of a lean body pressing against hers, his weight pinning her to the ground, she heard branches shaking. Twigs snapping.

Her loafers were ripped off her feet, tossed somewhere further away. Likely out of sight. She heard them clatter over the sound of her drumming heartbeat, unable to see what was going on.

"What the- Sesshoumaru!" Inuyasha snarled, sounding slightly out of breath. "The fuck are you doing, hanging around here?"

A clawed hand minded the folds of the hankimono apart just enough to expose the side of Kagome's cheek- firm lips pressing against it. She stiffened. Sesshoumaru kissed her skin heatedly, his sigh billowing hot breath over her sensitive skin.

"Clearly I am enjoying myself with a woman. Do not interrupt, whelp."

Kagome could barely breathe, face turning steadily red. She lay frozen, reeling.

"Keh, whatever. Just tell me if you've seen Kagome pass through here."

He must not be able to smell me...

"Can you not keep tabs on a simple miko, brother?" Sesshoumaru purred, his hand gliding over her covered thigh, stroking back and forth. "Did she flee from you? I cannot say I blame her."

A snarl ripped through the hot springs. "Piss off! I'll find her myself!"

Furious sounds of bushes being slashed aside rang out, Inuyasha's swears becoming fainter as he drew further and further away.

Left with a demon straddling her and enclosed in luxurious silks, Kagome exhaled. She blinked, briefly dazed as the cover was lifted from her face, eyes adjusting. Dappled sunlight stretched across Sesshoumaru's face as he lingered close with an unreadable expression.

Kagome swallowed. "Thanks," she managed to say.

She's never been this close to a guy before, well not like this, anyway. Inuyasha carried her on his back or occasionally in his arms if the situation got dire, and they'd hugged. But this felt different.

Sesshoumaru braced himself over her using his one available arm, corded muscles leading down to a tapered waist. He was handsome in an aristocratic, cold sort of way – all hard angles and sharp edges. Her polar opposite. The heat of his bare skin bled through her school uniform, their hips melded together, and Kagome was struck by something painfully obvious that had eluded her until now.

There were...other options besides just Inuyasha.

Clearly, the Hanyou knew this little nugget too, since he flitted between herself and Kikyo.

But really, Kagome hadn't given it much thought. Hojo liked her but was easily dismissed. Kouga liked her but she'd always been too busy to really give him a chance.

And Sesshoumaru?

Her attention was helplessly fixed on him while the demon craned his neck down, scenting her hair.

Sesshoumaru had never been on the table before. Did he even look at her like that?

Golden eyes slanted to meet her, half-lidded. Her stomach did a flip, thighs twitching. Soft pink lips parted, and his attention flew to her mouth, lingering.

Before she could say anything, Inuyasha's voice sounded out somewhere close by again. "Damn it, Kagome! Just come out! Quit hiding!"

Kagome found herself sighing- stilling when she caught Sesshoumaru's dark rumble. His lips peeled back with displeasure, body leaning up and away from hers, climbing off.

Remaining sprawled on the ground for a moment, she calmed her racing heart. Picking herself up unsteadily, Kagome unwrapped the hankimono from around herself, awkwardly folding it as best she could and handing it back.

"I better go."

He inclined his head. "Until next time."

Next time.

Her gut wrenched. The next time she became upset with Inuyasha chasing after Kikyo. Oh wow. It really had become something so commonplace it felt inevitable.

That wasn't right or normal. That wasn't how she wanted to live, was it? Anticipating one crying session after another?

"Actually, let's meet up," she said, setting her shoulders back.

Surprise brightened his gaze. Sesshoumaru's lips twitched, "meet up, hm? You make it sound like an illicit affair."

Her expression darkened, "no. I'm not into that," she snipped, pushing her vindictive mood down. This was not an offer out of petty revenge. She just wanted to see him out of choice for once. "I brought a telescope. Let's use it tomorrow when it gets dark."

He agreed to it, watching her leave in that quiet, interested way he usually did. Kagome glanced back in time to see him partially turned away- hankimono clenched in his grip and lifted to his nose in a careful inhale.

---

Kagome actually felt quite happy about the meeting. Anticipation had raced through her veins during the entire day, though she didn't breathe a word about it to her friends.

After finishing up her food, she'd hung around camp late into the evening, before inching away with a weak excuse.

She didn't notice Inuyasha's keen eyes trailing after her, too preoccupied with hurrying around a nearby waterfall and retrieving her telescope that she'd hidden behind some rocks earlier.

Carrying the heavy thing up to the crest of a decently sized hill, she staggered upon finding the Daiyoukai already awaiting her at the top.

Kagome stopped and stared. She then felt a genuine smile curve her lips. How strange, that he could invoke such a reaction.

"Did I keep you waiting?"

Sesshoumaru lifted his chin haughtily, grunting. "I am not some lost puppy following you around, miko. I sensed your approach from my camp and generously decided not to stand you up."

Kagome grinned. What a big response. Almost like he was lying.

Giggling softly to herself, she arranged the telescope set, angling it up to face the distant cosmos. "Okay, you're gonna love this. I'm going to bore you with astrology and point out zodiac signs."

"These fancy foreign words do not sound boring," he uttered, leaning in close to view the stars with faint amazement, perhaps not anticipating the clarity of their view. Kagome felt his hip brush her side, her cheeks immediately blazing red. She tried to temper her reaction but failed miserably, looking at him briefly.

His placid features were much too close, familiar dark youki humming in the space between them. Comforting. Golden eyes met hers, ever watchful. Waiting.

"Sesshoumaru!"

They immediately flew apart as though they'd been doing something scandalous, Kagome's heart leaping into her throat.

Inuyasha stood a little ways away, teeth on display, hand resting on his sword. "Get the hell away from her!"

"Inuyasha- wait," she tried to cut in, but Sesshoumaru was quicker. Lifting his remaining hand, he fed youki into it, allowing deadly fingers to elongate into murderous talons. However, much to her surprise, he faced Kagome while flexing them.

"I will kill her if I please, Inuyasha," he rumbled. "She is a mere fanciful human."

Blue eyes widened, but Kagome clocked onto what he was doing immediately. It lingered there under his calm features that he tried to harden into contempt.

He was playing the villain. For her.

Likely out of some misguided desire to keep everything at the status quo, because he believed it would be easier on them both if they weren't seen as friends. Everything halted inside Kagome. She felt like she'd been coasting through her days without really questioning it.

"Bastard!" Inuyasha snarled, ripping his sword from its sheath.

With a strange sense of calm, Kagome raised her head. She then stepped in between them both, placing her fingers atop Sesshoumaru's sharp, transformed ones.

"That's enough," she said quietly, lowering his large hand.

"K-Kagome? What're you doing? Get back!"

"I said; that's enough, Inuyasha!" Kagome grit her teeth, tension gripping her fiercely- until it abruptly left all at once, rendering her exhausted.

"We need to talk," she said softly, gazing at him meaningfully.

Inuyasha blinked, lowering his sword as his ears pricked and lowered.

Turning to Sesshoumaru, she smiled weakly. "We're going to have to cut this meeting short, sorry."

"We can always reschedule."

Kagome gentled, a warmth pooling inside her that she hoped to revisit soon. However, the Daiyoukai hadn't made it three steps away before familiar laughter spread over the vast countryside beyond their hill.

Miasma leaked out of the sky, waning flowers on their stalks and killing the grass, rendering it dulled brown.

Naraku appeared in all his true, villainous glory- at exactly the wrong time nobody wanted to deal with him. However, absolutely no one could ignore this fight, as a completed Shikon jewel rested in the palm of his hand.

Kagome's stomach dropped. She automatically accepted her bow and arrows from Sango and Miroku when they arrived, looking grim-faced and out of breath. Inuyasha lifted his sword again with determination blazing in his eyes.

The Final Battle had begun.

---

They say 'time heals all wounds.'

Kagome would like to have a word with whoever 'they' were because this sentiment proved false. Time muted pain. It concealed it under layers of civilian life, responsibilities, family dinners and get togethers with friends, but her deep wound never really healed. The pervasive desire to return back to a life that had been stolen from her.

She couldn't say it had been perfect in the Feudal Era but she still missed it terribly. Missed her friends, travelling, exploring, strengthening her burgeoning powers.

She also missed someone she hadn't anticipated longing to speak to.

After killing Naraku and getting her hands on the jewel, Kagome had made her wish;

'I wish Kikyo would come back to life.'

It had resulted in trapping Kagome in the future, the Bone Eater's Well closing, barring entrance. She'd figured the look on Inuyasha's face had almost been worth it, his gob-smacked expression kind of hilarious.

Perhaps the wish had been an out of nowhere impulse. Who knew. All Kagome knew was that a part of her had died that day on the hill with the telescope- the candle of first love snuffing out. She still cared for Inuyasha of course, she wouldn't have wished Kikyo alive otherwise, but the act said something. They'd never be anything more than friends.

After trying her hand at dating a few boys in class, Kagome had broken up with them and remained single for the better part of a year. There wasn't anything wrong with them, per se, but it had felt disingenuous.

It wasn't them she wanted to speak to.

At the age of 18, the miko got her chance. Inexplicably, and without warning or provocation, the well reopened again one night.

Kagome stirred awake, lured downstairs by the promise of magic. It pulsed strongly like before, so she slid her legs over the rim of the well without fear that it would be a oneway trip.

Leaping down while still clad in her patchwork style pyjamas, dark hair whipped upwards as blue light swallowed her whole.

Immediately the smell of city smoke was replaced with distinct smells of petrichor. Fresh scents guided her feet to land gently on the bottom of the well, looking up at dark, cloudy skies.

Climbing out and feeling moisture lingering in the air dampening her hair, Kagome looked up, breath hitching.

The clearing looked exactly the same. Achingly nostalgic.

It sprawled empty and lonesome, awaiting her in complete silence. Kagome noticed the dirt disturbed around the well from how often she and Inuyasha had travelled through it.

Breath catching, hot tears stung her eyes.

Laughing weakly to herself, Kagome tried to rub them away in vain, more rolling down her cheeks. Unlike the usual times though, these were happy tears. Relief threatened to buckle her knees.

"I'm home," she shuddered.

"...Welcome back."

Snapping her head up, Kagome swallowed an embarrassing noise, warmth melting into her expression. She took a step, and then another, walking over to Sesshoumaru as he stood a little ways away, moonlight highlighting his hair.

"Y-you're here?"

Golden eyes flitted over her face, gentling a touch. He reached out and brushed pale knuckles against her jaw, catching tears upon it. "I sensed you. As usual, you blubber too loud, miko."

Choking on a sob, Kagome laughed, catching his hand and pressing her lips to the inside of his wrist.

Sesshoumaru stiffened, attention zeroing in on her. Kagome held his gaze as best she could with watery eyes, smiling.

"Date me," she stated plainly.

No second-guessing, no 'will they, won't they?' no more pining or questioning. Kagome refused to do it again.

He seemed somewhat taken aback by her forwardness for a moment, before a strange kind of intensity livened his expression. He wound his single arm around her waist, pulling her in close.

"What boldness, Kagome," he purred, lips ghosting the side of her ear. "But you can do better than that. Are you certain that is all you want from me?"

Kagome blushed hotly, shifting to catch his eye and smirk. "I just made it back here after three years. Let me catch my breath," she teased, hooking a hand under his yellow obi. "But...yeah, I might want more soon, you jerk."

Sesshoumaru rumbled with approval, swiftly ending the charade of teasing and swooping in. His lips claimed hers firmly, and it was not a kind, sweet kiss but she didn't mind, pressing herself against him. His tongue delved into her mouth, brushing against hers as a clawed hand snaked up into dark hair, gripping tight.

Smiling against his mouth, Kagome trying her best to keep up with his rough kiss as he bit and sucked her lips, inhaling her scent. He almost seemed elated, kissing her so quick and eagerly, like he'd been starving for it.

Out of curiosity, Kagome slid her palm over his chest, finding his heart racing.

Sesshoumaru broke away to plant heated kisses against her neck. He panted, the hand in her hair shaking with want of her.

Kagome stared, slowly looping her arms around his shoulders. "You...want me?" she said quietly like an obvious revelation. It felt so strange and surreal.

He huffed with amusement against her lips. "Hn, it appears you have made me fanciful, miko."

Brightening and smiling widely, Kagome pushed up on tip-toe. Guiding his mouth down with palms cradling his striped cheeks, she kissed him again, pouring every powerful emotion left unsaid into it.

End

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for 11th Sunday after Pentecost (Dominican rite)

1 Cor 15:1-10; Mark 7:31-37

What is the essence, the kernel of the Gospel of salvation? What is it that we must believe and act upon if we’re to be saved? The earliest record of this is found in the passage we heard today in the epistle, and it was written around 56 AD, less than thirty years (or one generation) after Christ’s ascension, about a decade before the first Gospel was written. In his letter to the Christians in Corinth, St Paul affirms the astonishing truth that is the core of the Good News of Jesus Christ, namely that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he was raised from the dead, and that this same Risen Lord Jesus was seen by hundred of people, many of whom are still alive and who can thus testify to this earth-shattering truth.

St Paul’s main concern, therefore, is to affirm the truth of the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So, for us to be counted as Christians, we have to believe, first of all, that Jesus really died, that is to say that his human body and soul were separated in death. This might seem obvious, but nevertheless, in the 2nd century AD, a heresy arose that supposed that Jesus, being divine, only appeared to have a human body, and so he only appeared to suffer and die on the Cross. The Docetists, therefore, denied that the God-Man Jesus Christ died on the Cross. One version of Docetism thought that Jesus was a real man who was possessed by a spiritual being called Christ, and that this Christ gave Jesus power to perform miracles, but eventually abandoned Jesus to die on the Cross. Lest we think that Docetism is a long-gone heresy, we should recall that the British author Philip Pullman revived this idea in a novel published in 2010 called ‘The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ’, and, more pertinently, the Quran asserts that “they killed him not, nor crucified him, but the semblance of Isa (Jesus) was put over another man (and they killed that man).” Muslims, therefore, if they follow the Quran, do not believe that Jesus truly died on the Cross.

But St Paul affirms this essential Christian truth: Jesus Christ “died for our sins”. For if Christ has not truly died, then humanity remain in a state of unforgiven sin, and we have no remedy for death itself. So, as St Paul put it: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor 15:17)

Hence, at the core of our central Christian act of worship, namely, the Holy Mass, is the making present of Christ’s saving death. Hence St Paul says to the Corinthians: “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” (1 Cor 11:26) So, it is in the sacrifice of the Mass, and particularly through the separate two-fold consecrations of bread and wine that the death of Christ is signified and made present for our salvation. As St Thomas Aquinas says: “in this sacrament, which is the memorial of our Lord's Passion, the bread is received apart as the sacrament of the body, and the wine as the sacrament of the blood.” Following this teaching of the Angelic Doctor, Pope Pius XII thus said: “by the "transubstantiation" of bread into the body of Christ and of wine into His blood, His body and blood are both really present: now the eucharistic species under which He is present symbolize the actual separation of His body and blood. Thus the commemorative representation of His death, which actually took place on Calvary, is repeated in every sacrifice of the altar, seeing that Jesus Christ is symbolically shown by separate symbols to be in a state of victimhood.” (Mediator Dei, 70)

The second aspect we Christians have to believe, then, is that Christ truly rose bodily from the dead. The Gospel accounts of the risen Lord stress that he is not a ghost, nor an apparition, nor even, as certain heresies claim, a mass hallucination or wish-fulfilling delusion of the apostles. The whole of the Christian Faith, all our hopes of eternal life, all that we stand for as Christians depends on this central truth of Christ’s actual bodily Resurrection. As St Paul says: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (1 Cor 15:14). The Catechism of the Catholic Church therefore states: “The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ's works and teachings. All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ by his Resurrection has given the definitive proof of his divine authority, which he had promised.” (CCC 651) Hence St Paul insists that various peoples, both individuals and groups, at different times and places, have truly seen Jesus risen from the dead. And then he says that many of these eye-witnesses are still alive, as a challenge to anyone in the 1st century who might want to interrogate them personally.

But the Scriptures also tell us how we, who live in subsequent centuries and outside of the Holy Land, might encounter the Risen Christ. In St Luke’s Gospel, the two disciples who meet the Risen Lord on Easter Sunday at first do not recognise the Lord, but then, “when he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him”. (Luke 24:30-31) This clearly liturgical action tells us down the ages that the reason we gather for the Holy Mass, and the reason it is the “source and summit” of the Christian life is because it is here that we stand at the foot of Calvary, and more importantly, it is here that we recognise the Risen Christ, alive and active and present among us, in his Mystical Body, the Church. For as St Thomas says, Christ’s resurrection completes the work of our salvation, and so it is in the Mass that the Paschal Mystery of Christ, his passion, death, and resurrection, is re-presented. Hence, from the earliest centuries, the first Christians gathered for worship not on the Sabbath day but on Sunday because, as Pope Innocent I said: “We celebrate Sunday because of the venerable Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we do so not only at Easter but also at each turning of the week.” From the beginning, therefore, whenever the Church gathered for divine worship, they did so on a Sunday in order to stress that in the Mass they were commemorating the Lord’s Resurrection from the dead. The Sunday Mass, therefore, is our communal and Ecclesial act of faith in the Resurrection, and hence, gathered into the unity of the Church’s living Faith, we shall indeed recognise the Risen Lord present and active in the Holy Mass. Thus, every Sunday and holy day, we profess our belief in the words of the Creed, dating to the 4th century, and that contains at its core that which St Paul proclaims to the Corinthians: “Passus et sepúltus est, et resurréxit tértia die, secúndum Scriptúras”; ‘he suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.’ Concerning these articles of faith, St Paul says in today’s epistle that through this good news which have we received and in which we stand, we shall be saved if we remain steadfast (cf 1 Cor 15:1-2).

The final point that St Paul makes and that we have to believe, therefore, is that Christ’s death and resurrection is promised to us through the prophets: they happen “in accordance with the scriptures”, that is to say, in accordance with the Jewish sacred writings. Why is this important?

Firstly, it grounds our faith in a community and in public revelation that has been discerned as authentic by the people of God. For throughout the history of the Church, there has been a temptation to seek private revelations and arcane wisdom. The Gnostic heresy, which emphasises personal spiritual knowledge over and above the authority and publicly recognised teachings of the Church, is a heresy against which we must always be vigilant. In the 1st century, Jewish and Christian communities battled Gnostic ideas, and it was resurgent in a new form the 13th-century when the Dominicans were founded by St Dominic to combat Albigensianism, and it is very much present again in our times when people assemble their own spiritualities and religious ideas based on their feelings and fears. Hence St Irenaeus stressed the Ecclesial nature of our Faith, centred once more on the Sacred Liturgy and the Sacraments which are the actions of the totus Christus the whole Church. Thus he said: “It is not necessary to seek truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church.” As such, the Church must clearly and boldly and plainly teach the Truth of the Gospel, just as St Paul did in these few words to the Corinthians.

Finally, St Paul stresses that Christ’s actual bodily death and resurrection are a fulfilment of prophecies because it is vital that we believe that God’s word is dependable, that his truth endures for ever, and that his providence guides human history and provides for our needs, but always according to God’s wisdom and his good time. St Paul thus reminds us that, even for one so sinful as himself, God’s grace provided for his conversion and his mission: “his grace toward me was not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:10) Or as we hear in the Gospel today: “He has done all things well” (Mk 7:37). Indeed, God does all things well, in the fullness of time, and the Death and Resurrection of Christ demonstrates this perfectly. So as we profess our faith in the Gospel, we’re called to believe and act as people who have truly received this good news, truths that change how we view our human living and even our dying.

[taglegend]

Tag Fact #3 -  I’ve come to realize I’ve always been a fan artist more than I thought. so here is a timeline of influences that shaped my childhood to now. from nostalgic times, to sad changes, to great loss, to strange rises to fame and phases, to stepping stones and finally a laughing place. all the things that make up your favorite fan artist Tag.

1. Rayman (bumped into this in the year of 1999) was actually the first fandom (with crossovers) I bumped into when I was 9. although the internet wasn’t available at the time it was still fun to dwell in home amusements. I remember the storylines and the OC’s I made but they’re kind of embarrassing and it’s probably a good thing there was no internet. I’ve done fanart and comic crossovers of Rayman with Calvin and Hobbs and Nights Into Dreams, spinoffs of Sonic the Hedgehog OC’s, Yoshi with Pikachu, and the Pokemon/Digimon craze with OC’s and other Nintendo comic shorts. but the drawings and comics are long gone and disappeared in the garage in a backpack due to suspecting my sister’s dad accidentally throwing them away. years later towards the year 2018 (now 28), we decided to move to North Carolina and it was my chance to find them again. unfortunately the backpack was gone just like I suspected (my main stuff), but for some reason I found my Pokemon/Digimon fanart, a good batch of Super Mario drawings (vaguely remember doing these), my sister’s drawings and some other neighborhood kids’ drawings in a dirty box. I was partially happy I found something at least but it was the backpack I wanted the most. sometimes I regret not looking for the backpack (’cause I was too busy being a kid) but it’s alright, noone needs to see that shit anyway, ha ha. anyways, I recall being a fan of Rayman from 1999 ‘til 2002.

2. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (bumped into this in the year of 2003) my second fandom I bumped into when I was 12 going on 13. at the time, my sister and I both liked the Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise based on the Battle remake and ended up making our own secret fanart club that consisted of only us two members. she liked Sonic (and that was her boyfriend, ha ha) and I liked Knuckles (and he was my boyfriend, ha ha) and we were crazy in love about Shadow’s backstory. we listened to the game’s soundtracks as we drew fanart and comics after school and man, those were good times. however, as we grew older towards the year of 2005, we ended up having separate rooms and I believe it played a part in disconnecting on the same interest. then one day, I asked her why she wasn’t into Sonic anymore and she replied, “Because I grew up.” I was sad after that and slowly observed that she was influenced by the emo culture and the new friends she’s made. I was the only member of our little club for a little longer...but eventually I moved on too. I still have some surviving fanart we did together but it doesn’t mean shit anymore since she turned out to be an abusive mother from the last I’ve heard of her. 

3. Gorillaz (bumped into this in the year of 2006). as the Sonic years were at its end, I first heard the song “Feel Good Inc” on Music Choice and seeing the first image of them as displayed on this post (except the fan-made background doesn’t count since I can’t find the original artwork). this was my third fandom and later had proper access to the internet to the website I still currently use called DeviantArt. at first I liked 2D but eventually fell for Murdoc and developed a spiritual connection towards the character as obviously seen in my old fanart and rare photos of my devotion shrines on Valentine’s Day and his birthday every year. for the longest time since being a permanent fan from 2006-2017 (11 1/2 years) I had no knowledge that it was a political propaganda band and other realizations I don’t want to talk about. I only followed them because it was a cartoon and not the bullshit behind the musical project. the world I’ve built and support for them for all those 11 1/2 years shattered the fuck out of me and I just wanted to be left alone to find myself again, somehow. activity stopped on all my profiles, the flow of fanart stopped since I now cringe from the fan service and felt I was used for my talent. I didn’t want to be reminded of it all so I took down all my Gorillaz fanart and archived them for old followers’ nostalgia but also in the hopes they’ll be forgotten in my timeline. I ceased to exist in the fandom for huge personal reasons but it’s best to not say why. I know for sure that the fandom wonders what happened but it’s none of their business. THE END.

4. Waluigi (although I knew he’s been around since 2000 during childhood, I took deep interest once I revisited the character again in the year of December 2013). as silly as this sounds, when I revisited him again, the character was so bizarre that I ended up staying up 3 nights and 3 days in a row just looking all over the internet on everything about him and the questionable “hush-hush” absence of a backstory. despite there being no backstory he slowly gained a cult following and in many ways it’s a good thing. however, since the early 2010′s tension has been building up between Nintendo and its fans about him starring in a main game but everyone hasn’t fully gotten it in their heads that it’s not gonna happen. as long as Nintendo is in control of that, the fandom will not win, I’m sorry to say. on the other hand, if it’s going to be this way, then that’s what fanart and comic projects are for. as for me, I am doing my very best to get my comic project “Waluigi Land” going. again, I apologize if it’s taking very long to get Chapter 2 going if you’ve been keeping track but aha moments need to develop before I start permanent drawing (since concepts, character design and storyline needed improvement badly). as of right now I am still a Waluigi fan and I will not quit on him.

5. Turbo from Wreck-It-Ralph (although it debuted in 2012, I watched the movie two years later into the year 2014). for some bizarro reason, I had an unhealthy obsession with this character to the point where I dressed up as him for Halloween 2014. only 2 fanarts of him and the Turbo Twins exist on my profiles, mainly because my mind was more focused on just ‘thinking about him’ or ‘being him’ rather than drawing physical drawings. luckily, this supposed alleged fandom didn’t last long a little after Halloween so I chalk it up as a very short phase. to this day I don’t know what has gotten over me about him. the only thing I can think of now is that I think it’s because the character had yellow eyes and teeth but I don’t know. now that I think of it, that little fucker was ugly as hell and I STILL don’t know what had gotten over me. one day, my brother mentioned what that was about, and I said to him, “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

6. Undertale (although it debuted in 2015, I later took interest in it in 2016). It was all about Sans and Papyrus. I couldn’t get enough of the skeleton bros. eventually Toriel and Mettaton EX became my favorites but it took a long time to draw more of all 4 of them because I had other important things to do in my life plus I was still waiting for the next Gorillaz album to revive my imaginative juices (or so I thought). I really want to have this as one of my frequent fandoms but I just don’t have time for it anymore. it’s still in the back of my head to want to draw them but at this point I still have other better interests to be in. and besides, I’m lazy just like Sans.

7. Cuphead (June 28th, 2017 was the official day I called quits on the British-based band Gorillaz due to the bullshit behind it. since that date I was lost, had no inspiration to look forward to and no cartoon guy to make me smile...but lo and behold of the same year, I took an interest in playing the game Cuphead and man...that shit was a frightening exaggerated metaphor for being on that one drug (forgot the name though) and having sex at the same time but man that was the best fun I’ve had in years. I mean, it’s like, enemies are just so happy to murder you and that scared the shit outta me. and the facial exaggeration?....I think I should stop, ha ha. anyways, the Moldenhauers saved my ass from spiraling down, they have no clue. anyways, eventually I became a permanent fan of their work so to ease the hurt and erase my past from the G-fandom I had to re-wire my brain into a different cartoon category that’s a rather more American, so anything Toon related like Roger Rabbit, Felix the Cat or another favorite that’s a western-based cartoon makes me feel better, especially my new man .......King Dice <3 <3<3<3. however, there was something about this new fandom category I still didn’t quite understand until the date March 14th, 2020. I finally understood what it was but I feel I shouldn’t bring it up. anyways, Cuphead and anything western or rubber hose is my last stop in inspiration for the remaining years of my life. many say never say never but I believe I’ve found my laughing place and that’s all that matters.

[qqueenofhades]

i love your medieval posts! i think you wrote a while back on how a first crusade film might go, and i have a question if you don’t mind me asking: I’m writing fiction around the third crusade and approaching the massacre of the acre garrison. do you have any advice on how to portray such incidents in a way which isn’t cheap/horror-porn, while not skating around the fact that this was a genuinely horrifying thing? (1/2)

(also on a lighter note: what moments from the third crusade would you absolutely love to be included in historical portrayals of the period? apart from richard x philip which is an obvious given) (2/2) 

Oooh. This is good.

I have written about the massacre at Acre three times that I can think of: twice in fiction (in my novel about Richard and then in chapter 3 of DVLA) and once in nonfiction, in my academic book about the crusades. It’s one of the events in the crusades which gets a lot of attention when somebody has a particular Point To Make, usually about the barbarity of the crusades/crusaders, attempts to portray them as simple excesses of religious zealotry, Ye Olde Bad Violent Medieval Times, parallels to modern-day Western invasions and occupations of the Middle East, well-meant attempts to critique the West’s treatment of Muslims, etc. (I seem to recall that the 2010 Robin Hood has a Bad Take on this, though the rest of it is fictional anyway, so hey.) So if you’re coming into it trying to make a Point for your reader, I advise you to think carefully about what that Point actually is, and how you’re conveying it. Because while it’s certainly a thing that happened and should be dealt with sensitively, it’s also important to think about the larger context of the crusade and how this was treated by both sides, both before and after its occurrence.

First, Saladin’s army had killed or taken prisoner the entire Christian army at the battle of Hattin in 1187, and while there are a few high-profile stories about him personally ransoming Christian captives, there was also an episode where Richard and company freed several thousand (supposedly 12,000, though medieval round figures often have problems) captives from where they were destined to be sold into the slave markets of the Islamic world. Saladin has a well-deserved reputation as a great commander and leader, so this isn’t to attempt some kind of hatchet job on him, but point out that this was a way he would have (logically) expected to make money for his army and to fund his ongoing battles against the Third Crusade. The slave trade was a major part of the medieval economy, often concentrated through the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, and the Silk Road (as I’ve mentioned before, the word “slave” comes from “Slav.”) On this note, despite their Tumblr-darling reputation as champions of conscience and liberal society and personal cleanliness, the Vikings were also big-time slave traders (which probably isn’t that surprising for people who made their living by jumping off boats and stealing other people’s shit; though the word wicing denotes a particular kind of sea raider within this society and not the entire society itself). Anyway: the point is that people were routinely used as human collateral, both as slaves and as hostages, in medieval society and warfare alike, and that included the crusades. The giving and taking of hostages was a very, very common feature of forcing trust and incentive to cooperate between warring sides; it happened in Europe, it happened on the crusades, it didn’t matter who the enemy was.

In fact, by the time the massacre took place, Richard had already taken a lot of flak (and would continue to take it throughout the crusade) for being so friendly in his diplomatic negotiations with Saladin, which was supposedly one of the reasons Philip decided to leave early. The fact that Richard kept entering into negotiations with the Saracens and trying to resolve Acre’s disputed status with diplomacy as well as warfare was a bit of a shock to the other crusade leaders, who figured that they were just there to kill the Muslims and have done with it. (They also had a grudge against Richard for swiftly dispossessing them and doing everything himself, which was just the way Richard rolled, my bros.) As also mentioned in DVLA, Richard was one of the Western leaders most sympathetically inclined to the Muslims (and especially Saladin and his brother Saif al-Din) during the entire crusades, not just the Third. We can’t know how serious he was, but he did offer to marry his sister Joanna to Saif al-Din, he and Saif al-Din hit it off during their in-person negotiations and referred to the other as their friend, he and Saladin wrote to each other fairly often even if they never met, they are both on record saying how much they admired each other, Richard was open about finding the Muslims more honorable than his Christian allies, and Hubert Walter (the bishop of Salisbury) had dinner with Saladin (when Saladin had invited the crusaders to Jerusalem after the Treaty of Jaffa in 1192, though Richard didn’t go) and told him that if he and Richard ever decided to join forces, nobody would be able to stop them. (I also had to write a novel based on that premise, for reasons.) So Richard and Saladin negotiated for the entire period of the crusades, they fought on the battlefield, they engaged in diplomacy, they respected the hell out of each other, they had a cordial-enemies relationship, and Richard became outright friends with Saif al-Din. And most of this happened AFTER the events at Acre.

That is to say: the Acre massacre, while it may appear particularly shocking to our eyes, did not end up being a major episode for either side during the crusade, at least in its ultimate course of events. Saladin and the Muslim high command had repeatedly dawdled and prevaricated and tried to avoid fulfilling the terms of the arrangement under which they had handed the hostages over, trying to delay Richard in Acre and prevent him from marching down the coast to Jaffa or Jerusalem, and thus, as utterly cold-blooded as it sounds: by the simple rules of medieval battlefield logic, the hostages were fair game. They were POWs and military combatants, and while hostages weren’t USUALLY killed, simply because it was the threat that they could be hurt that was the most effective at exerting compliance... they also could be killed, and both sides recognized that this was a possible option if the arrangement wasn’t fulfilled.

This again, as noted, wasn’t unique to the crusades. You gave up hostages precisely because they were supposed to impel you to keep your word, and if you didn’t, that reflected badly on your own honor, as much or as more than on your enemy’s. That’s why Yusuf is also pissed with Saladin in the aftermath of the massacre in DVLA; Saladin had a responsibility as a commander to free these men, he did not do that and deliberately used their safety as a pawn, so Richard called his bluff and had the prisoners executed. Which again: this was about what anyone in that situation had a right to expect, and Richard was often much more ruthless with rebellions against him by his European Christian subjects back in France; he had given Saladin over six weeks to cooperate, which was a lot more than he usually did. So this wasn’t a case where he was doing it specifically because of the religion of the captives or some mindless excess of religious bigotry, but because a military agreement had been broken. (Richard was many things, but not, so far as I can tell, really a religious bigot at all. This goes for his relations with the Jews as well as the Muslims.)

Obviously, it’s not a wonderful thing that this did happen, the Muslims were rightfully angry about it, and harassed the crusaders’ march repeatedly during the two weeks between the massacre (August 20, 1191) and the battle of Arsuf (September 7, 1191) where Richard defeated Saladin for the first time in the open field. Both of these events contributed to a dent in Saladin’s reputation, which heretofore had been about as glorious in the Islamic world as it was possible to get. There was a lull in hostilities after Arsuf as the fighting season ended, negotiations between Richard and Saladin were soon underway again, he met Saif al-Din not long after, and it doesn’t appear that the Acre massacre had a major impact on the resumption of that diplomatic relationship. This supports the interpretation that both sides recognized it as a valid if regrettable move in the circumstances, and Saladin had some awareness that he’d been outplayed twice in a row and this was, to some degree, his fault too. So while this should obviously be treated with care and not sensationalized, and given its due weight as an episode of warfare in the crusades, the broader context of this particular incident does not support it being some sort of terrible black-mark incident of mindless religious zealotry; the Muslims themselves did not view it that way and were once more negotiating with Richard a month later.

As far as lighter episodes: you DELIGHT me in giving me the opportunity to inform you about the Dueling Dirty Songs of the Third Crusade, featuring Hugh, duke of Burgundy (the commander of the French forces after Philip’s departure in July 1191) and Richard himself. This happened in July 1192, after the final failed advance on Jerusalem and before the battle of Jaffa, when relations between the French and English contingents had completely broken down. Take it away, Itinerarium Peregrinorum:

On top of all this, Henry [Hugh] duke of Burgundy, prompted by a spirit of worthless arrogance or perhaps led on by the most unbecoming malicious envy, composed the words of a song to be sung in public. Such shameful words should never have been made public if its composers had retained any sense of propriety, for they were revealed not so much as men but men beyond raping women [non tantum viris, sed et viros ultra rapientibus mulieribus]. Those who applied their efforts to such shocking and silly activities certainly made themselves conspicuous and revealed the hidden intentions of their hearts […] This invidious composition was sung all through the army. The king [Richard] was extremely annoyed about it, and thought that he should punish them by paying them back in their own coin. So he also sang something about them, and it was little trouble to compose because there was plenty of material at hand.

As I write about in my Queer Richard paper: The IP’s shocked tone in reporting this anecdote, the clear sense that Hugh’s song was too shameful to even be hinted at, and the curious comment that the ones responsible were men “beyond even raping women” gives the distinct impression that this was a musical slander on Richard’s sexual habits, especially given his public repentance in Messina prior to the crusade. It also fits in a tradition wherein which songs were used as one of the most versatile and popular methods of mass communication in crusading armies, praising crusaders’ successes and lambasting their failures. The IP author, for whom Richard was a figure of hero-worship, deflected the charges of sexual irregularity by the straightforward tactic of claiming that the French must be engaging in it instead, and thus by inference, homosexual sodomy was an even worse sin than heterosexual rape. It also shows that Richard’s own reaction was simply to sing a wittier and more scathing song about his accusers. And seriously, his nemesis (well, the henchman of his nemesis, since Philip was already gone) throws a shit fit and is all I’LL TELL EVERYONE THAT RICHARD LIKES DUDES NAH NAH NAH like it’s a middle school playground slap fight? And Richard just goes, “bring it on bro, I’m smarter than you, I’m a better singer than you, there’s TONS OF MATERIAL for me to write about how much you suck, and I will now proceed to destroy you in a diss track competition because I’m Queer N’ Awesome?”

I’m sorry. Legendary. We stan.

[lizardrosen]

@eirenical also asked "..and omg is it terrible to want to know about literally all your Les Mis, Narnia, and Star Wars WiPs?? Because I kind of want to know about all of them. XD" on my wip post

Les Mis

SINGING THE SONG OF ANGRY MEN is just my catch-all les mis doc from before I transferred everything from Word to Scrivener, meaning everything in there is before reading the book. I was probably really unfair to Cosette because i thought of her as competition for Eponine's happiness. Anyway, have a e/R fic i wrote based purely on dash osmosis, and complete with misspellings!

resurrection? was just a really strong image i had to write out and was always curious what the larger story would be. Basically Grantaire is smiling soppily at Enjolras and then thinks "That was before they died" and is sad and thoughtful about The Ideal.

Gray Is Okay - turns out I've already posted this one on tumblr! Grantaire and Enjolras talk about pronouns and convictions and uncertainty!

brietbart online - short fic where Enjolras gets himself worked up over right wing newspapers because “It’s good to know how the enemy thinks” and Grantaire helps him calm down. (Pretty sure this one was inspired by someone being Very Extremely Wrong about one of my favorite episodes of star trek, and then I noticed the source) This wasn't very good writing and it wasn't really going anywhere, so I'm never going to post it.

“Please Come Inside” - Enjolras is greyromantic and mostly he just loves all his friends, but he has a queerplatonic relationship with Courfeyrac which slowly develops into (possibly?) romantic attraction, and he's very confused and upset by this internal change and has to Process.

from my vague notes:

at some point they end up at a chinese restaurant because courfeyrac calls it "the ultimate comfort food" enjolras always makes a token protest when they go, but he secretly loves it just as much or more because salty foods are his weakness "we don't need to change anything we're doing," courfeyrac says as he stabs at an egg roll with a single chopstick, "or we can. Uh, your choice. But no matter what I won't be ashamed of you, and i'll trust that you aren't ashamed of me." (courfeyrac is not aro-spec, but he did introduce enjolras to the term) and they talk about their feelings and enjolras's main fear, besides that he's not aromantic at all, is that he'll be forcing courfeyrac into the closet, because even if whatever-he's-feeling is close to what someone else might call romantic, he still Can Not bear to have himself called a boyfriend courfeyrac mostly just wants enjolras to be comfortable, and he's willing to take whatever form their relationship eventually comes

Friendlier Skies - this one's my les mis space au, with a bunch of shorter stories that all fit into the same solar system. One of my favorite elements is that the Gorbeau Building has been remixed into a ship that accepts literally anyone as passengers with no questions asked.

And the Narnia and Star Wars are going under a cut!

Narnia

Gallivanters is an AU where instead of being from Narnia, Caspian is just a Spanish transfer student at the boarding school where Edmund and Peter are, and they have a bunch of nerdy adventures. I'm pretty sure Caspian/Peter was endgame in my head, but i never got that far.

once a king or queen was just my catch-all Narnia doc. Lots of Edmund, lots of Susan, and one ficlet where Susan Pevensie and Carrie White talk about the family they've lost and the girls they don't need to be anymore. I swear I remember writing a lot of Jill and Eustace too, but it must have gotten lost when transferring computers.

Theory of Narnia - technically not a WIP anymore, but I used the plot of Narnia to write an essay explaining different Theory of Knowledge concepts for extra credit in high school. It had footnotes and everything!

To Fill Different Lives was a passion project for several years! It was supposed to be for a fic exchange in 2010 but it got too big for me and I had to drop out. It's Jadis after the Last Battle, recounting her history to no one because there's no one left. Many things about it make me cringe looking back at it, but I still looove this opening:

I have lived for a long time, long enough to fill several different lives. Looking back, I begin to realize just how similar all of these lives have been. Each time, I had power, but needed more. Each time, I chose a color and assumed it as a part of my identity. And each time, there was a boy.

Star Wars

There Will Be Light - oops, I already posted this one on tumblr too! Luke has bad dreams after Obi-Wan is killed, and Han comforts him. Not meant to be shippy but it definitely could be!

Qui-Gon lives (and somehow everything is worse??) - never got past the "vague chatting" stage, but our conversation started with this

lizardrosen: you know how qui-gon tells padme something like "i can only defend you, i can't fight a war for you" ? and then the jedi order DOES fight a war for the republic eirenical: YES. lizardrosen: how *pissed* would he have been if he'd lived to find out about kamino and the clones and all of that eirenical: *nodnodnod* I think about that a lot, actually. About how Qui-Gon would have dealt with the war. Somehow, I think it would have either broken him completely... or broken his compassion for others. AND I'M NOT SURE WHICH WOULD BE WORSE.

and then we talked about how qui-gon and obi-wan and anakin are a really solid trio for a long time, so it takes a long time to break qui-gon's compassion, but it happens hard, and "obi-wan and anakin are never quite able to be the dynamic duo; they'll always be three minus one but they try, they try so HARD"

Obi-Wan after Revenge of the Sith is just what it says on the tin. He's sad and alone and trying to connect to Qui-Gon, but not quite ready for him even when he does finally show up. This one also has a really good opening paragraph!

Everyone Obi-Wan loves is taller than him. Everyone he has loved? Used to love? No, he loves them still, even those gone from the world, or out of his grasp. He would have grown to love Luke and Leia too, tiny as they are, if given half the chance, which is exactly why he cannot allow himself to take that chance.

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

 Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt, and legacy can be an fascinating thing in regard to animation. Since cartoons are made with the intent of being seen years or even decades after they're created, it can be interesting to see how the general consensus people have about a series can change over time. One day you can be on top of the world, and your series is loved by critics and audiences alike. But then, something happens. Sometimes it's a specific episode. Other times a season. Maybe it's a controversy within the fandom. But whatever it is, something happens that causes peoples opinions to turn. And suddenly your show has gone from being universally praised to becoming much more divisive. And when something like that happens, it can be hard to recover. It happened to Steven Universe.  It happened to Rick and Morty. And it happened to Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

 Created by Daron Nefcy,  Star vs. The Forces of Evil  premiered on the Disney Channel and Disney XD in 2015,  and quickly became one of the hot cartoons that everybody was talking about. It makes sense, as it came outright around the time where more continuity based fantasy series were really starting to take off, so it's natural that it became a hit. While the series was generally well regarded upon its debut, as time went on the series became much more of a "love it or hate it" type of show. And while that's not too uncommon for any show that amounts a large flowing, what makes Star vs. so interesting is that it seems like nobody can seemingly agree when the show got bad, if it did at all. Some people say the quality dipped after the first season. Others say the third. Some say the fourth. Others say that the show was good until the finale. And some say that the show was solid throughout. This divide among fans is why I feel confident calling Star vs. The Forces of Evil one of the most divisive shows of the 2010's, even if the debate around it isn't nearly volatile as other series. But now that the series has ran its course I have to ask, does it hold up? Did the show really go down hill, or is the hate undeserved? That's what I'm here to find out.

 I feel like I'm in an interesting place to talk about this series because, while I tend to try to keep up with all the big name animated show coming out, I actually didn't watch most of Star as it was running. I watched the first season until my family cut cable right before the finale of season one (You know, around the time people started to care about the show.) And only caught up with the show in the last year or so while doing research for my "Top 30 Cartoons of the Decade" list. So I went into the series mostly blind with the exception of a few spoilers. I just felt like this was important to point out as I feel it may have an effect on my view of the show.

 Also, while I usually try to go spoiler free when I do a general overview of a series, for this review I may have to go into some spoiler territory. Since this series features an ever changing status quo, as well as a lot of major characters who aren't introduced until late in the series' run, doing this review completely spoiler free would be difficult. So I'm going to be doing this review under the assumption that anybody reading this has already seen the show, and are just curious to hear my take on it, or don't care about being spoiled.  So if you wanna go in blind I suggest you sign out now.

 But to everyone else, let's dive in and talk about Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJ5ecrpp8k

 Star vs. The Forces of Evil stars (He, get it. I'm funny.) Star Butterfly. A princess from the dimension of Mewni who, upon her fourteenth birthday is given a wand of unbelievable magical power. However, after causing nothing but trouble with her new found powers in her world her parents decide to ship her off to Earth, where she can be somebody else's problem. There she befriends a human boy named Marco Diaz and the series mainly follow these two as they go on all sorts of magical adventures as they battle all sorts of evil monsters and ne'er-do-well who want to take the wand and use its power for themselves. Or at least that's how the series goes at first. As the series goes on it begins to focus more on the world building, as Star and Marco discover that the kingdom of Mewni isn't as great as they first believed, and are forced to battle political corruption, conspiracy within the royal family, and the generation spanning systemic racism against monster kind.  

 The best place to start when talking about the show are the characters. Lets start with the main leads.

 We got Star, your typical fun-loving, ditzy, hyperactive action girl. Which seems to be a common trend in Disney Channel cartoons now that I think about it. But she does enough to stand on her own. She's a fun character, and an overall good lead for the series. I admit that her bratty nature and general stupidity could turn some people off, and there are times  where it can get a little annoying, but I never minded it all that much. I think that's kinda suppose to be the point of her character. She's a royal, and spent her whole life with a silver spoon in her mouth. So it makes sense she would be a bit selfish and be unaware of the world around her. And she does improve over the course of the series, as she begins to take her job as a princess more seriously and spends much of the series actively fighting against monster prejudice. Though I'd be lying if some of these less desirable elements of her character don't continue to pop up every now and again, even later in the series and especially in the last couple of episodes. Also she's kinda a sociopath. Like especially early on in the show there are like...a lot of casualties to Star's antics. I'm kinda surprised Disney let them get away with that.

 Also, can I just say that I am sick and tired of people asking "When is Disney going to include their first LGBTQ+ princess, completely ignoring the fact that Star is bisexual as fu*k. Like, come on now!

 Marco is also a good lead. He's a neurotic, responsible, karate student who often acts as the straight man to Star's antics. However, I like the fact that he's not a total stick in the mud. Sure he's more cautious than Star is but he's still capable of getting in on the adventures as well. He comes across as a realistic teen with his own set of flaws. Namely his insecure nature and general social awkwardness. I also like that due to his expertise with karate he's able to hold his own in a fight even without magic. He always feels like Star's equal and never like a sidekick. He and Star have a great dynamic in general, and the two play off each other well. They contrast with each other and It feels like the two really cover each other's flaws. And it's kinda refreshing seeing two characters who are so different manage to genuinely get along with each other.  

 But of course, we also have the forces of evil that the shows title so clearly mentioned. Each season focuses on a different villain, and something that I really like is how all four major villains are introduced relatively early on. So the show doesn't suffer from that "Dragon Ball Z" type thing where it's like "Haha! I know you just defeated the villain, but now's there's an even BIGGER villain who we just haven't happened to mention until now!" They've always around in the world, and many of them even start out as joke villains only to become more serious later down the line. And they manage to do that in a way that feels very believable.

 The best example of this is the shows first villain, Ludo. Who upon introduction is portrayed as a completely comedic villain who Star could easily take in a fight. But things change when a new more serious villain, Toffee, usurps him as the season one antagonist. Stealing his castle and army in the process. Come season two and Ludo is left alone, having lost everything, and is forced to toughen up in order to get back what he once had. He builds a new army, stronger than his first. He finds a new castle to form his base in, and becomes a genuine threat to our cast. Scrappy underdogs villains who lost everything might be one of my favorite tropes in fiction. Other examples of this trope used effectively would be Peridot in Steven Universe and Jamack in Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeast. However, while those shows use this trope as an opportunity to have these villains go through a redemption arc, Star goes the other way and uses it as an opportunity to make a character become more of a threat. That said, he never loses the comedic charm that made his fun to watch in the first place. Part of me honestly kinda wish that Ludo stayed the main villain of season two, instead of being usurped Toffee yet again. That said, the episode "Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell" does a good job giving his arc a satisfying conclusion.

 Speaking of antagonist, let's talk about Tom Lucitor. Star's demon ex-boyfriend. While not a season spanning villain like Ludo or Toffee, he has several appearances early on as a recurring antagonist only to go down the more traditional "redemption arc" route later on. And I just want to say upfront, Tom is one of my favorite characters. Not in the show, but in fiction in general. It would of been so easy to make Tom your generic "toxic boyfriend" arch-type but even early on it's made clear that even though he's an antagonist, he isn't pure evil. His love for Star is genuine, but the problem is that he hasn't earned it. He tries to improve himself and become a better person but his own anger issues and jealousy keeps getting in the way. Specifically jealousy of Marco because he seems him as a romantic threat. But as time goes on, he does become better. He learns that he and Marco have a lot in common and eventually accepts that he can't make Star love him, and lets her have her space. And that, ironically, causes Star to becoming willing to open up to him again. They become friends and eventually get back together. But what I like is that while he has gone through efforts to improve and work through his problems, they still persist throughout the series. He's still very insecure and is looking for constant approval from Star. He still is jealous of how close Star and Marco are even though he has become friends with both of them. And it's shown several time that Tom tends to put his own problems above the problems of others. It shows that even though he wants to change and is willing to change, that doesn't mean that change come easy. It takes time and can be a long process. These are realistic character flaws that make Tom such a more complex and relatable character in my eyes. I relate a lot to Tom with his desire and constant struggle to improve as a person, and I feel like it's a struggle that's easy for a lot of people to relate to. Also...he's just such an edgy dork. He's...he is good boi.

 Another fantastic character is Eclipsa. Introduced about halfway into the series, Eclipsa was a former Queen of Mewni who was imprisoned in crystal due to dabbling in dark magic and for running away from her arranged marriage and marring the King of the Monster, Globgor. The show builds up mentions of Eclipsa early on, with characters talking about how evil and dangerous she was. Eventually she becomes free from her prison (cause lets be real, whenever there's a villain sealed away somewhere you KNOW they're going to get out.) But surprisingly, when we see her she actually doesn't seem that evil. She's polite, kind, and is even willing to go through the proper legal channels to prove that she isn't as bad as people say she is. She is an excellent example of a morally ambiguous character cause for the first several episodes we the audience don't really know if she is actually a good person who's just been judged too harshly by society or if she is actually evil and this is all an act. As even as the show goes on and it becomes clear that Eclipsa is a good person at heart they still manage to keep the audience guessing. Much like Star, Eclipsa can be kinda selfish and impulsive, making her a bit of a loose cannon.  Despite the shows title "Star vs. The Forces of Evil" Eclipsa goes to emulate one of the shows major themes. That life isn't that black and white.

 The show deals a lot with shades of gray when it comes to its characters, as all characters have there own motives and backstories and relations with each other that can make them either allies or enemies depending on the circumstances. An example of this is the Magical High Commission, a group that monitors magic across all the dimensions. throughout the series it is shown that they stand on the side of Mewni. So in season two when Mewni is being conquered by  Ludo and Toffee they're good guys. But just like most most people in Mewni they hate monsters and believe that Eclipsa is evil. Making them antagonist in seasons three and four. Their motives stay the same, but their role in the series changes.

 However despite my praise not all the characters are  great. In fact the show can be kinda hit or miss with their cast. The characters that are great are really great, but then you get characters like...

(Art by JelloApocolypse)

 You know what, I have to be honest. I kinda like Pony Head. I know a lot of people say she's annoying and selfish and contributes next to nothing to the plot...and they're right. But I also just kinda like her. I think what makes her more bearable to me is that she's kinda disliked in-universe. Even Star, who is Pony Head's best friend, often times get sick of her crap. Real talk though, can we all agree that Pony Head is basically just a discount Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time?  Like, they're nearly the exact same character.  

 A character who I don't like as much though is Glossaryck, the magical spirit guide that lives in Star's spell book. I never really got his deal. Sometimes it seems like he likes Star and genuinely wants to help her become a better magic user, while other times it doesn't seem like he really cares. He dies in the beginning of season three only to come back a few episodes later acting like a wild animal and yelling "Globgor" over and over again without any explanation as to how or why. Than at the end of season three it's revealed that it was all an act and he was fine the whole time. Like...why? We later learn that is a highly recognized historical figure in Mewni. Why is he yelling his name? And why does nobody question why he's doing this? I can buy that Star and Marco might not know who Globgor is but most everybody else seems to. I keep expecting that moment for his motivations to click. Where it's revealed how everything he's done was all an elaborate ploy to help Star or something, but it never really happens. Though my opinion of him does slightly increase in season four, but that's just because Keith David took over the role of voice actor. And adding Keith David can make anything better.

 Some characters can even change in quality between seasons. Janna is this edgy punk girl who joins the main cast in season two as a new friend to Star and Marco. I liked her well enough in season two even if some of her more abrasive elements could be somewhat obnoxious. She's more or less absent for most of season three. Then come season four she returns and I found her more annoying. I don't know if her character got worse or if it was just the fact that her character didn't work as well in later episodes after the show had become more dramatic. But near the end of the season, they give her some long overdue character growth. Not a lot, but some. And I found myself liking her more.  

 There are other characters in the series as well, and they tend to vary. Star's mom, Moon is a BAMF and I like Buff Frog a lot. Jacki and Kelly are fine characters, though I admit there's not that much to them outside of being love interests for Marco, though they still have there own personalities. King River's kinda annoying but I've seen worse examples of the "dumb dad" trope and Alan Tudyk gives a great performance.

 And since I don't have time to go over my thoughts on EVER character in this series, I'll do what ever online review does when they don't have time for nuance. Create a tier list!

 If It's not apparent by now, the characters in this show run the gambit. With the best ones being some of my favorite characters of all time, and the worse one's just being generally annoying. However, if there's one thing that this show excels at is not painting things as black and white. No character is evil without a reason and all the heroic characters have un-heroic flaws to their characters with unique motivations that make sense for their characters. (For the most part anyway.)

 The shows animation is also really good. Featuring thick outlines and a lot of nice coloring on the characters. (Even if some of the background colors can be a bit drab at times.) Most of the first season is done in flash, but it's good flash, which does well to accentuate the character expressions and the fluid action scenes. Part way through season one though the show's animation changes to more traditional animation. I think there is a bit of a divide on which style people consider to be better, but I personally prefer the look of the later seasons. The bouncy look of the early season one episodes look good, but I don't know how well that would of worked in the more dramatic and somber moments that happen later on.

 I also appreciate the world building. The first two seasons are set mostly on Earth in the town of Echo Creek, but the last two seasons changes things up and focus much more on Mewni, allowing us to explore both settings. I know some people don't like the change as it resulted in several of the characters introduced earlier being written out of the show but I never really minded that. I think Mewni and the cast of characters who inhabit it are on the whole more interesting than the people of Echo Creek. (I mean does anybody really miss Sensei Brantley?) Plus the change in setting allows us to get a bit of a role reversal with Marco being the fish out of water, and Star having to show him how her world operates. And even if you do prefer the Earth setting we still cut back to it on occasion. And when you add it all up the total series runtime between the two setting is fairly evenly.

 I like how characters can kinda come and go in this series, as it shows that the world doesn't revolve around Star and Marco. And it allows the writers to see which characters people gravitate to and focus on them while keeping less interesting characters out of the way. It also allows for character arcs to actually have conclusions, without the need for them to be drawn out just for the sake of keeping characters around longer.

 Let's talk about themes for a moment. Specifically the main theme of prejudice and  systemic racism in the show. It's handled...okay. It's kinda standard stuff and it doesn't go super complex on the issue, but for what it is it works though. That being said the show can be a bit confusing in terms of what counts as "monsters" and what are just regular races in this world. Which can make the metaphor a little muddled. I get that the idea is that there is no difference, and that monsters are only deemed as bad as an excuse for mewmans to justify their mistreatment of them, but it can still be confusing as to who's oppressed and who isn't and to what extent. I feel it would be even more confusing for a younger children watching who might not understand all the nuances of this stuff. However, the way the show tackles this isn't bad either. And the fact that the show tackles this element at all is admirable.

 But who cares about systemic racism! That's not the real reason people are watching this show! We all know that everybody is really here for the shipping!

 Yeah, as the series went on the shipping seems to become a much more major element within the series. So much so that to many the increased focus on the shipping is often cited as one of the main elements that caused the show to go down hill. However I never really minded it. I mean Star vs. has always been a bit of a love letter to the shojo/magical girl genre and romance is a very important element to those types of shows. So it makes sense that it would be used here. And I think it's used pretty well here overall. These are just kids struggling through these types of feelings for the first time, So it makes a lot of the stupid decisions that they make feel a lot more believable. But if this kind of thing isn't your cup of tea, it might end up bothering you. Because they do devote a good amount of time on it.

 But you're probably wondering, who do I ship? Am I team Starco or team TomStar? And honestly, while shipping has never been something I've ever gotten too invested in, if I had to pick I would probably have to say team Starco. Which may be surprising as I previously went on and on about how Tom was one of my favorite characters of all time. But this is the way I see it. Tom's whole arc is about learning how to get over his jealousy and controlling nature regarding his relationship with Star. And it's shown that even after he's dating Star, and has everything he thought he wanted, he still couldn't fully get over his hangups. Even though he loves Star and Star loves him, it's clear that the relationship still isn't exactly the most healthy. And it's clear that they are going in different directions in their lives. Tom knows what he wants. To be with Star. But Star doesn't know what she wants. Not all relationships have to end because one person does something wrong or because one of the parties involved is a bad person. Sometimes two people just aren't compatible in that kind of way. And seeing Tom be the one to break up with Star shows just how far he's come as a character. Plus, like I said earlier, Star and Marco have great chemistry. And I do genuinely see them working as a romantic couple, beyond the fact that there the two main leads.

 Besides, StarTom is technically incest so....

 *record scratch!*

 Oh wait, you didn't know about that.? Yeah, according to the official "Star vs. the Forces of Evil Magic Book of Spells" Star's Great Great Great Grandmother Rhina Butterfly was in a relationship with John Roachley, a second cousin to the Lucitor's. Now granted that would mean that Star and Tom aren't THAT related. But still. Incest none the less. Not that it even matters anyway since all of the Mewmans are descended from like five random people!  

Seriously, this is some Ishigami Village levels of incest we got going on here.

 But despite how heated the flames wars can be, I think we can all agree that Tomco is the best ship anyway. Like come on now.

 So yeah, even the shipping elements didn't bother me. To be completely honest, while the show did have some problems here or there, I found myself enjoying the show well into the fourth season. But I knew it was coming. Since I was watching the show months after the series had concluded, I had heard things about the finale. A finale that figuratively "cleaved" the fan base. But in order to talk about the finale we have to go a few episodes back and talk about the episodes leading up to it. Obviously spoilers ahead.

 To briefly recap, at this point in the series Eclipsa had become Queen of Mewni along with her husband Globgor after Star relinquished the crown to her. And many of the Mewmans are upset by Eclipsa's new "pro-monster" policies had left to live with the former Queen Moon. Meanwhile Mina Loveberry, a legendary monster fighter from generations far gone, had begun building up an army to invade Eclipsa's castle and take Mewni back from the monsters. A lot of people I hear don't like Mina as a final villain, but honestly I was surprised by how threatening they were able to make her despite how goofy she is. And her backstory about basically being a magically altered super solider driven to the point of insanity really helped to make her sympathetic. (Like I said, in this show everyone is painted with shades of gray. Even genocidal lunatics.) She invades with a Solarian Knight, a giant magic powered mech and it takes all of our heroes working together to barely defeat it. Until it is revealed that it was only one of many. It's an amazing twist that really leaves you wondering "How are or heroes going to get out of this one." Up to this point I was digging this final arc. But that's when I finally got to it.

 To me, the moment where Star vs. the Forces of Evil got bad was the moment it was revealed that Moon was working with Mina to reclaim the thrown from Eclipsa.

 It just doesn't fit Moons's character to do this. While it is shown throughout the season that Moon does not agree with Eclipsa more extreme policies, It was still shown that while Moon may be against Star's decision to give the crown to Eclipsa, she acknowledges that since Star was queen at the time and was within her right as queen to decide what was best for the kingdom. And in previous episodes she seemed generally happy not having the responsibility that comes with being queen anymore. But now she suddenly wants her kingdom back? If she wanted it back, all she had to do was say so from the start. At the start of the season most Mewmans still hate Eclipsa. It would not be that hard to stage a coup if she really wanted, especially since the magic high commission and all of Mewni would be on her side. Why would she work with Mina, who Moon knows is insane and racist even by Moons standard? Sure Moon and Eclipsa definitely don't see eye to eye on a lot of things but Moon still wouldn't want her dead, and Moon knows that Mina wants to kill her. I know she thought she could control Mina's army but that's still a big risk. It seems uncharacteristically reckless for a character as intelligent as Moon to make these choices.

 So then, after it turns out that Moon can't control Mina's army, our heroes are basically screwed and are forced to hide out in a special tavern located at the edge of the universe to wait things out while Mina begins rounding up all the monsters in Mewni. They are all trying to figure out a plan on how to possibly defeat Mina's army when Star suddenly goes on a rant about how magic is bad. And this idea had been brought up a few times in the series, but overall had never really been portrayed as a major aspect. But suddenly the show treats this as if it's all the magics fault, and that everything would be better if it was gone. And that's when Star comes up with the genius plan to use go to the magic dimension to destroy all the magic. Thus making Mina's forces useless. And while I admit that yes, they are very much been pushed to a wall here, this has to be one of the most overkill ideas they could of possibly think of!

 Now, I've seen a lot of people online saying that by doing this, Star would be committing mass murder on a multiverse scale, potentially destroying many universes. And I think that is a bit of a reach. From what we see in the series, it seems to me at least that magic is kinda a rare thing in the universe. That's why so many villains are trying to steal the magic wand away from Star. And I see very little implying that there are whole universes that are reliant on magic outside of Mewni. THAT SAID THOUGH, this would result in the deaths of a lot of innocent people. But Star really only seems concerned with the fact that once magic is destroyed, all people who come from parallel universes will return to their home universe, meaning she won't be able to stay with Marco. Which makes Star seem beyond selfish and generally pretty horrible.

 Hekapoo, one of the high commission members, despite being made of magic and knowing that she will die from this, is totally on board for this plan because plot. And our heroes travel to the magic dimension to destroy all the magic. Which they do. Defeating Mina's forces and leaving her powerless. She still manages to escape however because nobody decides to actually, you know, try to arrest the person who just committed a political coup and nearly whipped out an entire race. They just let her walk off, because she's powerless now. I mean what's the worse she could possibly do, right?

 So yeah, Mina is defeated, but everybody is sent back to their home dimensions. But somehow, through the power of love I guess, the universes of Earth and Mewni begin to merge. Thus allowing Star and Marco to be together. Happy ending, I guess? I don't know.  Like Star and Marco being together is treated as a good thing. But we also see humans screaming as there world have now been overrun by monsters. Is this suppose to be a joke? A bittersweet ending? I'm not really sure.

 In concept the idea of a universe merge is actually a pretty interesting idea. As it feels like a natural progression of the shows themes of racial tolerance and mutual understanding. Now that we've gotten semi-tolerance between monsters and mewmans we could now have an arc about trying to bridge the cultural gaps between the humans and the mewmans. Plus it would be a good way to appease both the people who enjoyed the earlier seasons focus on Echo Creek, and fans of the later seasons who preferred the stories set on Mewni. It's not a bad idea, but it needed to A.) be set up better and B.) needed more time to be fleshed out. I get that it's designed to be a sequel hook, but it's not like this is something that the series had been building up to to the point where we the audience can put together what happens next. As is, it's just weird.

 So yeah, the last couple of episodes of Star vs. where a total mess. It's fitting that the finale to Star happened to come out the same day as the finale of Game of Thrones. While I'm not going to act like there weren't some parts I liked or some good ideas sprinkled throughout, this finale was pretty bad. How do you have a show that preaches acceptance and equality and end it with a genocide?! But hey, genocidal problems call for genocidal solutions am I right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ufmrn7BCuA

My God, It's Dragon Ball Super all over again.

 And the worse part is that the series didn't have to end this way. Cause the show actually had a pretty good episode about half way through the season, "Cornonation" which would of acted as a great series finale! With the series ending with Eclipsa as Queen and ruling with Globgor by her side, with the mewmans finally accepting monster kind. You'd have to change a few things, like rap up Mina's plot and put Star and Marco together, but other than that it could of really worked. Admirably it may end up feeling more like a finale for Mewne as oppose to a finale for Star but it would thematically fit with the message of the series. Or if you really wanna keep this finale more in tack just don't have Star destroy the magic. Just have Star, Moon, and Eclipsa go off and do the one thing the three of them had never tried doing. Working together. And have them defeat Mina the old fashion way. They even allude to this idea in the tavern episode before Star goes on her whole "We gotta destroy the magic" kick.

 It is a bit ironic to think that a show that's whole message is about unity could end up being so divisive with it audience. I genuinely believe that had the show ended on a better note, people would look back on the show more fondly. Despite the flaws. To the people who don't like Star vs. The Forces of Evil, I can understand where you are coming from. Even if you ignore the finale there are things to not like. A lot of things aren't very well explained and the show has its fair bit of plot holes. The series can be repetitive with its frequent shipping and "racism is bad" episodes. And some of the characters can be a bit annoying, including our main lead at times.

 That being said though, I have to say, I can't bring myself to hate this show.

 I don't know what it is, but I just found myself getting really invested into this series. Maybe it was due to me hearing so much bad things about the later seasons that I had low expectations, and while that may be part of it I don't think that's the whole reason. When you watch as many cartoons as I have, and for as long as I have, it becomes harder for things to impress you. Sometimes it can feel like your just checking shows off of a box, which is something that I've been trying to improve upon. But watching this show, it brought me back to the way I felt back in the early 2010's when I first started getting into these types of series.  For all of Star's flaws, and trust me there are many flaws, it felt like it was doing something unique. Like it was in it's own little world that wasn't quiet Adventure Time and not quiet Steven Universe. And the series stuck with me after I finished watching it, which is surprisingly kinda rare. It's why I became interested in doing this review in the first place.

 Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a flawed show. Very flawed. But I'd rather have a flawed show that's unique than a perfect show that's something I've seen a million times. And while I may not be a fan of how it ended, I don't think that should completely take away from all the good that this show has to offer. This show isn't going to be for everybody, and If you somehow made it this far into the review without seeing the show than I hope I've said enough to help you figure out if this show is right for you. But for me, despite everything, the series still has it's magic.

 What did you think of Star vs. the Forces of Evil? I really genuinely want to know on this one.  Did it go downhill and if so than when? Leave those thoughts in the comments down bellow. Please fav, follow, and comment if you liked the review. And have a great day.

[pants-jones]

Bioshock

 The title of this is simple because Bioshock is a game I almost forgot that I played, but as soon as I remembered it a truckload of Bioshock stuff came flowing into my mind, and I decided to write about it here so I can finally seal all the stuff about these games in my brain vault forever. The Bioshock series consists of three games, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite. Around when Infinite came out, I heard a lotta talk about how amazing it was, but I was like 10 at the time so I never got to play it until it was free on PsPlus a couple months ago, along with the other two. The first two Bioshock games are fairly simple, in story and in gameplay. But Bioshock Infinite took the entirely new level that thinking about it now, almost a year after playing it, still blows me away. I feel like Bioshock doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, the way that games like Portal and Half Life do. But when I say that Bioshock blew my expectations out of the water (that is a pun) is a huge understatement. 

So first, let’s start with the first Bioshock.  This game came out in 2007, and it really shows with very dated mechanics. The game feels old, and for me that made it way more difficult than it needed to be. Bioshock 2 on the other hand, came out in 2010, and while the story isn’t nearly as good, it’s definitely way more streamlined. I could definitely see myself going back and playing it again. Let’s start with the first game.

Bioshock

Bioshock starts with you on a plane, examining a letter, when the plane suddenly crashes in the middle of the ocean. You’re the only survivor, and the closest thing you can see besides the burning plane parts, is this strange lighthouse. 

This lighthouse is made of stone, and it’s tall and menacing but you enter since you have no other option.  The door closes behind you and the first thing you see is this.

As you go down the stairs behind it, you enter a pod with the door open, and pull the lever inside. The pod takes you deep, deep underwater, while playing you a small video from a projector. This is 1960, so it’s very old styled. This is the first time you hear the voice of Andrew Ryan, while he tells you his philosophy and why he hates the world as it is. His initial speech is the rule he will live by for the entirety of the game. He hates government, and religion, because as he says in the speech, they all believe “a man isn’t entitled to the sweat of his brow”. I’m probably phrasing it poorly, but he means the mans hard work. You then get the first view of his creation- Rapture, the city on the bottom of the ocean.

When the pod lands, you are met with the main enemy of this game- Splicers. I think this goes without saying but Rapture has some pretty advanced technology. They’ve learned to manipulate peoples DNA to extreme levels, giving them pyrokinesis and other things. These abilities are distributed in really cool looking bottles and are called Plasmids. There are many different types of Plasmids, but you’ll start with lighting in the beginning of the game

Splicers are the results of splicing your genes way too much; they’re like crackheads, but instead of cocaine they was gene splicing. Their faces are usually cutup and they’re usually absolutely insane. But after escaping the first one you meet, you get in contact with a man named Atlas. He tells you he wants to get the hell out of Rapture, and that Andrew Ryan is the reason it’s gone to shit. He tells you that he needs to get his wife and child out with him, but when you get so close to rescuing them, Ryan bombs the submarine they were going to escape on. 

Throughout your gameplay you will hear about the way Rapture used to be, before it was a warzone. You would hear about the power struggle between Ryan and someone named Fontaine, and you will learn about how Ryan killed his mistress who was pregnant with his child. This game is full of information explaining how things went down before your arrival. Unfortunately, I’m not the best with this kind of exposition. This is a personal thing but I always mess up the story when it comes to this form of story telling. 

Now I’m gonna try my best to explain something a bit weird. If you’ve ever seen anything bioshock, you probably know about their mascot, the Big Daddy. 

This right here is a Big Daddy. They’re not robots, more like giant brainwashed people in bit suits. Their voices are altered so they sound deep and menacing, and they’re by far the strongest enemy in the game. They’re made to protect the Little Sisters- the little girl next to the Big Daddy. Little Sisters are practically little blood suckers, they can sense where a dead body with some Atom (the substance they use in plasmids) and call them Angels. They’re children turned into indestructible mosnters that are just there to get Atom. They always travel together. You can kill the Big Daddy and either free the sister, or take the Atom from her body which would kill her. There’s a limited amount of Big Daddies and the game marks how many are left in each section. Obviously killing or saving these girls changes the ending you get. You team up with some german(i think) doctor that pretty much sees these girls as her daughters to stop Ryan and Fontaine, who wants to use them for more Atom. 

The rest of the story is a bit fuzzy for me, so I’m just gonna briefly explain it here. Fontaine wasn’t a good guy, and he faked his own death and turned out to be Atlas. He and a doctor (whos name I don’t remember but she was important) pretty much took you and wiped your memory, brainwashing you so that you’d always listen to the trigger ‘would you kindly.” This twist was the biggest mind fuck, because you realize that Atlas (now Fontaine) would say those words all the time. They planted fake memories of a family in your mind and sent you to the surface, and even the letter you were examining in the start had the trigger in it. You kill Andrew Ryan before this (forgot to mention it), and you move on to get rid of this brainwashing and kill Fontaine. And to fight you Fontaine fills himself with Plasmids and Atom and obviously this doesn’t work because video games. You end the game, saving all the little sisters and bringing them to the surface, and live out your life sort of as a father figure for them. Or if you didn't save them, you just bring a bunch of splicers with you, but I don’t think this is a canon ending. This game is a solid 6/10 for me, only because of how dated it is. 

Bioshock 2

Bioshock 2′s story is pretty much the same but with a twist this time- You get to play as a Big Daddy. Unfortunately this games story felt a bit too much like the first one so I don’t remember anything big about it. You play as a Big Daddy looking for his Little Sister. The game starts with a cutscene, showing you protecting her from splicers until you get murdered by Raptures new dictator- Sofia Lamb.  She takes your Little Sister and turns her into a normal girl again, raising her up to be Eleanor Lamb. You revive yourself years later (i don’t remember how) and go off to find her. The biggest difference between Andrew Ryan and Sofia Lamb is that the splicers seem to worship her. But at the same time Sofia uses Eleanor as some sorta messiah figure, so they could be worshipping her I don’t know. In this game you get to go through newer parts of Rapture, and even get to see the new variant of Big Daddy- Big Sisters. These aren’t like Big Daddies and I’m not even sure what their purpose is, but they’re just as difficult to fight against. I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to steal Little Sisters from their male counterparts and bring them to Lamb. Towards the end of the game, I’m pretty sure Lamb ends up destroying Rapture, and you escape with Eleanor, a bunch of Little Sisters, and depending on your ending you also save Sofia from drowning. This game was a 7/10, because the gameplay was much better but the story was sorta lackluster. I’m not even sure if this game is canon in the story.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is the most different out of the three. I get the feeling that the devs got sick of the underwater aesthetic, so they said fuck it lets make a city in the sky. 

This is Columbia. A city in the sky. It’s the literal opposite of Rapture. It’s bright, it’s colorful, and it’s gorgeous. This was my favorite setting in the whole series. Plasmids are now Vigors, and it takes place in 1912 (I know, surprising). This games story is extremely complex, so if I get lost explaining it I’ll link a video explaining it clearly. In this game you play as Booker Dewitt.

Booker Dewitt is a former member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, scarred from the events of the Battle of Wounded Knee. When his debts from gambling start climbing too high, he is sent to Columbia to rescue a young woman named Elizabeth, who’s been trapped there since childhood. She’s kept in a giant statue protected by the Songbird, a giant bird with similar looks to the Big Daddies of Rapture. 

(This is Elizabeth btw. We never see Booker’s face except for some official art.)

All of Columbia is run by one man, Zachary Hale Comstock, He’s revered as some “Prophet”, and he seems to know everything about Booker.  He’s turned the people of Columbia into a sort of cult reminiscent of the KKK, based on Christianity and white power. Which makes him and all the enemies very easy to hate. Which is good. 

This cult is opposed by the Vox Poppuli, led by Daisy Fitzroy. She was originally the housemaid of Comstock’s home, but she fled when she was accused of murdering Comstock’s wife. She took her never ending hatred of Comstock and formed the Vox, a symbol of hatred for all of Columbia and men like Comstock. 

The story begins in July 1912, when Booker is taken to a lighthouse off the coast of Maine by two very odd twins, Robert and Rosalind Lutece (they are important later), being told “bring the girl and wipe away the debt.”  This lighthouse is very reminiscent of the old stone lighthouse from previous games. But this lighthouse doubles as a rocket silo, and Dewitt is sent to Columbia from here. 

The first thing that I personally noticed is Booker’s disdain for religion, because when he’s forced to be baptized to enter Columbia he’s extremely uncomfortable.  Soon he’s chased down by the authorities, since all of Columbia has been told by Comstock that any man with a scar on his hand in the shape AD is the devil, just like the scar on Booker’s left hand. 

After evading a lot of cops, we finally meet Elizabeth. She’s never really known anyone besides Comstock and the Songbird, and she’s missing a pinky. Besides that, she has a strange ability to create these tears in space time. The first time we see this is when she creates one to 1980′s Paris, a place she's always been desperate to go to. So they make a deal- She leaves Columbia with him and he takes her to Paris. 

After multiple shenanigans, Elizabeth ends up taking Booker and herself to a reality where Booker was the martyr of the Vox Populi. Booker sacrificed himself for Daisy here, and this started an all out war between the two factions. Fitzroy believes that the Booker we play as is either an imposter, or a ghost, and she sets her forces on him. With Bookers help, Elizabeth kills Daisy, and they try to escape via airship before Songbird forces them to crash.

At this point they learn a few things about Comstock; Comstock had the Luteces build a siphon device into the tower Elizabeth lived in to inhibit her powers, and he killed his wife and then the Luteces to hide the truth. Plus, Elizabeth is actually Comstocks adopted daughter. 

Elizabeth is kidnapped by Songbird. When Booker pursues, he needs to cross a bridge that happens to have a cloud passing through it. In the brief moment that clouds pass over the bridge, it goes from a bright sunset to a cold, windy dark snowstorm.  You fight through an old building filled with Comstock’s men, and learn that Elizabeth has already been tortured and corrupted by Comstock. She believes you left her there to die. And then, you learn that Comstock’s been dead for years now.  Then you finally meet Elizabeth, she shows you that you’ve been brought to 1984, and that she is using Columbia to attack New York. 

In that cloud over the bridge, you were running for what felt like a short time, but was really 72 years. Elizabeth sends you back, because she still doesn’t view you as an enemy, and she tells you how to save herself from Comstock, by controlling the Songbird. 

After freeing young Elizabeth, the pair assault Comstock’s airship, where Comstock and Booker argue about Booker’s knowledge of Elizabeth’s missing pinkie. This ends in Booker slamming the back of Comstock’s skull onto a baptismal font, right before drowning and killing him. They move on from the conversation, they use the Songbird to destroy the tower Elizabeth was held captive in, therefore destroying the siphon on her powers. 

Songbird turns on them again, but with the siphon gone, Elizabeth uses her powers to transport herself, Booker, and even Songbird to Rapture.  Booker and Elizabeth are inside, where they watch Songbird sink and die, being crushed by water pressure. 

At this point Elizabeth understands everything about her powers, and understands everything about whatever mystery there is left to this story. She takes Booker up the stone lighthouse, the very same one we saw in Bioshock 1, and basically explains multiverse theory to him. She explains that there are an infinite amount of lighthouses just like this. 

At this point, she knows Bookers history. She knows the truth, but Booker’s so traumatized that his brain legitimately erased the memory.  The rest of this is about Booker’s past, and how this all began. 

Booker was there for Wounded Knee. It traumatized him, made him resent himself, so some day he went to repent, to be baptized. But Booker couldn’t go through with it. he gained a massive debt, and in 1893, Robert Lutece approached Booker on behalf of Comstock, requesting that he “bring us the girl and wipe away the debt”, referring to Booker’s daughter, Anna Dewitt (hence, the AD on Booker’s hand.) Booker reluctantly agreed to hand off his daughter to wipe away his debt, but when he changed his mind, he chased Robert and Comstock down. Comstock tries escaping through a portal (the same portal Elizabeth can make btw) and the two struggle for the baby. Eventually, the portal closes, and Comstock snatches her away while the closing portal leaves her severed pinky in Booker’s hands. 

She explains that the Lutece’s have tried to recruit many Booker’s to stop Comstock, but all versions of Comstock will live on unless they try to stop his birth. So she takes Booker back to the baptism- but from another perspective. Booker changing his mind last minute at his own baptism sparked to life a universe where Booker went through with it, and was reborn from that moment onwards as Zachary Hale Comstock. After overusing the Lutece’s multiverse machine, he became sterile, and stole Anna to provide a biological heir for Columbia. 

We cut back to Elizabeth and Booker at the baptism pond, where multiple versions of her are appearing in front of him. The only way to stop Comstock is to kill Booker, so he allows them to drown him. And one by one, all the versions of Elizabeth disappear. 

This is the canon ending for the game. There are some more things in DLC, like Elizabeth going to Rapture to tie some loose ends connected to Comstock and Ryan’s abuse of the Little Sister’s. And it’s confirmed that Rapture scientists got the idea for Big Daddies from Songbird, and Columbia’s scientists came up with vigors from Rapture’s plasmids. The writers went as far to explain how everything in Rapture or Columbia came to fruition, and connected them all.

I’ve never gotten such an “It all makes sense now feeling” than when playing this game. They didn’t even have to connect it to the first two games but they did and they made it work way too well. Bioshock Infinite is the best out of the three, and thanks to this review I’ve finally gotten all that stuff out of my mind. This game is a 9/10 for me. I’d definitely play it again. 

[gofancyninjaworld]

OAV 2 Review: Fishing with the old boys

This was an excellent story that ties into many other developing themes in OPM.  Sorry, that means it’s going to be a bit long.  

Ah, and heroes are officially made of adamantium.

Story

It’s set a week after the catastrophic destruction of City A by the aliens (may there be an afterlife for Boros to be tormented forever in) with Atomic Samurai and Bang trying to fish in a lake. It quickly focuses on a key concern that both men have: they’re getting older and in the light of the ever-increasing threat monsters pose, who is going to take up the mantle?

They get to talking about their disciples with Bang asking after Iain’s health.  We cut to Iaian practising (after one week?!!!!! Yup, adamantium) his one-handed iai in a bamboo grove. Here we see the effect of JC Staff animators merely being worked hard as opposed to worked to death: they can start to bring life and care for the telling detail.  Not only is it beautiful, but there’s that moment when he starts to sheath his sword as he used to, realises, flips the sword and then completes the motion.  Perfect!  It’s things like this that are the strength of animation rather than manga or words!

There’s an interesting flip side to this that I’ll go more into in the meta. When Atomic praises the attributes that Iaian has that he is so proud of, it brings to mind the things that Bang loved in Garou and how bereft he felt when Garou turned on him. 

Atomic changes the subject to something that I again will be going more into in the meta: heroes.  And how weak the majority are.  They single out the Hero Association’s points-based system for especial censure, both being of the opinion that it encourages heroes to focus on the minutiae of progressing at the expense of truly being heroic.   Fair enough!  It’s something the story will be addressing and it’s interesting to see their perspective, but what they say next is much less fair -- mocking heroes who wear costumes.  

We cut to one such costume-wearer, Chain Toad, on the shores of the lake where he’s tracked a monster.  He’s accompanied by Mumen Rider.  Together, they unwisely decide that they have to try tackle the monster themselves so as not to disturb the fishermen on the lake.  Mumen Rider is particularly motivated to try more because he’s seen what the Class S heroes can do.  

Their valiant attempts to subdue the salamander monster are beautifully, beautifully animated.  Hard to pick a single moment I liked, but if I’ve got to make a still, let it be of Chain Toad throwing his chain, sending his chain past the monster, who thinks it’s dodged, only to send it looping back to snare it. 

Once things get too hot for our valiant heroes (Mumen’s underwater battle has to be one of the best sequences this season), the two fishermen finally see fit to intervene. Atomic hands Bang his rod and citing the need for strength as well as guts, casually cuts the monster up, freeing Chain Toad in the process. 

Then they carry on fishing.  As you do. 

Meta

Before I get into the meta proper, a point of order.

WAIT A COTTON-PICKING SECOND!  JC STAFF KNOWS HOW TO USE SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC APPROPRIATELY?  SINCE WHEN?  WHY WASN’T THIS ON SHOW IN THE MAIN SEASON?!!!!   Sorry, the shoddy, hastily-slapped together effects and disjoint music took so much away from the season it was painful. I’m still salty about it! 

Ah, that’s better.  We continue. 

1. Time waits for no man, and neither do monsters. 

A theme that we see come up more than once in OPM. It’s one that is particularly heavy on Bang’s mind -- this isn’t the first time we’ve seen him worry about it.  No matter how strong he and his fellow heroes are, they are indeed growing older, and against a threat that isn’t getting better, where the heroes who are strong enough to share and eventually going to take over their burden will come from is a real issue. It really sets into context the fight with Centichoro, when Bang simply wouldn’t countenance the prospect of Genos self sacrificing -- Bomb explains that his youth is needed for the future.  

2. Will. Skill. Strength. Pick all three.

FUCKING FINALLY someone criticises Mumen Rider.  It’s been long overdue.  Even as Atomic praises his guts and willingness to do his utmost, he points out the absolute need for strength.  Mumen wants to do great things, but to this very day has not invested meaningfully in even trying to be physically stronger.  I love Mumen, but the dude has to change if he wants his dreams to become reality. The skill and dedication Chain Toad and Mumen Rider showed in attacking the monster so as to keep it from disturbing the fishermen they mistook for ordinary civilians was utterly admirable, but without the strength to see that will through, it was futile. You can’t launch a rocket from a canoe, no matter how much you will it otherwise. 

Ultimately, if a hero is serious about being a hero, they have to worship and chase after strength like a fanatic after their idea of God: there are too many vicious monsters for a hero to be less than the very strongest they can be.  Anything less is a betrayal of both the people the hero fails to protect and of the principles the hero is trying to live by.   OPM is just too brutal a world for good intentions to survive without solid backing.

 3. Games Games Everywhere

One-Punch Man is only partially a parody.  At times it is a satire, and in the instance of the points-based system the Hero Association uses to manage its heroes, it is a sharp one on the subject of gamification.   While treating non-games as games has been around since the 19th century, the 2010s is when it really took off, round about when ONE started writing OPM.  SInce then, it’s only become more pervasive: you can set objectives, quests, and get rewards for just about anything.  Eating, sleeping, completing in-work induction, delivering packages, you name it, someone has gamified it. It delivers regular little hits of gratification, bigger hits when you rank up, and rivalry when there’s a leaderboard.  It also means that failures can be individualised -- it’s your fault if you’re struggling rather than the system as a whole.  The way the Hero Association has implemented it, it’s a straight up gaming system.  It means that the Hero Association can leave heroes to motivate and push themselves without actively knowing too much about them.The distortions that Bang and Atomic discuss are the same that Saitama identifies.  Rookie crushing, refusing promotions if they mean more responsibility and less recognition, factions, chicanery, showboating to try to gain points through popularity, discouraged and crushingly lonely heroes  -- we’ve seen Swim, Glasses and Saitama -- all are to be expected.   Their idea of how to manage heroes is looking for people with qualities such as honour and dedication and nurturing them is much more hands on -- and represents longer-term thinking.

But before we go praising their sagacity, the episode casts an unforgiving eye on their own shortcomings.

4. The Tyranny of ‘Fit’

Precisely because it is so hands-off, the HA makes no direct judgement on what a hero should be like, leaving it up to the observed results to be the proof of the pudding, so to speak.  This has meant that some real mavericks and oddballs are legitimately heroes in good standing.  We see that the old boys have a much narrower definition of what a good hero can be like.  A ‘good’ hero can’t wear a costume in their eyes.  We can see that’s grossly unfair to those who do: Chain Toad’s heroism has nothing to do with his wearing one. But the problem with their  is more pernicious than judging heroes by their dress sense. Implementing their ideas would formalise a system whereby it would be all but impossible for an up and coming hero to get anywhere without belonging to a school or at least having a sponsor able to vouch for them.   

What’s wrong with that? The thing that’s really noteworthy is that the people that Atomic and Bang champion (and not merely teach or support) are also the people who most remind them of themselves. It contributes to Bang feeling personally rejected by Garou. It goes beyond teacher-student relationships: in the main season we come to learn that Kuseno sees much of himself in Genos.  It goes beyond the page: it’s why many fans wish that Glasses would be Saitama’s disciple and feel he should be his ‘true’ heir.  It’s an uncomfortable truth  that much of what is called ‘fit’ is more familiarity than suitability. And this is particularly relevant because no one, not one of the masters praising Saitama would ever, ever have given him the time of the day had they met him before he became strong.  He doesn’t fit. And neither do a lot of other good heroes.  It’s perhaps most fitting that the ultimate misfit, Saitama, has the most blatantly misfitting disciple... :D

It’s almost like how best to recognise, support and nuture heroes isn’t a simple problem with a singular answer!    

I suppose I’d better wrap up

As you can tell from the length of this review, I’ve really enjoyed this episode.  Two old boys pondering the future, their fears and their hopes and along the way being both entertaining and deeply thought-provoking. 

I suspect that OAV 2 is going to be the best of the lot, but I live in hope of being wrong! 

[jwslw]

A silly story that just kinda popped into my head

The idea for this popped into my head while I was at work and I slapped it together over the course of several hours.  I don’t think I’ll do anything else with it but, I thought I’d share it.  

A Traveler from a Different Hungary

On Friday, June 12th 2015, a fatal vehicle accident occurred on 10th South Avenue in Great Falls Montana.  As one of the busiest streets in Montana, fatal accidents are not uncommon and in the modern world many would sadly not regard it as worthy of notice were it not for the strange state of the victim and the strange interest paid to the case by officials from Malmstrom Air force base.

At ten o'clock that morning, a man named  Antal Kovács was struck and killed by an oncoming Semi Truck.  After a lengthy investigation by the city police the driver of the truck (name withheld to protect his privacy) was cleared of any wrong doing, maintaining to this day that he did not see Mr. Kovács until he hit the poor man.  What I don't believe he has ever told anyone is just how literally he means that.

Mr. Kovács was rushed to the city hospital but, pronounced dead on arrival.  Amongst the man's personal effects were a back pack full of period costumes, a wallet containing a large amount of currency of unknown origin, cards and paperwork identifying the deceased as a citizen of the (seemingly no existent) Greater Slavic Confederation, a ten shot .32 pistol of unknown manufacture, a journal written in a slightly archaic form of Hungarian, and a 12inch by 12inch by 4inch electrical device resembling a CB radio, but, it was seemingly damaged in the accident as the investigators claimed they were never able to make it work. Linguistic experts at the University of Providence were consulted to translate the journal but, nothing was ever publicly revealed, beyond the experts' assertion that the journal seems to have been part of an elaborate hoax.

While it is unknown when the personnel at Malmstrom became involved,  several anonymous sources that claim to be connected to the police force insist they were called in after the journal was translated, only to confiscate everything as a matter of national security.  

Now I suppose we come to my part of the story.  I am a small time writer and academic in a small northwestern town, about a year ago, I began researching this story on a whim after a journalist friend of mind directed me to the case.  Well she calls herself a journalist, the rest of us call her a conspiracy vlogger but, she does occasionally find some fascinating, and frightening things.  For most of that time I felt like was repeatedly throwing myself at a brick wall.  Everyone I contacted would either directly tell me that the story was nothing more than an attempted hoax gone wrong, or act like they knew something only to point me to another person that would.  I had become quite discouraged until two weeks ago when a mysterious package with no return address arrived in my mail.  To my surprise, it contained a manuscript that perported to be the translation of Kovács journal, with a note that read, “This is the translation as best as I remember it, the Air force took the actual journal and the translation as I'm sure you know, still I don't think anyone cares about the event anymore, so you should be able to publish it yourself if you would like--- A friend”.  I do not know if I believe this story, but, I present this it here for the public to read and decide for themselves.

The Research Journal of Antal Kovács  

Pages 1-18: Seem to have been forcibly ripped from the book, possibly as a measure of secercy.

Page 19:

Date; 11th March, 2010

I have finally succeed, after ten years of work, ten years of failures and set backs, my time travel device is finally complete and functional.  I have yet to test the device on myself, but, test runs with the device and a camera secured to both inanimate objects and animals has shown that the spatial dislocation and automatic recall mechanism are functioning within desired parameters, however I still can not send the device into the future. I will have to run more tests, but, I should be ready to time travel myself before the end of the month.

Pages 20-26:  Strings of calculations seemingly to solve the issue of not being able to travel forward in time, page 26 reads, “the calculations say I should be able to do it but, all attempts have failed.”

Page 27:

Date; 24th March, 2010

I have completed my first trip, I traveled backwards in-time 72 hours and trans-located from my home Sopron  to Madrid Spain, and then back again with the automatic recall.  I remained in the past for six hours, purchasing souvenirs and eating dinner, before  returning to my home, as I have observed with my previous tests, using the automatic recall spending six hours in the past means returning to the present six hours after I left, tomorrow I will test the manual return mechanism.

Date; 25th March, 2010

Success, at 12:00 I went back in time almost a full year, spending a week in Naples Italy before returning to the present at 12:05.  All tests indicate that a it takes four minutes to fully transition between time periods and I am not yet ready to see what will happen if to versions of myself exist within the same space/time coordinates.

Page 28: Scribbled calculations and shopping notes for the next trip

Page 29:

Date; 9th April, 2010  

Close call “today”, I departed from my basement laboratory for intent on spending a month in the 11th century exploring the Congo region.  However, upon my arrival I startled a formation of tribal warriors seemingly preparing for a battle, my sudden appearance caused much excitement among the assembled warriors, with much shouting and gesticulations in my direction.  Finally the warriors seem to have come to the conclusion that I was a good omen and set off for their battle.  Unable to contain my curiosity I followed the tribal warriors at what I hoped was a safe distance (as an aside, no it is not easy for a man who has maintained a mostly sedentary life, keeping up with a group of hunter gatherers is not easy).  When we reached the battle site, the warriors I had followed engaged their enemy, the battle lasted for over two hours and while it seemed at several points that what I had come to think of as “my” warriors, would win the day, their opponents eventually drove them from the field.  I don't know what what the survivors were saying as they retreated towards me, but, I really was not eager to find out.

Page 30:

Date; 22nd April, 2010

Was captured by a gang of bandits while exploring 13th century Ireland today, fortunately they were much more interested in the coins and food I had assembled for the trip and I was able to slip away while they squabbled over the “spoils”.  Other than that it was great trip, and I was able to gather a significant number of covert digital photographs of daily life seven hundred years ago.

Pages 31-34: More calculations, at least two pages were heavily water damaged

Page 35: A hastily scribbled note reading “It seems the Western Interior Sea Way covered more of Cretaceous North America than geologists think.”  

Page 36:

Date; 2nd June, 2010

Three near misses today, first I accidentally transported myself into the nest of what I believe was a Megalosaurus.  Upon fleeing back to my lab, I made preparations to travel to ice age Siberia, where I was attacked by cave lions. Finally I traveled to 14th Century France where I was immediately spotted and pursued as a warlock.   I may need to obtain some form of self-defense if I am to continue my explorations.

Page 37:

Date; 9th July, 2010

It took some effort but, I have obtained an army surplus bayonet, 7.65mm pistol and 11mm lever action rifle for trips to less settled time periods.

Pages 38-50:  Several pages rendered unreadable from dried blood possibly caused by the accident.

Page 51:

Date; 15th September, 2010

I had to shoot an actual Neanderthal today.  I was wandering the ice age Germany documenting the wildlife when I accidentally interrupted a Neanderthal hunting party, spooking the deer they were stalking.  There were three of them, and all of them charged me,  I fired two shots into the air which startled two of them but, the third kept charging, so I began to give ground until I was backed into a corner and I had to shoot him.  I don't know if I killed him or not, I simply fired on him till he collapsed and I transported myself home.  

Page 52:

Date; 1st August 2011  

I have put off using the device for almost a year, and yet in that time I have never told anyone about my device, there is something I must do first.  My own fumblings do not seem to have harmed history in any significant way.  But, what if someone that truly wanted to alter history were to get there hands on my device.  I have a plan I will go back to 1922 and assassinate Nikoli Simonov, the leader of the Russian army during the great war and the reason that Belarussia is not part of the Confederation today.  After I have assessed the good or harm done by this action, I will return to 1922 and stop myself to see what happened.

Page 53-54:

Date; 7th August, 2011

I don't know were to begin, I just don't know were to begin.  I traveled back to 1922 and, just as I had planned, I assassinated Nikoli, I watched him for weeks until I had my opportunity, and I took my shot.   I narrowly escaped the guards and transported my way back to 2011, only to learn that in this new time-line, Nikoli's replacement proved to be an even more cunning tactician and the Confederation was crushed.  I spent weeks or months of subjective time leaping from battle to battle, watching the battles, watching how different post war international politics changed.  Finally when I felt I'd learned enough, recorded enough, I returned to 1922 Russia, ready to stop myself.  I searched all of Moscow, but, never found myself.  I was confused, I clearly still existed in this time-line, my house was full of my things, many of my friends still existed, they recognized me, they made the same comments about how withdrawn and hermit-like I'd become, that they made in my original time-line.  Confused I returned to 2011 once again.  When I returned the world was exactly as I left it before setting off to kill Nikoli.  How can this be, every other point I jumped to was clearly part of my new time-line.  Did my alternate self simply not embark on my grisly task?  This will take further research.

Pages 55-60: More formulas, strange flow charts and seemingly unrelated strings of words

Page 61:

Date; 10th June, 2015

I have done so many things, if I have a soul it is well and truly damned.  I burned down Doctor Alverez laboratory before she could begin her ground breaking research into radiation, I shot down the Chinese inventor Hu Xiang as he made his 1900 flight, I prevented Dr Grosman from formulating the theory of relativity, and so much more.  Everytime the same result, I come back to an altered 2011 or 13 or, I don't even know any more, I've aged my self almost twenty years while only four have passed.  And every time I jump around from decade to decade to see what has changed, only to finally go back to stop myself and I'm not there, but, when I return to the present, everything is as it should be.  I think I have finally gathered enough data to reveal my invention to the world, but, I must perform my last experiment.  I will alter the entire course of the Confederation, and its so simple, every school child knows the story, in 1213, Agoston Juhász, the man who would become the first leader of the Greater Slavic Confederation was riding through the Carpathian mountains and came to a fork in the road, one leading higher into the mountains the other leading into a pleasant valley.  He chose to take the high road and that night a land slide wiped out the valley.  My plan is to simply go back in time, convince him the high road is blocked.  Once I've seen all I wish of the alternate future I have created, I will return, and my alternate self will never arrive.

Well, that's were the account ends. Is it true, damned if I know, I do know that  Agoston Juhász means “Exalted Shepard” in the Hungarian language, and I'm not even certain if either word were in use as names in thirteenth century Hungary so take it as you will.  As for me I'm going make sure my security system hasn't been mysteriously deactivated.

----Efrain Phelan, freelance writer

[duhragonball]

The 10 Best Episodes of Dragon Ball and DBZ

Back in October I wrote up a list of the ten worst episodes of Dragon Ball, and I always meant to go back and do a ten best list to go with it.    Well it’s the last Sunday of the year and I got nothing better to do, so I’m gonna knock that out today.

Honestly, I’m not sure which one of these was tougher to do.    The main reason I made a worst list was because I noticed a small handful of episodes I just didn’t like, and I realized that even with a show I like this much, there had to be at least ten stinkers, so I liked the challenge of picking them out.   On the other hand, picking the ten best episodes is like finding really good pieces of hay in an awesome haystack.    And I’m a horse, so I’m already super-into hay.   This analogy is getting tortured, so I’ll just move on.

Honorable Mention: Dragon Ball Z Episode 125.

I think the fandom has unanimously agreed that this is the all-time best episode of Dragon Ball, but it didn’t feel right putting it in my list.    I don’t know if that’s because I sincerely believe it’s the 11th best episode, or because I just don’t want a predictable choice taking up space on my list.    That’s how Dragon Ball rolls sometimes.   Past a point, you can’t tell if you’re liking something ironically, or just plain liking it.  

Without question, this is the all-time best filler episode.   We all know the tale: Goku and Piccolo are busy training for the upcoming Androids battle, but Chi-Chi is sick of them not helping around the house, so she wants them to take driver’s ed so they can drive her to the grocery once in a while.    Well, mostly Goku, but Piccolo somehow gets roped into it too.    Honestly, I don’t think he really needed to go through with this.  He pouts like Chi-Chi made him do this somehow, but she was clearly only interested in getting Goku licensed up.    I think he just sort of invited himself into this situation because he wanted to feel like part of the family.   

Anyway, the boys dress up in stupid/awesome civilian clothes, and somehow manage to be great at driving and terrible at driving at the same time.   It’s a very zen kind of show.   Also there’s a smidgen of Vegebul goodness, and Icarus shows up for no apparent reason, so there’s something for everyone.   

10. Dragon Ball Z Episode 120

This the one where Future Trunks kills Mecha Frieza.   There’s no shortage of fans who think reviving Frieza in the 2010′s was worth it, but for my money, nothing they do with the character can possibly top his (first) death scene.  

Leading up to this episode, everyone just assumed that Goku killed Frieza on Namek, but he survived, got rebuilt as a cyborg, and invaded Earth for revenge.  The implication is that Goku will have to fight an even stronger version of his greatest foe, except he’s nowhere to be found, and no one else stands a chance of holding the line until Goku can arrive.  

But then the story ups the ante again by having a totally new character show up, turn Super Saiyan, and shrug off Frieza’s attacks like they’re nothing.   When he finally attacks Frieza, he whips out a cool-looking ki blast, and that turns out to just be a feint.    No, his real attack is a simple swing of an ordinary sword, which cuts Frieza in half like he’s made out of butter.

Meanwhile, all the major characters are standing on the sidelines wondering what the hell is going on here.    There’s a Super Saiyan besides Goku?   Aren’t all the Saiyans extinct?   Where did this new guy come from, and how did he even know to be here?

It’s a brilliant episode, because it serves as a coda to the menace of Frieza that loomed large over the previous 119 episodes of Z, and it also serves as a prelude to the next 75 episodes, which promises a crisis far beyond anything that’s come before.   But it also works as a stand-alone story.    Frieza’s body tells the story of why he wants revenge on the Super Saiyan, and when Trunks reveals that there’s more than one Super Saiyan, he completely self-destructs.   He goes from the tyrant of the universe to just another corpse in a matter of minutes.   It’s amazing to watch. 

9. Dragon Ball Episode 67

Strictly speaking, Goku’s assault on the Red Ribbon Army base is three episodes, so maybe it’s gauche to include one and not the others, but this one is the climax of the Red Ribbon’s downfall, so I think it stands out.   

By this point, Goku’s already entered the RRA headquarters, and is just having his way with the place.    Episode 66 was full of guys trying to shoot him, but he just kicks all their asses and moves on.    Staff Officer Black has finally realized what they should have accepted from the beginning: that Goku is too strong for them to defeat by force.    But Commander Red can’t quite bring himself to give up the fight.   Maybe it’s because so much of his identity is tied into the Red Ribbon’s supposed invincibility, or he just can’t fathom how a small boy can do all these things.   

I think what really hurts his pride is when his soldiers start deserting en masse.   Before, he could keep them in line because of the Red Ribbon’s fearsome reputation, but that’s over now, whether he believes it or not.    When Colonel Violet loots his treasure vault, not even bothering to disable the security cameras, he has to know that it’s all over. 

Then we find out that he only wanted the Dragon Balls so that he could make a wish to become taller, and Black is horrified.    He wasted all those lives and resources for something as petty and selfish as that?    What makes this episode so great is how the world around them is crashing down, and they’re arguing over a plan that’ll never happen anyway.  And Red absolutely doesn’t get why Black would think his wish was stupid.   He’s like “Um, you need to check your tall privilege?”   And Black shoots him in the face because he’s just done. 

But this episode’s not done, because once Red is out of the picture, Black sort of loses it and tries to fight Goku for possession of the Dragon Balls.   It’s really amazing character development, because Black was the calm, collected center of the Red Ribbon Army, but then he just flips out, forgetting all the lessons his comrades learned the hard way.    The lure of the Dragon Balls is just too seductive for him to give up.  

Also, Colonel Violet is super cute.

8. Dragon Ball Z Episode 135

A few episodes before this one, Vegeta debuted his own Super Saiyan transformation, and kicked the shit out of Android 19.  It was a big deal, because up to that point, Goku and Trunks were the only Super Saiyans, implying that jerks like Vegeta couldn’t do it.    It was also a big deal because it was assumed up to that point that the androids might just be unbeatable, and Vegeta clobbered one of them in a single episode.   

But that episode didn’t make the list, because this one is far more important.    Here, Vegeta tries to press his luck by challenging the even stronger Android 18, even though everyone else tries to tell him this is a terrible idea.   What follows is one of the coolest fights in the series, and the best classic Dragon Ball battle to feature a woman.   For a while it looks pretty even, but then 18 reveals she was hustling Vegeta the whole time, and defeats him with no trouble at all.

Why is this such a big moment?   For one thing, it’s the next step in deconstructing the Super Saiyan Legend.   Vegeta had already proven that you don’t have to be a good person to turn into a Super Saiyan, and that it’s not just a once-in-a-millennium thing.   Here, he proves that Super Saiyans aren’t as invincible as he liked to believe.   We’d already seen Goku lose to Android 19, but he was sick at the time.   Trunks was no match for he androids in his own timeline, but those battles had happened off-screen.   This is a much more visceral demonstration.   You’ve got the Saiyan Prince, in perfect health, fresh as a daisy, comfortably transformed, and it doesn’t do him a damn bit of good.  18 breaks his arm like it’s not even hard.

For Vegeta, this was a big deal, because it finally cemented the fact that there is no finish line.    From his first appearance, he seemed convinced that he could become the supreme being in his universe, simply by killing Frieza, becoming immortal, or transforming into a Super Saiyan.   Here, he thinks he’s finally pulled it off, only to lose even more decisively than ever before.

7. Dragon Ball Episode 99

I debated whether to go with this one or Episode 101, where Tien finally beats Goku to win the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, but I think this episode deserves the nod.    The Goku/Tien championship bout spanned several episodes, but this is the one where Tien finally decides that he’d rather win the title than avenge Tao Pai Pai.   

Let me back up a bit here.    Goku (seemingly) killed Tao in a prior episode, and Tao was the brother of the Crane Hermit, Tien’s master.    So going into this fight, Tien was planning to defeat Goku, win the championship, and then kill Goku in front of the live audience, just to get that extra bit of revenge.    But once the fight actually got rolling, Tien began to develop a begrudging respect for Goku’s talent, and then this episode happens, where Tien starts winning, and Goku accuses him of cheating.    Tien doesn’t know what he’s talking about at first, until he realizes that the Crane Hermit is using Chiaotzu’s psychic powers to paralyze Goku at key moments.  

Once he figures it out, he tells them to stop, since he wants to prove his own superiority, but Crane just wants Goku to die, title or no title.   He orders Tien to stop clowning and kill Goku at once, but Tien refuses, and turns his back on the life of an assassin.   Chiaotzu does the same, since he was enjoying the match before all the interference started.    Crane flips out, but Roshi Kamehameha’s him out of the stadium, allowing Tien and Goku to finally fight without any outside interference.  

Tien’s first order of business is to let Goku have a bunch of free shots, in order to make up for all the hits Tien got in while Chiaotzu was cheating.   Then he grows four arms, because he still wants to kick Goku’s ass, even if he doesn’t hate him anymore. 

Tien’s reform isn’t unique in the series, but I think his particular transformation is very neatly accomplished, inside this one episode, during a single epic battle.    Like so many other characters, he figures out that revenge, power, and bloodlust are hollow pursuits compared to the thrill of pushing your own limits through the sacred art of gonzo anime violence.   Being a bad guy isn’t just morally shameful, it’s downright boring.   Piccolo and Vegeta would eventually learn the same lesson, but it never gets spelled out quite as eloquently as it does in this episode.   Also, Launch tries to kill Chiaotzu with a giant cartoon mallet.  

6. Dragon Ball Episode 147

On the other hand, you’ve got this episode from the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, where Piccolo doesn’t learn a damned thing, except how to take an epic beating.

This episode is just wall-to-wall nuts.    Piccolo blows up the entire city where the tournament is being held, and that’s just for openers.    Tien uses his Ki-ko-ho to make a foxhole for the others to hide in, and Launch kicks Kami into it when he doesn’t jump in right away.   

Piccolo’s city-busting blast was intended to finish off Goku, but it doesn’t even scratch the lovable bastard, and it just gives Goku and opening to pound the ever-loving crap out of Big Green.    Goku just goes sickhouse on him, in one of the most satisfying and well-animated sequences in the whole series.   And to add insult to injury, he continues to play by the tournament rules.   Once he has Piccolo laid out where the ring used to be, he asks for a ten count.  

And that turns out to be a huge mistake, as Piccolo has enough juice left to zap him with a mouth blast at the last second.   The attack leaves a baseball-sized hole in Goku’s pec, and Piccolo just starts stomping on the wound.   Worse, he’s still strong enough that no one else can come to Goku’s rescue.   

And then, just when Goku looks to be finished, he gets back up anyway, still looking to win this battle.    Is he overconfident or just stupid?   Neither actually, as he has the whole fight under control, as the next episode reveals.  

5. Dragon Ball Z Episode 281

Oh mannnn, this episode ruuuules.   One of my pet peeves with this fandom is people crapping on the Buu Saga, simply for coming at the tail end of this franchise.   It’s bullshit, just like how Star Wars purists act like Empire Strikes Back is the best movie ever made and Return of the Jedi is a cinematic bowel movement.   They’re both good, you just lost interest before the series ended. 

The Buu arc isn’t my favorite, but it’s balls-to-the-wall awesome, and when I was making this list I had a hard time picking a favorite episode from the Kid Buu fight.    It’s just such a beautiful battle, packed with story and character development.    I can’t blame viewers for getting burnt out on Dragon Ball if they watched the preceding 433 episodes first, but to say these episodes are bad is just flat-out wrong.

Anyway, I went with 281, which features the tail end of Goku’s solo effort against Kid Buu.   Vegeta steps into give Goku a pep talk, and Goku admits that he can’t gather enough power to blow Buu away.   To do that, he’ll need a full minute to charge his ki, and Vegeta offers to buy him that minute, even though he’s weaker than Goku and doesn’t stand a chance against Buu by himself.   

What follows is a solid ten minutes of Vegeta getting clobbered, but he keeps getting back up and forcing himself to find new ways to play for time.    He doesn’t try to beat Buu, because he knows he can’t.  Instead, he keeps him busy, and psyches him out so he won’t bother Goku while he charges up.   

What makes this work is that it’s the counterpoint to Episode 133, seen earlier on this list.  Then, Vegeta thought his Super Saiyan form made him a guaranteed winner.   Now, he’s using Super Saiyan 2 in a desperate bid to just hold the line until an even stronger fighter can make his own last-ditch effort to win.    Vegeta’s fighting for a chance at victory, and it’s a slim chance at that.   One of my favorite things about this episode is how tragic it is.   By Episode 282, it becomes clear that Goku’s plan was never going to work, so Vegeta’s efforts were in vain.    But he doesn’t seem to mind much, because at least he got to throw down against Kid Buu and see exactly how long he could hold out.  

4. Dragon Ball Z Episode 184

This is the one where Gohan finally snaps and turns into a Super Saiyan 2, but when you put it like that, it seems so pedestrian.  

From his first appearance in Episode 1 of DBZ, Gohan was shown to have hidden potential, which was gradually brought out over the course of the series.   By the time the Cell Games rolled around, it was sort of implied that he had finally realized that full potential.   Goku trained him to be a Super Saiyan like himself, and how much higher could he possibly get than that?  

But Goku’s secret plan was for Gohan to fight Cell, and if he got in a pinch, Gohan would then tap into the same hidden potential he used to turn the tables on the Saiyans and Frieza.   Goku’s theory was that if he trained Gohan to be a Super Saiyan, then any power boost Gohan experienced during the fight would rachet him up to an even higher level never seen before.  

This suited Cell just fine, so he pooped out an army of mini-Cells to torture the Z-Fighters until Gohan’s rage pushed him into this higher level.   And that’s what this episode is all about, except it doesn’t really work.    The Cell Juniors clobber the heroes from pillar to post, but Gohan doesn’t change, and he doesn’t know how to make himself change.   Then Android 16 has an idea to talk him through it, and he convinces Mr. Satan to toss his severed head over to Gohan to he can make his speech.   Cell stomps on 16′s head in an impulsive act of cruelty, and then then “Unmei no Hi - Tmasahii Vs. Tamashii” starts playing.   

This is a huge moment in the series, not only because of the advent of Super Saiyan 2 and the turning of the tide in the Cell Games, but also because it marks the fufillment of the promise of Gohan’s character.   We all knew he would become something great, and now it finally comes into focus.  

But this episode also gets high marks for how all the other characters are handled.   Goku’s “foolproof” plan collapses, and he’s forced to apologize while they all get beaten down; Android 16 sacrifices himself after already losing his body; Mr. Satan does what little he can, proving that he’s more than just a gloryhound; and Cell seems to have second thoughts once he finally gets a glimpse at Gohan’s hidden power.  

3. Dragon Ball Z Episode 94

Maybe it would make more sense to pick the episode where Goku turns Super Saiyan for the first time, but I think the false-finish that precedes it deserves the spot.   I’ll try to explain.  

There’s really three things going on in this one.   First, Goku’s trying to assemble a Spirit Bomb powerful enough to kill Frieza.   In the previous episode, Frieza finally noticed what he was up to, and he decided to kill Goku before he could use the bomb.    But the bomb still isn’t big enough, so Goku needs more time.  

Second, Piccolo has jumped in to keep Frieza busy long enough for Goku to get the time he needs.   Much of this episode is Frieza beating up on a defenseless Piccolo, and then Krillin and Gohan jump in too.   It’s just awesome seeing all these guys throw everything they can into this effort.  

Third, there’s a filler subplot featuring the dead Z-Fighters on King Kai’s planet fighting the dead Ginyu Force members.   It’s goofy, and kind of inconsequential, but it’s fun.   I just like seeing the whole gang getting to worth together in the same episode.  

So when Goku finally deploys the Spirit Bomb and Frieza finds himself overwhelmed, it really feels like a team effort.  King Kai reports that Frieza’s been beaten, and this inspires Yamcha and the others to put the Ginyus away for keeps.   On Namek, only Krillin and Gohan are left standing after the Spirit Bomb explodes, and they wonder if Goku and Piccolo could have survived.  

I won’t sugar-coat it, a lot of DBZ episodes go pretty light on plot points.   So when you get one like this, with so many things going on all at once, and so many characters joining in, and so much suspense and drama, it really clicks.  This would have been a brilliant finale to the Frieza Saga, and the icing on the cake is that it’s all for naught.   Frieza’s fine in the next episode, which is all-the-more frustrating because of how satisfying this episode was.   

2. Dragon Ball Z Episode 179

Huh, I got a lot of Androids/Cell episodes on this list.   It’s almost like the Androids/Cell arc is the best one and it rules over all.   Nah, that can’t be it.  

This is the high-water mark of the Goku/Cell fight, which the whole series had been building to since Cell was first introduced some thirty-odd episodes earlier.   Here’s the new big-bad final boss, the next Frieza, essentially, so naturally it’s going to be up to Goku to put him down in a 19-episode brawl.  Only that’s not what happens.     Goku goes into the Cell Games admitting that he’s no match for Cell, but he wants to fight the guy anyway.   No one understands what he’s planning, but he seems pretty upbeat for a guy who expects to lose.  

The fight itself only goes four episodes.   The first is a feeling-out process, the second is mostly Cell showboating, but in this third episode, they really go at it.  The animation is beautifully handled by Keisuke Masunaga.   He’d supervised a handful of episodes before this, but this one is the first action-heavy episode, truly serving as a demonstration of what he could do.  

Plotwise, there isn’t a whole lot to say.   The battle goes pretty evenly here, and the main appeal is that all the other characters are still trying to figure out what Goku’s strategy is.   He said he couldn’t win, and yet he’s hanging in there with Cell, so what’s the deal?   You might think Goku’s aiming to win on a technicality, using Cell’s own rules against him, except Cell enjoys the fight so much that he blows up his own ring to prevent any chance of an out-of-bounds finish.    From here, the Cell Games can only end by surrender or death.  

So then Goku goes up into the air and tries a Kamehameha, similar to the one Cell used earlier in the battle.   Cell thinks it’s a bluff, since he knows he can dodge it, and from that steep an angle, Goku would just end up hitting the Earth and destroying it.    But Goku doesn’t blink, and just when Cell isn’t sure what’s going to happen, Goku teleports right in front of him and unloads the Kamehameha into his face at pointblank range.    

It’s another false finish.   Cell survives, but he has to grow back his head and arms first.    But for a moment, it looks like this was Goku’s big plan.  He knew he couldn’t outpower Cell, so he out-finessed him by using the Instant Transmission to get past his guard.   And you know, if the ring hadn’t been destroyed, maybe this would have worked.   Goku could have tossed Cell’s decaptitated body out of bounds and Cell would have regenerated to find himself outside the ring.   I always wonder what he would have done in that scenario.    I mean, Cell’s kind of a sore loser, but he seems to respect clever ploys, and the tournament was his idea.  

Anyway, Cell rules, this episode is wall-to-wall action, and the Warp Kamehameha is the best move in Budokai 2.  

1. Dragon Ball Z Episode 31

Personally, I find the Saiyans Saga to be slightly overrated, but dammit, this episode has just about everything.    I’d go so far as to say that when people praise the Saiyans Saga, they’re really only thinking back to this one episode, or maybe five of the best episodes that include this one. 

Here’s the deal: Vegeta has invaded Earth and all of the Z-Fighters are dead or badly hurt.  Only Goku is left to stop this guy, and he’s armed with the Kai-o-ken technique, a power multiplier as effective as it is risky.    King Kai warned Goku never to go beyond a double Kai-o-ken, because anything more than that could cripple his own body.   But he tried that in the previous episode, and Vegeta laughed it off.  So in this episode, Goku reluctantly goes for a Kai-o-ken times three.   

And for a few glorious minutes, Vegeta gets completely wrecked.  Goku just picks him apart with hit after hit after hit.    It’s enough to humble Vegeta and it’s enough to draw blood, but it doesn’t actually put the guy down.   Instead, Vegeta becomes so outraged that he flips out and tries to destroy the entire planet with his finisher, the Galick Gun.    This leaves no choice for Goku to keep using the Kai-o-ken times three, and he’s gotta fire a Kamehameha to block Vegeta’s shot.  

And when that turns out to be too weak to push back Vegeta’s attack, Goku is forced to turn it up even higher and use a four times Kai-o-ken.    So now we’re beyond anything King Kai had imagined when he taught him the technique.   It works, and Goku manages to shoot Vegeta into space, but his body is terribly banged up from the effort.  

Which is a real shame, because Vegeta manages to save himself from being blasted into space, and he’s still got enough juice to pull his own trump card: turning into a giant ape!   Saiyans need a full moon to do this, and Piccolo helpfully destroyed the moon before Vegteta’s arrival, but that doesn’t matter, because Vegeta can make his own artificial moonlight with a special ki technique!   So the episode ends with an exhausted Goku staring at a hundred-foot tall Vegeta-ape.  

And hopefully I’ve made my point.   You’ve got three big BIG moments in the series here.    Goku’s Kai-o-ken X3 offensive against Vegeta was what made their rivalry.  Before that, Vegeta never came close to sweating Goku, and afterward, every time Vegeta thought back on their battle, this was the part he remembered.   The Galick Gun/Kamehameha beam struggle was an iconic moment all by itself, and it’s the standard by which all other beam struggles are judged.   And then you’ve got Vegeta using the fake moon trick and turning into a giant ape, setting the stage for the final leg of the battle.    Any one of these things would earn a spot on this list, but DBZ #31 has all three.   It’s gotta take the top spot.   It’s just gotta. 

There’s a lot of really great episodes I didn’t cover.   I’m a big fan of the Pikkon episodes, and the one where 16 fights Cell is a personal fave, and the Vegito episodes are awesome too.   But there’s only so much room at the top.     I bet I could have a completely different list in a couple years’ time.   In conclusion, Dragon Ball fucking rules.

[sesskagarchive]

Dark/Tragedy

Fics that have a darker tone and/or plot, where really bad things happen and the endings might not always be happy.

‼ Please note that these themed lists may always be expanded based on the suggestions and recs we get, so the lists might change at any given time, even after they’ve been reblogged ‼

A Demon Lord's Cry by Kagome Yuki Niwa

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: His howls haunted his castle and with nothing else to do, his subjects call upon Kagome to subdue their lord. Rin has died and her death causes Sesshoumaru to loose himself to his raging beast. While subduing the Western Lord, Kagome inadvertently binds herself to the taiyoukai, making herself Lady of the House of the Moon, and suffers all the perks and downsides of being human royalty among a demonic court. **Winner Joint 2nd Place Drama for the 2010 3rd Quarter Awards**Nominated 1st Quarter 2011 Best Drama, Best Canon**Winner 3rd Place 1st Quarter Best Darkfic/Horror**Winner 2nd Place 2nd Quarter Best Drama** Status: Hiatus/Abandoned

A Self Called Nowhere by Noacat

Posted on: FFnet, Spark Rating: MA Summary: Minor Edits to ch. 14. Six years after leaving the feudal era, Kagome contemplates her choices. She looks to the stars for answers and finding nothing, looks inward. Status: Abandoned

A Woman! by Sugar0o

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Loosely based of off 'Mulan.' Kags decides to take her fathers place in the war for the West, but gets caught unexpectedly. AU, S/K, evey1s a demon mostly **COMPLETE**

Alpha by Lyra

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Kagome mates Inuyasha...but Inuyasha was reluctant. Why? Pack politics...and his brother, who is Alpha. What that means will take time to learn, if Kagome can only live long enough for the lessons... Finally Complete!

Behind the Curtain by MissKatt

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary:  Unable to pay for her brother's cancer treatments once the insurance no longer covers it, Kagome is presented with an opportunity to pay off the debt. After being thrust into a world she never thought she would be a part of, she is presented with several new opportunities; some which are good and some not so much.

Beneath the Light of the Moon by Inari24

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Kagome returns to the Feudal Era and finds that the past has fallen victim to the Dark. An ancient evil has escaped its prison and it seeks to extinguish the Light and Kagome finds herself a target. The Western lord stands at her side, unwilling to allow the Darkness to possess the beautiful priestess or destroy the future he intends for them. Status: Hiatus/Abandoned

Blood Stained by Madison

Posted on: AO3, Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary:  COMPLETE! A sudden loss of control intertwined their fates. It dragged her through hell and he couldn't have cared less. She tried to escape her fears but the only way to do it was to face him through time and love.

Broken Promises by Oroyukae

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary:  She had believed all he had said , whispered at the most intimate of moments in their life together. No, he hadn't lied to her, he couldn't do that . He just repeatedly made promise after promise that he found hard to keep. [ FIN ]

Capital Offense by Oroyukae

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: It was wrong; it was illegal...it was reciprocated. Like his father before him, he could not deny what he felt for the human female. For that, he would pay dearly. He found himself faced with the question he had asked his father numerous times...was it worth it? {Complete}

Captured and Trapped by sweetest angel

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Kagome woke up in a cell...and not alone. Will she survive her ordeal? Will she be able to escape? SessKag pairing. Rating for later chapters. Sorry, bad summary.*Last Chapter*

Dragon Dancer by Scar

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Beaten into giving up her pink ballet shoes. Beaten almost to death, Kagome swore she would never come back. Yet here she was years later back in Japan, surrounded by her future. In the middle of striking business deals something darker then an abusive ex boyfriend is lurking. Sesshomaru has agreed to help her, it was supposed to be just business but it turns into something else. (UNDER REVISION)

Dragon's Prey by CiraArana

Posted on: FFnet, Spark Rating: MA Summary:  A new kind of dragons invades Japan, dragons from the Far West whose prey are virgins. What is the best way for a girl to protect herself against these dragons? Well, it is obvious, isn't it ...? COMPLETE  

Elsewhere by flowers

Posted on: Adult fanfiction, FFnet Rating: MA Summary:  With the medicine of time healing has begun. The well is sealed yet he is hesitant. A promise long ago binds him to his acitons. How will she react to this monster from the past? SessKag. Content somewhat dark.

Fugue by Resmiranda

Posted on: FFnet, Spark Rating: MA Summary: The present revolves around the past; truth and remembrance are two different things. After the well closes forever, Kagome finds a familiar face in the present era. [SessKag] [COMPLETE]

Golden by acediadono

Posted on: AO3, Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: War has broken out between the Demon Lords of Feudal Japan, the Lord of the West enlists Kagome to fight on the front lines as his spiritual weapon. Trying to juggle the demands of two time lines and attempting to save the demon way of life is not an easy task. Not everything is as it seems. SessxKag MA Lemon/Smut.

Golden Veil by BelovedStranger

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: A 100 word drabble series: Sesshomaru suffered an unfortunate loss; though, he hid the pain inside, but Kagome was a kindred spirit who understood the feelings he refused to acknowledge, knowing without seeing that they were there.

February Lullaby by kaoruhana

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: Kagome and Sesshomaru meet when their respective spouses are in a car accident. The event changes both their lives as they come to learn of the reason for the accident and get to know each other in the period that follows. Loosely bad off the Korean movie "April Snow". Status: Hiatus

Make Up Your Mind!! by Koishii_Beloved

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Sesshoumaru and Kagome, both, have agreed to a divorce. Kagome is all ready for it, but what happens when Sesshoumaru decides to back out?

Moonstruck by Aiwendil Amaurea

Posted on: FFnet, Spark Rating: MA Summary: Sesshoumaru, driven by his pride and arrogance, kidnaps Kagome for his own purposes. In the moonlight, the line between friend and foe blurs, and confusion reigns. Trapped in a deadly countdown, two lost souls wait for the darkness to wane. {Completed}

Never Forget by BelovedStranger

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: A man unwilling to commit, a woman whose heart has shattered. Love can so easily turn to hate. Kagome vows to make Sesshomaru feel the same heartache he has inflicted upon her, but will her vengeful schemes backfire when, finally, Sesshomaru realizes how much Kagome means to him and vows to mend her broken heart? Or was he too late?

Of His Blood by OnyxIvyStone

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: This is only a moment. It's’ only a fraction of your life, Kagome. And you’ll go on now and be stronger because of it. You’ll live and be happy, love and grow and forgive. You will because you are loved.

Priceless by Cassie

Posted on: AO3, Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Sesshomaru is the CEO of his father's company. On his way home from work one night, Sesshomaru's beast stirs, which hasn't happened in over 200 years. What could this mean? Sesshomaru had kept it locked up for so long, why is it coming back to the surface now of all times, and what is with this odd sense of urgency? Rated mature for graphic depictions of self-harm and abuse, as well as some strong language. Be warned! Status: WIP

Red Lotus by Maddie-san/Madison

Posted on: AO3, Dokuga, FFnet Rating: M Summary: Five hundred years later, an obligation brought him to her when the end was near. He could watch her die, or he could vow to look after her until death do them apart. Status: Hiatus/Abandoned

Rise Again by Catalina

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: Youkai have become weak and feeble but are attempting to strengthen their population. Sesshoumaru leads them, and discovers the solution to their problem in an unwilling human. VERY non-consensual stuff happens. Frequently.

S t a s i s by wonderbug

Posted on: AO3, Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: Love, he tells her, as he trails a claw along the pathway of her shivering spine, is only a human notion. [VERY dark; drabble-ish CU/AR]

Stealing Heaven by Freya Ishtar

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: COMPLETE! Higurashi Kagome thinks it a dream come true when she gets an internship on an archeological dig, but finds that her life is in another's hands after her professor, Taisho Sesshomaru, becomes possessed by an entity that considers his prize pupil quite the delicacy. *2nd Place Best Angst Fiction at the Feudal Association, Sept. 2011* *1st Place Best Darkfic/Horror, 1st Place Best Lemonfic, 2nd Place Best AU/AR, Nominated Best Drama~ 4th Qtr, 2010; 1st Place Best AU/AR, Nominated Best Drama~ 1st Qtr, 2011; 1st Place Best Lemon~ 2nd Qtr, 2011* *1st Place Best AU/AR & 2nd Place Best Darkfic/Horror~ 1st Qtr, 2012*

The Broken Miko by RosieB

Posted on: FFnet Rating: MA Summary: New summary: After a tragic battle and a wish with unexpected consequences, Kagome finds the infamous taiyoukai. He has the power to help her, but will he? KagomeXSess COMPLETE WITH EPILOGUE!

Unforgivable by Walter205

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: What had happened to her was no excuse. What she had done was unforgivable and now, ten years later, she would finally have the chance to pay for her mistake. (Content Warnings include Gang Rape, Victim Blaming, and Suicide). Status: WIP

Unworthy One… by Vyncent

Posted on: Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: They all were dead, but one. Yet the lone survivor was not alive either. **Not for Kikyou Lovers! This story contains violence, sexual content and rape! You are WARNED**

Violation of Honor by Rinseternalsoul

Posted on: Adult fanfiction Rating: MA Summary:  Post Naraku-Canon: Sesshomaru faces a vindictive female youkai that holds a weapon that controls the mind, and he becomes her slave to all things carnal. Used and broken, can a miko's gentle touch save him? Lemon, N/C, Slav

Virginity of the Soul by Madison/Maddie-san

Posted on: Adult fanfiction, AO3, Dokuga, FFnet Rating: MA Summary: Fresh from a betrayal that shattered her world, she was lured into getting even. Alas, the ones we trust and love aren’t always the ones we should. Semi-PWP. COMPLETE

When the Belladonnas Bloom by NovemberDoll

Posted on: Dokuga Rating: MA Summary: Cursed upon birth, exalted as the most notorious puppet of the Warlord Onigumo, his first and beloved consort finally turns sixteen. A gift from her generous lover: a harem of her own, to quell her insatiable lust. But many a man that stepped in her bedchambers were never seen alive again. That would change tonight, when a golden-eyed concubine accidentally unravels a most hidden secret. (AU) Status: WIP

Winter Hearts by Scarredbride

Posted on: Spark Rating: MA Summary: Complete..Dark Sesshoumaru/Kagome fanfiction. Starts out with sexual violence and abuse. Things do run a little smoother later on.

[nadziejastar]

If BbS V2 really was such a vital part of the story Nomura should have tried to include as much of it as possible in KH3 instead of giving up on the story. KH3 barely has a plot as is and I'd much rather see a narrative that's trying to do too much over one that isn't trying at all. Or make it a book, or a manga, or a movie, or an audio drama, or literally anything but breaking the story by leaving out such an important part.

— About the World of Darkness and such, you haven’t gone into detail. Could you possibly talk about some of these things? Does the beach at the beginning and end of KH II have some connection to the World of Darkness?

Presently there are 4 main untold stories to consider: “the period of the King’s absence”, “the period of Riku’s absence”, “Roxas’s time in Organization XIII” and “Xehanort’s past”. In this case, the story of “the period of the King’s absence” is set in the realm of darkness. I am examining a way to tell these 4 stories so I might be able to find a way to tell them soon. —Another Report KH2FM+ December 2005

I agree completely. I have no idea why Nomura just decided to give up on the Dark Seeker Saga completely instead of pushing for more content. Anything would have helped. He at least decided to not leave Xehanort’s past completely blank. It’s a shame that the King and Riku’s blank period during KH1 will likely never be shown. Since Nomura wanted to show these things ever since KH2FM+, I’m sure not being able to show them played an enormous role in why KH3 had barely any story.

— So what will it be?

I can’t say that quite yet, but it will be more “official” than a side story. I actually told the producer this recently, and he said “…what?” It’s the mystery KH. (laugh) Of course, I am also thinking about KH3.  —Days Ultimania June 2009

Ever since the Days Ultimania came out, Nomura said that BBSV2 was supposed to be more official than a side story. So, it obviously was not negligible to the plot.

— Now that BbS is finished, we can’t help but think about the next game in the KH series…

For now while FF Versus XIII is still being worked on, there isn’t much I can do on KHIII, but we’ve already begun work on the next game in the series. There is one that we are hoping to be able to release within this year. Then the next year there is one more game we are planning on releasing. I think it will probably make the main characters more complicated. Also, the end of “Blank Points” with Sora leaving on a new adventure connects to KHIII. —BBS Ultimania March 2010

This was supposed to be the game to make the main characters more complicated. Aqua certainly became more complicated in 0.2. Everyone should have gotten that same treatment. That’s why everyone in KH3 felt so flat and underdeveloped. KH3 simply couldn’t do it all. It couldn’t resolve all the subplots and develop everyone at the same time. BBSV2 game was supposed to provide the characters depth and KH3 was supposed to conclude everything.

— When we were discussing in the Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania, you mentioned that there were 2 new Kingdom Hearts titles other than Kingdom Hearts III coming up. One coming out in 2010, and one more being announced in 2011. It seems the title releasing in 2010 was Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, but what about the other one? Were you referring to Kingdom Hearts 3D or Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix?

No, at the time of that interview I intended to hint toward a different project. However, focusing my energy on Kingdom Hearts 3D and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix comes first. Since a new Secret Episode is revealed in the Birth By Sleep Final Mix, I definitely want it to be seen. I think when you see it you’ll be excited for future developments.  —Re:Coded Ultimania November 2010

Nomura was excited to show this game off back when Re:Coded’s Ultimania came out. That’s why Blank Points was playable. It was essentially a teaser for BBSV2.

— At the end of the secret movie for KHBBSFM, an interesting message that said ‘Birth by Sleep -Volume Two’ appeared. Is there a chance that a KHBBS2 will be appearing?It seems that many people thought that, but during that movie there were the words ‘A fragmentary passage’, weren’t there? That means a ‘bits and pieces of something whole’. In short, a story for ‘Volume Two’ exists that ought to be told, but the story cuts off with those scenes. Because of that, I won’t say there is absolutely no chance that we will produce a title to follow KHBBS , but there are no plans as of now. —3D Ultimania

Nomura even said that the story of BBSV2 ought to be told. But he hadn’t given up on telling it completely at the time the 3D Ultimania came out.

— In an interview in the KH Days Ultimania, you said ‘I’m thinking of a mystery KH that made the producer go “what??”. Was that KH3D?No, it wasn’t. I originally planned to make that after KHBBS, but we ended up making KH3D and the project was stopped. It’s a shame, but we won’t be starting that project again. —3D Ultimania May 2012

He was disappointed that the project got cancelled.

— What about in the secret movie of Birth by Sleep Final Mix…?Well… (Laughs.) Now that you mention it, that secret movie was referred to as “A fragmentary passage”, meaning bits and pieces of something whole. A story connected to Kingdom Hearts exists out of that, but I don’t know whether or not it’ll be told hereafter.—Famitsu May 2012

We only got bits and pieces of the real story. He kept mentioning it in his interviews. You can just tell how frustrated he was.

— Among everything that was included in the Final Mix version, what would you recommend?

The Secret Episode. It’s an evolution of all the Secret Movies I’ve put in the games so far, because it’s playable. You can feel the pace of the story and the battle, so I’m glad I made it like that. By the way, the indication for Birth By Sleep -Volume 2- is still there. It shows the existence of Aqua’s story in the Realm of Darkness. It means that she didn’t just wander about in the Darkness for ten years, but that she passed through many experiences. However, it is a “Fragmentary Passage”, as the same suggests– that story was severed and wasn’t told. I hope I can tell it when given the opportunity. – —Famitsu October 2014

Even in October 2014, he still hadn’t completely given up on BBSV2. I really think Square Enix was just greedy. They didn’t care about the story of KH. They just wanted it out quick and didn’t want to waste any more time or $$ on “side” games.

— Many of our fans are excited to see the Birth by Sleep Final Mix secret ending, which mentions Birth by Sleep Volume 2. What were your thoughts behind including this?

I suppose you could say that the ideas are “floating”. See, Birth by Sleep Volume 2 was never meant to be the second chapter of Birth by Sleep. Rather, it was intended to be a separate piece. The ideas are still there, but they are not currently being pursued. Perhaps in the future we will have the opportunity to touch back upon this subject. —KHInsider Interview December 2014

December 2014, and the ideas were still “floating”. Nomura would just not let them go. He mentions it so much. That’s why I had a hard time blaming him for KH3′s disaster of a plot. I think he fought really hard to tell the story he originally wanted. But, like with Versus XIII, he was not able to.

— Please tell us more about the details and aim of the brand-new supplement based on [BbS], which is different than any of the HD remasters so far.

Actually, this was what I worried about the most. We showed this for a bit in the secret episode of KHBbS FM, but the concept for two chapters of BbS is something we’ve had for a while, and because of problems with time, it’s become just a piece. That concept itself is living on as a setup, so it was our plan to show it at the beginning of KHIII, but since the volume of material in KHIII has increased, I was thinking it was something we just touched on a little. Just as I explained in your previous question, we won’t show the whole thing of the initial concept, but we decided to show it ahead of KHIII as a short episode. —Dengeki Playstation September 2015

In July 2015, he still wasn’t sure of the direction of the series. In September 2015, he was STILL worried about the missing content from BBSV2. He said the problem was with “time”. The concept of BBSV2 was living on as a set-up, but the volume of KH3 increased, so they had to change their plans. This, I think, was the main issue of why the story in KH3 went in such a vastly different direction. 

— Can you tell us about the meaning of 0.2’s title, “Fragmentary Passage?As far as content goes, we can’t include a full volume of content to play with like the second chapter of KHBbS, so it’s just a “fragment,” and we left that part of the subtitle. 0.5 is one of the letters and numbers that appeared in the secret episode of KHBbS FM, and that meant full volume, so we decided on 0.2 this time, to indicate that there will be more content to come. However, the remaining passage will be told in KHIII, so we wanted to show that this production is closely related to KHIII. —Dengeki Playstation September 2015

He said the remaining passage was going to be told in KH3. That’s no doubt what KH2.9 was supposed to be. Of course, it didn’t. Some time after this interview, Nomura just decided to give up on the DSS and rewrite KH3 entirely. It was probably closer to 2016 than 2015. I’m pissed that we only got the story we did in KH3 because Nomura couldn’t really finish the Dark Seeker Saga the way he wanted to. It’s why I barely consider KH3′s story “canon”. It is canon. But it really doesn’t feel like it.

[f1ismyreligionandvettelismygod]

Here's my essay - because Sebastian Vettel deserves better...❤

Now I like to think I'm not a person who tries to embellish things and overreact when things are not right. I also keep to what I know, keep as factual as possible and I always make sure there is substance - that there is a reliable source to back up what I say.

Sebastian Vettel has been put under the microscope for years now and this season, even more than ever. The media and social media have been really going for it. They have a tendency of being very harsh and critical, based on his performance and from what they take from what is said about him from the people who know him best. However, it is almost never actual fact. They are taking what they hear and see and distorting it into what they want us to hear. They splice official statements from Ferrari, (which we know that Ferrari never give away much information anyway) so it suits the media's unfounded and untruthful articles. This allows for speculation, rumours, untruths, hate and trust and belief in the man, which has a major impact on his status and reputation, not only as a driver but as a person too. We rely on our papers and online media to inform us and give us reliable information but sadly, when it comes to Sebastian, it's normally giving him a dressing down, even when he's performed. Negativity seems to be the weapon of choice.

I remember when he first came to F1, they sung his praises. They would ask who this new kid was, who would shake hands with everyone he came into contact with - even the sound guy holding the boom for a TV interview. The guy was liked. He showed he had talent and a personality. He would put in the results in his first full season in F1 in 2008. He then introduced us all to his trademark finger as he made his mark by securing his maiden pole position and victory at Monza for a team that was midfield and hasn't had another win since. For a driver to do that in his career and then go on to be one of the most successful drivers in the history of the sport is very rare. Most drivers are in a top team before they make their mark. Vettel was the exception. He bucked the trend. This bode well for him as he joined an up and coming top team in the shape of Red Bull, in 2009, with him winning their maiden victory in China, only having raced 3 races with them and beating his well established team mate Mark Webber, who had already spent 2 full seasons with them. In fact it would take another victory from Vettel at Silverstone before Webber finally clinched maiden win at the Nürburgring. That's some achievement for somebody so young and so new to the sport. And he wouldn't be very far behind the runaway winner of the championship in 2009, winning again in Abu Dhabi and securing podium finishes and good points. The guy had talent and wasn't about to give up. So before the real success came to him he was stamping his authority, this guy meant business and he wasn't planning on going anywhere but up.

So he has already made an impression not only on himself but his teams, the F1 circus, the media and the fans and all in the space of 2 and a bit seasons. He caught the attention of the F1 world and in the most positive and captivating way because not only could this boy race, he was a thoroughly nice bloke to boot. That in itself was a recipe for success.

Then in 2010 his real success would start with a drivers world championship winging its way to him at the last gasp. He had competition too with at least another 4 drivers vying for the title until a few races before the end. And wasn't even one of the favourites at all throughout the season, even when it reached the last race, he was 3rd in line most likely to be champion statistically. And he never lead the championship either. 2011 he completely dominatated even outscoring his team mate Webber by well over 100 points, who came 3rd to Jenson Button who was also trounced by over 100 points in his McLaren. 2012 like 2010 saw a very interesting season but was mainly Ferrari's Fernando Alonso's to lose. Sebastian at one point being over 40 points adrift of Alonso with only half a dozen or so races left. He powered back though to make it the most exciting end to the season. And 2013 was just another show of his power and dominance winning 13 out of 19 races and again trouncing his team mate having almost double the amount of points 397 to 199. No one can deny this man of his achievements. He completely annihilated his team mate. That's not luck.

With the recent scrutiny over Vettel's performance and questioning whether he is now just a shell of his former self is being bounced back and forth across the F1 community. When it looks that way, things aren't always necessarily as they may seem. People may say he's lost it, he's being outwitted by a better driver in Hamilton and being shown up by his much younger new team mate Leclerc. When this may have some basis of truth behind it, I don't think these are the real reasons for his supposed demise.

2014 was a tough season for him. The new hybrid era had arrived, which was harnessed by Mercedes, he had a new team mate in Daniel Ricciardo and I'm almost certain that the tragic skiing accident involving Michael Schumacher had a massive impact on his season. He didn't win a single race that year. His worst season victory wise (not including his half season in 2007.) 2015 saw him make his move to the team of his dreams and it showed everyone that he hadn't lost his ability, winning 3 races for Ferrari. 2016 saw no wins again for the German but Ferrari as a team never won a race, they just didn't have the car and were beaten, not only by Mercedes but Red Bull too. Ferrari seemed to get some order back in the team in 2017, with Vettel winning 5 races for them. With a difficult team to beat in Mercedes, Vettel was now the first driver to split the Mercedes drivers for the championship, a task that was seeming almost impossible. And in 2018, again, Vettel came second in the drivers championship to Hamilton, with 4 race wins.

I think, regardless of what happened in between with mistakes and errors, both from himself and the team, that the facts speak for themself. Also, I stand firm in my belief that since the hybrid era, that unless you are in a Mercedes, it is practically impossible to win a world championship. But Seb has been the only one so far that has given it the fight and came second on 2 occasions. Yet he is the one who heavily criticised for trying.

As for the errors that he and the team have made over the years... it's very easy for a rival or an onlooker to criticise and say, well you should have done it this way or that way. When you are fighting for a win and ultimately a championship, you are relying on 3 main factors: yourself, your team and your car. If these 3 things become unhinged even in the slightest way, it becomes an uphill battle to get the results you desire. And when the team that you are trying to beat hasn't been beaten in 5 and a bit years, the pressure of winning becomes even greater. If we take a look at the last few years we can see that Seb has worked extremely hard to get the results that he has. He's had to push, he's had to take risks, he's made the car do things he probably shouldn't have been able to do, it's the only way he he can try to beat the Mercedes. But unfortunately pushing hard and giving it your all takes it's toll on you mentally and physically. There is only so much catching up you can do before you begin to wonder if you will ever see the end. It's a bit like those dreams where you are running but you appear to be getting nowhere. That is what it's been like for Vettel. It's not for a want of trying, it's just completely impossible to get anywhere when the team you are trying to beat is pretty much perfect. That's why you see him make mistakes; spinning, going off the track, brushing with other cars, crashing with other cars. Because he's having to push the car to the limit - push himself to the limit. Mercedes have a comfortable cushion which allows them to breeze a race. They can get their front row lockout and then sail off into the distance with engine management. The only pressure they're put under is from their team mates. And even then its not like they have to worry about it. If you have the machinery underneath you, that's half the battle. When you know your car is going to be fast and that you can conserve your engine and turn it up when it's needed, all you need to do then is keep the car on the track. That's the only pressure you are put under. Unlike with the rest of the field, where they have to fight for positions and push their cars to the limit for even a glimmer of hope of getting a good result.

So, for all the scrutiny and criticism that Vettel gets, if we take a step back and actually look at what he's up against, he's the only one currently that's showing a fight and trying to get more than the maximum out of himself, the car and the team. He is not just the hunter, he is the hunted. When he is desperately trying to catch a team which is untouchable, he has the added pressure of keeping a team like Red Bull behind him. He has it from all angles. There is only so much though that a driver can keep doing to try and beat the the most successful team on the grid. When you think you have caught up, they suddenly turn it up a notch. It's a common case of, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. This must be incredibly frustrating when you are within touching distance but it slips out of your grasp at the last - every time. The mental effects this must have on a driver must be soul destroying, when you know you are doing everything in your power, putting your all into it and getting more than what you should out of the car, only to be outrun and then made to look like an amateur because you've actually had to race the car. It is very unfair to say that Vettel has been making all these mistakes and that he must be losing his touch. If he had the car under him, I don't even doubt for a second that I'd be writing this.

And of course because he is the only one who seems to be giving it 100% every race, sometimes it doesn't work out. We used to see errors right, left and centre from every driver up and down the field because they were at the limit pre-refuelling/pre-drs/pre-hybrid/pre-multiple compound tyres etc. And because of tyre/fuel/engine management, it's sad to say they are not pushing the cars like they used to. However drivers like Vettel and Hamilton, who are now classed as the veterans of the sport remember the times of pushing to the limit. These cars don't allow the same kind of racing anymore. So whoever has the car which has the best aero package, is the one who can afford to turn the engine down and then up when needed. And if the aero is good it looks after the tyres. These are 2 key ingredients that Mercedes have harnessed - the hybrid era and a convenient private test with Pirelli, all they needed was to shape their car around it and hey presto, there's nothing any other team can do. That's the biggest advantage of all.

So to sum up (for now) Sebastian Vettel still has it. He hasn't lost it. He never will. I believe it's the fact that no matter how hard he tries he will never be able to beat the car that has been moulded to dominate the hybrid era. And I believe that's why he seems so downbeat, he's not become undone. There's only so much chasing and fighting you can do, when all you seem to do is hit your head off a brick wall - that's got to be just a little bit soul destroying. If he wasn't great he'd be nowhere - but he's always there!