#i can't stop analyzing every single scene

[whoever-the-heck]

Whatever Daisy was doing to Billy here, it made Camilla's jaw drop and then clench. In that order.

Poor Camilla. Too much sexual chemistry and they're-totally-fucking vibes on that stage I was surprised they didn't spontaneously combust.

(I think she was opening his shirt some more, dirty dirty girl)

[titan-desuu]

Bad Boy Spoiler - Don't interact if you don't want to see spoilers!

Please if you repost sets a dividing line if possible

I can't stop analyzing and interpreting every single page to the last point '-'

--

I find this certain detail interesting, that after Levi has gone home, prepared the tea, the cup is so fuming. When I look at Kuchel's cup, it doesn't smoke like that. As it unfortunately had to happen, the handle of the cup breaks, which causes the cup to shatter and the hot water to land on it (?). This whole tea scene is so heartbreaking: first from the situation he comes from, then the way he makes the tea, the emotions he carries. He imitates his mother's attitude ! A comfort in a bleak situation he finds himself in, because no one is waiting for him at home anymore and Kenny has disappeared.

My angel deserves the best and anyone who tries to make fun of this scene in a desperate way has not understood the scene and its depth.

Whether this is really a thermal shock is an open question - but a possible thought

[meldelen]

What does Sauron feel for Galadriel?

I'm aware I might be not saying anything new or original, I've read and queued other good metas that basically stand for my point as well; nevertheless, I feel like sharing my two cents concerning this. Sadly - or not - it will be another long ass read.

To be honest, whatever is going between Galadriel and Sauron is one of the main show's assets. Love it or hate it, the show would not be the same without this spice. And the way it is presented leaves no one indifferent. I could talk about this from Galadriel's POV, but I think I'll be going for Sauron's first, if anything because I find it more fascinating, as we're talking of a character that isn't even human, and the main villain, of course. And I'm doing it mostly concerning the show, even if I know Tolkien's books since I was 12. Unfortunately I can't analyze every single scene they share because it would last forever, but I'll try to focus on the ones that have more resonated with me.

Even if Galadriel is undoubtedly one of the most famous elves in Middle Earth, it doesn't look like Sauron knew her before meeting her in the sea. It is pure chance - apparently so - they meet and are taken together to Númenor. In these first moments he's mostly indifferent - and even hostile - to her, per their dialogue, except the moment he dives in and saves her from drowning amidst the storm. From that moment, a confidence grews between them as she's reassured in her position - which he never disclaims - of thinking he's a fallen king from a Southlander throne. Disguised as the human castaway Halbrand, the most fascinating about Sauron, I think, it's that he never lies to her, but doesn't make an effort to take her out of her incorrect assumptions. While not being honest to her, he seems to drift away from her as he pretends to "start anew" - through his long learnt abilities as smith -; while, at the same time, he gets drawn towards her by their kindred spirits.

Which is the start of it all. Sauron recognizes in her someone alike, fierce and relentless, prideful, ambitious and reckless. I think the discussion in the forge, after she drops him in the middle of a plot to return to Middle Earth and crown him, is highly underrated. He only wants to be left alone, she apologizes for having used him, and then confesses - thinking she talks to a friend and not a deceiver - that she can't stop, that because she was compared with the evil she was fighting they mutinied against her and was sent away. She also drops Finrod's line of needing to touch the darkness if one want to reach the light.

Halbrand's reaction to this is priceless. His expression, both shocked and emotional once he realizes she might be just the only one in Arda that might understand him - they mutinied against him as well, he ended a castaway. And then he expresses his condolences for her suffering and particularly, the death of her brother. Now, I believe he was genuinely sincere here, that he really felt for her grief. But being set on the path of becoming something different, it's precisely Galadriel who puts him out of it. Who sends him again to his former path. The horror of it all.

He never gets to tell her who he really is, and only admits it when he's discovered, because there was no way back once this is uncovered. Charlotte Brändström has confirmed that Galadriel loved Halbrand - rather, I think, the idea of Halbrand - in first season, but after the mask falls she won't love Sauron - for obvious reasons. He then offers her the most valuable position he can give her, but what does he offer?

To make her a queen. A queen, mind, not his queen. Now, I know shipping is nice and fun, but for all the tenderness he put into the offering - the warm voice, the chin caressing, the flattering and the temptation; "You bind me to the light and I bind you to power" - I can't avoid seeing that he never offered himself as part of the bargain. Love is selfless and you must give yourself for it to be real. As Charlie Vickers have well put, he does not see her as an equal. It is not a marriage/lover alliance of a king and a queen ruling together with love as a seal between them. Sauron appeals to her ambition, not to her heart. Even in that moment, before the blast of Orodruin, where they got the most intimate and close - "Fighting at your side, I felt... if I could hold on that feeling, bind it to my very being.." "I felt it too" - he is talking about fighting, and power, and ruling. And she understood it lately, when telling Adar he promised her an army, not himself. Maybe she meant something else in that moment, but he meant an alliance. And alliance in which they're not equals. A queen, but not his queen.

He has no queen. There's only one Lord of the Rings, and he does not share power.

I understand it's very tempting and frankly easier to read this in a romantic code, but I can't forget it's Sauron we're talking about. He's not human, he does not feel and act as human always, he's been awake since the creation of the world and he hardly can see an elf as an equal. The way he tried to manipulate her by taking the shape of Finrod, the long lost brother, and twisting his words to sway her will - it was beyond cruelty. It was Machiavellian, sadistic - and it was only the first of many offenses.

Even before wrapping her in his thrall he throws at her face all the sentences and reasons she had told him before, when she thought he was Halbrand the southlander and not the Dark Lord. Twisting her own words and shooting them at her like arrows - no, you said my past didn't matter, you told me to be free of it. Putting before her eyes the fact that he's back thanks to her and her alone. And that she's now isolated, for no one will accept her once it is known she's the reason he's back. Presenting himself as the only one who would take her, flattering her leading and ruling talents in his benefit, wrapping it with the cover of a redeeming light. Bastard.

Thankfully, Galadriel acknowledges his abuse and manipulation and actively rejects him. What does Sauron do then? He leaves her to die. Tied in his thrall, drowning, back to the point where she was sinking when he saved her, when she still did not mean much to him, but enough to care. Now it's over. You've chosen to refuse me, so die. Go back to the starting point.

And in that moment, he meant her to die, for she had hurt his pride. He's not a scorned lover but a narcissist that has been confronted in his arrogance, and so she has to pay. There is not love in any of these actions. In a fit of rage, he had let her to die. If Elrond wasn't around when he pulls her out of the pound, she would've drowned.

That fit of rage passes, and as it happens, he has time to reconsider his position. Does he know she has survived? What matters is that he moves to Mordor and directly sells her to Adar. Telling his former lieutenant that she has aligned with Sauron - !!! - and both must be stopped. He sells her location and sets an army of Uruk against her and Eregion. Dressing this betrayal as heroism as he endures torture for the sake of the soutlander prisoners, who get free thanks to this bargain.

Are these actions belonging to one who loves? It is atrocity after atrocity. Per his actions you can't tell he's in love, rather the opposite. You could say he's actively punishing her and plans to keep making her pay for her refusal. But of course, he's not driven solely by scorn and revenge, it's not even his main goal. Enter Celebrimbor and the Eregion plot.

When it would seem Galadriel is out of his mind, then this scene with Mirdania happens. Taking advantage of her vulnerability and terror of having seen him in his true form - even if Mirdania herself isn't aware that it was him who she saw in the Unseen World - Annatar flatters her and caresses her hair, comparing her beauty with Galadriel's. Yes, I know it's very satisfying to watch how he praises Lady Galadriel's beauty in front of another woman, in a moment of intimacy, but yet again, I don't see how this can be love.

It is obsession, and of course, manipulation. Playing a double game: one, to recruit Mirdania, to gain her confidence and devotion - he's well aware of what Mirdania is starting to feel for him! - by flattering her - your were so brave, your hair looks like Galadriel's in this light - because we should remember that Galadriel is famous for her beauty, but particularly for her hair is said to remind powerfully of the light of the Trees of Valinor, a light that was encased in the Silmarils. A light she refused to Feänor when he asked her strands of her hair.

Second, it is not only she won't leave his mind, at this point, he's starting to obsess with her, he covets her. He covets her and at the same time wants to punish her for her rejection. Again, I hardly see love in any of these actions. And it is horrifying how he later dismisses Mirdania's life after promising her reward, because she meant nothing to him. Galadriel, on the other hand... cut to the final temptation.

The most shocking in that last fight is that he starts by effortlessly blocking her attacks, for he does not want to hurt her - as he tells her himself. She goes berserk on him, driven by fury and rage, and all he does is blocking her, until he's forced to slash her to remind her who has the upper hand there - she's no match for him, even if she's a skillful sword fighter. In that moment, he's still in control of himself, and even he allows himself to playfully spit her back again the words of Finrod, twisted by his own interpretation: touch the darkness. Many fans have seen a lewd expression and breathing in that point - I think he's mostly panting for the fighting effort, but if there's any lust as you want to read it, then yes, it's lust for getting her, control her, for humiliating and proving her wrong again by drawing a false equivalency between him and her. In his mindset, of course. Innerly, though, he is searching for a servant, a slave if you want. Not a lover, not a partner.

Special mention to those shocking words, when she accuses him of having deceived and manipulated her all the time, and he answers it was "not all of it", for yes, I will concede him that he was genuine. He never lied. He had an honest feeling of starting anew. He saw in her a kindred spirit, and that is not gonna change. He might be admitting he cares/feels something for her, even in his own toxic, twisted way. Truly, the range Sauron has in acknowledging his feelings and not suppressing them, also in admitting them and use them as weapons, has me baffled. Maybe one of the most fascinating traits of him as character.

Galadriel won't stop attacking and rejecting him, so he loses his patience, particularly after being brutally kicked in the chest and thrown over the rocks. Then he pulls again his most cruel card by letting her see Halbrand again - the one she got to love, and he's well aware of it. But the thrall won't work anymore, so he switches to herself and Celebrimbor, to keep mocking her with cruelty, to draw again this false equivalency between them.

And when nothing of this works, and she keeps attacking him even after he offers again to join him, he has again one of those fits of rage and goes ballistic on her, until he resorts to the most brutal, sadistic resource: in what I think it's the foulest allegory of rape I've ever seen, he nails her to the rock by stabbing her with Morgoth's crown. Which is not just a mean to hurt her physically, rather, he actively forces the bond she has rejected to establish with him twice by then. Only blood can bind, and the iron crown already contains his blood after Adar stabbed him with it. His blood and Galadriel's blood merge and then the connection happens. His enraptured expression at this moment is both mesmerizing and revolting, for he's doing that against her will, while dragging her across the stone surface and twisting the spike inside her wound to increase her pain, so excruciating a tear runs down her cheek. While he repeats her he would've made her a queen, and put all Middle-Earth at her feet. Then he pulls out of her and watches as she drops to the ground. Truly brutal and sadistic. The punishment goes on and on.

After this he gains the ability to communicate to her telepathically and to watch her movements. Probably, also to know her thoughts more clearly than before. And he must have thought to command her will also, for she manages to trick him into believing she was going to give him Nenya, and after that she lets herself fall back on the verge of the cliff. Does he, with an alarmed expression, reach for the coveted ring, or for her instead? Does he do it for both? The fact is that he lets her fall.

And even immediately we see he's watching her, for the unwanted connection also allows him to spy on her. Again, he's making sure the ring is safe, or is she his concern? I'm gonna say he was rather checking on her. Nenya is made of mithril and adamant, so very unlikely to have taken damage for a fall.

Why this contradiction? His brutality and cruelty on her hardly fits someone who loves, and he has actively tried to kill her twice by now - always in a fit of rage, not all the time, as Vickers has explained. He didn't want to hurt her - when calm - and yet he forcefully bonded himself to her and enjoyed doing so, not minding her physical and mental agony in the process.

I can't see the slightest glimpse of love in all this abomination. He might have found someone so alike to the point of making him feel alive again and set him back on the path of world domination, but he's an older, immortal, cruel superior being who's been too long under suffering, darkness and despair himself. This is not an absolution, though. I still think he could've chosen differently, but as much as the next narcissist, when challenged or refused he takes a brutal, unrighteous retaliation and doesn't mind to make her suffer for it. Yet it is obvious he feels something for her, so she gets a special treatment if we compare Galadriel with the other lives he so quickly dismisses - much to her disgrace, though.

And I think it's this obsession of him, of having found someone so alike to him who could've been at his service - not at his side! - which makes he won't suffer that this someone refuses him and actively seeks to fight him. For that, he'll make her pay again, and again, and again, while claiming she's special to him, while tempting her with promises of power and light that aren't real. If anything, she'll eventually get the same treatment Celebrimbor got, as soon as she fails or rebels against him. As Morgoth did to him.

The fact the ship is so successful is tied to the fact that Sauron, for all his ancient origins and immortality, is still very human in his emotions and doesn't mind to open and show them. And the fact that once, Galadriel loved Halbrand, or rather the idea of Halbrand. He knows that, and it flatters him. It pushes his pride further, it lifts his ego even higher. He enjoys interacting with her in this twisted way and so playing with Galadriel might become his new entertainment, until bending her to his will, which is to make her serve... not to love her at all. That's why he won't kill her either, as long as he keeps that rage under control.

I thank the show for opening this world to us, for surely it's one of its best potentials, and unlike many haters claim, it is rooted in Tolkien's lore itself, which doesn't contradict. It its truly a complex dynamic and I'm sure many fans, specially shippers, might disagree with me, but this analysis doesn't intend to cancel anyone, rather the opposite. Shipping is fun and nice, but for me it's also important to acknowledge this dynamic is deeply rooted in abuse and keep in mind that Galadriel deserves all our credit for resisting his brutality and calling out his cruelty and manipulation, which a fair form can't mask after all, and they're doing right in not to bend to other narratives that might end quite differently, or burden a higher cost on the abused character, just for the sake of a temporary satisfaction.

[flower-boi16]

I Absolutely LOVE This Fight

Not just for the usuall reasons like the animation being solid or the creative use of glyphs, but just for the emotion behind it. Let's look at this fight from Luz and Eda's perspectives...

Eda

Oh Titan Where Art Thou shows how deeply Eda has grown to care about Luz, not just as her appirentance, but as a surrogate daughter to her as well. She wants to keep Luz safe no matter the cost, she's even willing to turn herself into the emperor's coven.

She also doesn't want to crush Luz with the news of how she doesn't have a plan to stop Belos, believing she deserves at least one more happy day before things crumble. She'd rather keep it a secret so Luz doesn't have to face the dread of the world-ending. But something that I haven't mentioned before is this scene in Edge of The World.

Eda doesn't want Luz to get involved in any of this. She's just a kid. She should've have to deal with this all this stuff, and Eda blames herself for all of that. It's so interesting to see a children's show starring kids/teenagers technically acknowledge that, these characters are children, they shouldn't have to deal with any of this stuff and they should be allowed to just be kids. The adults are the ones who should have this responsibility, not the children they are suppoused to protect.

Eda wants to keep Luz safe, she cares deeply for Luz and she blames herself for Luz getting involved in this. She's become Luz's second mother, and this fight perfectly shows that. Luz says that she can't make her run away, but Eda says she can, she WILL force Luz into getting taken in my Raine, whether Luz likes it or not, not as a punishment, but as a way to ensure her saftey and to make sure she's anywhere that's FAR away from Belos.

Luz at first to Eda was just some random lost child, but now, she's grown to care about Luz so much, and this episode and fight does a perfect job of showing that.

Luz

In Hollow Mind, Luz is faced with the truamatizing revelation that she helped Belos with his plan for the day of unity, and that the day of unity is actually a full-on genocide of witches. After that, she becomes very obbsessed with trying to beat Belos, thinking that she HAS to make up for her horrific mistake. In Ou Titan, Where Art Thou she's ready to follow whatever plan Eda has to beat Belos (not knowing the fact that Eda has no plan).

She wants to help Eda defeat Belos, she's desperate to try and make up for her mistake which she considers to be unforgiveable, a crime, something that she thinks that every one will hate her once they find out what she did.

So, when she's faced the truth that idea is planning on sending her away, she's...not very happy about that. She refuses to let Eda send her away, she isn't gonna go anywhere until Belos is defeated, she wants to beat Belos so badly, and she's upset that after everything they've been through together, Eda still sees Luz as "just a kid", still underestimating her abilities after all this time.

She wants to beat Belos now, and she isn't going to take it lightly when someone is preventing her from doing so, even if they have her best interests at heart.

This fight basically perfect to me in every single way, there's so much you can dissect and analyze from this fight once you look at both perspectives in it.

[herejusttosufferalong]

Alright, we talk a lot about Luke, but not enough about Nic and her personally. I

I beleive this tik-tok was intenational lol as well as jack's stories of her new photos. She's too smart to just post random stuff and then deleting it. I would never beleive she was like not like not on tik-tok, watching every single post after premier with that blue dress on his gf instead of reactions to the mirror scene lol.

She has also said she doesn't believe in love. Girl, fr? And she hasn't been in love for 9 years? The way she's working, very hard. I am totally rooting for her here, yeah. I get it! Tbh, she just doesn't need the partner to be happy, but at the same time I like... But isn't everyone sometimes longing for the feelings and intimacy? She is very 'put it together' person. She comes of as a strong person also, she is ambitious and career-driven, but at the time I feel like sometimes she is tensed. She works not-stop, and it's pure speculation or just the vibe, but the way she does projects and pr. I could be wrong, but it's almost she doesn't allow feeling to come to her head instead she dives deep into other things. Again I could be wrong, but sometimes she's a bit workacholic, u know haha Like she could works 7 days a week, no rest. And it's inspiring, yeah, but if try to analyze here a little, you know. Why do people work this much?

Maybe, she was dating smn, but with her insane schedule and the way she's touching Luke in the last interviews. I don't know.

The only impression I get that she hides her blind spots very well, and her whole bubbly self is just the cover, and not all people can crawl inside and really get what it's in there. She guards it. She needs someone kind and soft enough to cherish her. And I feel like during filming Nick and Luke shared something real and very emotional, and she allowed herself to open up. And that's why she's that grateful. I think as every woman out there with curves had at some point of her life a point, where she learnt how to love her body. And all these scenes, she mentioned she was a bit terrified, but then, the way she spoke about experience with him. It gives the sweet aching, because he really tried to make it comfortable for her. She mentioned the way how open they were in communicating feelings and ideas, how he wouldn't crash her with his weight during that sofa scene and how easy it was, because they laughed through it and discussed every detail. And like every other bridgeron actor saying that all that scenes were heavily choreographed as stunt, and she's just 'well, we improvised, cause it's not like do this and do that' .

'I don't have relationships like that with anyone in my life'

'unique bond', 'as almost we've been through war'

Well, Is it beaucse she let her guard down with him during filiming? It's just interesting, because I just really see the diffirence of her behaviour with other co-stars. Although, she is warm, but not that much, and as I said for her it's not really that easy to let any person see she's not that confident inside, as she seems to be.

He respected her, he made her feel safe during all of that. And it's beautiful, because things like that, when you trust the person like that and they saw you like that, it's just a lot. Yeah, some would say 'it's just work', but from her interviews for her it was empowering experience. And he was a part of it. And that's why I am again can't comprehend, how this man from her perspective(she is literally praising him every time she gets a chance, people are saying she's like that with everyone, but nah, it's like a lot with him again) is the same guy, who is still going through 'fboy' phase. Because Iistening to his interviews, his passion for Colin, and well-spoken and attentive he is, I believe Luke definetly respect and get women the way, that fuckboys don't. It's all so confusing for me. Cause I do see Luke through her eyes, and she's just very caring and loving, while I also see how Luke is in real life with his decisions, and I'm like? It's like Nicola doesn't see the perspective, does she? Or maybe we don't? Or just maybe he's in fact very diffirent with her and treats her as a something precious. Maybe not in a romatic way (yet, delulu again) , but in a sense of 'She's Nic', Almost like, she is divine, and she's not like the other woman. Like you know the way he looks at he, listens to her attentively, how responsive he is, and how behaves around her during interviews is almost like he puts her very high, and enjoys the way shines, reflecting her energy and feeling easyness and calmness around her. Almost, like his mind is always in montion(ahdh, hi), but when she's around, it's like starting to calm down. It's like they are in bubble, especially if they're just chatting only two of them. And that's not the dynamic I can see with other people from both of them. All of that thinking making me feel delulu things, but yup. That's the reason I also think L is just confused

Love this, thank you for sharing!

We don't consider N enough and why she views L the way she does.

Because right now it is very hard to reconcile the man we see with the one we saw on the press tour and the one she brags about.

Too many people have been quick to judge her for supporting L recently but we have to remember they have a bond that we have only had a glimpse into.

[wildernezz]

dead poets society scene that cannot be slept on any longer (im just rambling and analyzing the sillies and pretending to be smart. also spoilers loll)

I GET THAT THE DEAD POETS SOCIETY BARELY HAS A FANDOM BUT WHY DOES EVERYONE SLEEP ON THE PUNCH SCENE WITH CHARLIE AND CAMERON?? IT'S GENUINELY SO WELL WRITTEN AND PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST DIALOGUE SCENES I'VE SEEN IN FILM??? HELLO?????

every single actor in this scene does such an amazing job. they genuinely all feel like such real and complex characters it's insane.

i don't care if you hate cameron's character but you cannot deny that his scene was amazingly pathetic. his actor did such a perfect job at portraying him almost like a rat backed into a corner. he's doing everything he can to save himself, telling himself he's the one in the right, the one with common sense, when he knows he's faking it. all his dominance is such a pathetic lie and it's genuinely impressive to watch it be portrayed so accurately. it is exactly what it's like to watch someone desperately claw for an ounce of respect. cameron was always a desperate character, and the moment he got the chance to drop his friends and come out "higher" than them, it just made him even sadder to watch.

and meanwhile charlie's the perfect example of failed justice and passion being outpoured all at once. he has so much determination and desire to stand up for what he believes, but it's all pouring out at once. he doesn't know how to handle all of it. he knows he's done for but he can't give up for the life of him, and it all comes out in a solid swing to cameron's face. that single punch probably sums up everything about charlie, and honestly everything i love about him as a character. he seems like a menace-y little bastard, but at the end of the day he just genuinely wants to do what he thinks is right. he's fiercely protective of the people he looks up to but he'll never admit it. that little shit has ZERO clue how to handle his emotions rationally and it's honestly respectable. he doesn't know exactly who he is, but his values are so strong that he's unknowingly guided by them. basically he's just a silly little guy and i hope he punches people more often :3

AND TODD THE BELOVED <33 he is so underrated in this scene it's insane. every word feels like it's falling out of him. he's lost his best friend and he's lost all control over himself. it's powerful seeing such quiet and reserved character unwillingly transform into everything they've been trying to keep down. i will forever be in love with how his character completely breaks down after neil's death. this is kinda just me projecting but he fr feels like a representation of all of my own thoughts when breaking down, except he's actually voicing them. todd supremacy for-fucking-ever.

THE OTHERS ARE ALSO SPECIAL TOO BUT THEY DONT GET A LOTTA LINES FOR ME TO ESPECIALLY ANALYZE SO IM JUST GONNA ADD RANDOM TIDBITS OF THE OTHERS HERE.

i absolutely adore how knox acts in this scene. especially his lines of "don't touch him charlie, you do and you're out," and then for that to be followed by "you don't know that" after charlie's little "i'm out anyway"?????? knox's entire personality in this movie might be about trying to rizz up girls (and it's a little concerning now but it was a different time guys please he's silly guys i swear), but he's honestly SOO sweet when he's not focused on that. he's just as protective of his friends and it's so nice seeing him be the voice of reason. like did u guys not see how quickly he reached for charlie when he was about to kick cameron's ass????? he genuinely wants the best for his friends and he knows them well enough to try and stop them from doing any irrational shit (even tho it failed later but shshsh). love knox for that.

meeks and pitts don't say anything in this scene, but their looks alone give off so much. you can just SEE how much meeks feels betrayed by cameron, and then pitts looks like he's still trying to process the fact that cameron would even do something like that. it's honestly so sad but god it's so amazing to watch.

anyways thank u for coming to my ted talk plspls ask me about films or drop ur random analyzations to me im so desperate to analyze my favorite little guys :33

[bronx-bomber87]

Happy Tuesday Fandom! If that's a thing lol Officially half way through s3. Insane. I love this episode. It’s one giant married moment. They are at the height of their banter and marriage flow in this one. This episode is one big continuous work flirt that doesn’t stop. Idk why people didn’t like this ep when it first premiered. It’s Chenford gold. I remember loving this kind of ep for Castle too. It was split for that fandom as well. I think they’re hilarious snippets I enjoy them a lot. The looks alone in this one are primo. This one is more me analyzing their commentary on the case since everyone is segregated in this one. But lets get started.

3x07 True Crime

We start our ep off with Tim and Lucy being the ones called to Corey’s house. There was signs of blood and they enter the house and find a ton of it. Thus starts their amazing run of snippets in this episode. They are being interviewed since they were apart of the investigation. Tim is instantly surly with the director LOL Shock surprise eh? Last thing he wants to do is be here. To him they could be out on the streets instead of this. Lucy is the natural antithesis to him about this. Legit beaming and he is miserable.

The epitome of grumpy x sunshine in every single way. These interview pieces showcase that so well. It makes me giddy and happy haha Tim wants to get out of this ASAP. While Lucy is so excited to be there answering any and all questions. Even cuts him off in her excitement. She is bursting at the seams with elation. Then apologizes to Tim but still can't contain her glee by saying ‘This is fun.‘ Tim judges her some more I’m dying. The look on his face at the end of the second gif above. LMAO

This next section I like to call. ‘How to show you’re in love with someone without saying a word.’ By Timothy Bradford. He is all heart eyes in this scene. First one he's settling in to listen. When his girl speaks he listens, second is him agreeing wholeheartedly with her assessment and lastly is heart eye/admiration city. Doesn't take his eyes off her most of this scene. They’re talking about Corey Harris’s acting class. How he used them to start a bling ring to steal from celebrities. Tim goes on to say how anyone they caught wouldn’t flip on Corey. So he got away with it.

Lucy adds in her own portion. Explaining how Corey promised his students everything. Money, fame. This in turn inserted him in their lives even further. Basically convincing his students he could control their destinies. Saying he did this because he probably didn’t have any control over his own. Tim is just nodding along with a proud look on his face. Just admiring her take on it. 100 percent loving her analysis of him. You know he loves how her brain works. He is just sitting back and enjoying her breakdown of Corey. As transparent as a glass of water sir.

What comes next always has me rolling when I watch this ep. Gotta love the way Lucy tells him like it is no matter the situation. Keeps him in check. Tim is so cocky in his deliverance of his teacher line. Smug really and Lucy shoots that down instantly. He’s all smiles (love this man's smile btw it does things to me. mmm) then realizes how much she’s got him on this. He is dead to rights and has no comeback. You watch in the gifs above he goes from smug and smiley to straight up defeated LOL

He exhales with a ‘You win’ sigh. It’s fantastic. He thought he had this clever quip against Corey. Survey says no. Wifey shut you down lmao Her face through out the whole scene is so funny. Like this is her idiot and she can’t help but poke fun at him for his comment. This moment will always make me laugh. He’s being so ridiculous and she doesn’t let him live it down in the slightest. Her reaction in the final gif is the best. Can't believe he's being such a goober. The work flirt begins and does not stop. Be more married you two please.

They end up finding a script at one of their crime scenes. The director thinks this is an odd thing to stumble upon. Apparently it is a completely normal thing in LA according to Tim. Just another day on the job in this city ha Their polar opposite replies are so indicative of them as characters. The way Lucy is like well yeah when they’re asked if they’ve written one. Tim's is an instant and hard 'God, No' LMAO. These two. Opposites truly do attract.

Her face in the first gif what makes me laugh so hard. That sheepish embarrassment. Eric and Melissa are just pure gold in this one. Their looks alone are some of the best parts besides the banter. Tim can read her like a damn book. All he has to do is look over at her and see her answer. At first he’s waiting for her to say she hasn’t either. Expecting her to follow suit.

She does not…his body language while he’s waiting for her verbal answer is so funny. Like a slow realization. Then it’s judgy city after that. The way she weakly defends why she has is too damn funny. He is none too pleased she has written one. We all know how Tim feels about screen writers. His face says everything. God I love these two sfm.

Their looks in this one have me rolling the entire episode. Eric is the master when it comes to this in the first place. He crushes it in this one they both do. His reaction to her excitement as they get closer to the climax of this case is hilarious. The judgy side eye and furrowed brow he gives her above is extremely amusing.

Tim truly doesn’t understand why she’s enjoying this so damn much. He’s trying to just get through it and be done. His grumpy old man is showing extra hard in this moment. Her sunshine demeanor despite him is amazing. She is of course the opposite and doesn’t know why he doesn’t enjoy this whole thing more LOL Lucy is having a friggin blast. Its coming off her in waves every time it comes back to them.

I feel like Lucy owns Tim’s ass for most of this ep. He literally doesn’t stand a chance against her witty comebacks. Every time he tries to be cocky or make a joke she shuts him down so hard. His crack about a woman scorned. Lucy puts him in check real quick with that one. His soft tone when he says he’s not trivializing it....(but you are my love)

He doesn’t want her to be mad at him for his stupid comment. Then she takes him to school even further with her logical stats. He has nothing to say except 'Most...'' No leg to stand on Timothy haha. Lucy is proud of her self for this one. No one puts Tim Bradford in check better than Lucy Chen. We all LOVE it. (He does too let's be honest...) This episode is pure gold for their banter. Married idiots in this one for all to see.

The director then comments on how Lucy was the one who broke the case wide open. Lucy is beaming from ear to ear. Lights up like a Christmas tree at hearing this. She is so excited to be recognized. Tim isn’t so fast to heap on that particular praise. Now Tim doesn’t give praise out easily to begin with. Add in she just schooled him in front of the director, he’s gonna be extra salty haha The director then asks well if he wouldn't describe it as such how would he?

Tim takes a shot at her social media addiction as his answer. Then Lucy looks like she wants to punch him so hard. Like how very dare he say about her. Ha She is so affronted telling the director 'That’s hurtful' LOL (but a little true...) Side note. I can totally see them in bed. Tim falling asleep to her endless scrolling. It becoming a comfort thing for him. Her going till she is ready to sleep. Shortly after him I imagine. Tis a nice thought to think about now that they're together. But let's get back to the present ep at hand before I daydream any further hehe

The cute looks in that final gif though. Be still my heart. She is so exasperated with him and he’s soaking it up. No regrets whatsoever taking her praise and boiling it down to luck. The absolute shameless flirting going on between these two. It’s like they don’t even know they're putting on a show for this director LMAO It's truly delightful.

Lucy scrambles to defend herself. It’s pretty comical. Saying she was on her phone doing ‘research’ Tim shaking his head but enjoying this none the less. Says that she got a notification and that’s what drew her eye to Corey's video showing he's alive. Lucy says she still has the video on her phone. So ready to take Tim down a peg. She pulls it up and it’s her on her own page doing some sort of dance. I’m laughing so hard.

I want to see this video in its entirety. Read the comments. All of it. I don't know what’s funnier Lucy being mortified that came up or Tim wanting a peak at the video. He’s confused as hell but wanting to see what she was showing the director. If you need a pick me up episode this is it. This one doesn’t disappoint on so many levels.

His confused face is everything after she quickly hides her phone. There are facets to her personality that allude him completely. This is one of them. Alas Timothy this is the woman you’ve chosen to love hahaha I love her being a dork sfm though. It’s that light hearted dork that brings the best out in him as we see in s5.

Their final scene doesn’t disappoint. Lucy’s face during his rant LOL. Tim going off saying what a waste of time this is, he should be doing stuff more important. Said this before but that line from Aaron in S5 fits perfectly for this rant. He's the old dude from 'Up' Such a good line because its so true for him. I love him so much for his grumpiness though. You know Lucy does too. Loves every piece of this man.

Her face is like the wife letting her husband rant even though she thinks he’s wrong. Tim gets humbled one last time. The director tells him about his last project. The way Lucy watches him the entire scene is adorable. She loves her idiot. The look they share after he says ‘Oh. Alrighty then.’ The smirk on Lucy's face. I can not. He has grown so much btw to not to be continuously defensive after he's corrected. Just rolls with it in this last scene. Like Oh... Oops.

Tim gets the last laugh though. Lucy is beaming slash word vomiting her love of true crime while Tim rolls his eyes LOL Thanking the director for letting her be in this. She is exuding sunshine and happily looking at him. When she finishes up Tim pops her happy bubble. Tells her about the thing in her hair. They’re constantly trying to one up the other. Take each other down a peg. Competitiveness even in an interview. Unreal. Lucy has his number this entire episode. So it’s only fair Tim gets his shot in last minute.

I do love in the second gif he stops himself from getting said thing out of her hair though. You watch him reach for it then stop his hand before it makes the full journey. Lucy is so affronted she doesn’t even notice. Her arm is already up and blocking any attempt to grab it anyways. I do love his almost attempt though. It's the little things.

Lucy is so mad he let that be in her hair the entire time. He did it because well it’s Tim. I adore these two so very much. He sighs heavily as she berates him on the way out. So exasperated by her it’s so funny. This is such a fun flirty light hearted episode for them. We got their banter in spades with side helping of heart eyes and flirtation. One of my fav eps of the season for them. Much needed levity after the intensity of the last two.

~~~~

Side notes- non Chenford

Not much. Was good to find out what happened to Sterling. Gino just disappeared last year without a trace. So having ending to them was nice to have.

Harper was hilarious during the interviews to always love me some Nyla Harper. ❤️

Forever Thank you to all who read these reviews and like, comment and reblog means the world :) see you all in 3x08

[maryannecrimsworth]

Headcanons

Pairing: Hailey Upton x Single Father! Former FBI profiler! OC! Kristoff "Kris" Aller

Summary: here

Author's note: these are just some ideas I gathered until I can't come up with the first chapter. I hope you like it

First Stake-out

“You know, you can ask me anything” He seemed comfortable in the passenger’s seat, his voice was serene and low. The night was perfectly still, his slow-moving chest and words being the only proof of life in the whole block. Unlike her, he felt easy, and his breathing was silent and light. His gaze was on the streets, focused but unpreoccupied. Hailey, on the other hand, froze for a second, and her breathing stopped when he suddenly spoke. “It’s easier than following me around, you know.”

She quickly turned to him, and their eyes finally met. Her widened look found his cool expression.

“Why did you do it?”

"I'm uncomfortable with this partnership" Hailey admitted with a sharp voice

"This isn't a partnership." He replied almost immediately. "I'm here for a case. Only one. Then you don't get to see me again."

Hailey sustained their shared gaze — she analyzed his features as he grew unsletted before her light blue eyes.

"I don't think you mean that. Any of it." She stated. " It's useless to ask you anything if you're going to answer with lies."

Kris snorted. "Are you serious?"

"Everything about you seems fake." She argued back "So, yes, I'm serious."

"Hmm." His eyes were burnings hers; his annoyance was clear "Why is that?"

"You have a juvenile record, but almost none reports from the police academy. Several promotions, only compliments, even Platt likes you...On paper, you're a perfect cop, but—"

"I turned it all down." His semblance softened; he shook his head slowly as if her suspicions were perfectly reasonable. "Do you wish to know why?"

For a second, Hailey saw his eyes water, and she was ready to say 'yes' — but Kris turned his face away in reflex. "Someone's here." He whispered, now analyzing the empty streets.

They were not alone.

Context

• At first, Hailey didn't like the idea of Kris becoming her new partner; Technically, he wasn't even suppose to know about the case. For some reason, however, Voight trusted Kris — yet, it didn't mean Hailey would trust him

• "C.I Bishop" that's what Ruzek called him. No long after, Hailey figured out why he had this title: during his patrol days, Kris assigned more C.Is and got confessions for many cases. Suspects would talk to him as if he was a priest in the confessional. No wonder he was selected for the first team of the Special Investigations Unit. Few years later, FBI itself selected him and took him to N.Y

• Voight and Platt treated him with respect and warmth; it was unusual to see Trudy being chatty and asking about his daughters nearly every time Kris passed by; Voight would do the same thing, and worse: many times, he would take Kris to his office for some sort of secretive conversation. Hailey could only watch them

• Adam was willing to be his partner; Torres was making up theories Kris very often agreed with; Voight trusted him completely — and it was clear that Kris wasn't excited about getting a desk for himself. But the Sargent teamed him up with Hailey, and the man occupied Jay's former table with discomfort. They both had to admit, it was awkward

Partnership

• There was something off about him, Hailey could tell. No one could possibly be so balanced, light headed and calm as Kris . No true profiler or police officer could be so easy going while watching and analyzing the most horrible scenes she has ever seen. He looked like a pshyco, staring at the crime scenes and victims with a totally blank face. Another odd thing: he didn't come up with any theories on the first days, even though this was his only job

• He looked, sounded, and behaved like a lie, a fraud. And this case was too important for him to mess everything up. Hailey felt she had no other option: she started to investigate him

• It didn't take long until she figured out: his wife suspiciously passed away four years ago; he left FBI for unknown reasons; he has the guardianship of two girls: Amber, 6, his daughter, and Tessa, 14, his niece. She could find nothing about Tessa's mother. He had brilliant ratings and few complaints. On the paper, he was one of the best police officers Hailey has ever known — who suddenly gave up everything to work at a rehab center. He was either an angel or a demon running from his past

• Another problem: he had a juvenile reccord, which required autorization to be accesed. He came to Chicago when he was 17, and got in trouble just a few days after arriving. The only thing Hailey could discover: Voight took care of his case

A bit more about the plot:

"I have a clue." He spoke out of the sudden as soon as the shift began. His eyes shone with an unsettling energy. "A theory, more precisely." He walked over to the board. "The animal-based accelerator, the abandoned factories and now companies. It's evolving, growing like a story-line." The whole unit looked at Kris with confusion. "I looked up the first arsons again. All the buildings once were public places, hospitals, secretariats, stations and so on." They asked how the companies buildings would fit into that, and he went on "They don't aim at the people, but at what the place symbols. At 3 a.m, they go to old community centers, lock whoever is in up, and set fires to it." Silence again. "Mission-oriented type of serial killers. I'm just missing their manifest." "Why you keep saying them?" The team asked. "It's a group. Probably white, young men, trying to make a statement for the whole town to see." Adam, Kim and Kevin glanced at each other, all of them confused and surprised. Voight, Torres and Upton stared straight at Kris. "I made up a list of possible next targets. They might act tomorrow." Then, without questioning, Voight said "So let's get ready."

[softpine]

Two things: (1) would love some behind the scenes thoughts on your most recent post, especially regarding the background convo Elaine is having (her reactions aren't shown and I just feel like she could be so helpful in piecing some things together/formulating theories) and (2) I'm especially curious about Finn's book selection. What was your thought process when you picked them? Which are his favorites and why? Do some of the themes of the stories, symbols, lessons, or characters line up with Frozen Pines or specifically Finn's arc in general? I love pretty much every single book in Finn's stack and my brain has been going wild all day analyzing them lmao!

thanks for asking!! so originally i did include elaine's dialogue too, but i found it really wasn't necessary and i was able to include more hints by cutting out all the transitions between each piece of information. the thing i found interesting is how lucy is reluctant to speak to them about who finn was as a person, because that's where the majority of her guilt lies. asa and elaine are certainly not the only people who've asked her to talk about her son, and she must know how bad it sounds that she can't name more than 1 thing about him. it clearly causes her a lot of distress. so when asa leaves the room, elaine doesn't bother asking her more questions about griffin -- she gets right down to business, talking about the case, not the person. and lucy opens up to her immediately, because this is easier to detach from. she feels secure in the knowledge that she did everything she could after finn went missing; she has no guilt over that. here's a full breakdown of everything she was saying:

(… why I called my sister first — ’cause that’s where he would’a gone! I never thought something bad happened to him, just thought he ran off …) the first question elaine asked is "why did you wait so long to call the police?". finn ran away from the camp site in the evening, and no one noticed until the next morning, when everyone sobered up. lucy & richard didn't call the police for many hours, instead choosing to look for him themselves. lucy called her sister first, because she thought that would be the first place finn would run away to. when her sister told her she didn't know anything about finn coming to stay with her, then lucy called the police. by then they'd already lost a whole day of potential evidence.

(... come to find out, the only thing they took prints off was the cigarettes. Now tell me how that makes any sense, that a killer would stop to smoke Griffin’s own damn cigarettes? They never found ...) finn didn't smoke, but he did carry a pack of cigarettes in his back pocket at all times; mostly to look older. when his body was found, the cigarettes were also found, alongside a bunch of broken glass from a beer bottle. the police never took fingerprints from the bottle shards, only the cigarettes. this is ridiculous to lucy, and elaine agrees. the killer never would've touched the cigarettes. they used the bottle as a weapon, so if ever a fingerprint was going to be found, it would've been found there. but now we'll never know.

(... cousin was never the same. She got herself institutionalized, you know. She said she could see Griffin, hear him talkin’ to … ) this one is a deep cut lol. lucy's sister has a daughter, liz, who finn was pretty close to despite them living so far away. after he died, he spent most of his time following liz around, trying to talk to her. she couldn't see/hear him at first, but slowly she began to recognize his presence. she was terrified. eventually she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she was prescribed heavy antipsychotics. at the same time, finn decided to leave her alone because he didn't want to scare her, so she falsely assumes she was hallucinating the whole time due to grief. this is when finn got so lonely & sad he basically hibernated for a few decades.

(... damn cruel, that’s what it was. They had no right to tell me that way. No right. Treatin’ me like a murderer ...) finn was missing for 2 weeks before his body was found. the police have long suspected finn's parents are the ones who killed him. as a way to get them to "crack" they decided to inform them finn was found dead while they were in the middle of a televised interview, so everyone would see their reactions. ever since, people have judged lucy & richard for how they went completely stone cold and "showed no emotion". elaine is angry on her behalf too, because there's no possible "good" way to react to that information. it was always meant to be a trap.

(... always getting himself into trouble. He used to be such a good kid, and then, well, I don’t know ...) elaine had to bite her tongue at this part. lucy is basically saying she doesn't understand why finn started getting in trouble at school, stealing things/money, fighting back against his parents (to some extent). she still doesn't understand the gravity of the abuse she played a part in. like no shit he started acting different after his most formative years were spent in survival mode 🙄

(... ’bout two months before our old friend Chris killed himself, cops brought him in again. Yellin’ at him. Telling him they had all this evidence they don’t got. He was …) she's talking about chris porter, steven's dad. the guy who jada saw a vision of and who asa sees in spirit form every night. steven also wondered if his dad might have killed finn. when steven himself was about to die and was briefly able to talk to finn, he said: "[Chris] came home late that night drunk out of his mind, and his shoes, his pants, everything was soaked. I know they were, 'cause he threw a shoe at me and I had to clean up the mud. And he was different after that. I never saw him smile, never again. When the cops finally came 'round, I lied and said he was home all night. He was my dad, what was I supposed to say?". but lucy clearly doesn't believe chris did it. elaine remembers hearing about chris' death (it's not every day someone decapitates themselves on the train tracks) so she was more curious about what evidence they claimed to have gathered on him. she's not sure she believes it was ALL a bluff on the police's part, but she doesn't say that to lucy.

sorry that was so long omfg but to answer your question about the books: i think the prevailing theme is mostly "books a 10, 11, 12 year old shouldn't be reading yet" -- not because i think pre-teens can't handle these types of themes, more so because i wish no kid could relate to them yet. these themes include forming concepts of morality and justice, feeling ostracized from society, lacking control over your own life, complicated family dynamics, loss of innocence, and of course, abuse. there are moments in finn's journal entries where he sounds exactly how old he's supposed to be, but mostly he just sounds so much older and more exhausted than he should be. he couldn't relate to most kids his own age, let alone books meant for his age range. instead, he took solace in horror and mystery novels because of these themes. stephen king is clearly his favorite; he has almost every book of his written before 1982. he also has a TON of books that were later turned into movies (some he was able to watch, some came out too late). i can't even list them, there's so many. he loved comparing film adaptations to the original work and he was a big fan of movies in general. the really sad thing is he writes about wanting to see blade runner and that he's going to read the book that inspired it first (do androids dream of electric sheep? is actually in his stack of books) but blade runner came out just a few months after finn died, so he never got to see it :(

oh and i also was going to scan my own copy of the outsiders and create some annotations that finn would've written (which is why lucy mentioned him writing in the margins in the last post). because the outsiders was my favorite book that i read when i was around finn's age and i can seriously quote it cover to cover, so i had plenty of ideas about how finn would've reacted to it. but i decided it just wasn't necessary after all those journal entries. maybe i'll still do it for fun someday lmao

[lucianalight]

You say the show characters weren't divided to "good" and "evil" but they are still stripping people and putting collars their necks which personally I find pretty messed up. This is my problem and why I can't bring myself to watch season 2 because everything I end up seeing seems like the TVA is still doing horrible things and not treated with the weight it should. Like, there's torture scene, but it's supposed to be okay because turns out it wasn't really physical? Like thats still torture that crosses the line way past grey in my opinion.

It's these two images for me is why I can't be asked to see any of the TVA as just grey especially it's asked while Loki is still called a villain. He didn't do a fraction as bad as they did.

If what I saw was Mobius owing up to being wrong about believing in the TVA and how his glorious purpose hurt people instead of seeing Loki say he invaded New York because he was mad at Thor and Odin, maybe I wouldn't still mad at the show

The actions are wrong, it doesn't matter who they're against what justification they have for using them. I rather have a story the condemns those actions and finds a better way than one that keeps the system with only a promise that now they'll only target the bad people

What I've been trying to say and said before in my s2 review, is that the narrative is neutral this time. It just shows you the story and leaves you to decide for yourself how you want to judge characters and their actions. That's sth very important for me in a story. I always have an instant knee jerk reaction to any blunt sort of message/framing even if it's a good one. I hate it when I feel like the writer is holding up a sign and telling me "look look it's a bad/good action or you should love/hate this character". No, thank you very much I can think for myself. The writer's feelings towards the characters can also bleed through so you understand when a character is treated by distaste and another with adoration.

These were the most important issues I had with s1. Because it stopped me from doing what I love most, in-universe analysis. Sth the fandom were doing before TR. No one told us, what happened to Loki before Avengers, we were shown clues. No one told us the reasoning behind every sentence of the characters and what they meant. But we analyzed every single action and expression. We put the pieces of puzzle together and built the picture. I was happy doing just that, until with TR the in-universe analysis didn't make sense so we had to look what caused it from out-universe pov.

Now with s2 having that neutrality I want, I don't care what the creators wanted to say as long as the characterization and actions make sense and are consistent with how I see the canon material. That's why Loki's line about New York didn't make me angry.

That hatred and dismissal toward Loki we felt in TR, IW and S1 is also gone. So having that irritating narrative of s1 out of the way and a better writing, the characters look grey to me. Which means like any other human they do bad things and good things. I didn't got the feeling that any of wrong actions are framed as sth good. Not putting collar on people(they were actually uncomfortable), not the torture scene(which I hated as I explained in my review) and not what TVA was doing all this time. In fact one of the few instances of framing in the narrative is that their atrocities were acknowledged.

The promotions of S2 were terrible though. I have no idea what they were thinking. None of the trailers were interesting and who would buy TVA merch? They're not even aesthetically beautiful and why would anyone want one of those creepy posters anyway? Although that's what happens when you sideline your main character in s1 and then you have nothing except creepy totalitarian merch for promotion smh. So yeah I get what you mean.

The ending also wasn't like now they're targeting the bad guys. It was shown that they won't interfere with what happens in timelines unless one of HWR's variants start a war and their intervention was needed. I haven't watched ant-man 3 but I assume they were referring to it when they said one of his variants made trouble but it was handled and their intervention wasn't needed. So they just intervene when the people of a timeline can't handle sth themselves. I also got the impression that they were changing their whole system to sth new.

In the end I hope it's been clear that by posting about the series, I'm not insisting, encouraging or recommending others to watch it. Because I know what Loki means to us. And Because I've seen many of my mutuals didn't like s2. Some did. S1 still makes me as angry as the first time I watched it but I liked s2(that doesn't mean I won't criticize it though). No two people are ever gonna agree with each other on everything. So it's ultimately a choice everyone need to make themselves.

[monstersdownthepath]

Okay, the Mngwa is an amazing beastie just for the story hooks it throws up - I do have to wonder how one of its victims might try to escape, though, and the consequences of that. If some tribe were to die out but for a few members that all fled to another land, would the Mngwa continue to materialize and strike in the night? What if they ran all the way to a city, would it keep attacking far from the jungle? The jungle spirits might be appeased if they ran so far away, but what if they stole a relic and did a runner? Granted the Mngwa could very easily kill a bunch of low-level looters, especially with that DR, but if it got that far would it keep materializing no matter where they were? In the middle of an urban city, or in the hold of a ship?

If you got a double-ask from me sorry, the first one kept loading so I wasn't sure if it got sent.

I think if it killed enough of an offending settlement to scatter the rest of them, it would consider its mission fulfilled. The nature spirits which created it must be appeased in order to stop it, and "sending the offenders packing and never coming back" sounds pretty appeasing.

The Mngwa does have an unfortunate weakness in that it stops existing every day, and when it reappears during the next nightfall it explicitly reforms "near the site of where the crime was first committed." This means anyone who can get farther away from the crime scene than the Mngwa can travel in a single night is no longer in danger of being mauled by a big cat; it must physically travel from its respawn point to its target. It's a fairly hefty restriction to an otherwise implacable threat, but it does mean they can be beaten without beating them or giving back whatever it is you stole by just turning and running as fast and as far as you can.

Of course, one must remember that Pathfinder isn't set in the modern day. A bunch of thieves or defilers of nature on Golarion can't pack up in a car and drive 600 miles in the time it takes for the sun to set, they're stuck with horses and their own two legs (unless they have teleportation available to them), so they're very unlikely to get out of the tireless cat's threat range before it can catch up to them.

There's also the fact that it's very likely none of them will realize the crime they've committed is one severe enough to have the beast come after them until they wake up one night to the sound of one or two of their own being torn to pieces in their sleeping bag. At that point, they're probably too terrified by what just happened to logically analyze the rules of the monster pursuing them; they do, after all, have to survive that first night. If they kill the beast, they may even believe themselves safe, or perhaps believe that the cat was some mundane animal they successfully drove off and had nothing to do with their crime against nature, completely unaware that it will return in 2 or 3 days.

[areyoudoingthis]

i can't stop smiling I am so happy i need to rewatch these two episodes forever and ever and reblog every single gifset and analyze all their scenes together in detail and burn that kiss into my eyelids

[felixcloud6288]

Fullmetal Alchemist Chapter 51

I've admittedly not been looking forward to this chapter.

The part where Roy's eaten flames come in handy for Ed and Lin shows how Arakawa thought out events in the story. Ed and Lin were going to get eaten by Gluttony and were going to need light to explore. So how do we get light? Let's have Gluttony eat Roy's flame attack prior to that.

It's strange to me how Ed, Lin, and Envy weren't all next to each other in Gluttony's stomach though. Ed ended up around the wreckage of the house, and he and Lin found the piece of ground Gluttony consumed when he swallowed them all. Al's hand is still on that plot of land. But they don't encounter Envy until some time later.

I like how we can see the three tree root ends of that one tree that was barely outside the blast.

When Ed realized Lin's torch was made from a human bone, Ed started to hold it in the way people hold icky things.

It's crazy what stuff we see in Gluttony's stomach. There's part of a building, which I'm going to guess is from East City. Maybe Gluttony had to eat his way out after Scar blew up the sewers?

I wouldn't be surprised if there are bacterial colonies and maybe some small insects or worms living in this dimension. Ed and Lin never indicate any breathing issues.

I kinda want to know what would happen if you fell down that hole.

We have some May Chang and Xiao Mei backstory and Scar being a nice guy. Since they're getting attention, that definitely means something is going to happen with them. So we'll soon have the legendary moment where May's fantasies come crashing down.

I'm going to guess there's a concrete floor right under that fire hydrant and wall piece.

Ed and Lin really did eat the boot. Ed's left boot is gone after that scene.

Envy actually tried to be amicable. They even stopped making fun of Ed's height. But they just can't help but brag about all the horrible stuff they've done.

Meanwhile, Lin doesn't know anything about the Ishbal Civil War, but he's disgusted at Envy bragging about causing it.

Now onto why I've not been looking forward to talking about this chapter. I've tried to come up with a good way to put it and have had no success so I'll just say it.

I've been staring at every panel where you can see Envy's feet.

No, it's not like that!

When Envy is transforming, Lin brings up how Envy's steps in the woods sank the ground, and how they destroyed an iron fence by jumping on it. All this means that Envy is far heavier than their preferred appearance would imply. So I was wondering how many additional hints I could find. The only thing I could find was that one time Envy managed to smash the brick road with a single punch in chapter 39. There might be a slight hint in chapter 6 as well when Envy first appears. Notice the impact effect from their walk.

On a side note, I kind of want to be a little annoying about how Envy's power would work given their mass is near constant. There's this thing called the square-cube law. Let's say you have an object that is a certain initial shape and volume. If you modify the object's size such that it keeps the exact same shape, the object's surface area increases by the square of the size increase while it's volume increases by the cube of the size increase.

As an example. If I have a 1x1x1 cube, it will have a surface area of 6 (6 1x1 square faces) and a volume of 1 (1x1x1). If I double all it's proportions, I'll have a 2x2x2 cube which now has a surface area of 24 which is 4 times greater than before. Meanwhile it's volume is now 8, which is 8 times greater than before.

In simpler terms, your weight increases way faster than your size. And the point I'm trying to get at is Envy having a constant weight means smaller body frames shouldn't be able to support their weight. A small dog's bones would be crushed under Envy's weight. And a horse not instantly collapsing and breaking all its legs under Envy's weight is absurd.

But anyway, that's just me over-analyzing things.

The scene with Al and Gluttony is all sorts of adorable. Gluttony pacing around is really cute. And that bird perched on Al only to get spooked when he spoke. And then Al jiggles Gluttony's belly causing Gluttony to step back embarrassed.

And now Al wants to meet Gluttony's father!?! Oh my!

back

[mejomonster]

Well. Silent Reading chapter 12, where they talk about Fei Du's moms death and how he doesn't accept the conclusion, how Luo Wenzhou advises he at least try to move on emotionally. The way Fei Du is tapping a song on his cup (perhaps his moms), that he stops tapping when Luo Wenzhou hits a nerve and becomes like a statue--revealing his true emotions in a way he doesn't/can't in therapy. The grief talk he probably has needed to hear for a while, but first a very painful talk where there is no seeing eye to eye and no agreeing because they both have their reasons. And Luo Wenzhou turns off the petty conflict for it because Fei Du deserves to genuinely discuss it with Luo Wenzhou as level headed adults with their analysis if Fei Du wants to. And Fei Du is so emotional, and in the end as he puts his mask back up. (A note on the show version: some portions of this changed, the main dialogue stayed fairly true and the function of the scene. In both cases, this scene absolutely cuts up my heart ;-; ):

"Someone once said to me that ‘everything that happens in this world leaves traces,’ but whether you can find them depends on each side’s luck. Is your luck good this time?”

Luo Wenzhou suddenly froze. The blow-for-blow probing, bantering, and hinting vanished utterly from his face. For an instant the corners of his mouth were even pulled a little tight.

Luo Wenzhou subconsciously got his cigarettes out of his pocket, thought of something, and put them back.

Instantly there was deep silence between the two of them. Neither looked at the other. They only sat side by side with a distance of about one meter between them, like complete strangers.

“The windows and doors were locked. None of the rooms showed signs of forced entry. The most advanced security system of the time was entirely untouched.” Luo Wenzhou abruptly opened his mouth to speak, his voice very low and his speech very fast, as if he had already recited these words many times and could smoothly say them without missing a single punctuation mark.

“She had done her makeup and changed her clothes, even put on music. The scene had a certain feeling of ritual. There was a suicide note arranged on the writing desk next to her. It was analyzed, the handwriting confirmed to belong to the deceased. The person who had written the letter showed clear depressive tendencies, which tallied with her daily use of antidepressant medication. The deceased was an adult, with no illness or injury that may have led her to be unable to act for herself. No drugs sufficient to cause unconsciousness were found in her system. There were also no defensive wounds on her body.—That’s all the evidence we collected at the time. You were the one who reported the case. You reached the scene before we did. Unless you want to tell me that you hid some evidence back then, it was without a doubt a suicide.”

Fei Du didn’t speak. His sitting posture seemed very relaxed—legs crossed, upper body leaning forward slightly, one hand casually lying on his knee and the other holding a paper cup that was no longer steaming. His long and slender fingers were tapping out a beat on the rim of the cup, as if there was a melody no one else could hear filling the air.

“I said to you then, ‘Everything that happens in this world leaves traces, as long as it’s real. Without traces to support your opinion, however much you believe in it, it’s still only a dead end of the imagination.’ Fei Du, you may have had a certain intuition, but we can’t do our job based on intuition. My intuition tells me every day that I can make five million.” Luo Wenzhou’s gaze stopped on Fei Du’s fingers. Then, in an almost callously objective tone, he said, “And you know, there’s a theory abroad that says that if a person wants to kill herself, she may suddenly use some means to confess it to the people close to her—you heard her confession back then.”

Fei Du’s fingers suddenly stiffened.

Luo Wenzhou reached out his arm, pulled the paper cup out of his hand and put it aside. “If you really want to talk over this case with me, I maintain my judgment to this day—but it doesn’t matter whose judgment it is. That isn’t important anymore. She’s been dead for seven years. When the coffin is closed, you can judge a person’s life. The relevant evidence has all disappeared. This isn’t going to sound good, but if she’s reincarnated she’ll already be attending primary school. The living can cling on without letting go; it’s a form of emotional sustenance. But there’s no sense in blindly clinging to the wrong course.”

Maintaining his original posture, Fei Du sat without moving a muscle, as if he had turned into a statue.

Just then, Zhang Ting and the lawyer came out side by side, and Fei Du’s gaze moved slightly, giving off a trace of living energy.

“I don’t accept your conclusion, Officer Luo,” said Fei Du.

Hearing this, Luo Wenzhou wasn’t at all taken aback. He only shrugged.

Fei Du adjusted his jacket and stood to meet Zhang Ting and the lawyer. He looked down at Luo Wenzhou. There was no smile on his face; his expression was even somewhat somber. “But perhaps there’s some merit in your heartfelt advice.”

Luo Wenzhou was surprised, but after saying this, Fei Du once again put on his graceful mask and left with Zhang Ting. They didn’t have any further interaction.

[grimmgrinningghouls]

I posted 10,093 times in 2022

That's 5,998 more posts than 2021!

280 posts created (3%)

9,813 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mystrothedefender

@lieutriver

@parotcardsroxy

@tundra-iguana

@issacthebraveandgay

I tagged 1,772 of my posts in 2022

#rwby - 97 posts

#shitpost - 63 posts

#ruby rose - 38 posts

#weiss schnee - 35 posts

#rwby ice queendom spoilers - 30 posts

#rwby ice queendom - 29 posts

#fave - 27 posts

#asks - 27 posts

#spoilers - 25 posts

#toh spoilers - 25 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#was on a vc a few days ago and someone went ‘this is my new cat parking lot guess where we found him’ and i haven’t been able to stop

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

196 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

#4

Hi yes, on a httyd binge and can't believe I never noticed that this scene

and this scene

Have very similar music.

215 notes - Posted July 28, 2022

#3

I'm sorry but this picture very much has "theres not a single thought behind those eyes" vibes

353 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#2

Decided to stare at the v9 teaser for more then a lot longer then I should, started analyzing the background of every scene. Lemme tell you my dumbass is out here staring at every single pixel of every frame. And these two frames caught my eye, specifically the lighting and the backgrounds. Based off those, it looks like Ruby is standing in front of Weiss and Weiss is telling Ruby what happened after she fell: Namely, penny's death. hence why Ruby looks so distressed and why Weiss is crying

470 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

hey do u think if we bitch enough they'll replace Crisp rat with Charles martinet like how they changed Sonic.

1,133 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[krakenoid]

APRPG Rules: Revision 3.0

Alan Aubrey's

 APRPG

All-Purpose Role-Playing Game

Version 3.0

Introduction

The APRPG is my attempt to create a universal rules-lite RPG. The intent of this system is best summarized in a single word: Accessibility. Anyone, new or old, should be able to play, in any setting, any genre, however they want. High fantasy, survival horror, and anything in-between, without 300 pages of rules getting in the way of every player having fun--their way. 

Fiction First Philosophy

    As with any rules-lite RPG, this system is designed with collaborative storytelling in mind. The rules are there to enable the fiction, and as such can be bent or even broken when the story demands it. This is not to say that the GM has free reign to ignore the dice rolls and strip agency from the players; quite the opposite, in fact. The players and GM should be working together to construct a satisfying narrative.

The Basics

This game follows in the tradition of Powered by the Apocalypse, where the GM (usually) doesn't need to roll. The players (ideally, around 3-5) will be rolling 2d6 plus any applicable modifiers. The number you roll will indicate your degree of success. Anything above a 10 is considered a Full Success, the equivalent to a natural 20 in other systems. It's the best possible outcome for your character, achieving exactly what you set out to do with no (or at least minimal) drawbacks. It's a perfect bullseye, it's landing a triple backflip on your first try, it's getting an A+ on a test you didn't even study for. Anything from 7 to 9 is a Mixed Success. You still do it, but there are complications. You hit the target, but not exactly dead-on. You stumble on the landing of that backflip. You still get a passing grade on that test, but didn't get any extra credit. A Mixed Success is the most common type of success, and it gives players and GMs alike interesting consequences to their actions. Any roll of 6 and under is a Failure, which, well, fails. Depending on the context of the situation, a Failure could be anything from mild embarrassment to a drastic injury. You don't even hit the dartboard. You faceplant. You walked into the wrong classroom the day of the test.

The roll isn't the end of the process, though. You can modify it through Skills and Aspects. You have five Skills to increase or decrease your final roll. 

Strong concerns your character's physical fortitude, whether it's their strength or their toughness. If you wanted to punch out a goon, stop a runaway train with your body, or resist the effects of a deadly poison, you would roll using Strong.

Swift concerns speed, dexterity, and sleight of hand. If you wanted to pick a pocket, pick a lock, or pick your nose without anyone seeing, you would roll using Swift.

Smooth concerns social acumen and the ability to keep cool under pressure. If you wanted to charm someone, tell a convincing lie, or construct a clever disguise, you would roll using Smooth.

Sharp concerns mental acuity and lateral thinking. If you wanted to hack into a computer, analyze an ancient manuscript, or investigate a crime scene, you would roll using Sharp. 

Strange concerns the weird. Magic, psychic powers, knowing things you couldn't possibly know. If you wanted to summon a demon, crush a car with your mind, or hear someone's thoughts, you would roll using Strange. Strange is unique among the five Skills in that it is mostly optional, since not every setting has magic or psychics. If you want to use Strange in a more mundane setting, I recommend flavoring Strange as a unique "knack" that the character has, which can't entirely be explained by mundane logic. Never losing a coin toss, always knowing which way is North, that sort of thing.

These skills come with modifiers to distribute among them, adding or subtracting from your roll. The modifiers are as follows: 

+2, +1, 0, -1, -2

Each modifier can only be used once. For example, if you started with a +2 to Strong, you couldn't add that same bonus to Smooth. 

In addition to Skill bonuses, you also have your Aspects. Aspects are what make your character unique. They are divided into Traits and Flaws. A Trait is something positive about your character (a unique skill or proficiency, a natural talent, something about them as a person) while a Flaw is something negative (a past trauma, an addiction, a family curse). At character creation, I usually insist upon two Traits and one Flaw, but this number can be changed based on GM ruling and/or group consensus. Some players might be thinking, "If I can pick my own Flaws, what's to stop me from giving myself something minor and convenient?" Nothing is, really, except your own sense of integrity. After all, what makes for a more interesting story: a character who is competent, but has a dark secret they have to struggle with, or a perfect specimen who can do no wrong and has no narrative conflict? This game is about telling a story, and perfect characters aren't interesting.

As well as Aspects, your character will often take on Conditions. Conditions are like temporary Aspects that the GM can assign to a character, something that influences a character's physical or mental state. Physical Conditions can be anything from "out of breath" to "missing an arm," depending on the circumstance. Mental Conditions, similarly, can range in severity from "frightened" to "gibbering lunatic." Keep in mind, the Conditions should match the circumstance in which they were acquired. Being punched in the face isn't likely to break your legs.

It's worth noting that Aspects are not intended to be flat numerical bonuses, as that goes against what this system is designed to be. Instead, you can invoke these Aspects during play to justify your character being able to do something, or to aid them in taking that action. It's less "Jim has a +1 to attacks using rifles," and more "Jim's time as a soldier has made him familiar with all the ins and outs of rifles and military hardware." Your Aspects aren't just what your character can do, they're who your character is. They should be rooted in the very essence of the character. 

Using the above example of Jim, let's take a look at a possible Aspect setup:

Trait: Old Soldier- Jim served in the Army in his youth, and his time as a soldier has made him familiar with all the ins and outs of military hardware.

Trait:  Bloodhound- Jim is a private investigator, his naturally inquisitive mind catching the details that nobody else notices.

Flaw: Can't Save Everyone- Jim is haunted by the ghost of his wife, the one murder he couldn't solve.

Let's see how this would play out in a scene:

GM: Alright, you open up the door and there's a gruesome crime scene right there in the front room. Blood everywhere, signs of struggle, and a woman's body in a peculiar pose. And there, sitting cross-legged on the coffee table, wearing the same clothes she was killed in, a ghastly wound torn across her throat, is your wife. She grins at you, and her smile is too wide.

Jim: "Leave me alone, Moira. I'm working."

Moira: "You could have saved her, Jimmy. You could have saved me."

Jim: Right, so I'm ignoring her and taking a look at the crime scene. Any clear signs of what happened?

GM: Sounds like you're gonna need to roll a Sharp check.

Jim: Okay, so that's a 7, my +2 gets it up to 9...I'm gonna invoke Bloodhound to bump that up to a 10.

GM: Okay, so it looks like she died of blood loss following a gut wound, but there are signs of struggle. Bruising around the neck, evidence of strangulation. 

Jim: Does the gut wound look like a gunshot or a knife wound?

GM: Roll Sharp again.

Jim: That's...shit, that's a 5. I'm gonna invoke Bloodhound, but that'll only bring it up to 6. Can I use Old Soldier too? Maybe whatever it was was army surplus.

GM: Oh, I love that. Okay, so with a mixed success, I can tell you it was a knife wound, but if it's a military weapon it's not one you've ever used. The wound is ragged, sort of triangular.

Jim: You said the body was arranged in a weird position. Any significance to it?

GM: I think you can roll either Sharp or Strange for this one.

Jim: 6. Can I use Bloodhound on this?

GM: I'm not sure how you could. You don't know much about the occult, so you'll probably need to seek outside help on this one.

Jim: "Damn wizards."

As established above, Aspects can only be invoked if they make sense. If you can make a convincing argument for it, odds are you can use it, provided your GM agrees. 

Harm, Stress, Luck, and Experience

Whether you're playing a 1920s bootlegger or a space pirate, odds are you'll end up getting in a scrap or two. One thing about the APRPG is that it makes very different assumptions about combat than, say, Dungeons and Dragons.D&D assumes that the players will have multiple renewable healing resources and methods to prevent (or even return from) character death. This system, on the other hand, doesn't have those same safety nets, or at least it doesn't always have them. Combat is dangerous. Anything and everything can kill you if you aren't careful. To that end, you have a series of counters that track your physical wellbeing, your exertion (both physical and mental), experience, and fortune. 

The first counter, Harm, tracks your physical health. It is how many steps you are from Death's door. However, just because you haven't hit your Harm threshold doesn't mean you're out of danger. Halfway down the Harm track is your Harm Benchmark. Once you reach your benchmark for a certain track, you cannot heal past it without resting. In addition, upon reaching your Harm benchmark, you will receive a negative physical Condition. Upon filling your Harm counter, your character is either dead or in need of serious medical attention.

The second counter, Stress, tracks your physical and mental exertion. Stress is more of a resource than Harm, and can be used in a variety of ways. Its primary use is invoking Aspects in combat, but it can also be used to negate Conditions. When receiving a Condition, you can mark Stress equal to the severity of the Condition, depending on GM ruling. When you reach your Stress benchmark, you will receive a negative mental Condition. Upon filling your Stress counter, there are no immediate negative consequences, but you will be unable to use Stress until you rest.

    Experience tracks how your character grows and changes over time. Experience can be gained in two ways: rollinga 6 or below, or answering one of the following questions at the end of a session:

Did we complete an objective?

Did we win or avoid a fight?

Did we save someone?

Did we learn something new and important about the world?

Did we learn something new and important about one of the characters?  

Rolling a 6 or below grants 1 experience, answering "yes" to one or two questions grants 1 experience, answering "yes" to three or four questions grants 2 experience, answering "yes" to all five questions grants 3 experience. At 5 experience, your character levels up and you select one of the following options:

Add +1 to a Skill of your choice (Maximum of +3)

Add a Trait

Lessen or remove a Condition

Instantly heal Harm or Stress up to the nearest benchmark

    Once you've leveled up, remember to clear your experience track.     Despite the benefits of experience and leveling up, there are often opportunities where rolling low is the last thing you want. To that end, you have the fourth tracker, Luck. Luck can be used after any roll to retroactively change the result to a 12 or ignore all Harm and Conditions from a wound. As you mark more Luck, your character's fate grows steadily worse, incurring worse and worse Conditions and Flaws as the game goes on.  

Coin and Commerce

    Money, as they say, makes the world(s) go round. While there is nothing stopping players from tracking every penny, credit, or gold piece to their name, the Wealth tracker offers an alternative. It's another 8-part tracker to go along with Harm, Stress, and Luck. Unlike the aforementioned trackers, Wealth doesn't have any sort of disastrous consequence for filling it, but instead sets a maximum limit on an individual player's savings. When you reach 8 Wealth, you can't acquire any more until you spend what you've got. To that end, here's a reference guide for Wealth.

0 Wealth: Insignificant things/flavor items, such as a bottle of perfume, a stick of gum, a newspaper

1 Wealth: Things of minor value, such as a piece of modest jewelry, a hint from a shady character, a meal at a decent restaurant

2 Wealth: Things of moderate use, such as a common piece of gear, a week's stay at an inn, a very nice hat

3 Wealth: Useful items, such as a specialized piece of gear, a hunting hound, a very nice hat

4 Wealth: Slightly more expensive items, such as a common car, a significant bribe, a truly magnificent hat

5 Wealth: Expensive items, such as a custom-tuned supercar, a decent apartment, a trained bear

6 Wealth: Very expensive items, such as a suit of bespoke power armor, a mechanical prosthetic limb, a piece of advanced spellwork

7 Wealth: Prohibitively expensive items, such as a yacht, a squad of elite mercenaries, a favor from an influential figure

8 Wealth: The rarest of the rare, such as a literal king's ransom, a nuclear missile, the Kohinoor diamond

Downtime

From the strongest dragon-slayer to the cockiest fighter pilot, everyone needs rest. Downtime is the most effective way for characters to heal their injuries, come up with new plans, or just relax. Downtime could be anything; a night at the bar, a stay in a hospital, a power-nap. Regardless of the circumstance, Downtime affords you the following options:

Heal Harm and Stress up to the next Benchmark

Remove one negative Condition

    Keep in mind, the healing should match the method and time taken. If your arm is broken, a quick rest isn't likely to fix it. 

Combat

    Occasionally, combat is unavoidable. Combat is settled with competing dice rolls between opponents. If the attacker rolls higher, they successfully strike. If the defender rolls higher, they successfully dodge.

    Initiative

    Initiative must always be a sequence of player and enemy turns. The players can pick what order they want to attack in, but it is the GM's duty to place enemies between each player slot. Keep in mind, the number of enemies does not have to match the player count; the number of turns does. Combat will always progress as:

Player>Enemy>Player>Enemy

  But each of those enemy slots doesn't have to be a different enemy. To that end, I recommend keeping track of two separate initiative orders: one for the players, and one for the enemies. For example, if there are more players than enemies: 

Track 1: Player 1, Player 2, Player 3

Track 2: Enemy 1, Enemy 2

This would make the initiative order look something like this:

Player 1>Enemy 1>Player 2>Enemy 2>Player 3>Enemy 1>Player 1>Enemy 2

This ensures that the enemy has a fighting chance. In the event that something goes terribly wrong, and we find a player making a last stand, the system works in their favor as well. Let's take a look:

Track 1: Player 1

Track 2: Enemy 1, Enemy 2, Enemy 3

This would make the initiative order as follows:

Player 1>Enemy 1>Player 1>Enemy 2>Player 1>Enemy 3>Player 1

This would give the player time to escape, fight back, or perform some truly legendary strategic actions.

    The Player's Turn

    A player character has two Actions on their turn. The first and most obvious way to use an Action is to attack, which is accomplished by rolling a Skill check against an enemy's competing check. If the player succeeds, they successfully carry out the attack, dealing the appropriate damage for the weapon they are using. If their roll meets or exceeds a 10, they may pick an option from the following list:

Hit 'em Where it Hurts: +1 Harm dealt

Keep Your Guard Up: -1 Harm taken

Take Advantage: +1 to your next roll

Reveal a Weakness: +1 to another player's roll

Knock 'em Back: Force the enemy to change locations

Cause Lasting Damage: Inflict a Condition

The player can also choose to invoke any number of relevant Aspects to either increase the value of their roll by 1 per Aspect, or pick an option from the bonus list above. Even if the player misses, they can invoke Aspects to pick options from the bonus list. For every Aspect invoked, regardless of purpose, the player must take a point of Stress. Should their Stress reach 8, they will be unable to use any more Stress until their next Downtime.

The second way to use an Action is to move up to 6 +/-Swift squares on the battle map. Given that the player has two Actions, they can use both to move, or both to attack, or one for each. 

The third way to use an Action is to, well, just do something. Reloading a weapon, drinking a potion, performing emergency first aid, all of this can be accomplished by using an Action.

Should the target of the attack manage to evade it, they will have the option of counter-attacking. They may then roll an attack against the one who attacked them. It is not possible to counter-attack against a counter-attack, to prevent a single turn lasting until one or both parties are dead.

    The Enemy's Turn

    The enemy's turn functions more or less identically to the player's turn, rolling a Skill check against the player's opposing check. Should they succeed, they deal damage. Should they fail, they leave themselves open for a counter-attack. The enemy also has the option of invoking Aspects and using Stress. 

     Morale

    When enemies attack in a group, they're likely to have some sort of leader, whether it's the biggest and strongest, their ranking officer, or their charismatic gang leader. When this leader dies, all other enemies must roll a Smooth check unless their Aspects dictate otherwise. On a Full or Mixed Success, they stay in the fight. On a Failure, they attempt to run away.

    Weaponry, Weapon Tags and What They Mean

    Each weapon or attack in the APRPG has a series of tags that define what it does and how it works. Generally, the weapon has a Harm tag that defines how much (if any) damage it does, a Range tag that defines its effective range, and tags that define the details and drawbacks. Let's take, for example, a sword:

2-Harm Hand Messy

The first tag, 2-Harm, shows how much Harm the weapon can inflict. The second tag, Hand, defines the range (specifically within hand-to-hand combat range, any adjacent square to the attacker). The third tag, Messy, indicates that it will cause a mess when used, on account of all the blood being spread about.

    Weapons and attacks can have multiple tags if it makes sense for the weapon to have them. For example, a pistol: 

1-Harm Close Loud Reload

The Harm tag functions the same as on the sword, inflicting 1 Harm to targets. The Range on this is Close, meaning it can be used on any target within 2-5 squares. The other tags, Loud and Reload, define how the pistol functions. It is, of course, loud when fired and that noise may attract attention. It also has a finite amount of ammunition and may need to be reloaded. 

    The following list is all the tags that may become relevant during regular play, but feel free to add your own! 

X-Harm: How much Harm the weapon deals.

 X-Armor: How much damage is absorbed.

Hand: Within hand-to-hand combat range, any adjacent square to the attacker.

Close: Within 2-5 squares of the attacker.

Far: Within 6-10 squares of the attacker.

Loud: This weapon produces a lot of noise, potentially drawing attention.

Messy: This weapon spreads blood and gore around. 

Concealed: This weapon can be easily concealed on your person.

Suppressed: This weapon makes very little noise. Someone in the same room might hear it, but someone the next room over won't.

Useful: This weapon can also be used as a tool.

Unreliable: This weapon has a tendency to break down.

Restrain: This weapon can be used to restrain a target.

Heavy: This weapon is heavy and cumbersome.

Stun: This weapon can stun an enemy.

Recharge: This weapon must be recharged between uses.

Auto: This weapon fires full-auto.

Volatile: This weapon has the potential to harm the user if damaged or used incorrectly.

Fire: This weapon sets things on fire.

Electric: This weapon is electricity-based.

Disposable: This weapon is single-use.

Piercing: This weapon can penetrate armor, or go through un-armored targets.

    Special tags, like Stun or Restrain, can be used to inform what kind of Conditions it can inflict. 

Game Structure

    Missions

    The main structure of the game is missions, which are tasks that the player characters can complete to gain experience, earn money, or gain reputation. While every mission can and should be unique, there are five main types of missions to use as a jumping-off point. These types are Heist, Transport, Assassination, Sabotage, and Rescue. 

Heist missions require the players to break into or enter a location and steal or retrieve something, preferably without getting noticed and getting away clean. 

Transport missions require the players to move goods from Point A to Point B, or retrieve them from Point B and bring them to Point A. For best results, the players should ensure nothing happens to the cargo.

Assassination missions require the players to kill/injure/defeat a target. These missions can come with extra objectives, such as "Don't get caught" or "Make it look like an accident." 

Sabotage missions require the players to infiltrate a location and leave something there or destroy something.

Rescue missions require the players to save someone or something from a dangerous situation. 

    Keep in mind, all these mission types are merely suggestions, and should not be taken as the definitive way to play the game.

    Research

    Before every mission, players will have the option to do research on the upcoming task. Every player will have the option to roll a check of any Skill, and invoke any relevant Aspects, provided they can explain how their methods obtain the information they acquire. The result of the roll determines what the information can be:

A Full Success allows the player to come up with some sort of beneficial circumstance for the upcoming mission. Perhaps a security guard is known to fall asleep at their post, or a car has been left unattended.

A Mixed Success allows the player to come up with a minor detail about the mission. Perhaps the site is rumored to be haunted, or the wizard you're kidnapping is a terrible hypochondriac.

A Failure allows the player to come up with a negative circumstance for the upcoming mission. Perhaps the building is being fumigated for pests, or the only opportunity to strike is during a fancy gala.

    This approach to research allows the players to feel involved in every aspect of the story, and ensures that each mission is unique and involved.

    Scenes    Scenes are the main way to keep time in the APRPG, but are unfortunately difficult to define. A scene could be a conversation, a combat encounter, a journey. The best advice for splitting scenes is to consider it a new scene whenever the metaphorical "camera" cuts away to something, someone, or somewhere else.