#i for one welcome our new evil overlord

[genericpuff]

fp spoilers ahead and a content warning for violence:

hades normally:

hades when he's possessed by his dead dad and threatening to rip his wife's head off:

i rest my case, make murder hobo hades president, rip her head off you beautiful sick fuck-

[cakesandfail]

That exit poll though OOF

[e8-12]

Wait until you learn about machine identification code. Your printer and for that matter all the machines you have ever come in contact with are not evil, the people and organizations of people that design and build them are evil.

stumbled across some of my printer opinions that i don't recall writing but am correct about

[gord-horde]

Lost and found, arc 1: buried treasure

Part 2: butterfly effect

(pervious --- next) (masterpost)

Jay wheezed as he made his way down the tunnel. His chest heaving with effort as he pulled his custom gas mask down off his face, taking deep breaths as he let the bag of supplies slip to the ground. “Is it me or is it like, WAY worse out there today?”

Zane nodded, shifting his own bag as it weighed down his shoulders “the fog has gotten thicker it seems. It’s most troubling. You should refrain from making these supplies runs with me so often.”

Jay rolled “yeah and leave you open to the mudders while I’m at it? No way.” He stretched before knocking on the thinned out section of rock thrice, groaning as he picked up his bag once more.

The earth parted, welcoming them inside both inside “please tell me you have some good news?” Cole pleaded, closing the tunnel behind them

“Uuuuh we didn’t get pomled by stone warriors or suffocate in the fog? Oh. And got decent supplies” jay shrugged, waltzing into the underground safe haven with Zane.

“Most of the stores and homes in the area have already been raided. We need to get to the next town soon.” Zane explained

Cole sighed “the constricti are trying to get the next tunnel finished, but they keep breaking through to soon and getting fogged. I do what I can to plug it before it gets to bad but I can’t supervise expansion AND man the door.” He rubbed at the bridge of his nose

Jay hummed, the gears in his head turning “I could try and make a sensor that-“

“Out of the question” Cole said sternly “you are not risking getting that close to the city for parts”

“Wha- there are other junk yards!!”

“Are any of them within travel distance AND away from ninjago city?”

“…no” jay sighed “but I know if I can get the parts I can-!”

“The answer is no jay. We can’t risk losing another elemental master. We need you here.. I need you..”

Jay opened his mouth to protest. But closed it. “I. Fine.” He sighed.

Zane looked between his two partners, then down at the ground “I miss him as well.” He muttered, saying the quiet part out loud.

“..we all do tin can..” Cole sighed solemnly, putting his arm around the ninjaroid, giving him a slight squeeze before holding his free hand out to jay

“He’s still out there.” Jay pointed out, interlacing his fingers with Cole’s.

Zane leaned against the master of earth “Yes but. It’s. Not truly him. Not anymore. Our kai.. he’s-”

“Don’t. Don’t say it. If we- if we lose hope, if we give up on him.. then we might as well stop trying. These people need us. They need us to have hope. To keep our heads up and get them through the day.” Cole, ever the leader, emphasized

“…I know.” Zane looked away. “I simply. Struggle with it….how is Misako doing?” Zane asked, trying to change the subject

“…still looking for the green ninja..” Cole shook his solemnly. “She thinks he could still be out there but..”

“If her son was still on the surface it’s unlikely he would have survived this long” Zane finished, “or at the very least would’ve been corrupted like the others.”

“Yeah. That. Thanks zane.”

“You are welcome Cole.”

“Come on. Let’s get these supplies put away. “ Cole suggested, taking jays bag from him.

Keeping track of time in the underground was.. rough to say the least. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since the overlord took over ninjago. Years, definitely.

They’d lost so many people to his corrupting mud and deadly fog.. none of this would’ve happened if they’d found the green ninja. Without him, they hadn’t stood a chance against the origin of evil itself. Garmadon was as good as dead. Wu had gone missing a year or so ago. Nya was one of the first to be corrupted.. they had been trying to evacuate a town, but they were overrun and- and they got her. Kai had stayed behind to buy them time to escape.. and to make sure Nya wasn’t alone for what came next.

Cole had managed to bring people under ground using his elemental power, much to this dismay of the serpentine (though eventually they came to an agreement), he wasn’t sure if there were any survivors topside anymore. So many people crammed in this cavern..

They’d found kai and nyas parents, it turned out they’d been trapped down here the whole time by the master of time, zane was the one to break the news to them that they’d both..

It was horrible. All of it. There was no other word for it. And there was no way out of it.

The green ninja was dead. He had to be at this point. And if he was still alive the overlord would squash him like a before they could train him. Cole was pretty sure the only reason any of them were still alive was for his entertainment, something to chase and terrorize.

“Cole? Are you alright?” Zane asked, gently placing his hand on Cole’s arm

Cole blinked, realizing he’d been spiraling again “yeah I’m. I’m fine Zane..” he took a deep breath. “Just. Tired.”

Jay frowned “if you turn into a creepy statue from over use of your powers I am NOT making your ass an automaton.”

Cole burst out laughing “I- what?! Why would I be a statue?!”

Jay shrugged “ I dunno, I was just trying to shock you out of that spiral “ he gave a small witty smile, highlighting his joke with a small static shock to Cole’s shoulder. “Worked though”

Cole gave him a soft smile “thanks sparky” he said, putting an arm around the master of lightning

[333support]

Scene 3

Kai - 15

Nya - 13

Morro - 14

Lloyd - 10

Griffin - 15

Garmadon - 44

Clouse - 43

Brad - 11

Skales - 36

Mystake - 52

Ronim- 20

Overlord - 43

Cyrus borg - 56

Welcome to the shadow land.

Where creatures roam and sketchy shops

try to steal what they can to past by, people dwelling in alleyways, girls humble in there, so for change, and the men fall for it and thieves stealing from stores and others begging for food or cash and some selling weapons.

A bar named Vinnie's drinks.

Inside a Snake is wait by the bar as two drinks are being poured for him, take the drink to the table his walking to and accidentally bumping people on his way.

Passing the drink to the two people at the table he went to. "I suppose that case close for our business huh" a big guy says to the snake as he throw a bag of cash to him on the table. "I sssuppose it does sssir" the snake replies with a chuckle then check the bag.

"Uhh this not what t-the deal wasss ssso uh" snake says nervously and frustrated.

"Well demands for your wares have dropped since we made the deal." The the big guy says back "so this is the new value."

"Uh Wait, wait, wait, we ssshook on it. Ten thousand." The snake says getting angry tapping his finger down the table and hissing .

"It's a fair price. I think you should take it" the big guy says unfaded.

"No, no, no I can't do that. I can't do that!" The snake says now in raged with a hiss then pushes the bag away from him in anger and the coins spill across the table. A girl who's was quiet sitting beside the big guy, then whips out a knife stabbing one of the coins that rolled by. "Make your choice" she says threatening as they grin.

The the snake gulps, looking uncomfortable now the tides of the deal have turned. Heavy clomps of footsteps appear behind.

"You folks need anything else" says The guy who was pouring the drinks who now over named Garmadon in all his glory and gray hair looks at the big guy and the girl.

The big guy looks unimpressed with the interruption and bares a grin at the barman "Leave." The big guy says cold

"You sure about that?" Garmadon probes "It sounded to me-"

"Piss off!" The girl cuts in.

"Ok" He walks away momentarily to grab a chair and pulls it up, scraping on the floor much to the big guy's annoyance based on the snarl on his face, next to the snake and Garmadon sits in the chair. "I think I know what you need."

The big guy leans forward. "You don't seem to listen, barman-!"

"A bit of advice" Garmadon brushes down his coat. "Don't threaten the guy who pours the drinks" he says as he said, nudging his head towards the once loud room but now quiet and staring at them.

The big guy grind at Garmadon. "So, your lord Garmadon ."

Garmadon pulls out a cigar and lights it

inclines his gaze unbothered. So, the big guy continues "The evil lord of the shadow realm ." He hums, looking Garmadon up and down "I expected something... younger." Says the girl

Garmadon scoffs "Well, we were expecting traders who would honour their word, so I guess we're all disappointed."

"You got us all wrong my friend, we were just.. Negotiating." Says the big guy

"Now, you're speaking my language." Garmadon exclaims,as he patted the Snake on the back. "How about you just give Skales here the rest of what you owe him, and I'll let you walk out of here in one piece." Garmadon explains "so" says Garmadon puts out his hand to shake. The big guy exhales annoyed and shakes Garmadon's hand. "Good" Garmadon says.

Then the front doors of the bar, swings open and the group of beat up kids  walk in and make their way across the floor down to the back.

Garmadon eyes catch them and follows and Kai chases him and turns after making eye contact and walks faster.

Garmadon stands up and before walking way says "Welcome to the shadows."

Kai falls back into a chair and sighs and the rests do the same Kai looks up and says "Garmadon earns none of this"

Morro replies "No worries there, Lloyd took care of the evidence."

Lloyd puffs up and says "I tried ok? You don't get it. You're older. You're bigger. It, it isn't fair!"

"So stick with us! Take a punch or two!" Morro claps back

Before Kai can defend, Garmadon open the door and the room goes quiet as he walks down the basement to them. "Everyone alright?" he questions.

Mya sighs, "Never better."

Garmadon hum and says, "Good." He begins to pace the small dim room and hums "I don't suppose you can explain why im hearing reports of an explosion and a foot chase up in Ninjago?"

"Four children fleeing the scene... What the hell were you thinking?" He says snapping look at Kai. Kai muitters out "That we can handle a real job."

"A real job?"

"We got our own tip, planned a route. Nobody even saw."

"You blew up a building."

"That wasn't-"

"Did you ever stop to think about what could've happened to you?" Garmadon gestures around with his hands and his eyes hold disappointment. "What if something to you, ...to them?" Garmadon spits out as the other kids look around as the argument continues.

Garmadon rubs at his forehead and looks at the kids, "Where did you even get this tip?"

Lloyd brings his knees to his chest as he's sitting on the sofa, he hesitates and says "We just heard it at Clouse shop."

"From?"

Lloyd breaths in peaks softly "Lil basil".

Garmadon pissed lets out an exhale breath then kai gets up out of his chair and slaps a hand to his chest "I took us there. If you wanna be mad, be mad at me. But you're the one who always says we have to earn our place in this world!"

Garmadon looks down at Kai "I also told you time and time again that Ninjoga's off limits!" His eyes dart around to the rest of the boys "We stay out of Ninjago's business!"

"Why? They've got plenty while we're down here scraping together coins."Kai's eyebrows crease together "When did you get so comfortable living in somebody else's shadow!"

The room stop, Kai mouth shuts with an audible click. The rest are shocked and mouths agape. Garmadon's expression hardens and without breaking eye contact with Kai he says,

"Everybody out."

The kids get up and out one by one and close the door.

"Sit down" Garmadon says

"I'm fine" Kai rebutes

"Sit. Down."

Kai sighs and sits back in his chair. Garmadon walks in front of kai to take a seat on the table.

"Those kids look up to you."

"Yeah, I know."

You know, but you don't know." Garmadon shrugs and leans back, "When people look up to you, you don't get to be selfish."

Kai sighs and says, "I'm not-" before getting cut off

"You say run, they run. You say swim, they dive in. You say light a fire, they show up with the oil." Garmadon leans back in closer to Kai, "But whatever happens, it's on you. Just like it's on me whatever happens to us down here.

If we make ourselves a problem for Ninjago they will send guards."

"So?" Kai questions "Why answer to them? These are our streets." He throws up his arms "Someone should remind them of that."

"Your not hearing me. That path?" Garmadon snap and grabs Kai's hand and subsequently bloody knuckles from the fight earlier and shakes them "This? It's not gonna solve your problems, just makes more of them" He says letting go of Kai hand "We clear?" Garmadon ask as he

grabs a bottle of alcohol off the table and opens it, pouring some onto a cloth. Rubs it on bleeding cut on Kai's forehead making Kai winces.

"How did you get this?"

Kai scoffs at Garmadon question "Some snakes that were following us"

"On our side? Who?"

"I don't know. He was after the stuff"

Garmadon ontinues dabbing at Kai's head "Where is it now?"

Kai sighs heavily "We lost it."

Garmadon looks at Kai  in the eyes. "All of it?" Kai nods. "Good." Garmadon sets the rubbing alcohol rag down. "Nothing can tie you to what happened up there. You're gonna have to lay low for a bit. Understand?"

"Okay... we're gonna be fine, right?" Kai asks look at him guilty.

"I'll take care of it." Garmadon says as he gets up and travels over to the shelf to put the rubbing alcohol down. "Oh, you did put that idiot on his ass, though, right?"

Garmadon smirks at Kai and Kai smiles back "Mhm." Garmadon chuckles and begins to walk out of the room, reaching for the handle.

On the other side of the door, Morro is pressed up against the door by his ear, then he hears footsteps and hurries to pick at his fingernails. Giffin and Nya watches on amused from where they're sitting on the next flight up stairs.

The door opens and both boys look at Garmadon expectantly.

"Get up, you two. we're going out."

"Wait, now?" groans Giffin. Morro looks puzzledly at Garmadon. He stares back.

"You wanna be treated like adults, right?"Garmadon says,

"Then you should know better than to come back from a job empty handed." Garmadon says he as chucks a bag at Giffin and gestures with his head that they need to go up the stairs "I'm gonna have a little word with your informant." Garmadon says and Giffin groans and Him and Nya follow Garmadon.

The group of 3 exit the bar from a backdoor into an alleyway behind. Garmadon speaks.

"Alright, give me the details of exactly what happened up there."

In a dark part of the same alleyway, Lloyd is up on some boxes to boost his height and is rooting through a bin. He pulls out a scrap bit of metal with teeth, making them chomp together momentarily before shrugging and putting it in his pocket. However, when he puts his hand in, he hits something hard and when he pulls it out its one of the glowing green balls. Lloyd  gasps and clutches it in his fist.

He runs back inside from the back door and shuts the door. He runs down the stairs towards the room where Kai and Morro was in but before he can enter he hears Morro so, naturally, Lloyd hears beyond the crack in the door.

"He's a problem!" Morro says to Kai who's clear pissed. Kai puts his head in his hands.

"Do you even remember what was in that bag?, the biggest payout we've ever seen and he just lost it."

Morro is lounging on the bigger sofa, throwing a ball bouncing it off the wall and back to him. Kai lifts his head and says

"He made a mistake."

"Name one time he hasn't!"

"He's young."

"Don't bullshit me. You were twice the person at half his age."

"You know what Morro, you're right. There's a bunch of things Lloyd just can't do." Lloyd mouth falls open with sadness and he steps back from the door and walks away think about what his heard.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Morro snarks.

"Like complain about everything." Kai barks back

"What?"

"And brag nonstop."

"Ok, ok I see where this is going-"

"Pick fights with the group when we need to focus.." Kai  has got out of his chair and is walking towards Morro, he catches the ball as its mid air.

"Hey... I-"

"And tell strangers on the street that we got a nice haul?" Kai punctuates his words by throwing the ball hard down on the ground.

"I, I didn't mean to-"

"Lloyd's my problem, okay?" Kai snaps and sticks his finger into Morro's face "Your problem is never knowing when to shut up but I'm gonna help you with that! Ready?" Kai now points his finger at his own face "You see this look on my face? This will always mean it's time to shut up."

"But.. I.. " Morro goes to argue but Kai points at his face again, this time with both hands and Kai trails off.

Clouse's shadow pawn shop, it has anything from old shadows junk to new Ninjago junk.

It's down a main shadow street but has a basement, an upstairs, a roof just like any other shop in the area; it's what's inside the shop that counts to many people.

Clouse him self is behind the counter using a magnifying glass to check out a diamond- very swanky.

Outside the door Garmadon comes stop a halt with Nya and Giffin on his tail, Giffin turns to Giffin and clasps the bag tightly. "Nobody comes in." Giffin nods and Garmadon enters the shop.

The door swings open and Clouse, without even looking up, snarks "We're closed."

Garmadon slams the door. "Well, open up."

Clouse sets down his diamond and says "For good. You can take your worthless junk elsewhere.", picks up his diamond again and turns back to it.

Garmadon sighs. "Just as well, owners the shittiest businessman I know" Clouse looks up with a glare making direct eye contact with Garmadon , which he holds. Then they both descend into chuckles. Clouse slaps her hand on the counter, "Brad! What's going on with that thing?" Brad who's been listening in from the corner where he's working on tightening some cogs. He half turns to Clouse.

"Give me a few seconds. The cannon pinion's still busted."Brad groans and turns back to the work.

"Finish it later. Garmadon and I need a word."

"But-"

"Uh-uh off you go mister."

Brad huffs and throws his spanner on the floor then turns to pick up a box and jogs towards Garmadon and the door. Garmadon opens it for him. When he round the corner to Giffin and Nya, he drops the boxes. " Nya Giffin!", "Heeey Lil basil" is the reply before Garmadon slams the door for the second time.

Clouse tsks, both at the treatment of his door and Garmadon's timing. "You're a little early" she accuses. "My guys are still rounding up this months collections. We wont have numbers until next, um.." Clouse drawled as Garmadon has walked over to the counter and dumped out his bag onto it. It's spare springs, a goblet, some metal discs, general rubbish. "Whoo." Clouse continues "Why're you mucking about with all this?"

"I assume you've heard." Garmadon drowned leans onto the counter.

"Me and half the under under shadow city" Clouse chuckles

Garmadon sighs "how can they be so ... stupid"

Clouse gives him a lopsided smile. "The younger folk think it's the right thing to do."

"Yeah and Kai's one of them.

Throws himself at trouble wherever he can find some."

Clouse shrugs "Eh, they're growing up Madon. Looking to write their own stories. You can't protect them forever."

"Yeah your right and also.. Someone was following them."

"A whole lot of someone's from what i've heard" Clouse chortles

Garmadon expression hardens. "Not guards." He shakes his head. "Someone on our side"

Clouse sobers herself "Who?"

There's silence, then Garmadon reaches a hand towards his back but stops before he can make contact with the imaginary thing "There's worse things that enforcers out there. We both know that."

On the other side of the wall and stained glass window, Giffin and Nya with Brad have

deep in conversation.

"Yeah I was hoping you'd be working today" Giffin says pulls a hand down his face but has to stop when Brad knocks into his side excitedly

"Did you guys go?" Brad asks

"Sure did." Nya says as Giffin gently pushes Brad off himself "Hey, listen, how did you find that place?" Giffin says takes off his goggles and pushes them up his head but in doing that reveal a black eye that just gets Brad more bouncy.

"Woah! Did you fight the enforcer ?"

"What? Oh, no just some guys on the street"

"Oh, did Kai kick their asses?" Brad says giddy dart eyes around as Giffin continues the conversation

"Yeah , I mean, I wouldn't be here otherwise."

Brad hands Giffin the boxes he had and steps out into the street to start jumping up and down in a boxer stance.

"Yeah, yeah he showed me a couple moves to practice. Look." He starts punching air and Nya presses herself back into the wall.

"Yeah, its- it's coming along." Giffin says and Nya does a nervous chuckle and Brad still hitting form letting out huffs and puffs. "Sooo how did you find that place anyway?" Nya asks.

Brad pulls his fists into his chest and glances at Nya, shrugging, "Uh this weirdo came into the shop.

They bought a whole bunch of stuff Clouse only keeps there for display.

He paid in gold and didn't even haggle" Brad throws up his hands in disbelief then leans in closer to Nya "I charged him double price. Sucker!"

Nya nods along again "But how did you know where he lived?"

"Ah, that, I followed him." Brad finishes his punches and takes the boxes off Giffin.

He puts the down on the other side of the door frame. "How else do you think i'd-" Brad stops talking and looks up through the street.

Nya makes a noise of confusion but follows Brad gaze.

"Oh, crap." Nya exhales. Coming through the smoggy street are at least 2 guards heading right for Clouse's shop.

Brad turns frantically to Nya and Giffin to shoo them away "They'll be fine! Go!" And they turns and runs down the opposite way of the street.

Brad stays outside the door panicking for a moment before taking the most casual pose he can muster.

One arm holding himself up by the elbow on the boxes he had put down previously.

As the guards come to a halt in front of him he raises the other hand in salute "why, hello there."

The guards are wearing gas masks to combat the air quality of shadow and they enter the shop.

Inside, Clouse and Garmadon are sat either side of the counter sharing a drink and speaking softly to each other.

They are interrupted by the door opening which makes the candles flames around them flicker but not go out.

Clouse straightens up at the sight of guards entering her shop, she throws them a smile. "Evening friends" The guards take off their gas masks and stroll forward to come face to face with Clouse and Garmadon.

Outside Brad watches them from windows eavesdropping. "Shit" he mumbles.

"Nosy ass"

Clouse watches the guard approach Garmadon and the other one takes a sit

"Something I can help you with?" Clouse asks

The guard with red hair replies, "Some drugvan trash attacked one of the buildings in the Academy district."

He turns to look at Garmadon accusingly "But you already knew that"

The elder guard takes off his helmet revealing the gold medallion around his neck. "We're looking for the culprits."

"Got a description?" Garmadon asks while taking a sip from his cup.

The guard red hair shrugs "Yeah. It's exactly who you're picturing in that thick head of yours."

Garmadon smiles and look towards Clouse and asks, "Hm. You think my head is thick mate?"

Clouse makes a shrugging motion using his cup "Eh, just past the average?"

The guard red hair is not amused and stands up in Garmadon's face pointing at him "Listen, you shady son of a-" However, the elder guard interrupts.

"How about you go for a little walk, red?" He says "Cool off a bit. Go" As Guard Boomer leaves Garmadon sips again at his drink nonchalantly.

Brad see him coming a speeds to the side of a corner but the shop and climbs to his hindin spots where he fully eavesdropping now watch them from a machine he built.

Clouse speaks first "Lovely kid you've brought"

"Don't mind him" The guard replies

"Doesn't know when to pipe down"

Garmadon miles into his cup as he offers another one to the guard "Somethings are the same both sides."

The guard drinks most of the drink in one go before continuing "You know this crossed a line upstairs?"

"Was anyone hurt?"

The guard glazes at Garmadon"A building was blown to bits! What do you think?"

Garmadon ooks away from him and sighs.

"Those who did this will be dealt with..".

The guard shifts on his feet "That workshop belongs to the Steele' " This catches both Garmadon and Clouse's attention but the guard pushes on "You know what kind of stuff they had in there?"

The guard gestures around "Makes this place look like a sweet shop. The council needs someone to make an example of. People need to feel safe."

"Yeah Ninjago people" Garmadon scoffs

"We had a deal,Garmadon. You keep your people off my streets and I stay out of your business." This causes Brad eyes to go wide, who knew Garmadon had a deal with a high ranking guard?

They continue "Give me a name. We'll do things quiet. No one will know you were involved."

"I can't do that"

"You don't seem to grasp how serious this is. If i don't put someone behind bars tonight, the next time I come down here , I'll have an army of guards with me. We both know how that'll go"

"I'm sorry Mystake but I can't offer up my own people"

Mystake exhales and goes to put her helmet back on, she sighs "If you change your mind , this will reach me" She hands Garmadon a messenger tube of some kind "And only me" and with that, Mystake walks to the door and leaves.

Garmadon puts his head against the tube and sighs and Brad learned somethings.

I don't wanna do the dishes no more plays in the background on a gramophone speaker as Lloyd laying in bed make a new bomb making it look like a oni cat.

"What are you calling this one?" A voice from Kai lean on the bunk bed.

Lloyd looks up to see Kai.

"Goldie," Lloyd says.

Kai hums and scoots inside beside Lloyd

"You wanna talk about today?"

Lloyd sits up from where he's been lying on his back. "What's the point?" He grabs his knees to his chest "I ruined everything . I always do."

Kai leans into Lloyd"Nobody said that"

"No. Just that you were 'twice the person' at half my age" Lloyd says and frowns as he clinches the bomb in his hand and leans his head on it "You heard them. I'm not a fighter."

"You don't have to be" Kai tells him

"Look, I've got these" Kai quotes clenching  his fist "you got these" Kai adds only to grasp his hand on the unworking bombs hanging from the bed.

"They never work."

"They will." Kai says and pauses.

"Come with me"

"What?" Lloyd uncurls from his knees and look at his brother before getting up following.

Kai takes them to a ledge high building where you can see most of everything in shadow land and Ninjago building's roofs. They sit on the edge, legs dangling down to below.

Lloyd takes a sit by Kai "What are we doing here?"

"See that gutter running along the canal?" Kai points out while he grabs a pipe from next to him and hands it to Lloyd to use as a telescope. He guides Lloyd  eye to the spot. "That's where Giffin got his foot stuck running from guards. They thought it was funny so they left him there. He was out all night before we found him."

Lloyd has the traces of a smile on his face from that story and he and Kai make eye contact then Kai guides the tube to another place.

"That sign? You see it?"

"Uh-huh"

"Morro tripped over his own paint bucket and nearly fell off trying to draw a giant dick and balls. His ass made that splotch on the ledge under it."

Lloyd laughs and goes to continue looking through the telescope but Kai speaks

"There were group of girls took Nya favorite hair clip and messed up her new dress she was mad she beat them up after".

Then guides the telescope to a stuffed bunny hanging on it.

Kai sighs.

"When I was a kid , some guy took my favourite toy and threw it up there. I used to come out here at night and stare at it, hoping maybe the wind or a bird might knock it down.. We've all had bad days."

"But we learn" Kai says and wrap his arm around Lloyd adding "And we stick together".

Kai looks at him smiles and Lloyd smiles back.

Then Lloyd remembers something and pulls away from the embrace to pull something out of his pocket.

"Oh I almost forgot" He produces the green gems from the heist gone wrong.

"These were in my pocket. They're from the apartment."

Kai's eyebrows crease "What are they?"

Dream holds one between his hand "I dont know" He puts his hand down and looks to Kai before saying.

"Should we show Garmadon?"

Kai turns to Lloyd sharply and snaps "No." Lloyd  looks at him sad and confused.

Kai exhales and changes the tone of his voice "Let's keep this our little secret." bumping Lloyd with his arm and Lloyd grins. "Morro's wrong Lloyd. You're stronger than you think."

Kai says and gets up to stand at the edge of the ledge instead and continues "And one day.. This city's gonna respect us."

Down below deep of the shadow realm, a lab and the blue snake from before gets thrown into a chair.

The snakes looks around scared for his life as a two man come up to him one bigger then the other.

A cat brushes his leg making him flinch, his starts to breathe heavily.

One the guys put a pole to his throat make it hard to breathe but not kill him.

"You were supposed to follow them and not interfere"  a voice from the shadow says.

"I'm sorry... they just got us by surprise".

"Now his accomplice is asking questions about you... and that's not a risk I'm going to take"

The shadow pulls his hand up with a needle in hand to his eye.

"The kids.. it was their fault" the snake says out of breath.

"The explosion in Ninjago city that was them" he adds.

"It's was them"

Yeah the top side is up and arms looking for... them"

"Garmadon ... in trouble" the shadow says interested then turns to the blue snake.

The shadow gets up and wakes to him continuing.

"That's the smartest thing you've ever said boy".

"Get him a meal".

The guy move the pole from his throat and the snake takes a breath of air and the guy pulls the snake away.

"Keep him off the streets..... our timeline his moved up" shadow says

"It's almost ready" another voice says a slim old man.

"Show me"

The old man move from across the room to the glass cage where the cat is and pick it up putting it inside the cage.

"Feeding time" the old man says as he locks the cage.

"And the side effects?" The shadow asks

As the cat that in the glass cage see a mouse and sneaks to it.

"Stabilizing" the old says and then taps on the glass signal the mouse to drink.

The cat keeps making it away to the mouse, the shadow and old man watch and wait.

The mouse starts to get effort to the drink, it's starting to charge get bigger and the cat starts to back up and hiss in fear.

The mouse runs at the cat killing it and cracking the glass.

The shadow and the old man still watch interested in this.

"Do you have a subject in mind?" The old man asks.

"Someone just volunteered" the shadow grins"

For those reading the overlord is not a shadow his a human like Garmadon in this au I just been says shadow to keep him interesting.

Scene 3 / episode one end

[everyoneisrose-stuck]

If requests are open, could you do a Trizza!Rose?

In which, I for one welcome our new underwater overlord

Rozlin Tethis is definitely one of the more evil roses. She rules Alternia with an iron fist and well-manicured nails. Unlike Trizza though, she doesn't want attention and does not make a lot of appearances. Most people on Alternia are only vaguely aware of what she looks like, but they all know what she's capable of. Her mysterious nature just makes her seem more sinister, and makes her Alternia a much more paranoid landscape. After all, Rozlin could be watching you. Anytime. Anywhere.

Honestly I really like how she turned out, probably one of my favorite Rozlins.

[lettuce-gremlin]

I for one welcome our new not evil overlord, Dr. Avery Goodman

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

Clawdeen: Do you ever get the feeling that Cleo and Frankie are like, less than one centimeter away from accidentally becoming super villains?

Draculaura: Well yes, but they're so CUTE together!

Clawdeen: Worryingly cute.

Draculaura: Besides- they're both too full of love and kindness to ever REALY turn evil.

Clawdeen: Uh huh. And what if they read somewhere that it's romantic to give your partner "the whole world"?

Draculaura:

Draculaura: Hm.

Lagoona: I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW GAY OVERLORDS!!!! >:D

[alterrune]

Previously, on Ninjago...

And previously, on Altering the Outcome...

-----

AtO: The Spinjitsu Whip - EPILOGUE - THE OVERLORD'S DEMISE

-----

And so, after learning about Sarah Kelso's involvement, the ColorStreak Battalion decided to immediately chart a course to New Ninjago City's main tower.

After learning about Overlord's plan, Garmadon turned on the Overlord. He fused all the golden weapons the ColorStreak Battalion were into a golden spear, and used it to permanently destroy the Overlord for good.

However, Lord Garmadon was not left unharmed during the fight. He took a lot of damage. In response to this, Lloyd decided to use what little Golden Power he had left to revive his father.

It worked...but somehow, the great darkness that the Great Devourerer gave him had fused with his own self, turning him into a hybrid of Dark Lord and human.

While the darkness had left his mind, it was still on his body. He may still have four arms, but he now promises he will use them for good and only good.

This is an outcome I absolutely did not expect, but welcome all the same.

To Alter, Violet, Henry, Ellie and Kyle: You are no longer my pupils. You are now Masters of Spinjitsu in your own right. I am so proud of you all. Thank you.

- Sensei Wu

(KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!)

Wu! Teleporter's online! You ready?

Of course.

(I beam all of us back to the GEOGRAM base.)

-----

-🔺💜🔵💕✍🏼-

(Once I'm beamed back, I'm back in my wheelchair again. It was fun while it lasted...)

So...this is your home?

And I thought that Airship of yours was cool!

(A familiar face pops into view.)

Hello, ColorStreak Battalion! Glad to see you've returned!

Heh, yeah. For once, I agree with Slasher. Welcome back, guys.

Adam, we've been over this! It's Schaffer!

Fine, fine. Sorry, Aaron, but you know me.

Uh....why are you talking in two different voices?

Oh, my apologies, Cole, thank you for reminding me that I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Aaron Schaffer, Laurence and Lily's father, and the founder of GEOGRAM.

And I'm Adam. Sort of a split personality of Adam. I was originally a bad guy, but Adam managed to make me work with him on the side of good. Though I AM still a bit of a troublemaker.

That reminds me. You haven't put a bunch of tripwires around the base again, have you, Adam?

No. I'm sadly out of tripwire string.

Hey! Where's Garmadon?

I am right here, Kai.

(Garmadon, now wearing a four-armed black Sensei robe with purple trim, appears behind Aaron and Adam. He still has pitch-black skin, red eyes, and has four arms, but now lacks the fangs and the evil mannerisms, and has a bed of grey hair instead of the Dark Lord helmet he usually has on.)

DAD! It's you!

Indeed it is, Lloyd. I'm very glad you managed to save me.

(Garmadon walks up to Wu.)

Hello...brother. Long time, no see.

Likewise, brother. It is good to have you back.

(Nya suddenly raises her hand.)

Yes, Nya?

Sensei, this isn't a question for you, it's for Kyle.

Oh, my mistake. Kyle?

(I drive my wheelchair over to Nya.)

Whatcha need, Nya?

Why are we here?

Well, we figured that since we ended our Ninjago trip early due to Kelso's involvement, we figured we'd let you stay here for a bit.

Oh, suh-weet! Where are we staying? Please be a penthouse suite...

No. But you will be staying in our guest suite.

(I lead them to the guest suite. It looks like an empty metal room, but I hit a few buttons on the panel on the side of the room, and suddenly it changes to a luxurious hotel room that resembles one you would find in Ninjago City.)

This room is special. Thanks to some special high-tech features embedded into it, it can be changed into whatever guests residing in it would like. Mind you, the panel can only be used by trusted users like me, Lily, Aaron, and the CSB.

It's a security measure. You know how it goes.

This is more than enough. Thank you guys.

You're welcome, Lloyd. Enjoy the room.

-🔺💜🔵💕✍🏼-

(I close the door, and as soon as I do that, I get a video call from Kelso. Once we all move to my room, I accept the call and put her on my laptop screen.)

Oh, hello there, ColorStreak Battalion. I would like to ask you all a question. ARE YOU ALL FUCKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?! I can't believe you'd just...completely ignore the others and go for it immediately like that.

Hey, we just wanted to make sure your plan to kill me didn't happen, Kelso.

How do you...oh no. That falcon...it was Zane's, wasn't it? GODDAMNIT! Can't believe I fell for that!

Have a meltdown on your own time, Kelso. Where's my goddamn mother?

Oh, right! Carol, say hi to your son and his friends!

(We all gasp. Carol looks absolutely horrible. She can take a lot, even this, but...she looks seriously hurt. The arm opposite to Carol's broken leg is now broken as well, and she now has a black eye on the eye on her right.)

Hi, son. Don't worry, all this pain is just making me more determined to fuck her up alongside you and your friends.

Mom. I will make sure you get out of there safely when we find you.

I'm very glad to hear it, son. I love you.

I love you too, Mom.

(Kelso shoves the camera away from Carol.)

Yes, yes, very touching. But I would like you all to know that regardless of such, all operations are fully ready for launch in April. This is your last chance to surrender. Especially you, flower girl.

(Violet looks at Kelso with daggers in her eyes.)

If you think we'll actually surrender to you, you madwoman, you're even dumber than we thought. Bring it the fuck on.

(Kelso sighs, shaking her head.)

I had a feeling you weren't going to surrender. Very well, you five shitheels. Consider it brought.

Especially to you, you naturalist PRICK.

(Kelso ends the call right there. Once again, it's a burner number, so it can't be traced.)

We'll take her down, Vi. It's only a matter of time.

And when we do...

...you get the first hit.

-🔺💜🔵💕✍🏼-

END OF EVENT

THE NINJA WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE FOR ASKS UNTIL APRIL

GARMADON HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE EVENT ASKERS

[phoenixremix69]

Hazbin Hotel x Over the Garden Wall crossover

"Come little sinner, take my hand, and all your troubles will be over. Is that not why you came to my little park in the first place? you would not have been able to hear my song otherwise"

The red scaled lizard sinner looked at the shadowy hand the...thing was holding out and acknowledged their truth. Sarah didn't want to keep living. That's probably why she wound up here in the first place; she couldn't bear the troubles of life so she cut it off. To find out there were even more and even worse problems to suffer afterwards was just another kick in the teeth. Still... she looked at the supposed overlord that ran this place and shuddered. At first, she thought this guy was the supposed Radio demon that lived nearby, but even he wasn't supposed to be so...unnerving. She couldn't really make out anything of his body, other than Tall. She could only kind of see the antlers that led to her original misconception. The only things she could see for sure were the lantern he held in his other hand and...his eyes. Giant and glowing with pink and blue and every color in a way that should've been beautiful but was only unsettling. Still, supposedly this guy could take away the pain permanently without her getting mauled to death by evil pigeons

Wirt sighed, feeling the new Edelwood settle in it's new home in his park and her contract happily burning away in his lantern. He HATED this place! So many wretched monsters in this place, so many murderers and rapists and things he didn't even know were things before he came here, and yet he and he alone was cursed with this hunger. Oh, other overlords collected souls, it was right there in the job description, yet only he NEEDED fresh souls, only HE burned through them not of his own volition. Oh, who was he kidding, he knows exactly why he deserves such an awful punishment. He was pushed from his musings from a piece of litter hitting him in the face. Of course, can't be hell without littering.

The Hazbin Hotel, Hmm?

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Charlie threw open the door with her usual manic grin "Hello, and Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel, where the damned enter and the...redeemed...exit"

"Greetings, your highness," the supposed new resident said, bowing at the waist

"Oh, no, none of that, stand up please, and you can call me Charlie, or Chuck, or anything you like mr?"

"Oh, most folks simply call me the Beast"

Alastor popped in with his usual pop of static "My my my, finally a face to go with the name! So you're the new player in town that popped in during my sabbatical! I've heard you're the one who's taken up my old hobby of preying on those at rock bottom. Though I do wonder what one of my colleagues is doing here of all places! Trying to pass those pearly gates, Hm?"

The shadowy sinner snorted to himself, despite his seeming lack of a nose "Redemption? Hardly, there is simply a matter I must attend to up there, and a mere 5 minutes up there would be worth being inevitably smote from existence by our dear heavenly host"

Charlie tried to force a grin "What kind of business would a guy like you have in heaven that would be worth smiting? Uh, If you don't mind me asking!"

"Well, I suppose honestly is one of the tenets of the good book. A very long time ago, I made a very foolish mistake, and due to it, my poor younger brother met his end entirely too soon. I wish to finally apologize to him, even if I must perish to tell him"

Charlie seemed to be on the brink of tears 'sniff sniff' "That's so beautiful! Oh don't you worry, we'll be reuniting your brother faster than you can say redeemed! Niffty, can you please escort our new guest to his room so he can join us for dinner?"

As they saw the shadowy form glide up the stairs after their housekeeper, Angel started to drawl "So, between the beast thing, him talkin all old timey, and his brother dyin too soon stuff, anyone else think that's Cain? Like the actual first murder guy? Show of hands people"

Every hand in the room save Charlie's immediately shot up

[popculturebuffet]

It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage Finale: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy archelogists and welcome to the final installment of my Indiana Jones Retrospective, It's Not the Years, It's the Milleage. For those just joining us for the epic conculsion, i've covered all four previous Indy films over the past few months, from the good with great action set pieces, iconic lines, and deft character work, to the bad with the uncomfortable amount of brown face, temple of dooms theme park version of india and support of colonolisim, and Crystal Skulls sterotpyical 'savage tribesman", to the just plain weird with aborted ideas such as a haunting in scottland, a chess game to the death, sun wukong vs indiana jones, and an out and out alien invasion which Indy makes out during suprising no one.

IT's been one long, LONG journey and today.. it ends, as does the film franchise. With Dial of Destiny. Dial is the main reason we did this: a fresh fim with ford, with a fresh director in Logan maestro James Mangold, a final chapter for the ages.. and it has been recived with a resounding

Yeah while there was some hype for this film from Fans of Mangold or Indy (Of which i'm now both) it's now gotten to the point Wikipedia has out and out labeled it a box office bomb and Naturally the failure of this film has been taken with grace and restraint by the internet

It hasn't helped that Indy has come out in a summer with plummeting box office from usual money makers, so people are only more on their "Why aren't people seeing these films" kick. When really the reasons aren't new. We have "Doing the same shit a diffrent day instead of going with what was new and working " (Transformers rise of the beasts), "Another film outboxing it" (Elemental), "The company behind it simply not promoting it at all" (Ruby Gilman, which I intend to review at some point), " or "Oopsie we hired a pedophile as our leading actor, have no idea where we were taking this franchise when we started this film, and our company is ran by an evil overlord no one likes whose actively made the media landscape worse ever since he took over, better hope our promotoinal tactics work..."

The issues aren't new, their simply finding hitting people over the head.. and that's what happened here. Indy had an uphill battle: I was only invested at first because James Mangold was directing it and Logan is still one of the best superhero movies ever made. I got more invested thanks to this retrospective. Given Disney's slipshod treamant of star wars and terrible treatment of last jedi as well as the mcu being a mess right now, it's not a huge leap that many audiences really didn't want to gamble on ANOTHER disney live action movie that just looked okay, no matter how much Phoebe Waller Bridge or Antonio Bandareas it had. While it's sad as I honestly don't think the film deserved THIS much of a bomb.. I can't blame audiences for waiting for Disney Plus. We simply live in an era now where most people have tons of streamers or will get one for a month to watch one movie and anything else they've caught up on. We're simply entering an era where having a big brand name isn't a guarantee and in this case can be a curse if that name is disney. Big franchises can work, see Spider-Verse and Scream VI making great money, but you have to have something to offer.

So come with me under the cut as we see if Indy has just that or is best left in the past

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHOYHOY

When I'm Gone, He's Gone

As you'd expect, Lucas still wanted to make a 5th film after Skull, with Speilberg and Ford on board as always. This time though..

Lucas himself went to the press saying he wanted to do something new and Speilberg was stuck in the past... which I translate as Lucas once again went kinda nuts on the premise while , much like after Temple of Doom, Speilberg wanted something a tad more grounded to avoid making the same mistake twice. It comes off as the two just could never quite agree on what to do and eventually.. decided to let the franchise move on without him, selling it and the rest of Lucasfilm to Disney. Disney naturally wanted an indy film right away and after getting the distribution rights one year later in 2023.. it took them a decade.

Yeahhh while we got the sequel trilogy pretty fast in hollywood time it took a good decade for Indy to put his hat on. At first there were rumors floated about about recasting, then it was settled on ford, then Speilberg was set to direct and the film proceded to go through a ton of writers, from Crystal Skull's david koepp

And even Dan Fogelman of This is Us royalty was floated as one of the writers. The film also got delayed thanks to Speilbergs work on Ready Player One and the Post, before he eventually stepped off all together. He claimed it was to pass it on to a fresh director, but it really feels like his heart wasn't in it anymore, and it was best someone whose heart was took the lead.

Enter James Mangold, director of The Wolverine, Logan and Kicker of ass. Mangold was a solid choice and my book and along with his usual co-writers Jez and John Henry Butterworth, who I assure you are real people but cannot assure you aren't old timey prospectors sent forward in time, hashed out the script.

Casting went smoothly, as did filiming, with the only hiccup being production's start being delayed because of COVID. They shot in morocco, england, ireland and spain, along with the us as you'd expect. Speilberg wasn't entirely detached as he still advised and watched dalies, ultimately loving the final product. So now we can actually look at that product let's start with how it writes Indy himself. The Mileage Adds Up

One of the things that made me not really enjoy Doom or Crystal.. was a lack of character work. Indy was about the same as when he started the adventure in contrast to Raiders and Last Crusade taking him on a wonderful character journey, in the former getting his passion back and in the later reconcliing with his dad. Dial of Destiny dosen't reach those highs, but I still think it does a decent job. The opening.. is okay detailing Indy having an adventures in the last day sof the third reich, setting up both Helna's Dad and our big bad, as well as Archimedes Dial, basied on the real life Antyhkiera Mechanism. I really do love the dial as a plot device as it's a departure, being the only one of the five to not involve a god of some sort, and yes the alien counts. It's just a time machine a famous philospher made. It's still fucking neat, I mean IT'S A TIME MACHINE A FAMOUS PHILSOPHER MADE, but it's a bit more grounded while still being pretty damn nifty.

So while the intro is mostly.. eh for me, what it does really well... is contrast the indy we know.. with where he is in 1969: Unlike Crystal Skull, which glossed over the massive amount of time passed, here were with an indy who feels both his age.. and that he's been left behind by the world. That time has taken everything from him: his friends, his father, his marriage.. and his son. He's left to yell at the neighbors, go to a class that dosen't pay attention and have a retirment party he clearly dosen't want. Granted his retirment does feel like a missed opportunity as wikipedia mentioned it pre-release as being forced out due to speaking out against operation paper clip, something that I either missed.. or more likely simply ISN'T in the film. It's a real shame, the idea is great it's just not present. This creates a really intriguing Parallel: Indy at the start of the last adventure of his we'll see is a broken down man whose years of adventuering have left a mark on him, who is estranged from Marion, has not a ton to live for, and is clearly only loosely holding it together. And the Indy we met in Raiders.. is a broken down man whose years of adventuring left a mark on him, is estranged from marion, has not a ton to live for and is clearly only loosely holding it together. The diffrence is how tired Indy is. In his late 30's he's beaten a bit and reduced to graverobbing.. but the minute he gets a real assignemnt int he grail, he jumps to it. He has his job, he has his friendship with marcus, and he's able to fix things with marion. He's not completely gone, he's just lost. Indy in Dial... has watched all his friends and his son, more on that in a minute, die, his marriage fall apart, and his job slip out under him. Without his job.. he's a man without a purpose.

This also ironically creates another Scrooge McDuck parallel, another bit of symmetry and one I didn't plan on till I started writing this and thought of the story: Indy reminds me a lot of Scrooge in the final part of Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Both are seasoned adventueres who have either pushed away anyone they have left or lost them and feel they just have nothing left but to slowly rot away.

And like Scrooge it takes a bolt of inspiration from the new generation after him to get Indy back in the game. In this case it's the highlight of the film, Helena Shaw, played by the wonderful, funderful fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. WB likely dosen't need any introduction but just in case she was showrunner of the successful and inventive stage show turned amazon prime show fleabag, showran killing eve and in general is pretty delightful. So it's no huge suprise she's great as Helena Shaw, daughter of Marcus Indy's sidekick for the intro who became obessed with our titular macguffin, Archemedis Dial, which can travel through time some time, though not to the end of all man kind. Helena is a neat character in that they managed to make her distinct while still giving her enough similarties to indy to serve well as his shadow, his ghost of sins past, him in his prime. She's also a brilliant archelogist, has a kid sidekick like indy did in temple of doom with Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidoore), sells priceless artifacts for a profit, has a messy love life, kicks plenty of ass, and tries to command every room she's in. What helps seperate them is their demeanor: Indy is gruff, snarky and surly. While Helena can snark with the best of them, she's fast talking, fast thinking, and tends to use charm as much as the old Indy Guile both heroes posses. The main diffrence is rather than sell to museums, she sells to private collectors...

Okay the REAL difference is that she's only in it for the money while Indy at least, on some level, cared about the history even at his lowest. Helena just sees all her father could do and all she learned from being around him before his passing as a way to get. Once again like Indy.. she had a father who cared more about some big treasure than her child.. and a godfather who cared more about what was going on in his life than ever checking up on her. She's a person whose been left to her own devices and feels she's doing just fine.. but honestly could be putting her talents to better use. Maybe not in a school like indy, but she could help return artifacts to their countries... probably still for a pretty penny, but not just to some random asshole to sit in his den.

You can tell dealing with her just makes Indy feel even more tired, which is somehow possible after all he's been through. He's once again seeing a ghost of his past and this time can't seem to get it through her head. When she celebrates shortly after his friend Renaldo dies, he has to sharply remind her. Nothing seems to get through to her.. till we get to THAT scene. Probably the best scene of the film. The climax is awesome.. but it's this one moment. On a boat at night, Helena asks Indy what he'd do with the dial, clearly thinking some grand adventure.. instead Indy: I'd stop my son from enlisting Helena: And how would you do that? Indy: I would tell him that he would die, that his mother would be overcome with a grief so intense that his father would be unable to console her, and that it would end their marriage. The sheer PAIN Ford conveys during that monologue.. may be the finest acting he's ever done. You can just FEEL Indy's loss; his son is gone, his marriage is torn, and he blames himself for both. It gives a horrible pathos to why he's so broken down. Both developments.. coudl've been really cheap. With how much everyone but me seems to hate mutt, and how rightly no one can stand shia suprise these days, most were expecting..

Instead Mutt's death is used as the catalyst for Indy's slow spiral into dispair. He would've been happy in retirment.. but he lost his son, his wife.. he's a man truly with nothing left he feels. And while he gets some old spark back unlike Scrooge.. he's fighting it every step. He dosen't want an adventure, he dose'nt want anything but his son back, and he knows damn well that even if the dial could... the sad truth is it likely has some horrible cost to it. The grail gave eternal life but bound you to a spot. The Skull gave you the knowledge of an unknowable alien god, but drove you mad. The arc killed anyone who looked. If the Dial even works... he knows it can't bring his son back, and he's only going after it because it's better in a museum than in the hands of Nazis. We also see a change in Helena. She goes from following Indy's lead out of nececity, to seeing his point, to seeing the beauty of the world instead of just the dollar signs. She still wants the money.. but she starts to see the beauty in history instead of the dollar. I also like that this isn't easy on Teddy, who sees her postive changes as coming between him and his surrogate mom, when really she fully intends to stick with Teddy no matter what and shows nothing but loyalty.. and in the end.. they dont' really finish that arc

I like Teddy a lot, and I wish this had more of a bow on it, though we do get him taking down a nazi and trapping him to drown and later getting into a dogfight. Teddy slaps is what i'ms aying> He dosen't have a ton of deep character to explore, but he's fucking great.

This all really cumulates in the climax.. which is so great i'd rather save it for after we cover one last major character, our antagonist. Our big bad is Mads Mikkelsen as Jurgen Voller, a thereoticain who wants the dial. At first Indy assumes, as most of the audience would that Voller simply wants the dial, which he's shown to obess over to win the war for hitler. Turns out Voller's plan is more complex. We see in the intro how Voller is the ONLY one who both sees the dial's value among the nazi's and the writing on the wall: Hitler is almost gone, he fucked them over. It's over. And thus the horror of Voller isn't like with Thot , at the giant horrifying nazi machine and all their power, and more at evil allowed to hide in plain sight. At a society who forgives horrible people because their useful. Voller got a free pass thanks to operation paperclip.. and the film shows while that idea got us tons of advances including space flight.. it came at the cost of giving horrible people real power and influence. The president is outright giving voller a MEDAL. And he hasn't changed: a truly chilling bit has him talking to a black bellhop delivering meal and asking where he came from.. and dismissing him saying he came from america. Voller is every bit the white supremacist monster he ever was, he's completely loyal to the idea of the nazi's. .just not to hitler. Voller's whole plan isn't to help hitler.. but to take him out, replace him and have someone compitent win. And he only gets as fara s he does because the goverment willingly works with him, gives him agents, goes after Helena and the dial. They know what he his but fully aid and abet him. Sure they eventually realize he's gone rogue, that his pet agent is entirely in his pocket.. but they don't turn on him till far too late and with one of their great agents dead. Concidentaly I feel Agent Mason is wasted: she's the calm rational agent.. but she's also the only major black character in the film and gets killed by a nazi. That's.. entirely fucked up and while I suspect inteitonally fucked up it just dosen't work for me.

Voller is also once again, much like with Belloc, an evil mirror of indy: Both are geniuses who adore history.. but one's a good person despite being gruff while one seems harmless when we first meat him but is actually a total monster. Mads does a great job showing just how evil the guy is without going over the top. Voller is determind to change history... and he does.. just not how he wanted to.

This Ain't 1933!

The climax.. is fucking awesome. Like Crystal Skull it goes beyond what the series had done before, if not more so. It's arguably even MORE over the top. But it works. For those who haven't seen the film... INDY GOES BACK IN TIME. The dial DOES indeed work.... but it's set up to ONLY go back to this point. Helena points out the idea of "loaded decks' earlier.. and realizes the dial is one. Archimedes only left it behind to create a stable time loop.

Indy going back into actual history is nuts, entirely and my jaw dropped at it.. but it's so damn fun. Our heroes not only have to escape the plain and get the dial back after it drops onto the coast, but survive the Siege of Syracuse, the roman invasion that eventaully resulted in Archimedes end. So we have two planes flying overhead, arrows everywhere and nazis versus romans. It's over the top but not in a way that really undermines the franchise, and frankly as what's intended to be the final act of indy ever, it's a fitting finale: the man whose explored history in the present.. gets to LITERALLY go to the past for his final adventure. I do get how not everyone will agree, and it won't work for everybody, this may be a bit tooo over the top, but I love it and feel it nicely ties up everyone's character arcs.

For Voller he gets to join history.. but instead of "fixing" it like he wanted he dies horribly and is forgotten to history only the "dragon" (his palne" is left.. and cleverly foreshadowed earlier when Teddy watches a puppet show. His nazi's all die and it's glorious to watch nazi after nazi go down from arrows or our two heroes escaping the plane while teddy takes the rest down with the help of a hapless pilot.

We then get the payoff for both Helena and Indy, as Indy gives the dial to archimedes.. and plans to stay. After all we established he's lost everything... why would he go back? He'll die soon.. but he's cconvinced he'll die soon back in the present. It's Helena who'se ultimately changed realizing both the value of history.. and ultimately the movie's moral: you can't change the past, but you can live for today. Helena can't change her awful upbringing or the things she's done.. but she can be better. And Indy can't save his son from death, save archimedes from death or be a better husband to marion during the greving process.. but he can be better to her and still live now. He still has so much to offer. He taught helena to love history and to try and be better. He gave his son a better life even if it was sadly cut short. He can be better. And when he can't be convinced the easy way she proves she's fully earned her way to being indy's succesor and just clubs him and takes him back (the dial has to go back with them as archimedes needs to make his own). The end scene also mostly works for me: Indy is back at his apartment.. but finds he's not alone as when he woke up there last time: Not only has Helena forgiven him, having realized much like Indy himself that warts and all, he's family, but Sallah, who I haven't gotten to talk about is here. Sallah is great in this film, not only helping Indy when he needs to lay low but enocuraging his friend it's not over. It's also nice to see Indy helped him and his family immigrate and that he's teaching his grand kids egyptian. It's also a nice way to still have davies play the roll.. but have him get a bit more depth and make up for a white guy playing the roll.

And last but not least.. Marion returns, and the two reconcile. I thought it was a bit easy when I frist saw it.. but I see now i'ts more the idea they have a long road ahead.. but both are willing to see it together.. Indy admits he was wrong and Marion is willing to give him another shot. For the third time but at least this time it's likely she just needed some psace to realize he wasn't being callous he just wasn't processing his grief.. and now he's ready to.. maybe they have a shot. It's a nice way to close out the films: Indy's life isn't over, he's got friends, he's got his wife.. and there's always another rainbow.

Assorted Other Stuff: The action set pieces as usual are fucking great, my faviorites easily being the climax and the diving adventure. The latter reminded me a lot of Tin Tin, Red Rackam's Treasure. Antonio Banderas is great as Reynaldo and I only wihs he had a bigger part.. and survived. It's not a huge suprise, saying Antonio Banderas is great. While I LIKED the finale with Marion, I'm with Karen Allen. They could've used her more. She deserves better dammit. WHy is it with the sequels they just can NEVER get bringing her back right?

Last but not least.. ther'es this weird subplot only brought up in the first two acts where the government frames indy for Murder that just.. never gets resolved? Like they never adressed it and as far as I can tell there's no resolution. Now granted I still think Indy isn't going to be arrested: He's clearly been unconcious for a week and Helena did have to get him back into the US, so it's likely the goverment found out about voller, got a debrief from helena.. and agreed to clear her and indy's record and absolve him of murder in exchange for never talking about this to anyone, as a Nazi escaping and killing one of their agents , after they pardoned the guy wouldn't look good. But we needed a line. It's easily the most baffling decision in otherwise a really godo film.

So finally we're , like indy back where we started.. was the film that bad?

When writing the reviews for Crystal Skull and Temple, I honestly hated the films MORE the more I thought abotu them, the more I found wrong, the more I realized how little they did. With this film. it's the opposite. The more I examine dial, the more I find to like. The character arcs, the action, the payoff. It's not perfect, again Indy is still kinda wanted for murder among other little plot gaffes, but I do think Dial is a solid entry in the series and better than both temple and skull at capturing what made the series graet. It dosen't nail it perfectly.. but it's still a fun ride with some really good character work and phenominal performances. Really indy failed.. because no one cares outside of fans of the franchise. As my brother put it when talking about this very film recently, kids don't know indy. It's not the big hit with kids star wars was and is. Star Wars will likekly rebound someday because Kids still dig it and kids will grow up with the sequels the way I grew up with the prequels, warts and all. Disney just assumed Indy was enough to carry it and he wasn't. I'm sad at it because not only is this a good film, but I was hoping for more pulp adventure films. But i'm also happy at what we got and to have done this journey. I saw the good, and the bad. And I saw a franchise I ended up really loving. In the end I got what I needed out of this franchise

[quillyfied]

Hellaverse Theories: Hazbin Hotel S1E7

Welcome to Quilly’s Hellaverse Theories, where I overthink the entire Hellaverse! Had to take a break this week bc prep for my medical procedure today kicked my entire butt, but I’m back for the final two episodes! Wahoo!

Penultimately, Hazbin Hotel s1e7:

Hello, Alastor, my beloved creep. Gotta hand it to the man, he knows when to time his entrances. A consummate performer to the bone. But he’s also really cementing his skills as a deal-maker in this scene, which comes with a certain level of manipulation and understanding how people tick. Charlie wouldn’t have been open to making a deal with him until she was at the end of her rope, like she is now; as naïve and sweet as she is, she isn’t blind to who and what Alastor is. And right now, she isn’t even being sweet. She rightfully calls Alastor on his behavior, who is SOUNDING nice in tone but isn’t actually BEING nice in words, before giving in to Alastor’s prodding and unearthing the root of her issue, which is her own perceived failure and incompetence. (Side note to cackle at how Alastor creeps into the corner of the screen when Charlie mentions “the cruelest Overlord in Hell” like yes babe we all know it’s you now keep that ego in check.) She’s stressed, she’s overwhelmed, she’s been made brutally aware of the depths of her own hubris and how badly her overconfidence could backfire on everything and everyone she loves. In a word: she’s vulnerable. Vulnerable people in Hell make deals. Alastor couldn’t have picked a better moment if he’d designed it himself.

Putting himself forward as the mentor in this moment is another careful, deliberate form of pressure that Alastor as a deal-maker is using in this game. He’s been building that relationship all season, but actually utilizing himself in that role rather than indulging Charlie while sniping at the rest of the cast is new for him. In his way, I believe he’s being very genuine with Charlie when he’s teaching her about smiles. She wears her heart on her sleeve; she could stand to “talk less, smile more” (wrong musical oops), both for her own benefit but also for her utility as a tool in Alastor’s arsenal. He’s also being very careful—he’s touching her more, which as a touchy person Charlie is usually more receptive to (but notice she’s pushing him away every time he does it), he’s being playful, he’s frankly acting his ass off and working their connection like his life depends on it (it does let’s be real). They’re in a perfect sweet spot of Charlie being desperate and her trust in him, while not absolute, still being strong enough for her to be receptive to his advice. It’s a delicate moment; Charlie still requires convincing, reassurance. She’s still very aware of who Alastor is when she asks if he’s actually asking for her soul, when she tells him she won’t hurt anyone for him. But Alastor didn’t get to his position by being an amateur in the game. He wouldn’t ask if he didn’t have something of equal or greater value to offer, and the means to save her friends and stand up to Heaven is one of the bigger aces up his sleeves. Charlie doesn’t want or need personal power. She isn’t swayed by promises of greater influence, she doesn’t care about riches. She cares about people—HER people, the sinners that she’s determined to protect after her parents couldn’t (or wouldn’t, depending on which parent and which point in the story we’re at).

There’s an old cliché about love making people weak that’s paradoxically both true and false. Loving others does open us up to having more vulnerable spots, more weak points that could be exploited by evil forces. But it also makes us stronger and more willing to go above and beyond for our communities. The Hellaverse loves this interplay—Helluva Boss is making a right old meal out of it, but it’s also the core of Hazbin Hotel. Charlie’s power comes from her love for the unlovable. It’s also her greatest weakness, even moreso than her relentless determination to believe in the best in people. Idealists tend to be easy to manipulate, but they’re also most likely to pull an unlikely win out of absolutely nowhere. Alastor never really explicitly says how he feels about Charlie—because why would we ever get anything genuine out of him—but reading between the lines presents such an interesting setup. He’s not working with Charlie because he believes in her or her vision; his only stated reason for being there is “entertainment.” And yet, he dismisses Mimzy because she causes problems for him, he pulled in two souls he owns to work there too, he’s putting his powers towards fixing the place up and protecting it when needed, he’s there every single day. The hotel itself probably means nothing to him, but Charlie herself is who he’s attaching himself to. More insight on this later in the episode because I keep trying to get ahead of myself when there’s real, actual meat in front of me to chew on.

SO. THE DEAL. The deal with Charlie. The deal specifically struck with Charlie to help Charlie, Charlie’s deal.

First interesting tidbit: Charlie HAS a soul. Which. Hmm. She’s Hellborn, in that she was born in Hell, but her father is a fallen angel and her mother is a sinner (or at least a human who defied Heaven) turned something Else. What this means for Charlie taxonomically is unclear, but she at least believes she has a soul—though, again, whether as mechanic or metaphor is not specified yet. Hellborn don’t really have souls (and presumably neither do Heavenborn), according to the wiki; when they die, they become part of the landscape of Hell. But souls in HH have utility. They’re a resource. They imply movement up and down the Heaven/Hell divide and power in interpersonal dealings. Charlie might have an actual soul courtesy of Lilith, but what she actually has courtesy of both of her parents is power, power that she herself doesn’t wield much and hasn’t developed fully yet.

Next interesting tidbit: Alastor has been shown making deals for things that are not souls—favors, mostly, but we can also guess from his freaky skill set that even if he doesn’t gain a soul from a deal, he does still gain some sort of power from the exchange. He isn’t stupid enough to go after Charlie’s soul directly, but a favor—a very broadly-worded favor, in fact, which I’ll get to in a minute—a favor from a member of the royal family of Hell is enough to give Alastor a palpable, worrisome boost. Vox was right to be worried about this happening—and he and the Vees were also absolutely right in giving up on trying to stop it and focusing their endeavors on their continued mass takeover of Hell (see the ways in which I shout incoherently about Velvette manipulating an entire room of Overlords into leaving themselves even more scattered and vulnerable for the bonus Extermination back in my Episode 3 analysis).

Next tidbit: the wording. “One favor at a time of my choosing where you harm no one.” Deal-making is a slippery business, and the wording of this is both ominous and vague. “Favor” could mean anything, especially in Hell, where magic is a thing. “At a time of my choosing” so holding onto the power pretty tightly as well as not locking either of them into anything specific (because Alastor could very easily choose to never cash in. He won’t, but he could, and it’s that complacency that lulls people into a false sense of security, especially the longer the bill takes to come due). “Where you harm no one” but notice how that doesn’t mean the same thing as no one getting hurt. My theory: the favor is going to involve letting Alastor harm someone without Charlie’s interference, though who is beyond me right now. Overall, it’s vague, and it’s almost comforting in that vagueness. Charlie can imagine whatever she wants into that promise, and while she’s right to be cautious, she still doesn’t let it stop her from making the deal, because Alastor’s knowledge is more important to her.

And this is how Alastor becomes powerful enough to even give Adam a run for his money, but I’ll talk more about that next episode.

The Egg Bois being unreliable empty-headed little darlings might be the funniest possible way to sidestep “we had this information months ago” problem, actually. And it also puts the gravity of the knowledge into perspective, if Carmilla’s power ballad didn’t ram that point home hard enough. Angels being killable is nonsense on par with outlandish conspiracy theories. And it’s about to be common knowledge real soon.

(To those folks who look at Rosie and think she’s a fallen angel because she has a feathered neck: I beg of you to look up 1910s American fancy dress for women. That’s the collar of her dress, folks. They went up that high.)

Alastor’s connections with Mimzy and Rosie paint some interesting shades onto the portrait of who he is. Backstory from the wiki indicates he trusts and gets along better with women over men (insofar as he trusts anyone), but tossing that to the curb, they’re the only two people he seems to have any kind of positive bond with from his past. Mimzy’s attachment is probably one more of familiarity, since he’s the one bailing her out of trouble over and over, but Rosie is not just an equal, but older than him and someone he trusts enough to both ask outrageous favors from and accept leads on business deals. He allows Rosie to touch him far more than he allows Mimzy (and thus WAY more than anyone else), and he treats her with not just courtesy but directness. He doesn’t double-speak or insinuate his way around her; he doesn’t give her false pleasantries. How Alastor treats Rosie speaks of mutual trust and if not friendship, then as close to it as he gets. And Rosie returns that investment, which, as the most emotionally intelligent character on the show and certainly the one who may understand Alastor most, may show hints of how far Alastor’s true loyalty to another person can go when the relationship is mutually beneficial. I have no doubt that there is still a limit to that trust, but the threshold being so high is impressive for not just sinners, but Overlords. Once again, highlighting that the Vees’ alliance, while formidable, isn’t built to last, because the Vees themselves don’t trust each other.

Alright, Vaggie and Carmilla detour! First things first: Vaggie’s a soldier. Her being a former Exorcist (though…that’s me, putting “former” in there. No other character does. She’s an Exorcist. Which implies more and more that Exorcists are themselves a class of angel rather than an occupation, but still, don’t know if they’re Heavenborn or recruited winners) makes more and more sense in hindsight. And my Hellaverse friend was very gleeful in telling me how validating it was to hear Carmilla Carmine lay out the reasons, because it echoes all the angel!Vaggie theories going around about her before the show dropped, which is fair, because it took me by surprise on my first watchthrough and hearing it explained so deadpan made me feel sheepish. BUT. GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF AGAIN. The point: Vaggie attempting to wield Charlie’s power really drives home two things: one, that Vaggie falls back on the rigid structure of army life when uncomfortable (which we saw already in e3); and two, that Hell does not give two solitary rugged shits about the royal family. Which is fair for Pride; why would the prideful care about authority above their own, especially when it hides away making ducks or disappears entirely or opens delusional hotels and doesn’t actually do any significant ruling at all?

But it’s important that Vaggie herself gets a stark slap in the face on that front, because she doesn’t understand Hell and its sinners any more than Charlie does; her encouragement to Charlie to “command a little more authority” in e4 only causes Angel to get more hurt, because neither of them truly understood both the situation and the general way souls and soul contracts seem to work. They aren’t sinners, and it’s now very debatable if Vaggie was ever human, either. So her tutelage under Carmilla Carmine (very neatly mirroring Charlie and Alastor’s relationship, by the way) is less about teaching Vaggie how to kill angels and more about teaching Vaggie how to survive in Hell in general. They had a solid parallel in e3 that’s now paying off, and there may also be something to be said about real-world Latina woman generational solidarity that I am nowhere near equipped or qualified to discuss, but the point is this: Vaggie is now getting her grow-up moment the same as Charlie, and putting them side by side while Charlie and Vaggie aren’t glued to each other’s sides is damn good storytelling, actually.

So. Carmilla is destroying all of Vaggie’s arguments as to why she should help. What she’s doing is the same as what she does when she starts actively fighting Vaggie: she’s stripping Vaggie of her posturing (stiff and formal), her reliance on empty structures (Charlie’s social standing), and even her anger (fear, helplessness, shame, self-hatred) to get to the real reason of why Vaggie really needs Carmilla’s help, because it’s that reason that Vaggie needs to harness. And that reason, put forth in a musical number that still gives me chills every time? Love. Real, hard, messy, excruciating, liberating love. Vaggie has been filling the hole that Heaven left in her life with Charlie, and it’s been working for her, but all the other things, most significantly her anger—she doesn’t need them anymore. She doesn’t need to swap Adam and Heaven with Princess Charlie and Hell, she needs to swap them with Charlie her girlfriend and the sinners she cares about.

(Side note to talk about how at first, Carmilla’s hair is up while she’s fighting Vaggie, until Vaggie complains about not being used to fighting with long hair. Next frame, Carmilla’s hair is down. I feel robbed for not getting that animation of the hair coming down, but I’ll live somehow. Because the fact that they did it in the first place is such a small but cool detail and I love it.)

NOW BACK TO CHARLIE: her journey from shattered confidence to enthusiastic leader is multilayered and handled beautifully, really; with Alastor and Rosie standing in as parental/mentor figures she hasn’t had in a long time, their confidence in her is one thing, but it’s the support that drives home once again that community and bonds matter. And not only that, the fact that Charlie has been trying all season (and all pilot too, non-canon as it is now) to sing-and-dance her way through her problems and NOW of all times when it should actually WORK is when she CAN’T, because her heart and head are both all scrambled, is delicious. And another support to the theme that self-improvement AND being true to yourself aren’t mutually exclusive things but instead mutually beneficial—I’d go so far as to say mutually vital. Living in a violent, chaotic, meaningless, hurtful world changes the people living in it, to the point where they become something unrecognizable to even themselves just to survive. Hazbin Hotel has a very literal way of showing that (see everyone’s demon forms). It also spends a lot of time on very carefully building the theme that even at rock-bottom, change for the better is not only possible, but a good thing, even if it makes life harder and messier in a lot of ways. It also improves it, to the point where this ragtag group of assholes are ready to fight and die for each other by the end of the season. Charlie never needed to change her core personality; she just needed to grow up a little, to see the nuance in the world around her. She’s still getting there, but she’s TRYING. My goodness is she trying.

Alright, flashing back to Vaggie and Carmilla for a bit: the explanation Carmilla gives for angelic steel’s abilities against angels and demons alike makes sense, but it does still itch at my brain with ‘BUT HOW LONG HAVE THE EXTERMINATIONS BEEN GOING ON THO’ questions. However, I’ll pull myself away from that corkboard of madness to shriek about another question: where does angelic steel even come from? And how could it be that with an entire army of angels training with angelic steel, nobody got cut or hurt with it before? Or did they just assume it could hurt but not kill? Listen I think I’m digging into the cracks of the writing and not actually chasing a rational thread here but I said I was getting Weird about this show and I meant it, I’m gnawing on a marrowless bone here and desperately hoping it still yields sustenance. XD

ANYWAY.

I fully missed Vaggie getting her wings ripped out the first several times I watched HH (I blame my squeamish nature; probably looked away too long from the eyeball thing), but her getting her wings BACK is certainly hard to miss. And they’re different from her original wings, too, which really solidifies that she’s left Heaven behind and is fully committed to being here in Hell with Charlie. Not just Heaven, but the hurt and the rage her casting out left her with, too, the mistrust, the baggage. She’ll still be dealing with it, but she’s starting to move on from it, to embrace who she is now, to hate herself less. Folks who say the wing scene is meaningless are missing the point—it isn’t about the wings. It’s about Vaggie and her outlook on life. That’s what the whole song was about, redirecting herself from a vengeance-based view to a love-based view and using that as her foundation to fight on. This show has such good storytelling it makes me feral.

Also lol miss “no more weapons” turning a full 180 to “we’re gonna need more weapons.”

Just gonna tuck the significance of Rosie, one of Alastor’s closest allies, being the one to say, “Words are cheap, but actions, they speak the truth.” Just gonna. Just gonna hold onto that one. Just gonna hold that close and use that as the measuring stick against which I measure the Radio Demon in upcoming seasons. Like it’s a major show theme too but also specifically for the morally dubious cannibalistic deer man, I’m gonna be keeping my eye on him with that tidbit in mind.

I said it before in a very rambly way but let me be more concise: Charlie learning to trust in herself and it actually working out the way she wants it to for once is probably why this episode makes me so teary upon multiple viewings. Like. Vaggie learning to ditch her baggage that was holding her back also makes me cry a little too but Charlie learning that she’s always been enough is. I need a minute. Go watch some cannibals tap dance for a bit.

Very interesting wording, before we get to the obvious Alastor plotting undertones: “I guess I’ve always known my destiny could never be postponed.” Charlie is full of such interesting contradictions. She’s born to be a leader, wants to help and serve by leading, and yet she doesn’t like wielding any kind of authority or power over other people. Which frankly is what makes a good leader half the time, the humility to remember that you aren’t better than the people you’re guiding, but I am so desperately curious to know more about Lilith so we can compare Charlie’s style to hers. I’ve seen so many—SO MANY—interpretations of Lilith at this point, and all of them valid, and we know that Charlie looks up to her mother and wants to make her proud and cares about Hell because Lilith did, but keep in mind that Charlie very much wears rose-tinted glasses when it comes to the people around her. Interpretations where Lilith is a proto-Charlie who cared so much about Hell and helping its people are intriguing (especially against all the interpretations where Lilith is just evil, like come on folks have some nuance and originality here, because if we’re gonna demonize (lol) Lilith for running off to Heaven for seven years, you had BEST NOT be giving Lucifer a break for his THOUSANDS of years of possible negligence to his kingdom just because he’s apocalyptically depressed. They’re both entitled to a bad decisions due to burnout and trauma, but check your internalized misogyny; just because Lucifer’s depression is front and center and actively joked about doesn’t mean Lilith isn’t struggling with something too) (I am talking to myself too, folks, don’t worry, I know what I’ve said in past posts has slanted more Lucifer-friendly than Lilith-friendly but again…we just DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT LILITH. WE KNOW NOTHING. NOBODY BUT ADAM AND CHARLIE EVER TALKS ABOUT HER. EXCUSE ME I NEED TO FROTH FOR A SECOND), but Charlie and Lilith being carbon copies of each other is probably not the truth. The Hellaverse likes to deal with the complexities of messy relationships, and I would bet money on Charlie and Lilith’s relationship being MESSY. And if it wasn’t before, it sure is about to be.

Where was I? Right. Charlie. Coming to accept her responsibilities as the upcoming leader of Hell, rather than putting off her title and her authority because using them to get things feels mean and wrong to her. Yeah, they absolutely can be mean and wrong when used improperly, but Charlie has been learning so much about leading this season. And the fact that she’s admitting that there was a part of her that didn’t want the position is so fascinating. Because she knows from both of her parents that there is bureaucracy and unpleasant tasks and sometimes being not-so-nice involved in being a leader, especially a leader of a chaotic, violent, traumatized, emotionally unstable place like Hell. And she’s ACCEPTING IT. SHE’S ACCEPTING IT INSTEAD OF THINKING SHE CAN AVOID IT BY FIXING EVERYONE ELSE’S PROBLEMS. DO YOU GET THAT.

Which leads me to Alastor’s surprisingly revealing (for him) comment in the song: “She’s filled with potential that I could guide.” Like. Yeah, dude. This is the sticking point, for me, against the theory of Lilith making a deal with Alastor and ordering him to look after Charlie (for success or failure, take your pick): while I believe he could still make this comment if this were true, it rings far more true to me that Alastor latched onto Charlie as a way to circumvent his deal rather than fulfill it. Charlie is practically a non-entity in Hell, but at least more approachable and far easier to manipulate than Lucifer would be (and present, which rules out Lilith). She underestimates herself, but she has undeniable power even if she doesn’t realize it or is uncomfortable with it—which makes her prime pickings for Alastor, not even counting the abandonment issues, the desperate need for validation, the need to fix everything around her and Alastor being a walking bag of Nope…and then for Rosie to follow that up with “I concur!” just in case anyone forgot she is also an Overlord, albeit a strangely genuine one. And then the joint line: “Stick with her, you’ll be on the winning side.” Definitely more of a follower-type line than a shadow-leader-type line, but I’ll let Alastor have it; his actions, after all, speak to a dedication to Charlie that perhaps he isn’t quite prepared to deal with. But next episode.

Small moment to also feel emotional that the boys all stayed; and not only that, that they were preparing to stay even if Charlie, Vaggie, and Alastor didn’t come back. They CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER DAMMIT.

Alright, I’m off to make dinner and then! The finale! And final thoughts that I’ve been dragging out over the entire season!!

[floorpancakes]

can you post what all the results to the quiz are & what charas they have? im just curious to see the answers to what i didn't get!

ok so ill probably add to this slowly but time for some stats and answers and stuff! obviously dont check this out if you dont wanna be spoiled (thread)

first, here's the actual amounts of each results people have been getting:

when i say i had NO IDEA we'd get so many chuunis....watching the numbers go up the first few days felt like a fever dream haha

but its comforting to know that everyone is cringe and free! i for one welcome our new gothy overlords!

i was also really surprised that gimmick idols got some of the lowest scores 😭 the space that spans is so wide so i was expecting way more people to get that result since i figured it'd catch a lot of people, but i guess you guys are rare!

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now its time to look at the archetype list:

this was pretty tricky, especially cause i was working on the quiz for funsies at silly o clock in the morning for two nights while i was dealing with some sickness induced exhaustion lol. i wanted to include more (a few like the princely type nearly made the cut), but I found there was

1. a lot of crossover between archetypes (this even happened with some of the idols i chose for the results image!!! hanayo being average idoltwt user AND a harapeko type or minori being average idoltwt user AND fake it til you make it for example)

2. some archetypes that were only based on visuals or not on personality at all

3. kind of lowkey paradoxical (eg. someone might really fit the princely type, but often in idol shows they make it so that trait is pushed on them, but they secretly wanted to be feminine all along, which like, ok but then if someone actually fits the princely vibe I'd be slightly struggling for examples and we'd get all tied in knots unfortunately)

4. the amount of answers was already getting so long that if i added any more it'd start getting difficult to come up with more answers for some of the more concrete questions (like what you'd do post graduation etc)

...so I had to kind of draw the line somewhere. especially cause i thought like 3 of my idoltwt mutuals would take it and that's it 😭 maybe I'll make a part 2 or a more extensive quiz later who knows (guess who just remembered the 'rock is life' type idols and screamed into a pillow for only just remembering...)

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so the idol archetype categories themselves are DEFINITELY things I've picked up on in multiple series, altho they may require a lil bit of explaining so I'll quickly summarise each one when we go thru the characters. i should probably mention that some of these (like the chuunibyou) are word for word archetypes that people use all the time, while some were just me trying to put words to the character types so the wording was just a descriptor (fake it til you make it queen), altho i hope they were useful! ive seen a few people online using these terms after taking the quiz which is super cute...🙇 let's take a look at these categories shall we?

(note: i have varying levels of familiarity w these characters, i wanted to make it reasonably varied and recognisable but some of them i kind of just knew what category they fit and that's it)

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THE CHUUNIBYOU

to those who don't know, the chuunibyou is a pretty popular archetype beyond just idols, and tends to refer to people who are stuck in or going through their 'edgy phase'; chuu-ni being short for second year of middle school syndrome (think like, 13 or 14 year olds), but the general vibe tends to be associated with emo or goth phases, claiming to have an evil eye, being or being a servant of Satan, hiding a secret shy or self conscious side with edge, yaknow. average tween behaviour. it's not limited by age tho especially in anime media! one of the examples i used is a 26 year old grown man with a job. never too late!

Like with a lot of the other categories it was really hard to narrow down the results page characters, but from left to right:

1. Todo Yurika from Aikatsu!

Yurika takes being a lifestyle lolita to the next level, being a gothic lolita and punk idol with the chuuni character of a vicious vampire, which she desperately tries to keep up as part of her career, only letting people see her quiet nerdy self once in a blue moon. She has a secret soft spot for garlic ramen and sings some of the best songs in the entire series (which is an achievement cause aikatsus songs are god tier).

music rec (won't do this for everyone, only ones i know well, but pls feel free to fill in the blanks in the comments/reblogs!): check out Glass Doll, Onegai Venus and Eternally Flickering Flame! She has two singing voices over the series, both of which are incredible.

2. Asselin BB II (Asselin Beelzebub the Second) from The Idolm@ster SideM!

Asselin is a genius chef in his mid-twenties that ended up on the streets being kicked from countless jobs because of his ....quirks. He's a chuuni through and through, and its something a lot of the people around him didn't know how to handle, but when he gets taken in by Cafe Parade (both an idol group AND a real life dining establishment) to be their chef, he finally finds a place where he belongs. He's goofy and crazy while simultaneously being an introverted and nervous personality, and claims to be a servant of Satan, which just happens to be an adorable plushie that he carries around for comfort and finds difficult to be without, who gets painstakingly dressed up in matching outfits whenever he's included in a card! Don't be fooled by his softness though, this servant of satan has PIPES. You may recognise his voice, as he's played by well-known seiyuu Furukawa Makoto.

music rec: check out Waga Konton no Sabbath Marriage to immediately ascend, or Reversed Masquerade for a taste of the full CafePa experience.

3. Tsushima Yohane from Love Live Sunshine!!

Probably the most famous on the list so I'll keep it brief! She's been at this chuuni business since she was a little girl, so she encountered a lot of loneliness before joining Aqours, but she's got a cute and clumsy personality and has a tendency to yell about being a fallen angel. She's an absolute sweetheart, despite claiming that she's angered God himself, and is always there at the scene to deliver an edgy pose or stunning vocals.

music rec: check out Kowareyasuki and Strawberry Trapper for peak Yohane vocals, honestly Guilty Kiss in general should be mandatory listening homework

[fortnite-rosso-and-company]

McKnight’s and Vantara Origin/Welcome To The Jungle

(Teaser 1) (Teaser 2)

While the the Peace Syndicate have united the syndicate’s together as to discover that the leader Highwire was unaware of it and find out it was one of their own. She then joins them to protect the island.

*At Volpe*

As Grigio had call her son’s to the castle of Volpe to tell them of the family origin’s of their element’s came from. Luce did the same as Bianca (Whiteout) came along with her husband Guerriero. “Thank you for coming. Burnout had text me that their almost here.” Grigio says.

“Though if he is returning. We better be ready and if what you told me about TLR and Cubic’s. There’s no telling what they maybe up to.” Bianca says as they have a sit and waited.

Once Burnout has enter the castle with Rosso, Blu, Nero, Verde, Snow, and Sagan as Burnout have them to take a seat as they did when Queen Leggera came in the meeting. Luce children along with Bianca and Guerriero children came in as well.

“Thank you all for coming. Rosso. You and your brothers and sister are here for a reason to tell you all about your origins and history of the people of Volpe. Vantara is our home but, we’ll not be forgotten.” Leggera says as she has a hologram up to show them of the symbols.

The Rosso and others look as they saw the symbols of their respective elements.

“As you may know that these symbols were from your ancestors that have face many foes but, however we need you all to be ready for a great evil that maybe awaken soon.” Leggera said as they see that they were surprise and nod.

“We’ll be ready your highness. Though Nero, Sagan, and I have to practice and combat this threat.” Verde said as Nero and Sagan nods.

“Excellent and I have some explaining to do which is that.” She breaths and says it. That your family isn’t Vantarian.” Leggera says as she tell them.

Rosso, brothers, sister, and cousin’s were shock to hear the news expect for Leggero and his family. Queen Leggera explains to them. “Your ancestors had rebuilt their home from the one known as The Overlord but, was name The Crystal King. When it was over and Ninjago City has been rebuilt when a portal open came of TLR. They would find the remain of The Crystal King and resurrect him back. That was when my great great grandmother Prima came. My grandmother and her army hold them off to save the residence as the ninja’s and the elementals join her to hold them back as we came to the planet that is known as Vantara.” Leggera says as the others explains where their ancestors came from but, knows now that their reality is gone.

“As the people had to start a new home as she help as well. While she though of away to hide everyone just in case TLR every find the planet. Master Wu have though of an idea to make everyone as different species which Prima had did and the elemental’s would use the powers that would lead the creation of the Elemental Gems.” Leggera says as she finish for right now.

“We we’re humans along?” Nero ask as he notice his wolf ears are gone along with his color skin as he looks to see that their human.

“I mean at least we know that our powers are from the gems. Though what about Rosso?” Azzurro ask.

“I think it pass on to generation to generation. Though maybe you guys could get new elementals as well.” Snow answers Azzurro question.

“Uhh guys. The island just got wild.” Casey (Kor) said as she shows them on the hologram of the middle of the island has an underground jungle that realizes it self.

“Something tells us that we may have to explore it and see what we can do. For now let’s take one step at a time.” Luce says as everyone agrees. Though Leggero would hope that someone with the element of energy would show them selves as there going to need help and be ready.

[the-debonair-dragon]

Welll i for one, am Happy to welcome our new whispering obelisk overlord and the evil wizard president

what america needs right now is an even older candidate, and though i have forgotten my name and age i am excited to throw my twisted, spirally hat into the ring

vote Evil Wizard / Whispering Obelisk 2024!

[ororoiqaditchalla]

That Time Doctor Doom Ruined Black Panther and Storm’s Honeymoon, by Patrick Gaertner

This story takes place shorty after T’Challa and Ororo got married, and became the Marvel Universe’s biggest power couple. Literally. Because apparently the marriage of  one of the most powerful monarchs in the world to a prominent mutant who can literally control the weather has kind of put people kind of on edge. Which, hasn’t gone unnoticed by T’Challa. He and Ororo managed to get a couple weeks of peaceful wedded bliss on a mostly abandoned island after their wedding, protected against the evils of the world by a veritable army of aquatic monsters controlled by Namor, something of a wedding gift from a time before he and T’Challa were constantly at each other’s throats.

The two seemed to really appreciate these two weeks of peace, no superhuman dramatics at all, but T’Challa ends up ruining it by telling Ororo they have to get to work. Because he has become acutely aware of the world’s fear at what these two immensely powerful people are going to do now that they’re a couple, and he thinks its best for them to travel around the world, going on a good-will trip to placate the world. Because otherwise they’d have to take it over as Earth’s new sexy overlords.

I, for one, welcome our new sexy mutant/royal underlords!