#i was screaming that i want a nick nelson the whole time and this was why | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

braveclementine · 6 months ago

Text

Surprise!

Warnings: 18+readersonly, mentions of sexual activity, heavy angst

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs, which consist of Penny Fury, Elizabeth Nelson, Elijah Chan, Katya Venice, Violetta Moscow, Lan Le, Josh, Trang Tien, Ahni Jallow, Mai Ito, and Ghaida Kashual as well as other OCs that will come up throughout the story.

I didn't create this one, I think I found it on google images or something a long time ago. Cause I created my own original comic which is where all of these characters come from. And Katya was Scarlett Hawk. Did archery like Hawkeye, but had mechanical wings she built herself with an engineering degree like Falcon. But AI wasn't really a thing seven years ago- at least not to my knowledge- so I had to either create my characters on kid websites or find them on the web.

🌚🥧 𝐬丅Ⓞ𝓡ץ 🧼🧘‍♂️

Elizabeth sat at the window of the living room where they were all sitting, waiting for the others to come home. She didn't like this waiting, this having to stay back. She understood why she was, but she was still uncomfortable with it.

She was worried, really. She felt anxious with all of them gone, all of them out of her sight.

"They'll be fine." Bucky grunted from where he was brooding on the couch, staring at a spot on the wall. He broke his vigil only now to glance over at her. She felt comforted by his words when she met the sincerity of his blue eyes.

"Then why sulk?" Violetta giggled, tossing a chess piece that Trang had knocked off the board at him. His hand snapped up, snatching the piece out of the air. Vi pouted, "No fun. I wanted it to bounce off your nose."

Bucky rolled his eyes, turning the piece over in his fingers. "I just want to fight."

"Steve doesn't need you protecting his back twenty-four seven James." Natasha replied lightly, coming over and sitting on the couch, plopping her legs in his lap. Absentmindedly, he rubbed her ankles. "He's a big boy."

"Punk takes all the stupid with him." Bucky grumbled.

"Sam'll keep him out of-" Wanda broke off as they heard a screaming sound come from down the hallway. It wasn't like a person had screamed, but more like metal on metal. Nails on a chalkboard. Ghost music from Nearly Headless Nicks' deathday Party.

Bucky got to his feet slowly, pulling his gun out of his waist band, planting himself in front of Natasha. Stephen had his hands raised, orange sparks on his fingers, ready to fight. The other girls had grabbed various guns from around the room.

Elizabeth stuck her hand out, relishing in the way the smooth metal of the trident felt in her hand. She pointed it at the door, getting ready.

It was dead silent for six and a half whole seconds, before the door burst down.

The others started shooting immediately, killing the first raid of HYDRA agents immediately. But they continued to swarm the small room until guns were no longer ideal and they started hand to hand combat.

Elizabeth tried to be everywhere at once, using huge water waves to sweep HYDRA agents off their feet when they got to close to one of her friends, while also parrying blows with her trident, and shoving said weapon into their bodies.

She could feel that she would have bruises on her skin tomorrow and occasionally felt a slice against the soft tissue. But she kept moving, because she had a family to protect. It wasn't just Bucky, Stephen, and all of her girl friends in here. But the children were in here as well, and they were defenseless.

She slammed the butt of her trident into another HYDRA agents' forehead and he fell out cold. She threw the trident across the room, ducking another blow from a HYDRA agent. The slick metal cut through two HYDRA agents while she pulled out a shuriken and stabbed said HYDRA agent in the neck, before flinging it into the eye of another.

Bucky kept her back protected, aiming his gun quickly, precisely, and efficiently. But they were swarming like the aliens in Wakanda. There didn't seem to be an end of them and there was now nearly no foot placing that wasn't a dead body.

Elizabeth heard Trang cry out and pivoted around to find a HYDRA agent having pinned her up against the wall, latching the gauntlet that Trang had on her arm, to the wall. She knelt and flung a spare knife into the man's back and he fell forwards and slid sideways off of Trang's body.

"Stephen we have to retreat." Bucky shouted over the noise. "We can't keep doing this, we have to get the others to safety."

"Get them in that corner!" Elizabeth heard Stephen shout back. She grabbed Violetta's arm, helping the Italian over to the said corner.

Suddenly, Stephen froze, his face drawing in horror. Elizabeth had thought for a moment one of them had shot him, but realized that it was something else.

"What? Who?" Bucky asked immediately, shaking Stephen's arm. His face was pale as well. "Tony? Loki? Penny?"

"Loki. . ." Stephen whispered and Elizabeth felt the first inkling of fear and something else intrude inside of her. "Loki. . ."

Stephen fell to one knee, Bucky trying to help them.

Was Loki dead? Elizabeth didn't know, but she was filled with something regardless. A wave of water came up in front of all of them, blocking all of the bullets and people. In her rage, she sent it towards all of them, flinging every HYDRA agent- dead and alive- out the window.

"Stephen?" Bucky asked shakily, now that the commotion had died down. Wanda had her hands to her mouth, tears having spilled over. Trang looked like someone had slapped her across the face and she didn't even make it to a couch or chair, sinking to the floor instead.

"What happened?" Elizabeth demanded, praying that it wasn't what she thought it was. Loki couldn't die. Loki was a God. Gods lived forever. Loki couldn't. . . No. No!

Stephen raised his hands, eyes closed. "He has. . . No, no no! Loki!"

🧁🌕 ＰσѶ ⒸⒽ𝕒ήⒼ𝔼 🚢🌖

There was such a pain in Penny's heart, she couldn't believe she was still breathing. She slumped to her knees, her body pressed against the wall of the clearish-green shield. She could see nothing, the tears to thick to see past.

She felt a whoosh behind her, which she knew somehow was a wizarding portal. She felt arms around her, pulling her into the room, which she could sort've recognize as the Avengers Living room.

"Shh, Pen." Clint's voice whispered in her ear. "C'mere birdie."

She felt herself being forced on her feet and she turned so that she could cry into his chest. "Birdie, look." Clint whispered, tilting her chin in another direction.

Her heart stopped once again.

"L-Lo-" She couldn't even get his whole name out.

She still wasn't sure if he was even alive, lying very still on the couch. The red cape was still on his shoulders, wrapped protectively around his body. His face, hands, and clothes were caked in dirt and soot and he looked almost as thought he was sleeping.

Penny wiped her eyes to look around the room better.

Thor, Tony, and Stephen were kneeling by Loki's side. Tony's eyes were puffy and red, Thor looked pale, but Stephen at least looked composed. Bruce came over with an oxygen mask.

There weren't to many others in the room and she looked up at Clint, "Is anyone-"

"There have been injuries." Clint nodded. "No one but Loki is on the brink of death however. And on the plus side, Bruce has checked over all of the others. The babies all seem to be in fine condition for pregnancy. But they'll have to be closely monitored for a while."

"They were attacked as well?"

"Yes, but Stephen, Bucky, and Elizabeth did a good job at keeping the tower safe." Clint nodded. "Ghaida's family is also safe. Your father will be here soon, help set them up with a safe house. We're doing the same for Katya, Trang, Elijah, and even Ahni, Mai, and Josh's families. We don't know what lengths Lucinda will go to to get her hands on Elizabeth."

Elizabeth entered at that moment and Tony shot to his feet immediately. "What are you doing up here? Go back down to the med bay! You're injured."

"Move." Elizabeth said, kneeling by Loki's side, putting a hand on his head. "I'm fine. I just want to make sure he's okay."

Suddenly, Loki inhaled, body jerking as coughs wracked his body. Tony helped turn him on his side and Penny watched anxiously as her Godly soulmate finally coughed out rocks, before collapsing back onto the couch, tears streaming from the violent attack.

"Loki?" Elizabeth asked firmly and he fluttered his eyes opened. He looked dopey, like someone who'd been sleeping for a long time and had just woken up. He smiled at Elizabeth, his hand lifting, fingers lazily curling around a strand of her hair. Then his eyes snapped all the way open and he jerked upwards violently. "PENNY!"

"She's fine." Stephen said, looking over at her and she quickly hurried to his side.

Loki pulled her into his arms. She could feel his heart thrumming in his chest. His arms were shaking too, even as they held her tightly. "You're safe." Loki finally whispered, pulling back a little.

"I thought you died." Penny sobbed into his chest, clutching onto him tighter, but no matter how tight her arms became around him, it never felt like she could get close enough. "You. . . Loki!"

There were different hands on both of them, trying to comfort the both of them. Someone kissed the side of her head, but she didn't know who it was.

"Alright Pet." Loki said, letting out a shaky breath, cupping her face, wiping her tears away with his thumbs. "We're okay."

"I'm sorry." Ghaida whispered, stepping to the side. "I'm really sorry."

Penny had no idea where the anger came from, but she was suddenly on her feet and yelling at the poor Indian girl. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

"Pen." Loki tried to grab her now, but Penny swung her arm out of the way.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? YOU HAVE TWINS INSIDE OF YOU! AND YOU JUST LEFT WITHOUT A PLAN!! YOU PUT ALL OF US IN DANGER!"

"Penny." Clint wrapped his arms around her waist while Ghaida dropped her head to hide her tears.

Penny regretted the words even as they were spilling out of her mouth, but she couldn't stop them in her anger. "Maybe Riri was right about you being the spy."

Violetta's head snapped up, staring at Penny in shock and Penny already felt like she'd been doused in cold water.

"Okay calm down." Pietro hopped up quickly between the two girls, but Ghaida was already backing away, before turning and running from the room.

"Fuck." Penny cursed, putting her face in her hands. "Shit I didn't mean that."

"I know pet." Loki said softly, stroking her hair.

Penny looked up to see Violetta and Katya leaving through the door, going after Ghaida.

"I didn't mean it." Penny repeated, sinking onto the couch, realizing she was shaking. "Shit."

"It's fine, you just got heated." Clint said softly. "You can apologize after things simmer down."

"Why apologize?" Tony asked heatedly. "Penny's right! Loki could've died! Penny could've died! And Ghaida's kids! Our kids! What was she thinking?"

"Pet." Loki said sternly while Stephen whispered, "bubs."

"Pet, I'm fine." Loki cupped Tony's chin.

"But you almost weren't!" Tony shouted, stamping his foot like a diva and Loki's lips started to curve into a smirk. "We- I- almost lost you." Tony sounded like he was going to cry and was holding it in. Loki's smile slipped off his face. "And for what?"

"The same thing would've happened regardless of if Ghaida had stayed or not. We still would have gone in that basement, still would've had it collapse on us." Loki said softly. "Don't be angry with Ghaida."

"Besides, her hormones are out of balance." Stephen said, kicking into doctor mode. "It usually happens in pregnancy. She heard her family was in danger and just reacted. Stupid? Yes. But it's not her fault."

"Yeah, blame Thor." Clint grinned.

Steve came into the room that moment. He pointed his finger at Elizabeth, "Get your ass back down into the medbay." He passed by her and then sat down on the couch. Penny fully expected Steve to pull Loki into him like he did with everyone else, but the blonde super soldier just buried his face into Loki's lap.

Loki stroked his hair for a moment and then bent down and whispered something in his ear. Elizabeth pouted in the corner, going and sitting on the armchair.

Without looking up, Steve muttered, "Elizabeth. Ass. Back in the medbay."

"But I saved Loki." Elizabeth pouted, "I don't want to go into the medbay. I'm fine."

Penny glanced over at her and finally took in the scrapes, bruises, and there was even a scar that went from a little bit above the corner of her right eye to her chin. "Why haven't you healed yourself?"

"I'm tired." Elizabeth replied, curling up in the armchair.

Steve huffed, getting off of Loki. "I will carry you down there myself then." He kissed Loki's cheek.

"It's fine." Stephen said, stepping in as Elizabeth hopped up from the armchair- presumably to run from Steve- and pulling her into his arms. Stephen sat down in the armchair, pulling her onto his lap and cuddling her.

Steve huffed, flopping back down with Loki. Penny smiled and went ahead, sitting next to Clint, who was slightly falling asleep.

"Hey." Elizabeth suddenly said softly, stirring and looking over at Tony. "You're. . . you're not really angry with Ghaida, right? I would've done the same thing."

Steve rolled over on his side to look at her. Tony scratched the back of his head, looking a little bit uncomfortable and Penny realized something that she realized she hadn't thought of before.

They did have favorites. Because if Elizabeth had done it, Steve and Bucky and the others would've dragged Elizabeth into the red room and punished her. But with Ghaida. . .

Penny felt the guilt hit hard again, leaping to her feet. "I'm going to go and apologize to her." And she ran from the room.

🍰😮 𝐏𝔬ⓥ 𝓬𝕙𝕒ℕᎶε 🪥🌗

Ghaida shut the door to the bedroom as she entered, feeling lost, confused, and lonely. And also. . . emotions she hadn't felt in a long, long time.

She was trying to process everything that had happened. One moment, she was fighting to get into the building. The next thing she knew, the Avengers were all around her. Thor was trying to protect her. She had found her family on one of the top floors. They said they had been moved while they had been fighting outside.

Ghaida had been ecstatic that she had saved her family. . . except nothing had changed. They had looked between her and Thor, noticed there was no visible commitment like a ring or a bindi dot, and they said nothing had changed.

And now the rest of the Avengers were angry over Loki and Penny's near miss with death. Which, Ghaida didn't blame them for in the least, she was just realizing how badly she had messed up.

She rocked back and forth on the bed, ignoring the tears that were going down her face. She wished Elijah was there, his arms around her. His warmth would've been comfort enough, even when he knew exactly what to say.

But he was downstairs in the med bay, looking after the others who were dealing with some injuries from the tower attack. . . which she supposed was also her fault.

And while she was no Wanda, her thoughts consistently kept going over who was mad at her and Viden was answering very generously their exact thoughts. Thor was conflicted. His brother had almost died, but he was trying to figure out if he really thought it was her fault. Tony was furious with her, wanting to kick her out of the tower, while also split with reinvigorated love towards Loki, Penny, and also Elizabeth and Stephen for saving Loki's life in the end.

Elizabeth on the other hand, was using her greatest flaw: Thinking none of her friends had faults. Ghaida knew from Elizabeth's thoughts that if someone around her tried bad talking her or say something against her, Elizabeth would defend her till Heaven come.

Her other friends were not thinking so deeply into it and she didn't even dare ask what Elijah was thinking. She wished she hadn't even asked about Thor.

Maybe. . .

She grabbed her phone and then hesitated. No, she didn't want to call Fury. Fury was Penny's father. Maria was her mother.

She dialed Coulson's phone number.

"Agent Kaushal?" Coulson asked in surprise on the third ring.

"Hey." Ghaida said, clearing her throat, "I know that you're putting together safe houses. Do you think. . . would it be possible to put me somewhere? An apartment or something? I. . . I can't stay here in the tower. And if I try to go home Lucinda will get me. And quite frankly anywhere not well hidden, Tony can find me."

"Are they really that mad?" Coulson sounded skeptical.

"Tony already wants me out. I'm just speeding the process up." Ghaida whispered, another tear trickling down her cheek. She wished Heimdall had warned her that when he said the path was going to be hard, he had told her about this.

She always considered herself background. Unimportant. Really only needed if the 'better' girls were gone or if they needed quick information. And she'd always been okay with it. Elizabeth had really been the only one to make her feel seen. But that was sort've how it was for all of them.

She'd thought at least maybe with Thor. . . well perhaps she was judging to harshly. Loki's almost death had only been less than an hour ago. And Penny too, who was Thor's real soulmate.

Ghaida let out a sob and then clamped a hand over her mouth. God, what she wouldn't give to have a soulmate. Her soulmate.

"Okay." Coulson whispered and she started, forgetting that she was on the phone with the agent.

"Sorry." Ghaida cleared her throat again, getting to her feet. "It's fine. I was just curious." She pulled down a suitcase and started to put clothes in it. Hastily scribbling a note to the others. And a separate one for Elijah. She hesitated, then decided not to write one to Thor. She wasn't desperate.

"I have one for you." Phil said. "It's only a state over in Vermont. Chittenden, Vermont to be exact. Only four hours away. It's a small apartment, fourth floor."

"When can I leave?" Ghaida asked, feeling lighter already. Yet, heavy. This was the closest thing to family she had now. . . family that. . .

She shook her head. She could go over the nitty gritty later. She had to focus.

"I can send a car to pick you up now."

"Thank you, Agent Coulson." Ghaida sighed.

"Of course."

😲🔱 ℙᵒｖ ᑕ𝔥Ãภ𝐠ᗴ 🥱👨‍💻

ᴅᴇᴀʀ ᴇʟɪᴢᴀʙᴇᴛʜ (ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ᴇʟꜱᴇ), ᴛʜɪꜱ ɪꜱɴ'ᴛ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ʀᴇᴘᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ ᴍɪꜱᴛᴀᴋᴇ. ɪ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ, ᴡᴇʟʟ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴍʏ ꜰᴀᴜʟᴛ. ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ'ʟʟ ᴅᴇꜰᴇɴᴅ ᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴀʀᴛʜ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱᴀʏ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱɴ'ᴛ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ. ɪ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴛʜ��ʀ ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴏᴋɪ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴏɴʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀʟʟ ᴏꜰ ʏᴏᴜ. ʙᴜᴛ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴍʏ ꜰᴏᴏʟɪꜱʜ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ, ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ɪ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ɢᴏᴛ ʜᴜʀᴛ. ᴅɪʀᴇᴄᴛʟʏ, ᴀɴᴅ ɪɴᴅɪʀᴇᴄᴛʟʏ. ɪ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴍᴇᴀɴᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ɪᴛ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ. ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴅᴏ ᴛᴏᴏ. ʙᴜᴛ ɪᴛ ᴅᴏᴇꜱɴ'ᴛ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ ᴡʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ᴅᴏɴᴇ. ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ɢᴏɴᴇ ꜰᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ, ɪ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ ᴡᴇ ᴀʟʟ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴀ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ. ɪ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴀ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀꜱ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴏᴡᴇʀ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴍʏ ᴘʀᴇꜱᴇɴᴄᴇ. ᴄᴏᴜʟꜱᴏɴ ᴡᴀꜱ ɴɪᴄᴇ ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴀ ꜱᴀꜰᴇ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ, ꜱᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴡᴏʀʀʏ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍᴇ. ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ꜰɪɴᴇ. ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴏʀ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ɪɴ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ʙɪʀᴛʜ, ꜱᴏ ʜᴇ ᴅᴏᴇꜱɴ'ᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛᴏ ꜰʀᴇᴛ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴋᴇᴇᴘɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪᴅꜱ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ʜɪᴍ ᴏʀ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ. ɪ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ. ɪ ᴡɪꜱʜ ɪ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ. ʟᴏᴋɪ, ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴏʀʀʏ. ᴛᴏɴʏ, ꜱᴛᴇᴘʜᴇɴ, ᴛʜᴏʀ, ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴏʀʀʏ. ᴘᴇɴɴʏ, ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴏʀʀʏ. ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴏ ꜱᴏ ꜱᴏʀʀʏ. ɪ'ᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘʏ, ɪ'ᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘʏ. ᴛʜᴇ ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇ ɪ ꜰɪɴᴅ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘʏ ɪꜱ, ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴋɪʟʟ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴍʏꜱᴇʟꜰ ɪ ꜱᴡᴇᴀʀ ɪᴛ. ꜱᴛᴀʏ ꜱᴀꜰᴇ. ʟᴏᴠᴇ, ɢʜᴀɪᴅᴀ

Penny sighed, putting the letter down on the bed where it had been left. The only sign that Ghaida had been in the room were the two letters- Elijahs' Penny didn't open- and the singular lit candle on her altar.

She picked up the two letters and headed back down to the living room.

"Hey." Elijah said. He looked tired as he greeted her from where he was holding Violetta in his arms.

"Hey Pen." Tony whispered, hugging her from behind, "What's that?"

Penny just shook her head, handing the letter to Elijah and then the other to Elizabeth, who was now snuggled up with Stephen and Pietro.

Elijah scanned the letter and sighed. "I wondered when it'd finally be to much. Fuck." He slipped away from Violetta and headed out of the room without another word.

Elizabeth got up from where she was and handed the letter to Trang. Penny just watched now, seeing their reactions. As the letter passed through the Ohioans first, it was like seeing something die. Like they had lost another part of themselves.

Trang was even in tears when she read it. "I don't get it. Why'd she leave? This wasn't her fault!"

"Who left?" Natasha asked groggily, lifting her head from Loki's shoulder.

"Ghaida left. Coulson set her up a safe house." Penny answered when Trang didn't. "She said it was to give some. . ." She couldn't help but glance at Tony. "some of us a break."

Trang stood up, "I'll find her. I'll go after her-"

"Trang, let her be." Tony said, catching Trang's shoulder.

"No!" Trang said angrily.

"I'm sorry Tony." Violetta said, getting to her feet too. "I get it. You almost lost Loki and Penny. But you still have them. But we've lost to many of us to lose another."

Trang, Katya, and Violetta left the room, leaving Elizabeth the last Ohioan standing. She didn't look at any of them, leaning against a pillar and looking outside the window.

"Elizabeth?" Steve asked.

Elizabeth didn't move for a long time and when she finally shifted, she looked at Steve. "If I had done the same thing as Ghaida, what would you do right now?"

Bucky chuckled, "Your ass would be so red right now from your punishment."

"That's what I thought." Elizabeth said softly, crossing the room. She paused at the door and looked at Bucky, "So why didn't you do it to Ghaida?"

Bucky looked shocked and then frowned a little.

"Yeah." Elizabeth nodded, almost to herself. "If I was Ghaida, I would have left too." And then she too, left the room.

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bekkachaos · 2 years ago

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*screams about heartstopper*

like literally i dont think any one piece of media has ever made me so joyful! It just just so beautiful. Visually its so pretty, thematically it toes (tows?) the line of realistic and comforting really well (at least for me), the acting is incredible - especially considering the age of the actors, and the constant unapolagetic queerness that is so obvoiusly written by queer people is so refreshing and just .. nice to see. Nick saying 'im bi, actually' so many times was heartwarming and - as someone who is bi themself - it was so nice to see that the only time the usual bi stereotypes were presented was through nicks anxiety (and also ben). I am so scared to see where they take nick's self worth in regards to his 'similarities' to ben bc i don't want to see him sad. I had already read the comics so it was so cool to see how effective this adaptation is continuing to be. the final few scenes of episode 6 have altered me as a human being and are like a visual form of pure nostalgia and comfort. the taylor song in there is so gorgeous. and speaking of songs the entire soundtrack was perfect (like they understand the vibe and the target audience) and had me doing the leo dicaprio pointing meme constantly. I also watched both seasons several times in the last few weeks and probably will rewatch for the rest of my life tbh. I cannot wait for the next season. anyway yea

I 100% agree I just watch this show or read the comics and I am smiling uncontrollably and just feel so warm and comforted and happy it's insane!! It's so beautiful to see something that feels so genuine and it's awkward but sweet and even seeing the changes and growth of all the characters from season 1 to season 2 feels so realistic!

Nick Nelson saying "I'm bi, actually" about seven times in S2 is literally so accurate and I felt so validated by that because it's so real (also as a fellow bisexual) to have to continually justify your sexuality depending on who you're in a relationship with. The queer rep is just wonderful and can I just say that Isaac's journey this season was one of my favourites and the way I screamed when he went back into the library and claimed the ace book at the end 🤌

Anyone who hurts Nick Nelson or makes him feel sad must endure my wrath! I want to put him in my pocket and protect him from all the sad in the world he is so sweet and caring and kind to Charlie, I hate seeing him compare himself to Ben but I love the way they showed that yes the situation was similar but he was so different because he cared about how his coming out made Charlie feel too and they literally talked and communicated, it was fucking beautiful.

And the whole hickey shenanigans from Charlie noticing it (or lbh from when Buck gave it to him) was so funny and realistic and just that episode was perfection (I'm saying this like all episodes weren't 😅)

The Taylor song scene literally did things to my heart, I felt that scene physically, and you are so right the whole soundtrack is perfect! I mean, Taylor aside you have girl in red, Conan Gray, Gabrielle Aplin, wolf Alice, Holly humberstone, Miya folick like so many more I am obsessed with the soundtrack! And have you listened to the "to Nick from Charlie" playlist based on the mixed tape from vol 1? It's literally also a vibe and has Hayley kiyoko (my beloved) and Troye Sivan (I was JUST SAYING that his blue neighbourhood album is so heartstopper coded and wild is one of the tracks 😭)

My life currently consists of:

Drive to work with heartstopper playlist

Return from work and watch reels from the show / rewatch episodes

Read more comic (trying to spread it out so I get more but I am failing)

Constantly think about all of them until I fall asleep

Repeat

I'm just obsessed and it makes me so happy like I can't even explain it, I love it so much 💕🩷💕

#i will never stop screaming #and you are literally right with everything you said like i agree 100%#scream anytime 😘#heartstopper #bekka watches things #send help

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panic-in-the-multiverse · 2 years ago

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Older brother saves the Day

Pairings: Nick Nelson & younger!sister!reader

Requested by: @residentmiyakinnie I’m not sure if this is where to submit but here goes nothing. Could you write a Nick Nelson x younger sister (about 14) reader where she recently had a harsh falling out with a best friend? Thanks in advance 😊

Warnings: mention falling out with friends, a bit of angst, crying, Nick comforting you (that is a warning I swear)

A/N sorry for the wait, but it’s here now, and once more sorry for it being short, but it seemed right to end it there <3

Getting home to walk straight into your room only to cry your heart out on your bed was not how you had imagined the day to go.

It had started out as normal as ever, well except for your best friend ignoring you. You had a fight last week. It seems like your friend didn’t want to get over it. As all week she ignored you. It was now Friday and you had no idea what to actually do. Sure you had some other friends but it wasn’t the same. Your best friend was someone you’d known since kindergarten and now, everything you have ever gone through together is just thrown to the side. Like a bag filled with garbage is tossed away.

Every laugh. The dumb jokes that made you laugh hysterically. The stupid games you came up with that made you laugh until you couldn’t breathe and tears were leaking out of your eyes from happiness. All the roughest times you had together. The crying sessions at eachother houses because school was too much or because of just life in general. Every comforting hug after something bad had happened. Like that one time her cat died. Or that one time when you found out that your parents were getting divorced. The times when you failed something in school or when someone said a mean comment your way. The dancing. The shit talk about other people. Fangirling over your favorite actors. Everything was just gone with a blink of an eye. A week was all it took to tear you down into pieces of broken glass. Pieces of a vase that a child nudged a bit too hard to make it fall.

You had fallen. Hard and fast. You didn’t think you’d ever be able to get a new friend like that. You weren’t sure you wanted to. The betrayal. The ignorance. It was all too much. It made you scream into your pillow as you dunked your head into it. Hot and salty tears ran down your cheeks soaking the bed cover. Angry tears that didn’t seem to stop. Sad thoughts of all the loss.

You hadn’t even noticed when your mom opened the door to ask how your day was. You hadn’t answered then nor when she asked what was wrong. She’d gone to get Nick by then. You’d only heard the door close as footsteps was heard going down the stairs. You’d felt a part of your bed dip down as someone gently put their hand on your back. It was Nick, of course it was. If you didn’t answer to your parents Nick sure as hell would be able to get an answer out of you. He always did.

You tensed for a moment. His hand rubbed your back as sobs racked from your body. The tears still ran down your face, and had caused quite the wet spot on your bed. Soaking the material.

He helped you to sit up. It had taken a while but you did eventually. That was when he saw what a mess you were. Nick asked about it but no answer came except for loud sobs that came from your mouth and made your whole body tremble with sadness and anger.

His arms wrapped around you in desperate need to comfort you. He hated seeing you like this, and he couldn’t even help as he didn’t know what was going on. But to you he always helped even by just giving you a shoulder to cry on, it helped when he whispered that everything was going to be okay.

“What’s going on?” your sobs had slowed down when he asked, making sure that you’d be able to hear what he said, to be able to process what he said. “Y/F/N” Nick’s mind started to wander to every possible reason as to why your best friend would make you cry. He couldn’t come up with anything as the two of you were close, nearly as close as you and Nick are.

“What do you mean?” you started to cry uncontrollably once more, asyou tried to recite what had happened. “Hey, hey, Y/N it’s alright, it’s going to be fine, I promise” Nick hugged you even tighter as you soaked his shirt even more with your tears. “You promise” his hand once more rubbed your back in soothing circles. “I promise, why don’t you hang out with me and my friends for the time being, I know they all love you and definitely won’t mind”

“You sure”

“Hundred percent sure” he smiled as his answers gained a small smile from you.

#x reader #x teen #x teen!reader #x you #heartstopper x teen!reader #nick nelson heartstopper #heartstopper fic #heartstopper x teen #heartstopper x reader #nick nelson x reader #Nick Nelson x teen!reader #Nick Nelson comfort fic #Nick Nelson x sister!reader #Nick Nelson x younger sister

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theodoraflowerday · 3 years ago

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heartstopper s1e8 live reaction post

this is already not starting on a good note lol bye

tori throwing a thing at charlie to grab his attention! we love a big sister!

"I'm like 95% sure they were both harry's fault and I wasn't even there" WE LOVE A VOICE OF REASON

CHARLIE NOOOOOOOOOOO

"you're not ruining my life" "thanks" that is absolutely tori and charlie's relationship in a nutshell

but legit, tori is the best

NICK'S PANIC FACE

I really wish we got more nick and tao, this scene is absolutely goddamn superb and they really do bounce off each other beautifully as two people who love charlie and worry about him! gimme more nicktao!!!!!!!!!!!!

TAOS FACE WHEN NICK SUGGESTS RUGBY

no offense to the show but I kinda prefer it when nick and charlie are being adorable and stable and communicating properly so like get on that

I love nathan ajayi so goddamn MUCH

DON'T LET ANYONE MAKE YOU DISAPPEAR

if I had a friend who offered to do a sports thing for me I would simply forgive that friend for anything else that happened for the rest of our lives

"you don't get to have an opinion about anything I do" WRECK THAT BITCH CHARLIE

"do you want me to go around telling people about you and nick?" "do you want me to go around telling people about me and you?" LET'S GOOOOO WRECK THIS BITCH CHARLIE KICK HIM IN THE DICK

darcy is a giant lesbian except every time tara kisses her she seems to be having a gay crisis all over again

OH MY GOD WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN HERE

ELLE????? MM MM??

WHAT?

oh. come ONNNNNNNN

okay but I would absolutely prefer if they waited to kiss at the louvre because the romanticism of it is chefs fuckin kiss

"as some teenagers crash into each other and fall over repeatedly"

proud bf charlie 🥰

this is extremely high school musical 3 of nick and charlie

WHAT. What just HAOOEBED

WHAT JUST HAPOENED

WHATHDMZ JUST HAPPEN. D???????

WHAT JUST HAPPENED??????????? DID NICK JUST

THIS ISKT JAPOENIGNGJFKFJDLGJDLGKDLFKDLKF

MY LIFE IS WAY BETTER BECAUSE I MET YOU

IT'S ALL WORTJ IT TO BE WITH YOY I'M ACTIVELY SCREAMING KNTO MY PILLOW

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BREAK UP I WOULD RESPECT YOUR DECISION BUT I WANT US TO BE TOGETHER YOU'RE MY FAVORITE EPWRSON

I'M JUMPING OFF MY FUCKIN BALCONY AS WE SÑEAK NICHOLAS NELSON YOUR BRAIN IT AMSZDS ME

I BELIEVE YOu

THEY'RE GOING ON THE EATE

I'M EATIKG MY FuckcKING ARM

I'M DY8GKGNDKT

THE PHOTOBO9TJ

I XNST BREARHE

HES GOING TO DO IT ISN'T HE

HES DOING IT

I'M DUING

I LIKE CHARLIE SPRING IN A ROMANTIC WAY NOT JUST A FRIEND WAY

YES??? WAS THAT NOT ESTSBLISHED THE LAST TEN TIMES WE MADE OUT

I have never been so happy with an adaptation before but that beach scene was everything I wanted it to be and more

the flower wallpaper 🥺

olivia-sarah is my favorite

NOT THE MONTAGE

THE FUNAL HUG

I can't believe I'm done

review: I'm going to catch some shut eye and then wake up and watch the whole thing again. it was perfect.

#hs livenats #heartstopper spoilers

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apparentlynotreallyfinnish · 5 years ago

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M/M Book Recs

In addition to fic I’ve read a lot of m/m novels recently. Most of theses are books I’ve been screaming about to anyone who’s willing to listen but I thought some of y��all might enjoy them too!

The synopses are in italics. (Some are bastardized from Goodreads. Those are marked GR.) I’ve also added my thoughts on the book and some content warnings.

Red, White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales? (GR)

Appa’s rec: 5/5 If you haven’t read this yet, this is the first one you have to pick up. The chemistry of the main characters is delicious. It’s basically a enemies-to-lovers story with awesome supporting characters and a little bit of international politics thrown in. There are some steamy sex scenes just a step below pure smut. Alex and Henry stole my heart and I will definitely be reading this book again and again.

Him - Sarina Bowen, Elle Kennedy

(also, book two: Us and a novella: Epic)

Ryan Wesley’s biggest regret is coaxing his very straight friend, James Canning, into a bet that pushed the boundaries of their relationship. Now, with their college teams set to face off at the national championship, he’ll finally get a chance to apologize. But all it takes is one look at his longtime crush, and the ache is stronger than ever. Jamie has waited a long time for answers, but walks away with only more questions—can one night of sex ruin a friendship? If not, how about six more weeks of it? (GR)

Appa’s rec: 5/5 Ryan and Jamie broke me a little. This might be my favorite m/m book ever. The first book is a smutty masterpiece and the second book is an angsty heartbreaker with a happy ending. Highly recommend even if you don’t like hockey. The audio books are amazing as well. (I’d probably listen Teddy Hamilton to read my grocery list and swoon...)

Top Secret - Sarina Bowen, Elle Kennedy

Keaton and Luke are housemates. They are in a frat together. Luke thinks Keaton is a privileged idiot. Keaton thinks Luke is a grumpy asshole. They are both running for frat president. Keaton’s longtime girlfriend wants a threesome for her birthday. Keaton goes on an app to find them a guy and accidentally matches with Luke. They start texting anonymously.

Appa’s rec: 4,5/5 There was some frat bro shenanigans that made me roll my eyes a bunch and dock 0,5 stars from my rating but other than that this book is amazing! I mean, lots of sexting, Keaton discovering his sexuality, and oh, did I mention that Luke is a stripper?! The smut is smutty and the angst is delicious. Content warning: parental abuse (mostly mental)

The Spiral Down - Aly Martinez

Henry Alexander is a famous pop star with a dark past and a very bad case of flying phobia. He’s also openly gay. After Evan Roth, a pilot, helps him through a flight and a panic attack Henry is obsessed, but Evan has his own demons that complicate their relationship to the point of breaking.

Appa’s rec: 4/5 Some solid smut, angst and a fluffy, happy ending. I highly recommend the audio book. Both readers were wonderful and I almost listened the whole thing in one sitting. I was obsessed!

Trading Teams - Romeo Alexander

Jake thought he had life all figured out. He had the perfect girlfriend, a starting position on the Varsity baseball team, and a raging social life. He was living the dream. That is, until he discovers that he’s in danger of losing his scholarship. For Kyle, college was only a formality. He didn’t need the degree, and he barely attended his classes and still passed with flying colors. Instead of sitting in class, he’d rather be chasing his true passion—designing and programming an original MMORPG game. Kyle doesn’t need a social life, and he definitely doesn’t need a boyfriend, especially because that would require stepping out of the closet, something he has no intention of doing any time soon. (GR)

Appa’s rec: 3/5 Cute jock/nerd romance with some steamy smut. Not the greatest story but a good time!

Lock & West - Alexander C. Eberhart

Lock is awkward. He can’t make eye contact, counts when he’s nervous and has to remind himself several times a day how ‘normal’ teens behave. Homeschooled most of his life, he’s resigned himself to a friendless existence at his new Atlanta high school. Until he meets West. West has everything. Looks. Talent. Money. And secrets… so many secrets. Beneath the surface of West’s perfect existence is a pain he’s buried so deep a million therapists couldn’t unearth it and he’s determined to keep it that way. He’s an actor. He can act normal. (GR)

Appa’s rec: 4/5 This is a YA romance with some heavy, heavy stuff. Only read if you can deal with a lot of angst. (CW: eating disorders, sexual abuse, rape, parental abuse and post traumatic stress disorder). There is some light smut but it isn’t as explicit as in the previous recs. I really enjoyed this book despite the dark themes.

There Goes Sunday School - Alexander C. Eberhart

In sixteen-year-old Mike Hernandez’s life, only one thing is clear: Gay is NOT okay. His family’s life revolves around the church, so Mike has resolved to spend his life in the closet. His only escape—besides the occasional, anonymous gay make-out session—are his risqué drawings.

When his sketchbook goes missing in the middle of Sunday school, Mike is sure his life is over. What’s worse, the pastor’s son, Chris, suddenly seems hell-bent on adopting Mike and his friends and he has no idea why. When an awkward confrontation with Chris leads to an unexpected kiss instead of a much-expected punch, Mike’s world is turned upside down. (GR)

Appa’s rec: 4/5 Obvious content warning for homophobia and religious guilt. This wasn’t as angsty and dark as Eberhart’s other book but there are some heavy stuff with homophobic parents and community. Some light smut. Heavy on the religion stuff. The main character is very sweet and conflicted. A good YA read if you don’t mind the religious aspects.

Heartstopper vol 1 - Alice Oseman

Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore, and he's sort of got a boyfriend, even if he's kind of mean and only wants to meet up in secret. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. Nick and Charlie are placed in the same form group and made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance. (GR)

Appa’s rec: 5/5 This is a web comic made into books. There are three volumes out so far. I’ve read the first two. (You can find all of these on the web still and there will be more volumes.) Oh my god, this is the sweetest story ever and the drawings are adorable. A quick read that will stay with you for a long time. Light angst and a lot of fluff.

#Appa's recs #book recommendations #m/m

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iwillnotreturnyourrecords · 5 years ago

Video

youtube

“.. To further augment JP's (Issue #102) question about political songs - is there a protest song out there that you greatly admire for the way it was written or arranged?” - DAMIAN, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

“Dear Damian,

In 1972 Nina Simone released a live album entitled Emergency Ward! that was, by her own admission, her oppositional response to the Vietnam War. This record begins with an eighteen-minute rendition of ‘My Sweet Lord’, that could well be her greatest musical achievement. Nina Simone’s interpretation of George Harrison’s gentle cosmic entreaty ends up, in her hands, as a howl of spiritual abandonment and accusation.

The song begins with a thirty-second chant of —

We want Nina!

before the band launches into a raucous reanimation of the George Harrison classic. Nina’s entry couldn’t be more casual, inside the manic energy of the song —

Oh my Lord

My sweet Lord

This rendition is a gospel thrill ride, with mantras, wild syncopated handclaps and weird background whoops, courtesy of the Bethany Baptist Church Junior Choir of South Jamaica, New York. The Hare Krishna chant has been removed and more ‘Hallelujahs’ have been added as Nina reaches back to her Methodist roots and proclaims —

I really want to see you, Lord

But it takes so long

And further on —

The world is looking for you

Won’t you show yourself, Lord?

then surges back in, each time with increased abandon. At around six minutes there is an exquisite breakdown and Nina’s plea grows more pressing —

I really want to see you

I really need to see you

But everything today is a killer

Today is a killer

How am I gonna see you, Lord?..

Nobody has taught us any patience, Lord

And now it is too late, too late, my Lord

And yet again the song storms back in, the sense of cosmic desertion growing stronger and stronger. Each breakdown, each entreaty, each surge becomes more fraught, as if the whole world is fracturing and collapsing around Nina’s petitions.

At twelve minutes Nina incorporates a poem by David Nelson of The Last Poets and the song falls into a kind of weird reverie —

I often sit there in the sea

And dream dreams

And hope hopes

And wish wishes

And I listen to the wind song

As it dances a beautiful dance for me

But these moments never last long…

And there is a further rupturing of the narrative as Nina drags us into the sudden horror of the historical moment, with lines like —

Comes the reality of today

Grinning its all-knowing, fiendish grin

Pressing his ugly face against mine

Staring at me with lifeless eyes

Crumbling away all memories of yesterday’s dreams

Because today is a killer

And only you can save us, Lord

Nina still beseeching, still calling into the vacuum —

I certainly never hoped

That one day I'd be screaming

Something my mother told me I needed

In the beginning

and then a long held note, an ululation cast into the roaring void, as her meditation turns finally, to condemn the indifferent heavens and her ‘sweet Lord’ for his ultimate betrayal —

Today, where are you, Lord?

YOU ARE A KILLER!

The great Nina Simone was a living grievance machine — her race, her gender, her misused talents (she wanted to be a classical pianist) — and this rage infused all her work, and is what makes it so multi-layered. Even her most beautiful love songs, which I count as some of the most incandescent works of art ever recorded, were marinated in a sense of resentment and contempt for the workings of the world. It is this exhilarating collision of opposing forces — love and scorn — that makes Nina Simone’s existential and political protestations so compelling.

In this extraordinarily bold statement, Nina Simone stands defiant in the face of spiritual oblivion, and a world (and God) that so readily allows war and senseless carnage to occur. It is a protest song par excellence that serves as a form of transport, a vehicle that takes us on a complex and nuanced journey into transcendent rage. The song itself becomes a forge of fury, where Nina Simone stands conflicted and defiant and, in the final lines, pulls the heavens crashing down around our ears.

Perhaps, this is the voice of protest we need right now — intelligent, questing, transcendent, raging and thrillingly complex —

We want Nina!

Indeed.

Love, Nick.”

(Borrowed from Nick Cave’s The Red Hand Files, #104. Sign up for The Red Hand Files here)

#Nina Simone forever #Nick Cave #protest songs #transcendence #spiritual #Nina used to protect her home in a kaftan with a shotgun #high priestess of soul #red hand files

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halloweendailynews · 6 years ago

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A new Halloween movie is finally upon us, and it was well worth the nine-year wait, as director David Gordon Green and his co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley have delivered one of the best horror sequels ever made, in a timely story of unresolved trauma and the return of The Bogeyman.

I’ve watched Halloween 2018 three times as of this writing, and I enjoyed it more with each viewing, and so after a few weeks of thinking about it, it’s time to dive in to my full review. In this case, the following does contain quite a few spoilers, because, honestly, you’ve had almost a month to see the film. (If you’re reading this for my recommendation as to whether you should see the film, just know that I highly recommend you go see it right now. …And then come back here and read the following review).

Let’s start with the score, the most visceral link between this new film and director/composer John Carpenter’s 1978 original Halloween. Carpenter’s new score for the 2018 film not only brings updated versions of the classic themes we all know and love, but also channels all of the best parts of other classic Carpenter soundtracks. By the time Daniel Davies’ electric guitar first screams in the film, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

The first thing we hear over the studio logos is a dark, intensely foreboding intro. The revisited themes are all familiar but now have a new, relentlessly driving urgency, hurtling viewers toward an epic, inevitable climax.

My favorite track from the 2018 soundtrack, “Prison Montage” creates an atmosphere of complete dread for what’s about to happen, while on screen shots of Michael boarding the bus transporting the patients of Smith’s Grove Sanitarium are intercut with Laurie Strode seeing The Shape for presumably the first time in 40 years from a distance. And there’s the haunting voice of Dr. Loomis (voiced by Colin Mahan), not the voice of Donald Pleasence that we remember, but a more weary and hollow, distorted recording of the Loomis we once knew, absolutely resigned to the fact that “It has to die.”

From the opening credits to Laurie Strode’s eventual reunion with Michael Myers, the film does an amazing job of subverting our horror-ingrained Halloween-obsessed expectations while at the same time paying significant homage to the very tropes that the original Halloween created 40 years ago.

And how can fans not love all of the Easter eggs, so many loving references to the entire Halloween franchise?

P.J. Soles, who starred in Halloween ’78 as Lynda, has a classy off screen cameo as the voice of young Allyson Strode’s unseen high school teacher, and the devil costume worn by Oscar, played by Drew Scheid, is a callback to the she-devil costume memorably worn by Samantha, played by Tamara Glynn, in Halloween 5.

And Laurie Strode’s bedroom, where much of the finale takes place, is itself an exact recreation of the Doyle house bedroom where the first film ends.

We knew from the trailers that the Silver Shamrock masks from Halloween III would make an appearance, and it was indeed amazingly surreal to see, this being the first time that Season of the Witch has been acknowledged in any way since “Mrs. Blankenship” was featured in 1995’s The Curse of Michael Myers (Curse writer Daniel Farrands told me that “Mrs Blakenship” is “Minnie Blankenship” in this interview).

And of course Allyson’s asshole boyfriend Cameron Elam, played by Dylan Arnold, is the son of longtime Haddonfield asshole Lonnie Elam, who bullied poor Tommy Doyle in the first film and was last seen getting scared away from the Myers House by Dr. Loomis.

Those are just a few of the many shout-outs to past Halloween movies that are featured all throughout Halloween 2018, which only enhance the film’s re-watchability.

And speaking of doctors, let’s talk about Dr. Sartain, played by Haluk Bilginer, who we told you would be a new Loomis-like character following Nick Castle’s Q&A in February. I’d still say that Laurie is really the “new Loomis”, but Sartain serves as sort of an abbreviated, extreme version of what these new filmmakers see as likely happening to Dr. Loomis, at least to some level. Loomis was admittedly obsessed with Michael after just 15 years with him, and Sartain is certainly obsessed with him after (presumably) close to 40 years with him.

And while Sartain’s twist is definitely the biggest WTF moment of the film, even that in itself is a bit of an Easter egg too, isn’t it? Halloween is easily the crown jewel of all modern horror franchises, but it has a long history of WTF moments throughout the last four decades, some that have been eventually embraced over the years (Halloween III), and others not so much (The Man in Black), but Sartain’s WTF moment is not really that huge when compared to all of the others. And you have to admit, you did not see that coming. (We were all expecting Ben Tramer Version 2.0, right?)

On repeat viewings, you’ll notice more of how Sartain allows, almost urges, journalists Aaron and Dana to provoke his most notorious patient, and on the eve of his transfer to a new facility where the doctor does not want to think about Michael being. And there’s the odd coincidence that the transfer takes place on the night before Halloween. And you will rightly wonder just how much of what transpires next was part of Sartain’s plans all along.

This is my favorite portrayal of the Laurie Strode character ever put on screen. In a career-defining performance that more than anything honors the legacy of one of the greatest survivors in movie history, Jamie Lee Curtis has never been better. This is a heartbreaking portrait of a woman who has never fully developed into a whole person because of the horrific events that happened to her on Halloween night in 1978. And when it starts happening again, 40 years later, her worst fears, and at the same time a chance at rewriting her own narrative’s ending, are realized.

As Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson, Andi Matichak is very much the modern version of what Laurie was in 1978, instantly likable in her everyday manner, understandably questionable of both sides of her mother and grandmother’s strained relationship, looking beyond the today that her friends live in to try to find her place in a larger picture, very much on the verge of adulthood.

And The Shape? James Jude Courtney’s portrayal does exactly what he told me he did (read our interview here), channeling the space created by Nick Castle in 1978, inhabited by Dick Warlock in 1981 and all the other actors since, to tap into the essence of the simple, focused, violent existence, rather than humanity, of Michael Myers. It’s all there, from the head tilt to the walk, and when fused with Nick Castle’s recorded breathing and cameos behind the mask, it makes for a damn perfect portrayal of The Shape.

Michael has never been deadlier, creatively brutal enough to evoke memories of Rob Zombie-directed kills, and yet silently cunning, the trickster that creatively displayed the dead bodies of Laurie’s friends for her to find in 1978, who enjoys terrorizing his victims as much if not more than actually murdering them. And he’s back to being a random source of tragedy, the kind of tragedy that we see hitting random people every day on the nightly news in real life in 2018.

The subtle yet ever-present social commentary threaded throughout the film is another tribute to Carpenter, but also a testament to the decades old truth that horror always reflects the current fears of the audience.

The new mask, an aged update on the original, created by a team led by Christopher Nelson (read our interview here), Vincent Van Dyke, and Justin Mabry, is haunting, soulful, and creepy as hell.

Over the years, I’m sure the biggest criticism about this film will be that it is essentially a remake of Halloween H20 , which it is, though I’d say it is much more a third version of Halloween II, and in a franchise that has already done this disregarding of previous chapters, it’s yet another choose-your-own-adventure option to take following the first film. No matter where you place it in official canon, it’s undeniable that Halloween 2018 is one of the best sequels in the franchise, and I’d say one of the best sequels, period.

A totally entertaining tribute that honors 40 years of Halloween, Michael Myers is back, and Haddonfield has never felt more like home.

Halloween 2018 is currently in theaters.

[Read our interview with Rhian Rees on the fear and female power of Halloween 2018 here.]

[Read our interview with James Jude Courtney on playing Michael Myers in Halloween 2018 here.]

[Read our interview with Nick Castle on reprising Michael Myers in Halloween 2018 here.]

[Read our interview with Christopher Nelson on making Michael Myers’ mask for Halloween 2018 here.]

I think the new film will ignore everything after Part 1. Laurie is the new Loomis, claiming for 40 years He’s coming back. Then He does.

— Halloween Daily News (@HalloweenDaily) September 17, 2017

For more Halloween news, follow @HalloweenDaily.

'Halloween' 2018 Brings Michael Myers Back Home [Review] A new Halloween movie is finally upon us, and it was well worth the nine-year wait, as director David Gordon Green and his co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley have delivered one of the best horror sequels ever made, in a timely story of unresolved trauma and the return of The Bogeyman.

#Halloween 2018 #Michael Myers

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liztalksmusic-blog · 7 years ago

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LOST IN TRANSLATION TOUR: REVIEW

Words fail to express how undoubtedly fucking awesome Tuesday night was at the Ogden Theater in Denver, CO. The Lost in Translation Tour brought their lineup to the city and to say I was impressed is a severe understatement.

Upon entrance to the venue, my friends and I, both old and ones I had just freshly made outside of the venue, went straight to the barricade for The Wrecks’ set. They’re the band we were primarily there for, but I soon learned I did myself dirty by not paying closer attention to Dreamers and New Politics, the remaining two bands on the lineup, before the show.

The Wrecks opened with an unreleased jam, “Wasted Youth”, and despite the absence of a released studio version of this song, there were still a decent amount of fans singing along, (myself included).

[IMG: Lead Singer Nick Anderson of The Wrecks, image credit to Angela Smith]

The song included a killer instrumental that was the perfect way to get an audience excited about a band they may not know, and a fantastic way to kick off the show as a whole. The Wrecks were killer with crowd interaction and feeding off the energy the audience was putting out. They moved through their set seamlessly, lead singer and frontman, Nick Anderson, moving into the crowd to jam with fans near the end of the set for their high energy, incredibly dance-able tune, “Turn it Up”.

[IMG: Bassist Aaron Kelley of The Wrecks, image credit to Angela Smith]

The indie rockers wrapped up their set with their most popular song, (at least according to the band’s Spotify page) “Favorite Liar”, giving fans the chance to scream their heart outs during the line in the final verse, “I remember waking up in Colorado…”. The five-piece played another local venue, The Globe Hall, when in town for their headlining tour on Halloween last year, and it appears as though the tour paid off.

[IMG: Guitarist Westen Weiss of The Wrecks, image credit to Angela Smith]

Walking into the venue, you would have no idea that they were the first band on the bill based off the crowd, that was clearly familiar with the band, and those who weren’t certainly are now. You can check out the Wrecks’ latest release, sophomore EP “Panic Vertigo” here.

After the energy from their set died down and the stage was once again empty, my friends and I chose to move out of the crowd in order to buy some merchandise before things got too crazy and decided to enjoy the rest of the show from further back in the crowd. I was a bit more distracted during Dreamer’s set, but it was clear the band had some fans in the crowd. I enjoyed some songs more than others if I’m being completely honest, but regardless of my preference for some songs over others, their stage presence was undeniable.

[IMG: Lead singer Nick Wold of Dreamers, image credit to Angela Smith]

They know how to get a crowd excited in unique ways. Most notably, at the end of the set lead singer Nick Wold jumped into the audience to crowdsurf (and made it surprisingly far without being dropped), and the band threw stuffed animals into the crowd. I later learned that the animals came from a post-Valentines Day clearance aisle at a Walgreens, and thought it was pretty damn cool that they were creative enough to make it a fun addition to their set, also giving the Denver fans a unique experience from other dates of the tour.

[IMG: Bassist Marc Nelson of Dreamers, image credit to Angela Smith]

Although the band only has a few released songs on Spotify, they’re undoubtedly worth adding to your library.You can check them out here.

The excited buzz of the crowd and vague smell of liquor in the air set the scene for the rest of the night. The only thing that put a halt to the chatter between hyped up concert goers was the beginning notes of New Politics’ first song and the sensory starkness of the lights shutting down across the room.

I’m used to being in the pit at shows, surrounded by sweaty strangers with little room to move but getting to be close to the performers, where all the action tends to be. This was the first time in a long time that I enjoyed a show from farther away, able to take in and fully appreciate the entire picture. It was refreshing. What surprised me most is that even though I only knew a few songs of theirs, New Politics made it nearly impossible NOT to dance around and get into their set. Everytime I put my full attention on the stage, something new and exciting was happening. The Ogden is a tiered venue, and I saw David Boyd (lead singer of New Politics) crowdsurf at least once in both the first two tiers. He interacted with the balcony, and even jammed with those of us in the back near the bar.

[IMG: Soren Hansen of New Politics, image credit to Angela Smith]

The lighting visuals were intense and overwhelming, but in the best way. I could go on and on about positive things in regard to New Politics’ set. Between a backflipping lead singer, a crazy talented drummer and keyboard player, and the remarkable ability of the musicians to not only keep performing through a long and difficult sounding set, but to keep up their incredible physical and musical ability consistently, never wavering or missing a beat and never letting any fatigue show through, it was an experience for the books. It takes true passion for their art. Few times in my life have I seen performers as incredible and committed to their stage show as the men of New Politics, and I’m kicking myself for not listening to them sooner.

[IMG: David Boyd of New Politics, image credit to Angela Smith]

The night was filled with antics, dancing our butts off, and having fun. If you’re looking for a way to let loose for a night, a New Politics show is the way to do it. The buzz of the bass filled my body from the hair on my head to the tips of my toes, pounding in my chest along with my heart. Upon leaving the venue I could still feel the buzz of the bass and the energy of the performance on the tip of my tongue, and at the back of my throat, ever so slightly soothing the harshness that was there from screaming lyrics earlier in the night.

All three bands on the tour not only met my expectations, but exceeded them in a mind-blowing way. The passion and commitment these guys all have to their art and to their performance is unfathomably real, raw, and resulted in the most refreshingly inspired shows I’ve been to recently. It takes commitment and drive to play a show at all, but the above-and-beyond passion is what sets these performers apart. It takes true passion to put on a show like these acts did, and I have no doubt they would have played at the same caliber that they did to a 1,000 person room as they would to a room of 10.

If you have a chance to catch any of the remaining dates of The Lost In Translation tour, DO IT. You’ll only regret it if you choose otherwise. You can find out what cities they’re hitting and get tickets here.

Otherwise, do yourself a favor by checking out the bands on the lineup and keep an eye out for future tours they’ll embark on. Trust me when I say you do not want to miss out on the chance to jam these bands. Check out New Politics’ music here.

A special thank you to my friend Angie Smith for providing her kickass pictures for this review: You can visit her website at PinkSkiesMedia.wordpress.com or check out her instagram at instagram.com/angesmithmedia !

Keep an eye out for some Warped tour related content from me in the next few days! Who are you most excited about on the lineup?

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undercover-stories · 6 years ago

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The World Turns With or Without You

The tables have turned in that Foggy ends up messing with the mob in an attempt to help Hell's Kitchen with his skills as a lawyer and it's Matt's turn to helplessly watch Foggy get hurt and not being able to do anything about it

PART 2

AO3

The first blow lands on Foggy's stomach. Right where his liver should be. It knocks the wind right out of him, his muscles turn in to jelly and he's slumping forward against the ropes around his chest tying him to the metal chair, making it harder for him to breathe.

He can hear Matt calling out his name from his own chair that he's tied to behind him but he can't seem to make his vocal chords work well enough to muster up a reply.

For a moment he thinks he's going to puke but he takes a deep rattling inhale just as one of the thugs appear in front of him and start cutting away at the ropes. Not caring at how the serrated blade scrapes against the skin of his wrists and tear at his shirt to leave shallow nicks on his chest.

Another thug comes forward and Foggy's muscles are still to weak to fight them off when they lift him to his feet by his arms, drag him around the chairs so that he's facing Matt before dropping him unceremoniously on his knees.

He tries to get up but before he can a solid kick to his cheek sends him sprawling on his side and choking on a mouth full of blood.

"STOP IT! STOP JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Matt's cut of by a right hook that knocks his glasses right off and the sight of it is what gives Foggy enough urgency to wobbly get to his feet.

"Fuck you," Foggy yell viciously. Ignoring the painful throb at the side of his face that he knew was dripping a crimson red streak to his chin, "He doesn't have anything to do with this. I'm the one who fucked with you shit heads. Fucking cowards beating on a blind guy like it's hard."

He punctuates his words by spitting out a thick wad of mucous and blood as close to their leader as he can.

The man in question looks unimpressed, but he marches forward, grabs him by the hair to pull his head back and lands a hit to his stomach so hard Foggy falls back on his knees and heaves up bile and blood and mucous on the cement floor.

The man doesn't wait for Foggy to finish before landing a kick to his side, another to his chest followed by one one his back right above his kidneys. He kneels on either side of Foggy's hips, almost straddling him just as he pulls his arm back and lands a punch on his cheeks so hard it scrapes away skin and made Foggy's eyeballs rattle in his skull.

He pulls his elbow back again and brings down another blow on the other side of Foggy's face, again and again and again till Foggy's choking on blood and sobbing with tears and snot mixed into the red droplets pooling in tiny blots on either side of his temple.

"STOP! STOP PLEASE! PLEASE!", Matt screams, pulling violently at his binds till the rough knots dig blood red bracelets around his wrists. But the metal chair is bolted to the floor and the ropes twisted around his chest and legs refuse to give. He continues to scream but his cries fall on deaf ears that none of the thugs bat an eye too.

"You could have made this easy Nelson." The man on top of Foggy says with a tired disappointed air as if he was talking to a child that had made him cross. "You could have just given up the files you stole from us. We would have let you go with just a few broken bones but now we have to make an example of you. It's nasty business. I don't like getting my hands dirty Nelson."

"Foggy! Foggy just give them what they want! Foggy just give it to them!", Matt is full on begging now. Pleading for his best friend to save himself.

But what was at stake was bigger than Foggy. Bigger even than both of them. Giving them the thumb drive with the incriminating files he'd stolen from them would mean dooming countless teenagers being dragged by these people into a life of crime, drug addiction and incarceration and Foggy can't do it. He can't. He promised. He promised he'd help those kids. He'd given his word. He'd held their mothers hands, grasped their father's shoulders and told them he'd try his best to help and he can't turn his back now. He's so close. So close. Just a few more hours and these fuckers would be scampering for somewhere to hide or risk getting dragged to jail with the proof Foggy's managed to scrounge. Enough for Brett to get a warrant for their arrest and Foggy can't risk all of that just to save his own skin.

Unsurprisingly enough, despite his resolve Foggy is still scared out of his mind. His sight is blurred between the swelling around his eyes and the tears that won't stop streaming to pale the bloody red streaks running down his face. He can't hide the pitiful sobs wracking his chest and if his tongue wasn't so swollen from the amount of times he'd bit into it when the blows rained down on him he would already have made his own pleas for them to stop. "No more" he'd beg, "please god, no more please"

A part of him is glad that he's hurting to much to make himself look even more pathetic than he knows he already is.

He thinks about how Matt is watching him curled up into a mewling bloody mess and it makes him cry even harder to think that the last thing his best friend might see is Foggy just being a miserable heap on the hard floor of a warehouse.

"Please god just don't let them hurt Matt. Please just leave him alone. I'm so sorry Matt. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you got dragged into this."

He turns to his side and wretches up more disgusting brown bile when he hears the Boss say, "we're done here. Take care of him."

The man washes his hands from a water bottle one of his men tips over them before wiping them off on a handkerchief, folding and tucking it in to his shirt. He doesn't even glance back as he leaves the warehouse with most of his men in tow with only two left behind who don't waste time to drag Foggy to one of the beams where a noose had been tied around of one the hooks.

"What are you-", Matt tries to hold back the alarm that threatens to burst through his chest. He can't really tell what they're about to do until the noose is thrown over his partners neck and pulled tight.

"NO! NO! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU! STOP! STOP! STOP GODDAMMIT! JESUS CHRIST PLEASE! PLEASE!", Matt thrashes against his bonds even more violently than before. He's screaming his throat raw and the bolts creak against the metal legs of his chair but the ropes are pulled to be even more unyielding around his limbs.

The thugs like before, ignore him. Trained well and utterly obedient to the instructions they were given. One of them holds Foggy up while the other tugs on the other end of the noose with the middle held up on the ceiling by a pulley.

He gives the braided cord a hard tug enough to pull Foggy to his feet. The second thug grasps the rope alongside him and together they pull Foggy off the floor.

The scream tearing through Matt's throat reverberates though the warehouse.

"NO!!!! NO!!! NO!!! GOD NO!! NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

They men secure the rope to the hook and leave, and Matthew can do nothing but listen to every creak of the noose continuing to tighten around Foggy's neck with every desperate kick of his legs that send him swaying in morbid circles 5 feet in the air.

Matt can do nothing but just scream his best friends name even as his chair creaks and moans beneath him but stubbornly refusing to give. Time seems to move too fast and Matt can hear Foggy's movements become more lethargic and slow.

The fingers Foggy had held up to his neck to try and pull away the noose fall limply to his side. His eyes role up and his lungs let out what sounded like a final rasping effort for air.

Suddenly the skylight to the warehouse roof shatters into pieces that to Matt's ears sounded like a thunderous shriek, as a small familiar form falls though it.

Jessica doesn't waste time on her knees where she'd landed, leaping up to Foggy and breaking the rope holding him up with a sharp snap and falling back to the ground with him held gingerly to her chest.

Matt doesn't even notice Luke tearing at his bonds.

"He's not breathing", Jess says, placing him on the floor and starting mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Matt can hear Foggy's heart beat a weak thrum in his chest even as he sat close beside him. Fingers grasping Foggy's hard in a grip so hard it was as if he hoped the pain would be enough to shock his friend to consciousness.

Time again seems to pass too fast and it feels like hours before Foggy finally gives a horribly painful gasp from his audibly torn throat.

Matt isn't ashamed to say that he openly wept at the sound, "Thank God. Thank God."

The relief fades into urgency and he makes to lift Foggy into a cradle in his arms. "We need to get him to the hospital."

"What are you waiting for?!" He asks almost erratically when both Luke and Jessica make no move to help him.

"Matt," Jess starts, "If the mob finds out he's still alive and being treated in the hospital they'll come after him. We can't-"

"If he doesn't get treatment he's going to die. I'm not letting that happen!"

"Neither are we," Luke cuts in quickly, "Claire and Karen are waiting at my place for us. They've got the whole place set up. We just need to get Foggy through the next few hours, till Brett's gets the warrant and we know it's safe to get him to the hospital-"

"It's not enough! He needs a hospital now! I'm not going to let him die! If they come after him I'll stop them! I can keep him safe!" Matt insists, having already gotten to his feet with his best friend held carefully in his arms.

"Matt listen to yourself! What are you going to do! Hold them off on your own? What do you think people are going to say about a blind lawyer fighting back a bunch of thugs-"

"I don't care! It doesn't matter! I'm going to do whatever it takes!"

"He's not going to be the only one in danger Matt! The patients, the nurses. If they get desperate enough to start a shoot out in the halls think about how many people are going to get killed!"

Luke's words are enough to get him to pause. He pulls Foggy closer but doesn't make another step to get away.

"Let me take him," Jessica piped up, "I'm faster. I'll keep to the roofs. I can reach Luke's place in ten minutes at worst and whoever might be watching this place won't be able to figure out where I'm going"

Matt hesitates for a fraction of a second before passing Foggy - who still sounded like he was breathing through a straw - into Jessica's arms.

She turns to leave but stops when Matt calls her name.

"Please just-", Matt can't make himself say the rest but regardless Jessica gives a stiff nod and jumps through the hole she'd made in the skylight.

Matt stands there silent as a statue for 3 minutes before Foggy's heartbeat finally fades to nothing in the distance.

#foggy nelson #matt murdock #Daredevil #netflix daredevil #Angst #Hurt/Comfort #Torture #Medical Innacuracies #Medical Procedures #Jessica jones #luke cage

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thereviewsarein · 5 years ago

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Everything’s on pause this summer – but WayHome got a head start on the trend back in 2018 and we’ve been hoping that someone will hit play again ever since.

Over the course of three summers, we saw some cool art, fun music, and big headliners take the stage at WayHome, and it’s easy to look back at a long list of memories and good times and hot hot weather. For this post, though I challenged myself to bring the list down to three acts that I remember most fondly when they played their sets – with 5 more honourable mentions, you can see just below here.

There are also non-musical memories that I love. The way the WayHomies treating each other like a community and looking out for one another (and me), getting a sweet french braid in a last-minute appointment in the VIP beauty bar, my miracle cold beer from the trunk of the car, backstage interviews, holiday and Canadian Music Week parties, and more. I miss WayHome. And honestly, I’m at the point where I’m starting to wonder if maybe 2022 is the perfect time to bring it back as we’ll hopefully all be ready to get back together in groups of thousands to see music we love.

That would be great.

So, check out my three picks, and if you were at WayHome in 2015, 2016, and/or 2017 – leave a comment and tell us which performance(s) you remember most fondly.

Honourable Mentions: Kendrick Lamar, Walk The Moon, St. Vincent, Tegan and Sara, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

The Killers – WayHome Stage, WayHome – July 24, 2016

https://www.thereviewsarein.com/2016/07/26/the-way-it-was-the-killers-at-wayhome-2016/

When The Killers closed the Sunday main stage, I was excited. Heck, I’d been excited for quite a while leading up to their set. With so many hits and bangers to play, I couldn’t wait to see them get up there give ’em to us. What I didn’t expect was for The Killers to open with Mr. Brightside and blow me away instantly. We were sitting in the grass near the barn in the VIP when the music started and I was so surprised at the first song that I pushed Trish and yelled/shouted/screamed.

From there, the band just kept on rolling. They played a 15 song set (including the encore) and were an amazing cap to our second WayHome weekend. The energy on stage and in the crowd was fantastic. There was singing and dancing and happiness all around. And it was exactly what happens when the best of festival life happens.

What a fantastic night it was to be in a big crowd and watch a band of rock and rollers come out on stage and sing for us.

“I fanboyed hard during this set. I screamed and I cheered and I danced throughout the set and my smile was big, like I meant it, and my heart was full of happy.” – me, July 2016

Hit play on this fan-shot video from the middle of the crowd and feel what it was like to be there for Human.

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Neil Young and the Promise of the Real – WayHome Stage, WayHome – July 24, 2015

https://www.thereviewsarein.com/2015/07/25/rebel-content-neil-young-at-wayhome-2015/

When Neil Young was announced as a headliner for the very first WayHome Festival, there were competing thoughts of “Why aren’t we going with new music” and “Yes! Bring on the legend!” – in the end, I’m glad they went with the legend.

Originally, this was scheduled to be a regular 90 minute to two-hour set, but Neil Young said he wanted to play three hours, so it became a three-hour set. And boy howdy, did he make it count. With 24 songs including acoustic versions of After The Gold Rush and Heart Of Gold to start the show, and eclectic electric jams of Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World, Down By The River, Unknown Legend, and more, the set was packed.

Partway through the show, I started doing the math to try and figure out the average song length with the extended guitar solos and jam sessions going on. In the end, the average came out to about 7.5 minutes per song from the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

At 69 years old, Neil Young put on a rock and roll show that was full of piss and vinegar. There were classic hits and new protest songs. There was weird Uncle Neil stuff (like throwing Ontario organic cherries into the crowd) and as much energy as I can ever hope to have if I get to that age.

Backed by Lucas Nelson and the Promise of the Real, Neil Young gave us more than I could have hoped for on the first night of the first WayHome Festival.

Thank you, Neil.

Here’s a fan-shot video of Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World. Enjoy!

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Arkells – WayBright Stage & Interview, WayHome – July 23, 2016

https://www.thereviewsarein.com/2016/07/24/morning-report-arkells-at-wayhome-2016/

Two weeks before Arkells released their fourth album Morning Report, they gave the WayHome crowd something to cheer about.

My Arkells memories from that day start a few hours before the band’s 8 o’clock set though. As the afternoon sun beat the hell out of the crowds, we made a trip back to the media tent for some water and shade – and my phone buzzed when we hit the wifi. “…we have you guys down for the arkells at 2:50. Can you make it?” I replied five minutes later to say yes – and had 18 minutes to get ready to sit down with Max and Mike while Trish took our photos and we all chatted.

We talked about the new record, changes to the stage show (Max playing less guitar and having more freedom on stage, as well as the introduction of the Northern Soul Horns and the Arkettes), podcasts, what had changed over the years, and more. Trish snapped photos while we sat off to the side of a trail near the trees, and it was great. It was also a wonderful set up for the show later that day.

Note: I have a collection of photos that Trish has taken of me with artists during interviews and hangouts – and one of the pics that I keep on the wall in my home office is of Max and Mike and me from that interview.

When the band did take the stage, they crushed it. They were in the pre-headliner spot on the WayBright stage – which gave them a big crowd, no competition from a bigger band, and they played in that magic hour from daylight to darkness.

Max, Mike, Tony, Tim, and Nick played 11 songs in their hour set – and made all of them count. Max jumped down off the stage and sang as he crowd surfed during A Little Rain. The crowd sang along at peak volume for Leather Jacket and 11:11. The energy was great, there was a pride in having a Canadian band putting on a show like this, there was a familiarity with the songs, there was love for their cover of The Tragically Hip’s My Music At Work. The whole thing was wonderful.

It was 2016, but I can still feel it. It helps that if I’m ever feeling a need for some live music while I work, I can hit YouTube and watch/listen to Leather Jacket, A Little Rain (A Song For Pete), Drake’s Dad, Private School, and My Music At Work and I can feel myself off to the side, watching and dancing and jumping and singing.

If there was a moment at WayHome where I went all-in on an artist, that I became a fan and not just someone who appreciated the music or kept tabs on new releases, this was that moment for me.

I’d seen them once before and I’ve seen them a few times since – but that one, that evening spot on a side stage at WayHome in 2016, was special and memorable.

Scroll through the photos from the interview and set – and hit play on the performance videos if you want to feel some of that live music love.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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Joshua’s Live Music Memories (part 2): WayHome Everything's on pause this summer - but WayHome got a head start on the trend back in 2018 and we've been hoping that someone will hit play again ever since.

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wellplacedrocket · 7 years ago

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Second Half GIFvalanche: So That Happened

I honestly don’t remember much of the halftime show. I think that’s when I got up to go to the bathroom, refill my water, and pace nervously, awaiting my fate. I know Justin Timberlake played, and there was a Prince element involved as a nod to Minneapolis. If only the Vikings would have been in the game, I’m sure this would have been the Culmination of Being for many of their fans. Sorry, Minneapolis, I had no time for your (our) cultural moment in the national spotlight that night.

The Patriots started the following drive and it sure looked like during halftime they clicked everything into place and solved the Eagles’ defense. And the solution was to Gronk them to death. Hell, the first attempt was a rare miss on a pop route but it was horrifyingly open.

No matter, the next one was a leisurely 15 yard out to him in a very comfortable hole in the Eagles’ zones.

Then another pop for 20 yards, same route as the one they’d missed two plays ago, except the defender was in much better position - but fell over. Then another portent - Brady gets pretty decent protection, but with no one open quickly, he wisely chucks it out of bounds, making all the Eagles fans wish he’d hung onto for literally a quarter-second longer.

Just for funsies, the Patriots then sent Gronkowski wide left from where he easily, almost casually pick up the 3rd and 6, and a couple plays later had him basically box out Ronald Darby (who slipped) for a 5 yard TD.

Slipping and losing your footing is a tough break, so I’m not gonna yell at him. But Jesus H. Christ. But most of the drive just looked so, so easy, like why hadn’t they just been forcing it at Gronk the whole time? Looking at the scoreboard now, all the Eagles’ unlikely heroics in the first half and they were still only up three. My sphincter clenched.

The next sequence is emblematic of Nelson Agholor’s career. I always defend receivers against the slings and arrows of fans who spit angrily at drops, because man...this shit is just way harder than it looks. But he’s still gotta make this catch. And so Agholor, much maligned as a bust last year…

...manages one of the greatest career turnarounds I’ve ever seen a skill position player make, improving his catching ability, but as an added bonus and unexpected twist, he somehow also turned into an outstanding yards-after-catch threat.

Way to go, Agholor.

It’s easy, particularly in football, to get nauseating with fawning cliches about how much of a team game it is, and how credit is due everywhere, but every position group really did have their moment here. The Eagles kept their drive going with blocking that was merely serviceable, but just outstanding rush talent from Blount…

...and Ajayi.

Then I gotta highlight great TE action, because this is a textbook block-to-pop by Ertz, starting from the right wing.

Having expected the Eagles to deflate and lay down softly as soon as the Patriots reasserted themselves in the game, this drive was blowing my mind in all the best ways.

Now I want to contrast a couple plays’ worth of QB action. This first one shows Foles doing something that has always made me squirm and scream in my brain. He’ll look super indecisive with where he wants to go and double clutch on throws. Football is so fast, that if you double clutch even for a half second, your window is probably shut. He hadn’t done this all game and it’s not a good look here…

...although good on him for just chucking it away. Now look at this one, where he’s back to Nick Foles: Unstoppable Football Howitzer.

This wound up being the first of two reviews that made me want to snap my own neck. Much has been made about the review system in sports - particularly football - with many calling for it to be abolished for how it kills the action, and sends everyone down a labyrinth of byzantine rule-parsing. I say technology has made it impossible for sports viewers to tolerate human error that goes against their interests. In earlier days of sports on TV, there weren’t a bajillion camera angles with high-def picture in ultra slow motion that could instantly analyze the action. That genie is out of the bottle now - you think anyone would just let it go when an obviously blown call, revealed by the most advanced video technology in the world, goes against them? Sports would devolve into nothing but judgement about officials’ human imperfections and conspiracy theories, even moreso than it is now.

Still, the emotional limbo that a video review puts you in is excruciating. Do I lose my shit?! Do I lose my shit in a bad way?! Is third RB Corey Clement a god damn hero? Is he an unforgivable putz/traitor?!?!

It was a hell of a run, throw, and catch, another case of the entire roster showing up for their moment. And I was surprised they let it stand. I don’t know that I have ever heard the argument that a ball carrier can be considered to have “control” of the ball if it’s moving around in his grasp, even though it makes intuitive sense. Ball movement is just the visual fulcrum point on which judgement of control sits, for lack of a better one. But the refs, in a rare instance of this, went with the intuitive judgement rather than the driest rule interpretation. And if this had been the Patriots scoring a TD like this, I’m sure I would still be hulked out, speaking in tongues of rage, and fighting gladiator matches on planet Sakaar.

Eagles fans immediately burned effigies of Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels for being so confident this play would be overturned - I’m a little more forgiving. I would later read about their awful PRO-PATRIOTS BIAS as they continued to harp on how it was called...I was too stressed out to notice much of what they were saying at the time, but I suppose it was a little more airtime than commentators usually give to matters of dubious officiating.

The Eagles defense now had a 10 point lead to protect again, and while their D line depth seemed to be paying dividends by limiting the Patriots to short runs, their pass defense once again struggled. A defensive holding call coughed up a first down (it looked like it was reeeeeaaaaaaally upsold by Gronkowski), and then Brady again just barely beats the rush to get it to Hogan, working against pillow soft coverage once again. You could make a plush bathrobe out of this coverage.

Hogan might have pushed off, at least Darby thinks so. But he might not have even needed to.

Check out this tackle by Malcolm Jenkins, it’s hard to see where the hell he even comes from here. Somewhere, Brian Dawkins sheds a proud tear.

I dunno, I probably shouldn’t be getting super pissed about the soft coverage, because even when they press it, it’s burned.

Tom Brady has a very comfortable pocket there. That one is on the rush as much as the secondary. Jesus, what a collapse of one of the strengths of the team, but you also have to tip your hat to the Patriots O-line, they were a wall.

It would have been nice if the Eagles Defense didn’t just lay down softly in this game, you know? But here’s where I was hating myself for ever thinking that maybe the Eagles could pull this shit off. I should be more detachedly cynical than that by now. For all the eye-popping limit-breaks that the offense had made happen, there the Patriots were, and their highlights just looked easier.

There was no telling when the universe would catch wise to Nick Foles and the Eagles offense’s historic success and move to correct the error, but those guys looked like they gave zero fucks:

Holy shit.

HOLY SHIT.

What is going on?!

Then it was the fourth quarter, where hopes go to get snuffed out.

The drive would ultimately stall in the red zone thanks to a nice open field play made by the Patriots’ defense, but I wanted to call attention to the play design here. The Eagles had already hit on an Agholor end-around, and they used that motion again…

...but had him stop and go back the other way. It’s interesting, but I would have preferred if they were going to use the end-around as a decoy to decoy all the way - fake to Agholor and have the RB pop out to Foles’s right. As it happened, the Patriots’ OLB didn’t even rush the pass, and Lane Johnson didn’t have anyone to block. His defender just went with Agholor and was on him right away.

Nice job by Jake Elliott to boot the FG through, but I couldn’t help but notice in a game wherein a touchdown almost always gets 7 points, the Eagles were now only up 6.

And the defense wasn’t inspiring much confidence.

I mean, that’s right into the teeth of what the Eagles defense is supposed to be great at. Mighty Fletcher Cox gets into the backfield, but on the wrong side of the play. Vinny Curry might have been doing a stunt here, but he gets turned aside, and then the Patriots’ O-line does a good job of getting second level.

I actually didn’t mind the blitz here. Usually blitzing against Tom Brady is suicide, but it’s not like anything else was working, and the D-line just wasn’t getting it done. The results were pretty predictable, but Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz had to have been tearing his hair out like “FUCK IT! SEND ‘EM ALL!”

When two guys in pass coverage end up in the same space, someone has screwed the pooch. I mean, this looks just beautifully textbook, like it’s during practice for the Patriots. I know exactly how this game ends, and this drive still fills me with dread.

I can’t actually blame the defense too much on that play. Darby’s position wasn’t bad, it was just a difficult throw and a very difficult catch in a perfect spot. But everything leading up to that play made me regret the part of my brain that allowed me to believe the Eagles could win the Super Bowl. I felt so stupid to having opened that emotional door. Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, the Scout hurts people, and brother, the Eagles lose in the postseason. Like a force of nature. Of course the Eagles defense would shit the bed this game. It was so obvious. Of course the offense would spend all game lighting it up, and would now come crashing back down to earthbound reality. Of course this would be a record setting game in NFL history for total yards of offense that the Eagles would lose in the 4th quarter.

I flashed forward to the L I’d be chewing on for the rest of my life over this. The immediate sympathy from some friends and coworkers over how close the Eagles were, and the schadenfreude from others. How it would sting when I had to next see people. How years down the line, the pain would be reduced down to a duller ache as I recalled the time the Eagles almost...almost...

It would be internalized and just part of my existence. I would wonder at times what ripple effects it ultimately had on my psyche.

Tom Brady makes fourth quarter comebacks in the Super Bowl like people make eggs for breakfast. The Eagles don’t. Haves and have nots, a tale as old as life.

Ah, yes. This was what I expected. Foles and the offense had been on fire, and now it would cost them as they tried to force increasingly ludicrous miracles.

Hm, a 3rd and 6 converted, down 1 with under 9 minutes to go in the Super Bowl. That’s actually...pretty...clutch?

Another 3rd down…

...and that is a great job on defense. It was actually a pretty good play call, the Patriots blitzed the middle and Foles barely gets it away to the outside. The Patriots blitzed right into a screen, which often burn blitzes, but S Devin McCourty gets around Vaitai, who was after him, and flows out to chase down the play.

It would make for a better story if I said I was surprised they didn’t punt here. But I’d watched the Eagles all season, and going for it on 4th and 1 from their own 45, down 1 with 5:45 left fit their personality. It just seemed like everything was setting up for them to fall on their faces and the Patriots to get the ball back, and burn a few minutes of the clock on their way to another game-sealing “Tom Terrific” touchdown.

The fact that they clutched it out, in the biggest moment of the franchise’s history, demonstrated there was something different going on here. I was in uncharted waters. Looking at that play, it’s a pretty classic pick (a quasi-legal technique executed to perfection by Celek) that is overlooked only because it’s so close to the line of scrimmage. Hell of a backfield dodge under pressure by Foles and a great throw made off his back foot - a posture he has long taken heat for throwing out of too much.

Wha…

How...

What is this?! What is going on here?! You got Foles making Aaron Rodgers throws out here, and Eagles receivers catching them. For all the marbles. EVERY MARBLE. The Eagles do not rise to the occasion! THE EAGLES SHIT THEIR BEDS.

You can argue this was the play of the game, because it got them into reasonable FG range. Vaitai gets beat, but pushes the edge rusher just enough to give Foles the time to get it away. And Foles isn’t taking Ertz in the flat, who is wide open. No, Nick Foles is now Big Dick Nick: Gunslinger and he fires it in a tight window to the slant.

Foles and Agholor have the hot read going on the corner blitz. This is probably just a bad idea by Patriots’ D-coordinator, Matt Patricia. Agholor, a first round pick in 2015, had, after two underwhelming seasons marred by drops, a breakout season and had shown himself to be excellent running with the ball. You don’t want to be putting him in a situation to get the ball quickly with lots of space by drawing away his defender. But maybe the Patriots felt like they had to get weird.

They did a trap block with the LT Vaitai here, and it’s nice to see that in this game, given the context, and despite his previous struggles, they weren’t treating him like a liability with the playcalling. They were featuring him with this call. It’s also very nice to get able to get a few yards and the cloud of dust.

Oh, man. This play.

First of all, I want to snark at McCourty, the S who’s on Ertz 1-on-1 at the top of the screen, but I can’t. It’s a very tough spot he’s put in. This is TE territory, and TEs very much like getting matched up against smaller DBs in tight quarters. McCourty then slips on the break just like Darby had, which made the throw and catch pretty easy.

Then in the biggest moment for this team, which has been around since dirt, from a city that breathes football and in which it has been played since it was a thing, that hadn’t ever won the primary professional football association’s championship - on this play where they take the lead, Al Michaels, of “do you believe in miracles?” fame, says “Zach Ertz for the touchdown! And again, all you can think back to now is the Jesse James play with Pittsburgh. Does he complete the process?”

I’d like to think he’d want to take a mulligan on that one, given the context for Eagles fans. We know the review is coming, god damnit. Just let us have this moment, give us a memory, Michaels. But no.

I don’t know how long the review took, so I’m going to conservatively guess it was 8 months.

This was truly awful, and I get the “down with replay!” crowd here. You lose your shit in those few moments of sports fan glee, before the blood drains from your face because the thing you just saw happen might not have happened. They launch a forensic investigation over whether a knee brushed a blade of grass. Then you wait in trepidation, and if it goes your way, you feel awash in relief more than you feel the ragejoy you were just robbed of. If it doesn’t go your way, you want to crawl under your couch. All if this amplified 10,000x by the Super Bowl.

The fact that this is the first place Michaels goes is, I suppose, not really his fault and mostly just an example of where we’re at with football now. Everyone has to suspend their emotional reaction for however long it takes to reach a conclusion, and when that conclusion is reached, the losers feel shittier and the winners feel about 25% less ecstatic with the loss of immediacy.

Lots of Eagles fans and people rooting against the Patriots had out their torches and pitchforks for what they perceived as favoritism by Michaels and Collinsworth toward the reigning champs that had been going on all night. I didn’t really see what the complaints were about, but I was baffled that these two found this TD controversial. Michaels hit on it right away, the crux of the matter was whether Ertz was ruled a runner with possession of the ball before he broke the plane with it. And look at it. Yeah, he was a runner. He literally runs with possession of the ball. How much is he possessing the ball? Enough to shove it out over the goal line as he makes a desperate dive. The Clement TD was more up in the air than this one, by far.

When the refs finally confirmed the TD after their forensic analysis, this should have been the biggest moment of my sports fan life, but instead...nah. It was more exhaling and unclenching my butt for the first time in 5 minutes than it was “FUCK YEAAAAAAHHHH.” Suggesting we put scrap video review is stupid, but I understand I was emotionally robbed by it.

Going back to that clip for a moment, my favorite reaction is Jeffrey’s (#17). He looks like he wants to jump on Ertz but then doesn’t and instead does this kind of childlike hop with his arms up. It’s a heartwarming moment of pure human joy.

Anyway, if you’re up 5, there’s little reason not to go for 2, but of course it didn’t work out. Good defense.

Now here’s Tom Brady with the ball, a timeout, and 2:21 remaining. Like, it’s supposed to be unlikely they score, right? That’s what makes the legends for those who pull it off. Here was THE BIGGEST LEGEND in the history of the sport. The Eagles Defense was hot garbage that night. “2:21, the two-minute warning, and a time out, he’s got all day,” Michaels remarked with confidence. It just felt so inevitable.

Yes, here was the beginning of the end for all of us Eagles fans. Soft coverage, a quick out to Gronkowski for 7 yards. Soft coverage isn’t actually a bad idea here, but still, if it means you’re going to give up at least 7 yards each play, then the Patriots have plenty of time. The pass rush is actually getting into the backfield alright here, but Brady is able to make the decision quickly to a wide open receiver, so they’re not super close to him.

Again, I wish I had a better story of my reaction to this play, but I was as frozen as I would have been if something horrible had happened, if the Eagles defense had all just fallen over and allowed Brady himself to slow-jog the 70 yards for the TD. But truth is stranger than fiction, and the Eagles pass rush had finally - FINALLY, after a game of being at best a step too slow as everyone danced to Brady’s tune - got to the target.

Although they had plenty of time, the Patriots still had to move the ball, and probably felt they had to crisscross the entire field with route patterns, and so couldn’t afford to trade receivers for extra blockers. Once again, the Eagles coverage is soft, they’re sinking back into zones starting at 10 yards. However, the soft coverage came through here - Brady is looking for a deeper throw and climbs the pocket, burning time not finding any targets. He goes to checkdown, but as he turns to dump it, Brandon Graham is in his face, hacking at his throwing arm. The D-line, the rock of this team, which had spent the game unexpectedly and embarrassingly vanishing, had burst back into the story.

Tom Brady doesn’t get strip sacked and force fed a fat L, like a lowly Brandon Weedon or Trevor Semian. Brady dishes out the Ls to other hapless chumps. But there he was, ass on grass. As an Australian football radio guy would shoutcast, “Tom Brady...bereft on the turf!”

By the way, Michaels goes “Derek Barnett comes away with it! Brandon Graham was one of the guys who got in there!”

I mean...holy shit, Michaels. That’s some real godawful play by play there. Boom goes the dynamite.

I suppose I should have been leaping for joy, but with the Eagles in the driver’s seat and 2:09 remaining, I was silent, “leaned-in” as though my focus on the ensuing events would ward off the many ways the Eagles could still manage to find to fuck it all up. First sack of the game, for the Patriots’ only turnover, and it bounced straight to Barnett. That was catching a break.

My friends, if you believe in the healing, soul-nourishing power of schadenfreude, please feast your eyes.

Even Big Balls Doug wasn’t about to go styling in this situation. The Eagles came out and went with the prescribed heavy package runs, bringing on Seumalo and 2 TEs to try to zone block through all the guys the Patriots would certainly be crowding the line of scrimmage with. Kelce gets blown the hell up here but scrambles and sticks with it. Blount does a nice job extending the play for as long as he could.

The exact same playcall next play was Pederson showing confidence in his kicker for what would be - and I know I’ve beaten this phrase to death - the biggest kick of his life. Jake Elliott, the rookie replacement after starter Caleb Sturgis was injured. Elliott, who got signed off the Bengals practice squad, who had an alarmingly high miss rate for close range kicks, but was somehow money from deep, who had a record-setting walk off 61-yard FG for a win against the Giants at the Linc...go win the game, kid.

Kickers are strange animals. They spend most of their time at practice and during games off to the side, just repeating their one craft over and over again. They get together with teammates to practice special teams execution and how to deal with given scenarios, maybe some trick plays. But by the nature of their job, they don’t get to be all that social with their teammates very much. Then they come in the moments that everyone remembers, sometimes to perform the game winning act after their team has spent the last several hours scrambling with sprained joints and peeing blood to set that kicker up for his shot. All the superstar QBs, WRs, LBs take a backseat, hold their breath, and stand to the side watching the skinniest guy on the team do his thing. Nothing else matters in that moment - not the touchdowns, sacks, clock management. All the egos fade away. Everyone has invested 100% of their emotional selves into this one dude.

If he comes through, he’s the hero. Multimillion dollar superstars storm the field with big goofy, unselfconscious smiles to dogpile him…

...and carry him into legend on their shoulders.

I’m always touched by this scene. Sports does this in a way we don’t get to see much in other walks of life. Everyone loses their god damn minds in hilarious joy and swarms this guy, and each other. It’s a human moment. All the other shitty contexts in life, all the conflict and racism and Steve Bannons vanish because it’s time to scream bliss gibberish at the kicker as they jump on his shoulderpads, for he is their guy.

And if he blows it, you have the Minnesota Vikings.

It’s an exercise in clutch. So on comes Elliott for a midrange FG to put the Eagles up 8 with just over a minute to go in the Super Bowl. No big deal.

It should be noted that rather than the ecstasy of a walk-off W here, Elliott’s teammates give him the usual workmanlike acknowledgements. It was still a one score game.

Failed trick plays always make the attempting team look like goober losers, but I don’t blame the Patriots for getting weird here. They sacrifice the maybe 10 - 15 yards that they’d have likely gotten with a standard return to shoot for the moon with this thing. It went nowhere, mercifully, but it was a solid idea. “That is a really interesting call,” observes Collinsworth. Was it? Seems pretty reasonable and justifiable.

Yesss, yesss, this is where the soft coverage becomes a smothering pillow. At least it should. That is a very tough throw and catch they attempt, but it was possible, god damnit. The zones were swiss cheese.

The pass rush was making its presence known. They were starting to give Brady tickles, which was a better late than never sort of thing. In fact, it was a “if you’re going to do it at all, late is the time to do it” sort of thing.

I mean...come the fuck on. The pass rush certainly was breathing down Brady’s neck here, and I get the secondary is playing waaaaayyy deep, but it’s 4th and 10. Still better safe than sorry by LB Nigel Bradham there, who was in the middle on those sink zones. He just wanted to make sure he was well behind Amendola.

Now let’s take a moment here for football probabilities. In all likelihood, I should have been already celebrating, right? Like there’s no way, right? The Patriots had 26 seconds to get another 78 yards plus a 2 point conversion just to tie it. Even for Tom Brady that’s a steep ask, right? Right?

No, it wasn’t. No, it fucking wasn’t. There was zero chance I was going to cease sweating and unclench my sphincter for even a nanosecond.

See? SEE?! The Eagles were giving the Patriots this kind of quick out for 10 yards, but the Patriots were happy to take it. They hit one of those every 6 - 7 seconds of gameclock, then they only need one (one!) bomb miracle and the Eagles will have LOST, THE SKY WILL OPEN, THE SEVEN TRUMPETS WILL SOUND, AND A MOUNTAIN OF FIRE WILL FALL, AND LAND IN THE OCEAN. THE ANIMALS WILL CRY AND FLEE, AND THERE WILL BE MUCH WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH AMONGST HUMANKIND. GREAT C’THULU WILL ADJOIN WITH BEELZEBUB, THEY WILL OPEN ONE OF THEIR 17 SCREECHING MAWS AND SING THE SONG THAT ENDS THIS EARTH.

I’m glad no one was around to make even a single god damn sound as I was watching this. If anyone were to have piped up with “Man, this is getting surprisingly suspenseful, given how 2 minutes ago it looked as if the Eagles were clearly going to win,” I’d have uppercut them to the sun.

Darby makes the right move hugging the sideline after Gronkowski makes the catch, trying to tangle him up inbounds, but the Patriots look like they’ve set up sort of a pick play just for the this purpose. Listen to Collinsworth rooting so hard for Gronkowski to get out of bounds. “There he is!” he exhales in relief as the real life centaur stumbles across the line. OH, THERE HE IS, COLLINSWORTH? THAT SURE IS A LOAD OFF, RIGHT?! HEAVEN FORFEND HE GETS TACKLED IN BOUNDS AND SOMEONE OTHER THAN TAWM FACKIN’ BRADY WINS THE SUPER BOWL.

Good defensive positioning here, but why couldn’t he just reel it in? Can’t we please have an anticlimactic crunch-time INT to put the game away, followed by what would be my favorite victory formation? I love victory formation, partially because I had very few opportunities to run it. All the routine trappings of football execution that you’re having to perform - huddle, line up, get your alignments right, listen for snap count, execute your prescribed action - are 1000% more fun in victory formation because 1. It’s an easy thing to do 2. There’s no pressure 3. Everyone is smiling and someone is probably making a joke and 4. There’s always that tiiiiiny chance someone on the other team is salty and is gonna pull some dickish shit. One of the dark sides of sports for me is that being pissed off is often thrilling. And in victory formation, you hold all the cards. “Scoreboard,” is the unbeatable comeback to any insult. Imagine how fun it would be in the Super Bowl!

But no. No, now we gotta have actual excitement. I didn’t want excitement. I wanted anything but excitement. I wanted a hilarious blowout like the NFCCG. I wanted the game to be over after the first quarter, and the rest of the game to be a joyous victory lap. I wanted to start happy drinking beer, rather than slowly sipping room temperature water. This game had already had miracles. Jeffrey, Blount, Clement, Ertz, the Patriots O-line, Gronkowski’s 2-TD performance, Tom Brady again, the Philly Special, Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, the world holding Nick Foles’s beer and watching what he did next. 1,152 total yards of offense, the most in any NFL game ever.

You think there was any chance anyone thought a 51 yard heave into the endzone was impossible? Or some crazy never-before-seen hook-and-ladder or whatever Emperor Palpatine on the Patriots sideline cooked up to make use of the best QB, the best TE, and whatever role-player-come-unstoppable-superstar the Patriots have elevated this week?

I didn’t blink as the ball was snapped. Dug my fingers into the couch arm as Brady spun out of the arms of Graham, who was suddenly in pass rush hypermode. Brady found a moment, a platform, and reminded everyone of his weird agelessness as he cannoned the ball downfield. I remember being aware of the crowd roar and wondered how anyone had any juice left to make sound as the ball flew. It sailed upward into the middle air of the stadium, tracked by hundreds of cameras and millions of eyeballs, and then down to a tight bunch of desperately grappling men. It bounced once off the players, and those watching who had the diaphragm strength left to gasp did so. Then it fell to the turf and into history.

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slothcritic · 8 years ago

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Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Episode 2

A better followup with actual characters.

And They All Lived Happily Ever… Oh… starts off with some better-handled exposition than we were given last episode. In this one, it seems more to work into Goku's character than simply for the sake of getting the plot established and out of the way. We also get more development here, where it becomes apparent that apart from being just "the idiot" he's also "the annoying idiot". Sure it's hilarious to watch, but from the point of view of anyone else in the show, his dense and naive nature can be infuriating (more on that later though...)

Also the genesis of the yoshi joke. Though I just realized, in the background during this is a faint rustling sound. This is either the background noise of a bad microphone or great sound design of the rustling of clothing as they fly through the air. I actually only noticed it because it stops so abruptly when Goku asks if he could ride Piccolo. Not sure why that is.

After the title sequence, we're back to Raditz immediately peaking his microphone with poor voice acting. Gohan is crying for obvious reasons, and an annoyed Raditz chucks him into the soundproof timeout pod.

To TFS’ credit, they seemed to have picked up at least some of the problems the first episode had, as Goku directly calls Raditz on revealing plot points that haven't been explained yet, specifically Raditz referring to Piccolo as a Namekian.

This is both fourth-wall breaking and tongue-in-cheek jab at themselves. It really seems like it shouldn't work, but honestly I think it does. My reasoning is because it's funny. It in fact only works because of how badly they screwed up in the first episode with the writing. It might also hint at some kind of humility or the ability to laugh at themselves, which is the absolute heart and soul of improving with comedy.

Returning to the plot, Piccolo casts off his cape and it makes a big thud when it lands. Goku asks if Piccolo wears weighted training clothes as well, and Piccolo responds in deadpan, saying no, he just loves to get naked around Goku. Raditz however, takes this literally.

This whole exchange is a little weird. It almost works, especially with the Harvey Birdman zinger at the end, but the bad "Shut up!" afterwards kills the momentum. It would have been much cleaner and smoother if it had immediately transitioned into the fight scene after Harvey Birdman.

Speaking of, the fight scene has no lip flaps. I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, this is way, way before TFS started splicing lip flaps from other scenes or having Kirbopher draw up new ones. On the other, it's a little weird to hear a character speaking out loud and then not see their lips moving. Goku's incessant, futile attempts to attack Raditz also make me feel like he's not just stubborn, but also too dumb to quit... which might not that far off from canon Goku.

Raditz fires a Double Sunday (or whatever name you want to call it) at Goku and Piccolo. Goku taunts Raditz for missing him.

"My bad."

Into the dirt with you, Goku. When their fast-paced material hits, it hits hard.

It's then revealed that Piccolo has lost his left arm to that attack. Goku begins an awkward series of "high five, handshake, thumbs up" but keeps cutting himself off, rather like how Raditz cut off Piccolo's arm. This doesn't work however, as all of the examples given can be done with the one arm Piccolo still has. The delivery does more than the actual line does, to MasakoX's credit.

TFS then takes a direct line from the Funimation dub - "Has anyone seen my arm? You can't miss it, it's green". I'm sure they do this a few times, perhaps more than I'm aware, but this just sort of seems... I wouldn't say it's bad, because it's a funny line that can work with the scene, but it just feels lazy to me. Like they needed to give Raditz a line, and said "Eh, why not?"

Piccolo then begins what might the ultimate brick joke when he tells Goku to stall Raditz for five minutes while he charges the Makosnuffleupagus. This whole scene is probably the best in the episode. From Piccolo's explanation of the situation, to Goku's background screams, to Piccolo singing Mahna Mahna.

Goku manages to catch Raditz by the tail twice, the context of which is not explained: Raditz as a Saiyan becomes crippled with pain if his tail is squeezed. He simply asks "please" and then "pretty please" to be let go, and Goku obliges. This further expands Goku's character as someone with the capacity to see redemption in anyone, but also how incredibly gullible he can be. And stupid. Verrrry stupid.

Goku is now flat on his back with Raditz crushing his ribs. Speaking of stupid, Goku tries to correct Raditz that Piccolo is not a Namekian, but a Yoshi. He does not understand what sarcasm is and wants to eat it.

Raditz peaks his microphone again and Goku pulls a Homer Simpson - "I think you broke my--!! Mmm... Ribs..."

It's at this time that Gohan completely smashes out of the space pod and headbutts Raditz, cracking his armor. The "We get it, you're from space!" joke was born here, but it honestly isn't funny. It's out of left field and isn't really warranted, since "space pod" makes sense but "space armor" is just a forced non-sequitur to prompt the punchline.

Goku is completely shocked, as so far with the combined efforts of himself and Piccolo, the two strongest people on the planet, they have collectively done Jack and Shit. To say, four year Gohan just outperformed both of them with a single blow. Though to say he's a good father is a stretch, as he seems a little more focused on Gohan's fighting ability than his safety as the shit-wrecker of the week is currently looming over him. Yes, enjoy it while you can, Raditz, this is the only episode where you're not a joke.

Raditz then backhands the ever loving shit out of Gohan. This was a risky play, kind of like this episodes version of the voice actor fight in the first episode, but I still find this holds up fairly well. Raditz is clearly an evil character, and the KaiserNeko voice-over crosses the line twice when it tries to address the scene in the fourth wall. Is it necessary? I'd say yes. It needs to happen to set up the next sequence of events. The pause and voice-over works to address it head-on and really twist the nail in rather than just letting it fly by and have the viewer go "Wait, did that just happen?"

Goku once again showing his great father skills by worrying about what his wife will do to him if Gohan dies, rather than worrying about Gohan dying. Raditz prepares to mind-crush the four year old, and Goku suddenly activates hero mode and full-nelsons Raditz with quite a few broken ribs. Cue a rather funny scene of Raditz struggling to break free of something so inconsequential to the rest of what's transpired.

Oh yeah, Piccolo's still a thing. And his Mekkacockadoodledoo is done charging. Goku warns him to let him know before he attacks Raditz, because he’s right behind him.

Piccolo however plans to kill the both of them at the same time. But can you blame him? The characterizations this episode have kind of set the scene for this to happen, and it's not out of left field or at all out of character for either of them: Piccolo's maniacal plotting and Goku's oblivious, trusting nature.

The pronunciation of the "Special Beam Cannon" attack's Japanese name is also a fairly long brick joke, but on its own it's funny enough just because of the ridiculousness of the attack's name - Makankosappo for those who can't be bothered to look it up on Google. Using this, Piccolo takes out Raditz, Goku and their brand deal.

Raditz dies with a cheesy "damn you hindsight" and Goku dies because there's apparently a hole in his esophagus (there's not). Piccolo regrows his arm with an insanely metal yell, nicks Gohan, and then fucks out of there. The Krillin Owned Count then goes up to 2 because Roshi tells him to shut up... Yeah, not getting good use of this so far.

Conclusion

Much better than the first episode, actually. Though still with its own issues, it seems there’s either more to work with or TFS was trying a different, more successful approach to writing.

Characters are more developed whereas Non-Characters are staying as Non-Characters. Goku gets the most in my opinion, as he was just the “plot vehicle” in the first episode. More of Piccolo, who was still stellar in this episode, and... some Raditz? He has some hilarious lines and zingers but we don’t really get to know more about him aside from he’s an evil dick. Everyone else still gets nothing.

Writing is... Okay? It’s definitely not bad, and parts were genuinely enjoyable, but I wouldn’t say its very good overall. There were about as many or even fewer “misses” as far as punchlines, jokes or spoken dialogue compared to the first episode but and MANY more “hits”

However, unlike the first episode, there wasn’t a satisfying conclusion. The episode ends like a limp noodle and peters out immensely once the fight is over. The Special Beam Cannon is the climax of the fight but that doesn’t mean everything has to be stale after it.

Microphone quality seems inconsistent across the cast, but is mostly still terrible with Raditz.

Score: 68

Passing Thoughts

"Now I can just sit back and- [BEEP BEEP BEEP] -beat the crap out of whoever's coming. Sigh. Great." - Probably Raditz's best line/delivery so far. It's so sarcastic and weary in tone that I can't help but love it.

"Attacking an opponent roughly four times your strength in a one-on-one battle. A cunning strategy. No, no not cunning. What's the opposite of that?"

"RETARDED?!" - A joke that’s probably no longer in their style of writing, but it’s one of the better ones of Season 1. Political correctness aside, it’s just so sudden and blunt that it can’t help but make me burst out into laughter.

"A full nelson? That won't work on me. I'm Raditz!... Okay let go... Seriously this is starting to piss me off!"

"Riiiiicola!"

#slothcritic #dbz #dragon ball z abridged #tfs #team four star

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