#i will say i think sandman gets the worst of this the only sandman episode that felt like a comic

[adamshallperish]

i think if i was arsed i could genuinely write a banger essay about the sterilization of media when made to be mass consumed by audiences and how specifically that has impacted neil gaiman's artistic integrity

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Neil!

I don't want to sound like a killjoy, but I'm concerned about David Tennant's family being involved in the second season of Good Omens (or Michael Sheen's partner Anna Lundberg in a future season three). I absolutely have nothing against them, I loved Staged just like everyone else, but this is exactly the matter for me: casting them in the series would automatically make me think about Staged or something else while I'm watching GO, and it would distract me from the plot and the magic of it. It would feel somehow like a family reunion, no matter how talented they are as actors (not to mention that there would be nepotism accusations, above all against David. I hope this won't affect the popularity rating, since season three is still hypothetical). I'm not the only one who thinks this might be an issue, from what I read on blogs here on Tumblr (and on the Internet in general) but I feel like there's a sort of tension, like people are scared to say it out loud, because some fans get the wrong idea and accuse them of hating Georgia or Anna or Ty (and that's why I'm asking this anonymously, I don't want to start a fight). I hope you get what I'm saying, it only felt fair to me to let you know whatever concerns some fans might have, and maybe even give you a perspective you weren't considering? Of course you have the last word on this, and if you think this is not a big deal, I trust your judgement.

I wish you a fantastic day! (And sorry for my English, I'm not native, I tried my best!)

Yeah. So, I find that a little creepy, not very creepy, but definitely a bit.

I thought we were lucky to get Peter Davison in Good Omens 2. (He didn't audition. We offered him the part, as I've been a fan of his since 1978, and All Creatures Great and Small. He crushes it, and is heartbreaking, funny, and still somehow the moral compass of the episode he's in.) Ty Tennant auditioned, along with a number of other actors, and got the part because he did it best. (I didn't know who his family was when we cast him. I just liked the audition tape.)

If you're hunting down family connections, David's mother-in-law, Ty's grandmother, Sandra Dickinson, is in the Audible Sandman, too, as one of the Three Witches/Fates/Eumenides etc. And she was cast in it two years before David Tennant (although probably around the same time Michael Sheen was asked to be Lucifer). (I've been a fan of Sandra's since she was Trillian in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1981.)

Anyway, I'm sorry you're worried about Peter and Ty's performances, although I promise you have nothing to worry about, and I'm sorry that you worry that our possibly casting Georgia and Anna in a hypothetical and not-yet actually a real thing Season 3 might make people think of Staged and make them not able to enjoy Good Omens any longer. (Had I known people were this easily shaken I wouldn't have appeared in Staged either, in case my name at the front of Good Omens shattered the fragile illusion and revealed to people that the David Tennant and Michael Sheen who play Crowley and Aziraphale are actors.)

Starting in 2017 I was the recipient of mind-mangling quantities of Tumblr abuse for casting David Tennant and Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and Crowley, which was, many people made very clear to me, the worst casting in the whole entire utter history of casting, and something that Good Omens would never recover from, because for a start neither of them looked like the versions in people's heads, and I'd also miscast them badly because everyone knew that if you had to cast Sheen and Tennant, Michael had to play Crowley and David had to put on some weight and play Aziraphale. (It wasn't until May 2019 that people stopped grumbling.) So people worrying I'm going to cast Anna and Georgia in a season that hasn't even been commissioned in parts that haven't been written just makes me smile.

I hope this helps.

[pellaaearien]

20 Questions for fic writers

@five-and-dimes, @signiorbenedickofpadua, AND @cuubism all tagged me in this, and when three of your favourite writers ask you to do a thing, you do it. SO! Here goes.

How many works do you have on Ao3?

A nice round 25 😊

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

540, 538. I should update my portfolio.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Sandman, right now. Technically I still write for Doctor Who and maybe Lucifer but frankly it's all I can do to manage one fic right now, so.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They're mostly Lucifer fics, I'm surprised. I thought AWFA would have passed them by now. The Devil You Know (1955), 100 Ways (1696), What Dreams May Come (1626), White Days (1533) and rounding it out with Doctor Who, Fool Me Once (1474). I'm kinda proud of that last one.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Usually, yes. I try to.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't really write angsty endings tbh. Not my jam. Probably a toss up between the ending of The World is Unraveling, because it ends on a cliffhanger, and maybe Out of the Cold, because it ends ambiguously, but nothing I'd characterize as angsty.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mean, the rest are all definitely happy, enough that I have trouble picking just one. The first one I thought of, though, is To Hell and Back, because it ends with a wedding.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully not. The worst I get are vague comments about "I wish you hadn't written it like this" which are hurtful, but I ignore.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

The ace kind. In that, I've been told that my smut reads like it was written by an ace person (it was a compliment).

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I write crossovers very rarely, because I find they tend to stray crackier than I intend. However, I am pretty proud of the Doctor Who/Lucifer crossover I wrote based on the Impossible Planet episode. (Mistaken Identity)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so. I've had people write their own version of my fic? Which was flattering, but also made me feel kind of odd.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of. That would be really cool.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really, no, unless bouncing ideas off a discord counts.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I don't have one. I get REALLY into one ship in the moment, and then I move on to the next, which doesn't mean that I love the previous ships any less, or that I love the current ship more, it's just what happens to be bouncing around my brain at any given time.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Can I answer 'all of them'? Truthfully I think Locum Tenens has to take that spot, I started posting it with the notion that getting traction on it would make me want to continue, but the idea of writing what I have planned for it is SUCH a daunting prospect. I never say never but that fic will be a LOT of work.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Character. I'm good at keeping voice consistent, at getting into a character's head and really understanding how and why they would react a certain way. I'm also really good at making connections, at drawing on things from canon to use in a new light.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am SLOW. I only put something down if it's what I really want to say, and I edit as I go, so my pace usually hovers around the hundreds of words per hour. I also think I'm bad at writing emotional scenes, but in this I compare myself to others, and I know that's a false dichotomy, because obviously my writing isn't going to affect me emotionally the same as someone else's. I just feel like I consistently fall short of the ideal in my head, but I guess that's common to all writers for the most part.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Awkward, generally. As a linguist, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't get everything absolutely perfect, and it's hard for me to justify including whole lines in a different language in a fic written in English. That's not to say I've never done it, but most of the time if I want to use other languages I'll just pepper in a few words here and there.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I'm going to draw a distinction here. The first fandom I wrote for, where I was on tumblr and engaged in actual fandom stuff, was Doctor Who. My first published fic on Ao3 was for Dragon Age (Skyhold Slept), and my first fic I ever wrote (published nowhere, I was twelve) was for LotR, but I did not, and still don't, consider myself a part of their respective fandoms. Maybe that's a silly distinction, but I consider immersing myself in and engaging with other fans and content an integral part of how I write now, when it hasn't been, historically.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

That's like asking me to choose between my children. I'm going to cop out and say every fic is my favourite while I'm writing it, so it's Another Word For Ache. Sorry I don't have a more interesting answer to round this off.

Aaaaand I feel like a lot of people have been tagged, so how about @themirokai, @delta-pavonis, @thewollfgang, @moorishflower, @eidetictelekinetic and anyone else who wants to play!

[thenightling]

The Casual sexism in the Wednesday Hate

 There is a large faction of people who react negatively the moment something appeals to teenage girls.   I'm not saying Twilight is great literature (not by a long shot) but you see it a lot with the Twilight hate.  half the things they hate about it contradict themselves.   For example:  "Edward doesn't act like a vampire!"  immediately followed by "He watches Bella sleep. It's creepy."  Yes, vampires tend to do that. Do you know how many depictions of Dracula and Barnabas Collins do that?  Angel in Buffy did that, no one made a fuss.  Or how about "Edward's too old for her!" Yeah, I will reference you back to Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Also even the romantic depictions of Dracula.  He's five hundred years old and Mina is usually depicted between the ages of seventeen to twenty-one at the oldest. Again, I'm not saying Twilight is any good. Hell, I hate that when wounded they crack or shatter like porcelain plates.  But when you start to notice the contrary complaints you start to realize it's not even really about the content.  It's because it's something popular among teenage girls so that "Must mean it's bad!"       Getting back to Wednesday, Most of the complaints are strawman at best.  Either saying things like "Wednesday wouldn't do that!" (with the Piranha). The Hell she wouldn't!    Or "Wednesday wouldn't defend Pugsley from bullies. She'd join in."  Someone ACTUALLY said that to me!  There are DECADES of depictions of Wednesday taking on bullies who go after Pugsley because "No one hurts Pugsley but me."  That's actually an old line.   It's not new.  Even Cain has said it in regard to Abel in at least one of The Sandman spin-off comics.     Or "They made it woke. Wednesday was never woke!" clearly that one has never seen Addams Family Values or the Thanksgiving Pageant.     Or "There was never anything supernatural about the Addamses."  Yeah, uh, huh.   How many times are we told Grandmama and Aunt Ophelia are witches?   And about about Thing and Lurch and Cousin it?   Or how about the fact that Uncle Fester has controlled electricity since the 60s?   Or It's from Tim Burton. He hasn't do anything good in years.  No.  He hasn't.  But this was actually really good.   This was the best thing he's done since 2005's Corpse Bride.  Or even the self-righteous "It's racist because the black characters are antagonists."  Once you point out they're really not you get a "Yeah, but it looked like they'd be antagonists and that's problematic in and of itself.  Meanwhile it's a who-done-it.  And everyone looked antagonistic in the first episodes, even Gomez!    Or the other self-righteous "It isn't queer enough!"  Eugene has two mothers and Enid's mother wanted to send her to "conversion therapy camp."   It wasn't overtly gay but it's a gay metaphor.  And there will probably be openly gay kids. There's a lot that hasn't been explored yet.   So far we've only seen two characters struggling with romances.  Give it time. Someone commented about Wednesday and how unrealistic it is for girls to fight each other for popularity or over boys.  Umm...That's not in there... At all... No one fights each other over boys in this.  There's no competing for a boy's affection.  And the only time Wednesday fights the popular girl it's a duel in the Fencing class.   The popular girl is actually nice and saves her classmates in the final episode.    And of course "It's just a rip off of Harry Potter." or "Riverdale" or "Sabrina" and pretty much the only similarity is "There's a school!  And Supernatural stuff!"   Yes, The Worst Witch beat you to it, and even Dracula made reference to Scholomance, a mythical magick school in Eastern Europe.  It's okay to dislike Wednesday.  But I think some of the hate is nothing more than "Eww, teenage girls like it so it must be bad." or you assume it's only for teenage girls, never mind that Tim Burton's work has always transcended demographics.

[deng-yi-deng]

CDramas I watched 2022 edition

I thought this would be my shortest cdrama list ever (+ 1 kdrama) because the year started out so slow, but it picked up dramatically towards the end. Still, this year was more about excellent English language shows (OFMD, WWDITS, Sandman) and dropping dramas when they did not spark joy, which was often.

Surprise shoutout to NRTA for doing one (and only one) thing I agree with - trying to cut down on the overall number of episodes per drama. I do think this is improving overall quality, forcing dramas to tighten up writing and pacing.

I had zero interest in watching this year's hits (Love like the Galaxy or Love Between Fairy and Devil) because of petty personal preferences so here's my 'best of the rest'. Fave of the year goes to Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, the surprisingly well-done costume-buddy cop-mystery-dramedy that I didn't know I needed. Honorable mention to New Life Begins (adorable) and Side Story of Fox Volant for favorite wuxia.

If you want to read a very thorough review of Strange Tales, check out the top review on my drama list (for once I agree with mdl ?!).

*Indicates that the drama was dropped - not an indication of lack of quality, just that I didn't finish

Luoyang

Bad and Crazy (kdrama)

Sword Snow Stride*

The Wind Blows from Longxi*

Heroes*

A Dream of Splendor*

The Side Story of Fox Volant

Light Chaser Rescue

Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty

New Life Begins

see below the cut for my insightful complaining biased reviews

Luoyang (风起洛阳 ) (2021) 2.5/5🌶

I finished this in 2022 so it's on the 2022 list :)

Fun fact: WYB's character is not the main character despite the 217,876 gifs you may have seen. I had high hopes for this one as the novel it was adapted from was written by the same author of Longest Day in Chang'an which I liked. TL;DR version: it does not come even close to Chang'an in terms of the level of screenwriting, directing, art direction, or production. Acting is also weaker on average, but some actors weren't given much to work with.

Huang Xuan is very good, as are many of the actors in minor roles (Old Carrot!!) - I may try to check out some of his other dramas, and would LOVE to see him work with LYX but alas probably never gonna happen. (they're both dancers! and can act! and are handsome! haha, that makes me sound so shallow.) WYB looks like a block of wood through the majority of the drama. Even if (like me) you interpret him as being autistic, it doesn't work. Song Yi's character might win for worst writing for a female character ever! Which is really saying something in cdrama world. Literally the most epic fail of the Bechdel test - she can't even mourn her father for a minute before refocusing all her attention on Erlang-bae. The romance - for either couple - was completely unnecessary to the thriller plot. Erlang and Liu Ran are on my NOTP list for sheer gag-inducing pointlessness. Huang Xuan and Song Qian tried to have a little chemistry but the sparks failed to ignite (see plot) and...sorry Victoria, after seeing you in Broker and then this...not impressed.

Sets & costumes were supposedly expensive (though the ghetto/Unwelcome Well set looked as fake as an old Shaw Bros set) I think most of the $ was spent on hiring lots of extras which - good to get people employed but ? Action scenes - well, you may have already read about them. If not, go ahead and do that I won't pile on. Pacing was brisk but the plot holes. Oh lord. The plot holes. Ending has a completely unnecessary twist (of the knife). Like Chang'an it got progressively weaker after the big mid-way shocker and ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Bad and Crazy (kdrama) 4/5 🌶

This was one of the more entertaining things I watched this year - actually looked forward to a new ep each week. Good acting, lots of action, satisfying ending. I was a little uncomfortable with how they characterized mental illness, but once I gave up and told myself (10 times before each ep.) that it's just a drama, was able to enjoy it.

*Sword Snow Stride (雪中悍刀行) 2/5 🌶

I wanted to like this SO MUCH. Finally some wuxia! With actors I like! The plot is ok, the characters are fun and interesting. Lots of really good actors, many familiar faces. There was humor! And some original ideas but... it was s o o o o s l o w. I lost interest during each episode (sometimes falling asleep) and had to force myself to watch the next one - there was just no momentum episode to episode. I gave up around ep 20. Fight scenes could've been better, which for wuxia is kinda important ya know? (I won't even comment on the cgi since others have already done that - it's not great). I really can't emphasize enough how much I wanted to like this. It's like all the ingredients were there for an amazingly satisfying dish but it was served lukewarm and watered down? I'm also getting a little tired of Zhang Ruoyun playing an all-knowing smartass.

*The Wind Blows from Longxi (风起陇西) 2/5 🌶

Acting: fine. Music: too loud in spots. Sets/styling: good. I didn't mind the dark palette, it seemed appropriate for 3 Kingdoms spy drama. The problem? I found myself wandering away to get snacks or looking at my phone too often, then having to go back and see if I missed a crucial bit of dialog. There was no momentum, nothing felt like it was at stake - which for a slice of life drama might be ok, but this was a spy/political thriller! Chen Kun and Bai Yu were ok (but just). I've heard the dialog is disconcertingly modern in spots, which is not a problem when you're using eng subs. The big red flag for me was the guy at the end who explains what just happened. Like. No. If you have to do that to your film/drama you have FAILED storytelling 101. I should be able to enjoy the story knowing only the basics of history (which I do) and then you fill in the exciting bits. Dropped this mostly because the ending was spoiled for me around ep 16 by a mutual who reblogged a gifset that gave away the identity of the double agent and had NO TAGS AT ALL much less a 'spoiler' tag. And this was before it wrapped for non-VIPs. Uncool. SO UNCOOL. TAG YOUR POSTS PEOPLE.

*Heroes 说英雄谁是英雄 3.5/5🌶

Another wuxia! Maybe...please...maybe? Pros: Baron Chen doing the most dramatic cape flipping, blood coughing, suffering stoically performance ever. And he wasn't wearing a wig - it was. his. own. hair. Just inject that sh!t directly into my veins. Good pacing, decent acting and characters (at least for the guys). Trope-y but it's the tropes I like, so yay!

Cons: fight scenes were of the comic-book pose/quick-cut type rather than actual fight choreography. Which is what you get when you cast actors and not martial artists so yeah, but man, it really makes me want to just watch some old HK movies. And surprise, surprise: tissue paper thin female characters particularly Wen Rou (and her costumes - ugh just no to the western-style ruffles.)

Though I was eating this with a spoon for the first 24ish episodes, I ended up dropping it (probably not forever) because it turned into a smorgasbord of angst and I wasn't in the mood. So if you are looking for angst with a side of suffering, then that would be a pro, I guess?

*A Dream of Splendor 梦华录 3.5+/5🌶

What? Well written female characters? In a female-centric historical drama? For me? Aw, you shouldn't have - no, actually you should have, and you should do it again!

Dropped this because I had English language shows to watch (hello Sandman) and it sort of lost steam for me - somehow the way it's shot made it a bit more of a slice of life than plot-driven drama? and NGL I was also tired of reading my tv, but I will try to finish someday.

Pros: production, costumes, pacing all pretty good. Aforementioned prettiness. The plot revolves around the women supporting each other, with the romance being sort of second? kind of? which I love, but also the FL & ML have great chemistry.

Cons: both the FL and ML are a little toooo perfect - too pretty, too smart, too accomplished (the ML was the #3 scholar, passing the test when he was young yet also is a master at wushu and swords? ah, ok) but this is a minor quibble since this is a cdrama.

Fun fact: was watching this and Heroes at the same time and Sun Zujun is in both and plays...a rich, hot, sexual predator in both. Um, hope you don't get typecast my dude. (his acting is pretty good so best of luck to him.)

The Side Story of Fox Volant 飞狐外传 4/5 🌶

Yay! More wuxia this year! please let this be the one....

The first few episodes are movie-quality: sets, action, art direction, sound, acting are all fabulous. Towards the middle it settles down into more typical cdrama territory. Based on a Jin Yong novel, it's what you would expect, and I think has been adapted before. Since I haven't read the novel or seen other adaptations I can't compare, so perhaps this wasn't as well received because it diverged from the novel?

Unlike the other wuxia this year, did not suffer from bad writing for the female characters! Full of tropes, but everyone was pretty well written - despite immediately loving Miao Renfeng, I also loved the 'bad guy' (who's character name I always forget, so will be referred to only as Peter Ho - he did a great job of making a bad dude sympathetic.) Qin Junjie was giving me Chen Kun vibes all over the place - I may try to watch Listening Snow Tower just for him.

Not really sure why this didn't do better. I assume because it's yet another Jin Yong adaptation, and the competition (LLTG and CJL) were more appealing to a (female) audience.

Pros: good acting, great actors, solid wuxia story with a strong start and well done (if tragic) finish

Cons: weak middle - pacing and overall quality dipped a lot. like they put the B team on all the middle eps for cinematography, editing and direction

Light Chaser Rescue 追光者 3.5/5 🌶

Finally a Luo Yunxi drama I can watch, though I'll admit if he weren't in it, no way I'd be watching. Though some of the marketing makes it look like a cp drama, it is in fact an ensemble cast, with the focus being on the diverse people that make up volunteer rescue squads. It's very politically safe and tbh was not surprised they chose to air it during the party congress.

Surprisingly for the moralistic/didactic theme, all the couples were really cute and well done, so if you want romance, there is some. The effects and sets were realistic, and everyone's tragic backstory was tragic. You may need tissues for this one if you're a crier. It wasn't without some super cringe moments (spoiler: the little orphan would be doubly scarred for life by their attempts to help him 'heal') but in general was ok.

Wu Qian (Janice Wu) was really good - I'd only seen her in two things when she was much younger, and she really is a mature talented actress. I'll say it - even better than Xixi, who did pretty good but still can improve, especially in shouty scenes where his emotion looks a little forced. (see, see, how I can critique my fave?)

Pros: Luo Yunxi and Wu Qian

Cons: not enough of the cute dog, didactic and moralizing, weak plot that is barely credible half of the time, often felt more like a bunch of 'how to survive x disaster' instructional videos strung together rather than a coherent drama due to choppy editing

Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 4.5/5 唐朝诡事录

Please cdrama gods consider blessing a season 2 of this because it was so much fun! Even though Su Wuming is a disciple of Dectective Di, I think I liked this even more than the Detective Di movies I've seen (!) because as much as I love Su Wuming, the genius detective trope is a little played out for me, and giving him a great foil in Lu Lingfeng made the whole thing more enjoyable.

The writing for and acting of the two leads was so enjoyable to watch. They had great buddy cop chemistry that really elevated the whole drama. Female characters were pretty well written and realized, and some of the villains were downright enjoyable (creepy ghost guy, you looked like you had so much fun!) Production values were fairly high across the board - sets, visuals, costumes, sound, for what could have been a very cheap drama. Everything seems to have been done with care and attention to detail. Though the plots are a little silly sometimes I didn't mind because they were entertaining. Also tw to people like me who are sn*ke phobic - uh there are lots of scenes you will need to skip in the second mystery.

The drama starts at the end (!) which was an interesting way to wrap the whole thing up, but also an odd choice because they ended up basically reusing most of the first ep for the final episode? In between there are several loosely strung together 'supernatural mysteries' that our guys find themselves solving in different places all across the country. Each mystery is only slightly more difficult to solve than your typical Scooby Doo plot, and similarly any supernatural element is soundly debunked by the end.

Pros: writing, acting, chemistry between leads, production values, almost no romance (a pro for me)

Cons: easy 'mysteries', almost no romance (a con for many people it seems)

New Life Begins 卿卿日常 4/5

I hadn't planned on watching this, but I like Bai Jingting ok and needed something to watch after Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty and this looked cute. Spoiler: it is pretty darn cute.

If you're looking for an angsty palace/harem type drama this won't be it. Instead, they use the conceit of 9 vassal states sending a bride for the princes of the Xin kingdom to explore the different ways a society can treat women. It's a very very girl power drama. As such the female characters are pretty well done and acted, but the male characters aren't reduced to being caricatures - all have reasonable personal failings.

Is it realistic, even for a costume drama? I don't care. Sometimes a work of fiction is to show you how things could or should be - in this case the jerks get their comeuppance and the ladies get to succeed. Sure, sometimes the girl power message is a lil' too heavy handed but I'll take it for the overall message and the humor.

Just realized I rated this higher than Dream of Splendor and I should justify myself - Dream of Splendor is overall a better drama, but this was more tightly paced and because it had a larger ensemble there was more going on to keep my interest. That and the fact that this had humor pushed it up a little notch for me.

Pros: cute, mostly light and funny, well paced, decent plot

Cons: I didn't really feel any of the cps (I came closest to shipping Li Wei and Yuan Ying) but YMMV

[fabdante]

From Netflix's "The Sandman", season 1, episode 10, "Lost Hearts":

Dream of the Endless, to a convention full of serial killers:

"You have sustained fantasies in which you are the victims, confident daydreams in which you are always right. But no more. The dream is over. I have taken it away, for this is my judgment upon you. That you shall know from this moment exactly how craven and selfish and monstrous you are. That you shall feel the pain of those you have slaughtered, and the grief of those that mourn them still. And you shall carry that pain and grief and guilt with you until the end of time."

Just. Something like this, but with Kat and Vergil. If you wanna play around with giving her powers over dreams (like Morpheus/Dream of the Endless), then that could include stripping away dreams, too. Including self delusions/"dreams" that a person tells themselves. About the world, about themselves, about their own motivations. About other people.

I feel like it could be a neat contrast to Vergil's scenes in Downfall with the Hollows- instead of hearing his (Vergil's) own worst fears and justifications and power hungry bullshit, Kat and Dante (and maybe Eva, too?) could chime in with their counter arguments.

Just... Something like that, Idk. Not sure what to do with this concept, I just thought I'd share. Morpheus' powers over dreams and nightmares are Neat.

Other cool dream powers for Kat, from Morpheus: You might have to look these up in the comics wiki or something, but "Eternal Waking" and "Eternal Sleep" are good ones. "Eternal Sleep" is just, what it says on the tin: the victim sleeps the rest of their life away, but in their mind, nightmares and dreams are free to run rampant. Not as bad as the next one- but its still a terrible thing, to never really get to live your life, to grow up. To grow old, to meet new, REAL people.

"Eternal Waking" is a bit nastier. You know those dreams- or nightmares- where you think you've woken up, only it turns out you're just in another dream? It's like that, but over and over and over again, forever. (At least, until you die in the real world, and Death takes you.) And Morpheus made it so it was only nightmares. For years, in the real world. Which can be a lot, LOT longer in the dream world.

That could be fun to explore! We don't really know much of what happens with Kat's powers after the end of the game so there's a lot of wiggle room there!

That said, I don't even know if Kat necessarily needs dream powers to have that effect on Vergil. Particularly because we know how even his imaginings of what Kat's feeling have a big impact on him so actually talking to her and getting it from the horses mouth how she's feeling would probably have a big impact on him and cause him to waver a bit. He seems to care more about Kat's opinions on things then he does other peoples (both due to the fact he stops to listen to her at the end of the game and the whole thing in Downfall) so I do think just a conversation with her could cut through a lot of his bullshit on it's own asdfghjkl

I am all for giving Kat more powers though!

[twistedtummies2]

The Devils I Know - Number 22

Welcome to “The Devils I Know!” For this spooky time of year, from now till Halloween, I’ll be counting down My Top 31 Depictions of the Devil, from movies, television, video games, and more! Today’s Devil may be called a dream come true, or your worst nightmare. Number 22 is…Gwendoline Christie, from Sandman.

In my previous entry, I discussed Peter Stormare’s turn as Lucifer in the 2000s movie “Constantine.” Stormare’s Lucifer was arguably one of the best parts of the movie, despite not appearing till near the end of the picture, but he was very much a typical take on the Devil: a pure evil, unhinged creature. The Lucifer that appears in “Sandman” is a more unique reimagining.

“Sandman” is a recent superhero fantasy series based on the comic franchise of the same name, created by Neil Gaiman. As much as I love Gaiman, I must confess that I’m actually not all that familiar with the Sandman comics, and I’ve never read any DC Comics that feature Lucifer in them. So I really can’t say how either Stormare OR this version I’ll be talking about today compares. I can really only judge these Devils by their own terms AS Devils, so to speak, and I similarly can really only judge Sandman on its own terms as a show. With that said, I think Sandman is a really smart, fun, interesting series, and while Lucifer has only appeared in one episode so far they’ve definitely caught my attention. The Lucifer that appears in Sandman is a character all about ambiguity: the performer is Gwendoline Christie, very clearly a lady, while the name Lucifer is of course a male name. However, the character is never referred to in either masculine or feminine terms. Lucifer, as a result, is presented as a genderless entity. The character is also dichotomous in their appearance: for much of their episode, Lucifer is dressed in the habiliments of a typical angel, dressed in white and dazzling to see…a stark contrast to the deformed and ghoulish inhabitants of Hell that surround them. However, their ragged bat-like wings still give them away as a rightful denizen of this dark dimension. Christie’s performance matches this. This is a much more understated Lucifer than Stormare’s: Stormare’s Lucifer was like a tea kettle ready to boil over, locked in a state between calm and intensity. Christie is just pure calm: she never raises her voice a full octave, and carries herself with poise, dignity, and grace in every moment. She feels like a radiant Queen, her tone eternally peaceful and serene, with only small flickers to indicate anything more. She not only looks like an angel, but sounds like one, as well: you never once forget that Lucifer here was once a member of God’s party. It’s the actions Lucifer takes, and the way she uses that same tranquil tone, that indicates her character’s true, dark nature. Apparently, Lucifer will have a larger role in the upcoming second season of the program. I’m very curious to see where things go with this particularly interesting Devil. I’d actually to rank Christie’s version higher, but I think the simple fact she’s so new and has little time to germinate, so to speak, is why she gets the place she does. There are other Devils I’ve just known longer or have had more time to strut their stuff. Hopefully, none of them will disappoint.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with Number 21! HINT: Silent but sinister.

[paper-cuts-and-fresh-bruises]

Okay, so this has been gnawing at my brain all day about 3x04 and I’ve finally gotten some free time to type it up here so let’s go. But before I start I will preface that everything I say going forward is theories/ramblings and nothing concrete, so I am not responsible for how accurate or inaccurate this ends up being, so read at your own risk. 

So obviously from the trailer for the next episode of Nancy Drew is that episode, the one that as Nace fans we’re gonna go gaga one way or another, but obviously with that trailer, as well as bits from the season 3 teaser trailer we now know are most certainly going to go in that episode, I wanted to address something. It’s been going round about the less than favourable idea of cheating being involved with Nace, and I am certainly not one to like it either. What I will say is however that we don’t even know the full situation yet and that’s where my theorising comes in. With the whole sandman/nightmare on elm street type situation we’ve got here, clearly not only are they going to be lulled into falling asleep but then that trick soon shows what seemed like dreams become very terrifying and very dangerous nightmares.

 Also, seen as the nightmares are paired with the afflicted being prone to sleepwalking, people are obviously going to end up being puppeted to do things unintentionally. Now I don’t know if the Nancy and Ace stuff is going to be in Nancy’s dreams, or Ace’s dreams, or if it’s even completely or partly a dream at all, but what I do know is that the writers and producers have not missed a beat since day one, if they were going to play the cheating card, certainly the deliberate cheating card, they would’ve done it already. The writers and producers of Nancy Drew already stated at the end of season 2 that they value Nace seriously and that the characters aren’t just going to disrespect one another like that. At the core of it if anything happens in the dream/nightmare like it seems it will, we need to remember that that’s not real world so to speak (meaning whatever the characters do isn’t a result of them doing it on their own), it’s the dream feeding into the fear of the characters; if we presume for a moment that it’s Nancy’s dream, she probably fears what her feelings could make her do and what she’s willing to allow to happen to be with Ace, and on Ace’s end if that’s his dream or he envisions something similar, his fear on that front (because the nightmares might explore multiple fears) is that his feelings for Nancy could be so powerful that his worst envisioning is the possibility of having the capability to cheat on someone instead of being honest and breaking it off before being with someone else.

Also, technically the whole cheating scenario hinges upon Ace and Amanda still being a thing, which from the vibes I’ve been getting from the start of the season, kinda seems like they split but Ace has tried to keep things on the down low and stay in touch and attempt to be on good terms, though that seems to have been failing. Whether the episode will divulge anything about that I don’t know. It certainly seems like if they have split, Ace isn’t quite ready or sure how to let people know yet, especially with the complicated Nancy feelings. Anyways, I think that anything that happens between Nancy and Ace in the episode, real or not, Nancy in particular will likely try to avoid feeding into, because if we can presume she might still not know when she asks ace what his dream was about as to his relationship status with Amanda, just on principle she’ll do the respectful thing and keep her distance until she’s sure she’s not crossing a line, just as Ace wouldn’t break that boundary until things are right. At the most their emotions are what’s going to be on the table playing this game.

Also, although part of me thinks this will end up with Nancy making herself gravitate towards Park more, ultimately Nace is where it’s at I have no doubt with what the writers have in store. By all means Nancy and Ace may only reach the point where they’re on the same page finally by the finale of this season, but the trajectory tells me we Nace fans have nothing to worry about; also part of me has been curious as to whether anything might actually happen between Nancy and Park, or whether they more so just flirt for the most part and work together,  ultimately although Nancy has a decision on her hands of Ace or Park, I think and hope that she’ll take the risk with Ace who her feelings have been most grounded in. Other than that I wanted to mention with Nancy Drew gaining viewers and season 4 already being called a “safe bet”, we’re in good hands. We’ve just got to politely pester the CW to make sure season 4 goes back to 18 episodes, because as much as 13 episodes isn’t actually that bad, I just want that back. 

[data-draws]

I'm sorry for this spam/rant but I have no other outlets...

I know to a lot of you this is going to sound super pretentious and cringey, but I mean this with my whole heart. Watching Sandman with my parents has shown me just how pathetically different we are as people, I mean, down to the very morals and way we view life. It may be hyperbole to suggest that it was sandman alone that made me realize this rift between us, but it was definitely the straw that broke the camels back. I have been trying for YEARS to talk my parents out of their extremely small minded view of the world, and I've definitely made progress, looking back it becomes clear to me that the progress I have made is only because it has become socially popular to be performatively progressive, when I came out as transgender, my mother literally mourned me, I was sitting in front of her and she started crying because she, and I quote "thought I had killed my daughter" how fucking pathetic and selfish of a mindset is that? It gets worse, even after their supposed later acceptance of me they are still very clearly *yet subtley* racist and homophobic, my father goes on rants about how there are too many interacial couples and gay people in the media these days, how its unrealistic and if they genuinely wanted to have representation it shouldn't be visible or should be literally the exact. same. percentage. as the percentage of minorities there are in society, meaning he wants only 12% of all media to show black characters because in the country we live in there are only 12% of black people in the larger population. it gets worse though. we sat down and watched episode five together, in the back of my mind I knew they were going to hate it and say something about it. so after it ended I decided to try and explain some of it, you know, atleast some of the BASIC metaphors and imagery used throughout the franchise to try and quell what I knew would be a bigoted throw of hatred if I didn't. my father left before I could start, but my mother instantly pulled up facebook and mentally clocked out, I continued talking though, giving her the benefit of the doubt and hoping she was still listening, she of course. obviously fucking wasn't and im an idiot for having this much faith in them for so long, I called her out on this and she repeated what I had said to "prove" that she was listening, except she twisted up my words to mean the opposite of what I was trying to get across, I then explained that what she repeated told me that she actually wasn't listening, she was just pretending to, and only "hearing" me, not absorbing a single word that came out of my mouth. I could continue ranting, and I actually want to, but now that the rage that I had internalized is subsiding to sadness and embarrassment I wont. I'm actually disgusted I was raised by these people, they can't have ONE FUCKING CRITICAL THOUGHT. its so exhausting being around them, I have to sidestep major misinformation and lies nearly everyday and pretend for their sake because they are highly spiritual so if I say anything that even somewhat questions their ridiculous pseudoscience I get blasted and shamed and embarrassed publicly, if I ever invite them to have a conversation beyond simply "dunking on the other guy" politically and repeating half-truths and propaganda they look at me like im an extremist and once again intentionally misinterpret my words to make me seem like a genocidal maniac. im fucking sick of this, why do I still hang around them when they can't understand the absolute bare minimum of what it means to be a real human being? I've met literal. ACTUAL 12 YEAR OLDS WHO HAVE BETTER CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS. im so exhausted and dumbfounded that I ever deluded myself into believing they were anything more than the farcical watered down image that I was trained to become. I'm glad I failed to be like them, they're genuinely horrid people. and the worst part is, they think because they aren't cult-members/terrorist sympathizers like my grandparents, they think they're amazing people, they genuinely don't register that they have severe moral failings.

[phoebehalliwell]

how would you rank the seasons from least to most favourite?

alright okay right off the bat worst season season 7. for starters i think this season has no staying power i mean like since i’ve been running this blog 4 so long now my knowledge of charmed is encyclopedic and insanely vast more than like it ever need be but for the longest time. i could not remember season 7. like wtf even happened there?? evidently leo became human??? cole returned? the avatars??? like all of it was just. it’s not even necessarily forgettable it’s just i straight up could not remember it for the longest time. and i’ve said it before the concept of utopia was way to advanced for a show like charmed to tackle i am not watching charmed for moral philosophy i am watching bc i love these girls ♥ hee hee hoo hoo magic adventure ✨ tho if i am to offer a single comment on utopia: it’s awfully rich for a show to go on about destiny and fate and then take a stand against utopia in the name of free will. but w/e. i don’t like leo in the avatars i don’t like his dynamic with piper in this season i don’t like whatever phoebe’s doing this season there’s like leslie?? maybe there’s someone else? boring & flavorless they should have been setting up her endgame instead of puttering around. and kyle. zoo wee mama. could have been a great antihero. morally gray. duplicitous. self serving. but no. they gave him all those traits and called him hero/love interest. s7 left a lot to be desired out of the characters and their relationships also gave us phat L’s such as the charmed ones are werewolves don’t worry about it and feminism peaked with naked women. shout out to zankou: demon, dilf, dub & the noir episode.

you know what? fuck it i’ll say it second worse season 5 genuinely fuck season five. this is probably a Very Specific beef 2 me But. i hate what they did to the charmed universe. this was the season that marked the transition of charmed from supernatural drama to campy soap which like. i love camp! i do! but fr. fuck this season and what it did to the worldbuilding. the early season have Such A Vibe to them man with warlocks and witches and just a couple niche monsters from assorted lore that the show took and made their own. season five opens with mermaids goes directly into fairytales then gives us superheros whatever the fuck was going on in that mummy episode the sandman leprechauns and nymphs. and i hate it for that. it takes away from this urban fantasy things that go bump in the night what lurks in the shadows of the back alleys of san francisco in favor of the ugliest cinderella dress ever put to television and an onslaught of horrible irish accents for a full episode. other issues with season five: cole’s still here? why? they don’t know and neither will you! we’re not redeeming him! phoebe’s not getting back together with him! yes he died we just refuse to let him go! the cherry on top of course being a cole-centric 100th episode. shout out to. hmm. lemme think about what i actually liked about this season. i like jason dean as a love interest i don’t remember what he did in s5 but i know he was there. the season finale i’ve talked about how stupid & shitty it was but idc i still love that episode and then shout out to bacarra the only original villain this season that was a proper serve. the crone gets second place.

next on this come on we all saw it coming season 8. it’s a bad season! and i get bts there was a whole lot happening budget cuts missing actor etc. but it goes beyond that. it was a bad season. billie and christie were bad. and i’ve said this before but billie in herself is not an inherently bad character. she was just the literal worst for the show. she was a dollar store buffy blonde confident cocky skilled and ready 2 fight evil But. we are not following her like we followed buffy we are following her mentors. it’s like if we had a show called giles that aired for seven seasons And Then buffy showed up. billie was insanely irritating to watch from our perspective and in general wasn’t like. well written. attempts to humanize her / give her more depth often fell flat. and then christy. oh nelly. oh my god. barely a character. not well acted but hey it would have been a miracle if she was. negatives include dumain who was a mess omg bringing back the triad bringing back the source billie & christy obvi and also involving homeland security. which is season 7′s fault which is why it’s the worst. dubs on the other hand include both coop and henry i really liked them the shoehorned love interests weren’t great but i like their characters i though the way the got rid of leo to save on the budget was really creative and gave us a great piper episode and of course the sugary sweet finale i love it i do what can i say.

yet another controversial choice aptly coming in fourth is season 4. i respect what season 4 set out to do. i think it was a good idea. long form narratives, keeping a darker tone, focusing on character-driven drama and growth. too bad it fucking failed miserably at all of this. cole as the source and phoebe as the queen of hell was just so so botched. they had a very unique opportunity following the death of prue to explore these characters and what it means to them to be charmed, to be witches. they saved the world but the cost is insanely high. they’ve lost an older sister. they’ve gained a new sister. how do you even begin to cope with all this? episodes such as hell hath no fury and brain drain fuck so hard because they work with exactly that. had the whole season been like those episode season four would sit at number one with flying colors absolutely no competition. but alas. we can’t have nice things. the show got so bogged down with phoebe & cole, in a way that was just so, so messy. for starters, whether you loved cole or hated him before, we can all agree source!cole sucked. he was such a strong 180 from what we had seen that the show had to make the source some type of possession to justify half the shit they were trying to pull. and then to pit phoebe and paige against one another over a man was just. disgusting. and the ending of course felt rushed because it was! they wrapped up that entire issue in a nice little bow much faster than they reasonably should have been able to. it could have been a great season. it was definitely not. shout out to the seer an iconic mastermind on barbas levels, as previously stated brain drain and hell hath no fury Specific shout out to piper’s scene at prue’s grave shout out to paige as a character i like what they did with her and um. yeah that’s it.

okay we’re exiting the shit tier in favorite of the good tier welcome to the upper half. kicking us off is season 6. season 6 did what season 4 could not in that it gave us a long form plot that still left plenty of room for like. normal demon of the week episodes. i love phoebe early in this season with her faboo haircut her brand new empathy power and her relationship with jason dean. obvious strikes against for whatever the fuck that baby crazy stint was and also the mata hari episode. yikes. i love paige’s hair color in this season nothing paige as a character necessarily stands out to me however i like how they seem to have hit the blend of work-magic with paige where she wants a life and career outside of magic however she still loves the craft and embraces is with an open heart and mind. season six also gives us chris who was a very fun male lead imo we really didn’t have many like him he’s bitchy. he whines and bitches a lot he’s got an agenda he’s a bit secretive but at the end of the day he just wants a family i like him. i like the character growth we see out of piper i like seeing her try to move on from leo i love seeing her get back together with leo i like her dynamic with chris and her fears about motherhood. i also liked richard but that one takes a lot of justification. L’s are witchstock hyde school reunion used karma off the top of my head also the paige/richard/addiction plotline was so tone deaf. also the girls were mean to darryl : ( he deserved so much better. dubs were chris as a character, tbh the episode little monsters, phoebe with empathy specifically saying i love you too to jason i could write a dissertation on that line alone also the courtship of wyatt’s father and i thought the reveals of evil wyatt and chris being piper and leo’s son were both fun and interesting plot twists.

coming in third is actually season 2 a season i really do love it’s just. it lacks structure. imo there is a lot to love about season 2 morality bites and pardon my past are both delightful time travel episodes we get jack sheridan and bane jessup two of my personal favorite prue love interests we get p3 h2o and a great prue plotline regarding the death of patty we get the super cute cupid episode it’s a great. collection of episodes. it’s not a great season. there’s just imo not a strong enough thread connecting the stories together it’s mainly held together by having the same characters in it over and over again i really liked dan personally but like. i knew we were wasting time there. he was just an obstacle. a super cute loving and caring obstacle who’s great with kids but lbr piper and leo were always endgame. wasting our time on dan was stupid. i do love the sister dynamics in season two “gotta hand it to those pesky little demons they sure have brought us closer together” but again. this season could have benefitted from a rex and hannah type or even like a cole or zankou. this season is less of a season and more of just like a handful of episodes, and while there are some fat dubs, there are also some definite swings & misses. shout out to the time travel episodes the prue centric episodes phoebe’s character growth and maturity throughout this season (e.g. her going back to college) and i also think the fashion got a lot more fun this season.

second place i’m saying season one season one was a really strong start and gave us these really compelling characters with interesting relationships between one another But. a lot of it just kinda falls flat. and credit where credit is due it was a brand new show getting its feet under it but the fourth sister feats of clay which prue is it anyway they just simply aren’t dubs imo. also i don’t like that 70′s episode bc again i am an asshole concerned about The Lore i can’t believe one bitch ass warlock caused the Charmed Ones to grow up without powers. it just really bugs me. all in all the plots as a whole like aren’t great imo they’re nothing to write home about (save for from fear to eternity) it’s really the characters that make this season so goddamn good.

first place congratulations to the one the only season three. this is just because it kinda hits all my requirements in that it has some banger one offs (e.g. all halliwell’s eve, the good, the bad, and the cursed) it has an overarching plot at the exact same time as the source becomes more prominent and obvi cole is also there with murderous intent i like the character growth we see especially from prue i like piper and leo finally get married overall i really like the aesthetic of this season that blends a darker urban fantasy tone with still some charmed fashion and whimsy. strikes against tbh phoebe and cole’s relationship i am insanely picky with my enemies to lovers and the do not come remotely close to cutting the mustard in fact they are almost immediately disqualified however from afar i can see and respect The Drama. shout out to recasting victor prue with pistols death as a character and shannen directing episodes

[ghostlyhamburger]

My husband guesses the plot of Miraculous Ladybug episodes.

He’s only seen season 1 and a handful of s2 episodes. This is his guesses for the ones he hasn’t seen, based on the name only.

Gigantitan

Another rock monster or like Giganta from DC and it's Chloe's fault

Sapotis

More French bullshit

Robostus

A boob enlargement scheme

Dark Owl

A Batman knockoff? Or a pun on night owl

Glaciator

Obviously an ice based power set

Zombizou

A zoo of zombies? No I know it's not spelled like that, I like this better

Gorizilla

Gorilla Godzilla. A Kaiju fight. Please let it be a Kaiju fight.

Syren

A Juleka episode? She sings right?

Frightningale

Halloween special with something nightingales.

Captain Hardrock

Excuse me?

"hard rock"

ohhhh. A penis.

Style Queen

A hairstylist akuma. Somehow involves Chloe.

Queen Wasp

Queen bee which is Chloe's superhero thing so an akuma version of that maybe?

Reverser

Reversing genders? Power sets? Time?

Frozer

Frozone. Or fro yo.

Anansi

Makes me think of alansi which is goodbye in some language. Maybe related to the other weird word one? (Sapotis)

Malediktator

Heh dick. Music based. Could be. Like melody, malady...

Troublemaker

That's literally everyone!

Sandboy

Sandman power knockoff? Like from Spiderman. But a kid.

Catalyst

That sounds like it involves Chat and cataclysm. Is this the Chat Blanc episode?

Mayura

I got nothing.

Chameleon

Didn't they already do an invisibility power?

Animaestro

Animal control person. Talk to animals, influence them. A more powerful version of the pigeon fuck.

Bakerix

The mom or the dad because they're the only fucking bakers in Paris

Backwarder

Everything they say is backwards

Reflekdoll

Didn't we already have Reflekta?

Weredad

My life as a teenage werewolf. As a father.

Silencer

A silencer for a gun? Or a person with a mute power.

Oni-chan

Kagami returns. Little demon?

Miraculer

Someone steals Ladybug's power set and chat gets confused.

Oblivio

An erasing power set? Or maybe magic tricks

Desperada

Despacitoooo. No actually a female gunslinger.

Christmaster

Is it another fucking Christmas episode? If they sing again I'm making you drink with me

Startrain

Star tropics. A train is involved? And a movie star

Kwamibuster

Either someone who breaks kwamis or the kwamis get busted doing something wrong or they get discovered

Feast

A weird Thanksgiving type thing or a feeder fetish

Gamer 2.0

Uuuuuugg it's that dumbass fighting game again

Stormy Weather 2

Oh cool I liked her, Were they running out of akuma ideas already?

Ikari Gozen

Seems like a Kagami one. Although is she involved in the fro yo episode (Frozer)? Anyways Japanese means Kagami.

Timetagger

Gotta be Alix. Time breaker but ever so slightly different

Party Crasher

Someone's birthday. Marinette's birthday. Wait she had a birthday. Adrien had a birthday. Alya or Nino's birthday. Not gonna be Chloe's, she wouldn't invite Marinette

Puppeteer 2

I don't remember the first puppeteer.

Cat Blanc

Apparently the best or the worst episode depending on which side of the salt fandom you ask. I'm looking forward to this one

Felix

The cat.

Ladybug

A little bitty ladybug insect gets akumatized

Heart Hunter

Another Valentine's day special. Hopefully not Kim this time, he doesn't deserve that treatment from Chloe again

Miracle Queen

Like that episode of Danny Phantom with the weird wish granting genie? Grant your wishes with a twist.

Season 4 titles

Gabriel Agreste

I hope this dude gets punched in the dick. The whole episode is just shitty things happening to him. Or backstory. Maybe we'll see what happened to his wife.

Queen Banana

A banana hammock with the banana face drawn on it. And people get beat with that banana dick.

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #227

Thurs Apr 30 2020 [06:34 PM] Wack'd: Another story catalyzed by space objects falling to Earth [06:35 PM] Wack'd: This time a meteor lands in a lake in Pennsylvania [06:36 PM] Wack'd: One of Reed's science friends calls Reed and is like "hey, I know you're big into meteors, wanna come do science and hang out" [06:37 PM] Bocaj: Space needs to stop dumping its junk in our yard [06:37 PM] Wack'd: I mean hey, we do it too. It's reciprocal pollution [06:37 PM] Umbramatic: The Great Space Junk Exchange [06:38 PM] Bocaj: When has a thing earth sent v'gering into space ever caused a problem [06:38 PM] Umbramatic: ...what the fuck were the dinosaurs polluting space with to get what they did [06:38 PM] Bocaj: Its not like we send a hulk of stuff and crash it into gladiator planets [06:38 PM] maxwellelvis: @Umbramatic Tobacco [06:38 PM] Wack'd: @Umbramatic : *Land Before Time* videocassettes [06:38 PM] Umbramatic: dbtgfrh ojgifmhk  hjnl;.'; [06:38 PM] Bocaj: Ha [06:39 PM] maxwellelvis: The real reason the dinosaurs went extinct. [06:39 PM] Wack'd: So anyway the team is going on vacation! Johnny wants to get a tan and Sue is like "let's bring the grill" and I'm like "you're. You're going to Pennsylvania" [06:39 PM] Wack'd: Like yes the caption specifies it landed at a resort but like, c'mon [06:39 PM] Bocaj: CAN Johnny tan? [06:39 PM] Bocaj: He's exposed to heat and light every day of his life [06:40 PM] Bocaj: Can Johnny Storm get a sunburn? [06:40 PM] Bocaj: Also: why isn't his name Blaze? [06:40 PM] Wack'd: Maybe he can choose to but it's unpleasant to use his powers for it and he prefers the old-fashion way [06:40 PM] Bocaj: Hm, acceptable handwave [06:40 PM] Wack'd: Like there's a difference between being exposed to solar radiation from billions of miles off and setting yourself on fire [06:41 PM] Wack'd: Ben is grumpy because Alicia is bogged down with work and can't make it, and his only other friend will be busy with science [06:41 PM] Wack'd: (You'd think he could hang out with Sue and Johnny and Franklin but whatever) [06:42 PM] maxwellelvis: Sandman stopped taking his calls? [06:42 PM] Wack'd: Sandman tries to beat him up on the regular, what're you talking about [06:42 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh, right, you're not reading Two-In-One. [06:42 PM] maxwellelvis: Okay, there's ONE thing in Marvel Two-In-One that causes an actual change to the status-quo in Marvel; there's an issue where Ben goes to a bar and finds Sandman is also there. So he sits down with him and they talk. [06:43 PM] Wack'd: "Yer off yer meds again, aren'tcha, Flint" [06:43 PM] Bocaj: One of my favorite scenes in the DCAU [06:44 PM] Bocaj: Get rekt that scene of Batman talking to Ace, psychic meltdown [06:44 PM] maxwellelvis: By the end of the issue, Sandman has gone legit, and for like a decade, he stayed so, until eventually some Spider-Man story needed him back on the Sinister Six. [06:44 PM] Bocaj: (Because it implies that Only Batman can human at people is why) [06:44 PM] Wack'd: Decade does seem to be where Marvel status quo changes top out sadly [06:44 PM] Bocaj: I think it was after the clone saga [06:45 PM] Bocaj: During the panic mode 'shit roll it back roll everything back fuck fuck fuck' kneejerk [06:45 PM] Wack'd: Gotta remind people of the good ol days after that stinker, yeah [06:45 PM] maxwellelvis: Then it was close to like, two decades or something. [06:45 PM] maxwellelvis: That's an astonishingly long time in comics. [06:45 PM] Wack'd: Oh wow [06:45 PM] Bocaj: Funfact: Sandman was an Avenger [06:45 PM] Wack'd: Huh! [06:45 PM] Bocaj: Reserve, but still. [06:45 PM] Bocaj: Nice [06:46 PM] Wack'd: If nothing else the idea of him as a sympathetic crook seems to have stuck [06:46 PM] Wack'd: Which is not nothing [06:46 PM] Bocaj: Sam Raimi intensifies [06:46 PM] maxwellelvis: Marvel Two-In-One Vol 1 #86 is the relevant issue. [06:46 PM] maxwellelvis: So it hasn't happened yet at the time you're reading, is the other reason you hadn't heard about it. That issue was in 1982, so about a decade and a half, give or take. [06:47 PM] maxwellelvis: And you weren't far-off with that JLU joke, @Wack'd, says here that a big thing in the issue is Sandman dealing with the trauma of having been merged with Hydro-Man. Which is probably why he's receptive to the idea of going legit. [06:48 PM] Wack'd: Alright then [06:48 PM] Wack'd: ...anyway Sandman isn't. In this one. So [06:49 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, this was a lot more explaining for a dumb joke than I anticipated. [06:49 PM] Wack'd: Back to the story at hand [06:50 PM] Wack'd: Ben decides he's gonna go fishing. He's got a floppy hat and a vest and everything. Also: more womanly stereotypes!

[06:51 PM] Umbramatic: i love ben's fishing outfit [06:52 PM] Bocaj: He looks so happy [06:52 PM] maxwellelvis: Fishing hats like that always make me flash back to that M*A*S*H episode where Col. Blake salutes while wearing his hat and hooks his finger on it. [06:52 PM] maxwellelvis: "What are you trying to DO to me?!" [06:52 PM] Bocaj: Oooow [06:52 PM] Wack'd: They fly into Pennsylvania and things have. Escalated.

[06:52 PM] Bocaj: "I don't want to hoard gold, I want to turn people into dinosaurs" "HE KEEPS SAYING THAT" [06:53 PM] Wack'd: For the record earlier cutaway panels show this is a bird that got mutated by the meteor but I got distracted and forgot to post it [06:53 PM] Umbramatic: that pterosaur's wings make me viscerally angr--AND THAT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE [06:53 PM] maxwellelvis: Somewhere a paleontologist is weeping [06:53 PM] maxwellelvis: OR [06:53 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh cool, I didn't know the writers of *Dino Squad* ghostwrote this issue [06:53 PM] Umbramatic: that's me, i'm the weeping palentologist [06:54 PM] Mousa The 14: The bird didn’t mutate, it simply regressed to an earlier form [06:54 PM] Bocaj: HROINK! [06:54 PM] Umbramatic: if it did that it'd be more like a velociraptor [06:54 PM] Mousa The 14: Hroink indeed. Hroink indeed. [06:55 PM] maxwellelvis: Pterosaurs and birds are completely different groups of archosaurs, that's a mutation, Mousa. [06:55 PM] Umbramatic: YES [06:55 PM] Wack'd: Not really sure why this merited a silent panel

[06:55 PM] Bocaj: Just put up an invisible force slide [06:55 PM] Mousa The 14: Artist showing off [06:56 PM] Wack'd: How bad he can draw children? [06:56 PM] Umbramatic: i dunno which makes a better reaction image, franklin's face or the pterosaur's [06:56 PM] Mousa The 14: Or to show Franklin is about to use. THE POWER [06:56 PM] Bocaj: Its not the worst tiny adult i've seen in comics [06:56 PM] maxwellelvis: Unless it leads to another god-child moment, it's a rather pointless reaction image. [06:56 PM] Bocaj: I'm not saying that its all Franklin's fault but I blame Cable on him [06:56 PM] Bocaj: God-child arms race [06:57 PM] Wack'd: So the monster explodes, and Reed collects its gem--EUGH

[06:57 PM] Bocaj: I don't like this. [06:58 PM] Wack'd: Ftr Gideon Carruthers is Reed's science friend. We already have a Gideon so I'll call him Carruthers [06:58 PM] Umbramatic: -screaming- [06:58 PM] Wack'd: To disambiguate him from the rich doofus [06:58 PM] Bocaj: I'd laugh my ass off if he looked just like gideon from gravity falls [06:58 PM] Bocaj: or even gideon from Scotts Pilgrim [06:59 PM] maxwellelvis: I know there's some sci-fi parasite this reminds me of, but I can't think what. [06:59 PM] Bocaj: Captain N mother brain? [06:59 PM] maxwellelvis: Parasite [06:59 PM] Bocaj: She was a parasite on my peace of mind [07:02 PM] Wack'd: Sue takes a moment to check that Franklin isn't traumatized but he's like "we fought and won, just like in the comics!" And then uh

[07:02 PM] Wack'd: Were comics caught up in the Satanic Panic or whatever? Like [07:02 PM] Umbramatic: -screams- [07:02 PM] Wack'd: Seems more like a 50s thing [07:02 PM] Wack'd: Also yeah that sure is a Franklin [07:02 PM] Bocaj: I think Wertham argued that kids couldn't distinguish comics from reality and yeah that was way before this I think [07:03 PM] Bocaj: I think in his book he cited an incident that I don't know if legit or not where a kid tied a blanket around their neck like a cape and jumped off a roof [07:03 PM] Wack'd: Eesh [07:04 PM] Bocaj: Not sure that could be laid at Superman's feet. He very clearly says 'I have alien powers from being an alien' [07:04 PM] Wack'd: Can't wait to see this kid's mutt mutate into MCGRUFF, THE CRIME DOG

[07:04 PM] Bocaj: Duff Dog Oh Yeah [07:04 PM] Bocaj: Suds McDuffie [07:04 PM] Wack'd: This is cool too I guess

[07:05 PM] maxwellelvis: I was going to say, I think a dire wolf is more likely. [07:07 PM] Umbramatic: awoooo [07:07 PM] Bocaj: Werewolves of Slyvania [07:07 PM] maxwellelvis: I really wish the LOTR movies had modeled the Wargs more on dire wolves than hyenas. [07:08 PM] Wack'd: Okay I think we can safely dismiss the idea of these mutations having some kind of basis in scientific reality

[07:08 PM] Wack'd: Paleontologists rest easy [07:08 PM] Umbramatic: FOREHEAD BEAM [07:08 PM] Bocaj: You've never seen a dog shoot a laser? [07:09 PM] Umbramatic: pidge shoots lasers all the time [07:09 PM] Wack'd: Anyway this time instead of the monster exploding Reed spots the parasite on the back of its neck and grabs it before self-destruct is triggered [07:09 PM] Wack'd: Kid gets his dog back and dog stops being a fiend [07:09 PM] Umbramatic: we have to prevent her from doing it to the neighbors [07:09 PM] Bocaj: Duffer... will live [07:10 PM] Wack'd: Reed I, uh, think the forehead laser puts a serious hole in your theory!

[07:11 PM] Wack'd: Also the fuck is the "evolutionary agent"? Is he claiming we have, like, an evolution gland that pumps evolution juice into our bodies that makes us not be weird history monsters? [07:12 PM] Wack'd: Okay so Reed elaborates that the forehead laser is because the parasite gives its hosts psychic powers to make them more powerful so they can steal gasoline to eat [07:12 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, sure, I can see how that- huh? [07:13 PM] Wack'd: "It makes a bizarre kind of sense," says Carruthers, who is also identified as a geologist and so I guess is just rolling with this [07:13 PM] Bocaj: Carruthers: "Its not a rock so i don't fuckin know" [07:14 PM] Wack'd: Sue is upset that Franklin is in danger and weird shit keeps finding them and Reed is like "we do have some quiet times, they just happen off-panel" and Sue is like "you're right, I'm sorry I snapped" [07:14 PM] Wack'd: And she wants a normal life and yadda yadda [07:14 PM] Bocaj: Like that time she played horsey [07:15 PM] Bocaj: REMEMBER THE HORSEY TIMES SUE [07:15 PM] Wack'd: Sue, hold on to your memories of like the first two pages of each recent arc [07:15 PM] Bocaj: Yeah! [07:16 PM] Umbramatic: thbijgthp oknjlph;[m'n [07:16 PM] Wack'd: So they send Ben down in scuba gear to get the meteor which does actually kinda look like it could be a Steven Universe corrupted gem. Unfortunately he brings something back with him

[07:17 PM] Wack'd: Remember: if a character says they want to go fishing in act one they need to catch a giant sea monster by act three [07:17 PM] maxwellelvis: Shai-hulud [07:17 PM] Umbramatic: poor ben [07:17 PM] Umbramatic: he just wanted to turn fish in to blathers [07:18 PM] Wack'd: Reed, being the smart intelligent thing he is, puts this round item down on the floor of a rocking boat [07:19 PM] Wack'd: It cracks open and [07:19 PM] Wack'd: And then Sue was the reverted evolution thingy

[07:19 PM] Bocaj: So whats the 'reverted evolution' of Sue [07:20 PM] Bocaj: Issue 1 Sue where she didn't ever contribute anything? [07:20 PM] Wack'd: Uh. Angry, I guess?

[07:20 PM] Bocaj: My idea was funnier and plausibly unfair [07:20 PM] Wack'd: True [07:21 PM] Bocaj: Hope this isn't another situation where Reed is justified in belting her [07:21 PM] Wack'd: Also Reed opens the cracked egg and finds five grooves for parasites to be in like seeds [07:21 PM] Wack'd: So after Sue there's one unaccounted for [07:21 PM] Bocaj: Dun dun dun [07:22 PM] Wack'd: Immediately resolved by it dropping out of a tree and on to Carruthers' neck [07:22 PM] Umbramatic: oh [07:22 PM] Bocaj: Whats tension anyway [07:23 PM] Wack'd: Hm. Reverting made his skin darker. Don't like that

[07:24 PM] Bocaj: I do like the resigned "Yep -- I wuz right" from Ben [07:24 PM] Bocaj: Don't like "uglier than the hulk" paired with the thing you said [07:25 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Carruthers goes after some oil because these things eat oil remember, so Johnny blows up the oil and Carruthers goes flying like in an action movie or a Looney Tune [07:25 PM] Wack'd: Thus knocking him out so Ben can get the parasite off him before he explodes [07:26 PM] Bocaj: Yaa~aaay [07:26 PM] Wack'd: Oh. Oh fuck [07:27 PM] Wack'd: I've been sitting here thinking "but why are the monsters blowing up anyway? How does that benefit the parasites? Surely they'd want to keep the host alive to keep collecting oil" [07:27 PM] Wack'd: Adding to that, Reed postulates time is a factor as to why some explode and some don't [07:28 PM] Wack'd: But, uh. I thiiiiiiink it might be a lot simpler than that

[07:29 PM] Wack'd: If I'm right, Franklin blew up the dragon and the sea monster. He wasn't around for the dog and Carruthers [07:29 PM] Bocaj: Dun dun DUUUUN [07:29 PM] Wack'd: (And probably wouldn't have blown them up if he had!) [07:29 PM] Bocaj: Geez Franklin, geez [07:30 PM] Wack'd: And now he's like "do I...blow up mommy? No, right? I feel like that's probably a no" [07:32 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Sue is not entirely mutated, just got some weird facial deformities and is a little out of it. Reed says its maybe her cosmic ray blood [07:32 PM] Umbramatic: *screams* [07:32 PM] Umbramatic: @ the franklin face [07:32 PM] Wack'd: Haha! VINDICATED

[07:33 PM] Wack'd: Honestly kudos to Moench here for successfully constructing a mystery I didn't know was a mystery until the reveal happened [07:33 PM] Wack'd: That's some good writing right there [07:34 PM] Wack'd: Less good writing: this

[07:34 PM] Umbramatic: so nice work [07:35 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Franklin blows up the parasite without hurting Reed or Sue and is very proud of himself [07:36 PM] Wack'd: And Reed concludes "uh maybe we should figure out exactly hat Franklin's deal is" before the whole team hightails it back to New York [07:36 PM] Wack'd: A happy ending maybe

[07:37 PM] Bocaj: OR IS IT? [07:37 PM] Wack'd: Nope, turns out they have another son [07:38 PM] Bocaj: Benjamin Jonathan Richards you were named after the two bravest men I know [07:39 PM] Wack'd: LETTERS! Everybody loves some letters [07:39 PM] Wack'd: Eric L Watts wants Johnny to fall in love with another superhero and Ben and Alicia to get married. I like one of those ideas [07:39 PM] Bocaj: Is that the one what did happen eventualy? [07:40 PM] Wack'd: I mean both of those happen eventually [07:40 PM] Bocaj: Or is it the one, due to the vagaries of gendered language, that has Johnny come out as queer? [07:40 PM] Wack'd: Ha [07:41 PM] maxwellelvis: Lyja isn't a superhero when she and Johnny meet, though. [07:41 PM] Wack'd: Someone wants to know how Sienkiewicz is pronounced! It's sinKEVitch [07:41 PM] Wack'd: @maxwellelvis He does also date Medusa, so [07:41 PM] Bocaj: He's dated Crystal and Medusa [07:41 PM] maxwellelvis: Good golly [07:41 PM] Bocaj: He dates Nova, not that one, who probably counts if Silver Surfer do [07:42 PM] Bocaj: Huh. This list of romantic partners I've found for him is shorter than you'd expect [07:42 PM] Wack'd: People are kind of tetchy at how much Reed stretches now. Two different letter writers are like "He's not Plastic Man!" [07:42 PM] Bocaj: Hah. [07:43 PM] Wack'd: And people really like the more domestic stuff, specifically how Sue is written [07:43 PM] Wack'd: I'm sure the fact that all the letter writers are dudes is a coincidence [07:44 PM] Bocaj: I'm kind of but not really but a little surprised that Carol and Johnny haven't gone on at least one date. They have a venn diagram social circle and Carol dated Spider-Man briefly which is a similar kind of energy [07:44 PM] Wack'd: Oh hey, look who's making her *Fantastic Four* debut

[angelofthequeers]

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

No, I did not use YOI because it's the only anime I've ever seen

Chapter 17 | Chapter 19 | AO3 link

There’s a soft tapping on Marinette’s hatch door as she’s just finishing off the last of the homework that Alya had dropped off after school. She frowns and looks up from her desk. Is that Chat Noir? Or just a stray stick dropping on her balcony? When the tapping sounds again, Marinette has her answer, and she sets her homework aside with a sigh, then climbs up the ladder to her bed and slowly reaches up to push the hatch open.

“Chat Noir?” she says when a familiar face appears in the hatch entrance, the illumination of Marinette’s room reflecting off the person’s skin and golden hair, contrasting starkly with the night sky outside. Chat Noir grins, but it’s nowhere near as cocky as usual.

“Hey, princess,” he says. “Just thought I’d drop by while I was out on the town. It’s been a wild night, y’know. Parties, dancing, making out…”

“Only in your dreams,” Marinette teases, rolling her eyes. Chat Noir rolls his eyes back.

“Okay, yeah, it sucks. So did my day, to be honest. Got any room in there for a stray?”

How can Marinette resist those green eyes? With a smile, she shuffles aside on her bed and says, “Well, I suppose I do need a good deed for the week.”

“How kind of you,” Chat Noir deadpans. He slips through the opening with all the grace of a real cat, landing lightly on her bed and leaping off as she pulls the hatch shut. “Pretend I just took my boots off.”

Marinette rolls her eyes at the shoes comment. “You said you talk to Adrien, right?” she says as Chat Noir makes himself comfortable on the chaise lounge. “Did you get to talk to him today? The only time he messaged me was to tell me that he’s alright, but…I’m worried about him. His father’s been getting stricter and stricter lately.”

For a split second, Chat Noir looks at Marinette as though she’s some kind of angel, although the look is so fleeting that she’d probably just imagined it. Then he shrugs and says, “He’s okay. As well as he can be with his father breathing down his neck. But trust me, he wouldn’t want you to worry about him.”

“I can’t help it. He’s a really good friend. And it’s finally sinking in that he’s not “just” a friend and that being friends isn’t, like, second place to being with him.”

“He must be a really good friend, if you jump in front of an akuma for him,” Chat Noir says. Marinette sits down on the chaise lounge with him, hugging her knees to her chest, so he shuffles over to give her more room and curls up in a very cat-like manner.

“I don’t even know what I was thinking,” Marinette says, undoing her pigtails. She might have started changing up her hairstyle every now and then, but pigtails are still a comforting constant for her. And her autistic brain loves comforting constants. “I saw Adrien in danger, and I just…wow. All I could think was that I didn’t want him to get hurt.”

“You still shouldn’t put yourself in danger like that. You’re my favourite civilian.”

“Aww, I’m honoured that the great Chat Noir likes me,” Marinette teases. Chat Noir gives her a sly grin.

“You should be, princess. We both know I’m the prettier superhero.”

“I thought that was Ladybug.”

“That’s what she wants you to think.” Chat Noir winks. “But between you and me, I’m a real cat-ch.”

Marinette groans and gently kicks him. “You can get out of here if you start making puns. Although I would wonder if an akuma had gotten you if you didn’t make your puns. I’m already questioning the universe because Chloé’s trying to be nice?”

“She is?” Chat Noir says. “I heard about the whole fire department thing, and Adrien told me that he’s not her friend anymore.”

“Yeah, she cornered me in the bathroom and demanded that I help her learn how to be nice. But I don’t think she can be until she figures out why she wants to be nice beyond just getting Adrien back as a friend. I’ve been there when it comes to doing stuff to impress a boy.”

“You think she will find a reason?” Chat Noir says in an odd voice. Marinette shrugs.

“I sure hope so. Is it selfish for me to feel this way? Because if Chloé’s nice, she’s not making my life hell.”

“It’s not selfish if you think of everyone else who’ll also be spared,” Chat Noir says with a wink. Marinette’s lips twitch at that.

“Okay, yeah, you’ve got a point. I told her that she should try and be someone that Ladybug’s proud of, so I hope that’s a good enough starting point. Speaking of…did you end up telling Ladybug that you’re in love with her?”

Chat Noir’s smile melts into a serious look. He sits up, runs a hand through his hair, then sighs, “Yeah, after we defeated Despair Bear. She doesn’t feel the same way.”

“Aww. I’m sorry, kitty.” Marinette shuffles along the seat and sits so that her legs are tucked under her and she’s leaning against Chat in a casual kind of hug. She’s keenly aware that she’s Ladybug and she’s the one who rejected him, but Marinette’s not supposed to know that. And it would be very insensitive of Marinette to not follow up with her friend.

“Don’t be. I’m actually kind of glad that I know for sure, to be honest. I mean, she already told me she was in love with someone else but having her outright confirm that there wasn’t a chance for us…it’s helping me sort my feelings out.”

“You’re not in love with her anymore?” Marinette’s stomach twists, although she can’t possibly figure out why. This is a good thing, after all; now Chat Noir’s not stuck with unrequited feelings.

“I think I always will love her. But it’s like what you said about Adrien, isn’t it? About how being friends shouldn’t be a consolation prize?”

Marinette lets out a small laugh. “Here’s to close friendships. Want to watch something together? I can go and get snacks from downstairs.”

“Dupain-Cheng pastries?” Chat Noir practically has stars in his eyes. “Like I’d ever say no, princess.”

When Marinette comes back with a small box of chocolate croissants and macarons, Chat Noir’s already got a show lined up on her computer. She drags the chaise lounge across the room and squints at the screen, then groans and says, “Really, Chat? An anime?”

“It’s a good one!” Chat Noir says rather defensively. “So long as you don’t go too deep into the fanbase.”

“Okay, okay.” Marinette sits down next to him. “Yuri!!! On Ice? What’s it about?”

“Ice skating. Trust me, Marinette, you’ll love it.”

“I suppose I’ll have to trust your judgement.”

Marinette’s pleasantly surprised to find that Chat Noir’s right and she does end up really enjoying the show. She nearly cries at just how relatable Yuuri’s anxiety is – it’s like someone shoved her into the show, to be quite honest – and she’s so invested in his and Viktor’s relationship that when they finally share their ice kiss, she ends up squealing and clinging to Chat Noir’s arm. He just grins and leans into her touch.

Marinette tries to stay awake for the whole show, since it’s only got a few more episodes. But it’s late and she’s fairly tired after the sleepover from last night, so it’s inevitable that she ends up slipping away to the sandman soon after Viktor and Yuuri’s unofficial proposal. She’s lulled to sleep by the scent and warmth of her partner, like the world’s most comfortable blanket, and there’s a soft rumbling to soothe her as she drifts but she doesn’t have the energy to open her mouth and ask if he’s purring.

Huh. Maybe Adrien picked up the purring from him, because it’s just like having Adrien as her pillow as she drifts off.

.

This is both the best and worst situation that Chat Noir’s ever been in. Best because Marinette is asleep against him, but worst because Marinette is asleep against him. How exactly is he supposed to function when he’s got an angel asleep beside him, using him as a pillow?

Okay, so she’s not pursuing Adrien anymore, but still.

Unfortunately, he has to cut this short. He may have managed to sneak out for a few hours after “going to bed”, but he’s got no doubt that Nathalie will come and check on him at some point to make sure he’s “feeling better”. And the last thing he needs is for her to find an empty bed.

Marinette stirring and snuggling into his side, her loose hair draping over his chest and releasing the smell of strawberries, is almost enough to break his resolve. Almost. But if he selfishly grabs for a few more minutes of this, he won’t be able to come back at later dates due to heavier surveillance, so it’s really for the best that he leaves now.

Carefully, he reaches out to close the internet tab but leaves her browser up on Pinterest so that he doesn’t feel like he’s snooping; god knows how he would’ve felt if someone had found all his Ladybug pictures a few weeks ago. He scoops Marinette up bridal style and carries her to bed, although it’s a bit of a struggle to get up the ladder while not dropping her or waking her up. She’s still wearing her usual outfit rather than her pyjamas, but Chat Noir doesn’t even want to go near the implication of changing her into her pyjamas with a ten-foot pole, so he carefully tucks her into bed, jumps back down to turn off her bedroom lights, and then streaks out through the hatch and into the night before his head can explode at the thought of helping Marinette change.

“You make me sick,” is the first thing Plagg whines when Adrien’s at home and detransformed, then changing into his own pyjamas. “First Ladybug, then Marinette. You’re so disgustingly gooey.”

“I can’t help it, Plagg!” Adrien grabs their class photos off his desk and flops on his bed. His heart flutters wildly upon seeing Marinette’s smiling face in each one, and he sighs and smiles dreamily at them. “How did I never notice her like this before? She’s so – so sweet, and caring, and passionate –”

“Blech!” Plagg darts for his fridge of Camembert. “You’re horrible! You shoulda been one of Tikki’s, not mine!”

“What do I do, though?” Adrien’s face falls. “She doesn’t want to be with me anymore. And I’m happy being her friend, but…I feel like I’m going to melt every time she touches me!”

“Gross! I don’t need to hear this!”

“What – not like that!” Blood rushes to Adrien’s cheeks at Plagg’s implication. “Fine, you’re no help at all. I’ll just have to figure out for myself how to not die every time I’m around her.”

Plagg rolls his eyes and stuffs a wedge of cheese in his mouth. “You’re fifteen,” he deadpans. “You only just realised you liked her the other day. You’re literally like any other teenager.”

“I know that,” Adrien says rather sulkily. “But that doesn’t make it any easier.”

“Too bad, buttercup. Suck it up and deal with it. You wanted to be a real teenager? Now you get to be a real teenager. Not all sunshine and rainbows, huh?”

“Just eat your cheese,” Adrien scowls. Plagg cackles and returns to his feast, so Adrien turns away from him and looks back at the photos. Marinette once again brings a soft smile to his face. He’ll have to turn into Chat Noir and visit her again soon, and not for any creepy reasons like perving on her in her room or deceiving her with another identity. If Adrien can’t hang out with his friends as much as he’d like, well, there’s no reason why Chat Noir shouldn’t be able to do so.

[chet-oh]

Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman have broken up

Before I speak my mind about this sad event that has come to my attention I need to clarify that I am just a distant witness of these happenings and am in no way connected nor gravely affected by them. Except that I am.

I “met” Amanda late at night on a weekday while I was in college. I must have been doing something important to be up that late, because my excuse to never staying up late to study was “my best strategy at this point is to come in well rested”. Or maybe not, maybe I didn’t have anything important to do the next day and I was just messing around while Pervy, my flatmate, was working on his projects. Some time after midnight, 120 minutes or 120 minutos, as we say around here, was on on Mtv. In a time when reality shows and Britney and Justin’s videos occupied most of the day tv hours, after midnight, there were a few hours with, what seemed to me, incredibly exciting and underground bands with weird-ass music videos. The fact that it was so hard for me to stay up that late made the music even more mystical since I had to evoque a good portion of my weak will power and have enough neurons awake to remember any of the bands the next morning.

That night Coin-Operated Boy came on. The chaotic and burlesque scenery caught my eye. Being a newly added fan to Roman Dirge’s creations, particularly Lenore, I was all into these dark, victorian-bohemian outfits, but what got me was that this was a full-on rock song played with only a piano and a drum set by this pale individuals.

Limewire was my p2p platform of choice and soon enough, after leaving my laptop on for a couple of nights, I had rotating on my iPod Shuffle not just Coin-operated Boy, but also Girl Anachronism, Half Jack, and Miss Me. I could not decide which I liked best and every time I listened to them they just seem to become more and more brilliant.

A few months after, Neil Gaiman came into my life. I had heard about Neil here and there, because of The Sandman, but hadn’t read it yet. I had watched and enjoyed Stardust, without knowing he was the creative mind behind it, and I knew he was somehow involved in Coraline, which I was very fond of. But when I really became aware of Neil was when Mr. Besha, my penpal, told me she had just finished reading American Gods and thought that I might enjoy it. It took me quite some time to get my hands on a copy of it. That kind of books weren’t readily available around here. I must have paid a presumable big chunk of my budget to that big fancy bookshop on Hidalgo street. It must have been one of the first books I read in English and the fact that I could comment it with Mr. Besha, recipient of the biggest crush-energy I have ever hurled around, made me read non-stop.

Fast forward a few years of looking for new records in the increasingly smaller and smaller CD section in Best Buy and following and unfollowing @Neilgaimanhimself on twitter, I found out that they were together. I knew about it, but never registered it until, looking for a new ukulele song to learn, I saw a video of Mrs. Palmer playing in her bathroom and Mr. Gaiman appearing in the reflection of a mirror. I remember thinking “What the f*ck is he doing there?” o “Qué chingaos?”, as we say around here. Plus she was in her undies! The nerve of that guy. To be honest, I found it somewhat disturbing. I couldn’t fathom how those distant parts of my world could have merged without my approval. I was annoyed and bewildered. More than I should have been.

Out of this annoyance, I think I lost interest in that part of the universe, perhaps hoping that it would cease to exist and, thus, reinstating the possibility of Amanda and I meeting, she falling not just head over heels, but stumbling down the hill and rolling for me, and me, stoically, telling her “I’m sorry, dear, we are just not right for each other.”

Just a couple of years ago, I was preparing a playlist for my holidays, since I was planning on going to this human forsaken beach where a surf guru was going to initiate me in the inconceivable arts of standing on water. This meant a few days with no satellite connection to anything and long, warm nights with no “ok, just one more episode” sessions. So, An Evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer came up in my suggestions and was added. As if I had reencountered an old crush, I wanted to know how it was going and to find out that they couldn’t possibly be as happy as they would be if they decided to regain my favor.

Then the worst thing happened. I totally fell in love with them. I started shipping them as if they were Fleabag and The Hot Priest. That recording was just brilliant. An inviting and heartwarming clash of creativity. Two amazing persons that summed even when they combined their oddities and awkwardness. They were the cool kids that belong together that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had made me believe in. They were the proof that oddballs and weirdos were not excluded from having a love story. That age and distance and cultural barriers and past mistakes and fears and looks were obstacles not big enough to stop two love-filled individuals from colliding.

Being reconnected to the possibilities of the interweb I fell, quite gleefully, into a spiral of Amanda-Neil binging. Following the YouTube rabbit hole for hours and days: interviews, TED Talks, old shows, old songs. Amanda rapping to M.I.A., finding out about the time Neil met Neil Armstrong, listening to Amanda talk on a box to a crowd about the art of asking, listening to Neil describe his night at the Oscars, and rewatching the cringy moment when a drunken aussi proposed to Amanda and secretly hoping I could listen someone say Wastepaper Basket.

Then I got the news! They were having a baby! Oh my goodness, that is a lucky kid! His life will be so full of music and stories and weird clothes. Man, was I jealous!

All this time I was thinking “Well, at least that part of the universe turned out fine… Maybe there is hope for all the other parts. Including mine.” Oh dear… I almost forgot that tragedy is in the fabric of this existence.

I don’t know the details and I won’t be looking into them, but I read there were some mean things crafted in a very creative, I am sure, set of written essays. Something that perhaps has to do with egoism and narcissistic notions of people. A bunch of words that digest the love and turns it into shit to be put next to the never ending piles of shit that cover everything else.

I know that they are just humans and, as such, are flooded with emotions and opinions and circumstances and that, probably, they are just doing the best they can with what they’ve got. Nevertheless, I just felt this urgent need to write these long preamble to the following five-word statement: F*ck you Neil and Amanda.

[tomeandflickcorner]

Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: The Spirit of Aunt Lois

Hmm.  For some reason, this episode seemed a bit shorter than normal.  Not sure why, because it was the same standard length as the other episodes.

It begins with the Ghostbusters returning to the Firehouse after a successful bust.  Though it was clearly a rough one, as their uniforms are visibly dirty, and Peter’s boots are covered in ectoplasmic slime.  When Egon and Winston head down to the basement with two smoking Ghost Traps in order to load the captured ghosts into the Containment Unit, Slimer apparently decides to troll Peter by hugging his leg, just as he was announcing his intention to head up to bed for some much-needed rest.  The sound of Peter screaming ends up being enough to cause Egon and Winston to emerge from the basement, just in time to see Peter trying to aim his Proton Pack at Slimer, who is essentially using a protesting Janine as a human shield.  (And yes, Slimer is really being a little stinker here, openly taunting Peter from behind Janine’s legs.)  Eventually, Egon is able to talk Peter down, reminding him that they need to keep Slimer around for scientific reasons, and that the little ghost could be their ticket to earning the Nobel Peace Prize.  As Slimer makes his escape by slipping up through the ceiling, Ray and Winston state that they’re sure Slimer will change, and that Peter has to have a little faith.

At that moment, a kind-looking older woman announces her presence, having stepped into the Firehouse while the guys were distracted. Upon seeing her, Ray greets her as Aunt Lois.  (Remember Ray previously mentioning her back in Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream?  Now we get to put a face with a name.)  When the Ghostbusters step over to properly greet Ray’s aunt, she gifts them with a plate of Pirozhki.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Pirozhki (I myself have never heard of it before writing this review), they’re baked or fried buns stuffed with a variety of fillings, and these filled buns are apparently a popular food offering in Russia. Yeah, this episode reveals that Ray’s family has some Russian ancestry. Which is slightly surprising, as I didn’t think Stantz was a Russian surname.  Maybe he’s Russian on his mother’s side, or his paternal grandmother’s family was Russian? I suppose it’s a possibility.

Anyway, Aunt Lois proceeds to invite the Ghostbusters to her home that evening.  At first, Ray states that they can’t make it as they have a job lined up at Museum of Modern Art, but Janine chimes in, informing them that the art museum had decided to cancel the appointment on account of a previous incident at the Guggenheim. I guess the Ghostbusters left a pretty big mess when they dealt with a bust at that particular museum and the curator of the Museum of Modern Art heard about it and didn’t want to risk something similar happening at his museum. So now that their schedule is all cleared up, the Ghostbusters are able to accept Aunt Lois’ invitation.  She informs them that she’s apparently been dealing with a series of headaches, and is convinced the cause of these headaches is spiritual in nature.  As such, she’s contacted a specialist to help resolve the issue.  Namely this TV spiritual medium called Dr. Bassingame. Aunt Lois is hoping the Ghostbusters will agree to come join Dr. Bassingame’s séance.  Upon hearing this, Ray is immediately ticked off, as he dismisses Dr. Bassingame as a snake oil salesman.  But Aunt Lois insists that he’s the real deal and begs them to come join the séance.  Ray is still visibly miffed about the whole thing, but Peter accepts the invitation.   After Aunt Lois leaves, Ray continues to vent about the matter, frustrated that his aunt would trust a quack like Dr. Bassingame.  To this, Egon reassures Ray that the worst thing that could happen is Dr. Bassingame would expose himself as a jerk and Aunt Lois would stop believing in him. And then, because the episode wanted to throw in a little more humor, we get to see Peter heading upstairs to get that nap he’d been planning on taking when they first returned to the Firehouse, and then screaming when he saw what Slimer did to his bed.

That evening, the Ghostbusters all arrive at Aunt Lois’ place in their Sunday best.  Aunt Lois’ home ends up being revealed as a fancy mansion that Ray states has been in the family for 100 years.  (So, does this mean Ray came from a rich family? Wow, I’m learning so much about him this episode.)  Aunt Lois leads the Ghostbusters through her mansion home into the dining room, where Dr. Bassingame is already hard at work setting up his equipment for the séance. And the episode wastes no time in portraying him as a slick con-artist, as even his voice comes across as slimy. And, in what was apparently meant to be a subtle jab at Filmmation’s Ghostbusters, Dr. Bassingame’s outfit is similar to the one worn by Jake Kong Jr. (Refer to my review of the episode Ghosts R Us if you want a refresher on the rivalry between the two shows.)  

As they enter the dining room and meet Dr. Bassingame, Egon pulls out his PKE Meter, which he’s brought with him for some reason.  He determines there is indeed a paranormal presence in the house, but it’s lying dormant.  Before he could figure out anything more, however, Dr. Bassingame instructs him to put away the PKE Meter, as they are only using his equipment that evening.  Egon complies with the request at Aunt Lois’ urging, and the séance begins. Right away, we’re shown that Dr. Bassingame is the con artist Ray thought him to be, as he’s secretly using some sort of switch panel positioned near his feet to activate a series of projectors and voice recorders to make it look as if a ghostly woman is appearing before them, beseeching Aunt Lois to help put her soul at rest. Dr. Bassingame’s ‘ghost woman’ begins to explain that a sum of money was supposed to be left to her, indicating that Dr. Bassingame is indeed trying to swindle Aunt Lois.

However, the fake séance is abruptly interrupted when a bunch of creatures appear in the dining room, with one of them cutting the tape on the voice recording reel, thereby disrupting the voice playback.  Acting quickly, Egon once again pulls out his PKE Meter, announcing the ghosts that had been dormant moments before have all woken up, no doubt a result of Dr. Bassingame’s interference.   Ray immediately offers to help put a stop to things by fetching their Proton Packs, but Aunt Lois insists that Dr. Bassingame can handle it, her faith in him still not swayed.  Dr. Bassingame states that he can indeed settle the matter, but insists the Ghostbusters step out into the hall to let him work.  Of course, not a minute goes by before the doors fly open again, and Dr. Bassingame gets thrown out into the hall by the rampaging ghosts.  Meaning Aunt Lois is now trapped inside the dining room by herself.  When the Ghostbusters all run in to try and help her themselves, they all end up getting blown out of the house completely.

In order to figure out what to do now, the Ghostbusters gather around the Ecto-1 to come up with a plan.  Egon consults his copy of Tobin’s Sprit Guide while cross-checking the family history information Ray provides him with.  Namely that his family came over to America from Russia in the 1860s. With that information, Egon is able to determine that they’re dealing with Domoviye, which are a type of Russian spirit that are usually tied to a household and do their best to make things go right.  In other words, they’re supposed to be helpful ghosts.  Unless they’re provoked, which is what happened when Dr. Bassingame attempted his phony séance.  The Domoviye considered it a direct insult to everything they stood for and therefore became violent.  

With that in mind, the Ghostbusters decide the best course of action is to hold another séance, so the Domoviye will direct their attention onto them instead of Aunt Lois, who is still trapped in the dining room.  They even try to rope the highly reluctant Dr. Bassingame to lead the second séance, but the creep chickens out and dives for cover almost instantly.  So the Ghostbusters, in the hopes of making the Domoviye believe the séance is still going on, start chanting out the first random things they could think of.  Peter and Ray begin singing 99 Bottles of Beer, Egon, being Egon, starts rambling out various mathematic rules such as the Pythagorean theorem, and Winston…. Um….. Yeah, I’m not really sure what he’s doing.  He’s just saying ‘Ghost, get out of my face, ha!’ Apparently, he was trying to imitate James Brown, an American singer and songwriter who was a major figure of 20th century music and dance and is often referred to as the Godfather of Soul.  Kinda feel bad I never really heard of him before, but then again, I don’t really follow music that closely.

In any event, this ends up working, and Aunt Lois is able to safely make it out of the dining room and back into the hall.  At first, the Ghostbusters are left wondering why the Domoviye didn’t follow them out into the hall as well, but Egon reminds them that they’re location spirits and therefore are tied to that specific room. However, they then hear Dr. Bassingame’s yells, revealing that he’s still in the dining room.  Even though the Ghostbusters know Dr. Bassingame probably deserves whatever he’s getting right now, they decide they really should do the decent thing and get him out of there.  Ray asks Aunt Lois if she’ll allow them to fetch their Ghostbusting gear now.  This time, she agrees, apologizing to Ray and announcing that it’s probably best to leave it to them, as they know best.

So the Ghostbusters gear up and return to the dining room, where they proceed to successfully trap all the Domoviye.  Which I admit makes me feel pretty sorry for the Domoviye.  It was established earlier that these were helpful ghosts and they were only acting up because they were angered.  It just seems to me that there had to have been a better solution to the problem than simply trapping them.  But I suppose I really shouldn’t expect too much from a 20 minute episode.  And for all we know, the Ghostbusters later released them after they calmed down a bit. Anyway, when Aunt Lois cautiously reenters the dining room after the last ghost has been trapped, it becomes clear that the combined antics of the Domoviye and the Ghostbusters attempts and catching them left a pretty big mess in the dining room.  The Ghostbusters apologize for the mess, but Aunt Lois reassures them that the Domoviye caused most of the damages.

Of course, there’s still the matter of Dr. Bassingame, who takes this chance to announce he still expects payment for his services.  Upon hearing this, Aunt Lois becomes incensed, appalled that he has the gall to demand payment when it was his actions that led to her dining room getting destroyed.  Dr. Bassingame, however, doesn’t bat an eye and shows her the contract that she’d signed earlier, which clearly states that he was not liable for any damages that resulted from spiritual work on the premises.  Obviously, this was clearly a low handed tactic meant to make us dislike this guy even more, but I am wondering how the Ghostbusters typically handle things when their Ghostbusting actions cause sizable damages. Don’t forget, it was stated earlier in the episode that they did leave a mess behind at the Guggenheim.  So do they take a similar stance as Dr. Bassingame in regards to damages that occur during busts, or do they include a complementary discount on the bill?  Either way, I guess it doesn’t really matter in this case, as Peter and Ray are able to blackmail him into essentially ripping up the contract by threatening to find out where he lives and releasing all the Domoviye there.  This does the trick, and Dr. Bassingame writes out a check for Aunt Lois.  Of course, it then turns out that Aunt Lois might have a vindictive side to her, in spite of the sweet old lady persona she’s been displaying throughout the episode, for she chooses to not warn him that a single Domovoy has decided to hitch a ride on his back.  Which I guess is meant to indicate that this particular Domovoy will end up following Dr. Bassingame home, where it will continue to terrorize him.  Though this doesn’t make much sense, as it was clearly stated earlier that the Domoviye were tied to Aunt Lois’ dining room.  So how was this one remaining Domovoy able to leave with Dr. Bassingame?  And even if this was possible, the Domoviye were supposed to be peaceful unless angered. So if this Domovoy took up residence in Dr. Bassingame’s place, wouldn’t it simply settle down and become the dormant, docile ghost it was supposed to be?  Because I doubt Dr. Bassingame typically hosts fake séances at his place.

So, while the ending of this episode does leave you with some lingering questions, the story as a whole was still enjoyable.  And it does present a subtle moral about trusting TV spiritualists, mediums and psychics.  Because the world sadly is full of people like Dr. Bassingame, who go on TV pretending that they can communicate with ghosts and spirits by relying on cold readings in order to make a quick buck, and have no qualms about scamming people who are grieving the death of a loved one.  In fact, John Oliver did a segment on these scam artists, which you can find on YouTube.  It’s well worth a watch, especially because you get to see some of these so-called ‘psychics’ get caught in their lies.  However, I am wondering about one thing.  Aunt Lois stated at the start of the episode that she was experiencing headaches. Well, Dr. Bassingame clearly made her believe spiritual activity was causing the headaches, but since he was a con artist the whole time, then… does that mean that Aunt Lois might be suffering from some sort of medical issue?  Because if the headaches were happening frequently enough that Aunt Lois would actually seek him out in the first place, that might be an indication that something could be wrong with her physiologically.  Then again, we’re clearly not supposed to read too much into these episodes, so she was probably just suffering an ordinary headache.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

[delusion-of-negation]

On another note Lucifer is actually pretty enjoyable in a campy way as long as you don’t think too hard about it being related to sandman

I haven't watched that yet, so I'll check it out! On the subject of supernatural shows, I'd recommend Diablero on Netflix - it's really good, probably the best of that kind of show out at the moment (better than the more recent Supernatural series), and it reminds me a lot of the Constantine movie that had Keanu Reeves in it (which I really like). Also, Love Death and Robots is really good, and I especially liked Sonnie's Edge - that episode was dark and really well crafted; the sound, the imagery (idk if metaphor is the right word, but y'all know what I mean), the twists, the writing, it was really well put together.

On a massive tangent (but since we're talking about watching things on Netflix), I'm still looking for a good horror movie that either isn't pretentious or is good enough to carry its pretentiousness. This new wave of pretentious horror films (alongside boring cookie cutter ones and so many sequels and remakes and spin-offs) is getting really tiresome, because they seem to think that if you just say it's a horror film and kill a few people in the few brief breaks we get from having depression or philosophy forced down our throats, then that makes it a horror film... it's like no dude, you've got to make it scary. I clearly don't mind having metaphors, deeper messages, etc (again, Sonnie's Edge, and Love Death and Robots as a whole, uses that stuff well, and I like other stuff that does too, like Annihilation and The Night Eats The World), but I just don't want that stuff to come at the cost of what makes a film good.

Like, Annihilation was good because it actually managed to be creepy and unnerving (honestly, that film genuinely triggered some really specific OCD shit I have, and that was great, haven't been genuinely scared by a horror film in years... like, sometimes I just wanna feel like clawing my skin off after watching a horror film, is that too much to ask), and the characters were good, and when the weird fight happened towards the end it was a little anticlimactic, but it was still alright because you had actually invested time in her character growth and it was interesting to watch her figure out what was happening and come up with a solution; also it didn't spell shit out for you, like it had enough faith in the audience to expect them to notice tiny details on their own. The Night Eats The World was pretty good too because even though it was slow and quiet, you could feel the build up, you cared about the character, etc.

But then you had Bird Box that had such a good premise but then let you down at every hurdle - the character growth was completely missing, the jumping between times just caused spoilers, the creatures were inconsistent and absolutely shit (like you can have an unexplained monster but you need to do it right, inconsistency ruins immersion, these monsters just did whatever was convenient for the plot, for example, you can't look at them through a video but the news footage at the beginning didn't kill anyone and you could still see shapes and colours through the blindfold, and one person was willing to immediately crash a car to kill themself and someone they've loved for their whole life but another dude could resist it for long enough to protect some people he's known just a few years, it didn't make sense), the ableism was annoying (legit a friend said to me "The mentally ill can't go crazy because they're already crazy." and it's like dude the creatures made people suicidal by showing them something that would push them to suicide, mental illness doesn't render you incapable of being pushed to suicide, and they literally did "go crazy" if they were already "crazy", mentally ill people became dangerous and sporadically deranged, while mentally sound people killed themselves), and the worst thing was the sound design (look, if you have a movie where you can't see and you're being guided by sound, fucking get the sound right, make it get louder and quieter based on closeness, use the speakers to give it some direction, but instead some fucking wind-chimes were just as loud across a river and down the path as they were right next to them, and the birds were just as loud all the way through the forest except quiet when the creatures started talking... which makes no sense because the movie was literally named based on the fact that the birds made noise when the creatures were about). Also Ravenous/Les Affamés was SO BAD - if I wanted to watch people sit solemnly in silence for hours, only broken by the occasional bad joke, I'd go work in an office, and there was absolutely no substantial plot or tension, it just dragged on and on while you sat there wishing the zombies would just come in and eat these shitty characters.

I'm starved man, I need good horror, but Hollywood and Netflix are just churning out either cookie cutter plots, endless sequels, or pretentious shit that lacks any of the things that make a horror movie good. And don't even get me started on found footage films, I am so tired of people sacrificing a lot of quality when it comes to character building and cinematography and basically every aspect of the movie, just to have it be found footage style - like, that style can work, but not if you are fucking up everything else about the movie and not even using that style right. Cloverfield did it right. Apollo 18 did it so badly, and had such a shit plot, that I feel like it should be a criminal offense to call that atrocity a film.

EDIT: I forgot to add that The Purge series is good, it takes the slasher formula and does something new with it, and it manages to get political points across without preaching to you or being full of itself. And despite having messages and stuff, it still manages to be a good horror film - they don't detract from the film, and they didn't sacrifice the quality or horror for the sake of having a message.