#if you were like 12 or 10 in 2014 i would believe you but 6?!?!

[lokilow-keystabbing]

Trying to wrap my head around 16 year olds saying they have been following Joost since 2014. You were 6 in 2014 i-

[panimoonchild]

Never believe Russian narratives about Ukraine

Part I

Ukrainians respect the diversity of their people. All form of love, skin color and religion don't matter to us. We are sincere, loving and courageous people. I recently rid of the shadow ban and took part in sng challenge. And of course I couldn't help but talk about the Russian-Ukrainian war. So I will share with you the songs like of ours and foreign artists and the events that fit them or happened that day. Today - Day 14: Piano Guys - Epiphany I can be creative because I thought that it would not be possible to mention us on the day of the wedding song. Fact: well-armed Ukrainian army - Ukrainians are protected and happier. Yesterday - Day 13: Aerothmith - Dream On How lovely, modern Mariupol was. I miss you. I wish I had taken our photo albums with us from Donetsk in 2014. Only memories remain. Tat picture of the last protest for Ukraine in Mariupol makes me devastatingly sad. Wait a little longer, you'll come back to the Homeland💙💛 Day 12: Asking Alexandria - Someone, Somewhere 10th of the March - Day of the national anthem in Ukraine. And my music taste is relatable too. Because lines "Even though I'm on my own, I know I'm not alone / 'Cause I know there's someone, somewhere praying that I make it home" hit close to home. Day 11: Disturbed - The Sound of Silence I barely see any mention of Nikopol that day. That's upsetting. We must keep reminding the world about Russian war crimes. Day 10: Skladno - Azovstal There's were manifestation about Free Azovstal Defenders in Ukraine and throughout the world. Mariupol has special place in my heart. I spent 10+ years of my life on summer vacation there and in the selo (village) of Berdyanske. Two photoes from there save only in Facebook. Others remained only as memories. Day 9: Tember Blanche - Ти живий (You are alive) & Ницо Потворно - Русні пизда Thanks to AFU, I can listen to our artists and live my life. Support Ukraine in the right way - arm us. Day 7: Straylight Run - Hands in the sky I felt broken 'cause Russia corrupted my second hometown basically and traumatized my old childhood memories. Day 6: Туча (Tucha) - russia is a terrorist state Rescueing operation finally ended in Odesa. Russia again killing as many Ukrainian as they can. But that day their targets were babies and kids. Nothing new but pain our people feel are agonizing. Day 5: Карна - Добрий вечір (Karna - Dobryy vechir) Next day after Russian terrorist attack in Odesa. Death toll have been increased.

[crazy4frozen]

Frozen; A movie worth melting for

As I celebrate my ultimate favorite movie turning 10 years old. let me tell you why I think the movie is "Worth melting for

Frozen is so magical and it has helped me through difficult times in my life such as adapting to group home life as an only child. and learning how to be patient and live with people. In many ways, I can relate to my favorite character Elsa. She had to hide her magic Ice powers from the world and more importantly her sister Anna for many years making her feel so isolated and alone. And that's how I felt especially in that first year and a half that I lived in a group home (I moved in 2010

However, just like Elsa I was able to 'Let It Go' and move into my own supported apartment 6 years later but then I felt isolated again 'until I learned how to schedule my own activities. And I feel the sisterly love between Elsa and Anna is so magical and one must not forget the songs are so powerful!

I am such a HUGE fan of Frozen now that I can't believe that for the first 7 months I hated it! However, three of my group home house mates whom I was living with were so obsessed with the movie from the very start and they were willing to try anything to get me to love their favorite movie. And man were they persistent at it too! In fact, I remember them dragging me to to the theater 3 times to see the movie a nd to 'Frozen on Ice" where I fell asleep. However, in June 2014, I 'fell in love' with the song 'Let it Go' when I really listened to the lyrics of the song. On the 15th, my Best Buddy through the Carroll College friendship program for people with disabilities invited me to see her favorite movie. When I found out that it was Frozen I immediate started to protest. I told her that I already seen it three times and I flat out didn't want to watch it again and also that I was so annoyed with it! However being the crazy, obsessed superfan that she was, refused to let me give up! She kept pointing out to me that the song that I had gotten 'hooked' on was in the movie and that if I watched it again I would love it just like she did! And boy was she ever right! It had taken 4 times but I finally was 'Hooked'. Which was great for those super fans of Greenway whom I knew for a fact were probably going to disown me if I hadn't started liking their movie! Soon after that day I become a fan,I joined the gang in watching it very day the movie and those fans became increasingly excited with my growing passion!

I began going to all these Frozen theme events many times such as 'Breakfast With Elsa,

'Frozen on Ice" three more times and numerous meet and greets with Elsa and Anna! Also, in April of this year I went to Frozen: The Broadway Musical in Milwaukee at the PAC and had the GREATEST TIME EVER! and I look forward to going to many more Frozen events in the future and oh, how I can forget one of my latest day program Goodwill throwing me an epic Frozen theme birthday party August 27th 2018!

Now, in 2023 I can't get enough Frozen! I watched the movie 604 times and counting, have a ever growing collection of stuff. I can say that that at 9 years and 5 months Frozen has captured my interest longer than any other movie. I have seen it' more times than any other movie and I don't think I have gotten more stuff than any other movie! And I'm sure I will have Frozen FEVER for many more years, as Disney is making a Frozen 3 & 4! And I owe it all to those super fans of Greenway group home and my ex best buddy for their persistent efforts to make a fan out of me!

I would like to also point out that i was 43 years old when I fell madly 'in love' with Frozen and many people teased me for being way to old to be so 'into' a Disney movie that many believe, including my parents that is just for kids under the age of 12. Also that for me going to events such as 'Breakfast with Elsa' or 'Frozen On Ice' aren't age appropriate nor that I should be interested in going to them!

I hope that by reading this fan experience post people would see that a love, even an obsessive love for a Disney movie has no age limits!

Happy 10th Anniversary Frozen! I love you so much

This is a picture of me from the 2022 special needs prom!

[spurious]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

Thank you for the tag, @wonkyelk & @sga-owns-my-soul!

How many works do you have on AO3?

103, a number which recently shot up due to me posting all of my random tumblr ficlets to my AO3 account lmao. Previously it was, like, 70.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

267,356

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently it's pretty much all SGA all the time over here. I am enjoying dabbling in Genshin when the mood strikes though, love the yuripeans <3

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Twenty Questions

Ink and Wings

Five Times Rodney (and John) Visit the Millers

Solitary in a Wide Flat Space

Abercrombie & Rodney

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I try to, at least, though sometimes my responses are painfully delayed. I like hearing what people think about a story, I want them to know their comments are loved and appreciated, and sometimes you end up getting into a discussion like back in the Good Old Days on LJ.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Man I really do not write a ton of stuff that doesn’t end happily /just went through all my fics

Angstiest ending of things I've posted is probably either the Kanjani superheroes AU or the apocalypse akame fic? Has my tolerance for writing lengthy angst lessened with age?

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

As I said above, most of my stuff seems to have relatively happy endings. If I were to pick I might say O I Think We Should Be Brethren, because it takes the longest and hardest journey to the ending, which makes it feel more impactful to me.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got one "hate" comment on the Kanjani cannibalism fic from someone who thought I was sick and needed therapy, or something to that effect. Otherwise, nope.

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

Yes. I would say my smut wheelhouse is kinky porn with feelings, I guess?

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

I do not.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I believe one or two of my fics in Johnny's fandom were translated into Russian and/or Chinese?

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Not to completion!

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

how dare you make me choose between my children

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

Story I started for a fic exchange in, like, god...2014 or so? In which Yoko kisses Hina, then hits his head and wakes up in a world that's just a shamelessly silly amalgam of J-drama tropes. Sometimes I read through the doc and go "man i wish the author would update"

16. What are your writing strengths?

Sensory description, wanky poetic bullshit, smut, scenes with no more than two people in them, banter-y dialogue

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Endings, complex plots, ensemble casts, scenes with three or more people in them, transitions, being a complete baby about taking criticism, endings, endings

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

I don't see a reason for it? You either need to add a gloss with a translation (if your POV character and audience are intended to understand it), at which point you may as well just write "Screw you, McKay," Zelenka said in Czech; or you want it to be incomprensible to the reader, at which point you may as well just write Zelenka muttered something in Czech as he stomped away. If your reader happens to understand the language you've written in and you're not confident in it, they'll be annoyed by the weird grammar you've gotten from google translating it, and even if you are, you're losing the effect of someone having said something that your POV character shouldn't understand.

......................apparently I have an Opinion on this? who knew.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Cardcaptor Sakura, when I was like 13? I may have posted it on FF.net but if there's a god it's been lost to the sands of time. I do not think it was very good.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Shouldn't be surprising at this point for me to pick O I Think We Should Be Brethren for this, right? I just think it's neat.

Tagging (I've seen this one circulate a fair bit so apologies if you've been multiple-tagged): @audioletter @sparrowsarus @texasdreamer01 @luredin @alienfuckeronmain

[its-moopoint]

I don't know how shippers met their SO and developed long term relationships in spite of separate careers and locations. When two people love each other and want to be together they do everything they can to make the relationship work. They may have met between October 2013 and March 2014 and it was through common friends as C said later, because by March they were already dating, spending Christmas and New Year together with family and friends. Like every early relationship, especially for someone in the public eye, there is no talk about it because people wait to see how the whole thing develops. In CT's case, it worked because they spent their time off together. Then they got engaged in 2017, married in 2019 and had a child in 2021. And let's remember that many actors married to actors usually don't make it, precisely because they are apart filming in various places around the world for months on end. CT lived close enough and had the option to be together when one wasn't able to travel. Having a civilian as spouse is a plus in this case. This is how organic relationships work, but these nitwits are so devoid of any common sense and constant drooling over S, the only conclusion they came to was that CT's relationship was impossible due to her spending the bulk of her time on set with their wet dream.

c2bend

The ‘Civilian’ Boyfriend

So, I’ve only been shipping SC ‘with’ you all since August sometime.  And I don’t have the timelines of Caitriona’s schedule as dialed in as some of you.  But one thing that keeps nagging me about her having a ‘civilian’ boyfriend that SHE apparently didn’t have before Outlander began and only happened after she started filming OL, is this:

So she gets cast late August, early September 2013.  Is in Scotland by mid September, is working, which includes learning script, meetings, horseback riding lessons, other lessons?, costume fittings, annndd then filming.  She is in every scene, filming 12 + hours a day with weekends off, which more than likely a good part of that is spent learning lines and sleeping/resting I would imagine, with occasional munro bagging with some guy she met on OL, “magical evening walks” with some guy she met on OL (according to him), visits from across the globe friends – Donal, etc.  This is more than likely her schedule for SEVERAL months.  I believe I read somewhere that they were filming for 9 or 10 months originally, even if it were 6 months, then some time off, then promoting, then back to filming for 3 more months – that’s pretty much more than one year of her life devoted to OL.  During her time off she was in California (not the UK), going to Big Sur, hiking the LA Canyons with her sister and some guy she met while filming OL, hanging with her cat and friends, etc., just being HOME.  Then her and her costar are doing some heavy promoting during the summer, then back to filming in August (I believe?).

Okay, stay with me – Now we’re into the fall/end of year of 2014.  They wrap in October.  She’s in LA (@home) for Thanksgiving with her good friends – Simon, Karolina and others (have you seen the Thanksgiving photos on IG – she’s either exhausted, a bit drunk or not entirely happy or all three).  In December according to accounts she does a whirlwind trip to NY, Paris, Ireland (I do believe that’s all very doable btw).  Then in January 2015 her and her costar from OL are at People’s Choice Awards – in LA .  Also at this time she knows her ‘flat’ is on the market so she realizes she’s going to have to move, so does she stay in LA even though she’s rarely there anymore or uproot and move to Glasgow where she WORKS many months out of the year for OL?  Well, yeah.  

Now we’re moving into spring of 2015, she’s filming Money Monster for 3+ months I believe, has been doing photoshoots all over the place, quoted in some rag tag as having a civilian bf.  This is where I go WTF?  How in God’s name does she have a BF, let alone a ‘civilian’ BF with the crazy ass schedule she has had now for the last 2 years, where in the hell would she have found TIME to find and nurture a relationship with someone who has nothing to do with the industry?  Unless of course she has a twin, oohh that could explain SOO much… I’m going with that, yep, yep, I like that theory.

c2bend

Rebloging as this has always been my biggest receipt. I wrote this fall of 2015 I believe. And not much has changed as far as this goes - how would she even have time for a civilian BF especially with the amount of time she spends offset with her costar?

mariaae

Love this post @c2bend! Totes agree! Only one man in her life since OL - her co-star Sam! Swoon!

gabysachs

Reblog for the timeline we all have been following since we became shippers. Of course there's an only civilian man in Cait's life, her calm center, Mr. Sam Heughan 😏

s-and-c-forever

Well obviously she does not have a civilian boyfriend and in fact is no doubt married to that person she spent more time with.

marciabalfe

You have to be very damaged by neurons to accept the narrative that states that, in the middle of this whole whirlwind, she inserted the most lifeless, dull, serotonin-free guy in this world in her life as a boyfriend, fiancé and husband. They could at least have chosen someone with a little more vivacity to play this role of a false husband! It’s playing too much with our intelligence!

lovehimloveherstuff

The TRUTH will always prevail... it cannot be hidden or hindered! As you said so (adorably) in your original post here, "Cait & some guy she met from outlander have been munro bagging" since day ONE! Her "Civilian bf" never existed, and neither does her "Ghost husband" now. Their is now & has always been only ONE Man to fit Caitriona Mary Balfe's Bill & that man is Sam Roland Heughan. The Father of her children & the LOVE OF HER LIFE!!! And the two shall never part!!

selanalash

This, people, is the base, the core of the irrefutable logic that IMO led to believe in SC relationship.

bjj3007-ichoosetobelieve

THIS! I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one that was beyond baffled by this. Not to mention she states in 2014 (@auburncurlslass pls help me out on this) that she is single. (Again, timelines will be clarified I’m sure ) then claims that she had been with her husband since 2014 🤔 then claims that she has Outlander to thank for love coming into her life. How the hell does a civilian fit that category?

No but really everyone, pls clear up this timeline for me hahaha. So that I can remember it once and for all!

Love the critical thinking of this original blogger btw!

I love all their references to neurons and being smart when they plead their "case" in these long ass posts that say... nothing. I mean any lawyer and judge would throw this shit away at any hearing in seconds. They have nothing to sustain their beliefs but tons of ASSUMPTIONS.

The timeline it's pretty clear for anyone with understanding, a normal life, normal relationship and with no hearing or sight problems.

She had friends in America and they knew T in Glasgow. She was alone in Glasgow and her friends came visit her and introduced someone who actually lived there (T). So she had her work friends (SH) and her new circle she was building. He started appearing in her outings, first only as friends then they got officially together. You can actually watch the whole thing unfold in social media and in her interviews: from the moment she said she was single, then dating someone, then doesn't talk about her private life, then T being her +1 at events, then her thanking him in her acceptance speeches, then her friends, family and acquaintances naming T as her husband, the wedding, the marriage certificate, she speaking of her husband and son, she saying she wasn't with S, she saying her husband has known S since they started dating (that also fits the timeline perfectly)...

You need to be stupid to believe she only worked for a year and her social life was just SH.

[remembertheplunge]

4/10/2023. 

Today, I showed up for jury duty today. Had to be there  in the jury assembly room.at 1:15pm. This was in the Superior Court House in Stanislaus County, Modesto, California.  I’m a criminal defense attorney. I first came to Stanislaus County in 1984. Since then, I have had many jury trials in that court house. I have also Been a potential juror several times. But, I’m always excused because I am a defense lawyer. Still, being a part of the jury selection process is a great education for me. I get to see how it feels to be a potential juror. I notice my reaction when, in a criminal case, I first see the person accused of a crime or crimes. And, I study how I first feel when the judge tells us what the person is charged with. 

The accused man today was a 30 something well dressed handsome African American man. I looked at my fellow jurors to see how many were African American. Only 2.  Highly likely it  will be hard  for the accused to get a to get a fair trial based on race. There were four armed police officers in the court room. 3 male. One female. The were positioned in close proximity to the accused. This could send a message to potential jurors that the accused was a dangerous man. Another reason the accused would have trouble getting a fair trial.

Then the judge read the charges. Vehicle Code 2800.2(a) Flight from Police.  I thought “ Why didn’t this case settle? What are the accused man's defenses. A very low intensity charge.”

And then the judge began to ask the first 18 people selected if they could be fair. There were about 80 of us called up for jury duty to Department 6. A kind of alchemy occurred as the potential jurors began to answer. The room converted from a court room into a collective report card on humanity. A kind of a litmus test of where, we as a people and as a society, stand now.

One woman said that her son or brother, someone close to her, had been involved in a high speed chase in Oakland resulting in the police shooting and killing him. “And, today is his birthday” she said as her eyes welled with tears.  I was overwhelmed by the woman’s powerful delivery and by her compassionate indictment of law enforcement. Another woman said “Another  court found my son guilty and gave him life. The verdict was overturned by an appeals court . I don’t believe in the system. I can’t be fair.  A man, probably in his 50’s, said that when he was 17 he had been beaten by the police. He could not be fair in a case where police would testify.

At this point, the defense attorney asked for a meeting with the judge and the DA outside the presence of the potential jurors. We were sent back to the jury assembly room. After some time, we were told that the case in Department 6 had settled. 

I’m not sure why it settled. But, I can’t help believing that the testament of those 3 potential jurors in this era of George Floyd and the many others killed wrongfully by police didn’t have something to do with it. Especially since the accused man in department 6 was a young black man.

End of entry

Note: the phrase “Report card on humanity “ comes from the movie “Snowfall on the Cedars." In the movie, a defense lawyer begins his closing argument by telling the jurors that every once in a while a group of 12 people, the jury, are asked to give a report card on humanity”. I quoted this line in a closing argument in a co defendant gang murder case I was in from August 4, 2014 to January 28, 2015. There were 4 other defense lawyers who gave closing arguments in that case. So, I can’t take full credit for the hung jury that resulted. The case ended up on about May 25, 2015 as a 17 page story in the Sunday magazine in the New York Times! You can still google that article at New York Times Magazine: "How do you define a gang member? Jesse De La Cruz."

Continued to April 18, 2023 post

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Job: How Can I Argue with God?

1 Then Job answered:

2 “Truly, I know it is so,    but how can a man be righteous with God? 3 If one would dispute with Him,    he cannot answer Him once in a thousand times. 4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength.    Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered? 5 He who removes mountains, and they know not,    who overturns them in His anger. 6 He who shakes the earth out of its place,    and its pillars tremble. 7 He who commands the sun, and it does not rise;    he seals off the stars. 8 He who alone spreads out the heavens,    and treads on the waves of the sea. 9 He who makes the Bear, Orion, and Pleiades,    and the constellations of the south. 10 He who does great things, beyond discovery,    yes, and wonders beyond number. 11 Yes, He would cross before me, and I would not see Him;    He would pass on by, but I would not perceive Him. 12 Yes, He takes away; who can hinder Him?    Who will say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’ 13 God will not withdraw His anger.    The proud helpers bow down beneath Him.

14 “How, then, can I myself answer Him,    and choose my words to reason with Him? 15 Even if I were righteous I could not answer;    I would plead to my Judge for favor. 16 If I called, and He answered me,    I would not believe that He had listened to my voice. 17 For He crushes me with a storm    and multiplies my wounds without cause. 18 He will not allow me to get my breath,    but fills me with bitterness. 19 If it is a matter of strength, indeed, He is strong;    and if of justice, who will set me a time to plead? 20 Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me;    though I were perfect, it would prove me perverse.

21 “Though I were perfect,    I would not know myself;    I would despise my life. 22 It is all one thing; therefore I said,    ‘He destroys both the perfect and the wicked.’ 23 If the whip kills suddenly,    He will laugh at the trial of the innocent. 24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.    He covers the faces of its judges.    If it is not He, then who is it?

25 “Now my days are swifter than a runner;    they flee away; they see no good. 26 They pass by like reed skiffs,    like an eagle rushing upon its prey. 27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint;    I will leave off my sad face and brighten up,’ 28 I am afraid of all my sorrows;    I know that You will not hold me innocent. 29 If I am guilty,    why then do I labor in vain? 30 If I wash myself with snow water    and cleanse my hands with soap, 31 yet You will plunge me into the pit,    and my own clothes will abhor me.

32 “For He is not a man as I am, that I should answer Him,    and we should come together in judgment. 33 Nor is there a mediator between us,    who may lay his hand upon us both. 34 Let Him take His rod away from me,    and let not dread of Him terrify me. 35 Then I would speak and not fear Him,    but it is not so with me. — Job 9 | Modern English Version (MEV) The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House. Cross References: Genesis 1:1; Genesis 17:17; Deuteronomy 28:49; 1 Samuel 2:25; 2 Chronicles 13:12; 2 Chronicles 30:6; Ezra 9:15; Job 1:1; Job 3:25; Job 5:9; Job 7:11; Job 7:19; Job 8:5; Job 8:22; Job 10:1,2 and 3; Job 12:6; Job 13:22; Job 15:6; Job 16:12; Job 23:8; Job 26:6; Job 26:12; Job 37:9; Job 37:19; Psalm 37:33; Psalm 39:10; Psalm 75:3; Isaiah 13:10; Jeremiah 2:22; Nahum 3:6; Romans 9:19-20

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 7/10: Series 7

For me, 2012 and 2013 were some of the hardest years of high school for me. No, I wasn’t bullied, if that’s what you’re thinking. That first half of high school (from Year 7-9) is probably the most formative out of all the high school years, as that is where fundamental friendships are made, in my opinion. But instead of making friends, I was busy getting into the Doctor Who fandom, waiting for new episodes and ripping off old episodes to make stories while incorporating my original ideas into them, eventually forming and defining what would be known as my personal project.

Each series of Doctor Who in the modern era so far has remained confined to a single calendar year, but the Series 7 split saw it being spread over two years. While the Series 6 split was a creative decision on Moffat’s part, there are a few reasons why the Series 7 split happened; it was a creative decision on the BBC’s part, Steven Moffat wanted to leave as short a gap as possible between the end of the series and the 50th Anniversary, the BBC didn’t want Doctor Who’s coverage being overshadowed by the upcoming 2012 London Olympics (though if a series premiered in March/April it would have ended before the opening ceremony), the production team thought it would be nice to delay production on the series for a few months to allow the cast and crew some time to rest while also allowing Moffat (and Mark Gatiss) to focus on Sherlock, the list goes on.

Thanks to the 50th Anniversary, Series 7 and the 2013 Specials are another peak in the revived series history next to Series 4 and the 2013 Specials. To elaborate, let’s jump into the retrospective for Series 7.

1. Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver Review

Near the end of 2012, I bought an Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver toy from an ABC Shop (when those were still a thing) on a school shopping trip (believe it or not, in Years 7-9, the school took us out to a popular shopping centre for “Christmas shopping” but I think everyone else was just focused on hanging out and chilling - I don’t think they did it anymore when I got to Year 10). The intention was that I would bring it to swimming and athletics carnivals for a bit of fun on those days; even when the sonic screwdriver was changed in 2015 I did still get a final year of use out of it in Year 12 because I didn’t want to buy another sonic screwdriver for one year, not when I was just getting into Kamen Rider and tokusatsu.

The sonic screwdriver toy was the 2010 model from Character Options. It was able to extend itself with a touch of a button, though the spring-loaded action was a bit too strong, scaring people who were unfamiliar with the sonic screwdriver. The release button wasn’t that good either - it could extend itself if you flicked your wrist hard enough or sometimes when the red button is pressed, which can’t be good for it in the long run. When extended, the sound activation button wouldn’t work - you could press the red button under the flap on the bottom end of the screwdriver, or you could press the button in the space where the screwdriver extended, which despite looking a bit awkward, doesn’t seem to detract from the fun. There are two sonic noises at high and low pitches and there are two secret sounds that can be activated by pressing the button three or four times.

This model was rereleased in 2014 as the Twelfth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, with touch control or single-button versions available. Both versions improve the weaknesses of the previous model by either changing the activation button to a touch-based system or making it so that the sounds can be activated when fully extended, though the red button at the bottom is removed and replaced with a power core prop in the touch control version. I think the sonic screwdriver was only held like that once in Series 5 so it’s not that big of a loss. The touch control version doesn’t separate in two for the battery compartment, which has been moved to the white ceramic-like portion of the screwdriver. Some people may think it’s annoying but if you hold it with the release button facing up, you won’t notice it all that much.

Speaking of which, according to the comments of this video, the Eleventh Doctor has used his sonic screwdriver more than any other Doctor in the series. Also, considering how long this model was used (discounting times when it was replaced), the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver design has lasted the longest in the modern era, at least by virtue of continuous appearances. Overall, the sonic screwdriver design used by the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors in the 70’s and early 80’s has lasted the longest, even with slight modifications here and there.

2. Radical changes

Series 7 saw radical changes over the course of the series as a result of changes in production. The major change saw the production move from Upper Boat Studios to the newly constructed studios in Roath Lock. Apparently there was no way to preserve the TARDIS set for the move, so a new one ended up being designed and constructed, moving away from the organic feel of the RTD era to enhance the machine aspects of it, harking back to the classic series.

The darker appearance of the TARDIS console room also brought with it a new darker look for the Doctor, changing from a tweed jacket with braces/suspenders to a more proper purple frock coat with a waistcoat underneath, maintaining the bowtie. Towards the end of Series 6, the Doctor wore a green greatcoat in place of his tweed jacket. After briefly wearing a pair of glasses similar to the Tenth Doctor’s brainy specs that Rory would use to allow the Doctor to see through from the TARDIS in The Girl Who Waited, the Doctor would keep Amy’s round reading glasses. To be honest, I must say that I’m not a big fan of the Series 7 Part 2 look because it makes him look too mature and proper, kind of like the Tenth Doctor. Same with the round glasses as they look absolutely outdated. Apparently, Matt Smith wanted a purple coat at some point and there was a scheme on Moffat’s part for the Eleventh Doctor’s attire to evolve over time. My favourite look for the Eleventh Doctor would have to be the tweed costume look from Series 5. The longer and messyish combed-back hair also accentuates his chaoticness, which gradually stops working when his hair was made shorter in Series 6.

Before the 2011 Christmas Special premiered, it was announced that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill would be leaving the series during Series 7, having discussed their desire to wind down their tenures on the show earlier that year. The upcoming split in the series was a great opportunity to create a closing reunion arc for the Doctor, Amy and Rory; Amy and Rory’s time on the TARDIS ended at the end of The God Complex, but the Doctor’s reunion with them resulted in them becoming part-time companions, something which I’m not really a big fan of. I wrote about my thoughts on “the companion commitment” in my review of Series 13’s The Halloween Apocalypse:

Looking at the companion side of things, I tend to prefer having full-time companions who don’t seem to have many significant attachments or anchors, whether it be in the form of employment, family or even education. This is because if you have someone who is already making a life for themselves, you have to remember to go back and address those things, otherwise you make them look as if they’re shirking commitments to be the Doctor’s companion. Also, I don’t like the idea of the Doctor having to pick up and drop off a companion multiple times during the series.

Moffat wanted to make Series 7 comprise standalone stories instead of the arc-driven nature of Series 6, so there were no two-parters in this series. There was a story arc threaded through this series which I’ll get into later. Every episode in this series was created to be like a movie, from the differing genres to the movie-like posters created for each episode. In Part 1, the title sequence for each episode was different, with the Time Vortex and logo designs changing between each episode. A couple of fundamental changes made as well was the font used for the lead actors and episode titles along with the way the logo transitioned into the TARDIS at the end, which really lessened the impact of the title sequence used since The Eleventh Hour.

For Part 2, an entirely different title sequence was created which was rather reminiscent to the title sequences of the classic series, most notably with the reintroduction of adding the Doctor’s face. It’s a more epic and bombastic sequence that kind of fits the darker tone the series was trying to portray. I only wish that the sequence was used a bit more.

Nightmare in Silver introduced a sleeker and evolved Cyberman variant and overcame weaknesses such as their vulnerability to gold and the inability to convert non-human beings. It also saw the debut of the Cybermites as an evolution of Cybermats and the reintroduction of the Cyber-Planner.

3. The overlapping Amy and Rory timeline

In The Power of Three, Amy mentions to the Doctor that she and Rory have travelled with him for ten years, on and off. But what does that mean for Earth’s timeline and the Ponds after their final parting from the Doctor? See, with Amy and Rory being part-time companions, I wonder what year it actually is on Earth because it isn’t elaborated, potentially leading to more complications in the timeline when we move to Clara’s time as the Doctor’s companion. Let’s do some estimates and solve this mystery.

Between the Doctor dropping the Ponds off at their new home at the end of The God Complex and revisiting them at the end of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, two years would have passed for them, give or take a few months. The prequel mini-series Pond Life has the Doctor maintaining contact with the Ponds from April to August in what we’ll assume is the third year. Asylum of the Daleks needs to take place two years after Pond Life because before UK divorce law was changed in April 2022, a two-year separation period was required before applying for a divorce, so that would mean it would need to at least take place from August in the fifth year onwards. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship takes place 10 months after, so we’re looking at June in the sixth year. The Power of Three features The Year of the Slow Invasion, which starts and ends in July. The start of that episode is where Amy mentions “ten years”; whether she meant ten years since she met the Doctor or ten years since she and Rory were dropped off at their new home, though given what Amy tells the Doctor later in the episode about how she doesn’t know if she wants to continue travelling with the Doctor when they’ve already built a new life, I’m inclined to believe it was the latter.

So when does The Year of the Slow Invasion take place? Firstly, we can see that Amy and Rory were at the department store in Closing Time, so they would have had to have been dropped off at least before 19 April 2011. Considering the Doctor visited the Ponds at some point after April 2011 and when River told them how the Doctor survived, I think that their cameo scene would have to take place in either Christmas 2011 or 2012, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume the latter, meaning that the Doctor dropped them off sometime in 2010 (probably the day after their wedding, 27 June). This would give Amy enough time to establish her career and still allow for the Doctor’s “death date” while shying away from the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth. This would also explain why they weren’t dropped off in Leadworth because their past selves would presumably return there from time to time until Let’s Kill Hitler.

From there, Pond Life takes place from April to August 2013, Asylum of the Daleks would have to take place in August 2015, then Dinosaurs on a Spaceship should take place in June 2016. As such, the Year of the Slow Invasion could have started in any July from 2016 to 2020. Considering that Clara’s time on the TARDIS starts in 2013, I can safely say that she misses them enough in terms of location for there to be no paradoxes, but then The Day of the Doctor takes place in 2013, apparently, which takes Kate’s first meeting with the Doctor completely out of continuity.

A reference guide known as The Whoniverse puts The Year of the Slow Invasion from July 2012 to 2013 and the Doctor’s words in The Angels of Manhattan sets the present-day scenes of the episode in 2012, but that obviously doesn’t make sense given what we just learned. I mean, we could bring the timeline back four years (so that Amy and Rory were dropped off in 2006), but then they’d be living through the bulk of the RTD era’s stories. The latter could probably make sense if the Doctor travelled back in time though. I really wish Moffat kept track of the years instead of leaving everything ambiguous so that maybe we could have Clara’s time start five years later, but hey, that’s just me obsessing over little details.

Wait a minute, those episodes were written by Chris Chibnall? No matter the whole timeline is confusing. I suppose Moffat focusing on the 50th Anniversary meant that he didn’t have time to look over other writers’ scripts.

4. A Pond Farewell

The Angels of Manhattan marks the end of Amy and Rory’s time in the TARDIS, killing them off in the same story with no chance of survival through intervention. While having a picnic in 2012 New York, Rory is sent back in time to 1938 by baby Weeping Angels. Upon arriving, he encounters River Song, who had been pardoned from her crime of killing the Doctor due to him erasing or concealing every mention of himself (except on Earth) so that he essentially never existed.

Upon discovering what happened to Rory through the book Amy was reading that was actually written by River, the Doctor and Amy attempt to head to 1938, but they have difficulty landing without landing lights. After landing, River is grabbed by a Weeping Angel and is forced to break her arm in order to free herself. The Doctor discovers this and uses some of his regeneration energy to heal it. I’ll get back to it when we get to the Doctor’s regeneration.

Meanwhile, another baby Angel sends Rory to Winter Quay, an apartment building that the Angels are using as a battery farm. The Doctor, Amy and River follow him there and they discover an old Rory dying. They find the young Rory there as well and they inform him of what they just saw. Deciding to escape from the Angels, the group heads up to the roof. Rory decides to jump off the roof in an attempt to create a paradox and kill the Angels. Amy joins him as well and the ensuing paradox blows Winter Quay out of existence.

Amy and Rory end up in a graveyard with the Doctor and River. As they prepare to leave for the pub, Rory discovers his name on a gravestone and is immediately sent back to 1938 by a surviving Angel. With no way for the Doctor to retrieve Rory due to the paradoxes scrambling the timelines in New York, Amy allows herself to be sent back to the same time to be with Rory. River goes to write the book and send it to Amy to be published while also telling her to write an afterword for him. In the afterword, Amy tells the Doctor to tell her young self about the adventures awaiting her, which kind of ruins the story of her waiting for the Doctor that defined her whole arc but is still a beautiful ending nonetheless.

So how old were Amy and Rory when they were sent back to the past for good and what year did they pass away? Evidence from Series 5 and 6 shows that they were in the same year level at school, so they both would have had to have been born in 1989, making them around 21 years old when they got married. Rory says in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship that he is 31 years old, so if we take off six years to make him 25, that means that he and Amy would have been continuously travelling with the Doctor for four years until he dropped them off at their new home. Put on another year for The Year of the Slow Invasion and Amy and Rory would be 32 when they rejoined the Doctor.

The graves at the end of the episode state that Rory and Amy died at the ages of 82 and 87 respectively. Assuming that Rory and Amy were 32 when they were sent back, this means that they died in 1998 and 2003 respectively. Does that mean that they never got to greet their past selves in The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood? Put the Year of the Slow Invasion in 2020-2021 (instead of 2016-17 at the earliest) and it could be a possible stretch without having to travel through time. This would make them 36 when they were sent back to 1938 and Amy would never get to experience the start of the 21st century for the second time, as Rory and her would die in 1992 and 1999.

In the online extra P.S., written by Chris Chibnall, Rory’s father, Brian, would receive a letter from an old man, who was revealed to be Anthony Brian Williams, Amy and Rory’s son that they adopted in 1946. A week after Amy and Rory left, Anthony met with Brian on his parents’ instructions to give him a letter explaining what happened to them. The scene was meant to be filmed as an DVD extra, but Mark Walliams, Brian’s actor, was unavailable, so the short was only released as a storyboard with narration from Arthur Darvill. It gives some closure to Brian’s involvement in the series and wraps Amy and Rory’s arc in a bow.

5. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 1

Imagine having a crush on someone. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character. Imagine having a crush on someone so hard that you write them into a story with a deeply established character, then retcon that character’s history so that the person you’re having a crush on is involved with the character in times where it wouldn’t have been realistically possible for them to have met. Through recent reflection, this is the kind of vibe I got from Clara and the Impossible Girl arc. And why did I get this vibe from that arc? Because I did something like that in my personal project for Hiroki and Akari.

In Asylum of the Daleks, the Doctor, Amy and Rory are brought to the Parliament of the Daleks, where they are asked to save the Daleks by having them deactivate the shield of their Asylum so they can destroy it. During this, they are guided by someone named Oswin Oswald, who had been hiding out on the crashed starship Alaska for a year making souffles. Oswin refused to deactivate the shield until they came to rescue her. The Doctor proceeded to find Oswin, at which point he discovers that she had been fully converted into a Dalek instead of becoming their puppet. After the Doctor helps Oswin regain control of herself following her realisation, she lowers the shields and the Doctor leaves with Amy and Rory.

After losing Amy and Rory, the Doctor eventually decides to retire to Victorian London, where Madame Vastra, Jenny and a resurrected Strax, now known as the Paternoster Gang, tried to convince the Doctor to begin adventuring again. In the 2012 Christmas Special The Snowmen, the Doctor becomes intrigued when a barmaid named Clara brings attention to some sentient snow that makes snowmen by itself. As the Doctor continues to be indifferent to the situation, Clara manages to sneak onto his carriage, but when he fails to wipe Clara’s mind of their encounter using the memory worm thanks to Strax’s mishandling of it, Clara manages to get away and follow him to his TARDIS.

The next day, on Christmas Eve, Clara, acting as a governess, learns from Francesca Latimer that her family’s previous governess, who died a year prior from drowning in the garden pond. Clara goes to find the Doctor, but is taken to see Vastra, who gives her the one-word test and manages to convince the Doctor to investigate further. That night, after briefly confronting the snow form of the Great Intelligence in Simeon’s lab, the Doctor goes to the Latimer house and so does Simeon. The previous governess becomes animated in ice form and begins pursuing Clara and the Latimer children, but the Paternoster Gang arrives to back up the Doctor while he takes Clara up to the TARDIS in an attempt to get the Ice Governess away from Simeon. The Doctor shows Clara to the TARDIS and offers her a chance to become his companion, but the Ice Governess manages to follow them, dragging Clara out of the TARDIS and to her death.

Together with Vastra, the Doctor confronts Simeon one last time, revealing that the Great Intelligence is a reflection of Simeon since he was a child. Simeon is tricked into being bitten by the memory worm in an attempt to leave the Intelligence with nothing to mirror, but the Intelligence had evolved enough to be able to possess Simeon instead. The Intelligence attempts to freeze the Doctor, but then it is suddenly defeated thanks to the snow mirroring the Latimer family’s tears from Clara’s death as it approaches Christmas Day.

The Doctor, Vastra and Jenny went to Clara’s grave some time after. The Doctor notes that he never learnt Clara’s full name, Clara Oswin Oswald, but when he learns it and recognises Oswin’s name from the Dalek Asylum, he is inspired to end his retirement and find Clara again.

Apparently, during the development of this series in 2011, it was decided that the Victorian-era Clara would be the Doctor’s new companion (who was named Beryl at the time), but by late-January 2012, it was decided that Clara should come from modern-day Britain. Given the circumstances surrounding the loss of Amy and Rory (even stretching back to Donna maybe), the Impossible Girl arc was developed to inspire the Doctor to seek Clara out as his new companion, which we’ll cover next due to length.

6. Your Impossible Girl, My Mystery Girl Part 2

Kicking off Series 7 Part 2 with The Bells of Saint John, while the Doctor was at a monastery in 1207, Clara was given a phone number by a woman in a shop and she ended up calling the Doctor, who immediately goes to find her. After having the door shut on him, the Doctor goes to change, but when he goes back, he finds Clara being uploaded to a cloud by a Spoonhead and interrupts it because she can be fully integrated. The Doctor decides to protect Clara from whoever tried to upload her, but when a plane attempts to do a Twin Falling Towers on them, they escape to the plane and the Doctor manages to save everyone on it.

The Doctor takes Clara to the next morning where the Doctor tries to track down the location but fails due to the security being too good, though Clara manages to do it after being partially uploaded to the cloud and being bestowed with genius computer skills. While doing so, a Spoonhead impersonating the Doctor manages to fully upload Clara. The Doctor heads to the Shard to confront the people responsible for the Spoonheads and get them to download Clara back into her body. The leader, Kizlet, says that they can’t because Clara has been fully integrated, but the Doctor reveals that he is on Clara’s computer, taking control of the Spoonhead impersonating him and using it to upload Kizlet. The Doctor gets the people to download the entire cloud before UNIT is called in to take control. Kizlet reports her failure to her benefactor, the Great Intelligence, and parts with her by having her restore the factory settings, wiping everyone’s minds of being under its influence.

The Doctor learns from Clara that she is acting as a nanny for the Maitland kids because their mother died a year ago while she was staying with them and she decided to return the favour by staying with them instead of leaving to travel. Clara decides to begin travelling with the Doctor, but on a part-time basis. The Series 7 Part 2 opener wasn’t bad, but I think it felt a bit rushed due to the length. If it was done as a New Year’s Special to compliment The Snowmen, it would have been a bit better in my opinion. The episode also introduced a new mystery of “the woman in the shop” which wouldn’t be addressed until the following series the year after, though even I thought Rose Tyler would have had something to do with it.

In The Name of the Doctor, Clara is called into a conference call by Vastra, who informs her, Jenny, Strax and River’s data ghost about the Doctor’s greatest secret being revealed. When they are attacked by Whispermen created by the Great Intelligence, River makes the Paternoster Gang wake up before they find themselves taken. Clara wakes up as well and she tells the Doctor what happened, which leads him to head to Trenzalore, the location of his grave, to save his friends.

As they make their way to Vastra, Jenny and Strax, the Doctor and Clara (guided by River) go through the secret entrance to the Doctor’s tomb, which is actually the dying TARDIS. As they walk through, Clara begins to remember the Doctor asking her about her apparent previous lives in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, but the Doctor gets her to run when the Whispermen close in on them. The Doctor and Clara meet with the Paternoster Gang to confront the Great Intelligence and they go into the Doctor’s tomb, which is the console room with a column of light instead of the usual time rotor and console. The column of light is the scar tissue of the Doctor’s eleven lives.

The Great Intelligence goes into the light, scattering himself across the Doctor’s timeline and rewriting his victories into defeats. With the Doctor in pain, the stars disappearing and Jenny and Strax disappearing as well, Clara decides to follow the Great Intelligence into the Doctor’s timeline, splitting herself into a million echoes to help save the Doctor across his eleven lives, including in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, and undoing the damage caused by the Great Intelligence.

With the Doctor recovered and Jenny and Strax restored, the Doctor goes into his own timeline to rescue Clara, but not before farewelling his invisible wife which he could somehow sense the presence of. He sends Clara her leaf in order to guide her to him so that he can leave with her, but as they do so, they encounter a previously unknown incarnation and it is there that we are told that we missed the point of “the Doctor’s name”, which is actually like a promise rather than his actual name. The unknown incarnation justifies his actions as being “without choice, in the name of peace and sanity”, but the Eleventh Doctor states that they were not “in the name of the Doctor.”

So how did the Impossible Girl arc vibes relate to my personal project? Long story short, I met this girl at the start of Year 7 and forgot to ask who her name was, fell in love with her at first sight and then after I learned who she was I got the brilliant idea to write her into my stories, then because those stories were also an outline of my personal life, I retconned my own past in them so that we would meet in the times before we would actually meet in real life. She was my Mystery Girl to Moffat’s Impossible Girl and that’s why I’m creeped out by this story arc in reflection, but I stand by my stories because of creative integrity.

The Series 7 Part 2 finale was pretty good, but considering what would come after, I’m disappointed Moffat never addressed the Valeyard’s origin or the Doctor’s actual name. People can say that “not knowing the Doctor’s name gives him a bit of mystery”, but the series has gone on for so long that I don’t care about the mystery and neither should you. Just enjoy the epicness of it like everyone else. Besides, anyone who follows my personal project knows that his name is Hiroki Ichigo (because he was born from him).

7. Chaos in Cardiff 7: Dolphins

There was Chaos in Cardiff before Series 12. Before we move onto the 2013 Specials, here’s a brief look at some production chaos during Series 7.

Caroline Skinner worked alongside Steven Moffat for the 2012 Christmas Special and the entirety of Series 7, but stepped down in March 2013. Bleeding Cool apparently reported that Skinner and Moffat had a “very public row” at a BBC event the month before, Moffat telling Skinner that she was “erased” from Doctor Who, but there’s nothing much apart from that.

Steven Berkoff, who played the Shakri hologram on The Power of Three, was apparently difficult to work with during production, refusing to do what he was told, deliberately ruining takes or throwing temper tantrums. Virtually all the footage shot with Berkoff was unusable, so what was in the episode was all they could cobble together along with some shots allegedly taken between takes. Apparently even filmed footage of Berkoff walking across the floor couldn’t be used either and at this point one has to wonder if his pants were down in those shots. Also, he was apparently supposed to be stabbed to death by Amy and Rory with syringes, but the BBC rejected it and they resorted to having the Doctor save the day with his sonic screwdriver once again.

In the US, the Series 7 Part 2 Blu-ray was shipped early to people who had pre-ordered it, which led the BBC to ask fans to keep the spoilers of the finale secret until the episode actually aired. Needless to say, they did and the BBC released this video of Matt Smith and David Tennant as thanks.

Moffat had a difficult time getting started with scripting The Day of the Doctor because of the complicated contract process. Initially, Jenna Coleman was the only actress contracted for it so Moffat potentially had to draft a version of the special with different actors playing the Doctors after the Doctor erased his own existence by walking into his own time stream. Luckily, however, Moffat managed to secure Matt Smith and David Tennant eventually. He did attempt to negotiate with Christopher Eccleston, but given his previous bad blood with the BBC and his stance on multi-Doctor stories, he naturally declined.

Moffat also attempted to get Paul McGann back as the Eighth Doctor, but it was probably vetoed by the BBC for some reason. Either that or Moffat actually couldn’t see Eight taking part in the Time War, which is a bullshit excuse when Big Finish (and the extended universe) is a thing. Although Moffat created the War Doctor and cast John Hurt in the role while negotiating contracts with Smith and Tennant, getting everything together six weeks before filming was due to start, the BBC somehow allowed Paul McGann to come back for a minisode that would see the Eighth Doctor regenerate into the War Doctor.

It is speculated that as a result, Steven Moffat was burned out from the experience and wanted to quit alongside Matt Smith when decided to leave after Series 7 instead of staying for another series, but the prospect of Peter Capaldi apparently renewed his enthusiasm and he ended up staying. Some people say that’s why the quality of the Capaldi era dropped as it went, but who really knows at this point?

8. The 50th Anniversary

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, was the thing that I was waiting all 2013 for. I, like many other fans, had to endure the six-month wait following The Name of the Doctor, but at least I had my personal project to pass the time. They screened a trailer at Comic Con 2013 in July, but it was never released to the public with even Steven Moffat requesting that it not be leaked online, so we didn’t actually get a teaser or a trailer until late in October. Then I had to go on a shitty school camp, but the good thing about it was that the night I came back (or the morning after), we got The Night of the Doctor, which featured the surprise return of Paul McGann. After failing to save a pilot named Cass, the Eighth Doctor’s body is recovered by the Sisterhood of Karn and thanks to Ohila’s elixir (the novelisation says that it was just lemonade and dry ice which kind of ruins the impact of the scene, thank you Moffat) he regenerates into the War Doctor, deciding to abandon his name and the promise it represented.

The special itself was broadcast simultaneously around the world with a worldwide 3D premiere in cinemas as well because 3D was very much a thing back then, but after the special was filmed, the BBC announced that they were putting 3D programming “on hold” indefinitely. I remember getting up early on the Sunday morning to watch the episode live when it aired on ABC1 at 6:50 AM.

The main premise of the story has the War Doctor preparing to activate the Moment to destroy Gallifrey, though due to the interface developing a conscience, it appeared to him in the form of Rose Tyler (as the Bad Wolf) and showed him to his Tenth and Eleventh incarnations, the men he would become if he destroyed Gallifrey. During this, the three Doctors (and Clara) are embroiled in a Zygon conspiracy spanning 451 years, eventually ending in them making UNIT and the Zygons broker a peace treaty in the Black Archive.

Soon after, the War Doctor heads back and prepares to activate the Moment, but the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors arrive as well, ready to help him because for 400 years (frankly, it should have been 100 years shorter or the Doctor should be 100 years older given how old the Ninth and Tenth Doctors claimed to be when the revived series began), he resented that incarnation when he was the Doctor more than anyone else. The Moment shows the Doctors a vision of the last day of the Time War before showing them a vision of everyone coming out from the rubble the next morning.

This leads the Eleventh Doctor to get the idea to change his personal history by freezing Gallifrey into a pocket universe instead of destroying it. Together with all twelve previous incarnations and an early cameo from Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, the Doctor successfully saves Gallifrey and destroys the Daleks in their own crossfire, though due to the nature of this being a multi-Doctor adventure, the War and Tenth Doctors wouldn’t remember it until he eventually comes around to the Eleventh Doctor, meaning that Nine and Ten were free to continue believing that he destroyed Gallifrey and was the last of the Time Lords.

As some people have pointed out, The Day of the Doctor felt more like a celebration of the revived era rather than the classic era, but in all honesty, who cares? We’ve got David Tennant back, we’re finally addressing the Time War, we’ve got the Zygons and UNIT back, we’ve got archive footage of previous Doctors (along with surprise appearances from Peter Capaldi and Tom Baker) and we’ve finally addressed the source of the Tenth Doctor’s animosity towards Queen Elizabeth I. Besides, the classic era would get a decent celebration nine years later with the BBC Centenary Special, The Power of the Doctor. Well, not really, Peter Davison and Georgia Moffett created The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot featuring Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, John Barrowman and even RTD among those who didn’t appear in the special itself.

The End of Time showed that the Time Lords were just as bad as the Daleks during the Time War, but The Day of the Doctor showed the innocents caught in the crossfire and gave them hope when they needed it the most. The special broke records, with it being the most-watched episode of the series since the 2008 Christmas Special, The Next Doctor, and earned a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest ever simulcast of a TV drama, though BBC Entertainment carried it for most of the world because by that point, very few TV stations were willing to buy rights to air the series.

9. Back to the Pilot (and other specials)

In addition to The Day of the Doctor, another special, An Adventure in Space and Time, was produced and broadcast on BBC Two a couple of days before the anniversary. Written by Mark Gatiss and featuring David Bradley playing William Hartnell as the First Doctor during a time when Doctor Who began to make its mark on British culture. It covers the production of the first episodes, the creation of the Daleks as the first of the show’s iconic monsters and Hartnell’s reluctant decision to leave the series due to his failing health. The ending also features a surprise cameo from Matt Smith, beautifully signifying the future that the series would continue to experience in the 21st century.

Early in his career, Gatiss was interested in developing a TV movie chronicling the early days of the series that was well-documented in Doctor Who Magazine and other publications. He originally hoped that it could be made for the 40th Anniversary in 2003, but the BBC saw little potential in it. He revived the idea in 2010 to help bridge the transition between David Tennant and Matt Smith, however it was ultimately decided that it would be better as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, so the special ended up being commissioned in early 2012.

David Bradley, who had previously played Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, was later invited back to play the First Doctor in Twice Upon a Time and The Power of the Doctor while also reprising his role in Big Finish audios.

In addition to An Adventure in Space and Time, two other documentary specials were also produced and broadcast in the lead-up to the 50th Anniversary, namely The Science of Doctor Who, a lecture hosted by Brian Cox about the nature of space and time in relation to the series, and The Ultimate Guide, yet another similarly-named retrospective documentary, but about the series as a whole. Both specials contained skits featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor.

10. The Tenth Day, the Eleventh Hour and the Twelfth Night

With the Eleventh Doctor’s final episode looming, there were still some threads, particularly from Series 5 and 6, left to be resolved and as such, the 2013 Christmas Special, The Time of the Doctor, finally addresses the Siege of Trenzalore, the First Question and the Silence. The Doctor investigates a message being broadcast from a planet which is causing thousands of ships to approach it. Picking up Clara to help him, the Doctor meets with Tasha Lem of the Church of Papal Mainframe, who sends them both down to the planet to investigate.

The Doctor finds where the message is coming from; a remnant crack in the wall where someone is trying to break back in, the one thing he feared from The God Complex. Noting that the message was identified to be of Gallifreyan origin, the Doctor uses the Seal of the High Council (that he stole from the Master in The Five Doctors, thank God I somehow had the foresight to adapt this episode in my personal project) on Handles, his Cyberhead companion and he discovers that the message is a question being sent through all of space and time along with a truth field so that anyone within it wouldn’t be able to lie. The question is translated and the translation is immediately available to everyone orbiting the planet; “Doctor who?”

The Doctor tricks Clara into going home while Tasha speaks with the Doctor. The Doctor learns that the planet he is on is called Trenzalore and that if he gives his name, the Time Lords will return and the Time War will begin anew, so the Doctor decides to stay on Trenzalore and become its protector while Tasha dedicates the Church to ensure that the Doctor will not speak his name to the Time Lords, thereby making silence fall upon Trenzalore.

Over the course of the special we get answers to the remaining plot threads from Series 5 and 6; the Silents are actually genetically engineered confessional priests that allow people to forget what they said once they look away from them, the Kovarian Chapter broke away and orchestrated the events of Series 5 and 6, and the Doctor is actually in his final incarnation thanks to the War Doctor and the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor. Somehow, River using up all her regenerations to revive the Doctor in Let’s Kill Hitler didn’t give them to him, but I suppose doing so would have made things more confusing.

Eventually, we get to the point where the Doctor has been on Trenzalore for 900 years, with only the Daleks continuing the siege where others had retreated or burned. Tasha picks up Clara and takes her to him before the Daleks demand the Doctor’s surrender. As the Doctor resigns himself to his fate, Clara pleads with the Time Lords to help him, telling them that his name is the Doctor and that is all the name he needs. This leads them to close the crack and grant the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, allowing him to regenerate and destroy the last of the Daleks. The Doctor is restored to his youthful self again and says goodbye to Clara (with a cameo from Amy) before the regeneration finishes and the Twelfth Doctor makes his debut.

Some people say that The Time of the Doctor was rushed because of everything that happened during Series 7 plus Steven Moffat burning out, but I actually thought the episode was pretty good considering what we got. Apparently Trenzalore was meant to be explored in Series 8 but Matt Smith deciding to leave after Series 7 meant that Moffat had to wrap the story arc up quickly. I’ve already pitched the two-parter Festive Special for The Snowmen/The Bells of Saint John, so I’m happy with leaving The Time of the Doctor as a one-parter.

And so we come to the end of the Matt Smith era, the era that catapulted me deep into fanfiction writing and my personal project. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are probably the Takeru Satoh and Masaki Suda of Doctor Who due to them being featured in Hollywood films following their time on the series.

Series 7 was kind of a mixed bag for me particularly because of the split series format, but the series shows a stage of the show’s evolution thanks to all the changes happening during the production of this series. It started off as being a continuation of Series 6, then by the end it became a celebration of the show and its fans from not only eight years of the series’ revival, but fifty years of the show’s history.

This instalment took longer for me to write than I expected. Stay tuned for Part 8 as we enter the Capaldi era with my 10 takes on Series 8.

[daydreamerdrew]

Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

All-New Captain America: Fear Him (2014) #1-6

These issues were published as online vertical scroll comics across October 2014 to November 2014. All were written by Dennis Hopeless with Rick Remember. The layouts were drawn by JL Mast and G. Geoffo, which were finished by Szymon Kudranski and colored by Andres Mossa.

This series had the same villain as the graphic novel Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear (1992), which was written by Howard Mackie, penciled by Lee Weeks, and inked by Al Williamson. Unfortunately, I don’t find Dennis Hopeless’ voice for the Scarecrow as compelling as Howard Mackie’s.

I largely really like how Szymon Kudranski drew Ian Rogers. But, unfortunately, there were prominent child characters and I found the way he draws children to be awkward.

In this story the Scarecrow develops a fascination with Ian. The series portrays the Scarecrow as literally feeding off of people’s fear, and at one point he uses a fear pheromone that makes people act like zombies through their intense flight-or-fight response. In issue #1 he excitedly thinks of Ian as “a challenge,” and he says in issue #3, “I’ve spotted that beautiful beast. And I’m through filling up in bread. […] Tonight we eat meat.” The graphic novel portrayed the Scarecrow as having the power to immediately cause terror in the people he was physically near and as having the psychological need to “open them and let out the fearful thing inside them,” by which he meant kill them.

It was never mentioned in this series that the Scarecrow has or used to have a fixation on Captain America, which Steve explained in Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear (1992) as because he “could not live with the memory of his beloved mother being abusive so he transferred all the blame to his father,” and then “he transferred the intense hatred he felt towards his father to me.” When Sam asks Steve for information about the Scarecrow in issue #2, Steve just reads from his Wikipedia page. You wouldn’t know from just reading this series that the Scarecrow was a Captain America villain. But I think it would have been interesting to have him learn that Ian is the son of someone else he’s been fixated on, though it’s for a different reason. The Scarecrow also has no special reaction to fighting Sam, who is the current Captain America.

The idea that Ian doesn’t feel fear is brand new to this book. The Scarecrow describes him in issue #1 as “Doesn’t fear pain. Doesn’t fear death. Not a drip drop of terror to be had.” Ian thinks in issue #6, “Where I come from, losers don’t live long enough to make an impression. […] I still don’t know much about losing. Know even less about fear. But for the first time that I can remember- I’m afraid… this is a fight I won’t win.” And after the fight he complains of fear, “I just got a taste and I couldn’t even move.” Sam has to explain to him that “Courage isn’t about never being scared. It’s about facing that fear. Standing up, pushing through, and doing the damned thing anyway.”

Ian did not come across in Captain America (2013) #1-10, which was written by Rick Remember, as someone incapable of fear. He came across as a normal person capable of the normal range of human emotions. The first instance that comes to mind when I think of scenes where Ian would have been scared is in Captain America (2013) #5 when Steve, as his body was being taken over by Zola, told him, “Promise me, the first sign of a change- you put that pistol to my head and you kill me, Ian.” I believe Ian was 12 or 12 years old at the time. Also, Ian said in Captain America (2013) #24, “I always stand up. Like my dad taught me,” but I suppose for the purposes of this series’ approach to Ian’s characterization we’re meant to understand that as only in the face of physical pain.

When Steve encountered the Scarecrow, who’d only recently gotten his powers, in Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear (1992), he thought, “heart racing… nervous system super-charged… I’m feeling scared.” He then found that he could “h-hardly stand,” but afterwards thought, “Starting to calm down… These new powers took me by surprise… Next time they won’t!” And that was true.

Also, Ian thinks, in issue #6, “If I’d listened to my partner from the start… fought alongside him instead of taking on the whole world by myself… we would’ve taken down that monster down together. Instead this fight comes down to me. All alone. Just like I wanted.” I like this addition to the hot-headed and bad-at-teamwork characterization for him that I am first reading in this series. That wasn’t how he was characterized when he was a child, being raised by and working as a team with Steve, in the first arc of Captain America (2013). But I can understand that after 10 years of fighting on his own, for the Phrox, but being distant from them, Ian would have anger issues and feel more comfortable with “taking on the whole world by myself.”

And I like a moment in issue #5 when Sam, hallucinating because of the Scarecrow, thinks, “Wait, what are you doing? If any of this is real, he won’t survive that fall. And Captain America doesn’t kill. Screw that- Sam Wilson doesn’t kill.”

the Nick Fury stories in Strange Tales (1959) #146-149

These stories were in issues published across April 1966 to July 1966. The stories in issues #146-147 were credited as written by Stan Lee, though the Grand Comics Database lists Jack Kirby as an uncredited co-plotter. The story in issue #148 was written by Jack Kirby, and it’s explained in the issue that Stan Lee was on vacation. And the story in issue #149 was credited as written by Denny O’Neil, though the Grand Comics Database lists Jack Kirby as an uncredited co-plotter. The layouts for all these stories were drawn by Jack Kirby. For the stories in issues #146-148 the layouts were finished by Don Heck, with the first being inked by Mike Esposito, the second by Dick Ayers, and the third by Don Heck. And the layouts for the story in issue #149 were finished and inked by Ogden Whitney. All were 12 pages.

In the story in issue #146 Nick says of defeated “amphibian androids”, “They ain’t creatures! They’re tools… tools that wusn’t made good enough to do their job!” And Nick says, when they find more androids being grown like plants, that they’re “the perfect army” because “Ya don’t have ta feed ‘em- and ya can get all the replacements you need!” I think that Nick, at this point in his life, has had minimal experience with L.M.D.s and would think highly of human agents. But I find this pragmatic approach to “chemical men” interesting in the context of Nick’s later relationship with various L.M.D.s.

For example, in Secret Avengers (2010) #5 (written by Ed Brubaker; drawn by David Aja, Michael Lark, and Stefano Gaudiano) Nick told a sentient L.M.D. of himself, which he was about to have killed, “You ain’t alive… you’re a robot, when it comes down to it.” The L.M.D. retorted, “Except I’m not programmed. I have consciousness and memory… Isn’t that life?” And Nick said, “I don’t know… I’m not a scientist or a philosopher… I’m a soldier, and you’re a friggin’ dangerous weapon.”

I’ll also note that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents aren’t confident that they would have defeated the “hammer-head androids” if they’d arrived later because the androids are stronger than them, but because the agents arrived when they did “The vibrations shook them loose from their hydroponic tanks” and the androids only stampeded mindlessly, not being controlled by anyone. Also, Nick says of the androids they find still being grown in pods, that they aren’t dangerous because “they turn into lifeless fiber when they ain’t programmed for a mission.”

It’s said on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Heli-Carrier that “Colonel Fury’s personal security agents out-rank any other military men on this carrier!”

Later an angry Lieutenant General angrily refers to them as Nick’s “muscle-men” and says, “You agents of SHIELD are all alike… You believe in action first… and thought next! But, what can one expect when your leader is a course unlettered ruffian like Fury?” (One of the S.H.I.E.L.D. gets by bothered by how the Lieutenant General speaks when “talking about my chief..!”) And later the enemies of the issue say, as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents break into their base, “Incredible! We never credited Fury with so much intelligence!” But they still believe, “We have nothing to fear from a handful of blundering agents led by a muscle-bound clod like Fury!”

This story is the first appearance of A.I.M., who present themselves as “a society of the greatest intellects on Earth” and claims “we wish to benefit mankind!” But they argue that “so long as we are constantly harassed by men such as your Colonel Fury… so long as we must be answerable to men with such a lack of intelligence… such over-inflated eggs… we cannot offer our creations to SHIELD!” Then their representative to S.H.I.E.L.D. says in the story in issue #147, “We find his very appearance offensive! The idea of America’s highest-priority counter-espionage leader going around in his shirtsleeves.. unshaven, unkept, and making a mockery of your own language.. shocking!”

One member of S.H.I.E.L.D High Command says in the story in issue #146, “I always said that Fury lacked the polish, the background, to head a vital, world-wide force like SHIELD!” Another argues, “Perhaps.. but for a man who lacks so much, he’s done a pretty good job destroying Hydra… not to mention the Druids and other deadly menaces!”

In the story in issue #148 Nick has to be held back when he gets angry went the A.I.M. representative says, “I wouldn’t call Colonel Fury a traitor to freedom… but I feel the wrong man.. in the wrong place… may well serve that end!” And the Lieutenant General refers to “Fury’s bad executive image! He’s a top notch fighting man… who never stops fighting… He looks and acts like he hasn’t left his foxhole for twenty years.”

In the story in issue #135, when Nick was first offered the job of leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., he himself was skeptical. He said, “Ya can’t mean it! You gotta be kiddin’! You’ve got a million scientific gimmicks- rays- rockets- things I can’t even pronounce! I’m outta my league! I’m just a bare-knuckles kinda guy! A bar room brawler! They made me a Colonel, but I’m still a three-striper at heart! Where do I come off leadin’ a hot-shot outfit like this? I’d fall flat on my ugly pan!” Then there was an assassination attempt by Hydra at the meeting and Nick immediately took charge of the situation, and from there simply accepted the job.

In the story in issue #149, when Nick has seemingly killed himself in the meeting where he was being confronted over A.I.M.’s allegations (it was part of his plot against A.I.M.), the Lieutenant General says, “I can understand what made Fury take… that way out! I’m certain the judges would have ruled in his favor! No man is more fit to command SHIELD than Nick Fury!”

In the story in issue #146 Nick says that he and his agents “ain’t no super-heroes! We figger we’re bound to lose sooner or later,” as he explains that they’ve planted a bomb and are willing to blow both sides up, rather than let their enemies succeed in just killing them. And Dum Dum adds on, “If we haveta cash in our chips, it’ll be kinda nice to know that you two crumbs is joinin’ us!” Then in the story in issue #147 Nick refers to his position at S.H.I.E.L.D. as “this crummy, thankless suicide job.” And one of his agents says, “As director of SHIELD, Colonel Fury is the object of more assassination attempts than any living man!” Though later Jasper says that “every rule in the manual forbids our director to undertake suicide missions!”

In the story in issue #148 Dum Dum rushes to save what turns out to be an L.M.D. of Nick. The narration describes, “Almost maddened by Nick Fury’s plight, Dum-Dum, the eternal friend, plunges into the white hot blaze!” And, “Dum-Dum is beyond all reasoning… he is swift and desperate in the inferno… and plucks from it the one man he prizes above all others!”

In the story in issue #149 Nick pretends to be an L.M.D. of himself.

At one point Nick thinks, “Even a gorilla like me looks good when he’s usin’ a Tony Stark weapon!”

Jasper thinks, “Anthony Stark is not the only inventor within the organization of SHIELD! While still a student at the Shield Academy, I devised this respiratory-powered projectile hurler! My weapons instructor foolishly imagined that I was merely playing a childish prank when I tried to explain how I adapted the lowly bean shooter to serve as a device for projecting a tiny radio transmitter!”

Gabe Jones says, “Mebbe Nick was wrong about these AIM guys! After my run-in with the Secret Empire… those cats seem downright tame! But, Mrs. Jones’ little boy Gabriel isn’t complainin’!” That phrasing about his mother is Izzy Cohen’s gimmick in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (1963).

When Gabe returns from his secret mission he purposefully startles Nick and Dum Dum as a joke. Dum Dum reacts, “Nobody ever scared me like that- ‘ceptin’ my *ugh* mother-in-law!” And then he says, cheerfully, “It ain’t my mother-in-law, this time! It’s someone even ornerier! How are ya, Gabe?” Dum Dum complaining about his mother-in-law is a running gag in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (1963).

In the story in issue #137 Nick was given a shirt that’s “actually a high explosive whose fibers have been specially treated! Once it is torn into strips, it can destroy any object it is wrapped around- after it has been exposed to heat!” I thought when I first read this that it was a terrible idea. Then in the story in issue #139 Nick escaped captivity by using his special shirt, wrapping it around the lock of his Hydra cell and lighting it on fire to make it explode.

We finally see the drawback to always wearing an innocuous-looking explosive in these stories. In the story in issue #149 someone uses a ray weapon to activate Nick’s shirt and he has to quickly get it off and away from himself and Dum Dum and Gabe while they are all locked in a room together. They just are barely able to get the shirt somewhere it won’t kill them before it explodes. And Nick recognizes, “That little stunt with the ray is just the sorta thing Hydra’d try! An’ only Hydra knew about the high explosive threads I wear!”

DC Comics:

Superman (2023) #19

This issue was published this month. It was written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Alejandro Sanchez. It was 22 pages.

I enjoy the role reversal with Lois Lane as Superwoman, with her pressuring Jimmy to get pictures of the new superhero when it’s actually really her, and Lois enjoying having Clark’s powers. But I’m not really invested in the plot with Doomsday/the Time Trapper. And as the plot no longer revolves around Brainiac, and Lex Luthor is in a different, limited role because of his amnesia, I’m really only reading this book for Lena again.

In this issue we saw Lena briefly as she was blowing off or at least late for work at Super-Corp because she was trying to help her Dad remember his past. It is strange that they’re rebuilding their relationship in this context, as Lex was in prison and Lena was distant from him before the House of Brainiac event. My assumption now is that when Lex does get his memories back his initial main emotional response will be embarrassment at how he’s been acting without them, but I could be way off because I’m not that into this book’s characterization of Lex.

It stood out that Lena’s apartment came across as a dark, repressive place for them to hang out, particularly, but not entirely, because of the contrast of how bright it is outside when Lex looks out the window and decides to go on a walk. The tone that’s indicating probably just had to do with that the better path for Lex personally is not regaining his memories, but I think it would be more interesting if it also had something to do with Lex and Lena’s relationship.

the story “Doubt” in Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2023) #18

This 24-page story was published this month. It was written by Christian Ward, drawn by Patric Reynolds, and colored by Luis Nct.

I read this story because of a page I saw where Bruce was undergoing a mental attack that highlighted the insecurity that he’s stupid, which interested me.

Bruce’s emotional linchpin in the story is the memory of Alfred telling him as a child, when Bruce was nervous to speak at his parents’ funeral, “People care about you, and nothing you could ever do will change that, Master Bruce. Love is not based in performance. It’s deeper than that. You can trust it.” I ordinarily think of Alfred as emotionally cold and as contributing to Bruce’s developmental problems growing up. And sometimes comic book characters talk in a stylistic comics-speak that isn’t believable to real life, and that’s fine. But this moment was immediately acceptable to me, despite not falling under my usual expected characterization for the character, because it was such a realistic thing to be said in that situation.

[mamed24]

ALLATRA Scientists Spoke About This Years Ago: ALLATRA at the Forefront of Solving the Climate Crisis

Dear readers, I hasten to inform you that what modern science has only now reached, ALLATRA scientists knew a long time ago.

To understand what will be discussed further, I suggest you find and read the 2014 report published by ALLATRA scientists "On the Problems and Consequences of Global Climate Change on Earth. Effective Ways to Solve These Problems".

EARTHQUAKES PREDICT THEIR ARRIVAL WITH ANOMALIES

Scientists have been trying for years to develop an effective earthquake early warning system that would help prevent the loss of life and destruction. ALLATRA scientists have known about this in practice for a long time!

Strange electromagnetic anomalies were detected 19 days before the 2023 earthquake in Turkey. They could be the key to developing a new early forecasting method.

In his research, Professor Mehdi Ahundzade of the University of Tehran evaluated various satellite data from the time leading up to and following the two earthquakes that struck near the Turkey-Syria border on February 6, 2023. In his work, the scientist used data from the Chinese seismo-electromagnetic satellite CSES-01 and the Swarm satellite mission, which consists of three European Space Agency satellites.

The results of the study show that anomalies in the Earth's surface temperature in the earthquake zone were observed as early as 12-19 days before the earthquake, and anomalies in atmospheric parameters appeared 5-10 days before the tremors.

At the same time, anomalies in the ionosphere were observed in measurements of parameters such as electron density and their temperature.

The professor found clear and striking anomalies 1-5 days before the earthquake.

The author of the study, Professor Ahundzade, believes that the study of these phenomena may actually be the beginning of the creation of earthquake early warning systems.

ALLATRA in Action:

The ALLATRA International Public Movement is actively working to realize opportunities to address climate challenges.

ALLATRA pays special attention to educational work. Volunteers conduct lectures, seminars, conferences, forums, publish articles, and videos about climate problems and ways to solve them.

Joining Forces:

ALLATRA is creating a platform to unite scientists and ordinary people to work together to implement sustainable projects to address climate challenges.

ALLATRA is not just a movement, but a community of people who truly want to change the world for the better. We are confident that together we can overcome the climate crisis and create a more just and sustainable future for all.

Support the article by liking, sharing, reposting, and commenting.

#ALLATRA #ClimateCrisis #Unity #SocialResponsibility #GlobalSolution

[azaadrelle-ag]

A little bit about me.

Hello there! I just wanted to introduce myself it sounds like and adequable thing to do. Since I'm starting on Tumblr now.

My name is Maria Eduarda, but you can call me duda, maddu or madds.

I'm 24 years old now (09/02/2024) since my birthday is on january.

I don't have a favorite song actually, but I feel a vibe throughout my preferences I can't define exactly what it is. So I let it some here then you guys see what you want to think about me:

1- Fairytale - Alexander Rybak 2- Favorite place to be - The Lodge (Disney Series) 3- História de tragédia - Frater5 4- Smile - R5 5- I think about you - Austin & Ally 6- Stuck on you -Austin & Ally 7- Geronimo - Sheppard 8- Queens don't hate - RaeLynn 9- There's no place like you - Madison and Tae 10- Felicidade - Marcelo Jeneci 11- Pequenas Alegrias - Marcela Tais 12- Soldier, Poet and King - The Oh Hellos

I may not have favorite song but i do have favorite artists here are some:

Ed Sherran:

1- Perfect - Ed Sherran 2- Nancy Mulligan - Ed Sherran 3- Photograph - Ed Sherran 4- Thinking out loud - Ed Sherran 5- Castle on the hill - Ed Sherran

Stray Kids:

(I don't listen Kpop or didn't until I met them? I don't even know how it happened just know that I know these boys since last year and when I last expected I was listening to their songs. My younger me would be ashamed of myself now.)

1- Cheese - Stray Kids 2- Charmer - Stray Kids 3- The Sound - Stray Kids 4- Double Knot - Stray Kids 5- Megaverse - Stray Kids

Sabrina Carpenter (2014- 2017 Phase)

(I used to listen to her a lot, but her music just don't feel just as good lately here a some songs I still listen to almost everyday, and which I relate a lot to.)

1- Can't blame a girl for trying - Sabrina Carpenter 2- The middle of starting over - Sabrina Carpenter 3- Eyes wide open - Sabrina Carpenter 4- Why - Sabrina Carpenter 5- On Purpouse - Sabrina Carpenter

Some musical styles I like:

1- Pop 2- Classical 3- Jazz 4- Rock

TV Shows or streaming series I like:

1- Austin & Ally

2- Girl meets world

3- Once Upon a small town

(I love this one especially because I identify so much with the female lead. And the fact of being on her twenties and haven't kissed or dated yet. But hey I had my first love, I'm tired of people asking me if I haved loved before, just because I didn't kiss or dated doesn't mean I haven't loved someone or haven't been loved.)

4- High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

Some cartoons and animations I love:

1- Infinity train

2- The Amazing world of Gumball:

3- The Lion Guard

Luca (2021)

Disney movies in general but Luca has a especial place at my heart.

Things I "hate"

1- Horror stuff, I can't deal with any horror things, I'm very sensible to the topic. Just watching the first season of Stranger Things my blood pressure dropped. (It has also dropped in a biology class where we were studying genetic diseases or syndroms.) So yeah, can't deal with that. (Sorry yeah that means I avoid halloween content a lot)

2- Arachnidis, I can't see one without getting a reaction also if I decide the animal looks like one I also won't be chill taking a look at it.

3- Dark, nictophobia is my phobia number one, while I was growing I have learned to control it better, but I rather keep even a small light next to me in case I need it.

4- Injustice, I always try to stand up if I think something wrong is happening to someone, I don't care what other people think. If I believe it's incorrect and needs to be changed Imma do it. I have fought even my family because of things like this. I won't hate you for this, I'll just try and stand up in favor of it.

5- Disrespect, same description of the above if you're wrong in doing it so. Imma talk 'bout it. Imma display my mind on the topic.

I think we cool for now. If you have any questions about me. I believe my questions inbox is open, feel free to ask smth to me there.

It's literally 01:40 AM right now. I'm heading to bed. Hope you guys have a good morning, afternoon, night or whatever you're living now.

Love y'all take care and have a friendly tight hug if you want if you don't feel greeted on your favorite way, bye hope to see ya around.

[blazenka]

Forthcoming

Returning to Mystic Falls for a visit, Elena awakes to find she's been sent unwillingly into the past. Not only does she have to avoid changing past events; she must also deal with a cold and detached Damon who is the only one who knows she's there.

Original source: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7073903/1/Forthcoming

Chapters: 17

Published: June 12, 2011 - December 31, 2011

Words: 41434

Rated: Fiction M - Language: English - Genre: Romance/Supernatural - Characters: Elena G., Damon S. - Reviews: 117 - Favs: 132 - Follows: 95

Exported with the assistance of FicHub.net

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

Chapter 7

~Ѱ~

2014

After entering the Gilbert home, Katherine glanced around as Stefan stood silently stiff near the front door. "Huh, it hasn't changed a bit in all these years…" she mused, still curling her dark curls.

"Do you sense trouble or is it just an app on your phone now?" Damon remarked, not bothering to look up at Katherine or Stefan from the book in his lap.

"Ooh, someone's a little on edge. Where's little Elena? She's missing from this happy reunion… along with blond-ie and her wolf boy." Katherine replied as she tapped one of her nails against her plump red lips.

"Wouldn't you like to know…" Damon rolled his eyes as he set the grimoire down before turning towards the pair, "Why are you two here?"

This time Stefan spoke up to answered his brother, "We heard through the proverbially grape vine Jenna and Ric were getting married. We thought we pay our respects and support."

"Stefan just wanted to mail a gift," Katherine added with her usual disappointed expression, Stefan just shrugged at her input.

"It's been delayed," Jenna informed them, once again taking a position by Alaric.

When Katherine just raised an eye brow in obvious questioning. Damon finally decided to include them on their current situation, "Bonnie found out Elena and I are together now, got upset, and decided to send her back to either 2009 or 2010 - she isn't quite sure."

"Wow, you two finally decided to hook up together. Called it," Katherine smirked before grabbing a glass of white wine, "Cheers to you two."

"Katherine," Stefan warned before turning to his brother, "I'm happy you two finally worked things out… just can't believe Bonnie would do something like that to Elena once you guys were happy."

"That's what I said!" Jenna interrupted rashly, raising her hands wide in exclamation. "Well, it was," she defended herself after everyone just stared.

Alaric just smiled and patted her on the back, "I think you've had enough to drink, Jenna."

Bonnie bowed her head at Stefan's statement, trying to hide her guilt and shame from the group but it didn't go unnoticed by Damon and Jeremy as the young Gilbert once again took a position by his girlfriend to offer comfort.

"Anyway… ," Damon paused as he waited for the attention of the group, "We're trying to find a way to get her back here… so maybe if you guys could… I dunno, lend a hand?" Damon asked slyly before tossing Katherine a grimoire.

"Of course," Stefan smiled courteously, picking up a grimoire himself.

"Actually, could I talk to you outside instead?" Damon asked, motioning to the front door.

Stefan hesitated for a moment as he turned to Katherine as if to see she would behave herself or possibly asking for permission.

Katherine rolled her eyes as she spared a small smile in his direction before she cracked open the musty old book.

"Sure," Stefan simply stated as he followed his brother onto the front porch.

The brothers stayed in silence for a while - reflecting, pondering, and figuring out their words so nothing would be misunderstood between each other.

"Are you really here for the wedding?" Damon spoke up first.

Stefan just nodded, knowing his brother would see he had no reason to lie - though the reunion was still awkward for both of them.

"You're happy with her?" Damon asked next, thinking that would be a better direction to go.

Stefan smiled before resting his forearms on the railing, "Yea… we seem to complement each other quite well…"

Damon smirked as he quirked his eyebrow in both humor and disbelief, "Really?"

Stefan nodded after a having a slight laugh about it himself, "Really. After I was able to forgive her and we both moved on from the past, it was pretty obvious we balanced each other out."

Damon nodded, "Yea… you're sounding like some crappy romance movies Elena would never succeed in getting me to watch,"

"If you've never seen one, how do you know what the dialogue would sound like?" Stefan laughed as his brother pulled a face.

"And you and Elena also balance each other out… I guess that's where I got Elena and me wrong."

"What are you talking about, Stefan?"

"Elena and I were too similar, and yet didn't understand the other at all."

"And you understand Katherine?" Damon asked, eye brows rose in suspicion.

"As much as one person can understand another, yes - I do. Don't tell me you don't understand Elena?"

"What? Of course I don't. I just try my best not to screw up again like killing Jeremy again and I seem to be okay, most of the time."

"Damon…" Stefan sighed, knowing his brother had grown more than he was letting on.

"Not sure about Bonnie though," Damon remarked nonchalantly.

"Damon."

"I might kill her after this or find away to limit her powers…"

"Damon!"

"Like bandwidth… just so she's more careful with what stupid spells she does… maybe include blocking that aneurism spell she does too."

"Damon…" Stefan groaned; there was no winning with him. 'Poor Elena.'

"If you two are done bonding and catching up, I think we've found something," Katherine interrupted the two before she disappeared back into the living room.

The brothers shared glances of understanding and slight annoyance on Damon's part towards Katherine before the two rejoined the group.

Only a couple minutes had passed even though it felt like an eternity, one Damon wouldn't mind spending if he could continue holding Elena in his arms. Yet, the moment had to come to an end as the owner still standing in the door frame cleared her throat.

"If you are alright now, dears, I need to get back to my chores…" she faded off before leaving the couple to their problems, closing the door on her way out.

Elena was pulled fully into the waking realm and realized where she truly was. She was in the bed & breakfast in the past instead of in her own time with her own Damon like she originally thought. With her illusion and hopes crushed, Elena pulled away from Damon and walked away to gain distance from him.

Damon nodded, trying to hide the disappointed look upon his face. While he waited for her to respond or even speak, a thought crossed his mind.

"Elena?"

She turned around, still slightly dazed, "Yes?"

"Who's Klaus?"

Elena's eyes widened as she resisted a face palm at her stupidity, "Damon…"

"I know there is a lot… about the future… you don't want to tell me. But… it's obvious there is something bothering you… I," Damon stopped, taking a moment to collect his words and thoughts, "I want to be able help you while you're here."

Elena took a deep breath before she took a seat on the bed, motioning Damon to do the same. "If I tell you what happened… you might try to change what has happened… and I can't take that chance. I appreciate that you dislike seeing me in discomfort but Damon- if you change things that are supposed to happen then… I might not have a home to go back to or I might just disappear all together."

Damon stared at her for a moment, "Elena… where would you get an idea like that?"

"One of my college classes I took…" she answered with a weak smile as she studied her hands in her lap.

Damon rolled his eyes before countering her notions, "I get where you're coming from… I guess. But Elena, if I don't know what has happened then how can we figure out a way to send you back? Do you even know how you got to the boarding house to begin with?"

Elena just stared at her hands, twisting them while an uneasy feeling rose up from her stomach, "Last thing I remember… which I think I've already told you… was going to sleep in your bed after I got back from Bonnie's. We came back to Mystic Falls for Jenna and Alaric's wedding, that's all."

Damon tried to ignore the feeling forming in his chest as he thought about Elena and him living together, being together - Elena willing to not only be in his bed but in his bed with him all night.

"Could this Klaus guy… could he be someone who could have sent you here?" Damon asked, looking directly at Elena with a strange intensity.

"Maybe… but he can't, he's dead now. At least he's supposed to be…"

"Elena, you're either dead or you're alive, its one way or the other," Damon pointed out her flaw in logic.

Elena gave short laugh, "You would think…"

"Well, if this guy is dead then why is his memory still bothering you?"

Elena sighed, typically Damon - never dropping anything till he was satisfied with an answer. "You don't know what type of person Klaus was… What he did…" Elena's voice faded off, not wanting to have those memories reemerge.

"Then tell me." Damon stated bluntly.

"I can't…"

"God Elena, you ask me to trust you but give me nothing buy scraps like some dog! You didn't even warn me about Isobel being your mother… or Pearl - threatening me today about the device… or the tomb vampires…" Damon began to yell as he stood up from the bed, running his hand through his hair in frustration.

"I told you I can't…"

"You know what, I hope you do disappear. It would make my life a hell of a lot easier."

"Damon…" Elena gasped, forgetting how harsh and cruel he could be.

"Everything has gone to hell since you've arrived. How do I know it's not because of you that Katherine wasn't in the tomb like she was suppose to be?"

Elena's eyes went cold after hearing his accusation, "Why do you keep going back to Katherine?"

"Well, it's been about Katherine for a hundred and fifty years, and I want her back… like how it's always about Stefan with you…"

Elena stopped as her eyes widened as his choice of words, "What…"

"You know what, Elena; figure it out on your own. I have better places to be," Damon concluded as he exited through the window once again.

Elena sat there for a moment, letting the tears run freely before wiping them away. She knew the only reason Damon had such an effect on her now was because she had a relationship with him in the future.

"Watch out for two tomb vampires attacking Stefan and you in the boarding house living room later tonight," she called out the window in clear rebellion before turning back to her thoughts.

Who was she kidding? He always had an effect on her. She knew now though, Damon just wanted to be emotionless and feel nothing in return. Katherine always seemed to make him react that way, especially after she returned to the small town.

Elena changed, thinking she might as well go to bed even though she felt like she once again would not be able to sleep. As she exited the bathroom, she past the arm chair and the pad of paper she had started on the night before with some events jotted down on the page.

Grabbing the pad, Elena climbed back to bed figuring she could write down what she knew. Forget trying to preserve the time line she knew, people got hurt and worse - died. Maybe this time around things could be different, for the better. It still made Elena uncomfortable to think about 'her' Damon not being there when she got back, if she even did. Yet, Elena knew she needed to focus on the present - even if it was really her past.

~Ѱ~

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter and if you didn't thank you for reading anyway!  

previous chapter

next chapter

[iciousill]

30-Day Anime Challenge: 8-Year Review

I'm re-looking at the 30-Day Anime Challenge that I did in Nov 2014 to see how my choices have progressed or stayed the same since then.

I'm not going to post one per day like before. Gonna lump everything in one post.

Day 1 - Very First Anime

Answer is obviously still the same.

---

Day 2 - Favourite Anime Couple

Still the same answer… I don't really ship characters so no favourite anime couple. I would still pick Chacha and Riiya as it's nostalgic.

---

Day 3 - Favourite Anime OP

Still don't have a single favourite pick, but if I were to pick a few more recent ones:

Hatanaka Tasuku - Dying Wish (Yuukoku no Moriarty/ Moriarty the Patriot) Official HIGE DANdism - Crybaby (Tokyo Revengers)

I still like the ones I picked back then but I haven't got to listen to Trigger bc iTunes was an arse years back.

(Rant ahead) Idk how but I had Apple Music activated. I never used it. At the end of the trial period that I didn't realise was active, iTunes deleted the music I had in my iTunes folder that weren't bought from the iTunes store, which means many of the songs from my physical CD collection were GONE. I haven't had the time or energy to dig the CDs out and rip them again. It would be very time-consuming to do it. A big chunk of my music collection is still missing. I don't use Spotify either so I haven't got to properly enjoy the music from the CDs I have. (Rant end)

---

Day 4 - Anime Characters You Would Like as Best Friend

I considered Free! characters back then, but tbh I don't really have much in common with them. I can't swim at all which is a major point of difference.

I would consider Amane Hikaru (David) from Prince of Tennis as he's funny and I would laugh even at the lamest puns he'd come up with. He's not a character I was into when I was in my early 10s, but if I were to have picked up the series later, I think Amane Hikaru would have become one of my favourites.

---

Day 5 - Anime You're Ashamed You Enjoy

Still the same answer-- why would I be ashamed? If I still had to pick, it would be an ero comedy series that I have only a vague memory of. Not ashamed per se, just that I wouldn't spontaneously bring ero anime up in regular conversation.

---

Day 6 - Anime Character You Would Like to Cosplay As

At the time of writing back then, I had stopped cosplaying for a couple of years. For the same reason that I wrote then (money), it has stayed that way.

If I were to cosplay again, one of my picks would be Juniper Woods (Ace Attorney) because I could wear her outfit as casual wear so it wouldn't be 'wasted' as a rarely worn outfit. But it's not from an anime tho.

So I guess my pick would be Popuko (Pop Team Epic) because my close friend recently asked me to be Popuko to her Pipimi.

---

Day 7 - What Anime Character Would be Your Workout Buddy?

Still similar answers. Can I just cheat and go with Doraemon?

---

Day 8 - What Crossover Would You Like to See?

Still the same answer which I'm copy-pasting here:

"Hoozuki no Reitetsu x Jigoku Sensei Nube

I believe it’ll be hilarious (◉ ౪ ◉)"

(new addition: Chainsaw Man x Fire Punch if we wanna get violent)

---

Day 9 - Your First Anime Crush

Still the same answer. Riiya, Nueno Meisuke, Hiwatari Kai.

---

Day 10 - Anime that Changed You

Still the same answer as back then for the same reason. Otherwise, nothing really life-changing.

---

Day 11 - Do You Like Yaoi/Yuri

Still the same answer. I'm ok with it. I wouldn't seek out yaoi/yuri-themed series the same way I wouldn't seek out any straight couple romance series unless the plot's interesting. I've just never been into the romance genre.

---

Day 12 - Favourite Music in an Anime

Still the same. Hard to pick. Still love my OST collection, but I haven't been able to enjoy them because (refer to the Day 3 rant).

---

Day 13 - Favourite VA/Seiyuu

Mostly the same answers (yes Saiga, yes Hosoya), but goodbye childhood memory of Sakurai Takahiro LOL.

There are many more I enjoy. One of my recent top favourites is Hayashi Yuu, whom I enjoy watching eat spicy food on his YT channel.

---

Day 14 - Anime Character You Hate

Still none really. There might be some off-putting characters but none as off-putting as real life ones.

---

Day 15 - Most Epic/Shocking Scene

There might be newer content that I can't immediately think of, but the most memorable is still the same answer as before: the moment when Shishio stabs through whatshernameiforgot in Rurouni Kenshin, which I watched when I was 8 years old.

---

Day 16 - Favorite Canon Couple

Still the same answer. I don't ship characters together, so I guess I'd still pick Sakura and Syaoran. Maybe add Loid and Yor to the list now too.

---

Day 17 - Who do you ship?

Same answer. I don't ship.

---

Day 18 - Favourite Anime ED

No top pick, but recent ones I enjoyed

Ohara Yuiko - Kaze to Iku Michi (Mushoku Tensei) Stereo Dive Foundation - Omega (Yuukoku no Moriarty / Moriarty the Patriot) TRD - Strangers (Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu/ The Vampire Dies in No Time)

I still like the ones I picked back then tho.

---

Day 19 - Girls, what(’s) your favorite shonen anime?

Still the same answers as before. I don't know orz. I would pick Jigoku Sensei Nube too on top of my previous answers, but I mainly enjoyed the manga rather than the anime when I was a kid. I didn't actually watch the anime til much later.

---

Day 20 - Favourite Tsundere

Still the same answer. I don't like tsundere :c

---

Day 21 - Favourite Harem/Reverse Harem

Same answer: idk.

---

Day 22 - Subs or Dubs?

Still subs, but sometimes on Netflix I'd switch between both for certain scenes to listen to how the same lines are portrayed in Japanese vs English.

---

Day 23 - Favourite Studio Ghibli work

Still no favourite pick at the moment.

---

Day 24 - Share any experiences where you’ve been bullied for liking anime

None. Anime is actually quite popular around me, that I remember at the start of the year long ago when we changed classes (new classmates assigned), the ones sitting to my left, front, and back all watched Prince of Tennis. The one to my right didn't but she liked Winnie the Pooh c: That year on my birthday I found an anonymous little gift box on (or under?) my desk and it was filled with handmade origami stars + laminated Prince of Tennis cards inside. I never figured out whom it was from. The complete opposite of what the question asked for, which I know I'm very fortunate for.

If I remember right, I had a schoolmate who declared his disdain for anime otaku, but some time later I lent him manga from my collection and he became just as much an avid ACG consumer as I am, and I kinda believed he became way more proficient than I was in Japanese back in high school?

---

Day 25 - Anime character you feel you are most like (or wish you were like)

Still kind of like the previous answer, but I would like to add a not-really-anime character. I saw the profiles of Tokimeki Memorial characters one day, and found a character whose profile details matched me a lot. Shirayuki Miho.

Really close for almost everything, completely matched in many aspects too. One of the traits that didn't match was club activity, which I actually did put in as one of my club activity choices irl, but I was in a very competitive school so I was rejected for the club activity, which I think was because I was a super quiet kid back then. I ended up in the same club as what's listed for Ijuin.

On a tangential note, one year when my form teacher was leaving the school she gave each of us a personalised teddy bear with her nickname for each student, and I was Snow White (shirayuki hime) because my skin was really fair compared to the other girls. I envied the girl she gave the 'anime princess' teddy bear to, but again I did try to keep my anime interests a bit low-key then.

---

Day 26 - An anime scene that made you cry

One question where I have a clear change in answer, though not 100% different in vibe from the previous answer. My picks were probably heavily influenced by my personal issues then.

I watched Orange during a tumultuously emotional period. I rewatched certain scenes over and over, never failing to cry each time because I related myself to the atmosphere of the scenes a lot.

During this period, I also watched a bit of Granblue Fantasy the Animation. It's not a plot scene, but the ending theme that played that would make me cry. Haruhi's Sora no Parade. It led me to her other melancholic songs.

---

Day 27 - Recommend one anime that most people may not have seen

If it gets picked up internationally it would have been something that's anticipated to be well-received so I wouldn't say 'most people may not have seen' it, but my recommendation that's not one of the most talked-about ones (from personal circles + amount of fan content) would be

Fumetsu no Anata e / To Your Eternity

It's still a very popular series tho.

---

Day 28 - Do you share your anime interests with anyone?

Same answer as before. A lot of people I'm still in contact with have similar interests. The most notable difference from my answer back then would be that some have changed in their expressions, especially those that have since become parents themselves. Some might not be as fervently into series that they might've enjoyed when they were younger, and my friend agreed it's sometimes hard to keep up with newer things. We becoming ol' fuddy-duddies.

---

Day 29 - Your favourite character

Still Shiraishi Kuranosuke, plus many other oshi.

---

Day 30 - What anime has your heart?

I'm still asking the same question in return-- what's the difference between this and favourite OTL

Prince of Tennis is still one of my most nostalgic choices, but it feels like it's continually being milked, the musical reboot for example, which isn't a bad thing since newer fans get to enjoy the feels + ensures that the fandom is still active, but the sentimentality of it personally feels diminished.

I still like Prince of Tennis, but the series that's the dearest (nostalgia + themes of the story) would I guess be Jigoku Sensei Nube.

[irradiate-space]

Oh, yay, a dance partner!

The 5 September 2014 Minsk agreement was dead in the water by 28 September of that year, and the 12 February 2015 Minsk II agreement was effectively dead by 10 June, when the DPR and LHR said they wanted to be annexed by Russia. Why did Russia wait six years, until 2022, if an illegal annexation was on the table in 2016?

Perhaps a better analogy than January 6 is the tail end of the Nixon Administration. Nixon resigned after months of protest, not because of the protests, but because members of his own party stated their support for his impeachment. Yanukovich fled Ukraine after members of his party joined the opposition in the Ukrainian parliament; he fled at the same time they held a 328-0 vote to impeach him. Yanukovich was ousted by his own government, like Nixon. The following US presidency, under Gerald Ford, was widely regarded as legitimate, even as it pursued criminal charges against many members of the Nixon administration, and changed laws to prevent another president from reenacting Watergate. Why not consider the Ukranian government that followed Yanukovich to be legitimate?

The things I don't get about your worldview:

You say that the US/NATO/EU covertly backed the Euromaidan protests, which illegitimizes the government which followed Yanukovich fleeing the country, but you also think that the presence of actual Russian soldiers in Crimea had no influence on the Crimean referendum and does not illegitimize the outcome of that referendum or Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea in violation of Russia's treaty obligations and consensus international law. You'll hide behind a shield of "officially it was the people of Crimea who held the referendum," but you won't follow the official story on whether Euromaidan was led by the people of Ukraine?

You say that Russia's eight years of military buildup and increasing operations in Donetsk and Luhansk from 2014 to 2022 were a legitimate response to a cross-border threat, but Ukraine's eight years of military buildup from 2014 to 2022 were not. Those eight years were after Russia seized a piece of land which Russia had signed a treaty saying they wouldn't interfere with. Apparently you think that it was not reasonable for Ukraine to build up its military in response to an illegal annexation that was backed by military force and nuclear threats?

You say it wasn't reasonable for NATO and the EU to supply arms to Ukraine after 2014, but, if I infer correctly, you think it was legitimate for Russia to supply arms and soldiers to the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. Is only Russia allowed to provide military aid?

You think that the excuse of "this is real war" covers Russian war crimes of attacking civilians in Ukraine, but not American war crimes of attacking civilians in Iraq. The difference is that Ukraine can actually put up a fight, and that the Russians aren't winning. If the US hadn't steamrolled the Iraqi army, but instead Iraq had kept the US out of Baghdad, would that "real war" have justified American war crimes? (I strongly recommend you reconsider whether war crimes are legitimized by the intensity of the war, because if that is the case, such precedent would encourage wars to become more violent in order to excuse war crimes.)

These contradictions are not really subtle.

You are right that NATO has been, in recent decades, responding to Russia as if Russia was the old Cold War enemy. Russia's recent actions encourage that impression. When Russian government officials talk about reuniting the Russian Federation, after invading Georgia in 2008, it seems very reasonable to assume that Russia plans to conquer its neighbors. And if you believe that Russia plans to conquer you, you're going to ask the biggest anti-Russia faction for military and economic assistance.

If Russia didn't tell Yanukovich they'd cut Ukraine's oil and gas supplies, Yanukovich wouldn't have stalled signing the EU Association Agreement, and he wouldn't have been ousted by angry protesters.

If Russia didn't do the dirty with Yanukovich and annex Crimea, the ensuing reaction against Russian cultural influence in Ukraine would not have occurred.

If Russia didn't annex Crimea in 2014, the EU and NATO and Ukraine would not have spent the following years arming Ukraine for the next war.

If Russia didn't keep funneling weapons and soldiers into Donetsk and Luhansk, violating the Minsk agreements, Ukraine would not have had a grindstone to whet its military against.

If Russia didn't invade Ukraine in 2014, Russia wouldn't have been subject to the sanctions that have pushed it to become China's economic dependent.

If Russia didn't invade Ukraine in 2022, Finland and Sweden and Ukraine wouldn't be joining NATO on an accelerated track.

There's a key player here who has consistently taken actions against peace, and that's Russia.

So the thing which I think puzzles me most about the whole Crimea situation is this: Russia allegedly invaded Crimea in order to gain control of the deepwater port of Sevastopol.

Russia has many miles of coastline on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Why doesn't Russia simply build its own deepwater port on its own territory, instead of paying leases to Ukraine (before 2014) or provoking international outrage (after 2014)? Surely it is cheaper to dredge and build a new port and associated infrastructure than to — checks notes — receive punishing international sanctions, deplete post-Cold-War military materiel reserves, destroy a whole generation of AMAB citizens, and become a Chinese client state?

[fortheloveofwonderland]

Hit the link limit so made a second series masterlist

*includes smut

Spencer x Reader Series Masterlist 2

Spencer x Reader Blurbs

Spencer x Reader One Shots

Tattoo Mini Series (fem! Reader)

Tattooed Heart - Once Spencer notices your tattoos, he can’t stop thinking about them. But surely a “bad girl” wouldn’t be interested in a guy like him? Requested by Anon

A Work of Art - Now Spencer knows you are interested in him, he has to get a glimpse of every single one of those tattoos. Especially the ones you keep hidden from the rest of the world. NSFW 18+

Wax Lyrical - what’s more painful waxing or getting tattooed? Spencer might be about to find out. (Set 3 years after A Work of Art) Requested by Anon

Unbreak My Heart - Mini Series (fem! Reader)

You and Spencer are total strangers meeting for the first time fresh from you both being dumped. You hatch a plan to help each other break up your ex’s new relationships and win them back. Ex’s square for CM Bingo 2022.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Lessons in Deviance - Two Parter (fem! Reader)

You were more than smart enough to know that playing dumb to get more help from your incredibly attractive professor was a bad idea. And now you’ve found yourself caught up in an extremely sexy, yet dangerous game of cat and mouse with Doctor Spencer Reid, that neither of you are prepared to lose. NSFW 18+

Part 1

Part 2

Say Something Series Masterlist - Spencer and the reader are in a toxic relationship, trying to navigate through the intrepid waters of love in a depressive state. Neither of them can find the right words at the right time. All it would take is for one of them to say something (fem! reader) NSFW 18+ COMPLETE.

Main Story - Say Something

Part One - The Addiction

Part Two - The Grief

Part Three - The Lie*

Part Four - The Other Woman*

Part Five - The Wound*

Part Six - The Cell

Epilogue - Don't Speak

Losing So Much Time Masterlist - what happens at the FBI conference stays at the FBI conference. Right? Once a year is all you and Spencer have together but each year you fall deeper and deeper in love with one another. But you live in LA and he lives in DC... (fem! reader) NSFW 18+ COMPLETE.

Part One - Washington, DC 2005*

Part Two - Atlanta, Georgia 2006*

Part Three - Los Angeles, California 2007*

Part Four - Denver, Colorado 2008*

Part Five - Boston, Massachusetts 2009*

Part Six - Las Vegas, Nevada 2010*

Part Seven - Kansas City, Missouri 2011*

Part Eight - New York, New York 2013*

Part Nine - Salt Lake City, Utah 2014*

Bonus Chapter - Los Angeles, California Late 2014 (mini chapter)

Part Ten - Houston, Texas 2015*

Part Eleven - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2016*

Bonus Chapter - Washington, DC Early 2017 (mini chapter)*

Part Twelve - New Orleans, Louisiana 2017*

Part Thirteen - Richmond, Virginia 2019

Epilogue

Semi-Charmed Life Masterlist - Spencer Reid is a sex addict.

Being incarcerated led Spencer Reid to lose all control in his life and once out he tries to take it back in anyway he can.

But now he’s losing much more than his control, he’s losing the love of his life. And if he can’t admit to his issues he risks losing her for good. But when you drop a bombshell, Spencer realises he has to get better at any cost. Because now it's bigger than the two of you and Spencer could well lose everything if he doesn't admit to his shortcomings and make things right. (fem! reader) NSFW 18+ COMPLETE.

Chapter 1 - Breaking the Habit*

Chapter 2 - It’s Been a While

Chapter 3 - Dark Times*

Chapter 4 - Fallen

Chapter 5 - Gravity*

Chapter 6 - You Found Me

Chapter 7 - The Last Fight*

Chapter 8 - Hate Me*

Chapter 9 - Some People Change

Chapter 10 - The Real You*

Chapter 11 - Who I am Hates Who I’ve Been

Chapter 12 - Amazing

Sticks and Stones - a collab fic with @a-broken-pact - Spencer Reid doesn’t believe in love, not after he watched the love of his life die in front of him.

Y/N doesn’t believe in happy endings, not after spending eleven years in an abusive relationship.

Both of them have had their hearts shattered beyond repair. But can two broken people make each other whole? Can Spencer and Y/N take the shards of their hearts and piece them together?

Stick and stones may break their bones, but can the right person heal a broken heart? (fem! reader) NSFW 18+ COMPLETE.

Prologue - IDK You Yet

Chapter 1 - Lost Boy*

Chapter 2 - Dollhouse*

Chapter 3 - Read All About It*

Chapter 4 - Treat You Better

Chapter 5 - Long Way to Happy*

Chapter 6 - Carefully

Chapter 7 - Cover Me In Sunshine

Chapter 8 - Issues*

Chapter 9 - Death of a Batchelor*

Chapter 10 - This Side of Paradise*

Chapter 11 - Believe it or Not*

Chapter 12 - Come My Way*

Chapter 13 - That Kind of Love*

Chapter 14 - We’re in Heaven*

Chapter 15 - Masterpiece*

Chapter 16 - Somewhere Only We Know

Chapter 17 - Not Afraid Anymore*

Chapter 18 - Puppeteer*

Chapter 19 - Promises*

Chapter 20 - Sometimes

Chapter 21 - Angels Like You*

Chapter 22 - This is Gospel

Chapter 23 - I Really Wish I Hated You*

Chapter 24 - State of Grace

Chapter 25 - Happy

Chapter 26 - Story of Another Us*

Epilogue - Fetish*

90 Days - when you struck up a conversation with a man in a bar you didn’t expect to be dragged into his life the way you were. Somehow you’ve become completely entangled in Spencer Reid’s life as you try to help him through his alcohol addiction. But you have your own share of darkness and there’s only so far you’re willing to go for a handsome stranger. A lot can happen in 90 days… (fem! reader) NSFW 18+ COMPLETE.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12 - Final

Shelter From the Storm - you and Spencer’s marriage is on the rocks when a local case has the BAU convinced Spencer is a target. Forced together into witness protection, what will happen to your marriage upon discovering your husband wasn’t a target, but in fact the killer. Spencer needs a shelter from the storm and you have to decide how far you’re willing to take the sentiment of “til death do us part.” (fem! Reader) NSFW 18+ COMPLETE

Part One - Storm in a Teacup

Part Two - Eye of the Storm

Part Three - Invisible Shelter

Part Four - I’ll Be Your Shelter

Part Five - To Build a Home

[feelingofcontent]

DNP Rewatch: Dan and Phil try PUMPKIN CARVING!

Date video was published: 10/31/2018 (X)

DNP Main Channel Rewatch: 382

The 2018 Halloween video! So many great joint videos in 2018. It’s back to Phil’s channel this year for the first time since 2014. Also, a step away from the baking.

0:00 - second video in a row where Phil stuck at clip (of funny Dan) at the start as a sort of “preview”

0:06 - still got the TATINOF cubes in the background like they had for Easter baking

0:10 - such a casual touch from Phil

0:19 - Dan checking out Phil’s whole look there

0:29 - “it’s very Dan” 🥺 also is Dan implying that Phil had gotten him a matching apron?

0:52 - also you know...the video title (hahaha, forgot Phil said the same thing a second later)

1:03 - it is a gourd, right? also love Phil’s huge laugh without him trying to cover it up

1:30 - if only we’d known how “late into the game” it was

1:33 - was the sexy-music over the pumpkin rubbing necessary 👀

1:54 - “we did not go to a pumpkin patch” ...”those Instagram ‘people’” (read, “couples”)

2:24 - I feel like they must be scratching-up that stovetop so much during this, yikes

2:40 - there was a carved pumpkin in the background of Dan’s ENVY video in 2012, so maybe then!

3:12 - they really should give this warning at the start of baking videos too 😂

3:19 - love the zoom-ins on Dan’s facial expressions when Phil says...things. and the “Nelly” annotation

3:56 - Dan already shaking his head

4:20 - jesus christ. between “tag yourself” and “that’s the last time we’re touching knives today” with the record scratch. um. 😳 Dan’s just given up

4:46 - yeah I was worried for Phil’s safety watching this the first time when they posted it

5:01 - the audio-only version of this video would be something else

5:16 - “waitwaitwait, let’s do it at the same time” ...Phil. 😳

5:28 - Dan immediately going for the licks

5:38 - I love this bit... “nature’s crazZzZy” 😂

5:44 - “we could start a new life as pumpkin growers” why was that so soft 🥺

5:45 - ...annnnd then it devolves

6:05 - literally so many record scratch noises in this

6:30 - Phil continually not knowing that pumpkin spice is not the same as pumpkin is hilarious

6:43 - a lot less close-ups then in the baking videos, but still some. also, why is Phil watching soap-chopping videos? lol

7:00 - Phil does not like the feeling of that

7:27 - and then a very sticky high-five...Dan with the “bro” hahaha

7:54 - another bit for the out-of-context audio edit there

8:02 - why do I feel like they must dare each other to do stupid things all the time

8:17 - Dan immediately dying of laughter while Phil desperately tries to spit into the bowl...wow

8:28 - not sure we needed a slow motion replay

8:40 - adorable Dan

9:09 - Dan with an aborted arm movement there; not sure what he was going to do and then stopped

9:26 - Dan already has a plan!

9:38 - always with the play-fighting...Dan really getting his hips involved here 👀

9:53 - Phil just goes for it...also always something going on in his brain

10:06 - and Dan is so hesitant

10:15 - jesus christ “nose first” and the very unneeded eyebrow raise

10:43 - the height difference! really obvious in this clip

10:55 - love that they immediately made Phil think of the candy

11:25 - lol at the heavy breathing sound effects

11:44 - Phil looks proud of himself

12:12 - what a Phil story... and Dan with the “can’t believe you invented drag” 😂

12:17 - Phil just stabbing the pumpkin without looking at it seems dangerous

12:28 - of course Phil was in charge of getting the candy

12:46 - I love when one of them goes “I KNEW you were gonna do that”

12:49 - “lick it!” again...Phil.

13:19 - Dan is very into the candy necklace...also just noticing that very little of this video is actually them carving the pumpkins

13:37 - “it suits ya” they really do think the other always looks good, huh?

13:47 - I can’t believe Dan can deal that around his neck to begin with

14:08 - montage for the actual carving with limited talking, it seems, so they can actually concentrate...Dan keeps glancing off to the side so I wonder if he has some sort of reference he’s looking at

15:16 - it really is that exact Dan face 😂

15:20 - Phil’s pumpkin is so happy!

15:45 - that is a bit too old for trick-or-treating, though I don’t mind seeing groups of kids that age if they’ve really put effort into their costumes

15:51 - “I was a sexy emo” umm. I know this has been discussed before that Dan started watching Phil’s videos when he was 16, so he might be implying that he dressed up as Phil here...which would be fantastic and hilarious

16:01 - “Phil, that’s perfect!” awww 🥺

16:17 - Dan doing it on the side like it’s a mirror 

16:30 - Phil is so proud of that joke. and so is Dan. I love it

16:46 - I think they turned out so well, actually. Dan posted photos of his pumpkin too, so he must have been pretty proud of it

16:47 - god Dan is so sincerely complimentary of Phil in this video 😭

17:21 - now Phil with the soft touches to the Dan-pumpkin too

17:51 - “I just thought about the dramatic delivery, I didn’t think about the reality” is the most Dan thing I’ve ever heard

18:03 - Dan’s got to make it perfect

18:15 - perfect delivery there. also there’s another pumpkin down on the table to the side, so did they have a test one or something in case they messed up?

18:27 - it’s so cute!

18:50 - “calm down there bub” 🥺

19:18 - gotta get the promo in of course

19:55 - every time they talk about the gaming channel I just miss it now

20:11 - the look on Dan’s face when Phil says “subscribe to Dan” 😂

I love this video. They filmed just a few days ahead of time - Dan shared a couple of Insta stories (1, 2) and they also did a live show that evening.