#it is kinda funny seeing it without context i suppose. technically there is no context actually. i havrn't fully Made it
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heshemejoshi · 1 day ago
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colored a sketch from yesterday
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amorganva · 11 months ago
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Just a bunch of random interesting Lies of P stuff I've seen so far because I still love this game:
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So the workshop was established 1868....which means that we're in the year 1889 or around that timeframe based on the grand exhibition signs.
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Apparently Sophia has a diary? and this is the only page: Master Cherry gives the Piece of wood to his friend Geppetto At that very moment a loud knock sounded on the door It was Geppetto, an old friend of Master Cherry. The boys of the neighborhood called him Polendina because of the wig he always wore, which was just the color of yellow corn. He was known to dislike children, and even more so when they called him Polendina.
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on some of the plaques at the grand exhibition
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The Krat k for reference and the devs having fun sneaking pics onto bottles lol
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The music sheet on the piano is the sheet music for the Oblivion soundtrack of the game. I also wonder why P chooses to play that particular piece that he plays as his humanity increases, why is it stuck in your head P?....on to another Carmeo doodle! I mean seriously the first few notes of the Estella Opera theme sound like humanity level 1 P trying the piano....like there's this specific tune in his mind. Like the two used to play together or Carlo the bougie being good at playing would teach Romeo, the kid from the streets. And the whole level P would hear that tune ....operafied and extra because it's Romeo, cmon, but also as a reminder like -Hey...remember, buddy?
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Just for reference purposes, when exported directly, Romeo is a giant at almost 9 ft - while P is about 6'4" when not constantly in battle stance. But Sophia and every other NPC in Krat is also about 6 feet when directly exported so the characters aren't made to scale - youngest of the BRBH is as tall as Sophia without ears. I read somewhere that Carlo is supposed to be around 5'3" on average and 5'6" at the tallest (people being shorter back then etc....our short king) so in my headcanon for my doodles reference I scaled Romeo to be about 5'10", just a bit taller than Carlo. Idk why I make him taller but there's something about his nickname Lampwick which just meant that he's skinny and polished looking in the original context but it got in my head that he's just tall and skinny and I'm rolling with it. Funny that his puppet form is so rusted and kinda clunky and raggedy looking for someone so well put together presumably before he died. The most unruly of Pinocchio's friends but also the nicest guy in this universe--- don't get me started on Romeo again gigachad of a friend///
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Also something you can't really see ingame cuz resolution but irl all records are by Trilogy Records and Feel in particular is "Song of Vamp, Rosa Milan" ....no clue what it means.
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the placeholder used for Romeo's play in the trailers....but also Hotel Krat before it became a Hotel in a bustling city?
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Question: Blue hair Sophia or Brown hair? Short hair P or long hair P? (I like short hair because it's an iconic look and the devs clearly spent a lot of time fine tuning it when you look at the trailers lol, long hair to me just feels so....basic) Also P's hair is aktschually brown.....it just looks really dark ingame and in all the artwork they just chose to make it black-looking. So Carlo and P technically have the same hair, he just doesn't have P's freckles which....a choice was made by Geppetto and I respect it.
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You can read this oddly specific daffodil newspaper texture and this letter.....like why is this so high res??
It's a shame you can't see some of this stuff unless you actually take a close look at the game files but I like to snoop. I just wanna see more of Krat...like a tour video or something or a book before it all kinda went to hell. Thanks Geppetto ....and/or Simon.
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rin-yellow · 1 year ago
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OKAY OKAY OKAY TIME TO DO WHAT THIS ACCOUNT WAS MADE FOR
Welcome to the true Reader In Yellow experience, I am your host, and it's time for us to SUFFER.
Context first.
SO someone on Twitter (or whatever the muskaloid is calling it now, I ain't fucking know) brought back memories of a book I read like WAAAY long ago and so now I have to share my trauma with y'all.
Prefacing this with trigger warnings: A lot of mentions of human excrement, critiques of odd writing choices, twitter mentioned, mentions of SA, mentions of slavery, mentions of possibly misogyny. Also spoilers for the book I'm gonna be talking about
I'm gonna out myself as a twitter user here (if any of y'all know me on twitter, hi! I am so sorry.) but uhh:
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Yeah anyways to sum up the situation Fighting Iron flashbacks are not fun and so I have to rant about this fucking book in a place without a goddamned word limit.
Jake Bible, if you somehow have a tumblr account or a twitter account, you're reading this right now, I'm very sorry.
But also what the fuck, man?
Anyways this was actually a double jumpscare coz I was on the kindle Marketplace recently and Mr Bible brought the book back! But under the title "A Fistful of Mechs" and it has a pretty and fancy new cover. I kinda wonder if he kept the pissing and shitting scenes in.
'Coz it's been a minute since I read the book and I'm wondering if maybe the shitting part was something I was misremembering because there's no way an author is THAT crazy.
But then again I THINK Dead Mech (also by Jake Bible, interesting concept but odd read) also had those kinds of scenes so yeah.
Without further ado it's REVIEW TIME
Okay technically one final further ado,,, FISTFUL OF MECHS ACTUALLY HAS REALLY PRETTY COVER ART
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Like I really do like the vibes, although
Ngl it was goofy seeing it with memories of getting THIS on Kindle Unlimited all those years ago:
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So anyways.
Because all review ppl summarize their books, and if you don't wanna go to the Bezosinator website to read the back blurb or zoom into the photos of it I included, essentially:
Fighting Iron is a book about cowboys and massive fucking robots. It follows this douche named Clay and his big robot Gibbons, who is a robot who can think. Not sure if Fistful changed the terminology, but in Fighting Iron, Gibbons is referred to as a titular "fighting iron", his thinking AI capabilities having been a thing that was outlawed.
Which is funny, because they do lean into a sort of "lawless wastelands" sort of aesthetic but I guess thinking robots are just a step too far.
It's not even like a good argument against thinking robots either, and I think the author knows it. For the dense: AI irl should be regulated due to its use as fucking parasiteware to collect data. AI in fiction is often just person but robot and in this case, person but really big robot.
If I remember the sequence of events correctly, what happens is that Clay needs fuel for his robot and food for himself and he gets essentially kidnapped or captured or something by this one woman who also ends up like turning him into a slave and (tw) raping him, iirc.
OH and a lot of people REALLY wanna steal his robot.
The rape scene is very uncomfortable and I'm not sure if I remember it correctly but it felt oddly sexualized and just no. Obviously a rape scene isn't SUPPOSED to be comfortable to read otherwise there's something VERY wrong, but it's also like really odd.
(random sidenote: I'm gonna go serious mode for a sec and talk abt myself irl, sorry. Around 2 or 3 years before I read that book I had dealt with being sexually harrassed by some mfer who would constantly hold me in a chokehold and say shit that I'd rather not repeat or remember with any vividity. That sort of shit is never okay, however, this experience may have clouded my judgement when reading that book because the wounds were still somewhat fresh at the time so yeah.)
(worst part is that this was BEFORE I realized I was trans but like god I used to present myself pretty femme back then. I think that experience mighta set me back a few years due to the stigma of that combined with y'know. Idk why I'm even talking abt this, it's a horrible memory. This was meant as a joke review god fucking dammit)
(sorry for getting off track but I felt I had to point this out because it directly contributed to my odd puritan phase because I did NOT want that to ever happen to me again so I like did not trust sexual shit for a minute there.)
AAAANYWAYS, it's rare that sexual assault on males gets tackled in fiction though, so points for that. I don't exactly remember if it was handled too well though.
If I remember correctly, after escaping the slavery lady he then gets kidnapped by a "resistance" faction and then after claiming he hates them, he fights on their side in a big robot rodeo duel thing and in a really cool scene where the robot finds a loophole in the rules of "No AI copilots" by saying that HE is the pilot and that Clay is his copilot.
THis is also the scene where Clay pisses down his robots leg.
I think Clay also shits himself at some point but I can't be bothered to check. So yes, unlike other mecha anime, this one is a book about explosive diarrhea indeed.
Not exactly great.
They then proceed to kill the shit out of the rapist woman who I think they kinda sexualized like as a character but I could be wrong because I read it in my puritan phase where I thought even the MENTION of sex in a book was something terrible and a flaw. So I'm not a reliable source here.
OHHH there was also a cool lady with like burn scars all over her body who fights Clay a few times but I think they kill her off before the big rodeo duel thing. It's a cool death but iirc she gets done in by a construction mech I think, not even the thinking robot, which was sad.
Anyways, things I liked:
-the loophole twist was fun
-Mr Bible sure knows how to write robot fights at times
-Gibbons and Clay had a fun dynamic iirc
-Surprisingly, the main male and female lead do not fuck, which was refreshing because I read this in the middle of binge reading a bunch of borderline-misogynistic kindle unlimited mecha novels I found and those weren't great,,, No clue abt whether or not they do it in the sequel tho
-small points for having them say SLAVERY IS BAD. I shouldn't be awarding points for this but like. Some other kindle novels do not do this?? Especially The Isekai Ones. Ew Ew Ew.
-COOL BURN SCAR LADY. Sadly she supports the rapist woman tho which was fucked up but her character description was still cool af. I'm a sucker for grizzled veteran mecha pilots. I may be horribly misremembering it because I'm fucking gay as shit lol.
speaking of
THings I DIDN'T LIKE:
-they have this really weird fucking scene abt gay people like there's a total of one person in the book iirc who is explicitly stated to be gay and it's played as the butt of a joke (I think???)
-Bible tries REALLY hard to be edgy like some fucking RR Martin knockoff. It doesn't always work and sometimes it gets annoying imo
-Not alot of the resistance faction subplot was too memorable I think
-The rape scene in general
-Guy can NOT find creative ways to describe dead mecha pilots, do NOT let his ass cook.
-The odd descriptions of pissing and shitting. I get the guy wanted a grimy lived-in world but this was NOT exactly my cup of tea.
RAW REACTION FOOTAGE OF MY OLD READTHROUGH NOTES, featuring me from like three years ago:
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Note that I was a fucking puritan back then so my notes are NOT great. I censored like ALL my cussing and I'm not sure what I meant by the "communists" part but I think there actually WERE communists in the book and that was a plotpoint?
That mighta been the "resistance faction" I was thinking of
OH I was reviewing this back2back with United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas, which I didn't actually enjoy that much, sorry USJ fans in the chat. Maybe I'll reread and review it here at some point tho!
Also yeah
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The book was odd to say the least.
Fighting Iron for y'all. Lot of cowboy, lot of mech, lot of pissing and shitting and weird sex shit and "human jelly" which I dislike that descriptor. Parts of it were fun, parts of it uncomfortable, but it is kind of a formative memory for me lol. I don't recommend it too hard, maybe at some point I'll read the remake "Fistful of Mechs" and its sequel, "A Few Mechs More" and write a REAL review of it that isn't a half-remembered mess. Maybe.
Overall, 4.5/10 read for me, still better than some books I've read. And by some I mean Unity by Jeremy Robinson do NOT get me started on that one because I WILL rant for twelve hours about my irrational hatred for that book do NOT tempt me.
Anyways, that was a wild trip down memory lane.
Maybe I'll do this again some time idfk
But without further adieu, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go and collapse on my bed because this rant took a LOT out of me. This has been your monthly Reader In Yellow Experience, and I bid y'all to stay safe, stay sane, and most importantly, stay Funky.
That last bit is an inside joke that only Three (3) people will get.
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theangryjikooker · 2 years ago
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Hello. I'm glad I found your blog! Do you know about finch and jay here on tumblr? You are similar to them, unfortunately they've been inactive since 2020, so I appreciate your blog since I personally believe jkk are a thing but it doesn't hurt to question my stance time and again especially now that it does seem majority of jkkrs stick to one opinion of jkk's relationship and sort of exaggerate every bit of jkk moment we get. Sure, people are allowed to have and express opinions but I feel (1)
like we're becoming too immersed in viewing jkk with our shipping lenses or in our tinfoil hats lately. Or perhaps I'm just deep into the shipper spaces online esp twitter so it kinda feels tiring, iykwim? With that said, I'm curious about your thoughts on some hyped (sorry I'm not articulate) jkk moments (well, they all are hyped tbh) and I hope you don't mind me asking about random moments from time to time. Like, now I'm curious about your thoughts on JK's BV4 snow gift to Jimin? (2)
I always see jkkrs implying or claiming JK woke up early with the purpose of bringing Jimin the snow as gift? We could say that JK did gift it to JM specifically, likely because he knows JM loves snow but I just don't think JK purposely woke up thinking of gifting JM? I always thought he just wanted to hike then when he saw snow and remembered JM likes it, that's when he decided to  bring some for him. Idk, just one among the moments I think are hyped by jkkrs but I don't regard as much? (3)
Hello, and thank you!
You’re the third person who’s brought up that comparison, which is the only reason why I know about them, but I was never around when they were. From what little I gathered, Finch seemed like a much nicer person. 😂 I can kind of see where people are seeing some similarities, I suppose, but I think we also differ greatly on some things (the subject of tattoos being one of them, of which I’ve candidly spoken about with moderate irritation). Other than such differing viewpoints, however, they seemed like an interesting person, and I probably would’ve followed them if they were still active.
With regards to the snow gift, it’s really hard to say what the motivation was without getting into Jungkook’s head. So while I wouldn’t necessarily say he woke up with the express purpose of getting a chunk of snow for Jimin–not that it wasn’t the intent but because we just don’t know–we can glean some information that hints at something to that effect.
If it had been something he decided to pick up randomly, it wouldn’t really matter who the recipient was. He could’ve given it to Taehyung as soon as they linked up or he could’ve left it on the bench.
Whether or not his initial goal was to bring snow back to Jimin, the end result is the same: he gives the chunk of snow to Jimin only. Re-watching that scene, you can see Jimin wave at Jungkook from inside the cabin and, without any prompting whatsoever, Jungkook says, “I brought snow from the top.”
Jimin greets the staff, and Jungkook offers the ice block to him: “Here, Jimin.” Jimin thanks him, which is overlaid by the editors’ caption, “Jungkook gives Jimin a chunk of snow as a gift!”
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I think there’s some controversy because of the editors’ caption, and some people like to focus on the fact that had there not been any commentary to that effect, it’s Jungkook just casually giving Jimin snow, not that it was a gift per se. But that’s just splitting hairs to be petty.
Technically, from an observer’s standpoint, that’s what happening. Jimin loves snow, Jungkook gives him snow; ergo, gift. It’s a funny little gesture that even takes Jimin aback, sure, but it’s endearing nonetheless because the context so far indicates that Jimin was the intended recipient, gift or not.
I think the underlying issue that people have with this is that shippers automatically use this as proof that they’re dating/in love/whatever. I personally don’t see it that way, but I do think it’s sweet. What the scene tells me about Jungkook is that he’s spontaneously thoughtful, maybe Jimin was a source of comfort to him when the scandals about him were happening and he wanted to do something nice (if not a little “out there”), etc. I’m pulling possibilities out of my ass but my point is, we’ll never actually know. Still, it’s +1 for Jikook.
(I’m not saying +1 like this is a game and we’re winning, but I’m saying this like all shippers get moments, and this was ours. Read into it or not, it’s still Jikook-centric.)
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thebeautyoffanfics · 4 years ago
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Hello, I just read your rules! Can i request Tanjiro x Angel!reader? Not the stereotypical angel with wings, technically the reader looks like a normal female but with golden marks or symbols, always surrounded with this peaceful aura. Just fluff is general
a/n: ahh thank you for requesting!! such a cute one at that-! i hope you enjoy <3!!
warnings: none <3
To be completely honest, when Tanjiro first saw you, his first thoughts were “she looks like an angel.” Once he got to know what exactly you were, he giggled a bit, his face flushing slightly. “Ah, that makes sense,” He remarked, scratching the side of his face. 
When the two of you grew closer, Tanjiro found himself enjoying your company even more than he enjoyed others’. That’s really saying something, as Tanjiro tended to not mind people (just look at his two best friends.) He figured it was just your aura- being around you made him feel calm and happy. Just your presence was enough to make him forget about his worries, and focus on the happier things in life.
It didn’t take long for him to realize that it wasn’t just because of your aura that he wanted to be around you- it was just… you in general. After being your friend for a while, he’d confess, letting you know that he understood if you wanted to reject him or wait until he was in a less dangerous line-of-work. Assuming you accept his confession, he felt as if he was walking on air. Yeah, things weren’t going to be sunshine and lollipops for forever, but heck- a literal, actual angel just accepted his love confession. Nothing could get this boy down. 
If you allow him to, he loves tracing all of your marks and symbols. He even starts to do it without thinking, especially when you cuddle. He’ll be casually talking to you about random things, and you’ll feel his calloused fingers dancing over your arm or back. It’s sort of how he grounds himself. A way of knowing that you’re real, and you aren’t going to disappear from his arms. 
The night before every mission, Tanjiro will definitely fall asleep cuddling with you. In the morning, he’ll say goodbye, letting you know that he’d see you before too terribly long, and thanking you for being there for him. As soon as he gets back, he’s heading straight for your arms, relishing in the peaceful and loving feeling. 
Along with cuddling, Tanjiro never gets sick of kissing you. Your first kiss was probably after he got home from an especially dangerous mission, and he honestly went right in for one without thinking. After planting a kiss on your lips, he smothered the rest of your face in gentle, quick kisses, telling you that he missed you and loves you. It takes him a few seconds to truly process what he did, but when he does he immediately grows red and avoids eye contact. He’d probably mutter an apology, saying that his emotions kinda just… overwhelmed him. If you tell him it’s okay, he’ll laugh a bit, closing his eyes. “I’m glad then! Since I can’t promise I won’t do it again.” Expect him to definitely do it again, not even limiting it to after missions. Sometimes he just looks at you, and the butterflies in his stomach get the best of him, as he places sporadic kisses over your face. 
The first time he called you “his angel”, he did it unironically. It clicked, and then he began to laugh- you joined in, and it only made him laugh harder. After that, he definitely calls you his angel more often. It started as a joke, but honestly stuck- he also says things like “I’ve been kissed by an angel” or “I’m in the arms of an angel” constantly. He finds it ironic, but cute at the same time. 
Overall, Tanjiro is so very in love with you. He’s mentioned how he thinks it’s kind of funny- if you looked at it out of context, he’s fighting demons and yet dating an angel, so it could look like he’s doing it for your sake. “It’d make a cool love story, I suppose? Although Nezuko is my priority in this one,” He noted, staring at the starry sky with you. You nodded your head, as he rubbed his thumb across your hand. Even those moments like that, the simple, quiet moments where little words are shared, are moments he wouldn’t give up for the world.
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kittyprincessofcats · 4 years ago
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RWBY Volume 8, Episode 13 (Worthy)
Well, wow. That sure was an episode that happened.
Thoughts under the cut.
Anyone who leaves spoilers for episode 14 on this will get blocked.
- First of all, I want to now talk about the spoiler I saw for this episode last week, to put the anger from my last post into context: After I had just finished watching episodes 8-12 and started writing my post about them, I went into one of the RWBY tags bc I’m dumb and saw a post that said (I don’t remember the exact words, but more or less): “I’m so glad Yang is finally dead, so now her fans can shut up about her and everyone can ship Blacksun instead.”
… Yeah. Imagine seeing that when you haven’t seen the actual episode and have no idea what really happened. I honestly completely panicked for a few minutes, before remembering I don’t actually know anything and this might just be a “Weiss gets impaled in Volume 5, but one episode later it turns out she’ll be fine” situation. So then I had to look up what actually happened to Yang, because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to sleep. So, to the person who made that post: Fuck you. Not only did you freak people out for no reason (because come on, there’s no way falling into the void actually kills you – and even if it does, we at least definitely don’t know that for sure after episode 13), but even if Yang had actually died, it’s super shitty that your first reaction to a beloved queer character’s death would be “yay, now people can ship my m/f ship instead”. Like, I don’t care if you personally dislike Yang/ dislike Bumbleby/ prefer Blacksun – show a little bit of decency.
Phew. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest because it really made me angry. Now let’s get into the actual episode:
- “Worthy” as a title pretty much already made me predict that Cinder would succeed in her plan, since “you have to be worthy” was what Watts told her in his speech. She’s gotten the message and is now back to efficient plans – and while I love to see it, it also very much scares me when it comes to our heroes’ survival chances. The last time Cinder was doing well, we lost Pyrrha, so… help.
- And gosh, this whole episode was so intense! I feel like it mostly set up a bunch of very intense situations that are going to escalate in the last episode that I’m very much not ready for.
- I still think the whole central location between the worlds is really beautiful, if dangerous. (They should have specified to Ambrosius that they want handrails or something.)
- Nora using her hammer like a witch’s broom was amazing.
- I also loved the scene with Jaune and the people at the train station; that was really funny.
- The middle of the desert might not have been the best place for the exit. Didn’t the group consider that there might be a sandstorm or something else unpredictable out there? Couldn’t they have picked a better exit point?
- Cinder causing an explosion in the middle of the evacuation that throws multiple people into the void was bad and all – but it was still one hell of an entrance!
- I love that now that Cinder realized that she has to rely on teamwork, she’s suddenly being so nice to everyone. Apologizing to Neo, complimenting Watts on “tearing the kingdom apart with nothing but his intellect”, that soft “You deserve this, Arthur”, complimenting Team RWBY on their plan, thanking them for teaching her “one last lesson”. Yeah, maybe she’s just talking to Neo and Watts like this because she needs their help, and to Team RWBY because she’s confident she’ll win – but it’s still amazing to see the shift in her attitude and how she’s clearly changed her tactic.
- It’s insane to me that some people correctly predicted that Cinder would ask Jinn the last question based JUST on the fact that there’s a part in the opening where everyone else freezes in time while she walks past them. Holy hell! I love trying to guess stuff based on the intro, but I would have never thought that far.
- Cinder’s question to Jinn seems like a waste considering it was Jinn’s last question, but maybe it just seems that way to us as viewers because Jinn didn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know. Was it the right thing for Cinder to do? I don’t know, to be honest. Yes, it did give her the chance to ruin the heroes’ plans, but I have a feeling Salem won’t be happy about the question being gone. Pretty sure Salem was going to ask Jinn how to get the Beacon relic, and now she can’t do that. (Cinder ruining Salem’s plans for the beacon relic? Let that be foreshadowing, please.) I mean, maybe it’s worth it from Salem’s POV if it gets them the staff and then she’ll have 2 of the 4 relics – but they could have still gotten the staff later, while I don’t know if Salem has any plan B for the beacon relic. And I’m a little worried about Cinder now. I always thought that Salem wouldn’t kill Cinder no matter what, because she still needs the Fall Maiden for the beacon relic – but if she now has to wait another 100 years for the beacon relic anyway, I’m not sure if she’ll have a reason to keep Cinder alive. (And I’m still worried about that “Some lives will end much too soon” line playing over that scene of Cinder clutching her Grimm arm in the opening.) I also wonder if Cinder even knew that this was Jinn’s last question. Did Jinn even tell her that? Also, when will the 100 years even be up? Do the questions just reset every 100 years regardless of when they were used? So maybe we’re already at year 80 or something and will only have to wait 20 years?
- The cut from everyone at the central command place screaming to them being dead was kinda funny in a “very dark humour” way.
- When Harriet first jumped onto that ship with the bomb, I, like an idiot, thought that she was finally being sensible and trying to get the bomb as far away from Atlas and Mantle as possible, not that she was trying to still drop it on Mantle. She and Ironwood might as well be working for Salem’s team at this point, because they’re doing everything to help the villains’ plan. And the villains are even counting on it! Watts freed Ironwood from his cell and is piloting Harriet’s ship. Those two are just straight up helping Salem’s team in their attempts to… what was it? Save Atlas?
- Ironwood killing Jacques was awful and proves once again that Ironwood has zero morals left. And I didn’t like Jacques, but that was the kind of death that absolutely no one deserves. He had no way to escape or fight back, he was defenseless, locked up in a prison cell with nowhere to run – that’s not just a murder, that’s an execution without a trial. And Jacques wasn’t even a threat, he wasn’t in the way of any of Ironwood’s plans. Ironwood killed him literally just because he could. And no one who thinks they’re the good guy (and Ironwood still thinks he’s the good guy) should go around just killing people who aren’t even a threat.
- And then we have Yang falling into the void. Honestly, as heartbreaking as Blake’s sobs and anger are, I kind of love this from a “supreme angst, let’s see my faves suffer” perspective. That said, Yang better actually be fine or else.
- Actually, my prediction is that the rest of team RWBY will jump into the void to save Yang in the last episode. Because they’re all falling in the opening, and because “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall and fight for every life”. That’s pretty much the only prediction I feel somewhat confident about, for the rest I have no idea.
- I wonder if it would have been better if Penny had just gone through the doorway and gotten the staff to Vacuo. I get why she didn’t, because Yang just fell and her other friends were in danger… but at the same time, she was supposed to protect the population and the staff (and she has the maiden powers that I’m sure Cinder still wants). If she had just gotten out of there, at least the group in Vacuo would have had some help against the sandstorm and the Grimm. But then again, it would have also severely weakened Term RWBY’s chances against Cinder and Neo… it’s a tough call, really.
- “Why didn’t you just learn your lesson?” “Oh, Penny… I did.” Okay, but that’s the thing: She really did! Just not the lesson Penny wanted her to learn. And notice how Cinder called Penny by her first name again? She didn’t use to do that. I still think somewhere down the line Penny has earned her respect.
- I wonder if Penny’s technically weaker now because she’s human (?? is she??). She’s definitely not used to fighting without her robotic parts (as you can see when she tries to reach for her swords and realizes they’re not there anymore). I summoning those swords like she then did her semblance or another maiden power?
- Blake now has to choose between helping Ruby and helping Penny and Weiss – gosh, the suspense…
- I’m glad Vine at least finally tried to stop Harriet now! (Better late than never.) But I really wouldn’t blame Qrow and Robyn for crashing into their ship. It’s not like they had any way of knowing that Vine was trying to talk sense into Harriet. Also, Qrow crashing through Harriet’s windscreen was amazing.
- Winter and Ironwood are going to fight to the death and I’m so scared of it. (I just need Winter to survive, please…)
- When Weiss described the doorway as a “one-way ticket to Vacuo” last episode, I briefly wondered if that meant they wouldn’t be let back through, but then I brushed it aside and didn’t think about it too much anymore. Oh, damn. You really do have to be very specific with Ambrosius.
- I’m not even sure which location is the best to be in right now because they all seem very unsafe: Atlas and Mantle are unsafe because Atlas is falling, because Mantle might still get blown up by Harriet, and because Salem might still come back any time. The place between worlds is unsafe because of the void and because there’s a big fight happening right there. And Vacuo is unsafe because of the Grimm and the sandstorm. So really, they’re all awful for the civilians right now.
- And now I’m thinking the volume might actually end with the protagonists split into three groups as well: Team RWBY in the void (that they’ll spend Volume 9 finding their way back from), one half of the other characters in Vacuo (Oscar, Ren, Emerald, maybe more?), and the other half still in Atlas/Mantle (Qrow, Robyn, Marrow, Winter, maybe more).
- I’m super nervous about the last episode. I haven’t seen any spoilers at all so far, and I plan to keep it that way. I’ll probably completely ignore anything RWBY-related until next week because the anxiety would kill me otherwise. I’m really worried we’ll get a character death or even several. And ironically, my first prediction on who might die this Volume (Penny, Nora, Winter, Cinder) hasn’t changed all that much. I’m worried about Penny because she has the Maiden Powers and the staff, so Cinder will come after her (but I really think it would be an awful writing choice to kill her off after we just went through so much to save her). I’m very worried about Winter because she’s engaged in a duel to the death with a man who has a big canon that he just blew someone up with. I’m worried for Cinder because of the opening and because Salem might be pissed at her for using the last question. I’m worried for everyone who’s still on Atlas and might get blown up by the bomb (Qrow, Robyn, Marrow, Winter again). And I’m very worried for the characters who are in the in-between realm. Not so much Team RWBY, but I’m worried about Nora, Jaune, and Penny. So yeah, I’m pretty much worried about everyone and very much not ready. Now let me ignore RWBY’s existence for a week – or only reblog posts I already have saved as drafts – because it’s the only way I’ll know peace.
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lumilasi · 3 years ago
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I saw this in my feed and since I was pretty bored and FINALLY free from the said boredom, figured I could do this one. I generally enjoy question based tags, especially if they relate to art/writing/fandom/are some general things about favorite colors, music, foods, things about your home country etc.
(basically, you can tag me in stuff similar to listed above things and I’ll probably do them if I see them/have time lmao)
Fic Writer Questions!
How many works do you have on AO3? 
44 total. I used to have more but I’ve deleted an old Bleach one I knew I’d never continue to write, and two bnha ones for the same reason (those two were also at the very beginning stages so nobody missed a lot anyway)
What's your total AO3 wordcount? 
4 269 068......wow. It’s even MORE than I even imagined. Over 4 million words. 
....Someone take my writing tools away from me lmao
How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
 Three. I started with MCU, moved on to Bleach and now I’ve done most ofr BNHA
What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 
Crossroads - 3069 
Family Secrets - 3015 
Reanimate - 1534 
The neighbor - 809 
Espada and Fraccion - 782
.....Admittedly this list surprised me. Not the first three but the last two. The fifth is an one shot for Bleach that I wrote AGES ago. I also for some reason expected this list to match the bookmark list more lmao
Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I always try to respond to every comment I get, but often times when it’s just one word or a heart emoji I don’t really know what to say, so I might not reply to those. I do appreciate every comment I get, and read every single one, even if I don’t respond
What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? 
I don’t do angst endings typically, but Family Secrets is probs the most obvious choice, given what happens at the end. 
- and its not even the real end, because I couldn’t help myself and made two more stories for the AU that was like “hey! this character I made you all love so much actually DIDN’T die, he just had unfinished business back home” lmao
Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've ever written? 
Rarely, typically they’re between my own fics (the story that crosses the paths of Crossroads and Family Secrets AU’s, literally titled Crossover, creative name I know OTL I was out of ideas) 
Or between me and other people’s fics. Currently there’s two, both with Crossroads: one with Theteapotofdoom’s fic Something Good, and another with leontheneon’s fic Here with you. Both stories are basically a two part series that is non canon to actual Crossroads. The first story is finished, second one has two chapters left...that...I uh...struggle to write it seems OTL
(not tagging either person into this because Tea is very busy IRL right now so I don’t want to bother her, and Leon hasn’t been around in ages, IDK if they even use tumblr anymore)
Have you ever received hate on a fic? 
Not really no? I can only remember one time with somebody kind of demanding me to completely rewrite one fic in the past. It wasn’t really hate, more just...kinda unreasonable in my eyes? This was years ago by now.
While I did understand their side and the particular struggle they had (once they actually explained it, the first comment at the time came off pretty rude and demanding), I still feel them wanting me to re-write an entire multi-chapter fic just for them is a bit unreasonable, like said.
Like it wasn’t just couple of grammatical errors that was their issue, we’re talking weeks and even months long process of completely reworking multi-chapter story, because the grammar wasn’t tip top perfect. (I’m not a native speaker so there’s bound to be some mistakes; pointing out small occasional things is one thing - asking me to rewrite an entire multi-chapter story is another)
You can imagine that is not exactly high on my priorities list with IRL responsibilities and being more focused on the actual content of what I write, the ongoing stories I’m updating. This fic isn’t even finished yet either, so...yeah. Like after they explained their side of the story I was a bit more understanding, but its still....a bit ridiculous and unreasonable in my eyes to ask somebody to do such a massive overhaul when the story isn’t even finished yet?? Like maybe once its done and I have time I can go and edit it, but not when I haven’t even finished it lmao
Do you write smut? If so what kind?
Nah. I don’t care about smut a whole lot personally. I much more enjoy writing emotional scenes, character interactions and mystery. Plot over porn basically lmao 
Have you ever had a fic stolen? 
I don’t...do people actually do this? It feels like such a weird and pointless thing to do. It’s fanfic. stuff you write for fun and for free, for people to read for free. I’d also imagine its pretty easy to get caught given AO3 shows when you first posted your story. 
Have you ever had a fic translated?
 Yes, a couple of times. In Russian and I think other one was Chinese?
Have you ever co-written a fic before? 
Writing the crossovers was kinda that? Like I asked feedback from Tea and Leon on how to write them. there was also actually third crossover story that was supposed to happen (only I wasn’t going to be the one to write it) but this project has been shelved as the other person had to drop majority of online activity due to some IRL health related things. (I’m just glad they recently contacted me to inform they were doing better)
What’s your all time favorite ship? 
Right now it’s..probably pretty obvious its Shigadabi, but I can never really say any ship is my all time fave, as it always changes depending on the fandom lmao. 
I guess my favorite character x proper sleep/emotional stability/happiness will always be the OTP
What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Oof. I always try to finish every single one, and if I absolutely know I won’t, I tend to just delete them. Thankfully I’ve only done it thrice. Which I guess is still a lot, but compared to how much I write, in context not really? 
What are your writing strengths?
From what I’ve gathered of feedback, its typically emotional moments/character dialogue and interaction/character arcs and so. Mystery plots too. Or maybe that last one is just me lmao
What are your writing weakness?
Personally, while I tend to get positive feedback on both, sometimes I feel like I struggle to choose a good pacing for a fic, and fight scenes are always a pain. Namely, I might struggle with making the pace too long-winded and slow sometimes. Ironically, my IRL update pacing is probs a bit too fast in turn. (To add another layer of irony, I got an update ready for Unravel that I’ll post after making this tag)
Also writing shorter stories. I’ve been trying to write one-shots more (like the Spinaraki series thing) to kinda try and get myself to pack up my stories better and not let them always spiral out of control haha
What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
I did try to do that once with a fic I deleted, I had a native speaker help me with the canadian french bits. This person is no longer active on tumblr, and I deleted that fic because I realized I’d never finish it. 
Technically tho, as a non-native English speaker, EVERY word is in other language to me lmao. I could only add Finnish as an extra one easily, and it rarely makes sense to do so anyway.
What was the first fandom you ever wrote for? 
MCU. It’s what I originally made my AO3 for, as I felt brave enough to post things. I also can’t remember writing fandom related stuff before that, it was typically more oc related. Writing fics has helped me learn a lot about world-building, character consistency and all that stuff, without having to make everything from scratch (tho I do enjoy doing that as well of course). I feel like my original work writing has improved too thanks to my fic writing shenanigans in a way lmao. Tho that might just be me, IDK
What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? 
Oooof. This changes a lot depending on the time. I can never really pick just one either: my current favorites are Stringmaster, The neighbor and Family Secrets
Stringmaster because I love building the Steampunk AU, and Tomura’s relationship with Dabi and his Sensei, The neighbor because I personally think the romance build up in that one is probably one of the best I’ve done so far (the character dialogue in that is among my favorites I’ve written as well) and FS, because it taught me a lot about character building through writing a character like Hisashi.
 Plus I just really like Hisashi. 
And baby Izuku and little Tenko are super adorable. 
And Inko is the best mum.
 Also the fact the whole story is so ironic in a sense its still kinda funny to me. 
The only writer I know that might be around rn is @nightlilly0110 soo...I guess I’ll tag them if they want to do this! Anybody who’s a writer can snatch this too of course ;)
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thekillerssluts · 4 years ago
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The Story Behind Every Song On Will Butler’s New Album Generations
Will Butler has a lot on his mind. It has, after all, been five years since his solo debut, Policy. A lot can happen in half a decade, and a lot has happened in this past half-decade — much of it quite dire. Butler was in his early 30s when Policy came out, and now he’s closing in on 40. He’s a husband and father. And he’s shaken by the state of the world, the idea of being an artist and a soon-to-be middle-aged man striving to guide his family through the chaos.
At least, that’s how it comes across through much of Generations, his sophomore outing that arrives today. Generations is a big, sprawling title by nature, and the album in turn grapples with all kinds of big picture anxieties. Mass shootings, the overarching darkness and anxiety of our time, trying to reckon with our surroundings but the system overload that occurs all too easily in the wake of it. Then there are more intimate songs, too, tales drawn from personal lives as people plug along just trying to navigate a tumultuous era.
Butler is, of course, no stranger to crafting music that seeks to parse the cultural moment and how it impacts in our daily lives. Ever since Arcade Fire ascended to true arena-rock status on The Suburbs 10 years ago, they have embarked on projects that explicitly try to make sense of our surroundings. (Not that their earlier work was bereft of heavy concepts — far from it — but Reflektor and Everything Now turned more of a specific eye towards contemporary ills and trials.) But as one voice amongst many in Arcade Fire, there is a cinematic scope to whatever Butler’s playing into there.
On Generations, he engages with a lot of similar concerns but all in his own voice — often yelping, desperate, frustrated then just trying to catch a breath. Butler leans on his trusty Korg MS-20 throughout Generations, often giving the album a synth-y indie backdrop that allows him to try on a few different selves. There are a handful of surging choruses, “la-la” refrains batting back against the darkness, slinking grooves maybe allowing someone the idea of brief physical release amidst ongoing strife.
Ahead of Generations’ arrival, Butler sent us some thoughts on the album, running from inspiration between the individual tracks to little details about the arrangement and composition of different songs. Now that you can hear the album for yourself, check it out and read along with Butler’s comments below.
1. “Outta Here”
I think this is the simplest song on the record. Just, like, get me out of here. Get me fucking out of here. I’m so tired of being here. No, I don’t have another answer, and I don’t expect anything to be better anywhere else. But, please, I would like to leave here.
I can play plenty of instruments, and can make interesting sounds on them, but kinda the only instrument I’m good at is a synth called the Korg MS-20. That’s the first sound on the record. It makes most of the bass you hear on the record. It’s a very aggressive, loud, versatile machine, and I wanted to start the record with it cause I’m good at playing it and it makes me happy.
2. “Bethlehem”
This song partly springs from “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats:​ “What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Like a lot of folks, I woke up after the election in 2016 mad and sad and scared and exhausted. This song is born of that emotion.
My bandmates Jenny Shore, Julie Shore, and Sara Dobbs sing the bridge, and it’s a corrective to my (appropriate?) freaking out — this isn’t the apocalypse. You’re misquoting Yeats. Get your fucking head on straight. History has not ruptured — this shit we’re in is contiguous with the shit we’ve been dealing with for a long, long time. But still, we sometimes do need an apocalyptic vision to make change. Even if it’s technically wrong. I dunno. It’s an ongoing conversation.
There’s a lot of interplay with backing vocals on this record — sometimes the narrator is the asshole, sometimes the backing vocals are the asshole. Sometimes they’re just trying their best to figure out the world. This song starts that conversation.
3. “Close My Eyes”
I tried to make these lyrics a straightforward and honest description of an emotion I feel often: “I’m tired of waiting for a better day. But I’m scared and I’m lazy and nothing’s gonna change.” Kind of a sad song. Trying to tap into some Smokey Robinson/Motown feeling — “I’ve got to dance to keep from crying.”
There’s a lot of Mellotron on this record, and a lot of MS-20. This song has a bunch of Mellotron strings/choirs processed through the MS-20. It’s a trick I started doing on the Arcade Fire song “Sprawl II,” and I love how it sounds and I try to do it on every song if I can.
4. “I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know”
This makes a pair with “Close My Eyes” — shit is obviously fucked, but “I don’t know what I don’t know what I don’t know what I can do.” I’m not a proponent of the attitude! Just trying to describe it, as I often feel it. In my head, I know some things that I can do — my wife Jenny, for instance, works really hard to get state legislatures out of Republican control. Cause it’s all these weirdo state legislative chambers that have enormous power over law enforcement, and civil rights, and Medicaid, and everything.
The image in the last verse was drawn from the protests in Ferguson in 2015: “Watch the bullets and the beaters as they move through the streets — grab your sister’s kids — hide next to the fire station…” It’s been horrifically disheartening to see the police riot across America as their power has been challenged. I’ve got a little seed of hope that we might change things, but, man, dark times.
More MS-20 bass on this one, chained to the drum machine. This one is supposed to be insanely bass heavy — if it comes on in a car, the windows should be rattling, and you should be asking, “What the heck is going on here?” Trying for a contemporary hip-hop bass sound but in a way less spare context. First song with woodwinds — rhythmic stuff and freaky squeals by Stuart Bogie and Matt Bauder.
5. “Surrender”
This song is masquerading as a love song, but it’s more about friendship. About the confusion that comes as people change: Didn’t you use to have a different ideal? Didn’t we have the same ideal at some point? Which of us changed? How did the world change? Relationships that we sometimes wish we could let go of, but that are stuck within us forever.
It’s also about trying to break from the first-person view of the world. “What can I do? What difference can I make?” It’s not about some singular effort — you have to give yourself over to another power. Give over to people who have gone before who’ve already built something — you don’t have to build something new! The world doesn’t always need a new idea, it doesn’t always need a new personality. What can you do with whatever power and money you’ve got? Surrender it over to something that’s already made. And then the song ends with an apology: I’m sorry I’ve been talking all night. Just talk talk talking, all night. Shut up, Will.
Going for “wall of sound” on this one — bass guitar and bass synth and double tracked piano bass plus another piano plus Mellotron piano. The “orchestra” is about a dozen different synth and Mellotron tracks individually detuned. And then run through additional processing.
6. “Hide It Away”
This song is about secrets. Both on an intimate, heartbreaking level — friends’ miscarriages, friends’ immigration status, shitty affairs coming to light — and on a grand, horrible level: New York lifting the statute of limitations on child abuse prosecutions, all the #MeToo reporting. There’s nothing you can do when your secret is revealed. Like, what can you do? You just have to let the response wash over you. If you’ve done something horrible, god-willing, you’ll have to pay for it in some way. If it’s something not horrible, but people will hate you anyway, goddammit, I wish there were some way to protect you.
This song has the least poetic line on the record, a real clunker: “It’s just money and power, money and power might set them free.” But it’s a clunky, shitty concept — the most surefire protection is being rich and knowing powerful people. But even then, shit just might come out. Even after you’re long dead.
Came from a 30-second guitar sample I recorded while messing around at the end of trying to track a different song. I liked the chords, looped them to make a demo. And the song was born from there. This is the one song I play drums on. Snare is chained to the MS-20, trying to play every frequency the ear can hear at the same time on some of those big hits.
7. “Hard Times”
[Laughs] I sat down and tried to write a Spotify charting electro-hit, and this is what came out: “Kill the rich, salt the earth.” Oh well. Written way before COVID-19, but my 8-year-old son turned to me this spring and asked, “Did you write the song ‘Hard Times’ about now, because we’re living through hard times?” No, I didn’t.
In Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, the narrator is a real son-of-a-bitch—contrarian, useless. Mad at the strong confident people who think they’ve got it figured out. And they don’t! And neither does the narrator — but he knows he doesn’t, and he at times yearns for some higher answer, and he’s funny, and too clever, but still knows he’s a piece of shit. I read Notes From Underground in high school and kinda forgot how it shaped my worldview until I sat down with it a couple years ago. The bridge on this song is basically smushed up quotes from Notes From Underground.
I was asking Shiftee, who mixed the record, if there are any vocal plug-ins I should be playing around with. He pointed me toward Little AlterBoy, which is basically a digital recreation of the kind of pedal the Knife use, for instance, on their vocal sound. It can shift the timbre/character of a voice without changing the pitch. Or change pitch without changing character. Very fun! Very much all over this track. Tried to make the bridge sound like a Sylvester song.
8. “Promised”
Another friend song masquerading as a love song. I’ve met a handful of extraordinary people in my life, who stopped doing extraordinary work because life is hard and it sucks. People who — I mean, it’s a lottery and random and who cares — could be great writers or artists, who kind of just disappeared. And it’s heartbreaking and frustrating. I don’t blame them. Maybe they weren’t made for this world. Maybe it’s just random. Maybe they’ll do amazing work in their 60s!
We tracked this song before it was written. Julie and Miles came over and we made up a structure and did a bunch of takes, found a groove. Which I then hacked up into what it is now! The bed tracks are lovely and loose. Maybe I’ll put out a jammier version of this song at some point. The other big synth on this record is the Oberheim OB-8, and that’s the bass on this one (triple tracked along with some MS-20).
9. “Not Gonna Die”
This song is about terrorism, and the response to terrorism. I wrote it a couple weeks after the Bataclan shooting in Paris in 2015. For some reason, a couple weeks after the shooting, I was in midtown Manhattan. I must have been Christmas shopping. I had to pop into the Sephora on 5th Avenue to pick up something specific — I think for my wife or her sister. I don’t remember. But I remember walking in, and the store was really crowded, and for just a split second I got really scared about what would happen if someone brought out a gun and started shooting up the crowd. And then I got so fucking mad at the people that made me feel that emotion. Like, I’m not gonna fucking die in the midtown Sephora, you fucking pieces of shit. Thanks for putting that thought in my head.
BUT ALSO, fuck all the fucking pieces of shit who are like, “We can’t accept refugees — what if they’re terrorists?” FUCK OFF. Some fucking terrified family driven from their home by a war isn’t going to kill me. Or anyone. Fuck off. Some woman from Central America fleeing from her husband who threatened to kill her isn’t going to fucking bomb Times Square. You fucking pieces of shit.
In November/December 2015, the Republican primary had already started — Trump had announced in June. And every single one of those pieces of shit running for president were talking about securing our borders, and keeping poor people out, and trying to justify it by security talk. FUCK OFF. You pieces of shit. Fuck right off. Anyway. Sorry for cursing.
I kind of think of the outro of this song as an angry “Everyday People.” Everyday people aren’t going to kill me. Lots of great saxes on this track from Matt Bauder and Stuart Bogie.
The intro of the song we recorded loud, full band, which I then ran through the MS-20 and filtered down till it was just a bass heart-pulse, and re-recorded solo piano and voice over that.
10. “Fine”
I kind of think that “Outta Here” to “Not Gonna Die” comprise the record, and “Fine” operates as the afterword and the prologue rolled into one. An author’s note, maybe. It was kind of inspired by high-period Kanye: I wanted to talk about something important in a profane, sometimes horribly stupid way, but have it be honest and ultimately transcendent.
In the song, I talk semi-accurately about where I come from. My mom’s dad was a guitar player who led bands throughout the ’30s and ’40s. In post-war LA, he had a band with Charles Mingus as the bass player. Charles Mingus! One of the greatest geniuses in all of American history. But this was the ’40s, and in order to travel with the band, to go in the same entrances, to eat dinner at the same table, he had to wear a Hawaiian shirt and everybody had to pretend he was Hawaiian. Because nobody was sure how racist they were supposed to be against Hawaiians.
Part of the reason I’m a musician is that my great-grandfather was a musician, and his kids were musicians, and their kids were musicians, and their kids are musicians. Part of the reason is vast generations of people working to make their kids’ lives better, down to my life. Part of the reason is that neither government nor mob has decided to destroy my family’s lives, wealth, and property for the last couple hundred years. I tried to write a song about that?
Generations is out now via Merge. Purchase it here.
https://www.stereogum.com/2098946/will-butler-generations-song-meanings/franchises/interview/footnotes-interview/
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i am very much enjoying my vague void! it's currently blasting hozier at full volume and that's almost louder than my internal screaming (don't worry, everything is fine, i just saw a spider)
i've never once in my life have followed a recipe correctly. all of my measurements are completely random and whatever happens happens. it is no longer in my hands. whatever eldritch entities exist take the wheel. and i absolutely refuse to spell anything in english without autocorrect because y'all have way too many double letters and random vowel placement
thank you! sadly, i won't have a break right now, because we just had christmas vacations, but the start of the new semester is always pretty chill. and you're absolutely right, i should take up necromancy! the snow and the cold will add to my mysterious vibes. i just need to get a big black cape with a hood to complete the aesthetic
i definitely picture everything above 5'6 feet as the same height. 5'7 and 6'2? the exact same thing. no difference here
how is morepork a real bird name. it's just... more pork? but the bird is magnificent. i completely approve of your first order as bird queen, not that you need approval from mere peasants like me, but it's a great order. ohhh salps look really cool, and it does look a lot like it! when you said boob implant i thought of mermaids and them using salps as boob implants but then i realised wait wouldn't jellyfish be better for that? because of their shape? ignoring their little leggies they're quite boob shaped, no? and then i realised that i was thinking about mermaids and alive boob implants... if i had to think it, you have to read it. i'm sorry
i was sold before but now i'm even more sure that i want to hire you. and I'll make sure to have lactose free cheese for the backflips (unless you want the lactose version? i'm not judging). will the biting of ankles cost extra?
that sounds like a brilliant set-up for a horror movie where they kill off all the children one by one. it's absolutely horrifying. if something like that would've happened to me i would've most likely just passed out. whatever happens afterwards is not my problem. and now i really don't want to know what the hell your leg was caught on because that seems like knowledge that would get me killed
ah so you're a fellow dirt eater? according to my mom my favourite thing to do outside when i was a little kid used to be eating sand. just shovelling handfuls of it into my mouth and crying when my mom made me spit it out. which i refuse to believe. if there are no photos it didn't happen
you warm climate people are starting to make me think that i'm better adjusted to the cold than i thought i am! it's either that or our buildings are better heated. i definitely don't know if anyone else calls hot water bottled hotties but i like it so from now on i'm using it
that's so cute! i was clearly a way more selfish child because when i found any amount of money i just kept it and bought candy as soon as i could. i clearly couldn't save money then and i can't now. we have stores like that (or i'm assuming that they're like that solely based on how they sell lollies) and they used to be my favourite thing because you could get so many lollies for such a small price!! and my mom even used to let me order for myself sometimes so i always felt like a very big girl jsjshsbsjk
also the fact that i can't send pictures on anon is a crime (yes i know why and it's good that that's not possible because can you imagine anons being able to send pictures? oh no is all i have to say about it) but anyways. because i have this one super cursed photo that reminded me of you and now i can't share it :((
duuuuude, sick void bro. sounds like a vibing void. I feel like I haven’t seen a spider in awhile. Other than daddy long legs. But they’re chill. They mind their own business. 
I nearly always follow recipes exactly. My mum is like oh cook this for about 7 minutes? Yeah sure. I’ll take a wild guess. I’m like they say exactly 7 minutes so I’ll set a timer for 7 minutes and start a stopwatch so if it does seem to need more than 7 I can keep an eye on the extra time and be aware of exactly how long it takes me for next time. Other people are like oh let's see I have [lists 5-10 things in their fridge], hmm...oh I know what I could make with that! I’m like I have beans in my freezer because one recipe required them and no other recipes I know how to make do so what am I supposed to do with these now,,, this is stressful,,, basically I barely know how to cook and recipes are the only things saving me in that area. That is entirely fair. Except for the fuck duck, and murder is not the word you want surely, situations, it’s pretty helpful.
Ohhh I see. At least the start is chill! For a little! Before your entire situation spirals out of hand and you’re behind in every class and it’s taken you a whole day to read 10 pages and you’re exhausted and it’s only week 2. Just me? ok. fair. anyway. I want a cloak so bad. One of my uni friends tempted me to class because she said she was wearing a cloak so my depressed ass honest to god dragged myself out of bed and to said class just to see it. It was worth it. They’re incredible. Everyone should own a big cloak for the aesthetic.
I’m glad it isn’t just me hahaha. I can visualise my own height in feet but everything else is just the same size that is a vague amount taller than me, mentally.
It’s also known as the ruru. But the name morepork amuses me. It’s named after the call it makes haha. It does sound like it’s asking for more pork if you know to listen for that. thank u for ur approval, it means a lot, turns out becoming bird queen didn’t ACTUALLY get rid of my anxiety disorder weirdly enough so validation is great! lmaooo. What if the jellyfish stung them tho? At least salps wouldn’t do you dirty like that. The mermaids would just look like there are hundreds of bugs crawling around in their boobs, flesh shifting as they float around. Which is a vibe. If you’re into that. Jellyfish WOULD make a more solid, single, implant, some of them are definitely boob shaped. But that’s kinda boring no one’s gonna be traumatised by that. Salps on the other hand...yeah, that sight will DEFINITELY traumatise someone.
To be PERFECTLY honest I haven’t done a backflip in years but for lactose-free cheese? Dude. I’ll be going back to training. Gonna be the best backflip you’ve ever seen. As long as it’s not Tasty cheese I am content, but lactose free IS better. The biting of ankles will not cost extra, it is a pleasure to be allowed to do that.
Oh it absolutely would be. It’d be very funny if it reached the wider world bc people would probably be like ok but who would send kids into the bush like that,, it’s an odd concept. meanwhile everyone who grew up in nz is gonna be like y’all, you’re not gonna fuckin BELIEVE what i experienced growing up, it’s real dude. On one hand, I feel like murdering kids in a movie is questionable, on the other hand, It exists, so maybe people would be down for it. I feel like it’d be a good concept even if it wasn’t murdery tho. Like psychological horror? I’m not sure if I’m using that category correctly I don’t watch much horror. A kid following the rope but then being shifted into a different horror dimension but they never take the blindfold off because their teachers said not to and they’d probably have to let go of the rope to do it...I feel like this could work super well as a short film. The viewers see everything. The child just knows something is off and no one is coming when they call for help. I am so down for this. I also do not want to know what my leg was caught on. Some things I am better off not knowing.
yes! I am a fellow dirt eater! We had a sandpit at home (that’s a little bold. It was a large plastic shell that my parents filled with sand. technically a sandpit. but not fancy sdflsdkfsdf) but I don’t think I ever tried to eat it. Then again, I possibly did and just don’t remember because there’s no photo evidence of that one. I’d have to ask my parents sdfhsjdfs, I would however fully believe them if they said yes. it’s very characteristic of me. I don’t doubt it for a second. muuuum that’s my emotional support sand don’t make me spit it out smh the disrespect these days.
Oh I’m absolutely terrible even by most people’s standards around here when it comes to cold and hot temperatures. I remember sitting in the sun in my school shirt and school jersey in summer on a blazing day like it’s a bit chilly, isn’t it? Meanwhile my friends were in the shade absolutely dying from the heat. Likewise in winter I’d be shivering, teeth chattering, dying with my long sleeve thermal, my school shirt, my school jersey, my school jacket, my longs, warm socks and sneakers and gloves and school scarf while ppl would be walking around in a shirt and shorts like it’s a bit warm this winter huh? my body didn’t learn how to thermoregulate and it shows. But yeah NZ does also have a reputation for shittily insulated buildings and such. It shows. skhdfsfs if it’s not common use maybe don’t say can i have a hotty to someone without context but otherwise go ahead lmao. it’s a fun shortened version.
I was typically a very good saver, to the point where my extended family started gifting me gift cards and vouchers for Christmas and my birthday because if they just gave me money I’d put it in my bank account to save towards uni once I hit like, 12 years old. Which I think was a smart move. But apparently, I’m supposed to buy myself ‘something nice’ with it. I think I’m still an okay saver but I’m not as strict anymore. I’m aware of how much I can spare and I’m not just like you can never get anything for yourself ever, so I do get lil things for myself sometimes. oooo yay! At least you know what I mean. But yes. They were the gold mine for lollies. Absolutely terrific stores. My mum would be like hey lindsey how about you order? And I’d be like mother, I am 7 years old and I have an undiagnosed anxiety disorder everyone assumes is child shyness why would you think I would want to do that. Instead I will whisper my choices to you. After therapy tho I felt pretty rad for picking my own lollies by myself. I was like 13 at that point but sdfkjhsdf listen I got there in the end.
sdfkjsdfkjhsdf I like that a cursed photo reminded you of me. That’s all I need to hear. Tumblr said no anon dick pics but they also said no anon cursed photos either,,, very sad. for the latter part. the first part thank god. If I could turn on photos on anon I absolutely would just to see this but I don’t think I can :(
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bekahdoesnerdshit · 4 years ago
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ask Two for the angst ones this time: 13 for raini, 5 (possibly will be pertinent come the end of this minicampaign) & 29 (she literally has Any Weapon w/ her pact so it's fititng) for ayen, 7 & 10 (hehe I know there's trauma in this one) for cog, and then mix and match 4, 17, 18 between Caspian, Ryker, and Brilliance bc I don't know them as well and I would Like To
My life is just below readmores now, I guess. Will I ever learn to shut the fuck up? No! And that is a promise 
Raini
13. What does it take to make your character cry? Oh boy. Raini definitely isn’t a big crier, because she a) doesn’t really let herself get to that point and b) hard pivots into “angry” over “upset” and she isn’t an angry crier. She’s cried twice in game so far, and probably not many times before that. In both in game cases -and likely the always alluded to but never seen “before times”- the catalyst for her crying was being overwhelmed. In a good way, bad way, whatever, but that’s the trigger. Just- Looking at something, not knowing what else to do but let yourself cry about it, and not seeing any reason to stop yourself.  (shfjsdjkfh the funny answer is: during sex. But can you IMAGINE jskdfskjdf)
Ayen
5. Would they ever turn on someone they just met in order to save themselves? Oh for sure. Without question. Not without guilt, in fairness, but without question. She’s pretty well adjusted, pretty “go with the flow”, but she did grow up in a pretty cutthroat world. She was spared from having to make those kinds of brutal decisions from a super young age by Shadow Mom, but she definitely saw the fallout of those choices and learned that, while it’s all well and good to do the “right” thing, it’s much more important to do the right thing for you. If that means condemning some stranger to die so you and yours don’t have to? So be it. Better people have done worse, because that’s sometimes just how things go.  I’ll be honest! This character decision was a completely on the fly one when we were having that debate in the library about what we should do with the information we learned in the library. But I stand by it. In character, Ayen 1000% sees whatever’s going on as Not Her Business. It’s fucked up, sure! But, you know. Not her monkeys, not her circus.  29. What is their weapon of choice, and what weapon do they dislike using the most? Bro I love that Ayen doesn’t have A Specific Weapon SO much. Especially because Pact of the Blade specifically makes it so that, whatever weapon she summons, she’s proficient in while wielding it. So she sees somebody using a weapon, goes “oh! cool!” and summons it herself, and then just. Intuitively knows how to use is. How fucking funny is that conceptually??  Her go to if things are serious or she doesn’t have time to pick something obscure is a longsword. Dad uses a greatsword, and a longsword is pretty close to that! Image how cool they looked fighting off assholes, back to back, with two bigass swords? Is that the only reason it’s her favorite? No of course not!!!! That would- that would be silly. And childish. Swords are just cool is all.  She hasn’t used any in game, but I think she honestly just doesn’t like any kind of polearm. It’s like, is it technically safer to be a little further from your enemy? Sure. Does it give you a small tactical advantage? Maybe so. But they’re so uglyyyy and they look weird and you have to use both hands and the balance is weird and >:( Spears can stay because you can throw them but you’re on thin fucking ice.
Cog
7. If your character was allowed to murder one person without any consequences, who would it be and why? Thank GOD Alex I wanted this one for Cog SO bad!!! Valentine WastelandGame! If you can read this! You’re a dead motherfucker!! This is for a variety of reasons including but not limited to: - Is responsible for the deaths of at least 3 separate world leaders! Uh oh!  - Asked for my blood one time! To do Science on! Not cool! - Ace doesn’t like him. Enough said.  - Called Ace “hotheaded” and “brutish” keep his NAME out of your MOUTH - Is fucking Maelo’s ex I think? Honestly I lost that plot on that one a little bit - Keeps taking Sunny on dates! We’re protective and Jealous?? Hard to say! We don’t have time to unpack this one let’s keep moving - Is convinced aliens exist? And are coming to attack the world? OKAY  - Talks in fucking circles about philosophy and the greater meaning of “good” and “evil” in the context of the world. Like, no sir! Good is when you help people and evil is when you kill them! Except unless it’s me killing you which is going to happen because I can cast Finger of Death now and you better believe that spell has your fucking name on it. Freak boy. - Just like. Eats straight raw steak. Not Evil but really weird and probably not great for you? - Overall just a very bad slimy manipulative and stinky dude. 0/10 I’m gonna put an arcane bullet in his skull. Like. Everything Valentine does, everything she learns about him, convinces Cog more and more that the world would be a better, safer place if he wasn’t allowed to exist in it anymore. She was kinda neutral on the guy until he gave his grand speech in Cormir about how the only way to save the world is to ‘conquer and subdue it’ and tried to talk her in circles enough that she had to agree with him or seem like a hypocrite. Since then, it’s been a slow creep from “I don’t trust this man and don’t want to work with him again, even if it makes our lives harder” to “he’s dangerous and needs to be stopped” to “...if given the opportunity, I would kill him myself”. And now that she has our new friend the Shadow Demon whispering in her ear, telling her that “the world will tremble and change before her” and that she should “stride boldly, and fear not the consequences that may follow” honestly? The next time we see Valentine, he might be in trouble!  10. What were the character’s parents like? What was the affect the parents had on the character? Oh, is there trauma in this one? Is there? Alex? Is there? Maybe so!! We’re gonna talk about Cog’s dad first, because he’s a) still alive and b) I KNOW you’re fishing for more mom angst. Cog’s dad name is Conrad Grace! He’s the head of Lafaroh’s town guard, whatever that means for a town of maybe a hundred people. I feel like his day to day really consists more of making rounds to check on people than dealing with criminals, although he likely has to break up the occasional disagreement or toss somebody in the drunk tank for the night. He’s also in charge of making sure the Guardians -the gods that live deep in the swamp outside Lafaroh and protect the town in exchange for food, building supplies, the occasional corpse, and other resources- get their offerings (This is Important, because he does Stop doing that soon). He married into he Grace family (that’s RIGHT he took his wife’s last name because it’s 2021 and he’s Woke not because her family like runs the town okay moving on), initially because I genuinely believe he fell in love! They were probably pretty young, because Lafaroh is very much a Deep South Swamp Town Analogue, but I don’t think it was just a social power move. The most important Conrad fact? He told Cog that he became disillusioned with the Church when she left home, because he couldn’t imagine continuing to support something he could now see had so clearly been hurting her. And I, Rebekah, a homosexual who has had Words with my Christian parents about the way their religion has hurt me? OH buddy we were a little bit of a mess about it. DM Ryan! Don’t you know I’m projecting!! Please be more careful! (Editor’s Note: This is the moment that made me realize I was projecting. Whoopso!!) Cog’s mom name is Charlotte Grace Sr. because, I guess, we’re freaks. I hate that this makes Cog technically a junior because the thought of anyone calling her Charlotte Jr. makes me break out in hives, but it is, technically, correct. The distinction while Cog was growing up was, instead, “Charlotte” and “Charlotte Olivia” because, again, we’re southern as hell. Charlotte Sr. is, unsurprisingly, the head of Lafaroh’s church, which means she very much has more actual power than her husband does. She did love Cog, I think, but in a way that very much more felt like someone guarding an investment than raising a child, especially when Cog became a teenager. She had high, exacting expectations, and grew more distant from Cog the older she got. Whether this was an unintentional side-effect of Charlotte Sr. becoming more engrossed in the preparations necessary to allow Cog to become the “Conduit”, or whether it was a purposeful decision because she knew she would lose her daughter and wanted the sacrifice to hurt less is unclear. Cog’s dad is kinda just a dude, but we KNOW this bitch has mommy issues. I also think an important distinction to draw between the two is that while I’m willing to give Conrad the benefit of the doubt and say that he may have just wanted Cog to stay in Lafaroh when they party returned because he was worried about his daughter and wanted her home, Charlotte Sr. wanted Cog there because it was Where She Was Supposed To Be, because she had a destiny to fulfill. More than that, when Charlotte Sr. found out that Conrad had stopped sending supplies to the Guardians when Cog left and had instead been selling them to Bandits to get money to rebuild the town, she was not nearly so understanding. She accused him of heresy, and ordered for him to be, uh. Flayed alive. Which wasn’t great. It’s what got her killed ultimately; Cog had to choose between her parents, and after watching her Mama summon a shadow demon that very nearly choked the life out of Sunny? It was a choice with only one possible outcome. 
Caspian
18. Would society call your character a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are? Caspian is. Caspian is Just a person. Like she is just out here doing her best, trying not to get killed by, idk. Pirates or ghosts or w/e. This is an endeavor that, statistically, could be going a lot better.  I think the more interesting angle to look at this question from is the fact that she’s a monk from a well known monastery, and that there’s Expectations on how she conducts herself in the world as a result of that. She is Just A Person, but that’s not good enough. Not when she’s running around wearing Pelor’s holy symbol, representing his monastery, reflecting on him. For a long time, I think Caspian resented the expectation that put on her! Why can’t she just be a kid? Just a person? She didn’t ask to be raised by these monks in this kind of life. But when she left home and realized how suddenly lonely she was, there were quiet, sad moments it was easy to soften with prayer. Rekindling her relationship with her god was her way of staying connected to home, and I think it also made her want to go from being Just a Person to actually wanting to take pride in being a Good Person.  And then her campaign lasted for two fucking seconds lmao so it didn’t even matter hahah! :)
Ryker
4. Has your character ever been hurt or betrayed by someone they thought they could depend on? What happened? YEAH BOY rye-bread got his SHIT handed to him lmaoooo His whole “why are you adventuring?” deal is that he fell in love with the noblewoman he was hired to escort across the country to her betrothed’s estate, and she played him like a fucking fiddle and convinced him -after her wedding, after she was pregnant with her husband’s first child and therefore heir- that she was in love with him too. But of course, because she was married, her husband would never let them be happy together. She talked Ryker into killing her husband, and promised to meet him the night he did it with horses and supplies for both of them. Anyone reading along at home with even a shred of common sense probably just said, “uh oh!” And uh oh indeed; she fully sold his ass out. There’s something emotionally devastating about slipping out of the bedroom of the man you just killed, his blood still on your hands, to find the woman you love standing between two enormous guards, but I can’t quite put my finger on what.  Ryker figured out her plan in the following days he spent in a cell, awaiting execution. She didn’t love her husband, but by playing the role of grieving widow and anxious mother-to-be she could ingratiate herself with his family enough to be allowed to take control of the estate while her son, the true heir, grew up to run it. It was cruel, and clean, and if Ryker hadn’t managed to escape it would have gone off without a hitch.
Brilliance 
17. Is your character afraid of death? Why/why not? Brilliance isn’t afraid of death, she’s afraid for what she’d leave behind. One of the songs on her playlist really leans into this (and I’m very excited to be posting her playlist soon! Stay tuned!), because she is terrified of what her death might do to Sienna. She never planned to become an adventurer, much less travel to the Hells to try and save an entire city. She was content, more than content, to guard Sune’s church, to help the people that came seeking her goddess’ blessing and guidance. When her city faced a sudden influx of refugees from Elturel after its destruction, she was even happy to volunteer to help the Flaming Fist keep order and root out would-be troublemakers. She never meant to get caught up in a job that would take her out of her home city, much less out of her home plane entirely. Every fight she got into in Hell, every time it seemed like she may be staring down something that might kill her, Brilliance had to swallow down the overwhelming guilt of knowing that if she died here Sienna would never know what happened to her. The image of Sienna, worried and pacing, looking toward the door to their apartment every time there was so much as a whisper in the hallway, desperate for any sign that Brilliance had come home-- It wasn’t delusions of self-importance or self-preservation that had Brilliance taking Glasya’s deal to save her from the narzugon’s clutches; it was the image of Sienna collapsing onto their bed and sobbing because she finally admitted to herself that Brilliance was never coming home. Still. Sienna needs her, but her party needs her too. They’re counting on her to be there for them, to take the big hits that they can’t handle. First one in, last one out; she doesn’t leave until everyone else is safe. She wants to survive, she wants to go home and marry the woman she loves, but she couldn’t live with herself if she did it at the cost of the life of someone who was depending on her. Brilliance isn’t afraid of death; she would die for her party members, even the ones she doesn’t particularly like. She just knows exactly what the cost of her death would be. 
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miraculouscontent · 5 years ago
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Thoughts on Reflekdoll?
This episode is… strange.
Like, first things first: I know I don’t usually comment on the animation quality, but the animation in this episode is… different? I don’t want to say it’s bad, but it’s really noticeable. I think it feels as if the animators are trying to keep the characters constantly in motion, but some of the turns/twists are just a few frames off from where they should be. It’s a bit distracting compared to all the other episodes.
Honestly, it almost feels like some sort of edited back-door pilot to a spin-off series where they decided to switch miraculouses permanently, hence the animation being so different.
Anyway though, onto the real content of the episode.
…Actually, before I get into that, I just wanna say–
[LUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]
LUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
That is all.
[Scraptain Obvious]
I don’t really like the lead-in here. I understand that Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to switch miraculouses, so they’re trying to set up a “they talk about each other’s traits/qualifications for the miraculouses” thing, but it feels really forced. Most swap episodes in shows are very predictable/obvious in how they go about things, and this is no different. While I like the twist that Marinette finds the cat to be “easy”, meaning it’s actually only half the struggle one would expect, the road to getting there is too blatant, mostly because of the word choice.
Reflekta even worsens this by talking about people being in her shoes. Not only do Reflekta’s power have nothing to do with the swap itself (I know that the reason they get swapped is because of Reflekta, but that’s not what I mean), but it’s a ridiculous attempt at tying together the akuma to the conversation that Ladybug and Chat Noir were having. It’s simply not needed.
Like, I get it, episode. You’re doing a thing and you’re not even remotely subtle about it. Can we please move on?
Then there’s exactly how this plot happens, and I simply do not believe that Marinette would take off her earrings that easily. Not only did the outfits she and Adrien wore have pockets (because I understand Adrien taking the ring off since I presume he was supposed to match Marinette exactly), but when even Plagg is telling Adrien that taking the ring off is a dumb idea, it starts to feel like the episode is waving a flag in front of my face while screaming, “THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES TO THIS.”
I also don’t buy Plagg and Tikki hearing none of the fight going on until the car they’re in gets flung into the air. Like, they didn’t even phase out of the trunk to see how things were going? I’d expect at least Tikki to keep an eye out just in case, especially if they were both so worried about the miraculouses being removed.
There are other things too, like Mayura’s comment about how the swapped heroes are struggling (which is not only cliche for standard swap plots but makes no sense considering that Marinette wasn’t struggling very much at all), but they’re relatively brief at least, I guess.
Speaking of Mayura–
[Ruffled Feathers]
Mayura’s introduction to the episode is good… enough. The concept of her sentimonster is relayed to where I didn’t have too many questions about it (as opposed to having many during “Miraculer”). I’m glad that Marinette had to explain it to Adrien just because it confirms that Marinette has a lot more information than Adrien does.
I also like the SWISH of Mayura’s fancy peacock dress during her transformation, but that’s not relevant to the episode, so it will get no SWISH points from me.
I mean, granted, this makes “Miraculer” even weirder considering that this doesn’t show the transition between Nathalie feeling sick over the peacock miraculous and then just being able to move around without concern (is this gonna be established in a later episode somehow?), but that’s technically not this episode’s fault so whatever, I’ll chalk that up to a “Miraculer” complaint.
I think the other weird thing about it is that Nathalie is standing behind Hawk Moth when he goes to send his akuma. I don’t know if he just sensed that it was Juleka again and wanted to take advantage of that so he told Nathalie to follow him, but it’s just odd since I’m used to Nathalie doing business-y things.
Also, thanks to Nathalie’s skinnier body due to transforming (Watching her de-transform is so strange because it clearly doesn’t line up), it now looks like her head’s too large for her body, though that might just be me.
Duusu was a little more “hyper” than I expected, but I was technically correct with my “MC Duusu” I suppose, what with the “feels any emotion strongly” thing. Wasn’t really a prediction and just more of what I imagined but I’ll gladly take full credit–
I also suppose that the peacock is more obviously made not to be abused by someone evil if the sentimonster created just follows the orders of the person it touches. Makes it more convenient for someone who’s akumatized but is ultimately why Mayura can’t have a lot of solo appearances.
[Kwamfree]
So, the kwami swap and how it’s worked upon…
First, I gotta say that… like–
It’s baffling that we have to be reminded yet again that Chat almost caused Ladybug to mess up because, just in production order, we know that “Oblivio” will continue this trend. If this comes before “Oblivio” then it shows that Chat hasn’t learned anything from this. If it comes after “Oblivio” (hypothetically; I know what Thomas said about watching in production order), then the lead-in is completely pointless because we could’ve had this be a flashback episode rather than “Stormy Weather 2″ (and no, not an excessive one like “Stormy Weather 2″; I’m talkin’ brief flashbacks as in “here is actual legitimate evidence from previous episodes that show our claims).
Chat saying that Ladybug is a killjoy is rather uncalled for considering that they’re known in the fandom for their playful banter. Ladybug isn’t above puns either; she just takes her job more seriously than Chat does. I mean, the lack of balance (with the scales clearly tipped in Ladybug’s direction) does make for a more satisfying moment later when Ladybug can deal with Chat’s job just fine while he struggles with hers, but I think an extra minute or so would’ve gone a long way to creating a scenario in which the heroes would start discussing their roles in things.
It just feels odd after we’ve already seen “future” episodes like “Gamer 2.0″ where Chat carries along a very similar attitude of not understanding where Ladybug’s problems lie. It’s a good character flaw in theory but it doesn’t go anywhere.
Also, unrelated, but the whole intro could’ve been avoided entirely if “Reverser” had been the kwami swap episode (in which “Reverser” would literally switch their powers; something that Hawk Moth would put into Reverser’s powers to plan accordingly). That episode even mentioned Queen Wasp, which leads all the way back to “Syren” (since the “giving other people miraculouses” and “Chat gets let in on the Master Fu situation” plots are kind of tied together) in which Chat expressed distaste for how Ladybug was keeping him out of things.
We also get another instance of “don’t call me Bugaboo” here, which isn’t something related to Ladybug’s sense of humor at all, so I don’t know why Chat played it off as such.
It’s probably the scene where I’d say that Chat lays it on extra-thick with his ego and “you don’t have a sense of humor” (which I’d like to think is a callback to Adrien in “Frightningale” when he tells Marinette that Ladybug wouldn’t be as funny as her, but I’m not willing to stretch that far). It’s pretty typical Chat fare, but because it’s squeezed into such a short scene, it establishes things too quickly, hence things feeling “forced.”
Onto a positive note real quick though, I do like how it’s immediately noticeable how well the swapped heroes will fare upon transforming. Marinette adjusts her movements accordingly, making slashing/punching motions to show that she’s getting into the “destruction” mindset, whereas Adrien doesn’t change his style at all and does kicking motions despite the ladybug miraculous being a passive one. Makes sense too; Marinette is the versatile type whereas Adrien seems more like a one-trick kinda guy (which Marinette even points out upon calling him “simple;” it’s not really a bad thing, but just stating that Adrien isn’t as flexible as she is).
Now, despite how much I rag on Chat, I will admit that he’s really excessive in this episode, to the point where he doesn’t feel like himself. I already said that he lays on the ego, but even with the ladybug miraculous, he brags about his “mastery” of it after managing to get a mirror (i.e: what he wanted) using Lucky Charm. He also complains about how Marinette chose to make fun of him instead of helping him when helping him is exactly what she’s doing.
And like, I don’t have a high opinion of Adrien, but even I don’t think he’d doubt Ladybug when she tells him that Lucky Charm won’t give him what he wants. He’s talked about how Ladybug is so amazing and everything, but if that’s the case, it’s so strange when he completely ignores her advice and acts as if he’s better.
I mean, at the very least, I suppose it was nice when he finally admitted that he needed her help, acknowledged that using the ladybug miraculous wasn’t easy, and told her that he understood why she doesn’t have time to make jokes. I’m not even against the idea of them having their own roles, because sometimes a person just isn’t cut out for a certain miraculous.
And, in a vacuum, I don’t have a problem with the statement that “the heroes have their roles” because, I mean… as I’ve just stated, certain people fit certain miraculouses, but the issue is that it’s left too simple and doesn’t make sense within the context of the opening.
Giving Adrien the ladybug miraculous helps him feel the pressure that Marinette goes through, but that’s not helpful because it only shows him the mentality that has to go into a miraculous that he does not use. Ladybug was calling him out in the opening because his goofing off almost caused her lucky charm to fail, and what does he do?
He deflects and goes into a completely unrelated ramble about why he’s the humor of the team. Giving him the ladybug won’t fix that.
The episode tells him why Ladybug doesn’t have time for jokes since she’s thinking, but it doesn’t tell him why he shouldn’t be goofing off. Ladybug (as the cat) finds a balance between having fun (which does lead to her teasing him a lot and she’s sure to slip in advice occasionally to go with it) taking things seriously, but Adrien isn’t going to catch onto that.
Now, if the episode had somehow done some crazy fantasy magic and put Adrien in a situation where he had to deal with both being the ladybug and dealing with himself as his partner, then maybe that could’ve been different (also, Mister Bug and Chat Noir would be a horrifying combination, just sayin’).
Also, Chat needs to see that his actions have consequences. Ladybug’s always there to bail him out, and his screw-ups are either fixed by her or are things he doesn’t remember (*side-eyes “Oblivio”*).
If Ladybug is there, Chat won’t have a need to learn anything. Miraculous Ladybug fixes whatever in the end, so he has little worry about his actions. He’d need something bad–truly bad–to happen to shake him enough to get himself in gear.
Seeing the heroes swap was interesting. Seeing their civilian forms interacting with the opposite kwami was interesting. Seeing the difference in their de-transformed miraculouses was interesting.
But it just… doesn’t serve the story in a sense of character progression.
[Alya Out of Style]
Oh, Alya. I’ve talked about you so many times and now it’s time to do it again.
So, okay, it was bad enough in “The Puppeteer 2″ when Alya both forced Marientte to talk to Adrien and caused the villain of the day to happen, but now we have both of those things on top of Alya being even more insistent on the matter. This is also yet another time when Alya brings up Adrien and races off despite Marinette’s protests.
Alya tries to play it off as some sort of perfect opportunity when it isn’t, and I am so tired of Alya acting that way when there are clearly more important things to deal with.
In “The Puppeteer 2,” it was “I know Marinette is babysitting but Adrienette is more important!”
And here, it’s, “I know Marinette needs all her focus but Adrienette can happen, I’m sure it’ll be fiiiine!”
Also, Alya plays it off like Gabriel will never know about Adrien helping them, but Gorilla would know (since Gorilla has to pick him up), and let’s not forget “Origins” where Adrien begged Gorilla and Nathalie not to tell his father and Nathalie blabbed to Gabriel anyway. There’s no guarantee that Gorilla wouldn’t find a way to tell Gabriel, so Alya is ignoring both Adrien’s record with Gabriel and Marinette’s anxiety to make this work. This isn’t just about Marinette (even though it mostly is); it’s about Adrien too (just like “The Puppeteer 2″).
If this was just Marinette hanging out with her friends, that’d be one thing, but this is a situation that needs Marinette’s focus and Alya prioritizes getting “her ship” together instead. I literally cannot fathom how Alya sees Marinette trying to get all this together and go, “You know what would make this better? Let’s toss Adrien into the mix!”
Marinette even warns Alya that this isn’t going to work and Alya doesn’t listen. She has no concept of what the right time to do something is.
Also, not to be that guy, but Alya wants someone for the technical aspect of things and Adrien is just a model. It doesn’t make sense that Adrien would know what looks good because he’s not the one behind the camera. Nino at least was the one filming in “Horrificator” so maybe he’d have an idea of what a good shot would be, but he literally appears and then promptly disappears from the episode.
Also also, Marinette is trying to focus on the modeling stuff (you know, the stuff that’s IMPORTANT for her FUTURE WEBSITE) which Alya is ignoring entirely to make it about Marinette asking Adrien to the movies.
Like, “Animan” was a perfectly acceptable situation for Alya to help in; that was something where Marinette was just casually at the zoo and didn’t have to worry about messing anything up with.
Actually, furthering a point on “Animan” as well, it’s laughable at how wrong Alya was when she claimed that she “doesn’t go making decisions for other people” when that’s a vast majority of what she does to Marinette.
And obviously, Alya doesn’t know that Juleka wanted to be a model, but she stepped in when Marinette was trying to calm Juleka down. Anyone could see that Juleka was distressed and bordering on hyperventilation, but Alya fixated on Adrienette happening instead, even to the point of just snatching the hat off of Juleka’s head. It’d be one thing if Alya and Juleka weren’t close (like, if the girl squad still existed but it was more of Marinette having female friends and Alya having female friends and it’s a “friend of a friend” situation) but Juleka is in the girl squad.
Alya also continues to make everything worse by stressing the time that Adrien has to leave, so she’s making Marinette’s little event all about getting Marinette together with Adrien. Even if it had worked, that doesn’t make it okay for Alya to highjack all the operations.
And, I mean, this wouldn’t even be a problem if Alya just felt bad about it or even took responsibility, but she doesn’t feel a thing after Juleka is akumatized. When Marinette is the one to apologize, Alya doesn’t step in to be like, “I’m sorry too,” or, “it’s my fault for trying to make everything go how I wanted it to.”
Alya basically goes into the foreground only to force the entire situation and then drops into the background once she’s served her purpose. At that point, she’s less of a character and more of a plot device, which is never a good thing.
…That said, Alya isn’t the only poorly-handled one here.
[Reflekdull]
Juleka, not you too!
…Okay, I mean, being fair, it was nice to see that Juleka does have a goal in life with wanting to be a model despite her obvious anxiety on the matter. It was both surprising but also made sense for her character (and simultaneously makes “Reflekta” more tragic because of her photo curse).
I also think it’s great how perceptive Marinette was on it since–y’know–it’s Marinette, it’s natural that she’d be perceptive to anxiety.
…Unfortunately though, that brings things to the fact of Juleka being mad at Marinette.
Because why, what, and how.
Like, I am so sick of characters/episodes turning against Marinette for things she either didn’t mean to do or literally did not do.
Marinette was helping Juleka. She was asking Juleka what she wanted to do and only started suggesting that she should handle things when Juleka was not giving her an answer.
Marinette checked on Juleka multiple times yet, when Juleka finally gets akumatized, it’s Marinette that Juleka goes after, and then they have Marinette claim that Juleka said that she didn’t want to model just to make Marinette look to be in the wrong.
Reflekta argues, “You didn’t let me explain!” but no, that was Alya who cut in. Alya was the one who started going on and on about Marinette and Adrien being the models. Marinette was taking responsibility and checking on Juleka (again, twice) to see if she was okay.
I’m not even mad that Marinette apologized, because it is in-character for her to do so. No, I’m mad at the episode for failing in everything else completely. Everything about the lead-up, the process, and the aftermath of the akuma is wrong.
And it’s not just Marinette either. Rose is also very attentive towards Juleka, but Juleka insists that she’s fine to both Marinette and Rose, only to then target them directly once she’s akumatized.
This is exactly like the original “Reflekta,” where Reflekta shot Rose without any focus or thought on the matter. I hate to complain about it here because it’s not a fault exclusive to this episode but, like–
I get that being akumatized means taking away a lot of the original traits of the person being akumatized, but they should still have something. Akuma like Rogercop still had attachments even when said attachment had nothing to do with their akumatization, so I don’t understand the logic that someone who’s akumatized just becomes a completely different person. It’s boring and makes the akumatized person less like “a person we feel for and are attached to” and more like “a generic villain-of-the-day.” Reflekta is flashy and confident, unlike Juleka, which is totally fine, but if she has no hints of who Juleka was, I find it too hard to get invested when she’s rampaging around Paris.
I dunno. It’s just weird knowing that Reflekta is the worst example of this while her brother is one of the best.
And on Reflekta herself as the villain-of-the-day here, I’m not sure how I feel about her coming back as a repeat akuma. I mean, Stormy Weather and Gamer 2.0 made sense given their build-up, but Reflekta feels like too much of a stretch here. I don’t even have a problem with repeat akuma in concept, but the situation that Juleka goes through doesn’t correlate to Reflekta’s idea of “I want to be seen by everyone.” Like, yes, Juleka wants to be a model, but the lead-in to the akumatization is the main problem; Hawk Moth’s lines fixate on Juleka wanting to be seen when the problem was that she didn’t have the confidence to model Marinette’s outfits.
Also, if Juleka wants to model, making everyone look like her is literally the opposite of what she should want to do. Luka’s whole line about her being pretty and Juleka’s want to model clothing only hold up if she’s actually modeling clothing as herself.
I know it wouldn’t be a kwami swap episode if I did this, but if Reflekta’s goal is to make people understand how she feels, then her powers should center around giving people crippling anxiety, like what she had when she was trying to model for Marinette. I already suggested the same for my version of Reverser, and I still add that it’d be hilarious for her powers to not affect Marinette/Ladybug because she’s already an anxious mess normally so she’s used to it (plus, then Reflekta would’ve seen that Marinette is just like her and, if the episode still went with Reflekta being mad at her, that would’ve made her realize that she was wrong, even if Juleka herself would have to be corrected later). This also would’ve had the same effect that the original episode has on Chat where he realizes how Ladybug feels on a daily basis.
Heck, this episode even fails to point out that this is on Juleka as well. I’m not criticizing Juleka for having anxiety to the point of not speaking, but getting mad at Marinette was completely out of nowhere. 
Right before Juleka is akumatized, Juleka blames herself for the situation, which isn’t entirely wrong. I’m glad that she made an attempt to put herself out there, but throwing blame onto Marinette was uncalled for. I would’ve happily excused Reflekta being mad at Marinette and Rose if Reflekta was just deflecting (heh) the self-loathing onto others to compensate, but she also would have had to:
a - be mad at Adrien too because Adrien is ALSO “stealing” her spot as a model (and, suddenly, I’m reminded of “Gamer”) and also get angry at Alya for the hat snatching
b - not be huffy at Marinette after being de-akumatized; if she is, it’s only deflection and she immediately feels bad once Marinette apologizes and then Juleka assures Marinette that’s it’s not her fault
This is the problem when there are four writers writing one episode. Regardless of how much it “helps continuity,” too many ideas are being thrown in and it turns the episode into a mess that feels like it was written by writers who all wrote different scenes but then didn’t consult each other enough on what happened in those scenes, so one writer will go in with a vague idea of, “oh, Marinette took Juleka’s spot in modeling so this must be Marinette’s fault; I’ll have Juleka be mad at her for that and then have Marinette apologize!”
Just… ugh. Some of the interactions are wonderful and the swapped heroes are interesting, but I don’t know if it’s worth it for the rest of the plot.
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lunawings · 5 years ago
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King of Prism SSS Episode 10 (LOUIS)
So I think one of the main reasons a lot of people were confused by this episode (well other than misleading subtitles......) was because a lot of us had our own long-time theories/assumptions about what Louis is or what a Rinne is, and this episode turned out a bit different from what we were all expecting. (I got a lot of messages that were like “But I always thought that...”) I think you have to let your past assumptions go in order to take this episode in. A few of my long-time assumptions were proved wrong by this episode as well.
Although, given this post does still include statements that are my own interpretations, if you think I’m wrong about something please feel free to speak up. (But also please include evidence from Rainbow Live if applicable, etc.) I’m afraid I may have to go back and edit this post several times, especially after whenever the director starts releasing interviews about all this. 
There is a tl;dr at the end, but I really hope most of you guys read all of this. I know it’s long, but the Crunchyroll subs for this episode are just....... so bad...... by far the worst....
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I wasn’t really able to keep track of the the scores when I was watching this in theaters, so I actually didn’t realize what a big deal Joji’s score was until this scene at this moment. It’s why I tried to start a dialogue about it earlier. 
Kinda funny how Kokoro, Mondo, Mitsuba, and Tsurugi’s scores are almost exactly the same. It makes them feel all the more like manufactured prism stars.... (not really their fault, it’s how Schwarz Rose does things....) 
I’m going to skip over talking about the scene with Jin and Sanada because I think it’s best saved to discuss in a future episode. Don’t worry, we’ll deal with Jin later.
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HE’S SO HAPPY AND CONFIDENT AND EVERYONE BELIEVES IN HIM........................................................................................ 
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The translator doesn’t really understand prism sparkle, causing a lot of confusing dialogue in the subs, but I suppose that’s kind of to be expected for anyone that didn’t watch Rainbow Live. 
I’m pretty sure the intended meaning here was: If they can’t fix Rinne then the prism sparkle will disappear, which would mean the end of the prism world, and the prism gods, etc.
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Um no, I think they said F-type here. Rinne keeps falling in love with male stars because she’s “F-type”. 
My understanding of the scene is: the Rinnes keep falling in love, which is keeping them from spreading the prism sparkle and leading to destruction of the prism world. But the gods hesitate to make an M-type prism messenger since there is a “dark history” with that. So they just change the basics (like appearance) of Rinne to be male, while keeping the rest of the coding the same, and..... 
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....Also restore the memory to hopefully “avoid problems”.
(The subs say “back up” here which isn’t so off, but a bit misleading. I believe the Japanese is 復原 or 復元 = restore and they do say lit: “memory”, not data. I guess the translator was thinking in computery terms.) 
So this explains why Louis is male and has memories of the past, even though they say Rinnes lose their memory in Rainbow Live.  
He’s a Rinne, just a different version. 
And because he has those memories, he immediately begins looking for....
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Turned? What do the subs mean by “turned”? 
The word used here was 復活 = to be revived/resurrected. 
I guess the translator thought Shine went to the dark side or something, but he went to the dark side long ago. (Either that or this was supposed to be “returned” and that was a typo.) 
This scene is taking place in the Pride the Hero-ish era and the prism gods are asking Louis WTF he’s doing awakening Shine (by giving Shin the pendant and whatnot). 
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So. I read a while back in a director interview in the “Ready Sparking” fanbook that Louis’ mission was “to kill Shin”.
Which didn’t make any sense to me. Rinne in the flashback in Pride the Hero says she’ll find Shine again, so why would she find him just to kill him again? Why would Louis go to all the trouble of giving Shin the pendant and awakening his powers JUST TO KILL HIM? 
But now in this scene it makes sense. Louis��� mission was not to kill Shin(e) to begin with. He was intended to be just a regular prism messenger trying to spread the prism sparkle UNTIL THIS SCENE when his mission changed, because he decided to divert from his mission and awaken Shine without permission.  
So the spoiler I read was technically true, but not in the way it seemed. He did not specifically come like an angel of death to kill Shin(e). (A huge load off my mind.) But in between the ending of the first movie and Crazy Gonna Crazy, things changed. 
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Once again, misunderstanding of prism sparkle. The way they subbed this, it sounds like he was told not to expand the brilliance of Shine because what “its” refers to is not clear............ It should have been more like: “Your mission now is the elimination of Shine. There is no need to worry about spreading the prism radiance anymore.”
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None of this is readable in the theater ahah... Every time I saw Part 4, I always thought I’d be able to read a bit more of it and I never did. 
But yeah, I’m not sure if we knew before that Hijiri’s mother was deceased....? (Did we?) 
Edit: Lol nevermind we did.  
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I heard some people saying that Shin(e) was a Rinne, so I just want to take a second to clarify this. 
Shine is not a Rinne. Shine is a Shine: A now defunct male prism messenger program. He’s a separate program from Rinne, and they were meant to exist together. (Unlike Rinne and June, who were both Rinnes and thus caused an error by existing at the same time in the same world in Rainbow Live.) 
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Woah. I’m not sure, but I think they cleared up his face here to make it more obvious how much he looks like Shin...... I think I remember it being too dark to see his eyes well in the theatrical version...? ??
But anyway, the rule for prism messengers not being allowed to perform before an audience (and also the reason why) is something that was previously established in Rainbow Live.  
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So I think the subs were absolutely fine for this part. My understanding of it was that after erasing Shine, Rinne gets stuck in a loop where she keeps self destructing because she’s trying to find Shine. 
This makes the prism gods decide to delete her memory. They also task her with guiding male stars as well, since Shine cannot fill that role anymore. This is why the Rinnes in the Rainbow Live era have their memory deleted, and what also unintentionally laid the groundwork for June to fall in love with Hijiri I believe. 
And because the Rinnes kept falling in love like June is why they re-wrote the program to be Louis to try and prevent this and also gave him the memories of the past Rinnes so he will supposedly know what not to do. (But the unintended effect of this is that the memories of the past Rinnes also gave him the memory of Shine, causing Louis to search for Shine again.) 
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Which is why I’m confused as to why the very next scene is Louis staring at the pendant looking confused like he doesn’t recognize it or something? Because I thought from the earlier scene where Louis was created, he immediately set off looking for Shine after the Rinne -> Louis update? Am I just misreading his expression here or did I miss something? I don’t know. 
Edit: OMFG IM AN IDIOT. THE SCARF. This scene isn’t taking place right after Louis was created. It’s taking place right after Crazy Gonna Crazy. He’s looking at the pendant which fell from Shin after their show. It’s meant to transition into the events which happen after Louis re-seals Shine I guess. They could have made this a bit more clear. 
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If you thought why the F is Kokoro here well WHY YES. YES THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE OTOHA 
but putting that aside
I believe this scene was supposed to establish that Louis knows the Rainbow Live girls. He has the past memory of Rainbow Live era Rinne, but he can’t really do anything about it........... (It’s not like he can just go talk to them as Louis.....)
But his expression is so unreadable it’s hard to tell. 
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He gives Shin back his powers to jump geez Crunchyroll.
(But for anyone wondering how mix-ups like this can even occur in the first place, a lot of sentences in Japanese don’t have subjects in them. Therefore, if you don’t know.... the context.............................) 
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Maybe the translator chose this wording in the context of prism messengers being forbidden to be seen on stage. But as much as I appreciate that, it’s wrong. In this scene Louis is saying that he physically cannot perform. (He’s a fallen prism messenger now, so the rules don’t matter.)
Okay, I’ll take a moment to explain this just in case, since it is not explained outright:
When Louis broke his connection with the prism world and lost his rainbow feathers in Pride the Hero, he made the same decision June did when she ripped off her wings in Rainbow Live. He chose Shin(e) over his mission. He disobeyed orders and cut himself off from the prism gods in order to do things in his own way.
But whenever a prism messenger makes this decision, their rainbow feathers are replaced by the night dream feathers. The night dream feathers take life away. 
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(Screencap from Rainbow Live episode 43.)
In other words, ever since Louis pulled out his earring in Pride the Hero he has slowly began to die.....
Although this is never stated clearly within the main King of Prism series, there are several ways you could have picked up on it before this episode. 
First of all, like I said before we have already been through this with June in Rainbow Live. 
Second, across the Road to SSS events on Prism Rush we have steadily seen Louis getting weaker and weaker. At first he was just tired and fell asleep after the Schwarz Rose opening ceremony in Road to SSS 1, but then his deteriorating condition was made crystal clear in his Queen of Glass PR story from Road to SSS 4, in which Louis plans a date with Shin only to collapse and unwittingly stand him up. 
And then eventually by the time we get to Road to SSS 9, Louis cannot even gather the energy to perform at all unless it’s with Shin. And we got this whole scene with a weakened Louis begging Shin to perform with him.
But even after their performance is a success and they win the Tokyo Kizuna Beat Climax, by the time we get to Road to SSS 10 Louis is so weak they miss the finals. 
Finally, Louis being a fallen prism messenger is directly confirmed in literally the opening scene of King of Prism SSS. 
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So if you saw this scene and your reaction was something more like “Oh look it’s Louis... are his wings different?” and not “LOUIS IS DYING” then well.... That’s exactly why I’m always telling you guys to watch Rainbow Live.......................
Although, there was a bit of confusion over these feathers even for people who watched Rainbow Live so don’t feel too bad if that’s you. Some people thought Shin had the night dream feathers in Pride the Hero, or that Rinne had them in the end of Rainbow Live. 
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But no. The regular star-type feathers are dark blue too. (Generic, lower level feathers than the rainbow ones.(?))
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There are only two characters to have the night dream feathers. And they are: June in Rainbow Live and Louis in SSS. Both fallen prism messengers. 
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And buried in the midst of all this Louis drama and deep lore is my probably favorite Joji line of all time. Seriously the Joji in this scene is best Joji and I cannot not laugh no matter how much I’m suffering. 
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Okay so. Here is what I do not understand about this episode and would be thrilled if someone could explain it to me. If Yamada-san knew Wataru Hibiki, then Shine could not have been sealed that long ago. I actually searched my fanbooks/magazine collection until I found one which listed Yamada-san’s age as 24. So he’s probably 25 now. So this scene could not have taken place more than 20 years ago (and even that is generous). 
So what the heck was all that 1,000 years thing about? Is that just the amount of time Rinne and Shine knew each other? Or does time just not flow in a straight line for prism messengers when they are skipping in and out of different worlds? 
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WOAH
WOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
SHIN’S PHONE BACKGROUND IS DIFFERENT 
Okay you’re just going to have to believe me on this, BUT I SWEAR Shin’s phone background in the theatrical version is a photo of his hand holding the pendant. Which seems like a weird choice for a background right? But I had a theory on it that I was gonna discuss here. And that theory is that Shin wanted some kind of a background that reminded him of Louis, and that was all he had. (He couldn’t straight up use a picture of Louis because he didn’t want the other boys to question it.)
But TV version Shin, HE JUST WENT FOR IT. NO SHAME. DAMN BOY. 
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I can’t help but wonder why Shin still feels like he has to hide his relationship with Louis here, considering if Road to SSS is canon like it seems to be then they all saw Shin and Louis perform together at the Kizuna Beat Climax a few months ago. 
But I guess in between the Prism King Cup and the start of the Prism One tensions rose with Schwarz Rose again, so maybe he’s worried about that?
Or maybe there is a possibility that maybe he would talk about it if it was anyone but Leo asking. What with how Leo is. 
(I know the real reason is probably just because for plot convenience/the casual viewer hasn’t read Road To SSS but shhhhhhhhhhhh.)
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I’m sorry but, man I do not like this outfit. And not because it’s basically girls clothing. If Naru wore it I would hate it too. It’s just kinda ugly IMHO. (It’s not an existing Pretty Rhythm coord is it?)
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Original brand glasses Shin is cute as heck though. 
I like how he just keeps his same damn clothes he’s been wearing the entire time in SSS and just glasses + hat = done. Pfft. 
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Shin and Louis saw a PriPara movie together. 
(Prism Tours is the name of the first PriPara movie, which included different courses of Pretty Rhythm shows/flashbacks shown on different weeks in theaters back in 2015. The “flavor” Over the Rainbow animation seen in the first King of Prism movie was actually reused from Prism Tours, and increased attendance to the prism boys course of that movie including that scene was one of the main reasons King of Prism was greenlit in the first place. So I wonder if this is actually a reference to that.)
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This crazy umbrella street is apparently based on a real place in Nagasaki (nowhere near Tokyo).
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I just happened to catch a Tweet about it right after Part 4 came out.
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So..... I actually wasn’t as excited for Shin and Louis’ date as you would think I’d be. I spent a while thinking about it and I came up with a couple reasons. First of all, even though this is the first date they have had in the main series, in the side materials.... they date all the time. Like seriously! In my mind they have already been dating for years so this was like just another date. 
Second.... honestly...... I don’t really ship Shin and Louis all that much anymore. Or at least not in the way I used to. My feelings about them peaked somewhere in the Pride the Hero era, and have been quietly declining since. And this scene basically sealed it. Their relationship just isn’t what I thought it was. I know in this episode Louis realizes he loves Shin and not Shine, but he took such a long time to reach that conclusion and I’m just so uncomfortable about their relationship being originally based on Rinne’s relationship with Shine. Which was not a healthy relationship. 
Also! It wasn’t 1,000 years since they have seen each other dammit! It was like 20! AT MOST! Right????? Yeah that’s a long time for mortals, but not for a being like Louis that lives for thousands of years. 
Anyway before you send me hate, just know that I’m definitely not saying Shin and Louis shouldn’t be together and I’m certainly not saying that you should agree with me. Both of them deserve happiness, especially Louis. I’m just saying I personally am not as passionate about them the way I used to be. 
But even so....
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That didn’t stop me from going to find the location of this scene when I was in Tokyo last week! 
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So did Shin pass the smell test or not? Because Louis.... I guess technically........... (nevermind..... not gonna open up that can of worms right now...........)
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EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SHOW MAKES ME SO SAD
(Especially thinking about what happens next.) 
 Louis is not at his peak performance condition here. He’s not performing a serious competitive show. Heck, he’s just wearing casual clothing. 
He’s finally realized he loves Shin and not Shine................  All he wants to do is just relive his date with Shin................ THATS ALL.....................
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WTF THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS ONE 
THIS IS THE MOST BLATANT MISTRANSLATION YET 
He says 君は僕を殺すことができない = You cannot kill me 
Shine tells Rinne (Louis) that she cannot kill him because that would erase Shin’s memories too. He knows Louis cannot stand to lose Shin.
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NO
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
HE JUST WANTED TO RECREATE HIS DATE WITH SHIN
HE JUST WANTED TO DO A FUN LITTLE SHOW ABOUT HOW HE LOVES SHIN
THAT’S ALL
WHY
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 
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It took me a long time to appreciate it considering WHAT JUST HAPPENED but this YABEEEEEEEE from Sanada is pretty hilarious. 
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This is unfortunately (?) another moment ruined by the new ending music. 
In the theatrical version, this moment is dead silent and it makes it all the more apparent the.... change which has just taken place. It is terrifying. 
But regardless. Now you can probably guess why episode 11 is so painful for me and any fans of Shin..................................
*deep breath*
Okay so. Let’s review. 
Here is my tl;dr of the timeline, from my understanding:
The Rinne/Shine program is created with Rinne for female stars and Shine for male ->  Shine breaks the rules and so Rinne has to erase him -> But Rinne doesn’t erase him completely and promises to find him again -> The Rinne program gets stuck in a loop where she keeps freezing/self destructing because she's trying to find Shine ->  The gods decide to start erasing the memory of the Rinnes -> Rinne keeps falling in love with male stars since she's in charge of male stars now too ->   The events of Rainbow Live happen -> The gods decide to alter the Rinne program to make the body male and restore the memory of the past Rinnes to fix this, creating Louis -> Since Louis has the memory of the past Rinnes he goes to find Shine again -> The events of King of Prism : Louis begins the process of resurrecting Shine in Shin ->  The gods find out and order him to delete Shine again -> Louis still cannot finish the job and cuts himself off from the prism gods, becoming like June -> Louis realizes he loves Shin not Shine but.... -> Louis’ weakened state allows Shine to fully resurrect, and.....
So. There is more to this. But if you would like to come to your own conclusions about what just happened in that final scene and go into the next episode blind, this post is over. Thanks for joining me this far!! 
But if you would like me to explain some more things using spoilers not revealed until the next episode, keep scrolling. 
Obviously you don’t have to!
It’s up to you! 
I just kinda feel like I owe it to you guys. 
(Since I was lucky enough to get my major questions answered right away and not have to wait a week like you guys do.)
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Ready?
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Episode 11 spoilers start here
So I first saw Part 4 on like, 3 hours sleep. So as you can imagine I was having a really hard time taking all this in. And when that last scene happened I was basically plunged into the darkest depths of absolute horror. To think all this time I had been worried about Louis hurting Shin. The opposite had never ever crossed my mind. 
In my first viewing what I thought happened was that Shin had just regained his memories and killed Louis. And for 30 seconds or so, I seriously considered walking out of the theater. Not that I didn’t plan to ever finish watching it, but I just felt I was not ready and needed time to cry and take this all in before continuing to the next episode at the next showing. I was so close and literally the only reason I didn’t leave was because I just didn’t want other people to see me walking out. So I stuck with it and forced myself through the next two episodes. 
And I’m glad I did. Because that’s not what happened. 
The next episode makes it very clear that Shin and Shine are two different people. Shin did not get any memories back in the final scene. Shin is Shin, and Shine is Shine. 
From what I can gather, Shin was born with Shine sealed inside him. He’s like the host. (Whether this technically makes him a reincarnation or not, I’m not sure.) Shin has never had any contact with Shine, but Shine has always been watching life through Shin’s eyes.
The Shin we see walking off at the end of episode 10 is Shine controlling Shin’s body. From the moment he says “Rinne.....” Shine is in control, and Shin as we know him is unconscious. Shin has no memory of the things he does while Shine is controlling him. 
Also, the act of Shine destroying Rinne’s feathers did not kill Louis back there. But as you can imagine, he’s in bad, BAD shape right now.....
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kirinda-ondo · 6 years ago
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Rant/tell me about Cobalt and why u love him so much??
Ok so this is probably going to get very long, and very, very cheesy, and I hope y’all are ready for this.
Cobalt is a very special character to me and is absolutely my favorite character of all time, from anything in the history of ever. It doesn’t matter what other fandom I’m hyperfixated on or what character I’m saying is my son at the moment, if you bring him up at any time, in any context I will be there.
So you’re probably wondering how I got here.
Once upon a time, it was 2009 and I was a young weeaboo, constantly absorbing everything anime or manga I could. I had just come out from the Astro Boy movie, and I immediately wanted to watch the source material. I’d already seen a bit of it on adult swim when they were running an Astro Boy marathon, but I had to go to bed at 11:30 then so I didn’t get to see much. So this time, I went to youtube and I found all the (dubbed) episodes of the 60s series. (Sadly you can’t find them all there anymore and it’s a crying shame).
I basically marathoned them, but over in the sidebar where the recommendations were, I kept seeing the thumbnail for part 2 or 3 (this was back when youtube only let you post 10 minute videos and you had to watch anime in 3 parts) of the episode “Brother Jetto.” You could plainly see him, and so it was clear this was supposed to be Astro’s brother. I thought it was neat that Astro even had a brother, as I’d only known about Uran before. I wanted to know more, but I promised myself I wouldn’t skip ahead. Though it was very tempting at times, I stuck to my guns and watched all 83 episodes up to that point.
However, it was not actually love at first sight. When I finally got to this episode 84, I wasn’t really impressed. “Wow, he’s kind of annoying, what’s the point?” I had thought like a fool, but I was still willing to accept him as part of the canon, as I figured I’d be seeing a lot more of him now that he had been introduced. After all, that’s what they did with Uran! But then…. that pretty much didn’t happen at all, which I thought was kind of weird. After all, why introduce a new sibling if he’s not going to show up again?
But then I got to the episode “A Deep, Deep Secret” about 6 episodes later, and I found myself a little relieved that he wasn’t completely canned. Upon watching that episode, I’d found that he’d started to grow on me a bit, but he still wasn’t my favorite. However, the trend of him being gone for several episodes only to show up once in a blue moon continued until I’d run out of episodes. I moved on to the 80s series next (and then the 2003 series) having learned that Cobalt had been replaced by Atlas as Astro’s brother. While I enjoyed those series (the 80s one a bit moreso than the 2003 one), I found myself kind of missing Astro’s dingus brother that had barely seemed to get a chance. After marathoning all the series (at the time), I started doing some googling and found out he had a slightly better run in the undubbed Japanese episodes (which was also how I discovered AB-O! Hi fandom!) and I’d learned a lot more about him. But the most important thing I’d learned was that I was in fact very emotionally invested in this character now and I was in deep.
Mind you at this time the undubbed Japanese episodes were nearly impossible to find without purchasing the complete DVD set and a player that could play them (on account of the fact that the set was region locked from western DVD players) so for years I sat wondering more about what those Japanese episodes were like, as the forums only had plot summaries with a handful of screencaps to go off of. Nowadays you can watch all the undubbed (and sadly unsubbed) episodes here but 13 year old me did not have the knowledge to do foreign language googling at the time.
But still, my Cobalt-loving heart wanted more, so I scoured the English speaking internet for whatever I could find, official or fanmade. Official content was virtually nonexistent, and the amount of fanmade content, I could count on one hand. The general fan consensus at the time seemed to be “Who the hell is Cobalt” or “Eh, whatever,” which was a far cry from how it is now. But being horribly deprived back then, I did the only thing I could: I combed through the dub for every episode he was in, coming up with a whopping total of…..four (well technically five but in that one he’s literally only in the last five seconds with no animation or lines), and I watched them religiously. I could pretty much quote Cobalt’s debut episode by heart. (For the record I can no longer do this to the extent I used to, but should the opportunity arise, I can still quote large chunks of it).
As I did this and learned more about him in my desperate googling, I started developing jokes for what would become my first silly comics, for which I am known in this fandom for. The art and writing for these was….. painful, to say the least, so I don’t even like to think about it, but as I’d already had a decently sized following from drawing silly (read: bad) Sonic comics, they caught on decently well, and I’d even managed to drag my friend and son down with me into Cobalt Hell™. Together, we made a group for Cobalt fans on deviantart (which is still up, but I no longer run it, as I deactivated the account that modded it without transferring ownership, so now it’s likely a wild west hellscape that I’m a little scared to look at).
This seemed to help do the trick though, as Cobalt fans were slowly coming out of the woodwork and appreciating this good boy. On and off I’d spread my yelling about Cobalt (and my silly drawings) to different platforms like the Astro Boy forums and tumblr, and even as I got into different things, after awhile, things kinda grew without me. Now I’m not gonna be out here claiming I built this city myself with my own two hands, as a lot of people got dragged into this hell of their own accord, but I do like to think my, umm….passion at least helped generate some interest, and I can’t help but be proud of how far this fandom has come from “Who the hell is Cobalt” to “Look at this good boy, I love him” and literally all the other Cobalt fans I’ve met have been the coolest people (in general, not just because of their good taste).
I think what really changed my life though was when AprilSeven, a mod on the Astro Boy forum and also probably the original Cobalt fan, as she’d seen the 60s version back when it was originally airing, finally got a hold of the undubbed Japanese episodes, and graciously allowed me and a few of the other big-name Cobalt fans get in on that action, and boy howdy, the screenshots and plot summaries really did not do these episodes justice (at least in terms of Cobalt content). My understanding of him as a character expanded like tenfold, and my appreciation of him expanded even more than that.
…Which brings me into a nice segue in which I shift more into just exactly why I like Cobalt so much. Yes, there’s more. I warned y'all, this was gonna be a Pandora’s Box that could not be closed once it was opened.
I honestly just find him a joy to watch. A lot of what made him grow on me was just how funny he is. I’m a sucker for comic relief characters in general, and he has a personality that lends itself to comedy. In the anime version, he’s literally introduced right out the gate as being kind of a dingus. He’s naive, he’s way too trusting of obviously suspicious people, he’s easily confused, he’s easily distracted, he’s a klutz, and he just… regularly destroys the laws of physics and/or the fourth wall just because. Sometimes he also gets weird ideas in his head to do things that could have been done a completely different, easier way and weirdly enough, it actually kind of winds up working? It’s so fun to watch him approach problems because he’s just… so far out there sometimes.
But beyond being absolutely weird and hilarious, he’s just a really sweet kid. He doesn’t like to fight, he wants to make friends with everyone and everything, he will drop literally anything he’s doing, no matter how important it is, to help someone in need, he’s good with babies and small children and puppies (sometimes), he would fight (and sacrifice himself) for his family, and just means well even if he tends to bungle things up and make them worse sometimes. Honestly, and this is gonna sound dumb, but he helped me be a better person. I used to be an absolute asshole when I was younger, but once I’d gotten into Cobalt Hell™, I was like “I wanna be that sweet and good (but with a better sense of stranger danger)” and I made that effort and did that shit.
That being said though, he’s not perfect, and I wouldn’t want him to be. His flaws, though they kind of give him the short end of the stick in life, are a lot of why I find him so endearing. All the naivety and confusion and general lack of coordination I mentioned before aside, he’s honestly just really relatable. He’ll say jokes so bad that Uran wants to punch him, he’ll opt out of the plot because he doesn’t want to get out of bed, he’ll fight with his siblings over silly petty things, he’ll get frustrated if he tries something and it doesn’t go his way, he’ll absolutely partake in his siblings’ mischief (if not start it sometimes), and just so much more. He just feels like a kid you would know (or maybe a kid that you were at one point) and I really appreciate that about him.
Unfortunately, the canon was not kind to Cobalt, and I think a lot of that comes from Osamu Tezuka just… not knowing what to do with him after making him? Like in the manga, he was just kind of created as a really rushed contingency plan because they thought Astro was missing. Sure, he was taken in as part of the family afterward, but not many appearances later, he was killed off in a firey explosion… Until Tezuka decided to change his mind and let him live in the end. His grave’s still there though. He gets to see it. I know it’s a framing device to explain the circumstances of Cobalt’s retconned death but it’s kind of fucked up to let a boy see his own grave..
Even being brought back, Cobalt didn’t get to do very much. He’d get some good scenes with Uran, but a lot of the time, he was sort of just relegated to filling up space in the background, provided he actually survived til the end of the chapter. When he wasn’t getting forgotten by the plot and thusly zapped out of existence, he would wind up sacrificing himself in some way that wouldn’t allow him to continue to take part in the plot anymore (be it parts, energy, etc.) The most painfully egregious example of this is in the chapter “Youth Gas.” Astro and Cobalt are convinced to fight each other to the “death.” They’re not really dead, but Ochanomizu says they are and can’t be repaired. At first, there’s mourning for “two of the world’s greatest robots,” but then we see a funeral service in which only Astro’s body is shown and his parents are only mourning him, completely forgetting Cobalt exists. He’s never seen again for the rest of the chapter. Now I would assume this is just a writing mistake, but it really does make it look like Cobalt’s own parents wouldn’t even bat an eye if he died, so there’s that.
The anime isn’t quite as horrible, and it is kind enough to give Cobalt a more prominent role once he finally shows up (even getting a handful of focus episodes!), but he doesn’t go unscathed either. In this version, he has the misfortune of being created by Dr. Umataro “Father of the Year” Tenma before Astro was made and was scrapped because, to quote dub!Ochan, “his electronic brain wasn’t as perfect as Dr. [Tenma] wanted.” (read: he thought Cobalt was a dumbass). Cobalt is eventually found and brought into the family, but because he still winds up not being relevant to the plot a lot of the time, he is once again zapped out of the existence and looks like a victim of child neglect. As a result, he gets left out of family vacations and holidays, even in favor of Chi-tan, who is usually even higher on the scale of irrelevant Astro Boy characters. Unlike Astro, Cobalt doesn’t have any consistent friends to even remotely justify what he could possibly be doing offscreen by himself, so it just kind of implies a very sad and lonely existence in-universe.
And of course, the final, meta blow that literally every fan of Cobalt is still despairing about to this day: basically being yeeted out of the canon. After the 60s series, he disappeared off the face of the earth until 2015 when some lovely soul decided to bring him back for Peeping Life TV: Season 1?? (The question marks are part of the title). He’d be referenced again a couple years later in Atom: The Beginning, and will be here for the game Eshigami no Kizuna sometime in 2019 as a… moe anime girl. That’s a little weird, but I’m hoping these sorts of weird appearances will mean a trend toward putting him back in the canon (and hopefully being treated better).
It just hurts my heart to see such a good character get treated like this by canon. He deserves way better and it just seems really clear to me that Tezuka didn’t really know what to do with him. I feel like he has a lot of potential as a character, though. Regardless of what origin you pick for him, Cobalt is essentially existing as a worse version of Astro. I feel like you could have some good character development regarding how he would feel about himself in relation to Astro in sort of a parallel to how Astro might feel about himself in relation to Tobio, the person he was based off of. You could go some neat places with these sort of questions about identity and expectations, I think. Or if you want to just do something funny because your character arcs are getting too real now, you can just let Cobalt do some silly shit. He’s a versatile character!
I’ve done all this rambling and now I’m not really sure how to wrap all this up, so umm
Cobalt is a good boy and deserves better, please hire me Tezuka Productions, and thank you for coming to my TED Talk
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iamconstantine · 6 years ago
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RWBY CHAPTER 12: BLACK & WHITE (I SUCK AT COMMITMENT)
* Okay so we are leaping RIGHT into Sun and Blake talking together * Sun actually kinda-sorta sounds like Jaune with a deeper voice tbh but I’m sure it’s not the same VA * I was going to make a joke about Blake suspiciously sipping her cup while Sun smack talks the White Fang but then she actually did it * And there it is * I just noticed that Sun’s hair is yellow and his eyes are dark while Blake’s eyes are yellow and her hair is dark. Interesting contrast. * (Insert LOST flashback woosh) * YEEEESSS Different animation style! * The White Fang originally being a sort of “peace group” is actually way more compelling than just an all-out terrorist group. It’s a repeating cycle of hate of one side against the other. The things they do are way, way overkill, of course, but it’s also a reminder that things aren’t always b-- * I just realized why this episode is called “Black and White.” * ._. * Lil kitten Blake. Baby. * “And the New Leader’s first decree was that the old symbol wasn’t edgy enough, so we gave the animal fangs and claw marks and we made it red and people took us more seriously” * The image of the signs becoming weapons was very nice * The portrayal of prejudice and response and related topics are presented pretty realistically in the show, and honestly, credit to them for not doing some weird sugary stuff with it. Usually I see this kind of stuff as like “The other group had their fewings hurt so they hurt peopwe too but that’s not okay uwu” but here it’s just like “Yeah man we started being violent instead of peaceful and people started listening which was good but they were also afraid of us which is bad” * Blake’s explanation of why she left gives newer context to her fight with Weiss. It isn’t just that she has to once again experienced hatred just because she’s a Faunus, and it isn’t just that she has to keep her mouth shut about who she is out of fear. Blake left the White Fang because she hated how violent they were becoming, but after doing the right thing, she once again has to deal with discrimination just for being...Blake * No Sun she hasn’t told anyone but I think they know * Also HOW did Sun know she was a Faunus? Did I miss something? * The way Ruby hisses “Ugh...Weiss” was so acidic like she is 110% done with Weiss’ crap * Yang is trying to hard to be peacekeeper poor thing * Penny returns and everyone is scared * I’m assuming that either A) Penny actually SAW Blake’s ears, or B) Penny saw the bow and just said “yeah there some ears under there” which would kind of explain how Sun knew but not really * I didn’t hear what Ruby said at first but then I put on subtitles and “She does like tuna a lot” almost made me WHEEZE. Ruby’s VA has a really good grasp on comedic delivery * Ruby was like “fam?” but Yang and Weiss were like “peace” * Penny noting on how windy it is is funny but honestly is no one going to comment on the tumbleweeds? * Sun and Blake immediately teaming up is kind of heartwarming; I imagine Blake hasn’t met another Faunus who she could be open with in a while * That said isn’t Sun supposed to be hiding from police? Aren’t they just wandering around? * I still don’t side with Weiss but her line about how the innocent don’t run does remind me that she believes Blake is some kind of criminal. Yes, Weiss has a definite prejudice against Faunus people, but again, I think she’s been ingrained with the lie that all of them are dangerous terrorits * “Is she a MAN?” girl what * Ruby’s outlook on the situation makes a lot of sense. She’s not mad at Blake, not at all, and she’s definitely against Weiss in the argument. That said, she doesn’t know what to make of Blake just running off. I’m sure as the team leader she expects everyone to trust each other on top of being friends, so learning that Blake doesn’t trust her enough to talk to her must her. Of course, Blake has every reason in the world to keep her secret, but I get where Ruby is coming from * I admire Blake and Sun deciding to investigate but what is there plan there’s only two of them * I was fully expecting Sun to respond to Blake with some kind of cheesy pick-up line but him just clapping back with “Weren’t you in a cult or something?” honestly surprised and pleased me * Also Blake’s pout * Oh that animation isn’t...good...not bad, just...not good... * Speaking of animation I’m noticing a kind of recurring thing where characters are technically “walking” but they’re also sliding at the same time. I really, REALLY am not trying to nitpick but it is noticeable. * Speaking off the detail of Sun’s hair, his necklace, and his abs are all pretty good. Definitely a great character design * “See I told you our new logo was cool and edgy” “man u right” * I know I just commented on the whole slide-walk think but at least a few seconds ago it was kind of hidden by the ramp just now it was all up in my face * He’s baaaaaack * So is Blake implying that Torchwick might actually be a Faunus, or is something else amiss? * On the one hand I know Blake can take on countless robots and a giant bird monster but on the other hand I’m with Sun. What is she doing? * Was Torchwick about to drop the f bomb? * Blake talking to the WF as one of them is pretty clever * Torchwick’s VA is doing a good job but he still has that teeth-talk problem * I’m sorry did this guy just blast an actual star at her? * This once again brings me to my upcoming study: “RWBY: Everything is Gun” * Sun’s attack on Torchwick was animated very well, a definite step up from last episode where he seemed too restrained * Torchwick just spoke my thoughts. I do admire everyone’s bravery but come on. The bad guys WILL have backup. * Holy CRAAAAP Sun beating all the WFs with his bo staff is AWESOME and it is animated AMAZINGLY * On top of that Blake’s...I don’t know, “teleport” effect is really cool to look at * What I appreciate mostly about the fights in this show is that even though it’s all very energetic and fast-paced you can keep up with what’s happening. It’s not just trying to look “fight-ish”, it’s real and you can follow every movement * Sun’s bo staff splitting into nunchuks are really cool I wonder if it’s also a--
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* There it is. * I also like that the fights make use of the environments * I felt like Torchwick laughing was a little too on the nose but the subtitles saying (evil laugh) just confirms it * Penny is not mad muffin * Let me guess Penny’s about to do a murder * Excuse me
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* OH YEEEEAAAAH PENNY’S OFF THE CHAIN * SHE MOWING THESE GUYS DOWN LIKE GRASS * OH * MY GOSH * How is Ruby just mildly pleased and not losing her mind right now * Is Penny about to do a Captain America? * Ruby your question is legitimate but how is that your first one? * Bout time the police showed up * Okay. Moment of truth. How is Weiss going to handle this? * Gooooood. Good girl. * At the same time I appreciate (?) that Weiss almost slipped up on calling Sun something there. She’s going to turn over a leaf to accept Blake as a teammate but that doesn’t mean she’s cured, and she’s still super suspicious of Sun because, well, he is technically a criminal * Is Penny?? A criminal too? * “Hey Ozpin what cha doing” “Oh you know stalking students again; not getting involved or helping in any way” * Oh!! Qrow!! Ruby’s uncle!! * And so the season concludes! * Overall? Not bad. Did it blow my mind? Well, not necessarily. Am I impressed? Absolutely! * I still stand by what I said before about the pacing being a bit off for this first volume. * I do like Jaune. I like his arc and his relationship with Pyrrha and his struggle to be a leader. At the same time, the fact that he gets an arc before Yang or Blake, despite both of them being two of the titular characters, doesn’t feel right. If Weiss and Blake’s storyline had been running alongside it, I think that would have paced things better. Giving Jaune focus without stealing the spotlight from the leads. * Jaune’s arc also has the side effect of bringing things to a halt. It was an enjoyable arc, but following Ruby and Weiss dealing with their feelings on their new team, it more or less feels like a sudden roadblock than anything else. The fact that it really only includes Jaune, Pyrrha, and Cardin (who I wonder will show up again, creepy little sh*t) and not Ren or Nora is something I’ll get to in a second. * Yang herself didn’t get much attention at all, which is very disappointing to me. I don’t know very much about her other than that she’s a thrillseeker, a peacekeeper, and is just nice in general (as long as she’s not angry). I feel like she kind of got robbed here. * I also still believe that the lack of background characters, though explainable and really not that big a deal, is not a “good” thing. To me, it makes Beacon feel really, really empty, not the giant of a school it really is. Cardin’s team were shown, thankfully, but even then their designs are pretty bland and suffer from “Guess Who’s the Main Character?” syndrome * The animation has some highs and some lows, and I’m going to take a guess that most focus was given to the fights, which I will say again look absolutely fantastic. I completely admire the animation team’s work and direction, while at the same time I think other animations feel a bit rough and incomplete. It’s nothing that absolutely breaks my immersion, but there are times when it seems something is supposed to have a lot of energy and instead is too rigid or even too “smooth”, i.e. no sense of gravity or weight. * The designs of every character are always very nice to see--and I would like to once again reaffirm my opinion that character designs don’t always have to be realistically practical and “grounded”. I’d much rather Ruby be wearing see Yang wearing kerchiefs and short shorts than have her be in a completely unnotable outfit with muted colors. Each design also serves the character well. Even Jaune’s very simplistic design highlights how he doesn’t quite fit in at Beacon, and is just “average” compared to everyone else. * The VAs all did very well, even if I did feel at times that they were holding back. * Ren and Nora also did not get very much attention and more or less just feel like filler on Jaune’s team for now. Not absolutely boring, but they don’t nearly play as much of a part as everyone else. I haven’t even seen Jaune interact with either of them that much, which lessens the impact of his struggle to be their leader. * The backgrounds are a bit hit-and-miss at times. Beacon itself looks amazing and grandious, a fairytale castle mixed with a bit of a futuristic edge. Other times, the backgrounds are flat and textureless and don’t feel very real. * I really do wish the first season was able to do episodes of “average episode length” (18~ minutes), as opposed to snippets that could range from 3 to 15 minutes. Even though I felt that “The Stray” ended in a very nice place and set up the next episode well, the season finale doesn’t really feel like a season finale. It just feels like the ending of a typical episode. The only thing that tipped me off that it was a finale was the longer credits. * This is on top of the fact that a few of the episodes were very short and really only progressed one or two things. * I still don’t quite get Auras or what the point of them is. This is the first season, of course, but thus far I really can’t tell how Auras change anything about fighting. I guess it does kind of explain why everyone isn’t bleeding and bruised by the end of every fight, but still. Right now, it feels that if Pyrrha’s explanation of what an Aura is was snipped out, I wouldn’t notice a difference. * Just speaking broadly, even though I think RWBY has a lot of things going for it--design, fight animations, character writing, etc--they’re kind of like a bunch of different candies all jumbled into the same bowl. On their own, they’re good and I can appreciate them. Together, stuffed into the same season in uneven episode lengths, they don’t really work all that well together. * Anyhoodle I’ll be starting season 2 soon and I look forward to it.
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dailyaudiobible · 6 years ago
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03/20/2019 DAB Transcript
Numbers 30:1-31:54, Luke 4:1-30, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 11:20-21
Today is March 20th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is a joy, an honor, it is a pleasure to come around the global campfire, come in out of the cold, come in out of the dark and just see the fire glow all around the campfire where we've come to take the next step forward together in community. So, we’re reading from the God's word Translation this week and we will go back out into the wilderness, into the book of Numbers, chapter 30 and 31 today and we will listen to more of the law.
Commentary:
Okay. So, from what we read in the book of Numbers today, we can piece kinda two pieces of a story together that will bring some context for the territory that we’re in and then we'll talk about the gospel of Luke because what we read there today gives us some pretty significant advice for how to conduct ourselves in a specific situation. So, first the book of numbers. God told Moses to attack the Midianites for what they had done to the Israelites and that kinda comes right out of some laws. So, we have to go back a few days. Remember Balak and Moab. Remember Balaam, son of Beor, this Oracle that God spoke to who was supposed to go back to King Balak but only say what God said to say. Remember the angel with the drawn sword, that whole story. He shows back up in Midian today and he is killed in this battle and tying the two pieces of the story together with maybe a little bit of conjecture, what it seems happened is that Balaam could not curse Israel on behalf of Moab. He could not curse Israel on behalf of anyone, but at some point some advice was given on a way maybe that could undermine the Israelites without a curse and that would be to seduce the men with the women. And already we've seen that the intermingling with surrounding nations has already been going on and it has only led the people into idolatry. This is the reason for the battle today and perhaps why the women were named as enemies in the battle today because they had waged a war of their own on Israel through sex. Perhaps a totally different kind of weapon, but no less mortal or harmful in this case. So, that’s what we have going on here. The children of Israel are still trying to get regrouped and get themselves together so that they can actually cross the Jordan River into the promised land. Like, we've been chasing the promised land since January and we're still not there. Like for us, we’re following a story that's leading us toward the promised land but it's taking a while because it took a long time for this promise to come to fruition. So, while the children of Israel are out in the wilderness a million strong, so a formidable society. Yeah, all the surrounding nations are freaked out by them and trying to figure out how to destroy them. And yeah, there are times that they gotta fight back. So, that’s what we see going on in the book of numbers.
Now in the book of Luke, Jesus is baptized, He goes into the wilderness, the Judean wilderness, He is tempted by the devil and then He continues His journey out of the wilderness, north into the Galilee region where He begins his ministry. He eventually makes his way to His hometown. He begins to do the same things He was doing in every other village but He’s not able to because of their lack of faith, because they watched Him grow up, they don't have any respect for what God might be doing. He announces what His mission is from the prophet Isaiah, from the scroll of Isaiah. And then He announces that He in their hearing is fulfilling that prophecy. So, this is happening in His hometown. They are all enraged, like, “no, we saw You grow up, we saw You when You were peeing Your pants, like You're not a prophet. And then they decide…it's so funny…the herd mentality you can kinda see in the Bible and you scratch your head, but the same stuff still happens today. They decide that, even though they watched Him grow up and even though He's announcing that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him and He has been doing some pretty miraculous things in the region, they're just gonna throw Him off a cliff and be done with it. And, so, they attempted to do that and Jesus walks right through them and goes on His. So listen, in your Christian life there are going to be times when you feel like you're being tempted, tempted of the devil. You may feel like you're in the wilderness when this is happening. It may be confusing to you and you will have to resist the devil because you will have to fight for your life and you may be successful, you may defeat the enemies taunts and temptations and you may move out of the wilderness and into your hometown and you may be called by God to step out and do something only to find out that nobody believes in you at all and are only taunting you. And you may continue to press forward in your calling doing everything that you know to do and staying humble before the Lord as he leads and directs your steps. And the result might be that the people who are closest to you decide to throw you off a cliff. Now that's a metaphor in this situation. I doubt any of your family or friends again actually try to throw you off a cliff, but proverbially you may be written off, you may be abandoned, you may be walked away from, you may feel like you’ve been thrown aside. Here's what you need to do, walk right through the crowd and go on your way. That's what Jesus did. He went somewhere else and healed the sick, healed the brokenhearted, set the captives free, restored site to the blind, brought hearing back to those who were deaf, healed the lame, raised the dead and spoke the good news to anyone with ears to hear or eyes to see. If God has instructed you and invited you into a dance that you and He are to do together and start dancing and stop paying attention to who's watching. Lose yourself in his eyes. Walk through the crowd and go on your way.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite you into that. It can mean many things to many people in many context and yet its central truth rings true for each of us. We get lost and distracted so often and in so many ways that we our often focusing on why something you may have invited us into can't be a reality, can't be You, can't happen. We get distracted by the taunts and it feels like we’re rejected, abandoned, and thrown off a cliff when what we need to do is walk right through it and move on our way. Show us what that looks like in our stories Holy Spirit as we continue to move through this season of Lent, this season where we continue to contemplate what it cost to give us our freedom for free and how our lives should be oriented as an act of worship because of this in everything we do and say. And one of the things we must learn to do is listen to you above all other voices. So, come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth, lead us forward on the way that we should go. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey guys this is Bridget from New York and I’m calling for two reasons. One is, I’m not sure you guys remember me I called last year after my son in law was murdered in front of my daughter and he left behind a three-year-old. Recently, I’ve been praying for her and trying to cover, you know, covering my family, my daughter, my son. Praise my son and my daughter, my three-year-old, God has moved them two houses away from where I lived in an apartment. Long story short, God is good. And then my granddaughter, I’ve been praying for her she’s been struggling with anxiety and fear and headaches and the reason I know is because when I lay hands on her pray over her I literally feel everything that she’s feeling. So, I ask you guys to please lift her up if you don’t mind. Also, please just keep my family, my husband in prayer, his name is Andy, and My daughter Felicity and my son my daughter Abel and Bridget, you know, they’re twins. So, they just moved up here and I’m just hoping that they begin to attend church up here and that it would be consistent and that they would formulate a relationship with the Lord and not just, you know, church but just an intimacy with God. I can say that Brian, this ministry has helped me become more intimate with the Lord. And thank you guys I love you and I love this ministry. Thanks. Bye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible. I can’t believe I’m calling in, but just real quickly, my wife Lily recommended me to start listening to Daily Audio Bible and I started listening this year and it has been simply amazing. I worked at the bank in Charlotte North Carolina and I go in and out and do schooling at night and Daily Audio Bible has been absolutely amazing. It’s been filling my commutes, my times alone with a very and a deep and profound way that I can, you know, connect with God. So, I’m super thankful for Lily, my wife, who told me about this and also for the community, for Brian. And I actually tell so many people around me about it just because it blessed me so much. So, I just want to tell it to somebody people. I want to also acknowledge my beautiful wife. We’re almost celebrating five years. I just want to acknowledge her in front of people, in front of the world, just because she’s so amazing. She has been working so hard lately at ICU, she’s been studying so hard, she’s been taking care of me, taking care of the dog, she’s been just grinding day in and day out and not complaining, and I just want to give her a shout out for that. I love her so much and I want to encourage all other couples out there to continue working on their relationship, to pray for their spouses, to bless their spouses. And I’m super excited. My wife doesn’t even know this, but I bought her the More Gathering ticket and I can’t wait to tell her that she’s going because she needs a break. Blessings to everybody. This is Z from Charlotte North Carolina. Love you all and thank you for listening.
Hi, good morning, afternoon, and evening Daily Audio Bible, this is Gabriel again from the UK. I called a few weeks ago in relation to my daughter, my middle daughter, who went through a surgery. I just wanted to say praise report, the surgery was successful. It was to remove her adenoids and tonsils, which a lot of people seem to retain but we were slightly worried about it. There was slightly scary moment when she stopped breathing and the recovery took 40 minutes even though they said it would take 10 minutes. I forgot to mention in my first message that my daughter, my middle daughter, is actually three years old. So, I guess that would’ve given a bit more context, but anyway the other reason for my call is I…myself and my wife run small group for our house for the church and there’s a member of our small group who’s going through some really bad, I guess, kind of chronic fatigue I guess is the way to describe it, which means that she’s not able to work and she’s such a lovely woman. She basically…her physical affliction and weakness has got to the point that she’s not even able to kind of brush her teeth properly or just do normal things and she’s living with her father who increases the stress which then makes her health worse which means she can’t…gets even more fatigued and the cycle continues. So, just wanted to say, for the purpose of confidentiality, we’ll name her A, the letter A, but if you could pray for her that would be absolutely amazing. But thanks very much everybody and I’ll update with you another time. Just let you know we’re praying for you all around the world. And thanks for this platform Brian and Jill and family. Take care. By now.
Hi this is Victoria soldier just calling tonight to pray for some of the DABbers. I wanted to pray for Scott who is dealing with emotional anxiety and mental health. I want to pray for you, I want to pray for Joy from Nashville who’s going through, and I also want to pray for Bridget having to do with their son, the son, the little 11-month-old that passed away. I want to pray for Sheila and I want to pray for Burning Bush and I want to pray for those who are going through emotional strongholds and those who are going through the strongholds of drugs and the stronghold that won’t let ho and won’t let them have their way in Christ. Gracious Father we just praise You today, we magnify You Lord. I thank You for the DABbers. I thank You for those who call because when they say that they call upon the Lord He shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not faint. Oh Lord we just ask You to touch those are who are going through mental health. Lord, You’re a God that can do anything but fail, You’re God that can just touch, You’re a God that can speak to the wind. You can sure speak to mental illness, You can sure deliver Lord, You can deliver from the uttermost __ . Lord there dealing with __ the family that lost that beautiful precious little of 11-month-old. Thank You, Lord for giving them that precious time with him, that he was so precious, that You loved him so much, that You gave them that time. We don’t understand what is happening, but we know that he’s in heaven and that he’s waiting for their parents to come one day and be with them. Lord You encourage them lord. You encourage them and You open doors for them Lord in the name of Jesus. You open doors for healing, You open doors for a greater You in them Lord. Oh Lord we ask You to touch Brian and his family. I ask You to touch…
I walk in circles around the yard and I do it every day sometimes I simply walk and think and sometimes I walk and pray and when I walk am not alone I’m walking with the Lord his Holy Spirit fills me up and his peace is my reward He said He’d keep in perfect peace the mind that’s stayed on Him and perfect peace is what I need when things start looking grim there’s evil present all around I feel like I’m boxed in I know I have to walk away to not get caught in sin help me Lord to boldly walk and know I’m not alone the peace Your Holy Spirit gives surpasses all I’ve known fill me Lord anoint me Lord I long to hear Your voice gently speak into my heart for making You first choice I’m not ashamed to lift You up my life’s an open book when asked if I believe the word You only have to look I try to practice what I preach to hold my lamp up hi so someone else can see God’s love with me just passing by but darkness doesn’t like the light or the clarity that light brings for those of us who love the light will walk like we have wings because truth is light and light is love and love will set You free Jesus is the light of God and all the world to me He said we sometimes have to flee we all have private hells do not stay and tempt Yourself by trying to test Yourselves I’ve been there done that always lost the power of sins to strong I know I’ve when I rely on Him I win and don’t go wrong and so I walk in circles and do it every day as I walk Lord please walk with me and help me not to stray
[email protected]. Like to give a shout out to Sherlock Washington and Kim. Thank you. I love you very much, you’re in my prayers every day. Also like to give a shout out to Walda the Burning Bush that will not be Consumed. Be nice to hear your voice…
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darveyfics · 7 years ago
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COuld you please write a 7.12 fic related please plaease im sorry for bothering you
So this is the scene of the two of them drinking together and listening to his father’s records. The one piece of context somebody might not know is that during a flashback to Harvey’s childhood in this episode Gordon’s band is playing a song called “Boppin’ with Donna”.
Sometimes I like to write a fic that starts on nothing and goes nowhere, you know, like the show. I hope it’s not too bad - Maria
Reticent
“Rememberwhen-”
“Ido.”
“Youdidn’t let me finish.”
Shechuckles, looks over at him with an eyebrow raised cockily “Really?”
Hersmugness stirs something beneath his chest, a warmth, a momentum only she canprovoke. It makes him feel guilty, the intimacy and precision in the way sheaffects him, dangerous. He swallows it down, dry and thick. Feigns indifferencehe figures she sees right through.
He rollshis eyes, “Sure, what was I saying?”
“Youwere going to ask if I remember another time we heard this song,” there’s notease in it but perhaps a little nostalgia, she understands his resistance tospar, she always understands.
Henods unspoken gratitude even though their agreements are supposed to beentirely elusive. A tired sighs pours out of him feeling the weight of theirrecent misunderstandings then, like fifty pounds sitting on his chest, stealinghis breath. He forces himself to shake it off “With my dad,” he meant todistract from the choking way he thinks about her now, in these increasinglyrare moments, like the two of them, as a unit, are fading, but it outs in awhisper like it is holy. In some ways, he figures it is.
“Withyour dad,” She agrees quietly, lovingly, a reflection of the sanctity in hisvoice refracted and divided like light into purer, more colorful sentiment.
Shehas always been better at this than he, better at feeling his feelings.
Therecord gasps and stops, saddling them with imperfect silence, the hum of thecity, ghosts and blurred edges. Harvey reaches over and lifts the needle beforeit can sing again.
Heleans back into the cushions, rolls his wrist until the amber in his tumblerspirals like a drain. His mind swirls and sinks with it, struck by a memory.
“Firsttime you heard it, right?” He asks almost sweetly; halting the swirl by rollingthe glass the other way he turns to her slowly.
Pastblends into present, he blames the scotch for seeing two of her overlapped. Oneexists minus ten years with longer hair and brighter clothes, bangs and a lotless complication; the other has been wearing black for the last week andhasn’t made him coffee in a year.
Hewonders who he would pick, fleetingly; knows without a doubt he would chooseher now, whenever now is. The most important thing has always been that she stays.
Donnasmiles, “Yeah, and he had the brass to say it was for me,” She reminisces,leaning forward. She pours herself another dose. The crystalline sound of thebottle touching the edge of glass ricochets across empty space prettily; theirtheme song.
“Itis your name in the title,” Harvey argues with faux gravity, still seeingdouble. In his mind’s eye, her dress is purple and his father’s voice ischarming, he never missed a beat with her.
“Itjust happens to precede my arrival by a couple of decades,” She counters.
Harveyscoffs, “Your arrival?”
Shenods “Yes, the amazing, life changing day, you met me,” she declares grandly.
He agreesbut cannot agree, “Seriously?”
Sheputs one hand on her chest, mouth agape, the picture of over-dramatic outrage“Oh, I’m sorry, we just established I was prophesied.”
“Inever said that.”
“Ithink you did.”
“No,I didn’t.”
Donnastraightens herself, crossing her legs and resting her hands on top of eachother on her knee, she stares him down seriously “Your honor, I think thedefendant is aiming for a perjury indictment.”
Harveysnorts a laugh, surprised as she sparks to life the old routine, there’sdelight but also an ache to it as they flex muscles they haven’t used forlonger than he had realized, “I believe the prosecution is distorting theevents,” he rebuttals setting down his glass to focus.
Donna narrows hereyes, pretends to look down at imaginary papers and push up glasses she doesn’tneed, “Mr. Specter, do you deny the day you met me was life changing?”
Harvey rolls hiseyes, “Really?” He whines.
“Plead the fifth?”She offers defiantly.
“Coward’s move andyou know it,” he chastises.
“If the shoe fits,”she says, reaching for her glass and taking a sip that does not break eyecontact. He watches the glimmer of humor in her hazel eyes and only marginallyremembers this is exactly what he was supposed to be avoiding.
“Whether you did ordidn’t is not the point, the point is I never said it,” he argues smugly.
“Well, well,” Donnastarts, leaning back with poise and pride, resting her forearms on the arms ofthe chair and drumming her fingers on the edges reflexively, “I see we havelowered ourselves to technicalities. Cheap.”
Harvey smiles, “Aslong as it gets results.”
“No honor,” she nods disapprovingly,though a laugh is edging behind her lips.
It is something elsehe has not seen in a while, this specific expression, he wonders if they reallyhave been fading or if he just hasn’t been paying attention. Which reminds him.
“My father did writea song for you,” he blurts out.
Donna lets the laughfly, he has heard it plenty but it is still welcoming warm familiarity, “No, hedidn’t,” She tells him like it is sure and obvious, like he has had too much todrink.
“He did,” Harveyinsists, wondering how he could forget, though maybe he is stretching thetruth, “He kinda did,” He corrects himself.
Donna raises aneyebrow, sustaining her suspicion “Kinda?”
“He never recorded it.It was a draft,” he reveals, “He said he got inspired out of the blue one day,”Harvey sinks into the memory, he himself only heard it once.
It was at his father’sapartment during a damp New York summer afternoon and they had run out of otherthings to talk about. Gordon hesitated to play him the song, kept explaining himself.Harvey mostly thought it was funny, “He asked me not to tell you,” He hadn’tand then it had never come up again, “I’m sorry, I forgot,” he apologizes and turnsto find her eyes, they’re glossed over with unshed tears. He blinks andrealizes so were his when wet warmth rolls down his cheeks.
“Did he write itdown?” It moves the very ground he stands on that that is the first thing sheasks, that she misses his father too.
It hurts all the moreto have to answer, “If he did, I never found it.”
She sighs, “If you do,it’s mine,” assertive but kind.
He sees the purple dressagain and bright red hair cascading over it as she throws her head back tolaugh at Gordon’s blunt flirting, “Of course,” he whispers so gravely it feelsmore binding than any contract. He could not deny her most things, much lessthis.
Donna nods, takes adeep breath and lets it out slowly, “You really killed the casual mood,” shejabs.
Harvey smiles, shakeshis head, “Sorry.”
“It’s okay, I wantedto know, I just wish you hadn’t done the job halfway,” she says it between asmile, it is a joke, an absolution, but he can see the edge of disappointmentin her eyes. He cannot read them as perfectly but that is a look he has alwaysbeen afraid of and paradoxically only grown more familiar with. He needs to dissolveher ache.
“Hey,” he whispers,reaching for one of her hands and stopping short of touching, they have kissedand hugged but he doesn’t know where they draw this new line, if meaning it toomuch violates its borders, “I am sorry,” he tells it from his core and watchesher drink it into hers.
“It’s okay,” sheanswers, her fingers tremble, itching to bridge the gap between them, insteadshe recoils not wanting the blame for breaking them again just for trying toinch closer, “It’s okay.”
They are too tangled,metaphorically, sometimes he wonders if he can even shake her off withouthollowing himself out, wonders if she feels the same. He is selfish enough towish she does, it would mean some kind of barrier from the searing pain ofbeing left. He is selfless enough to also wish she doesn’t for a chance tonever hurt her again with his careless needs.
He should not be thinkingabout any of that, “We finished the bottle,” he points out flatly, stealing aglance at the half inch of scotch left inside the glass.
She follows his gaze,“We almost did,” Donna says andreaches for the neck, downs the rest in one gulp, “There, now it’s done,” Hewatches with bemused surprise as she sets the empty Macallan back on his centretable, turns it between her fingers to ponder the label, “At least it was justa 12 year.”
“You say that like itmakes us less drunk,” he remarks, covering her hand on the bottle with hiswithout thinking, without pretense, just to turn it to him so he can also read.Hers falls away a second later, he wonders if it means she is afraid to touchhim now, hopes not.
“It doesn’t,” sheagrees, “I think I’m tired,” she says and points it with a yawn.
“You think?” Harveysmiles affectionately, “Are you brewing a hangover?” He asks, mildly worried.He knows scotch can upset her stomach and that she hates to vomit, he alsoknows she has some secret hangover cure she never told him about because itwould ‘encourage his bad habits’. How the tables have turned; he is barelydizzy.
“Are you asking thatas my boss or my friend?” She interrogates, side eyeing him suspiciously.
“Both,” because he isboth, needs her there tomorrow morning but also cares if she will be miserablethe entire night.
“I’ll be late, butI’ll be fine,” she bargains.
His eyebrows knighttogether, “You don’t have to come in,” the complacency is immediate, so muchfor thinking he can accept her misery.
One corner of herlips pulls up, she wants to say that is not the business-wise decision “I’ll behere,” she reassures him instead. She is a little disappointed in herself forbeing so averse to letting him down even in small ways.
Donna smoothes outthe skirt of her dress and stands on surer legs than the half bottle she drank wouldhave anyone guess.
“Already?Lightweight,” He teases, sneaking a glance at his watch, a quarter to midnight.
“I thought you had tobe home an hour ago,” She bites back, the implication is a double-edged sword,reminds him he has someone waiting; reminds her that she does not.
Harvey presses hislips together and watches his hands intently. She sighs, taking pity on him,like always.
“Sorry, I need Advil,”she breathes out tiredly.
He nods, “You’reright,” he says without meeting her eyes, “Good night.”
Donna considers him,them. She is tired and dizzy and has a headache brewing behind her eyes; it isnot her job to heal him, it never really was, “You know, I was wondering,” Shestarts and waits until he looks at her again, “Would I make a good lawyer?” ahand outstretched, it isn’t her job,she volunteers to save him.
Harvey allows himselfa small smile, “Thinking about going to law school?”
She scoffs, “God no.”
His eyebrows shootup,”Excuse me?”
She rolls her eyes,“You know what I mean.”
He does. He takes apause to think on it “You wouldn’t,” he answers earnestly.
She is mildlysurprised; Donna narrows her eyes at him, “Not smart enough?” As if, she isfishing and he knows it, she wants him to know it.
Harvey snorts alaugh, “You’d overachieve I’m sure,” it is what she wanted to hear, theexpected, but he isn’t done “Too good,” He adds, “You’re… too good,” headmits softly, with candid admiration.
Her breath hitches,he can do that sometimes, when it’s almost midnight and he knows she will dohim the courtesy of not bringing it up in the morning.
“You’re a goodperson, Harvey,” their lives might be easier if she could not read him sofluently.
He presses his lipstogether and shifts his eyes to the floor, index anxiously thrumming the glassstill in his hand, “Not always,” he made a lot of mistakes, can’t tell whichone is knocking on his conscience the loudest right now, “Not like you.”
“Well,” she startsgood-naturedly, “Nobody is like me,” Donna brags jokingly.
Harvey smiles andshakes his head “I’ll drink to that,” he announces and empties his tumbler.
She watches and sighs,feeling the prickle of the headache intensify, “Now it’s good night.”
He nods, “It is,” heagrees without looking.
She can feel histhoughts, his regrets, makes it hard to detach, “Are you okay enough toremember your address?” She teases, hanging back, a subtle way to ask if he isokay.
He snorts, “Sharp asa razor, I just…” he lingers, deciding if he wants to keep her “I think I’lllisten to a few more,” He admits, “Since nobody else will from now on.”
He hardly ever makesit easy on her.
Donna sighs, crossinghis office to pour herself a glass of water. She takes a pill from her bag nextto it and swallows it down with one sip, then moves to the window where therecords are stacked and lifts two of her favorites, “Which one?”
Harvey almost offersher an out, but there is no point in pretending he does not still need herthere, that he didn’t choose the words to make her stay “Left,” he picks andshifts on his seat, reaching for it.
She pulls the vinyloff the sleeve and hands it to him, waits until he gently trades the one on therecord player for it before going back to her seat. Once she’s settled Harveylets the needle drop and his office fills with his father’s music.
“I miss him,” hewhispers like he is trying to hide the confession in between the notes.
Donna closes hereyes, leans her head back until she’s facing the ceiling and breathes it in, “Iknow,” she answers.
They don’t speakagain except to mumble simple goodbyes an hour later, giving life permission togo on unhinged at dawn.
Being understood isenough.
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