#kinda one note evil and mysterious for the sake of being evil and mysterious

[cringefail-clown]

mmmn bingo.. how abouuut.. mituna, latula, and kurloz

MITUNA:

LATULA:

KURLOZ:

[whothehellisoli]

ok, alastor thought/theory dump:

i think HIS magic is the green. i see why it could by the color of his deal but the chain he had on husk was green and based off valentino and angel it’s safe to assume the chain color is the overlords. i think all green magic is his.

however when his eyes go all radio dial creepy they turn black, which, in my opinion, shows his soul isn’t his when he’s using his powers, similar to how angel only has one black eye because valentino only owns his soul in the studio.

it’s honestly a confusing mix, when he uses his powers his soul isn’t his, but they are HIS powers. so i think it’s most likely he sold his soul to make it easier to gain power on his own. he’s not stupid, if he got power through a deal the deal maker now has an element of control over his power. so he cuts corners, and with the help of presumably lilith, becomes more and more powerful.

if the deal was the source of his power he wouldn’t say that getting out of it will let him “pull the strings.” he wouldn’t even WANT out of it, his only motivation that we are certain of atm is power and control, and yes his deal takes his control but if it gives him his power losing that would take BOTH.

i think a crucial bit of information were missing is when did this deal happen and how does husk know. (and why didn’t alastor kill him but that’s vaguely explainable)

was it when he first got down? young and dumb and selling his soul, which would explain how he made such a big splash so quick? or was it seven years ago? gaining power at the expense of leaving hell with lilith to do god knows what?

i think it’s far more likely to have been when he first got to hell, and lilith was able to exercise her control over him to get him to leave with her. obviously his place in the hotel isn’t because he’s bored, that’s been made clear several times. so why?

it’s possible it’s part of his deal with lilith but she’s still such a mystery i don’t think it’s safe to say anything about her. alastor said in ep 7 that charlie was powerful, being on her side was a good bet, and he could mold her. based on that and his presumably genuine interest in everyone, i think he’s choosing to be there. it’s chess, moves and counter moves, etc. he stays at the hotel and he isn’t lying when he calls it his latest project. he’s just lying about why. he saw naive charlie on tv and knew she would welcome him in, hence his evil little grin. that’s HIS choice, not liliths.

now, for his monologue in the tower. i’m going to be working off the idea everything in the song was an intentional decision and not made for the sake of sounding good.

“this place reeks of death, there’s a chill in the air” that seems like filler, painting the scenery, but i don’t think so. i think it’s meant to show he cares about the hotel and the people in it. he can physically FEEL the tragedy affecting him. he might not be as distraught about it as someone else, but he does care.

“i barley escaped being KILLED by a hair” he put emphasis of killed while singing, that’s the key take away. he almost died. he’s coming to terms with the limit of his power and it’s driving him insane. and i think it’s important to note that… he kinda, didn’t? almost die? his microphone broke (which does show power far greater that him) and he got thrown against the wall. that’s hardly enough to kill someone. he’s been untouchable most if not all of his time in hell, so this fight was a brutal reminder he IS vulnerable. he told adam he though he was tougher than him. tougher that the first ever soul and someone only lucifer was able to take down. his ego definitely got killed but i think this line shows he’s never really processed the idea of losing.

“‘alastor altruist died for his friends’” if you watch with captions you can see that line is in quotation marks. someone else is saying that, meaning he thinks the general perception of what happened will be that his reason for almost dying is to save the people in the hotel. but that’s just the words, next step is his facial expression. his eyes are wide and darting around, he’s gripping his face, he’s TERRIFIED. love is a weakness, he’s not just feeling weak (which IS part of why he’s spiraling), he’s being perceived as weak, which is so much worse. he’s losing his control and needs it back, leading to:

“sorry to disappoint, that is not how this ends.” there’s a couple things with this line. the Vs and other overlords will be disappointed because he’s not dead and his “friends” (his word, not mine, but i think it fits) will be disappointed he’s not willing to die for them like they maybe assumed he did. “not how this ends” is obvious, he didn’t die, so his rein didn’t end. but pulling back to his desperation in this scene, he’s angry, his latest power grab isn’t working out, but it will.

“i’m hungry for freedom like never before, the constraints of my deal surely have a back door ” again with the desperation, the fear, not sure if mania is the right word but it’s what comes to mind. he’s scrambling. but at the same time, how did his deal almost make him die?? he wants out of it, hence why i said i doubt it gives him his powers, so it must in some way limit his powers? but why would he make a deal that hinders him? again, this is why i think when he first got to hell he sold his soul to make it easier to gain his own power. but in some way his power isn’t HIS. it still is on a leash.

“once i figure out how to unclip my wings, guess who will be pulling all the strings” is showing us how he is still very VERY much power driven, and will stop at nothing to get control. he may be bound now, but in season two i think we’re gonna see a lot of him trying various means to break deals. i doubt he will be the big boss at the end of the season, but he’s playing his own game, and he is CRACKING. he’ll be violent, have an even quicker temper, charlie is going to try to help him but he’ll refuse. his mouth is sewn shut, so he can’t say WHY he’s so upset, but everyone will know something is wrong.

good GOD that was long

TLDR: “i think when he first got to hell he sold his soul to make it easier to gain his own power. but in some way his power isn’t HIS. it still is on a leash.”

[typingatlightspeed]

Extras - The Extreme Path Omake

Omake, meaning bonus! Some translation notes, name meanings, references, and stuff for The Extreme Path. If there's anything I haven't covered you're curious about, lemme know and I'll add it onto this baby! :D

NAME MEANINGS:

Morimoto (森本) - mori (森) means "forest", while moto (本) means "origin", making the surname loosely mean "from the forest". Perfect for a family of woodland critters!

Shigeru (茂) - means "lush" or "luxuriant", which seems right for a fancy bon vivant like Spy. I'll be honest though I didn't even occur to me until the day of writing (9/11/24) that Morimoto Shigeru sounds kinda like Miyamoto Shigeru (yanno the Mario guy) and I promise you that was an accident.

Yoko (洋子) - yo (洋) means "ocean" and ko (子) means "child".

Kenji (堅志) - ken (堅) means "firm, tough, or strict", and ji (志) means "purpose or ambition".

Yamabane (山羽) - yama (山) means "mountain" and hane (羽) means "feather". (Hane is pronounced bane when it's added onto a compound word, going from an unvoiced to a voiced syllable.)

Kazuhiro (一浩) - kazu (一) means "one", or in this case "a certain person", and hiro (浩) means "prosperous"

Yamamori (山森) - means "mountain forest", which also combines the first characters of Yoko and Kazhuro's surnames!

Henrik Koopman - Henrik means "home ruler", and wasn't picked for its meaning so much as I liked the sound of it. Koopman however means "merchant". Career-appropriate nomenclature!

Umino Himeko - (海野 姫子) - Umi (海) means "ocean", no (野) means "field, or area", hime (姫) means "princess", and ko (子) means "child". So when Henrik calls Himeko "princess" he's not just being a sweetie, he's also using a pet name based on her actual name.

Henri Renard - Henri, Spy took in honour of his late husband, as Henri is the Francophile form of Henrik. Renard is French for "fox".

Makai (魔界) - means "evil world" or "demon world", and comes from Buddhism. Per Wikipedia: "...it is the opposite of the Buddha world, and can refer to the four heavens above desire. The synonym Makyo (魔境, 魔境) is sometimes used to mean a mysterious and frightening place or a place that tempts people, such as a red-light district. ... As a metaphor, the Makai is sometimes used to refer to a place where legends about vengeful spirits, monsters, sorcery, etc. remain. ... In fantasy and legend-based fiction, it is often depicted as another world inhabited by demons, monsters, etc." Traditionally Yakuza families are named for their founding patriarch, so who knows if this family breaks the trend, or if a youkai who took the surname Makai was its founder way back when?

Yakuza (ヤクザ) - literally means "eight, nine, three", which is the worst hand one can get in the card game Oicho-Kabu, which works a lot like Baccarat. (I love it it's a lot of fun.) Much of the yakuza originally started as illegal gambling dens, hence a losing hand like that might end up with you oweing the crime family who runs the joint a LOT of money.

The Extreme Path - Yakuza typically don't call themselves "yakuza". They refer to themselves and what they do as "gokudo" (極道), meaning "the extreme path". If you note, Spy, being an ex-yakuza (though never banished nor actually expelled from the family so technically he still is one as far as the family's concerned) calls it that when he's speaking Japanese.

Aniki (兄貴) - means "older brother". The yakuza use familiar terms for one another. For the sake of the reader this and kyodai were the only ones I didn't translate, since the vibe is very different between how yakuza use those words and how civilians use them. Typically a yakuza will refer to a member of their family who is senior to them as Aniki as a title of respect, assuming they don't have a title within the family. You wouldn't call the captain Aniki, you'd call him captain (Kashira), for example.

Kyodai (兄弟) - means "brother" or "sibling", and typically is not used to address a person directly. Unless you're yakuza and they're your sworn brother. Also used to refer as a group to the upper level yakuza in a family. The "made men" to put it in mafia terms.

Patriarch - Localized from Oyabun (親分) meaning "adoptive father" and Oyaji (親父) meaning "father (informal, masculine)", used to refer to the head of a yakuza family.

Captain - Localized from waka-gashira (若頭), literally meaning "junior head". The second-in-command of a yakuza family, tasked with carrying out the oyabun's wishes. When addressed, it's usually as Kashira or [Name]-gashira.

Lieutenant - Localized from shatei-gashira (舎弟頭) literally meaning "younger brother head", the guy in charge of the boys directly, basically.

-han - In Kansai-ben, the dialect of Japanese spoken in the Kansai region, which is where Osaka is, the suffix -san is often said as -han instead. If you notice, while the Morimoto triplets and the yakuza speak Kansai-ben, which I wrote with a rougher tone (true to its cultural perception as being super informal and almost a lil rude), Kazuhiro and Sniper speak standard Japanese, hence they both use -san when appending that suffix onto people's names.

NAME REFERENCES:

Nagoshi - Named for Nagoshi Toshihiro, who is the creator of the Ryu Ga Gotoku game series, known in the west as Yakuza and Like A Dragon (they've been rebranding recently, "Ryu Ga Gotoku" means "Like A Dragon" so they're just kinda making the names uniform), which I am obsessed with, and actively inspired SO MUCH of this story, particularly the entry set in the lead-up to the Boshin War, "Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! Kiwami", the remake of which finally came to English and sparked the brainworms that became this story, lol. So you can blame him for all of this, basically. I've wanted to set a story with Spy in Japan for literal years, but Ishin! made me pull the trigger.

Ugaki Goro - Ugaki comes from Ugaki Hidenari, the voice actor of Majima Goro, from the Ryu Ga Gotoku series. Majima's absolutely my blorbo so I had to make the reference. Also, honestly, the way I describe Ugaki Goro ended up looking a little teeny bit like Ugaki Hidenari by accident. Wonder if he's a voice-acting kawauso!

Daito Shigeki - Daito comes from Daito Shunsuke, voice actor of Baba Shigeki from RGG 5, a character with conflicting loyalties! Daito Shigeki's weren't so conflicted, turns out.

Sawamura Kazuma - Sawamura comes from Sawamura Haruka, precious adoptive daughter of Kiryu Kazuma, the main character of the RGG series and good good boy who I love so much.

Kanda - Named for one of the skeeziest motherfuckers in the RGG series, Kanda Tsuyoshi.

Ugaki Rie - Rie comes from Kugimiya Rie, voice actor of Sawamura Haruka.

Kasuga Akira - Kasuga comes from Kasuga Ichiban, main character of RGG 7 and 8 and good good boy, and Akira comes from Nishikiyama Akira, villain of RGG 1 and sworn brother of Kiryu Kazuma, and fallen good boy. Ichiban and Nishiki are voiced by the same actor, Nakaya Kazuhiro.

Kuroda Akio - Kuroda comes from Kuroda Takaya, voice actor of Kiryu Kazuma. Akio comes from Outsuka Akio, voice actor of Adachi Kouichi from RGG 7 and 8, one of my favourite characters, as well as Isami Kondo in RGG Ishin! Kiwami.

FLOWER MEANINGS:

Asters - Rememberance, I won't forget you

Spider Lilies - Death, never seeing someone again, abandonment

Lavender - Faithfulness, loyalty

[princess-schez]

Fic: Sweet Dreams, Beautiful Nightmare - Chapter 7

Warnings: Some language, and just a short chapter overall. (Sorry) Genre: Bill Cipher/Reader fanfic Summary: The Reader has been plagued by violent nightmares for as long as she can remember. Deciding to move to Oregon for a simpler pace of life, it is there she meets the dream demon himself and begins to unravel a mystery connecting them both. Notes: N/A Fic under cut below.

Chapter 7. “He is very bad news,” Dipper said, waving his hands in emphasis before crossing them over his chest. Mabel, with a dreamy look still in her eyes, stated, "It's adorable that he has a crush on you," as Dipper looked at her skeptically. “All I know, it was just weird as hell,” you said as Dipper and Mabel joined you in your room, sitting on the floor beside the bed. “What else did he say or do?” Dipper asked. You rubbed your neck. “Uh, well, that was it,” you lied. You had purposefully omitted specific details of the encounter with Bill, knowing it wasn’t appropriate for two young teens. “Well, he said ‘those aren’t simply nightmares’ before he left, so I don’t know what to make of that.” The twins looked at you quizzically, and your face felt warm again. “I—I’ve had strange dreams as long as I can remember, and since I first decided to move to Oregon, they’ve only gotten worse. They’re so vivid, and it’s just—” “What are they about?” Mabel asked. “I don’t know. It’s like I’m viewing it from my perspective, but something is off too. Like, I’m not me per se. And there’s usually fire and destruction around me like the world is ending. And I feel like I’m always dying.” The twins shot a worried look at each other before looking at you again, each saddened by your words. “And this one I just had involved some weird deer-headed woman. She killed me in it.” “Huntokar?” Dipper asked. “Yeah!” you replied. “I remember hearing that name, too. Like over and over.” “That is weird,” the boy replied. “Somehow, that monster is tied to you and—” “Ooh, another mystery to solve!” Mabel interjected. “But,” she added, suddenly saddened, “you have to go. Don’t you?” Oh crap, you thought. In everything that had happened in the short time you were here, you quickly forgot that you still needed to get to your destination. “I must admit, I kinda want to figure out what all this means. And I don’t have to leave right away. And only if it’s okay with your grunkles if I stay longer.” “YES!” Mabel fist-pumped the air. Dipper looked happy, but kept his emotions more in check than his sister’s. “I’m sure they wouldn’t have a problem with it,” he laughed. “So, uh, what is the deal with Bill, anyway? Like, what is he exactly?” you asked. The atmosphere’s tone quickly changed from one of fun to one more solemn. You were curious about him. From what you had seen—and experienced firsthand—he didn’t seem all too bad. Besides, he was a triangle, for fuck’s sake; how bad could he be? The twins shot another look at one another. “Bill... Bill is a demon,” Dipper replied. “A terrible and very powerful one at that.” “A what?” “A demon.” You raised an eyebrow, not expecting that response at all. A demon? You thought demons were just stories meant to scare people, not sentient beings in the shape of a geometry problem. But as it was, you now had one very powerful, evil demon that was also hella horny for you out and about in the world. Yeah. You always were able to attract the weird ones. As you processed this revelation, you watched as Dipper excused himself and came back a moment later carrying three heavy books. Setting them down on the bed next to you, he grabbed one, flipping through the pages until he found what he was looking for. Then, turning the book to you, you saw the page he had opened. A handwritten entry with sketches portraying the triangular demon and the words, “Do not summon at all costs,” was written across the bottom in bold lettering. Worry made your stomach turn as you ran a finger across the splotches that decorated the pages. “What is this?” you asked, taking the book from Dipper to get a better look at it. “Is that... blood?” “They’re journals our Grunkle Ford made, chronicling the weirdness of this town and his encounters with it,” Dipper replied. “This is his entry on Bill Cipher.” “And we’re pretty sure that is blood splatter on it,” his sister added, a look of disgust on her face. “We almost lost these during Weirdmageddon... well, we did lose them; Bill destroyed them. But after we thought Bill was defeated and everything went back to normal, the journals came back again.” Your eyes scanned over the pages, hardly believing it. You flipped through the journal, each section stranger than the last. Gnomes. Zombies. Demons. A cold feeling settled over you as you handed it back to Dipper. This demon seemed to know something about you you didn’t. And that worried you because it also somehow tied into this other monster, Huntokar. “What do you think he wants with me?” you asked, trying to keep the nerves out of your voice. “Don’t know. Bill always has an angle,” Dipper replied, a slight smile pulling on his mouth at the pun. “But Bill can’t be trusted. That we know for sure.” “I’m not gonna lie; I’m scared of what this all means and how it’s connected to me.” The twins quickly hugged you, and you were grateful for it. Despite having known them for only a short time, you felt as if you knew them forever. “We’ll figure this out,” Mabel said comfortingly, pulling away to look at you. Her eyes sparkled with confidence and enthusiasm. “Thanks.” You ruffled up her hair a bit. From downstairs, you heard their Grunkle Ford calling up to them. “Do you guys wanna go out for lunch?” “YES!” they yelled back.“We’ll explain Weirdmageddon to you at the restaurant,” Dipper added. “And we can ask them about you staying longer.” “Okay, cool,” you replied as you followed the kids down the stairs. ____ AO3 / Wattpad Chapter 6 / Chapter 8

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 - Disc 8

Another mysterious appearance by a main character looking dude on the inner flap of this volume. He kinda looks like that Ryo guy from the Adventure 02 Ken flashbacks. Guess I'll find out...

Side note: apparently Arkadimon won 3rd place in the Japanese popularity poll? How!? He's literally the most boring digimon ever!

Ch. 46

-How are we on the final battle already if there's a whole other volume after this one? Either this isn't the final battle and they'll pull some "secret final boss" nonsense (it is the Digimon way) OR vol. 9 will just be like epilogue stuff. I'd prefer the latter

-In the scanlation I'm reading Taichi says "attacks won't work on Arkadimon, let's try direct attacks!" I kinda got what they were going for, but it's a bad translation, so I looked at the original Japanese. They use 必殺技 (hissatsuwaza) and 直接 (chokusetsu). So, special attacks don't work, but direct attacks do. Kinda like when you can't use magic on some enemies in games.

Ch. 47

-You see, ripping up Zero's wings and stabbing him through the chest has kind of lost all impact at this point. Not only is this a kid's manga so I know he'll be okay, but also we've already seen him recover from those specific injuries before.

-Gabo and Rei are cute together, I could see them as protagonist/partner in an alternate version of this story.

Ch. 48

-Wow, they're really going hard with this "rock bottom" moment. I know things will turn out okay, but if I was a dumb 8 year old who's never read anything like this before, I might be kinda shook

-Neo continues to be a flat character. You would think adding his sister to the story as a good guy would cause him to have some kind of inner conflict, but he's just evil for the sake of evil and his sister being around has had zero impact. Boooo

Ch. 49

-Not much happened in this chapter, they just explained how the Dot Matrix attack works and prepared to fight Neo's army. Zero is in the ICU and Taichi's basically catatonic. I feel like the level of despair being conveyed by Taichi is a little more than we ever saw in the anime. Manga always tends to be an edgier medium.

Ch. 50

-This whole time I've been calling him "Leomon," but he was actually Panyamon (the white reskin). Also, Dominimon is new...not as badass looking as Seraphimon

-The "all digimon give Zero strength" scene was a good opportunity to bring back some one-off background characters. Cute to see that some of them have digivolved too.

Ch. 51

-Okay, I'm not crazy for thinking it was Leomon because they literally call him "Leo" lol

-Kinda don't like how Zero and Taichi are the "chosen ones" and no one else can even scratch Arkadimon. It would be more interesting if they worked as real team where everyone balances each other out. I guess why they don't do solo MCs in the anime...

Omake - Hot Blooded!

-So I was right, we get a crossover with Ryo due to a Wonderswan promotion. It's nice to see a different MC design for once! He kind of reminds me of Lloyd Irving

-This was shorter and had a sillier tone than the other crossovers. It was kind of stupid that they defeated Demon's henchman via "hot bloodedness," but it was funny how equally matched Taichi and Ryo were in personality.

-I wish we could have seen more of -checks wiki- Monodramon. I really like his design. Very Spyro the Dragon.

I can't believe there's only one more volume left! I feel like I zoomed through this. As far as I can tell, Digimon really isn't known for its manga, so it's been interesting to see some of the neglected bits of the franchise. It's definitely a kids and super fans only kinda situation because neither the plot or characters are that deep or unique. I guess that makes a nice brain-off read though.

[monstrousmuse]

See, THIS is why I think that Bill and Mabel should have been friends. (some silly musings)

If only Bill had put aside his arrogance and evil-schemes-involving-dimensional-conquest-and-eternal-partying for like. ONE episode…A real bond could have been established between them. They could have been the World's Most Fabulous And Chaotic Dynamic Duo. Ford would be even more done with Bill at this point.

…

I am aware that Alex Hirsch has stated on numerous occasions that there are deliberate parallels between Bill and Mabel; in the DVD commentary for Sock Opera, for instance:

"Bill genuinely believes that Mabel's kinda like him. He sees Mabel as a chaos agent. Like, Mabel has got a little bit of a seed of anarchy in her, she's a little bit selfish, she likes to have fun at whatever cost. And Bill is all those things times a billion. (…) And he's not wrong in seeing that side in Mabel but Mabel is a better person than Bill Cipher.”

This is as good a time as any to also mention the fact that many people have also picked up on the thematic links between the Nightmare Realm and Mabeland, and have written some pretty awesome metas on the subject.

…

It just makes me wonder what would have happened if Bill and Mabel were given the chance to interact more, without the overt antagonism and conflict. Other than being kindred spirits with a shared love for all things eccentric and Absurd (yes, in my mind, I do differentiate between Mabel’s Absurd and Dipper and Ford’s Weird), I am sure that Mabel would love to have asked Bill all sorts of questions about life, artistic expression, pop culture, town gossip, girl talk, etc, etc. Mabel is a natural extrovert and friendly interrogator, and Bill is a natural talker and unhappy-loner-who-lies-about-being-unhappy-and-lonely; they would get along like two glitter-coated peas in an alien space pod.

…

Oh, and how could I forget? In the Bottomless Pit segment ‘Truth Ache’, we see that Mabel is not averse to reading through Ford’s Journal on her own and formulating ideas and plans based upon what she reads, i.e. replacing Stan’s dentures with the Truth Teeth in order to prevent him from lying so often. Where am I going with this? Well, I headcanon that over the course of the summer, Mabel spent some amount of time looking through the Journal, either with Dipper or on her own, and most definitely came across the entries that detailed Ford’s encounters and connection with Bill.

…

Now, Mabel being Mabel, I can almost guarantee that she would have had immediate questions about why the Author kept referring to the Evil Triangle that had been on their case all summer as ‘(his) Muse’, or why the Author claimed that he was ‘attracted to the strange’ and ‘preferred dreams with (his) Muse’, or why he named a freaking constellation after ‘(his) Muse’. Because to Mabel, all of these things would just sound like the sort of cheesy, elaborate and often hyperbolic romantic gestures that one of her Dream Boys would act out in her favourite romance films. (Side Note: these things could absolutely be viewed through a queerplatonic or alterous lens, but for the sake of comedy, we’re going with romantic.)

…

She would automatically want to know more about this mysterious relationship between the Author and the Triangle; why it seemed to end in such tragedy; whether or not Bill was lying about how he felt towards the Author, later identified as her very own Grunkle (he was, that much was obvious); if there was anything she could do to fix things because yeah sure Bill has committed some terrible, terrible atrocities but maybe, just maybe, some part of her could get through to him because her Great-Uncle Ford used to write about him with such tenderness and reverence and seemed to genuinely admire him and had borne witness to a kinder side to him once upon a time (tea…chess…gum…magic…it can’t have all been a lie) and Bill himself seemed unable to work through his own feelings surrounding the whole situation so perhaps she could help because she’s Mabel Pines and that’s what she does and no one else will-

And thus, the Bill Pestering would commence.

“Scrap-book-ortunity”

as Mabel would say.

[nocek]

Don't spare us the long rant! We want to hear your thoughts!

Oh you are going to regret this ;P

So here goes my loooooooong angry rant about Taskmaster and also the Black Widow movie in general.

Let's start with my point of comparison. Captain America the Winter Soldier was a good movie. It's still in my top 3 Marvel movies as I'm sure is for many people. And statistically speaking everybody likes Bucky. He is like the most beloved side character right after Loki. I guess.

Anyway. My point is that Taskmaster and Winter Soldier have bit for bit the exact same building blocks: hypercompetent antagonist that is a serious threat to our hero who just can't win with in one on one combat. But then plot twist: our antagonist was just a victim and puppet without free will in hands of actual villain who is bland bureaucrat.

So why did Winter Soldier worked really really well and Taskmaster was just ehh.. ok?

Well the short answer is that catws was a much tighter movie that had clearer goal (and also that goal/theme was singular: good things get corrupted with time and sometimes you get to start over) compared to black widow which had to jump through too many hoops and still somehow managed it but it wasn't as graceful as it would be if they (as in executives) resigned from one or two hoops and flips and explosions.

And I'm omitting a BIG disadvantage of making a prequel movie about a character that they killed off in shitty way. Though that created one of extra hoops for them to jump through: quickly build up Yelena as a character.

And character build they did. Because srsly Yelena is awesome and I love her. BUT. That came at a price.

Lets compare to catws. The new character there is Sam (and kiiiiiiiinda also Natasha a bit but that's a topic for a different rant) who is nowhere near as well build as Yelena. At the beginning. Because he had time to be fleshed out and naturally grow in few different movies and then we got a deep dive in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But Marvel can't give Yelena few movies because she will appear in Hawkguy an Hawkeye series and also Marvel is generally dividing their assets into: outer spaaaace, down to earth heros and magic stuff (aliens, androids and wizards ;P). But also they can only create so many things in a year.

So yeah. Yelena offtopic can be summarized that I love that we have her as we have her but it came at a cost of air time of the movie.

So comparing the movies again:

Catws had the theme of good things being corrupted with time. And the theme was underlined 3 times through Peggy, Bucky and then Shield/Hydra. Which are interconnected and also make nice scale from inner conflict of the main character to the outer conflict of the movie.

In Black Widow there is the topic of the past evil that never went away and is still taking away free will from people. And again we have it shown through 3 outlets: Yelena, Taskmaster and Black Widows. But there is also whole family subplot attached to Yelena and there is Red Room attached to Black Widows. So as you can see things are getting crowded. Which in turn make the theme a bit blurry.

I mean, sure, the Red Room should be the Shield equivalent. Even it could take smaller space because good Shield turns out to be evil Hydra is generally more time consuming to explain than Red Room bad. But still combining Red Room and Black Widows make things a bit crowded.

(There is a reason why the surprise subplot of there is more Winter Soldiers was in separate movie and was kinda handwaved and cut to minimum. But they couldn't do that here).

But it's time to stop my ranting about whole Black Widow movie and focus on comparing Taskmaster and Winter Soldier.

Because to be honest both are bare bones of character and more of an carte blanche in the movie. Both have barely any screen time yet there are colossal difference which stems out of:

first introduction: as I mentioned they are hypercompetent and unstoppable threat that you can't win with, you can only hope to run away (both done equally well)

programmable killing machine:

For Taskmaster we just get a scene with her watching other heroes fighting at the screen. For the sake of building up the mystery of character we think that "he" is just watching. Maybe learning or more likely just being creepy. The information about the chip and literal programming is given to us much later in the movie which makes this scene lose the power. idk how it will work on rewatch? Maybe better? Hopefully. right now there is too many new movies in cinemas to go for a rewatch and disney+ still isn't available here -.-

For Bucky we have literal torture scene. You just can't be more blunt than that. It also hammered the next point in.

there is human behind the mask:

Winter Soldier is introduced with full face mask which he gradually loses and then we have the big reveal of not only: that's a human but also that's a human our main hero cares about deeply.

With Taskmaster they fucked up it for chap plot twist. We are learning quite late that oh snap that's Antonia (that we don't really care about) and our main hero kinda feels guilty about her.

I think the big difference is what kind of character Steve and Nat are and also the way they reveal this secret. Steve actively recognizes Bucky by himself and is very openly shocked. Nat is passively told and shown that hey, this is Antonia. And there is no time in the movie for Nat (and for us) to be shocked because that's the 3rd act and we need time for explosions and stuff.

Besides, the problem is that all the big plot twist reveals are boring on rewatch (stil big props for Pacific Rim and giving us the monster reveal in like second minute of the movie, I will never not appreciate that).

Also on related shitty note. We the audience. Bucky is handsome and vulnerable and we can drool all over him (and oh man, we the fandom did a fair share of drooling). Antonia is disfigured and not sexualized in any way. Which I'm actually grateful for but there is no pretending that doesn't make a hell lot of difference. But that's a whole different, ugly and big topic I'm not remotely qualified to write about. I'm just angry ranting here.

they don't have free will:

For Winter Soldier we have amnesia + torture tropes which to be honest have been done over and over again and it shouldn't have worked as well as it worked. Bit it did. In context of Black Widow movie it worked because it was just one guy that actively broke through brainwashing with active help of the hero.

In Black Widow there is a lot of characters that are pasively "woken up" out of mind control over and over again by active protagonist. Unfortunately the repetition kinda cheapens it. Especially in comparison to main gut punch right in the feels scene in the other movie. Which is why it's not fair to compare the two.

So lets talk about lack of free will aspect itself. To be honest the mind control aspect in Black Widow was done really great from story perspective. Evil scientists perfected it to the point it being (bit handwavey but) completely impersonal but also completely dehumanizing to the subject. So I'm buying that it can be completely switched off in equally efficient and impersonal way. Even the way they explained it with Alexei the pig was great and terrifying... to a point. Because then kicked the main problem with this movie. Clearly some execs came and saw it and went whoa... that's too dark for pg13 blockbuster. Let's put some cheap jokes here. And it happens over and over again in this movie :S

humanizing flashback scene that ties them to main hero:

For Bucky, sure we had Captain America First Avenger but a movie needs to stand on it's own legs. That's why we have the flashback scene which shows us that Bucky cared about Steve. Leaving it at the narration in Smithsonian of "best friends since childhood" would be just telling us. And we needed to be shown and we needed a space for the "till the end of line" so it could come back and stab us right in the feels.

Also because we are ignoring previous movie Russos cleverly made us care about Winter Soldier because Steve cares about Winter Soldier. And we already know and like Steve so building up our main character gives us more mileage out of new bare bones character (because let's be honest, Winter Soldier is just that). Two birds one stone thing.

In Black Widow there is no such thing which IMHO is the main reason Taskmaster doesn't work. We just get information about cardboard cutout: insert cute little girl here (only told, not even shown actual cardboard) and all of the emotional connection to Natasha is: I know that my boss that I hate has a daughter, she got in the crossfire. Which means nobody cares.

All it would take is adding a short flashback scene. idk Dreykov is an asshole and doesn't care about Antonia but she is she cutest and most adorable little girl. She treats the Black Widows as older sisters. Hell if you want to make it more horrorish copy of the idea of Thor wanting to be a Valkyrie when he grows up or T'challa wanting to be a Dora Milaje. Little Antonia wants to be Black Widow when she grows up because they are badass and they are nice to her (and are also slightly confused by her) because she is nice to them and is only person that treats them as humans. Hell we could have short interaction between her and Nat. Just a smile between them would be enough.

You could get a lot of character buildup mileage out of such a short scene.

But it couldn't happen partially because the movie didn't have time for that but we didn't get that mostly because it would show us instead of telling that Nat killed a cute little innocent girl for her own personal gain. (well she thought she was destroying Red Room but mostly wanted to get away - vide she didn't check on Yelena or other widows. But I wouldn't hold that against her. It was put your oxygen mask first kind of situation. But still it would make her look bad)

Besides, that would take guts to actually show.

And technically they could have afforded to have that guts. That was last movie with Nat anyway. It would actually make this plotline about her feeling guilty about Dreykov's daughter and red in her ledger work. But well... It was last movie so they wanted to leave us with the most goodest and bleeding hartest and heartwarming mary sue version of Nat with just telling us without showing hey, she got dark past.

On the other hand if we had the rumored Endgame plotline of Nat running an orphanage. Damn that would tie to this plotline so well. We could tie the loose widows also. Dam we were robbed here I tell ya >.<

Ok I'm overdoing offtopic about Nat. Sorry

design

So yeah. Design wise Winter Soldier is like great. For Taskmaster, she sure looks cool but also kinda generic? If in 10 years you'd show me her and say it's antagonist from GI Joe or something I'll believe you :S (not touching the debate that in comics something something because unfortunately I don't know Taskmaster from comics. Although I hear that few recent ones were quite good so I'll check them out sooner or later)

snapping out of mind control

I mentioned before. It would be unfair and there is no point comparing main emotional scene of the movie versus means to an end that were repeated several times through a movie.

Natasha freeing Antonia even if she thought that Antonia will kill her because that would fair was great. What I'm annoyed is a cheap fakeout that went with that. It was just after the bombastic finale with explosions and all the cgi shit. Even without looking at the movie runtime it was obvious there will be no extra fight scene.

In catws it worked because the cgi pew pew extravaganza was a background noise and was part of a continuous fight. In BW helicarriers fell already, there was a second of dust settling and then Nat throws away the shield (uses that capsule). Tension just fell from highest place in a movie (quite literally lol), trying to rise it again for such a short moment just doesn't work.

But that's the general problem with Marvel movies. Bombastic CGI fest as grand finale that probably is "outsourced" and then actual director comes back and needs to end movie super quickly.

disappearing act at the end

So in catws there is mystery of what will Bucky do. We are given some hope since he dragged Steve out of river and visited the museum but thats all. I mean there is this annoying Marvel thing of skipping over the interesting ending of last movie and starting with next plot point. We were hoping for the grand roadtrip/hunt for Bucky but nope. We must run ahead with all the plotlines (same way I'm sure that the Spiderman is Peter Parker and he killed a guy thing will be already dealt with in the beginning of the next movie -.-) But that's bonus mini rant.

In BW they needed to wrap up to many plot lines too quickly so Antonia wakes up and that's all. We don't get a suggestion what she may do. The problem of the chip she still has installed is omitted. There is nothing. She just fucks off to lalaland with other Black Widows the end. Because we needed ending for Nat's actual family which was ok but also kinda rushed.

As I mentioned waaaay before (god, this rant is pretty long) too many hoops to jump through.

Which really sucks because if they added that one flashback scene just for Antonia and spared few more minutes for the overall ending it would work so much more better.

And I even know where they could have saved few minutes (besides the explosions thingies). The supply guy. One extra character in a movie with too many characters. In catws the supply problem (with wings) was solved with nbd shrug. If you wanted to show that Nat has her own web of contacts it should be more than one guy. IDK in Budapest there could be 10 second scene with neighbor saying hi nice to see you again we reinforced the walls after last time. In Norway we could see her visiting some special secret supply stash run by some rando before getting to the mobile home.

But oh she was on the run so that would be too many people. Then cut the people entirely. The shitty helicopter can be worked around with joke that I'm not on speaking terms with Stark rn and that's the best we can have on short notice.

Eh.. side rant again. Sorry.

So to wrap it up. I actually really would love to see what will happen with the loose Black Widows and Antonia because here they were really underdeveloped. And while widows were more of a group hero and we have Yelena as a representative so in a way it balances out but Taskmaster needed so little extra care to make her character so much better and I'm a tiiiiiiny bit salty about it.

[sugawara--san]

alright i started watching naruto earlier this week and just some things i'd like to say:

90% of the time i am yelling at the screen for people to stop disrespecting my boy naruto and like, pumping my fist cheering for him???

love when they play the music™ and i know some awesome asskicking is about to take place

i also really love it when they do the hand signs can't tell ya why it just makes me happy lmao

kakashi. that's it that's the thought

okay usually when i watch a show i will have like one favorite and i'll like some of the others but here there are just SO many that i fuckin love?

naruto just might have to be my fav but after him it is VERY close between a whole bunch of them

he is BABY and deserves so much love and respect and is also such a badass. his determination and the way he inspires?? *chef's kiss*

in the beginning i thought my fav was gonna be sasuke cuz yknow we love a hothead emo

but somewhere naruto pulled ahead and then sasuke was gone for a bajillion episodes and suddenly a whole shit ton of others were occupying all of my brainspace

like shikamaru? love him. what an absolute badass genius. unmatched strategy

hinata? BABY. love her. a total baddie. cry whenever she's onscreen. admire her determination just like naruto

kiba? i know almost nothing about him but god i love him. he is so pretty and also i love the pup. would love more kiba content

rock lee? cracks me tf up. is awesome and a sweetheart. died when he took off the leg weights lmao i feel so bad for him tho :(

shino? BEST BUGGY BOY. love the mysterious vibe. is a lowkey baddie. i laughed for five minutes at that one post of him crying watching a bug's life. applauded when naruto dubbed him as one of the powerhouses.

SIDE NOTE TEAM 8 DYNAMIC IS TOP TIER WHAT I SEE IS HINATA AND HER BROTHERS FOR LIFE OKAY

okay but is it just me or would the leaf village kiddos as a whole just have like excellent style

the byakugan is cool and the fight between hinata and neji was double cool

the fight between naruto and neji had me so hyped i couldn't fall asleep omg

i am a sucker for naruhina. them during the chunin exams was super touching and adorable. but i'm worried it's gonna take naruto forever to notice and realize. i know it will djnsnwjfhjs fuck

i want more team 7 bonding

also bonding in like all the relationships between the leaf village kiddos

sasuke calling bitches he fights clowns we love to see it

there are so many characters usually one will have been introduced and i go "wow i don't think i'm gonna like them what a dick/creep/freak/bitch" LMAO and then they get an episode w them and/or their backstory in it and i'm like AW:( and have to take back what i said

like i disliked pretty much everyone in the other groups at the start of chunin exams cuz i thought they were just gonna be villains and then? no??

the fight between gaara and naruto was cool but mostly it was sad to see those two sad bois

also i have to say i haven't seen them all yet ofc but so far the first opening just goes harder than the rest

idk if this makes sense but the whole first opening is the team 7 dynamic i want :((

FUCK i wanna say plz don't touch sasuke but they're gonna fuckin do it aren't they :( noo

they fuckin did it sasuke don'T

SHIKAMARU'S ASSEMBLED TEAM >>>>>

I AM LOVIN IT SM MY BOYS

okay i felt bad for neji when they gave his backstory but i was still salty for hinata lmao and i kinda thought he was still a bitch but on this team i'm actually starting to like him?

why do naruto and sasuke fight so much ugh and yall are just gonna pretend you're not besties who care for and admire each other?? okay then

how fucking SAD and CONFUSED naruto is @ sasuke AW NO

ROCK LEE IS BACK BABYYYYY

I AM LOSING MY MIND FIRST LEE J STOPS SOMEONE ABOUT TO ATTACK HIM SAYING HE MUST TAKE HIS MEDICINE AT A SPECIFIC TIME AND THE GUY JUST LETS HIM?? AND SECOND LEE BEING SO PURE AND SUCH A LIGHTWEIGHT I'M CRYING

rock lee drunk fighting is def never something i've thought of before but now i will, regularly

the sand siblings are back in businesssss like i said i hated like all the other groups but now i'm excited cuz i feel like the gaara redemption is gonna be good and wholesome

aw gaara

sasuke what the FUCK are you DOING I AM MAD ABOUT IT WHAT THE HELL

THE WAY NARUTO STILL GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOU AND IS ACTUALLY BEING A MATURE AND CARING FRIEND FOR FUCK'S SAKE SASUKE PLEASE GET A GRIP

HIS LITTLE EVIL GIGGLE IS NOT. IT.

please stop this :(

aw poor baby sasuke

"you have to kill your best friend" okay ay least sasuke is acknowledging that they're best friends jesus fuCK

catch me crying

NARUTO IS SUCH A BADASS AHHHH and they way he is kicking ass but like out of love i love to see it

i am so fuckin emotional right now their bond

sasuke put on the headband tho :(((

holy fuckin shiT

i honestly feel like i'm being attacked

shikamaru crying nooo

no one will read this but i think that concludes my week one thoughts, folks

[secret-engima]

Oh ancient plunnies, rise from thy graves and taste the air of the living world once more! Reveal to us thine secrets that the one named Enigma hath stashed away! (I mean if you want to share. I'm just curious what kinds of stories/head canons you're hiding in that dusty old attic in the corner of your brain.)

Oh gosh. I’ve been admittedly hoarding this ask because it’s so interesting but I don’t know what to do with it. XD Ummmmm

-Multiple times I have wanted to do a Journey inspired fanfic. Like- Journey the game? Uhhhh

THIS MASTERPIECE.

-I have, many times, for many fandoms, wanted to meet two characters into this- otherworld. A place of ruin and mystery and journey, where the scarf is like their life and the only things they can say are the little notes and chimes of lost songs. And these two characters have no memory of where they came from, or where they are going. They just know they need to get to the mountain. And they go together, and they BOND.

-And then they wake up, in a world that is loud and populated and filled with words that convey so much yet nothing at all compared to the simple intimacy of the song-notes. And they look for each other in that busier, more dangerous, more chaotic world, and maybe fix a few things on the way.

-I still kinda want to do a fic like that someday, but I’ve never been able to settle on what fandom I would be using and taking characters from. That and I’m never sure I’ll be able to capture the ... the atmosphere of Journey in mere words. It’s a bit intimidating to think about tbh. (not as intimidating as trying to do a fanfic for their other game ... I think it’s called Flower? Like- that one made me *cry*)

-I’ve come up with a lot of Naruto fanfics over the years, just- never finished or posted them. But I still work on a few? Idk if I’ve mentioned them on here before or not. I have an extremely angsty shapeshifter Sasuke AU and a Deaf Itachi fic I’m particularly fond of because it incorporates both time travel and a tiny Fairy Tail crossover. And also I get practice writing a deaf character. Which is fun, if hard.

-So many KHR themed plunnies. So. Many. Mostly in the vein of taking a character from one fandom, giving them Flame powers and possibly trauma, then casually kicking them back into their native Fandom to watch the chaos unfold. I’ve had ones for Naruto (all hail Stormy Cloud Neji), for Final Fantasy VII (all hail tiny angry Cloudy Cloud)- yeah. If it’s a Fandom I’ve been in, I’ve debated a KHR style AU for it at some point.

-SPEAKING OF FF7. Have I ever talked about my shapeshifter Fem!CloudxReno fic? That was a thing I started a while ago. Got pretty far on it too, then got dragged away by other fandoms. But like- it was a whole thing where certain people are able to just- shapeshift into a large animal form, but they were a small percentage. Sort of like how a certain percentage of people have two different colored eyes in RL. You know- a genetics thing considered “normal” but also “rare and cool” so to speak. Most of those who can shift are domestic themed animals or smaller wild animals like ferrets and such, but a few rare ones turn into big preds. Mostly I just wanted cranky Werewolf!Fem!Cloud and muchly snarky Reno to wind up in a ship. I regret nothing. Someday I need to finish that fic tbh.

-I had a SOLDIER!Reno au once. It never went anywhere. I mostly just wanted to cackle over the idea of Reno being the most Ninja of SOLDIERs and the Turks constantly wondering why the heck nobody recruited him before SOLDIER got their hands on him.

-Transformers Prime angst idea where a Decepticon from Shattered Glass wound up in Transformers Prime and all the mind-angst that come from being in a universe where the bad guys are now good and your friends are all evil and crazy and horrible. Fun fact: this idea later mutated into AMOSC. But I still used to debate doing this idea as a separate AU. Then I faceplanted out of the TF fandom and have been struggling too hard to get back into it for AMOSC’s sake to really bother with another TF au.

...Idk I think that’s all I got for now. It’s hard for me to dust off some of the super old plunnies at this point. They’re either in fandoms I’m not in atm or I just- can’t remember what I was gonna do with them. *shrugs* but there you go, a peak into the dustier corners of mine brain.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep6

Let’s just file this one under “top 10 shittiest anime deaths” *badum-tish*

Thoughts under the cut.

I feel like in a lot of ways this episode kinda highlights the highs and lows of the new series, and how it feels like it’s trying to be like three different stories at the same time and usually only succeeding at being one of them.

This episode, and this arc in general, as a standalone part of the franchise was actually really good, and delivered on the promise of ‘what if Mion actually became the culprit in one arc’, but as part of the answer arcs for the new series it just continues to feel kinda pointless and predictable. I still think that a lot of this has to do with them trying to be both a sequel and a remake at the same time, but unlike with the Rena answer arc, I honestly feel like even new fans could have guessed everything that happened in this arc, since it didn’t actually go into anything that wasn’t already discussed in Gou. So even on that level it doesn’t really feel like it’s providing essential answers that couldn’t have been worked out in advance.

It’s kinda weird how little this arc actually explored anything about Mion and Shion that wasn’t already shown in Gou, considering how much stuff from the VN related to them hadn’t been covered. A lot of their backstory stuff ended up not exactly being relevant to how this arc played out, but it just feels like a weird thing to gloss over when they’ve spent so much time going over stuff from the VN as it is.

Though on that note, I’m really curious about how they’ve made absolutely zero reference to the fact that Mion and Shion swapped places as kids, or anything about Mion’s tattoo. At this point I have to wonder if maybe Ryukishi just doesn’t actually like that plot point in hindsight, and is choosing to effectively write it out of the story here. I can see why, though, since from what I remember it kinda verges into being a twist for the sake of having a twist, and doesn’t actually do much for them as characters that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

The lack of basically anything to do with Shion’s backstory and her relationship with Satoshi still feels a lot more iffy, but at least some of this stuff feels like intentional revising on Ryukishi’s part. Which I think is a really interesting aspect of the new series as a whole. It feels like he’s taking the chance to look back on the VN and show us how he feels about it after all this time. The stuff with characters like Teppei and Rina seems to be his way of making up for them being shallow villains in the VN, and Satoko being evil here seems to be in part inspired by how little agency or control she had in the original story. I guess the big issue here is that a lot of people probably just straight up disagree with the things that Ryukishi thinks of as being problems with the VN that he’s trying to ‘fix’ here, but I think it’s really interesting to see him do this sort of thing, even if it’s messy and overly ambitious and doesn’t fully work.

For the most part I agree with all the criticisms about these arcs feeling like a bit of a waste of time as we wait for the story to eventually loop back to the Nekodamashi cliffhanger. Even from the perspective of this being mainly for the sake of new fans, it feels kinda strange to see such straightforward ‘this is what was happening behind the scenes in the question arcs’ style answers, with lots of reused footage and basically zero twists or reveals. The VN’s way of designing separate arcs that provide answers for the question arcs was more satisfying, and Umineko went even further with that by just vaguely going over the basic keys to figuring out all the how-dunnit mysteries of the question arcs, and everything else about the answer arcs there was just a continuation of the meta plot. So it feels kinda weird to see him loop back around to the opposite end of the spectrum here.

It makes me wonder if there’s some sort of larger meta mystery going on here that’ll become more apparent in the next arc, and will reveal that we didn’t actually know everything that was going on like we thought we did, but at this point I feel like it’ll probably all end up being a lot more straightforward than we predicted. But there’s still the looming specter of the meta plane stuff, the hints dropped about where this series fits into the wider WTC universe timeline, and the fact that the whole point of the new series in the first place seems to be guiding Rika and Satoko down the path toward becoming their Umineko counterparts. So all of that stuff makes me think there might be some curveball twists going in the future that expand the scope of the story, but I have no real idea what to expect from that, and if it’d even feel satisfying. As much as I’m a diehard Umineko fan who loves the idea of this being a Lambda and Bern origin story, I still worry that the execution might not work once we get to the end. I also don’t really think that anything the series does in the final arcs will completely make up for how predictable these first few answer arcs have felt on a week by week basis, lol.

In general it gets me thinking that in spite of how predictable the answers have been thus far, I’m largely clueless about how I think they’ll actually wrap up the overarching story with Satoko and Rika. It feels like there’s still a lot of different directions they could take it in, and a lot of it depends on just how far Ryukishi wants to go with tying this into other WTC works.

For one thing, I’m not even sure how to expect them to follow up on the Nekodamashi cliffhanger. It’s at least hard to imagine how they could stop Satoko from shooting Rika then and there, considering how this episode in particular went. And one way or another, we’ll have to see how Rika and Satoko handle being in a situation where they both know what’s going on with each other. I think it’ll then just depend on what Satoko’s mental state is like at that point, and also what they plan on doing with the whole looper-killing sword thing. I think Ryukishi’s implied multiple times now that the next arc will start to test Satoko’s resolve, and going by her attitude during the infamous gut-ripping scene, as well as her traumatized reaction to the punching glove box prank, I think she’ll be much less confident in her goals by that point, and probably more willing to talk about what’s going on.

I don’t think it’ll be as simple as ‘she just gives up and everyone forgives her’, or even ‘Rika beats up Satoko while everyone cheers and they all move on and abandon her’, though. I think there’ll be some kind of balancing act between redemption and punishment, but I also think that ultimately it’ll also tie into the Lambda/Bern origin story stuff they seem to be going for. I think I’ve said this before, but my best guess for how this will end is that the looper-killing sword will be used to separate their ‘meta selves’ who are aware of the loops and stuff, while leaving behind their regular physical selves who thus lose most/all of their memories of the loops. At least that way they can have their cake and eat it too by showing how Lambda and Bern became witches, while also having separate versions of them that get to stay behind and mend their relationship or something. But I’m not even confident about all of that, lol.

It’s also worth noting that the key visual for Sotsu features Satoko and Rika as teenagers, and the OP also features that pretty heavily, along with an ominous scene of the other main characters as teenagers. So that makes me think that the story will somehow get back to that whole time period, which makes me a bit more unsure how the last arc will go. One option is that the final Nekodamashi arc will just keep going until they become teenagers again, but the way those scenes are presented in the promo material makes it seem like Satoko and Rika’s relationship is still bad then. So maybe on the other hand we’ll just go back to the original Matsuribayashi timeline where Satoko first met Eua, but I feel like that’d probably be the happy ending where everything goes back to the original timeline and they all end up reconnecting again, so I’m still not sure how the ominous presentation of the teenage characters might play into that.

Either way, I think all of that stuff will probably just come up in the final arc. The next one will probably be covering Tataridamashi and Nekodamashi from Satoko’s perspective. The next arc should be where things start to shake up, but I still think they could easily cover both of those arcs in just five episodes. Nothing much seemed to be happening with Satoko until the final days of Tataridamashi, and I can’t imagine there being much to explore with how she set up the rapid-fire loops in Nekodamashi.

With what’s been hinted at about the next arc not going according to Satoko’s plans, and her resolve being tested, I think that this will probably be where things go entirely out of her control and she starts to doubt whether or not she should continue with her plans. Specifically I think that being in a new loop with Teppei being nice to her, and watching everyone else try to save her from her [perceived] abuse, will start to sway her toward thinking that maybe that sort of timeline is worth staying in, even if it means giving up on controlling Rika.

One way or another I think Ooishi went crazy all on his own. I think Ryukishi explicitly said in an interview that Ooishi went L5 naturally, and I think the manga version of Tataridamashi made it clear that Satoko was genuinely thrown off by how things went there, so she probably didn’t want Ooishi to kill anyone. I can see how he might have gone off the deep end by interrogating Teppei and realizing that there was basically a witch hunt going on against him, but I’m not sure how he would have ended up specifically blaming Rika unless Satoko pushed him into it. Either way, Teppei probably really did attack Keiichi at the end of the arc, and we know that Satoko just has one syringe to use, so at most she probably injected Teppei and then Ooishi went L5 naturally.

I’m also curious to see if/when Satoko learns about Rika being given the power to remember her deaths, since that’d also go a long way toward explaining what her intentions might have been with how that arc ended. I think Satoko is at least aware that Rika doesn’t remember how she dies, so I’m at least not sure what she’d try and accomplish by setting up a loop that only goes to shit at the very last second. It feels like it wouldn’t do a whole lot aside from making Rika confused in the next loop. But Rika only gets her ability to remember her deaths after that loop already ends, so Satoko could have only known about it if there’s some sort of conspiracy going on about Hanyuu. Which there probably is, since her whole presence in this is weird and her deciding to give Rika a new set of powers was always super suspicious, but still.

I’m also curious to see if we get any real payoff to the idea that Satoko’s looping is causing more and more people to remember past loops. Especially when it comes to the main club members, since there’s various moments in Tataridamashi and Nekodamashi, both in the anime and manga, that seem to imply that most of them are starting to remember things.

Even though the execution of this whole new series makes me a bit more wary about how any sort of new anime for Umineko along these lines might pan out, I can’t help but still really hope this is leading to something like that. For one thing I just think that if he’s going for a Lambda/Bern origin story with this, at the risk of alienating lots of existing fans, I think there should at least be a more concrete payoff to that than just ‘ok now you can go back and read the Umineko VN’. But I think there’s a lot of potential to be had with some sort of remake or sequel to Umineko where he gets a chance to revisit it after more than 10 years. One of these days I should still just make a whole post about my hopes and predictions for what could be done with any sort of new Umineko anime, lol.

Anyway, this got longer than I planned, but all in all I enjoyed this more than it probably comes across like I did, lol. Even if the plot’s been kinda boring, I think Sotsu has done a great job of elevating it with good direction and visuals. The moment to moment pacing can still be kinda choppy, and sometimes the presentation of flashback scenes is confusing and ambiguous, but in general it still feels entertaining to watch unfold, and the brutality has a lot of impact. I’m just hoping that the rest of Sotsu is more ambitious and surprising than these first two arcs have been.

[hotpotrandomfics]

Fifth Year AU: Shenanigans and Starshowers

Summary: Jason finds Merula relaxing with his notebook and after some silly banter the two would sneak out for a surprising view. Who says romance is dead?

Word Count: 1,875

Merula had been sitting in the common room, going through Jason's notes. She always preferred his notes to her own, as he always seemed to know how to organize them in a way that was reasonable to follow. It made sense of how he is a reliable tutor to his underclassmen as she skimmed through a pair of arms wrapped around her.

"So that's where my notebook," Jason smiled as he held Merula close. "Find anything of interest, Miss Snyde? A few words for your prefect."

"You're annoyingly good at note-taking, and it's just irritating how everything makes sense." Merula looked up to see his eyes beam at her causing her to give a small smile. She wrapped a hand around his neck and pulled him down to kiss his cheek, then pushed him off gently. "But I appreciate you showing me them," she whispered.

"I am happy I can be useful," Jason smiled, "and it's good knowing you like me for more than my notes, right?"

"Eh, the notes are the real reason for our relationship." She teased him as she kissed his nose. "You are your own library, after all."

"You wound me," he placed a hand to his chest, acting like he was hurt. "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Merula is the sun!"

"What are you going on about?" Merula raised a brow, giving a slight chuckle at the weird way he spoke.

"Oh nothing, just reciting some old play I read a while ago," Jason jumped over the couch, landing next to Merula and tapping her nose ever so lightly.

"A play? You read about plays?" Merula covered her mouth, now trying to stop from bursting into a laughing fit. "Please tell me you're joking? You like plays, and I am now finding this out?"

"I'm not." Jason tilted his head in confusion. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing!" Merula smirked as she laid her head into his lap while swatting at his tie.

"Come on, tell me, please?" Jason looked down at her, giving her his signature puppy dog eyes. Leaning down, he rubbed his forehead into hers, causing her to giggle at his attempt of influencing her to reveal her surprise her boyfriend reads plays for the sake of reading.

"No! No way!" Merula looked at him, frowning sternly, pushing his face up playfully only to have him frown. "Stop it now! Stop being adorable! I am not going to break by those blatant attempts, Aurelius."

Jason sighed and poked her stomach gingerly. He hated when she brushed off his little "puppy tricks" but found it part of what made her all the more charming. The two talked about their day as some of their class were different. Jason hummed as he played with her hair to Merula amusement. As he and Merula relaxed in the common room until the evening arrived, Jason spoke up, waking Merula from the temporary daze she was in.

"Hey?" Jason looked down at the half-asleep girl in his lap.

"Mmm?" Merula grumbled while glancing with one eye.

"Do you want to, um, wanna sneak out of the dorm to go for a walk?"

"A walk? Really?" she raised a brow to her boyfriend.

"Yeah." Jason smiled at her. "But it's going to a bit of rulebreaking involved."

"Aurelius De Leone, rulebreaking? Do tell Fire Snot." Merula pinched his cheek. "What naughty thought you have in mind?"

"One, please don't use 'Fire Snot.' It was one time." Jason pinched her side. "Two, I'm willing to 'bend' the rules if it helps."

"Okay, so what do you propose?" Merula climbed up into his lap and poked his cheek. "Now, I am the one asking the question, so you better give me answers."

"I'll tell you in an hour. Get changed into something you won't get seen in," Jason kissed her cheek, getting up and heading to his dorm room. It was fun for him teasing Merula in this way, as making her wait for her is funny.

"What does my Fire Snot have planned?" Merula snickered to herself then got up, making her way to her dorm room to get ready. Whatever his plan, it better be something worth the mystery.

An hour later, Merula met Jason down in the common room door. Jason wore his signature boots, ripped jeans, and a black sweater. He paced back and forth then spotted Merula in black jeans, boots, and fishnet sweater over a Weird Sisters band tee.

"Well, that's totally not inconspicuous, Aurelius," Merula said as she strutted over to her furball.

"I wouldn't be the one to judge Snyde," Jason pocked her cheek, "come along, then dear."

"Now, don't get cheeky with me. Understand?" Merula smirked and took his hand.

"Off we go to rulebreaking," Jason smirked as he led the witch through the castle.

Step by step, the two made their way through the corridors until they reached the passage leading to the training grounds. The two heard a meow, Mrs. Norris, meaning Filch was somewhere close by. Merula pushed Jason into a column, holding her hand to his mouth, shushing him.  For a small girl, she had a lot of physical strength. Merula pressed close to him tightly so they wouldn't be seen.

Mrs. Norris looked around and meowed for about a minute before scurrying off to wherever Filch would be. Merula let go of Jason, and the two breathed a sigh of relief. Merula gazed up at him and giggled, prompting him to snicker himself. The two continued to the training grounds where Jason cast "Alohomora" on the door for where the brooms are stored. Wait, what was he doing?

"Do you mind explaining your plan, love?" Merula crossed her arms, staring cautiously at him.

"Well, I u-um thought that we go for a late-night flight?" Jason said as he grabbed a broom for them. "Why?"

"Never thought you would be willing to step out of line Prefect," Merula smirked. "Is there a reason for this? A late-night walk to a late-night flight?"

"Is it wrong to bend the rules if it suits me? Especially if it's to have a moment with my girlfriend. I can make the exception." Jason smirked and walked over to Merula, kissing her. "I am learning these habits because of you," he laughed as he set himself on the broom, urging her to get on behind him. Merula did so and wrapped her arms around his waist and helped tight as he took off. She watched as Jason kicked off and started flying off through the castle grounds. What was his plan she had no clue, but this was going to be fun.

Jason flew the two of them with care, flying pass the clouds over Hogwarts. He looked back to see the wind running through Merula hair. She gazed at the sky and ran one hand along with the clouds next to them. He smiled as he held the hand on his stomach.

"You know," Merula laid her head to his back, "I have to say you know how to have fun."

"I can have fun sometimes," Jason held her hand tight, "but you compel me to do be more daring things. If it's for you, fun, I'll be."

"S-stop that!" Merula blushed as she held him tighter.

"Stop what?"

"Saying c-cute... things..." Merula muttered as her heartbeat pace started paced up. She always was at a loss for words when Jason got all romantic. It frustrated her, but not in a wicked way as he was smoother than any of the male students at Hogwarts. Well, that's what she thought to herself.

"Why?" Jason turned his head to look at her. The moonlight glistened on her cheek and made her eyes glow in just the right way to send chills down his spine.

"B-because... it makes me feel h-happy you f-furball," Merula hid her face into his back. How was it that he had such power over her? No spells said, or potions were stronger to her than that of Jason's kindness to her.

Jason smiled as he flew the two of them to the shore of the Black Lake across from Hogwarts. As he landed, he placed the broom down and embraced Merula. Merula looked at him curiously as the moon, though only a crescent, as the light radiated against Jason's hair and eyes gazed at her.

"What is it?" she asked. "You seemed kinda out of it."

"Nothing, I'm just happy you agreed to this little escapade of mine," he smiled.

"You're sure are strange, but I prefer your brand of strange," Merula caressed his cheek. "Jason, why do you treat me so nicely? I'm not always nice, and yet you treat me better than I deserve. For all that's holy, I'm sure I have almost gotten you killed on too many occasions."

"Who's to say. I never saw you as bad, evil, or any synonym of the sort. Merula," Jason pulled her by the waist, "I think you deserve happiness. Why do you think I'm more daring?"

"Because you can't stop getting in trouble?" Merula smirked at him with a raised brow. "Or you're naturally insane and just hide it with a cute deception."

"No," he laughed, "I want to share moments with you. Like this." Jason pointed up to the sky to which Merula turned. "It took some planning and getting a bit of advice on what would be the best time to do this. I hope you like this."

"Is that a meteor shower?" Merula jaw slightly dropped as the sky rained with streams of lights drizzled the air. The streams danced as they soared through the canvas of midnight, blue and black. "How'd you know about this?"

"I may have asked Professor Sinistra, the astronomy professor, about how to learn about meteor showers and other things. I agreed I'd help with ensuring the room was organized and trust me; it was in needing of it." Jason smiled at her, holding her close and throwing his back into the sand having Merula yelp as Jason brought her down with them.

"Jason!" Merula squealed at her idiot's shenanigans. "Why is it we end up like this when you end up doing something stupid?"

"I am reckless, not stupid, and I have no complaints," Jason smiled as he sat them both up, "anyway, w-was this worth it?" He was nervous as he ran his thumb in circles with her hand in his.

"You never cease to amaze me." Merula couldn't help but feel blessed that her boyfriend would go so far for her. Someday she'd do something better than what he's done to show him he means the world to her. "It is perfect, but I am sure I can do something better."

"Is that a fact?" Jason raised a brow grinning. "Wanna prove that oh most powerful girlfriend in all of Hogwarts?"

"Oh, now you're gonna get it." Merula jumped up and pulled her wand out, taking her dueling stance.

"This isn't what I was expecting, but I can work with this. Whoever loses has to do something for the other, no complaints," Jason smiled as he stood up with his wand now in hand. "Shall we?"

[ahmedmootaz]

Hello! I saw you request of requests, soooo. Can I request a story and it can be however long you want it to be. The sort of prompt is what you think would or want to happen in the upcoming episode “The Phantom and The Sorceress”. It’s fine even if you don’t answer this ask, thanks for all your content and theories!

Dear Anonymous,

What, did you think that just because I replied one day before the episode aired that I wouldn’t do it?...Well, I was debating it, but this was a fun one. I really hope you like it, because I spent quite a bit of effort on it.

Beware of possible spoilers, however. I mean, it is all prediction, but you never know when you’re right. So, here’s the link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551864

And here is the magical Read More button, for those who need it (Note that Tumblr doesn’t copy italics, for some reason):

It was a dark, cold night in the Forest Of...whatever. Lena couldn't care less about what its name was. It was damp, awful, cold, and filled with monsters. No wonder Magica would hide here; it was basically her dream home. Maybe it was a mirror, too. She trudged with her friends, Violet and Webby, who'd oh-so-kindly volunteered to help her on this mad quest of hers. She was going mad, that's what, and they were both ready to go mad with her. She really was lucky when it came to friends.

They kept trudging in silence, not wanting to reflect on the series of what must've been unfortunate events to lead them to searching for Magica DeSpell in the dark, cold night in the middle of a swamp. An ugly swamp, too...though, now that she thought about it, there weren't really 'pretty' swamps, so it wasn't like Magica chose a bad one; they were all bad.

Despite telling herself several times how she was over this, how she had no issues whatsoever about what they were doing right now and that it was for the greater good, she found herself contemplating any other choice. Just what, exactly, led them to this point?!

...Well, they all knew. It was a rhetorical question. An angry rhetorical question. Leave it to the McDucks to be attacked by a literal video-game monster that crawled out of the screen and treating it like another boring day. Which...yeah, it kinda was for them, but she'd gotten used to the calmer household she moved in. It wasn't like that was the biggest thing that happened today, either, it was more like...the appetizer, even though that wasn't really a correct statement, since it was like eating a whole roast duck only to be told it was an appetizer.

Still, it wasn't the tentacle-monster which they took down that led to this situation. It was the fact that Gladstone...Gladner? Something along those lines, showed up. Apparently, he was the boys' uncle, which made him someone she didn't know. Not that it mattered anyway, he came in, crying about how his luck left him forever before weeping on her arm, which was conveniently next to him. Her sleeve was never going to return to regular levels of salt after this.

It took a while before Scrooge managed to calm him down. It seemed like his luck...which was a thing she didn't know about, had left him. Normally, she was told, they would've chalked it up to some paranormal mystery and had to excuse themselves and send her home, but it went further then that...Almost everyone in Duckburg was losing their abilities.

They didn't really believe it at first, but when Scrooge's monetary abilities started going blank, the alarms blared loudly enough in everyone's minds. It wasn't just him, too; Gyro was losing his intelligence, so was Huey, Mrs.Beakly lost a good portion of her Agent skills, and Dewey lost the ability to Dewey, whatever the heck he meant by that.

It only left her and the rest of Team Magic to fend for themselves and figure out what was draining their powers. There was one teeny-tiny problem, however:

How would they do that? Webby was an amazing fighter, but their enemy, a certain Phantom Blot that Violet heard about, didn't leave a trace, much less a body to fight, and despite Violet's best efforts, nothing came out of her investigations to find where he hid, which left Lena to do the job. One issue, however: She couldn't.

She was a brilliant sorceress, or so she bragged, but there was still much she needed to learn before casting detection spells. And they, she theorized, didn't have that time. Violet was an amazing step-sister and a scarily fast learner, but even she came up empty-handed when it came to learning anything about that power. That left one magic user in Duckburg she knew. Ugh.

She shivered at the memory, snapping out of her mind due to some whimpering from Gladstone. He said he needed to find his luck or else he was a goner. She thought he was exaggerating at first, but then a boat nearly fell on him. 4 Kilometres away from sea. He promised he'd do them anything if she let him accompany them on this treacherous journey while the rest of the gang tried investigating using their own ways, and the agreed. How bad could he be, anyways?

-"U-Um...Lena? I don't know how to tell you this...but I...I hate swamps. I don't think I know how to walk in them. It was always my luck helping me out. I'm cold, scared, and humiliated."...well, not too bad, but he just wouldn't shut up! And while he seemed to amuse Webby and Violet, he was just getting on her nerves.

-"Well, nobody here likes swamp, either! And you've been listing the things your luck did for you for two hours now, is there anything you can do on your own, Mr.Gladstone?", she shot back, irked.

He used to argue and bicker with her, but as his luck kept worsening throughout the day (How on earth does one get mauled by a bear, an alligator, and then receive a speeding ticket because the alligator's death-roll was too fast??), he mostly stuck to paranoia to help himself. She couldn't help but feel bad for him, despite how much he annoyed her.

-"W-Well...I used to breathe well on my own...I could also walk...I think...", he mumbled, his voice a broken mess compared to his arrogant and proud tone, or so she was told by Webby. "A-And...I think I might need to learn how to go to the bathroom in the swamp.", he added, his exhaustion overpowering his embarrassment.

-"Pffft, don't worry about it, Gladstone! The entire swamp is your bathroom! You're basically the King of the swamp!", and there it was, the perky, energetic voice that was trying to keep Gladstone away from depression this entire trip.

-"Oh, quit with the lies! I am nothing without my luck!", he cried, seeming on the verge of tears for the...seventeenth time today? Lena couldn't remember. "B-But...It wasn't my choice! My luck was always there for me! Like...Like a-a stick! Something to lean on my entire life and now it is gone!", he lamented, slouching as his footsteps got a bit slower. For the sake of all them, Lena hoped he regained any of his luck soon.

-"Well, it is true; any being born with a condition, abnormal or not, that aids him throughout his life without any major work done from the part of the being will eventually get used to this condition, which could explain why you're taking this particular misadventure hard, Mr.Gladstone.", Violet bumped in their chat, checking the notepad on which they brainstormed the possible locations of Magica. "Still, I'd advise you to remain positive, as I sense we may be able to fix these conditions.", she added, giving him a small, encouraging smile which he didn't notice.

-"Yeah, probs.", the teenage witch agreed after she felt a nudge from the Vanderquack. Anything to cheer up her friend's friends' uncle. "Hey Vi, are we close or not?", she asked, trying to ignore the eye-roll from her shorter friend.

-"Well, I don't have a particularly detailed map, though I imagine that Magica would mark her camp with a particular sign; an X on the ground, perhaps, or perhaps we must deduce it from the surrounding environment-"

-"Or she might've carved her face on the bottom of an ancient tree!", the cheerful duck happily announced as they entered a clearing with a small dirt road that led to the mouth of Magica DeSpell. A wooden carving of her, anyway.

It was just as Webby said, large, reeking of pride and arrogance, and yet...oddly well done. The details were really nice and actually looked like Magica. If she had to give her 'aunt' something, it had to be that she apparently didn't suck at something in her life. Really though, wood carving, of all things? Was she a carpenter before becoming an evil, awful witch? Is she talented? She didn't have her magic...maybe she had someone else with her.

-"Alright, so, is everyone prepared to meet my homicidal aunt?", the tallest duckling asked with fake happiness, receiving a nod form everyone but Gladstone, who emitted  something of a sniff. Webby readied the axe she brought with her, patting the kitten at the top while Violet tightened her garlic necklace, while Gladstone...he stood there, steadying his back a bit. "Mr.Gladstone?"

-"Ah, forget about it, whatever she does to me, it can't be worse than having an anvil hit me from ten-meters.", he steadied his tone, managing to make it more bitter than desperate. Well, at least he wasn't going to cry when they see her.

She looked back at the tree's base, blocking out the various memories that gave her the urge to blast the door, and knocked. Harshly. Hey, she was going to give herself something. She felt both Webby and Violet's hands on her shoulders, and she anticipated the door opening. Now or never...they were going to convince her, and somehow, she didn't think it was going to be too easy.

Her mind raced, imagining all the awful things she could be plotting right now. She heard garlic was harmful to magic users, something she didn't know too much about, but was apparently true, as she figured out when her magical powers suddenly dimmed as she touched some garlic. Still, Magica could hit them form a distance...and what about that axe? Was going physical the ideal plan? Was-

 CRASH!

The quartet of ducks yelled, jumping back before they realized the door didn't even open. It was something from the inside. Someone, to be exact. A couple of curses came through the door as a metallic sound came through as well.

-"Bloody Hell! Who comes in this hour of the night, in this swamp, to this tree?! I don't even pay bills!", the angry yelling of her not-really-aunt came through. Yep, that was about the attitude she expected. "If you're the Magical Supplies Shop, I'm sorry, but if you couldn't tell, I lost my powers after following a wonderful plan of mine. I cannot pay you in whatever things you want. Now go away before I shoot you!", she answered with a sickeningly sweet tone. Even her voice brought Lena awful memories and forced her to frown.

-"You can do this, Lena. You faced her down before. She can't do anything to you.", Violet squeezed her shoulder, giving her a determined smile. Lena shot one back, before taking a step closer to the door.

-"Hey, this is Lena...Your...", she sighed, bringing a hand to her temple. "Niece?", she finished, awaiting a sick laughter or an undignified scowl at her for attempting to break free from being a shadow. Sorry-not-sorry, Magica. For moment, there was silence. Then there was laughter. Hysterical laughter. So much laughter Lena felt scared.

-"Ooooh, good one, person-who-is-trying-to-fool-me! I don't have a niece! My brother is dead and my sister cannot keep a worm alive! Now scram before my patience runs out!", she thundered from behind the door, leaving the ducklings and Gladstone in shock.

-"She has a brother?", Lena repeated with incredulity, looking at her two friends and Gladstone.

-"I don't know! How should I know? I thought she didn't have family!", Violet answered with equal confusion, shrugging.

-"I mean, technically she doesn't have a brother anymore.", Gladstone chimed in, his voice devoid of any enthusiasm. "Who's this woman anyway? And why does she sound like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed?", he asked, raising his voice a tad too much.

-"The wrong side of the bed?!", came the war-cry from behind the door, only leaving a moment before a couple of locks unlocked and it swung outwards, revealing Magica DeSpell . With a shotgun. Oh, well this was just lovely, wasn't it? "Alright, that does it, I will put more holes than you than there is in...swiss...cheese...", her speech slurred, looking at the three ducklings in front of her house.

The silence remained for a moment, with no one doing anything. Webby brandished her weapon, Violet made a threatening expression, and Lena ignited a spark in her hand. And Gladstone stood there, trying to take all this in. That moment gave Lena enough time to admire Magica's hut; a three-room lodging, more aptly. It was basically a sink, a gas-cooker, and some drawers, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf, all locally-made, apparently. There was also a toilet and a bath in the background. It was a pretty sorry place to live in, but it seemed functional enough.

-"Hi, Aunt Magica.", Lena greeted, gritting her teeth and delivering the widest, fakest smile she could possibly give. "I almost forgot how you looked! We haven't seen each other in such a long time. What a shame.", she continued, trying her best to remain calm and to look the elder sorceress in the eyes. Said sorceress was now surveying the ducks surrounding her, measuring her chances and keeping her hands on the shotgun's trigger.

-"Get out. Now!", the cape-wearing duck yelled, looking dangerously close to a rage-fit. "All three of you. Now!"

-"Three? Hello? I may have lost my luck, but I am certainly not invisible, lady!", Gladstone announced with an undignified tone. He got a glare that shut him up. "Yeah, sure, okay, talk with the people who really matter. Why wouldn't you?", he grumbled bitterly.

-"Listen, as much as we'd love to, we can't really do that.", the younger sorceress laid her hand on her waist, looking both bored and uncaring. At least, she hoped she did. The last thing she needed was for the awful, horrible duck in front of her to sense any weakness, something she assumed she excelled at.

-"Besides, we're already outside! Your evil mind trick won't work on us!", Webby boasted, swinging her axe a bit for intimidation purposes. They didn't seem to work all too well, but at the very least, they made Magica's shotgun point at her just a tiny bit. Was that a victory?...Probably not.

-"Fine then, get away from me! From this place! The last thing I need is to spend my night with a bunch of *McDucks*.", the gun-wielder practically screamed, her veins starting to bulge from the anger. Her voice was laced with venom dripping off of every word. It was honestly both terrifying and admirable how much hate she poured into every word.

-"I told you we can't.", Lena repeated calmly, trying to avoid a fight she saw she was coming.

And then, just as she hoped things would calm down, a loud, roaring BANG! filled the swamp. Every single member of her group jumped, looking frightened as they searched around for wounded. There were none, only four ducks staring at each other. She'd tricked them. And she didn't even have her magic. Lena frowned and turned her face back to her shadow's origin. Her...uh...creator? She was her shadow, did shadows have creators? Maybe a caster was a better term? As much as she hated it, 'Aunt Magica' rolled off the tongue far better than 'Caster Magica'.

-"Are you searching for fight? Because I'm not certain your chances would be very high with the four of us.", Violet spoke for her step-sister. Her new room-mate at this point, but Lena still appreciated the gesture with all of her heart. It appeared Magica actually fired a shot, even if it was only a warning shot. Everyone tried to make good on that statement, looking as threatening as they could. Even Gladstone lifted his fists, adding a grand total of 4% to how threatening they were.

-"Maybe you are! Why can't you get away from me? What do you want? I don't have any more plans for the moment, I didn't do anything illegal for the last month, and you're taking my books from my cold, dead, hands!", the former-Sorceress Of The Shadows barked back defiantly, still pointing at them with her gun. "I don't care if you kill me! I'll take at least two of you down before I-"

-"Could you shut up?!", Lena cried out, her eye twitching and doing everything she could to not attack Magica. "We're here because...because...", she couldn't say it. She couldn't bring herself to ask her for help.

-"...You want to buy something?", her 'aunt' guessed, gun still pointing at her head, but apparently curious.

-"No."

-"You want to brag?"

-"...No.", okay, maybe they did, but they couldn't do that. Not now, anyway.

-"Are we here to rent the room?", Gladstone chimed in, scratching his head. Lena was certain Violet explained to him on the way here...but he apparently forgot.

-"I NEED YOUR HELP!", there, she spat it. She couldn't believe she said it, covering her face afterwards. She felt Violet's hand pat her and heard Webby saying something along the lines of 'There, there'.

-"...I'm sorry? Is this...Listen, it's the middle of September, the swamp is humid as all Hell and I'm trying to set up a fan, if you're just here to brag,", she said before adding 'as you McDucks do.' under her breath, "Then you can come sometime else, these garments aren't exactly fun to wear when the humidity is 85% today so-"

-"No, we need the help. But you'd better watch your back, you witch, because if you try to betray us, I'll shove this axe right down your head!", Webby warned threateningly, patting the kitten once more. Magica actually remained silent and judged what she said, and Lena decided it was time to uncover her face again.

-"And why would you need my help?", the witch repeated, lowering her weapon. Lena could just feel smugness radiating off of her, and she hated it with every molecule of her being.

-"There's a thief in town. He's stealing everyone's abilities. Everything about them. He's stealing it. He calls himself the Phantom Blot.", Violet answered, looking rather impatient with Magica, who smiled with a hum.

-"And why should that concern me?", she smugly inquired and...well, she wasn't wrong. Lena hated that she wasn't wrong.

-"The Phantom Blot hates magic and its users. He wants to eradicate the both of them and you, if I remember correctly, are a witch, yes?", the hummingbird explained, gaining a bit more of a reaction this time: A chuckle. They really couldn't find anyone else, huh?

-"Listen, Purple, if you can remember so well, then you might as well remember that Lena over there stole all of my power. I'm in no danger of this Phantom Blot.", she shot back, a taunting smile on her beak and crossing her arms.

-"Alright, listen up you freak, maybe you don't realize this, but he doesn't know that you don't have your powers. All he knows is that you were the single biggest magical spell to hit this town less than a year ago. I'd say you're still on his hit list.", not taking any more of this back-and-forth, the younger sorceress quipped, closing her hands together and trying a smirk of her own to counter the furious frown and growl her 'aunt' gave her.

-"And you're still on our hit list, you monster! So don't try to even think about doing anything funny!", Webby added, giving her best-friends a reassuring smile, though a somewhat threatening one.

-"I don't think I care about that too much."...she didn't? Oh. Well. There goes the entire base of their plans. "My family isn't here, neither is my home, I don't have my powers, I struggle to eat half-decent food, and I can't even make any new plans after that piece of-", she stopped herself, "Sorry, after Glomgold took everything I had monetarily. In other words, life isn't looking too great for me.", she finished indifferently, though a bit sad and bitter. Huh. That's...really odd. Bitter yes, but sad? Lena wouldn't have ever expected that from her.

-"Tough luck, lady. There's a great pharmacy that sells anti-depressants on the next corner. You know. If you're like me and lost all the joy your life ever had.", the former-luckiest duck in the world suggested darkly, pointing a thumb somewhere. "Look, I don't know you, you don't know me, but please just do me a favour, alright? I need your help. Magic or whatever I just...I just need my luck bad. I need my life back. Can you please help us for the good of your heart?", he got down on his knees and begged, not showing too much emotion, but just enough to almost make you forget his bitterness a moment ago. Almost.

-"...Yeah, listen, the 'good of my heart' doesn't really exist, and even if it did, then I won't be giving it to you of all people.", well...Lena couldn't say she wouldn't say something similar to some duck she barely even knew. Unlike Magica, however, she'd actually accept. Probably. "But it seems Scrooge's thinking isn't there quite yet for all of you.", she stated, almost with disappointment, as she brought two fingers to her temple. "My life at this point is in danger...but that's not really what's motivating me here. What do I have to gain?", ah, straight to the point, are we?

-"What, keeping your life isn't enough for you?", her former-shadow snarked back, utilizing the opportunity to show no respect whatsoever. Ah, that felt good. It didn't feel good to see her nemesis laugh at her, however, as if she knew something she didn't.

-"Now, I may be misunderstanding this, but you don't have much time, yes? Phantom Bolt or whatever is already striking. Both of our lives are endangered, and if it means taking you out...well, I don't need to say much, eh?", oh, how Lena hated the smugness in her voice. They'd accounted for this, but she just wanted to punch her in her stupid beak so much!

-"Fine, does this make you any more inclined?", the younger witch pulled out a purple gem, dangling it from her finger and immediately making Magica's pupils widen.

-"My Sumerian Amulet!", she yelled, throwing herself on Lena, though not with so much force the latter wasn't able to repel her. Indeed, all the younger duckling had to do was raise a hand as her 'aunt' tried grabbing the amulet that was dangling so close to her.

-"There, feeling a bit more excited now?", the intelligent, sharp voice of Violet observed. "We know how much this means to you. Maybe you could even regain your magic with it, yes? This is as much as we're going to offer, so if you don't want it..."

-"...Fine!", came the near-instant response. Magica was biting her lower beak, looking majorly conflicted. "Alright, you have some of ol' Scroogie in you. You want my help? Fine. Fine, no really. How about we seal the deal, then? I help you with whatever it is you want to beat the Phantom Blot, you give me back my Sumerian Amulet, and we all try to kill each other sometime later, affaire conclue?", she extended a fingerless-ly gloved hand, looking all-too-gleeful about all of this. Lena knew the amulet was powerful, but the way Magica accepted their offer...it gave her second thoughts about giving her the amulet.

-"It means 'deal?', Mr.Gladstone.", she heard her step-sister tell the triplets' uncle. Apparently, he wasn't too fond of Magica's new terminology...but then again, neither was Lena. "Though I must wonder how you know of French, Magica.", the short hummingbird muttered as she extended a hand alongside the other three ducks.

-"I have some Savoyard cousins. You're not the only ones with a family here.", came the dry answer.

It took a moment of hesitation, with everyone almost certain that the other side will pull out at the last second. Then, suddenly, Webby's hand went forward and shook, or rather, grabbed Magica's. Violet soon followed, and Gladstone did as they did. That only left Lena, who stared at Magica. If she shakes this hand...she'll take orders from her again. She'll give her the amulet that will make her able to hurt her again. She didn't want to do this...but she had to. Not only for herself, but for her friends. For everyone who depended on her, she took a breath and forced her hand to shake with Magica's. It was...huh. Wow. Her fingers were tiny compared to Lena. How did she never notice?

-"Lovely. Now, you're trying to go after this Phantom Whatever, yes?", the cape-drapped witch asked, looking a bit more enthusiastic. She received a nod from everyone, Gladstone included. "Very well, I can make you an elixir to poison him, though it's going to take some-"

-"Woah woah woah, we're trying to defend ourselves here! Not everyone is a murderer like you!", Lena objected, waving her arms frantically just as her 'aunt' was going to enter her hut. She earned a disapproving stare. She hated them.

-"He's going to kill you, Lena. You're being naïve if you think showing kindness is going to change someone who's bent on murdering you.", the sorceress mocked, resting her hand on her hip. "Besides, why come here in the first place if you're all such big fans of Gandhi?"

-"We want you to teach Lena spell.", Webby replied, her axe still unsheathed, though it only gained an unimpressed look as her enemy got used to it. "We can defeat the Phantom Blot without resorting to your methods, and you'll see that yourself!", she proudly continued, lifting the axe a little higher.

-"A spell?", Magica repeated, mystified. "You...You want me to teach you a spell?! To be back where I belong? To rejoin my magical destiny-", oh, come on. Couldn't she stay clam for five minutes? Why was she acting like a hyperactive child all of sudden? That wasn't how she was supposed to act!

-"Yes, yes, all of that. Now if you could just-"

-"Ooooh, it feels good to be back!", deciding that two could play at the interruptions game, she ignored her 'niece' as she wrapped her cloak around her, covering her beak and moving her fingers for dramatic effect.

-"You are exhausting to be around, you know that?", Lena quipped, glaring at the far-too-gleeful duck in front of her.

-"I try. Now, what spell do you exactly want?"

-"We were thinking about trying a spell to locate the Phantom Blot.", Violet explained, and Lena couldn't help but notice Magica tilted her head just a teeny tiny bit. "We want to know where he is, and if possible, bring him to us.", she clarified, her dignified tone not wavering.

-"You seem worried, witch. Are you worried because you're trying to play us and now you can't?", Webby interrogated with her 'detective accent', looking suspicious to Magica's current indescribable expression.

-"No, it's not that, it's just...Locating people and things is more of a Teleporter thing...", she answered, almost begrudgingly.

-"Welp, we came to the wrong person. I told you! We needed a teleporter, we have a witch. And we made a deal. This is just fan-tastic.", ever the positive one, Lena ranted as she started walking around, waving her arms, exasperated.

-"Of course it would be you to not know magic-branches, Lena.", her 'aunt' scolded, noticing Webby's sudden axe-swing and trying to ignore the obvious threat. "Teleporting is magic. Just a branch of it. I'm more talented in the spells branch and the alchemy branch, alongside shadow-manipulation, of course. Teleporting...well, I can help you. I tried learning it, after all.", she boasted, mumbling the last part to herself more than to the ducklings surrounding her.

-"Branches, huh...And how can we know you're not just messing with us? You could be saying absolute mallarcky!", the seater-wearing duck accused, earning an undignified huff from the older sorceress.

-"I said I tried learning it, and not without some success.", she claimed, hoping to satisfy Lena's questions and just get closer to getting the darn amulet. She didn't. "Listen, my brother was a pretty good Teleporter. I'll tell you what he told me, alright?", she explained further, noticeably uncomfortable with what she was saying.

-"How come I never heard of him if he's so go-"

-"Because you've never spent more than two months in Europe, you brat! Don't you dare talk about the King Of Napoli like that!", she screamed, looking more threatening by the second. A full-blown beatdown was about to ensue if it wasn't for Gladstone, of all people.

-"Hey...I remember that name...He stole my car when I was on a trip in Europe! And my newly-won crown which I won in Barbaria!", he recounted, looking far-too-happy for what he was saying.

-"Bavaria.", Violet corrected.

-"Whatever, he just teleported in my car and stole it after throwing me out! And he had someone else with him, too!", the former-luck king continued, still looking inexplicably happy. "I never thanked him for his service! Some old lady saw the accident and thought I needed help, so she gave me one of her luxury jets to console me! Told me nobody was safe from the King Of Napopi.", he finished, a smile on his face. "That was before the whole...unlucky thing...", and now he was going to be depressed again.

-"See? Now just listen to what I tell you and you should be fine!", the elder duck ordered, apparently unable to sense the internal moment of struggle Lena had before she obeyed, taking a step forward.

-"Yes...Magica.", she muttered under her breath, standing in front of her arch nemesis' cold stare. Her friends were there to protect her. There was nothing to fear. Nothing to fear at all. This was just a forced training session. She was going to get through this.

-"I'd appreciate it if you call me Miss Magica.", and yet it didn't seem like her momentary teacher was willing to make this easy for the both of them. Holding her sly smile, she straightened her back and looked at her forced-apprentice for a second. "Let your magic run through you. Teleportation is a complex art, and all its branches need a constant flow of magic through one's self. Location is no different, let the magic run through your body.", she stated, trying to throw her cloak in a dramatic way.

-"Okay so...like this?", the tallest duckling asked, holding her right arm in front of her and sensing the tingling sensation of magic as it coursed through her. She came to control it after a multitude of attempts, so this wasn't much of a trial. "Oh, and since I might as well milk you for whatever you're worth, can I change this colour? I hate this purple.", she wondered, noting that she didn't get any reply before forcing her vocal cords to add "Miss Magica?"

-"Hmm, well, I don't know, the colour of one's magic is determined by both their will and their chosen Branch of Magic, I had to go through lots of training to change my magic's colour, and since this is my magic,", she pointed at the flame-like purple shape that surrounded her 'niece', "It's going to take a lot of time for you to change it back. But it's no special technique. Some can immediately change it, others cannot. It comes eventually.", she continued indifferently, paying attention to the magic that was radiating off of Lena.

-"Don't talk to Lena like that!", the Vanderquack reaffirmed her stance on Magica as she exchanged glares with the now-dysfunctional sorceress.

-"Webs, it's fine. I can deal with her.", her best-friend answered, turning her attention back to her teacher. Oh, how she hated that she had to refer to her as that! Nevertheless, she was surprised she actually got an answer. She expected some insults and nothing else, but it seemed that once they had a deal...she worked with it. It was...unnerving.

-"When it comes to searching for something, you must see it with your blind eye. You must both wish for it, see it in your mind, and release enough magical surges to clear the way for you. Only then will you sense where what you search for lies. For example, I have a red neckerchief in my house with a raven on it in my home. Try sensing where it is.", the DeSpell explained emotionlessly, guiding Lena a bit closer to her home.

She closed her eyes, as she was told, and tried seeing the neckerchief. Red...raven...yep, pretty plain alright. And yet...she tried releasing energy as she was told, but the only thing that was getting released was a bunch of aimless magical balls that deflated on the ground. She couldn't sense anything. She had the image in her brain, but she couldn't really...get 'it', if that made any sense.

-"Not good. As expected, you cannot properly use my magic. Perhaps you need to be more emotionally motivated to feel the 'click'?", of course it would be like Magica to benefit off this situation. Of course. Well, at least she was partially right. Lena grunted as a response, not wanting to give her trainer any more satisfaction than necessary. "Then we must up the risks a bit.", the elder sorceress claimed moving a bit to where her friends stood.

-"Listen here, Magica! Lena's trying her best, and we have no need for you! If you ever- Hey! My...bow...", in an instant, there was a 'splash'. The eldest of the ducklings turned around to see Webby without her iconic bow staring into the stagnant water of the swamp, shocked and furious at the same time. "That was a gift from my grandma!", she yelled back.

-"Oh, quit it, you want to help your oh-so-precious friends, yes? Then let me teach!", the witch shot coldly, evading an axe swing with relative ease, watching as the energetic duckling gritted her beak; they had no one to trust but her. "Now, Lena, this swamp is filled with alligators and all sorts of nasty creatures. If we don't find Debby's bow in five minutes, it might as well be gone forever. If you can find where I threw it, I'll go get it myself. Sounds good?", too good. Especially that last part. In fact, only that last part, since Lena had little faith that she could succeed.

When everyone around her went silent, the young witch turned her head to Webby. She looked distraught. Closing her eyes once more, she faced the swamp and tried sensing for the bow. Pink, small, and plain. It was a rather noticeable part of Webby. Something that clearly meant a lot for her. If she could find it...Then she'd have helped her friends. She saw it...she willed it...and she started releasing magical sparks. For a moment, just like last time, they merely deflated.

Then, all of a sudden...she felt 'it'. A guiding feeling...like an arm on her shoulders. It made her open her eyes, but she could still see the bow. She saw it. She felt it. It was pulsing...the pulsing pushed her to where it came from:...Away from the water? It was behind her. But the only thing behind her was...she turned around to look at Magica, who had a detestably smug expression on her face as she showed Lena her fingerless-ly gloved left hand. The glove had a small bulge near the wrist.

-"Seems as if I was correct.", was all she said. Lena didn't growl or frown this time. She had no reason to. It slightly angered her to agree with her 'aunt', but as far as correctness went, there wasn't much to critique here. "I learnt this little trick as a little girl. It can help you in a tough spot.", she added as she removed it from under her glove, throwing it into her student's hand. "There, I made good on my promise, right?"

...She did?...Well, yes, she did teach her. Lena thought that she didn't mention some things, such as the formula or how much energy one should dedicate, but in the end, those details were all discovered by her apprentice with no need for more external help. She, should she follow the instructions correctly, was now technically able to find the Phantom Blot.

Then why did she feel something wrong? She felt as if something wasn't quite...right, to put it simply. She expected a bigger fight with Magica. Harsher treatment. Little to no emotions, but it was just...meh. Nothing too big. She stared again the the elder witch. She was smiling. It was a smug smile alright, but it was a smile. It wasn't something she expected to see of Magica. Perhaps as a result of her disdain for her 'aunt' she, too, came to see her as incapable of being a person.

-"I guess so...", she murmured, knowing exactly where her former-teacher at this point was going. She prepared her amulet, not wishing to give it away. "Her name is Webby, by the way.", she added, not getting a response

-"I told you my brother was a good teacher.", her fifteen-minute trainer mumbled, more to herself than to anyone else, and Lena felt awkward. She stared back at her friends.

-"I...uh. Sorry about him. Dying. I guess.", she whispered but it caught the attention of Magica, and she looked positively shocked. "Don't look so shocked. Respect the dead and all that.", that came out wrong. So wrong. If she meant to disrespect him, she couldn't have done worse.

-"Heh...listen, sometimes faking death is a bit easier with magic on your side. If you're willing to share a bit more than the amulet, then maybe I can tell you about him.", she smiled again, though this was one of her more typical smiles, if still an actual smile. Huh. Curious

But just as the newly trained sorceress was about to say something, a 'zap' echoed in the swamp. There was light for a moment, and Magica had to jump to avoid the bolt that zapped a part of her hair and neck. Everyone turned in a split second to see a black-clothed figure with green eyes and a metallic glove on his right hand.

-"And I was just about to pick this four-leaved clover, too...", was the only sentence uttered for a solid minute. And by Gladstone of all people.

The Phantom Blot looked menacing. Pure, undiluted, unadulterated intimidation radiated off of his clothed figure. From afar, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought he was a medieval executioner. The metallic glove on his hand looked more electronic than medieval on closer inspection, but that didn't matter too much. His eyes, fully green by some method, conveyed little emotions, but there's something Lena sensed from him: Hatred.

-"Finally...", his clunky, distorted and terrifying voice announced, his footsteps calculated and his eyes focused. "It seems my searching has led me to the most vile of beings, at last.", he added, closing his fist.

-"The most vile of beings? Listen, I heard some nasty things about ducks, but come on man-", Gladstone tried countering, only to receive a bolt that knocked him over, making him grunt.

-"Not you, you imbecile! These WITCHES!", he cried, hatred drenching his words as he advanced. He most certainly had an accent...But Lena couldn't just pin-point it...though she thought she heard it sometime in the past...

-"These what now?", Magica repeated, apparently offended.

-"WITCHES!", he repeated, not slowing his advance as the group of ducks slowly backed off. "You come in with your magic, destroy cities with your undeserved power, and you...you're never satisfied! You always want more! You never leave something to the people who work for their power!", he ranted shooting a couple of bolts that forced the group the yell and retreat further to Magica's hut.

-"Oh. Witches. I think I still hate you, but a little less than when I thought you said-"

-"It would just be like you to show up now, huh?!", back to interrupting Magica, it was Lena who couldn't keep it in her head anymore. "I spend an hour with Magica to learn how to find you and you just show up like that?! Couldn't you have came in a little early?! Do you have any idea what kind of deal we made?!", she complained, ranting at him, and forcing him to do a double take on her words.

-"Not only are you a witch, but you are a sore loser. I could make my nonna's pasta with that much salt!", he mocked, doing a small laugh that almost sounded dead...like, the whole laughing part was there, but there was no spirit behind it. Just a sick, twisted glee.

-"Hey, hold it there for a minute, you're italian?", Magica asked, flabbergasted. Ah. Right. Sometimes Magica lost control of her British accent in front of Lena. Now she remembered. But really? This was the thing she asked about? Why would that matt-

-"Indeed, and my heart shall always remain there! It is why I find great pleasure and cleaning Napoli of your filth!", he growled, firing another shot which she barely avoided but backing her into the tree where her hut was located.

-"Oooh, you're digging your own grave here, you Blot! I am a proud Neapolitan, and the mere name is much more than wherever you're from!", she challenged, pointing an accusing finger as the other ducks stared at each other. They didn't know what exactly was unfolding in front of them, but it couldn't have been anything good.

-"Don't you dare insult Genova, you wretch!", he shot back, almost losing his nerves for a second before calming down. "No. I am much better than losing my nerves to a fiend like you! Prepare for justice!", he suddenly declared, and the speed of it made Magica unable to dodge the bolt he fired, punching her into Gladstone, who tried hiding behind her, and throwing the both of them into the trunk of her tree. She fell down with a hard 'crack', leaving Gladstone in a duck-shaped impression.

-"Wh-Why me...?!", he lamented before falling. The sorceress tried getting up but she limped.

-"Magica!", Lena yelled. Why did she yell? Why could she possibly yell?...Because if she dies, he's going after them. Definitely. She ran, trying to raise a shield to protect her from another, more frightening zap that would've hit her. Heck, even then, it shattered Lena's shield. Crud, this guy really isn't messing around anymore. But then a pink figure shined behind the Phantom. Yes! Webby was doing it!

-"How's this for justice!", she cried from behind him as she jumped, but he was good. Too good. He managed to spin his entire figure, raise his mechanical weapon and take a fighting pose at once, stopping his assailant's hit. Oh. This guy wasn't going to be any fun, was he?

-"You...Hah! It wasn't enough!", he bragged, pulling the battle-axe from his glove as his previous wielder suffered from the vibrations of hitting a metal. One powerful grab and swing from his glove sent Webby back to her friends, face in the dirt, and with no weapon.

-"What kind of justice are you hoping to achieve?!", cried Violet, hoping to buy them some time. It didn't work, and he only accelerated his assault, firing multiple electrical charges or whatever these were, forcing the ducks to separate.

-"Justice is not my primary concern, hummingbird. I am a criminal, after all, but if I can do my job and rid the world of this evil, then I shall take the initiative!", he calmly replied, not paying any attention to the fact that most of them were getting zapped or were running in terror. "But enough playing around, I do not wish to fail now!", he stopped, preparing what seemed to be a worse, more powerful form of his weapon.

-"Lena, do you think we can take him on?", Violet asked, trying to get them regroup.

-"Nope."

-"Webby, do you have any more weapons?", she turned to the Vanderquack, trying to assume to role of the leader.

-"Don't really think they're going to affect him.", she answered pulling out a few knives that looked like toothpicks comapred to her axe.

-"Mr.Gladstone-"

-"Don't have my luck; can't do anything.", came the reply.

-"...Magica?", she asked her voice a bit desperate.

-"My shotgun has one more round in it.", she declared, pointing it at their attacker, who finished upgrading himself and was about to shoot once again. "We're going to die, aren't we?"

-"Probably.", Lena answered her, watching the black-wearing man as he began shooting at them again.

Well. Nothing else to do but to face the music, as they say. Whoever 'they' is. And whatever that meant. And whatever that had to do with their situation. Oh, give her a break. She didn't have time to think about this fight of theirs. Magic versus one very wronged, apparently, and angry man and his technology. The fight of the century.

The Phantom versus The Sorceress. Time to see how long they can stay alive.

[judesstfrancis]

Hope you don’t mind me asking but you are well versed in horror films. What would you recommend as a good place to start for someone who is not comfortable with demons or jumpscares? (Ghosts are fine but there’s something about demons that really unsettle me for some reason) thanks!!!

I don’t mind at all!! honestly I love answering questions like these, I grew up with horror so I love helping other people figure out what they might like.

before I start, I do wanna note that jumpscares have a very broad, kinda vague definition. it really all depends on your personal sensitivity! so while some of these movies have scenes that are technically labeled as jumpscares, they may not actually read like that onscreen. a good resource I think is wheresthejump.com, and I’ll be providing links for each movie that has a profile on the website. regardless, I’ll make sure to only rec movies that I don’t consider to have blatant jumpscares and that only have minor jumpscare ratings on the site. and bc I’ll be linking you to the profiles directly, you’ll be able to decide for yourself if it’s something you want to actually consume. the profiles will both describe what the jumpscares are, how major or minor they are, and the exact time stamps they occur at. if the movie doesn’t have a profile on the website, u should ostensibly be safe!

here we go!

my personal first introduction to horror was the lost boys (1987) and I cannot recommend it enough. really classic 80s horror, vampires, extremely Gender and extremely Homosexual Subtext. a young boy and his family move to santa carla and his older brother accidentally gets turned into a vampire bc he’s trying to impress the local hot boys! he’s technically trying to impress literally the only woman his age in the movie, but look. the vampire men look Like That, he was trying to impress the local hot boys. (no profile on wheresthejump)

I also have to rec scream (1996) bc it is my absolute favorite horror film. this movie is like a really classic teen slasher but, and I’m sure u already know what I’m about to say if you’ve followed this blog for more than 24 hours, it is full of incredible twists. absolutely deconstructed the entire slasher subgenre and is the reason the Film Nerd Who Knows Everything About Horror trope was popularized. it absolutely does not take itself seriously and there’s a lot of outside references to other horror projects the director was involved in and honestly that’s what makes it genius. it thinks its a joke! it treats itself like a joke, but it’s not. also sidney prescott is like THE horror franchise frontwoman, thank u miss neve campbell (wheresthejump profile)

okay other recs that I’m hopefully gonna not talk as long about since I’m trying not to make this Super Long:

us (2019) everything jordan peele has ever done, horror wise, is a masterpiece. the man simply knows what he’s doing. this one has a family vacation gone wrong, dopplegangers, and an overall amazing narrative. (wheresthejump profile)

van helsing (2004) this may perhaps be way too cheesy to label as a horror movie but look I love it and it’s been a favorite of mine for a very long time so I’m including it. hugh jackman plays van helsing! real fun vampire hunting. (wheresthejump profile)

when a stranger calls (1979) the call is coming from inside the house! your classic babysitter horror but like. it was the Blueprint for classic babysitter horror, u know? absolutely amazing, one of my favorites. (wheresthejump profile)

the raven (2012) one of my favorite movies, even outside of horror! it’s actually labeled as a crime mystery/thriller but we all know how I feel about thrillers being horror. also it’s a serial killer so like. horror film. anyway it’s based on edgar allan poe and he has to help solve murders based on his own stories! really neat premise! (no profile on wheresthejump)

coraline (2009) technically marketed as a fantasy kid’s film but look shit is SCARY. I watched it for the first time when I was 18 and I was spooked. really cool kinda adventure-y thing where she finds a portal to an alternate universe and hangs out with her Other Family and has fun initially but then things get Weird. (no profile on wheresthejump)

don’t look under the bed (1999) this shit was apparently so scary that disney had to take it off the air for a Very Long Time after it was first released on the channel. what happens when u forget your imaginary friends? apparently boogeymen! one of my absolute favorite movies in the entire world, I was always so excited when it actually was on tv (no profile on wheresthejump)

lady in white (1988) ghosts! this one’s just really neat. narrated story about a little boy in the 60s who sees a murder and gets haunted afterwards. but like in a cool way!! he helps the ghosts it's neat (no profile on wheresthejump) (no demons)

the frighteners (1996) another favorite of mine that I just love to death. this one’s part comedy! michael j fox gets into a car accident that kills his wife and can talk to spirits after that so he makes friends with them to stage hauntings and scam people out of money by pretending to get rid of them. things get wild tho when he finds an evil ghost pretending to be the grim reaper that is actually the ghost of a serial killer from however long ago and is now marking victims to kill them later. (no profile on wheresthejump) (evil spirits but no demons, it is very clear that he is just a regular, human serial murderer turned ghost)

hope this was helpful! I tried to give a good little sample mix of some of my favorites that weren’t Too Gross and didn’t rely on just blaring loud music and shoving a scary picture in your face for no reason. overall I’d say probably creature features and slashers might be your best bet for avoiding jumpscares and demonic narratives? older movies as well will rely on jumpscares less so that’s something to keep in mind. if you’re ever unsure, make sure to use wheresthejump.com for descriptions/time stamps/ratings of jumpscares and check out doesthedogdie.com as well! doesthedogdie originated to warn about animal death in horror, but it has a wide array of phobias and potential triggers that it tracks too, so it’s good for a number of things.

also delving into horror that’s marketed for kids slaps. there’s a lot less possibility that it’s gonna be gross just for the sake of it and those usually don’t have jumpscares. they’re also a lot more creative! it’s why I added coraline and don’t look under the bed to the list, I truly just think horror that’s marketed for children is amazing bc it doesn’t have the ability to rely on tired, cheap gimmicks to get their scares. I hope this doesn’t come off as me being like patronizing or anything bc I truly am being genuine, like as a fan of the genre I just love children’s horror. I recommend that everyone checks it out bc it is absolutely unparalleled, so like definitely delve into that a little, too.

[ralfstrashcan]

Fire Messages

A (long long long, let's not talk about it) while ago the dear @toughpaperround​ asked me about my thoughts on fire messages... and here they finally are.

Like most things in Shadowhunters fire messages come in two styles (other examples are portals, swords and runes) because at some point they experienced a random visual makeover. Both designs raise different questions and I'll get to those in a moment. First though it's interesting to note that the appearance of a fire message doesn't seem to depend on whether it's created by a shadowhunter or a warlock. On that note, are other downworlders able to create fire messages as well? Since shadowhunters operate them with their steles and warlocks with magic? I guess seelies should be able to as well since they also have magic (though they seem to prefere their nature-birds-leaves-whispering-on-the-wind way of communication). But what about vampires and werewolves? I don't recall either of thoses species ever sending a fire message on-screen, though it might have been mentioned at some point that one of them did, and I forgot. In any case I find it intriguing/ridiculous that fire messages look the same regardless of who creates them. Angelic energy and demonic magic don't really operate in similar ways so why would their fire messages look alike? Distinctive appearances like with the portals would make more sense.

Moving on to the first style! As far as I remember this style can only be spied once in the series, namely at the end of 1x06 when Izzy breaks things off with Meliorn

Which, now that I'm thinking about it, isn't that the shadow world equivalent of breaking up via text? Rude, Izzy. Anyway! The rune she draws at the bottom of the paper

is, as the trained eye immediately sees

Next, the paper goes up in flames

and Izzy lets go of it so she doesn't burn her fingers. Not a trace of the paper is left afterwards.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that the fire message burns into existence in midair wherever Meliorn is at this moment in time. Which... is probably the seelie realm? So can fire messages just travel between realms no big deal? Imagine the possibilities! Asmodeus could be bothering Magnus all day! Lilith could be terrorizing all Clave members via fire message harassment! This is hilarious XD

I have questions though! 1) How does the fire message know a) who the recipient is and b) where the recipient is? Canon never addresses or indicates either of those things so there's literally nothing to go off of. Re a): To me it seems most reasonable that the sender focuses on the person they want the message to receive while sending the message off via rune or magic. It's unlikely that writing the name on the paper alone determines the recipient because i) there exist people who share names and ii) you couldn't mention anyone in your fire message without accidentally cc-ing them, which, impractical and awkward. So intent seems the most plausible thing. Which in turn begs the question if you can mass-message people if you think of more than one person while sending? Probably not. In canon Magnus messages each warlock individually about that ritual he wants to try in 3x09. Might have been for courtesy's sake, so he can address every warlock individually with name but seems unlikely since he was under time pressure. Aside from that this would imply miraculous paper replication and physics says no. Re b): No way. This makes no sense whatsoever except when fire message magic is the ultimate omniscient might that can track anyone anytime anywhere. And if that power really existed in the world then how come no one has used it to currupt everything? Surely if you can access this pool of knowledge to send innocent little breakup messages you could find a way to use it for grand evil as well? I find it hard to believe that no one's tried and succeeded so far. Just look at how much effort shadowhunters put into tracking people all the time! They'd be stupid to waste their resources like that if there was a way to instantly-know the whereabouts of someone. Anyway, this is utter bs and just like the hp owls all over again and I simply refuse.

2) Who can you send fire messages to? My knee-jerk answer would be to anyone you know, both personally and more generally in the sense that you are aware of their existence. You focus on them while sending the message, bam, they get it. But. Spam. Spam is a thing. Do you have any idea how much hate mail and general pranks higher-ups would get if they could be (anonymously!) addressed by anyone? Magnus probably had a whole phase where he did nothing but trashtalk shadowhunters who pissed him off XD I read in this post (which is the one toughpaperround sent my way and which I'm kinda answering with this) the possibility that you can only fire message people you've either met in real life before or who you've established some kind of fire-messaging-you-is-okay-connection – kinda like exchanging phone numbers. Everyone has a phone but you can only call someone whose number you have. You can even hand-wave your way through issue b) and claim that the fire message tracks the recipient through that connection and that's how it can find them no matter where they are. I've thought about it for a while and while I think this is the most logical explanation I don't think it makes sense in-universe for how fire messages are used, or for what the purpose of a fire messages really is. Phones are inarguably more practical because you don't need an extra pen and paper to send off a message. So, why would someone use a fire message instead of a phone? Well, either the person you want to reach doesn't have a phone (*cough* Meliorn *cough*) or the message is so important and time-sensitive that you need the other person to know right now and while you can ignore a text or a call, you can lose your phone or it can die, it's kinda difficult to miss a burning piece of paper flying in your face. Fire messages are like extreme emergency phone calls. And for those it would be high-key impractical if you could only send them to someone you have already met previously. (Of course this is just speculation and doesn't even make sense historically since fire messages were around long before phones and likely were the only means of communication then and not just reserved for emergencies (or maybe they were since paper and ink was precious back then?!). And of course determining the nature of a thing by going 'It would be most practical if it was like this' is highly unscientific. Anyway.) Honestly, my personal take on this is still that you can send a fire message to anyone and the show simply ignoring everything that this implies (aka Alec getting at least 10 lewd fire messages per day from secret admirers) because it wasn't relevant to the plot.

Leaving behind questions that apply to fire messages generally this last one is design-specific. 3) To what exactly is the teleportation, that clearly happens here, limited? The paper, the ink. Uh-huh. What if you glue something to the paper? For example, idk, a GPS tracker? Would that allow you to learn the location of the person you messaged? Probably not, or they would have been very stupid not to do that with Valentine. Even if you could only message someone you have met in person and/or established a special fire message connection with there are still enough Circle members around in S1 who surely had his fire message phone number. (Or did he destroy the connection? Can you fire-message-block someone you no longer want any attachments to?) What happens if you fire message someone who's dead? Does the fire message hover over their grave for the rest of eternity? We'll never know. I'll allow that there is special fire message paper and special fire message ink that can teleport. Anything else tacked on would be left behind. Paper and ink could even be extra-charmed so they can pass through dimensions or whatever. Still sounds fake – because i) how would you spell paper so it can pass any ward (Magnus at some point messages Jem who's probably chilling in the Silent City or something) and ii) if there's a way to charm paper and ink so it can be teleported, why limit yourself to those? Why not put that same magic on your GPS tracker and you're ready to go? – but I tried okay. Whatever, special fire message paper and ink grow on special trees in Idris and their special teleportation magic can't be replicated. There, mystery solved.

The second style fire messages acquire is both more and less logically pleasing. It's more logically pleasing because it eliminates the whole teleportation issue since apparently the fire message just flies from sender to recipient but sadly this creates its own set of issues, first of all how tf does the fire message fly from sender to recipient? Does it have eyes? How does it navigate the streets by itself? What about the secrecy the shadow world allegedly tries to uphold? It also doesn't solve the GPS tracker problem (if anything it makes it worse) because who's stopping you from sending a nice little message to Valentine and then just, following the flying message to his secret hideout?

The journey itself isn't unproblematic either. How quick are those things flying? In 3x06 exactly 54 seconds pass between Magnus sending off his message to Jem and receiving an answer. So in less than a minute the message flew to Jem, he read it, he composed an answer, and it made the way back. No wonder these messages are burning at the edges if they're so quick. (Yes, that was sarcastic.) They also don't seem to slow down when approaching their intended target. Magnus even pushes Clary out of the way because of it.

This is so confusing. So the fire message can navigate through Magnus's apartment no problem but it would have chopped Clary's head off because she was in the way? Was Magnus just being dramatic? I mean I'd totally buy that on any given day, but the situation was a bit too serious for that especially because it isn't treated as a joke to lighten the mood but just like Magnus casually pulling Clary out of danger because that's what he always does. It makes no sense whatsoever. This also begs another question, since fire messages seem to seek out their target quite vehemently. If you're locked in an air-tight room, could you send a fire message to someone, and the fire message on its pursuit to fulfill its duty could help you create a crack in the walls? Could you actually break out via fire message? What if you grab the paper real tight? Could you fly out of a canyon on a fire message? Now, on to the last part of the fire message's journey: the landing. How. How do you catch something that moves so quickly instead of just swatting it away? In the post I mentioned before someone wrote that catching stuff like that works on auto pilot if you have the practice and I'll just take your word for it... but what if you don't have the practice? Personally I'm shit at catching shit. I'd get smacked in the face by 95% of the fire messages sent my way. And considering the speed and the sharp edges of the fire messages that can't be healthy. My poor face. Why do I say the fire message would slap my face and not docilely settle into my palm? Because that's what I honestly believe. I think if you fail to catch a fire message it just flops in your face and sticks there (that should also wake you up if you're asleep, lol) because I mean, look at those trajectories.

Mind that the fire message stays on its initial course even after Magnus / Alec / Izzy moves their hand to a position to catch it. That’s because it wasn't aiming for the hand. It was aiming for the face.

It only gets weirder from here on out.

Remember 3x07? Imogen gets stabbed by Possessed!Jace and uses her last moments to notify Alec of Jace's whereabouts (instead of, y'know, activating her healing rune which takes two seconds, sending the message after and keep on living. SIGH). Fair enough, but the thing is this

Where's the paper? Where's the ink?

What is happening? What is she doing there?!

And then-- and then--

Yeah Alec, I'm as shocked as you are. Where tf did that paper (and presumably ink for writing) come from?! Can shadowhunters suddenly create matter from nothing?? Physics is crying in the corner!! I have so many questions!!

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Deca-Dence 4 | Maou-jou 2 | Fruits Basket 2 24 (49) | Magatsu 1 | IWGP 2 | Koi to Producer 11 - 12 (FINAL) | HypMic 3

Still chugging away at these summer and spring anime...sorry for the delay...(LOL, that rhymed without me meaning to.)

Also, I’ve been on the fence about whether to keep Golden Kamuy, since almost no one I read the reviews of follows it now and it’s a week’s wait (when accounting for my AniList challenge)...so I’m putting it on pause so I don’t have to suffer later.

Deca-Dence 4

“…who possesses the will to fight.”

…Great. Kurenai is absolutely tethered to Kaburagi in a one-sided love. Just when I thought Natsume had an independent role model to look up to.

Maou-jou 2

Oh, this is from Shonen Sunday? Didn’t know that until now.

“Demon Shroud: A demon with 99 clans. A cloth demon that puts on airs that it won’t be used before it’s finished off, due to its wonderful fabric. It is full of beautiful ghostly power, so its skin is smooth. However, the hero (who commonly uses things he finds in his surroundings) caught one, so now the princess has zeroed in on them. The princess doesn’t need the hands or the head of these demons, so it’s a cycle of killing and taking revenge for them. Their fighting style is squeezing the life out of things.”

Apparently, the teddy is acceptable, LOL.

I like how the window stopped displaying text at one point.

I saw someone with a huge plait in the ED. The queen, maybe…?

I noticed the laughs dropped off significantly in comparison to last time, but it’s still good. I can flex my translation skills even if I can’t laugh at one part.

Fruits Basket 2 24 (49)

…jumping to the 2nd-last episode in a season is pretty unprecendented, but I’m going to watch this for the sake of Jon’s Creator Showcase…then again, I need to finish this anime anyway, so it’s just cutting and changing the order for something I already know the outcomes of.

I used to lose myself in movies so much that I would lose all sense of who I was and would have to “regain the bearings of myself”, so to speak. I would have to reconstruct who I was, even though I technically hadn’t “been broken” and I knew once I did that, it felt different. Like I’d travelled through time and past me would never be the same as present me. That’s why I kind of get what Machi means.

Oh, I didn’t listen to this OP much…probably because I’m emphasising bingeing the spring and summer series I left behind and now that I can skip the ads on most of my anime, I’m leaving behind the anime I’ll be slower on.

The manga was written when there weren’t as many cell phones around, much less smartphones.

Rin’s on bad terms with everyone…

…if I remember the year of the dragon correctly, the last one was 2012, then the one before that is 2000…around the turn of the millennium, huh? Froob is showing its age here, albeit unintentionally.

Now that I’m closer to the Musketeers’ age, I can kind of empathise with their scenes a bit more.

“If I always blame someone or something, I’ll never change.” – True. I realised I’ve been a bit too haughty lately (what with the HypMic anime going on and it being the first thing I could research extensively before the anime’s debut, my feelings are of course reaching fever pitch – combine that with continued COVID lockdown and you get me being all defensive of HypMic, for better or for worse) and so I may have acted like a jerk to someone, but since I only know them online and generally when I try to apologise to people online they don’t see the things I apologise for as things in need of apology, I know the fault lies with me to rein myself in. I guess this means changing yourself is the only way to move forward.

I wonder how Hatori did his doctor training while avoiding hugs from girls who aren’t Sohmas…?

Shigure vs. Gentaro (of HypMic, of course)…a writing competition! That would be fun.

…Crow’s note here makes sense (<- this is why I changed the order). Shigure was clearly asking a question there.

Come to think of it, HypMic and Froob have some similar characters. The stoic doctor is Hatori/Jakurai, the energetic smol one is Momiji/Ramuda, the teasing author is Shigure/Gentaro…that could make for some good fanfic material, really.

Magatsu 1

…that title is an absolute killer, man. Anyways, I’m here for the director, who also worked on Hataraku Maou-sama.

Is this a no guns thing, like IWGP is a no drugs thing?

…this OP has lyrics?! I just hear strange squeaky noises, the kind you hear on some autotuned sogs to make them seem more ominous (I can’t remember if there’s a similar sound in G-Anthem of Y City or Yokohama Walker, but one of the MTC songs has similar noises).

I kinda guessed Leo’s package was the one Schaake and her partner were looking for. I was right.

That CGI (on the truck) is…kinda conspicuous.

These backgrounds are gorgeous.

“The definition of in dubio contra reum is "in doubt, against the accused", meaning that, where there is doubt, the accused in a trial is not given the benefit of that doubt; they are assumed guilty.”

I wonder: how many protagonists start out as absolute wimps, unwilling to fight because they either know or don’t know their own power? It’s a pretty standard introduction for things with fights.

This battle track is nice. I listened to some of the Magatsu music under Masaru Yokoyama’s name on Spotify and it’s pretty cool, but since it’s background music, there’s not a lot of demand to listen to it (from me or anyone else, I don’t think).

Why is there only a single shield if they know the enemy has heavy artillery?

…what the heck is a Zeits? Update: You can see a “Zeits” (or however it’s spelt) in the credits list, suggesting Zeits is a character in this.

I knew this was my last premiere and this might have made or broken my entire watching schedule, but this is just a pretty down-to-earth premiere for a fantasy mobile game. While that cliffhanger compelled me to continue, I don’t think it’s good enough to beat its competition in the long run.

IWGP 2

I know I said Magatsu was my last premiere, but just to be sure, I’m watching this one.

This dance scene is beautifully orchestrated. The fact there’s no music means you focus entirely on the motion.

The OP seems to trade more in colour and spectacle than actual “cool factor”.

…wow, $2.90…? That’s some cheap food.

You know I hate 1st person cam with a passion, right? So…uh…

Eyyyyyyyy…this is basically McDonald’s, curry style.

I think I can almost see Ichiro of HypMic in how the G-Boys seem to mostly be reformed delinquents or actual delinquents.

…yeah, but what’s your name, random messenger guy? Update: We find out later his name is Isogai.

“It’s because I suck at working and communicating.” – Yep, that me.

Ikebukuro licence plate. I still have no idea exactly what places get licence plates in Japan.

There are actually 2 characters before “Hospital”, but no one confirms the reading of those characters…which is probably why they’re omitted.

…oh gosh, if this were a BL, Mitsuki and Masaru would be star-crossed lovers…*sigh*

Maybe it’s an unrelated 3rd party??? (In mysteries, you can never dismiss the work of a 3rd party.)

You can tell exactly which group is which based on the colours they wear. Makoto isn’t affiliated with anyone, so he’s wearing black and had yellow earlier.

I think an anime is cowardly – or trying to save budget – if they deliberately choose an angle where they can’t show the moment of impact clearly.

E! News, LOL.

Archangel, huh? So like a 2nd in command?

I think IWGP is moving in the direction of pushing the gangs against each other in the way Makoto describes in ep. 2.

As for what I think of it now, it's decent if you want something down-to-earth, but it seems to be missing some kind of "wow factor". Like it's afraid to commit to deeper characterisation, even though it has Makoto as the ostensible lead/viewpoint character.

Koi to Producer 11

“Cognitive Science Association” - I thought it was the Cognitive Psychology Association…? (Psychology is shinrigaku, science is kagaku.)

My boy (Lucien)…why must you be so evil??? Why do I keep falling for the tall but mysterious doctor??? (<- guilty as charged re: Jakurai)

…that’s some funky seatbelts.

What’s that look in Victor’s eyes…? Fondness, or something more…?

…ah, so there is “Science” in the place’s name. It was just being less loosely translated then.

Oh dang. Stuff escalated really fast, huh?

You actually set this in 2020, huh, staff? What happens ten years from now and people watch it, only to realise 2020 and 2030 aren’t so different? That’s what happened when people had the Y2K bug.

That yellow sign on the side says “exit”. It’s not of any use.

That’s not a recoloured Kiro, is it? It’s not Shaw, either (who I think we saw somewhere in the previous episodes)…so then who is it?

…geesh, they even changed Helios to Ares. I guess it makes sense: Helios is the god of the sun, but Ares is the god of war.

Koi to Producer 12 (FINAL)

I read on the wiki Lucien’s power is copying powers. No wonder I couldn’t get a solid handle on it!

So that Helios wasn’t a mistake in the credits list in the previous episode???

Can we even hear what Helios says when Protag-chan is pulled away? Based on the lack of subs, probably no, but I wanted to ask anyway. (Or maybe he said “Watashi”, since that’s the pronoun Protag-chan goes by?)

…so that really is Kiro, huh?

Military…what? When did Protag-chan’s father have a military squad???

LOL, at the very end you can see Gavin gesturing at Greenie (the pot plant, presumably a succulent). I logged on to the game 7 days straight (they have a Discord channel!) and got a Gavin R card with Greenie on it, which is how I know about it.

Anyways, that was a fun show. Not the best, but still fun.

HypMic 3

*snickers* Just look at my boi! He’s so tall, he has to bend down for kids! (I don’t mean that teasingly, I mean that endearingly, but lately I’ve been no good at expressing myself…Must be the lockdown.)

If TsudaKen was a guest last time, then Degarashi and Irihatoma could be voiced by guest seiyuus too…

What is Jakurai, hmm? (A Transformer, LOL?...I’m kidding, of course.)

All I knew about this episode going in was that it was an MTR episode. Maybe they’ll cover the stalker story from the manga…?

More literally, Hifumi’s sign says “will you monopolise me until morning?”. This reminds me of the MTR truck one of the servers I was in was talking about…it looked like a giant billboard.

“The most notable thing about Doppo is that he has no notable characteristics.”…and yet, he’s still one of the most popular characters of the series.

Suddenly, HypMic becomes a mystery…? I’ll take it!

Yup, “Doppomine” is now confirmed as “Doppo-chin”.

If all the mysteries I’ve consumed say one thing, it’s “never forget there might be someone out there with a grudge against you willing to pin a crime on you”…or alternatively, “never forget there may be an unrelated 3rd party who would be willing to pin a crime on you”.

These guys (Tom etc.) are just food critics, I swear…(LOL)

Oddly enough(?), googling “Shinjuku waffles” reveals there are several waffle places in Shinjuku…you wouldn’t expect so many waffles away from the home of waffles (probably Belgium), but there you go.

All the results on Shinjuku French toast point to this Café Aaliya (give or take an H at the end). Apparently, it’s so popular, people line up for it on weekdays.

Oh, so Tom’s a (street) photographer…what are Iris and Rex then?

The CGI on that car looks really bad, man. It may be dark to disguise it, but it still looks bad.

Jakurai’s dad car strikes again!...Was it white? I don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure it was a lighter colour than this.

I was quite worried about how much swearing they were going to throw in the MTC episode, but then…they kicked it down a week. So…start worrying about next week, folks!

I…thought he would call Jyuto for some reason. (giggles) I’ve never seen Samatoki look so happy in relation to Jakurai, but maybe that’s because he’s just chilling. (Or maybe he was meant to have a neutral but slightly happy face and they messed up the angle. I know I do that sometimes in fanart.)

There’s Jyuto, right on cue…LOL, that kick to the guts was so random it became epic!

Uwabami…what sort of snake is that, again? *checks* Giant snake. That’s no help. (That host could have a guest seiyuu too.)

Ooh, I’m fairly sure that’s an automatic car.

Jakurai went Jitsu wa kyoumi bukai desu ne?. “Fascinating” isn’t a wrong translation, but they did forget “In fact…” or “Really…” from the start and possibly the “?” at the end (depending on interpretation). Update: It might actually be Jitsu ni, but same deal.

They struttin’ down Kabuki-cho all fancy-like…Doppo sure does get a lot of punchlines, though.

This random guy at the club could also have a guest seiyuu…

…what’s with the random Tahoma?

…oh, hey. If Hifumi’s jacket acts as a security blanket of sorts against women and he gave it to Doppo for extra warmth (presumably), then…he’s trying to protect Doppo, even in his own sort of unique way.

Mimimi vs Hifumi? This is gonna get confusing…(hey, did they actually make a flourish noise when Hifumi put on his jacket? Does the distinction need to be that clear…?)

…see, never forget the presence of an unrelated 3rd party.Wait, so we have motive…what’s the relationship of Mimimi and the dude she killed? Who is that dude? Update: We find out later.

Notice Mimimi says “Hifumi-kun” – she’s still on an outside layer compared to Doppo, who just uses Hifumi’s name. Also, I noticed Mimimi called herself Hifumi’s “onna” – “woman” – explicitly, as if she belonged to him. The subs reflect that, but it seems to have less meaning in English because they outright translated it as such.

Well, they got to demonstrate Doppo’s snapping. I’m more than happy with just that. Also, Hifumi calls Doppo with a -kun here.

LOL, this song is gonna be known as “catchy”, ain’t it? Anything with an easy-to-sing-along chorus like “nananana” is. Update: Or maybe not even a chorus, it’s just lyrics.

Hmm…I noticed the “use Mr with me” line isn’t actually reflected in the subs, but the lyrics are so fast, I don’t know how they are reflected.

Did you notice the da in the lyrics in romaji?

…and s*** goes ka-blooey, as you’ve come to expect by now.

Mimimi-kun…?

Oh, so the background from Hypnosis Mics can get caught in photos? I never thought of that.

It’s almost as if they’re nodding at the Doppo fans through the 4th wall regarding his appeal.

It seems they’re not switching out this Buster Bros track, which is…okay, but I was hoping for an MTR ED. (Tofubeats was on this track IIRC and the anime website didn’t list a future ED, so that’s why I’m okay with it.)

…Okay, so Irihatoma is Mutsumi Iwanaka, who’s a rookie in the seiyuu world. *goes to consult Anime News Network*

Oh! Mimimi Hibakari! I get it! (It means ��me, me, me all day” when written differently to her name.)

Uwabami was Shugo Nakamura and Degarashi was Mitsuaki Hoshino. I’ve never heard of these guys – except for Nakamura’s role as Teru in Idolm@ster Side M – so it’s interesting they contrasted TsudaKen with them…eh? Heilong? Whossat? (Probably the guy whose…parts…almost got crushed by Jakurai with a billiards cue.) This Hiroya Eto is even more underground than those guys.

A-hah! Today’s new song is “WELCOME U” (that’s how it’s spelt, don’t diss me for it!) by Kohei from SIMONSAYZ.

Update: I thought that kid at the beginning was Yotsutsuji, so it scared me for a second.

[sybright]

Macavity I guess

So this started out as me describing my alternate universe Macavity’s, but it kinda turned into me discussing like, almost all of my hc’s related to Macavity. So I guess that’s what this is now? Anyway, this is very disorganized. Everything started out simple but then I just kept adding things and getting ideas, and everything went off the rails from there. So, read this as if I’m setting up to explain my alternate universe Mac’s, but then spend too much time setting up asadjnfdshbfdhfds

(Also, I finally figured out how undercuts work and this is really long, sooooo, if you actually want to read this for some reason, you can click keep reading I guess?):

Some headcanon stuff/things to keep in mind: I don’t usually hc Macavity as having been part of the tribe in the past, such as him being brothers with Munk and Tugger, although I do really enjoy those hcs. For the alternate universes I’m going to describe here, I see Macavity as a cat who grew up on the street, who didn’t really have any friends or family. Because he grew up all alone, with no one to help him with his magic like how Misto did, he did whatever he needed to in order to survive. This resulted in him taking up a life of crime, and eventually leading to the events in the musical. 

Some Demeter Headcanon stuff (note that not all of this applies to all three alternate universe Mac’s): I hc Demeter as having also grown up on the street alone, and not having any connection with the Jellicles, (this goes for all three alternate universe Mac’s). She gets tangled up with Macavity out of a mixture of necessity, Mac has easy access to food with his whole criminal thing going on, and a bit of curiosity for the mysterious cat who she knows is bad news. Curiosity develops into love but then quickly sours when she figures out his true nature. She runs away to seek refuge with the Jellicles who she heard were welcoming to strangers, and eventually decides to stay with them for good. 

Universe 1 Macavity (aka main universe sort of): This is your typical, standard Macavity. He’s genuinely evil, and a huge asshole. Jerrie and Teazer did a few jobs for him in the past, mostly for fun, but they realized that he really wasn’t a good guy and stopped working for him. He had a past relationship with Demeter (this applies to all Mac’s) but it fell apart at some point. In this universe, his relationship with Dem was very toxic and abusive, hence why Dem is so nervous and terrified during the show whenever he appears or seems like he’s going to appear. Basically, Mac’s just plain bad. 

Universe 2 Macavity (aka Mac redemption universe): I got really interested in the idea of a universe where Mac gets redeemed, so that was the inspiration for this. Here, Mac is evil but not super evil, and his past relationship with Dem wasn’t toxic or abusive, just unhealthy, or maybe a bit toxic, just not as bad as the main universe. Here, maybe Mac had a lot of personal shit to work through and started pouring it onto Dem instead of dealing with it himself, or maybe Dem realized that she just wasn’t okay with his criminal lifestyle. Either way, or both ways, Dem was tired of it and left. Jerrie and Teazer never worked for Mac in this universe, they ran into him a few times while committing their own crimes, but they didn’t interact with him much, well, that is until he starts to get better but you can read my extra notes at the very bottom of this post for more info on that. After a while, maybe after some big, emotional event, Mac starts to see the error of his ways, it’s a slow process but he strives to become a better person. Eventually he’s welcomed into the tribe once he gets better. He doesn’t get back together with Dem, but he does start up a friendly relationship with her and even grows close with Jemima (who I hc as his and Dem’s daughter).

Universe 3 Macavity (aka idiot universe): Macavity isn’t actually evil, just a massive dumbass, and he likes messing with the Jellicles for fun. When he kidnaps Old Deut, Old Deut isn’t actually in any danger, he’s just hanging out with the hench rats in a dumpster somewhere playing tic-tac-toe. Jerrie and Teazer hang out with Mac all the time in this universe, and have committed several crimes together. The reason why Mac’s past relationship with Dem fell apart wasn’t because it was unhealthy or toxic, it was just because Dem could NOT put up with his stupidity anymore. She gets all nervous and flighty during the show because she cannot imagine having to hold another conversation with that idiot oh my god he’s here? For fuck’s sake! Like she can’t stand being around him, in her eyes, Tugger is easier to put up with than that buffoon. 

Note: To be clear here, the idiot universe as well as the redemption universe are not meant to excuse or undermine some of the more serious implications in the show, such as the idea of Dem and Mac having a toxic past together. It’s just that sometimes I enjoy entertaining the idea of Mac being really silly and not actually evil, or him possibly being less evil and maybe even redeemable. I might not do this sort of thing for a villain in a different piece of media, such as a piece of media that has a very solid plot with a grounded story for its villain. But in the case of Cats where pretty much everything is whatever you want it to be, and with there being no solid canon and all, I like playing around with alternative ideas for certain characters such as Macavity, I think it’s a lot of fun. 

Oh, and Macavity and Mungojerrie are kinda dating in the idiot universe, the tribe’s just okay with it. 

They’re also sort of dating in the redemption universe. I’m thinking that once Mac starts trying to become a better person, Jerrie and Teazer find out about it because they run into him during heists. Jerrie wants to help him but Teazer’s a bit hesitant. Jerrie decides he’s going to help Mac anyway despite what Teazer thinks, so he helps Mac secretly and they start a forbidden lovers type thing, although it’s not forbidden once the tribe accepts Mac.