#like he starts off the episode saying as long as he gets enchanting it doesn't really matter if the cows are secret

[cryptidorchid]

I'm rewatching Scott's Third Life Episode 4 and it's kind of funny how he keeps switching between "as long as I get my enchanting, the cows aren't that important" and "other people can take my cows over my dead body"

[sheliesshattered]

I've seen some posts going around expressing frustration with Loki not telling Sylvie how he feels, at least as of the third episode of season two. And I'm not saying you're wrong, but like, can we just take a minute to think about this from Loki's point of view?

When they fought in the citadel at the end of time, the last thing Loki said to Sylvie was that he just wants her to be okay. Nothing else -- not power, not a crown, not the ability to rewrite time to his desires. He just wants Sylvie to be okay.

And in response, she kissed him. For those of us who ship them, obviously that was The Moment, and it probably felt like it to Loki, too. But then Sylvie immediately pushes him through a time door and kills He Who Remains, exactly what Loki was trying to keep her from doing.

We don't really know how Sylvie feels about Loki, but from Loki's point of view? That wasn't a kiss because she has feelings for him too, or even to acknowledge his feelings for her. That kiss was a trick, just as much as Loki creating a double or Sylvie enchanting someone. She used it to get him out of the way, because she realized she couldn't kill him and she couldn't convince him. So she kissed him to distract him long enough to get rid of him.

Loki has to have realized that pretty immediately. His face after she pushes him through the time door certainly looks like he knows exactly what Sylvie just did, and why. He tells her he just wants her to be okay, and she betrays him with a kiss. He looks appropriately heartbroken.

He then spends the first two episodes of season two trying to find Sylvie. Not just because the TVA is falling apart, but because he still wants to make sure that she's okay. She killed He Who Remains, she completed the one goal she'd had for so long, and Loki knows she would have been alone at the end of time after killing He Who Remains. Even before the TVA crises start piling up, he wants to find Sylvie, just because he needs to know that she's okay.

We as the audience get to see how desperate Loki is to find Sylvie, and it's obvious to everyone at the TVA, even Brad who has been off on his own on the sacred timeline for however long.

But when they finally find Sylvie, she really doesn't seem happy to see Loki. Her face falls, her posture is distinctly cold and defensive. When they talk, she tells him that she just wants to be left alone. She tells him that she's happy living there in that branched timeline, that she just wants to stay there, alone.

And once Sylvie makes that clear to Loki, he backs off. His feelings for her haven't changed -- but from his point of view, she's just reinforced that the kiss didn't mean anything to her. Because he loves her, Loki just wants Sylvie to be okay. And she makes it clear that she is okay, living a quiet life of her choosing.

Personally, I read Loki's behavior in the most recent two episodes as him intentionally respecting Sylvie and her wishes. All he wants is for her to be okay. All she wants is to be left alone to live the life of her choosing. He loves her, so how could he do anything other than give her what she wants?

[the-dragon-hearted]

We, as a community, do not talk enough about how Juvia and Bora are exes.

Like HELLO

Mr. Number 1 Opp of episode 1 who actively participated in human trafficking dating the one and only done-dirty-by-Mashima water woman.

Also Bora broke up with HER? Sir?? There is so much to explore there that, like many things, IS NEVER BROUGHT UP AGAIN -

Okay - so were they childhood friends or was he using her for her looks/powerful magic? Did it start off transactionally or was there some spark there? How long did they date? Did she stay with him because she felt that no one would ever love her, so at least she could be valuable in a different way? Did he make her laugh? Or just put up a facade in front of other people? Was she his backup for a while, a bodyguard adjacent for when his schemes went sideways? Is that how they started? What about the end? Sure we see him breaking up with her in canon - but why? You can't tell me he suddenly didn't like the rain of The Rain Woman. I mean he can, he's a prick, but consider the alternative: Did she see catch on to his beginnings? Expose one of his scams? Grow critical of whatever shit he was getting into? Did she say something? Did she try to stop him?

The first time we see her she is completely covered head to toe in several layers and the rain does not stop. She says it's never stopped. But damn, doesn't it feel like turned from a drizzle to a downpour after him? I think it's purposeful. The layers are purposeful. The hints are there. She fully expects to be discarded after her fight with Gray. AND seeing how she comes out of her shell in the later arcs - watching her change her hair and her clothes, experimenting with new styles with an almost fervent joy - it just makes me wonder.

Could she not do that before? Was there an expectation there? A controlling factor? How much of her identity was she willing to sacrifice to quiet the fear of being unloved? How hard did the rain fall as it progressed, did it ever waver, or did it only get stronger and stronger.

And Bora? Fucking Bora?

Was it REALLY about the rain, or did she just speak up? Did she intervene and he had enough sense to refrain from trying to harm her. Because if the relationship was built off of him using her for magic and granting her some sense of companionship in return, then he damn well knew that there was no way he, a lil fire mage, could stand up to the actual force of nature that is Juvia. No, that meant he knew EXACTLY how to hurt her without inviting her vengeful side.

So he tells her she's too depressing. He reinforces how unlovable she is. How it's HER fault. How it's always been HER, how he's leaving her because of who she is - how he couldn't change her. He probably throws everything she's quietly confessed to him and leaves - safe from retribution and free to continue his fucking diabolical business. Because he knows he's hurt her worse than anyone else could. He knows that she'll either come running back, or she'll run and run and just keep running.

He doesn't know that Juvia only loved the idea of being loved. Not him. Bora can't imagine anyone not loving him (he can, but he's the run who's running, headfirst into greed with an enchanted ring on his finger - someplace Juvia never would've followed). Juvia doesn't run back to him. She doesn't run at all, the rain pours and she decides: "Fine, if I can't be loved. Let me be feared."

Maybe Phantom Lord orchestrated it, the master seems sort of cartoonishly conniving, and Juvia's magic is insanely powerful - but if that is the case, that doesn't change how easily Bora was bought. It doesn't change how Bora knew just what to say to push her to that point. It honestly doesn't change much of anything.

Bora? Pathetic.

Juvia? We all know she's always been lovesick and maybe if she was allowed a bit more characterization we'd be able to explore why. Maybe we'd talk about why she wore so many layers or kept her hair long. Why she kept a "frilly" pink umbrella but wore all blue. Indulging in a childish side while wearing a face of complete apathy. Why she adores the idea of being loved but can't seem to make it work. Why she's desperate for romance but finds more joy in the friends she makes - it doesn't stop her from chasing "true love" but she finds she doesn't need a lover's touch to chase the rain away anymore.

Because the rain was never about Gray, it was about Juvia. It was about how she was loved - not by others - but by herself.

I could spend eons critiquing how she was written... But for now I'm just gonna sit here and think about the consequences of Juvia dating Bora.

And I'm gonna laugh when Natsu and Lucy own his ass in episode 1. Because they don't even know it yet, but they're avenging a soon-to-be-friend. And honestly, I hope Juvia read about it in a newspaper, the pages soggy under her touch. I hope she sat in a park, the sound of pouring rain drowning out all else, read the headline.

And I hope, that even in that dark moment of her life, when she was the cruelest she would ever be, she read about Bora getting his ass handed to him. And I hope it made her smile.

[alipeeps]

Episode 22

Oh well that's one way to prove Wen Xiao's innocence... a whoooole bunch of people just saw a demon shapeshift from pretending to be Wen Xiao into her true form.

WHY the fuck though did it take so long for Ying Lei and Xiao Bai to come running to help? What have they been doing the whole time Ao Yin was using her powers of confusion on Zhuo Yichen?

Aaaaand they're off running after her AGAIN.

Wait why did we see him just standing there as she ran away? Has she done something to him again?

What the fuck is up with Zhuo Yichen?

So they've rescued Wen Xiao... but Chongwu camp are still holding Pei Sijing.

Oh here we go, another patented flashback showing that there was more to previous scenes.

Oh-ho, very clever, she and Zhao Yuanzhou used the sundial to record the evidence of Wen Zongyu's demon experiments?

Did they though? Or is this just a clever bluff?

God the visuals on this show...

They are all worried about him.

Eeexcept Zhuo Yichen seems a bit too cheerful. I think Ao Yin did something to him. Is he being controlled in some way? By Li Lun?!!

Exactly what I said 2 episodes ago! Just snap off a piece of Bai momma and you'll be fine! 😂

Uhhhh 2 unknown great demons you say?

Thaaaat looked awfully like Li Lun and Zhu Yan in that brief flashback?

And didn't Zhu Yan previously say something about he and Li Lun repairing the white emperor tower?

Yup, he did. In episode 19.

Uhhhh.. Bai Jiu is a descendent of his divine wood mother and we've seen he has divine power... can you not get some kind of divine wood power from him?

I AM A FUCKING GENIUS!!

Look at these fucking idiots. I'm love them!

He does in-fucking-deed.

Zhuo Yichen keeps staring at Wen Xiao... did Ao Yin's enchantment do something to him regarding his feelings for Wen Xiao?

Whyyyy in cdrama do they always cut across the palm? A cut there is going to be painful, slow to heal, and debilitating/affecting the function of your hand while it is healing. Yeah it looks cool and all but it's so fucking dumb!

Awww I am genuinely starting to feel a bit bad for Ying Lei... I know it's done in a jokey way but so many times now he is left out of the high-fiving and you can see it's bothering him...

Yeah, you tell em Ying Lei!

Oh shit... and you didn't think to mention this earlier, Wen Xiao?

Ngl I love how all their angst and motivation about getting the divine wood to repair the baize token is verbalised about being about saving Zhu Yan rather than saving the wilderness. Like yeah, they want to do both, and repairing the baize token is necessary for both, but it's saving their friend that is uppermost in their minds.

Oh what the fuck? In his vision/memory, Li Lun is replaced by Zhuo Yichen?!

Awww he covers her with his cloak and takes over doing the research... Oh no wait, he's not doing research, he's tidying the books away to set out some food for her...

God the lighting in this show is just so pretty!!

Oh DAMN

(This show is going to traumatise us all, isn't it? 😭)

Oh wait up.. he will... if "his malicious energy is out of control and he loses his mind". So.. if he doesn't... you won't, Zhuo Yichen?

And is that what made her gasp and spill her soup? That implication that he under some circumstance might not kill Zhu Yan? Or was it just the blunt statement that he will kill him that upset/startled her?

Oh man...

Uhhh... our grasp? Is that you, Li Lun?

God the visuals of Zhu Yan sitting there, desperately holding onto control, suffering... and the manifestation of the destructive core of him just sitting starting at him... watching... waiting...

Whyyyy does only Chongwu camp get to report shit to the King? Why isn't Demon Hunting Bureau also reporting their side of things? Like that it was Chongwu camp's actions that caused Zhao Yuanzhou to lose control?

Ohhh dang now his demonic core is trying to mess with his mind... playing on his feelings of guilt...

Ahhh shit I think demon core won the battle...

So Zhuo Yichen really is heading off intending to battle with Zhu Yan.

Oh GOD this is all so fucking angstyyyyyyyyy

Oooh? Bai Jiu's words have given her an idea?

Does.. the sundial control time? Can they use it to fast grow the divine wood?

AHA!!

Who have you got that can wait 300 years in the Valley of Time to bring back the flowered divine wood though? Ying Lei, I guess?

Or wait, is she going to do it? Is she immortal due to being Baize goddess then?

(Also does this mean the sundial they destroyed for Chongwu camp was a fake?)

Haha, it was. I did wonder at the time why they made a point of showing her picking up the paperweight sundial when she was hiding in Bai Jiu's room.

Oooh it's my favourite bit of instrumental music in this show. Haven't heard it in a while.

How are you? She's just spent 300 fucking years alone, how do you think she is?

Oop! Yet another retconning flashback!

Ooooh are they gonna pull a fake death scenario? Stab Zhu Yan with that needle and fool Chongwu camp into thinking he's dead?

But ya still gotta get close enough to him to stab him with it Zhuo Yichen!

Oh fuck, scratch that, you gotta get close enough to stab him between the fucking eyebrows with it!!

That is a BIG fucking needle to ram between someone's eyebrows dude...

OH FUCK

WHAT?

Xiao Bai didn't give Zhuo Yichen any such needle?

Fuuuuuck was Zhuo Yichen just trying to make Wen Xiao feel better? Or....

EXACTLY!! I said exactly this!!

DID I NOT SAY LI LUN MIGHT BE POSSESSING ZHUO YICHEN?!!

Uuuh slight problem also.. that barrier was not just to keep people out but to keep Zhu Yan IN in case he loses control!!

[ampresandian]

My (unofficial) PJO season 2 episode 5 script part 1/4 (connected to this post)

Please ignore any and all spelling/grammar errors, I thought about rereading/editing and decided not to so you're looking at basically a first draft. I would love to hear if you think anything is out of character or doesn't really make sense, but a lot of it is basically straight from the book.

Images of script and copied text (bc I'm lazy and don't want to write out alt text) under the cut, just in case I didn't get enough spoiler warning or people aren't interested <3

Annabeth Tries to Swim Home

FADE IN: INT. DARK VICTORIAN HOUSE - NIGHT. 

A YOUNG ANNABETH runs down the hallway. A storm can be heard outside. She stops, looking behind her, then frantically all around. 

YOUNG ANNABETH: Luke? Thalia? 

Someone in the house screams. 

Annabeth begins running again. She turns a corner, finding herself in a study. The walls are lined with half-empty bookshelves, books and loose pages all over the floor. The antique desk in the middle of the room is broken, the chair overturned. Heavy velvet curtains block the light out, but one sways, as if the window behind it is broken. 

Annabeth backs out of the room slowly, then runs back the other way. 

She gasps for breath, but makes very little noise. 

Annabeth runs up a flight of stairs, into a new hallway that looks just like the one she just came from. As she enters different rooms, she hears her friends over the storm. 

GROVER (O.S.): Luke!

LUKE (O.S.): Thalia!

THALIA (O.S.): Annabeth!

Annabeth is still running, turning corners over and over. She enters a nursery with a broken crib and wooden toys strewn all over the floor. She runs through a dressing room with a mirror shattered on the carpet. She backtracks out of a bathroom with a cracked claw-foot tub and blood dried on the floor. 

THUNDER crashes outside. 

CYCLOPS laughs ominously off screen. Annabeth runs faster. 

She turns a corner and has to catch herself with her hands to stop from running into a wall. She pauses, breathing heavily as she looks down another dark hallway. 

THALIA AND LUKE (O.S.): Annabeth!

THALIA (CONT, O.S.): Run--

Annabeth starts running again. 

DISSOLVE TO: EXT. QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE – NIGHT.

Camera pans down from black sky, pausing on Hercules constellation. ANNABETH and PERCY are standing on the deck, near the steering wheel. 

ANNABETH: (Turning from the stars to look at Percy) Percy.

Percy, who has been looking out at the sea, watching for monsters, looks at Annabeth. 

ANNABETH (CONT): Can I ask for a favor?

PERCY: You just saved my life.

ANNABETH: Soon... We should be coming near the Sirens’ Island. When we’re in range of their song… (Staring at the tub of candle wax across the deck) I want to hear them.

PERCY: Why? Don’t their voices kill people?

ANNABETH: They lure people in, Seaweed Brain. The song doesn’t kill you, you die when you jump overboard. The myths say they’re so enchanting because they sing the truth about what you desire. Things you don’t even know about yourself. If you survive...

Annabeth looks out at the sea. Percy looks at Annabeth.

ANNABETH (CONT): You become wiser. I want to hear them. (Makes eye contact with Percy) How often will I get that kind of chance?

PERCY: (After a thoughtful pause) Okay.

ANNABETH: Okay?

PERCY: Okay. It makes sense. If anyone would want to hear it, it would be you. What’s your plan?

ANNABETH: You’ll have to tie me to the mast. And, Percy, I’m going to want to get free. I’m going to beg, but you can’t untie me. I’ll just go straight over the edge to drown myself.

PERCY: (trying for levity) Are you trying to tempt me?

ANNABETH: Promise me, Percy.

PERCY: You don’t have to worry about it, Wise Girl. You won’t get away from me that easily.

They look at each other. 

PERCY (CONT): How long until we get there?

ANNABETH: A few hours, I think. You should go below. Get some rest. (before Percy can argue) Go, Percy.

Percy heads below deck, settling into a hammock in the Captain’s Quarters. He closes his eyes and falls asleep.

CUT TO: INT. PRINCESS ANDROMEDA STATEROOM – NIGHT

PERCY stands alone in the dark room. Near the windows is the golden sarcophagus, glowing faintly.

VOICES (INDETERMINATE): Beware. 

VOICES overlap and echo.

KRONOS: (laughing) You don’t have the courage, young hero.

Percy uncaps his sword, but remains frozen in place.

KRONOS (CONT): You can’t stop me. 

Percy struggles against his frozen legs, clearly frustrated. 

THALIA: (appearing suddenly) Well? Are we going to stop him or not

Voices continue their echo in the background. Percy stares at the unknown girl, clearly trying to solve the puzzle of who she is. 

THALIA (CONT): Well? Come on, dude.

Percy remains frozen. THALIA approaches the sarcophagus, sword and shield at the ready. Percy tries to call out for her to stop, but no sound comes out of his mouth. The voices crescendo. 

Thalia opens the sarcophagus, staring down at the golden glow in horror. 

THALIA (CONT): No. No, it can’t be.

Kronos’ laugh echoes as Thalia screams. The light grows brighter.

(PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4)

[seventeenlovesthree]

OPLA episode 1 - first impressions

Just randomly trying to summarize my thoughts here, because they are in no way coherent yet, but hooooly shit, I like where this is going. SPOILERS AHEAD.

I decided to start watching in English, then in Japanese, then in German - because I would assume that'd be the best order to judge both the best and worst parts of this. Best as in "the intentions of the dialogue, the framing and hinting", worst in "Oh God, the cringe is real". So far, there obviously have been a few lines that have been very obvious, because you HAVE to translate a lot of things that work for an anime INTO this setting. More tell than show so to speak, but I feel like that's perfectly fine for the medium.

Luffy is endearing - the first thing you can tell in comparison to anime!Luffy is that he's got that positive main-character-energy that not only speaks his thoughts out loud, but also tries his best to make you see what kind of character you are dealing with. He was brash, stubborn and had very one-dimensional (and toxic) ideas of what and how a man/pirate needs to be - just to be taught kindness, perseverance and a positive attitude and by Shanks and I think that is displayed beautifully here. He does not get shy to approach everyone he meets with good will - on one hand, because he obviously wants to build his crew. On the other hand - it just shows who he is. The CGI works really well for him as well, the "stretchy kind" really doesn't seem too much out of place, but I would assume it's easier to accept it when you are already used to "anime logic".

This is a comment that was made a lot on Twitter already - so here's to the bi-/pansexual squad, because this series knows exactly what it is doing with the fanservice eye-candy. Zoro, so far, got the most impressive camera-angles/cinematography. The mysterious, aloof framing, the detailed and VERY immersive fight scenes/choreography - he's not only coming across as stoic and lone-wolfey, they definitely make sure you can TELL he is kind at heart too. You can tell he has experienced pain and that's why he insists that he needs to work alone - but if people show HIM kindness, he cannot not react in return. Whether it's Rika - or Luffy, doesn't even matter. That idealistic, kinda annoying kid saved him (and man, the hearts in Luffy's eyes were so present and all over the place, he was IMMEDIATELY enchanted by Zoro and doesn't grow tired of saying it out loud either). Plus, he didn't insist on getting anything in return, even if he still wanted him on his crew... So what happens? Once Zoro sees that he's in trouble, he jumps in to fight as well. And they IMMEDIATELY work off of each other well. "You go above, I go below". As someone who has ALWAYS enjoyed Luffy's and Zoro's dynamic (platonic and otherwise), I am obviously VERY easy to please here, but man, it works. So well. I cannot WAIT to see their Captain/First Mate dynamic develop. Also... I did not expect them to actually let any character use the middle finger??? I mean, good for you, Zoro, you go be edgy as fuck, but hey... (Also, the gay subtext with Helmeppo was definitely... Something...? But I mean... The gay subtext exists with ZoLu too. "Where does the third sword even go...?" I mean... Seriously...)

On the other spectrum of the bi-/pansexual eyecandy, we have Nami. And while she visibly uses her charms (read: physical attributes) to get what she wants, I am HELLA pleased that she wasn't sexualized yet. I really liked the nudge towards her concept art design! Her cheekiness and smartness come across very well. And, MAN, the dynamic with Luffy is PRICELESS. It really has a lot of sibling energy - but it also leaves a lot open. Of course, we're still at the VERY beginning of it, but as a long-term fan of the series, it's hard not to read anything into it ("I will never join anything with you" is beautiful foreshadowing and also interestingly phrased).

Oh Romance Dawn Trio, my heart. The moment they lined up next to each other, Nami and Zoro on each of Luffy's side, insisting "Not a crew/Not together!" was just... Chef's kiss. I love these dorks and their dynamics so much and I cannot wait to see this further emphasized.

Honorable mentions for other characters - I know it has been said many times before, but I really enjoy the casting. Koby is very relatable and he fits the character so well (I literally cannot wait for his glow-up), Shanks gives the vibe of the "kind and sweet everyday guy-mentor" at this point in time so perfectly, Alvida was great so far and I could go on...

Cringe is dead, I am so excited for episode 2.

[wrens-garden]

Outsiders Owen POV episode 5

I feel like the notes are getting longer and longer, I can't wait until it takes me an hour to note one video.

I had so many notes I couldn't use the bullet points, as apparently there's a limit

episode 4 recap, but Owen is no longer doing the recap?

Owen has entered the maze after Mohwee and has already lost sight of him. Good start

Owen has seen a trap and purposely tried to set it off, looks like it's already been triggered though so it did nothing

Owen is climbing vines to get the high ground

Owen has said he's going to kill Mohwee, I doubt he will though

Owen is returning to the clearing

Apo appropriately said "What the hell" which caused Owen to apologise, Gracie says it's okay

Owen has said anyone who passes the border he will attack

Apo has asked if Owen is a gatekeeper now, Owen has said not in the negative sense

Owens gonna Gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss

He's not gonna gatekeep, but he's gonna keep the gate secure

Love a funny moment

Yet again, that's the only entrance/ exit of the maze. Though they've acknowledged the other gates might open eventually

Owen has asked if Mohwee is dead in there - kinda doubting Mohwee's skills right now. I personally think he's the most capable one to be in the maze

Apo has questioned how large the maze is - I'm gonna say quite large

Oeca and Rasbi have shown up, Oeca has asked what's going on

Owen has threatened Oeca to keep him from going in the maze too

I think he's scared Rasbi and Oeca, good move

Never mind Oeca wants a battleaxe, Rasbi seems mostly confused

"Mohwee ran past me...anyone else who will, I will just cut them down"

Owen is lowkey getting quite violent, it's kind of worrying how quick he is to result to violence, like a get it, he's worried about everyone but I don't think this is the way to go about it

Another Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss joke. They are very easy to make right now

he wants to clarify he didn't make the battleaxe, and he isn't looking for violence, which I must say the current situation does not agree with that statement

He doesn't know how to make a battleaxe

He doesn't want to hit anyone with it, he thinks it'll one shot them. What a great weapon to be threatening people with then

He wants to make sure Rasbi knows he isn't collecting weapons, Rasbi does very much not agree, I don't either

"It's not like I'm actively trying to, it just happens" - okay sure, save it for the judge

Rasbi is edging into the maze to "see where he is" Owen is holding up a wooden pike I think just in case he needs to stop her

Gracie is also trying to stop her

Rasbi has seen the pike and has come back into the clearing

Mohwee is back!

Side note, I'm only 5 minutes into a 19-minute video, this is gonna take so long

Mohwee thinks he's found the way out. I doubt that purely based on the amount of episode I have left. But who knows maybe he gets out before everyone else, that'll be interesting

He thinks there's someone and something in the maze. Another clearing? Maybe the people that were in the clearing before are still in the maze. The plot thickens

Oeca has hit Mohwee, i don't think he's happy with him for going back in

Mohwee has an anvil and big chains from the maze

Owen went to repair the battleaxe with the anvil, he hasn't yet, but he might - he doesn't have the enchantments to fix it yet

Owen thinks the chains are for closing the doors, but Mohwee found them in the open. I wonder if they were holding something, the grievers from maze runner could be in this maze too, although I'm not sure why they'd be chained down.

The elevator has gone down again. It's like there's someone new every day.

Owen has told Mohwee he can't let him go in again, Mohwee believes that he should go in as it will bring them a step closer

Mohwee has found a gate in the maze, so maybe another clearing? Maybe that one opens after their one shuts

Mohwee is going in by himself so he can eventually find the exit by going in daily and everyone else can wait for the rest to come up

Mohwee isn't sure if he's the only one that will go into the maze

Owen is trying to figure out what an inconvenient block to break would be, supposedly to block off the gates. Although the gates are large, so someone could always just go over the blockage

His plan is to leave the gates when they close to get enough resources to create a border. I believe cobwebs will be involved

People have daggers not swords, which is needed to cut cobwebs

He has acknowledged he might be scaring Rasbi with his amount of weapons, he hopes she isn't intimidated

He seems to be creating multiple walls around the gate, some cobwebs some stone - I think will backfire on him

Apo has come to watch

Apo is wondering if they have a life before the clearing, they both think they do

Apo remembers laying in his bed and a ceiling, not much but more than the others supposedly - so maybe the maze owner is just getting sloppy with the memory wipes

Owen remembers walking through a field to go somewhere, but he remembers how to make weapons. He seems sure he was an archer or hunter

Apo suggests Owen was from the countryside, Owen agrees, believing he hunted deer

He thinks people are more scared of him than they should be, he doesn't mean to scare them - I think the weapons and threats would do that

Owen has shared with Apo that the axe has no durability, rendering it only for show, when Apo admitted to being intimidated by it

Owen doesn't know how to use the battleaxe anyway, said if it comes to it, he might use the wooden pike first or simply punch them

Apo has asked that if someone did put them there, did they even want them to get out.

Owen is only hesitant because more people might show up after they leave, he will be willing to leave when everyone is there

Apo has suggested a system, but didn't seem to agree when Owen questioned if he meant a government

Apo says the maze is intimidating but kinda pretty and exciting - I agree

Apo is trying to form a plan, assumedly, for entering the maze

Apo has now noted that it says 'run' on the ground, Owen says he saw something but didn't realise it said anything

They're trying to think if It's saying to run into the maze or from the maze

Owen agrees they will have to go in at some point, doesn't think they could live there forever, he thinks Squidney might want to though

They agree that while they don't remember their old life, even if it was a bad life, it was still their life.

Apo says he probably had a family and even if he doesn't remember them, he does miss them

"Protection first, maze later"

Owen has a face!

New person is up, the group have come to see Owen

Mohwee tried to break the wall, Owen hit him, Gracie is standing in between them now

Gracie and Apo are kinda treating Owen and Mohwee like squabbling children or like misbehaving dogs, it's kinda funny

Oeca and Mohwee agree that they should go in, Mohwee plans to go in the morning

Mohwee has said he's only risking his own life going in, Owen disagrees

Owen has asked what if Mohwee sets off a trap that releases something that gets into the clearing

Adrien (I believe) thinks it should be a group decision going in

Rasbi is asking if Owen is trapping them in, Owen says he's stopping Mohwee from putting them all in danger

Rasbi thinks they could easily get through Owens wall

Owen assumes everyone thinks he's bad, doesn't think he'll have many friends - He said it in a really odd way… Maybe it's just cause i wanna guess the ending before it happens, cause it's fun being right, and maybe I'm reaching a bit but at the start it kinda sounded like the beginning of a villain monologue

Owen apparently plans to guard the wall 24/7

Owen doesn't rust Mohwee

Group meeting! The first one ever I believe

New person is called Ori, I think

Adrien still thinks they should wait for everyone to come up before they even think about going in the maze, then once everyone's up they vote if they go in immediately or wait a bit longer

Mohwee has said he's done pretty well with the gear he has

Adrien disagrees, says that Mohwee went in with Oeca and Oeca got hurt which is a liability to the group

Mohwee has said that's why he's going in by himself, Adrien says that's worse cause if Mohwee gets hurt then he's stuck in the maze, Rasbi said no would be able to save him

Owen said Mohwee never told them he'll go in alone, so people didn't know whether to go in after him or not

Mohwee has said no one needs to save him as it's a risk he's taking

"If you die that's 14, I'm cool with that" - Oeca

No one else is cool with that

Apo has pointed out that if Mohwee dies, someone might go in to get him and die too, which could cause a butterfly effect

Owen thinks that if anyone goes in, it should be a minimum of 2 or 3 people

Apo doesn't think everyone is capable of going into the maze right now

The elevator has gone down once more

General opinions

Owen - He's definitely more volatile now, so much so it's kind of worrying. But he's obviously quite protective and willing to do anything to keep people safe

Rasbi - she's definitely more friendly with Oeca and possibly Mohwee, I think her bond with Owen is kind of strained, I think he might scare her, which is understandable. Nothing new otherwise

Mohwee - Definitely reckless and impulsive, almost selfless in a selfish way. He's definitely determined to get out, so nothing new

Oeca - He seems kinda child-like, curious and kind of in awe of Owen's weapons. I'm not sure how to quite explain it.

Gracie - She seems quite mature, and I've noticed she's the first one to get between people. It's kind of giving teacher vibes, or a mother standing between her fighting children. Nothing that new, but it's something I'll try to take more note of

Apo - He's understanding and friendly, definitely a planner and much less impulsive than other people. i think out of everyone he mght be the best person for Owen to be close to. Their bond feels more natural like old friends compared to Owen and Rasbis

Adrien - I have nothing other than he's kind of giving leader vibes, everyone seems to listen to him. Maybe it's just cause he was the only one standing in the meeting other than Ori

Didn't see much of Squidney or this Ori fella, so no/ no new opinions on them

Theories- A very loose one thats working with Owens current memories is that he was a farmer and hunter turned soldier. I'm keeping maze runner in mind so im sort of going with that general outside world, so Owen being a farmer could mean he would probably grow up with knowledge of plants and probably pretty strong the hunting obviously would be where he learned fighting long-range and how to use and make long-range weapons.

The soldier part is a bit more ambigious but because of him being quick to violence in defence as well as his protectiveness makes me think he might have been a long-range fighter in a situation where people need to escape an area. This also ties into the fact he doesn't seem that good with short-range fighting but can if he needs to. I'm thinking Rasbi and Apo might have worked with him, Rasbi being some sort of spy maybe and Apo potentally being a commander or vice versa or both being in leadrer positions. Theres not much to support this other than Apo and Owen being quick friends and Owen and Rasbi having a strong bond immediately in the begining. Rasbi is sort of friendly with everyone and knows when to back off, Apo is quite charismatic and almost diplomatic, if they were both commanders that would explain Owen's belief that Rasbi and Apo are more alike and have a better bond than with him in last episode

It's a very loose theory and i might be thinking too deep.

[mdhwrites]

what are your thoughts on the hunter/golden guard disparity? i have always hated his character, bc when he was introduced he was arrogant, selfish, and cruel, but the minute he was discarded by belos, all his actions are suddenly forgiven and he doesnt do anything else bad for the whole show. u probably heard this so many times but he feels like, and for all intents and purposes IS, an entirely different character

people compare him to zuko all the time, but the two are only alike on a surface level; hunter hasn't actually like, done anything to redeem himself? not that he necessarily has to in order to be an interesting character! but the show, and the fandom, treats him as 100% redeemed for no apparent reason, and that grates on me

So in terms of what it does to his character, what it means and the like and how the transition is, I actually did touch on it somewhat in one blog called "Does Hunter Have a Character Arc?"

Also, the disparity between his first major appearance and his second major appearance, alongside Amity's own version of this, is what made me coin the phrase "Your character arc appears a lot more drastic when you start out of character." It was something I'd said first meaning it as a joke but... *gestures at The Collector who is pulling the same shit* The show is really bad as far as handling the characters it wants to redeem because Amity is the closest of the three not to come off as entirely different in her first appearance and even then, she is about 100x more unhinged in her first appearance than she literally ever gets, despite Covention's stakes being so much higher and the failure more catastrophic.

And before I get to the twist on all of this I want to talk about, (I'll actually bold text where that is if you want to skip the anecdote) I want to point out the most bizarre thing that has happened between me and the fandom in regards to Hunter. Warning for Boscha fans because this will sound all too normal to all of you.

I have a story called The Blight's Ruff Secret (which was then converted into the original story Their Ruff Secrets). In it, Hunter shows up for like... One chapter and is named dropped in one or two more. He's not important but Belos running the biggest church in town is for Luz's arc in that story. After all, her being gender non-conforming and bi in a small, religious town doesn't exactly mean she's popular, let alone with the teenagers at church, not that she'll tell a Camila who is devout any of that.

Hunter in that story is a bigot and a bully and friends with Boscha. This combination led to a long comment of someone saying that they liked my story but that Hunter would NEVER be a bigot, bully and god forbid the very concept of him being friends with SOMEONE LIKE BOSCHA.

And this wasn't even post S3. This was between S2A and B. So... To say the fandom is a bit fucked up when it comes to understanding the fundamental elements of Hunter's backstory and who he started as character-wise is a bit of an understatement.

Admittedly, it's also the show's fault because it fails to incorporate elements of the world or the character's history into who they are or what they do. And this is kind of what I want to touch on more with The Golden Guard versus Hunter disparity: What is the Golden Guard? And how does it transform over the course of the show?

So let's start with the absolute first thing we're told and shown. After losing Lilith, the coven decides that it's best face to put out publicly is The Golden Guard. Realistically, you do this for one of two reasons. One is that they are the face that the most amount of people know or two: You believe he can be that because he is the best amongst your ranks. Lilith even pushes at least the second idea by saying that he's a child prodigy. These posters are also put EVERYWHERE in the episode we see them and enchanted in a way to stay in your face if you're annoyed with them, literally.

In that same episode, we're introduced to The Golden Guard, who at least has enough influence to get a LOT of gold and an expedition together, complete with boat, just for the sake of accomplishing the mission of killing the Selkidamus. I actually suspect that if Eda hadn't stolen the gold, Hunter wouldn't have had any reason to threaten Eda, Luz and King because, well... That wasn't his job or plan.

As such, the point of The Golden Guard is to be able to handle messier missions that might risk multiple guards otherwise but he can handle on his own. He is their special agent and appears to be given access to a lot of resources for this goal. Hunting Palisman even pushes this concept further by him being the one sent out alone to get the Palisman, complete with an airship.

As far as a compelling antagonist who at least can do as much as Lilith did in S1, it's not a bad setup actually. It's a bit too close to just making a new EC head but the twist of them having no reason to NOT kill Lilith and Luz is one that allows them to be much more dangerous and brutal in what they do. It's effectively swapping out Rita for Zed in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Buuuuut that's much more complicated for the sake of redeeming Hunter, isn't it? So even in Hunting Palisman, we get our first retcon about the Golden Guard: No one knows him. Literally fucking no one knows what the fuck he looks like, acts like or sounds like. Yes, he's without his cloak and mask but I imagine what he's wearing is still standard issue underneath that since it looks like body armor so maybe give him a little more credit than accusing him of being just some dumb teenager?

This also begs the question of why he was put on the posters? If he is so anonymous to the troops, they can't vouch for him if someone comes to them for more info on who is on the poster. Shouldn't the guards have literally any idea of who's leading them? Or representing them? Because... If Hunter isn't, who is? There's no EC coven head anymore. And never will be from the show's standpoint, even months later.

Eclipse Lake doubles down on this. Now, not only is The Golden Guard unknown without their mask but a disgraced Kikimora can command guards more than Hunter. If this isn't true, Eclipse Lake makes no sense. Admittedly, Hunter doesn't bring his mask or staff, neither of which makes any sense unless he needs to get them directly from Belos before any mission which... MAYBE the staff but absolutely not on the mask. That's just a part of his uniform.

So within three episodes, he has gone from the biggest deal and the most important member of the EC... To nothing. To an outcast amongst his peers without any power or respect. In THREE EPISODES. Without him himself doing anything and only failing one mission because as far as Belos knows, the Selkidamas IS dead.

And the fact that this does mirror Hunter's own character arc highlights how badly it's handled, if it even exists, let alone it being rational in any conceivable way. And this is all S2A which... Almost certainly wasn't affected by the shortening and sure as shit wasn't written with the shortening in mind if it was. After all, while the decision happened by the time the S1 finale came out... Animation takes a lot of time. They would have been knee deep in production for S2. Dana herself has proven that as before S2 came out, they started WRITING AND BOARDING SEASON THREE.

So... This is just what Hunter's arc was decided to be. What the Golden Guard meant. And it's just bad. And that's without getting into the ways it goes about assassinating what we knew about the Emperor's Coven in Sport in a Storm or the like.

So why did the fandom forgive him? Why is he so popular? I... Wish I knew. When push comes to shove, like in the blog I linked at the top, I can come up with more charitable readings on his character. Give him a real character instead of a puppet constantly being yanked around and changed by the Hand of the Author, but casually? Why the hell should I care about a character who I never can get a grasp on? Who's fundamental elements constantly contradict themselves.

And Hunter isn't the only person like this. But hey, the Collector sure is going to be a fun, final boss fight, isn't he? *eye twitch*

[tehamelie]

I can't count the reasons I should stay (Community 1.4)

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I got a new mouse today! Such a change, getting to click on stuff just one time instead of 3-10 times, and dragging and marking text without problems. Anyway, this post is like twice as long as any other in this series and it's all for you. Any delays in the schedule I have not in fact said a word about are because of the troubles I had without any money in the bank, and my bad mouse.

Community S1E4: Social psychology

We open with Señor Chang writing some absolutely incomprehensible squiggles on his blackboard. I think I see some traces of both Chinese and Korean writing but definitely no actual written language going on. You can tell Ken Jeong is a Doctor in real life hue hue.

Jeff goes out of his way to avoid having to converse with Shirley. Seems mean even by his default mode of trying not to be involved in the group. Or could it be that he's started caring about these people and that makes it hard to just tune them out?

A "stoner tree" is something every school needs right? There we meet Vaughn, who's got so many things going on it seems like a joke in itself, a short lived side character with honestly more personality than some main characters have shown so far. (I had to think it over hard to remember Annie was even in the last episode.) Vaughn's shirtless, triple-hello-saying, hacky-sack-champion, antioxidant-chasing hippie ways are very seductive to Britta and I guess we should be worried on Jeff's behalf. But I'm too busy giggling at Vaughn managing to somehow fall over and go flying to the ground in a casual game of hacky-sack. Okay when you go frame by frame you can see him attempting to hit the ball with a jump kick and landing on his ass, but a) that's not a move you'd generally expect in this game of gently lobbing a tiny soft ball around with your foot while standing still, and b) to a casual viewer he just appears in the background with a scream, in the middle of eating shit for no discernible reason.

Aaugh, the intro is cut down to just the final appearance of the Community title. That's not gonna work.

Annie brings us the main plot: professor Duncan's psych experiment. It may be the first time we see Annie Edison outside of the study group, but thinking about it, what we see isn't new: She's very excited, she badly wants to excel at the things she does, she doesn't seem to know how to stop talking even when she wants to, she deeply cares about people but sometimes she forgets that in all the excitement. And she's embarrassed when Duncan reveals he thinks she's hitting on him.

"I asked politely and the panda took his pants off" is all we hear of Vaughn's story. I wonder how real it is. On one hand, he seems perpetually stoned and there may not have been a panda or any pants involved except he thought there was, but on the other, he may well lead an enchanted life where something like that happens and it's just a funny story. He's an enigma.

Then Pierce proudly displays his earnoculars. I'm old enough to remember when they sold such spy devices in children's toy stores, and I wanted them then. It's such a temptation to see what people get up to when they think they're alone, isn't it? The thrill, to me, is the idea of seeing what people are like when they don't have to pretend to anyone. To see if there's something I'm missing in human behaviors. Not that you can, you know, with an adult understanding of ethics and boundaries. It's just the appeal of the idea.

Of course Pierce only wants to know what everyone's saying about him. And it doesn't work out for him because he assumes everyone's talking about him all the time and misunderstands everything cause he puts it in that context. The moral here is "a little knowledge can be dangerous."

But I'm getting ahead. At first all we're seeing is wearing a radar dish on his ear makes it hard for Pierce to hear anything reliably and to locate the source of what he can hear. Annie wants test subjects; Jeff immediately declines, Troy hesitantly agrees even though they don't "do stuff to your butt", and Abed goes along with it so they'll be Friends. And maybe they'll even be friends.

"I thought we were like Chandler and Phoebe" he says. Certainly Abed is the Phoebe, aka the kooky one, but trying to think of Annie as the Chandler, the "funny" one, is wrinkling my brain. As far as crushing these rich flawed human characters into one of the six weird stereotypes of Friends go, Annie is totally the Ross, aka the nervous one.

Vaughn seems to convert Britta to drinking green tea, which, I've tried to make it but I don't think I ever got the temperature right. It's really delicate and not that exciting to drink. But if you're paying several dollars per cup to have someone else make drinks for you I guess I could make it a habit in order to be healthy. She said, carefully rationing the last liter of Pepsi max she's going to get on this Sunday so she wouldn't run out of caffeine before the stores opened on payday.

But anyway, this scandalous news delivered by the excited Pierce who stealthily overheard it from like two whole cafeteria tables away, is such a delightful image that sums up just what we said previously about the low stakes world of Community.

Over to Duncan's indulgent, self-serving, questionably ethical little experiment that consists of the class watching a video feed of a room full of people slowly losing their shit. They should have some popcorn cause this is pure pop psychology: Telling your test subjects the test is almost ready to begin for hour after hour to see how long it takes before they give up. He even calls it "the Duncan Principle" and explains it in Freudian terms that haven't seen any clinical use in like 75 years. Duncan might not be very good at his job I think. Hey, this is the first appearance of Garret, the man who is "like if God spilled a human," and he is true to form from the start.

The subjects are getting $80 for this? I'd be sitting all day. I'm used to waiting. Used to have to wait for the bus home for over two hours after school sometimes. One time I waited for a bus I didn't even have to take, I just wanted to get into town and spend some money. It was -30°C outside and the bus was over half an hour late. I was even there too early, probably spending 45 minutes standing at the bus stop all told. Another girl showed up at a more reasonable time, and left soon, but I just waited until the bus came. She got Duncan Principled, but I didn't. A warm room with a reasonably comfortable chair? That's nothing.

I like Chang, who of course doesn't lose his shit cause he's shitless by default. But five minutes into the exercise when he gives up, he uses nine fingers to say "nuevo". That reflex of counting on his hands whenever he says a number is deep in there, considering he isn't a real teacher.

Jeff, betrayed by his shoelaces, finally has to spend five minutes alone with Shirley and he hates it so much ("Do you like green--" "You have a kid right?" "What was that?" "Nothing.") until they discover how easy it is to make fun of Vaughn.

Back in the torture chamber, yeah, with only Troy and Abed left of the test subjects the class has given up all pretense. Donald Glover (Troy) does a wonderful job of turning into an incoherent yet hilarious mess both verbally and psychically. Pure improvisation, I'm assuming.

Good thing Vaughn doesn't believe in earnoculars cause Shirley and Jeff gossip relentlessly about him while he makes out in the grass with Britta about three meters away. There follows an awkward conversation that's hilarious to me for completely unrelated reasons - a fake commercial in a Swedish comedy movie once tried to sell laundry detergent to men by asking "Do you have trouble with grass stains on your wife after coitus on the lawn?"

Such drama: Britta recognizes the awkwardness of talking with Jeff about her having a thing with Vaughn, because something something sparks of romance. Okay I may be way too cynical about this but I'm just not seeing why these two on any level think they could or should have a relationship. Maybe Britta senses in Jeff a rebel who will fight the power (for his own gain), but that has to be balanced against a 5-95% ratio of him being an authority figure in the form of a cocksure wealthy young white man. Whereas we know Jeff legitimately has no interest in relationships or feelings or other human beings in general but keeps pursuing Britta because he's read the script gotten hung up on the challenge of winning her over or something.

But when we look at the concrete situation here, team BJ. No wait. Team JB. That's even worse. Jefitta? That works as long as you don't speak Swedish. Okay, Jeff and Britta are making a deliberate effort to be friends and act with consideration towards each other even though they are dealing with some messy feelings and human relationships that they realize they don't have the tools to deal with. That's kind of beautiful.

Cut to Shirley and Jeff's gossiping frenzy. It's pretty funny how Shirley clocks Jeff's reluctance to rip on Vaughn (just because Britta likes him, aww) after Shirley says something about him and Jeff doesn't respond in literally under two seconds.

"It's not gossip if it's fact"? Come on Shirley, don't stand here and be wrong. Here's a fun educational tidbit for this episode: You can in fact commit libel even if you're only saying truthful factual things. Like, if I were to describe Joanne Rowling as an ambulatory meat tube containing several kilograms of disgusting microbes and infectious disease, that would be a fact. But a careful reader may discern it becomes an unflattering and dishonest representation for several reasons including because it leaves out a lot of things.

Over in Duncan's deranged experiment, I'm feeling a bit of Duncan's despair because I put the episode on pause for the night at an earlier point and it feels like I'm right there in the room when we learn Abed has been sitting and waiting in an empty room for 26 hours. Unexpected bonus.

Impressive stamina on the part of Abed and everyone who's still here watching after all that time. I'm going to have to amend my previous take on what I'd do in this situation: In my younger days I'd be right in Abed's shoes. But today I'm 43, I think I'm all out of all nighters, but I'm also much less worried about upsetting people I don't love with all my heart so I'd probably walk out of the room and try to get some information. The idea was to get 80 beans for being part of a study, after all. I've not been told I'm gonna be disqualified if I leave the room or anything. I don't see a problem with taking steps to discern what the delay is, what is being done to address it and if anyone knows how long it's going to take, and would it be a problem if I went to stretch my legs, have a meal and possibly sleep for nine hours?, or at the very least see how far I can go to find these things out before it puts my 80 clams at risk.

Of course, the point is just to flip the script on Duncan and have him lose his shit in the face of Abed's stoicism. Statistical outliers always ruin the day of people who think they have people all figured out and under control. His final conclusion, that Annie has "destroyed the Duncan principle" by accidentally finding one person who by demonstration contradicts his silly idea of having a soul read on the general human condition, is sort of frightening. In a Dr Frankenstein placing himself above the timid morality of society kind of way.

Or maybe he's just a drunk throwing a tantrum.

Over to Jeff making friends with Vaughn. What makes Frisbee ultimate? "Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I wished someone asked me that." I realize now I probably quote that line more than everything else from this show put together. It should be the national motto of people who are into stuff nobody else cares about.

Enter Shirley, who prompts Vaughn to take his shirt off in about 4 seconds so she and Jeff can snicker internally at his tiny nipples, although Jeff resists. Kind of telling how gleefully Shirley responds when Jeff tells her she's the Devil, in a your exclusionary religious evangelism is such an obvious front for just smugly judging people way. But we'll probably get more into to that later with Shirley.

A rare scene of Jeff reading a textbook! He seems to actually try to figure his Spanish out. He seems to even be ahead of Britta who he corrects about the days of the week. It could be she's just very preoccupied thinking about Vaughn's penis. She lapses into one of the most intensely psychosexual scenes I have ever seen in movies or TV (maybe just behind that home dentistry in the bathtub scene in The Handmaiden), where she talks about the things Vaughn says "after." Only lasts for a moment, but I'm considering making the effort to get a screenshot just to show you, dear reader*. (Really wishing I had just put the DVD in my PC.) (How did I think this was going to work?) (If you're now wondering about the one shot I show in the post for episode 1, I stole it from the draft of the last time I tried this and never finished episode 1.)

Aanyway, it's just a friendly talk about Vaughn's terrible poetry, thinks Britta, but Jeff cannot resist the gossip covertly shares it. To be fair, rhyming "did ya" with "Britta" is awful and it makes me think less of Vaughn than I already did.

Troy now learns the experiment he thought he bailed on was the experiment. So we'll just casually chalk up terrible follow-up on the big board of professor Duncan's bad psych teacher skills. Did they really just let people have emotional breakdowns and walk out without telling them what was going on in there? Yikes.

Indeed, Britta seems to feel bad about it as soon as Abed (who went through it about 23 hours longer than anyone else did) tells her he put up with it only because she said they were friends.

Now Pierce, predictably, confronts everyone about the things he's wrongly overheard. Most of the fun here is Troy in the background trying to figure out if he's still a test subject.

I think we get a first taste here of why the Greendale Seven is in the "Chaotic Neutral" square of the great sitcom protagonists alignment chart. They are in the middle of ripping on Vaughn (okay, mostly his poem, but then he obviously bared his soul in that one) with some sharp, mean-spirited, dehumanizing barbs. Without giving a care when he enters the room. We immediately see how the group's toxicity ruins Britta's relationship then and there, and Vaughn is really not happy about it. ("This is the least tight thing that's ever happened to me.")

Britta is never going to forgive me. I can't believe I showed you that poem. Oh my God, my life is Degrassi High.

The timing really makes this line. It takes Jeff no time at all to figure it out. As soon as he says the words he understands his life has become a bad high school drama TV show and he's maybe more upset about that than about letting Britta down.

But actually when I see this I can only think of the outtakes of the scene, where Joel McHale (that's Jeff) flubs his line, turns to Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley) and screams "Fuck you!" and then has to quickly explain he was in fact talking to himself. Brown is so classy about it, just making a theatrical "are you talking to me?" face with fingertips on her chest and giving him a chance to straighten out. Must be a weird method he has, based on vocal self-hate. Anyway. Just what I'm thinking about.

Shirley feels bad, she acknowledges her gossip problem, and she does try to resist when Jeff goads her on about the group of Black women she points out who used to be her study group before they kicked her out. There's a wealth of unexplored plots about the various "other" study groups at Greendale of which we only ever see the merest glimpses. Maybe the movie will give us a taste. . .

And speaking of stories we aren't told, I want to know what Shirley thinks Jeff did wrong in his life to end up taking remedial classes at Greendale after something went wrong with his Doctor career. Yeah it's just to tell us she, and maybe the study group in general, aren't really invested in each other (yet), and Jeff isn't really much of an outlier in knowing nothing about the others, but dang it's just such a funny image.

Now that we're already buried in such levels of detail, I like the little touch where we see Jeff was holding his schoolbooks in his lap the whole time he was sitting at the table. On a first glance it may look like he's trying to hold down a boner after Shirley tells him "the ultimate gossip" - that Britta had a sex dream about him - but thinking about it, what we're really seeing is how desperately guarded Jeff is in all matters even approaching his personal life. He just didn't want to put the books on the table where people might see them!

Meanwhile, Annie apologizes to Abed with what must surely be a symbolic gesture of an Indiana Jones movie collection. (Is there any world where he would not already own those?) But he immediately forgives her because it's obvious she knows what she did was not okay and when you're Abed you process feelings quickly and think more about what you're going to be feeling towards a person after you're done being conflicted and operate from that conclusion. Okay I may be projecting here.

Jeff is also sorry for overstepping and for making Britta mad at him, if not for making Vaughn break up with her. (He's really not, but he tries to be.) Our two fated attractive white heterosexual lovers have a kind of grown up conversation where they attempt to speak clearly about what kind of relationship they want to have with each other, for about six seconds before Britta finds out Shirley told Jeff about her dream. Ah well, I guess that's an average amount of honesty for human interactions.

People (including Shirley) repeatedly refer to Shirley as a "pot stirrer" in this episode and I can't help but think the term I would later internalize is "shit disturber." I mean if you think about Malvo in the Fargo TV show, would you describe him as a "pot stirrer" or a "shit disturber"?

At a gathering of hippies (beneath the stoner tree?) Jeff misses gossiping with Shirley, but as he encounters her walking with Britta they giggle and run away. These two ought to have an amazing relationship, but we don't see any of it that I can remember. Pierce, of all people, delivers our moral about how you shouldn't talk about or try to overhear people who are not directly in front of you.

This was the one thing that bothered me in the movie adaptation of Fight Club, by the way. In the movie, Tyler just arbitrarily makes it a rule that "Jack" is not allowed to talk about him with Marla. It's so important to him, the [spoilers] happens the moment "Jack" breaks that rule. In the book, contrarily, Tyler makes the argument that he doesn't want "Jack" to talk about him behind his back. I found this reasonable. I've tried to follow this rule with people in my life ever since I read it. It wouldn't have hurt the movie to take three seconds to include that, would it?

But if you're going to live in the world with all the people in it, you have to make peace with the fact you're not entitled to know what everyone thinks. You're not supposed to listen to their private conversations. We get close here to making a thesis about the human right to privacy, but that may be beyond the scope of both this show and myself. Just trust that this right, like all the human rights, are written for a reason.

The stinger is on theme, with Troy and Abed making fun of everyone they see in the hallway outside the study room until they're told everyone can hear everything they're saying and they can only escape by pretending to fall asleep. It hurts our dignity when we ignore the boundaries of privacy, I suppose.

[galaxythreads]

Congratulations, you have unlocked the Analyist part of my brain. You know what happens when this gets unlocked? I write 10+ pages in a post.

So watch as I completely contradict myself here.

Here we go:

WAS TOM ACTING AS A DIFFERENT LOKI IN THE LOKI SERIES? HOW MUCH OF LOKI WAS CHANGED AND CAN WE SEE IT?

(very long post)

I have written over 50 pages in an in-depth review of the Loki series over the last several months and I'm only on episode four. I have been thinking about this a lot recently so this is actually a really good time for me to be contradicting myself.

Moments Loki was in-character off the top of my head:

When he immediately started arguing with Ravonna to make her give him more information about the TVA at his trial

When Loki threw a chair at Mobius for suggesting that he killed Frigga

when Loki cried about his family and was relieved that he was able to repair things

When Loki lied to Mobius about Sylvie's involvement because he was trying to keep her safe by saying he had the bigger part in the plan. The more he made himself into the bad guy, the better protected she was

when Loki tried to get Sylvie to tell him how Enchantment worked by saying he's never walked this far in his life when he absolutely has

when Loki found the answer to where Sylvie was with a couple of hours of research when the TVA has been looking for her for actual years

when Loki corrected Mobius about how magic works

When loki sat down next to Sylvie, said he was sorry about the tempad, and then listened to her story before saying that she was amazing for doing what she did to the TVA

when Loki was so excited to see Sif that he almost cried

when Loki tried to stop Sylvie from killing Kang because he recognized there was a bigger picture

when Loki sat quietly and listened to Classic Loki tell his story

the things where Loki felt OOC for me are...just too many to name. But the thing is. What I was trying to say in that post earlier is that not EVERYTHING was OOC. So that's why I was like "huh, yknow what, not EVERYTHING is ooc, so I can't just claim the entire series as being ooc" which annoyed me, because I wanted to. I didn't make that clear.

Because even if Loki wasn't ooc the entire time, the entire series is still a complete and utter mess. I mean by god the writing mistakes are just blatant.

But getting to the actual post, I am now going to compare and contrast speech patterns and body language between Thor 1 and the Loki series. If I have the time and/or willpower, I will add Avengers 1 to this. (spoiler: i didn't)

BODY LANGUAGE:

THOR 1:

body is held very stiffly, Loki rarely moves or fidgets once he's in place

arms are only moved very rarely to showcase emotion. Like when he face palms for exasperation, or when he's nervously rubbing at his lips on the throne. When Loki moves his arms, it shows that he's no longer okay. Leaving his sides or chest area is a showcase of vulnerability.

smiles very little. Smiles are used to put an emphasis on sarcasm (laufey), to try and reassure someone (heimdall), or when he's upset (thor). Loki does not smile because he's happy

Emotions are told through the eyes and eyebrows. Its the one place in Loki's face that he can't keep blank at all times. Expressions are usually minute. If he's being point blank about something, he is deeply deeply upset. (Thor getting banished, the Laufey reveal)

Picking at his palm is one of the few gestures Loki does to show that he is feeling nervous, but it's not nearly as vulnerable as Loki's arms moving away from his chest.

Loki's use of magic is used mostly off-screen, and never for anything mundane. Loki casts magic on his daggers and to summon them, he casts illusions for fights, he casts his Heimdall Be Gone spell, he sneaks into the SHEILD base and uses invisibility. When Loki does do magic, he doesn't point it out because he uses it as an extension of himself. You wouldn't call out where you're going to swing your sword before you swing it. The same applies to magic for Loki.

The only person Loki tries to get close to physically is Thor. Loki sits down close enough to touch knees with Thor. Loki doesn't put himself close to anyone on purpose. Frigga is the one who grabs him in a hug. Loki doesn't touch Odin out of fear of hurting him. He actually doesn't touch Odin once in the movie. Thor is the only one he actively chooses to be close to. Loki likes his personal space, (unless it's Thor, for some reason, who he is perfectly fine)

Clothing is just clothing to him. There is never one spot in the movie that he checks his appearance or shows it off. He doesn't seem to really care. I wouldn't say he's anything resembling a diva in this.

Mjolnir is the only time Loki reaches out for something that I can remember. Loki's arms, which have previously been held very, very close to his chest except when he was fighting with Odin, are used to showcase how vulnerable Loki is feeling because he reaches for Mjolnir.

When Loki fights with Thor, he still keeps his hands close to himself with the staff. But the same rule applies. In that fight, he was vulnerable.

Loki is expressive, it's just extremely muted.

Has a poker face on pretty much the entire time. or at least a flat expression. He doesn't showcase emotion easily.

Loki usually speaks very quietly

Gifs, for reference:

...

LOKI (2021)

Loki is always moving. His hands, his face, his legs. He's always fidgeting. Hands are used for emphasis, but EVERYTHING needs emphasis to him. Loki is almost constantly moving. He is constantly fidgeting.

Smiles are given frequently and without restraint. Loki smiles at Mobius, Sylvie, random guards, at Ravonna--anyone. He doesn't care anymore. Loki doesn't really smile because he's happy, but it's more something he just does, like an instinct now instead of careful use

Loki winks. At everyone. Oh my gosh the winking. I promise if you look for it, Loki is winking an inhumane amount.

Loki creeps into everyone's personal space. Sylvie he touches frequently or sits close to a lot (though she doesn't mind or tell him to stop). Mobius he actually adjusts the tie for, although it's done as a threat. Loki is the one to initiate the hug between Mobius and Loki.

Loki's expressions are practically jumping off of his face. Easily could be described as "wearing your heart on your sleeve" for everything.

There is no "he is in distress" position. Because Loki is constantly moving, when he yells because he's upset, it has less of an impact on me. (i.g. "will someone tell me what the HELL is going on!!?" epi 5 is a lot less jarring than when Loki yelled "tell me!" in thor 1. I almost expect it at that point)

Loki uses magic to dry himself off. He uses magic to change his clothing and to move back and forth across a room. If someone points this out to him, he explains what he's doing

Loki's entire fighting style has changed. It's less about support from afar or being effective and so much more showmanshipy. He has to flash off everything to you.

Loki's hands are rarely not in motion

someone took that hair flip in Ragnarok personally and Loki is doing it a lot

When Loki is still, and quiet, that's when he's listening intently and giving something his full attention. Sylvie, Classic Loki, etc. Loki uses stillness as an indication that he's paying attention to you. Even then, his hands can usually still be seen fidgeting a little. He's never completely still.

Moments that Loki has a poker face are rare. He's exceptionally bad at hiding his emotions. I honestly can't think of one scene off the top of my head where I wasn't aware of what he was feeling instantly. I never had to guess or let him tell me.

Loki is very aware of his appearance. Tries to show off several times. Eventually he seems to just stop caring though, because he never asks for a change of clothing.

Loki never hunches or tries to make himself look smaller. He is always trying to take up as much space as possible.

Loki is loud

Gifs, for reference:

easiest way to compare/contrast this:

Loki explaining something to someone: (why we need to go to jotunheim, where sylvie is)

SPEECH PATTERNS:

Thor 1:

Loki: Do the frost giants still live?

--

Thor: This was to be my day of triumph

Loki: It'll come. in time.

--

Loki: If it's any consolation, I think you're right. About the Frost Giants, about Laufey, about everything. If they found a way to penetrate Asgard's defenses once, who's to say they won't try again? ... there's nothing you can do without defying father.

---

Loki: so why did he lie?

Frigga: He kept the truth from you so you would never feel different.

--

Loki: ...your banishment, the threat of a new war,it was too much for him to bear. You mustn't blame yourself. I know that you loved him. I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn't listen.

---

Loki: And what is this newfound love for the Frost Giants? You could have killed them all with your bare hands.

Thor: I've changed.

Loki: So have I.

---

Loki: I never wanted the throne! I only ever wanted to be your equal.

--

Loki: What are you doing? If you destroy the bridge, you'll never see her again.

---

Loki: I could have done it father, for you, for all of us!

--

LOKI (2021) - EPISODE 1

Loki: It's been a very long day, and I think I've had my fill of idiots in armored suits telling me what to do, so, if you don't mind, this is actually your last chance. Now get out of my way.

---

Loki: Know this. You cross me, there are deadly consequences.

---

Loki: Hey, hey! Absolutely not. This is fine Asgardian leather.

--

Loki: What if I was a robot and I didn't know it?

TVA agent: The machine would melt you from the inside out. Please move along, sir.

Loki: Okay, I'm not a robot, so I'll be fine.

---

Ravonna: How do you plead?

Loki: ( Chuckles ) Madam, a god doesn't plead. This has been a very enjoyable pantomime, but I'd like to go home now.

Ravonna: Are you guilty or not guilty, sir?

Loki: ( Scoffs ) Guilty of being the God of Mischief? Yes. Guilty of finding all this incredibly tedious? Yes. Guilty of a crime against the Sacred Timeline? Absolutely not, you have the wrong person.

---

Loki: Trust is for children and dogs. There's only one person you can trust.

---

Mobius: Makes you sound super smart.

Loki: I am smart.

---

Mobius: Look at that smile. You are enjoying that. Did you enjoy hurting them?

Loki: I don't have to play this game. I'm a god.

---

Mobius: What is it?

Loki: It's an illusion. It's a cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate attempt at control. Now, you all parade about as if you're the divine arbiters of power in the universe.

---

Loki: What's your name?

Casey: Casey.

Loki: Give me the Tesseract, or I'll gut you like a fish, Casey.

Casey: What's a fish? ( Shushes ) ( Whispers ) What's a fish?

Loki: How do you not know what a fish is?

---

Loki: I don't enjoy hurting people. I... ( Sighs ) I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to.

Mobius: Okay, explain that to me.

Loki: Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate play for control.

Mobius: You do know yourself.

Loki: A villain. ( Sighs )

---

Thor 1 average length of sentence: about 7 words, usually more like 5

loki (2021) episode 1 average length of sentence: about 8 words, usually more like 12.

Loki in Thor 1 uses more old English and talks a little bit more like a modern Shakespearian character. Loki in Thor 1 doesn't use big words to prove a point, if the word fits the situation, that's what he's using. He won't use ten words if one will do.

Loki (2021) uses a lot of big words and is very big on metaphors because he's trying to sound intelligent and make you think hard. He won't use one word when ten would do.

Loki in Thor 1 doesn't use a single metaphor in the entire script. Loki in the series uses several. Loki (2021) talks very differently than Loki in Thor 1 does. Loki (2021) and Loki the Avengers (2012) is a different story, but even then, still wildly different. Even Loki in the Avengers uses only one metaphor I can think of off the top of my head (an ant has no quarrel with a boot) and that was the extent of it.

Are there times when Loki in the series sounds like Loki from the Avengers or Thor 1? Absolutely. "Trust is for children and dogs" comes to mind. "I don't enjoy hurting people" is another, but then he launches off into waxing poetry about it, so a little bit less.

Loki in Thor 1's only goal was to communicate.

Loki in the series wants to communicate, so long as he can put on a show with it.

direct comparison:

Loki: ...your banishment, the threat of a new war, it was too much for him to bear. You mustn't blame yourself. I know that you loved him. I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn't listen.

Loki: It's an illusion. It's a cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate attempt at control. Now, you all parade about as if you're the divine arbiters of power in the universe.

Loki in Thor 1. "...your banishment, the threat of a new war, it was too much for him to bear." has said his point. moves on to reassure Thor. Loki in the series *spends four sentences talking about the same thing*

And for comparison, I will now write these same sentences in the voice of the other.

Thor 1 quote with Loki (2021 voice):

Loki: Your asinine choices to attack coupled with the threat of an oncoming war crippled father like an open wound left festering for too long. He was putting off the odinsleep because he knew that you still needed him. *gestures with hand toward Thor* I know that you're upset about this, but don't blame yourself for what couldn't be helped. I did everything I could to aid him. He knew that you cared for him, and I tried to emphasize that to him, but he wasn't in a place to understand that.

Loki (2021) quote with Thor 1 voice: Loki: I know what this place is. It's an illusion to play for control. None of this is real, is it?

So to answer the earlier question: Is loki in the Loki series OOC in my opinion?

Yeah. I'm going to go with yeah. I would say that Tom is acting as an entirely different character bearing the same name and occasionally overlapping speech patterns. No shared body language. Their fighting styles are completely different. They use magic differently, they talk differently, their facial expressions are different.

These aren't the same people.

And yes, of course, we have to take into account the trauma of Thanos and what happened between Thor 1 and the Avengers, but the thing is -- I sincerely doubt that it would change Loki that much. Loki has crawled through hell several times over in Avengers 1, but he's still recognizable as the same person. Loki in the series has a few overlapping moments, but for the most part...they just. Aren't the same. Bug me enough about it and I will do another side by side comparison with Avengers 1, but for now.

Loki series: still bad. Less bad in some places. Still bad.

rewatching the Loki series, and the more I watch, the more I realize that Loki was not as OOC as most people say he is. Yeah, there are a lot of "he would not freaking say that" moments, but there are fewer than I remember. (Sylvie is also less annoying, but I'm only on episode 4, so that may change.)

What I am watching is Mobius systematically breaking down Loki psychologically and Loki desperately trying not to die or get beaten up the entire time. Loki would do anything to keep Mobius happy and Mobius knows that and exploits it. He manipulates Loki and never apologizes for any of it. Mobius is horrible.

The plot is still an absolute disaster though.

[astridthevalkyrie]

A Scene Popped Into My Head But Instead Of Writing A Whole AU I’m Just Going To Write That One Scene <3

---> Scene Capture Fics Masterlist

---> Today’s Feature: Boyfriend Levi!

---> a/n: two scene captures in a row?? wow :O maybe i'm just apologizing for that last one LMAO

Lazy Saturday. Your favorite two words.

Partly because neither you nor your boyfriend are working today, and Levi lets himself be possessive and clingy and all the other things you love when he displays. Like right now, he's underneath you on the couch, arms around your waist while yours are around his neck. You can kiss him, nip at his skin playfully, glide your hand through his hair and he has no complaints. A make-out session on the couch is long, long overdue.

And it's also partly because it's one of the only days you get to watch your favorite shows without feeling guilty because about wasting time.

"Stop," Levi murmurs, the second time you turn your head to look at the TV. He puts the knuckle of his index finger on your cheek, tilting your head back to face him so he can kiss you again. You sigh into his mouth, fists finding his collar and bunching it up in your hands. Now with one arm steadily around your waist keeping you close, he swipes his tongue over your lower lip, using his other hand to cup your face fully. Your cheek is stroked gently, making you melt into his touch.

But then you hear your favorite scene starting and you turn your head again.

"For fuck's sake." Levi narrows his eyes at your temple. "You've seen this show a million times—"

"But this is the Christmas episode! The one where he—"

"Where he gives her the teapot, I know, you've made me watch it fifty million times."

"You said one million before, so ha ha ha—"

"You're so annoying." Warm hands envelop your neck and play with the hair on the nape of your neck. "Would you rather turn off the TV or kick me out instead?"

A pout appears on your face at this ultimatum of his. "I want to watch the show with you. And kiss you. Both."

"Can't have both," Levi grumbles, "choose one."

There's an uncomfortably loud silence.

"Get off," he says flatly.

"No! Okay, listen, just this episode and then I'll turn off the TV and make out with you for so long. Like super long. You'll forget how to kiss by the time I'm done."

"That doesn't make any damn sense." But you give him a small peck on the lips to placate him, and he sighs. "You still need to get up, it's not good for your neck to watch like this."

Grinning obnoxiously, you kiss his nose. "Sucks to be my neck, then. It's only for four more minutes. Look, look, she's opening the teapot now!"

"How romantic," he mutters dryly.

You tuck your head under his chin with a light whine. "Why haven't you ever gotten me a teapot?"

"Why haven't you ever gotten me a teapot?"

Your head jerks up all of a sudden, speaking in a shrill voice. "Second anniversary, we spent the day at the water park—"

"Oh my God, I remember, shut up—"

"Not just a teapot, a whole set! I got you a whole set!"

Levi's lips are on your forehead, tucking you back into his chest amidst your protests. "Keep talking and I won't let you rewatch Ella Enchanted tonight."

Unsurprisingly, you stay silent after that.

[pixiemage]

(Yes, another 3rd Life analysis post, but I’m actively watching it for the first time so it’s on my mind.)

I made a post yesterday about a moment between Martyn and Big B, where they're talking about being the "Blue Sword Boys" from Day 1 and about how maybe they need to team up and save their third BSB member, Grian, from Scar. (Evo boys, Blue Sword Boys, alliances...interventions.) I also noted that this took place the same day as the explosion outside of Renchanting that was set up by Scar and Grian, taking Ren's first life in a calculated (and semi-botched but still successful) attack. But I've realized something else about their alliances.

Day 1, Grian and Big B and Martyn dubbed themselves the "Blue Sword Boys" after Martyn divided his first found diamonds between them so they'd each have a diamond sword. They made jokes about alliances and bonds forged...but by the end of the first session that was partially forgotten. By then, Martyn had already become Ren's marketing manager in exchange for using Ren's enchanter. By then, Grian had accidentally taken Scar's first life and pledged loyalty to him (temporarily, but seeing as Grian doesn't lose his life until well into the series, his promise lasts a very long time.) By then, Big B was forging a path on his own, and though he later forms a near-neutral alliance with both parties, he doesn't stick with a teammate for very long throughout his run in the series (at least not from what I've watched so far).

Technically, if things had gone differently, Grian and Martyn could have still been on the same side. Maybe Monopoly Mountain and Renchanting could have been a monumental alliance that dominated the server until the very end.

But that's not what happened.

No, instead, Scar and Ren managed to butt heads often enough - and formed opposing alliances, seeing as Ren sided with Team Crastle who were most definitely NOT friends with Scar after the Pizza kidnapping - that by the time we get a few weeks in, a major divide in allegiances has already split the server. Grian is still steadfastly loyal to Scar because of his life debt, and Martyn has been promoted from a lowly employee to a valued ally at Ren's side.

And then we reach the Bombing at Dogwarts.

This, to me, cements loyalties across the board - even cementing the fact that, at least right now, Etho has no true loyalty because he's playing all sides. But amidst the chaos, we see Martyn steadfastly defending his boss and partner Ren, and we see the beginnings of the King and the Hand roles they'll end up portraying until the end of the season. We also see the way Grian - despite claiming for weeks that he's only doing what Scar says because he has to, and despite exclaiming that "This server was meant to be collaborative!" when other green names started choosing sides on Day 1 - has taken on a more chaotic role than in episodes previous. Grian is the one who plots out the TNT minecart trap, Grian is the one who sets it up, and Grian is the one who laughs like a madman when the trap actually goes off and claims three lives.

Despite still having a green name, he's already "off the deep end" and enjoying being on Scar's side, a phrase pulled straight from Big B's mouth when Martyn suggests they might need to save Grian. (Again, I already commented on this in that other post, but it's significant to this too.)

But rewinding a bit - I said earlier in this post that if things had gone differently, Grian and Martyn could have still been on the same side, and I stand by that. Grian didn't choose to fight Martyn. No, Grian only chose to stand by Scar, and Martyn chose to stand by Ren, and Scar and Ren were the ones fighting...at first. But because of flimsy allegiances that transformed into unbreakable partnerships, it became Desert Duo vs Renchanting Duo, Monopoly Mountain vs the Kingdom of Dogwarts.

TL;DR: Though Grian and Martyn end up on opposite sides in the 3rd Life war, they began as allies on Day 1. They didn't choose to go against each other, but because their newfound main allies - Ren and Scar - were enemies from early on, Martyn and Grian ended up seeing each other as enemies by association, something which might not have happened if Scar and Ren had never become enemies in the first place. Renchanting Duo and Desert Duo team-up anyone?

I still haven't finished this series yet even though I know some of the major plot points that are coming my way...but holy shit wouldn't it have been insane if all four of them had been allies from the start? (And maybe Jimmy and Scott too, since they seem to be friends with both sides at this point?) The writer in me wants to see where this concept could have gone if only things had happened just a tiny bit differently...

[yandere-toons]

General romantic Count Duckula headcanons

Even after you've had a date he will open doors for you with the line “ladies first” every time, he's such a dork.

Goosewing is convinced that you've been enchanted by Duckula, I mean in hindsight it's Duckula that got enchanted by you but otherwise he's not 100% wrong.

In the episode Amnesiac Duck Igor lies to Duckula that he has “his own personal maiden awaiting up in his room” as he puts it to make his master go after you. Unfortunately his plane fails as you charmed your way into Count Duckula's heart effortlessly.

You make Count Duckula extremely happy, he cherishes you, you bring a sort of normalcy to his life that he never had. He's scared that his vampire heritage will scare you away so he tries to keep it a secret, but unbeknownst to him you already know of his rather peculiar traits. Through the stigma and reputation vampires have you see what a genuine but flawed individual Duckula is, and that's why you love him. You can't imagine the burden that was lifted off his shoulders as you told him that it didn't matter to you if he was a vampire or not. All his worries of you running off goes away with a long content sigh as you run your hands through his hair singing him praises and reassuring things to put him at ease.

If you make food for him he will explode with euphoria, finally some good fucking food that isent cardborde or seacretly contains blood.

Despite his big talk he's a real softy, he will melt in your arms. But besides that he has the occasion of getting really jealous, if he's going to live up to his proclaimed repetition then he's gotta one up the competition.

As much as he'd love to take you out to a really fancy restaurant, picnic dates (or any date that doesn't involve the castle) are always great.

Duckula would be playing the basketball game in the arcade, point at you and say “this one's for you babe” and completely miss. He's trying his best to get enough tickets to buy that really big teddy bear for you at the prize corner.

Pleses, give this man actual constructive criticism. I am begging you.

Yknow, with all the lovey-dovey stuff you're both up to he might actually consider watching a romcom, he would probably prefer that against the horror movie you wanted to watch.

He's your personal hype man, if you're arguing with someone he's there to back you up.

Duckula would take you anywhere using the castle, your wish is his command.

Igor is secretly repulsed by your lovey-dovey-nes, Nanny was reluctant at first but warmed up to you pretty fast. She's just happy to see her Duckyboos so overjoyed.

I might make more in the future, also i made a playlist about the lil guy, check it out if you're interested.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LoGU8N63m4PJxlzYiSnq2

I can just imagine Igor rolling his eyes and grumbling at the dinner table every time you and Duckula have a food fight.

He grumbles about how Count Duckula the 16th would suck blood hourly and how far the lineage has supposedly fallen, only to get excited when Duckula sprays you with a line of ketchup.

His disappointment reigns supreme after you start to laugh with his master and Nanny wipes the ketchup off you with a dish towel. "Don't play with your food!" she chides, her high-pitched voice betraying some amusement.

Nice playlist, too. I like the assortment of songs about zombies having fun and the undead in general, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a song from Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island!

[ilexdiapason]

ok !! mar tyn. deeply deeply in love with him.

my mostly 3rd life martyn headcanons:

coming here with evo as a past, but not remembering that. nobody can remember what's outside the game - well, grian could, but he intentionally chooses not to to make the games more fun. (and he only cheats sometimes.)

despite that he has the watcher/listener background that a lot of contestants lack and he kind of Gets It right off the bat? he and grian are the foils of all time here and they both Understand how the games work

and despite that, despite knowing that really the best thing to do is to find someone to "lead you" and shove in front of you as the figurehead who'll be targeted for your decisions in battle -

despite that, they both fall in love with that figurehead anyway.

the difference is that grian may not know scar, but they do have history, and their chemistry is built on instincts that neither of them can currently see. martyn is laughing in an underground pool with a stranger who wants to make this stupidly, impossibly kind business, to do nothing but help and provide for the other members of the game, and he falls in love instantly.

martyn also has this past of never having a home to go back to. he can't remember that either, of course, but he retains that feeling that he doesn't quite belong anywhere, that nobody is expecting him. that's why it takes him several episodes (weeks) to truly start calling renchanting his home, to recognise that, yes, this is where he belongs.

(it takes him even longer to realise that it wasn't renchanting that was his home. it was ren.)

he's not as good at enchanting as ren is, but he's smart and a quick learner and he picks up the basics just fine. they eventually find that martyn has a steadier hand - ren's a little more excitable - so the best method of enchanting is for martyn to make the lapis inscription and for ren to cast the enchantment using it. honestly ren's not even that great at any other kind of magic - but enchantment requires intent, and belief, and ren is such a strong believer ("and so intense!") that he can will together any charm of protection or unbreaking or, heck, even mending that his customer desires.

martyn thinks that's very impressive and all, but with the prices he's charging he's basically giving himself away. so martyn becomes the marketing manager, and for a while manages to forget the kind of world they're living in.

sorry i'm treebarking too hard you said martyn i'll focus on martyn

the habit of saying "eyes!" when he notices a threat was picked up mid-game rather than being something that came before. at first it confused ren (and later skizz and the red army) but he stood by it taking half as long to say as "watch out!" and thus being twice as efficient. they learned to accept it and eventually ended up even using it themselves in dogwarts, which martyn was very smug about

he's not exactly sure where the timmy nickname came from, but he does feel weird about it if anyone who doesn't feel like they Should say it uses it, even if he isn't sure why

hums while he works. doesn't usually sing full-out, but he will hum. he thinks if he had an instrument he'd probably be the menace of the server

he's already the menace of the server.

his hair honestly isn't even that long as of third life; by last life it's much shaggier, by double life it would probably be better off in a ponytail than under the headband, and by limited life he can braid it (like the cherri art) (he learned to do it on his king at night and is now repurposing that to do it for himself)

okay so. the red king was kind of a possession thing. like in dog at the door ren offered himself as sacrifice to a more powerful spirit that would help the lands and the people. martyn didn't know this until ren put his head back on his neck, lifted the crown from the puddle of blood on the altar, and started speaking in a voice that was not his own. which was weird for him to say the least. but he managed

SORRY STILL TREEBARKING. in my defence. they're gay

he's a man who fidgets. he keeps his hands busy. often that's just by fixing his headband or his clothes, but it's more rewarding if he's making something, so he gets into making textiles. he wove the dogwarts banners from his own materials

there are brambles growing in dogwarts and he has the touch for working out which ones will taste best right off the vine

he always fought better with an axe

he defended his king to the last

it wasn't enough

the game was given to the one who Got It, and the one who didn't hesitate to let his partner take the fall for his choices in the final confrontation

the game begins anew.

okay that's all :D

any Martyn hcs you want to share?

wait do you have a preference for a particular c!martyn/multiple or should i just go for whatever i can think of

[visd3stele]

The beauty and his beast - wolfstar fic

summary: two different nights, years passed, some things changes, but some never do

TW: nightmares, PTSD, trauma, non depictive child abuse, themes of suicidal thoughts

A/N: I loved writing this, but I am so nervous about it. What do you think?

requests ; masterlist

fanart credit picture down below: @lunopal

Ragged voices licked his ears. Three different ones overlapped in a cacophony of hissed whispers and dooming laughs. From where he stood in the middle of his cell, Sirius could see a silhouette standing in the open door. Open, because there was no way he could escape. Three Dementors floated in a circle around him, so fast he could barely tell them apart. Black smoke, a burning smell and shadows whirled under low hoods, bringing him to his knees.

The man in the door curled his lips in a terrible grin. The Dementors were his and with each mind they broke, with each soul they ate, the wizard gained a sense of pride and morbid joy.

Sirius knew it. He knew the man, back in his school years - how far they seemed now! But Sirius also knew he was delusional. The Dementors bow to no one. They have no law, no caretaker, no master. Only their purpose.

Continuing to swirl around his frail body, sinked in to a third of what it used to be, bony edges poking out through dirty thin layers of clothing, the Dementors closed in on Sirius. Flashes of memories flew before the Animagus' eyes. James' empty ones, still open in a silent plea for his sacrifice to be enough to save his family, his brown hair dipped in his own blood, body angled in an unnatural position with his hand stretched forward above his head as if reaching for his best friend. Lily's tears, yet to dry and evaporates, stained her too pale face, the red of her hair sprayed around too lively; no blood pools formed around her lifeless body, laid on its belly as it fell onward, as if leaping away from her son, so the baby won't have to see it. And finally Harry, his godson, crying in his crib, a brown-red crust shaped like a lightning forming on his forehead; his green, small eyes, swollen, puffy and trimmed with red followed his godfather as the man turned his back on him and ran outside.

Sirius cursed loudly, beginning to shackle the chains trapping him in place in case he tried to escape the daily visit of the Prison Warrant and his guards. But the now twenty five years old has stopped trying to run a long time ago. What good would it be? There was nothing - no one - waiting from him out in the world. No, Sirius trashing around the cold, dirty dais, snapping the metal biting in his wrists, bruising his effervescent skin and almost cracking his bones as well was his attempt to run from his own mind. If he could just wipe the haunting memories away with a shook of his head, a twist of his back or punching and kicking the thick walls.

Fragments of thoughts he wasn't sure belonged to him invaded his mind. "Your fault. Traitor. Another Black." And, worst of all, one pained howl, a desperate scream in the night. Sirius wasn't sure if he heard it, or the dark creatures around toyed with him, but Remus' wild, feral yell of pure hurt reverberated inside the bars of his mind. The young wizard shut his eyes closed tightly, hoping to brush away the sound, the voices. Failing to do so, he released a scream of his own, only a hint of Padfoot, the big, black dog, his alter ego, printed in it.

The thirty four years old man yanked up. The bed sheets were soaked in his sweat, the blanket throwed on the floor. Sirius passed a shacking hand over his face, feeling the hot air leaving his mouth in short breaths, than big inhales with no exhale, the burning of tears on his warm red cheeks and the running nose. His lips felt sewed together all of a sudden, as chill after chill entered his body, cooling off his face too quickly.

It was just a nightmare, he knew. He escaped Azkaban, has been a free man from over a week already. But Sirius Black couldn't let the twelve years in prison go. The things he saw there, what the Dementors showed him day after day, carved their way in his brain, refusing to leave. Yes, he may have been wrong: his family and living friend welcomed him back. Harry was warming up to hid godfather, Nymphadora Tonks was eager to know her uncle, Andromeda even reached out, sending letter after letter and Remus - well, Remus hugged him tight and apologized for believing that filthy rat's lies. The werewolf spent his days, from first ray of sunshine until the last drop of sunlight. But the nights he went home. The nights when ghosts came to play, wounds teared open and pain leaked like blood from Sirius' heart, Remus was gone.

He tried to remember a time they didn't share a bed - before Azkaban, of course. Not in a sexual way, though it came to that in the late years of Hogwarts too. But simply for the comfort they each found in the other. It started in the second year, Sirius recalled.

Four twelve years old boys in a room seemed like a receipt for disaster. In a way, it was. After finding out their friend's secret, James, Sirius and Peter decided to sneak in the herbology cabinet, get Mandrake leaves and become Animagus. Seeing as they got away with it, the four created their enchanted map and become the Marauders, messers Prongs, Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail, waltzing their merry way through Hogwarts.

Not everything was merry and joyful, though. And despite their reputation, the wizards could be grave and serious when need be. Like one night, when Sirius woke them all up with his cries. The grey eyed boy stood on top of his bed covers, knees drawn to his chest, hands tangled in his shoulder length hair. He leaned back and forth, trembling. Front teeth bit in his lower lip to prevent him from making more noises as silent tears rolled down his face.

The other three boys thought Sirius saw a mean spirit, the haunted glassy look in his eyes only proving their theory further. But no danger threatened in the shadows of their room. No monster lurked in the darkness.

James was the first to get up and surf his way to the pure blood. Remus followed closely behind while Peter watched everything from the safety of his bed. Sirius' episode truly spooked him.

"Padfoot, mate, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. 'm sorry. Go back to sleep."

James and Remus changed worried looks at the sourness of Sirius' voice. Their friend would usually be the epitome of confidence, yet now he seemed to desperately try to shrink and disappear. But it was late and they were tired, so the boys decided with a swift nod that they'd pick up the subject in the morning and climbed back under their covers.

Remus jolted awake. Two out of his three best friends were sound asleep. Sirius still stared at the wall in front of him, breathing jerky. Due to his fine, superior hearing, the werewolf discerned the Black boy's muffled whimpers, sounds that kept him from sleeping.

"Sirius, why are you so afraid?" Remus whispered.

" 'm not afraid, Moony. Sleep."

"Can't. Werewolf remember? I hear you trying to not cry. You can cry, you know."

"I know." Sirius said in a tone that clearly showed he doesn't. With a sigh, Remus threw away his blanket, slipped his feet in his shoes and trailed his legs over the dorm's brick daises until he reached his friend's bed. The brown haired boy signed Sirius to scoop over, which he did, to both wizards surprise.

Later, when talking about that night, Padfoot admitted he was too tired, too shocked and too lost in his mind to think and only acted on auto pilot.

Remus brought the blankets to cover them both, still seated as they were. "Do you need a hug?" Sirius hesitated before answering, but eventually he nodded twice, a quick movement as if the boy was ashamed to admit it and wanted to pass unnoticed.

But Remus smiled softly and wrapped his hands around him. Sirius clinged onto his friend. The warmth of the gesture, the cozy closeness of a settled, stable body, a person that cared deeply about him and only him as a being, set the restrained tears free. Remus held Sirius until his body stilled and he could feel no more tears soaking his pajamas.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Sirius swallowed, but the words demanded to be spoken. "Yes."

"Alright. I'm gonna ask you questions and you can answer with yes or no. It's your choice if you want to elaborate. Sounds good?"

"Yes." Sirius said and for a moment his usual, ironic self showed up.

"Was it a nightmare?"

"Yes."

"About your family?"

With a shudder, the grey eyed boy forced out another "yes."

"Your brother?"

"No."

"Your parents, then. Did they - did they do something to you?"

"Yes." Remus' arms tighten around him and he clunged harder to his friend as well. In the safety of the Gryffindor dorm, shared with his most trusted peers, comforted by the scarred boy he became an Animagus for, Sirius stumbled over his thoughts. The dream weighted heavy on his mind, but he didn't know how to let free of those horrible images that haunted him. Not images, memories. Sirius feared that if he said anything they'll become real. Not that they weren't, but they happened in the past. Talking about them, invoking them, would feel like living through them again.

And yet, part of him wanted to talk. He needed someone to know. Sirius couldn't be sure why. Maybe to hear that it was nothing, that it was ok and he shouldn't be such a weak ship. Or maybe to hear it was normal and he wasn't alone. That is how parents love and his didn't hate him after all. Or just to show someone how broken he were, hoping to be picked un and patched.

So, speaking slowly, but evenly, Sirius retailed his nightmare to Remus. In his sleep, the twelve years old boy was hanging some muggle posters in his room: bands, promo for concerts, normal things a boy his age would own. He smiled broadly, music turned on quite loud, muggle music, when his parents bursts in. Walburga and Orion both yell, but Sirius can’t understand what they’re saying. It’s pretty clear they are very upset with him, though. And the reason couldn’t be more obvious. 

“Sirius Orion Black!” his mother shrieked. “Ungrateful, worthless child! You are a stain on the family’s name.”

“You should be ashamed of you. As much as I am for being your father. Well, say something. Look how upset you made your mother!”

“Sorry,” he’d try to say, but his voice would break, too small to be heard by the angry adults. Which only worsened their state. Sirius watched frozen in terror as Walburga took her wand. Only his head seemed to be able to move, and he was shacking it vigorously, wiping his cheeks with it. The young wizard tasted tears on his tongue as he repeated the same words over and over again “no, please, ‘m sorry!” It did nothing to help. 

Remus stayed in his bed that night.

°•▪︎~▪︎•°

The moon shone mockingly on the window. Last night has been a full moon and Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail failed to properly contain Moony. It happened quite a lot in their first days as Animagus. As normal, they got better over the years, the four boys falling in rhythm like an oiled machine. By the time they reached excellency, though, mistakes happened. James, Peter and Sirius thought less of it, but Remus took it badly. 

As he laid in the dark, blanket drawn to cover his head as he hugged his knees on the side, the young werewolf tried to remember what happened last night. What if he killed someone? What if he will next time the boys won’t be able to restrain him? Is it worth living like this, a danger to himself and the ones around? What if he hurts his friends? 

“I can hear your mind working from over here y’know?”

Remus straighten up in shock. “Padfoot?”

“Well, it’s not the Fat Lady. What’s on your mind?”

Remus shrugged, but Sirius wouldn’t stop pestering him until he poured his deepest fears and doubts. 

“You won’t”

“How do you know this?”

“You won’t, Moony,” Sirius said more firmly this time.

“Alright.” Remus clearly didn’t believe him and his worries still troubled him as he turned to lay back down. He heard footsteps, then felt the mattress shifting as another body climbed over his bed covers. “I know because I am Sirius Black and you are my friend.” Less than an hour later, both boys were sound asleep.

Sirius slept in his bed that night.

°•▪︎~▪︎•°

It became a tradition. At first, they'd wait until one of them woke frozen in pain and panic, then they'd stay together and talk silently until they could sleep again. Later, Sirius and Remus would wait until James and Peter were out to decide who's bed to sleep in, knowing one of them - or both - ought to need the comfort.

The man kept trembling. His sobs caught in hiccups, leaving him out of breath. He did it. He left Harry for revenge. He practically made the choice for James and Lily, selecting Peter as secret keeper. His brother died and instead of mourning him, Sirius rejoiced bitterly in his cell - until he found out how he betrayed the Dark Lord.

He was just another Black. An evil presence in the world, despite his efforts. Gryffindor or Slytherin, it mattered not when his genes crafted him. Sirius tried so hard to be good, brave, loyal and the only thing he managed was to disappoint everyone. He was a nuisance and a burden and the a stain on the world. It'd be better if his sorry, useless existence would be wiped off the surface of the Earth.

Such thoughts clouded Sirius' mind when a light knock pulled him out of his head. "May I come in, Padfoot?"

The man almost broke at the nickname. Only one single person now would know to call him that. The weight of the realization hit him and another wave of tears carried the air from his lungs.

Receiving no answer, Remus kicked the door open, worry written all over him. The werewolf was panting and sweating from running, eyes wide close to terror. "Padfoot!" Seeing his oldest friend's state, he rushed to his side and hesitated only a moment before drawing him in for a hug.

"Nightmare?"

"Yes."

"Azkaban?"

"Yes."

"Dementors?"

"Yes. They-" Sirius gulped, shame tightening up in his throat. He was a thirty four man, for Godric's sake! And yet he cries like a baby. But the path he and Remus trailed off to, simple questions, any type of answer, so familiar and soothing he couldn't stop. "They tortured me. Showing me their - James and Lily's - death over and over. I left Harry, Moony. I stepped inside the house, saw that beautiful, brave child, suffering and I took off after bloody Pettigrew!" Before Remus could say a thing, Sirius continued, teeth so barred that words barely spitted out. "I heard you screaming too. I don't think that was real, but it sounded so broken, Moony. Twelve years, over twenty four full moons alone. 'm so sorry. It's all my fault."

Remus inhaled sharply, pulling Sirius even closer to him. He rubbed circles on his back, leaning to whisper in his ear "It was not, Padfoot. I should have trusted you more, star. If anything, it's my fault for spending so much time alone. So much, in fact, that it seems I neglected you, our agreement."

“It was my fault.” Sirius insisted.

“No,” and not letting him time to argue, Remus added “I know so, Sirius, because I am Remus Lupin and you are my... friend.”

Sirius pulled away only to find a reluctant smile playing on Remus' face. His body reacted before his mind could process its moving. He moved on the right side of the bed, still avoiding the other wizard's eyes. "Why are you here, Remus?"

"I couldn't sleep either. Thought to check on you as well. And good thing I did. You looked..." The professor didn't know how to finish that sentenced. Hollow. Empty. Dead. Scaringly close to death, in fact.

"Merlin! Thank you, Moony. You don't look bad yourself."

Remus chuckled. "Are you feeling any better?"

"No. You?"

"No."

Both men laughed. A bitter sweet sound passing through silence, taking with it any sign of discomfort that existed.

"I'm glad you came."

"Me too."

[coping-via-clint-eastwood]

CSI Characters as Ancient/Medieval Fantasy Warriors (title is tentative)

I WROTE THIS ALL IN ONE SITTING!!!!!  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???????

*ahem* This is speculation about what powers and skills the CSI characters would have if they were warriors in an ancient/medieval fantasy setting, amongst other things. This was probably inspired by my recent wallowing in medieval fantasy (specifically Songs of War {if you don't know what that is, it's okay}), and I thought, why not entertain the idea? And after writing it out, I can say that it was fun toying around with it. If this inspires anybody to add on anything, or write fanfiction, or whatever, by all means go ahead.

@addictedtostorytelling @bartramcat @buildinggsr @davesdude80 @dobbyofearth @fandomismymiddlename @originalpinkranger @panchostokes @space-helen @stokes-theorem

All the people written about here are humans with powers.

Gil:  He has enhanced eyesight, and is a sniper archer. If I may draw your attention to the ending scene of season 4 episode 2, All for Our Country:

Bonus shot because it reminds me of his Will Graham days:

He is canonically a deadeye. So, I am extending that to be a superhuman power. I'll put it this way: he can aim and shoot at the same target a contemporary sniper with a scope could; he does not require (or have, for that matter) a scope. Because he is not so able as his younger teammates, so he cannot be in the direct area of battle and fend off opponents. But he has excellent eyesight, so he hides up in a tree or on the edge of a cliff that overlooks the area or wherever is applicable, and shoots any targets he can.  He uses a crossbow, since not as much strength is needed to pull back the cord as compared to a bow.  He also has a light wooden staff which he uses to help him walk up inclinations. It's also his defensive staff; if an enemy manages to sneak up on him, he can point the staff at them and shoot a forcefield that will blast them back. But this is only effective at close range, hence why he has to use the crossbow for opponents further away. He wears a hooded cloak which is green on one side and a dusty brown on the other, so that he can camouflage himself, turning the cloak to whichever side he needs to match his surroundings.  He is not the only one to wear a cloak however; Catherine, Ecklie, Jim, DB and Finn wear cloaks (more details when I get to each) as well to show they are of higher ranking, but only Gil's is hooded for practical purposes.

Warrick: His power is that he can jump really high. He can jump over a small hill and land on the ground on the other side. He's the one who helps get Gil to his perches if needed; he puts him over his shoulder and jumps, holding him with one arm and his war hammer in his other hand. He is strong enough to carry Gil. And Gil trusts him and is comfortable enough to let himself be borne in such a way, never struggling or crying out in fear when he is suddenly brought off the ground at such a high rate. In tandem with being able to jump high, he can strike his hammer on the ground when he lands and cause a quake. His hammer's enchantment depends on how high he jumped. On the ground, he swings his hammer at an opponent and sends them flying back (at a much greater distance than Gil's forcefield).

Bobby Dawson: He's the archer who is in the direct area of battle. He uses a small hunting bow, and also has a gladius in case any opponents manage to get close to him. He has enhanced reflexes, so he is able to turn around, draw weapons, and load and shoot his bow faster than normal.

Catherine:  She is telekinetic.  She does not use weapons because she prefers to have her hands free to gesticulate and help her focus on moving the objects she is controlling.  Her cloak is a beautiful royal blue.

Heather:  Mind control + reading minds + telepathy.    And invisibility.  Aside from turning the team's opponents against each other, mind control is useful for helping friends escape from dangerous situations; sometimes, it's easier than telling them what to do.  She needs very strong concentration for her mind control, which is the ability she uses the most, so she makes herself invisible and keeps out of the way, but stays where she can see the person she is manipulating.  Like Gil, she has the defensive staff in case anyone finds her.

Nick and Sara: They are what I like to call the speedster twins. It is very satisfying to wash them nyoom about and quickly kill any opponent in the path of their run. Typically, they start out standing next to each other at the same point, and then run on one side of the battlefield each. So they take out the opponents on the skirting of the battlefield. Sara has a cutlass while Nick has twin daggers.

Greg: He can talk to nearby spirits and ask them to help his team in the fight. With the power of this necklace that he has, he can conjure a protective invisible dome-shaped barrier around himself, which is invulnerable to any and every form of attack. Except if somebody were to dig their way up from below him of course. However, he has to stay in the same spot when he is inside this barrier, and has to deactivate it if he wants to walk (or run or whatever) somewhere else. The spirit of the person who gave him the necklace follows him everywhere, and stays by his side on the battlefield to protect him from any opponents who manage to get close.  Greg has a curved cleaver in case he needs to fight.

Al:  Aside from being a healer, he can freeze time.  Sort of. He can freeze the movement of anybody who is coming at him, no matter how many there are. He does not wield weapons. He has wooden legs (which are enchanted to be completely painless for him) and a staff, but without the power that Gil's and Heather's have. To heal someone, he just has to touch them, for as long as it takes for the wounds to completely heal. **I was thinking about making him have something to do with necromancy, but I thought that that's too much like Greg's power.

David:  He is the other healer, and is the one who kills the people that Al freezes. He just makes them fade out of existence. It is completely painless, and that way they don't have any bodies lying around the healers' area. Also, while Al heals physical injuries, David actually cures illnesses. So he has to touch his patient for as long as it takes to eradicate the infection.

The two healers typically stay in one spot, ready to head out into the battlefield if any of their teammates are injured.

Archie: He is the cryokinetic guardian of Henry, Wendy, Mandy, and Hodges, who are not combatants. He does not use weapons.

Henry:  He is a blacksmith, in charge of repairing the people's weapons, and making new ones if necessary. He also makes the arrows for Gil and Bobby.

Wendy: She is an enchanter who imbues weapons with offensive powers, such as the quake and blast effect on Warrick's hammer, or the enhanced sharpness of the speedster twins' blades.

Mandy: She enchants weapons with defensive powers, such as Greg's necklace, or Gil's and Heather's staves. She is also the one who made Al's wooden legs painless.

Hodges: While Al and David are physical healers, and while Wendy enchants weapons, Hodges is the one who restores the powers of other people. He is not really drained when he does it, but it is better for him to stay still and rest while other people fight. It works exactly how Al's and David's healing does.

These five people typically stay near the healers.

Jim:  He can control the weather.  That also means he can summon lightning.  And hailstones.  And rain (creatures that are made of fire or lava are susceptible to rain).  Like Catherine, he has his hands free to focus whatever he's bringing down from the sky onto wherever his target is.  His cloak is pitch black in colour.

Conrad: He can clone himself; up to five clones of himself can exist at a time.  It's alright if they are hurt or killed; so long as he is still alive.  He wields a scythe.  His cloak is a really dark grey, almost black, but not really.

Morgan:  She can fly. This is not a power which requires restoration. Since she does not use wings, she can fly in rain. She uses twin swords.

Sofia:  She is a shapeshifter.  But she can not only turn into other creatures; she can turn into objects like a boulder or something. In such forms, she is invulnerable to like, say, a fist striking her, but if someone were to try and blow her up, she would have to turn into something else and run away. You know those fire creatures I mentioned? If she turns into one of them, she can harness their powers. Basically, she takes on the abilities of anything she turns into.

Riley: She can turn into any of her opponents, whether she has killed them herself of if they are standing right in front of her. Heather would be aware that this in fact Riley (telepathy yo), and Riley will work together with the person Heather is controlling. Unlike Sofia, while she becomes the mirror image of someone, she cannot have the skill level of the person she turns into. She herself is proficient with a club; if she turns into someone who was a swordsman, she would be wield a blade as well as them, and will continue to use her own weapon. If she turns into one of those fire creatures, she might be able to use their fire, but she doesn't have as fluent control over it as the original person. In fact, it is much safer for her to not turn into such creatures.

Ray:  He has enhanced strength, which enables him to rotate his huge double-headed battle axe about his wrist above his head.  And by "huge", I mean that the stick is almost as long as him, and the blades are bigger than his head. The stick is also quite thick; it has to withstand the weight of the blades, and the impact with which it is struck. By "rotate", I mean Ray is able to hold the handle at the very base, and pivot it perfectly around.

DB:  Teleportation.  This son of a bitch randomly popping up out of nowhere?  Yeah.  His weapon is a really small but especially sharp dagger, easy to conceal, and a quick and effective killer.  He appears, quickly pokes his opponent, and then teleports to the next one.  He can teleport anywhere within his viewing distance; he has to be able to see where he is teleporting to to go there. His cloak is silver in colour.

Finn:  She is pyrokinetic.  Her cloak is typically orange, yellow or red, but it can change colours to whatever fire she is wielding, which includes green, blue, purple, white, and even black fire.  She does not use weapons.

Additional idea: Gil and Sara are soulmates. But they were not fated from birth; rather, their soulmate bond formed when their connection deepened. Before they met, their soulmates could have been anyone else, or they could have gone without a soulmate for the rest of their lives. Even when they met and fell in love at first sight (I'm one of those who hc that they did; ymmv), they were not yet soulmates. It was when they really got to know and understand each other implicitly and became unbreakably steadfast in their connection, of their own accord, that their soulmate bond formed. The physical manifestation of it was when their soul marks appeared; Gil has a butterfly on the right side of his neck, close to the back of his neck, and Sara has a rhinoceros beetle on the underside of her left wrist. Being soulmates, they can heal each other and restore each other's powers. The most soothing times for them to do it is when they can lie down somewhere private and hold each other close.

When their marks first appeared, everyone kept congratulating them; there was a lot of friendly teasing from Warrick, Nick, Greg and Hodges. As for themselves, they remained passive until they were in the privacy of their bedroom.  They sat down on the edge of the bed, embracing and leaning their foreheads on each other's, uncontainable smiles on their faces as they had a little heart-to-heart.  They did not really have to vocalise much; they had always been able to understand each other with just a few words.  Then, they leant back from each other, but remained close.  Sara lowered her head and slowly, reverently kissed all over Gil's mark; he closed his eyes and let her do it, enjoying how it felt, moving his head to one side so that his skin on the right of his neck was stretched flat and easier to kiss.  When Sara was done, they leant back again.  Gil lifted Sara's wrist to his mouth and kissed all over her mark, with as much care and adoration as she had done his.