#man just imagine desmond going through a similar shit

[teecupangel]

*gets through the fireplace* Bonjour! Desmond in the Uncharted games! Because I find it funny if he would meet Nathan, thanks to them having the same VA. Adios! *uses the smoke bomb and runs*

So, for this one, we’re going for the Uncharted series is part of the AC series because plot bunny just hit me right at the face.

And yes.

Nathan Drake is absolutely a descendant of the Auditore-Kenway line. (Spoilers to the Uncharted series), it’s heavily implied Nate isn’t really related to Francis Drake and we’ll make use of that setup.

The church Nate grew up in was actually a front of the Brotherhood. His family doesn’t have ties with the Brotherhood, not really, but Sam did learn of the Brotherhood during his stay in the orphanage and is recruited.

Now, Sam isn’t exactly loyal to the Creed. More often than not, he was more in it to get the skills necessary to survive. He kept it a secret from Nate though because he didn’t want him dealing with anything related to the Templars and the Assassins. To keep Nate away from the Templars and the Assassins, Sam tells Nate that they’re last name is Drake.

Samuel Morgan was an Assassin.

Sam Drake was Nathan Drake’s older brother.

So things happened…

Nate meets Sully while Sam was in prison (an undercover mission for the Brotherhood).

Later on, Nate joins Sam in adventuring but Sam keeps any thing connected to the Assassins and the Brotherhood away from Nate.

Sam is an Assassin who is only known by very few other Assassins but Nate has some inkling that something fishy was going on, he just wasn’t sure what it was.

There were specific artifacts that Sam wanted and was okay parting with more lucrative stuff just to get it.

But then…

They teamed up with Rafe…

Sam supposedly died…

Even in the eyes of the Brotherhood.

And that is how Samuel Morgan died and Sam Drake survived the Great Purge that would happen two years from his apparent death.

.

So we have different points in Uncharted that we can catapult Desmond to.

2008 – A 21 year old Desmond is employed by Elena Fisher as her cameraman as they join Nathan Drake in finding Francis Drake’s coffin. This ends with them being part of the whole quest for El Dorado (the corpse of which is an Isu that contracted some kind of deadly virus that is severely dangerous to humans but Desmond and Nate have immunity due to their Isu genes). In this one, Nate actually acts more like an older big brother to Desmond and Elena joked about how they sound a lot alike.

2010 – A 23 year old Desmond gets roped into Chloe and Harry’s plan with Nate because he’s been fired from Bad Weather due to an altercation and has been sidelining as a thief using the training he received from the Farm. He also may or may not have had a fling with Harry Flynn (according to Chloe) and Nate is absolutely questioning Desmond’s taste.

2012 – Desmond escaped Abstergo before the Assassins got him and he is absolutely suffering from Altaïr’s Bleeding Effect. It’s by chance that he is in Yemen at the same time Nate and Sully are there to meet up with Elena. Maybe you can even add in that Desmond used to be Elena’s cameraman for a bit. Anyway, he joins the group because he feels like he knows the Atlantis of Sands that they are looking for. To be more exact… his Bleed of Altaïr knows of it.

2015 – Desmond survived the Solar Flare and has been working for the Brotherhood. He’s tasked with looking into a man named Sam Drake because he sounded a lot like the late Samuel Morgan and they needed to check if he is (1) alive and (2) faked his own death because he was a Templar mole like Daniel Cross. He gets roped into the search of Avery’s treasure and ends up Bleeding as Edward more than once because Edward knows a bit about this supposed treasure.

.

And, just to be clear, Nate does not have the exact same ancestors as Desmond. He’s Haytham Kenway’s descendant from a fling he had in England so they have the same ancestors from the Auditore-Kenway line until Haytham Kenway.

[fisheadz]

I wanted to expand more on my SWTD + ISM crossover. I’m just… so ill for it. I swear to the hallucinogenic pasta noodles that I’ll be getting back to requests and stuff soon, I’m just still working on my fic and my life and now this shit.

Spoilers for both Still Wakes The Deep and In Sound Mind, of course. Tread with caution, and a tolerance for the long rants of a man taken by the brain worms™️.

What if Caz ends up in the CU at some point? Desmond would have to go back in to keep him from going nuts. If he hasn’t already, that is.

A headcanon of mine is that, once a person has succumbed to their Shadow, they’re left as a sort of husk, a shell of themselves. They function, yeah, but they certainly aren’t themselves. They move around, they do miscellaneous tasks and they even work, but they don’t speak, at least not normally. Like, if they’re asked something common, like if they’re alright or something, they’ll answer with whatever they usually say to that question. If they’re asked anything more complex, they’ll just repeat a generic, common response, or not answer at all. Think, the Shadows talking to themselves and Desmond, but not really saying anything complex outside of their feelings and their goals (mostly just to kill Desmond).

Something like that happens to Caz, after he gets exposed to AR like Desmond or Lucas had (I’m thinking Lucas, because whatever strain of the stuff they dosed Desmond with just sent him into a funky coma) in some way. They get a call from Suze (with Billy flipping out in the background) and she says that Caz has suddenly stopped making sense, and he’s just been doing the dishes, or sweeping the floor, or whatever, for an unreasonable amount of time now, and they’re worried about him. So they go to their place to try and get through to Caz.

I think Lucas was in the CU during his own exposure to it way back when, in a sort of "pocket space" similar to the patients homes, or Desmond’s office, or even the In Between Tapes. But he wasn’t there for long, either due to the dosage of the chemical, the strain, or some other factor. Therefore, he has some experience with it, but not as much as Desmond. I imagine there would be a brief fight about it, because Desmond’s terrified of going back, but is their best bet to help Caz, and Lucas knows Desmond’s scared but would have no idea what he’s doing. But they can’t both go in. Rosemary is busy, and the others are off the table.

Eventually, Suze gets fed the fuck up with how long this is taking, and puts her foot down. Either they make up their minds and take her with, or she goes in alone. Billy is… not happy about this, but he’s also getting impatient. This is their partner on the line, and they aren’t keen on wasting time when he could be in danger in there.

And so, Desmond and Suze (against his and Lucas’ wishes, but they can’t exactly stop her once she’s made up her mind) go into the Collective, and right off the bat, Desmond can tell something’s off (more so than usual).

Either due to the Shapes presence in the form of Caz (and maybe Billy and Suze, depending on if they’re Infected by now) or something else, things are definitely different. The Building is wrecked (again, more so than usual), and the town outside, while not as flooded as when he left, is practically destroyed, in a way that the tainted water couldn’t achieve.

So now, Desmond is trying to convince Suze to leave, because now things are even more uncertain, and she’s getting pissed off because of, well, everything. Lucas is on the phone with Rosemary, feeding them as much information and tips as he can through the radio, and suddenly he informs them that something’s changed with Caz.

Now they have a time limit, so there’s no time to fight about Suze being there. There search for Caz’s door, and find it somewhere on the first floor with the other’s doors. (I imagine it’s be a dark blue or smt, or maybe the same funky pink color the Shape was had.) They go in, and it’s their old home. The bedroom is kept shut by a sort of veil or small sheet or smt made of oil. I’m sure you can see where this is going.

They get Caz’s tape (he’s nowhere in the Building, so it’s their only option) and play it. Once they do, and once they listen to his session bits with Desmond, they find themselves - oh oh, guess where! - on the rig.

Of course, it’s not as wrecked as it was when Caz last saw it, more like it was soon after the first explosion, after Caz woke up. And they can hear him, his howling echoing through the rig. They can’t see him yet, but he sounds big. They find some more of those oil veils, though they don’t have anything to remove them just yet.

There’s the obligatory call from Rainbow to mess with Desmond, because I said so, but there’s also other calls. It’s similar to the session fragments in Lucas’ tape, though instead of how they were presented there, in Caz’s tape they’re the phone calls he had while on the rig, although not all of them are like that. Some of them are more like internal or external dialogue, like when he first encountered each infected, or when he talked to other survivors, like his conversation with Finlay before Gibbos section. If this were from a gameplay standpoint, they’d only find these calls or voicemails or whatevers by picking up a phone with something different about it. Depending on where the phone is, it will play a specific line. From a fic standpoint, they just hear the phones ringing once they get close. At first they ignore them, because they think it’s Rainbow and they don’t have time for that right now, but after answering a call from him while they’re safe, they go back and listen to them to try and piece together enough to defeat Caz’s Shadow.

Speaking of his Shadow, I’d like to think that it sorta takes the form of @milestonekestrel ‘s (sorry bout the @) Infected Lizard Caz. Big ol’ lizard chasing Desmond and Suze through the rig as it slowly but surely falls apart beneath them. It wouldn’t be all fleshy squishy though, it will be leaking oil (though I can’t decide if it want it to be AR oil stuff or more like the tainted water stuff, or a combo of Shape stuff and AR stuff) and parts of it will be practically made of it. It would be a bit bigger than the Bull, so that it can move through the rig, and get blocked off in reasonable spots, and just generally be terrifying while chasing Desmond and Suze. It would talk a lot like the Infected did, with some Shadow-typical stuff thrown in. They can’t really hurt it without the item, though they can briefly stun it by shooting its stomach when it lunges.

And, because of course, one of the things you need is Caz’s screwdriver, like in Max’s tape. I’m weak, okay?

The item/weapon for Caz’s tape is, you guessed it! His lighter. It would be in his room (Desmond and Suze would’ve entered the tape in the helipad) and with it, they can burn Caz’s Shadow by lighting its oily spots on fire. While it’s distracted trying to extinguish the flames, they run to a safe area. Wash rinse repeat until they reach the derrick.

The boss fight happens there, of course, and I suck ass at action so no specifics, but they defeat his Shadow (the Infected? Maybe just call it the Shape to be lazy? What about the Flesh? That’s fun) and, after the heart-to-heart with it, it fades away, and they return to the Building and het back in contact with Lucas, who confirms that Caz is back to himself and really wants his wife back. So they return, and that’s that!

I think that, like some of the other tapes, there would be echos of sorts of the other crew members, and while I’m on the fence about there being Inkblots, considering that Rainbow clearly had the ability to spawn them, though it’s unclear if he spawns all of them, and I’d like Rainbow to be a more neutral force here, I want there to be some sort of damage-causing force where the Infected were on the rig. Like how the echos in Lucas’ tape damage you sometimes, but on a bigger scale, requiring Desmond and Suze to sneak around the area to avoid getting hurt. Smt like that. Sorta like the mannequins in terms of lore and interactions but, evil, y’know?

Meanwhile, outside of the Collective Unconscious, Billy and Lucas are just chatting away. I have no idea how well they’d get along, but I think Billy would certainly appreciate the distraction. He’s used to weird shit by now, with where I put this in the crossover not-quite-story, but that doesn’t mean he knows much about what’s happening, so hearing about it from Lucas himself is comforting.

When Suze and Desmond finally get out of the CU, she, Caz, and Billy have a long heart-to-heart, and after a while of being ignored, Desmond and Lucas decide to check up on them later, and leave to have their own little post-angst comfort talk.

I have zero fricking idea how this turned into an almost-fic, but I’m not about to change it. I have so many ideas about Caz’s tape and his Shadow, and how many metaphors I can reasonably shove into it, but I do not wanna write it all out rn.

What his Rorschach test transcript said, and what song his vinyl is, is up for interpretation. I imagine that the last letter Suze sent him is near his lighter, and the one Suze reads at the end of SWTD is in the bedroom behind the oil veil. Ugh I have so many ideas bro :’^.

[shortpirateking]

So uh-

Assassin Creed x Stanley parable swap?

More likely than you think!

I truly can't help but find quite a few similarities with Stanley and Desmond- as well as a certain overlooked employee turned timekeeper and Clay(subject 16). I couldn't just NOT doodle a swap.

Also enjoy a silly comic of Desmond after being isekaid into the parable as Stanley. (And a few little headcanons afterwards)

So bonus little headcanons/ideas for this very very silly crossover/switch.

Desmond and Clay are thrown into the parable during the events of Revelations (most likely by some shenanigans involving the black room and code leftover from the original Isu device they based the animus upon... but instead of being *transported* there as themselves, they end up swapping identities with two certain employees... as such, everyone in their universes see them *as* those characters.

- the parable in this Au would most likely be some isu prototype to see if they could create an ai that was all powerful but also very human (possibly simulate what may happen if humans gained free will?). Going by this, the Narrator would be the sentient Ai meant to run the parable over and over again.. but before the Isu could end it, they were all near completely wiped out and leaving the Narrator to constantly run his parable again...and again...and again.

The Nareator is no longer aware that was his original purpose- having been so long ago. As such he is fully sentient even *if* he doesn't actually have a form(a headcanon I have for my actual Narrator).

Stanley, as well as all the other employees, were humans whose minds were uploaded to the parable.

Desmond has a hard time getting used to the Narrator - and unlike Stanley, he isn't afraid to call him out on it (also freak him out with 'Stanley's' sudden Parkour abilities)... but will often just follow alone until he and Clay cam figure out how to get back to their 'real' world...

Clay however... well, let's just say he absolutely *enjoys* messing with the narrator as the new timekeeper. In his life he was a hacker, and months in the blackroom made that even *easier*. So imagine a man with too much time on his hands finally able to something in retaliation for all the shit he went through.

Poor Narrator is the punching bag given he is a creation of the Isu and reminds Clay way too much of Juno sometimes.

(I'm planning on doing one for Stanley and employee 432 as well- but I need to work on my Stanley design and actually make one for 432)

[falcongumba]

Nick Grinder

Photo by Desmond White

Nick Grinder is a Trombonist and composer living in NYC by way of the Bay Area. In this first installment of the blog I wanted to interview someone that I know well, I met Nick in my first year of college back in 2009, we were roommates for three out of four years of school and I’ve played with him more times than I can remember, he’s also one of my best friends and an important peer in the community. So I didn’t have to do much research to feel prepared for this interview. 

Since moving to NYC, Nick has managed to maintain a busy schedule as a freelance trombonist and participate in an ever-growing list of ensembles, secure positions in Broadway orchestras, play in recording sessions. Most recently, he has started to get some notice for his own work: His most recent album, Farallon (in which I play guitar), has been very well received. 

I wanted to get some insight into Nick’s professional development in the last few years as well as into his creative process. 

JT: So Farallon has been well received, I know it was a lot of work for you over a few years to get it done. How does it feel now that you are on the other side and the outcome has been mostly positive? 

NG: It feels good. I was really happy with how everyone interpreted the music, and the studio experience was really relaxed and natural. Just the sound Chris at Big Orange Sheep (studio in Brooklyn) got was really beautiful, and sort of was a perfect match for the music if that makes sense. In a way, it almost informed how we played over those two days, and I think vice versa. I didn’t go into the album as being a motive piece on The Farallon islands, it was really just a collection of tunes I had written over the years that made the cut, so to speak. It feels good to have moved on from that music, as I think it will free me up to write more in the present. I think if we don’t have markers, it’s hard to move on as an artist. I find myself writing the same tune over and over if I don’t record or perform enough to get it out of my system.

JT: That makes sense, so in that regard, how do you see Farallon in contrast to Ten Minutes (Nick’s first release)? Do you see it as an expansion on stuff you were working on back then or a departure from it? 

NG: I think it’s....an evolution, and in a way, I think Farallon is much less compositionally complex, but a bit more cohesive. I thought back on Ten Minutes the other day, and how some of the tunes were actually pretty good, and more in the “jazz” idiom, whatever that means nowadays. Sometimes I feel that writing harmony can box in creativity in a way, partially because pianistic interpretations can harken back to so much other music. I feel harmonically, Ten Minutes was a bit more complex than Farallon, but Farallon is more open. Part of that was you, Juan, and the fact that the guitar is such a different instrument than piano and doesn’t dominate the texture as much. So, to answer your question...I think it’s an extension and evolution. For the next one, it would be nice to really change things up. We’ll see. I try not to have a directive like that when I create, or at least not listen to it so much. It can be a good spark to start writing, but once things flow, you have to follow that.

JT: Yeah that’s definitely true. I’m really envious of how pianists have this power of making everything sound fully orchestrated and just make so much color with harmony. But lately, I think that what I like about playing the guitar is sort of embracing that it won’t make everything sound as full as a piano but that in a lot of other ways it can kinda expand the scope of the music by just filling a variety of roles

NG: Yeah, I think it’s one of the real positives of guitar, and in a way, I’d imagine that while that is a bit more limiting, there’s probably more musical freedom in that. Kind of an interesting catch-22 maybe?

JT: Well your limitations are as much a part of what you end up making as your abilities, even if you play the piano.

I know you’ve always played the piano is this still the main way you write music? Can you tell me a bit about how that process works for you? I’ve played a lot of your tunes over the years but I’ve never actually seen how you compose. 

NG: Right, I don’t mean anything I’ve said as a dig on piano or piano players -  it’s just interesting as a concept as you said - too much freedom of choice can sometimes box one in. 

I write music any way that works....at the piano, at the trombone, or just with paper or Sibelius. Usually, I try to write harmonically complex music at the piano, just to hear and expand on what I’m hearing in that way, but that can sometimes be limited by my piano playing, and tendencies my piano playing has. I wrote the tune Farallon completely at the piano, and actually think it works better without any horns. My ear isn’t fantastic, so usually what I write on paper ends up being rhythmic ideas that I sus out on the horn or the piano. Sometimes I sing ideas into my phone on the train. Writing with Sibelius can be nice because you can hear what you write immediately, but the danger of that is you start writing for the computer - what sounds good on a machine might not sound good with people and vice versa.

I’ve definitely thought that something I wrote with Sibelius was the hippest shit ever, and after hearing people play it I realized something was missing, and I think it was sort of a casualty of that process.

JT: I understand that completely. It can be very convenient but that’s totally a risk of it. How do you think your own compositions have impacted your playing? Do you see these two things as being related? Are you writing to maybe expand what you can play on the horn or your horn playing is evolving because of what you write?

NG: I’d like to think it’s both. One of the things about writing outside of your instrument is that you have to learn what you wrote, which was the case for 5 Steps and some of the other note-y heads I’ve written. Rarely do I do those on the trombone. That head specifically was really hard for me to learn and ended up being a great thing to practice. I definitely remember writing harmony that I felt comfortable with improvising over, but it’s something I don’t consciously do often because I don’t feel I have a ton of skills in that arena I can showcase. Farallon, for example, is really difficult to improvise on, at least for me.  I really try to let the song do its thing when I’m writing it, and not impose my own will on it too much.

JT: That’s interesting, and it makes sense to me. One of the things that I love about the album is that it doesn’t seem like you wrote the music with the intent to “showcase” the trombone, or actually anyone else. That’s really mature and I don’t think you made a conscious effort to do that, am I wrong? 

NG: Thanks. That wasn’t intentional, but that also might have something to do with my relative lack of skills like that on the instrument...

JT: Oh Come on (laughs) You do make a living playing the Trombone…

NG: Ha, but the skills needed for that are different than the virtuosic stuff so many people are doing!

JT: Ok so that makes me wonder, how are you structuring your instrumental practice? what are some of the things you are going after in your playing? I know that it must be a difficult balance to find with all the different things that you have to do

NG: I’m thinking really broadly about my sound and when I attack the note and how clear that is - lining up my best sound with an attack that is in time, and clear. I do a lot of work relating to that with a metronome and tuner, and kind of just start from square one every day. Breathing, buzzing, long tones, slurs, those all help with that “prime directive” I have about time and attack.  There’s a lot of that sort of work needed with the trombone, at least I find that it helps. I am though, always trying to find ways to make that sort of maintenance musical - sometimes I start the day just improvising, really trying to feel what my chops require to be in a good place, to have that immediacy. Sometimes those are my best days on the horn. 

I need about 45 minutes to an hour to feel good for the day, and if I’m getting a good session in, I can do about 3-4 hours before I really need a break. A lot of that is exercises, scales, and patterns with a metronome and drone, and then improvising. I’ll take a tune or a set of changes through a few different keys and tempos, then work on Rochut or Bach. By then it will be about 3 hours, especially considering that I do a lot of similar exercises on bass trombone as well.

JT: The trombone is an instrument (just like any brass) that without that sense of keeping up with a regime of calisthenics your sort of starting baseline for just being able to play kinda goes away no? I remember a while back we were hanging with a saxophone player friend of ours and he was talking about all this advanced stuff he was working on, and you saying "I'm just trying to play in time man!" haha. I guess where I'm going with this is that in a way to me there's something really great and beautiful about that challenge of being confronted with the basics constantly, but I wonder if that's exhausting or mentally taxing for you and you wanna be working on some other stuff?

NG: Yeah, it absolutely is humbling and can be frustrating at times. And I think it was playing in tune! But playing in tune and in time is so challenging. When I came to New York I realized how dialed in older more experienced people was with just the “basics,” and how particular that sort of thing can be. I had a recording session a few months ago with some heavy people, I had no business being there really, and it happened to start at 7 am on a Sunday! From the first notes, the band of 18 people was just locked in. There was no question as to where time and pitch was, and I thought I was sticking out like a sore thumb. This was very “easy” music, but to play it at such a high level was really challenging. That instance is sort of a micro chasm for my attitude towards practicing. I sometimes go too far with “basics” stuff and feel I should be pushing myself more, at times, but the bread and butter of what I do I feel lay with that stuff.

JT: I understand that and, as an observer, I think that your work ethic in that regard is precisely why you’ve been finding yourself in so-called “places you have no business being in” more and more. I think that people know that you will take those things seriously even if you think that in some ways you are falling short. After all, we all want the music to sound great but finding people who are gonna take your project seriously and work at it is as important as finding someone who can play the music.

NG: I totally agree with what you’ve said. I think there’s a lot of luck and knowing when to talk and when not to talk. The whole thing about “not being an asshole” is really prescient! I remember talking to a really great musician about finding the right band, and he said it was so much more about finding that fit and people who care about your music than things like fame, etc. The more comfortable you are the better the music will sound. That’s what was so nice about being in the studio with you guys - it was really comfortable and while we got a ton done, it didn’t feel taxing because it was so relaxed and efficient.

JT: Same here. I wanted to ask you how you are managing all the different things you have to do these days? On top of being a busy freelancer, you have a pretty steady schedule on Broadway now. (The Broadway show Nick was playing, “Beautiful,” has since closed.)

NG: I’m trying to figure it out, but mostly still flying by the seat of my pants. The show has finally given a bit of financial stability, which is almost unheard of for freelance musician types, so I’m trying to capitalize on that to have designated creative time. I have managed to write a bit more since I got the show, and I have also been taking days off just to go hear music, which was something I was always felt too burnt out to do.  I still do everything I can to put creatively fulfilling gigs at the front and center, and I’m hoping that the show can actually help with that.  If I can get through every day having practiced, and through each week doing some creative listening/writing, I’ll be in a good place. That’s the goal for now with a lot of room for expansion.

JT: What are some of your goals for this next phase after this album? I know that you have some new music for a quartet that played recently

NG: I actually had a gig with interesting instrumentation shortly after we recorded the album - violin, flute, and trombone with rhythm section. I want to write some music for that group, and really get some orchestrations happening that highlight the “softer” iterations of the trombone, especially with mutes. There are so many different colors and textures one can get with mutes and other instruments.

And yes, we had a gig with a new quartet. That was a lot of fun. I might want to add a piano to that at some point, I’ve been hearing that for my next thing.

JT: That's great and I look forward to hearing all those projects. I think we did it! Unless you wanna add anything. But, I just wanted to say that it has been really great to see you grow and thrive over the years cause at this point you are one of the very few people I have around that I really came up with, very proud and happy for you!

NG: Man, thank you! I hope you know you have been a huge driver of creativity for me and an enormously positive influence on my music-making ever since we met. I think you’ve been like that for most people you’ve known who are musicians! So thank you for that. I admire your commitment to your sound and how you are always creating. It really is inspiring. 

There is one thing I’d like to add: The jazz world is very small, but even amongst its size, I worry we aren’t realizing how expensive it is to record and promote music, and how that can kind of skew who gets to make music and have it recognized. My relative success in the commercial field of music (and my willingness to accept massive amounts of credit card debt) really made the album a reality. So many truly amazing musicians and composers aren’t in that position, and their work really deserves to be heard. 

Releasing music is a massive amount of sacrifice and work no matter how much money you have, but I think it would behoove the art form and especially the gatekeepers of “fame/recognition” to consider even those recordings not on a label, not with a “big name” sideman and not in CD form. It’s understandable that there’s a ton of music to wade through, but there are stories that deserve to be heard and promoted that under the current model fall by the wayside. 

Ok, rant over. Thank you Juan!

JT: Yes!!! Amen and thank you. Love ya 

You can learn more about Nick on his website: https://www.nickgrinder.com/

Both of Nick’s releases are available in his Bandcamp page: https://nickgrinder.bandcamp.com/ 

[whatmoredoyouwant]

I was tagged by @laufire (okay like, not really, but it said whoever wants to do it! lol)

Rules: choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions, then tag some friends

Fandoms:

The 100

Grey’s Anatomy

Lost

The First Character You Loved:

Oh wow. Hard one. Hmm...it’s especially hard cause I just rewatched the whole show, so my “first impressions” are a little skewed. I don’t know if it’s more Octavia Blake or Clarke Griffin tbh. I’m like horribly in love with Eliza Taylor, so that’s a big factor, but Octavia’s character is so dynamic and fun. I loved her from that first, “We’re back, bitches!”

This is even harder because the characters have changed so much! I think it would have to be Cristina Yang, even though she’s not in the show anymore. I miss her so much!

100% without a doubt, Charlie Pace. When I watched the show when I was younger, when it was still on TV, I bawled my friggin’ eyes out every near-death and then his eventual death. It’s funny because now I don’t like him nearly as much.

The Character You Never Expected To Love So Much:

Just based on how she was first introduced, Lexa kom Trikru. We get introduced to this badass warrior Commander, twirling a knife and ordering the deaths of Skaikru for burning her warriors, and she turns out to be the biggest gay softie in the world.

A L E X K A R E V. Holy shit, dude. If you told me that Alex Karev would be one of my favourite characters of all time during the first few seasons, I would have laughed. He’s such an asshole, he doesn’t care about anyone, he’s all about machismo and sleeping with the ladies. And then all of a sudden he does this 180 and the whole macho tough guy is just an act, and he’s just this SWEET SOFT TEDDY BEAR UNDERNEATH.

It’s actually crazy how much of a Sun-Hwa Kwon stan I became after rewatching. She’s just such a fucking badass??? Like, nothing gets her down. And the people that disagree with me that Sun is a Slytherin are just WRONG. Like, the woman learns an entirely different language to get away from her murderous, tyrannical father and arguably abusive husband, and plans to just disappear off into a different country. And then, in the flash forwards, she BUYS OUT HER FATHER’S COMPANY? Slytherin. SUCH a Slytherin.

The Character You Relate To The Most:

Hmm...it’s hard to relate to characters in a post-apocalyptic setting, to be honest, cause I just don’t deal with their issues lol. I feel like I would have to say Clarke Griffin, if only for the fact that she’s a headstrong, stubborn bisexual who tries her best to do the right thing, even if sometimes she’s wrong. That’s the closest similarity I can draw from the characters.

Hands down, Cristina Yang. The commitment issues, the aversion to having a baby, the total 100% dedication and obsession with her job and working? Oh, please, I AM Cristina Yang.

Let’s see, Kate’s a runaway, Claire’s pregnant, Shannon’s a rich kid, Sun is too, I don’t know that I can necessarily relate to any of the women. And the men, like, not at all. Everyone seems to have daddy issues and I don’t have those lol. I have “mommy issues.” Does anyone have mom issues? Ooh ooh! Ana Lucia Cortez! Totally had mom issues. Again, that’s really the closest similarity that I can draw from these characters.

The Character You’d Slap:

Ooh man, so many. Thelonious Jaha, for starters. Like, why are you even here anymore? All you do is cause chaos. They should have locked him out of the bunker.

I don’t know that I’d necessarily slap him, but I really don’t like Richard Webber. He has such anger issues and I feel like he just causes unnecessary tension and drama all the time. And his and Catherine Avery’s relationship is so tumultuous and at times, borderline toxic, I’m just sick of seeing the two of them.

Haha, I feel like my first instinct is James Ford aka Sawyer, just because he’s an ass most of the time, but I love him too much. So I’m saying John Locke, because holy shit, dude, can you cause any more trouble?? Just like I said with Jaha, ALL YOU CAUSE IS CHAOS.

Three Favourite Characters (In Order Of Preference):

Raven Reyes, Clarke Griffin, and John Murphy.

Cristina Yang, Stephanie Edwards, and April Kepner

Desmond Hume, Juliet Burke, and Sun-Hwa Kwon

A Character You Liked At First But Don’t Anymore:

Jasper Jordan. This show did you so dirty, my poor child. They should have made him go up in the rocket into space with the rest of them. Can you imagine, crazy alcoholic Jasper Jordan, basically being forced into rehab and made to face his demons? Anyway, yeah, he just went a little too crazy for me, and then he just became a nuisance.

I can’t really think of a character that I liked but don’t anymore. If I had to pick someone, maybe Izzy Stevens? I think she got kind of selfish after living through her cancer death, and then she treated Alex really horribly. I was really happy when he told her he deserved more. But like, it’s honestly me nitpicking a character. I certainly don’t hate Izzy, not even close, I just have to pick SOMEONE.

I already mentioned her, but Ana Lucia Cortez was my first girl crush. When I was young, when the show first came out, I was nine years old and didn’t have any idea I was bisexual. I was IN LOVE with Ana Lucia, I was so upset when she died. Years later, when I rewatched it, it dawned on me just how much I hated her character, and I was like, “Why was she my favourite??” And my gay ass was like, “Ohhhh, it’s cause she’s hot as fuck. Got it.”

A Character You Did Not Like At First But Now Do:

They kind of already asked this? But well, I guess it’s a little bit different. For this one, I’ll say John Murphy. He was SUCH an ass, and I mean, he still is, but now he’s a little more human. And even when you watch him being an ass in the first season, you kind of understand it a little bit more now. Certain things can’t be excused, obviously, but at least they’re better explained.

Ooh, wait, another good one! I couldn’t STAND Arizona Robbins when she was introduced. My boss at the time, Ricky, I was talking to him when I first started watching it (when we were in season 12 I think) and he kept asking me to tell him when I’d met Arizona. And when I finally did, I didn’t get it at all. I was like, “Why do you like her? She’s awful??” And now I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

Benjamin Linus. God, I HATED him when I first watched the show, because obviously, he was the “big bad guy.” Now...well, he’s still a bad guy, but I appreciate his character so much more. Especially in the last few episodes! He really redeems himself.

Three OTPs: (I decided to read this as 3 OTPs for each fandom because I can) (I’m following suit, 3 OTPS per show!)

Oh man. Don’t even get me staaaaarted. Linctavia will forever be like, my most painful OTP. Followed of course, by Clexa. The third one is hard though? Honestly, I just wanted to ship Roan with someone, just cause I found him so effing hot. Any time he was on screen with someone, anyone at all, I went, “I ship it.” But realistically, like a real ship, I guess I would say Memori. Even though Emori is hard for me to like. I’m hoping she’ll be more likeable in season 5.

This is so painful. Mark Sloan/Lexie Grey, again, my most painful OTP and oh GOD, I miss them so much. Alex Karev/Meredith Grey, don’t JUDGE ME OKAY? And again, the last one is hard. I think it’s a tie between Calzona and Japril. Calzona really fell apart, and fell apart hard, whereas Japril is still kind of being hinted at? (Even though this awful Maggie/Jackson thing is being pushed now, I can’t staaaand this.) 

I was a total Sawyer/Kate shipper as opposed to Jack/Kate, and I stand by that. But on that note, Sawyer/Juliet is my I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP ship. THEY BELONGED TOGETHER. When I was younger, I shipped the hell out of Claire and Charlie but now I kind of hate them together. And now I ship the hell out of Desmond/Charlie lol. Oh, and of course Desmond and Penny, but still, the Desmond/Charlie ship has sailed and I am the captain.

I don’t think I really have any friends on this site who would actually do this if I tagged them...so I’m just gonna say anyone who wants to do it should, just tag @sassybrowsreyes in your post!