#opened max and boom. new episodes

[princehugo]

SORRY CLONE HIGH SEASON 3 IS OUT??????

[whereforarthur]

Musicians want to be the loud voice for so many quiet hearts

Request: Can you do George Clarkey imagine where reader is a famous singer and he basically follows her on tour and fans speculate they’re dating. he also gushes about her on the podcast and with Max about her songs and the shows fuelling the rumours

Pairing: George Clarkey x Musician!Reader

Rating: PG-13

Category: Fluff

Word Count: 3k

Italics= Flashbacks

*****

"So, what's new on the music scene, George?" Max's voice boomed through the podcast studio speakers, setting the tone for another episode of The Useless Hotline.

George Clarke leaned into the microphone, his eyes twinkling with excitement. "Well, Max, you know how much I've been into indie rock lately," he began, a playful smirk dancing on his lips. "But I've stumbled upon an artist that's absolutely blowing my mind."

Max raised an eyebrow, his curiosity piqued. "Oh, really? Who's this mysterious talent that's got you all riled up?"

George paused for dramatic effect before dropping the name. "Y/n."

Max's eyes widened in surprise. "The Y/n? As in the Y/n whose debut album just hit the charts like a meteor?"

"The very same," George affirmed, nodding with an unmistakable glint in his eye. "Her voice is like nothing I've ever heard before—raw, soulful, and with a range that could shatter glass."

Max chuckled, leaning back in his chair. "And it's not just her music that's got you all hot and bothered, is it?" He winked at the George, who turned red. "I've noticed you've been following her tour pretty closely on social media. Care to share any juicy details with us?"

George's cheeks burned as he shuffled his notes, trying to regain his composure. "What? No, no, it's all professional, I assure you," he stammered, a hint of defensiveness in his voice. "I'm just keeping tabs on the industry, you know how it is."

Max leaned in, his tone teasing but with a hint of seriousness. "Oh, I know how it is alright. The way you gush about her tracks, the endless retweets of her concert clips, the heart-eye emojis—it's like you're her number one fan, or something more."

The studio filled with laughter, but George's blush deepened. He cleared his throat, trying to steer the conversation back to safer waters. "Look, she's just incredibly talented, and her live performances are nothing short of mesmerizing. It's all about the music, Max."

*****

In his mind, George replayed the moments he'd spent following Y/n's tour. The show began with a dramatic opening, lights dimming to a pulsing beat before exploding into a cacophony of sound and color. y/n strutted onto the stage, her voice soaring over the cheers of the audience. George watched from the wings, his heart racing. He'd heard her sing countless times before, but there was something about seeing her live that sent chills down his spine. He couldn't help but think about all the times he'd played her music for his fans, hoping they'd feel the same connection he did.

As the night went on, George found himself getting lost in the performance. The way she moved, the emotions she conveyed through her lyrics, it was all so mesmerizing. His phone buzzed in his pocket, notifications from fans bombarding his screen with questions and comments about the rumored romance. He ignored them, not wanting to break the spell. He was living in the moment, and the moment was all about her.

The whispers had started after the third show. Fans had noticed his frequent appearances, and rumors began to swirl. He'd felt a thrill at first—the idea that he could be linked to someone so incredible, so gifted. But as the whispers grew louder, so did the weight of his secret.

Finally, after the encore, the lights dimmed and the applause died down. George took a deep breath and waited for his chance to meet her. His palms were sweaty, his heart racing like it was about to leap out of his chest. When the moment came, she emerged from the dressing room, a vision in a glittering outfit, and their eyes met. For a brief second, the world around them disappeared, leaving only the two of them standing in the harsh glow of the backstage lights. He managed a nervous smile, and she returned it with one that was equally as shy. "Hey," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Great show."

Her smile grew, lighting up her eyes. "Thanks," she replied, her voice just as soft. "I've heard a lot about you, George." His cheeks flushed at the mention of his name, and he stumbled over his words, trying to form a coherent response. Before he could say anything more, a handler stepped in, guiding her away to meet more fans and press. But in that brief exchange, George felt something shift. The rumors didn't seem so ridiculous anymore. Maybe, just maybe, there was something real between them after all.

The attraction was undeniable, a force that drew him in like gravity.

Their eyes had lingered a beat too long, and the air between them had crackled with an undeniable electricity. The whispers grew into a murmur, and the rumors began to take on a life of their own. Fans took to social media, posting photos of them together, dissecting every shared glance, every accidental touch. The media picked up on it, and soon, their faces were plastered across tabloids with headlines that made George's heart race.

As the tour progressed, the connection between George and Y/n grew stronger. Stolen moments backstage turned into lingering glances from across crowded venues. They'd share whispers and smiles, their bond a secret language that only they understood. It was love at first sight for both of them, a connection so profound that it seemed to transcend the noise and chaos of the music industry.

In the quiet moments between shows, they'd sit together, sharing stories about their lives, their dreams, and their fears. Y/n spoke of her rise to fame, the sacrifices she'd made, and the solace she found in her music. George, in turn, revealed his own aspirations, his love for podcasting, and the joy he found in sharing his thoughts with the world. Their conversations were a symphony of shared passion and understanding, a respite from the relentless glare of the spotlight.

*****

"Earth to George," Max's voice echoed through the podcast studio, pulling him from his reverie. "You still with us, mate?"

George blinked, snapping out of his daydream. "Yeah, sorry, Max. Just lost in thought about the tour."

"Oh, I bet you were," Max said with a knowing smile. "But come on, George, don't hold out on us. You've got to admit, there's more to it than just her music."

George's cheeks grew even redder as he stumbled over his words. "I-it's not like that, Max. I'm just…supporting her career."

Max chuckled, not quite buying his friend's protest. "Sure, George, sure. You're just 'supporting' her career." He winked at their podcast audience, the unspoken words hanging in the air.

Max, George's co-host, had been equally as thrilled for him, egging him on during their podcast episodes. "Come on, mate," Max would say, his grin audible through the microphone, "spill the tea! What's it like being backstage with the hottest singer in the biz?" George had been playing it cool, but the listeners could sense the excitement bubbling just beneath the surface. They'd been shipping George and y/n since the first time he'd played her song on their show, and every little detail George shared just added fuel to the fire.

George took a deep breath, trying to balance his desire to protect Y/n's privacy with the thrill of being part of her world. "Okay, okay," he conceded, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. "Let's just say that I've had the privilege of seeing a side of her that not everyone gets to. She's not just a rockstar; she's also incredibly kind, and her dedication to her craft is inspiring."

Max leaned in, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "Ah, so you're saying there's some backstage magic happening, huh?"

George chuckled, playing along. "Well, let's just say that there's definitely a connection," he teased, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "But you'll have to tune in to my vlog for the juicy details."

Max slapped the table, grinning. "Ah, the plot thickens! You're killing us with suspense, George!"

George couldn't help but laugh, the energy in the room contagious. "Alright, alright. I'll admit, we've become…close." He paused, searching for the right words. "But it's all very respectful and professional, of course."

Max leaned back in his chair, his smile widening. "Respectful and professional, huh? That's not what the internet's saying."

George rolled his eyes, playing it cool. "The internet says a lot of things, Max. You know how it is—fans get a little carried away."

But the more he talked about Y/n, the harder it became to keep his feelings in check. Her music had become the soundtrack to his life, and the thought of her made his heart swell with a warmth he hadn't felt in a long time.

The podcast went on, the conversation shifting to other topics, but George's mind remained firmly on Y/n. He'd never felt so alive, so invigorated by someone's presence. Her music had become the score to their budding romance, a secret symphony played just for them amidst the cacophony of the tour.

The banter went on, but George remained tight-lipped about the details of their conversation. He didn't want to jinx it. The rumors grew wilder, and their listeners were eating it up. Fan art began to flood their social media pages, depicting the two of them in various romantic scenarios. It was all in good fun, but George couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it than just a backstage meeting.

*****

Days turned into weeks, and George found himself backstage at more of y/n's shows. Each time, their interactions grew longer, more intimate. They'd share quiet moments between the cacophony of the tour, discussing music, life on the road, and their shared love for London. The connection grew stronger, and the line between fan and friend began to blur. Yet, George remained respectful, never crossing the boundary, not wanting to ruin the magic of their budding relationship.

One night, after a particularly emotional performance, y/n sought him out in the crowded backstage area. She looked tired but exhilarated, her eyes searching his face for something he wasn't sure he could give. "You know," she said, her voice low and serious, "I've been thinking a lot about what you said on your podcast. About my music, about us." George's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?" he asked, trying to keep his cool. She took a deep breath, her eyes never leaving his. "I think there might be something here, George. Something real."

The room seemed to hold its breath, the noise of the venue fading away as she spoke. George felt his entire world shift, and he knew that whatever happened next would change the course of his life. He looked at her, this incredible woman whose music had captured his heart, and he knew he had to be honest. "Me too," he murmured, and she leaned in, closing the distance between them. As their lips met, the cheers of the crowd outside seemed to crescendo, as if the universe itself was applauding their newfound love.

*****

After the podcast wrapped up, George sat in the quiet studio, his thoughts racing. He knew the rumors would only grow stronger, the paparazzi more relentless. He didn't want to cause her any trouble, didn't want to be the reason she was hounded by the media. With a sigh, he pulled out his phone and typed out a message to her. "Let's keep it low-key for a bit longer," he wrote. "The music's all that matters right now."

Y/n's response was almost instant. "You're right," she texted back. "But it's getting harder to hide this."

George couldn't argue with that. Every time they were together, the chemistry between them was palpable, a magnetic force that seemed to pulse in the air. It was like trying to contain a raging storm in a teacup—eventually, something was going to spill over.

The next few concerts were a dance of restraint, their hands brushing together backstage, the lingering hugs that were just a little too tight, the stolen kisses when they thought no one was looking. The tension grew with every passing day, a delicious agony that only served to deepen their connection. Y/n had become his muse, her every move, every note, inspiring his own creativity.

But the whispers grew louder, the glances from the sidelines more pointed. The pressure mounted, a silent crescendo that seemed to crescendo with each show. Y/n leaned into his ear one night, her voice a breathless whisper. "I don't know how much longer I can keep my hands off you in public," she confessed, a playful smile tugging at her lips.

The words sent a jolt of electricity through George, his heart racing. He knew what she meant; the desire between them was a living entity, pulsing with every beat of their hearts. In the privacy of her dressing room, they'd come close to giving in more times than he could count. But the fear of ruining her reputation, of being the tabloid fodder that could overshadow her music, kept them from crossing that line.

Yet, the anticipation was killing them both, a thrill that only grew with each secret glance and stolen touch. The rumors had spun into a tornado of speculation, and it was only a matter of time before they were caught in the storm. So, after weeks of careful deliberation, they decided to take control of the narrative.

*****

One evening, after the final notes of Y/n's breathtaking performance had faded into the night, George took to the stage. The crowd roared with excitement, not expecting the podcast host to make an appearance. With a shaky smile, he gripped the microphone, his heart hammering like a drum solo. "Thank you all for being here tonight," he began, his voice carrying over the hushed whispers of the audience. "I know you're all here for the music, but I have an announcement to make."

The air in the venue grew thick with anticipation as Y/n joined him, her hand slipping into his. She looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with excitement and nerves, and he knew this was it—the moment they'd both been dreading and craving. "We wanted to share something with you," George continued, his voice growing stronger with each word. "Something that's been brewing between us for a while now."

The crowd held its collective breath, the anticipation so intense it seemed to hum through the air. Y/n leaned into the microphone, her voice clear and steady. "George and I have become more than just friends over the course of this tour." The stadium erupted in a mix of cheers and gasps, phones rising like stars in the night sky, capturing every moment.

"Yes," she said, a playful smile curving her lips, "I've officially taken George Clarke off the market." The crowd went wild, their screams a testament to the love and support that had been growing alongside the whispers and rumors. For George, it was a moment of pure exhilaration and terror, his heart racing as he felt the weight of their secret lifted from his shoulders.

They stepped closer, the stage lights casting a warm glow over them as they announced their relationship to the world. Y/n leaned in, her breath warm against his cheek. "Thank you for being patient," she murmured, her voice lost in the cacophony of the crowd.

George swallowed hard, his heart hammering like a bass drum in his chest. "Thank you for trusting me," he whispered back, his eyes never leaving hers.

The crowd's applause grew deafening, their cheers a cacophony of love and excitement. They leaned in, their faces inches apart, the moment stretching out like a chord in one of Y/n's soulful ballads. And then, as if propelled by the very music that had brought them together, they kissed. It was a kiss that spoke of passion, of hope, and of a love that had been simmering beneath the surface for too long.

The news of their relationship spread like wildfire across the internet, setting social media ablaze with reactions. Fans, thrilled by the revelation, flooded their comments with congratulations and well-wishes. The media, ever hungry for a good love story, feasted on the details of their whirlwind romance. Yet amidst the chaos, George and Y/n found refuge in each other's arms, their bond stronger than ever.

In the days that followed, the tour took on a new energy. The chemistry between them was no longer hidden behind the guise of friendship; it was a living, breathing force that electrified the air. Every shared glance, every touch, was met with an appreciative roar from the audience, who reviled in the authenticity of their love.

The rumors had become reality, and George Clarke, the YouTuber with a crush, was now George Clarke, the man with the world's most enviable backstage pass. But it wasn't about the fame or the gossip; it was about the connection, the shared passion for music, and the undeniable spark that had drawn them together. And as they navigated the highs and lows of a very public relationship, they'd learn that sometimes, the most beautiful melodies are the ones that unfold when you least expect them.

Their relationship didn't just survive the spotlight; it thrived in it. Y/n's music grew more intimate, her lyrics now echoing the depth of their feelings, and George's podcasts grew more personal, his voice resonating with the joy he found in supporting her. They became the ultimate power couple, a testament to the idea that love could bloom in the most unexpected of places.

*****

Taglist~

@gvf23

[hochsleep]

Chapter 1: Just survive somehow

• Era: Season 1

• Warning: profanity, typical TWD violence.

• Summary: You and your little sister Lottie have to escape from the walkers in the forest. You both almost become lunch for the living dead, but suddenly you are rescued by a stranger, and thanks to persuasion you manage to get to his camp in the quarry. But it seems that the relationship between you does not work out. You will have to find an approach to him, because otherwise you will not survive.

• Word count: 4k

• A/N: Well, I've written...something. I actually have no idea how I'm going to combine this fanfic and the Daryl Dixon x OC fanfic on ao3 (there's a link in the pinned post on my profile page if you're interested), but I'm going to try. Yeah, I literally wrote in an introductory post a couple weeks ago that I wouldn't be writing big works on Tumblr and where are we now? I haven't been very consistent in what I've said. Anyways, posting the first chapter now.

I know it might be a bit boring in the beginning now, I'm not a big fan of the first episodes or chapters in series and books myself, but you have to start somewhere. I'm still just getting into the subject of Y/N fanfics, so I'll be learning as I write the work. What I can say now.

Please correct me in the comments if you find mistakes! Of course, I double-check my work before publishing, but something could still slip through. Especially since you, as an English-speaking audience, will be more attentive to turns of speech, slang and so on. Let me remind you that English is not my native language and I use a translator (you can read more about it in the attached post in my profile). So feel free to make corrections, I am always open to help and constructive criticism!

Oh, and also, congrats to everyone on the release of TWD: Daryl Dixons season 2!

Enjoy reading!

Then.

"Come on, Lottie, hurry up!" - you shouted to your little ten-year-old sister, who ran after you between the trees in the forest.

“Y/N!” a little girl shouted, following you but lagging behind every now and then.

A few walkers was getting closer, and it was like Lottie could barely move her legs. She had to run faster. She should have saved herself. But could you blame a ten-year-old girl? She’d had to lose her family and friends in the last few days, and there were the living dead walking the earth. The world has changed at the snap of a finger. Lottie probably still hoped it was just a bad dream.

You too.

You had to watch your neighbor across the street, Mrs. Faulkner, pounce on your mother and start biting chunks of skin off her neck without much effort. That's hardly realistic. But that's life now. All those radio warnings about a virus spreading in Europe turned out to be true. That it was incurable. That the dead will rise up and walk the earth again. That their bite would kill you and make you come back to life after a while. It all seemed so distant and unrealistic that you, like most Americans, just changed the channel on the TV or radio when you heard the news of the virus again. After all, there's been a lot of crap and "incurable" diseases throughout human history. If a plague in the Middle Ages couldn't kill the entire world's population, why would some disease do it in 2010 when medicine is booming almost everywhere in the world? Bullshit.

Where are you now? Running with your little sister through the woods while at least four walking corpses are chasing you? This whole thing really does feel like a cheap horror movie. Or a scary dream. A scary dream in a cheap horror movie.

“Lottie! You can’t stop!” you screamed while your little sister looked back and slowed down at every opportunity.

You had a hard time running yourself. Not that you’ve been a fanatic about physical activity in all the years of your life. Yoga and Pilates were your max and only on feel-good days. But the adrenaline in your blood was doing its thing and it allowed you to run faster and longer. Which was not the case with your sister. The girl was tired and breathing hard. She kept looking back to see how close the walkers were to the two of you, even though you had forbidden her to look back.

“Y/N, they’re close! They’re going to catch up with us!” shouted Lottie panting.

You started frantically looking around for a place to take cover. Apparently Lottie wouldn’t be able to run for much longer. You were breathing hard, too, and your legs were sore from the exertion. You had to hide. But where the hell could you hide in the middle of the woods? In the long run, you could hide behind a large tree, but the walkers had already spotted you and were following you, so that option was no longer viable. Climb a tree? You could if you knew how to climb trees. But even so, how long can you and Lottie stay in a tree? You’d have to come down sooner or later, and walkers don’t feel tired or weak, so you couldn’t expect them to give up and fall asleep at some point. No, they’re going to wait until the food comes down from the tree. And again, you can’t climb trees. But Lottie can. What are the chances she’ll agree to climb a tree while you distract the walkers? What’s the chance you’ll survive? How’s she gonna get back down and survive in the woods alone? She’s barely ten years old, for goodness sake, and she didn’t get out into the wild until the last few days! You're all she's got. She's all you have. So it’s just the two of you hiding and surviving together.

“Come on, sweetie, just a little more!” you grabbed your sister’s hand and dragged her forward.

Now.

“Carl! That’s not fair!” shouted Lottie as the boy stuffed the last five hazelnuts into his mouth and grinned cockily.

“It’s all fair, whoever got there first takes it all,” Carl said with his mouth full.

“I’ve just turned my back and you’ve already eaten it all! We’re out of nuts!” frowned Lottie.

“Daryl will find more when he goes hunting,” Carl only shrugged innocently.

“Then you’ll have to ask him yourself,” Lottie snorted and got up from the plaid she and Carl were sitting on.

Lottie approached Carol and Sophia, who were ironing clothes. Sophia’s father was a cruel man as far as Lottie could tell. He had forbidden his daughter from playing with the other two children at camp simply because he had decided to. And now the creepy man sat on a folding chair with a bottle of beer in his hand and strictly made sure Sophia stayed close to her mother and helped her with her “women's responsibilities” as he called it. It sucked.

“Hi, Sophia,” Lottie smiled at the girl, “and Mrs. Pelletier,” she nodded to Carol.

“Hello, honey,” Carol smiled gently at the girl. Sophia looked at her father warily and not noticing the vehement objection on his face, she smiled and nodded to Lottie.

“Carl ate all the nuts, but I brought you what I managed to salvage,” Lottie pulled a few hazelnuts out of the pocket of her jean shorts and held them out to her friend.

“Thank you,” Sophia said quietly and quickly tucked the nuts into her pocket while her father turned away.

“When can you play with me and Carl? Maybe tonight?” asked Lottie hopefully.

“Maybe tomorrow?” answered Carol for Sophia when she saw her head lowered frustratedly. “I’ll talk to Daddy, honey,” said the woman to her daughter, stroking her back.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Lottie sighed and went on to find something else to do besides playing with Carl. She was still mad at him a little about the nuts.

You were on duty on the roof of Dale’s motorhome, a kindly older man who tried to change you every twenty minutes and told you to go get some rest. But the duty was actually a rest. You just sat on a folding chair on the roof of the car and watched the surroundings. Dale and Glenn were basically doing the same duties, only with a shotgun in hand. Just in case. You weren’t trusted with a shotgun. It didn’t make much sense since you couldn’t shoot. And you weren’t very good at close combat. So you just had to keep an eye on the area around the camp and warn them of possible danger. It’s no big deal. Except that the merciless Georgia sun was as hot as anywhere in Africa. It seemed that way to you, anyway. You were sweating in every part of your body, your hair sticking to the damp skin on your back, your clothes wet with sweat, and you were as tanned as if you’d gone to a tanning salon. The only thing that kept you warm was the powdered lemonade Dale had made, some old nature magazine from the glove compartment of Shane’s jeep, and the cowboy hat Andrea had lent you. Even though you've spent the last ten years of your life in Georgia, you've managed to hide from the heat until this day. Whether at home in your stepdad's garage under a fan while he blames his barely living car. Or at work in the supermarket by the house. There were old air conditioners that you thought were your age, but you didn't complain as long as they worked. Especially hot days you spent in a cozy old cafe from the 50's, where your mother worked as a waitress and let you lounge for hours in the coziest booth close to the fan. In general you had no need to sit under the sun in such hellish heat without a hint of shade. How could there be any shade on the roof of an old mobile home? You have to melt like a piece of butter on toast.

You heard someone climbing up the ladder to the roof. It definitely wasn't Dale, you'd have realized from his static grunts. It was Lottie. Her old pink cap appeared before you saw your sister.

“Hey,” you smiled at your little sister, “I thought you were hanging out with Carl and Sophia.”

“Carl’s a jerk today, and Sofia can’t play with us, her dad won’t let her,” the girl snorted and sat on your lap, because sitting on the sun-hot roof of the car wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Hey, I’d take a swear jar from you right now,” you tried to look at Lottie with a stern big sister look, but it never really worked. It looked ridiculous and hardly got any respect from the kid.

“Sorry,” the girl sighed, “but Carl is really behaving badly today. He ate the last of the nuts while I was distracted and didn’t even have a chance to protect them…”

“Are you really upset about the nuts?” you chuckled.

“No, more of an injustice…I was hoping we’d split the nuts fairly between the three of us, but Carl ruined it,” Lottie rested her head on your shoulder sitting on your lap.

It was so damn sweet. The way Lottie loves you. There’s often tension between sisters, but not in your family. Charlotte was born when you were 13 and that’s a really big difference, but you always wanted a brother or sister. And even though sometimes you had to miss seeing your friends to take care of Lottie when Mom and your stepfather, your little sister’s father, were working late, you still loved Charlotte with all your heart. Although it’s hard not to love her. She had a mild-mannered personality, rarely acted cranky, and sometimes acted like a little adult. At least you were a more rambunctious child at her age, according to your mother and other relatives. Only as you got older did you become a calm and peaceful person, and as a child you could afford to kick the asses of the boys who hurt you in junior high school. Charlotte, on the contrary, preferred to solve conflicts peacefully and disliked violence already at the age of ten. The age when children can be really violent, but your sister was not. Now, however, she seems to be really angry with Carl. But it’s probably because of all the stress you’ve both been under for the past three weeks. Everyone’s been on edge right now. That’s the way the world is now.

“I’ll find you some new nuts in the woods,” you said, stroking your sister’s soft hair.

“You’re afraid to go into the woods,” sighed Lottie.

“I’ll ask Glenn or Amy to come with me.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to ask Daryl? “Lottie looked at you in anticipation.

Oh, that’s right. Daryl. Well, that was a bit of a problem.

Then.

You tugged at Lottie’s arm, who was stumbling at almost every step. The walkers were coming faster and faster. Your courage and confidence were running away from you just as fast. But you did not let go of your sister’s hand and kept moving forward.

“Y/N!” the little girl’s shrill cry echoed throughout the forest.

You turned around and saw one of the walkers grab the hood of Lottie’s sweatshirt. A tall man with a rotten open wound near his collarbone, with gray cadaverous skin, white eyes, and rotten teeth and nails. Death itself came closer than ever to you and your sister. And you had no idea what to do.

“No! Let her go!” you screamed in panic at the walker as if he could understand you.

“Y/N!” large tears flowed down the little girl’s cheeks.

You closed your eyes, preparing for the worst. You knew it would happen sooner or later. From the moment your neighbor ate your mother. From the moment your stepfather John set himself up to feed the walkers two days ago so you and Lottie could escape. Since the world died. You knew you were going to die, too. And your ten-year-old sister, who didn’t have time to live. It has to happen, whether you’re ready or not. But you are ready. Death has taken over the world now, and who are you to fight it? You just hoped that you and Lottie wouldn’t have to suffer and…

With a dull thud, the arrow pierced the forehead of the walker that had grabbed Lottie and he finally fell to the ground dead. Lottie threw herself into your arms without thinking, wrapping her arms tightly around your waist and sobbing into your chest. You looked around in incomprehension until you saw a man with a crossbow. He put down the remaining three walkers with the remaining arrows. Clearly and without missing. Like he’d done it every day before the outbreak.

Man paused, looking at you and Lottie sobbing in your arms, and then without a word walked over to the corpses to pull his arrows from their skulls. Right now, however, you didn’t have the strength to say a few words. You didn’t have the strength to say a barely audible “thank you” for saving your life. The man looked at you, chewing his lower lip and without saying anything, lowered his head and walked away as if nothing had happened now. It would have been nice to stop him. But you were still standing still.

Now.

Daryl was sitting on a log outside his and Merle’s tent on the outskirts of the rest of the camp. He was cleaning squirrel blood off his arrows and hunting knife. Well, thanks to him, the camp wasn’t starving. Lottie and Sophia didn’t like eating something cute like squirrels, but there’s no choice. And while you weren’t thrilled about it either, better squirrels than the inedible berries you and Lottie had been poisoned with before you got to camp at the quarry. It was… unpleasant. You almost silently approached his “Dixon den,” as Shane called the tent of the brothers who preferred to stay away from the main group. But for an experienced hunter and tracker like Daryl, it wasn't hard to hear the branches crunching under your feet. Of course he noticed. Daryl turned toward you, where you froze for a moment between the bushes and snorted.

“What do you want, girl?” he asked, staring again at the dirty arrow in his hand..

“Hey,” you smiled shyly and moved a little closer, not noticing the vehement protest on his part. “Am I interrupting you?”

“If I tell you what you’re doing, will you leave?” Daryl didn’t look away from his work, still not looking at you.

“I don’t know…I guess?” you shrugged uncertainly. You didn’t want to annoy him, but you had promised something to your little sister. And yourself too.

“So what do you want? A chat? That’s not for me,” Daryl shook his head.

“I wanted to ask you for help to be honest,” you pursed your lips as you always did when you felt uncomfortable.

“Try it,?” Daryl finally lifted the piercing gaze of his gray-blue eyes to you and you felt even more uncomfortable.

“Take me with you on your next hunt,” you blurted out, deciding it wasn’t worth beating around the bush. Not with Daryl Dixon.

“No,” he answered immediately and went back to cleaning his weapon.

“Daryl, please,” you insisted. Not that you expected him to answer any differently. “I need to learn at least the basics of wilderness survival. You probably remember the state you found me and Lottie in in the woods…I can’t let that happen again.”

“Why? You’ve warmed up to a camp with people who can handle weapons. Just stay close to them,” Daryl snorted.

“I’m not stupid, Daryl, I realize this isn’t forever and sooner or later we’re all going to have to separate. When that happens, there’s no one to protect Lottie but me,” you sounded more determined than usual. Of course, it took a few days to pull myself together. “So I’m asking you to help me. Teach me how to track prey and how to tell poisonous plants from edible ones. Please.”

“Look, you’re sure of yourself, huh? Coming in here and making demands like I owe you,” Daryl was starting to get annoyed, it was obvious. He didn’t like the way you were being pushy, asking him for something like you had a right.

“I’m not making demands, I’m asking for help,” your confidence began to wane after his words. Daryl didn’t know you well. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have had the nerve to call you cocky. Or just at least a little bit of confidence.

“I’ve already helped you out on my own head…I won’t do it again, you’re not a goddamn charity case here,” Daryl chuckled.

“Okay, then what do you want in return?” you asked firmly.

The question wasn’t about your curiosity about wildlife, your life and your little sister’s life depended on you. Your only family. This is not a case where you can afford to back down and give up.

“As if you have anything to offer,” snorted Daryl dismissively.

"What would you want?" you asked, hugging yourself tighter around your shoulders in a protective gesture.

Daryl's right. What the hell could you offer him? In this current world, money has no value. Not that you had a lot of it, but it was the first thing you thought of out of habit. Then what? Daryl is an excellent hunter who has all the necessary survival skills and is good with a gun. That's why you asked him for help and not anyone else. Shane could teach you how to shoot, which would undoubtedly be very useful in the current circumstances, but it's not enough to survive in the woods without a group. Not without someone like Daryl, who is as well adapted to life in the wilderness as you could tell from a week of knowing him.

Back to the question, what could you offer him? What would Daryl Dixon want?

"I want you to talk less and get back on your own," Daryl squinted looking at you for a few seconds and then lowered his head again. The conversation wasn't going well.

"Why did you save me and my sister in the forest? Why did you bring me here? We might live a little longer being in a group, but when this is all over, we're both going to be eaten, so why did you have to build up to this moment?"

Daryl was silent. Like that day a week ago before he brought you to camp. Really, why did he do that? He felt sorry for Lottie. A dirty little girl, messed up to death. You didn't look like you really tried to save her during the walker attack and Daryl wondered why. How scared were you? Didn't believe in your own strength? Did you want to die? He didn't know. But he knew for sure he wasn't going to let a child be eaten alive by a rotting reanimated corpse. Not in this world. Would Daryl have helped you if you were alone in the woods? He wasn't sure. You seemed resigned to your situation and didn't try to escape, so why would he rescue you?

He already did anyway. And dragged you both to the camp. And then that same night he had a fight with Shane, who wasn't sure about the idea of leaving you here. And he got a good laugh from Merle, who thought he was being too kind to someone in the Dixon family. But you don't need to know that. You're lucky it was Daryl and not Merle who came across you in the woods. You'd be wandering around the woods now, rotting from the inside out, wanting nothing more than to eat anything alive. Just like your sister.

"Your sister needed a place and I helped you, that's the whole story," Daryl only nodded his shoulder.

"Why?" you persisted.

"Damn it, girl, what are you babbling about! I helped you, who cares why?" Daryl frowned and abruptly stood up from his seat in a flash of anger.

"I just..." you cringed at his loud tone and backed away slightly.

"Stop bugging me with this, okay? I saved you and your little girl, that's it! That's all you're gonna get from me, you understand? I don't want to teach you anything, I don't need you, save yourself!" Daryl waved his hand, yelling at you and you didn't even realize why you pissed him off so easily.

You looked at him frowning in incomprehension. Why the hell is he yelling at you for no good reason? And looking so angry, like you'd done something terrible to him. You didn't understand Daryl Dixon and his mood swings. That's why you tried to stay away from him, especially the first couple days. You were grateful to him for saving you, but he didn't seem like someone you'd easily connect with. And Daryl had just proven that to you again. You only came to him with the request because no one else could handle it but him. But apparently he's really not interested in this at all. You didn't want to and couldn't force him. You just hoped that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't as rude and aloof as he seemed at first glance. After all, he wouldn't have saved you if he was the way he showed himself to others. You'd just have to find a way to approach him and then maybe something would work. But now you weren't so sure.

"Well?! Don't look at me like that, get out of here!" he shouted one last time, turning away from you.

You snorted disappointedly, and after staring at his back for a few seconds, you turned around and hurried back to camp. You were mad at Daryl, that was for sure. Just like Lottie was mad at Carl, but you had a better reason than a handful of nuts. And you might have wanted to yell back at him, but not that it made sense. You'd learned to control your negative emotions a long time ago, and you weren't about to let years of self-discipline go down the drain because of Daryl Dixon. That's on him. Maybe you'll try again later when you've both cooled down, but definitely not in the next few days.

Daryl was difficult, but you have to find an approach to him. Not for your own sake. Certainly not for him. For Lottie. For the chance to prolong her life as long as you could.

Then.

“Hey!” you followed the stranger after a few moments of daze.

You almost lost sight of him, but he wasn’t trying to be quiet, and you could still hear the sound of his footsteps on the leaves on the ground. So as soon as your body began to obey you again, you followed him, holding Lottie’s hand tightly in yours. The man didn’t stop no matter how many times you called out to him. How rude. But in the present world, one didn’t think much of it. And you didn’t know him, but he wasn’t exactly friendly before the end of the world. And yet, you stopped the man from grabbing his wrist when you caught up with him. He turned around and looked at you with a frown, immediately pulling his hand from your barely perceptible grip with force. You seemed to have hit something wrong.

“Thank you,” was the first thing you said when he finally paid attention to you.

“Forget it,” wheezed the man with the familiar Southern accent you never got in the ten years you’d lived in Georgia.

“What’s your name?” you persisted.

“Go where you’re going,” the man snorted and turned away again to walk away.

“I wasn’t going anywhere,” you said before he could get a few steps away from you and Lottie, “I…I mean we have nowhere else to go.”

The man stopped for a moment without turning around, as if thinking about something.

“Do you live somewhere? Somewhere with people? You’re the first person I’ve seen in a week…I mean of living people,” you stared at his back without stopping to speak.

Hope flared in you. If there are still people alive, then you and Lottie have a chance.

But the man didn’t answer, only turned to glance at you. Your tangled hair, tied back in a low ponytail, your dirty knit sweatshirt over your once-white T-shirt, your mid-thigh jean shorts that were also dirty and torn on the side of your left leg, your broken knees with blood on them, your worn and dirty yellow sneakers. He looked at the little girl next to you. She had big eyes like yours. And while yours looked at him with weariness and a mute request you still hadn’t spoken aloud, hers were full of fear. Her long hair, braided into two pigtails, was also disheveled, and twigs and dry leaves were sticking out of it from the fact that she had been on the ground under the walker that had tried to eat her. Her denim overalls were stained with the rotting blood of the living dead, and the hood of the sweatshirt she wore over the rest of her clothes was now torn off. There was only one rubber boot on the girl’s feet, the other having come off in the process of escaping from the walkers. The man thought it must be very uncomfortable to run around in rubber boots. The girl held your hand and appeared behind your back, gingerly looking at her savior.

“Y/N, I’m scared…” said Lottie quietly, pressing her cheek against your hand.

Y/N. The man mistook you for this girl’s mom. A very young mom. But it seems that wasn’t the case. Although the two of you had enough outward similarities to think you were related to each other.

“Do you have a place to stay? Please…we’ve been walking through the woods for three days without food or water,” you asked quietly.

The man looked at you with a piercing stare and was still silent. But he didn’t stay silent for long.

“Please,” Lottie said even more quietly, looking out at him from behind you. And then he gave up.

How could he refuse to help a little hungry girl in one rubber boot.

“Follow me,” he said, looking into your eyes for a second, and then turned and walked on, expecting the two of you to follow him.

Of course you both did. Now the hope in your heart is much brighter.

[cambria-writes]

hello hello! i have been able to deliver on my promise!

this whole entire affair should be wrapping up in the next like... two? chapters? so this is the home stretch, pals!

also for reference—even if this means i'm probably going to have to edit the few chapter or two—this is the best house layout i was able to find that made sense for me.

pairing: eddie munson x fem!reader rating: T warning: swearing, mention of death, reader's afab but doesn't have much description, traumatic reactions and mild episodes, a whole lot of relief tbh word count: 3,571

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𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓: ℜ𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫

Even an hour after their arrival, you can tell that the Cali kids are breathing life back into everyone. It’s like everyone can suddenly function better, more coherently; like somehow a missing limb was returned. Though you can observe the effect, you feel like you’re maybe too far removed from everyone to experience it yourself.

You’re just... so tired.

You crash on the couch on and off. Occasionally, one of the girls will nudge you awake to drink some water. Max brings you a bag of chips. Eddie comes to lay a hand on your head almost every 15 minutes. Doesn’t say anything, just crouches by the couch, puts a hand on your head and frowns to ask if you’re okay. When you’re conscious enough to hum or nod. When you’re just teetering on the edge of sleep, he huffs and goes back to whatever he was doing.

When you muster enough discipline and strength, you force yourself to sit up and look around. The couch has been dragged back to where you assume it was meant to be. The holes in the roof have somehow been patched up, though only with tarps for now. Almost all of the dust, dirt, leaves and other debris have been cleaned out, and the windows cursorily cleaned. The kitchen looks somewhat useable now, and there are suddenly a lot more blankets and pillows than there were before.

“Welcome back, sleepy head,” Eddie says, nearly throwing himself down on the couch next to you. “Doin’ okay?”

Hum and rub at your eyes, still itchy and dry despite the rest. “I’m alright,” you start, covering your mouth while you yawn. “I think. I’m exhausted, my ankles itch like fuck and the rest of me feels sore but...” You shrug and Eddie nods in understanding. “Any news on what that earthquake was?”

“Oh oh oh!” Dustin comes rushing in from behind the couch. “You know about the mind flayer, right?” You barely open your mouth to confirm before he excitedly continues. “So we know that Vecna was using the Upside Down to try and jumpstart an apocalypse, but what happens when Vecna dies?”

“...nothing’s controlling the mind flayer anymore,” you answer slowly, with a frown.

“Boom! Right! So what happens when the mind flayer doesn’t have something to give it an actual shape? It goes all over the place!”

You wait for Dustin to keep going, but he just stands there, hands out in front of him like he’s waiting for you to actually complete the train of logic for him. Eddie sighs next to you and leans forward, elbows on his knees.

“What Henderson is trying to say,” Eddie starts staring pointedly at Dustin. “But is being too big of a showboat to, is that their little Jean Grey back there had to beat the mind flayer into submission before closing the whole town up.”

You gape at the two of them in turn.

“You’re telling me Eleven, still walking around and smiling like everything’s hanky-dory, beat the mind flayer and then immediately proceeded to force all the gates shut, and that the sheer, unadulterated force of her psychic whiplash caved half the town in on itself.” Dustin nods enthusiastically and Eddie shrugs. You settle into the couch and cross your arms. “That’s the epitome of unfair.”

“What do you mean? You think you could’ve taken it on yourself?” Dustin asks, aghast and looking at you like you’ve sprouted another head.

“Wha—no, fuck no!” You sigh and gesture vaguely at yourself before letting your hands fall in your lap. “I teleport a few times and I feel like I need to sleep for a week. And she just—and she’s fine?”

Eddie and Dustin both are already on their way to rip you a new one, for some reason, when Steve comes running in through the front door, heading for your pile of pilfered firearms and weapons while instructing Nancy and Robin.

Apparently there’s a truck coming up to the cabin.

“How do you know it’s a truck?” You ask, turning around on the couch. “And coming here?”

“Nothing out here,” Steve answers shortly, double checking that the rifle he has in hand is loaded. “Smells like shit, too. You can smell the exhaust.”

It doesn’t take long; Eleven is strategically hidden behind doors and furniture, Steve and Nancy are at the bottom of the front steps with guns in hand. Robin’s got a pistol that suspiciously looks like a Beretta, the kids—the kids have knives, right, that’s fine. Absolutely fine and won’t—alright.

You grab a knife for yourself—a paring knife, which isn’t much but at least is better than nothing—and take your place by the front door, opposite Jonathan. When you hear gravel crunching under heavy tires, you shoot him an anxious look. He glances through what’s left of the screen door and...

And does a double take?

You go to grab for Jonathan’s arm and spit something about being stupid and reckless but stop in your tracks when you see Joyce throwing the passenger door open and stomping out.

“Jonathan?”

“Mom? I thought you were in Alaska—is that Murray?”

“Please put your guns down!” A voice anxiously calls from what you assume is the back seat.

Steve and Nancy all but throw their weapons to the side. The truck’s engine is finally killed. You don’t even have time to process who the hell it is that’s stepping out of the driver’s seat before Eleven goes barrelling past you.

And right into Chief Hopper’s arms.

It’s... a lot to catch up to, once everyone gets around to it.

The explosion, Hopper surviving, Joyce getting a message from a turncoat proxy—it’s dizzying. Nevermind the fact that, apparently, the reason why everything went quiet in the Upside Down long enough for Steve, Nancy and Robin to kill Vecna was because some crazy motherfucker used a god damn flame thrower.

You pay rapt attention when Hopper talks about the tanks, though. Because you remember those, kind of. A piece of a fragment of a dream from a while ago. How some of the dogs and demogorgons were kept in suspension. You swallow past the uncomfortable lump in your throat.

Eventually, Joyce seems to remember who and what she is and starts corralling everyone into separate vehicles. Time to go home and let your parents know you’re all still alive. As you rush to get your shit together to leave, you hear Hopper mutter something about there never having been this many cars in front of this place before.

“Without a giant monster on the loose,” you quip back before you can help it, and you immediately freeze and go to offer an apology. But the Chief just chuckles and shrugs it off.

“Yeah. Without a giant monster trying to kill us all. Again.”

You take the dismissal—and maybe the feeling of being acknowledged..?—and run out the door with it.

Joyce gets the kids—Mike, Nancy, Lucas and Erica—and gives Will, Jonathan and Eleven hugs strong enough you think you can hear their ribs creak. She sets off with them after hesitantly taking the keys from the van from the stoner—Argyle.

(You like Argyle. He’s a nice, sunkissed reminder that the world isn’t shit absolutely everywhere or all the time. He hasn’t even freaked out a single time since he arrived with the rest of the Cali crew. Not once. You find yourself wondering just how much shit they’d all had to go through to make it back to Hawkins, for a bystander to be relatively nonplussed by everything going on.)

Jonathan, Will, Hopper and Eleven stay behind. Steve volunteers to take Dustin and Robin home.

And so you and Max clamber up into the truck after Hopper tosses Eddie the keys. Before he turns them in the ignition though, Eddie twists around to look back at Max, in the backseat.

“So where...” he starts awkwardly, and where you would’ve expected Max to shrug it off and say it didn’t matter, she takes a deep breath instead.

“The, uh, the high school. They’re using it as a shelter. She’s probably...” Max trails off and you bite your tongue and twist your fingers in your lap. Eddie nods, twists the key and the truck rumbles to life.

It’s old and clunky and the suspension’s shit. Driving out of the woods into Hawkins is miserable, and not much better afterwards. The faults that split open around town aren’t... as bad as you somehow figured they would be. The one that you assume is at lover’s lake can’t even be seen from where you are. Regardless, though, the earthquakes were enough to crack pavement in a few too many places. There are still water mains broken and spewing water on the edge of town, but as you drive in, towards the school, there’s less untreated damage.

Nevertheless, it sets a pit in your stomach you can’t shake. This could’ve been worse. Eddie pats the side of your side with the back of his hand when he catches your mind drifting a bit too far.

“I’m—”, you try, but your voice cracks. Clear your throat and start again. “Fine. ‘m fine.”

“You sure sound like it,” Max quips from the back, but it’s quiet and subdued, like she’s not sure that making a joke right now is actually the right thing to do. You turn to look at her and slap a hand on Eddie’s shoulder.

“Compared to this bitch and Harrington? I’m perfectly fine, unscathed, even!”

Max snorts and Eddie swats your hand away with a scoff. You smile a bit; the rest of the drive is a lot easier with a lighter mood. When Max eventually hops out of the car, you follow her without much of a second thought. When you notice Eddie doesn’t follow though, you walk over to the driver’s side and knock until he rolls the window down.

He keeps his eyes ahead and doesn’t look at you. He seems...

“Oh fuck,” you whisper, taking a quick look around the street. There thankfully aren’t too many people milling around, but that probably won’t last. You can’t believe you forgot he was on the hook for murder. You’re note going to think about how you were supposed to accessory to it, too.

“Yeah, so I’m just gonna...” Eddie drums his fingers on the steering wheel before suddenly pitching the seat back.

“...nap it out and pray no one looks in here?” you offer, and all you get in return is a grunt. You bite the inside of your cheek for a second. “I’ll be back in a bit. Max might take longer or stay here, I think.”

“She should probably stick around here.” You nod quietly, not that Eddie can see you. You take a deep breath and tap the door to announce your departure. You get the tiniest bit of a wave.

The second you walk into the gym, it feels like cognitive dissonance. You’re used to this place being too bright and too spaceous and too damn loud, but now it’s just... injured folk, displaced people, cots everywhere, a small soup kitchen off to the side, boxes coming in filled with god knows what.

You feel like you’re looking at the aftermath of a small natural disaster. You shake yourself back into focusing, just for a second, long enough to spot a familiar head of red hair half buried in someone’s arms.

Good.

You keep close to the walls to avoid getting in the way. More and more people seem to be coming in carrying boxes of various things—mostly clothes and toiletries, from what you can see. You let your eyes trail after the last person to walk in with a box. Watch them walk up to a set of tables near the back wall, directly opposite you.

And you watch the box be handed directly to your father. Next to him, your mother writes a few things down on a clipboard and smiles at the box owner.

You don’t realize you’ve started to move forward until your shoulder clips against someone making a hasty exit. You stumble forward a bit, but try to spin around as fast as you can when you catch the distinct sound of a stack of papers hitting the ground.

“Oh fuck,” you breathe, rushing over to the form hunched over the stack of papers spilled on the ground. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t...” You let yourself trail off when you take a look down at the few other papers you were able to get and stack together.

It’s grainy and the contrast is shit from being copied so much, but it’s very clearly Eddie’s face staring back at you. When you look up, Wayne Munson’s eyes look glazed over for a second, before he sighs, grabs the papers you’ve been holding, and stands back up with a groan.

Wayne puts a hand on your shoulder and seems like he’s got something quippy to say, but he stops with his mouth open. You see him look you over, from the top to the bottom and back up again. He frowns and looks back where he clearly knows your parents are, back down to you.

“Do your folks know?” You shake your head and keep quiet when you nod to the door. Wayne takes a deep breath and shrugs but nods.

A few steps outside, you point out the truck that Eddie is still inconspicuously lying down in.

“You’ll wanna knock on the driver side,” you add, clearing your throat and clasping your hands behind you. “I’ll, uh, I—”

“Your folks are worried sick,” Wayne says, placing a hand on your shoulder and turning you back towards the doors. “Get.”

Seeing your parents again after what feels like aeons is... honestly? It was wonderful. You finally felt like you did before this entire debacle. Your mother held you tight and your father held you both tighter. It was nice, for once in recent history, to be suffocated by someone’s kindness rather than the sick air of another dimension.

Your mother leaves your father and brother—who’d just come back from a supply run in Indianapolis—to take care of donations and whatever else it is they were doing in the school gym. She takes you straight home and practically shoves you into the bathroom on the first floor to shower and bathe.

The door clicks shut behind you and you stare down at the change of clothes—warm, fleecy sweatpants you know are your brother’s and an oversized sweater you know is your dad’s—and two of the fluffiest towels that are usually only reserved for guests at Christmas.

You put the clothes down on the console by the sink and let your fingers play with the towels. Pulling at threads. Pressing them against you, feeling their softness, squishing to feel the give.

Something so stupid and insignificant—you already feel yourself choking up. And then you look up at your reflection in the mirror.

You wish you could say you can’t recognize the person in the mirror as being you. But you can. Despite everything—the dried blood under your fingernails, the scrapes and scabs along your legs and arms, the oily hair, the bruises under your eyes from a broken nose faded to a pale yellow—it’s still you.

Your vision swims and your breath gets shorter. You made it. You made it. To the other side, or—or back from the other side. And no one else. No one else died.

Chief Hopper is fucking alive.

You let yourself sob into the towels for a few seconds before trying to kick yourself into gear. You need a hot shower, and you need to wash this all off. Distantly, as you undress and turn the water on, you wonder if maybe you shouldn’t be going through decon. If maybe you should be asking Hopper or Joyce or anyone else to call whoever the hell they know in the government or whatever to help... clean you up, or something.

But all that goes out the window the minute you step under the spray of hot water. You force yourself to breathe through lathering your hair, use your mother’s pumice stone to scrub at your arms, legs, chest and back, as far as you can reach. Lather everything again. The water starts to sting.

You think you can smell bacon cooking, even through the misty haze of bodywash and shampoo.

You spend the rest of the hot water tank sat at the bottom of the tub, knees pulled close as tight as you can manage, and you sob. Grossly, loudly.

You call Harrington, and somehow, through some small miracle, it goes through. He’s home fine. Parents have been out this whole time. He’s about to head out the door; you hear Robin in the background complaining about rabies, again. Off to the hospital, then.

Through him, you find out that all the kids have reached home safe and sound. Nothing about Eleven and the Byers, but that’s to be expected. Not exactly like the cabin was still hooked up with phone service. Or electricity.

Your hand automatically reaches to dial the Munson household. You’re halfway through the number before you slowly put the phone back on its cradle on the wall. Your mother peeks out of the kitchen. Slowly, like she’s scared she might scare you.

“Everything... everyone alright?” You huff and try to offer a small smile when you nod.

“Yeah. Yeah I think so,” you reply quietly, turning to rest your back and head against the wall. “I just don’t know about the Munsons.”

“Oh, Wayne?” Your mother asks, and she throws a towel over her shoulder as she exits the kitchen to come stand next to you against the wall. “Your father and I already offered him the guest bedroom.”

“You what?”

You mother fumbles for a bit for an answer and does her best impression of someone who doesn’t feel profoundly reprimanded.

“W-well, when the earthquake—your father was...” Your mother shakes her head and starts over. “Things like this remind people of who they can count on.” You make a quiet “ah” and nod your head. “I don’t like the look on your face right now,” you mother says, and when you turn to look at her, she looks... sad. Desperate. You lean into the warm palm that comes up to cup your face.

You grab her wrist to keep her hand there and keep your eyes closed against the burning behind them. You swallow thickly.

“It’s been a week,” you choke out, trying to clear your throat of the lump in it.

Slowly, you mother pries you off the wall and into one of the chairs at the table. She pulls another chair in close to sit by you, a hand squeezing one of yours in your lap and another rubbing circles on your back.

(Crazy how over a week ago, this house and its people felt almost cloying. Right now you can’t remember the last time you felt so safe.)

“Do you... do you want to talk about it?”

You open your mouth to speak, but stop when you realize you don’t know what to say. Even if you told the truth, how—what way did you even have to prove it? Was that even legal? Did any of the kids’ parents know, besides Joyce and Hopper?

The look on your face must be something between shock and terror; your mother leans back with a concerned expression.

“Honey, what—”

“I don’t,” You try. Shake your head and try to blink yourself into focus. “I’m not sure I’m allowed to talk about it.” You end up whispering, pulling your hand away to rub at your eyes.

“Baby, what do you mean allowed?”

You bite your lip and take a deep breath. Wayne’s probably already been visited by whatever secret government group knows about El and the lab, if only just because he had a damn gate in his home. All the other kids probably... all of them probably know the song and dance by now, for having been through this so many times before.

You have no idea what protocol is for this kind of thing.

“I’ll talk about it when I can—when I’m ready,” you state quietly, and you do your best to make your voice sound firm. It must work at least a little bit, because though your mother sighs in that way that parents do when they’re not told what’s going on, she doesn’t press the issue.

You let yourself sit in silence for a few minutes before pushing yourself to your feet. Your mother makes a fuss about sitting down while she gets breakfast plated for you—though it’s really more of a late brunch at this point—but you put a hand out in front of you to stop her.

“Do we still have dad’s old radio in the basement?”

“Uh,” your mother flounders, stopping midstep into the kitchen. “I guess... I think it should still be hooked up, yeah. Hasn’t been used in a while. Why..?”

“I wanna see if I can reach—”

There’s a heavy knock on the front door. Your mother looks at you apologetically before rushing over to open it. You can hear her gasp and usher whoever it is inside. You wander down the hall after her but freeze when you see who your impromptu guests are.

𝓣𝓪𝓰𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽

@bramblequill @storiesbyrhi @averagestudent03 @alovesongtheywrote @doratheignora

[popculturebuffet]

Sam and Max Telltale Retrospective: Save the World: Reality 2.0 (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Cyber-Hello to all you happy cyber-people! We're almost at the end of Sam and Max Save The World! It's been a long strange journey and it's only getting stranger as we jack in and execute the penultimate chapter of this fantastic game.

As usual let's take a look at Reality 2.0+as a game first. Internet 2.0 is the best chapter yet which like Morning Mark, you can probably hear me say that a lot. It combines the writing quality of the last two chapters with the far more managable but still open overworld of "The Mob, The Mole and the Meatball". The difficulty's still harder than Mob, but more in line with the second one: you might get stuck but a quick nudge from a guide or some poking around will usually fix it. The world is also just fun to explore despite being intentionally both sparse and a reskin of the main street hub. In short it's good stuff and we'll see if it holds for the finale and the next two games.

For now let's look at the bold new future of the internet in 2006 under the cut and how our heroes have to kill it before it spreads. As you do.

So we open with Max flexing his power as president. As expected most of his policy is giant fighting robot based, sending them to all three dakota's to see who surivives, and he's being impeached every day this week except wendsday.. he's on trial for war crimes. But Max has more important things to deal with than plotting his future escape from a federal maximum security prison, for once. The Chief has a job: A new game, Reality 2.0 is sweeping the nation and brainwashing it too so our heroes and max have to stop it. Our heroes first have to save Sybil, whose beta testing the game via headset, and lost in the zone. So to get info we're going ot have to wreck Sybil's life for the second episode. Meanwhile Bosco has paranoidly moved all his money into the internet. As you can probably notice unlike a lot of the satire in these games, where there more funny knowing the time, the satire for internet 2.0 has actually aged better. While at the time it was clearly parodying the boom of things like second life and mmorpg's like world of warcraft, nowadays it comes off as parodies of laughable attempts at the future like the metaverse, vr googles, and crypto. I mean the money isn't in boscocoin but like Crypto the service he's using bancolavedero.com is just as sketchy as crypto and just as likely to give you all your money back! As such despite having all the money now to launder via the us goverment, we can't buy his real world item, a bio weapon, yet.

We can however do him a solid and get rid of the compettition: part of why Bosco's gone from small arms to full on biological warefare is because Jimmy Two Teeth has set up shop in his shop. Being the rat he is, Jimmy refuses to actually sell you the mini canon he has because he's afraid you'll just turn around and use it on him

Though in this case it's a self fufilling prophecy as while he succesfully gets a hit off on Sam, he gets shoved into the canon and used as ammo oddworld styles. I just love this solution and it provides some cathariss after multiple chapters of Jimmy either being obnoxious to our heroes or actively hindering them. I mean he fell down a manwhole but ther'es probably a whole rat city down there. He can play rat blackjack and visit some rat hookers. He'll be fine. This is more fitting.. being shot at some vr googles.

Turns out though Sybil wasn't hypnotized.. or at least thinks she wasn't so she's mad, but allows our heroes to take the broken googles and decides to move on. I've really started to feel sorry for sybil. In the first two chapters she was just running a random scheme and just having a good time… in the last few she's been targeted by the mob, had her heart broken, been swindled out of millions of dollars and now had her legit buisness ruined by our heroes.. for good reasons yes but it's still awful. I'm really hoping the next chapter works out better for her. I do applaud the team for making me care about this goofy side character though. So our team has to take the googles to the best part of this episode, the C.O.P.S. The Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society are a bunch of old machines who are hilaroius: We have their leader and mouthpiece curt, an old voice synthizer similar to steven hawkings, chippy, an old pong set, and bob, a talking phone who talks like the moviephone guy. And last and most of all we have Bluster Blaster an old arcade machine who constantly screams every sentence and wants to conquer all. Their working for the internet for the oldest reasons imaginable…

But gladly suply a lot of great comedy.. and our heroes with the chip to fix the googles. There's not much else to say other than their fantastic and I was delighted to find out they return in the next two games, and have a larger role in 3.

THe cops gladly give our heroes the chip. Problem is there's two heroes but luckily max's really big head qualities him for a special headset, so our heroes are off to the digtial world! Jack in, Sam and Max, Execute! Reality 2.0 is a fun setting being really sparse and seeming like a jab at games that come out mostly unfinished. Having played sonic 06 recently, the irony is not lost on me. While it is a BETA, so ti's a bit more forgivable, it's a very desolate place with Sybil stood in with a digtial copy of her, and no real detail. The only real features are bosco's itself, and Auntie Biotic, virus protection based on moira stump. Who was asking for her to come back I do not know, but she's passable.

We 'll deal with her later though first it's time to deal with bosco whose totally not brainwashed you guys honest. So in order to save him, we have to bop him in the head, but since for some reason we can't just.. use the boxing glove on him or reload the canon, we have to play the game his way and get 5 gold coins. Granted equipment usually isn't this cheap but sam and max isn't going to make you grind for several hours. or maybe ten minutes with 4x gil on, to do that. Point is you need to gather the coins.

This is where I got stuck entirely through every fault of my own. See I assumed since the goggles have an assigned button to take you out of reality 2.0, you coudln't use your inventory

Every item you have in the real world is avaliable to you. And neatly some transform, so the bug becomes a computer bug. It wasn't till reading the guide I realized I could do this.

As for who your glitching up that'd be the COPS who are gods, angry gods, of the new world and each control something. So you have to jack with them to get rid of width, popups, make your characters small, and with blaster because uh oh there goes gravity. The ways you use them are also clever and most you can figure out just from exploring: Jimmy is hoarding a coin in your office, so you have to get that from him by shirnking, and that itself requries you to figure out another mechanic: when you enter the digital world you enter from the location your at. So while the curb is too big for tiny sam and max to climb, you can simply jack out, go into the office, jack in and boom, Jimmy is violently mugged for a coin! Sybils is easy to miss, it's just behind her bookcase which you can get by going flat and finally we get the fun one of gravity, with sam deciding to become a feature film italian sterotype and max decides to call him a sell out. it's the best joke of a very funny chapter… the best one not involving an arcade cabinet screaming at you anyway. So with that we buy the long sord and get a decent enough send up of rpg combat as we fight a slime in boscos, handily despensed from a monster spawn point. This is where I got lost for a second. See I went back to the real world, as Bosco revealed his password is SO secure, he dosen't even know it, having it tattooed on him then having his memory erased. So naturally I grabbed the binoculars on his desk. problem is fitting the game's nonlinear nature you can get them AFTER you wake him up too, and my guide used this method. Thankfully I found another one, and found out I simply had to conk him out in the digtial world.

Since I can't just have a small monster do it, I used the sword, tricked bosco with the timeless "look over there" technique and found his tatoo which thankfully was nowhere near as low as feared. It's naturally bosco. He's smart at many things, survelince, knowing the goverment's after him, scamming our heroes, but this is a reminder he can be very, very dumb and we love him for it. So it's off to banco lavedero. To get in here you'll need some digitial paint from a digtial wizard whose TOTALLY not hugh bliss… though unlike moira I feel this seeming model IS the real thing given what we learn at the end of the chapter. This puzzle is clever as your liscene plate has the right color. Match em and you get past the banco lavedero fire wall. Inside we get a fun if somewhat long mini game: unsuprisingly this scam is laundering money from everywhere: the toy mafia, who sam rightly points out even if we knocked out one branch isn't exzactly gone, the goverment, bosco's mom. You simply have to get the arrows to point all the money to bosco. It's hilarious enough to work and even if you get stuck, it shoudln't take too long till bosco has the money and is forking over his bio weapon. This one I actually called: he just sneezes into a napkin. But hey it's enough to give yo ua computer virus.

To beat her though we need a chekovs gun.. but since tha't snot in the inventory we instead need some slime goop, gotten whenyou first get your sword as his sludgey machine is now an enemy spawn point and the results are just as dangerous. You take it out with some turn based rpg parody, though the shouting out of dexerity is just.. weird. This isn't dungeons and dragons, it's a computer rpg. It's hilarious enough though I dont' care enitirely.

WIth the goop you simply have to defy gravity again and go to a nearbye billboard and you get the unicorn sword. +2 baby! You can unstick it with the goop and then fight moira using the sword and another chekovs gun: early on you'll see a jack in the box surrounded by pop ups. Disable those, grab it, then enable them before the fights and you've got a shiled. It's a wonderful brick joke and with that you can mail the virus ot break the internet.

Problem is the interent.. plans to take everyone in it with her, so to save the world you have to brave the depths of gaming history, a TEXT ADVENTURE!

The Text Adventure bit.. is a lot of fun. You put all of boscos into your inventory, deal with a giant drippy pool of cute kittens , use their slime to dip boscos and then feed it to a shambling corprate presence, the greatest monster in all of rpg history. Yes over stabby mc mommy issues or Garnland, who will knock you all down. You feed him, get him tobarf up the internet's faith in humanity an save her from herself… and then she dies because our heroes knida gave her a virus. Yes our heroes killed the ineternet and I for one…

Sorry about that had to kick in the backup internet. Hard being a blogger these days. Anyways the internmet is dead and the most she can give our heroes is the mysterious mastermind behind all this is Roy. G. Biv… our heroes dont' take the obvious hint and go to dinner… as hugh bliss shows up as the face int he moon

Next Time: We go to the MOOONNNNN to wrap this game up and confront the true mastermind behind it all! But where is hugh? What is hugh? and why is Hugh? All to be colorfully answered next time!

[thehouseofhouse101]

Everything I Managed to Watch in 2022

I might as well give you my thoughts on...exactly what it says on the tin. I'll try to keep things short and simple since I'm kinda tired and I wanna finish celebrating the year's end, lmao.

First up, the movies!

Top 5 Favorite Movies:

5. The Bad Guys

4. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

3. Rise of the TMNT

2. Pinocchio (Netflix Movie)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Honorable Mentions (still love them!!):

Turning Red

Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers

Wendell and Wild

On the television side of things, Smiling Friends, Dead End, The Cuphead Show, and Super Robot Giant Brothers, were pretty good! The Cuphead Show got better after its rather mediocre first season and I grew to love it. Smiling Friends I was happy turned out good as I expected, and I'm excited for season 2. Dead End was a nice surprise, I grew to like the characters and I appreciated how it handled its LGBT and Autism representation. Super Giant Robot Brothers deserves more love, Reel FX did a good job with that one, had some dynamic action and fun character moments.

For decent stuff, the only one was Hamster and Gretel. Will get back to it, but I hope gets a better execution than Milo Murphy's Law, which I liked too but the second season wasn't so great, oof.

On the other hand, shows that didn't wowed me were Oddballs and sadly Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. The former had some decent jokes and maybe a character that amused me like Max, but the other attempts at jokes fell flat and characters like Echo really annoyed me.

The Dragon Knight was like the biggest disappointment for me. As a huge fan of KFP, I was hoping it would turn out to be a good show, maybe a better outing than the last KFP TV show. But I stopped at I think episode 5 and lost interest all around. The animation was a bit unfinished, and the writing choices were kind of questionable. I am glad they brought back Jack Black as Po, but alas...

There's like other shows that aired this year along with new seasons of other shows I love, but I'll watch them for next year.

For the anime stuff, Demon Slayer Season 2 was great, same with Spy X Family and Attack on Titan. Really happy I managed to give it another shot. Chainsaw Man also aired and of course was incredible. I'm already caught up with the manga and I'm eager to see how they'll handle the rest of the story soon. Urusei Yatsura 2022 I also want to shout out. I need to get back into binging the original series, but so far, the reboot is neat!

And also, I made a list of Anime Openings I watched this year and fell in love with. Keep in mind, I haven't seen any of these anime yet based on this list, aside from the ones I just mentioned above and also My Hero Academia, but I lost interest for that series because of story problems lately, yeah...

I'll get the chance to watch the others soon, don’t worry!

So here's the Honorable Mentions first:

Honorable Mentions:

BNHA OP 10: Way better than OP 9 and the visuals were unique, but the song didn't worked for me

Spy X Family OP 2: Visuals and song are neat, but the first op is more stronger to me

Dr. Stone Ryusei: Visuals are decent, but the new version of the first OP song was just incredible

My Top 11 Favorite Anime OPs:

11. Kaguya Sama OP 3 10. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War OP 1 9. Call of the Night 8. One Piece OP 24 7. Ya Boy Kongming 6. Urusei Yatsura 2022 5. Spy X Family OP 1 4. Mob Psycho III OP 3. Attack on Titan OP 7 2. Chainsaw Man 1. Ranking of Kings OP 2

Boom! That's it! Here's hoping 2023 turns out to be an even greater experience for me, and for the animation community as well!

[rayyan-talha]

Reflection - Television: Black Sails

Black Sails was a 4 season historical fiction TV series focused on the pirate era in the caribbean. The series highlighted some important themes such as colonialism, tribalism, sexuality, and race relations. Many characters shown are historical figures, but the fictional characters also share important messages. One character in particular is Max, a biracial lesbian woman who was brought as a slave and forced to work as a prostitute in a "whorehouse". She clawed for power throughout the series and eventually went from being a prostitute to being a feared businesswoman by the end of the series. After she came out as lesbian, many other characters came out as gay or bisexual, possibly alluding to the strength she projects. This is extremely significant as at that time, this was definitely looked down upon by society, yet, we now know through historical records that the lgbt community was always active, just not highlighted.

Just to highlight the historical time period, most of the big European powers such as the Spanish, French, and English were in the region attempting to project military strength in order to ensure a sense of law and order and maximize on crop profits. The majority of this series is based on the port of Nassau, and even follows historically accurate events like when the republic of pirates took over Nassau from the British navy and created a free trading post.

Another very well known character is Long John Silver. He began as a cook and worked his way to the top of the crew, often serving as the captain's second in command. Unlike majority of the characters, Silver is the most open minded of them all as he looks at new cultures and uses the most useful qualities of them in his adventures. There is a few episodes where the crew was on the run from some British bounty hunters, so they crashed aboard what seemed like an uninhabited island, just to find a booming secret society of runaway slaves. This highlights how no matter how hard anyone tries, the innate human feeling of freedom will never falter. Just like how we have learned about African Americans right after slavery, this series shows an awkard time, where people from a plethora of backgrounds were shown to band together under a captain and his ship. Many slaves helped pirates at the time as "piracy has no color". Blacks in the Carribean would often welcome pirates with open arms. The racial dynamics seen in the show are also quite complex, as slavery was banned in Portugal by the mid 1700s, however, all other nations still had slavery legally justified. Many minorities (especially blacks) were seen flocking toward Portuguese ships as an attempt to be taken to Europe and freed. Another major theme seen here was the lack of care for the native populous, as many were seen in the show to die from diseases immune to populations from the old world. The biggest and most powerful theme of all was the showing of rebellion. Although there is no main character, the captain has by far the hardest role in the story. Captain Flint was a former Naval officer of the British Navy, but when his well known family was disgraced in the House of Lords in England and his lover killed by the governor of Nassau, he turned to violent rage and began the uprising that essentially kicked the English out of the Bahamas. After his lover was killed, he turned gay, especially after seeing Max's public revelation.

Everyone on his crew and in the piracy business comes from a background of racial discrimination, slavery, defeat, and a history of sorrows directly caused by the colonial powers. Towards the end of the show in season 4, the theme of tribalism is seen running rampant as all the former rival crews band together in one last attempt to destroy the British navy's presence in the carribean. These pirates have a very cult-like brotherhood pact, similar in what we see today in various workplaces such as police officers protecting one another and organizations such as worker unions and the armed forces. In all honesty, what fascinated me the most was the diverse and multicultural pact of brotherhood (and sisterhood) all banded together within the pirates under the banner of freedom. Even back in the 1700's and 1800's, people from different parts of the world could be seen living side by side equally, often acknowledging and blending their cultures together.

[booasaur]

listen omg me too, i'm a bit at odd where to stand with La'an and Una, because I love their relationship and all the scenes together, but everything is still very new and so subtext everywhere lol, we don't know much yet. First moment they meet tho I was too like 'oh', because you saw all episode La'an being broody and serious with 3000 walls up and not a pip (and I already loved her there lol, I love characters like that, it means that inside they feel like double what they show and are intriguing and complex and usually trauma all over the place, hence why I love seven of nine), then she sees Una and boom big smile, well my mind stopped there for a moment with a screeching sound lol. I don't think she was a kid/child when Una saved her tho, Una was a ensign so I believe she was around her early 20s, not more?! and La'an scenes with her brother in 1x04 looked like she was 12-14? and she was still there for a while maybe since he was still alive, maybe Una found her around 15-16yo? the actress who plays La'an tho (I love her accent so much) looks hella young but she's almost 39! But anyway they could be with a 7-8 years gap max even if it's seems way more because Christina looks younger. The subtext is there but for now it looks more like mentor/mentee, but my jury is still deliberating I need more info lol, but no matter what, these two nerds have an amazing and soft friendship, Una rarely (if not only long time friends like Pike) let people call her by her name so when la'an does it I love it, and I can't wait to see more, and the actresses have very good chemistry thankfully. The last scene they had was so beautiful and very well done, you don't see often la'an smiling, actually I only saw her doing it with Una, her walls go down with her and they seem to know each other pretty good, except you know the secret Una kept from her, but I believe it was more like a) to protect her - if she knew and Una got caught she could have paid the price too and b) since la'an strong feelings about augmented people she was scared of losing her?!

I was surprised by how much I love this show and the whole crew? I am a star trek fan but not huuuge, normal, and I was bit eh with starting a star trek prequel but I was so positively surprised! and the cast is so good?! Una stole my heart and La'an next as characters, but I like them all!! and I pretty much liked all the episodes so far which usually it doesn't happen so for now I got good feelings with this show, this last episode was hilarious and much needed after all the drama and trauma from the last 2 lol!

Oh, well, in terms of subtext as how we used to mean it, where you just have a great dynamic and chemistry and are like, I know this is never going to happen but I ship it vs nowadays where it's starting to tilt toward an intentional extra layer that usually does build to something, I'm not expecting the show to go anywhere romantic with these two.

It's just that originally, I thought the show itself was going to play this relationship as La'an meeting Una as a kid (including possibly as a teen) and it was just supposed to be this very hard line up front, like they belatedly tried to draw for mirror Georgiou and Michael in Discovery, lol.

It's not that the first ep was necessarily completely marking them off-limits, I just assumed that's what they were establishing as their relationship and future eps would only reinforce it more. So me backing away was more in anticipation of the familyzoning that was yet to come, lol, and I ended up not even trying to do the math and see how old they were and their respective positions and all that. I was like, oh, they're going to make this tough to ship from literally the first ep, not gonna bother. I can be open to subtext but I need some help from canon. I've disregarded familyzoning in the past, but usually when I'm already shipping it. And the first ep did have the Chapel/La'an scene too so I was like, we can play around with this while they shut down La'an/Una in literally their first scene together.

Or so I thought. Because ep 3 really does negate that whole line of thinking? There's a full history where La'an and Una think of and treat each other as equals. And now I'm certainly going back to that first ep where, as you said, broody, serious La'an lights up at Una and their relationship has only improved since. And thinking more on it, well, La'an's actually chief of security and part of senior staff, she's not exactly a green behind the ears cadet or even ensign, she can't be that much junior to or younger than Una if she was able to take over her job as first officer, even if temporarily.

And I was thinking all this before you just told me that Christina Chong is 38??? At first I thought maybe you were quoting the result Google provides, which isn't always accurate (and was certainly very wrong in every direction for poor Yasmine Al-Bustami), but her wiki says it too! 38? How? Yeah, that's even more shippable than I thought.

I just expect just a close friendship now, although, god, how much I'd love it if they went there romantically. It's so rare for same-sex couples to be between fleshed out characters with an interesting dynamic outside their gay relationship. Even just adding a depth and richness to their romantic relationship the way Marina did is hard to find. I'd love so much for these two to have this very deep bond already and then have it turn to something more but I don't expect it.

I'm really enjoying the show too! I actually loved the main trio when they showed up on Discovery and I'm glad they're continuing to be written in the same warm, funny, compassionate way here. Anson Mount is so good here as Pike, so openly caring of his crew and in his approach to the job, while also being very good at it, much like Jane in NCIS Hawai'i, when it starts from the top it shifts the whole crew/team to follow their example and it's really satisfying to watch.

[destiny-smasher]

Life is Strange: True Colors

Leading up to the release of Episode 1 of TellTale's The Walking Dead game, I was working freelance for GameRevolution at the time, lived in the area, and had the chance to play a build of the game to write a preview on it. I remember comparing it to Mass Effect because, at the time, there just...weren't games of that subgenre. Of course, by now we've seen an explosion of this type of game - the 'narrative/choice-driven game,' spearheaded and even oversaturated by Telltale to their own demise.

Out of all of the games that have come from that initial boom, Life is Strange by DontNod was and still is the most influential on my life, but I also have always harbored really conflicted feelings about it - especially with how it resolved its narrative. Hell, if you're reading this, you're probably aware that I spent a few years of my life creating a sequel fanstory which I even adapted a chunk of into visual novel format. Hundreds of thousands of words, days and days of life spent essentially trying to process and reconcile my conflicted feelings about this game's conclusion(s). Since then, I've been experimenting with interactive fiction and am currently developing my own original visual novel using everything I've learned from both creating and playing games in this genre. It's a subgenre of game I have a lot of interest and passion for because, when handled well, it can allow a player to sort of co-direct a guided narrative experience in a way that's unique compared to strictly linear cinematic experiences but still have a curated, focused sense of story.

Up until this point, I've regarded Night in the Woods as probably the singular best game of this style, with others like Oxenfree and The Wolf Among Us as other high marks. I've never actually put any Life is Strange game quite up there - none of them have reached that benchmark for me, personally. Until now, anyway.

But now, I can finally add a new game to that top tier, cream of the crop list. Life is Strange: True Colors is just damn good. I'm an incredibly critical person as it is - and that critique usually comes from a place of love - so you can imagine this series has been really hard to for me given that I love it, and yet have never truly loved any actual full entry in it. I have so many personal issues, quibbles, qualms, and frustration with Life is Strange: with every individual game, with how it has been handled by its publisher (my biggest issue at this point, actually), with how it has seemingly been taken away from its original development studio, with how it chooses to resolve its narratives...

But with True Colors, all of those issues get brushed aside long enough for me to appreciate just how fucking well designed it is for this style of game. I can appreciate how the development team, while still clearly being 'indie' compared to other dev teams working under Square-Enix, were able to make such smart decisions in how to design and execute this game. Taken on its own merits, apart from its branding, True Colors is absolutely worth playing if you enjoy these 'telltale' style games. Compared to the rest of the series, I would argue it's the best one so far, easily. I had a lot of misgivings and doubts going in, and in retrospect, those are mostly Square-Enix's fault. Deck Nine, when given the freedom to make their own original game in the same vein as the previous three, fucking nailed it as much as I feel like they could, given the kinds of limitations I presume they were working within.

I'm someone who agonizes every single time there is news for Life is Strange as a series - someone who essentially had to drop out of the fandom over infighting, then dropped out of even being exposed to the official social media channels for it later on (I specifically have the Square-Enix controlled channels muted). I adore Max and Chloe, and as a duo, as a couple, they are one of my top favorites not just in gaming, but in general. They elevated the original game to be something more than the sum of its parts for me. And while I have enjoyed seeing what DontNod has made since, it's always been their attention to detail in environmental craftsmanship, in tone and atmosphere, which has caught my interest. They're good at creating characters with layers, but imo they've never nailed a narrative arc. They've never really hit that sweet spot that makes a story truly resonate with me. Deck Nine's previous outing, Before the Storm, was all over the place, trying to mimic DontNod while trying to do its own things - trying to dig deeper into concepts DontNod deliberately left open for interpretation while also being limited in what it could do as a prequel.

But with True Colors, those awkward shackles are (mostly) off. They have told their own original story, keeping in tone and concept with previous Life is Strange games, and yet this also feels distinctly different in other ways.

Yes, protagonist Alex Chen is older than previous characters, and most of the characters in True Colors are young adults, as opposed to teenagers. Yes, she has a supernatural ability. And yes, the game is essentially a linear story with some freedom in how much to poke around at the environment and interact with objects/characters, with the primary mechanic being making choices which influence elements of how the story plays out. None of this is new to the genre, or even Life is Strange. But the execution was clearly planned out, focused, and designed with more caution and care than games like this typically get.

A smaller dev team working with a budget has to make calls on how to allocate that budget. With True Colors, you will experience much fewer locales and environments than you will in Life is Strange 2. Fewer locations than even Life is Strange 1, by my count. But this reinforces the game's theming. I suspect the biggest hit to the game's budget was investing in its voice acting (nothing new for this series) but specifically in the motion capture and facial animation.

You have a game about a protagonist trying to fit in to a small, tightly knit community. She can read the aura of people's emotions and even read their minds a little. And the game's budget and design take full advantage of this. You spend your time in a small main street/park area, a handful of indoor shops, your single room apartment. It fits within a tighter budget, but it reinforces the themes the game is going for. Your interactions with characters are heightened with subtle facial cues and microexpressions, which also reinforces the mechanic and theming regarding reading, accepting, and processing emotions. And you get to make some choices that influence elements of this - influenced by the town, influenced by the emotions of those around you, which reinforce the main plot of trying to navigate a new life in a small town community.

When I think about these types of games, the conclusion is always a big deal. In a way, it shouldn't be, because I usually feel it's about the journey, not the destination. And as an example, I actually really dislike the ending of the original Life is Strange. I think it's a lot of bullshit in many ways. The setpiece is amazing and epic, sure, but the actual storytelling going on is...really hollow for me. Yes, the game does subtly foreshadow in a number of ways that this is the big choice it's leading up to, but the game never actually makes sense of it. And the problem is, if your experience is going to end on a big ol' THIS or THAT kind of moment, it needs to make sense or the whole thing will fall apart as soon as the credits are rolling and the audience spends a moment to think about what just happened. When you look at the end of Season 1 of Telltale's The Walking Dead, it's not powerful just because of what choice you're given, but because through the entire final episode, we know the stakes - we know what is going to ultimately happen, and we know the end of the story is fast approaching. All of the cards are on the table by the time we get to that final scene, and it works so well because we know why it's happening, and it is an appropriate thematic climax that embodies the theming of the entire season. It works mechanically, narratively, and thematically, and 'just makes sense.'

The ending of Life is Strange 1 doesn't do that, if you ask me. The ending of most games in this genre don't really hit that mark. When I get to the end of most game 'seasons' like this, even ones I enjoy, I'm typically left frustrated, confused, and empty in a way.

The ending of True Colors, on the other hand, nails everything it needs to. Handily, when compared to its peers.

If you're somehow reading this and have not played this game but intend to, now is probably where you should duck out, as I will be

discussing SPOILERS from the entire game, specifically the finale.

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.

Firstly, since I don't know where else to put this, some criticisms I found with the game. And honestly, they're all pretty damn minor compared to most games of this type.

Mainly, I just wish the whole Typhon thing was handled a bit more deliberately. It's a bit weird to do the 'big evil corporation' thing (especially when a big corporation like Square Enix occupies as much as or even more of the credits to this game than the people who actually MADE it?) without offering more explanation and subtlety. The game certainly makes some efforts but they're mostly small and mostly optional, like background chatter or a handful of one-off bits of documentation/etc. you can find in the environment. I feel like Diane in particular needed to be fleshed out just a little bit more to really sell us on how and why things like this happen, why corporations make decisions that cost people their happiness, security, and lives and they just get to keep on doing it. I think just a little bit that is unavoidable to the player that puts emphasis on maybe how much the town relies on the money/resources Typhon provides would've helped. Again, this is minor, but it stands out when I have so little else to critique.

I would've liked to get more insight on why Jed is the way he is. No, I don't think we really needed to learn more about his backstory, or even really his motivations. I think we get enough of that. I just think it would've been great to somehow highlight more deliberately how/why he's built up this identity overtop of what he's trying to suppress. Maybe even just having Alex internally realize, "Wait, what the hell, Jed has been hiding these emotions and my powers haven't picked up on it?" or something to that effect could have added an extra oomph to highlight how Jed seems to be coping with his emotions by masking/suppressing them. Also really minor complaint, but again...there's not much else here I can think to really improve on within the confines of what's in the game.

The game doesn't really call Alex's power into question morally. Like. Max has an entire meltdown by the end of her story, second-guessing if she's even helped anyone at all, if she has 'the right' to do so, how her powers might be affecting or expressing her own humanity and flaws...this story doesn't really get into that despite a very similar concept of manipulating others. There's like one bit in a document you can choose to read in Alex's 'nightmare' scene, but that's really it. I feel like this sentiment and how it's executed could have easily been expanded upon in just this one scene to capture what made that Max/Other Max scene do what it did in a way that would address the moral grayness of Alex's powers and how she uses them, and give players a way to express their interpretation of that. Also, very small deal, just another tidbit I would've liked to see.

When I first watched my wife play through Episode 5 (I watched her play through the game first, then I played it myself), I wasn't really feeling the surreal dreamscape stuff of Alex's flashbacks - which is weird, because if you're read my work from the past few years, you'll know I usually love that sort of shit. I think what was throwing me off was that it didn't really feel like it was tying together what the game was about up until that point, and felt almost like it was just copying what Life is Strange did with Max's nightmare sequence (minus the best part of that sequence, imo, where Max literally talks to herself).

But by the time I had seen the rest of the story, and re-experienced it myself, I think it clicked better. This is primarily a story about Alex Chen trying to build a new life for herself in a new community - a small town, a tightly knit place. Those flashbacks are specifically about Alex's past, something we only get teeny tiny tidbits of, and only really if we go looking for them. I realized after I gave myself a few days to process and play through the game myself that this was still a fantastic choice because it reinforces the plot reasons why Alex is even in the town she's in (because her father went there, and her brother in turn went there looking for him), and it reinforces the theme of Alex coming to accept her own emotions and confront them (as expressed through how the flashbacks are played out and the discussions she has with the image of Gabe in her mind, which is really just...another part of herself trying to get her to process things).

By the time Alex escapes the mines and returns to the Black Lantern, all of the cards are on the table. By that point, we as the audience know everything we need to. Everything makes sense - aside from arguably why Jed has done what he has done, but put a pin in that for a sec. We may not know why Alex has the powers she does, but we have at least been given context for how they manifested - as a coping mechanism of living a life inbetween the cracks of society, an unstable youth after her family fell apart around her (and oof, trust me, I can relate with this in some degree, though not in exactly the same ways). And unlike Max's Rewind power, the story and plot doesn't put this to Alex's throat, like it's all on her to make some big choice because she is the way she is, or like she's done something wrong by pursuing what she cares about (in this case, the truth, closure, and understanding).

When Alex confronts Jed in front of all of the primary supporting characters, it does everything it needs to.

Mechanically: it gives players choices for how to express their interpretation of events, and how Alex is processing them; it also, even more importantly, uses the 'council' as a way of expressing how the other characters have reacted to the choices the player has made throughout the game, and contributes to how this climax feels. We're given a 'big choice' at the end of the interaction that doesn't actually change the plot, or even the scene, really (it just affects like one line of dialogue Alex says right then) and yet BOTH choices work so well as a conclusion, it's literally up to your interpretation and it gives you an in-game way to express that.

Thematically: the use of the council reinforces the game's focus on community; and the way the presentation of the scene stays locked in on Alex and Jed's expressions reinforces its focus on emotion - not to mention that the entire scene also acts as a way to showcase how Alex has come to accept, understand, and process her own emotions while Jed, even THEN, right fucking at the moment of his demise, is trying to mask his emotions, to hide them and suppress them and forget them (something the game has already expressed subtly by way of his negative emotions which would give him away NOT being visible to Alex even despite her power).

Narratively: we are given a confrontation that makes sense and feels edifying to see play out after everything we've experienced and learned. We see Alex use her powers in a new and exciting way that further builds the empowering mood the climax is going for and adds a cinematic drama to it. No matter what decisions the player makes, Alex has agency in her own climax, we experience her making a decision, using her power, asserting herself now that she has gone through the growth this narrative has put her through. Alex gets to resolve her shit, gets to have her moment to really shine and experience the end of a character arc in this narrative.

Without taking extra time to design the game around these pillars, the finale wouldn't be so strong. If they didn't give us enough opportunities to interact with the townspeople, their presence in the end wouldn't matter, but everyone who has a say in the council is someone we get an entire scene (at least one) dedicated to interacting with them and their emotions. If they didn't implement choices in the scene itself, it would still be powerful but we wouldn't feel as involved, it'd be more passive. If they didn't showcase Alex's power, we might be left underwhelmed, but they do so in a way that actually works in the context through how they have chosen to present it, while also just tonally heightening the climax by having this drastic lighting going on. If they didn't have the council involved, we'd lose the theming of community. If they didn't have the foil of Alex/Jed and how they have each processed their emotions, we'd miss that key component. And if we didn't have such detailed facial animations, the presentation just wouldn't be as effective.

Ryan/Steph are a little bit like, in this awkward sideline spot during the climax? Steph always supports you, and Ryan supports you or doubts you conditionally, which is unsurprising but also ties into the themes of Ryan having grown up woven into this community, and Steph being once an outsider who has found a place within it. They're still there, either way, which is important. The only relevant characters who aren't present are more supporting characters like Riley, Ethan, and Mac. Ethan being the only one of those who gets an entire 'super emotions' scene, but that also marks the end of his arc and role in the story, so...it's fine. Mac and Riley are less important and younger, as well, and have their own side story stuff you have more direct influence on, too.

But damn, ya'll, this climax just works so well. It especially stands out to me given just how rarely I experience a conclusion/climax that feels this rewarding.

And then after that we get a wonderful montage of a theoretical life Alex might live on to experience. Her actions don't overthrow a conglomerate billionaire company. She doesn't even save a town, really. If the entire council thinks you're full of shit, Jed still confesses either way - because it's not up to the council whether he does this, it's because of Alex, regardless of player choice. Honestly, even after a playthrough where I made most choices differently from my wife, there weren't really many changes to that montage at the end. It'd have been great if it felt more meaningfully different, but maybe it can be. Even if not, the design intent is there and the execution still works. It's a really nice way to end the story, especially since it's not even a literal montage but one Alex imagines - again, her processing what she's gone through, what she desires, expressed externally for us to see it. And for once, the actual final 'big decision' in a game of this type manages to be organic, make sense, and feel good and appropriate either way. You choose to either have Alex stay in Haven Springs and continue building her life there, or you can choose to have her leave and try to be an indie musician, with the events of the game being yet another chunk of her life to deal with and move on from (I haven't really touched on it, but music, especially as a way to express and process emotions, is a recurring thing, much like photography was in the original game, or Sean's illustrations in LiS2). For once, a climactic 'pick your ending' decision that doesn't feel shitty. It's pretty rare for this genre, honestly.

I could - and already have, and likely will - have so much more to say about this game and its details, but I really wanted to focus on touching upon a main element that has left me impressed: the way the entire game feels designed. It feels intentionally constructed but in a way that reinforces what it is trying to express as a story. It's not just trying to make people cry for the sake of 'emotions.' It is a game literally about emotions and it comes to a conclusion in a way that is clearly saying something positive and empowering about empathy and self-acceptance.

Storytelling is a craft, like any other, and it entails deliberate choices and decisions that can objectively contribute to how effective a story is for its intended audience.

A good story isn't something you find, after all.

It's something you build.

[cylonalyna]

Alyna watches Xena! S01x01 – Sins of the Past

Beware. For the road is long and full of spoilers… I mean, if a 25 years old show can be spoiled. But fair warning.

I was never a fan of Hercules so when I watched the pilot I didn’t know what Xena’s back story was and that it was Hercules who convinced her to change her ways. And because I didn’t know that, I thought Xena was just this ex-evil warrior who changed her ways because of some reason known to her. Anyway, I remember watching this episode out of boredom and thinking it’s just a female version of Hercules, but oh boy, was I wrong. Thankfully. And this thing here was supposed to be short but I made a very long recap of the episode. Sorry not sorry, I’m gonna be making recaps of the series. Yes, every single episode… Not regularly... And it's gonna be long… Deal with it.

And maybe read it and let me know what you think. :)

Oh, and if there are any grammatical or punctuation errors also let me know. English isn't my first language so there might be some things to fix. :)

We start with Xena is going through some burned village reminiscing on her past when she was just killing, pillaging and burning villages… And people too, I guess. And then there’s this boy coming out of a burned house asking for food. And when Xena asks him where his parents are, he says Xena killed them. He describes her attack as if the goddess herself showed up and fucked the village up for no reason and Xena is all like:

And it’s really one of the best moments of a pilot, because we’re shown flashback of the attack so even without watching Hercules and meeting Xena there we can see she used to be a bad bitch. So before leaving she gives the kid some bread and cheese so he could hide in his burned house and eat something before he dies of some sickness, gets killed, is eaten by wild animals in search for food etc. Brilliant plan boy, you’re a prodigy.

So then we have the scene where Xena digs a hole and puts her armor her sword and chakram there and frankly, she’s not really a clean lady since there’s still blood and some meat pieces on her chakram.

*rule #1 - wash your weapons from enemies intestines*

And suddenly, a whole bunch of villagers is chased by some warlord taken straight from Mad Max movie. Xena observes the situation, the Mad Max warlord says he’s gonna get the girls (men, smh) and then this blonde girl is all like “take me and leave everyone” and warlords are like “lmfao, nope” and Xena is all like:

*Carless Whisper saxophone solo intensifies*

Because frankly, who wouldn’t be? I know I had the same reaction to Gabrielle so I get Xena. I totally get it.

So when the warlord wants to whip Gabrielle for being insubordinate Xena suddenly jumps into action and starts kicking ass. We get backflips, kicks, punches and a really awesome action sequence until Xena is hit in the head (because she was watching if Gabrielle was safe and it got her distracted. Again, totally understandable).

Men are standing there groaning “argh, grr, rghhg” or something like that and then BOOM! Xena takes out her sword from the hole and with a laugh starts fighting them. And you can see how much fun she has. She kicks warlords’ asses and realizes they’re from Draco so she tell them to say hello from Xena. But who’s Draco? What does he do? Is he more evil then Xena? We don’t know! And… opening!

In a time of ancient gods, warlords… Well, you know it.

So later on Xena is in this small village surrounded by the villagers and Gabrielle is fawning over her and the whole situation, and Gabrielle’s father comes in being all like “thanks for saving us, but now GTFO” and this tall dude behind him wants to take Gabrielle. But Gabrielle is all like “dude, I know I’m supposed to marry you against my will and then die in childbirth or of boredom, but I’m not gonna listen to you. GTFO”. So when he leaves, Gabrielle begs Xena to take her with her. Xena being stoic and supposedly unmoved by Gabrielle words of course disagrees, because “she works alone” and… Then she tells Gabrielle she’s going to Amphipolis, because OF COURSE Gabrielle wouldn’t try and follow her. Nope. Not at all. And she goes like “don’t follow me, you don’t wanna make me mad, do you?” and of course Gabrielle is all like “yeah, no sure, I get it” but then is of course “meh, she’s not that scary. I just need a plan!”

So we move to Draco’s camp where he’s without shirt exposing his bare chest, being all handsome and shit, and being badass when catching almost four arrows at once. But then he’s sort of colorblind… I mean he notices the color of the arrow that wounded him but can’t see who has green arrows when the dude’s arrows are visible from behind his back...

*seriously Draco…*

Anyway, later he’s alone and Xena sneaks in and they have the whole who's tougher bitch, which is Xena of course, and she asks him to leave the village alone (because of her future wife or something) and Draco’s all like “yeah, sure… If you join me” and when Xena says she can’t join Draco, being a typical man he asks why. And we get this really awesome scene where Xena dramatically turns her back, stares at nothing and says she’s going home. OH, DRAMA!

So Draco becomes even a bigger drama queen than Xena and tells our warrior saying he’s dreamt of being in love with her or… fighting in battle or whatever, can’t remember, but Xena turns and Draco goes all soft and says he’ll spare those villagers. But he also asks Xena what's she looking for at home. Being still in drama mode he tells her that when he tried to come home his dad beat the shit out of him with a blacksmith’s hammer. And he survived that. Damn, he IS badass! I mean, have you people ever seen a blacksmith hammer?!

*10/10 wouldn't recommend this an educational tool*

Meanwhile, Gabrielle wants to escape home in the middle of the night and while sneaking out she… Hits strategically placed table waking up her sister Lila. Gabrielle explains to her she needs to follow Xena because she’s in lo… She wants to be a warrior like her and that she doesn’t love Perdicus and it’s her destiny. So Lila being a supportive sister is all like “Go, chase your girlf…. Dreams! Just do it!” and Gabrielle leaves.

*Lila being a supportive sister*

It’s daylight and Xena is riding Argo when suddenly her horse stops all afraid. So Xena gets off the horse that suddenly runs away and… The Blind Cyclops shows up with Draco’s dad’s blacksmith’s hammer! (I honestly don’t know if I used Saxon Genitive in the right way, but I hope you get the meaning). Xena is all like “Fuuuck, that’s a big hammer!” which makes the Blind Cyclops even more badass than he already is, but she stands to fight and humiliates him by dropping his pants. He starts bawling like a baby and Xena leaves him and continues her journey to Amphipolis, because she has no time to deal with Cyclops drama.

But Draco is plotting against Xena. He decides to attack Amphipolis and pretend it was Xena who told him to do it. Plot thickens, you guys.

Gabrielle is afraid of bridges… And gets caught by…Yes, you guessed right. The Blind Cyclops. But being a smart girl she says she’s out here to find and kill Xena because… And here we have very subtexty dialogue:

C: “How’s the young thing like you is gonna kill Xena?”

G: “That’s the point. She’d never let a man get close enough to do her. At least not that kind of do her. But a young, innocent looking girl like me, I’ll catch her totally off guard…

*You sure will, Gabrielle. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)*

At the same time, Xena is being followed by Draco’s warlords. They’re dumb enough to think she doesn’t know so she goes all ninja on them, fingers the Mad Max warlord… I mean, she cuts the blood to his body… Pervs. ;) And when she learns about the plan she leaves to stop the invasion.

In the next scene, Gabrielle is chilling out on the road when some old dude stops and tells her to GTFO, because she’s blocking the only route to Amphipolis. So Gabrielle convinces him to take her with him and the old dude agrees.

So while Gabrielle and the old man are traveling on the only route to Amphipolis, Xena is taking a detour through the hills for dramatic effect or something. Basically, New Zealand… I mean Greece is a beautiful place so why not show it, right? Right?

She meets those peasant women singing Bulgarian…  I mean Greek chants and rides through them, but they don’t give a shit being too into chanting and putting on stacks of… Hay, I guess. Meh, whatever.

So Xena reaches Amhipolis and goes into a tavern to drink wine and sleep with beautiful women. But unfortunately it’s not that kind of a tavern and there’s no wine and beautiful women to sleep with. All she meets are angry people, silence and… wait for it… her mother, Cyrene!

Cyrene grabs Xena’s sword and tells her she’s not welcomed there and she should GTFO. Xena wants to rally people against Draco but Cyrene is against and she tells Xena she’d rather die and that she’s not her mother. And it’s a rather powerful stuff, because we only know glimpses of Xena’s past so we don’t really know how big her crimes are. Of course burning one village and killing peasants is a big no no, but Xena is too big of a character to be hated for such a minor offense. Anyway, villagers in the tavern also tell Xena to GTFO so she does.

Draco is pissed that Mad Max warlord told Xena about his plans and tells him to pick a weapon. Sadly it’s not Draco’s father’s blacksmith’s hammer because that’s been stolen by the Blind Cyclops, but a simple spear. Still, Draco proves to be truly awesome by kicking Mad Max warlord’s ass and killing him while telling new plans to his people. Truly, he was a great choice for a pilot.

In the morning, Xena comes back to the tavern looking around hoping to find some wine and beautiful ladies to sleep with, but to her disappointment there are still none. But her sword is there. And her mom is there. Oh boy, this tension between them could cut diamonds in half. But we get a bonding moment where Cyrene and Xena open old wounds so they could heal, and Xena tells her mother she might not be able to set things right, but she’s gonna spend the rest of her life to try. It’s another great moment in this show where we see Xena in her vulnerable state and not all powerful and strong. And this moment is ruined by villagers coming into the tavern saying Xena’s army is burning fields to which Xena answers they’re lying, Cyrene feels all hurt thinking it was all a ruse and leaves, and villagers start throwing rocks at our warrior princess.

But then Gabrielle comes to the rescue! Because Gabrielle has a natural talent to talk her way out of troubles, she uses it to save Xena. She uses a cunning bluff of “if you hurt bad guy’s girlfriend imagine how pissed he’ll be”. So the villagers reluctantly agree and decide to not commit murder. After a small talk Xena takes Gabrielle on her horse and takes her to her dead brother. Because, you know, there’s no better start of a romance than a visit at the crypt.

So Xena is talking to his dead brother saying she’s lost but that she’s gonna be ok, but that she’s alone and then Gabrielle shows up saying she’s not. And by the way that they’re looking at each other we’re to believe these two weren’t into each other from the beginning? Please.

*they’ve known each other for like 1 hour and we get those looks already? So straight indeed*

Meanwhile, the villagers are waiting for Draco to make a deal, but when he shows up he’s threatening to destroy everything and kill everyone unless they tell him where Xena is. And this is another great moment for Draco, because he really is a scary and ruthless dude and I really wish he was more in this show then just 3 episodes. It was a wasted character, imo.

Anyway, while threatening the leader to kill him, Xena shows up and Draco makes fun of her asking about the homecoming. Again, he tries to convince Xena to join him and goes all Palpatine saying she should “celebrate her dark side”, but Xena is all like “pfft, fuck off and let’s fight to the death”. Draco tells her to choose weapons, but Xena leaves the choice to Draco. Now, Draco being a really smart guy and someone who knows how good Xena is with swords, chooses staffs. I’m sure he believes it’ll give him advantage or at least even oit the odds. Xena chooses the conditions and her conditions are to fight on a scaffolding. The first person to touch the ground is gonna die. Draco agrees and tells his people that whoever falls first is to be killed.

Doing a flip with the help of his people he gets to a scaffolding and grabs his staff. Xena is way more of a showgirl. She hits the dude with his staff and when he leans down she jumps on his back and then on a head of another warlord and jumps to meet her opponent.

They start fighting. It’s an even fight and Draco proves to be a worthy opponent. Soon Xena has to fight to stay on the bamboo scaffolding as it starts to fall off. The archers prepare to shoot, Cyrene shows up and everyone is thinking if she’s gonna fall. But no, Xena standing on one bamboo stick starts hitting bamboos under Draco’s feet to make him back out and leave him vulnerable. But Draco stands tough and very soon he manages to make Xena almost fall again. She manages to hang on her staff, her legs barely touching the ground. Cyrene starts panicking, being all teary, because, come on, she’s a mom. No matter how pissed our moms are at us, they worry 24/7.

Draco starts hiting Xena’s hands wanting her to let go and fall, asking her why she would die for the people that hate her. But Xena grabs Draco’s staff with her feet and doing a truly awesome backflip she manages to stand on the scaffolding again attacking him. Draco almost falls but jumps on people’s heads and give Xena a signal to join him.

And the same villagers who earlier denied Xena her wine and beautiful women to sleep with, and wanted her dead are now supporting her… Literally. She manages to stand on the arms of one person and attacks Draco. They do backflips, kicks, punches and all that for a few minutes and then with one swift kick to the chest Draco falls down on the ground and Xena jumps on his chest looking down upon him to let him know he’s just a little bitch and not a match to her skills. Xena promises to spare Draco if he leaves the valley and he agrees.

But one of his warlords decides to sneakily attack Xena from behind. Gabrielle’s warns her, but before the warrior can react Draco throws his knife at him. After all, Draco may be a ruthless warlord, but he’s honorable.

After the fight Xena is preparing to leave when Cyrene shows up and hugs Xena, who asks again for forgiveness and is, of course, given that. It's a truly awesome moment in this pilot.

But, and honestly I have no idea why, Xena doesn’t stay in the tavern for wine and beautiful women to sleep with. Maybe there is no wine and beautiful women to sleep with after all. Instead, Xena starts a fire near some woods when she hears some noise and goes into a warrior mode. But, as it turns out, it’s just Gabrielle saying she wanted to follow Xena without her noticing, but she couldn’t start a fire and it’s cold and there are mosquitoes looking lkke eagles or something.

Xena wants to send her back home, but Gabrielle says she won’t go. There’s a talk about not belonging there and Xena seems to understand Gabrielle completely. So when she gives Gabrielle a blanket we get one of the most beautiful moments in the pilot.

*couldn't find gif so you're stuck with bad screenshot*

And in the morning we see Xena and Gabrielle travelling to new adventures to right wrongs, drink wine and… Oh forget it.

This episode is all kinds of awesomeness. It’s a great introduction to a character of Xena even to those, like me, who didn’t know her from Hercules. It has tons of very well choreographed fights, amazing music and it’s a rreally strong pilot that makes you wanna see more.

10/10

[fly-pow-bye]

What’s Airing On Cartoon Network? (July 2021)

While we’re in a rather empty spot for the network, Cartoon Network decided to add another show that was made for HBO Max to its television lineup: Looney Tunes Cartoons! Also, The Fungies continue their airing on television, and there’s new episodes of Total Dramarama and DC Super Hero Girls. More after the break.

Craig of the Creek

For completion’s sake, I’ll list the Craig of the Creek episodes here too.

June 28th:

Capture the Flag Part 1: The Candy - When mysterious circumstances cause issues at the Trading Tree, Craig tries to save the day! (10:00 AM)

June 29th:

Capture the Flag Part 2: The King - The Creek gets help from an unlikely friend. (10:00 AM)

June 30th:

Capture the Flag Part 3: The Legend - Craig goes in search of answers, and finds a legend. (10:00 AM)

July 1st:

Capture the Flag Part 4: The Plan - Craig puts a plan into motion to save the Creek. (10:00 AM)

July 2nd:

Capture the Flag Part 5: The Game - It all comes down to this, the fate of the Creek is at stake! (10:00 AM)

DC Super Hero Girls

July 4th:

#AngerManagement - When Jess coerces Kara into addressing her anger management issues, Supergirl's superhero abilities become seriously compromised! (8:00 AM)

#HappyBirthdayZee - Zatanna makes a birthday wish that forces her to confront the dark side of her magic. (8:15 AM)

July 11th:

#TheGreenRoom - When Jessica is faced with a Green Lantern Corps disciplinary hearing, Hal appoints himself to be her Peer Advocate. (8:00 AM)

#EnterNightSting - Karen is given a mission to prevent the apocalypse by DeathSting, a super-cool future version of herself. (8:15 AM)

July 18th:

#WorldsFinest - When PR whiz Max Lord tells Batgirl and Supergirl he can improve their image by doing publicity stunts, the two friends forget what being a hero is really about. (8:00 AM)

#WorkingStiff - After Babs hooks Karen up with a job at the Burrito Bucket, the two heroes encounter a new villain, the scourge of the fast-food underworld, the Condiment King! (8:15 AM)

July 25th:

#MultipliciZee - Zee magically duplicates herself so she can shirk work and watch TV. Things get out of hand when her copies start to make copies of themselves! (8:00 AM)

#TheMinus - Diana receives her first ever A-minus and becomes convinced that she needs to work harder, however, in order to do so, she resorts to rather drastic measures. (8:15 AM)

The Fungies

July 9th:

Sir Tree's Boy - Seth agrees to take care of Sir Tree's wooden boy, Boy Joy, but quickly pawns him off on Mertha. When Seth discovers that Sir Tree needs his boy back in order to survive, he must stage a heist to steal Boy Joy back before it's too late! (8:00 AM)

Commander Beefy - Seth, eager to explore the stars and find a fellow explorer, sends a signal to space. But the explorer who receives the message, Commander Beefy, has his own shady plans for Earth... (8:15 AM)

July 16th:

The Fanciest Fungie - Seth, frustrated that the Fancies are too caught up in the Fanciest Fancy pageant to listen to his warning about a fungus-eating bacteria, enters the pageant to get his message out. But when he gets sucked into the pageant, he'll have to face the consequences of getting distracted. (8:00 AM)

Snake It to the Limit - When Seth agrees to let an athletic snake replace his arm so he can finally be good at volleyball, he learns he doesn't need a fancy snake arm to make his teammates happy; he just needs to try. (8:15 AM)

July 23th:

Nevin's Cocoon - After a beautiful statue makes Nevin self-conscious about his own looks, Seth helps seal Nevin in a cocoon so that he may turn into a beautiful butterfly. (8:00 AM)

Cool Kids - When Pascal becomes obsessed with a group of cool kids, Seth promises to use his science skills to help Pascal become cool. But is coolness as cool as it seems? (8:15 AM)

July 30th:

Mermove Out - Seth is having a hard time sharing a room with messy Pascal and needs a change. But instead of being honest about the situation, Seth makes Pascal a mermaid tail so that his brother can finally move out-into the ocean! (8:00 AM)

Happy Birthday Nancy - Seth wants his mom to have the best birthday ever, so he creates his own currency in order to buy her an expensive gift. But he learns a little too late that counterfeiting is a crime, putting Nancy's birthday at risk of being ruined. (8:15 AM)

Looney Tunes Cartoons

July 5th:

Curse of the Monkeybird/Marvin Flag Gag: Deflating Planet/Harm Wrestling - Daffy Duck and Porky Pig search for hidden treasure. No one messes with arm-wrestling champ Yosemite Sam - until Bugs Bunny comes along. (9:00 AM)

Big League Beast/Hole Gag: Mini Elmer/Firehouse Frenzy -When Bugs overstays his welcome, an evil scientist unleashes Gossamer to get rid of him. Daffy Duck and Porky Pig make lousy firefighters. (9:15 AM)

July 6th:

Boo! Appetweet/Hole Gag: Plunger/Bubble Dum - Sweet victory turns into a nightmare when Sylvester fears he's haunted by Tweety's ghost. Daffy Duck faces off with a pesky piece of gum. (9:00 AM)

Pain in the Ice/Tunnel Vision/Pool Bunny - A hungry Sylvester sets his sights on Tweety, the ice skater. On a scorching hot day, Bugs Bunny makes himself at home in Elmer Fudd's pool. (9:15 AM)

July 7th:

Pest Coaster/Rhino Ya Don't - Bugs tries to ride a roller coaster, but Yosemite Sam is determined to stop him. At the zoo, Sylvester's lunch plans are foiled by a rhino. (9:00 AM)

Buzzard School/Marvin Flag Gag: Giant Alien Mouth/Wet Cement - Bugs Bunny enrolls Beaky Buzzard in Rabbit Hunting 101. Daffy wreaks havoc on Porky's wet cement. (9:15 AM)

July 8th:

Siberian Sam/Hole Gag: Fishing Pole/Fleece and Desist/Marvin Flag Gag: Mirror/Split Screen Marvin - In need of a new hat, Siberian Sam feasts his eyes on Bugs Bunny. Sam Sheepdog protects his herd from a hungry Ralph Wolf. (9:00 AM)

Grilled Rabbit/Cactus if You Can/Shower Shuffle - Elmer Fudd interrogates Bugs about a theft. Wile E. Coyote's plan to catch the Road Runner gets prickly. Daffy and Porky have shower troubles. (9:15 AM)

July 9th:

Overdue Duck/Hole Gag: Bees/Vincent Van Fudd - At the library, Porky Pig tries to silence a troublemaking Daffy Duck. Bugs Bunny interrupts Elmer Fudd's attempt to be a great artist. (9:00 AM)

Hare Restoration/TNT Trouble/Plumbers Quack - A self-interested Bugs gives Elmer Fudd dating advice. Wile E. Coyote runs into some dynamite problems. Elmer's leaky sink is no match for Daffy. (9:15 AM)

July 12th:

Daffuccino/Hole Gag: Moving Hole/Kitty Livin - Before his new coffee shop goes from grand opening to grand closing, Porky must impress an influential customer. Sylvester may have swallowed more than he can chew when he manages to trap Tweety... inside his stomach! (9:00 AM)

Chain Gangster/Telephone Pole Gag: Sylvester Car Jack Lift/Falling for It - Two bank robbers need Bugs' help to break out of jail. Daffy convinces Porky to go skydiving but forgets one important little thing... (9:15 AM)

July 13th:

Taziator/Marvin Flag Gag: Little Martian/Climate Control - Bugs faces off against Taz in a Roman coliseum. Wile E. Coyote orders a weather control kit, but his chances of catching the Road Runner remain cloudy. (9:00 AM)

Lepre-conned/Flag Won't Stay Straight/Brave New Home - Bugs is looking for Hawaii but finds Ireland and an angry leprechaun instead. Porky's new home has all the modern amenities anyone could hope for, including a computerized assistant - but the voice recognition software could use an update. (9:15 AM)

July 14th:

The Case of Porky's Pants/Fully Vetted - Detective Daffy takes on the case of Porky's missing pants. Tweety's trip to the veterinarian's office gives Sylvester the perfect opportunity for a lunchtime treat. (9:00 AM)

E-Rabbitcator/ Planet Split in 2/The Sales Duck - Bugs must outsmart a new technological foe. Elmer is ready for bed, but persistent salesman Daffy stands in the way of a good night's rest. (9:15 AM)

July 15th:

Pitcher Porky/Cherry Picker/Duck Duck Boom - Benchwarmer Porky finally gets his chance to shine on the pitching mound. With the game on the line, he needs all the help he can get - even if it's from Daffy. Elmer sets his sights on Daffy, but who's hunting whom? (9:00 AM)

Postal Geist/Anvil/Fudds Bunny - Porky and Daffy deliver packages to a haunted manor. Elmer's plan to disguise himself as a bunny to lure Bugs out of his hole doesn't quite go as planned. (9:15 AM)

July 16th:

Shoe Shine-nanigans/Multiply and Conquer/Parky Pig - Elmer visits Daffy for a quick shoeshine. Porky is running late for movie night but finding a parking spot is easier said than done. (9:00 AM)

Shell Shocked/Daffy Dentist - Bugs races against Cecil Turtle for the "fastest thing in New York City" title. The only thing more painful than Porky's sore tooth is a visit to dentist Daffy. (9:15 AM)

Total Dramarama

July 5th:

Breaking Bite - Beth becomes the big dog on campus after she bites Duncan, but being the big dog is a dangerous thing, especially when you didn't actually bite anybody! (5:00 PM)

July 6th:

I Dream of Meanie - When Cody keeps screaming in his sleep Gwen and Duncan take a trip into Cody's dreams to see what is scaring him. (5:00 PM)

July 7th:

Squirrels Squirrels Squirrels - Courtney's attempt to make Chef a better teacher fails when a squirrel gets his hands on her mind-control device. (5:00 PM)

July 8th:

Say Hello to my Little Friends - After telling the kids he will not miss them over the long weekend Chef locks himself into the school and finds out he was very, very wrong. (5:00 PM)

July 12th:

WaterHose-Five - The hottest day of the year and a broke air conditioner leads to a water battle of epic proportions to determine who controls the garden hose. (5:00 PM)

July 13th:

Cody the Barbarian - Cody is set to inherit a video game empire from his long-lost uncle, but only if he and his friends have what it takes to conquer a fantastical live-action video game. (5:00 PM)

July 14th:

TP2: Judgement Bidet - When the city experiences a toilet paper shortage Beth and Harold investigate and discover it's their old rival Sewer Mike who is the mastermind behind it all. (5:00 PM)

July 15th:

Dial B for Birder - Harold uncovers a secret plot that Chef's new parrot is hatching and tries to save his teacher only to discover that Sugar figured it out before him. Or did she? (5:00 PM)

July 19th:

A Hole Lot of Trouble - When rain derails an outside game of catch someone suggests they play it inside. This prompts Izzy to lead the group through her wildly imaginative worst-case scenario. It's an adventure so scary that the kids many never play again. (5:00 PM)

July 20th:

A Tell Tale - After Owen's BBF, Noah, goes through a growth spurt, Owen fears losing his friend and takes drastic action. (5:00 PM)

July 21st:

Chews Wisely - When the floor ends up covered in gum on the day of a big bubble blowing contest, Sugar decides she might help herself win by helping her friends get stuck to the floor. (5:00 PM)

July 22nd:

A Dingo Ate My Duncan - When all their classmates are replaced with well-behaved Australian doppelgangers in a school exchange program, Lightning and Cody start getting suspicious. (5:00 PM)

[keyofjetwolf]

Pitch Me your thing!

HELLO HELLO MY SUNBEAMS. For most every category, there was an impressive turn-out for pitches, so I thought we’d utilize the weirdness of this year’s GIFTENING to give something new a try. The popular vote winner for each category will happen on the first day, but on the second, the winner will be chosen from YOUR PITCHES. Mostly those pitches will be to me. The exception is in Miscellaneous, where you’ll be pitching to my family, because what I want to do and what is most entertaining isn’t necessarily the same thing.

So! How will we do this thing? GLAD YOU ASKED. I’ll link you to a form in a minute with space for one pitch. Once you fill it out, you’ll be asked if you want to do another. There’s no limit to the number of pitches you can send in! But remember that if you submit multiple entries for the same category, you’ll basically be competing against yourself.

NOW WE’VE GOT SOME RULES FOR DOING THIS (which I mostly stole from Holligay, because I have no creativity this year). Please read them carefully! I’ll toss pitches that break any of these, and I’d rather your hard work not go to waste.

Pitch Me is open for your submissions from RIGHT NOW (22 December) through the very last day of this hellyear (31 December) at 11:59pm MT.

The thing you pitch must have come from what was nominated for THE GIFTENING 2020. (Full list of those nominations in every category below the cut on this post.)

Entries must be unsigned! I’m looking to chose based on the pitch alone, regardless of who submitted it.

The pitch itself must be 100 words or less. HAVE PITY ON ME I CAN ONLY CONSUME SO MUCH.

If you’d like to get some help, ideas, feedback, all that good stuff, the Discord is a FANTASTIC resource I encourage you to use.

HERE IS YOUR PITCH SUBMISSION LINK

And, as promised, below the cut you’ll find the list of all the nominees in every category you guys sent in this year. IT’S A LONG LIST HAVE FUN WITH THAT

Anime

A Place Further Than The Universe/Sora Yori mo Toi Basho Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) Action Heroine Cheer Fruits Aggretsuko Aho Girl Air Master Akuma No Riddle Alien Nine Angel Beats! Angelic Layer Appare-Ranman Aria Aria the Animation Arrietty/ The Secret World of Arrietty (Ghibli film) Ascendance of a Bookworm Azumamga Daioh Baccano! Beastars Black Cat Blood + (the series) Bloom Into You Blue Drop/Tenshitachino Gikyoku Bodacious Space Pirates (starting right where you left off) BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Boku no hero academia Bubblegum Crisis Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Cardcaptor Sakura Castlevania the Animated Series Cells at Work Chaos; Head Chihayafuru Code Geass cowboy Bebop Cyborg 009 Death Note Death Parade Deca-Dence Demon Girl Next Door Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) Diebuster: Aim For the Top 2 Dog Days dorohedoro Dot Hack//SIGN Dr. Stone Elfen Lied Erased (Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi) Escaflowne Excel Saga Fantastic Children Fate/Zero Flip Flappers Fresh Precure Fruits Basket 2019 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Ga rei Zero GaoGaiGar gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex Ghost Stories (dubbed) Girls' Last Tour Great Pretender Hoseki no Kuni/ Land of the Lustrous House of Five Leaves/ Saraiya Goyou Inari konkon koi iroha Interviews with Monster Girls Inuyasha Isekai Izakaya "Nobu" Jellyfish Princess/ Kuragehime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable Kaguya-sama Love Is War Kaleido Star Kannazuki no Miko Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Kemono Friends Kiki's Delivery Service Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You Kino's Journey/Kino no Tabi (2003) Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) Little Witch Academia Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files EP0 {"A Grave Keeper") Love is Hard for an Otaku Love Live! Sunshine!! lupin the 3rd part 4 Madoka: The Rebellion Movie Magic knight rayearth Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha March Comes in Like a Lion Mardock Scramble Master of Martial Hearts Mawaru Penguindrum Megalobox Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Mob Psycho 100 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) Monster Mushishi My Bride is a Mermaid (Seto No Hanayome) My Love Story!!! My Neighbor Totoro My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom My Roommate is a Cat NANA Naruto Natsume’s Book of Friends Neon Genesis Evangelion (hateblog) New Cutey Honey Nichijou Ōban Star-Racers One Piece Ouran High school Host club Outlaw Star Paranoia Agent Perfect Blue Please Save My Earth Pop Team Epic Pretty Cure Fresh Princess Jellyfish/ Kuragehime Princess Mononoke Princess Principal Princess Tutu Project A-Ko promised neverland (/yakusoku no neverland) Psycho-Pass Ranma 1/2 Re: Cutie Honey Re:Creators Read or Die (OAV) Red Garden relife Revolutionalry Girl Utena Rose of Versailles Ruroni Kenshin Sailor Moon Sailor Moon (viz dub) Samurai Champloo (english dub) Sarazanmai School Days School-Live! Scum's Wish Senki Zesshou Symphogear (listed as just "Symphogear" on Crunchyroll.) Serei no Moribito (Guardian of the Spirit) Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) Shirobako Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Smile Pretty Cure (Japanese original)/ Glitter Force (english adaptation) Snow White with the Red Hair Sound Euphonium Strawberry Panic (yuri) Sweetness and Lightning The Devil is a Part-timer The Devil Lady The disasterous life of saiki k (saiki kusuo no Sai Nan) The End of Evangelion (movie) the Promised Neverland The Twelve Kingdoms Tiger & Bunny Tokimeki Tonight ToraDora Tsubasa Chronicle Umineko When They Cry Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid Vinland Saga Violet Evergarden Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun Yona of the Dawn Yu Yu Hakusho Yugioh Duel Monster Yuki Yuna is a Hero Yuri Kuma Arashi Yuri On Ice!!! Zoids: Chaotic Century Zombie Land Saga

Non-Anime Animated

Adventure Time Amphibia Animainiacs (Original) Animaniacs (Reboot) Archie's Weird Mysteries As Told By Ginger Barbie Life in The Dreamhouse Batman the Animated Series Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Big Mouth Bob's Burgers Bojack Horseman Bravest Warriors Captain N: the Game Master Carmen Sandiego (1994) Carmen Sandiego (2019) Castlevania (Netflix) Cats Don't Dance Coco Courage the Cowardly Dog Craig of the Creek Cyber Six Daria Darkwing Duck Dragon Booster Dragons: Riders of Berk DuckTales (2017) Exo-Squad Fern Gully Fillmore! Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Futurama Gargoyles Glitch Techs Godzilla: The Animated Series Green Lantern the Animated Series Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане) Hey Arnold Hilda Infinity Train Iron Giant JEM Kim Possible Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts Legend of Zelda animated series (1989) Legion of Super-Heroes Liberty Kids Magical Girl Friendship Squad Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart The Legend of Korra Moominvalley Motorcity My Little Pony (Classic, NOT FiM) My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks Onyx Equinox Over the Garden Wall Over the Moon (2020 film) Owl House Primal Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Redwall Rise of the TMNT Roco's Modern Life Rugrats RWBY Samurai Jack Seis Manos She-Ra (1985) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Sonic Boom Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Star vs. the Forces of Evil Strange Magic Super Mario Brothers Super Show Superman: The Animated Series Teen Titans The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo The Animals of Farthing Wood The Dragon Prince The Hollow The Legend of Tarzan (TV series) The Magic School Bus (1994) The Mysterious Cities of Gold The Pirate Fairy (Disney Fairies) The Powerpuff Girls (1998) The Real Ghostbusters Thundercats (1985) Thundercats (2011) Transformers: Prime Tuca and Bertie Twelve Forever Undone Venture Bros Wakko's Wish Wakfu Wander Over Yonder We Bare Bears (TV) Winx Club Wreck-It Ralph (2012) X-Men Evolution X-Men: The Animated Series Xiaolin Showdown

Live Action

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 28 Days Later 3rd Rock from the Sun A Series of Unfortunate Events American Horror Story: Asylum Babysitter's Club (2020) Batman (the old Adam West version) Better Call Saul Black Mirror Blackbeard's Ghost (Peter Ustinov) Boston Legal Boy Meets World Boys Over Flowers Bromance (Taiwanese tv series) Brooklyn 99 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cadfael Cagney and Lacey Charmed (2018) Chopped Cleopatra 2525 Cloak and Dagger Clue (1985) Community Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Dead Like Me Dead To Me Deadwood Death Note (Netflix) Derry Girls Dimension 20 - The Unsleeping City Doctor Who (New) Doom Patrol Dracula's Daughter (1936) Escape to the Chateau Farscape Fingersmith Galavant Godzilla (2014) Gokushufudo (2020 Japanese TV drama) Golden Girls Good Omens H20: Just Add Water (somewhere in seasons 1-2) Happy New Year Harley Quinn movie Hateblog a REALLY STRAIGHT soap opera. Haunting of Bly Manor His Dark Materials (HBO series) Holes Hot Fuzz House Inception Inside No. 9 Iron Chef America Joan of Arcadia Julie and the Phantoms Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Kamen Rider Build Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Fourze Killing Eve Knives Out Letterkenny Leverage Little Women (2019) Lucifer Matlock Majisuka Gakuen MASH Merlin Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Money Talks (1997 film) Motherland: Fort Salem Murder She Wrote Mythbusters Nailed It! Never Have I Ever Once Upon a Time Orphan Black Pen 15 PGSM Pi (1998) Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical Puppy Bowl Pushing Daisies Rome (hateblog) Russian Doll Sabrina Sense8 Sera Myu: Un Nouveau Voyage Shameless Sierra Burgess Smallville So Weird Star Trek: TOS (or their films) Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Trek: Voyager Stargate Atlantis Suckerpunch Supernatural (out of context speedrun the last three episodes) Sweetheart Switched at Birth Tall Girl Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles The Addams Family (1964) The Big Flower Fight The Booth at the End The Bride With White Hair The Crown The Fresh Prince of Bel Air The Good Place The Kissing Booth The L Word The Librarians The Magicians The Muppet Show The Pregnancy Pact The Room The Steve Harvey Show The Stranded The Untamed The Witcher The Wolfman (1941) Torchwood Twilight Zone (original) Twin Peaks Ultraman Nexus Umbrella Academy Van Helsing Warehouse 13 Warrior Nun What We Do In The Shadows (tv show) Will & Grace Wynonna Earp X-Men 2: X-Men United Xena: Warrior Princess

Miscellaneous

Alpha Flight #41-62 Anime music dance party, the logistics of which are to be determined! Ask Hot Pocket and/or Mina-pup AskSharknado: Giftening Edition Attempt to make French macaroons Commentary on old Goggles Critical Role Crowdsourced: A Black Mirror-style day where Jetty has to ask what her choices are of the audience for everything! I give you a menu, you decide what she has for dinner? What does she wear? Does she walk on the track or do the eliptical? Does she go to a movie with Doc or play a video game with Mike? Can be done alongside other stuff. Doodle Day Dramatic readings of fan fiction! Drunk History (or whatever your favorite subject would be) with Jet Wolf! Drunk Sailor Moon Exorcising Closet Ghost Fic Prompts Day Figuarts Day! (Not specifically freeing anyone, just various fun poses and such) Guess the plot of a show based on its opening Her Shim-Cheong (manhwa) House of X/Powers of X Hubby's Choice IDW Jem comics liveblog Intros Only (watch show openings, give commentary, guess what show is about, etc.) Jackbox Games Jet Wolf paints along with Bob Ross Jet and Doc go to Heaven/Hell, respectively: Jet gets to write reams of words about the awesomeness of Rei Hino and Doc has to read all of them and say ONLY NICE THINGS. Jet does Tiktok dances Jet Liveblogs Holligay: A Nature Documentary Jet Ranks Sailor Moon Image Songs Jet Reads Goosebumps Jet Reads Legion of Super-Heroes Jet redesigns the Wolf and Gay offices! Jet shows off her knitting Jet Wolf attempts to recreate scenes from Sailor Moon with Mina and Hot Pocket and/or whatever is in the house Jet Wolf reacts to Sailor Moon tiktoks (in blog form) Jet Wolf reads Love and Rockets. Jet Wolf reads the Jem comics by IDW Jet Wolf reviews her old top 100 Sailor Moon moments list Jet Wolf talks about Archie Comics Jet Wolf talks about each cel she owns and why they are so awesome. Jet Wolf writes Poetry Jet Wolf's Top 5's Jet, Hubby and/or family play board games Jetty Rants and Raves Jet Wolf tries to crack the Gravity Falls Codes Kiwi Blitz on Hiveworks Let's Play on Webtoon Liveblog: Favorite X-Men comic book arcs Livestream Pathfinder one-shot LOONA (Collection of music videos with an ongoing story/universe about GIRLS who are FRIENDS and SAVE THE UNIVERSE) Lore Olympus on Webtoon Mike regales us with "the story of your love" while you get increasingly embarrassed Mina and Hot Pocket day - liveblog like a nature documentary Mister Tsukino Does His Taxes and the Household Budget (Sailor Moon fan comic by Shadowjack) Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake Not So Shoujo Love Story on Webtoon Pitch Mishaps for Untitled Senshi Game (it is a lovely day in Juuban, and you are a Horrible Minako.) Pitching hubby's favorite media at (readers/holligay/jill/momigay) Playing with dolls (because how could 3 women not have any dolls between them) Re-Take By Studio Kimigabuchi (All Ages Version) Real or Fake Anime (people submit descriptions of anime you guess if it is an anime that actually exists or not) Reviewing succulents Scavenger hunt! Not entirely sure how it would work, maybe folks could send in asks for you to show things like your favorite Rei Hino object, or the thing that's been with you the longest, etc. sewing/knitting/baking tutorial Share or rant about a Roman history topic Sleepless Domain on Hiveworks Talking to Docholligay 2: Doc Harder (basically you talking to Doc's future womb evictee while still in there and telling them stuff like say the greatness of Rei Hino) The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess (manhwa) The Polar Bear Plunge--I take Jetty to our finest Lake Elmo in January, and she jumps in! Note: THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS, WORRYWARTS. I'll bring a life preserver, I've done it before, and I would do it with her if I weren't pregnant. The Senshi Helpline--The Senshi, taking your advice questions, here and now! The World of Moral Reversal Virtual knitting/crafting circle! Let us craft and chat with you! What-If #24 Gwen Stacy Lived Worm the web serial Write an explanation for a drawing we send you! Yuri Hell's Kitchen

[aion-rsa]

HBO Max New Releases: May 2021

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Do not adjust your WiFi settings. No, you are not experiencing a severe case of Deja Streaming-vu. HBO Max’s list of new releases for May 2021 are indeed highlighted by two very recent WarnerMedia hits.

For starters, Tenet finally makes its long-awaited HBO Max this month. Mark your calendars as May 1 is the day that you can finally watch Christopher Nolan’s latest cerebral thriller. Of course, Tenet already had its theatrical release, but obviously that was not really an option for many of us. In addition to Tenet, Wonder Woman 1984 makes its triumphant return to HBO Max this month on May 13. The Wonder Woman sequel already premiered on HBO Max this past December, now it’s getting a second run on the streamer.

In terms of newer originals, May is relatively light for HBO Max. The Jean Smart-starring comedy Hacks premieres on May 13. The latest Adventure Time: Distant Lands special arrives on May 20. May also contains two prominent finales with The Nevers closing out part 1 of its first season on May 15 and Mare of Easttown wrapping up its case on May 30.

It’s also not a big month for Warner Bros. theatrical releases. The only one to speak of is Those Who Wish Me Dead on May 14. Thankfully that will be augmented by some library titles on May 1 including The Interview, Jackie Brown, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Here is everything else to expect in May 2021.

HBO Max New Releases – May 2021

TBA Gomorrah, Season 4 (Max Original) Oslo, (HBO Original Film)

May 1 17 Again, 2009 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012 (HBO) Anaconda, 1997 Anger Management, 2003 (HBO) Baby Boom, 1987 (HBO) Barry Lyndon, 1975 Black Hawk Down, 2001 The Cable Guy, 1996 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005 Cursed, 2005 (HBO) Daddy Day Care, 2003 Darkest Hour, 2017 (HBO) Darkness, 2004 (Extended Version) (HBO) The Dirty Dozen, 1967 Dumb & Dumber, 1994 Employee Of The Month, 2006 (HBO) Firehouse Dog, 2007 (HBO) Flight of the Intruder, 1991 (HBO) Free Willy, 1993 Frida, 2002 (HBO) Generation Por Que? (HBO) God’s Not Dead, 2014 (HBO) Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987 (HBO) Happy Feet Two, 2011 Happy Feet, 2006 Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man, 1991 (HBO) Hercules, 1983 (HBO) Igby Goes Down, 2002 (HBO) Igor, 2008 (HBO) Insomnia, 2002 (HBO) The Interview, 2014 Jackie Brown, 1997 Kansas, 1988 (HBO) Magic Mike, 2012 Menace II Society, 1993 Michael, 1996 (HBO) Mortal Kombat, 1995 Movie 43, 2013 (HBO) Muriel’s Wedding, 1995 (HBO) My Baby’s Daddy, 2004 (HBO) Mystery Date, 1991 (HBO) Norbit, 2007 (HBO) Para Rosa (For Rosa) (HBO) Precious, 2009 (HBO) Rabid, 1977 (HBO) Romance & Cigarettes, 2007 (HBO) Rosewater, 2014 (HBO) Rudy, 1993 Rush Hour 2, 2001 Rush Hour 3, 2007 Rush Hour, 1998 Save The Last Dance, 2001 (HBO) Save The Last Dance 2, 2006 (HBO) Senseless, 1998 (HBO) Separate Tables, 1958 (HBO) Serpico, 1974 (HBO) Serving Sara, 2002 (HBO) Summer Rental, 1985 (HBO) Tenet, 2020 (HBO) The Debt, 2010 (HBO) The Immigrant, 2014 (HBO) The Kingdom, 2007 (HBO) The Last Of The Finest, 1990 (HBO) The Perfect Man, 2005 (HBO) The Tuxedo, 2002 (HBO) The Wings Of The Dove, 1997 (HBO) The Witches Of Eastwick, 1987 (HBO) Tomcats, 2001 (HBO) Trust Me, 2014 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, 2012 Varsity Blues, 1999 (HBO) Welcome To Sarajevo, 1997 (HBO) When Harry Met Sally, 1989 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971 Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 (HBO) Words And Pictures, 2014 (HBO)

May 2 Uri and Ella, Season 1

May 3 300: Rise of an Empire, 2014 Pray, Obey, Kill — HBO Docu-Series Finale

May 6 Hunger, 2008 Legendary: Season 2 (Max Original) Take Me Out To The Ball Game, 1949 That Damn Michael Che — Max Original Series Premiere West Side Story — TCM CFF Opening Night, 1961

May 7 La Boda De Rosa (Rosa’s Wedding) (HBO)

May 8 Greenland, 2020 (HBO) Re:ZERO — Starting Life in Another World: Season 2, (Subtitled, Episodes 14-25) (Crunchyroll Collection)

May 9 Axios (HBO)

May 10 Jujutsu Kaisen: Season 1, (Subtitled, Episodes 13-24) (Crunchyroll Collection) Race for the White House: Season 2 The Crime of the Century — Two-Part Documentary Premiere (HBO)

May 13 Hacks — Max Original Series Premiere Wonder Woman 1984 — 2020 (HBO)

May 14 Those Who Wish Me Dead — Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021

May 15 The Personal History Of David Copperfield, 2020 (HBO) The Nevers: Part 1 Finale (HBO)

May 19 Apple & Onion, Season 2A

May 20 Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Together Again — Max Original The Big Shot with Bethenny — Max Original Season Finale Ellen’s Next Great Designer — Max Original Season Finale Territorio (Close Quarters) (HBO) This Is Life with Lisa Ling: Season 7

May 23 In Treatment: Season 4 Premiere (HBO)

May 25 Cinderella Man, 2005 (HBO) Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

May 26 Curious George, 2006 (HBO)

May 28 A Black Lady Sketch Show: Season 2 Finale (HBO)

May 30 Mare of Easttown: Limited Series Finale (HBO)

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Leaving HBO Max – May 2021

May 11 Mud, 2013

May 13 Bullitt, 1968 The Searchers, 1956 Take Me Out To The Ball Game, 1949 West Side Story, 1961

May 16 Annabelle Comes Home, 2019 (HBO)

May 23 Mortal Kombat, 2021

May 28 The Operative, 2019 (HBO)

May 31 All About My Mother, 1999 All the President’s Men, 1976 Amistad, 1997 (HBO) The Avengers, 1998 The Beguiled, 2017 (HBO) The Bishop’s Wife, 1947 Black Christmas, 2019 (HBO) The Blind Side, 2009 (HBO) Blood Work, 2002 Blue Streak, 1999 Bombshell, 1933 The Book Of Henry, 2011 (HBO) Book Of Shadows: The Blair Witch 2, 2000 The Bridges Of Madison County, 1995 Butterfield 8, 1960 Captain Blood, 1935 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, 1958 Cats, 2019 (HBO) The Cider House Rules, 1999 (HBO) Cinema Paradiso, 1990 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Cradle 2 The Grave, 2003 Critical Care, 1997 (HBO) Cruel Intentions, 1999 (HBO) The Dancer Upstairs, 2003 (HBO) Dangerous Liaisons, 1988 The Dead Don’t Die, 2019 (HBO) The Dead Pool, 1988 Death Becomes Her, 1992 (HBO) Defending Your Life, 1991 Dirty Dancing, 1987 (HBO) Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, 2004 (HBO) Dolores Claiborne, 1995 Doubt, 2008 (HBO) Downhill, 2020 (HBO) Driving Miss Daisy, 1989 Drop Dead Gorgeous, 1999 East Of Eden, 1955 Emma, 1996 (HBO) Emma., 2020 (HBO) A Face In The Crowd, 1957 Father Of The Bride, 1950 Flipped, 2010 Giant, 1956 Heartbreak Ridge, 1986 Hot Fuzz, 2007 (HBO) Hunger, 2008 Jaws, 1975 (HBO) Jaws 2, 1978 (HBO) Jetsons: The Movie, 1990 (HBO) Justice League: Gods And Monsters, 2015 A Kiss Before Dying, 1991 (HBO) The Last King Of Scotland, 2006 (HBO) The Last Kiss, 2006 (HBO) Lego: Justice League: Attack Of The Legion Of Doom!, 2015 Life As We Know It, 2010 Life With Father, 1947 Little Women, 1949 Living Out Loud, 1998 The Long Kiss Goodnight, 1996 Magnum Force, 1973 March Of The Penguins, 2005 The Matrix Reloaded, 2003 The Matrix Revolutions, 2003 The Matrix, 1999 Maverick, 1994 Misery, 1990 (HBO) Mortal Kombat, 1995 Mortal Kombat Annihilation, 1997 Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, 2020 Nell, 1994 (HBO) Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, 2020 (HBO) Papillon, 1973 A Patch Of Blue, 1965 Phantom, 2013 (HBO) Phantom Thread, 2017 (HBO) Project X, 2012 (Extended Version) (HBO) Ray, 2004 (HBO) Richie Rich (Movie), 1994 A Room With A View, 1986 (HBO) Sanctum, 2011 (HBO) Scream, 1996 Scream 2, 1997 Scream 3, 2000 Se7En, 1995 Selena, 1997 Shaun Of The Dead, 2004 (HBO) Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, 2011 (HBO) Skyline, 2010 (HBO) Snakes On A Plane, 2006 Snow White And The Huntsman, 2012 (Unrated Version) (HBO) Stuart Little, 1999 Stuart Little 2, 2002 The Thin Man, 1934 Tightrope, 1984 True Grit, 2010 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, 2011 Unforgiven, 1992 Veronica Mars, 2014 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 2007 Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, 1966 X-Men: Dark Phoenix, 2019 (HBO) X-Men: First Class, 2011 (HBO) You Can’t Take It With You, 1938

The post HBO Max New Releases: May 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[stripyhorse23]

TV of 2020

1) I May Destroy You

I May Destroy You might not have been written during the pandemic, but when it arrived in June it felt like the sort of complicated, cathartic show that could have been.  Detailing one woman’s experience of rape and its aftermath, Michaela Coel (who wrote every episode) continually found rich narrative avenues in which to explore her characters’ individual experiences of sexual assault and consent.  If that makes the series sound concept-driven, it always placed its characters first; the push-and-pull between Arabella, Terry and Kwame is key to the ways in which Coel’s tender, curious writing is able to explore power dynamics within relationships, friendships and hook-ups.  Other, lesser shows that are this deliberately open-ended might feel opaque: it’s testament to the show’s confidence of voice that isn’t the case here.

2) Normal People

Like plenty of others, I binged the entire series of Normal People in a weekend, although one of its many pleasures is how Sally Rooney and Alice Birch’s adaptation teases out the episodic nature of the former’s bestseller.  From Connell’s early days at university, to a Tuscan holiday turned sour, and an exchange year in Sweden, Normal People was about the ways in which the people we love move in and out of our lives over the years.  It wasn’t immune to mis-steps (the show draws something of a crude line between the abuse Marianne suffers at home and what she seeks out in romantic partners), but the sheer emotional heft of the show was undeniable, nowhere less so than Paul Mescal’s floodgate-opening performance in Episode 10.

3) Adult Material

Perhaps one of the year’s most overlooked shows, Adult Material follows Hayley Burrows as she attempts to balance life as the harassed mother-of-three and the twilight years of her career as adult performer Jolene Dollar.  The slyly comic edge of the first episode is quickly eroded after Jolene becomes embroiled in the abuse of another actor on-set.  A stark portrait of alcohol abuse and loneliness, it’s also a sharp indictment of how little the so-called ‘culture wars’ surrounding pornography are meaningfully impactful on sex workers themselves.  Hayley Squires gives the sort of white-hot star performance usually reserved for 90s Hollywood rom-coms, a veneer of frustration and resignation overlaying even her character’s most abrasive moments.

4) Cook, Eat, Repeat

Why not in this interminably shitty year, choose the one show that offered the sort of balm it’s impossible to reverse engineer?  Following hot on the heels of a disappointing series of The Great British Bake-Off, Nigella Lawson’s warm, inviting half-hour new series was the televisual equivalent of a long bath and a facemask.  Her fish finger bhorta, brown butter colcannon and black pudding meatballs have already made it into this household’s repertoire, but there’s something innately comforting about the luxurious silliness of Nigella that almost transcends criticism.  Whether it’s the giddy nonsense of her liquorice box, the ‘did I hear that right’ moment when she revealed her pronunciation of ‘microwave,’ or the seductive self-care of making a creme caramel for one, no other show elicited such pure enjoyment from me this year.

5) I’ll Be Gone In The Dark

The true crime documentary series boom has increasingly leaned into a focus on the victims, from last year’s The Yorkshire Ripper Files to Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, but none so effectively or compassionately as I’ll Be Gone In The Dark.  Less a story about the hunt for the Golden State Killer and more a study of trauma and obsession, the series splices together home footage of the late Michelle McNamara’s investigation with survivor testimony to create a haunting portrait of one man’s legacy of pain.  The early episodes are replete with skin-crawling tension, anguish and tears, but the later episodes allow that to fall away, focusing on the mental fortitude necessary for the survivors at its centre and the sense of community fostered by meeting other women like them.

6)The Salisbury Poisonings

I had no interest in watching this BBC limited series initially: the advertising made it look dry, the story itself (the Novichok poisonings of 2018) seemingly devoid of juicy narrative material.  That I’ve watched this three times in the space of a year speaks to its robust, urgent filmmaking.  Like several other shows on this list, it arrived into the context of a pandemic it couldn’t have foreseen, but watching the rapid, careful response of local government (crucially and deliberately obstructed by Whitehall) to this crisis presented a sort of horribly watchable what-if scenario.  What seemed at first blush to be middle-of-the-road programming evolved over three episodes into the sort of spare, quietly terrifying journalistic drama that invites comparison to last year’s Chernobyl.

7) We Are Who We Are

It turns out that Luca Guadagnino’s woozy, seductive style transfers perfectly to television, and despite We Are Who We Are lacking the timelessness that typifies I Am Love or Call Me By Your Name it thrillingly captured the turbulent adolescence of its teenage characters.  Equally effervescent and raggedly emotional, the show’s joy always felt hard-won, bumping heads with the often cynical, unreadable motivations of the adult characters.  A tender and frank depiction of queer identities within traditionally restrictive environments, it’s also a love letter to young friendship and the lifeline that can provide during our formative years.  Spellbinding.

8) Selling Sunset

Perhaps the year’s most impressively constructed reality show, I was slow on the uptake with Netflix’s Selling Sunset only to have it take over my life for a few weeks during the summer.  Manufactured reality series are tough to get right, but much like The Hills (surely this show’s biggest influence) Selling Sunset gains a lot of mileage from gaming pre-existing friendships for maximum impact.  Christine and Mary’s beleaguered relationship and, obliquely, their respective responses to fame continued to provide wildly watchable fireworks, but the build-up to Chrishell’s separation from husband Justin Hartley was exquisitely handled.  Suddenly Davina’s strangely uncharismatic shit-stirrer and Christine’s predictably OTT wedding were forced to take a back seat to something approaching genuinely moving television.  Trying to tease out what was real and what wasn’t, and following the ways this all spilled out onto social media, was pure, unmitigated pleasure in a year sorely lacking in just that sort of unfettered escapism.

9) My Brilliant Friend

Two seasons in and there might not be another character on TV that I’m as continually frustrated and fascinated by as Lila, the eponymous ‘brilliant friend’ of the show’s title.  Sparingly warm, often cruel, seductive, Season 2 of HBO’s masterful adaptation sees her trapped in a loveless, abusive marriage but as ever it’s her fractured relationship with Lenù that forms the emotional spine of the show.  There’s often a strange sort of snobbery around the term ‘prestige drama,’ as if all that money on the screen is a smokescreen for a dearth of anything to say; My Brilliant Friend uses every colour in its paintbox to portray the yawning void that opened up between Lenù and Lila as they entered adulthood, from the lavish, provocative outfits Lila’s adopts after she marries Stefano to Max Richter’s evocative score and the detail poured into the show’s supporting characters.  Rewardingly complex.

10) Mrs. America

I laboured over what would take my tenth spot this year since there was so much TV that I loved, and especially this year so much of it felt essential to how I was receiving the world around me.  Ultimately, Mrs. America’s mixture of astute political commentary, character-driven writing and host of enjoyable performances tipped the scale in its favour.  Cate Blanchett’s all-timer of a performance as Phyllis Schafly understandably received the majority of attention, but Mrs. America gave us so many memorable moments: Sarah Paulson’s Alice ringing the bell at reception whilst high, Uzo Aduba’s Shirley Chisholm speaking to a potentially bugged hotel ventilator, Margo Martindale’s Bella Abzug quietly realising she’s no longer the radical of her youth on a busy New York street.  This sort of deft, smart political drama isn’t often this much fun to watch, and what an ending...

11) This Life

An honourable mention to a show made almost twenty-five years ago that nevertheless helped define the year in TV for me.  Shows that were once considered part of the zeitgeist can often feel quaint and old-fashioned in retrospect, but Amy Jenkins rambunctious flatshare drama isn’t one of them.  Whilst it can sometimes feel like the show’s characters are universally adverse to making even one good decision between them, there’s a compassion and care underpinning This Life that means it never comes across as overly cynical or sneering.  There’s also a lot to be said for discovering a performance that you genuinely consider to be one of the best of the decade, and no other character this year frustrated and moved me in the ways that Daniela Nardini’s Anna did.  Bonus points for the genuinely chaotic final episode, perhaps one of the best I’ve ever seen.

And FWIW, these are ten performances from shows not on the list above that I loved this year: Marielle Heller in The Queen’s Gambit, Nicholas Hoult in The Great, Sarah Lancashire in Last Tango in Halifax, Poorna Jagannathan in Never Have I Ever, Michael Sheen in Quiz, Imelda Staunton in Talking Heads, Leila Farzad in I Hate Suzie, Alison Pill in Star Trek: Picard, Gillian Anderson in The Crown and Andy Allo in Upload.

And ten episodes of TV that I loved too: ‘Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear’ (Solar Opposites), ‘The Gang Deals With Alternate Reality’ (The Good Fight), ‘Uncle Naseem’ (Ramy), ‘The View From Halfway Down’ (Bojack Horseman), ‘The Vat of Acid Episode’ (Rick and Morty), ‘I Am’ (Lovecraft Country), ‘No Small Parts’ (Star Trek: Lower Decks), Seven-Spotted Ladybug’ (Everything’s Gonna Be Okay), ‘Daytona’ (Cheer), ‘Whenever You’re Ready’ (The Good Place).

[alynawatchestv]

Alyna watches Xena - 01x01 Sins of the Past

Beware. For the road is long and full of spoilers… I mean, if a 25 years old show can be spoiled. But fair warning.

This thing here was supposed to be short but I made a very long recap of the episode. Sorry not sorry, I’m gonna be making recaps of the series. Yes, every single episode… Not regularly... And it's gonna be long.

Comments and reblogs are appreciated. 👍👍👍

We start with Xena is going through some burned village reminiscing on her past when she was just killing, pillaging and burning villages… And people too, I guess. And then there’s this boy coming out of a burned house asking for food. And when Xena asks him where his parents are, he says Xena killed them. He describes her attack as if the goddess herself showed up and fucked the village up for no reason and Xena is all like:

And it’s really one of the best moments of a pilot, because we’re shown flashback of the attack so even without watching Hercules and meeting Xena there we can see she used to be a bad bitch. So before leaving she gives the kid some bread and cheese so he could hide in his burned house and eat something before he dies of some sickness, gets killed, is eaten by wild animals in search for food etc. Brilliant plan boy, you’re a prodigy.

So then we have the scene where Xena digs a hole and puts her armor her sword and chakram there and frankly, she’s not really a clean lady since there’s still blood and some meat pieces on her chakram.

*rule #1 - wash your weapons from enemies intestines*

And suddenly, a whole bunch of villagers is chased by some warlord taken straight from Mad Max movie. Xena observes the situation, the Mad Max warlord says he’s gonna get the girls (men, smh) and then this blonde girl is all like “take me and leave everyone” and warlords are like “lmfao, nope” and Xena is all like:

*Carless Whisper saxophone solo intensifies*

Because frankly, who wouldn’t be? I know I had the same reaction to Gabrielle so I get Xena. I totally get it.

So when the warlord wants to whip Gabrielle for being insubordinate Xena suddenly jumps into action and starts kicking ass. We get backflips, kicks, punches and a really awesome action sequence until Xena is hit in the head (because she was watching if Gabrielle was safe and it got her distracted. Again, totally understandable).

Men are standing there groaning “argh, grr, rghhg” or something like that and then BOOM! Xena takes out her sword from the hole and with a laugh starts fighting them. And you can see how much fun she has. She kicks warlords’ asses and realizes they’re from Draco so she tell them to say hello from Xena. But who’s Draco? What does he do? Is he more evil then Xena? We don’t know! And… opening!

In a time of ancient gods, warlords… Well, you know it.

So later on Xena is in this small village surrounded by the villagers and Gabrielle is fawning over her and the whole situation, and Gabrielle’s father comes in being all like “thanks for saving us, but now GTFO” and this tall dude behind him wants to take Gabrielle. But Gabrielle is all like “dude, I know I’m supposed to marry you against my will and then die in childbirth or of boredom, but I’m not gonna listen to you. GTFO”. So when he leaves, Gabrielle begs Xena to take her with her. Xena being stoic and supposedly unmoved by Gabrielle words of course disagrees, because “she works alone” and… Then she tells Gabrielle she’s going to Amphipolis, because OF COURSE Gabrielle wouldn’t try and follow her. Nope. Not at all. And she goes like “don’t follow me, you don’t wanna make me mad, do you?” and of course Gabrielle is all like “yeah, no sure, I get it” but then is of course “meh, she’s not that scary. I just need a plan!”

So we move to Draco’s camp where he’s without shirt exposing his bare chest, being all handsome and shit, and being badass when catching almost four arrows at once. But then he’s sort of colorblind… I mean he notices the color of the arrow that wounded him but can’t see who has green arrows when the dude’s arrows are visible from behind his back...

*seriously Draco…*

Anyway, later he’s alone and Xena sneaks in and they have the whole who's tougher bitch, which is Xena of course, and she asks him to leave the village alone (because of her future wife or something) and Draco’s all like “yeah, sure… If you join me” and when Xena says she can’t join Draco, being a typical man he asks why. And we get this really awesome scene where Xena dramatically turns her back, stares at nothing and says she’s going home. OH, DRAMA!

So Draco becomes even a bigger drama queen than Xena and tells our warrior saying he’s dreamt of being in love with her or… fighting in battle or whatever, can’t remember, but Xena turns and Draco goes all soft and says he’ll spare those villagers. But he also asks Xena what's she looking for at home. Being still in drama mode he tells her that when he tried to come home his dad beat the shit out of him with a blacksmith’s hammer. And he survived that. Damn, he IS badass! I mean, have you people ever seen a blacksmith hammer?!

*9/10 parents wouldn't recommend this as an educational tool*

Meanwhile, Gabrielle wants to escape home in the middle of the night and while sneaking out she… Hits strategically placed table waking up her sister Lila. Gabrielle explains to her she needs to follow Xena because she’s in lo… She wants to be a warrior like her and that she doesn’t love Perdicus and it’s her destiny. So Lila being a supportive sister is all like “Go, chase your girlf…. Dreams! Just do it!” and Gabrielle leaves.

*Lila being a supportive sister*

It’s daylight and Xena is riding Argo when suddenly her horse stops all afraid. So Xena gets off the horse that suddenly runs away and… The Blind Cyclops shows up with Draco’s dad’s blacksmith’s hammer! (I honestly don’t know if I used Saxon Genitive in the right way, but I hope you get the meaning). Xena is all like “Fuuuck, that’s a big hammer!” which makes the Blind Cyclops even more badass than he already is, but she stands to fight and humiliates him by dropping his pants. He starts bawling like a baby and Xena leaves him and continues her journey to Amphipolis, because she has no time to deal with Cyclops drama.

But Draco is plotting against Xena. He decides to attack Amphipolis and pretend it was Xena who told him to do it. Plot thickens, you guys.

Gabrielle is afraid of bridges… And gets caught by…Yes, you guessed right. The Blind Cyclops. But being a smart girl she says she’s out here to find and kill Xena because… And here we have very subtexty dialogue:

C: “How’s the young thing like you is gonna kill Xena?”

G: “That’s the point. She’d never let a man get close enough to do her. At least not that kind of do her. But a young, innocent looking girl like me, I’ll catch her totally off guard…

*You sure will, Gabrielle. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)*

At the same time, Xena is being followed by Draco’s warlords. They’re dumb enough to think she doesn’t know so she goes all ninja on them, fingers the Mad Max warlord… I mean, she cuts the blood to his body… Pervs. ;) And when she learns about the plan she leaves to stop the invasion.

In the next scene, Gabrielle is chilling out on the road when some old dude stops and tells her to GTFO, because she’s blocking the only route to Amphipolis. So Gabrielle convinces him to take her with him and the old dude agrees.

So while Gabrielle and the old man are traveling on the only route to Amphipolis, Xena is taking a detour through the hills for dramatic effect or something. Basically, New Zealand… I mean Greece is a beautiful place so why not show it, right? Right?

She meets those peasant women singing Bulgarian…  I mean Greek chants and rides through them, but they don’t give a shit being too into chanting and putting on stacks of… Hay, I guess. Meh, whatever.

So Xena reaches Amhipolis and goes into a tavern to drink wine and sleep with beautiful women. But unfortunately it’s not that kind of a tavern and there’s no wine and beautiful women to sleep with. All she meets are angry people, silence and… wait for it… her mother, Cyrene!

Cyrene grabs Xena’s sword and tells her she’s not welcomed there and she should GTFO. Xena wants to rally people against Draco but Cyrene is against and she tells Xena she’d rather die and that she’s not her mother. And it’s a rather powerful stuff, because we only know glimpses of Xena’s past so we don’t really know how big her crimes are. Of course burning one village and killing peasants is a big no no, but Xena is too big of a character to be hated for such a minor offense. Anyway, villagers in the tavern also tell Xena to GTFO so she does.

Draco is pissed that Mad Max warlord told Xena about his plans and tells him to pick a weapon. Sadly it’s not Draco’s father’s blacksmith’s hammer because that’s been stolen by the Blind Cyclops, but a simple spear. Still, Draco proves to be truly awesome by kicking Mad Max warlord’s ass and killing him while telling new plans to his people. Truly, he was a great choice for a pilot.

In the morning, Xena comes back to the tavern looking around hoping to find some wine and beautiful ladies to sleep with, but to her disappointment there are still none. But her sword is there. And her mom is there. Oh boy, this tension between them could cut diamonds in half. But we get a bonding moment where Cyrene and Xena open old wounds so they could heal, and Xena tells her mother she might not be able to set things right, but she’s gonna spend the rest of her life to try. It’s another great moment in this show where we see Xena in her vulnerable state and not all powerful and strong. And this moment is ruined by villagers coming into the tavern saying Xena’s army is burning fields to which Xena answers they’re lying, Cyrene feels all hurt thinking it was all a ruse and leaves, and villagers start throwing rocks at our warrior princess.

But then Gabrielle comes to the rescue! Because Gabrielle has a natural talent to talk her way out of troubles, she uses it to save Xena. She uses a cunning bluff of “if you hurt bad guy’s girlfriend imagine how pissed he’ll be”. So the villagers reluctantly agree and decide to not commit murder. After a small talk Xena takes Gabrielle on her horse and takes her to her dead brother. Because, you know, there’s no better start of a romance than a visit at the crypt.

So Xena is talking to his dead brother saying she’s lost but that she’s gonna be ok, but that she’s alone and then Gabrielle shows up saying she’s not. And by the way that they’re looking at each other we’re to believe these two weren’t into each other from the beginning? Please.

*They’ve known each other for like 1 hour and we get those looks already? So straight indeed*

Meanwhile, the villagers are waiting for Draco to make a deal, but when he shows up he’s threatening to destroy everything and kill everyone unless they tell him where Xena is. And this is another great moment for Draco, because he really is a scary and ruthless dude and I really wish he was more in this show then just 3 episodes. It was a wasted character, imo.

Anyway, while threatening the leader to kill him, Xena shows up and Draco makes fun of her asking about the homecoming. Again, he tries to convince Xena to join him and goes all Palpatine saying she should “celebrate her dark side”, but Xena is all like “pfft, fuck off and let’s fight to the death”. Draco tells her to choose weapons, but Xena leaves the choice to Draco. Now, Draco being a really smart guy and someone who knows how good Xena is with swords, chooses staffs. I’m sure he believes it’ll give him advantage or at least even oit the odds. Xena chooses the conditions and her conditions are to fight on a scaffolding. The first person to touch the ground is gonna die. Draco agrees and tells his people that whoever falls first is to be killed.

Doing a flip with the help of his people he gets to a scaffolding and grabs his staff. Xena is way more of a showgirl. She hits the dude with his staff and when he leans down she jumps on his back and then on a head of another warlord and jumps to meet her opponent.

They start fighting. It’s an even fight and Draco proves to be a worthy opponent. Soon Xena has to fight to stay on the bamboo scaffolding as it starts to fall off. The archers prepare to shoot, Cyrene shows up and everyone is thinking if she’s gonna fall. But no, Xena standing on one bamboo stick starts hitting bamboos under Draco’s feet to make him back out and leave him vulnerable. But Draco stands tough and very soon he manages to make Xena almost fall again. She manages to hang on her staff, her legs barely touching the ground. Cyrene starts panicking, being all teary, because, come on, she’s a mom. No matter how pissed our moms are at us, they worry 24/7.

Draco starts hiting Xena’s hands wanting her to let go and fall, asking her why she would die for the people that hate her. But Xena grabs Draco’s staff with her feet and doing a truly awesome backflip she manages to stand on the scaffolding again attacking him. Draco almost falls but jumps on people’s heads and give Xena a signal to join him.

And the same villagers who earlier denied Xena her wine and beautiful women to sleep with, and wanted her dead are now supporting her… Literally. She manages to stand on the arms of one person and attacks Draco. They do backflips, kicks, punches and all that for a few minutes and then with one swift kick to the chest Draco falls down on the ground and Xena jumps on his chest looking down upon him to let him know he’s just a little bitch and not a match to her skills. Xena promises to spare Draco if he leaves the valley and he agrees.

But one of his warlords decides to sneakily attack Xena from behind. Gabrielle’s warns her, but before the warrior can react Draco throws his knife at him. After all, Draco may be a ruthless warlord, but he’s honorable.

After the fight Xena is preparing to leave when Cyrene shows up and hugs Xena, who asks again for forgiveness and is, of course, given that. It's a truly awesome moment in this pilot.

But, and honestly I have no idea why, Xena doesn’t stay in the tavern for wine and beautiful women to sleep with. Maybe there is no wine and beautiful women to sleep with after all. Instead, Xena starts a fire near some woods when she hears some noise and goes into a warrior mode. But, as it turns out, it’s just Gabrielle saying she wanted to follow Xena without her noticing, but she couldn’t start a fire and it’s cold and there are mosquitoes looking lkke eagles or something.

Xena wants to send her back home, but Gabrielle says she won’t go. There’s a talk about not belonging there and Xena seems to understand Gabrielle completely. So when she gives Gabrielle a blanket we get one of the most beautiful moments in the pilot.

*couldn't find gif so you're stuck with bad screenshot*

And in the morning we see Xena and Gabrielle travelling to new adventures to right wrongs, drink wine and… Oh forget it.

This episode is all kinds of awesomeness. It’s a great introduction to a character of Xena even to those, like me, who didn’t know her from Hercules. It has tons of very well choreographed fights, amazing music and it’s a rreally strong pilot that makes you wanna see more.

10/10

Edit: I got the gif. Thanks @girl4music​ :)

*there’s nothing gay here. nada. zero... mhm...*

[pandemi-writes]

Danny’s Mutant Powers in X-Men AUs

A headcanon, by me. If you happen to read and like it, you can use it too. 

Okay, so I love the concept of an X-men AU, but I can hardly find any that I actually like reading, because they either have Danny be like “I have like at least 25 different powers, let me list them.” (which, come on. most of those are just parts of ecto-manipulation, which is one power. he’s got 6 powers, max.) OR they have him still be a half-ghost and not a mutant, just interacting with the x-men. 

SO. I have thought of a single mutant power that can encompass all of his powers: 

Adaptation. 

Like Darwin’s version of adaptability, except slower and permanent. 

It was first activated when he got zapped by the portal. He was dying, and his x-gene was like “yo, we’re going to die, so let’s not.” The only way he could survive that, was to become what was killing him, so he became a living ghost, or half-ghost. And because his x-gene used like, a TON of instant adapting as soon as it got activated, it now has to stick to ghost-themed adaptations. 

Flight, Intangibility, and Invisibility just came with being a ghost. 

Ecto-Manipulation was probably also just there, but he had to learn how to access and use it, and from there, his mutant ability allowed it to do multiple things, like blasts, shields, and constructs. 

The Wail came because that was the only thing that could defeat his evil older self. 

(The only thing I can’t quite explain is his Cryo-kinesis, like sure, it helped him defeat Undergrowth, and without that, everyone would have died or whatever the peril was at the time, but he started to develop that beforehand (mostly during that episode, but also explained as his ghost-sense), which would involve some sort of foresight in his mutation.) 

(OR, he needed a way to sense ghosts, because they attack the town, and thus his mutation was like, “let’s get chilly” and bing bang boom, Cryo-kinesis.)

Anyway, like Superman (not an x-man but okay), he becomes as strong, as fast, as powerful as he needs to be. 

Unlike Darwin’s ability to instantly adapt to any situation to survive literally anything (First Class doesn’t count, I don’t think he actually died... because he can’t), Danny’s mutation is slower, leaving him open to defeat and actual death. But because of that, he gets to keep his new powers. 

That’s it. That’s my headcanon for X-Man!Danny.