#pretty freakin scary spoilers

[thegirlsarethriving]

no bc i HAVE to scream, I sat through every single episode of Pretty Freakin Scary and what do you MEAN this old man sent his own grandson to die in his place. in MY Disney sitcom??? im on the FLOOR!!!!!

[lunerna21]

I FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO THE UPDATE FOR BOOK 7 AND I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED WITH HOW MUCH I ENJOYED IT

***SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7 JPN SERVER AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!***

***ALSO SLIGHTLY LONG POST AHEAD! MY APOLOGIES!***

UM CAN I MENTION HOW HARD I LAUGHED WHEN SILVER WAS TELLING THE STORY ABOUT FLOYD GRABBING RIDDLE'S HAIR TO SEE IF IT WAS HOT?!

AND JADE HYSTERICALLY LAUGHING WHILE AZUL IGNORES THEM!!!!

If they ever animate that scene, I'm gonna hurl from seeing Floyd just being catapulted off screen and Jade enjoying himself 😂

Floyd being so bored of his dream and just him swaying like the seaweed was freakin hysterical 😂

It just reminded me of this for some reason:

I mean it makes sense since Floyd is always up for a challenge and isn't afraid of basically anything, so of course Malleus's vision for Floyd's dream wasn't going to be very exciting

ALSO WE CAN TALK ABOUT FLOYD HAD THE BALLS TO FIGHT MALLEUS, LEONA AND EVEN FUCKING CATER?! CATER WIPED THE FLOOR FIGHTING FLOYD BUT I WASN'T EXPECTING CATER TO KICK ASS

HELL YES CATER!!

.......And then we jump into Jade's dream...

....The moment I saw how Jade imagined both Azul and Floyd...

AND THEN SOMEONE POSTED THIS ON TWITTER AND I ABSOLUTELY LOST IT

JADE BY FAR IS THE MOST HYSTERICAL CHARACTER IN TWST AND I CAN'T BELIEVE FLOYD HAD TO SEE HIS DOOFY LOOKING FACE LIKE THAT

I don't blame Floyd for duking it out with Jade I would feel the same if thats how my siblings imagined me lol

And finally, Azul's dream!!

First of all, AZUL WAS SOMETHING ELSE DURING HIS DREAMS

Azul being a coral rush player?! AND KINDA BEING JOCKY?! I wasn’t prepared for that! 😂

(special shoutout to Idia for throwing shade at his first image of a cocky player, that was 👌🏻)

JADE JUST GRABBING POOR IDIA'S TABLET AND GETTING AZUL'S SIGNATURE ON IT 😂👏🏻👏🏻

AND IDIA JUST SLOWING MOVING OFF TO THE SIDE THIS POOR GUY HAS BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH 😂

When the mermaids started harassing everyone and knocked us over, I WASNT READY FOR AZUL TO CARE WHEN WE GOT HIT

I WAS A FREAKING MESS IM SO DELUSIONAL AND I KNOW HE'S NOT ALWAYS NICE BUT AHHHHHHHH HE WAS SO CUTE HERE (Ignore me I'm delusional and I've missed Azul so much 🥺❤️)

It was so bizarre to see Azul playing a jocky player and being popular in school, but once Idia explained that any negative moments or lessons Azul had to face (bullying, losing the contracts) were no longer a thought because of it only being a dream with no negative emotions

It’s still mind boggling how detailed everyone’s dreams are but terrifying like damn Malleus has so much power and yet he can juggle so many of them

After Azul invited us to the party and was INCREDIBLY NICE for someone like him, and Idia got suss:

I knew something was up, especially after he made everyone wear the anenomes for the party AND GRIM SHOULD'VE KNOWN BETTER HE WENT THROUGH THIS BEFORE WHY DID HE BELIEVE THIS

Floyd and Jade bouncing off Azul being a bully was soooo worth it

It's kinda scary how I preferred the old Azul, considering he wasn't a cocky jock straight from a manga/book ICK ICK ICK

AND THEN AFTER AZUL FELL INTO THE BLOT, HE WAS A PAIN IN THE BUTT TO CORNER I WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH THE PLANNING AND HOW WE HELPED DESTROY THE CONTRACTS ONCE AGAIN

But this devastated me 😭

It still must've felt pretty shitty having to go through that again, but I started to cry I'm just so happy Azul woke up from his dream 😭❤️❤️❤️

Azul's battle with himself! *chefs kiss* I love how they reference it similar to the battle from The Little Mermaid and how Azul's blot form began to grow

But let me tell you something:

I WOULD DIE IF I COULD FRAME THIS!! JUST SEEING THE GLOWING EYE AND AZUL DOING THIS POSE! PERFECTION!!!

ITS SO GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK AZUL!!!❤️

This chapter was such a fun trip, and I'm so glad we're slowly getting closer to releasing everyone from their dreams

BUT ONE LAST THING! TWST INTENTIONALLY DID THIS TO HURT MY FEELINGS!

HOOOOOWWWWW DARE TWST FOR SHOVING THIS IN MY FACE I WANT MY BEST FRIENDS BACK SO BADLY AND THE FACT THAT THEY DO THIS CONSTANTLY AND ALSO GRIM BRINGING THEM UP IS JUST AWFUL

I MISS THEM SO MUCH I NEED TO SEE THEM AGAIN

NEXT UP, SAVANACLAW!! (RUGGIE I MISS YOU SO SO MUCH!!)

Enjoy the weekend~~!!!❤️

(Screenshots from https://youtube.com/@gasmask01?si=lpin67yaOvHDdg_c )

[nikibogwater]

Niki Blethers: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio LET’S FREAKIN’ GOOOOOOOOO--

In case it was not already obvious, this was my most anticipated movie of the year. Heck, it was my only anticipated movie of the year. Having learned the hard way just how deeply disappointment stings, I don’t usually get my hopes up this high. But darn it, everything I heard about this movie prior to its release just filled me with too much excitement to ignore, and now that it is finally available to the wider public, it is my great pleasure to say--

HOLY MOTHER OF MARMALADE, DID THIS MOVIE LIVE UP TO MY HYPE AND THEN SOME

(Mild spoilers below the cut, GO WATCH THIS MOVIE IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT IT’S A MASTERPIECE)

First up: stop motion animation. We love to see it. And this movie doesn’t cut any corners with the stop motion. Even the fire is stop motion. The backgrounds are paintings (gorgeous ones at that), not just CG landscapes. The sets are so incredibly detailed I could’ve spent several minutes just staring at any given wide shot. There were very few instances where I could clearly see any effects that were obviously done in a computer. The animators and set builders went hard on this movie, and they have 1000% of my respect for it. 

Despite being a whimsical fairy tale, there is a pretty heavy sense of realism with this movie. Like, one scene, you have an overeager Pinocchio singing a cute little song about how excited he is to be alive, and then in the next one, he and Geppetto are walking past buildings plastered with posters promoting Mussolini’s Fascist regime. The way the film balances these two tonal opposites is absolutely genius, and I can’t remember a single instance of a jarring shift in tone. The light and whimsical always eases into the dark and realistic in a way that makes me feel like the two sides couldn’t exist without each other. 

Also speaking of realism, CAN I GET A HALLELUJIA FOR SOME HONEST-TO-GOODNESS CATHOLIC REP IN A CURRENT-YEAR CHILDREN’S MOVIE?!

This is obviously a personal thing for me, but I pretty much never see any accurate, respectful portrayals of my religion outside of films that are specifically made for Catholics. And I’ma be real with you, more often than not, the films made specifically for us turn out to be unbearably preachy or saccharine (and they’re never animated--another major point against them). To see a character who simply IS a Catholic (because this is Italy during the 1910s, so it’d be a little out-of-the-ordinary for him not to be), doing his little Catholic things, without it being a huge focus of the story or directly influencing the plot--ie, Catholicism being portrayed as just another normal part of every-day life--GAH. IT WAS JUST REALLY SPECIAL TO ME, OKAY? 

Also Geppetto locking Pinocchio in a closet because he doesn’t have time to deal with this, it’s time to go to Mass is a big fat Catholic mood. 

Okay, I’ll shut up about the Catholic stuff. Back to the movie.

If I had a nickel for every time David Bradly made me cry with his performance as a struggling father-figure overcoming the estrangement between him and his adopted son, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t very many, but it’s great that it happened twice. 

Ewan McGregor practically carries this movie as Sebastian J. Cricket. I knew he was going to be good, but somehow I failed to foresee just how good he truly is in the role. This interpretation of Jiminy Cricket as a mildly self-absorbed novelist who sees Pinocchio as little more than his house for most of the film is just *chef’s kiss.*

Ron Perlman as the Podestà was incredible. I actually didn’t realize it was him until three-fourths of the way through the movie, he just vanishes into the role so smoothly. And gotdang, is that character scary. 

Christoph Waltz clearly went all out with Count Volpe and I bet recording sessions with him were very fun. 

Gregory Mann did so great for such a little guy! It’s hard to find child actors, and even harder to find child voice actors, but he was fantastic, and really sold the character. 

Speaking of characters, OH MY GOSH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH WHERE DO I BEGIN

Geppetto is a very sentimental old guy whose only joy in life was his son Carlo. After Carlo is killed in a bombing raid, Geppetto completely collapses under the weight of his grief. Carving Pinocchio isn’t something he does out of creativity or joy, but rather the result of drunken and despairing rage. The scene is played out as a grotesque and heartbreaking moment, and I LOVE it. 

Pinocchio himself is a Very Real Boy from the start--by which I mean, he never shuts up, he gets into everything, he’s kind of a brat, and he brings unbridled chaos to Geppetto’s life in the way that only a young child can. I like it when movies portray children as, y’know, actual children, not just tiny adults. Yeah, kids are loud, they break stuff, they annoy the heck out of you, and they are also so, so precious, they’re worth every second of it. 

I’ve already talked about Sebastian J. Cricket so all I’m gonna say here is I felt the line “Oh, the pain! Life is such hideous pain” right down to my core.

This movie covers a lot of heavy themes, such as the difficulties of fatherhood, abuse, war, death, and grief. But it does so in a way that left me with a sense of hope. It doesn’t shy away from the reality of these things, but it assures you that you can endure them, that you can find immense joy even in the midst of great suffering. 

To get a little personal for the second time, the way this movie goes about presenting the reality of death and the grief of those left behind resonated with me very deeply. I’m the youngest child in my immediate family, and deep down, there’s a part of me that dreads the day when they will pass on and leave me behind. Barring any unforeseen accidents, I will likely outlive most of my siblings, and I’m lowkey terrified of that inevitablilty. So there was something oddly comforting about a film that speaks directly to my fear like that. A film that doesn’t sugar coat or try to persuade me that it won’t be so bad. A film that tells me my time with my family is so much more precious because it is so fleeting. 

So yeah, tears were shed, I’m not ashamed to admit it. 

I could probably say a bajillion things more about this movie, but it’s getting late now and I’ve prattled long enough. In conclusion, 10/10, easily the best movie of my year, and I truly think I can forgive Del Toro for Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans now. 

[banditomojado]

Roberto’s Spooky Season Binge 2024:

Halloween (2018)

We interrupt your hourly scroll through tumblr for another entry in RSSB 2024! For this entry I’ll be reviewing/discussing Halloween 2018! Obviously Carpenter’s original 1978 classic is mandatory viewing for any horror fan, and is arguably the best slasher ever made. That being said, Halloween as a franchise has suffered through far too many bad sequels over the years, so back when they announced this direct sequel/reboot (“requel” if you must, ugh), I was understandably skeptical or even down right cynical that it could work. So what did I think after finally watching it today? My spoiler thoughts and review below!

Okay so straight up, I LOVED this freakin’ movie. There are so many reasons why this movie works not only as a requel but also as a modern slasher. But before I get into all the good juicy parts, I felt like for this one I should go ahead and get my one issue with the movie over with first. Apologies in advance for having to be “that guy”. So yeah, let’s talk about that opening scene. Not gonna lie, it felt pretty gross. The dated and dehumanizing depictions of people with severe mental illnesses stands out here. Now, to be fair, the movie does go out of its way to make it clear to the audience that Michael is simply pure evil (often hilariously I must add, but more on that later) and that trying to look for any deeper meaning behind his murderous ways is a fool's errand. Still, having him be surrounded by other chained up patients, who by all accounts aren’t serial killers, who then go into a state of agitation when scummy journalist guy attempts to provoke Michael, well it got a little too close to exploitative for my tastes. It doesn’t help that the one “mental health professional” in the movie is also your stereotypical quack (who then graduates to straight up murderer) and that the movie even goes out of its way to tell you that the other patients/prisoners who escaped were not only recaptured without issue, they were just wondering around confused. For most, this is likely not a big deal, and I totally understand that. The movie otherwise is sharply written and very self-aware of its status in the horror canon, so one could argue the movie itself is trying to tell the viewer to lighten up and enjoy this absurd horror ride for what it is: A good ol’ fashioned slasher made for the modern age. I’ll let you guys decide how y’all feel about it, but yeah, sorry I just had to bring it up.

With that unpleasant business out of the way, let’s get into what works! The slasher sub-genre lives and dies on the scariness of the killer, inventive kills, and an interesting and well-written cast of sacrificial lambs, erm, I mean characters that could die at any moment. Check, check, and check! 2018’s Michael may be in his 60’s canonically, but our boy hasn’t lost a step! He’s still the same horrifying and violently effective force of nature we all know. As I mentioned earlier, the movie is very self-aware and sharply written, which often serves to provide the audience with well-executed fan-fare, cheeky call-backs, and surprisingly funny moments. While this movie noticeably lacks the haunting and menacing atmosphere of the original, it manages to carve out its own unique identity and boldly reaffirms its status as horror royalty. It cares not for today’s “elevated horror” trends, and hilariously goes out of its way to poke fun at the fans of that kind of horror. The purposely scummy journalists at the beginning who want to “get inside” of the mind of Michael getting killed immediately was hilarious. Speaking of which, it also comes as no surprise that Dr. Quack was the victim of the movies grisliest kill, a hilarious final “fuck you” to uppity horror fans who insist the slasher genre holds little artistic value and has “nothing to say”.

"Say something." LOL *STOMP*

Can’t go much further without mentioning Jamie Lee Curtis and her badass performance. As one of the most iconic scream queens, it was so awesome to see her back and this time kick some ass! I was curious to see what direction they would take with her return and I think what they wrote works. Deeply traumatized from the original’s events, Lori has spent her life living in constant paranoia and preparation for the return of her would-be killer. Curtis nails every scene, showing the full nuance of a damaged survivor who tried to prepare her daughter for the worst, but ended up alienating herself from her family. You feel for her when she breaks down during the family dinner scene, but more importantly you believe the conviction in her eyes as the viewer approaches the final act. She’s ready to kill or be killed tonight. 

The rest of the characters are all great in their relative supporting roles. We get plenty of unlikeable but comedic characters that we get to enjoy watching get killed off in cool ways, which is a must for the genre. It’s pretty easy to tell in slasher’s which characters are gonna get the ax, but the movie also keeps you on your toes by killing off genuinely likeable characters too. The pacing is solid and the viewer never goes too long without seeing another body added to the count. The Strode women are obviously the heart of the movie and we get a lot of good scenes with them. I do wish we could have gotten more of Judy Greer’s Karen since I was most curious to see how she would be affected by her mothers trauma, but what we do get is perfect and Greer nails all of her scenes (that “gotcha” scene? Pure badassery). Allyson is also a great addition and I think casting a little-known actress like they did with Curtis back in 78’ was the right move. As we all know now, 2018”s Halloween was the first installment of a new trilogy, so there’s a lot of pressure on a character like Allyson to be well performed and accepted as the heir apparent to Curtis’s scream queen title in the franchise and I think she nails it. Knowing in advance that I was getting into a trilogy, Karen's and Allyson's somewhat lacking character exploration is understandable, thus I was extra curious to see how this movie would decide to end. You can’t launch a successful new trilogy on the back of a weak ending to the first installment after all!

And what a final act it was! Ahhh so many badass moments to choose from. What I loved most is how expertly the roles are reversed in the end. Laurie has now become the predator, and giving her some of Michaels iconic shots from the original was so cool to watch. The two that stand out are the shot with her coming out of the shadows behind Michael to attack him, and her giving Miachael a taste of his own medicine by disappearing after she falls out the window and he turns away from her body for a second. I was geeking out for most of this and the shot of three generations of Strode women staring down upon their caged prey while everything engulfs in flames was fucking epic. This really becomes a story of women overcoming generational trauma and getting revenge on their tormentors and I’m all here for it! Honestly, I would have liked for the story to have ended there. But two more were made and I must admit I’m nervous about them ruining it after such a great start! Not sure if I’ll get to them for this year's binge, but hopefully they nailed it! 

Final Rating: 9.5

I had a blast watching Halloween 2018 and I think that’s what the creatives were going for! A witty, confident requel of an all-time classic, Halloween 2018 succeeds in every area a slasher should, and more than earns its place among the canon. Curtis is at her best returning as Laurie, and Michael is still as menacing as he was back then. Fun fact, the original Michael Myers actor returned for this, which I think is so fucking cool! While I do wish the story would have ended here, I’m cautiously optimistic for the next two entries. The movie works well as a stand-alone, but make no mistake about it, this was a work of love from hardcore fans, for hardcore fans of the original.

[jasmarie2600]

FINALLY saw DS:MoM and I have some thoughts

Spoilers below ⬇️

I wish we got more Shirtless Stephen cause it was truly….an amazing sight to behold

Stephen at Christine’s wedding was sad and so tension filled, I thought he was gonna like fight Charlie for a second 😆 I wouldn’t have minded, fight to the death!! Also thought it was weird that Charlie was a fan of Stephen…. (Potential Future Villain Energy)

I’m really hoping Christine truly isn’t happy either, And just faking that she is, like how Stephen was

Christine getting mad that Stephen was fighting on her wedding day 😆 (kinda didn’t understand why she was getting mad, but it’s maybe the whole “holding the knife” thing) She probably didn’t wanna see Stephen possibly die on her wedding day, pretending like you don’t care so much, Christine 😏

(When can Nick finally become the revengeful villain he’s supposed to be??)

Women fangirling for Stephen (same Marvel, same, accurate)

Stephen hiding Defender Strange’s body and implying that he’s done this before….wha….what do you mean Stephen??!! 🤔😳

Wanda officially losing her mind but the WandaVision theme though! 👀😱

(Why does everyone seem to have weird sexual tension with Stephen? I get it but… 😆)

Wong keeps reminding Stephen that he’s the Sorcerer Supreme 😆

I literally thought Wanda was a Sorceress, just more advanced and self-taught, it was cool to learn that sorcery & witchcraft are 2 different things

I honestly liked seeing more of Kamar-Taj and all the people and their different jobs, also seeing people from different Sanctums too was pretty cool

Wanda was genuinely kind of scary and cool, but also I was thinking “did you not learn anything from your WandaVision experience??”

America & Stephen going through the different Multiverses was awesome, also the animated one!! (The music in the scene oddly reminded me of Peter Porker’s world in Spider-Verse)

Stephen freakin throwing up! 😆😆

America thinking all food is free 😆

Stephen’s significant memory of Christine 😩🥲

America literally shipping Christine & Stephen 🤗🤗💖

Mordo still being a jerk and drugging America and Stephen 😞

Stephen seeing Variant Christine and also being in love with her

Stephen being sassy towards the Illuminati, the Illuminati literally sucking and being horrible and pretty much covering up Variant Stephen’s death, they literally all got killed by Wanda, so they ain’t so great

Someone in my theatre audible said “oh my god!�� at one of the death scenes 😆😂

I really feel bad for Variant Christine cause she lost her Stephen, and was probably super devastated when he didn’t come back

Stephen egging on Variant Mordo so if could escape 😆😉

Their fight was very good though

The minimal jump scares in this film, kinda really did scare me

The key to the door to get to the Book of Vishanti being Stephen’s watch was 😩🥲

The Book of Vishanti world was super beautiful, amazing VFX

It was dumb that the Book was destroyed though, cause isn’t it like, important to the future of Doctor Strange?????….

Sinister Strange was kinda very creepy and weird and I didn’t like him, also I don’t like the 3rd eye effect, it’s just weird and kinda gross

The Donna mention!! 😱🥲

The Music fight was cool though

Christine watching over Stephen when he dreamwalks was sweet and I’m glad her Stephen taught her how to use everything, she’s badass!

The Souls of the Damned or whatever they were called, I honestly thought they were cool and also creepy

Glad Wong wasn’t killed by Wanda, also was that Sara lady supposed to be Wong’s like love interest??? That’s what it felt like, but then she died so…..

Wanda taking over her Variant’s body was honestly a creepy scene but I loved it, also is Wanda just a single mom in her alternate universe???

Stephen talking to America in his dead form shouldn’t have been as funny as I thought it was, we have this serious scene and you have this one character who’s basically a zombie, and they’re having this deep meaningful conversation 😆😆

Stephen’s freakin horrible comeback to Wanda in Zombie form, I forgot what it was but like “you’ll have to do more to kill me, to kill me this time” or something and then it shows Christine hearing him say that and she’s like 😳 made me laugh 😆

America’s powers are honestly very cool

I don’t think Wanda died, cause she’s gonna have her own solo movie

Stephen and Variant Christine’s conversation, (I’ll go more in depth into that, it could be explaining what will happen in their future)

Him saying he loves her, he loves her in every universe 😩😩🥲 and Christine crying (I cried too!!!)

Stephen bowing to Wong and accepting him as Sorcerer Supreme 🤗🥲

America better become Stephen’s successor in the future, since Wong says she’s so much like Stephen when he first arrived at Kamar-Taj, I hope if she does, she also uses/gains Stephen’s wink technique 😆 her looking up to Stephen now and Stephen being like how the Ancient One was for him when he first started 😩😩🥲🥲

Stephen fixing his watch, but looking genuinely happy about fixing it!! 🤗🤗

The whole ending with Stephen getting the 3rd eye was so painful to watch! (I also have a theory about this scene and the mid-credits scene, that I will post)

The Clea scene…yeah I already know

I didn’t even watch the end credits scene, heard it was dumb, I just left 😆

I can’t wait for the 3rd movie tbh! 🎉🎉 hope we don’t have to wait 6 years for it too…. 🥲

General just like, filmmaking stuff I liked or found funny

————————————————————————

People saying that Sam Raimi making this film was a bad idea, like I get where they’re coming from cause his filmmaking can be kind of cringey, cheesy and over the top, but watching the film I kinda liked it, it made me feel like I was watching an old movie or something from the 60’s/70’s and that honestly fits very well since the Doctor Strange comics came out in the late 60’s early 70’s

The random guitar riff that would pop up in the music at random times, was making me laugh 😆

The horror aspects were actually pretty good and actually kinda terrified me

Ben is a damn good actor, he can pretty much do anything

[fishfrommars]

I renamed the Chapters of "Cemetery Boys" by @aidenschmaiden Aiden Thomas because I love when chapters have titles.

SPOILERS

1. Latinx boys getting into trouble around Día de los Muertos and doing things without their family's blessings. (I am a big fat Coco fan and I will die on that hill).

2. Heartbreak Island (the deadnaming/misgendering chapter OUCH)

3. Two Latinx teens find a hot dead boy (pretty self explanatory)

4. Moving the Ghost

5. The Ghost in the Closet (actually in the bedroom but whatevs) ;)

6. "You've got shitty taste in Music, by the Way".

7. Kids are terrible. (We meet some terrible kids).

8. Sneaking around. (Really they do this the whole book lol)

9. "No quise lastimarte" ("I didn't mean to hurt you." A heartwrencher for sure).

10. Arrebatos Emocionales (Emotional Outbursts. Young teen lets loose and accidentally freaks everyone out)

11. "I don't out people." (💔)

12. Only the dead watched (i really liked this expression that Aiden Thomas used).

13. He was tired of fighting, on all fronts. (Another line that resonated with me as a queer person).

14. None of them deserved Julian Diaz. (By this point I am sure that no one deserves this amazing boy. I will protect him at all costs).

15. Grounded for Life (lol get it cuz he's a ghost???) alt name: "i've only known Julian for a day and a half but if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in this room and then myself"

16. Oh no, the bodies! (I was telling my roommate about the rain maybe washing away the trail And this was their response)

17. "Are you okay?" "Are YOU okay?" (Scary stuff yikes)

18. "We will Dance on our way to Heaven" (got the song "heaven" stuck in my head lately. Contemplating death a lot. Not in a bad way, but finally in an accepting kind of way.).

19. "I get to choose." (Bucket list day).

20. Alive

21. How am I ever going to emotionally financially recover from Julian Diaz this?

22. "And I will show them NO MERCY"

23. "Todo estará bien" (everything will be all right, even though it's not now 💔)

24. "He saved your dumb lives!" (We don't pick favorites here. Except Maritza chose Yads, and I chose Maritza)

25. The fanfiction ending we all deserved

Ep. "you ready?" "No" "do it anyways"

Ugh. I love this freakin book so much.

[auncyen]

Ok ok so I'd been idly thinking about updating "Chats with Joker in Mementos" for Royal for a while, except as far as I know there aren't any transcriptions for the Royal Mementos chats like there is for Vanilla...

So...after some questionable use of my time, I now have a list of a good chunk of the starters in Royal. Only starters, not responses, since the point of the fic is having Joker be the one to respond, and I didn't transcribe ones I didn't think would be interesting for him to respond to, but still, if anyone does ever look to do a complete transcription, this might be helpful as a start? Or just interesting if you want to see what some characters talk about. Spoilers for third semester below cut.

Ryuji: Man, we really bust our asses to get stronger in here. I wish it meant we got stronger in the real world too.

Ryuji: Man, I had this horrible dream last night… Can’t remember a thing about it, though.

Ryuji: Ya know what? I guess Mona does have a mask, technically.

Ryuji: Yo, the way he jumps behind Shadows is so sick!

Ryuji: Yo, is it just me, or is fallin’ asleep getting tougher every night? At this point, I’m outta ideas of what to do.

Ryuji: Kinda fiendin’ for some ramen right about now… Maybe I’ll hit up Ogikubo when we get back.

RyujI: So lately, I’ve been tryin’ to work some training into my nightly routine before bed.

Ryuji: Hey, is it just me, or is Morgana’s sword basically the same size as Joker’s knife?

Ryuji: My mom made gyudon last night! My fave! Now I’ve got, like, fifty times more energy than usual!

Ryuji: This phantom thief stuff feels real as hell whenever he’s flyin’ around with that grappling hook.

Ryuji: Dude, that grappling hook is awesome! He looks like a freakin’ superhero with that thing!

Ryuji: Aww man, I just can’t get enough of those Akihabara maids…

Ryuji: Aren’t knives kinda hard to use ‘cause of their shortness? I definitely prefer my own shit.

Ryuji: I always thought darts looked easy—just aim for the board, y’know? But, it’s waaay harder than that.

Ryuji: Every try the monja in Tsukishima? That stuff is LEGIT.

Ryuji: Yo, does this outfit really make me look like I’m part of some biker gang?

-

Morgana: Listen, it’s not that I look like a cat. Cats just happen to look like me.

Morgana: I repeat: I am not a cat. To prove it, I took an actual bath yesterday.

Morgana: So, cats love to chase mice, right? I don’t get it—where’s the fun in that?

Morgana: I’m always so entranced by Panther’s whip technique!

Morgana: Panther, we have matching tails!

Morgana: You know, I’ve never actually been in a car before. Is it anything like I am now?

Morgana: I definitely made the right decision giving him the code name “Joker.”

Morgana: I’m willing to bet Joker’s skilled enough to use throwing knives.

Morgana: Anime, books, movies… Phantom thieves sure are popular.

Morgana: Last night I dreamt that Phantom Thieves were kicking some serious butt—let’s bring that dream to life!

Morgana: I can teach you everything you need to know about being a phantom thief. Relax—you’re in good hands!

Morgana: *yawn* I didn’t get enough sleep…

Morgana: I couldn’t fall asleep at all last night. I just laid there with my eyes open…

Morgana: I like Yongen-Jaya; it’s a great place for a stroll.

Morgana: Is Shujin Academy the only thing in Aoyama?

Morgana: I was vegetating in front of the TV last night, and I have to say, there are some pretty decent shows on now.

-

Ann: The bakery had a sale yesterday and I ended up buying everything they had!

Ann: The Ferris wheel is a must for me at theme parks, every time. I love being able to just relax.

Ann: I have an upcoming shoot at a theme park, but what sucks is how I can’t go on any of the rides.

Ann: Last night I dreamt I was eating a chocolate bar, then all of a sudden, it got mad and started chasing me!

Ann: Every once in a while I have a dream where I get chased by a Shadow…

Ann: I’ve been sleeping really well since I started getting all this exercise.

Ann: I was up late watching TV last night, so I might be a little sleep deprived…

Ann: I tend to do my clothes shopping in Kichijoji—it’s fun looking through all the resale shops.

Ann: I hate when people ask me to say stuff in English just ‘cause I lived overseas.

Ann: It always bothers me when foreign movie subtitles leave stuff out or take too many liberties.

Ann: I was talking to my overseas friend the other day—her straightforward attitude was really refreshing!

Ann: I was talking to Shiho on the phone and before I knew it, three whole hours had passed!

Ann: Joker seems like he’d make a good cook, doesn’t he? I mean, he’s great with his knife and all…

Ann: It’s actually quite exhilarating to attack with a whip. I wonder why that is…

Ann: Whenever my foreign relatives come to Japan, they always rave about how much they love Japanese food!

Ann: Do you think there’s anything I can do about my outfit? I feel like I stand out too much in this…

Ann: Is there a difference between a whip and a grappling hook?

Ann: Ya know, Skull’s always been into skull designs and stuff.

Ann: Wouldn’t a grappling hook be awfully handy in the real world?

-

Yusuke: I wish to paint the world as only I see it. The best way to succeed at this is through practice.

Yusuke: It’s fun to walk around and inspect different temples and shrines. The architecture is always impressive.

Yusuke: If Shadows are sentient, do you think their being moved by a painting would invoke a change of heart?

Yusuke: There have been times where I was compelled to create three-dimensional art.

Yusuke: I’m quite curious about Mona’s Western-style sword…

Yusuke: I hear whips are quite difficult to use. Where did you learn how to wield one?

Yusuke: Joker using a grappling hook…. That would make for a picture-perfect composition.

Yusuke: Mona, what exactly do you have in those pouches?

Yusuke: Creating a piece of art is pointless unless I can convey the full essence of the subject.

Yusuke: Art museums stimulate my creativity like no other place—I wish I could live inside one.

Yusuke: Skull and I both use long melee weapons, but they’re total opposites of one another.

Yusuke: Why does my outfit have a tail? I don’t understand…

Yusuke: I considered growing my own bean sprouts, but it seems to be more expensive than buying them grown.

Yusuke: I once had a dream that I washed up on a deserted island. I painted as much as I pleased… So wonderful.

Yusuke: I may specialize in Japanese-style painting, but I’d like to learn some Western techniques as well.

Yusuke: That grappling hook is very useful. I should find a way to utilize one in my daily life.

Yusuke: The other day, I went into the mountains to gather vegetables so I could cut back on food expenses.

Yusuke: I tried to paint a landscape of the starry sky once, but it’s quite difficult to do so from within the city.

Yusuke: India ink isn’t my specialty, but I’ve been experimenting with it in some recent work, just for fun.

-

Makoto: I may have stopped being a doormat for adults, but people are still calling me a “teacher’s pet.”

Makoto: A phantom thief’s body is their most vital asset. We need to make sure we eat balanced, nutritious meals.

Makoto: Do you enjoy visiting theme parks? I’ve rarely been to one myself.

Makoto: Fox looks cooler using his katana than I had originally imagined.

Makoto: I had the weirdest dream… I was at school, but I was wearing my phantom thief outfit.

Makoto: Would anyone care to learn how to drive, while we’re here? This place seems as good as any for practice.

Makoto: I know it’s not very healthy, but I do enjoy eating ramen from time to time.

Makoto: Once I’ve graduated, I’m going to buy a motorcycle and go on a road trip.

Makoto: I’ve been working on my grades because I still want to attend college, despite being a phantom thief.

Makoto: I want to read a certain book, but it’s out of print. Where do you suppose I could find a copy?

Makoto: Maybe I’m just burned out, but waking up has grown awfully difficult lately.

Makoto: The grappling hook’s cable seems pretty strong, but it’s scary to think what could happen if it snapped.

Makoto: Once my sister brought home some sushi for me. It was indescribably good…

-

Futaba: I heard rhythm’s an important part of fighting, sooo… I started playing a rhythm game!

Futaba: There’s going to be an event tonight in the MMO I play. I can’t wait!

Futaba: This MMO I’m hooked on is really cool. Do you wanna play with me? Oh—it’s in English, though.

Futaba: I’m about to beat the game I’ve been playing. Wonder what I should play next?

Futaba: I’ve been going outside a lot more, so now I’m sleeping way better than I did when I was a shut-in.

Futaba: Guess what? I’m making a game called “Hungry Hungry Mona”!

Futaba: You know who’s a really good driver, is Sojiro. He can parallel park with his eyes closed!

Futaba: If you could shoot grappling hooks from your hands, you’d probably be able to get around just using those!

Futaba: Ya know, I’ve thought about workin’ out and fighting alongside you guys.

Futaba: You guys should try playing shooters! It could help you improve your gun skills.

Futaba: Last night I had a dream my hard drive failed… That was scary.

Futaba: Wouldn’t it be cool if you could mod the grappling hook so it was electrified?

Futaba: Sure, the internet’s convenient, but it’s not like it can do everything. Don’t overestimate its capabilities.

Futaba: I wonder if I’d be okay going to some place by myself if it wasn’t crowded. Inokashira Park seems nice.

Futaba: Yesterday Sojiro bought me my favorite instant yakisoba!

Futaba: Maybe I should get a gun too, just for self-defense… Nah, my hands need to be empty.

-

Haru: I found this cafe in Kichioji with phenomenal tea—would you care to try it sometime?

Haru: I ordered kusaya but they refused to make it—they said they couldn’t get the smell out of the kitchen.

Haru: I feel like I need to learn more about the world, but I’m not sure how to best go about it.

Haru: Recently, I’ve been finding rare delicacies rather enticing…

Haru: Even lately, I sometimes dream about doing phantom thief things with Mona.

Haru: If you’re having trouble getting yourself to relax, I recommend herbal tea.

Haru: Asakusa is a wonderful area—I love how it’s this blend of the old and the new.

Haru: Ever since I started high school I’ve been taking the train in the morning, but I’m still not used to it…

Haru: Queen, your mask looks like it’s made of iron. Doesn’t it get heavy?

Haru: Joker’s so acrobatic! He’s really got the hang of that grappling hook.

Haru: I don’t think I’ve gotten this much exercise since I was in ballet.

Haru: Let me know if you ever get a tear in your clothing—I’m good at sewing, so I could most likely fix it.

Haru: I dreamt that the vegetables I’d been growing all died… I was so sad.

Haru: Your weapon seems fun, Skull. Do you want to swap sometime?

Haru: Sometimes it’s impossible for me to fall asleep on days that we’ve been to Palaces, no matter how tired I am.

Haru: You know, before this, I’d never considered using an axe for anything other than chopping firewood…

Haru: My hands have gotten all calloused… I supposed it comes with the territory in gardening.

-

Akechi: I have no intention of changing my stance on matters, no matter what anyone may say.

Akechi: Pancakes... I don’t want to hear that word again for a long, long time.

Akechi: We don’t have much time left. Please do what you can to avoid getting sick.

Akechi: The enemies are stronger than ever. Don’t let your guard down.

Akechi: A world that panders to your every whim is so mundane. Where’s the thrill if there’s no competition?

Akechi: Do you prefer my previous outfit or this one? Moving around’s become much easier for me.

Akechi: This place is immense. If there weren’t train tracks everywhere, I’d bring my bike here.

Akechi: We’re working under the constraints of a time limit, so I’d appreciate it if you could be more efficient.

Akechi: If you’re looking for a way to train both your mind and your body, I highly recommend bouldering.

Akechi: You think I’m frightening when I fight? Well, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to accept it.

Akechi: I meant to tell you, regarding Shido… Thank you for keeping your promise.

Akechi: You may not like working with me, but I’m counting on your assistance until our goal is achieved.

Akechi: When we’re riding in the car like this, it’s easy to forget that we’re actually inside Mona.

Akechi: The Shadows here behave differently from the ones in the Palaces, don’t they?

Akechi: I’m getting a bit hungry. I should’ve eaten beforehand.

Akechi: I enjoy spending time in Kichijoji. It’s not very big, but there are plenty of trendy shops.

Akechi: Riding in the car may beat walking, but it doesn’t stop my legs from growing stiff and sore…

-

Sumire: I have a few different superstitions for good luck in my routines… They get sort of hard to drop.

Sumire: It was already hard for me to believe Palaces existed, but to think there’s such a massive one under Shibuya…

Sumire: It’s a bit cramped in here with this many people…

Sumire: I get stiff all over from just sitting in the car.

Sumire: Why is the one desert you get to eat during the week so delicious?

Sumire: A phantom thief outfit represents a person’s image of their rebellion, right?

Sumire: I wonder if I should try incorporating another sport into my gymnastics training.

Sumire: I wonder what I could use as inspiration for my performances…

Sumire: Swords are actually pretty hard to wield.

Sumire: Whenever I travel, I always end up buying some sort of good luck charm.

Sumire: Your outfits are all so unique. I can see coordinating them wasn’t a priority.

Sumire: This time of year, a heating pad’s an absolute must for keeping warm.

Sumire: Sometimes people will just walk up to me and ask me to show them a standing split.

Sumire: I’m in top shape today! Let’s keep going.

Sumire: Do you all stretch beforehand? You could pull a muscle if you don’t.

Sumire: It’s too bad gymnastics competitions aren’t on TV more often.

Sumire: Fighting makes for a pretty good workout, doesn’t it?

-

while I didn't transcribe responses, I did notice something a bit disappointing: neither Sumire nor Akechi seemed to have responses for anyone else. It's possible I missed one?? But not being able to remember any, they must not have many if they do have some. A bit odd.

[aion-rsa]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 1: Marvel and MCU Easter Eggs

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This article contains Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1 spoilers, possibly spoilers for future episodes, and the wider MCU. We have a spoiler free review here.

Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1 has finally arrived on Disney+. Now, those of you hoping for mystery box storytelling and surreal weirdness the likes of which we got from WandaVision may be a little disappointed. But those of you looking for some gritty street-and-spy-level action with a deeper look at life in the post-Snap/Blip MCU, well, you’re in luck.

Oh? But you’re here for Marvel Comics and MCU Easter eggs, you say? Well, you’re still in luck, friend! The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is full of subtle nods to Marvel and Captain America history, and continues to connect the dots in the ever-expanding MCU.

Here’s everything we found…and if you spot something we missed, let us know in the comments!

Sam Wilson

The stuff with Sam ironing his own shirt, or trying to help his sister get a small business loan is some real “the mundanity of superhero life” stuff that we rarely get a glimpse of in the movies, but that was such a hallmark of what separated Marvel Comics from their competitors in their early days.

In the MCU, Sam is from Louisiana. But in the comics, he was born and raised in Harlem, New York City.

Sam’s sister, Sarah Wilson, also known as Sarah Casper, was introduced back in Captain America #134 back in 1971, and created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan. She’s made only a few appearances over the decades and mainly exists for the novelty of having the patriotic superhero be known as “Uncle Sam.”

The boat that Sam’s sister maintains is named Paul and Darlene, named for their parents, and those were indeed the names of his parents in the pages of Marvel Comics.

Sam’s drop out of the back of the airplane at the start of the Captain Vassant rescue mission mirrors Steve’s in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The MCU’s version of Bubo is also back in action! Redwing is still very helpful during Sam’s “government contracts” it appears, as long as no one else messes with the drone’s wires. Also, Sam’s personal devotion to the Redwing drone is a nice nod to the fact that Redwing is a real falcon in the comics, and Sam’s pet/buddy.

Sam gets to have a sombre conversation with James “War Machine” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) in what is perhaps just the first of many unannounced The Falcon and the Winter Soldier appearances by other members of the MCU. We already know there will be a larger role for Sharon “Agent 13” Carter in later episodes. Who else might show up?

Bucky Barnes

Fittingly for his Marvel spinoff series, Bucky is introduced in the same way he was back in Captain America: The First Avenger – catching the tail end of an alleyway fight.

Bucky Barnes has now been pardoned for all the terrible crimes he committed, it’s quickly revealed. Doesn’t look like he’s pardoned himself, mind. Not by a long shot.

Bucky mentions having a sister. While it hasn’t been brought up much, he did have one in the comics. Rebecca Barnes was introduced in The Marvel Holiday Special #1 in a story written by Len Kaminski (hence the notebook Easter egg, which we’ll get to in a minute) and tremendously underrated ’90s comics artist Ron Lim. After the deaths of their parents, Bucky and Rebecca were separated. Her namesake was reintroduced during Heroes Reborn, where Rikki Barnes was Cap’s sidekick in Counter-Earth.

In Derek Landy’s new Falcon & Winter Soldier comics, Bucky has adopted a very chill white cat called Alpine. No sign of Alpine in episode one, but we refuse to give up hope.

Lieutenant Torres

The eager Lt. Torres (played by On My Block star Danny Ramirez) who clearly idolizes Sam appears to be none other than Joaquin Torres, who eventually took on the mantle of the Falcon in the comics. So if Sam is destined to become Captain America on this show, will Torres become his sidekick? We hope so!

Batroc

Just like at the start of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we get a confrontation with Georges Batroc (ze leaper!), once again played by Georges St. Pierre. Batroc is such a cool but minor Cap villain, and we never need to spend a lot of time with him, but we do hope he keeps showing up from time to time for cool fight scenes, just like he does in the comics. It’s nice to see that while they’ll never give him his ridiculous comics costume, he’s wearing his comics-appropriate colors here.

The Flag-Smashers

The masked baddies of this episode are known as the Flag-Smashers, an organization who want to do away with all national borders. There’s lots of ways this show deals with the weirdness of the MCU after the Snap, but the increasing radicalization of underground supervillain groups appears to be one neat side effect.

They take their name from the comic book supervillain Flag-Smasher (singular). Flag-Smasher was created by Cap writer supreme Mark Gruenwald and artist Paul Neary back in 1985. The original Flag-Smasher was Karl Morgenthau (remember that name, we’ll come back to it in a second), and he was a non-powered costumed terrorist who led an organization known as ULTIMATUM, “The Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind” (folks, ‘80s Captain America comics absolutely freakin’ RULE).

The woman handing out the Flag Smasher masks was tough to make out, but that appears to be was Erin Kellyman (Enfys Nest from Solo: A Star Wars Story) playing “Karli Morgenthau.” In other words, she’s probably the leader of the organization, not the big, scary dude with super soldier strength. But speaking of him…

The big scary guy is credited as “Dovich” and he’s played by Desmond Chiam. How did he get so strong? Well, the words “Power Broker Watching” appear in the credits, and the Power Broker was key to John Walker getting his super soldier strength, as well as several other minor Marvel characters. Remember what we said about how awesome ’80s Captain America comics are? You’re about to find out!

Sam’s crack about “bad guys” with “bad names” in regards to the Flag-Smashers also applies to real world nitwits who go around calling themselves names like “Proud Boys.”

Bucky’s Notebook

There are some standout names in Bucky’s notebook, notably L. Kaminski (probably ‘80s Marvel writer and editor Len Kaminski) and H. Zemo (as in Captain America: Civil War and this very show’s baddie Helmut Zemo). 

We wrote more about those names here.

Captain America

In the Smithsonian exhibit where Sam and Rhodey chat, there are lots of artifacts from Steve’s life, mostly taken from the era of Captain America: The First Avenger like the Howling Commando uniforms, but there’s something else cool there: the actual cover of Captain America Comics #1 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the first appearance of the character. Remember, as part of the propaganda effort during the war to make Captain America a symbol of the wartime effort in the MCU, these comics were a thing. This means that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby also existed in the MCU, but their stories were meant to be chronicles about a real person.

Where’s Steve Rogers?

It seems that only a few people might know what really happened to Steve Rogers. Has Old Cap now passed on, or is he alive somewhere ready to make an appearance in the show at a later date? Many fans are still hoping for a Chris Evans cameo, and we’ve seen trailers for the series where Sam and Bucky apparently practice throwing Cap’s shield around out in the woods. Perhaps there’s a secluded cabin nearby…

The conspiracy theory about Captain America secretly watching us from the moon is likely a reference to Nick Fury in the comics. The events of Original Sin showed that Fury had been secretly waging wars on potential alien invaders for years. Uatu the Watcher put a series of events in motion so that he would die, but Fury’s immoral actions would be exposed. In the end, Fury was forced to become the new Watcher — the Unseen — and was imprisoned on the moon, looking over Earth as his new job. Coincidentally, Bucky took up his alien-fighting job in the aftermath.

It also feels a little like The Last Avengers Story, a dystopian Avengers comic from the mid-90s. It’s explained that at some point, Steve Rogers was President and was assassinated. In the final scene, it’s revealed that he’s been secretly recovering and has been watching over the world in a bunker.

Who is the New Captain America?

The new Captain America that we meet so briefly here is Wyatt Russell as John Walker. Who is John Walker, you ask? Well, John Walker was ALSO the new Captain America in the comics! But before that he was the reactionary supervillain known as the Super-Patriot. He took over the mantle of Captain America after the government decided they wanted Steve Rogers to be more of an employee and less a free agent symbol of liberty. After his time as Cap was up, John became the U.S.Agent. That’s all you’re gonna get out of us for now, for fear of spoilers.

You can read more about John Walker here.

Unanswered Questions

No, we don’t know who the L.A.F. are supposed to be, either.

The “government official” who introduces John Walker is played by Alphie Hyorth, and is simply credited as “government official” in the credits. That seems pretty suspicious to us, and we wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being revealed with a recognizable Marvel Universe name like Henry Peter Gyrich or something down the line.

Names like Captain Vassant, Congressman Lockhart, Senator Atwood, or Bucky’s therapist Dr. Raynor appear to check out Marvel-wise.

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[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Been having a weird/off week. But you know what’s made it better?

Spending some more time in Midvale with Supergirl Ep. 6x06, “Prom Again!”

Spoilers!

So! Last week was the fun shenanigans/set-up, THIS WEEK we get the emotional pay-offs and oooooh. So good. So good.

Historically, Supergirl kinda struggles to stick its landing when it comes to paying off its set-ups, but I think this episode is really solid in that regard.  

And thus, we begin! With the forest showdown! And I love it. Love every part of it. Love Kara flying in and freeing Nia and Brainy with her heat vision, love that one of Kenny and Kara’s go-to plays is called ‘Speed Racer’, love Brainy’s whole, ‘my buddy’s gonna BLAST YA if you don’t cooperate’ and Kara just. Threatens the bad guys from the shrubbery.

She’s supposed to be scary and intimidating with the heat vision eyes but dagnabbit...it’s just kind of cute.

Last week I completely forgot to mention how much I love that Kenny and Kara have go-to plays WITH NAMES. (NERDY names at that!) And also that Alex is so exasperated by it.

JUST YOU WAIT, KIDDO. 

Fast forward to the Fortress and everyone’s happy! The day is saved! The timeline is restored! Alex apologizes for being a bit of a grouch!

*cough* understatement *cough*

And Brainy doesn’t get the fist bump, d’awwwww. XD

Nia has a lovely chat with Kara wherein SHE is the elder hero who inspires the youths. Nice. NICE.

And THEN, the first of some good Danvers Sisters scenes...we’ll call this one ‘the mini-van chat.’ 

Kara apologizing about the ‘Zookeeper fight-y thing’ and the GLASSES FIDGET.

Shout out to the writers, who were ON-POINT with the dialogue for both parts, and shout out to the young actresses as well. It’s...honestly uncanny, how well they nailed playing Kara and Alex. 

(I mean, we knew this already, of course, but GOSH. What a wonderful showcase. So, so glad, that we got such a large Midvale story in the final season.)

Right, so, another dialogue highlight from the mini-van chat (but like, not in a silly way. More in a, ‘oh wow that’s very sweet’ way) Alex, to Kara about her choice: ‘It’s the right one because you made it.’

THESE KIDS.

Then we go to Nia and Brainy on the Legion Cruiser!

Nia’s outfit? Outstanding. Brainy’s mask? Admittedly a little distracting because it didn’t look like it was fitting quite right.

But A+ song choice for their dance, show. 

(Really, A+ song choices across the board. You can tell they were absolutely LOVING getting in all those needle drops.) 

And then we discover--ALL IS NOT WELL! THE TIMELINE IS STILL BROKEN!

Cat Grant has released the aliens! And she has been captured! And yet she remains heckin’ fearless!

Love that she calls Mitch ‘Mr. Blue Sky.’

It took me a while to warm up to this ‘new’ version of Cat Grant but this episode really gave her some fun stuff to do and yep, I dig it. Great stuff. 

Meanwhile, back at the prom...

I'm taking this moment to applaud the Supergirl folks for their very nice workarounds for ‘crowded’ locations this season thus far. The episodes have never felt like, overtly obvious in terms of Covid protocol impacts (I mean there are a few scenes here and there where you’re like, ‘oh, yeah, this is set up in this specific way to probably account for some production changes) but I’ve never felt that the episodes are losing anything, you know?

Case in point! Two episodes, set in a crowded high school! But most of the stuff takes place before/between classes, or outside!

(Specifically enjoyed all the outdoor stuff and natural lighting. It’s not quite the same as that LA sunshine, but. Still nice.)  

Anyways, in “Prom Again!” the action/discussions are set in the hallways/classrooms outside of the actual Prom. Inobtrusive! Makes sense for the story! Doesn’t compromise!

Gold stars for everyone. 

Kara and Kenny are BOTH unrelentingly cheesy--Kara even says as much--and it’s wonderful.

‘Hey Stargazer.’ Kara, you smooth operator you.

Shout out to Kenny’s bowtie, it’s great.

...Shout out to Kenny in general.

(Like, Will is great, but he’s got a lot to live up to, now.)

So FURTHER PROOF THAT THE TIMELINE IS BUSTED: Kara is going to stay in Midvale!

:O

Me, knowing full well that Kara has to go to National City, but also being...just a liiiiittle bit team Kenny: 

And then...THE METEOR!

That Kara just. Body-slams.

It reminded me of another Danvers, who also body-slams some space stuff:

But UNLIKE Kara’s cross-company cousin, this particular move does not end well!

Because there’s KRYPTONITE! And also, a CLOAKED SPACESHIP, BLOCKING THE FALLING METEOR DEBRIS! And, you know, ALIEN HUNTERS THREATENING HIGH SCHOOLERS! And Kenny SACRIFICES HIMSELF FOR KARA!

(Well, okay. It’s tonight but you get the idea.)

Poor, sweet Kenny. Who feels WAY out of his depth as he’s imprisoned alongside Cat on the alien ship...but it does bring us one of her patented ‘tough love pep talks.’ Wherein she calls Kenny brilliant.

And also, Kendall.

Never change, Cat. Never change.

Also, “Go, go.”

Okay, some more rapid fire specifics that I enjoyed so that this list doesn’t get...too? Long? ...No promises.

Smol Kara squaring her shoulders in that classic Kara Super Pose! 

Alex being able to pick a lock!

Kara using the reflected sunlight from the moon to heal!

‘That’s an 80% failure rate’ ‘Oh yes it’s terrible.’

The scene where the police have Kara, and Alex comes rushing out all, ‘that’s my sister!’ and Kara’s gonna just RISK EVERYTHING to fix this?

100/10, excellent, love to see that Danvers Sisters angst in the Worst Timeline. Also? Alex’s desperate little headshake, silently pleading for Kara to NOT DO THE THING???? Devastating. In the best way.

‘The world will know that name...Keira.’ 

No Plutonian Landshark sightings!?!? Not even a graphic on a computer screen? FOR SHAME!

(Personally, I’m imaging that they look like Jeff, pictured below.)

Kara stowing away on the Cruiser, and her very cute, ‘Don’t be mad!’

Her entire speech about her future--She’s just seventeen! She doesn’t have her driver’s license yet! Eliza’s only let her do the laundry once! She’s not even sure she can make rice!

(Eliza, I love you, but for Pete’s sake, let your kid do her own laundry.) 

Brainy and Kara trying to play it cool upon being discovered by Kenny and Alex! 

Their story involving an excess of formal wear!

Nia inspiring Cat to start CatCo, and telling her she’s CAT FREAKIN’ GRANT!

“If you say Lois Lane I will expire.”

Wait, did I mention the lucid dreaming power yet? ...Nia’s lucid dreaming power!

The entirety of Kara and Kenny’s talk in the gym!

Kara in the Worst Timeline tell Alex, ‘you don’t have to shout’. And then in the Fixed Timeline: ‘inside voice please.’

And she quotes Monty Python that lil GOOBER.

THE WHOLE EPISODE(S) was a GOSHDARN DELIGHT, I TELL YA. (Did I say that last week? I might’ve said that last week, but I don’t care.)

And now, some slightly more in-depth, overall thoughts:

So, How ‘Bout Them Danvers: Not surprisingly, the girls end up in, if not the exact same place as the end of “Midvale”, then pretty darn close. I’m trying to avoid, like. All of fandom, these days, but unfortunately, the bad takes are numerous, and often untagged. So I did see a bunch of people insisting that Kenny living ‘ruined the Danvers’ relationship’ and that the show is ‘taking away everything that makes Kara Kara’

To which I say:

In the broadest terms, what needs to happen by episode’s end to match up with “Midvale”, and prep the kiddos for the stuff that happens in the Pilot - Kara needs to put the aspirations of super-ing on the backburner, and Alex needs to like. Not hate Kara, but also be committed to helping Kara keep her secret, you know...secret. 

All of these things are set up. I repeat: All. Of. Them.

And Kenny didn’t have to die!

(I will admit, I chuckled that they so blatantly teased an untimely demise for him...because I know it will annoy select corners of fandom.

Muhahahahaha.)

But anyways, back to those key ingredients for making a ‘Danvers Sisters in the same emotional place they were in @ Midvale’s end’ soup: Alex deals with that simmering resentment. Seeing Kara handle herself well in a super-ing context gives her that little, ‘hey, this isn’t so bad!’ outlook.

BUT INTERESTINGLY, in the Fixed Timeline, Alex and Kara don’t have that chat in the supply room, where Alex is like. ‘You CANNOT reveal your powers, BAD THINGS will happen if you do.’ 

That is saved for the Pilot!*

MEANWHILE. The Kara ingredients! She puts super-ing on hold. 

Her chat with Kenny functions as a replacement for her chat with J’onn-as-Not!Alura, in the sense that it’s here that she reveals that she didn’t choose to come to Midvale, she didn’t choose these powers. 

(...I can already sense fandom using those lines to prove their end-of-series theories and like. Ugh. Ugh.) 

But anyways. It’s also here that we get shades of Pilot!Kara, what with the season one conflict of being Super vs. being normal. 

It’s ALL THE SAME STUFF.

Fandom needs to like. Chill. 

And their (fake) concern for Kara’s characterization is entirely misplaced, because this was a really wonderful showcase for Kara in particular.

Like. The first episode was really Nia’s time to shine, and we still got solid Brainy and Nia action in this episode!

But man. That good Kara content.

THE CONTENT I CRAVE!

So speaking of good Kara content in particular, I LOVED Kara’s prom dress. It's got both a SKIRT. AND PANTS!

Amazing.

I know nothing of fashion, but it was very cute, very girly, and okay. Though I hate the comic, the one thing I actually liked about Future State is Kara’s costume. This was similar!

(Thank goodness it looked nothing like the prom dress from Rebirth. That...was a bit of a train wreck.)

(Look, not all comic artists are great clothes designers, it’s just how it is.)

We see the empowerment theme come up with Kara inspiring Kenny; he describes her as ‘an amazing light in a world of darkness’ and tells her that, ‘you changed me, Kara Zor-El.’

We love to see it. 

They also agree that stargazing and Monty Python make for the perfect prom these absolute NERDS I love them.

*Quick wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey note WRT making this episode ‘fit’ with the Pilot: I’m not saying that it 100% does. There’s already the change with the Kryptonite, and the added info/awareness of the DEO. 

Those little changes, though, don’t really impact the overall arc of Kara and Alex, the way the emotional stuff might. 

Thus! The ‘Pilot’ of Earth Prime, and in fact, the ENTIRETY of the show’s run thus far most likely involved little differences throughout, but the emotional core is very close, if not the exact same.

BUT EITHER WAY, it doesn’t matter, because our Kara and Alex are still our Kara and Alex thanks to the multiple sets of memories! 

(So all of fandom’s freaking out is for naught. As it almost always is.) 

I bring this up because, again, as much as I talk about setting stuff up for where we find Kara six years from now--this Kara is a little different! She comes across as more confident, something Izabela Vidovic mentioned in an interview, when discussing her approach to playing Kara this time around. 

And now, Alex: Admittedly, she gets less focus as like, a solo-entity in these episodes--she really is there to serve the more Kara-centric plot. Personally, it didn’t bother me too much because outside of these flashback episodes, Alex has had some solid development and screen time, so. It balances out.

And the scenes we did get with those 2? Solid. Top tier. There was even a couch scene! Like, technically. Because there was a couch in the supply room. XD  

Spotlight on Kenny: fandom kinda loves to insist that all the men on Supergirl are trash, because, ya know. 'Feminism’ or whatever. It’s ships, it’s always ships. But, in fact! The dudes on Supergirl? Are actually wonderful! And Kenny is another example of a guy who isn’t afraid to be emotionally vulnerable, who 1000% supports Kara, but is also like. His own person. 

GOOD JOB, SHOW. GOOD JOB.

Brainy too, had some really nice stuff in terms of dealing with his emotions!

And it’s Brainy who gives us our closing line, as Nia asks him how he’s feeling now that they’ve accomplished their mission:

“Hopeful.”

NOICE.

In conclusion! “Prom Night” and “Prom Again!” were EXCELLENT! They had heart! They had stakes! They had the promised time-travel do-over alluded to in the titles! Outstanding performances from the entire cast! Tthe ‘young’ versions of characters in particular! And I WILL be watching these episodes on repeat throughout the three-month hiatus! XD

But before the Super Friends take their break: NEXT WEEK! The Quest for Kara Concludes!!!

[quilloftheclouds]

Quill’s STS Catchup

I’m playing catchup with STS asks! Some of these are... from well over a year ago. Oops. ^^’

Thank you folks for all sending such marvelous asks, and I’m sorry it took me so long to get to answering them!!

@ettawritesnstudies asked:

Hello there! For STS: what is your favorite type of sea creature that you wanted to put in OSS but weren't able to? If this doesn't apply, what are your top 5 favorite sea creatures that did make it into OSS?

I have an absolute ton of cephalopods that I wanted to put in but wasn’t able to! Like the mimic octopus, or dumbo octopus, or cuttlefish? I love them all so much but I just couldn’t find a place for them. ALSO SEA OTTERS. I really wanted sea otters. :c That said, a few of my favourite sea creatures I was able to base sirens off of! Like the firefly squid, a speckled flying fish, a leafy sea dragon, several betta fish, and a sailfish!

@musicofglassandwords asked:

storyteller saturday!! who's your most secretive OC and why is this? Do you have any OP characters and if you do, how are they OP? Favorite snack/dessert of your favorite OC?

I think Dione fits both the first and second question! She definitely keeps a whole lotta secrets, and mostly because one: she’s scared of what will happen if the truth gets out, and two: she’s protecting others from the truth! The reason she’s OP? She’s just. A heckin’ powerful three centuries old sea witch.

And Xuân’s favourite snack is munching on dried nori! I personally love this salty snack so much and if I can get my hands on it, it’ll disappear in less than a minute.

@ccwritesstuff asked:

happy STS! If your characters had to choose, what would be their favorite games to play, be it board, card or video games! ive been playing a lot of three houses recently so... yah. kinda inspired or stm like that

I don’t really know many board games that existed during the time of OSS! I’ll tell you that Emery, from my new wip CIRCUIT, absolutely loves UNO. He wins every time.

@maxgraybooks asked:

Happy sts! Who are your most eccentric characters?

Oh my good stars. Pretty much EVERY one of my characters is super eccentric! That’s just the way I am. XD I think Captain Xuân would be my most eccentric, though? Based on the way they act, plus the way they dress... they love to act especially weird, since they love being the center of attention!

@geth-consensus asked:

Storyteller Saturday! What's the most ridiculous scene you've ever written? As in what's actually occurring in the scene itself.

Probably when my two characters who are over three centuries old stick their tongues out at each other.

@livvywrites asked:

STS!! Do you have strong associations with any of your characters? If so, what are they? | What are your mains favorite weather conditions? | What originally inspired you to write One Siren’s Soul?? | Do you have any other large projects planned for the future??

Ohh!! I have a bunch of strong associations but a lot of them are spoilers, because I LOVE foreshadowing through symbolism! Let’s just say... storms play an important role for Celestine~

Favourite weather conditions! Celestine: Dry as a desert - Dione: Gentle snow - Caelin: Light rain that he can run around in - Phoenix: Clear night, somewhat cool, perfect for a bonfire

And original inspiration? I mean... I was obsessed with pirate and adventure stories for a while there... PoTC, Our Bloody Pearl, Treasure Planet? Plus then there was all the ocean stuff I was doing in biology at the time. ^^

And I have CIRCUIT and The Mirror’s Rifts that I’m also working on!

@ditzysworld asked:

Storyteller saturdayyy!!!! what colours do you associate with your main OCs and why?-ditzysworld

OH STARS. I love colours so much!!! I won’t explain why because that tends to be spoilerish, or really obvious!

Celestine: Dark blue, celestine blue, maroon.

Dione: Inky black, deep brown, pale green, vivid leaf green.

Caelin: Browns, beiges, dark blue.

Phoenix: RED. BRILLIANT RED.

@evelyns-spilled-tea asked:

Oh shoot it's that time already; Happy Storyteller Saturday! What're the differences between your characters and the idealized versions of themselves they wish they could be?

Celestine wishes she could get rid of her stupid fear.

Dione wishes she could be less of a coward, and could make up for the mistakes she did in the past. Also, she wishes she could control her temper.

Caelin wishes he would be less useless and oblivious.

Phoenix wishes she could be less scary.

@lordkingsmith asked:

story teller saturday trying again lol: what symbolism shows up in your works and what's your favorite to write about?

SYMBOLISM IS A MAJOR THING IN OSS. Some main things to look out for: Storms, ice, colours, and flowers! My favourite thing to write about? Uhhh... I really heckin’ love writing about geology and gemstones. I’m a Rock Nerd~

@lottieiswriting asked:

Storyteller Saturday but a day late (is storyteller Sunday a thing?) What would you say is the biggest flaw of your main character, and who would you say out of all of your characters has the worst / biggest flaw that causes the most problems? Hope you don’t mind my late ask!

I’M PROLLY A NUMBER OF MONTHS LATE SO NO SWEAT, MATE.

Celestine’s major flaw is her inability to trust people! And Dione’s flaws, her selfishness, is the one that causes the most problems throughout the story!

@timefirewrites asked:

Happy Storyteller Saturday! I'm sure you know at least one scene where there's suddenly a clone/doppelgänger/etc. of a character and they have to convince their friends that they're the original. How would your ocs do that? Would they succeed? What's a dish related to your ocs? (Be it inspired by them, or relating to their story in some way or simply by being their favorite food)

alfkjsldgkjsdg I love this trope. I don’t think it pops up in OSS? But it does in CIRCUIT! But if Celestine had a doppelgänger: she would likely convince everyone it’s her by insulting people with the unique insult-nicknames she has for everyone. XD For example: she only ever calls Phoenix “idiot”! Poor Nixi. And Celestine’s favourite dish of all time is PANCAKES.

@ditzysworld asked:

happy storyteller saturday! do you have any WIP ideas that you never really ended up pursuing, and why didn't you? -ditzysworld

My first attempt at a major novel that actually got anywhere was Soul Tied! It was about shapeshifters and dragons and the chosen one trope, but with twins! Mainly, I never really had an idea of where the story was going to go, and my outlining skills sucked at that stage.

@aslanwrites asked:

STS!! Would you ever write a self insert? Which OC do you relate to the most?

I actually make a small cameo in OSS! The lighthouse keeper that tries to stop Phoenix from destroying their lighthouse is based almost completely on me~

And as for who I relate to the most: Caelin! Originally, Caelin’s character was a persona of mine!

@tragedyshow asked:

sts!! what would your MCs animgi forms be? Their patronus and boggarts?

I know next to nothing about Harry Potter, but let’s see! (I actually see their patronus and animgi forms being the same creature, so I’ll just be answering with two!)

Celestine: Magpie, a giant heckin’ tidal wave.

Dione: Stag, a giant fire creature.

Caelin: Puppy!! Pup!! He literally turns into a border collie in canon!! AND FREAKIN’ MANNEQUINS I HATE THEM.

Phoenix: Can I make it a phoenix? Is that allowed? And a zombie or other clearly undead thing!

@fair-folk-nonsense asked:

Happy STS! What are your character’s worst fears and how do they deal with them? ~fair-folk-nonsense

Celestine’s worst fear is water! Or getting close to someone only to lose them again. And they usually deal with it either by running away as fast as they can, or denying everything. :/

That’s 15 asks answered! Phew~ Tune in next time for even more. XD

[vios-rockland-corner]

Life in Rockland 1

[Author’s note:  “Life in Rockland” is a creative writing project utilizing a specific OC in place of the MC for the “Rumors of Rockland” series.  I do not own any part of the Rockland universe, only my OC.  Fair warning, creative writing is not my forte.  This is a means of practice and a fun way to enjoy the content further].

Sasha Holmes is new to Rockland and just had quite an interesting day.

 Setting: After game events

Play: Rumors of Rockland- Article 1

[Spoilers below for RoR Article 1]

Sasha’s Choices:

[“Like the guy from Resident Evil?”]

[“Ah ha, what exactly do you have to do to look like you’re from around here?”]

[“Are you serious?”]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I can’t believe you’re still not unpacked yet.  Hasn’t it been almost a week since you moved?”

The voice came from Sasha’s laptop.  She was busy multi-tasking while video-chatting with her best friend Pierce.  Well she could see his face IF she turned over from rummaging through boxes and laying out things on the floor.  Some might consider this rude, but Pierce just found it a little hilarious.

“Look it’s a lot of stuff okay?  Besides, I was busy this week going back and forth with work preparations and trying to get the layout of the place,” Sasha said with a huff, looking over her shoulder at the computer.

“Sounds like too much work. You should’ve just stayed home. What’s wrong with waiting a few more years before moving out?”

“Nothing.  Nothing’s wrong with it.  I just...”

“Wanted to break your best friend’s heart?” Pierce gives a very exaggerated pout.  Sasha turns around and smiles coyly.  She crawls over to the computer and lays in front of it, resting her chin on folded arms.

“No.  Even though you kind of deserve it sometimes.”

“I COULD always go easy on you in pool you now?  I don’t mind toning it down.  You’re not gonna beat me otherwise.”

“First off, I don’t want a pity play from you.  Second, you know damn well how close I got last game.”

“Yeah, only to hit the eight-ball into the complete opposite pocket you called. Gotta say, it was almost impressive how you hilariously made a masterful bounce into the wrong fucking pocket,” he grins, holding back his laughter.

“Well I mean that counts as skill doesn’t it?”

“Yeah like scoring a basketball shot for the other team.”

“Whatever, jerk.”

“But back on topic…”

“Okay yeah, look.  I love my hometown, my parents, and even your obnoxious butt.  But I just…didn’t want to get rooted.  I didn’t want to be living with my parents the whole time.  I didn’t want to know ONLY my home.”

“You worry too much.  The rest of the world’s not going to get up and leave if you take too long to hit the road Sasha.”

“I know that, but I wanted…a challenge.”

“A challenge?  You?  I thought you liked everything neat and controlled.  You want to throw things out of wack now?”

“Nothing elaborate.  Just a life challenge.  Take care of my own expenses and start from the ground up.  Meet people on my own and establish a career.”

“I feel like you’re letting your childhood slip away here.”

“Pierce, we’re not kids.”

“YOU sure as hell aren’t.  You always took freakin part-time jobs during college, and full-time jobs in the summer. I had to DRAG you out to the pub and parties for your own sanity.”

“Well moving and covering the cost of living is EXPENSIVE, Pierce.”

“Jesus, how much did you have saved up?”

“Enough so that I could get a place living by myself,” Sasha smiled proudly.

“Not that I don’t think that’s an impressive achievement girl, but I think I would have felt a little better if you had a roommate.  You’re out there by yourself I mean.”

“Look I worked hard for this, so I want my privacy.  I also didn’t really feel comfortable with finding a roommate way out here.”

“You didn’t pick your roommate in college either though.”

“Yeah, but that was our local college Pierce.  I had friends and family right nearby, so if things got weird I had help.  I’m a few hours away from all that now.”

“A ‘few hours’ you say.  It’s like, you’ve gone too short a distance to even warrant a move, and yet just far enough to making it a hassle with visits.”

“I disagree.  I think it’s the perfect distance.  I wanted to be able to visit home, but I didn’t want the temptation to go running home every chance I could get.  Not impossible to go home though.  The point here Pierce is for me to be ‘independent,’” she huffed.

“Whatever.” Pierce rolled his eyes.

“Say what you will, the deed is done.”

“So uh…Rockland.  Why?”

Sasha shrugged.  “No particular reason.  Just seemed like the best choice.  I looked at job advertisements for surrounding areas by distance, looked at their reviews and job pay and what kind of areas they were located at.  The job in Rockland was just better pay from my current job, and the place is small but still attracts tourists.  Means I don’t have to worry about being overwhelmed, but at the same time it SHOULD have just enough amenities and attractions to keep me entertained.”

“Oh?  Entertain yourself huh?  Last I checked that was my job.  Isn’t your idea of fun sitting at a café and going through files?” He smirked.

“Very funny.  Did you forget all the movies we’d watch together too?  I don’t need a buddy for that, and I’ll find other hobbies here. Maybe I’ll start running again.”

“Well good.  Not like you’re gonna get any excitement from your current job.  I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to push yourself to do something a little more interesting.”

“Thaaat’s what the hobbies are for Pierce.  The job is just for stability.”

“Could have added a little more drama to your life if you’d just decided to follow your namesake.”

“Pierce, literally no one in my family has ever been a detective.  DESPITE our last name.  It’s just a random name picked by a random author for a character that became randomly popular.  It is not a go ahead to pursue a career in criminal justice.”

“Seriously, why has NO ONE in your family ever tried to be a detective?”

“Because it requires you to see a lot of messed up shit?  I think I’ll pass.  I mean…if it makes you feel better, I had a great uncle who was a PI.”

“Really?? What was that like!?” Pierce looked a little excited.

“Honestly?  From the stories I heard, he just got a lot of crazies paying him.  People paranoid about being stalked or just using him as a way to harass others.  Wasn’t exactly fun work.”

“Bummer,” he said in a dejected tone.  “Well, I guess if you’re in a place like Rockland, probably wouldn’t get much action anyway.”

“What makes you say that?  Haven’t you been here before?”

“Just SOUNDS plain to me.  LITERALLY makes me think of rocks.  Yeah I’ve been there.  But that was like, when I was a kid?  Just visiting.  Was never for long.  Uncle was there.”

“Right.  Younger you was probably also too busy running around and sticking his hands in the dirt to actually pay attention to what was around you.”

“Yeeeeep that sounds like me,” he smirked.

“Well, I don’t know if the place has changed since you were little or you literally just have zero awareness of what’s around you, but I wouldn’t EXACTLY call this place boring.  Not after today.”

“Oh?” Pierce leaned in, curious.  “I’m so sorry, what WAS your day like dear Sasha?”

“Well, I was…looking for a place for a regular hangout.  I found this one bar in the Town Central.  At least it felt a lot more welcoming than some of the clubs around here.  Most of the people in general seem friendly here…but they can tell I’m new.  Like…ALL of them can tell.  It’s a little nerve-racking.”

“Look if you didn’t want to want to stick out like a sore thumb, you should have moved to a city.  I told you that.  Much easier to blend in there.”

Sasha shook her head.  “No, I didn’t want to get overwhelmed like that.  The best city choices were too big.  Then I’d really feel lonely.  It’s not bad here, I just…have to be sure I make a good first impression is all.  I don’t…think they hate new people?”

“You JUST said they were friendly, didn’t you?”

“Yeah but…see the bartender…” Sasha shook her head again, “No, no you know what?  I think I was just getting jittery since it’s a new place.  Forget it.”

Pierce tilts his head. “What about the bartender?”

“He…OH!  His name,” she quickly recovered and laughed.  “His name is Whesker!”

“Like Resident Evil Whesker?” Pierce chuckled.

“EXACTLY LIKE RESIDENT EVIL WHESKER!  Dude even knew what that was!”

“SHIT FOR REAL?!  That’s actually pretty sick.  Points for the bartender.  What’d you order from him?”

“Nothing, actually.  Him and the other bartender had to do something out back.  Didn’t actually get to drink anything the whole time I was there.”

“Boo.  Points deducted.”

Sasha chuckled, “Well I mean they were busy.  I wasn’t really mad.  Kind of got distracted with this one guy having…a mental breakdown?”

“Woah.  Like, what do you mean?”

“I mean he was…really off kilter.  Not gonna lie, dude was kind of terrifying.  He kept cussing up a storm and saying he was gonna slit someone’s throat. He did SOMETHING awful.  Could not figure out for the life me what EXACTLY he did. He had a friend with him and I was certain this dude was going to punch him in the face or toss him across the room. He didn’t though.  He just…kinda…slumped down into a weeping mess. It was weird.  He said something about drinking.  I think the dude was an alcoholic.  It was kind of scary to watch.  At first I was kind of quivering from the raw temper he had.  Then…I felt a little empty.”  Sasha went a little quiet.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Pierce said in a reassuring tone.  “Dude was probably just drunk.  Lots of people probably get a little emotional when they’re drunk.  Met a ton of guys who say a lot of shit they don’t really mean when they’re wasted.  Did he go near you?”  Pierce looked a little concerned.

“Oh no, no I didn’t get caught up in any of that.  His friend I guess took him to some place to cool off.  The alcoholic kept saying something about disappointing someone for…whatever he did.”

“That’s good.  If you were to guess what he did though, what would you say?”

Sasha shrugged.  “Maybe he got in a fight?  Broke someone’s nose?  Or maybe he’s got a gambling problem?”

“Yeah.  Could be those.  He could also literally have just spent all his paycheck on booze, and now he’s gotta figure out what to do for rent.  I’ve seen that a few times.  Whatever the case, just…keep your distance Sasha.  Dude was probably just being overly emotional, but I suggest you stay away from wildcards like that you know?”

“Oh yeah don’t worry.  I don’t do so great anyway with very…loud people.”

Pierce laughed. “Yeah I know.  Just saying that if it’s a small place, you MIGHT spot him again.”

“I’ll be careful.  Should be easy to tell if he’s been drinking again anyway.”

“Sounds like his friend can keep him under control.  Don’t worry, I’m sure the next person you come across won’t be as scary Sasha.”

“Well…by all accounts…I suppose you’re not wrong, even though I feel like you should be,” Sasha laughed nervously.

Pierce cocked an eyebrow.  “The heck is that supposed to mean?”

“I..ummm…I never thought I would say this in my entire life…”

“And that would be?”

“….I met a drug dealer.”

Pierce blinked. “YOU.  Met a DRUG DEALER?  You are shitting me right now.”

“No, no this is a thing that happened.  Right after the alcoholic left.”

“What, you parked close to the back alley and he came out to hassle you?”

“No this was in the bar.”

“Oh, oh so you’re telling me that a drug dealer just walked right the fuck up to you and said ‘Hey wanna buy some drugs?’” Pierce was grinning and trying to hold back his laughter.

“…Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“YES!  I’m not joking! This happened!  And the dude collects snow globes and friendship bracelets too!” Sasha blurted out, exasperated.

Pierce burst out laughing, “NO FUCKING WAY!  No, I’m not believing that shit for a second.  Sasha you must have misinterpreted something there or this dude was just fucking with you.”

“THERE’S NO WAY TO MISINTERPRET THE LINE WORD-FOR-WORD, ‘You want to buy drugs, kid?’”

“Sasha no drug dealer is going to deal that stuff in public.  Cops eat at those places too.”

“Yeah, about that…apparently the cops here are either inept or can be ‘persuaded.’  I don’t know. Tyler’s plan was apparently to give them a blow if he got caught.”

“Okay one, who’s Tyler?  And two, which blow you talking about?”

“Tyler is the drug dealer and…both?”

Pierce stares for a full 10 seconds, stunned.  He then burst out laughing again, falling over on his side this time.

“OH MY GOD!  OH MY FUCKING GOD! Sweet innocent Sasha left home for no less than a week and you’re already hooked up with the world’s nicest drug dealer.  Oh man.  Sasha I take back what I said about Rockland.  Sounds like a riot.”  He had a large Cheshire grin on his face, but was holding his sides from laughing so hard.

Sasha rolled her eyes and said in a deadpan tone, “Well I’m glad through this long conversation, the thing that finally seems to get you to approve of my move is my association with a drug dealer.  Of all things.  Your reaction also makes me understand Dylan’s pain even more now.”

Pierce sighed, “Oh man, that just, that just made my day.  Thank you….wait who the hell is Dylan?”

“You’re welcome, and Dylan is Tyler’s friend.  He was mostly horrified about how open Tyler was.  Probably one of the more sane people in the bar that night. He dragged Tyler away at the end.”

“Aww, so you didn’t get any drugs?”

“No?  No number, no drugs.”

“Why would you NOT get drugs?!”

“What th-YOU KNOW ME!  That’s not me.  Plus my parents would have a heart attack if I tried anything.”

“But Sasha!  It’s not enough to just not buy a product from a vendor whose actions you don’t approve of.  You gotta purchase from their competition whose conduct you prefer!”

“…Okay I get what you’re saying.  Like if I want to support humanely raised animals, buy the food in the store that’s only from farms with humane raising tactics.  But, Pierce…you’re talking about DRUG DEALERS here. That’s ALL illegal.”

“Same difference.  I’d rather pay the friendly snow globe collecting drug dealer in the bar than the creepy freak in the dark alley.  It’s how you make the world a better place Sasha!  Illegal or not, not like they’re going away.”

“You are…just…I think I understand Dylan’s feelings even more now.”

“Let me come visit sometime.  You can take me to see Tyler.”

“Oh hell no!  If I have any say in this, I’m gonna try my hardest that you two never meet.  I will NEVER hear the end of it otherwise.”

“Boo.  Fine, be that way.  …Hey can I tell your parents about Tyler?”

“NO.  You’ll make THEM start to question my choice in coming here.”

“Okay okay.” Pierce settled down.  “So in summary, you walked into a bar where the bartenders dipped out, an alcoholic was in hysterics and the drug dealer was trying to get you in his books….Eh, you know when I say it out loud it doesn’t sound like the craziest bar ever. May even be pretty normal compared to some standards,” he grinned.

Sasha chuckled, “Yeah, I think I’ll pay the place another visit sometime. It was…interesting.”

“You could use a little spice in your mundane life girl.  Sounds like this place could be a gem.  Let me know who else pops up there next time, kay?” he winked.

“I will.  Have a good night Pierce.”

“Say hi to Tyler for me!”

“GOOD NIGHT Pierce.”

Sasha clicked “End Call.”

Sasha sighed.  She felt emotionally exhausted.

Her eyebrows furrowed.  “Did I forget something?  I think that was all the news.  There was something though…” Sasha thought to herself.  Something was nagging at her.

“The…bartender?  What am I…oh no I mentioned his name!  Pretty sure that was it,” she chuckled.

Sasha looked at the boxes and just shook her head.  She’ll finish it later.  Right now, bed sounded like the best idea after all that excitement.

[mayonakazkrazy]

Soooooooo I wanna talk about an Animated Movie

One night recently, I may have been watching a show that started giving me too many... ‘too real life’ vibes, when what i needed in the moment was ‘taking a break to mentally and emotionally recharge’ time. SOOOO to redirect my overstimulated brain I changed over to a ‘safe’ non threatening movie, Monster House.

Spoilers below the cut in a sort of review as well as some random details that i noticed that make me go ‘... well that got real fast...’ and one tangent/character dive i been wanting to get into toward the end.

Also fair warning about my run on sentences... they’re not going anywhere

Monster House is... a CG movie that oddly enough gives off Claymation vibes... at least to me from certain style design choices. I honestly feel that sort of works in it’s favor since the CG of the mid 2000s was.... terrifying if care wasn’t take in the process. Not good if you want you film to be taken seriously, buuut this movie manages to tow the line because a) it IS supposed to be at least a little scary to kids... haunted house? and b) even though the characters take things seriously enough the writing itself doesn’t try TOO hard to pretend it’s more than it is.

As it stands, the movie is Ok - in the best possible vein of ok. Not some epic, groundbreaking thing but I think it warrants being on people’s list of fun movies to play on Halloween. Visually interesting and funny, you can tell that the people who made the movie at least had fun working on it; and cared more about the project than some other kids’ movies that get put out purely for the easy cash grab via paint by numbers. (I found out that this movie was nominated for Best Animated Feature apparently?! like... i like this movie but... i don’t know, i’ll have to see what other movies came out that year cuz while i like it i’d like to reiterate that i don’t know if it’s BEST (animated/kids) movie of the year material...)

I can honestly say that it was at the Start if not ahead of the ‘remember the 80s?’ fad in movies. Again, not to the film’s discredit. It’s less concerned with smacking you over the head with ‘EIGHTIES!’ and is more set in the time period to make things more plausible. Ya got kids running around unattended for hours without parental guidance, and a number of other 80′s tropes that are, easily ignored at worse and make story elements more believable at best. I mean... .when ELSE would you believe that kids could run around basically unattended for HOURS just before Halloween....hell one kid ACTUALLY STEALS an amount of cold medicine that would have you on MULTIPLE investigative lists even 15 years ago. And NOT just because “the parents are just bad parents”... there’s arguably only one ACTUALLY bad parent in the film who’s only mentioned off-hand but i’ll talk about in a little bit. The rest are parents with semi justifiable reasons for either not believing their respective kid about the haunted house or not thinking they’re NOT unattended (ie. someone’s supposed to be babysitting one of these kids but SURPRISE! she’s in the “selfish teen is a disinterested babysitter spending more time talking to or about boys than ACTUALLY doing the job she’s paid to do” trope)

TLDR on that paragraph, this movie spends so little time being WE”RE THE 80′S! that i wasn’t even sure WHEN it was supposed to take place if it wasn’t for the lack of iPhones and the stationwagons all over.

ANYWAY. some details that tend to stand out to me with this movie tend to be the things that we just get to hear about briefly and are arguably meant to encourage conversation if someone NEEDS to know more about it rather than just getting EVERYTHING explained for no good reason. So enjoy me conversing with myself here.

First up, Chowders family life is kind of sad. Like i said earlier there’s only one or two parents to the three main characters of the movie that people would likely consider ACTUALLY bad. 

The lead’s, DJ’s, parents go out of town at the start of the movie and could reasonably be expected to think that their kid was being watched by the babysitter (see trope rant above). 

The mother of the token female character (Jenny) is Maaayyybe a bad parent but that is to be argued as we only have a few reasons to believe so and some can be explained by the aforementioned 80′s era lack of parental awareness. All we really know is that, this girl is walking around selling candy on her own, gets nearly eaten by the Monster House, and when she calls her mother to tell her about it, the mom doesn’t believe her as no parent ever does about monsters. Sooooo while she does get points off for her kid not even having someone with her during the candy selling, we also don’t hear from or about her again for the rest of the movie until just, coming to pick her up at the end. She get’s a *shrug* on the scale of good or bad parenthood.

Then there’s our secondary male character, Chowder The Dumb One Comic Relief. He’s the one with arguably the most complicated family that we get any insight to. and it’s pretty much just from his off-handed comments on it and a single snipet of a phone call we get to overhear. Literally, what you are about to read, my brain managed to over think from these freakin context clues... SO, it WOULD be SUPER easy to miss what we get about this family and just chalk it up to ‘OH those kids movie parents and their rampant absenteeism and DEATH’ but no. Chowder’s family life is... a little sad if i’m honest. we only hear about 2 calls regarding these kids and their parents. One is when Jenny calls her mom to try to tell on the House for eating her and the other is when Chowder’s dad calls looking for his son. NOW, Chowder himself tells DJ (and the audience) that his Dad is working at a Pharmacy the night Chowder goes over to DJ’s house and nearly gets himself eaten by the Monster House. The boys end up spending the entire night after that, watching the house to see if anybody or anything else gets attacked. Chowder’s dad doesn’t call DJ’s house to find out where his kid is until morning, so we’re lead to believe that his lack of knowledge about the boys’ impromtu sleep-over because he works the graveyard shift (or at least late enough that he would assume Chowder’s in bed until waking the next morning). 

The somewhat sad part comes with the second bit of information we get from Chowder after he tells DJ that his dad is at work that evening and it’s, “Mom is at the movies with her personal trainer”. 0.o ooooooh the scandal... i mean, yeah in general cheating spouses isn’t exactly the most uncommon occurance....anywhere. but isn’t it just a little sad that part of the reason that this is not only the reason that Chowder is home alone (making it SUPER easy for him to just leave when DJ calls). But she’s also apparently gone long enough to ALSO be out so late as to not notice that her kid is GONE all night. Looking at it nowadays just... reminds ya WHY there were ads in the 90′s asking parents where their kids were at 10pm.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

well not about the cheating Chowder’s mom part.

More like the WHOLE thing that got me wanting to type about Monster House in the first place.

A sad story with more potential doom than maybe even the film intended.

YOU SEE

A major plot twist of the movie is WHO is possessing the house. DJ and crew initially believe to be the someone they kind of know - the house’s owner, Mr. Horace Nebbercracker. At first glance, Nebbercracker is obsessively protective of his house, literally the first scene of the film is him SCREAMING in a little girl’s face and confiscating her tricycle when she accidentally ends up on his lawn (again, where are her parents?). He’s literally Mr. ��Get off my lawn”.

So it’s not difficult to imagine that he’s the one haunting the place when the house seems to come life immediately after his sudden heart attack. (PS. WTF to the writers cause we AND THE TWO TEENAGED LEADS see the heart attack happen real time and the boys may have even contributed to it!! THERAPY FOR EVERYONE) Especially since Dj’s babysitter invites over her.....boyfriend? maybe. who reaffirms that Mr. Nebbercracker has been screaming at kids and confiscating toys for YEARS. yeah, super easy to see this dude sticking around after death and continuing his time honored tradition of AGGRESSIVELY dealing with trespassers. Only now as a house that WILL eat you just for stepping on the grass.

So as you may have already guessed, this later gets proved to NOT be the case. As Horace ends up returning in the climax alive and well (enough to sneak out of the hospital and steal an ambulance LIKE A BOSS).

Throughout the course of the movie, we and the kids find out that this creepy old man once had a wife but not only is she not around, rumor has it that he ATE her. for some reason. When the kids go into the house to try to ‘kill’ it and stop the house from eating people, they find a bunch of old pictures inside that at least confirm there was a wife at some point. When they end up in the basement among the piles and piles of stuff that’s landed in the yard over the years, the ALSO find a shrine to Mrs. Nebbercracker. Which is also her final resting place (a spot where she was apparently covered completely with cement).

DJ puts 2 and 2 together pretty quick when Mr. Nebbercracker returns and starts trying to calm the house. Mrs. Constance Nebbercracker is the one haunting the place, not Horace. That’s when we unlock Horace’s Tragic Back Story:

Sometime in the 1930′s Horace (a former demolition man) fell in love with Constance. Constance was being exploited as an “attraction” at a circus/freak-show at the time (during the height of just being abnormally tall, short, or obese made you a relevant ‘freak’). This place made her sleep OUTSIDE IN A CAGE and you know people were happily entertaining themselves by throwing things at her and laughing at both her weight  ‘freakishness’ and helplessness.

So to follow a simple love story, the sweet skinny boy sneaks her away, his feelings are reciprocated, and the two start their life together. They’ve gotten to that nice, building their own house stage when everything goes terribly wrong.

For me, this is sort of the start of my opinion that... things for the Nebbercrackers weren’t likely to go well anyway. Like we got the impression from their wedding photos that they managed to have SOME normalcy in their honeymoon phase but when we see the beginnings of the house, Horace is JUST THEN taking apart the cage/cart that Constance was kept in. i’m presuming he was originally gonna use the various parts in the house but dear christ that means that not much time may have past between leaving the circus (guess they at least didn’t care enough about her ‘as property’ to keep the couple on the run?) to getting married and going on a vacation to buying the land and beginning construction.

That said, the mid-twentieth century isn’t exactly known for it’s forwardness on mental health, and oooooohhhhh boy, if this poor couple aint a fitting example that “and they lived happily ever after” doesn’t happen often. Halloween happens to come around and kids get up to their traditional mischief by, what else? Egging what little of the Nebbercracker house existed at the time. 

(Disclaimer i am an expert in nothing so i may get somethings wrong here but this IS just me hashing out an idea i have) When we first see Constance, we see someone actually throwing food and trash at her while she’s “on display”. And when we see her at the skeleton of the Nebbercracker house, she get VISIBLY upset at the children throwing things at the house, she seeks out her husband telling him that those monsters ‘are attacking [their] house and they’re hurting [her]’. In my mind, she and Horace likely haven’t really dealt with her trauma from the circus. Yes Horace removed her from the bad situation and stopped the trauma, but as of good ole 1935, i doubt they really talked about it much, let alone saw a therapist. Both likely just trying to power forward INTO their future.

Horace’s confusion when Constance becomes triggered by the children throwing things and laughing like assholes shows us that he likely hadn’t seen or had to deal with a situation like this before. He does try to get her to focus on him and remind her that she’s with him and not back at the circus, so maybe he’s had to reassure her (like after a nightmare or maybe he got small panics when in more crowded areas - thus the house that’s likely on the edge of town since they don’t have close neighbors). But the course of events indicates that he’d never seen such a STRONG episode from her. 

Perhaps she’d just finally gotten comfortable with being truly free since they could build their own home and so the perceived ‘attack’ on her home became an attack to her safety and happiness. When she goes to her husband, her savior, and (in her eyes) he doesn’t fix it/ he doesn’t get the chance to. When that egg hit HER BODY. it was game over.

Constance tried to take matters into her own hands, remove the ‘threat’ herself.... with the axe Horace was holding. Now it’s a kids movie so no children come even close to getting hurt, but one could take this to mean that, if constance had lived, she may have only gotten more violent as time went on if she didn’t get the help she needed... help Horace may not have been able to give or get for her.

We’ll never know since the way you get a haunted house is... pretty obvious. In a desparate attempt to stop Constance from likely maiming some kids or hurting herself, Horace causes constance to fall into their uncovered basement. As she falls, she tries to grab the cement mixer for stability and ends up dumping the load on top of herself in the basement (making for a VERY creepy site for a shrine). Horace’s guilt compels him to finish the house and he stays there.

Now such a violent, angry moment right before death MEANS THAT SOMETHIN’S GETTING HAUNTED. SO Constance’s spirit possesses the house and begins “defending” itself from the people of the growing town that happen to get too close. ESPECIALLY on Halloween... ya know one of the nights where EVERYBODY goes out and willingly approaches people’s front doors.

Throughout the rest of the flashback we Mr. Nebbercracker trying to keep people away with more and more desperation. Likely because DJ and Chowder haven’t witnessed the first of Constance’s victims. As the movie’s climax pics up we see how Horace talks to the house, trying to placate the angry spirit by taking care of the house and trying to be the first responder when someone enters the lawn before Constance gets to use HER WAY.

From here, Horace’s relationship with the House begins to look...pretty abusive actually. When he gets back home from the hospital he’s grumpy to the kids, but then we see him pause, he’s apprehensive as he turns to get back to the house. From the expressions the house is given and the way Mr Nebbercracker responds, it’s TELLING him to get HOME NOW. He’s timid, and fearful, and the kids begin to get the idea that if he goes into the house now, he may not come out again. And when the house LITERALLY GETS UP AND STARTS CHASING PEOPLE, he’s desperate. He tries soothing her, he tries to redirect her away from the targets of her anger - the kids. 

Can you just imagine the 45 years leading up to this? Horace having to isolate himself from the whole town until it’s just him and this angry house under the pretext of “IF YOU DO NOT DEFEND HOUSE THEN THE HOUSE WILL DO IT”. He even get’s the heart breaking line of “then i’ll have nobody”. Like so many victims that feel they CAN’T leave their homes. I like to imagine that the house is PRIMARILY motivated by the rage and fear that was driving Constance in her final moments but like... what if she hadn’t? Even if she didn’t kill those kids from 45 years ago, would they have been able to get her the help she needed? Like so many back in those days, Constance and Horace likely would’ve only had the option to self medicate or get her institutionalized (ie. Imprisoned again). Would that have devolved into Constance manipulating Horace with things like “i won’t make it without you” and similar tactics. Would have maybe gone the other way? with Constance still not technically being free because Horace would (intentionally or unintentionally) encourage her dependence on him... 

Anyway, when pleading to the house to just leave the children alone fails, he makes the decision to stop her. with dynamite from his Demo days. 

Constance does not take this well.

From there we get the exciting confrontation where the main characters destroy the house WITHOUT the self-sacrifice that Mr. Nebbercracker may have been planning. We even get a nice little moment where constance’s spirit (unattached to the destroyed house) get’s to move on after a quick goodbye to Horace. And now we get our kids movie happy ending with DJ, Chowder, and Jenny helping Mr. Nebbercracker begin redistributing the pile of toys still in what’s left of the basement to trick-or-treaters and the living things that the house ate somehow climb out of whatever pocket dimension they were trapped in. Nobody seems to question why Nebbercracker’s house is just a crater now....and that this old man that left the hospital without a discharge is now homeless....

Buuuuuuuut i’ve been typing for like 2 hours now. I still have thoughts about other side characters and maybe more exploring the dynamics of technically being in a relationship with a haunted house. buuuuut i need to sleep.

Stay nerdy fellow overthinkers.

[jkrin]

I cannot get over how freakin funny Chapter Two was?? Even the scary bits??? (spoilers under the cut)

- Stan looking so goshdarned pleased with himself when Bev says he looks the same but taller as an adult

- The fact that Myra is played by the same actress as Mrs. Kaspbrak

- Henry waving at the balloon through the other patients’ windows and then pouting when it’s not at his

- Zombie!Patrick the chauffeur

- Pennywise sincerely being stumped by “If you’re my friend then why are you hiding in the dark?”

- Richie imitating Pennywise’s strut (which he never actually saw so I can only assume Eddie demonstrated)

- Richie “we’re not afraid of spiders” Tozier furiously scritching his hair after exiting the clubhouse and checking for spiders

- I kNoW yOuR sEcReT (ft. Pennywise)

- Swinging his arms after charging Richie as if doing the head-shake-thing makes him lose his balance

- Pennywise getting momentarily stuck in Ben’s locker Winnie the Pooh style

- Local Clown Keeps Demanding Kisses from Preteens

- Ben: I should get up and run but first I gotta make sure this clown understands that I do in fact have friends thanks very much

- Bev kissing Bill and my niece whisper-shouting “No, the other guy!!!”

- Pennywise accidentally thwapping his own nose with his tongue

- 27 years later Pennywise still thinks gazebos is the funniest shit

- “Can he see us??”

- He did inquire as to the whereabouts of her legs :/

- The way Pennywise rolls into Ben’s view and snaps his head up like “:D WELL HI!!”

- Pennywise getting insulted twice in his own home by the same trashmouth and his face shows just how done he is with this little shit

- Mike: “You’re just a clown.” Pennywise: *windows error noise*

- He’s??? Pretty sure he’s the Eater of Worlds?????? Last time he checked????? Hang on give him a sec

- Pretty sure Richie deliberately dropped his glasses given his grin when no one’s looking

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: Yuugi Gets a Tomagachi Pt 1

Hey you know what? Lets look at Zero again.

For those new here, I’m also going through Yugioh Season Zero, which is not the anime we got in the States, but the anime that came before it. It’s got all sorts of issues that 90′s anime tend to have, so, consider yourself warned.

You can read my recaps of just Season Zero by clicking on this link right here.

Anyway, it’s been kind of a while since I did one of these, and part of the reason is because I need to use a fandub in order to not have subs across the bottom. And that’s normally not a problem, but as you see in the corner of this next cap here, of the villain introduced this episode, this 3-Stooges-all-stuffed-into-one-body-suit-lookin guy, who has a realllllly weird tradition he does after beating people up,

We have an uhhhhh watermark situation in the bottom right hand corner. As an artist I have a hard time releasing anything with someone else’s watermark on it, but I have literally no other options, so forgive me, Team Millennium, you will probably never see this post because we’re a very smalltime blog. You can find their dubs on Youtube.

Anyway we’re here for pocket toys.

TAMAGACHIS. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve thought about Tamagachis.

(read more under the cap)

Mine are all gone now, I think I tossed them a year after I got them, the fad was pretty strong but short. Since most people got their Tomagachis second hand, (they were just impossible to buy because they were sold out everywhere), none of us had any freakin instructions so I had no idea at all how to use them and it died like 30 times. Usually several times a day.

Honestly Tamagachi’s are both the best and absolute worst child’s toy ever made.

And so Jounouchi’s going to go off about what a Tamagachi is (Tamagatchi? Eh doesn’t matter) but first lets just address the fact that...they’re in History class.

I mean....

...It had to happen eventually.

I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.

I’m just...

...

I’m fine.

Anyway, lets dive into Tamagachi (tomagachi?) physics. I think I spelled Tamagachi incorrectly in all of these caps and hell will freeze over before I fix them all.

These kids are WAY to old to be playing with a freakin Tamagachi, but I dunno, maybe it was different in Japan? My older brothers were playing with like Gameboys and the odd hacky sack during this time period. And then my one brother who refused to play video games that weren’t Basketball related got super into rapping into a mixer table (he is half deaf, he was v bad). That was it, that was their portable digital hobbies.

They saw my Tamagachis and were like...no thanks.

Anyway, the Yugioh Tamagachis have a little twist to them that no Tamagachi on earth has ever had the power to do. Like maybe this seems like pretty low tech to the babies out there who don’t remember these things, but listen--Tomagachis barely functioned. I don’t think they were capable of basic math. That is the only explanation to me at least of how they died so freakin often.

WOW Yugioh. I mean guaranteed, I would have been suuuuper into this when I was 10-11 but also...kind of WEIRD right?

And I mean, no worries, this is Yugioh, so not even Yuugi’s Tamagachi is going to score, but it’s not like they won’t try. TBH, Yuugi’s Tamagachi dates more than Yugi. Yuugi’s Tamagachi goes on more dates than Yugi has in 3 seasons.

Anyway, Jounouchi get’s rightfully scolded out.

And Honda is still a freakin weirdo, something I tend to forget every time I tune into Season Zero, much like this girl, who I also completely forget is a main character on this cast. Hi, Miho.

Of course, Anzu does bring up a good point...

...maybe Spanish is NEXT period?

Headcanon restored.

Miho seems entirely inept at life, to the point that she cannot both attend school and occasionally sweep up the feces of her pocket pet. She was kept up apparently all hours of the night, gazing at a little one inch screen and pressing one of three buttons.

(Anzu’s face trying to understand Miho)

Like I joke that I think Miho could easily be the super villain of this show but this episode she just pumps up the bastard like 200%.

(this is how I ended up with 2 Tamagachi’s, before I burned out and got rid of the little assholes)

So Honda, so horny he can barely think, decides to take care of this pocket pet because he’s pretty sure he can hightail it out of the country with Miho on a romantic trip to Sydney. It sort of makes me kinda miss when Yugioh was vague.

Sensing awkward romantic stuff, Yuugi gets the hell out of there, because weird stuff is happening in this bathroom with his friend, Haiyama, and while most people would leave the bathroom stuff alone, Yuugi has never been able to leave anything alone. Especially if it’s gross and riddled with collusion.

He finds out that Haiyama is giving money to the giant 3 Stooges guy who’s name is Kujiwara (Kujirada) or something like that. I’m hella bad at names and I had to look it up like four times. I’ll get the names spelled wrong like so, so many times.

All in all, the small little Haiyama is divying up money to the current class bully and Yuugi feels a very strong affinity with Haiyama because of it.

Sorry I just had to imagine for a hot minute what the Kaibas would bring to a bake sale.

Anyway, like, this is off topic but also on topic, bear with me, so you know how in Evangelion, they show up to class, and they’re like “weird that we’re in the same class with all the kids who man the robots, weird.” and it’s like “why do they all go to this class if they’re living in completely different parts of the city? Like this one kid is covered head to toe in bandages and then this other kid is the son of the head of the robot illuminati and this other kid lives in like a tent a lot of the time? Like wtf is this weird ass class?” and then, basically near the end of Evangelion you get this reveal (spoilers for a 20 year old anime, look away) that everyone in the class has been hand selected to be put inside of giant robots and that is why so many of them are just screwball beyond reason.

I feel like Yuugi might have a little bit of an Evangelion problem, because we’ve got this class of like maybe...20 students, and they all come from completely different walks of life in this city, and they’re all just a bucket of disturbing psychosis’. Like it is just so crazy that Anzu got completely possessed by Shadi, but this class is filled with so many assholes that no one noticed until she started choking Yuugi to death in the medical ward.

I’m just saying, I think Yuugi’s class was hand selected by the government for scary ulterior robot illuminati motives, and if I were to write a Yugioh spinoff, it would still be Marik’s Boat Time, but in the background of Marik’s Boat Time, these dumb asshole children would be finally forced by the government to use their inner asshole powers to mitigate WWIII against the space aliens (or WW IV, since I figured by that point Kaiba’s already pulled a III just by accident)

Anyway back to little Haiyama, who’s name I cannot spell right to save my life.

This part was real funny to me because when Yuugi went through this similar problem at the beginning of the series, he turned to a toy (or what he thought was a toy) in the Millennium Puzzle. Maybe in his mind, he’s giving Haiyama a gift to help him make friends like the Puzzle did with Yuugi. Thing is, uh.....this Tamagachi isn’t cursed with darkness or anything, so nice try Yuuge, this is a sort of pointless offering. It is nice, though.

Anyway, cute little Haiyama patiently takes the Tomagachi and walks the other way, as far as he can possibly get away, from Yuugi Muto.

DAMN, HONDA. THE BALLS ON THIS MAN.

This note is a note Honda wrote on like a permission slip, and then handed to a dude in class, to hand directly to Honda’s Spanish teacher.

How many jokes have I made that Tristan is the Mom Friend? Wow.

Anyway, this version of Tristan is about as bad at life as Miho is, so he’s going to just peace out in his bedroom playing a pretttttty boring Tomagachi game.

It really takes like just nothing at all for these kids to skip school, wow.

Anyways, they come across a rival game shop storefront, so Yuugi can’t help himself but admire the competition. Surprise, it’s just a different color of Tamagachi.

Before I can contemplate on why this one podunk shop in Domino is selling the only digital pet that is the best in the whole wide world, this happens.

So...that happens. That just happens.

And then we get this weird, very spooky sort of stalker footage of Kujirada, being developed on this amazing set of old timey software, check this out. Please admire how much 1999 is in these next frames.

This episode is particularly weird, but the whole thing with the photo taking is just...it is SO weird.

And like sorry to do this to you, but we’ll go over the rest of it in the next update, cuz this episode had a lot of stuff and so I made just so many caps but...holy hell this episode went completely off the rails. Like this first half is a whole lot of weird stuff but then the next half is just...there’s absolutely no way to predict the next half from the first half of events. It just goes completely wild.

Like this episode further proves my theory that everyone in this class has no choice but to destroy all life with giant mechs. There’s no other way. All of Yuugi’s classmates are here to end the world. Him included. This mess of a class.

[withinevening]

The Dynamics of Friendship + Romance or Why Clint and Natasha are freakin’ important.

Personally speaking, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff share not only one of the most important relationships in the MCU but in media in general. Why? There are TONS of characters with dramatic, close, friendships.  Friendship? SHIP! FRIENDSHIP! SHIP! Well hellllooo fandom.

That’s what’s so quirky about these two. While I’ve never been truly active in any ‘ship war’, even in its ‘glory days’ I never really saw a ship /war/ when it came to these characters. I’d like to say that when The Avengers first came out Clint/Natasha had its fair share of supporters, of which I was one, but you had your side ships, and that list grew. (Clint/Coulson and Nat/Bruce were the two I saw most frequently as alternatives.) The real debate to this day is so ‘are they friends or lovers’ line of thinking. The shipper’s position is quite obvious. Those on the friends’ side lean more towards the argument that we’re in dire need of more buddies, less beddies. (Okay, I tried people.)

Now, yes, I ship the heck out of them. But you won’t hear me arguing about that point. We DO need less sexualized relationships. It’s valid and I can see their dynamic being read that way. You won’t hear me arguing about this. But here’s where it gets tricky for me and where this post gets a little personal in order to explain. There will also be endgame spoilers and unpopular headcanons.

As someone who identifies as asexual panromantic, I have a firm sense of love not being connected to sex. They can exist together or separately. Sex and intimacy are also different. You might ask then, well, what makes the difference between a strong friendship and a romance. To me? Well, not a lot. The strongest of friendships have a level of dedication and fondness, even physical closeness. But to be ‘in love’ is something different. Yeah, you’d do a heck of a lot for your best friend. You might give then a kidney or a huge loan. A select few of us might even put yourself in harm’s way. But have you ever felt devastated at the idea that they might want to spend their lives with someone else? Have you ever craved that friend’s attention on a greater level than: I’d really like to tell or experience this with them? See a bit of a difference?

Which is why you can make ‘that scene’ in Endgame work. The problem is ‘that which you love’ beyond all else. These two can fill that spot for each other interchangeably. These two have been through hell as individuals and as a team. They are the sole keepers of every secret. They have a bond that extends beyond friendship. They are quite literally willing to die for one another when it comes down to facing the loss as THE VERY factor, not an external enemy. They’ve both encouraged one another to do things that are best for them even if it’s uncomfortable. That level of commitment, intimacy, and desire is nothing BUT romantic.

This doesn’t mean you have to ignore canon, or can’t enjoy these two as friends. As before, romance does not equate sex. But there is no question that Natasha is a part of Clint’s family in canon. Yes we know how close her and Clint are, but Laura has also seen to be quite perceptive of Natasha. They even named a child after her. She seemed right at home in their home.  We love our family. And no, of course, we don’t love our family romantically. But a form of love IS there if you prescribe to them being friends. ‘Cause lets face it. A secret agent’s life is not typical. As such your dynamics with others are not going to be standard. As far as Bruce goes, Natasha is starting to trust herself. She’s starting to open up. Clint has his family, but here is someone who’s broken in a similar way as she is. She sees this as an opportunity to try to connect with someone. She wants to reach out, but she hasn’t met many people who could even BEGIN to understand her special kind of special. So sure she’s going to be curious. But it’s still a gamble. It has the potential to be something instead of just a fun little distraction. That’s scary and they’re both cautious. But he might be able to get her and maybe it could work. Doesn’t mean she loses the other connections she has, but you never saw her falling madly in love/lust either. Canon Bruce/Nat was more about potential.

So yes, friend-shippers are perfectly valid. But you know what? Shippers are too—without having to ignore canon. It’s important to remember that these two have their own trauma. Natasha has always seemed a bit self-sacrificing. She wants to make up for her past and has had a LOT of trouble opening up. Her walls are always up. Clint’s been pretty through the wringer himself. I see them at a crossroad. They realize how important they are to one another, but Natasha realizes that the best thing for Clint is for him to have a piece of ‘normal’ that she never can/never feels worthy of. So enter his family. I feel like there’s an understanding. Clint’s family will always come first. But he isn’t who he is without Natasha. She is a part of him and vice versa. Headcanon, Laura isn’t stupid. She knows this, sees this, and pretty much has the attitude of: You come home, you stay honest to me and don’t lie about things that aren’t classified, and we’re okay. Because this life I’ve signed up for isn’t normal. I respect the person this other person helps you to be and they respect the boundaries I set. And when she visits she gets laundry duty.

So where does this leave us beyond being a “let’s all get along!” post. At the core this is one of the strongest representations of a debate in which each viewpoint isn’t mutually exclusive. They are completely compliant with one another. As someone who usually prefers her ships not be canon as so few people can write romance reliably over an extended period of time, this is so rare. Because these writers have manage to depict a truly deep relationship in BOTH ways without HAVING to declare flat out one way or another or to define a connection by sex. Natasha and Clint are textual proof in media of a relationship that doesn’t neatly fit into a box. It’s a sign of character complexity.

And that’s what our media needs. We cry about ‘diversity’ when we mean race, gender, or sexuality. We’re slowly getting those things. But instead of having token representation and stereotypes, can we start considering the extent of which we depict variety and individualism? Yes there are other characters that emphasize this point better than these two. But as time went on, this is the reason I realized they will always be embedded in my fannish heart.

[jbuffyangel]

Timeless 2x11 Reaction: “The Miracle of Christmas Part 1 and 2″

And thus Timeless is officially over. How did the writers fair with the series finale aka The Timeless movie? Pretty freakin’ fantastic.

Let’s dig in...

It’s been several months between Timeless’ Season 2 finale and their series finale tonight, so the writers wisely include a “Previously on Timeless.” We flashback to all their adventures while Unhappy Future Lucy (who looks a little scary if I’m being honest) narrates. It helps because I seriously forgot her mother is dead. (They kill Susanna Thompson on every damn show!)

The beginning is a little jarring because storylines I expected to happen in a season or two are all happening RIGHT NOW. My brain needs time to downshift, but I eventually adjust.

First things first - dealing with the third point in the love triangle, Garcia Flynn. Timeless isn’t interested in drawing out the shipper war because Wyatt and Lucy are kind of a mess. They require some screen time so they are fixed in a realistic manner. 

Scary Future Lucy gives Present Day Lucy and Wyatt her diary. Spoiler alert: Lucy hooks up with Flynn. Spoiler alert: They break up sometime down the road because she is really in love with Wyatt. They play out Lucy and Flynn’s entire relationship in under 3 minutes. I’m not joking when I say they breeze through three to four seasons worth of triangle.

I love Goran Visnjic, and while I adore Lucy and Wyatt, I was never opposed to Lucy and Flynn. I mean yeah he’s a murderer. That’s a real negative, but it’s friggin Goran Visnic. Have you seen this guy? He’s so hot. Where Dr. Luca goes so goes my nation.

Kidding aside, the writers convey the depth of Lucy and Flynn’s relationship with just a few lines, which is an impressive writing achievement. I love how Flynn is all “I can’t believe you date me because I tried to kill you a bunch of times.” HAHAHA. Classic. And true! Ah the joy of television romance. But it ain’t gonna be you Flynn, so mosey along big fella. 

Jessica is not pregnant. UGH. I HATED THIS STORYLINE SO MUCH. 

I appreciate the writers giving it a fast and hard death, but this is one of the ways I think Season 2 went wrong. Timeless is a show that defied the typical television tropes and that’s what made it so interesting in Season 1.  However, I think their Season 2 renewal, and desire to snare more viewers, created a “throw everything, but the kitchen sink” mentality. 

They used every romance trope they could think of in Season 2 to see what would stick. It was just... not good. I don’t blame Timeless anymore than I do any other show that does this (and it’s pretty much all of them). It was just disappointing to see the show move in this direction, when previously they’d been so good at avoiding those kinds of storylines.

Flynn sacrifices himself by going back to 2012 to kill Jessica, so Rufus never dies. REDEMPTION ARC BITCHES!!! YESSSS!! 

Seriously, he is so bad ass. Flynn puts a couple bullets in Jessica (plus one extra to be sure) after a ninja knockdown fight. He knows the effects of traveling to his own timeline will kill him... or something. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Then he watches 2012 Flynn with his beautiful and living family through a window before he dies. 

Flynn leaves a goodbye letter for Lucy that pretty much says he loves her, but he knows she loves Wyatt and he wants her to be happy. So yes, GARCIA FLYNN sacrifices himself for Rufus, ensures Lucy and Wyatt find the happy ending they deserve even though he is in love with Lucy, helps stop Rittenhouse and save the world. I AM SO EMO ABOUT MY BOY RIGHT NOW!

As for Lucy and Wyatt, they tiptoe around each other for most of the two hours. Wyatt thinks she ends up with Flynn and Lucy doesn’t want to be second choice. They are the only two who remember the Jessica history. Dear God, can we all forget too? Everyone is pretty much, “Why aren’t y’all together because y’all were together before and it was perfection?” So meta.

Wyatt almost dies in an explosion while delivering a baby during the fall of North Korea. Yes, you read that correctly. WYATT LOGAN IS HERE TO SAVE NATIONS AND DELIVER BABIES!

Lucy realizes she almost lost Wyatt and they are wasting time worrying about the past. 

This part of the finale feels really predictable to me. There’s no way they are killing off Wyatt, especially after Flynn dies. Lyatt is endgame, so the two characters dancing around it for so long feels like prolonging the inevitable.

“After that explosion I thought you were dead. And for a moment I saw my whole life without you and my world ended Wyatt.”

But damn though, what a speech Lucy gives him. 

Honestly, it is slightly annoying she did most of the talking because Wyatt is the one who screwed up. At least he offers up a “I wanted to pick you Lucy, but I felt I owed Jessica because she was my baby mama” explanation. Of course, we all knew this. 

Lucy accepts Wyatt’s “I am a big pine tree” explanation because facts. Things really get cooking with some Lyatt mistletoe kissing. 

Source:  sisterzelda

Ah, a time honored holiday trope I will never grow tired of. Then they have sex

BUT CUT AWAY TOO SOON! Boo NBC!

Rufus is alive, but doesn’t remember being dead. Jiya remembers Rufus being dead, but he doesn’t remember Jiya living in Chinatown for three years in the 1800s. I think. 

Jiya is concerned she’s no longer the woman Rufus fell in love with (re: see three years of trauma). I argue Rufus fell in love with a bad ass and Jiya is still most certainly one. It is frustrating how quickly they had to go through her physical and emotional trauma from Chinatown. Ugh, this is some seriously important drama that could have been a multiple season deep dive. Stupid cancellation.

Rufus and Jiya realize they are still perfect for each other, because they are perfect for each other. They start a company together and become billionaires saving the world. Jiya’s hair color is extremely pretty in the final scenes too. I feel this is very important detail to include. I heart them. 

Source:  katie-mcgraths

Lucy and Wyatt discuss how they don’t want to become scary Lucy and Wyatt from the future and THEY DON’T BECAUSE OF FLYNN. They get married, Wyatt works for Agent Christopher on special projects, and Lucy is a tenured history professor who focuses on important historical women. BECAUSE THERE AIN’T NO TIME FOR THE MEN! That’s right fellas. Drink your tea and wait your turn.

Unfortunately, Lucy is not able to get her sister Amy back. She gives an poignant speech about grief and loss, which could be the show’s mission statement. This is how you write a series finale:

"Everybody loses someone they love. And no matter how badly they want to they can't get them back. In spite of that they find a way to go on. That's everyone's history." 

What connects all of time is our humanity. We are born. We live. We love. We suffer grief, pain and loss. We find joy. We endure. This is the thread century after century. In the end, we aren’t so different after all. 

THEN LUCY AND WYATT GET MARRIED 

Source: @splitscreen

AND HAVE TWIN GIRLS NAMED FLYNN AND AMY. 

Source: @splitscreen​

ALERT!!!!!!!!!! MULTIPLES CONCEIVED! IT IS THE DREAM! EVERYTHING IS AMAZING!!!! 

The final scene is 2023 Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus traveling to 2014 to tell Garcia Flynn about the time machine. Lucy tells Flynn he doesn’t lose his humanity even though he never gets his family back. He is the hero the team and the world needs in the end. It connects the beginning and end of Timeless so seamlessly. This was probably always going to be the bookend. I just wish we had a few more seasons in between it.

They hint at a future time machine being invented by a young girl Rufus took an interest in at the science fair. The morality of the time machine is debated between Agent Christopher and Connor. She wants to destroy it, but Connor argues they need to keep it so they can stop others from abusing its power. You can’t un-invent something. Someone sooner or later will create the same technology Connor and Rufus did. They have a responsibility to make sure time travel is not abused and another Rittenhouse does not rise. So, the time machine is kept, covered, guarded and waiting.

Do I think we’ll see a resurrected Timeless about this girl and her time machine? No. I don’t. This is the last stop on the Timeless train and, while it was a wonderful ride, it is over. Actors are released from contracts. Writers, producers, crew, etc have all moved on to other gigs. It’s a freaking miracle they even made the movie. (Apropos episode title).

Timeless approached the series finale the correct way, which is what’s important to me. They didn’t leave a bunch of loose ends. The world was saved and I saw all our beloved characters living their happy lives in peace. I need to know these characters are going to be okay, so I can say goodbye. 

Thank you Timeless for the insightful way you approached history, your cast of wonderful characters, humor and unflinching honesty. I look forward to the streaming deal so I can rewatch again and again.

Source:  yasmin-khan

Stray Thoughts

The finale is one EPIC Lucy speech after another. My girl runs this show.

Nobody was dressed appropriately for a North Korea winter. 

It looked like the mother threw her newborn into Wyatt’s arms as her son came running to her. LOL Nice catch, soldier.

"I've loved you since the Alamo." Girl is that ever right. 

Don't mock. Saint Christopher is for REAL. He has helped me out of many jams.

Hahaha. Wyatt said m'am. That's how you know it's the end.