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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Ducktales Reviews: Escape from the Impossibin! or A Dark Night of the Soul

It’s a long dark night of the soul for everyone’s favorite family of ducks as our beloved family grapples with the revelations of last episodes. While Scrooge clearly smarts from the betrayal he pits his latest security system against Della and Louie, given the title it naturally goes wrong and forces all three to try to escape. Meanwhile Beakly sics Webby on Huey and Dewey, and Dewey gets a cool new sword he can’t use while Huey has a slow burn mental breakdown.. again. Someone get my poor boy some therapy. Suprises, Also an exaustingly deep dive into the life of Bentina Beakly. Disguises but sadly not pies of all sizes insue under the cut.

Well.. this one was fantastic. Obviously i’ll explain why as we go but holy shit I was not expecting a master class of an episode just one week after the already great Let’s Get Dangerous. And yes I had my complaints there but none of them, especially on the second watch, really detracted from what was honesty an amazing episode. And after slogging through “Catch as Cash Can” over the past few days, this was a welcome return to the version of the duck family I love best and a crisp reminder of why this series is so frigging amazing. I may criticize, i’m a critic comes with the territory, but I genuinely and wholly love this show, and this episode is encapsulates why. So enough lollygagging, let’s dew it to it!

We open with one of those scenes where two characters give a similar speech and it flashes back between both as they finish each other’s sentences. It’s a storytelling choice I never realized I always loved as it’s always a good way to amp up tension or comedy. It’s a good way to start. At the Mansion, Beakly is lecturing Donald, Huey and Dewey, because both families likely talked Launchpad into just sharing different days with each of them after the first inevitable sleep driving car crash so he’s with his boyfriend and child right now. It’s also really nice to both have almost the entire main cast given something to do for an episode AND have the one missing member have a thoroughly valid reason for not being there that was set up last week. It’s also really nice to see Donald and Della again. While it’s only been two weeks, both have only featured in one episode this block so far, and Della’s been kind of pushed to the side this season.. not unfairly mind as she was the focus for two solo episodes and a ton of episodes last season for obvious reasons but it dosen’t mean I can’t miss my disaster twins when they aren’t around. So anyways back on the episode, Beakly is naturally assuming theirs more traitors in their midst, and she and webby have narrowed it down.. this dosen’t really come up aside for a gag in a second for the rest of the episode, but is both funny and two of them are clearly setup for later. Have a look

My thoughts in order:

Little Bulb: He probably IS plotting to betray them, but for entirely unrelated reasons. Donald: .........................................................................................................

Look I get it on some level, as he was away from the family a long time, hated Scrooge, and had every reason to betray him. BUT, and it’s a bit but, besides the obvious of Bradford and his goons being the reason they gave up looking for his sister, if for good reason, Donald would’ve TOLD them all about that by now if he’d been spying, or if he’d had any dealings with the man. The man loves his family, uncle included, more than anyone and even at their lowest point I doubt he’d sell the man out for the boys sake unless FOWL threatened them. Donald is principaled, hardworking, loving, and has both dove directly into a nest of shadows and sent himself hurtling to earth in a possibly lethal rocket to protect this family, so even if this is a funny gag, it does bother me Beakly and ESPECIALLY Webby, his surrogate niece, would even consider this. That being said while I felt the need to rant because he’s my boy and I feel protective of him, it was damn funy as Donald naturally tries to wipe it off because.. yeah everything above, only to get caught in the flipping board and ending up as above with Beakly forced to admit it’s probably not him. Plus yeah.. he’s also way too clumsy and anger prone for wetwork so there’s also that.

Fenton: I’m TEMPTED to use the trunks picture twice in a row but besides that being obnoxious.. I get it MORE here. Donald has no motive anymore, would’ve told them by now if he had when he did, and has broken his back for all of them at one time or another. Probably literally in some cases. Fenton is sweet, loyal and another one of my boys.. but his obviousness has left him open to deception in three different episodes, not counting the tolkyolk one since that wasn’t BOYD”S choice: But he put blueprints out online for a mcduck industries project, got his armor taken by beaks luring him in to work for him, and had Gandra working for Beaks snuck into his lab.. and probably in the process also got any info on it Bradford couldn’t get through company files. He’s a good man, a kind man but he could easily be a leak without realizing it and also has a mother at home and could be threatened into doing stuff for them for her saftey.. and yes I know she can take care of herself but we’re talking a regular cop against secret agents who aren’t above murdering one. He might panic even if rationally he knows she’s fine.. or they could do the inverse and use her to get secrets from him since she’s a mother and Gandra could probably easily hack fenton’s armor, since Bradford probably has the full blueprints at this point. The point is while I don’t see him betraying them WILLINGLY, I get him being a possible leak. Donald could be, but again is too obvious and likely reguarly checked for bugs anyway long before fowl, as is Launchpad I assume.

Bluescreen Beagle: I don’t know this dude, but I’m betting he’ll be important soon enough since they brought him up at all and he is a beagle working for Scrooge so that alone is interesting.

Louie: Yeah unlike my boys I have no excuses for him here. While Louie is family, and has proven his own loyalty plenty... he’s also selfish, greedy and shortsighted so like Fenton he could be an easy accidental pawn at best or turn on them for money or an adventure free life at worst. I don’t think he would mind, i’m just more understanding of this given just last episode his response to a clearly suspicious thing making machine was to ignore any suspicion entirely and whine about it while Huey looking into it ended up saving the universe. He also nearly killed them all last season, so fair enough.

So yeah Beakly is going to train them to

WHich the boys are all for while Donald gets all spinny eyed ont he floor. Cue credits... though obviously we have to cover the scrooge side of things too...

Meanwhile at the bin, Scrooge has brought Louie and Della there because there the sharpest mind he knows, and their seeing all the angles means their the perfect test subjects for his new post-deeply cutting betrayal security system. He also obviously goes off on an alteration filled rant at Bradford that has to be cut before he can get to calling him shiteating. And given he’s a buzzard that’s probably not inaccurate. Point is they are genuinely the best ones for the job and both agree.. Louie’s not really enthuastic about any of this but hey it’s their money this is guarding so why not. So with that done since we have two full plots to deal with and they don’t intersect until the last few minutes, like with Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades, i’m going to be splitting this one and covering each bit separately since it’s also easier for me to recall and recap that way.

Beakly, Brah, Making Kids (and herself) Cry, Brah!:

A can of coke to whoever figures out that reference first. Or a free review comisson shipping Coke is expensive you know? But yeah as you can tell this bit is not going to go well for any of the kids, or the beakly or my heart. So this plot continues at breakfast, where Huey is meticulously going over both his guidebook and Finch’s Journal to see if there’s ANY signs of F.O.W.L. their connection anything.. it’s also very clear he’s panicking. Given his enitre life is built on logic and he’s now facing a threat he probably feels he SHOULD have seen coming.. I mean they clearly have access to the Missing Mysteries, there must be SOME tie to them SOMEHOW. He, in my opinon at least, feels blindsighted and scared, going up against a group using his own love of logic that blindsighted all of them INCLUDING Scrooge, the most clever and daring adventuerer of all time and Beakly, who was likely responsible for seemingly wiping out F.O.W.L. in the first place. If THEY can be blindsighted, what hope does he have? So he’s searching for it in his comfort texts, kind of like I did at his age: when theirs a crisis trying desperatley to solve it even if you really can’t, which he cannot, at leats not alone. Dewey of course being Dewey, has decided the solution is to get a massive sword he can’t lift and hit people with it and mock Huey for his reading. Huey gets what’s clearly the start of his episode long emotional breakdown, the worst he’s had of SEVERAL this series and over the biggest stakes thus far, seriously get this boy some therapy, while Dewey just thinks the key to beating their worst menace yet is a giant sword to hit things with. He does break a pot with it in an accidental spin attack in a later scene though so I do apricate that reference.

But when opening the serving tray they find an attacking Webby instead with Beakly explaining why she’s doing this to her surrogate brothers: Beakly is testing them by having Webby sneak attack them at some point and the’ll never know when, while Beakly herself works with Donald to secure the house.. sadly we don’t get to see any of that latter part, as it’s probably full of hilarious slapstick, but it’d also clash heavily with the rest of this plot which, while not lacking in jokes, is meant to be uncomfortable and have us on edge like the boys, so fair enough. Webby “Bringer of Death” hugs htem saying this is going to be fun.

Naturally it really REALLY isn’t as Huey is still very shaken by this. And it cleverly ties into what’s been shown from day one and especially this season to be his greatest weakness, and very likely the crux of his character arc: Huey can’t improvise. It’s a nice contrast to Louie last season: Louie’s very talent is thinking on his feet, seeing every angle and making them bend the way he wants. I’ts how he schemes as well as he does, how he fits into the family and what makes him himself. What he needed was to think of others and think through the consequences of his actions. That’s what he gained from his arc last season: perspective, the ablility to improvise while also not shooting himself in the foot for later and to have empathy for people. Huey is the oppoisite: Instead his ablility to think IS his skill. He’s a genuis, able to understand super science on the level of fully grown adult genuises, able to puzzle through confounding mysteries, to solve any problem. He and huey both are gifted with anyalsis, but Louie sees the small picture, the people, the moving parts at the moment, while Huey sees the big picture and how everything connects to lead to one thing and loves learning more and more. I REALLY relate to him that way. But this season has brillinatly drilled in where he needs to improve: He’s not ready for suprises or deviations from his plans or all the things that could go wrong. He can’t improvise, he just panics. It’s something again I relate to and something that each of his episodes has set up leading to this moment hammering it home and me realizing what his arc was:

Challenge of the Senior-Junior Woodchucks had Huey utterly lost without his Guide Book for a while and unprepared for a sudden challenge in Violet. Quack Pack had him unravel when he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the world, yet he was perfectly fine once he knew what was going on, Astro B.O.Y.D. was entirely about his intellgence and need for structure leaves him bullied and alone a lot of the time even among in his element with the woodchucks and how he finds friendship in someone like himself who gets him. Rumble for Ragnarok showed that while he can comment find for sports like golf where there’s rigid structure, rules and history, he fails as bad as Launchpad at calling wrestling because wrestling is just as much about sponteaniety as planning, with run ins, reff discrations and other chaos being part and parcel and even in real life matches often have to be changed on the fly due to injuries or someone simply coming up with a better finish at the last minute. At the same time the season’s shown how it is vital to him, as the next two, The trickening and forbidden fountain showed WHY his structure works and that it can in the right format, and that he usually has reason for it. And the final one showed that too, with him being the one to find out what Bulba’s up to simply by research, and while he didn’t stop it, his pulling at the threads of why Bradford was there and his hate of them forced FOWL out into the open which, while now putting him on edge, forced their enmies into the open where while their more dangerous, they can now at least strike back. Huey’s arc is , hopefully if i’m right about this, about him having to learn to use his strengths with his weakneses, much like Louie last season: To adpat, to grow while not forgetting who he is and that not everything can be put in a box, as the creators put their interpretation of him. Not everything can be quanitfied or planned for and sometimes you just have to try and hope for hte best. It’s a damn compelling arc, my relating to it helps of course but it paints Huey as a fascinating character and tying it heavily into the main plot fixes how Louie was largely removed from the moonlander plot aside from one episode, as was glomgold’s quest. While the season has three main plots: A focus on Huey, the missing mysteries and FOWL, all three intertwine perfectly and are interconnected. The creators learned well from where they slipped up last time and the result is phenomenal, and they’ve clearly proven this is Huey’s season afterall: Even when he’s not been the a-plot who huey is, how he functions and being forced to grapple with the downsides of it are front and center and I am here for it.

But yeah he’s breaking down, not helped by trying to go to beakly only to find out about the hidden bin and Dewey tries to help him calm down.. only for Dewey to walk in and unsuprsingly the one who can actually offer deep encouraging support was Webby who threatens this isn’t the attack. Nor is her dummy she leaves for them. The boys are left terrified hoping they won’t be attacked and holding Dewey’s sword, but Huey ends up convinced it’s just a test and that it’s the classic paranoia gambit: by telling them something will attack, the real lesson is to be prepared. But Nerp, Webby attacks them with arrows and easily snares Dewey while Huey has a panic attack that’s genuinely hard to watch as he ends up running into the wall and breaking his ankle. This very real pain along with his clear trauma when he flinches at her genuinely trying to help him snap Webby out of it: She realizes she’s gone way too far and utterly terrified her own brothers, sending one into a full on mental breakdown, just to prepare them. Up till now it was probably normal for Webby: Beakly trained her rigorously, if understandably, kept her from the world, probably did this to her, and Webby just thought it was normal and it made her what she is. But it also came at the cost of any normalcy. To me Webby’s always been like a lighter, since she can at least speak, has toys and Beakly you know treats her like a human being rather than a weapon, of the second Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. Cassandra was raised from birth as an experiment to make the ultimate weapon, someone who rather than speak spoke in phsyical motion and could kill effortlessly.. but actually doing so shocked her and she escaped and Bruce took her in. Cass is as badass as Batman at a fraction of the age but dosen’t understand simple life things and can’t speak. Hence the parallel: While Beakly isn’t a monster like David Cain, she still took a small child and turned them into a weapon strugging to adapt to society, and only isn’t a monster because as said she clearly cares about webby and dosen’t want to loose her like she lost her child and in-law to whatever presumibly fowl related nightmare took them from her and left Webby an Orphan. What i’m getting at with this is this feels like Webby realizing while this is her normal.. the boys can’t take it with Dewey terrified and again, Huey nearly broken by all of this and whimpering in a corner. This isn’t bonding between master and student, grandmother and granddaughter, partners in fighting.. this is just .. wrong. So when Beakly, not noticing how badly she’s damaged either boy, demands Webby continue attacking them, Webby refuses, stands firm.. and prepares to take on the person she loves most in the world, yes more than Lena she’s only 12 for christ’s sake, and Beakly gladly accepts. Webby’s training is in session. When we next see them the fight is in full force, and it is awesome to see. After 3 seasons we not only see Beakly’s darkest aspects come out we see her granddaughter in the path. Though at first it seems like what their training sessions normally are, a friendly if lively and full force spar between two trusting combatants. But it becomes clear over the fight from Webby’s reaction that Beakly is going harder than usual, and doesn’t stop when asked. Thankfully her kind gesture paid off as Huey and Dewey whisk her up to the attic. Webby is genuinely SCARED, never having seen her like this but also worried for her: Acting like a monster or not.. Beakly is still her granny and it’s clear FOWL coming back has rattled her. The fist through the attick doors, barred with the sword proves that. The kids head up to the roof with Beakly in persuit like some sort of slasher villian, again fist through a door, determined to still fight while Webby clearly just wants this to stop and so does the audience. This hurts.. intentionally so but I haven’t been cut this deep by two family members literally coming to blows since Amethyst fought Pearl in the first season of steven universe. It’s tough to watch but in a very good way. The boys break up the tension for half a second by rushing her and she just tosses them aside... where their caught by Donald, who didn’t realize ANY of this was going on and is rigthfully pissed.. though dosen’t do the angry dance thing because then he’d kill his children but he’s sure thinking it loud enough.

As Webby reluctantly readies for round 2, Donald calls at her to fucking stop already. While she counters with they have to be ready, which is true... Donald shuts her down. “Not like this”. She’s broken Huey and Webby and Dewey.. is traumatized but fine but this episode really isn’t about him. What it is about is Bentina Beakly and her Dark Night of the soul. I brought up the term for dumb reasons admitely: Because it sounded neat and because Douglas Adams had spoofed it with the dirk gently novel “Dark Tea-Time of the Soul” a title that’s stuck with me and a book I own and still need to read. But I looked it up to make sure I wasn’t badly misusing it and it turned out to fit this episode: A Dark Night of the Soul, as defined by spirtual guru and thankfuly not scumbag Eckheart Tolle whose article explained the old expression better than wikipedia could. While he naturally pitches his book there, it was still helpful so thanks man for your spirtual advice helping me analyize ducks. I owe you one.

The Dark Night of the Soul is essentially a person coming to their lowest point after having lost themselves or feeling lost, rattled by one event and awakening with a new sense of spirtual purpose and a new direction and a sense of self again after it. Having everything you know upended and coming out the other side with a new self, usually in a religious sense. And it works here because really that’s what Huey, Beakly, Scrooge and to a Degree webby face here. Louie, Della, Dewey and Donald are all fine in the face of FOWl and it makes sense: Louie and Donald are often outside the adventure bubble in terms of enjoying it, seeing it’s dangers to them and in Donald’s case his kids, Webby included, and how much chaos it is. Both have accepted it as part of their lives so while this escalates things, both just see it as just more of the peril and chaos that’s a daily part of their lives. Dewey and Della being thrillseekers and loving a good challenge simply see this as taking on an epic challenge: fighting the worst villians of the world off and having a daring story to tell. Webby similarly isn’t that effected at first because she sees it the same way likely and only starts to get bothered by it when it starts tearing her family, the thing most precious to her, apart over it.

But for the other three it makes sense. Obviously we’ll come back to Scrooge during his part of the episode. But for Huey as we’ve seen this upends his world. There was a massive deadly secret just beneath him, an unknown beyond all unknowns, and it rattled him.. and having his own sister constantly terrorize him just made it worse. For Huey without consitencey his life falls apart as those prevoius episodes highlhted.l He can prepare for anything.. but he has to know it’s coming and having a villian group who strikes from the shadows is his worst fears manifest and preparing for that naturally breaks the poor boy. He gets through it though, as once it’s on someone else, his fear falls away and as we saw his focus is entirely on helping webby: Not on himself, not on the risk but on protecting his sister. It shows that Huey has the potenital for instinct, as seen with the woodchuck and wrestling episodes too, he just needs to get out of his own head and let it work with his gut instead of trying desperately to use only his head.

For Beakly though it’s far worse... and really gets to the core of who she is in this series. She was, and probably still is, a Secret Agent, who fought long and hard to utterly destroy FOWL, at the cost of everything else, constnatly having to keep her guard up with spies all around her and with Scrooge apparently being the only friend from those days who lasted the whole time. SHe probably lost countless partners in both sense of the word, time and youth she’ll never get back and everything she had to stop them. She gave S.H.U.S.H. everything as far as I can tell. And then she got her reward. FOWL was gone, she had a child, and possibly had a loving partner, provided they didn’t either leave her pregannt and alone or just grow apart from her eventually we don’t know at this point and i’m just spitballing. Point is she had a child, she had a happy ending.. except clearly.. she did not. According to the website, and it’s probably still accurate, Beakly was living in seclusion following her retirement, likely to keep anyone from harming her child.. but also because with her partner possibly gone, she had almost NOTHING left. A child that either kept her at arms length or she kept at arms length to keep their family safe, an old friend who was busy as is, and a safe world.. that’s all she had. Just her and alone. And that’s been clearly shown as Beakly’s biggest issue as we see: She has trouble letting others, even webby at times given how she lied at her, in and given all she’s lost it’s hard not to see why. After a life time of probably watching cold blooded killers kill people she loved and having people betray her and loosing the father of her child possibly, again it’s vauge, no wonder she is the way she is. And then it somehow gets worse and better: She looses her child, one of the three people she has left in the world.. yet she finds herself in charge of Webby. And with that.. she has a purpose again, to protect this child. This baby girl who needed her more than anything. So she did.. a little too well as discussed. To quote the excellent song “Dark, Sad, Lonely, Knight” from the musical “Holy Musical B@tman!” which yes really exists:

“I remember that horrible night that night you were split in two, and I swore I’d protect you. So I built a wall all around you, but the wall was too tall, it blocked out all the birds and the sun. I tried to raise you right! I tried to raise you proper! I tried to be a mentor and a friend and a mother and a brother too! I’d insulate you from any outside source of fright... i’d make bloody certain, you’d never see another, dark, sad, lonely night. “

And yes as you can imagine that was sung by Alfred.. but it fits perfectly. That’s how Beakly raised Webby, guarding her from the world, trying to protect her from the world the way she’d always guarded herself from it. She did hurt webby’s development.. but you can see WHY. She lost everything, she had two people left in her life at that point: One had given her home and the other had given her her soul back. She couldn’t loose Webby so she made sure she couldn’t and held her as tight as she could. It’s why she pushed Scrooge to let his young nephews into his life. She saw over her time with him he was doing what she did, pushing everyone out. She wanted him to avoid being alone like she was before Webby. And it worked.. and showed her Webby clearly wanted to see the world and that Bentina didn’t have to be afraid to show it to her anymore, and could let Scrooge share in doing so. She let her be free and opened up for the first time in likely a decade since she got a two year old dropped on her lap. And soon wither she’d admit it or not she found herself part of the family. She found herself the voice of reason, sometimes sharing it with Donald, and the one to put both Scrooge and the rest of the family in their place when they nearly tore apart again, helping Donald realize that for all scrooge hurt him.. Scrooge hurt from loosing della too, and helping the boys realize Scrooge, much like herself, tends to lash out at people. She prevented them from getting distance from their family, knowing from experince you may never get them back or mend that wound. She was part of the family and for the first time in her life even if again, given her emotoinal distance she wasn’t really close to any of the duck family but Scrooge and her newly inducted Grandaughter, she still clearly cares and looks after them and even her harsh treatment of Della was well meaning and understandable. And that’s why the F.O.W.L. revelation tears her apart to her very core, her very SOUL: Because not only is the enemy she thought dead, or may of known wasn’t dead we don’t know but this episode leans towards the former alive, not only is her worst enemy, one who nearly killed her grandaughter part of them once again, but their head was one of Scrooge’s most trusted advisors and associates, the man he trusted more than himself at times to do what the company needed and the only one who knew his deepest secrets besides Beakly herself. They now faced not only her worst nightmare reborn, but with vital info about them and everyone around them. And for all we Know F.O.W.L. took her family from her in the first place and now they easily could again and she NEVER saw it coming. It’s why she drives everyone including Webby so hard, because she can’t take loosing everyone she cares about again so they will be ready, they will be prepared even if it destroys them on the inside because she cannot take it again.. she can’t fail them AGAIN. I feel she puts a lot of the blame on herself because in this family it’s her job to be the suspicious one, to see things coming, to be ready, to be the one who knows EVERYTHING even more than scrooge.. and this apparently rattled her as much as he did and suprised her just as much. She failed and she can’t again even if Webby hates her for it. But in trying to continue the fight.. she slips, Webby dodges and she falls off the roof.. and everyone helps her up. Even if they all have EVERY REASON to be mad at her they help. And Webby points out this can’t go on. They won’t get stronger tearing themselves apart.. their a family. They don’t need to do it like fowl, they need to be themselves and work TOGETHER. The one thing they have, the one thing they can trust is each other. Beakly is touched like this and realizes their right.. their not the enemy.. and there the one people,, for once in her life she can fully and completely trust. She tries apologizing to webby, they hug..and then gets an alert. What’s all that about? Well to get that that we kinda have to finish the other story.. which I would’ve put first had I realized this was going to be as long as it was but hey.

Escape from the Impossibin

Thankfully this won’t be as long or as emotionally complex.. entirely. So back at this plot about 20 minutes ago, Scrooge breaks down the challenge and the risk as it was made by the most devious and deranged minds he knows: Gyro and Quackfaster with Louie getting a good laugh out of me by pointing out “Why are the most devious minds in Duckberg friends of ours” to which I say because only Scrooge let’s them go all out, and on the friend part, at least for you, Louie...

I mean maybe Quackfaster, but you stole from Gyro multiple times now. And he hated Fenton for far dumber and more petty reasons why wouldn’t you assume he hates you too.. I mean he did help with Louie’s Eleven but there was also a good chance your head would explode there so I don’t really count it.

Anyways Scrooge offers lunch if they make it, which Louie notes means he must REALLY not think they will. And the first test proves his overconfdience correct as we enter the most dangerous, devious and deadly trap Gyro could manage.. which given who we’re dealing with, i’d be very afraid. The ultra violent ultra violet trap seems at first to just be a bunch of purple, if really cool buzzsaws and sawblades, your standard super villian death course.. but Gyro being beyond your average super villian, I mean the only reason he’s not is he has a steady job that lets him build a clone army with company resources so why would he give that up, jazzed it up with an ultraviolet bit of bulbtech.. and due to the violet light it hides the traps ,meaning their invisible. And while Louie and Della try navigating them, they cannot get through as Louie runs out of PEP to spray them with and Della using her metal leg as a guide, which itself is awesome for her as she clearly and wisely made the thing nigh indestructible and we haven’t seen it tear or get destroyed once all series so good going, really should market that to other people in need of prostetics della and Scrooge. Scrooge is of course delighted as that’s the entire point even if his child and grandchild are understandably not as happy about it. But naturally, as I hinted at in the teaser, it goes wrong as Scrooge’s password dosen’t work and he tries it too many times, been there, sucks. Granted Louie asks hilariously “Your the oldest man in the world why isn’t your password just 1234″.. and though the why is obvious, it’s still a good line. Point is their locked out and now have to escape it for real! Weirdly Scrooge dosen’t catch onto the fact of whose behind it, but we’ll get to that. He does have more pressing matters. Luckily Louie figures it out after an insult at the Bulbtech causes it to flash read, like most Bulbs do.. but since this Bulb’s entire purpose is to flash Purple, that means pissing it off makes the blades visable and while Scrooge is understandably sore that his 3 million dollar security system has such a big flaw in it, they escape. Though I get Scrooge’s frustration: Their going up against someone who knows how Gyro’s tech’s works, if Louie can figure it out so can Bradford and he wouldnt send FOWL in without a full briefing on Scrooge.

We don’t see the next one as it’s a time loop room, it’s a time loop room, it’s a time loop room okay i’ll stop and so does Dell after Louie well meaningly smacks his mom. Next puzzle’s quackfaster and I like scrooge pulling a Dumbledore and having some of his most trusted advisors devise the traps for him. I may hate JK Rowling for good reason but I did always love that bit of the Sorcerer’s (Or phillosphers in the uk because the publisher’s weren’t as stupid) Stone. Death of the author and all that. Point is I like it here too even if i’ts truncated for time. But Emily’s trap is a bunch of tiles that fuck with gravity because apparently she’s magical now... who knew. I’m not questioning it though: She runs a giant library full of dangerous, and probably magical in some cases, literature.. if she didn’t know spells she probably woudn’t be able to sort some of them. It’s a new fact out of nowhere but it makes perfect sense.

Point is they have to figure it out though Louie once again succeeds with some books and, in a really cool bit, using scrooge as a platform with the two walking in time and della grabbing on as they hit the master rune to shut them all off. It’s a damn cool sequence even if Scrooge is agrviated. We then come, after they apparently fought a Squid Monster off screen, because Quackfaster can also apparently summon demons.. or gyro made a tentacle monster which dosen’t suprise me at all. Either way it’s the final challenge in the main room leading ot the bin and in the way of deactivating security: A Scrooge Robot! Because as we all know by video game logic, the Robot Version is always stronger. Of course Louie’s annoyed both at the spending of his inhertince and at Scrooge’s egotisim but he has a good point there and the thing looks hilarious clunky with 8-bit eyes.. till it morphs, to scrooge’s delight, into a giant purple robot with a cane and scrooge’s face on the front j jonah jameson style. I never see that spider-slayer refrenced but i’mg lad this one did. Granted it could be to arim zola or something but I feel the Spider-Slayer refrence fits here.. take a look if your curious.

See? Anyways a fight insues with Scrooge, in a great bit, riling up Della when she fishes for him to admit she would’ve’ been a better base by bringing up Donald first instead. The trio get their asses kicked, and a pep can drops out, as naturally Louie was lying but it’s a rare flavor so I get it. I do. Thankfully his lies do save them however as the Cherry PEP he fires at the machine stuns it while Scrooge USES THE POGO CANE MOVE ON IT. Hell.. fucking yes. It’s about time we saw that again and in fully glory here too. I really want that game on the switch by the way.. where’s my disney afternoon collection.. WHERE CAPCOM WHERE. But yeah they won.. and Scrooge is upset. Because this was SUPPOSED to keep FOWL out but if his family can beat it so can they. And now we get to Scrooge’s far less horrifying dark night of the soul as we get a sense of just how much this whole ordeal has rattled him: As he mentioned at the top of hte episode he TRUSTED Bradford. It was clear he never liked him as a person, but Scrooge is a paranoid guy, he hardly trusts anyone and for someone to earn that it had to take a lot.. and it naturally stings. We see that while he may of been a necessary evil, SCrooge still liked the guy on some level and to have someone he trusts and respects betray him naturally shook Scrooge. He trusted someone.. and they knifed him in the back going against all he stands for. Instead of earning money, Bradford stole what Scrooge and others worked for while working to destroy him as soon as he feasably could and take his legacy for himself. To Scrooge, Bradford was revealed to be the worst kind of parasite and one that leeched off him for probably decades. But what’s worse is the risk that creates: Bradford was one of his top guys and the only other one running the company: He knows EVERYTHING about Scrooge, every secret, every investment, where every treasure is stored, and everywhere he’s been. He knows about his friends, family, some of his darkest and most guarded for a reason secrets, secrets he’d never give away freely.. and can now use ALL of it to destroy his family and everyone they care about. That sheer level of betryal would rock anyone but someone like Scrooge, who BARELY trusts anyone and can even be paranoid of his own family from time to time? LIke beakly it’s easy to see why he spiraled and why he put so much into this: Because like Beakly, he was blindsided, and his buisness, his crown jewel, the thing he put his heart and soul into and worked hard to build up and CONTINUES to work hard on to this day.. was being slowly corrupted and he has no idea what parts or where or just what all Bradford did with his money and resources and what nasty suprises he has hidden in them. The one thing he could trust as almost entirely his is tainted, his sense of security tainted.. and his sense of self tainted. If Scrooge freaking mcduck can get blindsighted like this, just how powerful is his former friend?

And we soon see Scrooge’s own fears manifest as Bradford hyjacks the robot, revealing this was, naturally him.. as of COURSE it was the guy who was revealed to be an evil mastermind who hates your guts. And because Scrooge didn’t change his password, which cleverly is the sum total of his money hence why it was a mass of numbers, which.. really dude? I don’t like doing it either and don’t change mine up if I can help it but even I did when someone tried hyjacking my spotify account. Yes that happened, I thought it was just a wifi thing, it was not. So yeah turns out Bradford was STILL one step ahead, and thus knew about the defenses and thus trapped Scrooge in them for reasons that will dramatically be revealed at the end of the episode. He also naturally attacks because just like JJ, he’s a crotchety old man whose yelling at our loveable rascals to in a sense, get off his lawn. Granted unlike JJ he’s clearly never came around, but the parallels are there. Point is it’s time for another fight this time using the gravity runes, with Scrooge hitting his despiar event horizon as if FOWL can outhink him on this what hope does he have. But like the rest of his family sans launchpad did for Beakly, Louie helps him through the other side and points out there are things they have they don’t.. and demonstrates as naturally the bulb tech used for the robot is just as irate so Louie tricks it into going after him then does a bin dive, with the massive amount of money destroying the thing and Bradford unable to get Gandra to stop it, so our heroes win... oh and Bradford left the company.. for some reason, because as his investors Scrooge can’t really remove him and I was curious how they’d get him out.. then again Scrooge probably, even as cheap as he is, had security cameras showing Bradford’s little talk with Bulba or any of his various rants as evidence. I mean Scrooge is stingy but he’s not STUPIDLY stingy. it’s the best I got, point is he’s to the wind now and our heroes have one! Except yeah.. the ending of the last segment.

Lost the Battle, Time to Win the War

In an utterly amazing swerve we find out just what kind of alert Beakly got as the rest of this episodes cast have arrived at the bin and Beakly asks why Scrooge hasn’t answered his phone.. and when Scrooge does Bradford’s plan comes into view: Turns out he locked scrooge in as a DISTRACTION, keeping him in the one place no one could reach him. It also explains why he attacked Scrooge: Besides having the perfect weapon for it and getting to gloat, someone needed to keep him busy while the rest of his operatives finished his master stroke. Turns out EVERYONE involved with one of the missing mysteries called: Goldie called to gripe about the fountain being gone and Scrooge taking it before she could, the Mervanans called to tell him the harp was swindelded by some eggheads and their good vibes did nothing to save her, we also get to see the pink one in full view which is nice but unimportant, and we get Drake back for a cameo!

But sadly it’s because he just met Steelbeak for the first time.. again, and Beaky clearly beat the every loving shit out of him as he’s heavily bruised, and took the papers on Solgelo’s Circuit with him

And Gene called to tell them he was being kidnapped as the Blot, now with a fully functioning gauntlet got to him. So to sum it up F.O.W.L. in one night, took all the missing mysteries they’d gathered or found, beat one of their most trusted allies and made their new security system worthless.

It was an utterly masterful story move: Firmly tying both plots together and confirming FOWL has SOMETHING bigger they want out of them. Some bigger plan, and as the last two weeks proved already knew where they were. Now it’s open war F.O.W.L.’s taken the first shot and hit hard.

But Scrooge, now with his confidence restored thanks to Louie, instead of backing down, is galvanized: They’ve lost the mysteries they have but if F.O.W.L. wants the rest, their going to have to beat the greatest family of adventurers the world, and probably the multiverse if we’re being honest and yes that includes other versions of this family, has ever known to them first. Sneaking in the shadows, attacking them from behind, striking them while they were at their most vunerable? FOWL was in their element and won this round because of it. But now adventuring, traveling the world, finding rare artifacts lost to time? Now their in the ducks wheelhouse. As Beakly, finally accepting her place in the family and that she’s not alone, proudly states their not ready for them. And so we close on one badass group shot as Dewey tries to lift the sword again only for his siblings to help, minus Louie naturally who still looks on determined. Our heroes have been through their dark night of the soul, they’ve lost a lot and the villians are miles ahead.. but they’ve also come out of it together, determined, their doubts behind them for now, and FOWL firmly in their sights. They won the battle.. but the war’s far from over. Game on.

Final Thoughts.

God this was a good one, as you could probably tell from the way I went on and on about it but this was one of the series best.. and while I say that a lot, mostly because Season 3 has consistently been about them topping themselves again and again, this time it’s etched in stone. I thought this would be a good one but forgetable.. instead it’s easily one of the best dives into the cast, and one of the best bottle episodes i’ve seen, limiting the cast to just our heroes, a handful of cameos and our big bad and letting our heroes be their own worst enemies for most of it. IT’s a great character piece, with plenty of great fluid action set pieces, absolutely heartbreaking character stuff, and a hell of an ending that sets the tone for the final half of the season and possibly the series. It also shut my mouth about the pacing, because as I hoped, much like season 2 it was slow on purpose: The first half, while also providing vital setup here and there, was also about telling stories they really COULDN’T once the FOWL plot kicked into gear for act 2. Getting trapped in a sitcom, a casual breakin of a gala where Donald meets the love of his life, a trip to tokyolk.. none of this would’ve really worked with Fowl at their heels. By taking their time they simply had more time to set the stage so when things kicked up with this act, things could stay intense.. minus the christmas episode but that takes place before these episodes so I don’t really count it. Point is the tone is firmly set, the stakes are high and things are at a level they’ve never been. This is one of the show’s finest and I expect i’ts only going to go higher and higher from here. Also one last note Bradford, bud.. why did you out Gandra as an agent? You had to have known about the whole Fenton thing, you seem to know everything and a break in to Gyro’s lab would’ve been something Scrooge had to tell you about or you could learn about yourself. They didn’t know she was still evil or working for you or that she was even on their radar. Also related while Steelbeak and Blot’s missions were obvious it was easy to figure out who went where besides them: Heron went under the sea both because she was the odd one out and because Bradford was presumably still mad about the helicopter thing, while Rockerduck obviously took the fountain since he’d been there and knew where it was now it was properly restored. Next Week: Kidcentric episode and the sabrewing sisters are back! Also while I don’t hate it, Lena’s blueform is simply a super mode.. phew. I mean I don’t dislike it but i’ts not a walk around in public thing. Point is kids teaming up for shenanigans, a mystic sword in the middle of x of swords AND the return of my two faviorite fowl agents. I’m pumped.

Until then if you like this review there’s more reviews on the pages on my blog including a just finished this weekend review of the original Ducktales 4-parter, Catch as Cash Can. It was a trip. You can find that collected into a handy series of links HEREEEEEEEEEE. Or if you prefer this series, as I do, you can find last week’s review of Let’s Get Dangerous HERE. If you like this review and want to here my thoughts on say an episode from the first two seasons (which I mostly haven’t covered yet), or another disney show, you can pm me on this very blog to comission an episode, just like one of my fans commissioned me to review catch as cash can. Or you can follow me on my patreon HERE. Until next week stay safe, vote if your old enough and check your house for Gary Busey!

#ducktales #escape from the impossibin #scrooge mcduck #bentina beakly #webby vanderquack #huey duck #louie duck #della duck #dewey duck #donald duck #bradford buzzard #gandra dee #darkwing duck #drake mallard #ducktales spoilers #reviews #revew

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blu-joons · 5 years ago

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Married To Jimin ~ BTS Headcanon

Your Wedding

The whole day of your wedding was something you could have only dreamed of as a little girl

After a lot of planning, everything came together perfectly to create the dream day that you both had in mind when you first got engaged

You were traditional, you married in a church, before moving on to a gorgeous reception held nearby the studio

Even the wedding was enough to break Jimin into tears at the whole occasion

“I can’t believe this is our wedding day, it feels like I’m living a dream.”

Every single person who meant the most to you was there to celebrate your love

Throughout his whole speech Jimin struggled to hold back the tears, turning to the boys to pull him through with a joke or a nudge

He never left your side for the whole day, desperate to be with the most beautiful girl

All your photos were stunning too, as handy reminders of your day you already couldn’t wait to look back over them

The boys were his best men, the encouragement he needed when he got nervous

“We put an extra inch on his heel just to make sure he felt extra confident for you Y/N.”

Hobi had helped choreograph your first dance, Jimin made sure it was showing you off, twirling you around, swaying from side to side

It was a day you hoped never ended, it was the perfect celebration of you and Jimin

No day would top this for Jimin, nothing compared to his wedding

The future was an exciting prospect for you both, knowing you’d take on whatever came your way together

Being Married To Each Other

It took quite a while for the two of you to adjust to married life, continually pinching yourselves that it had actually happened

Your hands would always be playing with the ring on his finger and vice versa

Everyone sent you their photos off their phones knowing how desperate you were to look through everything and reminisce about the day

“I can’t believe these are from our wedding, I look at them and just think they’re beautiful, and then remember their ours.”

“It was the most perfect day, everything fell into place as we’d hoped.”

It was the biggest relief for you knowing nothing went wrong

Jimin had spent countless nights staying up into the early hours making sure that everything was as you wanted

You came home on the night of your wedding because there was nowhere else in the world you wanted to be

The next day you flew off on your honeymoon after Jimin booked the time away from the studio to celebrate

“I don’t know what excites me more, spending the week with you, or just getting a week away from the studio.”

He was desperate to give you a honeymoon straight after the wedding, not wanting to make you wait for some time together

It took you by great surprise how many things you needed to do once you’d got married, the list of jobs was endless

From changing your name on your paperwork, sorting through gifts, thank you notes, it was a never-ending chore for you both

Your weekly date nights were still a heavy feature in your relationship, giving you both a chance to forget about the world

His suit and your dress were hung up in your wardrobe to show future generations

He possessed a beaming smile whenever he introduced you to people as his wife

It was inevitable you were going to get married, the way you looked at each other was enough to see how happy you made each other

You spent endless nights making memories of your wedding, albums, scrapbooks, scattering a few decorations around your home

Jimin loved to create little spots of the day around your house, knowing you loved sitting by them when he was on tour

“I’ve put a photo of you and I here, by the fire, it will keep you warm when you think of me.”

“That’s so romantic, thank you Jimin, what a lovely idea.”

You were very much in marital bliss, both of you were always smiling, recalling memories and good things about the day

His mind quickly thought about the next step, he was still young, but there was so much that he wanted to achieve

Work was still a priority, but he wanted to focus more on being a good husband to you

He spent less time at the studio and more time with you to keep your marriage happy, other things were important these days, not just the band

A lot of time was spent on your wedding gifts, with fans sending you stuff too, there was a lot to sort through

Lots of fans got in touch, respectfully, wishing you the happiest days, commenting on all your social medias

Aside from being married, the two of you never changed, your friends were still important, keeping your social lives active

Introducing yourself as a Park took a little while, but Jimin was always on hand to correct you

Your families spent more time with you too, wondering when their first grandchild would be arriving

For the time being, you wanted to enjoy being newlyweds, there was no rush to start a family, Jimin wasn’t going anywhere, and neither were you

If anything, he was around more, bringing you with him on his travels, having you at the studio, just so he could see your face

Your dream was unfolding into the perfect reality, you had the best husband in the world, and an incredible life

Being married to each other only made you stronger and deepened the love you shared

Your Honeymoon

Your honeymoon was the perfect escape you needed from the outside world for a while, just to enjoy and celebrate each other

You honeymooned on a small island Jimin had been to with the boys filming a summer escape, he knew as soon as he went there, you’d love it

And you did, you couldn’t believe he’d found somewhere so perfect, as soon as you walked out the airport terminal you knew you never wanted to leave

Most of your days were spent doing fun activities, Jimin took you to all the places he loved before, including the sting rays

“Last time we came here Jin lost his mind, it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Your evenings were spent enjoying beautiful dinners overlooking the sea, sitting on your balcony under the sun

The two of you were out and about all the time, finding places where no one else was, treating them as your own hideaways

He loved to take pictures of you, especially when you didn’t know, saving them to look back on when he was on tour

The sheer volume of time you got to spend together meant the world to him, he couldn’t recall when he last got to spend a full week with you

It was a chance too, to think back to the wedding and all the things that happened

“Honestly, you looked stunning, I had to stop myself crying when you walked down the aisle.”

The boys were incredibly jealous that Jimin had taken you there without inviting them, despite the fact it was your honeymoon

It was also private, which meant you had a huge amount of privacy away from fans who inevitably liked to take a picture or two

You still kept them up to date by posting photos, Jimin loved to share all the snaps he’d taken of you, bragging that you were his

It was a trip you could have only dreamed of, Jimin had exceeded your explanations

Considering you were sceptical when he told you he’d arrange it all, you gave him credit for creating the best holiday ever

When the time came, neither of you wanted to go back home

Yet, the six boys who remained at the studio were desperate to have you back

“It’s so weird not having you both around making out, weirdly, we actually quite miss it.”

Marital Issues

The two of you very rarely argued, neither of you were the type to cause an argument, but of course, from time to time, they happened

Usually the two of you would dispute over small things, arguments never really blew up for you both, they were kept small and lowkey

The one thing that stopped them blowing was the reminder you were married, and that you loved each other too much to shout

Internally sometimes, he would get frustrated, but he’d never take that out on you

Arguments were the worst, and he would always make a grand gesture when he needed to apologise for something he said or did

The reminders around your house were what kept you both from arguing, days like your wedding were the times you reflected on, not the bad times

Talking was a strong point between you both, you could confide in each other about anything you needed to

Neither of you slept on an argument, it was the worst thing in the world, the one time it happened

The next few days after a row would be spent making happy memories to forget about the bad ones

He never raised his voice at you, not once, not ever, there was no way he would

His determination to keep your marriage happy was what always kept him biting his tongue, keeping himself calm

“Arguing sucks, we don’t need to do it, we’re too happy to argue.”

Forgiveness was very important, you could never hold a grudge, as an error was made and apologised for, it was forgotten

The two of you were still learning about each other, despite being married, finding new things out about each other

Looking To The Future

From the second your wedding ended, Jimin was looking to the future, thinking about how the rest of your lives would unfold

Having a child was incredibly important to him, within the next few years, he wanted to hear the pitter patter of tiny feet

He felt much more secure in your relationship once he was married, there was no one to judge him or doubt the two of you anymore

“I just feel like we’ve proven to the world we’ve made it work, despite their attempts to bring us down

You also moved out of the dorms, Jimin wanted to leave somewhere that you could make a home for a family

He was the best husband in the world, he stuck to his vows like a saint, you couldn’t fault him

Marriage made him feel incredibly grown up, he was no younger a junior idol, but a grown man, with responsibilities

Knowing that you were his until death did you both part; was the best feeling in the world

The thought of having a family with you, and experiencing life with you was his favourite thing

The Boys Take On Your Marriage

All the boys adored you, you were like a sister to them all, being on hand to look after them and give them advice

Jungkook definitely loved to tease him over the fact your hands were bigger, begging you to press them together to make himself laugh

“That’s the most emasculating thing I’ve seen, yet it’s so adorable at the same time.”

Namjoon was there when the two of you needed time off to give Jimin the days off, knowing how important you were to him

Between them Taehyung and Jin wrote a song that they performed at your wedding; all the lyrics circled perfectly back to you

Both of them loved to joke with you too that you’d stolen their brother and made them very lonely

Hobi was in charge of your first dance, naturally, and also keeping the boys in check so everything went perfectly for you both

“We can’t mess this up, this is Y/N and Jimin’s special day, let’s try not to forget that when we do our speech.”

Yoongi brought you the best gift, a big canvas of lots of photos that the two of you could hang up in your living room

You adored all the boys, they did a lot for you both, more than you could imagine, taking the best care of you

They couldn’t have dreamt for a better girl for Jimin to find

---

Masterlist

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nekojitachan · 5 years ago

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AFTG fic - Medicine

This is for @sig66, another owed fic from the @aftgremix fic challenge where she guessed correctly which one was mine. She asked for a Clouds fic, so here you go! I hope you like it.

Hmm, think this is pretty safe here, other than the usual Hatford warnings?

*******

Andrew stood still while Neil fussed with the collar of his shirt. “I don’t know why it won’t – ah, there it is.” He smiled as he smoothed his hands over Andrew’s shoulders then stepped back. “You look great.” There was a slight roughness to his voice, a lingering to his gaze as he looked Andrew up and down, and if Nicky and Erik weren’t out in the living room….

Telling his damn hormones to calm down, Andrew clicked his tongue as he reached for his black gown with the fancy sleeves and purple hood, while Neil grabbed the black cap; he wouldn’t put it on until he had to, and wore black slacks with a black dress shirt for his graduation ceremony. Neil was dressed up for once, too, in dark grey slacks with a silvery-grey dress shirt (which Andrew had picked out). They left the small bedroom made even smaller with all the boxes, to enter the living room also crammed with boxes.

Right after graduation, they were moving in together, into a larger apartment in the same building. Andrew looked forward to an office where he could study for his Master’s degree, and a decent sized bathroom.

“There you are! Excited to graduate?” Nicky asked as he jumped to his feet with a big grin on his face; he’d gone back to the US for Aaron’s graduation two months ago, and shouldn’t be so excited to sit through another boring ceremony that summer.

“What, where I sit on my ass listening to a bunch of old people talk way too much until they call my name?” Andrew huffed as he tugged on the cuffs of his shirt. “Only going because Bren promised me decent drinks afterward.”

“But it’s a major life milestone!” Nicky insisted while gazing at Neil. “Aren’t you looking forward to graduating next year?”

Neil shrugged as he leaned down to pet Pita, who rubbed against his shins. “They don’t really do anything for those of us who take classes online. I’ll probably just keep taking classes until I get bored, anyway.”

“But… but… I’d be happy if I were you,” Nicky sniffed, which made Erik give him a big one-armed hug. “It’s a big deal.”

It was just a piece of paper, in Andrew’s opinion. What mattered to him was what happened afterward – the fellowship he’d received which allowed him to continue studying at the university, and the new lease which had both his and Neil’s name on it.

He had a future in front of him, one he’d earned on his own and one where an impossible pipedream wanted to wake up next to him each morning.

“Fine, you go in my place,” Andrew offered as he held out his gown to his cousin. At first Nicky gaped at him and then laughed.

“I’m tempted just to see the looks on their faces,” he hiccupped as he wiped at his left eye. “That’s okay, I’ll be busy keeping your sweetie company.”

Andrew narrowed his eyes at the moron for the ‘sweetie’ comment, but that was mild for Nicky and he couldn’t exactly argue that nothing was between him and Neil when several of the boxes around them bore his name.

“Uhm, we need to leave,” Neil said in a rush as he motioned to the door. “If we want to be on time.”

“Yes, I imagine there’ll be some traffic,” Erik agreed, a proud smile on his face as he held out his arm for Nicky to take; both men were dressed in suits as if attending a formal affair.

They finally left the apartment and went down to the car which Erik and Nicky had rented for their visit. On the way to campus, Andrew’s phone pinged with a text from Aaron – a short message to congratulate him and remind him to call when everything calmed down.

Andrew hadn’t been able to attend his twin’s ceremony since he was busy with classes at the time, but he’d gone back over Easter break to tie up some loose ends (sell the GS, box up whatever he wanted to keep to either bring back with him or mail to the UK, and get rid of the rest) and have it out with Aaron one last time. To his surprise, it had gone better than he’d expected; he doubted that his brother had ever thought he’d just ‘walk away’, would leave Aaron and the States for good, so they managed a sort of ‘détente’.

Distance seemed to work well for them.

Campus was a mess with all of the visitors there to see their family and friends graduating, even if they had split up the classes as much as possible. After they’d parked and gotten to where the ceremony was held, Andrew (barely) allowed Nicky to give him a quick hug and Neil a longer one before he went off to join his fellow graduates, including Prasad. He exchanged a fist-bump with his now former roommate, who updated him on his job search (a couple of promising leads) and once again congratulated him on the fellowship before they split up to go to their seats.

After that, it was as boring as he’d expected, save for Neil sending him texts during the droning speeches; asking him if he was certain that he was related to Nicky (had there ever been a blood test? Neil knew people who could do genetic testing on the sly if Andrew wanted it done, just saying), future menu items at the café (now that was just mean), possible vacation spots for them, and yes/no on accessories for the new ‘flat’ (no on the cat-themed pillows, yes on the new duvet). When it was Andrew’s time to go up for his diploma, he was hard-pressed not to flash the middle finger at the crowd with the way that Nicky and Erik acted like immature morons, yelling out his name and clapping so loud.

When it was all said and done, he was grateful to make his way back to where Neil waited for him; he had to endure a congratulatory pat or two on the shoulder from a couple of professors along the way. As soon as Neil spotted him, he smiled at Andrew and leaned in for a quick kiss once close enough, which somehow made the whole ridiculous ceremony worthwhile.

“Let’s go,” Andrew insisted when they broke apart, and ignored Nicky’s protests about him posing for pictures.

The man really should know better by then.

They waded through the crowd and managed to get back on the road after a short (not short enough) wait, then drove to the Bolthole, which was closed for a ‘private’ party. Andrew would be honored by the event, if he didn’t know how little money the café made on a regular basis and how much some of its ‘regulars’ enjoyed drinking.

Along the way, Nicky babbled on about Andrew and Neil visiting Germany before their classes resumed, maybe the four of them meeting up in Berlin like they’d talked about around New Year’s. It was a possibility, especially after Andrew bought a car so he and Neil could plan out some road-trips.

There were times when it still didn’t seem real, the fact that he’d left the US behind to live in the UK, that he’d be looking for a job here after he graduated with his Master’s, that he’d cosigned a lease and had a student visa (and been told by Bren that it wouldn’t be any problem to get a more permanent one once he graduated).

That he was planning a future with Neil and a spoiled as hell cat.

Okay, he’d never plan on including the spoiled as hell cat. Or the annoying, cloying as fuck family members like Stuart and Will.

Especially Stuart.

That wasn’t even including Ally.

The one thing he’d finally accepted was that Neil was real and wasn’t going away. Not with that signed lease, not with all those boxes waiting to be moved into the new apartment (flat – what the hell was a ‘flat’?), not with all the exchanged texts about what they should buy for their new home (home, what a concept), not with the casual mentions of how they’d get a townhouse (‘terraced house’) when they graduated and figured out where they wanted to live (where they got jobs – probably London but maybe Glasgow or Edinburgh since Andrew liked those cities, too).

Neil cared about finding a place to live where Andrew liked, where Andrew wanted to live.

After all those years of tearing himself into pieces for others… Andrew had found an improbable idiot who worried about making sure that Andrew was happy.

(Well, Andrew and a spoiled furball.)

(Andrew could put up with a spoiled furball who was placated by a full dish of food and a soft blanket to sleep upon, as long as he got Neil most of the time.)

Neil had just told Nicky to send him some ideas of where to stay in Berlin when they finally reached the Bolthole (or at least where they had to park), and everyone got out of the car. Neil smiled at Andrew and held out his hand a little in a gesture that meant he’d like to hold hands but it was up to Andrew, which made Andrew click his tongue and entwine their fingers together.

Such an idiot.

They only had to walk half a block to reach the café, and ignored the signs posted on the door about it being closed for a private party; Andrew actually blinked in surprise to find more than Bren and a glowering Stuart inside, but a smiling Jamie, Henry, Ally (okay, he could do without that cousin), Will, Miriam and a few of the family’s bodyguards and errand runners as well.

They made an obvious sign of brandishing crackers in the air before setting them off (Neil still flinched a little at the noise), before closing in to wish Andrew ‘congratulations’. “How does it feel to be an educated man?” Henry asked as he handed Andrew what looked to be a glass of champagne (it better not be anything cheap).

“Hungry. Where’s the cake?” he asked as he rocked up on his toes to look beyond the wall of Hatfords, which made most of the people laugh.

“It’s over there,” Henry remarked as he waved to a table laden with appetizers and what had to be an entire sheet cake despite the fact that there was less than twenty people in the place; like the rest of his family, he was dressed up for the event (why?) in nice clothes (suits and dresses – but then they dressed up to ‘deal’ with people so no big deal). “So, are you happy with the new flat?”

Despite being drawn to the cake (an entire sheet cake, embellished with his name and lots of buttercream roses), Andrew paused to consider the question and the man asking it. Henry might appear like some mild-mannered twenty-something with his friendly smile, pale grey eyes and blond hair, but Andrew had yet to see the young man without at least three weapons on him (knives in his ankle boots and gun holstered in the small of his back), had heard enough stories from Neil and Bren to know that the Hatford’s heir wasn’t one to ignore. Yet Henry strove to put him at ease, to ‘chat him up’ each time they met… after ensuring that he was serious about Neil.

Hadn’t that been a ‘fun’ conversation.

Yet Henry (and Jamie and Miriam) seemed to believe that Andrew was serious (he was) about Neil and so treated him with respect (what a concept), while Stuart and Will were still a bit standoffish (considering what he’d heard about their sister and her relationship with Neil’s father… well, he’d accept ‘standoffish’).

“I can shave in the damn shower without knocking my elbows into the walls, so ‘yes’,” Andrew remarked after a sip of the champagne (it wasn’t the cheap stuff).

“Well, you know Neil,” Henry remarked with a slight smile as he gazed over at his cousin, who was being hugged by Jamie. “He insisted on the smallest flat in the building, so Dad was rather happy on giving him an upgrade this time around.”

Which worked out for Andrew, didn’t it? “For future reference, tell him ‘no’,” he insisted. “At the least, it’s animal cruelty.”

“Not to mention boyfriend cruelty, no?” Henry laughed as he held up his own glass as if in a toast. “Don’t worry, I believe it won’t be a problem anymore.” He gave Andrew a knowing smile as he walked away, only to be replaced by Miriam who offered her own congratulations and wanted to know if he needed anything for the new apartment (she didn’t seem to trust Neil’s ‘we’re fine’ – the woman wasn’t an idiot by any means).

After spending ten minutes or so going over some vital necessities (Andrew had no issues hitting up Neil’s wealthy relatives for stuff when they were eager to provide them) while snacking on the appetizers since he hadn’t eaten in hours (the croquettes were delicious, as were the mini chicken pies and the Welsh rarebits, among others). He figured any guilt Neil felt over the purchases would be assuaged by how happy his aunt was over making them, so it would work out in the end.

Bren and Davis came over with a few pints to ‘toast’ his graduation, and then he was able to escape to find Neil, who was chatting with Stuart and Jamie. “-seriously, we can put you to work in some side businesses once you graduate,” Stuart was telling Neil, whose body was stiff with tension.

“I appreciate that,” Neil said in a flat manner as he stared at his uncle with a bottle of water clutched in his right hand. “But there’s a lot I can do with the degree, maybe I’ll get a Master’s like Andrew and… I don’t know, see what happens after that. Mathematics and language intersect at some point, which opens up a lot of options for me.”

Stuart frowned as he jabbed his right forefinger at his nephew. “I don’t see how-“

“Neil’s right, there’s potential there,” Jamie was quick to jump in while Andrew rubbed his right hand along his boyfriend’s nape. “Something with security and code breaking, if I’m guessing right, which could be valuable to us… or if he wants to strike out on his own.”

“Exactly,” Neil said in a quiet voice as he slumped against Andrew. “Could set up my own business but still help out the family.”

Stuart eyed him for a couple of seconds before he nodded. “You know you’re free to do whatever you want and we’ll support you, but… but yeah, tell me and Will about this some night, okay?” He smiled, the expression blatantly proud, as he reached out to ruffle Neil’s hair. “Obviously you got all the smarts intended for Ally.”

Jamie laughed at the comment while Neil managed a slight grin, and Andrew felt the tension leave his lover’s lean body; no matter how much Neil struggled to stand on his own, his uncles’ opinion mattered to him. “That’s a classic example of damning with faint praise,” Jamie claimed as she gave her cousin a fond look. “You two are coming to London for a week or two, right? Maybe in another month?”

Neil fidgeted with the left of his shirt while he gave a curt nod. “We need to get everything set up in the new flat and then figure out where we’re all going during the summer break, but we planned on stopping there.”

“Still need to get the car first,” Andrew added as he glanced around for Bren, who was over by the impromptu bar talking to Davis and a couple other Hatford ‘employees’. They’d discussed options for an affordable used car (something not too boring with low miles), but the man had been awfully quiet on the matter the last few days.

“Yeah, right.” For some reason, Stuart gave Andrew an indecipherable look while Jamie smiled, and then the topic switched to how Andrew and Neil better not stay at any cheap hostels again on their getaways (it had been one time, when their hotel had ended up overbooked, and while Andrew hadn’t been happy about it, at least they had a room to themselves and the place had been clean). While an indignant Neil argued with his overprotective uncle (good luck – usually Andrew would put his money on his lover, but not that time), he wandered off to fetch a drink.

Bren gave him a pat on the shoulder while the others wished him ‘congrats’ and handed over at least a double of a very nice whiskey; he was toasted first to a successful Master’s and then a ‘happy life’ in the new apartment (flat). He tried a few times to bring up the car, but kept being interrupted by Davis or Quentin before Bren could say more than a couple of words.

Then Bren pointed out that Ally had challenged Nicky to some ridiculous drinking contest, and Andrew had to go put a stop to it before Stuart and Will decided they didn’t want someone related to such a blithering moron anywhere near their precious nephew.

By then, Neil seemed to reach the limit of his uncles’ fussing and all but glued himself to Andrew’s side, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. They sat down at a table to eat (more meat pies, not that Andrew was complaining at all, along with mashed potatoes); Neil nursed a cider while Andrew had a pleasant buzz from the whiskey and looked forward to the cake for dessert. Jamie and Teddy (Wednesday pick-up) sat across from them and talked to Neil about possible places to see in Portugal while Andrew exchanged a few texts with Aaron and did his best to ignore Nicky’s hints about how he needed to make things with Neil ‘permanent’.

Right, he’d just sold most of his belongings (the GS) and moved across the ocean to live full-time with another person (whose family could very easily make him ‘disappear’ if they wanted) and a cat – all on a whim.

Maybe if he asked Stuart very nicely, the man would make Nicky disappear.

(It was a nice daydream.)

At the moment, what annoyed him the most about Aaron was that his twin was thousands of miles away from Nicky. “You need to go spend the summer with Aaron,” he told his cousin.

“Huh? But I just saw him a few weeks ago, that and I can’t take that much time off at once,” Nicky complained as he frowned at the platter of pies before he picked one at random. “Besides, I need to save a week in case, you know.” His left eye did some weird spasm thing, which Andrew took to be a pathetic attempt at winking. “Something important happens with you and Neil.”

“Time to cut him off,” he told Erik, who was already handing a glass of water to his inebriated husband.

Neil leaned against Andrew after he had a sip of his drink. “Can we just go somewhere far away when I graduate? I mean, this isn’t too bad but….” He gave a significant look to the family gathered around them.

Andrew nudged him in the side while pointing to the half-eaten chicken and mushroom pie on his plate before he answered (in German as well). “Not a bad idea.”

His boyfriend smiled and resumed eating while Jamie rattled off all the family events in the second half of the year that they were clearly expected to attend; Andrew inwardly sighed and wondered if he could walk off with whatever bottles of alcohol were left over at the end of the party as Neil’s smile faltered.

He was about to tell Neil to create a distraction while he grabbed the cake and then they ran like hell (well, more Neil than him) when Will stood up and cleared his throat as if preparing to speak. “I want to thank everyone for coming tonight. It’s not a grand occasion, but it’s still an important one.” He nodded to where Andrew sat, a slight smile on his face; Will wasn’t the most jovial of people, but he’d always treated Andrew with respect and politeness even while he made it clear that Andrew wouldn’t live long enough to regret harming his nephew. “Someone we’ve all come to know has reached an important milestone, and so we’re here to recognize that achievement. With that in mind, Stuart and I have a gift for him.” He motioned to Andrew. “If you would, Andrew.”

“If I’m about to be shot, I’ll be very upset,” Andrew murmured to Neil, who’d gone perfectly still during the speech. The look his boyfriend gave him indicated that Neil didn’t appreciate the joke (well, semi-joke), but there was little he could do since Andrew had stood up and went to approach the mob boss (crime lord, whatever).

Stuart stood as well, his expression blank, but Andrew caught the way that Miriam smiled, along with Henry and Davis (who were seated near the men) so assumed that he wasn’t about to bleed in the next few minutes (assumed). Still, he had to force himself to not go for one of his knives and heard Neil mutter in Russian when Will reached into the pocket of his black pants for something, which he held out to Andrew. “A present for you. We heard you might like it.”

“Something better than that used Japanese shite you had Bren looking into,” Stuart muttered; upon seeing the ‘Jaguar’ logo on what was apparently a key fob, Andrew almost remarked what did it matter when the company was now foreign-owned, too… and then he realized that it was a new key fob for an F-type.

Yeah, he supposed it was a bit better than something used that he could afford with the money from selling his GS….

“Are you serious?” he asked as he rubbed his right thumb over the logo; he’d gotten some gift cards (mostly Amazon and one for IKEA from Nicky and Erik) for graduation, while Neil had surprised him with a new laptop. But this? This was….

Andrew didn’t know what to do with this.

He was ready to throw it back at Will when Neil appeared at his side. “You didn’t have to,” he told his uncles with faint reproach.

“We wanted to,” Will explained as he smiled at his nephew. “This way we know that the two of you are driving around all over the place in something reliable.”

While Neil frowned at their usual protectiveness, Andrew clicked his tongue and slid the fob into his pocket, suddenly all right with the extravagant present – it was more of the usual Hatford ‘must coddle Neil’ BS. “It better not be some lame color, like white.”

Stuart’s face grew flushed as he jabbed his forefinger in Andrew’s direction. “Listen, you little shit! You don’t-“

“It’s grey, nothing too flashy,” Will said with a knowing smile as he reached out to tousle Neil’s dark hair. “And the insurance is taken care of, too. Just don’t wreck it.”

“I won’t let Neil behind the wheel,” Andrew promised, only to give his lover a bland look. “What? You think speed limits should be doubled, at a minimum. And you switch lanes at will.” The one time he’d let the idiot drive a rental car was also the last.

“It’s just… what I’m used to is… oh never mind,” Neil grumbled as he rubbed at his eyes. “Cake now?”

Considering how little Neil liked desserts, Andrew knew it was a diversionary tactic yet accepted it, because he wanted the damn cake (and then to go find his new car and drive it home).

(Go home and spend the rest of the night alone with his boyfriend.)

Several other people spoke up in agreement that yes, definitely time for cake, so Miriam and Neil went over to cut the damn thing at last (Neil made sure that Andrew got a huge end piece, and the rest of his own after he choked down a couple of bites). There were more presents, mostly along the way of gift cards (Andrew didn’t complain), though Henry did give him a very nice set of knives and Bren a pair of Doc Martins with skulls on them.

“Just think about it,” Nicky mostly whispered after he sidled up to Andrew after Andrew went back for seconds on the cake. “If they give you a car now, imagine what your wedding present would be.”

The moron made a good point for once. Andrew had a bite of dessert (chocolate layers with the rich buttercream he liked) while he watched Neil make Ally take a piece from a center of the cake – the ends were reserved for Andrew, apparently - and felt a familiar warmth fill his chest.

The moron made a good point, but there was no reason to tell him that, to say that there wasn’t a need to rush things. First, he and Neil had to settle into their new home and then still had to finish their university degrees. Maybe after they graduated and found steady jobs, they’d consider it… or maybe not. After all the changes in the past year or so, the one thing that Andrew had grown certain of was the life he’d found with an improbable pipedream.

Neil looked over at him and smiled, the expression turning into a grimace as he licked a bit of icing off his fingers without thinking.

“I’m just saying,” Nicky continued to harp, “guys like Neil don’t come along every day. Put a ring on it, will you?”

Oh, Andrew knew how rare Neil was, but judging from the smile that returned as Neil walked over to him… for once he believed it would be all right. “Enough,” he warned his cousin before he said something to upset Neil.

“I’m just trying to help you out,” Nicky said with an offended sniff before he returned to Erik’s side, his husband busy chatting with Davis about something.

Probably, but Nicky never knew when to quit. Hopefully he got it all out of his system tonight and wouldn’t bring it up when they visited later in the summer.

Hmm, maybe the Hatfords could do something about that as a future present, Andrew mused as Neil sidled up to him - full of cake and good whiskey, a new car waiting for him, and content to have his boyfriend at his side once more.

*******

So, one more owed fic - I may post the next Ghost in You chapter next week and then I’ll have to see what happens next, fic-wise. Especially since I’ll be out of town the first weekend of December.

#aftg #nekojitachanfics #aftg fic #andrew minyard #andreil #neil josten #the hatfords #nicky hemmick #erik klose #stuart hatford #aftg au #clouds fic #andrew's in deep and not fighting it for once

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ograndebatata · 4 years ago

Text

Gift Memories and Floating Leaves - Extended Edition

Note: I first wrote this fic as a Secret Santa gift last Christmas, which you can view here. However, I have recently decided to revamp it slightly to include an element present in a fanart which she commissioned for her fic universe, and because I ended up doing a few minor typo and goof corrections as well, I decided this merited an independent post.

For those who already read the original version, I hope you also enjoy this new one. For those who are first reading this version, I advise you to stick with this one, but you’re free to check the older one if you would like.

This fic is written as taking place in @lostbutterflyutau‘s Mirror World AU, and being familiar with it will help to understand much of what goes on here. But for whose who are unfamiliar with it, I will be including a few basic notes below to provide some context.

Basically, this AU takes the show’s timeline as canon until Song of the Sirenas, at which point it diverges from the show, besides a few isolated elements.

A few key differences are that in this AU, Carla’s mother died when she was born, and Carla herself, after coming to see the error of her ways earlier than she did in canon, attended a school named Walter Mickey School for some time in a place caleld the Mirror World, where she grew as a person and saved the school and potentially more places several times. She also became one of the Princesses of Harmony, a group of magical girls, each with different powers of their own, Carla’s being that of reading minds.

In this AU, eventually Carla and Gabe fell in love, and started a happy relationship, and... well, I can’t say more without spoiling a key element in this fic.

But for anyone interested in a fuller context of this story, I very strongly recommend both her post with more information about the Mirror World AU (which can be found here) and her great fanfic When The Music Changes, which can found here (if you prefer FF.NET) or here (if you prefer AO3).

I hope you enjoy them both, and that you also enjoy this fic, whether you read the original version or are reading this one first.

_____

Gift Memories and Floating Leaves

At the Royal Palace of Avalor, on Noche Buena…

Standing on the balcony of the palace’s ballroom, her light blue wrap draped over her shoulders, the young brown-haired woman contemplated the twinkling lights of the massive árbol navideño that had been set up in the palace’s courtyard, as well as the smaller and more distant ones of the many decorations put up throughout the city, and the twinkling stars that glittered on the above sky.

It was a lovely view, matched only by the one she knew her violet eyes would meet if she turned around and peered through the ballroom windows. Behind them, people would either be standing in groups or twirling through the dance floor, the spirit of joy and love inherent to the season palpable in the air and visible in everyone, even those who for most of the year weren’t exactly the most agreeable people to be around.

Put together, both pictures combined in such a way that Carla couldn’t help but find surreal, as if Avalor had temporarily lifted itself out of the EverRealm and into another world.

It might seem like a weird figure of speech for someone who had literally lived in another world, but her strong points were dancing and magic, not poetry, and she felt it fit.

A brief breeze blew over her, rustling the glitter-studded dark blue of her ballgown and fluttering her loose hair and running over her skin like a warm soothing hand. Though Carla knew through Elena that ghosts only celebrated with the living on Dia de los Muertos, for a moment, it almost seemed like her mother was beside her this very moment, silently telling her that she got the metaphor, and she didn’t need to be so aggressive, especially with herself.

The thought warming her heart, she closed her eyes and took in a long, deep breath, releasing it in a drawn out, comforted exhale.

As a child, she never would have imagined she would end up spending Navidad like this.

Back then, it had always been pretty much the same thing, one year after another. She and her father would find some place to settle for the season, her father went all out with cooking (the only time of the year at which it was consistently made of purchased ingredients) bought her gifts that she now knew he had sometimes been hard-pressed to afford, and the two of them caroled together.

All things considered, besides the ‘extra mile’ her father went to, Navidad hadn’t been all that different from ordinary days. Her father always went as far as she could with cooking, gave her all the gifts he could afford without impacting their savings, and always tried his best to help her to not feel alone despite the fact that the only company they had was each other. The only real difference between that time of the year and all others was that, unlike all other ceremonies, which her father saw as opportunities to ‘raise their funds’, Navidad was the one where he insisted that people were to be left alone.

But now? Now she actually had a home she could call her own, an actual celebration to attend, and true friends to celebrate it with. And she even still had her father. Granted, he was back in the ballroom rather than outside with her, but that was a small distance, especially compared to certain previous years, which the two of them hadn’t even been able to spend together.

Having him with her was already something to be thankful for.

Her wrap slipped slightly. Carla adjusted it around her shoulders, looking down to make sure she hadn’t creased it.

As she did, her eyes met the silver band on her left hand, the purple gemstone twinkling like a firefly.

A different kind of warmth filled her at the view.

By itself, it was already a beautiful jewel, but the meaning behind it, joined by the two sets of initials - one on each side of the gemstone - reminded her of something else she had for this Navidad.

Yet another thing to be thankful for.

“There you are.”

Carla’s heart gave a slight leap as she flew from her thoughts. Then, a smile spreading across her features, she turned around to the one she knew had spoken, her violet eyes meeting the familiar profile walking toward her underneath the gazebo.

The next moment, he stepped out of the shadows, giving her a full view of him in his dress uniform, and another view she found even better - that of his warm smile and twinkling eyes as he saw her.

“There you are,” she deliberately echoed, her happy smile turning into a teasing one.

Her chuckled fondly at her retort as he strolled up to her, the sword at his waist swishing to and fro with his steps.

As he rested his left arm over her shoulders and she curled her right one around his lower back, she asked, her voice more serious, “Is everything alright?”

She thought she had managed to keep her voice calm, but she couldn’t hold back the faint concern flickering up within her as she remembered Gabe’s departure from the dance. Today should be his night off, and the fact he was in dress uniform rather than his everyday guard outfit only reinforced that. But as she knew after years of being with him, it could be difficult for the Captain of the Guard to fully have time off. And just their luck, it seemed he had been needed during the Navidad festival.

“It is,” he replied, rubbing her shoulder soothingly through the wrap. “Just a few of the newer guards who weren’t certain of where exactly they should go on their rounds.”

Though a tiny part of her couldn’t help but think that that reason hadn’t been good enough to request Gabe’s presence specifically, the rest of her sighed in relief. At least it wasn’t about any villain having been spotted in the premises or some monster unleashed from a jar or some escaped criminal. Were it any of those, she could only guess their party would end faster than Cinderella’s. Festivals tended to be a magnet for scumbags of all sorts, and despite all the security measures that were put in place, there could be a few who were wily or lucky enough to get past them and wreak havoc.

She should know. She had helped to wreak havoc at similar events in her old days.

Don’t think about that now. She told herself, forcing down the lingering shame brought by the memories of her past life. Those days are gone.

Yes. They were. And she’d never want to go back to them. Not after learning how wrong they were.

“Well, I guess it’s nice that they feel comfortable enough with their Captain to ask directly for him,” she at last said, hoping she hadn’t spent too much time silent. “Even if they could have picked a better time to do it.”

She felt Gabe nodding against her.

“Yes. On both accounts.”

A moment of silence went by, the two of them basking in the comfort of being together. Then, she felt him shifting against her, his stance suddenly more rigid.

“And here?” he asked. “Is everything alright?”

She turned up to face him, meeting the liquid warmth of his chocolate brown eyes.

“It is,” she said. “Just a few… unwanted thoughts.”

His stance turned the slightest bit more rigid. “Is that why you’re out here?” A hint of alarm flashed across his face. “Did anyone…”

He let the sentence trail off, but Carla could read the rest of it just fine. Smiling up at him, she rested her free hand on the one he had over her left shoulder.

“No,” she said. “Nothing like that. I’m only out here because I was hot.”

His stance loosened at her words, but then, his eyes narrowed pensively, as if he was wondering whether he should say something he had in mind or not. Carla held back the urge to curl her eyebrow inquisitively.

“You used the wrong tense,” he at last added. Then, with a mischievous smirk, he added, “You are hot.”

Her lips shifted into a smirk of her own even as joy bubbled up within her. He really was getting a bit too good at teasing her.

“So are you,” she replied, running her hand over the front of his jacket.

And she meant it. As much as it was part of her own teasing, seeing him in full dress uniform was a treat for her eyes.

An even better one than the usual view of him, at any rate.

The slim fit of his black trousers and dark blue jacket outlined his profile in a way that she could only describe as wonderful, the jacket's color going perfectly with the golden buttons that lined its front. Golden cuffs with matching cufflinks and two burgundy stripes running through their middle added what could only be described as a formal layer, which was only reinforced by the red collar with a golden top and laurel leaves of the same colour circling it. For a further element of fanciness, golden epaulettes with burgundy straps were fastened to the jacket's shoulders, and a length of golden thread that went from the jacket's shoulder to its neck dangled over the right side of the lapel. Adding a final touch of both color and fanciness, a creamy belt tied with a white band running along its middle circled Gabe's waist, securing a sword to it. And the five medals he had earned for his services to Avalor over the years, pinned to the jacket’s front by red ribbons, made up what could only be called the final missing elements whose previous absence was only noticed after they were already present.

For many people, it made for a very eye-pleasing picture. For Carla, it did the same, but it added a much more wonderful element. Namely, that of the happy memories of the the last time he'd worn it - on their wedding day three months prior. The day that had arguably been the happiest in their lives thus far.

As if reading her thoughts - which Carla knew that he, unlike her couldn’t do literally - Gabe smiled at her and drew her further into him, his lack of actual mind-reading powers never a barrier to knowing what she was thinking, not with how well he knew her. Taking care not to snag her wrap on his medals or buttons, Carla rested her head on his chest - careful so she wouldn’t poke his chin with her tiara - and listened to the comforting steady beat of his heart.

And for some amount of time neither of them cared about tracking, they simply stood as they were, the same warm breeze from before flowing over them as they contemplated the twinkling lights of the árbol navideño and the city, no words necessary between them.

It somehow seemed even more surreal than the sheer beauty of the picture all around her. And yet, she had no problem believing it was real.

Not when she could feel it so intensely, seeping into every fiber of her being and spreading through all of her to the farthest depths of her soul.

Another sigh flew out of her, this one dreamy. Gabe brought his free hand up and tucked one of her chocolate brown strands behind her ear, the hand he rested on her shoulder shifting ever so slightly, enough so as to let her feel the metal band resting around his ring finger.

A soft smile returned to her face.

They hadn’t openly talked much about it, but she knew from things he had said and done over the previous days, as well as from his own responses to some of her actions, that he was aware this Navidad would be yet another special Navidad for them.

“Soon,” she whispered to herself.

The next instant, Gabe shifted underneath her arm and head, and over her shoulders. Though she could tell without moving that he was turning an inquisitive eye down at her, she removed her head from his chest and looked up at him.

“I was just thinking out loud. And I meant how soon it will be yet another first Navidad for us.” Her lips curled in a mix of teasing smirk and fond smile. “Husband.”

Clarity lit up his eyes.

“I know,” he said. “And I can’t wait to celebrate it.” His look a mirror of hers, he added, “Wife.”

After a brief search for a reply, she instead ran a hand along his jawline, her smile still in place. As much as she liked to be a tease, this time somehow didn’t seem to be the right one to let that streak of hers unfold too far.

“And I can believe it,” he went on. “Even if I wouldn’t have in our early days.”

That was something else she got. After all, she had felt exactly the same way back in the days when she refused to even admit her own feelings for him, much less to do something about them.

And perhaps because of the season, one of those sprang to the front of her mind.

Despite herself, she briefly unleashed her urge to tease him.

“You mean like in a certain Navidad-related early day?”

Again, he didn’t give her a verbal reply. But his ever so slight nod, coupled with his fond chuckle and the spark in his eyes, told her that he understood what she meant, and was remembering the exact same moment right now.

///

Four years before, a few nights before Navidad, by one of the Avalor Palace’s living rooms…

Her heart pounding as she stood before the closed door, Carla aimed her tamborita straight at the lock, her senses alert to any kind of suspicious noise, and her being so jittery from the position she found herself in that she swore she’d jump out of her skin if a drop of water landed on her.

Thankfully it wasn’t raining, and the palace didn’t have leaks on the ceiling, but that didn’t make her feel any better. After all, being out in the palace in the dead of night seemed weird to say the least. Even if she excused herself saying that she couldn’t sleep - which sounded superficially plausible given she was in her pyjamas and a robe - coming all the way to this place during an insomnia would sound at least odd.

Of course, the suspicious air to her location was the whole reason she should stay here for as little as possible. The faster she was, the less chances she would be seen, she had told herself more than once as she kept staring at the door, as if her mere gaze could magically make everything end up where it should be and send her back to bed, safe from any suspicions.

Just get on with it! She told herself, mentally pushing all the determination she could summon through her being.

It was a sentence she had repeated more than once over the last five minutes or so. But somehow, this time it spurred her into action. Maybe something about her tune had been different this time. Or maybe she just needed to say it more than once to build up her determination. One or the other, it was meaningless. At least she could muster her will now.

“Nitla abrax conzaporti!” she whispered as she brought her hand down on the tamborita’s drum, trying to tap it in the slightest way she could while also doing so hard enough to cast the intended spell.

Violet pulses flew from the drum and toward the door lock, which then slid to the side with a low click. Then the panel itself slid open, more silent than a sheet of paper falling.

Armando really is a good chief of the castle, ensuring the door hinges stay so well oiled. She couldn’t help but quip in her mind.

Then, she scowled at herself. There was no time to joke when she was in such a compromising position.

At least it seemed that practicing this spell in secret had paid off. But there were still a hundred ways things could go wrong before she was done. And again, the longer she stayed up the more risks she took.

Finding it easier to return to her focus this, Carla aimed her tamborita to her right, at the sack that rested beside her.

“Llévaluq!” she said as she smacked the tamborita again. A purple glow bloomed around the sack, which silently floated off the ground and into the open doorway.

Twiddling her fingers, Carla directed the bulk through the room until it landed on its intended spot, the plush carpet muffling the noise.

Sighing in relief, Carla tiptoed into the room, hissing and grimacing as her bare feet briefly made contact with a few patches of uncarpeted floor. This was why she typically made sure to wear slippers. But wearing them now would make her steps noisier, so she had forgone them to reduce the potential giveaways.

A few seconds later, she pushed the door closed, but held it back just before it clicked shut. If the door fully closed, it would make noise, and bring about yet another potential giveaway. At least like this, as long as no one passed directly by the door and didn’t decide to give it a close check, there would be nothing suspicious.

For safety’s sake, she pressed an ear to the door, listening out for any suspicious sounds, like muffled footsteps on the carpet, the rustle of fabric as a guard walked, or even a guard’s breathing.

None came.

A breath forcing its way out of her lungs like clay, Carla straightened herself and headed into the room, half-lit by both the outside light that filtered in through the windows and the twinkling yellow and purple lights that decorated the huge pine tree resting close to the unlit fireplace.

Despite her nervousness, a smile blossomed on her face as she got closer.

There in the dark, with its lights now largely unhindered, rested what Carla thought was the most beautiful and most special árbol navideño she had ever seen.

True, she had seen others that could be described as bigger, or more opulent, or technically better in their decoration. But none could even come close to this one. The first true árbol navideño she had helped to set up since she decided to turn her life around, the first one where she’d truly had the fun of decorating in years.

Her smile only grew bigger as she remembered the various times she had spent working on it, whether it was picking out decorations with Elena and Isabel, or hanging them on the tree with Naomi and Esteban, or casting that spell Mateo had found to add twinkling firefly-like lights to the tree.

Even now, she could stare at it for hours, lost in the memories of the happiness that came with being part of something so special.

You don’t have hours! Her common sense shouted at her. Hurry up!

The warning making her spring back into focus, Carla hastened her step toward the árbol navideño, kneeling down beside her sack, which she had laid by the many gifts that had been placed under the tree. A relieved look spread across her face. No new gifts had been added since the last time she checked, and the current ones still looked indistinguishable enough from each other that there was no way to tell who had gotten each gift.

Her choice still held up.

A slightly easier breath flowing out of her, Carla unlaced her sack, looking into it as she plotted out her next course of action.

“What are you doing?”

A shout flew from her throat, her heart almost shooting out of her mouth as she jumped so high she swore her head nearly smashed into the ceiling. Her sack flapped as she rustled by it, her crash after she landed so noisy that it was a miracle she hadn’t woken half the palace.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” she yelped even as she whirled toward the sound, raising both her free hand and the one that still held her tamborita, her heart leaping like a demented monkey.

For a moment, she almost expected to see three or four guards raising their crossbows at her, their looks as stern as that of Elena when she had kicked her and her father out of Avalor on Carnaval.

Instead, only one guard stood there, and the only thing he had raised was his hands, even though he had a sword he could be drawing at her.

Even in the dim light, his startled and apologetic look was visible to her. And so was his identity.

“G-G-Gabe?” she managed to stammer, her heart still slamming all over her chest, but somehow an edge calmer at the sight of him. “W-w-what are you doing here?”

Of course, it was purely a rhetorical question. She could already paint the whole picture in her mind. Either he had been suspicious at the half-closed door or a faint breeze had somehow opened it before he passed by, all without her noticing. Then he had looked in, seen her kneeling by the tree and started thinking things. Probably bad things, given who she was and the fact she had her tamborita and a sack with her.

Strangely, his apologetic face shifted into a playful one.

“I asked first,” he quipped, somehow managing to sound endearing rather than silly or annoying, perhaps because of the wink he joined to his words.

Though her heartbeat was still frantic, she managed to muster a smirk.

“And I’m a lady,” she returned. “Don’t the rules of etiquette say it’s ‘ladies first’?”

The moment her sentence was done, she barely held back both a scowl and a wince, mentally kicking herself.

Where did that come from? Her inner voice shouted. Why on the EverRealm had her teasing nature decided to come out just at this very moment?

Fortunately, despite how it must have sounded, Gabe only nodded.

“Good point,” he acknowledged, the hint of a grin on his face telling her that he got her joke and was rolling with it, but at the same time something in his eyes conveying that he was also truly trying to respect her wishes.

Then, nervousness ghosting across his features, he stood straighter and then started speaking in a more official voice, not all that different from the one she heard him use with Elena when he was on duty.

“I was doing my rounds, and I saw this door was open, and saw you were here, and…” his voice faded, his arms twitching as if he was trying not to press them alongside his body or put them behind his back. “I have to confess I got confused.”

Fear flashing across his face the moment he finished his sentence, he raised his hands again and said, “Don’t get me wrong, I know you’re grown past your thieving days, but…”

Again, he fell silent. Carla waited for him to find his voice again, but while she could see from the unnatural stillness of his eyes that he was trying to find the right words, he didn’t make any more sounds.

And the silence dragged on, so thick Carla about expected to be able to hear the steps of the other guards as they did their rounds throughout the palace, or the crickets chirping outside.

“But?...” she eventually echoed, gesturing in circles with her free hand as if winding a crank.

His features and profile loosening a fraction, he added, “But my curiosity was strong enough that I just had to ask what you were doing.” After a moment’s pause, he added. “For some reason.”

He looked apologetic again, which Carla couldn’t help but appreciate.

But then again, there was nothing to appreciate to begin with. It was a good question after all. There should be no good reason for her to be kneeling by an árbol navideño with a sack in the middle of the night. And while she could tell from his voice and face that he really didn’t believe she was trying to steal anything, she could also tell that he was puzzled as to what she could be doing.

Before she could say anything, he shook his head with an annoyed scowl, the emptiness in his gaze telling her the expression was directed at himself.

“You know what? Forget it. I should have just left you alone. Like I said, I know you’re not here to steal anything.” He gave her a polite half-bow. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”

He started turning around to leave, his gaze no longer focused on her.

Before she could stop herself, her arm shot up like an arrow, a single word flying out of her lips.

“Wait!”

Then, as the word finished, she mentally kicked herself again. But it was too late. Gabe had already turned around. Though his gaze was nothing but gentle and encouraging, Carla still felt as embarrassed as if she had actually been caught committing a crime.

But for a reason she couldn’t quite explain, she felt he deserved an actual explanation rather than to mull the matter over in his head and perhaps literally lose sleep as he tried to find the answer to his question.

His gaze remained as calm as before, but still, nervousness built up within her.

At last, she managed to whisper, “Promise you won’t laugh?”

She winced the moment the question was done, as if her body had already decided there would be a bout of laughter from it alone. But instead, his gaze looking even gentler and more encouraging, Gabe nodded.

“I promise.”

There was nothing forceful or demanding in the words or the way he said it, but her nervousness scarcely faded. After all, she was about to say something that would be weird at best. And yet, for some reason, as afraid as she was of what he could think, she wanted to tell him.

Fiddling with her bracelet as well as she could while she was still holding her tamborita, she tried to muster the nerve to speak up.

Then, she explained, “I’m dropping off my gifts for everyone.”

For a moment, his expression remained just the same. Then, ever so slowly, his left eyebrow started to curl, the hints of puzzlement all too visible in his widening eyes.

“And you need to do that in the dead of night?” he asked, the same puzzlement trickling through his voice.

“Yes,” she replied, trying her best not to look down in embarrassment.

He didn’t say anything, but she could read the next question on his features plain as day, even without using her powers.

Despite her nervousness, she managed to get out, “It’s just… I never had to get gifts for anyone other than Papá. And…” she paused, the incoming words seemingly so hard to utter that she needed time to gather strength to do so. “... well, in case they don’t like my gifts, I don’t want anyone to know they’re from me.”

Understanding dawned on his face. Again, Carla braced herself for laughter or some kind of reproaching comment. Now that he knew the reason, he was bound to find it silly.

But yet again, he didn’t laugh. More than that, he didn’t even seem like he was trying to hold back laughter. His gaze remained just as understanding as before.

“You didn’t need to have done that,” he soothed. “I’m sure they’ll appreciate the effort one way or the other. Whatever your gifts are, they will mean that you thought of them and took the time to get them something, because you like them.”

Despite the comment, Carla felt her whole being loosening. The calm and comforting way in which he’d spoken to her, rather than the mocking or derisive tone she had been so afraid to hear from anyone who might have caught her, made those words much better. At least as good as they could be when he was still telling her she didn’t need to go to such lengths.

She did suppose he was right, although she wouldn’t know for sure. Like she had told Gabe, she had never needed to get gifts for anyone other than her father, and even he hadn’t gotten all that many gifts from her, because she had only started being able to get away from him to buy them herself once she was fourteen, and even then she’d had her spots of trouble. Yes, her father had always liked the gifts she got him, and she had no reason to think her new friends and her found familia would be any different, but all the same...

“I still think it’s better like this,” she managed.

Already, she gathered herself for further words of disagreement from Gabe, sure that he would keep insisting on the matter until she agreed that his point of view was the right one. But instead, he simply nodded again.

“I respect that,” he replied.

And though that sentence could easily be said out of mere formality, she could tell that he meant it.

“Can you please turn around then?” she requested. “I really would rather no one saw where I put anything.”

He gave her another polite half-bow. “I promise I won’t look.”

Then, without any further prompting, he turned around, suddenly rigid as if standing attention, though he was facing the door rather than any person. An invisible weight lifting from her, Carla again knelt by the tree and took her hand to the sack. All things considered, things had gone far better than she had hoped. While she had been caught, Gabe had believed her innocence and given her a chance to explain herself. And now that he was here, she’d be able to finish her job without without being seen by anyone.

Or maybe not. She realized, invaded by a sudden fear.

After all, Gabe was still here. What if…

Don’t be like that! She told herself. This is Gabe! When he gives his word, he keeps it! You know that by now!

Yes. That was something she had always known about him. It was true that many guys liked to pass them off as gentlemen when they were even worse than the scumbags she had met on the road, but Gabe was one of those who if anything was even better than what he proclaimed to be. If he had told her he would turn around, she had no reason to not believe it.

But maybe she should just make sure. And she could do it. After all, she knew a spell that could turn her tamborita’s surface into a mirror. And it was one of those that Mateo called a ‘hitless spell’, so she wouldn’t draw Gabe’s attention by smacking the drum. She only had to whisper the word and she would have a makeshift mirror on her hand, and would be able to see whether Gabe was holding up his promise.

No. She told herself.

He had trusted her. The least she could do was now trust him in return.

All the same, it really might be better to simply be sure.

It’s Gabe! She insisted. If he told you he wouldn’t look, then he won’t look!

Then again, he might not just be able to help his curiosity. It had happened when he saw her in the room. There was no way to say it wouldn’t happen now.

Before he didn’t know what was going on! She insisted. Now he does! And he promised!

Yes, he had. And he never broke a promise. That was something Carla knew about him from the days she had been Rita. And, she realized now, it might have been one of the reasons she had never been able to bring herself to manipulate him. Granted, that should only make him an easy target by all means, but somehow, even for her self from back then, there had been something about Gabe that had prevented her from branding him as a target.

But still, maybe just…

I SAID NO! Her mind’s voice shouted.

Then, before she could change her mind, she finally seized one of the gifts from inside the sack, and placed it by the tree, at a spot where its wrapping wouldn’t stand out too much between the surrounding gifts.

Satisfied with her job, she repeated the procedure a second time. Then a third, and a fourth, and so on, until she had placed a total of eight gifts under the tree, each of them carefully placed at inconspicuous spots, inside wrapping paper that didn’t stand out, and with the name of the person they were for written in a disguised spelling so that they wouldn’t know it was from her.

Wiping a forearm over her forehead, she sighed in relief and grabbed her now empty sack in her right hand and her tamborita in her left one.

“You can turn around now,” she told Gabe.

So he did.

Then, to her surprise, he surveyed the gifts under the tree with the same probing gaze she saw him using during guard inspections.

Unlike those, it lasted only a few seconds before he looked at her.

“You did a good job,” he complimented, again somehow sounding both teasing and genuine. “I can’t tell which of these gifts were put there by you.”

She tried her best to shrug nonchalantly, her cheeks crinkling in a sheepish look.

“Well, I got one for everyone,” she said. “Even Esteban. I’m hoping no one feels left out.”

Puzzlement briefly flashed across Gabe’s face when she said ‘even Esteban’, but it lasted all of a moment. Then, for some strange reason, he started inching toward her, but stopped almost as soon as he started and straightened himself again. If Carla didn’t know any better, she would swear he had been about to move closer and comfort her, like she saw him doing a few times to Elena or Naomi, or even to Mateo once.

And despite her childhood mantra of keeping just about everyone at arm’s length, she couldn’t help but be a bit sorry that he hadn’t done so, even as she was above all touched that he had respected her personal space when he didn’t know if he was welcome inside it.

“Like I said, I’m sure they will appreciate the effort.” He smiled. “I know I would.”

She returned the smile even as she felt her blood rushing to her cheeks. She hoped so, almost as much as she hoped that it was dark enough for him not to see her blazing red face. After all, one of those gifts was for him. Which didn’t mean anything special, and wasn’t meant to - Elena and her family had each gotten a gift from her, as well as Naomi and Mateo. Of course Gabe would be included as well. Her getting him a gift didn’t have to mean anything.

Even if she had to admit she spent more time trying to find a good gift for him than for many other people. And that she, for some reason, was more worried about him not liking her choice than she was about other people feeling that way.

“Thanks,” she settled on.

“Anytime.”

Again, there was a moment of silence, after which he spoke up.

“Do you want me to escort you to your room?”

At first, she could only give him a dumbfounded look. Then, as if she was having a delayed reaction, a cartload of sleepiness crashed on her being as if the ceiling had come down on her. Before she could do anything to fight it back, a massive yawn forced its way out of her and into her right hand as she put it before her mouth for the sake of propriety, part of her unable to hold back the thought that she must look ridiculous by holding the empty sack in front of her as she yawned.

“Why not?” she replied after her yawn was finally out.

Saying so, she walked up to him, the two of them making their way to the door.

The fog in her mind suddenly thickened, despite her yawn to clear sleepiness out, almost making her sway on her feet. At the last moment, she managed to keep herself in check and hold a standing position.

And then her eyes widened in alarm as she saw what hung above the doorway.

“Wait!” she called, all drowsiness gone from her voice.

He snapped to a halt the moment he heard her.

“What?” he replied, alarm bursting on his features.

Her mouth opened and closed as she ransacked her mind for something to say in response. But despite her best efforts, nothing seemed capable of coming out.

She knew the real reason she had stopped, but she couldn’t tell it to him. If she told him that, he’d really think she was an idiot for sure.

But she had to say something before he started to get suspicious. Assuming he wasn’t already.

BUT WHAT DO I TELL HIM? She shouted at herself.

As if on cue, her eyes found the árbol navideño and the gifts underneath it. She seized it - that gave her a solution.

“On second thought, I think I’ll just check one more time, to really make absolutely sure my gifts are properly disguised,” she said. “Can you wait outside?”

This time, Gabe pursed his lips a few times, as if he was briefly struggling with whether or not to make a comment. But like on her request to turn around, he replied, “Of course.”

Carla waited with bated breath as he walked toward the door. For the briefest of instants, she thought she saw him freezing, as if he had also looked up and spotted what she did, perhaps even worked out her true reason to stay in the room. But before she could be sure of it, he kept moving and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Only when it clicked shut did she let out a sigh of relief.

That door had mistletoe hanging over it. And she knew what mistletoe meant. Couples who found themselves under it had to kiss.

So if she and Gabe had walked out of that door together, they would have had to do just that. And there was no way she would do it.

Would it really be so bad? A voice that seemed both annoying and patient asked.

Yes. It would. And not because it was Gabe. In fact, he had to be top of the list of guys she would mind the least about kissing if she found herself under the mistletoe.

Wait. Where did that thought come from?

It didn’t matter. Even if he was on top of that list, she would still mind about kissing him.

It would be her first kiss after all.

No one in Avalor knew that, and even most people who knew her in the Mirror World didn’t know so either, but it was the truth. Though she was eighteen, she had yet to have her first kiss. And while even less people knew that, she wanted her first kiss to truly be special. Weird as it may sound coming from someone with her background, she wanted it to be the kind of unique and dreamy kiss that was discussed in romance novels, the kind where only she and her partner seemed to exist in the whole world, where both of them were lost in each other and their feelings.

Yes, she still didn’t know if she would be able to have that, and she hadn’t yet found the right guy to share it with, but at least she had dodged giving her first kiss away.

Which meant that she still could be able to save it for a special occasion.

She only hoped that someday, she would have it.

///

Present day...

It had been years since, but Gabe remembered that day like it had been yesterday. His puzzlement and curiosity at seeing her kneeling by the árbol navideño with a sack beside her. His inability to hold back his question. Her alarm at his intrusion. His attempts to reassure her, joined by his fear that he was only making her feeling worse. Her own fear that people wouldn’t like the gifts she had picked out for them. And her relief at the fact he hadn’t laughed at her and had respected her wishes for him not to see what she was doing.

In a sense, it had been pointless. Everyone Carla had gotten a gift for had worked out that it came from her, and had taken the time to give her a hug and thank her for it. Of course, that included him, and he had been sincere in his gratitude for the sword care kit she had gotten him. Even today, he still had the box it came in, although the cloth had gotten too stained to use and the products had long since run out.

True, his thanks had come out a bit on the awkward side. Which even then he knew was to be expected, given that they had opened their gifts the day after that year’s Navidad festival, where he and Carla had ended up sharing what they both called ‘their dance’, the one which lead to both of them realizing their feelings for each other. The one that ultimately had been their first step toward this moment.

Yes, the walk had been long, and both of them had stumbled across the way, but they had both managed to get up and keep going forward. And now, years later, they stood outside the very same ballroom where they had taken that first step, now as husband and wife, together on a level they hadn’t been before.

His fond grin melting into a subtler smile, Gabe drew Carla closer and ran his fingertips over her hair. She closed her eyes in pleasure and again rested her head on his chest.

It seemed so surreal now to think there had been a time they had been so afraid of their feelings as to not even talk about them. And that was already discounting the days when they actually had their feelings for each other but were still in denial about them even to themselves. Like the day when they’d had the ‘Navidad-related incident’ both of them had just recalled.

Of course, that had turned out to be for the better. That way, they had been able to share a proper first kiss as a couple, and Carla in particular had been able to have a proper first kiss, period (though he had only learned about that months after the ‘mistletoe incident’).

He supposed it was a good thing neither of them was superstitious. After all, avoiding a kiss under the mistletoe was said by some to bring back luck.

And it was true they had been in some rough spots over the years.

But they had managed to overcome each one. And he knew that together, they could overcome whatever came next.

Still, that was no reason for them not to amuse themselves a bit with their memory of that moment.

On cue with the thought, Carla raised her head from his chest.

“Just what kind of naughty idea came into that mind of yours?” she teased, reaching up her arm to twirl his signature pushed up strangs.

In the early days, there had been a few such occasions where he had wondered if Carla had used her mind-reading power to figure out what he was thinking so quickly. But he had learned to sense when she did so, and he knew that outside of a few emergencies, the one time she had used it was on that time when she wanted to find out his feelings for her. This case was just a sign of how well they had gotten to know each other.

“You know, I’m not sure how that can be, but in all these years, I realize we never got to have that kiss we both dodged.”

Carla hummed mock-pensively, her lips quivering as she fought down a smirk.

“Is that so?...” she drawled. “And what are you going to do about it, Captain?”

Saying so, she again reached up and flicked her fingers through his hair. He raised his eyebrows in mock-pensiveness.

“Well, if we had some mistletoe, I know what I would do, but alas, there isn’t any over here,” he replied. “So it seems we will need to move over to a place where there is some?”

She frowned pensively at his words.

“I think that would give everyone too much of a show. We should find another solution.” Her eyes lit up. “And I know just the one.”

Saying so, she slipped her hand under the top layer of her dress and drew out her tamborita.

“I can just bring some over here.”

“Always prepared, I see,” he teased.

She smirked again, flicking at the handle of the sword at his waist.

“Look who’s talking.”

He had no argument for that. While this sword was slightly shorter and much thinner than the sword he used on everyday duty, and mostly meant for decorative purposes, it was still fairly sharp and would be able to make damage if he used it on someone. He hoped that day wouldn’t come, but too many things over the years had shown it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Llévaluq!” she said as she aimed her tamborita at a spot above the balcony’s door.

Three mistletoe leaves floated from their ties and floated over the balcony toward them, halting at a spot about a foot above Gabe’s head, magic keeping them still despite the breeze that blew around them.

Without any more words, she slipped her tamborita back into its giant custom-made pocket.

Then, she turned upwards to face him, a current of sparks flowing between them as their gazes locked into each other.

Resting his right hand on her jawline and his left one on her shoulder, he leaned down to meet her, as she in turn reached up toward him, both her arms wrapping around her shoulders, her left hand sliding up to rest on his nape.

Then, their lips met, their mouths moving over each other in exactly the same way both of them knew the other liked by now, nipping at the ideal spots, pursing their lips around each other’s with just the right amount of pressure, and moving at the exact pace both of them knew the other like.

His right hand moved from Carla’s jawline and dove into the chocolate-brown waterfall flowing down her back, his fingers and palm resting on her nape as her fingers wrapped around his hair. Somehow, the two of them managed to come even closer together, their kiss so tuned over the years that it seemed more rehearsed than one of Carla’s dance performances, and yet flowing from each other as naturally as breathing.

Neither of them spoke, and neither of them actively tried to convey their thoughts through any other way, but as their kiss lasted on until it seemed to grow eternal, both of them knew the other was thinking exactly the same thing.

That despite however things had started out back when Carla first showed up in Avalor, and however they had turned out by the árbol navideño all those years ago, both of them were glad they had found their way to each other, and thankful to be together.

All around them, lights kept twinkling whether from the stars above or from the various Navidad decorations nearby, neither of them paying much attention as they devoted their focus to the moment they were sharing, and the joy that was being with each other.

#elena of avalor #fanfiction #my friend's au #gabela #Gabe Nuñez x Carla Delgado #Gabe x Carla #extended editon of a fic I previously wrote #I hope you like it #and check out lostbutterflyutau's fics as well #i love them #and I love her au #and i strongly recommend them both

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marshmallowgoop · 5 years ago

Note

Do you have an essay on Light Your Heart Up?

Sadly, I don’t have a full essay on the song.

However, I have discussed this cheery tune in a few other posts, and those posts probably sum up my thoughts well.

First, I’ll point to an essay I wrote about “New World Symphony,” the second ending theme of Kill la Kill. Like “Light your heart up,” it seems very clear that “New World Symphony” is a song about how much Mako loves Ryuko, and also like “Light Your Heart Up,” it’s got an upbeat melody when I actually see the underlying meaning as rather sad.

To quote:

In both [“New World Symphony” and “Light your heart up”], it’s clear that Mako loves Ryuko immensely, but also in both, there’s the sense that Mako… isn’t quite getting through to her.

“Light your heart up” is all about Mako trying to let Ryuko know that she’s there for her and trying to get Ryuko to feel comfortable opening up. It’s saying, “I’m here for you, I love you, let me help you!” Similarly, “New World Symphony” seems to directly tie into Mako’s backstory as revealed in SUSHIO CLUB LOVE LOVE KLKL. Mako was a lonely girl with no friends, but then she meets Ryuko, and her life “changes color.” She’d always wanted it to happen, but once it does, she doesn’t know what to do. She’s a “coward” and doesn’t know how to express her feelings. She doesn’t know how to let Ryuko know that she’s loved and cared for and that she matters so much.

It’s probably really telling that this song plays in the latter half of the series, and, particularly, in the ending for episode 21, where Mako and Senketsu literally break into Ryuko’s heart to save her from Junketsu. There, Mako stops being a “coward” and lets Ryuko know in no uncertain terms how much she cares about her. In the following episode, Ryuko embraces the fact that people love her, and Mako truly gets for the first time that Ryuko finds her important and valuable and loves her back—so much so that she can’t find the words to describe it.

“New World Symphony” is a very cute, bubbly song that many found unfitting to hear after scenes where Ryuko’s heart gets brutally ripped out of her chest or she’s completely drenched in her own blood, but I’ve always seen it as having some rather sad implications. It’s a song about not knowing how to express how you feel and wanting things to change but not knowing how to. It’s a song that asks, “Do you know how much you mean to me?”

Which is fitting, in a show that’s centered on the growth of a girl who learns to let people in and understand that she’s loved and valued.

Of course, “New World Symphony” isn’t “Light your heart up,” but much of what I say here about “New World” also applies to my feelings on “Light.” Mako is also expressing her overflowing love for Ryuko with “Light your heart up,” and there’s also a real sadness behind the lyrics.

However, “Light your heart up” has a far more palpable, tragic sense of longing. The song is pleading, desperate—Mako wants to lighten Ryuko’s spirits, to help encourage her to cast off her “broken wings” and fly high above her horrible past, to guide Ryuko’s way so that she never loses it again.

“Please let me see you smiling,” Mako says, after expressing that “no one can take [Ryuko’s] place.”

“Please let me see you crying,” she says, after expressing that there “ain’t no one who can touch [Ryuko’s] heart” and how a lonely girl like Ryuko is “hard to crumble.”

Whereas Ryuko shows Senketsu the tears that she hides from others…

…and can’t fake smiles for him like she can for anyone else…

Mako doesn’t have that kind of connection with Ryuko for much of the series.

And as “Light your heart up” tells us in no indirect terms, Mako knows this. She knows Ryuko isn’t opening her heart to her. And it hurts. She’s so in love with Ryuko, and yet… Ryuko doesn’t feel fully “safe” with her. Ryuko is afraid to be vulnerable in front of Mako. Ryuko is afraid to share her heart with Mako as she so openly does with Senketsu—and as she even quite literally does in episode 11.

Which brings me to another essay of mine that references “Light your heart up.” There, I briefly discuss Ryuko’s relationship with Mako, and I also talk quite a bit about Ryuko’s “Power of Friendship” moment in episode 22. The English dub of that scene does a great job of marking a turn away from Ryuko’s fear of letting Mako in—at least in my opinion!

As I argue in that post:

It’s my personal interpretation that Mako has spent much of the series not feeling as significant in Ryuko’s life as Senketsu, which can (at least partially) explain some of her dialogue about them. “Ryuko loves her uniform more than anything on the planet!” “After all, the reason you wear Senketsu is because you love him best, right?” “Senketsu is your friend and your Sunday best! He’s going to cling to you forever and ever…” And so on. So, in my opinion, she reminds Ryuko that “Senketsu’s not [her] only friend!” because she feels like she has to–she loves Ryuko so much, but she’s afraid Ryuko can’t see it. I also get this impression from “Light your heart up,” her character song.

This begs the question: why does she feel Ryuko can’t see it? I think the English dub script answers part of that [in episode 22] when Ryuko says, “You [Mako] didn’t care if I pushed you away. You kept coming back and coming back like a yo-yo!” On an emotional level, I see this as reflecting a lot of Ryuko’s early behavior around Mako. I’ve always seen it that Ryuko is afraid of opening up to people, so she distances herself from them–pushes them away. With Mako at the start of the series, she’s hesitant to begin a friendship (episode 1), she’s silent and disconnected when eating with her family (episodes 2, 5), and she keeps a lot of her concerns and feelings bottled up and doesn’t confide in Mako about them (episodes 2, 3, 5, 7, 13). When Mako scolds her family for judging Ryuko in episode 5 for talking to Senketsu (and Mataro, in episode 6), I see that as her saying, “Well, Ryuko needs someone to talk to.” (Of course, I also see it as more complicated than that, and have expanded on that here, but for the sake of brevity, heh…)

Essentially, though, Ryuko has struggled to be emotionally open with people and with Mako, which she realizes by the time of episode 22. I love how the dub talks about this, because instead of just making it about the wedding scene as in the original script, it’s more representative of their relationship as a whole, which I find more fitting and heartfelt. No matter how much Ryuko tried to keep Mako away at first—and literally as well, as Ryuko’s had a history of trying to keep her out of the fights—Mako kept sticking by her side. It’s a powerful moment for both of them when Mako can see that Ryuko’s always found her important, and when Ryuko can finally express that.

But all that said, Senketsu may not get a “Light your heart up”-like song himself (sadly!), but I feel that he actually has similar feelings as Mako. He’s just a uniform, he only matters to Ryuko because she needs him to fight, Mako is Ryuko’s most special person, the one who can get her to relax, and he most certainly doesn’t have that kind of significance to her….

It kinda makes me wish Senketsu and Mako got to have more of a relationship. As “Light your heart up” details, Mako longs to have the kind of connection with Ryuko that Senketsu does, but Senketsu probably thinks he has that kind of connection simply because Ryuko doesn’t see him as a person who means anything.

As I detail in another post on the English dub for the “Power of Friendship” scene:

Senketsu and Mako are wildly different characters, but their arcs are actually remarkably similar. Both deal with gaining self-respect after a history of being belittled and stigmatized, and, regarding their relationships with Ryuko, they each downplay their own significance to her.

Mako constantly gushes about how much Senketsu means to Ryuko. She describes them as friends before anyone else does and repeats on multiple occasions that Ryuko loves him more than anyone else. Senketsu, meanwhile, struggles immensely with the concept of Ryuko seeing him as anything more than her only uniform. He feels Mako is Ryuko’s most important person, thinking that she is the only one who can calm Ryuko and get her to relax, and he would willingly die protecting Mako from the brainwashed, Junketsu!Ryuko—killing or even hurting Mako would absolutely break Ryuko, but he doesn’t think the same applies for himself.

But as we see in the wedding-crashing scene, both Senketsu and Mako are Ryuko’s most important people, and both have the power to bring her to her senses. Both are there playing a huge role in saving her, and—contrary to what Senketsu believes—it is when Ryuko attacks him that she realizes she is hurting both of them and ultimately snaps out of it.

When I first watched the English dub of Ryuko’s “Power of Friendship” speech pictured here [in the linked post], I was immediately taken in by how the script draws slightly more attention to these ideas than the original. We clearly see Senketsu’s reactions in all versions—he bursts into tears when Ryuko says he’s warm and comfortable and that she never wants to take him off again, and he gasps at the idea that he’s as much her important person as Mako is. But when Mako asks, “Really, me too?!” in the English dub instead of “What, me?!,” we get more from Mako’s side of this. Just as Senketsu, she’s shocked that Ryuko thinks so fondly of her.

Ryuko’s response then adds even more. Instead of just having it be about the wedding-crashing scene as in the original script, she talks of their relationship as a whole, really coming to terms with her behavior of pushing Mako away (both emotionally and literally) and recognizing that it’s not fair to do this to any of her friends, no matter how much she feels she doesn’t deserve them.

Are these huge dialogue changes? No, definitely not. But I find it adds a lot to a huge scene, drawing more attention to the fact that Mako doesn’t realize how much she means to Ryuko just as Senketsu doesn’t and having Ryuko really express that yes, she has pushed her friends away, but she’s determined to stop putting them through that and live up to what they think of her.

In any case, this got way longer than I meant, and I probably lost my way a little bit in trying to talk about “Light your heart up.” But my point is that I see it as a sad song, a longing song, no matter how cheerful it seems. That Ryuko says she “can’t move [her] feet in the dark” and that Senketsu is “the only one who can help [her] out” in her duet with him, “Before my body is dry,” all while Mako sings all by herself that she’ll be Ryuko’s “spark when [she’s] lost in the dark” in her love song to Ryuko, “Light your heart up”… is tragic.

But Kill la Kill is all about the shy, lonely Ryuko finally letting people in—and that most certainly includes the girl who sings her heart out about how Ryuko can feel safe with her.

#Anonymous #kill la kill #mako mankanshoku #ryuko matoi #light your heart up #ramblings #replies #gifs i made #i don't know why i spent so much time on this #i get the sense that a lot of folks will think this is a Bad Take ^^;#and i was just gonna link to my other posts and leave it at that #but i hope the 3-4 hours i put into this can be appreciated by at least somebody 😭#i tried 😭😭😭

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florrickandassociates · 5 years ago

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TGF Thoughts: 3x08-- The One Where Kurt Saves Diane

I wrote this over the span of, like, a full year and it is not very interesting. I am posting it simply because I am committed to the idea of writing something about every episode of this series. I recommend that you go check out Evil instead of reading this.

I’m just not intrigued by the clips of news footage about some sort of “Unredacted Unspecified Report” that open this episode.

Diane doesn’t seem to be that interested either: she’s not watching and talks over it.

More interesting (but, tbh, not actually that interesting to me either, because I’m losing interest in this season) is that Diane gets a letter of warning from a ~mysterious source~.

Most interesting of all: Diane and Kurt have a normal morning together.

Kurt spots the letter first and opens it. STOP DIANE. THEY KNOW ABOUT THE HACK. So maybe it’s directed at Kurt. Or maybe it’s supposed to say, “Stop, Diane.”

I still haven’t warmed to Diane’s bedroom set, especially because it still feels like Diane lives in her bedroom and her home has no other rooms.

Joy, Felix Staples has returned. All I have to say about this case is that the day this ep aired, basically what’s happening in this case happened in real life, because… Kings.

Hello, it’s October now and I suddenly felt like returning to The Good Universe and writing. It’s been a while.

My memory of this episode/arc is that Diane and Liz just did something uncharacteristically dumb and illegal, and this is the episode where Kurt secretly puts an end to the shenanigans without Diane even knowing. I remember this episode being satisfying, if only because it got rid of the aforementioned dumb and illegal plot. Let’s see how good my memory is.

Wait why don’t I remember Roger Bart being on this show and why didn’t I note it earlier?! How could I let George The Killer Pharmacist go unmentioned?!

On that note, how did I not use the opening scene of the season (Diane saying “I’m happy” as an excuse to ramble about how weird it is to experience happiness on a personal level in today’s world?) (I was just watching 3x01.)

I’m actively not watching the case scenes so they don’t kill my drive to actually write this.

Oh God, I’m going to have to deal with Blum again at some point. I had blocked out his bloviating. I think this is the last of the Blum/Maia free eps?

The weird Lucca/British actor plot is still happening!!!! I didn’t miss it during all those months in which I wasn’t reminded of it.

The joke about how these TV lawyers aren’t like other TV lawyers, except they are, was funny the first time.

Always great to see how Lucca, who is the head of a department at this point, gets called into other cases frequently. Definitely how things work.

Is it bad that I’m more interested in making a mental list of all the times TGF/TGW have filmed in this little park than this Marissa/Alan Alda scene?

I can see why this is the episode that made me stop writing these for a bit. So far, this ep is all case and a subplot I don’t care for.

You know what else was funny the first time and has hit a point of diminishing returns? The thing where a main character’s love interest shows up in court and then they get thrown off their game and it’s CUTE FLIRTING!!! Find a new, unique way to signal interest, writers!

This gag now involves literal gagging. I’m overjoyed.

Lucca’s monologuing at a toilet about her crush. This plot is cute. It isn’t bad. It is watchable. BUT! I know it’s a novelty, so I’m just not that excited by it or invested in it. It’s not really deepening my understanding of Lucca.

Lucca picturing everyone in court in their underwear is just unnecessary and honestly not funny???

Kurt leaves the warning note out for Diane to see. He confronts her about it and she asks for a drink.

The credits are at 19 minutes in. I do love them. Have any of you watched Evil yet? I watched part of the first episode (I intend to go back to it, I’ve just been busy) and the credits resemble the TGF credits. (Update as of March 2020: I watched all of Evil and you should too.)

Diane tells Kurt about Book Club or #Resistance or whatever I was calling it. Even though Diane doesn’t tell him the full story (mostly for his own protection, and she makes it clear she’s omitting stuff), I do appreciate that Diane and Kurt don’t keep secrets from each other, and if/when they do, they talk about it openly and calmly. I love them.

(I have blocked out Kurt/Holly almost entirely. I know it’s canon, but I still don’t believe it was anything other than a plot device to motivate some unnecessary drama in the TGW finale. God, that finale was bad. Ghost Will? Kurt cheating? GENEVA and Peter? GHOST WILL? Even the slap, which is one of my favorite parts, is more powerful as a symbol than as an actual plot development, since (1) Alicia betraying Diane is something Pilot!Alicia would’ve done to any friend to protect her family and (2) it stems from the nonsense about Kurt cheating and Peter tampering with evidence. What a letdown of a finale. The Kings are lucky they got to redeem themselves with TGF.)

(As anyone who’s had a one-on-one convo with me about the TGW finale at any point in the last three years will tell you, I will NEVER tire of discussing it, even if it means rehashing the same points over and over and over.)

I forgot about the thing where it wouldn’t stop storming in season 3.

Don’t have much to say about Kurt devising a plan to help Diane get out of trouble, but I do find it very fun!

OOOOH this is the episode about censorship that got censored!!! If you haven’t already, do read Emily Nussbaum’s piece about the behind-the-scenes drama of this episode. I thought the “this content has been censored” screen where the short would have been was a joke… but it was actually censored. That may be the most interesting thing about this episode.

I want more character-driven plots. I want more Liz and Lucca. I have nothing to say.

Book Club still believes the con artist who brought them together is something other than a con artist. Book Club is not that smart for being a collection of very smart people.

“So the whole group is bullshit?” Liz asks when Diane loops her in. Yes. But also, like, this is what happens when you do illegal shit with a group formed by a literal con artist. Liz may have an excuse for trusting the group (Diane brought her in), but why does DIANE trust them?

“My life is simple, Diane. I have a son. I have a mortgage. I have my job. And I go from home to work and work to home. So this stuff is, this bullshit intrigue… I’m done. Too much drama,” Liz laments, about a week too late. Where was this last week when Liz was like YES LET’S DO CRIMES?

One of my problems with the whole Book Club arc is that it makes very little sense that Liz would get involved in the first place. I understand why she would be sympathetic to their cause and willing to look the other way on their methods… if she were watching a news report about them on TV. She’s too practical, and has too much to lose, to get involved with a group like this.

An NSA nerd is back!! He’s the one warning Diane!

Okay, picking this back up in March 2020 because *gestures at the world* I have time. Like, I have so much free time I’ve finished 9 books in the last 14 days AND finally made it to the episodes of The Sopranos with JMargs. I began watching The Sopranos in 2017.

As I write this, I have no idea if TGF is coming back on April 9th as planned or not. Unless there’s something in the works for season 4 that can’t possibly be left unfinished or air today, I think they should air whatever they have now. TGF is always timely, and while scenes set in an office are suddenly feeling weird and implausible, they’ll probably play better now than in six months. And we’d all forgive the writers if they had to wrap up the arcs through an animated recap song.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the TGF credits so I rewound to watch the credits. I went to 2 minutes into the episode, then remembered… they’re 20 minutes in.

Y’all. They blow up a purse with hand sanitizer in it. Did they predict this?!

I wrote that preamble and then stopped writing. But now we know that TGF is really coming back on April 9th, which means I have to stop watching The Sopranos and write these things!

Ah, Felix Staples. I haven’t missed you!

Case stuff happens. Really riveting episode, this one. (It is an interesting case, though.)

Kurt saving Diane is pretty fun. But I don’t have anything to say about it and to write about it would just to be to give a half-assed play by play… and why?

Oh WOW, Lucca and Downton Abbey guy is still happening?!

Getting to see Kurt be really competent and caring is the best thing, by far, about the Book Club arc.

Wait, I take that back, Liz’s speech about voter suppression is also pretty high up there-- as long as you ignore the context.

V excited (!!) to get back to Maia’s bullshit in the next few episodes, not because I want to watch it but because if there’s one thing I’m actually motivated to write about, it’s how the show has handled Maia Rindell. Also, they handle the next few episodes well for her.

Oh RIGHT Liz tells ChumHum about her dad’s sexual harassment issues! And Adrian and Liz are finally going to tell the press! It may mean losing Neil Gross, though.

Book Club is over! Wooooooooooooooooooooo! On to more interesting things!!!

Also gone? Downton Abbey guy, who gave an interview about something new and exciting in his life. Lucca thought he was talking about her, and he was talking about some...personality test that sounds like a cult from the way he describes it? AAAAAND I Googled it and yup. It is. What a goofy ending to this arc I didn’t care about. Reminds me of the way the Marilyn arc ended (with a cameo from a celebrity who she was supposedly sleeping with). Glad the actor was so game to poke fun at himself, but is this the best we can do for Lucca?

Diane thinks she took care of the hack and made it go away. Kurt lets her take the credit.

The end!

#the good fight #is coming back soon!!!!#tgfthoughts #yes i still check this thing

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danwhobrowses · 5 years ago

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Why Star Wars: The Last Jedi Deserves More Respect

So after a handful of posts I think it’s time to bring back this one, the conflict was that I was considering reviews for Pokémon Sword and Shield as well as a review for Rise of Skywalker, but the latter made me think that this is an opportune moment to talk about the previous entry. Like The Last Jedi, Rise of Skywalker has had divisive opinions, frankly I liked the film but I think TLJ was the best of the sequel trilogy, and I am going to explain why

Fair Warning, within this there’s gonna be spoilers for Rise of Skywalker, possibly Mandalorian, maybe Solo and definitely The Last Jedi...this will also be very long

So I know straight away that this is gonna get heat, there has been constant times where me saying that I liked TLJ has been considered trolling or ‘bait’, honestly I find myself baffled that people can hate it so vehemently, believing that the story is and I quote ‘the worst sequel ever’. While it is clear that Johnson had a different vision to Abrams, that was not a bad thing, a lot of the criticism the film gets are quite hypocritical in contrast to the Original Trilogy which is held to so much esteem, so to start I’m going to break that down. Small Disclaimer before I do: People are allowed to dislike things, not saying that if you do dislike it you are doing something wrong, just pointing out that it’s not wrong to like the film either. Disowning before Watching The first thing I think turned people off of TLJ was the interview Mark Hamill had before the film came out, people misconceiving his comments that it’s not the journey he expected seeing of Luke to mean that this is not a film he would approve of. The same almost happened with RoS with Abrams comment which was abridged to imply that Abrams disowned TLJ as well - he did not - but in a society where we want to home in on flaws and criticize before even seeing that was too wide a door left open. So without fault, TLJ already had a group of people set on disliking the film because it would be different to how they and Hamill wanted it to be and because it’s not exactly like the decanonized ‘Legends’ continuity - despite people being fine that Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker had been merged to make Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. It’s easy to point out that if you go into something adamant to dislike you’re going to get your wish, so the first point of order is to give something a chance to impress you, you can’t criticize something because an actor didn’t think it’d go that creative direction, Hamill did not hate this movie and people disliking their content does not automatically make it bad, Stannis from GoT hated the show, Alan Moore hates everything but that doesn’t mean Watchmen was bad, the actors for C3PO and R2-D2 hated each other but that doesn’t mean that when they acted their bond wasn’t great.

The ‘Luke is not Luke’ Criticism Hamill’s comments ease nicely into one of the main critiques that fans felt that Luke was not the same character he was in Return of the Jedi. People criticized his disconnection from the force which included tossing his lightsaber away in the opening scene, the Rashomon sequence where Luke considered striking down his own nephew - a move that ultimately turned Ben to the Dark, drinking green milk and that his last stand was a projection rather than a solid encounter. You know what I say to those criticisms?

They are bollocks, absolute nonsensical criticisms made to try and dismantle the best character of the movie. Hamill delivers his best for Luke in TLJ and his character arc is brilliant. I watched Blind Wave (a great youtube reactor channel) react to TLJ and the members noted how it was great that Luke had a character arc, something I wholly agree with. Luke was around 23 in Return of the Jedi (since the galaxy uses the standardized dating of Coruscant which has the most earth-like cycle), if you expect a 23 year old to have no room left to grow in the next 30 years of his life then I don’t think anything’s gonna get through to you, Luke is meant to be different, because since Jedi a lot of shit has happened. Luke’s discarding of the lightsaber shows his disconnect with the Force, something that had allowed the First Order to paint him as a myth and rendered everyone near-unable to find him, only tracked by the galactic map to Ahch-To from his past days of discovering remnants of Jedi past. Next let’s bring down the Rashomon sequence, the 3 tales of Ben’s turning. Initially, Luke painted a picture that he sensed that the darkness was too late, Ben woke and attacked him. Later Ben paints that Luke is lying, and that when Ben awoke Luke was there with his Lightsaber drawn with intent to kill him. The third story admits that both are correct, Luke drew his lightsaber in sensing the darkness, and Ben awoke to see it and retaliated.

This story peeves people mainly because they say that in Jedi ‘Luke was willing to fight for a single hope of light in his Father but was willing to kill his nephew for a bad dream’. A ridiculous comment that waters down and ignores the bigger picture though. For one, while Luke wanted to save his father and sensed good in him, he still ended up cutting his dad’s hand off, the indication that much like his father Luke - as he had always been in the Original Trilogy - was still susceptible to his emotions, including the negative ones. The other reason this statement is foolhardy is because they don’t listen to Luke’s narration, where he explains that it was a fleeting moment of panic and arrogance, his ego as ‘Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master’ took over when he sensed that Ben was already turned by Snoke, and it was only for a split second which he immediately regrets. It’s this moment that snowballs into why Luke disconnects himself from the force, his ego as a saviour to Jedi led to the downfall of his nephew - which led to his best friend and sister separating, the rise of the First Order being like a second Empire and the massacre of most of his other jedi students, he realised that this was the same ego that led to the previous Jedi’s downfall to Vader and Sidious and thus came to the conclusion that maybe the Jedi way is not the right way. Not only is this a brilliantly done tragedy for the character but it’s a progression that identifies with public opinion of jedi ways and the pompousness that led to Anakin’s turn to the dark side as depicted in the prequels. The use of Rashomon also connects to the Jedi/Sith connections to Samurai which was a great touch by Johnson. The green milk scene was a weird one I’ve seen being criticized, like people are fine with Calamarian fishmen but a Tatooine/Naboo humanoid can’t drink green milk? I think I need to remind you that Luke drinks blue milk on Tatooine, he is a moisture farmer as well, the ‘green milk’ scene was a depiction of how Luke survived on Ahch-To as Rey followed him, his lifestyle disconnected from the force as he lived as basically a farm boy. I don’t know why people got so mad about the colour of milk but you can’t expect those nuns to have fed him roast porgs every day The final criticism is his last stand, something I will touch on a bit later as well. In terms of Luke, people were disappointed that it wasn’t Luke actually there and while yes it would’ve been great to watch Luke tear down AT-ATs luke the EU, but he literally says that he won’t do that

it’s not a matter of can’t, it’s a matter of him strutting up to the army of the First Order will not end the war, most people don’t even know if he exists. Showing up will have inspired the resistance yes but if Luke was shown killed or captured that hope would then be instantly diminished, and Snoke and Ren would definitely be going for Luke’s head to make that so. This is why Luke goes via projection, instead of his ragged hermit self where he’d likely die similarly to how Kenobi did, he demonstrates a highly advanced force power to display himself as a clean-cut warrior who shrugs off the full might of the First Order’s arsenal and humiliates its brand new Supreme Leader, while disappearing. That stand does the Resistance far better than him showing up in person, because now the legend of Luke Skywalker lives longer than he does, he inspires a new wave of Jedi who understand his sacrifice and rebels who have just seen how one man can expose the weakness of the First Order. Luke’s last living gesture is one that inspires hope, before he becomes one with the Force at peace. If anything that is as beautiful as it is tragic of an end for Luke, but by no means is that bad. The Rose Tico ‘Issue’ Luke wasn’t the only character to get on the wrong side of criticism, undoubtedly Kelly Marie Tran got it the worst. Despicable people flocked to harass her over her character, throwing about racism just for that added content of being a horrid human being. Her character, Rose Tico, was a newly introduced character from the Resistance who joins Finn and Poe’s arcs, her main non-racist criticism is her act of saving Finn from the Laser Battering Ram ‘She has this stupid speech about saving people with love while a laser battering ram breaks down the door to kill a bunch of people’ A common theme seems to be that people are taking things the absolute wrong way. Rose’s journey with Finn is an interesting arc where she seeks to make sure her sister’s sacrifice - caused by Poe’s rash personality - is not in vain while accompanying a ‘hero of the resistance’, what she is unaware of is how her assistance relates to Finn’s journey as he tries to live up to the esteem she sees him in, he had always considered himself a defector rather than a rebel. Rose (and DJ) open his eyes to a reality that not everything is black and white, he left the First Order in TFA because he believed that they were ‘wrong’ and so by default the resistance had to be ‘right’ but TLJ challenged Finn to see both sides and make a choice for himself, a choice that is made thanks to Rose. However, his embrace of being a rebel is why he is adamant to try and sacrifice himself for the laser battering ram. I have to point out that until Rose stepped in I thought Finn was gonna die, I thought it really ballsy and a little disappointing that they were gonna kill him off, I also knew that the ship would not stop the battering ram so it was actually a relief that Rose did save him.

I think people dislike it for that reason though, they felt that Finn dying would’ve been a more shocking narrative turn and because Rose saved him she is to ‘blame’, I also believe that people didn’t like the relationship because Finn was clearly still on Rey and not everyone was on the Reylo boat or it got in the way of FinnPoe being more than just a bromance (side note, at the start of RoS I thought they were sailing on the ReyPoe for a moment, though I’m not mad about how they went), but again, that shouldn’t be the fault of Rose’s character. Rose clearly was inspired by Finn’s reputation and grew fond of his personality the more time she spent with him, likewise Finn found himself wanting to earn her esteem and taking care of her, it’s actually a shame that Rose’s role gets heavily reduced in RoS, because I do feel like Rose could’ve filled Jannah’s role (nothing against Jannah or Naomi Ackie of course) with the Canto Bight horse-things instead of the Kef Bir horse-things. So to conclude this section, Rose was good in this film, she served a purpose to grow Finn as a character and most constructive criticisms against her revolve around things either out of her control as a character or without would diminish her character role completely. The Communication Issue between Holdo and Poe Alright, let’s throw some hands up before I rub them together. I agree that Holdo should’ve told people the plan, I do dislike it when a movie creates conflict made by a lack of communication. But, he will say rubbing his hands together, this does not ruin the film. It’s worth reminding that Poe is recently demoted for reckless behaviour, the Resistance’s entire offensive fleet was destroyed due to Poe wanting to destroy one Dreadnought Ship. A reasonable punishment for Poe on his arc to realise that being a leader is more than just winning a battle, but more on that later. So Holdo comes in, new squadron she barely knows because she’s taking over for Leia, she has a plan that she and Leia know but are the only living members who know now. So why doesn’t she tell Poe? It’s quite simple, not only does the novel imply that she’s figuring out if there’s a mole - which is understandable because the First Order must’ve watched Star Trek: Into Darkness and thought ‘hey we could track ships in hyperspeed too!’ - but she’s also trying to enforce Leia’s punishment to Poe. Poe is in this shit because he refused to listen to orders, so Holdo is basically telling Poe to listen to orders, something he refuses to do and starts a mutiny. It is frustrating yes and we side with Poe because he’s the more familiar character, but had Poe just proved himself a trustworthy person who is learning from Leia’s last decree before she went into a coma she would’ve told him. This also transitions nicely into the next criticism people have Canto Bight and the Cryptographer Goose-Chase Poe’s plans of mutiny starts with sending Rose and Finn to Canto Bight, at the behest of the massively underused Maz Kanata, to find a Cryptographer so that they could disable the hyperspace tracker. People hate this scene mainly because it segue’s from the plot, it’s high on CGI and reminds them of the Prequel Trilogy

Now I can’t really contest the CGI but it was nothing bad, CGI still gets used well and the visit to the Casino aided in time for Rose and Finn to establish a relationship, have some lightheated BB-8 moments, introduce DJ the speech impediment ‘wrong hacker’ and continue to drive the shades of grey theme Finn is about to learn about. People never seem to criticize that they put their faith in the wrong guy because it leads to a more interesting conflict, so it’s strange that they hate this transition so much. The Brevity of Snoke and Phasma Two characters introduced that promised to be big deals were killed off in The Last Jedi, the nature of them both was a brave scene that many felt dropped the ball on these characters. And while I am inclined to agree on Phasma at least, Snoke’s death was actually a great turn. Before RoS we were none the wiser on who Snoke was, now we’ve seen it we know that he was basically a mass-produced puppet by the emperor...not the best of closures I’d admit but the anger towards Snoke being killed off is actually hypocritical ‘All Snoke does is sit in his chair and die’ You know who else sat in his chair and ‘died’, ol’ Sheev Palpatine. People are quick to criticize that Snoke was hyped up but barely got to show anything when Palpatine only really demonstrated the force twice in the Original trilogy before being thrown into a pit of apparent death, we allowed the Emperor a pass because we learned more about him through novels and future movies, and that’s something we eventually find out from Snoke as well.

Captain Phasma on the other hand was a sad disappointment, after one brush with death already she returned to basically be killed off again as a symbol of Finn shedding his ties as an ex-stormtrooper and embracing the role of a rebel. This is not really the fault of Johnson though, everyone seems to be more content with the alternate scene where Finn exposes Phasma’s actions for TFA, but that was a choice from the cutting room. While we can be disappointed that Phasma didn’t leave enough of a mark on the trilogy, we can always hope for prequel stuff as we had with Boba Fett, an equally wasted character in his main trilogy who could theoretically be in The Mandalorian (only a theory, nothing is concrete), but if we are willing to love the Original Trilogy despite similar issues we hate on TLJ for then aren’t we being hypocrites? tHaT’s nOt HoW tHe FoRcE wOrKs If you try to pick on Rian Johnson for ‘not getting Star Wars’ directly you would be in for a world of punishment. Two major force powers that get used in The Last Jedi is the ‘Force Skype’ and Force Projection, however both are basically using the same techniques, one is connecting minds while the other is connecting one mind to an individual place. It’s immediately told to us that this is an advanced technique but this is not something Johnson has made up. In the EU this ability is called Simifuturus or just Doppelganger, practiced by Luke, Dooku and Yarael Poof. Rey and Ben’s Force Skype is also used in the EU called Force Bond, Chain or Jedi Kinship, the ability had been fine in beloved Star Wars games Knights of the Old Republic I & II, the Clone Wars and Rebels series and aplenty of novels. For the legitimacy of these abilities cannot be contested. The fact that the ability kills Luke shouldn’t be criticized either, Luke is projecting himself light years away on Crait, with a copy of Han’s dice in a much more polished form, he physically interacts with Leia and takes on a barrage of AT-M6 blasters - turbolasers that can destroy speeders and ships with one hit - and two lightsaber slices, remember Ben felt the impact from Rey’s blaster on their first Force Skype, so Luke carried the feeling of all that damage and strain on his body and maintained his projection. So not only did Luke’s dying moments lead to an incredible display of using the Force but also one that forced him to sustain an immeasurable amount of damage and still manage to bide the resistance time to escape. Leia Poppins Ah yes, the Mary Poppins moment. I dunno how I can explain this one so easily but how about this. Leia is force sensitive, we have known this since Jedi, so to see Leia use the force was a massive moment, but she’s floating in the vacuum of space so there is no ‘up’ she is basically pulling a heavier object than herself in a vacuum, using it as an anchor so she can get to a blast door. As to why she survives in space, you can survive up to 2 minutes in space without a helmet, it is horribly painful though, it’s also worth reminding that Leia is not a human like you or me and if the Force can heal (as shown in The Mandalorian and RoS) then why can’t it keep Leia alive a bit longer in Space? She ends up in a coma anyway so I don’t see why complaints are rife here, she survives barely and it’s not like they knew Carrie was going to die sometime after the film was completed, they obviously had more plans for her so it would’ve been wrong to kill her off there when we were already killing Luke off. Did Disney Ruin Star Wars? This is a statement I’ve heard a lot in regards to TLJ, Solo and RoS, which is weird though, people were fine with Disney doing TFA, Rogue One and The Mandalorian, Mando’s journey with Baby Yoda proving that the utility of fanservice - something the trio get loathed for - can be enjoyable and it bodes well that the director of some episodes is doing an Obi Wan film. The phrase ‘Star Wars Fatigue’ also came about from post-Solo reviews, which I have expressed is dumb because MCU do 3 marvel movies minimum a year. But the reason Solo got low box office figures wasn’t because it was bad, it’s because it was released around the same time as Deadpool 2, it was left to the sharks without a chance to succeed. So no, Disney have not ruined Star Wars, if anything fan perception has damaged the franchise with people hating it because it’s not the Original Trilogy or it’s too much like the Original Trilogy, the same can be said for the EU. RoS is quite similar to Dark Empire but because Disney retconned most of the EU it’s the enemy, but let’s be honest, does anyone want the continuity to be that Chewie gets blown up? I doubt that. So WHY does The Last Jedi deserve more respect I think the mixed reviews of Rise of Skywalker has proved that maybe TLJ got a harsh end of a stick, even with Abrams’ vision back at the helm the film proved to be divisive and personally quite safe. This is probably why I liked TLJ the most, Johnson went to challenge things and build off of the previous movies as a whole, nothing really was safe, it took narrative risks that opened the door to a lot more things.

We explored Rey’s connection to the force and her desires for answers being unable to be sated by it because she’s expecting more from her level of learning, we also have Snoke’s gambit to bond Ben and Rey together to strengthen both, Ben strengthens into a more mature state but continues to conflict in a less whiny way, even relenting from trying to kill his mother. We also got some ‘reverse Jedi’ stuff with both Ben and Rey adamant that the other will turn but instead of turning one another, Ben’s hatred however proves too great for Rey to accompany him which leads to Ben getting a villain promotion to Supreme Leader. We have a solid arc for Finn, Luke and Poe as he finally learns to take care of others, because as Rose was saying, sacrificing yourself is not going to beat the First Order, heroes are great but dead heroes win nothing, protecting others is the essence of the Resistance and that’s what a leader is meant to do. Hell, we even get a little Hux stuff, the way he slowly considers shooting Kylo Ren while he’s down and his constant abuse culminating in the rather obvious RoS reveal that he’s the spy. Unlike RoS, TLJ thrived on giving every major character worthwhile arcs like these which all ended up entwining in the climactic showdown, while tertiary characters did end up getting underused there were still windows for them to do more in the next episode which was taken out of Johnson’s hands, but he laid a lot of groundwork for the story to be taken multiple directions, which is actually quite difficult when you’re midway through a trilogy and on the 8th outing of a saga. In addition, the film provided Hamill’s best performance as Luke Skywalker, giving him a fitting end to his journey which explored almost every dimension of a Jedi’s character; training, temptation, losing faith and redemption.

I also loved how Johnson described the Force in TLJ, it wasn’t about Dark or Light, the Force was the Force, an energy that flows through all that is harnessed by the force sensitive, even Force Ghosts. And using the Puppet Yoda was a great and fun addition, and it makes sense that he can fire lightning, because Force Ghosts are one with the Force, they flow with the flow of nature. We got lore and demonstration of great powers that made the ‘holy shit’ moment of Kylo Ren stopping a blaster shot mid-flow look like novice work. And while we’re talking about ‘holy shit’ moments

You cannot deny that TLJ had some absolutely breathtaking visuals, moments in this film are some of the best moments in Star Wars, a combination of intensity and hype from Luke’s standoff with the First Order to Holdo’s hyperspace ram, Ahch-To’s real-life setting was also beautiful as were the design of Crait from its Icicle foxes to its salt speeders leaving a red path of smoke

This film looks beautiful and the story is multilayered with character development, worldbuilding, good action and gutsy plot twists, you know everything people (rightfully) praise The Mandalorian for. It’s definitely not a film where you’d find yourself bored and when you set aside your fan theories and the illusion that the Original Trilogy was Flawless save for the Death Star plot hole you will find this movie a lot more enjoyable. Now I don’t want people saying it’s a ‘Don’t Question, Consume’ sorta thing, it’s a matter of accepting that there are flaws but not allowing it to ruin the experience, because The Last Jedi embodies a lot of the essence of Star Wars old and new, it is probably the best that the New Trilogy has provided and it is certainly worthy of respect.

#star wars #star wars spoilers #star wars the last jedi #the last jedi #luke skywalker #princess leia #rey #kylo ren #ben solo #snoke #supreme leader snoke #poe #poe dameron #rose tico #rian johnson

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yelmor-boots · 5 years ago

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For the character ask meme, Hunk!

This is gonna be a super long post cause I’m an over-analyzer. Once I get into something I like or something interesting, I read into every. little. detail of it. If you choose to read this, you will find everything I love about Hunk. Sorry for all the many words, this is how I answer questions now. (And There’s a wasp trying to get into my bedroom as I’m writing this, please pray for me.)

Favorite thing about them: Hunk is a very loveable character. It is hard to exactly pinpoint what my favorite thing is about him. He is a really good engineer, a fantastic friend, and a great cook. He has a lot of interesting qualities about him which turns him into one of the best characters in Voltron.

Least favorite thing about them: Like I said, he has a lot of good qualities and makes it hard for you to dislike him. But like any person, there are some things to dislike. I’d say my least favorite thing about him would be that he can push you to your limits. (Referring to the Galra Keith thing.)

Favorite line: “I’m a leg!” Enough said. I also like the scenes where he just tries to make his friends smile.

BROTP: I can’t choose between Keith, Lance or Pidge. With Lance, they have been friends for a super long time and there are very interesting stories you can form between them. With Keith... well, do I have to explain myself? Their personalities just clash and make this awkward duo that is just... entertaining. Pidge and Hunk together is havoc. They both have knowledge of tech and engineering and can have petty fights over it sometimes. One of my favorite scenes of them was when they were fighting over singular modulation. That’s just the best!

OTP: Hunay! Listen closely now. Hun-ay. Shay and Hunk are the ultimate OTP. I will ship them forever! They are pure and just... the best! That’s all they are. Outstanding, amazing, brilliant, fantastic, all the best words! The way you just see all of it unfold before your eyes. The moment they meet as enslaved cave dwellers, Shay opening up to wanting to see the sky. How desperate Hunk is to save her home, the sunset scene (*cough*date*cough*) and of course, best of all, the season 8 scene. Where all these Balmera come around and everyone is wondering how they got there and Hunk just... knows! Okay, I will stop now.

NOTP: Punk. Nope. Nah-Uh. No. I don’t know what it is about them, but I do not want them in a relationship. It doesn’t fit. It doesn’t work. The reason for it is probably cause their bickering and working together reminds me of my sister and me and it feels wrong to see them together. If you ship it, that’s fine. I’m just not into it.

Random headcanon: Hmmmmm... let’s see. What about this peculiarly shaped scroll on this ten-foot wall of “Leigh’s Bullshit Thoughts and Ideas”? It’s right next to the 1,209-page book full of fanfics I do not complete. Hunk. Likes. Elderly. Dogs. Sure, he’ll squeal and cry over puppies cause who the hell wouldn’t, but he likes elderly dogs. He loves caring for them and making sure they have the best life possible before it is their time. He will bawl once they're gone but he will be proud that he gave them the happy life they deserved.

Unpopular opinion: I know the show proved this wrong, I know it isn’t true but I’m still gonna talk like this happened. I wanted Hunk to have two moms. I don’t know why I just feel like that would’ve been sweet. His parents seem nice but I would’ve liked it if he had moms.

Song I associate with them: This is a tough one. I listen to so much Cavetown that it is hard to find their songs. Either “Hug All Your Friends” by Cavetown, “Something Good Can Work” by Two Door Cinema Club. or “Waiting on the World to Change” by John Mayer.

Favorite picture of them: The one where Pidge refers to him as the ‘nice guy’ and he’s nervously smiling at the camera. It’s in the episode “Red Paladin” in season three I think. I’m gonna have to choose that one.

For whoever made it to the end, congratulations. This is everything I love about Hunk in an over-analyzed speech. Feel free to send another character if you want something similar to this.

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theinquisitivej · 5 years ago

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SteamHeart Episode 20 Reactions

Chapter Twenty: Off-Road Warriors

You can listen to the full episode here.

Well damn, that was an intense dose of adrenaline via audio, wasn’t it?

Raven immediately sets the foreboding tone, a notable change from the sweet tranquillity of the previous chapter’s closing moments. His grave description of the convoy of Mad Max-looking scary-crazy-bastards (and yes, this is about to be a Steampunk Fury Road episode, and you should have no objections to that) coming over the horizon sells the real danger that these men represent. The language paints a captivating yet frightening picture of demented vehicles, using harsh consonants to convey the sturdiness of these reinforced crafts, and hissing adjectives to emphasise the sharp, hostile shapes of these clawed, pointed carriages. Best line of the section is certainly “nothing was uniform save for the manifestly apparent expulsion of normality”. It instantly cements the chaotic, violent mindset of the men approaching the mine.

These men call themselves the Southern Cross. Among their number is a man who’s fashioned himself into a bear (the talons fixed to his limbs make me think of a twisted, older and more cruel version of Miguel and his mongoose claw), and, as the band blows their own war trumpets in an act that is as aggressive as it is indicative of their own inflated self-importance over others, the ensuing danger becomes intensified, and chillingly unavoidable. We get the first glimpse of their leader, who wears a horse’s skull and appears to fancy himself a pale rider of death with the white, bone-like motif of his carriage and horses (I’m picturing Overwatch’s Reaper in both appearance and edgy lack of self-awareness). A lieutenant riding ahead of the pack addresses Raven. While Raven is the one who embodies the more dignified aspects of the bird with whom he shares his name, this lieutenant is the one who resembles a squawking, shrill parrot, wearing a beaked plague doctor’s mask and shrieking demands at Raven. He claims that “the Lord of Brimstone” has arrived. Oh this is going to go well.

Raven dashes inside, hurriedly relaying the situation to the others. Within minutes, the few remaining mine workers and the team have brought Tabitha, who, lest we forget, is still going through labour (but still exhibiting her leadership skills even now by issuing orders, reinforcing that whole theme I talked about last time about motherhood / pregnancy not getting in the way of authoritative women being damn good at their jobs), inside SteamHeart. They don’t have enough soldiers to defend this post, and help isn’t coming, so things are looking grim. Even so, Annie assures us that “we’re not dying here like rats in a trap. Hell, that’s like, my one rule.”, and Laureta Sela’s delivery of that second part alleviates some of the tension by getting a chuckle out of me with that great line. As the group approach the gates, however, the pressure of the situation is once again felt as Harry informs the team that, even with SteamHeart’s technological superiority, it will take some serious damage if it charges headfirst into the enemy through the gate, and likely won’t be able to break free of them if it does so.

Annie starts a dialogue with them through the loudspeaker. Abigail wanted to try, demonstrating her continuing desire to work on being a better figure of authority after giving the speech to the theatre a few chapters back, but Annie bluntly shoots that down as she knows they’ll have a better chance if she takes charge of this. Even so, it goes about as well as you’d expect – they don’t heed Annie’s firm warnings, and spout off rhetoric that, in addition to being violently psychotic, is grossly suggestive. Both the birdman and horse leader demand they “open wiiiide, each and every one of you; we are coming in!” Eeurggh… fuck these guys.

The team devise a plan of escape after Jae-Hyun proposes he opens the gate to give the rest of them a chance, acknowledging the certainty that this will result in his own death. His brushing of Tabitha’s cheek indicates the loyalty and love he has for his leader who he will lay down his own life for. He steps out of SteamHeart to meet his fate, adjusting his hat as he does so; if clothes maketh the man, then this act highlights the dignity of this man in the face of these monstrously dressed, hollow creatures who call themselves men. The Southern Cross enter the mine after Hyun opens the gates, and the plague doctor spouts more inane speeches about surrender being the sensible choice in the face of such a rapturous occasion (resembling a combination of Loki in the first Avengers saying “isn’t this so much easier?!”, and a Jim Sterling character). In an instant, Harry springs SteamHeart into action, shooting forward and knocking horses and riders aside as it does so. The episode has been building anticipation to this moment – things are going to kick off hard.

Jae-Hyun pulls the squawking doctor off his horse, and the response of arrows shot in his direction kills both men, though only the doctor meets his death with a scream. I’m torn on Jae-Hyun’s death, as it feels as if we were barely just starting to get to know this coolly tempered character, and the stern composure with which he met his death makes him someone I wish we got to spend more time with. However, I also think a character like this really helps heighten the stakes of the ensuing sequence, as well as hammers home the point that the victory of our heroes doesn’t come without sacrifice. The resilience Jae-Hyun showed as he met his death in order to save the lives of others, while still demonstrating a fighting spirit that showed he was a man who wouldn’t let monsters like these do what they wanted without retribution, makes the most of the small amount of time we spend with him. If we were to have a character with such a journey within SteamHeart, and I think that both the sequence and the story as a whole are stronger for it, I’m also glad that a specific effort is made to make this character not just a generic white guy. Instead, it’s a character of Asian descent who clearly has a defined look, style, and personality outside of what we see of him here in this book. It gives the world and the people in it a little more dimension, and reminds us that the way forward toward a more heroic and noble world is through unity and collaboration between all of us. That’s how we get to see the best of humanity. But for the worst of humanity, like the racist, murderous Southern Cross, it’s pretty satisfying to see someone of a different ethnicity literally pull them off their horse and, when it comes down to it, show that they are the better man when they each meet their deaths.

Anyway, back to the action – I’ll do my best to make my writing engaging and analytical, but to be frank, it’s so easy to lose myself in the flow of this sequence. It’s tense as hell, compelling, features detailed description of well-choreographed action, the voice actors are all delivering their lines with pitch-perfect urgency and intensity, and all of this is packaged together (in this audio version of the book) with some truly immersive editing and sound effect choices. It’s the best action sequence of New Century to date.

As SteamHeart breaks away, the Southern Cross give chase, abandoning their initial goal of the mine as they now want the technology of their craft, as well as to take out their frothing anger on the crew. The grassland beneath them is uneven, which isn’t good for Tabitha during all of this, so James urges Harry to seek the smoothest route. Individual horse riders catch up and start flinging projectiles at SteamHeart’s glowing cables, which you have to imagine is a weak point of the craft (kind of like those glowing spots on a videogame boss). Annie and Butler take position in SteamHeart’s sniping openings. Abigail and Jeremy are handing out ammo and hammering out any projectiles which pierce the hull of the craft, showing that this thing isn’t impervious to damage, and will fall if it takes too much. Harry is doing a mixture of evasive and ramming manoeuvres, resulting in some awesome displays of destruction as enemy carriages splinter, flip, and crash. God, this is good stuff to listen to.

James takes over narration from Raven (incidentally, Raven was a good choice for this first part, as his journalistic ability to report the specifics of events puts you right in the action of this sequence). He recruits Jeremy, instructing him to sterilise some linens using steam from the craft’s internal pipes. Tabitha grips James’ hands as she fights the pain, and the two “breathe together”, something Harry and Tabitha did at the end of the last episode – there’s a lot of power in matching and sharing the breathing of someone else as they go through something hard that pushes them to the edge. James hides nothing from Tabitha when she asks him if he’s delivered many babies before; he’s assisted on several occasions, but this is the first time he’s delivered one himself. But even as weapons hammer the hull next to them, James assures with compassionate determination that they’re going to do this right, and that there will be another “little person in the world” in a short while, which is how they’re going to survive. It’s an exchange of nervous fear as everything happens around them, mixed with hopeful resilience.

We switch to Annie. An approaching enemy vehicle has attached lassos to SteamHeart. Abigail, Harry, and Annie take this in, realise how they need to counter this, and brace themselves; SteamHeart builds energy in a roaring moment of anticipation before Harry jams the wheel and hammers the breaks, making the back of SteamHeart swing like an almighty pendulum, smashing the enemy vehicle in a spectacular moment of destruction.

Now the Bear (whose cries make him sound like Tom Hardy’s Bane) and his vehicle are coming down on them. One of the Southern Cross leaps onto the windshield and embeds his tomahawk in the window and narrowly misses Harry. The proud mechanic indignantly cries out that these fuckers are “tearing my baby apart!”, and Abigail steps out the hatch to punish the window assailant by shooting him point blank in the elbow. If I recall correctly, her weapon of choice right now is a sawn-off shotgun, making the impact of this even meatier and wince-inducing [Editor’s Correction: I’ve been informed that Abigail’s weapon is a shotgun, but not a sawn-off. It’s a lever-action, short-barrel, short-stock shotgun, made for her by Harry, John Browning and William Winchester. Think Arnie during the truck chase scene in Terminator 2]. Annie asks her what the hell she thinks she’s doing, before Abby swings across to the Bear’s carriage using one of the lassos. Annie’s concern is understandable; Abigail is her charge, a possessor of the Endowment (and one who very recently demonstrated can actually put it to good use by closing these portals), and this chaotic and dangerous situation might force Annie to do what Arlington asked of her and shoot Abigail before the Endowment can be lost, which is the last thing she wants to do. We see these frantic thoughts race through her mind as she trains her rifle over the Bear and Abigail’s fight. The Bear seems to be enjoying the duel, demanding his comrades leave her alone and that he be the one to take her down. Abigail catches herself on his armour, but she spits blood in his eye, dodges his club, and, with one guided megaton hit of a punch that slows the world down to a crawl, destroys his balls.

Brutal. Awesome.

As he reels, Abigail ropes the Bear and kicks the driver, snaring him and launching the Bear into the air as Annie tags in with a shot that severs the rope and sends him flying and crashing. A feathered carriage comes in from the side, putting Abigail in danger. Annie calls out for a bottle of bourbon, and Raven assists by giving her his whisky, though he lets her know that she owes him a drink. This, and a lot of other little asides and exchanges during this sequence is what communicates the character of the people engaged in this fight, which makes it all the more exciting and thrilling. It’s people we know and care about who are participating in this and fighting for their lives, not just nameless faces. For that same reason, it’s also what makes it tense and frightening; I really don’t want to lose anyone in this group. But, for the time being, Raven tears a piece of fabric from his shirt and jams it into the bottle, showing he understands exactly what Annie had in mind. He lights it with his cigarette (another indication of his personality – it’s amusing to see that even in this life-or-death situation, Raven prioritises having a lit cigarette in his mouth), and Annie passes the Molotov to Abigail after she realised what the two were planning and came up to them. The synthesis of this teamwork and co-operation between multiple members of the party is really satisfying to watch. Annie lays down covering fire at the feathered carriage to distract them as Abigail slings the bottle, and Annie, like John Marston activating Dead Eye, focuses her attention as time slows down and hits the bottle with one last bullet. Wild fire ignites the carriage. Annie lets out a guttural and sorely earned “YYYYESSS!”

The last carriage is the Lord of Brimstone with his skeleton crew and his bone-white ride. They have dynamite – oh dear. Abigail extends a hand out to Annie, emphasising her support and belief in her that she can make this shot. She pulls Annie onto the roof, and as Annie is pulled into the open air before she lands next to Abby, she sees everything clearly, and identifies her target. She takes her shot immediately, and it lands, hitting the guy behind Brimstone, who was holding a stick of dynamite, which he drops inside the carriage – right next to all the other dynamite. The explosion destroys the carriage, and the leader is shot out like a comical firework, engulfed in fire, ash, and bone. Hey, he was the one who called himself “Brimstone” and obsessed over his boney white aesthetic – I’d say he got exactly what he always wanted.

With a crash, the world goes quiet. We hear a heartbeat slow down, providing a fantastic transition that takes us from the adrenaline of this sequence back down to a place where we can catch our breath. But we’re soon reminded that, while all of this is going on, Tabitha is still facing her own fight as she’s in the middle of giving birth to her baby. As James guides the baby out, provides support to Tabitha, and things escalate to their peak, the explosion echoes out behind them as Tabitha experiences her own release as the baby boy comes out, safe. The music instantly adapts to the sweet innocence of the moment. The crew re-centre themselves, Harry slows down SteamHeart, and now that everything is okay and everyone is safe… Annie punches Abigail in the side, in an act of frustration that ends up hurting her more than Abigail (Annie is after all not quite as used to throwing punches as Abigail is, as we remember from that brawl in Secret Rooms which Abby and James adapted to but which took Annie by surprise and disorientated her). Abigail responds that, while she may have taken a risky move, they all survived and made it through this. The tone is quietly triumphant, intimate, and optimistic. Our heroes have made it through this.

James shares Abby’s gratitude for the moment, and as Butler tells him he’s done a good thing here as Tabitha holds her child close to her, he experiences a sense of tranquil acceptance. James has been experiencing doubts about himself and his usefulness ever since he acquired the Endowment. At the end of Secret Rooms, he even wondered if he would be any good as a doctor after effectively losing one half of his eyes. But by helping another, by bringing this new life into the world, James has realised he can make enough of a difference to be at peace with himself, if only for now. It’s a revelation that endears me to James, as I’ve often found that, at times where I doubt my own self-worth, the best thing I can do is to seek out ways I can help other people, whether it’s in big ways or little ways. If I can make someone else’s day a little easier, then that alone makes me feel like I’m doing alright. And that’s a sentiment I love to see in fiction like this.

So yeah, this episode was a fantastic ride, and a complete triumph.

#The Inquisitive J #fiction #new century #new century multiverse #the new century multiverse #steampunk #alternate history #alternate universe #alternate history fiction #audio drama #fictional podcast #steamheart #the inquisitive j reviews

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har-rison-s · 6 years ago

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My MARVEL Journey

A/N: Hi, yes. No one answered if they'd like to hear/read it, but I will put it here anyways. It's long, it's very long. But I hope you read this. This brought me to tears. Enjoy.

My first Marvel-related memory was probably when Captain America: The First Avenger came out. A picture of Steve Rogers shirtless was in the magazine and I laughed at it. I don’t remember the particular reason, but something about ‘who the hell’s going to go see this movie? only because of the shirtless guy, i’m sure’. Yes, yes, Rūta, you’re sure.

It was 2012 and the movie Avengers had come out. Me and my dad were sitting in a cafeteria, looking at the small printed repertoire of the nearest cinema, wanting to see Avengers. But, alas, I was too young. I was only eleven at the time and the movie had an age restriction, 12+. Made me a bit confused and I was often told I look older than I am, but dad didn’t want to break any rules. So, we went home.

I don’t know when exactly this was, but we were at home and I was doing something on my own, dad was in his room and I heard that he was watching a movie. So I ran up the stairs to see what he was watching. The Avengers.

I sat down next to him, having no idea what was happening in the movie, and watched a fragment of the movie with him. At the time, I really liked Chris Hemsworth and Thor, one of my first celebrity crushes. So dad asked me “You like that Thor guy, right?” At which I smiled and said yes. Eleven-year-old me, oh my god, that is so funny to me now.

When Iron Man 3 came out, I was thankfully above the restricted age and dad took me to the cinema to see Iron Man 3. My english wasn’t that good then, so I understood like 40% of what everyone was saying. But I remember liking the movie a lot, it felt fresh and new and I really liked the humor and Tony and Harley’s interactions. Towards the end of May 2013, at some point I had drawn Iron Man’s hand with the light and showed it to my dad. He liked it so much that he took a photo and posted it to his Instagram. Or was that 2014? I actually can’t remember.

Then, sometime later in the year, we went to see Thor: The Dark World. One of MCU’s worst movies, but at the time I liked it, cause, of course, I liked Loki and Thor a lot, and their actors.

That’s when I think my involvement with Marvel really started. I used to draw Loki and Thor in my notebooks, save photos and memes of them in my first touch-screen phone and put them as wallpapers. There was one really good drawing of Loki I did, I think I still have it somewhere. But really, for my drawing skills at 12-years-old, it was exceptionally good. His face was very detailed and similar to the real photo.

I used to watch a lot of videos of Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth on my laptop, I had so many photos of them saved, and I used to watch Thor: the Dark World and Avengers all the time, not understanding a thing or what’s happening, what’s the storyline. All I knew is that I loved Loki and he was my first favourite Marvel character. Some time passed until I got more in depth with his character. I was young and silly, okay? Forgive me.

Next thing, I found out my classmate also liked Loki and the MCU movies. I was happy I found someone with the same interest, a bit unhappy that it wasn’t my best friend. But I knew she’d come around, and I had my fun.

Spring 2014 came around and me and my dad were going to New York City. My god, I couldn’t wait. I’d wanted to go there since I could remember. Around the time we went there, the press tour for Captain America: The Winter Soldier had started and I had thrown Marvel to the side a little.

Me and my dad went to a comic book store in NYC, not so far from Central Station, because he wanted to look for Transformer comics and I wanted to find a Loki comic for my classmate. The comic shop was small, but god was it cool. It had very steap stairs, you had to climb them to get there. And they were narrow and someone wanted to come down when we were going up, so it was quite uncomfortable. But the comic store was heaven for me.

It had action figures, pop! toys with the bobby heads, Mjlonir!!! and Loki’s helmet!! and Cap’s shield!! In actual life size. That was cool. There were toys from CATWS, and I told dad “Oh, the new Captain America movie is coming out sometime around now.” cause I remember seeing it on twitter and seeing a snippet of the trailer. I marvelled at the toys, looking at them. Natasha, Steve, the Winter Soldier, Falcon, Nick Fury. It was very exciting. There were probably other promotional things except for the toys, but I didn’t see them (or just don’t remember them).

Dad got his transformer comic, and I got my Loki comics, and we left. I think we spent from 30 minutes to an hour there. No regrets.

A week, I think, after returning from NYC, me and my best friend went to see Captain America: the Winter Soldier. I still didn’t quite know what was happening, but I remember seeing the trailer and thinking ‘how epic is this!! some mysterious guy, cap looking very attractive, natasha having a great haircut, i’m excited!!’. And that’s where the real ‘trouble’ began.

I saw Bucky and Steve’s friendship somehow, for an unknown reason, very similar to my own, with my friend. I don’t know why, it just seemed so familiar, so well-known. None of us have been brainwashed and made an assasin, but I think already then we shared the same deep connection as Steve and Bucky and we still do. Maybe that’s why I saw a familiarity there - I’d do anything, go against anyone for my best friend, just like Steve did for Bucky.

I had so many pictures of Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan and Scarlett Johansson in my phone, I changed my wallpaper every other day, very often. I watched their previous, non-marvel movies all the time. And then Scarlett’s “Lucy” came out and me and my best friend watched it in poor quality on my iPhone 4. We also watched CATWS in poor quality on my iPhone 4. How could we do that?? On such a small screen?? Was desparation the reason? Who knows.

Anyways, I was obssessed with Marvel then. Couldn’t wait for the next Avengers and Captain America movies, didn’t even know what they’d be about. Then, I had started to see into the characters and my english had improved, so I started to understad everything better.

I remember one evening after seeing CATWS, we spent like 30 euros on groceries to make dinner and spend some time together, and we were making that dinner and then watching the first Captain America movie. It was one of the best nights of my life.

Spring 2014 is still the favourite time of my life, because it gave me so much. So many new people, characters, discoveries, books, travels, friends, etc. I loved that period in my life, all of the first half of 2014. If I could travel in time, I would go and live in that time for as long as I could, being the same age as I was then. I wouldn’t necessarily want to live there as myself like I am now, I’d like to be as young and weird as I was then.

Every spring, I am reminded of 2014’s spring. The smell of fresh rain plus the smell of blooming lilac and lingon. The music I listened to then, the places I was at most often then, the smells and feelings of spring. It’s interesting that spring reminds me of that particular year’s spring, not other years. It is somehow best settled in my memories and my heart.

I will say that Captain America: the Winter Soldier changed my life. It did, and it’s not an exaggaration. This movie and the characters and the actors provided something of an escape for me. From what? I don’t know, really, but they were my home. Made me feel accepted. And I started to connect with people on Instagram and Tumblr through Marvel and it gave me a community I was accepted in, I was finally a part of. I hadn’t found that kind of thing until then. I hadn’t found a place for myself until I discovered the Marvel fanbase. And it’s the best fandom I’ve ever been a part of, the most true and loving and accepting and understanding people. The only haters in the fanbase are the directors and script-writers for the movies ;)

2014 was a very colorful year for me, my interests changed and came and went, but Marvel was a constant interest for me. It was always there, always somewhere on the side. I got a Captain America beanie and a shirt for Christmas, from my dad. Still one of my favourite Christmas gifts ever.

2015 had come around and I had changed as a person, a lot, and I wouldn’t say for the better. I was very stuck on something, stuck in an unlikable version of myself, and it was strange suddenly to communicate and be with people around, in groups. But I managed. I got a Captain America wallet for my 14th birthday that year. And I still have it, although it’s broken and wore-down, but now I have another Marvel wallet.

There was a youth film jury thing happening on a May Sunday, which was also the day me and my dad went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron. I agree, not one of Marvel’s best movies, but I liked it. The movie was funny, full of love and action, and very… discovering, as well. The movie showed each character’s fears and doubts about themselves, what they think is the worst about themselves. And that’s a strong move, to show the heroes’ weaknesses. I’ve always liked that. When a movie/tv show shows the main character’s real personality, their weaknesses, fears, the things that make them human, just like me. And it means a lot. To know that heroes like Natasha Romanoff, a genius phylanthropist like Tony Stark, a super-man like Steve Rogers and a god like Thor have a weak spot and are still humans, that they still feel what regular people do.

The similarities I can draw between myself and Steve Rogers, for example, is a) having a skill for motivational speeches, b) crossing borders and breaking rules for our best friend, c) standing by what we believe in and not giving into anyone, d) we’ll do what we have to, even if everyone else says it’s wrong, but we know it’s not. The similarities between myself and Tony Stark are a) we’re both geniuses in some ways, b) we’re geniuses who can’t sleep, c) we’re geniuses who are overlooked by most people, what we do for ourselves and for others, our friends and family is overlooked and unnoticed by others, d) we know what’s the right thing to do, e) we’re capable of more than we think (I hope).

I don’t think I have any similarities with Thor or Hawkeye or Banner. With Natasha… I just might. We’re both secretive about ourselves, about what’s happening inside, about what we’re hurting. Also we both know what we have to do, we also know that if we don’t do it, nobody else would. We both make sacrifices.

Age of Ultron was a fun time, it was some sort of highlight of the journey, well, one of the highlights. So many funny videos, so many interviews and events and comic con panels. Oh, and the credits of the movie! The sculpture of the Avengers and Ultron and his soldiers was so beautiful, I loved it. Still one of my favourite MCU credits.

Never around that time, or in 2014, or in 2013, had I thought that the Avengers movies would end at some point. Sure, I thought about the Captain America franchise - how many movies can you make? What are the Avengers going to do in the next movie? You know, stuff like that, but I never gave it more thought than that. My mind never really went there. I was too hyped about the movies coming out constantly, I was excited and couldn’t wait for each movie. My best friend reminded me on the night of Endgame premiere how she recalls me being so excited for every new movie Marvel had coming out, I think I can remember hyping the movies up, ranting happily and just being giddy and over-all excited, telling her my opinions and stuff, you know, like a true fan.

At the end of 2015, the trailer for Captain America: Civil War had come out. And the excitement grew, cause you know I’d see Steve and Bucky together again. I couldn’t wait!!

And, of course, you had to choose either if you were Team Iron Man or Team Cap, before the fans even knew what was happening. All you knew was that Steve and Tony were indifferent. Well, they couldn’t show more, otherwise they would spoil the whole plot.

I was literally the only one who was on Team Cap in all my class and my friends, everybody else was on Team Iron Man. But, you know, as our dear friend Steve Rogers, I stood my ground and didn’t falter. Captain was always my favourite and I was more a fan of him than any other Avenger. You know, when you’ve been a fan of Captain America for three years, you can’t choose Team Iron Man.

Even my best friend was Team Iron Man. One day, we were staying in line at the school cafeteria and she just said “You know, but Steve is old.” Which is one hell of an argument, I laughed in ehr face and could still do it. It’s just so funny. Yeah, okay, Tony wasn’t frozen in the ice for 70 years, but it’s no argument.

We went to see CACW on the same day we tried the black face mask for the first time. Our faces were extremely red, no matter how much make-up we put on. But I think it went off after a while. We went to the premiere, it was the first time we were in the new SCAPE auditorium. It was h u g e, the biggest 3D auditorium in the Baltic countries. I think it was the first time it was opened or at least the first week, I don’t know, maybe that’s incorrect, but I hadn’t been there before. We sat in the middle, and there was a girl with a Cap t-shirt next to us, and turned out my best friend knew her somehow, but I don’t know about that.

It was honestly, a whole experience. While the movie meant a lot to me emotionally, CACW as well as CATWS were comic book movies as much as they were political thrillers. Brilliantly done, perfect actors, good plots and turns and twists, great characters, cinematography = brilliant, the music = well written and fitting to all characters and their storylines.

I went to Civil War with one of my best friends, who is also my neighbour, and as strange as it seems since we’ve been friends since 2008, that was the first and only (yet) time we went to a movie together. And we were texting before the movie and talking about which tram to take and I asked her which team she’s on, of course, expecting her to be on Team Iron Man as everyone else. But she wasn’t! Finally someone on Team Cap!! I was so happy, haha. I was glad I wasn’t alone. It was cool, going to the movies with her. And it was only two days after I first saw CACW.

2016 was also the year Batman vs Superman came out, and Suicide Squad. BvS didn’t suck as much as SS did. God, it couldn’t live up to the hype. But I liked Batman vs Superman, I really liked the movie. I saw it twice, once with my best friend and once with my dad. I also saw Civil War twice in the theater, but altogether I’ve seen the movie probably about 200 times. It’s meditative to me, and each time I watch it, I spot something new in the charaters and the storyline. I watch it when I’m sick, when I’m at home and lazying around. I love it. Probably one of my favourite Marvel movies.

Later in May 2016, my classmate was calling me and asking if I wanted an Iron Man shirt. “It’s red, it’s big, wait, I’ll send you a picture”. So she did and I said ‘yes, of course’! It cost me five or six euros, but it was original Marvel merchandise that she bought in a second-hand shop.

In 2016 I also saw Doctor Strange. It was in November or October, I can’t place exactly, but I know I was going alone. The first Marvel movie I saw alone in the movie theater. And I was running late, as well. It was raining, but I made it in time. And it was again a premiere. I loved the movie. My classmate asked me “yo Rūta have you seen that Dr Strange movie yet?” I was like “yes, of course, it’s a Marvel movie, I went to the premiere”. I was like that back in the day, acting like it’s, you know, evident and a fact that I see all the Marvel movies immediately as they’ve come out (which I did). Anyway, I said yes and she was like “oh well were the directors on drugs? cause we saw it and the movie was so trippy, felt like lsd”. I was like…. “well, I don’t know how to tell you, but the movie’s based on comics and in the comics, as in the movie, there’s the idea of multiple universes and dimensions and what they’d look like, and I think what they showed in the movie would be quite accurate in real life if we could travel to these dimensions. The movie is meant to twist your mind and make you believe the impossible is possible and that we’re not alone in this life, we’re not alone in our environment. So it’s not meant to be trippy, but it’s meant to show you how misticism is combined with intelligence and the modern world.” Her answer was something like “oh, okay. but it’s still trippy.” It annoyed me a bit, but you know it’s okay, she doesn’t completely understand cause she’s not a fan. So it’s whatever, it’s cool.

2017 had begun and I was on a bit of a pause, it was my last year of secondary school and I had also discovered the Beatles and they changed me as a person, as well. I had emotional and existential discoveries within myself from them, but that’s not what this is about.

Me and my best friend had drifted apart a bit, so I started to hang out with other girls in my class, and they were very accepting and they were cool to spend time with. One of them, now my Marvel friend and one of my best friends, as well, also liked Marvel and had for some time. So we became closer friends and went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. She really likes the Guardians, because she likes humor and the comedy genre, but I’m not the biggest fan of those. GOTG2 had George Harrison on its soundtrack. Harrison is one of the few loves of my life and my favourite singer, my favourite person. I was hyped to hear him in the movie, and it was in the perfect situation. To my friend, I was a bit too hyped.

Then, summer, me and my other friend went to see Spider-Man: Homecoming. I was very excited to see this movie, I had waited a year for the new Spider-Man story to be told, and I wanted to see how he’d be portrayed by this youngster, Tom Holland, who came to be one of my idols.

His story is truly inspiring. Spider-Man was his favourite superhero growing up and he had wanted to be an actor. He trained in ballet, in gymnastics, and that gives him the ability to not have a stunt-man for his Spider-Man role. His abilities, all in all, are incredible. And he’s achieved his dreams, fans have helped him and they mean a lot to him. We mean a lot to him, we’ve helped him achieve this dream.

SM:HOCO was a good movie, and I liked it a lot. It was the year I’d start high school, and I had always felt like Peter Parker. You know, out-casted, one friend, but smart and a bit awkward. I can still see the biggest similarities between myself and Parker. I remember thinking, when I started high school, “Oh I’m definitely like Peter Parker”. And I was, I still am, kind of. I’m not as smart as him, and I can’t shoot spider webs or climb plane walls or lift buses. But I see a lot of myself in him. How he tries hard, but nobody sees it, tries to help everyone, but gives problems instead (without wanting to), wants to go on every adventure. He has a person that he’s trying to prove himself to, but he’s never enough in their eyes, that is also something I often feel. And that he, an outcast at school and a supposable nobody can be a world-saving hero, means a lot as well, and speaks highly to me.

Fall 2017, high school and thinking everything’s fine and that I’m doing good. I meet my Marvel friend and we have a bite together and then go to see Thor: Ragnarok in the theater. If I remember correctly, it was the 30th of October.

I was so happy to see Thor and Loki on a screen together again that I shed tears of joy. They started my Marvel journey and it meant a lot to see them finally, for some moments, not fighting each other, but fighting along side together. And Taika Waititi did a great job for the movie and for Thor’s character, proving that he can still be the God of Thunder without his hammer. The movie was incredible, one of the best the MCU has. We laughed, we cried, we had a great time. One of my favourite days.

Project time came around, we had o make a scientific research about a topic we were interested in. To say it shortly, the process and result wasn’t pleasant, so, on Friday February the 16th, me and my Marvel went to see Black Panther - a spontanious idea, and it was the day it came out, so we made it just in time. My dear friend got a bit lost in the area around the cinema, but I helped her get here. We promised each other that next time we’ll go there together so she doesn’t get lost.

She bought us M&M’s (which we succesfully threw to the ground while the movie was playing) and popcorn. I still have both packets in my room somewhere. I kept them because it made me remember one of the best days of my life. I was feeling horrible that day and meeting her and seeing Black Panther put me in an ecstatic mood, I got much happier. So yes, these movies and characters do save my life, and so do my friends.

Black Panther was a big breakthrough for people of colour and women, which is great and I love that. It got, I think, at least one Oscar and Golden Globe. They deserve it. And Ryan Coogler is a great director. I loved the movie, it was so beautiful and nothing was out of order, I’d literally give it a 10/10.

Then, I started my Marvel movie marathon because Infinity War was coming. I remember sometime in summer 2017 or fall 2017 the trailer leaked and I didn’t want to watch it, but I did. And when it officially came out, I had forgot the leaked one.

My Marvel movie marathon went well, and I watched Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp for the first time. Now that I watch it a year later, I can say that AMATW is one of MCU’s best movies. It’s so well done. But anyways, it was so strange watching all the movies I watched when I had just started my Marvel journey. Infinity War was the beginning of the end of this incredible story, and it was very emotional.

When I was watching the first Thor, I accidentally spilled tea on my laptop, so it was a bit of a disaster, but the laptop is fine now. I dried it and continued to watch Thor. How silly of me, now that I think of it.

Then, one fine sunday the sun was out and me and my Marvel friend were meeting up to spend the day together. Mom was at work, so we were alone and we decided to watch Thor: Ragnarok again. We drank Cola with lime and watched the movie, had a good time. It was such a good day, again, one of my favourites.

April 26th, 2018. The day we went to see Infinity War—it was an unspoken rule that we’re going to every Marvel movie together—I’d had an emotional day already and was quite spent. We met up at the mall and I hadn’t finished watching Black Panther, the last movie on my marathon’s list. So we watched it at the mall, on a sofa. We had an hour to go and I don’t think we finished watching Black Panther till the end.

Well, Infinity War… wow. That was, uh, that was something. I remember how hard we cried. I remember how many tissues we used. I remember how we walked out of the theater, into the night, and we just… we didn’t know what to do. I tried to make up some theories about all the deaths, tried to find something positive, tried to find a way out of it all. But I couldn’t. And my friend was too sad to listen to my ramblings. We were broken.

The next few weeks were hard for me, I’d say the month of May was hard for me. Not only because of Infinity War, but it was a big reason. I don’t want to talk about the other reasons. But, it was hard to find strength to carry on, it was hard to live without those characters. I mean, Steve had then lost Bucky twice before his eyes. And I couldn’t understand how they could do that. Twice, I mean, t w i c e ??? Blows my mind.

And Peter. That broke me so deep I still don’t know if it has fixed. Right in front of Tony’s eyes. It was… something I couldn’t comprehend, as well. And I prayed to myself that Steve doesn’t go, that Tony doesn’t go, that Sam doesn’t go. For a while, I was relieved that Steve and Tony didn’t get ‘dusted’, but I couldn’t bare the actual deaths.

I didn’t go to see Ant-Man and the Wasp that summer. I don’t know why, maybe it just slipped. The opportunity slipped. But I don’t know. My friend did, she saw it and said it’s very good. Now, I don’t take other people’s opinions into account in order to watch a movie or before I do, I like to not hear anything about a movie before I watch it. But she was right about this one.

2018 was also a colorful and adventurous year for me, so Infinity War was one of the main events that impacted my life that year. I swore that I wouldn’t watch it again, at least not in 2018. And I did. I only watched it for a second time on January 1st this year and right before Endgame. The movie is good, and epic, as well, but I just can’t watch it as many times as I do the other MCU movies.

In November or December came the first teaser for Avengers: Endgame and we finally got the title. It was very emotional, a very dark trailer with no space for hope. I shed a few tears and thought “i’m not ready for this”. I was not.

Captain Marvel came around and at first I thought I’d wait and watch it at home, but then I got five cinema gift cards for my birthday and realised I could use one to see Captain Marvel. So I did, I bought my ticket and went to the premiere.

It was a very emotional evening because I had lost my wallet and someone had stolen it. So I ran around the streets, looking for it, and I was soon going to be late for my movie. So I ran to the cinema, crying all the time, and sat down in my seat.

The movie was amazing, I just couldn’t fully enjoy it because I was thinking about my wallet and hoping that someone had found it and gave to the authorities, hoping that I’d get it back somehow, someday. Well, I didn’t, but I got myself a new wallet and eventually stopped crying about the lost one.

Captain Marvel was truly incredible and unpredictable at moments. As much as some people think it was a feminist movie, it was not produced that way and not meant that way. It was meant to show Carol’s origin story, her own feelings and confusion and doubts towards who she is and how she fights for what’s right. I loved the movie, it was truly a masterpiece.

Teasers and trailers started coming out for Endgame and the press tour soon started and I engaged myself fully with it all, followed tags and profiles that I could get updates from.

It brought tears to my eyes to see Robert, Scarlett, Chrises, Ruffalo and Renner experience all the fun, all the love and the press tour for the last time. And then there’s Brie Larson who experiences it all for the first time. There was this video where someone said something to Brie and she got shy, started crying and put her head on Downey’s shoulder and he laid a kiss on her head. It was just sweet and well, because Downey knows how one can get shy of the compliments and attention and he’s been through it all, and he’s the one who started it all. So he sees Brie is still not used to what it all means and he knows he can give her the comfort. It’s just… giving me indescribable emotions and tears.

24th of April, 2019. The day I saw Endgame was such a great day. It was warm and sunny, even hot at times. I rode my bike back and forth over Daugava, listened to music and sang while riding, enjoyed the sun and some food. I was happy. Then, my Marvel friend had forgot she was supposed to be at the cinema by 19:10, so I called her and she tried to get there as soon as she could. Once I was inside the auditorium, I started stressing, I started panicking. It really hit me that my journey, our journey, their journey was coming to an end. This would be the last Avengers movie where they are all together, fighting together and talking and you know, Avengers stuff. It registered in my brain, although I don’t think it fully has now, actually. I started crying, I started to breath heavily and my friend wouldn’t come, I didn’t know where she was. I had prepared a gift for her that originally I planned to give her on her name day, but this was too much of a big event for us both. She had already seen Endgame at the night premiere, but we keep our promise to see all Marvel movies together. Well, we kinda fell out with that, but still.

Our friendship wasn’t born solely from Marvel, but that was one of the basics. And she means so much to me, I can’t even describe. She’s been through the last phase of Avengers with me and she, maybe a bit more than my best best friend, has seen me change and seen the impact the characters have on me with time, how they’ve helped me, helped shaped me as a person.

She won in the quiz about Marvel and got a huge poster, bigger than herself, and socks as a prize. Socks she gave to me, they’re comfy, but made for men. Still, I wear them, what’s the difference, really? Feet are feet :D

I cried so much during Endgame. It was a painful movie, an ending to something so wonderful, and I still can’t bear it. I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again, but I think I’ll buy the DVD when it comes out and watch it at home at some point. As much as I’d never forgive myself for not seeing the credits again (because they were beautiful), I can’t watch it again. I’d have a breakdown.

I actually already did. Before the movie, after the movie (several), during the movie. Especially when everyone came back. Cause I thought that’s how Steve was gonna go - alone against Thanos with his broken shield. But then everyone came back and I had a… I called it “a positive anxiety attack”. I was happy, I was relieved, but I was stressed and in panic and I was glad and I was… Ah, just everything at once. I was sobbing and breathing heavily again, I was… I was at a strange condition.

There are so many wrongs made in Endgame with the characters, as well as plot-holes simply dismissed. But in my view, it was a better movie than Infinity War. It’s the most epic superhero movie ever made. There won’t ever be a better one made.

Three days after seeing Endgame, I took part in an MCU Quiz with my friend. We got third place! I’m very happy about that, it means a lot to me. We got a mug, a poster and a comic book which I’ve yet to read and share with her. That was truly amazing, I have to thank Kino Kults for the amazing experience and gifts.

Endgame drew a part of my life which I love as much as my family to a close. It concluded a chapter, locked it closed with a key. And I still can’t come to terms with it, I still can’t realise it fully, I still can’t comprehend. That along with every fan and every actor and producer that has been a part of the MCU, my Marvel story and journey has ended. Well, I actually hope it hasn’t. There’s lots to look forward to, but the Avengers… no more.

I’ve spent a lot of money on Marvel, merchandise and souvenirs, and I don’t regret a single cent. Movie tickets, comics, posters, phone cases, necklaces, rings, keychains, shirts and hoodies. I’ve made original merchandise (for myself only) as well, and I think that’s very cool. I have my own idea and I make it happen. I’ve made art, I’ve made my own notebook and book covers with Marvel characters on them that I use in school, I’ve customized boxes and folders with Marvel themes. I have two self-customized shirts, two self-customized hoodies, and three or four merchandise shirts from Marvel. I’ve had joggers, pyjama pants, etc. I still have my beanie and I use it from time to time, I wear my clothes proudly.

The people who are a part fo the MCU that have inspired and impacted me the most are Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Tom Holland and Tom Hiddleston. Their stories, their personalities, their motivations, their characters have given me so much, they’ve taught me so much about life and about myself, as well. They’ve brought me where I am now. I couldn’t be here without them, I couldn’t be who I am without them. Without all of the actors and characters, actually.

If I could have any way to thank them, any way to reach the actors and talk to them, I would be so thankful. If I’d meet at least one of them, well, it would be a dream come true. They’re all still alive and if I had any opportunity to get to a Con, a meet and greet, or simply meet them accidentally, I would use it. It’s my dream to talk to them, to see them in real life. I’d give anything for that to come true.

This journey has been absolutely incredible. I’ve made new friends through Marvel, made artworks, had ideas, discovered music, discovered artists, discovered new things about myself and others. When I had nothing, I had Marvel and their movies and characters. They gave me hope when I couldn’t. They made me believe in myself when I didn’t have the strength to and nobody else would.

Marvel, you have been my life and my home for the past seven years. O cannot ever thank you enough. You’ve given me so much. I’m so glad I was here, I was on board while all the movies came out. They shaped my childhood, my adolescence and made me into who I am today. I can’t believe the avengers’ journey is over. It never really will be. For me, at least. They’ll live forever in my heart, in the fans’ hearts and in cinematic and culture history.

Thank you, Marvel. Thank you, Robert Downey Jr. Thank you, Chris Evans. Thank you, Avengers. I love you 3000.

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jq37 · 6 years ago

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Ok last one. What's the tea on Prompocalypse?

So...that was something, huh?

This is gonna be quick and dirty (relatively speaking, it’s still too long already as I come back and make this edit) because I have work tomorrow and there are def stuff I want to talk about more and I will (esp if I get asks) but I have work in the morning so let’s just get some words onto the screen aight.

The episode titles have had a pretty consistent naming scheme up until this point so the one word, non alliterative title had me at a 7 on the foreboding scale before we even started.

Everyone was in prom wear! And lol, Siobhan is the only one in a dress. That's almost exactly what I pictured Adaine wearing to prom. That exact shade of blue-green. And Emily looks like a waiter.

I wonder what Bren's plan was for if they'd thwarted the crowning entirely. Got baller initiative, some nat 20's on crown keepaway and smashing, and killed Penelope/Dayne before the bad guys could finish them. Would he just try to crown someone else or would the curb stompage have stood? Not that Goldenhoard would have been a pushover I imagine but jeez. He couldn't have been as strong as his true form.

Sidenote: One of my favorite little character things is Zac and Siobhan helping each other do math.

Fig dimension dooring Gorgug to the stage and then skateboarding away. Amazing.

"I'm going for her crown vs. his crown."/"In this climate?"

OK, shoutout to Zac fo asking for those bombs because they are OP as hell.

I love how they just charged in and started trying to kill people, no questions asked, no explaining themselves to the other students, just bombs out immediately.

My man Riz just couldn't catch a break. I understand the out of story reason the police haven't shown up is that Murph was rolling garbage, but what's taking them so long in story? Where? Is? Sklonda?

"I'm going to jump on the back of the Hangman."/”Presumptuous."

But also, by the end of the fight he's just like, "Do anything any party member tells you to!"

Lou losing it over Riz claiming best friend status. But damn, they kinda are the closest to each other in the party. Wild.

"You know what baby girl? Why don't you ready an action until I get there," said Siobahn to Ally, hilariously for a number of reasons.

They keep saying Teen Wolf and I have no idea what part of the movie they're referring to. This is the second ep in a row.

Lou trying to recruit a super sad Ragh.

They started off this fight really strong. Doing double digit damage and rolling over 20s. I was like, "Damn, they've leveled up. They're doing great!" Of course, we were still in the first third of the ep so I didn't know where we were going. But Lou was right. "Wild first turn."

"And then I shoot him."

I'm half convinced Riz jinxed everyone by saying, "Remember the corn fight?"

Kristen cast ONE spell and then said, "I don't have a lot of spells left." THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY AND SAVE ADAINE'S WORTHLESS FAMILY. YOU ARE THE HEALER. YOU NEED ALL YOUR SPELLS.

The students running to get food on the way out. Mood.

They messed Dayne *up*. This was the high point of the battle, objective-wise.

Sidenote, why would Dayne have needed to be at the Seacaster Manor raid? It feels dumb to ris him when he was such an important part of things. Was it literally just because he didn't like Fabian? And he disliked him enough to try and kill his parents? Yeesh.

Kirsten @ Ragh flipping out over Dayne: I see what's going on here.

Ragh really made this fight harder than it had to be. If Gorgug hadn't been grappled before Penelope got the crown they might have had a fighting chance.

So Penelope just straight up let what's her face (Sam I think) get palimpsested? Major yikes. Like I know it's a good thing they killed her but I kinda wish they hadn't so we could learn exactly what the insane thought process was there. She comes off as crazier than Biz because Biz was trapping girls he didn't respect, not his actual friends, you know? Like, did Goldenhoard say he was gonna make her an actual queen or something? Because all this isn't worth just being prom queen.

"Sometimes you make a villain and they die in the first two rounds," said Brennan, as if he didn't know what he was about to unleash on the party. Geez, I don't know how long they would have survived if Penelope and Dayne had been in play for a large chunk of the fight.

Murph's idea to blind him was a good one.

I almost was like, "Thank God Gorthalax got kidnapped," because that was the only good explanation for him seemingly ditching Fig.

Ally: Was that his best friend? (Emily: What./Siobahn: NO.)

"I'm like an advertisement for chicken."/"What chicken adverts are you watching?"/"It's like if you went to prom and there was a dangling chicken leg."/"What prom did you go to?"

Fabian full on clocking Penelope in the face like he's playing Punch Out.

"I killed my father today. Yes."

"This is against the rules but I don't care." In hindsight, this feels like foreshadowing.

"Well, that's the risk you take when you go to Aguefort Adventuring Academy."

"Get on the fucking right team!"

Lou (a la Gimli): And *my* D6.

Brennan pulling out that GIANT final form Goldenhoard figure.

For some reason, it didn't occur to me that he'd be just a legit dragon in his true form. I was picturing like the lich from Adventure Time or something.

Also, I was kinda expecting him to "Drop the act," and majorly change in personality but he was basically the same. Just a dick.

Gorgug rolls a 4. Brennan pauses for a second. The entire party: No.

Zac goes all in every time no matter how dumb it is. I love him.

"Father, stop this."/"What?"

"Not clever enough for the library and not brave enough for the world." Oww, I felt that one. Did Brennan have that waiting to use or did he come up with it on the spot because that was brutal.

Goldenhoard goes through the whole party, trying to hit their weakest point and he gets what might have been a great hit on Fig (You're so unloveable your father would rather go to hell than stay with you.) but she just says, "You have got to stop flirting with me," and completely diffuses the moment. As unflappable as Brennan is, he had to take a sec to jump back into the insult parade after that.

"I'm going to eat you."/"OH MY GOD."/"I'm not making it sexual!"

"*The* ball, bitch."

OK, I was wondering what the deal was with Riz's dad. Because giving him that gun implies a chance to kill his dad's killer but I didn't think it could be Goldenhoard directly because of the binding. That's another point towards Riz being the one to finish him off.

Wild that they weren't able to get any of the kids (save Ragh eventually) to help them with the fight. You go to adventuring school! Cowards! You would never make it at Sunnydale and that school was mostly normals!

The one dude still just getting food while Goldenhoard has turned into a full on dragon.

When an 18 wasn't a high enough roll for Fig to make her fear check, that's when I realized my earlier apprehension wasn't misplaced. I mean, maybe it should have been when he turned into a dragon but it is what it is.

But Fig skating away and then going, "Just kidding bitch," because she got it on the very next turn was hilarious.

Kristen still not being 100% on whether Ragh is gay or not.

Who was gonna kick Ragh off the team for being gay? Maybe Daybreak would have but Gorthalax def wouldn't have. Maybe he means he would have been bullied off?

Siobahn to Kristen/Ally: Stop outing students.

I can't believe Gorgug had to kiss Ragh in the middle of this fight to get his head in the game.

Also, I didn't get into it before because I knew this scene was coming but poor Ragh. Like, I could have told him things were gonna go this way and he's a big dummy for thinking otherwise, but poor dude. And then he finally gets it together and he gets wrecked.

"EMILY, I SOMETIMES CAN'T TELL WHEN YOU'RE REALLY FUCKING WITH ME OR NOT."

Siobhan doing the D&D equivalent of reminding the teacher they had homework.

The amount of dice that Brennan rolled for Goldenhoard was truly horrifying. That's permadeath damage.

AND HE GOT THE HEALER DOWN FIRST. This was the next moment I started sensing a TPK.

"HOMOPHOBE!"/"You hit both of the gay ones!"

Kristen taking damage from Goldenhoard's libertarian speech.

I find it such a Fig move to be like, "Can I use charm person to snap Adaine out of it," instead of the spell actually made for that purpose.

Rolling low perception and getting no information is the worst because then it's like...OK I know something's out there but what dammit?

When Brennan said Fig would have to do opposed athletics against Adaine, that was the first time I was like, "Oh thank God she's so weak."

Murph forgetting to uncanny dodge until midway through the ep was uncharacteristic. Really shows how wild the fight was.

"This kid likes to get his ass beat to a soundtrack."

Fabian refusing to just use the stairs like a normal person.

Penelope going, "What's your deal?" like she's not helping an evil dragon who wants to rule the world.

JAWBONE

JAWBONE JAWBONE JAWBONE

My man Jawbone shot way up on the list of cool adults today.

For real, the scene with Jawbone and Adaine was my second favorite moment of the episode and it would have been my favorite if not for a bit of divine intervention later.

I already made a post about this but Jawbone notices Adaine flipping the hell out and he asks her if she has panic attacks and if her parents gave her any meds for it. She responds in, like, the smallest, most broken and defeated voice with a tiny head shake, "My parents just left and I don't know where they are." Gah, my heart. She was half crying. I was half awake and being kicked in the face with the full force of human emotion. It was a lot. I felt like I was a kid watching that one scene from Fresh Prince again but British-er. She gets that her parents suck and she hates them but she's 14. Everyone wants their parents to love them. It's like in our DNA.

And then Jawbone launches into the wildest motivational speech ever (including all of Kristen's, which is saying a lot) which starts with him sucking off a border patrol agent. (You understand me?/No!)

Ally, MVP of Terrible Speeches: *That* was the point?

Siobhan trying not to crack up and break character throughout that whole scene was great.

I love that Brennan was clearly trying to not encourage people to mess with their med dosage irl because he was very specific about that but also he was like, "A dragon is about to end the world so please shotgun this bottle of magic Xanax and hop on that bike."

I love that Adaine has all the magic stuff in her inventory and then also Xanax.

Aww, Jawbone offered to let her live with him because her house burned down. (I guess that info was on the news?)

And then Adaine rolls a 20 with the help from her meds (and buffs) right away! It's great when the dice cooperate.

"I came here to FUCK SHIT UP. And help children."

"Jawbone rules. I'm so glad we helped him get his life together."

Jawbone is such a sketch person but such a good counselor.

Siobhan calling Goldenhoard and absolute fucking unit sayed be at 5 in the morning when I watched this.

"I AM A CHILD. YOU ARE ATTACKING A BUNCH OF CHILDREN YOU COWARD."

"Then why is your dick out?" Adaine joining in Fig w/ the taunting Goldenhoard via accusations of flirting.

"Why are you guys partially singed?"/"Because he's been attacking us Dad! Also Dad, he kind of used to come on to me all the time."

"Play the drums more and we'll have a full band on stage!"/"...Instead."

"You ruined prom!"/"I RUINED PROM?"

At this point I was thinking, "Geez, there's not a lot of episode left and Penelope isn't even dead yet. How could they possibly defeat Goldenhoard AND have time for tying up loose ends?" TPK vibes increase.

Adaine getting a nat 20 on Arcana, "Yeah it is what it is. You're screwed."

Hell yeah for Adaine giving Goldenhoard her low divination roll to ensure her lightning bolt hit. Not that it ended up mattering that much but still. Sick.

"Well you could have told me before this very moment!"/"I was dead!"

I just checked on the stats of an an adult red dragon in 5E and it's got 256 HP. 256! And look at the other stats! They're wild.

"This is the number of dice?"/"Yeah."/"God."

Fig goes down. Their secondary healer. So, not good. Very not good.

Brennan letting Emily burn Goldenhoard's tie as she passes out because Emily refuses to do nothing.

And Riz goes down too! The one with the med kit! At this point I was like, there is no way this can end well.

"How far away is the hospital?" I love it when they try just normal solutions in this magic game like calling their parents and going to the hospital.

It is an hour and 47 minutes into the episode before Adaine remembers she's wearing a magic coat that can make her anything (within reason). Which, to be fair, it took me a little bit too but, in my defense, I'm not staring at her character sheet.

Real talk, I didn't think she was gonna get anything from the jacket from that ask. Something to beat Kalvaxis is such a big ask.

When Brennan started going into the jacket stuff I was like, this is a really weird deus ex machina if that's what this is. But also, the kids have been hilariously chill with just having Adaine walk around in a jacket filled with people.

There was a lot to unpack there and I'll got to it in another post but I can't do another 4k epic this week y'all. I have work in the morning.

Adaine yelling for Basrar to get them their ice cream before they freaking die.

Aww Gorthalax tried to heal Fig instead of attacking.

"Daddy that was a waste of a turn."

Gorgug who has a million hit points went down and all the healers are down. There are less than ten minutes left in the episode. TPK for sure, I'm thinking.

Adaine flipping people off with a vengeance today.

Also the fact that she totally forgot that she could ask for a healing potion which is totally a thing that she almost def would have been able to get is hilarious. I mean it wouldn't have been as funny if the episode ended differently but, as it stands, hilarious.

"Does the Hangman know medicine?"

"What about this student? Is he studying to be a cleric?"

Adaine is down. That's everyone down but Fabian. Three and a half minutes left. And that's when I realize. There's not enough time for a good ending, but there's not enough time for a bad ending either. But there's no S2. This is an anthology series. What's going on here my sleepy 6am brain is saying.

Fig giving her dad bardic inspiration while passed out because Emily is Emily.

Everyone (exceptt Riz) was making their saves. I'm thinking, "Is next season different characters, same setting. Maybe a bunch of years in the future? Legacy characters?" I'm trying to put together the fact that this is the finale with 2 minutes left with the fact that they're playing different characters next season. The pieces aren't fitting.

And that's because I couldn't have predicted what was about to happen.

Ally, clearly joking says, "Can I roll for a nat 20 and just be alive?"

Brennan, barely thinking, says, "Sure, go for it," as casually as if he was okaying a perception check.

Murph and Lou are cracking up at the absurdity of the ask.

Ally says, "This is to the corn god," half solem, half smiling.

Siobhan holds her hand over the dice like she's blessing them.

"I know I left for a while," Ally starts as the dice are cast and...

"NAT 20 MOTHERFUCKER!"

Everyone goes WILD.

Ally punches air.

Brennan looks like someone slapped him.

Emily: You have to rip up your comparative world religions book.

BONUS EPISODE UNLOCKED

And what did we learn today? A 5 percent chance is small, but not insignificant.

OK, there’s one thing I want to address before I tap out for the night (and it’s not spell checking. I’ll do that in the morning).

I saw some people discussing the possibility that they faked the ending. Like, they just edited it like that to give them another chance because they were all about to die. Beyond the fact that I just trust them to not have done that, the other big reason I don’t think that’s likely is because there was a much more seamless way of stacking the deck in their favor. Brennan could have had Adaine pull literally anything out of her jacket. And I truly mean anything because this is a finale. Even if he gave her something game breaking, it wouldn’t have set a precedent because it’s the last ep. And that’s beyond all the NPCs that could plausibly have come in because they know something is up and teleportation is a thing in this world. Nah, I think that was just good, old fashioned, luck of the roll and thank Helio because they needed it.

OK, that’s it for now! Join me at some point between now and next ep to unpack this because it’s a lot and apparently we have another episode to get through. Hoot growl baby!

#fantasy high #asks #a-salty-alto #spoilers

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a-baleful-howl · 7 years ago

Text

How Jon could turn on Dany in season 8, and why he hasn’t already.

I just want to remind everyone, that Jon has not seen Dany’s “bad qualities” yet. The qualities which make them true foils. The qualities which make them total opposite characters with opposite goals.

In my “This is Not a Love Story” posts (which I still haven’t finished yet, yay me) I pointed out that Jon sees nothing that could make him like Dany until episode 5. And that ‘thing’ is the people she surrounds herself with, not herself exactly.

Dany has Jorah Mormont, who Jon knows as a criminal and a coward, as a dear and close friend. Jorah seems to worship her and is loyal to her, so Jon seeing her act so kindly to Jorah could tell Jon that she might be an admirable and forgiving person. That’s the first time he’s like “well maybe she does have a heart, after all.”

Then he sees that she has Theon as an ally. Theon has done great atrocities to House Stark, but it’s Theons actions in helping Sansa escape that keep Jon from going full rage mode and just killing him. (After Jon’s whole “forgiveness” arc from the first episode, this means his anger is really, really boiling for Theon.) So add Theon as another into the list of Dany’s “rag tag team of misfits” that Jon can see, which goes towards Dany’s forgiving nature.

Dany’s trusted Hand is Tyrion, a Lannister and a dwarf. Would an evil qerson who doesn’t care for humanity have a dwarf as her hand? A dwarf who really left an impact on Jon in S1 with his “bastards, cripples and broken things” mindset? She doesn’t care that he’s a Lannister or a dwarf and he’s the highest rank in her council. That could go to her “good heart”.

She has loyal people who used to be slaves, but are not anymore because of Dany’s actions. The speech from Missandei paints the picture clearer for Jon to think Dany is actually a good and kind leader. She inspires the broken.

Dany lets him mine the Dragonglass, even if she’s cold and impolite when she decides to let him.

Jon’s first impression of Dany is that she is entitled, vengeful, and rude. Evidenced by the throne room scene, the imprisonment, her reluctance to refer to him by his title, her insistence that he bend the knee to get anything from her, etc. It’s only when he talks to those around her, and sees who she has allied herself with, that he might have any reason to think she’s not truly a bad ruler.

But while Jon is imprisoned on Dragonstone, he can’t see the “bad things” she does first hand. He’s not there when she burns the Tarlys alive for not kneeling. He’s not there to see her growing paranoia at her council. He’s not there to see the total destruction her dragons and Dothraki army can cause to human soldiers. On Dragonstone, all he sees is loyal followers, an affinity for outcasts, and mother fucking dragons.

When Dany comes to save them from the Wight Hunt, Jon sees a perfect weapon against the Night King, and he sees a woman willing to go into battle herself to save someone who has been reluctant to bow to her.

In the beginning Jon saw some of her bad qualities. He saw a spoiled girl sitting on a throne demanding him to kneel. He saw a woman who imprisioned him against his will on an island when he said no. He saw an angry Targaryan lash out at her Hand on a beach and threaten Kings Landing with fire, only to be calmed by Jon’s own words. He saw her fly off on a dragon and come back pretty proud of herself for killing her enemies.

But he didn’t see her when she was on that dragon. He didn’t see her when she’s alone with her council. He didn’t see the cold way she executed those who didn’t kneel.

So I feel like Jon fell into the same mindset as many of her other followers did, and hell, even the viewers did in the earlier seasons. But once he sees her true actions - the burning, the kneeling, the “I will take what’s mine with fire and blood” that might come out in season 8, he will not be able to overlook that.

She is his opposite when it comes to these things. Jon does not want more death. He prefers forgiveness (as shown in his treatment towards the Umbers and Karstarks vs Dany’s treatment of the Tarlys). He didnt want to be King, all he wants is to save Westeros from the incoming Night King, whereas Dany is coming to Westeros to conquer and take back the Iron Throne, and the fight for the Night King is a side distraction. He is focused on one thing, and one thing only, the Night King. Dany is focused on the Throne.

Do you really think that if Jon were there when she burnt the Tarlys that he would have just stood by and watched? Do you really think he would have bent the knee after seeing that?

I mean, the more and more I analyze their actual scenes together, the more I’m convinced there is some version of political!Jon or sacrificial!Jon going on. She really gave him no other choice but to bend the knee if he wanted her help. Yes, she offered before he officially bent the knee, and this at first really frickin bothered me, but Jon had just seen the true power of her dragons for the first time. He needed to lock that weapon down because it’s literally the only way they could truly win against the Night King, and there’s no better way to make sure she’s doesn’t change her mind later than to kneel and give her what she wants.

When Jon bent the knee, he had not seen her bad qualities. If Dany continues to go dark, to see more Targaryan come out, to lose her self control that so many people have had to keep in check for seasons now, Jon will peace out so fucking fast.

I’m on the fence about true undercover!jon. I don’t flat out deny it but I can’t say I definitively 100% believe in it. I doubt he went down to Dragonstone with the intentions of deceiving her, or with a pre-planned plot with Sansa. My first instinct with Jon is to think he’s sacrificial. That after he saw how un-cooperative Dany is, he knew he was going to have to sacrifice everything he ever wanted to save Westeros from the White Walkers. To give up his power, (ahem ignore his feelings for his half-sister ahem) and get Dany on his side by any means necessary. (This also doesn’t negate the possibility that he thinks the North will reject Dany AND Jon and crown Sansa instead.) I don’t think he loves Dany though. There’s just nothing really there to suggest love. Everything there to suggest he was pushed into a corner.

So, if you take UCL out of the equation, there’s still reason to think Jon will turn on Dany in S8. Dany at her worst, represents everything Jon is against at his best. There’s no way a relationship, romantic, political or otherwise, can survive when Jon is supposed to be this good, honorable, hero. He hasn’t seen her dark side as of now, but he will.

#danish pastry #spec #s8 #political!jon #sacrificial!jon #meta #my meta #this is not a love story #dark!dany #non-jonsa #but kind of jonsa #because jonsa are not foils and better suited than this shitshow #et queue brute

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

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How Many Log Cabin Republicans Are There

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How Many Log Cabin Republicans Are There

Nbc Outtrump Supporters In Battleground States Largely Favor Lgbtq Rights Poll Finds

Asked about Trump’s attitude toward the LGBTQ community, Kabel offered a series of well-rehearsed talking points: Trump is “the most gay-friendly president,” same-sex marriage is settled law, Trump-nominated Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the pro-LGBTQ decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, and the administration is doing great work on HIV/AIDS.

As an example of how “the press doesn’t give him a break,” Kabel cited the administration’s partnership with Gilead Sciences Inc. and pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens, to provide and distribute HIV-prevention medication to targeted communities.

“He never got credit for it,” Kabel said. “The LGBT organizations thank Walgreens and CVS and, of course, intentionally forgot to mention Trump actually made this happen.”

In June, Trump declared that the same scientific know-how that produced an AIDS vaccine would deliver one soon for Covid-19, even though there is no AIDS vaccine.

Kabel said he wishes the Republican National Committee would have met this year to update the party’s official platform, which still states at least five times that marriage should exclusively be a union of “one man and one woman.” But he said he’s not worried about a backslide on LGBTQ rights.

“The social conservatives understand that we’ve won on marriage,” he said. “They’ve lost, we’ve won, and I think they really play it down now.”

Back Into The Wider World

After Bakers speech, the groups first female chairman, Sarah Longwell, announced the afterparty was at Nellies, a popular gay/sports bar with a weekend drag-queen brunch. You boys enjoy yourselves, she said, Ive got kids at home. Someone appeared in a skin-tight Make America Great Again dress and posed for photos in front of the Log Cabin logo with the dress designer; they were the most exotically outfitted attendees:

Online, Democratic critics unsheathed their knives. Your org has accomplished nothing in 40 fucking years as the GOP has gone from bad to worse to Trump on your watch, the activist and advice columnist Dan Savage wrote in response to a cheery tweet from Angelo celebrating the night. Go fuck yourselves Log Cabin Republicans, Savage wrote.

At the Mayflower, after a few minutes of post-speech networking chatter, much of the room cleared out.

Outside the grand ballroom two women in pantsuits walked down the wide marble hallway from the party. They casually held hands for a moment, then unclasped as they approached the crowded lobby.

Next to the front door stood a group of men in well-cut suits in shades of charcoal. It was impossible to tell if they were they from the Log Cabin event or part of the Mayflowers regular carousel of business guests.

And that, the Log Cabin Republicans would tell you, is exactly the point.

Sarah Longwell: Donald Trump Is Not A Republican Or A Conservative

Longwell insisted that she still holds traditional Republican beliefs, including “restraint from the executive branch fiscal responsibility and American leadership in the world where we treat our allies with respect.”

The problem with Trump isn’t a gay issue, she said; rather, it’s an American issue.

I think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy and the country, because the rules dont apply to him, said Longwell, 40. He thinks hes above the law.

She blames the president for disregarding the Constitution, cozying up to dictators and putting his own interests first, and said she is frustrated that the GOP has stood by him.

“Republicans should be a party that cares about principles and ideas, not its loyalty to one man,” she said.

She said she’ll be voting for Biden, whom she calls a centrist. “He has a message of unity, not division.”

Other LGBTQ Republicans, like Williams, straddle the line. Asked whether she’ll be voting for Trump, she tactfully replied, “The jury is still out.”

“Since New Jersey is not in play, I’ve been trying to focus on more of our down-ballot candidates who’ve sought my support and my counsel on reaching voters,” she said.

Log Cabin Republicans And Goproud Struggle For Future Of Lgbt People In The Gop Party

The night before the Republican National Convention began in Tampa last month, a group of gay Republicans sipped wine and ate crab cakes at the Rusty Pelican, a white-tablecloth establishment with massive fireplaces and sweeping bay views. Defying the widespread perception that the Republican party is more actively opposed to gay rights than ever, R. Clarke Cooper, the 41-year-old director of the Log Cabin Republicans, told the gathering that gays are not just an insular group in the party, were an integral part of the party. Like other fetes around town that week, the reception was dominated by clean-cut white men who looked like consultants with practiced golf swings. Women and minorities were as rare a sight as unpleated pants.

Log Cabin, a Republican fixture since the late 70s, defines its mission as building a stronger, more inclusive Republican Party by lobbying for same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination laws, and other gay causes. With 44 chapters and more than 45,000 members, it has become the closest thing there is in the gay Republican scene to the establishment. Its nemesis and counterpart is the three-year-old GOProud, the only other national organization for gay Republicans. While Log Cabins white-wine affair at the Rusty Pelican was designed to appeal to the old-school Republican country-club set, GOProuds event, dubbed Homocon, featured male go-go dancers in skin-tight Freedom is Fabulous belly-tees.

REPUBLICANS FROM THE GET-GO

Jonathan Hoffman: Log Cabin Republicans A Model For Politics

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The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.

It seems as if our political contests have become more like warfare than debates these days. The increase in identity politics has lead to some political parties becoming more like tribes defined by ethnicity, race or sexual orientation, rather than parties defined by philosophy or principles. As such, there is no place for cooperation or compromise, just a question of who will prevail.

The other day I was wondering if there was some group that, by example, demonstrates that it need not be that way. I then heard someone mention the Log Cabin Republicans, and I thought, Yeah, those guys.

Who are the LCR people?

Let us begin with a little history. In the late 1970s, gay Americans were becoming more accepted in the broader culture. This prompted a backlash. States began banning gay people from teaching in public schools. The California version of this was a ballot initiative championed by a state legislator named John Briggs. The Briggs Initiative, as it was called, had overwhelming support and looked like a done deal.

I spoke with my friend Bill Beard, a gay Republican who served as chairman of the Pima County Republican Party and is active in LCR. I asked him about endorsements. He told me that the local chapter endorsed all three Republicans for Tucson City Council, and made no formal endorsement for mayor.

Thats why I thought, Yeah, those guys.