#rookie villain has no idea what they're doing

[kaiwewi]

How Not to Interrogate Your Enemy

tw: kidnapping, drugs Synopsis: kidnapping Hero was a huge mistake. All Villain has to show for it is regret and a bad headache.

“I should not have forced those drugs down your throat.”

Villain threw the box with the rest of the Ritalin pills carelessly aside once again. There wasn’t any information on it that might be of assistance to them anyway. They’d checked. Five times, as of yet.

Of course rereading it over and over hadn’t magically changed the words printed on the stupid patient information leaflet either, and yet it had at the very least provided Villain with an immediate distraction.

Mercifully, Hero had finally managed to shut up for longer than their lungs needed to fill with a single breath of air. And not a moment too soon, as Villain almost hadn’t been able to remember what silence sounded like anymore.

Frowning, they rubbed the bridge of their nose. “I’d really hoped it might loosen your tongue and you’d let something useful slip sooner or later.” They sighed deeply. “But instead, you’ve just been babbling about some kind of … philosophical bullshit for hours. Hours! And honestly, half of it makes no sense whatsoever, and the rest …”

Why didn’t Villain have henchmen who could take care of situations like this? All the other villains they knew had henchmen! And lairs with functioning prison cells. And proper truth serums.

Why had Villain been sitting here for more than 20 hours now, in a cramped motel room, all alone with their captured hero?

“Ugh, I don’t know,” they complained aloud.

Hero looked up then, no longer so intently focussed on the ropes tying their wrists and ankles to the chair they sat in. The knots seemed to be the only thing about Villain's stupid plan that actually worked as intended. The rest was a complete disaster.

When Hero opened their mouth, Villain lunged to their feet and grabbed their bottle of water from the table.

“You must be thirsty, right?” They hastily unscrewed the cap and pressed it to Hero’s lips. “Here, you should drink something!”

Just, please, keep your mouth shut!

Their captive gulped down the bottle's contents without hesitation.

In Villain's honest opinion – and given the circumstances – some reluctance to accept a drink offered by an enemy would definitely have been in order. Not that it mattered; this was only water after all. As if Villain would ever consider giving Hero any additional drugs with possibly even more annoying side effects.

They took a deep breath. Then another.

Thankfully, Hero couldn’t drink and talk at the same time, which granted Villain another moment of peace and quiet. When their captive had emptied the entire thing, Villain begrudgingly set the bottle aside.

Pacing the room, they racked their brain for something to say that might convince Hero to let them rest for just a tiny little bit. Having had no more than two or three hours of sleep during the last two days, Villain was so exhausted their mind seemed engulfed in fog so thick they could hardly locate the words to form coherent thoughts.

They needed a break.

“Listen, Hero.” Villain’s voice took on a pleading tone, but at this point they hardly cared about dignity anymore either. “I just want to lie down for a few hours, okay? Please? I know you’ve got all these fascinating thoughts floating around in your head, but—”

“Oh!” Hero gasped. Their face lit up with vigour. “Let me tell you something really fascinating!” they said, way too enthusiastically and much too loud.

Villain flinched.

If Hero had noticed, they didn’t care. Instead, they started a new, insanely fast-paced monologue that, as all the previous ones had, lacked any kind of a core topic or apparent objective.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake …” Villain’s groan was almost a sob.

How much longer was it going to take for the drugs to wear off?

This was torture.

———

For my other stories, visit my [MASTERLIST] ♥

[aimportantdragoncollector]

I post comments on a lot of your fics and was typing up one about what if AFO watched Scarface instead of Captain Hero. Then the new leaks dropped.

I can't believe this could have been canon. It's a legit AU and not even a crack idea.

We could have a world where AFO took Kotaro from foster care and turned him into a druglord. By the way, he's not AFO. He's All For Drugs. AFD.

The kid eats expensive food every day, has a golden toilet, and there's drugs and money everywhere. There's a constant party lifestyle in AFD's mansion.

Kotaro looks around at this life, swallows a bite of Japanese A5 wagyu steak, and then redirects his anger.

A grown up, blinged out Kotaro is standing at the head of a massive gang of his enforcers. He's got a cane made of platinum in his hands and a grill in his mouth that spells out his name.

He's ranting at All Might about what a fool Nana and his dad were, because they wouldn't be bribed.

"You'll never understand what getting this money is like, All Might! You can't eliminate vice as long as humans live. You can't get rid of crime! But you can control it."

Kotaro asks him to name his price. All Might explains that he's impossible to buy.

All Might says he wants Nana back, and the other OFA holders too. He also wants all the people All For Drugs killed to be alive again. All Might asks if money can buy that.

He tells Kotaro that when you truly believe in something, you're willing to die for your beliefs. Your ideals are more important than you are. It doesn't make sense to Kotaro because he's selfish and has no higher values.

Kotaro calls him and fool and says that money are his morals. He asks what Nana, or the other OFA holders really got for all their defiance. They died like dogs and had nothing, and left behind people who cared about them. All they had to do was take bribes and they'd have been fine.

And so they're forced to fight.

AFD doesn't even care about OFA in this universe. What he wants is money, control, and power. He gave his brother a power so he'd understand what it's like when you can do whatever you want.

The guy didn't want to sell drugs. He ran off to join a vigilante organization. Yoichi got all his morals from Miami Vice in this universe. He, Second, and Third wear suits, drive fast sports cars and use guns.

AFD's calling people cockroaches and threatening to bury them. His last name isn't Shigaraki, it's Montana. He calls himself Tony.

Even after Kotaro's last stand, his kids are now part of AFD's empire.

This news that all of the boys morals came from fictional media can birth hundreds of AUs.

Especially ones based around divine intervention. Their story is like something out of roman myth.

I've never seen Scarface but that is a fun AU! It's interesting to imagine what could have happened if AFO had read different pieces of media instead of Captain Hero and based his life around them. I think it would have been funny if AFO and Yoichi had read a shoujo manga. Yoichi modeled himself after the male lead and became an arrogant ore-sama type, while AFO turned out normal because he empathized more with the second male lead. Or if they'd read an idol manga and AFO, who modeled himself off the villain, became a famous actor who liked to bully rookies. AFO read Star Wars and wanted to become Darth Vader but first he had to get into space, so he devoted his life to building spaceships. AFO read Charles Dickens and became a miserly businessman. Less harmlessly, AFO could have read a mythology book and started a cult. The possibilities are endless.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Iam not a solo, neither an army.

But from what I've noticed, it's damn tough to be a pjm here.

Because you know how everyone's on Jm's dick 24/7? It can get tiring.

There are some newer pjms who have started to move like the cults, but atleast I see seasoned pjms disagree with them. Sometimes even "cancel" them.

Iam starting to sound like Iam defending solos. Haha.

Anyway, I was thinking earlier today. Jm seems to have collected fans who are here mainly for him and his music/artistry. And they do their bit religiously to support him. That's clearly their priority. Good for jm.

Cause you know other members also have large number of solos, but their priority is simply elsewhere.

I don't know if I talked about it here or in private at some point, but my image of pjms used to be so different. Every single group of any kind can easily become this hotbed of insanity because of group mentality. In some cases it's damn obvious, in others less so.

Of course each member has his own fans, there's nothing wrong there, it's quite normal. And for someone like Jimin, given the way he's talked about by armys and every single kpop fandom out there, I get the need of feeling protective. His fans are consistent and dead set on their mission. They don't fuck around and overall, yes, they do focus on his actual artistry. I read some really good analysis and interpretation of his work coming from pjms. They're also all about streaming and buying, but every fanbase is. The game is fucked, I won't be calling out only one group.

But something has really shifted lately and I simply don't understand it. Maybe it's the newer pjms, I have no idea because I have to tell you, I'm no insider to any group. I just don't understand some of the outrageous things they're saying, some of it don't make sense at all.

I was dumbfounded to read how they believed Jimin was forced by the company to go to NY in July and how they should be prepared to see Jimin doing fanservice with JK. What the actual fuck? This is not even about shipping, fuck that. But it was disrespectful to Jimin because he clearly voiced his opinion on that during PTD concerts. And second of all, is he some rookie without knowledge or protection that can be messed around? Forced to do fanservice with someone who he has been friends for 10 years. Someone he obviously cares about, just as he demonstrated he cares about the others as well. But everything needs to be turned into a conspiracy, someone is the victim and the other the most heinous villain. It's like logic and intelligence flew out the window. What's worse is that it's exactly what taekookers say about him. How can his fanbase use that rhetoric? How can they take something from the most horrible group in this entire fandom, the one which attacks Jimin in the most horrible way possible? It's beyond my comprehension. I hope true fans who are not crazy can talk some sense into newer or conspiracy-prone fans. Because it's not right and a damn shame.

[miss-bunny-penny]

by the way I figured writing a Fortnite movie would actually be really easy. I'll give my basic outline below, this is what I thought up like a year ago

-opens with the protagonist just spawning in about to get on the battle bus. Idk who they are but a proper writer is here for that if you want to steal my ideas. The protagonist here represents the player of the game. You in a sense. In my mind they don't know anything about where they are or why they're here

-they board the battle bus and are met by Jonesy, their duos partner. At first Jonesy seems like a dummy but soon after they drop he helps out the rookie protagonist and shows his worth

-tons of opportunities to show licensed characters in early stages of the movie where they can show up for a gag or reference and then get killed off

-Jonesy eventually reveals he's known what he's doing all along and has been guiding the protag to a headquarters, where he explains relevant Fortnite lore to the movie and maybe explains the zero point etc

-jonesy reveals that they need to win their game in order to stop the plots of a villain who wants to do something that could erase existence or something. Movie stakes. This happens in the game too though

-at this point we can introduce various fan favorites like Midas as overarching antagonists who want to win the game for their own ends, maybe show them plotting in earlier parts of the movie and taking out Ramirez on the other side of the map

-of course it culminates in some epic battle where Jonesy sacrifices himself for the rookie, who uses the gun he drops to headshot the evil villain

-door left open for sequels

-basically the movie is structured as a long dramatized version of a regular duos game of Fortnite

-includes Fortnite appeals such as fan favorite characters as recurring threats, Jonesy as your boy, plenty of references to other IPs that please sponsors while making the movie feel authentic to the experience of playing Fortnite where anyone can show up

-basically the rest is just developing more ways to sneak in fun flavorful character cameos and more characters in general. Maybe Peely is an NPC who helps the protagonist and Jonesy by giving them a med kit.

-much potential for fun team combos, could even expand to Trios and make the protagonists a power trio. that would further expand the possibilities for fun and/or flavorful team combinations

-again epic games feel free to steal this. If you do please credit me on the special thanks though. "Miwa" will do fine. Thank you. Also make sure to include Hana she's cute

[wafflesinthe504]

The Rookie 5x12 Thoughts

Spoilers for The Rookie 5x12 below. If you've watched the episode or don't care about spoilers, please enjoy!

Before I really get started can I just give a shout out of appreciation to all the The Rookie gif makers out there. Y'all really snapped tonight. Honestly, I think this is the quickest work you guys have done! Chef's kiss to all the gifs out there.

The cold open of tonight's episode was great. Seeing everyone just pile in all dirty and bruised up due to whatever happened beforehand and a flustered Kelly Clarkson was cool to see. Nyla and Angela being the only ones not covered in dirt because they're detectives was the best part. Their little fist bump was so cute.

But honestly I would really like to know what happened that led to almost everyone being covered in dirt and leaving the scene with cuts and scrapes. Like did something explode, were they in a derelict warehouse and had to fight some bad guys, like what happened?

Anyways, onto the rest of the episode.

I was so happy to see Tamara again. Her just chilling out doing yoga with Lucy trying to play off the fact that she got home late. It doesn't matter how good of a liar Lucy is anybody with eyes can see that her and Tim are dating. The relief that Lucy expressed when Tamara told Lucy that she knew she was dating Tim. Lucy was just happy for someone else to finally know and be able to talk about her relationship with Tim. Our girl was ready to talk about the amazing relationship she has with Tim. Also, Tamara being the reason that Lucy decided that today was the day. Honestly, I want to see Tamara and Aaron meet at this point. Its only right that the captains of the ship get to hang out for a bit.

The return of Oscar Hutchinson is always a delight. Look I know that man has committed plenty of atrocities (mainly stabbing Wesley), but I find him pretty funny. I really like how he's the one antagonist that has really been shown to actively get under John's skin. Any time Oscar is even mentioned is basically becomes the worst day of John's life. Even though Oscar has proven to be a dangerous criminal I just find it funny that his main character trait is to be as annoying as humanly possible. I also really like the fact that even though could have just been born this way every time we meet him its made clear that he just chooses to be this way. As great as sympathetic villains and antagonists are I really enjoy seeing a someone who is just clearly irredeemable and doesn't want to be redeemed either. Oscar just exists to be chaotic and I love it.

As much as I like Celina's character I really do wish that the writers would sort of abandon the idea of Celina having some sort supernatural ability. I feel like the other times were a little bit more believable since there was at least evidence that something was off, but Celina just instantly knowing that Oscar was somehow in danger really threw me off. I mean unless Celina was just messing with him I don't understand why it was necessary to put that in there. At the time there really wasn't any way she would have really known that Oscar was in danger.

I think a better idea would been to just let her notice how off the doctor seemed when she was being threatened.

Bonus: I just love how Nolan is absolutely in love with Bailey and loving the fact that she can totally beat him in fight.

I know I probably say this every week but I just can't get enough of Angela and Nyla. Honestly if wasn't so invested in Chenford they would easily be my favorite duo on the show. They're just so many great layers to them. Both of them are amazing detectives who are also moms and wives with beautiful families. They're both the protectors of their respective families, but they still get to show a full range emotion and complexity and I just really appreciate that.

A lot of the time spent this episode with Angela and Nyla are while they're on a stakeout of a criminal who turns out to be none other than Elijah Stone. When Nyla first found out that Angela lied to her about who they were following I was worried for a little bit that it would be dragged out for dramatic reasons but I'm really glad that they didn't let it fester and had Angela apologize at the end with Nyla accepting the apology. I also really liked seeing Angela be honest about how terrified she is of the current situation and how much pressure she feels on herself right now to be the protector of her family which is something that we know Nyla can relate to with her having to protect James from a robbery in a recent episode.

I just love how much these two have each other's backs. Its great representation of a great friendship that extends beyond the workplace and can healthily work through rough times in their friendship.

Bonus: Angela is pregnant again and Jack is going to be a big brother. The scene at the end with Angela telling Wesley was really cute.

Today was an official end of an era and a beautiful beginning to a new one. Tim and Lucy rode together for possibly the final time (for the best possible reason). Oh, how the tables have turned. We have gone from Tim Tests to Lucy Lessons and it was amazing. Seeing Tim be the one in denial about how objective he can be about Lucy was amusing to watch. That man hasn't been objective about Lucy since season 2. The only one he was kidding was himself with that one.

Lucy doing things just slightly off but knowing that they were things that Tim would usually nitpick about just to prove a point and swiping the earrings just to prove to Tim that he wasn't able to be objective any more when it came to her was an absolute genius play.

I really enjoyed seeing them working together at the house where the doctor's family was being held hostage. Even before I really started shipping them I always liked how well they worked together due to how well their able to balance each other out. Its most definitely something I'll miss, but hopefully we'll still get a few scenes of them together working together later on.

I will say that I am really excited to see what's next for both of them in their careers. For so much of the series their careers have been tied to each other in some way, shape, or form and I wonder what its going to be like seeing them pursuing their careers separate from each other.

I hope that we actually get to see Tim in his new desk job for at least a little bit. For the whole time we've known him he's always been a very physical character and I think it would be interesting to see how he acts be in a much less physical job. As a court liason I could see Tim interacting with pretty much every lawyer we know including the red hair one defending Elijah which could be an interesting dynamic.

Lastly, but absolutely not least the end scene Tim and Lucy succeed in getting 'naked time' with each other. Everything about the last scene with them was just perfect. Lucy cooking them dinner, Tim telling Lucy about his job change, the gentle kiss turning passionate. I loved everything about it.

I can't wait to see more domestic Chenford. Here's hoping the next time we see them they'll be at Tim's place and we can see Kojo again.

Bonus: Tim and Lucy in the parking lot literally could not be any more obvious short of them making out right then and there. Them trying (unsuccessfully) to play it cool in front of Wade.

______________________________________________________________

Hope you enjoyed. If you want come chat with me in the comments about anything The Rookie related.

Until next time have a good day or night.

[x-authorship-x]

So, you have a lot of bookmarks on AO3, which I love to go through, because you have good taste. But I must know, are there any fics, from any fandom, that are pretty much your all time favorites?

Hiya

Yeah I do have a lot 🤭 over 7K on my side of things (I know some people are super picky about what they bookmark but I just do what a finished and liked, and l I like 95% of what I finish anyway, because I prefer to filter my own bookmarks when rereading...) and generally I will say that they're all good in their own ways. My big favs? Regardless of fandom?

Hm.... This is off the top of my head

Disclaimer: be very mindful of tags, warnings, and ratings! This is also not in any way meant to stir discourse and I'll just block people if they try something

Update: had to slash my link numbers as even my drafts (almost twenty of them lol) wouldn't save SO-!

Naruto

Tobirama/Kagami (I tagged this "Kagami hauls ass out of the ground" because I desperately need that shortcut to finding it) ⬇️

Summary: It’s just his luck that whoever revived him lacked the courtesy to summon him onto a nice bloody battlefield. No, instead he’s underground, probably in his own fucking coffin and wearing his own goddamn corpse. He hopes he remembers this when his soul is re-released into the Pure Lands; he’s going to kick Tobirama’s ass for inventing Edo Tensei in the first place.

Mild crossover with Venom, Team 7 genfic BAMFness (this fic is enshrined in my mind) ⬇️ 

Summary: By all accounts, Sakura is dead for the first five minutes of her life.

Yet, she continues. If she occasionally has too many, too sharp teeth then that's their business.

Team 7 & Rookie 9... Hysterical, that's probably the word for this masterpiece of comedy (I cry every damn time it gets to Genma interrupting the alley fight) ⬇️

Summary: Kakashi comes down with a cold seven(ish?) days after he passes his first genin team. He knew children were a bad idea but he didn't think it would change anything this fast.

Bnha/My Hero Academia

This fic is the one I rec to get people to actually read fanfic for the first time (and it always works)⬇️

Summary: Heroes lead by Bakugo.

Villains lead by Midoriya.

Seven days prep time.

Three days for Izuku Midoriya to show why they should be glad he's not a real villain.

The Quirk-science in this Todoroki-centric (subtle reincarnation) fic is just so delicious ⬇️

Summary: Todoroki Shouto has memories that he didn't make on his own, motor skills that his brain doesn't know how to parse, and a love of science and mathematics and physics that means he broke down his Quirk into its most intricate, universe-bending components at the age of seven.

In one universe, he wants to become a hero. In this one, even though he doesn't want to, he might have to.

Hawks-centric fix it BAMFness because hello to that insane quirk, insane backstory training and bleeding heart!⬇️

Summary: After the incident at USJ the Hero Public Safety Commission is concerned about the security of UA. With All Might still a target and a member of the staff they offer to add another hero to their roster to boost their security as well as appease the public.

Hawks does not want this job. He has many other jobs that need doing.

The kids are kind of cool though. They make him laugh.

In which Hawks unwillingly adopts children by the bucket loads and learns some things about himself in turn.

Then the League of Villains happens and his newfound teaching knowledge gives him IDEAS

Okay so this was originally about three times as long BUT Tumblr won't let me post that many links together and it's getting very late for me SO so I'll quit here but...! If anyone wants more recs, the rest of my list (which were other fandoms) or if anyone has a rec for me/my followers, go ahead and drop into my askbox!

Happy reading, Anon! Do let me know if you try any of these and what you think of them! 

[fcb-mv33]

#if Daniel gave that much of a shit about Maxs character#he would have defended him after DTS like max did for Lando#but he never did#so don’t act like Daniel is someone who max should be like

These tags though!!! You don't have to post this because it will clearly be controversial, but Daniel has never really struck me as this "poster child on how to be a good person" that his fans try to paint him as anyway. He's good at being good for PR, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's clearly worked out for him, as evidenced by his passionate fanbase. However, he's had ample opportunities to go against the grain and show that he's actually a good person. And he's failed to do so every time.

During his time at Red Bull, he could have acknowledged Max's talent instead of pulling the victim "they're prioritizing my teammate and not giving me a chance!" narrative. He also had the opportunity to do this with Lando at McLaren. He didn't take either opportunity and instead made excuses. Ironically enough, Alex's F1 career nearly came to an end after "underperforming" versus Max, yet he's ALWAYS talked about how talented Max is. There was nothing but pride and ego standing in the way of Daniel doing that for the same teammates he felt threatened or outperformed by.

He could have called the DTS dogs off the first time they portrayed Max as a villain to further pull the "Daniel is such a victim" card. He, again, had the opportunity to do this with the way DTS portrayed Lando. He didn't defend his teammates either time. Coincidentally, Max was the one who said something when he saw DTS doing the same thing to Lando that they had done to him.

Daniel saw the way Oscar, a rookie, was painted as a villain and received hate and harassment from his stans for doing nothing other than taking the opportunity for a F1 seat. Never said a word to call his guard dogs off and be a decent person.

When he went on that Tom Segura podcast, he had the opportunity to call them out on their sexist, misogynistic, xenophobic jokes. He didn't. Instead he giggled along with him.

Daniel is a funny guy, and clearly he knows how to manipulate and make PR work for him. I don't know that I would go as far as calling him a "good person" due to that. He's a "good person" in a follow the leader sense. If others on the grid are raising awareness for something or taking a stand against racism, he has no problem going along with them. When he's on his own and has the opportunity to be a good person though, he somehow ALWAYS fails to rise to the occasion. I can't say the same for Max - if he believes someone he cares about has been done wrong, he's going to say something no matter how hated or unpopular it makes him; Max is going to stand up for what and who he believes in. I literally couldn't name one thing Daniel believes in despite him driving for 2 teams I support now; he just says whatever the media wants to hear.

I didn’t think anyone would read that tag lmao😭😭but nah I agree with you tbh on all of this.

I liked Daniel i do And i do think he’s a a good person definitely but I also think that he knows how much he is v much loved thanks to his character in the sport and tbh he does know he’s always going to be loved by the fans and just in general the people within f1. I think he did also see how being the way he is a v much something that can protect him as well tbh against being called out over his driving and also his v poor decisions he has done before.

He does talk about how talented max is yes but he has always kinda put the idea that he left cause the team were treating him as the second driver as the reason he left and he never actually came out and told his side to not attack Max or Lando or oscar over him leaving reed bull and getting the sack from Mclaren. He knew what way DTS portrayed Max and he let it go on because he was their poster child which meant that Max had to be the big bad villain and never once did Daniel say “hold on, he’s 19/20 this isn’t how he is and it isn’t fair”. Instead daniel just rolled with it which was his decision sure but people saying he’s great when it comes to calling out shit is so not true because he never called it out like Max did for Lando.

Like do I think his personality is who he is definitely I think he’s always been like this but I do think that he knows it will help him when it comes to the media and being v popular in it. Like you said what you see is what you get with Max, he calls out shit he doesn’t agree with and stands for other drivers so that’s why I don’t get why other fans act like Daniel has helped to mold Max?? When they aren’t exactly the exact same🤷🏼‍♀️

[blorbocedes]

i only started watching f1 after dts, and at first i had a very fandom interpretation of nico. like i thought that he was spoilt and annoying and obsessed with lewis, but after mentioning it to my irl bestie who's watched f1 religiously since she was little, like she remembers (just) jenson and kimi as rookies, i realised that i had misjudged him. my bestie was a huge fan of nico's when he was racing and was so thrilled when he won his championship. not knowing this, i mentioned how obsessed he seemed and she bit my head off lol. her memories of f1 in the brocedes years (she's never engaged in fandom so has no idea what fanon opinion of him is) are so different to what people on f1blr think and it's so strange. i was really happy when i stumbled across your blog and the nicosphere because it gave me such a different interpretation of nico and made me realise how differently people interpret him to the way he actually is/was. honestly kind of in love with him now, and it gives me stuff to talk to my bestie about, although she's not into the whole fandom thing

omg your bestie's hand in marriage right now 💍

cause she's right!!! she's saur right. nico isn't even as obsessed with lewis as fanon likes to make it out to be like bringing him up unprompted, he's Asked about lewis or his own championship when he's commentating.....like he's just doing his job😭 and I say this as someone who is brocedes inclined

obviously I can't claim my opinions are unbiased. they're not. he's my bias deal with it 🔫 but he really has been done so dirty by fandom characterization that people think he actually is the B-grade villain evil ex from sewis fics 😭😭😭 bc that's the only exposure of him they have, and as a fellow newcomer to f1 I can't blame anyone for not knowing about a driver who retired 7 years ago. i can only offer my humble nicology degree and us 5 other nicologists 🫡 it ain't much but it's honest work.......

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Manga) - Vol. 1

This is the manga (or manhua) adaptation of the original Digimon Adventure anime. I got my copy from the library and you can borrow it for free on Archive.org!

Manga adaptations of anime are typically cheap money grabs that just copy-paste from the anime, removing some of the soul of the original along the way. As such, I'm not expecting much from this.

Notes:

Ch. 1

-You can almost always tell when a manga isn't drawn by a Japanese artist, it's just a certain vibe (I know this is technically a manhua). That being said, the art is competent enough. Yuen Wong seems to struggle most when it comes to faces. A lot of the faces look really janky and off model for both the digimon and the digi-destined. The only other thing that's kind of off is that the text boxes are very heavily lined and take up a lot more space than I'm used to.

-When Sora is drawn in chibi-mode she has the straps of her hat up like a rabbit. At first the silhouette was so unfamiliar that I had no idea who it was lol.

-So they covered two episodes in one chapter (up until the Shellmon battle). Let's see if the pace stays that way...

Ch. 2

-This definitely has a similar vibe to most manga adapted from anime that I've read. I wonder if it will diverge from the original material at any point, too soon to judge.

-Tai says to Agumon "I'll do anything but a teeth buffing" and I have nooo idea what that means? (Is he saying "don't eat me?") Also in chapter one Izzy said "baby blue, how emasculating!" when talking about the digivice. I don't think Koushiro would ever say that tbh. I feel like spotting these weird dialogue choices is going to be the most entertaining part about reading this.

Ch. 3

-I guess we're now going at a pace of one episode per chapter, which is fine. Somehow the content still seems a little condensed with a lot of the emotional beats cut out. I feel like the setting changes every two seconds which is giving me whiplash.

-Some weird quirks: the digi-destined call their digimon by their rookie names, even when they're in champion form. Also, the artist really really likes drawing smiley faces as stand-ins for the actual characters. That's like a step below chibification lol

-I think manga like this is perfect for if you wanted to watch Digimon Adventure 02, but you didn't want to catch up on a 50+ episode anime. It's a lot faster to read than to watch. (Although probably not as satisfying overall).

Ch. 4

-More cheesy dialogue. Izzy says "don't mess with an elite hacker" to Tai lol. Koushiro is way more likeable in the original Japanese because localizations loved to make nerds insufferable in the 90s.

-It's funny, I've never thought of Tentomon as robot-like, but in this chapter he said his parts were "short circuiting" and I was like "oh yeahhh...I guess he does have metallic features"

-Did we really need that close-up crotch shot of Andromon?

-You would think that the plot point of there being editable code laying around in random areas of the digital world would have come up again, but I can't remember another time it was really used to the kids' advantage.

Ch. 5

-This panel made me laugh:

(something about this phrasing and the expressionless chibis is so funny).

-And then Izzy never manually triggered a digivolution again...for some reason? (I feel like this was definitely explained in the anime, but I can't remember what they said).

-They didn't censor the poop this time! As usual, you can get away with more in print than you can on the screen B)

-They confirm that you can repel Numemon with sunlight...and then immediately the kids get attacked by more Numemon in broad daylight. Quickest continuity error ever!

-Another chuckle worthy moment:

Ch. 6

-Okay, but this one had me die laughing. Just a really good dad joke:

-Going from Adventure 02 back to the early Adventure days the stakes really do feel lower. No existential conundrums or human/humanoid villains to contend with. Just rampaging digis that can be easily cured.

Ch. 7

-Maybe it's just a translation thing, but sometimes the digimon act like there's one of each digimon species. Like Gomamon says "Unimon's a nice guy!" as if there's one Unimon in the world. Pretty confusing for kids. I wish mon series would just use names (they do sometimes, but it's not the status quo).

Yep, that was pretty generic. I wish they had thrown some more personality in there to make this a unique experience. I would have loved to read some final thoughts from the mangaka or to have gotten an omake of some sort. Ohhh welll...

[shokuto]

You know Cody's writing is very repetitous, and he writes Miles dialogue the way someone from Cali or elsewhere thinks a Black male teenager from NYC sounds, but the idea of Miles reaching a breaking point after everything he's been through (especially the torture), that he seems to be going for in his run, makes sense? The problem is in how he's going about doing it. Like, it's one thing for Miles to feel as if he's losing it, or to feel like he's behaving like a rookie because of his mentals acting up, but it's another thing for others, especially established heroes he's already worked with like Stark, to call and treat him like one. That kinda makes it seem like his insecurities are justified in a way, which they're not. What are your thoughts on Miles having PTSD this run, and do you have ideas on how it should be written?

The other thing is, Cody's deliberate removal of Miles supporting cast sucks, and he only seems to be doing it because he wants a reason to bring in heroes/villains that he enjoys. But he could have handled that differently too. Rather than treating Miles like he knows nothing in order to bring in Misty, he could have had exchanges between Jefferson, Uncle Aaron and Misty where Misty challenges their methods of doing certain things and Miles could then end up using a bit of all of their teachings, plus things that he figured out on his own to enhance his skillset. Instead, it's like Aaron was never part of Miles life, and Rio and Jefferson are irrelevant. There was at least more Miles and Tiana in the latest issues which was really nice to see. But Ganke has said like 8 sentences this run, and he definitely would be someone Miles would talk to about the issues he's having.

I tapped out of this run at issue 5

[hockeyisforthegays]

some preliminary thoughts. i tried to keep this accessible even if you know fuck all about hockey but frankly i have no perspective anymore

gojo satoru is often called the world's greatest goalie. he's basically unbeatable, he stops practically everything

in fact the only player to consistently get past him is fushiguro toji. he's the only person to ever score a hat trick against gojo, like actually ever, and he has done it multiple times.

he's playing the Mental Game he is in gojo's head he is the one person to make gojo nervous enough to make mistakes. at this point the coaches usually keep gojo on the bench against toji's team and start the backup (inumaki) instead

anyway. gojo has the all time record for goalie goals. he WILL always try it and he is unnervingly good at it. other teams live in fear of leaving an empty net when they're up against him because it's nearly a guarantee of humiliation

also gojo's number is 8 officially but he uses his massive swag to convince the people who press the jerseys to put it on sideways like an infinity. also his visor is so heavily tinted its basically sunglasses

this drives the Old Hockey Men TM MAD. if you dk hockey culture idk how to explain this but certain people get mad about players Having A Personality

gojo LOVES driving them crazy

speaking of Old Hockey Men gakuganji is absolutely one. he's the d*n ch*rry of this world (ancient tv commentator with the worst takes about absolutely everything and everyone hates him and he has been allowed to speak for too long)

anyway back to our blorbos

okay so for context rookie players are usually assigned to live with a more established player for the first year or two, like an older guy with a house and a family. there are many reasons for this but i won't get into it now

this is to say fushiguro megumi was gojo's house rookie

hockey media EATS this for breakfast. they love the narrative. son of your one and only rival is now your pseudo-child? we're gonna ask you for comments about this EVERY day

it's hardly actually a thing because toji and megumi are so estranged but every time they play toji's team they do have EXTREMELY awkward dinners together after. toji never pays

yuuji will also be gojo's house rookie after megumi moves out on his own. they're the same age but yuuji joins the league later, as an undrafted free agent out of college

FORWARD LINE of yuuji-megumi-nobara?? im tempted to call megumi and maybe even yuuji a defenseman tho. MAKI is a centre for sure. idk im working it out in my head even though i doubt the particulars of positions matters to anyone reading this

CHOSO is not a player he's yuuji's big brother who comes to EVERY one of yuuji's games

he's what i like to call an in-arena star. like if you're watching on tv at home you probably have no idea this is going on. but if you come to their games with any regularity then you know choso. you love choso. you cheer whenever he's shown on the jumbotron. which is a lot. they're constantly cutting to him for reactions because he has great ones and everyone loves to see them

geto USED to be on their team and had an epic bromance with gojo. he's like a superstar centre. he was the team darling. but then he had a ~villain arc~

havent decided what exactly it is. in hockey it could be anything. like maybe he committed an actual crime or maybe. he just had… gasp… a contract dispute…

the greatest sin of all. asking your employers for money

anyway he's on a different team now and every time they come to play it's full NYI vs John Tavares. meanwhile gojo is sad about it

nanami was trying to go pro as a teen until he realized hockey culture is shit. then he became an analyst instead. now he works for the team in a video-coach-ish role / stats man he and gojo used to play together in high school so gojo's always bugging him. and now gojo's new rookie has started following him around too??? please let him rest

hakari kinji has been suspended for betting on his own games

panda is either the team mascot or a referee. havent decided

you know that post about "fanfic writers who use their real life expertise/special interest to craft highly detailed aus" well what if. what if i used my powers to make a jjk hockey au. what then

[yourheartonfire]

Here it is, the conclusion to Identity Crisis! Thanks again to @gingerly-writing for the original prompt.

This won't make much sense without the prior parts of the story which can be found here: one, two, three, four.

Voices battered against the villain's pounding head. Everything was darkness and agony and they would sell their soul for five more minutes of oblivion. But this wasn't their first rodeo, nor their first time waking up from a concussion, so they gritted their teeth and forced their sluggish brain to turn noise into words.

"...and they really had no idea?" Superhero was saying. "How could they not recognize the person in their bed?!"

The telepath sighed. "Everyone has blind spots. Even you and me."

Superhero shook his head. He was at the wheel of some little sporty two-seater, the telepath beside him, and the villain handcuffed jammed painfully into the tiny cargo area behind the two heroes. They shut their eyes and tried to sort the pain into categories. Oh, it was bad. Agony in their upper left ribs, aching numbers in the left shoulder, and their head throbbed to beat the band. Yeah, a concussion and probably broken ribs and collarbone to go with it. Shit.

"Why do we even need [Hero]?" said Superhero with an un-super whine to his voice. "You said you got the compound formula."

"One, it's still experimental and there's more work to be done before we try enhancing you," the telepath said patiently. "And two, I could say some things about killing a goose that's already laid one golden egg. Trust me, that's a one of a kind mind. We need [Hero] on the team."

"So what do we do with this?" Superhero grumbled, and jabbed a thumb back at the villain. They froze. "They know my ID, they're trying to sell the compound to [Supervillain], and the last thing the team needs is some rookie in love with their villain."

"I agree. Which is why [Hero] will never realize the truth," the telepath said serenely. Her eyes flicked up to meet villain's in the rear view mirror, a vicious smile curling across her pale lips. "I was thinking we let our problem solve itself. After all, [Hero] came to us because [Villain] threatened their civilian lover. How terrible that they hesitated to join us at the cost of their lover's life."

A blink - and suddenly the villain was looking at themself in the passenger seat, smirking back and tenderly holding Superhero's hand. Superhero startled - then burst out laughing. "Oh that's perfect," he crowed. "You're the best, darling."

The villain thrashed and nothing happened. Their body, their voice, made no response. No! they screamed inside their head - because of course the telepath had known they were awake, of course she was still in their head. Leave [hero] alone!

The telepath grinned at them and turned away. "Timing will be everything," she said in villain's voice."You'll want to get there just in time to save [Hero] but tragically too late to rescue their poor civilian lover."

Interesting, you intercede for them and not yourself, echoed her voice inside the villain's head. For that, I'll make your death swift. 

"Hm," Superhero said, stroking his chin. "Can we make this [Hero]'s fault somehow? I don't want to start off with them seeing me as a failure."

"Good idea, sweetheart," the telepath said. "So how do you want to murder me this time?" The two fell to planning villain's murder as the villain once again collapsed into darkness.

Time swam in a haze of pain and bumpy roads. The next thing the villain knew they were on the ground in some filthy warehouse, back in their civilian clothes and handcuffed to a pillar, with a few extra bruises and bloodsplatters. All trussed up to be killed by their own alter ego. Fucking fridged for Superhero's benefit.

But something had gone wrong. The villain sensed it immediately. For one thing, they could hear the fight happening outside. For another, the telepath's control over their body and voice was gone. 

"[Hero]!" the villain screamed. "In here!"

There was a rumble. And then the wall of the warehouse exploded into a rain of shrapnel as Superhero and Supervillain barreled through, locked in all out combat. A moment later the telepath staggered through at a run, followed by a swarm of Supervillain's masked henchmen, clearly too many for her to control all at once.

But the villain's eyes went immediately to the one henchman who leapt gracefully down into a neat tuck and roll, flowing easily through the fight. Beelining straight for them.

The villain opened their mouth - as Superhero landed in a crash of concrete right in front of then. Hero skidded to a stop, eyes wide behind the mask as the city's most powerful super faced them down, body radiating light and power for an attack -

"Stop!" yelled Supervillain and clicked a small device in her hand. 

A tinny hiss and recorded sound filled the room: "You'll want to get there just in time to save [Hero] but tragically too late to rescue their poor civilian lover," said the telepath - in her own voice, no mental tricks to hide it. "Hm," replied Superhero. "Can we make this [Hero]'s fault somehow?"

The Supervillain clicked off the recording with a smirk.

Superhero's glare raked across the hero, standing arms out between him and the  villain. But he powered down. The telepath also dropped her hands, glowering. The henchmen backed away from her cautiously, into to the shadows.

"You tapped this scumbag's phone?" Superhero said through his teeth. 

"Hacked it, technically. Are we done here? Ready to slink away?" Supervillain said sweetly, crossing her legs into lotus position where she floated in the air. 

"This isn't over," the Superhero snarled, but in a rush of displaced air he and the telepath were gone. The hero let out a gasp of relief, fell to their knees to yank the villain free of the cuffs. The villain tried to stand, or at least to lean in an insouciant position. But they immediately collapsed into their arms with a moan of pain.

"Poggers," said the Supervillain, untangling herself in a swift backflip. A snap of her head and her too-bright eyes locked on hero who looked up sharply. "Looks like you got yours..."

The hero gulped, but dug into their pocket, flicked a thumb drive up. Supervillain caught it, gave an ironic salute. "Pleasure doing business, kid. Good luck running for your life."

She sailed out into the night, her henchmen following.

The warehouse was abruptly, utterly still, the only sound the distant roar of traffic and the creak of settling metal.

"[Hero]," the villain whispered. The hero shook their head, not looking them in the eye. They hadn't looked them in the eye once.

"Supervillain hacked your phone after you called her about... about my research," they said softly. "She heard Superhero grab you, so she found me, played me the tape..."

The villain swallowed, though there had been no doubt when the hero entered the room what the hero knew. "And you made a deal," the villain finished hoarsely.

The hero nodded, hands trailing awkwardly down the villain's sides. "God, you look awful," they said. "Can you walk? Your car is outside-"

The villain grabbed the hero's hands. "I have money!" they gulped out. "Hidden away. And a safe house. No one knows it, not even any other villains. I mean if you're running, let me help." They swallowed, gripped the hero's hands tighter. "Let me come."

The hero sat back on their heels. For the first time they met the villain's gaze and the villain's breath caught on the naked pain and confusion in their eyes.

"Did you break my leg on purpose so you could do... whatever this was?" the hero asked.

"Yes," the villain said.

The hero blinked. "What... is this? Why did you do this? You hate me!"

The villain was already already shaking their head. "No. No. You're the best part of my life. Please. You came back to save me - you have to know there's something here worth salvaging!"

The hero dropped their gaze down to their intertwined hands. Gently they pulled free.

"Let's get out of here," they said, pulling villain to their feet. "We can talk about it in the morning."

But in the morning the villain woke aching and alone in a hotel room, their car keys on the dresser and the bill paid. There was no note - they tore the room apart looking for it until the hotel manager threatened to charge for a second day.

It was a long, lonely convalescence in the villain's tasteful little safe house. It was poorly advised, but still villain couldn't help following the local cape gossip obsessively. Apparently Superhero and Supervillain were at loggerheads over a supposed superhero serum that turned out to be a sham. And Hero was gone without a trace.

The villain moved on. The villain made themselves forget. The villain came back better than ever with new schemes, new plans, new crimes.

They hadnt had a plan last time, had tried to have it both ways. But now they had defined their priorities, verbalized their goals, built their way upwards.

When their hero re-emerged, this time the villain would be ready.

[heizuha-queen]

Hello! It's that girl who doesn't know when to stop coming up with more headcannons at 2am in the morning again.

Another idea sparked in my head.

You know how it's common for K-pop idols to have solo activities such as joining a variety show?

Have you heard of Busted! ?

Not sure if you've heard about this variety program. It airs on Netflix and currently have three seasons. The cast members consists of various celebrities ranging from comedians to actors to idols. Exo Sehun and Gugudan Sejeong are actually members of that show as well. (Btw, Sehun even low-key dressed up as KID once. It was a masterpiece. Period)

The show is a mystery/detective game program. The cast have to solve puzzles and search for clues to complete the missions given. The best part of the program is that the production team doesn't make the cast solve stupid, kid puzzle games.

They have to solve actual, scary, cases. Murders. Robbery. Conspiracy stuff.

So....

What if... Kazuha joins a program like this as a cast member?

I believe she would actually be perfect to join the show for several reasons:

1. Her intelligence

We've seen that she is actually very smart. Her deduction skills may not be as sharp as Heiji's, but we were shown in canon how Kazuha is actually very intelligent, even able to decipher the dying message of the victim in the Heiji Vs Kazuha episode. (If you remember, even Kogoro & Ran weren't able to solve it)

Not just that, remember how in the 7th Movie, Kazuha was able to come up with a really smart way to save Heiji from getting killed by that masked man by just using her sock and rocks?

If she were to join the cast, she'll be a valuable asset that could help them solve the missions much more quickly due to her wits.

2. Her physical prowess

Okay, to be honest, it's not necessary for the cast members to be proficient in martial arts. However, her aikido would definitely be a huge bonus. Imagine a scene where the cast members were all scared and being chased by something (like a villain, criminal,etc) As everyone is running away to not get caught and lose or something, Kazuha just stands there like a badass and back flip the villain like... Wouldn't that be totally awesome?

The production crew may or may not advise Kazuha to not repeat that so the staff members won't turn down their job as future villain roles.

(Also, ever since the back flip incident, the internet may or may not vote her as the most badass K-pop idol to live)

3. Her popularity

Since I think everyone on your blog agrees that Kazuha will be extremely popular, imagine the viewers she would attract to watch the program. It wouldn't be just the Korean audience. Her international fans would watch. Her Japanese audience would watch. Her group's fan would watch.

Of course, most importantly, Heizuha fans would loyally watch every episode as they pray that Heiji would miraculously guest on one of the episodes since they're thirsty for any Heizuha interaction.

(Even a cameo phone call would be enough tbh)

4. Her experience

I strongly believe that no matter how hard Kazuha's agency tried to avoid scandal by hiding the fact that Kazuha has been to a lot of cases and crime scenes (because of Heiji), the internet still discovers it. Hence, the producer of the show believe that she would perfect since she has experience and know how to ACTUALLY act when trying to do detective work. Her attitude would make the (fake) murder case looks real and legit, hence bringing more quality to the show.

5. Her relationship with people who are in the field

I think that, over time, people would discover that Kazuha is a daughter of a very notable and respectable police officer. Due to that, in a way, I think people would trust Kazuha's instinct more on the show, and indirectly, she would unconsciously lead the cast members to solve the mystery without being explicitly bossy nor pushy.

I would also LOVE to imagine that in those EXTREMELY RARE instances where a mission becomes extremely hard, for instance, they've spent longer time than necessary on a clue, the production crew gives them a chance to call someone and ask for help. (Tbh the production crew could just straight up tell them the answer, but where's the entertainment value in that?) Most of the time people would ask Kazuha to call for help since she has connections to a bunch of smart people who could solve the clue in just a few minutes. ( ie; her dad, Heiji).But of course, (for the sake of entertainment lol), the cast prefer if she calls Heiji for help. (Hence, why Heiji makes some cameos on the show through phone calls)

Let's be real, the production crew and cast members are (low-key) hardcore Heizuha shippers.

6. Her personality

She may be hot-headed at times, but that just adds charm to her personality you know? It also sometimes help the cast stay in check to help out with the investigation. At the end of the day, her determination to complete a mission yet adorableness in her interactions are really what makes people love her so much. Her frankness and straightforwardness also helps her forge genuine friendships with the rest of the cast members and production crew. From the show, people could see more than a properly-trained K-pop idol on stage. Rather, a smart individual who is also a human. People get to see her as herself, not just a celebrity.

Of course, I don't think she'll immediately join the program as a rookie K-pop idol. Maybe 5/6 years after her debut, where members of her group are all exploring their own individual solo career?

Although on another note, can you imagine how Heiji would react when she's on the show.

I bet Heiji watches every episode of the show but never admits it. He would also get frustrated when everyone on the show takes too long to find a hint, but have this huge proud smile on his face whenever Kazuha solves it.

Of course, Heiji would tease Kazuha for every small thing she did on the show when they facetime or call each other in private. Just because~

I also imagine Kazuha having to change Heiji's name on her phone to something neutral that doesn't indicate that they're dating. Ever since joining the show, she also has to change the lock screen of her phone since she could be asked to call Heiji for help without any warning. (Better safe than sorry)

I guess that's all for this random shot of headcannons. I hope you enjoy them!

Ps; By the way, if I do end up writing Heizuha fanfics (WE DESPERATELY NEED MORE!!), I'll let you know 😊

Umm PLEASE NEVER LEARN TO STOP BECAUSE I LOVE READING YOUR HEADCANONS!

I really love the idea of Heiji appearing in phone calls and I can imagine him watching every episode. It’s a routine that no one can break for him😂😂

[salvatoreschool]

Julie Plec Says Josie and Landon Will Face 'Relationship Hurdles' in Legacies Season 2

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 premiere episode of Legacies. Read at your own risk!]

Legacies sure didn't waste any time doling out emotional devastation in Season 2. Though we were expecting Hope's (Danielle Rose Russell) exile in Malivore to last longer than it did, we're glad to have her home — even if no one else is.

A quick recap: While the witches, werewolves, and vampire students at the Salvatore School all went their separate ways to enjoy summer vacation, the tribrid they'd forgotten spent her vacay trapped in a hell dimension. But it didn't take her long to realize that her plan to destroy Malivore by throwing herself into the pit probably didn't fully work because her vampire side is still dormant on account of the fact she's never died before. C'mon girl, rookie mistake!

So while she and Clarke (Nick Fink) toiled away inside Malivore together, Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) spent his summer drowning himself over and over again in order to get glimpses of the love he'd lost but couldn't quite remember. Josie (Kaylee Bryant) eventually gave him a serious lecture on self-harm, though, and they ended up developing a budding new romance.

That was all well and good... until Hope found a way to free herself from Malivore and return to Mystic Falls. The catch to this fortuitous turn of events, of course, is that exiting Malivore didn't restore anyone's memories of her, meaning all of Hope's loved ones have no idea who she is. This girl just just can't catch a break!

TV Guide spoke with showrunner Julie Plec about this latest devastating development, and what it means for Hope and all her friends moving forward.

What was the most fun part about creating a world in which no one remembers Hope?

Julie Plec: I really wanted to see how Alaric (Matthew Davis) handled himself without his sidekick. His relationship with Hope is such a great Giles-Buffy dynamic, and when left to his own devices, without her as his co-captain, I wanted to see what that looked like. Where we had fun was in how we rebuilt that relationship even though he has no idea who she is.

Now that she's back, how is Hope going to navigate this world where everyone she loves has no clue who she is?

Plec: She's got a real big decision to make. She's got to decide, 'Do I just knock on the front door of the school and say, hey I'm back and here's who I am,' or does she follow that instinct in her head — whether it's true or not — that everyone's better off without her? It's not a decision that she can make right away. It's not even a decision that's going to be smart when she makes it, and that's part of the fun of her character. She's so strong and yet she's capable of making these kind of emotional mistakes, and I want to see how that goes for her.

Is there any hope left that she could get people's memories of her back?

Plec: If and when she chooses to stay, it will presumably be because she thinks that there's a world where she can fit back into her old life again. But it's a precarious existence episode to episode, and it does a number on her emotionally. She wants so much to be back in the comfort of the world that she left behind, but she also knows that in doing so she'll be more disruptive than she will be beneficial, and that gives her pause.

What can you tease about how this Hope-related memory loss will shift things around with all the relationships she'd built with people at the Salvatore School?

Plec: She meets everybody as a stranger, and her decision on how to engage with each of these individual people is a lot of fun to watch.

Clarke seems to have recommitted to being his father's minion, but we did see a softer side of him in the premiere. How much of him is capable of being saved?

Plec: I think any time a villain makes a decision to be a bad guy, it's based on feeling deeply and emotionally wounded. There's always hope for them to be redeemed, but first he's got to get himself out of there. So, we'll see how that goes.

As for this new ominous, hooded figure we saw, can you say anything about this person and how worried we should be about what he or she is up to?

Plec: I can say that its identity is a mystery and a fun reveal when the hood finally comes off.

How long can we expect to wait to see Peyton Alex Smith again, since Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith) is still very much trapped as a wolf?

Plec: Well, I can tell you you won't have to wait too long, but it's also not immediate... It definitely is not an easy transition back into his regular life. He is someone who's always struggled, so he's used to the struggle. It's so hard, especially for Landon seeing his friend suffer so much. So it's going to really drive Landon to want to do something to help Raf make it through this hard time.

What's on tap for Josie and Landon romantically this season now that they've acknowledged the connection between them?

Plec: They have such a sweet friendship that they were able to build over the first episode that becomes romantic, and those are the best ones in a lot of ways. They're the ones that [are] built [on] a solid footing. But also, they're two very co-dependent people, who really like taking care of other people. They're not really used to people taking care of them, so it creates a lot of early relationship hurdles that are sort of fun and sad all at the same time.

And just for my peace of mind, does Landon have a phoenix resurrection limit we should be worried about?

Plec: That is the question, and it's the question we will be asking every time he goes down, because we don't know.

My nerves are going to love that, so thanks.

Plec: So will Hope's and Josie's.

Josie seems to have dropped the Ascendant thing, for now, having found out about Evil Uncle Kai (Chris Wood), but is that door firmly shut or should we keep an eye on it?

Plec: Well, it's never firmly shut because it's something that is haunting them from afar. It's the thing that's going to impact their future, but they definitely do make a pledge to each other that they're going to try to live their lives, in spite of it.

Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) has a new love interest headed her way in Sebastian (Thomas Doherty). What can you say about how their relationship will develop?

Plec: He smolders, let's just put it that way. He's mysterious, he's probably a little dangerous, he's that great, old-school creature that we all used to love. Dropping him into a contemporary, newly woke universe is probably not the best place he's ever been, and yet it's fun to watch an old-school vampire learn the rules of being a new-school vampire, especially when MG is the one teaching those rules.

We also know Aunt Freya (Riley Voelkel) will be paying us a visit this season, so what can you say about what brings her back around?

Plec: One thing I can say about Riley's episode is that it's not Hope who goes and brings Freya to Mystic Falls. It's somebody else, which I think will be an interesting dynamic.

Twitter also very much wants to know, what are the odds of seeing Penelope Park (Lulu Antariksa) back in Season 2?

Plec: I love how much everybody loves Penelope Park, and maybe one day.

Legacies airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Christian Magalhaes

Storyboard by: Jean-Sebastien Duclos, Sam King, Jason Reicher

Directed by: Jason Zurek

Dangerous!

We begin this adventure in a dark and stormy night, caused by a villain who calls himself Dr. Atmozfear. GizmoDuck shows up and attempts a one-liner about how he's going to rain on his parade. It's made quite clear this was not his best line, even Dr. Atmozfear points out that he must not really be trying, but Gizmo has an excuse: not only has he spent better one-liners against two other weather-based villains, he is so overworked as a superhero that he couldn't re-up his puns.

Showing that off even more, he gets a phone call right in the middle of this encounter, showing that he's so busy, even explanations about how he's so busy gets interrupted. The villain even says almost exactly that; his other part of his villainy is explaining the joke. He eventually punches him out, and uses the exact same one-liner he used slightly more confidently, much to Dr. Atmozfear's derision. Pointing out your jokes aren't funny isn't usually a good idea, but it does work for the rest of the plot.

After taking care of that umpteenth villain, we see Huey and Webby waiting for Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera to show up. Webby still doesn't know who GizmoDuck's secret identity is, but Huey does, and he desperately tries to keep the secret as Fenton walks out of an alley coincidentally after GizmoDuck crashes into that alleyway and disturbs a cat. Webby connects the dots immediately, and asks Fenton if his GizmoDuck suit has a toilet in it.

Thankfully, he never answers that question, but he does have to add Webby to the growing list of people who know his secret identity. He decides to walk into an electronics store to find a birefringent beam splitter, only to be blasted.

No, not by a ray gun, but by a bunch of TVs. This electronics store decided to have every news channel play at the same time. Yes, I know, it's to show that every news station in Duckberg is talking about that amazing superhero. Well, one of these news reports ends up being very apparent to me, and it's easy to see why.

Tom Kenny: So once again, the day is saved, thanks to Gizmoduck!

I was so glad I wasn't drinking coffee here, because I would have spit it out, got it all over my keyboard, and had yet another excuse to delay a review. It's been so long since I've heard anything like that in a current show, and I didn't expect to hear it here, of all places. Fenton asks around for those birefringent beam splitters, and someone helps him out.

This lady knows what that is, and throws it to him. Fenton just can't believe someone else would know what a birefringent beam splitter is, with the implication that he can't believe that it would be her in particular. She doesn't exactly call him out on it, but she does say that working with hard physics can be hard for a rookie.

Fenton defends himself, saying that he's actually scientist for McDuck Enterprises. Not impressed, she talks about how he's into "sellout science", and that she doesn't kiss up to zillionaires and play by any rules. Eventually, he claims that he's working on a dangerous project for himself, playing himself as if he had a dangerous personality, and, with both curiosity and extreme doubt, she wants to see his lab. Fenton just goes along with it, acting like he's the great inventor for Scrooge McDuck.

While this conversation is happening, a different kind of dot-connecting happens with Huey and Webby. Webby is confused about all of this, but the great student of the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook knows this has to be the romantic courting of adults. This one doesn’t have any separate B-plot, but it’s as close as we get here.

It doesn’t help their interpretation that this lady just took his phone and put her phone number in it, with her name, revealing her as this reboot's version of Gandra Dee. From what I can remember, and from what I could see from reading wikis, this is a very different character than the one from the original outside of the "love interest to Fenton Crackshell" part. So yeah, she bought it.

After the "animated character who only wears one outfit deciding between two identical suits" joke, Huey and Webby respond that he should dress to impress his new date. Fenton denies it, saying this is just a melding of the minds. Sure, it would eventually blossom into a relationship that will last as long as they live, but it's not a date!

M'Ma Cabrera shows up, and ends up giving him dating tips and a nice suit to wear for the date that used to be his father's. Also, if she breaks his heart, she promises to come and dismantle her life. She won't fulfill that promise...yet.

Turns out, it's not just Huey and Webby that's assuming this is a date and not the "melding of the minds" Fenton claims it is, as even Launchpad congratulates him on it. For the first time since Season 1, we see Launchpad being able to park his car after recklessly driving. After wrecking his car for the last few episodes we saw him driving it, it's good to see that gag come back.

Gandra Dee: Nice upgrade, Suit. Yeah, you’re definitely the bad boy of science.

Oh, please don’t remind me of that one episode of the other show. He still tries to play this off as a non-date, and doesn't help anything that the latest hit song that's playing on the radio is "It's A Date (Don't Let Him Fool You)". At least he's comforted, knowing that his "interns” are preparing "his" lab.

...and they prepared an Italian restaurant instead, much to Fenton's disapproval, as this was supposed to be "his" lab that he is totally not just an intern for. As for what happened to the actual inventor for McDuck Enterprises:

Gyro: (locked behind a door, banging) You will rue the day!

Webby shows up as the waiter, telling them about the special of the day: spaghetti! She then begs them to choose that, as that's all they made. Of course, they just want to recreate that scene from Lady and the Tramp. Gandra Dee doesn't have any interest in that spaghetti, and she has to walk away to answer a phone call.

They reveal pretty much right at this moment that Gandra is actually working for...oh, boy, Mark Beaks. I get his gimmick, but he was never a villain I felt joy in seeing. Not helping anything is that he's played as this stalker, constantly giving her phone calls.

She already said she works for herself, but could this just be a cover-up for her being a spy? Not helping anything is that, right before the commercial break, Gyro gets out of that door, and, out of pure instinct, she knocks out Gyro with an electric shock from her hands. How she does that will be explained later.

Beak is also drinking this blue stuff, which he will drink in almost every scene until they reveal what exactly it is. Chances are, considering he's drinking it out of glass vials, it's not Gatorade.

As an aside to all of that Italian restaurant stuff, Fenton gets to show off some of his inventions. There's no implication that at least some of these are actually Gyro's, so at least he seems honest about this. This includes a spray that makes anything taste like glazed donuts, and a solvent that melts anything but the hardest diamonds. Surprisingly, the latter doesn't really do that much in this episode. As for the former, she does ask this question:

Gandra: What if the person doesn't like glazed donuts?

Fenton: What kind of monster doesn’t like glazed donuts?

I can smell the callback from here! She shows off a few inventions of her own, telling him to look in her eyes and hold her hand on two separate occasions. Anyone can guess where that ends up with the "Huey and Webby's perfect date" plot. These actually turn out to be eye cameras and nanobot-powered way for her to use her body's electricity to shock people. Yeah, really showing you're not evil there.

Speaking of which, she then talks about how she's not like those pencil-pushers that talk...and then asks if there's a certain other word for talking. We then cut to Mark Beaks listening closely to this conversation. His patience runs out that getting only one of the words he needs, he decides to do a Plan B: infiltrate the lab himself.

The McDuck Manor’s security may not be as high as it was during the 87 Cent Incident, but he still has robot seagulls that shoot any intruder in sight with lasers.

Mark Beaks is this amazing laser dodger now, dancing around them to the tune of that "It's A Date" song from earlier. One thing that does fit him is that he takes out his phone and hacks into the seagulls.

In the middle of all of that, he dabs, because of course he does. Yes, this screenshot really needed to be by itself, and it also speaks for itself. Oh, that Beaks. Oh, and this line shows up, too, as soon as he gets into a vent.

Mark Beaks: (music stopping) What, no signal? Boo!

The importance of having a local music library instead of relying on streaming, a lesson brought to you by Disney.

Cutting back to the lab again, Fenton decides to show off his ultimate invention: a paddleball! We get the real Chekov's Gun for the episode here: the ball from the paddleball is made out of Fentonium, a frictionless material that actually gets faster every time it gets hit. It creates energy, it's named after him, and most importantly, it's dangerous. That's the word of the day for this episode.

They get back to that restaurant. Unfortunately, the spaghetti they rigged to force that kiss has come untied. Huey shows up to start singing as a distraction, while Webby tries to re-tie that spaghetti. Before she could, she notices a phone buzzing, with a message and a ton of voicemails from Mark Beaks, in the date's pocket. Any plans for potential romance are stopped here, needless to say.

After listening to those voicemails, no plot holes here, Webby reveals to Huey about the big plan: Gandra was sent to get her to record Fenton’s voice saying something that can be altered into “Blathering Blatherskite.” Huey gets Fenton, and while he can't believe he finally found someone who sees him as more than just Gizmoduck's not-so-secret identitty, he is none too happy to hear the bad news.

He's not even that mad about how she's a spy, though that certainly doesn't help, but that she ended up being yet another person that only sees him as the guy that turns into GizmoDuck. He eventually just outright says "blathering blatherskite", possibly by accident, possibly intentionally, I'm not sure which, and asks if this is what she wanted.

It turns out to be something someone else wanted. Mark Beaks shows up, and because Fenton just said the words, he doesn't even have to edit any recordings together when he just has that! That codeword activates the machinery in his body, including the nanites he's been drinking and stolen Gizmo tech, and even just one of them could give him strength beyond strength. He drank a bunch of those.

Yeah, that Mark Beaks, he sure knows the internet, whether it be desperately trying to be a memelord, or pandering to D...okay, fine, that joke is way too easy here. Also, insert a joke about a certain Metal Gear Rising villain here.

After Mega-Beaks shows off his massive pecs, GizmoDuck is left with no choice but to fight him. GizmoDuck mostly fights using the usual slapstick, using giant hammers, pies, and even an airhorn that doesn't make that infamous sound effect. Mega-Beaks, on the other hand, uses as much brute strength as TV-Y7-not-FV can allow. I guess since he's in a robot suit, they can get away with it.

One would expect after all of that stalker behavior from, Gandra would go up to that wannabe Adonis and give him the shock treatment, and when Webby uses her old fashioned camera’s flash to distract him long enough to give Gizmo the upper hand...

Gandra: I'm sorry, Suit.

That's not what really happens.

Half of this episode is just wondering if Gandra Dee is going to do a full-on mole reveal. She made her motives clear already: she'll do anything for science, but she doesn't work for anybody. She tries to pass this off, but Fenton, growing a spine, finally calls her out for being a crook. She leaves, her intentions never really becoming clear.

Mega-Beaks goes all King Kong with the kids, hanging off of his own building. He even says himself that this is all because he wants the attention.

This is where I'll just say watch the episode for the rest, as I already summarized enough. I will say it's not entirely predictable, but anyone could guess that Mega-Beaks will eventually lose his muscle.

Another thing anyone could guess is that Gandra eventually turns on Beaks...but her reasoning isn't entirely out of a desire to be good. Gandra Dee herself is an interesting character, and it could pay off in future episodes.

How does it stack up?

I liked this one. Not as much of a high Happy as the last episode, but a Happy nonetheless.

The next one is pretty big.

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[twitchesandstitches]

When it comes to this "thicc crossover AU", will the girls from Monster Musume be there too? What about digimon since they're interdimentional beings (and in a scrapped script for Adventure02 they were supposed to arrive from space) or maybe humanized version of the Godzilla kaijus? (Ghidorah, Gigan, Megalon, SpaceGodzilla and many others either comes from space or have been in space.) Or what about Rayman, Warcraft or Skyrim?

The answer to all of these is a BIG RESOUNDING YES.The first relevant detail is that in the thicc crossover AU, ya gotta be sure whether it refers to membership in the MILF fleet or not; they’re a large group, but they don’t comprise every group in everything, ever, that i personally happen to like! They may be part of other factions, antagonist or otherwise, or be people they meet along the way, or groups with their own agendas, doing their own thing.

Additionally, I lean towards some things where I don’t much care for groups in general or know much abou the canon, but i find species really interesting, and in which case, those species form large amounts of background characters; different factions might have a lot of monster girls, orks, or elves or Digimon somewhere in the background. So even if specific characters aren’t mentioned, the species certainly are there somewhere.

Monster Musume - In this case, the monster people of Monster Musume are explicitly the same kind of beings as the monsters of Undertale, and are either a seperate sub-group tha tsplit off from an analogue to the kingdom of Asgore a long time ago, or have attempted to coexist with humans, possibly in various dangerous environments where they protect humans in exchange for the humans being their lovers to reproduce the monster girls. I have an AU of Monster Musume with a MILF vibe, where the monster gals of canon are notably older than Kimihito and protect him, and the idea of a polyamorous relationship is set up from the beginning. They’re also much bigger than in canon, with even Papi dwarfing a human (and being a major shortstack, to boot), and far more monstrous and inhuman in appearance, leaning more towards the ‘monster’ part of the equation.

As Undertale-style monsters, these gals are effectively masses of living magic, perhaps being species that in the AU taken on a form that has some weight in the collective consciousness; hence, monster girls adopting forms similar to human mythological concepts. They are thus vulnerable to raw hatred, but are enormously powerful, not to mention curvaceous. But that goes without saying in this AU. Assume that the monsters in general are huge, towering over humans by several times.

My interest in the series is limited to mostly liking the fan art, that slice of life monster girl series that preceded it, reading a few chapters, and liking minor character like Cathyl and Tionishia. Consequently, most of the characters of significance are not part of the MILF fleet, though they may be part of associated groups that could merge with them over time or are considered cousin fleets. They’d likely be allies, but not part of the core group? Tionishia would be an exception, and definitely part of the main group. If you like, I can go into more detail about how the monster girls differ from canon, in their size and monstery looks.

Digimon: an interesting case! Digimon was one of my biggest and first true fandoms (alongside Transformers, Gargoyles and similar series, which may explain why i love nonhuman protags so much), so of course they gotta be in here somewhere. In this case, I’m drawing a bit on the old notion of Cyberspace that was used a lot in Digimon, and while I’ve mentioned this before, it bears repeating.

The Digital World here is effectively the old concept of cyberspace as its own realm; all data and information takes on a life of its own, and the Digimon are self-aware emanations of this realm, effectively AIs with inherent power that may or may not be magic-ish in nature. Mostly the tone is inspired by the original Digimon world, with aspects from the first two seasons and Tamers: Digimon are effectively immortal, having a symbiotic relationship with the mortal planes; cyberspace is basically born in individual servers, and may take on its own life if those servers ceased to function, but it would be a chaotic and distressed life.

All Digimon that are canon, and plenty that aren’t, can be in the AU as background characters, with a few rules. Firstly, Digimon normally do not enter into the physical world on their own, existing mostly within the realms of cyberspace. They can slot into mechanical bodies or upload themselves into robots and operate them, but they don’t have any special powers; however, they do have access to a lot of computing power, and serve as the dedicated AI networks of the fleet’s ships, maintaining things for everyone, regarding it as diving into a strange and alien world.

Digievolution levels might be based on an individual Digimon’s complexity, and most spend their time in Rookie or Champion levels, stabilizing there; they can digivolve into stronger forms, but this doesn’t often last long, and as they weaken, they will enter weaker forms until they hit Baby and In-Training, and then must recuperate. ADditionally, they are becoming less complex as they devolve, and find the experience unpleasant, like losing bits of your mind for a while. (if you’re familiar with eclipse phase, they are basically infomorphs.)

Some Digimon can assume hyper curvy monster girl forms, if it pleases their aesthetics. Rarely, they can directly materailize into the physical realm, though this often requires a partner to help them, and its often a revolving set of different people they happen to be friends with. Common Digimon include Guilmon and Tentomon, and canon characters, including Digimon, are present throughout the AU in the different factions, though fairly different from canon; Digi-Destined is not a relevant thing here. They might be technicians working closely with the Digimon or explorers into the data realms, though.

Godzilla: I’m also including Gamera here. And yes, it’s very possible! In this AU, the kaiju of Godzilla and similar series are all canon, and are explicitly divine entities that embody concepts predating humanity. They are god-like figures that don’t hate humans, and at worst are indifferent to them, perhaps embodying the need to achieve symbiosis with the world rather than attempting to dominate it (and the hubris to follow). The ‘Good Kaiju’, such as Godzilla and their followers, may regard humans with vague interest, such as one might give to ants that spell out your name, and don’t mean them harm. They are likely worshiped across the cosmos, and have no direct link to the fleet; Godzilla or GAmera might have some connection to the fleet, but it may be as incredibly potent summons they might put enormous effort into calling forth… and since this involves being pregnant with the being in question before they are ready to materialize, this is a heavy duty. The kaiju might then take on some of the summoner’s characteristics, and take a shine to them.

The malicious monsetrs, such as Ghidorah, are spare-faring agents of raw destruction, gods of annihilation that wipe away all they see, perhaps as primordial architects of the mysterious cataclysm… or involved in it in some way, in the same way that the ocean is involved in the sinking of Atlantis. It didn’t cause it, but it certainly ended the continent all the same. They can also be hyper curvaceous and giantesses, as that seems to be an aspect of enough magic power in this AU? The villains might pregnancy-summon them in a fashion. Possibly the Cobalts have a kaiju or two in their repertoire, but it would have to be one that is sufficiently mild. Or it might be something like Destroyah, a hyper curvy monster girl in their hands, that has been tamed and soothed by their attention. She’s something like their kraken now, or even toes their flagship while slumbering, awakening only when they want something to feed her bloodlust?

Rayman: I can see Rayman being it’s own world/demiplane within the realms of magic, Rayman himself as a kind of protector golem (which is sorta canon) and the fairies as magical lords over their world, with the world itself as their domain. Of these, Edith Up is likely to be the most relevant because have you seen her, she is ADORABLE. The Razorbeard Pirates can certainly make suitable space pirate antagonists, perhaps as part of a criminal organization that tends towards more malicious deeds than suits the like of the Cobalts.

Warcraft: The Blizzard franchises are all looped together here, Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo and the other Heroes of The Storm games are part of a complicated network of alliances, rivalries and foes right by a particuarlly nasty magic rift where all kinds of power leaks from across the planes. Celetials and fiends can emerge here, embodiments of justice and evil alike, and have orchestrated terrible wars and conflict, and so the events of Warcraft may have happened in such a fashion; orcs (or orks) were manipulated by demons that are efffectively the Burning Legion but with a more Diablo aspect into war against the Alliance (a faction of humans, human relations, eldar, and others, all tightly tied to magic more than other spacefaring human societies) in a desperate hunt for a new homeland. Thrall emerged as per canon, rising up and uniting the dispossed into a true Horde looking out for each other, and is heading a tentative alliance between the various good-ish forces against the literal demons from Hell, including the Starcraft, Overwatch and other Blizzard properties.

Name a Horde race, and it likely has denizens aboard the fleet, as well as the other factions present. Something similar would apply for the other factions throughout. Named characters are trickier, since I don’t know much about them in general; the united group of Heroes of the Storm are likely their own entity, and big enough to serve as a proper sci fi fleet that can stop demons and monsters from escaping that area of space, and may regard it as their duty to protect the rest of the multiverse from letting those things get loose. Alextrasza, however, is an exception; I’ve read about her and cool badass dragon mom who is kind to all beings and once swallowed a bad guy whole, WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT HER SOONER. She is definitely on the fleet, but in what capacity I’m not sure.

Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls setting is likely a lage expanse of space, heavily influenced with raw magical energy, but considering the weirdness of the original setting, it might also do as a demi-plane within the magical realms. In any case, the gods and daedra are likely to be worshiped throughout the multiverse. Malacath might have some vague approval of the milf fleet, while Molog Baal is a major antagonist because he FUCKING DESERVES IT THE ASSHOLE. Possibly some of the mightiest fleet moms are plotting to devour him and take his power for their own, or the goddesses associated with the fleet are deliberately scheming to do just that. Sanguine, in contrast, is probably backing the Cobalts for the fun of it.

The races in the Elder Scrolls can make up a wide variety of background characters throughout the cosmos; in general, assume that if you’re talking about actual elf ethnic background, think in terms of Elder Scrolls, with different elf types as more cultural or faction-themed. Dunmer are very common, and make up most of the eldar on the MILF fleet, for instance. The orsimer are orks,with a greater emphasis on martial honor and ferocity, and may be magically altered by a connection to Malacath specifically; perhaps descended from orks thatt revered him and took his essence into themselves. The Cobalts might have Snow Elves and Aldmer as a lot of the elves on their group due to them moving in the areas where those elves have settled over the eons. Argonians are also pretty common in the fleet!

The Empire is known as the Cyrodillic Imperium, and has way more influences from the real life inspirations of the different cultures in the Elder Scrolls to fit a more diverse, old society like a proper space opera should have, and the Aldmeri Dominion is probably the asshole elves you expect.

I’m not sure how to handle the specific characters, but some examples: update the Skyrim Civil War o be a cosmic battle, with the Stormcloaks as a rebel fleet with Ulfric as a somewhat sympathetic warlord. He might be an antagonist, but not one with morals opposed to the fleet; he’s just a human-centric ruler with little interest for others that aren’t ‘his people’. The dragons in general, especially Alduin, would be way more eldritch horror here, with optional hyper busty monster girl forms. With an element of kaiju; they’re probably big enough to wreck starships and can exist in space.