#sailor moon says a family can be 2 moms a dad & a kid (the dad is Haruka/Uranus if ur wondering)

[octoooo]

HDJXJD FINISHED SAILOR MOON

It feels so weird that it’s over like,,,

I started it this summer, just some months ago and now it’s,,over?

Not entirely though since I still have a few movies to watch, then ill read the manga THEN I’ll watch Crystal & Eternal & Cosmos <3

SAILOR MOON AINR OVER JUST YET! IVE SUBK MY TEETH IN & IM NOT LETTING GO

Okay first off;

I love you Outer Guardians

I love you gay couples (Kunzite & Zoisite, Haruka & Michiru, Siren & Crow (see tags))

I love you gnc icons (Haruka, Sailor Starlights)

I love you Seiya

I love you Nezu (Iron Mouse)

I love you, Enemies (Dark Kingdom, Black Moon Clan, & Amazon Trio)

I love you, silly minions the Main villains would create

GHFUCNSM

Ofc it ends happily with everyone alive & well (after they all died but shhh Sailor Moon fixed it by seeing & reaching out to the Good left in Galaxia <3)

I’ve also become addicted to the intro (Japanese & English translation AND the American ver. theme song that played back when this show actually aired)

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

If DCLA characters had Tumblr part 4 🕺🏼

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi follow

So! What were some early signs you weren’t straight?

I myself used to make an entire neighbourhood in the Sims 2, all lesbians. The only males were their kids.

🌼 punk-not-dead follow

I had a teacher in second grade and I was EXTREMELY HAPPY over the fact that she was divorced...

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector follow

Watched Lady Oscar religiously. Iykyk

🎸 beanie-guitarist follow

So I realized I was bi very late but I really should have seen the early signs.

I used to be obsessed with Sailor Moon. Like I saw Tuxedo Mask and stuff happened with me.

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi follow

”Stuff happened”? 😏

🎸 beanie-guitarist follow

Stuff being that I had imaginary fantasies of him saving me and when I saw him on TV I felt butterflies in my stomach. Nothing more than that, I was like 7.

✌🏼 arodarmivida follow

I can’t come up with much early signs and I got caught off guard because I am laughing at the divorced teacher story

#user punk-not-dead you are so unhinged and I love it

333 notes

🎤 singing-is-who-i-am follow

Sometimes I wanna confront my dad about stuff he did in the past. But it’s so hard just say it out of nowhere. We are having a good time, I don’t just wanna ruin it by being like ”hey dad even if we have fun rn, later when I go to bed I will remember all the things that you did that really hurt me and I just feel like I never really got a proper apology. We just moved on from it and never discuss old things”

#vilu gets real #<< this is the hashtag that I want you to block angie if you haven’t already #i don’t want any family member to see it

2 notes

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon follow

💬 Anonymous asked:

Hi! What’s your sexuality? If you’re ok with answering that.

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon replied:

Hi anonymous! That is a fun question!

I’ve never thought that much about it. As a kid I just assumed everyone liked everyone. I’ve thought boys AND girls have been very pretty.

Though I have not thought so much about romance. Roller skating is my main ”hyperfixation” as I’ve heard people describe it, in life. I think kissing is fun, though. It tickles.

💍 queenoftherink follow

She’s roller skate sexual 🩷

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon follow

No! I don’t experience sexual feelings for roller skates 😠 That would be so weird!!

💍 queenoftherink follow

Omg sorry I forgot to write the /j !

19 notes

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector follow

@singing-is-who-i-am we kinda look like a couple here lol

🎤 singing-is-who-i-am follow

Omg yeah 🥹

🌼 punk-not-dead follow

Year 1…

🌼 punk-not-dead follow

Year 2…

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector follow

What are you doing, Cami?

🌼 punk-not-dead follow

You’ll see when it happens. Meanwhile I’m gonna count each year that passes before it does.

2 years and 1 day this far…

55 notes

🏍️ entre-dos-mundos follow

Hi, I’m Leon and I just joined tumblr. I will mainly post about motorcross and put up some music I’m doing here.

🥸 jeremias-realperson follow

Hi Leon! Do you have a girlfriend?

🏍️ entre-dos-mundos follow

They did warn me about creeps on here but I didn’t think I’d encounter one so quickly.

5 notes

🌟 supernova-number-one follow

You don’t know true awkwardness until you live in the same house as your ex and you see each other walk around in sleepwear

💍 queenoftherink follow

Haha. I’ve had two exes who lived in the same house as me.

Both of them were also the exes of my cousin. I don’t know how we can have the same taste in boys or how those boys could have such variety in taste of women

None of them saw me walk around in sleepwear because I often stayed in my room when I wore that. Well, except for one of them, he saw me in my sleepwear… but… he was not my ex after that night 😏

🌟 supernova-number-one follow

So you killed him????

60 notes

📸 felicityfornow follow

It took me too long to realize my mom and her wife were together.

Like, when we moved in with her wife, there was several spare rooms, but my mom chose to share a bed with her. I just thought ”well they are best friends maybe that’s cozier”.

🧢 everythingscominguponmaxi follow

But you moved into her house, so I am going from assumption that you moved in because they got married?

📸 felicityfornow follow

Oh no, we originally moved in with her because our house was being renovated. Then we just stayed… forever.

They only got married last year.

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector follow

Well tbh, friends do share beds a lot… I wish I do that more when I sleep over at my friend’s house.

#i get lowkey disappointed when she pulls out a mattress I want to sleep with her #sleep with her as actual sleeping don’t be weird

11 notes

🌼 punk-not-dead follow

I love reading fanfictions out loud. I read one as a bedtime story to my sisters the other day.

🌟 supernova-number-one follow

I’m terrified of the thought of someone reading my fanfictions out loud… they should be read in silence and in secret just like when I write them.

🌼 punk-not-dead follow

Oh fun because the fic I read out loud was your 140 chapter one! We laughed our asses off!

Also my sister wants to know if that oc spacewoman with a flower headband is based on me

👩🏻‍🦱 dangerously-beautiful-ant follow

I’m also wondering that ^. As well as if your OC that the main character met in chapter 75 at the space café was based on me. ”She was shorter with curly black hair”.

🌟 supernova-number-one follow

…

Stop reading my fanfictions those are only for people who don’t know me irl

7 notes

😎 rapmiro follow

Here is today’s rap.

When you try your best

You refuse to rest

And you get a reject

Don’t get wrecked

She says she doesn’t like you

She lies, bro, relax

She only wants to tease you

Soon she’ll stick to you like wax

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi follow

Did you write this because I rejected you when you asked me to fly to Chile alone with you?

🍓 chico-fresa follow

@creyendoenmi WHO ARE YOU?!

3 notes

🎸 beanie-guitarist follow

Randomly remember when @rollerskatingonthemoon was trying out fnaf and she kept dying because she WANTED the animatronics to come into her office. ”They look so cute!”

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon follow

But they did look so cute 😍🥰🥹 !!!!

🎸 beanie-guitarist follow

I want everyone to know we went to see the movie together and after witnessing Freddy BITE A HUMAN IN HALF she just went ’oh he was just excited to meet her! It’s not easy being a giant robot, you get some accidents!”

#the fort building scene was her fave scene ofc

66 notes

✌🏼 arodarmivida follow

Why didn’t I discover fanfiction until now this is the best thing ever!!

My gf and some friends have mentioned reading/writing it but I never really got into it myself. But now?? I love this so much!

✌🏼 arodarmivida follow

What does an E-rating mean?

✌🏼 arodarmivida follow

Oh.

Well it was very well written and the plot was ok, even if I didn’t need to get a detailed description of their genitalia…

📸 felicityfornow follow

I visibly mouthed ”oh no” when I saw you ask what an E-rating meant. Glad you didn’t get too traumatized. There are some out there that are really shocking.

✌🏼 arodarmivida follow

Yeah no this was just about two humans getting tentacles and sleeping with each other, so it wasn’t that big a deal.

Do you know some really sick and twisted fics?

📸 felicityfornow follow

I’d rather not share those, I want to spare you.

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi follow

Jim what the HELL kind of fics did you find and also can you send me the tentacle fic

💍 queenoftherink follow

We are several who are interested in the tentacle fic. Thank you.

#i don’t even care if it’s a fandom I am unfamiliar with I need to check that out #for science

22 notes

🌼 punk-not-dead follow

I don’t think I’ve ever met a crazy blonde girl. All crazy girls I’ve met have been red haired.

That’s why I dyed my hair red 🧠

🎹 moondust-og follow

I don’t know if I would call myself crazy… though I guess I am a bit crazy 😜👩🏻‍🦰

💅🏼 ja-jazmin follow

Omg so true red hair is the best 🧚🏻‍♀️

✌🏼 arodarmivida follow

RED HAIR GANG!!! 🥳🧚🏻‍♀️👩🏻‍🦰🔴

70 notes

🧢 everythingscominguponmaxi follow

You wanna know the ugliest emoji according to me?

😛

Why is it like that. Why is it staring into my soul. It looks like a toddler who has licked on all of the furniture and now stares into your soul as they crap themselves.

🥸 jeremias-realperson follow

You know two emojis I very much enjoy?

👨‍👧👨‍👧‍👧

It reminds me of fatherhood and my daughter, and also my stepdaughter.

🧢 everythingscominguponmaxi follow

Good for you man

#just gonna assume ur a troll #i’ll let you have your fun

13 notes

[sailor-rose-princess]

So I see people making stories and profiles for some of their AG girls, so I got some ideas for mine. Since I got Kami in 2005, she and Ellie are 2000's kids (and they'd be a "best friend" dolls, like Nellie and Samantha). Also, now I'm realizing that Ellie sounds near identical to Nellie and she has red hair, but that was not my intention, I just chose a name I thought she looked like.

Name: Serena "Kami" Thomas

Birthday: June 30th 1995

Pets: A white dog named Coconut and a black cat named Licorice.

Family: Joanne Jones (Mom), Stuart Jones (Stepfather), Riley Jones (half sister, age 5), and Jason Jones or JJ (half brother, age 2)

Favorite color: Pink and purple

Personality: Cheerful, creative, imaginative, occasionally prone to jealousy, a chatterbox, can be a drama queen sometimes. She always wants to be helpful.

Kami is the oldest child in her family. Her mother Joanne had Kami 2 years before she married Stuart. Kami doesn't remember much about her father, as her mom and him didn't stay together and he left shortly after she was born, but she loves Stuart and considers him to be her real dad, even if they don't look the same. Kami loves her family, even if you younger siblings annoy her a lot. She got her nickname when she was a toddler, her dad would record home movies, and she couldn't say the word "camera". She loves drawing, reading books, watching TV and singing, she hopes to be a singer and an actress someday, as she always wanted to be on TV like Olivia Outrageous (a fictional Disney Channel show), but she'd also consider writing and illustrating children's books. She's imaginative, always thinking up stories, and often day dreams of being famous. She gets jealous at times, as Ellie and some of her other classmates get to have cool stuff such as iPods or vacations to Disney, while her parents work a lot and still still seem to only make enough to get by. When her Mom gets her work schedule changed, Kami starts babysitting for her siblings and learns to save money while helping out her family. Kami joins Big Brothers Big Sisters after school every week, and her Big Sister Anna is always there to give her advice. Kami loves watching shows from Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, as well as some anime, such as Pokemon, Naruto, and Sailor Moon. She and Ellie have been best friends since they were little. Also I'd like to note that a lot of her story was based off stuff from real life/my childhood.

Name: Elenore "Ellie" Fitzel

Birthday: September 21st, 1995

Pets: A gray cat named Murdoc

Family: Sarah Smith (mom), Derrick Fitzel (dad)

Favorite color: Red, black, and pink, sometimes teal.

Personality: Excitable, outgoing, sweet and kind, can be sarcastic, a bit impulsive and has a temper at times. Sometimes a tomboy, sometimes a girly girl.

Ellie and Kami have been best friends since they were very young, as Ellie's mom and Kami's mom are best friends. Ellie's parents are divorced and she's an only child, so she often likes to go to Kami's house to visit her and her siblings. She lives with her mom, and sees her dad every other weekend, but for 2 weeks every summer, Ellie would go on a special trip with her dad. While she isn't really rich, she's somewhat more well to do than Kami is, but she still gets jealous of Kami sometimes, as Ellie is sometimes lonely as an only child, and even though she's used to her parents being divorced, as this happened three years prior, she still wishes her parents were still together like Kami's. Ellie likes dancing, as she's been taking ballet and tap classes since she was 5, and she wants to be on Broadway when she grows up. Her favorite animals are narwhals ever since she did a report on them for science class. She loves her new iPod, and loves listening to music, especially her favorite band Gorillaz (Kami notes she's surprised that Ellie is allowed to listen to/watch them, but Ellie would listen to them with her Mom a lot and she became a fan), and her favorite show is SpongeBob SquarePants.

And that's about it. I may have to work out some kinks, but I like these ideas.

[peanut-in-the-goal]

fair warning, I wrote this for school. Cw: gangs, violence, death

Carina lived near a beach. The salty breeze would push through her windows and into the house. She woke up in the morning to see the sun rising over the horizon. The colors would dance on the water, and the peaceful crashes of waves would be soothing. She’s always like the beach. At night, after everyone was asleep, she’d climb out her window. There was a tree planted just outside, the jump to the branch was easy.

The tree held the treehouse that she and Castor helped build. Years ago, when their dad was around more and not just some “ghost” who lived with them, he loved to build things. The math it involved and the different angles. Gears would turn in his head as he figured it out. He loved the thought of all the things he could make, it was limitless as long as he had the motivation.

The treehouse was still standing. Carina barely went in there anymore. It was full of memories, toys from her and Castor’s games were left, long abandoned as they grew up. The paper hats from when they pretended to be sailors, the toy swords made of cardboard from when they were pirates looking for the buried treasure. The old towels repurposed as capes for when they were flying around, saving the world.

They always dreamed of saving people together. They’d find someone who was in need of a hero and they’d be there. Not a superhero from a comic story though, those were too flashy and seemed to only use their powers for fame rather than focusing on the people screaming for help. Real heroes don’t care about who see them, they care about saving lives and sparing families.

It was crazy to think that was only a few years ago. Everything had been so simple then. Family meant everything, Castor was her best friend, dinner that night would be something like Mac and Cheese. Their favorite when they were kids.

But they aren’t kids now, are they? She’s seventeen, has a job working as the cashier at McDonald’s, and she’ll be off to college in a year. Carina hasn’t even applied anywhere yet, despite everyone pressuring her too.

So she climbs a tree, using the old wooden steps that were nailed there what feels like an eternity ago. Her feet hit the dirt, and the wind blows through her hair. She loves it. The town is empty at this time of night.

The street lights are dying out, flickering on and off as she walks by. It’s cold out, but she’s wearing not shoes. She leaves her jacket unzipped when she runs down the street and to the beach.

The sand is calming beneath her feet. It’s cold but not freezing, it’s perfect. She stays there., simply sitting in the sand by herself, because sometimes your own company is better than anyone else's.

She stays out there until the moon is gleaming over the ocean in such a comforting manor that her eyes start to droop. Startling herself awake, because she can’t follow asleep and have the police escort her home again, she dips her hands into the water and splashes herself in the face.

She’s hit with more adrenaline, and take off down towards one of the more secluded areas of the beach.

Carina ran through the streets of Godric, the rain was coming down hard on her. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t love it. Her bare feet were slippery on the wet concrete and puddles. Her thin sweater and sweats were drenched, sticking to her skin and making her shiver from the cold.

“If you care too much, you worry too much. Then you’ll never really get to live.” Caelum said that to her one night. The two stayed up late, watching some stupid cartoons on this old tv they had found. It was one of those, “Take it, it’s free,” things where people left their junk on the side of the road.

The TV was obviously years old, no longer in “new” or even good condition, but with a little tinkering and rearranging the wires they got it to work.

The lights from the cars blurred around her and she ran down one block to another. Her heart was pounding and she laughed. It was a small thing, a little manic and mad to anyone who saw her. But it was nice, she hadn’t smiled a lot recently. She was growing up, a teenager now. And apparently, the joy gets sucked out of everything when you’re a teenager.

It was the times like this she loved. The hours of the night where it was just her and her thoughts. Honestly, Carina preferred being alone over hanging out with other people. Sometimes the company was nice, Kai and Matilda were really two of the only people she didn’t mind being around.

Sometimes, when she and Caelum stayed up late at night, they’d talk. With her brother, she could practically say anything. Sometimes she had to worry about what she said, but there was a type of vulnerability that she couldn’t quite place that came in the dead of the night. It was a safe to know that whatever they said wouldn’t be repeated.

Sometimes they wouldn’t talk and just sit there in silence. That was okay. The company is what they’re both looking for, not the words that come with it.

The rain was coming down harder, and she grinned. The night had started out clear, if not a little cloudy. The rain was a nice surprise. It was probably well into the morning, at least 2 or 3 am. It was late, but there was a good chance that Kai was still awake.

Kai lived just on the outskirts of town. She had just moved out of her motor home with her dad. Carina was glad they decided to stay in their small town. It wasn’t much, certainly no amusement parks or that many town festivals, but it was home.

Kai’s house was on the cheaper side, one story, and mysterious stains on the walls. It was homey though, more than Carina’s own house at least. The Robinson’s were more a family to her than hers was anyways.

But that wasn’t surprising. It wouldn’t be hard to be better than her own family, the standards weren’t all that high.

It didn’t take too long to get to her house if you knew the right paths. Carina ran through a path that was in between two separated some bushes. The dirt had turned to mud from the rain, coating her feet. She was careful not to fall and stain her sweater, but the cuffs of her sweats were already covered in the dark, sticky substance.

She didn’t care much, stains give character, they show where you’ve been and how you choose to live your life. Whether that be reckless, careful, or somewhere in between, your clothes tell a story. Whether you want them to or not, they do.

It didn’t take long for Carina to arrive at Kai’s house. The large tree in the front with the eccentric drawings on the window made it noticeable from around the block. Carina quickly climbed on top of the trashcans before jumping and grabbing onto the ledge of Kai’s window. Luckily, she’s learned how to be quiet when she needed to not be noticed.

Perching on the thin window sill, she tapped on the glass impatiently. The light of the room was a soft green behind the curtains, thanks to Kai’s LED lights strung around the room.

After a moment, Carina sees the curtains shift a tiny bit, revealing an all too familiar eye looking at her. She huffed impatiently, poking the glass right over Kai’s eye, to signal “let me in,” because really she was a few seconds away from falling off the slippery window sill.

Kai opened the window, rolling her chair backwards to make room for Carina to climb into the house. She immediately made a puddle on the hardwood floor and smiled apologetically to the redhead.

Kai rolled her eyes fondly before standing up.

“It’s nice to see you, too.”

“The pleasure is mine.” Carina gave Kai a mock bow, but really she only managed to make a bigger mess.

“Hold on, hold on, stay there.” Kai held her hands out towards Carina, as if that made her words easier to understand. Not that they were particularly difficult to understand in the first place. “I’m going to go get you a towel.”

As Kai left the room Carina looked around. She’d been here a 100 times or more already, but she neve did get old of seeing at the polaroid pictures that covered her walls. There were pictures of Kai and herself, mot of them involving something stupid going on. Some were of Kai and her dad, one of Carina’s favorites was where Mr.Robinson has his around her, because he had said, “you’re just as much my daughter as Kai is. You’re over enough to practically live at my house already.”

Carina loved that memory, she felt that she had truly belonged somewhere for the first time since her mom died when she was four.

Kai walks back into the room with a large fluffy, green towel in her hands.

“My favorite! How did you know?” Carina slaps an over the top smile on her face, making it hard for both of them to not start laughing.

“Only because you try to steal it every time you come over.” Kai grinned, then promptly threw the towel at Carina, causing her to stumble into what she now noticed was the still open window.

“Oi! Rude!” Carina complained. “Just for that I’m not closing the window now.”

“Ri.”

“Kai.”

“Close the window.”

“Let me think about it.” Carina hummed for a moment, pretending to scratch her head before looking back at Kai. “Yeah, no, my answer is still no.”

Kai groaned, stalking past Carina to close and lock the window for her.

By the time Carina is dry and in clean clothes, it’s half past 2 am.

“How’d you know I wasn’t asleep?” Kai asked, seeming to finally remember the question she forgot.

“You’re a raging insomniac Kai, it wasn’t hard.” Carina laughed at the affronted look on Kai’s face. “But then again, so am I, so, we can suffer together.”

The two of them traded mindless banter before diving into deeper subjects.

“You know the gangs that have been popping up around town?”

Carina nodded. Of course she knew, everyone knew. It was all over the news, reports of someone gone missing, robberies, deaths. It was hard to escape the threat of violence that ran throughout the city. Her older brother and her dad belonged to one.

There were two major gangs that ruled the city. The Riders and The Silence were enemies, but the two seemed to have a truce going on at the moment. Her family was to join the The Riders, in a year Jack and her would be recruited to join.

“Yeah.” She trailed off. “Yeah I know.”

Kai nodded slowly, “What’s going to happen to us?”

Carina shrugged. “We join one, go off to college, and then when we come back we hope they’re still together.”

“I don’t want to join one though.”

Carina’s head snapped up, her long black hair covering half of her face until she moved it with a flick of her wrist.

“You know we don’t get a choice Kai. This is Godric we’re talking about. If you try to leave, or try to stay neutral they’ll kill you. Anyone unclaimed for is fair game.”

Kai agreed solemnly. “I know… just… I was talking to Willow about this earlier too. I don’t want to hurt anyone, and if I have to join one I think I want to join the The Silence. They’re the least violent in the town.”

Carina felt the breath leave her lungs. If she joined the Silence, then they would have to be enemies. Conversing with the opposite gang was dangerous and against the rules. If you were caught then you were a trader, and would have to work your way to earn your leaders trust back.

Carina exhaled shakingly. “I guess we have to make the most of these last few months then, huh?”

Kai thought for a second. “What if… What if you came with me? What if you joined me and Willow, and we could probably get Matilda to come with us too.”

Carina was shaking her head before Kai even stopped talking.

“We both know I’m joining The Riders. My families there, and I can’t leave them. That would danger all of us.”

Kai looked like a kicked puppy, it made Carina feel slightly bad, but not bad enough to make her want to change her mind.

“Just think about it, yeah?” Kai asked.

“I will.” Carina agreed. She wasn’t going to, she made up her mind years ago.

It wasn’t until her dad brought it up that Carina really thought about it. He told her that he wanted her to join The Silence. It was safer, and wouldn’t push her as hard.

Not many people really knew of her anyways. They knew Caelum and Castor, but at the younger twin she was usually forgot about. Her slipping away to join The Silence wouldn’t be very hard.

She considered it, and she agreed to it. Joining The Silence wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world, and maybe she’d get to keep an eye on her friends.

Carina called Kai after school the next day, letting her know that she was in. The plan was for Carina to move in with Kai the day before her 18th birthday, that way when The Riders came for Castor they wouldn’t find her.

She knows it’s for the safety of all of them and that she has to do this, but it hurts to know that the next time she sees her twin is probably going to be across the way when someone is trying to kill him. They’re going to have to fight each other and that’s a horrifying thought.

Moving into Kai’s house went smoothly. Kai’s dad welcomed her with open arms, getting her settled in the room next to Kai’s. It stops being labeled as the guest room and is now Carina’s room instead.

Waking up in the middle of the night and not hearing the pages in a book turning or seeing the dim lamp that Castor used to read was concerning at first before she remembered where she was.

Carina never thought that she’d miss that house, but now all she wants is to be able to go home. The Robinson’s house isn’t her home. She thought it was but it wasn’t, not when her brothers weren’t there. Not when the smell of oil lamps and cinnamon didn’t fill every room.

The walls in the room are a blank white. There are no pictures hanging on the walls, and no shelves holding her trophies. It’s a change, she can't tell if it’s good or bad but it’s there.

Keeping her family history underwraps is a lot harder than Carina thought it would be. Since she moved to Godric she knew she was going to join The Riders. She memorized their schedule, how they worked, what types of things they pulled.

The Silence was different, and she wasn’t prepared to join them. Gangs were hard, and they were dangerous, but sometimes without a little danger you aren’t gong to make it out alive.

Carina slipped up more, making a reference to the riders every now and then before trying her best to cover it up immediately. She saw the looks that everyone else was giving her. They saw her as a spy, a threat. She was treading on thin ice and if she wasn’t careful then she’d probably sink.

Kai’s the only one who knows who Carina’s family is. Luckily Taylor was a common enough last name that name many people were able to make the connection. Matilda and Willow were both friends with Carina since elementary school, but they never talked about their home lives. Not because they were all bad, but because they wanted to keep their lives separate. It was an unspoken rule amongst everyone in Godric. Everyone’s hiding their demons, you don’t bring up what doesn’t need to be discussed.

There are some people who tryst Carina though, they don’t see her as a spy so much as someone who does their research. After all, from what she’s let slip about the riders wouldn’t be that hard to figure out if you want to know.

Kai, Willow, and Matilda were always together. They vowed to fight with each other and to protect each other, if one was going down then they all were. But Carina strayed a little from her group, meeting Jacob and Lewis.

They were twins, it made her heart ache thinking about how much she missed her twin. Of course she couldn’t say that, settling on asking them what it was like to be a twin instead. They were questions she herself had answered what felt like 100 times over, but she asked anyways.

The three of them formed a close bond, and Carina was starting to choose her own family of those she could trust.

The twins started coming around more, merging into he friend group with Willow and Kai and Matilda. They all got along well, and shared the same views on a lot of things.

She hadn’t meant to let her guard down so easily, she didn’t even realize it was slipping until after she said it.

“Right, me and my brother Castor used to get mistaken for each other all the time. At one point we even got the same haircut just to mess with people.” She laughed. Suddenly the friend group went silent and she saw Kai wince in her peripheral vision.

“I-I mean,” Carina couldn’t think of a lie out of this, but she didn’t get time to think of one anyways.

“You have a brother?” Lewis asked.

“You have a twin?” Jacob asked louder, gaining the attention of some people sitting at some of the surrounding tables in the small cafe they were in.

Kai and Carina hurriedly went to shush them.

“I, uh, I didn’t mean to say that?”

Matilda, Willow, and the twins all had their jaws dropped.

“How did we not know you had a brother? A twin at that?” Willow asked. They looked hurt at the thought of Carina keeping that from them.

“I never talked about him I guess…” Carina trailed off. She wasn’t sure how much she should reveal to them. She could tell them that he was dead, but that would dig her into a bigger web of lies. Or she could tell them about her family, and hopefully they wouldn’t turn on her for having outside connections to other gangs.

The waiter decided that right then was a good time to bring their drinks and food, placing them on the small table in front of them.

The best course in action would be to just come clean, tell them about the burden she’s been carrying and let it all out. But not there in that Cafe, it was too dangerous when anyone could hear her.

“Later.” She said, picking up her tea and swirling the cup in her hands a few times. “I’ll explain everything later.” And that efficiently put and end to their conversation .

Later she did tell them. They met at the twins house, which was an apartment that was near the local college in Godric. She told them about her parents, howo her mom died when she was four and she moved from Italy to America. How she lost her eldest brother a few years after when gangs first started popping up and he father made the wrong people mad. She told them about her father and brothers being in their rival gangs and having to move out the day before her 17th birthday.

Willow looked at her in pity, like she as the victim here. The twins seems to be torn in wanting to see the good in her but seeing the trader there at the same time, she couldn’t blame them. Matilda was calm and stoic as always. She was always hard to read, but it was just now that Carina realized she hadn’t said a thing the whole time. It was concerning, but she just had to hope that they all kept her secrets.

The news came suddenly. Everyone could feel the tension that was swarming the two gangs, increasing until it broke. Everyone was alerted that there was to be a braw at midnight, they’d meet in the back alleys hidden behind a run down soda shoppe.

The rules were no weapons, but there was always someone who didn’t listen. Everyone wouls end up bring something, but you wouldn’t use it until someone else forced you to.

The clock was ticking down, the group that had soon become a family were sitting on the floor in the twin’s apartment. They also had loads of nervous energy built up in them, and by the time the clock hit 11:45 pm they were shrugging on their coats and heading out the door.

They met up with a group of others a little ways away from the alley with 7 minutes to spare. Quickly the group grew and most members showed up.

Blair caught a glance of familiar black hair and red shoes slip around the corner of a building. Looks like her family was here.

It all happened in a blur. One moment everyone was yelling and running towards the old alley way. The shouts echoed off the walls and amplified it enough to make her dizzy. The next thing she knew someone was coming after her, knife raised in the air and ready to strike. She ducked, going in to defend herself but the other person was too fast, already changing directions and then she was trapped. She was pinned against the wall, crowded from each side so there was no escape.

She was singled out, and probably wouldn’t make it out of there. She wasn’t going to. That is, until her brothers eyes locked with hers, and then he was pulling the man off of her and he was attacked instead.

Traitor, they thought he was a traitor. And Carina barely caught him before he fell to the ground. His clothes were staining red, which contrasted against his pale skin.

Carina cried.

She cried because how could people be so- so ruthless? How can the kill, and kill, and kill, but they never showed remorse. They didn’t care. They did it for the money, the accomplishment, the fame.That did it so they could say that they- they were the one that made the light leave that kid’s eyes.

Because that’s what they are. They’re kids fighting a losing battle, trying to stay afloat but everyone just takes and takes and takes, drowning them in violence and hostility that they might not get back up from.

It’s always a gamble getting up after you’ve fallen. They don’t know if they’re going to make it, or if it was even worth it in the end afterwards.

The world is crumbling around them and no one is doing anything to save it. It’s sick. People are flying, gangs are forming and growing, and soon they’re all going to go after each other. There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed until only on gang is left standing.

And for what? To show dominance, to say that you’re better then everyone else? The world isn’t going to stop spinning on its axis while everyone stands around and tears each other apart. By the time someone comes out victorious, it’ll be too late. There’s no coming back from that. There’s no revival when you’ve already let something important die.

She tried to hold onto to what she had left of her brother, but his eyes had already slipped shut and his breathing was shallow. Kai had crossed over to her at one point, and together they carried him out of the danger area.

Hospitals wouldn’t treat gang related injuries, they already knew that. But even if they did they doubted that they could save them.

That night is filled with tears, blood, and anger. She doesn’t remember what happened after that, she doesn’t know how she got back into Kai’s house or falling asleep. She does remember the dreams though. The bravery written over Castor’s face. He wasn’t scared to die, not if it was for family.

She should have saved him, should’ve been strong enough. She promised herself that no one else was going to die for her.

The world moves on, whether your ready or not. At least that’s what she tells herself. She was supposed to start college soon, moving into the dorms was supposed happen in a week. She’s packed, and is ready to leave Godric.

Kai is going to local college here in town, but Carina wanted to leave. She wanted to get in the car and drive. But she wouldn’t leave Kai here without looking back, so she chose a college a couple states away but within driving distance.

That way she could still come back afterwards for Kai.

Leaving for college was hard. Her dad wasn’t there to see her off, and Castor wasn’t coming with her. Rigel wasn’t there to make them ramen at 12 am and Kai was staying here. Kai was there for everything in her life, having been best friends since kindergarten.

Mr. Robinson drove her to college, and helped her carry things into her dorm. After everything was in place she made sure to thank him for being more of a dad to her then her own was.

College was stressful and there was a lot of pressure she put only herself to be perfect. In Godric she learned how to handle stress. Sometimes that involved shutting down and getting her work down by going through the motions. Another thing she worked on was managing her time.

Although after Castors death she wanted his memory to live on. She picked up some of his hobbies. Reading books, memorizing quotes, he always wanted to be one of the top students in every school he went to.

It was a few weeks after school started, she got a call from her dad. She wasn’t aware he still had her number but then again there was no reason that he wouldn’t.

He informed her of Castor’s funeral date, the gangs agreed she was allowed to come, anyone who knew him was allowed to attend. Carina broke down again that day.

The day before the funeral she drove back to Godric. She spent that night at Kai’s house, where the three of them—Carina, Kai, and Mr.Robinson—would leave together to go to the funeral. Seeing her brother in the open casket was heart wrenching. He died for her and she could have prevented that.

It was her brother who took her place, and she knew it was her fault. No one was going to die for her, she’d give up her own life first.

Four years passed quickly. Most of them were full of studying and classes, every now and then the friend group would meet up, coming from their different colleges and states to get a cup of coffee or do something dumb. Occasionally Carina came home to join in the rumbles and brawls between gangs.

She grew to love the adrenaline that came with it. The thought of hurting someone else didn’t register much anymore as long as it never went too far.

Coming back after she graduated college was something she never thought that she would do. She always assumed that after college that was it, she was free. But without Kai and Willow and Matilda, she would never truly be free.

So she rented a car, and drove from her new apartment back to Godric for the final time. The three of her friends were waiting at the Robinson’s house. They had all moved in there after the death Mr. Robinson. He was battling cancer these past few years, and after holding out for a long time he lost. The big house was lonely without other occupants so Willow and Matilda offered to move in.

They left Carina’s room alone while she was gone, because even if she wasn’t living there that was still her room. She was still welcome back anytime.

Carina rolled up to the house, taking a good look at it. She pulled her keys from her bag, unlocking the door. She wanted to see the house one last time.

Matilda, Willow, and Kai were sitting around the table, eating oatmeal and scrolling through their phones.

“Ready?” She asked. Kai looked up, smiling.

“Let’s get out of here.”

The four of them drove off and away from the violent town. They were finally free and didn’t have to peer around every corner every time they went somewhere. And if Carina stopped and dropped a letter off a her father’s house then no one had to know.

[quicklikelight]

Not to be baby but "It's May 1998" me: [tries to remember being 2 years old in Hawai'i]

Monica’s post really evoked such a strong feeling in me. Listening to The Goo Goo Dolls on the radio in my Mom’s Astrovan while my brother watched Land Before Time 5 on the in-car TV. Watching Armageddon in the theater, crying into my popcorn because I have literally always had a dad problem. Seeing Sailor Moon for the first time, bundled up in a blanket on my parents’ waterbed and watching episode after episode on UPN. Summer fueled by Squeeze Its and Gushers. If I think about it too hard, I can still smell the chlorine. I went to New York City with my dear Mama and we saw a Broadway show.  My family moved into the house my Dad still lives in. In 1998, my Mama was in remission - she wouldn’t get sick again until early 1999, and she passed in May 2000. In 1998, we fully believed she was well again and would stay that way.

Here, have a picture of my family circa 1998: 

I’m not saying you missed out, because there’ve been hundreds of inconspicuously magical moments in your lifetime that are no doubt just as important to you as 1998 is to me. But man - ‘98 was a great year to be a kid, and revisiting it tonight for a few moments felt really good.

[vegetacide]

Tagged

Tagged by @gumnut-logic  :)

1. Would you rather accessorize with scarves or necklaces?

Scarves,  cause I like soft stuff to snuggle and hide my face in.

2. How old were you when you first saw mountains? (Or if you haven’t seen mountains, what do you imagine they’re like?)

Smokey Mountains on a road trip... erm.. in my mid teens I guess...

3. Do you make your bed in the morning?

It a habit I recently started when we first went on lock down to help me get my day started... prior to that.. hell no as I would just be crawling back into them later.

4. What type of stories did you like as a child?

Book wise when I was little.. anything my Dad would read to me at bedtime...As a teenager it was Sci-fi, fantasy and romance and hopefully all in the same book. 

5. What was the most exhilarating experience of your life?

Hmm ...no idea so will pick some at experience at random... sailing through a sun shower in St. Thomas on one of our honeymoon excursions to see sea turtles in their natural habitat. ...

Snorkeling for the first time in the ocean..

Skiing down a winter slope when I was a kid and somehow not managing to kill myself (I suck at skiing) 

First day we brought my daughter home from the hospital.. feels surreal as I sit here to think the 5 year old softly snoring beside me was once sooooo small and it was ONLY 5 SHORT YEARS AGO.  Dude, when they say the little years go by fast.. they weren’t kidding..

Oh.. and of course walking down the isle and somehow not tripping over my feet and face planting in front of my family and friends as I was shaking like a leaf caught in a hurricane having a mild panic attack and worried I was going to fuck up somehow.

Okay, so the last one was more terrified than exhilarating but.. meh...

6. Do you agree with the concept of exotic pets?

Here in North America... if the thing was born in the wild.. it should stay in the wild...unless under the extreme circumstances of animal rescue when the animal can’t be returned to the wild..   If it was breed in captivity and is not on the endangered species list and wont eat you or rip your face off...say like a hedge hog which is oddly enough considered exotic where I am.. then its okay but only if the owner can provide a loving, healthy home.  (wolf hybrids,  tigers, ligers, and other exotic large cats are the exceptions as no one can care for them properly unless specialized training has taken place and you have like a billion acres of land for them...basically any animal that has not been domesticate over hundreds of years ... leave em alone... )

7. Describe your feelings about maths.

Necessary evil...enough said. 

8. When was the last time you finished a book?

Do audio books count? If so.. in March right before lock down.  Listened to a lot of books on my travels to and from work..   Currently I am able to actually pick up a hard copy and I am working my way through Crazy, Rich Asians.   Good book!

9. What’s a small way that you’ve been kind recently?

All the things I have done recently have just been what is expected of a normal human being with responsibilities so I cant really say.. erm.. made an extra meat loaf for my Dad so I know he is eating well... collected his beer bottles for return cause they just started excepting them again.. 

Started making my husband lunch as he was recalled to work... Do his laundry cause he usually does it for himself...

I haven’t really be out much in the world lately and as I said.. basic stuff. 

10. What new hobby/activity have you always wanted to try?

And got to the bottom and I think I fucked this up... oh well.. lmao.. so on to the questions I was supposed to answer...ooopppsss..  gonna leave the other answers above cause I spent the time to write em.. 

Oooh, and now I have to ask questions…

1. If you could go anywhere, where would you go?  

Falling Lakes aka  Plitvice Lakes National Park  in Croatia cause it looks beautiful and would be the closest thing on Earth to being in a fantasy novel..  

2. Favourite pasta shape?  

No favourite shape.. just spoon sized cause spaghetti is messy

3.What do you need to do everyday to keep your mind and body working well?

Wake up... lmao

4. First ever fandom and why? How old were you?

This is a surprisingly hard question to answer as I have loved many things over the years.. I have always loved cartoons going back as far back as I can remember and later in life comic books and anime  so will answer this by first fanfictions  and first community.... 

Well.. first fanfiction i got hooked on reading was for Sailor Moon..age..erm... high school so like maybe grade 9ish..  At that point I had always loved cartoons but Sailor Moon really sucked me in. 

First I wrote and will never see the light of day... Biker Mice From Mars and/or G.I.Joe...cant rightly remember which came first and I am a huge Snake Eyes fan.  

First posted... DBZ I believe under another name.. and ermm.. no, I wont tell. 

First community I joined... Dragon Ball Z on here in fact.. and within the last few years.   I am still a DBZ fan but I jumped the fandom community wagon and joined up with a bunch of Thundernerds and completely fell down the rabbit hole.

And I am being vague about the age for a reason.. lol   

5.Deserted beach or snazzy night club?

Beach! 100% Sand between the toes,  the sound of the water lapping up the shore.. the smell of the salt in the air.. the sun on my back and my sandals dangling from my finger tips.. ahhhh perfection. 

6. Do you find it easier to talk to people online or offline?

Online.. cause there is security in anonymity. 

7. What do you think is the aim in your life? What do you ultimately want to achieve?

Wow.. talk about a soul baring question.. lmao.. I don’t know.. to be remembered and looked back on kindly.   To be better then those before me and to not make the same mistakes.. to be a good mom to my daughter and to not fuck her up to bad. (I answered this one out of order.. meh)   

8. Coolest Thunderbird

....well this one should be an obvious answer. lol

9. What is your absolute favourite topic to talk about?

My interests.. which are vast and varied. 

10. Do you have an embarrassing story to share?

How I fucked up this questionnaire.. lol 

okay so now for questions to ask,..if I understand this right that is what i am supposed to do now... hmm

1. Favourite dessert.

2. What would you rather...fine dining or eating around a camp fire?

3.  Favourite past time outside of here?

4. If you were a video game character, who would you be? Why?

5. Flight or invisibility? 

6. In the case of a zombie apocalypse what would be your escape plan and what would you do to survive? 

7. If you could go on a road trip anywhere in the world.. where would you go and what car would you be driving? 

8. Who would be in the seat beside you? 

9.  What would you rather... watch a thunderstorm or close the blinds

10. What 10 questions would you come up with if you could ask anyone anything?  (Ya, I so cheated there mu ha ha a ha) 

Feel free to answer.. or not. Open to anybody just copy and paste the last 10 questions.. not the whole thing like I did... oops... cause that would be wrong.. Oh and if you made it all the way down here after this long ass ramble .. GOLD STAR FOR YOU!  :) 

[craniumhurricane]

I’m so flattered! I was tagged by @kindclaws, @thelittlefanpire, and @marauders-groupie! Thank you so much, ladies!!

1. do you make your bed? Kind of? I have a king size bed and only sleep on one side. In the morning I just throw the covers off, go about getting ready, and then just pull the covers back over my spot before I leave. I don’t tuck anything in or anything like that cause I don’t like feeling confined. (I say as I use a weighted blanket)

2. what’s your favorite number? 4! Nothing really ~supernatural behind it. I loved Sailor Moon as a kid (and still do) and Sailor Jupiter was the fourth scout and she was my fav (also still is). It helps that the astrological sign for Jupiter kind of looks like a 4.

3. what’s your job? I work in the glamorous world of Human Resources. Predominantly desk work and taking team member phone calls who like to complain about things that we have no control over.

4. can you parallel park? If I have to but please god don’t ask me to. A friend of mine lived in an apartment complex where most of the parking spaces were on the side of the streets so I HAD to learn. I was ecstatic when she moved.

5. a job you had which would surprise people? Assistant Stage Manager to a 3 person performance of A Christmas Carol at historic house in Downtown used as a tea room. I use all of these terms very loosely as I was like 12 and the Stage Manager was my mom and I was just helping. We did it for like 3 years and it is still one of THE BEST performance of A Christmas Carol I have ever seen.

6. do you think aliens are real? Absolutely! There is no way that we’re the only sentient living organisms or whatever in the universe. I have to believe that.

7. can you drive a manual car? Absolutely not. My dad was determined to teach me and that never happened.

8. what’s your guilty pleasure? I like Sara and Lana’s answers that they’re not guilty about any of their pleasures. If I had to pick something, I would say trash horror movies but like??? I’m not guilty about that???

9. tattoos? Not yet! I used to be scared of getting them but now it’s just a matter of me not knowing what I want and where. I’m way to indecisive so now the permanence is what scares me!

10. favorite color? Purples and greens.

11. things people do that drive you crazy? When people assume they know what you’re thinking or why you did something/something happened. And when you try to tell them the real reasons they give a laugh off “Sure, Jan” and don’t actually hear you.

12. any phobias? I’m afraid of the dark. I have an overactive imagination so I always feel like if I can’t see it then something is in the room. It makes it very hard to watch horror movies which is such a shame cause I love horror movies.

13. favorite childhood sport? I’m not a fan of any kind of sportsball. I played softball once and SUCKED. I am not an active person. I watch the occasional football but please don’t ask me anything about it.

14. do you talk to yourself? Hell yeah! Internally, externally, and eternally. I caught my dad talking to himself when I was younger and he shrugged and said, “Sometimes I’m the only one that will listen.” I always think about that.

15. what movies do you adore? Clueless, Hocus Pocus, The Mummy, Scream 1 & 2, Zootopia. I love a lot of a wide range of movies honestly that I don’t think I could list them all.

16. do you like doing puzzles? Yes! We used to go on family ski trips and we would set one up in the common room and all just randomly work on it in passing throughout the whole trip. It would always be done by the end of the week. I miss that. I’m super lazy though and since it’s just me I’m afraid if I set one up it would just take up space on my table.

17. favorite kind of music? Mostly Pop and Alternative. It has to be something I can bop my head to or singalong with.

This was fun! I got really wordy with some of these whoops.

Tagging: @casleyislove @sushigirlali @katchyalater @goldenheadfreckledheart @carrieeve @wolfheartgirl @broashwhat @sassmasterblake @mobi-on-a-mission @hellyeahbellarkee

[astudyinmack]

Quarantine Q&A

Tagged by: @oceanid-studies

1. Are you staying home from work/school? I’m staying home. Uni classes have been moved online so I’m doing everything from the comforts of my room

2. If you’re staying home, who’s there with you? My entire immediate family: my mom, dad, and brother

3. Do you have pets to keep you company? Yes! I have my cat Toby :)

4. Who do you miss the most? My friends 100%

5. When was the last time you left your home? Yesterday was my brother’s birthday so we went to the park and played tennis and frisbee

6. What was the last thing you bought? Indoor plants and seeds for starting an herb garden

7. Is quarantine driving you insane or are you finally relaxed? Mostly relaxed, but online schooling is driving me crazy and I miss my friends

8. Are you a homebody? I’d say yes? I love being home but I really yearn to travel the world

9. What movies have you watched recently? Lots of classics like “The Maltese Falcon”, “Casablanca”, “Roman Holiday”, and “Sabrina”

10. An event that you were looking forward to that got cancelled? Swing dancing Friday nights with my friends

11. What’s the worst thing that you’ve had to cancel? I was going to take a maymester in Tanzania this summer where I was going to teach biology to kids in Tanzania. After my maymester, I was going to do some solo travel through Europe.

12. What’s the best thing you’ve had to cancel? Not sure if this means what I’m happiest or saddest about canceling... But I’m happy I was able to put a hold on my independent study of the Maasai tribe in Tanzania and Kenya. I was falling behind on my readings, but now that it’s on hold until next year I can catch up

13. Do you have any new hobbies? I’ve picked up indoor gardening again! I couldn’t really do it in my dorm room this year, but now that I’m home, my room is once again full of plants, and I’m loving it!

14. What are you out of? Toothpaste! But I’m going to pick some up today

15. What music are you listening to? Some Indie/Folk music playlists from Spotify, showtunes when I need a pick-me-up, and 80s hits

16. What shows are you watching? Outlander, The Man in the High Castle, and Sailor Moon

17. What are you reading? “Eldest” by Christopher Paolini, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J.K. Rowling, and “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet

18. What are you doing of self-care? I’m trying to pick journaling back up. I’m also cleaning and rearranging my room!

19. Are you exercising? I’m trying to do a daily workout challenge, but I don’t always get to it

20. How’s your toilet paper supply? We’re doing alright! 

21. Have you made any changes to your hair during quarantine? Just a few small trims to my ends

I’m tagging: @smartspo @problematicprocrastinator @siristudies @dianestudy @meekhistorygeek

[distractedhistotech]

Before MSA + 1: Halloween

Arthur had managed to put together something that acted like a diaper but which fitted into his pocket instead of around the hamster.  “It takes a little bit to put them together though…”

Cadence seemed happy with the pocket diaper considering how much time she was spending in Arthur’s shirt and coat pockets.

“I wonder if you could incorporate it into your Halloween costume,” mused Vivi.

“Uh…What’s Halloween?” asked Arthur.

Sydney and Lewis gave Arthur startled looks.  “You don’t know what Halloween is?!”

Arthur panicked a bit as he realized this was something everyone was supposed to know about. “My parents were super religious,” he said quickly.  Sydney and Lewis seemed to accept it.

“Halloween evolved from the Celtic celebration of Samhain,” explained Vivi.  “It was the ending of the year at sun down, but the new year didn’t start until the sun rose.  Being outside of time as it were meant that ghosts and the like had an easier time manifesting. It probably makes magic easier and stronger too.  At some point, people started wearing scary outfits to try and blend in or scare away the spirits.  That ritual eventually became putting on costumes for fun and, in the case of kids, going around to houses and asking for treats.”

The other kids were staring at her in surprise at the info dump, while Arthur was wondering if this meant Halloween was technically a pagan holiday.

“Actually, the Catholic church took a lot of pagan holidays and incorporated them into their religion.  Christmas takes place in December because that’s when a big festival called Saturnalia took place in the Roman empire.  Evidence suggests that Jesus was actually born in Spring,” continued Vivi as if she’d predicted Arthur’s thoughts.

The more Arthur learned the more he wondered if the adults in his early life knew what they were doing.

“Anyway…My dad makes cosplay as a side job so if you want he can make you guys costumes too,” said Sydney.

Lewis nodded. “He always makes costumes for us.”

Vivi perked up.  “Really?”

Sydney nodded. “But nothing super complicated, okay? He’s gotta budget.”

“What’s cosplay?” asked Arthur.

“Costume play,” explained Lewis.  “People dress up like characters from anime or videogames that they love.  Some of the outfits are really complicated or accurate.”

“We usually do a theme for Halloween,” continued Sydney.

“We did Sailor Moon for a couple of years,” said Lewis.

“Another time we were Ed and Al Elric,” said Sydney.  “I’m not sure what we could do with four people.”

“Power Rangers?” suggested Vivi.

“There’s usually five of ‘em though,” said Sydney.

“Is that a big deal?” asked Arthur.

“Not really,” said Lewis.  “It would just seem a little weird to be short a ranger.”

“So, we need a group of four people,” muttered Sydney.  “All I can think of are Transformers, but that might be too complicated.”

“All I can think of is the Scooby Doo gang,” said Vivi.

Silence.  The kids turned to stare at Ben.  “Would Ben let us dye his fur?” asked Lewis.

“I have no idea,” admitted Vivi.  “Would the dye be safe?”

“I have no idea,” repeated Sydney.  “Dad knows a bit about hair dye…”

“I think you could get away with leaving him white and black,” said Arthur.

“So, who would be who?” asked Lewis.

Vivi and Sydney promptly pointed at Lewis.  “Fred.” Then they pointed towards Arthur. “Shaggy.”

“You do have the muscle tone going on,” agreed Arthur.

And Lewis blushed because he was somehow the biggest one there despite (probably) being the youngest.  “W-well, who’s gonna be Velma and Daphne?”

Sydney and Vivi exchanged looks.  That was…less obvious.  Both wore glasses, had relatively short statures, and were fairly tomboyish.

“You’re shorter,” said Vivi.

Sydney pouted. “Yeah, I am.  Guess that makes me Velma…What kind of name is Velma?”

“I dunno.”

“Will we need a van?”

“None of us can drive,” pointed out Arthur.

“Maybe a toy or something,” suggested Lewis.

“Oh, yeah, that makes more sense,” admitted Arthur.

The four kids (and dog and hamster) just lay there for several minutes.  It hadn’t been a particularly odd conversation, but something in the air seemed heavy, as if something life changing had just happened.

Then Ben started licking Arthur’s face, ending the moment.  Arthur let out a laugh.  “H-hey! Stop!  Stop!”

Vivi grinned. “You’re saying ‘stop’, but you’re laughing.”  Ben decided to switch targets and started licking Vivi instead.  She giggled.  “Ben!”

“We should teach him how to talk!”  Ben turned his attention to Sydney.  “Hey! Ew!  Your breath smells like fish!  Why does it smell like fish?  You’re not a cat!”

“Ben’ll eat anything if you give him the chance,” said Vivi.

Lewis pulled a bag of chips out from somewhere and grinned.  “Like this?”  He popped the bag open.  He was immediately tackled by the dog.  “Ack!” Ben quickly stuck his head in the bag and quickly snapped up the contents before transferring his ministrations to Lewis.  “Oh yuck! Your breath really does smell like fish!”

“Hold him for me,” said Vivi.  “I’ll brush his teeth!”

The whole thing devolved into a wrestling match.  No teeth were cleaned.  Everyone needed a bath afterwards.

 Sydney had been right about the Scooby Doo costumes being fairly simple to make.  She hadn’t stopped to think about make-up and hairstyling though.

“Are you almost done?” asked Sydney Jr.

“Almost…Just one more pin…and done!”  Sydney Sr stepped back to admire how Sydney looked with the brown bob wig in addition to the rest of her costume.  “The shape of the glasses aren’t the same, but I don’t think anyone will care.”

Sydney Jr. twirled and did a hop-skip over to Vivi, who was messing with her noticeably longer orange wig.  “How ‘bout you?”

“I prefer shorter hair.  Hair this long just…gets in the way,” said Vivi as she glared distastefully at a lock of orange hair.

Sydney nodded. “I hear ya.  I just want it long enough to ponytail it.”  She glanced at the boys.  “How ‘bout you two?”

Unlike the girls, the boys weren’t wearing wigs.  They’d just had their hair styled into a close approximation of their chosen characters. Sydney Sr claimed this was because the wigs would look too bulky unless the boys were willing to shave their hair. They weren’t.

Arthur fingered his hair.  “This doesn’t feel too different from usual besides the colors.”  He was wearing green and red.  He was coming to prefer bright colors like orange and yellow.

Lewis was happily studying his reflection.  “I kind of like this hairstyle.”  He turned to Sydney Sr.  “Will you teach me how to do this?”

Sydney Sr gave him a grin.  “Sure! I’ll get you some decent hair mousse. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna go change into my costume.”  On his way out, he ran into Hiro.  “So, how’d Ben like the vegetable dye?”

“He tolerated it.” That was a lie.  Ben had taken one look at the dye, snorted, and changed his fur color to the proper brown color.

“I’m leaving you alone with Noelle and the kids for a bit.  Behave now.”  And Sydney Sr hurried down the hallway.

Hiro raised an eyebrow.  The Sydneys were pretty darn odd.  Still, they got along with the rest of the family and friends, and Hiro did like them…in reasonable amounts.

He walked Ben over to the kids, who all started petting him.  “Wow, this dye is really realistic,” said Lewis.

Sydney nodded. “My dad knows what he’s doing.”

“How you holding up boy?” asked Vivi.  Ben licked her in response.  “Good to know.”

“Oh, you kids look so cute like that,” said Noelle.  “Let me get my camera!”

Hiro let the kids pose for the camera for several moments before clearing his throat. “Now, I don’t know how much you know about the holiday, but it is easier to come into contact with the supernatural starting tonight and lasting until November 2.  It’s most intense on Halloween though.  So, Mr. Scoville and I will be escorting you tonight.  I have tools prepared to chase off anything that may take an untoward interest in your group, and you will all be spending the night here.  Mr. Scoville also has some sort of repelling ability, so I’d imagine this is one of the safest places in the county.”

Arthur let out a sigh of relief.  “That’s a relief.”

“Had some bad experiences?” asked Vivi.

Arthur nodded. “I just knew they were at the end of October.  I didn’t know about the Halloween thing.  Why does it get so much worse anyway?”

“That’s not something with a simple answer,” said Hiro.  “Something makes…magic for lack of a better word more potent during these days, which makes it easier for people to see ghosts and for ghosts, along with other normally invisible entities, to become visible to people.  It’s a good time for them to be heard if there’s something they want to get across to the mundane, living population.”  Hiro glowered.  “Although I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a tradition among the supernatural to have fun and try to scare humans.  It’s what people are expecting to happen after all.”

Ben gave a barely noticeable shrug.  Hiro wasn’t wrong, but it was more of a ‘teenagers messing around and doing things their parents won’t necessarily approve of’ sort of thing.

Arthur crossed his arms.  “Well, I don’t like it, whatever it is…”

Vivi turned to Sydney and Lewis.  “Have you guys ever noticed anything weird around this time of year?”

“I haven’t ever noticed anything,” said Sydney.  “Lewis says there are ghosts all over the place though.”

Lewis nodded. “Yeah, some are pretty scary. It’s a lot more active in the cemetery and house.  Sydney always spends the night since some of them look pretty scary.”  Lewis made a face as something suddenly occurred to him. “Uh, this is the first Halloween we haven’t slept over at my house.  Do you think Mom and Dad and Belle will be okay?”

“I put some ofudas up at your house that should keep away most dangerous entities,” reassured Hiro. “Honestly, you probably attract half of the activity so just spending time away from them will put a stop to a portion of the paranormal activity.”

“Huh, really?  I had no idea,” said Lewis.

“Oh, yes, once ghosts figure out someone can see them word spreads very quickly.”

“Wait.  I can’t see ghosts, so why do they keep following me around?” asked Arthur.

Hiro shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure why, but you…leak energy.  Being around you is like it being Halloween all the time,” said Hiro.  “You also have an aura that the supernatural find pleasing, like how kids will gravitate to a kitchen where cookies have just been cooked.”

“I could go for some cookies,” said Vivi.

“You’re going to be getting plenty of candy tonight,” said Noelle.  “You can see about having cookies after you finish off the candy.”

Vivi grinned. “Challenge accepted.”

“No,” said Hiro.

“Aw…but-”

“No, you remember what happened last time,” said Hiro.

“Ooh, what happened last time?” asked Sydney.

“When she was five she ate all of her Halloween candy at once and didn’t sleep for three days,” explained Hiro.  “She tried to feed Ben chocolate.  Dogs can’t eat chocolate.”

Ben huffed because he could eat chocolate, thank you very much.  Stupid need to hold up the illusion all the time.  He couldn’t wait until Vivi was mature enough to know what he really was so he could relax at home.  Not to mention it would be easier to snatch some of whatever that was Noelle was cooking.

Lewis must have noticed how Ben was staring longingly towards the kitchen because he grabbed a treat out of his pocket.  “Would you like a Scooby Snack?”

Eh, it’ll do. Ben snapped it up and gave Lewis a lick of thanks.

“What’s taking your dad so long?” asked Vivi.  “He said he was going to be a zombie.  It can’t take that long to put on some torn clothing and fake blood.”

Sydney grinned. “Dad put in way more effort than that. There’s latex and make-up and contact lenses…”

“Mr. Scoville’s costumes are really complicated,” agreed Lewis.

Any further conversation was interrupted by a groaning sound.  Everyone turned to see…a zombie.  It was covered in bite marks, half rotten, had clouded over eyes, and dirty, torn clothing.  It was completely unrecognizable as Sydney Sr.

“…Okay, that is a convincing zombie costume,” admitted Vivi.

“Thank you,” said Sydney Sr, briefly breaking character before going back to groaning.

“You look like a dead body!” said Arthur.  “Which I guess is the point, but it’s creepy.”

Sydney Scoville groaned again.  He sure was taking the zombie thing seriously.

“So…”  Sydney Jr held up her treat bag.  “Can we go trick-or-treating now?”

“Unnngh!”

“Taking that as a yes!”

Thankfully, the other adults decided to agree with the translation so the kids were able to head out. “There are a lot of costumes,” commented Arthur.

Vivi nodded. “Yep, it’s a popular holiday.”

“What a cute baby!” cooed Lewis at a young couple and their baby, all of them dressed like dinosaurs.

“Thank you!”

“But most of them seem to be younger than us,” continued Arthur.

“That guy’s older than us,” pointing at a guy dressed like a robot.

“People just prefer to go to parties once they get older.  I don’t know why.  They’re sooo boring,” complained Vivi.  “Where’s the darkness?  Where’s the creepy shadows?  Where’s the questioning of if there’s a ghost around the corner or if that’s a really good werewolf costume or some werewolf decided to go to the store to pick up milk?”

“There are some ghosts following us,” commented Lewis.

Arthur tensed up. “Why?”

Lewis glanced towards the ghosts.  “Are you sure he’s not a zombie?  He looks pretty dead.”

“It’s Halloween. It’s obviously a very good costume.”

“He smells like a zombie though.”

“We’re ghosts! We can’t smell!”

“Oh yeah.”

“Besides, wasn’t there a Scooby-Doo movie with zombies?”

“Since when are there Scooby-Doo movies?”

“Mr. Scoville’s costume is really convincing,” said Lewis.

“Unngh!”

“Are zombies real?” asked Sydney.

“Yes,” said Hiro. “Under very specific circumstances. It takes one of a few specific rituals. It’s very dangerous and is not something that should ever be done unless you have prior permission from the subject of interest.  Even then, it’s not recommended because of the possible side effects.”  He paused.  “Actually, this is a very complicated subject.  Let’s talk about it when we have more time.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it at all,” muttered Arthur as they walked up to a house.

They took a moment to ring the doorbell, ask for treats, and thank the woman handing out the treats. Ben tried to beg for treats.  This wasn’t allowed, and the group went on their way.

“Do ghost hunters have a lot of work on Halloween?” asked Sydney.

“Paranormal investigators,” corrected Hiro.  “While we do look for ghosts, calling us ‘hunters’ suggests we intend to hurt ghosts in some way.  That’s a last resort in cases where the ghosts in question seek to harm the living and cannot be convinced otherwise.  And whether an investigator works on Halloween or not varies.  Most will take the time off because they might get false positives.  Some like working on Halloween though since they might get results they wouldn’t usually come by.”

“That doesn’t sound very professional,” muttered Arthur.

“I agree,” said Hiro. “Personally, I feel that circumstances that modify magical strengths can be dangerous, even if it’s something to your advantage.”

“Wouldn’t that make things easier?” asked Sydney.

“Yes, which might be good in an emergency, but it can make you under or overestimate a situation.”

“How is overestimating bad?” questioned Arthur.

Hiro took a minute to think about how to describe what he was thinking.  “It’s like using a hand grenade to make a hole when a drill will suffice.”

Vivi, Lewis, both Sydneys, and even Arthur laughed.  Hiro had to admit it wasn’t the best analogy, but it’s what he came up with on short notice.

“It’s like you thought the corn was sweet so you put in the wrong amount of salt,” said Lewis.

“That’s a better analogy,” admitted Hiro.  “Anyway, once you outgrow trick-or-treating, you should find some way to spend Halloween that doesn’t involve the supernatural.  Maybe go to a party or stay home and watch movies.”

“Watching movies would be nice,” said Arthur.

“Ooh!  We could watch the Nightmare Before Christmas again!” said Vivi.

“You will not. It’s a school night,” said Hiro.  “As it is the only reason you’re spending the night together is for safety’s sake.”  He looked to Sydney Sr.  “I’m trusting you and Mrs. Scoville to get the children to sleep and awake on time.”

“Nggggh!”

“That means yes,” said Sydney Jr.

“I still wish we could spend the night at Lewis’ house,” said Vivi.  “There’s a lot more space, and it seems more fitting to spend Halloween in a haunted house.”

“Belle sometimes cries at night.  She might wake you up,” said Lewis.

“Or we might wake her up,” countered Arthur.

“I don’t wanna wake Baby Belle up!” agreed Sydney Jr.  “She’s cute when she’s sleeping.”

The subject of conversation rapidly changed to siblings and sleepovers.  Hiro watched them absentmindedly before feeling something brush against his side.

It was just Ben, who gave him a smile unseen by anyone else.  Hiro found himself smiling back.  It was nice…seeing the children all so happy like this.

It would be nice if it would last forever.

[smilesthroughfandoms]

Every Single Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode in one sentence or less

I’ll probably post a more in depth-review later this week, as I have opinions literally no one wants to hear but I will proclaim anyway, and then I’ll probably also due a revision of my ‘Past Queens Connection to Star’ post from way back in season 2. Cause that needs an update.

Anyway, enjoy!

Star Comes to Earth: Princess Cinnamon Roll that Could Kill you comes to earth and meets Misunderstood Safe Kid.

Party With a Pony: Spoopy Wardens hunt for the glitter pony while Star gets ice for Marco’s sweaty back.

Matchmaker: In which we learn it was probably a bad idea to give Star the wand in the first place.

School Spirit: Star misunderstands football and Marco tries to get Ferguson to blow his whistle not in that way.

Monster Arm: “Not my bowels! I love my bowels!”

The Other Exchange Student: Star is jealous of the meatball man from Bakersfieldville.

Cheer Up Star: “It’s supposed to be ironic!”

Quest Buy: Very accurate depiction of what it is like to work in retail.

Diaz Family Vacation: Both Marco and Star see new sides of their dads but that’s not necessarily a good thing

Brittney’s Party: Star and Marco party on a bus that Ludo hijacks

Mewberty: Star gets horny and snares boys in her web but not in that way

Pixtopia: Marco messed up and Alfonso marries Ferguson’s rebound

Lobster Claws: “… You can’t eat children.” “Really? Not even the annoying ones?”

Sleep Spell: “Camera Phooone!”

Blood Moon Ball: We’re suppose to ship them now, right?

Fortune Cookies: Love is never the answer kids

Freeze Day: Father Time offers Star and Marco some mud before riding away on his wheel-mobile pulled by giant time-hamsters I am not making this up.

Royal Pain: King Santa Claus destroy mini-golf

St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses: Princess Prison sure is a nightma–OH MY GOD ARE THOSE CLUBS?!

Mewnipendence Day: No wonder monsters hate Mewmans so much.

The Banagic Wand: Star still doesn’t get Earth and like all of us, Marco is always hungry.

Interdemensional Field Trip: Miss Skullnick fears the “Big Change” while Marco sends Jackie cat memes

Marco Grows a Beard: Ludo is out, Toffee is in, and Marco will probbaly be terrified of beards forever

Storm the Castle: “SURPRISE!”

My New Wand!: DIP DOOOWN

Ludo in the Wild: Wait, since when did Ludo become badass?

Mr. Candle Cares: “Star and I have recently become smooch buddies… On the lips.”

Red Belt: Marco searches for a meaning in life and Star searches for hammer.

Star on Wheels: *epic remix of Marco saying Star is in trouble*

Fetch: Marco can’t open juice and Star runs away from her problems and sending thank you cards

Star vs. Echo Creek: Star gets high and destroys a police car

Wand to Wand: Both Ludo and Star are terrible at magic also major ship tease

Starstruck: Star and her idol Sailor Super Saiyan destroy a park and Marco is 100002% done with this shit

Camping Trip: King Butterfly has a mid-life crisis and tries to control an eagle

Starsitting: They’re gonna be great parents some day.

On the Job: Buff Dad is best dad and buff babies are adorable

Goblin Dogs: “You might think this line is long, but listen to my goblin song!~”

By the Book: Ludo and Star still suck at magic and Glossaryck is a bigger troll than Alex Hirsch

Game of Flags: And I thought my family was dysfunctional...

Girls’ Day Out: Janna is back and is still awesome btw

Sleepover: “TRUTH! STAR HAS A CRUSH ON MA–” *cue fandom freakout*

Gift of the Card: R.I.P.  Rasticore Chaosus Disastorvayne… He couldn’ get his fucking chainsaw to work

Friendenemies: Star becomes one with Christmas tree while Tom and Marco go on a date and sing a romantic pop ballad.

Is Mystery: Meatfork is apparently a family name and Ludo is really starting to freak me out tbh

Hungry Larry: “He’s still hungry…”

Spider with a Top Hat: He tries and he is awesome and that’s all that matters

Into the Wand: SPAAAAADESS!!!

Pizza Thing: Marco is OCD about mushroom and Pony Head buys skinny jeans

Page Turner: Moon, how did you miss Toffee in the orb he was right there!

Naysaya: Marco is a mood in this episode

Bon Bon the Birthday Clown: Honestly my favorite episode overall

Raid the Cave: Glossaryck is the true neutral asshole.

Trickstar: Weird Al is a treasure and I’ll mes up anyone who makes Marco cry!

Baby: Aw, look at the little deadly baby, I love her!

Running With Scissors: Marco gets a new edition to his shipping harem and she is so cute!

Mathmagic: Why did the chicken cross the road?

The Bounce Lounge: Marco is definitely the mom friend.

Crystal Clear: The Chancellor guy is amazing and Rhombulus just needs a hug and wAS THAT ECLIPSA IN THE BACKGROUND?

The Hard Way: “SURPRISE!” 2.0

Heinous: Oh, so that’s how Marco got all that money.

All Belts Are Off: This is the negative side of “Pro-tag teen hangs out with older adult figure” trope done splendidly

Collateral Damage: Marco how do you not know what a possum is?

Just Friends: I’m fine! *blows up sign to prove just how fine I am*

Face the Music: This song is actually a banger

Star Crushed: Looking back, I’m starting to think the writing peaked at this episode....

BATTLE FOR MEWNI EDITION!!!!!

Return to Mewni: This is… just an exposition filler. Not much else to say….

Moon the Undaunted: B4! B4! B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4 B4!

Book Be Gone: Seriously, did Glossy take trolling lessons from Alex Hirsch this is hilarious!

Marco and the King: This is the  “Pro-tag teen hangs out with older adult figure” done slightly better

Puddle Defender: Aw, look at the little buff babies, they’re getting so big!

King Ludo: The mime stole the show.

Toffee: Yeah, I think the writing peaked somewhere around here...

Scent of Hoodie: Huh, so Ponyhead can be written as likeable, who would’ve thought?

Rest in Pudding: The colors are not doing the censors any favor here, huh?

Club Snubbed: I literally yelled “Phrasing!” whenever they dropped the title

Stranger Danger: Is she the new antagonist of the series? I can’t tell

Demoncism: Tom is a wonderful baby boy and Ponyhead is written as likeable, part 2!

Sophmore Slump: *sobbing* Jackie deserved better, dang it!

Lint Catcher: I’m starting to wonder if there is any competant authority figure in Mewni

Trial by Squire: I think the writers were all like” You think these guys will ship anyone with Marco?” and decided to test that theory.

Princess Turdina: I got more lore out of this episode than I thought I would.

Starfari: Welp, she makes me uncomfortable.

Sweet Dreams: *Sailor Moon-ing intensifies*

Lava Lake Beack: Proof that this fandom will ship anyone with Marco at the slightest inclanation

Death Peck: Rich Pigeon is my new favorite birb and Ponyhead is written as likeable for the third time

Ponymonium: Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Night Life: The writers made so many new ships they had to get rid of an old one!

Deep Dive: “Chicken butt”

Monster Bash: Well, that explains the cheekmarks.

Stump Day: I think they just made an episode based around a picture from that bookcover.

Holiday Special: *insert every cheesy Christmas/Holiday episode trope here*

The Bog Beast of Boggabah: The title is fun to say and the episode is average at best.

Total Eclipsa the Moon: Seriously, I’m supposed to think she’s an ultimate villain.

Butterfly Trap: In which we are all Sean, don’t lie we were all him at the end

Ludo, Where Art Thou?: Dennis is best brother, hands down.

Is Another Mystery: *sniff* I got more emotional over this episode than anyone else did and I’m not sure how I feel about that

Marco Jr.: I… I just… Why? What’s the point?

Skooled!: Epic advertisment fakeout combined with wonderful character development and lore with a shock ending makes a 8/10 episode.

Booth Buddies: Old Man McGucket ships Starco, proceed to react accordingly

Bam Ui Pati!: Ponyhead is kinda likeable in this episod–nevermind she’s back.

Tough Love: Oh man, it’s happening! It’s happening guys here we go!

Divide: We are going to war everybody–And they’re all dead. That was quick.

Conquer: They should have paid Alex HIrsch to voice Glossaryck at this point, it’d be more in character for him.

Butterfly Follies: Proof that someone will always complain about politics no matter what.

Escape from the Pie Folk: Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that he kinda resembles Eclipsa more than Festivia?

Moon Remembers: I was expecting a freakout but was pleasantly surprised

Swim Suit: I’m starting to get a bad feeling about Rhombulus

Ransomgram: Why is everyone in this dimesnion hot?!

Lake House Fever: She’s a good mom

Yada Yada Berries: They missed an opportunity to have a Seinfeld actor guest-star, just saying

Down by the River: I’m glad that she can relax

The Ponyhead Show!: And Ponyhead is offically no longer likeable, can someone toss her into an abyss please?

Surviving the Spiderbites: SpiderSlime is canon proceed to react accordingly

Out of Buisness: How did this place go out of buisness???

Kelly's World: Man, they’re really setting these non-Starco ships up to fail, huh?

Curse of the Blood Moon: Pfft, yeah, sure, Starco won’t be canon at all!

Princess Quasar Caterpillar and the Magic Bell: I think Ludo has the most consistent character arc out of the entire show’s history.

Ghost of Butterfly Castle: Moon, Star is your daughter and Star supports Eclipsa, why would you not tell her?

Cornball: This episode has a heartwarming lesson that I hope more people come to realize

Meteora's Lesson: I’ll take any Toffee scenes I can get

The Knight Shift: I honestly don’t remember what happened n this episode

Queen-Napped: Seriously, can someone please dropkick Ponyhead into an abyss?

Junkin' Janna: The JanTom interaction I’ve been waiting for

A Spell with No Name: These types of episodes stopped being charming awhile ago

A Boy and His DC-700XE: I think Tomco has more ground to stand-on then Starco at this point

The Monster and The Queen: Don Panchito voices Globgor! There’s hope for this show yet!

Cornonation: They’re the best couple/parents/anything around!

Doop-Doop: I honestly think Rick just put Morty through some flux-capacitor or something

Britta's Tacos: Hey, remember these people that we suddenly brought back? No? Me neither!

Beach Day: This feels like a Season 1 episode and it’s nice

Gone Baby Gone: I want a TV show aout them now! Disney, please!

Sad Teen Hotline: Mr. Diaz is way to invested in Star’s love life.

Jannanigans: Hello last minute Janna character development!

Mama Star: So that’s how Mewni came to be--and I don’t care anymore

Ready, Aim, Fire!: Let’s get that finale ball rolling people!

The Right Way: Ok, that spell is actually pretty badass.

Here to Help: There, Starco’s finally canon will you guys just shut up now!

Pizza Party: Moon you idiot you ruined everything!

The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse: Toffee was right all along... I think we all knew that in some way

Cleaved: I expect nothing substanial and that’s what I got

[simplylove101]

Influential TV Shows

Okay this is kinda random and why I prob won’t tag the shows I list cuz this is more just something I wanted to get out of my head after watching J&J’s latest podcast where they were talking about this topic. They kept it to 7 shows each and while that would certainly be interesting to try, that’s kinda hard. lol I went about grouping some of them - shows that shaped me growing up, shows that impacted me/stuck with me, comfort shows/watch with the family, taught me about fandoms, etc. And saying something about each of them. Anyway, this is stupid but here we go lol:

The Shows Growing Up:

Sailor Moon: Okay, nobody make fun of me. lol This is the first show I remember really watching as a kid that wasn't Barney or whatever, something I decided to watch by myself and it actually had an ongoing story. And ofc it took time for me to realize that this was just an English dubbed version that they would play on Cartoon Network. Looking back on it, it’s a little cringey (the voice readings, Serena being a bit of a crybaby) but seeing girls, even if it was animated, kicking ass over evil as a group made an impression on me so it’s no wonder I would watch it religiously after school and was sad when they stopped airing it. And ofc I watched all the movies too. I was a shameless fan. lmao I also eventually read the manga and appreciated it.

Hey Arnold: As a kid, I would watch Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon (& eventually Disney when I got a little bit older), and I think one of the Nickelodeon shows that really stuck with me as a kid, like Rugrats, was this one. It had a wide range of really distinct characters. It was genuinely funny. And I did love the dynamic between Arnold & Helga (who was interesting & sometimes they would let her be the protagonist of an ep instead of him, like the therapist one which is a def fave) even if her crush was kinda as stalkerish as you can get why maintaining innocence. lol And you know what? I did totally watch the recent movie they did where it tied up loose ends like getting these two together and allowing her to grow as a character. Gotta say it was rewarding after all this time. lol  

All That: I feel like I gotta put this here because I watched this show all the time as a kid. And I think it’s something that really taught me about comedy. I had seen things from Saturday Night Live growing up cuz of my parents but this was my Nickelodeon version with people that weren’t much older than me at the time so I could really get what was going on/enjoy it. It’s also the first place where we saw people like Amanda Bynes & Kenan Thompson & Kel Mitchell (which is partly why I later watched things like The Amanda Show and Kenan & Kel) What can I say? As a young person, it was just really cool seeing kids being funny. Yeah, there was some cheese but I didn’t care. It stayed with me.

Boy Meets World/Sister, Sister/Lizzie McGuire/Even Stevens: I kinda cheated here and bundled these shows because these are four of the shows I watched on Disney growing up (Disney showed reruns of Boy Meets World & Sister, Sister for the record) There were others like That’s So Raven, Suite Life, Wizards of Waverly sort of, Proud Family to name a few but these shows I picked have such iconic episodes that I still remember well and love. Like Even Stevens - musical episode hands down Idc. Boy Meets World - Scream-inspired Halloween ep for sure. Yes, there was cheesiness with all these shows. Sometimes very after-school special, but they shaped me I think. Also gotta mention, I remember thinking of Hilary Duff as my idol. lol

The Ones I Watched With the Fam:

That 70′s Show: Now the thing with my family is that we were one where for a time we would watch tv while eating dinner and my dad would have control of what channel we watched. It was always this way, which meant it would either be Law & Order or Seinfeld (the second one I was cool with and I almost included it on here cuz it’s such a staple comedy but eh,,, I appreciated it more later on. It felt more forced on me at the time) This is probably one of the only shows I can say my whole family truly agreed on watching all together tho, including my sister who generally watches trashy reality shows. This show will always remain one of my faves, because it was hilarious. It got a little weaker towards the end (We do NOT speak about Season 8) but I loved how it was a true ensemble sitcom where everyone brought something to the table and enjoyed the different dynamics between the group. The funny running gags, Jackie & Hyde still remain one of my all-time otps, and Kelso is probably the funniest & lovable dumb character I can think of (If nothing else, Ashton Kutcher was meant to play this part ok) It was nice to have something my whole family could enjoy together. It was a rarity so this show has a special place in my heart for that alone.

Joan of Arcadia: Another show that has a place in my heart, despite it only lasting 2 seasons and it ending on a bad note (major cliffhanger, still never fully making things right w/ Adam after destroying his character, ultimately S2 was problematic but still) because this is a show that I watched religiously (pun not actually intended here lol) with my mom every Friday it was on. What I loved about it was that the concept is centered around Joan talking to God yet it generally wasn’t being preachy. Joan wasn’t always willing to do what God wanted her to do, and things didn’t always turn out how she wanted. It was a kinda perfect blend for me and my mom to watch together. After this we were more willing to watch stuff as a pair cuz we were close but this started all that. I remember always being curious how God would appear to Joan cuz it was always changing, but there were some fave recurring ones like Cute Guy God, Goth God & Old Lady God to name a few. heh Joan was played wonderfully by the awesome Amber Tamblyn who could always make me cry (naturally she played my fave Tibby in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies too lol) and she had awesome friends in Adam & Grace (who were my faves) and family. I rewatched this show and you know, I’d say S1 holds up and even the first half of S2. Heck, the episode where Joan & Adam break up towards the end of it, while totally heartbreaking and PISSES me off cuz bad writing for Adam, was solid simply for the acting so there’s that. lol

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Putting this show under this category because this was a show that I mostly got into because my sister loved it growing up. I was really young when it came out so I mostly remembered bits & pieces when I later watched it when I got a little older. It stuck with me tho cuz ofc the awesome Sarah Michelle Gellar playing badass Buffy (she was my sister’s idol) and it was a genuinely funny and smart show. It also got dark too. It wasn’t always solid towards the end, but I think it mostly nailed the actual ending (why Anya had to die tho... Spike I got but ugh) Anyway, this was kinda a big deal cuz it was the only thing my sister and I really watched together that wasn’t bad reality television or me barely paying attention to Dawson’s Creek at the time lol This showed that my sister could have taste when she wanted to (lmao sorry)

The Carol Burnett Show: I had to mention this show because this is one that got me, really my family, through dealing with my mom’s dementia. We chose to care for her at home instead of putting her in a nursing home. We did this for 2 years until her death. And the one thing we (excluding my sister cuz her & old stuff don’t mix) could always count on cheering us up was this show. My dad told me that my mom loved this show growing up and that’s why we turned on for her. So luckily memory or no memory, she still had a sense of humor and she knew when to laugh. And with good reason. This show is hilarious. So iconic. Carol Burnett was/is rightfully loved dearly for this show. I wish I had more I could say, but this was truly a comfort show when I desperately needed it so I am forever grateful that it existed.

Honorable Mention: Young & Hungry - another show that got us through that dark period, my dad actually really enjoyed this, despite seeming skeptical, and eventually started calling it the “Josh & Gaby Show” lmao Only thing is we never finished it together so oops. Not so much influential maybe but worth mentioning it felt like since it was underrated, got me thru a tough time, was hilarious and I loved that cast a lot. Emily Osment deserved to be the lead of her own show. Comedy queen.

The Ones That Brought Out the Fangirl In Me AKA The Teen Years:

The O.C/One Tree Hill/Gossip Girl/The Vampire Diaries: Another category where I’m just grouping them up together cuz ultimately it wasn’t about high art with these shows. They were the staple teen shows that everyone was watching and well, I was one of those people. lol It all started with The O.C. It was one of those ‘at the right time’ kinda things cuz I just went into the 6th grade when S1 started and it was such a big hit that everyone was always talking about it and there were even shirts involved (I never went that far lol) but this is where my need to explore YouTube came and then I was making fanvids. Gossip Girl is the one where I actually inserted myself into a fandom for the first time. My goodness the cringe that came with it but it gave me two of the longest online friendships I’ve ever had so I don’t regret it. (Shoutout to @backtothestart02 here as one of them) And well, three of these shows taught me the toxicity that can come from fandom. So I’ve been less vocal/more aware with other shows because of it. There’s problematic stuff in all of these but they were entertaining most of the time despite frustration (lol) 

Honorable Mention: Teen Wolf - Had to mention this one cuz this was a show where I had a group of friends who all watched this together and we talked about it til the end (even when we weren’t happy with it lol) I was never really vocal in the fandom cuz by this point I was wary of them (fandoms I mean), but it was nice to share a show with people who felt similarly about it. As a show, I truly loved it up to 3B. Some of my favorite episodes were the ones that almost felt standalone-ish (3x06 AKA Motel California still remains my fave to this day) Lastly, it’s because of this show I was introduced to Dylan O’Brien who I always refer to as my ‘always & forever’ guy so yeah lol

Maybe Superhero Shows Are Worth Watching lol:

The Flash/Daredevil/Cloak & Dagger/Runaways: So I’m someone who growing up, beyond Spider-Man and Batman, never really jumped at superhero movies. I still don’t to an extent but I’m more willing to watch stuff now. I think because when it comes to TV, I’m willing to check out at least an ep. I got into The Flash because my friend Lauren was really into it (and still very much is now) and wanted me to check it out so I did. I sorta watched Arrow before it until a point so I’d seen Barry’s appearances on it and remembered thinking he was precious so I wasn’t surprised that I liked him as a main character. I do think these later seasons have lost some quality but I think the earlier ones were very solid and Grant is perfect in the role. Daredevil... R.I.P. That show was so high quality so the fact that Netflix cancelled it is just rude. Now... Cloak & Dagger has been one of those surprises for me cuz it was such a slow burn that when it really got going it left me wanting more. That S1 finale was so solid. Cannot wait for S2. Love the dynamic between Ty & Tandy. Now Runaways isn’t perfect but it’s my biggest fandom right now and I’m proud of that fact. It’s a show that highlights diversity with 4 PoC leads & 4 kickass ladies (Nico & Gert are my bb girls), healthy ships including an LGBTQ couple currently as the main one (tho it is Gertchase that owns my heart), and overall a pretty great cast that meshes well like the thrown together family they portray. It even got me back into writing fanfic again. A miracle tbh. lol

Overall Just Amazing:

This Is Us: I just think that this show pulled me in the second they revealed that first plot twist in the pilot. It surprised me and then they kept doing that a bit after. Now it’s more about how it has the ability to make me cry every ep and feel things. It doesn’t always touch me the same it did in that first season (it was an emotional year for me tbh) but it does have a class act cast who can always pull at my heart strings.

Boardwalk Empire: This technically could have went under something I sort of watched with my dad, but it is kinda a weird show to share I guess. We didn’t usually watch it together (saved some awkward convos sometimes lol) but always talked about each episode weekly and it was kinda fun cuz it was usually in-depth. My dad still quotes things from it to this day. He also once said that he considers S1 the best TV season he’s ever watched. I agree that it was great. For me, the first 3 seasons are solid while the last 2 felt different but still pretty good. There was such quality to it. Great acting headed by Steve Buscemi. What can I say? I have a thing for gangster stories. I could say more but I’ll stop. lol

Stranger Things: The show that really turned me into a binge-watcher. I had just gotten Netflix and what show did I decide to watch on my birthday? This show. I had seen things in the media about the kids from it and I was like, they’re adorable!! And ofc I got hooked when I actually watched the show. It just has everything in it that I like: mystery, thrills, humor, hint of romance, awesome acting, music moments, nostalgia. This was my obsession for a while until I got into some other things but if you don’t think I’m totally pumped for S3, then you best believe I’m watching it all in a day if I can. lol

Community: This is a show that reminded me how a show can think totally outside of the box and still have a lot of heart with its comedy. I love situations where a group of misfits come together and become a family. I love that this show celebrates being different. Troy Barnes remains one of my favorite TV characters ever (& omg his friendship with Abed is pure goals!!) and Donald Glover played him perfectly. And Alison Brie is just adorable as Annie. Love this group of weirdos. The quality was different after S3 but I still adore it.

Into the Badlands: Have to mention this show because what it has been doing action-wise is just incredible. The fighting sequences are out of this world. I’m always excited to see how they top it. Also, an Asian male lead? Go dude! The whole cast is wonderful and everything is just high quality, ok? Also, that cinematography!! Can’t believe it’s ending when it comes back. Sadness.

One Day at a Time: This is more of a recent discovery for me (had friends who watched it and knew it was good but only decided to check it out not too long ago) but it’s already made its impact on me. This show has so much heart to it. The writers put so much care into their work when they bring up these controversial issues in the episodes. All while being totally hilarious (but also trust me, I manage to cry at least 1 or twice an ep lol) A show centered on a Cuban family, plenty of good rep for LGBTQ/non-binary people while also handling things like depression/anxiety, addiction, immigration, etc. It’s definitely making its mark on TV. Also, Rita Moreno is a living legend who I adore. I love this cast so much.

12 Monkeys: I. loved. this. show! I still think it had the best series finale that I have seen in a while. It wrapped up things so well that I was smiling for a while after watching it. I couldn’t believe that of all shows this one gave me a happy ending. lol Casserole remains one of my all-time ships because they were truly epic and pulled at my heart strings so many times. Jennifer Goines was my queen. But seriously, a show about time travel that managed to make sense? So impressed. And the visuals? gahhh

Friday Night Lights: Last, but most definitely not least, this show is just up there as one of the all-time bests IDC. The fact that at first glance the show seems centered only about football and it got me to keep watching definitely says something. lol This show had so much heart, the cast was excellent, an ending that was pretty much perfect. Coach & Tami Taylor were relationship goals. Honestly one of the best portrayals of a married couple I’ve ever seen because they were very much a team (while yes there was the occasional bickering that you gotta love) and it just felt real, you know? Also, it’s a show that proved that you can come back from a sophomore slump (yeah S2 was the worst season) and continue to be great.I can’t decide if it’s my favorite show of all-time but it’s certainly one of the first ones to come to mind. So glad I decided to give it a chance.

There’s probably a couple other shows I could list here but some I haven’t finished yet and don’t feel ready to put them on here yet. This is just what I could come up with.

[kevintor]

I Watch a Movie I Should Have Seen: “The Wizard”

I liked this movie. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew it had Fred Savage (I loved “The Wonder Years”) in it and I knew it was about video games. I knew there was a video game tournament but I thought Fred Savage was "the wizard.” Not the case.

My thoughts:

We open on a kid, Jimmy, walking alone on the side of a desert highway for the ENTIRE opening credits. I’m sure they gave the actor a bottle of water.

Police pick him up. We find out he’s got divorced parents, a stepdad played by a guy who always sucks in every movie, he’s kept in a school because he’s maybe autistic, he’s got a mysterious lunchbox he always carries, and he constantly escapes to try to go to California. Only one way to handle this: put him in a different home.

His mom is dressed like if Sailor Moon starred in Working Girl.

Fred Savage and Christian Slater play Jimmy's brothers that stay with the dad because producers wanted every young girl to see this movie.

Fred Savage sneaks Jimmy out of the new home with no problems at all.  There’s probably a deleted scene where he threw a smoke bomb through the first floor window.

A man in a bolo tie is hired to find the missing boys. He retrieves runaways professionally. He’s the best boy finder this side of the Mississippi. It’s not creepy. It’s business.

You know how people would just give rides to 12-year-olds and their younger hitchhiking companions? It was so easy to run away back then.

So someone watched “Rain Man” and said, “You know what sucks about this movie? That Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman aren’t children. And instead of using the brother’s talent for casino gambling, we’ll make it arcade hustling.”

They meet a girl with wisdom, Haley. Haley is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She’s Kate Hudson in “Almost Famous” or Natalie Portman in “Garden State.”  

The next truckers that they hitchhike with steal their cash. The truckers rob children. Then again, how will the kids learn not to hitchhike?

I guess the truckers should have roughed them up after robbing them because the kids immediately take a ride from another trucker followed by a ride from a motorcycle club. WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP GIVING RIDES WITHOUT QUESTION TO LITTLE KIDS?? CALL THE POLICE!!!

THE 80S GOT THINGS RIGHT SOMETIMES ALERT: In the next truck they hitchhike in, they are with a Native American family in the flatbed. The Native American dad says hello to the kids and Jimmy says hello back. Just a nice moment when I was prepared for a a cringey joke.

They meet a video game superstar who has a Power Glove kept in a protective suitcase. I didn’t have a Power Glove growing up so I immediately don’t like him. They learn of the video game championships from Power Glove Jerk.

We learn that Jimmy doesn’t speak much because he is traumatized by losing his twin sister when he was younger. She drowned saving him. This explains a lot. They say when your twin dies, you absorb their video game abilities. Silver linings.

A few more rides from strangers. Why not?

I have not mentioned the car violence exchanged between Boy Finder and the dad. Popped tires, assault with a shovel, a demolition derby in the middle of a small town, and calling a tow truck to get the dad’s truck stripped for parts. Jimmy has to win the tournament just to pay for all the damage.

RAIN MAN ALERT: The kids gamble by proxy at a craps table in Reno to acquire enough money to practice on every possible game.

Fred Savage keeps Jimmy practicing in an arcade while Haley spends her time on the phone with the Nintendo Power Tips hotline. They put in the work. This is a solid montage.

The late 80s were nice because only kids competed in video game tournaments.

Tobey Maguire right after he was bit by a radioactive mullet.

So Jimmy wanted to go to California because it was the location of the last place the family went on vacation when the sister was still alive and the parents were still together. It’s nice except that the family doesn’t recognize the place until Jimmy shows them a picture. How do they not remember going to a dinosaur museum? Are they imposters? Is that the plot of “The Wizard 2?”

The ultimate message of this movie is that video games can fix anything: PTSD, family separation, financial troubles. This is also the debut of Super Mario 3, a game I did not have growing up. What was the deal with my childhood? I remember being happy.

[fanfics4all]

More Personal Stuff! (Do you guys like when I do these?)

1. What is your nickname? Sam and Sammy (by my family)

2. How old are you? 21

3. What is your birth month? April

4. What is your zodiac sign? Aries

5. What is your favorite color? Red and Black (Harley Quinn colors)

6. What’s your lucky number? 13 (it’s a family lucky number)

7. Do you have any pets? Not anymore :(

8. Where are you from? New York

9. How tall are you? 5’2

10. What shoe size are you? Depends on the shoe, 8 to 8 ½ normally

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? 6

12. Are you random? Oh yeah

13. Last person you texted? My best friend

14. Are you psychic in any way? Yes, I get feelings about people and can tell if they’re bad or not. I also predicted my boyfriend was going to break up with me two weeks before he did, he was in another state visiting family and he was talking over text slightly differently and then when he came back he broke up with me over text when we were hanging out that same day and talking about what we were gonna do for our year and a half

15. Last TV show watched? Adventure Time lol

6. Favorite movie?  I don’t know, I love a lot of movies. Nightmare Before Christmas, The Little Mermaid, The Little Mermaid 2, Me Before You

17. Favourite show from your childhood? Pokemon, Totally Spies, Hello Kitty, Danny Phantom, Chowder, Sailor Moon, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, H2O, Wings, Home Improvement,Doug, Rugrats, Powerpuff Girls, Jimmy Neutron, Hey Arnold, My Life As A Teenage Robot, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, Full House, Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory, Ed Edd n Eddy Johnny Bravo, Krypto the Superdog Scooby Doo and Codename Kids Next Door

18. Do you want children? Yes, more than anything!

19. Do you want a church wedding? No

20. What is your religion? My family is Catholic, but I’m not. I say out of that.

21. Have you ever been to the hospital? Yes, admitted because I almost Died as a baby twice

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? Kind of

23. How is life? Ehhh kinda sucks

24. Baths or showers? I like baths to relax but I don’t have one so showers

25. What color socks are you wearing? None

26. Have you ever been famous? Not at all!

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? No, I’m shy AF

28. What type of music do you like? All really, but I don’t like most pop songs TBH

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? I’ve been in my bra and underwear with my friend but no not nude

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? 3 normally

31. What position do you usually sleep in? On my side but I move around a lot

32. How big is your house? We rent so it’s an alright size

33. What do you typically have for breakfast? I don’t! It kind of makes me sick

34. Have you ever left the country? No :(

35. Have you ever tried archery? Nah, but I really wanted to

36. Do you like anyone? My friends, Sometimes my family

37. Favorite swear word? Cunt

38. When do you fall asleep? Depends

39. Do you have any scars? Oh man a lot, I use to self harm

40. Sexual orientation? Bi AF

41. Are you a good liar? Yeah but I don’t do it much

42. What languages would you like to learn? French, Russian, and Polish

43. Top 10 songs? The ones I’ve been listening to a lot right now are: 1) A Little More by MGK 2) This Is War by Thirty Seconds To Mars 3) When You Were Young by The Killers 4) Almost Love by Sabrina Carpenter 5) Killer In The Mirror By Set It Off 6) Horns By Bryce Fox 7) Marijuana Breath by Adam Jensen 8) One Love By Marianas Trench 9) Kiss It Better by He Is We 10) Put The Gun Down by Andy Black   

44. Do you like your country? Eh not really if I’m being honest, it’s pretty fucked

45. Do you have friends from the web? Yes

46. What is your personality type? Mediator (INFP-T)

47. Hogwarts House? Slytherin!

48. Can you curl your tongue? Yep

49. Pick one fictional character you can relate to? Luna Lovegood  

50. Left or right handed? Right

51. Are you scared of spiders? YES 100%

52. Favorite food? Steak or Lamb

53. Favorite foreign food? Umm, Chinese/Japanese

54. Are you a clean or messy person? Both but more on the messy side

55. If you could switch your gender for a day, what would you do? Nothing, I guess see how it feels to be paid more?

56. What color underwear? Black (I’m wearing Supernatural underwear rn so there’s a pentagram on them lol)

57. How long does it take for you to get ready? Depends on what I’m getting ready for

58. Do you have much of an ego? LOL No, I don’t like myself

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? Suck but bite sometimes

60. Do you talk to yourself? Way too often

61. Do you sing to yourself? Oh yeah, I suck but people tell me otherwise

62. Are you a good singer? ^^ Nope

63. Biggest Fears? Not being able to have kids

64. Are you a gossip? Not really

65. Are you a grammar nazi? No

66. Do you have long or short hair? I have a little past my shoulder length so medium?

67. Can you name all 50 states of America? If you give me enough time probably

68. Favorite school subject? Math and Art

69. Extrovert or Introvert? Introverted as fuck

70. Have you ever been scuba diving? No, I’m not a huge fan of the ocean unless I’m on a boat (I love swimming just not in the ocean, rips the dye out of my hair)

71. What makes you nervous? My anxiety, Trains, talking to people I don’t know really well, Failing

72. Are you scared of the dark? No

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? Sometimes

74. Are you ticklish? Very

75. Have you ever started a rumor? I don’t think so

76. Have you ever been out of your home country? No

77. Have you ever drank underage? Like once, I don’t like alcohol that much. I only drink one type

78. Have you ever done drugs? Why? Yes weed because it helps me chill out and helps my depression for a little while, also helps me sleep sometimes

79. What do you fantasize about? Love

80. How many piercings do you have? None but I want some

81. Can you roll your R’s? Yes

82. How fast can you type? Pretty fast

83. How fast can you run? Not very, my asthma kicks in (I don’t smoke my week btw, I vape it because of my asthma and it gets you higher with less)

84. What color is your hair? Black on one side and very faded red on the other (I had Harley Quinn hair) I’m changing it to purple and blue soon

85. What color are your eyes? Hazel

86. What are you allergic to? A lot. Pollen, Dust, Cats, Dust Mites, anything with fur pretty much (I’m allergic to dogs but I’ve been around them a lot so I’m not as allergic to them anymore but I do get hives sometimes if I pet them) um there’s more but I honestly can’t remember right now. Luckily not allergic to any food!

87. Do you keep a journal? Yes, I only write in it when I’m super depressed

88. Are you depressed about anything? Like everything (I’ve had depression since I was 8)

89. Do you like your age? Not really, it makes me feel like I’m running out of time (Yes I know 21 is young)

90. What makes you angry? I have anger problems so it kind of takes very little to make me angry (Thanks dad! Hahaha)

91. Do you like your own name? Not my full name but I like Sam

92. Did you ever get a foreign object up your nose? Um no, but I accidently gave myself a nose bleed when I was little by accidently smashing a pencil up my nose (I was banging my head on the eraser side because I was so bored and I slipped and it went right up my nose! I was in like 4th grade lol)

93. Do you want a boy or a girl for a child? Both, more boys than girls I only want like 2 or 3 girls but I will love all my children no matter what! Not like you can choose anyway

94. What talents do you have? Art, writing, and I’ve been told I’m a good dancer

95. Sun or moon? Moon

96. How did you get your name? My mom wanted to name me something that could also have a boys nickname

97. Are you religious? Nope

98. Have you ever been to a therapist? I’ve been to 14, I stopped really talking to them because when I was a kid my therapist (Keep in mind I was like 6 or younger) threatened to take me out of my home because I told her my parents fight (This was before the abuse started) So I don’t like going to them (even though I need one)

99. Color of your bedspread? Black

100. Color of your room? It’s white (Unfortunately, I kind of want a dark green room or a dark red. I don’t know)

[lycorogue]

Gabriel Agreste: A 3-Part Character Study

Part 3: How Gabriel Agreste and Hawk Moth SHOULD have been written

Welcome back, and welcome to the final part of my essay series with regards to Gabriel Agreste.

In Part 1 I explained my reasoning to write this series in the first place. If you haven't read that yet and would like to follow my train-of-thought, feel free to go back and read that part here.

Part 2 consisted of my headcanon of what Gabriel's life was like, and his basic personality, prior to the viewer meeting him within the structure of the “Miraculous Ladybug” TV series. At no time did I attempt to justify or condone his actions, but I did try to explain them. It isn't anchored in any sort of canonical facts, but it does ring true for me. If you're interested in this psuedo-narrative short story, you can find it here.

In this final part of the series I want to talk about how I would have written Hawk Moth and Gabriel Agreste for this show. I focus on ways of making him the sympathetic villain Thomas Astruc seems to be aiming for, but without the “hiccup” of child abuse/neglect/endangerment. Because, honestly, Hawk Moth could very much be the Ladybug equivalent of the Batman villain Mr. Freeze. The basic structure is there: a man madly in love with his wife, keeps her “alive” in a tube-like coffin (for Freeze it's because he has his wife in a cryogenic chamber), and turns to a life of crime as a means to revive his wife as quickly as possible.

This would have worked beautifully. It could have been the same sort of homage to a sympathetic villain as Ladybug is an homage to Spider-Man and Sailor Moon. It's a shame Astruc didn't calculate for Adrien. There was probably a reason why, when Dave Wood and Sheldon Moldoff created Mr. Freeze for the Batman franchise, they didn't have him be a father.

I explore a way to both keep Hawk Moth as Adrien's father, as well as make him a sympathetic villain. One where we won't know if we should cheer against or for him. One where we hope he can be redeemed. One where the inevitable battle between him and Adrien becomes a much more powerful, heart wrenching, and emotional encounter.

Let's start out by saying how beautifully painful it is that Hawk Moth and Chat Noir are actually, and secretly, father and son. It has a sort of Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker feel. It's always wonderfully heartbreaking when family are forced to attack each other. So, bravo on that. It's a shame that in creating this dynamic and “plot twist” (we all saw it coming, but okay...) Astruc ended up creating a sort of casual and brushed off outlook on child neglect and endangerment, as well as mental and emotional abuse. I don't think Astruc realizes he created this blasé attitude about poor family dynamic. I believe he thinks he created “dynamic” characters by having Adrien being this sweet, good-natured, always look for the good in people, used to disappointment kid who should have become a villain (especially with the power of destruction) but instead followed a brighter path. I also believe that Astruc thinks Hawk Moth is sort of his Darth Vader, and can have a similar “self-sacrifice at the last second for the love of his son” level of redemption. That in the end Hawky will FINALLY realize what truly matters and will give up everything for Adrien, and the audience will forgive Gabe and think “what a tragic character.”

And there could be audience members that will think that. Those, like me, who never experienced the pain and trauma of unkind parents, might fall under the spell of the story Astruc tells, and might feel that sympathy. I have to admit, I felt a twinge of sympathy when I saw Gabriel collapsed in that chair in the beginning of Queen Wasp. I felt how deeply he loved his wife, and how crushed he was at potentially giving her up. In that moment I forgot about Adrien and everything that poor boy has to endure. So, Astruc may very well get away with this storytelling angle. I'd hate to admit it, but it's possible.

However, there is a toxic element of letting Gabriel get away with how he treated Adrien. It will definitely send the wrong message if Adrien forgives his father for everything. If they do end up bonding in the final episode; the Agreste men now having the family they both desperately yearned for. It's not a good message to send out to any child watching who is experiencing similar abuse/neglect/endangerment. It's a painful slap in the face of those who survived parents like Gabe. The whole thing just cannot end well for Mr. Agreste.

If Astruc wanted Gabriel to be redeemed, if he wanted Adrien to get his father back, if he wanted Gabe to realize as much as he'll miss Emilie he still has his family, if he wanted the two of them can find a way to revive Emilie and be one big happy family, if he wanted any or all of that to happen, all he had to do was change one thing. Just one.

Have Gabriel Agreste actually be a loving father.

That's it! He can still be Hawk Moth. He can still attack Paris. He can still direct akumatized supervillains away from where Adrien should be so his son could be safe (oddly enough, he's shown doing this sort of thing more in the first season than he has in the second...). He can still be so maddeningly in love with Emilie that he's willing to do all sorts of evil things as Hawk Moth in order to try to revive her. Hawk Moth as a whole could be basically the same, just change key factors of Gabriel.

Have Adrien call him Dad instead of Father in order to show that the two did bond and have a connection, at least until Emilie disappeared. How much more devastating would it be if Adrien “lost” both of his parents when his mother “disappeared”? He went from a warm, loving family unit to a broken one with a father who doesn't know how to get over his grief, and therefore pulls away from his son.

What if Adrien looks upset in the portrait of just him and his father not simply because he’s grieving his mother (they are in black... such a weird time to get a portrait done...), and not because now he’s stuck with the parent he can never bond with? What if he looks depressed because he noticed a change in his father and he fears “losing” a second parent?

Adrien can still be used to these negative feelings by the time his father becomes Hawk Moth so he doesn't trigger an akumatization. Either that, or Gabriel is willing to do anything to bring out LB and CN, except for akumatizing his own son. Then Adrien can feel as depressed or angry or scared as he wants, but never calls an akuma to him because Hawky refuses to send one. How bittersweet would it be if Gabriel’s Miraculous alerted him that someone was set to be akumatized, only for him to realize it’s Adrien? He could then feel guilt about failing his son and GO TO HIM to try to help cheer him up.

Adrien never becoming akumatized even when he knows the trigger and knows he’s experienced it could easily be written off by Adrien as “I have a Miraculous, so I can't be akumatized” and he would only start to question his lack of being akumatized after Queen Bee turns into Queen Wasp (as seen in Queen Wasp). Which will be great because it will add a sense of mystery for Adrien now, as well as a new level of angst. Not only does he not know who Ladybug is, but he's questioning if Hawk Moth knows him and is protecting him. He may begin to question the adult figures in his life, just as Gabriel is questioning if Adrien is Chat Noir.

There could be a very – excuse the pun – cat and mouse game going on between the Agreste men, in which Gabriel wonders if his son is Chat Noir, but various things, such as both “Adrien” and Chat Noir being seen together in Gorizilla, makes him doubt his deduction. Likewise, things like Gabriel becoming akumatized, as seen in The Collector, could throw Adrien off his father's scent.

But now there's that unease. That questioning. That element of mystery and pull at trust. Especially if Gabriel is now a loving father. Adrien already lost his mom, he couldn't possibly believe his father is a supervillain, could he?

Adrien doesn't have to be isolated all the time. Gabriel could have his lunches with Adrien. They could bond after work/school. Gabe could purposely set up his at-home office hours to coincide with Adrien's school work and numerous after school activities. That way he'd be an available father for when his son is home.

You can also still have Gabriel be a very driven fashion designer. Maybe Adrien is used to his father pulling away for a month or so as the deadline for a new line premiere approaches. He's not a fan, but he knows his father loves him, and he's proud that his father is doing something he's passionate about. He gets it. He hopes to become that passionate and dedicated to something some day. Gabriel can still be a recluse, which is why he won't show up for things like Career Day or competitions. That way Adrien still tries to coax his father outside, and gets disappointed that he can't convince him. That way Nathalie still adorably carries around the tablet to Facetime with Gabriel at events the designer should be at. That way it's still The Gorilla and Nathalie taking care of Adrien outside the mansion.

It's not because Gabriel is neglectful. It's because he's agoraphobic, or because he's hounded too much by the media, or because he is grieving Emilie. Something sympathetic and at least a better excuse than “he's a dick and doesn't want to leave his home because he's stubborn and has to be near his lair in case he can akumatize someone.”

As for school, perhaps Gabriel and Emilie really did fear putting their celebrity child in public school, which is why they homeschooled him. Perhaps Adrien's only friend was Chloe growing up because the Bourgeois were the only friends the Agrestes had who had children, let alone children Adrien's age. It wasn't purposeful isolation, it was to try to protect Adrien from the media, and they couldn't find a way to branch out. Gabriel and Emilie tried to make up for this by being Adrien's playmates. Even The Gorilla and Nathalie could have been his extended friends. Which is why Nathalie and Gorilla seem to have a familial bond with Adrien.

If it were crucial that Adrien had to “fight” to get into the public school in the Origins episodes, then perhaps Gabriel was just so fearful of losing Adrien like he lost Emilie that he became overly protective. “I don't want you leaving this house. There's nothing for you out there. I want you here so I can protect you,” instead of Gabe's actual BS of “You are my son. You aren't like everyone else.”

This paternal panic could have really given him sympathy points. Most parents would understand the want to just bubblewrap and lock away your child to protect them from the world.

As for the modeling? Maybe Adrien likes to do it. Maybe it's a way for him and his father to bond. I will never attempt to sell my crocheting, but that doesn't mean I don't like doing it, even when I'm stressed because Christmas is right around the corner and HOLY CRAP I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL GET THIS PROJECT DONE IN TIME! I HATE CROCHETING! WHAT AM I DOING!? So maybe Adrien is the same way with modeling. He likes it. He's good at it. He finds it fun. Maybe he does kind of like the attention... when it's from afar... he just doesn't want to make a career out of it once he's out of school.

Adrien could really enjoy sports as well, which is why he is in fencing and basketball. Out of all of his activities, the only one that he could be “forced” into might be Chinese. And that could just be a loving parent pushing their child to learn a language that might become very handy for him in his future. While my mom didn't force me to take Spanish, she did very much encourage me to chose it (over French or German) because she felt it might be very useful for me in the future. Especially with more and more Americans being native Spanish speakers.

So, even with this change of Gabriel actually being a loving parent, you can still have Adrien’s character build be basically the same. He could still feel trapped at home because his parents kept him isolated to keep him from the harassment of paparazzi. He could feel lost because he lost his mother, and in doing so, his father feels like he's pulling away too. He can still be disappointed that his father won't show up for things like Career Day, concerts, and competitions, but still used to it because his father has a presumably legitimate reason for being a recluse. He can still have the busy schedule, but this time WANT to be that busy. He can still depend on his bodyguard and Nathalie as extra guardians. He can still be his wonderful sunshine self despite the tragedy in his life. And he could LOVE being Chat Noir because it means he can be free.

Adrien can be goofy and wild as Chat Noir, things he self-imposed on himself that he can’t be, after being taught that he's always in the public eye. Gabriel and Emilie didn't force him to be that reserved, he did it himself out of respect for his parents. (Trust me, I did the same thing. I was a pathetic goodie two-shoes growing up simply because I didn't want to shame my parents in any way. I was only goofy while around my dad because he was goofy and I felt safe acting the same way around him. I have since fully embraced my “chat noir” side thanks to my hubby)

As for him not being able to hang out with his friends in order to keep up that dynamic? Maybe Gabriel plans Family Nights in order to stay connected with his son. I know many parents who demand their kids do these bonding nights with them, especially when the child is a teenager and the parents are afraid of losing that precious connection. They're worried they aren't going to know what is going on in their child's life. It's annoying to the kid to not be able to hang out with their friends all the time, but the forced familial bonding is done out of love. And it could be for situations like in Glaciator where Adrien is just grabbing ice cream with friends. “No, Adrien, you’re not grabbing Lover’s Ice Cream with your friends. Are you even dating anyone? Nevermind, you’re staying here, and we’re playing Parcheesi.” 

In truth, we got to see a lot more of Adrien hanging out with Nino in season one, so why not keep up with that dynamic?

Random after school meet up at the zoo (Animan)? Going to a TV station to help support Nino (Simon Says)? Meet up at the local park with the New Girl to discuss superheroes (Volpina)? Rock concerts (Pixelator) or pantomime plays (The Mime)? An afternoon training for a video game tournament (Gamer)? Loaning out services as a translator for the afternoon (Kung Food)? Watching a foot race with classmates (Timebreaker)? 

Honestly, it didn't seem like Adrien was really barred from any sort of socializing in the first season. He was even seen casually riding the subway by himself in Puppeteer. The writers just needed an excuse for Marinette to become upset about her lack of interactions with Adrien, and therefore turn towards Luka. I love Luka, but.... it's a lame excuse to change Gabriel's behavior to be more of a controlling dick, and less sympathetic.

Speaking of, that scene from Sandboy where Gabriel showcases how much power a holder has over their kwami? Yeah. Just. Don't do that. That's about par with the Writing Cardinal Sin of killing the dog (or kicking the puppy).

Instead of Gabriel being the evil slave driver we see canonically, how about this take? Nooroo could be concerned about being misused to create supervillians, but what if Gabriel and Nooroo bonded the way the other holders did with their kwamis? What if Nooroo understands Gabe's motivation and is willing to help in order to revive Emilie? This way the audience isn’t fearful for Nooroo, Gabriel isn’t doing another harsh thing that makes him irredeemable, and it adds a whole new level to the show. I'll get back to this point later when I talk about the Final Showdown. In the meantime, let's talk more about Gabriel as Hawk Moth with this new “loving father” character trait in play.

I already discussed the concept of Gabe organizing his work life around Adrien's school life so that they could bond whenever his son is home. Well, thanks to Sandboy, we know that his broach blinks when someone is feeling negative feelings. Gabriel doesn't have to just wait around in his lair all day. He gets an alert.

We also know that Nathalie is in on the whole Hawk Moth ploy, as seen in both The Collector and Style Queen/Queen Wasp. Gabe trusts his secret with Nathalie, and she's always right there. What if, while he's having bonding time with Adrien, he passes the broach over to Nathalie. Then, when it blinks, Nathalie can feign an important work emergency which would call Gabriel away to his office. As they reach the office, she can hand him the broach so he can transform.

This way Adrien can still feel upset with his father's new flaky behavior roughly once a day (assuming Hawk Moth didn't already transform someone while Adrien was at school or out with friends; and yes I am of the headcanon that Hawky can only akumatize one person per day to make up for his lack of 5-minute count-down). It can also still create situations like in Glaciator where Adrien complains about being forced to stay home, only for his father to abandon him to be alone for the night. That can still very much be a valid dynamic, and give Adrien the “Adrien might not be able to leave, but Chat Noir can” attitude.

Alright, so I think I've firmly showed how Gabriel being a loving and compassionate person could both change so much of the basic dynamic between him and Adrien, but can also be done so not too many elements in either of their characters need to be changed. Now let's get to the real reason why this is the better way of writing Gabriel Agreste: The Final Showdown

With the canon dynamic, when we finally get to the point in the series where Adrien finds out that his father definitely is Hawk Moth, it will be painful. He will feel betrayed, but he might also see it as fitting. It could very well be the point of no return for Adrien. Up until that point, he has forgiven his father and gladly lapped up any attention Gabriel has given him. But to find out that his father is also his arch nemesis? The man who has been terrorizing Paris? That may be when Adrien finally gives up believing his father is a decent man. He may even give a “Mom wouldn't want this” speech that tears Gabriel deep. It will be a rough moment in the series, but in the end, Adrien may find it easy to take his father down. The man deserved it.

Now, let's think about that Grand Reveal moment from the perspective of Gabriel is a loving father.

Adrien finds out that his father, a man who has protected and nurtured him, a man who has struggled to still bond with his aging teenage son, a man who has tried to provide for him, and a man who represented the last of his family, THIS is also the man who has terrorized Paris? Adrien can't comprehend it. His father is a good person! His father is a caring and nurturing person! His father isn't capable of doing something like this! There must be a mistake. 

And you know that trope that appears in a lot of fanfiction/fanart/fancomics? The one where Chat Noir is tempted (or is completely swayed) to help Hawk Moth in order to save Emilie? Yeah. I can’t see Adrien doing that under canon circumstances, but if Gabriel is a loving, nurturing father? 

Adrien might be persuaded to think that everything WAS for the greater good. Gabriel had no choice! He HAD to become a villain in order to find the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses. That’s the only reason he did what he did, and he couldn’t pull a 180 and ask for help once LB and CN came onto the scene. Why would they believe someone who just terrorized Paris? Poor Gabriel had no alternatives; it wasn’t his fault. Besides, with Ladybug’s powers it wasn’t like Paris was ever REALLY in danger. Gabriel wasn’t REALLY threatening anyone. He would have made it all right if he won. Of course he would, because he was a good person! He was only doing everything out of love!

Ladybug would have to either fight both Hawk Moth and Chat Noir alone - and how painful would it be for her to be betrayed by CN and have to take him out too - or Adrien would be forced to take his father down even though he wants the same thing: for Emilie to be brought back to them. Especially when Adrien might find his father’s methods valid.

Adrien could even still give the “Mom wouldn’t want this” speech as he tries to convince Gabriel to give himself up. In the end, Ladybug would win. Gabriel and Adrien would weep over what they had to do to each other; what they had to take from each other. Gabriel would be devastated that all the time he’s been attacking Chat Noir he was actually attacking his precious, beloved son. And they would have to give up Emilie together, because Master Fu already explained to Ladybug how dangerous it is to use the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses together. 

Adrien and Gabe wouldn’t want to fight each other, but they both HAVE to in order to protect their ideals and goals. Or Adrien would HAVE to choose between fighting the love of HIS life, or giving up his mother again.

And Nooroo? Remember when I said I’d get back to him? Yeah. Imagine Gabriel Agreste actually being a decent human being? A true villain of circumstance? He hates what he’s doing but feels like there is no other option aside from giving up Emilie, and he just CAN’T do that. Now imagine that he convinced Nooroo to join him. They’ve bonded and are just as close as Adrien and Plagg, Marinette and Tikki, or Fu and Wayzz. Nooroo is there, along with Nathalie, to comfort Gabriel whenever he fails to defeat LB and CN.

However.... the other kwamis don’t realize any of this. They still think Nooroo isn’t capable of helping a villain. They still think he’s a slave, and in desperate need to be rescued. So that whole dynamic doesn’t change on that end. We still get that beautiful moment of Plagg being worried about Nooroo in Sandboy, and even still have the plot device of the kwamis all getting together to try to find Nooroo.

Except, Nooroo maybe informs Hawk Moth how to send his will back in order to try to track down the rest of the kwamis? Nooroo could point out Plagg and the fact that he’s CN’s kwami?

And in that final battle, when Plagg thinks he’s saving Nooroo, only to find out that the moth kwami was a willing accomplice the whole time? That Nooroo is just as broken as Gabriel that his holder’s wish can’t be granted. Nooroo even YELLS at Plagg and Tikki for interfering instead of helping.

ALL THE ANGUISH! ALL THE FEELS! ALL THE BITTERSWEETNESS TO THE HEROES WINNING! Sure, Paris is saved, but at what cost? Can these relationships heal?

SEE HOW MUCH BETTER THE WHOLE SERIES WOULD BE IF GABRIEL JUST HAD THAT ONE CHARACTER CHANGE!? If he was just a loving father? If he was a decent human being? If he hated having to be a villain, but truly sees no other way?

Well, thank you for spending the last hour or so with me. Hopefully it was all worth it. What are your thoughts on everything? Please let me know in the comments.

[raincoastgamer]

Anime Ramble: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Magical Girl anime have this tendency to provoke a binary reaction. Either you see Magical Girls on the promo material and want to watch the show, or else you don’t. So, I’d like to preface this bout of gushing-about-a-show-that-I-watched by saying that your initial reaction to seeing the below poster should be discarded and you should just watch this show.

No, really, I think it’s safe to say that if you have an initial gut reaction of “I’m not interested” then you are probably going to appreciate this show quite a bit, while those who are avid fans of the Magical Girl genre might actually end up being put off by their expectations. Not because of what this show is, but rather by what this show isn’t.

In the same way that everyone knows that Darth Vader is Luke’s father or that a certain noble from the North loses their head, there are some story twists which percolate into the general cultural consciousness due to sheer popularity and end up becoming common knowledge. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a series which blew up to such popularity in 2011 that you’ve probably seen the characters somewhere before even if you don’t watch a lot of anime. You’ve probably also seen this little guy

around, often in the context of memes in which either 1) he tries to get people to make a contract or 2) people inflict violence on him and his smug little face never changes.

So while I want to say that Madoka Magica will surprise you when it pulls a left turn into darkness and despair, not only have I just ruined that specific surprise for you but the internet at large more than likely already did that job for me. Not only was this show popular, which translates into a more widespread awareness of its overall tone and some of its twists, other more recent shows have pulled a similar deception. Only last year did we have Made in Abyss, which I haven’t seen yet but which I understand exists for the sole purpose of having cute kids set off on an exciting adventure only to be eaten alive by Uncle Lovecraft’s Happy Fun Time Cave. If you’ve been around the anime niches of the internet or, like me, have a former otaku for a sister then you know from the onset that this show is far more than meets the eye based on reputation alone.

To start with, take a good look at the promotional material for this show, such as the trailer. The production team did their damndest to ensure that from the outside the show would look like the most derivative Magical Girl show ever made, up to and including keeping Gen Urobuchi’s involvement in the production a secret. Gen Urobuchi (aka ButchGen aka The Urobutcher) is a writer who is known for being a bit of a downer, having been involved in projects such as Fate/Zero and Psycho-Pass. He’s very outspoken when it comes to his distaste for heroic archetypes played straight and his tendency to drag his characters through the mud, so his presence as the show’s writer was what you might call a dead giveaway.

So what happens when a writer like this tackles a genre known for being all about hope, courage, and the power of friendship and love? There are many people who argue that Madoka Magica deconstructs the Magical Girl anime (Magical Girl Warrior subgenre) as codified by Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura. Some even say it’s the Neon Genesis Evangelion of the Magical Girl genre. As NGE showed us just how psychologically messed up a Giant Robot show would be if populated by actual human beings, Madoka Magica is about how having child combatants fight monsters in an urban environment with no support network does not make a well-adjusted childhood.

The effects of this kind of pressure and isolation on a bunch of adolescents is one of the elements of Madoka Magica, but fighting monsters with magic isn’t the only thing that makes a Magical Girl story. They’re traditionally as much coming-of-age stories as they are stories about definitions of femininity and self-determination. Madoka Magica has the trappings of a MG show: an all-loving protagonist, a dark and aloof rival, a tomboy friend, a non-magical friend, transformation sequences, fighting against the manifestations of dark emotions, and a cute(?) mascot. It’s talking the talk, but at its heart this is not a story about Magical Girl stories in the same way NGE was about Giant Robot anime (that’s what Revolutionary Girl Utena is for). It certainly plays with many common elements of the Magical Girl anime, but at its heart Madoka Magica is about hope, despair, idealism and selfishness. It’s a psychological drama and grand tragedy. It just happens to be wearing a Magical Girl outfit.

Which is not to say that one is superior to the other, of course. Just set your expectations accordingly if you’re already a Magical Girl fan. If you’re not, well, you might be in luck...

Twelve episodes isn’t a whole lot of time and Madoka Magica does a lot in those twelve episodes, so while I’m willing to spoil the tone of the story discussing the plot itself is a bit trickier. Kaname Madoka is our pink-haired milquetoast protagonist who doesn’t think she’s anything special, and just wants to make friends with everyone. We’re introduced to her via dream sequence, where she witnesses a dark-haired girl fighting against an enemy ravaging the city. A strange white bunny-cat creature asks Madoka to make a contract and become a magical girl, and then she wakes up. It turns out that when not dreaming of plot foreshadowing, Madoka has a pretty good life; a cool mom, a loving dad and good friends. But today it turns out the new transfer student at school - Akemi Homura - is the same girl from her dream. Homura warns Madoka to never change, to stay exactly as she is if she doesn’t want to lose her friends, family, everything she has ever loved. We wouldn’t have much of a story if Madoka never changed, though, so it isn’t long before the bunny-cat creature from the dream crashes into the narrative as well and introduces himself as Kyubey.

Kyubey offers Madoka and her best friend Sayaka an opportunity: make a contract with him and he will grant a single wish, any wish. In return the wisher receives magic powers and must now fight Witches. Not the pointed-hat, broomstick-riding variety, but rather strange, eldritch beings which bring about despair, death and suicide among ordinary humans. It sounds like a good deal: get magic powers and a superhero job on top of a wish? Who wouldn’t want that? But the catch is that this job is for life. If you’re spending all your free time saving the world, you’re not spending time with friends, getting a boyfriend, even just having fun. Is your wish worth dedicating your life to?

This story has a lot to say about good intentions. Our characters are living pretty good lives, so is there really anything worth giving that up for? Perhaps the wish is better spent on someone who needs it. But, remember, make a wish and you’re essentially fighting on behalf of that wish for the rest of your life. Is what you wish for really what you want, or do you really want some other outcome? Say you wish for a dying friend to heal; do you actually want them healed, or do you really want their eternal gratitude? All the characters in this story have the best intentions, but there’s a gap between intention and execution. If you don’t know what you really want, all the idealism in the world isn’t going to save you from your own regrets.

The phrase “I just wanted what was best” is a damning one. It's key to remember that the characters are adolescent girls, with all the contradictory vulnerability and immovable self-righteousness which comes at that age. It's the age at which ideas of how the world should be collide rudely with how the world actually is, and a person can either deal with it by changing themselves and developing coping mechanisms - healthy or unhealthy - or else break themselves on the impossibility of making their ideals fit with the system. Then again, it might be possible to change the system itself... but that’s a long shot.

At one point Madoka’s mother gives her a piece of advice: if you see your friend hurting themselves while trying to to the right thing, maybe the best thing to do is to do the wrong thing for them to break them out of their self-destructive cycle. After all, they’re all still young, they’re at an age where recovering from mistakes is supposed to be easier than when you’re an adult. But this advice happens to come at the wrong time, because these kids are stuck in a situation where a mistake can cost one’s life.

As it happens the relationship between Madoka and her mother is one of the highlights in the series. Mom is a career-chasing businesswoman who still takes the time to talk to her daughter, and though she may not be working her dream job she’s living life on her own terms and is obviously an inspiration for Madoka. Her relationship with Madoka plays a surprisingly important role in the story, which is a refreshing change since parents are usually a non-factor or killed off for backstory purposes. The rest of the characters fit much more neatly into standard archetypes. Madoka herself has a big heart and wants everyone to get along, while her much more outgoing friend Sayaka is the go-getter who will take on problems head-first. We’re introduced early on to a much more experienced magical girl named Tomoe Mami, and she ends up taking a sort of big sister mentor role. All three of these girls believe in helping and protecting others, though each has their own take on the best way of doing so. Homura on the other hand is the dark and mysterious loner who for some reason is fixated on Madoka. We feel like she’s an antagonist, but another character who enters the story later turns out to be even more hostile. The red to Sayaka’s idealistic blue, this new magical girl feels like the antithesis to the magical girl ideals we’re used to: selfish, violent and hedonistic.

As elemental as each of these characters is, by the end of the story each one ends up in a very different place than where they started - or else had their starting position shifted altogether. Not everyone is what they seem. Homura’s backstory in particular hits like a truck when it finally arrives and ends up being key to the resolution of the plot. That said, Madoka Magica is not a story that goes in for particularly complex characterization. Its twelve-episode runtime forces a fast buildup and resolution. Friendships and other relationships don’t really have the time to mature on screen, and a lot has to be left to subtext or inference. Each character’s arc takes them where they need to go for the story to progress, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some of these character arcs are desperately tragic tales of misunderstandings and misplaced idealism, but in the end these are still archetypal characters, though perhaps not the archetype you expected. Ultimately, they serve more as conflicting views on the show’s central themes than as the driving force of the story itself. The short length of the show is a weakness, keeping the story from being able to develop the cast as much as would have been ideal.

On the other hand, the show’s compact twelve episode structure is also its strength, and the ‘realism’ of the characters is much less important than what each one represents in the story as a whole. It’s hard to say whether or not Puella Magi Madoka Magica would’ve been able to hit as hard as it does if was any longer. This is a story very much focused on building its plot and keeping a steady pace, layering the tone and atmosphere and absolutely killing it in the aesthetics department. It is a straightforward story when all’s said and done, but it is densely constructed and cohesive. Every element of the show works as part of a whole and builds on the others, the visuals, the cinematography, the music, and even in the way the plot is structured. It’s got no time for cheap fanservice, it makes full use of every moment, and it only gets better on repeat viewings. This isn’t a show that supports casual viewing, and it expects you to be paying as much attention to the way a character is being framed in a shot as to what’s being said (or not said) in the dialogue. This is ultimately a simple story, yes, but it’s dense and constantly being told on multiple layers.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s ace in the hole is its mixed-media action scenes. Whenever our characters are fighting a Witch the show pulls a Terry Gilliam and starts doing very strange things with the animation. The medium of the art itself changes, with our cel-animated characters fighting against and among stop-motion objects. Paper cutouts and cotton balls. Lace and embroidery. The effect is unnerving and psychedelic and sometimes overwhelming. It can be difficult to follow the action whenever this happens, but then again these are supposed to be things that aren’t quite in sync with reality, beings which practically run on magic. The fact that these unreal things and spaces are being represented with real-world objects intruding into the animation is a clever touch. It’s an effect that I’ve rarely seen used in anime, and never in an action-heavy context.

(Author’s addendum: I’m aware that director Akiyuki Shinbo’s thing is this mix of visual styles. I do think its usage in Madoka Magica is still notable, if only because it works really well here.)

Even when it’s being more conventional Madoka Magica is visually accomplished. Even though the wide-faced character designs threw me for a loop at first (so wide!) they did eventually grow on me. There’s something about how the eyes look almost penciled-in which keeps them from straying into overly-cutesy territory. The cinematography is likewise superb. Strong, stylized color work drives home tone and emotion. The setting often dwarfs people within vast, empty cityscapes, the background itself being a reflection of the characters’ emotions and the series’ tone. In dialogue-heavy scenes we get momentary flashes of expression and action illustrating what’s happening inside a character’s head, and the framing of characters in a scene tells you everything you need to know about their relationships without saying a word. Whatever else you might think about Madoka Magica, it looks beautiful and tells much of its story visually through color, framing, light and shadow.

Going further than that, the structure of the plot is beautifully constructed as well. You could divide the story into four arcs of three episodes, each following the development of a different character, or else three arcs of four episodes, each one ending with a new point of no return. The third and tenth episodes mirror each other as well, each one shifting the stakes and giving us new context for everything which came before. The reason why this show shines so much brighter on a rewatch is because things that seemed like inconsequential melodrama or lazy writing the first time around take on a whole new meaning once backstory and motivation are revealed. It’s for this reason that I’m not terribly concerned about revealing Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s swerve into darkness; high stakes and dark subject matter are not the only secrets that this series has got up its sleeve. By the end of the story we’re not only dissecting the intentions and desires of our characters, we’re asking hard questions about why this story had to happen the way it did at all, questions which lead to what might be one of the most satisfying conclusions to an anime I’ve ever seen.

That is perhaps what makes Madoka Magica the show that it is. Though the ultimate shape of the story is straightforward, we journey there through layers of twisting color and twisting plot. Though we have our perspective on the events of the story constantly re-contextualized about once an episode, it’s always building to a conclusion that both feels inevitable and yet less likely the closer we get. And when the end does arrive, it takes everything that has happened so far, every mistake, every hope, every good intention gone wrong and it makes them matter. Though the ending is theoretically open ended, it’s entirely self-contained. It has introduced us to a new world, revealed the lies underlying this world, and has shown us what these characters do about it. It raises questions, and in the end tells us what it’s been saying all along. Few shows, anime or otherwise, use such a cohesive combination of visuals, narrative, and music to deliver a message. Beautiful to look at, beautiful to listen to, and beautiful in how it unfolds.

As it turned out, a sequel movie was made anyways. I refuse to provide any comprehensive thoughts on Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion for now, because doing so runs the risk of being flayed alive by the fandom no matter your take. Suffice it to say that it’s incredibly self-indulgent, visually stunning, and it will make you regret wishing that the ending of the original series could have been happier.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is beautiful, and you really should watch it.

- Taihus, the wish-granting @raincoastgamer​

(And I somehow manage to write all of this without actually discussing the soundtrack. The thing is, I don’t really know how to critique a soundtrack. It’s good, its use of leitmotifs is masterful and actually brought me to tears in episode 8, Magia represents the show’s true face behind the pleasant pink facade, and I’ve still got Sis Puella Magica stuck in my head.)

[britishchick09]

sailor moon eternal part 1 livewatch

sailor moon eternal is FINALLY here after literally FOREVER! i’ll be watching part 1 today and part 2 tomorrow on usa and chibs’ b-day, all without screencaps like the earliest livewatches so i can get through them faster (if i added pics it would take way longer than 81 minutes!). so without further ado... IT’S DREAM TIME!!!! :D

ooh the netflix logo is a rainbow! :o

EW THIS IS DUBBED AND ZICORNIA SOUNDS GROSS :(

chibs wakes up to a bell! ;)

her room is very pretty!

and she returns to the 30th century on april fool’s day?

chibs: “usagi miraculously got into juban high!” lol :D

OMG YOU CAN PLAY THE JAPANESE VERSION YAS!!!! :D

aww chibs is so cute!

title card! :D

the buildings are so pretty!

usagi: “the new moon obscures the sun...” *insert crystal theme*

the inners have orange eclipse glasses while the moon fam gets blue ones with the eclipse phases on it?

mako is so cute when she blushes! ^_^

lol mina funny face :D

BELL!!!!

this was at the end of s3 right?

OMG HELIOS!!!!

aww diana is on chibs’ head! ♥

mamo’s heart NOOOO

mamo: “it’s fine, i’m just a bit dizzy.” and i’ve been secretly coughing up blood BUT I’M FINE

THE CIRCUS CRAP

their boat thing is so weird and it’s in cgi so it’s so much worse!

did everyone not see the BIG AF SHIP IN THE SKY???

rei: “phobosu, demosu!” cute! :D

i love that the circus pamplet is in japanese even in the english dub! :D (i only switched back to it for that SUB BEST!!!!)

aww chibs is so smol! ^_^

aww usa is so cute when she closes her eyes!

why does usa want to be a kid anyways SHE ACTS JUST LIKE ONE OHHHH

the kalediscopes! :D

chibs: “the kalediscope is begging me to buy it!” me when i get dolls lol :D

it’s been a year since chibs arrived and this is only the first time they

I KNEW SHE’D WANT A SLEEPOVER AS A FAVOR!

chibs with neptune’s mirror is so nice! :)

as is her borrowing mamo’s jammies!

OMG THE KALEIDOSCOPE IS SO PRETTY i know i said no caps BUT LOOK AT IT!!!!!

mamo: “when i raise my own daughter, i’ll be strict no matter what!” um CHIBS IS RIGHT THERE

usa so jellyyyyy

usa wants to be as small as chibs good!

chibs wants mamo to notice her and usa hits back with the daughter bit YAS!!!

usa sleeps naked ew :(

ooh the dream mirror!!!!

usa can’t look at mirrors now lol :D

mamo: “you’re more of an adult chibiusa.” awww!!! :D

EW ZICORNIA she’s japanese now BUT STILL UGGO

zicron is like a pokemon lol

jun jun sounds so rough!

SHE HAS SUCH A HIP HOP STANCE LOL

palla palla sounds so cute! :D

BELL!!!!

this is the pegasus dream!

omg IT IS!! :D

helios’ hair mane is *chef’s kiss*!

i love how pretty tokyo tower is! ♥

the bell is so small! ♥

NO HE’S IN THE CAGE :(

helios sounds ok in english! :)

also i like how german is the first language listed instead of english or japanese lol :D

chibs fell out of bed lol :D

chibs just says ‘a dream?’ in japanese and ‘i’m fine’ after diana asks her in english! :D

aww chibs snuck out :(

tokyo tower is so pink!

mamo in english: “about that pegasus and chibiusa...” excuse you IT’S ‘CHIBIUSA AND THAT PEGASUS’ IN THE CAPTIONS >:(

back to the sub instead of the dub!

aww usa and mamo had the same dream! ♥♥

ooh there’s lens flares as chibs says the time spell!

OH NO A DOME!!!

all diana says is ‘small lady’ but it’s cute!

ves ves has a whip that cracks DON’T GO TO THE JOHNNY TEST SIDE!!!

usa: “who could that pegasus be?” ...a pegasus perhaps?

oh no THE TIGER!!!

mamo’s heart again! :(

CRAP THE TIGER

transformation!!! :D

it doesn’t work lol :D

OMG THIS IS THE YEET MEME I DID!!! :D

aww chibs has ‘moon prism power’ as her henshin! just like mama! :D

chibs: “why can’t we transform?” a second later: *GRAIL YEET!!!*

the transformation is just like the supers version but  e n h a n c e d

i know i said no pics BUT LOOK IT’S THEIR FIRST TRANSFORMATION YAS! :D

YAAAS!!!! :D

ew i just realized what palla palla’s top looks like :(

the lemures in this are cute compared to the anime! :D

palla’s giggle! ^_^

TWINKLE YELL YAS!! :D

it’s prettier than the anime

NOW DO MOON GORGEOUS MEDITATION!!!!!

they work together instead of just moon in the anime

i got chills with that! :D

mamo’s voice sounds so sore!

now age switch guys!!!

ew is mamo sweating poor guy!

HE FAINTED!!!

ves ves: “new phone who dis?”

omg usa and chibs just said they don’t want to switch AND PALLA SWITCHES THEM BOI!!!!

and mamo is gone!

it’s zicron pokemon!

nehalennia (idk if that’s how her name is really spelled tho but the captions say that?) sounds so pretty! :D

they’re in the hospital! :D

the inners have such a dull face and then they’re like EHHH???? lol :D

they went from silly to serious REAL QUICK

ami mom! :D

omg the sunset is so pretty look!

now usa and mamo’s age gap is weirder lol :D

the shadows in this are amazing!! :D

aww he touched her cheek :)

you’re not a burden mamo you’re sailor earth!

aww he’s asleep with his mouth open a bit :)

NO USA YOU NEED TO BE WITH MAMO!!!

aww they’re cuddling!

yeah chibs MAMO IS YOUR DAD DON’T BE JELLY

diana: “small lady!” chibs: “i’m not small right now!” lol :D

helios likes what he sees! ;)

chibs: “this is because of the enemy!” helios: “this must be their doing!” yeah THAT’S WHAT CHIBS JUST SAID???

chibs is gonna need a whole new uniform it’s ripped!

ooh ami has a laptop! :o

aww she’s thinking of setsuna :)

ami’s awake at 1 am wowza! :o

ami mom: “you’re so responsible. that’s why i leave you at home all the time!” ALL THE TIME BOI!!!!!

has cere cere said anything so far tho?

the amozon tr

OMG TIGER’S EYE IS SO KAWAII

so is fish eye but ya know that’s him

hawk’s eye is so eh :/

OMG THEY ALL KAWAII!!!!

fish eye is like mercury and neptune combined!

dory and nemo cameo! :D

aww ami thinks the fish eye fish is kawaii! ^_^

oh no things just got spooky...

ami’s uncertain walk though!

her dad is a jerk! :(

aww ami’s so lonely! :’(

EW FISH EYE HAS GROSS HANDS!!!!

get out of the spell ami!!

ami: “my dream is to be loved!” NOT WITH FISH BOI

OMG SHE’S DRAGGED INTO THE MIRROR

this is creepier than the manga!

it’s like she’s drowning in ahtohallan!

the mini mercs! :D

mini mercs: “you must wake up, princess mercury!” PRINCESS!! :D

MERCS TRANSFORM!!!!!!

fish eye says ‘nani’ funny! :D

ooh the water effects on her transformation are so good! :D

remember when crystal s3 was really good NOT ANYMORE :D

mercury aqua rhapsody tho! ♥

aww usa and chibs have new outfits! :D

YAAAS THEY SWITCHED BACK!!! :D

YAAAAS LET’S GOOO!!!!!!

that echo on ‘meditation tho!’

there was a fade after palla palla said ‘this is interesting!’ and then it cuts right back to the senshi although there isn’t a long pause!

aww you’re the true maiden chibs! :(

IT’S NOT YOU USA

poor chibs! :(

NO AMI IT’S CHIBS’ TIME TO SHINE!!!

aww it made her tingle to be called maiden!

you’re not powerless chibs!

aww helios’ little head cock :)

OMG SHE JUST KISSED A HORSE

dude!!! horse dude! :D

helios: “your dream is always needed!” YAAAS!!! :D

this is why chibs/helios is such a great ship! (although

those raindrops are like hail beads!

i’m just calling nehalennia n-bish since her name is so hard to spell

HELIOS ISN’T A PEST N-BISH!!! >:(

ooh rey has archery! :D

aww what cute music! ^_^

rei: “we need someone to work at the shrine!” mina: “just get an adopted son-in-law!” MINA NO

rei is an ace lesbian confirmed!

mina: “just think of it as a helper!” ...then just get a helper?

this movie goes from silly to serious REALLY FAST

rei’s grandpa is so dramatic lol :D

rei wants to take over the family business :)

woah rei DON’T SHOOT YOUR CROWS WITH THAT ARROW

elementary school is a thing in japan!

aww rei knows the crows’ names! :)

no rei won’t ever leave grandpa! :(

ooh morning fireworks!

even though they’re at the enemy circus the girls are still so enchanted!

usa: “we’re not here to have fun! ... HEY I WANNA GO ON THE GO KARTS TOO!!” lol :D

oh no MIRROR HOUSE

OMG THE GUESTS WERE LEMURES!!!

THE DOOR IS GONE!!!! :o

smol rei! :D

rei catches onto the trap quickly!

EW SMOL REY JUST KISSED TIGER’S EYE :(

EWWWW SHE’S A BRIDE TO HIMMM!!!!! :(

CRAP REI JUST GOT SHOT DOWN!!!

oh no the spell is working! :(

cere cere has a sailor v mask!

AGAIN WITH THE WHIP CRACKS VES VES >:(

UGGO ZICORNIA >:((

artemis just wanted to see the circus! :/

it’s phobos and demos!!! :D

rei’s too awesome for a smol guardian SHE HAS TWO!!! :D

rei’s transformation is on fire bby! B)

i love how the flowers from the first two crystal seasons are still in the sayings! :D

tiger’s eye wants to be an artist BUT HE’S A MODEL BOI!!

aww michiru’s message of love! ♥

HOLD UP was she topless???

mars flame sniper is way more epic than the anime!

tiger’s eye: “my dream is to be an artist!” MODEL!

usa’s go kart sick lol :D

chibs: “you’re a high school student you should be able to handle it! :D lol :D

aww cat head! ^_^

palla palla’s having a tantrum lol :D

jun jun calls zicornia a ‘cross old lady’ lol :D

i like how the manga acts are blended together so well! :D

chibs: *stares dreamily out of a window* watashi naritakute much?

chibs can’t resist the chocolate! :D

diana finally said something other than small lady! :D

poor mamo!

NO THE BLOOD :(

that bloody hand is getting on the sheets a bit ew :(

there are piles of trash in juban now WHY

seeing modern cars in sailor moon is so weird! (as is laptops!)

aww chibs looked both ways before crossing the street! :D

THEIR FACES THO

of course mako goes to the herbal shop! :D

ok maybe hawk’s eye isn’t eh he’s sort of fab! :D

hawk’s eye: “my dream didn’t come true, i achieved it myself!” ..that’s part of a dream coming true tho?

he gave mako a ring wow! :o

an EVIL ring >:)

aww it’s the mako chibs cooking show! :D

they said ‘itadakimasu’ just like in one of my stories! :D (that’s what you say before you eat to thank whoever cooked the meal!)

mako has visions of harumichi!

NO CHIBS DON’T GIVE MAMO THE RING!!!

aww mamo’s little wave! :D

mako asks to look around the shop first! ♥

woah she’s just confiding in hawk’s eye about being a senshi i know it’s spell but WOWWW

hawk’s eye: “join me in selling nightmares!” how much are they tho like 100 buckaroos?

the sign magically went to ‘closed’! :o

DID VES VES JUST STEP ON MAKO???

GUARDIAN JUPES SLAP!!

mako has cloth over her instead of being naked like in the manga! i wonder how the last act of stars will play out then...

haruka vision! :D

mako: “makenai!” ♫ SAILOR STAR!!!! ♫

mini jupes: “i’m the other you!” it’s ok you can say ‘better half’ lol ;)

she says ‘superstrength jupiter’ :)

JUPES TRANSFORM EPIC

i like how mako says ‘i’ll leave you numb!’ in her saying!

JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!!!! :D (way cooler than the anime!)

it’s so gray outside!

don’t make mako feel for you hawk bish! >:(

the amazon quartet always critisize the senshi lol :D

OMG MAMO’S BEING ATTACKED!!!! :o

moon gorgeous meditation 3! :D

aww chibs is staying close to helios!

human reveal!! :D

elysion is so pretty!

the lighting in this movie is *chef’s kiss*!

mamo and helios both have black roses TWINSIES :(

usa and mako: “dead moon!” *look at each other* jinx!

they call n-bish ‘nehalennia’ in the captions but she’s actually ‘nehelenia’?

aww usamo hug! ♥

the senshi are all

MINA RUNNING THO

mina: “i cant transform!” the senshi be like ‘same’! :D

aww artemis!

oh yeah this is the ‘mina gets grumpy’ act!

oh yeah xenotime and zeolite exist! :o

OMG THEY’RE SO CREEPY :(

OMG SOME RANDOM DUDE JUST PUNCHED A RANDOM DUDE :o

mina has a cute hat! :D

aww rei borrowed michiru’s mirror :)

ami has a tablet! :o

mina counted the times that the outers have been mentioned JELLYYY

MINA STOP BEING SO JELLY OF THE OUTERS

REI DIDN’T CALL YOU WEIRD OMG!!!!!

her sandals are cute tho ^_^

and good thing one of the lite creeps wore sunglasses!

LITE BOIS STOP BEING SO CLOSE!!!!

ah yes the ‘let’s endanger kids’ part!

OMG THE ROCK!!!

the senshi are here! :D

oh no the lite bois trapped the senshi in knives! :o

the kids are lemures! :o

mina: “i’m... losing conciousness..” show don’t tell huh mina?

OMG ARTIE JUST CLAWED MINA!!!

yay he saved her! :D

and the human transformatino is in 3.. 2.. 1...

OMG THERE’S BLOOD!!!!

mina: “we were always two hearts beating as one!” aww :)

HUMAN ARTIE!!!! :D

artie you’re not inadequate!

mina doesn’t need a mini her either she has the best kitty partner! :D

venus transform time!! :D

aww there’s a little heart transition! :)

i see the chorus is still there a bit from crystal!

mina: “allow me to punish you with love!” the best kind of punishment!

aww mina’s little giggle before ‘love and beauty shock’! :D

thanks for killing the lite bros mina! :D

yay they can all transform! :D

yay!!! :D

cere cee: “the party isn’t over yet!” ;)

OH CRAP THE VINES!!!

this is where the outers come in right?

it cuts to chibs! :o

aww she has luna p on her bedsheets! :)

oh no usa is coughing! :o

NOT ZICORNIA AGAIN >:(

SHE SOUNDS LIKE AN OLD MAN WTF

omg it’s over!! :o

...wait a sec

post credits scene with hotaru talking about the second coming! (of her perhaps?) ;)

and now it ends for real! :D

this was awesome and just as great as the manga! the animation is incredible, especially in lighting and shadows! i can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow! :D