#say what you want about super but this is probably my favorite transformation in style and design

[zongoku]

lads i'm going to be honest this hasn't left my brain for like 15 hours i love this sequence so much

[hampink]

so kaku twitter space Q&A highlights (5/14/2023)

was casually listening to so kaku’s (kaguragi) twitter space while i was drawing, so here's some fun kingohger related + personal questions he answered that i noted down and translated!

(unfortunately i didn't record the stream though so you’ll just have to believe me)

 (source: bro just trust me)

Q: who’s your favorite king in kingohger?

probably yanma. he’s very cool and manly, and i like how high energy he gets

Q: do you guys come up with the kingohger tiktoks yourselves?

we have a social media manager who suggests which audio to do, and we (the actors) decide how we'll act it out together

Q: anyone from the cast you talk to/hang out with the most?

all of them, but maybe because we’re shooting a lot of scenes with jeremy right now recently i talk to masashi ikeda a lot

Q: does kaguragi know what kuroda looks like?

oh but of course he does~!

Q: what's your favorite sentai?

dairanger! it's such a cool show

Q: a question from my 5 yr old son: does kaguragi like flowers? he says he wants to go flower picking with kaguragi

ahh, flower picking, how nice! yes, kaguragi likes flowers!

Q: does kaguragi have a favorite place?

he does, but i can't say what it is yet. there’s a really good scene (about it) so look forward to that

Q: how much of kaguragi’s hair is a wig? also how long does the hair and makeup take?

the entire thing is a wig. it used to take a lot longer to get into hair and makeup, but the makeup artists have gotten used to it/have gotten better at it so the process is a lot faster now, which i’m really grateful for

Q: i heard shiokara's actor does a lot of adlibs. do you do that a lot as kaguragi too?

“sukonbu piiman” (”sour konbu peppers”, kaguragi mishearing “sukopi”) was an adlib

Q: are kaguragi's geta (wooden sandals) hard to walk in?

it was at first, but i've gotten used to it now

Q: what’s your favorite anime?

code geass, gurren lagann, higurashi no naku koro ni. i like intense anime

Q: favorite musician?

BUMP OF CHICKEN

Q: favorite flower?

pansies

Q: favorite food?

curry, sushi, and yakiniku

Q: i love how hachi ohger incorporates kabuki movements in his fighting style. what's your relationship with kabuki?

i really like kabuki. it wasn’t a traditional kabuki production but when i was younger i saw a performance of “super kabuki” and thought it was really cool. as for kaguragi/hachi ohger, the suit actors and i would watch videos of kabuki actors and try to mimic their movements.

Q: we want to see the fruits of your (muscle) training!! please let kaguragi wear a tank top!!

hopefully we get to do a scene like that hahaha

Q: do you look up your name online?

i do... so please don’t say mean things about me ;w;

Q: what's kaguragi's favorite vegetable? my nephew who’s growing vegetables at home would like to know!

wow! kaguragi would love anything homegrown. but maybe in particular he likes tomatoes, or eggplants

Q: what’s your favorite thing about kaguragi’s outfit?

the haori (coat), definitely. it’s when i put it on that i really feel like i’ve transformed into kaguragi. but the outfit weighs 5 kilos... so heavy...

Q: tell us about the "H" incident

the what....? *suddenly remembers* OHHHH HAHAHA

so during the roll call scene in episode 10 where aoto (yanma) said "eichi no ou, yanma gasuto! (king of wisdom, yanma gast!)" i thought he said "eichi" as in the latin letter “H” (in japanese, H = hentai/ecchi, in other words he thought yanma said he was “the king of perverts/sex” LOL)

Q: what's kaguragi's color? (asking for light stick reasons since there’s no black color setting on a light stick)

it's orange, i'm pretty sure!

END

i joined in kinda late so there’s probably some questions i missed (and sorry if i remembered some details wrong, i was multitasking and not fully focused, but i did take simple notes) he also talked abt things like how he plays valorant and how great his muscle training is going etc (he lamented that kaguragi wears so much clothing and he doesn’t get to show off his muscles lol). i think i remember he also teased something about kaguragi and rita as a duo and something ~maybe~ happening with them in the plot

it was his first time hosting a twitter space and he gave off very boomer energy because he had No idea what he was doing. people kept trying to help him understand how to let in other speakers but he gave up lol xD he was kind of nervous but it was still a lot of fun! himeno and shiokara’s actors were there too, and he might do a twt space with the both of them next time ^^

[missmaywemeetagain]

I’m not big into musicals and although The Phantom of the Opera is probably the most well known one, I have never fully indulged myself in it. What are some of your favorites moments from the musical and what about it changed your life?

(I figured I might as well learn about it and you seem like an amazing teacher!)

Oh, Stephanie, honey darlin’, I just LOVE this can of worms you are opening for me—thank you so much for asking!! ❤️ (Did I spend way to much time on this? yes. Did I love every minute of it? also yes. Did I cry watching the Overture clips? 100% yes.)

So, I was pretty young when I first listened to the soundtrack (only 8), and digging way deep, I’ll say that the drama of the music itself really got to me—the big orchestrations and amazing voices had me instantly hooked. Also, I was so fascinated that almost the entire musical was sung and that made it incredibly interesting to listen to because I could pretty much figure out the whole story just from the lyrics. I had been exposed to musicals prior to this, mainly Disney ones and good ole Rogers and Hammerstein ones, but this was so different. It was dark and scary (murder! crazy genius madman! problematic love story!). It was dramatic af. And it pulled at my heartstrings in a way nothing had ever done before. And I know Phantom isn’t for everyone because the opera-esque style of singing is not everyone’s cup of tea (and honestly, I am not really a classical opera fan either LOL), but I loved it cuz I’d never heard people do such amazing things with their voices before.

I saw it live for the first time just after my 11th birthday (and 12 -13 times since in various places, not counting filmed productions), and I will say I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. There is so much to look at and take in and somehow I always find something new each time I see it. It's a complete spectacle in the best way possible, honestly. It was everything amazing about theater that I longed to be a part of.

It changed my life because I wanted to be Christine Daae (lol). The more I listened, the more I wanted to sing like her and that led me to the fact that this was a musical and people could actually be in this production. So I learned as much as I could about the production and I tried to mold my little voice to be like Christine’s. And moreover, it inspired me to seek out more musicals in a similar vein, which opened an entire new world to me (hey, there Les Miserables and Evita and all the dramatic 70s/80s/90s musicals lol). Basically, Phantom turned me fully into a theater kid. I was already a dancer, and even though I was relatively shy, I thought that maybe, just maybe this was something I could do. And it set me on the path to do so! Lord knows without Phantom I may have ended up a STEM kid, but lol no. Luckily, my parents were SUPER supportive of this new passion and I owe so much to them for all the lessons and theater tickets and performances they had to sit through and for torturing them with the same thing over and over again LOL. Thanks, Mom and Dad! Anyway, I was the ultimate theater/choir kid in high school, and eventually got my Bachelor’s Degree in Theater as well.

Soooo, favorite moments! (There are many—I could go through the whole show but I’ll try to cut it down lol). 

The Overture (see links below). Seriously incredible music, sets the tone for the show, but when you see the stage production and see how the entire set transforms like magic and that chandelier rises above the audience, my god, it’s incredible. The organ kicks in and the floor vibrates and it's this (brilliant) sensory overload that will make you feel every emotion and sensation. It's magnificent, truly. And this was a HUGE deal in theater in the 80s cuz no one had done anything like it before. And let me tell you, there is nothing like watching that chandelier rise (and fall, later) right over your head! Every time I hear it to this day, I get goosebumps, but if I’m watching it, I will cry. That’s how moving it is. Here's some bootlegs of the stage production (which don't quite do it justice, but it'll have to do! WARNING: Flashing lights) Great quality BL (begins around 3:20 but the Prologue is a good watch!). Another one from Broadway (different angle)

The title song (The Phantom of the Opera) number is crazy. I’m not sure what they were thinking putting synth, an organ, strings, and electric guitars together, but somehow it works (the 80s were WILD lol). Throw in a stunning soprano cadenza at the end and it makes it both incredibly surreal and interesting. And the staging is fantastic. There’s a moving catwalk with body doubles. There’s a boat on a dry ice lake with candles rising out of nowhere. It’s just awesome. The costuming is iconic, too. 

The Music of the Night is beautiful. And it takes a major vocal and acting talent to traverse it well. I won’t get too technical vocally, but when done well, this song is so seductive and impactful. It’s a love song about music, about Christine, and it’s innocent and sexual all at once (when done well).

Masquerade (at the top of Act II) is a fabulous ensemble number and the costuming is amazing. Iconic number overall.

Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again is my favorite song of the show (if I have to pick). For anyone who’s experienced loss (esp. that of a parent), the lyrics will hit you right in the heart. But I love listening to (and singing) this one so much. 

The Point of No Return is the most underrated number in the show, imo and one of my faves. It is sexy. as. hell. and a bit unexpected, really ramping up the passion btw the Phantom and Christine under the guise of this opera that the Phantom has written and is forcing everyone to perform. A good performance has a lot of nuance and will get you a little hot under the collar. 😏 I honestly don’t feel like I can explain it well enough, but a good watch/listen/reading the lyrics will get you there. 

The Final Lair is the insane climax and it’s a bit of a roller coaster but I love it. You’ll go from hating the Phantom to weeping over him in the span of the scene. 

The staging, sets, costuming, and makeup overall (of the original production). Like I mentioned above, a lot of what they did in Phantom was new tech for the late 80’s and to this day has a pretty stellar effect on stage. The chandelier rising and falling throughout the show is just super cool. The (4 hour) makeup for the Phantom was pretty cutting edge back in the day and has a wonderful effect on stage when done well. 

I highly recommend watching the 25th Anniversary at Royal Albert Hall from 2013 if you can’t see it live. The quality is amazing, the talent is fantastic, and while the staging isn’t quite the original because of the size of the venue, it gives you a pretty good idea of the vibe. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing at first, there are plenty of clips on YouTube of the major numbers via The Shows Must Go On (linked above). (If you are just watching clips, you may want to read a synopsis of the show as a whole so it makes sense what’s going on.) The 2004 film starring Gerald Butler and Emmy Rossum is actually pretty decent from a cinematic perspective (though I have some major qualms about GB's vocal performance) but if it's all you have, its a pretty good representation of the story. And listen, with 35 years of material, there are so many cast recordings and bootlegs, you're bound to find a combo of actors that you like! (I won't dive into that here though, cuz that's a whole other can of worms...)

Anyway, I could go on forever about it, but I will stop there as to not put you to sleep! If you choose to check it out, I hope you enjoy and you’ll have to let me know what you think! ❤️

[bahamutgames]

Super Afterthoughts RPG

Game: Super Mario RPG (November 17, 2023)

Console: Nintendo Switch

Hello hello! It's late at night, and I'm trying to get myself to write up my thoughts on some games again! I've got a few to get through. But this one in particular I've been holding off on for a good minute. Because... well... the original game is my favorite game of all time! It's hard to really put my thoughts about my favorite game ever to words so easily. Plus, I only want to write about it while I'm in a good mood. So this one may be written over the course of a few days.

I still remember when this game was a huge rumor for what felt like AGES. It was kind of will they wont they between remaking it or just slapping it onto NSO. I'm still, honestly, in a bit of disbelief it got a full from the ground up remake for modern consoles. But, I'm very happy to say, it's here! And it's real! And this game I love and adore so much is back! And that makes me very happy!

Now, I think this is the first remake I'll be talking about on here. And since it's a remake of a game I'm OBSESSED with. I'll probably not go into intense detail about why I love Super Mario RPG. You already know what I like about it (EVERYTHING) and what I dislike about it (NOTHING). Instead, I'll try to focus on what I think made this such a nice remake for a super fan of the game like me!

As always, this isn't a review! Just my thoughts after having beaten it! PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEEASE play this game yourself if it interests you!!

SPOILERS FOR SUPER MARIO RPG REMAKE!! INCLUDING SPOILERS FROM THE ORIGINAL AND NEW STUFF IN THE REMAKE!!

Opening

So, like I said before. Super Mario RPG is my favorite video game of ALL TIME. Not just RPG, not just Mario game, not just one of my favorites. I'm talking #1 favorite game EVER! I played it waaaaay back in middle school a good long time ago and it really just got to me. There's so much I absolutely adore about this game!

So when the remake was announced, needless to say I was pretty excited. Even if I was... a little apprehensive. Mostly just concerned they may mess it up. Or they may not understand what made the original so magical. It was a big concern because, yknow, the game had been gone for so long with absolutely no attention.

But I'll go ahead and spare you the suspense now: this is an amazing remake. And it not only lived up to, but exceeded my expectations that I had for it. So I'm very excited to finally sing its praises!

Stuff I liked

This is a REALLY faithful remake. Pretty much nothing is lost across the translation with very few exceptions. The remake manages to bring over so much of what made the original so good while updating it in very nice ways. The graphics? AMAZING! I seriously love how cute the game looks, and how it still keeps a similar style to sprites while updating them. Like it's not afraid to respect the original's look (WHICH LOOKS GREAT, BY THE WAY, THE ORIGINAL LOOKS AMAZING TO ME!!!) but knows that it's okay to tune up where it may be needed. Very few characters don't make a particularly great transition over (like, I can count them on my hand). The areas all look WONDERFUL and they manage to keep the same playful energy and don't lose much from the original. Plus, being full 3D really does help with some platforming challenges and the 3D maze puzzle imo. I imagine this will help a LOT of newcomers out.

The updated soundtrack is GREAT!! Some of my favorite songs are seriously redone absolutely AMAZINGLY here. My personal favorites being Fight Against Smithy, Who Likes Transforming and Dreams Through Window Stars. Both of which are done so wonderfully. But, hey, you also have access to the original soundtrack! Which is SUCH a nice touch! But it was genuinely lovely hearing some new takes on songs I thought I may never see again in an official capacity.

Then there's the gameplay, which is fairly similar to the original, yeah. But I think that's still reason to sing its praise! They've brought the combat over really nicely, and despite adding some things to make it easier, the game is still fun and isn't made too easy. Which was a concern I had between them showing when to time action commands as well as having the shock wave effects AND giving you stat boosts when you build up proper action command combos. Despite doing all this, I actually think they managed to balance the game out nicely. Maybe I'm crazy but I do feel like enemy parties are consistently larger and have more health to compensate. So it all works very well. And of course, I'd be beside myself if I didn't bring up my favorite change: THE TEAM ATTACKS! This was such an unneeded change, they didn't have to give this HUGE bit of fanservice, but I'm SO thankful they did!! I ADORE crossover attacks between teammates in RPGs, it's a shamefully underused concept and is one of the reasons I consider Chrono Trigger to still be one of the GOAT RPGs. So to know my favorite game ever would be getting this feature? That was HUGE, and it delivered!! I really loved this and it added a new dynamic to the team composition and made me wanna try out some of the other characters more and not JUST Mario, Geno, Mallow lol.

I'm actually REALLY surprised at how much is left in tact. Sure, some things were changed like small effects, the names, and no Black Jack. But it is a SHOCKINGLY faithful remake all around. Even including stuff like Beetle Mania or the secret menu codes. And polishing stuff up like no missable chests. And all the new stuff they added is WONDERFUL! It's pretty exciting they added in boss rematches as I think that's something a lot more games could benefit from. With the best one obviously being Culex's rematch for so many reasons. But I do think I have to say that the fully animated cutscenes are hands down the absolute BEST addition to the game. Having cool intros to each boss is absolutely DELIGHTFUL, having a nice prerendered scene for each teammate's introduction RULES. But in particular, the way they animate the final cutscene floored me. If you don't know, the scene of the whole team on Vista Hill watching Exor fade away is one of my favorite shots in video game history. I SCREAMED when I saw it got a fully animated cutscene. It was AMAZING! And the credits were so cute with it looking how it did on the SNES. I called it IMMEDIATELY that the graphics would update for the second half lol.

But of course, the best new cutscene. Hands down. Is the finale. This particularly blew me away. The original's ending is one of my favorites, I have extremely fond memories of watching it in Geno cosplay when I was in middle school (I came home from a con and immediately finished it lol) and just cry at the The End screen. So when a cutscene started up here I freaked out. It was SO cute, and having them actually include Bowser and Mallow was such a wonderful touch. It was cute, it was beautiful, it was emotional. And it really capped off the remakes' whole feelings of "wow... it really came back." I don't know how to describe it properly but hopefully you understand what I'm feeling lol.

Stuff I didn't like

Now... I am of course a bit of an obsessive fan over this game. So I had a few complaints about it. MOST OF IT NITPICKS!! Yes. There's not THAT much to complain about. I think some enemies don't look perfect this time around, I think it's really frustrating that they STILL don't let you have all the star pieces when you pause the menu after beating the game despite actually having post game content, and perhaps the worst of all. I HATE that they removed the card suit icons from each character. Does it really matter? Well... No. But it's such an iconic part of the original to me that I can't help but still feel a little burnt that it wasn't included. That's like, crucial Super Mario RPG imagery in my mind.

Also, am I crazy, or does every enemy in this remake put you to sleep? Maybe I'm misremembering but I don't remember having to wake my teammates up this much EVER in the original, but I felt like I was waking them up every other battle this time. Particularly during Valentina which I died to a shocking amount lol.

However, the big real disappointment of this remake to me personally? Is the new post game content. Honestly I would've been fine with maybe just some new cutscenes or something. But when they said it would be boss rematches I was pleasantly excited! And I know I complimented them earlier but can I be honest?? Dude those rematches SUCK. Like, I think I enjoyed one of them. They're all really gimmicky, like Booster's ends super fast and Johnny requires you to play it 100% perfectly. It's just not fun and honestly didn't feel like the most exciting post game content possible. At least to me. Regardless though how they handled Culex and his rematch is PERFECT. Going through the less than stellar rematches is genuinely worth it because I think the Culex rematch is so good. So there is that.

Final Thoughts

BUT, regardless? This was a truly amazing remake. And a genuinely wonderful return to this world that I'd completely given up on ever seeing again. Not to be melodramatic, but I will be. Yeah I had kinda started to give up and not care about this anymore. I had made peace that Mario RPGs were just... over. That's the way it was, Geno isn't gonna be in Smash, this game will never get any new content. It was done. But, to my surprise. I was wrong. And the remake did come. And no matter what happens now. At least this did happen and I got to see these characters again. I think this remake it amazing for ANYONE. If it's your first time, or if you've played the original too many times. You will LOVE this remake and have a great time with it. It feels like it was made by people who not only knew what made the original magical, but loved it and poured all that love in it. There's even more great stuff I could give it props for. I feel like I want to keep talking about every little thing this remake did so nicely. The polish to the psychopath collecting, how good the enemies look, how lovely the maps look. But honestly I would just be here forever. Super Mario RPG is my favorite game of all time and I'm so happy to see so many people get to experience it for the first time now.

===

That's all I got. I feel like I want to say more. But I think that's all I can say right now about this game. But before I go I did want to speak on my thoughts about Mario a little more.

So, I've been a Mario fan my whole life. Super Mario World was my first game ever, and I've been a devoted fan for years since. Mario was my life. I was obsessed with Mario lore and drawing every single Mario thing I possibly could and just gushing about everything I adored about the series. With the RPGs at the heart of it. I LOVED and ADORED the Mario RPGs, they made my life and inspired me so much.

But a while back, something kinda changed. I'm sure you already know, but the Mario RPGs kinda. Died? Like, they were still being made obviously. But the secondary Paper Mario Trilogy, even though I don't HATE them persay, were just not what I wanted and ultimately I don't really like them. Then Paper Jam happened and I personally really disliked it even in spite of having good combat. Then the M&L remakes which are cool but... Still not perfect and clearly troubled. My favorite games and types of games ever. Just... died? Out of nowhere. And then a lot of side series Mario stuff kinda dragged. DK dried up. Wario was kinda becoming eh around Gold. Luigi's Mansion 3 sucked. And even though the main series was still killing it imo. I just fell out of love with Mario. And I honestly kind of felt myself falling out of love with a lot of things at this time.

And originally, this section was gonna end on a pretty bummer note. But a lot has changed since I started writing this. Thousand Year Door got a remake randomly and it's looking amazing. And now Mario & Luigi is suddenly returning with a brand new entry that... LOOKS AMAZING!! And that's not even to mention Mario Rabbids which completely knocked it out of the park with Sparks of Hope. Mario RPGs... are seemingly back?

I've talked about this at length before but I didn't really want to get my hopes up because of remakes. Sure, of course you can still make a good turnbased Mario RPG with good combat and progression if you just redo the good ones. But could Nintendo still do a NEW one with good turnbased Mario RPG combat and progression? NOT UBISOFT!! Not a strategy RPG, a TURNBASED RPG. And well, it looks like with Brothership we may actually get to see. Yeah it all might be riding on M&L's shoulders again. But with everything going on, suddenly it doesn't feel stupid to hope I can enjoy these games again. Mario spinoffs all over seem to be back in action with Peach and Dark Moon HD. DK might come back now that Prime 4 is wrapping up. The Mario Movie rocked imo and the main series games are only looking more hopeful after how good Bowser's Fury was.

I still did want to make a little bit of a sad point in that. I don't think I'm back into the Mario Fanbase at large. I still consider it to be very poisonous as it was a huge reason why I fell out of love with Mario. And I still see that. When this and TTYD got announced my feeds were filled with insanely negative posts about how much everyone hates Mario RPGs and shit (I learned my lesson I'm trying not to read Brothership tweets but I've already had to mute some stuff lol), I still get clowned on for liking some of these games in spaces where I thought liking them was the point, and people still send me Geno hate posts thinking I'll like them because... Well, being a Mario fan seems to mean you have to hate this series and be insanely contrarian and trying to make bait posts to make people upset. I still see it constantly. And it's discouraging. And I don't like seeing it. So I don't know if I really have interest in being a part of the "Mario Fanbase" so to speak. Cause even if I'm crazy and I'm just too sensitive I don't think it's healthy for me to be getting this upset over a series meant to be particularly joyful.

BUT... and I can't believe I'm saying this. Yeah... It's looking good to be a Mario fan again. I may be falling back in love with the series. Again, I'm not entirely impressed with amazing remakes that bring me to tears with the level of quality... I still want something new to prove they can truly do it again. SO I'll be keeping a close eye on Brothership. But again, suddenly it doesn't feel stupid to have hope.

That's all I got. Go out and play your favorite video game of all time!

[broomsick]

What are some books you recommended for research on Norse mythology/polytheism?

Hiya! Thank you for the ask.

I've wanted to do a norse paganism resources masterpost for a while but I unfortunately haven't gotten down to it just yet. First of all, I always recommend beginners to go read the Poetic and Prose eddas, as well as the sagas if they're interested in skaldic writing. The parts of the Poetic Edda I usually recommend first would be the Völuspá and the Hávamál because they're pretty much the basics. The part of the Prose Edda I think is more relevant to beginners would be the Skáldskaparmál because it contains loads of interesting kennings. Now for the main course, I'll just list the books I like most when researching norse myths and paganism.

The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia

I like that one a lot because it explores not only germanic religion but also the "magical" practices of the time, how they were used and what their importance was to germanic peoples. It's quite thourough & the author's put a lot of effort into making his reader truly understand the mindset that came with germanic paganism.

The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland

I know I already mentionned the eddas, but they date way back (≈13th century) and so they get pretty hard to read, especially if you're not used to such a writing style. THIS book is my favorite re-telling. It's extremely compelling and also doesn't build too much around the original stories, just enough for the read to be entertaining.

Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs

I adored this book as a beginner. It is indeed super accessible to people who have just started actively learning about norse myths.

The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature

Exactly what the title says. Probably the most thorough text I've seen when it comes to the ancient germanic perception of death. That book also touches on various pagan beliefs such as spirits, Valkyries and land spirits. It’s based mainly on archeological findings and scholarly research so I’d qualify it as reliable but it is starting to date.

Norse Revival: Transformation of Germanic Neopaganism

You read right, finally a book on actual neo-paganism. Even better: the author is extremely well versed in the topic, having studied it for 30+ years. It’s more of a thoughtful and personal essay than an informative book, but it was a great read, especially the part on the history of Ásatrú. It even encompasses topics such as folkism.

Wights and Ancestors: Heathenry in a Living Landscape

I absolutely adored that one because it gets difficult finding good information on germanic animism online. That book not only talks about spirit and fae work but also explains how to go about it the “heathen” way.

[rist-ix]

I finished The Girls!

If there ever is an animated reboot, I would love for the creators to keep their weird 2000s clothes. I want Stella's colorful paint accident of a wardrobe, Bloom's cropped sweater (just a whole lot of cropped shirts in general), and I DEFINITELY wanna see their funky lil explorer outfits again. On an unrelated note, I want Tecna to look Very Gay. Just. VERRRRRRY gay. For my soul.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: their first transformation is iconic. I would change so little about it honestly. Remember how Bloom would fly Superman-style in s1, with one fist ahead? That’s the vibe of the ENTIRE transformation. S1 had this delightful mix of superhero team and magical girls, and it pretty much defined the show for me. I wouldn’t want their fairy form (especially their first one) to be TOO fairy like. They're new at that point, still getting the hang of everything, and it’s okay if they don’t look super femme and ethereal and all that. These are basically their training wheels! They gotta be able to roughhouse in them.

So the changes I WOULD make are relatively minor: Stella gets more silver accents to balance out the oranges, Flora gets a little tulle, as a treat. I noticed there's an over abundance of metal arms in the superhero genre, so Tecna gets a prosthetic leg to compensate and shiny microchip thingies to accentuate. Otherwise she keeps her silly little cat suit. I always hated how the later transformations forced her into the same type of outfits as the rest of the girls, because Tecna just is a little weird and should be allowed to look the part. SpaceSuitTecnaRights! She has an aesthetic and sticks to it!

I love Bloom's sport bra like top, because it just looks SPORTY and fun and practical. She's a down to earth kinda gal, she should keep the tomboyish vibes. I added the golden little chains to a) mirror Stella's color pallets because SOLARFLARE and b) give the illusion of those dragon belly scales. You know the wide ones, on the chest of dragons? Those fancy lil guys.

Layla 's original fairy outfit is honestly my favorite of the set, so I’m keeping it pretty much the same. I changed the wings a little and gave her a tiara, and I her armband maaaaay be a reference to Musa's color scheme, but otherwise? Not many differences. I love the silver rings and sashes. She looks so regal, while also looking like she's up for adventure!

Musa my little punk! I wanted her wings to look a little iridescent, like a CD, but it only worked so semi. She gets more reds and less purples, and silver spikes to drive home the rebel aesthetic. And, again, to have a little common ground with Layla.

I'm probably gonna change these a little as I go, but that’s about it for now. Tell me what you think!

[chaoxfix]

Hi! I remember you posted an idea of sharing sonic fic recs sometime ago, and in case you do, I think it'd be super cool! I'd love to read them!

Gotta say it's been tricky finding non-shipping fics and awesome dated fics (since ive noticed most stuff on ao3 are from movie-verse). I must find these smaller gems and give them love *shakes fist*

Sweet!! I’ll try to only do a few at a time so I don’t immediately run out as these are in kinda limited supply, but here’s 3! Don’t mind that some of them are on ff.net — Ao3 is limited so we make do, and tbh some of the older ones are still pretty damn good!

i’ll try to mix up genres and styles and friendships so there’s a little something different each time.

for this first one i’m gonna start us off with 3 really cute sonic & tails fics.

1. Two Tails and a Blur by Shizuku Tsukishima749 on ffnet — a series of sonic & tails drabbles. and i do mean drabbles in the literal sense. every chapter is right at 100 words. but there’s some really cute moments, sweet concepts, and plenty of material (…486 chapters) to find something you like.

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6027360/1/Two-Tails-and-a-Blur

2. sonic’s song by @gayemeralds on ao3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33951976

one of my favorite sonic & tails fics! describing how sonic went from not talking to talking. cute bonding fic. sweet enough to rot teeth.

(side note: gayemeralds lowkey got me back into sonic. the lore was just too good — so expect to see something of theirs on many of these fic recs lol.)

3. 5 times tails acted his age + one time he didn’t by lucifurs (ao3)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26316703

title is pretty self explanatory, tails gets to act like the 8 year old he is. this is at 2 chapters out of 6 and might not get completed, but! the great thing about 5 + 1 fics is that each chapter can be taken independently! if anything this is two cute fics for the price of one!

for each of these, if you read them, please comment and show the writers some love! especially for the ao3 fics as these are pretty recent and the writers would probably love some attention. but even 2 tails and a blur was updated in 2019 so i’m sure the author still cares about this series. i think i myself still need to leave a comment or two on the third one, which i’m gonna do after posting this and re-reading it. 🧡

also, if you have fic rec requests, let me know! if you want to find fics specifically about tails’s lightning phobia or stuff specific to aosth, or a different friendship (sonic & rouge, tails & knuckles, etc) just send in an ask and i’ll see what i can rec!

[slade-neko]

Against my better judgement, I played the new Pokémon game! ~ My Initial Thoughts

I wasn't feeling Pokémon Scarlet & Violet before release. The games just looked off to me. The art style, the gameplay, the characters, the world design, all of it really. Now that I some hands on time with it well... ehhh, I kinda feel the same way haha. I'm typically a pretty easy going dude that can have fun in about any game I play, but I dunno, this game just doesn't do much for me. It doesn't feel like a true Pokémon game. I've been playing since Gen 1 and yeah sure Sword & Shield wasn't perfect, but I still had an enjoyable time with them. Here's the key points I noticed in my time with the game.

Character Customization:

Character customization is a HUGE driving factor for me in video games. Pokémon SwSh had amazing trainer customization aside from the gym battle uniforms. Now imagine being forced to wear the gym uniform through the entire game! That's Scarlet and Violet. In SwSh I could dress my character up in so many cool outfits and that was probably my favorite aspect of that game. In Scarlet & Violet, you can only change accessories and shoes, no changing your outfit... you're stuck with that ugly school uniform the ENTIRE game! All you get is 4 seasonal styles of the same school crap. I just want my leather biker jacket and ripped jeans, darn it!

Character Designs & Art Style:

Pokémon games always had hit or miss characters for me. Typically there's more characters that I like than dislike in a game, but not really the case for Scarlet & Violet's characters. Nemona's pretty cool though, I do like her, but lotta of them feel boring and fall kinda flat for me. And to be completely honest some of them give me nightmares...

Then there's the actual art style. I don't really think Pokémon needed alpha transparency hairstyles. The solid meshed style fits better in my opinion. Feels like they tried adding some realism to the graphics with alpha hairs and more detailed skins & eye textures, but its still kinda toony looking, so its like this off putting in between style.

The World:

From what I saw, the world didn't really feel very believable or all too well designed. Just tons of huge mountains and steep cliffs. Not necessarily the prettiest scenery in a 2022 video game. None of the towns or anything really stuck out to me neither. Again, the whole thing feels kinda bland.

The Pokémon:

Not much to say on the Pokémon as every generation has had some weird designs after all. Heck even 1st Gen had some weird Pokémon that I still question today. For the most part, I did like majority of the new ones. Wish the cat starter didn't stand on TWO LEGS though! Lets please try to keep them animalistic and less humanoid GameFreak. Oh, also I played Scarlet. I wanted to play Violet with the Tron bike Pokémon, but instead I had the Flintstones one... still don't understand why does it have wheels if it just runs with it's legs instead?

Terastallization?/ The Gimmick:

Every Pokémon game since 6th gen has to have a gimmick these days. 6th Gen had Mega Evolutions, 7th Gen had Z-Moves, 8th Gen had Dynamax/ Gigantamax, and now 9th Gen's got Terastallizing? Basically your Pokémon goes into a crystalized form... boring! My personal favorite is still Mega Evolution. Having your Pokémon transform into a powerful 4th evolution temporarily was awesome. It was basically Pokémon's version of Super Saiyan 4 and I loved it.

Rushed development?!

The game was rushed and the internet's been tearing it to shreds because of that. Bugs, glitches, a complete mess. Not much I can add to that. I don't put all the blame GameFreak for that, since I'm sure there's factors out of their control for pushing the game out within the given deadlines, but seriously I feel like Pokémon games are coming out too frequently. As Miyamoto once said, "A delayed game is eventually a good game, but a bad game is bad forever."

The Good/ Open World & Multiplayer:

Lotta negatives, but hey, some positive things too! The open world, I loved it. I love being able to immediately pick where I want to go right after I start my journey. Which Gym do I challenge first or if I even want to do Gym battles or pursue a different goal entirely like hunt down the Titans or wipe out Team Star. Now that I like! Also the Multiplayer! While I didn't get to check it out myself, I know how it works. Being able to form a group with friends and explore the world together. That's a huge step in the right direction and how I wished it was in Sword & Shield.

Final Thoughts

All-in-all, I wanted to give the game a chance and I'm glad I did, but it just doesn't hook me personally. I'm not trying to sound negative with the game, but I do feel like Pokémon is losing itself as a series. A trend I've been noticing more and more with each passing year. Not just Pokémon in specific, but tons of series that go on too long begin to weaken and water down with time. Ideas run stale, monotonous, and begin to lose their luster. Too many IPs are being milked these days until there's nothing left. That's why there's been so many remasters, remakes, and even reboots happening now. They need more spacing/ time between releases.

TL;DR Game's a bit of a mess, but knowing that it's still worth trying for yourself. Maybe you will enjoy it. I have friends who are and I'm glad they're having fun. For me though, I'll be passing on this one.

[desmondkane-of-ao3-fame]

What made you start shipping skarlow?

A good question honestly, and one I had to think back to a bit, cause it feels so long ago by now…

My first moment of shipping what is factually the best ship in all of TOH (science proves it, I swear) is in “The Wrong Blight,” my first real long fic. (Spoilers for it throughout, recommend reading it yourself first in the attached link).

In all honesty, the story has little if anything REALLY to do with Skarlow; it’s a rather angsty (to a potentially silly degree) story about Luz having a crush on Em and asking Amity and her friends to help, only for her feelings to ACTUALLY be about Amity the whole time. I’m quite proud of the piece, even if some (er, a lot) is overly dramatic and the chapters were all written to be waaaaaaaay too long. I’d recommend it for nothing else then the way I write Edric, who was a personal favorite character to play with throughout. And, of course, my first Skarlow.

The idea to push Skarlow came from wanting to incorporate some way to put music into the story; Luz wanted to have a big rocking moment for her confession to Em, and I felt like Skara, a fan favorite at the time, would fit in super well with that idea. However, that led to the question of ‘Why would Skara want to help a group of people she’s helped bully?’ And then, in the middle of the night, it hit like a freight train. The answer that would change my life forever;

“Because she has a crush on Willow!”

I played with the idea of Skara having a crush on Willow throughout the story, going so far as to have her leave Boscha’s group entirely to try and redeem herself. However, it’s never a hugely explicit thing; because the story is told entirely through Amity and Luz’s POV’s, and Willow is herself something of a bit role, most of the crush elements are subtle and comic relief, with a big moment of reconciliation happening almost entirely off screen. I’ve considered revisiting the Wrong Blight-verse to create both Skarlow and Vinera one shots, but I don’t think I will. At this point, my writing style is very different and my headspace much less focused on the sort of over-the-top angst TWB represents. The point being, Skarlow was at first a bit role I came up with to help explain Skara’s actions. But it *very* quickly changed…

Back then I was in a group of online friends who spent much of our free time writing TOH fan fictions. This was also during the hiatus between Season 1 and 2, which was when the biggest ship aside from Lumity was Boschalow, and it was one of only a small handful of ships. So to go against the grain like that raised eyebrows. Everyone was interested in why I chose to make Skarlow a part of the story and make her like Willow. I joked, “Well, Skara is best girl, and Willow deserves the best, soooooo.” Most people chuckled, but two of my friends weren’t laughing. Instead, they hatched an idea.

For about a month, my friends Quartz and JuliaCorvina (who you should ALSO check out on AO3) told us all they were working on a secret project, and they refused to elaborate further. During this time the Skarlow talk died down, but I thought about the ship more and more. There was something to it I realized. It had a similar charm as Boschalow, with its redemptive nature and cute young sapphic potential, but in a much, MUCH less toxic package. Skara’s a more wholesome character the Boscha, and much less happy to literally try and kill people. While dating your ex-bullies is probably a bad idea, Willow dating Skara became something I appreciated a lot. But at the time, almost nothing Skarlow existed outside of my little server. I supposed I wouldn’t get to expand too much on the ship.

Enter “Guitar Strings and Flower Petals.”

The secret project my friends had been working on was the first chapter in a slow burn Skarlow fic. The whole sever was stunned, but I was particularly happy. It was, as Quartz would say, glorious.

Sadly, Julia dropped herself from the project for a variety of reasons. But after a month or so, Quartz asked me to continue it with him, saying they always planned to ask me anyway to help, and that I may as well begin now. I obliged, and after helping with the revisions to chapter 3, became Q’s co-writer in the project. Eventually I decided to also use some spare cash I had for a Skarlow themed commission. And soon Skarlow art was literally the most important thing I’d buy (aside from food sometimes) which I’d like to think has helped tempt more then a few to jump aboard our ship.

Now, it appears Skarlow is, if not a major force, a small bit mighty ship that’s withstood the tests it’s been made to face. Even with Huntlow, people seem to enjoy the ship a great deal of Skarlow, which makes me happy. Who would have thought, a small little plot point in a silly little angst fic, would have helped to create a prolific and enjoyable Community?

Thank you for reading my ramblings on the subject. I hope you check out TWB, as well as the works of me, Quartz, and juliacorvina, on AO3. I hope you all enjoy!

[spacegayover]

MÅNESKIN'S INTERVIEW TRANSLATION

(I'm sorry if there are grammatical/other errors, feel free to correct me♡)

Interviewer: what a time for you guys! (he means "this period has been full of success for you!"), it's extraordinary

Damiano: yeah it's special, very intense, very intense, beautiful, beautiful

Interviewer:You expected anything but winning Sanremo right? (Here in italy, only the winner of sanremo participates to Eurovision)

Damiano: it's right. How could we

Interviewer: I guess you didn't even thought about it

Damiano: it was impossible [to even think about it]

Interviewer: you probably said "they'll never let us win"

Interviewer2: well, it is true that something like that never happened before: that a song, a group like yours won the festival. It was a real revolution, Vasco Rossi wrote that too. On his Facebook page

Damiano: yeah, yeah

Interviewer: was it a surprise for you too? Let's listen to Victoria who has the mic there on stage

Victoria: yes we were extremely happy and it was far beyond our expectations because we went there thinking only about our music and about having fun, we would have never expected this result

Interviewer: is it even possible that between the four of you there was no one who said "Come on guys, let's not be discouraged, in my opinion we will win it"

Damiano: I said "it won't happen but if it happens.."

Interviewer: I remember this phrase(×2)

Damiano: yeah.. but..

Victoria: it's Damiano's favorite phrase

Damiano:it was unpredictable

Interviewer2: can I say that, without devalueting Sanremo, the victory of Sanremo was an extraordinary event,  but it is only a part of a path of growth that has taken place in these last years. Of course it's one  of the stages of this path but it's not the finishing line, even though it's an important award

Interviewer: What time was it when you were told you had won?

Damiano: something like 2 AM, yeah right

Victoria: 2 AM

Ethan: *does that movement with is hand which means "more or less" referring to the time*

Interviewer: listen, I want to ask about your certificate of residence.  Because as always,  success has many fathers, when someone becomes famous everyone says they come from their neighborhood. There's who says you're from Balduina, who says Bravetta, Monteverde (they're all in Rome). So, your certificate of residence?

Damiano: they're right, Ethan's from Balduina, not anymore but at the time he was

Interviewer: for who's listening, they're all expensive neighborhoods in Rome

Damiano: you're made in Balduina, I'm made in Bravetta and you're made in Monteverde (Ethan and Victoria)

Victoria: we're made in Monteverde

Interviewer: I knew you were from Monteverde

Interviewer 3: is it possible that, I go often to Roma Nord, you never thought about changing neighborhood, going towards Roma Nord, Pariolizing* yourselves (it's not a real word ahah, there's a place in Rome called Parioli, it is considered an high ranking neighborhood, so he means something like "transforming into someone who lives in that area")

Interviewer: didn't you know? They all live in Montecarlo now, they established their residence there

Damiano: we bypassed the system

-After the interruption-

Interviewer: lots of applause, big success, we were talking about the festival, about your tour in December. The palasports are already sold out everywhere, they can't wait to perform and we can see that because they arrived here at 9 AM for rehearsal

Interviewer 2: they first cleaned up and put in order

Interviewer: how much did you want to perform and meet your fans?

Damiano: after working on this album for two years/ a year and a half this will be the icing on the cake (in Italian is the cherry on the cake), so we are waiting for the conclusion

Damiano: how do your songs come to life?  Do you begin from a starting point and then develop it together? Who is the one who has the idea and says "guys lets go in the studio because I thought about something "

Victoria: well actually when we're in the writing period we rehearse 8 hours everyday and we bail out everything that comes to mind. So sometimes the cue is a guitar sound, sometimes a vocal melody, a rhythm. So we vary and do not obsess with a single writing style. We experiment a lot

Interviewer: I remember that you locked yourself up,  okay said like that is... I mean you locked yourself up for writing an album

Damiano and Victoria: yes for the first one

Interviewer: you were in a cottage, where were you?

Victoria: yeah in a kind of home-studio

Damiano: in the Lombard provinces

Interviewer: (joking) it was supposed to be called "lockdown" but then they changed it

Victoria: damn

Interviewer: then they changed title. Listen,  you brought on the stage of Sanremo the CCCP's song (a group) together with Manuel Agnelli, It's not something everyone does, specially for your generation. Who made you discover them?

Damiano: by ourselves I guess, a long time ago

Interviewer: you are well-educated

Damiano and Victoria: (joking) super cultured

Interviewer: I mean, they're not part of your generation's background

Interviewer 3: probably socials helped

Damiano: We were looking for a song that could represent us both in context and in  terms of music, so it seemed like the most obvious choice

Interviewer2: now say the truth, you turned on Spotify, you found this song that you didn't know and said "guys!"

Victoria: nice who are them?

Damiano: yeah I said "it's Gianna Nannini! No wait it isn't"

Interviewer: no it's not Gianna Nannini

Damiano: It's not Gianna!

Interviewer 2: in reality you started from Concato (a songwriter)

Damiano: for a lot of people that song is Gianna's

Interviewer2: yeah because she did a cover

Damiano: yes it's very famous

Victoria: now it's Maneskin's ah!

Interviewer: when your generation don't know the original one but they know the cover

Damiano: yes of course, a lot of people think that "vengo dalla luna" is ours, we're sorry Capa (Caparezza, a rapper) we didn't want to steal it

Interviewer: you did it with Manuel but can you play it right now too? "Amandoti" is an amazing piece, an amazing piece and an amazing moment here at Radio2 Social Club with Maneskin live

Interviewer: we're gonna imagine Manuel Agnelli

Interviewer3: do you want me to do Manuel's part?

Interviewer: we're gonna imagine him, it's better

Interviewer3: you sure?

Damiano: he's going to appear from a trap door

Interviewer 3: I could do that but if you don't want to I'll give up

Interviewer: your hand with that black polish scares me

Interviewer3: it's already fading away

Interviewer: is it the one that takes off?

Interviewer3 : this takes off

Interviewer: that's so sad... You have a mustache like a marshal

Interviewer 3: yeah I'm filming a biopic about Andrea

Interviewer: a biopic?? About Andrea Perroni?

Interviewer 3: yeah, we started filming a biopic about Franco Causio, but then we stopped shooting

Interviewer: what's the story about?

Interviewer 3: it's the story of a guy that tries to make a fortune and

Interviewer: okay now Maneskin live!

Interviewer 2: they're ready so you can stop saying nonsense,  Maneskin live with "Amandoti''

[flufffysocks]

let's talk about andi mack's worldbuilding

sorry this took forever to make! i've been pretty busy with school stuff and i kind of lost my inspiration for a bit, but i ultimately really enjoyed writing it! i wish i could've included more pics (tumblr has a max of 10 per post), and it kinda turned from less of a mini analysis to more of an extremely long rant... but i hope it's still a fun read!

i've been rewatching the show over the past few weeks (thanks again to @disneymack for the link!), and i’ve been noticing a lot that i never did the first time around. this is really the first time i’ve watched the show from start to finish since it aired, and it honestly feels so different this time - probably a combination of the fact that i’m not as focused on plot and can appreciate the show as a whole, and also that the fandom is much, much smaller now, so there’s a lot less noise. so the way i’m consuming this show feels super different than it did the first time, but the show itself doesn’t - it’s just as warm and comforting to me as it was the first time around, if not more so.

i think a lot of that can be attributed to andi mack’s “worldbuilding”. i’m not quite sure that this is the right word in this context, to be honest, because i mostly see it used in reference to fantasy and sci-fi universes, but it just sort of feels right to me for andi mack, because you can really tell how much love and care went into constructing this universe. for clarity, worldbuilding is “the process of creating an imaginary world” in its simplest sense. there’s two main types: hard worldbuilding, which involves inventing entire universes, languages, people, cultures, places, foods, etc. from scratch (think “lord of the rings” or “dune”), and soft worldbuilding, in which the creators don’t explicitly state or explain much about the fictional universe, but rather let it’s nature reveal itself as the story progresses (think studio ghibli films). andi mack to me falls in the soft worldbuilding category. even though it takes place in a realistic fiction universe, there’s a lot of aspects to it that are inexplicably novel in really subtle ways.

so watching the show now, i’ve noticed that the worldbuilding comes primarily from two things - setting and props, and oftentimes the both of them in tandem (because a big part of setting in filmmaking does depend on the props placed in it!).

one of the most obvious examples is the spoon. it really is a sort of quintessential, tropic setting in that it's the main gang's "spot", which automatically gives it a warm and homey feel to it. and its set design only amplifies this:

the choice to make it a very traditional 50s-style diner creates a very nostalgic, retro feel to it, which is something that's really consistent throughout the show, as you'll see. from the round stools at the bar, to the booths, to the staff uniforms, this is very obvious. the thing that i found especially interesting about it though is the choice of color. the typical 50s diner is outfitted with metallic surfaces and red accented furnishings, but the spoon is very distinctly not this.

instead, it's dressed in vibrant teal and orange, giving it a very fresh and modern take on a classic look. so it still maintains that feeling of being funky and retro, but that doesn't retract from the fact that the show is set distinctly in modern times.

of course, this could just be a one-off quirky set piece, but this idea of modernizing and novelizing "retro" things is a really common motif throughout the show. take red rooster records. i mean, it's a record shop - need i say more? it's obviously a very prominent store in shadyside, at least for the main characters, but there's no apparent reason why it is (until season 2 when bowie starts working there, and jonah starts performing there). a lot of the time, though, it functions solely as a record shop. vinyl obviously isn't the most practical or convenient way of listening to music, but it's had its resurgence in pop culture even in the real world, mostly due to its aesthetic value, so it's safe to say that it serves the same purpose in the andi mack universe.

the fringe seems to be nostalgic of a different era, specifically the Y2K/early 2000s period (because it's meant to be bex's territory and symbolic of who she used to be, and its later transformation into cloud 10 is representative of her character arc, but that's beside the point). to be honest, exactly what this store was supposed to be always confused me. it was kind of a combination party store/clothing store/makeup store/beauty parlor? i think that's sort of the point of it though, it's supposed to feel very grunge-y and chaotic (within the confines of a relatively mellow-toned show, of course), and it's supposed to act as a sort of treasure chest of little curios that both make the place interesting and allow the characters to interact with it.

and, of course, there's andi shack. this is really the cherry on top of all of andi mack's sets, just because it's so distinctly andi. it serves such amazing narrative purpose for her (ex. the storyline where cece and ham were going to move - i really loved this because it highlights its place in the andi mack universe so well, and i'm a sucker for the paper cranes shot + i'm still salty that sadie's cranes didn't make it into the finale) and it's the perfect reflection of andi's character development because of how dynamic it is (the crafts and art supplies can get moved around or switched out, and there's always new creations visible).

going back to the nostalgia motif though, the "shack" aspect of it always struck me as very treehouse-like. personally, whenever i think of treehouses, there's this very golden sheen of childhood about it, if that makes sense. i've always seen treehouses in media as a sort of shelter for characters' youthful innocence and idealistic memories. for example, the episode "up a tree" from good luck charlie, the episode "treehouse" from modern family, and "to all the boys 2" all use a treehouse setting as a device to explore the character's desire to hold onto their perfect image of their childhood (side note: this exact theme is actually explored in andi mack in the episode "perfect day 2.0"!). andi shack is no exception to this, but it harnesses this childhood idealism in the same way that it captures the nostalgia of the 50s in the spoon, or the early 2000s in the fringe. it's not some image of a distant past being reflected through that setting; it's very present, and very alive, because it reflects andi as she is in the given moment.

some honorable mentions of more one-off settings include the ferris wheel (from "the snorpion"), the alley art gallery (from "a walker to remember"), SAVA, the color factory (from "it's a dilemna"), and my personal favorite, the cake shop (from "that syncing feeling").

[every time i watch this episode i want to eat those cakes so bad]

these settings have less of a distinctly nostalgic feel (especially the color factory, which is a very late 2010s, instagram era setting), but they all definitely have an aura of perfection about them. andi mack is all about bright, colorful visuals, and these settings really play to that, making the andi mack universe seem really fun and inviting, and frankly very instagrammable (literally so, when it comes to the color factory!).

props, on the other hand, are probably a much less obvious tool of worldbuilding. they definitely take up less space in the frame and are generally not as noticeable (i'm sure i'll have missed a bunch that will be great examples, but i'm kind of coming up with all of this off the top of my head), but they really tie everything together.

for example, bex's box, bex's polaroid, and the old tv at the mack apartment (the tv is usually only visible in the periphery of some shots, so you might not catch it at first glance) all complement that very retro aesthetic established through the settings (especially the polaroid and the tv, because there's really no good reason that the characters would otherwise be using these).

besides this, andi's artistic nature provides the perfect excuse for plenty of colorful, crafty props to amplify the visuals and the tone. obviously, as i discussed before, andi shack is the best example of this because it's filled with interesting props. but you also see bits of andi's (and other people's) crafts popping up throughout the show (ex. the tape on the fridge in the mack apartment, andi's and libby's headbands in "the new girls", walker's shoes, andi's phone case, and of course, the bracelet). not only does doing this really solidify this talent as an essential tenet of andi's character, but it also just makes the entirety of shadyside feel like an extension of andi shack. the whole town is a canvas for her crafts (or art, depending on how you want to look at it. i say it's both), and it immensely adds to shadyside's idealism. because who wouldn't want to live in a world made of andi mack's creations?

and, while it's not exactly a prop, the characters' wardrobe is undoubtedly a major influence on the show's worldbuilding. true to it's nature as a disney channel show, all of the characters are always dressed in exceptionally curated outfits of whatever the current trends are, making the show that much more visually appealing. i won't elaborate too much on this, because i could honestly write a whole other analysis on andi mack's fashion (my favorites are andi's and bex's outfits! and kudos to the costume designer(s) for creating such wonderful and in-character wardrobes!). but, i think it's a really really important aspect of how the show's universe is perceived, so it had to be touched upon.

[^ some of my favorite outfits from the show! i am so obsessed with andi's jacket in the finale, and i aspire to be at bex's level of being a leather jacket bisexual]

and lastly, phones. this is a bit of an interesting case (pun intended), because the way they're used fluctuates a bit throughout the show, but i definitely noticed that at least in the first season terri minsky tried to avoid using them altogether. these efforts at distancing from modern tech really grounds the show in it's idealist, nostalgia-heavy roots, so even when the characters start using their phones more later in the show, they don't alter the viewer's impression of the andi mack universe very much.

so, what does all of this have to do with worldbuilding? in andi mack's case, because it's set in a realistic universe and not a fantasy one, a lot of what sets it apart from the real world comes down to tone. because, as much as this world is based on our own, it really does feel separate from it, like an alternate reality that's just slightly more perfect than ours, which makes all the difference. it's the idealism in color and composition in andi mack's settings that makes it so unmistakably andi mack. even the weather is always sunny and perfect (which is incredibly ironic because the town is called shadyside - yes, i am very proud of that observation).

the andi mack universe resides somewhere in this perfect medium that makes it feel like a small town in the middle of nowhere (almost like hill valley in 1955 from "back to the future"), but at the same time like an enclave within a big city (because of its proximity to so many modern, unique, and honestly very classy looking establishments). it is, essentially, an unattainable dream land that tricks you into believing it is attainable because it's just real enough.

all this to say, andi mack does an amazing job of creating of polished, perfect world for its characters. this is pretty common among disney channel and nickelodeon shows, but because most other shows tend to be filmed in a studio with three-wall sets, andi mack is really set apart from them in that it automatically feels more real and tangible. it has its quintessential recurring locations, but it has far more of them (most disney/nick shows usually only have 3-4 recurring settings), and it has a lot more one-off locations. it's also a lot more considerate when it comes to its props, so rather than the show just looking garish and aggressively trendy, it has a distinctive style that's actually appropriate to the characters and the story. overall this creates the effect of expanding the universe, making shadyside feel like it really is a part of a wider world, rather than an artificial bubble. it's idealism is, first and foremost, grounded in reality, and that provides a basis for its brilliant, creative, and relatable storytelling.

tl;dr: andi mack's sets and props give it a very retro and nostalgic tone which makes its whole universe seem super perfect and i want to live there so bad!!

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (4/4)

Here we are! What a journey, and while perhaps this season wasn't at MoM level it was REALLY good, with great new villains/allies, great little throwbacks and an awesome story! 🤩

How to get this was very good to great? Give me a very good ending Seabound!! 💕💕

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

I genuinely got too much into this remaining four episodes and forgot to put any general thoughts 😅 So you'll see me rambling at the end, see you there 😉

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

This title really summarize my feelings so far, like, I'm seriously wondering how it will move on from now, but I do expect the outcome to be CRAZY 🤯

Aaahhhh, yep, the one in Shintaro is a fake 😅 I wonder when did the change happen? How did Kalmaar pulled that off, wow

I'M SORRY WHY ARE WE PUTTING THE TITLE SCREEN WITHOUT THE INTRO?? THAT'S A FIRST EPISODE STUFF AND IT HONESTLY SCARES ME??? It reminds me of Winds of Change too and that episode was WOW 😭😭😭

Heeeeyyy, it's youuuu... huh... *watch scribble on hand* google snake guy, huh... Glucose... yep, good old Glutine and everything 😅

Are we having a "I may have made a mistake being evil" with this guy?

Jay: ah, Prime Empire! I was in that game you know! I fought for my life and the ones of all of Ninjago and I've seen my best friends and the love of my life die before my eyes... good times 🙂

Jay and Nya having fun at DDR has to be one of my favorite thing, they are so in sync and so lovable ❤💙❤💙

DID THEY ACTUALLY PUT THE JAYA SHIP NAME INTO THE SHOW??? OMG GUYS THE FANDOM IS TAKING OVER THE SHOW AT LAST!!! 🤯🤯🤯 The electric Jaya, heeeyy, niiicee 😎😎😎

HOW CUTE CAN YOU BE

MY SHIP 💙❤💙❤ They even gave each other high gives... this is neat, and it means something awful will happen right 🙂

Commissioner: he's saying something about a giant snake... and the end of the world... didn't we already have something like that?

Okay yep, he did the trick while fighting Nya, dang Kalmaar is sneaky! Not too shabby... but I gotta say, the summoning of the Great Devourer was a lot more dramatic 🤣🤣 Props to the serpentine, still my favorite snakes 💪💪

Wojira seems to be a little smaller than the Devourer maybe? His head way bigger than the bounty, while hers is not that massive even in comparison with Kalmaar

I might be wrong but at first glance, I stand by my opinion and by the superiority of the OG giant snake 🤷‍♀️

Yep Glutine guy did have a change of heart, better late than never 🤷‍♀️

You're telling me that Jay doesn't do engineering anymore, okay... HOW IS KAI A BETTER SOLUTION??? 🤣🤣🤣 Lol look at the messy brothers, love Lloyd and Kai so much I miss them interact 💚❤💚❤

Thank you Kelly for the alert 😗

It makes me wonder if they actually do have simulations of evacuations often, it would be pretty smart considering the city 🤷‍♀️

OKINO IS THERE HI DUDE!!! 😍 I hope he's doing great! 🥰🥰

Gail Gossip! Been a while!

WOW, this is going Deluge like, my first Spinjitzu Master! 😱 How... how do we go with three episodes from here? Like, I'm guessing Nya will have to do what Nyad did before her (which TERRIFIES me), so are they going to struggle trying to find another way? IDK BUT I'M IN LET'S GO!! 🤯

ASSAULT ON NINJAGO CITY

Alright, pretty straightforward title, let's see what we got here!

Tourists?... that actually makes sense, I mean, I would want to visit all the places where history was made on this island 😍 Aww nice to see they remember the battle against Garmy of Hunted, also that it is known that Jay was the one who faced Unagami 👍👍

DARETH!!! 🤎🤎🤎

Where have you been you knucklehead, I've missed you! 💕 I think I've last seen him in a commercial from the Fire Chapter?

This is a terrible guide 😵 Not knowing the brown ninja? Owner of the dojo the Green Ninja had trained in? Brief commander of the Stone Army? Master of makeup and puffy potstickers? Unforgivable, someone fire this woman ASAP 😡😡

LOOK AT DARETH TAKING CHARGE!!! 🤩 He's right, he should get involved every once in a while, come on guys!

Ah okay good, I'm not the only one struggling with that google snake name 😂

Yay Bentho is fully integrated with the team! He is a great addiction, like, I know he'll probably take the throne at the end or something but I do hope we'll need his help again in the future! 💙

Sometimes I forget how much I love Kai and Zane interacting 🤣 The brainiac and the airhead 🤍❤🤍❤

Oh right, Cole came back from Shintaro! So... now in this extremely secret city there is a fake amulet hanging into a highly secured place... how is it always Shintaro the keeper of flukes? 😂😂

A bath as a boat but it has a whole 😂😂 I love this show's randomness

What ears are they supposed to cover 😅

I LOVE THIS ATMOSPHERE!!! 😍😍😍 Between the gray sky of storm and the sea underneath, this is the perfect scenario for Wojira and it's not even forced! I love how they are handling backgrounds for Ninjago recently, I really hope it gets as good as in the finale of Prime Empire 💙💙💙

AAAAAAHHHHHhhhhh okay for a moment I was scared Wojira was going to eat Jay 😅 After The Island this is already the second time Bluebell risks it... STOP

WHY THE CLIFFHANGER!?!?

NUUUUU WHAT NOW??? 😱😱😱 We have two more episodes, how is this going to end? I DON'T KNOW AND I REALLY WANT TO PLEASE GIVE ME A GOOD FINALE SEABOUND!!! 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️

NYAD

I AM SCARED FOR MY WATER LILY OKAY

Daaaang she can just float on that? She got super good at controlling water! Now I want her and Kai just randomly flying around with their powers 😂😂 Kai got missiles in his hands come on 🔥🔥🔥

JAY CAN YOU LET ME WORRY ABOUT YOU GUYS ONE AT THE TIME??? 😱

What would Kai do? WHAT WOULD KAI DO?? DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANT TO DIE JAY WHY WOULD YOU THINK OF HIM??? ... although technically Kai is the only one with Jay who didn't straight up die before coming back to life in a dramatic moment... huh... Kai might be the most reasonable choice after all 😅

We grew up from Ninja never quit to NINJA AREN'T IDIOTS AND KNOW WHEN TO GET THE HECK OUT 😎😎 Even our motto got a character development 💪

JAY NOOOOOOOO 😱😱😱😱

BENTHO YAAAAAAASSSS 🥳🥳🥳🥳 Did I ever say that I love shark boy? BECAUSE I FREAKING DO!! 💙

Master prankster Wu once again, take that empty ship Calamari head 😎 Although the poor bounty doesn't deserve to get destroyed as many times as it did until now, it's my favorite ship... pun intended 😜

Ah more ninjajan, wait a moment

"Auto Pilot". Fair enough, although I was hoping for a "psych" or something 😂😂

NO WAIT NO WHAT THE HECK!!! I THOUGHT JAY GOT SAVED HE INHALED WATER??!? BLUEBELL NOOOO!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

But Cole running to his best friend immediately? HECK yes 🖤💙🖤💙

NYA CARRYING HER BOYFRIEND BRIDAL STYLE THIS IS THE RIGHTEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!!! ❤💙❤💙❤💙❤💙 Gosh this season gave me amazing Jaya moments, I've been fed 👌👌

Okay Lloyd pacing back and forth? Kai already mad at their enemies? All the guys eager to help Jay? MY FAVORITE NINJA FAMILY BABY!!! 😎😎

I NEED A MOMENT 😭

Oh... oh gosh I knew Nya doing the Nyad thing was meant to happen, but this way? My heart is melting already 😭

I remember a post that said that Jay told Nya that he loves her many times, while she never did. Tommy reponded that she lets her actions speak... boy do I see it now, I see all of her love 😢😢

I never felt such conflicting emotions for a villain like I do for Kalmaar, like, he caused so much pain to Nya... but he is voiced by Giles... but he is the reason Jay is hurt... but that startle gag 😂😂😂

Okay this? Is adorable?

What the HECK? The police in this city is generally not very helpful, but the Commissioner is very wholesome 💜

Nyaaaaaaa 😭😭😭😭 I didn't think it was possible to love her even more, she was ignored for so long during the show, but now we finally see all of her. She is an amazing warrior, a selfless person, and a real hero 💪💪 And coming from such a mature girl that doesn't like to act irrationally, this means so much more

Jaya grew up so much, it went through some very questionable phases yes, but what they have here? It's the result of all they had lived together 💙❤💙❤

I have chills, this is amazing so far, I'm legit scared of going further 😱

SHE SAID IT!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Okay this moment, everything, EVERYTHING, is absolutely marvelous. Nya said I love you without a voice, alone, showing again that she values the actions more, but still her feelings are 100% truthful. Then the transformation (THERE IT IS HER BEAUTIFUL WATER FORM 😍😍😍), Jay getting saved, the realization of what she just did from everyone... DANG IT IT'S ALL BEAUTIFUL HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO THINK OF THIS SCENE???

*slow clap for Bragi, Tommy, and the Ninjago crew*

Jay and water Nya with their hands together gives me big The Form of Water vibes... LOVE THAT MOVIE WHO'S READY FOR AN AU??

Jay wants to help her, I had no doubt 💙 They always help each other in these BOUNDs seasons 😍😍😍

Kalmaar: where are the ninja??

Commissioner: I don't know, they are ninja!

FINAL BATTLE INCOMING AAAAHHH I HOPE THIS WILL HAVE A GOOD ENDING OMG BRING IT!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

THE TURN OF THE TIDE

Oh, curious title? It feels a little vague, I don't really know what it could be

YES GIRL GO GET HIS CALAMARI BUTT HECK YES!!! Just how cool can you be for walking slowly while the attacks go straight through you? 😂

Hey Nya still recognizes Jay! 😃😃

HEY NYA GOT VAPORIZED WTH 😱😱 It's too early, I don't believe that's it!

WHOA JAY WENT BERSERK JUST NOW!! I don't think I've seen this before, this is the coolest thing! 💙💙💙 I just love when he shows how strong he is, you can be a comic relief AND kick butts 😎

FIGHTING ANIMATIONS MAN I LOVE THESE SCENES!! 😍😍😍

What the- was... was that a cameo of the lightning chicken? Ninjago what the HECK I love your randomness 😂😂

BENTHOMAAR TAGS IN!!! Showing off why he is best boy of the season 💙 These fightings are very cool but I can't help imagining Wojira just chilling while there are midgets getting very angry at each other onto her head 🤣🤣🤣

WHOA, CALAMARI BITE! Kalmaar got the Pythor treatment... might change color by next season if he returns 😅

(Please return I loved having Giles' voice in this season 💙💙💙)

NYA IS A DRAGON!!! I REPEAT NYA IS A DRAGON!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍 I was wondering where the dragon moment was, this is Ninjago after all 🤷‍♀️

Head empty, just Jay smiling softy at Nya because he loves her 💙💙💙

IT'S RAINING NYA, HALLELUIA IT'S RAINING NYA, HEYE!! ☔☔☔ This fight is MASSIVE! We had finales with big creatures before but now one of the ninja is big enough to face them and that's 🤯

NYA DID IT!!! 🤩🤩🤩 ... now onto the angst that I KNOW it's coming

Kai being unbelieving is tragic, and Jay's "don't leave me" broke my heart. Please end this misery, where is the deus ex machina that solves everything?

Wait she left?

...

WAIT SHE ACTUALLY LEFT??? WHAT THE HECK THEY AREN'T ENDING IT LIKE THIS

...

OH MY GOSH

ARE THEY?!?

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Omg the grief in this is beautiful, nice to see Jay and Maya so close to each other! Also Kai leaning onto his mom while Cole is comforting his best best friend? Amazing, they really do these scenes great 👌

EVERYONE SHOWED UP I LOVE THIS CITY SO MUCH 😭😭😭 Aww Ed and Edna, wasn't this such a sad situation I would be so much happier to see you guys 🥺

Master Wu even mentioned that she built Samurai X, you really want to make me cry now do you? 🥺🥺

MAYA AND RAY 😢😢😢😢😢😢

Omg look at Cole being there for his best friend, he is amazing 🖤💙🖤💙

I have such Rebooted vibes from this... is it hopeful? That Nya comes back like Zane? She's no nindroid but still... oh my gosh they got her symbol on the vase I just noticed, I need more tissues 😭😭

"In loving memory of Kirby Morrow". Always in our hearts 🖤🖤🖤

...

Wow

WOW

THEY ACTUALLY DID IT I NEED ANOTHER MOMENT 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 WHAT IN THE WORLD THIS IS THE BIGGEST CHANGE THEY DID IN A WHILE!!!

AND NOW WHAT??? 🤯🤯🤯

FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm speechless... like that's true, have A LOT to write over here 😅

This type of plot twist reminds me of our early seasons. Zane sacrificing himself, Garmadon giving up his life, those moments that made me so curious and excited about the following. I have no idea what will be the outcome for this, but I can't wait to find out

With that out of the way, AMAZING SEASON 😍😍😍 I think this finale beats MoM's, just because it was really unexpected and opens up a SEA of possibilities... yeah too soon 😭

I'm still shaken, my world, they did something HUGE and I do hope it will be a good shake to the entire Ninjago plotline. Nya is "gone", we still don't know about the person behind all that vengestone, we haven't heard from Garmy in forever, there are so many good ideas out there now that they've set the ground for more 🤩🤩

Voice acting was *chef's kiss*, not only for the villain which I already stressed enough about, I think Kelly reached a new level of emotional intimacy with Nya and I'm so happy she showed her skills 💜💜

Animation is TOP, there's little to no point into saying anything else since they showed it very clearly in the latest season ☺

This was the emotional, witty and engaging writing I was looking for! Good jokes, meaningful dialogues, emotional scenes, everything was really good and I'm gonna rewatch some scenes especially for that 😍

It turned out having Maya and Ray back was kind of a distraction to fool us all 😅😅 Well played actually, and it was very cool seeing them again in any case 🙋‍♀️

And now? Jay lost his love, I have no idea if the show will work on him getting over her or hold onto her memory (thinking of Jay probably the latter, although I do think that handling the first would be an interesting idea). KAI LOST HIS SISTER 😢😢😢 I have no doubt he's gonna beat himself up for it, like he did when Zane was gone too. Everyone lost their friend, she had become such a vital part of the team and now she is not here anymore it will be hard...

They are back with the four plus one green savior formation, I sincerely don't know how I feel about that 😅 I'm always happy when we get the OGs, but this is about going on without Nya... maybe Skylor will be called? Or Pixal will be more active? That could be interesting to see, who knows 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Gosh, how are they going to handle the next season? It will have to give A LOT of answers to the millions questions we all have right now. Man I can't wait, it could be anything!!! This is a Ninjago revolution!

But if I have to mention a little complain, and I'm a fangirl so I absolutely have to, Kai didn't show much of a reaction to Nya's "departure". Okay, she didn't straight up die like in Skybound (I'm gonna fear all BOUND seasons from now on 😱), but he's her brother and he loves deeply his family. Either we're gonna see him go all out next season, or the writers really did only focus on Jaya. A tiny bit salty... but you got me a fantastic finale so I'll move on 👍

Outstanding, I'm blown away. Whenever I think I'm used to this show they do stuff like this. I'm so glad and sad you guys 😅 But mostly happy that despite everything I still get very strong emotions while I watch this long time favorite show of mine 💜💜💜

What else can I say at this point? ONTO NEXT SEASON!!! 🤩🤩🤩

Thank you for reading me freaking out over LEGO spinning ninja as always! It helps me calm down but this time it might be harder thant the others... *sobs*

I need to lay down and process all of this, I'll be on my way 😂😂 BYE!!! 💜

[liunaticfringe]

(via Lucy Liu's Independent Woman - Interview Magazine)

There have been many great sidekick pairings in the history of modern literature. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet…the list goes on. Yet, it seems there has never been a delightfully tumultuous relationship that comes close to echoing the one embodied by rogue detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend and assistant Dr. John Watson. Written in the form of short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the opium-den loving Holmes would terrorize London with his intellectual, astute, and stubborn prowess, with Dr. Watson providing medical expertise and chronicling their entertaining exploits along the way.

Doyle’s works have now long been entered into the public domain, with many film and television adaptions cropping up every few years. Still, when CBS announced in 2012 that it would be turning Doyle’s works into an hour-long crime-drama series titled Elementary, it elicited an unusually high response—this was mostly due to the news that a woman would, in fact, be portraying Watson. Her name would be Joan, not John. And she’s now a fallen from grace surgeon-turned-sober companion and private detective, forfeiting her “Dr.” title in the process. The woman chosen to take on this exciting, contemporary role of Joan Watson was none other than seasoned actress Lucy Liu.

Liu, who’s best known for her roles as a fierce and ill-mannered lawyer in Ally McBeal, an ass-kicking “angel” in the rebooted Charlie’s Angels, and an equally ass-kicking bad girl in the Kill Bill series, certainly provides the yin to the yang of Jonny Lee Miller’s gritty portrayal of Holmes. Elementary chronicles the duo’s relationship as they consult for the NYPD on various criminal cases while living in a shared brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. Initially starting off in Season One as a substance-free friend to the fresh-out-of-rehab Holmes with a keen interest in solving crimes, Watson quickly transformed into a sharp and observant right-hand woman who now clearly has the aptitude to work on her own. And it appears she’ll be doing just that—the end of Season Two left viewers witnessing Watson’s decision to move out of the brownstone and start a new career as a solo private detective, seemingly fed-up with Holmes’ erratic behavior.

The warm and delightful Liu recently called up Interview from her home in New York City to discuss Elementary’s upcoming third season.

DEVON IVIE: Were you on set today?

LUCY LIU: I was running around like a maniac, yeah. It’s beautiful today, it started getting a little bit cooler again. But of course I’ve been bitten by the two mosquitos that are still alive in New York City.

IVIE: I know you were recently at New York Comic Con. How was it?

LIU: It was amazing. It’s such a spectator place. Not only do you get super fans, but you also get people who are curious and inventive and imaginative. It’s fun.

IVIE: Did you run into any cosplayers dressed as Joan Watson?

LIU: Oh, no, I don’t know about that. That’s funny! We did a panel with a huge audience so I couldn’t really see if anyone was wearing anything specific, but it’s an excuse for kids and adults to get dressed up and just be crazy. You know you’ve made it when you have super-fans out there.

IVIE: When you first read the scripts for Elementary, what was it that attracted you to the role of Joan?

LIU: I liked the fact that it was going to be about [Joan and Sherlock’s] relationship and their friendship, and bringing that into modern times. And I thought it was wonderful to change up the gender.

IVIE: Did you immerse yourself in Arthur Conan Doyle’s work as preparation at all?

LIU: I did, I did! I started reading the short stories. I never read them before so it was a really great excuse to read them. I can’t believe it was written so long ago, because it’s so current. The characters are so colorful, which is why I think there are so many incarnations of Watson and Holmes.

IVIE: Do you have a favorite story? I love “A Scandal in Bohemia.”

LIU: There were some pretty amazing stories. The one that stood out to me, which was a Watson story that I got to know him a little more through, was “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” He really is on his own in that. Of course it turns out that Holmes has been there all along, but it’s interesting looking into his interior.

IVIE: Yeah, the entirety of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” is narrated just by Watson. And his diary and letters, too.

LIU: Yeah, I think it’s really cool. We started incorporating that into the show, too, the letters and journals.

IVIE: Has this detective genre always appealed to you? Did you grow up watching or reading detective whodunits?

LIU: I remember more of the old school Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys sort of thing. I also grew up with the Scooby-Doo mysteries. Remember when the villain would go, “I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for you rascal-y kids!” Those were the kind of the things I immersed myself in. I have to say that my mother has always been a huge fan of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, so this show was her dream come true. I don’t think she totally understood what was going on with Ally McBeal. [laughs]

IVIE: I’ve enjoyed witnessing Joan’s evolution throughout the course of the show, starting off as a sober companion and eventually ending up as a trusty sidekick and confidant to Sherlock. What can we expect from Joan in Season Three?

LIU: When you see them in the third season, you see some friction between the two characters. Joan is now on her own, she has her own detective agency, has a boyfriend, and has been without Sherlock for eight months. She’s got her own apartment, she’s settled, and he shows back up. I think she’s a little bit hurt by what happened and how their relationship and partnership ended, which was basically his decision and his choice, and he left it all in one little note for her. I think she felt that their relationship was much deeper than that, and that he was dismissive in the way that he handled that.

IVIE: How would you define the relationship between Joan and Sherlock?

LIU: I think that it’s a really positive and good relationship, overall. They really have a good chemistry together, work really hard together, and understand each other. They acknowledge each other and respect each other, which is a really important way to have a friendship. And they can learn from each other, you know? She’s very curious about him and I think he sees that she’s a very smart person—that’s vital for him in having respect for someone, having them be intelligent and thinking for themselves.

IVIE: Do you see any of Joan in yourself?

LIU: I do to a certain degree. She’s a lot more measured and patient, for sure. She’s a very curious person, which I think I am, and I think she isn’t afraid of change. She was a doctor, and then became a sober companion, and then jumped off and became a detective. I think sometimes it’s good to make big leaps.

IVIE: You’ve probably been asked this question many times, but do you think a romance between Joan and Sherlock could ever fittingly happen?

LIU: It’s a question that’s often asked and I think it’s really up to the executives. Rob Doherty, the creator [of Elementary] really feels incredibly strongly about keeping their relationship platonic. He has already taken great strides to keep the relationship as clean as possible according to the literature, but he has also changed so much of it by changing the gender of Watson. To have them have a romantic involvement would turn the whole thing upside-down in a way that might really jump the line. [Doherty] felt really strongly about it and I think that’s the one thing he really wants to stay true to.

IVIE: I totally agree. Even on the BBC’s Sherlock, there are campaigns to get Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Martin Freeman’s Watson to become romantically involved. It’s like, enough already, no!

LIU: No way, that’s so weird! People do have that level of friendship oftentimes, but it doesn’t mean it’s physical. I think that everyone just assumes because there’s chemistry the next thing should be happening. I would vote “no” for a romance. I think for sure the creator would vote no on that, too.

IVIE: I’ve talked to both women and men who watch Elementary, and they all consistently mention how well dressed and fashionable Joan is. Do you collaborate with the wardrobe department on styling decisions at all?

LIU: That’s awesome. Yes, I collaborate with Rebecca [Hofherr], who’s the costume designer, who’s wonderful. She’s very easy to work with. One thing we try to maintain about Joan and her style is that she’s a bit wrinkled, you know what I mean? Sometimes it looks like things are really put together, but we always want to make sure things aren’t too tight and are comfortable, kind of like she throws things together. We don’t want it to seem so business-y, so we go away from suits. Chic, but not corporate. Also just to make her seem like her outfits aren’t so put-together all the time. But I’m glad that people really seem to like it, it’s a relief! We don’t splurge a lot on the show, we try to do cheaper things, like things Joan would wear a lot. She wears the same white jacket and shoes frequently.

IVIE: Will we be seeing more of the infamous Clyde the Turtle in the upcoming season?

LIU: Clyde will indeed be in it again. We have to share custody of Clyde.

IVIE: Is it true that Clyde is actually two tortoises? Pulling a Mary Kate and Ashley in Full House on us?

LIU: Yes. It’s just like having twins on a show. Just in case one is crying and screaming and passed out or something.

IVIE: You made your directorial debut for an episode of Elementary last season [“Paint It Black”]. Do you have plans to direct an episode again soon?

LIU: That was so exciting. I’ll be directing another episode again very shortly in December, so you’ll be seeing it in a month and a half.

IVIE: Where did your interest in directing come from?

LIU: I guess I was curious about it. Having been in this business for a while, you kind of see and get a glimpse of everything doing film and television. I think it seemed like a natural progression to go into directing, and I hope to explore more of it, because it’s very exciting and a really good way to collide all the things that you’ve known and experienced in the business and put them all into one.

IVIE: Is there an ideal guest star that you’d like to see on the show in the upcoming season?

LIU: I would love to see Mycroft come back. I really think there was a wonderful tension for Mycroft and Sherlock as well as the triangle that occurred when Joan became involved with him. There’s something very deep about that relationship, and I also think that Rhys Ifans is a fantastic actor. He commands the screen, but off-screen he’s incredibly lovely. A real treat to have on the show.

IVIE: I remember the first few episodes that I saw Rhys in, I was like, where have I seen this guy before? So I looked at his Wikipedia page and it became obvious: he was the crazy guy from Notting Hill!

LIU: Yes, the roommate! So good! Everything he does, he just kills it, no matter the role.

IVIE: And it’s always good to have some MI6 action on the show, which Mycroft provided. Some international flair.

LIU: [laughs] International flair, exactly, some added spice. Just throw some spy stuff in there to throw people off their game. You just don’t expect it, you know? It came out of nowhere.

IVIE: That whole three-episode arc at the end of the second season…

LIU: That was awesome. I was lucky enough to direct one of those episodes, which is more narrative in tone. It’s more fun in some ways, too.

IVIE: You’ve done a range of acting work for both television and film. Do you now find yourself preferring one to the other?

LIU: I love both of them equally. The lack of predictability with television is something that’s constantly changing what your perception of who you think your character is. Suddenly I have a father that’s schizophrenic, or I discovered something else, or I have a relationship with Mycroft. The things that pop up and change the game for you and always keep you on your toes. The wonderful thing about film is that you have something that has a beginning, middle, and end, and you have a concrete amount of time to shoot it. And the process of that can be longer, like editing and advertising and testing the movie, so it’s very different. Television you just continue going, no matter what’s happening outside of your world. You get lost in that vortex a little bit.

IVIE: It’s interesting that America is now embracing the “mini-series” format that has already been so heavily utilized overseas, where there are a set amount of short episodes, and that’s it. In a way, it’s kind of like a cinematic experience.

LIU: I like that, too. It allows you to have a freedom of creativity and at the same time you don’t feel like you have to be contracted to something for that long; you’re really working on a piece of art. And then you’re done and you move on, or it comes back, like Downton Abbey. You don’t know. Those things become little masterpieces. The thing about television is that you see a range of actors now that you may not have seen five years ago even, 10 years ago absolutely not, and I think now there’s no wrong about doing television. There’s no definitive category for what kind of department you fall into anymore.

IVIE: What’s a fun, secret fact about your costar Jonny Lee Miller?

LIU: A fun fact about Jonny Lee Miller is that he oftentimes does handstands on a wall before he does a take, sometimes with pushups, to get blood to his brain and get him geared up for a long monologue that he may have. He stays there, hangs a little bit, and then turns around and does the scene. Most of the time in the brownstone more than anywhere else. He’s in full costume and everything. That’s trivia!

IVIE: I wish I could do wall-handstands by myself.

LIU: Oh my god, I need someone to push my legs up and then hold me there. I’m a cheat!

ELEMENTARY PREMIERES THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30 ON CBS.

[sugar-petals]

Cuddling With SuperM

↳ ❤︎ CARO’S NOTE: their concept is all about badassery i know but we’re dealing with seven angels so let’s talk about that shall we

warnings ⚠️ some light teasing, innuendo

length: 1.5k

taeyong

am i really telling you something ground-breaking with this:

so this guy’s truly adorable

turns into a baby what else is new

draws his knees to his chest and just enjoys the ride with his eyes closed

you can do whatever the hell you want

back rubs, head pats, foot massages, caressing the neck or underneath the chin which is particularly sweet

and a whole lot of tickling he’s kinda obsessed with this

excellent chef he is, taeyong enjoys preparing snacks for a set cuddling time or movie night

so what if this turns into feeding each other basically are you ready for that

this guy’s impossible face up close is hard to bear for the faint-hearted just mentioning that in passing here

because… he has that one yearning expression and his eye contact is very steady

bit of a duality here huh

but worry not because taeyong’s tiger inside is more of a cat actually, tyongkitty behavior guaranteed right there

he does do friendly head buts and yeah the eye contact is also a cat thing now that i think about it… it all makes sense now

ten, baekhyun, lucas and taemin are pretty cocky types of cuddlers, taeyong leads the more subdued fraction in super m

it’s the kind of cuddling that needs rainy weather and a cup of tea

ten

quality time right here

banter is always included ofc

or at least a lot of talk because with ten, conversation and cuddles go together

likes pets joining, three’s a party, a cat can always make a snuggly contribution

add a ball of wool to play around

like. a-you, a-me, and a cat right in between ya see

music is always playing in the background, always

ten’s body is very sensual… you can tell he’s a dancer by the way he’s adapting, how he’s feeling it, how he moves in general

the reflexes are just so different he has great feeling for what you wanna do next it’s his bodily intuition and he just goes along with it

what you gotta tell him though is to keep it lowkey with keeping his jazzy outfits on

a hoodie cuddles better than high fashion and spiked jackets

plus he looks adorably small in it so two birds with one stone

never forget ten is really tiny that sure makes a difference

reluctant little spoon, he keeps it face-to-face or sleeps on his back

ten is glad to be approached with hugs he’s not always doing the initiative

shy thailand angel ikr

but don’t complain if he farts because he absolutely will

goddammit chittaphon

kai

if it’s without a plushie something’s going wrong it always needs one

his favorite teddy’s gotta participate y’know he’s a social creature

in this home we don’t discriminate against plush bears

and yeah, his bear ear hoodie likewise he is sure to put it on

jongin tends to be rather taciturn because he wants to enjoy the body-to-body sensations

meaning, don’t interpret his frequent silence as awkwardness he’s just observing

is not above teasing… if his outfit is showing some skin he’ll invite you to touch the area

also enjoys you putting your hands under his sweater

he’s laughing like crazy and kicking his legs all giggly if you put your head underneath it and let it roam oh la la

yeah nini likes some wit to it for sure, and some steaminess in the mix it’s just a natural byproduct if we’re honest

dim the lights down low for this one…

but also light the candles alright

cuddling is more of a soft and steady thing there’s not much position changes going on

this is the couch not the dancefloor your honor

while we’re talking about that: jongin is a buff biatch my god

prep a water bottle to chug when you’re cuddling this guy is effortlessly hot

also know that kai will almost definitely snap a picture of you huddled together for the memory of it

baekhyun

unlike his memes, baekhyun’s cuddling behaviour is entirely predictable

will snuggle against your shoulder by default pretty much that’s his favorite area

stays glued there for two hours if you’re not busy

im not kidding

needless to say he needs a partner who can handle this level of clinginess

baekhyun can’t keep his hands to himself in general

neither can you

it’s groping x cuddling these two are a dead sure combination

keen to snuggle casually while he’s gaming, cross-legged on the ground with you massaging his back

likes to lay his head into your lap, too.

baekhug i mean back hug enthusiast. something inside his face has an inbuilt magnet that sucks him into the space between your collar bones

especially when you’re at the stove cooking

caution: love bites. lots of them. does this count as cuddles? probably. it’s not like he’s eating you or is he. oop—

what am i saying all he does is nibble alright

and oh yeah bring on the sweater weather. he can’t stay still in bed it’s gonna be a pillowfort building session though

you gotta exhaust him until he naps off lmao!

energizer bunny bf

mark

enjoys being fed watermelon during the process how else could it be

wait until this guy hears what harry styles’ watermelon sugar is all about his world will never be the same again

anyway

he’ll look so cute in his striped shirt and his round glasses awh

cuddling is his favorite way to show his trust and affection before all else

his favorite time to cuddle is before going to sleep

he usually hugs pillows so you can tell how clingy he winds up as

mark really sleeps and dreams better if you do that it has an astounding effect. cuddles are his perfect recharging if you will it’s just that he’s actually calming down through it whereas he can be nervous throughout the day so he needs that downtime

spooning is a given

what he enjoys the most about it is the warmth

markie easily gets cold sometimes he just needs that tune-up with you he’s like blink blink there goes my dose of daily heat beep beep

what the fuck

anyway again

talk about tune

just like ten he’s very talkative all the way verbal stimulation and mark lee just go together

if you compare him to taeyong there’s not much of a transformation going on mark lee on two legs is the same mark lee during cuddles it’s all copy paste

all in all a delectable experience, extremely cute and heart-melting, super m truly has a super mark

taemin

much like xuxi he has that permanent smile on his lips that tries to make you laugh

in fact taemin is hard to stop with his puns and his humor

ffs he is a true brat

taems can’t help but try to escalate this into a playfight every time

not that he doesn’t enjoy the calmer types of cuddling but he needs some action in the sack

enjoys praise along the way who are we kidding

the clothes you both cuddle in are very important alright, the fabric in particular

taemin keeps it expensive here it’s just the way he rolls

satin my dear

it’s just so satisfying to the touch

but also beware of his most lethal clothing choice which brings out his innate maknae charm the most

THE FLUFFY TURTLENECK

gyeahh

which he will use during special occasions to turn you into a cuddle monster ready to pounce him

give it up for shinee my loves they taught him well and sent him out to fluff up the world

what else is there okay we also gotta mention that cuddling consists of many little kisses here and there

taemin wants to get absolutely peppered

he is and stays a prince

lucas

ideal body type for cuddling except that it needs the right place, not the environment but the spot i mean, you can imagine

lucas can explode any smol-size couch or bed

don’t even think about trying to cuddle on regular chairs my god why would you live so dangerously

king size por favor

there is a lot to cuddle against it’s really a whole wonderland

those big ole thighs are practical cushions for anything really.

and his face is just so amicable it has to be kithed

his hands… his hands! you will feel maximum protection with those giant baby fingers around your hips i’m telling you

admittedly yukhei is hard to properly hug around the shoulders obviously that’s a drawback but hey his waist is lithe and tiny so hello there, very inviting

oh, that infectious smile.

serious cuddling: 0 — funny cuddles: over 9,000

and tasty cuddles because foodcas brings some fried rice every time oh yum

hates to go to work he really prioritizes you and cuddles go on for long long hours especially when you watch your favorite series

xuxi goes the extra mile, he will touch your hair a lot, just gently combing through it

and he doesn’t mind it when you do the same, he’s got the most angelic blonde locks after all

lu calls you beautiful all the time the cheesy mf is really pulling the standard compliment alright

cue jonas brothers sucker for you

ugh, boyfriend

mlist

[pencilofawesomeness]

Fics I Absolutely Adore and Would Recommend to Anyone

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long, long time, because I love reading fanworks and they deserve a lot of love and I love sharing things that I love. 

Obviously this isn’t everything, and if it’s not on this list that doesn’t mean I don’t love it, it just means I forgot at this moment. I will be adding to the list and I remember things or come across it again. (Trying to sort through my bookmarks and subscriptions is like trying to catch a fish bare-handed.) I’m also gonna shy away from the one-shots, even though I adore fun one-shots, just for the sake of organization. The list would be super long otherwise, and those are best sorted by fandom. Here... Here are just some brilliant works I want to rant about. 

Disclaimer: I say “recommend” because I would recommend these works, any time any place, but do keep in mind the story’s rating and tags and stuff. Not everything is kid-friendly.

There is absolutely no hierarchy to the list below. They are added as I add.

Fairy Dance of Death

by Catsy ( @fairydanceofdeath​ )

Fandom: Sword Art Online Word Count: 660,282 Status: ongoing

「AU reboot of the entire SAO storyline, beginning from the premise that Kayaba Akihiko was obsessed with magic and Norse Mythology rather than swords and pure melee. As a result, he created the Death Game of Alfheim Online rather than the floating castle of Aincrad—a world in which player-killing is not a crime, and the nine player races are in competition with each other to reach the top of the World Tree. Multi-POV epic following the stories of multiple canon characters throughout the game.」

If Catsy wrote the SAO light novels and anime, SAO would be among the legendary series. Fairy Dance of Death has this amazingly simple premise of making Alfheim Online, the video game from the original series’ less-than-stellar second part, the game that the main cast becomes trapped in. However, it’s so much more. They took the characters and made them characters, and everyone gets ample spotlight—even background characters that normally wouldn’t receive a second thought. It’s masterful work, and to boot, there is a lovely frame of in-game mystery and player conflict. The organization is phenomenal and I aspire to world-build the way they did. Not to mention that stakes are so much higher and this series has ripped my heart to shreds more than once. 

It has also brought me great joy, and even when I was in the dumps and didn’t want to read anything, a FDOD update made me pick up my phone and read when I otherwise wouldn’t have. It has a really special place in my heart. It updates once in a blue moon, but that’s okay. 

Even if you have never seen a single piece of Sword Art Online, Fairy Dance of Death is still a great read. In fact, it’s the Better Version of SAO, if we’re all being honest, so I would especially recommend it if you hadn’t seen the original. Or if you have. The characters are given so much love and detail, to the point where Fairy Dance of Death’s characterizations are More Canon to me than Kawahara Reki’s work. It is just a beautiful piece of fiction, and it makes you question the depravity of man on levels that SAO shied away from. 

Poisoned Dreams

by StrangeDiamond

Fandom: Genshin Impact Word Count: 82,852 Status: Complete, with a complete sequel and more to come

「 Every night now, Diluc dreams of death. Usually Kaeya's. In between these nightmares his life is falling apart. It doesn't take Kaeya long to realize that this is something much more insidious than simple bad dreams. His brother's life and sanity are on the line and there is nothing Kaeya won't do to save him. Bonus chapter added.」

In a growing fandom from a new game, StrangeDiamond swooped in and characterized these bad boys so well I think it’s canon. It really breathes life into the video game lore, and it’s an A+ depiction of awkward sibling re-bonding post-Terrible-Happenings. Poisoned Dreams can be read alone with a basic understanding of Genshin storybuilding, but StrangeDiamond has an entire group of fics and oneshots set in the same headcanon, and they integrate them really well and subtly together. Not to mention that the narrative style is really clever with making you question what is real and what is dream (a big point in this story) and the inner voices of the point-of-view characters are very compelling. 

One Word to Change the World

by AgentMalkere 

Fandom: Fairy Tail Collective Word Count: 43,988 (30 parts) Status: probably never coming back

「 In just one universe, Ultear called out to her mother instead of turning away and the fate of Fairy Tail and the world was irrevocably altered. These are glimpses of a world where a single word made all the difference.

In other words, welcome to the Butterfly Effect - Fairy Tail style. 」

It’s a really cute canon-divergent, and while the series makes no attempt to re-write Fairy Tail, it addresses the major events and just snippets in between. It does a good job at giving the vast cast ample spotlight, but it’s also an easy read. It’s special to me because it was the series that made me really pay attention to Bickslow in particular, and I respect that.

Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis

by aradian_nights 

Fandom: Attack on Titan Word Count: 399,226 Status: Complete

「 Five years ago, an accident freed Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlelt from an experiment that forced the most extraordinary powers onto them. After five years of separation, of being raised apart to be heroes by a set of three very different adults, they meet again. As they uncover the truth behind their captivity they realize being free and being heroes are sadly nothing but an illusion. 」

This wrecked me.

I still remember when I read it. It was the beginning of 2018, and I had the flu and a lot of time on my hands, so I binge-read this. It was simultaneously the best and the worst thing I have ever done, because I resonated with it so deeply there were times I was just staring up at the ceiling wondering what was real. I empathized with the characters to a level I rarely achieve, and I empathize easily. I laughed. I cried. It was amazing.

I refer to this story in conversation to this day. It handled themes published authors have only dreamed of achieving. Heck, if Dani (the author) took out the names of the AoT cast and replaced it with new ones, it could be its own stand alone novel. It is worldbuilding from the ground up, and any fandom knowledge you take in with you is used against you like a knife leveraged against your throat. Yet, no one is out of character. It’s phenomenal. I would say more, but this is something I daren’t spoil for anybody, because you must be as wrecked as I was. Vigilantis Pretium Libertatis is a level of writing I achieve to gain as a writer myself. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Life in Glass Houses

by blueskyscribe ( @blueskyscribe​ )

Fandom: Transformers (Transformers Prime, Transformers: Shattered Glass) Word Count: 119,900 Status: Ongoing (maybe, I hope)

「 No one would have thought Bumblebee and Knock Out were capable of getting along, but when they're stuck in a strange new world and their only hope of survival is cooperation . . . Yeah, they're probably doomed. 」

I could be biased because Knock Out and Bumblebee are two of my favorite characters, but it really is brilliant. Two enemies, stuck together—but not in an overly cliché way. It’s the right amount of cliché, with heaps moral conflict and inner conflict and sometimes just beating each other with a broom when no one is looking. It’s also a fascinating look into what makes a character the way they are in relation to the morals they possess, and how stalwart those morals can be. I can’t help but think of this story whenever I see or write a “role reverse” or mirror-verse AU. It does an excellent job at making all of the characters engaging and their own character, despite being in a mirror-verse.

Yesterday Upon the Stair

by PitViperOfDoom ( @pitviperofdoom​ )

Fandom: My Hero Academia Word Count: 424,070 Status: Complete

「 Midoriya Izuku has always been written off as weird. As if it's not bad enough to be the quirkless weakling, he has to be the weird quirkless weakling on top of it.

But truthfully, the "weird" part is the only part that's accurate. He's determined not to be a weakling, and in spite of what it says on paper, he's not actually quirkless. Even before meeting All-Might and taking on the power of One For All, Izuku isn't quirkless.

Not that anyone would believe it if he told them. 」

As a person who normally doesn’t read these kind of minor canon divergences, especially at the time of reading, I frickin’ love this fic. In fact, I think YUTS gave me a deep appreciation for canon divergence fics. It’s MHA in all of its glory but it’s so much more, and even the parts that rehash canon give new light to the characters and their points of view. 

I had read Viper’s work before and saw Yesterday Upon the Stair filling my inbox, and then I finally watched My Hero Academia. It was one of the first MHA fics I read and it still has a very special place in my heart. I recommend this series to people who don’t even watch MHA; in fact, there are some who might prefer the darker tones and themes of heroism vs apathy to the main series. Not to mention the writing style is phenomenal, and I aspire to be that good. It made me laugh. It made me cry. Yes, tears streaming down my face crying. It is the best ghost story I have ever read.

the Vantage Point Universe

by Aggie2011 ( @aggie2011whoop​ )

Fandom: The Avengers (MCU) Collective Word Count: 1,032,651 (35 parts) Status: Ongoing (just slowed down)

「 Six months after the Loki incident, Clint isn't adjusting well. When an enemy from his days in the Army comes back to haunt him, he'll be forced to face a part of his past - and to move past Loki, if he has a hope of finding his place with the Avengers. (First of a universe created to center around Clint Barton) 」

// description taken from first installment

Have you enjoyed the MCU, especially the first-era Avengers phase, but like me, were disappointed in the fact that Hawkeye was barely there? The VP universe is for you. 

I honestly have a hard time remembering what was canon and what was VP. And if it’s not canon, it should be. The VP universe gave so much life to Clint and to Natasha and to all of SHIELD and even the rest of the Avengers. It’s just...so good. It’s completely immersive. It focuses a lot on Hawkeye and Black Widow from before the Avengers team-up, as well as after, and it all flows together so beautifully. Not to mention that I can be reading a mission that happened pre-series, so I know that they are going to live with all of their limbs, and I still sit there on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The OCs, minor as they are, that are created for this are also wonderfully done. I can’t believe Dan and Phil don’t exist in canon. Every character, canon or no, is engaging and dynamic, it is a pleasure to follow each point of view. The emotional turmoil is also handled very well, and the VP universe carries the MCU trend of humanizing its heroes and takes it so much further. 

Ghosts of the Future

by Evan Stanley ( @evanstanleyportfolio​ )

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog Word Count: comic (18 issues) Status: ongoing

「 About 200 years in the future, Silver the Hedgehog is an average kid living in San Francisco... except for his strange and terrible dreams of a dying Blue Hedgehog, a Black Hedgehog, and mysterious gems called "Chaos Emeralds". What will he do, when these "figments of his imagination" appear before him in his real life? 」

// description taken from first installment

Okay so this is the only one that isn’t an Ao3 story, but rather a comic on DeviantArt. However, it is still one of my favorite stories. Even though it takes the commonalities of Sonic canon and turns them on its head, GotF really treats the characters well. There are enough familiar world elements to create intrigue, but it is set in a completely different take of the future, so there is ample opportunity for world building and being able to engage with a completely new thing. I wish SEGA put as much love in the series (namely the games, because the comics are *chef’s kiss*) and all of its possibilities as creators like Evan Stanley do.

The friendship and family relationships in GotF are so diverse and all so fantastic to witness. It’s a keynote example of the new hero and the old veterans, and both parties are active and trying their best.

Do not be alarmed by the starting art style. Sure, it’s rough around the edges at first, but then it gets better, and then it gets gorgeous, and then you’re left there so stunned that it looks like just life canon art. And then you could be like me, blinking slowly as my small brain finally connected that this Evan Stanley is in fact the Evan Stanley. GotF is an amazing fanwork, but she also draws and writes for the Official Canon comics (the IDW ones now) and that work is also phenomenal and should be supported. 

Whirlwind

by Lynse ( @ladylynse​ )

Fandom: Danny Phantom, American Dragon: Jake Long, Miraculous Ladybug, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja Word Count: 75,556 Status: Complete

「 Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny really should've expected something like this when he got that phone call from Jake. (Secret Quartet fic) 」

I have to start by saying that I adore all of Lynse’s fics, and I chose this one simply because it is one of my favorites. But it’s all fantastic, one hundred percent. I also love Mirrored, the sort-of prequel to this fic, but Whirlwind just has the chaotic pure bean energy that each of the shows bring and it foils against each other so perfectly. This is the epitome of the Secret Quartet crossover, truly.

All fandoms and all characters get ample love, and the way the reader gets to see just how badly the characters’ assumptions are going is positively wonderful. It’s so easy to fall into the “I know what’s happening and so do the characters” trap, but Lynse leaps over it gracefully and lands in greatness. The fic had me smiling like a maniac one minute, and feeling sorry for my babies the next. Wonderful. Simply fantastic!

[janaikam]

Roommates

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @emsylcatac!!!!!! You are such an amazing friend and I hope you have the best day ever!!!!

Summary:  When the new mayor of Paris offers an apartment to Paris' heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't pass up on the chance.

Beta reading done by the marvelous @macaronsforchat

Read on AO3.

“Woah!” Ladybug and Chat Noir breathed, looking around at the apartment.

Mayor Beaumont, Paris’ newest mayor, had recently offered the heroes an apartment in Paris. He claimed that it was to honor the heroes’ hard work over the years. But Ladybug figured that it was to keep him on the public’s good side. After all, he barely beat Mayor Bourgeois in the last election.

Although Marinette had her reservations about the apartment, she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to have free housing in Paris. She had just started looking at housing for her second year in university, and it was not cheap to find a decent apartment.

Plus it helped that Mayor Beaumont was keeping everything with the apartment confidential. It turned out that he owned multiple buildings around Paris, so they didn’t have to worry about a landlord selling the heroes out.

She was a little hesitant about rooming with Chat, but Beaumont reassured her that he would find the best apartment that would not reveal their identities to Paris or each other.

The last thing Marinette expected was for the mayor to get them a penthouse style apartment.

The apartment had a large kitchen, and after quickly checking the cabinets, it was fully stocked. An island in the middle of the kitchen separated it from the living room which had some nice black couches with some dark grey and white spiral pillows on top of it. Surrounding the couch there were two dark grey single seats. There was a door on the back wall that Ladybug realized was a balcony.

The walls were a plain cream color making the room not as inviting, but Marinette was sure that they could make it feel homier without them revealing their identities.

A little in between the living room and kitchen were two hallways on both ends. Walking down the hallway on the right, Ladybug saw that the hallway had two rooms--one looked to be a bedroom and the other an office--and a washer and dryer unit. Connecting the bedroom was a bathroom that had both a huge bath and a shower.

She could only imagine that the other side was set up similarly. It would definitely be possible for them to hide their identities without having to use their kwamis too much.

Walking back to the main area, Ladybug saw that Chat was just coming back after checking his side of the room.

“Alright, Chat, if we’re going to make this work, we need to set some ground rules.” She went to sit on the couch, and Chat followed.

“Anything for you my lady.”

“First off, I think in our respective spaces we can be detransformed, so we don’t overwork our kwamis. Second, whenever we’re here in the main space, we should be transformed or at least have something to hide our identities.”

Chat nodded in understanding. “What about inviting friends over? Some of my civilian friends know I’m moving into a new apartment, and it’d be really hard for me to keep them from here.”

Ladybug hummed. She had the same issue because Alya was definitely going to want to come over.

“How about we tell each other in advance? Like send a message or write a note? That way we would know when to just avoid coming to the apartment.”

“We could get separate phones to text on!” Chat’s eyes lit up. “It would be like we’re spies with a second phone.”

Ladybug scrunched up her face. “Ignoring the fact that we’d have to pay for phones and service, I think my friends would wonder why I suddenly have two phones.”

Chat deflated a little. “You’re right. Hmmm. Oh! We could use one of those online messaging apps. We could just make accounts and message each other there!”

“That would work.” Ladybug nodded.

“I’m excited to be your roommate, m’lady.”

“I’m excited to be your roommate, Chaton.”

--------

It had been a week living with Chat, and so far it had been going smoothly. Their schedules thankfully allowed them to miss when the other left or came back, so Marinette had no clue what Chat looked like. Though she did make a couple of masks that resembled their superhero ones. She always slipped hers on when she got on the elevator just in case, but there hadn’t been much of a need for it.

They had also found a website to message on to let the other know someone was coming over. He had some friend over earlier this week, and she just ended up spending the afternoon with her parents at the bakery.

It was her turn to have the apartment to herself as Alya was practically demanding to see Marinette’s new place.

Marinette was tidying up her new sewing room--she decided to use the office space for her sewing--when she heard a knock at the front door.

Opening the door, she saw Alya standing there practically bouncing with excitement.

“Marinette!” The brunette jumped onto Marinette and gave her a hug. “It’s been too long!”

Marinette laughed, hugging Alya back. “It’s only been a week.”

“Exactly. Too long.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Marinette shook her head as Alya walked in and set down her purse on the island.

“Not ridiculous. Excitable.”

Alya examined the fairly large apartment, walking over to the living room. Alya picked up one of the picture frames that Marinette had placed down. Marinette followed, looking over Alya’s shoulder and saw that she had picked up the picture of a Ladybug on a green flower.

Marinette smiled as Alya put it down. The photo just seemed like a regular picture to anyone, but for her and Chat it was a little nod to their identities.

“This place looks really nice. How on earth are you affording this?” Alya asked, turning to face Marinette.

Marinette nervously laughed, trying to think up an excuse. It was times like this she wished that she didn’t have to keep secrets to keep her friends safe. “My roommate knows the owner of the building and they worked out some deal, so we got the apartment at a nice price.”

Alya nodded, accepting the answer. “This must be some roommate if they’ve got connections like that.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty awesome.” Marinette sighed, thinking of Chat.

She wondered what he was doing right about now since it was the middle of the afternoon, and he couldn’t be at the apartment. It had been something she found that she was always thinking about ever since they moved in together. Shaking out the thoughts of Chat, Marinette turned back towards Alya.

Her best friend was giving her a suspicious smirk that Marinette couldn’t quite place.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing. I can’t wait to meet this super special roommate. He really seems like something,” Alya said, the smirk still on her face.

Marinette shivered, thinking about the trouble Chat’s civilian self might get into with Alya. They were already mischievous as it was when they were heroes back in collége, who knows what they would do.

“Ah, you probably may not see him around much. We have pretty different schedules, so I don’t see him much as it is.” Marinette let out a soft chuckle. “Hey! Let me show you my side of the apartment!”

Marinette dragged Alya to the hallway on the right, but a thud from the balcony stopped her in their tracks.

Turning towards the balcony, Marinette saw a blur of black before it quickly disappeared.

“What was that?” Alya freed herself from Marinette’s grasp and walked over to the balcony.

Marinette followed her onto the balcony.

“Is that Chat Noir?” Alya pointed to a fast-moving blur on the rooves. Marinette nodded, recognizing her partner from this distance. “I wonder if he’s going to that new apartment the mayor got the heroes. But why is he in such a hurry?”

Marinette turned to look in the direction that Chat had just come from only to see a large purple blob moving towards them.

“I think that might be why.”

Alya’s eyes widened as she spotted the akuma.

“Hey, Mari, I’m gonna have to take a rain check. See ya!”

With that Alya ran out of the apartment, phone in hand ready to record.

Marinette shook her head at her best friend. Despite how much they’ve grown, she was still the same person.

“Tikki, spots on!”

----

CN: Movie night?

Marinette considered the text. It wasn’t like Chat and her hadn’t been in the same room before, but the thought of being in the same room as Chat for at least an hour seemed like a weird concept to her. But it definitely didn’t sound unpleasant.

LB: What movie?

CN: You pick

Marinette hummed. It didn’t seem like a bad idea. Plus she was likely going to watch a movie by herself, so might as well have someone to watch with.

LB: Sure

Grabbing her mask and a couple of blankets, Marinette made her way to their living room.

Chat was already there along with a mountain of blankets and two medium-sized bowls of what she assumed was popcorn. Her kitty had the biggest of grins on his face, and when he spotted her he patted a spot on the couch where the pillows created a hole for someone to sit. The T.V. was already opened to the Netflix search.

Once Marinette had settled herself into the spot, Chat handed her one of the bowls of popcorn and the remote. Glancing down at the bowl of popcorn, Marinette noticed that there was a bunch of M&Ms and hardened chocolate syrup all over the popcorn.

“Omg, Chat, did you make all this?”

Chat nodded excitedly. “My mom and I used to make it all the time when I was younger. I thought you might like it.”

Marinette smiled back. “It looks great. Thank you, Chat. But how’d you know that I would say yes?”

“So what are we watching, my lady?” Marinette glared at his obvious change of topic but proceeded to find her favorite movie on the streaming service.

Clicking on the movie, she clicked play and settled back into the couch.

“Mirror, Mirror?” Chat asked.

“Yup. It’s a fantastic take on Snow White, and the costumes are just to die for,” Marinette said, popping some popcorn into her mouth. “Now hush, it’s starting.”

--

Marinette groaned, snuggling up closer to the wall next to her as a finger poked into her side. The wall chuckled, and the poking shifted into a slight shake.

“My lady…” a voice whispered near her ear. “My lady, the movie’s over.”

Slowly opening her eyes, Marinette saw that the movie credits were rolling, and some Netflix recommendations were showing on the screen.

She looked over to where Chat was and realized somehow during the movie, she had snuggled up right next to him.

She jumped up off the couch, a blush forming on her cheeks. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry for falling asleep on you!”

“You’re good my lady.” Chat grinned. “You were right, the movie was great.”

“Uh yeah, I’m glad it enjoyed you.” Marinette shook her head. “I mean you enjoyed it. Anyways have a good night!”

As quickly as she could with her blanket, Marinette ran into her room, not daring to look back at Chat.

----

Marinette and Nino laughed as Alya slapped Adrien’s hand away from her fries. Adrien pouted but leaned back in his seat beside Nino.

“That’s what you get, you fry snatcher,” Alya reprimanded, holding a fry to emphasize her point.

Marinette couldn’t help but break out into laughter again. She missed spending time with her friends like this. The four of them had all started university at different schools this year, and it was hard for them to meet up. It just so happened that all of them had the afternoon free, so they planned to get lunch together and walk back to Marinette’s place.

Aside from Adrien stealing Alya’s fries, the afternoon consisted of the four of them sharing university stories.

They had already paid for their food and were waiting on Alya to finish so they could walk over to Marinette’s place to watch movies or maybe play some video games.

“There, all done. Now there are no more fries for you to steal.”

Adrien stuck out his tongue, causing Alya to sick out hers.

“Children, children, let us go so you can continue your childish games later,” Marinette said in an obnoxious accent.

“Pfft. What was that?” Alya asked, laughing.

“That was called a sophisticated voice, something you clearly know nothing about.”

Nino shook his head, standing up from the table. “You all are crazy.”

“If we’re crazy, then what are you? Cause you aren’t sane that’s for sure,” Alya teased.

“I’m saner than you.” Nino poked Alya’s nose with his finger and led them all out of the restaurant.

--

The walk to Marinette’s apartment building didn’t take that long. In fact, if Marinette didn’t know better, Adrien looked a little pale as their group entered the building.

“Hey, dude, don’t you live here?” Nino asked while they waited for the elevator to come down.

“Yeah, top floor.” Adrien flashed one of his model smiles, which meant something was bugging him, but Marinette couldn’t fathom what.

“I live on the top floor too. I didn’t know you moved into an apartment.”

The elevator doors opened, and Marinette clicked her floor.

“Yeah, turns out my dad owned this building, and I figured I might as well move into one of the apartments,” Adrien explained, scratching behind his head.

Adrien was lying. He had to be. The mayor of Paris owned this building. But why on earth would Adrien be lying about something like that? It didn’t make sense.

“Oh, uh, that’s neat.”

Thankfully they reached the top floor before Marinette could confront Adrien. He probably just didn’t want them to think he was wasting his money. Yeah, that had to be it. She didn’t know how much these apartments cost, but she figured it had to be a whole lot.

“You know Marinette has this hot roommate. From what I hear, he’s quite some guy,” Alya said to Adrien.

“Alya! You haven’t even met my roommate!”

“Do I have to meet him to know that he’s cute?” At this Nino raised his eyebrow, but Alya waved him off. “Not as cute as you babe.”

“Good.”

“1377. This is me.” Marinette unlocked the door to the apartment and let them in.

“Okay are you guys messing with me?” Marinette turned to see Nino standing in the doorway, looking between Marinette and Adrien.

Adrien himself looked like he was in a state of awe and panic.

“What do you mean?” Marinette scrunched her face together.

“This is Adrien’s apartment.”

“No, it’s no-oh my gosh.” She looked over at Adrien, making eye contact with the blonde. Her eyes widened as she recognized the familiar green eyes of her partner. It suddenly made sense why Adrien had been acting the way he did.

Staring into his eyes, she could see that he was having the same realization that she was. Slowly, Marinette made her way to Adrien, cautiously reaching her hand up to touch his face.

“It’s you,” Marinette gasped, covering her mouth.

“It’s you.” Adrien smiled a real smile, not his fake one.

She hugged him tightly as tears filled her eyes and threatened to fall. Adrien hugged her back just as fiercely, and she could feel his own tears flowing down, causing her own tears to fall.

“This is weird right?”

“Yes, Nino, this is weird.”