#season 1 episode 19 supernova part 1

[unknownfacelessfanfictions]

Part 3: To be near you

Pairing: Commander Tysess x Ophelia (OFC) Fandom: Star Trek Prodigy Words: 3.9K Warnings: SPOILERS for season 1 finale; discussion of death; blood and injuries Summary: A reminder that time is precious A/N: @bigblissandlove1 @akamitrani I believe I've read somewhere that you have not seen Prodigy, but I tagged you anyway, just to be sure. I also know that many people find it uncomfortable to read about animated characters, especially if children watch the show too. If you don't want to betagged in Prodigy stuff, just tell me.

Body Language Masterlist

Red alert.

The constant flashing of the red light hurt his eyes and the shrill wailing of the sirens made his ears ring.

It was over. They had survived it.

For a moment, Tysess allowed himself to close his eyes to take a breath and let the irony of it all sink in. The entirety of Starfleet had been saved, by a bunch of kids who weren't even Federation citizens.

At least, pretty much all of them.

And it was almost destroyed by you, whispered a voice in the back of his head, but he pushed it aside when Janeway addressed him.

"Any sign of the USS Protostar?" Tysess felt his antennae lower and turned to his console. "No, Admiral." Regretfully, he shook his head. "I've tracked their warp signature, but read," he hesitated slightly, the cruelty and harshness of the words not wanting to cross his lips "-no signs of life." Without hesitation, Janeway replied. "Send a search party."

Tysess felt as if he could not agree more. This crew had saved them. Granted, they had brought the ship here, but the massacre had hardly been their fault. But as first officer, he felt obliged to present her with the facts. "But, Admiral, the distance they crossed," he folded his arms behind his back and looked at the screen. "It would take months to scan that many star systems."

Janeway, however, was not swayed and straightened up, her eyes now on him. "That crew just saved Starfleet. If they're out there, I want to know." Tysess nodded and stepped behind her to order the lieutenant to send a message to Starfleet requesting permission for a search party.

All at once, one of the ensigns at the ops console spoke up. "Admiral, damage reports coming in." Janeway turned and settled into her seat. "Report." "Direct hits on decks five, seven and nine, the starboard nacelle is damaged and we have hull breaches on decks ten, thirteen and fourteen, as well as cargo bay three and the engine room, with four dead there, eight injured, five of them seriously."

She continued to enumerate the number of injured and dead, but Tysess heard little more, except the pulse in his ears, which accelerated many times over, within a few moments.

At the same time, however, he felt as if time had stopped. Hull breach in engineering. Four dead. Hull breach in engineering. Four dead. Hull breach in engineering. Four dead. Over and over again these words echoed through his head, followed by another thought. Ophelia was on duty. She could be among them. Ophelia was on duty. She could be among them. His head was too full to think and at the same time empty without any thought.

"Commander? Commander? Tysess!" He snapped out of his trance and stared at Janeway out of wide eyes, who looked at him anxiously. "I'm sorry Admiral, you were saying?" It took vast amounts of strength to force those words out and Janeway seemed to notice as she gestured for him to follow.

In the privacy of her office, she turned instantly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right, Tysess?" He straightened and jutted his chin. "Everything's fine. I apologise, for my lack of presence of mind."

Anyone else would have bought it. Janeway, however, knew him too well. "Nothing is fine. Something is bothering you. Talk to me, please!" Tysess expelled a shaky breath and looked to the floor before answering. " Engineering was hit and had a hull breach." "Yeah, I heard." He took a deep breath. "Ophelia was on shift." Silence. Then-

"You are relieved of duty, Commander." Tysess's head and eyes shot up and he could feel his antennae snap to attention. "Admiral, Starfleet regulations require that-" "I know what regulations require," Janeway interrupted him, crossing her arms behind her back. "However, I also know what it is like to fear for the life of the person you love."

"Admiral, it would be wrong-" "- if you had to continue working even though you are subject to such emotional anguish." Her gaze softened for a split second. "Tysess, you have been awake and on duty for the last twenty-two hours. And even though Andorians are physically superior to humans, even they must realise that at some point enough is enough. Go. That is an order."

He was silent for a few moments, words missing, before he bowed his head slightly. "Very well Admiral." He turned, but paused outside the door to glance behind. "Thank you, Admiral." A thin smile danced on her lips. "I wouldn't know what for. Now go!" This time Tysess didn't hesitate as he walked through the doors, across the bridge to the turbolift and stepped inside. "Deck fifteen."

While Tysess had never had reason to complain about the speed, the turbolift seemed agonisingly slow today. Each deck seemed to take longer to reach and every second he continued to spend in uncertainty about Ophelia's condition drove him mad.

Under other circumstances, he would have found this revelation most intriguing. Although he and Ophelia had known each other for some time, they had been in a romantic relationship together for barely two months.

He wouldn't claim to have much experience with romantic relationships, in fact he had only had two before, but the feelings had never been as strong before, not even after years of being together, as they were now for Ophelia after less than two months. All at once it hit him like a blow. He loved her.

He, Tysess, loved Ophelia Zubira, with all his being, as he had never loved anyone before.

For a few seconds he felt a warmth swell inside him as he realised this. Although they had both made it clear that they were romantically interested in each other and had done things that were common for couples, neither had so far uttered the word 'love'.

Abruptly, his joy fizzled out and horror, disbelief and dread began to grow within him. He loved Ophelia. Ophelia might have been dead.

He would have never been able to tell her how he felt. The fear, which he had been able to suppress for a few moments, returned stronger than ever and Tysess knew that any Andorian would have fled at the sight of his retracted antennae. They knew that every Andorian would not let the death of his mate stand.

The turbolift stopped and as soon as the gap was wide enough to let him through, Tysess slipped out into the corridor and walked with brisk steps towards engineering, which accelerated each time until he was running. He did not care that he was jogging, even sprinting. He didn't care about the astonished looks of the other crew members who had probably never seen him so out of control, however, Ophelia was the only thing that mattered at that moment, the only thing that lived in his head right now.

Only in passing did he notice the damage, which didn't even need a closer inspection to be seen. By now, as he rounded the last corner, his heart was pounding in his chest and the sight before him brought it to an instant halt. The security doors were closed. Engineering had been evacuated. Tysess slowly raised his hand as his nightmare scenario played out before his eyes. Ophelia, locked in the engineering, dying in agony.

He closed his eyes to put the images out of his mind when he heard his name and shot around. For a split second he had hoped, however the voice turned out to be that of an ensign who looked at him. "It's about Lieutenant Commander Zubira."

~**~

She's dead.

Ophelia pulled her legs closer to her body and buried her face in her arms folded over her knees to stifle her sobs as the same scene played over and over before her eyes. When the ships had started firing at each other, she had been in sickbay to repair one of the replicators.

The first hits had shaken the ship and Ophelia had been about to go to engineering to avoid the nurses and doctors, Noum was God knows where, when the next hit had hit the power supply for half the bio-beds. But as these had been needed and Ophelia didn't know what to do anyway, she had set to work and for the next twenty minutes had bitterly fought a battle against the power sources that kept failing before finally winning.

However, all the shaking and spraying of sparks had left her with some scrapes and minor burns, though nothing serious or life-threatening.

However, when Ophelia finally managed to get up to attend to her duties in other areas, the doors had slid aside and three lieutenants, led by Noum, who had apparently finally come down from the bridge, rushed frantically into the room shouting, carrying a person between them.

A person Ophelia knew very well and with whom she got on very well.

Commander Maira Baqri. Chief Engineer of the USS Dauntless, Ophelia's fire chief superior officer and a very good friend. She had been full of joy for life and every time that mischievous smile had appeared behind the yellow hijab, Ophelia knew that what was to come would either be the best experience of her life or a memory she would forever regret.

However, the strong woman, otherwise so full of life and bursting with energy, now lay on the biobed with severe burns and bleeding flesh wounds, while nurses and Noum, scurried around her as the Tellarite barked orders. "Maira." Her voice was only a soft whisper, however she could not bring herself to raise her voice as the lump in her throat knew to prevent it.

The next few minutes were nothing but a blur of movements, colours and shouts and the only thing burned into her memory forever was the long drawn out beeping and the soft cursing of Noum, which he only uttered when his medical skills were once unable to save his patients.

The memories brought tears to her eyes and for a moment she was tempted to wipe her face with her arm, but left it at that. Her arms, more than the rest of her body, were covered with small wounds and hurt a little, but she had refused to have them examined and treated. Noum had protested strongly, but he too had realised that it made more sense to look after more seriously wounded members.

Ophelia sniffled softly and wiped her eyes with her hands, which were also a little scuffed up, making it a little more painful, to wipe away the tears as her eyes fell on the PADD lying next to her on the sofa.

It was still open from this morning and the program to select holoprograms was still open. Ophelia had decided to introduce Tysess to her home in Colombia and had spent the morning searching for suitable and realistic programmes, only to find that none came close to the real thing.

Tysess.

Her sadness changed abruptly to pure fear and horror and a sob escaped her. Tysess had also been on duty, on the bridge, and so far Ophelia had heard nothing from there. That very morning, since Admiral Janeway had been declared unfit for duty, he had said goodbye to her as the highest ranking officer and promised her that they would be back on Earth soon. Now she wasn't even sure if he was still alive.

Ophelia tried to reassure herself by telling herself that she hadn't seen him in sickbay, but it didn't really help. After all, patients could still have been brought in, or his body could be lying cold and lifeless on the floor in a corridor.

Cold sweat of fear spread over her body and she jumped up. She didn't care if she had to tear the whole ship apart, but she would find Tysess.

Alive.

Ophelia didn't even bother to put on her shoes and ran over to the door on her socks, opened it by pressing a button on the panel next to it, and cried out softly.

Standing in front of her, breathless and filthy, sweaty with a small scrape on his cheekbone but otherwise unharmed, was Tysess, who had raised his arm to open her door with the code she had given him. For a split second they stared at each other in shock before realisation set in.

"Oh God!" Ophelia sobbed out, wrapping her arms around Tysess, who had rushed over to her in an instant and was holding her tightly against him, his arms wrapped around her waist, body pressed tightly against body, nose buried in her hair. "You're alive, oh God you're alive," Ophelia sobbed softly and felt them stagger into their quarters, the doors closing behind them.

She sobbed into his shoulder, which didn't seem to bother the Andorian as he continued to run his hands up and down her back and through her hair.

"I thought you were dead," he murmured and she could hear his voice almost breaking with tears. "When they said that engineering had been hit, I thought-" His voice broke off and Ophelia sobbed out again, pressing herself tighter against him. "I was so scared. The possibility of losing you too, after-"

Her voice broke off and her crying intensified before Tysess led her to the sofa so they could drop down, still pressed close together. Tears of sadness, anger, fear and relief streamed down her face onto his uniform top, yet he didn't care and just pulled her closer, pressing kisses to her forehead and just being there while Ophelia cried the sorrow of the last few hours from her soul.

"Maira is dead," she choked out after a while. "They brought her in and...and...there was blood everywhere and I...I couldn't do anything...I...I just stood there and wa...watched her die..." Another volley of sobs shook through her and Tysess pressed his forehead against hers. "It's not your fault." His voice was strained and Ophelia felt more than saw his antennae, which had dug into her hair earlier, twitch. "If anyone is to blame, it is me."

Through tears, she looked up at him in confusion. "Tysess, of what..." "It was I who gave the order to take the call. The call that ultimately subdued the entire ship and nearly sent it to its doom. I am the one to blame for the death, of every single crew member. I-"

His voice trailed off and with shock Ophelia watched as silent tears rolled down the usually composed Commander's cheeks. "It's my fault...mine alone...Please...forgive me... I'm sorry..." He broke off and sobbed quietly, making it Ophelia's job now to pull him close and, even with a tear-stained face, gently run her hands through his hair, careful not to touch his antennae.

"It's not your fault, Motema nangai. Anyone would have done the same in your place. You are not to blame."

Tysess shook his head silently before looking up. "I would never have forgiven myself if anything had happened to you. If you had died, I would have..." He did not finish his sentence, yet he did not have to. Ophelia knew what he meant and pulled him close again. "It's okay.... It'll be alright, Tysess."

"No," he pulled her to him so that she was almost sitting on his lap. "I would never have forgiven myself if you had died without me being able to tell you how much you mean to me, how much I cherish you and praise your presence."

Still with tears in her eyes, she looked up at him and smiled slightly. "You don't have to." For the first time in fifteen minutes, he broke away from her, only to frame her face with his hands. "Yes, I do have to. Because just the thought that one of us could die without you knowing how much I love you... It breaks my heart."

Ophelia's breath caught and for a moment all sadness and fear were forgotten. "You mean it? That you love me?" With a calf-eyed smile he looked down at her and rested his forehead against hers. "How could I not? You are wonderful, kind, beautiful, intelligent, funny, and so much more than I ever hoped or dared to dream. In all my life I have never loved a person so much and it scares me."

Ophelia laughed a tearful laugh and put her hands to his cheeks. "Then let us be afraid together, mi amor. Let us fear this love together."

His eyes widened. "You too?" She smiled and felt tears well up in her eyes again. "Like crazy." For the first time he smiled a wide, if too equally gentle, smile and leaned down slightly to kiss her. It was a long, intimate kiss, which told of the pain, fear and sorrow of the past hours, however, it was what they needed.

When they broke away, admittedly a little out of breath, they leaned their foreheads against each other for a few moments and could each feel the other's breath on their face.

"Will it always be like this now?" Ophelia's voice was low and barely audible, though she knew Tysess had heard her. He always heard her. "Will we only spend our time in service worrying about each other? Having to worry about the other getting hurt? Or even worse?"

He sighed slowly and moved away from her face just enough so they could look into each other's eyes. "Yes. But at the same time it means that in any situation we know that there is at least one person on this ship worth fighting on for. When we come back, wounded and injured there will be someone to tend to our little aches and pains. And even if one day, though I hope not, we have to hand over the other's coffin to the family, we can live with the certainty of savouring every moment. Because that's what I intend to do. To savour every moment with you" He looked up. "Are you in?"

For a few seconds she just looked at him, contemplating his face. Elongated shape with a pointed chin, sky-blue skin, eyelids dabbed with purple paint and pale lilac-grey eyes that looked at her with such love as she was not used to from people outside her family. Ophelia smiled softly. "Yes."

~**~

The next day, Ophelia and Tysess stood side by side in the shuttle hangar and looked at the coffins lined up in front of them. The previous evening, after some time, Tysess had broken away from her to fetch the first aid kit from her bathroom and, as promised, had dressed her wounds.

The rest of the evening consisted of lying in each other's arms and letting out the grief and fear in the form of tears, so that now there were no tears left to shed.

During the memorial service, Tysess held Ophelia's hand tightly in his and only let it go once during the whole two hours of listening to speeches, when Ophelia gave her speech for Maira.

She was nervous and grieving, however, she brought out the words she wanted to get rid of in a way that was worthy of Maira. In the end, she turned to Maira's coffin, only temporarily, as her faith demanded to be buried without a coffin, and gently placed a sunflower wreath on it, which she had woven herself that morning.

They were Maira's favourite flowers and she had loved it when Ophelia had made her a wreath out of them.

Like a queen's crown.

"May you find your peace, dear friend," was all she could whisper before she fled back to Tysess, who held her in his arms. Discretion no longer interested him, nor did some of the astonished looks they received.

At the end, Janeway stepped forward and gave her farewell speech, which brought tears to Ophelia's eyes again and Tysess pulled her closer. Together, after Janeway stepped aside, they watched as the coffins were carefully placed in transporters and then flown out into space to be delivered to the families of the deceased.

Gradually the gathering dispersed until only a few were left. Noum stepped briefly towards Ophelia, who was still standing there nestled against Tysess, and spoke briefly to her before he too took his leave.

"Do you want to go?" Tysess's voice was calm and composed, grounding Ophelia somewhat, at least enough for her to nod. Before they finally left, however, Ophelia was held back by the call of her name. She turned and saw Admiral Janeway coming towards her. Ophelia gave Tysess an assuring look, whereupon he let go of her and stepped back a little, but remained just within earshot.

"Admiral." "Lieutenant Commander Zubira. I wanted to offer my condolences once again. I understand you and Commander Baqri were close." Ophelia felt another lump forming in her throat. "Very close, ma'am." Janeway sighed slightly. "If it were up to me, I would like to postpone the whole thing and give you time to grieve, however, regulations require that I do so as soon as possible." "Admiral?"

Janeway raised her hand, silencing Ophelia before standing up at attention, prompting Ophelia to do the same.

"Lieutenant Commander Ophelia Celeste Zubira. You have served Starfleet for several years now and have proven yourself to be a trustworthy, responsible and talented officer. We have suffered many losses, including our Chief Engineer, who will be sorely missed by us all. Nevertheless, I cannot leave this post vacant." Janeway reached into the pocket of her uniform and pulled out a gold pin, causing Ophelia's eyes to widen.

"I am aware that the circumstances are not ideal and under others this would have been done in the presence of the other bridge officers, however that is almost impossible at the moment. Yet, I have a feeling that the most important ones are here."

Janeway's gaze flew to Tysess who was looking at Ophelia proudly and full of love at the same time. "Lieutenant Commander Zubira. It is my honour and my greatest pleasure to hereby promote you to the rank of Commander and Chief Engineer of the USS Dauntless. Do you accept the promotion?"

Ophelia's breath stopped as she looked wide-eyed at the gold pin in the Admiral's palm. She was torn. For one thing, this had always been her biggest tram. Being Chief Engineer had been the reason for her to join Starfleet and if that meant getting promoted, she wouldn't fight it.

On the other hand, it felt wrong somehow, like she was trying to replace Maira.

Her gaze flew to Tysess, who looked at her encouragingly, as if to say 'Whatever you want, I've got your back' and had to smile. No, she would never be able to replace Maira. Nor did she want to. However, she could uphold the reputation of her best friend and ensure that the ship she had loved so much could be in the best condition possible.

"I would be honoured, Admiral." Janeway smiled at her and took the blank Lieutenant Commander pin from Ophelia's collar, but paused and held the new, gold one out to Tysess then.

"Commander, would you care to do the honours?" For a moment Tysess looked surprised, but quickly stepped towards her and took the pin in his hand. His eyes fell on Ophelia and that one look said more about his feelings than words ever could.

"It is my privilege to promote you to Commander." Gently, he pinned the pin to her collar, smoothed out her uniform and took a step back, pride flashing in his eyes. "You deserve it."

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@indignantlemur

[js337]

It's the end of the year and my goal of "watch 10 new things every month" was... almost successful. I'd say it was, because December is the only month where I didn't make it (I watched my 5th thing for the month last night) but given how busy I was, I think that's okay. The only thing I'm bummed about is that there's a few shows I started that I didn't get to finish in time.

This is more for myself, but if for some reason anyone's interested, under the cut I'm gonna put everything I watched this year:

(Shows with a season number before them means I watched all previous seasons already and am now caught up. Shows with a season number after them means I've only watched up to that season and still need to see the rest. No season numbers means I watched it all this year. Anything with an asterisk means I started watching it but haven't finished yet.)

Movies:

The Half of It

Pandora

Bill and Ted Face the Music

Leave No Trace

Gifted

The Accidental Husband

Brokeback Mountain

Room

The Sea Beast

Forgotten

Fall

Life

Adam (2009)

Another Round

The Shape of Water

Supernova

Polar

Bird Box

World War Z

It Follows

Nimona

Eternal Summer (2006)

Nightcrawler

The Perfection

Get Out

Magic Mike

Orbiter 9

I See You (2019)

Annihilation

The Guilty (2021)

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Your Place or Mine

Non-Stop

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Violent Night

Fanfic

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

TV Shows:

Season 3 of Love, Death & Robots

Quicksand

Echoes

Season 5 of Z Nation

Tales of the Walking Dead

Season 4 of You

My Name

The Last of Us

Kim’s Convenience

Beef

Nailed It! (Season 4)

Seasons 5 and 6 of Private Practice

Season 19 of Grey’s Anatomy

Cabinet of Curiosities*

Hannibal

The Ingenuity of the Househusband

Leopard Skin

Season 6 of Black Mirror

The Walking Dead: Dead City

The Haunting of Hill House*

Dark Tourist

Loki (Season 1)

Season 2 of Good Omens

Season 2 of Heartstopper

Superstore (Seasons 1- 5)*

Feel Good

The Good Place (Season 1)

The Mind, Explained (Season 1)

Inside Man (2022)

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon*

Anime:

Blue Period

Season 2 of Komi Can’t Communicate

Bubble

The final two parts of Attack on Titan

Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll

A Silent Voice

Attack on Titan: Lost Girls

Summer Ghost

Given - On the Other Hand OVA

The Stranger by the Shore

I've Always Liked You

Children of the Sea

Your Name

Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen 0

Link Click (Season 1) + Episode 5.5

Girls' Last Tour*

She and Her Cat: Everything Flows*

The House of Small Cubes

Mushi-shi: The Shadow that Devours the Sun

Other:

Ashley Gavin: Live in Chicago

Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Matteo Lane: Hair Plugs and Heartache

Mark Normand: Soup to Nuts

Tom Segura: Sledgehammer

[inthehausofholbein]

for the character ask thingy: i wanna say ludmi and naty (you know me) but if they've already been sent then ill go with angie maybe? :O

hmm i have a slight feeling about who this is but i cant quite put my finger on why

“why not ✨all three✨?”, my ambitious self says (also no number 10 bc i just don’t wanna answer and no number 6 bc i think i would just say yeah sure)

also this is three characters and i am a very ramble-y person, so, “keep reading”:

~ Ludmila ~

First impression of them

“She is a bitch, I am going to love her”, but also, “She is such a stereotype and will annoy the fuck out of me”.

Current impression of them

I don’t think I have or ever will connect to and love a fictional character more than her (and Ámbar from Soy Luna, but they’re very similar character archetypes). There’s just so much I love about her: her sassy attitude (more in s2 & 3, really) and how the writers still kept it as an integral part of her personality post-redemption, her extreme love for astronomy, Mechi and her talent in general, and most especially her redemption arc. Her complexity in season 3 especially is too good for this dumb (half affectionate and derogatory) show. This stupid (very affectionate) girl is so special to me.

Least favourite thing about them

As a character, how little of a character she was in season 1. The writers had nothing going on for her besides the dramatic and bratty mean girl stereotype.

As a person, obviously how terrible she was in s1 and 2. That girl did some fucked up stuff that include (but aren’t limited to): putting strawberries in Vilu’s drink bc she thought Vilu was allergic but ended up sending León to the hospital, treating her best friend like an inferior for several years and literally breaking her leg by sending a skateboard flying her way, and teaming up with Diego for a whole year to manipulate Vilu and break her heart by the end of the it and then blackmailing Diego when he said he had feelings for Violetta and didn’t want to continue with the plan (this might be wrong but my memory’s a little foggy).

I love this girl, but she did some horrible things.

Random headcanon

Post-redemption, she’s always trying to prove to everyone, especially Naty, that she’s a better person even if they tell her they know. Idk, I feel like her past is not something for her that’s easy to let go and she’s constantly worried that she’ll either “turn” mean again or people will dislike her again (that last point highlighting her fear of rejection Priscila put on her). She also has a hard time showing emotions to most people since she basically had to repress a lot of feelings bc of Priscila just being Priscila.

Uhh, that’s quite angsty, so I’ll just say that she and Naty stay with each other for the rest of their lives bc I need that hehe.

Favourite crack ship

Well... *chuckles* well...

Okay, it’s Luty, I’ve been going crazy over them lately. Even though she was inexcusably mean to Naty, I love how she secretly cared for her when she was and how affectionate towards her she was in most of s3. This girl loves her a lot but is an idiot and doesn’t know how to show it. <3

Random fact about them

She surely needs therapy after 19 years of enduring Priscila.

A song you that reminds you of them

I mean, I have a whole playlist. It’s not finished, but yeah. Though, If I had to pick one, Supernova by Jonas Blue, Charlotte OC, and Dark Heart. Come on, it’s in the name. I also think this could be about her state of mind by the time season 3 rolls around (i love angst too much).

Unpopular opinion

I don’t think there’s really an opinion in this fandom about her that is really unpopular, but I’ll just say that I don’t like how they made her a jealous girlfriend in one of the episodes in s3 where Germán and Priscila took her and Vilu to Spain. It really feels like they just wanted cheap drama and that was the first trope they thought of.

~ Natalia ~

First impression of them

“Baby, get out of there. Get away from Ludmi.”

Current impression of them

I definitely did not expect her to be as complex as she is. First of all, she is a cutie and I love how chaotic (the acting direction is very questionable, to say the least, in s1 especially) and adorable this girl is, but second of all, her storyline with leaving that toxic friendship but not completely because she cares a lot for Ludmila is- Also her telling Ludmi that "I wish I could hate you the way others do, but I can’t because I love you” but still expecting to be treated better is- HOLY CRAP

Show me the competent writers who wrote Naty and Ludmi’s arcs because, again, these two are too good and complex for this stupid show.

Least favourite thing about them

I hate how insecure she is about herself and how she just settles with Ludmi’s mistreatment of her in s1 :( 

Random headcanon

She found out she liked girls when she was quite young and didn’t tell anyone but her family for years.

Favourite crack ship

OhOhO.

Luty. This idiot has been in love with her best friend for forever. Just how she cares for Ludmi even if she was mean, realized that she can’t hate her no matter how much she tries, and still likes to be around her while still knowing she doesn’t deserve to be treated inferior. Also in season 3 when she (aside from Germán) was the only one to believe Ludmi immediately when she said she didn’t push Vilu down the stairs and when she encouraged her to go to studio despite Ludmi not wanting to, assured her no one hates her, and is very sensual with her when everyone else was apologizing- 🥺😭 It gets me every time.

Random fact about them

She seems like she has some form of anxiety, especially season 1 and before.

A song you that reminds you of them

We tend to associate Naty with sunshines and rainbows, but this sad bitch will say Birdie by Avril Lavigne. Look me in the eye and tell me it’s not her breaking away from her toxic friendship with Ludmila (also the “how can i avoid the flames from your fire?” line matches with the “shine bright like the fires that burned ya” line of Supernova and idk, that’s cool ig).

Unpopular opinion

I don’t ship her and Maxi, I guess. Though I find some of their romantic scenes cute, I like them better as friends.

~ Angie ~

First impression of them

The first time I saw her was in Caitlin Mckillop’s Violetta 2 Song Ranking video and I hadn’t watched the show at the time and therefore didn’t know Angie and Vilu were blood-related, so when it got to the clip of Algo se Enciende (when Angie was leaving), I literally thought Vilu was her favorite student and that’s why she hugged her the tightest out of the kids instead of Vilu being her niece. 🙃👐

But the first time I watched the show (ep 1), I thought she was one of the most gorgeous people i ever saw pretty sweet, though also an idiot (affectionate).

Current impression of them

I don’t have much to say about her as Ludmila and Natalia, but just know that I love her and think she deserves much much better. :)

Least favourite thing about them

I hate how she just settles for Germán, because that man never treated her right :(

Random headcanon

Jackie was her first crush and that’s what made their breakup hurt even more. (There is a fic on ao3 that’s about those two and how they dated before and yeah.)

Favourite crack ship

Pablo and Angie is my favorite Angie ship, but it’s not really a crack ship, per say. Although I don’t ship it completely, this Tumblr Violetta fandom has opened my eyes to the possibility of Angie and Jade and... the more I think about them, I get more and more intrigued??

Random fact about them

She only said yes to Germán in the finale because she was put on the spot in front of a whole crowd of people and didn’t want to ruin the good vibes of the show. It’s canon, it just is.

A song you that reminds you of them

All Too Well by Taylor Swift and Towers by Little Mix. (yes, this is Germangie related. i feel like we always associate angsty songs with Angie but hey, there’s no one else to blame but the writers :))

Unpopular opinion

Idk how unpopular this is, but although Germán should’ve recognized Angie and definitely should have backed off from her, she was partly to blame for... falling for her brother-in-law that she knew was her brother-in-law...

[aion-rsa]

How Star Trek: Discovery Fulfills Spock’s Franchise Legacy

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains MAJOR spoilers for “Unification III,” and spoilers for Picard.

Michael Burnham has returned to her home planet Vulcan in an attempt to recover some data from a Vulcan and Romulan alliance she never thought was even possible. If this sounds like the beginning of an epic title crawl in a Star Wars movie, you’re not far off. In Discovery Season 3, Episode 7, “Unification III,” the Trek franchise has delivered one of its most epic and generation-spanning episodes in a very long time. We always knew Star Trek: Discovery’s status as both a prequel and a sequel to TOS and TNG was tricky, but for fans everywhere, it was hard to believe these time-jumping tricks could ever result in an episode this heartfelt and straight-up cool.

And yet, if the USS Discovery’s visit to the planet Ni’Var had you scratching your head, or running to Google to figure out how everything fits in, there are a few very logical answers to what’s going on here. But, that doesn’t mean these answers are simple. When there’s this much time travel involved – plus multiple, specific Star Trek shows and movies — it’s bound to get a little complicated. Let’s untangle the Vulcan-Romulan web, shall we?

Is “Unification III” a sequel to The Next Generation episodes “Unification I” and “Unification II”? 

Short answer: Yes! In 1991, during  Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, the two-part episode “Unification” featured the return of Leonard Nimoy as live-action Spock to the small screen for the first time since The Original Series. And, not counting archive footage in DS9‘s “Trials and Tribble-ations,” prior to Discovery, this TNG two-parter was the only appearance of Spock on a Trek TV series after the end of The Animated Series in 1974.

In 1991, Nimoy’s Spock was strictly relegated to appearing in the Trek feature films, and in fact, his final performance as Spock, was also in 1991, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Because Nimoy co-developed the story for The Undiscovered Country, he felt strongly about promoting the film through a crossover on TNG. This is why Spock gives a speech to Picard about committing Captain Kirk to a peace mission in “Unification II.” At the time, Nimoy and the Trek franchise were giving a small preview of what was going to happen in The Undiscovered Country, which was, arguably, the origin of Spock’s journey to becoming an ambassador. (Something that is funny that people forget, is that at the time this episode aired, there was a rumor that Captain Kirk would die in The Undiscovered Country. And nothing Spock says in “Unification II” confirms or denies that!)

So, what does that have to do with the Romulans? Well, if it’s been a while since you’ve seen “Unification I and II” the story is all about Picard and Data trying to track down Spock after the Federation believes he’s gone rogue. This is why Discovery, the Vulcan president, says Spock “left” the Federation. He did! Of course, he didn’t leave it to defect. He left it to live on Romulus and help bring together the Vulcans and the Romulans. 

Wait. Didn’t Spock leave Romulus — before it blew-up — and travel back in time and meet Chris Pine?

Yes! Old Spock did leave Romulus and, eventually die in the past of an alternate dimension. In Discovery, Admiral Vance says that the reunification of Vulcans and Romulans “took centuries after [Spock’s] death.” This, however, is a presumed death. As far as Vance knows, Spock died sometime in 2387, trying to pilot his experimental ship, the Jellyfish, to use red matter to stop the Romulan supernova. In Star Trek 2009, Spock tells Kirk (Pine) — via mind-meld — that he promised the Romulans that he would try to save their planet. Presumably, Spock had been living on Romulus this entire time. In other words, Spock started living on Romulus in 2368 (TNG) and flew his red matter spaceship to try and save them in 2387 (flash “backs” in Star Trek 2009). So, this means that in just 19-years, Spock’s teaching made a big enough difference to eventually get the Vulcans and the Romulans to hang-out together sometime before the events of 3188. 

When did the planet Vulcan become Ni’Var?

It’s not exactly clear. We know that Ni’Var left the Federation 100 years prior to 3188, but it seems likely that the integration of Vulcans and Romulans was underway a long time before that happened. Could it have been as early as the 25th century? Sometime after the events of Star Trek: Picard? Maybe. After 2387, we know the Romulans literally don’t have a home, and by 2399 (Picard Season 1) there’s a loose government called The Romulan Free State. That said, several parts of Romulan culture seem more open to peace simply because things aren’t going so great. Could the Romulan emigration to the planet have happened sometime fairly quickly after Picard Season 1? It’s possible! In fact, considering we see the Romulan Qowat Milat order in “Unification III,” it feels possible that Picard Season 2 could show us the beginnings of the planet Vulcan becoming “Ni’Var.” Then again, it’s also possible this whole Ni’Var business didn’t start until several centuries after Picard, too. There are 930 years between Discovery Season 2 and Discovery Season 3. But, that’s still 789 years between Picard and Discovery Season 3. A lot could have happened.

Okay, how the hell does this recording of Spock even exist?

IRL, we totally understand where Michael’s brief Spock clip comes from. It’s from “Unification II,” and it’s Spock talking to Picard. But, in-universe, why does this holographic recording exist? There’s really only one answer: Picard must have been recording Spock nearly the entire time they were on the mission. The speech Michael Burnham views is (mostly) from the very end of “Unification II,” in which Spock says: “The union of the Vulcan and Romulan people will not be achieved by politics diplomacy will not be achieved by politics or diplomacy — but it will be achieved.” Spock says this to Picard, while Data is watching. So, it feels possible that Data was recording the entire conversation for the purposes of the mission. After all, Picard and Data were on a covert mission for Starfleet, meaning it isn’t insane that they would have recorded it. When Burnham accesses the file, the computer says “coordinates redacted” but also that it’s from the personal files of “Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.” So, Picard is the source, the coordinates were the planet Romulus, and somehow Picard recorded this convo, maybe with Data’s help, or maybe some other way.

There is one small wrinkle in all of that. The first part of the speech that Michael listens to actually happens in a different part of “Unification II” than the second. When Spock says “closed minds have kept these two worlds apart,” this happens way earlier in the episode when, still dressed as a Romulan, Picard and Spock have some soup together. So, this recording is actually two recordings from Picard during his covert mission, which means Data as the primary holographic recording device is probably out since Data wasn’t there during the Picard-Spock soup debate. 

This leaves only two explanations: Picard had a secret recording device on his person, that allowed all of his convos with Spock to be stored and recorded. But there’s a more fun answer.

Picard is an android now—remember? 

At the end of Star Trek: Picard Season 1, all of Jean-Luc Picard’s memories are transferred into a new Synth body, meaning, effectively, Picard’s memories have now been stored using technology. This fact actually creates a pretty easy way for a holographic file of Picard’s eyewitness memory to exist. He wasn’t recording anything at the time with technology, but later, at some point, Picard pulled out a few memories from his new robot brain and turned those into holographic recordings. Considering all the stuff that Picard has seen and his interest in preserving history, this feels legit. Jean-Luc Picard would totally turn his actual memories into curated holographic recordings. And he might do it for the very reason Burnham accesses the files in Discovery. Picard, like Spock, wanted the truth to survive. Even if it meant pulling those memories out of his robot brain, and copying them onto a 25th-century memory stick.

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is streaming now on CBS All Access.

The post How Star Trek: Discovery Fulfills Spock’s Franchise Legacy appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[svtfoefan1976-blog]

“Without imperfection neither you nor I would exist.”

With this quote from Stephen Hawking is how I hope to deepen the Evil, not evil theme. Specially this season, waves of hatred from the fandom hit the main characters of Star vs the Forces of Evil. Specially because their behaviour was, well..., far from perfect. And created such a story for the villain that we could almost feel pity on her.

Almost...

But imperfection and flaws in every good character was something that was clear since season 1. But on season 3 we had layers on moral dillemmas that made the main characters less likeable.

Daron took the risk and, for me, I got a payback. A late one. Anyway, having guts to conduct a show with a story line that is, in general, well driven, and a gray morality presented on Disney? Just loving it!

Of course, like its characters, season 3 had some flaws. But let’s understand if we should demand characters perfection, when we live in such an imperfect world..., in which we want everyone, including ourselves, to reach perfection.

But we would never be here if it weren’t for a series of imperfections. And how a season that got a huge payback in the end was made of such imperfect and criticized episodes.

Let’s start from the very, very beginning.

I will use two videos to illustrate my explanation.

The first one will be Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - The Story of Everything.

The second one is Origin of Life - How Life Started on Earth from Cosmology Today.

Well, as both are somehow lengthy, I will try my best to guide the minutes in the video to show the extracts in which I based my text. I tried my best to put HTML that worked to show only the extract, but in the end I failed miserably. Sorry...

The Big Bang - “Fortunately there was a bit more matter than antimatter...”

(From Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - The Story of Everything - from 8:32 to 12:43)

The Big Bang? Aren’t you going a bit too far away for this explanation?

Humm... I would like to expose how imperfection molded us from the very beginning.

So, I started from scratch. Real scratch.

And as seen, matter and its opposite counterpart came as result of a big explosion. But matter and antimatter annihilate each other while shocking generating energy and radiation. 

Theoretically, there should have been the same amount of matter and antimatter on the creation of the universe. Therefore, nothing should ever exist, but energy and radiation. Neither this text.

But somehow, there was a bit more matter than antimatter. A billionth part. Something within margin of error. And the universe is made of this small residue. This is the most accepted theory by now, as far as I know.

And this leaves us to our second lucky strike.

Gravity - “Let there be light...”

And there was light. If it were that easy, light would exist since time started to tickle. But it took around 200 million years to the universe become bright. Here is a pearl of wisdom taken from The Lion King.

Pumbaa: Timon?

Timon: Yeah? 

Pumbaa: Ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there? 

Timon: Pumbaa. I don't wonder; I know. 

Pumbaa: Oh. What are they? 

Timon: They're fireflies. Fireflies that uh... got stuck up on that big... bluish-black... thing. 

Pumbaa: Oh. Gee. I always thought that they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away. 

Timon: Pumbaa, wit' you, everything's gas.

Happens that the “pig” is right... But how this happened?

(From Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - The Story of Everything - from 13:41 to 19:47)

Gravity grouped matter in clouds of gas, which later ignited the star.

And now, there is light!

But if all matter was evenly distributed across the universe, again, gravity would not be enough to make matter collapse into stars and make them burn. They would, in fact, do nothing. A slight difference in matter distribution allowed it to become stars. Atom by atom.

Again, a slight difference, another margin of error, led stars to shine.

Earth - from star to rock

This explains the creation of stars but, and the planets?

This is a far longer process, that will only happen at least in a second generation of stars.

What?

Let’s understand how a star works first, so we can understand how planets are born later.

From here

Not you, Star Butterfly. A common star. Later, we’ll come back about the show. Believe me.

From here

(From Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - The Story of Everything - from 24:00 to 29:43) 

So gravity compressed the clouds of gas, composed only of hydrogen, until it was hot enough for nuclear fusion. In this process, hydrogen becomes helium and light and radiation resulted from the process.

So the same process that led stars to shine, also created the first element different from hydrogen, which was the matter created from the Big Bang.

Most of the elements from the periodic table are created by nuclear fusion, as they are heavier than hydrogen and tend sink into the nucleus. Lithium, carbon, oxygen, neon, nitrogen, silicon will be created in the process just by repeating itself again and again.

Until comes iron.

Because iron doesn’t create energy when it fuses, gravity will collapse the star until explodes. Heavier chemical elements, like gold, silver, platinum or lead will be made in this process.

This is the end of a star. A supernova. Luckily, the star not massive enough to become a black hole, by imploding itself, and start to suck matter around it.

And now what?

(From Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - The Story of Everything - from 38:10 to 42:45)

Applying this theory to our solar system, and old supernova has exploded. Now its material is spread throughout space and gravity starts its work again. A cloud of dust is formed and some of its debris will become planets. At its center the star creation process restarts.

Here comes the Sun.

And in another strike of cosmic luck, Earth is just inside the “goldilocks zone” where the amount of light reaching the planet is too close our Sun or too far from it to handle liquid water, which is essential for life to come, according to present theories.

From here

Yes, when we speak about Goldilocks, it’s that Goldilocks, the juvenile delinquent that broke into a bear family house. A girl with some moral flaws...

Anyway, the parallel with the story is what makes Earth perfect for the next step.

Life - “We are made of star dust”

(From Origin of Life - How Life Started on Earth - from 15:31 to 17:22)

It looks like after Earth formation, it would take a long time for it to cool, handle liquid water and begin to form life.

It is a matter of point of view. Human species (Homo sapiens) exists for around 300 thousand years. Planet Earth, for 4,5 billion years.

There are signs of water at least from 4,3 billion years ago.

A long time compared to the time we, humans, are in Earth. Too soon if  compared to Earth’s existence.

(From Origin of Life - How Life Started on Earth - from 17:51 to 22:19)

Life probably started in a warm soup heated, as Darwin thought and later Miller and Urey’s experiment proved that a part of it to be possible. This warm soup could be heated by the sun, as first thought, 

People started fearing a “Frankenstein” test tube, creating life.

(From Origin of Life - How Life Started on Earth - from 22:54 to 26:22)

And there could be life, even in the absence of the Sun light, heated by thermal energy, like a volcano, but under water. With the help of early Earth minerals.

But there is still the DNA formation, the most essential component of life. It looks like a first step of its formation may have happened in space.

Yes, in outer space.

If weren’t enough the planets and its components being made of star dust themselves, some of the main building materials (like DNA components - nucleotides) may have come from chemical that happened in outer space / supernova conditions.

OK. This is the end, my friend. Of this part.

Imperfection - Back to Evil, not evil

And why the hell you needed to do all this entire explanation, link to more than 2 hours of video material, link to a NASA experiment to explain some concept from your mind of Star vs the Forces of Evil?

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? HAVE YOU GONE MAD?

If you mean mad as “very enthusiastic about someone or something”, you’re right. I had already gone mad about this show.

(If you mean mad as “mentally ill”, like having some sort of psychiatric disorder, you may be right too, but this doesn’t matter for this text.)

About Season 3 of our show we could say it was, at least, imperfect.

Rushed pacing, a boastful character, and a slut. We had a lot of reaction (overreaction, in my opinion) this season.

The Evil, not evil concept was kept up to limit for Eclipsa. Even after the season finale, it’s not totally clear if her objective was just to rebuild her family or if there is still some hidden agenda.

From here

And the show once again stretched the limits by fulfilling Starco on a cheating on Booth Buddies...

From here

Anyway, it seems Tom reacted well after knowing it in Conquer...

From here

Brian (Tom’s life coach in past seasons) would give a medal for that kind of reaction...

Episode by episode, things feel very weird. Only in the end things came up to some sort of a solution. Which still has lots of loose points.

Imperfection brought us to here.

Yes, like in our universe, in the show’s universe were their flaws, their imperfections, that carried the plot up to here. As it has always been.

The concept of imperfection, flawful characters, and evil not being really evil when we come closer or having justifications for them permeates the whole show. This concept I called as Evil, not evil in this link.

Remember I based the Evil, not evil concept in the seven deadly sins (cardinal sins)? God is based in what the religion feels as perfection. Curiously, the Universe and Life seem to be based not as a result of a perfect labour, but of imperfection and hazard.

In every of those steps listed above there was danger of not reaching to life as it came on Earth. Not a result of design perfection, but a imperfect design - I would dare to say no design at all.

And in season 3, it seamed every episode that the team was a step closer of losing the pace of the show. But the payoff came. At least for me.

But the show, well, it has a design in which we can discuss how good or bad it is in our opinions. Its imperfect design had a start and is coming to an end, which seems to be on season 4.

About the Universe, well, it has some billions of years ahead. But don’t worry, some billion years before that happens we may be fried, evaporated or frozen in the process. Unless we find a new home, as Marco did.

Way later this show ends.

[andimallouttabubblegum]

It was 20 years ago today…

Album: Be Here Now Band: Oasis Release Date: 21st August 1997 Produced by: Owen Morris and Noel Gallagher Label: Creation

Track Listing: 1.  D’You Know What I Mean? (7:42) 2.  My Big Mouth (5:02) 3.  Magic Pie (7:19) 4.  Stand By Me (5:56) 5.  I Hope, I Think, I Know (4:22) 6.  The Girl In The Dirty Shirt (5:49) 7.  Fade In-Out (6:52) 8.  Don’t Go Away (4:48) 9.  Be Here Now (5:13) 10.  All Around The World (9:21) 11.  It’s Gettin’ Better Man(!!) (7:00) 12.  All Around The World (Reprise) (2:08)

What’s the most hyped you’ve ever been for something? Did you binge watch 6 seasons of Game of Thrones for the new episodes? Perhaps you watched The Avengers a dozen times in the cinema because your favourite Marvel heroes were actually on the big screen together? Or maybe you queued up for the midnight release of one of the latter Harry Potters or Call of Dutys. Well, add all of that together and you get some idea of how much a young James was looking forward to Be Here Now in 1997. So, on the twentieth anniversary of its release, I’ve decided to give it another listen, and to give you my thoughts.

First, just a little bit of background first for those who didn’t experience Britpop in the flesh. I’m not going to do the full history of Oasis or 90s British music, but the release of Definitely Maybe in 1994 had marked out Oasis as something very special, becoming the biggest selling debut album in the UK. Anthemic songs like “Supersonic”, “Cigarettes and Alcohol” and “Live Forever” crossed over to capture a bunch of fans who connected with the Gallagher brothers and the motley crew of Mancunians – if that isn’t too patronising to say! Then, a “feud” with Blur caught the imagination of parts of the media, and the release of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? moved them into the mainstream, going to number 1 in the album charts for 10 full weeks. Although the music press didn’t particularly like it, as Paolo Hewitt said in the sleeve notes “In this town the jury is always rigged but the people know. They always know the truth. Believe. Belief. Beyond. Their morning glory.” This was an album of the people.

The Gallagher boys’ rock star antics (Noel quiting the band and Liam missing the start of an American to buy a house with Patsy Kensit)  just built Oasis’ popularity, and a couple of concerts at Knebworth saw them play to 250,000 fans over 2 days in August 1996. So when it came to the release of Oasis’ third album, Be Here Now, anticipation was at fever pitch. Songs like “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Wonderwall” had become instant classics (still being played by annoying guys at parties to this day), but what could Noel Gallagher produce this time?

The first single from Be Here Now was “D’You Know What I Mean?”, released on 7th July 1997, was a huge number 1, selling 370,000 copies in its first week, one of which was to me. That’s right, this was the first single I ever bought.

“D’You Know What I Mean” is a very good song… that is about three and a half minutes long. It sounds very different from anything that Oasis had done before, yet still had the familiar hallmarks of a big chorus and Beatles references. But mainly, it had an ambition which further fueled my excitement for the upcoming album, which arrived on Thursday 21st August 1997 and was bought by yours truly at about 10am on that day, which for me, in the middle of the school holidays, was a huge achievement.

Obviously, 14 year old me loved the album. I didn’t listen to anything else for weeks. I taped it on cassette to listen to it on my Walkman (look it up in a museum). I learned all words, tried work out which bit of guitar was Johnny Depp (I didn’t know what “slide guitar” was), and bought the follow up singles. I read every review I could find – which were mostly incredibly positive – and couldn’t comprehend why anyone didn’t think it was the best album ever. But…

Over the coming months, I realised there was other music outside Oasis. Actually listening to Blur’s album Blur (released earlier that year) showed that they were never really competing with Oasis, they were on totally different musical levels. I’d originally ignored the Manic Street Preacher’s Everything Must Go even when it won best album at the ’97 Brits, but when I did, it was a revelation. And although I can’t remember for sure, I think it was Urban Hymns, Richard Ashcroft’s masterpiece return with The Verve, that was the first album I listened to after Be Here Now. And although I would argue that each of these contemporary albums are better, the thing that I learned most from listening to them is that an album, even an ambitious one, shouldn’t be 71 minutes long.

It was a strange thing to learn at fourteen that sometimes less is more. Take the second single “Stand By Me”:

Again, it is a very good song. But it is nearly 6 minutes long. And when you are listening to it on the album, you are TWENTY MINUTES into Be Here Now despite it being only the fourth song. There was simply no-one to rein-in the band’s, and specifically Noel Gallagher’s, excesses. There are just loads and loads of guitar laid on top of simple acoustic songs, with no-one in the Oasis camp able (or willing) to tell Noel to ease off. The lyrical content is more meaningless than ever, but that was never really an issue for Oasis, it’s just that the songs collapse with the layers of guitar tracks piled on them. Liam Gallagher does his best on vocals, but it is buried in the mix – although the 2016 remastered version does treat him a bit better. Allegedly “My Big Mouth” has 30 guitar tracks on it. No song should have 30 tracks of anything unless you are making something cosmically groundbreaking. “My Big Mouth” is just a very average rock song.

For a band who had been so Mancunian, so Northern, so British, all of a sudden the tracks are from a different era. While in the past he nicked riffs from bands in the past, it was still in an Oasis style. Now Noel Gallagher’s output sounded like bland, middle of the road soft rock. “Don’t Go Away” is a ballad that owes more to the dreaded American “AoR” radio than their first two, vital-sounding albums. Listening to it now feels very strange, especially when Noel Gallagher’s solo output sounds so different to what he produced on Be Here Now.

And there was just no, for want of a better word, editing. Song after song repeat their choruses and bridges over and over, leading into noodlely guitar outros. “Be Here Now” should be a 2 and half minute punky blast… instead it is over twice that. “The Girl in the Dirty Shirt” should be a brief love song like “Married With Children” from Definitely Maybe or “She Is Love” on Heathen Chemistry. “I Hope, I Think, I Know” is the closest to a normal length song, yet it comes in at 4:22. That first single, “D’You Know What I Mean?” – Noel himself thought that someone would tell him to take two minutes off it. No-one did, so there’s a long intro then a needless backwards bit at the end. It was the first song on the album! It doesn’t need that much of an outro!

And take the second last (proper) song on the album is “All Around The World”, which was the third and final single, is over 9 minutes long. It’s a song that makes “Champagne Supernova” sound restrained and focused.

And then it has a two minute reprise as the last track. For me, “All Around The World” proved that Oasis weren’t The Beatles, they were just a band that sometimes wanted to sound like The Beatles. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s a quote from Noel: “imagine how much better “Hey Jude” would have been with three key changes towards the end.” Oasis genuinely thought they were making an album to put them in with the all-time greats. Instead we got a very long, overblown, overloaded mess of an album. Buried somewhere in there is a 45 minute classic – I think the songs are better than the hungover Standing on the Shoulder of Giants – and if you pick single songs out of it, there are enjoyable to listen to.

But in 2017, as a whole, listening to Be Here Now is a tiring, head battering affair. It’s a testament to excess and… there’s just too much guitar. And coming from me – that is saying something.

(In case anyone thinks for whatever reason I am lying about my love for Oasis and this album on its release, here are my well-worn copies of the album and singles. I genuinely did love it, but it really doesn’t stand up now. It will always have a special meaning for me – like any first love – but the memory is better than reality, like most teenage obsessions!)

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Oasis: Be Here Now Review It was 20 years ago today...