#since they’re actual adults in season 4

[djarinslover]

The women of Korra are so mommy and I’m talking about Lin and Suyin Beifong, Kuvira and Zhu Li

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

something that has bothered me about tua seasons 2-4 is the inconsistency of the relationships between the siblings.

starting with klaus, in season 1 ben and diego were his people. ben and klaus were always shown together in the flashbacks to them as kids and obviously every second of the show because klaus was the only one who could see him. but like… they were CLOSE. SO FUCKING CLOSE. they were the most SIBLINGS of all the siblings.

that continued into season 2. ben was randomly a bit colder towards klaus but they were still so fucking close.

and then ben left, and klaus for the first time was alone without his person. everyone else lost a brother when they were 17, except klaus. so he had to grieve ben for the first time. that didn’t happen, though. there were many nods to them being close, and then of course steve blackman pulled a steve blackman which means weird unnecessary incest implications, but it wasn’t clear just how close klaus and brellie ben were even though it had to be hard to be around someone who looked like ben and was kind of ben but also wasn’t ben.

and with diego, it also seemed like he and klaus were incredibly close. diego older-brothered klaus constantly s1 and they gave off the impression that they ran into each other a lot in the city during the years since leaving the academy.

then they completely disregarded it for the rest of the seasons. in s2 and s3 there a few interactions that could lend credence to this but for the most part it seemed like they threw it out the window.

allison and klaus had no clear relationship in season 1. they had some incredibly minor sibling interactions but nothing that indicated they were anywhere near as close as they imply in season 4. season 2 they were close and then season 3 not a lot of interaction. but s4 makes it seem like they have always been incredibly close which doesn’t make sense!!

five and viktor have a relatively consistent friendship, although s4 doesn’t really give viktor any relationship development with his siblings. same with five, if anything he just gets his relationships destroyed but that’s a different post!!

allison and viktor also are pretty consistently close. the implication is that they weren’t as kids but that they really try to be as adults, and i do like their relationship overall.

luther and allison nasty ew kill it with fire. like i thought we established in s2 that incest is weird actually and that we weren’t doing that and then season 3 came along and whatever whatever shut up.

diego and luther’s relationship is fun. they go from adversaries to himbo besties and it’s relatively consistent.

luther and viktor have similar growth. luther goes from piece of shit basically causing the apocalypse s1 because of how shitty he was to viktor towards really wanting to make things right and being the big brother he always should have been. they didn’t really have a relationship s4 but WHATEVER.

i feel like five and luther were together a lot the first two seasons and that very much changed. i’m not even that upset as i think five having character arcs with each sibling is good since he missed so many years with them (other than him and viktor they were always close and should have remained that way).

i think allison and diego and viktor and diego having relationship development would have been cool. in the comics viktor and diego have a band so we know they’re friends. and in the show allison and diego don’t have too many interactions but the ones they do have are SOOOO SIBLING and i adore that.

ben and viktor have some closeness s3-4 (and the end of s2) but it’s not really something we see, more so we’re just told. and then random flashback to them hanging out as kids before the mission which was confusing.

i think five and klaus were done the dirtiest with the relationship inconsistency. i understand wanting different characters to have arcs with different people, but when you sacrifice the established relationships and basically put your characters on shuffle then you also sacrifice character consistency, development, growth, etc.

i think a big problem is how many characters they brought on last season. there wasn’t time for consistent relationships among the brellies when they had to use a shit ton of time building new characters and relationships (and immediately killing them all off which was A Choice).

anyway just wanted to write out thoughts about this. would love to know other people’s thoughts (or headcanons about the siblings).

[starreyblueberry]

Timmy Turners fate in the new series is one of the most anticipated/theorized aspects of the new show right now. We have multiple easter eggs towards him being a possible character in the new show, and due to the creator saying that Timmys kids could possibly be Cosmo and Wandas next godkids, I don't think Timmy has kids yet (aka the channel chaser ending might be on its way, but not happened just yet.) He is arguably going to either be a huge hit or miss, everyone has different ideas, fates, what he should be, what would be the best conclusion to his character. The lines between real genuine trauma and gags in the old show are blurry, as well as core aspects of his personality. It’s so hard to actually write him as an adult for the new show purely cause what exactly are you going to take from the show that MATTERS. Will you take the lovingness of his parents from season one? or the neglectful spiteful parents they become from season 4. Will you take the horrible grades as him actuallly being bad at school, or crocker failing him on purpose. Will chole even be his best friend? Or is it back to AJ and Chester? Or will his only friends be cosmo and wanda?

We’re Cosmo and Wanda parents to Timmy, or just godparents.

Its already proven that timmys magic somewhat stayed (aka Peris existence, Dale being a millionare, hell even dimsdale/fairy world being intact) If they will acklowdge that? The school mascot being Timmy turner adjacent, past fairy’s seeming to have remembered Timmy (The tooth fairy having a little card of Timmy, Jorgen hanging out w cosmo and Wanda more CAUSE of Timmy’s adventures etc). He’s somehow a crutal part of almost every piece of the show and he’s not even there. I fully believe they’re gonna explain why a lot of Timmy’s wishes have stayed (in my opinion so many of his changes have made the world in general a better place, and he has saved the universe so often undoing his shit would kinda change the whole fabric of space and time, thus making his magic stay, memories are more… iffy.)

I know a huge thing is also the family dynamic, the fact Timmy is their favourite, hell the HALL OF TIMMY!!! The fact they keep a picture of his room in their house, the fact that they reference him sometimes within conversations with hazel. Never actually spoken his name but implied that’s their Timmy (aside from one time) That the reason the world is right now the reason this problem or circumstance or blessing is happening is because of Timmy Turner.

The amount of pure power Timmy has over the show is something crazy, and I do trust the new writers to give us an ending that will satisfy us. He’s been so connected to many people’s childhoods, showing found family at its core. He’s snarky, loud, smart, kind, and more. People want to see him happy, people want to see him with his family. Who you count as his family is up to you. It’s already been semi-confirmed it’s gonna be connected to the channel chasers ending since most of the general audience has said they wished the show ended during that time ( I have my own opions about it but I digress.) It would be super cool if they did their own take, aka any unconventional Timmy future that we haven’t seen as a concept in the OG show. I know many people are rooting for too remember, for them to be united, and I really wish it happens. We also have to remember this is hazels story too, and we’ll be seeing the end of Timmy’s story rather then the middle of it. A special about him would be amazing though, especially if he’s either the hero, or the villain. Idk!!One day I’ll make a full post about every possible future Timmy and my preferences towards which ones, but for now I’ll stick with my analysis of the OG show.

All I know is that Timmy changed Cosmo, Wandas, and Peris life almost more then any other Godkid, and I like to think the show respects the impact he had. Not only as their godkid, but as their first kid to consider true family.

[nburkhardt]

This is something that hasn’t left me since I read a fic from fucking glee years ago. It’s haunting me and goes away only to come back and swirl in my head so I’m just gonna write it out.

Saying this now, i remember a lot of season 4 but I’ve blocked out the Stancy parts hahaha so it’s not completely accurate to the show I don’t think. Also a quick heads up, I skip a lot of what happens in the show because it’s taking up too much brain power remembering those things lol (ps: if you see typos, no you don’t)

~

“I always pictured you, just, wanted to let you know before we head straight into danger”

Something inside of her wants to break and yet all she can do is nod at him and immediately head into that danger. Not wanting to look to closely at it right now, there’s more important things going on right now.

Takes her shotgun and decides she’s ending this once and for all.

It feels like an eternity passes before she finds herself in the hospital. One second she’s ruining her eardrums using the shotgun right next to her face, the next she’s following the emt’s light.

Surprisingly all of them has made it, she doesn’t know how but they have. It’s all she knows, couldn’t hear properly and too out of it to really follow anyone anyway.

“-eler, ms? Hello, Ms. Wheeler? Can you hear me?”

Nancy blinks hard and looks around to find a nurse standing next to her, “oh, sorry. What did you say?”

The nurse smiles softly at her before shaking her head, “I was asking if you wanted to call your parents now? Our generator finally kicked in and we’ve already asked your friends”

That makes her blink again, her ears still somewhat ringing, “yeah- yeah! I’ll, um, do that”

The call with her mom she barely hears, but she knows that they’re on their way. As she hangs up the phone she looks around and doesn’t see any of her friends, it makes her nervous.

“Hey, where are my friends?” She asks the same nurse and catches her surprised look, “did- you already told me didn’t you?”

The nod is enough but the nurse still says, “Yes, two of them got admitted, the other two are in there with them. They didn’t want to be separated so they’re in room 130, just over there”

She knocks once before opening it to find what she expected, Steve in one bed with Robin clinging to him and Eddie on the other with Dustin sitting next to him.

It shouldn’t be surprising but it is.

“Nance! Heyyyyyy, welcome to the party!”

Robin snorts, “don’t mind the Dingus Duo, the doctors gave them some strong medicine for the bites”

She shakes her head, smiling just a little at them. Steve’s mumbling about Robin ruining the party, Dustin’s laughing and Eddie has his eyes closed either falling asleep or already there. She takes a seat on the extra chair, opens her mouth but lost her words. The room is filled with beeping, Steve and Robin whispering and Eddie snoring.

It’s nice, this is nice.

A pleasant change from the chaos they went through just hours ago.

Seeing Jonathan is amazing, he pulls her close and presses a kiss to her forehead. Her arms are wrapped around him and she can’t stop the tears from falling even if it’s a happy moment.

Because it is, actually seeing him in person and not just hearing his voice.

He holds her close and it feels great, it does. But there’s Steve’s words echoing in her head. It makes her hide her face in hopes to cancel them out, she’s with her boyfriend. The boy she loves with all her heart, and yet, yet she’s thinking of the one she broke at sixteen.

Those words swirl, rattle and settles in her head as she helps fix the cabin up. They burn when Jonathan jokes about Steve being in charge, she huffs a laugh but disagrees.

She sees the confusion on Jonathan’s face. That doesn’t surprise her. Instead of continuing, they’re interrupted.

Seeing Joyce and all of the Byers reunite brightens the moment of confusion, seeing Hopper is a massive shock but a welcomed one.

Fixing the cabin is a process, but with the actual adults back, they decide to stop for the day and make their way home.

She watches as Mike clings to El and Will, watches as Joyce holds Hopper’s hand in a death grips. Sees Jonathan hovering and she’s on the outside.

There’s those words making her stay on the outside.

There’s static in her ears, her vision blurry, heart beating fast and she can’t figure out what happened. How did this happen? They were fine, Jonathan promised. She promised.

“I’m really sorry, Nance. I just can’t be in a relationship anymore, I love you. I do, but my family needs me and I, I need them more. You have to understand” he’s holding her close and she can feel his tears fall onto her, “I won’t ask you to wait, you deserve someone who’ll love and focus on you.”

All she can do is nod as tears go down her face.

They share one last kiss before separating for good. He hugs her close and she squeezes her eyes shut.

It’s several hours later, having spent most of the day in a haze. She’s sitting at her desk, trying to get her focus back, when those words from months ago start to swirl back in.

“I always pictured you, just, wanted to let you know before we head straight into danger”

“-just travel across the country, with my family”and “always dreamt this” filters in with it, she doesn’t know what she’s feeling, she shouldn’t be thinking about her first boyfriend like this.

Jonathan just broke up with her, not even a full twenty four hours yet.

But the words are swirling fast and she can feel her stomach flutter suddenly remembering that feeling those emotions Steve used to give her.

It was nice, even if sometimes she had to be away from him. He did treat her like she was his world and it felt like it. Nancy goes to sleep with a plan set in mind.

Tomorrow, she’ll go to Steve’s and hope he still wants that second chance.

Dressed in her best clothes, wearing pretty make-up, she makes her way to the Harrington house.

Seeing Eddie’s van parked outside doesn’t surprise her, not really, what does make her pause is when she walks by a bike and skateboard on the porch.

Seeing that makes her doubt the timing, Eddie there is alright he shouldn’t know the history between her and Steve. She also swears she heard him talking Steve about lost loves and second chances.

The bike can only be owned by Dustin and he definitely knows the history and Max well, since Spring Break, has been particularly living with Steve at this point. Stating a number of times that Steve is her brother, she might not know the story but she’ll be questioning.

But she’s here now and Steve’s words are on fire in her head.

So, she moves ahead determined. She knocks on the door and takes a few deep breaths to get her composure.

The door opens and it’s not Steve answering, it’s Dustin and she blinks. Losing that composure she just gained, it’s quick and she’s quick to get it back with an easy smile. “Hi Dustin, can I come in?”

He’s been hanging out with Eddie too much lately, since he is loose with his posture now and opens the door with an exaggerated smile and waving his arm as he opens the door more.

“Nancy?”

She looks around, sitting on the couch is Max who’s got an eyebrow raise and frown.

“Hi Max, I wanted to speak with Steve. What’re you doing here?”

Both of them shrug and Dustin moves to sit next to Max, “We have plans with Steve and Eddie, we got tired of waiting outside”

“So we broke in”

She rolls her eyes, moves to stand closer to the stairs, “Are they awake? Where is Eddie?”

The two share a look and she can’t figure out what it means, Dustin has a mischievous smile once he’s looking back towards her, “Upstairs”

A little suspicious at the look, but the words in her head has her pushing forward despite the alarm bells ringing that something is up.

Steve’s house has changed since the last time she was here, there’s more life within it and old family portraits are gone, photos of friends in their places instead. There’s a door with a sign saying ‘Dustin’s room’ on it, and she passes an open door that was originally Steve’s. It’s cleared out except for the desk and the plaid wallpaper.

The next room is opened just a bit, she itches closer and pushes the door to see more and her whole body freezes.

There on the bed is not only Steve but Eddie too. From where she’s standing, Eddie’s pressed up against Steve’s back and has an arm around him; keeping him close.

She tears her eyes away from them and immediately regrets it.

On the floor is a mix of Steve’s clothes and Eddie’s, that’s not it though. Sitting directly next to bed is ripped condom packaging and by the trash bin is a poor attempt at throwing away a used condom.

It brings her attention back to the bed, in the short glance away, Steve has moved in his sleep. Instead of facing away; he’s now facing Eddie and nearly on top of the other. She tenses up as Eddie tightens his arms around Steve, then she pulls the door shut before moving quickly down the stairs.

Without acknowledging the two on the couch she makes it to the door, just as she pulls it open the door she’s stopped.

“They’re asleep still? We could tell Steve you stopped by” she can just hear smugness coming from Dustin and Max sniggering.

Shaking her head, she refuses to look back at them, “no, no, it’s fine. Have uh, have a good day!”

“It doesn’t make sense! I, I thought- he” Nancy mumbles to herself, trying to collect her thoughts. She didn’t even bother moving yet, still sitting inside her car mumbling and trying to figure this out.

She could’ve sworn Steve was flirting with her, she knows she was a little during the fight. It felt natural and right. Even though it was wrong, very wrong. But- it was potentially the end of the world, they could’ve died! Everyone involved would understand her lapse of judgment.

Steve had told her, admitted his dream with her in it.

Him and Eddie? Steve likes boys? Since when? Was- was it a lie then? Was she being led on? Maybe even being used?

She’s so in her head, she doesn’t notice anyone walk up and only realizes when her whole body jolts at the knocking on her window. Shaking her head and reaching for her glove box, looking over her eyes widen at Steve standing there.

He’s wearing sweatpants with only a jacket over his bare chest, he looks worried, confused and most importantly; scared.

Taking a breath, she rolls her window down before looking at him, “Steve, hi.”

“Nancy, what are you doing here?”

Frowning, she looks away from him and startles at seeing Eddie standing there by the door also looking scared. Her eyes must be wide, because Steve clears his throat and she immediately looks back at him. “I- I”

Steve sighs, dropping his arms to run a hand over his face and hair, looking away from her, “Nancy, what you saw- you can’t tell anyone. Okay? Please. I don’t understand why you’re here right now and I really don’t want to know rig-” he shakes his head, “just, please don’t tell anyone”

She opens her mouth, but the words get caught. Steve’s look is haunted, even more afraid then a few months ago. Closing her mouth, taking another look at Eddie by the door before focusing her attention back on Steve.

“I won’t. I promise, Steve. I won’t tell anyone, just- maybe we can talk sometime? All of us?”

He clearly wasn’t expecting that, she can tell by his eyes and how he glances behind him, before looking at her again. “I’ll have to talk with Eddie first, but, uh yeah sure.”

Steve gives a weak smile at her that she tries to match, despite her racing thoughts. He steps away from the car and she starts it, nodding her head before driving away. She watches in her rear view mirror as Steve walks over to Eddie and only squeezes his arm before leading him inside.

Imagines that once inside, Steve pulls Eddie close and holds him tight.

Three Days Later

It wasn’t avoiding them, she really wasn’t. She had to collect her thoughts, really figure out what she absolutely wanted in life now.

Which, she still doesn’t know, at least relationship wise.

Thinking back on the last few years and how they’re finally no longer fighting for their lives and the world, she can go for her dream of becoming a journalist. Which is exactly what she realizes, two days into her thinking, that’s what she actually wants in life. Not a relationship with Steve. Not even a relationship with Jonathan at this point, she doesn’t need that right now.

By the third day, she realizes how selfish she was acting and how much she actually scared, maybe even hurt Steve and Eddie.

That’s what brings her back to Steve’s front door with an apology and some cookies. There’s no bikes or skateboards this time around, just Eddie’s van and it’s not first thing in the morning.

Knocking on the door is quick and as she wants gets her composure and tries to relax. It’s not long before the door opens, Steve standing on the other side and her mind flashes back to the night in 83. Shaking her head to get rid of it, smiling she raises her hands up with the plate.

“I bought cookies”

Steve smiles a little and let’s her in, “you didn’t have to, Robs and I had a baking spree last night”

“Yeah and it’s all delicious!” Eddie shouts out, from somewhere.

It does some a little like a bakery in here, she notices. Placing the plate on the table before looking at Steve, “no, my mom insisted I bring them.”

Steve just nods as he closes the door, “It’s fine, we love cookies and if we don’t finish them, Eddie’s friends and Robs is coming over later anyway”

He leads her towards the kitchen and she’s not surprised to find Eddie at the table with paints and figurines, “Elder Wheeler, good afternoon on this fine day”

A laugh bubbles out of her, as she takes a seat across from him and she watches Steve take the seat right next to Eddie. Eddie looks towards him and she gets to see a silent conversation pass between the two, it’s not like the ones she’d see between Steve and Robin or even the ones she’d have with Jonathan.

It ends a second later when Steve looks towards her with a tight smile, “Nancy, I’m sor-”

“No!” She’s a little loud but it makes his mouth snap shut and Eddie to widen his eyes, “sorry, but you don’t have to apologize to me. If anyone should, it’s me. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you guys or to make you uncomfortable. I, I wasn’t thinking straight”

Eddie snorts, “couldn’t imagine how to do that”

It makes both her and Steve break into a smile, she’s quicker at sobering up though, sits straighter and clears her throat before settling her eyes on Steve, “I was being selfish, that’s why I came over the other day. Your words were in my head and I thought, maybe they were telling me that we could have a second chance. But I realized, I don’t want it anymore.”

Steve looks confused, “my words? Wha- my old dream? That thing?”

She nods, “yeah and I didn’t think things through, came here and found you both in bed and, scared you”

“You did” Eddie nods, dropping a hand to Steve’s, “When Dustin and Max mentioned you were in the house and looking for Steve, it really did scare us”

“I know, and I’m truly sorry for doing that to you both.” She looks away from them and sees how tightly Eddie has Steve’s hand in his, “You’re-”

“Relationship,” Steve interrupts her, “our relationship”

She nods, “it’s yours and I shouldn’t have even thought of you the way I was.”

They both nod and it’s quiet for a moment.

“Can, can I ask you?” She doesn’t know how to approach this, this isn’t something she does a lot. This is completely different from anything she’s done before, “You don’t have to tell me anything”

The couple share another long look before looking back at her, “I’m gay, I only like boys.”

“I like both. I especially like Eddie” Steve’s smile is bright and aimed completely at Eddie, “before you ask, we’ve been dating since we got out of the hospital.”

It surprises her, it’s been months.

“Yeah, I was surprised too. Thought Stevie boy was still high off the pain meds, turns out he was completely serious” Eddie laughs, “We haven’t told many people, gotta be careful with this”

She’s not surprised by that and nods, “I understand, I’m just a little confused- if you liked him and why give me hope? Why tell me that dream of yours”

“Nance, we were in the middle of a war,” Steve squeezes Eddie’s hand before letting go and reaching over to take her hand, “I wasn’t lying, I did dream of having a future with you. I thought we weren’t going to come out of it, didn’t think I’d have even a chance of growing up. That dream was from a little lonely boy who loved you with everything, I thought you should know that before something happened to us. But that wasn’t my only dream, and I know that’s not the kind of life you’d want, right?”

Her eyes are watering and nods, “You’re right, it was nice though”

It makes all of them laugh and Nancy feels like she knows him better, “I really am sorry, not just for scaring you. But for what I did back then”

“I’m sorry too”

There’s tears falling from both of them and she can see Eddie wiping away his own eyes.

A laugh bubbles up out of her, then Steve and lastly Eddie. It’s tears and laughter between them now.

~

Okay, look I’ll be completely serious right now. This wasn’t supposed to be this long, honestly. That’s why it ends the way it does, because it could go on even more. But I’d be repeating myself I think. Also, all of this just for the image of Nancy finding out about Steddie in like the most awkward way possible. (Without it being completely explicit 🤣)

Hope it reads okay, I had some help from the discord babes, @i-less-than-three-you & @strangersteddierthings! Love you both lovelies 💜

Information that isn’t in the fic: Robin and Wayne are the first ones to know about Steddie. Dustin, Max & the CC boys are the only other ones that know (besides Nancy) everyone else doesn’t. Also this takes place over a span of a few months. The very first part is directly after vecna (max isn’t hurt) and jumps to the “two days later” after that. But Jonathan and Nancy break up is about two months later.

TAGLIST! (If you want to be added, let me know!)

@spectrum-spectre @itsfreakingbats @mysticcrownshipper @artiststarme @thereindeerlady @justforthedead89 @ronniescontinuum @freyaforestafay @littlewildflowerkitten @estrellami-1 @gregre369 @zerokrox-blog @bookworm0690 @flustratedcas @carlprocastinator1000 @marvelmwah @solliesolesito @navnae @grimmfitzz

[im-out-of-it]

I just have some thoughts since I’ve watched the first three episodes now. some things I’m glad the show did and also the things that irritated the fuck out of me so let’s go 👏🏼

1. aging the characters up. I think this is smart to do and there’s more you can do with the rest of them if they’re in their early twenties instead of being teenagers. sorry not sorry but I’m not interested in seeing teenagers being chased by grown adults

2. Clary is still beyond annoying. I know she’s traumatized by losing her mom and not understanding this new world but literally coming in “I don’t care about the clave, about your rules, I just want to find my mom.” yeah ok we get that but there are still rules that need to be followed. you’re out here almost getting people killed and it’s all in the name of your mom. and I’m not saying the clave is trustworthy because they’re massive dicks but you can’t go around running and doing whatever you want lmao

3. please give Alec a raise or a year vacation. the amount of shit he deals with having to be jaces parabatai is too much. honestly, Alec deserves better. Jace takes advantage of Alec and I would have loved to see Alec have another parabatai, one that cares for him. I know you can only have one BUT CUT THE FUCKING CORD PLEASE

4. Magnus is fucking perfection

5. Izzy is perfection too 🔥 I do not blame Simon losing his tongue over her. my bisexual mind was like OOOOO ALEC NO MAGNUS NO IZZY NO RAPHAEL NO MAIA!!!!!!! NO ALL OF THEM

6. Clary and Jace are very cringe and I’m not sure if that’s on the acting or the writing but it makes it hard to believe they’re “in love.” I felt more connection with Alec and Magnus meeting for a second than I did with jace and clary in three episodes. even Alec and jace have a bit more chemistry than he does with clary. and that is something I DO NOT ship

Jace: I would die for you

Clary: but jace we just met

Jace: I don’t care if I throw all my friends and family away clary. we’re destined to be together

7. superb acting from Matthew Daddario. he’s absolutely wonderful and he really captured Alec’s angst in my opinion. you can see why he’s on guard not only because he likes jace (ew my man Alec WHY) and because he’s worried about the safety of his people. I feel like Matt captures the emotion without saying a thing so well. as does Harry. I think they’re both great at this

8. “This would be bad for clary.”- (talking about the cup and valentine) Simon “it would be bad for all of us”-Izzy. of course in Simon and clary world, everything is all about clary. I get simon is worried about his bff but this affects EVERYONE

9. if Simon was my bff and someone as jace talked to my friend that way, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT. she doesn’t really say much, she’s all like “we’re a package deal.” honestly clary and jace belong together because they both take advantage of their friends. they’re both so self centered so let them run away as far as possible together

10. Alec is big sad now but you will have better, just you wait. also want to add, I enjoy season one for the build up Alec and Magnus but man do I hate Alec pinning after jace 🤢 but if there isn’t any incest, it’s not a proper CC story

11. Im just here for the Malec content. stuff that show did well: Alec and Izzy’s sibling relationship. I love these two so much. Clary actually being nice to izzy and being her friend, and not being mean to her cause she’s jealous. Magnus’s whole attire. I love this bi king so much. I love magnus, I love his sass, his makeup, his clothes. I LOVE HIM. I wish they would’ve changed his hair and makeup more in the last two seasons. kinda feel like they thought oh he has mascara on, that’s good enough. that pink hair is truly one of my favorite Magnus looks.

12. last thing to add that I like what the show did. I love that Alec actually knows how to fight. it never made sense in the books that he’s never killed a demon, especially since he’s a Lightwood. never made sense to me. I’m glad they allowed in the show for Alec to actually be able to fight 🏹

that is all for now until I watch actually one of the best episodes of season one. Magnus and Alec meeting 🥰

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

why season 4 is actually one of debbie’s best seasons, not her worst.

i feel like when people talk about debbie gallagher, specifically when people who dislike debbie gallagher talk about her, they talk about the change from season 3 to season 4. how she changed from being a sweet innocent kid to a bratty obnoxious teenager. these comments are always so interesting to me because i feel like people’s weird perspectives kind of diminish the purpose of debbie in season 4 which is unfortunate because it really is such a good season for her.

“the change” in question wasn’t really a drastic change at all, her behavior has been basically the same for all eleven seasons. people say her personality changed when in reality, emma kenney changed. season 3 and 4 are supposed to happen very close together, which isn’t realistic considering when they started filming. by season 4, emma and ethan both look much older than they did in the previous season. for ethan, this doesn effect how people like his character because he is both a male and comedic relief, but for emma, this will effect her.

in season 2, debbie acts pretty similarly to how she does in season 4. in both seasons, debbie is obsessed with holly, making boys like her, and looking older than she is. but in season 2, emma kenney’s face is younger, her voice is higher, the clothes she wears don’t fit and the makeup she applies is applied sloppily because she’s so young; she acts cuter. people don’t take debbie trying to act promiscuous in this season seriously because of how little she looks, and two seasons later, the standards don’t seem to apply anymore even though emma kenney is still so young. even if she’s still young, her voice is less squeaky, her body is developing, the clothes fit better, and the makeup is still sloppy but for some reason, it doesn’t make her look as childish. anyone with half a mind can tell she’s a kid trying to look like an adult, yet for some reason, when she does it in this season as a thirteen year old, it’s completely different than when she did it as an eleven year old.

she stops being as cute, and so her personality doesn’t really work. debbie has always been intelligent, extra, sassy, loyal, and desperate for attention. she’s always had a debilitating fear of abandonment and issues with attachment. when you’re babyfaced and a kid, these traits are funny, then she starts to age and these traits aren’t cute, they’re annoying. when debbie kidnaps a baby in season 1 and fiona is asked why, she says, “it’s debbie”, and although debbie has just done something really bad, it being debbie is an explanation and somehow makes the situation better. later on, when she’s still a kid just a little older, if she does something like this, “it’s debbie” is a bad thing.

i think that if people want to go down the path of saying that she majorly changed or had a downfall, they should consider how her trauma actually did effect her around this time because yes, there were a few minor changes in her that are undeniable.

in season 3, she loses the trust of both of her parents. that’s something. she waits for a whole year for frank, setting up some sort of altar for him and praying. when he returns, she tries desperately to get his love and attention like she has been for the whole show, and it ends in him destroying her room and her school project, insulting her while she’s at it. and so, she goes batshit and starts hitting him as hard as she can. ever since season 1, debbie has been dependent on frank’s attention. she knows he’s bad and she knows what’s wrong with him but she doesn’t care as long as she can still find ways to squeeze a bit of love out of him. this is where that stops. this is where she changes some of her morals, because she realizes that her father won’t change and yeah, it does destroy her. then, he calls dcfs on the siblings and gets them separated, and debbie is put all alone in an abusive home. this is obviously going to destroy a girl with severe abandonment issues, not to mention a girl who has never been alone like this before. so when she gets out of that house, obviously she’s gonna be more traumatized. then, when they go to family court, she discovers that monica and fiona saw each other, and she doesn’t want to be their mother anymore. this breaks debbie even more, and she hears frank’s bullshit about how he loves his kids and even though she’s trying to make herself hate him, she still listens to it and testifies with carl. later on, when she’s talking to sheila and taking care of her, it’s revealed that debbie blames herself for monica leaving, and if monica were to return and stay she would forgive her and welcome her with open arms.

^ so with all of that considered, she’s gonna be fucked up. and that’s only part of the reason she acts the way she does. we have her parents absence, but also her older siblings. with her parents out of the way, she becomes more dependent on fiona, but fiona is now constantly at work, leaving them with sheila, and then… well, we all know what happens with fiona in season 4. as for lip, he’s off at college. that’s that. then, ian has run away and all they have is a couple of texts. she’s desperate to get him back but fiona assures her he’s fine, and she doesn’t believe it. so when she and lip go find ian, he’s different. he’s gone. frank and monica were the people she depended on, then they were gone, and now her older siblings, her three constants and role modes, seem to be gone, too.

debbie becomes colder because she is more alone. no parents, no parental figures, she becomes even more independent than she previously was. she decides she doesn’t need anyone. holly and ellie teach her about a new way to get attention, which is using her sexuality, something she never really tried to use for attention because she’s thirteen. she starts sexualizing herself, and holly tells her she likes matty, so she decides she does. and remember how debbie decided she didn’t need anyone to depend on? yeah, bullshit. matty is a new adult in her life and with frank dying, she needs someone for male validation. matty tells her she’s sexy and a great dancer, and he gives her food, lets her sleep in his bed, and gives her the attention she thinks that she needs. she doesn’t realize she’s being groomed, she thinks it’s love. he even promises to have sex with her when she’s 16 and he’s 23 because his main concern is if it’s illegal or not.

in season 4, debbie is left, used, bullied, humiliated, and ruined. she’s a thirteen year old girl, and being thirteen as a girl is rough. her mind is changing, along with her body, her family, her life, everything. debbie historically does horrible with change, it shouldn’t at all be surprising that she acts how she does. what people view as a bitch or a brat is so obviously a hurt, traumatized child and it’s almost disturbing that people don’t seem to see that. i’ve seen debbie mocked for matty, and while in season 5 the situation got worse, she didn’t do anything wrong in season 4. all that she did was have more attitude, but it was clearly a trauma response. debbie was ignored and hurt in season 4, she was a victim. and she was realistic. the change was expected and necessary for her character. case closed.

[milkyetoile]

after this great post by @thesherrinfordfacility about Crowley and Aziraphale’s domestic, it got me thinking about the beautiful contrast between the relationships shown in season 2. it was such a great juxtaposition, a chiaroscuro in writing that seriously left me in awe and ruin, not just from what happened but for how the relationships were laid out in writing.

so here’s an essay on the romance in S2, written by your local arospec lesbian

Gabriel/Beelzebub

essentially, I think this was the ��ideal” romance. two beings who were in high positions on opposite sides, having secret meetings to complain about their sides and then falling in love to Buddy Holly’s Everyday…there was an understanding at every meeting that they probably wouldn’t have reasons to meet anymore after they agreed, but they kept meeting anyway. they fell in love in the process until Gabriel placed his memories in the fly that Beelzebub gave him, after getting in trouble for not wanting to continue with armageddon't. and when the whole mystery was solved, they immediately agreed that they just wanted to be together and they did do that. they go off to Alpha Centauri to live happily ever after and both Heaven and Hell will probably leave them alone (probably).

I say it’s ideal because it’s like a movie or book romance. two people meet, get to know each other and fall in love, then conflict!! but once it’s resolved, they get together with a sappy ending. to be clear, I have 0 complaints with this, I’ve shipped them since s1 and they were cute in s2…but I also love how it was set up like the kind of romance both Aziraphale and Crowley were visualizing previously.

Nina/Maggie

this relationship was more realistic and healthier. Nina was in a horrible relationship with an emotionally manipulative partner (kinda parallel to Aziraphale’s experience with Heaven) and Maggie’s a disaster lesbian smitten with her. Maggie tries to make a move on Nina then finds out that Nina already has a partner, then Nina’s partner breaks up with her. then our two favorite idiots try to meddle and matchmake her with Maggie for the sake of the ruse. things go pear-shaped with them getting involved because Maggie wanted to help Aziraphale. but once everything’s done, Maggie and Nina actually talk about things and agreed not to start a relationship because Nina wanted to heal first after her breakup. and they agreed that after that, if Maggie was still interested (which she swore she would be), then they would try.

it was more realistic because they’re humans like us. part of what makes humans such pivotal parts of the story is that we have shorter lifespans that result in an “urgency” in comparison to the non-humans. striving for success, loving people–being on essentially a time limit motivates us to be a lot more direct and straightforward when the situation calls for it. humans have to grow to get what they want. and so, Maggie and Nina, as mature adults, decide to communicate properly and it ends with them not being together yet but having an understanding and being on the same page–a better foundation for romance than what Aziraphale and Crowley imagined for them.

Aziraphale/Crowley

this is the complicated, messy relationship with a generous heaping of unhealthy codependency and unresolved trauma. the slowest of burns, 6,000 years of knowing each other, and yet neither of them really talk. they’ve made some progress since armaggenah. they’ve both been more open in comparison to S1, they have been trying. but 6,000 years of dealing with their individual trauma plus being on opposite sides and needing layers of subterfuge and denial to even have a semblance of friendship…on top of that were the events of arma-fucking-geddon and the aftermath (which included COVID among other things, mind you)–4 or 5 years in comparison is nothing. they were just adjusting and getting comfortable in the new status quo…cranking up the engine, so to say. throughout s2, they both made assumptions about each other. they both clearly talk about wanting to be together but they had different ideas of how that would look like. they were on the same page for a mere sentence then ended up on different books altogether, so to say.

anyway, I’m losing my point bc it’s 5 am here and I’m finally getting sleepy…but it took them a time limit of the apocawhoops for their relationship to progress significantly. and another catastrophe plus a literal intervention from Maggie and Nina for further progress. then, when they’re finally completely honest about what they want between the two of them, it’s when they have two opposing ideas. and those said ideas tie back to their individual trauma and fundamental parts of their characters…honestly, as much as I’d love for them to end up together, they need time apart to grow, Heaven’s interference notwithstanding (looking at you, Metatron). ironically, Aziraphale says, “nothing lasts forever” yet their idea of forever is much longer than humans’ and that resulted in stagnation.

truthfully, I think this was also quite realistic. some relationships don’t work out due to various factors. you could find the person you’d be most compatible with in the world and still end up separating if you’re not emotionally ready. love is incredibly complicated and messy.

Final thoughts:

the ending of this season fucking hurts but honestly, I loved it. I personally love these kinds of stories. and the direction of those final scenes was just…*chef’s kiss*

I’ve rewatched that last scene with them at least 5 times already. am I a masochist? probably lol but seeing their minute expressions really digs in the knife more and I love it.

special mention to Michael Sheen’s acting during and after the kiss, like make it hurt more, why don’t you??

I really loved the juxtaposition and parallels between these relationships. beautifully done, I wish I could write like that. I didn’t think I could respect the phenomenal writers more but here we are.

if you need me, I will be spending the next few days rewatching S2 and reading and possibly writing fanfiction. we'll see.

[radioluminescentoblivion]

Hazbin Hotel: The Corruption of Creativity. Part 1

1. Introduction

Hello everyone, I normally don’t make huge posts like these, but I thought it would be important to make this review and discussion about the latest animated show on Amazon Prime, Hazbin Hotel, and the people behind the scenes who worked on the show, mostly the show creator Vivziepop. Back in 2019 when I first watched the animated pilot of Hazbin Hotel, I was interested to see how this show, if picked up, would go about with its story. Like many people who were still fans of Vivziepop’s work, I wanted to see this show become a good adult animated series. In fact, as the production was going on behind closed doors, I supported viv and her work via Patreon for a time and bought some merch from Sharkrobot.com to help fund her endeavors—I even still have my Angel Dust t-shirt and Hazbin Hotel poster in a black picture frame. 

2. Personal Fan Origins

Though I wasn’t an og follower of viv back in her older days on DeviantArt, I was introduced to her work around 2014-2015, that’s when I originally saw her fan-animated Kesha Die Young music video and since then I became a fan of her work and was obsessed with her means of creating very expressive and stylistic characters. Vivziepop was the artist who not only introduced me to the furry community, she was also a big inspiration for my artwork and still is to some extent now, had it not been for her, I don’t think I would’ve been in the position I’m in now to make art or it would’ve taken me much longer than where I started. 

But as much as I was a casual fan of her work, I was also a skeptic of her as a person over time. Primarily due to how she would be overly defensive towards criticism, radiate a toxic personality on others and friends of hers, and how she would intentionally and unintentionally weaponize her audience against those that landed on her blacklist. These traits would only become more apparent over time, but I like many others had the mindset of “separating the art from the artist” And while there is some validity to be made on that notion, it makes it all the harder when the person intentionally makes the art inseparable from who they are or they’re still active or alive and will constantly change their position or view on things. I know there’s a much deeper discussion to be had about this notion and how relevant it actually is, but for the sake of this post, I won’t dive into it that much. 

Watching Helluva Boss in 2019 onward would prove to be a conflicting experience since the first time watching the first season wasn’t as bad, some episodes had some strong character development, decent action scenes, and enjoyable songs. 2, 5, and 6 were some of my favorites in the series, but around season 2 episode 4, I was losing interest and I began to see the cracks in the show and noticed that the charm had dwindled going into the second season. Episode 6 was where I stopped which is funny because the last episode (at least currently) was episode 7 which I didn’t even bother to give any attention to because I didn’t like the show much anymore: The characters were losing whatever charm they had originally, making the characters I did like lose that vibe I enjoyed and those I didn’t like before I just didn’t care or it made it all the worse, the pacing didn’t get any better as the show was always going so quickly but rarely having time to sit down and digest even when there were scenes that had those moments, and for a show that would have differing times from 10-30 minutes, it made it all the more rushed, the stories were all over the place in a way I had no fun engaging with or could get behind, sometimes plot points like D.H.O.R.K.S’s evidence of demons would be revealed but never brought up again or have the same impact on the show, and some of the songs were forgettable (though I did enjoy Cotton Candy).

After I stopped giving HB a watch I decided to be patient and wait for when Hazbin Hotel would drop, and on January 18th, 2024, the first episode would drop to present the new show to the world.

3. Hazbin Hotel Review (Spoilers, Obviously)

Summary - 

Hazbin Hotel is an adult animated series about the daughter of Lucifer named Charlie Morning Star, a demon princess seeking to rehabilitate sinners in a less violent way to combat overpopulation in hell. Along the way, she manages to get support from the enigmatic radio demon named Alastor who helps Charlie and Vaggie bring in sinners in an attempt to redeem their souls for a price while trying to be as cooperative as she can with the odds stacked against her. 

When I first watched the premiere of the show, I wasn’t really blown away or impressed by it, which isn’t a bad thing since not a lot of shows have a strong start with their early episodes in the season. Where it did get interesting however was around 4-6 when it started to focus more on character development and give some time for the main cast to shine and maintain some consistency with the story, though this has its limits. There were also some decent songs, some funny dialogue, and even some sprinkling of action around the end. Unfortunately, in the later episodes, it started to fall back to where the show lost its touch. So let me get around to the pros and cons of Hazbin Hotel:

The Good -

As someone who felt burnt out from Helluva Boss, this is an improvement as far as comparing viv’s older work goes, which is a slight benefit. 

Performances are great as far as voices go, especially when you have people like Keith Davids in your line up, though I would be a little more positive on the casting choices if it didn’t also come at the cost of the old cast, I genuinely believe they should’ve been given additional voice roles if not main ones for the show, so that sucks. 

Songs can be hit or miss in this show, with More Than Anything (both the first and reprise) and Loser Baby being the better examples and the rest not sticking out to me as much, either because I don’t think they had as much impact or they felt out of left field. I think it would’ve been better to not have every episode with a song number unless it was a grand introduction to something (i.e. Poison, Loser Baby, More Than Anything). Though I don’t expect this to be a popular opinion so whatever

The visuals are fairly competent with few to no issues that caught my eye, my only critique would be that due to how fast everything feels it can be hard to follow what's all happening, not to mention having the background and background characters look as eye-catching as the main cast can throw people off of where they should put their focus on. It's not as terrible enough where I loathe it, but it could make some contrast of who/what you should pay more attention to. 

The Bad -

The story loses track of the main premise of Charlie trying to redeem sinners and her relationship with Vaggie. The side plots don’t interest me as much aside from Angel Dust and Husk having some empathy for each other slowly through the series, and the other main cast aren’t nearly explored as much. Idk the best way to describe it, but it seems that most of the focus of the side characters isn’t where it should be (the hotel’s residents) and more so on those outside the hotel, which I think would’ve worked better in the second season rather than just the first. If season one was just focusing on the residents, Charlie and Vaggie more than the other characters, I wouldn’t mind that. I think the only exceptions to this would be the hell overlords discovery of how to fight back and Lucifer helping Charlie with the hotel. But back to the main cast, Charlie and Vaggie’s moments of romance and bonding seem few and far between, which sucks since this is supposed to be about them right? RIGHT?! The potential is just wasted.

Not every song is needed or has a place in every episode, though that could be because I wasn’t feeling them as strongly compared to the ones mentioned. Not much else to say there that hasn’t already been said.

Characters don’t appeal to me as much aside from Niffty and Sir Pentious (they’re the best) and unfortunately, the characters I should care about don’t get enough time to shine due to how this show is hastily paced—which leads me to my next negative.

Pacing is absolutely atrocious, for episodes that last 30 minutes, it feels like everything has happened yet also little has happened in such a short period of time (which is insane to me) Viv has had pacing issues in the past with her work which is concerning to me, mostly because she wasn’t always this speedy with her series, there were times she had more breathing room for her older works for instances like the Son of 666 and Timber, even the short Bad Luck Jack (which I liked) suffered from this in ways. Idk what exactly happened, but it seems like viv’s workflow has just gotten worse over time, and her artistic magic, patience, etc has just vanished.

Jokes? For what attempt of humor was there, it was very little. Once in a while, there was a joke that stuck the landing or made me chuckle, such as Charlie and Alastor swearing unexpectedly, only because it’s so out of left-field you wouldn’t expect it, so the joke works. Or when Niffty and Sir Pentious act their usual awkward selves in front of others. But everything else is just not funny to me because the majority of the humor is either sex or profanity jokes that don’t have that great of build-up or go for something more than just “haha adult words” which ironically makes it more juvenile than adult. I don’t mind stupid humor, but make it funny and not because you want to say “fuck” for the sake of it. Even if it’s just for casual talk, it's overly excessive. It doesn’t hurt to find humor in other ways even if those don’t land either, it's better than just resorting to profanity and sex.

Additional Comments -

When it comes to Vivziepop’s older works, it’s better than Helluva Boss but weaker than her shorts or animated music videos (fan-made or original), the strongest elements within the series lie within the hump of the season and fall short from the beginning and end. Though as annoying as that is, it pales in comparison to the other elements in the show. 

Heaven’s methods of carrying out exterminations every year to dissuade the populace of hell from rebelling is just a very dumb thing to do when there are so many other ways to shatter the morale of a persecuted people or nation without lifting a single sword that would’ve been better implemented and create a larger divide between heaven and hell and less costly as well. Perhaps this is just to further showcase how arrogant and incompetent Heaven is, but I have my doubts on that. 

Alastor as a manipulative radio host works well between Charlie and Vaggie, though I wish they wouldn’t have explained his ties to the disappearances of hell’s overlords so soon, it just takes away from his mysterious nature as this eldritch being. That part to me would’ve worked later on. (Yeah, I’m also aware they did something similar in the pilot too, which brings up another issue I have) 

Continuity between the pilot and the first episode is pretty murky, it doesn’t help matters when the plot of the pilot and the series episodes get collaged in so haphazardly. If I never heard of Hazbin Hotel or Vivziepop’s work before, I’d kinda be thrown off a bit and try my best to catch up on what’s going on. I don’t expect an expose of how everything works, but an organic flow of how things come together would’ve been nice. For instance: the pilot itself feels more like an episode one than the actual episode 1 of the first season. I know the point of the pilot isn’t as strict in its rules, since it's supposed to sell an idea to a network or distributor. Hell, The Amazing Digital Circus does something similar to how Hazbin Hotel does with presenting a first-episode introduction into the world and characters, only it does it far better and it hasn’t even gotten its first episode out yet, but I don’t want to compare apples to oranges on two different shows. The point is, the first episode should’ve had a better flow to it or at least maintained something more consistent like the pilot did. 

But by far the most glaring problem in the show isn’t part of the show itself believe it or not. But to keep this short, I’ll leave that for part 2. 

4. End of Part 1 

Originally when I watched the series I gave this a 7/10 on IMDB because I came at this from a perspective of how I would judge the work based on viv’s prior craft, this gave it a point above Helluva Boss, primarily with pacing, and direction of what it should be about and where to focus the story and characters. That being said, I was being very generous and didn’t also factor in on how it stood on its own two feet, and to be honest? It's not that good. For the first season of a new adult animated show, it’s too rushed, and not fleshed out enough in areas where it needs to be, The majority of the characters I have little interest or investment in, and despite having its moments, it's not enough to keep me hooked to know what happens within the next season. 

This would bring it down to 1 point for that to a 6/10, I know some fans would put the blame on Amazon, A24, or Bento, but here’s the thing, other shows have had episodes with similar limited space and time to tell their stories yet do a far more superior job in doing so than this, from what I understand, Amazon seems pretty open for a studio big or small to do as they please with what resources they have to get out what they can regardless of the restraint of episodes to be made, thereby making studios try their best to work harder on making a show work with such little episodes, so I see this mostly as a personal thing with viv and her team than just amazon. 

Now I would just leave it at that and move on, but I’m afraid this is where things get more muddy and grim.

[aranarumei]

hi kiri What’s the deal with a3’s timeloop day. you shouldn’t be surprised that I am asking this. okay I love you bye

ok this is actually a pretty simple answer! but i got rambly so here's a readmore.

A3! (which stands for Act! Addict! Actors! <- don’t ask me why it’s this. idk) is a gacha game where you play as the manager, Izumi Tachibana (I’m doing first name, last name here) and you work to revive a dying theater company called Mankai. there’s 3 Acts, each with like, 4 big stories in them. and a bunchhhh of shorter event storiess which imo are crucial to experience. The first 2 acts, along with the interceding events, have been completely localized, and were run on the now-defunct English server. There is, however, an archive—if at any point in time you are ever interested, feel free to shoot me a message. And I’m serious. Even if it’s like two years later. It’s been like almost 3 years since I started going thru a3 and I haven’t even finished act 2. I’m slow

Anyways, Act 1 deals with establishing the company—in its former glory, there used to be four troupes that rotated by season. Izumi’s dad also used to run it, and he disappeared. So that’s why there’s four big stories each act: it’s one per season. In Act 1, each story deals with gathering the members for each season troupe together, and then pulling off their first play. And it also deals with like, the issues all the characters are facing. It is like, within the yumejoshi genre so there’s definitely that vibe of like. wow look at all these pretty boys who are kind of into me!? but I think it’s pretty mild on that point and like. something I enjoy is that I can see Izumi as like. an actual Character as opposed to just a self-insert. Which is nice. but the real selling point for me is that there’s a lot of like, found family and rich character dynamics within the cast. It is even homosexual sometimes.

One thing I find really interesting about a3 is that I think it has really strong character writing and development. And it’s really good at establishing different “moods” across each troupe, which works well in creating dynamics and also because each troupe specializes in something different. So spring is like, the “classic” troupe—they tend to do lots of reinterpretations of classic works, though that’s not exclusively their thing… but anyways. they do like. nice fantastical stories in my opinion. Summer does comedy, autumn does action, and winter does drama. and winter HAS drama.

Now up until winter there’s been some wackiness in a3 but it’s been like, pretty grounded in how it’s played out. and then winter rolls around and. see the issue with winter is that unlike some of the younger members they’re all composed of adults. so they’re bad at talking about their feelings, because instead of just shouting things out loud they will just shut down and like. Leave. I love this about them and I think it’s such a good writing choice.

Enter Tasuku Takato and Tsumugi Tsukioka. Tasuku and Tsumugi used to be like, the best of friends. they acted together and followed their passions together. and then they both auditioned for the God Troupe together, which is this prestigious famous troupe (it’s also evil.) and while tasuku got in and became one of the lead actors, tsumugi failed his audition. This left a deep scar on Tsumugi, who ended up kind of running away from acting as a vocation all together. now, Tasuku quit the God troupe because they were engaging in some shady stuff, and ended up joining Mankai along with Tsumugi, who coincidentally was inspired to try acting again. tsumugi’s been elected the leader of winter troupe, and therefore the person who’s meant to take the lead role in their first play. Tasuku is constantly snapping at him whenever he’s unconfident, and it’s just not great vibes. To top it all off, they’ve been issued a challenge by the God troupe, where they’ll both perform and the audience has to vote on which play they like better. Tsumugi is not really confident he can stand up to them for obvious reasons. Tasuku gets mad at him about it. Tsumugi runs into this weird doll, and the next day, they wake up in a time loop.

See, the thing is, they’re on such a tight deadline for the play, and winter is So Bad at talking about their feelings, that magic is real now. this is somewhat of an oversimplification, but it’s funny to say it like this. Anyways, there are like, seven mysteries in Mankai (have I mentioned they all dorm together! they all do! Each of them has a roommate and they all live in a big dorm that’s connected to their own theater and stage. It’s part of why they’re in such big debt and trouble at the beginning—its really hard to maintain those facilities) and one of them is about this doll that will put you in a time loop unless you become friends. essentially. And this is what happens… eventually they end up talking to each other for real due to the time loop, and each affirms just how much they respect the acting of the other. later on when Tsumugi slips back into being unconfident tasuku is able to resolve his past mistakes, because part of why he was so angry at Tsumugi was also because he was angry at himself for like. not reaching out. And telling him how much he loved him and his acting. Because their styles are very different—tasuku is loud and commanding, and Tsumugi is a more understated and subtle.

A3 is also very very cool in that parts of its plays mirror real life? so like. this play, sympathy for an angel, has two leads: Michael (Tsumugi) and Raphael (Tasuku). In it, Michael becomes interested in this woman on a list of people who are about to die, and ends up visiting the human world. He writes letters to her. His friend, Raphael, warns him against this, saying that he’s foolish for going so far for someone he can’t even meet. And each time he steps into the human world, his own soul gets weaker, and his wings begin to wither. Still, he persists against objections. Eventually, the woman recovers, gets a fiancé, and he returns to heaven. Thinking he’ll just wish for her happiness even with his unrequited love, he looks at the list and finds out that despite recovering, she’s still on the close to death list. Despite the danger to himself, he descends into the human world, and takes her place in a car accident. As he’s dying, his soul about to be obliterated because he’s been in the human world too often, Raphael descends and holds him in his arms. Michael says that he’s happy he got to do something for the person he loves, and he’s happy to be held by his best friend. Raphael says that though he’d called Michael the fool, it was him that truly was one: because he stood by, unable to protect both the person he loves and his best friend. Because he was in love with Michael the whole time of course. And then Michael dies in his arms. Now this makes me weepy as does the accompanying character song but what I really love most about it is like. Raphael’s regrets in that he didn’t protect Michael kind of directly mirror Tasuku’s own regrets in being unable to help Tsumugi when he was going through a tough time? only Tsumugi isn’t dead and so Tasuku has an actual chance to fix things, which is sweet.

It should be mentioned that one guy in the spring troupe WRITES all of these plays which is deeply funny to me bc it means that 1) he is probably gay and doesn’t know this and 2) he has precognitive abilities regarding the inner psyche of all of his castmates. and that’s a3 timeloop day. some of these a3 characters have me by the throat btw I just get beamed visions of them chatting and introspecting like constantly. I definitely haven’t explained everything but I think this is enough?

[wqintraining]

NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - SEASON 3, EPISODE 4

We open in the past in The Facility, where a four year-old Laura is being cattle prodded. The woman doing this to her, her handler, Kimura is cackling as she does this to her. Laura is cringing with grit teeth. 

KIMURA, pulling the prod away: “This isn’t a punishment, X-23. This is just training. But if you do make a sound or shed a tear, then I will have to punish you. And we don’t want that, do we?” 

Laura clearly wants to cry and scream, but she holds herself together. Kimura calls her a good girl, and says she actually has a present for her for all her hard work. 

RUFF! 

Laura’s eyes widen as a Facility agent walks in a puppy. It leaps into Laura’s arms. The toddler is shocked by its warmth and affection as it licks her, and she can’t help but hug it. 

KIMURA: “Meet your new best friend X-23. We care about him as we do you. So let’s not let anything happen to him.” 

Laura, body shaking, nods as she continues to hold the puppy. Kimura grins evily. 

12 years later, a much older Kimura is sneering, still in the Facility, as she watches news footage of Wolverine, Surge, and Hellion fighting against Sauron and a small army of dinosaurs in the streets of New York. Among the dinosaurs are clearly the adult members of the X-Men who’ve been transformed. There’s an ice pachycephalosaurus, a partially transparent velociraptor, and a black triceratops surrounded by sun particles. 

While the others do crowd control on the dinos, Wolverine fights Sauron head on, as he shouts that this is only the beginning, and soon all of humanity will be turned into dinosaurs. The dinosaur man puts up a fight, but Laura soon puts him down for the count. With their victory secured and the rest of the dinosaurs KOd and restored to normal thanks to a compound developed by Danger, the kids celebrate among themselves. Hellion high-fives Wolverine before making out with Surge. Laura shakes her head at them both, while they both flip her off. Laura can’t help but laugh. 

KIMURA, her sneer becoming a grin: “X-23, you are more impressive than ever. I think it’s time for you to come home.” 

Sometime later, we cut to the indoor set of a music video, where dancers are rehearsing to the Washingtons’ latest single. Among the dancers, and in not entirely age-appropriate costumes, are Mercury and Bling!. They’re both doing just as well as the adult dancers and looking like they’re having a great time. 

Among all the personnel involved in production, Laura stands by watching this. She’s stoic, only tapping her foot. A man comes up to her, assuming she’s a PA, and asks her to go fetch something for him. Laura growls and scares him off. 

The song finishes, the director calls cut, and tells the girls to all take two before they run it again. 

Cessily squeals as she bounces over to Roxy to take her hand. She can NOT believe this is just her life now. 

ROXY, kissing Cessily’s neck: “Believe it, girl. This is it for as long as you want it to be.” 

Cessily squeals even louder as she makes out with Roxy, briefly, before the two walk up to Laura, who has water bottles waiting for them. Cess and Roxy thank Laura.

LAURA: “Based on the choreography the director showed, I noticed seven errors between the two of you. Would you like me to list them?” 

Cessily, used to this kind of thing from Laura by now, laughs it off and says they’ll leave that to the director himself. 

LAURA: “OK. So…why am I here?” 

Cessily explains that there’s no ulterior motive; she just wanted to hang out! It’s been a while since they did so without the rest of the group, she wanted to fix that, and she thought this would be fun. 

Laura’s not sure this is her idea of fun. All these people, all these lights…it’s giving her a headache. 

Roxy’s sorry about that, she thought she’d spent enough time in the real world to be able to handle it. Unlike Cess, she actually did have another motive here: she kinda thought she might wanna try showing off HER moves. 

LAURA, surprised: “What?” 

Roxy laughs and points out that Laura’s got the physique and finesse most dancers would kill for, not to mention how quickly she picks things up. She figured she might want to try joining them here. There’s only a year and a half left till graduation; does she still JUST want to be an X-Man? 

ROXY, seeing Laura get flustered: “Hey, hey, don’t worry about it. I was just thinking, that all that pain you went through…could be to make something beautiful. That’s what art is.” 

Laura is unsure what to make of this, but Cess tells her she has plenty of time to think. She has to get back to work, but Laura should really go check out the craft services table. 

The director calls the girls back over, Cess and Roxy leaving Laura alone. Laura turns to the craft services tables. 

LAURA: “Mmm. Shrimp.” 

At the school, Brian and Quentin are playing video games together in the latter's room. Along with them is Sooraya, who looks extremely bored as the two boys play their game, sitting awkwardly in between them. 

Sooraya questions if they maybe can't do something, anything, else. She has no work left to do for the day, and everyone else is busy.

BRIAN: "I'm still not sure how Nori thinks it's a good idea to join Julian in his Sofia hunt. I mean, they're dating now!"

QUENTIN AND SOO: "Disgusting."

BRIAN: "Exactly! And if they do find her, do they think she won't be pissed?" 

Sooraya isn't worried there. Sofia has a temper, but she's still one of the sweetest people she's ever met; it's been over eight months and she'd understand. 

Quentin's thoughts are far less positive. With his "Magneto was Right" poster in frame, he says that however sweet she may be, she's still the girl who spent two months pushing the narrative to millions that their supremacy was something to be cured and not respected. Brian jumps in to defend her, but Quentin isn't interested in debating this with biased parties. 

Pausing the game, Quentin turns to Soo and tells her that, in regards to her original question, he actually could use her help with something. Soo tells him she may be willing to make a deal, and asks him what he needs. 

Quentin scratches his neck, admitting he knows how this will sound based on…everything, but he means it: He has a crush on Sophie. 

BRIAN AND SOORAYA: “WHAT?!” 

And yes, yes, like he said, he knows. The Cuckoos have only ever been mean-spirited rivals or bullies, but he’s been seeing a therapist Iceman recommended to him, and, for a baseline, he’s really quite good. Dr. Garrison believes that he’s always pushed people away, not out of ego, but out of fear of being lied to; he suspects that Quentin’s telepathy may have always let him know that he was adopted, and he’s been carrying that anxiety with him. He said he’d seen that kind of thing before. 

BRIAN: “And how does this tie back to you crushing on the girl who’d pour on gasoline if you were on fire?” 

Quentin explains that he figured, if Garrison is right, perhaps that is the root cause of his less favorable views on women rather than what he believed to be intellectualism. So, last night, he performed telepathic surgery on himself, cutting those views out of his brain. 

Brian and Soo are shocked and concerned by this, but Quentin assures them it’s fine; he’s a genius and it was totally safe. Even kind of fun. And by doing so, he’s realized that he doesn’t hate Sophie; he really, really likes her.

QUENTIN: “Hot, well-educated, my equal in telepathy…” 

Quentin thinks that, among the girls in the group, Dust has the most common sense. The others may have more experience with romance, but he’d appreciate her help asking Sophie out since, well, he’s never even been close friends with a girl, let alone asked one out. 

Dust isn’t sure this is a good idea. Brian also seems uneasy about this, but when Soo asks him what he thinks, Tag says, with a forced smile and Quentin looking eagerly at him, that friends help friends. 

BRIAN: “But also, man, I trust you, but we need to stay close and make sure you didn’t break your brain.” 

Quentin snort laughs and admits that’s fair. 

Sooraya reluctantly agrees, swearing under her breath in Arabic; she knows this is going to backfire, but it beats more video games. 

Outside the studio, Cessily and Roxy go out the back, on another break and making out. 

ROXY, pressing Cess against a wall: “Have I ever told you I loved it when I’d get sick as a kid and everything would taste metallic?” 

CESSILY, giggling: “No way.” 

ROXY: “Can’t prove I’m lying.” 

The two refocus on making out, Cess’s body becoming more liquid and Roxy sticking her hands inside. 

CESSILY: “What did I do to deserve you?” 

ROXY: “Be yourself.” Roxy boops Cessily’s nose. “My future X-Man.” 

CESSILY: “You’re on the X-Men track too, now.” 

ROXY: “But I’m nowhere near ready for, like, an actual fight. You so are.” 

Cessily smiles with excitement. She’d love a real chance at that. 

Suddenly, Mercury and Bling! are shot with tazer rounds. The girls are knocked out, as inconspicuous men in suits approach. 

Not long later, Laura comes out, looking to find her friends. 

LAURA: “The director is shouting like he’s going to kill someone. Based on his smell, he just might.” 

However, there’s no sign of Cess or Roxy. Instead, all that’s left is a burner phone. It rings. Laura, suspicious, but needing to play along, picks it up and answers. 

LAURA: “If you have hurt my friends, you are already dead.” 

“X-23!” 

The voice of Kimura makes Laura freeze and her eyes fill with terror. 

KIMURA: “So nice to hear you still have that killer instinct. Everyone at the Facility was worried sick the X-Men had declawed you. Perhaps all the lies they’ve told you about being a person haven’t made you a less effective weapon. A pity. I was looking forward to re-training you from scratch.” 

Laura cringes, as she thinks back to horrific moments from her childhood. 

LAURA, composing herself the best she can: “Where are they?” 

KIMURA: “Where they can be is safe back home at school…if you hand yourself back over to us.” 

Laura, sounding terrified, tells Kimura she isn’t the little girl she used to torture anymore. She has friends. A team. Emma Frost, Magneto, or Iceman alone could bring the whole Facility down. Kimura is sure they could. But that’s what hostages are for! Not to mention the extra firepower they’ve received from their newest partner. 

KIMURA: “I believe you know her as…War.” 

Laura cringes, mumbling as she questions why the Horsemen are involved here. Kimura doesn’t love working with Mutants, but they sure are powerful. Famine has a mental lock on X-23; if she tries contacting the X-Men, or anyone, before coming to the meetup spot, Mercury and Bling! are dead. 

Laura seethes, but she’s left with no choice. 

LAURA: “Where?” 

At the school, Emma is teaching the Cuckoos how to operate Cerebro, with Sophie presently sitting in the chair and wearing the helmet. 

Emma gives a refresher on Cerebro, explaining how it's the X-Men's most valuable tool. Designed by Xavier, it's how they keep track of the Mutant population, find new ones in need or who could be potential allies, and stay alert of potential threats. And it can only be operated by exceptionally powerful telepaths. And with Xavier and Jean gone, and Betsy, Rachel, and Cable never around, she's presently the only X-Man trained to use it. In the unfortunate event anything ever happens to her, they need a backup. 

Esme questions if this doesn't just make her expendable. 

ESME: "If Mr. Summers ever cheats on you like all his other girlfriends and dumps you, the rest of the team will have no reason to keep you around."

Sophie tells her to not be so disrespectful, but Emma assures her it's fine; a little bite back isn't an issue. And yes, the team has wished her ousted multiple times, with Cerebro being a major reason she hasn't been, but look at the team now: Besides Ms. Pryde, all those who hated her are gone. 

MINDEE, counting on her fingers, mumbling Warpath, Jean, and Storm's names: "Didn't you have something to do with all three of those departures?" 

Emma smugly shrugs. 

PHOEBE, smirking: "I guess Ms. Pryde should be afraid."

Sophie: "Phoebe, shut up. I need to focus."

Sophie closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as she's prompted by Emma to find her old student, Husk. 

Her face squirms as she struggles to find her. She sees lots of grass. She can feel the sun of the heat. There's corn. So much corn. Why is there so much corn?! 

Sophie: "Wait. I think I've got her. I think she's –"

QUENTIN, telepathically: "Hey Sophie!"

Sophie shrieks. 

SOPHIE: "What are you doing in my head, geek?!"

The other Cuckoos' eyes glow as their lips curl in disgust. "Quentin."

QUENTIN, sounding casual and unusually upbeat: “I thought we were trying to be friends. And I’m not in your head; this is how telepaths should communicate, the way others wish they could.”

While the other Cuckoos mime vomiting or are otherwise grossed out, Sophie is mildly amused and she can’t deny he has a point. What does he want? Quentin explains that, now that they aren’t enemies, he’s come to appreciate Sophie, not just for her magnificent telepathic ability, but the confidence with which she leads her sisters, and, of course, her beauty. He knows he has steps he needs to take, but surely she can see some of his own greatness. 

QUENTIN, as a telepathic projection in front of Sophie: “Would you want to go out with me sometime?” 

Sophie appears stunned. The other Cuckoos slowly but surely break out into laughter, with Sophie eventually joining them. Quentin’s projection is heartbroken and, as it fades away, we transition to the real Quentin, who’s tearing up in his room, Brian and Soo at his side. 

QUENTIN: “They’re laughing. They’re all laughing at me.” 

SOORAYA: “I told you not to praise yourself.” 

QUENTIN: “As if that was it! It doesn’t matter what I say, what I do, or what I can do. As long as I’m…this, girls like Sophie will never take me seriously.” 

Brian tells him to try and calm down. It was just one rejection from one girl. And it’s Sophie. No one should want to date a Cuckoo unless they enjoy being walked on. Quentin snaps at Brian that he can’t be so dumb as to think this is the first time this has happened. The first time a hot girl has laughed at him. This is just the first time he got far enough to actually ask before it happened! 

QUENTIN: “Thanks for nothing, Dust.” 

SOORAYA, pissed and not about to take this: “I was helping you for nothing! Attempting to connect with her as a fellow telepath was your best bet.” 

QUENTIN, eyes growing more intense “And what do you know? I don’t know why I even asked for your help when you’re barely a girl!” 

Soo is about snap on him, her hands turning to sand, but Brian steps in to defend her first, shoving him and telling him to take that back and apologize immediately. And then they’re going to see Emma and the Cuckoos in person. Whatever he did to his brain, he is clearly so not okay. 

Quentin insists he’s fine. He just clearly needs to figure things out on his own. Like always. 

Quentin angrily storms out and slams the door. Checking to see if no one is looking, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bottle of pills. He downs several of them before stuffing the bottle away. 

Laura races through the studio, shoving and parkouring around everyone in her way. They’re freaked out and shriek. 

Laura arrives in the dancers’ dressing room, where Laura grabs her duffel bag. She may not be able to contact the others, but she can still get her gear. Inside the bag is her Wolverine costume. Laura stares at it intently. 

LAURA: “I am not X-23.” 

Laura zips the bag back up and gets ready to go, but freezes as she sees who’s standing in the doorway: the Washingtons. 

Roy appears mad, while Angel is worried. 

ROY: “Something happened Roxanne, didn’t it? Cessily too?” 

LAURA: “How did you know?” 

ROY: “I have eyes. Roxanne never runs off without telling us. And if she did, she’d answer her phone.” 

Further, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. 

ANGEL: “She was…kidnapped once when she was little. For ransom.” 

ROY: “Only I know my baby girl can more than defend herself now from some two-bit thug.” He gets even more mad. “Do you know who took them? Is this an “X-Man” thing?” 

LAURA, hanging her head: “I’m sorry. I’ll bring them back safe. I promise.” 

Laura starts to walk out, but Roy gets in her way, sneering at her. 

ROY: “If you don’t, I’ll do everything in my power to see that damn school shut down. You got that?!” 

Angel holds him as he seethes in her soothing arms. It calms him a little. Laura doesn’t have anything else to say, only blankly staring at the married couple before dashing away. 

 At the school, Brian and Sooraya head to the cafeteria together. Soo is frustrated. She’s trying here, she doesn’t want to be mean, but Quentin is not making a good case for himself. He may not deserve to be picked on, but that doesn’t mean he fits as part of the gang. Brian counters that they used to be enemies with the Cuckoos; they just need to give him time. 

Sooraya just doesn’t get it though. Why does Brian like him so much? She’s seen the softer side of the Cuckoos. She hasn’t seen that in Quentin. 

SOORAYA: “What is he like in private?” 

BRIAN: “Pretty much the same. Smiles more, I guess.” 

SOORAYA: “I see. Not to be rude, but…why do you like him then?” 

BRIAN: “I dunno. He’s cool. And he really is smart. We like a lot of the same stuff and…” 

Brian trails as he smiles into the distance. Sooraya cringes in annoyance. The two get their food and sit down. 

SOORAYA: “You like him.” 

Brian stammers in denial, but he can’t hide it long. He laughs and admits that, yeah, he thinks Quentin is pretty damn cute. 

BRIAN: “I know “I can fix him” isn’t something you should say about a guy you wanna hook up with but…” He shrugs. 

SOORAYA, with judgmental eyes: “I must ask, Brian: Why do you keep falling for obnoxious rich white boys with psychic powers?” 

BRIAN: “Guess I’ve got a type. That so wrong?” 

Sooraya supposes not. And she is happy he’s over Julian. But then why is he helping Quentin with Sophie? Brian answers that he doesn’t think he’s got a shot; Quentin is definitely straight. 

Brian asks Soo to keep his secret. He knows pretty much everyone but her would laugh at him for this. Soo agrees, but does encourage him to tell Quentin how he feels. Brian shakes his head at that, but thanks her anyway. 

BRIAN: “I’ll find someone. One of these days, we need to find you a nice Muslim guy.” 

SOORAYA: “That isn’t necessary.”

BRIAN: “Oh come on. You really don’t want a boyfriend?” 

Soo flicks her wrist and coats Brian’s food in sand. 

BRIAN: “Message received.” 

Flying over New York City surrounded in a purple aura, Quentin is on the phone with his therapist, Dr. Garrison. He aggressively tells the doctor he’s sorry for calling without notice, but he just needs to talk right now. Fortunately, Dr. Garrison doesn’t mind. 

DR. GARRISON: “I’m always available to my patients. Especially for my young, Mutant patients.” He takes on a more jovial tone. “Especially, especially, my young Mutant patients paying out of pocket.” 

He gets a laugh out of Quentin. 

We get our first look at Garrison during this exchange, the doctor a well-groomed Caucasian man in a suit, in the middle of pruning some flowers in his office. 

Shaking, Quentin vents to Garrison that he’s just so angry…and scared. The pills he gave him sometimes do what he said they would - boosting confidence and lowering inhibitions - but it isn’t consistent, he’s still an annoying, ugly dork who lashes out, and his head feels so weird. 

QUENTIN: “Please, Doctor. Help me.” 

As Garrison sits down at his desk, he tells Quentin to try and breathe. Everything is okay. He told him these pills are still experimental. It may take some time for the effects to stabalize, but if he feels or thinks anything especially out of the ordinary, he should come to him immediately. 

GARRISON: “To confirm, you haven’t told anyone else about Kick yet, right?” 

QUENTIN: “No, sir. I made up some story about psychic surgery. My friends brought it.” Quentin weakly smiles. “Well, I think Dust and I are friends now.” 

Garrison is happy to hear that. As for Quentin’s other concern, he recommends more than medication. He sees himself as an “ugly dork”? Quentin has the money and means to look and be and do whoevever and whatever he wants, “for the next year, at least”. 

GARRISON: “If you wish to win the fair Cuckoo’s heart, become the man she wants.” 

Quentin is not just put at ease, but excited by this recommendation. He thanks Dr. Garrison, who of course assures him it’s his pleasure, and wishes Quentin luck. They hang up. 

Quentin grins as he stares down at his phone…until his face falls. 

QUENTIN: “No.” 

Quentin flies off at super speed. 

QUENTIN: “NO!” 

Wolverine, now in costume, races up the steps of a skyscraper. She stops only to sniff a familiar scent. She’s shaken and momentarily freezes up, but she can’t be afraid. 

WOLVERINE: “She’s just a woman. You are Wolverine. Not a weapon.” 

Laura races up the remaining steps and reaches the sunset lit rooftop, where Kimura is waiting, along with multiple armed soldiers. A helicopter is in the air above them. 

KIMURA: “X-23! So glad you came without any fuss. You always were good at following orders.” 

Laura snarls. 

LAURA: “Where are they?” 

Kimura gestures with her head up at the helicopter. If X-23 wants them freed, she’ll surrender without a fight. Wolverine demands Kimura let her friends go first, but Kimura sees no reason why she should. 

KIMURA: “Even if you could beat me, Famine can crush your brain at any moment.” 

Laura questions what the facility is even doing working with the Horsemen; they want to kill ALL baselines. The thing is, Kimura doesn’t really care if they do. Especially not when she and Lady Akkaba have something in common. 

KIMURA: “I don’t know what you did to earn her wrath, but she wants you to suffer as much as I do.” 

Kimura cackles. Why is she so tense? She should be thrilled to be going home so she can come get back to doing what she does best. 

Laura takes note of all her enemies and surroundings. She breathes. 

WOLVERINE: “I am not your weapon. I am Wolverine.” 

Wolverine dashes around the rooftop, effortlessly disabling all of Kimura’s men with precise stabbing before dashing toward Kimura. Kimura grins with excitement and takes Laura on, glad she’s resisting. 

KIMURA: “Do you really think the Halloween costume makes you seem like more of a person? It only shows how desperate you are to be something you never can be.” 

Kimura actually proves to be something of a match for the snarling, non-vocal Laura, with Kimura asking X-23 if she likes the enhancements she’s gotten, granting her super strength to complement her martial ability and shield her from harm. 

Wolverine answers by slashing her across the face, leaving bloody marks. 

WOLVERINE: “Not a great shield.” 

Kimura angrily kicks Laura away, pulling a gun on her with one hand, and raising her hand to her earpiece with her other, her manic grin not fading. 

KIMURA: “One more move and the girls die!” 

WOLVERINE: “Coward.” 

KIMURA: “No. Just above this.” 

Laura narrows her eyes. 

WOLVERINE, retracting her claws: “Let them go.” 

Kimura shoots a net at Laura, ensnaring and electrocuting her. 

KIMURA: “No. I think I’d rather torture all of you.” 

Kimura laughs as Laura screams. 

In Cerebro, Mindee is getting her turn on the device and not doing such a good job, as she keeps getting distracted by other minds near her targets that she finds interesting. Emma sighs in disappointment, as while Esme has yet to get her turn, Celeste and Phoebe also failed to impress. So far, barring some initial difficulty, only Sophie has excelled.  

Sophie smugly pumps her shoulders. Esme rolls her eyes at her. 

ESME: “Mindee, get up! It’s my turn!” 

MINDEE: “Not yet! I still need to locate–” 

“MS. FROST!” 

Quentin bursts in, covered in sweat. The Cuckoos wrinkle their noses in disgust. Emma, less rudely, questions Quentin if everything is alright.  

QUENTIN: “Of…of course it isn’t. I tried finding Magneto and Cyclops, but they’re not here!” Quentin holds up his phone. “Look!” 

Emma and the Cuckoos all appear distraught as they see what he shows them: Mutant fashion designer Jumbo Carnation has been found murdered. 

Emma offers genuine condolences, a fan of the man’s work herself and aware that Quentin was as well, and promises that the X-Men will get justice for him, but Quentin slaps her hand away as she reaches out to him. He doesn’t want condolences! 

QUENTIN: “This keeps happening! Over and over again! What is “justice”? Getting Purifiers and U-Men safely locked away so they can get out and put more little girls’ brains in jars? Storm humiliating another pig? How is it justice if it never ends?!” 

Emma, sensing how sensitive this moment has become, takes on a more stoic demeanor. The Cuckoos, meanwhile, now actually appear intrigued by and interested in Quentin’s shift in attitude. 

Emma tells Quentin that they’re aware the climate remains horrid, but she and the other headmasters are doing everything in their power to change that. 

QUENTIN: “Everything in your power? Spare me.I know what Apocalypse was doing a few weeks ago, and I know it was you three who stopped him.” With heavy breath, he hangs his head. Emma squints her eyes at Quentin citing knowledge he shouldn’t have. “Magneto wouldn’t have done that before coming here.” 

EMMA: “Nor would I have. But we are better than we were.”

QUENTIN: “Better at failing Mutants! Would you have made the same choice if it was all monkeys who were going to die?!” 

Emma tells him that’s enough. She understands his grief, but this type of language is unacceptable. She knows Dr. Garrison and respects his work, but clearly that isn’t enough. And from the way he’s sweating, she’d also like him to see Danger for a medical examination. 

QUENTIN: “You mean the machine that murdered one of my classmates?” 

EMMA: “Danger did not kill Wind Dancer.” 

QUENTIN: “If she’d had her powers, she wouldn’t have been picked off by War!” Emma and the Cuckoos react with shock and horror. Quentin laughs. “You didn’t know, did you?” He shoots a dirty look at Sophie. “Whatever.” Her turns around and walks off with a sneer on his face. “I see who the problem is here.” 

Emma is concerned, but the Cuckoos are entranced. 

In the past, four year-old Laura is in her room, playing with her puppy. Petting him, getting licked by him, and wrestling a little. 

Suddenly, her eyes sharpen. 

Kimura is sure to be walking by as Laura screams in horror. Arriving on the scene, Kimura and the audience see that Laura’s claws are out, tears are running down her face, and the puppy has been gruesomely torn apart. 

KIMURA: “Now look at the mess you’ve made, X-23. I ordered you to take good care of him.” She draws a gun and shoots Laura repeatedly. “I suppose I should blame myself. A beast cannot be trusted with friends.” 

Laura lies on the ground, riddled with bullets, crying over what a monster she is. 

In the present, Laura wakes up…stripped of her costume and back in her old cell. She rages out and claws at the walls, but it’s no use. Over a speaker Kimura laughs at her. She tells X-23 she should relax. She’s home safe, and she’s never letting her out of her sight again. 

LAURA: “Let them go! Let me go!” 

Kimura isn’t about to go against what’s best for her weapon, but, as a consolation, she will let her see Mercury and Bling. 

A screen on the wall turns on, and shows Mercury and Bling! in tubes. The girls are being tortured, as Cessily is being streteched out and torn apart, and Roxy is having her diamond skin forcibly ripped and peeled off. 

Laura, hysterically, demands that Kimura stop this. This has nothing to do with them. If she doesn’t let them go, she’ll kill her and everyone else here! 

KIMURA: “I’m afraid it’s your own fault for trying to be something you aren’t, X-23. If these poor girls must suffer to make you understand your place, then so be it.” 

Laura continued to claw away at the walls, but to no effect. 

Over a guardrail, Kimura grins down at the laboratory where men in labcoats are torturing the girls, and collecting their mercury and diamonds. In the corner, Death idly stands by, uninterestied in the proceedings as he sharpens his katana. 

Back in his room, Quentin’s sweating and heavy breathing have only gotten worse. He’s jittering and bikning rapidly as he looks all around him. 

He pulls out his bottle of Kick from his pocket and downs more pills. When he hears Brian knocking, he it back in his jacket’s pocket. 

From the other side of the door, Brian asks Quentin if he’s okay. 

BRIAN: “You stormed off earlier, and some of the guys said they saw you not looking too good. Do you want to talk?” Brian waits for an answer as Quentin buries his head in his knees. “I heard about Jumbo too. I’m sorry.” 

Still no response from Quentin. 

BRIAN: Listen, man…I know today’s pretty bad. Things aren’t going your way. But I wanna help you. If you just open up, everyone will want to help you. You gotta let us in though. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” No response. Brian bangs his fist on the wall. “Whenever you’re ready.” 

Brian slumps away. Quentin screams and destroys half his room with a telekinetic wave. 

 In the Facility, Laura refuses to relent, even as escape from her room seems impossible, so no matter how she claws at the walls around her. 

The screen turns off. 

Laura freaks out, ceasing her attack and demanding to know what’s happening. A trapdoor opens underneath her, dropping Laura into a pit in the laboratory. Laura immediately attempts to leap out, but hits her head on a one-way invisible forcefield. The uncaring and amused scientists stare down at her. 

Laura demands to know if the others are still alive. Kimura confirms to her that they are…and thanks to them, they have some fun new toys they’d like X-23 to play with. 

Laura stands alert, unsure of what’s happening as a whole pens up in the wall of the other side of the pit, and she hears a loud rumbling. From the hole emerges a massive, artificial beast covered in mercury and purple diamond. 

KIMURA: “Allow me to introduce, the Predator X. Made from Mutants to kill Mutants.” 

Along with its metal skin and diamond projectiles, it also possesses Laura’s stregnth, durability, and healing factor. They had oodles of her DNA they didn’t want to go to waste. 

KIMURA: “I’d like you to test my new pet. If it kills you, then you’ve been rendered obsolete. If you kill it, then maybe, just maybe, I’ll be sporting and let your friends go home.” 

Laura silently nods, turning to face the Predator and clanging her claws. There’s no fear in her eyes, only determination. 

The sub five foot tall girl and the several ton behemoth race toward each other and clash. 

In a bathroom at the school, Quentin looks himself in the mirror, a complete mess. Garrison’s words about him having the means to be whoever and whatever he wants ring in his head. He’s ready. 

In a montage, Quentin shaves his head, toss in some purple dye, trades out his glasses for less dorky ones, and goes on a shopping spree to switch up his wardrobe, drawing his button down, sweater vest, slacks, and ugly shoes. In the end, looking at himself in a mirror at an expensive clothing store, he now sports a purple mohawk, an oversized graphic t, a blazer, shorts, exposed socks, and doc martens. He’s exceedingly proud of himself. 

Out on the streets of New York in the middle of the night, a group of men exit a bar, laughing a little drunk, and talking about the movie they saw earlier. Their eyes flash purple as they’re compelled to walk into a nearby alley. They regain alertness as they’re greeted by the young man who brought them here. 

QUENTIN: “It must be nice. To be able to wash the blood off your hands, catch a flick, and a drink with the boys. It’s satisfying, itsn’t it? Knowing you’ll never be punished.” 

The men laugh at him. Who is this dork? One of the others’ heads feels weird. Is this dork some mutie messing with them?! 

QUENTIN: “I am not a dork. Not anymore. I am Mutant. And proud.” 

The men’s noses all start bleeding. They freak out, questioning what Quentin is doing. 

QUENTIN: “Although you’ll find I’m not like the Mutant you brutally murdererd. The police may not care to look into this, but I can see inside the heads of this entire city.” The men fall to their knees and cough up blood. “Jumbo Carnation had four arms and plastic skin. He couldn’t hurt anyone. I could hurt all those heads with a thought.” The men’s necks begin to twist as they beg for mercy. “He was a lover. An artist.” The three necks are snapped and the men killed. “I’m gonna be an X-Man.” 

Quentin stands over the dead bodies. For a moment, everything is quiet. 

Quentin vomits, collapsing to ground. His eyes panic, his body shakes, all his confidence abandons him, and all he can think is…

QUENTIN: “What have I done?” 

Back in the Facilty, Laura fights the Predator X. Despite its size, the beast is equally as fast as Laura, putting her on the run, dodging not only its claws and giant teeth, but projectile diamond shards. 

KIMURA: “Since when do you run away, X-23? Have the X-Men taught you that’s something you’re allowed to do?” 

Laura keeps leaping around the pit until she finds her opening, gouging out the monster’s eyes with her claws, and pulling herself up to kick her foot-claws through its nostrils. She leaps off and, not wasting a second, stabs its ears. 

Jumping back, all of the Predator’s senses temporarily disabled, Laura smirks up Kimura. 

LAURA: “Should have gone for adamantium.” 

Laura jumps back at the Predator at tears it apart until regeneration isn’t an option for it. 

Laura pants, covered in blood, gust, and mercury. 

LAURA: “Nothing you say can hurt me. Nothing you throw at me can beat me. I was the best you were ever getting. Now…let them go.” 

Kimura and Laura stare each other down. Until…

KIMURA: “Very well. Your friends, as well as you, are free to go.” 

Laura is deeply confused. Kimura tells Laura to at least try to use that animal brain of hers. She never planned on keeping her! That’d be ridiculous! Laura had it right; Magneto could kill her and all her associates without breaking a sweat, and holding his students it just asking for it. 

KIMURA: “I just wanted to advance and test my little project, and see you again for old time’s sake. I hope you had as much fun as I did.” 

Laura squints her eyes, not trusting this for a second, but without other options but to play along. 

We cut to outside the fence of this normal looking government building in the middle of nowhere. Laura, Cessily, and Roxy are all walking away, the latter two shaken to their core. The girlfriends are clinging to each other with haunted looks in their eyes, pieces of Roxy missing and Cessily unable to go fully solid. They walk in silence for a bit. 

CESSILY: “Thank you, Laura. For saving us. Again.” 

ROXY: “Yeah. I wasn’t fully conscious for all that, but you killed that thing like it was nothing. 

Laura tells them not to worry about it. She’s an X-Man. Keeping them safe if her job. She’s just relieved that they–

Laura is cut off as a visible to the audience aroma surrounds Laura’s nose. She sniffs. 

We cut back to the past, and see that this same aroma surrounded Laura’s nose before she killed her puppy. 

In the present, Laura freezes and her eyes sharpen. 

CESSILY: “Laura? Are you okay?” 

Laura spins around and slashes through Cessily. Cessily screams and Roxy panics, as Laura pops out her claws, ready to kill. 

Inside the building, Kimura laughs at what’s happening that’s being livestreamed to her on a screen. 

KIMURA: “Poor X-23. Forgot her old trigger scent.” 

In the alley, Quentin in on his knees as rain has started pouring down. On his phone, leaves a voice message for Dr. Garrison. He did something bad, something he knows he shouldn’t have done, but he had to take his advice, and be who he wanted to be. He couldn’t pretend to be powerless anymore. He couldn’t spend his whole life a victim. He’s sorry. 

Sitting at his desk with the lights off, Dr. Garrison listens to the voice message as it’s coming in, but he doesn’t pick up. He curls his lip and taps his finger on his desk. 

Back in the alley, Quentin tosses his phone away, and apologizes to the dead bodies. Off in the distance, someone calls his name. Quentin tries and fails to put himself together as the voice becomes clearly Brian and, moments later, Tag arrives on the scene. 

TAG: “I got your message! What’s going on?! Are you–?” 

Brian freezes as he arrives in the alley, horrified by the sight in front of him. 

BRIAN: “What did you do?” 

Quentin uses telekinesis to help him stand. 

QUENTIN, still hysterical: “I…I found the men who killed Jumbo. I…oh god, Brian, please help me.” 

Brian is still in shock, but he’s been trained for this kind of thing. He promises Quentin it’s gonna be okay and reaches out a hand to him. Quentin takes it. Brian assures him he isn’t mad. These racist murderers deserved it. He just didn’t expect this. But it’s okay.  Two of their headmasters have killed people. Soo and Laura have killed people.

BRIAN: “This doesn’t make you bad or a monster or whatever you’re thinking. Okay?” 

Quentin nods furiously and quietly thanks him. Brian assures him it’s gonna be okay. They just need to call Ms. Frost and– 

QUENTIN: “No!’ He pulls away. “No one can know about this. They all already hate me. This…this is all I have left.” He grips Brian by the collar of his raincoat. “I’ve been blocking the minds of everyone around us. We’re invisible. But I don’t…I don’t trust myself right now. Make everyone run away. And keep making them run until we find a place get rid of the bodies.” 

BRIAN: “I can’t do that, man. We have to tell the teachers and let them sort this out.” 

QUENTIN, sneering: “You said you want to help me. So help me. Aren’t you supposed to be my friend?” 

There’s a dramatic pause as Brian thinks. And he decides that he can’t say no. 

BRIAN: “Yeah.” He hugs Quentin.”I’m your friend.” 

Quentin hugs him back. 

Outside the Facility, base, Cessily and Roxy are terrified as Laura stares them down with an animalistic look in her eyes. Roxy holds the further injured Cessily. 

CESSILY: “Laura…Laura, whatever they did to you…you don’t need to–” 

Laura silently moves to attack again, but Bling! And Mercury leap out of her way. Laura jumps at them again, but Cessily grows a shield out of herself around them, one which self-regenerates and which the frenzied Laura isn’t capable of thinking a way around. 

Roxy is panicking. She can barely move or think straight right now. How is she supposed to fight? Even if she could, this is LAURA. They can’t stop her! 

ROXY: “I don’t want to die! I don’t wanna die, I don’t want my parents to bury me. But I can’t do this!” 

Cessily is just as scared, she’s still incapable of going solid, and she’s only bring hurt more and more by Laura’s attacks. But Laura needs help, Roxy needs to be kept safe, and she’s the only one here. 

CESSILY: “Don’t worry, baby.” Cessily’s face fills with determination. “I can.” 

Laura’s assault on the girls is finally halted as a spike thrusts out of Mercury’s shield and skewers her. And before Laura can recover, Cessily, screaming with tears in her eyes, takes down her shield and uppercuts Laura with her fist shapeshifted into an anvil, sending her back flying. 

Mercury stands. 

MERCURY: “I’m finishing what you started, Laura. I’m getting us all home. Even if I have to get through you to do it.” 

In the common area of the school, Brian sits alone, jittering and drinking hot chocolate. He’s silently mortified by what he’s done, and the possibility of people finding out. 

“It’s past curfew, Mr. Cruz.” 

Emma, in her nightgown, gets the attention of Brian, who jumps in shock. 

BRIAN, still shaken: “You scared me, Ms. Frost. Sorry. I lost track of time.” 

Emma looks at him curiously as she sits down next to him. 

EMMA: “It’s rare to see you without one of your squadmates. Is something bothering you?” 

BRIAN, smiling: “You know one advantage of not having a power to train?” He taps his head. “Plenty of time to train up here. Can’t make myself smarter than I am, but I bet I could keep even you from getting in without a fight.” 

Emma takes a moment to think over that response. She tells him that they’ve never really spent any time outside of class together, and that’s fine, they don’t have a thing in common and Iceman suits him as a role model, but he’s still her advisee; she’d like to help if she can. 

EMMA: “Did something happen with Quentin?” 

Brian hangs his head and twiddles his thumbs. 

BRIAN: “How do you know when a bad thing is worth doing?” 

EMMA, after a moment to think: “Not an encouraging question. Nor one Iceman would have been suited to answer.”

Emma tells him that the line between good and evil is not a steady nor clear one. Even now, Cyclops would probably disagree there, but to her, the line is faded and ever-moving, and holding yourself to it in a single spot and pretending you can see it clearly is an easy way to drive yourself mad. And each person also has their own line. 

EMMA: “If you feel what you did was right, if you can lay in your bed and fall asleep with ease, and if you haven’t harmed those who are innocent…you shouldn’t worry yourself.” 

BRIAN: “Even if it’s against school rules?” 

EMMA: “Even if it’s against the law.” 

Emma rests a hand on his shoulder before standing up. 

EMMA: “You were wrong by the way. It wasn’t hard to get inside your head.” Brian bangs his fist against his forehead. Emma smiles. “But you’re getting there.” Brian smiles. “Loyalty is a valuable asset, Tag. Do not undersell that part of you. Mum’s the word on your inappropriate heroism, provided it doesn’t happen again. I may not disagree with it, but it’s still a mess I have to clean up. And in the morning, let Quentin know he will no longer be seeing Dr. Garrison. It was a good idea on Robert’s part, but clearly, he needs a…Mutant touch.” 

Brian, still confused, manages to widen his smile. 

BRIAN: “Thank you, Ms. Frost.” 

Emma orders him to his room, wishes him good night, and tells him, if this does ever happen again, to please find an incinerator. 

Brian laughs…but as she exits the room, he sneers and backhands his mug off the table, shattering it. 

Back at the facility, Mercury fights Laura with blades for arms. Mercury’s movements are sloppy, but against a foe in a berzerker rage, that isn’t an automatic death sentence. Still, in speed, she’s just barely able to keep up with her. 

Mercury juts a pillar out of her chest to send Laura flying back and immediately stretches out her arms to grab her, pick her up high into the air, and slam her back down into the ground. 

Bling! Is in awe of what her girlfriend is managing to do. Cessily giggles, proud of herself, before grunting in deep pain as she jiggles, her form still unstable. 

CESSILY: “Ahh!” 

Laura rushes her once more, with Cessily embracing her instability and turning into a puddle for Laura to slip on. With Laura lying on top of her, Cessily locks her down with metal restraints. 

ROXY, in disbelief: “Babe! You know I always believed in you, but when did you learn to do this?!” 

CESSILY, as a face in the puddle: “You think I wasn’t training while you were busy over break?” 

They can’t celebrate yet though. They have to figure out a way to fix Laura. Cessily can’t hold her for much longer, and she doesn’t think she can knock her out. 

Roxy, still in pain, tries to figure out what could have been done to her. Maybe some implant in her brain, or brainwashing or…

ROXY: “Do you smell that?” 

Cessily isn’t sure what she’s talking about. She doesn’t smell anything. Roxy points out that’s just it. Cess has drawn blood from Laura. She should be able to smell that. But she can’t. 

ROXY: “Dr. McCoy taught me all about different kinds of mind control. All theoretical, of course. He mentioned once that people could hypothetically be conditioned to be controlled by certain scents.” 

CESSILY, Laura breaking free: “Worth checking! Oh this is gonna be gross.” 

Cessily shapeshifts her entire body into liquid and goes right up Laura’s nostrils to clog her nose. 

Laura is disoriented, but with Cessily in her nose, she turns her attention toward Roxy. Laura rushes her, unphased as a terrified Bling! riddles her with diamond shares. Roxy can only shield her face with her arms as Laura comes in for the kill…but Laura passes out before she can make a move. 

Cessily exits Laura’s nostrils and, repeating “Eww” on repeat takes the most humanoid form she can. Roxy breathes heavily with relief as she holds Cessily. 

CESSILY, weakly: “We…We did it.” 

ROXY: “Damn right we did.” 

CESSILY: “Is it wrong if I say that going up her nose was worse than the torture?” 

ROXY: “Oh, baby girl. Yes.” 

In his room, Quentin is fast asleep in bed. He’s awoken by a quintet of identical voices. 

“Quentin, wake up.” 

“We want to talk.” 

“Come on.” 

“Get up.” 

“Now!”

Quentin jolts awake. He sneers. What do the Cuckoos want now? For him to not even have peace in his sleep? 

The Cuckoos giggle and tell him to meet them in Cerebro.

Although skeptical of the girls, Quentin goes to the desired location, where the Cuckoos are waiting for him. Apart from Sophie, the Cuckoos appear either excited by his new look, or downright horny, biting their fingers and undressing him with their eyes. 

Quentin demands they tell him what’s going on. 

SOPHIE: “We heard what you said.” 

PHOEBE: “We know what you did.” 

ESME: “And we like it.” 

The Cuckoos aren’t sure what’s gotten into Quentin, but this is a version of him they’d definitely like to get to know better. 

Quentin snorts. He supposes he should be grateful they’re not going to rat him out, but still, what, get to know him better as a friend. 

SOPHIE: “The five date as one. And our guru has us all working on ourselves.” 

CELESTE: “So the five aren’t dating any one.” 

MINDEE: “But we are interested.” 

SOPHIE: “And we do support what you did. Even if the rest of our friends may not, we want you to know…” 

ESME: “...you aren’t alone.” 

Quentin turns around to see a group of other Mutants filing into Cerebro. There are three familiar characters, Glob, Martha, and Ernst, and three background characters comic fans will recognize: Radian, Tattoo, and Redneck. 

Quentin smirks and menacingly adjusts his glasses. 

Outside the front door of Roxy’s penthouse, Roy and Angel hold Roxy and Cessily tight, so relieved the girls are okay. 

ROY: “You stay strong?” 

ROXY, grunting in pain a little: “Of course, dad.” 

ANGEL, kissing Cessily’s forehead: “Thank you for protecting our baby, Cessily. You are family. You know that, right?” 

ROY, with a smirk: “She will be when she puts a ring on it.” 

ROXY, embarrassed: “Dad! 16!” 

Everyone laughs, as Cessily blushes. 

The Washingtons try to get the girls inside for some tea, but they have to take care of one more thing; they’ll be right back. 

Outside the building, Laura is standing in the rain. Cessily and Roxy come out, telling her to come inside; they can all head back to the institute tomorrow. 

Laura glares at the two. 

LAURA: “You were kidnapped because of me. You were tortured because of me. And I almost killed you both…because that’s all I can do.” 

Cess steps forward telling her that’s not true, but Laura shouts at Cess to not take another step. She’s sorry, but Kimura was right. She’s not a person. And she’ll only ever hurt the people she gets close. 

LAURA: “Julian…Sofia…and now you.” 

She tells them to tell Soo and the others she’s sorry she isn’t saying goodbye, but she can’t go back to the X-Men; she quits. 

They both shout at her to stop, running after her as she walks away, but Laura shuts them both down. 

LAURA: “Don’t follow me. You won’t get lucky again while I’m in control.” 

Cessily and Roxy can’t do anything but hold each other as Laura runs off into the night, tears in her eyes. 

In the Facility laboratory, Kimura is pleased with how things have turned out. She was hoping using the trigger scent to make X-23 kill her friends would break her emotionally, make the X-Men turn on her, and make her easy to take back for good, but even if she does wish the other Mutie girls were dead, she still got valuable material and data for improving the Predator X, and X-23 has still broken herself off from the X-Men. 

KIMURA: “There’s nothing stopping me now from retrieving her and keeping her here forever. Then, I will make her regret the day she ever crossed me. I’ll scratch her eyeballs out as many times as I need to until she begs to be blinded, and then I’ll–” 

Kimura is cut off. She gasps as blood spits out of her mouth. Looking down, she sees she’s been run through with a katana. All around her, she sees the scientists have all either been cut down in an instant, or reduced to piles of ash. 

Death leans in next to Kimura’s shocked face. 

DEATH: “Lady Akabba sends her regards.” 

Death rips his sword out of her and kicks her to the floor. 

DEATH: “She thanks you for your efforts, but she has her own plans for Wolverine. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed watching her squirm.” 

Death sheathes his katana and pulls out his lighter. Lighting it up, he tosses it at the computers to set them aflame. If Kimura is truly stronger than most humans, she shouldn’t have a problem escaping a burning building with a hold in her esophagus. 

Kimura swears at him that this isn’t over, that he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with, and that the horsemen will all pay. Death pays her no mind. 

Instead, Death takes out his phone and sends a text to Lady Akabba, informing her the job is done. 

On her throne in Egypt, Lady Akabba is pleased with his report. 

LADY AKABBA: “Apologies. I was dealing with another matter.” 

“No apologies necessary…” Knelt before her, we see Dr. Garrison in one of the cult robes. “...my lady.”

[heyclickadee]

I've had this sitting in my drafts for a few days and just forgot to post it. Anyway! Thoughts on "Entombed" (sorry, this got long): 

1. There's an ancient mechanical creature hidden under a mountain on an uncharted world activated by a mysterious crystal and implied to have razed its entire planet. Why? How does this technology work? Is the mechanical creature alive or sentient in some way? What is it about the crystal that activates the creature? Is this just technology, or is it force weirdness, or both? Why did somebody (potentially the Zeffo) build a planet destroying giraffe of terror? Why was it in the mountain? Did someone hide it there? Did the engineer who designed it base its appearance off of a real animal? Did it hide itself? I have questions.

2. I had to watch this one twice to decide what I thought. I enjoyed it the first time, but I was so thrown by how completely different it was than what I was expecting that I had to give it another shot. Second time around? I loved it. Sometimes Star Wars is profound and serious. Sometimes it's silly Indiana Jones shenanigans in space, and I love it for that.

3. I'll talk about the whole "filler" discussion lower down, but one of the throughlines that's been carried through to this episode from the very beginning of the season is the idea of these characters exploring life outside Kamino, the army, and even the "hunker down and survive" mode they were all in last season, along with the choices they are or could be making as individuals regarding what kind of lives they want to live. Echo, for example, wants to go back to being a soldier, but this time in a fight against the empire; Crosshair is still choosing to be a soldier (for now), and he's miserable about it but having to live with the choice he made to stay; Tech's gotten to explore a bit of what he wants and likes through the riot racing episode but, more than that, he's being presented with the idea that the galaxy is broader and deeper than he considered and that he maybe has more to offer it than just what he was designed to offer; Wrecker...honestly needs an episode where he's in focus because he seems to be the most content of any of them and I'm not sure what Wrecker wants, besides being with the people he loves; and then this week was Omega's (and sort of but not quite) Hunter's turn. I'm an adult, so I tend to focus on the adult characters, but Omega's such a good character and it's great that she's also getting a chance to explore what kind of person she wants to be. This is the second episode we've seen that really focuses on her being a bit of an adrenaline junky with an interest in treasure hunting. And given what Romar said to her about how happiness is worth all the treasure in the galaxy, that's probably going to be a theme for her this season, and I'm curious to see where it goes.

4. Theres. An inexplicable megazord. Just. Out there. On a dead planet.

5.  Hunter's...Hunter's not okay. And not even in just a "tired dad" sense, I mean that Hunter's probably been crying under his helmet since "Aftermath" and that he's getting to the point where he can't hide how bone-tired and sad he actually is. It's almost shocking going back and watching the first half of season one and comparing Hunter there to how he's been in his season so far, because he was so much more open back then. He was exploring options, asking questions, trying to find a new life for all of them, and came across as pretty confident in his decisions, but after the one-two-three punch of encountering Crosshair on Bracca, getting shot by Cad Bane, and losing Omega? The man shuts down. And he only shut down more after what happened with Crosshair on Kamino. I actually suspect that Hunter agrees more with Echo about what they should be doing than he lets on, even taking his opinion that Omega shouldn't be forced into become a soldier the way they were into account. He's not happy about what they're doing, he doesn't like going on dangerous missions for someone else, and he really only got involved with Cid because they were broke and desperate and because she kind of blackmailed them into doing it, but he keeps digging his heels in and refusing to move. It seems like he feels like he's a failure as a leader, a brother, and maybe even as a father, because he hasn't really been proactively leading the group since episode nine of last season. He isn't really making decisions about what they should or shouldn't do--he's mostly letting other people decide on their missions and then letting them guilt, blackmail, or push him into it because he's so scared of making a decision that get's another one of them hurt or results in them losing another person the way they lost Crosshair (or worse) that he's mentally and emotionally paralyzed AND emotionally isolating himself from everyone else. And that paralysis is starting--more than starting--to cause friction on the team, and I'm curious to see how that's going to affect the story moving forward.

6. Seriously, someone get this beautiful bandana man some therapy.

7. Likewise, the vibe between Echo and Hunter this episode was interesting. As much as they're (at least outwardly) disagreeing on what their next steps should be, there doesn't seem to be any animosity between them, at least not yet.  All those silently exchanged glances? They disagree, but they trust each other, and I kind of think they both think that they other one is going to come around to their point of view. Eventually.

8. Omega is me if someone sets me loose on a scavanger hunt.

9. They gave me the space archaeology (kind of) and I am VIBRATING

10. I WISH archaeology was this fun. I spent an entire season walking surveys up in Wyoming, and did I ever come across a map to an ancient mecha-beast? No. No I did not. (I kid, real life archaeology is very fun and I have absolutely cried about lithic debitage and fingerprints on potsherds because someone it means someone lived and breathed and died and that stuff might seem boring but it's evidence of a human life and that's beautiful.)

11. Phee! All hail our pirate queen!

12. Phee is fun and her fashion sense is impeccable. And she has a sword. She's got a vibro-cutlass. Or something like unto a sword. But in space. And regardless of how anyone interprets them, I really liked the scenes with her and Tech at the beginning (characters being a bit snarky towards each other? I'm going to have fun), and Omega imprinting on her like a little baby duck was adorable. It's similar to the vibe Ezra had with Hondo, but where Ezra was a bit of a little shit (and I mean that affectionately) with a tendency to give Hondo chances he knew Hondo didn't deserve because he thought Hondo was a fun dude to have around (and maybe because he saw in Hondo a lot of the kind of person he would have turned into if the ghost crew hadn't picked him up and given him a chance), Omega's just all starry eyes with Phee. Is Phee trustworthy? Probably not. Is she fun for now? Oh yeah.

13. It would be hilarious if Phee turned out to be a former jedi who worked in the archives but left the order well before the war or order 66 because she wanted to go treasure hunting. This is the crackiest of crack theories and I do not expect it to happen. But it would be funny.

14. I loved how into the treasure hunt Tech started to get. Asking questions? About the puzzles? Doing his own investigation on the age of the site? Yes.

15. "I suspect that this is not, in fact, a treasure vault," as the aforementioned inexplicable megazord shambles to life once again proving that Tech, with his deadpan one-liners, is the funniest damn character on this show.  

16. Not much Echo this episode, which was a little disappointing, but I liked what little we got. Hopefully there's more in the next one!

17. There's a MAP to an TECHNOLOGICAL MONSTER that PREDATES THE REPUBLIC just OUT in SPACE and I am HERE FOR IT.

18. I didn't think it was possible to make something that vaguely resembles an ankylosaur look scary. I've been corrected. I'm glad Wrecker was able to throw the ankylosaur from hell out the window. (But also I feel a little sorry for it). 

19. Mel??? Running from the death ray??? And not making it??? Corbett and Rau I AM IN YOUR WALLS WHAT THE HELL??? But no, actually, that was a pretty good way to up tension without taking out one of the regular characters.

20. So...I'm not saying that spite is low-key a good motivator, but spite might low-key be a good motivator. I'll just leave it at that.

21. No one calls the clone characters by their names. I didn't think this was anything at first, but the more of this season I see, the more I think it definitely is. No one who isn't a clone addresses a clone by their name. And it's not just the villianous or morally ambiguous non-clone characters, no one does it. Not Phee, who has a couple different nicknames for everyone in the batch (including Tech, even though she asked what his name was), not Cid, not Rampart, not even Romar, and Romar was definitely a good guy. The only exception was the announcer and the crowd using Tech's name in "Faster," because that's the name he gave when he signed up (and there's a pretty good chance no one suspected he was a clone) and even then the announcer had to comment on how weird it was and questioned whether or not that was even a name. It's an interesting trend and is probably playing into the idea of how clones were viewed by most of the galaxy during the war--basically as non-people--but I also want to see where it goes before I come down on any hard conclusions. Apart from the overall trend, I do think that every character we're meeting is doing it for a different reason. Rampart pointedly calls clones by their CT numbers as a sign of disrespect. They are not people to him and he doesn't care if they know that. Cid? I think it's so she doesn't get attached. She doesn't want to like them too much. It might be the same for Phee, buuuuuut I'm not sure. And then with Romar...I kind of wonder if he kept calling Tech "Ace" partly because he didn't realize that Tech's name was Tech. Same with the announcer in "Faster" scratching his head over "Tech" being a name. Romar could have thought that "Tech" was a codename or a squad designation, because...I mean...clone names are unusual. Even within the galaxy far far away with the exceedingly silly names, clone names are often etymologically weird. And every person in the batch is named after their job. It'd be like going to the store and finding out that the person loading the shelves is just named "Stocker." And--hey, sad thought about clones--I kind of wonder if most people in the galaxy just assumed that clones didn't have names. After all, they're manufactured people, people who didn't--from what people could tell from the outside--have families. Who would name them? is probably what a lot of people who didn't know the clones would ask. The only people who called the clones by their names were the jedi and other clones; now the jedi are gone and most of the clones aren't in a position to even use their own names right now.

22. I just made myself sad about clones.

23. I LOVED the look of...well, of everything in this episode. It honestly felt like half the purpose of this one was to allow the art and effects teams to flex and flex they did.  

24. This whole episode is like if someone decided that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Castle in the Sky, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Godzilla: King of Monsters were the same movie, and I appreciate that energy. 

25. I love that the batch's reaction at the end was basically just, "Well. That just happened." I need Crosshair to come back so they can tell him this story. Them just saying, "While you were off with the Empire we were awakening the ancient horrors," and him jokingly threatening to leave again because there's no way he's believing that this happened.

26. What is the kingdom of Elweys? I need it. I need to know. (For real, though, I'm actually glad that none of the crazy ancient technology stuff in this episode was explained. It gives the GFFA a bit of temporal depth that it doesn't always have and I'm here for it.)

27. Regarding the filler discussion: Not every story has to be serialized. It's okay for some shows to just be a series of putting characters in different combinations and scenarios and seeing what they do. In fact, that used to be the norm. For decades. That was how television worked. It's only in the last decade or so that serialized television has become more of a regular thing. 

Furthermore, there's a spectrum of ways to serialize something. On one end of that spectrum you have your eight-hour movies--things like Kenobi and Moon Knight, where pretty much every episode begins where the previous episode ended, and where no episode is complete without the overall structure of the entire show. On the other end of that spectrum you have your tentpole episode shows--think something like the first season of the Ducktales reboot--where you can mostly watch the episodes in any order you want because most of the episodes are the characters getting into various shenanigans while most of the plot is reserved for big event episodes, usually mid-season or season finales. And then elsewhere on that spectrum you'll have shows that are written a little more like a novel. Every single episode or chapter will have its own story, its own miniature inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and its own mix of plot, character development, and worldbuilding (sometimes focusing a little more on one than the others), but the successive episodes or chapters build up to an overarching story and overall structure, and it can be hard to see how or what that overarching story is until you get to the end of the whole story. That's what The Bad Batch is. It's that kind of serialized story. 

And--just a last thought--if we're going to say that an episode is filler and doesn't contribute to the plot, we've got to one, consider that maybe story is more than plot, and two, ask ourselves what the "plot" actually is. Anyway, this is just me being a little bit salty, but the unending "filler" discourse whenever The Bad Batch isn't Crosshair's Agony Half-Hour got old last season, and this will probably be the last thing I say about it. (Also, this is just me and my two cents, so take it with a grain of salt). 

28. Jumping off of that, this kind of episode does make me suspect that we are getting at least a third season, because it feels like the writers are taking their time taking us we're they're going. I am more than okay with this.

29. DID I MENTION THE INEXPLICABLE MEGAZORD???

[incorrecttowerofgodquotes]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Season 2 Episode 8

- Secelia really just shows up everywhere, huh? She’s continuing her objective of snooping on everyone by questioning Suletta.

- Petra lives! Hallelujah! She fought off her death flags and even managed to save the girl she was carrying. Too op for this universe. Though sadly her body is pretty fucked yo. The crushed legs, the missing eye, and brain damage will definitely affect her for the rest of her life. Hopefully GUND-Arm will be able to help her a little.

- Fucking lol at Kenanji saying he couldn’t identify the pilot. Like no shit, you vaporized her

- The talk between Shaddiq and Miorine was probably the first time the two talked without any pretenses. The two both have big dreams but ultimately they took the wrong actions because of adult manipulations. Though I did find his line of “If got with you I wouldn’t have had to commit these terrorist acts” was pretty weird. Like bro, please bond with someone else on equal terms cause right now you’re just being a dick.

- Suletta handing out the tomatoes, a symbol of love, to everyone after she saved some to prevent them from rotting is peak symbolism. Especially since they’re given to the people who bullied them like the girls from Ep 4.

- Poor Nika once again. She didn’t really do anything wrong, but I can understand her feelings. I hope she continues her schooling and becomes a great mechanic. Her talent is needed to help Earthians and Spacians alike. Also her calling out Belmeria was very satisfying. The two had been set up as narrative foils in the series and here we see the difference between them. Nik won’t wallow in self pity and she’ll call out injustice when she sees it compared to Belmeria.

- God I hate Peil, those slimy little turncoats. Their PeilGPT told them to jump ship and they did. Just like how Cathedra intervened with Ochs Earth in the prologue, this the time the Space Assembly will take control of the Benerit group. I think the real Elan might take center stage and take control of the Space Assembly (right before he gets a bullet out between his eyes hehe)

- Sarius once again proving he’s the best space adult by looking to regulate the damages, but Miorine won’t take it. She doesn’t want to sacrifice anyone, even Shaddiq. Though she does have to take action, preferably after she’s talked to a large variety of people and arrive at the right answer

- Suletta coming out and telling everyone everything, no longer scared of her past or their rejection. She’s grown so much from the scared little girl she was when she arrived. She’s looking to help others and can recognize when her mother is doing wrong.

- The Space Oomfie just killed hundred of people, somebody stop her. The mass murder was extremely terrifying and becomes even more so when you realize Prospera seeks to spread this influence across all of space. She’s very much like Delling, wanting everything under her control and stamping out any naysayers. Eri is the only thing that matters to her now so even if it requires a large amount of lives, she’ll still act

- Calibarn really came out of nowhere and socked me in the gut. They were distracting us with the Schwarzette so they could drop this absolute bomb. All I can hope is that Suletta’s brain doesn’t crap out in the suit considering it has no resistance.

- El5n once again claiming his best boy spot by just chilling by some cows, eating space food, and listening in on the gossip. But what I find interesting is that he actually loves to act with Earth House, even if it’s just to get where he wants to. It was probably a mix of Nika standing up for him and Suletta recounting her backstory as a throwaway doll that got him to sympathize. Personally, I’m wondering where he wants to go. Either it’s to go murder the Peil guys (which is a win) or to travel to the images in Norea’s sketchbook (which is an even bigger win.) Aliyah makes note that his personality changed, but really, I think the somber but somewhat active El5n is his true self. He isn’t hiding his feeling with a mask, he’s being upfront with his emotions. Though it’s a bit sad that Suletta is still focused on El4n, but I hope next episode will get us both of their backstories. Also please don’t stick him in a Gundam again. I want my son to live.

- Lauda, my baby, I knew this would happen. I’ve been calling it since Ep 7 I believe, but god damn it don’t hurt me like this. Petra is still alive, you need to take her on a date! And please just talk to your brother! He loves you! Don’t die in that Schwarzette or make him kill you!

- But once again, people don’t seem to understand Lauda, similarly to the El5n slander, so let me break down his character. Lauda has spent his entire life being second string to Guel. He’s a child of a mistress and doesn’t even get the Jeturk surname despite being under his father’s custody. Apparently his first line to Guel when the two met was how he would support him. The poor kid has probably only thought of himself as an accessory to Guel, the perfect and strong big brother, so when that all changed it hurts him. If he can’t be by Guel’s side, if his big brother changes, then he gets thrown off balance. He needs someone to blame. First, it was Suletta, but now that Miorine is his fiancée, she’s his target now. In a way, he’s much like Shaddiq. Their idolized version of their loved ones come into conflict with their true selves and so they blame someone else. Now that Petra, the one person who probably saw Lauda as himself, is in a coma, no one can stop him.

Suletta’s arc continues to brighten and Miorine’s arc continues to crash and burn. And poor Guel is about to get with even more family murder trauma. I can only hope El5n makes it out safely. I will be buying flowers for Lauda

[waeirfaahl]

The issue with Jack’s and Ashi’s flashbacks

As I mentioned here, in the classic seasons Jack already killed humans and living creatures, while 5 season contradicts to this fact, demonstrating that Jack kills humans allegedly for the first time (although, even this aspect of 5 season makes absolutely no sense, as I pointed out here). 

But now let’s talk about Jack’s childhood and how he reacts at human’s death. In 6 episode of 2 season  young Jack saw how the lone warrior, protecting his son, killed the bandits — in this scene we see how Jack is a bit uneasy, but then we notice Jack’s admiration and inspiration, i.e. he understands that sometimes, if you want to protect your life and life of your family/friend, you have to fight and even to take your enemy’s life away. 

However, in 5 season we see absolutely different reaction. When Emperor killed the bandits, who attacked his family (it’s unclear where and why they were going at all), we saw young Jack’s fear and disgust in flashback in 3 episode of 5 season, so Emperor comforted Jack and explained to him that sometimes you have to kill your enemy. Why it differs/contradicts?

You can argue that this event happened before “Jack remembers his past” episode, and that’s why young Jack reacts differently in 5 season. My question — then why adult Jack again reacts with guilt/fear at human’s death in 5 season as if his character growth was erased or got total amnesia? It’s really weird that Jack has problems with it, since he’s a warrior from the Middle Ages (where he, becoming new emperor of his kingdom, obviously would kill other warriors/soldiers/bandits for protection of his kingdom during wars, for example) and lives in the future 50+ years.

I could understand if Jack was emotionally broken and felt guilt after accidental killing a child/teen, like some kind of compassion or whatever (and because in the classic seasons he never killed kids/teens). But in 5 season absolutely different and far-fetched case, quickly resolved by simple flashback (”As you know” cliche) Jack has to remember, know and to be okay with, because as a boy he already learnt this lesson.

However, even this aspect is inconsistent and just fades away in the next episode — in 4 episode for some reason Jack again feels guilt for death of assasins he knows nothing about (and thinks that they themselves chose this path) and doesn’t kill Ashi, deciding to “show her the truth” (’cause in Jack’s eyes she suddenly became “misguided innocent” instead of killer, who chose this). 

And it makes absolutely no sense, because in 3 episode he already heard fanatical speeches of her and her sisters, hinting that they’re brainwashed, but in 3 episode he doesn’t care about this and unhesitantly kills them, being completely okay with Ashi’s falling to her death — then why he didn’t kill Ashi in 4 episode immediately, again?! 

And the funniest moment is in 5 episode, because Jack forgets about his intention to “show the truth” and after reaching beach he just says goodbye to her and leaves (and even abandons her later in episode’s ending). Seriously, it was her desicion to follow him (I actually wonder, what would happen to Ashi, if she decided to return to her mother — her mother would kill her or what?)

Another moment that started to bother me after watching 5 season — Jack’s absolutist worldview. You know, the idea of “Aku is the cause and the source of badness in people, they are innocent tools for doing Aku’s evil will, and if to kill Aku, then everything will be okay, and all become good. Especially if to kill him in the past, then all people will stay good as it was in Jack’s childhood and before how Aku came and etc” or whatever. And it’s extremely stupid, because he himself saw bandits, who attacked the lone warrior and his son, and who attacked his parents. They attacked and wanted to kill for own goals, it happened before how Aku conquered Jack’s kingdom and then the planet. In “Jack in Africa” episode, for a reward in the form of treasures, Aku offered to another african tribe to catch young Jack and to bring the boy to the demon — they themselves agreed to do this ‘cause of own greed. Hence with or without Aku there always were and always will be people with rotten ambitions and destructive intentions. But for some reason Jack didn’t realize this simple fact during all these years.

And in 5 season it’s pretty creepy. The presentation of Jack as some kind of divine messiah (even with statues), and how Ashi blindly believes to Jack and to his allies and basically “falls in love” with him (having no idea about everything  in previous episodes and forgetting how he killed her sisters earlier) and is willing to do everything for him. Even to die for him. Yep, Ashi is fanatical in the same way her mother is.

And it’s not comparable with the moment from 8 episode of 4 season, ‘cause Jack rescued the members of royal family in the classic episode.

Now let’s talk about Ashi’s case. Here I already mentioned every problem with her as a character and with the story about her (and about her sisters and the cult), in this post I’ll talk about her short flashback in the end of 4 episode of 5 season. You know, the scene with nice music and pretty animation, and where Ashi is silent and you don’t want to hit her to shut her mouth up finally. Like, it’s already far-fetched that she encounters exactly a ladybug on this small island — as if Jack gently interacted with different animal (like those monsters he killed inside the large monster, for example), she would ignore this. And, again, she starts to doubt exactly ‘cause she saw Jack’s kindness toward the insect and immediately had the flashback of how her mother killed a ladybug. Really? Another “As you know” moment? I think, the scene would be stronger, if she realized Jack’s kindness exactly ‘cause he saved her and only later interacted with various animals, i.e. just remove Ashi’s flashback (by the way, why their mother hides her face even during interaction with her daughters? I guess, that scary face in 4 episode’s screamer scene was her real face indeed). 

But the main issue is deeper and exists in the concept itself. The seven sisters lived in absolute isolation since infancy. They knew absolutely nothing about nature, wild animals and their behavior, technologies and the world itself. They knew absolutely nothing about love, care, tenderness and friendship. They considered their mother’s cruelty and abuse as normal, they considered killing weak ones and merciful ones as good. Hence Jack’s “sudden” kindness toward ladybug as catalyst of Ashi’s doubts “Oh, he saved my life, maybe he’s not that bad. And if Aku, being pure and good deity, created this beautiful world, how this insect can be not part of his order?” makes no sense, because nobody taught her the love toward the nature and animals etc. Actually, Jack had to become the one who taught her this. 

You know, I’d say that even the way how Jack “proves” to Ashi that Aku is the evil is... far-fetched and forced. For example, this survived tree among the burned forest, and how Jack describes this as “Aku destroyed this and left the one tree as the reminder of his power and oppression, because he is the pure evil”. My main question — how Jack can know that exactly Aku burned this forest, if Aku all these 50 years sat in his castle and ignored Jack, and if Jack never saw him during all these 50 years?! Seriously, there aren't even any nearby settlements, whose habitants could tell Jack about it (and he doesn't mention it)! Maybe the massive fire destroyed the forest! Aku’s robots and demons did that? No, Jack mentions only Aku, so how does it make any sense? I mean, in the classic seasons we never saw how Aku destroys wild nature (and there’s no reason for him to do this). If this happened before 50 years time skip, then how the tree is still alive, being among poisoned and burned ground?! Or if the ground is not poisoned, then why the forest hasn't been renewed and grown anew? Sorry, but it’s incredibly forced and childish caricature for the season, which wants to be adult.

Same thing with this dried river or whatever it is. 

And another burned forest. Like, there’s no hints that these locations are near industrial territories or technological cities, what could explain why the wild nature suffers here, i.e. the result of technological progress (I also discussed about it here). Just random locations Jack was lucky to show to this incredibly gullible girl, who knows absolutely nothing.

Then what is that? I still can not understand, where their temple is. What location it is. Seriously, their temple is among sharp mountains and abyss, but somehow one ot the temple’s sides comes to this valley with river and hills with flowers. It’s really very weird.

You imply that the valley Ashi saw was just illusion? Or that her mother is really that stupid and blind, so she didn’t notice how changed the nature near her temple during these years? Seriously, all this does not add up to a single picture.

Or this extremely far-fetched moment. Jack was lucky enough to catch the arrival of the ship of the exiled criminals right now, and that the watchman is a jerk, who allows them to occupy someone else's territory and to kill them. Seriously? Plus, again, it wasn’t Aku’s order. It was the decision of this watchman or whoever he is. Aku all this time sat in his castle, ignoring everyone and everything and being very irresponsible even toward own empire.

Seriously, 5 season wants to make me believe in “How cruel Aku is! He tortures and kills all! Aku is evil and bad!”, but we literally see how the depressing ruler sits in isolation for decades and becomes irresponsible and apathic idiot, ignoring absolutely everything and everyone and not caring about what even his own henchmen are doing with his own resources and technologies and etc, and how he unintentionally unleashed the hands of various random scumbags who even have nothing to do with Aku.

Aku literally did nothing and ignored Jack all these 50 years, waiting his natural death. Hence his only fault is in total irresponsibility and disregard for what anyone is doing without his knowledge.

I know that Jack didn’t know about this, but in this case both Jack and the high priestess were wrong.

P.S. Even if Ashi’s mother allowed the ladybug to fly away, in the narrative of 5 season Ashi still would start to doubt, because “the evil samurai” saved her life and was kind toward animal in the world, “created by the good deity”, and despite all her protests was kind to her unlike her ruthless mother.

[chriscdcase95]

My thoughts on “Teen Wolf: The Movie”.

So I watched the new Teen Wolf movie. Ultimately. I'm giving it a six out of ten. While there was more I liked about the movie than disliked, I had quite a few  gripes.  

I didn't see it as horrendous as a lot of fans say it is, but there are a few valid critiques I've seen. Maybe I'm just easy to please.

I think some of the issues could have been fixed if there wasn't such a big time skip; like instead of fifteen years, five years. Maybe instead of raising a teenager, Derek would be raising a toddler. Though I don't think we'd get the same kind of story for Eli that way, especially for this generations teen wolf. 

Spoilers below.

1. So I got into Teen Wolf back in high school, and I remember being a die hard Scallison stan back then too. I'm not as big of a Scallison as I was back then, but I am glad to see them be endgame, if it wasn't for one small thing.

My main question is if Allison aged a bit after her resurrection ? Like is she still considered a teenager or is she considered a young adult now ? I feel like this is a nitpick, but some In-Universe clarification would be nice! Feels like something the writers overlooked.  

Then again, werewolves are slow to age in the show's lore, so I guess you can apply "Vampire Rules" to these kind of romances. Maybe I'm overthinking it. I mean the show used to tease Parrish and Lydia, in season four; back when she was a teenager, and he was in his 20's. As if over half the fandom wasn’t shipping Sterek.

Actually, while I was working on this post, I read that Allison was eighteen when she died, so that's...better I guess.

2. Speaking of Parrish, his and Malia's relationship...I'm okay with it, more so than Scott and Malia. I mean they didn't do much with either pairing. Maybe that's the Malira shipper in me talking.

With Scalia, it felt like they just slapped them together because Scott needed a love interest for the final season. You could make the argument that a lot has happened over fifteen years that we didn't see.

With Malia and Parish, it feels like there's a whole ass story we didn't see, but y'know, show, don't tell. 

3. While I'm on that, the movie leaves a lot open ended, that it felt like it was setting up a follow up. This is were most of my problems come from. I was thinking maybe it would tie into Wolf Pack, but I've been hearing that the show isn't meant to be a direct spinoff (or even the same universe) as Teen Wolf. 

One thing I'd like an explanation of is Eli's mother, which again feels like they're saving for a follow up. Speaking of Eli, he became an instant favorite of mine, and someone I wouldn't mind seeing again.

Also, the cursing and nudity in this movie, I'm not saying it's out of place, and far from being prudish. I like that they’re being more risqué, but I’m also glad they didn't go too overboard with it. Still,  “Darkness, you motherfucker” absolutely killed me!

Another gripe I had was that Kira didn't return. Like this is a story where kitsune are front and center, and one of the antagonists is a monster her mother helped bring into the world. 

You’re seriously telling me she’s not up for another round ?

We're introduced to a new Kitsune, Hikari, who I have nothing against, but it really feels like Kira could have (should have) filled her spot. Especially since Hikari didn't have a proper introduction for a new player. "Oh, Liam has a new girlfriend who's a kitsune ? Welcome to the team I guess."

4. The villains...here's where I have more of an issue. So the Nogitsune makes a comeback. Which is fine; I saw that coming as far back as the trailers. 

But the movie's other Big Bad is Adrian Harris, with no explanation for his survival. I mean sure, a slashed throat/strangulation is an injury you can survive, but the chances are often slim.

I could have easily bought this Big Bad Duumvirate, if there wasn't something that stuck out; Stiles wasn't there. 

I can accept that Stiles isn't part of the story. I can accept Stydia splitting up (albeit begrudgingly). But Stiles was the Nogitsune’s primary tormenting victim, and the one Harris had the most beef with. You telling me he wasn't on their radar ?!

You're telling me that even if Harris survived or came back, the first thing he wouldn't do was try to access the speed force and pull some Eobard Thawne buffoonery on Stiles ? 

Get out of town!

Anyways, the Nogitsune was a serviceable villain, but I feel like Harris could have been replaced with another past antagonist. Say Tamara Monroe, considering she was the series cliffhanger villain, and as of this movie her arc's unresolved. They probably wouldn't have been able to pull any kind of twist with her, but she at least would fit more. 

Hell, even Theo Raeken would have been more fitting; the guy such has a proud history of subverting whatever redeeming qualities thrown his way, I still have a hard time buying his “redemption” at the end of the series. Actually, it wasn't even a redemption, it was just the one genuine Pet the Dog moment the guy actually had.

Anyways, Harris probably would have been a better fit in a story that had Stiles in it.

5. Not gonna lie, Derek's death was something sorta I saw coming.

What I mean is, I certainly saw someone in the main cast was gonna die. That's like an unspoken rule in “Next Generation” sequels. But I thought it would be someone else. If not Derek, it would be one of the parents.

Who'd I'd probably have die instead would be Chris Argent. I mean if you're gonna bring back his daughter, you'd think one consequence would be that Chris would die in her place.

Derek's death, I'm more mixed on, but ultimately accept. I would have preferred if Chris was the one with the heroic sacrifice. I still think it would be a more fitting end than Derek’s.

I heard some complaints that Scott and Allison pretty much adopted Eli, but I didn't see it that way. When Scott and Eli interacted, I got more of an uncle/nephew vibe than any father/son thing. 

The way I see it, Eli just has a large support system following his father's death; a support system that just now includes Scott and Alison. And let's be honest, there's no way and hell Derek is gonna let Peter raise him.

I've been told this was intended to be the start of a trilogy, so if we get sequels, hopefully they'll fill us in on what we missed.

[call-me-double-trouble]

Double Trouble fankid: Charlatan’s little sibling, Masquerade!

Ohhoho, did you think Charlatan was my ONLY DT kid OC? Think again!

Like Char’s intro, this will be a long post, so all the info on Masquerade is under the cut!

Masquerade, or Quera (pronounced like “Kera”) for short joins the family when Char is 13. Unlike Char, Quera isn’t adopted. I headcanon that DT can reproduce asexually (some lizards can), and that’s how Quera happened. DT was terrified when they first laid the egg. Would it survive? What would they do if it didn’t? How would Char react? Since they weren’t even sure if it’d hatch, they told no one about the egg. They stored it somewhere safe and warm, trying not to get their hopes up in case the baby didn’t make it.

They did eventually tell Char so that he’d have time to mentally prepare. They were worried he’d get jealous, as he always was a little clingy, but Char actually seemed excited about the prospect of a little sibling and vowed to take care of them. They finally told the others when Quera did hatch. Baby Quera was a handful for DT and Char. They took after their moddy more than Char in the troublemaking department, and their favorite thing to do was biting Char (much to his dismay). However, there was one big difference between DT and Quera—despite how much DT loved the sound of their own voice, Quera rarely spoke at all. She just didn’t seem to like speaking very much and preferred to communicate non-verbally when she could. They found it odd at first, but learned how to understand her gestures and didn’t force her to talk when she didn’t want to. With the lack of speaking, her sensitivity to sounds and touch, and her stims, it became apparent early on that she was autistic, but that wasn’t a problem for their family. DT and Char did their part to understand Quera’s needs and how to keep them happy. As Quera got older, they developed a habit of picking on kids twice their size and starting fights with anyone who irritated them. Char did his best to discourage this and teach Quera to communicate her feelings better.

When they found out Quera merely had an interest in fighting, they channeled that with video games at first (which she LOVED), and then training and competitive fighting when she got a little older.

Char and Quera became very close, and Char does his all to take care of her and be there for her. He protects them when need be and helps DT with parenting duties. When Quera acts up, though, Char is quick to yell, “Moddy! Come get your child!” XD

Quera discovered they were agender when they were about 8. As they put it, “Pronouns are just words. They don’t define me. Call me whatever you want.” DT primarily uses they/them, and Char often uses they and she interchangeably.

As an adult, Quera forms a gang in the Crimson Waste and keeps it secret from everyone except DT, Catra, and Finn. Char eventually discovers it as well, and though he doesn’t condone crime (he’s become a hero at this point in time), he won’t snitch on family, and he even acts as her bodyguard every now and then. Besides, Quera doesn’t carry out violent crimes, only theft. She only fights when she needs to, and that’s usually when they encounter rival gangs.

While running their secret crime ring, Quera meets their girlfriend and makes her their right-hand-woman. They’re very much a chaotic crime lesbian duo, and DT loves that for them.

Quera’s weapon of choice is a metal staff that can retract to be travel-sized and has both the ability to cast spells (Quera knows sorcery) and the ability to destroy magic sigils (wouldn’t want to get trapped like their moddy did in season 4). Quera is also known for her strong punches. They’re a lot stronger than they look, though they are still a bit buff under that leather jacket. Though, adult Char looks stronger and scarier than she does, so if they’re in the same room, people mistakenly believe Char is the one they have to worry about. Quera enjoys the element of surprise, though.

Quera can shapeshift just as well as DT can, and Char never really gets to that level. Quera can also act, and they find it easier to talk when pretending to be someone else, but they don’t quite end up doing the same espionage game DT does and never become as good an actor as them. She does prove to have a lovely singing voice, but refuses to sing for anyone other than her loved ones.

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Thank you for reading all that! As alway, if you want to know more about my OCs, feel free to ask! Or if you want to see more drawings or fanfics starring them!

[katatty]

Sims Tag

I was tagged by @charmandersims​! I might have been tagged earlier by other people too but can’t remember for the life of me. Thank you, tho!

What’s your favourite sims death? I’ve always thought death by flies is fun, although I don’t think I’ve ever had it happen in normal gameplay!

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? Maxis match, I guess. Although I guess I do use “alpha” hairs, alpha doesn’t really mean anything with TS2...

Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? Nope, I don’t think my Sims really do gain weight all that often, it’s hard to over-feed them in vanilla gameplay! Unless they’re doing a lot of gardening and eating the sparkly foods. I usually welcome weight gain since it’s rare to have “fat” sims :D

Do you use move objects? Yes, decorating without it is a pain in the ass lol!

Favorite mod? At the moment I’d have to say Story Progression for how much it changes the game! But my real favourite is probably the Sim Blender. So simple but useful :D

First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? I think I got Nightlife and University together with the base game when I first played? I like University the most :D

Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? aLIVE. I think of live mode as being like TV, like “we’re live!” That said I don’t think I even say “live mode” all that often, I always refer to it as having the game paused/unpaused 

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Ever???????? Gosh, maybe Duncan Huckleberry or Emmie Aisling? Neither of them are even that interesting facially, I just find them both really fun to write. In terms of face, maybe Lin Mori from Nekojima?

Have you made a simself? Yes, a few years ago! I remember doing quite a ute photoshoot with her, though I haven’t ever played with one in years

What sim traits do you give yourself? Excitable, cat-lover, slob, lucky, loves the outdoors

Which is your favorite EA hair color? I dunno, brown I guess?

Favorite EA hair? I like the one Nina and Bella use, especially all the dyed variants you can get in the mirror! I also really like the one that’s like half up and quite messy (that Lin Mori & Grace Linguine wear), apparently it’s called updo?

Favorite life stage? Young adults! I just love getting all that extra time with them. College is sooooo fun to me

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? Haha, I would say I am a builder but ultimately I am in it for the gameplay! Every build I make is with actually playing it in mind, and even if my building stuff “does better” on here I'm more invested in my gameplay and devote a lot more time to it :D

Are you a CC creator? I guess! Builds are kind of a type of CC, and I share those fairly regularly

Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? I don’t know, haha. I have a few simblr friends! But not really a “squad”. I find the idea a bit offputting lol

What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4) 2, of course!

Do you have any sims merch? Nah

Do you have a YouTube for sims? No, but I have considered it. Maybe when I get a new computer so I can actually do screen recording without my PC crapping out lol

How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? I don’t know if it’s really changed that much, haha, I’m a creature of habbit! My gameplay style is quite different between each save/hood, but my visual style hasn’t really changed since 2015, haha!

What’s your Origin ID? I don’t have Origin, lol!

Who’s your favorite CC creator? Ooooof, whenever I get asked this I opt not to pick one, haha!

How long have you had a simblr? Since 2014, apparently! So nearly 10 years, yikes!

How do you edit your pictures? I usually don’t edit them at all, but when I do I use an old photoshop action by @sterina-sims

What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? hahahahahaha

What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? I dunno, I think all of them add some value! But I do really love seasons, it adds so much beauty to the game and I love the gardening mecchanics! :D

I feel like I’m pretty late to the party on this one and I’ve seen everyone do it already... feel free to consider yourself tagged if you want to!