#so I’m hoping that means the other versions are in review now

[lukadarkwater]

Waiting (Im)patiently for the 1.6 update for Stardew to appear on my Switch

[damienns]

My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

v1

v2

v3

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

[identifying-cars-in-posts]

A long overdue update:

Hi everyone. Long time no see. I literally have not opened Tumblr since the last time I posted here. Hope everyone is doing ok. Figured I owed y’all an apology and explanation for kinda just vanishing.

First, I did in fact get a car! It’s a 2015 Nissan Versa Note. I don’t particularly like it but a friend gave me a deal on it that I couldn’t turn down. Once my life stabilizes I’m probably going to sell it and buy an old truck, maybe a 70s Ford. I’d love a little sports car or a land yacht but rear wheel drive is a bit impractical for brutal New England winters, and the Jeep really put me in Old American Truck Mode. But yes I have a car now!

Second, unfortunately this is an official notice of hiatus. When I last posted saying I was taking some time off it was because I had just had an incredibly stressful move and did not have the energy to keep this blog up. I figured I’d take some time to get settled in, relax, and then pick this back up after a week or two, but the last month has been really rough - the short version is one of the people I was living with turned out to be a pretty horrendous human being who managed to get everybody living in the house essentially kicked out via sheer drama. Within a month and a half. It’s a long story but tl:dr if you quite literally slander a property manager with heavy unfounded accusations of horrible crimes, they’ll probably bail from the whole situation. And since they’re gone the landlord has to hand ownership of everything over to a company that’s forcing everyone still here to vacate. I’m now fighting to not have to live in aforementioned Nissan Versa through the aforementioned brutal New England winter. On top of that, I’m a retail manager so we’re going into our busiest most stressful season, so that’s been an extra level of exhaustion.

So what does that mean for this blog? Well, as I said, I’m officially going on indefinite hiatus, as are the projects I was working on in relation, including the reference website. I’m really sorry, I’m just way too stressed and dealing with way too much. If I could, I would just hand off administrative power to someone else, but this is a sideblog so I can’t hand off login credentials without also giving access to my main/personal account. It’s my biggest regret of this account, but when I started it I never expected it to blow up the way it did back in September - I had no reason to expect to need it to be its own entirely separate blog. I love what I was doing here and I thought that it might even be a nice distraction from everything going on, but the upkeep required with this blog is just more than I can deal with right now. I hope that things settle down soon and that I can genuinely come back here and enjoy what I was doing, but I just need literally anything to level out in my real life and to not be in 100% survival mode, because at the moment I literally do not have the energy to pour into this.

Anyway. Sorry for the long post, I’m not good at not being overly verbose. I’m really sorry for kind of abandoning this project, and I hope I can get back to it relatively soon, it just might be a while.

In the mean time, I hope those of y’all who I turned onto cars as a potential hobby find some other good outlets! I highly recommend Donut Media’s series “Up to Speed” on YouTube, as well as the channels Regular Car Reviews, Doug DeMuro, Garbage Time, and Aging Wheels. All great YouTube channels that are both informative and very approachable and fun.

Godspeed and much love. Hope to see y’all soon

- Identifying Cars in Posts admin ❤️

[see-arcane]

The Vampyres--The Bones and Blood of the Book

Good news! I’m not dead and the book isn’t either! Just shambling slowly through the wasteland of the publication process. It’s been a bit since I last waved this bloody morsel around. So, consider this a progress report on the state of the novella, the prospective publishing options, and a few other questions that have been bouncing around in the inbox.

EDIT:

I have a website now! For some reason.

It's See Arcane Scribbles.

Smaller Edit:

Got a Spotify too for story soundtrack goodness:

COVERS

First things first—and the first part of a finished book is the cover. Here are some mockups I’ve been juggling, starting with the original placeholder. They’re far from perfect, but I’m proud of what I managed with a fairly skinny graphic art skill set.

FINISHING, FORMAT, AND FINANCE*

*(OR, THE HEADACHENING)

Copyright: Technically speaking, you have the copyright to your own writing once you put it to paper or screen. But this is somehow a different thing from a legally-binding registered copyright, which everyone declares is a must-have if you want your work to be protected with more than a non-textual trust-fall exercise, hoping nobody steals your work and runs.

That said, electronic registration with the copyright office is $65, or $45 to register one work by one author.

ISBN: I only recently learned the words behind this acronym. ‘International Standard Book Number.’ It’s the ID on a book that marks it as unique and helps commercial booksellers and libraries circulate it. Each iteration of a book—paperback, digital, hardcover, new editions, et cetera—has its own ISBN. When you’re publishing on your own, you purchase ISBNs through a service called Bowker.

One book/version’s ISBN costs $125.

There are better bargains the higher the number of books and/or versions you go, starting at a bulk of 10 books for $295. But as I only have the one (1) skinny novella on the table, that’s a no-go. Which begs the question of how many ISBNs are in store for this little monster. It depends on how many formats I go with.

eBook: The quickest and most cost-efficient option across the board for any self-publication service. Short, sweet, no printing pains of trim sizes or distribution costs or formatting, oh my. Nice.

Paperback VS Hardcover: …But I am now and forever a sucker for physical media. Even though it’s a teeny brochure of a thing, I want to hold a physical copy of The Vampyres in my hands! So bad! And every service I’ve looked through has stated the obvious: Hardcover costs more than paperback. My heart won’t break if I have to stick with paperback to spare everyone’s wallets—hardcovers are pricy in both directions!—but I am a little torn. Especially as physical size might affect the price too.

Here we have two of my favorite quick reads, an anthology of Poe stories and Clive Barker’s novella, The Hellbound Heart.

The Poe book is a clothbound hardcover. 6.5 x 4.5 inches, a bit over 120 pages.

The Hellbound Heart is roughly 8 x 5 inches (about standard for a novella), at 164 pages. But unlike Poe, it looks like Barker took some liberties with the spacing and font size.

Standard size dimensions cost less than unique cuts, which means that whether paperback or hardcover, I sadly have to say goodbye to the petite palm-sized edition I was hoping for. On the upside, good news to us crap-vision readers—the font’s going to get H U G E in order to make the book more than a pamphlet with delusions of grandeur.

Audiobook: The fact is, my voice is not up to the task of reciting anything with appropriate gravitas and I think we’ve all been spoiled by @re-dracula and assorted other podcasts’ skill in orating. I don’t have the cash to hire a professional and I’m not about to accept anyone’s freebie offers. I won’t pickpocket friends for their talent. If an audio version ever comes along for any story of mine it’ll be down the road when it proves worth the format’s effort and cost.

REVIEWS (and a Foreword!)

It was the best of times (People reading the thing! Commenting on the thing! Good good good—), it was the worst of times (The Mortifying Ordeal of People Reading and Commenting on the Thing). Time for what every advice site declares a book absolutely must have the moment it’s thrust into the wild.

Reviews, reviews, reviews.

I’ve already bitten several bullets and passed copies out to a handful of fellow scribblers to scrutinize, their reviews destined to be hung up like literary gold stars on their bookselling site of choice, my own included. Now comes my preliminary grovel to readers en masse to please drop a review, a comment, a blurb of any shape or size where you can once The Vampyres drops. I’ve already gotten some early comments that have consisted mostly of screaming. Screams also count as a review.

As an aside, there are two folks in particular who I reached out to who exist in the stratosphere of Coolest People in the Vampiric Lit scene. They promptly exploded me into disbelieving giblets when they told me, yes, they’d be happy to read my little story and offer up a review and a foreword for the book respectively.

I’m not sure what the decorum here is, but for safety (and surprise’s) sake, I’ll not name names. But they are names I’ve been happy to come across for the past two years while neck deep in the undead book club. I’m infinitely grateful to both of them and am waiting on pins, needles, stakes and kukri blades by my inbox so I can pin their words up inside the book itself.

FUTURE SCRIBBLING

To get one of the biggest questions out of the way, let’s talk about Barking Harker.

My very own object lesson on sunk cost fallacy.

I wrote my way through a goddamn cinderblock of text without even grazing the finish line of the first section of the story. A story made of so many convoluted triple-decker layers of subplots and side characters that it had the structural integrity of a monolithic Nature Valley granola bar, just waiting to fall apart under its own weight. Such is the hubris and curse of too-many-words-itis. The Vampyres remains a miraculous fluke, jotted down during an overdue break from BH’s slog. Not just because I tripped and fell into finishing the story, but because it’s comparatively compact! Brevity at last!

For those still craving the assorted gothic and ghoulish promises of the initial novel idea, don’t worry, those aren’t going anywhere. I’ve just crumbled the metaphorical bloodstained granola by my own hand and have done the sane thing of parsing out the various subplots to become the foundations of their own stories. Which they really should have been from the get-go. Insert 100+ clown emojis here.

On that note, I am turning into WIPs Georg over here. Good god.

I hesitate to throw myself all-in again and make promises of X Story that may leave me spinning my mental wheels or ballooning the plot out into a behemoth that can’t be steered back on course. Even so, here’s a peek at a few ideas I currently have on the brain.

So.

Not exactly lacking for stories. It’s just a matter of seeing which of them breaks ahead of the herd and squeezes out into the publication ether first.

LAST BIT  

Blah, blah, requisite reminder that I have a Ko-Fi where you can donate a buck or commission my best attempt at art, blah. Any pennies are a help.

But I’m betting very few of you came around here for my doodles. Somehow, a good amount of people tripped into this pit with me because you enjoy the rambles and horrors I’ve written over the years. Maybe some of you will even buy my book once it’s out. And you, there, on the other side of the screen—you’re reading this right now. You made it all the way to the bottom of this pile of exposition just because you wanted to. So, thank you.

Thank you for reading this far. Thank you for reading before and reading what’s to come. Thank you for giving me the confidence to even consider shouldering my own work out into the wider world.

Thank you.

P.S. If you want to re-read the preview, go here!

[ariesqueencobra]

what we used to be | lll

Pairing: Eli Moskowitz x Fem!Reader

Summary: You're excited that your relationship with Eli is flourishing. A big fight leaves you and him making a decision that could benefit your lives.

Warnings: bullying, slut-shaming, kissing, violence (school fight/karate)

Word Count: 1k

A/N: A short and sweet chapter but I love it! Make sure that if you want to see more of this story to comment and reblog! Comments let me know what you like about the story and reblogs help others see the story! Thanks!

I don't consent to this work being copied, translated or reposted.

“I’m sorry to hear about what happened at the dance,” you frowned, sitting on your bed.

You and Aisha finally made time for your hang-out. It was agreed between the two of you to go to your place. 

It had been a few days since you and Eli kissed. You both hadn’t talked about it, but it was unspoken between the two of you that it was where you wanted to be. 

While your mind had been distracted by that plus the emotional turmoil that was caused by Yasmine and Moon–it was nice to just be with a friend.

“Don’t worry about it, it sucks, for sure,” she sighed. “But I joined Cobra Kai,” she smiled. “Sensei’s teaching me how to actually kick ass”. 

“Woah, really? I’m happy for you,” you nodded. 

You were happy she joined the dojo. At least one of you is building confidence to stand up against Yasmine. 

“If you want to build strength, join Cobra Kai. We can use more students too,” she suggested. 

“I don’t know, it sounds intense,” you winced. 

You don’t think you’d do well in an aggressive environment such as that. Based on how Miguel talks about his sensei and now Aisha? You don’t think you’d last a day.

“It’s not that bad, honestly,” she reassured. “Before it felt like I didn’t have anything to use to get back at Yasmine, but now I have this confidence, this strength. Something I have that she doesn’t,” she licked her lips. “But you really wanna know the truth?”

You leaned forward, telling her you did.

“I’m doing this to better myself,” she smiled. “I’m the best version of myself I can be and it’s so freeing,” she sighed out. 

“Wow, maybe I’ll put some more thought into it,” you hummed. 

That freedom she was talking about was calling your name and for once in the few weeks you’ve heard of Cobra Kai, you really considered it. 

~

You were reviewing your Calc homework before the big test today at your locker when a familiar voice called your name. You looked to your right, happy to see Eli.

“Hi, oop,” you were taken aback when he greeted you with a kiss. “Hi,” you felt your cheeks warm, your hand clutching your locker door. 

“Was that okay?” his eyes grew worried that he went overboard.

“Yeah,” you sheepishly said, reassuring him. “I’m just still getting used to it,” you giggled. 

And it was true.

Going from best friends to kissing each other was such a huge jump. It wasn't the norm even as excited as you were that you got to kiss the boy you’ve been in love with since you could remember. 

“Does this mean we’re dating now?” you chewed on your lip, closing your notebook.

“I hope so,” he smiled, hiking his shoulders up. 

“Cool,” you nodded, checking your phone for the date to remember it.

“I’ll walk you to class?” he offered and you nodded. 

Your hands became intertwined and for once you felt more than complete. You couldn’t wipe your smile off when you went into class, your mind not even thinking about limits or functions because you had a boyfriend!

~

You were walking alongside Eli and the boys to your lunch table, happy to see that Aisha was there. 

The whole cafeteria grew silent though when Sam threw a tray onto the floor. Oohs were whispered around. The four of you slowed down as you stayed back and observed.

“You see that billboard with the giant dick? I guess, Sam takes after her dad,” Kyler had a shit-eating grin on his face.

The cafeteria got riled up at the awful comeback.

You saw the way Sam’s eyes coated with anger, her jaw clenched, gaze narrowed. You felt for her, truly. 

She seemed like such a nice person and a good friend, based on what Aisha told you, but you didn’t understand why she was friends with such assholes.

You didn’t know what was going to happen between them until Miguel spoke up. 

“Oh no,” you said under your breath. 

He slammed his tray on the table next to Aisha before approaching Kyler. “Why don’t you shut the hell up and stop being an asshole?” 

“Want another beat down, Rhea?” Kyler shoved him. 

Miguel grunted as he fell back but caught himself on the chair behind him.

“I’m ready for your lame-ass karate this time,” Kyler shoved him again.

“It’s not lame-ass karate,” Miguel gritted just as Kyler went in for a punch but he blocked it, gripping his arm that caused pain to radiate all over his face. “It’s Cobra Kai,” he said before knocking him straight in the teeth.

“Woah,” Eli said. 

Blood spilled from Kyler’s nose, anger coursing through him before he body-slammed Miguel into the table, dragging him by the neck to another. People moved and jumped out of the way as Kyler got him in a headlock, but Miguel elbowed him in the gut, grabbing him by the arm and pulling it behind him, using that leverage to punch him in the cheek and then kicking him.

“No mercy!” Aisha shouted.

So much passion, you thought.

Another guy came behind Miguel but he anticipated it, sweeping him right off his feet. Then two others came but he got them too, kicking one in the stomach and another in the face.

Using his chance to run, Miguel rolled over a table, grabbing onto a tray. He kicked a chair towards an attacker before using the tray to hit Kyler and the blond one. 

He kicked and hit, knocking them down until Kyler charged at him. He jumped onto a table, sweeping his leg behind him, and kicking him before he knocked the corner of the tray right into his face. 

He actually did it. 

He took down at least six guys by himself.

Miguel stared in amazement, at the crowd surrounding him.

You felt so proud of him, being very impressed but his victory was cut short when Counsloer Blatt ordered him to come down.

~

Eli’s mouth pressed against yours, your hands placed on either side of his face while his hands were on your arms.

It was awkward navigating kissing but it was also the best thing you’ve ever experienced. 

“We should probably get back to homework,” you said, face hot and lips puffy as you pulled away. “Before your mom catches us,” you licked your lips, growing flustered at the thought of being caught.

This was the only way you’d agree to have a make-out session with Eli—at his house, not yours. If your dad found you guys locking lips, that would be the end of Eli. Frankly, you didn’t want that to happen. 

Still, you wanted to keep your fresh relationship under the ropes from your parents.

“Sure,” he nodded sheepishly, grabbing his pen.

You were doing homework at his house today, Demetri declining because he didn’t “want to get in the way of young love”. The thought made you laugh, but there was no denying how grateful you were about it.

“What did you get for problem four?” you asked, your arm and thigh pressed against his.

This time around, you didn’t care that your body was as close to his as possible. You both welcomed it and the butterflies in your tummy fluttered in delight.

“C,” he answered. 

“Damn,” you sucked in a breath, looking over his work to see where you went wrong. “You think it’s too late to drop out of Chemistry?” you wondered.

“I think you’ll be fine,” he reassured. “So what did you think about Miguel today?” he fidgeted with the pen.

“The fight?” you furrowed your brows, copying his work onto your paper. “I thought it was totally badass,” you grinned. “I guess he and Aisha were right, their sensei knows what he’s doing,” you snorted. 

“I think I’m gonna join,” he admitted, chewing on his lip and he averted your gaze.

You paused, a smile appearing on your face. “That’s great, Eli!” you reached over to kiss his cheek.

“I even talked Demetri into joining,” he added. “So I was thinking maybe you should join too,” he shrugged, searching your eyes for any sign of disagreement. 

“Really? You think I could learn to kick ass like that?” you turned to face him.

“I think you could become the best in the entire Valley,” he blushed, mirroring your movements. “So what do you say?” he smiled.

“Let’s do it,” you grinned.

[charlottesbookclub]

like real people do (alistair x reader) 💜💜

Summary: honestly there's no real plot, just pure fluff. Alistair tries to adjust to having a human mate, and he's trying really hard 🥹

Warnings/Tags: gn!reader, mention of skipping a meal (not intentionally), mentions of eating, Alistair being awkward and a bit rude lol, basically just pure tooth-rotting fluff, but as always, let me know if I've missed anything!

Words: 1,634

Author’s Note: me, writing a twilight fanfic in the year of our lord 2024? it's more likely than you think. uhhh yeah I have no real explanation for this except that I have stumbled back into my Alistair obsession and I just wanted to write a cute little something for him. I don't think this is my best work, but at least it made me smile, so that's something. honestly I have no idea if there's anyone else out here reading fanfic for an incredibly minor twilight character, but if there is, I hope you enjoy whatever this is! I was thinking of making this a little series of Alistair trying his damndest to figure out human stuff, so do let me know if you have any interest in that. but okay I'll stop rambling now - enjoy! 💖

            A message pinged through on your computer, and you looked away from your work for a moment, pulling up the chatbox. It was Lucy from the front desk: 

hey – someone’s here to see you

who?

hard to describe – and i’m having a hard time getting his name

You chuckled softly to yourself, having a sneaking suspicion you knew exactly who it was. Odd that he would willingly put himself in a situation that forced him to speak with other people though. Your laughter turned into a small frown as you considered the fact that something might be wrong. You and Alistair hadn’t been together long, but you knew about his aversion to others well enough to wonder what could bring him into proximity of the possibility of needing to engage in small talk.

be right there

You pushed back from your desk and hurried down to the lobby. Lucy was obviously waiting for you to arrive, and she met you with a mildly panicked look, gesturing with her head toward the tall man standing awkwardly in the corner of the lobby. Thanks to his heightened senses, he had noticed your arrival long before Lucy, and was already striding across the floor toward you at a pace that was just barely slow enough to be considered human. You made a mental note to ask Carlisle to gently review normal human behaviors with him. You just managed to give Lucy a quick thumbs-up to indicate that you knew the tousled man before he bustled the two of you back toward your office.

“Alistair, what the hell?” you asked as he ushered you inside and closed the door behind him.

“What a truly awful system,” he muttered to himself, clearly continuing a rant he was already halfway through rather than answering your question. “I mean really, how many idiots should I have to go through to see my partner?” You just crossed your arms and leaned back against the edge of your desk, a bemused smile starting to fight its way onto your face. You knew it was no use interrupting him until he had gotten everything out. “’Would you like something do drink?’” He parroted Lucy’s question mockingly. “No I bloody well would not – unless you’ve got a few bags of blood stored away back there,” he retorted to this fictional Lucy sarcastically. “Zounds, how hard is it to just point me in the right direction and leave me in peace?” His words faded into muttering and soft curses in a version of English that hadn’t been spoken for hundreds of years.

“Alistair,” you said quietly, breaking him out of his monologue. His talking to himself had seemed strange at first, but the more you learned about his life before meeting you, the more it made sense. He had been his only company for so long and was only now slowly adjusting to speaking with other people again. You, however, found it incredibly endearing and hoped he didn’t break himself of the habit completely. 

His focus snapped to you instantly when he heard your voice, and he started murmuring apologies that you quickly brushed off.

“Alistair, it’s fine,” you assured him, sending him a warm smile and softly placing your hand on his forearm. Touch was another thing that was coming back to him only slowly. You had learned to proceed cautiously, gently, making sure he knew that you were about to touch him before making contact. The words stilled on his lips as his eyes focused in on the place where your warm palm met his cold skin.

“Alistair,” you said quietly after a moment of letting him adjust to the contact. His eyes traveled back up to your face at the sound of his name on your lips. “Is something wrong?”

“I—no,” the words tumbled out awkwardly, and you could almost see him trying to say three different sentences at the same time. If he still had blood under his skin, you were certain he would be blushing. Knowing that eye contact made conversation even more difficult for him, you flicked your eyes down toward your hand still on his arm, gently pulling it from where it hung limply at his side. You cradled his large hand in both of yours and began tracing mindless patterns on his skin, hoping this would give him enough of a reprieve to gather his thoughts. He took a deep breath and tried again. 

“Nothing is seriously wrong, but I— well I… worried about you.” This instantly caught your attention, and you looked up again almost without thinking, only to find his ruby eyes gazing back down at you with a softness you were just beginning to recognize.

“Alistair, I promise, I’m just fine,” you assure him.

“But… well… I noticed you didn’t eat breakfast this morning.” You tilted your head, wondering why that was such a cause for concern that he would willingly subject himself to the horror of checking in at your work.

“I was just running a little late and didn’t have time to make myself anything,” you explained, hoping that would ease his mind, “there’s always snacks in the break room, so I figured I’d have something when I got here.”

“I understand, but humans in your age group are supposed to eat three balanced meals per day, with the addition of one to three snacks. Lack of nutrients can result in many deficiencies, which in turn can lead to side effects like headache, dizziness, and trouble concentrating.”

You couldn’t stop the smile that was growing on your face as you listened to him recite this knowledge as though he had memorized it straight from a Wikipedia article. However, you seriously doubted Alistair’s ability to navigate the internet, since Carlisle had only recently convinced him to try using a flip phone.

“Where did you hear about this?” you asked, trying to remain serious and stifling the giggles that were rising in your throat.

“I’ve been reading Carlisle’s medical texts,” he responded with a furrowed brow, “I want to make sure I understand all the risks and ensure that I am prepared for every eventuality.”

If you hadn’t been completely in love with him yet, this would have undoubtably sealed the deal. He may be awkward and eccentric and even difficult at times, but he was trying so so hard to care for you in the best way he knew how. Although the whole situation was still incredibly amusing, you simply couldn’t bring yourself to laugh at him, even if it was all in affection. Instead, you raised yourself slowly to your tiptoes and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you for thinking of me,” you said as you lowered yourself back onto your heels. Your chaste kiss seemed to have frozen him for a moment, as he stood there completely still, his soft squeeze of your hand the only indicator that he was still present in the room. You let him recalibrate, and as he came back himself, he made a soft exclamation as though he had just remembered something. Reluctantly releasing your hand, he swung a small backpack off his shoulder. 

“I brought you some breakfast,” he explained as he pulled a jumble of containers out of the bag and placed them on your desk, “I tried to make sure I balanced all the proper nutrients to ensure you wouldn’t suffer any adverse effects from not having eaten this morning.”

You busied yourself with looking at all the containers of food to hide the tears that were welling in your eyes. You had never had someone care for you so completely like this before. Unfortunately, your plan didn’t work, since the awkwardly yet earnestly prepared food only brought more tears to your eyes. You had never expected that strangely cut fruit, mangled pancakes, and soggy cereal sitting in its own milk would make you cry with joy, but the amount of thought and care that had clearly gone into each piece of the meal was about to reduce you to ugly sobs.

You could feel Alistair watching you intently as you opened each of the containers, seemingly trying to gauge your response. When he couldn’t bear it any longer, he finally broke the silence. 

“If you don’t like it, I—I’m happy to go out and buy you something. I haven’t had human food in so long and even—even then I didn’t actually prepare it so I tried reading some of Carlisle’s recipe books but I think I still didn’t get it right—” 

“Alistair,” you didn’t normally like to cut him off, but you refused to let his anxious rambling sew any seeds of doubt in his mind. “It’s absolutely perfect – I can’t wait to taste it all!”

Alistair beamed at you then, a rare sight, but a welcome one.

“I just have one question though,” you said, and he looked at you quizzically, waiting for your inquiry. “Can I give you a hug?”

Confusion turned to elation on his face, and he spread his arms in assent and anticipation. You threw yourself on him, wrapping your arms around his neck as you wiped away a few escaped tears. His arms closed around your back hesitantly, like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them, but his uncertainty seemed to fade as you melted into his grasp, and he wrapped you even more tightly in his embrace. 

Both of you were smiling when you finally pulled away. You settled into your desk chair and motioned to Alistair to pull up another. He sat just close enough that your knees could touch as you surveyed the feast before you. 

“What do you think I should start with?” you asked him.

“Maybe the pancakes? I’m rather proud of those.”

[wolfjackle-creates]

Ghost!Robin Part 10

Here's another WIP Wednesday! Hope you enjoy.

Story Summary: Danny was invited to dinner at Wayne Manor to meet Jazz's boyfriend and his family for the first time. He worked hard to make sure no ghost business would interrupt the evening. But when he arrived, all he could focus on was the ghost of the dead Robin that seemed to haunt Jason. Looks like he was breaking his promise.

First, Previous

Word Count: 1.4k

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Alfred let out a put-upon sigh. “You, and you alone”—he gave a look to everyone at the table—“may ask Mr. Danny a single question. All other questions must wait until Mr. Danny has finished his dessert and informs you he is willing to answer more of them.”

“What the fuck does Jazz mean when she says ‘spoilers’?”

Danny sighed and leaned his chair back as he looked up to the ceiling. “Yeah, okay. That’s fair. You deserve an answer to that, dead boyfriend number two.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“I’m finally not the only dead one in the family. Sorry, but I’m gonna revel in that a bit longer.” Danny grinned at him and set his chair back on the ground. “So, spoilers. Well. My grandpa is kinda the Ghost of Time. Responsible for maintaining the time stream to bring about the future that has the best outcome for the most amount of beings. We met a few years back when he was ordered to kill me but became my mentor instead. Since he’s the ghost of time, he sees all futures and doesn’t really exist in the present. Sometimes he refers to things that haven’t happened yet as if they have or brings up events from centuries or millenia ago as if they happened yesterday. Bit headache inducing if I’m honest, but I’ve gotten used to it. Jazz doesn’t like it when I share details about what Gramps has let slip about her future.”

“No I do not. I’d rather live my life as if I have some degree of free will!”

The silence from the Waynes was only disrupted by the increased typing from Tim and Barbara.

“You know what,” said Jason after a beat, “I don’t even know why I’m surprised. Jazz, your brother’s life is insane and I say that as a zombie from a family of vigilantes.”

Danny shook his head and swallowed a bite of ice cream. “You aren’t a zombie. Zombies don’t retain any memories of their lives and they can’t think. Not sure what you are, to be honest. You’re ghostly in some way as evidenced by Robin and his ability to use and eat ectoplasm. Which you also recognized, if by a different name. Though, I will reiterate, ectoplasm shouldn’t bubble or collect in pits in the living realms.”

Jason stared at him for a moment before stabbing his spoon into his own pie. He muttered something under his breath and projected, restraint, hold it in.

Danny sighed. He really shouldn’t drag this out any longer. His remaining desert was gone in a few bites.

“Fine. I’m done. How do we want to do this?”

Jazz cleared her throat, “If I may, I have a suggestion.”

Bruce nodded and gestured for her to continue.

“Look, if we take the time to answer every single question about the Infinite Realms and ghost culture, history, biology, and psychology, we will be here for years. Now, Danny’s partner Tucker is our tech guy. We can have him send over a document tomorrow with much of the information we think would be necessary for you to have. You can review it on your own time line and verify it with Justice League Dark or whomever. And you can formulate a list of questions you need further clarification on. Sound fair?”

Jazz was the best. Danny sent her a wave of love you, thanks, you’re amazing and she squeezed his knee under the table.

Bruce hummed. “And what do you wish to talk of tonight?”

Jazz leaned back slightly and looked at Danny. “Danny? I think this is all you.”

Danny nodded. To the table he said, “Over half of you are in danger from the Guys in White. I suppose I should start with showing you how.” The ecto-trackers he had pulled out earlier still sat ignored on the table. He grabbed his own version and took a position kneeling between Bruce and Barbara. Tim got up to stand behind him. Everyone else also got to their feet and started moving closer.

Danny clicked his tongue. “The screen is too small for all of you to see. Jason, stay seated over there. It’ll be easier to show what’s going on with you if you and Robin aren’t right next to each other. Damian and Cass, you are the next most affected so come over. Everyone else, I’ll show you the exact same things just after.”

Cass gave him a single nod and slid out of her seat. Damian didn’t say anything, but pushed his chair out and stalked over. He stood as far from Tim as he could while still being able to look over Danny’s head at the small screen. Cass took her place between the two.

Whatever, their family drama was not his problem. He turned on the machine. “So this device tracks ectoplasm. My design is the most sophisticated on Earth. Green is free ectoplasm—ectoplasm that isn’t part of a ghost or sentient being. Purple indicates a liminal human. Blue is an unknown ghost. Red is a known, unfriendly ghost. Yellow is a known, friendly ghost. Orange is a halfa like me. The intensity of the color indicates the strength of the being.”

“What is a liminal human?” asked Bruce. “You’ve mentioned them before.”

“I didn’t go over that?” asked Danny as colored shapes began to appear on the screen. A bright orange blob appeared in the middle, himself. He was surrounded by three purple blobs, Cass and Damian were the brightest, Steph the dimmest at the other end of the table. But what really drew his eye was Robin. He was mostly blue, but a wave of blue-organge-purple connected him to Jason who was mostly purple. Both of their main beings had some of all three colors mixed in. Danny had never seen anything like it.

But he couldn’t focus on the strange display right now. Saving the image, he decided to ask Jason later if he could show Frostbite and Tucker to get their insight. “Liminals are humans who have been exposed to ectoplasm in some way. Either through death or long-term, low-level exposure. Overtime, it makes you death-touched and that changes a person. Everyone is different. Jazz has a degree of super strength, a ghostly obsession, and true empathy. Tucker has some technopathy; Sam a green thumb like you wouldn’t believe.” Though, this was Gotham, home to Poison Ivy. “Or, well, maybe you would, living in Gotham.” Danny pointed to the purple blob that represented Bruce. “This indicates you have quite a high level of liminality. Jazz”—he pointed to where she was, her color clearly brighter than any of the Waynes—“is currently the third most liminal person I know of on Earth.” He then pointed to Stephanie, a much dimmer purple haze. “And Steph is only lightly touched.”

Bruce hummed. “So this Ghost Investigation Ward will use a device like this to track any of us who have any sort of ectoplasm in us.”

“Yeah. Only theirs isn’t nearly as good.” Danny looked to his sister. “Jazz, mind passing the GIW device down?”

“Of course.” The GIW ectoplasmic radiation sensor had their signature sleek, white design. It was passed down the line from Jazz until Bruce was able to hand it to Danny.

“Thanks.” Danny took it and turned it on. “So the GIW design looks good, but can’t differentiate between different types of ectoplasm. As of now, they aren’t even aware of liminals.”

This device, when it turned on, showed a black screen with a white bar that went up and down at a steady pace. A loading bar was visible on the bottom labeled “Scanning.”

“As you can see, theirs takes a lot longer to get readings.” It finished loading. “Here we go.” Danny was a large green shape labeled “Phantom.”

Robin was also a green shape, though he was distorted with a tail leading towards Jason. He had no label. The others, excluding Stephanie who wasn’t displayed at all, showed up as a green haze.

“Thanks to my parents, they have good readings on me which is why my name shows up. They aren’t usually too focused on identifying ghosts, though, which is why Jason-Robin doesn’t have a label. I’m a special case. The rest of you are safe from a distance, but that haze means they’d take you in for questioning at the very least.”

“Hn. What is the range on these devices?” asked Bruce.

Danny shrugged. “My stuff? From anywhere. I track through the Infinite Realms, not by Earth. GIW? Jason-Robin, they’ll be able to detect something from probably ten miles out of city limits, but they’d need to be within half a mile to get an accurate location. The Fentons? Mile or so. They get an exact location or nothing.”

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Next

I don't really think I have much to say about this segment. The info dump has started! Thank you Jazz for keeping people on track. Alfred will help her if he feels people start pushing too much.

Tag List Part 1

@addie-lover-of-stories, @justwannabecat, @gin2212, @amercurio, @regonold, @overtherose, @readerzj, @sjrose1216, @echoednonny, @deeterzz, @blu-lilac, @number-one-jew, @rowanaway-fromthisbs, @vythika96, @tired-yet-awaken, @themirrorghost, @emeraldcorpral, @all-mights-asscheeks, @darkhinauniverse, @blep-23, @phandomhyperfixationblog, @larkcoe1, @thegatorsgoose, @job-ross-the-second, @britcision, @lenacraft, @bubblemixer, @androgynouslordofescapism, @purefrickingspite, @leftmiraclechaos, @lizisipancardo, @starlight-sparks, @miraculousandmore, @gildedphoenix, @sometimesthingsfallapart, @letmesayfuxk, @phoenixcatch7, @skulld3mort-1fan, @abaowo, @dhampir-princess, @idkmrpianoman, @sarina-elais, @ballzfrog-blog, @undead-essence, @spookytragedyshark, @flyingpansaurus, @akintoabitch, @marivictal, @8-29pm, @justreadingthefanfics, @happybear135, @kisatamao, @spoopyspoony, @adorablechaos, @sara0055, @screamingtofillthevoid

[sabspoetic]

How to be CONFIDENT

To anyone who’s been struggling with their insecurities, I need you to read this post!

Okay, so, I’ve been insecure about myself my whole life. I would constantly focus on the negative sides of my body, of my mind, and so on. What made me even more insecure was the amount of “friends” I lost. I started thinking even more badly of myself; I thought I was too annoying, too obnoxious, too loud, too nosy and too cringe. Because of that, I became quiet, I started distancing myself from them and genuinely lost hope of ever having real friends.

Then something happened, and I had to sit home for a week. Just a week. And that week literally changed my life. I realized that I felt better without them, I felt free. I sat down and started thinking. What did I not like about myself? What was that upset me? Why didn’t those girls like me? I found myself writing answers that suited them more than me, so I removed them from my life and guess what? I feel better now! Even though I’m alone for now.

But even if you don’t have this kind of situation, if nobody has left you and you’re just insecure, listen up! You’ll only need four things to know: basic review, main five tips, IDGAF mindset & body language.

BASIC REVIEW

Style 👗👒👜

Wear clothes you feel most confident in, not comfortable.

Buy clothes that match your skin tone. Look at the color wheel!

Know Yourself 👁️👄👁️

If you know who you are, no one can tell you who you are.

Write down your strengths and your weaknesses.
Work on your weaknesses.

Your Highest Self 💫🌼🪴

Write down how your highest self would act like. (detailed!!!) Then: Start showing up as her.

Before you make a decision always think about what your highest version would do.

Your Insecurities are only in your head 🪐🌞🍃

No one cares about what others are doing, or do you? No. Because everyone is dealing with their own stuff.

Take advantage of that fact and be more courageous.

Get out of your comfort zone 🦋🎨🩰

If you want your life to be different, you have to try new things. Otherwise don't expect a different outcome.

Try new things that you never dared to do before but always wanted to.

MAIN FIVE TIPS

Pay attention to your posture. You may think it’s dumb, but no! It’s very important. Stand straight, shoulders back, head high, put on a small, elegant smile or keep a stoic face and walk like a queen. Remember this quote: “Either walk like you own the place or walk like you don’t care who does”.

Try to avoid filler words while talking (ex. um, uhh..). Pause for a bit and think before you say. Speak with confidence and good voice.

Master the body language. For example, what should you do/don’t while entering the room: don’t look down, especially not at your phone; don’t turn your back to the room while closing the door. Instead: when you open the door and enter, take your time to scan the room, chin up, shoulders back and open posture; close the door with your back facing it; hold eye contact with the destination or person you are approaching and greet/smile.

Think before you do/say something. Question yourself “If I do this or that, will it lead to a bad expression? Will this have a good effect on me?”

Have an IDGAF mindset! Honey, you are the main character of your story. Now show them that you don’t care about all the negativity.

IDGAF MINDSET

Gossiping about you? No worries, they’re just jealous of you! They know that once you speak up for yourself, they’ll realize that they shouldn’t have messed with you.

Mean/harsh comments? Reasons why people are mean to you: one, they are jealous; two, they care more about your life; and three, they want to copy you. See how obsessed they are?! What a shame…

Body shaming you? Treat them like they don’t exist. Keep focusing on your goals and your dream body. Rest and work. Then watch them feel insecure next. Slap them with a smile while you walk like a model with your hot, gorgeous body.

Turning you down? Bullying you? Hurting you? Find who you are first and show them the power you hold! Do not hurt them back, but make them regret ever trying to hurt you. How? By making your life better and keeping distance from all of them. You don’t need anyone but yourself. Turn the pain into power!

BODY LANGUAGE

Good Posture 🎀

Stand tall, shoulders back, keep your back straight.

Avoid leaning too much on one side, or nervouse moving around with your legs/arms.

Head held high.

Make eye contact 👀

If you keep eye contact with someone you're talking to, you make them feel like you're interested in the conversation.

Focus on keeping it natural and avoid staring too much.

Hands 🙌🏽

The position of your hands says a lot about whether you feel comfortable in a conversation or if you are disinterested in the discussion. Try to use your hands while speaking to express yourself: soft movements!

Offer a firm handshake to show confidence. You can practice it by yourself! Make eye contact during the handshake.

Pay attention🌷

How do successful people move?

Mirror their movements.

You can watch shows / yt videos to find people who inspire you and teach you how they are so strong and powerful while walking, talking, etc.

Follow all these tips and you’ll become unrecognizable, because I did so in just a week! And if they don’t like you? Screw them all. You don’t need toxic people in your life. Trust me, it’s better being alone than hanging around people who will never appreciate your time, presence, personality and achievements. You’ll find someone eventually, but when the right time comes.

[agentnico]

The Count of Monte-Cristo (2024) review

Je suis Batman!!

Plot: Edmond Dantes becomes the target of a sinister plot and is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d'If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte-Cristo and exacts his revenge on the three men who betrayed him.

I’ve been really enjoying this recent wave of French blockbuster cinema creating these lavish big-budget adaptions of their nation’s classic literature, with the recent highly enjoyable duology romp of The Three Musketeers (D’Artagnan and Milady respectively) and now taking on The Count of Monte-Cristo. I was a major admirer of Alexander Dumas’ novels when I was a kid, and by admirer I mean my father used to force me to read those books which at the time I hated him for, as I much rather would have spent hours on end on my GameCube, but now am forever grateful that I have the knowledge of storytelling which I gained from reading those pieces of literature. So I’m eagerly hoping that now with these expensive modern movie takes we will also get some of Dumas’ other great works get the contemporary cinematic treatment, such as La Dame de Monsoreau and The Black Tulip (though the latter may be difficult as there is already an older film version starring Alain Delon, and would be hard to recast Delon, let’s not kid ourselves!). As for Monte-Cristo, I’m not even going to sugar-coat it - this is a fantastic modern adaptation of a classic!

The sets are great and really invoke the post-Napoleon era of France; the costumes are gorgeous; the music score is grandiose and epic, really engrossing you in this decade spanning saga of revenge; the classic story is reinterpreted so well with the themes and the emotion, and the acting across the board is superb. Oh and the cinematography is to die for - wonderful long shot landscape sequences, great use of lighting, gorgeous shots of interior palaces - you can tell this film has been given all the money in the world, only unlike Amazon’s Rings of Power TV series that looks expensive but lacks any narrative depth, this film is both great to look at but also has a great story with awesome performance. Look, I really really liked this movie, let me rave about it!! Of course if you’re not French, you have to deal with subtitles, however don’t let that sway you, as this move manages to tell so much using its visuals and powerful music score that at times you don’t even need to read the subtitles to understand the emotion the characters on screen are going through.

Pierre Niney is honestly superb as the titular Count. From how he showcases him in his younger years as the excited young sailor wanting to prove himself to years later being this highly intelligent and driven yet calm presence, as well as taking on the various alter-ego’s of the Count using his different masks (very reminiscent of Fantomas) such as the dastardly Lord Halifax - Niney does such a stellar job here. What I also loved is how this adaptation takes the “superhero origin” approach to Dumas’ classic, with the Count being showcased as this cool dark vigilante like Batman/Bruce Wayne or Zorro, and even his dark menacing suit (which is dapper as f*** by the way!!) emphasising that. All the props to Niney, he adds so many layers and nuance to his performance, that even when he is super reserved as the Count, you can tell in his eyes the disdain and pure hatred he has for the ones that wronged him, but at the same time being able to showcase his guard dropping slightly when he is in the presence of his beloved lost love Mercédès (played gracefully by Anaïs Demoustier).

As for negatives, as even though I absolutely adored this movie, the inner critic within me still can’t help himself. This is a 3-hour long movie, and granted that is a result of the weight of the original book, however you do feel the length of this thing, but at the same time certain parts feel a tad rushed (due to the writers attempting to cram so much story and character development into the 3-hour frame) that certain side-plots and narrative build ups aren’t given their proper space to breath. One does wonder if this would have worked better as a mini-series, however on the other hand they probably would not have had the budget to make this thing look as good as it does. Secondly, certain details/plot-holes frustrated me which I won’t spoil, but one example is when Edmond and Abbé Faria are digging the escape hole from their prison chambers all those years, where the hell did they keep getting all those candles from to light their workspace?? I highly doubt in mid-1800s France prisons had little kiosk shops to offer inmates various groceries and household items. Happy to be corrected here, but honestly seeing those candles reminded me of Deadpool proclaiming “that’s just lazy writing”. And final complaint (before we can get back to raving about how awesome this movie is) is the ageing, or lack of it more. The tale of Monte-Cristo spans from 1815 and ends in 1844, yet the movie makes zero effort in making the actors look older the further down the timeline we go. The Count does look aged but that is due to the mask he wears, so when that’s off he looks like his younger 20-something self again. One of the main baddies Prosecutor de Villefort (played in true dick-fashion by Laurent Lafitte) looks exactly the same at the beginning of the movie and then right to the end. You’re telling me the make-up artists and hairstylists couldn’t give him a single grey hair or a wrinkle?

Again though, that was me with my critical thinking hat on. With that off, I want to reiterate how I truly enjoyed this new version of a classic tale that has been done so many times before, however this one may be one of my favourites. Truly engaging and epic in scale, with a ridiculously cool Pierre Niney in the titular role. He is… the French Batman!

Overall score: 8/10

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

When a woman is written to be a “strong female character” instead of a person.

So. I want to discuss one of my favorite characters from Helluva Boss. And I’m really sad to say that, despite her being my favorite character, she’s… well. She’s a woman in Helluva Boss. So. As much as I like her, I have a lot of problems with the way she’s written.

This is the same issue I have with a LOT of women characters, but for now I want to talk about Millie.

(review continues below cut)

I really love Millie, and was excited to see her character growth. I thought Millie’s establishing characteristics—that she’s very happy-go-lucky and that she is good at and enjoys fighting—were a nice start to her character

As the show went on, I was hoping to learn more about Millie—her flaws, her insecurities, her other strengths and blind-spots.

But. It’s been 15 episodes now, and Millie’s whole character still revolves around her relationship with Moxxie. To the point that in the episode where the main cast goes back to Millie’s home to meet her family, the plot focuses entirely on Moxxie’s relationship to her family.

The big climax of that episode even has her put out of the main conflict by getting hurt so that Moxxie gets to be the one to help Blitzø. There are exceptions to this, like in Exes and Ohs, but the main conflict of that story still revolves around Moxxie.

I also REALLY have to talk about Unhappy Campers.

While I’m sure there are people who believe we got to see and learn more about her in Unhappy Campers, having a woman character just be really good and really awesome at everything suddenly doesn’t really tell me about her. It just gives the impression that the writers didn’t know how to develop her or give her depth so they just made her “strong” by making her great at everything and having everybody love her to compensate for her lack of character.

(As a side-note, it really bothers me that, during the episode that is mostly focused on how cool and great Millie is, everyone thinks she’s a boy. Like. She can’t even be awesome and admired as a girl. In-universe, she has to be viewed as male to receive admiration.)

In that same episode, I was pretty shocked when Millie says this:

Because prior to this, Millie had never behaved in ANY way that gave me an impression whatsoever that she felt unimportant or under-valued. She had never done or said anything that implied she dealt with with any feelings of inadequacy.

This scene would have had so much more of an impact if we had gotten to have any more insight into Millie and to WHY she felt that way or why she believes she’s unimportant (I mean…aside from the way the writers treat her…if I was written as a prop for my husband I’d feel unimportant too. But I’m talking more about in-universe feelings and reasons)

But because Millie is so under-developed, when I watched this scene I felt nothing. I was just really surprised and didn’t know why she was saying that or where those feelings were coming from.

Those two basic characteristics that I mentioned before, that Millie is pretty happy go lucky and cheerful, and that she’s violent and good at fighting, is still all we know about her. Well. That and her character is basically a support beam for Moxxie.

She is often pushed to the sidelines of the story so the plot can focus more on Moxxie’s feelings and character. One thing I actually DO really like about Unhappy Campers is that, while Millie’s talking about not feeling important is very much out of left field, it at least leads to her calling Moxxie out for his shitty behavior and a total lack of support towards her in the way that she supports him.

It’s just very frustrating because, much like a lot of the writing in Helluva Boss, she HAS potential to be an interesting and complex character. We’ll most likely never get to see that version of Millie though, because the focus of the story is now on re-writing Stolas to not have any character flaws.

As a final thought, you can have a male lead show with male lead characters that doesn’t diminish it’s female ones.

(Once again, I’m not talking about this to shit talk or aggravate anyone. If you disagree with me that’s okay. These are my opinions, and I’ll never claim that my opinions are objectively right)

[banannabethchase]

Tomfoolery and Photos - also on AO3

~

Danny and Yuta argue over music and bond over baby pictures.

~

For days 13 and 14 of Damn It December: 13) End of Year music reviews (Spotify, YouTube, Apple music, etc), 14) Baby pictures.

~

“How,” Danny says, staring in disbelief, “is your top artist of 2024 Kesha?!”

“She’s a lyrical genius!” Yuta says, jumping to try and get his phone out of Danny’s hands. “She also made a banger. Joyride is good and you know it.”

“You can’t be talking about this.” Danny dodges Yuta and trips him so he goes sprawling onto the carpet, and Danny presses play on Joyride. “This is polka. This is polka on speed. Or worse. Molly.”

“It’s good!” Yuta says. He scrambles to his feet and dives at Danny, spearing him into the front of the couch. Which is actually a storage drawer.

“Ow!”

“It’s a good song!”

“No, ow being you just speared me into a solid object, you dick.”

Yuta looks over his shoulder. “Oh. Yeah, sorry. There’s, like, a big drawer built in to the couch.” He reaches behind to push the drawer closed and makes the mistake of also trying to grab his phone. One of his other most played songs, something by Itzy, starts blaring, and Danny takes the moment to groan.

“Could you please,” Danny says, “enjoy a single song that isn’t manufactured pop?”

“It’s fun manufactured pop!” Yuta says, batting at Danny’s arm. “Enjoy something for once in your life, you loser!” He reaches out again and loses his balance, falling face first onto the floor and giving Danny the opportunity to throw Yuta the rest of the way off of him. Adding insult to injury, he sits directly on Yuta’s ass.

“Ow,” Yuta mumbles into the carpet. He tries to push up and out of the hold, but the angle is bad and Danny also pushes his shoulders down again.

“What’s in the drawers?” Danny asks. “Oh, shit.”

“No,” Yuta says. He can feel his feeble voice waste away into nothing, but he still bats at what he hopes are Danny’s arms. “Leave it alone!”

“Are these baby pictures?!”

The pressure along Danny’s back lets up, but for the worst possible reason. He can feel Danny lean forward. “Oh my god.”

“Put it back!”

“Nope!” The weight comes back on Yuta’s ass, and Danny must have his feet leveraged around Yuta’s legs because he really can’t move. “Oh my god.”

“Stop saying that!” Yuta yells, turning his head. “Put my baby pictures back.”

“You had a fucking bowl cut,” Danny says. It’s too gleeful. Yuta hates it. “Look at you.” He shoves the photo album half in Yuta’s face. “Look at that dork.”

“You’re being so mean to four year old me,” Yuta says.

“No, I’m being mean to almost thirty year old you.” Danny wiggles the book. “This version of you is cute.”

Yuta rolls his eyes. “Let me go?”

“Nah.” He drapes himself across Yuta’s back so they can both see the pictures at the same time. “How old were you here? With the mullet”

“It’s not a – shut up,” Yuta says. “I was eight. And a kid put bubblegum in my hair so I had to cut it out, but I didn’t want it all short. So.”

“So you went with a mullet,” Danny says. “God, you’re fucking weird.”

“Can I get up now?” Yuta pleads. “I mean, if you really care, we can keep looking. I won’t, like, stop you.”

Danny goes quiet and rolls to the side. “What do you mean, if I really care?”

“It’s baby pictures,” Yuta says. “They feel like they’re as much punishment for you as they are for me.”

“I don’t think this is punishment.” Danny pushes in the drawer with his foot and scoots up against the couch. “This is cute. You never show me stuff from when you were little.”

Yuta is…Something. He scoots up closer to Danny. “I didn’t think you’d ever want to see it.”

Danny turns to him. “Yuta, I wake up next to your morning breath and throw your dirty towels at you when you don’t get them into the laundry basket.” He leans his head on Yuta’s shoulder. “If anything is punishment, it’s that, but even then…” He trails off. “I don’t know. It’s you. I want to know all those parts.”

“I forget sometimes that you’re, like,” Yuta puts a hand on Danny’s thigh, “into me or whatever.”

“Part of your charm is that you’re kind of a dumbass sometimes.” He turns his head and kisses Yuta, soft and sweet. “Maybe soon I’ll show you my middle school dance pictures.”

“Can that be my Christmas present?” Yuta says, grinning.

Danny’s expression shifts. “No, I already got your present.” He pauses, then looks away, almost wistfully. “Well. Our present.”

~

Joyride is my number 1 song of 2024, and my husband shares Danny's opinion. They are both wrong.

[theowritesfiction]

Hi @theowritesfiction ! How are you doing? Been a while since I reviewed, but I just read the latest chapter of AKN and have some thoughts I’d like to get down.

First, I really loved this chapter! Ty Lee’s story told from her POV (and with all of her biases) was particularly humorous and wacky . Even when narrating a horror story. I also had no idea that she was an illicit writing aficionado. One who has somewhat obsessive interest in her friend’s sexual lives. Particularly that of Azula and Katara. I mean what did Ty Lee write? Thirteen pages of Azutara love making? Though considering it’s over Azula and Katara, no one can really blame her, can they?

Ty Lee’s writings here kind of reminds me of “friend fiction” from the character Isabela from DA2. Who would write fictional romances of her acquaintances with other people. Usually as way to annoy or embarrass said acquaintance. Such as the character Aveline Vallen for example. With her own brand of “friend fiction” Ty Lee trying to give Azula and Katara a push in the right direction.

I’m also wondering if Azula and Katara will…reenact those scenes of the “holy scissoring”? Once Azula gets her head on straight and the two get back together. Potentially with an audience of Yue and Suki. Since they were both so enthralled by Ty Lee’s writings… ?

Azutara “Holy scissoring” (for several hours without rest according to Ty Lee ) was necessary to defeat the demon pig (ignoring Mai contribution at the end for now😉). Is Ty Lee’s story foreshadowing how Azutara defeats the evils of Ozai? And possibly when Azula stops being so stubborn and realizes that the great life she wants for herself is within her grasp?

Can’t wait for the next chapter!

hey, @745voiceofthepeople, I'm doing fine, how are you? Work has been busier than normal for me lately, and I've also been playing some new game releases, like Life is Strange Double Exposure (really good!) and Dragon Age Veilguard (fun, but objectively... not very good). but I'm also still writing regularly, if only not as much as before.

I'm glad you enjoyed the silly Ty Lee horror story with friends. :) I like the idea of Ty Lee enjoying fanfiction in general and maybe trying her hand at it. Not sure what her fandoms would be, probably something overbearingly sweet. :)

I think Azula and Katara can and probably will blame Ty Lee for her slightly disturbing interest in their sex lives. ;) And thank you for the reminder about Isabela in DA2 doing that, I had completely forgotten about it. That's right, she annoyed everyone with it. I guess Varric loved it though. for me, @juniperhillpatient and her happenstance story was more of an inspiration, because she had that one chapter where different characters were telling wacky friend-fiction stories, so I just wanted to do an extended version of that, all from Ty Lee's POV. :)

Well, who knows what's in store for Azula and Katara next (well, I guess I do know that), but you'll have to wait and see just how Azula finally gets her shit together and breaks away from Ozai. She's being pretty stupid about that currently, but maybe there's still some hope for her. Maybe Ty Lee's story also will have some influence on her eventually figuring things out. :)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I'm so glad to hear you're still reading and enjoying AKN!

[tikitania]

Mailbag Time!

I need a distraction from watching the vote tally roll in…and my inbox is overflowing…(Update: it's gonna be a sh*t sh*w in this country for a while.) I have just found the ballet talks in tumblir and in telegram and wanted to ask if you could recommend good telegram / instagram account with ballet reviews? I know Catherine Pollak and Irinaba, though unfortunately I havent been able to translate Pollak's telegram posts. I also wanted to ask if you know if Iraínaba has ever said something about May Nagahisa? I by the way totally agree what you said about her in your previous post, but at least you can find there some videos. Telegram is somewhat of a tough nut to crack. I pay for the upgraded version to access English translation. Once I find an interesting channel, I hit the "find similar channels" and browse for more. Overall, it's easier to come across bootleg Bolshoi videos rather than Mariinsky. I blame the St. Petersburg ushers. Telegram Dance Writer's World (Vita Kholopva) Russian ballet writer, lives in Paris, writes about ballet from across the continent but mostly POB. Zapiski Baletomana Alina Ballet - Bolshoi Videos (also on IG but more videos on TG) Natashik_b - Bolshoi Videos (also on IG but more videos on TG)

-----------

Following up from one of your previous posts - seems like Khoreva is okay for now. She’s scheduled to do Odette-Odile on 11/30, so it seems like they’re just being cautious with her workload. Yes, I hope she's taking it easy. I also wish she would stop posting so much. I feel the more I see her clips on IG, doing pirouettes with her characteristic grim-faced determination, the less I care about her stage performances. I find those vids cringe. There. I said it. ------------

I’m not going to name names, because it might be hurtful. But I’ve started following some vaganova students on the TikTok, and oh my, I wasn’t aware of the extent they go to to stay lean. Many of them post frightening “what I eat in a day” and they repost stuff that would be even triggering to write on this post.

I know it’s normal in that world, but I didn’t know the extent of it. I honestly thought that they were so skinny because of all the exercise + clean eating. I just wasn’t prepared for that level of undereating I saw.

This is really sad, yet unsurprising. The school regularly weighs these girls and kicks them out if they fall outside their norms, so I feel like ED's are baked into their training in implicit ways.

____________

Is it just me or is sofia Valiullina having a splendid season at the bolshoi this year?

I love this! And, yes! She's dancing beautifully. ---------------

I’m confused about vaganova castings. Do teachers assign roles? Or do they hold auditions. Can roles be given and taken away?There was a picture of Natasha furman rehearsing the bunny in fairy doll, but Yasmina Aziz danced it on stage, while Furman did something else. So far there have been three different girls performing the Fairy doll. Do they alternate based on merit? Injury? Vibes? I'm under the impression that students are selected for roles.

--------------- Favouritism: Now that Tsaradiske has a girls class, graduating this year, I’m afraid there is going to be favouritism where he gives all the roles to his class rather than Julia’s graduating class Maybe? I mean…who really knows what's going on behind the scenes. I really wish he didn't have a girls class, though. I was generally unimpressed by the exam last year. I think a lot of people remarked that his style is not suited for the Mariinsky. --------------- Do you think Maria Khoreva would be appreciated more in an European company? Probably. She has a big name and genuinely seems to love dancing abroad. I mean she gushes about her experiences with other companies, so I could definitely see a path for her outside of Russia.

----------------- Diana Vishneva... She's always speaking about her love for Vaganova and about the importance of her teacher Ludmila Kovaleva (and she's also the only one to get a perfect score at vaganova). Do you think that D.Vishneva will eventually move to teaching at Vaganova, becoming a new Kovaleva? Or Maybe take Nikolai Tsiskaridze place and become Rector? No. I don't see that happening. She's got her own creative projects. Tsikaridze is only leaving Vaganova to become the AD of the Bolshoi. I don't think he'd leave for anything less. ---------------- Opinions on Isabella McGuire Mayes? I like her as a person, and i think her tips on technique are quite perfect and right to the point, she's also quite honest on some things regarding the reality of ballet. I like her instagram and youtube videos, and regularly listen to her podcast. However i'm iffy on other things, like when she recounts some of her stories, I've watched most of her videos, past and present, and found many inconsistencies regarding her history, injury's, stretching journey, turnout journey, eating habits, experiences and even opinions on other dancers... etc. sometimes inconsistent, let's say that. I love her. She's a great online presence! I don't think it's fair to litigate someone's memory or impressions, which are far from ironclad. Could you recount memories with 100% accuracy. Do two people recall the event the exact same way. I say this because in my professional life I deal with a lot of testimony and inconsistencies are the norm. In my personal life, I've misremembered a ton — or at least, my memory doesn't always sync with the memories of others. ------------------- I have a question regarding the logic of vaganova's student selection. Obviously they look for medium/tall lean girls, with archy feet, hyperextend knees', natural turnout, etc. And clearly all the girls they pick already have ballet and rytmic gymnastics training. But at the same time i wonder if it's correct to limit their dancers to this, like i would love to see a vaganova trained class filled with random girls and just see what vaganova can produce without selecting the best and most blessed from the start. Logics of ballet selection part 2: Since they look for these natural talents, they must also realise that these genetics are part of some of the dancers downfall. Hyperextened knees are SO prone to injury, not to mention what high arches archy feet do to the tendons etc. Excessive flexibility and hip mobility also means a decrease of muscular strengh. Combining this with overtraining and malnutrition, young dancers are just putting their bodies through hell. Not to talk about what amenorrea does to the body, like osteoporosis, low bone density (increased stress fractures) etc So why? why is it so? is it so necessary? or can greatness be achieved in other ways. Their approach will likely never change. That said, your thought experiment is interesting…but there is an established aesthetic and I don't see this changing much if ever. -------------- Did you see that bolshoi is touring the mariinskii 2 with Romeo and Juliet? We will get to see Sofia Valiullina, Elisabetta Nallin and Yaroslavna Kuprina back in St. Petersburg! Yes! This will be so interesting! -------------- Do you know why Jaden Grimm (the American who graduated vaganova in 2023) is leaving Mariinsky? I had no idea she left. I don't really follow her. We can only speculate as to why, but I'm sure her next steps will be announced eventually.

[alisdump]

ok now let me do a quick and >personal< review since we reached this point which was crucial for me

differently for everyone i had such a negative reaction per knowing we had gained a remake for gmm2024 but my stand is because i truly disliked the original version back then. like it was that serious for me at that time

i didn’t like the execution of idas character at all but kept pushing (mind you i was watching it weekly like everyone else, cm had just finished airing and i had hope for what japan was giving) then that teacher plot came up and it left me so disgusted, i literally had to drop because it made me angry, year was 2021 things were changing a lot everywhere else, so getting a plot like that was very much a regress but everyone was so ok with everything (and still is somehow ????) i didn’t like how every little thing ida did was a major reason for aoki to drop him and discard everything they had been building (manga and series) is like they don’t even try and the get together wasn’t even believable anymore, i eventually came back when last ep dropped just to see the outcome, left even more displeased, i have such a hard time believing they liked each other (in series) or at least aoki truly liked ida (in manga) at all in the end

so that’s where i was coming from, took my time (one hour that day hehe) and told myself to trust them because Every Time gemini and fourth makes me bite my tongue (not different this time i’m so happy) and i love the way gemini portraits kongthap, he took good look in the original material and said Well not for me, and did his own way, kongthap truly feels so fresh and real, he’s just your average quiet nerd boy that knows very little about life, is easy to see him fall in love, and those things felt more heartwarming, atom’s way for falling in love is so real and quite pure too, they’re confused about a lot but never about each other, love they have more time to talk and open their hearts to each other, they’ve so much more understanding of what it means, this very little thing they insert themselves into, a daring step, but so beautiful nevertheless, kongthap never belittling atom or making fun of his attraction for him, understanding his quirks and finding it cute the way he express himself, atom seeing the serious side of kongthap that he says that everyone finds it as a flaw and then atom is here embracing it fully, the very thing that makes him enchanted for him in the first place, they love in different ways but on the same frequency! no one is left behind, everyone should have a place to love.

[kongthap’s ‘isn’t what we are facing right now already a problem?’ fills with so much joy!! he’s my little boy who wants to solve things, find a common ground so they can have a healthy relationship!! he failed once in letting atom slip away, but now he knows, they both know!! “i will discuss things with you before i do anything” i was about to get the fireworks and lit them myself]

if you truly take a minute to the minutiae of it, on kongthapatom’s reality they’re very much alone, atom didn’t have to fight his affection for kongthap growing inside him but acknowledged them very early and pursued it, but there’s no one else like him there, no one he can look up to, he had mudmee of course, and after much internal fighting, half, but they can only do this much about this path he’s walking now. it looks like his fears is his alone but he fears so much more about kongthap, he’s desperately trying to shield him (like kongthap did for him in episode 2) he doesn’t want people to think bad about thap, that’s why things inside the school are harder for him, he would take the blame, says he’s the one at fault, that he’s the one who tarnished kongthap’s pristine image, we have seen it twice, with mudmee, with kongthap, he would choose his loved one happiness before his own in a heartbeat always

striping a homophobic teacher plot that would only make everything more violent for atom and instead giving him (and us) intergenerational queer couples!! everything that atom needed, to see he’s not alone! he’s not the odd one, somebody to look up to, the fact that one is his teacher, that he valued so much, the fact his partner is the one that makes atom find his career path is so important to me (and to him) like this little chance is so much bigger i’m so happy for this adaptation choices, always so on point!!

[commenter2]

"Welcome to Heaven" review

Time for a change of scenery and to learn more about Heaven. Spoilers.

Nice to see Vaggie told the truth instead of attempting to lie. I am curious, would that have even worked on Charlie? Does Charlie have a power to tell if people are lying to her, since her father is the “father of lies”?

That was sweet of Vaggie, but there is a lining of “Vaggie sacrifices more for the relationship” idea in my Charlie/Vaggie trailer breakdown here. LUCKILY there hasn’t been much of that as I expected in this season. At least we’ll find out how Vaggie lost her Exorcist title.

CHAGGIE KISS! Wait why’d she kiss her on the eyepatch? Also I’m NOW just wondering if Vaggie DOES still have her left eye, but is covering it up Japanese anime style cause it contains a great Exorcist power?

Here’s Cherri Bomb making an “explosi.. eh I’m not going to finish that lame joke. I do like the new Australian accent they gave her.

I’m not liking where this is going. I feel like this is going to result in a situation like in the pilot where Angel and co. embarrass Charlie’s goal in front of everyone in Heaven. I mean (spoilers based on the HH S1 trailer) something is going to make the next Extermination happen, but I hope it’s something else.

You really should have told the others to behave themselves before leaving Charlie.

A new portrait of Charlie and her parents in the background. It’s hard to make out, so hopefully someone posts a proper version of it soon.

Charlie casually throwing Vaggie through portal XD.

(Pen sees Cherri) knew this was coming here we go. Bet Pen X Cherri shippers are going to enjoy that moment.

Anyone else think the eye symbol at Heaven’s gate is also a reference to the Sheikah Eye from Legend of Zelda?

Saint Peter? With her last name being Morningstar, you think he would realize she is Lucifer’s daughter.

Charlie Morningbreakfast

Cursing is allowed in Heaven. Interesting to know, you think there will be a gag for when someone curses, everyone else covers their ears “Harry Potter Musicals” style?

So angels can take on different forms. Also was it just me or did the old angel’s bird form look like Stella a bit? I did have this theory that touched on the idea of how after fallen angels went to Hell, they would evolve to become different from what those in Heaven look like and create subspecies, and it looks that is true.

The angel finally has a name, Sera. Oh she may sound nice now but wait till we see her evil side! Right there she says, “you are gifted to be here”, life if she wasn’t Lucifer’s daughter she would have been really rude to Charlie.

Even though she says she is the highest of the Seraphim (the highest rank in Heaven’s hierarchy if pic of said topic are any indication) I feel like there is going to be a moral Heaven thing where every angel is treated equal. I thought I bring this up now cause when Sera reveals herself as a villain, I hope later on she becomes an antagonist (replacing Adam) who fights against Charlie’s redemption plan but will have trouble when other Seraphim’s and Archangels side with Charlie.

Sounds like Emily is the Charlie of Heaven XD.

Got some interesting designs like a Hellhound looking creature with hooves and that…thing she is next to. There is also someone that looks a lot like Vaggie but with no mouth, who “COINCIDENLY” has a close eye where Vaggie has an eyepatch.

I think that was a FNAF/Chuck E Cheese mascot band refence there.

MOLLY HOLY CRAP! Looks like we found the motivation to get Angel to redeem himself! I was going to wonder why she was spider looking creature when you think Heaven only has people in human/cute animal like forms, till I saw that crab looking angelic being in the same scene. Also on the bottom right, I think that’s a Sara Bellum from PPG reference.

Again. Sera being rude, though Emily sounds very ally like.

Vaggie being jealous XD

LUTE? Wait does this mean Adam is wearing a mask/helmet/whatever too? I bet he’s fugly under it XD.

Damn the Amazon Prime pause button. It keeps making the video skip ahead instead of doing its job!

OKAY HUGE REVEAL THERE! HOW COME NO ONE ELSE KNOW ABOUT THE EXTERMINATONS? Do the archangels at least know? Either way this could actually be good but I’ll get into that later.

Okay so Sera seems to be one of those “doing bad to do good” kind of characters as she just wants to protect Heaven, explains why she looked so sad in Charlie’s story, but I feel like she will have prejudices too. It also sounds like Adam was the sole person who came up with the Exterminations.

FINALLY confirmation of Vaggie being a former Exorcist! :D… Wait… Oh crap! :(

ADAM GAVE VAGGIE HER NAME! CALLED IT!! https://www.tumblr.com/commenter2/718141081445957632/odd-theory-but-do-you-think-vaggie-got-her-name?source=share

That was a hellborn child! I had suspicions that Exorcist also killed Hellborn demons during the Exterminations (Viv did once say they kill anything that wasn’t indoors) but still its more shocking than knowing it was a correct fact.

I do like that the Extermination scene is a flashback and not taking place in the finale like I predicted.

Also as messed up as what happened to Vaggie, losing her eye and wings (more on that later) at least it led to her instantly meeting Charlie. Hey they are wearing their pilot outfits :D

At least we can look forward to a Vaggie vs. Lute fight in the future.

Since it was shown that Lute was able to wound Vaggie when she was still an angel, my idea from my “Overture” review of the dead Exorcist being killed by one of its own is a little stronger now. I still think someone else like the threat impersonating Lilith did it, but I'm still keeping that as a possibility until we learn more.

If the first human soul to arrive in Heaven doesn’t know what qualifies to get into Heaven, then Charlie redemption plan deserves a chance. It also makes me curious on what the other angels think qualifies. Also again how would Angel be any different than having Adam there.

WAIT WHAT ABOUT ABEL? He was murdered by his brother long before Adam died, what happened to him after he died?

See I told you we’d get another pilot situation, though at least it’s better than last time as Angel did resist for a time. Heck Husk and Sir Pentious should also be considered proof of being able to redeem since Pen was being nice to a degree and Husk was actually trying to help Angel.

Seriously, Adam has been cursing up a storm, yet you react to when Charlie does it? Maybe like us they were just surprised that she can curse, given how good she is.

Looks like I was wrong about the situation leading to pilot vibes. GOOD! Also great to see Angel stand up to Val.

Now that we know that Val’s shirt are his wings, it makes the scene of Niffty ripping a piece off hilarious XD.

This seems enough proof to me that someone can be redeemed, don’t try and change the subject Adam.

So no angelic being in that room properly knows how judging a soul works? While odd, I wonder if this is a result of after what happened to Lucifer, maybe soon after others got sent to Hell for minor things and eventually no one dared to question or go against God’s (or whoever else’s) judgment and now they are at this point where they don’t recall things or fear becoming a fallen angel like Lucifer. I’m (semi) counting this as another one of my ideas coming true, as I did bring the idea of Heaven not knowing how to loosen the restrictions to getting into Heaven.

Though a bit understandable from Charlie’s POV and thankfully she got lucky there, her ranting to Heaven is another time where Charlie should have taken up at least SOME of Vaggie’s words.

So glad to see Adam’s ego and stupidity finally leading to some good for the heroes, as it will be interesting to see how parts of Heaven will react to learning about the Exterminations.

Trailer screen shot. At least I’m glad that Sera isn’t what I thought she was going to be like.

Oh don’t phrase it like that Charlie! You’re making my “Lilith wants to destroy Heaven” theory sound like it could happen :(

Again when looking at that statue of Sera, she looks like Stella. Also if I’m right the other creature is Emily, who I guess can take on the form of a unicorn.

Aww crap Adam revealed Vaggie’s secret. I know I brought up the idea of Charlie and Vaggie’s relationship being tested, but I just meant personality wise not this, mostly cause I though Charlie already knew. Then again Charlie can be an idiot at times. Hopefully Charlie can be mature about this and thinking back to the trailer, the two do loving sing to each other, heck looks like Vaggie gets her wings back. So yeah, I’m guessing that they will be fine and their relationship will be stronger than ever.

Seriously Sera, after what you see your going to still allow Adam to do the Extermination. Then again she might not have a choice here. This is quickly confirmed with Sera expressing the “Angels scared of suffering the same fate as Lucifer” idea I brought up. Also obviously we need something to continue the series.

So Sera and Emily ARE mother and daughter, I was starting to wonder. Actually speaking of family and thinking back to “Queen Bee”, Bee brought up the question of how fallen angels and such are related, I wonder how related Lucifer and Sera are. Could Charlie and Emily be cousins? If they are, then Vaggie won’t have to worry about Charlie leaving her XD.

At least Charlie has her first angelic ally. I wonder if what Sera said and Emily clenching her fist IS foreshadowing her fate? If my idea of her being able to transform into a horse comes true, what if her demon horse form takes on the form of the horse at the end of the Spindlehorse credits.

Aw man we’re not going to see how Charlie feel about this or more importantly,

Whew that was intense near the end. We got to see Heaven and learned some big things about it like the residents such as Molly being there or how angels have NO IDEA how judging a soul works. Then there was a big reveal that no one before the events here even knew about the Exterminations, that was a great twist if not a bit odd.

It was also great to learn more about Vaggie’s now confirmed past and be introduced to Emily and how she agrees with Charlie’s thoughts instead, making the argument less one sided. It was also funny seeing how she and Charlie got along so well which led to Vaggie being jealous at one point. Hopefully for her, Emily and Charlie turn out to be cousins.

It was nice having Cherri be in the episode, even if she almost led to Angel doing bad things and getting Charlie in trouble again. Speaking of which, it was GREAT to see that Angel HAS changed since joining Charlie. Hopefully if he learns that Molly is there, a great cameo BTW, he will amp that up to 11.

I also personally liked how stupid Adam looked in it, and now that people know the truth about Exterminations, I think it could lead to him being demoted (both related to Heaven's hierarchy and as a main antagonist in the series) and my idea of Charlie being the “chosen one” to save everyone from a great threat or the idea I have for what season 2 could be about.

The only downsides were that this was kind of the expected outcome given the episode’s place. Maybe if this was the 2nd to last episode and the finale was an hour long, it could have helped but I’m not complaining.

It was also a bummer that we didn’t see more of how Charlie feels about discovering Vaggie was an angel. At least the S1 trailer makes it clear that thing between them will be fine in the end.

The things about no one knowing about the Exterminations, or what the qualifications to get into Heaven really are, but I’m not complaining. This is actually a perfect excuse for my season finale epilogue idea where after the Extermination, Heaven agrees with Charlie and they need to rework or explore the qualifications required to get into Heaven, and Charlie plans on having a big say in it so that more people can get into Heaven whether it be after they die or through her hotel. Of course some people of Hell and Heaven will be against Charlie’s ideas, so Charlie will have to go through a multi-season storyline where she needs to keep convincing more and more powerful people that this would be a good thing, eventually having to convince God himself. All the while evil forces will try and progress its/their agenda, leading to big fights.

Now we wait for the season finale.

As always let me know your thoughts about the episode.

[itcamefromthetoybox]

Past His Prime

Hey there, hi there, ho there! I’m back. Ended up taking a break from the blog to finish moving and just never got around to it for a while. One of those, “oh yeah, I’ll work on that tomorrow” things where I kept meaning to but kept forgetting. But yes! I am back! And on my update schedule of “when I get to it.” But what exactly dragged me back? New toys from the upcoming “Transformers: One” movie! Today, we’re going to be looking at “Transformers: One Prime Changers Optimus Prime.” How does the latest version of the Autobot leader hold up? Is he a hit or miss? And is he worth the big price tag? Let’s dive in and answer those questions!

Now, as of this article, the movie isn’t out yet, so I can’t spoil anything or say too much about the plot or characters, other than that the movie is about Orion Pax and D-16, the best friends who will become the heroic Optimus Prime and the evil Megatron. If you don’t know who those characters are, then I am very confused as to why you’re reading a review of Transformers toys. Are you that bored at work?

Now, what is a Prime Changer? Prime Changers, basically, are the main figures of the “Transformers: One” toyline. They’re simpler than the collector-aimed “Studio Series” line, and are the off the shelf figures for kids you’d think of when you think of Transformers. No fancy gimmicks, no overly complicated transformations, just a robot that turns into something and back again.

At first look, Prime Changer Optimus Prime looks great. He’s very colorful, blocky-looking, and seems to be exactly what you think of when you think of a young, pre-war Optimus. He has all the expected Optimus details, like the smoke stacks on his shoulders, the chest window, and the wheels on his legs. He’s supposed to capture the essence of Optimus Prime, and he does. Of course, these days, that means he also takes a massive amount of inspiration from the original, G1 Optimus Prime that’s been around since the 80’s and who gets a new figure every single year with no exception, so do keep that in mind. Now, when you get a closer look, flaws become apparent. The wheels in Prime’s shoulders are a different grey than the pant on him, so they stand out like a sore thumb, which takes away from the look. Hollow areas become more noticeable, and there’s nothing particularly new or interesting to compensate for those cosmetic letdowns.

Articulation-wise, Optimus is pretty decent. Very posable, lots of joints, just as you would expect. There’s nothing really shocking or dynamic here. Saying that a mainline Transformer is very posable is like saying ice is cold. Like, yeah, I would certainly hope so. If it wasn’t, I’d have some concerns. It’s important to note, though, that there are some limits on his poses. Optimus comes with a removable Matrix of Leadership that he can theoretically hold in his hands to recreate the classic “lighting our darkest hour” pose everyone does with the Matrix. The thing is, his big chest gets in the way of that, so he needs to hold the Matrix at about gut level. It looks a lot less impressive than you’d hope and a lot more like Optimus is rubbing it on his stomach for luck.

Speaking of his waist area, while he does have a waist joint, his crotch design actually limits how much the waist can rotate. And by “limits,” I mean he can barely rotate. It’s kinda a letdown, because the parts are there, but the toy itself stops you from using them.

So, this is a Transformer, so let’s talk about transforming. I hated this part. It wasn’t complicated, true. It was very straightforward, with a few extra steps like rotating the arms and opening the legs, and the process integrates Prime’s ax accessory into it, so that has a place to store, which is nice. The problem is that you gotta line up some tabs just so to make sure the whole thing pegs together right, and that was a living hell. I spent more time trying to get those tabs on his legs and the holes on his back lined up than I did on any other step of the transformation. It was frustrating as hell, and I really don’t wanna do that again. Also, part of the transformation is unfolding the truck grill from behind Prime’s chest. It’s a simple process with no extra steps, but if you have short nails, it’s gonna be more of a pain than it should be. Getting the axe into position for vehicle mode takes way too much fiddling and adjusting to be worthwhile. Transforming this guy was really annoying and not all that fun. As for getting him back to robot mode, that’s a damn chore. Prime’s back piece doesn’t like doing a lot of what it’s supposed to, and parts pop off constantly. Unless you’re very careful, expect Prime’s arms, chest, and back to pop off at least once during transforming, which especially sucks because reattaching the back is a pain. It took a while before I was able to transform him even once without any issues, and I remain convinced I just got lucky.

Of course, Optimus Prime turns into a truck. It’s basically an alien version of the truck he always turns into. If you’ve seen one G1 Optimus Prime truck mode, you have a solid idea of what this dude looks like. The truck mode doesn’t roll well at all. The back wheels just barely clear the legs to roll unencumbered, to the point that if you get a figure with the molding off by even a smidge, you’re outta luck.

Let’s talk accessories. Optimus comes with his axe, two smokestacks, and the Matrix of Leadership. The axe looks pretty good. Between the sculpting and color, it looks like a mechanical weapon charged with energy, and the sculpting and paint at the base make it look like the axe emerged from Prime’s palm.

It fits over Prime’s hand, with a peg inside the base that Prime holds onto, The problem here is that once Prime has it, he doesn’t wanna drop it. It’s a snug fit. Too snug. The way Prime’s hands are attached to his wrists means that you need to be careful taking the axe out of his hand, or else the hand will pop off. I find that pressing against where his hand connects to his wrist helps hold the hand in place while I pull the axe off.

Prime’s smokestacks are meh. They can be removed from his shoulders to be held as a pair of pistols that are blatantly just smokestacks in his hands. When you transform Prime, they will want to come right out of there, so keep an eye on them.

The Matrix, though, is awful. Just, really awful. It looks and feels cheap, which is a shame considering it’s the damn Matrix of Leadership. It’s also inconsistent about staying in Prime’s chest. Sometimes, it fits pretty well. Sometimes, it feels a bit loose. But the thing I really hate about it is that its plastic and design are definitely cheap. This became clear to me the first time I transformed Prime. When transforming Prime, the instructions say you can leave the Matrix in his chest, because its storage spot is a peg on the back of his truck grill.

The instructions are a sheet of lies. The Matrix takes up just enough space where it will get knocked out when transforming Prime, or , worse, it’ll break. The first time I transformed this figure, before I even took pictures, one of the handles on the Matrix snapped off.

This actually revealed how cheap it was to me. See, the break was a clean break. TOO clean. It seems like the handles of the Matrix are actually separate parts that were glued onto the Matrix, and that glue’s not exactly the stuff of legends. When I looked at the break, I also noticed that it looks like the Matrix itself is actually painted over blue plastic, the same kind Prime’s axe is made of. The Matrix is very small, and the plastic is very thin, so any amount of force on it’s going to break it. Hell, the plastic is so weak and cheap that when the handle broke off, I didn’t even notice. I didn’t feel any resistance or indicator it was in the way of the transformation. It was there, and then it broke. As easy as I breathe with as little notice. If you wanna keep it safe, just take it out and set it aside, only to be used for poses.

And now, of course, the main issues I have with this figure. I know plastic’s gotten more expensive, so toy companies are cutting costs. I get that. But by God, this figure feels cheap. The plastic feels so cheap to the touch that it’s the first thing my wife commented on when she touched Prime. When you start looking him over in your hands, you notice how hollow the toy is. He LOOKS very solid and bulky, like Optimus should. This makes how light he is feel surprising, and how hollow he is feel like a letdown. Some parts, like his chest plate are thin enough that I can see the shadow of my hand on the other side. Also, he’s just so damn small, He’s frustratingly short. I’m gonna sound like an old man here, but I remember when a $20 Transformer had some size and heft to him. This Prime’s smaller than the $10 ones I had as a kid and still do have. Between the cheap plastic, the parts popping off, how hollow and short Prime is, and how easily the Matrix broke, the whole toy just feels super cheap. 

“Transformers: One Prime Changer Optimus Prime” is available at mass retail for a starting price of $20 and is aimed at ages 6 and up. Would I recommend him? Absolutely not. This is really not a good toy. The plastic feels cheap to the touch, the transformation’s a pain, parts pop off way too easily, his guns are literally just his smokestacks held at a different angle, the Matrix is small, thin, and breaks easily, his waist is impeded by his own body, and he’s just so damn short. I can’t in good consciousness tell people to spend $20 on something so damn small that doesn’t even bring anything new to the table and, if anything, is a significant downgrade from what’s come before. Like, I compared this to older figures I have. It’s literally more money for less toy. This figure was such a letdown that it made me not want to get the other Prime Changer figures. I was actually turned off from an entire series of figures because of how annoying and disappointing this one toy was. He looks good from a distance, but then you get him in your hands and all the flaws, big and small, come shining through. Definitely pass on this one. I know, I sound like an old man. “Things were so much better when I was a kid.” Well, I handed this figure and some of my older ones to my wife, someone with very little interest in Transformers, who didn’t grow up with the figures or shows and has no problem telling me when she thinks I’m completely wrong or being that old guy. She actually agreed with me completely. Compared to the older toys, this one’s really not good. It’s more money for a toy that is significantly smaller and of lower quality. I know this is what’s out there, and this is all kids and collectors have on the market, but that doesn’t mean you should throw money at something that’s clearly not good. You want a great Optimus toy? Go on eBay. There’s plenty of fantastic old Primes from past movies and shows there for decent prices that WON’T break in two seconds and actually have some size to them. Next time, who knows what we’ll be looking at! Hopefully something I don’t feel an immense case of Buyer’s Remorse over. This is JS signing off and wishing you Happy Toy Hunting!