#surefire way to make a character that will draw me to them immediately | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fandumbstuff · 4 years ago

Text

The Star Wars Saga, ranked best to worst.

1. The Empire Strikes Back Directed by Irvin Kershner

Upon close consideration, I’ve come to the shocking conclusion that Empire is the best Star Wars film. There’s a wealth of world-building and character development here that in many ways makes Star Wars the living breathing universe it is now. A richly complex melodrama lies at the heart of Empire, giving a whole new meaning to the term “space opera”. The performances here are some of the strongest in the entire franchise. Mark Hamill not only fleshes out Luke’s character, but in his training with Yoda and his duel with Vader he establishes the profound nature of the force, and how every future character interacts with it. As Han and Leia, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher create authenticity to their characters’ relationship. Often misinterpreted as playfully hostile or sassy, there’s a real and endearing sense of affection between them, particularly in the infamous “I love you”/”I know” line- shedding their previously petty flirtation and affirming their true feelings. The emotional crux of Empire lies not in the most memorable twist, but in the moments immediately following it - In Luke and Leia reaching out to each other, reconnecting a relationship that was lost, rekindling hope in the force after we thought it was lost.

2. A New Hope Directed by George Lucas

I’ll be the first in line to make fun of dorky George Lucas and his woeful attempts at writing dialogue or romance. However, it’s pretty damn impossible to ignore what he achieved with Star Wars in 1977. The sheer audacity of his vision and his determination in executing it despite the naysaying from producers and supposed friends. Lucas had the bold idea of using cinema for it’s absolute worth- more than just a storytelling medium but a theatrical one. A cacaphony of sight and sound that could draw mass audiences and create a lasting impression. It’s a formula that every Hollywood and Bollywood blockbuster strives and more often than not fails to follow. It’s hard to dissociate A New Hope from the cultural phenomenon it helped create, but when you do, it stands as an impressive film on it’s own. Groundbreaking in terms of it’s visual effects and nostalgic in the simplicity of it’s sci-fi serial story, Star Wars ticked all the right boxes for so many people. If I was to boil Star Wars down to an essence, i think it lies in 2 scenes: Luke looking out at the binary sunset on Tattooine, and Han Solo yahooing after the Falcon saves Luke in the Death Star trenches. Those two scenes, Wistfulness and Exuberance, are the two sides of one concept- Adventure. Star Wars ignited those emotions in every child’s imagination, and it’s a flame that’s likely to never go out.

3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Directed by Gareth Evans

Hard to believe this is a Disney movie. While the house of mouse may have a reputation for emotional gut punches in kids movies, it’s never felt quite so... permanent. Rogue One is an unrelenting emotional journey barelling towards surefire tragedy. We spend moments with characters that seem to be carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. The sense of desperation that permeates the movie almost overpowers any sense of heroism. It’s so unlike anything we’ve seen in a Star Wars movie. Their courage comes from a place that is wholly genuine and believable. We see the rebellion for the despondent group that they are. Sorely outnumbered by the Empire, their actions in this movie show a reckless, darker side to them and makes the morality of Star Wars so much more complex. The first time we meet Cassian Andor- the stand out performace of the film by Diego Luna- we see him kill another rebel to protect their secrets. It’s a movie that reframes the original Star Wars trilogy, making it a richer, complex universe and more intriguing as a result. Also, the last five minutes might be the best five minutes in any Star Wars movie.

4. Return of the Jedi Directed by Richard Marquand

The one sore spot in the original trilogy for me are the Ewoks. I realise it's ridiculous for me to complain about kid-friendly creatures in a kid's movie, but Star Wars has done this a lot more tolerably in the form of Porgs and Baby Yoda. Just something about these furry, Tibetan speaking monsters who somehow have the wherewithal to defeat an elite and well equipped empire rubs me the long way. Anyway, other than that, the movie's pretty fantastic. The culmination of Luke's journey comes to a head in an extremely emotional and effective climax. John Williams score crescendos to operatic heights and Mark Hamill's stellar performance sells Luke’s torment. It’s also worth noting that in those final moments of moral dilemma, Darth Vader is silent- it’s David Prowse’s performance entirely that sells this. His incredible presence throughout the trilogy builds to this moment and you can feel the weight of it in those closeups on Vader. Every other cast member rounds the story out perfectly- from Lando and Han’s playful rapport to Leia’s more militaristic side in planning the rebellions final moves. I still bemoan the fact that they changed the final song- an opinion that I’m apparently a minority on- but it’s a pretty incredible ending altogether and wonderfully cathartic to watch over and over again.

5. The Last Jedi Directed by Rian Johnson

With Last Jedi, Rian Johnson analyzed the universe Star Wars inhabits, and what drives it’s characters. The characters that we love are pushed to their limits, struggle against insurmountable odds and their own innate flaws. And we see all of them fail in turn. It is remarkably bleak, but not without purpose. It is out of this failure that the Resistance needs to recoup and come back stronger. The performances here, are arguably the best you’ll find in the entire franchise. Daisy Ridley has to break down Rey’s naivete and find a deeper sense of self actualization. Adam Driver hands in some of his best work, by swerving the audience into believing Kylo Ren and then creating a desperate plea in THAT throne room scene, and eventually turning him into a snivelling villain, all in the same movie. Mark Hamill’s performance here is heartbreaking- revealing the bleakest version of Luke, and struggling to find his redemption. Last Jedi is a bold deconstuction of these characters, of what they stand for, and what makes Star Wars beautiful.

6. The Force Awakens Directed by J. J. Abrams

In many ways, a safe movie to announce the return of Star Wars. But it’s hard to fault this. Disney’s decision making was shrewd here, bringing on J. J. Abrams to pay homage to George Lucas’ original vision, returning the franchise to it’s roots of practical effects and shooting on film. There was something truly special about experiencing this film in theatres, so much so that I did it eleven times. It captured a sense of wonder for fans new and old- hearing the scream of Tie Fighters, John Williams herald the return of the Millenium Falcon, and the look of awe on Rey’s face as she clutches her destiny in her hand. I’ll be honest, the film loses some of this magic without the shared experience of an audience, and it’s flaws are more noticeable. But being swept up in the excitement of adventure felt so darn good in 2015, and that’s so key to this franchise.

7. Revenge of the Sith Directed by George Lucas

This movie has risen so much in my opinion, entirely due to the animated Clone Wars series. Revenge of the Sith depicts the overwhelming tragedy that frames the original Star Wars. Watching Clone Wars explains explicitly what makes this film so tragic. But it’s more than that- it’s a catastrophic failure on behalf of the Jedi Order. Ignorance and pride allow evil to fester and grow. George Lucas took the simplicity of the moral struggle he established in 1977 and tried to give it depth and complexity with the prequels, and it pays off in Revenge of the Sith. It leads into the original trilogy quite brilliantly, with a promise of hope and resilience.

8. The Phantom Menace Directed by George Lucas

It has not aged well. While the advent of CGI I’m sure felt exciting at the time, and you almost can’t fault George Lucas for his insistence on staying at the forefront of VFX innovation as he has always done, it’s his reliance on so much of it that fails horribly. Like a kid in a candy store, Lucas stuffs the pockets of this film with so many bizarre effects for absolutely no reason. That sea monster scene is one of the worst displays I’ve ever seen and it’s absurd that it sits in a Star Wars film. Add to that the boring political plotline and ridiculous midichlorian dilemma and there’s very little redemptive about this film. However, it does have podracing, and Duel of the Fates, and it’s remarkable how much that salves the wound.

9. The Rise of Skywalker Directed by J. J. Abrams

Alright, well obviously this film has been problematic. However, I’m not about to bemoan the idea that Disney has ruined Star Wars and I have nothing left to live for. So let’s all just calm down. Ultimately J. J. Abrams was faced with the impossible task of wrapping up the Skywalker saga, with very few Skywalkers to work with. I firmly believe this would have been a very different film if Carrie Fisher was around to complete her performance. But left with nothing but the new cast, Abrams is caught between summing up the past while also looking to the future. It forces an awkward plotline with Palpatine- despite Ian McDiarmid's solid performance, the writing here seems wildly derivative of the franchise. There are some truly beautiful scenes, most notably the chemistry that Adam Driver gets to share with Harrison Ford, and Joonas Suotamo’s critically emotional outburst as Chewbacca. Some of the production design and score is so entirely different from the rest of the franchise it's inherently intriguing. But there’s very little here to save some of the poorer choices the film makes: the open plot hole with Finn, the derailing of Rey’s character development, and most crucially, the deeply perturbing culmination of Rey and Kylo’s relationship. The audience literally went “ew”.

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story Directed by Ron Howard

The biggest problem with Solo is that it operates under the presumption that people will be enamoured and invested in it. Not just in one movie, but in an entire series of movies. Solo clearly operates as a setup for further sequels. As a result, many plot lines remain unresolved, and Qi’ra winds up being a completely under-baked character. Her motivations make no sense, and a twist ending that I assume was supposed to be exciting is instead downright confusing. There’s a lot of unnecessary exposition into Han’s past too. As an origin story, I don’t need to know every aspect of Han’s past- especially not cute winks at inane things like “Why’s he called Solo?”. All this being said, The movie features some solid performances- Donald Glover is expectedly phenomenal as Lando, and Alden Ehrenreich excels as Solo, adding some welcome flavour to the character- particularly his friendship with Chewbacca, and a brilliantly executed final scene between him and Woody Harrelson’s Beckett.

11. Attack of the Clones Directed by George Lucas

How in the world this film made it all the way to production and into filming, with no one pulling Lucas aside and saying “Hey George, those kids have no chemistry” is beyond me. And I’m not going to blame Hayden Christensen or Natalie Portman on this one, because the whole damn love story makes no sense. Maybe falling for a dude who admits he murdered women and children isn’t such a great idea? Then there’s the increasingly convoluted political climate set up in Phantom Menace, and the machinations of the dark side that would take the entire Clone Wars series to fully explain. All this being said, Temuera Morrison, Samuel L. Jackson, Ewan MacGregor AND Christopher Lee are all in this movie. And they’re pretty damn fantastic.

12. The Clone Wars Directed by Dave Filoni

It’s inexplicable that Dave Filoni would go on to have a hand in some of the best Star Wars content ever made in Clone Wars, Rebels and the Mandalorian. And yet he got his start in the franchise by putting up this piece of junk. And junk is being a little generous. The humour is so juvenile it’s insulting to even the youngest of audiences it’s intended for. The plotline feels way to thin to warrant a feature film, and if this was in fact intended as a pilot for the TV series, they sure picked to most uninteresting story to pique our interest. Skip the movie, watch the show.

19 notes · View notes

ampleappleamble · 3 years ago

Text

—

It was a simple platitude, and one he'd heard quite often growing up: "Be ever honest, forthright, and true, and ne'er shall Woedica frown upon you." The rhyme was reductive and childish, but the sentiment was understandable enough– Honesty is a virtue, and one that should serve any good, upright citizen of Aedyr well.

Of course, Aloth knew better.

He'd known better since he was fifteen years old, clutching his face in his hands and choking on his own tears while his mother tried to soothe him, brushing back his smooth, black hair and holding him close, careful to avoid the bruises, all the while imploring him you must never tell a soul of this, Aloth, never, for even I could not help you then. He'd known better after running to the proctor about the incident with the spellwrights gilde and their damned machine, trying to bring it all to light, and instead of finding himself languishing in a dungeon for the atrocity he'd taken part in, he was instructed to continue to meet with them, to keep his mouth shut and his eyes and ears open. No matter the rewards honesty promised, the people in his life always seemed to reinforce the lesson that deception and secrecy were the true keys to success.

Until now. Until her.

Since their very first meeting outside the Black Hound Inn, as far as he could tell– and he considered himself a decent judge of character, most of the time– Axa had not uttered a single lie to anyone she'd spoken with, had not suppressed nor sugarcoated a single truth, no matter how painful. The closest she'd gotten to lying was her reluctance to discuss the chain of events that had lead her to relocate to the Dyrwood, and even that had come out eventually, and entirely of her own volition. In fact, she seemed to not only practice honesty in her words and her deeds, but to relentlessly pursue the truth, to champion it, to draw it out of others like venom from a wound and leave both parties happier for it. Hel, she'd even managed to get him to open up.

How did she make it look so easy?

Practice, I reck'n. Isnae easy fer ye, tellin' sooth, coz yer nae accustomed to it, are ye, lad? Iselmyr's unwanted commentary was almost constant, now, and Aloth could not tell whether it was due to his control over himself deteriorating further, or if she had simply been emboldened by their secret finally being out after all these years. Either way, it was wearing on his nerves, and he worried that it was starting to show. It certainly didn't help that the others were as curious about Iselmyr as he was eager to be rid of her, and only about half of them seemed to possess the decorum to recognize his discomfort and drop it. Even Axa had asked if it were possible for her to speak directly to the horrid little pest, although to her credit she'd only had to be told "no" once, unlike Edér and Kana who seemingly only deigned to speak with him in order to badger him about his "friend," trying to trade jokes with her or learn Hylspeak from her or– Berath take him– flirt with her.

"Jealous," she'd smirked, and Aloth had gone bright red when Edér had laughed in response, only then realizing that she'd made him say it out loud.

Am only out 'n' jawin' wie kith cozza yer wee burd, laddie. If ye've aught t' complain about, tell it t' her. As much as he hated to agree with Iselmyr, he had to admit that she had a point– if he'd been left to his own devices, he might never have told anyone about his Awakening and simply lived his whole life suffering in silence. But since he'd started following Axa, talking with her, fighting alongside her, earning her trust and starting to trust her in return, he'd found that opening up about himself– and Iselmyr– was far easier than he'd ever expected it would be. The clever little woman had had him halfway figured out by the time he finally told her anyway, which had certainly helped speed things along. She had even suggested a method by which he might finally learn more about his condition, although the thought of letting some jackleg animancer strap him to a table (don't think about the spellwrights the experiment don't think about Targun his eyes empty and lifeless and dull don't think about it don't) and peer into his soul made his skin crawl.

But it didn't seem quite so dismaying when he reminded himself that she'd be there with him.

The events of the day thus far had only served to reinforce this notion. She'd broached the topic over breakfast, suggesting that after they finish their business with the Knights, they make the sanitarium their very next stop of the day– "May as well get it over with, right?"– but he had deflected and redirected, stating that he'd hoped to read up on animancy a bit more before making the plunge– "After all, I've waited fifty years, I can wait a few more hours"– while reminding her that she had expressed a desire to parley with the Eyeless Face sometime soon. A little nudge in the right direction was all it had taken for Kana to commandeer the conversation, excitedly gushing about banned books and Waelite secrets, and Aloth had sighed with relief even as he'd winced at the knowing look Sagani had given him. But Axa had not seen fit to press the matter, and so they'd agreed on their plans and headed for Crucible Keep, turning over the research for their new Forge Knights without any issues.

And upon arriving at the Hall of Revealed Mysteries, the distractions had quickly accumulated, as they tended to do. The forgemaster at the Keep had done little to assuage his worries about animancy in general, and every book about animancy he'd half-heartedly attempted to peruse only ended up making him more anxious, so instead he'd spent most of his time leafing through old favorites, comforting himself with the certainties of the classics, repetitively tracing his slender fingers over ancient runes in arcane treatises he'd practically memorized years ago during his training. It was a surefire method of calming himself down, helping him to collect his thoughts– or it would have been if he hadn't been continually interrupted by Iselmyr's whining, Edér's yawning, Kana's incessant attempts to "help" him with his research.

Aloth had just suffered yet another of these intrusions (Kana had jokingly shoved a primer on orlan physiology and anatomy under his nose, opened to a page with some... detailed illustrations) when the messenger from the palace had arrived, summoning Axa to court. He'd have been pleased for such a convenient excuse to continue the deferral of their visit to the sanitarium, but the scene at the Hall of Records had been far from a pleasant one.

"This is she?" Arledr Gathbin had glared down at the little woman, naked contempt on his sneering face. "This little varlet, she's the one who murdered my kin and now clings like a leech to my ancestral land? I'd thought she was just some servant, a wench from the scullery."

"This wench," Axa had snapped back, "claimed that land– a keep abandoned by your noble line for well over a hundred years, I'll remind you– by strength of arms, and with the assistance of the few good men and women standing alongside me." Sagani and Pallegina had blinked in surprise at her words, but raised no objection. "And in any case, I didn't see your name on the door."

Gathbin had reared back as though she'd spat at him. "Never speak to me so brazenly again, cur," he'd hissed, "or you won't have time enough left in your miserable life to regret it."

Chancellor Warrin had been quick to bring the meeting back to order, but the calm had not lasted long. Upon learning that Caed Nua would only be his upon the condition that he pay reparations to Axa for services rendered in recovering it, Gathbin had flown into an even greater rage, going so far as to raise his hand to the Chancellor. And although he had effectively just declared Axa homeless, she had still leapt between the two men to defend the Chancellor, her eyes blazing as she'd roared at Gathbin to stay his hand.

"You dare to issue orders to me, you hairy little wretch!?" He'd whirled on her, his face beet red, and the captain of his personal guard, a sharp-featured elf in gleaming black plate, had grinned eagerly as her hand flew to her pistol. Aloth had been surprised to suddenly feel the spine of his grimoire under his fingertips, his heart racing. And he hadn't been alone: all of Axa's allies had prepared to draw arms as well, Pallegina's blade already halfway out of its scabbard by the time Marshall Forwyn had stepped forward, hand on the hilt of his weapon, calmly but firmly suggesting that Gathbin contain himself.

After Gathbin had stormed off, after the dust had settled and Axa was officially declared thaynu and roadwarden of Caed Nua, she'd still had enough composure to ask the Chancellor to invite his lordship to settle their differences over dinner sometime– in her halls at Caed Nua, of course– before immediately turning to the record keeper who'd seen it all and asking him if she was now "established" enough to access the records from the Saint's War she'd inquired after previously. Edér's eyes had gone wide, his jaw rigid with apprehension as he'd accepted his prize at last, and as he'd flipped anxiously through the casualty listings, Aloth had mused on the little woman's fortitude, her quick wit, the loyalty she inspired in those who followed her.

And that loyalty was not misplaced. Even now as he struggled to gather the resolve to say what he needed to say, he couldn't stop thinking of the lost, haunted expression on Edér's face as he'd found his brother's name, looked up into Axa's eyes, asked her as though she'd known all along: "Why'd he fight for Readceras?" She hadn't hesitated for even a second when he'd beseeched her to go with him to the battlefield where Woden had died, laying her small, fuzzy hand on the blond man's shoulder and assuring him she'd do whatever it took to give him peace of mind.

Be ever forthright, honest, and true–

Maybe it was bearing witness to all that– her ironclad resolve in the face of a daunting foe, her powerful devotion to those who placed their trust in her– that made Aloth face Axa now, standing outside the Ducal Palace, and tell her he was ready to head for the sanitarium. "If you're still amenable, of course," he added quickly. If you'll help me stay strong enough to see it through, he thought.

If ye'll held me haund, kiss me wee arse–

She blinked in surprise, recovered, smiled warmly at him. "Of course," she replied. "We can go there now. As long as you're comfortable with the idea."

"Oh," he sighed, smiling pleasantly, "I'm not, no. But to be frank, I'll almost certainly never be more comfortable with the idea than I am right now, so honestly, it's now or never. I'm... simply choosing now."

"I can get behind that," she nodded, turning to the road before them. "Shall we, then?"

She lead, and he followed, desperately hoping he wasn't making a mistake.

—

#pillars of eternity #poe anthem infinitum #fic wip #kana: just admits to himself he has a crush on axa #aloth: does this instead #next up: super fun times at the fantasy psychiatrist's office!#thanks for reading ♡

6 notes · View notes

rascheln · 3 years ago

Note

Hi. I have no idea how long I've been following you, but you just pointed out your about you page and I've never seen it before and now I have a few questions if you don't mind answering. 1) Did you watch all of Supernatural? (I stopped like at season 7 or something) 2) Have you ever watch Samurai Champloo? (it's like the only anime I know) 3) What kind of horror do you like? 4) How do you feel about the fantasy genre? 5) Have you read/seen Dune and if so, what are your thoughts? (I could barely get through reading it and the adaptations do not impress me, but I know a lot (a lot) of sci fi fans love it) I also didn't realize you were partially an aesthetic blog, I just thought every so often you really got into pretty pictures.

^_^

sdfgh Anon thank you for all those questions!!😊 I very much run my blog on an "I like pretty things" philosophy, so it's impossible to just make it about one single thing! Putting my answers under a read more because this, uh, got rambly :')

1. I believe I stopped actively watching around season 8 and stopped keeping track of the show around s10, so nope, never finished it either :D That said, I've watched season 1-5 a lot. A lot a lot. Enough to. for a while, be able to name an episode from those seasons just from looking at a screenshot. 2. tbh I've never watched Samurai Champloo, for some reason it just never appealed to me?? Somewhere there's a massive list of all the anime I used to watch, yet I would maybe recommend just a handful of them. It's a love-hate relationship😭 (That said, there's a reason Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is considered top tier, though. If you ever get around to watching any anime this is the one I can wholeheartedly say is very good and suited for people who aren't familiar with anime brainrot. Maybe the first season of Psycho Pass as well, since it's got some huge neo-noir vibes.) 3. Anything sci-fi horror immediately draws me in, haha (movies like Annihilation or Pandorum, but I also used to be super into the game Dead Space). Also love atmospheric/psychological horror that relies more on the characters themselves and the threat of something happening (It Follows, The Others)... plus horror podcasts like Magnus Archives and Sayer etc- and visuals are pretty much a surefire way for any medium to draw me in, like have you seen the original Suspiria??

The horror/mystery aspects are often what compel me to watch TV shows actually, because I don't have a strong interest in series most of the time tbh

4. Fantasy is interesting in the sense that I read lotr and the Hobbit as a kid and watched the movies (lotr many, many times) as well as German authors like Walter Moers and Kay Meyer (forever bitter about the babysitter who borrowed Frostfeuer from me and never returned it) or the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix- yet it's not something I actively seek out as a genre. Tried to get into Mistborn since people were hailing it for its writing and realized I do not care for magic systems that make sense if the world/characters/writing style aren't compelling.

It's a huge genre with a lot of variation though, so stories with magic in them or stories in worlds with creatures and magic are very much compelling and easily draw me in!!

5. Dune is on my to-watch, but not my to-read list. Space aristocrats only work for me if you make them a little whacky and crazy and Dune looks like it's taking itself Very Seriously lol. Before the film was even announced I once checked out the first book and uhh decided not to suffer through all of those books!! You saying you didn't like the movie reminds me of the massive amount of ppl praising Blade Runner 2049 whereas I just thought it felt kinda long winded and empty in comparison to its predecessor.

Whelp, that got very long. Sorry for rambling :'D

Here's a pic of BB for you!!

#asks #hope you have a wonderful day anon!!!!

1 note · View note

dramaticviolincrescendo · 4 years ago

Note

I've really enjoyed your recent meta takes and was wondering if you could elaborate on your thoughts on Mandy + Ian and her going for Lip as a result (from your Ian Relationships meta)? I love reading about M+I and their connection is just so dear to me 😭

(P.S Thank you for being such a beacon of positivity in the Shameless fandom! I only got into the show during lockdown last year but it's become such a comfort so it makes me so happy to see positivity right now. ❤ )

Oh my gosh, thank you so much! You’re seriously too kind! I totally sympathize with you: Shameless has shot straight to the top of my list of comfort media since watching it right around the same time, so I’m really passionate about sharing the love around. 😃🧡

To me, one of the most important things to look at in this analysis is motives—who each of these characters are, what they desire for themselves, and how those factors fit together like a puzzle.

Mandy is in such a difficult position. It’s not as easy as saying that she’s a victim of abuse and wants nothing more than to get as far from her family as possible, because that’s simply not true. In s1, we see that she’s very comfortable in her house. She and Mickey exhibit your standard sibling animosity (and competition for Ian’s attention, unbeknownst to her), she makes breakfast for Terry even though she’s obviously not super respectful to him as a parent, and she clearly has a solid understanding of where her family stands in the neighborhood. In a way, she thrives on that in the beginning. At but a word, she can do serious damage to somebody without raising a finger herself. Viewing Ian’s lack of response to her advances as an insult, she takes full advantage of that. In s2, we know that she is being abused in such a heinous way. She takes charge of the situation, although not in a manner that would save her from it. She leaves the house for a while to avoid Terry; she holds him at gunpoint and forces him to accept what he already knows so that he won’t hurt Ian. When they talk afterward, she even recounts what happened in a way that makes it sound like no big deal—he was drunk, and he didn’t know who she was, so it’s whatever. (It isn’t. We know it isn’t. If this is going to be her reality, however, then she’s going to own it. No one will look down on her, especially not a Gallagher who’s barely ahead of her in social standing.)

We’ll pause there because so much of how Mandy changed afterward is tied to Lip, but we can already see that Mandy isn’t like Mickey. Mickey stuck it out with his family and very clearly fell into the same trap we’ve heard verbalized by other male characters, namely the notion that men can’t be abused. It doesn’t matter that that is entirely inaccurate—that’s what they’ve been taught in their environment. That’s what’s normal to them. (That’s part of the dramatic irony in this scenario: we can see how damaging and traumatic these events are, but the characters don’t have our perspective. I don’t think Mickey sees what happened to him as rape, just like Ian doesn’t see what happened to him as grooming or assault. That’s for the audience to comprehend in terms of gravity and should add to our sympathy for them.)

Mandy is different. Women are abused all the time in their neighborhood. It’s visible, and it’s pervasive. In s3, Mandy immediately teaches Debbie how to defend herself against it. She didn’t have to learn. Like not seeing themselves as victims is part of the boys’ culture, fighting not to be one is part of the girls’. But there’s a contradiction in her life: the Milkoviches are the neighborhood badasses, and while she shares in that, it’s limited by her sex. There is something she will never be able to overcome in order to see the same return on her reputation that Mickey and Terry do, not unless she gets out, which will be extremely difficult on her own merits. She’s living in poverty and not doing well in school. Her prospects are limited—she told the counselor so. Based on that conversation and her history with boys even before meeting Ian, she clearly sees one surefire avenue to get out of this hole she’s stuck in: a man with the resources to get out and take her with him. If she’s lucky, it’ll even be a good man with a good heart who wants to do good in the world.

Now, let’s talk about Ian. (See what I did there?) This doesn’t need to be long because I’ve already talked so much about Ian already lately, but let’s wax poetic just a bit. Ian wants to be a good person. He wants to be able to get by, even be successful, without having to do it through scamming and stealing. He has goals and ambitions, and whatever anybody thinks of those ambitions, he did it with the mindset that he would be a hero—a protector. Along with that, he never gives up. When Mandy sets her brothers on him, he doesn’t hide forever—he seeks her out multiple times to fix the situation. When he can’t get into West Point, he doesn’t quit ROTC and ignore his dreams. He keeps going.

Not only is he someone who wants to be good for himself, but he wants to be good for others too. He shows Mandy kindness that she arguably hasn’t seen from anyone else before. He takes care of his family when hers tends to focus on themselves and their own individual survival more of the time. Ian has what she would have seen as the potential to get out, and at the time, that is what he wants. It isn’t as an escape for him, but as a way to facilitate his own dreams.

The problem? Ian is gay. We can see that that bothers her sometimes because she forgets. She goes in for a kiss in s2 and has to reel back, settling for a hug instead. She gets tired of hearing him talk about Kash in s1 and kisses him to shut him up, saying she just wanted to kiss her fake boyfriend. Ian isn’t attainable. If Ian leaves, he won’t take her with him as a partner, and she can’t ask as a friend. How desperate would that seem to someone who refuses to be put in a position where she even slightly perceives him to be pitying her? She can’t ask. Not Ian. She needs someone else, someone who is also good and capable of getting out of here—who can be convinced to even if they don’t want to. Someone she can also trust and has some sort of connection with. Someone who is a fixer, and someone she can draw in with the only thing she thinks she has of any value: her body.

That would be Lip. Not only does he meet all of those criteria at the time, but she knows she can trust him. She trusts Ian, and Ian is closer to Lip than he is to anyone else—even her. No, Lip doesn’t have any convictions or real desire to leave, but he has potential. She can work with that. She’s also there for the entire Karen saga, so she knows that Lip is someone who takes his responsibilities to the people he’s with very seriously and tries so hard to cultivate that connection. (For example, feeding him, making herself sexually available as often as possible, letting him stay with her when he can’t go anywhere else without any conditions, etc. We even begin to see her distancing herself from Ian a little bit by s3, putting all of her energy into what she has with Lip when, a year ago, they were sneaking around because she said she didn’t want Ian to know about them. That isn’t to say that Ian was seeking her out either, being quite distracted with Mickey, but it’s noticeable for me.)

Like Mickey, Mandy also has a very deep capacity for emotion and affection that seems incongruous with her personality a lot of the time. Also like Mickey, nobody brought that out in her—it was always there. As much as she seemed to hope that Lip would take care of her, the process of growing closer to him led to a level of affection. I don’t particularly read their relationship as being a deep one. Both of them were using the other, to an extent, to deal with their trauma in other areas of their lives. But that sort of thing can foster a kinship, a mutual understanding that transcends time and place and even the terrible stuff that people do to one another.

So, it doesn’t work out. Mandy is hurt and does something unforgivable. She then runs from Lip, straight into what she feels is her only alternative now: an abuser. What else is there for a girl in her position? Ian was unattainable because of his sexuality, but to someone beaten down again and again, perhaps she believed he was also unattainable because he was too good a person. Lip was unattainable despite her best efforts to bridge that gap because of what he had with Karen, but to someone beaten down again and again, perhaps she believed he was also unattainable because her position in his life was to give but never to take. With Kenyatta, all she does is give. She’s embraced being beaten down because what else is there? She leaves with him, believing there’s nothing for her there.

When she finally finds her strength, far from home but hopefully under better circumstances than when she lived in Chicago, she still follows the formula that has ruled her decision-making for some time: finding a place where she can have the control over her life that was never there before, but still with the belief that what she has to offer isn’t academic or able to be built or improved upon. Ian has worked past his perception that his body was what he had to offer, that it was what would provide him with the love he was looking for. But of course, he has. He’s had Mickey to love him when he’s healthy and love him when he’s lost a bunch of weight from a depressive episode spent in bed. He’s had his family to mess up here and there but ultimately love him so much.

Mandy doesn’t have that. She didn’t then either. She got what she wanted—she got out. She even implied that that was the most important thing by telling Ian that being born on the South Side doesn’t mean that’s where they have to stay. But Ian “got out” of the spiral of abuse he unknowingly suffered and the mindset that it fostered while Mandy didn’t. This isn’t to say anything negative about sex work, of course, only the mindset that led Mandy to this point in her life. And when she leaves the house for the last time, she looks at Lip after having asked about him, and they acknowledge each other the way that people who once knew each other do.

I’ve made the joke before that to Milkoviches, Gallaghers are like catnip. It’s flippant and funny enough when we consider how many of them have dated at one point or other. I’ve also said the Milkoviches are designed as a foil to the Gallaghers, a juxtaposed image of what they could have been had their situation been altered slightly. In s10, Mickey mentions how the Gallaghers are messed up and he’s never been happier to be a Milkovich, so there’s some awareness there that these are the two notorious families of the neighborhood, albeit for different reasons. For Mandy to see that not one, but two Gallaghers are out of reach? To perhaps feel as though she’s less than even them, or made to feel that way in her interactions with Lip? It’s the ultimate slap in the face.

She trusts Ian more than anyone else in her life, to the point where she will still call him to help her hide a body long after she’s left him and their home behind. But trusting Ian led her to loving Ian, and she couldn’t have him. Trusting Ian led her to meeting Lip, and if Ian was so good and loved Lip so much, he had to be worth it too. And to her, he was. The problem was that she felt that she wasn’t.

Self-fulfilling prophecies suck: when you’re treated like garbage by a neighborhood that sees your family as garbage and repeatedly experience things that will make you feel like garbage around people with the best intentions, you’ll start believing that you are, in fact, garbage. I think what we’ve watched with Mandy is a steady decline from a place of strength in herself and weakness in her environment to an overall place of weakness that she couldn’t escape. Not with Ian and, when she realized that wouldn’t happen, not with the only real alternative she thought she could trust since she trusted Ian so deeply.

#shameless #shameless meta #ian gallagher #mandy milkovich #abuse tw

38 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

Note

I think the worst thing about V7 is they completely fail to take the cold and grimm attack into account. How many are dead from the cold? How many were killed by the grimm attack? How many were already evacuated? Despite the fact the cold doesn’t kill grimm (the whole reason Atlas is there) and doesn’t kill people (despite the show TELLING us it does, even as 3 men and unconscious woman are out in the tundra), Mantle is dying. Is it cold to leave them? Yes. Welcome to ugly real world RWBY+.

If anything, the Tyrian-Clover-Qrow-Robyn fight makes things worse for me because it actually makes a decent amount of sense (regarding the cold, I mean. Not other aspects lol). Weiss tells us that you need aura to protect yourself from the cold and sure enough, these characters all have aura. They’re also involved in a fight so even if their aura wasn’t active due to the cold before, it definitely is now. I can believe that Qrow, Clover, and Tyrian, as powerful fighters, are all fine out in that tundra. Robyn’s situation should be critical not just due to injuries she may have suffered from the crash, but also because she’s unconscious (no aura) and lying in the snow. She’s going to freeze to death, which to my mind just further supports Clover’s “You need to stop fighting me so we can get her help” and further damns Qrow’s “Nah. I care more about freedom than the life of an ally.” Similarly, Clover’s aura breaking is also a major concern but he dies immediately after he loses it. There’s no chance for the cold to be dangerous because the sword through his chest got to him first. RWBY has managed to write a scene where the cold is indeed a threat but we understand why it’s not an immediate threat: these people have powerful aura, Clover dies right after his breaks, and (admittedly with a bit of interpretation), Robyn may have indeed been in danger and that danger may be referenced in the next Volume. If she at any point experiences health consequences for being left like that - unlikely I think given that she seems fine post-arrest, but I don’t want to slam RWBY for things it hasn’t actually done yet - or if we’re given another stipulation like she wasn’t out in the cold long enough for it to be deadly/damaging... then RWBY would be in the clear. That scene, cold-wise, is internally consistent.

Which sadly makes the other scenes look ridiculous. RWBY demonstrates that it can do this work in one place (perhaps by accident) but not elsewhere. All living things might have aura, but few if any of these civilians would be able to control it to keep themselves safe. Maybe we can acknowledge that the Qrow-Tyrian-Clover fight wasn’t really that long - only a couple of minutes - and if the military arrived promptly after Clover’s murder then Robyn wasn’t out there very long, but we can’t say the same for people who have had their heat shut off all through the fight with Watts, the meeting, the Ace Ops battle, and now well into the morning as they’re directed towards a crater. We can’t provide an internally logical excuse for RWBY here. All of which brings us back to your questions, anon. We have to assume that some have died/will soon die from cold, so will the show actually acknowledge that? How many have been evacuated? Either it’s a lot - somewhat justifying Ironwood’s desire to leave with a majority - or it’s just a few - increasing the number who should be in danger from the cold. And the grimm are a whole separate problem where we have to acknowledge how staggeringly convenient the people’s survival is, well past breaking our suspension of disbelief. We’ve seen flying grimm in Argus ignore all the panicking civilians to instead attack military planes, we’ve seen the RWBYJNR group slam in at the last second to save everyone encountering a grimm in Atlas, and via the promos we’ve seen grimm so stupid they don’t go around a small barrier to maul a civilian before Jaune or Ren can stop them. It’s not that there are good worldbuilding reasons for this (the military has a surefire way of drawing the grimm away, the grimm are established as completely mindless beast), if anything, the worldbuilding we have gotten (negativity draws grimm, many grimm are quite smart) suggests otherwise, which leaves us with the issue that RT is unwilling to follow their own rules because, well, that’s harder. It’s harder to write a story where the heroes convincingly win after you’ve stacked the odds against them to such an extent. It’s harder to write an upbeat story when you include scenes of innocent civilians freezing to death or dying at the hands of monsters. But that’s the situation they’ve given us. They need to work with what they’ve written. The answer is not to go, “Oh shit, everyone should be dying here but we didn’t actually want an entire Kingdom to perish and have our characters grapple with the emotional trauma of that... so, uh, none of the grimm manage to kill people! The cold is no longer a danger! Salem herself won’t decimate them all for, uh, reasons! There. Problem solved” and the viewer is left going, “Actually no... the problem is still there? You’re just choosing to ignore it.”

#rwby #rwde #mymetas #Anonymous

24 notes · View notes

tundra-tiger · 5 years ago

Text

Hiya!!!!! @raiswanson tagged me in this, 20 questions to ask your OC. So I’m gonna do everyone’s favorite Talis, the dragonborn paladin himself!!! This is Talis as he is as of the latest short story that I’ve posted on AO3, so to anyone who knows things that happen later, that’s why said things aren’t brought up--this is the newest and freshest of Talis available :3 Fresh out of backstory and into the big city! Prepare yourselves for a lot of uncertainty aLSO HERE’S HOPING THE READ MORE WORKS, BECAUSE THIS IS LONG

1) if they could choose a new name, what would they choose?

Oh! Huh, I uh…. Well… I don’t really know. I… don’t think I’ve ever thought about it, to be honest. It doesn’t… really matter, what I’m called. The name I have is fine [Talis shrugs] I don’t really need a new one

2) what’s a surefire way of making them happy?

Ahh, I’m sorry, I…. I’m… not really sure [He rubs the back of his neck and offers a small, sheepish smile] I’m not doing that well at these questions, am I? Uh… Really, all I need is, uh, I guess down time? When everyone can just sit and rest a bit?

……

I think I used to knit. I think… that, used to make me happy

(happy is kind of a tricky thing for Talis, rn, and he doesn’t know how to handle it. Things like hugs or shared snacks or warm, quiet evenings by a crackling fire would make him happy, but also would make him feel a lot of other things at the same time. It’s complicated)

3) what’s a surefire way of making them sad?

Oh, well, the, yknow, pretty usual… I mean…. It’s the… um…

[He’s rubbing his arms and stares off to the side. Shrugs, rubs his arms, shrugs again]

(The answer is a lot. A lot makes him sad)

4) what do they do when they feel sad?

I… [he hunches a little, wrapping his arms tighter around him] I uh…. I don’t know

…

I��m sorry, I… don’t have anything else to add

5) how do they choose their friends?

Usually, I don’t [Talis laughs softly to himself] Friendship just kind of, happens. Beings who connect well, or work together, or have something in common. Or… someone who reaches out a hand. When you most need it

That’s the kind of friend I want to be. Someone who’s there when people need me most, who can protect those around me

6) what kinds of food do they like?

I’ll eat just about anything, I’m not that particular. Just as long as it’s filling… and there’s enough of it [he chuckles, but then looks uncomfortable]

(Warm, homey foods--stews and curries, harvest foods, bread. That sort of thing)

7) who is the person closest to them?

That… would be Ace. I met him when I uh… first got to town, I guess? [he smiles] He helped me find a place to stay, and… honestly, I don’t know what I’d have done, if I didn’t run into him. I mean, I don’t really know anyone else here, so… I can’t say I have a lot of folks to pick from? But, yeah, Ace. Yeah

(For the record, Talis would have ended up asleep in an alley somewhere, but eventually found his way to a Temple, and likely have found some kind of work and living space there. But things definitely went a lot smoother, running into Ace, and he feels a lot more secure to have the dragonborn to look up to as he gets his feet under him)

8) what kinds of music do they listen to?

Anything that’s, that’s being played, really. I wouldn’t know what to pick if you… asked… which… ah… [he looks like he wants to sink into the collar of his shirt]

9) if logistics and money weren’t an issue, what kind of animal would they keep as a pet? (includes fantastical animals like dragons as well btw)

I’m, ah, I’m really in no place to… I mean… I don’t think… [he looks about his room, as if looking for an answer] Uh… a… I don’t… think I need a pet…? Really I… I don’t….

(Something low maintenance and soft, like a cat, would probably be good. Maybe a local mouser that he could befriend, he’d love to just sit with a happily dozing cat on his lap ^^ Someday I could also see him getting some kind of pack animal, like a mule, if he has to take to the road with his adventuring party. Even if one of his teammates got a mule, he’d definitely take the time to get to know it and bond with it)

10) what does the landscape of their mind look like?

Uh… [his expression becomes strained] I mean, probably nothing… that interesting…? Like a, yknow, a mind…? I, I don’t know what that would look like…

(His mind looks like a field right before a thunderstorm hits--not as dark as it will be, but dark as night, with a fire in the far distance. A balance of unsettling stillness and precipitating, distant danger

And no, he doesn’t know what to do with it either)

11) why do they like themselves?

Oh, well, um…. [he draws his arms around him] Well, um… I know.... I was called to be a paladin… that… I was chosen. So… that has to mean there was something worth choosing. In me… right?

(this question assumes a character has things they like about themselves, and…. yeah)

12) what do they dream of doing if they had anything and everything open to them?

[he sits very quiet for a length of time] I would… I would ensure… no one would have go through the hell that… [he winces and stares at his hands in his lap. His voice is very soft] I would make sure all had a chance to live well, safely, and freely in the light of the day

13) what fashion choices do they make? do they go more for comfort or style?

I uh… haven’t made many fashion choices lately [he gestures with amusement to his own clothes, which are practical and too big for him, plain workers clothing] I mean, really, whatever’s… available, and sensible for whatever I have to do. Uh… I’m thinking of getting some, uh, gloves soon, it’s, it’s a little cold and… And maybe a, a sweater? Just for days out and about, and, [he holds back a small laugh, looking down at himself] and maybe a splash of color

(Talis loves warm, homespun fashion--vivid marigold and crimson and rich browns, embroidered collars and hems, layered belts and jackets, knitted vests and hats and gloves. Coordinated layers, varying bolder and softer tones, etc… He might decry it, but he loves picking out what to wear, when he actually does take the time to choose what to wear, and doesn’t just go to sleep in whatever he was wearing that evening ^^; Old habits die hard, eh?)

14) if they had to go somewhere without a map, what’s the likelihood that they would make it there without getting lost?

Aaaaaahhh, that would... very much depend on… uh, where this place is…? If I’ve been there…? I, I really haven’t been around, uh, much of Neverwinter yet [he bashfully rubs the back of his neck] I don’t think I could find my way down the street, as it stands

15) what types of people do they attract?

I, um, ah, well… I… I hope I attract people who need my help? So, so I can help them. I’m a paladin, that’s… what I’m here to do

(So far, anyone who’s been around him for longer than half a second has immediately gone “oh no, you need an adult, don’t you?” so mostly: he attracts parents XD )

16) what types of people are they attracted to?

Oh, uh…. Oh. Oh, that kind of….? Ummmmmm….. [his face flushes and he stares at the floor] Um, I really, I really don’t, I… I don’t…. know….?

(Romantically, Talis attraction has been just a giant pile of question marks to me ^^; It’s not something he’s thought much about, and right now, it’s extraordinarily low on his priority list to pursue. He definitely feels some form of draw towards anyone who’s hurt or scared, but it’s more a draw to alleviate that fear/pain than a draw towards the actual person. Yeah, there’s an intimacy to helping another, and he feels it, but that’s all there is, really. He’s got a lot on his plate rn, and isn’t looking for a romantic relationship. He isn’t looking for friends, either, he’s not really looking for anything--he’s just trying to get by ^^)

17) what is their greatest fear?

[his face blanches, and he’s staring at something with unfocused intensity] I……. I……. I don’t…..

I don’t want to hurt anyone [he twists his hands in his lap] I don’t want… anyone to get hurt, because of me

(More specifically, he doesn’t want anyone to use him to hurt others, but he doesn’t really know how to articulate that point)

18) what kinds of body modifications would they do if they could? (e.g. tattoos, dyeing hair, piercings, etc.)

[he idly rubs the scar on his cheek, then pulls his hand away] I hadn’t really thought about that, either… I… don’t know what I’d get… if I could. I don’t really have much to work with here [he laughs and offers a shrugs]

19) what are they insecure about?

I’m… [he unconsciously rubs his wrist] I’m.... I… I-I don’t have time. For insecurities. Thinking… thinking like that just… [he frowns down at his boots] I-I’d rather skip this question, if you don’t mind

(Yes. The answer is yes. He has a lot of them and isn’t ready to admit to any of them)

20) how do they treat people/beings who have less power than them?

You protect them. You look out for them. That’s, that’s just what you do. Anyone who doesn’t look out for those less powerful than themselves doesn’t deserve that power. Then they’re as good as abusing the power in their hands, if they can help another and don’t then they-- Sorry, I, I didn’t mean to…

[he takes a breath]

I swore an oath to protect and aid any who cannot protect or aid themselves. Because that’s. That’s what you do. If you have strength, you use it to help those without

///The boy. The legend. *waves hands jazzily*

Here’s the part where I tag @jcckwrites and @void-tiger and @skairipaassassin and @queenofhelheimr and @linkhecometotown and @maebird-melody and @gryphongirl and anyone else with an OC? I feel like Rai tagged the whole council, but if any y’all are reading this, I’m tagging you again (only it won’t let me tag anyone else so I’LL JUST BADGER YOU LATER)

#paladin talis #talis #dnd oc #oc related #ask meme #this took me way longer than I thought it would #look at my son #if you are new here #i have stories about this boy #on ao3

17 notes · View notes

odanurr87 · 5 years ago

Text

Flash Review: My Sassy Girl (2017)

From left to right: Kim Yoon-Hye as Lady Da-Yeon; Joo Won as Master Gyeon Woo; Oh Yeon-Seo as Princess Hye-Myung; and Lee Jung-Shin as Lieutenant Kang.

Release Date: May 29 - July 18, 2017

Episodes: 16 hour-long (Netflix), 32 half-hour-long (Viki)

Available on: Netflix, Viki

I’ll try to make this quick and painless. This should have been a ‘Dropped’ review. However, for some inexplicable reason, I managed to complete it when it was clear 5 episodes in that this show was not gonna live up to my expectations. The remaining 11 episodes changed the tone somewhat, but confirmed my initial impressions overall. The show focuses on a Joseon scholar, named Master Gyeon Woo, who returns from China to instruct the crown prince, and his encounters with a rude and ill-mannered woman, by name of Hye-Myung, who later turns out to be the Princess. At the same time, there is a plot to overthrow the King which our protagonists naturally have to expose (and survive).

There are many reasons why this show didn’t click for me. The first and foremost happens right at the very beginning when a false accusation of rape leveled at the main protagonist is played for laughs (that incidentally never goes anywhere). Expect him to be called a pervert for several episodes as the writers secretly hope that’ll draw a few laughs. It drew none. Second, the Princess is not at all likable in these first few episodes. She’s rude, prone to violence, quick to level false accusations without looking into the circumstances (what makes her a hypocrite), and utterly irresponsible, never thinking about how her actions will affect the people around her, often with serious consequences. There is one scene where the Princess has an exchange with Lady Da-Yeon in which she basically accuses her of abusing her power to get her own way. Pot, meet kettle, as that’s exactly what the Princess keeps doing throughout the show, with the King punishing anyone else he can get his hands on but her. If that’s not abuse of power, I don’t know what is.

From zero to couple.

The show is blatantly trying to push the formula of the protagonists initially disliking each other only for them to eventually become lovers. I don’t have a problem with that formula, but there needs to be a reason to explain such a drastic change and I don’t feel the show ever provided enough of one. If you want an example of the formula done right, or at least considerably better than here, look no further than My Love from the Star (ironically, the lead actress there, Jun Ji-Hyun, also plays the part of the sassy girl in the movie this show is based on). There have to be moments where each person understands where the other comes from and why they act the way they do, and I feel that was missing here. This couple went from disliking each other to becoming lovers so fast that I was left wondering if I had missed some episodes. I hadn’t. To sum up this point: throwing two people at each other constantly does not a romantic relationship make.

I will admit however, that they were more tolerable, likable even, during the more serious second-half (more like around or after Episode 6) of the show. Hye-Myung finally starts to behave like the princess she’s supposed to be, and Gyeon Woo is the only character who remembers to move the plot forward every once in a while, for which I was eternally grateful. They even have some cute moments during their dating phase, to the point Hye-Myung briefly reminded me of Cheong Song-Yi in My Love from the Star. There are also some heartbreaking moments when the Princess dates the Qing Prince with Gyeon Woo as their translator that have no right to be this emotional considering where we’re coming from, but Oh Yeon-Seo manages to do a great job selling them. Sucks for the Qing Prince since who was a really nice guy.

Perhaps one of the best scenes of the show.

Another thing that bothered me from the first episode was how, well, modern the show felt. Everything from the humor, through how (some) characters spoke and behaved, to the way some rooms were decorated felt odd, out of place. I’ll readily admit I am ignorant about this (or any) period of Korean history, but I just couldn’t shake that feeling (which may turn out to be justified seeing as the show was based on a movie set in the present).

While I could further dissect this show and complain about things like how they handled the Qing Prince plotline, I am considerably more irked about the twist the show pulls as it draws near the end. During the second half, Gyeon Woo is starting to have nightmares repeatedly, leaving the viewer to guess whether these are visions or something else entirely. It would’ve been extremely odd if they had decided to introduce supernatural elements in the show at this point, but It turns out it’s the latter, as Gyeon Woo is remembering past events he had completely forgotten about and which end up playing a crucial role in exposing the conspirators who plan to overthrow the King.

BUT! And here comes the twist, Gyeon Woo ends up recalling that he was the one who started the rumor about the previous Queen having an affair, ultimately leading to her dethronement. You can imagine this does nothing to improve his relationship with the King and the Princess, and they both immediately shun him and blame him for all their troubles. I’m surprised he didn’t get the death penalty then and there. How very hypocritical of them, for let us recall that the document that misled a ten-year old (I’m just guessing here) into believing this was a forgery was meant to fool the King himself, and did indeed. Should he have turned the evidence to the police? Probably, and he did try, but we’re still talking about a kid who had just witnessed the murder of an entire family. Furthermore, once he realizes this was all a setup, he tries to make amends, although a little too late. So when you tell me that the King, who has been little more than a puppet throughout the show, has the gall to accuse Gyeon Woo, who was a kid at the time, of groundlessly spreading rumors when he himself, an adult and the supposed leader of the country, didn’t even try to investigate the matter further... it just confirms my initial impressions that the King is as useless as they come. The issue is exacerbated when the King once more falls into the trap of believing false accusations leveled against Gyeon Woo and his father, but by this point I no longer cared. Heck, I may have even been half hoping the conspirators would replace him with someone more competent (fat chance of that).

To drama or not to drama, that is the question!

I can level a dose of hypocrisy at the Princess as well, but I’d rather dispatch against Gyeon Woo a little bit because he clearly has some communications problems. When he confesses to the King he was the one who started the rumors long ago, that’s all he does. He provides absolutely no context for his actions, instead begging, “Punish me, punish me!” Then, when the Princess asks him if the rumors are true, he replies with a succinct, “Yes.” For a supposed scholar, he is suddenly very economical with the truth. I realize this is a kdrama, and having the protagonists suffer from a sudden lack of communication is a surefire way of creating drama, but this was borderline ridiculous.

What else? Ah, yes, the ending. I suppose I can say this show is at least consistent because the ending was just as disappointing. Gyeon Woo decides he wants to propose to the Princess and does so... to be rejected. The reason? The Princess wants to become a physician and travel to Qing in order to do so. Remember how I said this show felt too modern? Anyway, what bothered me about this scene is that only 10 minutes ago (and 13 before the episode ends) the Princess was begging Gyeon Woo not to leave (admittedly, his departure was of a more permanent nature). Then 4 minutes before the episode ends, the Princess leaves for Qing, and 3 minutes before the end she returns. Repeat after me: Pacing. Is. Important. Hasty and sloppy execution is a cardinal sin, I’ll get Meliodas to vouch for me. And we didn’t need to have any of it. We didn’t need to have a proposal, we didn’t need to have the Princess wanting to leave and become a physician. It added nothing to the show and only served to dilute the ending to the point of being unsatisfying.

Verdict: This is not a bad show, but it’s certainly an average one, and I’m putting the blame squarely on the script. Despite disliking the character of the Princess initially, I feel Oh Yeon-Seo does a pretty good job as does Joo Won. I’d like to see what these two could pull off with a tighter script. The supporting cast is mostly underwhelming, save perhaps for Gyeon Woo’s cute kid sister who’s trying to play matchmaker.

Rewatch meter: Low

#kdrama #my sassy girl #oh yeon seo #joo won #kdrama reviews #kdramas

7 notes · View notes

spiftynifty · 6 years ago

Note

How come it seems like lm and jds can talk more candidly about their intentions regarding other ships like allurance and even k/l but not sheith? I don't understand why they can clarify things like allurance and how it was there from the beginning or flat out state that they never intended for k/l to be a thing, but when it comes to the topic of shiro and keith they won't just clarify what they did or did not intend/want their relationship to be? I'm confused by it. :(

Ooof this is an excellent question and I suspect a complicated one.

First off, they can be candid about Allurance because 1) it’s a hetero couple (and therefore “acceptable” to executives and conservative parents) and 2) it was strongly implied and built up for almost the entirety of the series before they officially, canonically, became a couple. There’s no ambiguity there. They can be candid about kl because Allurance technically “kills” the ship by virtue of existing, but more importantly kl is the fanship that they have been directly asked about on more than one occasion and probably straight up badgered about it more times than we’re aware of. When your production studio gets blackmailed in the hopes of making k/l canon, that ship is being brought to your attention.

Also, Afterbuzz is run by kl fans who have anti-like tendencies. They angle kl questions in nearly every interview, and I was pretty miffed by the way in this interview they heavily, heavily implied that only Sheith fans hated s8 “because their ship didn’t become canon” and yet in the same breath talked about how Allurance wasn’t good and came out of nowhere (something JDS delightfully shut down). In the live chat for the recent interview, people from all ship alignments kept begging the hosts to ask about why SK’s friendship wasn’t included in the final season. In the saltiest tone you can imagine, one of the more vocal kl hosts decided to answer the question (”they helped each other grow and evolve and since they’ve done that, we don’t need to see their friendship anymore, it got lots of screentime in other seasons”) and never let the showrunners actually speak on it, instead moving swiftly to another topic that aligned more with the hosts’ own interests. It was almost like she was afraid of what the answer would be. Was she afraid they’d say “well actually, on the matter of that, Sheith was our intended endgame” or was she trying to save them from having to talk about something NDAs prevented them from talking about?

So why CAN’T they talk Sheith? I have a few theories. This gets long and a little rambly, so I’ve thrown it under a cut.

1) Don’t ask, don’t tell. Except for post-s7, the showrunners themselves have never been asked about Sheith’s relationship in an interview. I think most Sheiths were afraid of rocking the boat and potentially upending a SK endgame by drawing too much attention to it. We were/are definitely the quieter side of the primary vld ships and honestly most of us were not expecting our ship to be canon.

But vld ships and the ship wars are notorious across geekdom for vitriol and death threats, and the creators didn’t want to add any fodder to either side. In the middle of production it would have benefited no one for the EPs to say, “yeah sheith is meant to be viewed romantically” or “no, we can’t go back and change the story to make that true”. Either one would have resulted in an uptick of harassment from antis towards them, towards other fans. And nevermind the production side where DW/WEP weren’t ready for even a hint of m/m until right before s7 dropped. It was only AFTER they got the greenlight on gay Shiro that showrunners could finally be vague and say “some people will interpret [sk] as brothers, others will say it’s 100% confirmed they’re in a relationship”. Which is, in my opinion, a pretty interesting way to respond to that question. But again, if that interviewer hadn’t been brave enough to ask it, I highly doubt it’s something that the showrunners themselves would have ever brought up.

2) Sheith was actually intended to be romantic, but was blocked. We know now that Adam being greenlit as Shiro’s boyfriend happened right before (like a week or less) before s7 dropped. This was a show that had been in production for almost 4 years by this point, and the showrunners stated they picked Shiro to be their rep early on in the process. When they planted that idea in executive’s heads is anyone’s guess, as is when the proper fight for it began. I suspect their immediate team of directors, writers, and in-house producers were well aware and supportive, but kicking that up the chain was another story. I also have a suspicion that it wasn’t until season 6 was complete that the matter was brought up because greenlighting everything we got in s6 knowing Shiro was gay the whole time puts a lot of eyes on Keith.

And really, it was Keith who was the problem all along.

In every version of Voltron, Keith is the main protagonist. He’s the leader of the team, the primary “image” of Voltron, and thus, certain things about him need to be maintained. I’m not sure if this is sheer coincidence or not, but he is the only person on the team who stayed visually the same to his OG counterpart. All of the other paladins have gone from white dudes (and a white lady) to POC, or have had a genderswap. There is much debate about Keith’s race with people creating their own headcanons but ultimately Keith can pass as white. While the handbook states Lance is Cuban, Hunk is half black-half Samoan, Shiro is Japanese and even Pidge gets “Italian”, Keith is just listed as... human. Which is a surefire way to not upset fans who have HC’d him as POC while also not-NOT saying he’s white. Everybody “wins”.

In addition I’m confident a major stipulation of the OG Voltron owners (the “gatekeepers”, as a few of the VAs and the showrunners themselves have darkly alluded to) was that Keith could not be LGBT. We know now he was meant to end up with Acxa, a fact that was already obvious to many of us from their Weblum meetcute. But that relationship was never scripted.

Setting aside the fact that the OG Voltron owners (WEP) didn’t want Keith to be LGBT, I’m sure executives at Dreamworks would have struggled with the idea as well. Shiro stans can come at me all they like about this but Keith was always meant to be the primary protagonist of the show, of every version of Voltron, and making the main, masculine hero of a well-trodden, oft-rebooted franchise gay/bi would have been an ENORMOUS move for animation. Making him end up with the other main, masculine hero would have honestly broken the internet and the minds of countless conservative executives, and been a major benchmark not just for cartoons, but ALL media. Animation often trails behind TV and movies in terms of social progress because something something “protect the chillllldrennn”. And right now I’m struggling to think of a popular live action TV show, or movie, with an older audience, where the main masculine hero is lgbt, and in a relationship with the other main masculine hero. Feel free to offer me examples in replies but the fact that I’m struggling to think of anything is pretty telling. In short, if this revolutionary move still isn’t happening for the live action 13+ audience, asking for it to happen on a cartoon with a 7-11yo boy demographic is like asking for the moon. Keith couldn’t be gay, because immediately it would have been obvious to anyone that he was already very much in love with the other LGBT character on the show. Hell, it’s already pretty obvious in canon that this is the case, and dodging the question about his sexuality is dodging the confirmation that he’s in love with Shiro.

I’d like to believe that one of the solutions to the Adam Problem that was proposed was that KEITH ends up with Shiro, but they were laughed out of the office. The pair’s incredibly close bond aside, it would have been the absolute easiest fix production-wise. They already have their shared history doing most of the legwork, all that’d have to be changed is:

-adding Shiro to the L/K scene in 8x01, just sitting there as Keith encouraged Lance.-Re-recording a couple of Shiro’s lines in 8x05 to make him seem at least somewhat upset that Keith was kidnapped-Showing Keith and Shiro hanging out in the video episode. You could just use the shot of Keith and Pidge but replace Pidge with Shiro.

And the best part is, you could change just one or two of these and then do the wedding epilogue you always intended (but write something that doesn’t insist Shiro retired) but with Keith instead of Rando. Not to mention, there is a slight, slight possibility there was a S/K scene (or two) cut along the way. I strongly disagree with the theories that have floated around about the “massive edits” done to s8, but I think there could be truth to the idea that a Sheith scene was cut to make room for Crew Member, or an effort made to downplay the Sheith friendship that comes off way more intimate than any interaction Shiro has with [man]. It’s more likely that SK scenes never existed at all in this season as the showrunners had to cave to pressures to “have more action”, had no idea what to do with Shiro besides relegate him to a stiff cardboard general, and perhaps had to follow strict instructions about the kind of friendliness an out & proud gay man could show to the men he’d enjoyed good interactions with before.

All this to say, the Sheith battle is messy. It’s fine for the showrunners to say “getting the greenlight for Shiro was a battle” because it’s a battle they won that makes everyone look pretty good. It makes Dreamworks look like they Learned Something and are going to be more open to LGBT content in future properties. It makes WEP look not-terrible because they can add “allowed a character who wasn’t really an OG Voltron character to be gay” to their list of “generous” things they allowed for this re-envisioning of their property. It’s self-congrats all around.

Blocking Sheith has the opposite effect. It reveals that WEP is homophobic because they could allow Pidge to be a girl and Allura to be black but making the hero a non-straight man? That’s TOO FAR. It reveals that Dreamworks higherups are homophobic because they weren’t ready for two LGBT protagonists, just one plus a background character with 3 lines who is literally never named. No one wins, and to be asked about Shiro and Keith and be honest about it could potentially be the showrunners saying, “god, we wanted to, but we were blocked at every single turn”. And thus DW and WEP are the outed villains of the story.

3) Shiro and Keith were never meant to be read as romantic. The showrunners don’t say anything because there’s simply nothing to say. Sometimes the most incredible ships are happy accidents. Sometimes people genuinely don’t realize what they’re doing. I felt a little disheartened watching the AB interview because the way they talked about wanting to include more [man], or how they “hoped viewers would read between the lines” re:Shiro/Curtains, was so casual and flippant it was like they genuinely thought most people would be fine with Shirando if only there had been more scenes between them, as though completely severing Shiro’s relationship with Keith and instead only showing scenes of Shiro bonding with a new character would come off as a good move rather than a baffling (and somewhat hurtful) one.

I do believe that certain directors were absolutely fans of the pair and angled in what they could. Chris Palmer is behind the famous “shiro loves you baby” art and responsible for the eps that include Shiro’s gay panic, the Sheith hug, “As many times as it takes”, Shiro falling into Keith’s arms, and “We have to stop, Shiro’s out there!!” among others. Steve Ahn was the director behind 2x01, 3x01 with heavily grieving Keith, Blade of Marmora, and the episode where Keith screams Shiro’s name so loud he astral projects and then Shiro holds his hands over the controls. He also got really soft when he talked about the pair in an episode of Form Podcast (before JDS kinda hastily shut him down). And even Eugene Lee, he directed The Black Paladins which is an episode so Sheith I still can’t believe it’s real, and 7x01, the other episode so Sheith I can’t believe it’s real. All three of these guys were the original series directors, which is pretty inchresting.

But that doesn’t mean the showrunners were necessarily onboard. Maybe it was really important to them to show a positive male friendship since that never happens in media, just as they felt having Allura sacrifice herself was a powerful feminist move. However the thing I keep circling back to is JDS’ early interview about The Winter Soldier and how if he ever got the chance to do that, he hoped it would be in the future when things could be more progressive, hinting that he wanted to throw more overt romantic undertones if he himself ever got a fight like that to write or direct. It’s pretty interesting that he wrote the Black Paladins, which mirrors the Stucky fight in Winter Soldier so much that it actually rotoscopes one of Bucky’s moves. I’d also point out that JDS’ favorite characters are Shiro and Keith, and I find it impossible to be a fan of both and not also be a fan of how much they love each other, and how much that love straddles the line between romantic love and friendship.

This got long, but I hope it was helpful. The likely final-ever showrunner interview will be on Let’s Voltron sometime this month, and I do hope that now that the series is over someone is brave enough to ask them, “so... what was going on between Shiro and Keith? In a perfect world, what would have happened there?”. In a way it doesn’t matter though. There is always the risk of them saying “nothing was going on there” and us agonizing over whether that was a lie to protect their careers or bald-faced honesty in the face of an NDA or fucks-given that might have expired with their contracts.

But I think the best we can hope for is the same situation that happened with the Avatar creators and that live action movie: 3 years from now when the NDAs are well and truly expired, JDS & LM may come out and say, “SO, on the matter of Shiro and Keith, it’s time to come clean.”

#sheith #vld meta #voltron #askspifty #it's still wild to me that people say they're brothers #like really i have questions about your siblings if that's the case #Anonymous

188 notes · View notes

the-everlasting-dream · 6 years ago

Text

What Happens On The Island.. (Mature) - Sonia x MC

Summary: The part about getting shipwrecked on the island, Sonia didn’t tell her boss about.

A/N: Sooo after Chapter 5 of The Heist: Monaco I knew I couldn’t let that escape without doing something for my MC and Sonia. Considering Blaze’s character, this basically wrote itself. Basic scene and dialogue borrowed from canon.

Sonia FC: Valerie Abou Chacra Blaze FC: Toni Mafud

Song: Bad Boys - Zara Larsson

Word Count: 5.8k - its worth it i promise

Warnings: Erotica, 18+ material, lemon or whatever we’ve decided to call it. I’m not responsible if you wanna ignore the warnings.

Tags: @choicessa , @mariamulroney , @drakewalkerwhipped , @thewolvesss , @mfackenthal , @srawesleyghuewrites , @topsyturvy-dream , @enmchoices , @gardeningourmet @debramcg1106 , @alesana45 , @meladoridarcy, @blackcatkita , @tmarie82 , @annekebbphotography , @lizk77 , @jayjay879 , @tornbetween2loves , @akrenich , @theroyalweisme , @likethetailofacomet , @sleepwalkingelite , @littleblossom-18 , @ooo-barff-ooo , @drakewalker04 , @mkatschoicesblog , @speedyoperarascalparty , @carabeth , @fairydustandsarcasm , @drakewalkerisreal @mrsnazariowrites @androgynousflowerqueen

Cool, calm and collected, as they said. Sonia hated platitudes but not as much as she hated what she termed emotional leakage. She despised the way girls used to — and still did — fawn over the men they were interested in, their innermost feelings written all across their faces for the world to see. She resolved never to be like them Strength and discipline, Hasaan’s voice came back to her. The height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. The image of her military instructor, a big rough Lebanese man, appearing back in her mind along with memories of countless drills, hours of torturous labour in the hot sticky Amazonian jungle, drilling into her the two principles she would stand by for the rest of her life.

Or rather until the last few hours.

Blaze, the head of the thieving crew her boss Ansel has tasked her with finding and capturing layed on the sand not too far away from her. She’d been holding him at gunpoint in a speedboat routed to take him straight to jail when a massive storm hit, toppling their tiny vessel. She was determined to make it to a nearby island when she say Blaze get overpowered by a huge wave and something in her couldn’t stand to let him drown. After pulling him to shore with her, she’d lit a fire to warm herself and was watching at he groggily came to.

‘Sonia…’ Blaze's expression was shocked for a moment until it morphed into the smirk she was beginning to associate with him. ‘You really wanted to get me alone huh?’

Her mouth opened to protest. If he should have been annoyed or threatened by the image of his rival sitting calmly across from him, he showed no sign of it, and instead his smirk grew wider.

‘I can’t deny the chemistry between us but stranding us on an island is a bit drastic, don’t you think?’

The corners of her mouth jerked up slightly before Sonia realised it and she immediately recovered herself, going back to her default impassive expression. He was not going to shake her. ‘Surely you can’t think this is the time for jokes?’ Blaze accepted her mocking tone with a grin of his own.

‘How can I resist when I’ve got such a captive audience? Anyways wanna tell me how I got here? Last I remember all you’d lost control of the boat.’

Rolling her eyes internally, Sonia went back to poking at the flames of the small fire she’d built in the time that he was unconscious. What had she been thinking? Blaze was her mark, the target her boss had set her on to be eliminated in whatever means necessary. Yet she couldn’t deny the feeling of guilt she’d felt when the huge wall of water had knocked him over the side of the boat, something strange inside her compelled her, she couldn’t just let him die. Why couldn’t she? It would have made her job a helluva lot easier… She savagely jabbed her stick at the fire.

‘Fine. You wanna know what happened? You went over the side like a goddamn idiot and I…’

Fuck what was wrong with her? Again that feeling in her chest tightened as she risked a quick glance up at his curious expression before fixing her gaze at her feet.

‘…I couldn’t just let you drown.’

The genuine surprise in his tone was unmistakable. ‘You saved my life?’

Anger flared up inside Sonia. Hassan had been right. She never had the guts to make the call.

‘I did what I had to. No need to dwell on it.’

For a moment she thought he was going to push her but Blaze had obviously recovered from his initial shock, his trademark smugness returning.

‘Knew you had a soft spot for me. Admit it, we may be on different sides…’ He paused long enough to tempt her to raise her head in his direction and like a fool she fell for it, catching the glint of mischief in his eyes. ‘You kinda like me..'

Again Sonia couldn’t hide her initial smile, attempting to disguise it with a joke and a roll of her eyes, hoping he wouldn’t see the effect he had on her. ‘In your dreams. You must be more oxygen deprived than I thought.’

The words were out of her mouth before she knew it and she chastised herself severely. Fraternising with her prisoner was a surefire way to lose her focus and now that they were alone, she needed to be sharper than ever. She had no idea if Blaze would attempt anything but she inwardly steeled herself to be ready for anything.

‘The sooner we get back to the mainland, the better,’ Sonia announced, more for her own benefit. And the sooner I can get my head back in the game. Been here a few hours and this place is already messing with my head.. She looked out at the water surrounding them. ‘My people are looking for us but they won’t know which island we’re on.’

A wet rustling alerted her that Blaze was sifting through his clothes, obviously going for the ear piece she’d found in the pocket of his jeans when she’d searched him earlier.

‘Don’t bother,’ she told him, glad she could find a flaw in his usual cool facade when the device blinked off. ‘I already tried, I was hoping you’d have something useful under that getup of yours…'

Too late Sonia realised her mistake and Blaze’s smug smirk was back as he sat on a log opposite her. ‘You frisked me? While I was unconscious? If I’d known you were that eager, I’d have woken up a lot sooner.’

His blatant remark made her eyebrows shoot up as she unsuccessfully tried to back track.

‘I wasn’t- that is…’ Come on Sonia, get a hold of yourself.

She cleared her throat. ‘I needed to take stock of what resources we had, and make sure you didn’t have any concealed weapons..’ ‘I’m sure you were very thorough.’

She could feel his grin. ‘Found anything… of interest?

She forced herself to meet his eyes. ‘Not in the slightest. If you hadn’t cut me off before I gave Ansel our coordinates, at least my people would know where to start looking.’

Blaze’s eyes hardened a little, reminding her of the differing sides they were on. ‘The way I see it, I bought my crew some time to find us.’

Sonia had to give credit where it was due, drawing random patterns in the sand. ‘That was a smart move, I’ll give you that. If it didn’t piss me off so much I’d actually be impressed.’

‘Oh I’ve got a lot more where that came from.’

The light from the fire flickered in Blaze’s eyes and he held her gaze just long enough to wonder whether he meant anything else by that statement.

‘We should figure out how big this island is, get to the other coast if possible,’ he spoke up re-entering her thoughts to their current situation.

‘Agreed. We should examine our surroundings and see if we can find anything useful. But I don’t need you slowing me down.' With his long legs, that was a very minuscule possibility but Sonia couldn’t resist the jab just to remind him again what sides they were on, hoping to get just as much of a reaction from him as he seemed to have no trouble getting plenty from her. However Blaze seemed infuriatingly unshaken.

‘Don’t worry chief.’ A ghost of a grin played on his lips. ‘I can hold my own.’

That stupid handsome face of his seemed to taunt her, eyebrows raising in just the slightest to see how she would react and another rush of irritation filled Sonia. She had been trained in a hard school but how was he getting past her defences so easily? She may as well have been one of those prattling airheads she despised so much. Before she could embarrass herself any further, Sonia made a split second decision.

‘Fine. But you’d better keep up with me ‘cause I’m not waiting for you.’ With that she stood up and stalked off into the forest, not bothering to look behind her if Blaze was following or not.

As she’d predicted, he had no trouble catching up but she still continued on at the cracking pace she’d set, determined not to show any more weakness. Patches of moonlight filtered through the scraggly canopy providing some visibility through the undergrowth, allowing them to pick throw way through the knots of foliage that covered the ground.

At some point, Sonia glanced up to get her bearings again, everything looking the same in the dim light. In that moment she hadn’t been watching where she put her feet and in her haste her shoe caught on an overgrown tree root, pitching her straight towards the ground. Instinctively she threw her hands out to brace for impact against the dirt but it never came. Instead, strong hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her upright again. She glanced up to see Blaze staring down at her with mild concern in his dark eyes.

‘You okay?’

She nodded, feeling the warmth from his body in such close proximity to hers seep through her still-damp clothes as the faint smell of his cologne reached her nose. They’d just been tossed off a boat and waterlogged, how did he still smell so good?

In that moment Sonia was acutely aware of how blue his eyes were now that she had a proper look at them. She’d never seen such a vivid shade of blue, particularly in someone of his ethnicity so close to her own and she took a moment to silently appreciate that. He allowed her to look, the intense gaze they shared setting off a spark of heat in her lower abdomen. A bat screech ripped through the air breaking her from her trance and suddenly aware that she’d been staring too long, she cleared her throat, stepping decisively out of his hold, her mid section cold from where his hands had been.

‘Thanks.’

‘Well you did save my life. Guess we’re equal now..’

Making the executive decision to ignore the comment, she turned and continued to march through the forest, much more observant of where she put her feet this time, not wanting to have a repeat of that incident.

Or did she?

Sonia shook her head to clear it, blaming it on the island and the obvious oxygen deprivation she’d experience for her lapses in judgement. She still felt the spark of heat in her belly, though it had grown to become a tiny flame and immediately chastised herself once again. She was working in security for one of the most extravagant weddings of the decade and he was the conman attempting to upstage her efforts. She should hate him, turn him in, be abhorred by the kind of person he was to attempt to pull off the very thing she was hoping to avoid.

Yet she couldn’t deny the obvious chemistry she felt between them. He clearly must have felt it too or else he wouldn’t have been teasing her so much right? She shook her head. Maybe that just been so long since she… Under the cover of the trees, her face turned away from Blaze’s Sonia blushed at the realisation of how much time had passed since… Yes it had to be that. Her imagination running away from her, making her concoct things that weren’t there.

Strength and discipline, Sonia. Don’t you forget that. Out of the corner of her eye, she barely registered Blaze’s arm surging forward and her instincts dialled to eleven, ready to execute a perfect right hook when her mind intervened to see he was just holding a branch out of her way so she could avoid getting hit.

‘I don’t need your assistance,’ she snapped haughtily, embarrassed. Hasaan would have been livid at her for be caught dreaming for the second time. Still the polite side of her refused to let this go unnoticed. ‘But thanks..’

Blaze waved a hand in dismissal, making her frown. The last thing she wanted to be was indebted to a glorified burglar. The pause made Sonia stop and consider her bearings. They had reached the edge of the forest now and she could see a path leading to a small beach.

Just how far had they gone?

Sonia turned around to ask him and her eyes immediately widened at the sight she was met with. Blaze had stopped a few paces behind her, arms bent behind his head to grab the collar of his t-shirt. She could not for the life of her tear her gaze away from the way the corded muscles flexed as he pulled the garment over his head, ruffling his dark hair in the process as the moonlight shining through the scraggly trees lit up his athletic figure. Her eyes drifted lower of their own accord and her breath caught in her throat as the sight of his muscled chest, sporting just the right amount of neatly clipped dark hair that ran down his torso, past his still flexed abs before the narrow line disappeared past the hem of his jeans, hung low on his hips.

Of course he was perfect.

Her mouth suddenly seemed dry and she caught herself running her tongue over her lips to wet them, displeased at the amount of emotional leakage she had allowed herself exhibit.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ She snapped, more annoyed at herself than him.

Blaze lifted his tousled head, casting her a quizzical look that somehow still managed to make her lower belly tingle. ‘Taking my shirt off?’

Sonia sighed in irritation. ‘I can see that. Why is that necessary?’

‘I don’t know about you sweetheart but my clothes are sopping wet after you just got us tossed out of our vehicle and stranded on a damn island with no backup. I prefer to return to civilisation without a head cold.'

‘Don’t call me sweetheart,’ she snapped backhandedly, the feeling her own drenched outfit became much more noticeable.

Blaze regarded her for a moment, arms crossed over his bare chest as his eyes gave her a once over. ‘Yeah you’re definitely not sweet. Salty’s more like it.’

‘I am not salty!’

He shrugged his muscled shoulders and she wondering how the action was both annoying and attractive at the same time. ‘Whatever you say, chief.’

Sonia rolled her eyes, understanding that she was clearly not going to win this. When they resumed their pace, she detected a soft clinking from beside her and looked over to see two dog tags hanging from a silver chain around Blaze’s neck, illuminated by the silvery light of the moon. Squinting she could make out Arabic lettering stamped there, her mother tongue she’d never bothered to learn.

‘Didn’t take you for the sentimental type,’ she ventured, tipping her chin at them.

Following her gaze, Blaze immediately folded his arms across his chest to hide the tags from her view, his tone closed when he spoke. ‘Curiosity isn’t a good look on you chief.’

Judging by the total shift in his mood, she’d obviously touched on a sensitive subject and when Sonia opened her mouth to apologise, he cut her off with a pointed finger at a dark shape washed up on the beach. ‘Look.’

‘Our speedboat?’

Stepping closer, her eyes scanned the small object, slightly battered by the storm but in one piece nonetheless. ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me. That means we…'

Blaze grinned back at her widely. 'We’ve found a way off this godforsaken island.’

A matching smile of relief broke out across her own face and in her excitement she grabbed his arm, shaking it in glee. Then her rational mind seemed to kick in and she abruptly dropped his arm when she remembered who he was, who she was and what roles they were playing.

‘This changes nothing,’ she declared, not sure if it was for his benefit or hers.

He shrugged and they both made their way over to the vessel. Climbing in, Sonia began to sift through paraphernalia that had accumulated in the bottom, spying a pair of oars.

‘I don’t mean to kill the mood, but there’s a hole in our boat.’

Blaze's voice rang into her ear much closer than she was have expected and she turned in surprise only to find him right there in her space, the only thing separating them being the side of the hull.

For the second time in god knows how long, Sonia found herself staring up at her “prisoner", her own heart hammering her rib cage at just how close they were. The heat in her belly reignited for renewed vigour, standing so close she could feel his body heat radiating towards her. Her gaze dropped to his lips, inches away from her own, suddenly looking very enticing. If she wanted to, all she had to do was stretch up onto her toes and …. Her conscience tapped her on the shoulder and she forced herself to look away.

‘What have you got in mind?’ Blaze asked.

Definitely not wondering what it’d be like to kiss you.

‘We should fix it… fix the boat…’ She stammered, finding it very hard to concentrate with him shirtless and leaning on the side.

‘They teach you any of that in wilderness survival camp?'

‘Yeah we should… we should check the back, see if there’s anything that could help us there.’

In her haste to put some space between them, Sonia misjudged the height of the boat’s raised interior in comparison to the ground below and her foot caught on the railing when she tried to swing her other leg over, tipping her off balance.

For the second time that night, Sonia found herself plastered across Blaze’s body, her hands planted on his bare chest, feeling the muscles flex as his hands settled comfortably on her waist, their faces inches away. The fire roared up in her belly as his blue gaze drifted down to settle on her lips and she knew he was thinking about kissing her. They stood locked in that position for one long desirous moment before it became too much for her to bear, his touch, his smell, the anticipation of what it would feel like to taste him in her mouth, all male, all for her, in a single tryst that could be their dirty little secret if she so wished. Everything about this went against everything she stood by but she couldn’t deny that every part of her wanted, desire, needed this, more than she could fathom.

Unable to contain her need any longer, Sonia pressed her lips to his in one swift motion and Blaze responded immediately, stroking the fire in her belly to new heights. Her eyes tilted shut and she allowed herself to get lost in the moment and in him. It was everything she’d imagined and more, the taste of him etched itself onto her brain and once she’d tried it, she knew she’d never forget it. Desire flooded through her as he deepened the kiss, hands beginning to explore her body but she couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the sensation of his tongue licking her lower lip, requesting access which she readily gave him.

'This changes nothing.’ She pushed at his chest.

'Who says it does?’ he drawled huskily, reconnecting their lips again as he began to tug at her clothes.

'I’m still gonna be coming after your ass,' Sonia murmured, mouth still pressed against his, word forming around the kisses they exchanged.

Blaze pulled back, mischief glinting in his eyes. 'God I hope so.'

She frowned, he had to know what this was to her. 'I mean it, I’m still working for Ans-'

‘Mmm you talk too much.’

He cut her off with a kiss so passionate, Sonia swore she saw stars. Moaning she drew him in closer, kissing him harder as they began to grind against each other desperately at the side of the boat. She was so wet, she wondered if he could feel it through the layers of their already damp clothes. They parted for another gasp of air and weaving her fingers into his soft hair, she pulled him to her roughly, lips slamming onto each others as they fumbled their way to the flat back of the speedboat.

Up til now she’d had a code. Right was right and wrong was wrong. Black and white, she’d always seen the world like that but now that she was looking into his eyes, Sonia realised there was a bit of grey there too. As her back bumped into the side of the speedboat, Blaze tugged on her long hair, exposing her neck to lick the soft skin there and she took her opportunity to explore his body, hands running over the taut fired in the muscles of his chest, biceps corded tight as he reached down to knead her ass. She’d never been touched like this, been manhandled by someone who had absolutely no doubt in himself whatsoever.

‘What do you want Sonia?’ he growled the words into her skin, sending aftershocks rippling down her body.

Her hips seemed to move with a mind of their own, grinding sloppily where they met his hardening member over the top of their clothes. Wasn’t that enough of an answer for him? Or was he really going to make her say it?

As if in answer to her question, Blaze pulled away, hair dishevelled from where she’d run her hands through it, eyes locked on hers with an intensity that dared her to lie.

‘Tell me what you want.’

Lips still stinging from their ferocious kisses, Sonia swallowed, so choked with need too distracted by the sensation of his fingers playing at the edge of her shirt.

‘Tell me what you want.’ The commanding tone pulled an answer from her.

‘I want you to take me.’

Her voice sounded pathetic even to her own ears but she barely got time to dwell on it before his lips were back on hers, kissing her harder than she’d ever been kissed before. HIs hands, thieves hands, worked at her clothes quicker than her lust-addled mind could follow and she couldn’t help a gasp of surprise when the cool night air caressed her breasts. Blaze took a step back, having stripped down to his boxers now, eyes roaming liberally over her body and she had a strange urge to cover up under his intense gaze.

'I don’t do this very often,’ she told him in a small voice, crossing her arms across her chest protectively.

’Doesn’t bother me,’ he replied, his nonchalance surprising her. ‘You’re a pretty girl, don’t doubt that for a second.’

Strangely comforted by his words, Sonia welcomed him back into her arms, fingers threading into his hair as he leaned down to coax her nipples to full attention, lavishing them with both his hands and tongue until her skin rippled with goosebumps. She couldn’t help a low moan from escaping when he worked at the fastening of her pants, tapping her once to lift her ass so he could pull the damp material off her body.

'Jesus, how longs it been Sonia?’ Blaze asked at the sight of her plain, completely un-sexy cotton panties, running his fingers over the dampening material.

Sonia was glad for a low lighting to hide the blush from her cheeks. She hated how transparent she was to him but the fire inside her far out burned that it threatened to overwhelm her. She couldn’t let him see how weak she was for him and willed her defensiveness to kick in again.

‘Shut up and get back to it Blaze.'

‘As the lady commands,’ he replied snarkily before returning to that commanding tone. ‘Lie down.’

That position would be putting her at a disadvantage, sprawled out across the back of the boat, far away from anything she could have used as a weapon in case this turned south. One glance back at Blaze told Sonia, that was right where he wanted her. She however complied. Blaze hooked his fingers under the material of her panties, blue eyes never leaving hers as he slowly and deliberately pulled them down her legs. On the way back up, he gave her thighs tiny kitten licks before blowing on her dripping sex lightly. She silently thanked the gods she’d had the sense to go for a wax earlier that week.

Looking her right in the eye, Blaze softly traced the folds of her sex, steadily avoiding her clit. He was teasing her, having his way with her while she was at his mercy. She dug her nails into his arm, silently urging him to go deeper shut her eyes at the contact and he finally moved closer to her soaking lips, centered his tongue at the lowest point of her glistening core. Sonia felt herself inhale sharply as finally his tongue met her lips.

Ever so softly he ran the tip of his tongue up the full length of her tight slit, ending with a flick across the nub of her throbbing clit, eliciting a strangled gasp from her. She felt the tip of his finger apply just slight pressure to her sex just as Blaze's mouth returned to her slit, his tongue probing deep between her lips and licking from bottom to top before he added another finger. She moaned finally feeling the full effect of his mouth on her pussy, every ripple of pleasure unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. She reached down with one hand and grabbed at his dark hair to try and hold him there and provide some support for the feelings that rose in her, radiating up from between her legs. He licked her expertly, knowing exactly what to do to urge her body towards her climax while all she could do was grab at her breasts massaging as she continued to moan, arching her back off the boat’s edge.

It could have been hours or just minutes Sonia couldn’t tell all she could focus on was the sensation of Blaze’s fingers working inside her, alternating in a pattern designed perfectly to bring her to the edge. You deserve better, he’d said. Was this better? Her core sure seemed to think so, the heat boiling to an unbearable degree before it finally exploded and her vision swam. Body convulsing, she came with a loud wordless gasp, unable to concentrate on anything other than the electricity cracking through her body.

She was panting like she’d just ran a marathon at full sprint and stared up at him with slightly unfocused eyes.

‘Y-You clearly d-do this a lot,’ her voice was a strangled murmur.

Blaze’s signature smirk curved across his mouth, still wet with her juices. 'Often enough.'

Oh that smirk would be the death of her.

Just one glance at that smile had her ready to go again, so lust driven for him that, she barely recognised herself at this point. Now that she’d had a taste of what he could really do, there was little her principles could do to stop her from pulling him in for another heated kiss, this time enhanced by the flavour of herself mingling on his tongue as it slipped effortlessly into her mouth.

Usually she would have blushed in embarrassment but tonight she just couldn’t get enough of the taste of them together, hands boldly reaching for his underwear, taking a peek at the brand of good measure — Calvin Klein, why am I not surprised…? — when he ground his hardening member into her open palm. Gods he was going to be huge, and this wasn’t even at full size yet and for a moment Sonia hesitated, doubting if she could take all of him without being split in half. Blaze didn’t give her a moment to dwell on this, kissing her so deeply she knew she’d never get the taste of him out of her mouth. That was all she needed, she was ready now and he picked up on it immediately.

He shrugged out of his underwear and his member sprang up against his belly, the veiny ridges illuminated perfectly in the light of the moon. Sonia couldn’t help her mouth from dropping open. However big she’d imagined him to be he was even bigger, definitely the biggest she’d seen ever.

Sonia felt the head of his cock nudge her opening, willing herself to relax as Blaze easily manoeuvred himself into the tight opening, lubricated her juices he continued to slowly push into her, half inch by half inch. Pushed to the very edge from all his teasing and the raw sexual tension that had been building the entire night, Sonia could already feel her orgasm build as soon as he entered her. This slow press into her depths kept the feeling building but only delayed any relief. It was one of the best feelings she decided, amidst the intense pleasure surging through her. At this angle, he filled her to the absolute brim and she couldn’t help watching herself take every inch he gave her before her eyes flicked up to his, watching him watch her face contort in ecastasy. She’d never been filled as totally and completely as she was right then, knowing no one she’d ever been with or would ever be with would measure up either length or width.

With Blaze’s eyes trained on hard, she took his cock, first in slow strokes that rubbed onto the g-spot on the front wall of her pussy then faster, pressing forward, exploring her depths. Finally, Blaze’s hips hit her own, his balls pressed between them and she couldn’t help but writhe, moaning, tightening her walls further to force some movement as he waited, his cock buried inside and filling her. A low growl erupted from his throat, enjoying the feeling as she squeezed his cock tightly then he slowly flexed his ass, his thighs pressing against the softness of her, pushing just slightly further with each small slow thrust keeping his cock fully embedded between. They’d barely started and already she could feel the wave of pleasure begin to come to a crest, the relief she desired was almost here.

'Oooooohhhhh god!' Sonia exclaimed as her orgasm descended on her with no warning and her head spun with euphoria, barely able to keep herself steady. Strong tremors wracked her body as she soaked his cock with her juices, chest panting heavily. Body spent, she looked up at Blaze through half lidded eyes as he slowly pulled out and a flicker of confusion rippled through her. Wasn’t he going to…?

One moment those blue eyes seared into hers and his hands were on her hips, turning her onto her stomach in one smooth motion so abruptly, Sonia heard herself squeak in alarm. This time Blaze wasn’t gentle with burying himself entirely in her and she moaned so loud. His message was clear, she’d had her turn, now it was his. Breasts plastered across the boat’s edge, there was a slight quiver in her arms as she tried to push herself back onto him but ultimately failed, unable to match his incredible stamina. She moaned for him, his name, incoherent sounds, all letting him know she was ready for more and sped up his thrusts, trying to push down and focus the pressure on the front wall of her pussy and g-spot. Both their bodies slick with sweat, slammed together loudly in the night air. The boat began to shift slightly under the force of their fucking, threatening to give out under them and send them sailing out to sea but Sonia dug her toes into the sand, determined not to let anything get in the way of the glorious euphoria coursing through her.

Blaze’s hips hit her ass over and over, plunging himself into her as a hand wrapped itself into her dark hair. Sonia clutched at his strong forearms propping himself on the surface of the boat until the sensation of having him in her finally exploded in an inferno that flashed her vision white hot.

‘Oh Blaaaaaaze- God!! !' She screamed into the night, as his fingers flicked her clit in time with the flames that set her on fire. 'Oh, fuck, oh, oh god, oh god, oh god.’ She moaned loudly, grasped desperately at the boat, one hand above her head the other on the edge as she gasping for air, grinding herself back onto him to get as much out of her orgasm as possible while her legs began to shake uncontrollably.

Blaze’s thrusts began to lose their fluid rhythm, becoming more erratic as he slammed himself into her a few more times before yanking out of her pulsing sex and pumping himself furiously sending thick spurts of cum onto her ass and lower back, with a groan. The contact making her flinch at the contact, still hypersensitive, barely registering as he fell forward onto his arms leaning over her body. She was completely and utterly sated, spent beyond her limit and despite her instincts, the act of keeping her eyes open suddenly seemed too much to execute and Sonia drifted off into a deep sleep. The whirr of a motor boat shook her from the sleep and she glanced up in time to see Blaze stepping into the vessel, welcomed by a man and woman she could not recognise. She glanced down in a panic but found that somehow she was now fully clothed, almost as if nothing had happened. If not for the slight soreness between her legs, she would have been tempted to think she’d dreamt it up.

‘Where do you think you're going?’ She snapped in irritation, making him glance over his shoulder back at her.

‘Away from here…?’

‘But.. but..’ Sonia cursed herself for fumbling, her mistake only bringing that devilish smirk back to Blaze’s face.

‘Sorry sweetheart I had a good time but we’ve both got jobs to do and I intend to do it before your people find me,’ he gestured over his shoulder where another boat was approaching.

‘You can’t just leave!’ She yelled back running after him but their boat was already setting off into sea.

'Relax Chief,’ That devilishly handsome grin of his widened and Blaze had the audacity to wink at her as he sped out of view, calling out across the water. ‘What happens on the island, stays on the island!'

#sonia x mc #THM sonia #THM #the heist: monaco #blaze is up for anything #choices thm #playchoices #choices fandom #choices fanfiction #lemon #30 diamond scene #n*fw

91 notes · View notes

nightingaledarling · 7 years ago

Text

FIC: My Kind’s Your Kind

Fandom: Samurai Love Ballad Party Timeline/Continuity: Modern AU Pairing: Maeda Toshiie/MC (unnamed) Genre: Angst, but does it really count as angst since you know they get together later?? Probably. Oops. So much for ‘I will never write Puppy angst!’ Word Count: ~1800 Rating: PG-13 Notes: Let’s play “guess the character this description alludes to,” lol. This goes before “Like I Need You Then” in the Nostalgia ‘verse.

@hajeema @han-pan @stars-over-omori @kawa-akarin @all-my-cuffs-have-buttons @saizoswifey @pseudofaux @sengokugenkigirl

And anyone else who expressed interest in the rest of this series. Thanks for your beautiful comments on the previous work, loves! Y’all have been so great with putting out quality content that I was inspired to finish this one off. I have about three more planned. If you would like to go sans tag in the future, please let me know!

“What if I was your boyfriend?”

His phone buzzes with a text reading ‘SOS’ and he’s off like a shot, striding toward the bar with purpose.

The dim lights and throngs of people at various levels of inebriation make movement more difficult than it should be, but he sees her instantly. She’s got her arms crossed tightly in front of her, phone clutched in a white-knuckle grip. Her smile is so fake it’s painful to look at, and her upper body is leaning away as far as she can get from the creeper who’s leaning into her space. The man’s got a bit of a heavier build, his balding head slick with sweat from the body heat inside the building. Neither of these do much to detract from the man’s slimy, leery gaze.

What was the phrase again? ‘It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye’?

Toshiie pushes forward and steps right in between the two, thumping his hand down on the bar top for good measure as he turns his back to the creeper and looks down at his friend.

“Hey Gorgeous,” he says, the pet name rolling off his tongue as naturally as if he were saying her name instead. “Was wondering where you went.”

The relief ebbing from her is almost palpable, her eyes warm with a silent thank-you. She uncrosses her arms and lifts a hand to rest on his bicep. “Just wanted another drink. Thanks, Babe.”

An internal shiver goes through him when he hears that. But before he can enjoy it much, the man behind him clears his throat rather loudly.

Toshiie turns. He makes a show of cracking his knuckles with an impressive pop. “Sorry bro, did you have something you want to say to my girlfriend?”

The color drains from the man’s face at the gesture, and he shakes his head, spluttering his words out, “N-no! Nevermind!” He makes a hasty retreat, tripping over himself on the way.

Her hand drops from Toshiie’s arm, and he immediately misses the touch.

“Thank you,” she says earnestly. “He wouldn’t go away.”

He shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. Perks of having a guy friend. But I still think you should’ve been born ugly, because you probably wouldn’t have this ongoing problem of creeps hitting on you in bars.”

“I’m gonna ignore your implication that the creep problem is my fault. You realize you basically just called me pretty, right?”

...He walked right into that one. “Well, it’s not like it’s a secret,” he huffs, looking away. “You are. Pretty, I mean.”

When he glances back at her, she’s trying hard to fight back a laugh. “Careful. Don’t strain something trying to compliment me.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Quit while you’re ahead.” He inclines his head toward the bar’s entrance. “Feel like getting out of here?”

“Sure. Let’s just go find Umeko and…” Her eyes roam the interior before stopping by the pool tables, and she giggles.

Toshiie follows her line of sight to see Umeko and her boyfriend pressed up against the wall in a rather compromising position.

He shakes his head, chuckling. “Maybe just text her that we went ahead.”

“Yeah.” She taps out a message on her phone. He takes the opportunity to send off a quick good night text to Sayuri too, and together they head to the door.

The cold air outside is a shock straight to their bones. It’s more instinct than conscious thought when he pulls her to his side so she can share the warmth of his jacket. It’s probably just as automatic for her to huddle into him and loop an arm around his back to get even closer.

“If I wasn’t sober before, I am now,” she laughs, her breath coming out in tiny pale puffs.

Another gust slams into their skin, and Toshiie shudders.

The bar is about a fifteen minute walk from their apartment. At such close distance, it’s kind of stupid to get a taxi or rideshare. On the other hand, he really isn’t interested in dying from the biting cold, despite knowing that his body does tend to run on the warmer side.

“Just pretend you’re in Hawaii,” she says suddenly.

Briefly he wonders if she can read minds. But he probably shouldn’t be surprised; they’ve always been so in sync with each other. “By myself? That’s sad.”

“Not by yourself,” she huffs. “Pretend that you’re on your honeymoon or something. I don’t know.”

“If I was on my honeymoon, I’d rather it not be with you,” Toshiie deadpans, only to wince when she thumps him in the flank with the side of her fist.

“That goes double for me, jackass.” There’s no malice in her words, just a fond teasing that only she can get away with.

He smiles, first taking it at face value, but then he starts to think.

From acting as her boyfriend at the bar to cuddling her to ward off the chill to joking about honeymoons - it’s not Toshiie’s first time for any of these. For almost anyone else, those actions would be a surefire indicator of romance, but for the two of them, it’s just out of familiarity and having been so comfortable with each other for so long that they can get away with it.

It’s no wonder that people always assume they’re dating.

He won’t lie. That what-if question had hovered in the back of his mind since their early teens when she started developing noticeably different body parts than him, but he never really gave it much thought until they entered high school.

Even then, the what-if was only a transient thought between relationships.

She’d been with her first love for a good year. When they ultimately called it quits, she’d said something about how he was kind-hearted and ideal but just a little too proper, and Toshiie had wondered, ‘what if it were me?’ for a minute before leaving the thought alone and treating her to a junk food day.

He had a similar thought when he became the unwilling owner of a broken nose in their senior year for sleeping with an underclassman who turned out to be the class president’s younger sister. When the president wrung out his fist and went on with his day, Toshiie had thought, ‘this wouldn’t have been a problem if it were her’ before stumbling away to the nurse’s office.

So the concept of dating his closest friend was always a fanciful idea, an abstract notion that he’d considered but never actually thought to be within the realm of possibility.

At least, not until they moved in together.

Now that they’re under one roof, their relationship has changed - solidified, almost. There’s something about their involvement in each other’s lives that can’t really be touched, no matter how many blind dates she goes on, no matter how far he gets with Sayuri.

Because now, things like cooking together and movie marathons on the couch and sharing a beer on the balcony are a little less hangout-ish and a whole lot more domestic. She makes him scrub the toilet on Sundays, but in return he makes her take out the trash. He’ll be at the store debating between his favored laundry detergent scent of spring blossom and her favored lavender fields and decide to go with the latter, only because the former gives her a headache.

He thinks about how these exchanges are probably much more common with couples - couples who live together, to be specific.

The fact that they have a joint bank account specifically for rent and utilities is just the icing on the cake.

That what-if question… it’s not such a farfetched idea anymore.

He doesn’t have much more time to think about it, because somehow, in all his contemplation, they’ve already reached the apartment. She ushers him inside, shutting the door and the cold behind them. But he doesn’t want to lose this closeness. Not yet.

He holds her fast, one hand to the back of her head, another to her shoulder blades. Her keys clatter to the floor in her surprise.

“Toshiie? What’s wrong?”

It could be real.

“...What if I was your boyfriend?”

She stiffens in his arms, then relaxes, breathing out a laugh. “You might as well be, for all the time we spend together.”

“I’m serious.” Toshiie draws back a little, leveling his gaze to hers. He can see the mirth and jest in her eyes slowly dim, dim, then vanish at the gravity of his tone.

She swallows, closing her eyes for a long beat and then opening them again, wearily focusing on him. “I guess…” she begins in a whisper, and although he can hear her perfectly in the stillness of their apartment, he leans in close anyway. “We just never tried to be anything more.”

“Why didn’t we try?” He murmurs.

She shrugs helplessly. “Didn’t make sense to?”

“Really?” Toshiie lets out a low, self-deprecating chuckle. “Cause sometimes, I swear - you’re the only thing that does make sense to me.”

There would be no interview time, no break-in period. He already knows that it takes five alarms to wake her up in the morning, and she already knows that Thursday is his back and biceps day at the gym. He already knows that she seasons all her food with an atrocious amount of hot sauce because ‘it’s not a meal without it, Toshiie,’ and she already knows that he bought a motorcycle because he can’t be bothered to operate on bus schedules. He already knows that she’ll cry at the drop of a hat when she gets angry, and she already knows that it’s best to leave him alone for a day or two when he’s feeling down.

She gets him, just like he gets her.

It could be real.

Her eyes flutter closed, slow and arresting, but before he can inch forward, she mumbles a single name -

“Sayuri.”

And it feels like someone’s dumped ice water over his head. He takes a step back. Just one step, but it might as well be a mile.

Sayuri, who’s out of town for a friend’s birthday and probably missing him. Sayuri, who’s kind and selfless and likes him and trusts him.

Sayuri, who he swore he’d give it a shot with, no matter how on-again off-again they’ve been lately.

He says nothing, just lets his hands fall to the side. In measured movements, she crouches down, picks up her keys and puts them in her pocket. She can’t seem to meet his eyes, not that he can blame her.

“It’s getting late,” she says, voice small and resigned, and she retreats to her room.

The sound of her door closing echoes into the foyer. Toshiie slumps against the wall with a sigh, raking a hand through his hair.

It could be so, so real.

But not now.

#you ever want to smack the shit out of a fictional character #me too #slbp #samurai love ballad party #slbp fanfic #slbp fanfiction #inuchiyo #maeda toshiie #slbp inuchiyo

51 notes · View notes

rockmiyabideusexmachina · 7 years ago

Text

2018 Megaman Valentine’s Day Contest Rules and Info! *CLOSED*

How do I follow up a 10th Anniversary contest blowout that had tons of prizes? I really can’t, can I? Especially in terms of the sheer amount of winners. So, things will be a little less flashy with this year’s contest, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a few surprises in store, either!

Here is the rundown for this year’s contest:

PRIZES:

It’s the usual get-what-you want option for the top 3 artists in each category. If you prefer a cash prize through Paypal, that’s always the easiest and quickest option to get your reward.

As always though, I will be flexible and work with the winners to purchase Megaman-related prizes, if there’s something you’ve really had your eye on and would like ordered. Be it a 4-inch Nel, Nendoroid, Megamix manga, or some other trinket, if I can find it within your prize price range and order it to be shipped straight to you, I will do all I can to make it happen!

The winners for both the Talent and Humor categories will receive the following:

1st Place: $100 USD or an item(s) up to that value.

2nd Place: $50 USD or an item(s) up to that value.

3rd Place: $25 USD or an item(s) up to that value.

RULES:

Two categories, in which you are allowed to submit one entry for each category, if you would like. If you place in one category, you will be automatically disqualified from the other, for reasons of fairness, and to give other people a chance to win a prize.

CATEGORY 1: If You Like It, You Should Put a Ring Boomerang On It (Talent)

Content Requirements:

* A romantically simple, or extravagantly over-the-top proposal scene between the Megaman characters of your choice

When thinking of a more romantic, but creative Valentine’s concept I haven’t really done yet, about the only thing off the top of my head was that of a proposal. While there aren’t a ton of actual married couples or even canon romantic relationships in the Megaman Universe, I think it still is a concept that will produce a lot of variety and unique ideas!

As always, you have creative freedom as to how you want to approach this theme. Perhaps you want to draw a nervous character picking out some bling at Ms. Millions’ jewelry shop. Maybe the proposal involves a fusion of Jewel Man and Ring Man surprising the fiancée-to-be. Want to draw a proposal fail? Make it on the jumbotron of Strike Man’s stage, and she’ll probably be too embarrassed to say, ‘Yes!’ Wedding proposal not your thing? You’re fine to make it something like a prom proposal even, if you’d like.

As the talent category, judging for this theme will focus on the technical skills of your piece. Just as guys throughout history have had to brainstorm the most creative and surefire way to get her to say, ‘Yes!,’ your goal for this category is to create a unique and outstandingly well-drawn proposal scene to get me to say, “You win!”

CATEGORY 2: Beauty and the Beastman.EXE (Humor)

Content Requirements:

* Awwwwww…Beast Out! At least one Megaman character turned into a monsterous, beastly form. But looks are deceiving, and there’s a curse that needs to be broken.

* A beautiful character who hopefully has learned to love this other character shunned by society…or maybe not.

* Other various Megaman characters cursed into the form of household items or a handsome, vain, muscular suitor who can’t read books are purely optional.

Tale as old as Time~Man, claws like Greiga Rock~man, Beauty and the Beast…man.

Yeah, song with great rhyme, that is not. XD

In the EXE series, we had a gimmick in EXE 6 known as ‘Beast Out,’ where Rockman took on a more animalistic form, either that of the Cybeast Greiga or Falzer. In the anime, this concept was utilized on other characters, giving us beastly “Zoanoroid” versions of classic Navis. So there has been some precedent of turning Megaman characters into beastly monsters.

So, let’s combine that idea with a popular fairy tale/Disney classic! Your goal for this category is to create a hilarious scene with a mismatched couple of a beautiful Megaman character and the less-attractive, beast form of another character of your choice. You are welcome to draw something alluding to your favorite part of the original tale or any of the numerous versions based off of it. You certainly can just use Beastman.EXE as the title alludes to, but you don’t have to. You can get creative and make a beastly form of whatever character you’d like.

For this category, show me how beauty is only skin-deep, in the funniest way possible!

PARTICIPATION PRIZE RAFFLE:

Back once again, with much less sadly, I am going to give away 3 rare participation prizes. There is not a separate wildcard category this year. In order to be eligible for the participation prizes, all you need to do is enter a pic for either the Talent or Humor category!

Like last year, if there is a prize here you are NOT interested in, please note that when you send in your submission(s) to me. Otherwise, you will be automatically entered in the raffle for a chance at each of these 3 items.

If you draw a pic for both the humor and the talent categories, you can double your chances to win! (Odds of course, depending on how many others enter and also draw two pics.) You will be able to add your name into the drawing a second time for just 1 of these prizes.

So, what are these raffle prizes? I’m sticking with the art theme, so you could come away with any of these special, historic pieces of Megaman art!

Raffle Prize #1 – Rockman 8 Anime Mid-Game Cutscene Cel (with Genga)

Yes, you are seeing that right. Just for drawing, you could come away with this cel from the mid-game cutscene, where, Rock runs out of Dr. Light’s lab after being told that if he ‘fwinds dat meatey-oar, we’wll fwind Doctah Whywee.” Yes, you can have a piece of that scene!! As you can see in these samples, the cel is not stuck, so you can proudly display each piece separately if you prefer!

It’s this scene, only not covered by the lab wall. Probably the first time we’ve seen this art fully unobstructed!

Raffle Prize #2 – Archie Comics Worlds Unite Inked page (Sonic Universe #77, Page 8)

Inked and signed by Gary Martin, this page showcases that rare brotherly interaction between X and Rock, with the sneering, evil trio of Wily, Robotnik and Xander Payne all behind bars immediately after they portal-escaped from Sigma’s grasp. Although their sentence only lasted like a page, before X let them out…

Raffle Prize #3 – Captain N Robot Master Height Chart

Ugly and poorly constructed? Yes! But that’s what’s so great about Captain N production art. From season 2, here are 3 of the 7 MM2 Robot Masters used in Episode 5, The Big Game: Wood Man, Heat Man and Quick Man. Why are they taped on like that? Apparently, when making these height chart references, the animators just reused other height charts as a base. So underneath these 3, you’ll find the original height chart for the people of Kongoland, a Smurfy-blue-bodied-Thundercat hybrid tribe of Donkey Kong worshippers. Yep, that’s a real sentence I just typed.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

When you submit, I would prefer you to include the following information in this format, along with your entry:

(Your name/preferred alias) – As much as I usually know who you are, there’s always someone new or somebody who has a different preference from what their email name says.

(Category this entry is for) – You can either say 1 or 2, or Talent/Humor·

(Participation Prize Eligibility) – Just write “All” if you are interested in the chance to win anything. Write: “Exclude from #__” if you do not have interest in winning a particular participation prize.

In the event you are submitting your second entry, please specify which prize # you would like your bonus chance in the raffle to be put towards.

Only submit your own work, as usual. Any character, major or minor, from any series is allowed. Pairing characters from different series is totally allowed. Same-gender pairings are completely fine.

As always, participants are allowed to submit from all over the world. It’s easier for me to get prizes to US entrants, because international shipping is complicated and pricey, but I’ll do what I can for you guys who aren’t in the States.

Paypal is still the preferred method for cash prize payouts. Please have a valid account to receive your winnings.

Youngin's, get your parents permission before entering.

Entries do not need to be colored, but it is preferred. The more effort put into things as always, the better chance you have!

Entries can either be e-mailed to me at rock2125[at]hotmail[dot]com, or you can just PM/note me a link to your pic.

DO NOT post your pics in this journal, your dA galleries, tumblr blogs, other sites, etc. until the contest is over. This is the fairest way for competitive reasons. I prefer to keep them all secret until the deadline has passed.

I'll edit a confirmed entry list in this thread when I receive them. So you won't be in the dark about whether or not I've received your entry.

DEADLINE:

The deadline for this contest will be Monday, February 12th, 2018 by 11:59PM CST. This gives you a little more than 5 weeks to finish your entry!

MISCELLANEOUS INFO:

As usual, If you don't plan to enter, but would like to help me judge, please let me know through DM or mention so here. Never hurts to have extra opinions on all the entries.

Bug me with questions if you have any. Please join in, and good luck to everyone who enters!

Heed the Heel Navi’s message...

Confirmed Entries:

Category 1 (Talent): @borockman, @pandapanic0, @drewblossom, @wintesm, @hyperbole1729, @jb-artist, @digitallyfanged, @tianura, @lightlabs, @peach35, @iris-sempi, superbasket5, @shikai-the-storyteller, @yugiohlesbian

Category 2 (Humor): @frankenchio, @erekisaiko, @drewblossom, @prar-draws, @amiable-apparition, dark-dullahan,

#Rockman #Megaman #Mega Man #Rock Miyabi's 2018 Megaman Valentine's Day Contest

84 notes · View notes

twh-news · 7 years ago

Photo

Box Office: ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Is Marvel’s Most Risk-Free Movie

We are now one month out from the release of Thor: Ragnarok ― well, the domestic release, anyway. The 17th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe opens on Nov. 3 in North America, but it’ll start its overseas roll-out (as does every MCU movie) in advance of its domestic debut. In this case, we’re two and a half weeks away.

Obviously, I haven’t seen the film quite yet and have no idea about its quality. It’s no secret that I’ve adored the trailers, both in terms of its 1980s video game/Star Wars rip-off visuals and its quirky humor, although once again I must remind you that both prior Thor films were pretty funny as well. It occurred to me that this 17th movie, eight and a half years into this gonzo MCU enterprise, is arguably the least risky movie ever in the MCU.

By that, I mean essentially nothing is at stake, and there’s nothing to prove with the Taika Waititi-directed fantasy adventure movie. Putting aside the whole “It’s probably going to do just fine!” argument for a moment, this is the first time, at least since The Incredible Hulk, that a new MCU movie hasn’t been, if not “risky,” then at least in the position of proving that X, Y or Z could bring about an MCU hit. From Iron Man to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, there was almost always some burning question to be answered by the film’s financial reception. But this time out? Yeah, Thor: Ragnarok could pull a Good Dinosaur, and it really wouldn’t mean a damn thing. Let’s dive in, shall we?

First, this is apparently the third and final chapter of the stand-alone Thor movies. So, if this one underperforms, then I suppose the non-existent Thor 4 is in immediate peril. Second, we already know that Marvel movies can do big business outside of the summer season (Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange). Third, this third Thor movie isn’t really trying to prove anything whatsoever in terms of the MCU. It’s not trying to prove that Thor can play in the A-level MCU sandbox because Thor: The Dark World already did that. It’s not trying to prove that MCU fans and general moviegoers will go for far-flung fantasy because Guardians of the Galaxy proved that with flying colors.

If I may do a stroll down memory lane, Paramount/Viacom Inc.’s Iron Man proved the feasibility of the whole enterprise right from the get-go, while Universal’s Incredible Hulk, by doing about as well as Hulk five years earlier, made a slight case for the value of the MCU brand when there barely was such a thing. Iron Man 2 made more worldwide than Iron Man, proving that it was no fluke, while Thor showed (with a then-huge $449 million worldwide) that the MCU could get general audiences into a fantasy actioner based around Norse mythology, anchored by relative unknowns like Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston no less. And Captain America: The First Avenger showed that overseas audiences (and cynical domestic ones) would embrace a character named Captain America.

You don’t need me to explain what Walt Disney’s The Avengers proved, even if it sent Hollywood on a five-year wild goose chase trying to replicate the whole cinematic universe thing. Iron Man 3 made almost as much as The Avengers worldwide and proved that the MCU got a huge shot in the arm from The Avengers. Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved that they didn’t need a summer release date for a big hit, while the latter offered evidence of A) Steve Rogers popularity beyond the mere $371 million global gross of The First Avenger, B) the added value of Black Widow as a supporting character and C) the ability to wedge these films into specific genres as a way to differentiate them.

Guardians of the Galaxy was a kind of “We can do anything we want!” triumph, which is why it’s a shame that we’re only getting our first minority-led superhero movie in early 2018 and our first female-led one in early 2019. But I digress, James Gunn’s allegedly risky outer-space adventure, based on characters that even somewhat hardcore comic fans have little knowledge of, proved that Marvel was in itself a brand, like Pixar, and that the biggest marketing draw for an MCU movie was that it was an MCU movie. That came in handy the next year with Ant-Man, as Edgar Wright’s surprising departure and the character’s B (at best) status still yielded and leggy and kid-friendly $519 million hit on a mere $130m budget.

Skipping back two months, while some may have carped when Avengers: Age of Ultron “only” made $458 million domestic (down from Avengers’ $623m) and “only” $1.4 billion worldwide (versus $1.5b for The Avengers), the film (still Marvel’s biggest overseas grosser) showed very little signs of slowdown. And a year later, Captain America: Civil War did almost identical business, give or take, to Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Whether or not the surefire hit had anything to prove, it was a case in introducing new heroes for future franchises, as we met Black Panther and Spider-Man during the Steve versus Tony moral showdown. If nothing else, it showed the consistency of the “mythology episode” MCU May summer kick-off movies.

5.5 years after The First Avenger and 1.5 years after Ant-Man, Doctor Strange showed that the MCU could still introduce a major new superhero, as the Sorcerer Supreme movie pulled in Phase 2/Phase 3-level bucks ($678 million) despite being closer in spirit to the Phase One origin story movies (that’s not a criticism, I would argue Wonder Woman plays like a Phase One MCU movie and The First Avenger remains my favorite MCU film). And then, just a few months ago, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 showed that James Gunn’s franchise could potentially be the new ringleaders of the MCU after Tony Stark presumably steps down from that role in two years, while also proving that an MCU movie without Iron Man could top $800m worldwide.

With $878 million worldwide and counting, Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming proved that A) Spidey was still an A-level property and B) putting him into the MCU indeed increased his value, again showing that the best marketing hook for an MCU movie was that it was an MCU movie. It also showed that Marvel could play nice with others. And through it all, there has been a relatively consistent drumbeat, not unlike Pixar, over the notion that THIS TIME, the movie wasn’t going to work for one reason or another. Thor was too mythical/obtuse for audiences, Captain America wouldn’t play overseas, Ant-Man was too small and too troubled, Guardians of the Galaxy was just too out there, etc., etc. And, thus far, they have essentially batted 1.00.

That’s what makes Thor: Ragnarok somewhat unique. Regardless of whether it’s any good or not (and lord knows I’ve been a nitpicky grouch for the last 2.5 years), the Chris Hemsworth/Tom Hiddleston/Cate Blanchett/Mark Ruffalo/Tessa Thompson/Jeff Goldblum actioner has absolutely nothing to prove and essentially nothing at stake. If by some fluke it flops, it won’t do any damage beyond its own arguably finished franchise, while giving the MCU a “my first kill” theatrical flop. We know that November MCU releases can work, that far-flung MCU fantasy is commercial and that Thor, Loki and Hulk are popular characters. They can get back to “proving” themselves with Black Panther and Captain Marvel. Thor: Ragnarok is essentially a freebie.

#thor ragnarok #speculations

27 notes · View notes

birdship · 7 years ago

Note

all of em. have fun, nerdo.

Femme or butch? Soft butch.Do you have a “type”? If so, describe it

Plaid button-ups or leather jackets? Plaid.

Describe your style Tacky and comfortable.

Describe your aesthetic Space, the ocean, birds, robots, cats, the meeting point between technology and nature.

Favorite article of clothing? I have this tie-dyed zip-up hoodie that’s super comfortable and warm without being TOO warm.

Favorite pair of shoes? Uhhh I don’t really have that many pairs of shoes, and the ones I do have I guess I like equally for different practical reasons.

Current haircut? Shitty.

Any haircut goals for the future? Not shitty.

Describe the best date you’ve been on Uhhhh none.

Describe the worst date you’ve been on None?

Single? Taken? In a relationship.

If taken, talk about your girlfriend/wife! My girlfriend is my best friend of almost 5 years, though we only started… dating? (I guess I can phrase it that way? It’s an LDR) earlier this year. They’re funny and sweet and talented and they understand me and my garbage brain better than anyone else I’ve ever met. And we’re an amazing creative team.

If single, what are you looking for in a potential girlfriend/wife?

Describe your dream wedding It’s autumn or late winter, and the wedding is held outdoors but under cover. Like maybe a gazebo or something. There’s no sound except for the rain pouring down outside, and the guests are wondering where we are. Suddenly, I poke my head in the doorway, smile and apologize and hurry to the altar as some jpop song plays very softly in the background. I stand awkwardly at the altar alone until the song is over and the next one begins… then suddenly there’s a crash! It’s my partner, who has punched through the roof of the gazebo and as they land, the John Cena theme begins to play. The rain soaks through the fancy carpet runner as they join me at the altar. We high five. Then when the priest starts doing the vow stuff, Life is Beautiful from Deadly Premonition starts playing louder and louder until nobody knows what’s even going on anymore. Then everything goes normally and we act like nothing happened.

Do you want kids? Nope.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Honestly, I’m not sure. There are places that sound appealing, but… I dunno where I would want to settle down.

Favorite lesbian movie? I’m struggling to think of any movie I’ve ever seen that could be described as “lesbian”…

Favorite lesbian novel/story? Can’t think of any novels, and I can think of waaaay too many comics/manga, which is my way of subtly saying that I can’t possibly pick one. So rather than pick a fictional story, I’m going to say the non-fiction autobiographical comic My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness.

Favorite lesbian song? I’m not sure what necessarily qualifies as a specifically lesbian song… but uh… I’ll go with Magnet (yes, the Vocaloid song) or maybe Thao Nguyen’s cover of With A Girl Like You.

Favorite lesbian musician? Uhhhhhh… OSTER Project maybe?

What lesbian stereotypes do you fit into, if any? I mean… I’m pretty gender non-conforming in general so like… several of them, lmao. I don’t wear makeup, I have short hair, I own several plaid flannel shirts, I don’t dress in a way that is attractive to men…

Ever been assumed to be nothing more than a gal pal? No, simply because there’s never been the opportunity.

If a woman wanted to woo you, what would a surefire way to accomplish that? Send me weird MMD videos.

Be positive! What do you like most about being a lesbian? Girls………. But seriously, uh… I feel like, especially since it took me so long to come out and to stop being in denial, I now understand what I want from a relationship better than I think most straight people do. In coming to terms with my orientation, I did so much introspection and soul-searching about what love and romance means to me, conceptually.

Are you more of a cat person or a dog person? Cat for sure.

Turn ons? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Turn offs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Do you usually ask other women out or do you wait for them to ask you? I’ve literally never asked anyone out, so um… probably the latter. I had a huge crush on my best friend for the entire time we’ve been friends, but I was 98% sure they didn’t feel the same way, so I just buried my feelings and felt really insecure and frustrated and hurt about how they definitely don’t actually care about me… until literal years later when they suddenly asked me if I wanted to try the girlfriend thing. And now we both know we both love each other. So that was a long way of saying I absolutely don’t do confrontation of any kind, and I wait in angsty silence.

What is your dream career? What I’m doing now except more and better and with much more success. Also maybe a chill job at a bookstore or an art store on the side. Or opening my own business.

Talk about your interests or hobbies! I draw, write, make games, crochet, dabble in music sometimes, play video games, bird watching, taking photos, uhh… Light hiking? I guess? Not anything as strenuous as the word “hiking” brings to mind, but like… walking in interesting places.

What is the most attractive quality a woman can have? Kindness.

Do you love easily or does it take time for you to warm up to someone? When it’s the right person, I love immediately. That’s… one hurdle my best friend/girlfriend and I hit early on, and I’m glad we were able to move past it. Like… We started talking and I was like !!!!!! WOW !!!!!! new best friend and maybe we could be more than friends in the future??? And they were like “uhhh maybe chill a little, we JUST met”. Like.. I dunno, I don’t fall (platonically or romantically) for people easily in general. I tend to keep my distance. But when I meet someone who I click with, I can come on way too strong sometimes.

Ever fallen for your best-friend? I mean… obviously. Yeah.

Ever fallen for a straight girl? No, because I can’t remember the last time I even interacted with a straight girl. I had a couple fleeting crushes in college, but one was in an LGBT history class full of other gay people (and the person in question was bi and non-binary, I think?). The other one may have been straight, though, I’m not sure… She sure seemed like she was flirting with me, though, idk. But seriously, almost every friend/acquaintance I’ve had any significant platonic feelings for, let alone romantic, has ended up being LGBT even if I (or they) thought they were cishet at the time. Awkward gays stick together, even subconsciously, I guess.

The L-Word: yes or no? (love it or hate it?) Never seen it.

Favorite comfort food? Bread. Like just plain bread. I love a good plain bread.

Coffee or tea? Coffee.

Vegetarian? Vegan? None of the above? Neither.

Do you have any pets? Yup. A cat and a bird.

Early-riser or night-owl? Both, which works out about as well as you’d expect. My sleep schedule is a mess. I guess I’d say I’m a night-owl who wants to be an early-riser. Or maybe an early-riser who can’t manage to sleep properly.

What is your sign? Capricorn.

Can you drive? Nope. I have a learner’s permit and I’ve driven in parking lots twice - once as a teen, then once as an adult - but it was too scary and uncomfortable. I should learn to drive, but ugh, I wish I didn’t have to because I really don’t want to.

Who was your first lesbian crush? Uh, I’m not sure. I definitely liked a lot of female characters for reasons I didn’t quite understand as a kid, but I don’t know which was the first or whatever. So instead I’ll just tell the story I told my girlfriend recently - when I was first seriously coming to terms with being attracted to women, I happened to watch the video for BoA - Eat You Up (warning: flashy) and I remember just sorta watching her like… ah, hm, yes, perhaps girls… are extremely hot actually… maybe this is okay.

At what age did you know you were a lesbian? Specifically a lesbian? Uh like 25 or 26. Attracted to girls in general? I was in denial for a long time but I started kinda sorta slightly coming to terms with it around age 19 or 20.

At what age did you come out (if you have)? I came out around 25-26, shortly before realizing that I’m not bi or pan and I don’t have to “stay open-minded” or ��give men a chance”.

Are you crushing on anyone at the moment (celebrity or otherwise)? My girlfriend and Hana (see answer 2) are my eternal, permanent crushes.

Talk about how your day went Pretty boring. I went for a walk and saw two dogs. It rained. It was nice, but not very exciting.

Talk about your dreams/aspirations for the future I wanna live with my girlfriend and have a studio for working on all our projects, both together and separately. Maybe open a store by the ocean selling art and stuff. I want to keep drawing and writing and making things.

Least favorite gay celebrity? Leaving aside the obvious assholes and transmisogynists… Ellen Degeneres. I don’t hate her, but I’m a little bitter about some shitty things she’s said (particularly fat shaming things).

#anonymous #answer #gif #gif warning #(i included a gif in one of my answers)

2 notes · View notes

not-another-mtg-fanblog · 8 years ago

Text

Why Aren’t There More Women Magic Players?

Finally posting my article! It’s really long and I don’t want to clutter people’s dashboards with the full thing, so please click Keep Reading to read it. Thank you to everyone who responded to my “interview” questions! It was so helpful, and it certainly gave me a good look at what’s going on in the community.

Special thank you to @gaytog and @ally-encampment, who are most heavily featured in the piece. Your responses were phenomenal and I’m grateful for your help on this.

Secondary shout out to @chelsea-beleren-vess and @zoe-of-the-veil, neither of whom I interviewed but who both have been outspoken about this issue and thus who I mention in the article for their public posts.

Again, thank you, and enjoy the article!

Full Text:

It’s a Friday night, and Topp’s Trade Center, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, is, to say the least, packed. At the counter to check out, five or six men and teen boys stand in line to pay to play Magic: The Gathering in the weekly Friday Night Magic (FNM) bracket. All who play will get a small discount later in the evening on packs of cards, and one lucky winner will get a mythic rare card for free.

Meanwhile, in the gaming room, two college-aged men are deep in a heated Magic: The Gathering match, while a half dozen other men look on. Two women of about the same age walk in and sit down by themselves across the room from the others, and begin to play their own match, completely ignored. Of the 30 or so people that have come in for FNM, they are the only women in the store.

“There still is a low percentage of women at FNMs and such I go to—often I’m the only one there, or just one of two,” says Lily Haaron, a woman player from Seattle.

According to Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns Magic: The Gathering, over 12 million people worldwide play Magic. Of that, somewhere between 60 and 90 percent of players are male. The women who do play frequently state that they feel unwelcome in game stores that host Magic events. They cite instances when they were not taken seriously, were the butt of hurtful and often discriminatory jokes, or were even harassed by other players because of their gender. However, many women in the community have started clubs and social media groups specifically for women, in order to create safer spaces for women to play.

“Many male players see the community as of and for primarily other male players,” says a female Magic player going only by the name Joy, who began playing around 2013 but has only been heavily involved in the community in the past year.

Joy says that she initially felt drawn to the complexity and depth of the game’s lore, which follows the story of several different characters that are also printed as playing cards in the game. She says, “I read the entire story of Khans of Tarkir block and loved it, and have been keeping up since,” referring to the story published in once-a-week chapters prior to the release of “blocks” of new cards.

Many players enjoy the social aspect of the game. After all, it is called Magic: The Gathering, which refers to how people must gather together in order to play. “I enjoy that Magic gets me out of the house every day,” Joy says, “On weekdays, my job gets me out of the house. On weekends, Magic does.”

But the social aspect can be rougher for some than for others. Ally Robertson, a trans woman and regional Magic judge from Maine says that, while she has never experienced harassment herself, she has friends who have. “When [one of my good friends] was still new to Magic, [she] had a store owner tell her that if she went out back and gave him oral sex, he would concede to her,” she says. “The local judge at the time just laughed, like most of the store.”

The game was invented in 1993 by a white man, and for many years it appealed only to white men, to the exclusion of women and non-whites alike. “What I have experienced, both at my LGS (local game store) and online, is a male-dominated culture that manifests in subtle and not-so-subtle ways,” says Joy.

The creators of Magic have since attempted to increase the number of woman players, though the demographic statistics vary depending on who you ask. For example, Mark Rosewater, the lead designer for Magic, said on his blog, “market research shows the gender breakdown of male to female is 62% to 38%.”

Jesse Reynolds, a former store owner from Evanston, Illinois has an even more stark view of the demographic differences. He says, “If [other store owners] say that more than 5% of their players are female, they are lying.”

Participation in competitive events, such as the professional tours and even FNM, closely resembles what Mr. Reynolds says, which suggests that while women are attracted to the game itself, there is a significant barrier keeping them from playing competitively.

“I’ve been treated like crap by guys when I go play Magic,” writes a Tumblr user going by the URL chelsea-beleren-vess. “Or ignored when I’m like ‘hi how are you?’ Or asked if I’m here with my boyfriend. They don’t take me seriously.”

Some players say that, although the community as a whole has a long way to go, the company itself is inclusive in a way that its consumers are not. “Wizards of the Coast has demonstrated a commitment to making Magic a more inclusive gaming experience, and so far, I think they’ve done well,” says Joy.

Indeed, Wizards is unlike other media in its representations of women and non-binary individuals. The company has actively remade edited versions of card art that previously objectified female characters, even after having received backlash from male players that saw nothing wrong with the original art. Wizards also wrote new female characters into the story, some of whom are lesbian or bisexual. Two years ago, the company released Alesha, Who Smiles At Death, a card based on the company’s first openly transgender character, and in the past year it introduced an entire race of people, called the Aetherborn (pronounced EE-ther-born), that are non-binary, using they/them pronouns.

“I love that they have characters like Alesha, or the Aetherborn. It definitely adds to mine and my partner’s experience of playing the game and it also makes conversations about inclusivity easier,” says Ms. Robertson. “On the flip side, though, it’s frustrating when people on coverage misgender the Aetherborn or assume their next coverage pair consists of two men. As a whole, Magic is still a ‘boys club’ and any attempts to expend that mentality usually end in backlash.”

So what might improve the gender disparity at Magic events? What might draw more women to Magic? Some say that it is the responsibility of Wizards of the Coast. Others say that the privileged majority in the community need to step up and be more inclusive. Yet others argue that those who have been harassed or discriminated against need to report their experiences. No surefire consensus has been made, though perhaps all suggestions have their merit.

“I feel on a local level stores need to do more to try and get women into the game, and support women communities with it,” says Ms. Haaron.

Ms. Haaron wants to see more groups like the Lady Planeswalkers Society, a women-led group of Magic players that hosts events specifically to draw women into the game and create a more welcoming and inclusive environment for women players. The society has had moderate success, purporting to have over 80 active chapters throughout the world and more than 1600 followers on Facebook. However, 1600 followers out of the 12 million that Wizards claims play is not even a dent in the community.

Some argue that Wizards of the Coast hasn’t done enough to create an inclusive community. “I think Wizards needs to take more direct action against stores that have unwelcoming environments,” says Ms. Robertson. “If a store gets repeatedly reported for an environment where players are degrading women, or making rape jokes, Wizards should step in and tell that store to keep their player base in line or lose DCI sanctioning.”

DCI sanctioning refers to the ability of a store to host official Magic: The Gathering events. Many stores make their money by hosting such events, so being sanctioned is good for both the store and for Wizards. Furthermore, participating in sanctioned events helps competitive players advance to the next level of competition, so it’s good for the players as well.

When players are repeatedly harassed or made uncomfortable during the events, things get a little complicated. Wizards has rules put in place to punish players that make the environment uncomfortable for others, but those rules are just not strict enough for some.

Ms. Robertson says, “I think jokes that promote violence or jokes that use minorities as a…punching bag should warrant an immediate disqualification, or at least match losses.”

For now, many women players are creating their own safe spaces to play. Tumblr user zoe-of-the-veil has created a server on the Discord app, which is a group chat app specifically for gamers. She says, “Basically, this will be a place for women magic players will be able to connect and support one another.”

#women magic players #women in mtg #magic the gathering #mtg #article #writing #lady planeswalker society #women in gaming #gaming #games #mtg fandom #magic fandom #feminism #women

70 notes · View notes