#that alas will not go anywhere now. such potential they had!! their interactions were way underused and unexplored

[pastlivesandpurplepuppets]

UO - I no chemistry nor interest between Jade and Tabitha. Tab clearly still loves Jim, and Jim her. There is, however, quite a sparkle between Jim and Jade, and especially on Jade's side.

[uwuwriting]

Incompatible ships w/ Todoroki, Kirishima, Bakugou and Midoiya

Request: hii! i love ur posts so i thought why not request ajbakaha,, can i ask for todoroki, kirishima, bakugou, izuku getting jealous bc their s/o is getting shipped with another student :D (it can be their relationship is still a secret or smth) btw i love your posts!! it's free serotonin!! 😽😽- anonymous

Secret relationships are my favorite trope. This and friends to lovers. I live for these types of fics. Random fact, my allergies are acting up bc I helped take down the Christmas decorations and now my hands are on fire. Love ya. 💖💖💖

masterlist II rules

warnings: fluff, minor suggestive themes not something major though

Todoroki Shouto

-Things like jealousy are a rare occurrence in your relationship. 

-Todoroki is the type of boyfriend who trusts you blindly and would put his own life in your hands without a single hesitation. 

-Sometimes it bothers him how other people effortlessly flirt with you but he knows that nothing will come out of it no matter how much they chat you up. 

-He knows you can handle yourself and get out of  a situation if things start getting out of hand. 

-And if you can’t, he will butt in glaring down at the person who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

-Everyone around you seem to believe that the two of you are really close friends; none of them have caught a whiff of your relationship and you are proud of yourselves. 

-I mean it is pretty hard keeping so many romantic milestones hidden from your friends. 

-But alas you both knew that keeping all of this to yourselves would be for the best. 

-Now, we all know that the girls of your class drool over any remotely romantic interaction you have. 

-Same goes for everyone actually. 

-Oh Kirishima held the door open for you the other day?? I can see a new ship sailing. 

-Sero helped you pick up your stuff when you bumped into a wall? Your knight in shining armor. 

-Really any sort of kind gesture was interpreted as romantic interest at this point. 

-The worst part of it all was the ship they had created and have been simping over for the past three months. 

-You had managed to create an unexpected friendship with Monoma from class 3-B. 

-The agency he interns in is right next to yours so you take the same train and then walk to almost the same building every single day. 

-You see him during patrol, the pro heroes you work under have paired up once or twice so a friendship was inevitable. 

-So imagine the surprise on your classmate’s faces when Monoma began waiting for you outside the 3-A dorm building.

-Mina wouldn’t shut up about how cute you two were together and what a perfect match you made. 

-Soon enough the other idiots joined the party and you were drowned in ‘awwww’s and ‘love story in the making’s. 

-You got tired of explaining that he was just a friend, that you weren’t interested in him. 

-The fact that you could feel Todoroki’s gaze burn through your back didn’t help at all. 

-Your boyfriend had asked you about Monoma because he too found it weird how he waited for you everyday. 

-The boy’s presence didn’t bother him at first. 

-He was lowkey grateful that you finally had company on your way to the agency considering he couldn’t walk with you since his building was in the opposite direction. 

-It started becoming a problem when all he could hear during the breaks was the stupid ship name the girls had created. 

-He could see how visibly uncomfortable it made you and how you would seek for his gaze during those moments. 

-Then they started talking about how cute your kids would be and that’s when Shoto had enough. 

-It’s one thing hearing about how cute your girlfriend would be with someone else and it’s completely different when you hear about their potential offspring. 

-Grabbing your wrist he basically dragged you out the classroom and into an empty hallway, pinning you to the nearest wall before connecting his lips with yours. 

-You let a surprised gasp which gave him the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth and deepen the kiss, making you grasp onto his shirt as your knees gave out. 

-After what felt like an eternity he let you go for air before attacking your jaw, neck and collarbones. 

-Soon those soft kisses turned into little love bites. 

- “Sho you’re gonna leave a mark.” 

-Releasing your skin from between his teeth, he admired the reddish hickey he had left at the base of your neck. 

-He was sure your shirt’s collar could cover it up just barely. 

- “That’s the point, love.” 

-Intertwining your fingers, he led you back to class, going to his seat with a proud smirk on his lips leaving a very flustered puffy-lips-messy-haired you in his wake. 

Kirishima Eijiro 

-Kiribaby is not the jealous type. 

-Like only if you give your undivided attention to a puppy and you smother it with all your love and affection then maybe, just maybe, he will pout a bit and ask for his own fair share of love. 

-He trusts you just like Todoroki does.

-Nothing has ever happened to suggest that he should worry about others stealing you from him so he doesn’t worry. 

-Plus you are always together no matter what. 

-Almost everyone from your class knows that you are together so the shipping doesn’t start from them. 

-Oh no.

-It starts from class 3-B who has seen you talk to Tetsutetsu quite a bit this past few weeks. 

-You might wait for him outside their classroom during lunch breaks. 

-They have caught you hanging out outside of the school grounds. 

-So the only logical explanation they can come up with is that you two are either A) dating or B) have a thing for each other and are getting there. 

-Soon enough rumors start circulating. 

- “Did you know that someone from the hero course is dating that metal guy from class 3-B?”

- “Yeah yeah I heard it’s that girl Y/N. They do look really cute together, not gonna lie.”

-Eventually these rumors reach Kiri’s ears and they kinda get to him.

-He knows that you haven’t been hanging out extra with Tetsutetsu since every time you guys go out he is always with you. 

-You are the type of couple who does everything together, literally. 

-Apart from being in different agencies ya’ll are holding hands almost 24/7.

-So he really doesn’t get what everyone is talking about. 

-Mineta doesn’t help. 

-He really doesn’t. 

-He starts making scenarios about what you do while Kirishima is out of the dorms; how you have wrapped both homies around your finger and toying with them. 

-Oh the very vivid scenes he creates with all three of you in a…. compromising position. 

-Kirishima hates that most of all. 

-The words coming out of Mineta’s mouth disgust him to no end and soon enough he is walking to your dorm ready to talk this through. 

-Opening the door you greet your boyfriend with a smile and a quick peck but you immediately know what is on his mind. 

- “Baby what are we gonna do?” 

-You basically whine at the question. 

-He spends the whole night at your dorm brainstorming ideas until you both pass out on your floor. 

-And your solution to the problem? 

-Ignore the whole thing and continue on with your lives. 

-He suggested maybe leaving a mark somewhere *like our boy Sho* but you shot him down saying that they would just think Tetsutetsu did it. 

-After Monoma catches you in your classroom making out on your desk though the rumors soon die out. 

Bakugou Katsuki

-Crazy boom boom boy. 

-Your relationship is a secret because he doesn’t want to deal with all the other idiots gushing over your relationship and getting all up in your business. 

-Your relationship is a sacred thing he has sworn to protect and he won’t let Mineta’s ugly ass hands get anywhere near it. 

-Gonna taint it even with his thoughts. 

-Guard dog Bakugou bark bark. 

-It’s fairly easy to maintain a secret relationship with him. 

-Sure he might be a tiny bit calmer with you and maybe just maybe his eyes linger on you during training but yeah he treats you just like he treats all the other extras he is surrounded by. 

-Now, Bakugou is kinda *read a lot* jealous in general. 

-He doesn’t like when people he doesn’t fully trust or like, talk to you or are close to you. 

-He has butted in on your conversations with Todoroki one too many times and the poor crispy baby is so confused like why are you like this? 

-I just want the chemistry notes please let me get them in peace for once.

-You have chastised him about that manier times but your resolve melts when he pouts *YES HE POUTS AT YOU RWIHPWIE* before wrapping his strong arms around you. 

- “I just don’t wanna lose you, dumbass.” 

-You can barely make out his words as his face is buried in your stomach but you heard him and now you are tearing up at the pure emotion he is showing at these moments. 

-At the end of the day though, he trusts you. 

-He may not trust the other horny extras around you but he fully trusts you. 

-There’s no doubt about that. 

-You can imagine ,though, the instant rage he felt when he heard the girls talking about you and Deku. 

- “They do make a great couple.” 

- “Have you seen how they look at each other?” 

- “Good for her, Deku is perfect boyfriend material.” 

-First of all, how dare you, second hold the fuck up…..when did this become a WhoRe hOuSe?!?!?!?!  

-Legit someone has to shake him out of his stupor after that one. 

-You look at Deku in a certain way? 

-Fucking DEKU?!?!?! 

-THoughts are swirling in his mind almost pouring out of his ears when he hears the voice. 

-That annoying ass voice that he has engraved in his brain since childhood. 

-And the moment his eyes land upon Deku and you speaking, he sees red. 

-He is pouncing on Deku in -5 seconds, the poor green haired boy completely unaware of what hit him, literally. 

-They are on the floor wrestling on another, you screaming at Katsuki to stop and get his shit together while your boyfriend is spewing curse after curse at the OFA user simultaneously asking what the hell he was doing with HIS girlfriend. 

-Aizawa had to break them up. 

-They both got detention even though Deku did literally nothing. 

-Katsuki was denied cuddles for a whole week and he was set on explaining duty now that the cat was out of the bag. 

Midoriya Izuku 

-Izuku is the best boyfriend anyone could ask for. 

-He is loyal, shows emotions, is good at communicating with you, has incredible date ideas although he is kinda forgetful at times and his packed schedule doesn’t leave enough time to spend with you, at least not as much as he wants, but he always tries to make up for it in other ways.

-You love how much trust he puts in you. 

-You couldn’t be more grateful. 

-But Izuku has his insecurities. 

-At times it becomes hard for him to understand why exactly you’ve chosen him to love when you could have anyone you wanted in this school. 

-He can’t wrap his pretty little head around the reason why you stay with him when the only thing you get out of all this is others saying you deserve better than some crybaby. 

-It has become his mission to prove to you that he isn’t what others say he is; he isn’t some crybaby, he is a hero in training who won’t hesitate to risk his life for you. 

-You have reassured him multiple times that you don’t care what others say.

-You fell in love with him, him and all of his flaws. 

-No one told you that you should fall for him and no you didn’t agree to date him out of pity. 

-Most of the time you manage to erase those thoughts from his mind replacing them with the warm feeling of your love.

-But there comes a time when no matter what you say, the words of other people will get the best of him and it will be a struggle to build himself back up. 

-He is thankful to have you by his side during those moments because then he truly feels weak, he feels helpless, he knows these things shouldn’t bother him. 

-He loves you and you love him end of story, but they do get to him. 

-One of the worst times he questioned if he was good enough was during your third year. 

-Being in the support department you couldn’t be by his side 24/7 but you did always manage to see him during breaks to the point the whole class knew you and slowly became your friends. 

-The thing is they thought you two were also friends; neither had ever mentioned your relationship and things felt so comfortable between you that they assumed that you were really close friends. 

-Izuku had suggested keeping your relationship on the down low; him being in the hero course and having created rather the reputation, he was afraid that you would be dragged into something dangerous. 

-Plus All Might advised you two to keep it a secret and All Might’s words are law. 

-Izuku loved how well you got along with his friends, it meant that when he revealed your relationship they would all welcome you with open arms. 

-What he didn’t expect though was for them to start shipping you with someone else. 

-For some weird reason the girls of his class started obsessing over your interactions with Bakugou and soon after that they started trying to get you two alone in the same room, much to your dismay. 

-In reality, Bakugou was the only person who knew about your relationship. 

-He had ran into you as you were leaving Izuku’s dorm room, catching you two kiss goodnight. 

-Bakugou, as much as he disliked Izuku, would never get in the way of your relationship and he hated this ship shit as much maybe even more than you did. 

-Izuku was ready to crawl into a whole and die. 

-You had to stay in his room for almost a whole month to calm him down completely, him flying you to your own building in the morning so you don’t get in trouble. 

-It was a difficult time aand his classmate’s comments didn’t help one bit. 

-The tipping point was when he overheard Mina devising a plan of setting you guys up. 

-He walked down to the common room the next day with you next to him, hands intertwined, a hickey barely visible under the hem of HIS shirt, shocking everyone in the vicinity. 

-A new ship was created *after they harassed you for answers*

TAG TEAM AY:

@the-arcana-fan-fic​ @angelwritings​ @axerrri​ @reinyrei​ @dnarez​ @storage11037​ @ezoyscorner​ @letscheereachotheron​ @wolfkid22​ @dark-thoughts-and-red-roses​ @threeamwriting​ @ysatrap​ @yashinosakura @belladonna-coven  @akita-l-lynn @angel6786​ @meena-in-a-nutshell​

[ofieugogyshz]

Drabble; Time Trials

Title: Time Trials

Word count: 2100

Summary: The time trials were announced on Pasio! Sarah debates participating, when eir husband Lance and his cousin Clair find em staring up at the leaderboards, unsure of eir decision.

Notes/Content warnings: No cw comes to mind. This isn’t a serious piece, mostly an experiment/practice to work on writing with ey/em pronouns, and to show what the relationship between me and Clair is like. No limited-pov narrator. Not yet proofread, so as to avoid fleshing it out into something more. Potential consistency issues.

--------------------

Sarah was standing outside the building that the time trial events were taking place. The scores were being shown on electric screens outside, as well as the best times on another set of screens. Some of the current and previous timed battles were being displayed on the rest of the screens, as though to entice trainers to try their hands at it.

Ey watched the screens, glancing over every so often at the ones for times and the other for scores. Leon, the Champion from Galar, was listed as the top score; right below him was Raihan, a Gym Leader from the same region as well. Below that were a mix of names ey did and didn't recognize; trainers and gym leaders and champions from other regions.

It looked like some trainers were going in groups of up to three people. The screen with the best times would change to show the best times among the single, double, and triples. Very few of the group times ranked above the best singles, and it wasn't hard to guess why. More opponents was harder to take down.  More opponents meant there was a higher chance of an offense-defense pairing, and or a pure defense team, and the more of those you ran into, the lower your times would be.

Although...

Ey looked up at the screens again. It didn't list the sync pair's Pokemon that were used in the best times, so unless you were familiar with them, or knew who their signature Pokemon was, you couldn't plan around them.

Sarah's Pikachu was getting bored with her trainer standing there. She knew ey was trying to decide on if ey wanted to join in or not, but the decision process was taking longer than usual—longer than it used to. If ey saw an event of any kind, ey would normally jump at the chance to try it. But now, here on Pasio, ey was hardly interested in participating in a lot of things. It was frustrating for Pika, because the more she saw the humans and Pokemon battle on screen, the more she was itching to jump in. Pasio was a place full of battles, and it was reigniting a spark in both trainer and Pokemon-- it just seemed to be taking longer for her trainer's spark to kindle.

“Hmm...” Ey had eir arms crossed, fingers tapping at an elbow, trying to decide. It would be a good way to get back into the swing of things, ey thought. But ey knew there was no way ey could get anywhere close to the best times, much less the top 100, with how many trainers Pasio had. There wasn't much point in competing if ey wasn't going to get close. But there was that tiny, determined voice that was always eager to try, even if it knew it was impossible. But then again... I'm not even interested in trying for the tournament. I'm just here because I wanted to see my husband.

As though on cue, Lance was walking with his cousin Clair towards the building that Sarah stood in front of. Ey hadn't noticed him; but his cousin had noticed eir, for he could feel her disposition change. A disgruntled noise, followed by a scoff under her breath. He knew about his cousin's dislike for his wife, but why that animosity was still there, even if mild, was beyond him. Still... An idea struck him.

“Sarah?”

Ey turned around to see Lance and his cousin. “Oh! Hi honey. And Clair.” Ey nodded towards eir in-law, who only made the barest acknowledgment of the greeting. Eir Pikachu perked up and waved towards the two dragon-type masters.

“Were you thinking about participating in the time trials?”

“Ah...” Ey glanced back up to look at the electronic leader boards. “...I don't know. Maybe? You know I'm not that competitive anymore,” ey said, trying to wave off eir discomfort. “I was curious to see what the times were like, 'cuz I heard that Leon's time was insane, and... well...” ey gestured to the board, where Leon's name was followed by the time of a minute and a half. “That definitely seems like a crazy impossible time. I don't think I've had battles that quick since I was traveling.”

Clair's eyes glanced up at the electronic boards. When she saw the time, she felt something in the pit of her stomach drop, but she scoffed and feigned confidence.

“A minute and a half? Please. I've beaten trainers in less than half a minute!” It was a boast, something that left a frown on her cousin's face, and an uncertain expression on his wife's. She quickly tried to smooth it over. “O-of course, those were all challengers that weren't ready for my gym! It's not something I'm particularly proud of, beating those people so easily!” she grumped, turning away so she didn't have to see their faces.

“Be that as it may,” Lance began, turning his attention back to his wife. “Would you like to join us? I'd be more than happy to have you on our team.”

“E-eh?” His wife faltered, unsure if ey should accept.

“WHAT?!” Clair quickly turned back to the conversation, all her frustration on display. She tried to quickly pick back up a proper disposition, but all she could do was huff her disagreement.

Lance turned towards Clair, a stern expression on his face.

“Is there a problem?” It was a challenge, daring his cousin to say anything unwell about his wife.

Clair finally recovered herself, and crossed her arms, breaking eye contact with Lance after a moment, deflecting the glare her reaction had earned her.

“Tch, I don't have a problem with adding a third person to our team. But it's a time trial. Shouldn't we pick someone who's still actively doing Pokemon battles? I don't want em to slow us down!”

Clair peeked a glance at her cousin and in-law to gauge their reactions from her words. She knew she couldn't get Lance to change his mind when it came to em, but she was hoping that her words might convince Sarah to not join them. Not that it would have been hard; her in-law and her had come to avoid interacting with each other whenever they could. And whenever Lance had asked Clair for a favor that involved her helping Sarah, the two in-laws tried to minimize the time spent around each other as much as possible.

Besides, she was trying to show her cousin how much she had improved. How could she do that if his wife was hanging around?

Alas, her words seemed to have only agitated her cousin more; he scowled at her, angry with her. Why was it so difficult to get the two of them to get along, he often wondered. At least it was no longer like the two of them clashing; Sarah had grown out of that when it came to his cousin, accepting that there was no changing her mind. And while Clair had accepted that Sarah was going to be part of the family tree, she still disliked em. The raging jealously over eir getting approval much easier than she ever did had waned to only a simmering dislike, but she couldn't fault em too much. Her cousin had spoken to her about it before the two married, and begrudgingly accepted the reasons for the differences. But that still didn't mean that she like em for it. It was unfair to her. Maybe if they had met before ey had met Lance, they could have been friends, or at least on a little better terms.

Still... the answer Clair had been a poor one, earning the wrath of her cousin; something that she could feel emanating off of him. He took a step towards his cousin, who carefully took a step back, trying not to show weakness but caution and past experience taught her otherwise.

“Sarah is more than capable of proving emselves in battle.” His voice was level, but Clair could pick up on the anger it held in check. “Ey is a quick thinker, and I believe ey will be able to keep up. If you think that might be a problem, then I suggest you to find a new team.”

Clair gulped.

Sarah grabbed eir husband's arm, embarrassed. “Sweetheart, please, it's fine. I can cheer you and Clair on. It's not a big deal--”

“It is a big deal,” he interrupted, looking back at em, his expression softening at eir. “It matters to me when someone talks ill of my wife. And I will not allow it.”

Ey stopped, eir face flushing softly as eir memory flashed back to eir youth. Terrible things ey said about emself, hurt and crying and frustrated. And how he wouldn't let em talk about eirself like that. Sarah's eyes watered now, the memory briefly awakened by his words. Ey fell silent, eir hand slowly falling until it rested next to his. Ey looked down at the ground, but a soft smile was on eir face. Ey nodded; there wasn't anything ey could say in response.

Right. That sickeningly sweet romance between them was part of why Clair didn't like em, but she kept that eww to herself. Even as a woman in her early thirties, that sort of weak spirit that came from getting too soft when one's partner was around had bothered her. And maybe that was why she hadn't kept one around for too long.

That thought was all but a flash reminder to her of her dislike and jealously towards Sarah, as Lance addressed her again.

“Well, Clair? Is it going to be an issue?”

Clair looked away, the pressure from his glare feeling as intense as any dragon's. It was more than enough to make her question herself—only for her to catch those thoughts and stop them. She shook her head to get rid of them; and it provided her answer too. She took a calming breath to give Lance a verbal answer.

“...No, it shouldn't be an issue,” she said. Resentment started to build, and she kept her cool this time, pushing it down... for now. “I'd be happy to have your wife on our team.”

“You don't have to lie about it,” Sarah muttered.

“Fine, sorry,” Clair grumbled.

Lance looked down at Sarah, then at Clair. Ey was right, but addressing the animosity Clair had never left a good taste in his mouth. He'd rather get this done and over with, so the three of them could work together and train for the time trials. It had been a long time since all three of them had trained together; he and Sarah were still dating at the time. Clair had said some harsh things, and Sarah had stormed off, angry and hurt. He didn't want a repeat of that; and hoped that they could behave themselves so as to avoid that.

Lance sighed. The tension he held slowly went away, and he addressed his cousin again.

“Are you really going to be cooperative on a team with my wife?”

“Tch, I can handle being around em for a few hours! It's not like you're asking us to be best friends.”

“Are you sure you're okay with that?” Sarah asked, looking at eir cousin-in-law. “I'd rather not get involved if you two were going at this seriously.”

Clair gave Sarah a hard stare. How could her cousin marry someone so weak-willed? Or, she didn't remember em being so weak-willed.

It annoyed her.

“Well, pick or choose if you're going to join us or not! We're going all in, so if you're not interested in that, then I suggest you back out now.”

“Clair!” Lance snapped.

Sarah could feel Lance squeeze eir hand. Ey knew how important it was to him, to both cousins, that one make a decision and commit to it. It didn't seem like he wanted em to leave, at least not because of his cousin's words. Sarah looked up at the electronic boards again, watching it scroll down the best times for a three-person group. Somehow, the times listed now seemed too slow. Battling alongside the two of them, and eir desire to do eir best, stirred up that little voice from earlier, that told em it could be possible. To give it a chance. Maybe ey might surprise emself, if ey tried.

“...You know what? Sure, I'll give it a try. It might be fun to battle like that.”

“'A try'?” Clair repeated. “I'm not interested in trying, I'm interested in winning!”

“Well, good thing I like to win, too. Let's do this!”

Lance found himself thinking that it would go better this time.

[hoopyfrood]

so my review for disenchanted is... it's fun. it doesn't go anywhere amazing, but there's some fun jokes and some fun characters. its an enjoyable watch with some characters that keep you watching, though i kept wanting them to wring more out of each episode, there is so much potential for a lot of the side characters.

as for characters, most characters aren't really fleshed out, so i didn't feel much connection to most of them, i only really care about luci tbh and bunty is sweet. i'm interested to see what happens with queen oona but seeing as most of her appearances have been small jokes or short appearances, idk, i'm not holding out for much development for her.

bean is good, in theory, though there's not much to her. they have a stereotype of what a non feminine woman is and keep falling back on it, falling back on her being drunk or high somewhere. we don't learn about her childhood, her education, her hobbies, her aspirations. her storylines revolve around her dad or elfo, mostly, under the guise of being about her journey.

some side characters become more interesting, like the kings advisor, odval, although i wish the secret society had been more than just a quick joke. others remain flat and uninteresting, clearly plot devices, not even offering jokes that are that good. i liked getting to learn more about bunty, and the king has some funny moments, but a lot of characters are forgettable. luci is a great break from the repetition or obvious storylines, he's unpredictable and chaotic and kept me watching. he's two steps away from being a fourth wall breaking character, narrating the events in his own way. love eric andres dry tone, luci is a great character i'd love to learn more about.

the pacing of the episodes is a bit random, there's no real connection between most of them and they don't always flow well, sometimes it felt like people's opinions and decisions changed randomly just to keep the plot going. the last episode repeated the same scene several times. the reccuring plot involving luci didn't really grip me and didn't go anywhere really, and has now been overshadowed by the plot of the last episode. i am interested to see where that goes, but i do wonder if the people who sent luci will get a moment to shine and be relevant again.

people keep comparing it to futurama, to the simpsons, but i don't think that gets us anywhere. it's made in a different era, set in a different era, made in different circumstances than for tv viewing. the voice acting is great, it's fun hearing familiar voices, and luci is reminiscent of benders carelessness (also reminds me of paul from the film paul which is a fave of mine), but it's a very different story. there are some weird vague mentions to things like feminism and gender spectrums but they fall flat, i felt unsure if they were being played as a joke or a reference and what the point of them was. there's also that random mention to cultural appropriation, speaking of which, the only two characters of colour are side characters, one completely just a plot device, with ambiguous race and not much depth. seriously guys? you put in elves and gnomes and lizard people but racial diversity was just too hard? put down the d&d handbooks and start being creative.

okay, i'll mention elfo, but briefly. he's annoying. i'm saying it, everyone else seems to be saying it, but what the fuck. it's not his obliviousness and naivety that's annoying, that could've been used well, but it's his crush on bean. i'm not invested, i don't care, it's not interesting. i really don't feel bad for this lil guy fancying a woman out of his league. they tried to give us a different female hero but still went with the 'poor nice guy who she ignores' trope? she deserves what leela and lisa didn't get with the guys chasing after them: the freedom to say no and have it stop. it added nothing to the plot, it became his whole character arc instead of learning to be bad and explore a new place. i'm glad nobody else seems to like him or the idea of him and bean ending up together. seriously, it's so overused, esp in groenings works. i just didn't have the patience to care about him any more as soon as i saw where it was going. bean escaped his advances, but barely, and suddenly she really cared about him despite being ambivalent earlier. the time progression didn't seem real enough to amount to that much character development, the time passage wasn't even clear, it just felt like ten episodes and suddenly luci and bean really cared about elfo all of a sudden. can't relate.

ok, elfo out of the way, what did i enjoy? the scenery, the banging theme song, the good one liners, every character john dimaggio voiced, that one time luci got captured that was quite fun to watch, the whole talking cat thing, uhh, some other stuff. seriously, you can enjoy watching it and not feel too bored, it's just the repetitive tropes that get a bit dull. i kept watching for the potential, a lot of the time. hoping for things to go farther than they did. the earlier eps are fun, the later ones i felt had odd pace and sudden character development/change and a lot of repeated content.

in the second series i want a lot more from these characters. they tried to fit in like three plot twists when most people would have preferred more character exploration, more believable development between bean, elfo and luci as friends. a lot of the episodes were bean and friends get drunk, fuck stuff up, go back to see the king. i don't want more of that in s2. i expected more depth to the plot seeing as multiple writers were involved in gravity falls, but it's ok if it's just fun too, but decide which you're going for because atm i'm not sure how seriously to take the twists or not.

i'd love to see more of hell, learn more about luci. i loved the mention of him having a 9 to 5 job in hell, there's so much that could be explored there, and robot hell was a blast in futurama. seriously, bring back dan as the dancing devil, that'd be fun. i'd have rathered luci having odd jobs from the devil than having two random people apparently controlling him but doing absolutely nothing at the same time. in s2, recycle the tired tropes into something new. throw out the 'old hooker' trope and put in more three dimensional women. get rid of the 'strong female character' idea you have in your heads and actually write a real female character. please, god, get more female writers, i can tell when a woman is written by a man and it's boring. i feel they need to let shion takeuchi have more involvement because i bet she'd do a better job with a lot of these elements but alas she's literally one of only three women on the team with any major involvement, and it shows. it's a show centred around a female character yet it's mostly all decided by men. it's 8 men to 3 women as far as i can tell. and only one person of colour, afaik. it really shows. i'm not surprised, but more people should be pissed off about this. ridiculous.

don't do anything with elfo he's fine where he is just leave him there. bring back tess the giant i want to know more about her. please let oona and odval have a friendship where they bitch about the king and have medieval scrabble nights or something. let literally any women interact with each other without hating each other or talking about men. give bean a girlfriend. don't give pendergast any more screen time people are obsessing over him for some reason and he doesn't deserve that. let the queens be friends or something. let them date. too many women hate each other in tv i'm tired. ramp up the goddamn puns i know u have more stored somewhere and the scenes of shop names etc are fun. have bean learn to drive a horse and cart or get a job she's good at or learn a new skill or make a female friend or something more than having her get drunk and fight her way out of a situation with no real consequences. ok i'm done.

[alittleincite]

Moving On

Oh boy, this has been a rough month. I broke up with my ex about a month ago, and I’ve been on a roller coaster of emotions and life crises. 

The synopsis: I was so happy to be in a relationship. It felt so good to love and be loved. I was learning so much from him, and he was extremely supportive of me and how to advance my career. Things were good when they were good, but there so many disagreements and misunderstandings. We did not communicate well with each other. We held different values, have different life goals, and spoke different love languages. I feel like he often listened to me and truly understood me, but in the end he would chose to do things his way and not compromise despite knowing where I was coming from or how I felt.

The ending: He hid something from me after we had just had a serious conversation about honesty, and I overreacted, felt disrespected and ignored, and broke up with him. I’ve learned that my emotions overcome and overtake me, causing me to act irrationally. (And I need to learn to reign these in for all future interactions.) After the waves of emotions subsided, I reached out to him, but alas that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the two of us. He, too, was done with the relationship and did not think getting back together would be a good idea.

The stages of grief: I cycled through all stages of grief multiple times. I’m still going through them now though to muted extents as I am healing from the break-up. I was in denial for the first week. I thought he would come back to me and ask me to give him another chance, but alas this never happened and I came to realize we had really broken up. I hit the stage of bargaining and I hit it hard-- I groveled for us to get back together but he remained steadfast in his response: he did not want to re-enter the relationship right now; he told me he still loves me and cares for me deeply but we need to grow separately for now. (God, “right now”. And he refused to tell me he never wants to be in a relationship with me again. My poor heart and mind clung onto these precious little words and slivers of hope.) I entered the stage of depression more or less in front of him. We met up for a last talk and I cried in front of and with him. We comforted each other. I bawled my eyes out during a video chat with him several days later-- that was the last time I saw him and the last time I felt a connection with him. I became angry that he gave up on me and on us; angry for all the times he let me down; angry I let him “win”. And every once in a while, I would reach the glorious stage of acceptance, though it was fleeting and I would soon cycle through the other stages of grief again.

The aftermath: Some days are completely fine, and I understand that the break-up needed to happen and is for the better because we’re incompatible; I’m thankful it ended so I could pursue something better. On these good days, I’m filled with hope of finding someone who will make me happier and be a better fit for me as I return to the dating game. I’m filled with excitement of meeting new people, making connections, and learning new perspectives. And then some days like today are a lot harder, and I’m reminded of the loss of a close friend and potential life partner. Despite both verbalizing we would like to remain close friends, we stopped talking completely, and I miss him. Perhaps, he’s forcing distance because he knows I’m too emotional to be friends right now. Or maybe he is keeping his distance because he’s done with me and my baggage. I know I shouldn’t care but I can’t help but wonder and be miserable. I want to talk to him, but I know that will only prolong my healing so instead I feel sad about the void and loss of him from my life. To make things worse, striking out in the dating game (ie: not feeling compatible with someone, feeling like options are as notgood (bad me, why am I comparing!), being impatient with dating and just wanting to be in a relationship again (again bad me! I shouldn’t jump into anything too quickly)), sometimes makes me feel even lonelier.

The bigger picture: One of our first and biggest fights was about where we would like to end up. I wanted to stay in the area forever but he wanted the freedom to live wherever he wanted if/when opportunities arose. He didn’t understand the filial piety. This was earlier in our relationship and quite a dealbreaker for me, yet I came around to the idea and became open to moving with him anywhere in the world. A bit of a red flag was that he was not willing to compromise on this point and was waiting for me to come around and would otherwise end things. In retrospect, I always gave in to the way he wanted to do things and lost a little bit of myself and lost sight of my values/motivation and what really made me happy. He constantly questioned my career goals and made me think of other career opportunities-- to push myself I’m sure, but it also led me to feel a little unhappy with the career I was so satisfied with and proud of. After breaking up, I took a piece of the desire to live in a foreign country with me, and also continue to question what my next career move should be. Should I stay at my site? Should I stay in emergency medicine? These two things have caused me to spiral and “crisis” a bit. I have a sense of freedom and adventure and want to live elsewhere while considering what career trajectory to take. Combined, I want to quit my jobs and live abroad for a couple of months. I’m giving this more and more serious thought by the day/week. I’m telling many people of my plan to gather advice and opinions, and I really want to push myself to make that leap next year. We’ll see-- hopefully my OCD/type A/planner self doesn’t stop myself from stepping outside my comfort zone. I may have some big updates coming soon ;)

[storiesofwildfire]

{ outofmagic }

Okay, as I already said, I saw Thor Ragnarok today and I have a lot of things to say about it. I’m trying to get all of my thoughts out in the open, both to give my honest opinion of the movie, and to help me organize everything I’m thinking right now so I can, hopefully, develop some sort of verse for this or figure out how to incorporate it for people who would want to interact in a post-Ragnarok setting. 

I already know the verse will be slightly AU. There are too many things about the movie that I don’t want to incorporate into my blog for it to be completely canon, but I’m going to try.

Anyway, my thoughts will be beneath the cut. If you don’t want to see any spoilers, please don’t open the post. I will tag this post appropriately for those who have blacklisted spoilers.

First off, I want to say that I’m extremely conflicted about this film. I’ve had a lot of complaints about MCU as of late. I absolutely hated Age of Ultron and Civil War. This movie was a massive improvement over some of the movies that MCU has been dishing out lately. I enjoyed watching this movie. It was fun and it was funny and all-in-all, it was a decent film. I’d see it again, but it’s definitely not my favorite. 

First off, I hate that they made Ragnarok funny. This movie was borderline a comedy and Ragnarok is literally the end of everything. I think it should have been taken way more seriously, but alas, they did not want to go with a serious tone. Instead, they made everything as funny as they could while death loomed in the waiting.

I. HELA’S BACKSTORY & PARENTAGE

I hate how they portrayed Hela. As most of you probably know, Sleipnir, Hel, Fenrir, and Jormungandr are all Loki’s children. Of course, MCU decided to edit that so none of these children are actually children of Loki. This really bothers me. If they didn’t want to have Loki be a parent to any of these characters, they shouldn’t have included them at all. Okay, the shoutout to Sleipnir in Thor 1 was cute. The horse Odin rode having eight legs was a nice little shoutout, but they never actually named the stallion and it was more of an Easter egg, but to put Hela front and center in a movie and destroy her parentage? I hated it. I knew I was going to hate it right off the bat, but I feel it’s worth mentioning.

The story that they decided to go with made about as much sense as just having Loki be Hela’s parent. They created an unnecessary relationship to the House of Odin that was never established or mentioned or hinted to in earlier movies and if they were just going to throw something like Hela being Odin’s eldest child in there, why not just go ahead and actually make her Loki’s daughter? 

The choice they made still makes her a member of the House of Odin, but it just felt cheap and easy and, honestly, very lazy. It was a band-aid solution for how to introduce her without actually making her Loki’s daughter.

We all knew this was coming so I won’t harp on it too much, but I’m just disappointed with how they chose to handle her. If they weren’t going to make her Loki’s daughter, they should have just had her completely unrelated whatsoever.

They didn’t explain who Hela’s mother was, either, so that was all up in the air.

And, to be honest, Marvel’s continuing down the path of under-developed villains. They did not develop Hela enough. MCU really needs to work on their development of their antagonists because they rarely get the time or backstory they deserve and they’re usually killed off in the film they debut in. 

II. THE WARRIORS THREE

Now, I’ve always been upset with how little screentime The Warriors Three (and Sif) got and how underdeveloped they were. These are supposed to be Thor and Loki’s friends. They’re important and they’re famous warriors. For fuck’s sake, Sif if the Goddess of War!

So what do they do? Waste all potential these characters had by killing them off straight away.

This was the thing that hurt me the most, to be honest.

Fandral is one of my favorite characters in the Thor universe. He and the others have so much potential to be fleshed out and developed into strong secondary characters that everyone wants to see. But what did Ragnarok do? Killed Volstagg and Fandral within a couple seconds of Hela arriving on Asgard and then Hogun a little while later. They completely disregarded these characters completely, as if they were disposable and they didn’t actually matter at all. I wanted them to do more with The Warriors Three and Sif, not just gut them so they weren’t there at all.

They didn’t even bother to give Volstagg or Fandral a decent death. They didn’t go out fighting. They were just Hela’s first victims and they never even bothered to have anyone react to their deaths.

Remember at the end of Thor The Dark World when Thor decided he didn’t want to be king, so he just left a battle-torn Asgard alone to rebuild without him? And he just completely forgot about his friends and the fact that Sif, Fandral, and Volstagg all committed treason for him? And Thor just didn’t even bother to care that they could be imprisoned or executed for treason? He just left them behind without even saying goodbye so he could go back to Midgard? 

Yeah, it’s basically like that all over again, except their deaths didn’t mean anything at all.

Oh, and Sif wasn’t even in the movie at all? What the fuck kind of shit is that?

III. NOT ENOUGH TIME ON ASGARD

This movie is... about Ragnarok, which is the end of the world, right? So why did the movie still not focus very much on Asgard? This has been a constant complaint with Thor movies. They spent too much time on Midgard or too much time on anywhere that isn’t Asgard. Yes, they spent almost all of the movie off of Midgard, much to my pleasure, but they still spent way too much time away from Asgard.

Considering what this story was, I think they needed to focus more on Asgard and Hela’s development as she invaded and took over the realm. 

IV. TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON THOR AND THE HULK

This kind of piggybacks off of the last comment. Because the time spent on Asgard was so minimal, I think the time they spent with the whole Hulk vs. Thor thing went on for way too long. That took up a huge portion of the movie and it just took away from what the story was supposed to be about. I enjoyed that sequence, but I think it needed to be cut down a lot. They could have spent that time elsewhere to develop Hela more, to develop Loki more, to develop Valkyrie more, and yet... So much time went to this thing that just took up way too much of the movie. It was fun, but it almost felt like they were getting way off topic by dragging it out. They put so much emphasis on this that it felt like the actual threat of Ragnarok was not even that serious.

V. GRANDMASTER

Not everything I have to say about this movie is negative and honestly? I loved the Grandmaster. He was hilarious and ridiculous but he was just a really fun inclusion. And he totally wanted to get into Loki’s pants, let me tell you. A+ on the Grandmaster, Marvel. He was pretty fucking cool and I’d love to roleplay with one.

VI. VALKYRIE

FUCKING LOVED HER. They went into a bit of her backstory (not as much as I would have liked, but I digress) and I just? Really fucking liked her a lot? And I’d love to see more of her. She and the Grandmaster were definitely two highlights of the movie for me.

VII. ODIN’S DEATH

I think we all knew this was coming. Odin dies early on in the film. He speaks with Thor and Loki one last time. I enjoyed their talk. It was like Odin finally understood the wrongs that he’d done to Loki and he wanted Loki to truly understand that he was his son and he loved him. He even mentioned how Frigga would have been proud of the spell he put on him to keep him unaware of his relocation and removal from Asgard. He wasn’t angry or spiteful and it was a genuinely touching moment.

His death, however, made very little sense. It was like he just decided to stop living and went to join Frigga in Valhalla. It seemed very forced, like Anthony Hopkins wanted out of the franchise and his contract was up, so they wrote this half-arsed death scene that didn’t really make a whole lot of sense.

I would have liked to see a more logical end to the All-father. All-in-all, not the worst thing the movie did, but it could have been handled a little better.

VIII. GOD-TITLE INCONSISTENCIES

I’ve talked about this a lot. My pet peeve that MCU tries to take away the fact that these characters are actual deities in Norse Mythology and, instead, writes them as “really powerful aliens”. 

So why is it, that in this movie, they keep referring to themselves and one another as Gods? Thor’s title, Hela’s title, and Loki’s title are all mentioned as the God/Goddess of ___. 

Now, I’ve always portrayed Loki as a god. He’s always been a mix of Marvel and Myth and I refuse to take away his godhood because of some “really powerful alien” bullshit, but the movies seem to have a hard time making up their minds on the issue? 

This wasn’t a huge issue for me, but the inconsistency did annoy me. 

IX. SPECIAL EFFECTS & MUSIC

The movie was just really beautiful. Even if the movie had been absolute crap, the visuals and the music were entertaining and it just made for watching something very visually stunning. The work that went into all the details of the movie were top notch and they really stepped it up from the original Thor film and The Dark World.

X. LOKI’S PORTRAYAL

Okay, here’s where things get really rough for me.

As someone who has been roleplaying Loki for over five years now, I’ve developed him so much that I feel like I have a truly unique version of Loki that is purely mine and I am very protective of him in both mythology and Marvel.

Every time a movie comes out that has Loki as a main character, I get horrible anxiety, worrying that they’re going to ruin him or fuck him over so much that there’s nothing left for him. 

This movie... Well, Loki was fun to watch. He was funny and he had a lot of great moments. However, I don’t think they took Loki’s role, his importance, his development, or his character seriously enough.

The way he was written almost made it feel like he was Thor’s silly sidekick who was there to make Thor look better. Loki made a few extremely stupid mistakes and decisions in the film that just didn’t seem to fit his level of intelligence. Loki is supposed to be incredibly intelligent, light on his feet, and quick with his words. He’s no one’s fool, but this movie kind of made me think that they were knocking Loki down a few pegs so they could build Thor up even more. 

I enjoyed watching Loki (I mean, I love Tom Hiddleston and his Loki and he did the best he could with the material he was given), but I don’t think they were very good at doing his character justice. Yes, he’s the God of Mischief. He’s a prankster. He does silly things, usually with a purpose, but this movie just stuck him in the role of borderline-goofy sidekick and I really did not enjoy that. 

Loki did some foolish things that I just truly and honestly believe he’s far too intelligent for and it’s really bothering me that they seemed to take his role and make a joke of it. Even when it was revealed that he was parading around as Odin since the end of The Dark World, no one actually seemed to care?

Loki did go through even more of a redemption arc, which was nice, but it generally felt far too easy and lazy. Yes, he ended up being the one to save the day, but his and Thor’s emotional baggage seemed to just disappear at the end of the movie. All of the turmoil and animosity just faded away and they didn’t even really have a chance to forgive one another or anything. Loki seemed to tip towards being a hero, but what they did to show that transition just felt lazy, like they didn’t want to dig deep into the rawness of it all.

They did not showcase Loki’s magic enough. Tom Hiddleston himself said that Loki is unimpressed by people like Dr. Strange because his sorcery is so beneath what Loki can do, so why did Dr. Strange so easily pull one over on Loki? Why can’t they let Loki showcase everything that he can do? Or at least more of what he can do? And really validate him as the intelligent, cunning-yet-charming, deadly sorcerer that he is? It seems like if they give that to him, they think they’ll overshadow other characters like Thor and other heroes.

I did, however, like that Loki was able to give his side of the story to the people of Asgard while he was parading around as Odin. People seemed to genuinely take well to Loki’s memory. Loki even admitted to the entire realm that he was not only adopted but that he was also a Frost Giant. He’s finally accepted his heritage.

And you know what? While Loki was pretending to be Odin, he rebuilt Asgard. They didn’t elaborate on it, but Asgard was whole again after the Dark Elves invasion. People were happy and healthy and the realm flourished under his rule. He might not have been presenting himself as himself (something I still really, really hate), but he was a good king while pretending to be Odin and he put forth the effort to show that he could be a good king, even if he partook in a bit too much self-indulgence. 

Loki is also the only reason that there were any survivors from Asgard, I’m just saying.

XI. THE FINAL PLAN TO DEFEAT HELA

Ragnarok was not instigated by Hela. She came to Asgard to conquer it. She killed a lot of people to accomplish this, yes, but she didn’t actually destroy Asgard. Ragnarok was instigated by Loki. He summoned Sutar in order to destroy what was left of Asgard (as well as Hela) once the survivors of Asgard were evacuated. 

I liked this idea. I’ve actually written AUs just like this already where Loki purposefully enacts Ragnarok in order to save those he can and destroy their oppressors (like Thanos). For Loki to bring about Ragnarok for a good purpose is one of my favorite ideas. It’s the end of everything, but it’s also the beginning. It’s rebirth. It’s new hope. It’s one of Loki’s biggest roles.

But the idea wasn’t Loki’s and that really pissed me off. Instead of letting Loki come to the conclusion on his own, they had Thor instigate the idea instead. 

I think Loki’s entire story would have been so much more whole and complete if they just let Loki deliver the final blow on his own. It shouldn’t have been Thor’s idea. That just looked like another desperate attempt to have Thor outshine Loki.

Loki got to be the hero, but only because Thor gave him the idea. No, Marvel. That’s completely unnecessary. Ragnarok is Loki’s. Loki is intelligent enough and clever enough to come up with this plan on his own without any help from his brother. Period. He should have come up with the idea long before Thor ever even conceived it.

XII. THOR AND LOKI

I actually really did love seeing the brotherly bond between them. I think this is the first movie that really highlighted the fact that they are, indeed, brothers. While I didn’t like the dynamic of Loki being kind of like a sidekick or Thor constantly HAVING to be better than Loki, I did really enjoy them together as siblings. I felt like they had a lot more to discuss and dissect considering how much they were at odds with one another for so long, but there were genuine moments of brotherly bond that I absolutely adored.

I want more of that. I love Loki and Thor as brothers that struggle so much and often do stupid things to outdo one another but are brothers nonetheless. 

I loved seeing the unspoken love between them, however, I do think they needed to hash out more of their hatred and aggression towards one another. That seemed to be completely glossed over for the sake of... I don’t know what, to be honest.

XIII. SHOWCASING OTHER WARRIORS

The movie focused far too much on Thor’s battle and powers. During the final showdown between Team Thor and Hela’s undead army, Thor took out what looked like 90% of the army. The rest of the warriors, like Loki, Hulk, Valkyrie, and Heimdall only got a few seconds of screentime each to show them battling and that sucked. They are ALL powerful warriors. They should have been showcased a bit more.

[theprocrastinatingalien]

Ben Affleck to exit The Batman? What should Warner Bros do?

It started with MAN OF STEEL, and since then we've been offered BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, SUICIDE SQUAD and the recent WONDER WOMAN. 

The DC Extended Universe is the Warner Bros answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe... but, alas, things have had something of a shaky start.  Neither BvS nor SS were received anywhere near as well as was expected, which kind of put them on a back-foot.

On top of that, not all of their announced plans are keeping to the schedules... THE FLASH was meant to drop next year but that's been pushed back, and whilst a lot of films have been announced, few have solid release dates. AQUAMAN will hit next year as planned, and later this year we get the anticipated JUSTICE LEAGUE.  A film that isn't without it's issue, and is currently in reshoots, with Joss Whedon taking over the reigns following a personal tragedy for DCEU overseer Zack Snyder.

But now it looks like the franchise is about to be dealt another blow - with rumours circulating that Ben Affleck wishes to exit his role as Batman.

This would certainly be a problem for a franchise that needs to be cohesive if it's going to work.  Word is Affleck isn't happy with how things are going, so WB are looking at possibly recasting etc...Back in the 90s, we had three different actors playing Bruce Wayne over the space of four films - and it's quite jarring.  Now, audiences like familiarity  and again we need to look towards Marvel to see how great it is to see characters from different films crossing over and interacting with each other.  It means for because it's the same faces we know.  We get a kick out of it.  Not that Marvel haven't done any recasting themselves... famously kicking out Edward Norton for Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, and Terrence Howard for Don Cheadle as War Machine.  Of course the difference there was - both of the original actors had only done a single film, and now their successors have both done numerous.

With the release of JUSTICE LEAGUE, Affleck will have appeared in three different films.  His exit clearly poses an issue for THE BATMAN, which has seen it's fair share of problems already.  Originally set to be written and directed by Affleck, first Affleck stepped away from directing, an next the script was thrown out.  It's probably no surprise Affleck wants out of the project altogether.

Matt Reeves has been talking a fair bit about taking over as director of THE BATMAN, but how does Affleck's potential exit threaten his vision?   Let's take a look at what Warner Bros and Reeves could with Batman...

THROW LOTS OF MONEY AT AFFLECK TO MAKE HIM STAY.

This would be the one I'd go with.  Unlike most of the internet, I was excited by Affleck's casting, and for what it's worth - I think he's the best movie Batman & Bruce Wayne we've had. They should make sure they keep him happy - he's one of the few positives the DCEU has at the moment

RECAST

This will be what will probably happen. Bring in a new face to mix with the likes of Cavill, Momoa and Gadot etc... and pretend it doesn't matter. Of course it will matter who they bring in... it needs to be someone excellent (and who is willing to stick around).

My suggestion?  Well, the person I was hoping for in the first place - Karl Urban.  Urban would be perfect for the role.  I don't want a recast, but Urban's casting would go someway to me forgiving the problem.

FORGET ABOUT BATMAN

Never going to happen.  Bats is Warner Bros biggest cash cow, with more films that any other DC superhero, even Superman. Moving on...

KILL OFF BRUCE WAYNE

It could work.  If they have the foresight to do so in JUSTICE LEAGUE, then they could allow the solo Batflick to deal with the consequences.  It might not be the track Matt Reeves wants to go down... but he, or another director may not have the option.

DICK GRAYSON TAKES OVER AS BATMAN

We know there's a NIGHTWING coming.  We don't know who's playing Dick Grayson yet, but it's possible the actor could shoot two films back-to-back.... the first film in the guise of Nightwing, but by the movie end, becoming Batman.  Then THE BATMAN continues from there.

BATTLE FOR THE COWL

A similar idea, with Grayson ending up in the role of Batman... but with the story adapted from the comic where - believing Bruce Wayne to be dead - Dick Grayson, Jason Todd and Tim Drake battle it out for the mantle of Batman.   At the end Grayson wins, taking on Damian Wayne as the new Robin.  You wouldn't have to reference Batman in the NIGHTWING film, but it would have to come before THE BATMAN.

TERRY MCGINNIS BATMAN BEYOND

A bit of a change in direction, and doesn't quite work with the current slate of DCEU films, but basing the idea on the cartoon, with a future elderly Wayne training a young McGinnis to be the dark knight would work in a film itself.

BATMAN: YEAR ONE

The problem is... we had that story with BATMAN BEGINS.  Still, they could tell it a different way, and with a younger actor.   This is probably my least favourite option so far.

THOMAS WAYNE AS BATMAN

In the comics, The Flash goes back in time, changing events, and that results in Batman's history being rewritten. Instead on Bruce Wayne surviving his parent's murder and becoming Batch, Bruce dies alongside his mother... leaving father Thomas to become Bats.  That would mean Jeffrey Dean Morgan becomes Batman.  I can think of worse things to happen.

On the whole I'll conclude my favourite option, is keep Affleck if possible.  My second favourite - is to progress a new character (ideally Grayson) into the role - which has never been done on film before).  Then recast, realistically.  As I've said, Karl Urban is the way to go. Hopefully it's just a rumour, and Affleck will continue in the role for some years to come.

[sparoundtheworld-blog]

Wellness around the world

When the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ came out it seemed obvious why it was so successful.  As an ambitious and driven woman yearning to find her career passion alongside a big, adventurous balanced life, this book hit home and I don’t think I was alone. Most of my close friends and colleagues dreamed of doing or being more too.  

The truth is, the search for whatever “more” was to me, started decades earlier. Growing up in a small southern town, I was the slightly unique girl that managed to float relatively easily between the different cliques and social norms in my environment. I enjoyed and got along with almost everyone.  All the while, I felt I was destined for a faster paced, more exciting (in my naïve eyes) big city.  

Having been absolutely unable to stop singing and dancing as well as being crystal clear that I was meant to be a big Broadway star (who then went on to direct blockbuster movie musicals), I pursued my dreams with fearlessness and gusto!   If I wanted to do an improvised dance piece for an audience, I just did it, if I wanted to choreograph the big tap number for the kid’s theatre group, I naturally took charge and made it happen.  I started the dance team in my high school when there wasn’t one and I didn’t think twice about doing it, I simply made it happen.

When I decided to quit being a professional singer and actress and commit to being a spa manager, I felt as if I went through a break up. I was heartbroken that the industry I had loved my whole life was not the dream I’d thought it could be.  I was talented enough to work relatively consistently, yet I rarely felt authentic and was always searching for my own voice.  I performed on cruise ships, did a lot of regional and off-Broadway theatre, was in a few bands and I sang on tour in a Broadway show all over the world and worked with and performed with legendary icons. At auditions, I tried subconsciously to be what I thought the casting directors were looking for in hopes of landing the job.  Ultimately, I became disillusioned and that’s when I discovered I was good at something else…. (sound the trumpets) Customer service.

I enjoyed my ‘survival’ job as we called them then, of being a receptionist in a busy NYC spa.  I loved talking about products and interacting with guests.  I quickly moved up and it felt very natural to grow in this new environment.  I used my acting skills along the way when needed but for the most part, I truly liked being part of a company, participating in the growth of a brand and ultimately discovering that leadership was in my blood.

Cut to almost 15 years in the spa and wellness industry and I’m on a beach in Costa Rica having just booked my ticket only a few days earlier.  What was my purpose?  I had grown to not only love this industry but adore and admire the people I connected with along the way.  It was so much fun to be an equal and smart businessperson alongside these other smart, driven people sharing ideas, best practices and even antidotes of our crazier moments. It was inspiring to move up and become part of a huge corporation with a strong vision that I got to be help facilitate. I felt proud to represent the companies and brands I worked for.  So how come I felt burned out and unfulfilled?

Standing on the beach with my toes in the sand, I promised myself I’d make my mark on the world and do something awesome.  Now as I approach middle age (gasp), what happened to that fearless young girl whose world revolved around the magic of theatre?  Surely I have not reached my full potential.

After my own personal ‘Eat Pray Love’ trip involving a few weeks in St. Thomas BVI, a week alone learning to surf in Costa Rica and a week with business colleagues learning to ski in Steamboat Springs CO, I made a big move. Still trying to find my way, I accepted a new, bigger job that I had hoped would be my dream job in a new city. Sadly it wasn’t, and even though I didn’t know what I was going to do next at the time, I knew it was time to seriously reevaluate.  

Then, my father died suddenly.  Let me tell you, when you quit your big fat job, leave your friends and home across the country and then your biggest supporter and constant ear is gone…. The world is a totally new and different place.  So here I am sitting at my mother’s kitchen table watching endless webinars, reading multiple self-help books and trolling LinkedIn for some sort of inspiration.  

WHAT am I yearning to do? As most good slightly controlling driven people do, I wrote a list.

1.       Travel – I have inherited my father’s wanderlust and absolutely LOVE to explore and visit pretty much anywhere.

2.       Wellness or balance – I’ve lost my way and am not in my best shape physically or probably mentally so this is also a personal quest.

3.       Products – I love love love products and have rarely met one I didn’t like. Drug stores are like candy stores to me and a sparkly Sephora or well-appointed spa is my crack.

4.       Leading a team – being part of a bigger picture and leading a team feeds my soul.  The best compliment I have ever received was from a former assistant who said my development of her propelled her career and that I’d made a positive impact on her.

5.       Genuinely helping and caring – big and small scale.  Being even the tiniest part of someone’s experience that they will cherish is an amazing gift.  Heck I grew up going to Disney world, I will always believe in magic, it’s in my DNA.

6.       The Spa and Wellness industry in general – I did not grow up going to a spa so when I did start working in one it was a whole new exciting world!  That feeling has never worn off as I see trends change and evolve and provide help, healing, and relaxation for people.  

7.       Looking and Feeling great- this one is tough because I rarely feel like I look or feel my best but I strive for it.  Getting a treatment or even better, creating a treatment with therapists/estheticians is fantastic. Everyone should get a massage and a facial often. Seriously.  

8.       Alternative healing and beauty- this is vague passion but I’ll sum it up: I like it all. Cranioscral, Reiki, acupuncture, Yoga….you name it I am down for it.

9.       Medical spa services – I know, it’s a contradiction but not to me. I’m an equal opportunist, I believe in Natural and organic products for some things and believe in science for others.  Plus, being in this industry I’m a little vain and am not above a little botox to remove the angry eleven from my forehead.

10.   Travel – yup, it shows up again and again. I’m not sure if this means I travel on my own or being a guest at some of the world’s beautiful spas and wellness centers. I’d hoped that my previous “dream job” would take me all over the world but alas, it is up to me at this point to make my global dreams come true.

Having made this list, I realize I’d like to combine all of these but how?  This my friends is the moment of inspiration…… I will go in search of wellness around the globe and share it with you.  I’ll document my journey with blog posts and videos.  Having been previously sidelined with obstacles, many self-imposed, I now rally my inner strength. I hear my Dad’s voice in my head saying, “you got this Jilly” and I slap on some sunscreen and go.  

[keyofjetwolf]

THE GIFTENING 2016: The Shit We’ll Still Do

My other pending major question to come out of THE GIFTENING is my feelings on each thing and what, if anything, we’ll continue together. I still have a million Asks to dive into, but this is my general take on each thing.

 - Pickle Electric: YOU KNOW I’LL BE LIVEBLOGGING THIS FUCKING MUSICAL UNTIL THE END OF TIME AND GLADLY SO. I adore it, and will never, ever, be over Senshi Band, ever. I’d like to have a musical day/night a month, though, so it’s not so fucking long between sessions and maybe I can have the damned thing finished before five years have passed.

 - Undertale: Still the same status as last time. I’ve come this far, I plan to finish. Again, as I draft up my schedule for March (and coming months), I’d like to include this in rotation until I finish. It’s been long enough at this point, I think.

 - Princess Tutu: WHAT A FUCKING JEWEL THIS WAS. It’s so goddamn out there, but I already love some of the themes and ideas it’s hinting at. I’m definitely marking this as a future liveblog project. I enjoyed what I saw, and I want to know more.

 - Gravity Falls: LOVED IT. I want to watch every second of this show. That said, I’ve been heavily advised to not go the public liveblog route with this, due to its massive spoiler potential and general fandom atmosphere. Consequently, I’ll either continue Gravity Falls on my own, in a private liveblog setting ala And Steven, or perhaps it will be a Patreon-only liveblog situation. Not sure on the specifics yet, but I’ll definitely be continuing with it.

 - Cardcaptor Sakura: I really wanted to love it, but it just didn’t capture (HA HA) me at all. I love a slow burn, but I still need a hook, and I just wasn’t able to find it. I don’t see me continuing with it.

 - JEM: I’LL TALK ABOUT JEM ANY CHANCE I GET. I completely expect to do a full series liveblog before I’m done. No one may care, but by god, I’ll do it anyway.

 - Utena: I wasn’t really able to come away with much of an impression about Utena, to be honest. But I didn’t find it irritating, and I do appreciate that. I’ve said for years now that Utena would be on my to-do list, and I plan to stick with that. We’ll return to Utena at some point before too long with public liveblogs.

 - Yuri on Ice: Really not for me, I don’t think. Those two episodes were enough.

 - Black Mirror: YOU HAD BEST BELIEVE I WILL WATCH EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE OF THESE. I don’t think that I’ll liveblog them, exactly, because they take a long while, and I’m not sure how interesting/fun/entertaining/whatever they are for the time they take. What I will do, though, is when I watch an episode, I’ll post a recap of it, along with thoughts on the episode. Basically it’ll be like a condensed liveblog in a single (LIKELY LENGTHY) post.

 - Movie Day: This was such an unexpected hit. I’d absolutely love to do these again, and I’m considering a mix of public and Patreon options. As for the movies themselves, if you don’t want to watch the streams: I thought Spirited Away was okay. I spent most of the movie trying to figure out details and answers which I frankly don’t think were the point, but I didn’t reach that conclusion until the end. IT WAS WEIRD I CAN SAY THAT MUCH. Pan’s Labyrinth, I absolutely loved. I will buy this movie for myself. Ghostbusters and Fury Road, I’d already seen. Both are fantastic (I especially adore Fury Road, and only love it more with every viewing).

 - Pigeon Fucking: HOW MANY MORE TIMES DO I HAVE TO PLAY THIS DAMNED THING TO FIND OUT WHAT’S GOING ON. I’d be open to returning to it when voted/requested, and certainly the livestream sped things up quite a bit. I’m not sure I’d voluntarily go back to it. But then, have I ever done anything with that game voluntarily. Why start now.

 - Avatar: The Last Airbender: One of those situations where the interactions surrounding it are vastly overshadowing the thing itself. I’d like to say I’ll return to it. I suspect I’d quite like it if I stuck with it. I unfortunately have a negative desire to do so at the moment. Maybe time and distance will help that though! I absolutely do not plan to ever publicly liveblog it again.

 - Sailor Moon Day: IT’S WHERE WE ALL LIVE COME ON. Mako’s Unboxing will continue very soon and regularly until it’s done. YES SOON I SAID SOON I MEANT SOON DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. I’m not sure if I have much more to offer with dub liveblogging beyond Drunk Times, but i’d be open to it if asked. I had a ton of fun with the Livechat, and would happily see that as a regular deal.

 - Deep Space 9: I wanted to watch it anyway, but just the taste I got made me want to watch it more. I have my doubts i’d do a big liveblog of it. Make a few comments maybe, open discussion, that sort of thing. If there’s enough of an interest in it, though, I could certainly be persuaded.

 - Brooklyn Nine-Nine: I was utterly unprepared for how much I’d enjoy this show. Will ABSOLUTELY continue to watch. Like DS9, I’m not sure how much liveblogging of it there’ll be. Comedies are tough to liveblog, in my experience, and I don’t know that we have a good time/reward balance for the effort involved. I’ll definitely be watching on my own time, though (with I don’t doubt a few comments here and there at least).

 - Xena: JUST TRY AND MAKE ME SHUT UP ABOUT XENA. I want to do the entire series in the most ridiculously in-depth liveblog ever and it will happen one day and you won’t stop me.

 - Buffy: MY OTHER GREAT LOVE I WILL MAKE A FULL BUFFY LIVEBLOG HAPPEN SOME DAY OH IT WILL HAPPEN

 - X-Men (comics): I was just THRILLED by the positive response to this. Even just sitting here thinking about it makes me so happy. No question, a regular X-Men day is in our future. I can’t wait to share my mutants with you guys.

 - X-Men (cartoons): We never did get to do a TAS liveblog, which I’d love. And you all know how I feel about Evo at this point. Again, I’d love to keep these in regular rotation with the comics.

 - Overwatch: NOT GOING ANYWHERE. I still have all the prompts, and part of my upcoming plans over the year is to get back to a place where I’m happy with my writing (EVER THE GOAL). I’ll be working to, I hope, post at least one thing a week, ideally more, and I’d like to become more comfortable writing in the Overwatch world. So creatively, more to come. As for playing, OF COURSE. I’ve never had a Tumblr Brawl yet that hasn’t been fun as hell, and with the new options for customizing games, it’s like the universe is begging us. Definitely more playing (and livestreaming) in our future.

 - Madoka: FINISHED JET IS A FREE WOLF. In the end, I didn’t really care for it, but I adored some of the ideas and concepts. I’m otherwise done with Madoka, though. I don’t plan to watch the movie(s). I’m happy to let the experience end where it did.

 - 'Fic and Doodle Day: Oh yes. We’re not done here.

 - The Simshi: Nor are we ever done with the Simshi. Regular Simshi playing, scheduled soon.

 - Life is Strange: I really enjoyed playing it, and am keen to return to it until I’m done. How about a livestream of the second chapter this weekend, in fact? STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS

 - Galavant: Loved it. LOVED IT. I’m excited to watch more, and they’ll be liveblogged as well. Given that there are relatively few episodes, I expect to be returning to this very, very soon.

 - Yomawari: Night Alone: An interesting visual style makes the game feel fresh in a way I didn’t expect, but the punishing need to keep replaying killed it fast for me. I don’t expect to return to it, which is a pity.

 - Outlast: OUTLAST ON THE OTHER HAND. I’m already anxious about going back in there, but I know I will, and I’ll do it with you all laughing at my swearing, my screams, my babbling, and my impossibly high-pitched Fear Giggle. Holligay will end me if I do it while she’s gone, so look for more of this in April!

 - Murderdoll: The Game: Similarly, if I’m ever able to get Murderdolll to work, I’ve been told I’ll be disowned if I don’t want for my lesbian. If I can sort it out, this too will be coming soon!

 - Yuri Hell’s Kitchen: MORE INFORMATION COMING IN APRIL

And that’s where we stand! Aside from Asks (and a ‘fic to be written when I can), THIS IS THE TRUE END TO THE GIFTENING.