#the trailer was right after investigations which was my whole point of watching the direct but i am also very Very excited for that

[pcktknife]

Danganronpa/Another Episode.........TWO

[hopeymchope]

Godzilla Singular Point

I came into Singular Point with some trepidation because Godzilla’s history in anime is both very recent and extremely bad. The three anime movies released between 2017 and 2019 are easily the worst work of famed writer Gen Urobuchi and honestly contain more bullshit than I can even get into here. Those movies and this series were both Godzilla anime properties commissioned by Netflix, which didn’t get my hopes up very much. Thankfully, Singular Point is a very different beast from the anime trilogy. One could argue it’s very different from most Godzilla media, actually — at least from my perspective. And I’m still a pretty entry-level fan of Toho’s Big G, all things considered.

Let me just warn you right up front: This smartphone-based virtual assistant is basically the breakout star of the series. 

When you think “Godzilla,” you probably don’t think “incredibly dense sci-fi concepts,” but with the big G’s first-ever anime series, the writers clearly set out to change that perception. Before the first kaiju even appears, the lead characters are plucked from obscurity and dropped into a mystery that involves fourth-dimensional time travel, physical objects that look different from all sides, theoretical math concepts, self-propagating A.I., and a whole lot more. And it’s NEVER made clear how all of it connects to the rampaging kaiju! Although we spend a lot of time investigating a red dust or sand that is very obviously tied to the monsters in SOME way, no one ever makes a connection that explains the relationship. Maybe we’re supposed to wait for a later season to connect the threads... but let’s get into the idea of “another season” later.

I like to think of myself as someone who typically enjoys hard sci-fi, but even with the characters spending loads of time trying to explain the high concepts driving the story, I was never able to fully wrap my head around what was going on in the mystery at the center of GSP. I rewound and rewatched a few explanations, but I still walked away feeling lost. I eventually settled on some vague, loose understandings of most of the ideas mentioned, but those understandings were subject to being ripped apart in subsequent scenes when I was shown or told something completely at odds with what I thought I knew. I can’t say I was ever bored with the thick, dense scientific concepts on offer — trying to find purchase with these far-out ideas kept me glued to the screen — but damn, I sure wish I was able to comprehend them.

What do we want?! DENSE SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION AND DEBATE! When do we want it?! AFTER THOROUGH RESEARCH, TESTING, AND PEER REVIEW!

Another weird thing about this show is that the lead characters remain in separate locations and on separate tracks for the entire duration. We have Yun — a mechanical engineer and programmer who has an amazing grasp on physics and human behavior. And we have Mei — a grad student who is deeply invested in theoretical science, UMAs, cryptids and other far-flung concepts. Both of them are basically geniuses in their fields, and even though they take opposing views of just how flexible reality is, their shared ability to think “outside the box” becomes the crucial component in solving the mystery at the core of the series. Because they don’t even know one another (despite being separated by like, ONE degree), they only ever interact via text messages and behind screen names, which feels pretty damn weird. At least  I immediately liked both of them, with Yun being the standout to me because of how his lowkey reactions to crazy shit generates a lot of humor.

This soundtrack cover LIES; you will never see these characters in a room together like this. 

Alas, we don’t get to know the characters a whole lot beyond what we learned of them in the first two episodes. It’s not long before they’re trapped in a series of complicated exposition dumps, endlessly attempting to explain the high concepts of the show to other characters as well as my dumb ass in the audience. The fact that I liked them in the first couple of episodes carried me through more than half of the show, but I was always hoping to see them share more of themselves or just display more emotion. Anime as a medium excels at emotional storytelling. But despite the major, world-altering events the characters are constantly warning us about, none of them seem to have many emotions about said events. 

Further complicating matters is how, when major events finally occur in this show, they are often kept off-screen. One character shockingly dies, but the portrayal of that death is so piss-poor that I didn’t even realize it’d happened until someone mentioned their death in the next episode. After that vague death, I was particularly sensitive to anything that looked like it might possibly be lethal. Yet a later event that is played up as a tragic, fatal occurrence ends up... fine, somehow? It’s not clear how the character survives, because — even after one of our heroes is left screaming their name in despair as they seemingly die — nobody ever talks about or explains how he’s just fine a couple of scenes later. And near the end of the series, there’s a major transformation that occurs for one of the characters, and we never see it happen nor do we understand HOW it happened. It’s just that suddenly, this character is extremely different due to off-screen reasons that are only vaguely verbalized.

I guess these two really bonded at some point for some reason? And what you are seeing here is literally the height of emotion shown in the entire show.

Even though the overarching story of the series so far pretty clearly wraps up in episode 13, we then get a post-credits tease for a potential second season. So the question becomes: Would I watch that?

Well... Godzilla Singular Point is a series with a lot of issues that kept me at arms’ length from it — tons of extremely confusing dialogue, highly frustrating choices in direction that lead to baffling storytelling, characters who are mostly exposition-dumping — and yet there’s still some foundational work here that I appreciated a lot. When the action occurs, it’s pretty cool/fun. And when urban destruction occurs, it can be awe-inspiring. The human characters, though little-explored, have likable and interesting foundations to them that could be expanded upon. And I didn’t even mention the soundtrack, which features a variety of musical styles combined with the classic Ifukube theme music and an OP that is an absolute banger. (I have a weakness when it comes to music; a good soundtrack can carry me through even the blandest series sometimes.) Even the core idea of centering a Godzilla series around hard science and mathematical concepts is a compelling one, I think! I just hated the execution of it; they went waaaaay too far on poorly explaining incredibly complex, mind-bending concepts for my pea brain to handle it. They spend so much time trying to explain things, yet somehow they never succeeded for me. 

Ultimately, I’d probably give the show another chance. But if I do give another season a chance, it’ll be on probation. I wouldn’t watch the entire season unless I could see within four episodes that they’d definitely improved things.

Would I recommend that anyone watch the series as it currently stands? I mean... not really? I guess if you really dig complex math, hard theoretical science, and/or Toho’s stable of monsters, then maaaaaaaaaaybe give it a shot. But otherwise? Naaaahh. It’s not good enough at anything to make it stand out from the anime crowd. I didn’t hate it like I hated the Godzilla anime films, but Singular Point is still something that both casual viewers and most fans can comfortably ignore for the time being. It’s not a complete disaster, and it’s not without its highlights... but it’s definitely disappointing in my opinion.

OKAYOKAYOKAY, so let’s talk about the kaiju for a bit! 

Below will be SPOILERS revealing all of the kaiju that appear in Godzilla Singular Point and giving my feelings on them. 

Godzilla — It’s interesting to see a version of Godzilla that borrows some ideas from Shin Godzilla. Shin G has been incredibly unique until now, but this Godzilla manages to fold some of Shin’s distinctive aspects in with the more classic/typical versions to build a fun new depiction. Be forewarned that Godzilla doesn’t show up until the series is halfway over, and he doesn’t get a ton of screen time, either. He’s used quite sparingly and kept in hazy settings, often framed from the neck-up when they show him. It’s a little frustrating that they felt the need to shroud him so much, but I respect the fact that whenever Godzilla is shown, the destruction he causes is on a scale far beyond anything that the rest of the kaiju ever do. He is pure devastation. 

Rodan — He’s easily the biological kaiju with the most screen time in Singular Point. Rodan is first introduced as one gigantic pterosaur, but if you’ve seen ANY trailers for this show then you already know that his depiction transitions into an asston of smaller pterosaurs, all of whom are also called “Rodan.” (Apparently the word Rodan is both singular and plural, like the word “buffalo.”) Although he looks kind of cool at first, pretty soon Rodan showing up isn’t special or threatening anymore. Rodan appearances go from “a big goddamn deal” to “some bland background noise” before the series is even 1/3 finished. The design might be a little too far removed from the original for my own taste, but even if I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t be able to care for this Rodan simply because he’s rendered so unimportant and unimpressive.

If you go out in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise... 

Anguirus — Now check this guy out! Anguirus gets one of the coolest fights in the show and also demonstrates some powers that are well beyond anything we’ve seen him do before. Because he sticks to unpopulated areas, we never see him do much damage to Japan, but he is definitely holding all the attention when he’s on-screen. He’s a highlight for me — a total badass who is very unique in his abilities. And the stated origin for his name is goddamn adorable.

Manda — Yup, Manda is in this series... but I don’t have much to say for him. It seems like the creators of the anime didn’t have much to say about him either. His role amounts to little more than a repeated cameo, and in most of those cameos you only ever see his tail. When we finally see his full body, it’s done so briefly and kept at a distance, leaving me with no real impression. I had to look up his design online and... yup, that sure looks like Manda. Final score: MEEEEHH.

Kumonga — I definitely did not see this appearance coming! Kumonga is much smaller here than you may be used to, but she gets to star in the most suspenseful sequence in the series and easily earns the most exciting cliffhanger moment at the end of an episode. I was utterly glued to the show during her screen time, which comes with a lot of icky twists. Good ones! I honestly like Kumonga here more than I ever have previously.

NEW PHONE WHO DIS

Salunga — Uh, who? This is the one monster that isn’t based on a classic Toho kaiju but instead is a brand-new creation. I suppose that everybody who touches the Toho Kaiju franchise wants to make their own mark on it in some regard. But a big part of the fun of this series for me personally was the anticipation of seeing new interpretations and designs of classic Toho monsters. And so, given that he kind of resembles both Baragon and Gabara, I never stopped wishing they’d just used one of those guys as the basis and namesake. Taken on his own, however? He’s... pretty neat. Not unique or exciting, but solidly above par.  He resembles a cross between a lizard/dinosaur and an ape, plus his head has some nifty coloration. 

Our Jaguar!

Jet Jaguar — I guess Jet Jaguar isn’t exactly a kaiju in the traditional sense because he’s a Giant Robot. However, if you want to consider him one, then I wager he probably gets even more screen time than Rodan! We meet him almost immediately when the series begins. Initially an odd pilot-driven robot that was constructed at the whim of a quirky old factory-owner with too much disposable income, Jet Jaguar grows and changes over the course of the show, ultimately undergoing a transition in episode 7 that makes him pretty damn impossible to dislike. In fact, I utterly adored him by then. This is definitely the best Jet Jaguar I’ve ever seen. His design is recognizably similar to the original yet utterly distinct, too. Like many of the other kaiju here, he’s not nearly as big as he was when he was first introduced to the movies, but his size is ideal for battling the smaller-scale monsters that we spend most of the series on.

[xchojin]

Chapter Three

Galaxy: Milky Way

Planet: Earth

Location: Small farm house

Time: 1 hour after Mijhan and T.J. crashed

"Ava," a males' voice came from the kitchen.

"Coming dad," Ava called, as she met her dad in the kitchen.

"It's time to get the cattle."

"But dad," Ava started, surprised, then continued in a whisper. "He hasn't gone by with the trailer yet,"

"We'll have to take the chance," Ava's dad said, at a loss as a wheeled video camera rolled into the room. "The cattle need to drink,"

Ava sighed, knowing her dad was right, "Okay." Ava went to the barn and got the ATV and headed through the gates to bring the cattle in.

It only took Ava a few minutes to find the cattle, who were hiding in a strand of trees her family liked to call The Woods. As she was getting the cattle to move, she couldn't help but notice there was an area that the cattle refused to go near.

Ava killed the ATV's engine, then picked up a stick and went to investigate the area. Peering through some of the foliage, she saw that in a natural divot there was a boy and a girl in regal attire. The girl had the boy's head in her lap and she was crying.

Ava started to walk down the divot to investigate further. “Hey," Ava said in a soft voice, trying not to scare the girl.

The girl looked up scared, and held up a hand which sent Ava flying backwards from an invisible force.

Ava shook her head, trying to clear it, after the wind got knocked out of her, slightly scared now. She held her hands up in a non-threatening way and took a step towards the two figures, once more. "Look, I just want to help...I don't want to hurt you,"

The girl seemed to consider Avas' request and then with a flick of the girl's hand, Ava floated towards her. "Help with what?" the girl asked, letting Avas' feet touch the ground, but not letting her move.

Ava swallowed, her throat suddenly gone dry. "Whatever it is you need," she squeaked out, Ava was barely holding it together, she was so scared.

The girl waved her hand and Ava could move again. Ava fell to the ground with relief, she looked towards the girl, her whole body shaking.  "We need water," the girl stated as she watched Avas' shaking form.

"I can get water," Ava stood, watching the girl to make sure she wasn't going to go flying again. "I’ll be back in a few minutes," Ava walked towards the ATV when she heard a rustle of leaves behind her, making her look back. "Thought of something else?" Ava asked, noticing the girl had followed her.

The girl shook her head, "No, but what's your name?"

"Ava," Ava replied, swinging her leg over the seat of the ATV. "Yours?"

The girl looked hesitant for a second. "Mijhan," the girl finally responded.

Ava nodded, then started up the ATV, scaring Mijhan. "I'll be back with some water." and with that Ava sped off, leaving the cattle behind for a couple minutes longer.

Ava went to a hay shed that she knew had a water canteen in it. She grabbed the canteen then filled it with water from the water hydrant filling up the cattle tank. After she sealed the canteen she made her way back towards Mijhan and the boy.

"Mijhan," Ava called, walking through the brush. "Here's the water," Ava held up the canteen, as the boy in Mijhans lap opened his eyes, groggily.

Once Ava was within a couple feet of the two. She was sent flying backwards by an invisible force, as the boy sat up. "T.J.!" Mijhan yelled, as Ava sat up, wincing.

"It's okay," Ava replied, standing, making sure her hands were in full view.

"Who are you?" T.J. asked, a hand to his head trying to clear it.

"My name's Ava," Ava made sure to speak slowly and clearly, making sure she wasn't going to startle the two anymore. "I just wanted to help."

"What's in the container?" T.J. asked, noticing the red container, near Avas' feet.

"Water," Ava answered, picking up the container to offer it.

"Did you do anything to it?" T.J. asked, suspicious.

Ava sighed as Mijhan scolded T.J. "Look, it's just water," Ava replied, then lifted the straw and drank a little from it. "See?" she asked, putting the straw down. "Perfectly fine."

T.J. regarded Ava for a couple moments, before requesting the canteen. Ava handed it over and glanced towards Mijhan, who rolled her eyes. After T.J. drank his fill he gave the canteen to Mijhan who also drank.

"Where are we?" T.J. asked standing up, allowing Ava to see his full outfit.  He wore a white pressed shirt that had medals running along his left breast. His pants also appeared to be freshly pressed, but in a contrasting navy color. His shoes were a shiny black, and looked expensive.  If Ava had to guess, he'd assume he had been on his way to a military awards ceremony.

"Well," Ava started. "Currently you're on my family's farm."

"No, I mean what planet?" T.J. clarified his request.

Ava gave him a strange look before answering, slowly, confusion on her face, "You're on planet Earth,"

"Thank you," T.J. replied, dismissing the look Ava was still giving him.

Mijhan walked over to Ava, her dress catching on some bushes. Ava went to Mijhans rescue. Taking a look at Mijhan’s, stunning blue princess dress.  It mesmerized Ava on how it glittered in the daylight.

They both were wearing very nice outfits. Maybe they had gotten lost on their way to perform a play...but then, how did they come to be in the middle of a cow pasture? "It's an awfully pretty dress to be wearing in a dirty cow pasture," Ava mentioned. Focusing on a twig that seemed to want to keep the dress all to itself.

"I didn't have time to change after we were attacked," Mijhan explained, a look of pain crossed her face at the memory.

"Mijhan," T.J. scolded.

"But, T.J." Mijhan started.

"She's obviously a peasant and doesn't need to be concerned with the doings of royalty," T.J. seethed.

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Ava smirked, trying to keep her laughter in. "But I'm not a peasant." Ava laughed, her self-control diminishing. "You're both very good actors, and I'm sorry you got lost on your way to your play.  Can I offer you a ride into town, so you can find your way back?"

"Play?" T.J. asked, confused.

Ava stopped laughing, noticing the confused looks, "You guys are serious...aren't you?"

T.J. and Mijhan nodded, now realizing that they were on a planet that could be dangerous to them.

Ava looked the two over, not seeing any tell-tale signs they were aliens, "Well, if you're not from here...where are you from?"

"Xchojhn," T.J. answered, watching Avas' reaction closely.

"You're from where?" Ava asked, not believing she was talking to people from another planet. "The hell is that?"

T.J. and Mijhan looked at each other, they thought everyone knew all the planets. "Xchojhn," Mijhan repeated, "It's out home planet,"

"How'd you get here then? "Ava asked, still confused.

"We were traveling in an escape pod," Mijhan answered. "It should be around here somewhere."

Ava looked around the small woods to look for any disturbance in the foliage but didn't see anything. She looked up in the trees when she heard the sound of limbs cracking under pressure. "Shit," Ava muttered as she jumped out of the way of a large metal object crashing to the ground.

Ava got up to look at the object which had scattered the cows in all directions. "You traveled in this?" Ava asked, brushing her hand along the metal.

Mijhan nodded, as she looked at her brother, "We'll be able to make it back right, T.J.?"

"I'll have to look at it," T.J. replied, musing, mechanics wasn't his specialty. He hoped he could get it running again.

"Well," Ava started. "While you're fixing it, how would you like to stay with me and my dad?"

"That would be nice," Mijhan said, before T.J. could object.

Ava smiled, "Awesome, we just need to collect the cattle then we can head to my house. Which is just over this hill, so you really wouldn't be too far from here."

"Sounds reasonable," T.J. nodded, trying to please Mijhan. "So how do we collect the cattle?" T.J. looked around, wondering what exactly cattle were and how they were to go about collecting them.

"We're just going to drive around the pasture with the ATV and get them up to the house so they can have some water," Ava replied, walking to the 4-wheeler. "Mijhan can sit here," Ava pointed to the left side of a crate that was screwed down to the back of the ATV. "And you can sit here," Ava pointed to the right side of the 4-wheeler.

Mijhan looked doubtful, "Is it safe?" She patted the box's bottom and looked towards Ava.

"Perfectly safe," Ava nodded. "I've hauled several of my friends in there before."

"Sounds safe enough to me," T.J. replied sitting tentatively, on his side of the ATV. Hoping his clothes wouldn't stay dirty from the dirty transportation.

"I guess," Mijhan replied, slowly, taking a seat as well, her dress billowing out to the sides. T.J. glanced at her annoyed, but knew she didn't have a lot of choice in the matter.

"Mijhan, hold your dress like this," Ava instructed Mijhan. Showing her how to hold her dress so it wouldn't get stuck in the wheels. "I don't want to ruin it."

"Thank you," Mijhan replied. Holding her dress as Ava got on the ATV and started it up, they then went in search of the cattle.

Pronunciation Guide Chapter Two

[thiswasinevitableid]

for the meet ugly prompts: sternclay, 78, sfw pls!!!

78: I run a YouTube channel where I talk about different things and one video is on the topic of an immortal creature / piece of history and you track me down to tell me how inaccurate it all is.

Stern finishes his notes, shuts his laptop and pushes in the chair at the little desk. Rain patters on the cabin roof, making for a singularly cozy scene with the fire in the woodstove and the tea steeping on the counter. 

He can’t believe his luck in finding this place; he’d assumed his trip to the Olympic Peninsula would involve solely sleeping in tents in the rain. Which he’s prepared for, but it’s nice to have the spot of his longest stay be indoors. 

The vlog’s been getting a ton of attention on the trip, which is good news for him; turns out doing the legwork to tell something other than the same four Bigfoot anecdotes is popular with large chunks of the internet. 

He does a crossword as he finishes his tea, changes into his sleepwear and climbs into the queen bed; the owners must assume it’s couples who rent this space.

Yeah, right, like Stern is going to have a boyfriend any time soon. 

Turning off the lamp leaves him with just the light from the smoke detector and the nearby clock radio for company. Lord, he didn’t mean to stay up until 1 am working. Again. 

Snuggling down under the covers, he coaxes his mind in the direction of picturing a hot tub and someone rubbing his shoulders. It immediately veers back to two of the stories he collected last week, both about more...alarming Bigfoot encounters. One in which Bigfoot broke into a trailer, leaving the owner cowering in the bathroom while he trashed the place. The other about Bigfoot stalking hiker in the woods, staying just out of sight but growling constantly. 

Then there are the disappearances, but there’s not actually any solid evidence tying them to the cryptid. It’s as he’s reminding himself of this that he rolls over, eyes opening long enough to glimpse something moving outside the rain-streaked window.

He shuts them in a hurry, takes deep breaths to calm down. He’s seen deer all over the place today, that’s probably what that was. 

Knock knock

There is no way on gods green earth that he’s opening that door. 

Knock knock.

The odds of that being someone, or something, that wants to hurt him are much higher than those of it being someone in need of his help. 

Knock knock. 

He holds his breath, listens for footsteps. Instead, the doorknob clicks side to side, jiggles when whatever's out there finds it locked. Thank fuck for the deadbolt.

Crack

Both bolts splinter the wooden frame, and a figure that has to duck to enter the cabin steps through it. It has fur, it’s eyes reflect the light he shines from his phone onto them, and it has very, very big feet. 

“Fuck.” He whispers, pressing against the backboard. 

“You’re Joseph Stern, right.” A deep voice rumbles. 

He nods, finding the fact that Bigfoot is talking to him calming rather than perplexing.

“Thank fuck, ‘cause this was gonna be really awkward otherwise.” He shuts the door, slides the nearby bookshelf across it as if it weighed nothing. 

“Close the blinds.”

Stern reaches up and pulls the cord, sending them down. Fumbles in the dark, eyes on the shadowy figure as he tries to find the lamp switch. He hits it just as the cryptid reaches the foot of his bed. Bigfoot blinks, squinting, then crosses his arms. 

“Okay buddy, we need to talk.”

“About….?” 

Bigfoot gives him a look of barely-concealed exasperation, “about the videos you’ve been making. You got a bunch of stuff wrong.”

“I did my research.” Stern adjusts his blankets with a huff, is forced to do so again when Bigfoot sits down on the bed.

“Yeah, from sources that are full of shit.”

“That’s--” he raises his hand to object, then stops, “that’s actually fair. I, um, I have to hit a certain video length for each episode, so sometimes I include anecdotes that have little to no corroboration.”

“Like the trailer story?”

“Damn it, I should have trusted my gut on that one. It was the vocalization description, it sounded wrong.”

“Yep. Kinda surprised you missed that, you’re usually pretty sharp.”

“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment.”

“It is; I watch your videos, you’ve got a pretty good B.S detector.”

“How-”

“I don’t actually live in the middle of the woods. I have a house, with wi-fi, and I like to keep tabs on people who are investigating me in earnest. I’ve been following your channel awhile. I like it. But you keep getting things wrong and it bugs me, so grab something to take notes on.”

Stern flops and rolls to the edge of the bed not occupied by Bigfoot, pulling his field notebook and a pen from his backpack. As he rolls back, he catches Bigfoot staring at him, then looking away sheepishly. 

“Okay, I’m ready.”

“You’re, uh, you’re taking this fairly well.”

“Why shouldn’t I be? I get to interview fucking Bigfoot. This is a dream come true! Plus, I no longer thing you’re going to kill me. Wait, are you?”

Bigfoot shakes his head, “Nope. And that’s correction one; there have been zero cases where I or my kind have killed anyone. We, uh, tend to come down pretty hard on any of our kind who try to go after humans.”

“And by your kind, you mean other Bigfoots, or cryptids in general?”

“Both.”

“Got it. Wait” he looks up, frowning, “how am I supposed to cite you in these corrections without exposing you?”

A shrug, “just call me a ‘bigfoot expert.’ And, uh, you, specifically, can call me Barclay. Now, mistake two: look at my arm.” He holds his right arm out and Stern obediently stares at it.

“What color is that?”

“Reddish brown?”

“Right. Not black, not white, not grey. Touch it.” 

Carefully, Stern runs his fingertips up Barclay’s forearm.

“It’s so soft.”

“Damn right. None of this ‘coarse chunks of hair’ bullshit. When this comes off it stays soft. And I’m the only one of my kind who’s been on the west coast in a decade, so any hair that isn’t this color can’t be tied to a Bigfoot sighting. You can stop petting me, y’know.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Right, problem three--uh, fuck, hang on, I forgot what I wrote.” He lifts his other arm and Stern sees something he missed in his earlier terror blindness; a pouch hanging from his wrist, from which Barclay produces a tiny notebook. 

“Okay, so, the noises thing, you’ve got about half of them right…”

Stern spends an hour and a half diligently taking notes. When Barclay finally flips the book closed, the cryptid yawns, showing sharp teeth.

“There, that’s all of it. Now I gotta head out, I got places to be in the morning.”

“Wait, what about my questions? I, um, I have a whole list of them for if I ever meet a cryptid in person.”

“How could you possibly have more questions after that.”

“You underestimate just how much time I devote to my work.” He finds the page, turning his notebook around. 

“I...holy shit, did you organize these by cryptid?”

“Yes, since every cryptid is different, you each get your own question list.”

“Look, Joseph, I’m happy to answer them, but I wasn’t kidding about needing to be somewhere in the morning.”

“Oh, um, of course. Honestly I just thought you wanted to get away from me; I know I can be a bit of an overly curious nerd sometimes.”

“I like it. But-”

Thunder booms right above them and Barclay yips like a wounded fox, flinches when lightning follows on it’s heels. 

“Fuck, I was hoping it’d just rain and nothing else.” He growls when lighting flashes again. 

“I have to admit this is not a fear I expected you to have.”

“Lightning starts fires, and I got caught in more than one in my early days, and thunder, well, it sounds a little too much like gunshots for my taste. Had plenty of those directed at me too.”

“Oh, Barclay, I’m so sorry. Um” he casts around for something comforting, “if, if you’d rather not go out just yet, you can stay here. I promise I won’t ask more questions and just let you sleep. And, um, since it might take too long to get the fire going again,” he holds up the blankets, “you can sleep here. If you want.”

It’s a ridiculous suggestion, and he sees disbelief on Barclay’s face. Then it dissipates as Barclay looks him up and down, scooting to join him under the covers, mattress protesting every movement. When he lays down he’s so heavy the bed dips, sending Stern rolling without warning and landing against his side with an “oof.”

“Sorry.” They say at the same time

“It’s alright, big guy, you’re actually very comfy.”

“What did you call me?” Barclay chuckles, pulling the blankets up around them.

“Guess I’m tired too, getting a little loopy.”

“And cuddly” Barclay smiles, sending a pointed glance at Stern’s arm (now draped across the cryptid’s stomach) and cheek (now resting on his chest).

“Shit, sorry, I can-”

“S’okay” Barclays arm loops over his shoulders, “never held a human like this. It’s nice.” 

Another boom of thunder and he winces. Not knowing what else to do, Stern pets his belly soothingly. After a moment, his arm is vibrating.

“You’re purring.”

“Notrrrrr arrrrrrr wordrrrrrr” Barclay snuffles the top of his head but doesn’t stop him, and so he keeps rubbing his belly until he feels some of the tension drain from Barclay’s body.

“What do you like to do? For fun, I mean.”

“Like cooking” Barclay murmurs, “getting a human disguise was nice, ‘cause I didn’t have to worry about getting fur in the food.”

“Human?”

“Long story, but the upshot is any cryptid who’s been here awhile gets there hands on a charm that makes them human when they wear it.”

“Huh. Um, what do you like to cook best?”

“Hmmmmm. Well, pie is satisfying, but I also like making ramen, because there’s such an art to it....”

Stern snuggles closer, sighs as Barclay absentmindedly pets his back, and drops off some time later to the sound of that lovely, deep voice telling him all about dim sum. 

He wakes up to an empty bed, which isn’t a surprise. His missing notebook, however, is a surprise indeed and an unwelcome one. After turning the place upside down, he admits defeat; Barclay must have changed his mind and decided to remove what evidence he could of their conversation. 

Stern grumbles all the way into town, decides hot breakfast might soothe his disappointment. He opts for The Lodge, just as he has the last two days, and Dani, the waitress, smiles at him when he sits down. She brings him coffee and a laminated menu, returns a few minutes later.

“The cook wants me to let you now we have a new special this morning; sourdough pancakes with strawberry-rhubarb compote.”

“I’ll have that.” He smiles, handing her back the menu. Funny, he was just talking with Barclay last night about how strawberry-rhubarb is one of his favorite flavors. 

The pancakes are delicious, and it’s only his manners that keep him from literally licking his plate clean. When Dani brings back his receipt, he’s mid-sip of coffee, and so doesn’t see what else she’s brought him until he sets it down.

Beneath the little black, plastic clipboard is his notebook. 

He picks it up, spots a cupcake shaped sticky-note sticking out that he didn’t put there. Flips to the page and finds his “questions for Bigfoot” now have answers in tidy, if a bit spidery, handwriting. At the very bottom of the page is phone number and the words, “I’ll answer your questions any time.” 

Next to the words is a heart that has clearly been erased and redrawn several times.

He laughs, pulls out his phone, and quickly enters the number.

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

Back in the kitchen, Dani flashes Barclay a thumbs up when she comes back to pick up an order. 

His phone buzzes in his pocket, and he steals a quick look at it, smiling when he sees the message. 

Joseph: You’re full of surprises, big guy. Dinner tonight?

Barclay: I’d love that. See you then.

[h3trappedcollection]

Author Interview Part II

Another interview with one of our fabulous Trapped fic writers, this time with skuld aka @the-wintry-mizzenmast Stories written for the Collection:

The right to Thursdays

Unplanned parenthood

It takes a village to bake a cake

Not All Has Gone Astray

Interview:

How did you come into the Trapped fandom?

Indirectly through the Guardian fandom, which I was only on the periphery of, but was exposed to via @for-the-flail (Naye). At some point, I was lamenting the lack of homosexuality in Guardian and other c-fandom TV canon due to mainland Chinese censorship. I believe it was @bonibaru who told Naye about HIStory3: Trapped, and all the amazing tropes and actual queerness that it contained because it’s Taiwanese BL.

So we watched it, and were instantly delighted by how the series was basically the writers seeing how many tropes they could smash together into every episode. I fell in love with it.

I remember finishing the last episode and thinking, “Well, good thing I’m a TangFei shipper, because there’s so little for the B-couple.” Then I spent four weeks trying to think of some good ideas for TangFei fic and drawing blanks before the Househusband idea took root. And the rest is history, as they say.

Who’s your favourite character?

Jack. 

I like the way he’s presented as this enigmatic trickster badass who enjoys riling up Li Zhi De, is the biggest TangFei shipper, and falls for the most innocent cinnamon roll in the Criminal Investigation Division. ...And he’s stacked, to boot. What is there not to love about Jack? 

What’s your favourite trope?

My two favorite tropes of all time are Found Family and Enemies-to-Lovers, and both of the main couples fulfill these incredibly well in the Trapped storyline.

And then there’s other things that they just put in there for pure fun, like handcuffed together, having to huddle in an abandoned hut for warmth, the huge amounts of hurt/comfort with Meng Shao Fei and Tang Yi. I mean, this series is a Greatest Hits of everybody’s favorite tropes. 

What do you like about writing for Trapped?

That it’s such a rich, open world, and that there are so many possibilities. Trapped has done such a good job at depicting just a short slice of what you know is an ongoing story. The writers give you just enough direction to let your imagination soar. 

You know that Tang Yi and Meng Shao Fei have clashed multiple times in the past, and you know that everything will be fine going forward at the end, even though Tang Yi turns himself over to justice. You know that Jack is a mercenary who has been in the employ of Interpol for some time, and that he quits his dangerous lifestyle to be Zhao Zi’s househusband. You know that Andy and Dr. Jiang have been friends with Tang Yi for years, but we don’t know how they met, how those friendships formed, what they’ve been through together. 

There is so much that we know that happens, but we never get to see, meaning that there are huge, empty spaces to play around in everybody’s pasts and everybody’s futures. And that is what I love so much about writing for Trapped. It strikes the right balance to spark creativity.

Care to elaborate on your writing process?

I usually start with an idea or a scene that I want to write, something that I want to play with or something I think is fun that I want to show the reader. Then I flesh out around that. Sometimes I will write an outline and then start writing, or sometimes I will just start off with ‘Jack/ZZ PWP’ and see where the characters take me.

I always try to hammer out a first draft without worrying about editing or if it’s any good, before I then start going through the whole thing for a round of edits or rewrites. Once I feel confident enough in what I have, I’ll send it off to my betas, just to catch anything egregious idea-wise or pacing that I may have overlooked. Having this outside perspective is essential, and is good reinforcement for what a writer is doing right, and what a writer might need to improve.

Your favourite Trapped fic by another author?

It’s difficult for me to pick just one, because everybody who writes in the fandom brings a different perspective, style, and ideas that they want to play with, but there are some amazing, cute, and fun fics out there being written by bonibaru, florbexter, issen4, micuko, stebeee, and weilongfu.

What do you want to write but never had the nerve to?

I love cars and motoring, and am a big fan of the Fast & Furious film franchise, so I would love to write Jack and Zhao Zi starring in an action blockbuster with fast cars, sense-defying stunts, and mayhem. We never really get to see Jack pull out all the stops in Trapped itself (Meng Shao Fei gets to hog almost all the fight choreography), so I’d really like to explore the boundaries of Jack’s physical capabilities and his emotional scars. 

I always second-guess myself on this idea, because is there anybody else in fandom who would want to read something like this?

But after the reveal in the Fast 9 trailer, I’ve realized that I’m not the only one familiar with the saga nor the only one with a penchant for speed. 

So, this could happen, because I might have a headcanon where Jack has previously spent a year working undercover for Interpol in Tokyo...

If you want, please share a snippet of your current Trapped WIP! 

Jack did his best to hide a smile as he heard the soft slide of Zhao Zi’s bare feet on the stairs. He continued slicing a block of tofu into a neat, regular dice, keeping one eye on the pot of water on the stove, almost at a boil. He set his knife down and reached for the head of bok choy lying next to the cutting board, whirling around just as Zhao Zi approached. 

Jack tapped the leafy greens gently against his boyfriend’s forehead. “Gotcha.”

Zhao Zi batted them aside. His lips protruded in an exaggerated pout, his plan to sneak up on Jack foiled. “I could’ve sworn I had you.”

Jack chuckled. “Nice try, but my instincts aren’t that rusty yet.” He raised an eyebrow as he noted that Zhao Zi had descended the stairs with naught but a towel around his waist, but he turned back around anyway, letting Zhao Zi’s arms wrap around him from behind. “Lunch is almost ready.”

Zhao Zi’s embrace tightened. “Mm, I can think of something better than food,” he whispered, his breath warm against Jack’s ear. 

Jack craned his neck to regard his lover with suspicion. “Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my Zhao Li An?”

“Jaaaack!” Zhao Zi’s voice was plaintive above the water boiling in the stainless steel pot. “I’m trying to seduce you here.”

“And I’m trying to play hard to get.” Jack put the bok choy down on the cutting board and switched off the stove. “Is it working?”

Thank you so much @the-wintry-mizzenmast for taking part in this interview!

Previous Interviews:

- dangerliesbeforeyou

[guylty]

My annual social media Lent is coming up. From Ash Wednesday I will abstain from Twitter for the next 6 and a half weeks (until Easter Sunday), allowing me to recalibrate a little and concentrate on other things. Such as my blog – or RAnet. That means I need blog fodder. Almost four weeks have passed since The Stranger launched on Netflix. Enough time to assume that most fans and readers have watched the show and will not be spoiled by the discussion of the show. Moreover, some more in-depth discussions have already started in the comments. Last weekend, for instance, we got into the intracacies of the “bar scene” in episode 4 of TS, talking about the casting, costuming and directing of that particular scene and how we, as women of a particular age reacted to that scene.

However, it would probably make more sense to start at the beginning. So anyone who’d like to discuss TS with me, you are welcome to write your observations, reactions and opinions in the comments. I know I am kind of launching into this without announcement. But by doing this episode by episode, I hope you can follow along and catch up with individual episode if need be. I’ll also try and summarise every episode at the beginning of each review post so we know what we are talking about. Hm, I may need to rewatch the show for that. The hardship!!! However, the discussion will probably focus on the plot… eh… Adam. Anyhow, I hope you’ll join me and share your thoughts either here – or your own blog, if you are blogging, too.

The Stranger – Episode 1 Recap

Prior to the trailer, TS starts with teenagers at a bonfire party, culminating in a naked boy escaping through the dark forest. The plot then begins with the Price boys driving in the car to the football club where younger son Ryan is trying out for the A team. While at the club, daddy Adam briefly speaks with his wife Corinne on the phone. She is away at a teachers’ conference while Adam looks after their sons. In the clubhouse, Adam is approached by “a stranger” who reveals a devastating secret to him: His wife faked her pregnancy a couple of years ago. He is shocked and disturbed.

Once back home after football training, Adam can’t resist checking the details the stranger passed on to him, and sure enough, his suspicions are confirmed – there is a credit card payment for a fishy website called Novelty Funsy, and the ultrasound scan of the miscarried baby does not quite match the ones of his two sons. Meanwhile, Adam’s elder son Thomas heads out to the bonfire party with his friends.

The next morning, police woman Johanna investigates a bizarre crime scene of a decapitated alpaca in the city centre. With her DS, she drives to a nearby alpaca farm to confirm where the animal came from. On their return trip their attention is attracted by some pieces of clothing in the forest. They follow the trail of clothes and find a naked body. The young man is still alive.

Adam meanwhile looks after his day job – he is the legal advisor to an obstinate tenant who refuses to move out of a house that has been earmarked for demolition. Upon his return, Corinne arrives back from her conference and Adam receives confirmation that the mysterious credit card payments are for a website that provides fake pregnancy products. He immediately confronts Corinne. She does neither deny nor explain why or what she did, only hinting that there is more to it than he thinks. The Prices spend the night in separate bedrooms.

The next morning Adam observes Corinne taking a phone call outside the house. She later suggests to Adam that they talk later that day after a school awards ceremony where she will explain all. However, Corinne never shows to the event. Adam receives a text message asking for some time apart.

The episode ends with Thomas revealing the decapitated alpaca head in his cupboard.

  Episode 1 – Discuss

So, first of all – I have watched the first episode about three and a half times. Twice on my own, once with hubster, and finally today a quick run-through for the sake of the recap where I fast forwarded through a lot of scenes, focussing on Adam mostly. I couldn’t help it… My first response to the show at the very first viewing was – WOW! I remember that I was fully engaged during every minute of it – even the scenes and story lines that Richard did not feature in. Granted, I was most interested  with the “grown-up” arcs, not least because anything involving drugs and other goings-on with teenagers makes *this* mama really worried. But having said that, I think the first episode was very effective in establishing the storylines and the characters. Hence the show spends most time following Adam (Richard Armitage) – as a father, as a lawyer and as a husband. Then there are the two police officers who also are presented as round characters – the middle-aged senior officer Johanna (Siobhan Finneran) approaching retirement who has just decided to split from her husband, and her much younger partner, a gay black man. Adam’s son Thomas also gets a good bit of screen time with his friends, making him more than just secondary. Other secondary characters include first and foremost Dervla Kirwan as Corinne, Stephen Rea as obstinate tenant Martin, and Jennifer Saunders as Johanna’s BFF Heidi.

So, the first watch was highly exciting and addictive, so much so that I basically binged the whole show. On second and subsequent views, I found the episode not quite as fast and exciting anymore – only natural, as a lot of time was actually spent setting up the characters and the various story lines: Johanna waking up in bed to her snoring husband; Johanna meeting Heidi in her café; observing the teenagers at their bonfire party; visiting Dante in hospital…

RA is the natural focal point from the get-go. Not only for fangirls, I might add. The show is really good at setting him up as the perfect family man who obviously has great rapport with his sons, both the “difficult” almost grown-up older son, but also the younger lad who needs a different kind of care than a young adult. I found the casting really great, with Thomas definitely matching the tall, dark, handsome vibes of TV-dad Richard, and younger boy Ryan more a mirror of his blond, curly-haired TV-mum. They all have great chemistry together, and found Misha Handley (Ryan) very natural and convincing. Jacob Dudman as Thomas was also great.

… really aged well… hehe

RA really shines in the confrontation scenes, both with the stranger and with his wife, when he has to convey both suppressed anger and outright fury at having been deceived. Both his major scenes with Corinne are very convincing, and I appreciated the decision to make Adam extremely angry, on the verge of volatile, when Corinne refuses to explain her actions. Adam’s anger is immediate, raw and confused and Armitage really draws the viewer on his side with his emotional outburst. So much so that I basically missed Dervla Kirwan’s nuanced acting in that scene. On second and subsequent viewings, once you know how the show ends and why she doesn’t want to talk immediately, you start to notice the little things: her refusal to talk has more to do with fear than with anger or denial. She is afraid of actually addressing the fact that the reason for her faked pregnancy will also bring another secret out in the open, and the subsequent discussion (which she had successfully avoided by faking the pregnancy in the first place) will now have to take place. What might have looked as callous or dismissive at first viewing, conveys much more detail the second time round: there is a sadness to Corinne that Kirwan expresses very subtly – in a slight pause, or the tiniest glance into the mid-distance. The same applies to their second and much calmer confrontation the next morning. What might have looked almost callous on first viewing, gains much more weight when you watch it with prior knowledge of the plot. When Adam says he has lost trust in her, Corinne replies “it hurts, doesn’t it?“. The question tag really stood out to me on first viewing. It confused me. Why is she phrasing it like that? It of course became clear in episode 4, but again, Kirwan really gave it a spin by loading it with subtle sadness that doesn’t only confuse the viewer but also Adam. Armitage here kept his response at just the right level of confusion without giving away how much Adam really recognises or understands what she was hinting at. RA reacts with great detail expressions. No words are needed. And in hindsight you can see how he begins to wonder whether she knows about his affair. Loved it.

Let’s talk a bit about Armitage’s look in this show. Such a spectacle!

Yes, I like details like that. The jury is still out on whether this is a prescription that Armitage wrote into the script himself 😂, or whether we just had a costume department that is on the ball. Yes, it’s time for the presbyopic lenses. Happens to most of us at around middle age. 🤓 I found it a lovely detail that makes Adam more relatable. Because – a dad bod he has not.

Even if he claims he does. I find this a rather attractive package for a middle aged family man. Also:

Bonus WRP. Needs no further elaboration

But to get back to the look and style – I enjoyed the casual style of Adam. Once again, it felt right – nothing too fancy, with windbreaker, jeans and shirts, and even a tracksuit at home, the perfect attire for a father of two (pre-) teen sons. I was surprised how good RA looked in other colours than just black and blue. The red polo shirt was very nice on him.

I can’t say I am as convinced of the costumes provided for Corinne. In fact, I think there were some rather sledge-hammer style decisions going on there, putting the wife and mother into rather dowdy, pale pink mom trousers and giving her a hole-pattern, fluffy knit jumper. Then there was that turquoise dress that went slightly longer than her knees – apparently the work wear for female teachers in English private schools, judging by an equally frumpy outfit for Corinne’s colleague and friend Vicky? (This observation I will come back to in a later post once we get to episode 4.) It just kind of made me think that Corinne was made to look older and less casual than her husband who even attends to his client in jeans and shirt…

Police officer Johanna Griffin OTOH looked *real* and great. (I kept double-taking because O’Brien’s severe look kept coming back to me.) And I loved Heidi’s funky style – very much the slightly crazy café-owner with a café as stylish as herself… And can we also mention the Price’s residence here? There were only quick first glimpses of their house – but oh, that stylist made it a gorgeous family home. The garden was beautiful but I can take it or leave it. Too much work – I don’t like to get my fingers dirty. But the dining area with the floor-to-ceiling windows and the sleek white kitchen? Big win, especially because it doesn’t look like a showroom but has photos on the fridge and a mess on the counters.

So episode 1 gets a big thumbs up from me – for introducing us to almost all the characters (some held back for more surprise later on) and establishing the plot. Yes, there is a lot going on here, which I haven’t even all mentioned in the recap: the stranger dropping her first bomb, the Price family life, the secret in Corinne’s past, the tenant who refuses to move out of his home, the colleague who has trouble with her pre-teen daughter, the teenagers who are partying under the influence of drugs, the mystery of the boy who was hunted through the forest, the curious story of the decapitated alpaca, an almost-comic police duo, a police officer who is splitting up with her hubby, her friend, the funky café owner, the gregarious neighbour, the busybody football trainer… Too much? I’d say a lot of it is deliberate overload to distract us, yet give us some extra info about the characters, their work, their life and their environment.

The strategy definitely works when you watch the show for the first time. You are busy dealing with Richard Armitage’s overwhelming handsomeness taking it all in. The questions only really pop up when you watch again.  Such as: When stoned Mike takes the alpaca for a walk into the city centre, why is there no CCTV footage? I mean, nowadays there is hardly *any* urban area that does *not* have CCTV on shops and banks or traffic spots. How come no one saw him decapitating the alpaca, in a city centre? And how did he manage to decapitate it anyway`- it’s hardly a one-chop job?Likewise and with hindsight we know now that Corinne’s text message was not sent by her at all: But how did the sender actually know the password to Corinne’s phone to send that message? I mean, don’t all people lock their phone with a password these days? Possibly nit-picking questions, but that’s the fun of it, isn’t it? You can enjoy a show immensely – and still want to pick a few holes into the plot just to see whether you are cleverer than the writer 😉.

There is probably so much more to discuss, but for the sake of getting the discussion started, here is the post. What is your take on the first episode of TS? Any agreements with me, or disagree? Other points of interest? Let me know in the comments!

Let’s Talk About… #TheStranger – Episode 1 My annual social media Lent is coming up. From Ash Wednesday I will abstain from Twitter for the next 6 and a half weeks (until Easter Sunday), allowing me to recalibrate a little and concentrate on other things.

[thenonbinarydetective]

MID Overview/Review

Ok so I redid it because tumblr broke the first one. Luckily, it gave me the oppurtunity to fix some of my grammar/spelling mistakes.

It’s actually even longer than before.

I’m thorough what can I say?

besides please read this it took a while.

·         On the menu’s Extra Section there’s a trailer for Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019). A movie that came out way before this game which is kinda funny

·         The movement is a little janky, to put it in professional terms, it’s a little fast and jumpy. It took a bit to get used to the navigation.

·         The problem with the movement really jumps out in the end in the tunnels. I could barely get my cursor around the Hardy Boys or even Mei.

·         Also in the tunnels, if I went slightly off trail the game would FREAK out. I wanted to look around the tunnels and maybe get a bad end but our Sleuths but I couldn’t look around without being yelled at.

·         This happens in other mini games and puzzles, whenever you mess up the characters make a snarky remark in your direction. Every. Single. Time. It would be funnier if it was only on a few occasions but it was every time I “messed up”.

·         The graphics were obviously terrible. They also were variable…Somethings looked kinda okay and somethings looked awful. Like the quality changed from time to time. Sometimes even in the same frames. Frank, graphically, looks better than some of the other characters. When he and Joe stood next to each other, they almost looked like they didn’t belong in the same game. This goes for some of the other characters too.

·         I don’t get why Frank was always in that pose? Everyone else stood awkwardly but admittedly it was a bit more normal. They stood with their hands towards their hips like how people typically do. Although there was a few times where people just grabbed their wrists for no reason.

·         As someone who loves mythology and folklore (and pretty much anything that can be tied to into those) it was really cool to see the Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches in the game. I wish it actually had more use in the game and maybe helped in some way. I know the book did some terrible things but it is an interesting read. As I do own a copy of it.

·         Also my birthdate was used on the puzzle. Which was cool. It’s fun to be born on special dates. Except my birthday isn’t part of the solution but that’s okay.

·         There’s a couple times where Nancy(and Frank) starts talking about clues or reading things out loud before I got the chance to look at them which was super annoying.

·         The game crashed multiple times while playing

·         The closer look at the clues was nice but was only okayish for me. It didn’t always work that well. Besides I’ve seen other games with the same function that worked smoother.

·         I’m not a big fan of the new chat format. I prefer the old way. In this new format a lot of the dialogue options were getting cut off or the option didn’t fully describe what Nancy was going to say so I didn’t know what I was choosing.

·         The text boxes were a bit buggy and there were times I couldn’t click on some of the dialogue options.

·         The cutscenes were slow and the game had WAY too much talking. There was more talking than gameplay. The game was honestly just walking and talking

·         I liked the text messages, they were fun and cute but they didn’t add much to the gameplay

·         Lots of objects were clipping into each other

·         Loading screens were always glitch

·         The audio was off a lot of times. There were times when I could barely hear the characters over the background music or ambience sound. In Austria, I called Ned and Carson and I wouldn’t have even known they were speaking if not for the subtitles. Even after lowering the music and ambience sounds specifically and I still had this issue.

·         Also Ned’s voicemail has changed. Did he make up with his sister?

·         There were a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. Almost every other written thing (books, pamphlets, and notes) had some kind of mistake. Hotchkiss’ book is one example.

·         There were times when the pop-up text box was harder to read than the written thing. Not all the paragraphs were spaced out far enough in the boxes but were fine on the written thing.

·         No “Can’t check that off yet.” The Checklist was unusable by the player. Unlike every other game. It did it automatically which wasn’t fun. I liked using the checklist.

·         The game was so linear that I couldn’t really look around or do my own thing. When one thing was down you were immediately shuffled to the next thing. It basically made the checklist unnecessary.

·         Terrible Animation. People moved for no reason. Just stuck in the same cyclical animation over and over and over again. They were pretty janky and awkward. Joe was the worst for me, he was constantly twitching on the screen. Frank was stock-still in comparison. No one else was that bad.

·         Many of the mouth movements did not remotely match what the characters were saying. Sometimes nonexistent.

·         Everyone’s EYES ARE SO WIDE. IT’S LIKE THEY DON’T HAVE EYELIDS. THEY’RE SO OPEN.

·         The Parry’s curtains glitch in the sink. There’s a few plants that look weird, they had a neon glow on them. Olivia’s hands are always clipping through her robe and hair. In Moosham Castle there is a thing that’s inside a table. Both the Hardy Boys’ feet (and maybe other characters) were entirely in the ground at times. There were plenty of other problems like that.

·         If I looked around a certain way while everyone’s talking at the Parry kitchen table Frank’s entire body disappears with the exception of his neck and watch.

·         Some of the windows had a view of the town outside but other windows have this shine that you can’t see through.

·         I’m not thrilled about the bystanders. Only the protest guy really helped. Over all they didn’t add to the game or help me at all.

·         Dr. Hirst’s silhouette was kinda weird

·         Also why did the game start in Austria??? That’s just weird? I thought we were just gonna start with Deirdre calling us but whatever

·         I really hate the needless and honestly misplaced drama. Why couldn’t we talk to Ned and why haven’t we talked to Ned. It really pissed me off. Why would you put this directly after Ned’s whole “I Love and Support- This Could Basically Be a Proposal” Speech in Sea of Darkness? It’s just super off

·         Not to mention the fact that the “Francy” moments in this game felt super forced. I don’t like what it does to their characters too. It feels like Ned isn’t trusting Nancy, which is crazy because he trusts her with his life. Frank is the more awkward Hardy Brother but that was ramped all the way up. Also Nancy completely ignoring Ned? What? They don’t feel like themselves here. It’s just off. This tone should’ve been brought in so soon, chronologically, after SEA. It’s out of place.

·         Who was the female voice that was in the phone call with Ned? That was never answered. Was that a drama plot that was unfinished? Why not take it out of the game if you’re never going to resolve it? Why start an unnecessary relationship drama that’s both half-assed and unfinished?

·         It’s kinda weird how in the end Nancy leaves the Parry house and calls Ned and we can hear her side of the conversation but not his. She’s just talking to herself.

·         The phone friends were basically useless. If it wasn’t for the flashlight and the checklist I would say that Nancy didn’t even need her phone. And I guess talking to Damian Faulkner. 95% of the calls I made just went to voicemail. I want to chat about the case, talk to my friends, and get hints like we used to. I didn’t even know we could call Dr.Hirst about the ergot poisoning. I only found out on accident. I don’t know how many conversations I missed. Calling people used to feel important but here it doesn’t even need to be in the game it’s so useless.

·         Just because this bugs me I don’t like the Hardy Boys starting their own detective agency. They began their work by working for their Dad. Who is a private investigator/private detective. Who runs a Detective Agency. Why would they start their own?? If you’re gonna make this a family business why not make it a family business? Right?

·         May February, 1692 was an actual date they used. I think it was supposed to be February and they changed it to May. Earlier in the same note they used May so I’m guessing they didn’t properly finish the rest of the note.

·         The lockpick game was visually glitch for me and the game itself didn’t work that great for me

·         Joe’s hair makes him look like a fake blond lol. There are parts of his head (by the nape of his neck for example) that have brown hairs. Also some parts of his hair didn’t load properly on occasion and underneath was brown. Did he dye it?

·         Which brings me to my next point. The hair was animated horribly. Frank and any of the other short and simple haired characters were okay. But probably only because they had short and simple hair. The longer haired characters were not as well animated.

·         I randomly got double the Johnny Cakes when I made them. So Teegan and Olivia got extra.

·         I will admit that making the Johnny cakes wasn’t the worst cooking minigame we’ve had in the games before.

·         Frank getting the Frankenstein ones were a little obvious. It also didn’t feel as personal as the other ones oddly enough. We had a fun little dialogue about the design with everyone but Frank. He just got some cringey “I’ll eat these right away” kind of dialogue.

·         I wish the truth serum was actually useful. Solving Tituba’s poem and going a bit out of the way to get the ingredients led me to believe it would be used for more than some “fun” dialogue choices. Joe and Deirdre are the only ones to use it. Which leads to some cute moments in which Deirdre admits she actually kinda likes and admires Nancy. I love her. Joe says he always tells the truth (no) so he doesn’t know how to tell if it works. I love him.

·         Maybe it’s just me or the audio was off but Carson sounded different in Austria than he did in Salem.

·         The use of the ergot poisoning was kinda of awesome. It’s one of the most popular theories on why Salem went bonkers and it was interesting to see it used to trick our favorite sleuths.

·         The note to save Deirdre didn’t appear when I clicked on it. Frank (and I think Joe) reacted to it but it didn’t let me examine it. The bug fixed itself by closing the examination and clicking on it again.

·         I love how the “ghosts” were handled. Especially them being hallucinations. My favorite was in the cemetery with the Hardy Boys and Olivia. The screen got kinda weird and everyone started to get worked up and really tense. They started fighting and you could see Abigail before they did. The build up to it was fantastic. The other scenes were cool too.

·         The tunnels where the “ghosts” jumped out at every wrong (and sometimes right) turns while you’re desperately trying to escape the tunnels with Mei was pretty awesome. One of the jumpscares even got me.

·         THERE WAS NO ENDING LETTER. She wrote a letter to Ned in the beginning but she never wrote a second one. Sure we sorta got to see how everything turned out at the party but it’s not the same. It doesn’t feel properly ended.

·         I lowkey ship Jason and Mei. I could totally picture the two of them making out in those hidden tunnel rooms beneath Salem. Not just because I would too. This easily could’ve been another unfulfilled romance sideplot.

·         Some of the books/notes really didn’t feel that helpful. I did learn some new things about Salem but I don’t feel we used the knowledge we gained properly in the game.

·         The Jack O Lanterns were fun.

·         The parallels between the Judges of the Witch Trials and Judge Danforth was a pretty interesting plot point. There definitely is a difference between accusing witches and accusing someone of arson when they were 9.

·         Teegan’s guilt for both the shed and Hathorne house was something I didn’t really expect. It was a good plot twist. I can see how it was hinted earlier on by Lauren who says “Teegan likes to protect what’s important to her, sometimes that’s Mei.” Sometimes being the key word.

·         The Hardy Boys being home-made ghost hunters was hysterical and adorable. I want them to have their own games soooo badly.

·         I am completely on Joe’s side that we can’t prove that ghosts don’t exists, even if we can’t prove they do exist.

·         I knew Alicia was the bad guy the second she started shit-talking Ned without knowing him. Only bad people don’t like Ned. He would never force Nancy to become a housewife, that’s not who she is and he loves her for who she is.

·         I did “OK Boomer” Judge Danforth. He deserved it.

·         I loved the little tidbits that we got of Frances’ and Lauren’s relationship we got to hear about. It’s really sweet.

·         The comparison of Jason being a fast food cheeseburger with extra extra extra cheese and Ned being a home-cooked meal is perfect. Home-cooked meal is a great way to describe Ned.

·         Either way they’re both snacks.

·         Ok Jason’s ugly in these graphics but it was implied he was supposed to be hot.

·         Jason could’ve been a true himbo but unfortunately he wasn’t

·         TBH Ned, Carson, and Damian were the most attractive characters in the game. Only because they weren’t subjected to these graphics.

·         I loved the Ghost Wavelength Spectral Analyzer 2.5 the Joe Hardy Guide to Amazing Finds but I hate the spectral analyzer itself. That mini-game was the WORST. It took forever!

·         Alicia was straight up just gonna kill everyone. I’m doubting her biology knowledge.

·         Also if you wanna raise kids in a more “modern” environment just freaking move. I know there was money in that real estate deal but there’s real estate in other towns.

·         I love Deirdre. She’s really funny and kinda sweet. Even though she likes Ned (and maybe Nancy too lol) she doesn’t try to break them up or get between them. At least not anymore. She knows how much Ned loves Nancy. She even gave Nancy relationship advice. Which Nancy desperately needs because she terrible at this.

·         This is just me but I kinda wish Nancy had an original idea for their vacation instead of just going back to Austria. Maybe let Ned pick this time because he’s the one who has to play catch up all the time and it’s only fair.

·         Carson’s an adorable dorky dad and the only rich white man I trust. I’ve said it in my tweets and I will say it until I die. No one can take that away from me.

·         This may be repetitive but I don’t like what this game did to Ned, Frank, and I guess even Nancy too. Ned knows about Frank’s feelings for Nancy. And now needless, useless, meaningless drama is gonna happen. I hate it I hate it I HATE IT!

·         Just the relationship drama didn’t add a thing to this game. It was stupid. Especially because it was unfinished. It should’ve just been taken out.

·         Joe looks 13 and way to skinny. He’s the brawn to Frank’s brain. Yes, he’s smart too and Frank isn’t weak. However, Joe is way stronger than him. If there has to be a scrawnier Hardy Boy, it’s Frank and we all know it.

·         To quote Joe he’s got Man Strength™.

·         Cause “Boy” is only part of the title, but Hardy Men doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

·         At times it feels like that the creators forget that Joe’s supposed to be smart too. There were times where it felt like they made him a total idiot. Though that could be personal too.

·         Frank being a total Captain Obvious, perfect.

·         They’re both puppies that got turned into human boys. Frank is just a calmer puppy

·         Love that Mei’s going to Waverly but some of the other references fell flat. The Cat thing and the “I only smoke when I’m on fire” thing. It’s just not the same.

·         Jason deserves the Not-As-Much-of-a-Jerk-as-You-Could-Have-Been Award.

·         Mei’s a sweetie when she finally lets you in.

·         The multiple endings seemed to have changed from different culprits to just what happens to Hathorne House and/or Teegan (I think). They seem to be pretty much the same. I did expect that as that has often been my experience with “multiple endings” games.

·         I’m glad that both the Accused Witches and Lauren can get the house. It seems right for that to happen.

·         Olivia’s pretty funny. I have a thing for eccentric characters. And it was funny how she tried to induct us into the coven at the end.

·         The red/ginger hair superstition is a real superstition and I’m glad it was used. It’s for witches, werewolves, and vampires. Not just that gingers have no souls. (from the Malleus Maleficarum)

·         If there is another game, I hope it’s the Nedcy vacation. And that we actually get to see Ned lol. I don’t get why he has never made an in-game appearance. It’s a little unfair at this point.

·         Considering Emerson College is 39 minutes away from Salem and we still didn’t get him, I doubt it. Even though they mentioned both Salem and kidnapping Ned in Labyrinth of Lies.

·         Also that the next one feels more like a Nancy Drew game.

·         There’s no puzzles and there’s so much changed that it doesn’t have the same feel to it.

·         This doesn’t feel like it took 4 ½ years to make. It feels like it took less than ½ a year. I can tell that things have changed because pretty much all the people who worked on it originally got fired. And that the Austrian game development company that took over everything (besides licensing) struggled to match the quality of the previous games.

·         It definitely wasn’t beta-tested or was barely beta-tested. Quite a few beta-testers have come forward to say they didn’t get the offer to beta-test until September of this year. A month before preorder. Yikes.

·         I know I got a little mean for some of the points but coddling the company by just saying positive things doesn’t help. They’ll get comfortable and give the fans worse things than this. I’m not an expert but I’ve played and learned enough games that I know some basics about how they’re made. It’s not easy but that doesn’t mean we should excuse things because of it.

·         There’s been a lot of controversy with HER and Penny and this game and probably more. I’m not gonna get more into that besides mentioning that things changed because of this and not for the better.

·         I probably missed somethings but whatever this is over 3000 words. I covered the basics and then some.

·         This game is just a 2.5/5 for me

[thefloatingstone]

Hey C-Puff! So I know I keep saying that I love your taste, but I'm curious, what would you consider essential scifi movie viewing?

Oof! (and thank you! 8DD) It really depends what kind of mood you’re in. Because “sci fi” is essentially a weird genre, because it can be mushed with literally any other genre and still work without straying too far from the ‘sci fi’ concept. Sci fi is a genre the same way fantasy is a genre or horror is a genre. You can make a horror-comedy or a fantasy comedy, but you can’t make a drama-comedy (At least without some major tonal dissonance). So it REALLY depends what you feel like watching or what mood you’re in or what tolerance level you have in some aspects.

I can list a few though which I feel are super essential viewing but are vastly different from each other. I’m not gonna give a full summary break down of each one because it’ll take me like 3 hours to write (these things take a while sometimes) but I’ll give a little indication!

Edit: oops…. I ended up spending 4 hours writing this….

1: Alien (1979)(Sci-Fi horror)

These days the Alien franchise seems to automatically = Xenomorphs. So it can be hard to remember the very first movie that not only started the franchise but literally changed sci fi as a genre, you barely see the Xenomorph on screen, and when you DO the film does its best to hide what it actually looks like with lighting, camera angles and editing. Because the first movie’s Alien costume was not really good, and the movie had a VERY small budget comparatively speaking. So it literally has the opposite goal of trying to show off the xenomorph as much as possible.

Originally sold as “Jaws but in space”, the whole idea of the film was “What if you were a bunch of truckers in the middle of space and nowhere to run, and something unknown started picking you off one by one. Where can you run? Who can you contact? What can you do?”

The original’s entire focus is on fear. From long sequences of Ripley running where it’s filmed facing her so you can’t see “behind you” as the audience to instill paranoia, to hearing what sounds like extreme amounts of gore off screen where you can’t see it, the entire film is designed to be terrifying.

It’s difficult to remember that with what the franchise is known for today.

Also noteworthy is that so much of what is Alien came from Jodorowsky’s “Dune” which was never made, but nevertheless still achieved Jodorowsky’s goal of changing sci fi forever.

2: Blade Runner (1982)(Sci-Fi Noir)

in 2012, Ridley Scott said in an interview; “30 years ago, I saw the future”.

As far as I am aware, the first movie to ask the question “where exactly does ‘being human’ start or end?” regarding robots. The original Blade Runner is filmed in a way to replicate a 1940s style crime noir story, complete with brooding detective and femme fatale. However, it is set in the FAR OFF FUTURE of 2019.

The story follows our detective, known as a “Blade Runner” chasing down a specific class of robot which is illegal on Earth (but used in off-planet labour deemed too dangerous for human work) after the model number started a riot on one of these off-world labour camps. Detective Decker is tasked in finding and “retiring” a group of robots recently landed in futuristic Los Angeles, especially since the robot group is tracking down and murdering the designers in charge of creating their line.

However, the further Decker investigates things, the more uncomfortable questions he finds himself asking. How are these robots so much more different than us humans? What are their motives? Are they really just machines gone berserk? Or is there something very very human they are trying to achieve.

A film that exploded in Japan and essentially caused every anime between 1982 and 1995 to be in some way a Blade Runner fanfic, it changed the genre even more than Alien did. This time letting philosophical questions and atmosphere do most of the work, as the cyberpunk aesthetic of future Los Angeles was as important a character to the story as any of the human players. It was the first time we truly saw Cyberpunk, and literally EVERYTHING we consider “Cyberpunk” these days came from this movie’s direction and cinematography.

Watch the Director’s cut. DO NOT watch the Theatrical version. The Theatrical version was forced to add narration to the long stretches of silence as the movie distributor thought audiences would be too stupid to handle a movie with so little dialogue in it. The Director’s Cut is how the film was meant to be watched, doing away with all the needless talking and letting the film’s visuals and music speak for itself.

3: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)(Sci-Fi Mystery)

Yes yes I’m biased because it’s my favourite movie. But even if it wasn’t it’s an essential film to watch in the Sci-Fi genre.

Some people will think E.T. holds this title, but E.T. came out 5 years AFTER Close Encounters and so, Close Encounters is one of the first movies if not THE first movie that came out and asked… “What if the Aliens came and were our friends?” Because up until this point, All the “Big-Eyed Grey Aliens in Flying Saucers” movies portrayed them as invaders trying to take over the planet. And the sci fi stories and movies that DIDN’T have this narrative, the aliens were always human looking (Star Trek, The Day the Earth Stood Still etc)

And so, this is one of the first movies that suggested that maybe the weird looking space aliens from another planet who look nothing like us could be our allies. Would want to speak to us. Would want to know us.

Not that the movie is full of love and friendship. in some places it feels more like a horror movie than anything else. But that’s because the film thinks its audience is smart, and it doesn’t have to have a character EXPLAIN things to us. We can understand what’s happening by WATCHING. And if something is strange and doesn’t make sense, it either will by the end of the film thanks to context, or it was never that important to understand anyway.

Also a giant part of the film’s power and influence comes from its visuals, but even more importantly, its soundtrack which I can’t communicate in a gif. And so I am left linking a trailer.

I think it says a lot that it was THIS movie, not Star Wars, that helped the first Star Trek movie to be made a few years later, and with that, helped give us Star Trek TNG. Not bad.

(You can watch any of the 3 cuts of the film. I’m most familiar with the Director’s Cut so that’s my fave and what I would recommend but I haven’t heard of any of the 3 cuts being “the bad one”)

-

4: Total Recall (1990)(Sci-Fi Action)

It was only a matter of time before Arnie showed up on this list, being in no less than 3 Sci-Fi game changers in the 80s and 90s.

What makes Total Recall Unique, however, is that we have Paul Verhoeven as director, who likes movies that have a little more to say than “Arnie shoots a bunch of bullets at things” (as great as that is, don’t get me wrong) And I think the fact that people will STILL debate this movie says a lot about it.

The story is set in the far future, where normal construction worker Arnie is bored with his normal life (which is weird considering he’s built like a truck and married to Sharon Stone but I’m not here to judge). He’s been having reoccurring dreams about going to Mars, as well as a strange woman he meets there. One day while traveling home on the subway, he sees an ad for a copany called “Rekall” who can use a sort of brain implant machine to give you instantaneous fake memories. Basically, you can take a vacation that lasts 6 months in your memories within the span of 10 minutes real time.

Arnie’s character decides to visit, and asks that his fantasy take place on Mars, and describes the woman he meets there. However, during the fake memory implant something goes wrong. VERY wrong. The machine drags up suppressed memories Arnie has of being a sleeper agent, put on Earth until needed, as well as images he’s been seeing in his dreams. The Rekall employees have to sedate him and send him home, refunding him for the poor experience.

However, Arnie can no longer just forget what the machine dragged up from his subconscious, and starts to question if his life really is his life. If his wife really IS his wife. (after all…. Someone who looks like Sharon Stone married to a construction worker who looks like Mr Universe living in a very cushy apartment? Something doesn’t add up.)

Arnie finds himself suddenly dragged into a massive conspiracy plot revolving around Mars, the corrupt governor running it, the rebellion and its mysterious revolutionary, as well as who the hell WAS he before he was who he is now?

That’s the movie’s plot at least. But as many people who watch the movie has pointed out, despite the movie itself never making a point of it, funny how all this adventure and conspiracy hits Arnie right after he’s plugged in to a fantasy machine at Rekall. Convenient.

Nobody to do with the film has given a straight answer as to how real the movie’s events are supposed to be, and film fans have been arguing to this day of it was all real as the movie shows it to be… or a meta narrative.

5: Robocop (1987)(Sci-fi Satire)

The movie that very almost got an X rating for its violence, also directed by Paul Verhoeven and even more biting in its meta-narrative than Total Recall.

The STORY of the movie is that future Detroit is a complete shithole so full of crime that the police force just can’t keep up. After a police officer named Murphy is blasted to fuck, his corpse is used by the CPO company to create a “robotic law enforcer” meant to be put on the street to handle crime. Robocop is his name, and if he proves to be effective, CPO is planning to mass produce them. During the course of the film, however, Murphy learns to regain his humanity through the help of his police partner, and uncover the scrupulous CPO company’s hand in the city’s crime wave.

So that’s the STORY of Robocop… but it’s not what Robocop is “About”.

Robocop is essentially an enormous criticism of Corporate America in a way that’s basically come true since the movie came out. Robocop is one of those rare movies that is BETTER now than it was when it came out.

OCP is essentially Apple or basically any current American company. Focused on rushing out products for the good press it’ll give them before ironing out the problems and bugs, and taking MASSIVE and inhumane shortcuts in development to meet a deadline, uncaring who gets hurt in the process.

This message is further highlighted by the fake commercials peppered into the movie, a very clear criticism of everything from America’s extreme focus on its military and racism of other countries, American manufacturer’s disregard for what is environmentally safe in favour of “Status Symbols” in its fuel guzzling cars, America’s obsession with defending people’s ownership through unethical violence, Medical and health advertised on television like a luxury product, as well as just the inane meaningless garbage that is/was American television.

As a native of the Netherlands, Verhoeven pours so much cynicism and criticism towards American culture, both in the jokes as well as the core theme of the movie, that the film as a whole is less “Watch Robocop shoot his handcanon at bad guys” and more a dystopian nightmare, and finding humanity in it despite it all.

The only movie to top Robocop in its criticism of American culture would be “Starship Troopers” also directed by Verhoeven. But that movie is so depressing I almost can’t even reccomend it, despite it being GENIUS.

It’s the movie where the human race wins a war against giant bug aliens… and that’s the worst ending that could happen.

6: Enemy Mine (1985)(Sci-Fi drama)

*leans forward and smiles at you* hey there, friend. Do you like aliens? Do you like enemies to friends to lovers? Do you like found families? Do you like “Racism is bad” narratives? Do you like non-binary aliens who have no gender? Do you like romantic undertones between non-binary aliens played by a male actor and a cis white dude also played by a male actor?

Because BOY DO I HAVE THE MOVIE FOR YOU.

You think I’m joking with that description…. I am not. Not even a fucking little.

I very rarely see anybody talk about “Enemy Mine” and that’s a fucking crime because this movie is friggen AMAZING. The fact that it exists at all, let alone was made in the 80s is borderline absurd.

The movie takes place in the future. Humanity is in an intergallactic war with an alien race called the Dracs. Battles and skirmishes between the two races explode throughout the galaxy on various planets whenever the two species run into each other, and we follow our human main character Davidgewho, during a spaceship confrontation with the Drac, crash lands on an uninhabited planet, along with the Drac pilot named Jeriba Shigan.

The planet they crash on is a violent world battered by meteors and storms, which forces the two pilots to seek shelter in a cave near their crash site (and there was only one cave!). Despite them both needing shelter, the two absolutely despise each other, completely prepared to kill the other one the second they make a move. It’s a tense and paranoid stand off where each one waits for the other to move first. Neither of them do.

They find out that the planet is sometimes used by human miners for its rare ore (who use captured Drac as slave labour) but they only visit the planet periodically when the years- long bad weather settles. And so, Davidge decides to wait for rescue, despite knowing it may take several years before any human comes to the planet. Until then, he just has to survive and NOT get killed by the Drac he’s sharing the cave with.

So… the two wait. And a weird truce is called. And they wait… and time passes… and with literally no other life to turn to for company… well…. they start talking. First spitting and insulting each other. Then, slowly, learning more about each other. Then, slowly, sharing cultural information with each other, learning about their different species, learning about what each’s species have been telling them about the other. And well…. after several years… it becomes very hard to see the only living person you have been talking to for years as an enemy.

And then, after a while, Jeriba (nicknamed “Jerry” by Davidge) brings up a tiny problem.

He’s pregnant.

Davidge asks how the fuck that’s possible. Jerry explains his race has no gender or binary sex, and they produce asexually. So… ok…. Now you’ve got an alien you don’t FULLY trust who is pregnant and going to have a baby on this hostile planet.

…..oops.

Also, as time goes on another problem arises. The humans who will eventually show up to mine this planet use Drac as slave labour. This wasn’t ORIGINALLY a problem…. but it’s kinda become a problem now.

This movie is fucking amazing and nobody talks about it. Go watch it. Although be prepared for tears and feelings.

7: Galaxy Quest (1999)(Sci-Fi Comedy)

In modern day America (or rather 1999 America) there use to be a show called “Galaxy Quest” which DEFINITELY WAS NOTHING LIKE STAR TREK OK???

It was a very big show, but it eventually got cancelled. However, it is still considered a massively popular and influential tv show, enough to have its own conventions and dedicated fanbase. (AGAIN. IT’S NOT STAR TREK STOP SAYING THAT!)

The actors who starred in it many years ago now struggle to get work in other roles which they all deal with in different ways. Our Kirk Character played by Tim Allan is an egocentric selfish asshole who bathes in the “glory” of his role as the captain, despite it having been years, in complete denial that he’s a has-been and the fact that none of the other cast like him. Our Spock character is played by Alan Rickman who wants to know where his life went wrong. He use to be a REAL actor. He use to star in Shakespear plays. How did it come to this? He hates all of you. As well as Sigourney Weaver who had the important role of “Sexy Girl” in the show (a fact she resents) and a handful of others.

One day at a convention, they are approached by some super awkward and weird cosplayers, who ask them in-character if they could help their alien species, the Thermians, who are getting decimated by a warrior race lead by a General Sarris. As the Thermians are peaceful and have no experience in battles, they’ve come to ask the “Crew of the Starship Protector” to aid them. Alan Rickman agrees, believing it to be a promotional gig, and signs up his co-stars (only telling them after the fact which they resent him for)

The next day they play out their roles as they did on the show rather unenthusiastically, ordering the Thermians to simply shoot at General Sarris to defeat him, and then take them home.

Things turn complicated tho when the Thermians show up again and say “uhm… it didn’t exactly work. general Sarris is still alive and killing out people.”

And then our motley crew find out… the Thermians are NOT actors. They are in fact a real alien race. An alien race who are unfamiliar with the concept of “lying”. Their species had picked up the radio waves from the Galaxy Quest TV show and, believing it to be a historical record, modeled their entire civilization after the show. And now they need the crew of the “Protector” to help them in the face of this threat that could wipe them out as a species.

So our washed-out has-been actors find themselves pretending to really be their characters in a real space mission to save an alien race. Which is kind of a problem considering they have no idea what they’re doing at any point during this adventure.

8: Terminator 2 (1991)(Sci-Fi action)

I could have put the first Terminator movie on here… but I didn’t. Beause although both are excellent I personally prefer the second one. You don’t really need to have seen the first one to understand the second one either. I saw the second one first and it’s pretty easy to follow since the first movie’s plot wasn’t that complex.

10 or so years ago, Sarah Conner was visited by a time traveler who revealed he was from the future, and that in 1997 an AI known as “Skynet” would launch all the world’s nukes, causing the human race to almost become extinct. But Sarah Conner is the mother who will one day give birth to John Connor, the human rebel leader who will one day vanquish the machines. The machines know this, and Skynet sent back a robot called a “Terminator” to kill Srah Connor before she can give birth to humanity’s last hope.

Fast forward to this movie, Sarah Connor has been put in a mental institution (for rather obvious reasons) and her son, John Connor now 10 years old, lives with his aunt and uncle and is what we call a “problem child”. With no father figure in his life and his mom “going nuts”, John is a kid who smokes, steals bikes and is constantly in trouble. Then, one day, a robot from the future shows up to kill him. An advanced NEW kind of terminator sent by the machines, made of liquid metal, it is another attempt by the machines to kill John Connor before he can grow up to be the rebel leader.

This time however, Humanity has sent someone else to protect John. The exact same model of Terminator who tried to kill his mother, repurposed and reprogrammed to protect John from this lethal machine.

John, being a child, has to cope with the fact that not only is a killer robot trying to murder him, but ALSO his “nuts” mom turned out to be right. And he also starts developing a weird relationship with the robot sent to protect him. Looking for some kind of father figure to fill that hole in his life.

Although the first Terminator might have been more impactful in terms of visuals and ideas, the second Terminator is the one people remember as a movie. This is where “Hasta La Vista Baby” come from. This is where “Made from Liquid Metal” comes from. This is where THIS comes from

and where this comes from

and this

I don’t know if I can call it a BETTER movie than the first Terminator… …except it kinda is…. And one of the very few sequels where it ended up having more of a cultural impact than its predecessor.

9: Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)(True Sci-Fi)

One upon a time there was a show called “Star Trek”. It then had a movie which did kinda of ok at the box office but many thought was rather boring.

And then they made Star Trek 2.

Set several years after the original show, where all the main characters are off living different lives. Kirk is an admiral working on Earth behind a desk. Spock is a training instructor to students who will one day be pilots and crewmembers in the Federation. The rest of the Enterprise’s former crew are all scattered across the Federation, either on Earth or on other Starships.

Far off in space, a Federation ship is looking for a dead planet to test a brand new technologcal creation called the “Genesis Device”. While doing so, they find Khan and his crew, who 15 years ago were left on a lifeless planet by Kirk after they tried to take over the Enterprise for use in Khan’s mad plans revolving around Genetic engineering. Khan and his crew take over the ship and learn of this “Genesis Device” with its power to destroy all life when unleashed on a living plan. Khan only has one goal in his mind; Revenge.

While on a 3 week long training mission under Kirk and Spock, the Enterprise picks up a distress signal, and go to investigate.

This movie honestly has no right to be as good as it is. Even if you have 0 knowledge of Star Trek (as I did when I first watched it) it makes complete and perfect sense on its own, and its extremely easy to understand what’s happening and why. It helps if you’re familiar with the characters, but the film on its own portrays their friendships and relationships with each other so perfectly that you completely buy every scene with them together, and WHY they’re friends. And how LONG they’ve been friend, without having to watch seasons and seasons worth of episodes to catch up. You don’t even need to watch the first Star Trek movie.

The film is a story about revenge… but it’s main core theme is about grief. Grief in many forms. Khan’s grief over the death of his wife which he blames Kirk for and his burning fiery hatred. Kirk’s grief as an aging space captain, unable to cope with himself growing old and the fact that he never truly learned how to handle loss, as someone who ALWAYS believes there is a way to save the day. Grief over lost relationships with his ex-lover and a grown son he never knew about and lost an entire relationship with.

Despite being about spaceships in space shooting at each other and long drawn out tension filled scenes between Kirk and Khan, it’s a movie about mortality, and the need to face it.

10: The Last Starfighter (1988)(Sci-Fi Adventure)

I could have put many things down for “Sci Fi movie about having an adventure”. I could have put ET or Explorers or Flight of the Navigator, but I decided to put The Last Starfighter. Even though ET may be the better known adventure film, it’s also the movie most people will have already seen, and Flight of the Navigator might look better, but it’s story is far weaker. So Last Starfighter it is.

In backwoods tiny-ass American town there lives completely normal teenager Alex Rogan. He doesn’t have that much going for him. He lives in a trailer with his mom and younger brother and has just recently had a scholarship rejection. Frustrated with his life and with little else to do in the trailer park, Alex spends most of his time playing the only arcade machine called “The Frontier”. After a lot of play and effort, Alex manages to get the high score on the machine.

After doing so, he is approached by the creator of the machine called Centauri, who is there to offer him a ride in his fancy car as a prize for holding the grand score. Having been taunted by the other teens around the area, Alex decides to take Centauri up on his offer, only to get abducted. And not in the “Teenager kidnapped by a creep” kind of way, but the alien kind of way.

It turns out there is a very real intergalactic war going on between Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire. And the arcade machine had been placed on Earth as a sort of recruitment tool for new pilots to fly for Rylan Star League.

Given the chance to actually have something happen in his Life, Alex has to learn how to be a Starfighter with the help of Centauri who reveals himself to be an alien, and the rest is simpy fighting the Ko-Dan Empire and saving the day.

Most notably, The Last Starfighter’s space battles were all done using early CG and it has… .not exactly aged that well tbh.

But is still incredibly impressive for 1988 and helped paved the way for special effects, leading to their peak in Jurassic Park in 1993. But although the CG might be why the movie is important to the genre on a technical level, the reason most people remember this movie is nostalgia in its purist form.

Who wouldn’t want to be so good at a video game that aliens come and give you a spaceship and ask you to save the galaxy?

I personally find the scenes on Earth without the CG to be the better parts of the movie, but it does what it sets out to do. To be a sci fi adventure film for teenagers and kids to watch and enjoy and see the hero win. Uncomplicated, fun, and easy to digest as a movie.

I was gonna leave it at that but I gotta add one more

11: 2010: The Year we make Contact (1984)(pure Sci-Fi)

in 1968, a year before America landed on the moon, Stanley Kubrick made the groundbreaking movie “2001: a Space Odyssey”. The movie is a sort of horror movie in space, but also not quite. It tells the story of an enormous black rectangular monolith being found on the moon in the year 2001. Upon human astronauts touching it, it sends off a signal into space. Not long afterwards, another monolith, this one more than several kilometers in size appears orbiting Jupiter.

A crew of 5 men and an AI computer are sent to investigate. But the AI, called the HAL 9000 goes mad and kills off all the crew except for one, named David Bowman, who takes the HAL 9000 offline before leaving the spaceship and entering the Monolith.

The original movie is a masterwork of film, suggesting that the monoliths are responsible for jumpsarting human evolution. But it is also a very SLOW film. Famously taking 40 minutes before the first line of dialogue is spoken. And its horror of distrusting computers maybe be seen as rather old fashioned by today’s standards.

Then in 1984 they made a sequel. 2010 takes place 9 years after the first movie (obviously). Several American astronauts and scientists are approached and recruited for a secret mission joint sponsored by America and the Soviet Union. Their mission is to travel to the long abandoned space station, find what information was retrieved from the monolith, and try and discover what caused the HAL 9000 to malfunction. Time is of the essence as the abandoned space station will crash on Jupiter’s moon Io soon. The Soviets want to know what caused the disaster, but they need the Americans’ help to get into the space station, and an uneasy joint mission is formed, lead by Dr Floyd who was in charge of NASA when the original disaster occurred and had since been disgraced, but who would prove the best person to find out what happened to cause the disaster.

The movie, although perhaps slow by modern standards, moves at a much better pace than the original, and although you could say its plot is more basic, it’s also easier to follow and understand. There are moments of extreme tension from multiple areas. Reactivating the HAL 9000 and having to try and NOT repeat whatever it was that caused it to murder the original crew. The time limit before the space station is set to crash on Io, the mystery of what happened to David Bowman. The presence of the silent monolith orbiting Jupiter. And the seemingly unimportant political differences between the American crew and the Russian crew, despite being hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth.

It also has some of the most incredible space cinematography I’ve seen in a film. Rather than the modern depiction of space in movies as a swirl of navy and stars and colourful nebulas, the space of 2010 is pitch black, with endless stars and enormous looming planets in the foreground, and nothing but a wall between you and the endless void.

Anyway those are my reccomendations.

Please consider donating to my kofi…. this took like 4 or 5 hours to write.

☕️Buy me a Ko-fi ☕️

[dalekofchaos]

Things I would change Rogue One

My other Star Wars Changes posts

Prequel Trilogy

Original Trilogy

Sequel Trilogy

The Clone Wars/Rebels

Solo

Make Krennic a stronger villain. I find Krennic to be a good villain, but was not used enough. He was used as Tarkin and Vader’s whipping boy. Krennic was shown to be a powerful and effective villain in the Prequel novel Catalyst. If you read Rogue One: Catalyst, you see how ruthless he is in a world of soft, stuffy bureaucrats. Leveling entire cities, cracking planets, committing planetary genocide. Not for some greater cause of law and order like Tarkin is to do, but because the Death Star is his baby and he MUST be recognized for his and its success. He is just that motivated. He is a great manipulator, determined, always scheming, pretty good at reading people, speaks geonosian. Krennic in Catalyst is brilliant. He performs well in manipulating people that he has to in getting what he wants, including high powered politicians. He has a habit of overstepping his boundaries, and accepting punishment later. Which is a habit that's not bad when you're successful and very dangerous when your plans don't fall into place. He even managed to manipulate Tarkin, who resented him for it. So do just that make him as great as he was in the novel Catalyst. I’d also like to point out that if Krennic lived, and the Death Star was his, I don’t think the Rebels would have survived Yavin IV. He was far more in tune with the battlestation’s capabilities than Tarkin ever was. I feel like he would have recognized the threat to the base sooner and squashed the Rebel fighters in the trench sooner He wasn’t afraid to get into the battle and it really wasn’t his fault that the plans fell into the wrong hands, the Rebels just outclassed the Empire during that sneak attack. Tarkin’s blind arrogance and underestimation of the Rebels is what allowed the Death Star to be destroyed. Hell, keep in that cut scene of Krennic pulling a blaster on Tarkin. So there was a deleted scene that shows after the success of firing the Death Star on Jedha,  there was a stand-off between Krennic and Tarkin  over who would get to run the Death Star, and it’s possible that this deleted scene may have featured Krennic pulling a blaster on Tarkin. It’s important to have scenes like this, showing Krennic is willing to kill his superiors to keep his place. 

Jyn, Cassian and Bodhi lives. Okay a stretch. But there is a scene of Jyn and Cassian running on the beach with the physical plans in Jyn’s hands. So I would have Bodhi surviving and picking up Jyn and Cassian and escaping Scarif. The three would have time to grieve the loss of their friends but would move on to be able to deliver the plans So Rogue One would end with Jyn handing the plans to Leia.

Keep in Saw Gerrera’s deleted scenes. There was so much of Saw that was cut entirely in the movie. All the trailer scenes was cut and there was so much more they COULD have done for Saw.

Do not show Darth Vader in the movie. As great as Fortress Vader was and as great as that Rebel massacre scene was, I feel like it was a mistake to include Vader in this movie. His presence overshadowed Krennic and helped weaken Krennic as a villain. It doesn’t help that the actor in Vader’s suit has no commanding presence on screen. Something about the way he walks and gestures just feels wrong. He was only there to choke Krennic and make a joke. Vader does not grant audiences to politicians unless it’s Tarkin or under orders from Palpatine. We are then forced to witness clunky dialogue and a dad joke. And the hallway scene. As awesome as it looks, it is nothing but pure fanservice. The most pointless and disbelief breaking scene in the movie. Vader just usually lets others do the dirty work for him. He’s there for intimidation and to choking those who failed him. He rarely puts himself on the frontlines. There is also continuity issues. Leia should not be in the middle of the battle. Leia is meant to be a spy. She is a member of the Imperial Senate  and still has autonomy because of plausible deniability despite the suspicions of the Empire. Also Vader says that this ship intercepted transmissions from Rebel Spies which is not what happens in Rogue One. Not only were the plans brought on board via disk but the people who transmitted them were not spies. And now the excuse they gave about being on a diplomatic mission is now laughably absurd because Vader SAW the ship with his own eyes leaving the battle. Another thing wrong with this is according to the way events play out in Rogue One, neither Vader nor the Empire would know what the transmissions contained but somehow he knows at the beginning of ANH. From this dialogue it sounds like Vader has been investigating and hunting down the Rebels for a while. In his own words. "I have traced the Rebel spies to her, now she is my only link to finding the Secret Base." Maybe the Rebel spies that stole the Death Star plans were captured and interrogated after they transmitted the plans to Leia and Leia's mission was to take the Tantive IV for a consular ship on a diplomantic mission and drop out of hyperspace at a designated place and time to pick uo a coded transmission from those Rebel Spies deep in Imperial territory and then escape just as quickly that it sounds plausible and far more exciting than what we got.

Keep the mission as it was from the trailers. When I first watched the movie, I was completely baffled that it backtracked on what the trailers were even advertising. You could still have everything go as planned, but Mon Mothma approaches Jyn, Cassian and the others and gives them the unofficial mission to steal the plans of the Death Star. It is just so jarring and stupid that you have the plot of the movie not being an official mission given by the Rebels.

Keep in Jyn’s character that was cut from the movie. Jyn’s character is kind of absent. Jyn is a strangely passive presence in her own movie. She has no interest or investment in the Rebellion, DESPITE her iconic line of “this is a Rebellion right? I Rebel.” JUST MAKE HER ONE OF SAW’S AGENTS!!! It is not that fucking hard. That would be why she is brought forth to Yavin IV where Mon Mothma is dressing her down claiming she is far too reckless, which is what prompts her line in the trailer. Make Jyn an aggressive agent of Saw’s cell because she wants to make the Empire hurt for taking Lyra and Galen away from her. Keep in the line from the trailers where Jyn names Rogue One. Jyn herself says “welcome to Rogue One.” and have Jyn warm up to the crew as the movie goes on and learns to trust them and the Rebellion as a whole even more. Have Jyn save the message from Galen and present it to Cassian and the Rebel Command. Which prompts The Alliance to send them off on the mission to steal the plans and say “may the force be with you” keep in the scene with the TIE-Fighter and Jyn and have Jyn being the one to shoot Krennic. For whatever reason the movie does not want Jyn Erso to have agency as a character or character in general. She relies on others to point her in whatever direction the movie needs her to be in at that part of the plot. Jyn isn't defined by what she does, but instead just the opposite.  She doesn't get to save her father, because of the actions of the Rebel X-Wing pilots, nor avenge her mother's death. Even her biggest moment in the movie — the inspirational speech she gives to the Rebel Alliance that ultimately spurs the mission into action — is based on intelligence from her father and an emotional appeal ("Rebellions are built on hope") that she heard from Cassian earlier in the movie. Notably, even that speech falls flat upon delivery. Like all you had to do was have Mon Mothma reach the decision to send the RO crew to steal the plans. Instead we get nothing and they are forced to steal it alone with no orders from the Rebel command.

[chalantness]

fic: Meet Me Under the Spotlight - Part II

Rating: PG-13 Word Count: ~5800 Characters: Steve/Natasha and the ensemble Summary: A continuation of that celebrity social media au no one asked for.

A/N: I hesitated about revisiting this story because the format was so unique and it flowed incredibly well and I wasn’t sure if I could replicate that. Also, in terms of the universe itself, I wasn’t sure what story I wanted to tell next that would still be fun to read through social media. With that said, I thought about it a lot and had so many things I wanted to add and other characters I wanted to include. I just planned on revisiting this ‘verse through headcanons or blurbs for you darlings, but I took another crack at it instead, and I had just as much fun writing it this time as I did the first time!

By the way, I’ve officially dubbed this ‘verse the Marvelous ‘verse. Because I will be coming back to it.

Read On: [ ao3 ]

‘Marvelous’ Season Finale Recap: “How the Mighty Fall”

May 25, 2017. 8:12 AM PST

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains plot details from the Marvelous season three finale, episode twenty-two, “How the Mighty Fall,” below.

Let’s start by getting this out there: no, we’re still not over it. And with three whole months between now and when Marvelous is scheduled to start filming Season 4, we’re sure the tears won’t stop flowing for a while.

Last night’s episode was the culmination of every heartbreaking fight we had to endure between our heroes, and every hasty action they took came back full circle with a sucker punch to our hearts! This was the lowest point the series has come to yet, and even after watching an entire season of everything falling apart, we still didn’t expect it to happen in such a spectacular fashion.

We’ll be back to get into the gory details soon, but in case you were too caught up in your tears to follow every minute of the finale, here are the highlights:

Black Widow’s betrayal that sent fans into a rage at the end of last week’s episode - episode twenty-one, “A Butterfly in a Web” - turned out to be for good reasons. Which we never doubted, but did you have to take such a hard shot at the Captain to do it?

Evidently, yes. Because not only did the Captain realize too little too late that she was protecting him, but his initial abandonment of her after their fallout ended in grave consequences. He barely makes it to her in time before she can bleed out to death, and when she wakes up, she has no recollection of anything. Not of what happened to her, not of betraying him, and not of anything that has to do with the Team at all. We’re not sure exactly how far this memory loss goes, but it was very clear from her confused and shaken expression when she wakes up that it’s pretty grim. And now that she’s without her memories, the Captain is more lost than ever. Guess it takes temporarily (hopefully temporarily?) losing every precious moment together to put things into perspective.

The escalating tension between Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch is irony at its finest: Quicksilver has spent the entire season as the overprotective older brother to Scarlet Witch, which unfortunately meant that Scarlet Witch has spent the entire season feeling sheltered and suffocated. She finally gets what she wants - a chance to put her newfound control over her powers to work, without Quicksilver hovering over her shoulder - and that left her open to being kidnapped. Understandably, Scarlet Witch could have avoided this with her eyes closed and both hands tied, but she had a little something else to deal with:

The Winter Soldier and Falcon, who have had no love lost between them this season, are quite literally at each other’s throats when they join Scarlet Witch to investigate a lead that takes them into the mountains to sniff out a secret bunker. Their fight last night had been the biggest and ugliest yet, and as expected, they don’t realize how gravely it would cost them until Scarlet Witch - too wrapped up in trying to keep them from killing each other - is snatched from under their noses. And no, it wasn’t the thing they needed to come to some kind of truce. If anything, it only made things worse.

Hawkeye and Thor had left in the previous episode to follow a lead of their own, and as expected, they also run into a nasty baddie of their own. And the blowout was far more fatal than you could imagine. When Agent 13 and Agent Hill were finally able to find them and bring them back to the safety of the Facility, they realized that Thor’s powers were completely gone - so it looks as if healing his eye isn’t something that will happen soon - and Hawkeye is in a coma.

Looks like we’ll need to stock up on tissues for now, because with no indication about how things will end up for another few months, we’re left with broken heroes and even more broken hearts.

What scene was the biggest tearjerker for you? Let us know in the comments below!

Related Articles:

Here’s Every Tweet from the Cast and Crew of ‘Marvelous’ During the Season Finale

‘Marvelous’ Season 4 Scheduled to Begin Filming in August

On the Air with Phil Coulson: ‘Marvelous’ Co-Stars Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers Talk Season Finale and Summer Plans

[Image Caption: Natasha Romanoff standing under a floral arch, smiling to someone out of shot. She’s holding a blue and white bouquet and wearing a white dress with a crystal bodice and tulle skirt, a veil attached to her headpiece.]

912,518 likes

carters13 Just got back to set and @nataliaromanov already has the best wardrobe! Glad to see some things never change.

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AUGUST 14, 2017

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[Image Caption: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Tony Stark, and Thor Odinson standing in a row, looking in different directions. They are all wearing tuxedos with matching navy blue ties and blue iris boutonnieres.]

813,320 likes

ohsnapwilson First day of filming and none of us know what’s going on. Gonna be a long season. (PS. We paid attention during the table read. Mostly.)

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AUGUST 14, 2017

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[Image Caption: Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff sitting down between takes. Steve is wearing a tuxedo with a navy blue tie and blue boutonniere, and Natasha Romanoff is seated on his lap in her wedding dress, the both of them laughing.]

925,556 likes

MarvelousOfficial #Marvelous Season 4 is officially back in business, and we’re so excited about it that we’re getting a jump start on our #MarvelousSneakPeeks!

View all 1,934 comments

AUGUST 14, 2017

The Late Night Show with Peter Quill @PeterQuillTonight -- September 28     Hey #Marvels did you know @therussianprincessnat is stopping by tonight? I hope she brings me a present

Marvelous @MarvelousCW -- September 28     #Marvels be sure to tune into @PeterQuillTonight and show @therussianprincessnat some love. Retweet if you’re watching!

Wanda Maximoff @littlewandamaximoff -- September 28      want to help a girl out #Marvels? @theothermaximoff says there’s no such thing as a @PeterQuillTonight viewing party :(

Sam Wilson @snapwilson -- September 28      so #Marvels got any plans tonight? mine include @PeterQuillTonight, a cramped apartment, and stale beer

Pepper Potts @twopeasinapott  -- September 28      hey #Marvels, the @MarvelousCW gang is back to watch @therussianprincessnat on @PeterQuillTonight! Wish you were here <3

Steve Rogers @stevefrombrooklyn -- September 28      Better get ready @PeterQuillTonight because @therussianprincessnat is a lethal charmer. You won’t know what hit you.

Just In: ‘Marvelous’ star Natasha Romanoff appears on The Late Night Show, drops exclusive Season 4 teaser trailer (September 28, 2017)

Everything You Need to Know About the ‘Marvelous’ Season 4 Teaser Trailer

September 29, 2017. 12:55 AM PST

Last week the Marvelous official Twitter announced that the show’s teaser trailer would not be included in the CW sizzle reel due to “production complications”, much to the disappointment of us Marvels everywhere. Little did we know that not only were we still getting that teaser, but we were getting it an entire week early!

When Natasha Romanoff dropped by The Late Night Show last night, it seemed like a typical guest appearance. But we should have known something was up when, just hours before airtime, the Marvelous cast and crew posted tweets upon tweets encouraging fans to tune in, then took to Instagram to post photos of the entire gang gathered in Nick Fury’s penthouse apartment to watch the show. We know this cast and crew love to show their support for each other, but all this seemed like a lot of fuss over a simple talk show appearance, right?

So. Wrong.

“I was so sure I’d get her to dish about her trip,” Peter Quill shared after the show, referring to the Hawaiian vacation where Natasha Romanoff and co-star Steve Rogers seemed to be closer and cozier than ever. Photos of the couple out and about across the islands had made fans swoon over their screens, but not nearly as much as the incredibly intimate photo the pair had posted to Twitter themselves! But if we thought that Peter Quill would finally get the scoop we all wanted, we were mistaken. “I was prepared for every trick Nat could’ve thrown my way except for this one!” Quill had laughed. “I still want answers, but, come on! How could you top that surprise?”

In case you’ve been living under a rock -- or if you want to watch it a few dozen more times like we have -- then here’s the Marvelous Season 4 Teaser Trailer that Natasha surprised the world with last night.

...Couldn’t get the video to load? Don’t worry, we’ve got all 1:15 minutes of it broken down:

We start with a black screen, and the Captain narrating: “When I woke up, they told us we’d won. That the war was over.”

Flashes of scenes in quick succession: Hawkeye in an infirmary bed connected to tubes, bandaging wrapped around his eyes; Scarlet Witch screaming, hands pressed to her head; the Winter Soldier and Falcon on a snowy mountain, both doubled over, blood on the snow; Agent 13 throwing Iron Man’s helmet across the room, nearly hitting Agent Hill’s head as it cracks against the wall.

Black Widow standing in her room, her back to the camera as she reaches for something on the desk, fading into a shot of the Captain watching her from the doorway as his narration continues: “But they didn’t tell me what we’d lost.”

Thor and Quicksilver in the training room, Quicksilver grabbing Thor’s arm and yanking him back as he says, “We have to go after her!” with Thor curtly replying, “If we do, she’s as good as dead.”

Scarlet Witch gathering her energy between her palms, her eyes glowing as men in the foreground aim their rifles; a quick second of nothing, then a shot of a bunker in the snowy mountains erupting into a red explosion, fading into a scene of Falcon and Winter Soldier watching it collapse from afar.

Agent Hill, Agent 13, and Hawkeye (his eyes still wrapped in bandaging) standing over a holographic table as Agent 13, clearly distraught, asks, “All that sacrifice and we only put a Band-Aid on the problem?” Agent Hill answers with, “Maybe, and it’s going to be for nothing if we can’t fix this,” to which Hawkeye scoffs and replies, “Look at us. We can’t even fix ourselves.”

An ominous shot of the cube-like form of energy used to seal Thor’s powers within it, currents of electricity sparking out from its core; then Thor wincing in pain before hurling a weight across the training room.

Black Widow and the Captain standing close together as she hesitantly reaches up to touch his face; then the Captain sitting on his bed, head down, as Black Widow kneels in front of him and asks, “Tell me what to do to help,” to which the Captain replies in a strained voice, “I don’t know.”

Scarlet Witch in the snow, surrounded by the debris of the exploded laboratory, and then the Winter Soldier lifting her into his arms as she tucks her face into his chest, her entire body shaking.

Falcon pressing a kiss to Agent 13′s hair as she closes her eyes, his voice playing over the scene: “So how do we do this?”

Then Falcon and Agent 13 startling as someone enters the room, Iron Man emerging from the doorway with his arm in a sling and a bruise on his cheek. A quick cut to Agent 13 crying as she throws her arms around Iron Man, his voice playing over the scene: “We start with my least favorite thing to do.”

Cut to black, with Iron Man finishing his dialogue: “We ask for help.”

Then a close-up shot of purple light passing over someone’s skin and dissolving into a black, textured material as it spreads. This figure turns around, revealing a complete shot of his high-tech, full-bodied, cat-like suit; then he glances up at the ceiling as another figure -- slighter and smaller in stature, in a blue-and-red suit with a spider across his chest -- repels from the ceiling, landing on his feet.

Best. Teaser. EVER.

And with Marvelous not returning until December, it’ a good thing that we Marvels know how to keep ourselves busy. Bring on the theories!

What did YOU think of the teaser trailer? Let us know in the comments below!

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Favorite ‘Marvelous’ Fan Theories for the Upcoming Season

WATCH: Can the Cast of ‘Marvelous’ Sum Up the Entire Series in Thirty Seconds?

WATCH: Peter Parker Almost Missed His ‘Marvelous’ Callback

Maria Hill @aproblemlikemaria -- October 10      you know you’ve been filming too long when @therussianprincessnat and @stevefrombrooklyn turn into an old married couple

Thor Odinson @corethor -- October 10      apparently on hour 16 of filming @therussianprincessnat and @stevefrombrooklyn start arguing in latin. about latin? idk

Peter B. Parker @pbandparker -- October 10     @therussianprincessnat just looked at @stevefrombrooklyn and said “get me donuts” and HE DID. pretty sure she’s a jedi

T’challa T’chaka @ttchalla -- October 10      @therussianprincessnat just jumps onto @stevefrombrooklyn’s back when she’s tired of standing. Think I might try it out.

Clint Barton @cbarton -- October 10      @stevefrombrooklyn went MIA. turns out @therussianprincessnat fell asleep on him and he didn’t want to wake her

Clint Barton @cbarton -- October 10      update: @stevefrombrooklyn and @therussianprincessnat held up filming for 15m and @nickfurry just SHRUGGED. i’m suing

Natasha A. Romanoff @therussianprincessnat -- October 10      @stevefrombrooklyn we need new friends

Steve Rogers @stevefrombrooklyn -- October 10      @therussianprincessnat i think you need another nap

[Image Caption: Natasha Romanoff and Peter Parker in their Black Widow and Spider-Man suits, with Peter resting his elbow on Natasha’s head.]

1,057,583 likes

nataliaromanov @peterbenjiparker us spiders have to stick together, right?

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OCTOBER 22, 2017

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[Image Caption: Steve Rogers kissing Natasha Romanoff’s cheek as she laughs, holding a melting cup of ice-cream.]

1,002,318 likes

stevenrogers I knew I couldn’t compete with @peterbenjipaker’s natural charm so I brought her ice-cream instead. #latenightshoots

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OCTOBER 22, 2017

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[Image Caption: Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff between takes on the training room set. Steve stands behind Natasha with his arms around her, leaning forward as Natasha whispers into his ear.]

842,102 likes

peterbenjiparker Have you ever eaten something so sweet that it gives you a sugar rush and sugar crash at the same time? That’s what it’s like to watch @stevenrogers and @nataliaromanov on and off camera

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OCTOBER 23, 2017

Just In: Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff spotted filming in a downtown Toronto shopping mall, pose for pictures with fans between takes; when asked if the ring on her finger was important to the scene, Natasha coyly responds, “what do you think?” (October 27, 2017)

Happy Halloween! ‘Marvelous’ Treats Fans with More Insight on Upcoming Season

October 31, 2017. 8:25 AM PST.

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains on-set stills from Season 4 of Marvelous.

When we were kids, we gorged on candy for Halloween. Now, we gorge on spoilers!

(But candy would still be appreciated.)

This morning, the Marvelous official Twitter announced that they had a little something special for us Marvels on the show’s official site, and they did not disappoint! Not only were we treated to on-set photos -- confirmed to have been from the start of filming back in August -- but we were also given the official synopses of the first three episodes!

Bonus: none of scenes shown seem to be related to the scenes teased in the trailer.

Can you say, “more spoilers”?

[Image Caption: Steve Rogers in a tuxedo and Natasha Romanoff in a wedding dress, Natasha’s hand tucked into Steve’s elbow as they smile at each other. The seats behind them are filled with the main and recurring cast, dressed for the occasion.]

[Image Caption: Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and Wanda Maximoff driving through a snowy mountain in a jeep. Sam is at the wheel as Wanda and Bucky are shown talking in the back seat, Wanda wearing the Winter Soldier’s jacket.]

[Image Caption: Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff standing in the infirmary. Steve is holding onto Natasha’s arm, his eyes closed as he kisses her forehead.]

[Image Caption: Thor Odinson and Maria Hill sitting on a couch together with a mostly-emptied bottle of whiskey on the table. They’re both holding tumblers of scotch and angled toward each other as they speak.]

[Image Caption: Sharon Carter and Tony Stark in the infirmary set, Sharon seated at Tony’s bedside with a hand in her hair and her face wet with tears.]

[Image Caption: Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff in the gym, a punching bag hanging between them. Natasha has a hand on the bag, her expression concerned as she looks at Steve, whose fist lingers on the punching bag as he angles himself away from her.]

[Image Caption: Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff in the kitchen of a suburban house. Natasha is sitting on the kitchen island next to bags of groceries, her arms draped around Steve’s neck as he’s smiling at her.]

But wait: there’s MORE!

IN SOMNIS VERITAS - Season 4, Episode 1

As the Captain (Steve Rogers) struggles to deal with Black Widow’s (Natasha Romanoff) memories being lost, Agent Hill (Maria Hill) tries to pick up the pieces of the Team’s latest fallout, especially as Thor (Thor Odinson) starts to spiral without his powers and Hawkeye (Clint Barton) remains in a coma. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) and Falcon (Sam Wilson) fear that their time to rescue Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) may be running out.

THE DARKEST NIGHT - Season 4, Episode 2

Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) realizes that her powers are fluctuating due to the experiments performed by her still-unnamed abductor (guest star Edwin Jarvis), which she fears will have catastrophic side effects. Elsewhere, as extraterrestrial weapons continue to move between counties, Agent 13 (Sharon Carter) urges the Team to take action. Realizing the distress she’s causing the Captain (Steve Rogers), Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) asks him to help jog her memories.

BEFORE DAWN - Season 4, Episode 3

With the Captain (Steve Rogers) opening up to her and the Team reunited once more, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) starts to get flashes of what she believes are her lost memories, though she hesitates to tell anyone. Meanwhile, the return of the Director (writer/producer, guest star Nick Fury) gives Agent Hill (Maria Hill) a new push to rally and regroup, while the arrival of Black Panther (T’challa T’chaka) and Spider-Man (Peter Parker) gives the Team the motivation to move forward.

While we now have a little insight on what to expect from the start of the season, we’re still wondering about those wedding photos posted by the cast back in August. Is it a dream? An illusion? A flash-forward?

Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Related Articles:

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Peggy Carter Expected to Direct ‘Marvelous’ Mid-Season Finale

‘Marvelous’ Newcomer T’challa T’chaka Scheduled to Appear on The Late Night Show

[Image Caption: Natasha Romanoff standing with her back to the camera. She’s wearing a Dodgers jersey and baseball cap, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb at the “ROGERS” stitched across the back of the jersey.]

1,085,340 likes

nataliaromanov Told @stevenrogers that this was my funniest Halloween costume yet.

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OCTOBER 31, 2017

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[Image Caption: Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff on set, laughing with their arms around each other. Steve is in his Captain suit while Natasha is wearing Steve’s Dodgers baseball cap and personalized jersey.]

1,072,342 likes

stevenrogers @nataliaromanov dressed up as me and then started hugging everyone on set. Don’t know whether to be flattered or offended.

View all 1,003 comments

OCTOBER 31, 2017

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[Image Caption: Steve Rogers dressed in his Captain suit and Natasha Romanoff dressed in Steve’s Dodgers baseball cap and personalized jersey. They’re sitting on their set chairs with their backs to the cameras as they talk.]

914,134 likes

iambuckybarnes dude wouldn’t let me try on his precious jersey when he got it, yet Nat steals it from his closet and prances around in it and he’s fine #messagereceived

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OCTOBER 31, 2017

Just In: ‘Marvelous’ writer/producer Nick Fury tweets on-set photo of Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill, and Sharon Carter sharing a warm drink between takes, and fans are quick to notice the diamond ring on Romanoff’s left hand; when his Twitter is flooded with questions, Fury responds with a cryptic, “you’ll see” (November 4, 2017)

The Official Twitter of Access Entertainment @accessentertainment -- November 13      Only one month left until the #Marvelous Season 4 premiere, but of course you #Marvels already know that.

The Official Twitter of Access Entertainment @accessentertainment -- November 13      To celebrate, we asked the cast what their favorite lines of the season are so far #MarvelousLineswithAE

James Buchanan Barnes @iambuckybarnes -- November 13      #MarvelousLineswithAE “It’s not about the fear. It’s about how you react to it. That’s what you taught me.”

Wanda Maximoff @littlewandamaximoff -- November 13      #MarvelousLineswithAE “Unlike you, I can still tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it.”

Sharon Carter @sharoncarter -- November 13      #MarvelousLineswithAE “I used to think that love got in the way of duty. But maybe love is our greatest duty.”

Sam Wilson @snapwilson -- November 13      #MarvelousLineswithAE “If I focus less on the blame and more on the hurt, it makes it easier to heal.”

Steve Rogers @stevefrombrooklyn -- November 13      #MarvelousLineswithAE “There’s nothing and no one that could take your place in my life.”

Natasha A. Romanoff @therussianprincessnat -- November 13      #MarvelousLineswithAE “That isn’t something I have to remember. That’s something I just know.”

Nick Fury @nickfurry -- November 13      #MarvelousLineswithAE “Please say yes.”

Natasha A. Romanoff @therussianprincessnat -- November 13      @nickfurry you sap                Natasha A. Romanoff Retweeted                @nickfurry #MarvelousLineswithAE “Please say yes.”

AE! Exclusive: Spoilers Straight from the Cast of ‘Marvelous’

November 14, 2017. 8:02 AM PST

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains plot details from the season premiere of Marvelous.

(If any of you Marvels successfully resisted the urge to continue reading, know that we are incredibly impressed.)

That’s right, Marvels. With the Season 4 premiere just a month away, Access Entertainment! received an exclusive invitation to visit the set. And while we were there, we sat down with some of the cast and crew to squeeze out juicy details on what to expect from the upcoming premiere.

(WATCH: Access Entertainment’s Entire First Look from the Set of ‘Marvelous’)

Ready for the spoilers? Yeah, neither were we.

1. The premiere will center around the theme of dreams, and Steve Rogers (playing the Captain) shares that the entire episode should be an emotional roller-coaster. Ready your tissues, Marvels.

STEVE ROGERS: There’s a very blurred line between dreams and nightmares and that’s something the premiere really plays on. We shot two or three, sometimes even four versions of the same dream scenes that were so tonally different from each other. There are really low points but there are really high points, too, and it’s just one of those things you know will have that punch and then keep on punching.

ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT: And we’re guessing one of the Captain’s dreams must involve Natasha [Romanoff, playing Black Widow] in that gorgeous wedding dress all over Instagram?

ROGERS: [laughs] That was actually the very first scene we shot of the season. We read the script together, so we knew it was coming, just not when. But it’s the first day, and we’re all in tuxes and gowns and they’ve got us in this beautiful church set. And I didn’t even see Nat in her dress until we started filming. Nick [Fury, the show’s writer/producer] still won’t admit it but I’m sure that was intentional.

ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT: How romantic!

ROGERS: Yeah, don’t let the guy fool you. He’s just a big softie.

2. We’ll pick up right where the finale left off. Which means throwing salt onto all those wounds that still haven’t healed; their wounds AND ours.

SHARON CARTER [playing Agent 13]: You can watch the finale and then the premiere back-to-back and it’ll sort of be one extended episode. That’s the idea. We put these characters through every circle of hell and back and we don’t want to just jump forward and make you fill in the gaps. We take you with us every step of their emotional journey like we always have, and I can’t share anything, of course, but it doesn’t take long for them to start bouncing back. It’s sort of our way of saying, ‘Hey, we broke your hearts and made you wait half a year because we suck but now you’ll reap the rewards.’

3. After watching an entire season of our heroes falling apart, we can look forward to them coming back together stronger than ever. It’s no secret that watching episode after episode of our heroes fighting among each other was heartbreaking. But Wanda [Maximoff, playing Scarlet Witch] dished that this won’t be the case for the upcoming season.

WANDA MAXIMOFF: You won’t have to worry about us being at each other’s throats nearly as much anymore. When you hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up!

ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT: Thank goodness!

MAXIMOFF: I know! [laughs] It’s always fun to play those kinds of scenes, you know? They’re very raw and real, and it’s cathartic but in a very safe way to channel all your emotions and let them out. But it’s still draining. We were all so tired from “fighting” with each other by the time we wrapped. We looked forward to having a little fun again and Nick absolutely gave us that

ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT: So we can expect a lot more smiles this season? Maybe even a few laughs?

MAXIMOFF: Absolutely! The first few episodes will deal with the aftermath of the finale, of course. You don’t just sweep that under the rug. But everyone has suffered so much individually, this season you’ll see them lean on each other to heal. At the core, they have a bond you can’t really fit into one type of mold and it’ll be what helps them turn things around.

4. This season will explore the dynamics between our characters in ways we thought we could only dream of. Which means, yes, Marvels. They are in fact listening.

MAXIMOFF: You’ll see characters share scenes together that didn’t have much interaction outside of the group before, and you’ll see relationships in new lights. Iron Man [played by Tony Stark] and Quicksilver [played by Pietro Maximoff] got off to a rocky start, and they’re in a civil place now, but you’ll see them develop a genuine friendship. Iron Man will really pull through for Quicksilver and that finally gives them some common ground. Agent Hill [played by Maria Hill] and Thor [played by Thor Odinson] have always butt heads here or there because they’re just so different. They’re almost the last duo you’d expect to come together and that’s the beauty of it. They end up leaning on each other and it’s beautiful. All of these odd, new dynamics will get their own spotlights and it’s so much fun.

There’s even some role reversal in key relationships. Like with Hawkeye [played by Clint Barton]. He was an important mentor to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and now with his condition he’ll turn to them for guidance. And with Black Widow, she really built up Scarlet Witch and helped her become confident in her abilities and now Scarlet Witch will get to return the favor. She’ll be there to help Black Widow get back on her feet. She becomes Black Widow’s biggest confidant, and that will be such a strong thing for Scarlet Witch, who is in a dark place at the start of the season. These more intimate moments - they’ve been my favorite to film so far.

5. Newcomers Black Panther (played by T’challa T’chaka) and Spider-Man (played by Peter Parker) won’t take long to join the fray. We learned that we won’t be seeing them in the premiere, but at least we won’t have to wait much longer! It’s confirmed that Black Panther and Spider-Man will make their debuts before the end of the second episode.

T’CHALLA T’CHAKA: I was surprised to learn during the table read that Nick wasted no time introducing us. He had us involved from the very first day of filming, even though Peter and I would traditionally not have been called to  the set just yet. We were very much included between takes. You would think coming onto a show of this magnitude, joining a cast so established - that would be an intimidating thing, you’d think. But as soon as I got the part everyone reached out to me on their own. We talked, not always about the show. I felt a fast connection. So when Peter and I were watching that first scene being filmed, when Natasha and Steve recited those vows, we were hit just as hard as everyone else. I choked up. I don’t mind sharing that, I’m not heartless. [laughs]

6. There’s a very good chance that every (well, ALMOST every) character that has crossed our heroes’ paths will make a reappearance before the end of the season. At least, it seems that way.

SAM WILSON [playing Falcon]: I’m just making guesses here, but with the way these last three months have gone, it’s probably a good guess. I think we’re somewhere between episodes nine and ten right now and we’ve already brought so many faces back. Sometimes we’ll walk onto a set or get rewrites, and we’ve brought back someone we thought had been written off definitively, and in these cool twists you won’t expect.

ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT: Any names you can hint at?

WILSON: Nah! No, don’t get me in trouble. [laughs] I can’t even hint at anything, but - trust me, it’ll be good. Fans will be excited to revisit these characters and see these shout-outs to old subplots. Some of it will be tying up loose ends, some of it’s just plain fun. Nick’s even got plans to have every guest director come back for an episode if scheduling works out. Don’t worry, I was allowed to share that. I asked. But Peggy [Carter] is already coming back for the mid-season finale and I think they’ve talked about her having a bigger hand in the second half of the season.

ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT: Oh, that’s exactly what we wanted to hear. She’s been involved in those episodes that make me swoon every time!

WILSON: Yeah, she knows how to tug on those heart-strings. She and Nick sat down, I think it was the middle of Season 2. But she and Nick sat us all down and we went around and said where we thought our characters would be in a few seasons and what we wanted for them. And it was all domestic. [laughs] No matter how crazy the world is, those same basic dreams are at our core, you know? And those are Peggy’s favorite stories to tell. Old romantics will be very happy with the intimate moments we fit into these episodes. It’ll be good. Real good.

7. Speaking of intimate: “It’s a very romantic season,” Bucky [Barnes, playing the Winter Soldier] shares. Cue squeals!

BARNES: Obviously the tone of the series will still be there, we don’t deviate into some kind of romantic drama. But you’ve seen the highs and lows of all these relationships, you’ve seen these characters go through so much and now they’ve earned this happiness. It’s a big turning point for our favorite couples, and rather than “will they, won’t they” you get to see them as a unit. That’s kind of the theme of this whole season, “us against the world,” whether it’s couples or friendships or the Team. It’s a great message.

ACCESS ENTERTAINMENT: Can you give us any hints?

BARNES: I wish I could, I really do. We just - we’re all having such a hard time biting our tongues. Each script is better and better and we want to share that with everyone, we want them to be excited with us. But I promise you, if you’ve sat through the last three years with your fingers crossed it’ll pay off. We almost jump the gun in a sense, because it goes from this slow burn to just diving head-first and it’s so satisfying. Even for myself, as a fan of this story and these characters, I see how far everything has come and I just get all tingly. [laughs] It’s great.

Well, there you have it!

It seems like this season will be the most emotional one yet, and luckily for us it sounds like it won’t be of the heart-breaking variety. Hopefully.

What are YOU most excited about for the upcoming season? Let us know in the comments below!

Related Articles:

T’challa T’chaka Talks Crazy First Week on ‘Marvelous’ and Addresses Rumors of Spinoff

‘Marvelous’ Co-Stars’ Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers Recap Season Finale, Discuss Their Sizzling Chemistry

YouTube Personality Skye Johnson Posts Adorable Video to Announce Landing Unnamed ‘Marvelous’ Role

[Image Caption: Close-up of Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers at night. Steve is kissing her hair, and Natasha is smiling softly with her hand on her cheek, showing off a glittering diamond ring - different from the ring she had been seen wearing in an on-set photo that writer/producer Nick Fury tweeted.]

1,056,813 likes

stevenrogers my favorite present has always been you

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NOVEMBER 22, 2017

-

[Image Caption: Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers on the set of Marvelous, kissing, her glittering diamond ring resting against his cheek as he dips her. The cast and crew can be seen out of focus in the background, cheering.]

1,195,381 likes

nataliaromanov I said yes

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NOVEMBER 22, 2017

[stone-man-warrior]

February 9, 2021: 1:50 pm:

===================================================

Trump impeachment trial, in a nutshell:

(Hollywood Suspense Comedy Presentation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKumME6_oYs&t=9s

=====================

2:00 pm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxoUmh2FCX4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxoUmh2FCX4

=====================================

2:14 pm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idn-tjVGCUo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRNJNlCGduM

How many emergency vehicles do you count at this circus of media distraction?

Do you know what really goes on at Inland Regional Center?

I do.

Inland Regional Center is a clearing house where kidnapped US Citizens are processed AFTER the forced experimental surgeries are performed on them. It’s a place where SAG members call on for information about their “Partner” pet people they order, people... citizens, surgically altered to exacting specifications of the SAG actor, musician, clown, magician who orders one as a pet.

I once saw a “Partner”, one called “The Magic 8 Ball” who was a very knowledgeable young lady, her legs and arms amputated, hands re-attached at the shoulder, and she had breasts all around her whole body, I estimate she had 72 breasts attached to her body.

There are “Voyeur” websites, where they claim that regular people have made cameras in their homes available for view online, and those are the places where snuff movies are done live, and, where sex acts with a “Partner” are also performed live. The video feed is masked with a variety of false IP routing such that it would take hours or days to trace the source physical address, Google is able to arrange that kind of routing services for live snuff movies. I saw that “Magic 8 Ball” girl at a Voyeur website and in person in Oregon.

This Inland Regional Center is one of many places where arrangements for production and distribution of such kidnapped victims is done.

That is why so many “Emergency Response Vehicles” showed up there. I suspect some investigative persons, or maybe a curious citizen happened to go in there, without being prepared for reality.

This same kind of activity happened at least twice at Inland Regional Center, almost exactly the same way each time.

That place is located at a Gypsum Mine. There is a road that goes around the small mountain where the Gypsum Mine is at, and those who drive on that road, are captured and taken to Inland Regional Center.

When news about Gavin newsome happens, sometimes it’s really news about that Gypsum Mine, and by extension, is news about Inland Regional Center.

Gavin is in the news at @ Psaki WH Spox @PressSec Twitter account today.

There must be some Drywall on the loose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQAYy8i-LGc

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1359243295608754176

========================

3:55 pm:

A personal anecdote about an enlightening experience I encountered in around 2003 or so:

I received a call from someone claiming to be my father, it sounded like him, so, I listened as he told me I had won a contest, a small pop-up tent trailer is what was said I had won. I didn‘t enter any such contest, so, it was weird. But, after many repeated calls, to say I needed to go pick up this trailer, after about three or four months, I decided to go get the Quest brand, small, pop-up tent trailer that he insisted I had won, and had been stored at some persons house, who needed it moved away, so, I was pressured in a few different ways to go get this small pop-up tent trailer.

It was in California, nearby Hollywood, I had to drive to Southern California to get the thing.

I decided to make an adventure out of it, I had a girlfriend at the time, and we went to California to find the pop-up tent trailer. It was being stored at the home of a man by the name of Harry Stark, so, we went there.

On the way, I stopped at some of my old friends homes, it was weird, everyone seemed nervous.

My girlfriend and I went to a place called Vintage King Audio on Sunset Blvd, to look at what music equipment they might have that I might want. Out front of Vintage King Audio was a gal with a baby stroller, who was freaking out about the baby, who was not in the baby stroller, she was going into the nearby stores, and looking inside of all of the cars parked there to find the baby.

I asked her what was wrong, she said her baby is gone, and proceeded to keep looking for the baby.

I went into Vintage King Audio, there is or was a glass wall divider between two parts of the store, and in there was someone beating the living daylight out of a small infant baby.

I looked around, in all of the other small places there are there, a speaker showroom, and a microphone show room area, and noticed that there is nothing in Vintage King Audio that a regular musician can afford, a small patch cable costs about $50 at VKA, so, I left, and called the police about the man beating the baby to death inside the store.

We picked up the trailer, and headed for Santa Monica Pier, to park and get some rest, but that did not work, there were people who came and parked right next to us, in a parking lot that was completely empty, hundreds of available parking spots, and these assholes all wanted to park right next to us where we trying to take a nap after driving for twelve hours and picking up that trailer. When we left Harry Stark’s house, there was a young boy inside my van as we left, I have no idea where he came from, or why he was inside my van. It was weird, so, I asked what he is doing in the van, he said a bunch of things that did not make sense at the time, but they do now. He said he wanted to go home, and begged me not to call the police, so, I took him where he wanted to go, and dropped him off, he was scared, about ten years old.

On the way to the Pier, after calling the Los Angeles 911 about the baby at VKA, on Sunset, there was a road block of about 30 police cars, and some motorcycle police nearby Pacific Palisades. We had to wait while Kobi Briant and a whole bunch of Basketball stars and movie stars in big black limousines exited that neighborhood in Pacific Palisades.

And that’s what happened.

I don‘t have a conclusion.

Lot’s more happened that few days in California, all of it was very strange.

===============

4:36 pm:

This below is Boris Johnson trying to reach a terror soldier by the name of Clyde Baum of 333 Jackpine Dr.

If you think you know more about this than I do, then you can read the face value, and be entertained.

Otherwise, trust me, it’s about Clyde, and by extension, is about Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, specifically the one in Grants Pass on Beacon Dr., and, the underground facility that exists there under the adjacent Cartwright’s Sandwich Shop, and that will lead to Cartwright’s Meat Butcher Shop at the end of Union Ave. and that leads to JD’s Sports Bar (also is widely featured in coded news on Twitter today) and that will lead to Asante Health Three Rivers Medical Center, and that leads to Oregon Health Science University Hospital, Doernbecker Children’s Hospital, Shriner’s Children‘s Hospital, and the Veteran‘s Administration Hospital, all of which are at the OHSU campus.

All of that, is of concern to Boris Johnson, and he needs to reach Clyde Baum, so he can find out why Janice “Jay-Bob” Freeberg, General of the Terror Air Force, is not answering her secret communication devices that are connected to Boris Johnson‘s office, Trudeau’s Office, Eastwood Guitars Office, and Windsor Castle and the House of Lords.

(this is dangerous stuff to say, I have no help, there are no US Public Safety, so, please send some help. You need to send US Military if any are left alive, there are no more US national Guard, all were killed and replaced with Canadians and Screen Actor Guild members.)

Besides the specifics of Clyde Baum, there is that layout arrangement that is being used broadly on Twitter and in the Google Gmail. The layout detail of two separate paragraphs is a recent addition to tweets made by leading terror operatives on Twitter. See that Boris uses two fairly equal paragraphs, and he points out two other fairly equal sized paragraphs. That, means “Equestrian”, and that means “Two-Horse Power”, and that could be “Briggs & Stratton“ or “Tecumsa”, four stroke two-horse power motors. That means “Royal Canadian Mounted Police”. So again, if you think you know more about real terror on global level than I do, then go ahead and be entertained at the Show where the fake impeachment trial was put there for your viewing enjoyment while this other communication and activity is taking place.

I suspect the Tweet is also directed at Monroe, and Chapman terror cells.

“Have a nice day, welcome to Jamaica”

I suspect by the end of tomorrow, there will be much about RocketDyne in Simi Valley, and Raytheon in Colorado, possibly some nasa news, but Simi Valley and Raytheon Colorado is more important.

Twitter MUST be taken offline right now, there is no other way to slow the advance of the Global Domination being waged by Britain/SAG/Vatican forces with a trained army from Canada to take over USA. nitrous oxide is their main offensive weapon, Medazolam mixed in is of higher command level uses, a variety of “boutique” airborne gasses that produce immediate symptoms that prevent people from defending themselves.

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1359082166542598146

============

5:13 pm:

Additionally, there is some set-up work being done with Joe Bonamassa news in the email promotions.

The set-up is for other communication shell language for some time in the near future to be used by Twitter news media.

“Datsun 210″ is the shell.

So, some things to consider are Pearl Harbor, Japan, and Zero’s, fake ones fitted with Mercedes Benz of Rolls Royce motors, I forget which ones were used.

Also, consider the shape of the Datsun 210, the old ones are sought after, are square, boxy looking little cars, are very cool. That is going to lead to the 1959 - 1961 Ford Thunderbird, is called a “Box Bird” by enthusiasts. That will take you to the 1960′s era Lincoln Continental, JFK assassination, and to Main Street USA at Disneyland where Micheal Eisner has a secret office inside of the Gettysberg Address Lincoln attraction there, and that place is a place where experimental surgery victims are tested, and observed.

The Datsun 210 Comm shell is also a B-210 shell. That is going to lead to the band “B-52′s” and a song called “Planet Claire”, where Claire drives a Plymouth Satellite. That is going to be a complicated mess that makes everything else seem simple if it reaches the Planet Clair level of communications, where the satellites are Boeing 737 or other airplanes filled with Mustard Gas and flying around dropping large loads of poison gasses on the populations of the targeted parts of the world. The “B-52″ part is also leading to Josephine County Sheriff’s office building, the way it was originally built before it exploded, twice... there are no records of any explosions having taken place there, but, the whole building exploded, twice over the past 12 - 15 years or so.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4329825,-123.3030264,107m/data=!3m1!1e3

I designed that building in around 1998 - 2001 while held captive by the terror army, they wanted maximum windows, so, I gave them windows, and hid a B-2 Bomber in the design so that I could maybe get some help. The wing of a B-2 Bomber should fit real good when over-layed on top of that Josephine County Sheriff Office building.

Since then, the building has exploded twice, been rebuilt differently. That is the current Google Map view, is not the same as what exists there today. There is a great big County Jail attached to that now, is an extermination center.

The Joe Bonamassa email today, is setting up a comm shell language to use at a later time. The shell language will be complex, based on a simple little Japanese car, one that is very boxy, and square looking, and is a desirable little car to have.

That Datsun 210 is going to also lead to the Volkswagen Type III notchback for even more secret communication shell language to use as a basis.

=========

5:54 pm:

---------------------------------------------------------------- Ohio =====================================

Ohio -----------------------------------------------------------------

They are Hot Rods, get in and drive them.

T-Bucket Roadsters

PS: You have to do math in order to turn a Datsun into a Type III.

================================

6:09 pm:

Los Angeles Times Twitter Verified Account is calling for some Damage Control Distraction nbc/Universal/Comcast style, with big guns.

Pete Santilli will be here shortly. He carries a Pocket Constitution, and hands them out to anyone who wants one. Hardly anyone cares about the US Constitution enough to save it, enough to read it, enough to know that without some kind of structure where people are guaranteed some freedom, while being held accountable for their actions should those actions harm others ... without a constitution of agreed rules, then everyone will be held in captivity, where there are no rules.

Absence of Freedom is the presence of captivity.

The SAG terror cells have it worked out where if someone mentions the US Constitution, that must mean that those people are terrorists, and a constitutional statement is deemed as automatically associated with some kind of anti-USA militia. They have it worked out where the media is in control, and media representatives from nbc/Universal/Comcast are able to take possession of a obscure US Park refuge, while making that look huge, but in contrast to reality, that is small potatoes.

The bastards took over most or all of the US Military and national Guard bases, and filled them up with Canadian impostors playing role of US military personnel, and Screen Actor Guild Actors playing role of the commanding officers at the hijacked bases on the west coast.

They did that, then presented Malheur wildlife refuge take over by a bunch of farmers, and everyone believed it, because they saw it on TV news.

Nancy Sinatra must have received a memo from Ann Wilson and Roger Waters who are at Kauai Ranch running things from the most beautiful place in USA, the Island of Kauai. They are totally protected from surprises there, while they destroy the continental USA in league with Britain and Vatican.

The Fat Lady on the Island, is doing some singing, and LA Times has been selected to run the Distraction Play.

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1359185527291871235

============

6:37 pm:

This is what really happened with the Pete Santilli Show in Harney County Oregon:

Someone, maybe it was me, contacted FBI at FBI.Tips.Gov, to report mass murder and terror take over happening in Oregon.

FBI officials did not pay attention to the details that were presented, which include that all of the public safety and Oregon government have been taken over and are occupied by leaders of a vast terror army, so, the FBI, foolishly contacted those Oregon public safety officials to ask them very politely if they are terrorists who took over, and asked them permission to come and have look around. So, of course, those terror operatives simply gave the fools at FBI.Tips.Gov something to have a look at, and rolled out the Malheur Wildlife Refuge Occupation, claiming that the person who reported the state takeover was mistaken, and was scared to say that the problem is in Harney County, where that persons girlfriend lived at the time, Emily Periman, AKA: Emily Smith. So, a bunch of FBI fools went to Harney County Oregon, where a big giant circus performance of thousands of entertainers from Universal Studios Theme Park showed up to give the FBI fools something to look at, while luring all of them into traps, where they were all killed and replaced with actors from Screen Actor Guild, and some Royal Canadian Mounted Police were tossed into the mix as the muscle behind the extravaganza.

That is the short explanation of reality.

All the fools had to do, is read the information that was presented to them, and behave in such a way as the information handed to them warranted.

Instead of reading and understanding the circumstance, the fools were all killed and replaced, because they insist on being fooled all of the time, cannot read, don‘t understand real terrorism, they love Betty White and Tom Hanks too much, and cannot see that those two are only a tiny little part of a much more gigantic threat to the USA and the Freedom the citizens once knew.

now, we are all fucked, there is Corona Virus, and if anyone does not pass the COVID test, to agree to become a terror soldier, they are all killed.

All because when the FBI had the chance to stop all of that many years ago, they trusted the terror army more than they trusted the victims of the terrorism.

Fools.

USA national security are disabled, they are not able to do their jobs due to a mental condition that prevents them from seeing what has been happening in front of them, and is even presented on network television for them to see.

Disabled, utterly and completely useless due to mental conditions, are a danger to themselves and those around them. In that way, our US national security is in league with, and assists the terror army to take over USA, kill and replace the population, and in fact kill and replace the national security personnel and their extended families, and they still won‘t do their jobs.

=======================================

7:31 pm:

Briefly:

The terror army are pirates.

The whole premise of the Christian religion is front for piracy from Day One, literally, since day one.

They collect souls. They hunt for “Jesus”, as many Jesus’ as is possible, they need the Jesus’ to power the boat to advance the terror, towards Global Domination Under the Cross.

The “Cross” is the mast of the pirate ship where all of the Jesus’ are nailed to, to catch wind, to move the boat forward, to collect more Jesus’, to nail to the mast, to catch wind, to move the boat forward... etc, forever...

This tweet below, is British way of saying to protect the boat.

The way the symbolism works, is that the spent, used up Jesus’, are placed all around the boat, as a shield from incoming cannon fire on the high seas. It’s a shell of language that has been used for centuries, that the spent Jesus’ are to protect the boat by taking the incoming rounds. Like Balistic Gel, they absorb any kind of retaliation to the advance of the Christian Pirate Ship.

So, it’s all symbolic as presented there on Twitter from BBC news, however, the communication reads that the “Spent Jesus” are to protect the boat, so, that could be a call to make a Schul Schut, one that produces dead victims in a news story, one that draws national or global attention, so that all eyes will be focused on one very small, highly controlled situation as a distractible measure while other damage control is rolled out at the source of the problem the pirates are experiencing.

How many ways can symbolic human cladding around a pirate ship be turned into a reality?

I don‘t know, the possibilities are endless. What we all know is that the same formulas for distractions have been used for many decades, the Schul Schut formula works good for drawing attention, it comes out of the blue, is not expected, and always seems to produce a situation where there is an anniversary every year afterwords of the tragic events that take place. All you have to do to see every last anniversary of tragedy ever, is scroll down the POTUS Twitter account, or scroll down the US State Department Twitter account, and there you will find all of the different kinds of special Schul Schut style tragedy that ever occurred, because those offices love to celebrate their achievements, and they do so by attending ceremonial remembrance day events. Anything from airplane crashes, to dam failure, to mall shooting is celebrated at annual remembrance day events by POTUS and State Department, UN security council also participates.

So, in order to anticipate what Boris Johnson, House of Lords, Windsor Castle, and the Vatican have in mind with that Greenfeild Tower Cladding to protect the Christian Pirate Ship, currently is the Eleanor Rigby captained by Boris Johnson, and the Flying V captained by “The Jim Dunlop”, we need to study what has already happened before. If they are in a hurry, if they are pressured, it will be a pre-packaged event, one that has already proven successful, and is easy and quick to deploy.

For terror comm purpose that advance the Global Domination, as you read here already I am confidant, the Eleanor Rigby is a submarine of a pirate ship, has characteristics of that of a submarine, “stealth from below” in every way, including that nitrous gas is released quietly from rectally holstered tanks by terror soldiers.

Also, the “Flying V” seems to be a “Ghost Ship” for communication purposes. My read about that can be best described with idea that a police officer is warranted to commandeer any vehicle if the need for the vehicle arises in an emergency. So, the “Flying V” is any and all vehicles, as needed, is the way it looks to me so far.

They are specifying cash. That = C + Ash = Big Fucking Fire.

There are more than one kind of fire. I am concerned about the set-up that has already shown to exist for a fire at my house, clues towards that end have been developing for a number of weeks now, as a warning, because they know I can read their language.

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1359332571885273092

=====

More about “Commandeer” of a vehicle, airplanes included:

Look at Malhuer Wildlife Refuge news stories, there are instances in the news when people who looked like US national Guard made some road blocks to the area, residents who lived near there were told to get out of their cars, then, the person who appeared as a US Guard serviceman got into the car, only to drive the car about one hundred feet forward, then get out to let the car owner have the car back, and leave to go back into the neighborhood they lived.

Of course that was all bullshit at it’s face value, what it really was is instructions to terror soldiers to take advantage of the situation presented by the fools at FBI who insisted on looking at something, and subsequently were provided with that circus for them to observe. The terror soldiers were instructed to simply get some military uniforms from the Army-navy surplus store, and barrow some traffic cones from ODOT to set up some fake road blocks, to “Commandeer” some access to the housing in Harney County, take victims, gain more votes for the SAG shills on the ballots. The video parts were just instructional, we were not presented with a view of what the outcome of those instructions were for.

none of the Oregon State Police at that fiasco were real police, they were RCMP and Screen Actor Guild actors.

That one guy that was shown to have been shot and killed after crashing the car in the snow, is still alive. He was not killed, it was an act, and that guy showed up in Grants Pass in the weeks that followed the event where they said he was dead. That makes for a handy situation, where the dead guy, is not dead, and can be anywhere, and be anyone, doing any kind of thing, while everyone assumes he was killed.

=====

The situation when that one guy was shown to have been killed is like this:

He wants to go talk to the Sheriff, is on the way, has an appointment to see the Sheriff.

Everyone in Oregon is either a slave terror operative, or is a Canadian terror soldier who controls the slave operatives.

The message presented in the news broadcast effectively tells all of the slave operatives not to even think about approaching the FBI who were there to try to warn them, or to try to get some help from them.

“Don‘t make any appointments to talk with any law enforcement or public safety persons that you may be tempted to try to contact, it will work out bad for you.”

That is the message told on the news to millions of slave operative “COVID Compliant Equivalent” slave people in Oregon.

======

The BBC Tweet is a personal threat of a fire at my house. They know I can read what they wrote, they set up that Tweet with actual “Bill Increase” in my “Farmers Insurance” property insurance, which is under terror occupation and control, and was increased more than any other previous increase in premium this past month.

It went up by only about twenty dollars, but, that is a big monthly increase, and is one that is a ‘1020″ at my house.

Fucking limeys, they will make for good anchors, and some might be used as ballast to right the USA ship.

======================

9:23 pm:

Local Conditions:

30 degrees, clear skies, absence of wind. Feels much colder than the thermometer indicates.

There are people at Strong’s terror cell working with Chartrand’s terror cell waiting for me to step out onto the roadway area to check my mailbox to shoot, set me up for some crime, or try to run me over.

There is increased activity showing at Myers 560 nbc/Universal/Comcast/Kroger Foods (Fred Meyer) terror cell.

I declined the invitation.

There is a airborne gas deployed in my driveway that makes immediate double vision, blurry vision, has no odor that I can determine.

As I  reported here before, the terror army roped me into replacing my thermostat that operates my forced air heating unit from a bi-metal one that was good, to a digital one that claimed better efficiency and more functionality, was a big mistake to allow that to happen, and they took away the original thermostat. This one is a Honeywell Thermostat, has hidden remote control operation such that a terror soldier who has the correct iPhone App can operate features of the heating and air conditioning system. They have been changing the way the heating unit components work all winter and the winters of the past since the thing was installed. The hidden remote control functionality is far more intricate than I had previously mentioned. So far, I can see that the outdoor compressor unit control is very component oriented, they are able to not only control the operation of the unit, but the individual parts of the operation of the unit are being controlled with the hidden remote operation from the Honeywell thermostat. There are some copper tubes that are around the perimeter of that compressor, in the past when the thing worked correctly, I could see that there are at least two individual circuits of freeon flow that runs through those copper tubes for doing things like preventing ice buildup around the fins of the unit, so, now I can see that those individual copper tube freeon circuits are being controlled individually with use of the hidden remote functionality. All winter long, none of those circuits of freeon flow have been working, and the thing has been caked with solid ice, while terror soldiers are spraying water onto the thing while I am inside the house to make more ice build up around it. Today and yesterday, that cake of ice has been melted away only at the highest loop of copper tubes where the freeon goes around to melt the ice. The rest of the unit is all caked with ice, even though I used a water hose to melt all of the ice away last week, the ice all returned within a day. now, the top level of copper is melted, while the other parts below are still caked with ice. So, I know the system would work if the thermostat was not being used to control intricate individual parts of the mechanics of the the thing, I can hear the thermostat being changed, it makes clicking sounds when someone is using the hidden remote frequency to change the individual operational components. I have seen that the temperature reading of the inside of the house changes as much as five degrees within a second when I hear the thing making the clicking sounds, and have a look at what the thermostat is saying.

There are numerous electronic gadgets being used to spy on me, and to make life more miserable than it already is.

There is no help anywhere around here. no signs of any help. There is more than an absence of helpful people, as the situation is that there is a Vacuum of helpful people.

Also notable is two incoming phone calls from this number:

541-566-4203 at 10:21 am and again at 2:44 pm,

541-403-9415 called 2-3-2021 at 8:40 am

Other than those two incoming calls the only other calls or texts this month have been from Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon who have sent numerous texts, emails, and incoming phone calls to a point of harassment and the information presented in the text is the appointment day and time, and the email they send always puts my name, appointment day and time right there on the title of the email. It’s not exactly private.

I also received numerous incoming calls from Walgreen‘s pharmacy, though I asked them to take me off of the phone reminder system, and I have no business with them at the time the calls and texts come in.

Walgreen‘s is run by Ann Wilson’s personal assistant terror cell members, and that, like all of the information here on this account, is part of real terrorism that includes mass murder of Medicare beneficiaries. no one is interested because she sings really good.

To get away with mass murder in USA, take some singing lessons, or, just wing it, and start belting out a tune, then, you can kill all of the old people your heart desires.

===============

11:06 pm:

This below is command orders to have Janice “Jay-Bob” Freeberg’s personal Pixel Suit electronic camouflage suit given to someone else who it will fit. They are usually custom tailored per each terror soldiers measurements, however there are some around that Mike Pence brought last year that are not custom tailored, are some other sizing arrangement.

Jay Freeberg’s nitrous oxide tank ignited last night, she or whoever has been portraying Janice Freeberg is presumed to have died when her nitrous tank ignited by my Bic Lighter near the mailboxes last night. I was able to see the flame of the lighter catch the cloud of gas she left behind and chase after her as she drove away to her gate. The tank exploded with a loud Pop! and a bright flash of light. The words: “C’est Chaud! were shouted just a second prior to the Pop! sound and the flash of light that occurred when she burst into bits inside of her car at her garage while I observed from the mailbox area on Jackpine in front of my house.

There was also talk of Jay Freeberg having “Burst” (is a technical terror term, nsa should write that one down, that one is useful) by the current Deb Monroe who was speaking to some others who responded to Deb from the Strong terror cell at 3747 Russell Road.

So, I witnessed the explosion, heard the “C’est Chaud” (That’s Hot! in French) and saw the flash, then heard from two sources that “Jay-Bob Burst”.

I suspect Janice Freeberg is dead based on that.

ABC news says her Pixel Suit should be passed on to someone who it will fit.

It’s a “Smart Suit”, in case you need a head start to read the terror comm on Twitter, where terror orders are made daily, hourly, by the minute for killing and replacing US Citizens nation wide without any resistance from anywhere since before Twitter was made publicly available in 2009 when Beta Twitter was rolled out as a command center for killing off the remaining Oregon population.

There are no US public safety personel, so, it’s up to the citizens to decide if they are going to continue to allow Twitter and Google and news media kill everyone.

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1359310821709512707

Here is the source of the orders to pass along Janice Freeberg’s Pixel Suit. I suspect it is one of the one’s that Mike Pence brought with him when he and Karen Pence and Mike Pompeo came to kill me last year. They brought many Pixel Suits, ones that are not custom fitted per each terror soldier, but rather are like “Large”, “Medium” and “Small” sizing of electronic wearable video screen fabric that makes the wearing as invisible as can be immagined, and they are operated by multiple iPhones that are integral to the Pixel Suits. The latest ones require an individual iPhone per each arm, each leg, front torso, back torso, and one additional iPhone as a main operation unit that ties them all together as a single unit for controlling the features of the Pixel Suits.

In the past, the older ones require seven iPhones to operate one Pixel Suit, those ones were grey in color when not turned on, and had a fish scale or lizard skin appearance to them when not in use. The latest ones are smooth and black in color when not in use and are turned off.

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1359337903898439680

notice that they are standing on a Walmart Air Ya Rug (area rug).

Walmart Sun Shine Flower Logo, a gold one, not the rainbow kind.

[samuraiko]

My Top 10 Moments of THE ROYAL TUTOR

I did not even know this series existed until I saw the trailer (in Japanese) during Todd Haberkorn’s panel at SakuraCon 2017. I remember thinking that it looked interesting, but knowing nothing about the cast or the story, I sort of forgot about it. 

And then I saw the first episode on the FUNimation site, and I immediately fell in love. I religiously ran home every Tuesday night after work to be sure to catch each simuldub episode as it was released, doing everything I could to avoid spoilers. I laughed until I was breathless and in pain at times. I cried more than once. I watched and re-watched certain scenes because they were just that good. And I am devoutly praying that we get a Season 2.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. It’s available on Crunchyroll subbed, and on FUNimation’s site dubbed. It is so very well worth the watch.

Having now seen the entire series (repeatedly binge-watching it between new episodes, and making audio recordings so I could listen to the series while at work), I just have to share some of the moments that just embody all that make this series so wonderful. It is (mostly) spoiler-free, but you have been warned.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

#10 - The teacher learns the students' lesson (Episode 2, “The Prince Interviews") 

The moment that first really got my attention for Heine. The notion that he could learn just as much from the princes as he could teach them made him a much more relatable character, and it also gives a subtle but deft hint of the standard to which Heine holds himself. Like his students, he doesn't always get it right (considering his inadvertent failure to consider his words before he speaks with Leonhard in the very next episode), but the first steps are there. And its theme is repeated over and over throughout the series. 

#9 - 1.3 million lives (Episode 4, “The Princes Go to Town”)

A surprisingly beautiful moment that provides much-needed exposition without you even realizing it's doing it. That the princes can't see the forest for the trees becomes their first real lesson - while studying with Heine, it's not just about facts and figures and history, but the realities of the kingdom that they stand to inherit. (And this is just the capital, which lies right outside their palace door - you can almost hear the realization set in of how much more vast their responsibility will be to an entire kingdom.) And when balanced with later episodes and Heine's background, it gives it a much more poignant feeling upon re-watch.

#8 - Kai and Helene (Episode 8, “A Timid Heart”)

I don't care what the manga says, I am firmly captaining the Good Ship Kai/Helene (see my vignettes 'Tea and Sympathy', 'Silent Treatment', and ‘Words, Words, Words’). Kai's struggles to express himself are eminently relatable, as is Helene's frustrated sadness at not knowing how to make things easier for him. And to see the evolution of Kai's relationships with the palace staff in general (and Helene in particular) is deeply satisfying. To convey so much through so few words is a gift. And the scene in the garden is both beautiful and bittersweet - massive props to both Daman Mills as Kai and Sara Ragsdale as Helene.

#7 - Heine wins over Leonhard (Episode 3, “You Don’t Need to Accept Me”)

I almost went with the sachertorte moment over this one, but between the music, the art direction, and the voice acting, Heine's quiet but impassioned speech to Leonhard imploring him not to give up on himself came through in the end. And Micah Solusod as Heine and Alejandro Saab as Leonhard completely sell the first true beginnings of this teacher/student bond. Leonhard finally gets the tutor he's so desperately needed, and then two episodes later, the whole scene gets a marvelous callback.

#6 - The princes’ investigation (Episode 11, “The Pair’s Promise”)

Another segment bolstered by fantastic music and vocal performances, this one makes the list because now we see just how far the princes will go for what they believe in (a nice setup for what comes in the final episode). Admittedly, the apples don't fall far from the tree when it comes to the misuse of authority and power at that age (as we see later in the same episode with Viktor himself), but the princes' investigation shows a logical precision and ruthless determination to face an unpleasant truth.

#5 - Licht and Viktor (Episode 6, “At Café Mitter Meyer”)

I admit that of the four princes, Licht took the longest to win me over (initially, I kept mentally comparing him to Ukyo from Samurai 7, which is still a compliment). One of the most poignant moments in a series filled with them, the scene of Licht and Viktor talking outside the café is heartbreakingly lovely and real. Outstanding dialogue and voice acting from David Wald and Stephen Sanders (as Viktor and Licht, respectively) takes what could have been sappy and overplayed, and turns it instead into a breathtakingly real scene - being willing to put aside your own wishes and wants to make the person you love happy.

#4 - Heine pleads with God (Episode 11, “The Pair’s Promise”)

Probably the shortest scene on the list, but there are two reasons why I put this one this high - an astonishingly deft vocal performance from Micah Solusod as Heine, and a shining character moment for Heine. Heine's voice throughout nearly the entire series up to this point has been controlled, calm, almost stoic - but when it finally breaks, the depth of feeling is tremendous. It is also the only time in the entire series we see Heine ever ask for something, and even then, it's not for himself.

#3 - Bruno’s inner demons (Episode 7, “The Whereabouts of a Dream”)

I will freely admit that Bruno is my favorite character in this series, in no small part thanks to consistently amazing performances from Chris Wehkamp. Up until now, Bruno's relentless pursuit of academic superiority has been almost played for laughs. But Bruno's internal monologue while delivering his paper, and his later confession to Heine beneath the rose arbor, give him a depth that is agonizingly real. And then to see them counterbalanced by his moments of absolute joy is a sheer delight.

#2 - The dreams of four princes (Episode 12, “The Last Lesson”)

A soulful, desperate plea from our young princes to the men who will supposedly decide their future. All of Heine's efforts bear fruit as the four share their hopes and dreams of what Granzreich could become if given the chance. Even in the face of near-certain defeat, they stand their ground and make their case, to devastating effect. Some of my favorite music cues from the series, plus earnest performances from our leads and dialogue echoing lessons from the very first episode, make this anime-only scene so worth the watch.

#1 - The entire wine cellar scene (Episode 9, “The Price of the Past”)

This is where I gush. The other nine spots on this list had me re-arranging them constantly, but this spot was never in doubt. The entire scene in the wine cellar is hands down one of my favorite in all of anime - the art direction, the dialogue, the choreography, the vocal performances (especially from Daman Mills as Kai and Micah Solusod as Heine, though Dallas Reid as Maximillian damned near steals the scene), and above all the music (the ONLY time that particular cue is used, and it is astounding - if this series gets a soundtrack, it had damned well better be on it), all come together for a tour de force. The insights we get into both Kai and Heine on real strength and when to use it (and not use it) are some of the most effective in the entire series. And all of Heine's myriad facets come together in this one scene with a clarity and economy that is as visceral as it is beautiful. I can watch this five-and-a-half-minute scene (or even just listen to it) over and over and never tire of it. 

[afterspark-podcast]

G1 Episode 20: Transcript

Episode Show Notes

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

O: Fist bump! Oh man, it was great!

[Intro Music]

O: Hello, and welcome to the Afterspark Podcast.  An episode by episode recap of the generation 1 Transformers cartoon.  I'm Owls!

S: And I'm Specs.

O: And today we're gonna be talking about episode number 20: Dinobot Island, part 2. Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Sure.

O: Last time on the Transformers, according to the narrator, the Dinobots were exiled to Dinobot Island.

S: According to, to Specs, to me, um, it was summer camp. Is this supposed to tell us something about the Autobot thought process, maybe?

O: Maybe just Optimus’s thought process?

S: Are they supposed to be in timeout until they learn to get- have more finesse?

O: [Laughter] Maybe? I don’t know, but Wheeljack and Ratchet seemed too supportive for me to think they were exiled, okay?

S: Yeah. [drawn out]

O: Anyway, the Decepticons showed up, gathered a whole fuck-ton of energy on the- well-

S: Island.

O: The- Dinobot Island, and dumped the Dinobots into a tar pit.

S: And now, on today's episode, Megatron is glad to be rid of those, “Dull-witted Dinobots.”

O: At least he's honest about his loathing for them.

S: I guess that is the thing, yeah.

O: Just saying, it may not be nicer than the Autobots per se but at least he's honest about it.

S: Yeah. Megatron turns back to the rest of the Decepticons ordering them to “drain the island of its energy,” like, drain it dry for something.

O: Yeah, yeah, like, gather all the energy and Starscream says they, “Might upset the chronological balance of this island!”

S: Yeah, you know, due to its precarious placement in the timestream. What with, you know, the dinosaurs and all that shit.

O: I got to hear Megatron say the phrase “scientific gobbledy-gook” and it was wonderful.

S: Little did we know that Starscream and Soundwave can summon the Energon from lava just by holding a cube over it and, I mean, apparently, all the other Decepticons can do that too.

O: Which we'll see two seconds later because Ramjet and Thrust do the exact same thing by holding the Energon cubes over a crevasse where some steam us coming up.

S: It's weird, man.

O: It is weird.

S: After the Energon is collected, the island begins to quake and the volcano threatens an impending eruption. Starscream responds to this rather cheerfully, wondering if this is the mistake that will make him the Decepticon leader.

O: While still standing on the rim of that active volcano and the impending eruption. Uh maybe move out of the volcano splash zone before you start, you know, planning your future there, buddy.

S: I guess he doesn't have much experience with volcanoes erupting.

O: I guess, yeah.

S: He'd find himself probably inconvenienced by the ash cloud.

O: [Laughter] Indeed.

S: And at the Ark, Ratchet has finished repairing Teletraan I because you- if you remember from last episode, the Dinobots did a bit of a number on it.

O: The Dinobots trashed everything. Of course, that was on accident because they're sweet dumb babies.

S: Mm-hmm.

O: Ratchet thanks Sparkplug for his help and Sparkplug wonders where Spike has wandered off too and, if you'll remember- um, according to the end of last episode he's a dead, buried under building, we’ll mourn his loss.

S: Teletraan I proceeds to pick up a weird signal that Wheeljack interprets as a [singing] time warp.

O: It's just a jump to the left!

S: And a skip to the right!

O: [Laughter]

S: Apparently, Wheeljack is able to pinpoint at the time warp is near the library.

O: Yes, yes- the library, you know, where Spike and Bumblebee were last episode.

S: Mm-hmm. The Autobots leave to investigate.

O: Showing up in the city, the group digs up Spike and Bumblebee, Sideswipe doing the bulk of the work with his piledrivers.

S: He's a good heavy hitter.

O: He is.

S: Spike is fine, Bumblebee apparently protected him with his body.

O: [Coughs, and continues with a (bad) Southern accent] “Say, Mr. Bee, what exactly is your relationship to that boy?” [Laughter]

S: [Laughter-Groaning] The Autobots come face-to-face with the rampaging mammoths and their accompanying, weirdly stylish, barbarians.

O: I think the VA doing the barbarian gibberish might be Ratchet’s voice actor. I cannot substantiate this in the slightest but, I mean, come on we know the guy can do some first-class gibberish. Ironhide then moves to wrangle the mammoths but not before Optimus says what quite possibly, in my opinion, might be the dumbest line in the entire series, “Remember, those creatures are flesh and blood, not unfeeling machines like the Decepticons.”

S: Keep telling yourself that, Optimus. Buddy, pal.

O: Friend of mine. Okay but I just don't understand how anyone can look at any of the Decepticons, but especially fucking Starscream, and say that is an unfeeling machine. He has many feelings, most of them are varying degrees of screech but they're still feelings.

S: Self-entitlement.

O: Self-entitlement! Um, anger- all of the cons are quite good at anger, except maybe Soundwave. Soundwave is about the only one I'm gonna not call you out on even though I'm pretty sure he's got feelings.

S: And a lot of whine thrown in there.

O: Yeah, yeah, yeah- Sideswipe- or not Sideswipe- Starscream is excellent at whine.

S: Sideswipe is very excited to beat up some mammoths because he's not taking what Optimus said into account at all.

O: No no, he’s gonna beat shit up. We also see Huffer lift an entire mammoth over his head and for an Autobot Huffer’s pretty small, so this is pretty funny.

S: Apparently he's just a pint-sized powerhouse.

O: Apparently. Ironhide then confronts the barbarians- shooting glue at them to keep them all in one place.

S: What's this? Continuity? A character using the same ability in more than one episode?

O: No, never!

S: Sunstreaker also gets into the mammoth lifting shenanigans [sighs] but some of the barbarians proceed to court death and start beating on Sunstreaker.

O: He's very vain, if you don't know this already. You do not want to mess with his paint job, he will literally kill you.

S: Yeah, he then points and generates electricity, and the barbarians get shocked and run off.

O: In order to corral the still rampaging mammoths, Optimus calls his trailer into existence and the other Autobots shove a bunch of elephants into his trailer.

S: He's got a lot of junk in that trunk.

O: Oh Lord, not again.

S: I will use that line anytime I can.

O: [Laughter]

S: Ironhide walks on screen holding a mammoth in an incredibly awkward way.

O: Is his face like at it’s butt? [Laughter]

S: It is, unfortunately.

O: It does not look comfortable for anyone involved but, oh nos!! The time warp is closing.

S: I have some concerns about those barbarians that got glued in place but I don't think it's gonna be addressed, um. Sunstreaker and Hound keep the time warp from, you know, closing by shooting at it and keeping it open with these weird octagon things?

O: I don't think- I don’t know what's going on there and, like, at all.

S: Yeah.

O: But immediately because, remember, they have just shoved all those mammoths into Optimus Prime's trailer. They let them out and then herd them through the time warp. So this lasted all of like, what, five fucking seconds?

S: Apparently they needed something to do, but honestly they could have just had not Autobot circus. I don’t know. Ironhide proceeds to direct the mammoths like he's a traffic cop directing traffic.

O: It is amazing.

S: Yeah.

O: Sideswipe herds the barbarians far less gently. With fire.

S: I mean, yeah, how did they get the ones Ironhide glued down? I mean, did they?

O: I think it's obvious they probably didn’t. [Laughter]

S: I have many concerns.

O: Don't worry, back at the Ark, it's the return of Chip!

S: Our boy!

O: Our boy!

S: And some of the new guys introduce themselves because toy lineup.

O: New season.

S: Gotta get those toys, parents.

O: Yep.

S: Beachcomber and Perceptor are, like, the main ones here.

O: That actually say their names, of which I can only say, Percy? Oh thank fucking God, a sane Autobot! There's just so few of those!

S: Yep. And then Teletraan I and Chip proceed to track down two new time warps. The first one is out on the ocean with a pirate ship sailing through to harass a yacht.

O: They want their wenches. Literally.

S: Yeah. “We want your money and your wenches!”

O: Pretty much.

S: And on the second, dumps a group of Old West outlaws near a group of bikers- presumably somewhere in the American Southwest.

O:The outlaws decide to steal the motorcycles because they will be able to escape faster.

S: Well, they call them, “Newfangled mechanical horses.”

O: Yes.

S: And I feel like this is not how people from the Old West should react to seeing motorcycles.

O: We-we both know that the show has many, many historical accuracies, um, and doesn’t know what science is.

S: [Laughter] Inaccuracies.

O: Oh, what did I say?

S: You said accuracies. [Laughter]

O: Oh, I meant inaccuracies.

S: [Laughter] You said, “Many historical accuracies.”

O: NO! No!

S: It makes you sound sarcastic!

O: [Laughter] OK, I guess as long as I sound sarcastic it works well. Um, we then cut to Cliffjumper who's waterskiing in car mode. Again. While being accompanied by two new characters, Seaspray and Tracks.

S: Seaspray can turn into a hovercraft.

O: He's voiced by the guy who does Skeletor and, like, you go on the wiki and it'll say how he did the voice and it, honestly, was hilarious and I was doing it while we were watching the episode because I'm horrible. [Laughter]

S: It was great. And then Tracks, who turns into the hottest Corvette Stingray. Specifically, a flying Corvette Stingray. You know that's one of the features that you were never able to get in a Corvette Stingray. He's one of our favorite characters in the series.

O: And he only shows up in a couple of episodes. Boo!

S: Tracks is also the sexiest Autobot, or at least he thinks he is. He's thinks he’s the sexiest Autobot.

O: You think Sunstreaker is vain? He's got nothing on this guy.

S: Tracks blinds the pirates and frees the yacht from their grappling hooks before helping Seaspray and Cliffjumper push the pirates back towards the time warp.

O: And now that the showdown between the bikers and cowboys.

S: The bikers all get their butts kicked, surprisingly, considering motorcycles are fucking faster than horses.

O: Yes. Some highlights from this fight include: A biker pulling out a chain all threateningly, but then one of the outlaws just jumps off his horse and tackles him. And then an outlaw tries to drive a motorcycle but runs into the one tree in a ten-mile radius and wipes out. [Laughter]

S: I got some really funny photos of this.

O: They're so dumb and wonderful.

S: Yeah, I don't think the cowboy would actually be able to successfully do this because I don't think he'd be able to balance on the fucking motorcycle.

O: I don't think he would either and I think that's supposed to be why he wiped out, but still it was pretty damn funny to watch.

S: Yes, but it would make more sense for the thing to just fall over when he tries to-

O: They wanted him to run into a tree!

S: The Autobots show up or, as an outlaw calls, “And talking horseless carriages! What’s next?”

O: Then our charming, intelligent outlaws get the brilliant idea shooting at the giant, metal men.

S: Prowl disarms them by melting all their guns with his acid pellets and Jazz proceeds to scare them away with loud, modern music.

O: As-as all is right with the world. Red Alert seems to take a leaf from Sideswipe’s book and herds them into the time portal with fire.

S: Yeah, like, he's sort of chastises Inferno who then joins in, shooting at the outlaws with water.

O: I'm rapidly becoming convinced that Red Alert and inferno are dating because Red Alert always seems like he's really clingy with inferno but I kind of like it.

S: I think that's been the common interpretation for a very long time.

O: Probably, I just haven't read any fic on this one.

S: Those two time warps taken care of, we go back to Chip who's been able to figure out that the energy disruptions coming from Dinobot Island are causing all the time disturbances, which kind of makes me wonder if they were reading all of these energy disruptions and just not giving a shit.

O: Possibly. I mean, do-do the Cons just do shit like this on a daily basis? But no, no the dumbest thing here is that the time disturbances are also causing Mount Saint Hillary to become active. AGAIN.

S: I mean- wasn't it, like, active three months ago?

O: Yes. Yes, when, uh, Megatron was trying to pull Cybertron close to Earth, yeah.

S: Yeah, and I mean when the volcano erupted, too, waking everyone up.

O: Yeah, I don’t think this is a dormant volcano. That's my personal opinion at this point.

S: I don’t know, it’s weird. They can't- they can't get their, you know, volcanism or geology, you know, solid. Optimus Prime orders Warpath, Beachcomber, Perceptor, Ironhide, smokescreen, and Trailbreaker to put on jetpacks and go to Dinobot Island in order to restore the timestream.

O: Meanwhile, back on Dinobot Island, Megatron wants more energon.

S: When doesn't he want more? But touche. Starscream tells him they’re fucking shit up and that they need to leave before the island explodes. Megatron, however, does not give a shit about exploding Islands.

O: Uh, Megs, honey, baby, how are you gonna carry all that energon off the island if it's destroyed. It's not like you came here with the ship and I am pretty damn sure you cannot shove all of that giant pyramid of Energon into subspace.

S: Well, between all the Decepticons that they do have, they might be able to at least get a chunk of it.

O: They could get a chunk but if it just explodes, they don't have time and he's not taking this seriously. He's just gonna get none of it!

S: Yeah.

O: Which honestly sounds like a gamble the idiot would do, yes.

S: Yeah.

O: The Dinobots are able to escape their tarry prison rather suddenly when all the tar evaporates, presumably due to all the crazy shit that's happening on Dinobot Island?

S: Can tar even do that? I don’t know.

O: [Laughter]

S: The Dinobots shoot the remnants of the tar off each other with, like, their fire laser breath or whatever and, uh, before turning, you know, returning to their robot modes. They're all super fucking pissed at the Decepticons and proceeded to fly off.

O: Why didn’t you do that the last episode you nimrods?

S: The Autobots arrive, landing near Megatron and his energon pile.

O: Optimus has somehow reached the conclusion that if they remove the energy from this area then the entire galaxy may crumble and unless Percy came up with that theory on the jaunt over here, you're full of shit, sir.

S: [Indistinct] Megatron knocks Optimus on his ass with a well-placed shot from his fusion cannon.

O: Megatron then orders an attack, with Starscream shouting in order to attack from the air causing, you know, the Seekers and the Coneheads to all attack.

S: Yeah. Warpath hits several of the attacking seekers before he and Percy are knocked down.

O: Megatron and Optimus continue to fight, as you do.

S: Megs proceeds to tell Soundwave to, “Prepare to receive,” before turning, you know, transforming into gun mode.

O: Well, is that what we're calling it nowadays?

S: Apparently.

O: [Laughter]

S: Soundwave fires on Optimus with Megs, causing a huge fissure to open up in the ground.

O: Soundwave then drops Megs, who sort of bounces on the ground returning to robot mode. I don't know why I was amused by this, but I was.

S: Eh, it’s just a cute little bounce. Got to make your warlord who's a gun bounce.

O: It's not as cute as the Ravage bounce.

B: [Laughter]

O: Ravage bouncing was adorable!

S: Yeah. Meanwhile, we see the dorkiest transformation we've ever seen. Blitzwing transforms into a tank- he's a triple changer, for the record- however, his head is still visible in the tank mode and it looks super goofy because he's, like, his face-face down.

O: Yeah, like, it's still obviously his face and then he just drives off.

S: Yeah, I think the next time we see him that doesn't look like it's his face.

O: Yeah, like, it looks like it's probably back to more what it looks like on the toy or what he normally looks like in tank mode.

S: Yeah.

O: And then we have Beachcomber, a known pacifist, who is firing at someone off screen with his hand lasers until Blitzwing catches up with him.

S: Now it's time for the showdown between the tank and dune buggy we've all been waiting for, who will win?

O: I don't know! [Laughter] Beachcomber’s able to escape as Warpath and Blitzwing have a throwdown.

S: The Dinobots arrive on scene with Grimlock rallying the actual dinosaurs to fight for them.

O: His name is Grimlock and he speaks for the dinos.

S: The Autobots appear to be losing badly as everyone is pinned to the ground, getting shot at.

O: Megatron, we all know that you're the one shooting Optimus repeatedly in the crotch during this shot.

B: [Laughter]

S: The dinosaurs arrive and they absolutely wrecked the Decepticon’s shit.

O: It's amazing.

S: The triceratops mows Megatron down as the stegosaurus simultaneously takes out Soundwave, Blitzwing, and Starscream.

O: Dirge is then picked up in a t-rex’s mouth and tossed, as the other two Coneheads are trampled on by multiple dinosaurs.

S: Skywarp and Thundercracker are jumped on by another t-rex-looking dino before also being trampled on by multiple dinosaurs.

O: Megatron decides to get the hell out of dodge, because he's gonna survive this even if his army doesn't.

S: I think all the Decepticons are going to have phobias about reptiles.

O: I don't think I blame them.

S: Yeah. The Autobots decide to release the energy back to the island in an effort to restore the time stream. By shooting at the pile of Energon.

O: Didn't we establish this shit's explosive?

S: We did, because it explodes and everything's fine, somehow.

O: Of course!

S: The Dinobots are then allowed to come back home.

O: Gee, thanks, Optimus.

S: And then, for some inexplicable reason, the Dinobots are all wearing jetpacks when they fly off??

O: Keeping shit straight, we don't do that here. And join us next time for episode 21: Traitor. Watch as Cliffjumper repeatedly makes the wrong assumptions about poor Mirage.

S: Poor Mirage.

O: Poor Mirage. And I believe we have some fanfic for today.

S: Yes, we do. We have two fanfiction recommendations for you. The first is, “Really Bad Eggs,” by JazzBot. It's, uh, continuity wise it's set in the G1 cartoon, but it's a crossover with Pirates of the Caribbean or the Caribbean cuz I don't think I pronounce.

O: Pirates of the Caribbean.

S: It's a crossover with Pirates of the Caribbean, specifically the first one, I think.

O: Yeah, I think it- I think it is pretty specifically, it seems like it's the first one.

S: Yeah, because I think it was written before any of the sequels came out.

O: Probably.

S: Uh, so it's rated K. It's Gen, there's no pairings, and our characters here are Bluestreak, Prowl, and Skywarp. And in summary: “Bluestreak, Prowl, and Skywarp are involved in a little teleportation accident. Hmm. Wonder where they ended up?”

O: Where indeed.

S: And our theme here is a deserted island, and also pirates. And it's a one-shot. And our second recommendation is, “Jailbreak,” by eerian_sadow. Its G1 cartoon with influence from Transformers Legends, which we might have mentioned before but it is a short story collection that's officially licensed by Hasbro but none of the stuff in it is canon so it's basically officially licensed fan fiction.

O: Yes.

S: More or less. It's- it's fun and it's cute and I'd recommend it, but you might have some issues getting it because it was only available on the print run.

O: I want to say it's actually easier to find now but I might be wrong.

S: Maybe. I don't know if it was reissued.

O: I'll post a link if I think- if I remember, when we post this.

S: Yeah, thank you. So, it's rated K, its Gen, there's no pairings, and characters here are Paddles, Seaspray, and Swoop. And, for the record, Paddles is a character from Transformers Legends.

O: He is another Dinobot.

S: Yes.

O: But he is, he- he is an aquatic one. That's the word I’m looking for.

S: I could remember what the heck he was but now I don't. [groans]

O: Just know he's an aquatic dinosaur. That's probably the only thing that's truly relevant here.

S: Yeah, and this one didn't actually have a set summary, so the only thing I can really like I came up with for it was, “It's a short cute thing about a rescue.” Because that's what it is. It's less than a thousand words long and I'd recommend it and this- it's nice to see Paddles featured in something.

O: Mm-hmm.

S: And this one is the theme for it was Dinobots, featuring Paddles and Swoop.

O: Good Swoop.

S: Yep and it's a one shot. Thank you, and that just about wraps it up for us today. Remember to check us out on Tumblr or Pillowfort as Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links we may have mentioned. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter @Aftersparkpod (all one word) and various other locations by searching for Afterspark Podcast, such as AO3, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Youtube, just to name a few.

S: Till next time! I'm Specs!

O: And I'm Owls!

S: Toodles!

[Outro Music]

[tea-and-cardigans]

We Have History - Alice/FP

This fic mainly focuses on the pairing of FP/Alice, but there is still some Bughead in there.

While I am still on the fence about whether I would ship them together now, I definetley like the idea that they have a history together.

There is a keep reading break in here so hoping it doesn’t cut off the fic for mobile users. Sorry :(

Summary:

Alice and FP are chaperoning the Homecoming dance, while watching Betty and Jughead they reflect on their own history and what could have been.

“Didn’t think I would ever see you at one of these.” She stated bluntly. Handing him a cup of punch, she had been careful to get him the unspiked version. Alice Cooper had been surprised to see him walk into the gym which had been converted into a winter wonderland for the Homecoming Dance.

“Trying to be a better person, be there for him.” He replied curtly. He was clean shaven, shirt and tie. She had to admit he looked good, different to when she had seen him outside the Andrews house a week ago.

Jughead had jokingly asked him to chaperone under the gentle encouragement of Betty and needed to pick his bottom jaw off the floor when his father had said yes. He had reminded him that he would need to be sober and presentable and FP had rolled his eyes asking who the parent was. The cold stare from his son, set him straight on that one. Alice was watching her youngest daughter, arm in arm with the beanie wearing boy, who she knew her daughter was falling for, hard.

“Are you ever afraid that they will make the same mistakes that we made?” She wondered out loud, taking a sip. He paused thinking about his response.

“They are not us Alice, I know Jughead sure as hell isn’t me, he wont make the same mistakes I did.”

“Yes he does seem to have inherited your wife’s smarts.” She smiled coolly at him. She thought about her own daughter, she so desperately didn’t want her to make the same mistakes that she had in her youth. She was aware that she was overbearing at times and she didn’t want Betty to hate her for it. But at times she thought maybe it was better that she hate her rather than make those same mistakes.

“I’ve tried you know. To steer her in the right direction. I messed up with Polly. I know that, I was just so scared they would be doomed to make the same mistakes us their mother.” She sighed deeply.

“You don’t consider this a mistake then.” He indicated at the two teenagers linked arm in arm as they chatted to their friends. When he had seen Betty Cooper in his trailer with Jughead he had to admit he was surprised. He knew the tight control Alice kept over her daughters and that she was letting her daughter hang out with his son struck him as odd. Especially given their history.

“No a mistake is being with someone you don’t love because of a reputation. That’s a mistake that will ruin your life.” She lamented. 

“They look so happy don’t they.” They watched as the two teenagers, completely wrapped up in each other moved around the dance floor. Occasionally he would whisper something in her ear and she would giggle before resting her head on his chest again as they swayed to the music.

“I remember a time when we were happy.” He mused.

“Me too.” She replied, thinking about the good times the two had had together in their youth.

“Before you turned all Stepford wife.” He couldn’t resist the little dig at how far removed she was now from the Southside.

“Who would have thought our kids would be dating?” He said an attempt to change the subject.

“Who would have thought you would have had kids.” She retorted. He raised the glass to her, conceding that point. It had always been like this between the two at high school. Trading barbs with one another, each one more pointed than the next. He remembered their arguments fondly. She was a force to be reckoned with even back then. He always knew that she would move on from the Southside she was too big for that place, too bright. It was people like him who stayed those who couldn’t escape the family loop. He wanted and hoped for better for Jughead.

“What do you think they are talking about over there?” Betty asked as she noticed her mum speaking to FP over by the refreshments table . Jughead looked over where she was looking and chuckled to himself.

“Probably your mum telling my dad, all the ways she will hurt me if I hurt you.” He joked, sort of.

“It looks pretty intense.” Betty was starting to worry, her forehead creasing.

“Your mum is intense Betty. The first time I came over for breakfast I thought she was going to interrogate me on the way to the bathroom.” He had been terrified of Mrs Cooper from when he was a kid, he knew how strict she was and how protective she was of her daughters.

“I’m sure your dad can handle her.” She said confidently.

“I don’t think even a Southside Serpent could handle your mum Betts.”

“Do you think we would ever tell them?” He asked her, finishing his drink and setting it aside.

“What that we dated in high school.” She said lightly as if it was nothing of concern.

“I like to think that it was a little bit more involved than dating.” The hurt evident in his voice.

“We were so young.”

“I loved you.” He admitted.

“I know.” She smiled sadly looking away from him to watch the couple dancing, Betty’s head now resting on Jughead’s chest a smile on her face. 

“They don’t need to know.” He decided, observing the couple as well. 

“Unless they manage to find an old yearbook in their investigative adventures.” She smiled glad that Betty had inherited her journalistic tendencies.“Besides I’d be more worried about them seeing what your hair was like back then, not the fact that we were at prom together.”

He remembered fondly the ill advised mullet that he had grown in an effort to impress her, suffice to say that she had not been impressed and he got rid of it only weeks later.

“I stand by that hairstyle.” She laughed at him. A deep throaty laugh as she reminisced about him in his suit, mullet and a corsage just for her, remembering to match her dress. He had been sweet about the whole thing, from asking her to go, to paying for dinner at Pop’s and dancing with her to the slow songs even though he had two left feet.

“Are you okay Alice?” He asked sincerely.

“Not really.” She smiled back sadly. “You?”

“No, not at all.” He answered honestly, he didn’t need to hide the truth from her. They continued to stand there letting the reality of their situations wash over them, each of their own doing. The tempo of the music changed, slowing down, as the couples made their way to the dance floor, arms around each other. He extended a hand to her. “Dance with me?”

She looked to his hand, then to his face, a small smile on his lips, she should say no, not dally in things that wouldn’t ever be, but instead she took his hand and let him pull her to the dance floor.

“You still have two left feet FP.” She commented.

“You still can’t let me lead.” He replied, raising his eyebrows. It was true Alice Cooper or Alice Taylor as she was known back then was always the one in control. She dictated the relationship from the very start, when she pushed him up against the wall of Pop’s diner almost 20 years ago, capturing her lips with his after one of their more colourful arguments. There had always been this unspoken tension between them that neither one would acknowledge until it had become too much to bear and she had to feel his lips on hers, she needed to know what he felt like.

They had started going ‘steady’ as she liked to call it soon after. He was consumed by her, the way she walked, the way she felt in his arms and when they traded barbs there was still that passion underneath them, except now they had a whole new way to make up.

That had been until senior year, when talk of futures and moving on were discussed. He knew she had a bright future, one that was too bright for him, he would only hold her back. The things he said had been unkind, they had cut deep, she had distanced herself from him, just as he had planned but what he didn’t count on was how much it hurt, to see her with someone else. Especially Hal Cooper, the guy had been a dick from the word go, he was a bully, a jock, everything that FP despised and he wondered if that was why she had decided that he was the one, just to spite him. Senior year they were high school sweet hearts and FP began to pull away more and more, he didn’t even bothering finishing his final year, didn’t see the point.

Then he met Jughead’s mum and he thought that maybe it all wasn’t lost, maybe he could work with someone else, it didn’t have to be her. But sure enough that relationship broke down as well. For different reasons, but he still blamed himself. He had made so many mistakes in his life and all he could do now was try to be better, to do better and make sure his own son did not follow in his footsteps. He couldn’t let him make the same mistake pushing away Betty because of his own insecurities, he wouldn’t let history repeat itself.

The song ended and he and Alice broke apart, as if they had lost themselves in the song, in the moment. It was a brief respite from both of their problems. She smiled kindly before they noticed their children approaching them, concern on their faces.

“Busted.” He whispered in her ear, a chill running down her spine.

[lynchgirl90]

@RollingStone David Lynch on #TwinPeaks and why 'Mulholland Dr.' is definitely not a horror movie

David Lynch on Twin Peaks Revival: 'The Woods Are Full of Mystery'

More than 25 years after original series ended, the filmmaker explains why revisiting Laura Palmer's mystery was easy as pie.

The season premiere of Twin Peaks is days away, and there is hardly any information about its episodes available. The synopsis for the first two episodes quizzically reads, "The stars turn and a time presents itself." Naturally, this is exactly what filmmaker David Lynch wants. 

"These days, movie trailers practically tell the whole story," he says in his nasal, matter-of-fact, plainspoken manner. "I think it's really harmful. For me, personally, I don't want to know anything when I go into a theater. I like to discover it, get into that world, try to get as good of picture and sound as possible, no interruptions – so you can have an experience. And anything that putrefies that is not good."

This outlook also explains Lynch's general attitude toward mystery, the driving force behind Twin Peaks since its pilot. The original series focused on the investigation into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, the secrets that possess the denizens of her Pacific Northwestern hometown and a shadow world where supernatural spirits cross over into reality. Every episode seemed to end with a question mark. And as it went on, the show's storyline became more and more complex ("Life is very, very complicated, and so films should be allowed to be, too," Lynch once said) but the increasingly confusing plot drove away viewers. When the show was canceled after its second season, it ended on a cliffhanger.

One scene in the final episode showed murder victim Palmer in the show's Black Lodge netherworld, snapping her fingers and telling Kyle MacLachlan's FBI agent character, "I'll see you again in 25 years." It was this sentence, and the occasion of the episode's silver anniversary, that prompted Lynch to team again with co-creator Mark Frost to write 18 new episodes of the series that pick up a quarter of a century after the events of the first two seasons.

All that Lynch & Co. have revealed about the Twin Peaks revival, which premieres Sunday on Showtime, are a few details about the cast and the fact that the filmmaker directed every episode. MacLachlan will reprise his role as Agent Dale Cooper; Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee and even Lynch (who played the hearing-impaired FBI agent Gordon Cole) are back as well. Additionally, Laura Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Trent Reznor and Eddie Vedder, among others, are joining the cast. Other than a few purposely mysterious teasers, the full scope of Lynch and Frost's mystery remains intact for now.

In a brief yet wide-ranging chat with Rolling Stone, Lynch recently explained why he brought back the series while simultaneously keeping its secrets.

What should viewers know going into the new season? Absolutely nothing.

You told Variety that the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Mewas very important to understanding the new run. I said it's important. But even so, I think that someone who's never seen Twin Peaks would be able to go along.

So it's a whole new thing? I didn't say that. I said they'd be able to go along.

How did you get back into the Twin Peaks mindset? [Co-creator Mark Frost and I] both know the world, so it's sort of like going back to a place where you grew up. You know your way around even though things are a little different. Memories come back and ideas come like that.

Did you watch the original seasons again? No.

Why not? This is ... You know, I can't answer that. Sorry [laughs].

What did you go off of then if you didn't watch those again? Well, for me anyways, the pilot was the most Twin Peaks, and then other things came along that became Twin Peaks as well. It's a particular ... We all see it from our own point of view.

How did you know you had an idea strong enough to bring back to TV? I didn't really know. I just had fragments and we got together and more and more ideas started coming. One day, there it was.

How was it working with everyone again? So beautiful. It was like a family reunion every day.

Did it click right away with the cast? It was kind of remarkable. The people that had been in the original knew their characters. They loved the world and got right back on the bike and went. And the new people ... everybody was super. It was a great ride.

Actor Frank Silva, who played the pivotal role of Bob in the original Twin Peaks and was in the final shot of the last episode, died in 1995. Will he have a presence in the new series in some way? I'm not allowed to say that.

OK, similarly, in that same final episode, the Man From Another Place – actor Michael J. Anderson – says, "When you see me again, it won't be me." What can you say about that? That it's more true than you think [laughs].

Your new cast members include Trent Reznor and Eddie Vedder. What appealed to you about them to make you want to cast them? Well, I'm probably not allowed to talk about that either. I'm just fans of both of them. And I'd worked with Trent on Lost Highway.

The Twin Peaks setting itself could be considered a returning character. What do you feel when you go out shooting the show in the woods at night? Oh, the woods are full of mystery. It's really great. Daytime woods are really beautiful, but at night, the mystery quotient goes way up and it's a real beautiful experience. The woods in the Northwest, they're friendly woods. I guess you could come across a bear, though by and large they're very friendly. But they still hold a mystery. They're kind of overwhelming when you're in them and it's night.

Those shots have always fascinated me because they say so much about nature, the environment and the spirituality of all of that. Beautiful.

"Feature films are not having a great time right now – at least the kind of feature films that I would want to see or make. The new art house is cable television."

You wrote every episode with Mark Frost. What is it about the two of you that works so well? I'm not sure. We just have fun writing together.

How do you go about it? Intuition is the Number One tool.

You directed every episode. How was it directing 18 hours of TV? I see it as a film – so it's an 18-hour film. It's like directing anything in cinema. It's exactly like working on a film.

But since it's television and released in hour-long increments, don't you have to think about the end of each hour? No, you don't really. You divide it up.

You recently said you weren't doing movies ever again – [Interrupts] I didn't say that. That was a misquote. I just said that feature films are not having a great time right now – at least the kind of feature films that I would want to see or make. Theaters want money, so they put in films that are going to generate a big audience. But the art houses are mostly gone. I say the new art house is cable television.

Do you see yourself making features for television now? No. I don't know what will happen next, but this is an 18-hour film in my mind. And I love the idea of a continuing story. A feature is over in two-and-a-half, three hours. The stories that you tell on cable can go on and on and on. It's really beautiful.

Will there be more Twin Peaks after this? I have no idea. It depends on how it goes over. You're going to have to wait and see.

Have you thought about what's next for you? No. I just finished working on this finally, and it's coming out this week.

It sounds like a fly-by-the-sea-of-your-pants experience. It's just a long haul to get it all done.

So much has changed since Twin Peaks first aired. Do you feel a competition in the TV environment? No, no, no. This whole thing of competition is a bit ridiculous. You just do your work as good as you can, and try to enjoy the doing. Then when you put it out in the world, it's out of your control. You just hope for the best.

What television do you like then? I really liked Mad Men, and I liked Breaking Bad. I also like [the TV network] Velocity. It's about customizing and restoring cars, and it's really fascinating to me. There are real artists out there with automobiles doing incredible, incredible work. Sculpture. It's beautiful.

What films have you liked recently? I haven't seen anything for at least five years.

Is that just because you've been busy? Yeah.

You have a lot of catching up to do then. I don't really ... I'm not really a film buff. I like to work on my own things.

Lastly, there's been some debate online in recent years about whether your film, Mulholland Drive, is a horror film or not. What do you make of that? No, it's not a horror movie. Let's put it this way: I like a film that holds different genres. Just like life. One day you can have a horror film, a comedy, a romantic thing. It's crazy to put a genre on a film, really, unless it just wants to be that. So it's not a horror film, no. I don't know who started that, but it's kind of way off base.

link (TP)

[marysocontrary1]

Supergirl: Katie McGrath Is in Love With 'Badass' Lena Luthor — Aren't You?

By Matt Webb Mitovich / April 11 2017, 11:20 AM PDT

“So, so sorry to keep you waiting! But there were puppies.”

Supergirl’s Katie McGrath comes shuffling around the corner toward her setside trailer, having just made some furry friends over in hair-and-makeup. For someone so enigmatic both on-screen (Is Lena so different from brother Lex?) and off (Why doesn’t she have a birth date?), the Irish actress is wonderfully warm and welcoming, veritably champing at the bit to give her first in-depth interview since making her debut on the CW series last fall.

McGrath led TVLine on a quick iPhone tour of the puppies she just played with (peppered with some commentary on canine couture), before sitting for a cozy Q&A. Weeks afterward, she would earn a promotion to series regular for Season 3 — news she surely reveled in, given her girl crush on Miss Luthor, detailed below.

TVLINE | First of all, tell me what you’re shooting today. What am I shooting today? We are on [Episode] 218, so it’s a storyline with Rahul [Kohli], from iZombie. He plays Jack Spheer, who is a love interest for moi.

TVLINE | Jack is Lena’s ex, though, right? Yeah, but if there’s an ex, there’s still [with a flourish of the hand] frisson there, you know? We were together for a while. I feel very privileged that they thought enough of my character to give me a hot man to play with for an episode (airing Monday, April 24, when Season 2 resumes).

TVLINE | It sounds like a big episode for you. It is, actually. What’s nice about it is you’re getting quite a bit of backstory for me as a character. You haven’t really seen storylines for Lena outside of her being a Luthor and all the stories to do with her family…

TVLINE | It always seems to come back to her mom. Exactly. Or her brother… all of that kind of stuff. And this is separate to that, which is nice. It gives you more of an insight of her as an individual rather than her as part of her family.

TVLINE | But as Lena reconnects with Jack, Kara (played by Melissa Benoist) gets to investigating one of them…? There is the release of some new technology that to Kara seems a bit suspect and seems to be connected to a few dastardly dealings going on. She’s attempting to investigate it, on one hand, because journalistically she thinks that it’s interesting. And then on the other hand, she’s investigating it because she’s worried about me as her friend. So, there’s both of those going on.

TVLINE | So, you think Lena and Kara are friends at this point? They’re like bezzie mates.

TVLINE | Yeah? Yeah! Yeah! See, everybody’s got this idea that…. It’s always hard when you’re playing a character that everybody thinks is going to go one direction. They’re convinced she’s going to go down the road of Lex—

TVLINE | I’m not. But the two of them have bumped heads a bit. No, but they bump heads like anyone. Don’t you ever bump heads with your friends? But they always come back to, you know, a place of mutual respect of each other.

TVLINE | What might Kara’s investigation do to that dynamic? I can’t give away the ending. [Laughs] But ultimately, we’ve spent 18 episodes over the season building a friendship between the two of them, and it’s not going to be able to be destroyed in one episode. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of actually on this show, and I didn’t think that’s where it was going to go, because when I came in, I only came in for a few episodes. And [the friendship] has slowly and very realistically, I think, built up over this season. We’ve all put a lot of work into it and I’m glad that they’re taking the time to get there, and keeping it.

TVLINE | You were talking about how everything always loops back to Lena’s mom or the whole Luthor thing, but is there a bigger picture to ultimately be revealed? Might Lena have a scheme of her own percolating that we’re completely oblivious to thus far? I don’t think so…. I think Lena is a very genuine person. What you see is what you get with her. She is honestly trying to do the best she can, and she is honestly a good person. That’s not to say that other people don’t use her for ills, because she’s the head of this company, she has all of these other relationships that people can manipulate — like her mother — and get her into these situations that…. A normal person isn’t going to be b put in jail by, you know, Cadmus with giant green ray guns! It doesn’t happen to people that are not a Luthor, but it’s how Lena reacts to it differently than the rest of her family which makes her interesting to play. You think she’s going to “be a Luthor” about something, but then she turns around and completely surprises you, which I guess is what makes her an interesting character to watch — and definitely an interesting character to play.

TVLINE | So, at the end of the season finale she’s not going to let out a maniacal cackle and say, “At long last, Project Leviathan can be unleashed!”? You know, she might! I haven’t read the end of the [season], so anything is possible. [Laughs] She could decide to move to a giant moon made of cheese. I mean, at this point, who knows!

TVLINE | Who have you been working with lately besides Melissa? Besides Melissa? I’ve been working with Rahul. I have been working with Brenda [Strong], my mom, who is just so delicious.

TVLINE | And tall. [Nods] God. I swear. But just, like, perfectly, elegantly in proportion. [Sweeping her hand from head to toe] She’s like a dancer. It’s unbelievable. I then rock up like an Irish potato going, “This is great. I am so not your child.”

TVLINE | Have you worked with Jeremy Jordan lately? You two have had a couple of fun scenes. I haven’t worked with him since our little meeting underneath the stage. It’s funny because I seem to play these characters, generally, that are separate from the main storyline. So most of my stuff actually is just with Melissa, which is really nice, and it always tends to be real character stuff…. Us sitting down talking about things that are important…

TVLINE | And it always passes the Bechdel Test. Yes! Exactly. It does. It’s proper scenes between two women, do you know what I mean? And it’s rare, generally, that you get to do that on TV. I think that’s why the relationship resonates with so many people — and it’s definitely why I love to play it.

TVLINE | Speaking of the Lena/Kara relationship, what do you think about the whole “Supercorp” thing? You’re not out there on Twitter…. I’m not on Twitter, no. But I’ve had people tell me about it.

TVLINE | How does a person who’s not on Twitter hear about it? Well, Melissa will tell me, or anybody else on set. My brother mentioned it a few times.

TVLINE | Do you remember the first time you heard the term, or who from? Who did I hear it from…? I couldn’t even tell you…. I think it was Melissa, actually, who first told me. I’ve played quite a few characters that have either been gay or they’ve had, you know, some very obvious gay undertones, and to be completely honest, this was the first time I was like, “Well, this role doesn’t have any!” You’re laughing now — how naive was I? And then after the first episode… I go back and I watch and I was like, “Oh, yeah, now I can see it. That makes sense to me.”

TVLINE | On Buffy’s anniversary, I read an interview where Joss Whedon talked about people who would see lesbian subtext between his female characters and he at first was like, “What are you talking about?” But once he looked for it, he was like, “Ohhhh, yeah.” It’s funny because sometimes it’s so obvious when you’re playing it. You read it and you’ve got the characters and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, I know this is going to happen.” And then there are other times… and [with Lena/Kara] honestly, it just didn’t even enter into my head. But then you get the response and you go back and you’re like, “Yeah, I can see where that came from.” It doesn’t bother me at all. I think it’s great, because what really makes me feel good is that they can see the characters are working on more than one level. Do you know what I mean? It’s not just what we put into it. It’s what the writers put in, and the directors, and then what people can take from it. It means that the characters we’re playing are not just one dimension, they work on so many levels.

TVLINE | You’re stirring people’s imaginations. You want to do that with a character. Exactly. Of course, it makes you feel really good to know that what you’re doing is quality.

TVLINE | What’s your dream casting for Lex? If Katie McGrath could grab anybody to play Lex for one episode…. One episode? Bruce Willis, the most amazingly, good-looking, bald man there ever is.

TVLINE | I just saw him at the end of M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. Right? Was he delicious? He’s delicious. He’d be a good Lex.

TVLINE | If you could give Lena one piece of advice, what would it be? “Keep doin’ what you’re doin’. Don’t stop. Don’t second guess yourself.” She’s honest, she’s true to Kara, she’s true to her friends, she’s doing her best…. She’s trying, in the face of all the things people keep throwing at her, and all the expectations that people have, and she’s defying them.

TVLINE | You’re in love with Lena. [Cocking an eyebrow] Wouldn’t you be…?

TVLINE | [Stammering, some blushing] [Laughs] There is only one answer to that, and that is, “Yes, Lena’s a badass.”

http://tvline.com/2017/04/11/supergirl-season-2-interview-katie-mcgrath-lena-luthor/