#these title cards are literally so annoying the way the first shot of this show is “london” and then it

[mwagneto]

girl WHAT london? when?

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball GT 45

✨GT Stands for Generating Trichomania✨

✨Positivity Page✨

This Super 17 Saga sucks, so I’ve decided to give myself a side-challenge of giffing every single time he sweeps back his long, silky hair, like Kevin Nash used to do.  This episode has two such hair-sweeps, so I almost missed one.  But I got them both, plus the one from Episode 44, so we’re all caught up.  Don’t worry, I’ll be making a gallery post soon.

Also, we see the oni who run Hell taking Cell and Frieza away in a cage.  Wait, they’re already in Hell, so where are they taking them to? Mostly, I like this shot because I’m pretty sure this is the last time my favorite character (Cell) will appear in this shitty, shitty show.  Also, I like how Frieza is shoulder-to-shoulder with Cell, so there’s no way his feet can touch the floor.  Cell’s basically wearing him like a backpack. 

All right, let’s get down to business.  Piccolo died in Episode 40, and Goku got trapped in Hell in Episode 42, and then Piccolo tricked King Yama into sending him to Hell in Episode 44, all so he could carry out some idea to get Goku back to Earth.  Ideas?  I know just the place to talk about this!

✨”Good” “Ideas”, Poorly Executed✨

Okay, so this is the stupidest shit...

So this all started when Dr. Gero and Dr. Mu teamed up to build an exact duplicate of Android 17, and then they somehow linked the minds of both 17′s and used them to send energy at each other, which somehow opened up a rift between Hell and Earth.  It makes no sense because they literally refused to explain any of it. One minute the doctors were shaking hands, and then the title card, and then they show them toasting their newly created Hell portal. 

Somehow, Piccolo knows exactly how they did this, even though he wasn’t there.  He was in Heaven the whole time, which sounds about as far removed from Hell as you can get.  Like, people write poetry about how far apart these two things are from each other.  Meanwhile, King Kai and King Yemma, who are literal gods responsible for keeping an eye on this sort of thing, they had no idea how the portal opened in the first place, but Piccolo has the whole thing scouted.

Piccolo’s plan, then, is to just do what the 17′s did in Episode 41, so he telepathically contacts Dende to assist him from the other side.  They send “concentration” at each other, and this is supposed to re-open the portal.  But they have to time it just right, and that seems to be the only real problem they have with it. 

So Goku suggests they use the same chant that he and Pan used to defeat Luud back in Episode 14.  Piccolo is furious about having to use such a stupid chant, but it works.  I’m more furious that they flat-out admitted that this whole portal-to-Hell business was swiped from an earlier episode, and one of the shittiest episodes, at that.  

Also annoying: Just like Episode 14, it takes for-flippin’-ever to get the portal open, because they keep trying and trying and trying until finally Goku suggests the thing that works.  Above all else, GT’s primary mission is to waste time.

Goku wants Piccolo to come with him, but Piccolo can’t move, or the portal will collapse.  This means Piccolo will be trapped in Hell forever, but he says he knew what he was getting into when he came up with this plan.  Goku thanks him, and dives through the portal.  As Piccolo watches it close, the bad guys start to return, and Piccolo decides he can spend his time whoopin’ all the bad guys’ asses. 

Okay, three things that make me livid about this.

1) Piccolo is now not only dead, but he’s stuck in hell?   This is bullshit.

2) Piccolo clobbering dead villains sounds a lot more appealing than whatever Goku does next to round out this series.  If they took it seriously, GT Piccolo vs. GT Cell could actually be a cool fight, so let’s just see that instead.

3) NONE OF THIS WAS NECESSARY!  GOKU COULD HAVE TURNED SUPER SAIYAN 4 AND TELEPORTED OUT OF HELL WHENEVER HE WANTED!

Oh, also, when the re-killed villains return to Hell, they go through the same process as the first time they died, so King Yemma has to stamp new papers to send them back to Hell.  I bring this up because when Piccolo asked to be sent to Hell to help Goku, Yemma refused, saying that once he stamps your paper you can’t change your afterlife assignment, no matter what. 

My point here is that it sounds like if Piccolo had jumped through the portal and returned to Earth, he could have gone through the line again and gotten a new paper stamped, allowing him to return to heaven.  But none of this matters, because Goku can teleport anywhere he wants.  He should have just used Instant Transmission to meet Piccolo in Heaven, and they could have done Piccolo’s portal thingy there instead.  Or Goku could have just teleported directly to Earth, because HE ALWAYS HAD THAT OPTION!

Oh, and why do the dead people in GT lose their halos when they’re in hell?  They get to have halos everywhere else, but in DBZ, every dead person had a halo, no matter where they were.  What’s the deal?  Did they forget about this?  Did they change it for some reason? 

Sigh....

Let’s move on.

✨Is this episode worse than “The Roaming Lake”?✨

Yes, it is.  GT has lost forty-six straight matches with the worst Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z episode ever made.  That’s 45 episodes of GT, and the TV Special, by the way. 

So, when I came up with this idea, my thought was that a lot of GT would fail to clear this bar, but once I got to the episodes with some fighting, things would improve.  I just assumed that an action-heavy episode of GT could overcome all the shitty writing and annoying side-characters.

But so far, that hasn’t panned out, and I think this Super 17 fight provides a good illustration of the problem.  Let me pick out two examples.

First, we have this shot of 17 landing a heavy punch on Trunks’ abdomen. 

Now, the still image doesn’t look too bad.  We’ve even got the thing where it looks like 17′s arm is pushing all the way through Trunks’ body, a classic trope from the glory days of DBZ.  Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if they used this because it was a callback to the 17 vs. Piccolo fight in Z. 

Well, here’s the gif version of this shot.

It just doesn’t work at all.  The whole point of those “my arm went through your tummy” spots is that they’re very fast.  So fast that by the time you realize that it doesn’t make any sense, the action has already shifted to something else.  And that’s sort of what happens here.  The next cut is a closeup on Trunks coughing up spittle as he reacts to the blow, and then 17 rises up behind him.  That part’s kind of in slow motion, and then it cuts to a wide shot of 17 following up with a kick.  I think that’s in slow motion too.

I say “think”, because this whole sequence is very slow, and some parts of the sequence are probably supposed to be slowed down for dramatic effect, but I’m positive that this tummy punch wasn’t supposed to be one of them.  I’m not an animation expert or anything.  I’m just a guy who watches a lot of Dragon Ball Z.

The point I’m getting at here is that this fight sucks.  The story is that 17 is too strong and too fast, and Trunks can’t even touch him.  17′s punches are so hard and quick that there’s just nothing Trunks can do.  That’s the script, but the animation tells a completely different story, one where 17′s punch isn’t hard or quick.  It looks like he’s gently pressing his arm into Trunks, and Trunks is holding perfectly still as 17′s arm passes through him.  Also, the “camera” shakes around. 

There’s just no impact to any of this.  It’s so plodding and slow, and when the characters hit each other, there’s no flashes or other effects to make it feel more authentic.  And this happens all the time in GT.  There’s a handful of episodes where the animators seem to be on their game, but those episodes are always dragged down by the shitty storytelling.  But most of the time, the show is like this, where all the fighters look like they’re moving underwater.

 Okay, next example: Uub tries to jump back into this thing, and 17 removes his left forearm and reveals a machine gun.  It’s kind of like Dr. Cochin shooting Krillin in DBZ Movie 2. 

Except Uub doesn’t dodge the bullets.  He just lays there and covers up his head. 

Super 17 shoots him for a while, and then Uub sort of lays there like “Ohhh, those bullets hurt me so much, you guys!  Now I can’t do anything!”  He’s not dead or anything, he’s just worn out.

And this is the big problem with every fight in this series.  The idea here is to show off all the characters’ powers, and demonstrate which ones are stronger than the others.  In this case Super 17 is outclassing everyone.  The others are no match for him, even when they work together.  And yet, scenes like this completely muddy the waters.  Who is strong in this scene?  Who is weak?

I mean, 17 seems strong because he shut down Uub so easily, but think about it.  If he’s that much stronger than Uub, why didn’t his bullets kill him?  And if the bullets can’t kill Uub, why is he using them?  Why doesn’t he just run over and cut his head off or something?

You could argue that this is being done to show how strong Uub is, but I don’t buy it.  If he’s strong enough that the bullets can’t hurt him, then why is he just lying there, letting them hit him?  Shouldn’t he at least roll out of the way, and try to find some cover?

I want to stress here that this has nothing to do with power scaling.  I’m not bringing this up to talk about whether DBZ characters are bulletproof, or make up some fanlore about how Dr. Mu made special Machine Mutant ammo for 17′s gun arms.  That’s irrelevant.  All that matters is that 17 is supposed to be dominating this battle, and yet we see him using attacks that don’t actually hurt anyone, at all.  He hit Trunks and Uub with TWO Flash Bombers before this.  I think Flash Bomber is Super 17′s finisher, but they took two of those last episode, and they’re still putting up a fight in this one.  And Super 17′s like “Let me finish the job with a really slow punch and some non-lethal bullets!”

Then Vegeta tries to rally, and from here on, it’s basically Vegeta vs. Super 17, which would make sense except 17 already beat him down in the last episode.  Somehow Vegeta lasts longer this time, even though he’s still using his Super Saiyan form, which did him no good earlier.

So while that’s going on, Pan gets fed up and takes matters into her own hands.  She sneaks up on Dr. Gero and puts him in a hammerlock AND a choke hold at the same time, then has Giru hold a gun to his head.  She threatens to kill him unless he orders Super 17 to stand down, and Gero... agrees?   Shouldn’t Gero be a lot stronger than this?  No, wait!  Shouldn’t he be using the receptacles on his hands to steal Pan’s energy?  He could just launch himself into the air, faster than Giru could follow, and drain Pan before she knows what’s happened. 

I mean, what was the point of turning himself into an android if he can’t do things like that? 

Anyway, he orders 17 to halt his attack on Vegeta, but then 17 aims at Gero instead.  Gero is shocked, and then he’s shocked again when Dr. Mu reveals that he reprogrammed 17 to follow Mu’s orders alone.  Apparently, every time 17 seemed to obey Gero, Mu was transmitting the same orders to him.

So 17 betrays Gero again, and Mu gloats that there’s no one left to stop him, now that Goku is trapped in hell.  That offends Vegeta, who gets up and turns Super Saiyan one more time, insisting that he can win this fight without Goku’s help.  Normally, this would be the part where Vegeta gets clobbered for a while, but instead Goku shows up almost immediately, and tackles Vegeta before he can eat another blast from 17.  Why?  Was this the blast from 17 that was actually going to kill someone?

So Goku’s finally here to take on Super 17.  All he has to do is turn Super Saiyan 4 and even the playing field, but no.  No, he won’t do that.  Instead he turns Super Saiyan 1, and starts fighting 17 that way. 

Motherf--! 

Vegeta was already doing that this whole time, and it didn’t work!  At all!  Just turn into a Super Saiyan 4!  What the hell is wrong with you, Goku?!

✨The Blade Braxton Memorial Haiku*✨

Piccolo’s in hell.

Can it get worse? Ask his new

Roomate: Castiel.

[lofitojii]

Part [II] Guardian Angel

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Summary: You are a new sidekick to the number two hero of Tokyo, Hawks. You team up with another sidekick, Bakugou, in an ongoing investigation on a serial killer. Unexpected interactions happen that flip the whole case around causing new, confusing feelings which alter your relationships in ways you never saw coming.

Word Count: 4.6k

Warning: Minor Swearing 

Guardian Angel Master List

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[ tag list: @criminal-strawberry @underratedmage ]

“Kid? Where are you? Are you okay?” You heard Hawks come in through the ear piece. You were desperately trying to keep up with Bakugou who was blasting from roof to roof, keeping a drastic distance between the two of you. You wanted to fly after him but you thought that if you let the distance grow and just let him get there the way he wanted, it would lead to receiving information from him. It was a long shot but at this point, you didn’t really know what to try. It was clear he wasn’t going to talk to you until you got back to the agency. 

“I’m fine. We’re almost back to the agency,” you replied, trying not to scream into the ear piece as your pace increased. Bakugou made it there before you, standing outside the front doors waiting for your arrival. You were surprised to say the least, thinking that he would’ve rushed off inside to tell Hawks what happened, but he just stood there. 

“Finally. Thought those wings made you faster,” Bakugou joked, leading the two of you through the doors. 

“Ha-ha, very funny,” you returned, scowling at Bakugou who seemed pretty pleased with his little joke. 

You and Bakugou stood in the elevator, letting the silence linger to the point where it became awkward and frustrating for you. You couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Who’s Dabi? Why are you choosing to leave me in the dark about this?” Bakugou didn’t look over, didn’t move, flinch, react in any way. He was just silent. You were trying your best to not get worked up over the situation but it was rather infuriating that your own team mate was withholding information from you. 

Bakugou let out a say, mumbling slurs of frustration under his breath. “Dammit. Hawks has history with Dabi, that’s why this is so big. Now if you’ll stop talking to me and just let Hawks fucking tell you? Okay?” Your cheeks flushed red, your whole attitude becoming rather embarrassed over anything.

“Should’ve just told me that in the beginning,” you muttered in a low tone, crossing your arms over your chest, trying your best to choke but the unwanted and unneeded tears of embarrassment. You were just very emotional, your feelings being the weakest part of you. Anything and everything made you cry, and normally you were okay with that. You never had an issue with expressing yourself, you just never understood timing which always tends to heighten your emotions. 

You walked into Hawks’ empty office, assuming he was just running behind. This was the second time you’ve shown up before him. “Better than me by a slight hair, it seems.” You looked over your shoulder, seeing Hawks approach his desk from the front doors. “Okay first, Y/N, I hear you encountered the suspect? Is that right?” 

“Yes sir,” you replied. 

“Well? Spit it out kid!” 

“Bakugou had mentioned that he saw him near me when I was patrolling street view. It was hard to see through the crowds of people without bringing all the attention towards me and I ended up bumping into him. He knows my hero name and I played dumb when he said I reminded him of you.” You were nervous that this was going to lead into you getting into trouble on your first day. You really didn’t want to upset your new boss, nor did you want to disappoint your teammates. “His name is Dabi.” 

“Fucking… Bastard,” Hawks growled, slamming his fist onto his desk. “You’re okay though, right? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” He nervously lifted his palm to his cheek, rubbing his scruff as he tried to scramble is unwarenting thoughts.

“I was watching from above the entire time and he helped her up. I couldn’t hear anything but I would’ve jumped in if she was in danger.” Bakugou added in what he saw, your heart fluttering at the thought of Bakugou jumping in to help you. And no, it’s not because of any sort of weird unsaid feelings you have for him, but because this whole time it seemed as if he hated you. 

“Hawks?” You asked, trying to keep calm while controlling your emotions all at once. “Who’s Dabi?” 

“An old friend.” 

“What is up with you boys and being so damn dramatic? What good is keeping secrets?” You finally lost it, upset about the fact you had to pry more from both of the men in front of you. “We’re fucking partners here. I am in this case too. Why are we side stepping around the main suspect like it’s some drastic back story? He’s alive, right? He matches the description, right?” You were annoyed at the fact you had to get literal with the people you worked with but you understood why they wouldn’t say anything. Emotions and feelings are what hold us down as humans, our personal anchor keeping us grounded under water. “I’m sorry if this is harder than it seems but people are dying here guys and if it happens to not be this guy, he knows SOMETHING about what’s going on. So now, who is Dabi and why is everyone being so quiet about him?” 

Hawks let out a deep sigh, exchanging looks with Bakugou before finally making eye contact with you. “You’re right, you’re right.” It was obvious that this was a heavy subject for Hawks, seeing it cause resurfacing pain. You didn’t need him to tell you how he felt about it because you could feel it, your own emotions mimicking the lingering feeling that was swarming around the open office. “About 7 years ago, a little bit before I ended up starting this agency, Dabi and I were.. Uh well we were close. Like best friends close. I was raised by these guys who were only told to train me like a hero from when I was a young age so when I met Dabi, it was exciting and new. He was there to receive ‘treatment’ whatever that meant and over time…. Well he’s not the same Dabi I knew before. He escaped the facility after lighting half of it on fire and ever since then, I haven’t crossed paths with him again.”

“So then what does he have to do with this case? What, he disappears for 7 years and comes back with a set plan or murders to get your attention?” The story was confusing to you and you knew there was more than what Hawks was telling you. The question was whether to pry or to wait for him to feel comfortable enough to tell you himself. 

“You came in contact with him,” he pointed out. “You tell me.” You knew what he meant, putting together the conversation you had with Dabi prior to knowing the history. You knew this was rooted deeper than what was being placed in front of you. When Dabi had mentioned Hawks, you assumed it was because of the wings, when in reality it was something completely different. What is Dabi trying to play here? Your thoughts were swarming with multiple possibilities as to what he was trying to do and you knew you couldn’t rely on two closed off men with little examples on how to share and express how they’re feeling tell you what’s going on, you knew you had to do it yourself. 

The room went silent, lingering with the tension that was building up within Hawks and Bakugou. They all had history, Bakugou keeping his side a secret, knowing you would half to pry it out of him sooner than later. For the time being, you had come up with an idea that you knew would be risky, but it was worth the effort to let them know. “I have an idea and before I tell you, I need you to know that whatever happens, I’ll be okay.” 

“You’re fucking crazy,” Bakugou cursed, Hawks still confused at what you were talking about. 

“I can go undercover. We don’t have anything stated that I’m linked to you yet. If I go undercover, I can find out more about this situation. Plus, if Bakugou and another one of the sidekicks team up with me, I’ll have back up if it gets too dangerous.”

“No way,” Hawks rejected. “There is no way in hell I’m going to let you interact with the demon again.” 

“Hawks please,” you pleaded, trying your best to explain the situation in a way he would understand. “I know he’s dangerous but…. I don’t know. I have a feeling that there’s more to this than what we’re thinking and if I can get an inside look-”

“No Y/n, he’s way too dangerous. I can’t let you put your life on the line like that. Not before you get a chance to show people what you’re made of.” 

“This is what heroes do,” you responded immediately, clenching your fists as you started your statement. “If going undercover means putting my life on the line, then okay, that’s why I became a hero. Everyday, we’re put in situations that could potentially get us killed but we were trained for this. That’s why we put ourselves out there. I will not claim the title of hero if I don’t put my own life on the line for those who might lose theirs. Please Hawks…” The worry in his eyes made you uneasy but you weren’t ready to back down. You knew what you had to do in order to help stop innocent people from dying. 

Hawks let out a deep sigh, strain completely audible in his tone. He looked up at you, then away, and then back at you again. “Why did you have to pull the hero card? I’m agreeing to this but I have a few conditions: 

1. Bakugou is to keep an eye on you the entire time. He is to be within a reasonable distance so he has enough time to help out if needed. 

2. Tokoyami will be the skyline view, coming in at second backup. And lastly,

3. If he touches you, hurts you, seems to be thinking of doing either of those things, you are to retreat immediately. If you fail to do so, I will have to step in and it will ruin our investigation. 

With all this being said, we will call this ‘Mission Hidden Angel’ and for safety reasons Y/N, you’re going to need to come up with a new hero name.” You saluted your boss, following your action by a bow. 

“Understood.” 

“You’re an idiot,” Bakugou spoke up, getting up from his seated position. 

“Maybe so, but this is the only thing I can think of. We can’t just take him in on assumption. All we know is that he’s the one person who’s consistently been spotted near the crime scenes which makes him a viable suspect. We just need a solid confession and we have our guy.” You placed your hand on Bakugou’s shoulder, giving him a reassuring gentle squeeze. “I’m counting on you.” 

Bakugou’s reaction was something you weren’t expecting. You thought for sure you saw his cheeks flush red but he pulled away, turning his back towards you before making his way out. 

“Whatever.” And with that, he left you alone with Hawks in his open office. You let out a deep breath, rebalancing yourself as you shook off Bakugou’s cold attitude. Hawks motioned for you to sit down, which you agreed to. 

“Are you sure about this Y/N?” Hawks seemed very hesitant about the idea, which you knew before you had even mentioned it. The history he has with this Dabi guy is more than what he had mentioned, you knew that deep within you. You could not be fooled by the light hearted joking or the awkward tension that filled the room when Dabi’s name was mentioned. “He’s dangerous. I mean yes, he’s linked to this case but he has multiple charges he’s facing. Anywhere from arson to a single murder. If we catch him on this, we can put him away for life, but with that, there’s a risk. He’s literally killed before based on emotional reaction.” 

“I know,” you sighed, waving your hand in reply to the comment. “But aren’t all villains dangerous?” 

“Yes but…” Hawks paused, his attention be drawn to the stack of papers on his desk. He shuffled through the stack, slipping out a packet and placing it in front of you. “This is all that I have on him.” 

“Hawks… Come on,” you frowned, flipping through the flimsy stack. “You’re kidding right?” He rolled his eyes, getting up from his spot behind the desk and making his way towards a bookshelf. 

“Nothing gets past you, huh?” He commented, pulling a file out from in between two rather large books. He threw the file in front of you, letting it hit the desk with a rather large thud. “This is my personal research. After he disappeared… I had to know what was going on and why he ran.”

“What was your relationship with him?” It just kind of slipped out like word vomit. You knew it was a long shot asking, but you couldn’t help yourself, you had to know.

Hawks was silent for what felt like forever, the only noise you could hear was the slight buzzing due to the caused silence. “We were friends, best friends actually. We hung out everyday at the facility we were being trained at.” 

“And he ran away before he could explain himself?” You asked, trying to piece the story Hawks was refusing to tell you. 

“He didn’t even say goodbye…” Hawks was in pain, from the loss of a friend and the discovery of a villain. His heart ached for the one person he felt close to way back then. Hawks was quick to recompose himself, sitting back down in his seat. “This is why I agreed for you to go undercover. If it is Dabi, then it’s gotta be more than just him acting out. I’m going to assume there’s an even bigger issue behind this all, Dabi being a puppet.” 

“And what if he’s not?” 

“Well then it’s no longer the Dabi I know.” 

‘Well then it’s no longer the Dabi I know,’ played repeatedly in your head on your way home that night. It had been a rather long day, a lot taking place within the few hours you worked on your first day. You had made quite the impact on the new people you worked with, meaning you had even bigger shoes to fill. You didn’t mind, nor did plan on back down. What you had ahead of you was much greater than what the surface was displaying. 

The way Hawks had talked about Dabi led you to believe that he was being affected by this more than anyone else. You didn’t want to believe that this Dabi guy was evil but as for now, you had to have your guard up. Something about him seemed… How do you put this… He gives off this pleading aura, and that’s what you wanted to find out. What exactly was he looking for? What was his aura trying to tell you? 

You had a hard time sleeping after reading up on Dabi’s file. You had stayed up until the early hours of the morning trying to obtain all the information that you could about this mysterious man you were about to investigate in secret.

“Birth name: Touya Todoroki. CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. Age: 24. Experimental duration before incident: 2 years.” They were trying to enhance his quirk? What the hell kind of experiment is that? “Birth Father: Pro Hero, Endeavor. CLASSIFIED.” The information you were reading made you believe that his own family didn’t know who he was, possibly assuming the death of the child when he was taken in for experiments. The more you read, the more it broke your heart. You could see why Hawks was so upset. You didn’t even know the guy and you felt the pain as if you did. 

You placed the rather large file on your side table, flipping the lights off so you could try to get a little rest before your long day of work the following day. As you drifted off into your REM state, all you could think about was the intense research Hawks did on one guy, knowing he had to go against a few rules to obtain some of the information. You wondered who all knew about this guy? Was it just you and Hawks? Or did your whole team know? 

The following morning, you were told to meet in the 18th floor conference room as soon as you entered the building. You were the first to arrive, being greeted by the rising sun that shined through the glass windows and the smell of brewing coffee that had to be coming from the break room next door. You decided to pop in for a cup yourself, being greeted by a literal man bird who was pouring himself a cup. “Good morning,” you greeted, slightly frightening the man in front of you. 

“Sorry, you scared me there. I didn’t think anyone else was here yet,” he replied, awkwardly laughing off his sudden reaction. “You must be Y/n. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Tokoyami, the other sidekick.” 

“Nice to meet you! Tell me, does Hawks just take likings to us bird people?” Tokoyami laughed, somewhat agreeing with your statement, joking alongside you. Finally, someone who wasn’t arrogant or rude. You let out a sigh of relief as you casually came up with small talk with your new coworker, taking a seat next to him in the conference room. 

Your small chit chat was cut short when Hawks bursted through the door, wearing a completely different hero outfit than yesterday. It was still the black and gold trim top and jogger style pants but this time he had a black coat matching the whole color scheme. Something about this new look made him appear more attractive? 

What the fuck? Y/N that’s your BOSS!

“Thank god you’re here,” Hawks huffed, out of breath like he had just run a marathon. 

“Are you okay? You’re like… extremely out of breath.” 

“I got an email this morning saying the new costumes were ready and I’m really excited to give you yours. Oh you’re going to look so cute!” He seemed to be a little overly excited about this, but you decided to humor him by acting just as excited. 

You pulled the outfit out of the bag he had placed on the table, revealing a whole new design. Black leotard with black leggings, black and gold knee high boots, the coat being solid black with a plaid white design. “They came up with all of this in a day?” You asked in disbelief, admiring the material in front of you. 

“Sure did! Now go change! Here Tokoyami, you got a new one too. We’re all gonna look so bad ass.” 

“Wait…” You confronted Hawks. “If we all match, isn’t that going to throw our investigation?” 

“Go change and come back and we’ll talk about the investigation. It’ll be fine!” He ushered you out of the room, closing the conference room door behind you. You let out a sigh, hoping Hawks had an idea that wouldn’t ruin the whole thing before it even started. Reluctantly, you made your way towards the locker room, changing into the new outfit Hawks had been so very excited about. It was very flattering, hugging your curves in all the right places. The holes in the back were designed to expand with the growth of your wings which you had tested out a few times in the locker room. You expanded them to their full 19 ft length, giving a few light flaps to test the stretch in the coat and shirt which complied greatly to your actions. 

You exited the locker room, being met with Bakugou who was stanced up on the opposite side of the wall. He was also dressed in a new outfit, similar to Hawks’ design, only being trimmed with orange rather than gold. “You look nice,” you commented, Bakugou replying with a grunt. 

“Uh your outfit suits you,” he stuttered, refusing to make eye contact. You felt your cheeks flare at the compliment, being flattered at the fact he complimented you. Bakugou could tell he caused your fluster, immediately reacting by walking back towards the conference room. 

“Hey wait up,” you asked, slightly jogging to keep up with him. “Thanks for waiting for me.” 

“As if,” he huffed. “I was sent to come get you. You’re the only one who wasn’t there.” You walked into the room together, taking your seat next to Tokoyami once again. Hawks covered his mouth, swelling with glee as he took a look at everyone in the room. 

“Wow you guys look so good!” 

“We got it, we got new costumes. Can we get on with the damn meeting already?” Bakugou spat, obviously annoyed by Hawks’ meaningless commentary. 

“Right, sorry mister bossy,” Hawks cleared his throat, taking a seat at the head of the table. There were a few others you had yet to meet that had joined the meeting, assuming they were either sidekicks or pro heroes. “Mission ‘Hidden Angel’ starts today. We are sending Y/n undercover, leaving her to investigate Dabi on her own. He has no idea she is linked to our agency so it’s the best option for us. The key to this mission Y/n is for you to get some sort of confession out of him. The necklaces or keychains I gave you are actually recording devices that will record up to 500 hours worth of time. Y/n is the only one who has come into physical contact with Dabi and it seems like he has taken quite the liking to her. Our job in all of this is to protect her. Your ear pieces are reprogrammed so that way we will be able to hear everything Y/n says and does without having an interference with our communication. Tsukuyomi and Bakugou, you are first responders to Y/n. Mirko and I will be on stand by if we need to make a quick escape.” 

“Okay but the costumes?” Mirko, the rabbit hero, spoke up, asking the question you had been uneasy about the entire meeting. “It’s obvious she works for you if she’s dressed like that.” 

“Heh-heh,” Hawks chuckled, pulling out yet another brown paper bag. “This is your disguise. The plan here is to get you to meet him again outside of your hero outfit.” The meeting was straightforward and to the point. You knew Hawks was going to go in depth with this case, knowing the history he shared with Dabi. You knew this was going to be one of the most important cases in your time, you didn’t want to let him down, knowing it was linked to a very big part of his past. “Alright. We leave after lunch. Please eat something this time guys. I don’t want anyone passing out this time cause they forgot to eat today.” 

You were about to follow the others out of the room when Hawks grabbed your arm, silently pleading for you to stay behind. He waited until the door closed before offering for you to take a seat. “I’m sorry but after I gave you that file…” 

“I haven’t told anyone,” you reassured before he could even ask. “I assumed it was personal information. I’m surprised you let me read it.” 

“You’re about to be involved with an old friend of mine. He’s dangerous, yes, but he has a kind heart. I wanted you to know the Dabi I knew rather than the one I talked about yesterday.” Hawks didn’t have to tell you how he felt, you knew he was blindly trusting you with one of the biggest secrets he has kept hidden for so long. 

You placed your hand on top of Hawks, trying your best of your ability to comfort him. His attention went from your hand to your eyes, a moment of silence filling the surrounding air. “Who are you?” he asked, completely unaware of what he had just said. “I mean.. Like.. Who is Y/n, ya know?” 

“To be honest, I don’t remember a lot before I was placed into foster care. I grew up in the local group home in my hometown, growing out of the system. When I was finally out, it was my chance to really figure out who I was so I took college courses and found out my quirk is a lot stronger than I anticipated it to be so I became a hero.” 

“How are you so caring, though?” You were taken back by the sudden question, unsure of how to approach such a broad question. 

“Um… How do I put this… Growing up, I didn’t have anyone. I wasn’t close to anyone in the home and so when I would go through something hard, I had to take care of myself. Now that I’m older and was forced to figure out who I was at such a young age, I told myself that instead of being angry at the world, I would put that energy into making sure people were okay. I want people to know that at least one person genuinely cares, because I do, I really can’t help it. That’s why I feel the need to know everyone on a personal level. It’s a blessing and curse to be honest.” Hawks hadn’t said anything once you had finished, he just… stared. It wasn’t blank, you could visibly make out how he was feeling. 

“It’s an honor to have someone like you on the team.” His smile was so genuine, so welcoming and warm. This was a new side of Hawks, it was like he was introducing himself to you all over again. “Well,” he said, standing up from his seat. He took a small bow, signaling for the door. “Shall we go, m’lady?” 

“Bout damn time.” Bakugou stood there as the door opened, looking annoyed just like always. “Can we go?” 

“Yes. I have to go change into this disguise really quick.” You waved at Hawks who was yelling in your direction to be safe and good luck with the mission. Bakugou stayed quiet as he escorted you to the locker rooms, waiting in the same spot as you exited. The outfit Hawks had picked out was something that you would’ve picked out yourself. “I think I like this better than my hero costume.” 

“Whatever. Can we go now?” 

“Bakugou?” You asked, noticing the change in his tone. Something was off and you knew he wasn’t going to tell you what it was. You could feel the energy shift around you, intimidated by the side of Bakugou you had yet to encounter. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine,” he lightly responded. 

“No you’re not.” 

“Listen,” he turned around, the loss in his temper vigilant. Before you knew it, your back hit the wall, Bakugou towering over you. You could feel his hot breath tickle your cheeks, your anxiety level rising by the little distance he had created between you. “I’m good. I’m fine. I’m doing fan-fucking-tastic. We have a mission that I would like to get over with.” 

“Whatever Bakugou,” you sighed, trying to push him away. He didn’t budge, keeping his dominant stance over you. 

“I have one mission today and that is to keep you safe. If you fuck this up, I’m going to be pissed.” Something about that statement seemed so off to you. Like the way he worded it was different than how he normally communicates with you. 

He released himself from you, making his way back down the hall without saying another word to you. You were frozen in place, trying to piece together what was going through Bakugou’s head. 

“What are you about, Bakugou?”

......

A/N: what do you all think of adding clothing references? this is a test run for it so let me know!!! also, i started a tag list :) dm or comment if you want to be added!

Y/N’s hero outfit // Y/N’s disguise

[a-bang-for-your-bucky]

Welcome Home Part 3

*not my gif*

WARNINGS: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE, seriously I use the ‘F’ word a lot. 

Pairings: Cody Rhodes x OFC (Sister), Brandi Rhodes x OFC (sister), Dustin Rhodes x OFC (Sister), past Seth Rollins x OFC, future Kenny Omega x OFC 

Summary: Peyton gets an offer that will change her entire career, while she tries to deal with the rising feelings for her best friend. 

A/N: Here is part 3. I hope y’all like it. 

The next few days following the aquarium, Kenny and I were more inseparable than usual. Everywhere we went, we were together. When Dynamite rolled around, the entire locker room was whispering about us. 

I was on my way to the EVP room, when I was stopped by Kris Statlander. “Hey girlie.” She greeted, booping my nose. It twitched at the contact. “I didn’t hear from you much this week, and then I saw the pics of you and Kenny. Spill.” She smiled, with a raised eyebrow. 

I laughed nervously, “There’s nothing to tell. We’re just friends.” She shook her head. I knew what people were saying. “I’m serious, Kris. Just friends who went to the aquarium together.” I defended, moving my hands in a definitive motion. 

“Girl! His eyes were on you, not the damn fish.” She rolled her eyes, “How are you both so clueless?!” She threw her hands up, flabbergasted. She quickly whipped her phone out and pulled up the shark tank picture again and showed it to me, zoomed in on Kenny’s face. “Those are heart eyes, girl. He is in love.” 

There was no way Kenny was in love with me. “Kris, he is literally married to wrestling. No time for relationships.” I pointed out. 

“But he always makes time for you.” She said before walking away to film a bit for BTE. Kenny did always seem to make time for me. I tried to shake her words as I continued my way to the EVP room. Cody had sent me a text earlier in the day saying that creative had a storyline they wanted to pitch to me. 

I opened the door and Cody was there with The Bucks, a writer, and Tony Khan. “Hey, sorry, I rushed here as fast as I could.” I apologized for my tardiness and grabbed a seat next to Cody. 

“Peyton, we want you to have a with Penelope for the number one contender slot for the AEW Women’s Championship.” Tony started to explain. A huge smile crossed my face. Then Nick added, “We want you to face Shida at ‘Winter is coming’”. I shook my head. 

“No fuck--” Cody gave me a stern look, telling me to watch my language, “I mean, no friggin’ way?!?” I couldn’t hide my excitement. Tony handed me the contract for the match at ‘Winter Is Coming’. I looked down at the papers in my hand. “This is legit? Are you sure there isn’t anyone else who deserves this before me?” I questioned, looking up from the packet that held my future. 

“We have pulled all the stats, plus we took in account fan base and Dark comments. You beat Penelope, and you’ll be number one contender.” Matt laid it all out, and I just needed to take it. All it took was one smooth signature and it was booked. 

“Well good evening, folks. It’s Wednesday night, and you know what that means! Thanks for joining us here on Dynamite. Boy do we have a lined up show for you.” I listened to JR announce as I paced back and forth in front of the gorilla monitors. The announce team of JR, Tony, and Excalibur went on to discuss the card for the night. 

To say I was nervous was an understatement. Sure, I had been in the title picture before, but this was completely different. This would be my first title shot in AEW, plus Penelope and I were kicking off the show. That was something that didn’t happen often. Cody was waiting by the curtain, like he always did before my matches, to wish me luck. He immediately could tell that something was wrong. “What’s up, Pey?”

“I’m worried about Kip. It has me thrown off. He’s a wild card.” I mumbled anxiously as I bit at my nails. Cody nodded, giving me a knowing look. He pulled me in by my shoulder.

“You’ll be just fine, kid.” He smiled. I wanted to ask what he meant, but Kenny’s voice filled my ears before I could. 

“Hey, Princess!”  I could tell my face lit up at the sight of him. “I just wanted to say good luck. And ask if you wanted to grab dinner after?” Cody looked at the both of us and sighed. I knew he wanted the heat to die down from the Aquarium photo, for my sake. He had told me many times. I didn’t care though and neither did Kenny. 

“Of course, Omega. Thank you.” I replied quickly, throwing my arms around him for a tight hug. Cody grabbed my attention, letting me know it was my time. I released Kenny, but he grabbed my hand, giving it a light ‘you got this’ squeeze, before letting go. 

“The following contest, with a twenty minute time limit, is scheduled for one fall, introducing first from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, being accompanied to the ring by Kip Sabian, Penelope Ford.” I watched as they made their way into the ring and gave a disgusting show of PDA. 

I fiddled with my jacket, waiting for my music to hit. I instantly regretted letting Brandi talk me into wearing a choker. It suddenly felt too tight. I didn’t have a chance to remove it before I heard the familiar start of “My songs know what you did in the dark”. I composed myself and fixed my hair. I walked out the “Heel” tunnel and onto the ramp.

“And her opponent, from Atlanta, Georgia, well they call her the “Dream Killer”, Peyton Rhodes.” Justin announced my name and the crowd still cheered, which made my heart happy. I quickly made my way into the squared circle, so the bell could ring.  

The match started with a few back and forth blows. Penelope got me into a side headlock, before quickly doing an arm drag. I shot back up to my feet. Again, we locked up, before I drove a knee up into her stomach. I had quickly gained the upper hand in the match. I was getting ready to drop her with a DDT, when I saw Kip pacing outside of the ring. I flipped him a bird and slammed Penelope’s head into the mat. As expected, Kip got involved. He slid into the ring, getting in my face. “Get out of the ring, Kip!” I yelled and he stepped a bit closer. I thought he was going to push me back away from him. 

Suddenly, the crowd erupted in cheers as a figure jumped the barricade and slid into the ring. It was Mox. He pushed Kip back and into the ropes, making him fall through. This distracted Penelope and I took that chance to hit the “dream killer”, my finisher. I got the three count and the bell rang. Aubrey raised my hand and Justin announced me as the winner. 

Jon was still standing at the tunnels when I climbed through the ropes and walked up the stairs. I extended a hand to show respect, which he gladly took and pulled me in for a hug. The fans went wild. “What a reunion it was tonight for Peyton Rhodes and Jon Moxley. Now that Rhodes has defeated Ford, she will go on to face AEW Women’s champion Hikaru Shida for the title at “Winter Is Coming’ on December 2nd.” Tony announced for the viewers at home. 

Cody again was waiting by the curtain for me. “Great match, sis. Jon, thanks for having her back.” He said, like it was all planned. I needed to know what the hell Jon was thinking.

“Dude! You guys are trending!” Matt yelled as he walked up, shoving his phone in my face. It was like I was in a daze. I had no idea why Jon, of all people, got involved in my match. Now, we were trending on social media. Before I could reply, I was being pulled by an assistant to do an interview with Dasha. 

“I’m backstage with Peyton Rhodes. Peyton, what was that?” She asked. I quickly got into character. I flipped my hair over my shoulder, attitude immediately crossing my face. 

“What was that? You’re asking the hard-hitting questions, Dasha.” I mocked her, before continuing. “ Let me tell you what that was. That was me rising to the top of this division, just like I said I would.” I stepped closer to her mic, “That was me letting Shida know that her days as champion are numbered.” I turned to the camera. “Hold onto that title tight, Shida. Because it will be mine very, very soon.” 

Dasha nodded, looking annoyed with how bitchy I was being, “But everyone wants to know what Jon Moxley was doing?” She inquired, pushing the mic back in my face. 

I scoffed, “No comment.” I quickly walked away to find out what the hell just happened. Why did Jon come help me? I tried to find him, but no one had seen where he went. So I settled for finding my brother. I went to his trailer, and banged on the door. 

“Open up, Rhodes.” I shouted, and Brandi came to the door. I looked at her, fuming. “Where is my brother?” I snapped. She just moved to the side, letting me in. Cody was sitting on the couch, like he was waiting for me. What surprised me, was to see Kenny sitting there, too. 

“Glad you could join us, sis. Take a seat.” Cody motioned for me to sit next to Kenny. I cocked a brow, confused, but took the seat anyway. I looked at Kenny about to say something before Cody cut me off. “Since you two are wanting to be the talk of AEW, and have no intentions to listen to me or my advice, Khan wants you to work together.” My mouth dropped. 

“What the hell does that mean?” I growled. Kenny looked at me, shocked, that I was angry that we got to work together. I saw his smile drop instantly. “I mean, Don’t get me wrong, Ken, I would love to work a story with you. But I can’t do the whole ‘escort/manager’ thing again.” I objected, not going down that road again.

Kenny nodded in understanding, “I know. And you know I would never do that to you, Princess.” He ensured me, placing a gentle hand on my knee. 

“I would also never do that to you, Peyton. Trust me, this will be amazing.” Cody predicted, “We have a lot to talk about.” He smirked, taking a seat across from us. “After you left the meeting last week, Tony pulled me aside.” Cody started to explain. 

My mind was racing. What did Tony have in store for me? For Kenny? How in a matter of two weeks did I become number one contender and get to work with my best friend? I looked over at Kenny, who’s blue eyes were focused on what my brother was saying. He looked so happy. I wondered if it was because we got to do a storyline together or because he was getting his shot at the AEW world title? 

“Tony wants you to turn on Moxley.” Those seven words drew me from my thoughts. My whole body went rigid. Did he just say what I think he said? I looked over at Kenny who was smiling like a cat who caught the canary. 

“He wants me to do what?” I asked, wanting Cody to clarify what the fuck he just said to me.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 35 S4: Raphael Joins the Pile of Dead Bodies

Ah 2020, thankfully we have one trashfire somewhat behind us, but I’m still avoiding social media for so many obvious reasons because of all the other trashfires that just never seem to stop burning, so lets talk about Yugioh with all of this newfound time.

Ah, card games. Card games that go on for 6-7 episodes. Lets see how they pad it out:

In a lot of ways, Roland really is just padding for the show, and that’s OK. He’s doing his best, by doing literally nothing but stand outside and check the time.

Inside the dusty soul chamber, Tristan has decided to do us the favor of recapping what happened last episode, which included the return of our four dead friends, so that they could die...again.

Seto’s reaction to seeing these dead people suddenly alive again was very “guys...I went nuts like years ago, I’m just going with it at this point.” and he’s still 100% positive that this is all a hologram and that no one will ever die.

Whatever it takes for Seto to get out of bed in the morning, I guess.

(read more under the cut)

One of the big mechanics the game is that you need to stay level headed, or the Orichalcos just kind of slurps you up. This explains a little why Dartz is so freakin chill basically all of the time, just the Bob Ross of evil over there. It also is sort of funny because Pharaoh and Seto are the least chill people to have ever lived so he’s just kind of waiting it out to see whom between Seto and Kaiba gets the most angry first and completely botches it.

Yugi has to do literally nothing and for the first time in his life this is the right choice.

I’m so glad he gets to use his big brain move of “If I don’t play, no one dies!” from S1. Glad it came back to serve him for once instead of just make everyone else really annoyed.

Yugi just...not moving means it’s now Seto’s turn to put down some cards, and he kinda looks over at Pegasus and goes...well you know what’s gonna happen next.

I have no idea why he didn’t attack Pegasus. Like this episode is kind of weird because we got these flashbacks of Pegasus being like “you’re my only hope, Yugi!” and it’s like wtf, Pegasus trapped you on a murder island and tried to kill you multiple times. He abducted Mokuba and turned both the Kaiba brothers into cards.

yo did Seto and Pegasus get back together in between seasons or something? Was there a whole character development where these two have fun brunches in San Fransisco now? Because I would watch that anime. I would watch the anime where Seto and Pegasus are co-hosting Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and just destroying every unsuspecting local restaurant they brunch in.

But are we just assuming that the eyeball did all that evil stuff from S1 and that otherwise Pegasus is a good person? Because like...he was a mess before he got possessed. He’s kind of a Yugi, he’s kind of a Bakura, he’s kind of a Marik...in that there’s a mess in that bean, and getting possesed just only amplified what was already there.

So, with his smug as hell grin, Seto surprises Dartz by only barely getting affected by this inescapable moral dilemma and Seto just very quickly deciding to do a murder. And then we get a little blimp throwback to S2 (S3? I don’t even remember at this point, since we’ve been stuck in S4 for an entire year. Thanks 2020.)

If blocking the shot when Marik did it in S3 or S2 or whenever that was, didn’t get Mai to like Joey, then it shouldn’t work if you do it a second time.

But hey, I guess it’s better than letting her perma-die. Although this show desperately needs to figure out how to use Mai if they’re gonna keep her around, youknow?

Like all ships are fine and valid here, ship whatever you want to your hearts content: I don’t ship at all, as you know, but I hope one day they give Mai a personality that is consistently likeable. I do want to like her because she’s like...good at what she does when she plays cards and can be that can be a fun “hey I’m a girl but I’m not a freakin ‘gamer girl’ you male chauvinist assholes” type of character. But, the show just...the show doesn’t know what they want outside of a little romantic tension that they legally can’t follow through because of a 5-6 year age gap with a teenager.

This show actively tries to destroy this ship, and then turns around and is like “oh shoot this ship is all we have.” This show tries to lift up Mai as a feminist icon one season, and then tears her down for being “too” feminist the next season when she decides to--youknow--kill Joey Wheeler because he made her feel weak or something when he saved her life. 

Like the show does a lot to explore weakness and strength, and how what we see as weakness is actually strength, and how what we tend to attribute as strengths is actually weakness, and how our modern career/school/success expectations set us up for failure, but I think they explored that way better with Seto than they ever did with Mai.

Could’ve been cool Mai, you could’ve been cool.

Anyhoo, that was my spicy commentary on a 10+ year old anime, good to get it off my chest.

Seto and Yami have the typical problem they have whenever they play cards together, where one goes completely rogue. Except this time, the one going rogue isn’t Seto, it’s Yami. He’s just like...I’ll make life for Seto very difficult and I will lose this game and I don’t even mind because I’m already dead, deal with it.

So honestly this is an episode where it’s just Seto demanding we kill a bastard, and Yami being like “but not THAT bastard” and Seto just shrugging and saying “I have to kill A bastard, Yugi! Just CHOOSE one!”

That actual line in the show (I forget what it was exactly) does infer that Seto thinks Joey holds him back, and that implication speaks miles about Seto’s insecurities.

HOW THOUGH..........what are you jealous of, Seto?

You’re better at cards than he is, he’s never beat you at anything. It’s not about who’s best friends with Yugi because...Yugi’s possessed so Yami is always going to take first place...

......so what could it possibly BE?

Seto doesn’t attend school anymore, is it about that? Is it because Joey is likeable? Is it because Joey pretends he has a much older girlfriend? I mean hypothetically, Blue Eyes White Dragon is WAY older than Mai so...that can’t be it.

.....what IS it???

Does the “friendship” he have with Joey make Seto too soft? Is that what’s holding him back? Because Seto doesn’t actually think he’s friends with these people and says that Yugi and co are “Mokuba’s friends” so like....

.....what are you talking about, Seto???

Is it because you’re addicted to cards again? Because that’s...sort of Joey’s fault because he was the one who told you he needed a ride to Jacksonville, and then let slip that the “King of Games” title was up for grabs, is that it?

Are you just tired of Joey asking you for a ride?

Not like it matters, because Joey survives, and Seto gets to feel like a complete asshole about it.

As Raphael (who is this purple blur here) motorcycles into the dome of souls, Rolands last words were

“You can’t go in there!”

which was the weirdest thing to say to a guy you just saw fall down a 50 story building a few hours ago. Raphael not being dead should be the thing Roland fixates on, but instead he’s seen so many people die and come back to life, that he’s only concerned that Raphael will get in trouble for trespassing.

Again, Roland is the only Kaiba that hasn’t died yet, and it’s because he’s the only Kaiba that hasn’t broken the law.

Dude. What if the reason Roland is standing outside is because he’s been politely looking for the doorbell to be let in?

...the players asking for death...like clockwork...and me asking for the end of this freakin game...we played...1 turn this episode...

This episode was 1 turn!

And you may ask...well what else could possibly happen to stretch this out and well...

Raphael dives in on a motorcycle to save the day. Which is an aesthetic, by the way, this huge man covered in like a dozen belts, doing a wheelie jump into a chasm of 1 million souls. that’s an aesthetic.

So he shows up, gets off his bike and I was like “Oh good, someone to maybe save Yugi saving Joey saving Mai?” And instead, I was...not given that.

Mostly Raphael is here because he ALSO wants to kill Dartz, and is like “can I join? I know you’ve only played like 1 round, just deal me a new hand, it’ll be fine.” and it’s like...we already played the Orichalcos Raphael, this is not a game of Uno, you cannot just jump in.

Dartz is sort of obsessed with how everyone around him has potential for evil except for him, the chillest human to ever be born, and I gotta say...when he’s in this room...Dartz has a point.

+++++++++++++RANT ABOUT BEING PERFECT FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++++++++++++

It is sort of nice to have the concept of an older generation (in this case 10,000 years older) fighting with a younger generation. To have the older, more typically wiser generation say “Listen, I kinda screwed the planet and the war economy and the prison system...and I’m gonna keep doing that...and you can’t stop me because you’re a bunch of hypocritical dumbasses.” and then the younger generation say. “We don’t care if we’re a mess, dude. We aren’t the problem here.”

I may be putting some recent topical STUFF into this mold here, but it is a nice little analogy that they made even someone who is such a human disaster as Yami and Seto “morally good” enough to fight Dartz. You don’t have to be a perfect Harvard Grad to fight the system, you don��t have to be an entirely problematic-free savior, you can be even as problematic as Seto Kaiba--just get rid of the dumb assholes trying to destroy the world. That’s all.

Like this concept is strangely prescient because in 2020 we’re in a weird time period where if you aren’t perfect, you’re not allowed to have opinions. You’re not allowed to make content. You’re not allowed to make change. This is mostly an online problem in places like twitter, but it’s a real problem--because in the end what you’re left with is no one that wants to step up to the plate because they know that they, too, are flawed.

And like not even just as a political thing, even as a creator, as an artist, I see this problem more and more with kids. Kids who are like “I am afraid to draw because what if I do it wrong and I get dragged on twitter years later?” or “I want to make a story, but I’m afraid to get cancelled because my fantasy story has problematic stuff in it? Am a bad person for wanting to write it?” And it’s like...what are we doing to young creators right now? Did we all fail humanities? How have we failed art and literature SO badly that we’ve come to this point that people are too afraid to even learn how to do it right?

Anyway that was a tangent, but like...you see the similarities, right? That if you really were as perfect as Dartz either politically or creatively, you’d be a freakin monster and would probably just tear down everyone else around you on twitter rather than lift other people up. It’s a stretch but eh, it’s been a while since I went on a good Yugioh tangent and like

---it’s not like I can say this on twitter---

+++++++++++++++END OF THAT RANT+++++++++++++++++++

So it’s at this point that Dartz turns to Raphael is like “I mean...we weren’t really doing anything else, and Yugi and Yami are playing so slowly...I guess I have time to bust your nuts” and decides to bust his nuts.

Oh hey, I was right.

And yeah, that’s still effed up. Dartz killed his Raphael’s family, left him on an island, and then adopted him later after forcing him to dig up their graves. Like...Raphael, that’s effed up.

He also did the same thing to everyone else (and for Valon he just kinda glazed over that really fast because we had to edit his backstory out of the English version)

PS at this part Mokuba started sweating bullets and Tea leaned over and was like “Is this true, Mokuba?”

And Mokuba was like “...yes.”

Because, I don’t think Mokuba can keep any secret from Tea. Like for reals, Tea may be the most dangerous thing to all of KaibaCorp if she wasn’t so distracted by Yami’s endless string of problems. Mokuba is constantly telling them all of Seto’s deepest darkest secrets and there is like nothing Seto can do about it.

The animation of Gozaburo turning into a beautiful Dartz was just a simple fade to white, but man--imagine if they had dome some crazy effed up animation where Gozaburo just whips back his head and he has ass length blue hair and long, luscious lashes?

Imagine.

Anyway, this was enough for Raphael, who was already our most gullible and unstable person on this show, to just flip that switch and go lime green like all those other minibosses before him.

Really glad we built up Raphael for him to just die at the door hahaha.

That was so freakin random.

OK then. Thanks for nothing, Raphael.

I guess we go to the next episode to see if we finally play another turn? We can hope for good things. But if we don’t play a full turn I will NOT be surprised.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[caranfindel]

Recap/review 15.17: “Unity”

THEN: Chuck is destroying all his worlds. Dean tricked Amara into going along with their plan. Empty!Meg is on Billie's side because she just wants to go back to sleep. (Don't we all, dear.) Billie wants Dean to be ready. Dean finally told Sam the truth and Sam was MAD.

NOW: Amara is enjoying a hot pool and a glass of wine in Reykjavik, Iceland. (She's pretending to read but there's no way she can see that book. Although I guess she could have super vision. Why not? And I'm sure the book itself is significant and maybe I'll look that up later but let's face it, I probably won't.) Her glorious view of the Milky Way is punctuated by what seems to be a falling star. But there are more and more and more and she knows what it really is. "Welcome home, brother."

Title card!

Bunker. Sam is on the phone with Cas, who just found out a possible lead in the "Basilica of Guadalupe" was useless. I wonder if he means the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico? A 35-hour drive from Lebanon? "That's all right," Sam says. "We'll find a way." {Sidebar: Eternal optimism or simple bullheaded refusal to accept the inevitable truth? Discuss.} Dean enters and asks if that was Cas, but Sam doesn't answer.

So, this is how it's gonna be? You're gonna give me the silent treatment?

I'm not sure what you want me to say.

That you get it. Like I said, killing Amara, Jack, dying, that's the only way.

Sam huffs and imitates Dean: "The only way. Our one shot. Our last chance. You ever get tired of saying stuff like that?" The guys are interrupted by a noise, and I'm just going to stop here for a minute, because I need to talk about Sam's anger. Sam's delicious anger. Apparently some people thought it was inappropriate for Sam to be so mad at Dean last week. At least that's what I read on the Tumblr. I'm sure no one reading this post feels that way. I mean, anyone who found Sam's anger inappropriate would have stopped reading my crap a long time ago, right? I just don't get it. This isn't an "I can see both sides" situation. Dean withheld information from Sam - lied to Sam - and I know they've both lied to each other before, but this was something catastrophic involving someone he loves. And when confronted, Dean doubled down. He didn't say "sorry, I just couldn't bear to tell you" or "I was hoping Cas would find some other way" or "I was trying to think of a way to break it to you easy." He blamed Sam. He told Sam he wasn't qualified to have that information because he would have done something about it. And after Dean spent the entire episode whining about having no control over his life, being a hamster in a wheel, he sentenced Sam to the same fate - he told him that he didn't have the right to know about Jack because he refused to just accept that this is their destiny.

I mean, I'm not bitter or anything.

Silver lining: Dean treating Sam so horribly at least means I got some tasty, tasty Angry Sam. (Mandatory disclaimer: I love Dean. I love that he is heroic and self-sacrificing but also deeply, deeply flawed.) Moving on.

Wait. I also love that Sam's justification for the silent treatment isn't I'm punishing you or even I'm mad at you, but is literally there is nothing I can say to you. Nothing I say will mean anything to you. All right, now we're moving on. Searching for the source of the noise, the guys find - Amara! Drinking their beer! Wearing pink again, but this time it's sparkly! "We should talk," she says.

Or, you know, we could just look. Looking is good. We have a little time jump in order to gather Jack. Amara tells the boys that her brother is back, and Jack knows this means it's time. She asks how they're going to cage Chuck, and Dean lies that Jack will be able to do it. Amara hopes she and Jack can get to know each other afterward, and Jack lies that they will. He just has to complete one final ritual. Sam doesn't lie to anybody; he just stands there looking unhappy. Amara asks what she can do to help, and they cut away from any discussion of what she's going to do, but then we get this. When the time comes, we can count on you, right? Like I told you when we first met, you and I will always help each other. Awkward! The way Amara is looking at Dean, I'm pretty sure she knows he's lying, and is just waiting for him to break down. (Spoiler alert: why do I even try?) But Dean and his lying, lying eyes do not break down.

But those eyes don't exactly hide any secrets either, do they? Meanwhile, Jack is concerned that Sam is angry at him. Or disappointed. Sam manages to express both support for Jack doing the thing and a strong desire for Jack to not do the thing. "Sacrificing your life for a cause takes a lot of courage," he says."I still think it's wrong, though." OH SAM. YOU WOULD KNOW. AND YOU WOULD DO IT ANYWAY. Apparently Jack's final ritual is taking place in Santa Fe. Dean's ready to go, and says they can be there by morning. (Oh, I hope she tells us if that's possible, they said sarcastically.) Hey, anyone who doesn't want a deep dive into the logistics of Winchester travel can write their own damn recap skip this part. I think the guys actually went to Santa Fe last season? Ouroboros? Anyway, it's 10.5 hours away. 11 hours if you avoid highways, which we know Dean likes to do, although that route would take you on some mountain roads that would probably be a little much for the Impala. So yeah, depending on what time it is now, "by morning" is doable. I know you're relieved. I think the bigger question is when will Cas get back from Mexico City? (Yes, I'm sure he drove - he was standing by his blue truck. Yes, I know no one else cares.) Dean is surprised to find that Sam's not going. He accuses Sam of "taking a knee," but Sam says that's not what he's doing. He's still looking for another way. Sam, you and me, we have to do this; it's in the book. Oh, Chuck's death book, right? Come on, man! Blindly following orders, sending Amara to her death; does any of this feel right to you? It doesn't matter how we feel! You know what? Stay. Stay. But somebody's got to be the grownup here. Yeah, well, someone has to keep fighting for Jack. He knows what he signed up for! Last I checked, we don't give up on family. Jack's not family! I know how you feel about the kid, okay? I feel for him too. I do. But he's not like you. He's not like Cas. He's just not. I have to confess, I maaaayyyybeee haven't been keeping up with the A plot as much as I should have, because I wasn't aware they were actually operating from a book. (Or I was and I forgot. Stranger things have happened.) I thought this was just Billie's plan. But if it's a book, that means it was fated to happen, right? Um, like the Ma'lak box? And why isn't Sam pointing that out? Why isn't Sam saying "we've already changed one of Billie's unchangeable endings, what makes you think we can't change this one?" But, you know. That's not important. What is important are two things: 1, the way Sam reacts when Dean says "Jack's not family," and B, the fact that Jack has entered the room at some point and heard some of that. Again, awkward! How many times has Jack come up behind someone and overheard something like that? Why don't they put a bell on that poor kid? Jack says he's ready, Sam gives him a sad, broken little smile and Jack and Dean hit the road. Boy, that's gonna be an uncomfortable 11 hours.

Whatever you think about this scene, you have to admit Jared is acting the hell out of it. Bunker. Cas is back, so I guess it's been 35 hours since that phone call. "Stayed behind to find another way, huh? I would have done the same." They research together. Wooded park. Amara. Chuck shows up. A title card weirdly informs us this is Amara. Yeah, we know that. I don't really care that much about their convo. All you need to know is he wants to do a "hard reset" - another Big Bang? - and can't do it without her. But she cares about this world now and wants to protect it. He thinks humans are lame and boring, and she says "what about your first children?" and zaps him into Heaven. He's welcomed by a small, adoring group of angels, but Crystal (an angel named Crystal?) annoys him so much that he snaps them all away. Amara offers him balance, darkness and light, here on this Earth, but he's not interested. So she zaps him into the bunker, which she has made into a trap for him. Impala. Dean, says the title card, unnecessarily. (Now that I've figured out what they're doing, I'd say the odds are 50:50 that Sam will have a title card.) Dean starts to talk about what Jack heard - not necessarily to apologize, but Jack says he understands that he's not like Sam or Cas. Okay then. Morning. They show up at a jewelry store and are greeted enthusiastically by the man and woman inside. "I'm Adam," the man says. "You know. God's primo. First dude off the assembly line." The woman with him is not Eve, but a hippie angel named Seraphina. I guess that means she's a seraph? Get it? (Sorry, I have to amuse myself sometimes.) She proclaims Jack's aura is "like Skittles," and of course it is. What else would it be like, other than something sweet and rainbow-colored? {Sidebar: Or should it be like nougat? Discuss.} Adam and Seraphina are very into Jack and also very much into each other. They separate long enough for Adam to take Jack for a "pop quiz." Seraphina says she knows Jack will pass because she saw it in a dream, which annoys me because angels don't sleep, but it turns out she means a mushroom-induced hallucination. She tells Dean that so many things had to happen for Jack to end up here, it was obviously "meant to be." Which doesn't sit well with Dean. Meanwhile, Adam explains to Jack that because of what God did to him and his sons, he's been wanting to kill him for a very long time. Billie is working with him, and kept him alive so he could finish the job. They've just been waiting for Jack. Adam shows him a tray of crystals and tells him to pick the one that was touched by God. Jack points to one, and Adam is disappointed. That's your choice? Yes. And... the others. All of them. They're just rocks, but their existence makes them divine, because God is in everything. And that's the right answer! Jack and Adam return, triumphant, and Seraphina celebrates by plunging a knife into Adam's chest and prying out a rib. Ew. "Everything can contain the spark of the divine, but this puppy? Is packing enough punch to create life. Or in this case, destroy God." With the power of the rib, Jack will turn into a "metaphysical black hole for divine energy" that nothing can escape. Not Amara, not God. But once is starts, it can't be stopped, so Jack shouldn't use it until "game time."

I'm pleased that Adam is a Middle Eastern guy. Back in the Impala, some hours later, Dean pulls over right before they get home. He apologizes to Jack for hearing what he heard. Not for saying it, but for Jack hearing it. He tells Jack that he hasn't been free his entire life. "But now, now me and Sam, we got a shot at living a life. Without all this crap on our backs. And that's because of you. So, I want to say, I need to say, thank you, Jack." Well, that's a nice emotional moment, but isn't Jack doing this to save the world? Not just to get Dean off the hamster wheel? Dean's phone buzzes. It's time. Jack takes the rib out of its baggie and absorbs it into his hand and oh, Jack, I don't think I'd have done that just yet. Bunker. Is this Sam's section? Yes, it is! \o/ Sam hurls a book to the floor in frustration and is comforted by Cas. Guys, Sam and Cas tend to do some crazy fucked-up shit when they're left together unsupervised, and I am here for it. Sam wishes he could talk to Billie about her plan, and Cas immediately assumes he's going to kill himself and puts his foot down. But Sam suddenly remembers what Sergei said about the key to Death's library. "Oh, is that why I invited Sergei here to the secret bunker," Cas says, "because now that makes sense." They start digging through old wooden chests and I'm fairly sure these are boxes full of cursed objects, although all they find are a large novelty chess piece, a gold leaf cross from Hobby Lobby, and the Holy Grail.

Tell me you didn't think the same thing. But Cas eventually does find the box with the key. The box has an inscription in Latin, which Sam reads out loud. By the way, Sam Latinating is always hot, even though he looks like he doesn't understand what he's saying. As the guys watch in amazement, a portal and keyhole appear in the wall. Cas wants to go with, but Sam asks him to stay and buy him some time if Dean comes back before he gets out, even if that sounds crazy. "Sam, for what it's worth, I don't think you're crazy," Cas says. "I think your internal compass is functioning perfectly." And Sam's all, aw, that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me in a long time.

"Donde está la biblioteca?” He puts the key in the keyhole and opens the door into the W section of Billie's library. I want him to start pulling books off the shelves and reading versions of his death, but he's distracted by a dead reaper on the floor. And more dead reapers. And the sound of one begging for her life and then noisily dying. He finally sees Empty!Meg (\o/) sitting at the circulation desk, as another reaper pleads for his life. "Please," he cries, "she won't come!" He prays unsuccessfully for Billie to come, and gets his neck snapped for his trouble. Sam immediately tries to nope the hell out of there, but Empty!Meg snaps her fingers and he appears in front of her. Sam Winchester? Meg? Sorry, she's still dead. Just borrowing the queen's pretty face cause really? I'm empty. {Sidebar: Why would Meg's meatsuit go to the Empty with her? Discuss.} Empty!Meg is trying to get Billie's attention, and she drops a bombshell on Sam. Billie intends to become the new God. "Classic narcissist, right? So tingly for the rules, the good old days. Everyone back to where they belong. Realities, dimensions, graves. What should be dead dies, angels off Earth, demons back to Hell, and I go back to sleep!" Oh, wait. Graves? So anyone who was dead at some point, and was brought back to life, would go back to the grave? She tells Sam that he's in God's book - the ornate book in front of her that only Billie can read. "She always talked about how you should be so dead, except she needs you." Empty!Meg decides that hurting Sam might get Billie's attention, and well, y'all know I'm not opposed to that. (If you're new here, hi, my name is caranfindel and I have a problem.) She brings Sam to his knees, but he finally manages to say "Billie sent me." Oh, Sam. He claims Billie sent him to get the book, because she's trapped on Earth. Empty!Meg can't go to Earth unless she's summoned (hmmm, wonder if that will come up later), and Sam says he has a message for her, from Billie. "Billie will honor her promise. God, Amara, they die. And you, you can go back to sleep." Empty!Meg decides to believe Sam, even though he didn't even know who she was or why she was there when he got there, or that Billie had even made any promises, but I'd have a hard time saying no to that face too.

I'll believe your lies. When Sam comes back through the door into the bunker, Cas greets him with "finally" as if he's been gone a long time, so time must flow differently in Billie's library. Cas tells him Chuck and Amara are here, and it's time. "We can't let that happen," says Sam. "We have to stop it." In the trap, Chuck narrates what's happening elsewhere in the bunker. "You hear that? Dean. Brought to the edge of doubt. His sense of duty, his rage, winning out in the end." As Dean drags Jack through the hall, Sam tells him about Billie's plan to take advantage of the power vacuum and become God. Dean doesn't care - he doesn't mind being duped as long as it's not by Chuck. "And poor Sam," says Chuck. "Always gotta know everything. Can't leave well enough alone." Poor Sam stands in front of Dean, trying to stop him. Dean yells that Jack already "lit the fuse" and they can't wait any longer. "This is my ending," Chuck says. "My real ending." And just as I'm wondering if he means his preferred ending, where one brother always kills another, Dean pulls his gun out and points it at Sam's heart. "Move, Sam. Move!" Sam's horrified. Cas and Jack are horrified. I'm horrified. And also, I'm ashamed to say, very entertained. I mean, I don't want the brothers fighting, and yet for Dean to lose the plot so badly that he'd actually shoot Sam in order to get off the hamster wheel? That's some gloriously messed up stuff, friends. Amara is shocked that Chuck orchestrated all of this. "What part of omniscient do you people not understand?" he says, and YES. THIS is something that has long needed to be said. He says that even though he can't read his death book, all he had to do was plant a few visions, mess with a few outcomes, bada bing bada boom! Nobody's killing him! Hallway. Sam pleads with Dean. "I don't want to do this," Dean says, "but this is everything!"

THIS is everything. Trap. Amara tells Chuck they're going to cage him, not kill him. Hallway. Dean does that thing you do with a gun when you want someone to know you're serious. Clicks off the safety, or whatever. Sam makes a have we really come to this? face and yanks Dean's gun hand away. Dean punches him and he drops to the floor. Trap. Chuck tells Amara that TFW is planning to kill both of them. Hallway. Dean drags Jack toward the trap and Sam tackles him. Dean punches him again. Cas just watches all this. What the hell, Cas. Trap. Chuck says the Winchesters are using Jack to destroy them. Amara says that can't be, because Dean can't hurt her. "No, but he can lie to you. He can send you into the meat grinder with a wink and a smile." But isn't that hurting her? Hallway. Dean orders Cas and Jack to go. Sam yells for Jack not to do it. Cas asks why not, because... Cas has suddenly forgotten what side of this argument he's on? "Because if Billie takes over, then everyone goes back to where they belong!" Sam says. "That means everybody from Apocalypse World - Bobby, Charlie - they get sent back to a place that doesn't exist any more. And everyone we saved! Eileen, she just dies, again! And that's just the beginning!" Trap. Amara is devastated. Hallway. Dean yells that they don't have a choice, and Sam says "we always have a choice!" Trap. Chuck tells Amara "the only ones who ever really get us is us." Hallway. Dean says there's nothing they can do but get out of the way, and he doesn't care if Billie becomes God. I'd trade it all, I'd trade 'em all, for Chuck! In a heartbeat! What about me? Would you trade me? Okay, is this Sam pointing out that if Billie becomes God, he dies? Because it's awfully subtle, and I think he just needs to come right and say "that's fine, Dean, but when I told you everyone we saved would die again, I meant everyone, and that includes me!" And Dean would probably also want to know that angels will be banished to Heaven, don't you think, Sam? Anyway. I saw this on Tumblr, and I can't get to it now because Tumblr is being a little bitch, but basically: Sam Winchester may have low self-worth, but he absolutely knows what he means to his brother, and he does not hesitate to use it. Trap. Chuck offers Amara the balance she said she wanted. "Us, starting fresh, creating something new, something beautiful, peaceful, together. And we can finally forget about all this pain. No baggage. Only balance." He extends a hand. Amara takes it and dissolves into smoke, which is absorbed by Chuck, who now has one demon-black eye and one angel-blue eye. And a sadistic grin. Hallway. Chuck has to die. He has to! Otherwise he'll keep us tap dancing forever, and I can't live like that, man! I can't live like that; I won't! I know you feel like that right now, okay? I know you do. But you gotta trust me. My entire life, you've protected me. From Dad? From Lucifer? From everything. I didn't always like it, you know, but it's the one thing in the whole world that I could always count on. It's the only thing I've ever known that was true. So please, put the gun away. Just put it away. We'll figure it out, Dean; we'll find another way. You and me. We always do. Gotta admit, I'm torn about this scene. I mean, on the one hand, it's beautifully done, so much emotion and angst and anger and teary-eyed, shaky Sam. Once again, Jared is acting the hell out of it. (And Jensen too, but come on.) And yet, on the other hand... how bad is Sam's Stockholm Syndrome? "You protected me from Dad?" Have we seen any evidence of that? I'm sure Dean was forced to be the referee sometimes, but have we seen any evidence that Dean ever said "no Sam, you're not disowned just because you want to stop hunting and go to college" or "no Dad, I'm not even going to pretend I'll kill Sam," rather than consider it an option until he was actually faced with it? It seems like "protecting Sam from Dad" mostly meant "trying to get Sam to do what Dad wanted, so he'd stay out of trouble." And Lucifer? When Sam told him he was Lucifer's vessel, and the Devil was coming to him in his dreams, Dean basically said "sucks to be you, now pick a hemisphere." Now, I'm aware that Dean has actually protected Sam from many, many things. In good ways and in bad ways. And yet he's also hurt him in some pretty awful ways. I mean, he just now threatened to shoot him for refusing to accept his destiny is to help Dean escape the slavery of his destiny. So for Sam to say "you protect me" is one thing. Dean absolutely does that. But to say it's the only thing that's true, and to specifically mention John and Lucifer, well. Hmmm.

Let's just concentrate on the pretty. Anyway. Dean puts the gun away, Sam sighs a tearful shaky sigh of relief, and then the door to Amara's trapped room explodes. Chuck walks out dramatically - not nearly as hot as Demon!Demon dramatically walking through his own destroyed door - and yells at them. "Are you kidding me? After everything, after all that, you did it again!" He tells them he absorbed Amara, mocks Castiel (which is kind of funny), and says they're all stupid, stubborn, and broken, and he's done with them. "You know what you do with broken toys? You throw them out. So, kill each other, don't kill each other, I don't care." Then he tells them to have fun watching Jack die, and zaps on out of there. Jack collapses, and bad things are clearly happening to him. Well, it's hard to get worked up over Jack dying again (what would this be, the third time?). After all, as Dean said, he's not Sam. I'm more interested in finding out if Dean understood he was sentencing Sam to death when he said he didn't care if Billie became God. {Sidebar: Would Dean die too? Or would everything that happened because Sam was brought back be erased? Discuss. And maybe fic.} And now Amara is gone. But, conveniently, destroying Chuck will also destroy her, so. Balance! Unity! Hugs and puppies all around! Oh, friends. The end is near, and I don't feel good about it. I'm anxious about a lot of things happening next week, and the third-to-last episode of Supernatural is one of them. How do you feel? 

Please help me stay unspoiled, including episode titles and casting info, thanks!

[mythvoiced]

ALLOW ME TO PLACE THESE Q'S HERE FOR OUR FAVE GOBLIN: Besides meat, what other foods does he find delight in? What's something that gives him utter peace as soon as it's there? How was his life during the Joseon era? Are there certain things in the past that he wishes could be available in the modern world, or is he fully comfortable with what's at hand? How would he feel if a particular gumiho suddenly hugged him from behind? 👀 LOVE YOU

-. @jeoseungsaja | Alex I would literally kill for you, if anybody ever comes at you, let them know I’ll be the last thing they see, BECAUSE I LOVE Y O U

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This got so loNG I’MS O sorr y- Also look at this gif taken from the pack you sent me the link of <W<

-. Besides meat, what other foods does he find delight in? Would saying ‘fish’ be a bit too close to meat? Okay, that aside I do think Shin has a rather varied palate, mostly because he's had plenty of time to visit any place he’d wanted to visit and explore dishes and specialities to the point where it would be extremely shameful if he chose to not keep an open mind about new dishes. I also think he’s particularly fond of Korean dishes (in a similar fashion to Hyun) simply because it feels like home, especially if it’s traditional enough that it can bring him back to the beginning of it all, perhaps without reminding of the contexts that had made the beginning difficult. And I also think he might be a little bit of a gourmet: he’ll absolutely eat what he can get, considering how fond he seems to be of beer he can’t say he doesn’t like junk food or anything you could get and/or make easily. But for some reason I have a feeling that Shin thinks of food in a ‘the eye wants its part too’ fashion, meaning that he also enjoys when something looks good, when it’s presented well, and when it looks like it’s trying to make an impression - which is something we’ve seen him do before. Kim Shin is characterised by an interesting combination of ancient and modern, old and young, where he is both wise and petulant, reliable and petty, and these many contrasts living within his personality, can present themselves in something as simple as cuisine, too. So, yeah, he’ll eat ramyeon. But also that Canadian steak. And he loves homemade... and sitting in fancy restaurants.

-. What’s something that gives him utter peace as soon as it’s there? The people he loves. The Goblin has lived so long, has seen so many things, has owned a great deal of trinkets, properties, treasures. But nothing material can bring him the peace that the people he holds dear to his heart can. Because even objects with value only have said value because they remind him of those he’s had to move on from, loved ones he no longer gets to see. So, he might show anger at losing a plate Louis XIV used to eat on, but did that plate bring him peace? No. Does knowing Ji Eun-tak is safe, sleeping in a room in his house, hopefully soundly, bring him peace? Yes. Does the pitter patter of Saja’s houseslippers headed towards his bedroom bring him peace? Yes. Does purposefully ignoring Deok-hwa’s faux innocent smile in his peripheral asking him for money bring him peace? Yes. Simply getting to sit there and witness the people he loves be themselves, alive, hopefully well, going about their existence by pursuing their hobbies, engaging in their quirks and habits, is the most Shin doesn’t dare to ask for. That’s when he’s tranquil: when he gets to see those he loves be, free of plight, or imminent danger. When he’s sitting on their couch and watching Eun-tak spread her homework across their coffee table and occasionally shoot him that special smile, while Saja slurps on his milk and gets too invested in a drama playing on TV, and Deok-hwa is walking into the room babbling about some girl-related nonsense, well... What more can he possibly want?

-. How was his life during the Joseon era? I remember one shot of Shin in Joseon era, I think he’s sitting at a table and having a good time, possibly even gossiping about something, I don’t remember the episode this scene was in, nor can I find it anywhere else, but unless I’m having brain fry, I vaguely remember his appearance as well: according to his outfit, he must have been a yangban. Yangban is sort of what you could have considered nobility at the time, the ruling class of the Joseon dynasty, made up of military officials and/or scholars. Why am I mentioning this? Well, because obviously Kim Shin would have found a way to become a yangban. The title/class of Yangban is, this all according to my research so if I’m wrong shoot me and pls correct me, something a man had to earn by passing certain exams/attending a school, that would basically qualify them for the social status that would then turn the entire family into a yangban family (also because women couldn’t take these exams and studies, nor become officials or scholars, but could still inherit the title of yangban female from their fathers, for example). So, how was his life during the Joseon era? Well, high class I would say. I don’t remember what was being discussed in that scene, so I can’t say for sure, but I can’t see Shin choosing to become a military official yet again. Considering his experiences with the empire while serving it as a general, I can see Shin simply defying from the crown by minding his own and no longer offering his self and his services in any direct way to the palace. I can see him as a scholar, perhaps simply living his life as a yangban male and every now and then attending a few things just to maintain his status, all while he simply continued to explore the country and play pranks on other officials. And I can’t tell you why, but I can absolutely see him play pranks on other officials, or sneak some reading material to a daughter, or monopolise the attention of court ladies just because he can, going as far, of course, as he can get away with flirting with anyone at the time. He most definitely grew fond of a few faces here and there, since Shin is literally incapable of not growing fond of someone, once you enter his heart, you simply do, it’s far too big for a man like him, and far too willing, far too desiring, desiring to give and receive love, to give and receive attention, to give and receive the warmth and familiarity of connections. So, he led a good life, definitely financially speaking and simply in terms of quality, he was probably annoying for some, and probably avoided the very centre of palace life, because I can see him not wanting to have as much to do with royalty anymore.

-. Are there certain things in the past that he wishes could be available in the modern world, or is he fully comfortable with what's at hand? Shin is the sentimental type. I’m not even headcanoning it, and even if he attempts to hide it, he usually does an awful job at hiding just how much he cares and how much things affect him. He’s very loud and almost obnoxious at times in his reactions, he explains himself the same way a child might at times, he’s excitable, and he doesn’t feel shame to show Saja how much it matters to him, what impression he’d make in front of Eun-tak. He cares, and while vocal admittances are usually reserved for those very serious moments, he’s always proving just how sentimental he is. So, I would say, it’s a yes to both those alternatives. First the latter: yes, he’s fully comfortable with what’s at hand, because the modern world simply has so much to offer that he enjoys. Even if he doesn’t understand it or make regular use of it, you can see him move about the modern world rather comfortably, learn about any new customs, institutions, or ways of living. He keeps himself up to date (the business card thing, I swear-), he likes to tap into new passions and likes. And at the same time, he loves the world he came from. I always feel like, compared to perhaps Hyun, who I’m mentioning here because you know him which makes comparison easier (;3), who doesn’t feel himself to belong in any particular era but rather to existence as a whole, whenever I watch Shin, he’s extremely self-aware of the fact that his time on Earth has long ‘expired’. Other than the fact that he literally should have died back in Goryeo, one of the things that kind of fortifies this idea for me is what Shin looks like when he does actually die (and then returns): he’s dressed in the same clothes he wore when he ‘died’ in Goryeo. Shin’s soul seems to belong to Goryeo still, and as such, the life he’d led at the time (now, personal interpretation) somehow feels like The life, his life, while all the centuries that followed had been the extension. The culture, the habits, the food, the garments, anything, honestly, that belongs to Goryeo feels as if it’s something Shin knows, things he grew up with, things that shaped him, that was his time, and the modern world, Joseon, they’re times he’s visiting, even if it’s against his will. That’s the vibes I get. And I realise this answer is perhaps a little too much in contrast to the question :’3

-. How would he feel if a particular gumiho suddenly hugged him from behind? 👀 Oh YEAH- Now, I could answer this question by dipping into what we’ve seen Shin do in the canon in romantic scenarios/romantic-coded scenes, but I don’t want to. Because I don’t want to recycle reactions and demeanour he portrayed for/relating to Eun-tak, I want to explore what he does, and who he is, in the particular world that is verse 4 (because, this is a particular verse for Shin as well, since Yeo’s the bride <w<). SO, the reaction obviously always depends on what stage of their relationship they’re in <w< In the canon, he usually startles when Saja does anything remotely romantic(-coded?) (well, safe for some scenes where he looks a little surprised but not displeased-), but in my boat- Circumstances are different, Yeo/the person is different, and they’ve been interacting differently. I think at a point in time in which nothing has been said but a lot has perhaps been done and/or hinted at, insinuated, he’d probably startle and not really know what to do with himself. The worry that this is just a fox-antic meant to tease him or poke fun at him might be small, but very much present, so he’d just try to play it off with some lame line, half-jokingly insinuating Yeo’s being sweet because he wants something, or even straight up interpret it as Yeo holding onto him because he stumbled and Shin was just... there, to hold onto to so he doesn’t have to fall flat on his face. Have things been... discussed though, honestly, we know sometimes Shin acts like a shy virgin, which is honestly adorable, and he might even act that way a little bit in this scenario where he just has that goofy smile on his face and is doing that flustered shifty eyes thing, but I also like to think that the moment Yeo’s arms are around him, Shin just.. laughs. Like, a warm, heartful chuckle, as he leans back into Yeo’s chest and just kind of leans his head back and turns it enough to be able to look at Yeo, give him a silly flirty one-liner, maybe try to get a kiss out of hi- Or he’ll end up turning around in his arms still to grab his face and SMOOCH HIM- Might be vary slightly depending on what Shin’s doing, but this is the gist of it, yet, no matter what, sMOOCH FINALE-

[eleutheramina]

Jack Atlas Analysis - Part 2

Who is FC arc Jack?

How about DS arc Jack? - here

How could the DS arc have done better with regards to Jack?

Part 2: How about DS arc Jack?

DS!Jack is certainly in a much different situation that FC!Jack, and I think the line between character derailment and character development can be hard to draw sometimes. There are some who would argue that the change of lead from Tomioka to Yoshida does change him into a different character, but again, I don’t wholly agree with that. I actually am pretty fine with his characterization for most of the arc. I’m not going to touch on Team Satisfaction and how that retroactively affects Jack’s character because that’s a whole can of worms I don’t care to open. 

So who is DS!Jack? Well, he no longer holds his King title, he is definitely not unbeatable, and his Satellite origins are revealed to the public. He spends the first couple of the episodes unconscious, the third in the hospital with a broken arm. FC!Jack would probably think DS!Jack is pathetic and a disgrace. 

Less of Jack’s Internal Monologue More than how he’s characterized himself, I think one of the more subtle but significant differences about DS!Jack is how his personality is conveyed to the audience. Whereas FC!Jack has a decent amount of moments of internal monologue, I feel like there’s relatively little of Jack’s internal monologue for most of the DS arc. This, I think, contributes to why DS!Jack feels different than FC!Jack even right off the bat. Not to say FC!Jack doesn’t also convey a lot about Jack through his body language, actions, or dialogue, but I think how DS!Jack is characterized relies on it more heavily.

For instance, we don’t get much (or really, any) internal monologue about Jack’s feelings about his loss. Jack’s first action in the DS arc is to knock down a vase in anger because of his Satellite background being revealed; he also reacts similarly angrily when it makes the headlines in episode 31, paired with a flashback of his defeat and Yusei’s words about his pride of being a King, as well as when he hears his fans’ cheers and imagines Yusei’s face very heterosexually in the fountain. 

Both the reason for and the impact of not knowing a lot of Jack’s thoughts regarding his loss is, I think, that the audience mainly has Carly’s perspective on him, especially in episode 31. I think this contributes to the foreignness of DS!Jack--after all, Carly did not exist in the FC arc and we as an audience are not used to her perspective on Jack being the primary way we know him. I don’t say this as necessarily a good or bad thing, just to be clear. 

Right at the beginning of the DS arc, Carly is introduced and given an amount of protagonist-like focus to rival Yusei’s, especially notable since she does not initially have any clear connections with any of the other established characters (unlike Crow, who gets a comparable amount of focus but is retconned into being revealed to have been friends with Yusei and Jack). 

Unlike Jack, Carly does get both internal and external monologues, and the amusement park plot of episode 31 is primarily from Carly’s perspective. She doesn’t know where Jack is trying to go or what Jack’s intentions are for 90% of the episode, and so neither does the audience, and only when she figures it out do we know that he’s heading to the tower. We don’t get to hear Jack mourn his loss of his Kingship when he’s staring at the fountain; it’s Carly who narrates his hurt for us. 

This is especially clear with this shot:

Carly is literally looking at the audience during her internal monologue, suggesting she’s talking to us. Also lowkey this line is funny in hindsight because like she does melt his heart later. 

Even while they’re watching Kiryu and Yusei’s duel, or even in episode 37, we basically don’t get anything about what Jack thinks. We only get what he says to Carly or Mikage (most of which is exposition about Zero Reverse or Team Satisfaction), or Carly’s perception of him. 

Jack’s Relationship with Carly Jack’s initial interactions with Carly feel fairly in-character to me. He’s pretty indifferent to her initially, but if Jack is someone who evaluates people based on their merit, I think the moment when Carly defends him from a blast is when she overcomes the threshold to be worthy of some respect by Jack. And even then, he continues to seem either indifferent or annoyed by her--he initially leaves her apartment without any notice, he gets fed up with her antics to get a scoop from him, and he leaves her at the park and does what he’d originally set out to do. Even after the scene at the tower at the end of 31, he continues to not show much warmth to her at all for the remainder of their interactions before she becomes a DS. 

The impact of the scarcity of internal monologues for DS!Jack is that the development of Jack’s feelings for Carly is kept under wraps for most of the arc. FC!Jack has copious monologues about his being King, etc. As for DS!Jack? Well at one point, he thinks, “What I need to protect” when staring at Carly’s glasses. . . and that’s basically it as far as what Jack thinks about Carly.

The rest is conveyed through Jack staring at her glasses a lot--often paired with or commented on by Mikage, which helps put what he’s doing in a more explicitly romantic light--and conversations with Mikage. Indeed, we only fully understand his motivation when Mikage asks him directly why he’s going to Satellite. Contrast with FC!Jack whose motivation is clear from the beginning and which we hear from his own words. 

Now, I think having Jack’s feelings be mostly beneath the surface is a smart move; in hindsight, it’s pretty clear that he has feelings for Carly, but because they are not overstated, Jack doesn’t seem too lovesick or sentimental in a way that would definitely feel out of character. Rushed Relationship Development Even the most ardent of Scoopshippers can probably agree that the leap Jack and Carly’s relationship takes is a large one. In their duel, it is beyond clear that Jack is extremely in love with her, extremely considerate of her wellbeing, her feelings, her desires, and willing to die with her, and Carly’s feelings are of similar intensity. 

Now, I do think we see that Carly as a character understands and pushes Jack in ways other characters don’t, and in a way that I can imagine Jack eventually also comes to reciprocate. 

But ultimately the relationship itself is quite rushed and the two lack actual quality time together on screen. The scene where Carly is imagining Jack in her apartment and crying about things he took from her helps in creating the illusion that they spent a lot of time together and were able to get close--but ultimately, we don’t get to see much of that on screen, and I think that’s probably the biggest weakness of this subplot. Suggested interactions don’t make up for onscreen interactions, especially when it comes to moving characters from feeling lukewarm about one another to the passion and commitment that Jack and Carly display in their duel. The scenes from episode 29 and episode 31 get references in flashbacks a lot later in the arc--and while they’re certainly shiptastic, they don’t feel commensurate to the intensity of their feelings for one another later.  

Of course, I imagine part of this is because, at its core, YGO is not a romance anime, and the DS arc just really needed to move the plot along. Kiryu and Yusei’s duel, and Jack’s subsequent leaving of Carly, starts in the episode right after the tower scene. The writers needed Jack/Carly’s relationship to go from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. 

Part of the drama/mystery of the Jack/Carly plot is that the audience isn’t fully sure what Jack feels until the duel itself, even though it’s hinted that he cares for her; Jack’s confession of love comes as somewhat of a surprise. But I think this also meant that we did not get to see a lot of the moments of them caring about each other on screen. And I also think that it’s possible to increase their onscreen interactions and make their bonding more obvious without sacrificing too much of the mystery surrounding Jack’s real feelings. Continuity With FC!Jack One thing I do think the DS arc does well is articulating Jack’s FC character pretty accurately and continuing his arc with similar themes/ideas. “Change Destiny” is a really heavy-handed card, but I do think that the idea of Jack believing he is destined to be King or walk on the path of the King, and then abandoning that concept entirely for a path he makes himself, is consistent with FC!Jack’s doggedness in being King and the way Godwin/Jaeger talk about it as something he’s meant to be.

Although the execution was not great, I think the idea of Jack being tempted by the idea of being a Dark King - one who “needs not friends, bonds,” and rules over the whole world turned into hell, is an extreme version of the loner king who abandons friends for something better, as Jack did

Similarly, the idea of a real King that Carly hopes Jack will become in episode 59, though cheesy, does expand on the idea of him being a King in a way that is also consistent with not being a loner/gaining bonds. When Jack calls himself “a person who would never give a thought to others... willing enough to betray and hurt [his] friends, sacrificing any and all for [his] own ambitions” — I think that’s spot on who Jack is in the FC arc. 

And Godwin and Jack’s dramatic exchange during their duel at the end of episode 63 about the only way to being a King is being alone, about how Jack abandoned bonds — that’s pretty congruent with FC Jack. And having Jack say that he also abandoned being the King, when his attachment to being the King was the cornerstone of his character before, is an effective move in terms of rounding out his character arc. The other biggest flaw with Jack in the DS arc is that we don’t see him struggle more with abandoning that identity.

In fact, DS!Jack spends a lot less time angsting talking about being the King--which again, makes some sense because he lost the FC and the focus of the story shifts/expands to be more about the Signer vs Dark Signer conflict. If it is brought up, it’s mostly to emphasize that he’s not the King anymore, such as when he corrects Mikage about calling him King in episode 32, or when he calls that man “a different person” to Godwin in episode 42. 

Jack feels notably less condescending and egoistical in the DS arc, even from the very beginning. Part of this can be explained away by the fact that he is no longer in the settings in which his ego can shine the most--the Duel Stadium, or his mansion--and therefore doesn’t really have that many people to look down on anymore. I also think part of it is because, due to the lack of internal monologue (and the use of Carly as a viewpoint character), we don’t hear his thoughts as often, disparaging or not. 

The most we see of the condescending Jack is probably in episode 43, when he beats up Yusei when he’s upset about having to fight Kiryu. It’s also the main time we see Jack talk about how he feels about losing his title - he says Yusei “dragged [him] off his throne and gave [him] such disgrace.” Here we see how this aspect of Jack, rather than mostly serving to make him look cruel as it had in the FC arc, actually helps to challenge Yusei’s character. Indeed, in general we see Jack is more supportive of Yusei. We also see a bit of Jack’s old boastfulness when he says that “Your Earthbound Gods aren’t so great” and saves Martha’s kids in episode 46. 

Jack also doesn’t push other people away as much in the DS arc, though he definitely still does at some points. When Mikage tries to draw closer to him, he ultimately rebuffs her. Even Carly initially leaves without much thought and brushes her off when she first tries to talk to him. When Yusei’s talking about his nakama in episode 45, it’s Jack who says he’s not anyone’s friend. Jack is also arguably the most closed off from the other Signers. No one knows who he’s dueling, and he’s the only Signer to not have anyone watching his duel. 

Yet he also more openly cares about other people. Yusei’s injury in episode 35 gives him great concern for him that honestly he doesn’t show Yusei much during the FC. We are shown Jack’s old caregiver, Martha, whom he clearly cares for. And of course, there’s Carly. 

Finally, Jack has more moments of generic heroism in the DS arc, whereas in the FC he basically has none. He goes into the crumbling Arcadia Movement to save Aki, and he also dramatically saves the orphans from being sacrificed to the Earthbound God Uru. Whereas Jack could be said to be one of the antagonists of the FC arc, he certainly is portrayed as more of a protagonist in the DS arc, when the grander Signer-Dark Signer conflict plays out. 

[drunklander]

Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander

Thoughts on Ep. 502

Watched this episode after winning Wynonna Earp trivia (fuck yeah, The Shit Tickets!) at a bar, put on by a queer af podcast, followed by going to see a queer af movie, and was all ready to get my Beauchamp fix... And it was like oh here’s a taste and a hint that we’re gonna end up in a story line similar to what we’ve already done multiple times, but now on to the menfolk.

For real though, this episode was like an OL greatest hits clip show. It had all the stuff we’ve seen before. A time traveler who wants to go home? Check. Rape PTSD? Check. A man being a dad to a kid who isn’t/might not be his? Check. That same man being the absolute worst? Check. Claire being reckless with future medicine? Check. Townsfolk questioning Claire’s medical knowledge in favor of the local Man of Importance? Check. Jamie trying to be on both sides at once? Check. A villain who seemed to have died the previous season and should have fucking stayed dead? Check.

We’ve literally seen all of this stuff before.

For a show that spent the first part of season two claiming to be a political drama and then last season claiming that they “weren’t political” I see we’re back to just leaning hard into politics that have direct parallels today.

No fucks left to give about the system Murtz is kind of my favorite Murtz. Like this dude spent his whole life living by a code and an oath and was fucked over by the system so many fucking times that he’s ready to just burn it all down. Curious to see how they walk the domestic terrorist vs. freedom fighter line with him for the rest of the season.

Got all excited about the bread title card because yay medicinal mold, but of course, the lead character was relegated to the B story.

Old timey medicine baffles me. Like the fact that bleeding someone was like a catchall remedy boggles the mind.

I feel rull bad for Mrs. Whoeverthefuck though. She tried.

Also, shit like this makes me be like, yo Claire, you sure you wanna stay here? Jamie’s really not all that and a bag of chips. But you do you, boo.

Speaking of Jamie, his hair looks really good. A thousand fruit baskets to the new wig person.

Lulz at Knox thinking the Gathering was about being loyal to king and country. Dummy.

Srsly though, Murtz Valmurtz is really getting under their skin. Is he like the *only* Regulator leader?

The convo between Knox and Jamie is literally as relevant today as it is in the 1770s. But yeah, the show IsN’t PoLiTiCaL.

The fact that fuckers think those at the bottom should be happy with their lot because “lol it could be worse” need to be punched in the face and taken out of power. Stat.

Also any time someone in power talks about civility as a reason not to rise up against injustice, I want to punch them. Because they deserve it.

I want to punch a lot of things.

This whole episode is very Les Mis, tbh.

Literalol at Claire covering dead guy’s face and not his body cavity before Bree comes in.

Aw Bree, why you gotta be a buzzkill? We were cheated of badass Doctor!Claire in S3. Let us have this.

Also, yeah, Claire, Bree’s fucking right. Which you’d think you’d know by now what with alL THE FUCKING TIMES YOU’VE BEEN CALLED A WITCH. AND NOW YOU’RE UPPING YOUR GAME TO LIKE NECROMANCY?!

Also the more she says no one will find out the more annoying it is because *clearly* someone *is* gonna find out and we’re gonna be back on the “she’s a witch!” “I’m not a witch!” “you literally have a dead guy in your closet!” merry-go-round again.

Today in most on-the-nose shots ever: How convenient that Marsali just happens to be doing some butchering right there, right then.

Petition for the show to go full Shondaland and just turn into a backwoods medical drama with Claire and Marsali, and all the others (cough the men cough) can fuck on off.

Tarring and feathering is like the old timey version of #AlwaysPunchAFascist but dialed to 11.

Oh the baggage behind Jamie saying redcoat man will someday wear his scars with honor that none of these fuckers know about...

Ok so clearly the English know that Claire’s a doctor so whenever shit hits the witchy dead dude fan, can we please have a quick resolution and not that dumb af “Claire goes to jail and of course her cellmate is a lesbian because Diana sucks at writing queer characters” nonsense?

Man Jamie is *not* subtle with this convo at the jail. Like Knox is right there and he’s just like hey buddies, I have people and we’re Scottish and y’know how we feel about protecting people vs. obeying the English.

I AM SPARTACUS FITZGIBBONS!

Aaand, naturally, the fuckwit preaching civility is the one to kill a man in cold blood. Rise up, motherfuckers. Rise up.

THANK FUCK ROGER IS A TERRIBLE SHOT BECAUSE IF THAT SQUIRREL DIED I WOULD LEGIT QUIT THE SHOW. RUN AWAY AND BE FREEEEEE YOU PRECIOUS LIL WILDERNESS FLOOFER!

Roger is, and I cannot stress this enough, the fucking worst.

He’s like look how shitty I am at being a soldier but then bitches about having to try to learn. And then he bitches about how dumb it is to shoot at squirrels as if being able to hit a squirrel wouldn’t make hitting a much larger thing, like a man who is shooting back at you, that much easier. And also, how the fuck does he think they get meat to eat? Shooting it, you twatwaffle.

And he’s like so fucking butthurt about being left behind. Like no shit, asshat. You’re bad at being in the past and have made no real effort and you whine a lot and are generally the worst. Of *course* you were left behind. Stop being emo about it and maybe actually try.

“He doesn’t respect me, Bree.” Yeah, no shit. Because you’ve done LITERALLY NOTHING to earn his respect. WHY ARE YOU SO TERRIBLE IT’S LIKE THEY’RE INTENTIONALLY TRYING TO MAKE HIM SUCK.

He also is like butthurt that his wife is a better shot than him when she gets the turkey he misses. How the fuck are we supposed to ship this. Ugh.

#BreeDeservesBetter

Oh Bree, sweetie, Jem won’t get hit by a car, but there are like eleventy million ways to die in the past. Just stick with the “you want to stay with your family” stuff.

Roger clearly doesn’t want to stay and is gonna pull a Fred and make Bree feel bad about wanting to all season, isn’t he. Fahkin’ doucherocket.

“I want to go but I’ll stay for you and look how magnanimous I am as I whine about it and make no effort to acclimate to the time.” Take your martyr card and shove it, Rog.

Shorter Jamie Fraser: “If you stand for nothing, Knox, what’ll you fall for?”

I’m already over Roger singing all the time tbh. Mostly because it reminds me that soon he won’t be able to do that anymore and we’re gonna be subjected to like half a season of him being more insufferable than he already is.

Wait, was Joan already born last episode? Or was there another time jump? Is Marsali preggers with baby #3? I lost track.

I love this scene between Claire and Marsali with my whole heart. Marsali especially.

CAN WE PLEASE JUST HAVE A WHOLE SHOW OF THESE TWO BEING ALL BADASS AND DOCTORY TOGETHER!?

Although, quick question, how fucking long is Claire planning to keep that un-embalmed body lying around in an un-refrigerated surgery/root cellar? Just curious...

Because you know someone’s gonna find it eventually and that’s gonna be a whole to do and I really need to stop being preemptively annoyed at plot lines that haven’t actually happened yet.

And with all this talk of plowshares and swords, I really am going to be singing Les Mis for days...

How long have these biddies been living on the Ridge? The fucking Leoch folks spent like a minute with Claire before they were like yep, she knows what’s up. These folks have apparently been here for months and are like loool, pass. They live in the fucking woods. You’d think they’d be more open to Claire’s brand of medicine.

Omg are they like the accidental antivaxxers of the Ridge?

#VaccinateYourFuckingKids

I mean, Bree, I think there’s some difference between Claire pretending to be a dude doc and telling folks to wash their hands and Otter Tooth.

Season 2 Claire and Otter Tooth on the other hand...

Ok so Jamie needs more men so that means next week is AHS: Beardsley Farm and then maybe (hopefully) instead of being like lol jk you can all go home, it actually goes right into the battle thing. Still not sure if they’re gonna do Roger getting hanged as the mid-season big thingy and then do the Bonnet nonsense in the back half or keep trying to do both of those at once.

Hey, Roger, pro-tip, next time you see Morag MacKenzie, maybe don’t fuCKING MAKE OUT WITH HER YOU FUCKING DUMBASS.

Claire’s totally right about how they should go back. Honestly, they should. But instead of talking with her like Claire is now with Roger, he’s just being all moody about how he’s bad at the past and wants to go back. You’re shooting yourself in the foot, broski.

Oh hey Husband the Quaker. And is that a fellow Quaker named Hunter with him? Are we gonna get Denny and Rachel this season?! Please and thank you that’d be great, I love them.

Murtz talking to his squad is full on Enjolras being like don’t worry fam, Marius will stand and fight with us. His place is there, he’ll fight with you.

The two very different but very similar ways Murtz and Jamie approach being Laird of their squads is fun to explore.

Bree lecturing Claire about changing the future by saving a few backwater hicks like Claire didn’t spend years trying to fucking change all of Scottish history is a bit rich. Like writers, we get it, you’re trying to be like oh snap, wait for the consequences of this bread!science! But like come the fuck on. We sat through all of season two.

“You’re a good dad, you know that?” Oh man, I’m getting that déjà vu about a shitty man getting kudos for being a good dad to a kid as if that negates all of his shittiness.

Oh hey, Bonnet’s back. Clearly we couldn’t have just let him die last season. Gotta drag shit on for longer than it has to. This is the [Outlander] Way.

If they were gonna keep him around as a villain, they shouldn’t have (in addition to all the other reasons) included him raping Bree. Jamie, Murtagh and Bonnet all making choices within and outside of the law to various degrees in order to make their living in the Colonies would be a really interesting contrast. But nope, gotta just go all in. BeCaUsE tHe BoOk.

Also I hate with the passion of a thousand fiery suns the Jemmy’s paternity stuff. Le sigh.

Remember in season one when the show was about Claire and she was in episodes for longer than 10 minutes?

I miss Claire.

[darkestwolfx]

Inferno - Re-Review #49

Is this it’s first TV appearance? Yes, it is. The episode that never aired (in the UK) - even in the Series 2 re-runs, due to the Grenfell Tower fire. Now, it is finally being given its long awaited slot- Oh, no, hold fire.

We still can’t (or it’s been decided not to) air ‘Inferno’ in the UK because of the case being in court, being held off by the current situation. I do completely understand that - I’m not unsympathetic in anyway, but - for us fans - this is a gem of an episode that is being swept under the carpet, which is why I’m reviewing it in this series anyway, because it really does deserve it’s place in the lineup in my opinion. (And I’m a little OCD and on’t want it out of order too much so I’m doing it now not later. If they air it after ‘The Long Reach’ I’ll be annoyed)!

Anyhow, this is the first of two reviews for today and we get to start with a lovely tall tower. Now, when has that ever been a good idea? This episode bears similarities to ‘Towering Inferno’ and ‘City of Fire’ (TOS).

This is another one of our ‘Joker’s’ Club - Current members;

Light-fingered Fred

Ms Baker

Langstrom Fischler

Francois Lemaire

Mr Yost

Professor Harold

Feel free to suggest others and I will add them to the Hall of Shame. (Ned is saved because he’s actually nice and he has the best intentions, he just can’t achieve them. I like Ned okay? He doesn’t deserve to be in this club).

Today anyhow, this show of stupidity is all in the interest of breaking a record - because one man can’t handle the fact that someone built a building taller than his. That would be Mr Yost - I think his place in the above hall is aptly given.

“This is the Crystal Spire! The World’s first StarScraper. I designed it to be the world’s tallest structure, then they built a bigger one in Dubai. Tonight, ’m going to raise the  entire building by seven record shattering metres. Trust me, the lifting process is 100% safe.”

Do you know what else they said that about? Moving The Empire State Building in TOS’ ‘Terror In New York City’. We all know how that one ended.

It did look pretty for a moment there, before you know, all the fires burst out and everything.

“Your job is to make sure those electrojacks hold. If they fail, fire will be the lest of our problems.”

Yeah... we’d have another Empire State incident on our hands and no one wants that. Big Ben’s probably going to fall into the Thames one day as it already is, we don’t need the ‘grand’ Crystal Spire joining it.

“Please, please, save my building!”

Idiot.

“I think you mean save those people!”

I like her already. She can stay.

Cue acting faces;

Put on your best shocked and worried expressions!

I think this lot nailed it.

Bravely going where no firefighters have gone before! Putting out fires to save lives, and accidentally getting trapped beneath about eight tonnes of rubble. Not so hooray..

I wonder if Conrad’s brother is one of these firefighters? That would have been a nice touch. Slough isn’t London, but isn’t too far away. It’s not outside the realms of possibility.

“We can’t do this alone. International Rescue, come in. It’s McCready. That offer still good?”

“Absolutely Chief. We’re on our way.”

Oh the annoying title cards are back interrupting the flow. Someone obviously ‘forgot’ to do an extra bit of animating... again.

Nice little throwback to ‘Move and You’re Dead’ here. Not that Alan’s won anything at this point.

“Make me look cool.”

“We haven’t got all day.”

“Oh, and really heroic.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“And make sure you show how totally good looking I am.”

I feel like this is what Virgil does when he starts painting - he just half listen and answers quickly and shortly.

Alan is such a poser. Has he ever played Musical Statues do you think? The point is staying still. So I think not. In fairness though, he probably never had a normal styled birthday party.

“Erherm... International Rescue, we have a situation. Virgil, Alan, we need you both in Thunderbird Two.”

“Alan, you can move now!”

John honestly looks very confused and amused.

Cue everyone gasping over the arrival of Thunderbird Two. It is a pretty cool sigyht.

“That is one tall tower.”

“Crystal Spire. One thousand,one hundred and twenty five metres, ground to tip.It’s supposed to be some sort of architectural masterpiece.”

“It probably looks a lot better when it’s not on fire. Chief McCready, this International Rescue.”

“Meet me up on the 47th floor and be prepare for some heavy lifting.”

“I was made for heavy lifting.”

Boasting. He does kind of have rights though. He was made for heavy lifting.

“No way in. But as dad always said. If you can’t find a door...”

“...Make one!”

Cue badass leap to the other side.

Cue near dangerous, deadly fall to the possible other side.

This episode has it all and we’re halfway there!

“How’s it looking?”

“Remember that time you supercharged the barbecue?”

“Yeessh..”

“Bad?”

“My eyebrows have only just grown back.”

I should have guessed Virgil would have music on board, but really that sounded like something Gordon and Alan would listen to and it definitely made me life.

“Ooops, sorry, wrong playlist!”

Cue secondary fire exploding through the building.

“Thunderbird Two, you okay up there?”

“Yeah. (Nothing a respray won’t fix).”

Goodness Alan, you are never going to be allowed to pilot Two again.

Speaking of pilots, are you okay there, Virgil, you know, just holding that lift above your head to stop it crushing you?

“I’m sure Brains won’t mind too much.”

I think that means Brains is going to go crazy. Wait until he sees Thunderbird Two. Actually correction, wait until Virgil sees Thunderbird Two!

And here we have another of the best ever entrances to a rescue;

“We’re here to rescue you!”

“Uh, that’s usually my line.”

“Sorry.”

Still doesn’t top Scott and Ned though - in my opinion.

“What’s the evacuation plan?”

“Good question. Thunderbird Two, what’s the evacuation plan?”

“Well Thunderbird Two can’t get close enough. And we can’t really risk breaking the glass with so many people inside. Suppose a really big trampoline’s out the question?”

Yes, Alan, it is! Seriously, have you seen how much the prices have risen since Lockdown? I’m not forking out for one. I mean, I don’t really need or want one, I was just saying.

Look at that face. This episode was literally just like Expressions of Virgil central.

“Everyone’s looking at me, Alan.”

“I don’t know, we could always... take off the top?”

“Take off the top of the building?!”

“Brilliant idea! Let’s do it.”

“Ok Alan, we’ll give it a try.”

“Ditch the fire fighting module and come back for us.”

And show the camera how badly you’ve scratched up Virgil’s Thunderbird. Yeah, he’s gonna’ go bonkers.

“How’s the view?”

“Breathtaking.”

Quite literally if you aren’t careful, Virgil.

We know logically they’ll catch each other, but these shots still get me. They’re pretty cool.

“Thanks Tracy.”

“Don’t mention it. We’re a team remember?”

Now Virgil’s doing a Gordon, and doing a George of the Jungle impression!

“Ah! What did you do? What did you do to my Crystal Spire!”

Don’t you mean ‘what did you do?’ After all, it was Mr Yost who moved it, and lit it up, and set it on fire...

“Second tallest..?”

That man is obsessed. Let’s move on. He annoys me (although not as much as Fischler, it must be said).

“If you ever feel like a break from flying, there’s always a spot for you on my team.”

“Well, I do have some vacation time coming- Alan! What did you do to my ship?”

“Uh, it’s not as bad as it looks! All it needs is a spot of paint.”

”Paint: that reminds me... Come on, Alan, we’ve gotta get back and finish your portrait.”

“Just promise you won’t make me look too short! Or hairy! Or give me goofy teeth!”

You’re giving him ideas, Alan.

“Virgil? Virge? Oh man!”

Yeah, already said way too much, and Virgil ignoring you is probably not boding well.

And there’s just about time for the finished painting (as the Grand MAX left it) to end this Review.

P.S. Virgil definitely has more artistic talent than MAX, sorry MAX! Although in fairness to him, I’m not quite sure that’s the result he was aiming for.

[chimswae]

BTS Caretaker CH5

Summary: She may think she has Bangtan Sonyeondan wrapped around her fingers. She may think it is easy to love the members equally without hurting any soul. She may think the boys wont fall head over heels for her. She assumes it is okay to show a little love and affection towards the boys, what if she gets it all wrong? What if it only brings more complication to her already complicated life? Can she survive their charms? Will she be able to resist them? What if they just wont let her go?

- Pairing: BTS x Oc ( Yoongi x OC, Jungkook x OC)

- Genre: Fluff, Slight Angst, Romance, Idol!au

- Word Count: 2,590

- Author Note: I suppose im late posting the new chapter because was too tired yesterday, therefore im changing my days of update. From now on i would do update every Saturday/Sunday weekly or biweekly. This is to avoid me forgetting hahah

Previous | Next

Chapter 5

“Who…the.. fuck… are.. you?” Yoongi lurched forwards trapping Seul between the kitchen counter. Every word came from his mouth were dangerously low and disturbing. He cursed something low beneath his breath, something that she couldn’t understand. It sounded like a thick accent from Busan or Daegu to her. Whatever it was, she felt small in front of him.

The breath caught in her throat and her heart twisted at the stunned tone of his voice.

“Stay away from me…” she clutched onto the counter trying to escape from his gaze.

Shit, am I getting caught? She mentally slapped herself for her stupidity.

The corner of his lips twitched into a smirk “Who the fuck are you?” he inquired again this time the tone of his voice was harsher than a minute ago.

Seul bit her lower lips trying to make up excuses, but what else could she say. Her mind went blank for a second and it was not good at all considering how Yoongi’s eyes piercing through her deepest soul. It paralyzed her body.

Getting annoyed, Yoongi leaned closer to her face minimizing the gap that they had earlier “Are you even listening? WHO. ARE. YOU?” he pressed.

She scowled at the proximity as she could literally feel the rate of his heartbeat increases against hers. Why would his heart react crazily like this? Plus, the smell from his hair is driving her crazy. Not that she wanted to creep the hell out of him, it is just he smelled too good. Way too manly, that a woman’s heart like her could melt instantly. Shrugging the thought off, her eyes darted to the guy in front of her. She mentally scanned Yoongi’s feature started with his small and thin lips which still appeared luscious to his nose and eyes. Crap, not this weird thought again.

His eyelashes batted perfectly matching that milky skin of his, how could a man be this flawless? It made sense since he’s an idol, yet heck he is still a man! Metrosexual guy like him really put all his heart into his appearance.

The hell, is she going to play dumb. Yoongi hissed frustrated of Seul’s silence.

“All right, since you are keeping your mouth shut. I am calling the cops” the corner of his lips was tugged into a meaningful smirk, causing Seul to flinch at the sudden threat. She let an unknowing gasp under her breath making the man slamming both hands on the marble counter trapping her body in between “Why? Are you scared?” his brows flinched together showing off the gaze that could kill million Armys.

“Because you are a sasaeng?”

“What did you do to ahjumma?”

“Did you make her give up her job today, so you can stalk me?” accusations after accusations were bombarded right on her face that triggered Seul’s anger in the end. She was still thinking of reasonable stories without uncovering the whole truth. Unsure of the consequences that her mother might receive in the future for bringing her in illegally made Seul became more cautious of everything surround him. First, she must deal with this grumpy monster in front of her.

Wait a minute, why should i? I am working here legally well technically illegally but still I have the staff identification card. Who is he to look down on me? Seul finally got back to her sense after spazzing over Yoongi’s visuals.

Her eyes landed on the bandage near his ears, as bad as this might sound but she found his weakest point. This guy in front of her was invading her personal space, didn’t he realize it was a serious offence. On top of all, none of Bangtan’s members should be around. Referring to their schedule today, they had an award show to attend as early as 6 in the morning.

Mustering up every ounce of her strength one of her hand reached out to his injured ears to give a small squish over there causing Yoongi to yelp in pain.  He cursed reflecting the pain that he experienced at the moment, as his body staggered backwards finally leaving a space for Seul to breathe.

“WHAT THE HELL WOMAN?” Yoongi touched his pulsing ears sending death glare at her way.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, bewildered of his presence at an odd hour like this. “NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT ANYONE BAILING ON THE AWARDS?” Seul continued before Yoongi could even give her the answers.

Yoongi let out a sarcastic chuckle a hint of annoyance and anger “Fuck this. You even know our schedule? ARE YOU INSANE.. THAT IS IT IM CALLING THE COPS NOW!” his face grimaced due to the pain he experienced. He left dumbfounded Seul behind making his way stealthily to his room. As she finally registered what was going to happen next, her eyes widened in pure horror.

“WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!” she skipped as fast as lightning to reach the older guy realizing what he planned to do. A single phone call would ruin everything for her especially her mother. That need to be stopped.

Despite being in the same size as Yoongi except Seul is much shorter than him, she grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him with all her might putting his step at halt. Yoongi inhaled a deep breath, as his body stumbled backwards crashing the girl against the wall.

“WHAT THE HELL? ARE YOU INSANE” the same thing came out from his mouth as if he was chanting a curse.

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING? I am about to answer your questions!” she grumbled lowly, pushing Yoongi body off from touching her body. Lies was the last thing she wanted to do, or more like adding more lies to their existing lies. Yet, what choice did she has?

Yoongi clucked his tongue inside as he spun his body facing the worried Seul “Speak. If you don’t speak in 5 seconds, I swear to god I will make the phone call” he rolled his eyes scanning Seul from top to bottom.  Even though she looked pretty decent to be a sasaeng fan, but her face told him she was far from those title. Was he overreacting?

“Jeez, alright. I am your caretaker for now or at least until my mother got better” his brow ceased into a deep frown.

“What kind of bullshits you are trying to tell now?” Yoongi backfired with a nasty scoff.

“Not bullshits but truth” she heaved a deep sigh as her hand went to rummaged through her bags, finding her mother work ids. “Here..Mrs Hwang is my mother so digest it” she tossed the cards for Yoongi to catch it on time.

He was displeased with the way she acted but played along since this privacy invasion was severe than her attitude. Being in the condition whereby he wanted to believe or denying the fact that Seul was saying the right thing, Yoongi chose not to give in so easily.

“You don’t look like her, are you sure this is your mother? Anyone can claim to be Mrs Hwang’s daughter at this rate considering how crazy a fan like you can be!” Seul gritted her teeth feeling the anger built inside her slowly took over her mind.

Seul crossed her arms “That wont change the fact that I am her daughter you little piece of shit. For a record, I AM NOT YOUR FAN!” he was startled by her choice of foul words making him feel more irritable than before.

“Why would I trust a girl with foul mouth like you? That makes you make even suspicious. I demand the truth now”

“That is the truth. You are just too stupid to realize it”

“Excuse me? Do you think I would buy your ‘Mrs Hwang is my mother’ story? I am much better than that thank you”

“Gosh, as expected idols like you are nothing but pretty faces. A total asshole and dumb some more”

Yoongi shot her a bewildered glare “ First of all, thank you for stating the fact. Oh, secondly, we are bunch of genius. The only idiot in this room is you” he knew the banter was pointless and childish. However, Seul was driving him up the wall with all the nonsense coming from that pretty little lips of her.

“Whoever you are mister, I don’t think I need to explain everything to you. You are not even my employer” Seul grabbed her mother card from his hand harshly, shoving it inside her bags.

“I mean my mother’s employer” she corrected before grabbing the rest of her stuff getting ready to leave.

He took the chance to yank her hoodie with a strong tug, pulling Seul to face him again “Where do you think you are going?” for an odd reason he enjoyed seeing her flushed face. Seul was struggling like cute kitty wanting to escape from his owner’s grasp.

Feisty. He mentally laughed at her silliness.

“You are not allowed to leave. Let’s wait until my manager come back, we must deal with crazy girl like you. That is if you really are Mrs Hwang’s daughter” every word coming out from him was a total psycho. It irked Seul to the core.

“LET ME GO! DON’T MAKE ME DO SOMETHING THAT YOU WILL REGRET, I SWEAR I AM CAPABLE OF ANYTHING!” she yelled.

“Oh really? How crazy does it sound, I AM INTRIGUED BY THAT MISS MRS HWANG’S DAUGHTER” he challenged with a playful smug.

Seul pressed both of her lips into a thin line. Her eyes aimed for his injured ear again, yet she put a stop of that devil thought upon seeing a small red stain on the bandage. Her tummy churned in sheer fear, he was bleeding.

Shit Seul, think of something. You must leave now. A lot of crazy ideas were attacking her at once but the after effect of her action would bring more harm than good. Whatever it was, she needed to leave now. The guy in front of her would not spare her life so easily.

Should I aim for his crotch..She was about to sway her knee to give a little kick on Yoongi’s private area and as expected he was quick to catch that obvious gaze of her. As if her eyes were telling him the plan inside her head. Interesting.

“Got you” he lifted his leg blocking Seul from kneeing that fragile area.

Seul snorted in annoyance which later turned into a devilish smirk “Oh really?” she was contemplating to do this one thing which would end this bicker between them, so she could flee with ease. Seul thought it was a horrible idea, but slowly let her anger took over her sane mind, Yes.. I will make this little piece of shit shut up.

Snapping her head up meeting his deep gaze, Yoongi raised his eyebrow in confusion “Lower your gaze wom-“ his eyes popped out upon feeling a wet and moist friction against his lips. Seul was kissing him on his lips not cheeks, but his lips. What on earth just happened?

She cupped his cheeks, tiptoeing a little ‘Screw this Ji Seul, just do it and go. You will have to quit from now on’ Seul tilted her head a little ignoring stiff Yoongi as she was now kissing him for real. No more hanky panky.

Seul did not even care if he wasn’t kissing her back even though she could feel his lips quivered beneath hers slowly giving in.Yoongi froze in his spot staring straight into her dark brown eyes. He had no idea how to react neither did he knew what to do. This was a total madness.

Seul cussed regretting her stupid action but she could feel his grip start to loosen up, which meant her plan worked in the end. Because after all, Yoongi was too noisy. Seul calmed her racing heart due to her rash actions but decided to ignore all the stupid butterflies inside her tummy.

It can’t be undone. Screw this.

After for good two minutes locking lips, Seul pulled away quickly with a deep taint blush visible on both of her cheeks leaving shocked Min Yoongi behind. Taking off her aprons, she tossed it away and decided to make a run before Yoongi came back to his sense.

Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Seul smacked her lips, scolding it like it could respond her back afterwards.

Yoongi watched Seul’s figure disappeared from his vicinity as he bellowed his frustration loudly “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!” he raked fingers in his messy hair angrily. He squeezed his eyes shut trying to register earlier incident, she was kissing him on the lips. He was too taken aback that he stood there like a clown and a second later she flees leaving no trace behind.

“MIN YOONGI YOU IDIOT” he hissed pacing around the living room calming down his aching nerve. His heart beating furiously as if he would jump out from it by anytime soon. This was an invasion of privacy and sexual harassment. Would anyone even trust a guy being sexually harassed because after all the world is prejudiced when it came to man being sexually harassed.

Crazy. Clenching his fist, he was determined to find Seul again.

 ----------------

“Min Yoongi that sound insane” said Seokjin with a frown.

Yoongi had been convincing Jin about his encounter with Seul but to his dismay, the older guy would never trust him and assumed he was high with drugs. Heck, he wished he could turn back the time and changed that one scene which kept lingering in his mind.

The kiss was the stupidest thing that ever happened. How could he forget that?

“YAH ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME? SOMEONE TOOK OVER AHJUMMA’S JOB TODAY AND INVADED OUR DORM!” Yoongi facepalmed in frustration. He really wanted to punch Jin handsome face to let out all the frustration inside him now.

“As much as I want to trust you my friend, but I think that is impossible. The security here is pretty tight, how can she enter this building without an access card?  Can you take a chill pill. You must have seen it wrong” Jin sighed.

“The problem is I know what I saw. A girl around our age is here, in our kitchen! And for pete’s sake she is not even an ahjumma in fact.. far far away from being an ahjumma. YOU ARE FRUSTATING HYUNG” he rose from his feet, pacing back and forth with a grimace.

Jin shrugged while his hand massaging his tense muscle “Yoongi I am too tired to listen to your nonsense. Let’s talk about this tomorrow alright? And don’t talk about this to manager hyung. You will cause unnecessary worries” he mumbled. Yoongi watched the older boy lied down on the bed looking dead tired after their hectic schedule.

Sitting at the end of his bed, he ran his finger in his soft hair feeling a little glum after his failed attempt in convincing his own roommate. He decided to call it a day and talked it out with others tomorrow. Maybe, someone would trust him unlike traitor Kim Seokjin.

He threw his body heavy on the bed with a loud grunt. Reaching his finger to his lips, he found his heart felt giddy over the brief kiss that he shared with Seul few hours ago.

Groaning in his head, he buried his face in his pillow ‘DON’T YOU EVER DARE MIN SUGA..’ he huffed.

This work belongs to  Chimswae © 2020. All Rights Reserved.

[danwhobrowses]

AEW Full Gear 2020: Review

Didn’t watch it live but I still have the time to review the next day, after the problems All Out faced Full Gear was definitely something fans were hoping won’t repeat the same mistakes, so it’s time to see if it delivered Spoilers for Full Gear of course

The Buy-In Most of the Buy-In was just the video packages save for a MJF and Kingston Family promo (though props to Alex for interviewing the Lucha Bros in Spanish, that was a nice touch), which I feel was a bad move. The promos were of course fantastic but my qualm was the video packages: the packages are on the countdown show anyway, there could’ve been 2 matches at least and a few segments that could’ve set up the TV feuds considering that it was over an hour. NWA Women’s Championship: Serena Deeb (c) def Allysin Kay (Submission via Serenity Lock) A solid pre-show match, Deeb and Kay are crisp given their veteran history. Kay worked on her height and strength while Deeb worked on her yoga-based flexibility. There was a lot of good chain wrestling as you’d expect from the NWA alums, a shift to an Octopus Stretch, Deeb working the Leg with a Dragon Screw and Kay still managing to muscle out of Deeb’s offence. After a Kay salvaged herself from what looked a bit like an elevated Styles Clash with a leg on the rope, Deeb forced her to tap with a Serenity Lock on the worked leg. While the match was fine the intrigue came after when Thunder Rosa wearing all the tassels she could to make Shawn Michaels blush came to the ring to challenge Deeb for a rematch. With Rosa gesturing the AEW ring it is clear that the AEW/NWA partnership and Thunder Rosa’s time with the Elite is far from over.

Main Card Of course with JR coming to commentary the main card is scheduled to begin. Unfortunately, I had been spoiled some results in advance (no thanks to Youtube or the 2 hour PC update that allowed the youtubers to reveal this while I was waiting to update) but a handful were in line to how I predicted them, so it didn’t fully harm the outcome. Don Callis though came out as well, they’ve hinted at it with Kenny but to actually see Don on commentary was definitely a surprise. AEW World Title Contendership Tournament Final Kenny Omega def. ‘Hangman’ Adam Page (Pinfall via One Winged Angel) Omega came out first the same way he’s done all the tournament, the cleaner dancers and the very long-winded braggadocios introduction. Pyro but no cosplay, Omega oozed confidence as proven by his plate as the leader in most victories in AEW. Page however paced towards the ring with nervous energy with the hilarious plate of ‘Focused Yeehaw Man’, less show but still drive, which really perfectly divulges the styles of both men as wrestlers. A snubbed handshake by Page did lead to back and forth, chops and counters as both men anticipated the stylist moves of the other. Hangman took over the early offence with strong moves, big boots, fallaway slams and a superplex did hint at some potential for the Hangman to gain the advantage. But then Omega with a moonsault from a railing put Kenny in control, Kotaro Crusher at 2 and a belated You Can’t Escape (he slipped after the first part but landed the sault after a pause) for 2 as well, then into the usual repertoire, the tope con hilo, the Back Head Missile Dropkick. Both men almost set up a One Winged Angel but then a V Trigger shut down a Buckshot but got bombed on the ramp after a series of counters, another pop-up bomb at 2 for Hangman.  Trading blows, a Rolling Elbow was broken even by a V Trigger and then a Tiger Driver at 2 for Kenny. Back and forth as both escaped Suplexes, both hit Rolling Elbows but Hangman then got the clothesline, he lands the deadeye...but does not get the 3. Buckshot reversed to a crucifix but Hangman sits the pin for another 2, Dragon Screw and V-Trigger on the ropes for Kenny gives him the energy to roar back, ducks the vicious swing of the Buckshot and hits 2 V-Triggers, Hangman tries to fight out of the One Winged Angel but the move hits and that’s 3.

Destiny comes true for Omega, he had to fight for it though. Definitely a physical match, the emotional layer didn’t all reflect on the match but Hangman definitely reels in disappointment afterwards, more isolated, more alone, and set to descend to new lows as Omega returns to the main event picture.

Orange Cassidy def. John ‘4′ Silver (Pinfall via Beach Break) Two cult heroes for AEW, Silver on BTE and Cassidy on Dynamite, fighting as a side story to the TNT title picture, JR gets props for calling Silver a “Human Bowling Ball” as both men enter with their respective faction members. Silver continues to play to OC’s jokes as he protests OC’s pockets, before being annoyed by OC’s counter wrestling - especially screaming ‘It doesn’t hurt!’ to OC’s monstrous kicks. Silver literally depockets OC for monster heat - no seriously he rips the pockets out of OC’s jeans! A lot of bravado follows from Silver’s power moves, throws and kicks to keep the heat going. Silver’s power also impressively suplexes out of OC’s swinging DDT attempt but the crowd chants definitely get to Silver as OC counters Silver’s irish whips with some turnbuckle shots, a crossbody and the swinging DDT, Silver though powers back, a one-handed Gorilla press into the ropes, a back head boot as he sets up the Spin Doctor, but then OC gets the headscissors, Michinoku Driver for 2 as the wrestlers at ringside argue the count of 2 or 3 (Heels and Faces kept either side). Silver rolls up OC trying the Orange Punch, counters again but gets hit with the stunner, counters again and lands the Spin Doctor but it’s another 2! Silver motions to homage Mr. Brodie Lee with a discus but it’s dodged into an Orange Punch and Beach Break for 3. Best Friends come to the ring to give the people what they want, the hug with the rainmaker zoom. A nice fun match, it really gave Silver some props to hang with OC as both characters shone through. I was surprised that Dark Order didn’t try to get involved and no post-match stuff.  TNT Championship: Darby Allin def Cody Rhodes (c) (via Pinfall) TITLE CHANGE! Allin rode in with a painted car and a half-painted driver before smashing his skateboard (with ‘The New Face of TNT’ emblazoned on it) into the windscreen. Sporting a veiny style of paint, no words are written on him like previous title matches, it’s all business. Cody (using his surname now) rolls in with his grandiose gates and pyro with Brandi beside him before being flanked by all the remaining members of the Nightmare Family - including Gunn Club and Lee Johnson. He’s also promoting a new shirt. Mike Chioda is announced as the Ref for this, giving a bigger fight feel to this title match.

Cody flaunts his strength advantage early on, knowing full well that Darby has never beaten him, but Darby is defiant to his insulting ‘politeness’ and cockiness - slapping Cody in the back of the head to wake the champion up. Encouraged to ‘muscle around’ Darby by Arn, he almost gets baited into a pin, he leaves the ring but gets suicide dived from his back (after a Ricochet-esque moonsault feint), in retaliation Cody just dumps Darby on back first on the ramp, harming Allin’s left elbow. Cody hones in on that injury with wrist locks and stomps, Darby also selling by being unable to use both his hands to pull the heavier opponent with an irish whip and being unable to lock the arm for a backslide - the latter getting him into another submission. Taunting the injury by exclaiming ‘that arm is trash’, Cody doubles down the arm, using it to ground any of Darby’s counter efforts. But every time Darby refuses, Cody grows more frustrated, an avalanche shoulderbreaker and a cross armbreaker attempt selling that Cody is using things outside of his usual moveset, but the missed moonsault gifts Allin a respite. Yoshi Tonic is Darby’s first signs of a rally but he’s shut down by a superkick, Darby pulls off the middle turnbuckle pad resisting Cody’s Cross Rhodes attempt and Cody is dazed by running into it but a rollup is at 2. Assured that he’s in control by Arn, Cody lands an Avalanche Cross Rhodes but Darby’s arm is under the rope, he counters a backpack sleeper by dropping from the turnbuckle which rolls Darby out the ring - Arn demands Darby stay down but he breaks the count. ‘Stay Down’ barks from Arn and Cody from continual powerslams but Darby refuses, even inviting Cody to continue. Frustrated, Cody brings that small white belt to the ring but is told by Chioda to not use it, dropping it behind him, Darby uses it to sweep Cody into a jacknife pin for 2, counters Disaster Kick with a Last Supper for 2, Flip Stunner and Coffin Drop follow, but also 2! Cody tries a Cross Rhodes but Darby counters with a Sunset Pin, Cody sits on him, 2, Darby rolls him, 2, Cody pulls back, 2, Darby rolls again, 3! Post-match, Cody hands Darby the title on one knee as Allin finally claims his first win over Cody and his main prize. Tazz however walks up to promo against the emotional moment as Cage and Starks blindside both men. However, dissension appear when both Starks and Cage both tussle for holding the TNT title, Tazz grabs it and gestures to Darby, with Cage carrying Darby outside of the ringside, Cody tries to fight back but fails, Darby thrown through a set piece and laid on the car he came in, they attempt to slam the door with Darby’s arm in between but Will Hobbs with a chair chases them down. It was a good title match, good narrative throughout. I think the finish could’ve been a bit more spectacular, Cody does seem to exude a Hogan-esque philosophy to losing at times, this one did feel like he wanted the loss to feel like a fluke. Darby’s win is deserved but the FTW shenanigans did dampen it, I expected Tazz and his crew to show during the match but in post-match it just kinda killed some of the wind in Darby’s sails. Interview Segment The Natural Nightmares - instead of backing up Cody - promo against Butcher, Blade and Bunny, specifically Allie for her using of QT to set up their Dynamite match, Dustin reveals that it’s gonna be a ‘Bunkhouse Match’. Dustin is a great promo but I have no idea what a Bunkhouse Match is, plus this is the segment you would see on the Pre Show. The Dynamite card is also revealed with Penta vs Fénix 2 as previously revealed and new match Conti vs Red Velvet. AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) def. Nyla Rose w/ Vickie Guerrero (Pinfall via Knee Strike x4) Nyla rolls up with Vickie Bluetista style with a blue and cyan gear which really didn’t suit, Nyla’s gear has always been a mixed Bag The longest running Women’s Champion adds more colour to her Tifa Lockhart gear, her name plate finally on the belt (as detailed on her youtube channel, the name plate is more difficult to put on given its curved shape). Shida and Nyla are ready to go even before the bell as they trade blows, the Champion putting pressure on Rose with knee strikes and dropkicks but noticeably fails on the lift. Shida keeps her advantage of cutting Nyla down and landing the apron knee while Vickie screeches. The chair launch is cut off by a clothesline from Nyla but her attempts to pull a table is refused, giving Shida the chance to land the chair launch and sending her through the rail. Vickie though blindsides Shida’s knee with a kendo stick, giving the Native Beast the advantage she needs. Nyla uses the underneath frame of the ring to wrench Shida’s knee, then the ring post and a chop block to limit Shida’s use of the Tamashii (formerly called the Tamashii no 3 Count). Nyla continues to hone in on the leg, splashes and single leg crabs, even biting the knee to maintain her advantage. Shida rolls out of the senton and muscles a suplex for 2. The Tamashii is blocked by hitting the injured knee but Shida crossbodies, the knee continues to be the focus as Nyla keeps grasping and dropping Shida on it. My favourite Nyla Move, the Beast Knee is smashed into the injured knee for 2 as Nyla uses her weight against Shida’s injury. The champion pump kicks Nyla to the ramp after some turnbuckle shots for a corner dropkick, then a second in the ring at 2. The leg gives out on the Tamashii again so Nyla can powerbomb but foolishly pulls Shida out of the count, adding insult she lands the Tamashii, but only gets 1! A Back body press gives Shida the energy she needs, an Avalanche Falcon Arrow follows but Shida then breaks the pin, she tries the Tamashii but Vickie psyches her out (it was a botch but not a bad one), Vickie tries to kendo Shida while she’s hoisted and Shida just throws Nyla into Vickie. A half-hearted Falcon Arrow hits 2, Tamashii lands but another 2, second Tamashii and 4 Knee Strikes end the match. Being carried out of the ring by Aubrey, Vickie and Nyla are left in the ring as Guerrero screeches venom at Nyla, slapping the former Women’s Champion as she leaves.

In spite of it’s short build it was a good match, the final section was a little sloppy on the vicious vixens’ part but Shida sold her knee wonderfully. Expected Vickie to have more involvement and the post-match seemed to back out on Nyla turning on Vickie but maybe there’s more tale to tell. As a personal preference I hate when wrestlers willingly break their own pin, especially in a title match, it’s just a daft strategy but it was good to see that Shida’s stock has elevated to the point where she didn’t need the DQ stip to win like she did when she won the title, her early dominance would give her extra confidence and extra heat for who I think will be her usurper, Dr. Britt Baker DMD. Next time though, give Shida and her opponent Dynamite feud building. AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks def FTR (c) (Pinfall via Superkick, Matt to Cash) TITLE CHANGE! With Matt previously cleared to compete, the Bucks strolled up in Black, Yellow and Purple to their usual money rain, but the pomp and confidence is limited, Matt noticeably slower up the ropes as he nurses his ankle. The champions roll up in White jumpsuits with Tully - who the Bucks protest on since he’s banned from ringside due to his prior attacks, he does leave on his own accord. A nice touch from FTR are the star colours; red, blue, yellow and gold, aka tag champs in Raw, Smackdown, NXT and AEW. Mind games of ‘Greatest Tag Team of All Time’ as well also there to get into the Bucks’ heads. Matt was confident to show that his ankle was fine by going first, Cash going for the injury but being out-wrestled to his frustration. FTR’s quick tag action is halted by the Bucks rushing them to a stalemate in 2s. Nick and Dax trade some chain wrestling with again the Bucks frustrating them, the Bucks almost seem to be playing FTR at their own game plan, until Nick is punched in the face. Both teams take to the ring leading to the Bucks doing a Rana into a ground pound on the champs before sending them out of the ring with their patented tandem offence. Dax busts open his hand hitting the ring post after Matt dodged, reeling from the ankle attack, the Bucks relish the opening to equialize on Dax’s hand for catharsis. A bit of a miscommunicated spot followed where Matt’s moonsault was ‘dodged’ by Dax not paying attention, and his throwing Matt into the ropes looked ugly as fuck as Matt nurses his ankle and Dax tags out for Doc Sampson to dress his hand. When he returns he quickly goes for vengeance on the ankle in mostly a same manner as Nyla did to Shida prior. Cash jumps for Nick to pull him away from the Hot Tag which grants Dax the opening for a Superplex but Cash gets knees from the follow-up splash. The hot tag again thwarted after Cash hit the railing but Dax throws him in ring to tag in, the two men stand between the brothers as Cash flies over the ring post to the floor and Dax is baited into the DDT, Nick storms into the hot tag, wriggling out of FTR’s grapples with kicks and the dual clothesline/bulldog but is eventually caught by FTR who land the Hart Attack. Nick regains advantage with a Cheeky Nandos Kick when FTR were setting up the Powerplex, blind tags Matt who spears the baited Cash and gets a knee in the face, but it’s only 2. Matt’s involvement leads to the knee giving out on a lift, leading to an Electric Chair bulldog combo from FTR, they go for Goodnight Express but Matt superkicks Cash, then Dax, Cash rolls out of ring leaving Dax alone to the Bucks, 3-D! Twist of Fate! Swanton! 2! Lovely homage to the tag team greats. Superkick Party is called, but Cash sweeps Matt’s ankle and Nick gets a rebound powerbomb, but Matt is legal and get 2 on a sneaky pin. Dax gets overzealous with the Dusty Punches and uses his injured hand, but Matt also gets overzealous and uses his bad ankle, both men use their injured limbs for a punch/superkick trade-off, but Dax beheads Matt with a lariat. Homaging DIY they meet in the middle but only get 2, they try the Spike Piledriver but Nick throws Cash off, a tandem move and a swanton onto the ramp leaves Matt room to use a Sharpshooter on Dax, Dax gets to the rope but Nick superkicks the injured hand before Sharpshooter on Cash, FTR clutch each other’s hands but get pulled away but Matt’s ankle gives out to continue the hold. Matt pulls a finger break on Dax’s injured hand (an awkward spot given the scrutiny Marty Scurll is under right now with the SpeakingOut movement) leading to the BTE Trigger, but Cash cannons himself to break the pin. Matt brings out the chair but it’s not legal, Dax goads Matt to hit him but Nick tells him not to, Matt relents and sets up the Meltzer Driver but Cash grabs Nick for a Powerbomb through a ringside table, a very well done twist by Dax leads to the Spike Piledriver but the leg Cash hooks drops onto the rope. Furious, Cash takes Matt’s shoe off, leglock and stomp leads to an inverted Figure Four and ankle lock, but Nick is rising and Cash sees it! He tries the suicide dive but Nick ducks it, breaks the submission with a 450 but Matt only gets 2. Cash superkicks Nick out of the ring, gesturing Two Sweets to Matt before another superkick, but Cash keeps looking at the top rope, he misses the 450 and Matt hits the unbooted Superkick for 3. Kenny came to congratulate the Bucks afterwards as Hangman hovered by the tunnel - wanting to congratulate his friends but still feeling isolated. This is one where I would’ve benefitted not being spoiled, but thumbnails are a bitch. With the narrative that Bucks needed to win to keep on competing and were already at a disadvantage definitely sold the stage to be for Matt to shine. Personally I thought time would run out and there would be some semantic fenagling but it was clean as a whistle. A great match as well, definitely delivered on its build, FTR definitely lacked the presence of Tully to keep their heads in the game in a narrative sense, it’s a shame their tag reign was short but the story has always led to this moment, there was no way Cody AND the Bucks would not be able to challenge for their main titles. I would have one criticism though, the early stages of the match did feel like it was just 1v1s, the tag match needed more tag team offence. Elite Deletion: Matt Hardy def Sammy Guevara (DELETION via Pinfall) The cameras shift to North Carolina where Sammy rides ominously on a golf cart to the Hardy Compound, but Matt also seems to be sorting out business on the phone saying that Sammy’s on his way - fearing that he may need backup if the numbers go against him. Neo 1 confronts Sammy, providing a hologram of Matt welcoming him to the compound and disabling the golf cart. Having crushed a toy monster truck on the way in, Sammy’s face drops at the revving of a full sized monster truck next to him helmed by BROKEN Matt, who flattens the cart before exclaiming that the act was ‘orgasmic’ and ‘now that was a squash job’. Setting the zany tone, Sammy goes all around the truck and hits Matt with a trash can to begin the match. Moonsault off the Truck’s tire as he hammers Matt across the woods. Commentary kinda took you out of it as they tried to fill the silence with their ‘state the obvious’ as the fight sprawled to the front lawn. Sammy doing some great taunts such as saying ‘it’s my house now, daddy’s home!’ and trying to drown Matt in the fountain but Matt grabs the ‘Scepter of Mephistopheles’ to hit Sammy with, missing only the headshot as they go to a backyard ring. As Matt reminds Sammy that he asked for this, Sammy takes advantage with the ring work until a Side Effect is hit and a powerbomb through the table. The pin however is broken by Santana and Ortiz, who double on Matt. Through a walkie talkie though Private Party are called for support to negate the former LAX - though Matt gets hit by a Street Sweeper and a Twist of Fate in the meantime. ‘Roman Candles’ are next on Matt’s mind as he and Sammy both grab a few to fire at each other while PP and Santana & Ortiz tussle in the ring, PP using some of the patented offence of  the Hardy Boyz. The latest ‘Sammy Run Away’ meme appears as Sammy is chased by fireworks before slipping in some mud, flattened by a Twist of Fate. As Matt prepares to throw Sammy into the Lake of Reincarnation, a Gangrel (yes, Gangrel! From the Brood) threatens The Hurricane (yes, Shane Helms, the Hurricane) as a hostage, claiming that Matt never gave him any loyalty while in the Brood, PP arrive to help free the superhero, who asked why it took 2 years - leading to Hardy to funnily quip ‘I’m sorry, long-term storytelling, I had to go to AEW just to finish this’ leading to Hurricane’s famous catchphrase. Hurricane almost gets Sammy with a chokeslam but he throws him in the lake, saying ‘What’s a Hero to a God? A Spanish God’ before trying to throw Matt in. Shane Helms the reporter then comes in, asking if the feud is cursed, but he gets thrown in too (this one seen as he flails around the shallows). Hurricane reemerges to help PP fight Santana, Ortiz and Gangrel but Santana saves Sammy by hitting Hardy with a pipe as the two wander into the darkness of the woods, the heel allies in control as they follow.  Sammy stalks Hardy with a hammer with his friends also in view, but Hardy calls for Skarsgard, Sammy quickly rolling out of the way from the dilapidated boat’s all-or-nothing dive, Neo 1 is also in sight though, and Hardy commands him to lock Hardy and Sammy inside the ‘dome of deletion’, locking Sammy’s allies out. A ring, tables, ladders, chairs, mowers of lawns, wheels of chairs, a pram, a casket, the dome has it all, but Sammy instead unhooks the ropes to hit Hardy with the Turnbuckle bars, choking him with the middle rope. Sammy lays Matt on a Table near a ladder as high as the roof, landing the swanton but only gets 2. Hardy gets a Twist of Fate which seems to hurt his neck, Hardy then spears him into tables outside the ring, where we see Sammy with a small blood pool behind his head (a worked one, the camera angle on the dive ensured you didn’t see the concrete so it was definitely safe) Sammy struggles to stand as Hardy sets up a chair, hitting him on the head with the edge like his legit injury, telling Sammy ‘You made me what I am’ he cracks Sammy with a Con-Chair-To for the pin. After the match, Matt calls Private Party in to ‘take out the trash’, putting Sammy in a wheelie bin, a cut to the outside allows Sammy to be swapped out for kayfabe, as the bin’s loaded into the back of Senor Benjamin’s truck (Benjamin getting a huge pop) as Reby ends the match playing the piano to some highlights.Matt, PP, Skarsgard, Reby and Hurricane then celebrate to fireworks. As cinematic matches go it was good for ending the feud and continuing the Hardy Compound narrative, commentary did sometimes take you out of it and there were less supernatural stuff going on in this one, it was more found footage than the usual cinematic Deletion matches, but lots of quips, lots of fourth wall winks and both men did really well, can’t complain. Intermission Promo After the deletion match, commentary is told about Lance Archer being on a rampage backstage, which leads to a promo by Jake and Lance as he is wasting some jobber against the wall. Jake notes how they are tired of training and that they’re demanding that someone stand up to Archer, Archer waxes lyrical about his intent to break everyone in AEW because Everybody Dies. Archer’s promo game continues to be on the up, which will make you wonder about how long can the Snake coil around him? Right to Join Inner Circle: MJF def. Chris Jericho (Pinfall via Roll-Up) MJF claimed that he would do ANYTHING to beat Jericho, he began with the mind games by doing the Y2J pose in a fairy light robe, getting the fake pop from the fans who were expecting the Demo God. Jericho does get the pop by cutting MJF’s music short in a skull-themed spiked jacket as Diamante wins the ‘Incoherent Judasing’ moment of the night using Ivelisse’s hand as a mic. The chorus of Judas echoing as the limited crowd echo the arena to Jericho’s subdued delight. Sparing a thought for Aubrey though, who has to call this match despite both of them hating her XD MJF tries to start by feeding from the crowd, but the crowd only boo him and cheer Jericho, he gestures to a handshake amidst ‘You Suck’ chants but Jericho slaps him instead. Jericho held an early advantage but MJF got some advantage with a few clotheslines, but his adversity to the crowd once again gives away the advantage. Jericho pulls his camera middle finger spot after powerslamming him on the outside (shout out to KiLynn King as well for all her crowd enthusiasm). Dodging a Judas Effect leads to an injured arm to Jericho after his elbow hit the very busy today ring post, which he focuses on since it’s key for his Salt of the Earth, biting (which has also had a busy night) also ensues between both men but MJF capitalises on his counters and submissions. The heel nature comes out in Jericho with an eye poke, shoulder barges and a lionsault fire up the crowd and a Frankensteiner turning back the clock. MJF though returns to the arm with that double stomp while Jericho’s holding the rope, shoving the veteran as he spouts insults at him, a back and forth leads to MJF locking in the Salt of the Earth on the injured arm but Jericho shifts him into the Walls of Jericho as MJF chews the crawl to the rope. Aubrey’s enmity of both men comes into play when MJF uses her to shield him from Jericho’s kicks, a failed Heatseeker leads to a mid-rope Codebreaker instead from MJF, followed by a successful Heatseeker for 2. He tries the Lionsault but lands on his feet, and instead gets hit with Jericho’s Codebreaker for 2 as well. An Inside Cradle for 2 leads to Jericho trying the Judas Effect, but MJF catches it and cinches in the Salt of the Earth, but Jericho makes it to the ropes. Wardlow was noticeable absent from ringside at the start, having left after MJF’s entrance, but he was called to the ring by MJF to give him the Diamond Ring, his presence distracting Aubrey, MJF misses though and Jake Hager (who was also noticeably absent from the Elite Deletion) reveals himself on the other side throwing the Painmaker Bat to Jericho, Jericho winds up but MJF gives him the finger and drops Eddie Guerrero style. Aubrey turns to see the supposed outcome leading to Jericho turning his back, roll-up by MJF with a handful of tights gives him the win and membership.

Post-Match, Jericho cuts the music as MJF offers a handshake again, Jericho though this time takes it, hugs him and welcomes him and Wardlow to the Inner Circle. Wardlow holds the ropes for MJF, MJF holds the ropes for Jericho but nobody holds the ropes for Hager - who continues to stare off with Hager.

As a wrestling match it was good, for the situation I felt it was a little underwhelming. MJF said he’d do anything but we didn’t see anything outside of his usual tricks. Narratively it works to see MJF and Jericho stick together and we can only wait and see what stories will come out of it. AEW Revolution promo & Best Friends Interview The first PPV of next year is hyped for a February 27th showing. Dasha interviews Orange Cassidy asking his thoughts on his win, OC replies that he ‘has no thoughts’. Miro, Kip and Penelope however roll up as Kip demands an apology from OC for almost putting Penelope in harm’s way during a prior Dynamite. OC does apologise but Kip slaps him, saying that it wasn’t good enough, OC stops the Best Friends about to jump Miro and Kip and says ‘cool’ before walking away.

AEW World Championship ‘I Quit’ Match: Jon Moxley (c) def. Eddie Kingston (Kingston quits via Barbed Wire Bulldog Choke) Kingston rolled up in a shirt saying something that cameras failed to highlight despite his gesturing, (commentary later reveal that it was in homage to the late Tracey Smothers who recently passed away) his eyes like vengeance. Moxley struts in a Goldberg-esque entrance without the security, once again coming from the side of the stadium - this time no dumbass fan trying to charge him. Kingston stares daggers and shouts bloody murder at him during his entrance as Mox tries to get in his groove. Bryce Remsburg is also reffing this match, adding the personal level since Eddie revealed after his last Moxley match that the three go back.

Moxley got the first part of the venom, hammering punches until Kingston got to his knees, chops were traded as Moxley tried a takedown, only to get his ear bitten (biting man...) by Kingston. Slap trades follow as Kingston works on throws and cutting Moxley at the legs, Moxley hitting a tope when Kingston went to get a chair. Moxley then twists Kingston’s fingers key to his finisher, a suplex on concrete leads to the first ask but Kingston refuses, a Crossface/Bulldog Choke is countered by Kingston biting the arm. Throwing 2 chairs into the ring, a busted Moxley retaliates with the Barbed Wire Bat before kicking down the chair setup. Eddie also is busted in the mouth, then the forehead when the bat is pressed against his head - Moxley claiming that he ‘don’t wanna do this’. Kingston disarms Moxley with some Backdrops and throws a chair at Moxley, Moxley then gouges both eyes of Kingston but the Mad King throttles him. A small botch at Kingston was meant to drop Mox on the bat was rectified with more chair shots, Kingston hurts himself by wrapping barbed wire over his hand to pound into Moxley as he laughs maniacally, Uranken and a Kimura follows so Moxley has to break the hold the best way to hurt someone at Full Gear - Bite Him! Kingston restores the chair layout he had before, setting up for a suplex, Mox swaps though and lands Kingston on the flat of one chair. Kingston clotheslines Moxley to get time to get a black bag, which JR quips ‘well, it’s not a bag of chocolate’ - I mean you don’t know that JR! But alas, it wasn’t, it was your traditional thumbtacks, those silver hershey’s kisses (so hey it is a bag of chocolate), after trading suplexes Moxley snaps a vicious clothesline all away from the tacks, Moxley tries a Paradigm Shift on the tacks but Kingston does a twisting Urinage, planting him back first into the tacks - half on the elbow, half on the back. Kingston returns to the Rubbing Alcohol from Doc Sampson’s desk after learning that Moxley didn’t quit, low blows hurt Moxley but the champion only gives him the finger, Eddie then uses the alcohol on the punctured back (which I said at the same time as commentary). Kingston again hurts himself punching Mox with a handful of tacks, he goes for the barbed wire a second time but again changes his mind, going for the Bulldog Choke, Mox refuses still, with thumbtacks still in his head as Kingston lays in on the head shots, he dodges a knee and hooks in the Rear Naked Choke, turns him into the Suzuki Piledriver and then the Bulldog Choke, knowing that Kingston needs to be conscious Moxley changes to a Paridigm Shift, locating the Barbed Wire as he tells Kingston there’s ‘No Other Way Out’, asking him not to make him do this as he wraps his hand around the wire, Kingston only gives him the finger. Moxley considers turning away, but then launches into the barbed-wire enforced Bulldog Choke, Remsburg pleading with Eddie to quit as a vacant expression covers Moxley’s face, telling Kingston that ‘it’s done’, Eddie finally quits and Mox immediately lets go, a somber look on his face as his friend lays fallen.

Post-Match, Moxley tells the camera that ‘that’s what makes a champion: heart, blood and soul - Blood and Guts!’, whether that alludes to the special we were meant to have pre-COVID is yet to be seen. He then pulls Kingston up but Kingston sways away, leaving the ring on his own. Omega then comes out to the ramp to remind Moxley of his presence and their championship match in the due future.

A hard-hitting match, you knew that Kingston and Moxley would deliver on the hardcore level and a little on the emotive level. Sadly this match did suffer from WWE giving fans an inch-perfect I Quit Match in Hell in a Cell, so the bar was very high and it unfortunately could not reach that level. Again I’m surprised that factions didn’t get involved, Kingston’s family didn’t even go with Eddie to the ring, a surprise PAC appearance was hoped but we can’t be too torn up about that. Overall it was still a good title match, albeit an inevitable outcome given that Moxley and Omega have more history.

Conclusion Though there were a few small mistakes, there was not a weak spot in this PPV. On the other hand there wasn’t a match that blew me away, it was overall a well-done PPV: worth the money but there could’ve been more. There was meant to be a tease of a debut as well but I guess that was just rumor rather than an actual promise by the company. I will critique the Team Tazz stuff again because it really puts down Darby’s championship win, some matches could’ve ended more emphatically and the Buy-In needed more matches. Also just a personal thing but they overdid the biting spots, spots like those have a 2 match threshold at best on a card. But narratively we got a lot going on, a lot of consequences for the matches on the card including the Buy In and the Bucks did make good on their FTR promise by being Match of the Night. Elite Deletion and Silver/OC was a bit of light fun, the Women’s Match was strong, the opener hard hitting and we begin our build to Revolution.

[emeraldwaves]

Title: What Happens at Frat Parties Pairing:  Huwumi Rating: E Word Count:  2578 Read on Ao3 Summary:  

For Hawks, getting the girl has always been easy. He's popular, attractive and part of the frat house that throws the best parties. When Dabi's sister shows up one night, Hawks realizes not everything comes as easy to him as he thought. And while Fuyumi thinks Hawks isn't her type, as time goes on, she finds his advances harder to resist. Maybe there's more to him than she realizes.

Fic under the cut!

The air was filled with a cacophony of sound; raucous laughter, and the intense thud of music made the house tremble with the deep vibrations. The smell of alcohol and smoke permeated the air and Fuyumi turned her nose towards the dark sky, sucking in a long breath to cleanse her lungs before she got closer.

Wrinkling her nose, Fuyumi regretted showing up to her brother's house on a Saturday.

She should've expected this.

Her brother’s frat house was always filled to the brim with people on the weekend. Sweaty bodies pressed together, her peers drinking and smoking whatever substances they chose to indulge in while classes were out.

It really wasn't her scene.

But she was going in there.

It was Touya's fault, really, but when wasn't it his fault.

She tugged on her button down shirt, puffing out her cheeks. It would be a fast mission; find Touya, force him to get her the present he had for their mother and then she could leave.

Taking a deep breath she made her way towards the house, ignoring the stares from the groups standing outside for air.

Squeezing past the entrance, she was smacked in the face with a cloud of smoke. Of course, even when her brother wasn't partying like this, his apartment smelled like a mixture of un-wiped ass and an ashtray.

The air was sticky and damp; people yelling and singing along with the music coming from the living room.

She glanced around the entryway wondering where Touya would be. He wasn't much of a dancer... no, he was far too lazy for that. He was probably high, sitting his ass on one of the couches... either the living room one or the basement one.

"Excuse me," she muttered, knowing her words would go ignored, especially with one couple blocking her way to the living room by making out against the wall.

This was her hell.

Shoving her way past them, she stumbled into the kitchen. There were crowds around the table, playing some version of beer pong, tossing the ball around behind their backs, aiming horribly.

Laughter roared in the room when one guy made a shot. He cheered, chugging the drink down as fast as he could and Fuyumi wondered how they didn't puke immediately after doing something like that.

"Whose mom are you?" One guy called out and she whipped her head around to see two tall boys laughing at her. Immediately frowning, she clenched her fists. It wasn't worth it to answer intoxicated jerks.

Touya. She needed to find him now. Then she could be free from the cloud of smoke sticking to her sweater.

She moved away from the kitchen, slipping through the side door into the living room where she finally spotted Touya sitting on the couch.

He was definitely high.

She could tell from the way his head was leaning over the back of the couch, smoke curling up from his lips.

Well, that, and he was holding a lit blunt in his hand.

Her brother wasn't difficult to spot in a room full of people. His dark hair stuck out against the light brown couch. Tattoos lined his entire arms and neck, his low-necked short sleeve shirt showing them all off.

Stepping towards him, she saw his eyes widen as he slowly pulled his head off of the edge of the couch.

"Shit..."

"Yes, Touya," she glared, "'Shit'."

"Dabi," he said flatly, staring at her as he took another long hit.

"Touya," she repeated.

"Dabi," he retorted.

"Touya," she hissed. "Your roots are showing." Smirking, she gestured to the top of his hair where a bit of red peaked through.

"I'm hallucinating now," he muttered, yawning as he glanced to the side at Shigaraki, who seemed to be in the same daze as her brother. His dark gaze was hazy, staring out at the T.V. screen. He was playing some video game, but his character didn’t seem to be moving.

"You're not, Touya," she snapped, smacking the blunt out of his hand.

"She's definitely here," Shigaraki shrugged, still staring at the game.

"Yeah, figured that out dipshit," Touya growled, finally leaning forward to give Fuyumi his attention. "'Yumi what the hell?"

"Is this really how you're choosing to spend your Saturday night?"

"Did you really come here to lecture me?"

"I don't know how any of you are still in school," she sighed, rubbing her fingers against her temple.

"Hey now, I am proud of my 2.5 GPA. Dear ol' Dad can't kick me out if I'm passing" he laughed, standing up slowly, keeping his hands tucked into his pants.

Fuyumi rolled her eyes and snorted. "Of course. Anyway, I didn't come here to lecture you," she said softly. "I just... you told me you were going to give me the card and present you had for Mom."

"Yeah. I forgot," he stated flatly.

"Really? No! I thought you invited me to this party and that's why I'm here."

The two of them stared at each other.

"Well, if you made a cake, it's probably gone..." Fuyumi said finally. She peered towards the kitchen, seeing the fridge open and people digging through it.

Touya frowned. "Oi! Assholes! Get out of the fuckin' fridge!" he snapped, pulling out another rolled up blunt from his pocket.

Honestly, Fuyumi should've anticipated that.

He pulled in a long drag, turning away from her before blowing the smoke towards the ground. "I'll get my shit."

"Yeah, thanks," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "I'll be right here and if you're not back in five minutes, I'm coming after you."

"No," he said, stepping away from her.

She glanced down at Shigaraki who was still staring at the screen. Was this really enjoyable? The music was giving her a headache and the smoke was making it difficult to breathe.

Honestly, her brother was the worst. She should've forced him to wake up early to bring the gift to her on his own. But she knew Touya better than anyone, her twin was the worst at well... doing things.

This was the only way she would've gotten the gift, and the last thing she wanted to do was potentially disappoint their mother.

So instead, she stood, in the middle of the crowded living room, awkwardly tugging on the bottom of her shirt while she waited for her brother to return.

~~

Hawks was fucked.

Figuratively, of course.

Though he wished it was more literal when he saw the white-haired girl standing by the couch.

She looked lost; like she didn't speak the language of those around her and she didn't have a map to find her way.

The girl tugged on the bottom of her sweater, looking uncomfortable and he wondered if she was hot.

She was.

Maybe she wanted out of those stuffy clothes. Well, Hawks knew he could help; in more ways than one.

Rolling his neck, he chugged the rest of his beer and slammed the can down into the bin. This wasn't his first rodeo and it certainly wouldn't be his last, but tonight he was ready to go for a ride.

He would've pushed his aviators down from his head if it wouldn't have made him look like a total moron.

Tucking his hands into his pockets, he made his way over, the pleasant buzz tickling in his bloodstream. This was his kind of Saturday night; he owned this party.

When he drew closer, he noticed the way her brow was furrowed under the bridge of her glasses. She looked annoyed, like every sight, sound and smell was offending her and he wondered what exactly this girl was doing here.

"You look lost," he smirked, sliding up next to her.

Immediately her head whipped around to look at him, specks of red glistening in her white hair. Her gray eyes glared at him, though he noticed she seemed to be looking him up and down, and she placed a hand on her hip.

Feisty. Good, he thought, a challenge would be far more entertaining than-

"I'm not," she stated flatly and turned away from him.

He glanced over her, his eyes pausing momentarily at the curve of her breast. If only she wouldn't hide them... but all that aside... he had noticed she didn't have a drink.

"Can't I get you something to drink?" he offered, letting his voice slip between his lips as smooth as he possibly could.

She turned to stare, looking him up and down again before turning away. "No, I'm leaving soon."

"What?" Hawks gasped, leaning against the arm of the couch. From this angle, he could see her better, even when she continued to turn her eyes away from him. "Why? The night is young. The party is just getting started-"

"I'm just waiting for my brother," she said, cutting him off.

He frowned. Who the hell was her brother and what was he doing leaving his sister alone at a frat party? Not that she looked like she couldn't handle herself... but... "Wait... who's your brother?"

Asking the question, the answer dawned on him.

"Dabi-"

"Touya-" she said, and rolled her eyes. "His name is Touya and I don't know what's taking him so long." Dabi had mentioned having a sister, but that was it. A passing comment he was never going to elaborate on and Hawks knew better than to ask.

Dabi hated talking about his family. But he did know that her name was Fuyumi. Todoroki Fuyumi.

"Right..." Hawks muttered, glancing around the room. Shigaraki was sat on the couch, his eyes following his character across the screen. His head bobbed with the music. He was definitely high.

The rest of the people in the room were those Hawks didn't really recognize, nor did he care to. Right now he had one goal in mind and he was going to stick with it, even if it took him all damn night.

"I live here too if you want me to go find him for you-"

"No thanks," she said, still not looking his way.

Damn. Was he that awful to look at?

Hah. What a joke.

He sighed and folded his arms, leaning casually against the arm of the couch. "Forget the drink, how about we dance?" he suggested.

"Definitely not," she hissed.

The answers were so snippy, cutting him off before he could even think of finishing.

"I told you," she said. "I'm waiting for my brother and then I'm leaving."

"Well," he pushed himself off of the arm of the chair, leaning in close to her. That seemed to fluster her, her eyes shaking as she stared up at him. She really was beautiful. Hell, she could've hit him and he probably would've thanked her. "Knowing your brother, you might be here a bit," he snorted,

She turned again, as if she was offended he was still in her presence. "Who are you exactly? You said you live here but... you didn't tell me your name."

"Hawks," he smirked, holding out his hand to her. She looked at his eyes and then down at his hand, ignoring it.

Wow, she was really playing hard-to-get.

"Touya's mentioned you," she sighed, looking frustrated.

Score: 1.

"Oh yeah?" he smirked. "What's he said?"

"Nothing good."

Score: -1

Or maybe that put him at zero? Either way it wasn't looking good.

He reached forward, the tips of his fingers brushing across her smooth cheek. "You could come to my room instead. Focus on something else besides your brother."

As he touched her, her lips opened further and further and damn they would look pretty somewhere else...

Slap. With a sting, her hand connected against his hand, the pain trickling under the skin of his palm.

"Why would I ever go to your room?" she snapped.

And he stared. Most girls would kill to go to his room. It was practically a legend and he was living proof the stories ended well.

He smirked, shaking his hand out. "For fun, of course," he purred, tucking his hand back into his pocket. "It looks like you could stand to have a little."

"I don't need-"

Before Fuyumi could finish her answer, Dabi smacked him across his head, the pain trembling against his skull.

"Ow! What the hell, dude?!" Hawks asked,

"Don't hit on my sister, you scumbag," he snorted, holding a small box in his other hand.

"We were just talking," Hawks tried, glancing towards Dabi's sister. For a moment, she almost looked sympathetic.

But then she opened her mouth.

"He invited me to his room," she said, pressing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Yup. She was definitely a Todoroki.

"Gross," Dabi scoffed. "Ignore him, 'Yumi." He handed the small box off to her. "Go home."

She took the box from him and stared at the black container, a sad look crossing her eyes. "Are you sure you don't want to come tomorrow, Touya?"

Dabi let out a long sigh. "How many times are you going to ask me this?"

The melancholy look glistened in her eyes. Swallowing, she nodded. "Every time I go, I'll ask. She does want to see you, Touya-"

Dabi snorted and pulled a new blunt from his pocket. "Oh wow! Would you look at this? This blunt isn't going to smoke itself." He clicked his tongue and immediately turned away, leaping over the edge of the couch, flopping next to Shigaraki, neither of them moving.

"Touya!"

"THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD-"

"It's not-"

"I JUST CAN'T HEAR YOU, 'YUMI!"

Fuyumi sighed, glaring at the couch. "Forget it," she muttered to herself, clutching the box to her chest.

Dabi was always an ass when it came to his family... not that Hawks was any better. He couldn't exactly blame the guy. But his sister did look genuinely sad...

Turning to her, he put on his best smile. "Hey, are you sure you don't want to stay for a bit-"

"Positive," she sighed.

Okay. New angle. He still wasn't ready to consider this a loss. She was cute, and a cute girl didn't deserve to have a bad Saturday night.

"I can walk you out-"

"I can do it myself, thanks," she said, her eyes staring at the back of her brother's head.

"Well you never know who might try and come up-"

Her head whipped around, her glare angry. "Oh? You mean someone like you? Maybe all the other girls you hit on fall for this act of yours. But I'm going home and you can find some drunk girl who will be more than happy to spread her legs for you and satisfy your shallow need for companionship for one night," she snapped.

Ouch.

Turning away from him, she made her way out of the room. Her white hair flowed behind her back, brushing against her neck as she pushed her way through the crowd.

Hawks stood in the middle of his living room floor, trying to remember the last time he'd been so thoroughly rejected. The worst part was that her words dug under her skin, the truth of them far too painful for him to face in his current state. She knew nothing about him, she couldn’t have known.

She was dangerous, that much was certain.

And yet, the desire to see her again burned from deep within; a churning inside of his stomach which he just couldn't seem to shake.

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

BFCD Reviews by Nesha: Summertime on Netflix

This is what I’m gonna do... I’ll be doing more structured reviews later and most likely liveblogging suggested stuff and tagging with “Nesha Watches (Insert Title) for all liveblog posts. For this first review, I won’t be as structured, because I didn’t really plan on reviewing, so this is basically all of my comments to friends @chenoahchantel and @daintyurbanprincess that were made whilst I was watching this show suggested to me by @rbaifzau 

It didn’t take me long to be annoyed with the white boy in this show. It doesn’t take much anyways, but one episode in and I’m over him already. This dude saw her at a party, she got pushed into the pool accidentally, he gave her a dry shirt, and two minutes later tried to kiss her… TF..  

Girl, this bout to be IGNANT...

Chile... She was like, "What are you doing?" And he looked surprised. Like whet. And in episode 2 after having seen her thrice and spoken to her once, he telling his best friend, "I'm pretty sure I like her a lot." I HATE stuff like this. Why did I tell old girl I'd watch this and discuss it with her? 😭

But she like him, so like??? 😭

And her daddy, who we haven't seen yet is presumably a rolling stone. Only one negro in this town and the nigga gotta be probably running around on his wife? 🙄 I'm like, OH, so the one Black man in the show gotta be a rolling stone? And even though his wife is also highly irresponsible as a parent, she's sort of made out to be the victim of his dreams. They never portray Black mothers doing things on their own as victims. That woman was messing up left and right and it's all on her husband not being there, when that's only part of the problem.

Also, if she IS the only present parent and made the decision to do that, she should be doing it instead of leaning on Summer all of the time. 

And she got a close friend that have an obvious crush on her but she seems oblivious. I hate dis

This dude reminds me of Max Theriot. He always looked musty to me. 🤣🤣🤣 He look like him breaf stank. Him and Jack Griffo were working on something where they play soldiers and I absolutely said, "He still look like he stank" when I saw him on Instagram…

This is basically the same mold of dude and it looks moldy and should be tossed out. None for me, thanks.

But, there are moments in this show that's really cracking me up. 🤣🤣🤣 It's like, I feel like I should enjoy it for the messiness of it, but the main characters can be infuriating.

She called him an asshole and he said, "You don't even know me." No duh dipshit. She ain't know you when you tried to kiss her neither. NOR when you was talmbout you like her. 

This girl kissing her friend!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. She's gonna hurt this boy! My Gwad. He finna be discombobulated. 😭😭😭 He all happy today and she don't even see him like that. Lordt.

He walked up and she look uncomfortable AF. Her younger sister is like, "You're being weird." 🤣🤣🤣 Even SHE hip to something. He on the beach talmbout "It's hot today, don't you think?" And took his shirt off. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I like Summer's friends and feel bad for them because she really didn't treat them kindly. She used Edo whenever she was upset by Ale and then she just completely ditched Sofie on her birthday and didn't even text her or anything. Just had her waiting on her and didn't even apologize. Like, I love that she gets a chance to be human, but being an asshole to the people who you're supposed to be friends with is such an upsetting trope to me.

And the connection between her and Ale is so weird. He comes across as super predatory in the beginning and I don't understand why she liked him in the first place, but also whenever he does something by mistake, she is so angry at him, even though she's been just as inconsiderate when it comes to her friends.

NOW... HE HARASSING HER AT HER JOB. 

WOTTICE DIS HUNNY??? 

Talmbout if she got a boyfriend he'll "take care of him" 😖 After she told him to leave and he said he'd wait for her outside, she asked her coworker, "What do you do to let a guy know you like him back?"

NOW, she went outside and he's there, but her friend showed up to surprise her after work. 🤣 Whoever made this HATES me

He stole a book out her locker and left a card with his phone number. How is this the start of a romance???

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. FRIEND IS TALKING ABOUT THE KISS...He said it was perfect........

Chile... And she don't even wanna tell their other best friend. Bruh. He said, "What we have doesn't need to be discussed." Summy PLEASE tell this young man...HE TRIED TO KISS HER AGAIN AND SHE SAID, "We just talked about last night's mistake" 😭😭😭

And she done hurt my friend this way, but she worried about Maxface because his mama can't reach him on the phone??? Girl.. go.. girl...

The gag is that she got mad at Ale because she saw him talking to his ex and she had to cover for him at work, but you've now ACTUALLY put your best friend in a bad space. And he ran into her mom and little sister and looked so uncomfortable but kept it short and sweet. These are people he loves. Idk. I feel bad for him and also like she kind of a hypocrite.

That was what REALLY bothered me. I don't expect her to be perfect, by all means. Black girls should be allowed their imperfections and their mistakes, but the fact that she knows what it's like to have the people you love be so absent and that she would treat her friends this way because of one guy who she's only known for a couple of months was disappointing for her character. She could have been written imperfectly without this glaring problem that I don't believe a real person in her position would actually have. 

I think in real life, the girl who raises her sister and basically has to lift her mother up all the time would overextend herself to her friends, but instead, she just leaves them in her dust as soon as she gets some dick. 😭

He is now hanging out with her little sister. 😭😭😭She goes to school with them but she looks tiny. I'm cringing at everything.

BRUH. Like... I can't tell if they're trying to or not, but I wouldn't be surprised because he's cool with the sister too, but they've been friends a while, so I didn't think much of it until Summer hurt him.I thought she liked him earlier, so idk if he is noticing her or I just EXPECT it. 

OAN, this man realized his son had a motorcycle accident on purpose and got mad instead of concerned

At one point, they say he's been riding bikes for 20 years, and whenever his father is mad that he had his accident on purpose (which I'll come back to) he says that he's never made a mistake like that, not even was he was 4, so Ale is AT LEAST 24 and she JUST turned 18. Which is WILD to me, even though at 18 I dated someone who was 23 (he was possessive and abusive, so I have a real suspicion of age gaps). 

But, aside from that - she gets mad at him any time she sees him with his ex when It is perfectly fine to speak with your ex and whenever she did see them together, it was always innocent and she didn't give him a chance to explain.

But then, when he does something questionable, like whenever he tried to kiss her the first day they met, or whenever he came to her job to ask her out and she told him to leave but he said he was going to wait outside (toxic AF and presumptuous) she is fine with those things.

Now, back to Ale's accident. I really felt so bad for him whenever we discover he did this on purpose, because his father is mad, when they should be concerned. His mother says, "You could have died" and he agrees...

How did they not notice that meant that this young man was so disappointed with his life as a biker that he was literally suicidal? They just grazed past it and whenever he vanished on them, there wasn't a huge call to find him,even though he'd just admitted to purposefully filling a possibly fatal mistake.

I'm prepared for nothing but disappointment. ALL these people outta there. Ale's best friend is in love with his ex. 😭 IT'S SUMMER'S 18TH BIRTHDAY. MYNIGGA She really stood her other best friend up to go get some dick on a little ass boat

The little sister shot her shot! 😭😭😭 He told her she's like his little sister and she burnt off mad denna muffugga

This child drunk, walking down the street in the middle of the night without her glasses...

OMG AS I WAS TYPING THAT SHE GOT HIT BY A DAMN CAR

I was really upset by these things coming to light, and also whenever Blue gets hit by a car, because all of the reviews that I've seen on this site have been that it's a cute love story with likable characters, but nobody mentions the problematic content, the dark portions of the story that can be triggering - like suicide and alcohol incidents and literally seeing a young Black girl be hit and run by a car??? 

I wasn't prepared for that shit in a "cute love story." I think that this story is less cute and more dark than people have made it out to be, and that's one of my problems with it. It isn't marketed as a dramatic coming of age story. It's marketed as a romantic comedy, when it is more serious than that and has a lot of issues that should be considered.

The lesbian best friend is in love with her too??????????????????? I. Hate. This.

My favorite person in this whole thing is the lesbian in the background, Irene. And also Dario.

I was entertained a lot of the times. Just heavily confused because I couldn't figure out what the tone was supposed to be. 😁

In conclusion - it's maybe a dark comedy, not a cute comedy, IS a coming of age about a young Black girl who is kind of an asshole, but Black girls should be free to be assholes too. White dudes do it all the time and are valued characters. The dude is weird AF for chasing around this 17 year old girl and he's in his 20s. Idk if that's normal in Italy. It's nasty to me. Their beginning is young people foolishness and there's not much that we see their relationship built upon, but that happens, yanno. You young, tired and silly and some pushy dude makes his move whenever he see you. Slap some discount sex in a dinghy on it and you have this show. I don't recommend it, but a lot of folk loved it, so I guess it did what it meant to do.

[tfw-no-tennis]

hunter x hunter thotz so far

soooo ruth and i started watching hunter x hunter woohoo finally! we’re like 10 or so eps in so i decided to collect some thots below on what i think so far (i havent rlly been spoiled so im interested to look back on this once ive watched more)

first off i love gon sm, hes immediately so endearing...hes just a baby!!!! just a little baby boy!!!! hes just so cute and good, im so not ready for him to get put thru the wringer later on as ive vaguely heard happens

the first few episodes were really fast paced which i enjoyed and thought was for the best. the characters came thru really strongly and i feel like we heard juuuust enough about the setting, premise, and what a hunter is 

i wasnt expecting leorio and kurapika to show up in the FIRST EP lmao that surprised me. i love so much how the three of them like IMMEDIATELY became a family unit in like 3 eps lmaoooo it was like ok here are 2 parents and their son bam. also leorio and kurapika having a showdown on the boat (which didnt end up happening) was a wild ride 

i have like zero fucking idea what a hunter is and the more they attempt to explain the more confused i get. its honestly kind of hilarious how little sense it makes. to be clear this doesnt detract from my enjoyment of the show at all (if anything it adds to it)

oh my god fuckgin hisoka is the worst he hasnt done much but i hate him so much already. good villain writing/design so far, hes so hateable

ruth every time hisoka shows up: WE HATE UR PUSSY BIIIITCH 

the character design in this show is....a lot lmao. ruth and i decided its a cross between soul eater, jojo, and one piece in terms of aesthetic. the designs are certainly unique and so many of them are just so ugly hvbjafdbdskgs it reminds me of that post thats like ‘masterpost of jojo characters who look busted as shit’ lmao

i already love this show a lot tbh like the way its structured so far has been kinda atypical for a shounen, at least in terms of fights - we really havent seen a lot of fighting yet. also nen hasnt shown up yet and its reminding me of stands not becoming a thing in jojo until p3 lmao 

anyways in litrally ep1 i already loved the 3 main characters we saw...leorio is a wild dude, i love him sm, especially as a fellow medical binch who wants MONEY. like, thats literally me. and kurapika is also wild, like damn they rlly just dropped their backstory in ep 1 huh. like we rlly are jumping right into this 

also when leorio said he was a teenager i was like WHAT???? just like evryone else which YEA omfg. i cant believe hes that young lmao. kurapika too

so leorio is one of those 19 yr olds who looks 40 and kurapika is the type of teen who looks like a 12 yr old

and KILLUA i love him sm also....hes an adorable assassin catboy and hes perfect. i love how quickly he and gon hit it off (tiny bfs.....) and how hes just like, this extra as hell 12 yr old with a SKATEBOARD and ASSASSIN SKILLS and then he sees gon and is like guess im gonna fall in love 

i gotta talk abt gon again i just love him. hes so polite and cute and kind and good, i just love him...wht a good protag. his motivation is just wild too, hes like well my dad abandoned me to go off and be a hunter (which he isnt even mad abt, what a nice lad) so im gonna do that to see what the deal is

i love how gon (just like the audience) doesnt really know what a hunter does/is and just goes into the exam totally blind lmao. also the fact that his skills seem to include jumping good, being speedy, having the energy typical of a 12 yr old, being a weather sniffer, being nice, and having good instincts/constitution as a result of having eaten random grass and forest shit growing up...amazing. 

is this gonna turn out to be one of those things where its like, wow theyve been using nen this whole time without realizing! tht would honestly explain a lot lmao 

i really enjoy how like....semi-normal the power levels are rn? while also being all over the place and wack as fucks obvs (like hisoka dissolving that guys arms in his first appearance was A Lot, as well as all the card stuff hes done..). like the part wher that blue guys (evil franky one piece) punches the ground and it leaves a crater and everyones like !!!! wow wtf thats unnatural! that literally threw me off bc that kinda thing is so normal in anime lmaoooo. but i like that thats the starting point bc it leaves a lot of room for power escalation w/out it getting too out of hand 

specifially our protags are starting out pretty low on the Shounen Badass scale - especially gon (and leorio, tho i kinda predict he wont be as fight-y? what with him being premed)

i find it kinda hilarious how killua hasnt done too much (aside from murdering those 2 randos in like half a second) despite being so clearly skilled...like when they have to do the 5v5 fight thing in the tower, i wouldve thought hed be the first up cause hes so badass but nope

actually thats what i find interesting - i was expecting all 5 (or maybe 4, we’re in the middle of leorio’s ‘fight’) of the fights to be physical smackdowns but so far nope, theyve been very cerebral. that bodes well, w/how smart the fights have been, bc i doubt the fights will get stale tht way 

tho they might be kinda frustrating sometimes - there are times when u DO just wanna see a good ole fashioned shounen beatdown yknow. but we do get enough of that now (and im sure we’ll get plenty more) to satisfy (like kurapika decking fake-franky) 

oh also the opening. its so charming and cute and i love the song...its also so hilariously basic and classic - like one of those typical 2000s anime openings where theres stock run cycles of all the main characters and theres a little animation of all the characters fighting together (and that fight doesnt actually happen, its just for the op) 

also love that leorios the only one who doesnt fight in the OP, instead getting saved from death by gon lmao. im curious if he’ll end up fighting at all (i assume a little?) and if he’ll use nen (probably healing type nen?) 

also i already wanna fistfight ging for abandoning his perfect angel son. also leorio is literally gons dad already, they even look alike wow 

that guy hanzo has done basically 0 things so far but i rlly like him already, im curious if thatll change. also sorry for calling u ‘hanzo overwatch!?!?!?!’ upon first viewing my guy 

tonpa is str8 up so annoying pls leave u pathetic loser 

tho it cracked me up when he and Evil Mr Clean were facing off and starting getting all detailed/shaded and i was like o shit is he actually badass. are we abt to see like a nen battle or st. but no....lmaooo

i found it interesting that leorio didnt really admit to wanting to be a dr at first...hes such a good dude, he kinda just let kurapika think that his motives were superficial and greedy when in actuality theyre selfless

also wanting to be rich can be a rlly interesting character motivation and i love when its done right

oh my god i cant believe it took me this long to mention the hilariously edge ED....like holy shit, its so 2000s, the song sounds like its been re-recorded like 40000 times bc of how bad the audio quality is, or something, idk how to describe music but its hilariously specific in tone and its rlly funny to see shots of the main characters smiling while this screamo whatever plays in the bg....wow. 

also s/o to killua for being king of edgy with that ‘tear of blood’ shot

i rlly like how much of the plot, especially the early hunter exam stuff, is moved along simply by gon being a good kind polite boy. 

love the fact that he and leorio and kurapika (and later killua) all team up without even saying anything...i love that, most shounen would have them be like ‘che, i cant team up with anyone, i have to prove myself ALONE or my victory wont be EARNED’ or w/e idk. who knows that might happen later but rn i love how they all effortlessly work together (and how they all contribute - without each other they would have all failed at different points) 

oh man also killuas first appearence was so funny when he drank a bunch of tonpas poisoned drinks and was like [smirks] tch, loser, im immune to poison. get dunked on. [skateboard away] i love him so fuckgin much 

omfg that part where killua looks all shoujo/kawaii and is talking abt how hes gonna kill his family or w/e and gon is just like ^_^? i love they

HOOOOLY FUCK I ALMOST FORGOT, BUT 65% OF THE REASON I MADE THIS POST WAS TO MENTION HISOKAS THEME LMAOOOOO his music being like fuckgin, spanish guitar/traditional mexican type music is sooooo goddamn funny to me for some reason, like the first time it played i was like ok whats going ON with this spanish guitar lmao but then i figured out that its his theme and god thats so funny 

hisoka is also so fuckign jojo like he could so easily be in jojo. he and dio would be the fakest best friends ever and would constantly try to kill each other on the lowdown and shittalk each other constantly in private but be super sweet to each others faces. also they would hatefuck. no im not taking criticism bye 

i rlly love everyones backstories also, and i find it interesting that weve gotten to hear/see at least some of all 4 of the MCs backstories. theyre all compelling and interesting and i cant wait to dive in further 

also calling it now but kurapika is totally gonna get way too absorbed in revenge and get fucked up/disregard their own life (maybe in the style of robin in one piece?) we’ll see but i feel like it aint gonna end well. i could be wrong, i really havent been spoiled at all, thats just my guess 

hbahjfbshjf the ep that was called ‘hisoka x is x sneaky’ was SO funny that reads like a dora the explorer ep title 

also i had no idea the ep titles were formatted like that w/the x’s and thats rlly funny 

ok but the part where leorio - who seems to be pretty bad at fighting - tries to fight hisoka - whose literal first appearence involved him effortlessly dissolving a dudes arms - is so fucking funny. leorio rlly b a premed w/no brain cells....same bro. 

also i loved the Cutthroat Kitchen portion of the hunter exam and how not a single contestant was any good at it lmaoooo. do they not have the cooking channel in hxh-verse earth 

ok i love how the main characters are all intuitive in different ways depending on their own skills, like how killua can immediately guess that kurapika has never killed anyone before after they didnt kill evil-franky

kurapika joined killua in the Edgy Corner during that part also. like, they both have legit reasons to be edgy, but the shots of kurapika sitting in the darker tunnel part was kinda funny

also killua, a literal 12 yr old, calling out kurapika for being a murder virgin was pretty hilarious 

ok also i didnt know that madhouse animated hxh which is rlly funny but w/e i love the animation especially the occasional chibi parts and the facial expressions (like killuas ‘i love murder’ catboy expressions) 

oh also when killua murdered those 2 guys and his hand was all vein-y and his nails were pointy, his hands looked like hisokas do...i wonder if thats a legit connection or it hisoka just b getting his nails did 

kurapika talking abt how even seeing a regular spider makes them rlly angry was both very sad and kinda funny. kura u have so many issues god bless 

kurapikas smackdown on evil blue franky was fuckin dope tho. and the red eyes reveal was SPOICY 

rlly love how the individual fights highlights the characters strengths/morals/motivations/whatever....the writing is already really strong tbh 

ugh ok ive ranted enough this is a Lot lmao its so disorganized but w/e 

basically i love this series so far and im rlly curious whatll happen next. also everything seems pretty chill and upbeat so far (relatively) and i know this shit gets dark and im NOT FUCKING READY. 

til next timeeee

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 15x01 “Back and to the Future”

just making up my mind whether i’m excited for this season or not and the answer is YEAH OKAY

-

04:58pm

look i’ll be honest, i’m kind of dreading this season. maybe that’s part of the reason i’ve buried myself in other fandoms during the hiatus, but i’m REALLY hoping they’ll give us something here that makes me want to watch. but that’s just where i stand right now. not into it. but ready to have my mind changed!!

-

05:00

i also just realised this is the first time i’m watching spn on my computer rather than my laptop (which died during gish week and i haven’t replaced it yet) and WHOA THE COLOURS ARE GOOD AND THE VIDEO IS BIG

-

05:40

the extension of the slow recap music into the fight sequence is making me emotional. good

-

05:05

the title card is disgusting and i hate it

but i am intrigued to see what it refers to

-

05:10

good cas move

......welp tumblr won’t let me upload screenshots but it was the bit where cas thumps a giant stone slab over a zombie

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05:13

belfegar(?)!jack is hilarious

demons in sunglasses are a big thing these days i guess

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05:16

all the zombies are everywhere except piled up by the door where they should be if they were trying to break in??

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05:19

cas hates belfegal SO MUCH omg

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05:23

i’m just worried this mom is gonna turn the car on while the garage door is closed and then oh no carbon monoxide

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05:25

dean reFERRED TO DEMON!JACK AS “CROWLEY JUNIOR”

LEGITIMATELY CAN’T TELL IF IT’S A GOOD OMENS REFERENCE OR JUST A REFERENCE TO SPN CROWLEY

either way 10/10

i wonder if dean ships crowley/aziraphale

oh wait i wrote that fic and yes he does

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05:29

belfegar thinks dean is gorgeous... and he’s right

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05:32

why did the black girl have to be the first to die though

are the people who make this just... not AWARE of their patterns?? or are they doing it on purpose at this point

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05:35

aw poor sammy and his clown phobia

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05:53

dean to rowena: “move your EXQUISITE ass, please”

ugh i love rowena

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05:37

cas heals shirts too

oh boy

tailor extraordinaire

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cas: i’m an angel

lady: and that was...

sam: a ghost

lady: and you’re.....?

sam: just a guy

that was weirdly endearing

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05:43

sam just shot cas and cas just looks mildly annoyed

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05:46

run fast moose!!!! gallop!!!!

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05:50

DEAN ASKED IF CAS WAS OKAY

HUSTON WE HAVE AN EMOTIONAL BREAKTHROUGH

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cas: yes but

dean: good

okay never mind

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05:54

sam: it’s just us

ooooh i do wonder how different things would be if they actually have free will

destiel probably. i hope

NO MORE “WILL THEY WON’T THEY”

PLEASE

just a “they will”

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WE GOT WORK TO DO

AND THEN CUT TO THE FIRST TIME THEY SAID IT

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

I LOVE THAT

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05:56pm

aaah that was good!!! okay yeah i’m feeling it, and i am still kinda dreading it but i’m also excited now

i love that this seems to be a setup for a self-referential look back on 15 years of this story, ooh so meta

whee~

BUT

they literally had a mom and a daughter and NEITHER OF THEM HAD NAMES AND HOW EASY WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TO HAVE THEM PASS THE BECHDEL TEST

black girl died first. WHY

eh. i dunno. i guess i just gotta get over expecting this show to meet certain standards and just enjoy it for whatever reason i enjoy it, i couldn’t even tell ya what that reason was right now

but i’d still give this a 9/10 for entertainment

IT WAS SO GOOD TO SEE CAS AGAIN. I MISSED HIM. and it was good to see him do useful things and help the brothers and not be dead or ignored by the narrative yeeeeee