#titanic one is such a classic !!! ugh but again this can go two ways

[gorejo]

i want to write an amnesia fic or even a titanic themed one... but with whom is the question

[harryforvogue]

What is the best anime ever?i wanna venture into it

for me, the best anime ever are given, yuri on ice, fruits basket, and attack on titan.

but here are some more for you! (i got carried away)

entry level animes are ideally the short ones that are cute and get the job done. a lot of these are romances:

given - a love story between a boy who is mourning the death of his ex boyfriend and a guitarist. i LOVEEOEFJOSEJRFT this anime.

Romance killer - this shit is hilarious and very short so you can def binge in a weekend.

yuri on ice - ice skating story about a young ice skater who lacks serious confidence and his new coach who is also his role model and IT'S A LOVE STORY ugh it's beautiful and the soundtrack is gorg.

kamisama kiss - one of the older ones but still a classic romance. it's about a girl who gets turned into minor god and she has a very stubborn companion (idk what to call it in english) who doesn't immediately try to help her settle into her duties.

Yona of the dawn - fantasy with found family. Spoiled princess turned badass warrior. Romance subplot 

doukyuusei - short movie about classmates falling in love.

Angel beats - just depression.

Literally any Makoto Shinkai movie. So cozy. often with a beauriul romance. Recently watched suzume and it’s my fave from that series.

then i would go into some longer anime

Spy x family - a family of freaks fr it’s about a couple that marries for convenience though neither know each other’s true identity and a plot to bomb and kill and shit. There’s a psychic kid involved too. It’s a whole thing.  I didn’t love this but it’s a cute show.

fruits basket - one of my all time fave animes. recently had a reboot and new animation so it's gorgeous. all the men are so hot idc. there are romances and tear jerking moments. it's so wholesome and beautiful. it's about a girl who wants to break the zodiac curse of a family (the curse that turns the members into their zodiac animals and leads them to be controlled by their "god"). love it. shigure.... the man that you are.....

noragami - i haven't watched much of this but it's about a young minor god who is trying to become a major god and have lots of worshippers. also has a subplot romance hehehe

And then there’s the heavy ones with a LOT of plot (and hot men)

Attack on titan: one of my favorites also. long and it just ended like two weeks ago. It’s about titans that walk the earth, murdering everything in their path. The world knows nothing about them. A young boy and his friends join the army to kill these titans but what they find out is horrifying. You WILL cry and it’s pretty graphic so :D 

Chainsaw man - disgusting but in a different way. I’m gonna be so fr i only watched this for Aki. story isn’t hard to follow. It’s about a certain sect of a government using fiends to kill devils. It’s gory and very very graphic.

Banana fish - an ex army soldier kills his whole squad suddenly and with background rivalry and killing of gangs in new york, a young photographer from japan and the head of one of the gangs have to solve the mystery of the drug that caused the soldier to go crazy. If you’re gonna watch this, you NEED to look at content warnings. It has everything. Under the sun. EVERYTHINg. Beautiful animations though i am MAPPA’s number 1 fan.

Jujutsu kaisen - hot men wonderland fr. about exorcizing curses with found family, a super hot villain and lots of death. Currently on going. A little confusing at times but the graphics are GORGGGGG. Mappa again.

[naktergalen]

Rivamika Fic Suggestions List 2

Hey there again! It’s been a while since my last rivamika post and I apologies for that. I caught the reading bug and have just been hitting book after book. I might be doing a book of the month suggestion starting in March. I’m still thinking about it but if that is something your interested in let me know. Or if you just want book suggestions just message or ask me. But for now, I’m back with my second Rivamika Fic Suggestions List.

First of all, I want to thank you for all the comments and messages I received from my first list! I think it has over 150 notes now which is crazy for me. I was going to be ecstatic if it got like 10 likes or something hahaha! I’ve enjoyed talking to some of you about fics and other snk stuff. Feel free to do the same after this post! I know I take awhile to respond but swear I get there eventually.

Same rules as last time. I’ve split this list up into four categories. I wanted to let people know the status of some of these fics in case they did not want to start an incomplete or in progress story. All of these fics can be found on AO3. I’m going to try to link them but we will see how tumblr acts today. If you have any fic suggestions for me, feel free to message me with them and I can add them on to the next list. If any author sees their story on here and wants me to take it off the list, please let me know I don’t wish to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Also, last thing, I highly recommend leaving comments and kudos to the authors. I know that they greatly appreciate it and it helps them with improving their writing through feedback. Okay shutting up now, ON WITH THE LIST!

DISCLAIMER: I know that not all of these stories are not for everyone, these are just my opinions and suggestions.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Completed:

- Thunder Clouds

Author: K_Lionheart

Rating: Mature

Sometimes I like to go to the very back of the Rivamika archive on AO3 and look for fics that have gotten buried over time. Low and behold what I have found lol! I enjoyed the emotional roller coaster when I was reading this fic, though sometimes I wanted to pull my hair out. Set after the titans are gone, humanity has to repopulate so arranged couples by the monarch are made to be wed. While this new order is being enforced, Mikasa and Levi are trying to work out their strained relationship. A slow burn with angst that will have you staying up till 3am dying to know what happens next. I know that there is a sequel to this fic called Nimbus and I’m slowly working my way through that one. Honestly, it will probably go on my next list.

- Red is the Only Colour

Author: mongoose_bite

Rating: Mature

A cute fic that was a quick but wild ride. A Little Red Riding Hood type of AU where Mikasa is a hunter of some sorts traveling through a town. I don’t want to say how Levi plays into all of this since it gets border line spoilers but just know that he is there. It is an opening ending fic for the author to come back if they plan on doing so but it can be interpreted in different ways. All in all, a fic worth of the quick read.

- Sing Me a Song

Author: LazyTrash

Rating: Mature

First I have to get this off my chest, I love the author’s name hahaha! I freakin wished I would have thought of that for mine! Anyway, this fic is wonderful but I will warn you that its a gut punch. If you like hurt and angst put together, then this is the story for you. I love these types of fics because I adore them so much but they hurt me in my soul. I don’t know what that says about me but whatever. I don’t want to delve into the story too much for spoilers but I would suggest rivamika fans to check this one out.

- Midnight Musings

Author: Raewyll

Rating: Teen

I just started to read Raewyll’s fics so I’m slowly working my way through all her works. This one caught my eye and I had to read it. This is a cute take on a chance meeting through texting the wrong number. I love the way Levi and Mikasa’s relationship blossoms into something more serious after causally texting back and forth. It’s one of those stories that I can only describe as being cute as shit! I’m definitely going to be checking out more of Raewyll’s fic in the future.

Ongoing:

- Beyond the Walls

Author: helena3190

Rating: Matue

If you love RIvamika angst, then look no further than this baby right here. This is currently my favorite ongoing fic. It was supposed to be a shorter story, but the author keeps adding more chapters so I’m not complaining hahaha! This fic is pretty much how I would *personally* picture canon Mikasa on how she would deal with realizing that she’s falling in love with someone. Its mostly told in the perspective of Mikasa as she is dealing with the after effects of war and trying to figure out what should she do with her life now that she is no longer a solider. Her feeling for Levi come with a lot of confusion as she’s discovering emotions that she has never felt before. She has a hard time pinpointing on what exactly describes her relationship with him. I’m anxiously waiting for the final chapter for this fic and dying to see how it will end for Mikasa and Levi.

- After the War

Author: loneackerman

Rating: Mature

I am loving this rivamika slow burn fic right here. Its similar to Beyond the Walls but I think the author adds their own taste of the 1920s into it. Set after the war is over (obviously), Mikasa and Levi have to figure out what they are going to do the rest of their lives. It has great tension, a perfectly paced gradual romance and just the right amount of humor to combat the emotional turmoil it puts you through. Again in my opinion, this is close to how I would realistically perceive Levi and Mikasa’s relationship evolving. I’m really enjoying this story and I’m looking forward to more updates to come!

- The Sound of Lightning

Author: LycheeGreenTea

Rating: Mature

A new fic that is just getting started but I can tell that what the author has in store is going to be interesting. Set several years after the end of the war, Levi and Mikasa are loving parents to a single child. Their peaceful life comes to an end when the family has a threat against them. There are not many long fics about Mikasa and Levi being parent so I was very happy when this one popped up on the AO3 feed. An exciting adventure awaits the Ackerman family now and I can’t wait to see where this fic goes in the future. There are three chapters as of now so head over there and check it out.

Incomplete:

- Home

Author: MissErikaCourt

Rating: Mature

One of the gems I found when diving back into the Rivamika archive. Ugh I HATE that this fic is incomplete!!! Its a good long fic but I’m greedy and I need more! I will give a warning first that this fic does contain heavy themes. Mikasa and Levi are in the underground to fight against a criminal ring. This story is a slow burn with action and emotional trauma. There is a wonderfully written OC that you easily get attached to its not even funny. Even though its not completed, I would highly recommend checking it out. I still have three more chapters to finish but I had to put it on this list. I know that I’m going to be pissed once I reach the last chapter written. If someone know MissErikaCourt, let her know that she needs to comeback to finish this masterpiece!

- Shiver

Author: bornsinner

Rating: Mature

Another one that I DISPISE its incomplete!!! Ugh such a great Office AU. It’s everything that I would want in an Office AU setting. Mikasa struggles between her committed long term relationship and her growing attraction (which starts to develop into some feelings) to her boss, Levi. Its hot, sexy and intriguing and it pisses me off that its not finished! The author writes each chapter as a one-shot but collectively together they tell the whole story. Highly recommend even though its so short. BORNSINNER where ever you are in the universe I hope you come back to finish this!!!

- Two Lines

Author: Crejhov

Rating: Mature

When this was getting updated it was my favorite on-going Rivamika fic. I would find myself checking to see if the author updated with a new chapter every week! The unplanned pregnancy trope is a classic one, but Crejhov does a fantastic job on keeping readers enthralled with soo many anticipated character meet up that are bound to cause hurdles for our expecting parents. This story is told from the perspectives of Mikasa and Levi in order for us to understand where their mindsets are as they plan for their expecting child and deal with their relationship. AHHHHH I want more of this!!! I was soo excited to see where this awkward journey was going to take Mikasa and Levi. CREJHOV COME BACK PLEASE I KNOW YOU HAVE WORK BUT PLEAAASEEEE! I NEEEEEEDDDD!!!

- Cabin Fever

Author: AmayaOkami

Rating: Mature

All I should have to say about this is that its written by AmayaOkami and that should explain it. Amaya is the one that gave us the beautiful incomplete rivamika fic Romance and Rivalry. I just adore her writing. Levi and Mikasa relationship evolves as they are standing guard over the arrested Kenny Ackerman. Secrets are discover about the Ackermans and it gets pretty steamy between our two favs. Great fluff and great sexual tension that leaves you wanting more chapters! Again AmayaOkami where ever you went I hope for some miracle that you come back and complete this one too!

One-Shot:

- Jade

Author: shulkie

Rating: Mature

This one-shot feels like I read a novel, it has such a great storyline. An arranged marriage between Mikasa and Levi leaves the relationship strained in the beginning. Their relationship evolves over time as Levi patiently brings down Mikasa’s wall. With smut added for all of your one-shot needs. Definitely worth the read in my opinion.

- What Remains

Author: Mirime

Rating: Mature

This one-shot gives us a glimpse into the secret relationship that Levi and Mikasa have been having while there are still scouts. This fic is sad but I would say it has a bittersweet ending. I think this was supposed to be part of a collection but I can’t find the rest of them. Still a great read by itself.

- Agape

Author: alienheartattack (Sanneke)

Rating: Mature

This fic is cute as shit! A College AU where Mikasa and Levi are childhood friends. Levi has to deal with Mikasa being at the same college as him while he is struggling with his changing feelings towards a grown up Mikasa. Worth the read as I said cute as shit, leaves you all warm and fuzzy lol!

- As Seen in Shadows

Author: MoraLeeWright

Rating: Explicit

FUCKING MORA! LEE! WRIGHT! UFFFFGGHHH Fuck I’m in love with her writing style. I really have nothing to say more that just go read it! Its hot and sexy and the sexual tension is off the fucking charts in this one. Its just MoraLeeWright smut thats all I can say. It’s great! JUST READ IT LMAO!

- Remedy

Author: NSummer

Rating: Mature

Another hot smut one-shot coming your way! Levi and Mikasa have had an ongoing affair and this just recounts their first time together. Its just some good ol’ Rivamika smut that I think that everyone in this community would enjoy.

- Nutty: Drunk in Love

Author: Hallow17

Rating: Mature

A fun smut to read about Mikasa getting “revenge” on her asshole boss, Levi. Things don’t go the way she plans as things get a little heated in the sexy way. A quick smut that I think is perfect for a little Rivamika crave.

- Spicy: Jalapeno

Author: Hallow17

Rating: Explicit

Another fun smut to read by Hallow17. Levi has been stressed out at work and Mikasa finds a way to help him get his mind off it (if you know what i mean). Again perfect for a Rivamika quick fix.

[springday-aus]

Enemies to Lovers!AU with Xiaojun

—

Group: NCT [+ WayV]

Member: Xiaojun / Xiao Dejun

Genre: fluff, comedy, romance 

Type: Bulletpoint AU 

Word Count: approx. 2.4k

so, you’re Xiaojun’s enemy (he thinks of it more of his number one attacker tho)

it wasn’t hard considering he’s always on fight or flight mode and considering his friend group….

fight mode is always activated

(ง’̀-‘́)ง

so it started when you became friends with Ten

the guy is so sociable, so you were bound to meet him and his other friends someday

but jesus christ, there were soooo many of them

it was a party; he threw a literal party of just him and his friends

and then there were others who turned it into a rave (i.e. Hendery, Yangyang, Chenle and Donghyuk)

anyways, you got to mingle and make so many new friends

it was going really well

until Xiaojun entered the picture

things went well with him too, until you made a joke that didn’t exactly land with him

but it landed well with the others

Lucas: “who in their right mind would like mint chocolate”

Xiaojun: “but I like mint chocolate”

You: “then you’re not in your right mind lmao”

YangYang: “I mean, is Xiaojun ever in his right mind tho”

everyone laughs

except for one person

Xiaojun stood up, staring you down for a hot second, before trying to argue back

in which YangYang was the main responder

you didn’t really think much of it, laughing away with the others

but, to him, you just declared war that day

it shouldn’t have bothered him as much as it did

but it did

so, from then on, things just got rockier

bc he started picking fights with you over the littlest things or he would argue with your points no matter what

you didn’t really think much of it bc he was also being picked on everyone else and you were like

every man for themselves huh

it wasn’t until he personally attacked you

it happened on Halloween

and he made an underhanded comment about how he’d look better in anything compared to you

so you made a “friendly” bet

but then you lost

bc Xiaojun looked better in the Jasmine costume than you and he def knew it too

and when he smirked at you

the grudge had been built

that’s probably when the mutual enemy status circulated around your friends

although, if they’re being honest, it’s so entertaining

especially since most of them like to gang up on Xiaojun too

and because of that unity, it’s only made things worse

from what the others can tell

you two don’t hate each other, but you def don’t get along

it ranges to food (e.g. mint chocolate chip incident that NO ONE lets go)

Lucas: “mint choco ain’t shit”

You: “retweet”

Xiaojun: “the attacks”

YangYang: “we cannot trust a man who eats bread with fucking lao gan ma”

You: “you eat what with bread?”

Xiaojun: “shut up. all of you.”

to activities

cue you two fighting about what movie to watch

Xiaojun: “Titanic is a classic!!!”

You: “it’s a joke, there was rOOM ON THE FUCKING DOOR”

Xiaojun: “IT’S ROMANTIC. HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF SO SHE CAN LIVE.”

You: “THAT’S NOT ROMANTIC. THAT’S SUICIDAL, DUMBASS.”

this feud is def bc you’re both petty as fuck

the bickering is nonstop

but, if the nct boys are being honest

they’re lowkey confused bc Xiaojun is supposed to have a really high emotional tolerance

he doesn’t even yell this much at YangYang or Ten

(excluding that one time he hit YangYang with that pillow very hard)

but he does blow off his top when it comes to you

which is sus to a lot of the boys

whenever someone does ask him tho

he just kind of……………

mumbles underneath his breath and then moves onto something else

meanwhile, Yuta: “isn’t he always like that?”

Kun: “who wants to tell him”

lmao, I’m kidding

kind of

anyways, you two are really just going at it

what changes?

you have to go to the dentist and get your molars removed

which means someone has to take you and go pick you up

obviously, Ten was going to do that, considering you two were the closest

so he dropped you off and you had your surgery

so what happened?

welp, your buddy Ten forgot he had a prior engagement and, hence, was unable to pick you up

cue him spamming the groupchat

and Lucas exposing Xiaojun

Lucas: Xiaojun isn’t doing anything Xiaojun: you don’t know that Lucas: I do tho, go pick up (Y/N) Ten: I’ll buy you anything from that green tea cafe you like for a week Xiaojun: deal.

so he came to pick you up, both willingly and unwillingly

and you……. you were more than a hot mess 

you were just a mess 

you basically were just blacked out that entire time after they gave you the laughing gas and completed the surgery

so you remembered absolutely nothing.

your roommate: “this is what you get for doing drugs”

You: “IT WAS PURELY FOR MEDICINAL USE”

You: “IT’S NOT LIKE I DID CRACK”

either way, your roommate let you know of the situation, taking note of how your enemy had to take you home

which

again

no recollection

your roommate: “he’s fucking hot tho”

You: “ugh, I know”

but that’s also when you decided

Ten is a dead man :)

Ten: “I’M SORRY”

You: “YOU BETTER FUCKING BE”

Ten: “I KNOW”

Ten: “............................................but………………………………….”

Ten: “maybeyoushouldalsothankhimfortakingcareofyou”

You: “sorry not sorry, I’m contemplating murder rn”

Hendery: “what do you call a murder against a friend?”

Kun: “don’t”

Ten:

You:

Hendery: “it’s a homie-cide”

You and Ten: “NOT NOW”

anyways

you knew he was right

so after you calmed down, you went to Xiaojun’s place (thanks to Ten), with some sweets to thank him

Lucas opened the door, let you in, and left to go to the gym with Sicheng

Xiaojun came out of his room, a couple of minutes after, disheveled from his nap

and when he saw you in his living room couch, his eyes widened, darting around to avoid looking at you

You: “hi”

Xiaojun: “hello”

You: “why do you look so scared? I’m not gonna jump you”

he stays quiet, the blush becoming more apparent on his cheeks

You: “Ten told me you took me home after my surgery, so…………………… thanks”

Xiaojun: “he bribed me with pastries”

You: yeah, sounds about right

You: “still”

You: “um, I didn’t know what you would like, so I brought some sweets you can just go through”

Xiaojun: “thanks”

it’s silent for another moment and you consider bolting out from the apartment, Wizards of Waverly Place, Harper-style: “see ya in p.e.!” kind of a thing

but he speaks up once more

Xiaojun: “are you feeling okay now?”

You: “uh, yeah, my jaw still kind of hurts”

You: “but I have meds they prescribed to me for the next month or so”

he decides to stop beating the bush: 

Xiaojun: “so do you remember what happened yesterday?”

You: “to be completely honest, no”

Xiaojun: “you… did a lot of things”

You: “what do you mean I did a lot of things”

Xiaojun: “you also said a lot of things too”

You: “..... are these things recorded?”

Xiaojun: “maybe”

Xiaojun: “some”

You: “dELETET HEM”

you actually considered tackling him, but deemed as too Yang-Yang-like

You: “what did I say”

Xiaojun: “I didn’t realize you thought I was handsome”

You: “wait what?”

Xiaojun: “you said, you had a crush on my ‘fine ass’”

You: “you know what? I think I’m gonna pull a Jack and commit suicide, goodbye”

Xiaojun: “ah, ah, ah, you said like, which is… present tense”

You: “semantics”

Xiaojun: “but did you like me at some point?”

You: “does it matter?”

Xiaojun: “yeah, it kind of does”

Xiaojun: “bc even tho we bicker, it’s, like, our thing”

Xiaojun: “plus, you’re kind of cute when you’re threatening to rip off my eyebrows”

You: “I did what?”

Xiaojun: “it’s no different from how you treat me now”

You: “I thought it’s because you don’t like me”

he just kind of shrugs, rubbing his neck rather sheepishly

Xiaojun: “you’ve seen my friends; arguing is our way of showing our affections”

You: “so, you’re saying this is your way of telling me you like me?”

Xiaojun: “I mean………“

Xiaojun: “are you saying you like me?”

You: “are you saying you like me?” 

*cue another argument about who likes who*

eventually, he found a way to shut you up

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

cut to Lucas and Sicheng coming back from the gym to you and Xiaojun making out on the couch

Lucas: “NASTY”

Sicheng: “what did we…. miss?”

Ten somewhere: I fucking called it.

anyways

you both decided to date that day

and you two still bicker an insane amount, which includes you nitpicking Xiaojun’s tastes to Xiaojun refusing to delete those videos of you under the laughing gas despite your threats

but, the only difference is, your arguments can end with a kiss

and it always freaks out the guys whenever you do

Donghyuk: “I’m too young to be seeing this monstrosity”

Mark: “ngl, this is nice for them—they’ve stopped arguing”

YangYang: “I weirdly prefer them arguing over them with those sappy eyes tho”

You: “we can hear you”

Chenle: “but when have we ever cared?”

You: “I’m gonna beat your ‘01 liner ass istg—”

Xiaojun: “calm”

oh, you know what’s fun about your relationship?

you two can’t agree on some stuff right?

so whenever you have to decide something, say a movie or dinner, you two just heads-or-tails it

(there’s also this cute app where you put your options on a wheel and let that decide—the amount of times you’ve used that on your dates…… anyways)

most of the time, on these dates, you seem more like an old married couple and it’s super cute

it’s bc you’re already used to your worse sides coming out—the really petty ones, the screaming ones, the ugly ones

ofc these aren’t from serious arguments that occur

(remember folks, it isn’t healthy for you and your partner to always be fighting)

but when serious arguments do occur, you both take time to sit down and talk face-to-face

it’s hard to get into actual arguments with him, especially since he really is understanding and tries to pay attention to the smaller details

Xiaojun: “I like learning more about you”

You: “you can’t just say that kind of shit to me”

like, yeah, he’ll debate with you all night about why he needs to read the words of his book out loud but, by the end of the day, you’ll lay your head in his lap and listen to his voice as you fall asleep

speaking of which, you love listening to him sing to you

he gets a bit embarrassed sometimes about it, but seeing you smile so brightly at him makes him forget about it

because even tho you two bicker about little things, in the end, it just makes you two laugh at one another and how ridiculous you’re being

I almost forgot, so Ten thinks of him pairing you two off right?

so, whenever he does something annoying to either of you, he’ll constantly bring it up

Ten: “I guess this is how you two treat me, your personal cupid—”

Xiaojun: “yes, yes, we are grateful for you”

You: “but it would be nice if you would stop making those annoying sounds”

Ten: “what annoying sounds?”

YangYang: “that’s just you talking”

okay, no, but yeah—the nct boys are glad this rivalry is over because it was really just…. stupid to the core

but also bc you two look super sweet together and seeing you two making each other happy rather than annoyed is adorable

but just bc you two got together doesn’t mean the pettiness isn’t still there

You: “what type of freak sleeps with their eyes opened?”

Xiaojun: “I’m sleeping next to you, of course I need to keep both eyes open”

You: “RUDE”

Xiaojun: “and yet here we are”

You: “son of a bitch”

Xiaojun: “YOUR son of a bitch”

You: “eh, I’ll take it” 

[obtusemedia]

Ranking Lady Gaga's albums, from worst to best

Being a Lady Gaga fan can be an exercise in frustration.

Gaga is far more ambitious than most popstars — I doubt we’ll ever see Ariana Grande or Ed Sheeran make an album as left-field as Born This Way or ARTPOP. But she's also far less consistent, with numerous misbegotten projects.

Gaga's undeniably successful, with five #1 hits, an Oscar and multiple iconic music videos to her name. But her messy album rollouts and tradition of underperforming lead singles make her feel like an underdog compared to the more polished, precise careers of her contemporaries like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé or Bruno Mars.

Gaga is kind of a mess. But she's our mess. This album ranking will cover some records I can't stand — albums that make me constantly hit the fast-forward button, or albums I ignore altogether. But there isn't a single record on here that wasn't a bold move. Even the "back to basics" albums made strong aesthetic choices.

So let's dive into the career of the most fascinating Millennial popstar.

#8: Cheek To Cheek (2014)

This really shouldn't count. It's a Lady Gaga album in name only. But, technically it's a Gaga album, so here we are.

I've got nothing against Gaga having fun playing Rat Pack-era dress-up with Tony Bennett. She's a theatre kid at heart, and I'm sure every theatre kid would kill to make a Great American Songbook covers record like this. It sounds like she and Tony enjoyed themselves, so I'm happy for them!

...but I'm sorry. I can't be objective about Cheek To Cheek, it's the opposite of my taste. There's only so many bland lounge ballads I can take.

BEST SONGS: I have to pick one? "Anything Goes" is cute, I guess.

WORST SONG: "Sophisticated Lady"

#7: A Star Is Born (2018)

Let me first make this clear — A Star Is Born, the movie starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga? It's a masterpiece. It's electrifying and tragic and I'm still upset it didn't sweep the Oscars that year. There's even a cute dog! You won't hear me say a bad word about it.

But A Star Is Born, the accompanying soundtrack? It's extremely hit-and-miss.

Yes, it includes arguably Gaga's best-ever song and one of the greatest movie hits ever written, "Shallow." And there's plenty of other great tunes in the tracklist too — "Always Remember Us This Way," "I'll Never Love Again," the "La Vie En Rose" cover.

Even the country-rock songs from Bradley Cooper (who, reminder, is not a professional singer) are mostly good! "Black Eyes" RIPS, and "Maybe It's Time" feels like a long-lost classic.

But sadly, there are so many mediocre filler tracks on this thing. The second half of A Star Is Born's hour-plus runtime (Gaga's longest!) is padded with generic songs like "Look What I've Found," "Heal Me" and "I Don't Know What Love Is." The only good one out of the bunch is the silly, intentionally-bad "Why Did You Do That?"

In the movie, these filler tracks serve a point – they're meant to show Gaga's character selling out. They work in the movie when you hear them for a few seconds and see Cooper make a drunkly disappointed scowl. But I don't want to listen to them, and sadly, they make up half the album.

In other words — A Star Is Born would've made an incredible six or seven-song EP. But as an 63-minute-long record? It's a slog.

BEST SONGS: "Shallow", "Always Remember Us This Way," "Maybe It's Time"

WORST SONG: "Heal Me"

#6: Joanne (2016)

After Born This Way and ARTPOP, I get why Gaga needed to make a more lowkey, back-to-basics album. I also understand that many of these songs have extremely personal lyrics for her.

But is a down-to-earth album what I really want from our most outré popstar? Not really.

Luckily, Joanne is better than that description suggests. Yes, there are some bland acoustic ballads and awkward hippie-era throwbacks (two styles that are really not in Gaga's wheelhouse), but there's also some Springsteen-style heartland rockers! And those go hard in the paint.

Joanne works best when Gaga works the record's dusty aesthetics into her brand of weirdo pop, like on the sizzling "John Wayne," the winking "A-YO" or the delightfully extra Florence Welch duet "Hey Girl."

The record also has "Perfect Illusion" — a glorious red herring of a lead single that sounds nothing like anything else on Joanne. It's a roided-up mixture of woozy Tame Impala production and hair metal histrionics, and it rules. It might be Gaga's best-ever lead single! (at the very least, it's her most underrated.)

And there is one slow tune that's unambiguously great: "Million Reasons," another solid Gaga lighters-in-the-air power ballad pastiche.

Despite what some Little Monsters may tell you, Joanne isn't a disaster. There's some great stuff in there, and even the worst songs are just forgettable. But it's still far from her best.

BEST SONGS: "Perfect Illusion," "Diamond Heart," "Million Reasons"

WORST SONG: "Come To Mama"

#5: Chromatica (2020)

When Chromatica was released near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had been seven years since Gaga had released music in her classic gonzo-synthpop vein. I can easily picture the record serving as an "ugh fine, I'll give you what you want" response to the many Little Monsters annoyed with Gaga's half-decade of folksy ballads and Julie Andrews cosplay.

I'll say this about Chromatica — outside of The Fame Monster, it's her most consistent record. There's not a single track that's a glaring mistake. And the three singles — "Stupid Love," "911" and the triumphant Ariana Grande duet "Rain On Me" — easily stand among her best tracks.

But although "all bangers, no ballads" album sounds rad in theory, it doesn't really succeed in practice. Chromatica is solid, but it's also a very same-y record. It feels like Gaga had one really great idea for the album ('90s club music with super-depressing lyrics) and repeated it over and over and over again to diminishing results.

There are some songs that are able to separate themselves: the three singles, of course, as well as the goofy "Babylon" and "Sine From Above," the Elton John duet that's the closest Chromatica gets to a ballad. But by the end of the album, you feel more worn out than electrified.

Also — and this is probably unfair, but still — Chromatica came out just a couple months after another retro-dance blockbuster pop album: Dua Lipa's magnum opus, Future Nostalgia. That's not a flattering comparison.

BEST SONGS: "Rain On Me," "Stupid Love," "911"

WORST SONG: "1000 Doves"

#4: The Fame (2008)

Out of all of Gaga's records, The Fame is most like a time capsule. It REEKS of late '00s/early '10s pop — which isn't an entirely fair criticism, seeing as Gaga popularized that era's sleazy, synthy aesthetic. It's also not a bad thing! I don't mind a little nostalgia!

As you already know, The Fame's singles are masterworks. "Just Dance," "Poker Face," "Paparazzi" — these tracks have titanic legacies for good reason. And although it's probably the least-beloved of this album's hits, despite being a total banger, "LoveGame" should still be commended for having arguably the most Gaga lyric ever (you know, the "disco stick" line).

And even though those tracks are front-loaded on The Fame, there are some gems deeper in the tracklist. "Summerboy" is basically Gwen Stefani covering The Strokes (so obviously, it's great). "Eh, Eh" is adorable. "Starstruck" is the most 2008 song ever recorded, with aggressive Auto-Tune and Flo Rida showing up to make Starbucks jokes.

Sadly, The Fame still feels like Gaga before she became fully-formed at certain points. The back half has a number of songs that feel like generic club tracks forced by the label, and "Paper Gangsta" is one of the clunkiest songs in Gaga's catalogue.

But at the very least, the bad songs on The Fame at least serve as little nostalgia bombs for that era of pop. And the best songs are untouchable classics.

BEST SONGS: "Paparazzi," "Just Dance," "Summerboy"

WORST SONG: "Paper Gangsta"

#3: ARTPOP (2013)

For much of Gaga's career, she's been ahead of the curve. She tries something, and a year or a few years later, other popstars try something similar to diminishing results.

That doesn't just apply to the successful stuff, like Gaga's extravagant music videos inspiring many copycats from 2010-2013. It also applies to the mid-late '10s trend of legacy popstars making a controversial record with risky aesthetic or lyrical choices that backfired: reputation. Witness. Man of The Woods.

Gaga did this first, with ARTPOP — arguably the most abrasive, and bizzare major label album released by a major modern popstar. And she did it better, because unlike Swift, Perry and Timberlake, Gaga's weirdness was for real. And it was in service of some prime, hyper-aggressive bangers.

ARTPOP isn't Gaga's best work — some of her experiments on it are major misfires, from the obnoxious "Mary Jane Holland" to the bland Born This Way leftover (and Romani slur-utilizing) "Gypsy."

But when ARTPOP is on, it's ON. The opening stretch in particular, from "Aura" to "Venus" to "G.U.Y." to "Sexxx Dreams," is chaotic synthpop at its finest. Those songs took Gaga's classic sound to an apocalyptic, demented extreme, and they're fantastic.

"MANiCURE" is a great glam-rock banger, "Dope" is another classic Gaga piano ballad, the title track is some sikly-smooth dreampop; even the misguided, clunky trap anthem "Jewels N' Drugs" is bad in a hilarious, charming way!

Trust me: ARTPOP will go down in history not as a flop, but as a gutsy, underrated record from a legend. Less Witness, more In Utero.

BEST SONGS: "G.U.Y.," "Venus," "Sexxx Dreams"

WORST SONG: "Gypsy"

#2: The Fame Monster (2009)

Objectively speaking, this is probably the best Gaga album.

It's her one record with no fluff, no filler — only 34 minutes and 8 tracks, all of them stellar.

It's the record that took Gaga from "wow, this new woman is a fresh new face in pop!" to "this woman IS pop."

It's the record with her signature track, "Bad Romance," which was accompanied by arguably the greatest music video of the 21st Century. (It also has my absolute favorite Gaga track, the relentlessly catchy "Telephone.")

I don't think I need to explain what makes mega-smashes "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and "Alejandro" great, nor the accompanying legendary deep cuts "Speechless" and "Dance In The Dark." They speak for themselves.

However — the sleek, calculated perfection of The Fame Monster, while incredible, isn't something I return to often. It's just not the side of Gaga that's my favorite. That honor would have to go to...

BEST SONGS: "Telephone," "Dance In The Dark," "Bad Romance"

WORST SONG: "So Happy I Could Die" (but it's still pretty solid)

#1: Born This Way (2011)

One of my favorite podcasts is Blank Check. The concept of the show is to analyze each movie by a famous director — in particular, those who had big success early on and then got a blank check to make whatever crazy passion project they wanted. Here's a great example: because Batman was a massive hit, Tim Burton got to make whatever Hot Topic-core movies he wanted to for decades, from Edward Scissorhands to a creepy Willy Wonka remake.

That long-winded tangent is just to say: Born This Way was Lady Gaga's blank check. By early 2011, she had conquered the pop universe, notching hit after hit after hit. Every other pop star was copying her quirky music videos. So the label let Gaga do whatever she wanted — and she didn't waste that opportunity.

Born This Way is wildly overproduced. It's both extremely trend-chasing (those synths were cutting edge at the time but charmingly dated now), but also deeply uncaring about what the teens want (I don't think Springsteen and Queen homages were big at the time). And I love every messy, overblown second of it.

From the hair-metal/synthpop hybrid opener "Marry The Night" to the majestic '80s power ballad "The Edge of Glory," Born This Way starts at an 11. And Gaga never takes her foot off the pedal for the album's entire hour-plus run time. Clanging electric guitars, thunderous synths and Clarence Clemons (!!!) sax solos collide into each other as Gaga champions every misfit and loser in the world. It's gloriously corny in the best way possible.

Born This Way is also the perfect middle ground of pop-savvy Gaga and gonzo Gaga. It doesn't go quite as hard as ARTPOP, but the hooks are stronger. And the oddball moments are tons of fun, from the sci-fi biker anthem "Highway Unicorn" to the goofy presidential-sex banger "Government Hooker" ("Put your hands on me/John F. Kennedy" might be the greatest line in pop history).

Born This Way will always be my favorite Gaga album. It's armed with nuclear-grade hooks, slamming beats, and soaring anthems. Although it's not as untouchably pristine as the Mt. Rushmore of '10s pop classics (for the record, that's 1989, EMOTION, Lemonade and, of course, Melodrama), Gaga isn't best served by meticulousness. She's proudly tacky and histrionic, and so that's what makes Born This Way an utter joy.

BEST SONGS: "The Edge of Glory," "You and I," "Marry The Night"

WORST SONG: "Bloody Mary"

[coolgirl]

Jason expert rate Jason’s designs

sorry for being late i was busy with school but now i’m free so to celebrate. jason indulgence.

pre-crisis not robin

very cute. i like that it has a lil more of flair to it? the collar and the lines on the gloves and the shorter cape.. also love it has pants. king rlly king. wonder if they already knew he was gonna be robin anyways or if they were still considering nightbird. anyways, 8/10 bc its cute

pre & post-crisis robin (bc its basically the same)

i mean its a classic.. however it reminds me jason was the only robin who was simply given dick’s clothes rather than like. have an unique look? which sucks. 7/10 middle child syndrome is REAL

post-crisis robin (winter edition)

OKAY NOW THIS. i absolutely love. is it tacky? oh yes without a doubt. i still love the pants and the sleeves. finally winter clothes for this child, especially considering his new titans scene where he was bitching about the costume not being snow proof. he got what he wanted! 9/10

new 52/rebirth costume by

EPIC. IDC I LOVE IT.the circles on his arms and his boots.. the lines on his legs.. i just love it. i love the red mask too… it feels.. not more unique, but feels more jason-y than the other costume. 10/10

NOW. onto older stuff

hush

as u can see im VERY confusion about the pouches and the straps?? why??? whats the purpose.. generally its fine. the white strand moved a nation and i think the chest piece is cool, but everything else.. uglee. like the long as hell jacket and him looking 40 years old like why r u 19 looking like fifty? ugly white man. 5/10

winicks/utrh version

LITERALLY A CLASSIC. i love this costume sooo much. like jason obviously grew out of it, as in it wouldnt make sense for him anymore to go with something like this as his main costume because i feel like this fit the utrh mood (him not veing a vigilante/hero/villain whatver but trying to be a mob boss n shit) and it just. fucks. i love the helmet just being plain with no stupid mouth or nose shape. i simply love it. 10/10

nigthwing

its just. its just the nightwing costume. didnt even try he just stole that from dick. he still rocks it and looks better than dick, and u gotta give him points for accessorizing with his dagger. 7/10

red robin 

im not. a big fan of this costume.. i think the cowl is ugly, it just does not work for someone as big as jason… however i do like why he took this mantle and what it meant.. 6/10 no words head empty. 

oh brother. furryman

ITS SUCH AN UGLY COSTUME. muzzle batman walked so muzzle red hood could run. its just. ugly like ugly. i dont like the ears or again the muzzle or whatever the hell is going on in the arms.. its just so edgy. 5/10

WANNA KNOW WHAT A SEXY EVIL BATMAN COSTUME LOOK LIKE?

Injustice 2 batman

I2 HAD IT IN THE BAG BABY. i like that its like classic batman costume but again! with some jason touches! the red eyes, the electric tiddies making a comeback.. epic genuinely epic. 10/10

and if ur not into evil jason

100% dad ‘i have my life figured out’ batman jason 

just like the nightwing costume this is just. batman costume. nothing special or different from it so its like did u even try? BUT in this scenario it actually means smth that he stuck to bruces costume.. sweet.. but boring. 7/10

speaking of. evil ugly designs. ugh i hate this.

this motherfucker

ive never. ever. felt as humiliated by a costume than thetime jason wore this. like MORTIFYING RLLY. its DISGUSTINGGG. the helmet shape. the fucking WHITE. the SKULL PLEASE WHO DESIGNED THIS WHO HATES ME IN PARTICULAR SO MUCH??? THIS MAN DOES NOT FUCK! HES UGLY! HE STINKS!!!! the red guns are epic that much i can say. LOOK AT THOSE PANS GOD ITS SO HUMILLIATING. 0/10 WORST COSTUME EVER.

HOWEVER. winick and the artist spun GOLD from it, because next time jason wore possibly my favorite costume to date

this motherfucker…2!

like look how much better it looks with a little of swag.. the helmet without eyes.. the belts.. the fucking leather jacket.. keeping the red guns/gloves.. like seriously i dont know a better man. the skull is still awful and i wouldve replaced the white for black and MWAH best costume. like the black part at the top make it all red and the white make it black.. god this jason fucks massively i love him. 11/10 my favorite by a landslide perhaps

new 52/rebirth red hood

OKAY I KNOW theyre slightly different (rebirth has shorter sleeves and a more padded look) but to me its like. same thing. okay i think its.. fine. its not phenomenal but its not ugly.. i like the brown jacket more than the black jacket i have to admit, its more distinctive and i simply like the color more, however i do not.. like jason having the bat symbol.. but thats also a me thing about how badly written this is. anyways. the helmet with the mouth disgusts me and everytime its drawn like that its humilliating. like. 7/10. maybe 7+. when it has the mouth or like nose ANY FACIAL EXPRESSION RLLY its a 5. 

wingman

oh i absolutely despise that helmet. he looks like fucking. terminator. its the ugliest shape ive ever seen and the visor is.. huge. i dont like the shoulder pads either idk what the fuck its going on with the thing around his neck either.. like hes. knockout batman and i HATEEE IT. damians costume slaps tho. i just… its… ugly. like.. 3/10. 

get damian back arc red hood costume

oh im a HUGE fan of this design.i love how his costume is designed in a way thats like. if jason was a dnd character he absolutely would be a tank. the padding, the red undertones everywhere, i just.. love it. i like how all the costumes were done to reflect their personalities you know.. i like this robin red hood hybrid. 9/10 would even say 10/10 bc i just enjoy how gleason draws jason.

red hood/arsenal costume

its like. i dont hate it completely (i love the way the hood+helmet looks) and thats.. yeah thats pretty much all i like about it. i HATEEEE the vest i hate it fr.i hate how huge the sumbol is and idk this costume just does not spark joy. 5/10

outlaw costume

okay this one. this one drives me insane. because like. okay i dig parts of it. i like the lack of sleeves. i like the gloves thingies. i like the hood. i could get aboard him ditching the helmet - it breaks all the damn time anyways. i like the stripes on his pants in the boots. ALL SEPARATE? NEAT. now i hate. hate. the muzzle. like WHY IT LOOKS SO UGLYYY LIKE SO UGLY like unless the artist GETS IT and is SEXY it looks awful. look at this

AWFUL. also like it made sense for when he was on the run and he had to make do and assemble a costume from what he had but like now hes sponsored by lex, get that man a goddamn new suit already please. anyways. 6/10.. like i said i like many elements from it but its still.. kinda ugly all together and depends A LOT on the artist.

three jokers

im torn on this one.. i think its a bit boring.. i dont rlly like the top part, it reminds me SOO much of that one tt issue where he beat the fuck out of tim while wearing a robin costume like i understad the implications of him wearing a costume thats similar to the robin blouse but im not a big fan.. also i prefer the brown leather jacket. its like not his worst costume by far but not the best.. like pretty basic?  i would say 6/10

NOW SOME AUS.

tiny titans & lil gotham

okay these two are like. pretty much the canon versions of robin and red hood HOWEVER they both have details that are different from the original version and DESERVE a mention. the curls on robin jason and jasons red gloves/belt are ICONIC. whoever designed them knew what they were about, so 10/10 best bapy jason.

arkham knight

does the person who designed this know how much theyve done for the lgbt community? i hope they do. i love.. a lot about this costume. i love the ears, i love how techno it is, i love the layers to it.. im.. not a big fan of the whole military thingy but i have to admit that applying it to the design itself is kind of neat.. i love the colors too and how.. practical it is while being. well. kinda dramatic? the whole bat aesthetic.. yeah. i love it. 9/10

arkham red hood

this one.. when u think about it the outlaw version is VEEERY similar to this one: the pants, the hood, the jacket eve. however i like this helmet so much more, i have a weakness for eyeless (??) helmets.. i like the little details of it as well, i remember that pic going around of it being held together with like. fuckign stitches and bandaids. legendary. i love this look, i would say 9+/10

injustice 2 jason

okay gonna go ahead and say it: not a big fan of the helmet. it looks like.. a bug? the lenses do not spark joy. this bitch has many styles and like toners etc and i will no rate them all. i think its a pretty basic design, not the best but not the worst either. like if it was an exam i would make them pass but make faces at what im reading like eeehhhgh. 7/10.

hag jason

middle one is like literally, on the outside and superficial level, just. his usual costume. the jacket and the grey kevlar and the bat. now the gloves are sexy as hell.. and in the whit ebackground one u can appreciate the under costume better and i really like it?? i just.. like the design. I HATE HOWEVER the bat helmet. WHY IS IT HOLLOW?? BITCH HELLO?? AND THE BATMAN SYMBOL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! and i like things making sense!!!. we will not talk about jason in this book. like.. 8/10. maybe 9 if im feeling it.

hag jason 2: the hagger and the furious

hes just.. a little old man.. he cannot change this.. i like this design. i like seeing jason grow old. wish it wasnt in this context. my father rlly. 8/10

—-

am i forgetting any jays.. i wont do all animated robins because they all look the same and the one that doesnt i do not like. SO HERES my thoughts..

[hufflepuff-ravenclaw-reviews]

Titans Season 2

So I wouldn't exactly say that Titans season 2 was bad, exactly. But I felt like it kind of meandered through a bunch of different plot points without actually seeming to go anywhere?

And I was thinking about the constant “five years ago” backstory episodes, and I was like “But they make sense”. So it's not like things felt... unnecessary, by any means. However, I felt like the plot kind of zig-zagged around a lot different points, zipped back to a couple different backstory episodes, rerouted back to the present for something completely different, and then... somehow managed to wind up at episode thirteen (the last of the season).

We left off in season one with Rachel's demon father literally being brought to the human world, and all hope seemingly lost.

However, the entire subplot of resolving this barely lasted for five minutes, when all way said and done. Most of the first episode was just these darker timelines in which every one of Rachel's new-found friends and adoptive family sunk into evil ways. But not to worry, because Rachel was able to just talk to them and remind them of how much she means to them.

And then she stopped her father. Somehow. I can't swear that Princess Celestia didn't show up and preach about the power of friendship.

It was such a huge build-up in the first season, and the fact that it was resolved so quickly in the first episode of season two is honestly the first of many let-downs, I felt.

Following this, Dick is adamant that he take the new kids to San Francisco, where, with Bruce's permission, he's going to start up the Titans again.

Back in the day, it was Robin, Hawk and Dove, Wondergirl, and Aqualad. You might remember that we've met all of these characters from the first season... except for Aqualad.

And if you're wondering if he died... bingo. You win a prize of a depressing episode in which we're introduced to his character and his budding romance with Donna Troy... only to have him be murdered by a man named Slade Wilson.

This asshole was the entire reason why the original Titans broke up. See, following Aqualad's murder, Dick got it into his head that he could befriend Slade's son, Jericho. And the others were on board with this, because their friend was killed. But when they actually got to know Jericho, they all felt bad.

Until they find out that Jericho has “body snatching” powers, and can “possess” other people so long as he has initial eye-contact with them. And then suddenly, they tell him everything and even make him an official member of the team.

And that's all fine and dandy, but Slade is upset over this and murders his son. Because reasons.

And all of these memories suddenly being brought to the surface because of Slade's reappearance cause a break in Dick's already fragile psyche and he starts to have intense hallucinations in which Bruce Wayne follows him around and offers advice. It got old after a while.

Eventually, it reached a point with Dick this season that he went out and punched a security guard at the airport just so that he could be locked in jail. And this subplot dragged on forever, and never seemed to actually go anywhere.

But eventually, Dick made nice with the suit maker who seems to supply all of the suits for all of the heroes. Bruce had already designed the Nightwing costume for Dick, although this didn't make an appearance until the final episode.

Kori does have a lot of interesting developments this season, but a lot of them are seemingly being put on the backburner for the next season. She goes off for a while to help Donna do crime-stopping stuff, and ends up getting “kidnapped” by a guard from her homeplanet... Who also is a former lover of hers. He tells her that it's time to go home and rule, but Kori decides to go to California and help Rachel instead.

Eventually, her lover is taken over by her sister, Blackfire's mind-controlling jelly-thing, and Kori ends up needing to kill him in order to help stop her sister.

And then... that's it. Kori's duties are literally never brought up again for the rest of the season. Or the fact that Blackfire killed her entire family and seemingly started some sort of war on the planet. Kori can't even be bothered to tell Blackfire that she would prefer to stay on earth. Just... okay, this is a thing that's happening. BUT TITANS. Ugh.

There is a little teaser of Blackfire taking over some random lady at the very end of the last episode. But, as I said. Season three material.

Hank and Dawn... exist. That's pretty much the only thing that I can say about their characters this season. They simultaniously don't want to do crime-fighting anymore, yet refuse to actually walk away. Hank eventually pushes Dawn away to the point where he suggests that they should break up. And then he goes off the deep-end and starts doing hard-core drugs.

Anything that happened with them this entire season could have literally been cut out, and I doubt that the overall plot would have changed much.

I feel like the same could probably go for Donna as well. Although she had two exciting parts. One with her lover dying. Which... felt weird and forced and I honestly couldn't care either way about Aqualad's relationship with Wondergirl.

And then Donna herself died. Which was just so random and seemingly out of the blue. Especially because they'd just gone done taking down a mind-controlled Superboy (I will get to him in a second), and she had a full-powered fight with him. And then she'd killed by a ferris wheel falling on her.

And then Rachel says that she's going to go with the other ladies and probably learn how to better control her powers for next season. I don't know, and at that point, it all just seemed like characters moving around without having any actual motive.

And then there's Jason Todd. His plot basically revolves around Slade giving Jason PTSD, and then Jason fucking Slade's daughter, Rose.

When the season started, and it became clear that Jason was going to be on the team as the official Robin (leaving Dick to take over the role as Nightwing), I had really hoped for some decent character development from him. But instead, all we get is thirsty asshole with daddy and authority issues. Moving on.

And speaking of Rose... I felt like her character was given the proverbial shaft. She has an interesting character of being the daughter of a villain, but wanting to break away from her father after coming to understand a few things about found family.

She realized that she had healing powers, and told her father. He then trained her, and used her to further his own goals. Meaning to get vengeance on the Titans for using Jericho to get to him. But after having spent some time with Jason, Rose decides not to have anything to do with her father at all.

In the end, Rose and Nightwing team up and take down Slade. Which is something that the original Titans said that they'd struggled with “the first time around”. So how is it that “circus boy” and “girl who can heal herself” can do what actual super-powered Wondergirl, with the help of Robin, Hawk, and Dove failed to do?

All in all, the take down of Slade coupled with the destruction of Rachel's father is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Don't get all excited over things like the build-up of villains, because the show will probably let you down in this regard.

And then there's Rachel. So much time in the first season was devoted to building up her character and everything, that it was honestly kind of disappointing that she seemed to take a back-seat in the second season. There was too much going on.

On top of a pointless side story where Rachel ran away from Donna and beat up some girl's father. It went nowhere, none of this was explained, and it was almost like the development of Donna, Dawn, and Hank.

Finally, the introduction of Superboy. For those not familiar with DC lore, Superboy is a science experiment to basically make an mpreg baby between Lex Luthor and Superman. He's got all of Superman's powers, and all of Lex's intelligence. However, the thing that comes out from the CADMUS lab is as innocent as a newborn baby... which makes him insanely dangerous.

There was a really long and honestly kind of tedious episode where he escaped from the lab with Krypto the Superdog, and how the project lead came to find him.

And then he went off and saved Jason from falling to his death, thanks to Slade. Only to be shot with kryptonite bullets for his trouble.

When Connor wakes up from this shooting, it's to find that Gar is the only one remaining at Titan's Tower, the others having taken off because of REASONS. However, Gar is certain that teaching Connor how to do proper hero stuff, that it'll make the other Titans want to come back. But circles around to Connor's innocence, he goes off and attacks a bunch of police officers.

This results in CADMUS breaking into Titan's Tower. Once the leader sees what Gar can do, they take him, too.

They then brainwash both of them to follow orders without objection. For Gar, this means transforming into a tiger whenever classical music is played, and killing anybody who is nearby.

This comes to a head after the others have taken down Slade. Gar attacks a street carnival, and Superboy is sent in to “stop” him. However, all of this was a ploy of CADMUS in order to convince people to buy Superboy for millions of dollars.

Rachel is somehow able to un-brainwash Gar simply through THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. And Dick is able to get to Connor again, using nothing but talking. AND THEN EVERYBODY SANG AND THERE WERE MAGICAL BIRDS AND A UNICORN SHOWED UP. /sarcasm

Overall, this season wasn't bad. It was trying REALLY hard to be good, I felt. But I also felt like it was trying to do too much in just thirteen episodes.

[yridenergyridenergy]

Dir en grey - Otaru GoldStone 09/28/2019 live report

1. Zetsuentai

2. Aka

3. Downfall

4. Devote My Life

5. Rubbish Heap

6. Merciless Cult

7. Keigaku no yoku

8. Celebrate Empty Howls

9. Ningen wo Kaburu

10. Keibetsu to hajimari

11. Values of Madness

12. Ranunculus

13. The World of Mercy

Encore

1. Fukai

2. Followers

3. Gaika, chinmoku ga nemuru koro

4. THE DEEPER VILENESS

5. Utafumi

What a night. Otaru Gold Stone is small, we were around 500 in it but the stage was low, the sound was too loud for some instruments depending on where you were in the venue, and holy hell I thought moshpits were forbidden here in Japan. We kept getting pushed and pushing, and someone we got closer everytime, so apparently people in the centre were getting squashed out toward the sides?!

This live report will be even more Kyo-centric than usual, because I could only crane my neck and stand on my toes among that wall of fans to concentrate on one member. But Toshiya seemed stern at first but as the show progressed, he came foth and enjoyed the crowd, even though he never fully cracked a smile. He encouragedthe audience though and appeared to approve of our reactions in general. He was just as entranced with his bass, turning his head upward during Ranunculus. As for Die, his vest really matches Kaoru's custom guitar. His long hair kept blowing in the wind and he would flip it occasionally. In one of the first few songs, he was staring at his side of the crowd with a grave expression but raised his chin a couple of times as if to say: "Oh yeah? That's it?" Kaoru I think remained very serious the whole time except that, at the end, he stayed the longest and really enjoyed the night. Shinya, all I could notice was that he rumbled away like there was no tomorrow at his heavy drums during The World of Mercy, he was in his own universe.

Kyo has a full pectorals tattoo! I doubt it is completely new, but it was definitely news to me. I have no idea what it is, it looked like the marks on a leopard's fur at first but it looks more complex, almost as if it's supposed to be the shadows of the skeleton inside his chest? And on his right side of his neck, it really looks like the drawing from Junji Ito, with the conjoined heads - the hair of a woman stretching toward something in the back. Just below his chin, it looked like a bunch of vertical lines only. He is going full on yakuza for sure.

He came on stage wearing a matching suit: both top and bottom were black with sparse big white feathers. The vest looked like it had a flap, like a short cape behind the neck, because at some point he crouched to give a growl or something and a piece of fabric came to cover his should, but it could not possible have been the lower ends of the vest itself... The dress shirt he had underneath was classic black, and he had a black tie. After three songs or so, he loosened it and also undid the first couple of buttons at the top. Near the end of the main setlist, more buttons had been undone and that's how we were able to see his chest, wide enough to see his nipples.

His hair! With the stripes of the feathers, the formal clothing, his styled hair and the smudged lipstick, he looked almost nazi-esque. This hairstyle is so close to the Tabula Rasa/In Situ one! I am so glad that I witnessed it in person! I guess, to describe it, it almost looks like Levi's hairstyle from Attack on Titan, but he styled the left side toward the back of his head. After sweating though, it was even more awesome and resembling!

He smoked twice or three times during the show. For the first instance, its scent came to my senses before I could see it, during the pause. He tried to do the iiiiiii high-pitched sound in Downfall (?) while having the cigarette on the corner of his mouth: that failed. Later, he was holding his cigarette with his two middle fingers, giving us the horns/fox sign he is now known for!

Aka was more dramatic than I remember it being. Kyo looped his mic cord around his neck twice and caressed it into a hanging string. I think it was during that song that he was dancing like a maniacal pantomime a lot too.

At the very beginning of Rubbish Heap, Kyo cones to the forefront of the stage next to his stand and he holds his fist up in the air for the first 'Fist!' of the song and he has that very obvious facial expression like "Come on guys, here's what I want you to do! Come on, you can do it, go!" which you would use for a child. And yet, what do the majority of the fans do? Still hands...

I cannot remember which song it was exactly, but Kyo started by hitting his forehead repetitively with the mic, and then the chest/heart, and again with the head. It might have been Ranunculus, because I remember that the sound of the hits came just before the circus-like sound and he was singing about kokoro. Doing it right before those sounds was nice, like a preclude, it made sense altogether.

Ranunculus was at least if not more intense than usual. I think that it was during it that Kyo clawed at his dress shirt's sleeve on his left arm, then brought his wrist to his mouth and actively bit it. Had his teeth been any sharper, he would have undoubtedly drawn blood.

After Ranunculus was The World of Mercy. In the transition between the two, Kyo spoke to himself, asking 'Naze?' (why) often, and he then began The World of Mercy fucking depressed, sad and desperate. The end of the song was very beautiful with the simple idea of blasting white light from behind the stage while he chants 'The World of Mercy', it really looked more angelic.

When singing about the game of life and repeating game ('yuugi'), Kyo kept tracing a large circle with his arm fully extended, strenghtening the never-ending nature of this foolishness/challenge.

When doing the return after the break in The World of Mercy, since there are no instruments at first, he yells the 'Jou ni-' with his mic near his hip.

People don't understand the intensity of tge part after 'sekai de' yet.

By the way, the stage just has a large poster of the The Insulated World cover, with fingers on each side. No movies at all this time.

In Keigaku no yoku, Kyo definitely changed that last sentence to 'ore-', but the part he adds after sounded more like 'watashi...'. He also changed or added an 'omae no' something to one of the songs, but it wasn't to make a compliment...

In the encore, Kyo came back wearing black jeans with ripped knees and a D.E.G. shirt without sleeves. The image was identical to the sticker they are currently selling in the goods, so perhaps this design will be used for the T-shirt sold in the USA, Mexico and Europe?

Kyo is such an amazing rocker. I believe that it was during Gaika chinmoku that he did that headbang, where he needs to lean his left hand on his thigh because of how heavy it gets, you know? Ugh. Really the total opposite of sukekiyo's feminine songs. He's so good all around.

As always I am probably forgetting stuff. I will try to draw some of my memories though.

[thegothicviking]

I was tagged by @reeshs @ofmemesandbands to do a little "get to know me ask thingy". Thank you for that, you beauties! 🖤 Excuse my long answers but I think you'd be entertained anyway! (I hope?)

Nickname: Mary Cemetery, Mary, or simply Viking/The Viking.

Real name: That will remain a mystery/a secret but I can reveal that it begins with M. (But it's not Mary or Mari or anything similar) and I do have the word "Viking" in one of my last names (I have two surnames because my parents were not married and wanted me and my big sis to have both of their family names. So yes! A little part of my name is Viking-[something]from my mother's maiden name/original family name. Meaning YES I am indeed Viking!

Zodiac: Taurus/Tyren/El Toro

Favorite musicians or bands:

- The Bauhaus (or Peter Murphy as solo)

- The Sisters of Mercy

- Lords of The New Church (or Stiv Bators as solo)

- Feeling B & Magdalene Keibel Combo (Flake and Paul are my bois!)

- Rammstein (also nice bois!)

- David Bowie (Rest in peace my sweet boi!)

- Dissection (Rest in Chaos Jon, even though you were a homophobic lunatic/Asshole I still liked your music. Swedish Satanic Black Metal)

- A lot of deathmetal

- Skeletal Family (many 80's goth rock bands really)

-Nachtmahr

- Eisbrecher

- Stahlmann

-Deine Lakaien

- Scorpions

- Depeche Mode (anything from the 1980's really)

- Classical compositioners like Edvard Grieg/Beethoven/Bach and a little bit of Mozart or Vivaldi

- KSMB. Swedish punk rock/German punk rock or Swedish metal (yes...I am a Norwegian that prefers SWEDISH Black Metal. Shoot me if you must!)

- Rosetta Stone

- Pretencious Moi? (Their lyrics are like an unfinished story and you can fill the gaps!)

- KNORKATOR (absolute insane and silly bois, I love them!!)

- Rozz Williams (Rest in Peace my sweet beautiful boi!),

- INXS (Rest in Peace M. Hutchence my beautiful boi!)

- Die Ärzte

- Skitarg (like a Swedish ICP but of course a lot better and with funnier lyrics!)

- Danzig

Favorire Sports team: Team Bisexual! 💜

Other Blogs: Not yet. I still need to learn how to add other blogs and then I will do one specifically about my Liebeslied Rammstein fic series and the character's. And maybe also my poetry in there too. Or maybe not.

Do I get asks?: Sometimes. Mostly I get questions about being Norwegian/Scandinavian or someone make rude Anon comments about one of my posts and I have to defend myself and my opinions. But a part from that; No. Not that many.

How many blogs do I follow?: 132

Tumblr crushes: Yes.

Lucky Numbers: 13 (After I won a non-smoking contest in class and my name was number 13 on the class list) I have also always liked the numbers 8 and 0. I prefer even numbers.

What am I wearing?: Comfy plain black suit/tracksuit looking pants that are both stylish and comfy AND has pockets!!, and my black long sleeve Feeling B jumper, no socks and no bra and black hotpants (knickers. I hate wearing thongs/g strings!)

Dream Vacation: I long to go back to Prague, and I want to visit Egypt and the Pyramids, Berlin (because we only got to stay in the city for a couple of hours..ugh!) I also long back to Auschwitz....(yes. I do. I was there in 2007/2008. I am a WWII history nerd!)

Dream car: Either a very old school and dashing Ford Model T, a hearse or a big brutal Panzer Tank. There is no in between!

Favorite Food: Anything that doesn't contain too much garlic (Iiiish!), raisins, Olives, Pineapples (NO PINEAPPLES ON PIZZAAAAAA!), coconuts or too much spices/chili/Soy (I am allergic to Soy) And don't worry you can feed me Vegetarian/Vegan food too! I won't try to bring my own meat and I will trust your cooking skills as long as you don't feed me any of the ingredients above!!

Drink of choice: That depends on the situation/disaster/time of the day and mood. Is it a good day? Then Water, Corona (the beer not the virus!!) or Energy drinks. Is it morning? A good Landersino (weak capuccino but strong milk coffee) Is it Evening/night time? Then a nice cup of tea. Has it been a terrible day? Then Gin & Tonic, Vodka & Redbull, A really strong Long Island Ice Tea or Rum & Coke.

Instruments: The horrible cat shriek sounding Recorder Flute. That is the only instrument that I am rocking at the moment! (I will play the Titanic song for you if I truly love you!)

Languages: Norwegian Nynorsk, Norwegian Bokmål, my dialect, English, Swedish (Gothenburg dialect or Scaania/Malmö dialect), Spanish and I am also trying to learn German and Welsh (yes. Welsh. It is beautiful but impossible to learn!)

Celebrity Crushes: David Bowie (rest in peace sweet alienboi!) Stoya (female pornstar), Till Lindemann, Noomi Rapace (Swedish Actress), Michael Nyqvist (Swedish Actor. Rest in Peace my sweet boi!), young Kate Bush, Antonio Banderas, John Maclean (discovered this divine creature on Youtube recently!), Rozz Williams (Rest in Peace my sweet boi!), Peter Murphy, Emilie Autumn (but I don't listen to her that often anymore), Adora Batbrat (Gothic Youtuber but I am not that fan of her anymore), Razor Candi (Gothic Model but she has gotten some more surgeries now that I don't like), Salma Hayek, Shakira.

Random Fact(s):

A little gross but I have basically no nails on either of my pinky-toes. I was born that way and I am the 5th generation woman on my mother's side that doesn't have pinky toe nails! (I miss the upper part so trying to cut them is always a game of Russian Roulette...will I be able to cut it? Will I cut my skin, bleed and die?? I'll have to cut and see because the tiny little stump/piece of nail is still jabbing me if it gets "too long" :)! )

I was also born with a more inward bent spine/back and I was told by my Chiropracter (or how you spell it?) at the age of 10 that if I didn't do exercises/wore a corset..(at the age of 10!?!?) for my back then it would break/snap should I ever want to get pregnant (even though I always look pregnant when I relax and walk "normally".....*sigh*). So yeah I need to work up my core! (But I am too lazy to do so ...)

I know how to belly dance (not that many moves but I'm still learning from online classes)

I can write and read in the Elder Futhark runes without cheating!

I am a natural cold blooded bitch with a normal temperature of 36.4 °C, instead of the standard 37.5°C. (Once again this is from my mother's side)

I did amateur acting from the age of 6-19 and in 10 out of those 13 years/plays I had to be a boi/man because we were always in short of bois and I have a deep voice I guess.. (so yeah for 10 years of my childhood I was basically a boi/man!)

Despite enjoy dressing up in skirts and dresses and do my makeup I have a very butch/masculine personality (I was a tomboy as a kid) and both men and women are either terrified or confused by this (as they expect me to be just as feminine as my looks/makeup. Which is silly!)

I am sadistic (in my writing and in my thoughts) and one of the reasons why I write is to be able to TORTURE and/or KILL "people" without getting arrested :)

Ok so I am not gonna tag anyone in particular. If you would like to answer these questions then go right ahead and do so!

Uki. Takk! Det var/va alt! (Ok. Thanks! That was all!)

[nodesiretogrowup]

I LOVED THIS EPISODE! It was nice to have a kid-focused episode. The past few have focused a lot on the adults, so it was nice to see the kids in the spotlight again. It was SO COOL to see the kids playing off each other. We NEED more of it next season. Lena is my daughter, so I was happy to see her back, though I’d rather she not have to suffer.

Spoilers and more detailed thoughts below:

YAY NERF GUNS! Also, it was super sweet of the boys to reassure Lena that they know she’s a good guy now. 

LOVED all the different jammies on display. I usually rock something similar to Lena and Violet. Dewey in the footie pajamas gives me LIFE. And Huey with his hat. I’m surprised he didn’t say something along the lines of “Warm head, warm dreams.”

Super cute that Lena set this all up. My baby wants friends.

“Self defense weapons, all manner of booby trap.” I feel like Violet would have suggested having those no matter what. I love my slightly feral nerd daughter.

Beakley for BEST bodyguard.

“Nothing weird is gonna happen at this slumber party.” Webby, babe, you’re just ASKING for trouble.

Lena’s little song and cake! MY HEART! I think Huey may have drawn some inspiration from that cake, lol

“Time loses all meaning in the infinite night of the shadow realm.” HELP THIS CHILD! And again, I think Donald would be the perfect parent for her.

“You are a wordsmith!” Webby LOVES her shadow gf.

THE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS! AND THEY MATCHED EACH KID! HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS GIRL!

Of course Louie is suspicious. He was wary of his mom AND just spent the last episode getting betrayed by Goldie.

“You literally sound like that now.” Huey, you need to learn how to read a room.

“That’s just my voice, I can’t help it!” I feel ya there. And a nice bit of foreshadowing

“I’ve found it’s clearer to convey no emotion whatsoever.” Also not a good way to talk to people.

Aw, Lena. Like Webby said, you don’t have to prove yourself. That seems to be a running theme this season. Dewey wants to prove himself to his mom, Louie wants to prove himself to anyone, and Della wants to prove that she is a good mom and fits into this family.

“That makes you super-extra-good, right?” “Math checks out.” You two share one (1) brain cell and that’s adorable.

Webby has no table manners and that is valid.

“LET’S EAT PURE SUGAR!” That is just a bad idea in general, much less for Huey.

What happened to Huey? Why was his mouth all grey?

“You know who my best friend is?” “Me.” “Sleep.” A.) Mood, B.) Dewey’s face is PRICELESS! You can’t win them all.

Sleeping Beakley is TERRIFYING.

“It might be sleepy-time.” Webby, you are TOO PRECIOUS!

Anyone getting some Nightmare on Elm Street vibes? Specifically the third one? I guess that was what they were going for, what with the title and all.

Concerned girlfriend is concerned.

MY POOR BABY! HASN’T SHE SUFFERED ENOUGH?!

“Do you need, *whispers* you-know-what paper?” Not sure if Beakley told her toilet isn’t something you should go around saying or if Webby doesn’t want to embarrass anyone. Either way, cute!

Lena pulls of Dewey’s do well.

One of the most precious moments ever! And a reminded that they are still pretty young.

WEBBY IS SUCH A GOOD FRIEND/GIRLFRIEND! *happy tears*

LOVED the shot of Lena with the stars reflected in her eyes.

Heck, the animation for all the dreams is AMAZING! I love how you can INSTANTLY TELL whose dream we’re in.

I’m glad they figured out that they were in a shared dream early. Gives us more time for wacky dream shenanigans!

Webby/hamburgers is otp

I like that they used the “you can’t read in dreams” thing. Nice touch. It looks like at least Launchpad, Scrooge, and Donald had a corresponding emoji.

“Why are you dialing a banana?” DREAM LOGIC!

SWORD HORSE!

Webby CANONLY kins Scrooge!

EXTREMELY EXTREME OBSTACLE COURSE

Louie putting a stop to unicorn shenanigans before they begin.

Those directions. Better than Penny’s at least.

Violet is blunt and to the point. She’s probably a Virgo.

LIVING for all the cartoony sound effects!

POOR LENA! AND YAY SUPPORTIVE WEBBY! Also, love Louie in the background being confused as fuck.

That cute little smile! I WOULD DIE FOR LENA!

I don’t think the whole “don’t wake a sleepwalker” thing is actually valid in real life, but here it’s probably a goodish idea. Magic is weird and unpredictable.

“LET’S FLY, BECAUSE WE CAAAAAAN!” I like the way you think. I love that Louie’s wings have dollar signs. And Lena’s bat wings are DOPE.

“I HATE WALKING!” Louie is MOOD.

Huey and Dewey crashing, lol

That unicorn got DEEP. And I now crackship him and Manny.

Lena walked into Snow White.

“I probably grew horrible bat wings for non-evil reasons.” It’s because you are a baby goth.

“I ATE A BUG!” Dewey, you are a special boy and that’s valid.

“Ew, Webby, why is there a school in your dream?” Again, Louie is MOOD.

Ugh, I wish I could make out what the sign in front of the school says. I see EXCELLENCE though.

Dewey CONFIRMED HSM fan. And I’m getting some Saved By The Bell vibes. He’s binged ALL the high school classics. This is probably how Mabel dreamed high school would look like before the crushing slap of reality hit her.

His hair and jacket. Too cute, expect for his hair being alive. That was freaky. I fear for him when he learns what high school is actually like.

His song. Dewey is in for HEARTBREAK. LIVE YOUR DREAM WHILE YOU CAN!

I know most people are going with Dewey is bi after the whole romantic interest thing, but I feel like he might be aro/ace. Dewey is threatened by choosing a romantic partner. I’ve kind of always seen him as ace though, so it might just be me. Or it could be him trying to figure out his sexuality, which is cool. I love that the crew threw that in. The boy is not straight in any way though.

I love that Dewey’s singing rivals are Beagle Boys.

“Who knows what that’s about?” “I have some theories.” SYMBOLISM!

Dewey Dude is upsetting even BEFORE it turned into Magica.

The balance between comedy and STRAIGHT UP HORROR was handled well.

Lena has watched Wizard of Oz.

“You ruined my big dance!” Priorities, Dewey. Louie looks relieved though.

Dewey’s hair looked super cute when it was wet.

Why did he and Lena taste the water? Is there some sort of significance there?

“I just failed a class called Dew-ology.” “Well I’m the class Dew-torian.” That’s stretching it, Dewey.

“I gotta get outta here.” Haha, Dewey’s dream is Huey’s nightmare.

Louie-field. I WANT PLUSHIES. Also, Louie confirmed furry?

“This is your dream? To be even lazier?” Don’t be a hater, Huey! Louie’s got the right idea.

Wonder if Beakley taking care of Louie-field means anything.

Seriously, Huey is SUCH a hater! He wants out of Dewey’s dream and he mocks Louie’s.

“HOW ARE YOU SLEEP-SLEEPING?” Don’t hate cause you ain’t. Also, I have napped in a dream once so....

Louie’s sleep face is MAJESTIC. HE’S BEAUTY, HE’S GRACE.

“I just am.” Louie is so wise.

Wolf Lena is BEST

Violet, there is a better way to talk about people’s psychological issues.

Why would you choose the litter box?

“WHY, HUEY, WHY?!” No arguments here.

I’m the eldest sibling like Huey and I’m the shortest of the three of us, so I get you, Huey. But there are better, cooler, less upsetting ways to manifest that dream. Like switching bodies with a tall person.

His legs make rubber band noises when he moves.

“Don’t listen to him! Follow your lame dreams.” What a supportive brother.

Huey’s dream is Dewey’s nightmare. Nice.

I too use my feet to do things, like opening doors or getting stuff off the floor. But opening jars of FOOD?! UNSANITARY AND YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER.

Someone is a Spinel fanboy.

Or is he Slender-Huey?

“And it’s my dream to be in a montage.” While it is pretty dope, why does Dewey get two dreams?! Greedy little bastard. Are we sure he’s not the evil triplet, lol.

HERE’S HOW PHOOEY CAN WIN! Liked that they implied he’s the evil one. He’s a yellow, less 90s Dippy Fresh.

JUST SAY NO TO PHOOEY! His name means the f-word.

MORE DRAGON BALL Z!

NERD ALERT! 

Huey has found a kindred soul.

I like that Violet even has Quackfaster as a librarian.

“It’s almost 6am!” Your old man is showing. Sidenote-I tend to wake up around 6. I’m old.

“Go get some jobs!” Scrooge, do you know about child labor laws?

This is the second episode of this set that Scrooge comes off as a bit of a prick.

POOR LENA! At least all the kids care about her. The poor girl needs some friends.

“She’s gonna be cold without her sweater!” His heart’s in the right place.

I love that all the kids jump in after Webby immediately. NEVER LEAVE A MAN BEHIND.

Louie just spinning in the background.

“I think this is more nightmare.” Thank you, Captain Obvious.

I want that castle as a playset.

Good lord this scene was hard to watch. It reminded me a lot of Raven in Ever After High (and Teen Titans Raven too). She’s so afraid of being predestined to become evil that it’s consuming her to the point that she can’t see anything else and feels stuck. Some of this really hit close to home for me because I deal with depression and anxiety and when a big episode hits it’s hard to find my way out. Luckily, just like Lena, I have a good support system.

 Magica gaslighting Lena was really upsetting to see.

Lena becoming Magica then a literal monster? LET MY DAUGHTER HAVE PEACE!

“Ugh, why does everything I say sound sarcastic?” Callback

Was that a hint at a Gargoyles reboot? I JOKE TO EASE THE PAIN!

#youtriedDewey

Dewey’s spinny eyes, lol

Webby is most competent fighter

Poor Louie. The past two episode have not been kind to him physically.

Lena will ALWAYS be there for Webby.

POOR LENA!

HURRAY FOR SUPPORTIVE FRIENDS!

FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC, BITCH!

“It’s fine, FINE!” Just wait for puberty, Huey. It will be slightly less disturbing.

I TOTALLY CALLED THAT THIS WAS A PLOT FOR MAGICA TO GET HER POWERS BACK! YAY FOR BEING RIGHT!

Magica is meth aunt.

“I don’t need you. You need me!” THAT’S MY GIRL!

FERAL

I bet Magica is gonna lie about still having powers so she can get close enough to Lena to regain her powers and stab everyone in the back. Whether or not she succeeds... 

Boyd and Lena should start a club. The “I thought/felt like I was a real, flesh and blood being, had an existential crises over it, and am trying to deal with my evil relative” club. Huey’s the moderator, he’s working on his consoling badge.

[harlequinesque]

now that I’ve finished KH3, these are my rankings for the worlds from best to worst based on content and how i enjoyed them.

1) The Caribbean This is by far the best world in the game. It starts you out with a boss fight, shortly followed by another optional boss fight. Once the world is fully open to you, you have an entire map of the sea to explore at your leisure. The ship combat system is done well, the world looks beautiful, and it’s actually enjoyable to explore everything. Not to mention finishing the world gives you the second best Keyblade in the game, IMO, behind the Ultima Weapon.

2) The Keyblade Graveyard Seeing as this is where the bulk of the story took place in this game, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Traversing through the Labyrinth to fight the Organization in small groups felt extremely satisfying and not at all like a classic “boss rush” at the end of a game.

3) Olympus As the introductory world of the game, this world was extremely fleshed out and I definitely enjoyed it. Climbing the mountain to fight a Titan, and then exploring Thebes AND going into Olympus itself for the first time in the series? Then fighting THREE Titans as the final boss?? Definitely satisfying to play through since the only glimpse of “Olympus” we had in previous games was just the Coliseum.

4) Toy Box In terms of content, this world definitely had more than it seemed like it would. Even though it takes place mostly in the toy store, having three floors with multiple rooms to explore gave it so much playtime. The design of the world looked great and felt fun to explore, the Gigas toys were satisfying to play as, and the final boss area was really cool.

5) Monstropolis For being the first KH game to include Pixar worlds and characters, I’m definitely satisfied with how they were done. Monstropolis as a world is massive, even if it takes place entirely in Monsters Inc. On top of that, the world has an original story that actually takes place AFTER the events of the movie. If I remember correctly, this is the only world besides San Fransokyo to do that. The world is visually satisfying and fun to play through, even if that final boss was...obnoxious lol.

6) Kingdom of Corona I’d say this was my least favorite of my favorite worlds. I liked it when I played through it, but after finishing the game, it doesn’t measure up to the ones I’ve already listed. I liked that it had its own story instead of just rehashing the movie’s story shot for shot like another world *cough* but even with such a large world, it felt like some areas were just repetitive of others and only put in the world to add to its runtime.

7) Twilight Town I put this in the middle because it’s the hub world. There’s not much to it that we haven’t seen before besides the Bistro. It’s disappointing knowing that there’s another half of the world that we’ve seen before but we don’t get to see any of it in this game.

8) 100 Acre Wood Again, this world is close to the middle because there’s nothing to it. It’s definitely nowhere near as enjoyable as 100 Acre Wood was in the first two games, and the replacement of Lumpy for Eeyore felt very strange. Not to mention all three minigames were essentially the exact same thing, and on top of that they were a mobile phone game we’ve seen hundreds of times.

9) San Fransokyo I have this world so low because I finished it in 20 minutes without even trying. The story takes place after the events of the movie, but the story of this world itself is extremely short. Of course the world looks great, but it’s also just one big area. I expected A LOT more out of this world than what I got. The only time I really got to see or explore the “world” if you can call it that is when I revisited to complete the Treasure log. Overall they just could’ve done a lot more with it.

10) The Final World I’m including this world, as well as the next one, simply because they have World titles and cards. Obviously you don’t do much in this world. It’s basically just filler for the story.

11) Scala Ad Caelum Again, I’m including this because it has a name and a title card. But why is it so low? Because it was stupid. They showed the world in a trailer, and we saw it at the beginning of the game as Eraqus and Xehanort’s homeworld, so when I was taken here while playing, I expected I would be able to explore the world or maybe get some more backstory on Eraqus and Xehanort from Sora’s perspective. But nope. The only reason this world is here is for the final boss fight. And IMO, said boss fight was extremely disappointing. When you measure it up to the Ansem fights at the end of KH1 or the World that Never Was leading into the Xemnas fights in KH2, these Xehanort fights were a fucking joke. The game was definitely easy to play through even on Proud Mode, and I made it through the entirety of the Graveyard without dying once, but I expected something challenging for the final fight with Xehanort. Didn’t get that at all. Instead, the second phase of the fight takes place UNDERWATER for no fucking reason and because of that I was forced to fight without access to half of my combat kit that I’d been using for the entire game. Part of me enjoyed the final phase of the fight on the very top of the world, but leading up to that could’ve been so much better than it was.

12) Arendelle Fuck this world. I have so much hatred for this world, and it’s not because I dislike Frozen, which I don’t. This world is a literal shot for shot rehash of the film, and I could tell they really wanted to show off how well they could recreate Let It Go using the Unreal Engine. Sure, it was done well, but was it necessary? Absolutely not. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The world itself took place entirely on the mountain, and we didn’t go into the Kingdom once like we did in Corona. The Ice Labyrinth was way longer than it needed to be and clearly was just there to pad the runtime of the world. Then what do we do? We climb the mountain TWICE. We get thrown off the top of the mountain TWICE. There’s a fucking photo mission to take a picture of the Ice Palace, but we don’t get to see it once during the playthrough of the game, requiring a revisit afterwards to obtain that picture. Do we get to fight with Elsa as a partner? No, we get fucking Marshmallow. Why the fuck do you think I wanna run around in an area collecting pieces of Olaf to put him back together? WHERE THE FUCK DID HANS COME FROM? I understand embellishing on the story of the movie and expecting players to know the story from the movie, but the first time we see Hans in this world is from the back while he’s carrying Elsa away, and then again at the end of the world where we see yet another shot for shot rehash from the film and then he becomes the final boss Heartless?????? He had no introduction, he wasn’t even NAMED once in the world, and suddenly he’s the final boss solely because he was the villain in the movie. At least when they made Mother Gothel the boss in Corona, we knew who she was. We had seen her throughout the world. Hans was not that at all. Ugh, Arendelle was such a fucking trash world. I’m so mad they made me play through that garbage.

I know I said I included The Final World and Scala Ad Caelum because they had names and title cards, but I’m not including Darkworld because it wasn’t really a “world” imo. Sure, the characters spent a lot of time there, but all we did was a couple boss fights and only one of them was while playing as Sora. I guess if I had to rank it, it’d be in the middle because it’s neither amazing nor terrible. It’s just there.

[queenangst]

More Than Friends

by: achievingelysium Summary: A classic, two-part throwback to "mortals-meet" fics. Part one: Annabeth's having a no good, very bad day. Percy swings by to help. Things go about as well as can be expected. Post-TLO, Annabeth's POV. / Part two: Much to his friends' chagrin, Percy tends to show up late to class and flakes out on a meetup, until they meet his elusive girlfriend. Post-HoO, mortal's POV.

Read on AO3 | FFN

Her phone buzzed.

Buzzed, then buzzed again.

Annabeth snarled under her breath, eyeing the teacher whose back was turned to the class, and then snatched the phone from her pocket. Whoever was texting her had better have something important to tell her, or gods help her—

It was Percy.

Despite herself, Annabeth smiled. The annoyance didn't fade—no, from this morning to that stupid brat earlier—she'd just about had it with the day. She'd only come back to school for a week, but already she ached to leave and go back to camp where she belonged.

Percy, 11:14 AM  hows it going babe me and grvoer r headed for the beach

Percy, 11:16 AM  wait grover and i?

You, 11:17 AM  you got it.

Annabeth ducked her head and grinned. She caught Lydia's attention in the seat next to her, her friend's eyes widening almost comically as she leaned over to see.

"You're texting in class?" Lydia hissed.

"Shh," she whispered back, batting Lydia away. Still, the girl was hooked, far too interested in what Annabeth was doing.

There was a noise from the front of the room, and the two of them froze, glancing up.

"False alarm," Lydia whispered as Ms. Martin kept writing on the board.

"You should all be writing this down," Ms. Martin said. "See, this is why you guys aren't doing well. I can only do so much, but if you want to learn, you have to be paying attention in class. It's not as hard as you think it is. Is anybody writing?"

Annabeth gritted her teeth, glaring across the room before looking pointedly at her open notebook. Scrawled on the page were notes, though Annabeth hadn't finished writing down everything. Her dyslexia wasn't helpful, nor was the way Ms. Martin organized her thoughts on the board, completely different from Annabeth's.

There was a general grumbling from the class. Furtive glances were cast around the room.

"Yeah, if only she would teach us," Michael muttered from two seats up. Annabeth and Lydia snorted.

It was no secret that no one in their school liked Ms. Martin. She was a hit-or-miss teacher, and she often berated her students on their less-than-stellar work in her class—even though that had always been a result of her teaching.

"There she goes again," Lydia said, sighing as she jotted down another line.

Annabeth wasn't paying attention, though.

Percy, 11:18 AM soo? good day [IMG _FILE] look at this cool shell grover said the pattern makes it look like its frowning but i don't see it

You, 11:24 AM  tell grover I don't see it either. also today's been awful

Percy, 11:24 AM  what wht why

You, 11:25 AM  ugh Helem got mad at me this morning. Again. *Helen

Percy, 11:25 AM she's too hard on u I thought u 2 were getting better

You, 11:26 AM yeah but last week I took off my necklace so I could go shower she almost threw it away. didn't know what it was

Percy, 11:27 AM she WHAT

You, 11:27 AM I guess it's not totally her fault but she should know by now right not to touch my stuff I hate it when people touch my stuf *stuff and I got really upset about it

Percy, 11:29 AM  u didn't tell me :(( ims orry

You, 11:30 AM its fine now I guess I got it back forgot about it when you called a couple days ago

Percy, 11:31 AM  what were u saying about this morning

You, 11:32 AM  UGH

You, 11:32 AM I came home yesterday [Unsent]

You, 11:32 AM went back yesterday at 2am because I ran into a couple monsters took care of everything but I got a little blood and monster dust on the carpet and in the bathroom was too tired to clean up got yelled at this morning for it

Percy, 11:33 AM ur fine right? ugh it wasn't ur fault

You, 11:34 AM I know she hates monsters and really wants to look out for the boys but she just and earlier I saw this girl talking about this kid in the bathroom and she was so rude I

Percy, 11:35 AM  did u get in trouble

You, 11:35 AM almost did I was about to punch her I was so mad and now I'm in English and I hate English and Martin

Percy, 11:42 AM hey… u have lunch next period i'll swing by with grover and take u out we can get those curly fries u like

Annabeth groaned. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate Percy, but her friends had been pestering her about her boyfriend since she'd gotten back to school.

They were just scraping two months from the war; Annabeth had decided to go back with Percy and Sally's encouragement. She'd missed about a month—school had started late August, but Annabeth had wanted to spend more time with the other campers and with Percy before leaving.

Now Annabeth was currently drowning in work to catch up, but Percy seemed to have managed just fine starting in mid-September. He'd gone back to Goode, surprisingly, and had bounced between home, school, and camp.

They had some kind of parent-teacher conferences this week, or maybe a holiday, which meant Percy had four days of weekend instead of two. It made Annabeth insanely jealous.

Percy, 11:44 AM so what do you say

Percy's text brought her back to the present. Lydia had gotten back to leaning over, but Annabeth blocked her friend's attempt to read the screen, furiously typing back.

You, 11:44 AM no you cant my frien [Unsent]

"Miss Chase. Miss Faris."

Annabeth's fingers froze over the keyboard just as her heart stopped. She fumbled to turn off her phone, looking up to see Ms. Martin with crossed arms.

"Ma'am," she replied, feeling her heart start to pound against her ribs. She cast a frantic look towards Lydia.

Monsters, Titans, fire-breathing Chihuahuas… Annabeth had seen them all. Still, there was something about teachers that sent them to a completely different level.

The class had gone quiet, broken only by Jay.

"Ooooh," he sang quietly, and the class tittered.

"Would you like to share what you're looking at instead of what you should've been learning in class?"

Annabeth ground her teeth together. She needed to text Percy back to tell him not to come, wanted to keep talking to him, wanted desperately to leave the classroom and find something she could break. The anger and annoyance that had hounded her came back; Percy had been cooling it off, but now something had snapped again.

"Learning," she said deliberately. Someone audibly sucked in a breath at her tone.

Ms. Martin arched an eyebrow.

"Indeed, Miss Chase. Something you would know to do if you want to do well in my class."

This was dumb. This was dumb, and Annabeth hated it, hated the way her skin was crawling like spiders were climbing across her front. She hated Ms. Martin with her stupid voice, who'd failed her first assignment even after Annabeth had worked on it for three days straight.

Hated the way the teacher was looking at her, like she was dumb.

"Maybe if you were teaching us something, I'd pay attention," Annabeth said hotly, standing up. Her fists clenched at her side.

The classroom, which had been filling with whispers and murmured conversation, went silent. Lydia couldn't seem to decide if she wanted to gape at Annabeth or cower in her seat with the way Ms. Martin was glaring at them.

Ms. Martin strode forward.

"Phone," she said, holding her hand out. "I want to see you after class."

Annabeth glanced at her phone, shutting it off and handing it over. They stood off for another moment before Annabeth forced herself to slowly sit down.

It wasn't worth it, she reminded herself, but a little part of her whispered that it had. Ms. Martin had turned around, marching back to the front of the classroom. People had erupted into conversation.

"Girl," Lydia exploded once she'd sat down. "Wow. You… wow."

"Shouldn't have done that, should I?" Annabeth grumbled, sliding lower in her seat.

"Maybe," Lydia offered, "but that was the most badass thing I've ever seen. Just wait until lunch. Everyone's going to be all over you."

"Oh, gods," Annabeth said. She covered her hands with her hands for a moment and then lowered them, sending a satisfied grin at her friend. "Well… I guess that was a pretty good line, huh?"

The remaining time in English passed quickly. Ms. Martin went back to lecturing them, occasionally interjecting with a comment about their work ethic as she glared vaguely in Annabeth's direction. Everyone went back to taking notes, but there was a restless energy that lasted until the bell rang.

"Dismissed," Ms. Martin called, and the students surged for the door, yelling over each other and chatting. Lydia shoved her stuff into her bag.

"I'll save you a spot," she told Annabeth. She glanced at Ms. Martin. "Good luck."

Annabeth took her time putting her things away. She wasn't a terribly organized person, but today she made sure everything had a place. While she worked, she reminded herself that she couldn't afford to have Ms. Martin hate her. Any more, and she'd be failing English.

Not to mention phone calls. The minute Helen heard a word about what had gone down, she'd go off on Annabeth. What little relationship they'd been carefully building would come crumbling down. She'd be the unruly, good-for-nothing demigod.

She took a deep breath and forced herself towards Ms. Martin's desk.

"I'll have you remember that I tolerate no disrespect, Annabeth," Ms. Martin said. "I don't like it when any student uses their phone in class, and if you have constructive criticism, I'd like you to bring it up to me in a more helpful way."

Annabeth held her tongue. She could tell Ms. Martin meant it, but it didn't make Annabeth feel any less unhappy.

"I'm… sorry," she said.

Ms. Martin made a noncommittal noise. "Are we on the same page?"

Annabeth glanced at the clock.

"Yes, ma'am."

"If this happens again, Annabeth, I can call your parents." Here, Annabeth's lip curled in distaste. "And I will send you out of class. You know that."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ms. Martin sighed. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, and though Annabeth didn't like her one bit, she thought maybe she was starting to understand where the teacher was coming from.

"It won't happen again," Annabeth offered quietly. She wanted to leave and slam the door.

"Be sure of it." Ms. Martin nodded, reaching over to a drawer and handing Annabeth's phone over. "You can go."

Annabeth left without saying goodbye, darting out into the hall and sighing.

"That could've gone better," she muttered, heading towards the cafeteria. She was five minutes late, give or take a few—the lunch line would be packed, and she'd have to wait longer to get food.

Annabeth stopped, suddenly remembering why she'd gotten into trouble in the first place. She checked her phone and found a number of missed texts and a call from Percy.

"Oh, gods."

"Annabeth!" a voice yelled before she could check it.

As she pushed her way towards her friends at the table in the corner, she caught sight of a small crowd. Over the din, she could hear a loud voice chattering away.

"What's Beatrice up to?" Annabeth said, sliding into her spot. Lydia lit up.

"Annabeth! You made it out alive!"

"Lydia told us all about it," Samarth said. He passed her a soda can. "Bought this from the vending machine as a gift, you brave, brave soul."

"Uh, thanks," Annabeth said.

"I still can't believe you said that," Jay crowed. "Did you see the look on her face?"

"What'd she say? Spill."

"It was fine," Annabeth muttered. "So what's all the commotion about?"

"Oh," Lydia said, slamming her water bottle down in excitement. "Queen Bea found a new guy to drool over."

Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "I'm sure."

Beatrice was nice enough, but she reminded Annabeth of Aphrodite kids. Cool, but sometimes overwhelming… and maybe a little too obsessed with getting a boyfriend.

She was pretty forward and could get a little bossy, hence the nickname Queen Bea. Still, the few times she'd seen her outside of being boy-crazy had admittedly impressed Annabeth. She was driven and smart. Med school, if she remembered correctly, though Annabeth never knew if that was her own ambition or if maybe she was fishing for a good-looking doctor in her future. Probably both.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Annabeth yelped, pulling her phone from her pocket.

Buzz.

"It's her boyfriend," Lydia said immediately. The table oohed.

"It's not," Annabeth said, hitting reply. It was Percy.

Percy, 12:21 PM hey its lunch but i don't see u i could use some help um u can probably tell where i am theres kind of a crowd is this normal

"Shit," Annabeth said. No doubt the "new guy to drool over" was Percy.

"Annabeth?" Jay called after her as she crossed the cafeteria. "Woah, wait, did we upset you?"

She shoved through the crowd, and there he was.

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm just here to find someone," Percy was saying. Beatrice was unsurprisingly talking to him, too close for both Percy and Annabeth's liking.

"Well, you found me," Beatrice said. She leaned a little closer. "Wanna go to lunch together?"

"Uh," Percy said. He looked nervous, eyes darting around the group of people surrounding him. There weren't actually that many people, maybe twelve in total, but they were all excitedly chattering about the new guy. With their small school and class size, everybody knew everybody, and anyone remotely new got people excited.

He tried to step away.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I'm gonna go."

"Hey, wait, what's your name?"

"Percy," he replied. He was starting to get jittery, Riptide appearing in his hands as he twisted the cap like he did when he got nervous. "And I'm looking for—"

Annabeth finally pushed through.

"Looking for me?"

Percy and Beatrice both turned at the sound of her voice.

"Annabeth," Percy said, obviously relieved. She'd been his best friend for years, knew the way he ticked, knew what every look meant. It made her stomach flip when his eyes lit up, his lips lifting in that crooked, troublemaker grin.

He held out his hand, and Annabeth took it.

"Oh my God," she heard distantly. "That's gotta be him. The boyfriend. Samarth, get a picture."

Annabeth wasn't paying attention.

"Hey, Percy," she said, not fighting as he wrapped an arm around her and daring to press his lips to her forehead. She closed her eyes for a moment. "What are you doing here?"

He grinned, eyes crinkling at the corners. "Curly fries, remember? I promised."

"Do you two… know each other?"

Beatrice looked like her dreams were being crushed slightly. Annabeth felt bad, then remembered she'd been flirting with her boyfriend and felt a little better.

Before Annabeth could open her mouth, Percy beat her to the punch. "I'm Annabeth's boyfriend."

It was a little silly, but it made her smile. Every time she got to call him her boyfriend, it sent warmth through her body.

Annabeth ducked her head to hide her blush, and Percy tightened his arm around her.

"Oh," Beatrice said. "Um. Sorry."

Now she was blushing, looking a little embarrassed.

"It's cool, I guess. Flattering, but I'm taken," Percy said. "Uh, sorry?"

Annabeth couldn't help but roll her eyes. Her friends took the moment to press in like predators hunting prey.

"So you're Annabeth's boyfriend," Lydia said triumphantly. She was grinning as she stuck a hand out. "Nice to meet you."

"That's Lydia," Annabeth said, sighing. They'd never let her get the end of it. "Samarth and Jay over there."

"Oh, man," Jay said. "Liv is going to be so mad she missed this. Uh, nice to meet you, man."

Percy shook hands with Jay, then Lydia, then Samarth.

"I guess Annabeth talks about me, huh?"

"Oh, she never shuts up," Lydia said. Annabeth kicked at her ankles.

"Lydia!"

"Really?" Percy asked, grinning. He slipped his arm down from around her shoulders, grabbing her hand instead. Her face burned.

"No," she grumbled.

"Kind of," Samarth said. "I think Lydia talks more than her, though."

"What? I'm interested."

There was a beat of awkward silence before Lydia blurted, "How'd you guys meet?"

"Oh, um," Percy said. "We met when we were twelve. Went to the same camp, and we got looped into some of the same, er, camp activities together."

"Arts and crafts?"

Percy was grinning again, and it was infectious. "Something like that."

"Cool," Jay said. "I got shipped off to summer camp a few times, too, but my summers were never quite as exciting as Annabeth's. Any way I can get in?"

Annabeth pursed her lips. "It's one of those you gotta apply at, but it's a little hard to get in. Pretty specific requirements."

Percy laughed. "You're not wrong."

"Guess I'm not going."

Percy shrugged and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe. You never know."

"You're from New York, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm on break, so me and another friend came down for a visit. Then Annabeth said she was having a bad day, so I thought I'd come pick her up to get some food."

Jay poked Samarth. "Why don't you ever do that for me?"

Samarth only squinted back. "You're the one who can drive."

Percy glanced over at Annabeth, and she squeezed his hand.

"Missed you," she said quietly, stepping closer. "It's been weird being here."

"Hey, San Fran's pretty nice."

She looked away. "You know what I mean, Percy. I don't get to see your stupid face around."

He leaned their shoulders together. "Missed you, too."

Percy turned to the rest of the group. "It was nice meeting you guys, but I think we gotta go. Fries don't buy themselves."

There was a chorus of "You, too"s as Percy led Annabeth away.

"Mortals, huh," Percy said. "Cool bunch. Though I'm interested in what you've had to say about me, Wise Girl."

She shoved him. "Come on. Let's get some fries."

[dreamwritesimagines]

Bad Habit 3- We Used To Be Bad [Billy Russo x Reader]

A.N: First of all, thank you so so much people! Your amazing feedback made me so happy, please keep that coming <3 

Special thanks to: @boyfriendmaterialforyou @jugheadjonss @dyingformyships @just-another-potterhead @ninjathrowingstork @the-doctor-9-10 @hxbbit @xsarahlouisex @fictionalthrill @littlexredxriddinghood @badkamelia @anolympianhero @sylviebre  and lovely anons! Without you, it wouldn’t get written <3

Characters: Billy Russo x Reader, Karen Page, Frank Castle, Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson

Summary: Second dates can be way better than first dates.

Click here for: Bad Habit 1, Bad Habit 2 

Warning: Explicit Language, Cussing, Violence

Word Count: 3001 

Please tell me what you think <3

I don’t own the gif!

“Cool, calm and collected.” You repeated the mantra out loud as you stared at your reflection in the mirror. “Cool, calm and collected.”

Karen put her phone aside and sat up in the bed to look at you.

“You have nothing to worry about,” she said and you rolled your eyes.

“Easy for you to say, your leg length equals my whole height.”

“Exaggerate, why won’t you?”

You let out a breath and touched your hair, careful not to mess it up.

“Stop,” Karen got off the bed and came over to peck you on the cheek, “He’s gonna die when he sees you.”

“So far, he’s only seen me in aprons and printed shirts so he might not recognize me.”

Karen raised her brows.

“I just-“ You heaved a sigh and made your way to your bed, then plopped down, “I don’t even know the guy well! I shouldn’t be freaking out, but he’s so-“ You flexed your fingers, “Ugh!”

As if on cue, your phone started ringing and you looked up, your breath getting caught in your throat.

“Karen-“ You motioned at the phone, “Karen, he’s calling.”

“Yeah?”

“What- what do I do?!”

“You pick up the phone.” Karen’s voice had the same tone as a patient kindergarten teacher’s, and you gulped, looking down at the phone, then took a deep breath and hit answer.

“Hey,” You said breathlessly “Let me guess, aliens invaded Anvil, so you can’t make it.”

“No actually, it’s a killer robot attack.”

“You should call the Avengers.”

“I don’t really like those guys.”

“So you’ll take them down by yourself?” You asked “Billy Russo, former Special Forces soldier, present CEO of Anvil, professional suit wearer and killer robot slayer.”

“Even you gotta admit, it has a nice ring to it.”

You giggled, “Hi again.”

“Hi,” he said, “You ready?”

“Um, sure,” You pressed a hand over your chest, “Just text me the address, I’ll get an Uber.”

“I’m here.”

You frowned slightly “Where?”

“Outside.”

“Outside of…?”

“Your apartment.”

“You’re outside my apartment?!” You asked and Karen’s eyes widened, then she walked to the window, careful not to be seen through the curtains. “Billy, they will steal your car and your fancy suit in this neighborhood.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure someone is breaking into the liquor store as we speak,” he muttered and you shook your head,

“You’re looking for trouble.”

“I can handle trouble,” he said, “And I’ve been in worse places.”

You slowly walked towards the window and looked through the curtains to see the very expensive looking, jet black sports car. You gawked at it for a couple of seconds, then turned to Karen who just made a face.

“Okay, I’m coming down.” You hung up and turned to Karen.

“Why do I feel like a girl on her prom?”

“Beats me, you didn’t even have sex in your prom.”

All of a sudden, you felt your head spin and you gawked at her,

“I-I’m not gonna have sex with him on the first date!” You lowered your voice even if you were only two people in the room, “Do you think he expects that?”

“Maybe hopes?”

“Oh my God, do you think that’s why he came to pick me up? For car sex?!”

Karen let out a clear laugh and pushed you towards the door,

“Go!”

“Are you gonna be here when I get back?”

Karen shook her head, “I’m meeting Foggy and Matt, we’re gonna hit the bar. But come by my place after you’re done? I’m way too excited to wait until tomorrow.”

You nodded as you put on your shoes. Karen’s house wasn’t so far from your house –only she lived in a way better neighborhood- so it wasn’t that unusual to stay at each other’s apartment or dropping by in the late hours, since you had each other’s keys.

“I’ll call you!” You pecked her on the cheek, “Don’t forget to lock the door when you leave!”

“Will do!”

You closed the door behind you, and went downstairs, then pushed open the door and walked out of the building to see him leaning against his car. Contrary to how you had seen him so far, he wasn’t wearing a suit, but instead he was wearing a gray sweater and black jeans, and a leather jacket, all of which fit his body extremely well. For a split second you got worried whether your outfit was on point, but all of the worries disappeared when he gave you the classical up and down look guys seemed to do a lot and a mischievous smile pulled at his lips.

“Wow.”

You pushed a strand of hair behind your ear, smiling shyly,

“Thanks. And hey- Look at you, suit’s gone.”

He chuckled, nodding. “Yeah. And the coat.”

“I can see that.” You said as he opened the door for you and you got in the car. “You really didn’t need to come to pick me up, I-“

“Could get an Uber,” he finished the sentence for you, and started the car as you put your seatbelt on. You looked around the car, it looked like one of those cars you had only seen in fancy galleries so far. “I did tell you I would make up for the last night though.”

You stole a look at his handsome features and tried to ignore how fast your heartbeat was, so you tried to distract yourself.

“So what- where are we going?”

“Well, you said not too many forks.”

“Yeah I don’t wanna go through that Titanic moment,” you said, “I’d be Jack and you’d be Rose, but still…”

Billy raised his brows but kept his eyes on the road, fighting off a small smile.

“But you didn’t say anything about other utensils.”

“Other utensils.”

“Yeah.”

“…Ikea?” You tried to guess, making him chuckle.

“Guess again.” He said as he pulled over in front of a restaurant and you looked at the neon sign, and your heart dropped to your stomach.

“Chinese.”

“Chinese,” he nodded “Not a place where rich assholes hang out.”

You hissed in a breath silently as he opened the door and got out, then opened your door. You got out of the car, not knowing whether to thank him or not, considering no one had opened your car doors or anything before.

Not even on your prom.

Where you didn’t get laid.

Okay. Let’s take bed options off the table for a second.

 “Um- Okay, before we actually get a table I have a confession to make.” You turned on your heels and looked up at him. “And I feel like it’s very crucial for…for the rest of the night.”

He frowned for a second, “Okay?”

“…I don’t really know how to use chopsticks.”

He seemed surprised, but only for a second before he guided you to a table and pulled your chair. “It’s pretty easy, I can teach you.”

“Okay,” You nodded, trying to ignore the insecure voice in your mind and watched as he sat down, “So you- you come here a lot?”

“I heard it from a friend- well, friend of a friend.” He said, “Want me to order for you?”

You nodded fervently, “Yes please, I have no clue about what to eat.” You let out a laugh and he grinned,

“You like duck?”

“I’ve never eaten duck.”

Billy looked up from the menu, “Really?”

“I have this thing when I go to restaurants I order whatever is cheapest in the menu, so that rules out duck.”

He shot you an amused look, and ordered some foods from the menu and gave the menu back to the waiter, then turned to you, making your heart skip a beat,

“Okay, ready?” he asked, separating his chopsticks from each other and you bit on your lip, then did the same.

“Let’s do this, tutor with a suit.”

“So you put one here.” He showed you, “Middle finger and thumb, and you will balance it.”

“Okay.” You followed his instructions and he nodded,

“Then you put the second one here.” He said and when you couldn’t, he reached over, “Let me show you.”

As soon as his long fingers touched yours, you felt your heart skip a beat. It was as if an electric current had spread from his fingers to your hand, and from your hand to your whole body. His skin felt hot against yours, and both you and he paused for a second.

Was it possible that you weren’t the only one who felt the current?

He slowly pulled his hand back, as if he was hesitating already and you found yourself yearning for his touch as soon as it was gone.

“There you go,” his voice was deeper and lower now, and you moved the chopsticks in your hand, trying to regulate your breathing.

“Thanks,” you tried to laugh, “Jesus, is there anything you’re bad at?”

“Showing up to first dates.”

You scoffed, “Oh yeah. Or behaving like us poor people.”

“Us poor people?” he chuckled, “Easy there Oliver Twist.”

“Oh wow, you read? Or do you pay someone to read for you?”

“Do you read or are you too poor to buy books?”

You clicked your tongue, grinning, “Well played, guy with twenty coffees. My coworkers hate you by the way.”

“The uh…” he tried to find her name, “That girl seemed to like me.”

“Vicky likes anyone who’s handsome.” You waved a hand in the air and he leaned in slightly.

“Oh so I’m handsome?” he asked “I thought I wasn’t ‘half as cute as I think I am’”

“I’m using my right to remain silent.” You felt your cheeks burn “That being said, she is really serious about a male relative.”

He shrugged slightly, “I don’t have any relatives.”

All of a sudden it dawned on you and you covered your mouth, cussing yourself in your head. “Jesus, I’m sorry. I can be so-“

He waved a hand dismissively, “Don’t worry about it.” he assured you, “How about you?”

“I um… My parents live in Chicago. I lived there until I decided to move to New York.”

“Why did you move here?”

You shrugged, “Well, I- I wanted to get away,” You cleared your throat, “Me and my brother, we… we don’t really talk anymore, and staying there.. It was too much.”

“Harsh.”

“It was,” You confessed, “Not as much now. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have Karen. When I first moved here, I didn’t know anyone, neither did she, so we sort of… Hit it off right away.” You stopped talking when the waiter came with the food and placed them on the table.

“You’re gonna want to stay away from this one.” He pointed at tiny green cream at the corner of the plate, “Very spicy.”

“Oh I’m good with spices.”

“No, Y/N, you’re gonna burn yourself-“

“Come on, I’m sure your taste palate is very sensitive, rich people problems-“ you dipped the piece of chicken into the cream, “I happen to eat a lot of cheap food, which tends to be spicy-“

“Y/N-“

You put the chicken into your mouth, chewed on it, but when you realized Billy was right, it was way too late and you had already swallowed it. The burning exploded from your throat and you coughed.

“Oh God-“

“What was it about my taste palate again?”

“Jesus Christ Almighty, I’m fucking dying-“ You motioned at the water and grabbed the glass, then took big gulps of water, wiping your eyes, and looked up at Billy, who was trying his hardest not to burst into a laughter.

“Not. One. Word.”

The rest of the date seemed to go way too fast for your liking. Before you knew, you were already feeling warm and fuzzy the alcohol and you didn’t know whether the reason of your head’s spinning was alcohol or Billy himself. You could only hope that he was at least as half entertained as you were by the date, because by now, your hormones had already taken over.

You unbuckled your seatbelt and turned to look at him, your heart beating in your ears and licked your lips involuntarily.

“Here we are,” he said and you nodded,

“Yeah,” You said breathlessly, “Home sweet home.”

A silence fell upon you and you gulped,

“Thanks.” You said slowly “For tonight.”

“Anytime.” He murmured and you stared at him for a couple of seconds, it had to be illegal to look this good under the poor lighting of the street and cars. The question of whether he would kiss you or not –whether he would want to or not- kept flashing in your head as bright as neon lights and even if you were hit by the urge to kiss him, you were way too scared, so you cleared your throat, stealing a look outside.

“I should-um-“ You motioned at the window and he nodded as if he was hypnotized, but then managed to pull himself together.

“Good night.”

You tried to smile “Good night.” You whispered and pushed open the door, then got out of the car. Trying not to dance your way back, you walked into the building, climbed the stairs and unlocked your door, pressing a hand over your chest, trying to calm yourself down.

“Oh God…” You muttered, leaning your head back to the door, “Oh wow.”

You fished your phone out of your purse, kicking off your heels and made your way to the bathroom. You looked at yourself in the mirror, touching the back of your hand to your cheeks to ease the burning, but before you could find Karen’s phone number in your contacts, someone knocked on your door, making you frown. You checked the time on your phone, then walked to the door, looked through the peephole, and swung the door open.

“Billy?”

He pulled you to him, his hands cradling your head and he held you there for a long, torturing second as the hope filled your system faster than any other drug could. When his lips touched yours, you felt like you would fall to the ground if he wasn’t holding you as tight as he was, one hand sneaking down to the small of your back and pressing you to his hard body. Your hand went to his hair, gripping at it and you stood on your tiptoes as he deepened the kiss, his thumb caressing your pulse point on your neck before he pulled back, making you almost stumble.

You tried to catch your breath as he looked down at you, pupils dilated so much that you could hardly tell the difference from his dark irises before he licked his lips, then bent down to lift something from the floor.

Your vacuum flask.

You couldn’t help but to smile as he handed it to you with a boyish smile on his reddened lips.

“Have a good night,” he said hoarsely before walking away, leaving you there completely dumbfounded, staring at the wall for a couple of seconds before you pulled yourself together and closed the door with a click, smiling so wide that it almost hurt.

“Oh my God…” You threw the flask to the couch and ran to the bathroom, found Karen’s number and took the phone to your ear with shaky hands.

“Hello?”

“He kissed me!” You exclaimed “Karen- he kissed me!”

You could hear her laugh as you paced in the small bathroom, touching your burning lips.

“Was he any good at least? To make up for his personality?”

“I’m freaking the fuck out, he- Karen-“

“Phone call isn’t gonna cut it, we’re still outside,” Karen cut you off, “Matt and Foggy say hi by the way- wanna come here?”

You nodded absentmindedly, running your fingertips on your lips,

“Y-Yeah.”

“We’re at Josie’s, hurry! I wanna hear about the fancy guy’s kissing skills, asap.”

She hung up and you tried to calm your wild heartbeat down, shedding your dress and pulling your hair into a ponytail before grabbing a tshirt and jeans from your chair, you got into them as fast as you could and walked out of the apartment.

The chill air seemed to help your burning cheeks, but not your heartbeat. Adrenaline was still roaring through your system as you looked down at your phone, trying to decide whether to text him or not. You bit on your lip, still tasting him, and typed in Tease, your finger hovering over the send button before someone grabbed you by the ponytail and pulled you into a dark alley, slamming your head onto the nearest wall.

The panic crashed through you as you opened your mouth to scream, the pounding in your head was almost blinding as the warm blood ran down your forehead and the guy threw a punch at your face, his fist colliding your lip and it shoved your head back, your head slamming back to the wall once again and you felt your lip being split open. He gripped your neck, his fingertips cutting off your air as you felt something cold being pressed on your neck.

Pocket knife.

“Don’t make a noise or else I’ll-“ he was cut off when your instincts kicked in and you kicked him in the groin, making him double up and you pushed him, screaming for help before he grabbed at you again but this time, he pushed you harder and all of a sudden a hot pain seared through your side and knocked the breath out of you. Even if you were way too scared to look down, your eyes wandered down to your stomach as he pulled the knife back and you let out a whimper before he grabbed your neck again.

“Tell your brother he’s a dead man,” the guy hissed and ran out of the alley as you doubled up in pain, pressing on the wound but you felt the world spin around you as blood trickled through your fingers and the darkness pulled you in.

Part 4 is here! 

[naktergalen]

Rivamika Fic Suggestions List

Hello! First time posting on the Rivamika side of Tumblr. I just wanted to leave some of my personal recommendations for Rivamika fan fics on here to possibly help pass the time. I know that some people in the Rivamika chat will ask or put down some fic suggestions and it sucks that the messages get deleted after 1 week. Some of these stories are widely known in this community and some I think need a little more love lol. But I hope that you enjoy these stories as much as I have. I’ve split this list up into four categories. I wanted to let people know the status of some these fics in case they did not want to start an incomplete or in progress story. I know that many people are going to noticed that the Western Passage is not on this list. Sadly, I never got around to reading it when it was written for Levi and Mikasa and I can’t seem to find it anywhere for the life of me.

All of these fics can be found on AO3. I would link them but Tumblr apparently has an issue with links. If you guys want another list of fics, just let me know or you can tell me to GTFO and I will take the hint lol! If you have any fic suggestions for me, feel free to message me with them and I can add them on to the next list if anyone wants that. If any author sees their story on here and they want me to take it off the list, please let me know I don’t wish to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Also, last thing, I highly recommend leaving comments and kudos to the authors. I know that they greatly appreciate it and it helps them with improving their writing through feedback. I’ll shut up now.

DISCLAIMER: I know that not all of these stories are not for everyone, these are just my opinions and suggestions.

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Completed:

- Finding Comfort in Burning

Author: LittleWhisperer

Rating: Mature

This is a classic Rivamika fic and I know that the community loves it (as do I). If you are looking for superb character development, look no further than this baby right here. LittleWhisperer’s writing is so well done I can’t believe that this ain’t just a famous author writing in their spare time (oh wait I think they are). They’re so descriptive with the environment that you feel as if you are there watching as the scenes unfold. It’s a captivating story from start to finish and the building of Mikasa and Levi’s passionate relationship is soo scrumptious.

- Part of Me

Author: kenken_chan

Rating: Mature

Every Rivamika fan out there has to read this story!!! I cannot describe how absolutely wonderful this fic is! I was literally left speechless after finishing the last chapter because my mind was just blown away by the conclusion of Levi and Mikasa’s relationship. This really takes you on an emotional roller coaster and you can really grasp each character’s emotions through out the story. I will give a warning before hand, there are heavy subjects and situations presented that some people may not feel comfortable with. I personally think those subjects and how they are handled is what makes this fic such a diamond in the rough but if you are feeling uncomfortable then I understand that as well. I also know this fic has been out before and that the author had made changes to it since it was first released. If you haven’t read the edited version of this story, I would say give it another read now. I would love to hear what people think after they finish reading this gem.

- A Dangerous Game

Author: LittleWhisperer

Rating: Explicit

OMG! What a ride this story was! Once I started to read the first chapter, I could not stop! It just sucked me into the story’s world and I felt like I was actually there seeing the action and environment that the author was describing. This story keeps you in suspense and on your toes for what is going to happen next in this crazy Mafia AU. The relationship between Levi and Mikasa is magnificently done as they come to realize they have more in common than they think. I enjoy LittleWhisper’s work and I recommend checking out more of their works.

- The Taste of Pomegranate

Author: alienheartattack

Rating: Teen/Explicit

I have to say that I would have not expected me to like a Ballet AU story for Rivamika, but I absolutely enjoy every second while reading this one. The way the author creates the tension between Mikasa and Levi is splendidly done in this story. There are two more one-shots that follow after the original fic but they honestly feel like two more chapters that are just continuing with the story. I would certainly read the two one-shots after your finish reading part 1, you will not regret it!

- The Song Remains the Same

Author: MoraLeeWright

Rating: Mature

I enjoy MoraLeeWright’s writing so much! I think I binged read this story in about a day, I couldn’t stop myself. This fic does a really great job of slowly building the relationship between Mikasa and Levi. It gives their perspectives on the challenges they are facing together as well as the conflicting feelings each have about the growing bond between the two of them. I know that this is a Rivamika classic among fans but if you have yet to read it, definitely check this story out!    

Ongoing:

- Who Are You Calling a Bitch?

Author: xx_ciela

Rating: Mature

I was terrified that this fic would not ever get updated again, but good news its BACK! I am so excited to see where the story leads and whats going to happen to Mikasa, Levi and the other characters that are present. WAYCAB does an amazing job of mixing and twisting many different types of lore together to pull you into this fantasy type AU. Just when you think you have finally received the answers to your questions, it only lead to more questions lol. This story will keep you pensive and excited to find out what exactly is going on in this city. Its a slow burn in regards to Mikasa and Levi’s relationship, but I have a feeling that the wait will be well worth it. Undoubtedly recommend checking this out and leaving a comment for the author telling you want more!

- I Just Miss A Good Cup Of Tea

Author: EJelly

Rating: Mature

I discover this fic because of how it was blowing up in the Rivamika tag on tumblr lol. I’m soo happy that I decided on checking it out because I binged read the 28 chapters that were out already. Attack on Titan meets The Walking Dead in this baby. The way that EJelly writes action is spectacular, it feels like I’m watching a TV show. I also love the way they write in each character’s POV in order for you to understand the mind set of the characters during this zombie apocalypse. The relationship between Levi and Mikasa is beautifully built over the course of this story and I cannot wait to find out what lies ahead of them. Again, another slow burn that I have a feeling will be well worth the wait (it already has been)! Go check it out and leave a comment telling EJelly that you are excited for more!

- Just Until The Storm Has Gone (?)

Author: MoraLeeWright

Rating: Explicit

Put a question mark by this one because I’m not sure if this is still ongoing or not. Regardless of that, I urge everyone to go read this indescribable work of art. MoraLeeWright’s writing has just blossomed into such beauty and she does nothing but keep getting better as time goes on (I don’t even know how that is possible but she doing the damn thing). JUTSHG is in a class of its own, for me, in the world of Rivamika fics. This baby is from Mikasa’s perspective and it delves into her psyche as she is dealing with the after affects of war. Her relationship with Levi is so mesmerizing in this story and the way that MoraLeeWright creates their smut scenes is so yummy I just want to eat it for lunch. I can’t even call it smut because its so much more than that. You can feel the connection of two souls finally finding the other they have been looking for as well as passion they have for each other. I could go on about how much I LOVE this story but I’ll stop. This one is on my top 3 favorite Rivamika fics of all time.

Incomplete:

- No Rest for the Wicked

Author: Hallow17

Rating: Explicit

Freaking love this story and I’m SOOO SAD that its incomplete! Mikasa has to deal with the paranormal while also running a business in this fic. The budding relationship between Levi and Mikasa is well paced and so gracefully displayed that even though it is an incomplete story, it’s well worth reading the 19 chapter that have already been published. Everything you could ask for in a paranormal story is presented; ghost, action, spirits, and lots of angst! This is such a unique story its literally burned into my brain and I will never forget it. I hope that Hallow17 miraculously comes back to finish this baby off one day!

 

- Romance and Rivalry

Author: AmayaOkami

Rating: Explicit

I AM SO HEARTBROKEN THAT THIS STORY IS NOT COMPLETE I CANT EVEN BEGIN TO EXPLAIN MY FEELINGS!!! Ugh, this story is soo freakin good! I know that this is another story that is popular in the Rivamika community but I have no choice but to put it here! The build up in this story is amazing that you can’t wait to read the next chapter to see what happens with Mikasa and Levi. This is such a great take on a typical romantic trope but AmayaOkami puts so much personality into the characters that it gives off such a fun and exciting vibe. The comedy and awkwardness is displayed so well that I have to stop reading because I get bad second hand embarrassment lol! Omg please read it even though its incomplete, its too much fun to pass up on. AMAYAOKAMI PLEASE I BEG YOU COME BACK AND FINISH THIS RIVAMIKA ROMCOM I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!!!!

One-Shot:

- Intertwining

Author: Livysan

Rating: Explicit

I’m staring off these one-shots with two of my favorite Rivamika “smut” stories. This is such a wonderfully written love scene between Mikasa and Levi. Livysan really expresses the yearning passion that Levi and Mikasa have for each and unfolds it in such a sweet and loving way. A must for any Rivamika fan to read.

- Until the Stars Disappear

Author: noiresetoiles

Rating: Mature

This is just an exquisitely done love scene between Levi and Mikasa I almost have no words for it. Its just down right BEAUTIFUL that pretty much all I can do to describe it. I really enjoyed how noiresetoiles decided to not use any dialogue in this story, it really shows how Mikasa and Levi’s actions tell how they really feel about each other. Again, a must read for Rivamika fans.

- Clean-Shaven

Author: hashire

Rating: Mature

The cute domestic fluff that we need from Levi and Mikasa! This is a one-shot but it is part of hashire’s Happily Ever After collection. The whole collection is about the domestic bliss between Mikasa and Levi after the war has come to an end. I definitely recommend reading the entire collection, you will not be sorry.  

- Pure Dawn

Author: sulkyfuckingcat

Rating: Explicit

A Holiday AU that has sexual tension and smut? Count. Me. In. Pure Dawn has all the build up and smutiness that any Rivamika fan needs if they are craving it. Go check it out if you haven’t, I know that its pretty popular in the Rivamika community and I can see why lol.

- Begging for Thread

Author: villanelle

Rating: Explicit

I believe that this one has been talked about a lot in the Rivamika community but I still have to leave it here just in case someone hasn’t heard about it. Its a must read. Written from the perspective of Levi the story explores his mindset as he is trying to deal with his emotions towards Mikasa. Mikasa has some taunting tendencies in this fic which I love as well.

- Looking Into the Heart of Light

Author: hashire

Rating: Explicit

Again, another domestic bliss fic about an eventful evening between Levi and Mikasa. Its a pretty quick read but its too cute to pass up. If your looking for a quick Rivamika fix then this is the fic for you.

[sleemo]

Daisy Ridley on finding fame, Star Wars and her love for washing powder

Stylist discovers how Daisy Ridley, London-born star of the biggest movie franchise in the world, became a force to be reckoned with — Stylist Magazine

Daisy Ridley is talking about her favourite washing powder.

“It has got to be Fairy Non-Bio, for sensitive skin. A little touch of fabric conditioner,” she tells me, happily. “God, I love washing my clothes.” Not the conversation I imagined as I flew to LA to hang out with the protagonist of the biggest movie franchise in the galaxy ahead of the anticipated arrival of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. But I’m happy to be immersed in it. The conversation sums up the actress: a normal 25-year-old woman thrust into an extraordinary world. A woman who’s a bit jittery from drinking strong coffee, she confesses.

The Last Jedi is steeped in secrecy. All Ridley can do is reassure me that “the question everyone is asking will be answered” (she is referring to the parentage of Rey, her Star Wars character). But what we do know is this: Ridley will be front and centre again.

The Force Awakens (2015) saw Rey, an orphan and scavenger on a desert planet, discover the Force and fight the First Order. The Last Jedi sees the young warrior develop her Jedi powers, with guidance from Luke Skywalker, and continue to seek her place in the world.

Rey was – is – important because she is not defined by the men around her. She is a talented pilot and combatant. She has been granted proper protagonist status; not just a cipher for plot development. Her costume is one she can move in. She is a survivor. There was an outcry – and a hashtag, #wheresrey – last year over the lack of female characters in the just-released Star Wars merchandise, which has since been addressed – but it is a sign that progress can be slow. Coincidentally, it’s the first time Ridley has seen the Rey mug we took to LA for our shoot.

In Princess Leia, played so powerfully by Carrie Fisher, Ridley had the ultimate beacon of how to be a woman in this world and the importance of inspiring a new generation. Fisher filmed The Last Jedi before her untimely passing in December 2016. Ridley says she offered her advice on dating (“You don’t want to give people the ability to say, ‘I had sex with Princess Leia’”) and fame, telling her to enjoy rather than shrink from success.

Whether Ridley has been able to take the latter on board… well, I can’t call it. “I found the hardest thing was everyone saying, ‘Your life’s going to change’,” says the actress, who grew up in London with two sisters and is still based in the capital. “So many people were telling me this thing was going to happen, then the thing happened and that didn’t happen. I go on the Tube, I’m not harassed all the time. People are super-cool.” But equally as we talk it becomes clear Ridley is in awe of the magnitude of the franchise, and is open about her fear of measuring up to the legacy.

Hardly surprising when you consider that The Force Awakens, the third-highest-grossing film of all time (after Avatar and Titanic), was Ridley’s second film role – the first was a student film – and before that she held bit parts in British TV dramas. This year also saw her join the all-star cast of Murder On The Orient Express, and next year will be equally dramatic with Ophelia – a retelling of Hamlet from the perspective of Polonius’s daughter. There’s more Star Wars to come, and Chaos Walking, a book adaptation about a dystopian world without women. Exciting, but perhaps not as much as putting a wash on.

What are the techniques you use when you feel like that?

I usually tell myself that I need to go through the thing. Don’t shy away from it. Definitely talk about it. Also just sleep. If something is overwhelming, I nap. If I have an emotional day, I’ll fall asleep when I get home. That’s how I process things. I can go to my trailer and fall asleep for five minutes, then get up again. It’s a good skill to have. I’d put it on my CV.

What other skills would you put on your CV? And when was the last time you had to write one?

Two and a half, three years ago… I’m an all right communicator. Pretty organised. Good phone manner. Can prioritise. Good at admin.

You’re hired. You quit Instagram last year. Has that freed up mental space?

It has made me feel like I wasn’t indebted to anyone. Suddenly I felt, ‘Oh, that must have been quite stressful, because now it is not that stressful any more being off it.’ I had a private one that I came off too, and that was much more freeing. People were saying, “But I like seeing what you’re doing.” I’d say, “Well, we can message or call each other.”

You talked openly about suffering from endometriosis on Instagram – was that a good platform to share that issue?

Periods are still not fully talked about; I thought it wasn’t a big deal. I know a lot of people who have really, really bad periods. I don’t understand why you aren’t referred to someone; you shouldn’t be doubled over in pain all the time. It felt nice to say. But ultimately, people [on social media] weren’t very nice and I thought, ‘I can’t be bothered.’

Why do we still have a taboo around periods?

I don’t know! You can have 300 people die in a film with blood everywhere, yet you can’t have period blood. It would be a 15 or an 18 [-rated film]. It’s stupid.

You have spent huge swathes of the year travelling and filming. What do you like to get up to when you’re in London?

I do my washing and sit on my sofa watching Netflix.

People may be surprised to know the protagonist of Star Wars does her own washing…

[Looks shocked] I don’t know anyone who doesn’t do their own washing. Washing is one of my favourite things. I’m a 30-degreeer. I literally wear clothes once and then they go in the wash. I think, ‘If I’m going to wash clothes this much, at least I will do it at just 30 degrees.’

To what extent do you try to live in an environmentally conscious way?

I hate how much plastic there is in America – and actually also in Prague, where I was just filming for two months. I watched an advert for [documentary] A Plastic Ocean and I thought, ‘S**t, this is gross.’ I try to use lower temperatures, I don’t use a dishwasher and I drive an electric car. I’ve always been fairly conscious. We’ve recycled since I can remember.

Are you vegetarian?

I don’t eat dairy, meat or eggs, but this only happened a few months ago as I watched Carnage, Simon Amstell’s film [a mockumentary on veganism]. And I was horrified. Initially I cut out everything and then thought, ‘I cannot survive without something’, so I eat fish. I was genuinely ignorant as to what went on. I didn’t know how dairy farming was done or what they did to male chicks, and I was so horrified by what I saw. Then I listened to his [Simon Amstell’s] podcast with Russell Brand, on which he said one of his friends was like, “Ugh, what is cashew cheese?” and he said, “Well, what is cheese cheese? What are you putting in your body?”

You’re studying for a degree in social sciences. What was the motivation? As a back-up in case this didn’t happen, or to expand your mind?

Not as a back-up. There’s something, mentally speaking, about having a back-up that’s not good. It’s to expand my mind, and I always wanted to have a BA. It’s an Open University course. One of the most interesting things I’ve learned is about social displacement. It usually happens when people don’t have much money and they’re treated very disposably. It feels like we’re going backwards. It doesn’t feel like all for one and one for all at the moment. The people who have more are able to get more. And then there are still people who are dying because they can’t afford to eat or have heating in England, which is horrific.

Did you grow up in a world where there was a great awareness of social injustices?

My mum and dad are super-smart, and so I was always aware of what was going on. My group of friends are all going through it together and everyone is becoming more interested, because it seems like everything is slightly more accessible. With Jeremy Corbyn, people are like, “Oh my god [a different type of politician]!” And regardless of whether people think he’s right or wrong, it’s amazing to see grime artists saying they support this guy. And to feel young people are engaged in something. It’s awesome to be part of that time and group of people.

It feels as though in 2017 there’s been a tangible mix of despair, but also hope because people have been coming together…

I remember talking to someone who I was working with the morning after the election and the announcement that the Conservatives were still in [power]. They said, “I hope that doesn’t mean people are going to stop talking about what’s going on.” But that’s the attitude that means people will stop talking about it. All you have to do is keep thinking the conversation will carry on and it will carry on. It seems hopeful, yes, but also despairing, because no matter the hope, these awful things that people haven’t asked for are still happening, and in a democracy that seems awful.

What do you think 25-year-olds are most worried about?

In London, rents are insanely high, so that’s one thing friends my age struggle with. The living wage, zero-hour contracts… but also having people in charge who do not listen to those who need it most.

You’ve been described as a bookworm. What is the book you’ve been most enchanted by of late?

I was recently harping on about Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter, which is amazing. I’m reading Tenant Of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë now, which is brilliant. I’m trying to get through  the classics – my mum gave me a list of them. I intercut them with chick lit or modern fiction. Reading has always been my thing. Last night I was doing a film quiz with a friend and her boyfriend, who is a film buff. My film knowledge is really poor because I read and didn’t watch films. He was asking me questions and I had no idea [what the answers were].

Is there a book that you would like to star in the adaptation of?

I’m adapting something now. I bought the rights, and a production company is writing it to be a series. It sounds far more serious when I say it out loud. It’s funny, these conversations when you’re like, “Sure, sure, it’ll never happen.” And then [it actually happens].

Will you star in it?

I know not. It depends when it’s is ready, and there are many things that don’t get to fruition. But it’s very exciting. John [Boyega, her Star Wars co-star] was saying last night he’s in the middle of adapting something, too. If people feel like their voices aren’t being heard, they can be the person to get their voice heard – and that’s a wonderful thing to be able to do.

You appeared on My Dad Wrote A Porno – Footnotes. What other podcasts do you listen to?

I listened to Serial and S-Town, which were good, but at the end I thought, ‘I don’t know quite what I’m going to take from this…’ I wanted to know who had been at fault. It was just awfully sad and so unexpected.

You mention that you didn’t enjoy watching yourself in Star Wars. Do you generally enjoy going to the cinema?

What I don’t like is people asking me questions or talking during films. The other day, I had to tell a group of guys [in the cinema] to put their phones away! And I went to see Cinderella at the Odeon and someone sat in front of me answered a phone call. I literally couldn’t believe it! Also, it was at the Odeon in Leicester Square – those tickets are so expensive. It was about £20.

If you were with your mum watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi, how would you react if she asked you a question?

None of my family ask questions [laughs]. I went to see a film with my friend once and she talked all the way through. I was fuming. Why would you ruin that? I like to concentrate. I’m trying to be better at not looking at my phone while I’m doing other things, as it is just too much for your brain. RuPaul’s Drag Race? I’m all there. The Graham Norton Show? I’m there. What’s the point in watching anything if you’re not going to concentrate on it? What is the point in doing something if you’re not going to do it properly?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in UK cinemas from 14 December.

Images: Rex Features / Photography: Eric Ray Davidson 

— Stylist Magazine

[xxhanabifireworksxx]

Top 10 Anime Couples

Tagged by @rays-of-fire-and-ice​ Thank you once again! 😘 I’ve never done this one before! Alright let’s start! This one might prove to be more difficult as I’m somewhat particular about ships. Honorable mentions: Renruki, Ichihime, (Bleach) Rivetra, Levihan,(Attack on Titan) Sanami, (One Piece) Gajevy, Nalu, Jerza (Fairy Tail), Edwin (FMA), Izuocha (BNHA)

10.Todomomo

I’ll admit I’m really new to this ship and I need to catch up with BNHA but they seem cute together. That one moment where Momo opens her uniform to use her quirk and Todoroki quickly looks away bad boy having pervy thoughts made me laugh.

9.Zorobin

There’s a bunch of moments that make me catch my breath with these two. I love how their relationship begins as the whole, �� What’s she plotting?” deal with Zorro being highly suspicious of her to “ You got carried away and said too much” when Kuma had stated to Zorro that she “had to die.” She didn’t by the way. Lots of good moments like this where he comes to her aid and she also comes to his. 

8.SoMa

A very cute ship. Also another pair where each party saves the other on numerous occasions. I’m a sucker though for the whole protective-guy-makes -sure-the-girl-doesn’t-get- hurt sort of thing.

That forehead tap we get asdfjkl; 

It still makes me mad to this day-why?! I for sure thought that they were going to kiss! 

7.Naruhina

This one ship is probably the oldest ship I have on this list. Naruhina I’ve followed for a longtime because Naruto was the first legit anime (I don’t know if you want to count Pokemon but at that time I didn’t really ship anything) that I watched and read. It was just a classic to me with the shy girl crushing on the loud and somewhat obnoxious boy. Polar opposites from each other. For years I followed Naruto always getting excited when they’d have a moment together. I never expected Naruto to end the way it did though so I throughly pleased when I found out they had been married with two kids! 

6. Gutsca 

One of the most romantic pairings I’ve ever come across. Very lovely to see this ship blossom into what it has become. Basically tsundere guy meets tsundere girl who basically dislike each other mainly Casca hating on Guts for having Griffith favor him instead.

 Not until they sit down and talk to each other heart to heart about their history do they start to fall in love. That moment where Casca lets herself fall off the side of the cliff and Guts going tumbling after her is where I fell for this pair. 

5.Royai

Another one of the older ships on this list. Royai has been with me for a longtime. I feel like watching Full Metal Alchemist was almost sort of a rite of passage for me into the anime community so it goes way back. 

The moment that Riza screams at Lust, “ You bitch!” when she learns Roy is probably dead is something that sticks with me and gives me chills. However when Roy made it back alive I cheered and it was then I realized I shipped them. Plus Riza has saved Roy’s ass on more then one occasion haha

4. Rinshi

Oh my god this ship is so pure. Shiemi starts off not trusting Rin because she realizes that he’s part demon. His attraction to her at first is extremely obvious to me. He blushes almost every time he talks to her or when she’s asking a favor or something of him. 

However on the other hand, she starts out thinking that she is not even worthy to be his friend but that all changes quickly. Opposite personalities as well here. Poor Rin thinking that she “friend zoned him” I think it’s much more then that though. 

3.Yatori

SO many moments with these two get me, ugh. I can’t get enough of mom/dad Hiyori/Yato with their fluff ball son Yukine 💖 haha The moment that Yato showed up for the FIRST time was when Hiyori was saying that there wasn’t anyone that she liked in her life as a s/o. From there on out I was hooked.

Their story is so good and even though Yato is a total goofball most of the time he is protective of her. Also when she regained her memory and he’s leaning over her concerned the way she cupped his face in her hand left me in tears. 

2.Gruvia

Gruvia has been with me for a bit. When I first watched Gray fight her I thought, “Well she’s clearly obsessed with him even though she’s trying to defeat him. I don’t know how this one is going to turn out.” So I kept on watching. In the end, when he caught her hand as she was falling it made me catch my breath. He did care about what happened to her even though he didn’t really let onto the fact during their fight.

Now with the end of Fairy Tail, I can see the culmination of their relationship. Gray’s attitude of brushing off her affections has nearly disappeared and he would clearly do anything for her even if it meant dying -and Juvia the same- as we saw in the recent manga chapters. These two genuinely care for each other.

1.Hitsuhina

*sigh* What did I do to deserve Hitsuhina? Honestly... This is my OTP and OTPs but perhaps one of the most underrated in Bleach. I knew from the moment that Toshiro was fighting against Gin how angry he had been that Momo had been turned against him. 

The words he spoke took the breath right out of me:

“You made her grip her sword so hard that her hands bled!” and

“I told you I would kill you if you made her bleed!” 

These words where spoken by a boy who truly cared for her and would protect her no matter the cost. I fell deep unlike I ever had for a ship before and ever since. After that I couldn’t see enough interactions between them. It never was enough. I fangirled every time they made it onto the screen. But of course, I can’t forget the angst. It may sound strange to say this, but the suffering they went through made me care more for both of them to the point where I just couldn’t tolerate it to see something bad happen to them. 

The moment where Toshiro stabbed her fucking hurt. The sorrow and pain I saw in his eyes at this tragic mistake shook me to my core. This reinforced to me just how special she was to him. 

To be honest, I could go on and on about these two but everything I would type would just never be enough to explain how special they’ve become to me.

I tag @johnnysjoestar @hitsougaya @yakitorii @salzrand