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chenfordsbby · 1 year ago

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"The Roundup"

Season 1 Episode 5: “The Roundup”

“Nolan, the rookies and their training officers get involved in a competition that pits them against each other; officer Lucy Chen notices officer Tim Bradford is obsessed with winning at all costs”

Original Air Date: November 20th, 2018

Directed By: Nelson McCormick

Written By: Elizabeth Beall

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A new episode! Im ready to get right into it!! This was a fun episode to do!!!!

The episode starts with our favorite trio out in the field, at some type of fair/event and we are introduced to a new Lucy hairstyle, her iconic braided buns and it is one of my favorite ones. There is visible tension between John and Lucy as they are freshly broken up, but that tension is oblivious to Jackson as he isn’t picking up on it, like at all. The break-up is one that was for the better but seeing John being all mopey as he is literally a grown man is an ick. Like get it together man! It doesn’t help with his longing pining as he overlooks Lucy talking to a firefighter, Antonio, who is by far better suited for her, mainly in the age range.

The premise of this show is about an older than average guy joining the police academy so it is to be expected that this first season would primarily revolve around John. I appreciate how he can be the hero and the comedic relief at the same time. For all the times he isn’t our favorite, we have to give credit where credit is due. John has some of the best one-liners and funny bits, that we have seen from everybody! I like that for him. On the complete opposite spectrum, he also shows heroic acts. I don’t know what made him wander into the side yard by those kids to quickly rush into the back yard, but thankful he did because he rescued the little boy who fell into the pool.

We have the introduction of a new character, John’s friend, Ben, who is also the owner of the house that John has been staying in. I mean, lets be real, did any of us think that house actually belonged to John!

In the roll call room, spirits are high as everyone knows what day it is: Roundup Day! I think this is the first time since episode 1, we’ve seen Tim excited and with a smile on his face. Angela and Jackson are just as excited and ready for this competition day. The rules are explained and the game is on.

We have not seen any previous Roundup days, but we know that Tim hasn’t lost in the past 5 years and he wants to continue his streak, so he makes sure that doesn’t happen. Enter Nell, another new character we are introduced to this episode. She is the precincts 9-1-1 dispatcher and Tim knows how to woo her to get what he wants: the first one she calls for any incoming calls and she does exactly that.

Angela and Jackson are returning to the precinct booking 2 felons before Tim and Lucy have even left the station…let the games begin.

Jackson and Angela respond to a call for a wellness check for a hospital disappearance. After checking in on the elderly gentleman, Mr. Walker, Jackson was too quick to dismiss the call and leaver after speaking to him where as Angela knows. She tells Jackson there’s something up with Mr. Walker and wander around to the side of the house and they witness him with a bag full of stolen drugs. Angela knows the signs and what to look for, that’s not say Jackson won’t, he will, he just needs to learn them through his training.

John is itching to get in on this game, so he makes the executive decision to enter into it himself but only after getting highly annoyed by firefighter Antonio who asks him about Lucy. I mean, you can’t fault the guy, he is young and Lucy is pretty.

Side Note: My fellow One Tree Hill fans!!! Skills!!!!! I love seeing other favorite actors on different shows!

Back in the “7-Adam-19” shop, Lucy initiates, or at least tries too, a personal conversation with Tim about Nell. He quickly shuts it down with his infamous, “I’m married, Officer Chen and this isn’t something you and I talk about”. (Again, I’m trying so hard to act as if I haven’t watched any other episodes/seasons but little does Tim know….) Stoic, emotionless Tim is activated as he tells her to keep her eyes out for the DUI suspect, much to Lucy’s dismay, as I think she’s just whole heartedly trying to get to know Tim, with no other ulterior motives, and he isn’t being receptive towards it. They come up on the DUI suspect and Lucy is taken aback with Tim as he is reading him his Miranda rights as well as demanding a blood sample while basically bleeding out before the ambulance takes him away. Lucy is associating the DUI suspect as a human who was severely injured and not as a drunk driver who possibly killed a child and committed a serious crime. I think this is where we start to see her empathy start to show. No matter TIm’s feelings or not towards this suspect, he’s being a police officer. He needs to demand and obtain the blood sample before its too late for the drivers victim or else it will all be for nothing. Lucy will eventually learn that.

In the shop again, Lucy is clearly annoyed with Tim after his behavior and actions with the DUI suspect. Tim picks up on it as well based on her attitude towards him that she isn’t happy, but he explains it needed to happen. Her annoyance continues as she thinks he seems more interested in racking up points on the scoreboard than prioritizing the arrests of the bank robbers in front of them, which is not the case per Tim, because he can do both! Tim is smarter than them, as he proves it when he pepper sprays them out of the money truck. As good as Lucy is, her methods of policing still reflect naively.�� Lucy would’ve just waited around for back up if it weren’t for Tims quick thinking methods and they both gain points making 2 more arrests. Let us all just very much appreciate the bickering of Tim and Lucy literally bickering like an old married couple so early on, and it is only the beginning of this beautiful relationship!

It’s a nice sight to see Captain Anderson again!

Getting closer to the end of the episode, is usually when all of the separate storylines wrap up and merge into one larger one, as we see visible when John, Talia, Tim and Lucy come together to take down these Mob bosses. I don’t think Lucy meant to trip and fall, but it helped with all of the arrests, so Go Lucy!! It seems to be a trend, but I like this way of ending episodes, with some, if not all of the characters working together to achieve the common goal!! A great way to include the entire ensemble!

This is the first time we really see Lucy interact with Angela and again with Talia. So far, we’ve only really seen her mainly with Jackson and John, personally and Tim, professionally. Lucy overhears the girls trying to decide what to do with their own points and how to divvy them up and when she puts things together, she realizes that they are doing it all in the sake for Tim so he can win. It’s brought full circle because of Isabel. Tim and Isabel used to excel as partners in the Roundup, so of course this would be a sensitive day for Tim. Angela and Talia were witnesses to those years prior and know how different this year looks so they need to too this for him. Lucy took note how much this competition means to Tim but Talia and Angela knew the importance and meaning all along.

Angela announces Tim and Lucy as the winners, now 6 years for Tim and the first for Lucy and Tim is thrilled. He remains the reigning champion, yes, it probably boosts his ego a little, but at the end of the day, he needed to win it for his own mental health. A reminder of what was once good between the relationship that once was with him and Isabel.

Jackson is still struggling with, I suppose, his self worth of being a cop. He knows that he got to where he is at because of his dad, but Angela encourages him to prove where he can go in spite of his dad. I love that for them. This friendship is quickly growing on me!

John and Lucy still seemingly pining for each other is becoming old quick. It is clear as day that Lucy is so far out of Johns league. She doesn’t need him and she really never did. I think the relationship started out of convenience and maybe even boredom while in the academy. At this point, just be done, and move on.

The episode ends with John (of course) and his friend Ben, who may be the best thing that The Rookie introduced us to so far. Ben and his wise words is what John needs to hear: maybe its time for him to be alone for a while and see where that gets him….only time and watching more episodes will tell!

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Honorable Mention: Lucy’s Braids! I wish they kept this hairstyle longer!

Episode Peak: Tim winning The Roundup.

Episode Pit: There really wasn’t anything that bad in this episode, so none for this week!

Quote of the Episode: “We’re not robots, Officer Nolan. We all have our bad days but our bad days pale in comparison to the people we meet” - Talia Bishop

Episode Rating: 8/10. This episode was a quick and easy watch. Nothing too major happening but not too slow either. We got some solid baby Chenford crumbs in it as well! I liked it!

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I decided to start adding pictures throughout the blog! I'm thinking it add a little extra spice to it!

Another one down! I definitely took a different approach to this recap, I don’t know why, it just felt way better to recap it in episode order, rather than by the parings and relationships. I guess it will all depend on the episodes for my blog style, but I am not minding it! They are also getting way easier and more fun to do! 5 down, 15 to go for season 1! My god I am flying through these!! This one also is probably my shortest review but that’s okay!! They all don’t have to be super long!!!

Until next time in “Get in the Shop”… ;)

#The Rookie #1x05 #The Roundup #Tim Bradford #Lucy Chen #John Nolan #Talia Bishop #Angela Lopez #Jackson West #Melissa O'Neil #Eric Winter #Get in the Shop: the rookie re-cap blog #Chenford #The Rookie 1 x 05 #Tim x Lucy #Lucy x Tim #I love doing this so much #I can't wait to hear thoughts on this episode #thank you for continuing to stick around

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the-firebird69 · 7 months ago

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The reaction is a little strange. Here these guys are saying show us more tell us more let him grow and things like that you need the full set and then we can shrink them down and stuff like that and then they say you can't drink them down he's throwing his brain and was supposed to use it and stuff and they argue a little and there's fights going on and basically to say we see it and it is happening and it has been happening there are a couple of spirits but it just look like fat now that's the differences and see what's covered up for a couple years and it's going on now that they see that he is really kind of a child and it happens to them a little for some reason it's because of their DNA and it's going on like that right now. Different people's are reacting in a different way those are more lock reactions the Trump morlock I was saying indeed it's going to be useful we have this and this we can point at and all this weird stuff and they're talking about threatening people and threatening our son and threatening people who look like him and with the build like his the referencing Brad a lot and Brad is going to start hitting these people on the other people are referencing too and their bodybuilders and he hates them and hated them at first it says even though he is one they're going to beat the s*** out of the guy meaning they're going to break it out and it's going to come down to it tonight he has such a big mouth and he's going to go visit them he is an abhorrent loser this guy is a massive massive eagle problem person ego he has a very small ego he has a very undeveloped ID he is not trained to resist most things and he is going to get the s*** kicked out of him for what he's saying to people and he's Jonathan Lithgow and he's teaching people how to dance and he's showing them what they can do and then he turns into a monster and I don't know what it is people say thank you and they get them things and stuff then he says you're not really supposed to have this blessing and things and he's horrible about it it's not a great dancer but he does get them going and you know it's not right it is right he's not an elitist like he says he's not strong inside or outside and he goes on and on and he's just a weird person it's iconic but so his comments were very bad and it's psychotic not ironic and he is going to help he's already bothering big people and he's jealous envious and very dark and evil about it and he and he's our son so much that people had to shut him up by force already today and their son's position is worse than his and a lot of ways and he is completely obliviate oblivious and has ruined that angle and doesn't get it he just does not get it and he's saying it too and really he he has lost it and her son says the person I used to know as Joel and Aaron is gone and pretty much what we're left with is Jonathan let's go sometimes awake person mostly is psychotic and nobody likes it so is it too and they hear him laughing and saying he's greatness is a perfect example of what he's become and there's several characters like that when she is now that are his and he's had a lot of characters mostly other people are playing them now and he goes back and he plays them and tries to take them over hey gets hit and it doesn't offer a few people in the future and his people get wiped out and it's his direct clones and kids and really they hate him the people he's doing it to are his own clothes but he has these pretorian guard guys and people think Dave made him and people think the max did and it's not true either you just made a whole bunch of the same of him and he regrets it sometimes but he's an a****** about it

Other people think that's great we're going to have a real huge guy on the block again like the two big fellows and they think they'll probably be more and everybody's going to try and get big and it'll be some sort of grunting animal place and a lot of people think that mostly morlock cuz that's what happens and they know they hiss like madness at him already and it'll get worse but really there trying to find us and it lights them up a lot they're going to start blabbing and they're going to get their asses handed to them in the morning in moments and non-stop from now on

A lot of foreigners think it is great and they're going to go around talking about it but really they're trying to find us and they think that they'll have these trades some of us have these traits we have to tell you and we're putting alerts out real ones and big ones that you should watch your step you should sign up and get away from these and you can call us if you need help immediately using our method there's not a ton of us but we are out there and we are telling them

Other reactions from people who are not affected on the human level are wow he's pretty big and he's going to be huge and we got to get going on this and really they are all like this they all want to grab them yeah but they want to grab others they all want to see what we look like and they want to see how to do it no they want to see how to find us and our son and daughter are right they're doping with KJ blue and with spice and are going to be killing each other shortly and it's very true a lot of Macs are they have similar traits

They say they'll take that as well and we say you won't take hours and we're moving out but that is the reaction he is a big fella with a big heart and he understands it and it was nervous about it pretty much the whole time we're talking but it'll wear off and hours will be forced to sign on out where we are too they'll see it in here in a lot more it's coming out now thankfully this is going to work.

We give him a period of about 6 weeks before he becomes 6 ft tall and about 280 lb and muscular from here to that point he's going to be changing and growing at the end of this month which is almost over about a week and a half he should gain probably a quarter to a half and it will change this physiology and he'll start healing a lot easier the oxygen level is going up the higher it goes the battery heals and the factory heals tons of these little ships were taken out from the offshore area the southwest Florida area the whole Southwest and the west and some of the northwest and from 1 to 5 miles and from 5 to 15 as soon as we're going to be done with the inner band. And that will probably be early next week and then we'll start diamond mining and they'll be rough fighting here but the oxygen levels by the beginning of next week will be very high by comparison all day long it's going to be about 18 and it will keep coming in and then it will go up to about 20 in the evening and 24 at night steady with spikes up to 27 for a few minutes to an hour and then in the morning it will be a solid 20 to 23 until about 8:00 a.m. and back to 18 and this will continue for a week and a half then it will start to become 20 all day long almost more like 19 and up to 21 in the morning in the evening and 25 at night and that's because more tunnels will be unplugged and the LG that grows out there is going to stay out there for some time it does move slowly away but they're going to be opening more holes that are bigger and more ounce of informing even though it's further out a lot more oxygen will be made and growth will start on the ocean floor once you get out about 20 to 30 miles it's going to be tons of stuff and I'm just going to start up first week of May when they start pulling the ships out they will start sitting out yet the holes and they will start to affect change that way they're also going to be going around the tip and up all the way to the border and it's going to be fast and they're going to be doing that starting next week they're prepping for it now and moving people in it's going to be a madhouse this weekend with people coming down they're going to go into the rings and trying to attack them again and it's going to be a battle we expect them to lose there were 120 households in this neighborhood with the original regions and they are now 110 about 50% were Trump and 40% of VGA and the rest were miscellaneous and our son do the miscellaneous and tonight the anticipate 20 households will go out and they have to and it is over diamonds too in a small chips and a son said that to John remillard and he said why would that be and he said Reverend blue jeans and you forgot about your son

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tired-demonspawn · 9 months ago

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netflix avatar episode 5-8!

(i binged the rest of it in one go)

funky lil thoughts on a funky lil show :)

fair warning i'm going to shit on it a lot for the majority of this post but dont be fooled into thinking i hated it, i just like to nitpick in long spanning paragraphs.

okay we are fully fully going into doing their own thing territory in episode 5 and somewhat episode 6, i tried and failed multiple times to guess which episodes are they going to do and it turned out they only took the base ideas from them and almost fully did their own thing. aside from the blue spirit bits

i actually think its nice, they were shaving the episode count to the point where they only mentioned some episodes, which i can just feel deep in my bones someone already getting mad about, but i think its fine that they did it this way. they make a little remix of it. :)

koh was creepy as shit man fr i hated the 2 jumpscares god almighty. it was awesome. i didnt like the weird cgi for his face, but i got used to it eventually. i think it was certainly a choice to have him appear in ep 5 instead of how they learn of the spirits. they changed his mechanics, apparently he can just???? steal faces??? whenever???? they make it a food thing instead of a "lmao i wanna impress my mom so imma steal the faces she makes"

also mother of faces mention! ...not smething i expected thats for sure. and the fog of lost souls too.

they make kuruk pick up his slack fr, did not expect that.

i love in episode 6 that zuko and aang are forced to interact, that they have to talk to each other and in a certain way influence each other, give both a lil bit to think about beyond "if we knew each other back then, do you think we could've been friends?"

i really dont like that zuko fights back in the agni kai, makes the shit ozai did i lil less impactfull, little less brutal in the audiences eyes i think. the execution style burn he got in the cartoon was more caroonishly evil, yes, but it also showed more of zuko's character yknow? he refused to fight out of principle, he was loyal, he was "the perfect fire nation citizen" and yet that wasnt good enough.

also we got robbed of "you will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher", which is kinda wild considering how many of the shows lines got put in verbatim. they felt so strongly about pippinpaddleopsikopolis the third that they used it somewhere else when they didnt use it in omashu. but this iconic line couldnt make it in?

I also dislike this version of him speaking out, this is the first time we are hearing of an agni kai, since zhao and zuko didn’t go at it. We don’t know what it is we haven’t been introduced to it, so it being invoked now means nothing to the audience.

And i don’t think the slight was big enough for ozai to justify a duel with a child. Like before he was supposed to be quiet and his outburst was a) disruptive b) immediate upon hearing the plan c) defended the soldiers themselves, “those soldiers love and defend our nation, how can you betray them” but now its about the honor of the officers which I don’t think has as big an impact. Plus I think its actually a less “egregious” position from ozai’s side yknow? In the first version he not only defended the lives of the soldiers but said the council was betraying them in doing what they were doing. Here he just said they deserve to die better than that. Sure cartoon ozai would’ve fucked him up for less, but this ozai? This ozai who invited him to the meeting? Who asked his opinion? Who actually acknowledges that him finding the avatar was impressive? No shot he invokes an agni kai over this.

was the bit about being impressed just for the sake of fucking with azula? yeah. but imma get to that later.

live action zuko and cartoon zukos are 2 different people, which while i respect, from the stance that the showmakers are doing their own thing, i also think caroon zuko was always good. he was always peaceful, always kind. its just he got that shit beaten outta him and he compensates by being angry. this zuko is less kind, more honour bound. which is ironic considering which one of the two was constantly talking about his honor. not that he isnt kind at all, but i think we got robbed of some of the character moments he had in the show.

as much as i love the ending of ep 6 where the 41st salute him(love that they made his crew the 41st btw), i would've liked to actually see the scene from The Storm, where he gives up on the hunt for the avatar for the sake of his crew's safety. he has these moments on his own, in irohs presence, but i do think we needed to see the crew also have this.

but they add new character moments! like the recovering post agni kai, being told of his banishment. absolutely god-tier scene. and the little moment with iroh after zhao takes away aang. very nice scene, i actually like that he already has treason on the mind. episode 6 is by far my favourite. did i know it was gonna be my favourite even before starting this show because my favourite book 1 episode is the blue spirit? yeah. but i dont think that diminishes anything.

now. ozai. my mans. mr god-sculpted cheekbones. conceptually im fine with him fucking with everyone, but i am ashamed to admit that it took zhao spelling it out for the audience for me to get that thats what he was doing. i was 100% convinced he was sincere, that he had just wanted the best heir to the throne of the glorious fire nation or something. and while i am tempted to say that that is on my dumb ass for being stupid, i actually want to blame the show a little bit, because where do we see that he's not sincere? nowhere. he's not cruel to zuko, he seems to mean it when he speaks with azula about him finding the avatar, he gives no indication to the audience that what he says to him about the whole toughing up the spirit with banishment isnt sincere. he comes across as a deeply abusive father that however at the end of the day wants his children to be the best but goes about it in the most horrific ways.

maybe that's what they were going for? a master manipulator that plays his own twisted little game noone but himself is privy to, but on the surface it seems like he cares in his twisted little way? im trying very hard to look at this without the cartoon lense, but its so unbelievably hard.

for a show that usually spoonfeeds stuff like this throughout their runtime its wild that they would decide to go "here comes the airplane" this "late"

ah now i see where all of sokkas cartoony sexism fled, it went to pakku. that's so whack. his character wasnt that good to begin with but you further masacre him.

mans says himself water is the element of change, so i thought oh alright his eventual training of katara is gonna be that much nicer if he already has this down. i mean i was fine with them not doing the neclace thing, it was kinda cheesy in the show anyway, but i was expecting that turnaround due to the students. i wanted to see pakku go "mmm yes perhaps i could teach you a thing or two" after he sees his students enamored with her skill.

also what was yagodas turnaround? she was just as much into the tradition as pakku was, but suddenly she's on katara's side? all the other women are too? sure okay.

also katara didnt need to be entirely self taught, come the fuck on, she loses to pakku the same way but suddenly with no further training shes takin down zuko, shes a commander of them other waterbenders.

being entirely self taught is nice and all, but there are just certain things you dont figure out on your own. i speak from experience on this, yeah sure i can draw some guy on my own, but even a short 3 week course taught me so much more in terms of composition, perspective, camera shots, things you wouldnt even think about because they just don't come to mind as even being relevant. its that way for everything. there are just certain dots that can only be connected with the guide of someone else.

now i have to mention something that kinda bothered me by the end: in avatar: book 1 - water(although to be fair i dont think it was marketed as such) the avatar... doesnt learn waterbending. the only thing he did with water was the giant koi and well that doesnt really count does it, that was la being angry at zhao for killing tui. speaking of: i wanted to see la get the W, i wanted to see zhao taken by the glowy sea. i wanted to see zuko reach out to him, despite them being enemies.

also they take away irohs part in the restoring of balance which i think nicely foreshadowed him being a white lotus member. yeah yeah it was to make yue's sacrifice more her own choice but i really wanted him to be at least present.

onto more positive stuff i actually like a lot of the changes made to yue. makes her not just be that one random girl at the end of book one that got turned into the moon, it was yue, this actual person with dreams and motivations that sacrificed herself for the good of the world.

was the character that got added to her written kinda badly? yeah. but does that negate my point? i hope not.

i was kinda on the fence with the removal of the betrothal thingy and making hahn a decent guy, but eh... it grew on me. however it did raise a question... how old is everyone? cuz she called off the marriage at 16, but she was 16 in the show, it certainly isnt a fresh wound or hahn wouldn't've been that chill with it. im thinking 2 years, that seems about right, for the actors too. yeah i can believe aang is 14 and zuko 18, id buy that.

perhaps their canonical age is somewhere but i sure as hell dont know where.

but that train of thought did kinda answer the fact that sokka went ice dodging. i was super confused about that. but if everythings the same, just the timeline is shifted 2 years then yeah he would go ice dodging. ofc that opens the other can of worms of why didnt he go fight in the war with them if he underwent the fuckin uhhh maturity test? was it because he failed just that spectacularly? fuck if i know. i dont think the show knows either.

as a more overall thing i dont like aangs dialogue, its a more broad issue. He just doesnt seem like a kid yknow? Like even katara and sokka are more childish, they act like children who had to grow up too fast, but aang didnt have to grow up too fast, he should be forced to grow up within the span of the series. Not be the most downer adult one of them. Especially with that he said to bumi in episode 4 about solvin shit like a kid

but okay. that was mega negative goddamn.

for my closing thoughts id like to say that i really enjoyed the show. and look forward to season 2. i like the little remix of the mythos they've got goin on and i wanna see how they continue that into book 2 and hopefully book 3.

it tries to do something original, it is an adaptation after all. if you dont like it you can still watch the cartoon series, but this is a nice lil alternate version of it and i wont say that i dont like it. do i have my nitpics? sure. is the dialogue mediocre? hell yeah. but i want to see where it goes next. :)

very cool series, overall like a 7 outta 10? masks(ep 6) is the best episode, its prbly the only one id rewatch on my own without friends.

thanks for reading :)

#avatar the last airbender #atla #netflix atla #netflix avatar #natla #this shit got 2.1 k words oh lord #if you read this whole thing good for you my god

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froothjuce · 11 months ago

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The youtube mobile channel page redesign is fundementally wrong (big suprise, i know) (longe post)

why the hell is the banner in a box. just put the last fuckin vestige of customization we have left in an even smaller box so it looks like shit. fucking of course. its called a fucking channel banner they literally had it put together so it fit to the screen and it looked fine but NOOOO everything gotta conform to their "shove everything in fucking rounded boxes" aesthetic because fuck you and common decency i guess.

so heres the previous layout, courtesy of an old screenshot i took

and, like, this layout works. the spread fits well and acts as a good divider on the header on initial appearance

frankly in general I'm just tired of people rounding edges that really shouldn't be rounded

they did it to the video player on desktop, and i dont care if all you miss is like 15 pixels, its still really dumb just in concept

they want everything to be as bland and inoffensive as possible for the fucking adwords money, and they're applying the same principle to their fucking web design. they are burning our balls off for the insurance money.

this website is the only thing making me realize i'm not taking crazy pills and that literally everything is getting worse in more ways then even most people are talking about.

and you wanna know the fucking cherry on top? of all of this? here's the previous layout before that.

(only image i could find on short notice.)

…thats right. the new layout is just a much shittier version of the older one. like, i could get behind left aligning the icon. cause thats how they do it on desktop, it makes sense, you know?

and double guess, lets go back to the original goddamn One UI layout, the initial "taking the horse of user customizability and fun out back and shooting it to death." inciting incident.

(ignore that this image is like 5 pixels)

THIS IS A BETTER LAYOUT THAN WHAT WE HAVE NOW. THE LITERAL FIRST VERSION WOULD BE BETTER THAN THE FUCKING PRODUCT OF THE SHAREHOLDER ROOM THROWING DARTS AT THEIR DICK TO DECIDE HOW TO SIZE THE ELEMENTS.

and i have no doubt in my mind that they're gonna continue to make it worse somehow. they will take every last ounce of customization we have left. because thats what they always do. trust nobody. nothing is ever safe. THIS FUCKING WEBSITE ISNT EVEN SAFE HAVE YOU SEEN THE STATE OF THINGS AROUND HERE? and before you say "oh just use fucking blungovidupload" BUDDY ALL THOSE WEBSITE ARE EITHER FILLED WITH RACISTS OR HAVE AN VIEWERBASE OF LIKE THREE PEOPLE. THERES NO FUCKING WORTHWILE PLACE TO RUN. WE ARE ALL FUCKED. especially me, who was kinda banking on being able to at least hit something on youtube, because i feel like i probably couldn't handle the world as it is without fucking breaking my entire spirit to a depressing extent due to the current state of, like, everything.

its weird to end this incoherent rant on a bleak note, but its true. nothing we do matters in this context. because they hit it big, and they don't care about us. honestly, people say kill them with kindness? i dont get it. we've tried compassion, it doesn't work. i am beyond the need for compassion. i run on spite, anger, and shitposting. at all times.

god gives her shittiest website designs to her most mentally unwell internet history gals

#froot gets mad at stuff #youtube #ui design #enshittification #posts that are probably too long

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atlanticcanada · 1 year ago

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With the fate of Titanic-bound submersible clear focus turns to cause of the fatal implosion

The search for a missing Titanic-bound submersible has become an investigation and salvage mission that will take an indefinite amount of time, officials said, as tributes from around the world poured in for the five people killed when the vessel imploded deep in the North Atlantic.

The announcement Thursday that all aboard perished when the submersible imploded near the site of the iconic shipwreck brought a tragic end to a five-day saga that included an urgent around-the-clock search and a worldwide vigil for the vessel known as the Titan.

The investigation into what happened was already underway and would continue in the area around Titanic where debris from the submersible was found, said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.

"I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now," Mauger said, adding that it was a "complex case" that happened in a remote part of the ocean and involved people from several different countries.

The first hint of a timeline came Thursday evening when a senior U.S. Navy official said that after the Titan was reported missing Sunday, the Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an "anomaly" that was consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the vessel was operating when communications were lost. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.

Those killed were Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submersible; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

OceanGate, which has been chronicling the Titanic's decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021 that included paying tourists, released a statement calling all five people killed "true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans."

Tributes to those killed and praise for the searchers who tried to save them poured in from across the globe. The White House thanked the Coast Guard, along with Canadian, British and French partners who helped in the search and rescue efforts.

"Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on the Titan. They have been through a harrowing ordeal over the past few days, and we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers," it said in a statement.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry wrote on Twitter that it appreciates "the multinational efforts over the last several days in search of the vessel." The Dawood family also thanked all involved in the search.

"Their untiring efforts were a source of strength for us during this time," the family said in a statement. "We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues and well-wishers from all over the world who stood by us during our need."

Harding's family said in a statement: "He was one of a kind and we adored him... What he achieved in his lifetime was truly remarkable and if we can take any small consolation from this tragedy, it's that we lost him doing what he loved."

The Titan launched at 6 a.m. Sunday and was reported overdue Sunday afternoon about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland. Rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance.

Authorities were hoping underwater sounds detected Tuesday and Wednesday might help narrow their search, whose coverage area had been expanded to thousands of miles -- twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep.

Any sliver of hope that remained for finding the crew alive, however, was wiped away early Thursday, when the submersible's 96-hour supply of air was expected to run out and the Coast Guard announced that a debris field had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic.

"The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber," Mauger said.

The Coast Guard said Thursday that the sounds heard in the previous days were likely generated by something other than the Titan.

"There doesn't appear to be any connection between the noises and the location (of the debris) on the seafloor," Mauger said.

The Navy official who spoke of the "anomaly" heard Sunday said the Navy passed on the information to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the Navy did not consider the data to be definitive.

A longtime friend and colleague of Nargeolet told French media that when contact was lost Sunday, he quickly feared the worst.

"Unfortunately, I thought straight away of an implosion," diver and retired underwater filmographer Christian Petron said Friday to broadcaster France-Info. At the depths in which the submersible was operating, the pressures are intense and unforgiving -- equivalent to hundreds of kilograms weighing down on each square centimeter, he noted.

"Obviously, the slightest problem with the hull and its implosion is immediate," Petron said.

He opined that Nargeolet was aware of the risks but would have been powered by a thirst for further exploration of the Titanic wreck and its fauna and flora.

Director James Cameron, who has made multiple dives to the wreckage of the Titanic, told the BBC that he knew an "extreme catastrophic event" had happened as soon as he heard the submersible had lost navigation and communications at the same time.

"For me, there was no doubt," Cameron said. "There was no search. When they finally got an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) down there that could make the depth, they found it within hours. Probably within minutes."

He said briefings about 96 hours of oxygen supply and banging noises were a "prolonged and nightmarish charade" that gave the crew members' families false hope.

At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate's submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic shipwreck. But questions about the submersible's safety were raised by both by a former company employee and former passengers.

David Lochridge, OceanGate's former director of marine operations, argued in 2018 that the method the company devised for ensuring the soundness of the hull -- relying on acoustic monitoring that could detect cracks and pops as the hull strained under pressure -- was inadequate and could "subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible."

"This was problematic because this type of acoustic analysis would only show when a component is about to fail -- often milliseconds before an implosion -- and would not detect any existing flaws prior to putting pressure onto the hull," Lochridge's attorneys wrote in a wrongful termination claim.

OceanGate disagreed. Lochridge "is not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan," it said, and it noted he was fired after refusing to accept assurances from the company's lead engineer that the acoustic monitoring and testing protocol was, in fact, better suited to detect any flaws than a method Lochridge proposed.

One of the company's first customers likened a dive he made to the site two years ago to a suicide mission.

"Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can't stand. You can't kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other," said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. "You can't be claustrophobic."

Loibl said the dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights, pushing the length of the voyage to 10 1/2 hours, much of it conducted in near darkness to save batteries.

Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, England, said the disappearance of the Titan highlights the dangers and unknowns of deep-sea tourism.

"Even the most reliable technology can fail, and therefore accidents will happen. With the growth in deep-sea tourism, we must expect more incidents like this."

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Lolita C. Baldor in Washington; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Danica Kirka in London; Gene Johnson in Seattle; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/SB9WYMs

#new brunswick #prince edward island #nova scotia #news #politics #canada #CTVAtlantic

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astranva · 4 years ago

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TikTok Compilation (pt.2)

Word Count: 1.8k

Category: Fluff

Warning: Some language, very, very slight implied smut; like, it’s a line.

Summary: Yet another compilation of Y/N and Harry content on TikTok as a couple.

// masterlist //

a/n i’ve been receiving loads of tiktok requests so i combined some here! y’all have been asking for this for so long, sorry it took me long to post! let me know what you think. stay safe, friends!

Surely, you had hoped life would have taken a turn a long time ago with the pandemic.

Going outside without masks and crippling fear seemed like a dream, despite it all having been a reality for most of our lives. And while it was cliché, you truly don’t know what you have until it’s gone, like the boring routine you had complained about but now wished to get back.

And in your case, you also didn’t know that one app could have the ability to make things slightly easier during these times – TikTok.

Call it as you may, but quarantine TikTok content was a blessing and while you could swear by that, so could the fans and everyone else on the app since the moment you (and Harry) joined.

Having had tried so many pranks, challenges, and dances, you showed no signs of coming to an end of finding humor and pleasure from the app that Gen Z dominated with the wildest spirits.

With wild spirits, came wild content and for a generation that is openly expressive, there was also wholesome content; all of which Harry’s fans had tagged you to do and try with him.

‘Make your partner impersonate you’

For that one, Harry seemed to be the most excited to do, face beaming with a thousand spiraling ideas of things he could do and say.

The moment the video began, Harry was seen under your white covers, your pink velvet headband that everyone considered iconic rested on his head to show that he was acting like you, pretending to be sleepy as he spoke in a softer voice than his, “Don’t want to get up. More cuddles, please, baby.”

Then video then cut to Harry in the kitchen, you following behind him.

“I wonder where H is, need to pinch his bum.” He said in the same pitch he used for the previous shot.

The video then cut to Harry sitting on the couch beside you, holding his phone, “Baby, look at that!” He showed you his phone, showing you a video on TikTok, “Can we do it?”

‘Wipe your lips after your bf kisses you’

For this, you were picking Harry up from the studio.

Waiting in the parking lot, you had your phone placed behind the box of tissues.

To stay safe, you began recording a normal video for you to edit later as you waited for Harry to show.

When he did, Harry looked right and left as he searched for your car before his eyes fell on you and despite the mask on his face hiding half of it, you could tell that he smiled.

Getting inside the car, Harry took off his mask with a sigh, “First time to actually breathe since morning.” He said before leaning closer to you, pressing his lips against yours.

Doing your part, you looked ahead as you wiped your lips with the back of your hand, noticing Harry’s body stiff as he looked at you.

“Did you just-” He paused, “Did you wipe your lips?”

You hummed in confusion, acting as if you hadn’t heard him as you looked at him.

“Did you-Come here,” he frowned before pulling you close by your hoodie’s drawstrings, pressing his lips against yours in a kiss again.

Again, you wiped your lips.

“Why are you doing that?” He asked, not only confusion being evident in his tone, but hurt, too, “Why are you wiping my ki-Babe, I’m clean.”

“What?” You asked, looking at him as you smiled amusingly, trying to contain your laughter.

“Why are you wiping my kiss?” Harry almost whined, frowning.

“I’m sorry, it’s for TikTok,” you giggled, breaking into laughter when he groaned with a roll of his eyes before he grabbed your jaw, kissing your lips more aggressively.

“Never again.”

‘Let go of your partner’s hand and see what they do’

If there was one thing Harry liked to brag about, it was knowing how to multitask; drive with one hand, hold yours with the other.

It was a natural occurrence for the both of you to hold hands when he drove, no matter what.

Deciding to try that one trend, you took advantage of Harry being focused on the road to film your intertwined hands on your thigh for two seconds before taking your hand out of his.

Instantly, Harry glanced at you, seemingly unaware to you tilting your phone in the other hand to film his face, “Why’d you leave my hand?” He only mumbled before opening his palm towards you once again, smiling when he heard you softly giggle as you put your hand back in his, cooing when he raised it his lips, pressing a soft and gentle kiss on your knuckles, “This stays right here.”

‘Film yourself acting like your partner’

Since the TikTok of Harry acting you like received so many reactions, among them were fans asking you to act like Harry as well, and Harry was down to watch that happen.

Harry recorded you, first shot of video being a little shaky as he couldn’t contain his giggles while watching you in his flared pants, an oversized shirt, his cross pendant on your neck between the valley of your chest, rings on your fingers that showed chipped black polish on your nails.

Your hair was gathered up in a scrunchie, one leg over the other as you sat on a chair, “I’m Harry Styles,” you began, “And like, I never explain my music, I let people interpret it the way they want because music,” you sucked a breath, “Is art. It’s a form of expression that isn’t limited, it’s, like, very open. Like the ocean.” You said slowly, mimicking Harry’s accent and smiling at the end when Harry burst out laughing.

For the next shot, you were in Harry’s white bathrobe, coming out of the bathroom before leaning on the doorframe and looking at Harry as he filmed you, “You sure you’re going to let me shower alone, love?”

Another shot was of you in Harry’s joggers and TPWK black hoodie, sprawled on your couch with the hood on, looking at Harry in disbelief as you still mimicked his accent and deep voice, “Excuse me? Why are you standing there and not cuddling me?”

In a grey tank top of his that you dramatically spilt water on to make it look like sweat and sweat shorts, you had Harry’s boxing gloves on your hands as you bumped your fists together, approaching Harry as he recorded, “God, I’m so sweaty, I have to go hug my girlfriend.”

For the final shot, you had Harry’s guitar in your arms, adjusting the strap as you stood, “I’m going to write a song that is so sexual and record it but I’m not going to release it because I’m a biiiiiitch.” You sang, dramatically strumming the guitar.

‘Pretend to take a mirror selfie with your partner then whisper something dirty in their ear’

You enjoyed the sun; the way it sneaked inside yours and Harry’s room from the sides of your curtains, lit up the room so warmly.

You enjoyed how the natural lighting looked for pictures.

You also enjoyed teasing the shit out of your boyfriend.

“Come here,” you made one grabby hand at Harry who entered the room, scratching his chin, “Let’s take a picture.”

Already used to random pictures being taken together, Harry reached you, standing in front of your vanity mirror as he wrapped his arms around you from behind, pressing a kiss against your temple.

Oblivious to it being a video, Harry leaned his chin on your shoulder, giving his famous smug look to the mirror as you held up your phone.

Turning your head, you made sure your voice was low so that your phone wouldn’t pick what you said;

“Want you to pound me.”

And instantly, Harry’s smug look faltered; his eyes widening, face brightening as he looked at you as you giggled before releasing a squeal once you felt him carry you and move you from where you stood, and to the bed as you laughed.

‘Tell your partner your ex wants to return a hoodie of yours’

Propping your phone up, you made sure it showed Harry as he cooked while you sat on the kitchen stool.

You folded your arms on the table, clearing your throat as you eyed Harry while he was chopping carrots.

“Hey, H,” Harry hummed, stealing a glance at you before looking back at his chore, “My ex called earlier,”

At this, Harry’s eyebrows furrowed before he looked up at you, putting down the knife and leaning his hands on the counter, his arms seeming to look bigger as he tensed, “What did he say?”

Trying not to laugh, you looked down, beginning to play with your fingers before giving him a shrug, “Just that he still has a hoodie of mine at his place,”

“Yeah?”

“And asked if I need it back.”

“What did you say?”

You gave him another shrug, “Said I’ll let him know.”

“Well, do you need it?” He asked, “Like really need it?”

“Yeah, it was my high school’s.”

“But baby, you have a lot of hoodies,” one hand of his reached to his lips, fingers grazing his bottom lip for a moment, “Can get it for you.”

“That’d be so awkward, H,” you sighed.

“Why? I’m your boyfriend.” Harry reasoned, “Maybe I can just come with you,” he said again before his face lit up, “I can have it customized instead. Just tell me how it looked like and-”

“Baby, no,” you chuckled, “It won’t be the same.”

“Come on, love,” he frowned, “He calls you 3 years later to tell you he still has your hoodie. You don’t think that’s suspicious? He knows you’re with m-Everyone knows we’re together.”

“Maybe he forgot,” you shrugged, “Actually, let me call and as-”

“Oh, fuck no!” Harry instantly rushed to you.

‘Aggressively tell your partner you love them’

Chilling on the couch, Harry was watching the TV, unaware of your phone that had been resting on the shelf to record you beforehand.

You stomped where Harry was, whose head snapped to you, his mouth chewing his banana bite slower as he eyed you carefully, taking in your angry state.

You threw your notebook on the couch beside him, “I love you!” You said aggressively, a frown on your face as you pointed at him, “I fucking love you!”

Harry took a moment, his face shifting to one of amusement before he raised his hands up – one holding his banana – before pointing at you, “I fucking love you, too!” He screamed.

“No, no,” you shook your head, still aggressively speaking, “I love you more!”

“I’m so fucking in love with you!” Harry said as aggressively, standing in an instant, towering over you as he pressed himself against you before wrapping one arm around you, “Why are we shouting, you weirdo?”

‘Stick your hand out and see what your partner does’

Harry was sat beside you on his laptop, music blasting from it as he emailed himself some tasks.

Recording him with one hand, you reached your arm out, opening your palm at him.

Harry looked down at your hand, a smile making its way to his face before he looked at you before placing his chin on your hand, closing his eyes as he gave you a dopey smile as you squished his cheeks while giggling, “Hiii.”

#harry styles #harry styles imagine #harry styles fluff imagine #harry styles one shot #harry styles tiktok

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young-dumb-and-vaccinated · 3 years ago

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The Cult Girl (Hannibal x Female!Reader) pt. 13

Hello friends we have come to the end of Cult Girl. Thank you all for hyping me up throughout this story and giving me the confidence to actually post my work. Y/n and Hannibal throw a dinner party.

The sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the entire kitchen in that homey mid-morning glow. You were enjoying your coffee and scrolling through an article on your phone.

"Senator Hatch reportedly coughed up his late wife's toe on the floor of the precinct." You read out loud. "Huh. Wonder how that could have happened."

You side-eyed Hannibal, who was contentedly sharpening his knives. Placing a rather large meat cleaver to the side, he met your gaze. "I have my ways."

You finished off your coffee and brought the mug to the sink. "There was no way Theresa was going to survive that night, was there?"

"Clever girl." Hannibal praised.

"You were going to kill her if I didn't, were you?" You felt a smile coming on. "Did everything turn out as expected?"

"Darling, this all went much better than I could have ever hoped for." He smirked. "See, I had the whole evening mapped out. I was hoping you'd be the one to deliver justice and kill her, but I had to prepare for the possibility that you wouldn't."

You folded your arms and leaned against the island. "Is that why I was so sick that day?"

You could have sworn you saw some hesitation in Hannibal's face. Maybe even a touch of regret. "Yes. You needed an alibi. It was as easy as removing a single birth control pill from your packet. You'd see it was missing and think you'd already taken your medicine-"

"So I'd neglect to take my focus meds." You cut in. "Yeah, I knew something was off."

"By the end of the day, you'd be experiencing full withdrawal symptoms." Hannibal nodded. "I don't take any pleasure in upsetting the delicate balance of your brain chemistry, and for that I am sorry. I did what I had to."

"Yeah, don't ever do that again." You ordered, no disarming smile in sight. "I need those meds to function."

"I promise you, darling," Hannibal said, sincerely. "I would never keep you from being anything but your very best. I was just looking after you."

"I suppose now that all this is out in the open, you won't need to pull any shit like that again." You muttered. "But I'm still going to keep my pills at my apartment."

"That reminds me." He said. "Would you like to invite your roommates for dinner tonight? I've prepared a wonderful Spanish-inspired menu that's perfect for entertaining."

"I'd love for you to meet my friends, but, they all keep such weird hours I doubt they'll all be free tonight." You shrugged. "I'll give them a call though."

"Wonderful." He smiled. "You make arrangements while I prepare the kitchen."

You stepped into the office and called up Pilar. She answered within the minute.

"[F/N]!" She near shouted. "Holy fuck, how are you doing?"

"I'm actually doing..." you looked back into the kitchen, watching your beloved Hannibal in his element. "Really well."

"I heard about your cousin." Pilar cut in. "One down, two to go."

You snorted. "No fucking shit."

"Sorry, was that okay for me to say?" She apologized. "I know you said Theresa was a bitch, but it's your trauma and I-"

"No, you're fine." You laughed. "She was a bitch. Hey, do you have any plans tonight?"

"Uh, no. I don't think so." She answered. "Why?"

"Hannibal wants to invite you all for dinner tonight." You said with an audible smile. "Y'know, to celebrate the bitch's death."

"Yo! Steph!" Pilar shouted across the room. "Wake Randy up! We're having dinner at [F/N]'s rich boyfriend's house!"

You could make out Stephanie's voice in the background. "It's about damn time. We've been waiting for her to redistribute the wealth."

"She means thank you for the invitation." Pilar corrected.

"It's not like I had to twist his arm or anything. It was his idea." You chuckled. "He loves having guests. And excuses to dress up."

"Oh so we're getting fancy, huh?" Pilar's voice turned up in excitement.

"Hey [F/N]!" Randy snatched the phone from Pilar. "Text me the menu for tonight. My girlfriend'll steal a nice bottle of wine to pair. She's a pro, she works over at Cavatappi's wine and spirits."

"Much obliged, Randy." You said. "I'll see you guys at seven."

You returned to the kitchen with a smile. "They're coming."

"Well, we don’t have a moment to lose, then." Hannibal placed something wrapped in butcher paper on the counter. "Come now. Let me show you how to properly prepare a heart.

You and Hannibal spent the rest of the morning and the whole afternoon preparing a bountiful meal. You reveled in the irony of finally finding a space for Theresa in your life. That space just so happened to be on the stove.

Seven came far too quickly, but your friends were always a welcome sight. You greeted them at the door with hugs, Hannibal watching with stoic adoration.

"Guys, this is Hannibal Lecter, my partner." You introduced. "Hannibal, this is Pilar, Stephanie and Miranda."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, ladies." Hannibal greeted. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”

"Here you go, Dr. Lecter." Randy handed him a bottle of wine. "Thank you for inviting us."

Hannibal examined the bottle. "Yes, this will pair quite nicely with our meal. Thank you very much. [F/N], could you show our guests to the dining room?"

You nodded and accepted the bottle, given the extra responsibility of pouring. You led your friends to the dining room and wasted no time distributing the alcohol.

"A toast." Stephanie rose her glass. "Too many of history's worst have had the privilege of dying on their own terms. Today, we celebrate the death of one who didn't: Theresa [L/N]."

"She will join her sisters Nancy Reagan and Madame Nhu in hell tonight." You concurred, tapping your glasses together with a series of satisfying clinks.

"Okay, you need to spill." Randy scooted her chair up and leaned towards you. "How the hell did you get away with it?"

"Well, it helped a lot that her husband was already a felon." You teased. "If I didn't kill her, he was going to eventually."

Pilar made a face. "I can't believe it took actual murder to get that latter-day lump thrown in prison."

"Well, the LDS church is a very influential organization with a stronghold on all of Utah." You explained. "There's a long history of legitimizing sex abuse there."

"We know, cult girl." Stephanie laughed. "You remind us every time your pedophile cousin-in-law comes up. Relax and take your victories where you can get them.”

“Ladies,” Hannibal entered. You rushed to his side to help him with the dinner plates. “Have we ever tried organ meat before?”

Everyone’s eyes found Pilar.

“Braised liver is delicious and you guys are just cowards.” Pilar protested. “I will die on this hill.”

Hannibal smiled and presented your friends with their plates. “You are a woman of good tastes, Pilar. Our first course is Riñones al Jerez.”

“Kidneys.” Randy translated. “Who’s kidneys are we eating today, Dr. Lecter?”

He tilted his head. “Theresa’s, of course.”

“I don’t care whose organs you harvested.” Stephanie said, her eyes rolling back into her head. “This is delicious.”

You and Hannibal shared a glance and a smile.

You and your roommates devoured the Riñones al Jerez, then dug into the next serving of heart stewed with chickpeas and olives. You finished off the evening with natillas de leche and a bottle of Sauternes Hannibal just happened to have lying around.

“This is the first time since like, Keith Raniere got sentenced that I’ve seen [F/N] happy-drunk.” Stephanie observed.

“Or even just... happy." Pilar said, looking at Hannibal. "I'll have some of whatever she's having, please."

"My pleasure." Hannibal poured her another glass of wine.

Your phone began to buzz on the table, capturing the attention of your guests. You didn't even need to look at the caller ID to know who it was. Nobody else in the world had such horrid timing.

"Shit, you've got to answer it here!" Stephanie pleaded. "So we can all give her a piece of our mind!"

You looked over to Hannibal, who you knew was just as curious.

You dragged the answer icon across the screen and put it on speaker. You gestured for your friends to be quiet. "Yeah?"

"Well look who finally decided to pick up." Grandma said. "Thank you for gracing me with your attention. I know you have so much going on right now, you're just too busy to pick up the phone and talk to your grieving grandmother."

"For your information..." you stumbled over your words. "I was interrogated by the police yesterday. I think that counts as having something going on."

"Are you drunk?" Her voice was laced with a disproportionate level of disgust.

"I'm grieving too, Beatrice." You counter. "What, suddenly you're the only one who can drink the pain away? That's not very democratic of you."

"In your state, you shouldn't even be thinking of alcohol!" Grandma scolded. "You of all people should know the effects alcohol has on an unborn baby."

You smacked yourself on the head. Of course Theresa would plant a seed to fuck you over one last time. "Did Theresa actually tell you I was pregnant?"

"It was her last message to me, actually. Anyway, you're coming home." Grandma said, without so much as waiting for a response. "I won't have my great grandchild living in that dangerous city that your cousin was killed in."

You exchanged looks with your friends, who were going through the same combination of emotions as you were. Grandma's words just seemed to fade out as you shared an entire nonverbal conversation with the people around you.

"And you're leaving that terrible, terrible man."

Hannibal raised an eyebrow and looked at you, waiting to see how you'd respond. You knew what you had to do. It was finally time. You did something you should have done a long time ago.

"No." You said, your nerves loosened by the wine.

"What?"

"No. And I mean it." A big smile crossed your lips. "Theresa lied to you. I'm not pregnant. And you have to live with the fact that your granddaughter's last words to you were a blatant lie."

Hannibal looked at you with pride and your friends began to silently gas you up with encouraging gestures. "

"...And that you're the only one to blame for her deception." You continued. "You raised her in your own image."

"This is why I refuse to let you raise my great grandchild with that man!" She wailed. "He's twisted your mind against me! He's made you cruel!"

"Hannibal made me see clearly that you made me cruel." You said with absolute certainty. "You'll never see me again."

"Don't be like your mother, [F/N]." Grandma snarled. "Don't cut people out for trying to help."

"You'll never see me again." You repeated and decided to leave it at that. You ended the call and blocked the number, joined by an eruption of excitement from your friends.

It was finally over. Your life could truly begin.

#hannibal nbc #hannibal x reader #hannibal lecter #hannibal x you #cult girl

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ramblingguy54 · 3 years ago

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Sonic & Tails R: A Love Letter To Miles Tails Prower’s Characterization

Warning: This will contain massive spoilers for the short radio play series of Sonic & Tails R. If you haven’t listened to the radio play yet on Youtube, I’d highly recommend any hardcore Sonic fan who hasn’t seen it check it out. It’s one Hell of a treat.

For as far back as I can remember in my childhood, Tails’ story of trying to step outta Sonic’s shadow has been such a resonating one for myself. Even when I was a much younger kid playing my Dreamcast, during entries like Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, there was some idea lingering about why Tails just stood out more emotionally in his journey to grow beyond depending on Sonic all the time for help. Now here I am a young adult in my late twenties having such a deeper appreciation of this little two tailed genius kiddo because he’s got an important element that’s made him so beloved for good reason.

In spite of his genius being a rival to that of Eggman’s high IQ and of course proving to surpass it plenty of times when scenarios boil down to being a high stakes battle, Miles Tails Prower beneath it all is still just like any one of us. We’re all trying to find our place in this world about what defines us for who we are as unique people. He wants to be more than just seen as someone who’s alongside Sonic The Hedgehog’s never say die attitude, but prove he’s plenty capable of standing on his own two feet to protect everything the kid holds dear to himself. Underdog stories, when they’re naturally executed very well, can reel me in so easily. They are very much my bread & butter trope I adore seeing.

To no one’s surprise, the two Sonic Adventure’s iterations portrayal of Tails’ characterization are hands down some of my favorite writing for the two tailed fox, regarding what the 3D era has done toward him, development wise. It gave him more of an existential struggle to endure like, “What happens when Sonic isn’t around to help stop Eggman? What if I’m not strong enough to accomplish what he can?”, making Tails plight to be seen as an equal all the more endearing when stopping Eggman in his climatic battle against the Egg Walker in Station Square. This here is a great use of a timeless lesson you can apply in life that if you set you heart and mind on anything, there isn’t a thing you can’t accomplish on your own, which is why many fell in love with Sonic Adventure 1 & 2′s writing for Miles Tails Prower’s journey of independence.

As someone who comes from a large family tree of relatives, I feel the weight of my existence on my shoulders at a number of points more than I’d care to count, admittedly. Seeing Tails struggle with his sense of purpose, in contrast to observing how much Sonic has accomplished with his carefree, yet deeply compassionate attitude, means the world to me in watching another trying to comprehend their value as a whole on how much they matter, overall. This is a big part of why my fondness for SA1 & 2′s quality has never wavered over these years, besides still obviously enjoying most of their game play mechanics. People can try to debate to their heart’s content on whether the Adventure games still hold up in their own eyes, but I’ll always respect them for how they tried to develop certain characters, such as Tails, Gamma, and Shadow The Hedgehog notably, to attempt expanding upon their characters, as well as world building.

I won’t bother going into a rant about how Sonic’s recent 3D games have butchered Tails’ personality & relatable nature, due to the current writers in charge of handling the cast of characters. More or less, I greatly empathize toward the notion many have already stated about Tails being so cowardly and God forbid, looking at Lost World, downright severely mean spirited. Rather, I’m obviously writing this lengthy post to breakdown why Sonic & Tails R succeeds, where these certain 3D games have greatly faltered in exploring Tails’ emotional dilemmas as an insecure, yet still having the courage to prove himself, talented boy full of hidden potential he doesn’t quite realize, until his back is against the wall in life threatening situations.

“That day, I realized I couldn’t depend on you forever. Not that I can’t depend on you, but like, “What happens when Sonic isn’t here?”, you know?”

Sonic & Tails R further delves into this fundamental rule of what has defined Tails in Sonic Adventure 1 & 2′s stories of events where Sonic wasn’t there to aid his best bud in taking down Eggman’s evil efforts for global domination, most importantly his fear of defending the Earth without his role model. Besides what I already stated in SA1′s events in Station where he stopped the Egg Walker, as well as the missile Eggman launched from detonating before their climatic battle, Tails watched Sonic blow up in ARK’s capsule presuming him to be dead after Sonic imparted how much faith he has in the kid’s abilities to be truly strong in the face of any foe. Sonic & Tails R manages to use fan service in a way that doesn’t feel like “pandering” for the sake of it, using this past canon material to do more of an in-depth study about Miles’ anxieties of existing without Sonic.

Wouldn’t put it past them if EmuEmi & crew were using SA2′s Sonic death fake out scene in that space capsule to further add trauma to Tails’ psychological attachment to Sonic, as well as his insecurities of depending on him too much, to boot. While it’s never obviously outright stated in their radio play, I definitely believe they were factoring this element into adding dramatic exploration for why Tails is so self-conscious about the worst case scenario of permanently losing Sonic. Watching Sonic supposedly die put Tails into a deeper state of self-reflection, so I very much enjoyed how they went using these past events to create a thorough exploration about him learning just as it’s important to realize you need to stand up for yourself without using someone else as a crutch all the time, it’s doubly important to remember there’s nothing wrong about asking someone for help when you’re about to be down and out with little options left.

Sonic & Tails R beautifully builds upon the foundation these two games’ stories left behind years ago, creating new damn great material to explore with the most iconic characters of this cast, Sonic & Tails brotherly dynamic. I’ve been praising Sonic & Tails R out the wazoo for how well it captured Tails underdog story of overcoming death defying odds, but it managed to remind me how simply adorable and outright wonderfully endearing their brotherly chemistry is as a whole. This is a big friendly reminder Sonic isn’t all about being cocky wise cracking character making meta jokes left and right, but he can be plenty capable of showing serious compassion to anyone he values as an ally and friend. This is no greater evident, than with him verbally lifting Tails up in his time of need when he’s self-depreciating his own significance. It can be seen in Episodes 2, 4, and 7 giving Tails motivational pieces of advice.

Episode 2 In Adabat’s Cavern

-Sonic: Wasn’t it your radar that helped us find these Emerald shards in the first place? How could you be slowing us down when you’ve gotten us this far?

-Tails: But, I...

-Sonic: I could never make something like that. You’re the smartest person I know, Tails. One way or another, we’ll figure this out, count on it.

Episode 4 In Holoska After Helping Silver Save The Chao

-Sonic: So, what was that back there? At the cave, in Adabat? -Tails: What do you mean? -Sonic: Frozen stiff. Confidence shot. It’s not like you. It was more than feeling like you were “slowing us down”, right?

Episode 7 Inside The Egg Carrier 3

-Sonic: Let’s split up! I’ll distract them and you can go after the energy source. -Tails: You’re gonna take them on all by yourself!? Let me help, Sonic! -Sonic: No time for this, Tails. Stop overthinking and just go! If I can get their attention, I’ll take the heat off of you and that room you’re going to probably won’t have any security. Take this emerald and I’ll take the other one we have. It’ll lead me right to you after I beat these guys. -Tails: O-Okay... -Sonic: Hold on, Tails! Listen to me. Don’t stop moving and be careful. I’ll be fine and so will you!

Sonic & Tails R remembers the most crucial detail of their important relationship. One isn’t better than the other and needing to always rely upon that notion for helping one outta a jam, but instead showcases how they’re equals as a team/bros. Sonic may be super fast and strong, however Tails has his intelligence to analyze situations in a different angle Sonic wouldn’t necessarily consider, per say. Which isn’t to say Tails couldn’t put up a fight either, as we’ve seen in SA1 & SA2′s stories where he faced Eggman one on one with no outside help to best him at his own game of wits & strength.

We get see the apex of this idea through Tails facing Eggman in his super improved mecha walker. Although Tails may get thrown for a loop here at first by Eggman, it’s his villainous speech about winners and losers in their world that ironically does the exact opposite of what he intended. Eggman wanted to crush Tails’ sense of self worth before finishing him off, but all it did was reignite the very lesson Sonic told him earlier before running to distract Eggman’s robotic minions. That said lesson of he’s more than capable of facing dangerous threats

-Eggman: Poor boy. We all have to learn this lesson, sooner or later. In every game there’s no one you can depend on. You’re all alone and you’re either a winner, or a loser. And as you know, loser’s lose all of their lives. Say goodbye, fox!

-Tails: You’re wrong! I can depend Sonic! I won’t let him down! I can’t because...Because he’s depending on me! And because of that I won’t lose to you!

This radio play strikes a good balance in utilizing the grey moral area about depending on someone vs it being an unhealthy display of attachment derived from serious insecurity. Word’s can’t begin to describe how much I loved this moment to pieces because it’s oh so important for writing Tails’ characterization. If you’re going to tackle him being super self conscious about his reliance on Sonic, then you gotta remember why they are so close to one another to begin with. Sonic & Tails have an unbreakable connection, considering they’ve brought out their best qualities in themselves from being together as individuals. For Sonic, it’s his older brother compassion to Tails to bring him outta feeling melancholy. For Tails, the kid finally understands there isn’t anything wrong with depending on Sonic when he needs it most.

After all, that’s what a real healthy friendship is all about. Whether you’re giving someone a dose of tough love, or simply a piece of motivational advice, it defines how much you truly care about someone, period. Sonic & Tails have this very same power from their bond, which is why new emeralds form from their compassionate friendship that hasn’t been shaken after all the years they’ve been together. Another detail worth noting is it adds to the lore in an impactful manner when Tikal expresses in Episode 8 about positive connections and thoughts from users of the Chaos Emeralds having a strong will & heart. Using the ideas they had for encapsulating Sonic & Tails’ dynamic to create new emeralds from their love for each other as brothers adds an emotional weight.

“So, Sonic’s not the only one who harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds? I can too!?”

“Yes, you have a strong heart! There is a power waiting to be unlocked within you, as well.”

I’d always daydreamed about in my childhood seeing Super Sonic & Tails take down a threatening villain, whether it was Eggman or different powerful creature such as Chaos or the Biolizard. You can imagine how fucking giddy I was beyond belief to see this artwork of Episode 9′s cover for the radio play. Tails not only got to have another one on one with Eggman, but a team up with Super Sonic in his own respective Super form? Sign me the Hell up! Talk about an all you eat buffet of good writing for Tails’ journey reaching its climax. Getting to hear this play out, alongside the amazing song of Fly With Me, made it authentically feel like something straight outta if there were an installment of Sonic Adventure 3 being brought into reality, which certainly feels like it now.

Episode 9 has so much awesome stuff with Sonic & Tails working together in their super forms. Particularly, my favorite scene is at the beginning when Sonic teaches Tails how to navigate his newly acquired speed in his respective Super form. My heart melted hearing Sonic help Tails through it all, while he was overjoyed about how fun this new form is for himself. Wholesome Sonic & Tails content is the perfect daily serotonin for me, easily. It’s an awesome fun fact to know they used a scrapped boss from Tails Tornado segment in SA1 for Eggman’s flying dragon three headed robot in their big final battle, once again using old canon material in a very effective manner to boost the quality of their fan made story.

It’s been a real thrill to hear Mike Pollock play a straight forward serious Eggman making my day in more ways than one, considering that’s another thing I’ve been yearning for desperately besides Tails being a competent character again. His performance in Episode 9 when Eggman gave that speech about how long he’s been at odds with Sonic & Tails stubborn will power was simply excellent. The moment he told his mechanical dragon to crush them I got serious chills. That’s the Eggman I remember and grew up with. He could be a hammy villain sure, but Eggman wasn’t a doormat that could be swiftly beaten. Robotnik can be considered a serious threat in his own right and this radio play nailed it down to the very letter with how much he predicted their actions.

“Sonic, all I ever wanted to do was be like you. You’re not scared of anyone or anything. I could never be like that. At least, so I thought. I grew from that, but then I got so caught up in trying to prove it that thought it wasn’t okay to depend upon anyone, especially you. I just didn’t want to be that scared little kid in Station Square anymore, but now I understand. It’s okay to depend on your friends. It all means is that we’re stronger together, so the next time Eggman comes back and wants to start any trouble with you, or any of my friends. Emeralds or no emeralds, he’s gonna have to get past me and he won’t!”

Sonic By Episode 1′s End: Aww, yeah! Adventure, here we come!

Tails By Episode 10′s End: Aww, yeah! Adventure, here I come!

Turn your thoughts into power. Be all that you can be.

The ending legit got me choked up because what of they decided to do for wrapping up Tails journey in a poetic fashion. Having Tails go off on his own separate journey to grow more independence pulled on my heart strings perfectly. Very much so, as I’m transitioning slowly, but surely, into gaining more freedom to go out into the outside world in my own life. Concluding the story, by Sonic & Tails holding onto the two Emeralds their bond had formed from positive energy, due to their powerful friendship, was so heartwarming. This is how you write an overview of what makes Sonic & Tails chemistry work so well as it does.

Sonic & Tails R’s ending represents while some things never change, like Sonic and Tails bond for each other, it also shows there’s very much a necessity for people to grow, hence Tails’ whole solo journey in the epilogue. People can’t stay in the same place forever and will need go about finding their own path, even if it means saying “goodbye” periodically for a notable amount of time.

It’s for these reasons I’ve listed in great explanation above throughout this detailed post cement Sonic & Tails R high on my list of favorite Sonic fan projects. They captured the magic of what made the Adventure games so beloved. Gonna be looking back on this passion project for many years to come. Everyone involved in this year long effort of a project dating all the way back Summer of 2020 ought to be immensely proud for how much their hard efforts paid off in the long run.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts here!

Hope you enjoyed.

#sonic and tails r #emuemi #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #sonic analysis #long post #dr eggman #sonic adventure #sonic adventure 2 #this fan project means so much to me #everyone poured their heart and soul into it

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pffbts · 4 years ago

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↬genre: slice of life; fluff ; crack; hint of a love triangle ; loads of tension.

↬characters: jealous!wen junhui x reader | support: kim mingyu (plays a big role)

↬w.c: 4K

↬author`s note: sorry for the delay but this is basically junhui making your knees weak or you just want to beat his ass. this fic can go two ways―it`s yours to decide. also this is a re-write because the last attempt wasn`t reaching my heart. so i`m writing this again :) hope you enjoy this read! (btw i would strongly suggest you to read mingyu`s version before you jump onto this)

↬synopsis: there are 13 boys who lives in your town where each of them have each of their own colours. some you know in person & some from afar so one day you sat down deciding to describe each of their colours absorbing all of their goodness and all of their flaws. you wondered what if someone in some other town ever thought of questioning when they looked at these boys, that―what if we lived in the same town?

[03:37 PM] [meet him at the dawn & he`ll take you to places you`ve never seen]

―standing opposite of the road, that day you saw him getting out of the newly opened chinese restaurant of the town. he was wearing a white shirt with two of the top buttons undone, the edges carelessly tucked in a freshly washed denim jeans to wind up with it. dashing as always, junhui had spared a listless glance at you and with his shoulders wide, he tucked his palms into both of his jean`s pockets.

you, on the other hand, didn`t smile at him but rather let your eyes widen a bit unconsciously. in split second, when you realized what had happened, you retreated back from keeping any kind of eye contact with him.

from the corner of your eyes, you could somehow make out that he was clearly smirking on his own. his little smirk was so palpable that it traverse through the air stirring up something in you along with the sudden heat splashing across your cheeks & neck. that feeling didn`t leave your body and waited a long time to fade until you finally reached back home.

you didn`t know much about junhui, as a matter of fact. surely you`ve seen him once in a while but that was it. you didn`t know what kind of person he was exactly apart from the fact that he was extremely beautiful. he was, if you weren`t mistaken, quite a silent heartthrob of the town.

he also, isn`t the type to talk much. that is to say, you have never seen him talk whenever you`ve spotted him on the street or anywhere in the local market. he didn`t study at your school and his place too, was far from your own so spotting him at your street wasn`t a regular thing until one fine day it happened out of nowhere.

you were out to go rent some dvd because the dvd player had been sitting under dust for a long time at your place. it was one of those day when iconic black and white movies which both you and your mother were equally fond of clenches you two in its tight hold so she gave you a little push to go grab some mutual favourites from the dvd rent shop down the street.

wearing a soft pink shorts and a white shirt typically bigger for your built, you walked out of your place to the dvd rent shop. swinging both of your arms on your side, you did a few little skips while walking. it was quite evident that you were in good spirit and why shouldn`t you be? a movie night and your mother was making your favourite dish tonight being the combo treat is not something of a regular thing in this household.

long after walking, you stood in front of the shop. keeping your eyes on the open sign, you push the door inside and soon you heard a peal of laughter already filling up the shop to the brim of it.

the laughter was as if it welcomed you to the shop but for some reason, you could recognize a single voice among the two.

you stop for a second, slowing down the motion of you closing the door and kept on listening to the laughters. in the slip of a quick second, you recognized it to be mingyu`s but you couldn`t see him right away.

whipping your head around, you tried detecting the direction from which it came until you heard a cough from the part-timer and the growing string of your attention rips right then.

bowing a bit to the part-timer who worked at the cash counter, you slowly walked through the shelves filled with all kind of dvds. your ears were perked up at the sound of giggles and laughter now a little bit on a lower note.

the part-timer probably sent the owner of those laughters a warning glance to maintain the silence.

you, on the other hand, still couldn`t find the movie you were looking for. walking listlessly, your eyes staring up and down the rows of shelves soon your back makes a sudden contact with something hard and warm.

for a moment you thought it would be mingyu and a lift at the corner of your mouth surfaces.

turning your neck around, you had to crane it up a bit to look at whom you stumbled upon considering in your head you thought it would be mingyu probably playing around with you and with his gigantic height your actions were sort of a reflex.

but as soon as you realized whom you stumbled onto, you quickly turned around and jumped three feet away from him.

“oh?”, with wide eyes junhui watches you jump back and then as he leans a bit by putting up one of his palm, he finally greets you, “hi.” the wide of his eyes cease within seconds replacing them into soft creases around the corners.

his voice carried an essence of mirth and from the looks of it, he clearly recognized you considering he has seen you quite a few times ― sometimes even when you`re not aware of his presence.

you bow a bit and give him a crooked smile although your eyes were so nervous, it couldn`t keep a single second of contact with his own until your eyes fixated on something familiar―it was the head peaking from behind junhui―of mingyu`s.

a wave of relief ran through your system as you, instead of returning junhui`s wave, put up your own palm and greeted mingyu. your friend`s eyes turn into crescents as he comes from behind the boy you just met and places his own palm against yours. you smiled up at him and he returns it as always.

seeing how junhui was left behind, mingyu turned around and stood next to you while placing his arm around your shoulder. a very familiar act. nothing you should be surprised of at this point.

“jun, meet_____, she lives across my street.”

you bow at junhui again. but in your head, you were wondering how did mingyu know him. at school, you`ve not really seen him around your friend and you, yourself haven`t really seen him that much. but without any further wait, mingyu answers the said question in your head.

“_____ meet wen junhui. he got transferred to our school few weeks ago and has newly joined the basketball team last week! have you seen him?”

“ah no―i think?” you answer back very unsure of your fading memory.

“mingyu said that you are quite a regular at the bleachers cheering for this buddy right here,” junhui speaks up for a first time after all this while. he pointed at mingyu while he utters those last words.

you flushed a bit at the mention of you being at the bleachers while you watch mingyu play. but it`s just, you are always there to support your friend. you don`t really make any sound while you`re at it though. most days, you just sit back and watch mingyu play. it`s not a secret that you very much adore his basketball skills.

“it`s nothing really..,” you squeeze out a carefree laughter although it ended up sounding like a nervous one, “i just…watch and,” with a shrug you continue, “maybe clap sometimes.”

junhui only chuckles as you finish. it looked like as if he caught you in your act. it really wasn`t looking nice for you now but at least you had mingyu`s arm around you so you stopped feeling a bit out of place, plus junhui was clearly a stranger. why must you care so much for what he thought?

“but even that bit is enough. after all, ______ & me, we`ve been friends since childhood. our mothers are best friends too! we even get to have weekly get-togethers every sundays.”

as new information for junhui`s ear comes to surface, you quickly looked over at him who now wore an indifferent expression as if somewhat a spark of jealousy lay across his chest. but when he saw you looking at him, he caught your gaze with his warm ones with that very recognizable smirk climbing onto his mouth making you think that he is clearly skilled at hiding his sudden change of emotions.

you stare at him for a good few seconds, feeling yourself getting braver as you have already caught him slip his cool awhile ago. clearly, in junhui`s head, he really didn`t want mingyu to continue so he spoke up.

“that`s good to know. but the question is will i get an invite someday?” he was asking mingyu the question but his eyes were all on you and at the same time he was observing how mingyu`s attention never faltered from upon your face.

you finally looked up to meet with your friend`s eyes on you and with one of his brows perked up, mingyu asked you as you did so, “that sounds good, doesn`t it? we should talk to our mothers for a permission though?”

you nod and add, “sure, that doesn`t sound bad. the more the merrier.”

absolutely not, you think back in your head, you definitely don`t like lots of people around you. no offense to junhui but you`re not exactly good with strangers or people in general.

“and what about cheering for me sometimes at the bleachers sometimes?” junhui leans against the shelf lightly and breaks the on-going conversation between you and mingyu with a sudden heated question.

“ayyyy that she will do of course. every friend of mine is _____`s friend so of course she`ll cheer for you, jun. although i`m a little special so i`ll get more cheers, right?” mingyu bent down and moved his face infront of you with the silliest smile on his face.

this boy, you thought, you`re really enjoying this, aren’t you?

you wanted mingyu to read your eyes but you were unsure if he was just putting up an act or simply being oblivious.

you close your eyes a bit and put up a pressed smile on your face as you thought about how mingyu clearly didn`t understand what junhui was trying to do here and on top of all that, he didn`t even let you speak before jumping onto answering the question for you.

you thought, maybe that`s what friends do. clearly, you were wrong in this.

“hahaha, sure, i mean why not―although i don`t know how much me cheering will help. i don`t even cheer, i just, like i said,” you huffed and leaned a bit to your side after turning your attention from mingyu`s child-like expression to junhui`s attentive ones, “i only sit and watch.”

junhui mirrors your act of leaning and replies.

“that`s very much enough.”

the line that forms on his lips gives his cheeks a lift. his eyes looks pure and yet with that built, you couldn`t really pinpoint what you should be feeling.

you didn`t know if you wanted to laugh or cry right at that moment. he was clearly copying mingyu right there but he added a little bit of his own spice in it.

you only nodded and smiled through the dilemma and made sure there`s nothing on your face that would give you how hot and bothered you were with just the presence of junhui infront of you.

“anyway,” gently pushing mingyu by his shoulders who was previously bending down to look at you face to face, “i need to get some dvds. so can i….look for them now?” raising your brows, you trail off looking at both of the boys as they nod and give you the space to choose.

but mingyu`s arm remained on your shoulder as you walked towards the shelf and junhui―he only moved away from his previous spot a bit. so now that you were standing in front of the shelf of dvds, you were stuck in-between two clearly much taller for their age boys.

sighing microscopically, you reached out your arm and pulled out a dvd of a sleeper-hit movie from decades ago―one of yours and your mother`s favorite.

“_____ you like this movie too?” junhui asks suddenly. his voice sounded slightly different this time. also, the sudden slip of your name from his mouth caught you by surprise for a moment. this was actually the first time he called you by your name if you could recall every interaction with him.

eventually, this particular moment resurfaces once in a while when junhui crosses your head sometimes.

“hmm, i do! you….” you reply.

“same, i do like it too―actually, it`s my mother`s favourite and―”

“mine too! it`s my mother`s favourite too!” you cut him off, declaring right away with an excitement in your tone with a sudden sense of familiarity very loud in the air between both of you.

junhui only blinks. his eyes a little bit wide and the smile which was now less smirk-like climbs on his mouth.

“ohhh junhui, both you & _____ have some similar taste, huh?” mingyu and his annoying self chirped in, which you obviously didn`t pay any heed to. you only replied with a “is that something very interesting to you?” but only in your head.

as if mingyu was about to reply, you turned around to look up at jun and let him continue clearly ignoring mingyu and his big mouth.

seeing how now your attention is all on him, junhui skipped the previous act of smile and giggled and if you could clearly remember it`s been a long time you`ve heard such a sweet giggle in a while.

“ah well i`ve watched it once with her when it was on television one day. i love the story of the leads and how even though they had to face all those hurdles, they didn`t falter in their discipline and way of life. it was…uplifting to me, i guess? staying grounded. loved that.”

“i understand. the feelings are mutual.”

this time the smile was genuine. you were glad that this time you weren`t nervous, that you could smile without stuttering through your thoughts although everything about junhui was distracting you. from his handsome built, his face to now having been discovered his soft giggle (it kept on replaying on your head for some unknown reason) and him, being this close to you right now wasn`t helping at all.

“that sounds very deep.” mingyu states. this time both you and junhui hum at the same time at him, not ignoring him.

“so did your mother tell you to rent it or….?” junhui asks.

“no, well, actually yes―both me and my mother thought of having a movie night. the dvd player at home is gathering only dust so we thought to have some good use of it.”

“oh so auntie must be making some good foods too, right?” this time mingyu joins in.

“ah yes, she `s making my favourite dish,” you spare him a glance before replying back.

“ah then what should i pick up…now that _____ has already picked up one from my bucket list today.”

junhui gifted you a look from the corner of his eyes while the well-known smirk adorned the corner of his mouth and he strolls across the makeshift corridor in-between the two large shelves softly drumming his fingertips on each of the spines of dvds placed in order.

“ah i`m sorry if you want you can keep it,” you brush off mingyu`s arm around your shoulder and walk a little bit towards junhui, “i can take some others, it`s not like this is the only one i needed anyway.”

the boy whom you just got to know spun on his heels with his arms now behind him crossed and he leans in to come closer to your face. a little bit closer and you could feel his breathe over you.

“same goes for me but _____what if we make a deal?”

“a deal?” you question him, curiosity hitting you from behind.

junhui hums.

“tell me about it.”

“what if you give me the dvd after you & auntie,” junhui looks at mingyu for a second, his eyes mischievous as he uses your friend`s addressing term for your mother and continues after placing his gaze upon you once again, “finish watching the movie and i pay for both of our rentals.” his focus on you remained until the end, or maybe a little bit after that. his eyes burned into you and you felt like you couldn`t run away from them, yet.

you were not going to lie but this proposal came like a shock. the giving of the said dvd in question to junhui after you`ll be done with it wasn`t the main shocker at all―it was the fact that he was offering to pay for both his and yours rental for this dvd.

suddenly, you heard mingyu`s footsteps from behind you. junhui straightens his back and watches your friend coming close to you. he only shrugs when he looks down at you. you didn`t know what kind of expression mingyu wore but you wish it was nothing major.

“oi jun―” you close your eyes right then and exhale before turning around your body to face your friend but mingyu cut you off, although you don`t know if it was intentional or just simple coincidence, “are you hitting on ______? dude you just met her.”

there you go. that`s it. just what you were fearing.

clearly, his voice had a certain strain at the back of his throat but he covered it up with his playful voice. a voice which carried a laughter which could be both mockery or sound as fake as possible. you didn`t know if junhui noticed it but being grown up with mingyu since toddler days, you could make it out very well.

you put your palms on top the denim clad chest of your friend, calming down whatever you wanted to calm down.

at the same time, you only heard junhui chuckle behind you. you couldn`t make out if it was an evil one or a natural one but the smug on his face was evident in his voice.

“hey it`s fine.” you say, your voice wasn`t reaching the octave you intended.

“looks like big boy`s a little jealous that me & ____ are hitting it off as good friends already?”

“it`s not about being good friends….hitting on someone and being good friends is different.”

“i was just trying to put on a good impression on her, gyu.” junhui, this guy , he was clearly enjoying this. but if his intentions were good then you didn`t see any problem with it.

“i don`t mind that at all but just so you know, _____ isn`t someone who`ll sway that easily. she`s a tough nut to crack.”

you almost laughed at mingyu`s words―it looked as if he was speaking from experience but you just shook your head and turned around. both of your arms now raised up in the air stopping both boys from having a fight here solely because of you for some stupid reason.

“it`s okay, it`s all fine.”

you looked up at junhui and continued in a calm voice “thank you for the offer, junhui, but i`ll pay for my own rent or else my mother will question about it and i`m really not in a mood to explain such stuff to her and about giving the dvd to you―” you give him a soft smile and said further, “i`ll send it to you through mingyu considering you hang out with him these days, okay?”

you nod up at mingyu who was previously looking at junhui. but when he saw you were looking at him, he switched from his squinting eyes combined with a sour pout to a completely different expression, the kind he gives you as if it`s only reserved for you―typically a warm one.

mingyu closes his eyes for a second and nods.

“i hope we`re clear now?”

“i was just playing around, _____, don`t worry,” junhui raised both of his arms up as if surrendering and continued “there`s no bad intentions here.”

in junhui`s head he was obviously being a good person and so was mingyu. junhui walked over to mingyu and playfully circled his arms around your friend and puts his other hand on top of his chest rubbing it playfully.

you let out a small laugh and saw mingyu lowering his eyes to stare up at junhui through his lashes and rolled his eyes before elbowing his new buddy in his sternum. junhui only yelps letting out a wheeze.

and, with that the dvd rental shop got filled up to laughters yet again until the sudden intentional cough from the part-timer made both of these playful boys shush down with each of their forefingers on top of their individual lips.

rolling your eyes and shaking your head, you walked across the shelves and picked another two old classics and went to the counter to pay for the rents.

mingyu picked up a newly released movie he was looking forward to last spring and junhui picked out two recent but a little older movies.

after you were done with the payment and all, you were about to walk out of the shop and waved a goodbye to the boys who were still paying. mingyu ran a bit to the door to hold it for you.

but before the door would completely close on you, your eyes moved over at junhui who was still standing at the counter―he was waiting for the changes but his face was turned towards you and he was looking at you with a now unknown gaze. you couldn`t really make out what it was but for some reason it made you a little bit sad.

but before he could witness the curve of your mouth for him, he closed his eyes for a second and smiled at you. your eyes widen at this and instantly without knowing you smiled back at him fully.

and that was it.

that was the last time you met junhui at that close proximity. you had seen him at the basketball court, you had seen him at random street. some day or night your eyes have met with each other and sometimes they didn`t, but his smile had burned through the surface of mind. some time, at some random time, you`ll suddenly get a flash back of his smirk or that fleeting smile he gave you before you closed the door on both of your first meet.

also you knew that mingyu probably made sure junhui never gets to have any closure with you. there`s been couple of times when you`ve found jun across the corridors of the school, simply hanging around and before anything can happen mingyu had circled his arm around junhui dragging his focus away from you who`d just be passing by to deliver some copies of homework to the teacher`s rooms.

you didn`t question this.

afterall, mingyu himself was in a dilemma of sorting out his feelings for you. he would probably do anything until you accept him in your life as something more than just childhood friends but even junhui never made sure to take any attempt, other than casual glances.

well, that`s what you know. it not like you know everything that the future holds. maybe one day you`ll meet him again when mingyu`s not around and you both will have conversations that never happened or waited for the right moment to have anything grow out of the seeds sown in this new friendship.

but for now, it`s okay. maybe someone from another town will catch feelings for him better, it`s not like you`ve him bounded by some string of fate.

it`s okay wherever you stand now when it comes to your relationship with junhui.

fin.

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artist-issues · 4 years ago

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@snowybookworm

I’ve seen the logic behind both schools of thought: that Old Steve could only have sat back and allowed events like Bucky’s torture to unfold (thereby being super out of character) OR that he created an alternate timeline where he stayed in character by solving all sorts of problems while living out his happily ever after. And I’m not going to go into that, I’m not going to swing one way or the other. But suffice to say, I don’t think that the portrayal of time travel rules in Endgame supports the idea that Old Steve could only return to prime 2023 via the same portal he left from, because if that were true, how do you explain the Avengers’ big push to get the Infinity Gauntlet into Scott’s van in the final battle? If the only way they could be returned to the timeline they were snatched from was with the same portal, tossing them into the van, a DIFFERENT portal, would’ve been reality-suicide for our heroes.

But I’m not here to argue about what Steve Rogers did when we DIDN’T get to watch his actions. I’m here to argue about what we DO know for sure based on what we WERE given to watch. I’m here to prove that if you think it’s not like Steve Rogers to leave Bucky in the present to live his days out with Peggy, you’ve missed his whole character arc. You’re one of those people who doesn’t see that he HAS a character arc. Captain America has DEPTH. He has LAYERS to who he is. It’s not just “do the right thing,” as close as that may sound to the truth.

He is not the same exact guy Bucky had to lead out of back-alley fights in the 40s. He might have all of the same excellent qualities that we know and love, the BEST qualities, but we’re not at the same point in his story. He’s learned and he’s grown and Peggy Carter is symbolic of him moving on.

Now, that may sound oxymoronic to you, “because he literALLY TIME TRAVELED TO THE PAST to be with the lady he missed out on! HOW IS THAT MOVING ON?!” you ask. Because you’re missing it. Let’s rewind and look at Steve Rogers and his character development, shall we?

In Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers goes from a guy with everything to prove, who is so willing to take on the world and all it’s evil that it doesn’t matter if he’s 90lbs of asthmatic shortness, he’ll fight bullies and stand up for what’s right! And he’ll do it ALONE if he has to! That’s important, the word “alone.” He’s so committed to that identity that Bucky Barnes, his best friend and brother figure, keeps having to remind Steve that through all of life’s challenges, he’s not alone, that he’s got someone with him “til’ the end of the line.” And Steve believes it: Bucky will be there for him when he needs dragging out of the gutter and cleaning up, when he has nobody else and nothing else. But Steve knows, or thinks he knows, (AND YOU AND I DO TOO, if we pay attention to the actual movie instead of our fill-in-the-blanks headcanons) that however LOYAL AND TRUE Bucky is to him, he doesn’t believe Steve can win. Bucky doesn’t believe in Steve. Now hold your offense: it’s okay that Bucky didn’t believe in Steve. Have you seen Skinny Steve? He’s an amazing moral giant, but physically he’s not going to live past middle-aged. Bucky believed Skinny Steve was righteous, and a hero, and would never give up, but Bucky was resigned to having to help that righteous hero or watch him die eventually because all that gold was locked up in the wrong-sized package. Sebastian Stan has hinted at what the films portray subtly; that Bucky’s is more cynical than his friend Steve from the get-go. He’s always poised and worried that he’s about to watch his hero Steve get killed standing up to the darkness of the world—not WIN against it. Bucky was ready to help Steve out of fights, but—and here’s BUCKY’S character development in that first film—he’s not ready to follow Steve into fights until after Azzano, when Steve finally has the physical capabilities to back up what Bucky has always known was there on the inside: the will to fight the darkness of the world and win. That’s when he realizes, “he’s the little guy from Brooklyn, too dumb to run away from a fight—and now someone’s actually gone and juiced him up with the means to literally take on the jaws of death.” All that heroism and goodness Bucky’s always seen in Steve has gone from being what might get him killed to something that Steve can actually use to do the right thing, however dangerous. And Bucky chooses to keep his promise and follow Steve back into battle after enduring torture, because he is with him til the end of the line. But initially, cynical yet loyal Bucky Barnes didn’t believe his best friend could win.

Steve sees this about Bucky. He knows how Bucky sees him. In the Erskine Enlistment Scene, this line from Steve is so telling: “Look, I know you don’t think I can do this...” and Bucky responds after Steve’s ‘men-laying-down-their-lives’ speech with “right...cause you got nothing to prove.” sarcastically. Steve knows that Bucky loves him and is there for him, but he sees that Bucky doesn’t believe in him. And they’re still friends. They’re still brothers and everything we know them to be, because the word that defines their relationship is “LOYAL.” But you know who did believe in Steve?

Peggy Carter.

She takes notice of Steve’s heart of gold while he’s still skinny, and asthmatic, and everything that Bucky has seen since they were kids. But where Bucky sees a heart of gold about to be snuffed out by harsh circumstances, PEGGY sees something else. She sees something else because she has a similar hopeful outlook on life, a kindred spirit with Steve’s forever-the-fighter character. Peggy Carter, a woman in the 40s, has had to fight and fight and take one step forward for every three steps she’s been pushed back. She’s had to prove herself over and over, every moment of her career, when nobody (except her brother Michael) believed in her. That’s their conversation in the cab. That’s the crux of why they love each other. Peggy has always noticed Steve as never giving up, but until he talks to her in the car on the way to get Super Soldiered, she might have assumed that he was just trying to prove himself for HIMSELF. Then he explains that he doesn’t have anything against running away, and his philosophy about bullies. And she relates to him. She sees that heart of gold and she wants to STOKE it, not just protect it. She knows what it is to want someone to not only acknowledge her potential, but BELIEVE in it. That’s why she has a picture of Skinny Steve on her desk and not a newspaper clipping of Captain America; she loves Steve Rogers for what is inside, for his moral character, and for their kindred fighter spirits. You can see that through her urging him to not settle for being a dancing monkey. “You were meant for more than this, you know.” “If it could only work once, he would be glad it was you.”

And Steve Rogers recognizes that Peggy Carter believes in him. Here’s how. When Bucky and Steve argue at the World Fair before Bucky’s deployment, Bucky leaves with a sort of “I give up,” so-done, snarky “don’t do anything stupid until I get back” attitude. We know and love it. But that’s important. Steve is about to go lie on his enlistment and try to go to war. He’s about to do this risky thing. And Bucky leaves it like “even though I’m against it, I know I can’t stop you, so please just be careful.” When Peggy is faced with a more extreme, but still similar situation where Steve is about to jump headfirst into a risky thing, that’s not her attitude. “I can do more than that.” “Get back here! We’re taking you ALL the way in!” She’s not going to follow him, and she’s not going to shrug and say “fine, go get yourself killed.” She’s not even going to say, like Bucky might’ve, “if you’re dying, I’m dying with you.” JEEZ, the last thing she says to him before he gets on a plane that becomes his tomb is “GO GET ‘IM.” When he says to her “this is my choice” before he ‘dies’ she accepts it, but she still makes that appointment for the dance- almost like a sad, sweet little ‘if you can get out of this, I’ll still be waiting.’ But whenever he goes into danger, throughout that film, she’s going to HELP him. Because she believes in him. She really believes he can do this. She has faith. That’s the word that describes Peggy and Steve’s relationship. “FAITH.”

Bucky = Loyalty.

Peggy = Faith.

And how does Steve grow in this movie? He learned from both Bucky and Peggy: “I don’t have to fight alone.” Whether it’s because he’s scrawny and everybody else would run away from a fight they can’t win, or because he’s an icon and the world’s first super-soldier-miracle, he’s always had this loneliness complex. He lifts the weight of the world because he knows that if you can, you should. But Peggy says to him “you won’t be alone.” It’s a quote important enough for him to experience it in a flashback the first time we see him in The Avengers.

In The Avengers, Steve has to share the spotlight with a whole other cast of heroes, PLUS the writers had to show us what it would be like for a 1940s superhero to lose 70 years of time and wake up with nobody left of his old life, so his growth is smaller. It’s setting up for more growth later. But still, there’s that quote. “You won’t be alone.” And now here he is. Alone. In the 21st century. Worse than a skinny kid nobody believes in, now he’s a cultural phenomenon in a world where everyone looks up to him but nobody believes in him, really, not directly. Whether it’s how well he can stand up against gods and iron men, what makes him special, or why cops should listen to him in the heat of interplanetary battle—in this bold new world he’s woken up in, Steve is on a lonelier pedestal than ever. He’s quickly disillusioned with the government that used to give him order and structure when it loses the Tesseract, which it was making weapons of mass destruction out of, then tries to nuke an island full of innocent people to win one battle. But Steve finally realizes, toward the end of the film, that just because SHIELD and the larger world are new and different and don’t know who he really is, that doesn’t mean he’s alone. When the other Avengers join him in going to take on Loki in their own way, and when Tony, in particular, proves that he’ll sacrifice himself for the greater good, Steve remembers his lesson from Peggy. He’s still not alone.

But being surrounded by other misfits, even ones who are willing to sacrifice everything for the greater good like he is, isn’t the same as being surrounded by people who know Steve Rogers, the punch-drunk kid from Brooklyn. He’s looking for purpose at the end of the Avengers. What do we see the other characters doing? Thor’s off to deal with the family drama that defines a lot of his character arcs in his movies. Tony is seen embracing the whole “work with others” thing by starting construction on Avengers Tower. Bruce is going with Tony, proving that he’s learning to trust himself with the Hulk like Tony suggested, and Nat hands him the bag, meaning she trusts him too. Clint is reunited with her and getting in a car with the SHIELD logo stamped on it, and where is Steve? What’s his foreshadowing/cap to the movie character arc? Is he getting in the SHIELD car, too? No. He’s on a motorcycle. Alone. Driving off to Lord-knows-where. He’s the only Avenger that drives off alone—but before he went, he shook Tony’s hand. That send-off says he’s willing to be on this team, with these other fighters and misfits...but he’s still lonely. Nobody really knows him yet. He’s not alone in fighting, but he doesn’t know what he wants or where he’s going.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier Steve’s character development is centered around solidifying what parts of him need to change now that he’s “The Man Out of Time” and what parts of him stay true. The whole film is about trust. And yes, that trust is best driven him when Steve is literally willing to die rather than give up on Bucky, the man literally beating him to death. Because loyalty. But don’t miss the scene with Peggy, however brief. Their conversation has nuances, especially in light of Endgame. There’s a lot going on in the scene that shows how in love he is with her, but the part that’s most important is just his reaction when she relapses and realizes that he’s alive all over again. The last thing Old Peggy says is “it’s been so long.” And she repeats it, for emphasis. And he points out the dance. Because remember, there’s this theme that she would have waited for him. That’s their relationship: faith. But she didn’t know he was alive, and how could she? It’s been so long. She’s not smiling. She’s crying when she realizes he’s still alive. Because they missed all that time they would have had together. And his face is the perfect micro expression of grief. To me, it doesn’t read “I’m so sad because I missed out on Peggy,” though I’m sure there’s some of that in there. To me it reads more like Steve always reads because he thinks of others first: “I’m so sad because Peggy had to mourn me and our relationship for so long.” I mean, look, it’s 70 years later and she’s devastated that he’s alive but they weren’t together. (You can be devastated about your lost love AND accepting of your life and other children without him, it doesn’t have to be one or the other, but more on that another time.) Steve never moves on from Peggy because that’s not the kind of guy he is. It’s not nothing to say she was the love of his life. And he wanted to go back to her not just for himself, but for her. Because he’d seen the future where she was still heartbroken that he missed their dance, and I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s literally RIGHT THERE in probably the best-written Marvel Film, Winter Soldier.

In a film that’s all about how what he thought was good and right is literally crumbling or growing Hydra tentacles around him, there are two things he doesn’t let go of. The first is Bucky. Bucky is an assassin now who any other hero would have put down. Heck, STEVE would have mournfully put down any other threat to the greater good, for the sake of Doing What’s Right. But there’s two (2) exceptions to that rule, and the first is Bucky. Loyalty. He won’t kill or even fight his best friend. And the second thing he won’t let go of, thematically, is Peggy. It’s how we go from “I’m alone in the future” in the Avengers to, “and if I’m the only one, so be it. But I’m willing to bet I’m not.” Peggy founded SHIELD. Steve didn’t have to take time out of the very carefully synchronized and tense mission to stop Project: Insight to make that announcement. He could have assumed everyone was HYDRA and got to work. But he stopped, he made a FAITH-BASED decision to let HYDRA know they were there and shoutout to any good people in the building because the movie was about trust. And Peggy showed Steve how to have faith and trust in people because she extended it to him. He puts so many eggs in the Big Risk basket during this movie based on trusting others even though Nick Fury’s crucial words were “Don’t Trust Anyone.” That’s the part of Steve that won’t get corroded away by the new world he’s come out of the ice into. And he shows it by loyalty to Bucky, brainwashed warts and all, and belief in people, which Peggy taught him. There’s a lot that could also be said about Sam and Natasha, too, but more on them later.

The main thing, in CA:TWS and Avengers, to remember about Steve’s character arc is that while he’s learning to hold on to IDEALS like belief in people and defending freedom and innocent people from bullies like HYDRA and Loki, how does he express those ideals? The only way he knows how. By fighting. By finding a mission to complete or a cause to serve and going for it. How else? He doesn’t know how to do anything else. “I guess I just like to know who I’m fighting.” Sam asks, “You thinking about getting out?” And hid knee-jerk reaction is “no.” Then, “I don’t know.” AND WHY DOESN’T HE KNOW? Because he doesn’t know what makes him happy. Seriously! What makes him happy?? People who know him. He won’t go on a date because he has “no shared life experience”. He has no fun plans Saturday because his “barbershop quartet are dead.” Hes straight up politely walking away, kind-celebrity-style, from a potential new friend in Sam until Sam starts talking about being a veteran. He tries to relate to others through fights because that seems to be the only thing left. People see Steve as Captain America, leader of the Avengers, Fighter for Freedom, in the future. Nobody sees the kid from Brooklyn anymore. And he doesn’t know who he is without a war.

Bringing us to Avengers: Age of Ultron. This one’s character development is so obvious it feels like they’re beating you over the head with it Hulk-style if you just take half a second to focus on Steve’s scenes. It starts with how he views the Maximoff twins—he can relate to their lab-rats-of-justice ideals, but nobody else shares that sympathy, as seen in the conversation with Maria Hill by the elevator. Then there’s the scene at the party. No, not the one where he reminds Bruce that he waited too long for Peggy, although HELLO HE’S STILL IN LOVE WITH PEGGY. But I’m talking about Steve and Sam’s conversation. Sam mentions home. In the middle of a party, Steve is asking about Bucky, his one remaining person who knows him, and reminiscing about Peggy, the other person who knew him. Home is in the people who know you. Steve wants that to be the Avengers. He wants them to be the people who get who he is, and I think they come close. Nat, Sam, and Tony especially. But Tony never separates who Steve is from this idea of him handed down from Howard Stark, and Steve is made aware of that over and over. Plus Tony doesn’t trust Steve; the team keeps clashing over trust issues in this film. And Tony even says, in the pivotal argument with Steve over the lumber pile, “isn’t this why we fight? So we can END the fight? So we can go HOME?” Steve can’t go home because Steve feels he has no home. He’s made The Fight his home. And he defaults right back to it in this argument: “every time someone tries to stop a war before it starts, innocent people die.” So, again, he’s not ALONE anymore, in the sense that others will fight with him. But he’s still stuck on FIGHTING. And nobody really knows him. At the end of the film he says, almost reluctantly, “I’m home” and proceeds to go in and try to train new Avengers. Sam comes flying in among them—that’s a subtle reason why Steve is willing to make the Avengers/the Fight his new home. The one guy who might actually know him and represent who he is when he’s not behind the shield is missing, and Sam was supposed to be looking for him. Sam is with the Avengers, NOT looking for him.

But all of that is wrecked in Captain America: Civil War. Peggy, the love of his life, dies. Bucky, the friend he’d all but given up on finding, reappears and is in trouble. Without Peggy, there’s only one person left who knows who Steve really is, and with all that Bucky means to him, Steve isn’t going to give him up. It just so happens that that goal of remaining loyal to Bucky is synonymous with hanging on to his ideals: combatting the Sokovia Accords with a little moral kick in the seat from posthumous Peggy. I’m not going to go into why his actions about the Accords were in-character in this film. But it should be obvious from everything I’ve written, anyway. And remember, his faith is in people. Peggy taught him that, as we’ve established.

The main point of character development in this film for Steve is that he’s realized that he can’t give up who Steve Rogers is to be who everyone thinks Captain America is. When the rest of the world says that the Avengers should be little better than Government weapons and operate out of fear, Steve remembers that he’s the kid from Brooklyn who will fight for what’s right, shield or no shield. And Bucky symbolizes that aspect of who he really is, because Bucky knows him in a way that no remaining living character does. So when Steve is fighting Tony to keep Bucky safe, it’s not devoid of their conflict over ideals, either. Stave drops the shield but promises to still be there for Tony if he needs him. He’s not going to be everyone’s Captain America. He’s going to stay the good man Erskine gave a chance to, the good man Peggy believed in, and the good man only Bucky is alive to remember.

Now we get to Infinity War. And here there’s so much going on with so many characters that for Steve, it’s just important to realize that, although he’s finally hit a rhythm in this post-ice life as Steve Rogers, Fighter from Brooklyn, HOW is he hitting that rhythm? Settling down in Wakanda to hang with Bucky and the goats? Leaving the justice and peacekeeping to Tony Stark and the law-abiding heroes? No. He’s still fighting. And not just in response to Thanos—we’re shown hints and evidences that Cap and his Secret Avengers have been doing some behind-the-scenes peacekeeping. So why isn’t Steve finding peace with Bucky? Ask yourself that. He had time. He had anonymity, in Wakanda. He’d given up the Captain America mantle. They could’ve been roomies in that little hut, like when they were kids, right?

Wrong. But why?

It’s not because the Russos didn’t think of it. It’s not because of lazy writing. It’s because of Bucky.

Bucky is still Steve’s friend and Steve is still loyal to him. They don’t mean any less to each other than they did in 1945. But Bucky is not Bucky anymore. If you believe that Sebastian Stan did a good job playing Bucky, you have to remember that Sebastian Stan played him as if he would “never go back to being that guy you see in The First Avenger.” Bucky has evolved. He’s part Winter Soldier, now. Does he still know Steve better than anyone? Yes. But that is corrupted by the fact that Bucky was programmed to see Steve, the country Steve represented, and all of Steve’s ideals of freedom as targets to be destroyed for 90 years. That changes things. Steve is always going to do what is best for Bucky, because that’s the kind of friend he is. It was the kind of friend he was in 1945 when he rescued Bucky from Azzano, it’s the kind of friend he was when he wouldn’t fight him aboard Project: Insight, it’s the kind of friend he was when he gave up the Avengers and the shield for Bucky...and it’s the kind of friend he was when he left Bucky in the present.

In Avengers: Endgame Steve Rogers has experienced what it’s like to fight and lose again. He’s lost everything. He’s lost Peggy, and now Bucky, too. He’s lost everything and everyone that ever symbolized home...except, perhaps, Natasha. His friend who knows what it’s like to give up everything for ideals and fight to prove yourself. His friend who can’t stop fighting, either. But he loses her, too. Before he does, though, what does Steve say? In that first conversation before everything sets into motion? He says that maybe the fight doesn’t need to be fought by them. He says they need to get a life. But Nat says “you first.”

Who knows him the closest at this point? Nat. So who’s the best-qualified to point out where he’s at, character-development-wise? Nat. He sees his flaw. Steve Rogers sees that he can’t figure out who he is, without someone who knows him helping him. He sees that he defaults to finding a cause, a mission, a fight. Heck, the posters of him say “one last mission.” Not “one last sacrifice (of everything for Bucky).” One last MISSION, because that’s the only thing Steve knows how to do when he has nothing else.

“But he DID have something else! He had BUCKY! And his new family with the Avengers!”

Now we get to the part people don’t understand. They think, “how could Steve just leave everybody, especially Bucky, to fend for themselves?”

You didn’t see all that character development, especially in the first film where the differences between what Bucky means to Steve and what Peggy means to Steve are established.

Bucky is not the streetsmart protective charming brother figure he was in TFA. But listen. He’s not the broken Winter Soldier anymore either. Not in a way that needs Steve’s help. He’s not on the run. He’s got his memory back. He’s pardoned. He’s got Sam. Don’t you see, Bucky’s biggest problem is Steve’s, at this point? They MIRROR each other. Steve can’t figure out who he is if he isn’t fighting for everyone else because he’s been fighting for so long. And Bucky can’t figure out who he is with his friend, his brother figure, doing that and him. Because if Steve is fighting, Bucky will always be there to have his back. But fighting isn’t what Bucky needed anymore. It’s not what he wanted. Fighting is what Bucky is tired of.

And Steve Rogers can’t not be where the fight is.

Because without a fight, who is he?

Peggy Carter knows.

Steve Rogers left Bucky because Bucky needed him to leave. They needed to be friends from afar. And Steve left Bucky because Peggy Carter was home. Being with the woman who knew who he really was, as Steve “Kid From Brooklyn” Rogers, was the right move for his character because it shows that he’s finally ready to stop fighting. Stop being Captain America, lonely hero, man out of time. He’s ready to go and figure out who he is apart from all of that, with someone who really knows him. Could he have done that with Bucky? I don’t know. Seems to me, from what we’ve seen, that Bucky represented passively understanding Steve while Peggy, at the point they were separated, represented understanding Steve and moving him forward.

Bucky was “I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.”

Peggy is “I had faith.”

Bucky was the guy to have Steve’s back in the fight. Peggy was the woman to show him he was meant for more. She represents his potential. She represents his ability to move on, see who he is when he’s doing more than following orders or standing up for honor or proving himself. It would have been out of character for him to stay in the present because new fights would have arisen, and he never would’ve put down the shield. He would’ve fought until someone killed him. And guess what? Bucky would’ve been right behind him, dragging himself into a fight when what he really needs is to step away from Steve and the baggage of his past for a bit. Not completely, but enough.

But this way? With Peggy? We get to see the guy who was always lonely and always learning how to be less alone actually do it. If you miss how significant that is, and you miss how much sense it makes, you don’t understand Steve Rogers at all.

#snowybookworm #I could’ve said less better #but here we are #avengers #steve rogers is an asshole #steve rogers #captain america #captain rogers #steggy #anti-stucky #captain America endgame #avengers:Endgame endgame #mcu #marvel #Marvel Cinematic Universe

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avatar-news · 4 years ago

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The Fire Nation Awaits 🌺 An in-depth look at the ever-elusive islands in the era of Korra and when we will finally pay them a visit

[Artwork by Avatar News; not official.]

Note: This article was published before the official announcement of Avatar Studios at the Paramount+ investor day.

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” We’ve all heard those words a million times. The four elements, and the power to control them bestowed by four subspecies of giant lion-turtles, are at the very heart of the world of Avatar. The balance between them was once upon a time broken by one of the four, the Fire Nation, forming the main conflict of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For much of Aang and the Gaang’s quest at the close of the Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation was a forbidden, far-away location, until the curtain was finally drawn back in the aptly-named Book Three: Fire when our heroes entered the inferno, undercover behind enemy lines. A dramatic tropical destination! New outfits! Culture shock! Needless to say, it was a big deal.

→ 🌺 The big reveal of the Fire Nation in Book Three: Fire had its own marketing push, matching public anticipation.

When the Hundred Year War ended, the newly-instated Fire Lord Zuko dedicated his life to righting the wrongs of his forefathers and working with Avatar Aang to bring the Fire Nation back into the fold under peace. By the time Aang’s successor debuted as the next Avatar in the titular The Legend of Korra, Zuko had abdicated the five-pointed crown and his daughter, Fire Lord Izumi, took the stage leading a reformed, rebalanced Fire Nation.

There was no more war, no more enemy lines, yet the Fire Nation became more distant and mysterious than ever before.

Korra’s close encounters with the land of fire

To this day, Korra has never visited the Fire Nation, nor has it been seen at all, nor do we know anything about it in her era. In fact, practically the only thing we do know is that its leader is a noninterventionist, which conveniently gets it out of the way of making an appearance in Korra’s journey as the Avatar so far.

The closest we have come to seeing the Fire Nation in The Legend of Korra was in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Five: Peacekeepers. In the midst of the Water Tribe Civil War, Korra sets out across the sea to get help from the royal family, however, she is intercepted by a dark spirit and never makes it to her destination. In the next episode, she washes up on a secret island home to the Bhanti sages, which probably technically counts as Fire Nation territory, but as we know from The Shadow of Kyoshi (more on that later), this faction predates the Four Nations themselves so it doesn’t really count.

→ 🌺 Korra washes up on the beach of Bhanti Island in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Six: The Sting.

No, as cool as that location and the events of the Beginnings two-parter that happened there were, it wasn’t the main draw of seeing the Fire Nation that we’re still waiting for: seeing how the Fire Nation, which was already industrializing in Aang’s time, changed over the decades, compared to places like Republic City and Ba Sing Se; meeting new characters; visiting new and familiar locations; worldbuilding both new and expanding on what we already learned.

After this aborted tease in Book Two, we never come close to the island country again (at least not with this Avatar and in her era; yes I’m leading up to something...). Instead, the focus turns strongly to the Earth Kingdom in the third and fourth Books, and beyond.

Keep in mind that The Legend of Korra aired for about two-and-a-half years total from 2012 to 2014. Since then, the story has continued in comics. The comics era has lasted from 2015 to present-- seven years to the animated series’ two. In that time, there have only been two comic trilogies due to various production troubles, and neither have touched the Fire Nation. Instead, they directly continue the Earth Kingdom-focused threads started in Books Three and Four of Korra, both originally airing in 2014. Or, in perspective: we had a focus on Republic City in 2012, the Water Tribes in 2013, and the Earth Kingdom from 2014-2021.

Will we finally see the Fire Nation in the next graphic novel trilogy?

This question comes to mind every time new Korra content is supposed to roll around, and the powers that be know it-- it’s a pretty obvious gap in the world of Avatar right now. This franchise is iconically built around four elements and the Four Nations based on them, so one of them being MIA is quite glaring, and for that reason everyone is understandably always asking about it.

The most concrete confirmation we’ve gotten was this AMA answer from franchise co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino in 2016, two years after the show ended and a year before the first graphic novels did come out:

“Yes, hopefully in the [Korra] comics, we’ll have a chance to go to the Fire Nation and see how it has changed since A:TLA.”

Since then, as previously discussed, two comic trilogies have come and gone, obviously not getting closer to the Fire Nation-- and I would actually argue entrenching themselves further away from it.

I want to make it clear that I’m against fan entitlement. Creatives telling the tales they want to in service of the story and the artform is how the industry should run. I’m just hoping to offer some perspective on how we got to where we are almost a decade into the era of Korra and the metatextual pacing of the franchise itself.

Either way, the next Korra comic trilogy has been official confirmed by the editor for Avatar at Dark Horse Comics in this informal statement on Twitter:

We’re not ready to announce any details yet, but we are working on the next trilogy. I really appreciate your patience and hope it’s worth the wait! ✨

There’s currently some kind of holdup for which we really have zero context or information, and we of course have no idea what this next trilogy will be about. (I do speculate a bit on what it could be a few paragraphs down.)

But, like what turned out to be Ruins of the Empire before it, I faithfully made a mockup graphic for my post announcing the confirmation of the next The Legend of Korra graphic novel trilogy. And like before, I chose to completely speculatively and blindly make it Fire Nation-y, as if the next comic could/would(/should?) feature it. This is mainly because I feel like that’s what most people’s eyes would be caught by and thus result in the most successful post (hey, at least I’m honest), but also because it’s just fun.

Here are both images, from 2018 and 2020 respectively:

→ 🌺 Speculative edits I made for my posts on the announcement of previous and upcoming Korra comics before we knew anything about them.

In both cases, the response was huge, and people were super excited about the prospect of Fire Nation content just from my quick speculative mockups. I am of course hoping that the new artwork I made of the Krew for this post will have a similar effect (it’s the first time I just straight-up drew it instead of editing existing images) but again it’s really mostly just for fun.

Anyway, until the next trilogy is properly revealed, we’ll just have to wait and see.

However, that’s not the only place this could happen.

Are they saving the Fire Nation for an animated movie?

With Avatar’s HUGE success on Netflix last year, interest in the franchise rocketed to an all-time high. The streaming wars have begun, and Avatar’s owner and its parent company, Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS, have finally started to notice.

ViacomCBS is launching Paramount+ on March 4th, a relaunch of its existing streaming service CBS All Access. Paramount+ is meant to be a big expansion and refocus to compete with the big hitters: Disney+, HBO Max, and, yes, Netflix. (There’s quite an entanglement there, with Netflix being the home of Avatar’s big year and the upcoming live-action series.)

One of the keys to a successful streamer today is high-profile originals to drive new subscribers. ViacomCBS knows this and they know Avatar has just become among the highest profiles a property can have, breaking records and going toe-to-toe with other big-hitting sci-fi/fantasy/genre franchises. This knowledge goes right to the top of the food chain: the CEO of ViacomCBS mentioned Avatar by name when discussing potential originals for Paramount+.

I have previously discussed how The Search relates to this. The Search was the second ATLA comic trilogy, focused on the search for Zuko’s mother in the thick of the Fire Nation, and if you didn’t know, it was originally pitched by Bryke as an animated movie after the original series ended.

I just want to be clear that what I’m discussing here is purely speculative, but this is the only other piece of the Avatar franchise that we know was optioned for animation besides the shows themselves. It’s possible they would be interested in going back to this idea as a Paramount+ original (and it would certainly be popular among audiences), but it is of course set during the era of Aang and thus covers both a time period we’ve already seen, and also by nature of already being released as comics, events we’ve already seen too.

However, the whole point of this article is that there is one major, huge thing we haven’t seen yet, with massive anticipation building for a decade behind it: the Fire Nation in the era of Korra. So, again, this is just speculation, but it’s also possible that they could return to the very smallest seed of the original idea for a The Search movie, and do a Fire Nation-focused Korra movie now.

→ 🌺 ATLA’s Fire Nation-focused The Search was originally pitched as an animated movie.

You can skip this next part if you don’t want to see me embarrassingly promote my fan idea 😆 but this is where the artwork I made for this article comes into play. The general idea for it, and the reason I tried to replicate the show’s style as much as possible, is that it’s what a Fire Nation-focused movie could maybe look like. Something as standalone and unrelated to Earth Kingdom drama as possible, with fresh new looks for the Krew to get people excited for something fresh and new! I really feel like the Avatar franchise has so much potential for expanded content like this, that’s why I have high hopes that Paramount+ will make the most out of it! You can see the individual characters’ artwork in larger size here. Ok I’m done back to business.

If the idea of a movie seems too impossible to you, we can also take a deeper look at Bryke’s involvement with upcoming comics instead.

After Korra ended, they officially each went their separate ways. They vaguely consulted on Avatar stuff, and Mike of course wrote the Korra comics, but Bryan was planning on writing and drawing his own original non-Avatar comic series and Mike was releasing his own non-Avatar novels. This all appears to have come to a stop when they signed on to showrun the live-action retelling of ATLA at Netflix, officially reuniting the partnership and committing to Avatar again in a big way. Of course, they ended up leaving that project over creative differences, but it did result in a big, lasting change: this time they remained official creative partners and have indicated they’re still working on Avatar now, together. This is a far cry from the official breakup after Korra, so it begs the question what exactly they’re working on. I of course have my fanciful predictions of a sprawling expansion of the Avatar franchise at Paramount+, but what if it’s actually a combination of the ingredients from before the live-action series...

More speculation, but what if the reason for all the mystery behind the next Korra comics is because they will be made by Bryke, with the two of them co-writing and Bryan doing the art for the first time? If that’s the case, they could want to make them a bigger deal than the other Avatar comics have been so far, and maybe that’s why it’s taking so long to iron everything out, have a more significant story, have more of a marketing push, etc. If they’ve been saving the Fire Nation for something big, this could be it.

I personally think this is less likely than a show or movies or something, but it is possible. Anything is possible right now since we know so little about the large-scale direction of the franchise moving forward, just that it’s gonna get big.

⛰️🌋 The Fire Nation in the era of Avatar Kyoshi

We’re not done! Despite everything I’ve written here, believe it or not, the Fire Nation was actually the star of the show in the last year.

With the debut of the Avatar franchise’s first original novels, Kyoshi made a huge splash (in a way only she can). If you haven’t read them yet, you NEED to-- they’re some of the best Avatar content EVER. The Rise of Kyoshi hit shelves in 2019 and The Shadow of Kyoshi followed in 2020. The latter is of particular interest here, because it was almost entirely set in the Fire Nation and featured practically everything and anything you could want from a visit to elusive islands. Though obviously set in a historical period some four hundred years before Aang’s time, Kyoshi’s sojourn in the Fire Nation gave us a huge amount of new information, a depth and breadth of worldbuilding, culture, and character we’ve never really seen in Avatar before. It truly makes the most of the literary medium, so hats off to author F. C. Yee for the passion and effort he put in.

In The Shadow of Kyoshi, we learn about the era of the previous fire Avatar before Roku, Avatar Szeto. Through Kyoshi and her own Team Avatar, we learn about the different clans and islands of the Fire Nation, as they experience the fraught early reign of Fire Lord Zoryu and the conflict between the Keohso and Saowon clans, culminating in the Camellia-Peony War. We get a multitude of fleshed-out perspectives from the upper crust to the flea-bitten underworld, matching the heights of the worldbuilding quality of Republic City. It’s such cool, intricate stuff, and really shows Avatar’s potential (and that’s all just the worldbuilding-- the character work is also top-notch).

That’s not the only place the Fire Nation has shone recently. One of Insight Editions’ awesome scrapbooks, Legacy of the Fire Nation, gave us a tour through the royal family’s history, including never-before-seen looks at young Iroh and Ozai and much, much more.

All this just goes to show that the Fire Nation has been a hot ticket throughout the ages and there’s one conspicuous gap in that history: the era of Avatar Korra. With so much recent expansion and development of the Fire Nation in our world, it would be perfect to see the culmination of it all in the current time period in the world of Avatar too.

If this made you excited for the potential of what the Avatar franchise could look like in the coming years, same boat!

The next concrete date where something could be announced is February 24th, when ViacomCBS will host their investor day and present their streaming strategy, including Paramount+ originals. There’s no guarantee Avatar is mentioned, but I’m keeping a hopeful eye out.

As for comics, Dark Horse’s schedule marches to its own beat, so there’s no way to know when the next drop of information is coming our way.

Could this finally be the comics that take us to the Fire Nation, or could the much-anticipated visit be in another medium like animation? Stay tuned-- as always I’ll post as soon as we learn anything new!

#korra comics #paramount plus #the fire nation awaits

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quillsandtypos · 4 years ago

Text

Ours Stars Collided- Part 2

Summary: As our reader, a musically gifted high school junior, navigates life she realizes not everything goes as planned. She didn't plan on getting close with Julie's band. But not any band, her band is made up of ghosts. But is the afterlife enough to keep her feelings in check towards the main guitarist?

Words: 3.8k

Pairing: luke patterson x reader

Warnings: none

...........................................

“Hey, you ready?” you asked.

“Yeah, just let me grab my stuff,” Julie answered.

She pulled the emoji covered backpack out of her locker and shut it.

“Alright, you ready?” she questioned, as she let you lead the way.

“Yes, and no,” you said, with a nervous smile.

She placed her hand on your shoulder. “You got this, besides, you’re in good hands with Luke,” she reassured you.

“No doubt about that, it’s just a matter of whether I’ll embarrass myself or not.”

She smiled genuinely at you. “You got this, trust me.”

You held the door open for her.

“That car is yours, right?” She pointed across the parking lot.

“Yep, that’s the one.”

You unlocked it and threw your bag in the back, before getting into the drivers side.

“Alright, whatcha wanna listen to?”

Julie paused in thought before hesitantly asking, “You know who Lizzo is right?”

“Oh my god yes! You listen to her too?” you excitedly asked.

“Yes! How could you not listen to Lizzo!”

“Lizzo it is then!”

The first song was Soulmate, followed by Tempo which the two of you practically yelled, and the third song was Like a Girl. When Truth Hurts came on you both gasped and made eye contact through wide eyes.

Soon enough your sound system was blaring through the car and the two of you were belting the lyrics.

“Help you witchya career just a little,” you sang. Then you pointed to Julie to take the next part.

“You supposed to hold me down but you holding me back and that’s the sound of me not calling you back!” Julie was somewhere in between belting and yelling and still managing to sound good.

Then the both of you took the chorus. “Why men great till they gotta be great, don’t text me tell it straight to my face!

You were both animatedly pumping your fists with bright smiles as you finally rolled into her driveway.

Julie opened the studio doors to the boys all sitting there, ready to go. “Well you guys certainly look like you were having fun,” Reggie commented, smiling.

“We did,” you agreed.

“But now it means that break time is over for you guys,” Julie teased them.

Alex had already poofed over to the drums before she said anything.

“Yes ma’am!” Reggie said, getting off the couch.

Luke had a playful smile on his face. “We were the ones working on a new song, so I think that means the break is up for you,” he teased.

You couldn’t help but notice their closeness in that moment, you tried not to; but a small part of you couldn’t help but wish that was you.

Julie just rolled her eyes at him and walked to her piano to put her bag down. And just like that the moment was over.

After you and Julie had settled in and warmed up your voices and practiced a bit with your instruments, you figured you should probably figure out what you were doing.

“So do you guys want me to sing, or play, or listen?” you asked.

They all looked over at you, but Luke was the first to speak. “I can show y/n a couple of the songs with her while you guys run through Bright. Then we can see how she fits into that?” Luke brainstormed.

He held eye contact with you for a few moments before shifting to his other bandmates to gage their reactions.

“Sure! Sounds good to me,” Alex offered.

“Yeah you guys can go sit up in the loft if you want, just so you won’t be distracted by us,” Julie suggested.

“Yeah, sure, come on newbie, let’s see what you got, shall we?” He gestured to the stairs, and allowed you to go first.

“Don’t you already know what I’ve got since you technically already heard me play?” you said, as you ascended the stairs with your guitar.

“Yeah, but that one doesn’t technically count since it wasn’t in here,” he argued.

You paused and turned around, as you desperately tried to fight the smile forming on your lips. “Well technically you shouldn’t break into someone’s room and watch them play without knowing, so,” you trailed off.

“And to think I wanted you to be in the band,” he tutted, with no malice in his voice.

You couldn’t hide the grin on your face now, so you instead choose to plop down on the floor and start on your guitar.

“Alright I’m gonna show you the first couple chords that I have for Bright,” he explained as his fingers effortly slid across his guitar. You watched as he repeated it a couple times before joining him.

He looked up at you as he continued to play. “You’re a fast learner,” he commented.

“Eh, I’m just a visual learner.”

“That must help, I mean with the music school that you and Julie go to. It must be easier to learn things,” he guessed. He continued watching you play.

“Well I mean yes, I go to the same school as Julie but I’m not in the music program,” you admitted.

Luke abruptly stopped playing. “What?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t able to get in.” You were getting somewhat embarrassed.

“Seriously?” he asked in disbelief.

“Seriously,” you confirmed.

“How could they not let you in? I mean you obviously belong there,” he insisted. He sounded slightly upset about the situation.

“There are plenty of people in that school that are much better than me Luke, trust me,” you reassured him.

He leaned forward slightly which forced you to make eye contact with him. He looked quite somber but his eyes seemed to reflect a sort of light; it was as if he was looking through your soul with how intense his gaze was. “I doubt that,” he said.

You nervously swallowed and hoped he didn’t notice. “Thank you,” you uttered quietly, though it did not obstruct the feeling in your voice.

“You’re welcome.” His gaze tore away from yours. You were half relieved and half disappointed.

“So you ready to learn the rest of the song?” He said, breaking the rest of the momentary silence in the loft.

“Whenever you are.”

“Is she show ready?” Julie asked as you walked back down the steps twenty minutes later.

“I think she can manage,” you responded. You sounded more confident than you felt.

“Alright, let’s start Bright from the top. Y/n I want you to sing the chorus, pre-chorus, the second verse and then out to the end of the song, except for the bridge. Luke I’m gonna have you not sing, just for this one. And I will sing the intro, chorus, pre-chorus, the bridge, and verse one. Y/n just sing on this one, we’re not gonna add your guitar yet,” she explained.

You were glad she had a plan, so you at least knew what you were doing. You attempted to shake out your nerves a little bit and Julie gave you a thumbs up from her piano.

She started her intro and of course she sounded amazing. Luckily, you had listened to their song before so you knew when you needed to come in.

“Life is a risk but I will take it

Close my eyes and jump, together I think that we can make it

Come on let’s run”

The guys joined in with their instruments as the two of you reached the chorus. You started to relax through the chorus until you remembered that you would be singing on your own in a couple seconds. Pulling up your previous lesson from Luke in your mind, you tried to remember how high he had you sing it, it wasn’t quite Julie’s level but it was definitely higher than his. You once again made eye contact with Luke who mouthed ‘you got this’ with a determined look on his face. You heard the drums starting to quiet slightly and you knew you were up.

“In times that I doubted myself

I felt like I needed some help

Stuck in my head with nothing left

I feel something around me now

So unclear, lifting me out

I found the ground I’m marching on”

You were once again back with Julie’s voice as she came to stand beside you. You turned to face one another and sang with a harmony you were quite certain you hadn’t heard before. She was practically glowing with happiness and you couldn’t help but reflect that same joy on your own face.

As her individual part finished up again the two of you sung the final parts of the song as you went low on the last bright as she sung her iconic high note. The music faded and you couldn’t help but cheer a little bit.

Julie pulled you into a tight hug. “See I told you you’d be amazing!”

You returned the hug. “Thank you, but you should seriously hear yourself. You are so talented.”

“She’s right y/n you sounded really good,” commented Alex from the back; Reggie nodded in agreement.

“Thanks Alex,” you replied. A small smile was on your face and a certain amount of heat was creeping up to your cheeks from the levels of attention on you.

Luckily, Julie quickly took it off of you. This time she was going to have you play a version of Luke’s part on the guitar but complimented it as he sang; which you were grateful for because it meant you could take a background seat for a minute.

Julie started up on her piano again. This time you were waiting for the chorus to start, and as it did you almost forgot what you were doing when Luke started singing. Sure you had heard him sing this song in full once before. But damn could that boy sing.

It wasn’t until the chorus hit that things started to go wrong for you. You once again couldn’t help but notice their closeness, or the way they looked at each other. You continued on playing but you would be lying if you said it was with the same energy you had minutes ago.

The final chorus hit and your face had fallen all the way from buzzing with joy to mopey. You noticed Reggie creeping up from your right and your spirits were slightly raised as you watched him awkwardly wink at you and walk over to finish the rest of the song with you. For a second he made you forget all about your moment of sadness. As you finished up the last of the chords with each other you ended up back to back towards the end of it, for dramatic effect. Alex laughed as the song ended and he noticed the stance you and Reggie had chosen.

“What?” Reggie grinned.

“That was awesome!” you yelled, high fiving him

“Yeah it was!” he said, mirroring your enthusiasm.

“Ya know I think she’ll fit in quite nicely,” Luke observed. You could’ve sworn you saw him smirk and his eyes move slightly, but it was only for a moment.

Julie smiled in a slightly mischievous way. “I think she will too,” Julie agreed, as if you weren’t in the room listening to their conversation.

“You guys know I’m right here right?” you quipped from the other side of the room.

“Yeah I know, but I have a LOT of homework so we gotta wrap this up.”

“I can do that!” You raced over to the couch to get your stuff.

“Gentleman and Julie, it was lovely playing with you and I will see you all tomorrow,” you said as you waved goodbye. They all waved back as you pulled out of her driveway.

It turned out that heavy homework wednesdays were becoming a thing for Julie because in the following week she was told she wasn’t allowed to have band practice until her homework was done. She said something about her dad not being too happy about her staying up till twelve doing it. Though Julie didn’t sound so happy about it either, for obvious reasons; but she did of course want to have band practice, so she promised all of you she would be done as quick as possible. But she still needed a ride home, and Flynn’s house was on the way to your house, so you offered to drive her too.

Flynn called shotgun which Julie groaned about, but she took the back. You turned on Lizzo before putting the park in reverse to get out of the parking lot and driving off.

“So how is your new spot in the phantoms going?” Flynn asked.

“I would say pretty good, but I’ll let Julie answer that one.”

“She’s doing really well, her and Luke have really figured out how to compliment one another on the guitars, and she gets along great with all of them,” Julie responded.

“Well I think they might, maybe, just maybe, be keeping you,” Flynn told you, sarcastically.

“Thank god they are, I don’t know what I would’ve done if they hadn’t," you worried aloud.

“Probably would’ve still thought you were insane,” Flynn suggested with a shrug.

“Harsh! But, yeah, probably,” you admitted, laughing a little bit, and the other two joined you.

“At least now I can get people off my back about me and Luke,” Julie spoke. Flynn pointed at her in acknowledgement.

Now that peaked your interest. “What?” you asked, trying to sound nonchalant about it.

Julie casually waved you off. “Oh just people thinking Luke and I are together.”

You thought you were going to jump up and down from excitement, “Wait, you guys aren’t together?” You hoped you didn’t sound as excited as you felt.

Julie had a borderline concerned look on her face. “Ohhhhh definitely not, we are just friends, and neither of us want to be anything more. I mean don’t get me wrong, I see the appeal, but he’s not my type,” she explained.

“Yeah cause her type is Nick,” Flynn sang, snapping her fingers.

Suddenly a lightbulb clicked. “Was that the guy you were talking to by your locker the day Luke saw me?”

Julie facepalmed in embarrassment. “Yes.”

“See she’s not even denying it,” Flynn pointed out.

“That’s true,” you agreed, looking through your rear mirror at your bandmate.

Flynn's face suddenly turned from mischievous evil to somehow even more evil. “Though I mean we could instead talk about how you obviously think Luke is cute.”

Now that took you by surprise. “I do not!” you insisted.

Flynn’s eyes got slightly larger with her raised eyebrows and she pursed her lips. “Okay so we’re lying now?” she teased.

Julie laughed before slamming her hand over her mouth. “Flynn stop, if she says she doesn’t like him then she doesn’t.”

“Thank you Julie.” You specifically enunciated Julie and Flynn stuck her tongue out at you. And just as she did you turned onto Julie’s road.

You waved goodbye to Julie, wishing her luck with her homework. And then went to drop Flynn off before arriving home yourself.

You rummaged through the fridge to find something and you managed to settle on an orange before also finding hummus and pretzels.

You sat down in your empty kitchen and took a bite of a hummus covered pretzel, and realize you forgot to get water. You turned around to come face to face with Luke…. again.

“HOLY SHIT!” you yelled. It wasn’t your first time but it didn’t mean it wasn’t just as scary.

“Sorry didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, not looking very sorry at all.

“You have got to stop doing that.” You walked past him and by that you mean you accidentally walked through him. You turned back to him for a moment to see if he was okay but he seemed to be looking at you curiously so you assumed he was fine.

“No promises, remember? It’s kinda a ghost thing,” he reminded you as he followed you around your kitchen.

“Okay well what do you and your ghost thing want?” you asked, immediately regretting your choice of words. You could practically feel his smirk from behind you.

“Did you just-” he started but you cut him off.

“Nope, no, no I didn’t. What do you want Luke?” You were trying to pivot and luckily, he took the bait.

“Well, can you come to the studio?” he asked.

“Yes, I was already going to be coming there later.” You were getting slightly confused.

“No, I mean like now,” Luke explained.

“Why?” you asked, finally sitting back down with your water.

“We’re bored,” he confessed, slouching on your table.

“You came here to tell me you’re bored?” you giggled.

“Well I guess technically, yes, so can you come?” he impatiently asked. He just looked restless. Though you supposed being in a garage for a large majority of your day and only having two other people to talk to would do that to a person, or ghost in this case. But unfortunately, you still couldn’t come.

“Sorry Luke, I already told my parents I would be leaving later tonight, and I don’t wanna have to switch plans on them,” you apologized.

“Oh come on, your parents aren’t even home,” he pointed out.

“I’m well aware, but I try to keep my promises to them,” you defended. Though he looked so goddamn cute at the moment you could feel your will power breaking.

“It’ll be fun!” he promised. He must’ve known that his smile could get to you because when you looked at him you swore it had grown three sizes.

“Tempting, but I’m gonna have to pass.”

“Please?” he asked. You looked him in the eyes, which was a big mistake because he was giving you a puppy face. I mean it’s not like you already thought he was cute, but this? This was on a whole nother level. His lips were in a slight pout as his head was tilted doward just a smidge, and his blue eyes mocked sadness, in a way that was just unbearable.

“Okay, okay, fine,” you agreed, you tried to sound annoyed but it didn’t work in the slightest.

“Yes!” he shouted.

“Just let me grab my keys, wait, can you even go in a car?” Could he even get in the car? Could he get in the car, and then his physical state or lack thereof, could suddenly go away and he wouldn’t be sitting in the car anymore? But Luke’s voice interrupted your hypotheticals.

“How about I just meet you there?” Luke suggested.

“Good idea,” you agreed.

Ten minutes later you had pulled up to Julie’s house and entered the studio. “Oh hey Reggie,” you greeted, taking a seat on the couch.

“Oh hi y/n! Are you here to practice with us, or? Not that I mind you being here,” he quickly stammered out.

“It’s fine, you’re okay Reggie, I know I’m not usually here unless it’s for practice. But yeah, I’m just here to hang out.”

“Oh, cool!”

“So where’s everybody else?” you asked.

“Well I think Alex is with Willie and I’m actually not sure where Luke is,” he answered.

“I wonder wh-” you started, but you had a feeling that someone had landed beside you.

Which, of course Luke had, and practically right on time too.

“Sorry, I was just checking on Julie and seeing how much homework she has,” Luke explained.

“How’s it looking?” you asked.

“Not so great, she still has a lot left to go,” Luke admitted.

You shrugged. “Well I’ve got nowhere to be.”

And for the next two hours or so the three of you sat there and talked about all sorts of things, from mundane things, to really deep things, to things they missed the most about being alive. Which mostly consisted of food, not that you blamed them.

Soon enough Luke went to go check up on Julie again.

“Are you cold?” Reggie asked you.

“No,” you lied.

“Dude, I can see you, you’re literally shivering.”

“Yeah, I forgot to grab a jacket before I left my house,” you admitted.

“Here-” he threw a jacket at you, “wear this one, it’s nice and warm.”

“Reggie you really don’t have to-” you started, but he insisted; and you were pretty cold so you gave in.

In a couple of minutes Luke returned to the same spot.

“How’s it looking now?” you asked.

“I don’t think she’s gonna,” Luke suddenly stopped mid sentence to glance over at you, “nice jacket y/n.” For whatever reason, he had a very interesting look on his face, to say the least.

“Thanks, Reggie lent it to me.”

“Oh is that so?” he asked, now turning to look at Reggie, who looked slightly frightened.

“Um, yes?” you said, though it was more of a question.

Luke turned to you, “Y/n?”

“Yeah?” you responded.

“You know that’s my jacket right?” he asked.

Now you also turned to stare down Reggie, “What was your intent with this-”

“Wait what’s his full first name?” you asked Luke in a whisper.

“Reginald,” he whispered back.

“What was your intent with this Reginald?” you asked.

“I have no idea what you guys are talking about,” Reggie said, looking up at the ceiling.

Luke took one step towards him and Reggie yelped before poofing out.

“Why does he keep offering up your stuff?” you laughed.

He scoffed, “I wish I knew.” It seemed like he did know but you weren’t going to press him on it.

“Oh, here, you can have your jacket back now.” You awkwardly handed it over to him.

“Oh, thanks. You did look good in it though, by the way,” he casually mentioned.

You were pretty sure your brain just shut down for a couple seconds. “What?” you asked, you were still working to catch up with what just happened.

“I said, you looked good in it,” he repeated, as his voice was becoming soft and slightly deeper.

“Thanks,” you managed to mumble out. But meanwhile you thought your face was on fire.

“Oh also you might wanna head home, Julie said she’s not gonna be able to practice tonight,” he mentioned.

“I probably should, but hey, I’ll see you tomorrow!” you yelled as you left the studio.

“See ya!” he yelled and waved.

By the time you got home there was a note on the kitchen table, ‘Don’t worry I cleared it with Luke this time -signed Reggie’ and next to the note sat the jacket. You laughed quietly to yourself before taking the note and the jacket upstairs with you.

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hells-angel · 4 years ago

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Mystery Kisser

Fandom: Supernatural

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Word count: 1805

Warning/s: anxiety attack

Summary: searching for the mystery kisser after one blackout in the bunker.

You had always been afraid of the dark, ever since you were a kid the thought of being alone in the dark makes you feel suffocated, never knowing what’s around you.

as a hunter, your fear had interfered with your hunting more than you can count but the thought of killing monsters and saving a life fuels your adrenaline and overcome your fear.

at night, to be able to sleep you would sleep with the bedside lamp open or just randomly open your phone's flashlight. your fear was of course known by the other occupants of the house.

Sam would leave lights on the hallways in case you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Cass got you some stuffed toys to help you in tough times. Jack helped you redecorate your room to make it more warm and comfortable to sleep in, while Dean installed a light inside Baby in case you travel during the night for a hunt.

eventually, you overcome your fear thanks to their help, to the point that you can now travel at night, given that you're with someone. the only thing left to overcome was being alone in the dark. everything was perfect, no panic or anxiety attack for as long as you can remember. that is until you were alone in the library, reading a random book about monsters when suddenly the light died down, engulfing your whole sight with darkness.

“What the hell!?”

with shaking hands you scrambled around your seat, looking for your phone on the table, quickly tapping on the flashlight icon. the little light providing you with a little sense of comfort.

your loud heart thudding on your chest pounded on your ears. you wanted to move and ran somewhere but you were frozen on your spot, not able to move with your shaky legs. the thought of walking in the dark, not knowing what could jump on you sends all reasoning on the drain.

you felt you stop breathing when you heard a noise behind you.

“wh--who--whose there?” you meekly threatened, more surprised that you manage to let it out.

when you were greeted by silence, you let out a slow, deep and shaky breath, clutching your phone in your hand as your brain starts playing in your mind of what could happen in the dark.

you quickly turned around when you heard footsteps behind you, but when you move the phone from one side to another, there was nowhere there. plunging you deeper into your fear.

by now, you can feel the hot tears streaming down your cheeks as you try to catch your breath as much as you can, followed by uncontrollable sobbing.

with shaky legs, you were sure to collapse but then you felt someone grab your shoulder, jolting you in surprise, sending your phone flying away as you began to thrust an attempt to push whoever it was but the hold on you tightens as you were now wheezing, feeling like you were drowning.

“It’s okay, I got you” you heard the mystery person say calming you a little bit but the wheezing didn’t stop as you were a sobbing mess.

seeing you weren’t calming down, and the other person has no idea what to do. he did the only thing he knows.

you felt someone's lips on you, the shock sending your heart thudding for a different reason. his lips were soft and gentle as if he was afraid one more push and you’ll break, the hands wrapped around your waist and the other cupping your cheek send a feeling of protection.

there were fireworks, you definitely felt it, sparks you read countless times in books and now you knew what exactly it felt.

“what?” You whispered when the other person pulled away but there was no response.

a sense of drowning overcome you once again when you felt the other person disappear, his touch lingering on the skin he touches you. but just then, the lights came back finding yourself alone in the library, your phone on the floor, flashlight still on.

at first, you thought it wasn’t real but you knew that spark and fireworks were definitely real. »»--⍟--««

“say it again,” you asked Sam for the fifth time, this time you closed your eyes as you try to recollect the feeling of your mystery kisser that night.

“ It’s okay...ah I got you?” Sam stiffly said, as if he was reading a script, his hand awkwardly on your waist the other on your cheeks.

“say it with more feelings, as you mean it” you spoke, furrowing your eyebrows at Sam who towers above you. that night, your mind was clouded and foggy, you can’t remember his tone but you knew can hear his words repeating on your head over and over.

Sam chuckled, pulling his hand away from you before stuffing them on his side. “what’s this really about Y/n?” he asked, making you sigh in disappointment, but a big part of you relive that it was not Sam at all.

“well, the other day....” then you began to explain to Sam what happened, the two of you seat in front of each other, both of you enjoying the warm coffee and breakfast he made since he wakes up super early.

“that's interesting,” Sam said with a laugh “but I know for a fact it’s not me” “I already know it's not you, you're too big” you rolled your eyes at him. but just then, Dean came waltzing on the kitchen on his signature robe, a beaming smile on his face.

“I bet it’s the first time you heard a girl say that to you” Dean teased, wiggling his eyebrows at his younger brother who gave his famous bitch face to Dean.

“Dean, perfect timing” you exclaimed, ignoring the coming bickering between them.

Dean raised an eyebrow at you as he pours himself a cup of coffee, making it a sign to continue, you focus all your attention on him. a super huge part of you hoping it was him.

“Where were you the other day? when there was a blackout?” you asked

“ahh, I was with Cas for a supply run, why?” Dean mumbled, a slight disappointment filing up your heart, while Sam gave a suspicious look to his brother like he knew something you didn’t.

“really? then that just leaves Jack but I doubt Jack would do that to me” you frowned, not knowing what to say if it was ever Jack. but you doubt that it was the kid at all.

with newfound information, you finish your breakfast and decided to leave to continue your investigation of the mystery kisser.

“But I’ll ask to be sure, if it’s not Jack then we have to bless this bunker because I won’t stay in here knowing there's a wandering ghost”

»»--⍟--««

talking with Jack, it didn’t take a genius to know it wasn’t him, you already doubt it was him but you just needed to confirm it with your own ears. walking back to the kitchen, your mind kept playing detective on you.

if it isn’t Sam, Dean or Jack then that leaves Cas, but according to Dean, he and Cas were on a supply run so whoever the mystery kisser is it might not be one of your housemates.

“guys I think there's a ghost on the bunker, we really should ask Cas to check for an evil spirit on here” you exclaimed, already tuning to the kitchen, only to be greeted by Cas in front of you.

“there's a protective barrier on this place so I assure you there’s no evil spirit” Cas explained in his monotone voice, causing you to chuckled at the innocent angel.

“I know Cas, it’s just something weird happened” you laugh, walking around him to go to the cupboards.

“Y/n we hunt monsters for a living, I don’t think a ghost living in a bunker can spook us” Sam commented, still seating to where you left him

“hey, this is supposed to be our hideout, I don’t want a ghost wandering around” you laughed once again.

you stop in your tracks as you opened the cupboards one after the other, finding it empty.

“Hey, Dean?” you called, turning around to face Dean who was stuffing himself with bacon.

“what?”

you raise an eyebrow at him, glancing at the once empty cupboards once again before turning to Dean.

“you said you and Cas went supply run the other day, but why is this place almost empty?” you asked, causing Dean to choke midway on his eating, Sam quickly passing him a glass of water.

Meanwhile, Cas tilted his head at you, a curious and confuse look on his face.

“I wasn’t with Dean the other day” he mumbled

“I think you have an amnesia dude” Dean quickly replied, after recovering at his choking a while ago.

“I’m not,” Cas said turning to Dean with a confused look “why are you making that face at me?”

Dean’s face drop in frustration at his friend's lack of understanding. sensing the atmosphere and already putting the two and two together, Sam stood up and pushed the angel out the kitchen.

“came on Cas, let’s give them some space” Sam urged

“space? like some air?” you heard the angel say before their voices disappear into the distance.

meanwhile, an air of awkwardness was left between you and Dean, he tried his best to avoid eye contact with you.

“so it was you?” you smirk, feeling great relief that it was Dean.

“ what’s the point of lying, yes it was me” he admitted, still looking everywhere except you.

slowly, you took a step towards him, hands on your back but eyes never leaving his.

“was it just your way of calming me down? because if it is, then you suck at it, big time” you laugh, Dean's eyes snapping quickly at yours.

“what?! no! you have no idea how much I wanted to kiss you, not just that night but every single day ever since you walk in our life, I have been holding myself back ever since” he angrily explained, stepping towards you until you two were standing in front of each other.

finally, he looked down at you, eyes boring into yours, this was what he was afraid of, once he stares at that innocent and kind eyes his afraid he wouldn’t be able to take it away.

“then don’t hold back” you mumbled and that was all it took for him to lean down and pressed his lips on yours. the fireworks and the sparks intensifying every second.

“We got to make up for the lost time” Dean mumbled after he pulled away, resting his forehead in yours.

“We sure do”

#spn #supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #SPN Dean #spn dean x reader #supernatural fic #supernatural dean #supernatural deanxreader #dean winchester x reader

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queen-of-my-goofball-army · 4 years ago

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An Ode To Miyazaki:

Hi everyone! So for my final paper for film, we had to pick our own director of our choosing and talk about them extensively between the attributes that make them special. Our course focused on the narrative and technical styles of directors. For my final project, I have chosen my biggest hero in the world of animation and somebody that drastically changed my life as a young child, Hayao Miyazaki. Learning about him for this project gave me so much insight into not just his films but who he is as a person. I hope that my paper is as interesting for you to read as it was for me to do research for!

1. Hayao Miyazaki, often referred to as the Japanese Walt Disney is the front runner of his animation studio Studio Ghibli. I picked him because I already have sufficient knowledge and love of his films. One of the first memories that my parents love to remind me of is my first time watching Totoro and laughing at the introduction characters. Miyazaki himself stands out for a number of reasons. Over the years, Miyazaki has made a humongous name out of himself, one of his most famous movies Spirited Away became the most popular film to ever be released in Japan and also won the academy award for the best-animated film that year. His most “popular” films (I say popular in air quotes because it is nearly impossible for people to agree on a favorite) remain the aforementioned Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke. Beginning his career as a simple animator for Toei animation, he worked as an in-between artist. It was here that he met his future collaborator at Ghibli, Isao Takahata. His first big directorial debut in film before founding Ghibli was a team effort without Takahata was Lupin The Third, The Castle Of Cagliostro. His first successful movie was one that was based upon his own manga Nausicaa of the Valley Of The Wind. The first official Miyazaki movie that was made with Ghibli was one of my personal all-time favorites that had ever been created, Castle In The Sky. For many children, especially ones with parents who are lovers of a film like mine, Miyazaki was one of the first animators that I was introduced to. His films have become classics for every fan of animation, being referenced in culture, specifically back when Disney owned Studio in Toy Story 3, Bonnie has a Totoro.

2. So, this brings up the question, how does one recognize a film by Miyazaki? You can always expect for him to be critically acclaimed, for there to be some element of magic and whimsy in the way that he animates, for there to be something to do with flight (whether it be dealing with airplanes like in Porco Rosso, the idea of flight in Howl’s Moving Castle, or a floating castle up in the sky in Castle In The Sky.), his heroines are always strong-minded and live by their own rules never bowing down to anybody, his love stories are dynamic and fulfilled, a sweeping score by Joe Hizashi, and they have a meaning about nature somewhere, mostly about why it needs to be protected.

Let’s start by breaking him down narratively. The thing that is always in every Miyazaki film no matter which one you decide upon watching, is that his female characters are always strong-willed no matter what. In many ways, I think that he writes women better than Disney does. He has gone on record saying “Many of my movies have strong female leads—brave, self-sufficient girls that don't think twice about fighting for what they believe with all their heart. They'll need a friend, or a supporter, but never a savior. Any woman is just as capable of being a hero as any man.” Sometimes, this will cause them to come across as reckless, or stupid, but in my opinion, I have always looked up to his female characters and the way that they are portrayed. My personal favorite female character that he has ever brought to life through the screen is Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. She is strong-minded, not willing to put up with any of Howl’s dramatics, kind, an incredible adult figure for Markal, endlessly sympathetic to her friend’s plights (namely Howl and Calcifer), and somebody that I can always look up to. I spent most of my childhood looking up to characters like Kiki in Kiki’s Delivery Service, Chihiro in Spirited Away, or one of my personal favorite underrated girls, Fio in Porco Rosso. All of these female characters are independent and never let themselves be taken advantage of by anybody.

Another trait that can always be found narratively in his films is that Miyazaki is an airplane/ air travel fanatic. He absolutely loves airplanes, even to the point where his latest film, The Wind Rises was based upon the life of one of the first airplane manufacturers in WWII. Almost all of his films will involve something about flying in the air. Even with the ones that he didn’t direct and he just simply wrote. His obsession with flight is something that stemmed from his childhood and he never saw them as a thing to be used for war “airplanes are not tools for war. They are not for making money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.” My personal favorite of all of his flight animation is used in Howl’s Moving Castle when Howl and Sophie “fly” over the heads of all the people below them.

Narratively also one of the biggest things that set apart his films from any others is his focus on nature. The idea of protecting the beauty of nature is something that he has always stood by. A lot of the time, America tries to prove that it can make films about nature as well to usually varying results. I think that nobody can sell an environmental message quite like my biggest hero for Japanese animation. One of the main movies that focus on his will to protect nature above all else is Princess Mononoke. He always manages to animate nature in such a beautiful and majestic way no matter where the film is set.

I also think that a narrative trait of his that often gets overlooked is how beautiful the romance in his films can be. He never has a romance between two characters that feels stale or boring. I love the fact that you can pick any number of his films and the chance of there being a romance that you’ll get sucked into is a very large one. Everybody has their personal favorites, I love Howl and Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle but my best friend loves Sousuke and Ponyo from Ponyo. He has on record saying that “I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather, I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live - if I’m able to, then perhaps I’ll be closer to portraying a true expression of love.” Writing romance between two characters can be a very tricky thing which is why it’s always amazing when he can continually pull it off despite everything and how many films that he has made over the years. The beauty of having both a strong and independent male and the female character is that they can both lean on one another for love and support. Probably the biggest supporter of this is Whisper Of The Heart, a film that he wrote instead of directing. The romance is what makes up the entire film. It’s a beautiful love story about how two young teenagers fall in love with each other. The romance is something that continually keeps me coming back for more every time.

Technical style Miyazaki can always be assured to deliver breathtakingly stunning animation. There is a reason why so many people leave his films starving because the food that he draws always looks so good. For me though, it’s the backgrounds that stand out above all else. It’s nearly impossible to have one favorite shot in one of his films but I as a matter of fact do have one. The most breathtaking animation in any Miyazaki film is the scene where Howl takes Sophie to see his secret garden. Everything about this scene never fails to make my breath catch. It’s such a profoundly beautiful moment and how it is animated is something that I haven’t forgotten since my first initial viewing of the film when I was seven.

Another iconic technical trait is that Disney did a fantastic job dubbing the films from their original Japanese language into English. Back when Ghibli films first started to become popular, they needed a way for an American audience to see them. So Pixar’s CFO at the time, John Lassater made a deal with Ghibli that they would dub all the films from their original language for a brand new audience. Growing up, this was how I watched all of Miyazaki’s films. I fell in love with the way that they sounded in English. To this very day, I have yet to see one of his films in any other language. I don’t think that anybody could have dubbed them better. Ever since Ghibli and Disney went their separate ways and they went to GKids the dubs haven’t been the same.

Finally, the last technical trait is that a Miyazaki film will always have a score done by his longtime collaborator Joe Hizashi. The score is such a big part of what makes Miyazaki’s films his own. They are what get you sucked in through their whimsical and magical tones; they always fit the vibes that he’s going through at that moment. There is also the element of sound. Every Miyazaki film has a distinct sound effect that will set it apart from the one before it.

3. The first film that I want to look at is my personal favorite of all his films that he has made so far if you were to force me to pick just one Howl’s Moving Castle. Released in 2004, it was the 9th film that the director came out with. It has an 8.2 out of 10 on IMDB and an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. The storyline for the movie follows a young woman named Sophie. She gets a curse set upon her by the Witch of the Waste and when she leaves home she finds the infamous Howl’s Moving Castle. This is the second Ghibli movie voiced by a Batman live action actor. Christian Bale voiced Howl Pendragon after Michael Keaton played the titular Porco Rosso.

Narratively this is definitely a Miyazaki film. From how strong of a female character Sophie is I spent most of my childhood looking up to her as a character. Strong female characters are everywhere in his films and in my opinion, Sophie is one of the strongest. Another strong factor is that flight plays a major part in this film. One of Howl’s main powers is that he has the ability to fly around. This leads to my favorite scene of flight in any Miyazaki film when Howl takes Sophie’s hand and they “fly” over the tops of the city down below them. All of his early films up until the last few were set in someplace other than Japan. This one is set in Europe, and he takes a lot of time while in the cities to show off all the different types of buildings while Sophie tours around the city.

Technically speaking this is also a Miyazaki film and holds all the titular traits of being so. The animation is utterly for lack of a better word, magical and spellbinding. It takes my breath away every time that I rewatch it. The food looks incredible, one scene that most of Miyazaki’s fans always think of when this movie is brought up is Calcifer making the food for Howl, Sophie, and Markal to eat. The dub for this film is also one of Disney’s best dubs for Miyazaki films. It even brings actors to the table that I usually would not like to see in other films like Christian Bale. I haven’t loved him in any other films than this one. Billy Crystal is a stand-out as well as my favorite fire demon Calcifer. The score is done by Joe Hizashi as well. My favorite part of the score is the main theme which has Howl and Sophie floating above the people below. The sound effect that follows throughout this film is the steady creaking of the castle itself.

Princess Mononoke was the first time that Miyazaki ever “retired”. Most of the time, whenever he tries to retire, he always comes back. A lot of his colleague's joke that it’s because he physically can’t stop working. He animated most of this movie by himself. Before Spirited Away it was Japan’s most famous film to date. The story about a young man who is just trying to erase the curse that was set upon him by an angry boar and it leads him to a place called Iron Town is something that never fails to amaze me. While in Iron Town, Ashitaka meets a young woman named San who was taken in by wolves and he finds himself caught between a war involving humans and the gods of the forest.

Narratively this is definitely a Miyazaki film. It has a strong female lead, focusing most of its screen time on how important it is to protect and preserve nature as a whole. The idea of protecting nature is such a moving part of the film, as we see what it does when man takes over the forest. We see how distraught it makes the Gods of this world and how they wish that the humans would just go away. However, you also see it from the point of view of the villain of the film Lady Eboshi, who also regularly helps lepers and people who would often never get work outside of her offering them a home and a family. I have regularly gotten into a debate with my mom over which side is “right” and which side “wrong” over the course of the last few years of me being a massive fan of this movie. She takes the side of the forest while I see Ashitaka’s side that everybody should just get along and interact in peace and harmony. Miyazaki never shoves the idea of nature down your throat. That is not what this film is. It’s instead about the beauty of what we have and learning to appreciate it.

On a technical level, this film is fantastic as well. It blows my mind that Miyazaki-san animated most of it all by himself. The backgrounds are sweeping and utterly gorgeous showing off the time period of the film. The fight sequences which make up the bulk of the film’s running time are engaging, thrilling, and fabulously animated. Mononoke’s score was done by Joe Hizashi as well. Its score is beautiful and I always find myself getting sucked into it, especially for the more dynamic scenes with Ashitaka and San. The sound effect for this film uses nature as a backdrop for brutality. Ashitaka’s arrows don’t just come out of his bow, they screech through the air.

Finally, my last film that we will be focusing on, Kiki’s Delivery Service was made in 1989 a year after his cult phenomena My Neighbor Totoro and was his fifth animated feature. Kiki is a young girl that is hoping to become a young witch in training. However, to do so she has to train a year away from home. She and her cat Jiji find a town by the sea where she learns her true strength and what she can really do to help others. Hayao Miyazaki didn't want to bore the audience during the film's end credits by using just the names. He set it up to be like a mini-sequel so that the audience would leave the theatre feeling happy.

Narratively this has all the traits that one should be familiar with and associate with a Miyazaki film. It has a strong-minded female character at the source of it that young girls can look up to and admire. As a kid, Kiki was my favorite female character of his because I loved her strength and her dedication to what she was good at. She knew that she was still young and had a lot to learn but even though she gets depressed she doesn’t let that stop her in the long run and will still save her love interest Tombo. The romance in this film is by far one of the sweetest. I love the interactions between the characters and the way that they both inspire one another to be better than they are. The idea of flight is basically the focal point of everything. Kiki finds that her best trait is that she flies incredibly well and decides to create her own flying delivery service.

Technically this also has a lot of traits that Miyazaki made a name for himself in doing. The animation is spectacular, especially for Kiki’s flying. I could watch her fly around all day and that was the idea that he was going for while making the film. The sweeping score by Joe Hizashi, especially in my favorite song A Town With An Ocean View, is something that I’ll often listen to outside of the film itself. The sound effects for the film are meant to be calming. From the first sound that you hear of the wind rolling through the reeds while Kiki lies against the grass to the waves when she finally finds a home.

4. Miyazaki as a director has inspired me since I was way too young to even remember. When I was a kid I would pretend to run around my apartment building's front yard imagining that I lived in a big house in front of a camper tree like the one in Totoro. His movies are perfect for children that “suffer” from having an overactive imagination. His movies are everything that is bright and beautiful in the world. The animation never fails to take my breath away, the characters and stories are unforgettable, the soundtracks sweep me away and tell stories themselves. His movies are something that even my parents, who are not anime fans, can watch over and over again. I think that speaks for itself. Miyazaki makes films that are art, not just animated films.

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