#when they do it with buddie scenes they literally spoil the entire scene before the episode even airs

[blackstarchanx3new]

FSR Rambles revenge of the sixth

The titles are dumb.

I'm dumb.

We're all dumb and reading my cringey gay fan comic for a book that has completely taken over my life.

What are any of us doing here.

I don't even like starwars.

This chapter takes place during the "The Fall of Hyrule Castle" chapter aka chapter 2 of the manga.

And yeah there will be quite a few of these and I'll specify where they take place in the break downs. (I try to make it obvious in the comic itself but ya never know.)

Shadow is rambling evil little nonsense and gets dragged to the hell dimension which will look very familiar to us...

This is Dark Link's crib where he lives with all his Links hot chicks Does literally anybody get that reference lmfao.

Also where the four heroes are trapped for 7 years. Well when they stopped being disembodied voices anyway.

Vaati drags Shadow here though to talk.

Shadow's just a cutie pie that wants to please the dude Ganon's no doubt been hyping up as a good alley lmao.

So that's why he recognized the ol wind mage. He saw his divine face before. Vaati's been shown to having shapeshifting magic so I found it fitting he could just...Look like his old disguise.

With the context for this line given: Makes you wonder what else Shadow knows lol.

Vaati being a mentor figure is smth I've always kinda seen him as. I noticed after skimming Vaati's scenes in minishcap Still haven't fully READ it but holy shit there's so many interesting things that link back to FSA....Like uh...How Minish cap Link MAKES THE FOUR SWORD.

I noticed they basically share all their abilities. So I head cannoned Vaati taught him things.

I like Vaati as a pathetic simp who is also a terrible abusive father. COPE. HE'S MY VAATI I DO WHAT I WANT WITH HIM.

Since I've spoiled Hero's shade showing up at some point Woops if you haven't seen any of his art lmfao this also mirrors how he teaches Twilight Princess Link things.

Baby wanted to impress his new dad but new dad is a fan of tough parenting. Vaati sets his expectations high from the get go.

Again: Shadow recognized this attack because Vaati freakin' taught him it. X'D

Fool him once, shame on him. Fool him twice, now Vaati you're just an asshole-

Smth you might notice if you've read the manga a million times:

He blows the four heroes away EASILY but can't get Vaati to budge.

Vaati is powerful lmao not Shadow being weak. XD

Vaati also links his disappointment to physical pain.

Vaati just showing off his power while also making thin threats. A blatant display of who's more powerful, he reenforces Shadow's fear of the light.

Haha. The wording here might ring a bell if you know specific lines from the manga.

Who the hell made Shadow feel worthless before?

Vaati. The answer is Vaati lmfao. Ganon probs too but he's being ignored rn cause I'm unsure if I even wanna touch him tbh.

Vaati's advice comes in handy here actually in more ways than one:

Shadow could shift into one of the heroes, and cause problem.

Shift into Link and cause issues for them.

Also Vaati mentions nobody trusting Shadow how he is.

Ties back into how he shifts into Vio later in the actual manga hah.

Again Vaati veils his and Ganon's disappointment as something to fear, but gives Shadow a small reward of physical affection.

Shadow Link imo obviously craves physical affection so Vaati giving it here is just to keep him on the line of behaving how they want him too.

Shadow can't tell he's being yanked along oof.

Vaati makes his relationship with Shadow clear: Keep in my good graces, I will reward you. Make me angry or disapointed and I will hurt you.

Shadow likes to think he has SOME amount of superiority over Vaati, that they're at least equals but Vaati ain't interested in that.

Hahahha. So much for that plan buddy.

Shadow's eyes were red the entire scene because he's a demon.

I don't got a lot to add to these pages cause they're pretty self explanatory. XD

[baddygab-bi]

Final predictions for the finale before I turn off my phone so I don’t get any more spoiled since I have to watch an hour later.

- Nobody from the 118 dies.

- Hen is the one who helps the most with getting Eddie out of the van. I wouldn’t be surprised if Buck is helping to call the shots, but is physically not there because he’s helping someone else.

- We start with everyone getting ready for work. So Buck at his loft, like we saw. Hen and Karen, maybe getting Denny ready for school. Eddie with Chris and (no please no) Marisol. Bathena being cute. Madney being happy about the engagement, maybe thinking about how they’ll tell the Lees or them actually telling the Lees. Not a montage, just separate real scenes.

- We saw that Hen takes on interim captain by title, but I think Buck will call the shots and do most of the stuff himself.

- Kameron has the baby. They need to finish this damn storyline already.

- Chris isn’t at the bridge.

- Time jump at the end: Buck and Natalia get a couch together, Eddie and Marisol are a quasi-family unit with Chris, wouldn’t be shocked if Marisol was in Buck’s spot on the couch. Madney are making wedding plans and/or just enjoying family time. Hen and Karen are having a good time with Denny. Bathena head off for their vacation.

- We saw BTS of a roof scene, I imagine it’ll be either before the call like how Bobby sniffed the sky and smelled fire, so the calm before the storm before the crash. Or, more likely, it’ll be at the end when everything is calm, everyone is alive, they’re looking out over LA and thinking how great everything is, and how they’re firefighters so they can help pay it all forward. All the sadness, all the worry, all the fear, all of that means nothing when they get to save lives everyday… and pay it all forward. Something cheesy like that.

- Bridge collapse, Bobby falls, Buck gets Hen out. Hen gets Eddie out. Buck gets Chim out. Buck gets Bobby out. Talk with Ravi afterwards where they congratulate him on a job well done and/or welcoming him fully back to the team <- the order I roughly think the stills go in.

- The couch being in danger is a literal reference to the physical couch being physically in danger. Such from Kameron, Connor, or Buck. I firmly believe it’s Kameron going into labor. It’s not an Eddie metaphor.

- The baby is named after Buck in someway.

- Natalia apologizes to Buck for leaving, he takes her back without hesitation. Or worse, we never see her apologize, we just see her come back because Buck says he needs a new couch and it cuts to the two of them bringing it in together, and there’s a line like “It won’t fit through the door.” “We can make it.” As a callback to both the couch and Buck’s only love history lesson, though I think line has been lost to time.

- The Buck happiness arc is either forgotten entirely, or it comes up specifically when Buck thinks about working literally falling away and how he feels best and happy and his reason for being alive, when he saves his 118 family.

- Nobody calls Buck “Evan.”

- The will isn’t brought up, even though it’s the perfect time to literally come up so freaking naturally.

- The van explodes once Eddie is out.

- No Taylor Kelly reporting, though I think that would make sense, since she’s a reporter and it wouldn’t be weird for her to be there.

- Spouses, love interests, and Kameron watching the news. Maybe a VO by Kelly here.

- (wishful thinking) A callback to Buck and Eddie having each others’ backs.

- Basketball guy helps save someone (pay it forward).

- Bobby pushes Ravi out of the way of the collapse and into safety. Because he’s #Dad

- They will fully drive a wedge into Buddie that season 7 can probably reverse, but it’ll feel very definite for this episode.

I can’t think of anything else, but I have to get off my phone now anyway so I’ll see you all at 10pm eastern/9 central/7 pacific.

[maygrcnt]

i’m not confused, but angry at fox’s strategies to both market and stage their show. because this is now the second week in a row they’ve done the same thing regarding scenes with buck and eddie

first they give a small promo with some key lines from buck or eddie and they advertise the episode as if that will be the main storyline. Then the day of or day before they release a sneak peek of a scene that had been shown a bit in the promo. a sneak peek implying that there’s more to be seen of that scene or storyline.

but when the episode airs it’s very small scenes, and then they make the aforementioned teased scene the LAST part of the episode, therefore making their viewer retention go up by using the people who were watching to see that scene.

and like the scenes being short and at the end of the episode wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t advertise it to be more

it’s not that they aren’t allowed to use these techniques to get their ratings up, but it’s annoyingly obvious which demographic they’re targeting with this tactic, and even more obvious that they know how to manipulate their footage to do it.

[thebroccolination]

How would you describe Team and Win in personality wise?

Aaahhh, these asks make me so happy. :')

Thank you, Anon. <3

SO! One of the reasons I enjoy Win and Team so much individually is that they both have nuances and layers that stand alone well and complement each other.

I'm excited to learn more about them as the series continues, and I think what I've written below is going to evolve over the next ten episodes but! based on UWMA, the unfinished novel, and the first two episodes of BU, I think I'd describe them like this:

Team's a competitive extrovert. He's the reason the traffic light gang are friends, and he also befriended the ABC gang in, like, record time. The boy has mastered the virtues of kind, disarming, and friendly. APPLAUSE FOR TEAM. He has incredible anxiety and probably PTSD and a fear of the thing he loves but the (tol) little dude can sure as fuck make some buddies along the way.

I also think Team is the kind of person who takes most things at face value and doesn't have the patience for or interest in subterfuge or nuance. A situation is what it is unless he has reason to think it's not. I think that can be mistaken for him being a little ditzy, but I think it's just that until he's invested in something, he's not interested.

Like compare how he is from one week to (presumably) just a few later when it comes to his physical relationship with Win:

The first time, he's caught off-guard and he's processing an entirely new experience. So he just asks "what's going on" and then answers Win's questions. The second time, he's proactive! He's actually done some research in the meantime! He's not as nervous anymore, and he actually hesitates a lot longer before following Win than he did the first time. He seems to understand that this isn't a "one"-night-stand anymore, so he's consciously choosing to go into new territory.

I think that's why he asks Win to clarify what's going on and what they're doing, because he doesn't know. He's not ditzy, he's just focused on a few areas (swimming, keeping his scholarship, friends) and he needs extra time to process something new and unexpected (WIN PHAWIN).

He's also good with people not just because he's friendly but because he's perceptive. Like, during the foot-washing scene, he catches on to why Win is upset with him without Win saying literally a single word. He knows Win wanted to be shown some gratitude or appreciation for taking care of him.

On the other hand, we have MY FAVORITE SON PHAWIN.

Win is pragmatic partly by nature and I think partly because he's decided it's the safest way for him to process his emotions. He's not as idealistic as Team can be because he has no firsthand experience of whimsy or the freedom from obligation to be spoiled. He's doing everything he can to get the spotlight from the oldest son and the baby of his family. He doesn't get attention or praise without fighting for it. (See above "thank you".)

His whole conversation with Team over their breakfast together is pretty revealing, I feel, because on the one hand, it's amusing that Win's like, "Okay, we have ten seconds, here's my whole deal," but when you consider that he probably doesn't get asked very often, it could be that Win's learned to share first in case no one asks.

Win's also the one who keeps reaching out to find out more about Team, and it's good that he's able to do that, because Team probably would have eaten in silence and left if Win hadn't spoken up.

Throughout the episode as well, he keeps noticing when Team shows extra interest in him.

He notices because he wants to be noticed, but what Team notices isn't what he usually stands out for. He dyed his hair and pierced his ears and tattooed his skin, he plays sports andd does well academically, but the things Team notices are things like Win's family wealth (something Team had to look up on his own) and Win's tendency to take care of others (something Team had to observe). Win closed the car door because he was so delighted and surprised that Team was so interested in him that he looked him up online.

Win's also not above directly asking Team what he has to do to spend more time with him in his room. Like, Team isn't sick, so does that mean Win have to leave? What would Win have to do to make Team want him around?

Ultimately, what makes their relationship most compelling to me is that they may have very little in common on the surface, but at the core of it:

Team sees Win

and Win sees Team

And I think that's why there's such a focus on balance and equality between them (ha) despite their gap in age and experience. They're two sides of the same coin. Hot and cold, red and blue. <3

[natalie-k-pan]

10 Ways the Loki show Disappointed Me

part two

6) The trailer was misleading advertising. Marvel’s done it in the past with little to no backlash:

Iron Man 3 presenting the Mandarin as the ultimate foe for Tony to defeat, only to find out he’s a charlatan in a minor role.

Falcon and Winter Soldier was presented as a light-hearted buddy adventure, only to tackle darker themes about nationalism and racism. (Not saying that those themes were bad, just that the TFAWS’s trailer was not truthful to the story).

In the case of Loki, the trailer presented the plot as Loki making time-traveling shenanigans and being captured for breaking the timeline. They included the D.B Cooper clip, and the scenes of Loki in New York and as king in Asgard. These clips never show up in season 1. The D.B Cooper scene was a off-the-cuff moment, and the highly-anticipated (imo) President Loki was around for five minutes.

The trailer shows the storyline being about Loki breaking the timeline, with Mobius saying in a voiceover, “You picked up the tesseract, breaking reality. I want you to help us fix it.”

Marvel’s publicity team knew what story we would want to see from the character. And that’s not what we got: it was a mix of Loki tagging along with Sylvie to take down the Timekeepers, and detective-esque  scenes of trying to overthrow the TimeKeepers. 

It was never about Loki having an adventure, breaking the timeline, and having to fix it.

There’s a difference between having scenes that don’t make it into the final product, between not revealing enough of the story to spoil plot twists...and deliberately choosing certain scenes and quotes  to present a false version of the story.

I guess Marvel was worried that no one would watch it if they showed us the real product.

7)    Loki’s powers were wildly inconsistent, especially compared to what we’ve seen before.

In the past, we’ve seen Loki do illusions, duplication casting and in Thor 2, some very light telekinesis. After hearing of his mother’s death, he throws several pieces of furniture in into the cell walls with his mind. This is after losing the person who probably mattered most to him at the time, and feeling responsible for her death--it’s a powerful move showing his magical capabilities.

In the show, in Episode 3 we see him pull a Roomba towards himself in order to use it as a shield during a fight--pretty in-line with what we saw in the Dark World.

One episode later, an entire flipping tower is falling towards them, and he reverses it with his mind alone.

It was in the face of death, you say. Of course he was going to pull some cool new magical move.

Sure. In the face of death, I could see him jumping from throwing chairs to something heavier, like maybe a crumbling wall or a fruit stand.

BUT A TOWER?

 WHY?

 HOW??

He’s never done anything on that scale magically. In episode 2, he got tossed around by a (human) Alabama man. Why would he not use that move to bring the roof crumbling down if he was fighting for his life then?

So he’s got massive telepathic power when a building is falling but can’t use it in a fight against regular people.... okay?

Honestly, due to the fact that they’ve weakened him so much, and when Loki said, “I think we’re stronger than we realize”, I’m betting Season 2 will include Loki discovering the extent of his magical powers. 

 I don’t like this idea because again, it contradicts the previous canon. In Thor 1, Hogun literally calls Loki a “master of magic”. He went toe-to-toe with Thor and the Avengers and now can’t beat regular humans. A thousand+ year old being unaware of his own untapped potential doesn’t seem correct (yeah, they did that with Thor in Ragnarok, I know).

This Loki’s power levels jump up and down according to the plot, trying to make us believe that due to his spoiled past, Loki needs to apply himself to learn more about his powers.

 8)  Loki was out of character.

His lying and scheming was way too obvious. I was incredibly confused the first couple of episodes because it would be strange how he would be a pathetic buffoon  one minute and yet The only moment I was sold on his competence as a liar was episode 2 at the renaissance fair where he attempts to fool  the TVA. He was actually competent for once, but he gets caught, and goes into apologizing and sucking up 30 seconds later.   

He gets drunk when they’re on the mission on Lamentis. This didn’t make sense--when he was trying to conquer Earth, he had the opportunity to also goof off and he’s always been shown to take things seriously, with the exception of Ragnarok.                                                 

The “I’m a narcissist” scene. While Loki is the type to crave attention--in Avengers, Tony calls him a diva who wants his name plastered to the skies--it comes from a place of feeling overshadowed, never able to match his brother Thor.  Which we can see has some basis:

In Thor 1, his adopted parents raised him to hate his race,

lied to him about it,

 and when he was hanging over an wormhole, his father finally rejected him.

In Avengers, Thor tells him in  that his slights are “imagined”. 

 Thor 2, his adopted father told him his “birthright was to die”.

While it doesn’t excuse his actions in Thor and Avengers, it’s pretty clear that his family, particularly his father, have let him down.

So to make him experience character development and understand why he does what he does...the writers took him back to Asgard, and had Sif beat him up repeatedly until he admits he does terrible things because he’s a...narcissist.

It was pretty hard to watch that scene, especially because I related to Loki as someone who felt overshadowed and overlooked. He tried too hard to be what his family wanted, to show that he was “the worthy son”.

But here in the fantastic year of 2021, this show decided to throw away all of that emotional nuance away.

 9) The costumes were bad.

The brown variant jacket with its ugly orange block letters.

The guard suit on Lamentis looked like a cross between a purple sweater and a plague doctor mask. honestly makes me shuder to see it

Loki’s green-and-gold costumes are some of the most distinct, instantly recognizable outfits of the MCU. And he almost immediately loses it in the first episode. It ends being given to Sylvie, (like most of Loki’s better characteristics) and he stays in a detective skinny-tie suit instead. The costume is okay, but it lacks the flair and style he’s had previously, and he never gains it back.

10) The season finale really did showcase this show in the best way-- ig hype followed by disappointment.

For five episodes, we rushed towards the ultimate villain, the mastermind behind it all. Episode 6 was like...being handed a pack of bubble wrap, swinging your hand hard, expecting that satisfying pop! only to have it slowly putter out with a sad little sound.

First, Kang looked like he got his costume from Party City. The purple cape isn’t doing him any favors. Then, the man sat there and monologued for forty minutes, making jokes, telling us how he set the plot up, and how the multiverse worked.

 I know Marvel gets flack for there always being an CGI climactic action scene, but…they had 6 episodes leading up to the Big Bad, and for it to end that anticlimactically with a man in a Party City purple cape was a letdown. The finale had no menace, no teeth. In the words of Mobius, it was just…talkie-talkie.

All in all, this show really suffered from ignoring Loki’s past, where he would realistically be emotionally-wise, and a lack of focus on its title character’s development. Settings and costumes being better/unique would be also be nice, especially given its popularity. At the end of the day, I don’t see the character I empathized so strongly with in this show.

[bugtransport]

okay i totally jsut realized i jumped back into using this site like i didnt delete my entire old blog. so. you might be asking: "julia who the fuck are hanamoto and fujimaru and why do you keep tagging posts as them" they are two of my favorite characters for two totally different reasons and i would do anything for them

this is going to get long. fair warning. i'm just gotta put a cut

fujimaru is fujimaru takagi from bloody monday. i dont recommend you read bloody monday i'm just irrationally attached to the series because it got me through a time. i literally only have these pics of him and otoya for some reason but fujimaru's the one with the dark hair

he's my worst son and i would do anything for him. he's a hacker and the series has some of the funniest scenes where he ends up teaming up with a counterterrorism unit called Third I and all his companions are in a circle kicking peoples asses around fujimaru who is hunched over a laptop furiously typing like "5 more minutes guys, i got this!!" he's a weak little shithead nerd and i woudn't have it any other way. i have a tattoo of a falcon as a long joke about this guy (also because falcons rule). he's not my first bird aligned fave but he's sure up there on characters that impacted me. i totally didnt realize how many emotions i still have about this guy until i started writing this part of this post. if i reread bloody monday i'm sorry (i'm not sorry) it's the residual fujimaru in my brain.

one time i think in bm2 he blew up a whole room by scattering a bunch of flour in the air, turned directly to the camera, and said "the internet can teach you anything!" he is a menace to society.

bloody monday 1 is good, bloody monday 2 is okay, i do not talk about bloody monday last season. the drama adaptions are, to my recollection, fine! but also i last watched them about 10 years ago so take that with a grain of salt.

fun fact, the guy who plays otoya in the bloody monday drama(s) is the same guy who plays den-o. i haven't seen den-o but its just another one of the "the descent into toku was prophesized" moments like me being obsessed with okkusenman as a kid.

i would say i think otoya and fujimaru should kiss but i think fujimaru doesn't deserve otoya. otoya is too good for him.

hanamoto is shuji hanamoto from honey & clover. he is my UM UM UM HE'S MY UH HE;S WHEN when you um when you feel what dyou he's uhhhh him. he's he. he's the guy in my icon :)

shuji hanamoto makes me feel every emotion known to man. i dont know what the juice is that was put in him that makes him so poppin. a couple years back i was chatting with a friend at the time about the series and we were like "yeah the beauty of honey and clover is that each time you read it you relate with a different character more" which is absolutely true but also 100% the bitch of all time has to be hanamoto for me. i started reading this series in shojo beat magazine back in middle school to give perspective on how long this man has haunted me.

should i get into hanamoto gay theory? i think i should get into hanamoto gay theory. mostly because i can't recommend the series knowing the ending unless i tell you about (and make sure you're also subscribed to) hanamoto gay theory. hanamoto is blatantly in love with his old (dead) college buddy harada and it hurts me to my core. please observe:

^LOOK THERE IS NO HETEROSEXUAL EXPLANATION FOR THIS. ME, MY BOYFRIEND, AND MY BOYFRIEND'S WIFE. they weren't just friends to me, they were my world. and before anyone tries to tell me this means that hanamoto must also have feelings for rika, the way that he acts around her is like, borderline paternal. harada is like the only one that he shows anything romantic towards, he's just a dad to everyone else really. he's protective but that doesn't equate romantic. which, i am not going to spoil the whole series, but it makes sense. god. oh to be two boys and breathe the same air... oh to be two boys and make art together and spend the most precious time of your life together in the same home and eat the same food and breathe the same air.

THAT'S HANAMOTO BASICALLY. THAT'S WHO HE IS TO ME.

read honey and clover but only if you also subscribe to Shuji Hanamoto Gay because that's really important to me.

tl;dr question i didn't actually answer above "why do i do this" theyre just aesthetic tags lol but instead of actually tagging the proper aesthetic names i use character names because its more fun and i like them :) i think these boys are neat and i like them :) no i dont know how to use pinterest and i refuse to learn that site scares me

if you wanted the actual aesthetics i associate with them:

fujimaru is like, cyberpunk/weird tech/y2k webcore

hanamoto is plants/abandoned spaces/images that make you feel both calm and a little vaguely sad

theres a really good chance im gonna adopt more characters into this system so if you see me randomly reblogging paintings and tagging them #sonoi or something that would be the reason why

[reachgirl]

My thoughts on 911 3x17 “Powerless”

Gifs are by me.

- Drunk Chimney is the best Chimney, full stop. “SO MUCH BETRAYAL!”, he shouts. They have receipts. They’re mad because they LOVE Teppanyaki. This entire scene of Karen and Chim hanging out is pure gold. “Did you use her finger to unlock the phone while she was sleeping?” We love a fun callback.

- Buck was having a good time this episode. That’s it. That’s the note.

- Say you had a nice dinner planned with Chimney, and you invited your wife. Obviously he would then invite his girlfriend, right? And she might bring her brother, who would bring... Eddie? *checks notes* Yeah, it says right here, he would bring Eddie. *speaks into headset* Yeah sorry, writer’s room? I’m gonna need a check on .. *shuffles paper* “Were we supposed to reveal that Buck and Eddie are dating in 3x17?” Can someone get back to me on this?

- Ok I called Hen becoming a doctor and leaving the 118 last episode, but I’m not happy about it. Especially not if we get a “female firefighter love interest for Buck or Eddie (or worse, both of them, making them rivals) that replaces Hen” out of it. I’m hoping that something big will happen in the finale/ 4x1 that will make her realize she’s right where she’s supposed to be after all.

- Bobby just all around being a great dad, step dad, new husband to your ex wife, captain dad, knower of things, keeper of the calm, destroyer of fireplaces, electrician, buddie stan.

- We 👏 all 👏 deserve 👏 more 👏 Karen. Seriously she is so under-used, I would love more scenes where the whole firefam is together and maybe they’re getting drunk and Karen is there and maybe Buck and Eddie get *real* drunk if ya catch my very obvious drift. 

- (I want Buddie to have a drunk kiss in the hallway and then be awkward about it for a few episodes before they get their shit together)

- Buck.... basically doing parkour to jump in that hot air balloon, looking like a snack? Shouting “I got it”? With that ass? In those pants? YES YOU DO GOT IT BABY. 

- Eddie wondering about Buck’s knowledge of hot air balloon emergencies? Bobby being so proud of his boys? This whole scene gave us so much.

- I’m so happy for Michael maybe getting a new love interest? That doctor can get it. He better not die before any getting can be got. 

- Ok for some reason I was convinced for a second that Abby and Maddie knew each other but they don’t and I’m SO here for the “Eddie and Maddie meet Abby” awkward-athon next episode. 

- They all talk to Frank, but who does Frank talk to?

- This whole episode promo was so misleading, hate when they do that.

- They had LITERAL sparks flying at Buck and Eddie during the tree “murderer” rescue. Now we know they enjoy a good metaphorical water penis but this scene was 👌👌🤡🤡

- Love the Grant family. I wasn’t really ever worried over Athena because they showed that scene of her being beat up but obviously alive, so we knew, but please, WHY does she insist on going into these places by herself? Just wait for some backup, girl, it’s allowed to have backup. You know how Eddie and Buck always work together to support each other? You could use some of that energy, queen. Petition to get Athena a patrol buddie in season 4.

- Ok here’s an addendum: Thank you @bicepsie​ for pointing this out, I went back and checked and it is Eddie who gives Buck the axe when they’re all going to find/help Athena. WE STAN HUSBANDS WHO WORK THIS WELL TOGETHER. Please observe and find a work buddie to help you go into situations like this accordingly, Athena. 

- Can we get a compilation of Buck running into danger shouting “I got this”? I might have to make this gifset.

- May looking beautiful and serving such beautiful vibes. They did such a good job with her I just want to recite “Oh The Places You’ll Go” to her?? I’m so proud of her.

- Karen and Hen are relationship!goals, minus, you know, that whole one time that she cheated thing. 

- Chim and Maddie make me want to be in a relationship so bad. Anyone else have this problem? The way they’re always kind of teasing each other but then supporting each other.. it’s just.. *chokes up*

- We even got some good Josh Russo content in this one. Man we were SPOILED. Josh honey go do whatever feels right for you. I think since we know that the actor is coming back, he’ll probably go and do the impact statement, but I just want him to feel safe and loved and ready to start dating someone who appreciates him.

3x18 Promo thoughts:

- The whole Abby storyline is looking like it will be 🔥 

- Abby is worried about her fiancé, SHE HAS TO FIND HIM. You know, like how Buck had to find Eddie that one time? 

- Eddie doesn’t like Abby (just look at our emotionally unavailable guy being all: what’s happening? sad face) and I will need ALL the fanfiction on the “Eddie’s being a jealous asshole and Buck doesn’t understand why and Eddie also doesn’t understand why because she has a fiancé and also, he’s not into Buck like that what are you talking about” situation

- That scene between Maddie and Chimney really looks like they just found out she’s pregnant, y’all. I can’t wait for Uncle Buck 😍

Also as always PLEASE let me know if you agree/disagree literally I read all comments/tags and I love it when people shout at me in messages 😻

[shoezuki]

I think what hurts the most about the tommy betrayal (from technos perspective, okay, relax tumblr dont come at me someone can make you feel betrayed without actually betraying you. they're called emotions they dont follow logic, look it up. relax) is that techno literally had just admitted like a couple days before that tommy was a friend. like, shit buddy, I wouldn't wanna befriend ranboo either if the second Im like hey we could be bros that person left me for the person that exiled him.

like, techno said he didn't have to be involved! and I doubt he would've been quite so extreme without the betrayal (but thats a whooole different post). like, hes not the kind of person to make you fight if you dont want to (look at the syndicate rules yall)

but man. doesn't it hurt to be betrayed by someone you thought was a friend and you go and look over your experiences wondering where you went wrong but that feeling of betrayal seeps into your memories, staining it a dark grey, and the emotions twists it so that you no longer felt like it was a friendship at all, you were just being used? and because its your memory you wonder if thats how it was all along??

(side note, memories change when you recall them so @ all the people who are like "tommy DID treat him as a friend!1!" being betrayed made it seem like it wasn't whether that statement is true or not!)

just. damn. techno, baby, you have so many trust issues, this is why I relate to you so much -tiny

Technoblade's like. Trust issues and how he feels around tommy's betrayal gets me So hard sometimes aka all the time. Because like damb holy Fuck thats good writing. And also how its seen n argued against is wild

Like he was Definitely betrayed. He Absolutely cared about tommy. And he Didnt Manipulate him. Entirely from techno's point of view, tommy had gotten close to him to the point he genuinely admitted to him that he was a friend of his and then tommy the Next day chose tubbo and therefore lmanberg over techno, taking his kindness and using it against him and leaving him. Alone.

I remember when techno said something like 'i gave you a choice to sit this one out not switch sides' because. Like. A lot of times i see it all 'techno was gon use tommy against tubbo/was manipulating him into thinking like him' which jus isnt true. Techno cares about Choices. Hes an anarchist ffs. He gave tommy the chance to help him destroy lmanberg, but he had also Straight Up Said he didnt have to. He wouldve let him stay behind and stay out of the conflict. So from his view, tommy instead did the Opposite. He got Into the conflict Against techno.

Like you said i Definitely think techno's pursuit to destroy lmanberg So Harshly was influenced by being hurt. Specifically i recall how dream instantly offered to blow up lmanberg and right away techno like. Straight up he wanted to spawn withers and do it Right Then. Technos a calculating guy he overprepares for Everything. But in that scene, where he was surrounded by enemies with No additional gear like totems or potions or even his withers, he wanted to charge in and Blow It All Up. I dont doubt he acted emotionally there

But it like. It all jus makes sense? In terms of how his trust issues manifest now with ranboo. Theyre Definitely getting somewhere (altho ill be honest i cant tell how much is canon n jus those guys havin a funky good time sometimes hskdvd) but hes still closed off. The syndicate really captures that

Like. Phil has a point that theres little downside to ranboo joining the syndicate. He's right there and with some explaination i feel it would align perfectly with his own ideals. Not to mention that like. Although its 'secret', techno has been open to inviting and talking to people whom he has much fewer connections with and trust in.

Although techno saying that ranboo was 'weird' was a goof, his insistence that ranboo's memory Could be a liability has some truth to it. But honestly its entirely a deflection. He doesnt want to open up to ranboo and trust him.

I like. Techno probably looks back at the parallels of tommy being alone, hunkering in his base, and being Close with ranboo's actions. And considering he got so hurt from tommy's betrayal, anything tommy did is probably spoiled now. Its hard to look on fond memories w someone when they hurt you like that like u said.

Im emotional about techno's trust issues n jus. His whole character and also How Hes regarded by fans. The guy gets such a tough break bdkdhskddbskdh like i cant see him interact with ranboo without some ideas that hes Manipulating Him. Techno isnt a bad guy hes jus a lil fucked up

[collecting-stories]

Bahama Mama - ep. 05 - Rafe Cameron

Summary: You make a scene. 

A/N: Honestly kept this mostly the same.

Holiday in the Sun Masterlist | Outer Banks Masterlist

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

You felt like you were on zombie mode, the police officer leading you out to the lobby where your parents were waiting with the Camerons doing more of the work than you were to walk. Sarah and Topper had been signed out before you and were already with everyone else in the lobby.  

The jailhouse was certainly worse for the wear but it had felt intimidating enough last night when you sat in booking as the coast guard told you that you and your friends would be spending the night in jail for taking a stolen yacht on a joyride. At the time you’d been too pissed at Rafe for getting you into trouble when he’d promised not to but now you were seriously wishing that you could just rewind to the morning before and being in bed with him.  

“Oh sweetheart,” your mom wrapped her arms around you, kissing your cheek, “are you okay? What were you doing on that boat?”

“We thought it was your boat.” You explained, looking over to Ward. It had felt like the exact same boat from before. There were memories you just didn’t forget.  

“It was.” Ward confirmed as the confusion on your face slowly turned to anger, “and you can imagine the horror when I woke up to an alert that it was gone from the dock.”

“Are you serious?” You snapped, pulling out of your mom’s hold. Lack of sleep and sitting in a cell all night freezing had made you irritable. And Ward had been pissing you off since you got to the island. “We sat in jail for an entire night and it was your boat anyway?”

“And it taught you a valuable lesson,” your step-dad commented, “you can’t just do whatever you want.”

“Are we ready to go?” Rose asked, “I made reservations for brunch, I don’t want to be late.”

“Wait,” you didn’t follow as they seemingly began to make their way to the doors, “where’s Rafe?”

“Rafe could do with some extra time to think over his actions.” Ward replied.  

When your mom grabbed your arm to pull you toward the door you pulled back, refusing to go with her. You yanked your hand away and backed up, glaring at her as you crossed your arms. Rose noticed your sudden protest, Sarah, Topper, and Wheezie turning to look at you too.  

“Don’t make a scene.” Your mom snapped, catching the remaining two’s attention. Your step-dad and Ward turned at the door to see what was going on. Some of the people milling around the station even stopped to watch.

“Let’s go,” your step dad walked back over to you, grabbing your arms and pushing you toward the exit.

“No! Let go of me!” You shouted, a few of the police officers who had been watching quickly returned to shuffling through paperwork, unsure what to do about the tantrum you were throwing. “No! I’m not fucking going out to eat with some fucking psychopath that locks his kid up cause he took his own fucking boat out. We were all there. We all agreed on it. This isn’t Rafe’s fault, he shouldn’t be unfairly punished.” You said, voice raised as you looked at Ward.

Ward came back over, grabbing your face to force you to look at him. Sarah looked genuinely shocked at her father’s behavior, as did your mother, though your step-dad said nothing, “do not tell me how to discipline my kid! I have been more than generous to your family, don’t forget that!” He pushed you away and you stumbled slightly, your step-dad keeping you upright.  

“Ward,” Rose called, “let’s just go to lunch.”

Your step-dad let you go, falling into step beside Ward and you could already hear him apologizing for your behavior. You scoffed, though they were already out the door. Your mom lingered behind but when you turned to her there was no sympathy in her gaze.

“You need to think about how you act. That was uncalled for.” Your mom said, fixing her hair and clothes before heading toward the door as well.

“He just grabbed me! A grown man literally just assaulted me-”

“Oh for god’s sake! Stop being so dramatic all the time!” She hissed, “either go back to the house, or stay here but don’t come to lunch. I don’t need you acting out there too.”

You watched your mom leave before heading outside, feeling suddenly self-conscious as you stood in the lobby of the police station. You had just completely lost it on Rafe’s dad and you hardly knew the whole story to begin with. Maybe you were way too involved, you’d just gone to bat for him like he was your boyfriend and not just some passed fantasy fulfilled.  

It didn’t take long for Wheezie to text you, detailing how Ward had asked for them to keep Rafe locked up an extra night as if this was some kind of Scared Straight reality tv show. You had no problem admitting that Rafe was spoiled, they all were, but calling the cops on your kid while you’re in another place and he didn’t do anything truly bad, just to prove a point, was some messed up shit.  

-

It might not be the most important vigil you’d keep in your entire life but you stayed at the police station all night, unsurprised, when morning came, to find that you were the only one there when Rafe was released.  

The double doors of the station opened and Rafe stepped out, a little worse for wear after two nights in jail. He squinted against the sunlight, smiling when he saw you sitting there on the bench, head down as you texted. You and Wheezie were apparently texting buddies now as she had stayed up the whole night with you, even facetiming at one point.

“You the welcome committee?” Rafe joked, catching your attention as he came up to the bench.

“Rafe!” You practically jumped into his arms, wrapping your arms around him and pressing yourself against him.

“Damn, it was just county lock-up.” He joked, kissing the side of your head and then pulling away. His good mood diminished when he noticed the slight bruising around your jaw from where Ward had grabbed you. “What happened?”  

“What?” You pulled away when he tried to touch you.

“That wasn’t there the last time I saw you. Who did that to you?” He asked.

“I got a little irritated with your dad when he said you were staying an extra day.” You admitted.  

“My dad did that?” Rafe shook his head, “that fucking asshole.”  

“Rafe...hey,” you stopped him when he tried to walk past you, laying your hands on either side of his face to get him to look at you, “I don’t wanna go back there, please?” The last thing that you wanted to do this morning was go back to that house and face them.  

Rafe took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He really didn’t want to go back there either, mostly because he was pretty sure he would beat the shit out of his dad for putting his hands on you. Even when Rafe had it out with his dad there was still some level of respect, some part of him that desperately wanted his dad’s attention. But seeing you with bruises on your face from defending him just made him want nothing more than to smash his dad’s teeth in.  

“Let’s just get a room at the resort?” You suggested. They had given your bag, phone, wallet, and sweatshirt back yesterday when you were released and you had the allowance card your dad deposited into once a week. Besides, you weren’t really in the mood to continue sleeping on the bench. You had been there waiting to be sure that Rafe was okay but now he was and you wanted to just be as alone with him for a while as you could.  

Rafe’s lower lip jutted out, pouting for a second before he smiled, “you, me, a room to ourselves...what a welcome committee.”

“I thought you’d be down.” You laughed.

Before you could start the walk back to the town center to a car Rafe stopped you, grabbing your arm and pulling you back into a hug. “Thanks for waiting for me.”

“I was pretty much running on delirium and adrenaline...otherwise I would not have camped on a bench for you.” You replied. While deciding to stick it out on that bench hadn’t even been something you thought about for more than a second, you knew it wasn’t just the lack of sleep and fight with his dad that made you do it. There was something else there but you weren’t sure you were ready to think about that.

“What exactly did you say to my dad anyway?”

“I may have called him a pyschopath...” you trailed off, grimacing as you remembered the fight. Definitely not one of your finer moments. “Come on, I was promised you and me in a hotel room for an unlimited amount of time.”

“Alright, alright, don’t rush me.” He joked, “I’m savoring my freedom.  

-

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[code-otome-game]

Completed otome games, my thoughts, along with my fav characters (last updated: August 22nd 2021)

1. Code Realize - August 2021

Saint-Germain instantly caught my eye, along with Lupin ofc. I was curious about Impey but my friend who lent me her collection of otome games said he was shit. Code Realize was my reintroduction to otome games, and plummeted me into otome hell once more. As soon as I saw Herlock Sholmes, I wanted him as a route, and loved his Future Blessings route.

Saint Germain was my absolute favourite, and his route hurt me in all the right ways. His VA was amazing at conveying the emotion behind certain scenes.

2. Café Enchanté - August 2021

After completing Code Realize, I felt a little lost and didn't know what game to play next. I figured after the pain of some of the stuff in Code Realize, I'd go for something I thought would be a little more fun and a little lighter. Cafe Enchante was next on my list. I was instantly drawn to Misyr and Il, with Il being my first route. I absolutely loved Il, and was traumatized from having my fav boy be the one who was hurt the most again. Although, Misyr is definitely a top contender for most hurt fav as well...

3. Piofiore - August 2021

I continued on with Piofiore right after Cafe Enchante, and instantly knew I was interested in Dante and Yang. I went with Dante first, and was absolutely enamored by him. I was absolutely heartbroken to find out that I didn't get his best ending at first, and contemplated not playing the game for a while. But I decided against it and carried on, using a guide this time. I didn't think anyone else would surpass him in my mind, but boy was I wrong. I quickly fell in love with Yang once I started his route, and his route was the first to make me feel butterflies again in years since I played my last otome game.

However, after playing through all the routes and getting to the finale, I absolutely fell in love with Henri, and I'm honestly shocked that Nicola has left such an impression on me considering I didn't think much of him right after his route. Now it's hard *not* to think about him. But overall, I love all the men pretty equally. I'm super excited for 1926.

4. Collar x Malice - August 2021

I was definitely curious about this one and was tempted to start it multiple times when choosing which game to play next, however I put it off because I didn't like the protagonist being a cop.

The characters are honestly all super loveable, and I think I love them all a bit more equally then I do the Piofiore guys. I was surprised Saeki wasn't a route, until while I was playing Kei or Shiraishi's route when my friend spoiled he was Adonis' leader.

I fell in love with all the characters quite gradually through their stories, with the exception of Shiraishi. I knew he'd be the one I was the most curious and interested in. I was so excited when I finally unlocked his route, and I absolutely loved every single bit of the early half of it. His comments and interactions were hilarious, he was adorable *and* hot.... and he loves cats. What the hell more could I want from a guy? He makes me want to introduce him to my own cats and also makes me want to do mundane and sweet things with him just because he's so sweet and I love him.

I was absolutely heartbroken at his "best" ending, and thinking about his tragic ending hurts my heart. I legitimately only want the best for this man- I only want him to be happy and healthy and not confined to some stupid prison or Adonis...

It also feels strange, but I think I love him best *before* he got a little soft with the protagonist? His quick retorts and harsh comments were hilarious and I loved that so much about him, so I was a bit sad when he grew a bit soft later on.

At the time of writing these past 4 entries, CxM is the latest game I've played, so Shiraishi's story is still super fresh in my mind. I was as obsessed with most of the other men mentioned above as I am with him right now. I'm sure the following entries will contain more love-ramblings like this as I complete more games and add them to the list.

5. Amnesia: Memories - August/September 2021

Toma! Toma! Toma!!!

My first experience with ✨ the cage ✨. I went with Ikki at first, got his normal ending (thaT SHIT WAS SO SAD WTF ;-;) and then went back with a walkthrough for his good ending. But... his route was kinda underwhelming tbh. I liked it as I played it, but looking back now... it really was quite underwhelming. So was Shin's route, who I played after Toma. I was interested in who the culprit was, and was shocked with the reveal tbh. Buuut after playing Toma's route... it was understandable. Although I really wish that Shin's route had more affection in it... it felt more like a mystery with a little bit of romance rather then an otome game.

I played Toma's route after Ikki's, and omfg... Toma was truly an unexpected fav. Hated his good ending tho, idfk why you would be ok with just returning to normal after all of that... but whatever. I would willingly go in that cage I s2g. I LOVED his eyes too! When he gets dark and super possessive, those eyes are just... UGH. Yes please. ❤

I skipped the entirety of Kent's route because I really just don't give a fuck about him. Hes absolutely not my type. I felt bad skipping it, but... in the end I don't really care.

Ukyo was also an unexpected fav- I wad super curious about his route and suspected that all of the "interesting" and bad stuff that I had heard about would happen during his route buuuut... nope. Nothing of the sort. He was so damn sweet, but I will say that uh... insane side of him is kinda hot too. 👀 but omg, the fact that he's a photographer AND so damn dedicated to you and sweet is just... ugh. My heart. Ukyo and Toma definitely became my favs for this game, and I think this is the first time where my first route didn't end up being one of my favourites.

I love how sharp Toma is as well! That he knows so much about you and can easily find out things and such... but also- I really like how dedicated and caring Ukyo is. He's so protective and adorable! I really did feel bad for him during his route. I haven't gotten his normal ending yet, but the title of it is so fucking sad and I don't know if I even wanna go for it.

"Do you know Ukyo?"

6. Bustafellows - September 2021

Honestly, when I started playing Bustafellows I didnt expect to like many characters, if any at all. None of them were particularly appealing to me, at least visually... however, as I played the game, I was drawn to Shu and Mozu, as I found Shu to be the most attractive one of the bunch, and Mozu was interesting to me as a coroner. However, the first character I ended up with was... Crow. I was honestly a little surprised, but didn't care too much. I didn't know who I wanted to go with first, and honestly, as the common route progressed... I found myself liking Crow more.

Crow was the one I liked the least out of everyone, at least visually at first. I really didn't like his hair lmao. But as I read the common route, he really grew on me, and I couldn't help but be sweet to him, so ofc I ended up with his route first... and god, I really love him. He's so stupid and adorable. Like seriously.

I went with whoever the game would give me after Crow, and it gave me Helvetica. With Crow, I really loved his character, but didn't care much for his story. It was the opposite for Helvetica. I enjoyed his story a ton, but not his character. I then carried on with Shu, who I loved entirely. Both his character and story was really really good, and his bad ending... phew. Damn dude.

Mozu came after, and I honestly have mixed feelings about his route. I feel like there really needed to be more romance between him and the MC, but the end of his route where he finds his sister is.... oof. I literally went "thats rough buddy" in my head lmao. I felt so bad for him.

I liked Limbo a lot more then I thought I would as well! He was super adorable and sweet, and the story was pretty good too, so I really enjoyed his route. But overall, I believe Shu and Crow are my favs this time around. I can't believe I didn't like Mozu as much as I thought I would! But I feel like I would have liked him a shitton more if there was more to his route then there was.... smh.

Nightshade - September 2021

I almost immediately jumped right into Nightshade, although with doubts of enjoying it in my mind, as I wasnt in the mood for a historical japan setting. However! I loved the characters, and the story! By the end of it, I was thoroughly angry with the antagonists for hurting my BOYS like that...

The first one I went for was Kuroyuki, who I LOVED. I felt a little bit confused throughout his route, but I still quite enjoyed it. A sweet yandere. Babey boy. I love him.

Next was Chojiro, and oooohhhhh boy.... yeah. That was a little rough. BUT I feel like the story was very well suited for him!!! After that I went with Goemon, who was SO SWEET. For a moment, the "plot twist" had me, but then I realized there was no way he was wasn't trying to trick his old clan/the council.

Hanzo was second last, and definitely an unexpected fav! I didnt find him very attractive at first, but seeing him more and more throughout the routes had him growing on me. And I LOVED him! But... I don't like Ieyasu's treatment towards the end of the route; ordering Hanzo to kill the MC after making us thoroughly believe he was a kind man in every other route.... sigh. But I'm happy that he was able to take just the MC's sash instead of her head. I do like that he also told Hanzo to "go get a wife and come back" hehe.

GOD that scene in the cave with Hanzo where youre both naked... YES. And his hair when its wet!!! Hes so adorable AND hot at the same time???? I love Hanzo. Tbh, I love all of them.

Gekka was the last one I did, but I wish I reversed Hanzo/Gekka's positions. Cause I really, *really* didnt like ending on such a sad ending.... dear god. I really thought I got the bad end or something for a hot minute there. Then Gekka comes in! Ahhhh, honestly I didn't like him much at all at first which is why I saved him for last, but his route.... FUCK man. His route was heart wrenching. And he's so damn sweet. I still don't understand how/why he doesn't try to kill the MC in the other routes after the "protection" "curse" is lifted but whatever. Still, the ending... dear god. And all of their graves being dug up... the box of everyone's hair... jesus christ that was morbid. Even that made me mad. I didnt care much for the blonde haired kid who died first, but everyone else after that had such a good part to the story...but I wonder why Kuroyuki lived in every route?

Either way, Nightshade was a lot better then I thought it would be! I loved it!!! I honestly might go back soon and replay Kuroyuki's route now that I know whats going on and I know the characters.... also wanna replay Hanzo's route! Babey ❤

[steve0discusses]

S4 Ep37: Return of O R B S

Heyyyyy boy, look who’s back, it’s orbs!

So we’ve seen a lot of orbs on this show and I fully admit that I kinda started...I started feeling a kinship for the orbs. Something about these mysterious death balls of Yugioh that we see over and over just became really relatable during a pandemic. Being trapped in a bubble and unable to get close to anyone you know is such a 2020 vibe, youknow?

These orbs that are apparently so normalized in this universe that everyone is just max chilling in an orb and just doing their best at not thinking about whether or not they’ll still have to poop in this completely transparent orb in front of all of their friends.

Also, welcome back, Yugi. Apparently he was just taking a nap this entire time. That’s canon and you know what? Good for him.

And then everyone else just kinda showed up, tired, in an orb, feeling kind of frustrated because there’s literally nothing else they can do to get out of this situation. It’s basically a zoom call in 2020.

(read more under the cut)

TBH if Pegasus was in a zoom call, you know he’d just be talking about wine. You know he’d just be in a zoom call with a bunch of straight-laced teenagers just going off about the weird wine he got from a subscription box that he bought when he was day drunk a week ago. You know he’d just be like “I mean is it good? Should I keep it? Should I drink it anyway?” While popping the cork on stream and just pouring it directly into a cereal bowl.

I can feel the orb life going on here. I can especially feel Seto Kaiba, who fell asleep during the zoom call without turning off the camera.

On the other side of the room is people dying as they get sucked directly into their impending doom.

Long ago, about...last year I think...I recapped an episode from the beginning of the season where Pegasus introduced this blank card--that I assumed was blank.

But that card from that episode--it wasn’t actually blank. It was a symbolic blank card and the show runners were like “our child audience will surely get that we just don’t want to spoil the ending” as I, a full grown adult, completely thought this card was blank.

But like...this is Pegasus. You can’t just be tossing out blank cards like that!

...anyway...it’s fine, because we get a little bit more about the time that Pegasus donned that quantum hat that is sometimes square and sometimes round and then just harassed a bunch of people in Egypt until one guy tore out his eyeball and replaced it with a Christmas ornament.

I freakin have the hardest time believing this guy was married once.

PS, now I know that when you uh put people’s hair into strips like this, it’s a lot of effort to animate and it doesn’t look anything like hair. Glad Yugioh taught me that none of us ever need to do that. Ever again. Erase that idea from your to-do list, it doesn’t work.

Anyway, Pegasus lets us know that while he was trying to revive his dead wife and putting a cold compress on his new golden eye-socket, he was also like...obsessed with finding these three dragons.

And he was like “but they didn’t exist anywhere else!” He looked in outer space?? In atoms??? all over the place (this was in the show, PS, he looked on a molecular level for these duel monster dragons) until he was like “ah! That’s because they DID never exist!”

PS...are there...molecular duel monsters?

Just asking for a friend.

...so they did exist, they just had exactly the same names they do now, but were humans so I guess Pegasus just...didn’t realize that they were the same. Kinda like how when I used to read manga as a kid or watch anime and they’d go into chibi forms I thought those were different people. It’s just like that.

Anyway if dragons are turning into humans please don’t tell that to Kaiba. Blue eyes white dragon wife is much funnier as a dragon.

But like...I get that mechanically, in the game, you have to change them to human to make the cards work but...why do we care if they’re human or dragons anyway? Dartz comes from a world where most people turned into monsters. And like if no one’s trying to date them, not even Kaiba...who cares? Dartz’ wife is a freakin monster and I don’t remember seeing him divorce her at any point.

Anyway, it was an odd thing for the show to throw in there about cards we have no relationship with. It’s a complicated season, and we spent way more time on our minibosses than we ever spent with the three tragic dragon characters that are going to actually save our asses.

Now back in the soul hut, Dartz has decided to do the strategy where he convinces Pharaoh to give up. Which youknow...

The show acts like Pharaoh has any idea of who he used to be and it’s like do you even know how long Marik spent trying to teach Pharaoh anything about his past? Like Marik stood there with his back exposed and was like “I wrote it down! See? That’s about you!! Read my back scriptures!!!” and Yami kind of squinted at it and was like “Nah...” and then the island exploded.

So anyway, the only way that Dartz can convince Pharaoh to kill himself is to show Pharaoh the invite code to the orb zoom call. And so Dartz like “your friends are having so much fun in death zoom right now, don’t you want to hang one last time? Don’t you want to see what they’re up to? Don’t you want to hear them complain about working from home and how small their orb is and how their back is cramped all the time because the park is closed so they never go on walks anymore? Don’t you want to hear and secretly enjoy how much weight Joey gained from eating Doritos for 8 straight months? Don’t you want that in your life, Pharaoh?”

And then he just...decided to possess his bean because obviously that wouldn't work.

Freakin Usagi Tsukino over here.

Speaking of:

I’m also imagining that this scene in the big ol bathtub was probably...longer...in the original version? Just saying that because...what’s the point of putting a shirt on the boy? Unless it was implied that at some point you saw the whole boy? Maybe I blinked and missed a shot of the whole boy?

Anyway this scene felt heavily edited, that’s my hypothesis, if it wasn’t and someone was like “yo put a shirt on the boy” then I...don’t know what to say about that. It’s a pair of shoulders. I’m pretty sure half of their cards are racier than that.

Do you like the evidence that we have here that Tea and Tristan totally biffed it last episode? I do.

Anyway, as the Orichalcos shrinks and threatens to take Pharaoh’s soul, the puzzle taps into his dark powers, and the power of friendship and also all the minibosses who died kinda formed a ring around him and bumped the orichalcos back into place.

Nice that Mai got added to the friend pile, but only in death. Also, I’m pretty sure Alister is here and Pharaoh never met him? But there’s more of a reason as to why the mini bosses are here, since they have their own agenda outside of Pharaoh and being his best buddy so I won’t question that too much.

This is friendship from Yami’s perspective, and like...Yami kinda wants to be friends with most people. Hell, if Bakura were introduced this season, he’d be here, too. That’s just how Pharaoh rolls.

Yami decided that, although he’s a huge mess of a human being and screw it at every possible opportunity, his core isn’t made up of a dark magic curse with a crusty soul left over from some kingdom that botched it 5000 years ago. He’s decided that he’s moving on from that sort of anxiety--becoming his own sort of person--separate from Yugi, separate from his past, and separate from the powers that he’s often defined by. And it’s about time. It’s about time he recognizes that he needs to stop clinging to the ancient past (although I’m pretty sure his ancient past will be the entirety of next season)

He should give himself a real name while he’s at it, but youknow, he's not going to. Yami hasn’t quite figured out names yet.

Nightmare foreshortening, that’s what this is. Like you have to just roll a dice when you do foreshortening, and sometimes you get snake eyes, the rest of the time, you get this.

So not only are these guys voiced by Seto, Yugi, and Joey, they have faces that are like a blend of Valon, Raphael, Mai and Alister (yes that was four people for three dragon people, just go with it)--but the show doesn’t really focus on that, or at least not in this episode.

But, it does give the three mini bosses a reason to be chosen by the Orichalcos, if it’s inferred that they were some reincarnated version of the original dragons. Especially since Valon had the ability to just punch out the Orichalcos when he was still alive, and apparently that is the same thing this card does.

I can’t believe that him punching stuff was foreshadowing. I should have known. The answer in this show is always punching.

And so the episode ends with some...something that happened, but don’t ask me about it.

One of the reasons I don’t go over card games here. I mean...c’mon.

Come the freakin on.

Anyway we have some more episodes before this is over but at least this guy is at 0 hp so like...how long can you draw out one single play of cards? (I say, knowing they can stretch this game out...infinitely)

anyway, here’s where you can read these from the top. Hope y’all are staying safe!

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

[nuttyjellyfishlover]

One Piece Anime Wano Arc Episodes 890

One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 890 This honestly is less going to be a review and more of a commentary as I watch through the anime's rendition of the Wano arc. I've honestly never really watched too much of the One Pieceanime, mostly just looking up the highlights of the arcs I read in the manga. I did watch the filler episodes and most of the movies, as I've talked about at length recently. And everyone tells me that the anime has some rather terrible pacing, particularly around the time of Dressrossa, which is apparently pretty padded out. But then I heard the absolute opposite for Wano, where the anime has received a new art-style and one hell of a fancy makeover. And I thought... hey, I'm on a One Piece kick this year, clearly, so yeah, I think I'm going to give this a shot.

The Wano arc, I think, is one that works a lot better because it has the reverse problem of a lot of One Piece arcs -- there are a lot of moments in Act One of the manga's version of the story that the writer clearly purposefully threw in a couple of off-screened moments that the anime could expand into full action scenes. I already know that Sanji versus Page One is fully animated in the anime, and scenes like Big Mom vs. Kaido or Zoro vs. Basil Hawkins are extended a lot more than the couple of panels we had in the manga. And Wano's got a lot of supporting characters, some of which actually get swept under the rug when I first read through the manga chapters weekly. So yeah, having bright colours and voices and music is going to make this a much more fun experience!

Anyway, here goes my collection of random notes and commentary. Be aware that there will be MANGA SPOILERS, as I will point out a couple of things here and there about stuff I notice that's foreshadowing or whatever:

* Marco's blue-and-yellow phoenix form looks so, so much more vibrant and pops out compared to anything else in the series in colour, huh? I think out of any other character, Marco is extra-memorable in animated format. * That said, basically half this episode is just a recap of the Paramount War. I mean, I haven't seen the Paramount War in full animated format, so it's nice to hear Whitebeard and Ace and Marco speak some of their more famous lines there. But on the other hand, it's also it's kind of one of the more-criticized parts of the One Piece anime that any time they could pad out an episode with scenes from a previously-produced episode, they will. * We actually get to see the Grudge/Payback War in the anime! I think this is less of a showcase of events that actually happened and more of a symbolic one, but hey, we get to see Blackbeard doing some sky-quakes and black holes and Marco turning phoenix. It just shows the Whitebeard division commanders getting sucked into a giant Dragon-Ball-esque spirit bomb Black Hole. Actually pretty neat! * Jozu has both arms in that vision. Whether it's an error or a spoiler or if he has a prosthetic a la Akainu in Film: Z, we'll see eventually.

* This episode also has a bit of a recap of the revelations about Wano from the Zou arc, but it's a lot shorter and feels a lot more relevant to the upcoming arc. * Brook actually expresses some interest on Vivi, apparently having heard of her from the others. I've always liked this from the filler episodes, of the newer Straw Hats slowly learning about prior adventures. Brook being Brook, of course, a panty joke was tossed in. * The Japanese-art style water waves look so pretty when animated! * The random octopus that makes Japanese kabuki theater (?) sounds is another thing that works so much better in the anime. I've always thought it felt a bit forced and random in the manga version. * The high-tempo music when the Sunny sails into the koi waves is very, very fun! * Ah, yes, the very first chapter of Wano in the manga shows off a bunch of carps jumping up a waterfall. You know, considering the whole legend that a carp that jumps over the waterfall transforms into a dragon... i.e., a fish that is also a dragon...

* The first one that's properly and almost fully drawn in the new Wano art style! And it looks gorgeous. * Also a new theme song! I've never paid that much attention to theme songs in anime, but I definitely like "One Dream One Wish" more than "We're the Super Powers". Shame that, as with most anime, the opening sort of spoils, like, half of the things that happens in the arc. * Speaking of great background music... the tempo of that opening instrumental that Komurasaki plays on shamisen is pretty catchy, especially with that octopus going iyooo~ in the background. It also makes for very fun background music for Zoro's rampage at the end of the episode. * Anime Wano is so freaking colourful. The rooftops, the kimonos, the hair... I think I remembered reading that Oda made it a point to subvert the fact that everyone in feudal Japan had black hair by explicitly doing the opposite -- black hair is the exception rather than the norm in Wano. Fun! * The frog on Usopp's hat is a real frog! I always thought it was just a hat! It's adorable! The wiki tells me it's called Gama Pyonnosuke. It's an adorable friend! Forget Carrot or Kin'emon or Yamato, Gama Pyonnosuke for next Straw Hat! * The biggest expansion here is that we actually follow Zoro around as he wanders around the city until he gets arrested by the corrupt magistrate. And Zoro actually bumps into the man-slayer and corrupt magistrate, actually explaining why he recognizes the specific scent of blood during the whole seppuku court. * And then we get around a minute of Zoro fighting the magistrate guards with the seppuku knife and good ol' fisticuffs, something that I didn't think I needed, but is certainly very fun to watch! * This new animation studio loves the angled zoom-in into eyes, and I highly approve. I think we had that like at least three times when Zoro decides to get dangerous.

* I never quite realized that if Luffy hadn't been interrupted by the octopus and washed up next to the Thousand Sunny, the poor ship would be literally left to its own devices. You'd think after losing Merry, the Straw Hats would be more careful with their ships... * Zoro gets to slash the magistrates up even more! It's a single Tatsu Maki, but god damn what a pretty Tatsu Maki. The shot of his feet kicking and breaking the wooden floor, the black aura around his blades, the way that the dragon aura appears behind him, the demonic red eyes as Zoro slams down from the sky, and the shots of the surrounding terrain being cut up into cubes... pretty awesome! * Luffy dodging the bullet from the random Beast Pirate goon with Observation Haki and the gomu-gomu-long-range-bitchslap has always been cool in the manga, and this episode makes it even cooler. Those glowing eyes! This is going to be the whole commentary, isn't it? Just me commenting on the scenes I find to be really cool? * Luffy's Conqueror Haki against the giant baboon is another very cool one. From the expression to the delivery of the line to the sound effect... Luffy's expression is actually pretty cool and borderline scary as he beats up the second goon. No wonder Tama went straight into "This is the I surrender pose!" * Also added in the anime is a vignette of Franky, Robin and Usopp seeing the news of Zorojuro becoming a wanted criminal. Again, not entirely necessary to know the story, but actually scenes that I don't mind being shown to us. Particularly that scene of Usopp utterly bullshitting an officer. * Luffy pets Komachiyo with his rubber arms. Komachiyo is a good boy. This is the most important scene.

* Did the manga show Luffy hiding the Sunny and letting it anchor in a cave? I don't remember it. I know that before the flashback and the raid we see the Sunny there, but it's nice to actually show Luffy not being so callous with the Sunny. * They got a pretty good voice actress for Tama that really makes her pretty adorable! So many times these kid guest star characters end up being annoying if they don't get a good voice, but between the voice-acting and the expressions, she's pretty fun! * Also, I think this is going to be something I repeat a couple of times, but both Tama and Tenguyama are so much more visually interesting with their full colour palettes. * Oh, right, Drake was the one that ransacked Tama's village. Wonder if that'll actually come up later on in the story... * Okay, thanks to the anime, it's really going to drill to me that it's pronounced 'Diez Drake' and not 'Eks Drake'. * I'm pretty sure everyone noticed it, but Ace learned to weave hats in Wano! That's how he became buddies with Oars Junior! I didn't notice it until just now!

* (Episode is the Cidre Guild filler arc that ties in to Stampede.) * What is Tenguyama waiting for? It's probably Oden or his retainers, but I don't think he's part of the samurai that was recruited by Kin'emon's group. Maybe he just missed the big recruitment drive, but that's weird. I wonder what role he's going to play in the arc... * There is a random metal guitar riff when Luffy sees the Nidai Kitetsu. And a glow of Observation Haki on Luffy's eyes. That's a small detail, but very cool! He also uses Observation when Hawkins arrives later on. I love the little trail of glowing red that streams out of his pupils when he activates it. * Tenguyama's sword has a very cool leaf-based handguard! Never noticed that. * Speaking of cool Observation Haki effects, Zoro's apparently activates when he senses sake. Appropriate! * I know it's me repeating this over and over, and we'll get so many cooler scenes later on, but Zoro casually launching that Phoenix Cannon to blow up the two random raptor-riders when he saves Tsuru? Such a simple scene but still so cool. Also very cool is the very brief slo-mo as Zoro re-angles the pathway of his slice when cutting down the second random goon. * Unlike most of the other things, I've always noticed that Basil Hawkins has a very cool Koma-deer mount. It looks even cooler in motion!

* This is perhaps one of the more extended scenes, since it features... fight scenes! In the manga, I think this lasted... maybe half a chapter? Less? A couple of page spreads? It's not just the Hawkins fight, either, Luffy's 'swordfighting' with Nidai Kitetsu also gets extended. Luffy's a bit more successful in using the sword to block and parry here. * Luffy's voice actor really makes the 'de gozaru' sound really funny. * I 100% missed Tsuru the first time I read through this chapter since we only see part of her in a single panel before her full-body debut after the Hawkins fight, and it's a lot less likely that you'll make that mistake in the anime. * Some 'elite' goons show up here, including a guy that uses his ponytail as a whip against Zoro, and a dude that makes fissures with a hammer that fights Luffy. Probably feels a bit more filler-y compared to the rest of the action scenes, but that's honestly nitpicking. * Zoro launching a Phoenix Cannon that slashes Hawkins's face is very cool. * Hawkins' little straw dolls gets an extended scene of it crawling out of his arm. It's so creepy, I love it. * Hawkins' giant straw demon StandBankaigets an very cool summoning animation and it's so creepy. The skies darkens and everything. Most importantly, it makes noises! Again, I love it.

* Luffy and Zoro vs. Hawkins! It's extended beyond just the simple 'dodge, then one-shot-slash' that it was in the manga. I really like Hawkins and his creepy-ass Straw Stand, so I am a huge fan of this. We get a couple of nice juxtaposition shots of Hawkins and the straw monster. Also Zoro goes shirtless in the fight. That's an important detail! * I really, really love how Zoro is having a gritted-teeth expression as he fights the giant straw demon; the straw demon is going gakakakakakakaka like a lunatic... then we cut to Hawkins who has a deadpan, bored expression as he swings his sword in the distance. * The animators really like to let the straw monster use the nails entwined to the tips of its fingers. That's fun! Zoro backhand-blocking the nails from hitting Luffy and Tama? That's cool! * Zoro does Ichi-Gorilla-Ni-Gorilla at one point, and totally slices and 'kills' Hawkins a bunch of times. * Also, speaking of pretty, glowing-eyes motion shots, Zoro using Nigiri: Toro Samon? Yeah. The cut itself is cool, but the zoom-in on Zoro's eyes as he does so? I'm sorry, I have a weakness for that kind of shot, it appears. * To extend the fight so that it's not just a single exchange of blows, Komachiyo gets knocked to the ground so that Zoro and the straw demon can actually fight for a bit. * Also shots I have a weakness to? DBZ-style 'aftermath of a powerful move'. This one isn't too over-the-top, but the slash extending into the sky and the shockwave rippling out from where Zoro slices the strawman thing is cool. * We actually see the scene of Okiku being harassed by Urashima in chronological order, and Urashima scares off a customer. Also, the implied scene of Zoro scaring off Urashima is actually shown here.

* This episode kind of extends the scenes in Tsuru's shop a bit more. Not the most exciting thing, but it does really help to build up Tama, Tsuru and Kiku. * ...wait, Tsuru's shop just displays the Kozuki crest very, very evidently on its door awning. If simply speaking the Kozuki name alone is a punishable crime, how did they get away with that? * Zoro trying to get Luffy to adopt a Wano-ized name is extra-funny in the anime! * Speaking of extended fight scenes, Batman gets to shoot alotmore arrows at Luffy and Zoro. It's kind of over-the-top on Batman's part, if we're being honest, even if Zoro and Luffy very easily dispatches of them.

* The anime does give Batman the ability to control his arrows via sonic waves or something, but he lasted for a much, much longer time than he really should have. * Batman fucking blocks Luffy's Busoshoku-empowered punch! He most definitely doesn't do it in the manga, and sure, knocking Luffy down with sonic waves? I buy that. Blocking Luffy and causing a small explosion in the air? ...I'm pretty sure just some random Gifter isn't supposed to be able to do that. Unless they're thinking of the other Batman? * They make the initial shot of Holdem answering the phone with the lion face pretty intimidating! * Holdem's lion beating their shared balls is still one of the weirdest jokes in the manga. * Some really nice face shots in this one, from Tama to Holdem to the lion to Luffy's group.

* A pretty obvious extended filler is Urashima bullying other sumo wrestlers. Urashima is kind of a dipshit, so it's not a particularly enjoyable filler for me. * Zoro gets to sumo-wrestle with one of Urashima's goons! This one, on the other hand, is pretty fun. We also get a little added bit where Zoro smirks after remembering Kiku's earlier insistence that she's a samurai, so it's less of a 'he doesn't give a shit' and more 'he wants to see what Kiku's skill is' or something.

* Luffy vs. Urashima is prolonged a bit in here, obviously. Not as entertaining as fighting Hawkins or even Batman, but okay, sure. Lots of grunting and growling in this one. Urashima cheats a bit more, Luffy has to use Armament Haki at one point... really don't think Urashima's someone that you should bother using hardening on, Luffy. * The kabuki-style delivery of "I'm going to be the king of pirates" is very well done. * Poor Tama! Holdem's a jackass. * We actually get to see Urashima crashing into Holdem's house, in yet another obvious 'hey, anime team, this is something for you to animate' scene from the manga. * Law gets an extended scene with seeing the sick Bepo, including a Room/Scan showcase and Bepo looking cute and Law being unable to keep being angry at him.

* The fight against the pirates and samurai in Bakura Town gets extended a fair bit in this episode. Luffy throws Nidai Kitetsu's scabbard around again, repeating the thing he did before. * This episode noticeably has a bunch of brief flashbacks to previous episodes. Anime episodes do this all the time to easily eat up like, ten or fifteen seconds of runtime. But I felt this one was particularly noticeable since it's to the previous episode which we already had a recap segment of before the episode begun. * Ball-de-boo!

* We get an adorable crayon drawing memory when Luffy remembers Zunisha one-shotting Jack's fleet. * Luffy and Zoro's synchronized neck-crick is pretty fun. Also fun is their super-speed when they simultaneously rescue Tama and steal the food barge. The question is, where is this super-speed when they were bamboozled by Batman and Gazelleman? * Unlike the anime, Holdem is able to turn his sword into a flaming segmented sword. It's like Zabimaru from Bleach, but on fire! * We get an extra scene of a random goon holding Kiku hostage and Zoro locking eyes with her and saying "I'm not going to help you", knowing full well she's pretending to be a damsel in distress. * Speed also gets to do something here! She gets to shoot Armament Haki'd arrows at Zoro and Kiku! In the manga she doesn't do anything while this is happening. * REDDO HAAAAAWK! * God damn that's a very satisfying Red Hawk. Such a pretty-looking one! This was the scene that a friend showed me that got me excited to sit down and watch the Wano arc in anime format. From Holdem shooting a lion's fire (how does that work?) and engulfing Luffy, to Tama's yelling, to the zoom-in to Luffy's angry eyes, to the orb of flame dissipating, the zoom-in to Luffy's angry face, the impact, the music... it's just Luffy beating up Holdem, who means jack-all in the grand scheme of things, but what a badass Red Hawk.

And I think that's a neat place to stop off, with the initial Hawkins-Urashima-Holdem opening prologue to Wano done with. I'm not sure how often I'll update this little watch-along series, but I certainly am enjoying myself!

[love-sapphirerose]

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon Episode 19

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/yashahime-princess-half-demon/episode-19/.169235

Similar to the last time Yashahime gave Moroha something substantial to do, the insidious stupidity of “Princess Aya's Beniyasha Hunting” can only be truly appreciated if I just describe the events of the story in chronological order. Given the crummy vives that the preview gave off, I don't think anyone was expecting much more than a cheap detour from this episode, but I'll be damned of this series doesn't continue to impress with how little of a shit it gives about being good, or even mediocre, or hell, even functional. And before we dig into this post-mortem, I'd like to field any defenses that people might make about Yashahime being meant more for kids, and thus shouldn't be taken seriously. For one, this is a decades-in-the-making sequel to one of the most popular anime ever, so don't act like the show shouldn't have something to offer for fans whose ages can be counted with more than one digit. Also, y'all know that crappy kids' entertainment still sucks, right? It doesn't just get a free pass for being made with younger viewers in mind. Nobody in their right mind is going to argue that stuff like Avatar the Last Airbender or Steven Universe should be judged at the same level as Caillou, for Pete's sake.

Anyway, “Princess Aiya's Beniyasha Hunting” commits the gravest sin that any work of art can commit, in that it is a completely pointless waste of time that takes the precious minutes of existence that its viewers have been afforded on this earth and just flushes them straight down the toilet. I, dear reader, respect your lives much more than Yashahime ever will, so I'm going to dispense with the “twists” and lay it all out in order: Way back in Episode 1/7, when the girls busted into Hiiragi Dango's place to rescue Towa, they brushed by his daughter, Aya, and got a speck of mud on her kimono. Being a literal psychopath, young Aya then hatched an elaborate scheme to trick the girls and get her revenge: She recruited a band of mercenaries and forced Jyubei to sell Moroha's services as well, and then she established the false pretext of recruiting demon slayers to her father's employment to lure Hisui and his two nameless buddies into fighting the mercs in a big, competitive battle.

These mercenaries are cartoonish morons, and one of them, Lady, is a pretty offensive homophobic/transphobic/maybe-even-racist stereotype, but in one of this episode's few saving graces, it's actually hard to get all that mad about it, because these goofs are pointless and don't really do anything. They spend all night building a wooden façade of a castle on the battlefield for…some reason, and then they all sort of disappear once the firebombs start dropping. No, the demon slayers know that Moroha is the only one that really needs to be taken seriously as a threat, so they recruit Setsuna to aid them, leading to a cousin-vs-cousin showdown for the ages!

Except that obviously isn't what happens, because even though Setsuna and Hisui suck, they're not awful enough to be completely on board with burning InuYasha's kid alive in the middle of a field for the sake of some half-cocked job interview. No, we eventually learn that Moroha and the slayers were in cahoots all along, since they figured they could throw the fight and earn enough cash from the not-actually-real job offer for everyone to profit. Sure, the slayers apparently didn't even tell Moroha about the very real volley of firebombs they'd be tossing her way, but who's keeping track of neglectful homicide attempts amongst friends and family, eh?

It's that throughline of “not telling your teammates the most basic and necessary information” that really sinks this episode, which was already a bummer to begin with. Nevermind Hisui and Setsuna almost turning Moroha into barbecue; the big dramatic turn of the story occurs when Setsuna and Moroha both agree to not tell Towa about the fixed battle because…she's a bad liar, I guess? Except Moroha is the one that lets slip about the battle in the first place, and I don't know why anyone would assume that keeping Towa in the dark would be easier than just explaining that the fight is rigged, nobody is getting hurt, and so on. Even if you bought that silly excuse, the episode still doesn't make any goddamned sense, because once Towa predictably gets mixed up in the fight anyways and mistakes Setsuna's “acting” for real aggression, nobody bothers to just explain what's going on then, either! The episode establishes that Aya can't hear anything they say from her little tower, so why keep up the charade? And how is any of this easier than one of the girls just telling Towa, “Hey, we're going to scam the spoiled daughter of that guy who kidnapped you out of some money by faking a battle. If you want in, cool, but if you can't keep up the ruse, just, like, hang out here this afternoon or something. We'll be back in a few hours, tops.”

It's just so unbelievably lame, and it's the kind of plot that is doubly frustrating because it depends entirely on characters withholding important information for no reason other than to cheaply manufacture some consequence-free drama. Also, remember how the whole setup for the battle was a lie, anyways? Yeah, Kohaku shows up out of nowhere to explain to Aya that he knew the whole thing was a waste of time, except he didn't tell his own crew of demon slayers this because…he wanted them to learn a lesson?

To recap: Aya, a character we've never met, goes to insane lengths to deceive Hisui, a cardboard cutout that we do not care about, in order to double deceive (and possibly kill) Moroha, all on account of that one time she got some dirt on Aya's clothes. Then, Moroha, Setsuna, and Hisui attempt to trick Aya, which ends up being a waste of time since they already fell for Aya's initial trick, and there's a bunch of needless drama with Towa because everyone made a conscious decision to also trick her, even though she probably would have been able to allow the secretly useless and entirely overcomplicated ruse-within-a-ruse to go off without a hitch, if only she had she known what was happening in the first place. Takechiyo even gets in on the action by tricking Towa into thinking Moroha got horribly murdered in her arms. Why? Who the hell knows! Maybe it's because Takechiyo just gets off on psychologically abusing teenaged girls. I'd buy it. Just look at the little creep.

Throw in some harmful stereotypes and a hilariously clunky last-minute scene where Towa gets all tearful over Moroha's safety – despite definitely not giving a crap all those times that Moroha was in actual danger – and there you have it: “Princess Aya's Beniyasha Hunting.” No, Moroha does not transform into Beniyasha. Yes, I'm just as mad about all of this as you are. The only reason this episode is getting a two-star rating is because there's a funny bit where Moroha plays along with the bounty hunters' silly entrance-theme bit. I'm giving it one extra start for making me laugh exactly once. That might be damning Yashahime with faint praise, but with nineteen episodes down and only a handful to go, I'm afraid that faint praise is just about the only good thing Yashahime can hope to earn at this point.

[littledreamybeth]

It’s time

A/N: This is a follow up to my ‘Secret Child’ series. A short story about how Harry & co. would react as Y/N’s water broke. :) sorry for mistakes x

It all happened during a mother-son interaction. Robin’s cheerful laughter filled Anne’s entire house while he was dancing with his beautiful mummy. Despite being heavily pregnant, with just one week remaining for the twins’ birth, Y/N didn’t want to disappoint her son but just fulfill his wish to dance with her. And since he was the firstborn, Robin was the pride of the Styles family, and his parents made sure to spoil him reckless.  So, here they were in the middle of the living room, mother and son, moving in circles with their hands linked together.

Not too far away from them, there was a young musician observing them fondly. His heart literally wanted to melt in his chest as he saw the joyful smiles on his family’s faces. He loved them more than anything in the world. His fiancée was very wobbly on her feet, resulting her to move around funnily, and Harry found it quite amusing. He averted his gaze from them only to lay it on his lover’s pregnant belly. Two baby girls, Mila and Ella, would be waiting for him in there until the day they were born. Harry couldn’t wait to meet them. He was covered in nothing but anticipation.

It was fascinating how fast time has passed. Only nine months ago, his daughters had been just as small as a pea, but now, they have grown into very strong and healthy babies, and it was just 7 days that kept them apart from each other. Harry remembered how desperately he would count the days to the moment he’d have his daughters in his arms.

“Robin, be careful,” the brunette man advised the young boy in front of him. “Don’t dance around in circles all the time or mummy will get dizzy.”

On command, Robin started to dance less in circles and less fast. He didn’t want to harm his mother after all. He stopped entirely in his tracks when he saw exhaustion written across his mother’s face. Y/N had tried hiding the signs of exhaustion the best way she could, however her she became very tired after a while, it wasn’t avoidable. Getting tired was one of her early pregnancy symptoms. She gasped for air.

And in that moment, it happened….

The little boy was the first one to notice. Harry was about to leave the room to support Anne and Gemma in the kitchen, who were preparing dinner, when his son hindered him from doing so.

“Daddy, look! Mummy peed her pants!” Robin called excitedly, pointing his finger at the developing puddle on the white marble floor beneath Y/N’s legs. A slight giggle left the young boy’s lips, apparently finding the fact that his mother had wetted herself very funny. Harry turned around and faced the young child confusedly, his eyes wandering to the spot his son was drawing attention to. He observed the puddle shortly. The liquid’s color underneath his fiancée, however, didn’t have the consistence of urine, but something else. It kind of looked whitish. Then he directed his eyes to Y/N who stood there completely motionless.

Judging by the shocked look on her face and her frozen posture, Harry knew it wasn’t what Robin thought it was at all.

“That’s not pee, buddy,” he breathed, realisation hitting him.

“If it’s not pee, daddy, what is it then?” the four-year-old questioned. Instead of providing his son an answer, Harry instantly started to panic. No one had prepared him for this moment. His voice suddenly boomed through the entire house, making the young boy in front of him flinch in his position. “Mum! Gemma! I need you here ASAP! Y/N’s water just broke!”

“Mummy’s what broke?” Robin freaked out, fear lacing his voice as he tugged his mother’s arm repeatedly, trying to get her attention. “Mummy, what’s the matter with you?” Tears had already welled his green eyes. He was afraid that something bad might have happened to his beloved mother. “Mummy!”

Harry immediately rushed towards his partner, one hand holding onto her free hand while his arm slung around her hip. “You’re okay, love, aren’t you?”

Anne and Gemma had also arrived at the living room by now, watching the entire scene worriedly.

Y/N woke up from her shaken state and nodded. “Yes. This- this was just unexpected,” she stated, glancing down at the floor. “I thought we just had another week?”

“I don’t know, love,” Harry replied, being just as thrown off guard as her.

Understanding the situation, Gemma commented, “It’s time, isn’t it?” A happy smile adorned her features. “No worries, darling. It happens that babies want to be born earlier than they usually should.”

The pregnant woman asked, “You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Listen,” Harry interfered, grabbing his house keys out of his pocket and shoving it aggressively into his sister’s hands, “I need you to go to our place, while I’m driving Y/N to the hospital, and get her some underwear, pajamas, shirt, sweatpants and socks. You can find a bag in our wardrobe. Put them all in there, and make sure you don’t forget her toiletries. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“Got it!” Gemma saluted, “But Harry, please chill and don’t freak out, alright?” The blonde woman smiled in order to provide comfort to her younger brother. “Y/N’s gonna be very vulnerable, and she needs someone to be strong for her when she’s in pain, so don’t stress her out. Be calm”

Gemma understood her brother’s nervousness and excitement, since it was going to be the first time he’d personally be welcoming his children to the world, however he had to keep a clear head. She knew all too well how Harry dealt with a stressful situation, and adding his pressure onto Y/N meant too much stress for the babies, which might complicate the delivery.

Harry shook his head at his sister’s advice, then leading his partner carefully to the front door, taking their jackets from the hanger and gently helping Y/N to put it on. After that, he looked at his mother. “Mum, can you please take care of Robin? I don’t think he will be able to make the night in there. I’ll give you a call when the babies arrived.”

“Of course,” Anne replied and picked up her grandchild, who almost looked like he was about to burst into tears, from the ground. Poor child didn’t comprehend what was really going on, and nobody was explaining him what was happening with his mother either. “Robin and I are gonna have a nice evening, right?” She gave a peck on Robin’s cheek. She didn’t mind not being a part of the delivery. She had already witnessed her first grandchild’s birth, and she wanted to be satisfied with that.

“Daddy, what’s wrong with mummy? Where are you going?” Robin’s fearful eyes searched for Harry’s, looking for a sign of comfort.

The young father, who couldn’t endure his baby being in distress, brought his firstborn’s face between his hands, kissing his forehead lovingly before saying, “We’re heading to the hospital buddy, because your sisters chose to say hello to the world.”

[kyidyl]

Ok so I wrote this post once and it got eaten before I could finish it and then I started the Vinland arc and I wanted to wait till I finished that before I wrote it because @systlin​ I know I only mentioned the dig in the modern bit, but you’re about to get some Bonus Content (TM).  

Anyway, in AC: Valhalla (AKA: Ass Creed Pillage England) they show a dig in the modern outside of the animus scenes and the question of accuracy came up on Systlin’s stream the other day so here we are.  I even took pictures! Yes, pictures, with my phone, because I play on console and couldn’t figure out how to send myself screenies. I’m going to blame it on covid-related brain cell loss. :P That orange hue is not my phone, it’s the game, it’s a plot thing.  

First up, we have this: 

100% accurate, every dig is contractually obligated to have one of those shitty plastic chairs and at least one person will bring a cloth folding chair (me.  I’m that one person.) to a dig.  

Ok, so here’s a wider shot of the dig: 

Not bad, TBH.  Table for finds, random jumble of equipment, tarp for covering the hole when not in use.  The lights aren’t a thing, but none of us are doing a dig during a world-ending electromagnetic storm either.  I can’t see a spoil heap (the dirt we’ve dug up and screened already), but I wasn’t looking for one.  Usually the stuff won’t be so close to the dig itself, and there’s no screen, but that’s less of a thing in a burial dig so it’s fine.  

Next, a shot of the table with the artefacts on it: 

Again, not bad as far as accuracy goes.  Most people don’t realize this, but archaeologists use trowels MUCH more than pretty much any other tool.  We tend not to use brushes bc they can damage delicate things.  We don’t use hammers, not as far as I’ve seen anyway.  The tools between the brushes and the trowel are accurate, too.  TBH I have no idea what they’re called but they’re basically tiny trowels for really delicate stuff (I used them almost exclusively when I was excavating a kid.).  The state of preservation of the artifacts is also pretty damned accurate, as is the inclusion of a DSLR.  We take lots of pictures.  The tags aren’t accurate, but I’ll get back to that in a hot second.  Also I literally have one of these plastic tables in the basement on which I was doing artefact processing for *months* so like....accurate lol.  

Ok, the dig itself: 

So this is a good place to mention that I’m specifically trained as a bioarchaeologist (even tho I’ve spent more time digging up other stuff.), which means that I specifically am trained to deal with human remains and other biological stuff.  Primarily humans tho.  Excavations of burials and excavations of, for example, a home, are handled very differently.  So you see those stakes with the string? That’s...accurate, but not to a burial.  We don’t need ‘em because you just go to the edges of the burial.  When you don’t do a burial, then you mark the sides of the hole with stakes and string, so they’d also be on the surface not in the pit.  

The partial excavation is accurate, but probably not on purpose by Ubisoft.  See, arch generally try to stick to the philosophy of the most info you can get for the least amount of destruction of the site.  Because Shawn’s goal here is to gain access to Eivor’s body for the animus and not necessarily to lift the body out of the ground, it’s accurate that he hasn’t excavated her entirely.  It’s also possible that ubisoft left the pelvis covered bc the game lets you choose your gender (Yes, I know that sex != gender, but in the context of Ubisoft’s game creation, I could see them obscuring all references to a canon sex OR gender for Eivor.). 

I’m not like an expert or anything on viking burials so I can’t speak to the contents of the burial, but the fact that they included grave goods at all is accurate.  

Another feature here that was interesting to me was the stepped sides of the grave.  Because *that’s how we dig*, lol.  It’s not how we dig burials, because burials are dug in stages (expose the remains, dig around the remains, dig under the remains, and lift the remains out.), but here’s a picture of one of the holes at my current dig: 

Note the string along the top of the hole...

Anyway, the stepped sides shows me that they definitely DID put some effort into designing the dig, but like...it kinda falls into “he’s confused but he’s got the spirit” territory.  

The last comment I have about the dig is about the little tags.  We don’t tag things and label them like that because we take and draw a lot of pictures of the hole and we tag things in the pictures later, not in the hole itself.  However, I think that the tags are a good way of indicating to the audience in the game that Shawn is being meticulous bc it’s not like we’re gonna see his paperwork later.  So there you go...the AC: Valhalla dig through the eyes of an actual archaeologist.  

Now, bonus Vinland content:

THIS IS GONNA CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR AC: VALHALLA.  

For those who don’t know, the Norse visited the Americas several times on several different occasions.  Generally speaking, when their explorations appear in the popular consciousness, they can be divided into two locations: Vinland and L’anse aux Meadows.  Vinland may actually refer to several different settlements and their locations aren’t precisely known (although there are several guesses based on the descriptions in the sagas.), but L’anse aux Meadows is an actual site in Newfoundland that is an active dig (fun fact: one of my profs during my masters spends his summers there sometimes bc a buddy of his is in charge of the dig.) and you can go visit it if you want.  Popularly though people tend to refer to Vinland as one settlement, and its location is unknown.  

So the Vinland saga ends with you getting an apple of Eden from Gorm Kjotveyson when you murder him for being a bastard.  You also see the doorway to an Isu temple that he’s dug up.  Eivor gives this apple to the native people that you trade with over the course of the story.  These people are a local Mohawk tribe.  And, specifically, they are the tribe that protagonist of Assassin’s Creed 3 - Ratonhnhake:ton - is born into.  They guard the apple they get from Eivor and it eventually ends up in  Ratonhnhake:ton ‘s possession.  His dad is a Templar (Haytham Kenway, the son of Edward Kenway - the protag of AC:4 pirates.  Not to be confused with Hytham, the baby Hidden One in AC: Valhalla.), and if I remember correctly Connor is conceived in the temple that Gorm dug up. Anyway regardless, his people still live in the area and because we know where  Ratonhnhake:ton was born, we know where Vinland is within the AC universe.  Turin, New York.  

Turin isn’t coastal, but given AC’s map compression for the sake of gaming and the location of the temple in the far northwest of the Vinland map, it’s close enough.  It’s also within the range of proposed locations for Vinland, so there ya go.  I actually have other interesting stuff about Vinland stories that I know, but this post is stupid long so I’m gonna leave it off, lol.  

[moviesrotbrains]

DANIEL ISN’T REAL... but I’m so very glad this film exists.

After dealing with increasing anxiety and fearing a grip on reality, a college freshman turns to his childhood imaginary friend for comfort and confidence boosting… only to realize that his much cooler and carefree pretend buddy has an unsettling violent darkness about him. Could Daniel possibly be something more than a figment of his imagination?

DANIEL ISN’T REAL is an utterly surreal fever dream, channeling the best in cosmic horror, body horror, and psychological horror while also taking a bold look at deeper issues. It comes from Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision imprint, the same company that gave us such gems as MANDY, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, and COLOR OUT OF SPACE...  and this one’s right up there with those modern classics. And you can watch it now on SHUDDER!

Full review and some seriously kickass poster art below:

Directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer (and based on Brian DeLeeuw’s book, In This Way I Was Saved), DANIEL ISN’T REAL is a wonderfully fantastical ride through fucked up subject matter. It tackles mental illness, trauma, dual nature, identity, male toxicity, and empathy… with a good amount of Lovecraftian madness and trippy, yet terrifically disgusting Cronenberg-esque visuals thrown in for good measure.

It’s an engaging story too, about a young man, Luke, overwhelmed with life as his mother’s mental health condition worsens. He’s dealing with that on top of everything else college kids go through, lack of confidence, anxiety, etc. There’s also a fear of his own sanity. He keeps hallucinating and blanking out. His therapist suggests that maybe he should try to tap into that creativity he had as a child, where he’d regularly play for hours on end with his imaginary friend, “Daniel”. Only things got very weird and unsettling the last time he played pretend with his fictional playmate.

Once Daniel re-enters his life, things start to change. Luke’s mother issues get better. Luke suddenly feels more confident in life. Luke is finally doing well with girls. Luke’s getting creative again with photography... and all of his problems seem to go away… Only Daniel seems to want more credit and recognition. And Daniel seems to be getting angrier. And that’s when things get really fucking messed up.

This film is wonderfully acted by a mix of up-and-comers and veterans of the scene. Luke is played by Miles Robbins (HALLOWEEN 2018) and gives that immediate likeable and kind, yet also meek, portrayal that perfectly conveys what kind of a person that Luke is. There’s a lot of range in emotion in this performance, from hurt and confused to confident, to something else entirely. I always get a kick at seeing an actor completely flip their performance and style midway and totally embody something else, and this film has that and more.

Contrasting that likability and meekness is Daniel (played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, SCREAM QUEENS), the titular imaginary friend who’s pure Freudian Id. He’s cool, slick, charismatic, and always knows the right thing that Luke should say, or do, to get ahead. He’s helpful… when he wants to be… but he also has a lot of darkness. A scary darkness that seems to stem from… something else. Patrick excels when he taps into this dark alias. He’s evil as fuck. There’s a sinister glee in his manner. Epitome of “Chaotic Evil”. He’s such a great asshole. He really kicks it into gear when the audience fully know what we’re dealing with… 

Yet even then, nothing is over explained. And that’s the beauty of this film. There is no expository dialogue or wasted scene. Everything is laid out there and the actors just bring it. This film lives in a world of it’s own and the audience is a passenger for the unholy ride. It’s a very slick flick full of world building and the kind of outstanding performances that really make everything shine.

Rounding out the supporting cast is Luke’s troubled mother (veteran Mary Stuart Masterson, who powerfully played a similar and memorable role in BENNY & JUNE), Sasha Lane (HELLBOY) as the love interest, artist, and really, the heart and soul of the film, and Hannah Marks (DIRK GENTLY) as the other girl faced with Luke’s dark side. again, all perfectly played and perfectly cast, giving a much needed balance in this heavy film.

And it’s a very heavy film. The story was a deeply personal one for Mortimer (as he explained to us in 2019, when he brought the film to the Montreal FANTASIA film fest). The director drew from his own experiences from his youth, when a friend was similarly dealing with mental health issues. Mortimer had to help him, because his friend was “falling off the rails”, with no one around really helping him out, “not friends or professionals”. He talked of his friend’s life being in ruins, and how it just “spiraled off into mania”. 

That experience deeply impacted Mortimer. It was from this that Mortimer wanted to make a film about empathy and compassion for people going through severe mental illness issues. While Luke’s troubles stem from something more, the parallels are still there to people in real life going through non-otherworldy issues. The overall sense of helplessness, and a desire to be understood and taken seriously, is still there, and still a universal theme. Especially right now.

This film also tackles a lot more than just matters of wellness. Mortimer also wanted the film to deal with the “increasing danger” young men are in these days. “The Dangers they face and the danger many are to themselves”. 

Mortimer talked about them, “Living in a world where men have been driven insane by society. A society where many men are both the product and the villain of it.” A lot of this is seen on film when Luke battles for control with Daniel. Daniel representing that alpha and that Id. Luke grasping for control and trying to be that voice of compassion and reason. It’s a wonderful character study that is only heightened by the horror elements that come into play.

And yes, it’s an absolute horror fan’s delight and it’s visually stunning to boot, mixing psychological & psychedelic horror together. It felt like I was watching HELLRAISER again for the first time, but if that film was shoved in a blender with FIGHT CLUB, JACOB’S LADDER, and copious amounts of mind altering drugs. But comparing it to anything else does no justice to the wholly original eye-gasmic feast set before us. I keep saying this, but it truly is an utterly wonderful surreal fever dream. It’s so very layered and out there. 

It’s refreshing to see new films like this come about with something to say and looking as great as it does. Yes, this film looks very different from most things that are currently out there, with it’s violet texture throughout, and otherworldly feel. Mortimer, who came from a music video background, wanted his second feature to have a distinct look to it, saying that the “violet hue throughout had a very futuristic and contemporary colour about it”. He wanted to create the feeling of a manic episode, and overwhelm the viewer with colours and density. 

And he totally does. It’s such a beautiful looking film, and one you’ll definitely go back to just to soak in the wonderful hypnotic visuals. Much like MANDY, from the year before, DANIEL is a cinematic treat for your eyeballs.

And there’s also some deeply messed up visuals that mix in with that beauty. The FX on a whole are amazingly bizarre. There are visuals that are so jaw-droppingly good that you’ll permanently have them etched in your brain. It’s the kind of film where you’re watching and you immediately want to rewind and see that scene again.

From faces being merged into each other in a pink tentacled mess of VIDEODROME-esque flesh, to other visages literally being mangled like putty! Pure body terror. People crawling into other people’s mouths– I could go on, but I don’t want to spoil it. It’s icky and wonderful all at once.

And I can’t go on about the FX without mentioning the nightmarish and hellish creature design by Martin Astles (who also worked on the brutal and classic nightmare fuel that is EVENT HORIZON). The creature FX are so fucking out there, each very distinct and very memorable. The kind of things that if you confronted them in real life you’d be quick to claw them out your own eyes. 

One beast looks like a hellish death beast with a fleshy castle for a head-- an absolute architectural artifice. Mortimer said they attempted to convey that a whole universe was in its face, and it existed outside space and time. Another Face looking like piercing bullets poking through the flesh and protruding from his cheeks, like a moment frozen in time. They’re all so freakishly creative and disturbing. I can’t even describe them right. I’m not sure I want to, but they’re seared into my mind. Body Horror and Cosmic Horror at their best.

In addition to the visuals, this film also brings it on the sound design and score front. It’s got an incredible score by Warp Records act Clark. It contains synthy goodness along with manipulations of actual orchestral pieces. And it was Clark’s first time working on a film score, something Mortimer preferred. 

He wanted someone that wasn’t used to working on horror films, or films in general, so they’d throw everything they had into it from the get go. Mortimer told Clark to make it sound like Bernard Herrmann got stuck in some horrible industrial accident. A relentless sonic assault that tries to capture that same feel that Clint Mansell did with REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. The results are a superb original work of music that completely enhances and already spectacular looking film.

I was a fan of Mortimer’s SOME KIND OF HATE when I caught it six years ago at FANTASIA FEST, but DANIEL is an entirely different beast and next level filmmaking. He’s easily grown as a filmmaker and I’m totally on board to see more. I can’t wait to see what he tackles next, because DANIEL was easily one of my top Fantasia picks for 2019.

DANIEL ISN’T REAL is one of those dark films that will most likely be seen as a cult classic in a few years, right up there with DONNIE DARKO and movies of a similar ilk. It’s full of so much imagination and gusto, all while tackling important issues and core themes. All that and it remains highly watchable and engaging. It’ll satisfy any horror junkie while also winning over fans of thought provoking art. Daniel isn’t real, but I’m glad it exists.

-Theo Radomski, Movies Rot Brains 

Seriously how fucking awesome are these posters?  Why can’t more horror films hire the people that made these posters? Why can’t film in general hire these people to make better promo art? 

This article was previously seen on Mobtreal.com