#yes Harper has a new hairstyle again

[eulaliasims]

Harper has a want to make out with five different sims, so tonight she's trying to seduce the most boring of dormies, Brashen. Look, sometimes you have to make do at college. Ugh, I guess I should give him back his eyebrows, huh?

Love Harp's reaction to me directing her to flirt with him.

Brashen: No, thank you! I am not that type of sim!

Harper: This... this has never happened to me before.

[ziamhaze]

My Future in Fic

Yeah, so, the 100k fic that I’ve been working on for the past six months?  The one that was going to be uploaded to AO3 last week?  Yeah, it’s accidentally getting published...

Where do I start?

I suppose with a massive thank you to anyone who’s clicked on any of my fics over these past two years.  I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again.  I never ever thought about writing as a career.  I’ve never written anything prior to my Harry Potter AU Compartment 451.  I didn’t even take an English class in undergrad or grad school.  I genuinely just had an idea for a fic I wanted to read and since no one had written it, I had to do so myself.  Since then, I’ve written every single day for 2 years.  I left my job in the entertainment industry, got accepted to one of the best creative writing programs in the world on a scholarship, and now one of my stories is being considered at Harper Collins.  Yes, the Harper Collins.  It’s the longest shot in the world, but for legal reasons I was not allowed to upload the fic version on any website prior to submission.  Even if they don’t pick it up, I’ve been advised to continue to shop it around to agents.

What I can do, however, is share the premise.

If you’ve been following my tumblr and watching my tags - I SEE YOU ALL OUT THERE - then you’ll know that this fic was meant to have Zayn with his signature undercut hairstyle and one more little thing...

Someone sent me an ask a while back about what this fic was supposed to be about.  I believe I said something about it being an adaptation fic, but not from a film/tv show/other piece of literature, from a song.  This next fic was meant to be an adaptation of the song Younger by Ruel.  Later on, it also took shape with the help of Remember by Liam and a few others that you can find here.

The miniature summary is as follows:

When his father suddenly passes, twenty-nine-year-old Liam Payne is brought back to the Sydney suburbs where he grew up.  He doesn’t plan on seeing his childhood best friend, Zayn Malik, at the burial service.  They haven’t spoken since going from brothers to strangers one fateful day fifteen years prior.  But Zayn puts an end to this when he approaches Liam after the burial, offering his condolences and asking if Liam can help his archaeological research team with photographing their newest project.  The unexpected closeness forces each man to wade through uneasy emotions.  For Liam, a mixture of grief, lost identity, and confusion over why he’s willing to interact with the one person he swore he’d never forgive.  And for Zayn, a tidal wave of anxiety that comes from finally facing a part of himself he’s always chosen to deny.  When We Were Younger is a story heavily rooted in blurred identities and exploring what loss can look like in two different scenarios: death and friendship.

For obvious reasons, their names will be changed.  Liam, to Hutton.  Zayn, to Cairo (his ethnicity will also be changed to Egyptian).  As you can see, it was meant to be my big ‘enemies to lovers’ fic.  Technically, it’s ‘best friends to enemies to lovers’, but you know.

Right, so what does this mean for me going forward?

I still have so much inspiration when it comes to writing Zayn and Liam as characters.  I don’t plan on putting a complete stop to writing them, but with my career taking this large of a turn, I do have to prioritise my time.  That said, as of now, I can’t afford to write long-form fic any longer.

Soon, I’ll be starting a PhD program where I’ll be writing another full-length novel for mass publication.  For fun, here’s a little insight on the two ideas that I’ll be pitching:

1.  Underground boxer (loosely based off Liam) falls in love with arms gang leader (loosely based off Zayn).  Throughout their love story, the latter has to outrun the psychological trauma his father (the leader of Zayn’s rival gang) still throws his way. 

2.  Cold War AU.  Paris, circa 1950/51.  Ambassador’s son (loosely based off Liam) befriends new student (loosely based off Zayn) at the international school.  Paris is a ticking time bomb; war is about to break out at literally any second.  The two clearly have feelings for each other, but can’t act on them because homosexuality in the 1950s...yikes.  When war does break out, the two are separated, and as Liam’s character goes out to find Zayn’s, he learns a secret of his that changes everything.

Whichever I don’t write for the PhD will be the novel I write following it.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue to write (and edit) like crazy.  Ever since I randomly wrote C451, there hasn't been a day that’s gone by where I haven't written something.  It may have only been a paragraph or two, but never zero.  This is how you get better.  This is the equivalent of going out and shooting free throws for 30 minutes a day.  You have to put in the work in order to get better.  I'm very lucky that I'm incredibly self-disciplined and I've been able to crank out as many stories as I have over the past 2 years.

That said, I’ll be writing shorter little oneshots.  I have several ideas that I’ve been sitting on, but haven’t ever thought to write because I HATE writing short stories.  Little ideas that don't have huge plotline/climax potential, but that I want to just see on paper, I'll probably end up writing.  If I had to guess, I'd say they'll come out to around 10-15k.  Also, sequels?  Prequels?  Haha, you never know...

I’ve also got a series called “Sleep Drabbles” that are, yes, you guessed it, a series of drabbles based around one theme: sleep.  I also have a few scenes that I want to write which are based on ziam’s kids, not actually ziam themselves.  If there’s enough demand for that, I can upload those too, but they’re quite niche, so I don’t think the general fandom would be very interested.

As far as frequency for all of this, I have no idea.  I’ve always done things at my own pace and written stories that I want to write, for myself.  That won’t ever change, so I don’t want to commit to one drabble a week or one short-length fic per month.  It takes me weeks (months for this last fic) to research and interview the necessary people to get character arcs correct/believable.  I love that part of writing, and so if I have a little story that I want to write that may only be 10k but takes me ages to put together how I want, then so be it.  I will always be around to answer asks/messages and please, continue to tag me in your writing tag posts!  But please, no prompts.

So, that’s my future with fic.

Again, I cannot say thank you enough to every single one of you.  Every single thing that people tag me in (@malik-payne , @zqua1d , @zentiment , @liamisthesun , @redyellowberry I’m looking at you), I appreciate and love!  The recommendation lists that people have put me on, THANK YOU!  It’s wild to think that I used to look to rec lists for years and now I’m on them.  @ziamfanfiction THANK YOU for always having my back with exposure!  @paynefulperiods , my beloved beta reader, THANK YOU for always encouraging me and putting up with shit first drafts.  @march-z5 , THANK YOU for always being on call for ideas and listening to me bang my head against the wall at 4 am.

Now, might fuck around and make a fake picspam for the fic that never was...

Also, all of the behind scenes pages for each of my fics are now public, so feel free to check those out here.

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making this journey possible. I know people say that a lot when they gain a following of any sort, but I truly truly mean it.  You have to have talent in order to be an author, but you also have to have people who want to read your stuff.  Proof of concept is a real thing.

So thank you a million times over.

Speak soon my friends.

[worlds-shortest-astronaut]

Why continuing to support Ateez might actually be important/helpful for preventing cultural appropriation in the future

I would like to preface this by saying that I am a person of colour but I am not black. I can and do empathise with black Atiny though I also acknowledge that I cannot fully understand how this affects them. Pain and hurt is always valid and the black community have suffered in ways most of us have not. 

At the same time, I am really sick and tired of ‘cancel culture’ and the lack of nuance when discussing issues such as cultural appropriation. They prevent us from having useful discussions and facilitating change. So let’s break down this issue:

The problem: In a promotional photo for their next comeback, Kim Hongjoong, the leader of Ateez, was styled with cornrows. This is a case of cultural appropriation. 

The response: Fans emailed KQ Entertainment asking for this hairstyle to be changed and KQ responded saying a) this was not done with conscious effort to appropriate/insult another culture, but that they did it to fit with the concept, b) they cannot re-make any of the content that has been completed for album promotions, c) they will ensure that Hongjoong will not wear this hairstyle during album promotions and d) they will apply what they have learned to future comebacks and ensure that this will not happen again. 

Reasons why KQ Entertainment was in the wrong:

Entertainment companies need to start putting resources into educating themselves and their artists. All you need is one (1) person who’s job it is to go over concept ideas. I don’t understand why RESEARCH INTO CONCEPT IDEAS AND THEIR ORIGINS isn’t an industry standard to begin with.  It’s like when you’re writing a fictional story - you DO RESEARCH INTO STORY ELEMENTS. That should be a standard part of creating a ‘concept’ or styling any artist - where does this idea come from? is it COPYING or PLAGIARISING anyone? is it CULTURAL APPROPRIATION? 

So, yes, KQ Entertainment made a grave mistake. Furthermore, their blunder is just the latest in a LONGGGG series of cultural appropriation and racism in K-pop. On top of that, this is a racially-sensitive time. 

I did initially wonder why Hongjoong, who is an activist for multiple platforms and is very aware of how carefully they must navigate different cultures, didn’t point out that cornrows were not appropriate (esp since San said the members were very involved in this comeback). However, we have to remember that Hongjoong exists outside that culture, lives in a country/works in an industry that is notoriously racist/colourist, and would have seen other groups use that hairstyle (esp for Summer comeback - KoKoBop and Boom ring any bells?). I didn’t fully understand the problem with non-black people wearing cornrows (i just thought it was distasteful, fake and try-hard) until someone pointed out how every aspect of blackness has been stereotyped and criminalized. This is NOT something that most people are taught. 

Reasons why people need to FUCKING SETTLE DOWN:

KQ Entertainment’s swift response to their fans was INCREDIBLE. Let me ask all you kpop multis: what did SM do in response to Kai’s dreadlocks and Chenle’s cornrows? There was no explicit apology. There was no attempt to explain themselves. There was no promise to change their behaviour in the future.

KQ Entertainment has shown that they are open to change and education. They have taken action in response to people calling them out. They have apologised for their actions and explained why changes to completed promotional changes cannot be made. 

And now people are complaining that KQ haven’t done enough, sending death threats to Hongjoong and generally spreading a disgusting amount of hate. 

Listen, regardless of how large an entertainment company is, it is highly unlikely that any of them would change promotional material that has already been completed this close to a comeback date. The money and time that requires is ridiculous. It would require pushing back the comeback date. A small company like KQ, whose world tour was recently CANCELLED, cannot afford to do that. And you may criticise them for choosing money over a ‘more important issue’ but let’s discuss how significant this issue is and the best way to facilitate change. 

So we all agree that this is cultural appropriation and that cultural appropriation is bad. We also all agree that KQ has apologised and agreed to make feasible changes. Our response should be to welcome those changes. 

If people just keep criticising the company and ‘cancelling’ them for their choices, then it becomes clear to the WHOLE INDUSTRY that trying to change things and negotiate with fans becomes pointless. They’re going to lose support regardless of what they do. This ‘all-or-nothing’ response is ridiculous. 

Sensationalism and social media have made it really difficult to have a conversation that doesn’t involve two extremes at opposite ends of a spectrum. In reality, most issues should be viewed on a spectrum, in shades of grey. Responding with aggression and hate, labeling a company and their artists as racist because they’ve appropriated one aspect of a culture and publicly shaming them doesn’t help. 

Anti-racism doesn’t mean being an “anti-fan”. EFFECTIVE anti-racism means calling out racists acts (which we’ve done), asking for change (done) and drawing attention to positive behaviours and alternative and reinforce these (WHICH WE ARE NOT DOING).

We have to give KQ Entertainment CONSTRUCTIVE criticism in response to their changes in order for them to recognise that THEY ARE DOING THE RIGHT THING. 

Complications: The Harper Bazaar photo shoot - Hongjoong’s hair is styled in braids/cornrows for that photo shoot. It suggests that he was going to have that hairstyle for the majority of their promotions. However, these are still part of promotional material had been completed prior to the teaser photo being dropped. KQ Entertainment truly did not have the time to change it. 

Yes, it looks bad. Yes, KQ Entertainment fucked up. But unless we continue to support Ateez and give them constructive criticism that they can REALISTICALLY APPLY, change will not occur. This is a first step. WE have given Ateez and KQ the opportunity to set a NEW PRECEDENT for the industry. WE have given Ateez and KQ to set a NEW STANDARD.

They can ONLY do this if WE continue to support them and give them a chance to SUCCEED. 

(P.S. - if you’re sending hate to Hongjoong [and there HAVE been death threats] you are cruel and mean as well as implicit in preventing his education)

[slashy-ashy]

I think I like Dick so much because I just like vibe with him because I vibe a lot with my older sis, so it’s like she’ll be unapologetically her and I’ll be like “wow thats my oldest sib 🤩” and then I’ll relay what she did and like imagine what if Dick did this or said that🧐 so this is all to say that Dick has picked up roller skating and you can’t tell me that back in the day Dick wouldn’t be hitting the rinks up and it helps that now there’s this resurgence of people going roller skating or blading so this is what has been in my head for a literal year now, Dick Grayson with his own personalized roller skates, but like at first he has some regular ole skates that he just takes to the rink with him but on his birthday Tim’s like “I noticed you’ve been skating a lot so I thought that you’ll love these” and just hands Dick these absolutely beautiful red,green, and gold or some blue,black and gold skates I don’t know I’m leaning towards the blue, but Tim made sure to wrap them up in like this wrapping paper covered in chirping cartoon robins which gets a laugh out of Dick, so after Dick tears off the paper he sees this unassuming box and he starts thinking “oh no, please don’t let this be a prank” and so he flips the lid but the object is covered in some thin paper so he just bites the bullet and rips the paper off. He looks down at the skates and up at Tim, before again looking down at the skates again. Now the rest of the family don’t know what he has right now because Tim made sure to be secretive about his gift, so they’re all thinking some variation of “oh, is this a prank? Is it a good one or a bad one?” But Tim already had his phone out recording so he can see how Dick is unconsciously widening his eyes and how his hands are shaking a bit, so this goes on for three seconds before Tim asks him with a smile in his voice “so...you like them?”

And Dick SHRIEKS and he covers his face with his hands while squirming in his seat, because the minute he got to his apartment he was ‘kidnapped’ by Robin and Black Bat and was taken back to the manor where they forced a birthday hat onto him and sat him at the head of the table and they hadn’t let him get up before singing happy birthday and handing him his gifts, so Dicks like in almost hysterics and screams “I LOVE them!!” Before pulling out the skates and so everybody follows suit and starts feeding off the positive vibes and giving them out, and Dukes like “ aye, I bet you can’t wait to take’em out for a spin” and Dick, still grinning from ear to ear is like “yes I want to go to the rink right NOW” but Tim is like “you still have to open all these other gifts!” And Dick is like yeah your right so he puts the skates right beside him and he’s so happy that when the doorbell rings that surprises them because it was supposed to be only them so who could that be? But Alfred already knows who it is, so he opens the door and in comes Jason looking all cool in his leather jacket and what not so he goes into the dining room along with his family and gives Dick a hug, and Dick’s confused but he welcomes the hug anyway, so when this hug goes on for a while Dick’s confused and asks if Jason’s okay but he just pulls away and says surprise and moves out the way, and Dick’s scream was so LOUD but short too, because in comes Donna, Wally, Roy, Garth, Gar, Vic, Kori, Rachel, even Joey and is that...? Clark, Lois, and Diana!? Oh! And they brought Jon and Konner. And Dick justs sits dumb founded for a minute before covering his mouth, “you said you weren’t be able to make it!” He says shrilly, Roy shrugs a shoulder “ I said that MAYBE I won’t make it, and besides like I need an excuse to come see you” and goes up to hug him and Dick most noticeably has tears in his eyes when he looks at the others, and Roy looks at him with both his eyebrows raises “are you crying right now!?” He asks incredulously, “well what do you expect he OBVIOUSLY wanted me to hug him, now move you didn’t do it right” Roy was then hip checked by Wally and Dick couldn’t help but not laugh at how offended Roy looked, “but seriously dry those tears the fun has barely begun!”

He said before drying Dick’s face, “did you really push me out the way West?” “I told you before and I’ll say it again Harper, he wanted me to hug him, seeing that ugly mug of yours frightened him” he said condescendingly before he went to hug Dick and putting a big show of patting his back and rubbing his hair, even had the gall to add in a couple “there there’s” while he was at it. Dick smiled and pushed Wally off of him “ but really what are you doing here? I thought you guys had plans for tonight” Donna came and pushed Wally out of the way and got an offended “hey” from her actions and a couple chuckles out of Roy “we do” she said pressing a kiss to the crown of Dicks head “ and those plans include taking you out to the rink” and Dick gasped “really?!” “Yeah dude, we called around and did you know that apparently out there is a skating dimension? I mean really, entities love creating dimensions for fun” Wally said, a slice of cake in hand “ so whenever you’re ready you can come take those new wheels out for a spin” and he gasped before diving for the skates beside him “did you guys see them yet! Look at the colors and Tim even got more wheels! Thank you so much Timmy!” Tim laughed “ no problem I’m happy you like them!” He grinned “like them I love them, once I get through all these gifts we’re all going to the skating dimension no if’s ands or buts, I can’t wait to test these puppies out!” Dick said.

And so he open ups the rest of his gifts and they go to the skating dimension and he tears that place up, I mean the place defies the laws of gravity so like imagine that one ride at the fair/carnival that has you lean on the wall and the ride spins so fast that you can stand up perpendicular to the wall, I think it was called the tilt a whirl, or something like that? It looked like an space ship. So anyways Dick skating forwards, backwards, even takes one skate off to do a trick before putting his skate back on and is just living his best life with his friends and family, and it’s even better if he puts on a outfit that closely or is radiating the disco aesthetic, and one thing I love about Dick is out of the many hairstyles and lengths of hair that he rocked you could just pick and chose a style and length so I imagine him with his longer hairstyle and say what you want but I have seen mullets make a comeback so he can either have a mullet or he’s rocking his natural hair which I imagine to either be 2/3 a type of curl pattern. Haaa it feels good to finally get this all down 😌

[medea10]

My Review of Pokemon Sun & Moon

Hi all. Sorry for the delay on this one. I usually go all-out on my Pokemon reviews that I wanted to let out everything I wanted to. Plus I had real-life work and other stuff. With that said, here’s my final review of 2019 as well as the final review of the decade. See you in 2020!

As Ash mentioned at the end of XY, Ash said he was going back home to Pallet Town and “start at zero”. This means when he decides to go on his journey, he leaves all of his other pokemon at Oak’s lab and goes on a new journey with Pikachu. But unlike the start of other journeys, this one started with Ash’s mom, Delia and her pokemon Mimie winning a contest which resulted in a trip to the Alola region. And since they were heading that way, Professor Oak asks them to bring a pokemon egg to his cousin in Alola. So let’s begin with Ash’s adventure in the Alola region.

The Alola region is split into four different islands. Each of these islands contains trial captains, island challenges, pokemon of different forms, and pokemon guardians! But unlike the game, Ash ends up in the Alola region to go to school. That’s right, after being the envy of every child for the last 20 years, Ash must go to school. In this school, Ash will learn all he needs to when it comes to living in the Alola region. Along with new friends, a helpful professor, a Rotom Pokedex, an enthusiastic Oak that does impressions, and a special bracelet capable of unleashing powerful Z-moves, Ash’s journey is getting very interesting.

MEET THE CHARACTERS: This seriously has got to be the biggest ensemble for Ash’s posse. Each character has their own unique charm and their own speciality when it comes to their pokemon type preference (and their hairstyle will say so too). At the beginning, I was just okay on some of these characters, but I have definitely enjoyed watching them evolve. Here are all of Ash’s new classmates, professor, Pokedex and a brand-new Oak.

Mallow is a very cheerful girl with the love of grass-types and cooking specialty dishes for friends and pokemon. While some of her dishes can be a little surprising, even shocking, she has a knack for using only the freshest ingredients, mostly coming from wild pokemon.

Lana has a passion for the water and yes, even water-type pokemon. She’s quite soft spoken and spends a lot of her days fishing. She may even look into becoming a fisher like her father. But she does have an edge that makes her and her Popplio tough to beat. Not to mention, quite the sense of humor! She also takes care of her two younger sisters Sarah and Harper.

Kiawe is very handy in a battle with his fire-type pals. Unlike the other students in the class, he’s been given a Z-ring first as he has attempted the Island Challenge. Because of this, he’s rather high-strong about those who own a Z-ring. His days start early in the morning with delivering MooMoo Milk, then he goes to class, then comes home to take care of the farm pokemon, and let’s not forget all that training with Charizard and Turtenator!

Sophocles is what you’d call a computer nerd (yeah, we have another one). He’s able to handle any electrical error that comes his way with the help of either Togedamaru or Charjabug. The only thing he’s unable to challenge is sleeping in the dark!

Lillie is the mysterious girl with no pokemon (at first) and seems to get scared by them real easily. However, she knows quite a bit about pokemon without having physical contact with them. Luckily, Lillie lets her guard down later in the series when she gets the opportunity to take care of an egg. And when it hatched, she kept it. Other pokemon, it still takes her a while to open up to them, but when she does open up, it’s adorable!

Professor Six-Pack is too hot (hot damn)! Call the police and the fireman!

FINE, I’LL DO THE RIGHT THING!

Professor Kukui is the teacher to these fine pupils and has even allowed Ash to stay with him while Ash attends school. He seems a little laid back at first glance, but he does take special care into each and every lesson he gives his students.

Rotomdex is the talking Pokedex for Ash. Unlike all the other Pokedexes up to this point, this one can actually carry on a conversation with Ash. Not just that, but come up with strategies, watch detective shows on TV, and even write screenplays. It’s amazing how so much can come from a fushion between a Rotom and a regular pokedex!

Principal Oak…Okay, no, I can’t do that! Over 10 years ago, I wrote a fan fic called Romance 101. And I spent a good five years writing the words “Principal Oak” because that’s what I called Samuel Oak. This Principal Oak is just giving me vivid flashbacks.

…fine Principal SAMSON Oak is of course the principal to the Pokemon School. This Oak is a much tanner, buffer, and at times sillier man when you compare him to the original Professor Oak. He really loves doing pokemon impressions. And much like Professor Oak’s poems, Samson Oak’s jokes goes over a lot of people’s heads.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: With the exception of Kiawe, Rotomdex, and Samson Oak’s voice actors, this is literally a brand new experience for most of these new characters. And I gotta say, I hope these voice actors get more attention. I know Reina Ueda (Mallow) has been getting a lot more roles in the last three years and I love that. The Pokemon anime has had quite a history of either getting very prominent voice actors or voice actors who aren’t known for much else. But I do hope for more exposure for Lana, Sophocles, and Professor Kukui’s seiyuus. Extra points for having Nobuhiko Okamoto play Gladion!

I’ll mention more later in the review but due to the death of a very, very, VERY prominent voice actor, there was a major change. With the passing of Unshou Ishizuka, there were three important characters that had to be changed; Professor Oak, Samson Oak, and the Narrator. I started noticing the lack of these three (yes, even the narrator) in episodes prior to Ishizuka’s death. If we go several episodes without one of the Oak’s, it’s not a big deal. But the fact that the narrator wasn’t heard before the start of the show or at the end for several episodes at a time, it felt very weird. But after hearing about how Unshou Ishizuka died of Esophageal cancer, I can’t help but think he was doing treatments during the Aether Foundation arc. His replacement, Kenyu Horiuchi is not bad. But after listening to Ishizuka since…well at least two decades, it’s very noticeable.

The dub once again is putting hope in brand new voice actors and even a few veterans from the XY series. And so far, this is very promising since they casted Alsyon Leigh Rosenfield. However, one prominent voice actor who has been around for a LONG time has retired. Kayzie Rodgers, the replacement voice of Max and Wobbuffet (and long-time voice to Mr. Mime and Professor Ivy) has retired at the beginning of SM (2016). I can honestly say, I will miss hearing her voice. Out of all the dub changes, you were one of a few I accepted. That and I will always remember you as Professor Ivy and Mimie! With that said, here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Lana is played by Hitomi Kikuchi

*Mallow is played by Reina Ueda (known for Kisa on Fruits Basket 2019, Shiori on Sakura Quest, Jiro on Tokyo Ghoul, and Katra Paige on Inazuma Eleven GO: Galaxy)

*Kiawe is played by Kaito Ishikawa (known for Genos on One Punch Man, Naofumi in Shield Hero, Sakakibara on Assassination Classroom, Kaito on Tsurune, Mitsuo on Golden Time, and Urie on Tokyo Ghoul :re)

*Sophocles is played by Fumiko Takekuma

*Lillie is played by Kei Shindou (known for Carissa on Index III and Shijimi on Rosario to Vampire)

*Professor Kukui is played by Keiichi Nakagawa (known for Salamander on Beelzebub)

*Rotomdex is played by Daisuke Namikawa (known for Rock on Black Lagoon, Jellal on Fairy Tail, Italy on Hetalia, Kazehaya on Kimi ni Todoke, Fai on Tsubasa Chronicle, Yuu on Persona 4, and Arima on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Narrator & Samson/Samuel Oak (ep1-93) is played by Unshou Ishizuka (known for Mr. Satan on DBZ Kai, Jet on Cowboy Bebop, Hohenheim on FMA: Brotherhood, Dr. Gel on Space Dandy, and Grandpa Joestar on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Pt 3) [R.I.P.]

* Narrator & Samson/Samuel Oak (ep93-present) is played by Kenyuu Horiuchi (known for Pain on Naruto, Mako’s father on Kill la Kill, Sasaki on Bakuman, Hachiken’s father on Silver Spoon, and Takafumi on Sekaiichi Hatsukoi)

ENGLISH CAST: *Lana is played by Rosie Reyes

*Mallow is played by Rebecca Soler (known for Hart on YGO Zexal)

*Kiawe is played by Marc Swint

*Sophocles is played by Alyson Leigh Rosenfield (known for Rio on YGO Zexal, Aina on Promare, and Ally on YGO Arc-V)

*Lillie is played by Laurie Hymes (known for Prana on YGO: Dark Side of Dimensions)

*Professor Kukui is played by Abe Goldfarb

*Rotomdex is played by Roger Callagy

*Samson Oak is played by Marc Thompson (known for Chaz on YGO GX, Astral on YGO Zexal, and Kevin/Mr. O’Neill/Mr. Demartino on Daria)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Pokemon…why do you keep doing this to me? Do you want me to lose what little faith I hold onto?

With that said, this season has given me a “best girl”. Yes, the term “best girl” is given to the…well, you know, the best girl of the series. And ever since the creators decided to shake things up by giving Ash a new female companion every couple of years, fans have fought to the death on who is best girl of Pokemon. For me, my best girls of Pokemon were Prima, Zoey, Blue/Leaf Green, and Bonnie. But there are just a few problems there. None of them are Ash’s piece of arm candy! And there’s some unwritten law that it has to be the possible love interest like Misty, Dawn, or Blushy McIdiot. And my best girls have either been in only one episode of the anime, was just a rival to someone who isn’t Ash, a girl who was never in the anime, and too young. BUT…Sun and Moon did it! It friggin��� did it! It gave me a best girl! And that girl is…

LANAAAAAAAA!

I never tire of that Archer joke! But yes, Lana is best girl.

I knew I was going to like her when she first debuted, but I had no idea how awesome she was going to truly be. Is it her prankish nature? Maybe! Is it this creepy yandere vibe I get off from her every now and then? Possibly! Is it the way I’ve seen her grow as a trainer throughout this series. You fucking bet! Lana at one point seemed like the one character who wasn’t getting much growth when it came to catching and evolving pokemon. Then again, everyone (including Ash) gave me that impression compared to other arcs. But then she caught the shaggy Eevee! Serious wild card! No one expected Lana to catch Eevee. And then there’s Popplio. She and Popplio trained like crazy later in the series and it shows when it evolved into Brionne and eventually into Primarina. ESPECIALLY WHEN PRIMARINA EVOLVED! Did you see Lana and Brionne going toe-to-toe with that Kyogre? That was epically awesome!

Plus, she was like the only female in God-knows how long to reach the top 8 in the Pokemon League.

DISLIKED CHARACTER: My tolerance has taken a slight dip because there are three people I feel should be up here!

First, I would like to put up Cross from the 20th movie, I Choose You. I know that he isn’t in the actual SM series, but I’m putting him up here because I just downright hate him. He is on Damien levels of shit. That’s how much I hate the son of a bitch. He could cure cancer, kick Donald Trump in the crotch, and bring peace in the Middle East and I would still hate him. Cross was like a very bad combination of Damien and Paul. Abandons a pokemon the same way as Damien and shows this power assholeness that Paul has. But add to that, a bit of a cruel edge to him and sprinkle a bit of whiny little bitch on that. He has to hold a grudge against Ash in this movie because he was blessed with Ho-oh’s feather, but when he saw Ho-oh, he got nothing. Oh boo-freakin-hoo! Cry me a river!

Next…Faba! You fucking testicle! Heads up, I like calling Faba a testicle! When I first saw him, I thought that Lusamine was gonna be the one to hate because of the game setup. But this anime just proves how much Lusamine loves both of her children. The same can’t be said about Faba! At first, I thought Faba would be like Colress in a way…creepy how they almost look and act the same. But then his true side started to show. Oh, this guy wants them Ultra Beasts. And will not let anyone get in his way. Not little children, not birds suffering from Insomnia, not Team Rocket, not even his boss’s child! This greedy sonuvabitch is literally the reason why Lillie was afraid of pokemon and re-triggered it AGAIN thanks to UB Nihilgo. Yeah, fuck you Testicle!

Now after that incident, Testicle was demoted and serves under Wicke and Clefable (which is literally the best thing I could ever ask for). And in most scenarios where he’s shown, Faba was silly with his fanboy obsession with the Masked Royal or his stupid experiment shrinks the kids. So other than him being a dumbass nothing too damning! That was until the Pokemon League where he decided to play dirty by having his Hypno bring out Ash’s Meltan instead of going up against Pikachu. I’m glad he got beat within less than 2 minutes because this testicle needs to shrivel up now.

Who else?

Viren! I can’t help but think he’s this anime’s answer to Donald Trump. But I hate both of them so that’s a start! I could let things slide with him just being there for one episode where he’s trying to buy out Kiawe’s family’s farm and be done with it. BUT NO! This sonuvabitch has gotta wear out his welcome by showing up another three or four times doing that same shit! And even his very first episode where he uses illegal tactics to get Rango and Sima’s farm was warrant enough to hate this fucker. I just thought he would just be a one-and-done character much like the Mayor of Trovitopolis (OI episode). Aggrivating to say, this dickhead came back numerous times to do more shady-ass shit. And I hope to Arceus I never see him again!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Kiawe and Lana’s mothers are total milfs.

DON’T ACT LIKE I’M THE ONLY ONE HERE! Kiawe’s mama, hell yeah total milf! Lana’s mother, I ended up having a lesbian dream about her and she became a milf.

Hey, usually I’m straighter than a honeymoon dick. But sometimes I peak over and can easily say that Sima and Lana’s mother are Mothers I Like to Fantasize about. Again, in the words of Forky, “I’m Trash”!

SHIPPING: Okay…let’s have some fun with this one. This is less vomit inducing than XY. Just keep that bitch in Hoenn for as long as it takes. I don’t want to see her for a long time.

Ash x Lillie: I honestly think this is rather cute. Ash is one of the very few who’s been able to help Lillie with her poke-phobia. Though this ship isn’t heavily pushed on us like a certain OTHER ship that just won’t DIE. I swear Amour is like the herpes. I really can’t say there’s much romance here. Although her goodbye to Ash was just honest-to-God cute! Now if there was one Ash ship that caused some sort of blushing, it would have to go to…

Ash x Lana: Whenever she could, Lana would drag Ash along with her. Whether it’s looking for a missing pokemon or on the hunt for a legendary pokemon in the water, she would take Ash by the arm and take him by force. However, none of this was romantically motivated. The only thing worth mentioning was her tsundere way of blushing and brushing off romance when her sisters pester if Ash is her boyfriend.

Mallow x Lillie: This was my OTP to be perfectly honest. While Ash was the actual first person to nudge Lillie to help her with pokemon, Mallow was like the best friend of Lillie’s. She would always show concern for her. I know this is more big sister syndrome, but I’ll still ship it. I never thought anything would happen until the episode where the class puts on a play and I see Mallow and Lillie dressed like Utena and Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena. To which I said, “HOLY SHIT, THIS IS AWESOME-BALLS”! Pokemon, are you trying to tell us something with this? You trying to tell us something with this clear and direct reference to one of anime’s famous Yuri couples?

Kukui x Burnet: THIS SHIP HAS SAILED! I’m actually surprised how fast this ship was. I know they’re married in all four games, but in the anime it seemed like they didn’t know each other that well prior to Burnet’s first appearance. And anime wise, they only spent 11 episodes with each other. And on the 11th episode not only did Kukui propose to Burnet with a ring, but they freakin’ got married! I guess there are such things as love at first sight. Kukui wanted it and put a ring on it. There’s a real man, yo! Now, he does lose some points here as he does lead that double life as the Masked Royal where he keeps it a secret from everyone, including his fangirl of a wife. But once she knew, she let him off the hook. And you know how much this ship is cemented? Watch the last 30 seconds of the final episode! It’ll blow your socks off!

On a side note, the way Kukui proposed to Burnet…BEST FUCKING PROPOSAL!

Nurse Joy x Officer Jenny: Amazing, it has taken over 20 years for anyone to think this is even humanly possible. But in Alola, there’s a Nurse Joy and an Officer Jenny that are constantly together. Maybe it’s because I hang out on Tumblr a little too much that it gets implied a lot, but I can’t help but have a guilty pleasure for this.

Pokeshipping: AAAAAAH! Yeah, Medea has to bring this old war back. Okay, okay, I won’t be long here. Just to let you know that I’m a fan of this ship, especially back in the day. As for Sun & Moon, at least we don’t see that classic tsundere syndrome Misty is known for. But she still cutefully teases Ash about several things from the past including the broken bike and their past gym battle. To add to this, Misty (and to lesser extent Brock) were the only ones from Ash’s past companions to see him this region...much to my dismay!

Brock x Olivia: Holy crap! Did Brock seriously get lucky? Is this it? Is this the woman to finally fulfill this pervy breeder/doctor? To me, it just feels like just another day in the life of Brock’s love life. However he has done his research of Olivia that makes me think he’s dead serious about her…I just think it’s a creative way to say he’s in the early stages of stalking. But nothing else came from it after Brock (literally) proposed marriage to her and joined in doing a Z-move with her. Then again, Brock does get a lucky break with at least one lady in each region. Sadly, that’ll probably be the end of that much like Professor Ivy, Pike Queen Lucy, Holly, and Autumn.

Ash x Gladion: Guilty pleasure…is it wrong that I want these two to dress up like Yuri and Yurio from Yuri on Ice. No, didn’t think so! Not sorry for that image!

ANIMATION: I’m sorry, I can’t stay quiet about this like most of the other fans of the show. What the hell were they thinking? This is not supposed to be One Piece. This is not supposed to that Rock Lee spin-off. This is Pokemon. Poke-fucking-mon! Ash went backwards on the evolutionary chart. And people have nerve to go off on the BW series for giving him wider pupils and a mediocre outfit. You people owe the animators for BW a fucking apology for one! Ash’s design now looks like he’s cosplaying to be Monkey D. Luffy’s retarded cousin. Even my own mother, who watches one episode once every couple of months commented to say Ash looks stupid. Thank you!

SADDEST MOMENT: It’s been a good while since I’ve had a Pokemon episode touch me to a point of almost crying. Close, but the Misty/Togetic goodbye still has it beat (which was then beaten by an episode of Violet Evergarden…Dammit 2019!). And even then, the touching moments in Pokemon would be because someone of the main cast released their pokemon like Ash releasing Charizard, Jessie releasing Dustox, and OH MY GOD, NO! ENOUGH WITH THE SAD TOGETIC SCENE! But that was just it, at least no one died!

…Until now! That’s right, deaths were usually only a movie thing as we saw in the fifth movie with Latios. But in the last three years, Pokemon got a little dark in both the anime and the movie trilogies. The 20th movie we saw a Luxray freeze to death, the 21st movie we saw a Snubbull burn to death, and because the 22nd movie is a rehash of the very first movie, we’re going to relive Ash dying.

The SM anime did a few things we haven’t seen in the Pokemon anime before. In the early episodes of SM, we were introduced to Litten and watched a very sad episode dealing with death. Before Litten joined Ash, it lived on the streets with a very old Stoutland. Now think of every sad animal movie you’ve ever seen and you’ll have your answer of what happens to Stoutland by the end of the episode. They don’t show Stoutland’s death on screen, but we know. This episode was very clever at tackling the death topic on a kid’s anime. And up to this point I thought this episode was going to take the cake in the sad department. Boy was I wrong!

The 108th episode of SM gave us one hell of a tear-jerker and it almost got me. It almost got me! We learn in this episode that Mallow had a mother. And this is a first because no one in any of the main cast talked about a dead parent before this episode! We learn about Mallow’s mother being sick a lot and it caused a rift between the two. Especially when Mallow snaps at her mother because all she does is apologize for not being there. Unfortunately that exchange was the last time she ever spoke to her. Where does the sad part get heavy? Here!

While everyone was on Poni Island, we hear about how Tapu Fini is able to communicate with the dead. And among some of the dead we saw Hapu’s grandfather, Kiawe’s grandfather, and Stoutland. But in the mist, Mallow came across her mother. And that one moment where she finally can see her mother after so many years! She breaks down and cries. She apologizes for the horrible things she said as a kid to her. But those sorrys turn into thank yous. She thanks her mother for what she’s done, thanked her for being her mother! God damn it, this is now #2 in saddest Pokemon moments. The second I saw this I thought it was going to make me ugly cry and trounce all over the Misty/Togetic moment. To my surprise, it didn’t. But came super close!

In short, Mallow seeing her mother again…this moment! Feels! Fucking feels!

COMEBACK: I have pretty much given up on people from the previous series to pay Ash a visit in the newest region. After XY where we didn’t get a single sighting of Iris and Cilan getting shafted to an episode that they didn’t even bother giving an English dub, I just gave up. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t get characters who “came back”.

In SM, there were two times where we got a blast from the past. In two episodes we had Ash, Kukui, and the class make a trip to Kanto where (that’s right) we get to see Professor Oak, Delia, Misty, and Brock again. Not only that but we get two more episodes where Misty and Brock come to Alola!

As much as I love Misty…and toler…ate Brock, many other characters are overdue for a get-together with Ash. If you want me to be blunt, May, Iris, and Tracey are the only ones who should get attention and everyone else needs to FUCK OFF. That’s right, we don’t need to see Brock hit on more whores of the day. No more fishing competitions for Dento-fruit (much as I love him). Blushy McIdiot, Dingus, and Bonnie can go fuck off! And that goes double for Dawn!

Shit Medea, that was cruel.

Yeah it was cruel and I’ll continue to do so. It’s been 11 years since May was last seen/heard. Iris got royally butt-fucked by everything in the anime. And as for Tracey, I don’t owe you pissants a fucking explanation. Tracey deserves better! Speaking of…

AN UNFORTUNATE THEORY: With the comebacks of Misty and Brock, Tracey has just been NOT THERE! They go to Oak’s lab and he isn’t there. Not even mentioned. Not a word about him. When Ash calls Professor Oak randomly, Oak is there and even Muk, but no Tracey. When Ash asks Misty and Brock about back home, they don’t mention Tracey…which is to be expected since they have to talk about their siblings, but still.

Pokemon doing anything island adventure wise kinda comes with a mixed bag. The Orange Islands came with immediate hate because loyal Brock fans are ass-hurt about Tracey’s existence. The Sevii Islands were a bust during the FR/LG games. And the less mentioned about Decalore Island in the BW anime, the better. But when they decided to do Alola, fans caught on quite quickly with some comparisons to the Orange Island anime portion.

Unlike all the other gyms in other regions, Alola had four grand trials/leaders. Orange Islands had the Orange Crew, which was essentially four gym leaders. Both the trials and the crew had Ash do different tasks before an actual battle. Next, pokemon with different colors/forms! In the early episodes of the Orange Islands, we saw pokemon just a smide different from their normal looks. We saw Vileplume with a different flower pattern, other pokemon with a different shade of color to them, and interesting designs on Butterfree. In Alola, they expaneded on that by giving “Alolan forms” to pokemon like Meowth, Diglett, Exeggutor, Marowak, and even Raichu! I do love Alolan Raichu! However, the pokemon that had small changes in the Orange Islands were not brought to the Alolan table. So maybe Orange Islands and Alola are in far different parts of the world.

Where my theory goes from here is that I think Pokemon really wants to pretend the Orange Islands never happened. That means the gym battles, the special pokemon, and yes, even Tracey. That’s the only way to explain why no one has mentioned him even when we’re standing in Professor Oak’s fucking lab! I hate to be blunt and say something so horrible, but every time I watch SM, it really does feel like that. Yes, I admit it, the Orange Islands were just filler until Ash and crew could go to Johto. First of all, it exists. No matter how much you try to white-wash us with Alolan features, the Orange Islands was a thing. And it was a great thing! Ash was in his first six-on-six match (and won), Ash’s first double battle happened here, and stellar episodes like Pikachu Re-volts and Tracey Gets Bugged should not be cast aside. Those were all great! Pokemon, you cannot run from your past! You can improve upon it, yes. But never forget! These were a thing! These were great things!

Thankfully, my death theory was put to rest in the first episode of Pokemon 2019 when the Orange Island trophy was shown. That’s great, now where’s Tracey?

Another theory! They couldn’t get Tomokazu Seki. That could also be it!

RUNNING GAG: We got two running gags throughout the SM series! First, there’s the return of that singing ball of pink, Jigglypuff! This little singer has not been seen or heard from since AG. That’s well over a decade, people. Well…when Ash and crew visited Kanto, they ran into Jigglypuff and by sheer coincidence, wound up riding the airplane back to Alola. So now we see it every now and then in Alola, singing in a Karaoke bar.

And the other…Bewear! It hasn’t been officially caught by Team Rocket. They don’t use it in a battle. But Bewear has literally made it impossible for Team Rocket to BLAST OFF ever again. Their life-long running gag died the minute they fell into Bewear’s meaty arms.

Also it doesn’t help that I constantly scream “KUMA SHOCK” every time it comes to collect Team Rocket. Anyone who gets that reference deserves a high five!

BANNED IN THE USA: Welcome back, banishment! I knew you couldn’t stay away for long as we do live in a SJW/PC time. So what episode never got to see the light of day in the U.S.?

This one…yeah, I can totally agree with. So in the U.S. there is indeed ONE episode we were not given. In this episode, Ash decides to help a group of Passimian. And throughout the majority of the episode, Ash is dressed up like a Passimian from the pajamas to the…OH MY! I actually let it slide when I saw the Japanese viewing (because I’m half-awake at 2am), but I can definitely see why this one would ruffle a few feathers. Let’s just say Ash���s costume was a little too borderline blackface and that’s why it’ll never air in the states.

Anything else!? Not in terms of full episodes. Certain scenes, absolutely! Little baby things were edited due to being not kid-friendly. What’s in those drinks Kukui and Burnet are drinking out of at their own wedding? Champagne? Blasphemy! That’s Orange Juice now! What’s in Delia’s drink in the first episode? Oh we can’t have her pull a Miriam Pataki here! Turn that shit into Pinap Juice! Okay, besides the censorship of drinks, was there anything else? Why, yes, yes there was!

We all know how creepy Team Rocket’s Mimikyu can be. That’s why it’s placed in my top 10 list of characters that scare the shit outta me! Well one scene had Mimikyu’s shadow scare Meowth so horribly, the next scene had Meowth DEAD! Face down in the water! Don’t worry kids, Meowth comes back to life. The U.S. said “OH HELL NO WE CAN’T SHOW THIS! FUCK IS WRONG WITH JAPAN!” And so the face down scene was completely chopped from the dub. Add to that, there were several instances where Meowth almost dies and parts of those scenes are cut from American broadcast.

REFERENCES: If there was one thing this new animation has given us, it has open the doors to using references from other animes and even a few western media projects. And we haven’t really seen much of this since the original series and AG. And even back then, it was mostly just Rose of Versailles references with Team Rocket. I know I give the animation flack for it being a pile of shit compared to better animation shown in XY and DP. But I think the animators do have a little more fun when doing Sun and Moon. And I think it’s loosened them to using other animation styles seen in different and popular animes.

And boy did SM use a butt-load of anime references! Here’s a list of what I was able to remember!

*Facial expressions matching those scene in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in several episodes *A Mr. Osomatsu reference tossed somewhere *Ping Pong the Animation being used when Illma entered in the Ping Pong competition *Kiawe doing the famous Gendo Ikari pose from Neon Genesis Evangelion in the same episode mentioned above. *Ash and Kiawe making the scary, demonic face Popuko makes when she’s mad on Pop Team Epic, when the two missed out on catching a UB Pokemon. *Transformation scenes with Ash and crew that match those of Power Rangers or every magical girl show. *The girl with many Pikachus has one Pikachu with hair like Boruto (Naruto Uzamaki’s son) *Ash and Pikachu looking like they’re doing the Kamehameha attack during their league match (DBZ, duh) *Rotomdex mentioning it wants to do a sci-fi feature and the image strikes a chord with Star Wars fans everywhere. *Lillie dressed like Utena. Mallow dressed like the rose princess, Anthy. HOLY SHIT, MY OTP IS DOING A REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA REFERENCE! Take my revolution!

And the mother of all references goes to Jessie! Or should I say, her seiyuu Megumi Hayashibara! Pokemon animated many of her iconic roles in one epic scene. Just to name a few of Hayashibara’s roles shown there was Ranma Saotome (Ranma ½) Rei Ayanami (Evangelion), White Kitty (Hello Kitty), Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), and everyone’s favorite Lina Inverse (Slayers). At least in the English dub, Lisa Ortiz popped in for the Lina Inverse moment! Epic on epic on epicly God levels of YES!

MUSIC: Okay in recent years, the English openings have gotten tolerable and the same can be said about the opening themes used this time around. So I won’t bitch about that. So how about I bitch about the BGM?!

Background music, I know a lot of complaints are expressed by loyal Japanese version fans that the English version has completely changed the BGM throughout most of the episodes and even the motion pictures! Yeah, in the I Choose You movie only ONE original BGM was used. The BGM topic never really got to me. But if I remember correctly when 4Kids lost rights to Pokemon and went to the new company, they said that they were going to keep a lot of things true and the BGM was one of them. Yeah, that went to the waist-side real fast! I do believe that they listened to that complaint because in the following movie, the entire score was kept (with the exception of the ED theme by Porno Graffitti).

The Japanese openings…I used to like Alola by Rica Matsumoto. Yeah…used to. Okay, that’s too mean. I don’t hate it on the lengths of V(Volt) from the previous series. It’s just that they used this song in certain scenes that took me out of liking it fully. Now anytime I hear Alola, all I can think about is Ash, Litten, Pikachu, and Rockruff wiggling their asses. Some of the other openings were just okay, I wasn’t too thrilled about them. But there was another thing I feel I should bring up.

Just like the English dub to XY, they wanted to capture a nostalgic feel to the general audience watching, Sun and Moon gave us some of that here. Because of the release of the 20th movie, Rica Matsumoto ended up singing her signature Mezase Pokemon Master again. And as a result, it was the show’s opening for quite some time. Not only that but the last ending theme to Sun and Moon was a cover of Rica’s other hit song Type Wild (now sung by Shoko Nakagawa).

MOVIES: The movies have taken a different turn from what we’ve seen previously. Let’s face it folks, the 10 movies that came out prior to these last three were average AT BEST. And with many other series doing reboots to their old classics, I guess Pokemon decided to do it on a large scale when it came to the story of Ash and Pikachu. With all new animation and a new story, we follow Ash and Pikachu in a much different take on their journey. A much faster-paced story where Ash doesn’t have much of the filler stuff and doesn’t travel with Misty, Brock, or the rest! To which I say, good! I know it means the Sun & Moon gang will never be in a movie, but it also means that animation won’t be there either.

I Choose You was the first movie and from the get-go, fans were upset over seeing a reboot of Ash’s beginning journey with Pikachu and not seeing Misty or Brock. Instead we get a kind of condensed version of certain moments of Ash’s original journey, mixed with new material and get introduced to new characters (who come from Sinnoh of all places). The pokemon featured was Ho-oh, who after all this time was going to be featured in a film and Marshadow because it’s not a pokemon movie without featuring a brand-new pokemon from this era.

The Power of Us, Ash ends up on an island where he meets several new characters who each have their own story to tell including a high school girl, a shy scientist, a pathological liar, an old woman who hates pokemon, and the daughter of the mayor. And we are introduced to another new pokemon, Zeroroa. All five characters (plus Ash) are put through their own trials and tribulations in order to save their town during a festival.

Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION: It’s the first movie…in CGI/3D/Robot-Chicken-ized, whatever! There’s no need for a synopsis since everybody and their mother knows this story. It’s literally the same story as Mewtwo Strikes Back. Ash and company get invited to an island, Mewtwo causes storms and clones to mess with the people, Mew appears, Pokemon fight, Ash dies, Ash doesn’t die, Mewtwo says profound speech that even Jon Stewart praises, everyone’s minds are erased, and that’s all! They even got the original cast to come back and reused Unshou Ishizuka’s old footage as the narrator for this movie!

The thing about this last movie is that, The Pokemon Company dropped the ball on this. SEVERELY dropped the ball on this! They had the perfect setup, the perfect opportunity to get this in the theaters just in time for the 20th anniversary of the first movie’s release in the U.S. and they do jackshit with it! Not even on Disney XD. For shame!

I will say that these three are a SEVERE improvement on the Pokemon movies. Can anyone with full honesty say that any pokemon movie that came out after the Lucario movie that any of the others were even good? Be honest, almost every movie since AG was just essentially a long side-story with an annoying mythical/legendary that can talk. It got annoying! Plus it just felt like Ash and whoever he was with would just be dragged in the middle of some bullshit and have to save the day. It was fine in the first couple of movies, but the pattern got worn out.

Plus with this alternate timeline to the Pokemon story, it gave the Sun and Moon anime more to work with legendaries and mythical pokemon. Hell, all the main cast was able to catch (and later release) an Ultra Beast pokemon. Not only that, but Mallow got to take care of the mythical pokemon Shaymin for over 40 episodes. Don’t you wish we got that with May and Manaphy? Plus, Ash got to take care of Cosmog and Poipole for an extended amount of time. Okay, my favorite movie of the three.

I Choose You is my favorite out of the bunch. I loved the retelling of Ash and Pikachu starting out on their very first journey. I love the new path they took with this story. I love the new characters introduced, Verity and Sorrel. I love the pokemon that were shown as it gave us a bit of everything from every region up to this point. Yes it was a cluster-fuck in some portions as I had to see past characters shown way different. Cynthia’s Verity’s mother! I can’t unsee this shit! And I will never unsee the messed-up dream Ash had where he was in actual real-world with no pokemon and in a real school where I’m given vivid flashbacks of my fanfic. Regardless, I enjoyed this movie so much. And I got to see many things here that I would always imagine would happen in a final episode of Pokemon (where Ash dies, Pikachu speaks, and an epic fight with Ho-oh). It is now my 2nd favorite Pokemon movie.

+1000000000 points for showing Tracey in the ED credits! Medea screeched in the theaters. I apologize for nothing! Best five seconds I’ve had in years.

TEAM ROCKET UPDATE: As this region does not have Pokemon Contests or that tact on Princess crap from Kalos, we’ll find our favorite trio (+Wobbuffett) going after the twerps and wandering around the area. And while I do enjoy Jessie dipping her foot in the contest arena, this pace can be boring and a blessing at the same time. Unlike previous seasons, we will go episodes at a time where we don’t see Team Rocket. But the episodes where they do show up aren’t the most thrilling. Usually they’ll just be in the background serving treats to background characters.

However, one major improvement with Team Rocket this season is with their pokemon. In the past, Team Rocket has had some unique pokemon that they’ve captured (or stolen…still not letting the Yamnega thing go). In Kanto, James had Victreebel that would eat him. In Hoenn, James had Cacnea that would pinch him every time it came out. In Sinnoh, James had Carnevine that would eat him…Okay, a lot of it is James torture-porn! Regardless, they were entertaining to watch. And I felt a complete slump with their pokemon during BW and XY. This season, pretty much ALL of Team Rocket’s pokemon are entertaining.

Marenie loves James so much that she would blow off being with her own kind to be with James. Even hearing the sounds of wedding bells every time James asks a favor of her! It’s actually adorable to watch Marenie. Jessie’s Mimikyu…I’m almost convinced Mimikyu is the reincarnation of a serial killer. And the biggest pokemon to cause Team Rocket so much grief is one they didn’t even catch, but it sticks around to take care of them like they were children, Bewear! And trust me, they’ve tried catching Bewear. And Bewear smushed the pokeball into poke-dust! Bewear would just come right the fuck out of nowhere, defying logic, gravity, and absurdity to bring Team Rocket back to its cave! This, making it the longest period of time where Team Rocket went without blasting off!

Every time they had the twerps cornered, in comes Bewear to take them back! Whenever they were about to do their traditional blast off, Bewear would come in and take them back to the cave! Even when they’re in fucking Kanto, it managed to swoop in and take them back to the cave. Team Rocket even DEFEATED Ash in a battle and had the perfect opportunity to take the twerp’s Pikachu. But no, Bewear came in and swooped them up! These pokemon were fun to watch this entire series! This was definitely an improvement from the last few seasons. Seriously, I can’t even remember what pokemon Jessie and James had during BW!

BIG TEAM BATTLE: Just like in Unova, Team Rocket ended up getting more attention than the antagonists of Alola. Except here, it’s a little more accepting. It’s just that in Alola, was there really a big team to cause major havoc with world-shaking consequences? Technically, the Aether Foundation wasn’t the big bad team and Team Skull was just a bunch of angsty punks. Regardless, there were two arcs with something epic happening.

The first of course was opening the wormhole and discovering the Ultra Beasts. And in almost the same fashion as the game, Lillie and the rest have to go and rescue her mother from the Ultra Beasts (because Lusamine got taken over by one). Only difference is that game Lusamine wanted to use this power. Anime Lusamine pushed her children out of the way so they wouldn’t get taken away. We did get some great moments with Ash doing a new Z-move with Pikachu, Nebby evolving, and Lillie’s relationship with her mother become stronger.

The second big battle was with Necrozma. Now this one heavily involved Team Rocket as Giovanni disbatched several other members including his assistant Matori and some eye-patch gorilla to try and get this pokemon. However after this incident, we never see Giovanni try to get his hands on this pokemon again or talk about it again. Even when he makes a big foreshadowy deal when he dialed Nanu about it! But in this arc, a mysterious power throughout Alola was making all of the adults listless and lazy. And it was up to Ash and the other kids to get to the bottom of this strange phenomenom.

ENDING – POKEMON LEAGUE: Yeah, this league was going to be different. In the Alolan League, just about anyone can join this certain Pokemon League, as long as you have a Z-crystal, it’s all good. Well, Alola has never had a Pokemon League, which is sort of like what was in the game. So Professor Kukui decided to put this dream into an action and now Alola will hold its first ever Pokemon League! So expect to see the entire cast compete! I’m not kidding!

From the get-go I was worried since Ash’s team here in Alola is pitifully underdeveloped compared to past arcs. And if he were to fight, he’d probably lose to Gladion or Guzma! But since the first task was to knock 151 competitors down to 16, we all know Ash was going to survive this trial. Now in past league competitions and even Pokemon Contests, thinning a big number down would take some time like an episode or two. Here, IT’S A FUCKING FREE-FOR-ALL BATTLE! Trainers coming at you from all angles and you can only use one pokemon! It’s like a mini-game from Mario Party it was that crazy!

The 16 trainers that made the cut are all trainers we know! They all had at least 1 debut episode prior to this moment. So no surprise bastards like Tobias to muck things up! The sixteen competitors are Ash, Mallow, Lillie, Lana, Kiawe, Sophocles, Jessie, James, Faba, Aceorla, Mina, Ilima, Guzma, Hau, Gladion, and Samson Oak! Unbelievable! The entire main cast, Team Rocket, trial people in the games, the head of Team Skull, the island heartthrob, Ash’s two main rivals, and a freakin’ Oak! We could not make this up!

From the Top 8, we wind up with Ash, Guzma, Hau, Gladion, James, Sophocles, Kiawe, and Lana advancing. These next battles had some pretty decent moments including James trying to hold his own against Gladion, Lana and Primarina trying to survive a poisonous dick move from Guzma, and action-packed moments with Kiawe and Sophocles.

…

…

I don’t want to talk about it. NO, I DON’T! NO ONE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT ASH’S BATTLE WITH HAU! First of all, their rivalry only expands to like two episodes. One episode prior to the league and the rest during the league! You’re just butt-fucking us on this sweet little cinnamon roll. I know the anime really wants to stand out on its own by not giving us awesome rivals that we get in the games like Cheren or Brendan, but God-forbid if you give them some awesome moments before you have them get beaten by Ash and sent back to wherever the fuck they came from! And this battle is just an insult of every level!

I know Ash has been known to pull off some stupid moments in his day when it comes to pokemon battles. He’d put a clear type-disadvantage against a powerhouse pokemon. He’d put all his faith in one pokemon and if it failed, absolutely fuck all. And most common of all, have one of his non-evolved pokemon go up against a fully evolved pokemon. We get the latter when Ash’s insomniac-stricken bird, Rowlet, go up against Hau’s fully-evolved Decidueye. But before the battle, we get some last minute training in done by Toucannon and its bird-kin. You’ve got to be the stupidest mother fu…Forget it, you’re just wasting your breath! Well, it’s because Rowlet is DETERMINED so that gives the green flag to fight in Ash Ketchum’s book.

You stupid fucking idi…

During the fight, Ash and Hau did use their Z-moves early on and both did little to no damage to either one. But it’s freakin’ clear that Hau’s Decidueye is clearly more trained. That’s why the two birds duked it out to a point of both of them being close to knocked out. But in the end, Nanu calls the battle for Decidueye because it got up first. AND ASH LOST!

…Or did he?

No, upon further inspection, ROWLET WAS FUCKING ASLEEP! God, no! No! Good fucking God, what were you writers thinking? You’re trolling us again, aren’t you? Ever since the Sinnoh League, you thought it was a good idea to troll the fucking audience. Like Tobias having another legendary or Davey winning with a fucking Eevee or Ash losing to Alain. You people are fucking with us!

Long story short, Ash and Rowlet get a second chance. They win the battle. Hau cries. Moving on!

NO, WE’RE NOT MOVING ON FROM THIS SHIT! WHO THE FUCK DECIDED THIS TO HAPPEN?! A lot of us fans are still sore over that retarded call back in the Kanto League where Squirtle falling asleep was a K.O. I can’t accept this, not after all the league battles Ash has had before this. Especially the last league against Tierno, Sawyer, and Alain! They are probably watching you and facepalming. Bonnie is laughing at you! Lysandre is calling you a dickhead from beyond the grave! Serena tore up a picture of Ash and went lesbian! Okay, that didn’t really happen. But this episode got me so fucking twisted I find myself eating thunder and shitting out lightening.

And now with Lana’s defeat by Guzma, we’re now in the final four. So…huh…um, new category! I know this is where I’m supposed to talk about the ending with the league, but I feel like I should talk about this.

GENDER AND LEAGUE PLACEMENT: Is it just me or are most competitors and even winners of these things majority male? It’s unknown who won the Kanto League. Johto went to some douchebag no one remembers. Hoenn was won by Tyson. Sinnoh went to Trollbias. Unova went to Davey. And Kalos went to NOT ASH…Alain! And even in the top 4 and 8 sometimes, it’s all men. I really don’t want to put the pussy hat on and claim unfairness to a show I’ve been watching for over 20 years, but…putting Lana up against someone we all know is going to go to the semi-finals…come on man! I probably should have questioned some gender stuff especially with that princess crap in Kalos where it was most, if not all female. But Pokemon Leagues are usually coed! It’s just that prior to Lana, the only other girls I remember competiting in past leagues were Katie from AG and Astrid from XY. Maybe I’m making too much out of it.

BACK TO THE LEAGUE: Thankfully the semi-finals fights were great (compared to that bullshit Hau/Ash match I wish would die). Gladion and Kiawe bro-downed with their match! Guzma learned the hard way of being defeated in the semi-finals by a twerp. Guzma, you may be older than Ash, but Ashy-boy has been defeated so many times in this position it’s not even funny. So the finals were a three-on-three match between Ash and Gladion.

Ash got some good traction with his newly evolved pokemon Melmetal. Gladion was able to put his father’s pokemon, Zoroark into good use. And there was even a double knockout near the end. But somehow, we knew it would go back to a finale of Lycanroc vs. Lycanroc. And this was a nail-bitter. Who the heck knows who was going to end up victorious?

…Actually, a certain publication leaked the result three days before the episode aired…

I fucking hate the internet sometimes.

So Ash won…

*CRAZY-ASS APPLAUSE TIME*

You’d think Jesus “Tap Dancing” Christ rose from the dead with how crazy this was. The internet lost it because after the Kalos League’s close-call and Sinnoh’s B.S. match against the legendaries, they saw this as Ash’s staple in becoming a Pokemon Master. Whatever…

WHAT NEXT?!: Actually, much like what happened after Alain won the Pokemon League, the ceremony was quickly interrupted by the appearance of the gluttenous Ultra Beast, Guzzlord. And it took the power of everyone’s Z-Crystal to get rid of this beast. However, at the end of this powerful battle, Ash and everyone else learned a shocking secret of Professor Kukui.

Kukui is really Alola’s most famous battler, Masked Royal!

Well now that the Delcatty’s out of the bag, might as well have Kukui actually go up against Ash in a six-on-six match. NOW THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! This was one hell of a match, spanning over three episodes (it was that bad-ass). Kukui’s got one hell of a line-up featuring pokemon from nearly every region. Now because of a certain battle, seeing Rowlet take out one of Kukui’s finest kinda pisses me off. But the biggest fights came from Incenaroar and Torracat. Because they fought, not one, not two, but THREE times! And their bout ended with Ash’s Torracat evolving and a double knockout! OH MY GOD, HOW COULD THIS GET ANY BETTER?!

In comes Tapu-Koko! He said, “Fuck your sixth pokemon, Kukui. I wanna battle this boy I’ve been stalking since 2016!” Yeah, we get one major fight between one of the Tapus and Ash’s Naganadel and Pikachu (and whatever pokemon that isn’t dead) and believe it or not, Ash won! He defeated all of Kukui’s pokemon AND Tapu-Koko. He’s seriously out-doing everything he’s ever done from XYZ! Even going above and beyond with Pikachu by doing a solid reference to Dragon Ball Z…You all know what they referenced.

So Ash, you just won the Pokemon League, you defeated your mentor, you took out one of the island deities, what are you gonna do next?

I’M GOING TO DISNEYLA…PALLET TOWN!

Yeah, I would choose that too Ash. Only for different and hornier reasons! Actually, Ash gave a lot of thought to what was next. Not only him, but everybody in his class! The biggest one of course was Lillie as she has been reading up on her father’s old journals and trying to figure out that gift he left her as a baby before he disappeared. I still can’t believe he got her quite a rare pokemon like Magerna. But Magerna has been a husk until Lillie took care of it and now it’s freakin’ mobil. Back to Ash, it wasn’t really until he fought Kiawe in a post-match fight that he buckled down on what he wants to do next. And I think Olivia mentioning traveling kinda sparked Ash for his next journey.

And wouldn’t you know it, Team Rocket at the same time gets word from Giovanni to pack their shit up and return to Kanto. Mimikyu in its satanic fashion tries to take out Pikachu one last time. But it failed, almost drowned in the water, and was then SAVED by the very Pokemon it’s tried to kill the last 145 episodes. Okay, vendetta over, later bitches. Team Rocket ended up leaving Maernie and Mimikyu in the dead of night. And Bewear promised to watch after them in their absence and gave us something we haven’t seen since this show began…a proper blast off! Team Rocket blasted off once more. I’m feeling quite nostalgic because it’s been a while.

Hey, I just realized. What happened to Jigglypu-

WHO CARES!

Okay then, I’ll probably see it in another 10 years.

Lillie decided to go off with her mother and brother to travel. Lusamine handed over her responsibilities to Rotomdex. And on the day of Lillie’s departure, she ends up almost in the same fashion as Serena’s goodbye (but thankfully we’re on a boat and she can’t do any last-minute smooches). Lillie remembered all that Ash has done for her and how much she’s grown, so she gives him a very earnest “Thank You”. Now for Ash’s goodbye to his host family! Now I’ve pretty much heard and seen the internet cherish this cute bond between Kukui, Burnet, and Ash. And yeah, it’s pretty genuine! Whenever we get an opening scene of them in Kukui’s home, they’re usually doing something family-ish. And they’re definitely going to miss that! Poor Burnet was even crying!

On Ash’s flight back to Pallet Town, he looks out the window and sees his friends giving him one final farewell as they fly through the skies with their partner pokemon.

In the aftermath we see, Sophocles leaving to go with his cousin, Mallow’s older brother returning home, Shaymin transforming into its flying form (yes, flying away leaving Mallow), Kiawe is doing some training with Olivia, Lana traveling with her father to fish for a mythical pokemon, Hau taking on Nanu in a grand trial, Team Skull just hanging there, Bewear looking after Maernie and Mimikyu, Lusamine traveling with the kids, and something that shocked the shit out of me! Even though I called it in the back of my mind!

We close out the episode with Kukui and Burnet sitting together and...

WHAT THE WHAT?!

NANI?

NANI THE FUCK?

IS THAT A BABY BUMP?! It is. It freakin’ is! God I hope Ash didn’t walk in on them having sex. Don’t be silly Medea, they probably conceived this child when Ash was either training or having a sleepover. Truthfully, I say they did the nasty when Ash, Kiawe, and Sophocles spent the night in the woods training.

OOH, BETTER IMAGE! They did roleplaying during sex and Kukui wore the Masked Royal mask! Just let me have this moment guys. I really enjoy frolicking in my gutter mind!

Oh and closing message, “and your dreams!”

I seriously hope the English dub keeps the end credits to this. They have a lousy reputation of skimping on things like that. They even skipped the photo scene at the end of BW. Please for crap’s sake, keep the ending scenes!

Yes, in the back of my mind I thought Sun and Moon would be radical and give us a pregnant Burnet. I knew this would happen sometime after that wedding episode a year and a half ago. But then a few weeks before the Sun and Moon finale, I wound up dreaming about Kiawe’s mother pregnant and she was wearing the exact same dress Burnet is wearing in the final scene. Sometimes my dreams can be fucking spooky and spot-on at the same time.

WOW-EE-WOWEE-WOW-WOW! Okay, um. Some thoughts! This anime gave me such a huge slump during a lot of it. I cannot lie. There was a long period of time where I was just disinterested in Sun and Moon. And seeing how other people were (especially those who were staunch XYZ fans) yeah I can see that. One big, annoying factor was once again, the animation. Yeah, you whiny bitches complaining BW Ash was the worst? You owe that one an apology! Because this Ash looks nothing like the past 5 Ash’s! And they tried this comedic style that won on some parts and failed in other departments. Though, spot-on whenever we get a Jojo’s reference! There were episodes that were just absolute MEH. And this is coming from the same person who sat through all the fillers in Johto, MORE THAN ONCE! And I had some severe reservations about seeing a main cast this huge trying to get some character growth. I had absolutely no expectations for anyone and thought they were gonna serve as dead weight (except for Kiawe and Lana).

Once again, I’m glad to see my expectations are blown away. There has been massive character development and they managed to hit all the main characters and even some of the minor ones. Lillie especially has blossomed throughout the series. As a girl who was afraid of Pokemon, I am impressed at how far she’s come. She was able to overcome her fear of pokemon eventually, hatch a pokemon from an egg, excel the power of Z-moves, bring back to life a rare/mythical pokemon, and even make it to the top 16 of the Alolan League. While Lana is still my best girl of this season, Lillie is definitely a wonder to behold. Sophocles, I had the littlest of hope or care for him. I still am not a fan of him really, but when you see this boy overcome certain anxieties, hurdles, and one sad moment involving the meteorite pokemon, you see he’s a pretty solid character.

And then there’s Mallow…Dammit! So I just realized as I’m wrapping up Sun and Moon.

One of the biggest things I saw was “Family”. And seeing as Alola is a take on Hawaii and one of the biggest things people pride theirselves upon is family, this totally makes sense. In Sun and Moon, we saw a lot of different kinds of families. Small ones like Sophocles. Bigger ones like Kiawe and Lana. Families that have had their own share of heartache like Mallow and Lillie. Ones that end up starting like Kukui and Burnet! Hala and Hau’s little relationship. And even families that are reunited like Bewear and Stuffel! These particular moments and episodes were ones that touched me in a way only Miyazaki can reach. Particularly Mallow’s story! I already mentioned this in the saddest moment category, but Mallow with her deceased mother is one of the best character growth episodes in Pokemon history. Up until that point, we’ve seen Mallow pretty perky, a good cook, and a supportive friend, especially to Ash, Lana, and Lillie. But then we get hit with this one story that no one expected. And now, let’s discuss Ash in this part! We got to see Ash settle in with a second family life with Kukui and Burnet. I mean let’s face it, all the other places Ash traveled he would roam from town to town. Here in Alola, it’s like Kukui was the father he never had and Burnet was like a second mother. And I suppose they felt like Ash was a son to them. So quite fitting they wound up having a baby after his departure.

And it wasn’t just the humans that have grown, but their pokemon too! Many of Ash and his friends’s pokemon were able to grow and shatter all expectations. Two of Ash’s pokemon especially deserve that praise and that’s Lycanroc and Incenaroar. Back when Lycanroc was a Rockruff, he always strived to get stronger. And in later episodes, it looked up to other Lycanroc like Olivia’s and Gladion’s. Then it evolved and it’s been quite the journey to try and train this doggo to it’s full potential. And because this is one of Ash’s pokemon, this has gotta be a one-of-a-kind pokemon (dusk form). Well Lycanroc has overcome some tough obstacles (yes, including bearing through getting dirty) and went on to be one of Ash’s top pokemon.

Litten, THANKFULLY didn’t have a dickhead trainer abusing him like many of Ash’s other fire-type pokemon. But Litten’s story was far from perfect as it was a stray cat pokemon living on the streets with an old Stoutland. And Ash took in Litten after Stoutland passed away. Litten was a pretty decent member of Ash’s team, but definitely got the fire in his eyes when he saw Masked Royal and Incenaroar. That encouraged Litten throughout the series to get stronger. Even leading to one of the best fights during Kukui and Ash’s match! Good doggo, good kitty!

Oh yeah, probably should talk about the battles! Unlike the other gyms up to this point, Ash went through Grand Trials (just like you would in the game). Except Ash really didn’t do that many of those mini trials since Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, and Sophocles were his classmates and not giving out tests! But Ash still wound up battling the big kahunas like Hala, Olivia, Nanu, and Hapu. And in the old Ash fashion, there were battles he won like a champ, ones where he’d have to try again, and ones where he got supremely lucky. Yeah, that Ash vs. Hapu match was such bullshit. But I’d still take that match over Ash vs. Hau in the Alolan League!

I will NEVER get over that match. Yeah aside from that travesty, a lot of the Pokemon League matches were pretty stellar, even the ones not involving Ash. I really enjoyed Sophocles vs. Kiawe and the Lana vs. Mallow match.

LET’S LOOK BACK AT MY HIGH HOPES: At the end of Pokemon XY, I made a nice list of things I would like to see. Did any of my high hopes come to fruition? Let’s see…

First of all, NO, I DID NOT SEE MY ANIME HUSBAND! For fuck’s sake Pokemon! If Snorlax exists at the Oak lab, Tracey Sketchit should too. They both came from the same arc. But NO! He’s not at the lab and doesn’t even get a mention. That is messed up! I don’t know if this is because they couldn’t get Tomokazu Seki to stop playing Gilgamesh for a second to come back or they’re trying to distance themselves from the Orange Islands as much as possible, or if they just FORGOT his existence, but I’m not digging this. No, Medea hates this with a holy fucking passion.

Old characters returning under this new style! Yeah, it happened. I think I was only a fan of how the women looked, so Misty and Delia looked okay to me. I just wasn’t a fan of Professor Oak and Brock. Although, kudos to the anime for having Brock take his shirt off and show off his six-pack. DAMN BOY! The animation ended up staying the same throughout the series, but I managed to tolerate/muscle through it.

I know I forgot to write this part, but I really wanted Kukui to remain single for the series. Yeah, that fell at the waist-side! Kukui was single…but then he got married. Okay, I can accept it. That was the cutest proposal, I have to admit that. And I was howling when I saw pregnant Burnet at the end. So alls well that ends well!

Let’s see, Lusamine wasn’t voiced by Miki Itou like I wanted. Then again, this Lusamine wasn’t a psycho bitch. Although kudos for getting Nobuhiko Okamato voicing Gladion. I am forever happy with that outcome.

Did I get more Clefables? FUCK YEAH, I DID! Holy shit, I forgot Lusamine had a Clefable in the games and didn’t even think the anime was going to keep that, but HOLY SHIT THEY DID AND I’M SO HAPPY! Not only that but we were able to see Clefable every so often. It’s so adorable. I just wanna hug her!

Lillie’s egg of course wasn’t Cosmog, it was Alolan Vulpix. Cosmog can’t be hatched. It just magically appears. Hey, cute choice though!

Did Ash catch a psychic pokemon? Uhhhhhhh…no! Still no psychic type.

Did I see Wicke and Olivia, fuck yeah I did! Wicke is adorable especially when she bosses Faba around. My only thing with Olivia is that, I wish the anime didn’t make her into a clumsy oaf the whole time. My God, she tripped more times than Bianca did during Best Wishes. That’s sad! Now her being the object of Brock’s eye, that I wasn’t expecting. I’m wondering if Brock will keep in contact with Olivia or if he’s moved onto another booty-call of the day.

Overall, it was a bumpy start for me to get into Sun and Moon. But it wasn’t until we got to important things like the Aether Foundation, Mallow’s mother, and Guzma’s debut that got me back fully invested. I know it’s damn near impossible to convince staunch XYZ fans to watch this, but give it a shot for the stories. The animation is just so undoable after what XY has given us, but still.

Currently, most (if not all) episodes of Sun and Moon dubbed will be available on Hulu, Netflix, Pokemon TV, and Disney XD. Yeah, no one has gotten around to giving us legal subtitled episodes sad to say. Here’s hoping Disney XD will continue holding onto the Pokemon license as they happen to be the ONLY one that literally has all episodes available. On the channel, they still kinda restrict themselves to only playing the current season, but sometimes we get lucky with the movies.

MORE HIGH HOPES: Okay, new high hopes for the new Pokemon series, Pokemon…um, 2019? Seriously guys, what’s up with this cryptic-ass series?

*Signs that Tracey Sketchit exists. Just show him at Oak’s lab or somewhere in this series. That’s all I ask. I will even swallow my pride and allow him to be at the Waterflower Slut Brigade in Cerulean. Just please, for the love of Arceus, show him to me. That flash in the 20th movie does not settle me. Give him to me, now! Don’t care how, I WANT IT NOW! I am the Veruca Salt of seeing Tracey again.

*Aside from Tracey, and seriously show him to me already…If at possible, update on May and Iris. Everyone else can go fuck off! These two deserve an update if Ash is doing this around the world adventure with his new boy-toy Gou. I know it may be difficult to get their voice actors back as I’m sure Aoi Yuuki’s schedule is insane and Kaori has an illness preventing her from voicing. Still! Something from those two…AND ONLY THOSE TWO FEMALES! I’m sick of Misty popping in without giving us what we want. Dawn and Serena need to go to the Pokemon version of Antartica until 2030. And unless Mallow, Lana, and Lillie make a shocking discovery, I don’t want to see them for a few years.

*CLEFABLES! Okay, yeah, that goes without saying!

*YAMPER or as I call him, Winston Corgles Ein Handbanana the Breadloaf must be seen at least once every two episodes.The opening theme doesn’t count. I want to see Winston Corgles Ein Handbanana the Breadloaf.

*Eventually spend some time in Galar and fight gym battles there. I know the Pokemon anime wants to take a sharp left turn into WTF territory, but sometimes don’t mess with the status quo and have Ash take on some gyms. Mmkay?!

*If Team Rocket and Giovanni really have to show up again, could we PLEASE finally get Ariana, Archer, Petrel, and Proton to be in the anime? Or as my friend calls them, the Stupid Sexy Rocket Execs!

*And while we’re at it, could we get an arc in this series where Ash goes to the Battle Tower in Sinnoh?

*Give James a Galarian Weezing.

*Rica Matsumoto must eventually sing an OP theme for this series. Goes without saying!

*Give Ash a Psychic type.

*I know nobody ages in this show, but please don’t keep Burnet pregnant forever. Also, if Ash decides to visit Kukui and Burnet again, I wanna see their baby.

Final category (I promise)!

IN MEMORIUM: I would like to close my review to Pokemon: Sun & Moon to talk about a certain voice that has been at the center of the Pokemon anime from day one. That was Unshou Ishizuka. If you watched the Japanese version of Pokemon, chances are you have heard this man’s voice in any episode you watch. Whether as Professor Oak or the narrator! Not only those two, but voiced Alder in the Black/White series, Samson Oak in the Sun/Moon series, several versions of the Pokedex, Magikarp Salesman, and many notable pokemon including Misty’s Gyarados, Cilan’s Stunfisk, Dawn’s Mamoswine, Ash’s Muk, Brock’s Onix/Steelix, and even Tracey’s Scyther. In August 2018, he passed away from Esophagus Cancer. So losing someone of this caliber is a huge hit to Pokemon.

I didn’t start watching the Japanese version religiously until 2006 (right around the time the dub murdered eardrums). But I was able to hear him as Onix and Gyarados early on because they had the same voice throughout the entire series run in English. But I had a lot of fun listening to him as Professor Oak when I switched to the Japanese version.  Not to mention his other roles outside the Pokemon series including Mr. Satan in the later Dragon Ball series and Grandpa Joestar on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I seriously miss him. May he rest in peace.

[thelittlefanpire]

The 100 Ask Game

okay, I was searching through @dylanobrienisbatman’s echo tag for some head canons awhile back and stumbled upon this! I’ve tweaked it a little and added some things from S5 and omg this is so fun! thanks to whoever made this ask game! S6 STARTS TONIGHT!

1. What Station on the Ark would you be from?

Farm Station. I grew up in the south and my great/grandparents all owned farms so yeah, probably Farm Station.

2. What would you get arrested for on the Ark?

I think this happened to a character in the book...I would probably get locked up for getting pregnant as a teen! lol

3. Would you take off your wristband when you landed on the ground?

If Bellamy Blake asked me to, you bet I would.

4. What would the necklace Finn would make for you look like? (Clarke: deer/Raven: a raven duh..)

an eagle 🦅

5. If you could resurrect any MINOR character who would it be?

WELLS DESERVED BETTER JAHA

6. Create a squad of 5 characters to go on missions with. Who are they?

The Leaders: Bellamy Blake & Clarke Griffin

The Brains: Raven Reyes & Monty Green

The Muscle : Lincoln kom Trikru

7. What Grounder Clan would you belong to you?

Geographically, I would probably reside in Trikru somewhere. But I really want to live in Shallow Valley. I wish we had seen more of that clan!

8. What would your name be in Trigedasleng? (example: Octavia=Okteivia…just make it up!)

sara - sera ? I don’t know. lol

9. Thoughts on Finn? Some people hate him, and others love him, so I’m curious

He was okay in the beginning. I was pissed when I found out he had a girlfriend in space and was trying to get with Clarke on the ground. I did not like him at all in S2! The guy really lost it in the end.

10. Be honest. How willing would you have been to take the chip without knowing all the horrible things it does?

I would have been able to resist in the beginning. Maybe took a step back to watch others take it first. But peer pressure, man. I would have given in eventually.

11. What character do you relate to most?

Clarke Griffin. She’s been isolated a lot and that’s something I relate to. And her Mama Bear instincts.

12. What character do you like the least?

S1- Finn, S2- Cage Wallace, S3- Pike, S4- Echo, S5- Kara Cooper

13. Describe your delinquent outfit. (Would you wear something like Murphy’s jacket with the spikey red shoulder patch or have a trademark like Jasper’s goggles? Be creative, yet practical)

Clarke’s soda tab jacket or Raven’s red bomber jacket!

14. Favorite type of mutant animal?

The blue butterflies! 🦋

15. What would your job be on the Ark?

A teacher! Teaching Earth History! Oh, that sounds amazing.

16. Would you have willingly pumped Ontari’s heart if Abby asked?

Barf.

17. If Lexa wasn’t Heda, but she was still alive then who would have made the best commander?

Luna. Is there any other answer but Luna?

Nightblood aside, I think Octavia (with Lincoln still alive to influence her) would be a cool choice too.

18. How would you act if you ate the hallucinogenic nuts like Jasper and Monty?

Paranoid af.

19. How would you have dealt with Charlotte’s crime? A more John Murphy approach or Bellamy Blake approach?

Bellamy Blake approach.

20. Who should have been the Chancellor, if anyone?

I don’t care who is the Chancellor, but Clarke Griffin is in charge. lol. Kane was the best leader for Skaikru on the ground.

21. Would you have been on Pike’s side like Bellamy or on Kane’s side? Or Clarke in Polis?

Kane’s side! Viva la revolución!

22. Mount Weather had a lot of modern commodities. (example: Maya’s Ipod) What is the one thing you would snatch while there?

Chocolate. All the chocolate!

23. What would your Grounder tattoos look like? Hairstyle? War paint?

Tattoos: let me get that eagle across my back or on my sternum that I’ve always wanted

Hairstyle: the most epic Harper style braid please

War paint: no thanks

24. Favorite quote?

”In peace, may you leave this shore.

In love, may you find the next.

Safe passage on your travels,

until our final journey to the ground.

May we meet again.”

-The Traveler’s Blessing

Or literally anything Bellamy Blake says. lol

25. If all of the characters were in the Hunger Games, who would have the best shot at winning?

I feel like as unlikely as it is, the show really has Octavia set up as Warrior Princess Goddess Hero and she would win. lol. As far as forming alliances and making it to the end...Clarke Griffin could make it with Bellamy Blake by her side throwing back nighlock berries till the end.

26. Least favorite ship? Favorite canon ship? Favorite non canon ship? NOT INCLUDING CL OR BC OR BE

Least: Mackson

Favorite canon: Zaven

Favorite non-canon: Sea Mechanic

27. A song that should be included in the next season? If there had to be another guest star like Shawn Mendes on the show, who would you want to make a cameo?

Radioactive needs to make another appearance in S6

Musical Guest Star: how about Hozier?

28. What would you do if you were stuck in the bunker with Murphy for all that time?

We’d probably go crazy.

29. Your an extra that gets killed off. How do you die?

Bellamy Blake choking me to death... (can’t believe this took me so long to answer. Is there really any other answer from me?)

30. A character you’d like to learn more about and get flashbacks of?

I would have liked more flashbacks of Roan and Luna and Lincoln. Spacekru on the Ring. Emori? Harper? literally everyone, right?

31. A character you’d bang?

Bellamy Blake. All day. Every day.

32. Would you stay in the Bunker? Go up to Space? Or live on your own in Eden?

SPACE!

33. In the Bunker, would you follow Octavia? What would you do to pass the time underground?

Sure. I don’t think I’d have much of a choice. I’d probably help take care of all the little kids!

34. What crime would you commit in the Bunker that lands you in the fighting pits?

Okay, so the way my life works I would probably get pregnant...again. And steal some blankets or something that I needed for all my kids. I’m not even going to front and say I survive that fighting pit sooo hope Blodreina trains them little squirts well!

35. Up in Space, who would you bond with first? Who would be the most difficult for you to get along with?

I’m instantly bonding with Harper. She’s the sweetest.

I’m going to be a little leary of Bellamy Blake during his Clarke ‘I left her behind’ Griffin Depression hour. So he’s probably really mopey and moody. And let’s just avoid him for a while.

36. How long do you think you would last on Earth by yourself?

Two weeks? I’d probably starve to death.

37. When the Eligius ship lands what do you do?

HIDE! And then spy on them. Figure out who they are and if they’re friendly. Go to them for help if they are. Take them all out in their sleep if they’re not.

38. Favorite Eligius character? Least favorite?

Miles Ezekiel ‘Zeke’ Shaw!

That creepy Kodiak guy.

39. Would you Spacewalk?

Hell yes!

40. Would you prefer to eat Windshield Bugs, Space Algae, or Bunker Meat?

Bugs, definitely bugs.

41. Would you start a war for the last spot of green on earth? What would your solution be to avoid it?

I’d fight for it.

42. Would you rather dig out flesh-eating worms or stick thumb drives into bullet holes?

BAND-AIDS DON’T FIX BULLET HOLES — AND NEITHER DO THUMB DRIVES. That was such a clever move. I’m going with thumb drives over worms. I hate the worm scene. gross!

43. Are you willing to poison your sister for the Traitor Who You Love? What would you do to stop Octavia?

I’m not a big fan of my sister, so yes. Was there any easier way to stop Octavia? I mean, Clarke wanted to kill her. They wanted to protect Madi. As much as that scene pained me I think Bellamy did the right thing soooo I would poison her.

44. Would you go to sleep in cryo or stay awake like Marper?

Stay asleep. Unless I’m living my entire life with Bellamy Blake by my side I dont want it.

45. Who are you waking up first to explore the new planet?

JR isn’t going to give it to us so I’m waking up Octavia so her and Jordan can have a First One on the Ground Pilot parallel!

you may have already done this so I’m sorry! But the bottom questions are new!

tagging...everyone :) : @the-most-beautiful-broom @baellamy @youleftme-clarke @chants-de-lune @asroarke @marvelscaptainss @pawprinterfanfic @octannibal-blake @thehundredtimesobsessed @tabatharich @sly2o @grumpybell @galaxyblake @mjlupin22 @probably-voldemort @twd-is-life-98 @ghoulbrothers @ponyregrets @bettsfic @chancellorgriffin @sometimesrosy @sclestial @johnmurphysass @peterstarkss @clarkegriffintitties @daeneryskairipa @nikitajobson @perpetualbbps @lieutenantshaw @talistheintrovert @diyozas @llysandra @morleybobs @mamabearsdontthink @angelwingsnaya @selflessbellamy @hopewolves @kinetic-elaboration @raven-reyes-of-sunshine @anne-shirley-blythe @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold @el-corazon-y-la-cabeza @chase-the-windandtouch-the-sky @catastrophic-chloe @lovethyblakes @ellaalyse @eyessharpweaponshot @clarke-kom-eden @viviansternwood and anyone else who wants to join!

[togetherkru]

the 100 ask game            

tagged by @pendragaryen. Thank you again 😘 , I told you it would take some time ;-). But I did it !!

1. What station on the Ark would you be from?

Farm station... Or Alpha, maybe.

2. What would you get arrested for on the Ark?

Hum. Would I get arrested on the Ark ?

3. Would you take off your wristband when you landed on the ground?

No, probably not.

4. What would the necklace Finn would make for you look like? (Clarke: deer/Raven: a raven duh..)

A flower I think. Ok it’s a bit difficult, but that would do it for me.

5. If you could resurrect any MINOR character who would it be?

yeah, just like @pendragaryen Zoe Monroe. Her charachter had such a potential...A wasted potential.

6. Create a squad of 5 characters to go on missions with. Who are they?

Bellamy, Clarke, Monty, Octavia, Finn or Raven. It depends on the moment of the mission :D

7. What Grounder Clan would you belong to you?

Trishanakru.

8. What would your name be in Trigedasleng? (example: Octavia=Okteivia…just make it up!)

Um... Well it’s not very convincing, but something like Steifani (??) kom Trishanakru.

9. Thoughts on Finn? Some people hate him, and others love him, so I’m curious

Well I found the character interesting : someone who seems to be kind, and good, and sometimes he really was (In Murphy’s Law, when he arrives and protects Charlotte, I found him nice...). BUT, in the end, he was hypocrital and manipulative.

10. Be honest. How willing would you have been to take the chip without knowing all the horrible things it does?

I'm not sure I would have been so attracted to the chip. I'm pretty down to earth.

11. What character do you relate to most?

Clarke. I like her resilience and her selflessness.

12. What character do you like the least?

Jaha, for sure, even though I loved the actor and his performance. But I find the character of Jaha full of contradictions and cold.

13. Describe your delinquent outfit. (Would you wear something like Murphy’s jacket with the spikey red shoulder patch or have a trademark like Jasper’s goggles? Be creative, yet practical)

Something like Harper ? So a  leather jacket, jeans probably. And something in the hair.

14. Favorite type of mutant animal?

Phosphorescent butterflies ? Not original, I know.

15. What would your job be on the Ark?

I’m a teacher, and I really appreciated the scenes with Pike on the Ark. So a teacher, probably. A professor of earthly history, lol.

16. Would you have willingly pumped Ontari’s heart if Abby asked?

Nope. I would have fainted.

17. If Lexa wasn’t Heda, but she was still alive then who would have made the best commander?

I don’t really understand the question. It has to be a nightblood, right ? Do we know many ?

18. How would you act if you ate the hallucinogenic nuts like Jasper and Monty?

I’d probably be laughing a lot and I'd sound rather stupid.

19. How would you have dealt with Charlotte’s crime? A more John Murphy approach or Bellamy Blake approach?

Surely a Bellamy approach.

20. Who should have been the Chancellor, if anyone?

Kane definitely. He’s such a good character, who learns from his mistakes.

21. Would you have been on Pike’s side like Bellamy or on Kane’s side? Or Clarke in Polis?

I must admit I hope to be on Kane's side. But can we really know without being in a real equivalent situation? Can we really know what the “right” side is ?

22. Mount Weather had a lot of modern commodities. (example: Maya’s Ipod) What is the one thing you would snatch while there?

The Ipod. A way to listen to music. Cool.

23. What would your Grounder tattoos look like? Hairstyle? War paint?

tattoos that would look like plants. A vegetable motif. On the arms and the neck.

24. Favorite quote?

Harper’s sentence “everyone dies, Monty. Let’s show them how to live” moves me every-single-time. And I think Clarke (and Bellamy) need to learn how to live (not to “survive”), need to let go. That’s why, I think, it’s a very good summery of the show.

But I also like Kane’s statement: “It’s not to late to choose the right side” (see question 21).

25. If all of the characters were in the Hunger Games, who would have the best shot at winning?

I would go with Luna or Octavia here. That’s what we saw in the show.

26. Least favorite ship? Favorite canon ship? Favorite non canon ship? NOT INCLUDING CL OR BC OR BE

Least fave: I don’t really have one. I watch and enjoy the show.

Fave canon: Marper (sigh) and Linctavia (sigh).

Fave non-canon: Raven-Murphy.

27. A song that should be included in the next season? If there had to be another guest star like Shawn Mendes on the show, who would you want to make a cameo?

That’s really difficult. Wow.

But I fell in love with a video from @teamhodgins (<3), with the song Chariot (Jacob Lee). I don't think it fits the atmosphere of the show, but it fits Bellarke SO WELL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiZSIFXAf0E

28. What would you do if you were stuck in the bunker with Murphy for all that time?

With Murphy ??? I’d probably kill myself. Or kill him...

29. You’re an extra that gets killed off. How do you die?

Like Lincoln ? Sacrificing myself for others ? That would be cool.

Or I would probably have died of some kind of infection as a result of a poorly treated injury. Not a heroic death, then.

30. A character you’d like to learn more about and get flashbacks of?

Not a popular opinion, perhaps, but I want to know Echo better.

31. A character you’d bang?

Um. That IS a popular opinion... Bellamy of course. Or Clarke. Or both.

32. Would you stay in the Bunker? Go up to Space? Or live on your own in Eden?

Definitely Eden.

I’m afraid of Space, and the Bunker ??? Is that even a question ?

33. In the Bunker, would you follow Octavia? What would you do to pass the time underground?

Well I wouldn’t be in the Bunker (question 32).

34. What crime would you commit in the Bunker that lands you in the fighting pits?

Well I wouldn’t be in the Bunker (question 32).

35. Up in Space, who would you bond with first? Who would be the most difficult for you to get along with?

Aah. I would bond easily with Marper, and with Bellamy, Raven and probably Emori. It would be hard for me with Murphy. I think I could get along with Echo of Season 5..

36. How long do you think you would last on Earth by yourself?

Not long.

37. When the Eligius ship lands what do you do?

hide and observe. Like Clarke, but without the riffle. At least I hope so.

38. Favorite Eligius character? Least favorite?

Diyoza, because, you know, “I like her style”. Least fave: Vincent. So creepy.

39. Would you Spacewalk?

Noooo. Space is far too dangerous.

40. Would you prefer to eat Windshield Bugs, Space Algae, or Bunker Meat?

Space Algae. But as I said, I wouldn’t be in space. That’s why I wouln’t live long (question 36) LOL.

41. Would you start a war for the last spot of green on earth? What would your solution be to avoid it?

I’m a teacher, so I have to be diplomatic. I would negotiate for everyone, of course.

42. Would you rather dig out flesh-eating worms or stick thumb drives into bullet holes?

??? Maybe it’s a little less dangerous with stick thumb drives into bullet holes ? (I can’t even believe I wrote this)

43. Are you willing to poison your sister for the Traitor Who You Love? What would you do to stop Octavia?

For the Traitor Who I Love, yes, maybe. That’s hard... But I don’t think there was another solution at this point. I can’t even find something else to do...

44. Would you go to sleep in cryo or stay awake like Marper?

Good question. Even with the Love of my life... a lifetime, it’s very long. So probably cryo.

45. Who are you waking up first to explore the new planet?

Bellamy, Clarke, Raven, Abby. Diyoza too. I like it spicy.

That was fun. Long but fun 😄. I’m tagging (if they didn’t do it already, of course /or if they want to) : @geekyogicheese, @natassakar, @katersann , @emmyisgrey , @yourereallyhere, @bellarkespace , @historyandships , @lameblake and anyone who wants to !

[jamaninja]

Olicity fanfic: Fifty bucks says, Chapter 2

Word count: 8,785 Rating: Teen Chapters: 2/3 Summary: Turns out, Tommy, Digg and Thea are a little bit more competitive than is strictly healthy. Then again, hundreds of dollars are on the line, so...

Author’s note: Y'all, the response to this story has blown me away! I had the warm and fuzzies for days because of your kind comments.

Also, it's my birthday today! So to celebrate, I made this chapter a little bit longer. :) Hope you enjoy it!

Read on: AO3 | ff.net

Chapter 2

Nine months

The thing about being in a group wager with hundreds of dollars on the line means that anything goes.

What’s that saying? All’s fair in love and war?

Well this just happened to be both.

“I don’t know about this, Tommy,” McKenna said as she and Tommy walked up to Oliver’s apartment. “I mean, I wasn’t invited.”

“I invited you,” he reminded her. “Besides, Ollie will be excited to see you. It’s been a long time.” Tommy grinned a little and leaned forward to whisper, “Don’t tell him I told you this, but he used to have a huge crush on you in high school.”

McKenna’s eyes widened. “No he didn’t. Oliver Queen? The Oliver Queen?”

“Yes he did!” Tommy winked. “So trust me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about.”

“But wait,” she called out, grabbing Tommy’s shoulder to stop him from knocking. “Didn’t you say he’s living with someone? A girl?”

Tommy waved a dismissive hand. “Yeah, but it’s totally platonic. They’re just living together as roommates. Nothing going on between the two of them.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Seriously? You’re telling me that Oliver Queen is platonically living with some woman? Are you sure we’re talking about the same Oliver Queen?”

He turned to McKenna and put his hands on her shoulders. “McKenna, trust me: there is absolutely nothing going on between Felicity and Oliver. You are more than free to flirt with the man. In fact, I encourage it.”

She still looked like she wasn’t quite sure of the whole situation, but she didn’t say anything further. So Tommy took that as an invitation to finally knock on the door.

“Just smile,” he told her. “Smile and be yourself. You’ve got a winning personality, Mac.”

“I’m going to punch you in the face, Tommy Merlyn,” she hissed under her breath.

The door swung open a second later and revealed Felicity in a lovely royal blue cocktail dress and black heels. Her hair was down from its customary ponytail the ends of her golden waves dipping just below her shoulders.

Her painted pink lips spread into a smile and her blue eyes lightened from behind her glasses. “Tommy!” she greeted happily as she stepped forward to give him a hug. “We’re so glad you could make it!”

Tommy smiled and hugged her back. “Of course I made it,” he quipped. “I wasn’t about to pass up on an opportunity to make Ollie cook for me.” When he let her go, he gestured to the woman standing next to him. “And this is McKenna Hall. She went to high school with Ollie and me. Mac, this is Felicity Smoak, Ollie’s roommate.”

“Hi,” Felicity said with a bright smile and a proffered hand. “It’s really nice to meet you.”

“You too,” McKenna said with a nervous smile. “I’m sorry about crashing your dinner party, by the way. Tommy invited me last minute and he said it would be OK.”

“Of course it’s OK! Any friend of Tommy and Oliver’s is always welcome here,” she insisted as she stepped back from the door. “Come on in.”

“Thank you,” McKenna said a little shyly. “I love your dress, by the way. That is a gorgeous color on you.”

Felicity’s grin widened as she took their coats. “Thank you so much. You are the sweetest.”

Tommy and McKenna stepped into the apartment, to see that everyone else had already arrived. Digg was sitting on the loveseat with his wife, Lyla. Thea and Roy, a member of Oliver’s kitchen staff, were sitting on the couch, and the four of them were talking and laughing while holding glasses of wine.

Meanwhile, the sounds from the kitchen made it apparent where Oliver was. And just what kind of mood he was in.

“I see that Roy is here,” Tommy muttered under his breath to Felicity.

She smirked. “Yeah. But at least Oliver’s taking it out on the cutting board. So maybe there’s hope for his growth after all.”

As Felicity went to go hang their coats in the closet, Tommy stepped toward the living room with his hand at McKenna’s shoulder.

“Hey, guys. This is McKenna Hall. McKenna, that’s John Diggle, Lyla Michaels, Roy Harper, and you already know Thea Queen.”

“Mac!” Thea beamed as she got up the couch to hug the other woman. “Oh my goodness, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you! How are you?”

McKenna grinned as Thea led her back to the couch. “I’m good. It’s really great to see you guys again. You’ve turned into such a grownup, Thea!”

“Mac here used to babysit me when she and Ollie were in high school,” Thea told everyone in the living room. “I adored her. I used to follow her around everywhere.”

“That’s so sweet,” Felicity smiled as she walked toward the living room with two glasses of wine she handed to Tommy and McKenna. “When was the last time you all were together?”

“I don’t know,” McKenna admitted. “It’s been so long. I think it might have been graduation?”

“Well that is far too long,” Tommy declared. Then he raised his wineglass toward everyone in the living room and called out, “To reunions.”

Everyone else followed suit and took a sip of their wine.

“So,” Thea began, turning to McKenna. “What have you been up to since high school?”

“Uh, well the usual,” she said. “College, then police academy...I graduated last month, actually. Now I’m a beat cop with SCPD.”

“Wow,” Felicity intoned, her eyes wide and admiring behind her glasses. “That’s so cool.”

McKenna’s smile slowly grew less nervous and more genuine. “Yeah, I guess it is. I like it a lot. Mostly a lot of citation writing so far, but my officers say I have a real future at the department. I really want to be a detective one day.”

Felicity was about to open her mouth to say something, but Oliver chose that moment to pop out of the kitchen into the living room.

“Felicity, I — ”

The presence of a new person in his apartment stopped his words in his mouth. His eyes widened and recognition flashed across them.

“McKenna Hall?” he said in disbelief as he took a step forward. “Is that you?”

McKenna’s lovely tan skin darkened with a faint blush as she stood up to greet her old friend. “Ollie,” she smiled, her arms wide open in a hug. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“Wow,” Oliver answered as he stepped into her embrace. “It’s good to see you, too. You look great, by the way. I mean, you always looked great. You just...well, I guess the years really worked for you.”

Tommy smirked into his wineglass. This plan was going much smoother than he anticipated.

McKenna grinned in obvious pleasure. “Thank you. I could say the same for you. I really like your new hairstyle. It suits you much better than that long hair you were sporting for the longest time. Makes you look more mature and rugged.”

“Well that was what I was going for,” he joked.

Felicity’s eyebrows shot up her forehead before she cleared her throat. “Uh, Oliver? Did you need me for something?”

Oliver tore his gaze away from his old friend and turned back to Felicity with a start, like he just realized that she was there. “Uh, right. Right! Yeah, I did. I, um, need your help in the kitchen with something. Could you lend me a hand?”

She frowned. “You’re asking my help? Seriously? Normally you don’t let me set foot in your kitchen.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

With a roll of her eyes, she leaned forward to set her wineglass down and get up from her seat.

“Um, I could help, too?” McKenna said as she stepped forward and Tommy had to stop himself from fist pumping in triumph. “I’m kind of an unexpected addition. The least I can do is help.”

Ollie looked clearly pleased with her offer. “You don’t mind?”

“Not at all,” McKenna smiled.

“Oh, great! Thank you, because Felicity’s a complete disaster in the kitchen.”

Tommy smirked as he watched Felicity’s expression turned into a scowl, but she didn’t say anything. She just followed the two of them into the kitchen.

Once the three of them were gone, Digg and Thea both turned to shoot suspicious glares at Tommy, who all of a sudden was struggling to look as innocent as possible.

“What?” he asked.

“McKenna? Seriously?”

Thea Queen was the only person Tommy knew who could make a name sound like an accusation.

“What?” he repeated. “She’s an old friend!”

“My ass!” Digg hissed. “You’re trying to throw the bet!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he scoffed. “I’m not doing anything to throw the bet. I just thought that Ollie and McKenna would like to reconnect after so many years, and it turns out I was right.”

“Oh, you are so full of shit!” Thea rolled her eyes.

Roy looked between the three of them in confusion. “Hold on, I think I missed something. What’s happening here?”

Thea turned to her boyfriend. “My brother’s in love with his roommate — ”

“Correction,” Tommy interrupted. “Felicity’s in love with your brother.”

Thea rolled her eyes and continued. “OK, Digg thinks Ollie’s in love with Felicity but she doesn’t feel the same way, and he bet us fifty bucks that he makes a move on her and she turns him down. But Tommy thinks that Felicity’s in love with Ollie but he doesn’t feel the same way, and he bet us one hundred bucks that she’ll tell him and he’ll be too scared and run away.”

Roy’s eyes widened in understanding. “So you,” he pointed at Tommy, “brought McKenna to flirt with Oliver to make Felicity jealous and force her to make a move.”

“I did no such thing,” Tommy smirked.

“You’re a dirty liar, Merlyn,” Digg scowled.

“What does it matter to you?” he shot back. “You’re the one who thinks Felicity doesn’t feel anything for Ollie! If you’re right, then it won’t matter, will it?”

“So you are trying to throw the bet!” Thea pointed at him accusingly.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever. But if either of you thought I was going to pass up an opportunity to trick you two fools out of a hundred bucks, then you were sorely mistaken. May I also point out to Mr. Diggle that Ollie and Mac are hitting it off beautifully, thus proving my point that he feels nothing for his roommate.”

Digg narrowed her eyes. “Oh. So you want to play it like that, huh?”

Thea shook his head. “You just opened up a whole new can of worms, Tommy. You better get ready.”

He smirked as he took a sip of his wine. “Bring it on.”

Lyla chose that moment to interject.

“So wait a minute,” she insisted. “If Tommy’s line is that Felicity’s in love with Oliver and Johnny’s line is that Oliver’s in love with Felicity…”

She turned to Thea.

“What’s your line?”

“That they’re both in love with each other and they’ll end up together and live happily ever after,” she answered with a sniff.

Digg and Tommy both rolled their eyes. Thea had proven over and over again that she had a good head for business, but in this instance, Tommy seriously questioned her judgment.

“This isn’t a Disney movie, Thea, this is Oliver Queen’s love life,” he reminded her.

She fixed him with a withering glare. “I’m aware of that, Tommy. I just happen to have more faith in my brother than you do.”

He sighed. Thea was entitled to her own opinion, but at this point he just started to feel bad for taking her money so easily.

Ten minutes later, McKenna, Oliver and Felicity emerged from the kitchen and walked toward the dining room, each bearing serving plates and bowls of food. Tommy smiled to himself as he saw McKenna and Oliver laughing together about something while Felicity’s brightly painted lips thinned into a grim line.

“Dinner’s ready,” Oliver called. “Come on, the sooner we’re all seated, the sooner we can dig in.”

The five other guests got up from their seats and made for the dining room, which was laid out beautifully with a huge hunk of pot roast, sauteed green beans and Digg’s favorite maple-glazed carrots.

“This looks incredible,” Lyla said with wide eyes as she sat down to the magnificent feast. “I think I might have to hire you to cook my next Thanksgiving meal, Oliver.”

He shot Lyla a proud smile as he took his seat at the head of the table. Tommy gently directed McKenna to take the seat right next to Oliver’s, while Tommy claimed the seat on her other side.

“Did you really cook all of this?” McKenna asked with an impressed voice.

He chuckled. “Why do you sound so surprised?”

McKenna laughed, warm and soft. “Well it doesn’t exactly jive with the Ollie Queen I remember from high school, you know? You were always too busy getting into trouble to pay attention to anything in home ec class.”

Oliver chuckled. “Oh, I still got into plenty of trouble in culinary school. It was just a different kind of trouble.”

“Oh really?” McKenna said, a definite flirtatious note entering her tone. “And praytell, what kind of trouble was that?”

“The kind that left me without eyebrows for a month,” he joked. “My first attempt at flambe didn’t go all that well.”

McKenna threw her head back and laughed. Out of the corner of Tommy’s eye, he could see Felicity on the other end of the table, keeping her eyes focused solely on her carrots and refusing to look up.

“I wish you’d taken pictures,” Thea piped up.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Oliver will find a way to burn his eyebrows off when we open the restaurant,” Digg chuckled into his wine.

McKenna cocked her head to the side as she looked between Digg and Oliver. “You guys are opening a restaurant?”

“The four of us are,” Tommy told her, pointing between himself, Thea, Digg and Oliver. “Roy here’s on the kitchen staff, and Lyla’s mostly been keeping Digg sane while he goes through all the craziness of the opening. And of course, we can’t forget our tech genius, Felicity. She built our POS system and our inventory programs from scratch.”

“That’s so incredible,” she said. “No offense, Ollie, but I don’t think any of our graduating class would have expected this. I think we all kind of thought you were still dicking around and peeing on cop cars.”

If it hadn’t disappeared as quickly as it came, Tommy would have sworn that he imagined it, but the minute those words left McKenna’s lips, a flash of regret and disappointment flickered in Oliver’s eyes.

But before Tommy could take a second look, someone interrupted him from the other end of the table.

“Oliver’s an excellent chef,” Felicity told McKenna, her tone just a titch cooler than it had been earlier. “He’s one of the best chefs on the West Coast.”

McKenna turned back to the man in question, whose charming grin had come back. “Is that so?”

He shrugged modestly. “I think that’s an exaggeration. But my mentors said I have promise.”

Tommy saw out of the corner of his eye that Felicity’s knuckles had gone white as she gripped her fork, but he hid his smile behind his wineglass.

“So when does this restaurant open?” McKenna asked. “And can I reserve a table for opening night? Or will there be some insanely long waiting list to even get in?”

“Oh, I’m sure we can work something out,” Oliver told her with a wink.

Tommy glanced down at the other end of the table to see Felicity surreptitiously rolling her eyes, and it was all he could do to keep himself from cackling.

The rest of the dinner party went by without incident. After dessert and coffee, McKenna announced that she had to duck out the rest of the evening’s festivities.

“Since I’m a rookie, I still have to work the early shift,” she told her companions with a grimace. “But I’m so glad I came. It was the best food and company I’ve had in a long time.”

“Yeah, it was great to meet you,” Digg answered with a polite smile. “When Merlyn was the one who invited you, I have to admit I was pretty skeptical. But I guess he doesn’t associate with just troublemakers.”

Tommy scowled at the insinuation but everyone else at the table laughed.

Then she turned to Oliver with a coy smile. “And it was really nice to get to reconnect with you, Ollie.”

“Same here, Mac,” he grinned. “It’s good to see you doing so well with your life. Would you like me to walk you out?”

“I would love that.”

The two of them got up from the table and walked out of the living room toward the front door. Once Oliver shut it behind him, Felicity downed the rest of her wine.

“I’m going to get the dishes started,” she announced in a strained voice, as she got up and brought her plate and glass with her.

Tommy shot a smirk at Digg and Thea who both rolled their eyes. “I’ll help,” he announced, grabbing his own plate and glass and following her into the kitchen.

When he crossed the threshold, he saw her standing in front of the sink. The stiffness in her shoulders hinted just what kind of mood she was in.

“You OK, Lis?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she answered, not bothering to turn around and look at him. “I’m fine.”

“Liar,” he smirked as he set the plate and glass down and leaned on the counter next to her. “You’re bothered about something, so let me guess...Ollie and McKenna?”

She flinched, like the accusation he lobbed at her was a tangible object that hit her square in the back.

“No,” she said, though her stormy expression belied the truth. “What would make you think that?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Tommy tapped his chin, pretending like he was thinking hard. “Probably because you’d start chugging your wine every time they flirted at dinner. And you looked like you needed something much stronger than wine every time he laughed at something she’d say.”

Her jaw clenched as she took the sponge and started scrubbing out one of Oliver’s pots. “I wasn’t...look, it’s not like that, OK?”

“Not like what?” he asked, feigning ignorance.

“It’s not like what you’re implying. I’m not...I’m not jealous,” she scoffed. “I’m hardly jealous.”

What a terrible liar, he thought.

“If it’s not jealousy, then what is it?”

Felicity’s expression fell slightly as she looked down at the soapy pot in her hands. “It’s just...when she made that crack about Oliver being a troublemaker in high school and how she thought he’d still be dicking around, I felt so...so angry.”

Of all the answers Tommy expected, it certainly wasn’t that one.

“I know that it’s been forever since she’s seen him, so I’m not being entirely fair to her,” she continued, her eyes still on the sink. “But he’s changed so much. He’s not that guy anymore. He’s different. He’s actually working so hard to make something of himself, and he’s kind and generous to everyone in his life, even the people who expect the worst of him. And I just get...I get so upset and defensive when people judge him for the person he used to be and not the person he is now.”

For the first time that evening, Tommy felt genuinely shocked.

Felicity didn’t just have feelings for his best friend. She was straight up in love with him. And she had every right to be in love with him, because she genuinely knew him.

“But whatever,” she sighed. “If they start dating, she’ll find out pretty soon that he’s changed. It’s kind of hard to miss.”

And for the second time in less than ten seconds, she’d thrown him for a loop.

“Wait,” he objected. “You’re just going to let him date her?”

Felicity shot him a confused look. “What are you talking about? I’m not ‘letting’ him do anything. Oliver Queen is his own person and he can date whoever he wants. I have no say in that.”

He sputtered. “But you’re not, like — you’re not going to tell him how you feel? You’re just going to let him date McKenna while you’re off to the side, pining for him?”

The blood rushed to her cheeks, but she tried to hide her embarrassment with a roll of her eyes. “Excuse me,” she huffed, “I do not pine.”

“You know what I mean,” he insisted.

She avoided answering for a long time as she scrubbed the pot completely clean. When she was finally finished, she looked up with a sad smile and a shrug.

“You’ve known him your entire life. In high school, do you think Oliver would have given me a second look?”

The pained expression on Tommy’s face was her answer.

“Exactly. And no matter how much Oliver’s changed, I’m pretty sure that part of him hasn’t.”

One year

It was officially three months until Verdant’s grand opening, and all the pieces were falling into place.

To be honest, John expected the last few weeks to be just as hectic as all the other ones leading up to it. But much to his pleasant surprise, it all looked like smooth sailing. The kitchen was already up and running. The decorators just had to put the final touches on the dining room. And he was already developing a very close relationship with all their vendors.

All in all, it was all coming together very nicely and the four business partners felt like they could finally breathe, for once.

They were long overdue for an easy stretch, anyway.

Since most everything had been taken care of, the only task John had left was to come up with the cocktail menu for the grand opening. And since Oliver was the chef, John thought it was best to have his friend be the one to taste test all of the ideas he came up with.

And if Oliver ended up drunk at the end of the night and letting some things slip when he came home to his adorable roommate...well, then that wasn’t John’s fault, now was it?

It’s like Lyla always says: sometimes alcohol isn’t a social lubricant. Sometimes it’s a social laxative.

“All right, I’m thinking of calling this the Verdant Special,” John said as he set down an old-fashioned glass filled to the brim with an alarmingly green drink. “It’s muddled cucumbers, mint and sugar with gin, Midori and a touch of soda water.”

Oliver took a sip through the cocktail straw and immediately made a face.

“God, if that was any sweeter, I’d need a shot of insulin,” he grimaced.

John chuckled. “Well that was what I was going for. If they can’t taste the alcohol, they’ll order more drinks. And we know that most of the profits are going to be from beverages.”

Oliver shook his head and pushed the glass away from him. “Maybe girls like Thea will like it, but it’s definitely not my thing.”

John just shrugged and sucked down the remainder of the drink. “Suit yourself.”

Oliver watched half in awe as his friend drank the rest of it without so much as flinching. “I will never understand people who can tolerate that much sugar.”

John chuckled. “It’s a gift. OK, so this next one isn’t as sweet. It’s a grapefruit gin fizz.”

The gin fizz was far more tolerable and Oliver ended up finishing the whole thing with a nod of his head.

“I could see like a bachelorette party coming to the restaurant just for these,” he said. “They’d order up like six of these and keep them coming until they all get sloppy.”

“Just the kind of clientele we’re looking for,” John deadpanned.

“Turn your nose up all you want, but Tommy said we’ve already got three bachelorette parties booked in the spring, and we haven’t even opened yet.”

John shook his head as he got to work mixing the next drink. “Oliver, you wanted to open a restaurant because you wanted to chase your vision of a perfect dining experience. This place is supposed to be about your creative abilities, not a go-to party destination for the idle rich and drunk.”

He sighed. “I know. But at the moment, the whole city still thinks I’m a drunk playboy partygoer, and they expect this restaurant to be like that. Until we’re open long enough to change their minds, we’re probably going to get a lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties breezing through here.”

It was John’s turn to sigh. “Well, I guess it could be worse.”

“That’s the spirit.”

John poured a golden amber liquid from his shaker over a lowball with a giant square ice cube. “Weren’t you the same guy who was freaking out about your playboy reputation six months ago? What the heck changed since then?”

Oliver shrugged as he took the drink from his friend. “I don’t know. I guess I realized I spent years building up my reputation and it’s going to take an equally long time to get rid of it. That’s what Felicity said, anyway.”

Score. The perfect segue.

“What Felicity said, huh?” John asked slyly.

He nodded as he took a sip of his drink. “This one’s good. Not too sweet and not too bitter.”

John made a note and returned to the subject at hand. “So how are things going between you and Felicity? You two still living peacefully together?”

Oliver nodded. “Yeah. She’s a great roommate, always has been. You know we’re coming up on a year since she moved in?”

He chuckled. “A whole year of putting up with your bullshit? She deserves some kind of award. The poor woman must have the patience of Mother Theresa.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “I’m not that bad,” he insisted.

“I’m sure she would say differently.”

He just shook his head and went back to his drink. “I was actually thinking of making a special dinner to mark the occasion. Like a roommate anniversary or something.”

Jesus Christ, John thought to himself. He wanted to smack his own head against a concrete wall. Or maybe smack Oliver’s head against a concrete wall.

“A roommate anniversary? Is that even a thing?”

“Sure. Why not? People have anniversaries for all sorts of dumb shit.”

John shook his head as he started mixing the next cocktail. Time to go all in.

“Hate to break it to you, man, but people usually reserve anniversaries for significant others. Unless you finally decide to quit lying to yourself and everyone else around you about your not-so-platonic feelings for your roommate, an anniversary celebration is going to look weird.”

Oliver’s jaw clenched and his fist tightened around his cocktail glass.

“You’re wrong,” he said stiffly.

John smirked. “I have not usually found that to be the case. But just out of curiosity, what am I supposed to be wrong about?”

Oliver looked away. “I don’t...I can’t have feelings for Felicity.”

That made him quirk an eyebrow. “Oh? And why not?”

“Because if I did, then she’d move out. And I...I need her to stay.”

John poured the next drink and eyed his friend curiously. “For her rent contribution?”

“No, it’s not just that. It’s...I need her to stay because she’s the first person I’ve met outside the three of you guys who believes in me.”

The minute the glass was full, Oliver took it and knocked the entire thing back. He didn’t bother giving John any time to explain it or even tell him what was in it.

That sent John’s eyebrows sky high.

“You know the other day, she was packing her lunch to take to work and she just reached into the fridge for this tub of leftovers from the dinner I’d made myself the other night and put it in her bag without even checking to see what it was. It was a new dish I’d wanted to try and I was almost one hundred percent sure she’d never had it before. When I warned her that it was new and she might not like it, she just waved it away all nonchalant and said, ‘You made it, Oliver. I’m not worried.’”

John watched as his friend’s eyes got softer and a little wistful as he told his story. The longing was plain on his face, and anyone else who could have been privy to the sight would have agreed: he was in love.

“She just has...she just has this faith in me,” Oliver continued as he ran his fingertip over the rim of his empty glass. “It’s unconditional. She doesn’t have contingencies. She doesn’t make backup plans. She...she supports me without question, like she knows that I’ll do the right thing no matter what. And I’ve never had that before.”

Listening to his confession hit John harder than he cared to admit, and he could feel a faint stinging in the back of his eyes. So he tried to wave away his emotions with some humor.

“If you’re trying to convince me you don’t have feelings for her, you’re doing a really miserable job,” he joked.

Oliver didn’t say anything as he looked down at the slowly melting ice cube in his glass.

John tried again.

“Look, I get that you don’t want her to move out. But what makes you think she would if you told her how you felt? You never know,” he said as he crossed his fingers underneath the bar, “she might feel the same way.”

Oliver scoffed and shook his head. “She doesn’t. There’s no way in a million years.”

“Why not?” John pressed.

“Have you met her, Digg? She’s a genius. A literal, certifiable genius. She’s got a zillion IQ points on the both of of us combined. She’s way too smart to date some billionaire playboy who dropped out of four different colleges he only got into in the first place because his parents bribed the admissions officers.”

God, this whole taste testing session was turning into a gigantic bummer.

“Oliver, you’re contradicting yourself at this point. You just told me that she has an unconditional and unwavering faith in you. That doesn’t sound like the kind of person who sees you as a former frat boy who couldn’t get his shit together.”

He poured another drink and Oliver once again took it without bothering to ask what was in it.

“What could I possibly offer her?” he said with a miserable expression. “She’ll come home from work and she’ll tell me about her day and the shit she says just goes right over my head. I can’t keep up with any of it. Most of the time i just nod my head and pretend like I understand her all while I’m praying that she doesn’t ask me too many questions. I couldn’t keep up with her.”

John shook his head.

“Do you think for a second she can keep up with you whenever you start to talk about cooking techniques? Or when you get way too excited about whatever ingredient you found at the grocery store that’s native to Southeastern Asia? We all have our areas of expertise that other people don’t understand. And none of that is a reason for you to keep your feelings to yourself.”

Oliver gazed contemplatively into his glass before taking a huge swig. After a long, thoughtful silence, he finally said, “I’m thinking of making a prime rib for our anniversary dinner. I figure it can’t hurt to go with the classics.”

He sighed.

John had Oliver try the last two drinks he had on his first draft of the cocktail menu and by then, the billionaire scion was more than a little sauced. With a chuckle and a shake of his head, the former soldier escorted his friend to his car to drive him home.

When they got back to Oliver’s apartment, John opened the door to find Felicity curled up on the couch in her pajamas with a bowl of popcorn nestled in her lap.

“Oliver? John?” she called when she looked up to see the two of them.

Her roommate giggled as he stumbled over the threshold. “Hey, F’licity,” he said, barreling through the syllables of her name the same way he barreled through the room to join her on the couch.

“He might have had one too many during the taste testing tonight,” John warned her.

Felicity’s eyes went from questioning surprise to amusement. “Ahh, OK.”

“What are you still doing up, F’licity?” Oliver asked as he plopped down on the cushion next to her. “I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

John walked to the kitchen for a bottle of water as a cover to surreptitiously listen to their conversation. This was it, he thought to himself. He was drunk. All his inhibitions were down, and he’d also planted the seed in Oliver’s head just hours ago.

He was about to win the bet.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Felicity answered. He could practically hear her shrug.

“Why not?” Oliver asked.

“I don’t sleep well when I don’t know where you are,” she answered. “I mean, I knew where you were tonight, but I also knew it involved alcohol and that had me worried. I just wanted to know that you were OK.”

She said it in a nonchalant voice, and John was pretty sure she was also munching on popcorn as she was saying it. It just tumbled out of her mouth, like what she was saying wasn’t even that big a deal.

But he knew that to Oliver, it meant everything.

“Felicity…”

Oliver’s voice softened and John had to really strain to hear him.

“I...you’re…”

Silence reigned over the apartment for a long stretch of time, and the tension was killing John. So as quietly as he could, he walked toward the wall separating the kitchen and the living room and peeked around the corner.

Felicity was sitting on the couch, her body facing the television but her head turned to look at Oliver. But Oliver’s entire body was angled toward hers, his eyes boring into hers. His hand hovered over her cheek, as if he was battling with his drunk brain to decide whether it was OK to touch her face.

And their lips were just inches away.

John could feel the anticipation coiling in his stomach.

“You’re remarkable,” Oliver murmured.

Felicity blinked a couple of times, like she couldn’t quite connect what he was saying. Then, just when John felt like he was about to burst with all the tension, she turned away with a slight shake of her head and a little chuckle.

“And you’re drunk,” she said wryly as she put the bowl of popcorn down on the coffee table and got up from the couch. Then she motioned to him to get up and follow her. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

John hung his head. Goddamn it! It was so close! He was just inches away from winning the bet, but Felicity’s nonchalance had gotten in the way!

“I’m not that drunk,” he muttered. But got up and followed her anyway.

“Uh huh,” she said skeptically. Then she called out, “Digg? Just how much did he have tonight?”

“Seven drinks,” he answered her, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. “All within a two hour timespan.”

That made Felicity chuckle. “Not drunk my ass. Go brush your teeth and I’ll force some water down your throat and an aspirin to help head off the hangover.”

Oliver grumbled something under his breath, but did as he was directed.

Felicity joined John in the kitchen a few seconds later. “Did you at least manage to come up with a drink menu?”

“Not a final one, but I’m closer,” he smiled. “It wasn’t a totally useless exercise.”

She laughed. “Well that’s good, at least. I’d hate to think that you got Oliver drunk for no reason.”

He snorted.

“Yeah. I’d hate for that, too.”

Fifteen months

The grand opening of Verdant, the hottest new restaurant in the Glades was finally upon them.

Oliver got to the kitchen early in the morning with the rest of his staff to get started on all the prep work. John and the serving staff spent all day preparing the dining room and stocking the bar. Tommy was doing the final training for the hostesses and taking care of the business side stuff.

And Thea...well, Thea was supposed to be hosting her parents for their first dinner at the restaurant. And considering the fact that Moira and Robert weren’t wild about the idea of their children opening a restaurant in the first place, she knew she had her work cut out for her.

Thea arrived at Oliver and Felicity’s in the early afternoon that Saturday with two garment bags and a whole duffle filled with different products slung across her shoulders. Then she knocked loudly on the door.

“Felicity, it’s me! Open this door, we’ve gotta get this show on the road!”

The door whipped open a couple of seconds later to reveal a very confused woman still dressed in her sweats.

“Thea?” Felicity asked in confusion. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for the opening?”

“I am getting ready for the opening,” she answered, breezing through the door. “In fact, we’re both getting ready for the opening.”

Felicity glanced at the clock on the wall. “The restaurant doesn’t open for another three hours.”

Thea shot the other woman a look that meant to say, I know, I’m not an idiot.

“This is a big moment for all of us,” she said seriously. “It’s perhaps the biggest moment in Ollie’s professional career. You have to be there to support him. To support us.”

“Well of course I’m going, Thea,” Felicity said with a roll of her eyes. “I just don’t see why I’m supposed to start getting ready three hours before it even starts.”

“Because, I’ve decided you’re going to have dinner with me and my parents.”

That definitely stopped her in her tracks.

“You and your parents?” she demanded. “As in the guy who’s technically my boss and the woman Tommy routinely refers to as ‘The Iron Lady?’”

“Yep,” Thea replied as she made her way down the hall to Felicity’s room. She quickly hung the garment bags on the hook on her closet door. “I brought two dresses with me just in case nothing in your wardrobe works out. I also brought all my face and hair products. Your shoes are usually pretty on point and we don’t wear the same size anyway, so I didn’t bother with those.”

“Right,” Felicity said faintly. Her expression looked like she was about to pass out any second.

Thea sighed and set her bag down before crossing over to her friend and placing reassuring hands on both her shoulders. “Look, I know it’s not fair of me to spring this on you last minute. But you know how important this restaurant is to Ollie and me, and you know how much our parents disapprove. We need your help.”

Felicity shook her head frantically. “What in the world do you expect me to do that you haven’t been able to? I’m just going to end up babbling up a storm and embarrassing all of us!”

“No you won’t,” she insisted. “It’s a proven fact that any member of the Queen family will automatically like you within seconds of meeting you. Happened to Ollie and happened to me. It’ll be the same with my parents.”

Felicity still didn’t look too sure. She bit her lip and stared hesitatingly at Thea.

“I promise,” the younger woman said with a smile. “You’ll be fine.”

With a sigh, she nodded and let Thea get on with her preparations.

Exactly two and a half hours later, both women were ready. Thea had chosen a lacy red halter dress that clinged to her every curve, paired with a simple pair of black stilettos and gold accessories.

But she ended up spending far more time on Felicity, and the effort paid off in spades, she thought admiringly as her friend stepped out of the bathroom.

“So?” the older woman asked nervously. “How do I look?”

The simple answer was stunning. Thea put Felicity in a dark green, single-shoulder satin dress, with a skirt that flared out at her waist and ended just a few inches above her knee. She also wore a pair of glittering silver pumps, to accentuate the toned length of her legs. The rest of the styling was kept on the simple side: her hair fell over her shoulders in soft, golden waves and her ears sparkled with diamond studs.

“You look incredible,” Thea smiled. “Absolutely gorgeous.”

Felicity smiled back tentatively. “Good enough for the opening of the hottest restaurant in town?”

“Better,” Thea promised. And with that, she took Felicity’s hand and led her out of the apartment.

There was a small crowd outside the building once they reached the restaurant, and Thea’s stomach somersaulted at the sight.

It was here. The day they’d worked toward for more than a year was actually here. This was finally happening.

Felicity reached over the console to grab her friend’s hand. “You ready?” she asked.

Thea nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.

The two women climbed out of the car and Felicity handed her keys to the valet. Then they walked past the winding queue straight inside.

“Ms. Queen, Ms. Smoak,” the hostess greeted with a professional smile once she saw them. “Thank you so much for joining us this evening. Please follow me. Your table is ready. Mr. and Mrs. Queen have already arrived and are waiting for you.”

Thea grinned. Tommy had done a stellar job with the training.

“Holy cow,” Felicity breathed to her friend as they followed their hostess through the crowded dining room. “This place looks amazing. It looks like an actual restaurant.”

Thea raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, I know it was always supposed to look like a restaurant,” Felicity hurriedly added, “but...you know. For months it was just this empty industrial space and now...now there are tables. And people. And food.”

That made Thea laugh. “I sincerely hope you won’t be the one writing the review.”

“I can, if you want,” she winked. “I could hack Yelp, maybe a few foodie blogs and write gushing, five-star reviews.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Their hostess led them to a sectioned off room in the very back of the restaurant, clearly reserved for the VIPs. The booth they stopped at was the largest one in the room, and Robert and Moira Queen were both already seated, the former in a black suit and the latter in a glittering cocktail dress.

“Your server will be right with you,” the hostess told them pleasantly before giving them a gracious nod and backing away.

Thea inwardly braced herself as she slid into the banquette. “Mom, Dad,” she greeted them warmly as she reached forward to wrap her arms around them. “Thank you so much for coming. This is my friend, Felicity Smoak. She’s also Ollie’s roommate.”

Both sets of eyebrows shot up at the word “roommate.”

“Ah,” Robert said with thinly veiled surprise. “Well it’s certainly nice to meet you, Felicity. Thank you so much for joining us for dinner tonight.”

Felicity fidgeted in her seat. “Thank you for having me,” she said in a voice with the faintest quiver.

Their server came out with a bottle of Lafite Rothschild 1990 and a tray of glasses. He told them Chef Oliver had prepared their menu tonight using the wine as inspiration and hoped they would all enjoy their meal. After the wine was poured, he left the open bottle on the table with a flourish and disappeared.

“I’m really glad you could make it,” Thea told her parents once their server was gone.

“Of course we made it,” Moira said lightly, though her eyes were sharp and calculating. “This restaurant is obviously very important to you and your brother. We weren’t going to miss it for the world.”

To an outsider listening in on their conversation, Moira Queen would have sounded like the perfect, supportive mother. But Thea knew better. She could hear the condescension in her mother’s voice: of course she would show up to the grand opening, but she still didn’t expect much.

Thea was trying to form a response to her mother with equally barbed language, but Felicity chose that moment to step in.

“Oh, it’s important to a lot of people,” she said. “Tommy and Digg, for starters. But not just them, all of the people they’ve hired. Did you know that Tommy only looked for people from the Glades? I mean, it’s widely known that this area has the lowest employment rate in Starling City, so they wanted to make sure they were pulling from local talent.”

Moira and Robert both blinked in quiet surprise.

“Really,” Robert said. Though the word sounded more like a statement than a question.

“Yeah,” Felicity continued. “Plus, all the buzz this restaurant is getting is really great news for local development, you know? If people see that we’re re-investing in the Glades, others will follow. It’s just a restaurant now, but who knows? Maybe another will join soon. Then another and another and soon businesses will start popping up all over the Glades, giving people more jobs and higher property values.”

Thea’s heart flipped over in her chest as she listened to Felicity’s mini-monologue, and she felt a renewed rush of warmth and gratitude toward her best friend’s roommate.

Moira, on the other hand, was still staring at Felicity like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. Like she was some sort of interesting puzzle that she was trying to figure out.

“So you think my son’s restaurant is what will save the Glades?” she asked in slight amusement.

Felicity blushed a faint red. “Well, no. I mean, no one thing can save a city. It’s pretty ridiculous to try and say that a single restaurant can lift an entire area out of poverty. But I think it’s the first domino.”

Robert chuckled. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”

A few minutes later, their server returned with their first course, which was a roasted beet salad with a pomegranate vinaigrette.

Thea looked around the table as she ate, carefully measuring her parents’ reactions. Moira’s classic poker face gave nothing away, but Robert looked at least a little pleasantly surprised at the food.

Then the Queen matriarch frowned as she fixed her gaze at something across the table.

“Felicity, is your salad different than the rest of ours?”

Thea glanced down at her plate, then looked at her friend’s. Huh, she thought in puzzlement. It was different.

But it only made Felicity smile softly. She looked down at her plate with a kind of affection Thea never would have expected a woman to have toward a salad, of all things.

“Yeah, it looks like it is,” she murmured to herself. Then she cleared her throat and looked up. “I’m allergic to nuts, and it looks like your salad has crushed pecans. This one doesn’t. Oliver must have remembered.”

Much to Thea’s unending surprise, Moira’s poker face finally cracked, and the formidable woman displayed an expression of astonishment.

“That’s...that’s very considerate,” she said after a long beat.

“It is,” Felicity nodded as she speared a few more spinach leaves. “Oliver’s a very considerate guy.”

And that, it seemed, was the hole in the dam that broke the rest of it wide open. The server brought by the second course (foie gras mousse served on crostini with port cherries, truffle goat cheese and a brandy reduction), and Moira nodded in approval.

By the time they reached their third course (seared Chilean sea bass with a blood orange tarragon beurre blanc), she was smiling. Actually smiling. Moira Queen, of all people.

“That was the best fish I think I’ve ever had,” Robert said as he set his fork down over his empty plate.

“Yes,” Moira nodded as she delicately patted the corners of her mouth with her napkin. “Absolutely delicious.”

The final course was the dessert course, and Thea practically jumped in excitement when she saw it.

“It’s the s’mores creme brulee he made me for my birthday,” she told her parents. “I begged him to put it on the menu tonight and he rolled his eyes and told me forget it. I guess he must have been bluffing.”

Felicity chuckled as she picked up her spoon and cracked open the caramelized sugar crust of her creme brulee.

Once the last of the dessert had disappeared, Oliver chose that moment to step out of the kitchen to visit their table. He was dressed in an impeccably white chef’s coat, though the towel tied at his waist proved that he’d been hard at work all night. There was also a slight sheen of sweat all over his face, but the shine was nothing compared the brilliance of his happy smile.

“Hi, guys,” he greeted his parents, leaning forward to kiss them both on the cheek. “How was your meal?”

Moira grinned at her son. “Sweetheart, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that that was the best meal I have ever had.”

Most children would have dismissed their parents’ glowing praise as nothing more than bias. But most children didn’t grow up with Moira Queen as a parent.

It made her compliment all the sweeter, and Thea watched with pride as her brother’s eyes welled up with tears.

“Thank you,” he said in a voice wavering with emotion. “Thank you guys so much.”

After he hugged his parents, he turned to Thea and swept her up in a hug.

“We did it,” he whispered in her ear.

She squeezed him tight and buried her face in his shoulder. “You did it. I’m so proud of you, big brother.”

When they finally released each other, he turned to his roommate with a smile wider than the Amazon. “And how was your meal?”

“I suppose it was all right. Not anything to write home about,” she responded in a nonchalant tone, but her grin was anything but.

Oliver laughed as he reached forward to give her a hug. Their embrace lingered a little and he whispered something in Felicity’s ear that stained her cheeks bright red when they pulled away.

Thea looked away to hide her smile.

“OK, well I need to get back to the kitchen, but seriously, thank you so much for coming out tonight,” he told them. “It means the world to me.”

“Congratulations, Oliver,” Robert beamed. “We’re really proud of you, son.”

With one last grin, he waved goodbye and ran back to the kitchen.

Though the meal was over, the four of them felt no hurry to leave and lingered over their last glass of wine as they talked. The conversation flowed much more freely than before, and Thea watched as her parents warmed up to Felicity almost exactly as she had predicted. It certainly didn’t hurt when Robert discovered that Felicity worked at Queen Consolidated, though she was far too talented to work in the IT department. By the end of their conversation, he told her that he would try to find her promotion as soon as he could, which only made her beautiful smile even bigger.

When the last of the wine had finally disappeared, they all reluctantly stood to leave. Felicity ducked out for a brief moment to use the restroom, and Moira chose that moment to pull Thea aside.

“Darling,” she whispered to her daughter conspiratorially, “tell me the truth. What’s going on between Felicity and your brother?”

Thea giggled. “Nothing...yet.”

Moira’s sharp blue eyes twinkled. “I assume you have some sort of plan in place to make sure that changes, yes?”

“I have a few ideas, yes.”

“Well,” the Queen matriarch smirked, “should you need help, just know you can always count on your mother.”

Oh yeah, Thea thought smugly to herself as she hugged her mom. Tommy and Digg were going down.

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