#good old fashioned drama with entirely human motives

[lightdancer1]

See the further irony is:

That in using 'Mall Goth Sauron' as the take on Dark Willow over 'misogynist has character randomly killed for LULZ' it also allows for greater accountability on the one hand and for Season 7 to thematically focus on repairing all this damage in the midst of facing an enemy of shadows reliant on lies to further itself. The only way to break the Druj is the absolute Truth in a very Zoroastrian sense. Characters don't get to neatly skip past accountability for their actions, and this would spiral over into further later seasons with the essential reality that in an otherwise lower-level setting this one random girl from California is a Dark Phoenix-tier reality warper and the most powerful person on the planet, or the universe.

And the questions of how that power could and should be employed on the one hand and that Willow is essentially a Doctor Strange type who beats up Gods and Eldritch Abominations for her regular line of work where her counterparts deal with the more 'street level' crises would in turn be the logical conclusion of where the show ends. She doesn't do as much physical fighting for the same reason that Stephen Strange never uses magic to go punch the Hulk in the face, her narrative role is ultimately that of Sorceress Supreme of Earth, with literally nobody in an ancient established war anticipating that this one random ginger from California was and is the new Sorceress Supreme and that if they had had such awareness the realities are that this power would and could have taken worse forms.

Unfortunately for the world, the reality too is that it is a shy computer geek who has a not at all subtle dark side and the usual teenage anxieties and insecurities given the equivalent of being able to reliably actually do things other people might dream of but can never do.

But again as long as Dawn Summers being a good thing is a narrative convention that's established memory magic is a poor choice to show the corrupting effects of reality-warping. It's a case of 'yes as established in canon all of this is true for that one season but then they decided to retcon it, so the fans are not obligated to care about it any more than the canon does about this itself.'

#willow rosenberg #tara maclay #dawn summers #you will never convince me as long as Dawn Summers is a plot device that 'memory magic unforgivable' is anything but bad writing #it was the choice used but there are other equally toxic things that could have been done instead #the basic theme of 'very powerful person decides things for another in an abusive fashion' works just as well without it #Tara's growth arc in refusing to tolerate abuse even from the person who brought her out of her shell can stand perfectly fine #it works even better with a budding Sauron than abruptly deciding 'wholesale memory rewrites good retail unforgivable.' #killing Tara off also denies her any sense of closure or ability to get that closure with the person who does this #the entire element here with the way things went down is bad writing from Point A to point Z #and it's also easily forgotten but Tara wasn't in fact intended to be Willow's love interest #she was replacement Willow for sympathy points #her entire arc as such became Willow X Tara but it was a choice from actor chemistry #So in giving Tara a role besides 'Willow's Girlfriend' it arguably does better by her character #tara x willow #btvs #and yes yes the 'scale changes things' argument is true but only to a point #it's really no different to introduce Dawn than what Willow did #if the retail is wrong so is the wholesale and the decisions to make this that point of no return is an avoidable mistake #plus honestly imagine a Season 7 Tara going 'sweetie no' and a Season 7 Willow dealing with those consequences in real time #equally one can have Tara's cold turkey approach stick exactly as it was #and serve as her role in the time bomb because she's a product of an abusive family and not an infallible moral guide #she rightly sees the problem and at least tries to address it when nobody else did #but unfortunately her solution was pouring gasoline on the fire and then vacating the range where the fire would burn #still further between that and Willow being human enough to resent being told to take that pain and do it going it alone #there'd be plenty of reasons for a surviving Tara and Willow to spend season 7 broken up as is #Tara would not at all be wrong to be wary and not want to touch reformed Sauron with a 400 foot pole #Willow equally would resent someone whose bad advice helped create the problem and who evades any recognition thereof #good old fashioned drama with entirely human motives

[halveablock]

maki

i just wanted to properly verbalize exactly why i love maki so much. in particular, the way her character development is shown through her design. i suppose this is a bit of character design rambling. contains manga spoilers up to chapter 149.

to be quite honest, maki didn’t catch my eye that much when i first read jujutsu kaisen. she felt awkward actually; design-wise, it felt like gege couldn’t commit to a type of feeling. her style felt just vaguely unkempt and bit feminine, but had no real identity. part of that is the characters are all in dark uniforms, but they can be customized to give off a certain feeling. yuji, for example, wears hoodies not because he’s a hoodie guy but because he can be indecisive (volume extra).

but this all changed once i saw this infamous chapter cover:

i immediately went: shit, i wish maki actually looked like that. she didn’t really have this masc energy until this chapter cover. (and then upon rereads, maki really captured my heart...) there, i saw what maki could be, so i was wondering why her pre-shibuya design felt so dissonant to this image, which felt perfect for her.

i think gege decided on her “aesthetic,” so to speak, once he designed toji. not that toji wasn’t designed or concepted before, but it’s possible that gege hadn’t thought to push the toji-maki parallels that early until his design was finalized, since this is just 2 chapters before his appearance. and she has gotten only closer and closer to him in aesthetic until in chapter 149, gege blatantly draws a side by side comparison to make sure you really saw it, in case you hadn’t realized it yet.

it’s interesting then that with ogi’s appearance, maki’s previous ponytail had some meaning.

the way the ponytail is drawn is virtually identical; it’s as if maki was striving to be her father, in a way. i imagine the image of strength she had in her head was ogi before she saw toji on the beach: there, she saw what she could become. (btw, i don’t think it’s a coincidence that she meets toji on the beach as her old self, and then says good-bye to mai on another beach as her new self)

gege most likely designed maki first then ogi, so i think giving him a ponytail was definitely intentional to indicate the shift in maki’s understanding of what she could be.

at any rate, post-shibuya, i think gege had fully embraced the masc style for maki, while keeping up with his high waist fashion obsession for the ladies. he may have also felt creatively limited by jujutsu tech uniforms, so he probably wanted to break some rules around that. the cape gives her a strong leadership look as indicated by her role among the students and a distinct silhouette so i think maki will keep it despite not having it on at the end of ch149.

maki’s new hair has the double function of getting closer to toji while making her look even more identical with mai. a crossroads of sorts: she could either become like toji, or stay in the bottom with mai. we all know what happened at that, albeit it wasn’t really her choice. in another sense though, she became both, gege deliberately putting both maki and mai in their sleeveless outfits (remember maki still had her cape on after waking up, before shedding it in the epic spread) in the beach scene to convey this merging even more.

as for her writing itself: on the surface, she’s a “strong” female character: stubborn, sassy, ambitious. an action girl, if you may. but the recent chapters showed that she’s actually filled with doubts and that a lot of this attitude is airs she put on to live as a self-affirmed human being since her family could never give her that affirmation. her choices, too, were driven by her fierce love for her sister, something she couldn’t openly express for fear of her sister facing even more prejudice.

and just in the meta sense, she’s everything i’ve ever wanted out of a female character in a shonen manga. i’ve seen her type of character for sure, but not really in a shonen: her abused history, insane family drama including a complicated relationship with her sibling, these two chapters becoming her tragic origin story, the way her trauma is carved into her skin with the burns and the eye scar, the way her trauma is reflected in her characterization without her succumbing to it. the way she constantly echoes an existing feral, violent male character, suggesting that she will embody similar traits. the way her goals were centered around her ambitions, but underneath that, her sister as her core motivation; the way the plot actually impacts her goals, and how they are now changed to destroying everything, including the family, the system that refused to acknowledge her.

in short: i love you with my entire heart maki, and i can’t wait to see where you go next.

#jujutsu kaisen #maki zenin #jjk spoilers #xed.txt

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 286: VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “what’s the record for most consecutive bone breaks within the span of a single minute” and, without waiting for an answer, proceeded to unleash roughly 17 Smashes onto Tomura. Kacchan was all “THAT DOES IT, I’M TAKING THE REINS OF THIS SHITSHOW” and carried Endeavor and Shouto up to where the action was so Endeavor could hit Tomura with a Prominence Burn. AFO was all “Tomura would you rather burn to death or let me take over your body” and Tomura was all “...” and so AFO TOOK OVER and was all “STABBITY STABBITY” and used his Stabbing Quirk to do some Good Old Fashioned STABBIN’. First he stabbed Endeavor, and then he was all “hee and now I’m gonna stab Deku”, but Kacchan was all “SIR THAT’S MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT RIVAL” and so he rushed on in AND GOT HIMSELF STABBED INSTEAD. And so basically THIS PAST WHOLE WEEK HAS BEEN A RIDE, LET ME TELL YOU.

Today on BnHA: Kacchan is all “sup Deku lemme just downplay how I totally took this fatal blow for you just now” before he dramatically passes out and is caught by Todoroki “BTDUBS I CAN FLY NOW” Shouto, who is also carrying his dad because the kids really are just doing it all, here. AllForRaki Tomura For One is all “HAHA BAKUGOU IS PRETTY DUMB”, at which point Deku just LOSES IT ENTIRELY and ASCENDS INTO A NEW PLANE OF FURY LIKE A LITTLE GREEN RAGE BUDDHA. But then like two seconds later Tomura is all “ANYWAY, SO” and FUCKING TOUCHES DEKU’S FACE, CAUSING THE TWO OF THEM TO ASTROPROJECT INTO THE FREAKY OFA/AFO MINDSCAPE BECAUSE THIS CHAPTER IS BANANAS. Vestige!AFO is all “reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated but aren’t you glad I saved your life though, Tomura”, while Tomura is all “!!” because he’s hopefully starting to get A Clue, and meanwhile Deku just stands there watching all “what the fuck.” The chapter ends with SHIMURA MCFUCKING NANA showing up all, “HI, I HEARD SOME BITCHES WERE TRYING TO HAVE A GIRL POWER ARC, AND THEY DIDN’T INVITE ME.” Go on, Nana. Give ‘em hell.

you guys. I’m not normally one to take pleasure in another human being’s misfortune. BUT THAT SAID, there are exceptions to every rule, and so let’s just say certain events have transpired early this morning which have PUT ME IN A VERY, LET’S JUST SAY, NOT-TERRIBLE MOOD which this chapter will hopefully improve upon!!

oh my god Deku’s one non-fucked-up eye that he still has control over is SO WIDE YOU GUYS

hmm I know I shouldn’t be all (゜▽゜) while the two of them are all (； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) ... and yet here we are. btw I’m worried tumblr’s formatting will ruin those two emojis which I worked so hard to get just right so I’m gonna repost them on another line here just in case

(； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) that’s them. Kacchan and Deku. my boys 

HERE COMES THE CHEESY “JUST GOT STABBED BETTER PLAY IT OFF ALL COOL!!!” ONE LINER OH MY GOD

(ETA: really love how my son, with what for all he knows could be his dying breaths, decides that the absolute most important thing is to preserve his selfish asshole facade so as not to fuck up his status quo with his rival. “LOOKEE HERE I GOT MYSELF ALL STABBED AND SHIT FOR YOU, BUT I TOTALLY JUST DID IT BECAUSE I WAS TIRED OF YOU GETTING ALL THE COOL HERO MOMENTS” yeah, that’s right! SELFLESS MOTIVATIONS, WHAT ARE THOSE sob.

also tbh I’m glad they didn’t delve any further into their feelings right here and now because this really isn’t the place or time for it sadly. WE WILL JUST PUT THOSE ON HOLD UNTIL AFTER THE ARC ENDS, when they are all recovering from their various wounds and traumas and have time to catch up and have some long-overdue heart-to-hearts. it deserves its own chapter or two or three. maybe time to head back to Ground Beta once they’re healthy? “healthy” perhaps being a relative term given their current condition fjsdjkf.)

by the way it looks from here like only the ones through his torso and shoulder actually hit, so that’s something at least. WE’VE LOST ENOUGH LEGS TODAY. I need to conserve my remaining puns

MEANWHILE TOMURA IS HAVING A CRISIS

ARE YOU MAD AT YOUR EVIL DAD TOMURA. HE JUST WON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER WILL HE, THAT GUY

anyway so it looks like Kacchan might have caught a break here because AFO/Tomura is pulling the stabby quirk activation tendril things back out! rip, “Kacchan vs. Deku part 3″ theories

p.s. I got ALL CAUGHT UP IN THE DRAMA and thus glossed over the chapter title which is “one among us”! hmmm this is definitely AFO/OFA related, calling it now. ooh lord I am excited

NOW MY SON IS DRAMATICALLY FALLING

THE BLOOD FROM THE MOUTH OOF NOT GOOD AHHHH. DEKU’S FACE AHHHH. HIS BODY JUST WENT TOTALLY LIMP DID HE PASS OUT AHHHH. SOMEONE CATCH HIM!!

BY HIS FOOT, SHOUTO?!

well NOT EXACTLY THE MOST GRACEFUL THING I’VE EVER SEEN, but we’ll allow it because HOLY SHIT BOY. ARE YOU ALREADY CARRYING YOUR DAD ON TOP OF THAT?? HORIKOSHI PLEASE CONFIRM, IS TODOROKI MOTHERFUCKING SHOUTO FUCKING FLYING AROUND UNBALANCED AF ON HIS ONE FLAMEY LEG, CARRYING HIS 500 LB POP AND NOW HIS FLOPPY PASSED OUT BEST FRIEND AS WELL?!? HOLY SHIT TODO?!?!

LADIES AND GENTLEFRIENDS OF THE VILLAIN STANDOM, FEAR NOT, TOMURA’S HAIR IS THE FIRST THING THAT GREW BACK LOL

even before his eyeballs kfldkakjk. which, btw, how does he even know what’s going on right now? “this fight has shed a lot of useless blood” sdkmkjl okay well (1) WHOSE FAULT WAS THAT, AGAIN??, (2) SERIOUSLY THOUGH, HOW DOES HE EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO YOU STABBED?? ARE YOU EFFECTIVELY BLIND FOR THE NEXT FEW SECONDS HERE, WHAT’S GOING ON, and lastly (3) I seriously can’t tell if this is AFO or Tomura talking right now. or are they going back and forth?? help this is so confusing

HEY

THE DISRESPECT. I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW KACCHAN ANGST IS NEVER USELESS!!

AND NOW HE’S BACK TO THE STABBING JFKJLKJLF I AM NOT TOO HAPPY WITH YOU RIGHT NOW MISTER

okay and now we’re cutting to some quick panels of the unconscious Aizawa, Gran, and Ryuukyuu, along with the “still conscious but in a very real sense might as well not be counted” Manual who is really having a day, that poor guy

anyway but then there’s also some dialogue boxes being all “if you act out of rage your power will respond accordingly, the most important part is to keep your head clear.” which I’m like 90% sure is Deku/OFA related, but honestly NOTHING ABOUT THIS CHAPTER IS CLEAR SO FAR YOU GUYS. except for the Shouto-is-a-badass part anyway

HMM YEP I’M GONNA GO WITH DEKU-RELATED

it must be a callback to some line I’m forgetting. maybe Lariat explaining Blackwhip to him that one time. probably should have been in italics if it was a flashback quote, but hey. anyways the point is Deku is absolutely, 100% following this advice to the letter (/s)

(ETA: yep I’m almost positive this is the same quote from chapter 213. “listen, when you use this power out of anger, it’ll really start working for you. what really matters is controlling your heart.” which is still one of the weirdest pieces of advice in the entire series, but basically I think he was just trying to tell him it’s okay to get mad, so long as it’s calmly mad. like, controlled fury, as opposed to this white-hot berserker nonsense he’s been running on as of late. anyways I do still love me some shounen rage all the same but Lariat has a point.)

...

it took me a minute to realize THOSE WERE DEKU’S EYES. holy --

AND ANOTHER MINUTE TO REALIZE THAT DEKU FUCKING GRABBED THE ACTIVATION TENDRIL WITH HIS BUSTED UP OFA HANDS AND BIT INTO IT WITH HIS RABID OFA JAWS AND SNAPPED THAT SHIT LIKE A FUCKING KITKAT KLJLKSJDLKJFLK WOOOOOOOO I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING BUT GODDAMN. POWER MOVE

(ETA: this is a two-page spread omg. I didn’t even realize at first. this scan ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT DO THIS BADASS PAGE ANY KIND OF JUSTICE but I can’t wait to see the real deal on Sunday holy shit.)

LMAO

DEKU RAGED SO HARD HE TURNED INTO AN ANGRY GHOST SONIC THE HEDGEHOG FKLSKG

(ETA: he actually looks a bit like the Vestiges/Kurogiri tbh.)

meanwhile Tomura basically has the exact same face I would have had in his position. yeah for real man. I don’t even know

p.s. WHEN will people learn to STOP INSULTING KACCHAN IN DEKU’S PRESENCE. WHEN, I ASK!!

WHAT IN THE CINNAMON TOAST FUCK

if this was a physical page I was holding I would have FLUNG THAT SHIT AWAY LIKE THERE WAS A SPIDER CRAWLING ON IT. WHAT THE FUCK

HOT DAMN. well uh. so that’s SUPER DISTURBING, what a lovely panel of Tomura’s melted face slowly growing back while his ears lag behind, and meanwhile that little scar that had been growing and growing and which at one point certain people (ME) thought might turn him into a BEAUTIFUL BUTTERLY instead RIPS HIS FACE IN HALF to reveal the KINDER EGG AFO SURPRISE UNDERNEATH AHHHHH TAKE IT BACK

THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T LET MAD SCIENTISTS PERFORM EXPERIMENTS ON YOU, KIDS. PSA. JUST SAY NO

-- NO!!!

HORIKOSHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fuck

oh my god. I almost would have rather cut away right after the Kacchan incident than freaking cut away NOW of all times, jesus. THAT’S JUST A BITCH MOVE, IS WHAT THAT IS. if we don’t cut back within the next three pages I SWEAR TO GOD

anyway so GUESS WHAT GIGANTOMACHIA’S DOING YOU GUYS. if you guessed “the exact same thing he was doing last time we saw him” then you are absolutely right, because it was actually PRETTY EASY TO GUESS

anyway but he says he detects “master’s scent”, except that there’s apparently two of them. interesting! one in Tartarus and one in Jakku, right? lol Horikoshi has burned me so many times already with his excruciatingly slow reveal of this that I’m not gonna hold my breath just yet, but I’ll get the hype train warmed up JUST IN CASE

okay so meanwhile in downtown Jakku, the heroes are handing off the civilians over to the police and rescue forces while they prepare to engage with “the villain”, by which I assume they mean Gigantomachia. does this mean Iida and Ochako are gonna fight Machia you guys omg

OOH!!!

“PLEASE INFORM THEM ON FOOT” well I know a certain SPEEDY BOI who would be PERFECT for that job oh my. make haste, Tenyar FastmLeggy

WAIT WHICH WAY ARE THEY HEADING

ARE THEY HEADING TOWARDS MACHIA OR TOWARDS DEKU AND AFO

so rather than answering my VERY PERTINENT question, Ochako is instead spending an entire page thinking about how their complete clusterfuck of a life keeps getting exponentially worse all the time! well but she’s not wrong though

NOW SHE’S ALL “GUYS...!” and, rather than explaining ANYTHING AT ALL, Horikoshi is again cutting back to THIS, OMG AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: good thing Kacchan wasn’t awake to see his dramatic “I’ll just get myself impaled for Deku’s sake” plan result in this outcome ALL OF TWENTY SECONDS LATER smdh.)

I ACTUALLY PREFER MY DEKUS NON-CRUMBLED, THANKS. ALSO JUST ON A SIDE NOTE, POOR SHOUTO THOUGH. THE LAST NINETY SECONDS OR SO HAVE BEEN ENOUGH NIGHTMARE FUEL FOR A LIFETIME HAVEN’T THEY

so now he’s all “MIDORIYA!!!” because OF COURSE HE IS. his best friend just got impaled, and his dad too, and now he fully expects to see his other best friend crumble to dust right before his eyes holy shit. T R A U M A ™

-- !!!

somehow in the excitement of the moment I forgot his actual goal for a sec lol. meaning I instantaneously switched from HORRIFIED to GRINNING LIKE A MANIAC :D :D :D come on OFA time to show him what’s what

AND NOW WE’RE SWITCHING OVER TO EVERYONE’S FAVORITE TRIPPY DREAM LANDSCAPE FOR ADDITIONAL DRAMA, WELL OKAY

I’M ON BOARD WITH THIS, WHATEVER. also it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Deku is in fact nekkid underneath that mystical cloud bs, so let’s hope one of his remaining yet-to-be-unlocked quirks is a pants-conjuring quirk lulz

“this place...” yeah we all fucking know what this place is son, let’s get on with this. by my count we’ve only got four pages left so PLEASE BUDGET THEM WISELY

OH MY

holy shit. I have so many screaming thoughts about this lol but I just want to keep on reading lkjlkjlkjl okay I’ll come back later and edit them in, how’s that

OR MAYBE I’LL JUST RANT ABOUT THEM NOW GODDAMMIT

shit. okay let me just try and sum this up as quick as I can

so just in case it wasn’t already crystal clear, AFO’s soul being roommates with Tomura’s seems to be just about 100% confirmed now. good for you, All For One For All theory!! the “Kacchan loses his quirk” theory died so that you might live on in glory

AFO does seem to have almost fully taken control now. it looks like Tomura’s still fighting back, but AFO clearly has the upper hand now if their body language is any indication. Tomura on his knees with AFO calmly holding him down and ignoring his struggles... not looking too good for him at the moment

people seem to have somewhat lost sight of this in the midst of the great “heroes vs. villains Who Is Right Who Is Wrong What Are Morals” debate of 2020, but just a friendly reminder that AFO is in fact responsible for 100% of all of Tomura’s suffering from pretty much the moment he was born up till this very moment we’re now witnessing!! like, you can go ahead and blame Nana and Gran and The Complacent Apathy Of Hero Society and whatever the fuck else from here till Sunday, but All for One is the reason Kotarou was orphaned. All for One is almost certainly the reason why the seemingly quirkless Tenko suddenly just magically developed THE MOST FUCKED UP QUIRK OF ALL TIME at the worst possible moment. All for One is probably the reason why no one helped Traumatized Baby Tenko in the immediate aftermath (I can and likely will write a separate post about this in the near future). All for One is definitely the reason why no one helped Tenko at any point after that. All for One is the reason why Tenko grew up all fucked in the head (“HERE’S YOUR DEAD FAMILY’S HANDS, MERRY CHRISTMAS”), and the reason why he grew up blaming Heroes and Society rather than the sole person who was actually responsible who was literally standing right in front of him the entire time. and lastly, All for One is the reason why Tomura has now been manipulated into unknowingly sacrificing his own body and possibly even his mind. so THANKS A LOT FOR THAT. more like jerk for one amiright

basically what I’m trying to say is that Deku and Tomura are not actually enemies here, and they never have been. the two of them have a common enemy, and I’m convinced Tomura’s story is about him eventually coming to realize this. and this looks to be the first step towards that, for two reasons. one, because AFO is finally starting to out himself to Tomura as the rat bastard he has always been. and two, because Deku is catching a glimpse of this now for the very first time. up until now he didn’t have a damn clue lol. but this is now something for him to file away in the back of his mind, and perhaps follow up on at a later date, once all of this craziness finally subsides and he has some time to process

anyway, so that’s basically it! tl;dr AFO is the final villain and unless I’m very much mistaken, this scene is going to finally start to set that up. let’s read on!

OMG

NANA?!?

lKDSJFLKSHGLISHDOGIHOLRKL

NOOOOOO I can’t believe it fucking ended there I can’t fucking believe it, fuck everything

smdh. what a place to end it. didn’t confirm a damn thing. not even whose mental landscape all of this is actually taking place in! like, don’t mind me though Horikoshi, it’s not like THE FATE OF THE WORLD HINGES ON THIS QUESTION OR ANYTHING except oh wait it really kind of does. kljkj

but seriously. because if it’s Deku’s mind, it means that Tomura’s attempt to take his quirk wasn’t successful. but if it’s Tomura’s mind, though... well... hhhhhhkhfff

or it could be both, I guess. more of that “AFO and OFA are the same quirk and thus linked” goodness. oh man. anyways stay tuned for next week when Nana presumably helps Deku out with the rest of that black fog and also hopefully finds him some pants. or maybe Nana can just go fight AFO herself. a little payback for everything he’s done to her protege and to her grandson. either way I CAN’T WAIT omg. VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

#bnha 286 #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #all for one #bakugou katsuki #todoroki shouto #shimura nana #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #never thought we'd be this close to getting to see nana punch afo in the face #please horikoshi I beg of you please let this happen #if this holds up next week pretty much every single lady of bnha will have gotten their chance to shine in this arc #well except for ochako #but things are looking up on that front too! #what a time to be alive

[dornish-queen]

Pedro Pascal - La Vanguardia

With Javier Peña's mustache as his hallmark, the 'Narcos' and 'Game of Thrones' actor is filming in Budapest with Nicolas Cage and Paco León

Pascal, cultured, seductive and reflective, repeats as Loewe's ambassador for its Solo Mercurio perfume and is a model for 'Magazine Lifestyle'

SYLVIA MARTI   12/13/2020 06:00

 Casual striped jacket, tousled hair, exquisite punctuality, and a room in Budapest. There is something about this man, generous in smiles and answers, great talkative, attractive without clichés. Pedro Pascal, 45 years old and face success. He shot The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in the Hungarian capital with Nicolas Cage and Paco León, who apparently encouraged the show a lot; We see him without seeing him in the Star Wars universe as a galactic bounty hunter in The Mandalorian and he is Maxwell Lord, the eighties villain of Wonder Woman 1984 , perhaps the only blockbuster that, if nothing goes wrong, will make us happy Christmas.

Session in Budapest The Chilean actor shoots 'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent' in the Hungarian capital with Nicolas Cage and Paco León

(full article and photos under the cut)

Chilean by birth, his family left the country fleeing the Pinochet dictatorship when he was a baby. Brief passage through Denmark and new life in San Antonio (Texas). Normal when speaking in your mother tongue some words in English slip through. Think before answering a question without losing spontaneity or being afraid of silence. An art. 

There is still Javier Peña's mustache, which catapulted him to fame from Narcos , and you can recognize that little point of joyous irony of Prince Oberyn Martell, who almost ended the Mountain in Game of Thrones . Two roles that have opened doors that he has managed to keep safe from slamming doors and have allowed him to skip the toll of stereotyped roles. Today Pascal, well trained in theater and loved by the cameras, can do whatever he wants. Even dedicating a Saturday to star in a fashion shoot and speak exclusively for Lifetsyle Magazine .

"Nobody knows me but everyone thinks they know me," he said when he debuted as the face of Solo Loewe perfume. Introduce yourself with four words.”

I do not define myself only by them, but I am contradictory, faithful, loyal, sensitive and, at times, a bit geek.

What would surprise me about you if you knew him better?

That although I live life and enjoy family, friends and social connections a lot, I have a lonely point. I like having my space and the option of staying a day at home in a relaxed and cocoon plan .

“Even though I live life and really enjoy family, friends and social connections, I have a lonely point.”

With Covid-19, many of us are already a little tired of staying at home ...

Yes, now that I don't have much choice to go out, I'm afraid of not being able to go back to the theater, to a party, to a dinner with many people ... I really regret those times that, instead of going out, I stayed at home.

Which character has left the most impression on you?

I miss Peña, from Narcos . It was my first leading role, the first time I had time to develop the character, create his energy, his style ... They gave me a lot of freedom to shape it, even if it was based on a real person. I was able to work on it, make it my own, create the tone, invent and deepen.

Do you easily get rid of them when filming is over?

When I was younger I was very clear that they had to be left at work, that the character had to be separated from the person. I thought that with age it would get easier and easier but, surprisingly, the opposite happens to me: it gets harder and harder. Energy cannot always be organized the way we would like and I have to admit that I take some of my characters home with me.

Have you incorporated any of their phrases into your life?

Maxwell Lord has a very attractive in Wonder Woman 1984 : "Everything is fine, but it could be better."

Very eighties. Like the one Gordon Gekko said on Wall Street (1987): "If you want a friend, buy yourself a dog." Have we advanced or are we already for the fourth pet?

We have come a long way. I am very inspired by young people, their strength to face in an original way that win, win and win system that reached a monstrous level in the eighties. Today's young people go deeper into the need to respect a planet in which we all live together and the obligation to take care of it.

“Young people inspire me, they deepen the need to respect a planet and the obligation to care for it.”

I see you optimistic ...

I am a realistic and hard-working optimist. My first impression is that the glass is half empty, I have to find arguments to see it half full.

Is it true that you drew the comic strips to interact with them as a method to immerse yourself in your character in 'Wonder Woman 1984'?

I made a book with images from the eighties and sixties, comic book drawings, papers, erasers, colored pencils, markers and vignettes to better understand what it was to be a man of that decade, how his attitude was forged ... It was a way to focus to live up to what Patty (Jenkins, the director) asked for, which was a lot, and not lose sight of it. I'm a horrible cartoonist, but I had to do something practical to study, understand, and develop the character.

What does a script or a role have to have to get their attention?

Sense of humor. Even if it is a drama, a hero, a villain ... Humor immediately hooks me.

A good shield to go through life ...

The best. It is the most important thing to survive.

Do you remember the last time you laughed out loud?

Paco León immediately came to mind. When he's on set, here in Budapest, we are all happier and we laugh a lot. The entire production loves it. It has made filming more fun.

“When Paco León is on set, here in Budapest, we are all happier and we laugh a lot”

 What fascinates you most about the Star Wars universe?

Nostalgia, the huge audience it has, the ability to reach so many people. It reflects our childlike imagination without limits. Create more and more worlds with all kinds of people and species. He is capable of casting the universe

What is your definition of success?

Have a healthy relationship with yourself. Nothing matters if you don't love yourself.

What would you have done if you had not succeeded as an actor? Did you have a plan B?

No. Perhaps the only thing that could have been useful to others is acting as a literature teacher, as a counselor or advisor for people who need help ... I am a bit of a therapist with my friends. And it must work, because they come back. I have a lot of common sense.

What is elegance to you? Has your relationship with Loewe influenced the way you dress?

In that of elegance I am a student, I am learning. I wear what is comfortable but I also have very finite taste and, when motivated, I really like to express myself with style. And when it comes to style, Loewe is on top of everything.

Something material that would save from a fire.

A book. I always have one on hand. Now I am rereading The Magic Mountain , by Thomas Mann. Literature is one of my passions. It is an extension of life. The problem would be to choose only one, there are so many! My identity is made by inspirations from authors, actors, dancers, the art world, the sea ... There is no self without the influence of all the things that inspire me.

“The sea is what I like the most in life. I have respect, curiosity and love for him on a religious level.”

The sea…

It's what I like the most in life. I have respect, curiosity and love for him on a religious level.

If he gets lost, I know where to look for him.

On a boat in the middle of the sea, on an island, on the beach in Chile ... Everything related to water. One of the first smells I remember, although I don't know if it's too attractive, is the chlorine in the pool.

What is your fastest way to disconnect?

Losing your mobile phone. I fell down the stairs in Dubrovnik and at first it was like, "Oh noooo." But then I thought, "Well, a week without him." I had a certain feeling of liberation. Not having to be aware of e-mails, messages ... I find it very strong that people communicate even through a direct message from Instagram. I refuse.

Now that you quote them, how are you getting along with the networks? (He has 1.5 million followers on Intagram)

I am quite active, I use it when I have a good time, but also to express myself and to give my opinion.

“I will say goodbye to the year with a kiss and raising the middle finger. He has treated me well but the collective suffering and fear this year….”

What is your favorite word?

Oxymoron. I like its meaning and its sound

Who would you like to shut up, as you did in the first Loewe Solo ad?

Personally, I would love to shut up that heavy, bad voice, the imp that we all have in our heads. That it's nice to have him and that, and I know he will never go away, but it would be nice if he shut up sometimes. Collectively I think we would all like to shut up one person.

Trump?

I suppose.

What have you learned from this rare year?

That you cannot live without human contact. For me the deep and simple connections with my friends and family is the only thing that matters.

How will you fire him?

With a kiss and raising the middle finger. He has treated me very well but the collective suffering and fear this year….

*article translated with google chrome. Source of article*

#Pedro Pascal #jose pedro balmaceda pascal #la vanguardia #magazine article #article #magazine lifestyle #maxwell lord #ww84 #the mandalorian #din djarin #lavanguardia.com

[fizzingwizard]

Digimon Adventure: Ep 19!

Wow! That certainly was an Episode!! It was pretty fun from start to finish, though nothing mind-blowing, but it was definitely the ending that made me gasp. Not wholly unexpected to an old turnip like me, but promising lots of fun (and angst!).

Picture of the week: MIKO, THE TRUE STAR OF THE SERIES!!

no for serious are the writers reading my reviews? they keep giving me what I want. within reason I guess. They seem to have an extremely limited budget as usual x’D

but Miko is still adorbs

ok I’m really looking forward to recapping this one so let’s get to it!

So last week I thought the kids sans Taichi and Yamato were abducted by Devimon, but apparently that either isn’t the case, or it was, but then Devimon decided it’s best just to dump the kids back on Earth and hold on to their partners. Because that’s the current situation. While concerning that the kids are separated from their partners, it’s probably best this way, since Devimon appears to be sending Gesomon(?) and Parrotmon(?)

to the human world, if I remember right. It’s hard to remember what happened in the first fifteen seconds kay So when the kids find their partners it will probably be in the human world and they can fight back.

Meanwhile Taichi and Yamato are alone and very Confuse

Taichi tries frantically to contact Koushirou. The others too... but especially Koushirou.

Finally he gets him!! He’s so happy!! My Taishiro heart flutters!

But I was fully expecting it to be a trap. When I saw this still here, my first thought was “Devimon’s forcing him to tell Taichi a lie by threatening him with a gun!!”

of course thats not whats happening. Koushirou is relatively fine and there are no guns (yet). What’s happened is the other kids have been sent back to the human world for reals this time!

This show is not even bothering to hide its Taiyama angle.

They spend the entire episode giving each other Significant Looks like this. The entire episode.

Now where’s Jou through all of this, you ask?

He went to talk to the police. He’s shocked they don’t believe his story about monster attacks and the world ending (well, at least Tokyo ending). I freaking love how taaaaall Jou is. Though it makes Koushirou look like a bean x’D

Jou = beansprout / Koushirou = bean

Koushirou has a much easier time dealing with the news that the police don’t believe them. He’s a denizen of the Internet. He knows how people’s minds work. And he has tons of chat logs to prove it.

People are chatting and spreading gossip and disbelief and complaints, but my favorite is the comment that just says “It’s a flood of fake news” xP

The home team runs into Mama Yagami! Who Sora literally calls Mama Yagami! x’D I mean I know that’s how kids generally refer to their friends’ parents but I still lol’d.

So un... Jou is almost as tall as Mama Yagami. LMAO. I’m gonna assume she’s short. Jou might indeed be quite tall for his age but Sora and Mimi are pretty close to Mama Yagami’s height too. I guess we haven’t seen Taichi standing next to his mom yet! With his hair he’s probably taller than her.

So Mama Yagami is HILARIOUS and I’m so glad that’s a continuing thing in the reboot! She was already that way in 99 Adventure, but we’re just seeing a lot of it now - like every time she’s around. (And we didn’t see it in Tri so I missed that.) Basically she seems like a basketcase. Not a totally irresponsible one, more like just... generally the carefree go with the flow type. Which is not bad. She just also seems a bit, uh, ditzy?? I think Taichi probably grew to be so serious by necessity. Dad’s busy with work and someone’s gotta make sure mom doesn’t leave the house without her keys!

The way Sora just stares at Hikari like “explain??” after Mama Yagami thrusts Miko at her and runs off to get her car with a big smile as if they hadn’t all nearly died recently... bahahaha.

also I love how she doesn’t even bother asking her son’s good friend if she knows where he is after not seeing or hearing from him for three full days

^The face of a boy shouldering the weight of nuclear family life and all its batshitness

Taichi and Yamato determine their priority is find the Holy Digimon. I wish they were a little more concerned with what happened to their friends’ partners, but I guess this is the only goal with solid clues. Anyway before they can do anything they are attacked by Bulbmon Looks like subtitlers went with Valvemon which also works, who looks like a Lego monster creation by an eight year old (and probably is).

He has the Domo face. Grrraaah

Domo is NHK mascot by the way. bahahaha

Next these guys come swarming out of Valvemon. (And if we didn’t already get it, apparently Digimon can construct other Digimon as we’ve seen before.) Nothing is quite as freaky as gas masks. They are commanded by Minotaurmon/Mintaromon whatever.

They too have the aim of Stormtroopers though so our heroes will be fine...

... probably...

... then Leomon finally shows up!! Yay! He looks good! All beefy and scarred and sounding exactly like Zaraki Kenpachi. Uhh. Is it the same VA?? Nothing comes up in the Google search so maybe not but it sure sounds like him. (Minotaurmon and Ogremon also sound like Leomon... while it’s normal for VAs in kids shows to voice multiple characters esp minor ones, it literally sounds like Zaraki Kenpachi is the voice of all the characters in this episode besides the main ones. And Mama Yagami of course because that would be weird.)

Leomon may look cool, but his ride... and his friends... uh, less cool x’D I want to strangle that ostrich thing with its own scarf somehow it inspires violent emotion in me

In the smallest, most shocked voice, Yamato says, “Leomon...?” It’s honestly kind of adorable. He’s clearly remembering what Neemon said about Leomon leading the resistance way back when.

Leomon helps them escape. Taichi very considerately and cutely helps Agumon aboard the fashion disaster ostrich emu thing.

Yamato also considerately helps his partner but rather less cutely xD

Leomon takes them to his hideout and gives them your standard fare of weird-looking Digi fruit. He then proceeds to tell them about Devimon and that he is trying to infiltrate Valvemon yadda yadda.

Taichi is freaking ADORABLE, immediately concerned that by saving their asses, Leomon’s battle plans have been ruined. Leomon waves that aside though. Yamato is equally adorabibble when he asks after Neemon and gets told that they made it to Leomon safely.

Leomon plans to try to get into Valvemon again because he knows Devimon’s put something related to the holy Digimon in there. Taichi is determined to join in. He doesn’t have much of an argument as it why they should be allowed when they just got their butts kicked so easily, but he has a trick up his sleeve: the Burning Eyes of Fiery Passion.

Not to be outdone, Yamato shoots off his Icy Eyes of Cold Determination.

Faced with this twin assault, Leomon has to give in. Ahh, I remember last week when we saw the trailer for this ep and I naively thought Leomon would train them like Piximon did in 99 Adventure. Nope. They’ve just met and they’re already spy buddies.

Okay, okay, yeah Leomon does seem to have some knowledge of the “Chosen Children” and that’s his real motivation. Still.

They break into Valvemon and we get the excellent invention of Agumon riding on Garurumon. I assume because of Garurumon’s advantageous speed. That seems to be recurring thing in this show.

Idk I just capped this because he’s so darn cute

I don’t know why I capped this one though.

They enter some sort of central space where Leomon tells them something relevant to the holy Digimon is being kept. (Lol I already forgot the details of what he said.) There are two protectors, Minotaurmon and Bullmon. Leomon tells the kids to take Bullmon while he faces down Minotaurmon. These guys might have been somewhat intimidating if we hadn’t already got Perfect level evolutions mastered, not to mention the occasional Jogress :P Sooo I didn’t feel too worried.

... uh, never mind x’D Taichi what are you doing

Yamato saves his idiot butt and almost gets in a bind himself. Once again I’m just wondering why they are sticking at Adult level. Whatever. They win of course

Leomon uses his Fist of the Beast King to maim Minotaurmon. His brilliant one-liner? “I have more than one first.”

Bully: *punches you*

You: ow

Bully: *smirk* I have more than one fist.

You: That’s funny, I only have one, but it’s made of titanium *You punch the bully straight through the stratosphere* Quality over quantity!!!!

*cough*

Our heroes approach the secret compartment supposedly holding something to do with the holy Digimon... Yamato gets a look inside and gets the black shadow of true terror over his eyes

becaue floating inside like some kind of Weapon X experiment is... Takeru!!!

Hold on while I put in my ear plugs. Okay, ready, screech all you want now.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

So... okay. First of all, baby Takeru is sooooooo cute <3 I had two predictions about what happened to Takeru last week. Either he ended up in the digital world and was now on his own, or he got abducted by Devimon. I thought the former was more likely, but in hindsight, it should have been obvious that it was the second. This show misses a lot of points where I feel like they could have developed some relationships or thrown in some drama, but it never passes up a chance for Yamato angst.

So yeah, this is pretty much gonna destroy Yamato xD Not only is the baby brother he wanted to protect no longer at home where he can easily protect him, he’s now in the digital world and in the enemy’s clutches.

I BETTER SEE REALLY TRAUMATIZED YAMATO NEXT WEEK. Of course, I expect him to be cool-headed enough to try to save Takeru, but I will be very disappoint if this goes off with no break downs at all. Takeru is always Yamato’s number one priority!

Super exciteddddd

So I give this ep 7.5/10. The .5 is pretty much for ending with a killer cliffhanger. My one real complaint about this ep is how highly plot-based everything is - we finally got the team all together only to split them up, and on top of that, once split up, we don’t even get all that many character moments between Taichi and Yamato. As I said, they give each other lots of Signifcant Looks, but man cannot live on bread alone. However this is par for the course for this show and I know I should stop mentioning it every week because I doubt it’s changing. We will get the big shockers when we get them and not a moment before.

I just want Yamato to cry in front of Taichi and make him all uncomfortable x’D That’s what made 99 Adventure so great bahahaha

Some cool bits from next week’s trailer:

Surprise surprise, Angemon is the holy Digimon! Or one of, anyway. And he is indeed trapped. This makes the “Angemon is Devimon” theory less likely. Let’s not forget that our heroes’ Digimon partners were evidently a band of powerful warriors in the past, but they’ve forgotten much of it. I won’t be surprised if the result of that war played a part in Angemon’s abduction.

Next week they’ll have to fight to save Takeru from being drained, I guess.

And then!! Digi egg! Excite. Also I only just noticed that his hate says TK!!!

Takeruuu <3 My first fav when I was 10. Though my heart has belonged to Taichi for many long years, I still have a special spot in it for Takeru only <3 Even if he does dress like a celery stick

#digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure: #digimon adventure reboot #digi spoilers #digimon #fizz watches digimon 2020 #i made edits lets see if they save for once...

[beneaththetangles]

Otaku Reader’s Corner: Smile Down the Runway, Bibliophile Princess, and Oregairu

Tearmoon Empire (Vol. 1)

As Tearmoon Empire vol. 1 opens, protagonist Princess Mia (clearly inspired by Marie Antoinette) dies on the guillotine…only to wake up as a twelve-year-old! Now Mia strives to avert the coming revolution. The story challenges readers by offering divergent interpretations of Mia’s character. The people around Mia are often impressed by what they perceive as her kindness & insight, while the snarky narrator mocks them as delusional fools, insisting anything Mia does that appears good actually comes from entirely selfish, petty motives. I loved this book. I loved the history-inspired premise, Mia, supporting characters like Anne & Abel, & the thought-provoking unreliable narrator. This is a fantastic light novel and I strongly recommend it. – Jeskai Angel

Tearmoon Empire (Vol. 1) is available through Amazon.

My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, as I Expected (Vol. 7.5)

I’ve read most of the Oregairu volumes already (admitedly fan translations before they were licensed), but it’s been some time, and with the final anime season to cover the remaining light novels and about to start airing, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to revisit my favorite series. Volume 7.5 was one I didn’t remember well. A collection of “side stories” and “special acts,” it’s a lovely addition to the franchise. The picture of Miura on the cover gives you insight to what it’s all about—a chance for supporting characters to shine and for Watari to take us down some routes not entirely fitting with the main storyline. But as always, the writing is excellent, and further you get some nice illustrative pieces, like Yui’s calendar and a beautiful full-color foldout with Yukinon and Hikki on one side and Hiratsuka in a wedding dress on the other. This is must-own for any fan of the franchise! – Twwk

My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, as I Expected (Vol. 7.5) is variable through Amazon.

My Father is a Unicorn

This one volume manga is a concept that was just too ridiculous to not read. Our main character comes home from school one day to find out that his mother re-married…a unicorn. The unicorn Dad can go back and forth between human and unicorn form. I saw Morgana Santilli‘s review of it for Comic Beats and had to check it out. Ended up really enjoying it. If you enjoy silly stories about what defines us as family (which I do) and find yourself needing more horse jokes/puns in your life (which, of course I do), then this may be for you. – MDMRN

My Father is a Unicorn is available through Amazon.

Bibliophile Princess (Vol. 1)

There’s no such thing as too many light novels with bookworm protagonists. Bibliophile Princess is a more of a shoujo romance take on the story, with protagonist Elianna not only trying to get a hold of rare books, but also trying to figure out what to make of her relationship with the prince that she’s somehow betrothed to. The first volume consists of two major arcs, and each one feels like a full story in and of itself, albeit told in a somewhat strange fashion as events play out without explanation until the end. The highlight of this volume is definitely Elianna herself, who is the main narrator and provides plenty of amusing commentary on everything going on; plus, her bookworm tendencies gets put to good use as she helps the people of the kingdom out with the knowledge from those books. Fans of shoujo or of bookworm protagonists should definitely give it a shot. – stardf29

Bibliophile Princess (Vol. 1) is available through Amazon.

Smile Down the Runway (Vol. 6)

I’ll be real here, while I still think the anime was a good adaptation for the story, that doesn’t change the fact that it had to cram around 75 chapters’ worth of content into 12 episodes. Unfortunately, for that to be feasible, a lot of minor plot points and relationship details had to be either changed or omitted altogether so that the bigger ones took more focus. Right now, Kodansha’s released the midpoint of the Geika arc, so if you’re up for reliving the series again during this time, I’d strongly recommend reading the manga from the very beginning. – thathilomgirl

Smile Down the Runway (Vol. 6) is available through Amazon.

Your Lie in April (Vol. 3)

Our readers (and me) all seem to be huge fans of the Your Lie in April . I have watched it twice at this point and am working on a third watch-through now. Only recently did I discover that my library network has all of Your Lie in April. I started on volume 1 and it is gorgeous. The art is just breathtakingly well done and the story…well, I’ve seen the anime so I know what’s happening. Yet, the manga presents everything so incredibly well that I can’t put each new volume down. I’m 3 volumes in, but if you liked the anime a little bit—I would absolutely recommend the manga. I mean, it’s the manga series Eiichiro Oda (the creator of One Piece) wishes he could have created, so…that’s high praise. – MDMRN

Your Lie in April (Vol. 3) is available through Amazon.

I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! (Vol. 1)

I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! vol. 1, is a new entry in the reincarnated-into-a-video-game subgenre of isekai tales, this time using the premise for serious fantasy adventure, plus some shoujo elements. When protagonist Kiara realizes her strange dreams are memories of a past life, & she’s living in a tactical RPG where she’ll become a villain & die by hero’s hand, she immediately takes flight. Naturally, she gets entangled with the game’s protagonist & his associates. The integration of Kiara’s tragic background with her character is outstanding. The story quickly reveals that Kiara has had an abusive childhood, & at first I found it off-putting how well adjusted she seemed to be. But as I kept reading, I realized Kiara’s sad backstory isn’t just a pile of tropes used for cheap drama: the abuse she endured profoundly shapes her character is realistic, subtle ways. I heartily recommend this one. – Jeskai Angel

I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! (Vol. 1) is available through Amazon.

#Manga #Light Novels #Smile Down the Runway #Bibliophile Princess #My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong as I Expected #Tearmoon Empire #My Father is a Unicorn #I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! #Your Lie in April #Runway de Waratte #Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari #Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru. #My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU #Unicorn Otousan #Watashi wa Teki ni Narimasen! #Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso #Articles #Author: thathilomgirl #Author: JeskaiAngel #Author: TWWK #Author: MDMRN #Author: stardf29

[scribblewriting65]

Top 5 YouTube Channels

Intro

Communication is a powerful and ever-changing force; especially with the rise of the Internet in recent decades. And no online service knows this better than YouTube. Hosting thousands of channels and millions of videos, no website has sucked away our free time quite like Big Red.

Today I would like to acknowledge 5 of the platform’s strongest creators, in my eyes. Whether it be for their intelligent content or the sheer fun they bring, to me, these guys are some of the best of the best; and proudly hold some of my greatest respect.

Quick disclaimers: This is my first writing like this, and as you know, opinions can change over time; so please lower your pitchforks and know that there are plenty of channels I love. Also, when writing this, I don’t have a particular order in mind (Except for #1). Whether you find your favorite on the bottom, top, or nowhere at all, know that these guys deserve a watch (if my digital mouth has any impact on your choices, that is).

Enough talk though. Onward, to appreciation!

#5: JT Music

Art is mankind’s most unique unifier, and no art brings people together quite like music. Whether it be country, funk, or rap in this pick’s case, you can look just about anywhere for a good time.  And while rock star NateWantstoBattle is a close second in this regard, no musician really does it for me quite like JT.

While most would look at the genre “Video Game Rap” with an upturned nose, those that stick around won’t find anything quite like what Skull and Pat bring to the table. Their weekly tunes always bring a fire to my subscription feed, whether they’re putting me into the role of a badass superhero, or dragging me into the darkest abyss, I can just about always have a good time nodding my head to the beat.

Not only is their work consistently fun, but it’s also wide in diversity, and constant in quality. Hits like Follow Father, No Hero, and Hungry for Another One capture their source material perfectly within a musical context. Even their cameo appearances in tracks like DAGames’ We Want Out and Zack Boucher’s Ultimate Super Smash Bros. Rap steal the show with their wild energy. I always find myself smiling when I find their newest song; getting a small amount of enjoyment even in my less liked tracks.

Consistent fun and passion can be felt in the notes, and I can’t help but rock my skull out when JT Music starts playing.

#4: GameXplain

Games offer a wide variety no matter where you look. No matter if you’re looking for a deep insight into 30 second clips, latest updates on a title, or general thoughts on an event, you can always find something, or someone, explaining the perspective for you.

I’m a funny guy, aren’t I?

GameXplain has certainly explored over the years. From Cool Bits and Missing In Action in the past, to their famous modern Analyses and Discussions, Andre and friends have always hosted an approachable place with a variety of outlooks from its diverse crew, like Andre’s obsession with Stunt Race FX and Ash’s knowledge and love of Mega Man.

Even if you aren’t super into any of their interests, you’ll still find a laid-back but insightful pool of content. Their discussions are a personal favorite of mine, bringing fun, thoughtful ideas to events or ideas occurring in the gaming industry. I can’t help but get caught up in their hype, especially for Nintendo Directs or the annual E3 Show.

Even if I don’t quite understand the excitement that something is receiving, I can always go to these guys for a solid explanation and platform to join the hype train.

#3: Mithzan

It seems that no matter where you go, Minecraft can be found there. Games, books, plushies, animations, even an entire convention; those familiar blocks pervade some space of modern culture. While this space has hosted some incredible creations, simplicity also has its own beauty.

Mithzan uses this simplicity to great effect. With his buddies Ross, Pooki, Jerry and frequent guests, Max is always there to give me a laugh. And while Minecraft holds a variety of fun games like Would You Rather and Never Have I Ever, Mithzan also offers experiences outside of the blocks, like Uno and Dead by Daylight.

Along with the wide content, the experiences and humor are also varied, sometimes employing puns or old-fashioned smack talk, to name a few. Even with the different conversations and games, the fun and heart are always there. Whether he’s playing a wacky or horrifying game, Mithzan is approachable and honest with his style of play.

#2: Mother’s Basement

Appearances can be deceiving, no matter where you look. Assumed bullies are victims themselves, ‘loner’ people are simply introverted, and the most stubborn ones find themselves lost in an unexpected niche. All it takes is a little looking around, and you’ll find a new lesson or friend more often than not.

And what better place to look for insight than in a Mother’s Basement?

While not all people can see the artistry that anime brings to the table, Mother’s Basement brings its potential to the limelight. With weekly insights and discussions on things like how animation enhances an atmosphere or what makes a fight extraordinary in Animelee, the ideas and thought put into these discussions is top-notch.

Along with this, Geoff (the host)’s voice is great support, staying calm but strong, adding great emphasis on major points. He even provides touches of comedy and actual life advice into his videos. I find myself especially entertained with his analyses on My Hero Academia and Fullmetal Alchemist, but Geoff also covers topics like best romantic partners and essential shows to watch (and avoid), and pointing out his reasons why. Even if anime isn’t your style, there are some videos dotted in discussing topics like the nuances of binge-watching in “Is Binge Watching Bad for Us? (Netflix vs. Disney+)” and other media like movies (“Spider-Verse: The Ultimate Spider-Man Movie”) and video games (“Insomniac’s Spider-Man is Truly Superior”).

While it took some time to grow on me, I’m glad to have been welcomed into Mother’s Basement. With plenty of insight and care put into each video, Geoff is just about always a good choice for fun education on how artistic Japanese animation can be.

#1:Fawful’s Minion

The world is full of stories; they’re simply part of human nature. Whether it be fantasy, drama, or comedy, all of us have the potential to weave tales that inspire. And none have inspired me on YouTube quite like Fawful’s Minion.

This mean bean gaming machine has the mouth of a divine artist. His videos always bring a bright smile and incredible awe to me for just how much quality and care goes into each video. Fawful’s Top 10’s have never let me down with their fun, reasons, and pure passion that is tangible in every project.

Not only are the videos fun, but they’re also inspiring too. Fawful’s linguistics is beyond captivating, even partially motivating how I speak and write. Along with constantly being a good time, I’m always inspired to write or gain a storytelling voice whenever I watch an FM video.

And the touches of insight into his personal life give Fawful an air of relatability. Now, I realize I may make him sound like some sort of Shakespearian poet, but he also dispels this through his more colorful language, bringing in modern terms (and curses) and joyful, nearly maniacal at times, laughter and emotion into his speech, making himself grounded and relatable.

Most of all, Fawful’s storytelling skills were, and still are, a big reason why I write and tell my own stories. I want to enrapture others with my words like Fawful does, so he gets a big thanks and respect in my book. Balancing fun, humor, emotion, and creativity, Fawful’s Minion has made a goon out of me, running towards the goal of becoming a true storyteller.

Outro

If you made it here, thanks for sticking around! I wanna maybe try these sorts of blog/list posts more often, so tell me what you think! If you like this and want to see more, feel free to check out my AO3 Page: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribbleWriting65. I hope you enjoyed this little list, and I’ll see you next time!

#scribblewriting65 #top 5 #list #jt music #mithzan #gameXplain #opinion

[oneinuniverse]

The Forgotten Shiverers

Recently I’ve been engrossed in the book Magicians of the Gods which meticulously details the global catastrophe that occurred about 12,000 years ago.

As I read I imagine what the visceral experience of living through this must have been like…

You’ve surely heard of the ice age, it was long and cold, an icy hell that our ancestors had to trudge through for countless millenniums.

But without that soul chilling cold we would not have us.

We would not have mathematics, architecture or literature. We would not have medicine and technology. We would not have philosophy or democracy. We would not have our cultural values of civility, justice and honor.

The cold presented an extraordinary evolutionary pressure, the cold was such an insidious and persistent assassin that only the fittest and cleverest individuals and tribes could avoid it’s deathly embrace.

The long, cold winters punctuated by short summers forced our ancestors to think deeply and critically about the future — the primacy of planning ahead.

Hunters made up for their relative frailty by fashioning weapons out of wood, bone and rock.

Faced with the formidable and unrelenting foe of the cold they developed strict and disciplined systems of social hierarchy and duty.

Many months out of the year would be spent doing nothing but shivering in a cave around a fire. This idle time gave the creative mind the opportunity to flourish; people learned to paint, sing, dance and tell stories. Some would ponder the nature of life, death and the stars.

I can just imagine the people living at that time probably had cultural histories reaching back several hundred, possibly several thousand years. All they knew knew was that they were a tribe destined to scrounge for a little bit of meat on Hoth. And then inexplicably, it started getting warmer.

The summer got a little longer every year, the winter a little less tortuous every year. Old people were probably pessimistic and disbelieving that the world was becoming a more welcoming place to live whereas younger people might have had a deep sense of optimism about a warmer future.

As calories became more abundant and more and more of the climate skepticsdied off our ancestors become a hopeful people. As the immediate threat of death by freezing diminished, men devoted their efforts towards noble pursuits of developing civilization.

Then a comet appeared in the sky…

A comet more brilliant than anyone could remember and it would punish them cruelly for their hope of a warmer world. In a scene that would shame the latest Hollywood disaster porn flick rocky fragments of the comet streaked through our atmosphere and broke apart a giant ice sheet covering Canada and parts of northern Europe.

The Earth betrayed those who prayed for longer days and warmer summers when entire continents were transformed into storms of fire and ice; violent floods and tidal waves wiped out human settlements which were concentrated on the coasts, massive forest fires raged and oceans of mud rained down. The sun and heavens were blotted out by a dusty, overcast sky. It must have seemed like the whole universe was dying.

The cold returned with a vengeance.

Temperatures plummeted and did not rebound. When the water from the great floods finally receded once rich pasturelands were transformed into barren rock strewn hellscapes. Lush forests had been felled or transformed into ashes. Fearsome megafauna that once provided much needed protein could no longer be found, even by the most tenacious hunter. As our numbers dwindled the few survivors cursed the heavens for the cruel fate of being made to wander this barren graveyard of the former antediluvian land. At one point there was perhaps as few as 50 humans surviving.

Generations came and went without even seeing the stars.

Despite the utter cruelty of life, people were motivated to get up and leave their caves in search of a little bit of sustenance. A man’s life was a cauldron of suffering with a thin silver lining; the fleeting moments of sweaty passion he would have with his cavewoman in the flickering firelight.

This was like a WAY longer version of the Game of Thrones 10 year winter but instead of the dragons, riveting drama and epic sword fights there was boredom and hunger.

For over a thousand years of the Younger Dryas ice age, these poor souls waded through snow with leaky shoes and slipped and slided on icy paths, motivated to suffer through another winter by a glimmer of hope that it might get warm again like the legends of the past talked about.

Nobody remembers their names.

Nobody remembers their faces. Nobody remembers the songs they used to sing for good cheer while huddling around a fire in their caves. Nobody visits their graves. Nobody thanks them in their prayers. Nobody knows what their language sounded like. Nobody knows what they called themselves.

Don’t you wish you had a time machine and could show one of these forgotten sufferers the extraordinary lives of comfort and hedonism that we enjoy? You could show them that all that suffering and striving that they went through actually paid off in an multitudinously better quality of life for their descendants. Don’t you wish you could thank them for the hell they went through so you could live the charmed life you have?

Considering the extraordinary potential of the technology and medicine and the stupendous suffering and irrationality in the world, are we in a spiritual sense, not all that different from our ancestors?

Could the future be as drastic an improvement for those who come after us as the present is for those who came before us?

With our shivering ancestors in mind, what could you do that would be damned uncomfortable to advance towards your goals?

Source: https://medium.com/@jonathanroseland/forgotten-shiverers-fd28637759ab

Author: Jonathan Roseland 

#iceage #mistery #history #youngerdryas #grahamhancock #climatechange #endofworld #like #weknowit

[eternityunicorn]

Elijah’s Eternity: New Orleans Part Twelve +18

Author: eternityunicorn 

Genre: Romance/Drama/AU

Pairing: Elijah Mikaelson x OC

Warnings: Violance, Smut (*Smut chapters marked +18)

Summary: Sequel to the AU Elijah’s Eternity - Ten years have passed, a mournful Elijah has finally started to move on without his lady. In that time, he has gained a reunited family and has also found a new lady love. Yet, all is not well as danger comes for the smallest member of the Mikaelson family: Hope, and it prompts Niklaus to call upon the white goddess, drawing her back into Elijah’s life. As they reunite, can Elijah really say he’s truly moved on?

NOTE: OC and original elements are from my up and coming novel series!

———————————————————————————————————

Elijah escorted Eternity all over the French Quarter, but not just to enjoy the day with her. He found he was deeply concerned about what he had seen earlier. Céleste’s face continued to haunt him, chasing after him like an apparition that wouldn’t leave him be. He went looking for her in a subtle way, taking his lady all over the place, trying to see if he could find the long dead witch while acting as a tour guide to the immortal queen. Yet, there wasn’t any sign of her. 

Just what in the hell was going on? 

“Elijah, you saw something earlier,” Eternity finally said to him, as they reached the docks. “You are troubled, searching for something or someone. A witch? Ah, an old flame that is supposedly long dead.”

She was searching his thoughts, yet he didn’t care. He wanted to be open to her, always.

“Céleste DuBois, yes,” interjected Elijah, as he looked out over the water. He had let go of Eternity’s hand and now stood a little ahead of her with his hands shoved into his pants pockets, a sign of his troubled state of mind. “I saw her earlier or something that looked like her anyway.”

His lady came closer to him, “I did not sense evil or any sort of power. Though that doesn’t mean that something sinister isn’t going on, of course.”

He turned back to her and saw the concern upon her lovely features. Immediately he went to her, cupping the side of her neck with a soft smile and then pulling her into his embrace. Holding Eternity calmed Elijah’s stormy thoughts. The feel of her warmth and the sweet scent that seemed to permeate through every part of her was exactly what he needed at the moment. She gave him clarity - and peace.

Pulling back a little, he kissed Eternity’s forehead tenderly. “I apologize for dragging you around,” he said quietly. “I should have told you what I saw when it had happened. Instead, not only did I take you all over the place with ulterior motives, but I also forced you to search my thoughts for the reason to my strange behavior.”

Eternity smiled at him,“Elijah, it’s alright. I’d probably do the same, if an apparition of my former lover showed up out of the blue. Don’t worry, we’ll find out the truth of this matter. For now, let’s go home.”

Elijah took her hand in his again and brought it to his lips, kissing the palm gently. Then, still with her hand in his, he lead her away from the docks and headed back to the Mikaelson compound.

For the rest of the day, the two of them spent cooped up in his study. Elijah and Eternity spent that time attempting to figure out what he had seen or rather what it could mean. The immortal queen had tried multiple different spells and powerful tricks, but came back with nothing. Eternity was the most powerful immortal there was, yet even she couldn’t find the origin of what it was he had seen. Not the energy of a spirit or of someone pulling the strings.

“I am powerful, not all powerful,” she explained to him, when she kept coming back empty handed. “Perhaps, there is someone cloaking their power, keeping me from seeing them. Though it doesn’t help that we don’t know to what end anyone would want to send visions of your former flame, if they were visions at all. Maybe whomever this is, is Earth-based. An old enemy of yours? You and your kin do have a lot of people you’ve angered over the years, but if that’s the case, then they are definitely partnered with someone from the other side of the divide.”

Elijah thought about it. It was possible there was someone out there with a vendetta against him. In fact, it was very plausible. It wouldn’t be the first time some former lover or friend came out of the woodwork with some grievance against him personally or one against his family. And if this someone found a partner from the Immortal Universe, much like his own brother had once upon a time, then that made them all the more dangerous.

“But who would care enough to form such an alliance on the immortal side?” He wondered. “I doubt it’s Bruno. This doesn’t seem like something he would bother with, as gaining power is his goal.”

Eternity nodded, “Aye, it’s not my brother and there’s only one other person whom knows you from the Immortal Universe that is of darkness.”

He knew exactly to whom she referred, “Loki? But how is that even possible? He’s dead.”

“Nothing is impossible, especially where he is concerned,” she smiled humorlessly at him. “It’s very possible that he’s up to something beyond the grave. What that something is, I can’t begin to guess, but if it is him, that apparition you saw is no doubt just the beginning of whatever scheme he has planned.”

Elijah didn’t like the sound of that. Loki was supposed to be gone for good, yet Eternity was telling him that the Trickster could be up to no good from beyond the grave. Again, they didn’t know what it was that he was attempting to accomplish, except for driving Elijah to madness perhaps. One would think that Loki’s target would be Eternity herself since she was the one that he was obsessed with and the one that had killed him, but it seemed the Trickster wasn’t interested in being predictable, choosing the Original as his target - if it were indeed him as the cause, of course.

“We’ll just have to wait and see if Céleste shows herself again or if some other new development occurs,” the immortal queen told him. “Then maybe we can start to piece together whatever is going on.”

Elijah sighed defeatedly, “Yes, I suppose that is the best course of action.”

Eternity grinned humorously at him then, a little laugh escaping her, which prompted him to gaze at her curiously.

“I’m unclear as to what you find funny here, Sweetheart,” he said sternly, folding his arms across his chest. “Care to share?”

“Forgive me,” she replied, “I was just thinking about how glad I am that you’re the patient one, unlike your hybrid brother Niklaus. Then I had a humorous vision of him wanting to burn the Universal Kingdom and beyond to the ground looking for Loki or whoever the culprit is in this, as we both know he would. It was rather cartoonish, the rage of which he was using, in my vision.”

Elijah then smirked, “Well, who’s to say that I don’t want to do the same? I might be calmer than Niklaus, but I can be just as ruthless and determined as him. Maybe burning down the entirety of your kingdom is the course of action I wish to take.”

Eternity rolled her eyes at him, “I should say not, you’re not reckless or impulsive enough to want to take on the entire Universal Kingdom. I could see your brother going head first into confrontation with the Immortal Universe without considering the fact that he is in no real position to make threats or demands, nor is he capable of contending with those on that side of the divide in the first place. Despite being completely out of his element and lacking any real knowledge of the immortals, Niklaus would play alpha and stroll about as if he owned the place. It wouldn’t go over well at all - for him, I mean.”

He chuckled as the imagery of his little brother going around and trying to command those stronger than him danced around in his mind. Yes, that was rather humorous and completely plausible. It was fortunate that Niklaus didn’t have the means to travel that far and that he was stuck being an Earth-based immortal with the same limitations of travel as humans.

“I admit,” he said to Eternity, “that is quite amusing to think about and you’re correct in that I would never behave in such a reckless way. It’s certainly not my style.”

She approached him then with a fond smile and he immediately drew her against him bodily, unable to resist doing so. Her hands wound around his neck and her fingers threaded through his short hair. Then they kissed passionately, her lips upon his in a dominating fashion. 

“I know you’re worried about this new development with your former,” Eternity murmured against his mouth, a twinkle of mischief in her sapphire eyes, “but maybe I can help take your mind off it, even if for only a little while.”

This was it, he thought. This was the moment that Elijah had been waiting for in the months he spent reconnecting with Eternity. Finally, it felt right to make love to her, as he had desired to since her return into his life.

Elijah didn’t move to stop her as she kissed him even more vigorously and let her push him back until he collided with one of his ceiling to floor bookcases. The shelves and their contents rattled with the force she used, but neither paid much attention to it. He grunted in response to the rough treatment, but quickly recovered.

His hands were on her instantaneously, running up her back and then gripping the silky fabric of the light blue sundress she was wearing in his strong grip and cleanly tearing it in two. Once the ruined dress pieces were tossed aside, Elijah cupped one of her breasts and kneaded it firmly in his palm. His other hand reached up to tangle in the hair at the back of her head, fisting it tightly and tearing her mouth from his. 

They stared at each other; their chests heaving wildly in their passion, their eyes burning with pent up need that they had been holding back from each other over the past few months. It was only a beat before Elijah’s mouth was upon hers again in a dominant and devouring kiss, his tongue darting into her mouth where he tasted her like a starved man. She could only cling to him in his frenzy, gripping his shirt in her hands as she let him have his way. 

Then with her superior strength to his, Eternity pushed him back into the bookshelves again, ripping her mouth from his in the process. This time things came crashing down off the selves around them, but neither immortal cared. Their eyes were locked upon each other as they stared in that wild, frenzied sort of way again for a split second, before the queen began tearing his clothes from his body in the same way he had her. Her little hands proceeded to tug his suit jacket from him, undo his tie deftly, and then she literally tore his dress shirt into two, so that his upper body was completely bared to her. 

She admired him before she started on a downward path. Her mouth attached itself to his jaw, his neck, his chest, his abdomen. Her hands trailed after her lips, touching him so delightfully that he felt himself shiver slightly in pleasure at the light contact. His eyes remained on her as she knelt before him on her knees, kissing his skin just above the hem of his pants. Then her gaze returned to his face for a second, a wicked smirk upon her pink lips, before she eagerly undid his belt and opened his pants, tugging them and his boxers down just enough to expose his hardened length. 

Eternity didn’t waste another moment. Her mouth enveloped him like a starved woman, taking him into the warm wet cavern and swirling her tongue over the hot flesh of his cock as she did. It was instantaneous that his hands found their way to be tangled in her hair. His head lulled back against the bookshelves as his eyes screwed shut from the wonderful feeling of her mouth upon him. He parted as his heart rate climbed from her attentions.

Then she began to bob, taking him in and out of her mouth steadily. He couldn’t help it when his hips bucked in response to his lady’s ministrations. It wasn’t long before instinct drove him to take control and he began to thrust in and out of her mouth of his own accord. It was incredible a feeling, especially as she relinquished control to him. However, when he got to the point he could feel the end approaching, he forced her to withdraw. 

With her hair fisted in one hand and that suave finesse of his, Elijah knelt down gracefully like a predator before her. “I don’t normally use crude terms,” he said with a quiet rumble, “but Sweetheart, I am going to fuck you until you beg me to stop...and then some.”

Eternity moaned and shivered at his words, her tongue poking out to lick her lips. Her sapphire eyes flashed at him in their burning with need. “Do it,” she challenged wantonly, her voice rough from her own passion.

Elijah pulled her mouth to his then, kissing her fervently. As he did, he moved slowly to push her back against the hardwood floor until she lay flat with him hovered over her, between her parted thighs. Her hands raked up his back and tangled into his short hair, while one of his reached between their bodies to align his cock with her wet entrance. 

With one hard thrust, he was inside her and he stilled upon burying himself to the hilt. The feeling of it was intense, especially since they had been apart for over a decade. He had forgotten just how wonderful it really was to be inside the goddess - his goddess. But he didn’t remain paused for long as his body cried out for him to take her to the fullest of his ability. 

He wasn’t gentle as he took her. His thrusts were rough and needful, but Eternity wasn’t exactly idle or gentle either. Her nails continued to rake up and down his back, while they continued to kiss passionately, his mouth having never left hers. He snarled into her mouth from her much welcomed abuse and it drove him to take her even harder and faster then before until she was letting out a muffled scream. 

One of his hands returned to tangling in her hair, while the other supported him on the floor beside her head. The needful, animalistic energy between them was so greatly intense that Elijah found himself digging his fingers into the hardwood, splintering it from the strength he subconsciously used and leaving claw marks with bits of blood there as a result. He didn’t even notice it or the pain it caused, as he was simply lost in Eternity.

Elijah carried on obliviously, fucking Eternity into the floor until she was tearing her mouth from his and screaming at the top of her lungs from the pleasure that wrecked her body - all of which was his doing. It wasn’t long before they had reached their peaks and were tumbling over it together in a blinding bliss that left them both screaming to the heavens as their orgasms tore through them. 

Elijah collapsed upon Eternity in a momentary bout of weakness, his energy zapped from him. His form trembled against her quaking one. Finally, he thought in his euphoria, finally she was his entirely again. He laid a kiss to her neck, where he had buried his face in the aftermath of their joining. 

They rested there without words being exchanged. They were simply contented. However, it wasn’t long before the wild passion they had for each other was reignited and they were once more tangled in each other. So lost were they to their need that they hadn’t sensed nor seen the shadowy figures floating just outside the study windows, watching them with sinister intent before vanishing again.

To Be Continued...

#elijah mikaelson #daniel gillies #original character #elijah x eternity #romance #alternate universe #alternative universe #drama #the originals #the originals fanfiction #the vampire diaries #the vampire diaries fanfiction #klaus mikaelson #hope mikaelson #hayley marshall #klaus x hayley #rebekah mikaelson #finn mikaelson #freya mikaelson #kol mikaelson

[gascon-en-exil]

A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

#Fire Emblem #Mostly serious but not entirely

[kevinallenblog]

Blade Runners vs. Meta Fiction

I stopped watching Supernatural. For a good while this time. The episode that did me in was "Blade Runners". Remember, the one that started with Snooki? I can get past them using a forced pop-culture cameo, especially when seeing it with a 5 year break from the flash-in-the-pan, but man was her acting terrible. Still, that’s just a meh scene that the boys made decent. The episode continues with Crowley and his whole mess of a scenario. I actually just walked in on my girlfriend catching up to me with this episode, right at the scene in which Crowley gets back to his old self again and puts the fear in Lola, who changes her entire perspective toward him on a dime, and then he resumes being incomplete Crowley. And so we’re clear, my problem isn’t a flawed Crowley, having a need and thus the potential for a reel story arc. My problem is with spotty writing. For example:

Sam and Dead come to Crowley’s aid and chastise him for not having his crap together on account of being an addict, which is entirely their fault! They attempted to cure him of demonhood and backed out at the last minute, leaving him incomplete, and putting themselves in this mess they keep complaining about. It still bothers me they aren’t finishing the process to rid the world of all demons forever, because it includes the two they are desperate to be rid of. Every time they gripe about Abadon or Crowley, I just wanna shout at them over it. So thank goodness Crowley kinda does that for me and chews them out for their part in all of this. At least somebody remembers.

I also can’t tell what this episode is trying to be at times. The scene where Crowley’s emotional damn bursts and he steps up to their berating of him. Is it supposed to be funny? Why? Crowley is a junky who is finally owning up to his problem and baring his soul. And the scene of Dean interrogating the antiquities representative, why did it suddenly go the ‘sexy’ route? Or was that supposed to be funny too?  I sincerely do not know.

Anyway... they’re in Magnus’ collection/zoo/fortress/lair/house, which no one can ever visit (some zoo, amirite?), and he has these disenfranchised monsters in his collection which are willing to die for him. I assume the obedience is from spellwork, but I’ve seen this episode three times now, and it still seems odd. Nevertheless, I think Magnus is a wonderfully charming antagonist. I appreciate the variety of his spells, mixed with good ol’ fashioned human ingenuity. So I enjoyed these scenes even if I think a Winchester being pseudo-possessed by a mystical force is hackneyed at this point. But it ends, Magnus ends, and the episode is about to end. Sam blurts out a thought that could have waited until Crowley wasn’t in earshot and all their hard work is undone. Conflict, conflict, credits.

So, I had a hard time continuing. Luckily my Netflix queue ran out and I just finished Defenders, so my bar wasn’t very high anymore, and I resumed. “Mother’s Little Helper”, that was an episode that happened.

And then “Meta Fiction”. Now this is an episode. It's fitting this would be the best written episode of the season, considering the superb opening monologue it gave itself regarding good writing. The monologue immediately engaged me, and the title card clued me in that this would be something special. I definitely wasn’t expecting that opening monologue to tie back in, let alone so creatively and with an entirely different tone! That was cool. And I definitely didn’t Gabriel to be back!! That was awesome! I don’t even care that it doesn’t make sense, he's great! Also, real quick, I would love to see the buddy road-trip adventures of these two. So yeah, Gabriel is witty and fun, and Castiel is clever and grounded, together they are a great pair who lead us to the confrontation with Metatron. He, himself, has stepped up as a full-fledged villain. With a theme. I mean, he's definitely driving the writer angle as hard as he can, but it gives him a memorable quality and, in some weird way, an interesting motive. It justifies drama for drama's sake, yet he has a specific goal of becoming the hero through an epic war saga. It's a great take on the wanna-take-over-the-world trope. And even better, he's brought in Castiel, by his own will or not, into his plan while also opposing him at the same time. This all is super compelling and interesting stuff and I just want the show to stick with this story line for the last half of this season.

Oh no... is my favorite character Metatron? No, that can't be. I'm just really into the long-awaited progression of this story. They've had it on the back burner since the angels fell. I trust the boys will slay another big bad when the time comes, so let's move over and see what Cass is workin' on for a while. Or at the least, bring him into the fold.

Anyway, as per the rules I have to share my new favorite character. And the Trickster/Loki/Gabriel was in this episode so it counts.

#Supernatural #Blade Runners #Meta Fiction #SPN #review #Crowley #Castiel #Metatron #bad tv #good tv #good writing

[rhymelawliet]

I watched Netflix’s DEATH NOTE Adaptation. Here are my thoughts.

Let me begin by saying that I didn’t HATE it. For someone who has considered ‘Death Note’ my favorite manga/anime for nearly a decade, that’s saying something.

(SPOILERS BELOW)

It’s difficult to compare Netflix’s version to the original due to the complete change in characterization and plotline. They are two entirely different species of animal, but it’s safe to say the original is superior in nearly every aspect (which is to be expected).

Let’s begin with Light “Turner”. He begins as an emotionally troubled teen still grieving the murder of his mother and the unjust treatment of her killer. He is already hurt and jaded, unlike Light Yagami who was from an upper middle-class family, earned good grades in school, had a loving relationship with his parents, and was all-around intelligent and well-respected by his peers and adults. Light Turner didn’t have any concept of what he was getting into when he started being Kira. His desire for justice comes from pain, whereas Yagami’s comes from a place of love for the people he cares about (i.e. his family). Turner is far less cunning, methodical, or ingenious. He’s not intellectually average, but he also doesn’t have Yagami’s symptoms of sociopathy or narcissism at the beginning.

Misa (Mia Sutton) gets a pretty great opportunity when compared to the unfair rep the original Misa gets. Mia is far more cunning than Light. She KNOWS what she wants and is determined to get it no matter the cost. She’s no puppet. Her blatant betrayal of Light is the opposite of who Misa is (even if Mia says it’s for the better). Misa trusted completely in Light because he was worthy of her trust. Turner is far more weak-willed, so Mia takes over when she thinks he’s making serious oversights. She has the same ruthless qualities as Misa (Misa once threatened to kill any girl who showed interest in Light...) but uses them to cheat Light out of his vision to make (in her opinion) superior choices on how to use the Death Note.

I think Ryuk’s character was the most surprising. As far as I know, most adaptations haven’t messed with his character at all. This Ryuk, played PERFECTLY by Willem Dafoe, had AN AGENDA. This kind of blew my mind. Original Ryuk was only doing this to prevent his own boredom (which was NEVER touched upon here...) and plays the role of the Trickster, tricking humans into using the Death Note and wreaking havoc upon themselves and the world around them. Not as many funny moments for Ryuk, probably to keep the spooky factor. I once had an English teacher read the first volume of DN (which he liked) but his only complaint was that Ryuk was his favorite character but he didn’t DO enough. This Ryuk with a motive would have suited him.

My favorite character is L, which held up in this version as well. I love the actor who played him (anyone seen ‘Get Out’?? CHILLING PERFORMANCE FROM HIM THERE, HOLY SHIT). I thought Keith Stanfield got L’s quirks down perfectly, and played L as much more outwardly emotional (which I liked, as a different take). I was shocked when L chased after Light with a GUN. I was sort of laughing maniacally as he stole a police car and hunted him down. L? Hunt down Light WITH A GUN? L has never been about revenge. He wouldn’t grieve Watari’s death this way. I was very relieved when he didn’t shoot Light, and no, I don’t believe he wrote Light’s name in the book. That’s the difference between L and Light-- L would not kill out of revenge. Revenge is not justice. I also think (as an American) that they missed an opportunity to make social commentary for L (as an African American male) as someone who truly understands justice (due to the horrific way African American men in our society are treated by law enforcement and the justice system). Would have loved to see his race become a relevant part of his character. 

I was shocked by the events of the film. Partly due to the sudden graphic nature (not because it was graphic, but unexpected). I watched in horror and delight as someone got decapitated. It was wicked. If they’re not dying of heart attacks (AGAIN, NOT EVEN MENTIONED???) then I guess it should be pretty fantastical.

Interesting and beautiful usage of neon lights here. I’m a sucker for darkness and neon, the colors they make, the shadows they cast, the moods they evoke. A cool modern touch. Also, the excellent usage of slow motion made the film aesthetically beautiful. The notebook falling, the couple falling from the ferris wheel-- dramatic. Mia’s explosion into the flowers. Misa would have LOVED the dark drama of that. Stunning images and cinematography. I found it fitting, especially for a modern adaptation (LOOSE adaptation, that is).

Little touches made this Death Note adaptation special, which made me happy. Watari singing to L (YES, MORE OF THIS) (but also, was his name really just WATARI? Lazy writing, folks), funny one-liners (”rest your glutes,” Light’s comments about Ryuk, his fingers, having a pen, etc. which made Light more relatable to a general audience), Mia’s in CALCULUS, L being a trashlord and throwing his candy shit everywhere, his old-fashioned phone, bursting into the Yagami household like it’s nothing... some great moments here. L having his face covered was, in my opinion, a stroke of genius. Also, his wardrobe is already my aesthetic (hoodies, dark clothing, looking mysterious) so I was pleased. HIS BARE FEET. ADORABLE. Thanks.

The lack of a Task Force is nigh unforgivable. It’s probably in the Ten Commandments or something. Light’s dad (JAMES? REALLY? The fuck...) is a different man and not enough help to fully flesh out the task force. It brought some warmth to the cast, humanity, love, humor, and plenty of complex and emotional characters. The inclusion of Kira’s supporters like the guy who saved Light by hitting L over the head to let Kira escape was neat. Kira’s followers WOULD do anything, spur-of-the-moment, to help their “savior” if they thought he was in need. 

There were weird rule changes and plot devices that didn’t work. Watari’s betrayal via Death Note seemed highly unlikely for many reasons. Why the hell does Light panic when the police are after him? He made a huge scene running away, whereas our cunning Yagami would have allowed them to capture him because running is always more suspicious and you can rarely talk your way out of fleeing from authorities. It was intended to mirror the ending of the manga (maybe) but Light had no real reason for a full blown collapse, since there was no loss of sanity. He even said he loved Mia before they fell from the ferris wheel. That’s cool for nice emo boy White Yagami (SERIOUSLY, HOW MANY ASIAN ACTORS WERE SECONDARY CHARACTERS IN THIS MOVIE?!?! SO MANY. But NO, Light had to be WHITE Yagami. There was NO reason for that AT ALL besides them wanting him to be white. Thanks, Hollywood standards. Netflix, thought you were better than that). 

As a reimagining of Death Note, it was watchable, memorable, with many twists and turns. As a film adaptation of an already stellar work with an impressive Japanese adaptation... somewhat pathetic. But Willem Dafoe was an amazing Ryuk, so I guess I’ll take the knowledge of what Willem + Ryuk equals, which is the answer to a question I never asked (but I’m glad to know the answer). Let me know what you think-- message me or leave a comment on this post. I’d love to talk Death Note with anyone because not enough people want discourse on Death Note. I sure as hell do. Thanks for reading, if you’ve made it this far.

#netflix death note #death note netflix #death note adaptation #american death note #death note #netflix #white yagami #ryuk #willem dafoe #DN netflix

[awed-frog]

I read on a confession blog that there's been foreshadowing this season for both/or Cas and Crowley dying and I was surprised but I'm really bad at media reading so I wanted to ask you since you are very clever. Have you seen foreshadowing and could you point me to specific examples? Thank you!

Hi and thank you for saying that! I’m not sure I’m all that clever, but I’ll certainly do my best to answer your question.

So, someone asked me last week about Crowley dying - I guess Mark said something I missed - and you can find my answer here. All I can add is that, narratively speaking, Crowley is still an antagonist (sort of), and since this is not a Haneke movie, the arc for antagonists generally ends in three ways: a bad death, a good death or redemption. What I mean by that is that a villain can be brought down as his schemes are foiled by the hero (sort of what happened to Ruby, for instance, and also Zachariah and Raphael), or they can have a change of heart and sacrifice themselves for the hero (Meg, Gabriel), or they can somehow earn a complete redemption and a happy ending (as was the case, briefly, for characters such as Benny and Cain). 

The way things are going, Crowley is being paralleled with Cas in that he too will soon(ish) have a choice to make: his destiny, or something else. I mean - just as Cas was programmed to be a loyal soldier of Heaven and help out with the Apocalpyse and still feels that pull to stand by his brothers, Crowley is brought low and pushed into ‘sin’ by his demonic nature. In the past, it was always obvious that whatever he did, his motivations were largely selfish. Sometimes I wonder if this changed after that ‘summer of love’ with demon!Dean - I think that was the moment Crowley truly realized that there was no way to trick his way into this one: if he wanted Dean’s affection and friendship, he had to earn it the old-fashioned way - the human way. He’d tried binding Dean to him before that - he’d blackmailed him and forced him to do his bidding in one way or another - and I’m sure Crowley always low-key thought, because how could he not, that what was preventing Dean from being fully his was that stupid heart of his - so big, and always, always bloody bleeding. So when Dean turned - that must have been a dream come true. Only, well, we know how it ended, and since then Crowley’s being trying both to be like Dean (exhibit a, a sudden interest in his long lost family: the old Crowley would have killed Rowena by now) and truly act for Dean, even against his own interests, because this is what you do for your friends: you love them and support them, no matter the cost. In this sense, Crowley saving Cas’ life was perhaps the most significant bout of character development we’ve seen on this show. This is why I’m not sure Crowley can truly take a step back now - we know he hates ruling Hell, after all, and I think we’ve never met a demon he actually likes, so his only logical way is forward - towards humanity (and ‘humanity’). As to whether this will mean his death - for the reasons listed above, I think we can rule out the ‘bad death’ by now, but I’m not sure they’re planning for Crowley to survive the show. He is clever, perhaps the cleverest of them all, but he also overestimates himself, and he’s way too emotional for his own good, so all these things are dangerous. Also - does he have someone who’d take a bullet for him if the time came? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. Maybe him saving Cas is foreshadowing Dean (finally) feeling some obligation towards Crowley and coming to his help later in the season (I don’t think he would have bothered otherwise, to be honest), but I’m not holding my breath. No, given the general landscape of this stupid show, I’m going to expect a ‘good death’ for Crowley - but I’d love, love love to be proven wrong.

(As to when that would happen: I’m hoping, as late as possible, and it would make sense, because Crowley is a great character to keep around - we don’t know much about him, so you can make him do and know unpredictable stuff and have him act like a daemon ex machina whenever needed. Plus, Mark’s great and gets along with everybody, so fingers crossed.)

As for Cas, things are a bit different.

Cas is no longer an antagonist, but he’s not a protagonist either. He’s a helper, but his personality and character’s journey are deeply interwoven with Dean’s, which complicates predicting what he’ll do next. Traditionally, the role of the helper is -

- to help the hero. They don’t have much of a scope beyond that, and, as for their fate, they can either bugger off into the sunset once the crown has been recovered and the prince has married the princess, or they can give their life for the cause (or, if not their life, suffer a heavy loss of some sort so the protagonist can go on with his quest: think Ron Weasley being beaten bloody by a six-foot chess queen, or Elliot Waugh renouncing his homosexuality so Quentin Coldwater can - hopefully - save the day). Most of the time helpers sacrifice themselves willingly, but this is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than an actual rule. To me, the most horrifying exception will always be Medea chopping her brother to pieces so she and Jason can escape with the Golden Fleece.

Now, as I said things go a lot deeper with Cas, because he’s not only Dean’s helper, but also Dean’s princess. His fate ultimately depends a) on which one of these two roles will prevail and b) on what kind of show Supernatural even is. 

If it turns out this was a tragedy all along, then Cas is fucked. It doesn’t even matter if he’s a helper or a princess - he’ll die in either case, because this is the endgame: for Dean and Sam to lose everything, and/or to die themselves.

If Supernatural is a quest thing, then the situation is a bit more hopeful. If TPTB get their heads out of their arses, Dean and Cas can get married in a darling little chapel and eat wedding pie until they burst, and if TPTB decide to no homo the entire story and pretend nothing ever happened, Cas will probably get a satisfying ending of his own, because quests generally end well for (mostly) everyone involved.

Finally, if Supernatural is actually the longest and most painful coming-of-age drama your side of the Atlantic (the one on my own side being The Odyssey, in a sense), then - I don’t know. Personally, I think Cas is someone who’s made Dean more mature, and more in touch with his feelings, and yet he’s not a father figure, so he can stay (and again, snog Dean into the next century or become a gardener or something), but it can be argued that the ways Cas is helping Dean to grow are, after all, a surrogate for parenthood (for instance, we have Cas getting Dean to ‘pray’ and have faith and believe in himself, like his parents should have done if Dean had had a normal, healthy childhood), which means his role will ultimately disappear when Dean is ‘old enough’ to make it on his own. Think fairy godmother, for instance. This view is supported, among other things, by the fact that the role Sully played for Sam was heavily paralleled to the present day relationship between Dean and Cas.

(However, if this is what they wanted to do, they had the perfect occasion at the end of S8 with that ‘E.T. goes home’ comment. The fact they didn’t seize what was a golden opportunity to make Cas disappear from Dean’s life in that kind ‘you don’t need me anymore, you’re all grown up now’ way leads me to think this is not where they’re going at all.)

As to when this will happen - again, Cas is a flexible character, he’s got a sizable fanbase and Misha gets along with everybody. The only problem they have with him are these cyclical accusations of queerbaiting they bring down upon themselves - and the fact that, judging from his emotional post-election day speech, Misha will want to do something else at some point. As I said, though - his arc is so strongly tied to Dean’s that I see a high likelyhood of Cas sticking around till the very end. Whether we’ll be happy about this, well - we know how things go with this show.

#ask #spn meta #spn ending #cas meta #crowley meta #cas #castiel #crowley #spn speculation #spn season 12 #this was fun

[fandumbstuff]

The X-Men Franchise, Ranked Best to Worst

In light of Fox’s most recent addition to the X-Men franchise, the stellar Logan, I decided to retrospectively weigh in on the history of the franchise. This is a franchise that really made me an X-Men fan, and it’s one I have enjoyed tremendously. Considering that Hugh Jackman is retiring his performance as Wolverine, and I’m still not quite over his performance in Logan, forgive me if I toot his horn a little too much over the course of this post.

1. Days of Future Past

Directed by Brian Singer

A feverish vision of marrying Singers original films with the First Class mutants pays off in the most spectacular fashion. An epic spanning across time to make sense of the franchise as a whole and create a working continuity - such an innately comic book-esque story. In many ways this is a crossover that trumps all others. It isn’t just the X-Men going up against a big bad. It’s the X-Men of the future trying to right the sins they made in the past. It’s as much an inward reflection on their morality and their motives as it is a physical struggle against a larger than life villain. The film really highlights the stellar cast that the franchise has acrrued over the years. Watch the scenes that Fassbender’s Magneto shares with Lawrence’s Mystique. Or Professor X and Magneto’s Last Stand against an onslaught of Sentinels. Or the meeting of Charles Xaviers old and young. Each one of them is a master class in acting.

2. Logan

Directed by James Mangold

Here’s the thing. Hugh Jackman is a better Wolverine than Wolverine. His 17 years spent evolving the character has transcended it’s comic book version. His impeccable ability to lend a vulnerability under all the gritty stoicism has been evident throughout the franchise, but it is especially evident in Logan. It is fittingly his final performance as the character. An incredible epic journey that charts Logan’s highs and lows. It showcases the drama, violence and tragedy that is ingrained in the character and sets it in a gritty spaghetti Western tour of America. Accompanied by a strong (and concise) supporting cast that includes Sir Patrick Stewart’s last performance as Professor X and Dafne Keen’s powerful portrayal of X-23, Logan is the swan song that Hugh Jackman deserved.

3. X2: X-Men United

Directed by Brian Singer

The X-Men franchise has the benefit of of having an infinitely colorful cast of characters to choose from. And while some films have gone a little overboard with this (Apocalypse, Last Stand), X2 did it best. It finds strong performances from all of its actors, particularly Alan Cumming’s show stealing performance as Nightcrawler. Brian Cox’s performance as William Stryker provides the kind of creepy misguided sense of justice that is the perfect opposition for the X-Men, in a storyline that borrows heavily from a Chris Claremont story, and shows his original vision of just how horrific discrimination can be.

4. X-Men: First Class

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

An incredibly well executed origin story from Matthew Vaughn, First Class foregoes the franchise’s love affair with Wolverine to instead focus on the origins of Professor X and Magneto. James MacAvoy lends a younger, slightly more brash interpretation of Charles Xavier that subtly and surely fills the role that will become the Patrick Stewart version of the 90s. And Michael Fassbender delivers a powerhouse performance as Erik Lensherr, charting the tragic backstory of the character that later defines his ruthlessness. MacAvoy and Fassbender play brilliantly off of each other, establishing the bromantic tension that defines Charles and Erik’s relationship. But the real star of the film is it’s very setting. Taking place in the 60s, in the same era that the X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, First Class sets the struggle within the greater cultural context of the the height of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. We’re left to ponder the political ideologies of the warring factions of mutants against the backdrop of humanity at its quarrelsome worst.

5. The Wolverine

Directed by James Mangold

This is probably the first time Hugh Jackman is given a strong enough script to match his talent. Based off Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s acclaimed debut story, the movie manages to surpass its source material. Claremont’s story shows a sensitive side of Logan by showing his love for Mariko Yashida, and the conflict that arises between him and the Yashida clan. While this relationship and conflict is very much present in the film, Mangold goes one step further by having Logan contend with his waning immortality. Hugh Jackman is able to play Logan in his most human vulnerability, contrasted with the more primal brutality of some of the film’s action scenes.

6. X-Men

Directed by Brian Singer

Brian Singer’s original vision for the franchise closely resembles the themes established by Claremont’s legendary comic run. X-Men is about the discrimination of those considered to be different. Charles Xavier’s group of outcasts struggling to find their place in the world, locked in an enduring struggle with Magneto and his need to establish dominance over a race he considers to be weaker. It is the discriminated fighting discrimination. It’s a socially conscious tale that will maintain its relevance for many years to come. And Singer really manages to execute it marvellously. And if it wasn’t for Wolverine’s completely inexplicable obsessive-creepy-barely-a-relationship with Jean Grey, it might have been higher on this list.

7. X-Men: Apocalypse

Directed by Brian Singer

Despite how much I loved this film the first time I saw it, I couldn’t bring myself to look past it’s many flaws when re-watching it. Like the poorly tacked-on Wolverine cameo (that would have payed off so much more if he wasn’t advertised in trailers), the re-hash of a Quicksilver scene from the previous film, or the unnecessary backstory that provides sympathy for Magneto yet again. Considering that at the end of Days of Future Past, Magneto was very much a villain, they could have simply carried on with this, instead of trying to add an emotional backstory and then have him turn to villainy again. Not only was it poorly executed (whoops my hand slipped), but it’s pretty poor writing considering it’s just two female characters that serve no purpose other than to further Magneto’s plot.

8. Deadpool

Directed by Tim Miller

While I’m sure this film would be higher on most lists, I’m going to express my unpopular opinion that Deadpool is a pretty crappy superhero. And that’s evident just from watching this film. The use of meta-humour loses its novelty quickly and eventually just becomes an excuse for poor writing. Deadpool is known for his dark humour, and the film goes to great lengths to make this evident. A little too far, in fact- A moment when Wade Wilson is “flirting” with his “love interest” Vanessa results in the pair making light of the fact that they were raped as kids. I enjoy dark humour as much as any one, but I draw the line at child abuse. Wade’s relationship with Vanessa then becomes a major plot point in the film, as it mostly revolves around Deadpool’s need to save her from the creepy villain, and show her how much he loves her. But at no point do we see this “love” play out. We do see them have a lot of sex though. It’s an inherently flawed plot, but the film trudges on and delivers some stellar fight scenes nonetheless, and a strong supporting cast to keep us entertained. Ultimately, Deadpool is probably the closest adaptation of a comic book character I have ever seen, and if you’re a Deadpool fan, you will love this movie. If you aren’t, it’s hard to look past the inherent flaws in the film’s structure.

9. X-Men: The Last Stand

Directed by Brett Ratner

That “obsessive-creepy-barely-a-relationship” I mentioned earlier in X-Men comes to a head in this film. And it’s downright unbearable. Wolverine is reduced to a simpering mess for most of the film, pining over a confused and absurd interpretation of Jean Grey/Phoenix. The film burns through years of comic book storyline over the course of a few minutes, and foregoes any real character development to tease the final showdown between the Brotherhood and the X-Men, without ever really explaining the motivations behind any of the characters other than Magneto. The showdown is entirely underwhelming as a result of this, and the climax is totally disappointing. It would be a long time before the X-Men would ever be good again, and it’s entirely Brett Ratner’s fault.

10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Directed by Gavin Hood

Honestly, this movie is totally forgettable and I couldn’t bring myself to watch it again to write this review. It begins with a pretty promising montage that shows Jackman’s Wolverine and a sadly underutilized Liev Shrieber as Sabretooth fighting in wars spanning the century. It all goes downhill from there. In a franchise that drew so much from the comic book legacy of the X-Men, this film seems to ignore it completely. And while a re-interpretation of the story might have been acceptable, the film instead seems to have the goal of muddling the story altogether, burying any interest in fan-favourite characters along the way. The majority of the film can be summed up by the image of Hugh Jackman screaming with his claws outstretched.

#X-Men #Wolverine #hugh jackman #patrick stewart #ian mckellen #logan #old man logan #the wolverine #x men apocalypse #x men first class #x men days of future past #days of future past #x men origins: wolverine #x men the last stand #x2 xmen united #x23 #deadpool #film review #film list #top 10 #fox #chris claremont #stan lee #jack kirby #comics #superhero #superhero film #fandumb

[topmixtrends]

I WOULD LIKE to begin with a confession — I made a New Year’s resolution for 2018: stay in better touch with my friends. As a US expat living in London, I can go months without talking to the people I care most about across the world. With a newborn baby and a permanent residency in the United Kingdom, this must change and I am committed to ensuring that it does. But February faded into March, and, despite some early successes, I could already see my resolve slipping away.

Of course this follows in a long line of such enthusiastic fresh starts spanning from losing weight, to learning to cook, to going out more, to stopping drinking. I must admit some of these have been more successful than others and, with the exception of sobriety, most fizzle out as the snow melts into spring. Far from finding these failures depressing, they provide me with a strange optimism — revealing that even as I age my ability to change and try new things is never fully extinguished.

This year, however, my New Year’s resolution took on an added pressure and increased urgency. I have more than mere willpower and good old-fashioned stick-to-it-ness on my side. I now have literally at my fingertips a mobile app that reminds me to write my friends and family. An audible ringing in my ear, it alerts my guilt to go into overdrive and motivates me to take pause from my busy day and reach out digitally to those I care about.

Shoring up my human connections feels like the least I can do in the face of a world spinning out of control. I cannot stop Trump from tweeting our way into a potential nuclear holocaust or our tragically irreversible slide into cataclysmic climate change or the fact that our most viable options to resist these modern terrors are usually little more than “lesser evils” themselves. However, I can WhatsApp my friends, share a joke, a small complaint, and cross it off my mobile to-do list reminding me that if only for today, I have become a slightly better person than I was last year.

This contemporary tension — where most of us live between small-scale personal empowerment and large-scale social disempowerment — makes Carl Cederström and André Spicer’s new book Desperately Seeking Self-Improvement timely and enlightening. It captures the alluring and often insidious desire to be better, especially in an era where things couldn’t seem to be worse. In their own words:

This book does not advance its own theory about how to become a better person, but rather reflects the desperation and frustration, the drama and humor, intrinsic to the search for self-improvement — the same search that millions of people engage in every day.

The book has an original and inspired hook. Rather than simply analyze attempts at self-optimization from the comfort of their ivory tower windows, these professors dove in and courageously tried a series of self-optimization strategies for themselves. The book is structured as a parallel travelogue of sorts between the two author’s concurrent experiments with self-improvement. What’s more, it chronicles in often brutally honest detail their relationship as they do so.

The obvious temptation would have been to merely satirize these admittedly extreme schemes to “optimize” one’s life. And at times, Cederström and Spicer’s book is nothing short of hilarious — a rarity in the otherwise all too often dry and unfunny world of academia. Chronicling his use of “Pavlok” — a wearable tech that electrically shocks its wearers to help them be more present and productive — early in the book, Cederström writes:

After breakfast, I Skyped André. He was in New Zealand on vacation and had just finished dinner. Unshaven, his long hair askew, he gave me a long lecture about productivity hacks. I found it hard to concentrate on him and tuned out after a while. Then I remembered my wearables. I took out my phone, opened the Pavlok app, and pressed zap. One second; two seconds. The shock arrived. I jumped out of my chair, letting out a scream. André burst into laughter.

With similar comic effect, Spicer reports on his personal investment into becoming a “Zen trader”:

To be a real trader, I had to develop a trading philosophy. And that was what I hoped to gain from the book I had up on my screen: Zen in the Markets, by a Chicago futures trader named Edward Allen Toppel […] I began reading about how the greatest enemy in trading was the ego […] To be a great trader, you needed to totally immerse yourself in the ultimate reality, which was the market. I had to become like a monk who, instead of contemplating a rock, focused his entire being on the market.

This is engaged research on steroids. Two prominent scholars decided to put themselves to the test and paid the mental and physical price.

However, neither Cederström nor Spicer is content to simply mock. If anything, their jadedness gives way to empathy and greater enlightenment. It is deeply moving to read about Spicer publicly undressing himself in the London tube as a way to overcome his body issues, or about Cederström discovering the pleasures of challenging oneself to live more leisurely. Cederström’s surprising reflections follow his attendance at a new age spiritual retreat:

Before going to the retreat, I had thought of spiritual training as a middle-class indulgence. But now, after I saw the pain that these people were suffering and how desperate they were to get better, I could no longer stand on the side and laugh.

It would be equally misguided, however, to take this fascinating text as an uncritical embrace of the diverse personal optimization movement. Throughout the book, the erstwhile collaborators — and close friends — spiral into a passionate mutual dislike for each other bordering at points on hatred. By the end of the first month, Spicer writes,

At about eight a.m. Carl skyped. He was lying on a couch under a blanket. He looked pitiful. I instantly started feeling better about things. This always happens. When Carl feels bad, I feel good. Buoyed by Carl’s illness, I continued writing. At four a.m., I clicked save. The book was done.

A shared exploration that started out as fun quickly descends into intense competition as to who could improve the most. Gentle encouragement gradually turned into outright mocking and one-upsmanship. The streak of masochism that commonly accompanies self-improvement projects was redirected into a Schadenfreude-tinged happiness at the other’s suffering.

Prominent reviews of the book in leading UK newspapers such as the Guardian and The Independent have not surprisingly zeroed in on the humor derived from this tension. They praise the misanthropic hilarity of their unconventional and occasionally conflictual partnership. Yet beneath this often perverse back and forth lies a profound critique. More than comic effect, it is a subtle but scathing statement about the alienating effects of our contemporary desires for personal betterment. It is a denunciation of the ways our hyper-capitalist society has made self-improvement just another thing that can be quantified and instrumentalized. A set of data-backed benchmarks that leads us to compete against each other and from which we can never finally measure up.

At its heart, Desperately Seeking Self-Improvement reveals how our 21st-century free-market culture has co-opted even our most genuine efforts to improve our lives. The discourse of “optimization” carries with it disturbing implications — linked to an unhealthy modern obsession to always be better and the best. Nothing is ever good enough and everything must be taken to the extreme. Such discourses resonate and have their roots in the disciplining realities of modern free-market workplaces pathologically fixated on optimizing their employee’s productivity and efficiency for maximum profit. Near the end of the project, Carl ponders its ultimate meaning, tracing it back to shared human fantasies of transformation, immortality (“the escape from death”), and capitalist advantage (“It promised to make you more productive and give you a competitive edge”). Yet these insights brought him little clarity:

As I was walking back home, I felt I had found some answers. But what was my motivation? Did I nurture a dream about being someone else? Was I afraid of dying? Did I want to boost my market value?

That same day in London, André had an even more profound realization: “Just after midday, my son, Julian, was born. This was the best day of the whole year and it had absolutely nothing to do with self-improvement.” This work adds to a recent wave of critical work challenging the penetration of capitalism and financialization to all areas of present-day existence. Political theorist Wendy Brown observes in her recent book Undoing the Demos that under neoliberalism, not only has the public sector been reduced but democracy and social relations have also become fully marketized. Just as troubling are the ways basic human emotions and impulses have been similarly infected by market logics. Happiness, according to sociologist Will Davies, is now an industry, one geared toward the maximizing of every potential moment of joy through continual and constant monetized consumption. Likewise, in my own recent book The Ethics of Neoliberalism: The Business of Making Capitalism Moral I explore the ways that our longings to be “good citizens” and help each other is increasingly turned against us. Employers and politicians put in and demand longer hours and make political sacrifices in an economy that increasingly asks everyone “to do more with less.”

The current popularity of attempts at personal development are rooted in both the neoliberal emphasis on individual responsibility and the desire to feel a sense of control in the midst of a fickle and unjust world. As Thomas Frank argued in The Conquest of Cool, the counterculture’s language of rebellion was co-opted from the 1960s on by commercial promises to transform the self. Cederström explicitly speaks of this connection,

As I was doing my second set of bench presses, I thought about Christopher Lasch’s claim that, in the early 1970s, as people lost hope in improving the world politically, they retreated into self-improvement. It was no small irony that our year of self-improvement was also the year when both Britain and USA had fallen apart politically. The gym was quiet and empty. It was the perfect place to forget about the troubles of the world.

With the “new dawn” of the financialized free-market 1980s, these discourses became turbo-charged, and the internalization of the “aspiration society” began. All you need to succeed is a good attitude and a willingness to work toward being your best self, professionally and personally. Yet as market optimism has faded in the face of unremitting crises and wage stagnation, self-improvement has remained as an appealing option for keeping hope alive. Personal betterment can be a crucial means for people to cope with a neoliberal reality marked by heightened economic anxiety and cultural upheaval. “If work is making me unhealthy, forcing me to work overtime on a zero hours contract,” one might reason, “then at least I can make myself physically healthier by doing my 10,000 steps a day and mentally healthier through mindfulness techniques.” It is what Laura Walsh in a recent article in Dissent Magazine has referred to as the new “coping economy.”

However, where there is financialization there is the intensifying pressure to maximize profits, so the improving subject can never be good enough, improved, or better. Now you must be optimized. You open every moment up to judgment when you are maximizing your life. Experiments with new ways of living are shadowed by fears that you should be doing more, and that you will fail to unlock your greatest self from within. Even the most virtuous experiences take on a destructive competitive edge — as spiritual seekers morph into spiritual competitors in a race to see who has suffered the most and who is closest to enlightenment.

This bleak vision of the present points though to the potential for a more progressive future. The longing for self-improvement reveals persistent and, yes, “desperate” desires for bettering our individual and collective existence. Further, the various experiments with self-improvement undertaken by Cederström and Spicer uncover how these radical desires can be pursued through local experimentations with different lifestyles. Rather than trying to save our souls, there are real opportunities to feel radically empowered through introducing radical principles of democracy and equality into diverse areas of our existence. While full-scale revolution may not be immediately on the horizon, it is never too late to try and “occupy” your own life.

Doing so can provide people with the opportunity to feel radically empowered in an age where this may seem impossible or futile. Yet this small slice of revolutionary optimism requires jettisoning demands for optimization and instead embracing an ethics of openness and experimentation. We need to stop trying to be our best selves and instead find ways to improve how we live together.

As he looked back at a year as a self-described “self-help fundamentalist,” Carl proclaims,

It was time to think less about myself now. I had kept the world at bay for most of the year. Never before had I read so little news, read so few novels, seen so few films, and spent so little time with friends. When I had written the academic book in a single month, I hardly spoke to anyone. When I trained for my weight-lifting competition, I spent every day in the gym. It was time to open the door, time to let the world in again.

Turning back to myself, maybe that is why this year it feels so urgent to reach out to old friends and family — to reach out and reconnect with others with the hope of turning our shared desire for self-optimization outward, into a radical discussion of how we might improve the world together, one action at a time.

¤

Peter Bloom is an associate professor at the Open University. His essays have appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, and The Independent, The New Statesmen, The Week, The Conversation, and Open Democracy among others.

The post Radical Optimization: On “Desperately Seeking Self-Improvement” appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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