#in reference to that once scene in lilo and stitch | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

prythianpages · 6 months

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Stuck On You | Part Three

cassian x reader | Cassian can't seem to forget about you since the night you met seven years ago. he thought he would never see you again but when he does, he's determined to make you his. this time for good.

“Don’t worry. She likes your butt and fancy hair. I know, I read her diary.”

[series masterlist]

A/N: I debated on splitting this into two parts since it came out longer than intended but I wanted to leave the bulk of the angst in this part. Some more scenes and quotes from Lilo & Stitch since I couldn't help myself. just one more part! I have a rough outline of it so I probably won't be able to finish it tonight but definitely by some time this coming week.

Warnings: angst, some fluff if you squint, mentions of violence/abuse

“Cassian said he would take me out for ice cream if you said yes!” Seraphine beamed, removing her boots at the foyer of your small, humble home. “I’ve never had ice cream before. Have you?”

“Sera,” you said with a sigh, concern laced into your tone over how attached she was to him. His month-long absence had given you a glimpse of the consequence of the effect he had on not just you but Seraphine as well and you didn’t want her to get hurt. She wouldn’t understand.

“I think it’s best if we don’t see Cas anymore.”

She turned to you with a pout. “He’s our friend! You have to say yes.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” Seraphine’s lip quivered, her tired eyes brimming with tears.

You didn’t answer, couldn’t bring yourself to.

Instead, you threw your aching body onto the small loveseat in the living room. This week had taken both an emotional and physical toll on you, as you tirelessly kept Seraphine up to date with her studies, managed the tavern’s monthly expenses and wrestled with your inner turmoil concerning Cassian. The constant restlessness in Seraphine only added to the mountain of exhaustion, her unbridled excitement buzzing incessantly over everything.

You knew you should draw a bath for the both of you and then head to bed, considering your fatigue.

However, you were well aware of your little sister’s stubborn nature as it was one you also exhibited. It must run in the family. Once she was fixated on something, there was no distracting her and judging by the intensity of her little sister’s sobs, you braced yourself for a long and challenging night.

“You’re so mean!” She cried. “I hate you!”

“Please don’t be a pain tonight,” you groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose.

“You should just sell me and buy a rabbit instead!” Sara shouted at you with her finger pointed at you, referring to your empty threat of replacing her with a rabbit every time she misbehaved. You hadn’t brought it up in months, years even, and were surprised she remembered.

“At least a rabbit would behave better than you,” you muttered.

“Go ahead!” Seraphine exclaimed, making you wince at her sharp tone. You hoped your neighbors could not hear her, fearing what they’d do if they did. You heard her angry stomps as she made her way to her room. “Then you’ll be happy! It will be smarter than me too.”

“And quieter!”

“You’ll like it because it’s stinky like you!”

“Go to your room!”

“I’m already in my room!” Seraphine screamed as she opened her door just to slam it shut again, irritating you further.

You grabbed the nearest pillow and brought it to your face to muffle your scream.

Guilt began to settle as your initial anger faded away. You knew you had overreacted. For many years, it had just been you and the small family your mother had created. Neither you or Seraphine had made any friends in Ironcrest yet, unless you counted the friendly old male who you purchased spices and groceries from every Sunday.

Your small family of four had unexpectedly and significantly reduced to half, leaving just you and Seraphine. Of course, she was excited when Cassian came along. You’d deny it if asked but a part of you was excited too.

He was sweet and kind but your worries crept in about what it meant to allow him into your tightly-knit world. What if things didn’t work out between you? What if the burdens you carried were too much for him to bear? You couldn’t allow him in further when your sister was already so attached to him, unable to bear the thought of having her witness another loved one disappear from her life.

You had to end this, whatever it was that you and Cassian had and you had to end it soon. Before any further damage could be provoked.

Throughout your life, stability had been a luxury, and the haunting fear of attachment loomed over you. The constant uprooting had instilled a deep seated fear of getting close to people. Every bond you had forged was inevitably followed by a painful goodbye. The walls safeguarding your heart, constructed since childhood, grew higher and stronger with every move. You had hoped that your mother’s marriage would bring a lasting change, a nice and needed break from moving, and for a while, it had.

However, the universe had a cruel way of reminding you that stability was a luxury you couldn’t afford. You would’ve never expected your one night stand with Cassian would lead to something more–to this.

Cassian, with his unwavering determination, posed a threat to the walls you had carefully built around your heart. Love. It seemed like a beautiful risk but the fear of losing what was gained, overshadowed its allure for you. Your heart had never felt so heavy.

You took a deep breath before knocking on your sister’s door. The lack of response didn’t surprise you. She must still be upset. The soft glow of faelight seeping from beneath her door confirmed she was awake. Balancing the two mugs of hot cocoa in one arm, you opened the door and slipped inside.

Your stomach churned at the sight of your little sister, clutching the pegasus doll that Cassian had gifted her. Tears streaked her face as she gazed down solemnly.

“I brought you, your favorite. Hot cocoa,” you offered, hoping to bring a glimmer of cheer to her troubled expression.

“We’re a broken family, aren’t we?”

You frowned, setting the tray down on the nightstand, hesitating before answering. “Maybe but only a little…”

You settled yourself onto Seraphine’s bed, gently cradling her into your lap. “I’m sorry for earlier. I shouldn’t have raised my voice at you.”

“I like you better as a sister than a mother…” Seraphine sniffled.

“Yeah?” You tenderly brushed her long, dark hair away from her face in contemplation.

A pang tugged at your heart–the weight of becoming a mother figure pressed on your shoulders. As a sister, you also played a nurturing and protective role in Seraphine’s upbringing, offering support when it was needed. You were the one Seraphine would run to for comfort after your mother's scolding or being stern with her, but now you were the one that had to be stern. It was a struggle finding the delicate balance between fulfilling the motherly duties Seraphine needed and preserving the sibling bond that meant the world to you.

“And you like me better as a sister than a rabbit, right?”

“Oh, my sweet Sera.” You replied, pressing a kiss to her forehead, your arms wrapping around her smaller form with a gentle squeeze. “Of course I do! I would not make my special hot cocoa for just anyone. Only you.”

You handed one of the mugs to her, smiling fondly as she inhaled the rich aroma of the hot cocoa.

“Cassian says ice cream is like frozen milk,” she mused softly. “I wonder what hot cocoa would taste like frozen but then it would no longer be hot cocoa, right? We would have to come up with a new name for it but I don’t think I like the sound of frozen cocoa…”

Her innocent dilemma made you laugh, finding it utterly endearing. You wanted her worries to always be like this. Small and trivial.

“Perhaps we should leave the cocoa out to freeze and find out for ourselves? We can decide on a name then.”

The night air was chilling, the cold wind biting at your cheeks. You hugged your coat closer to you, sparing at glance at Seraphine to make sure she still had hers on and the scarf you had bought her was snug to keep her neck warm. You couldn’t help but giggle when you caught Cassian, who had been persistent on walking you home, was constantly blowing his hair out of his face.

“Did you lose all your hair ties?” You quipped, digging into the pocket of your pants and offering a hair tie to him to alleviate his struggle. He reluctantly took the elastic from you and tied his hair up into his usual bun. You noticed he wore it down more recently. “You can keep it, too.”

“I just wanted to let it loose, try something different.” He replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

You let out a small hum, stuffing your hands back into your pockets to keep them hidden and fell into a thoughtful silence once more. There was a knot in your stomach as you three neared your house.

Seraphine, who once again had chosen to skip ahead of you two, paused. She turned around with a knowing gleam in her eye. Her lips curled up and she opened her mouth to speak and if you hadn’t been occupied in the tempest of your thoughts, you wouldn’t have missed Cassian bringing his finger to his lips to keep her from exposing him.

“Fancy hair,” she giggled, despite his plea.

“What was that?” You said, turning your head toward your sister.

Both Seraphine and Cassian exchanged a look before turning to you, responding in unison:

“Nothing!”

Your eyes narrowed at the two in suspicion but you decided not to question it.

When you three finally reached your home, Cassian was surprised at your invitation to come inside. You had never invited him inside, always bidding your farewells at your door. He walked in, overwhelmed by the sweet and delightful scent. It smelled just like you. His eyes darted around the living area curiously, taking in all the small touches you incorporated to make this place feel like a warm and inviting home.

You instructed Seraphine to change and pick a book for you to read to her before bed. She politely said her goodbye and goodnight to Cassian, her movements slow as she was reluctant to follow your instructions. She had no desire to go to bed, not when Cassian was inside your home for the first time and you found the glare she sent you amusing.

Cassian was staring at the wilted and dead flowers resting in a small vase you had placed on the kitchen table, recognizing them as the ones he had gifted you so long ago. You never threw them away.

“Cassian.”

He loved the way you said his name. But it was different this time. He pulled his attention away from the kitchen table to look back at you. You leaned against the back of the loveseat in hesitation, your eyes revealing the weight of the decision you were about to make.

His throat tightened. “Yes?”

“I think it’s best if you stop coming here.” Your voice was laced with a vulnerability you hated and before Cassian could reply, you were speaking again. “I have to take care of my sister. I can’t risk her getting attached, more so than she already is and–and neither can I. We’ve lost so much already…”

A tear escaped your eye. You brushed it away with a trembling hand and then Cassian was bridging the distance between you both, his hand gently cupping your cheek and coaxing your gaze to his.

“Y/n,” he gently whispered. “You’re not going to lose me.”

“How can you say that? What if something happens and–”

“Please don’t push me away.”

“They call you the Lord of Bloodshed. You’re the commander of the High Lord’s armies. You made a name for yourself. And me? I am no one. I’m not worthy of love. Of you. You’ll soon realize it and grow tired of me–”

“Stop.” Cassian interrupted, bringing his other hand up to cup your face. His touch was both comforting and agonizing. “You are worthy of love and so much more and I want to prove it to you. There could be a room full of others but just like that night at the bonfire, I want you. I choose you.”

A heavy sigh escaped you as you gently removed his hands from your face. “But I can’t choose you. I have to choose Seraphine. I always will and right now, I can’t afford to have you both.”

The weight of your words hung in the air, a stark reminder of the responsibilities that anchored you, pulling you away from the love that beckoned.

Cassian grasped your hands in his, refusing to let them slip away. He did not want to let go of you. He understood the depth of your worries and the distress etched onto your features was breaking his heart. Why couldn’t you see yourself the way he saw you?

“I won’t force you into something that scares you, y/n.” He reassured you with a soft tone, his thumbs tracing soothing circles on the back of your hands. “I only want what’s best for you and Seraphine.”

Your lips trembled as you managed a small, strained smile.

“But you have to know that I love you–both of you. And this love, it’s not going anywhere. It’s a constant. A promise that will never waver.”

Cassian hadn’t returned and although you had asked for it, you couldn’t deny the lingering void in your heart. Seraphine sensed something was amiss when your voice wavered as you read her a bedtime story shortly after he left. Surprisingly, she refrained from asking about Cassian until a week later, almost as if she dreaded hearing the news that he wouldn’t be coming back.

When she finally did, tears welled in her eyes and you comforted her, convincing yourself it was for the best. However, the attempt of reassurance was futile and did little to ease your own pain.

Seraphine sighed, absentmindedly nudging the green vegetable on her plate. Scrumps was propped on the table, facing her with its stitched eyes. “At least I still have you,” she murmured to the pegasus plush. “You’ll never leave me, right?”

You frowned at the sight, feeling helpless and unsure how to alleviate your sister’s sorrow. This was precisely what you had tried to shield her from and it stung to realize it was too late. The damage had already been done.

Your attention was then pulled away as the creaking door to the tavern swung open. The room fell into silence. The dining Illyrians, previously immersed in their conversations, cast furtive glances toward the entrance.

In stepped the formidable son of Ironcrest’s war-lord, Kallon. Another Illyrian stepped in behind him but he was overshadowed by Kallon’s commanding presence. His gaze swept over the room, eyes like steel, assessing every face, every corner of the establishment. The tension in the air was palpable. He was looking for someone.

The regulars exchanged subtle nods, acknowledging the unspoken command to show respect. Whispers died down, and the muted sound of footsteps echoed as he advanced further into the tavern. The atmosphere had shifted from one of amiability to one of quiet deference, all eyes now focused on the figure who seemed to hold the establishment in the palm of his hand.

Your eyes were wide and you felt your body tense. You almost forgot how to breathe when Kallon’s cold eyes found yours. Seraphine, who sensed your distress, hopped off her chair and ran to you. Her tiny hand found yours and you guided her to stand behind you as Kallon continued his approach.

“Kallon,” you managed to find your voice, forcing a smile onto your face as you bowed your head in respect. “Should I prepare a table for you and your companion?”

“There’s no need.” He replied. He then turned his head at the eavesdropping Illryians, his gaze a silent warning to them. It wasn’t until the menacing look on his face prompted a couple to abandon their tables and those that remained to resume their conversations that he turned his attention back to you. “I came here to speak to you.”

“Me?” You echoed, your voice daring to break. The male behind Kallon remained quiet but you caught the way his gaze had flickered to your little sister, who hid behind your skirts. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“It has come to my attention that you have been fraternizing with an Illyrian male from Windhaven–” Kallon’s lips curled up in disgust and you felt Seraphine’s grip on you tighten. “– who just so happens to also be the High Lord’s general.”

“His name is Cassian.” Seraphine said, peeking out from behind you to scowl at Kallon.

Kallon looked toward your sister with a scoff. You pressed Seraphine into your hip to keep her from speaking again, worried of the consequences that may unfold. “He’s just a friend.”

Kallon’s attention drifted back to you, his gaze burning into you. “It seems you and I have different understandings of a friend because friends don’t kiss each other now do they?”

Your breath hitched. The two of you seldom interacted with each other. The last time you did was to report your mother’s murder. You cursed yourself at that moment, disappointed with yourself. You had failed to recognize that Cassian was well known throughout Illyria and to make it worse, he was from Windhaven. A rival camp to Ironcrest. You wondered how long Kallon had been following you and why he waited to confront you about it now, several months later since Cassian’s first visit.

“I–”

“It’s not a good look for you, y/n.” Kallon shook his head in disapproval with a small tut. “You of all people should know the consequences of whoring yourself out. Finding a husband will be troublesome for you and if you continue down this path, it is not a good example for your dear little sister.”

Your blood grew cold at the insult and you forced yourself to look up to keep the tears that were threatening to spill at bay. “I’m s–”

“It seems I may have failed you in some aspects.” Kallon interrupted, raising a finger at you in warning. He turned his attention to the empty glasses lined at the counter. “It is my job, after all, to help my father run this camp and it seems that I have overlooked you. Poor little y/n. You have been running this business and raising your sister all on your own.”

His fingers danced along the counter, a wicked gleam in his eyes. The sound of breaking glass echoed through the air, a sharp and crystalline shatter that reverberated through your bones and had Seraphine wincing into your body. You stared at the shattered glass at your feet, heart pounding through your ears.

“But it is not your place to do so.” Kallon reprimanded, his voice seething with a barely contained intensity. “It is his.”

You lifted your gaze.

The Illyrian male that had been quietly observant finally stepped forward. His features held a strange familiarity you couldn’t quite place. His eyes were cold and distant, lips pressed into a taut line.

“This is Aerik. Seraphine’s uncle.”

The wind was knocked out of you as the day you had dreaded finally came. Kallon had tracked down your step father’s only living relative– his brother, Aerik. The illusion you had so carefully crafted was unraveling and you found yourself at the precipice, forced to surrender the tavern and Seraphine, as if she were a mere object, to him.

But you knew the future that laid ahead for Seraphine if she stayed with her uncle. To you, she was your precious little sister, the one you had devoted your life to. To him, she was disposable, reduced to nothing but a bargaining tool once she was of marrying age.

She would not have the freedom to be a child as she did with you. She would be groomed to become a submissive wife and soon enough, her wings would be clipped. A tradition that had been banned but not enforced in Ironcrest. You could not allow any harm to fall to your sister, not when you were alive and capable of taking care of her. You wondered if this is how your mother had felt when she had you, cornered by the cruel world.

Kallon had left moments ago, along with the remaining customers, but now without a warning. A threat to harm you and Cassian in unimaginable ways if Kallon heard of Cassian meeting with you again.

"I don't give a fuck if he's the High Lord's pet. This is my father's camp and as his son, I have the authority to punish those who dare cross us as needed."

You had instructed Seraphine to go to the kitchens to help tidy up, leaving you and Aerik alone. Your eyebrows knitted together in an exasperated manner, bewildered by his demands.

You were a half breed–half high fae, half Illyrian–and a bastard. You were of little significance to Aerik–to any male in this damned camp, if you were being honest–and his plans with Seraphine did not include you. He wanted to take her away from you. For good.

He shifted, directing himself toward the kitchen and you were stopping him. Your hand gripped his arm desperately. “Seraphine needs me.”

Aerik tore his arm from your grasp with a snarl, using it to grip yours instead in retribution. His grip was hard and bruising and had you grimacing. “Is this what she needs?” He seethed, vividly gesturing to the tavern and lack of order in Seraphine’s life.

“It seems clear to me that you need her a lot more than she needs you.”

Cassian told himself he would give you space, as tortuous as it was for him. It’s what you had asked him for. He missed you dearly, often wondering if you were feeling that painful ache in your heart too. Despite the temptation, he resisted the urge to ask Azriel to check in on you with his shadows, not wanting to bring his friend into this tangled messy emotions he found himself grappling with. He couldn’t shake the desire to check up on you one more time, hoping that you might've change your mind.

A week later, when an overwhelming sense of unease gripped him, he set off for Ironcrest.

Cassian pushed open the door to the familiar tavern, his second home as Rhysand had teased him weeks ago. His eyes scanned the room in search of you like they always did, but he couldn't spot the one person he was hoping to see. His head was then turning to the table Seraphine often occupied only to find it empty.

An unsettling feeling knotted in his stomach when he couldn’t spot either of you, not missing the glare the male behind the counter had sent his way. It confirmed his suspicion that you weren’t here. Growing concerned, he decided to look for you, hoping you were safe and sound at home.

The journey was swift as it was one he knew by heart, his footsteps echoing through the quiet streets. When he reached your door, he hesitated for a moment. He could see the subtle glow of a light, coming from the small window that he knew faced your living room. He heard a squeak come from inside, recognizing it as Seraphine’s, and then he was knocking on your door.

There was a faint rustling inside and then the door creaked open. Cassian’s confusion set in as he initially saw no one at the other side. It wasn’t until he heard a sharp gasp that his gaze shifted downward, relief washing over him as he spotted Seraphine.

“Cas Cas!” Seraphine’s expression brightened, reveling in his presence and wrapping her tiny arms around him when he crouched down. “I thought I’d never see you again!”

“It’s good to see you too, munchkin.” Cassian smiled fondly, lifting her up with ease. He had missed her so much too.

“Sera, it’s time for your ba–Cassian?” You blinked, your grip on the towel in your hand tightening. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Can I come in?”

You looked past his shoulders worriedly and hesitantly nodded.

Cassian stepped into the foyer, crouching down to let Seraphine down. She grasped at his hand, guiding him to the living room where you stood with a forced smile on your face.

His worry deepened as he looked at you. "You weren’t at the tavern so I came to–to see you.”

To make sure you’re alright, is what he wanted to say but within seconds of seeing you, he knew you weren’t. Yet, you still attempted to dismiss his concern with a casual shrug. “My step-uncle is taking over the tavern now.”

“Oh yeah, Cas! I have a step-uncle now and he’s so nice to me. He bought me a new coloring book and so many toys! Do you want to see?”

Cassian realized that the glaring male from the tavern must be Seraphine’s step-uncle. He caught the way you bit the inside of your cheek at your little sister’s words, sensing something more beneath the surface.

“Sure.” He replied to Seraphine.

He waited until she disappeared down the hallway to take a step closer to you. “Is everything okay?”

A fleeting moment of hesitation flickered in your eyes that you quickly concealed, hoping he didn’t notice. But he did.

"I'm fine, really. Just a bit tired but thankfully Aerik offered to step in to help.”

Despite her attempt to reassure him, Cassian couldn't shake the feeling of unease. The lines of worry etched on his face as he spoke, "You can tell me anything, you know that, right?"

“Yeah,” you nodded your head nonchalantly at him.

“Y/n.” His voice was gentle but stern and he reached out for your hands.

His fingers accidentally brushed against the bruise Aerik had left the other night and you couldn’t mask the wince that followed. Cassian stilled, eyes glancing down and widening at the marking of your skin. “Y/n, Sweetheart–”

“It’s nothing.” You were pulling your arm from his grasp and out of his view, clasping them behind your back. “I tripped and hit my arm against the counter the other night.”

Cassian felt a burning feeling in his chest, his teeth clenching. Someone had touched you--hurt you.

“Does this have anything to do with the sudden appearance of Seraphine’s uncle?”

“No.” Your response was too quick to be anything but a lie. “Aerik has been kind to us. So kind that he offered to help me find a husband.”

More lies. Your fear and anxiety grew with every passing moment that Cassian remained in Ironcrest. Kallon’s menacing warnings echoed in your mind, threatening dire consequences for both you and Cassian, if he ever returned. Since he had gone to the tavern to look for you, you were sure Aerik had seen him. Cassian was not one to easily blend into the crowd with his imposing stature, striking features and seven siphons. It was only a matter of time before he would run off to go tell Kallon.

You knew Cassian was a formidable warrior from all the gossip and tales you'd heard at the bonfire. Still, you couldn't shake your fear. Cassian was in enemy territory. Vastly outnumbered. He had to leave.

Cassian shook his head in disbelief, swallowing hard. “What?”

Stepping forward, he closed the distance between you, his intense gaze burning into your skin as you actively avoided it. “Is this what you want?”

“It’s what is best,” you told him, sidestepping his question. “So please leave. I don’t want Aerik to get the wrong idea by having you here in the house alone with me.”

“Y/N–”

“I’m so sorry, Cassian.”

Walking away, you felt your heart begin to shatter, unaware that you had also shattered his. You wiped at your eyes once you knew you were out of his view, holding your breath as you moved down the hallway. Seraphine ran past you with her coloring book and you couldn’t bring yourself to stop her.

Seraphine paused, her chest heaving as she caught up with her breath. Her lips curved into a deep frown when she spotted Cassian heading for the door. “Cas Cas, where are you going? I was going to show you my coloring book…"

"I thought you were here to stay.”

Cassian couldn’t bring himself to answer her and as young as she was, she recognized the look in his eyes. It mirrored the expression on your face before you had to deliver bad news.

“You can leave again if you want.” Seraphine said as realization dawned on her. She casted her head down.

“I’ll remember you though. I remember everyone that leaves.”

[series masterlist]

A/N: don't hate me for breaking Cas's heart. I just live for the angst 🫠 if it's any consolation, this will have a happy ending 🩷

tagging: @kemillyfreitas

#cassian x reader #cassian x you #cassian x y/n #acotar cassian #acotar imagine #cassian imagine #cassian fluff #cassian angst #acotar fluff #acotor angst #acotar x reader #cassian acotar #soy

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pommigranite · 1 year

Text

okay so now we're on tmnt 2012 season 1 episode 8: never say xever

THIS IS PART 1 OF 2, PART 2 WILL FINISH EPIOSDE EIGHT!!

okay so first of all, who was gonna tell me that shredder is voiced by the police alien from lilo and stitch???

this guy?????

the intro slapsss once again lol

april... again... yay... omg the purple dragons???

oh my god they beat up a blind guy what-

okay so according to donnie, they are either diamonback terrapins or box turtles... interesting...

loved the passing back and forth donnie and mikey did lol

leo's so... goofy lol, raph woulda straight up throttled that guy

oh nvm theyre arguing about it lol

"they werent exactly a threat. theyd had enough"

"dude, they were beating up a blind guy. there is no 'enough'."

THANK YOU RAPH THATS WHY YOURE MY FAV FRRR

pizza gyoza sounds freakin delicious bro omg

"one way ticket to flavorville" ok gordon ramsey calm down-

"i get it, youre making fun of me for not mercilessly pummeling a helpess man" -ok but like he did have a weapon on him right?? and he was beating up a blind dude right?? like cmon leo asdfghgfd

splinter i literally do not wanna hear anything from you about showing mercy- take care of your three other sons please and thank you-

"I'm guessing that guy lost a lot of wars" ICONIC RAPH LINE ASFGHGFDDFDS

oh... wow... april... to the rescue... ugh

...they should totally get tattoos... omg 87 reference lol

saw in the corner of the screen a restaurant called "Dim Sum And Then Sum" and if i ever opened a restaurant...

ok how you gonna commercial break right into an action scene adfghgfd, netflix doesnt have commercials lol

NICK PLEASE PLEASE LET THEM STABBY STABBY

[placeholder for part 2 link]

#pommantics #pomwatch #tmnt 2012 #2012 leo #2012 raph #2012 donnie #2012 splinter #2012 tmnt watch through #tmnt purple dragons #2012 april #<- least fav ever so far

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turnupswritessometimes · 2 years

Note

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Thanks....

I've taken my time with this one, beause it's quite a big question, lol

I'm someone who moves on pretty quickly when it comes to interests, and nowadays I don't even watch/read stuff more than once. But here's the list (not in any specific order):

1.) Stitch from Lilo and Stitch

Lilo and Stitch was one of the first films I ever saw in cinemas as a kid, and it still makes me sob to this day. Just! Stitch! In the woods! With the Ugly Duckling book! And he repeats it and looks around because he's got no family!

There's so much love and thought put into how he moves (see gif - the head tilt - the eyes! He's baby!) that shows his thought process and emotions. His arc is complimentary to Lilo's and it's my favourite film. Plus, he's cute and fluffy!

2.) Myka Bering from Warehouse 13

This space was a toss up between Claudia and Myka from this show. As an 11-13 year old watching this show for the first time, I had the biggest crush on Claudia, but I loved Myka too. And rewatching it now, I love her more.

Warehouse 13 revolves around a bunch of agents tracking down 'artefacts': objects that usually kill people in horrific ways, but sometimes have benefits. (A great episode is Shakespeare's lost folio: touching a page with doom you to die the death of the character depicted, unless you can say that character's final lines.) Myka's come from the secret service and is the more pragmatic one compared to partner Pete's comic relief and pop culture references. (I love Pete too, though!) Myka's also a nerd! A classics nerd! (Middle name Ophelia!) She loves H.G Wells (me too!) - and H.G Wells is in this show (see gif) as a very cool woman who Myka's more than a little in love with. (Me too! Sadly it's all subtext because this shows 10 years old now.) She's capable and cool but has a softer, human side that's allowed to come to light as much as her partner's. They take turns being vulnerable with each other and it's what makes these characters feel real.

She also has the line: "some girls play with barbies, others take fencing lessons." which! come on! It's so good!

3.) Baron from The Cat Returns

He's voiced by Cary Elwes (Westley from the Princess Bride), which makes him instantly cool! And, honestly, he's basically Westley; he's suave, sneaks into places with disguises, and is a master of swordplay. (Maybe I just like characters with swords?)

The Cat Returns is my favourite Studio Ghibli movie, because it's so similar to the Nutcracker, which is a favourite of mine too. The ball scene still makes me feel like a teen with a crush; there's a romanticism to it all that comes from how suave Baron is. His minature world is charming too!

4.) Nancy Thompson from Nightmare on Elm Street

Nancy's my favourite final girl. There's a great interview were they talk about how determined she is; she will find the truth, and she won't stop hunting for it. She takes active measures to ensure she can investigate and wake up in time. I don't have many points on this one: I just think she's neat!

5.) Sora from Kingdom Hearts

Again, I'm torn between two characters from the franchise - Sora and Roxas. But I played Kingdom Hearts 2 first, and that has more of Sora!

The whole series has a lot of nostalgia for me, and Sora's the heart of that. He's the player's world into exploring all these Disney worlds. I actually love the twist that Sora's not really meant to have a keyblade at all; Riku's the one who was meant to be. It's a cool reverse chosen one. Recently, it's more interesting to see how Sora's relentless optimism is being chipped away at. He feels like a very generic protagonist who's being subverted in a very clever way.

6.) Peter Pan, in like, a vague sense

No particular version of Peter, because I'll devour any Peter Pan retelling. A straight, fun disney version is heart-warming and escapist; Syfy's Neverland was like a magical Oliver Twist, with all the emotional beats; darker ones explore the strange, darker (unintentional) subtext of the novel. (Which I do love; it's just so memorable.) All of the Peters, please!

(I vividly remember seeing a Peter Pan panto and Peter was played by a young woman and oh boy! Finding out girls can play boys was a big moment for me!)

7.) Cinderella...from Cinderella

I could easily do top 10 Disney characters, but this is the last one for this list. And again, it's more about what Cindie represents. She keeps her kindness and her empathy throughout her story; she works hard and makes sacrifices and that earns her happily ever after. I think that manta of 'Have Courage and be Kind' in the live action one is a great phrase to live by, and easily applied to real life. I've worked two jobs throughout my masters, so the idea of hard work being rewarded someday is comforting. I hope it's true, lol.

8.) Tails from Sonic

He's just real neat! A good little guy! He can fly and he's super smart! I always mained him on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and I've liked him since I was a kid. (I really struggled to fill this space, so runners up were Zuko, Nico Di Angelo, Vanitas and Link.)

9/10.) Ash Lynx and Eiji Okumura from Banana Fish

I can't separate the boys! They go together!

Honestly, this shouldn't be a surprise, lol. Oddly, though, it's hard to answer a question of why they're so dear to me. Ash is a very interesting character to unpack; and unpacking those darker elements of his story is? Intriguing? I think is the best word for it. That depth comes across in the manga and is probably what made it endure.

Eiji has a similar depth that I feel like gets washed away a bit, by the fandom. He's 'normal,' but he's not, really. He's exceptionally compassionate, and just as impulsive as Ash. (He is all in within meeting this boy for ten minutes.)

And it's their implied relationship in the series that is just! So! Much! The trust and care and the fact that they do act like two teenage boys messing around with each other. (Which is something I don't think either of them got to have.)

Honestly, I've been writing the both of them for so long that they do feel like a part of me, now, even though they're not my characters.

And that's ten! Thanks so so much for the ask! I love getting to waffle nonsense to a captive audience! Sorry it took so long to answer! <3 xxx

#some of these are deeper than others lol #this made me realise how few characters i have a really deep attachment to #theres plenty i like #and i can name a favourite character in things #but favourite characters ever #tough stuff #turnupstalks #elaine2895

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joopiterjoon · 4 years

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Wishing on a Star | KSJ

Pairing: Seokjin x reader

Genre: NC-17, Romance, Fluff?

Warnings/Tags: Vampire!Jin, Biting, Blood, Kissing, swearing, couch grinding, bad Twilight Series references

Wordcount: 3k

Part of ficswithluv’s #FWLBingo!

“They probably got that idea from me,” Seokjin murmurs. He’s glaring at the screen, feet tucked up and arms crossed next to you, as he watches Edward Cullen step into the sunlight and sparkle.

“You don’t sparkle,” you snort. Seokjin’s jaw drops as he turns to you. “Wait… do you?”

Seokjin closes his mouth and takes a deep breath through his nose. “No, but how else are they going to try and demonstrate that someone is inhumanly handsome? And who is truly inhumanly handsome? Me!”

“That’s not saying much, since you are, in fact, inhuman,” you tease.

“I’m the most handsome inhuman there is, though!” Seokjin shouts, tossing his hands up. You’re glad to have a distraction from the very cringe scene happening in a movie that crushed your favorite book series. “I am worldwide handsome, human or not!”

You laugh at how he thinks he needs to convince you, his girlfriend. “Of course, of course, my vampire from the stars.”

“That’s right!” Seokji bellows, though his ears tinge pink. He starts waving his arms around to recite a speech you’ve heard many, many times. “I’m more attractive than any angel up there! Any demon down there! Any creature right here!”

Contrary to the fanged creatures on your TV screen, Jin was just an average but incredibly hot vampire. Well, what you now knew to be an average vampire. Fangs and a severe vitamin deficiency that could only be cured with blood.

(“Stop asking me to explain it, it’s too complicated.”

“Mhm, yeah, you definitely just didn’t forget.”

“Just for that, I won’t tell you.”)

At first, you’d been a tad disappointed. Sure, you would have been freaked out if Jin was even a Stefan Salvatore or a Lestat. But after a while, it lost its edge. Unlike Jin’s fangs.

He’d come to you in such an unusual way. At first glance, it fits the mysterious, ominous nature of vampires. Last year, you’d had enough. Life sucked, as it often does for people in their early twenties. You’d been leaning out your window with a bottle of wine, asking the heavens to send you someone. Sure, you’d stolen the idea from Lilo and Stitch, but why the fuck not. You just needed someone. You were willing to try wishing on a star for someone to come save you.

Little did you know, your rescuer was below, just strolling home late from work one night.

(“Hey,” a stranger called from the street. “That angel you’re looking for has already fallen.”

You startled. You can’t believe such a handsome stranger heard you, much less called out to a grown woman wishing on a star. Your shock caused the bottle of wine to slip from your grip and splatter three floors down. You almost follow after when you startle.

“Damn, people fall for me, but never from that high up,” Jin laughs, clapping his hands. You frown at the stranger.)

Jin likes to pretend it’s fate, and maybe it is a little bit, but it’s also his personality. Even if he’s not involved, seeing people in distress bothers him. He needs to lighten situations. And that lightheartedness and just how desperate you were had convinced you to allow the stranger into your home. Jin had waited to be invited in, but he insists that’s just manners.

Plus, Jin loves how you met. It’s his favorite thing to tell whenever you go out together. You just roll your eyes, letting him prattle on and on. Because when it comes down to it, he really was the angel you’d wished for (who is devilishly handsome, you might add).

“You’re doing it again,” Jin says, drawing you from your thoughts. He’s right. You’ve been watching him and his pursed lips while you’ve been reminiscing.

“Can you blame me?” You shrug.

“Fluffing my ego?” Jin teases, tossing the pillow from his lap to face you. “You’re asking for trouble.”

“Oh please, I’m more trouble than you’ll ever be,” you scoff. Jin frowns, but he knows it’s true. He scoots closer though, caging you into your side of the couch with a playful smile.

Leaning in to kiss you, Jin doesn’t say anything. He has two modes: all words and no game or just game and no words. Honestly, you couldn’t be made to choose between the two. Especially as his hands gently reach for you, plush lips closing in on yours.

Your body gravitates towards him. It’s no vampire curse. You’d asked him when you’d been immediately smitten all those months ago. You’d even wondered if there was a delayed onset, like something Jin “chose” to activate. It’s simply that Jin really was given to you by the stars. His dumb sense of humor balances your stressed mind, and by god is he gorgeous. You’re reminded each time your hands cup his jaw and your chest presses to his.

Jin deepens the kiss as he tugs on your thigh, dragging your leg to his waist as he lowers you to lie on the couch.

“But the movie,” you whine, trying to catch a glimpse of Bella and Edward running through Italy. Jin snarls, and his fangs are on full display. You can’t help but gasp, unable to hold back the wonder each time you see them. Lame vampire or not, that’s still what he is.

“You want that sparkle bitch over this?” Jin sounds offended, waving to his own form. You contemplate it, taking your time. You trace your fingers over the veins in his arms, up to the broad shoulders that block out the streetlight behind you. You giggle at the frustrated furrow of Jin’s brow over dark yet soft black eyes. Finally, you're pulling him on top of you, wrapping your legs around his waist.

It’s easy, a position you frequently find yourself in. Even though you both share a bed now, you find it hard to take the extra time to make it there. Jin’s hands know their way around your body, how to hold you, tease you, appreciate you. And you’re no different, humming as you splay your palms over his broad chest and roll your hips into his. The place doesn’t matter as long as you have Jin like this with you.

As your tongues meet, you shiver. Jin’s careful, but your tongue still slides past his incisors. They aren’t deadly sharp, but there’s an implication. One that Jin never acts on.

“Jin,” you whisper as he mouths at your jawline. Once he glances up, you fix him with a serious stare, biting your lip and running your hands through your hair like Bella Swan. “I know what you are.”

Jin’s body shakes with a laugh as his head drops to your shoulder. “You are the worst.”

You both giggle, trading the mirth between hushed lips as Jin fumbles for the remote to turn off the cringe-movie.

In the dark, your hands tighten in his hair as the moment becomes more heated. His hips shift forward, letting you know his intentions. You whimper as he nips at your neck, back arching off the couch.

“Do you want to?” You ask.

It’s a question you never dared ask when you first started dating. You assumed it was something that had to be addressed, but not then. In the throes of love, you feared Jin would sink his teeth in and… you don’t know, claim you, sire you, turn you, something. But when you finally had months later, the answer, like everything else, had been less than wowing. Nothing about Jin’s need for blood was arousing. If anything, it was annoying. Like having a craving for something and the business was closed.

That didn’t stop the idea that Hollywood had planted in your head. You’d finally chalked up the courage to ask months ago: Do you want to bite me?

Jin had played it off, saying he only wanted to when you refused to split a meal. He caved soon enough, not actually doing it, but explaining that he found it incredibly intimate. It was a kind of trust. It hurt, he said. Like a farmer raising chickens, he’d become immune to the cries in a way, but he still knew the pain. There was no magic serum from his fangs that numbed the pain. For the victim, it was simply teeth sinking into flesh.

Because of that, he saw it as a vulnerability from both partners. Jin joked and talked shit a lot, but he was a deeply thoughtful person under it all. He believed biting a human was something to be wary of yet cherished. He cherished you, but the wariness had still outweighed his affections. You could only think there was an assurance he didn’t see yet. Whenever you asked, you didn’t push the response.

Jin’s movements still, and he sighs. It’s a sigh that says this again? You prepare to shrug it off, content to be dick-downed by the inhumanly handsome.

But he surprises you.

“Are you really sure?”

The words cut through the stillness of the living room. Not even the breath in your lungs moves.

“Yes,” you whisper.

Jin’s large, black eyes sparkle with the dim light pouring in from the window. Seeing the insecurity there, you follow up with a nod.

“It’s…” Jin winces a bit. “I promise you, it doesn’t feel good. It’s a bite. Like two tears in your skin.”

“Jin,” you start, and you know you believe what you’re saying. “I could give two fucks about vampires before I met you, and now I only give one fuck. And that fuck is that I want to be close to you. This just happens to be another level that you have for being close. I want to be on that level. You are as close to me as possible. I want you that close. And I want to show you that I want to be that close to you. And I only want you to do it if you want me there, too.”

“Of course I want you close,” Jin says, voice losing that lilt he usually has to demonstrate how serious he is. But it’s back a second later when he rolls his hips. “Is that really the only fuck you have for me?”

You roll your eyes even if he can’t see. “You know what I mean.”

There’s a pause. Just silence, just the sound of your hearts pounding. Then, Jin’s soft lips press to yours. You slot your lips with his and brush your thumb over his cheekbone comfortingly. He moves to your cheek, your eyes, your jaw, your neck. He stays there, nuzzling at your pressure point. You close your eyes.

“You don’t feel nervous,” he whispers. You shake your head. You aren’t. You know it might hurt. But you want Jin.

He holds your neck, laying his weight on top of you. You hum at the warmth surrounding you, the familiar firmness pressed to your inner thigh. A wet tongue laps at your neck and you gasp at the sensation, but turn your neck for more. Jin presses a few more wet kisses there, sucking gently as you squirm from the pleasure.

Then, he hoists himself up. “If I do it here, we might ruin the couch.”

“Oh,” you breathe. Good point. Blood. You sit up. “Um, what if we use my sweater?”

“But you love this sweater,” Jin pouts. Your heart floods with warmth at the fact that Jin’s worried about your favorite sweater.

“I have club soda. The blood will come out,” you say. You sit comfortably in front of him. Jin chews his cheek, but then he gets on his knees, straddling your lap. You place your hands on his thighs as he places his on your shoulders.

“Are you sure?” Jin whispers, brushing his nose to yours. He sounds breathless, more scared than you. You’re not scared at all. You want this. You want to show Jin he can’t hurt you and you want all of him.

“Mhm,” you whisper.

“I think,” Jin whispers back, “I think I’m more nervous than you.”

You pout, but keep your eyes closed, just feeling him close. “Don’t do it if you don’t want to.”

“No, I,” Jin swallows. He doesn’t keep talking.

He kisses you again. This one is different. It’s not chaste. It’s not heated. It’s slow. His mouth works against yours, gauging your reception, letting his tongue slide along your bottom lip but not pushing in. You open for him, fingers tightening on his pants. He keeps edging in, giving you chances for an out, willing to let you turn this into a normal night on the couch instead of what he’s about to do.

Then, his mouth drifts. He keeps you close, a hand on the back of your neck, hips sinking into your lap. It kind of feels silly, having your massive boyfriend straddling you, but you’re too lost in the feeling of his tongue gently probing. He’s searching for a good spot, you realize. You try to relax, not squeeze your eyes or feel tense, to let him know you are okay. You move your hands to his waist, holding him gently.

Until your arms constrict around him with a small squeak in pain. His teeth sink in. At first, it’s nothing but a bite. Kinky, not scary. But then you feel it. The pressure, the pricking, the tearing. The searing heat that comes from an exposed wound. And then you feel the pull. It’s foreign, the way you feel the blood rush from your veins faster than intended. Your mouth hangs open, a silent scream caught there. You tug Seokjin closer and he gladly obliges, one arm hugging you, rubbing your back gently while the other thumbs under your jaw. He holds you secure, makes you feel safe swaddled in his arms and the cushions.

You squeeze your eyes shut as tears roll down. Their meaning is mixed. Both relief, fear, joy, pain, trailing down your cheeks. Jin grunts, shifting a bit, and you bury your face in his chest. Each muscle of your shoulder and neck are hyperaware, and you feel as though you have to clearly think about each as you hide inside Jin.

Jin, who sucks your very being into his mouth and down his throat. Who keeps rubbing soothing circles wherever he touches. He’s not overwhelmed or consumed by bloodlust. Even as he feeds, his attention is on you. He’s always focused on you.

You cry out as he pulls off, the fangs slipping from your skin like a rock lodged in a wound that had to be removed. But then he’s back. You’re impressed that you don’t flinch as he descends. The same suction feeling is gone, just the lap of his tongue.

“Too much,” you breathe. It feels like you can feel each tastebud of his tongue pulling the flesh open.

“Sorry,” he muffles, tongue trading to soft taps. He waits out your blood coagulating. Your shoulders ache, but you realize it’s the vice like grip you have on him. As you slowly loosen, Jin moves to rub your arms, trying to ease the tension.

“Not as tough as you look, huh?” he says, the words murmured just above the wound. The words are too soft, filled with insecurity.

You shake your head, body ashiver. “It’s just new.”

“Bad?” Jin asks, even quieter.

You shove on his shoulders at that. He whines something incoherent in protest, eyes locked on the wound as you pull him into focus. “Nothing’s bad with you.”

Jin pouts, bottom lip on full display. Even in the dark room, you can tell it’s a shade darker with your blood. “It hurts.”

“It did. You bit me, so duh,” you admit. Jin’s strong eyebrows crease on his forehead, not appreciating your joke when he’s so concerned. You give a small smile, bringing your hands to his chest. “I’m glad you think we’re in a place where you can do that.”

You nudge him, and he concedes. He kisses your lips, and you gasp at the metallic taste in his mouth. His kiss is more earnest, eager to have you responding. He groans when your tongue twists with his and you wrap your arms around his neck.

“Fuck,” Jin groans. “Fuck, it’s just. You. All of you. Feel good, taste good.”

Your heart races at that. Jin’s kisses are frenzied, tongue quickly following your own. His breathing is faster, grip tighter, pulling you into him. He’d said that blood didn’t mean much. It wasn’t an overwhelming desire or blurred with ecstasy, but the real reason got you more. Jin had your blood in his veins, your taste in his mouth. And he seemed impossibly turned on by it. By you. He cared so much for you, it was hard to believe there was ever a time you questioned if anyone, even yourself, cared about you.

“I love you,” you whisper.

Jin kisses you harder, fingers twisting in your hair, breathing in deep through his nose. “God, I love you.”

He starts to lean you back, and you willingly go, but then he yanks you both back up. “The blood! The couch!”

“Oops?” You blink, already so lost in Jin that you forgot. You’re not really sure if you are gushing out of your neck or what.

Before you can reach to check, Jin gently thumbs at the mark. He brings a smear of blood to his lips. You see his expression twitch in contentment, but there’s a flicker of worry in his eyes that won’t move from the throbbing mark on your neck. Whatever moment had been there was now broken by the reality of what happened. You may have been convinced you’re fine, but Jin still seems cautious.

“The floor?” You suggest, then point to the blanket on Jin’s side. “That’s an old afghan.”

“Ah, okay, yeah,” Jin breathes in relief, like he still isn’t sure if you’ll take the chance to get up and run out. Just to prove his worries wrong, you grab the blanket and toss it to the floor. You slide down, patting the space next to you.

Jin smiles down at you, something of a dazzle in his warm eyes. You smile back, and let him stare a little bit longer, then teasingly suggest with a crooked finger, “Come on, ravage me.”

Jin chuckles at that, shaking his head as he lowers himself down with a playful growl. You laugh as your boyfriend, who moments before was concerned over every touch, wrangles you to the floor to ravage you not with bites but kisses.

Check out my other FWLBingo pieces here!

#seokjin x reader #seokjin #jin fic #jin x reader #thekimlinenet #hyunglinenetwork #ficswithluv #bangtanhq #jin #wishing on a star #vampire au #vampire fic #seokjin fic #fwlbingo #bts fic

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watchathon · 4 years

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BONUS: The Last Airbender

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watchathon, a blog where I’m hoping to watch an episode of a show (or in this case, a movie) every one-to-two days, with a short blog post where I give my thoughts on what I’ve just seen. Each new point starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so.

But today, I’m subjecting myself to the notorious live-action film The Last Airbender, to... Well, to “celebrate” its tenth anniversary. I initially planned on doing it either after Book 1, or after Book 3, but for whatever reason, I have decided to do this now.

Fair warning, this is going to be one of my rare posts where I’ll be mostly negative.

So much for “gushing about things I like”...

Also, so much for “the rare occasion I cover movies”, but that I don’t mind so much. The Lilo & Stitch post was a ton of fun to make.

- So, first things first, I don’t tend to be a fan of live-action movies based on animated properties in general. But it’s not like I don’t give them a chance.

Sometimes I even like them better than the original. I could never get through The Jungle Book in one sitting as a kid, but the 2016 live-action remake? I adored it!

Even the worst ones I tend to be “meh” about rather than flat-out disliking. But The Last Airbender? I hated it when I watched it as a kid... Emphasis on the past tense. I could well change my tune because of this, though I can’t imagine I’ll end up liking it.

- They recreate the “Water, earth, fire, air” part of the intro but without narration. Which, to be frank, just makes it look pretty silly.

- “The four nations. Water, Earth, Fire, and Air Nomads.” Sooo are they all nomads?

- Awvatar? Pronouncing Aang as Awng, I could sorta get, but... Awvatar? Really?!

- It feels oh-so-weird to see a white Katara and Sokka, when they, and all the people of the Water Tribes, had the darkest skin in the show.

- Something that really strikes me about this movie already is that it’s so... humorless. Sokka described himself once in the show as “the meat and sarcasm guy” if I’m remembering right, and not even five minutes in I can already tell we’re missing half of that description.

- Not only is this movie humorless, it can seem strangely... smaller, than the cartoon. In the cartoon, Katara got Aang out of the iceberg by accidentally using powerful Waterbending.

But here, Sokka causes the ice to crack by accident, revealing the iceberg with Aang inside. Then Katara grabs Sokka’s boomerang and whacks the iceberg twice with it.

- More about the lack of humor: There’s not even a mention of penguin sledding once Aang is out either.

- And not only are our most prominent Waterbenders white, the Fire Nation (who had light skin in the cartoon) have the darkest skin of the whole main cast. Juuust great...

- Aang’s heroic moment from the cartoon is taken away from him. In the cartoon, Aang was on his way out of the Southern Water Tribe when he saw the Fire Nation approaching, at which point he turned around and helped them.

Here? Aang sits in a tent until one of the Fire Nation soldiers sees his tattoos and drags him out.

- “We found that boy, he’s our responsibility!” Katara sounds like she’s talking about a stray puppy they found. “I’ll feed him, and bathe him, and teach him!”

- It crosses the line into unintentional hilarity when, as Katara and Sokka are discussing Aang, there’s just Appa noises in the background, entirely unremarked upon. The only take a glance in that direction once they’re done talking, ironically after Appa’s quietened down somewhat.

- Nobody gets out of this movie without major changes, but if it weren’t for Iroh referring to Zuko as his nephew, I’d have never guessed it was him. Also, Eeroh. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if Zuko isn’t pronounced Zucko.

- Katara and Sokka’s grandmother pronounces Avatar correctly. Why don’t Katara and Sokka? Or, heck, why doesn’t she pronounce it “Awvatar”? It’d be better if they stuck to one rather than the inconsistent pronunciation.

- I’ll give them props: The idea of testing if Aang is the Avatar by setting four objects representing the elements in front of him is pretty cool. Does become kinda silly, though, when the rock just... wobbles and goes upright. They could have had it, like, cracking, but instead, wobbly rock.

- I might be misremembering, but it felt like Aang’s escape from Zuko’s ship was a lot... more, in the cartoon. I know, time constraints of fitting a twenty-episode season into a two-hour movie. But I have to tilt my head at just how much shorter (and milder) this particular scene is than its animated counterpart.

- It’s weird how Katara’s narration calls Aang by name, then like a minute later (at most) we see her ask him for his name.

- Wow, is it weird to see Aasif Mandvi playing Zhao when I watched The Daily Show as a teenager.

- Exposition is always fun when it’s delivered in the form of a roast.

- “But we will let [Zuko] wear [the Fire Nation uniform] today, like a child wearing a costume.” And nobody even smiles at Zhao’s sick burn.

- Hey, at least they have Iroh drinking tea. But cartoon Iroh probably wouldn’t do that so casually while his nephew is fighting Zhao’s soldiers. And cartoon Iroh would probably smile. At some point in time.

- And movie Katara and Sokka have apparently gone all the way to the Earth Kingdom without learning that Aang is the Avatar.

- “He was bending tiny stones at us from behind a tree! It really hurt!” I gotta be honest, that’s not a bad joke. It does feel kinda out of place with the general tone of the movie thus far, but whatever. I’ll take the lighthearted fun moments where I can get them.

- I can sort of understand why they would want the Earthbenders imprisoned by the Fire Nation to have some sort of earth to bend without the Gaang going to all that trouble to get the coal. But putting them in a quarry is more than a bit overboard.

- Aang gets a big Katara moment from the cartoon. And the thing is, Katara doesn’t really get that much time to shine in this movie. She could have used a moment like this one. Heck, Aang could’ve joined in to confirm that the Avatar has returned.

But no... In this scene, Katara just shoves a Fire Nation soldier who’s being rude to Aang.

- Ah, the infamous pebble dance. And the thing is, in the cartoon, this would’ve been a joke.

Aang would go through this huge, over-the-top dance just to make a relatively small rock float slowly towards a Fire Nation soldier. At which point, Toph would make the rock move much faster before teasing Aang about what he just did.

- Ohhh, gosh, I’m half an hour into this hour-and-a-half movie, and the post already looks like... this.

- “Teachers to teach you bending.” A lot of attention gets given to another repetitive line later on in the movie, but we shouldn’t ignore this beauty.

- Weird to see Ozai in plain view. Especially considering how, later on, he will be framed in shadow.

- Agni Key... What is it with this movie and changing pronunciations? I wouldn’t even care if that was the only problem, but with how it is, it’s one of several things that make this movie feel like “Avatar but wrong”.

- “Yip yip.” Gosh, does it feel weird to hear those words in a movie that tries to be more serious than the cartoon.

- I had to stop and continue this in the morning since it was late, so I might be forgetting something... But was it established before the Blue Spirit that Zuko knew Zhao would be hunting the Avatar?

- Hard to take it seriously when Zhao looks at his soldiers, chained by their hands to the ceiling, and simply mutters “fools.”

- “You think my son is this person the soldiers are calling ‘Blue Spirit’?” *pause of at least four seconds* “...Yes.”

- “My brother and the princess became friends right away.” First off, that’s really underplaying it. But second, Sokka’s face is so blank as Katara says this that I can’t buy even that.

- Zhao really becomes a much less threatening force when it’s Ozai who tells him to kill the spirits, when it’s Ozai who starts talking about their destiny.

- “HOOOOOOOOO” lives in a pineapple under the sea?!

- Everything in the Spirit World is compressed into this one dragon. Which makes it seem a lot less like a Spirit World than just the home of this dragon.

- I would say that the whole bit of Aang trying to avoid Zuko even though he’s right behind him is more like something from the cartoon... But, the dramatic music really makes it seem like this is supposed to be a serious moment. And it just doesn’t work as one.

- Iroh’s trying to stop Zhao is nowhere near as good as it was in the cartoon.

- “He’s making fire out of nothing!” I don’t understand why they made the change that this is uncommon. The Fire Nation are the villains, they should be stronger than other benders.

- “It’s time we show the Fire Nation that we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in theirs.” I don’t understand how anyone thought this could work as a serious line.

- Back to the whole thing of this being smaller than the cartoon, Aang doesn’t turn into Aangzilla here. He accomplishes a very impressive feat of Waterbending, but when I just watched the cartoon version last week, it feels lesser in comparison.

- I imagine this is supposed to be Aang bowing in response, since he didn’t with the monks. But it doesn’t look like bowing. It just looks like an elegant dance move.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Yeah, I still don’t like it much. But I’ll say this: Now that I’ve watched it again, I appreciate the cartoon so much more.

I appreciate the characters. I appreciate the tone, I appreciate the pacing. And I appreciate all the things that are lacking from this movie.

I can only hope that the new live-action adaptation will be better, even if I know the cartoon will still be my preferred way of experiencing the story.

#The Last Airbender #bonus post #long post #really long post #super long post #negativity #negative #Katara #Sokka #Aang #Iroh #Zuko #Zhao #pebble dance #Fire Lord Ozai #Movie

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Six Baudelaires AU, Part Two: Reference Guide

A quick guide for everything I intentionally referenced in The Six Siblings, Part Two: This Tale is All Sorrows and Woes.

{ao3} {tumblr} {part one reference guide}

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING - the plot twists from this section of the fanfiction will be discussed at length.

Without further ado…

Chapter One / Prologue - in which Lilac has to Older Sister

“Release Nick, you fiend!” Violet tackled Klaus to the ground, as both of her brothers burst into giggles. “Never! Nick’s my prisoner of war!” Klaus said, trying (and failing) to push her off.

Nick being the “captive” in the childrens’ game throughout the chapter is a bit of an obvious foreshadow to his captivity from Chapters 12-20... which meant it was really fun when none of you noticed until then and then tried to kill me. XD

A full reference of the books namedropped in the childrens’ game:

Violet and Nick’s kingdom, Terabithia, is from Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Their original characters, either Susan/Lucy and Peter/Edmund, are a reference to The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.

Lilac and Klaus’s kingdom, Gwyntystorm, and their characters, Irene and Curdie, are from The Princess and the Goblin and its sequel, The Princess and Curdie, by George MacDonald.

Lilac says she thought Nick was Eragon, from The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, and Klaus says he was Aragorn, from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. Nick’s suggestion for a new name, Glaedr, is also a character from The Inheritance Cycle. Nick finally decides to be Peter Pan, obviously from Peter Pan by JM Barrie.

“Naw, they definitely are.” Nick nodded. “When a new baby is born, one of the other children has to die. Everyone knows it.” [...] “Now, since it’s a girl maybe, they could take out one of them,” he gestured towards Violet and Lilac, “But you’re the most useless, Klaus, so-” [...] “But yeah. Babies suck and we should totally throw our sister off the roof.”

Direct reference to Addams Family Values (1993)

“Watch me.” Nick’s eyes lit up. “Wait, no, better plan. You guys remember Moses-”

Reference to the story of Moses, who was placed in a basket in a river as an infant.

Lilac quickly answered the phone, saying, “Baudelaire residence. This is Lilac Emily. To whom am I presently speaking?”

Lilac’s middle name is taken from her actress, Emily Browning.

“We’re sensible and proper!” Nick added.

A reference to S Theodora Markson’s catchphrase in All the Wrong Questions.

“What was that, Dad? No, no real ropes. Yeah, promise. We’ll go to bed on time, too. But you’ll all be back in the morning? Yeah, I know. Don’t open the windows.”

The Baudelaire parents don’t want to risk their children getting recruited.

“He said we have a new sister.” Lilac reported. “Solitude Theodora Baudelaire.”

A direct reference to S Theodora Markson.

“Can we make a blanket fort?” Klaus asked. “Like we used to?”

Much like the last prologue, this is a reference to the scene from the 2004 film.

Rest of the fic under the cut.

Chapter Two - in which the Baudelaires move into a nice Shack

As he stood, Nick turned to look at his brother, and after a second, he realized something. “Wait a minute.” he said. “Are you… taller than me?”

A reference to Louis Hynes’s growth spurt inbetween TMM and TAA in the Netflix series. (Though, fun fact, at this moment in time, Liam Aiken is currently taller than Louis Hynes, so I guess Nick eventually does end up taller.)

Violet groaned and stood, and Solitude said, “Winnie,” which meant, “We could have Babbitt judge; they’re good with numbers!”

A reference to the main character of Babbitt’s namesake, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.

After a moment, Nick said, “I’ll give you a tip.” “Yes?” Nick smiled slightly. “There’s a book, about the mother of a girl who reminds me a lot of you, in that everyone thinks she is adorable and perfect. The mother gets scared when the girl’s classmate drowns on a field trip and her daughter steals something shiny off of him, and she then finds out that she has a very suspicious genealogy.”

Nick giving tips in the form of book recommendations is a reference to Lemony’s habit of doing the same thing to Pip and Squeak in All the Wrong Questions. This is a double reference, as Liam Aiken, Nick’s actor, read the audiobooks for ATWQ.

The book he is referencing is The Bad Seed by William March.

“Gah-ahc.” said Solitude, which meant, “Let’s sleep outside.”

One of Soli’s lines in the 2004 film.

Chapter Three - in which the Baudelaires make new friends

Sunny narrowed her eyes. “Armoracia,” she muttered, which meant something like, “That doesn’t sound right. Apples and Horseradish taste very differently.”

Early foreshadowing for Sunny’s cooking interest.

“I can get the windows,” Lilac said, “Should be an ordinary-enough pin-tumbler lock.”

The phase “ordinary enough pin-tumbler lock” is repeated a lot, as a reference to the second All the Wrong Questions book, When Did You See Her Last?

“Yeah, there’s no locks.” Duncan said. “Bonnie said that they fell off a few years ago and never got replaced.”

A reference to a main character from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.

Chapter Four - in which Duncan and Isadora break into a Library

“See? Researcher. Like Klaus.” Nick said. Klaus narrowed his eyes at his twin, trying to figure out what Nick was on about. “Is that… really important?” “Yes.” Nick said, and failed to elaborate. [...] “I think Klaus and Duncan should take the fungus.” Violet said, sharing a look with Nick. “The rest of us can keep an eye out for that book.” “Why should we take the fungus?” Violet held back a smile and shrugged, but Klaus quickly figured out what was going on. His face went red, and he glared at her, but Duncan said, “I’m fine with that,” so all he could do was shrug and keep shooting his siblings dark looks.

Violet and Nick are trying to set Duncan and Klaus up, much to Lilac’s horror.

“Like a little cat.” Duncan said. “One of those feral ones that are super tiny.”

A reference to the world’s smallest cat, the Rusty-spotted cat.

“That doesn’t sound right, but I really don’t give a shit.” Nick shrugged. “We’ll find it, won’t we, Soli?”

A reference to a line from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode 5x03, “The Great Recession”, which later became a meme - “That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about stars to dispute it.”

Chapter Five - in which the children run amok at Prufrock Prep

“You’re lucky.” Isadora said, sitting on the edge of the roof and kicking her legs as she looked down at the dying grass fields. “Our parents’ estate’s executor doesn’t give a fuck until orphans are ‘in’, whatever the hell that means.”

As revealed in The Slippery Slope book, Esme was left in charge of the Quagmires’ estate.

Lilac giggled. “Yeah. Mom used to have [a necklace] just like it, except instead of these gear patterns, it had her initials. I always thought it was pretty, but she never let me wear it, so I learned how to make my own. She was… so proud.”

2004 Film Violet does indeed have a necklace throughout the entire film; I just added a backstory.

“Nick Liam Baudelaire, what the hell is that?” Lilac shouted.

Nick’s middle name is in reference to his actor, Liam Aiken.

“Marbeau,” said Sunny, meaning, “Maybe they’ve finally opened a daycare or toddler school.”

A reference to Firmin Marbeau, who pioneered a forerunner of modern daycare.

Chapter Six - in which the Baudelaires have Gym Class

“Tik,” said Sunny, meaning, “No! Typing and stapling is so hard when we’re tired!”

“Tik” spelled backwards is “Kit”, which, no, is not a reference to Kit Snicket, but Kit Kittredge, who famously carries a typewriter.

“Say goodbye to Nick, Solitude.” Lilac said, grabbing the toddler’s hand and dragging her to her feet.

Another bit of foreshadowing for Nick’s capture.

“Olil.” Sunny groaned. “Leave me alone to die.”

“Olil” spelled backwards is “Lilo”, as Sunny is directly quoting a line from Lilo & Stitch (2002).

“Speaking of which,” Carmelita said, “As this is the second message I gave you, I really deserve a tip at this point.” “There’s a book about what happens when you let a bunch of schoolchildren run around unsupervised,” Klaus said, “And it features a pig’s head on a stick.”

Once again, the book recommendation instead of a tip is an All the Wrong Questions reference.

Klaus is recommending Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Chapter Seven - in which Nick gets them all in Even More Trouble

“I’m just telling you what I was told to tell you.” Carmelita giggled. “And since this is my eleventh message, you’re overdue eleven tips.” “We gave you our tips.” Nick said, glaring at her. “But here’s today’s; there’s a book that was made into a popular film that is about a hound dog and a fox. In the book, at the end, the hound kills the fox.”

Once again, ATWQ reference with the tips.

The book he’s recommending is The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P Mannix; and, yes, that IS how the book ends. The Hound dies, too. You’re welcome for ruining your childhood.

“Klaus?” he sounded very uncharacteristically terrified. “Klaus? Are you okay?” Klaus, startled, quickly stumbled out, “Y-yeah, I’m fine…” as Lilac and Violet also jumped up, grabbing the infants, and the Quagmires hurried to their feet. “Did your glasses break?” “No, I’m-” “Are you hurt?” Nick pulled away from his slightly, his eyes moving fast as he scanned his brother.

While Nick’s PTSD worsens much later, the first signs of it start showing here; he’s still traumatized from Klaus’s hypnotism, which was always kicked off with him getting tripped and his glasses breaking.

“I wouldn’t say that.” said Nick, glaring down at the floor. He hadn’t looked anybody in the eye since he’d attacked Carmelita.

Nick isn’t ashamed of attacking Carmelita; he’s ashamed that he “overreacted” to something so minor. He doesn’t like admitting he needs help, which becomes a problem after his capture.

“We know what homeschooling is.” Violet said. “We were-”

In this continuity, the Baudelaires were homeschooled before the fire.

“Halloween, age nine,” Isadora said, “Was when we wanted to go as a certain family of six children. The problem being that there’re only three of us.”

A reference to The Brady Bunch.

“We know you’re not asking.” Isadora said, smiling. “We’re volunteering.”

whelp.

Chapter Eight - in which Lilac Snaps

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Nine - in which the Baudelaires are given Fashion Lessons

They fell silent again, and then quietly, Lilac started to sing. She sang a song that was normally played very loud and energetic, but she gave it a slower melody, quietly soothing Sunny as they walked up and up the large staircase. It was a song about how everybody’s looking for something, and as they walked, listening to Lilac’s soft voice, they all really hoped that whoever was looking for the Quagmires would find them quickly.

A reference to “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by Eurythmics, but more specifically, a reference to Emily Browning’s cover version.

“Ah, you’re very adventurous!” Jerome said. “Just like your mother. We were friends a ways back. We hiked up Mount Fraught with some friends- gosh, it must have been twenty years ago-” [...] “Hmm? Oh, no, just the Snickets and that Markson boy.” Lilac narrowed her eyes. “Who?”

“That Markson boy” is a reference to the theory that Bertrand Baudelaire was adopted by S Theodora Markson’s family. Lilac’s recognition is not of her father’s maiden name, but of “Snicket”, which she vaguely remembers from her childhood.

Chapter Ten - in which the In Auction is planned

Currently, the Baudelaires were spread out in the living room. Nick and Klaus were trying to read through a book on Emily Dickinson that they’d bought the other day, while Violet and Lilac were going through the newspaper, trying to find something interesting, or some news on the search for Count Olaf.

The Baudelaires miss the Quagmires so much they’ve accidentally picked up their habits; Emily Dickinson is a famous poet, and Violet and Lilac are reading the newspaper.

“She seems like the kind of person who’d try to set me up with some rich kid.” Nick said. “And I’m never getting married, not even when I’m older. I’m gonna live alone in the woods, and the only one who can come visit me is Soli.”

Nick is aromantic.

“Ihering!” Soli said, which meant something like, “I’ll live with you and we can raise reptiles in the woods!”

A reference to Hermann von Ihering, a zoologist.

The waiter nodded. “I didn’t realize this was a sad occasion.” [...] “Did you say-?” Lilac began.

The waiter is a VFD agent; once again, Lilac vaguely recognizes the code phrase.

Chapter Eleven - in which Klaus finds an Ersatz Elevator

“I’m not going to let us chase red herrings!” Lilac shouted back, hurt.

Dark foreshadowing to the red herring statue.

“Solitude is,” Nick said, moving past him to find a pencil and paper, “Sunny is the albatross that curses us.” “Doom!” Sunny cheered.

A reference to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

“It worked.” Violet smiled. “We never expected otherwise.” Klaus said.

A reference to the line from “The Bad Beginning: Part One” in the Netflix series.

Chapter Twelve - in which the Baudelaires fall

“Not so bad.” Solitude muttered. Then, she said, “Radec,” which meant, “Just think of it as a ride, instead of an actual fall.”

“Radec” spelled backwards is “Cedar”; a lowkey reference to Cedar Point.

“No, we’re going to make a lockpick.” Lilac said. “Flamethrower’s too volatile. Besides, I don’t trust you with it.”

“Too volatile” is a reference to the phrase being used in The Grim Grotto.

She spun on her heel, exiting out a door behind them. As she did, Nick said, “Should I go after her and tell her the kitchen was out the other door?”

Esme went to call Olaf and the henchpeople, instead of going to the kitchen.

“Yeet Babbitt.” Solitude suggested.

A reference to the vine/meme.

They had to walk through a parlor to get to the door, and as they did, Nick stopped a moment, glancing at the phone. It didn’t look broken. “Hey, guys?” he called, but they didn’t hear him, so he started to run to catch up.

Nick started to run to catch up; he never did, because that’s when one of Olaf’s henchpeople grabs him.

And then, with a swish, there was a thump, thump, thump, and the Baudelaires stopped falling.

Only three thumps- because Klaus and Lilac were carrying the toddlers, and Nick didn’t fall, only three kids hit the net.

“Nhojnod!” Sunny shouted. “You bastard!”

“Njohnod” is “Don John” spelled backwards, a reference to the character from Much Ado About Nothing, who is a bastard in both the legal and ethical use of the term.

Chapter Thirteen - in which Sunny crawls up an elevator shaft

“Sunday Theodora Baudelaire!” Lilac shouted. “You get back down here right now!”

Sunny’s middle name, “Theodora”, is once again a reference to S Theodora Markson; even after her death, she’s still confusing people about what the S stood for.

Sunny sighed and turned slightly towards them, calling out, “Salvo!” which probably meant something like, “I’m going to go get us some rope and see if I can find Nick! I’ll be back soon!”

“Salvo” is a Latin verb, meaning “to save.”

Sunny bit her lip and shook her head. “Appentier,” she said, meaning, “He’s not in the penthouse, at least from what I saw.”

“Appentier” is a french word from which “penthouse apartment” is derived.

“Kim?” Sunny asked, meaning, “Wait, we get leeway for being kidnapped?”

“Kim” is the name of the girl who is kidnapped in the film Taken (2008).

Solitude glanced at her in confusion. “Greywater?” “Yes, Soli,” Violet said, “A word which here means, ‘basically piss and shit.’”

A reference to a line from IT: Chapter One (2017).

Chapter Fourteen - in which Some Children are sold at auction

“You’d be surprised what’s legal and what’s not, actually.” Esme said. “For instance, in our society, cannibalism is legal, but religiously frowned upon-”

A reference to the only ASOUE canon that matters, the Real-Time Fandub. (part one, part two)

“Very interesting.” Olaf said. “And I suppose you think that your dear sister Lilac will take care of you then?”

Olaf is taunting Nick here, as he’s about to drop quite a lot of secrets to him, but mainly that Lilac is his half-sister.

Notably, Nick is the only Baudelaire not present in this header image.

Chapter Fifteen - in which Nobody’s having a good time

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Sixteen - in which Lilac has a bad plan

For sapphires and fortunes we are held in here. Only you can end our fear.

Isadora’s poems are ever-so-slightly different in this AU, due to Nick’s presence.

The addition of and fortunes indicates that Nick is still with them.

Until dawn comes, we cannot speak speak. No voices come from this sad beak.

“voices” is more specific than “words can”; Nick has already started to go nonverbal due to his trauma, and Duncan and Isadora are unable to yell through the statue.

Chapter Seventeen - in which the Village makes a Big Mistake

But as she passed the Baudelaires, her hand slipped, and the man turned and met Lilac’s eyes. He stared for a moment, as if he realized with a shock he recognized her from somewhere. Then, he said, very quietly, “The world is quiet here.”

Jacques is realizing that Lilac has Lemony’s eyes; if he hadn’t realized before she was his niece, he does now. He tries to signal her with a VFD codephrase.

“Now,” Lilac said, “We will need full access to all your inventing materials.” “And I’ll need blueprints of the uptown jail.” Klaus said. “Dead fly.” said Solitude.

While this is an obvious reference to Soli wanting to feed Babbitt, it is also a reference to a similar request made by Wednesday Addams in the 1964 sitcom The Addams Family, episode 1x10, “Wednesday Leaves Home.”

The first thing you read contains our clues: An initial way to speak to you.

“Our clues”, once again, signals that Nick is still with the Quagmires.

Chapter Eighteen - in which Count Olaf was not murdered

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Nineteen - in which the Twins get a Birthday Present

“You won’t keep Nick.” Lilac added. “He’ll get away from you, and the Quagmires, too! We’re never going to give up, and neither are they!” “Baudelaires don’t give up!” Solitude shouted. Olaf just smiled. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

Nick’s trauma has already caused him to shut down completely, and Olaf knows this.

Inside these letters the eye will see Nearby are your loved ones and the VFD

Nick and the Quagmires are still together.

Chapter Twenty - in which Sunny drives a Firetruck

“Nick, hey.” Isadora slowly pulled away from Violet and Lilac and stepped closer to the fountain, her voice very soft. “Your siblings found us. We were right. They found us.”

The Quagmires aren’t as traumatized as Nick; they’ve learned how to avoid the wrath of their captors, and have complete faith that the Baudelaires will save them. Nick’s been tortured and told quite a lot of things that temporarily broke him.

Duncan and Isadora shared a glance, and to the Baudelaires’ surprise, Nick flinched and also shared the triplets’ look. “Well, that’s not a surprise.” Duncan said. “He was the brother of a man who-”

Duncan, Isadora and Nick all know about Jacques Snicket, his relationship to Lemony, and Lemony’s relationship to Lilac.

Nick was backing away from the fence, eyes wide, gripping onto Solitude so hard his knuckles were white. Isadora ran forwards, and Lilac realized then that he was shaking uncontrollably. “Nick, Nick, it’s okay!” Isadora said. She reached forwards, grabbing his face. “Look at me! Look at me! Duncan-” Duncan ran over, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder, as Nick said, “They’re going to find us. They’re going to catch us. They’re going to find us-”

A lot of Nick’s trauma came from punishments after he attempted to escape, so he goes into a panic whenever they’re about to be caught.

At that moment, Solitude pushed Babbitt onto Nick’s shoulder and said, “Hold this!” She immediately started running, jumping over Lilac and crawling through the window and onto the seat beside Sunny. Then she slid to the floor and jumped on the gas pedal, causing them to take off again.

A reference to Pip and Squeak from All the Wrong Questions, who drove their taxi in a similar way.

Klaus stared back, and then his gaze hardened, and his siblings had never seen him look so furious. “I’m going to kill them.” Klaus vowed, and he meant it. “I’m going to kill them, Nick.” Nick’s eyes widened, and for several seconds, he looked like he physically could not process what his brother had just said.

A running joke up to this point was that Nick would suggest murder and Klaus would remind him that was illegal; after seeing his brother in such a state of shock and fear, this gag drops as Klaus decides Olaf and his troupe have to die.

Chapter Twenty-One - in which Nick is not feeling great

Meanwhile, Klaus was leaning against the wall, with Nick leaning onto his shoulder, curled up so he could be as close to his brother as possible. He had his eyes shut, but Lilac knew he wasn’t asleep; she didn’t think he’d slept at all.

A symptom of severe trauma is the loss of sleep, either because of nightmares, or fear of what could happen while in such a defenseless position. This will be explored in Part Three.

Nick bit his lip, and then nodded and said, “I-I’m sorry-”

Nick’s gotten over the initial shock of his rescue, and he’s starting to regret breaking down and starting to hate being so obviously traumatized.

“Wait, Li…” Nick paused. “Can I… can I talk to you?” “Of course.” Lilac said softly. Nick glanced from Klaus to Violet to the toddlers. “Alone?”

Nick has decided it’s Lilac’s right to know she has a different (possibly living?) biological dad than the rest of them, but he also knows it’s her decision who else she wants to know, hence why he wants to tell her alone.

Nick looked up at Klaus, and said, “I-I…” he shut his eyes. “I thought I heard… no, no, I must’ve… I thought I heard her, but… I had to… she wouldn’t… have found us this fast…”

Esme and Olaf were Nick’s main tormentors; they trigger his panic attacks more than the presence of the rest of the troupe.

“No! No, don’t leave!” Nick shouted, leaping forwards and grabbing Klaus’s arm.

Nick is absolutely terrified of isolation/abandonment, especially in enclosed spaces.

“Never!” Klaus pushed Nick farther, incredibly terrified by just how quiet his brother was.

Nick was punished a lot for “backtalking” his captors, so when he’s around Olaf and Esme, he almost never speaks.

Chapter Twenty-Two - in which the Baudelaires break into a Hospital

“Dimidium,” Sunny said, which meant, “Well, it’s only half a hospital.”

“Dimidium” is a Latin noun, meaning “half.”

“We could kick down the door.” Lilac suggested. Then, she gave Nick a small smile. “Remember, Nick? When you were locked in the closet and wanted Mom to kick down the door?”

A reference to a previous one-shot for the Six Baudelaires AU.

“Do you think that’ll have the information we need?” Violet asked. Nick flinched again, and then he said, “Um-”

Nick heard the word “Snicket”, and immediately assumes the worst- that it’ll out Lilac to the rest of their siblings.

Chapter Twenty-Three - in which Solitude steals some shit

Nick still didn’t respond, and Violet’s voice broke. “You have to remember. You couldn’t have been younger than… six or seven. Mother and Father were so mad, when they found us I thought they were going to explode… but you weren’t even upset, I cried but you just said you’d… you’d heard some kind of animal cry, and you thought it might need help, and I was the only one awake to help you… they got even madder, told you you should’ve stayed with them, but you didn’t see anything wrong, and… Nick, please tell me you remember that…”

An animal cry is a signal from VFD recruiters to prompt the children to say the codephrase that begins recruitment. The Baudelaire parents don’t want their children recruited, and were terrified to wake up and find their children gone on a night that they could have been kidnapped.

Violet carefully pulled the scraps from her pocket, spreading them out in front of her, while Klaus turned to Nick. “Did they tell you anything?” he asked. “While you were… with them? About VFD, or this whole ‘Snicket’ thing, or Olaf?” Nick didn’t look anyone in the eye. “There wasn’t… much time to chat. I only… Lilac, can we talk?”

Pretty much all of Nick’s pleas for Lilac to talk to her are brought on when Snicket is mentioned.

Nick pulled away, scratching at his arm, “That’s not…”

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: IMPLIED SELF HARM

Nick’s arm scratches are a tic he picked up during his captivity; he starts to scratch whenever his captors are mentioned, to keep himself alert. This will be discussed and resolved in Part Three.

Nick looked sharply up at her and said, “Mom stole from Esme. She wouldn’t give a shit.”

Nick knows about the theft of the sugar bowl, as well as the Opera Night. (which are separate incidents, fuck you Netflix.) He’s very pissed at his parents for keeping vital information from them.

Chapter Twenty-Four - in which Violet makes a decision

They went to the Js. Then, quietly, Nick said, “Can we go to the L cabinets?” “Why?” Lilac asked. Nick glanced towards his siblings, and then away. “Just a guess.” Lilac shrugged directed them to the Ls, and Nick flipped through one drawer, eyes narrowed. Then he shook his head. “Nothing here.”

He’s looking under both “Lemony” and “Lilac.”

Nick paused. “I mean… we don’t have to- to watch it right away.” [...] “Li, please,” he said, “Can we talk? Just outside, just the two of us, there’s something-”

Nick wants to be able to tell Lilac about the whole “Lemony Snicket” thing before they can risk having her find out from the file.

“I did.” Jacques nodded. “I managed to contact-”

He managed to contact Quigley.

“We’ll find them.” Lilac swore. “Are you okay?” “Yeah.” “Are you scared?” “I’m scared you won’t let me make a flamethrower and turn it on that bitch.”

A reference to this incorrect quote, which is, of itself, a reference to a line from the television show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, episode 3x10, “Yippie Kayak.”

Still no response. Lilac looked around in terror, her hand flying to her necklace. “Violet Malina Baudelaire! You get the fuck out here!”

Violet’s middle name is taken from her actress, Malina Weissman.

Chapter Twenty-Five - in which Lilac breaks down

“I’m not…” Lilac sniffled. “I’m not like you.” Nick froze. “What does that mean?” “You all are so close.” Lilac shut her eyes. “You and Solitude, you and Klaus, you and Violet, Violet and Klaus, Klaus and Sunny, Solitude and Sunny… all of you. You’re all each others’ best friends. None of you care about me like that. [...] I just… feel like… like there’s this wall between us. That we can’t see, but we can’t cross. And I can see you all… you all together. And I just… can’t be like that. Cause I have to be responsible? Cause I’m the oldest? Cause… cause I just can’t be loved?” “Li!” Nick put a hand on her cheek, turning her towards him. “Li, we do love you. You’re our big sister! You’re our sister! You are our family! Sure, we pick on you, but not because we hate you! We all love you, too!”

This is why Nick doesn’t take the opportunity to tell her about her heritage; he wants to wait for a moment where the information won’t give her more anxiety, or make her think she’s somehow less family.

Nick paused a moment, and then he leaned his head on her shoulder, shut his eyes, and said, “They fuck you up, your Mom and Dad. [...] They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had, then add some extra, just for you.” Lilac stiffened for a second, and then carefully put an arm around Nick. “Where… where’d you learn that?” “The Library.” Nick lied.

Nick is quoting “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin, which is later quoted by Olaf in “The End.” He learned the poem during his captivity.

“Nick.” Lilac wiped her eyes, and then put her hands on his. “It’s okay to… to talk about what happened to you.” Nick bit his lip. “That’s…” “I’ve been busy, yes, but I’ve also been scared. Scared that I’ll… I’ll hear something that makes everything worse.” Lilac’s eyes darted to the ground a moment, before going back up to Nick. “But I’ll listen. I want to hear you. I want you to tell me.”

TRIGGER WARNING: CSA MENTION

Lilac has been avoiding Nick in fear that he’ll explain what he suffered under Olaf. While she knows learning the details can help her better protect her brother, she is terrified that she won’t be able to handle it, and she’s completely terrified he might have been sexually assaulted, seeing as Olaf threatened to do that to Violet specifically to punish Lilac, and he had Nick under his control for a while.

Nick smiled at her. “You can do anything, sis.”

Nick knows she’s biologically his half-sister, but he wants to make completely sure she knows he will always consider her his sister and his family, and nothing can change that.

Chapter Twenty-Six - in which Klaus impersonates a Doctor

Nick flinched. “You want to be like him?”

Something to note: After his capture, Nick never refers to Olaf or Esme by their names; just him or her.

Nick took a deep breath. “These vents are a lot bigger than I thought, but, um… they’re still pretty cramped.” Solitude shrugged. Of course it didn’t seem cramped to her, she was only a little over two feet tall. “I was just… I’m not sure I like how small it is.”

Nick’s claustrophobia, gained from being trapped in a red herring, a statue, and possibly other small spaces inbetween, is starting up.

“Doctor Howser.” Lilac said in an austrailian accent, thinking very fast. “We’re going to perform surgery soon.”

A reference to Doogie Howser, MD, which starred a young Neil Patrick Harris, who played Olaf in the Netflix series.

“Since when could you do an Austrailian accent?” “You don’t know everything about me.” Lilac scanned the list.

Lilac’s actress, Emily Browning, is Australian.

Chapter Twenty-Seven - in which the Baudelaires jump out a window

Nick had placed Solitude onto the ground and now held Violet by the shoulders, shaking her slightly as he shouted. “What did they do to you, Vi? Vi, what did they do?”

Nick knows exactly what could have happened to Violet in captivity, so he’s completely and utterly panicked.

“I’m with Klaus.” Nick said shakily. “We go together or not at all.”

A reference to the track “Together or Not at All” from Doctor Who, by Murray Gold.

Chapter Twenty-Eight - in which the Baudelaires visit a Carnival

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Nine - in which Solitude finally morphs into a reptile

“Well, if they…” Nick shut his eyes. “We just… better get there before they drink too much, that’s all.”

Nick has had experience with the troupe while drunk, and would rather attempt to speak with them before it goes too far.

“Well, then,” Lulu said, stepping forwards and looking a bit confused, “What exactly are you, please?” “You can call me Babydoll.” Lilac said.

A very clear reference to the character that Emily Browning played in Sucker Punch (2011).

Surprisingly, the henchpeople looked a little startled at that, as did Lulu, but Esme laughed. “Sounds like my kind of girl!” she said. “I drowned an ex once. So did you, dear, right?” Olaf was taking another swig of wine, so they couldn’t exactly see his reaction.

Olaf “drowning an ex” is a reference to the Netflix show canon, where he left Georgina Orwell under a bridge to drown.

His reaction being hidden is because, for obvious reasons, he doesn’t quite want to talk about murdered parents.

“Well, I’m Elliot,” Klaus said, “And this is my other head, Janus.”

Janus was a Roman god with two faces.

“And that down there,” Lilac said, pointing her thumb at Solitude, “Is our little pet gorgon. We call ‘er Euryale, cause her actual name is just a buncha hisses.”

Euryale was one of Medusa’s sisters in Greek Mythology.

Chapter Thirty - in which the Baudelaires put on a show

But as they started to leave, they heard a low rumble, and Nick immediately grabbed onto Klaus’s arm and let out a nervous gasp that was, thankfully, missed in the noise.

Nick recognizes the sound of Olaf’s car.

Chapter Thirty-One - in which the Baudelaires play fortune teller

“Or maybe,” Nick said, very quietly, keeping his eyes shut tight, “They were told not to find us.”

Nick learned a lot about VFD during his captivity, including their recruitment. He’s worried that their surviving parent may be ready to give them up to the organization.

Nick grabbed a selection of paper, staring curiously, and then he quickly tried to shove it back, but Klaus’s eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of it, and he grabbed it from his brother.

Nick, once again, sees the name “Snicket” and assumes the worst.

Chapter Thirty-Two - in which the Baudelaires are asked to murder

“No, thank you.” Esme said, looking down a Sunny and frowning. “I’m afraid I don’t like cinnamon in chocolate anymore, the woman who introduced it to me recently perished in a fire. But it’s very kind of you to offer.”

The Baudelaires received their taste for cinnamon in hot chocolate from their mother.

“Sounds good.” Kevin said. “I’ve committed crimes before. Why, when I was no older than Elliot and Janus-”

A reference to the theory that Kevin from ASOUE is the same as Kevin Old from File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents, who committed vandalism and thievery.

Chapter Thirty-Three - in which someone is pushed to the lions

“I’m sure you are.” Olaf smirked, and he reached forwards and put a cold hand on Nick’s cheek. Nick tried very hard not to cry, but he wasn’t succeeding very well. “Now go jump into that pit. We want to see you devoured by lions.”

Olaf, who knows that the freaks are the Baudelaires, specifically picked Klaus and Nick to sacrifice to the lions specifically to torment Nick more; he knows what effect he has on him, and is relishing it. Once the boys are gone, they can grab the rest of the Baudelaires and escape.

“I wish we had a cartographer with us.” Violet sighed.

A reference to the next book, where Violet will have a relationship with Quigley, a cartographer.

Chapter Thirty-Four / Epilogue - in which they should have said something

“Come on.” Bertrand said, taking Violet’s hands and spinning her as she giggled. “It’s Duke Ellington. That’s your fav, Li.”

A reference to All the Wrong Questions.

“What song is this?” Violet asked. Beatrice smiled over at Soli, who was curled up on Nick’s lap, biting his sweater. “It’s got a very special name, isn’t that right, dear?” Solitude giggled.

“Solitude”, by Duke Ellington, likely Ellington’s song in All the Wrong Questions.

“Dashiell if it’s a boy,” Bertrand replied, “Sunny if it’s a girl.”

“Dashiell” after Dashiell Qwerty from All the Wrong Questions.

“We could adopt one of the outdoors animals.” Nick suggested. Beatrice and Bertrand turned to look at him. “The what?” Bertrand asked. “I keep hearing animals outside my window, every now and again.” Nick shrugged. “Howling or yipping or sometimes breaking a branch. Maybe if we brought them into the house, they wouldn’t get in so much trouble.”

Recruitment attempts that have not been working, because Beatrice and Bertrand refuse to let their children join VFD.

She turned to a selection of beach photos, slowly pulling out a small picture of baby Lilac, sitting on Briny Beach. It hadn’t been the first time she’d seen the ocean, but she’d still been so excited to splash in the water.

Since Lilac was born eleven months before Violet, it’s likely she was born on the island.

#asoue #asoue netflix #asoue movie #a series of unfortunate events #six baudelaires au #six baudelaires bonus #six baudelaires official fic #six baudelaires reference guide #mine

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fmpthomastebbings · 4 years

Text

Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a film and animation studio, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and as a maker of animated feature films, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the animation business.

One of his popular animated films was spirited away. An academy award winner.

Spirited away was actually created without a script. Despite this it still manages to have a “rich plot and developed characters”. H e claims the story is made when he storyboards which is then made into film shortly after. Claiming he doesn’t know where the plot is going and just allows it to happen organically.

Miyazaki did everything for spirited away. It is all one mans work. He wrote, directed and story boarded the film.

One of the scenes from the film shows a “stink spirit” coming to the bathhouse to get clean. A bicycle handle is to be seen sticking out of the creatures side. once removed the creature is revealed to be the spirit of a polluted river. This was actually based on a real experience of his where he cleaned a local river, where him and 9 others pulled a bike out of the the river to clean it bringing the fish back home.

Miyazaki will often add extra scenes into his films with a character just staring off into the distance. This is too build tension and not have constant action, as he believes it becomes numb otherwise.

The company being incredibly popular many tried to buy them. Disney being the ones to achieve this on the conditions they do not cut or alter the films in any way.

Animating movement in spirited away was very strange. Miyazaki would describe it using animals. for example a scene where injured haku falls into the boiler room he describes it as “the dragon clings to the wall like a gecko, before falling to the ground like a snake, and his mouth be like that of a dogs.

spirited away made 30.4billion yen, breaking Japanese history and overtaking the titanic and is still yet to be beaten.

Another interesting fact about the characters within spirited away is that their names reflect who they are. Boh means little boy or son, kamaji means old man or boiler man, and zenibi means money which.

The American version of the film actually had extra dialog. This was believed to be necessary as some things such as the bath house may have been easily identifiable to Japanese audiences but no so identifiable to American or English audiences.

Chihiro was voiced by the same person as lilo form Disney famous lilo and stitch making it easily recognisable.

(Taken from previous project for reference towards animation)

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megexpress · 5 years

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Haha saw that “Little Mermaid 2” post! Imagine Arthur and Mera (probably plus his parents too) all at the Curry lighthouse watching that movie!

Anon is referring to this wonderful addition to my post.Anon, I can’t not imagine it. After reading that addition, I can’t help but feel that this is what I meant by Arthur arguing with Mera - he isn’t Simba because (and this is his argument) he is Melody! I hate that I didn’t consider TLM2 before but I’m so glad @cjbolan brought it to my attention. I call myself a Disney fan? Smh.

I have a headcanon that Arthur’s favourite Disney films are the ones that heavily feature water (or Polynesian culture like Lilo & Stitch) such as Pinocchio, Finding Nemo, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid 1 & 2, and Moana. (He loved Atlantis: The Lost Empire until the day Vulko told him that his mother was sacrificed. The movie has been dead to him ever since. When Atlanna and Mera insisted it be part of their Disney marathon, he couldn’t resist them for long. Those two together could get him to do anything.)

Continuing from my previous headcanon, AquaMera (plus Atlanna and Tom) are having a Disney movie marathon at the Curry Lighthouse. Arthur figured that, to truly introduce Mera to his world, she has to be knowledgeable of Disney. It’s part of Arthur’s childhood so she readily agrees - once she actually has time to spare, of course. They’d burned through a few of them without any problems until they watch The Lion King. Mera vehemently insists that Arthur is Simba and they get into a bickering spat about it (Atlanna has her own realization that that would make her Mufasa. Tom consoles her and they cuddle closer while AquaMera wildly gesticulate between Arthur himself and the screen).

Arthur huffs in determination to prove to Mera, once and for all, that he is not Simba. He puts The Little Mermaid 2 on, plops himself next to Mera on the couch, and waits. He knows this movie like the back of his hand so his eyes tend to wander to Mera’s facial expressions, gauging her reaction. Occasionally, he adds his own commentary such as She talks to fish just like me! (Yes, I’ve seen that for myself, Arthur.) / She was royalty and didn’t know it! (Are you gonna talk the entire film, Arthur?) / My trident is better (Arthur, I swear!) / If you’re wondering, I can’t talk to penguins. Tried once. Didn’t go well. (*Mera’s eyes start to glow* *Arthur laughs* Okay, I’ll stop!).

Somewhere along the way, Mera’s hand found his. He watched as her brow would furrow during intense scenes or as her head bobbed to the beat of the music, occasionally tapping her fingers in rhythm as if playing her flute. The scene of Melody being mocked evoked her biggest reaction: unconscious flexing of her hand around his, brow furrowed in agitation, and her eyes beholding a glowing blue tinge. When the scene was over, he flexed his hand to get her attention. She slowly pulled her eyes from the screen to meet a sad, soft smile from Arthur. He kissed her knuckles and her lips upturned slightly before returning her attention back to the screen.

By the end of the film, Atlanna and Tom were asleep in each other’s arms, Tom softly snoring. Arthur looks at Mera and she reluctantly concedes that Arthur is more Melody than Simba. He whoops in triumph, startling both Atlanna and Tom awake. Arthur plants a kiss on Mera’s head before scrambling for the pile of Disney movies, determined to help Mera find her own Disney persona. She laughs in exasperation and great fondness. This is her giant dork.

#AquaMera #thx for the msg anon~#quickly posting this before work #may/may not have rewatched TLM2 before posting

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soul-music-is-life · 6 years

Note

Hi! I saw your post about cosplay! And I was wondering if you could write a prompt of Alison and Emily coming home to find the twins dressed their little brother as stitch? Any way I love you and hope you have a great week!!!!! 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

Here’s to you having a lovely weekend. Love back at you.

******

It was their first night out in months. It should have been a grand celebration, a time to let loose. Emily DiLaurentis-Fields had planned the quiet intimate night for her wife, the mother of her three children. First they had taken a moonlit walk together, connecting, just the two of them without the constant interruption of their daughters and baby boy. The quiet was almost unnerving. They weren’t used to not having kids around.

After their walk they had taken a canoe ride under the stars. And to top off the night Emily had secured a spot at one of the town’s hottest restaurants that usually required a two week waiting period to get in. Afterwards she had a few more things planned. The whole night was supposed to be relaxing. But she noticed that Alison seemed anything but relaxed.

Alison was holding her tension in her shoulders. The blonde mama bear had a reason to be nervous. It was the twins first time alone with their baby brother. They were thirteen and responsible. Well, Lily was responsible. But even so, Alison found her mind littered with questions. Had they made sure all of the toxic cleaning supplies were locked up? Did Lily and Grace know the number to poison control? Had they locked all the doors and windows? Did the girls know where the fire extinguisher was in case of an emergency? What if the baby put something in his mouth and choked on it? Were all the scissors put away? Were all the electrical outlets covered? What if their son got scared and wanted his mommies? What if he needed something and they weren’t there?

Everything that could possibly go wrong was going on through her head. Fires, floods, the end of the earth. The pensive look on her face coupled with the fact that she had twirled a huge lump of pasta on to her fork and was still mindlessly spinning the utensil gave her away.

“Alison, they’re fine.” Emily put her hand on top of Alison’s, stilling her motions. “The girls watch him all the time when we’re home. And Aria promised to look in on them from time to time.”

“I know.” Alison sighed. “It’s just…” She paused, her lips pursed.

“You miss them.” Emily smiled softly.

Alison nodded, shying away, like she was embarrassed to admit she had become one of those helicopter moms. Emily curled her fingers into Alison’s palm.

“I miss them, too.” She squeezed Alison’s hand. Not having their son with them made her feel a longing emptiness. But she knew her daughters were taking care of him.

“What do you think they’re doing right now?” Alison asked.

Emily glanced at her watch. If she knew her daughters they were up to no good. They were probably drawing all over their little brother’s face and gluing fake eyebrows on him and feeding him a bunch of sugar so they could watch him toddle around on a sugar high with a bucket on his head.

“They’re probably reading him a bedtime story.” Emily tried to keep a straight face. She didn’t want to give Alison any other ideas of what could go wrong.

“We should call them to check in.” Alison bit down on her lip.

“Sweetie, relax.” Emily rubbed Alison’s hand. “He’s a tough kid. He can handle a few hours with his big sisters. We made him durable.” She assured her. “Remember when he started walking?”

“My back still hurts from squatting down and following him around everywhere.” Alison nodded with a quiet laugh. She’d referred to that time as “The Hunchback phase” because she spent all of her time hunched over him.

“And do you remember what happened when he fell and hit his head on the coffee table?” Emily asked.

“Besides my heart attack?” Alison asked sarcastically. If Emily was trying to make her feel better about leaving their baby alone she was not succeeding.

“He got right back up and kept going. He didn’t shed one tear. And do you remember why?”

Alison stopped to think about it. Once the heavy fear and her panic had subsided that day she had seen something beautiful.

“Because Lily and Grace were right there to encourage him to get back up and try again.” Alison spoke fondly of her daughters.

“They’re good girls, Ali. They’ll take care of him.”

“Yeah.” Alison rolled her palm up to meet Emily’s hand on top of hers. She smiled at her.

She wordlessly slipped her hand away from Emily’s and then went back to her dinner. Emily watched her for a few minutes. The blonde seemed more at ease, but her thoughts were still distant. Her gaze was on her food, but her mind was on their son. Alison noticed that Emily had stopped eating. She glanced up at her.

“Everything okay?” Alison asked.

“Let’s go home.” Emily reached down and pulled her napkin away from her lap. She put it on the table.

“Really?” Alison’s face lit up. Her excitement wavered for a second. “Oh, but Em, you planned this whole night…”

“The goal of this night was to make you happy,” Emily said, knowing that nothing on earth would make her wife happier than seeing their son before he went to bed. “Let’s go see our babies. I know they make you smile.”

“This is why I love you so much.” Alison leaned over the table and kissed her. Her wife knew her so well.

Emily paid the check and then drove home. Alison watched the clock the whole time, wondering if they would make it home before their son fell asleep. Alison had worked herself up so much that she expected a loud chaotic scene with screaming and things on fire when she walked through the door. Instead, they walked into the living room to find a few floor puzzles laid out, a coloring book and crayons sitting on the table, and the TV on low volume.

Their daughters were curled up on the couch with their baby brother. Grace was on one end, her head against the crook of the couch and her feet stretched out over the ottoman. Lily was on the other end, her feet plopped on top of Grace’s legs. They were both asleep. Their little brother was sandwiched between them leaning against Lily, his cheek resting against her side. His bright alert eyes were full of excitement over seeing his moms.

He climbed down off of the couch, pulling what looked to be a blue blanket down with him. When his feet touched the floor they saw that it wasn’t a blanket he had wrapped around his body. The blue hood over his head had bright pink ears outlined by blue wool. The onesie costume was covering his entire body from head to toe.

“Hi, baby.” Alison said softly as he wobbled on his feet to get over to his moms.

“Did you tire your sisters out?” Emily chuckled.

“Sissies sleeping.” He put his chubby little finger against his lips and shushed his moms. He stopped at Alison’s feet and looked up at her. “Hi, Mama.”

Alison thought her heart might melt at the sight of him. The only thing she could see around the face of his costume were his eyes and his smile. His rosy red cheeks puffed out when he grinned up at his mothers.

“Aw, look at you all dressed up like a…blue little koala.” Alison kneeled down and picked him up. He kissed her nose, full open mouth, licking her with his tongue, because he was still learning how to kiss.

“Please tell me you’re joking. You don’t know who he is supposed to be?” Emily raised a single brow at Alison.

“He’s mama’s little koala bear.” Alison nuzzled his face with her nose. She didn’t care that he’d slobbered all over her. He giggled.

“He’s Stitch. From Lilo and Stitch.” Emily laughed.

“I never saw that one.”

“You what? I’m contacting a divorce attorney. I don’t even know who you are.” Emily teased her.

“Hi, mommy.” He reached for Emily. Alison leaned over so he could hug Emily’s neck. He curled his neck and pushed against Emily’s shoulder.

“Hi, sweet boy.” Emily kissed the top of his soft head.

He pulled up and looked at Emily and then back at Alison. He looked at his sleeping sisters on the couch. He started squirming in Alison’s arms.

“Down, mama.” He demanded.

Alison put him down and he turned away from them. He took a few steps and started to stumble, but put his hands out on the ground before he hit the floor. His butt was up in the air, a little lump for a tail sticking straight up as he moved forward. He got back to his feet and then walked back over to the couch. He reached up and put his hands against Lily’s thigh and shook her.

“Wiwo.” He curled his little fingers against her pants and tugged on them. It took Alison and Emily a minute to realize he was trying to say “Lilo.” Not Lily, but Lilo.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, buddy?” Lily yawned. She opened her eyes and stretched.

“Mommies home.” He climbed up on the couch, jostling Grace awake as well.

The girls both turned and faced their mothers. Lily and Grace looked at one another nervously. Had they really dozed off when they were supposed to be keeping an eye on their little brother?

“Grace, you fell asleep?” Lily was quick to throw her sister under the bus.

“I thought you were watching him!” Grace frowned.

Emily and Alison looked at one another, amused. They decided to let the girls sweat it out for a little bit.

“We…um…” Lily chuckled nervously, pulling her brother into her lap. “Smile, wave, be cute.” She whispered to him.

He giggled. Alison and Emily still didn’t say anything.

“Okay, admittedly this looks bad.” Grace smiled nervously.

It was Emily who finally broke.

“Nothing is on fire. Your brother is still alive.” She walked over to the girls. She squeezed on to the couch between them. “I think we can call this one a win.” She laughed.

Grace and Lily breathed a sigh of relief.

“What have you party animals been up to tonight?” Alison pushed her way in next to Emily.

“Oh, you know. Keg stands. Beer pong. Drugs and rock and roll. The norm.” Lily leaned in and snorted against her little brother’s cheek to make him laugh.

He squealed out a string of giggles. All of the girls smiled.

“Do you like his outfit?” Grace questioned. “We’ve been saving it for a special occasion. We thought tonight was fitting since it was all about family time. The Lilo and Stitch way.”

“Your mother doesn’t know who Lilo and Stitch are.” Emily smiled crookedly at Alison.

Grace looked at Alison. Her jaw dropped.

“I will disown you, mother.”

“I’m offended.” Lily added, looking at the toddler on her lap. “Tell mom what we learned tonight, little man.”

“Ohana,” he said, crawling into Emily’s lap. He looked up at Alison.

“It means family.” Grace clarified. She leaned over and took her brother’s hands, moving them up and down, making him laugh. “And family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten, right?”

“Ohana!” He exclaimed a little more enthusiastically. He bounced in Emily’s lap, glancing back at Lily, then looking at Grace. “I love you sissies and mommies.”

“We love you, too, Sammy.” Grace leaned across Alison’s lap and placed a kiss on her little brother’s forehead.

The day Samuel Wayne DiLaurentis-Fields had been born he had stolen every single one of their hearts. He was so loved. And he knew it.

Emily and Alison glanced at one another, their hearts completely full. Alison leaned in and placed a kiss on Emily’s lips. She mouthed a silent “I love you” to her wife. She was so thankful they were sharing this moment. All Emily had wanted to do was make this night special for Alison. It turns out, everything they needed to make it special was right at home.

#Emison #Pretty Little Liars #Prompt #Emison family #Lilo and Stitch #Emily Fields #Alison DiLaurentis #Lily DiLaurentis-Fields #Grace DiLaurentis-Fields #Emison fanfic #asks

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jcmorrigan · 6 years

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I am currently sailing the vast and wide oceans aboard a fairly big ship known as the “Jumba/Pleakley.” I know not how long I am going to be in the obsession phase over these two. I actually got hooked on it a while ago, but I think what kicked it all off was me FINALLY watching Stitch Has a Glitch for the first time and seeing how perfect they were in that. So I wanted to take a little time to tell you why I think this ship is amazing and also why I feel like it’s pretty much canon at this point. Because I seriously do think that at some point, the writers of the Lilo & Stitch extended universe realized what they were doing and barely bothered to hold back.

When they first meet in the original Lilo & Stitch, Dr. Jumba Jookiba and Agent Pleakley (who we wouldn’t find out had the first name “Wendy” until extended canon kicked in) are complete and total opposites who hate each other’s guts. I personally love ships that start out with some rivalry. This is partly due to personal reasons (i.e. when I was immature in high school, my method of flirting with others was to act like a jerk) and partly because watching a relationship evolve gives it extra strength. If you’re going to go from enemies to friends to pretty much lovers, you’ve got to bond over a lot and come to thoroughly understand each other.

But let’s stop for a moment and break down the archetypes at play here. You have Jumba, who starts the film as a criminal and has a dark past, ultimately doing the right thing but with his own brand of cheekiness and a little disregard for morality where he sees fit. On the other hand is Pleakley, a naïve cinnamon roll who’s just trying to do the right thing. Does this dynamic remind you of anything? Because it should.

The “bad boy/femme fatale” and the “sweet summer child” are a duo that Disney actually LOVES to use in its canon romances. Sometimes they get along from the get-go, but in some cases, like Rapunzel and Eugene, they actually don’t, and once again, their journey is about coming to understand each other and see the beauty in each other.

Back to Jumba and Pleakley. They remain in pretty constant rivalry throughout the original film; some moments between them could be interpreted…problematically. However, their adventure in attempting to catch Stitch gives this duo kind of a fire-forged quality. You never see one without the other from the moment they’re introduced to each other, and the audience comes to appreciate their opposing personalities as well-played comedy. Even if their chemistry is “We have nothing in common,” there’s still a chemistry there.

That isn’t to say they don’t have their moments. For one, the disguises they choose to look human after Pleakley insists they need to blend in to avoid panicking the locals are probably meant to evoke the look of a couple. For another, there’s the scene where they observe Stitch’s first night in Lilo’s room. Their fight over who gets to wear the wig is playful, and Jumba posing the question to Pleakley of what it’s like to have nothing, not even memories to look back on, is perhaps the first instance of dialogue they have that isn’t vitriolic. Of course, Pleakley doesn’t actually say much in return, given the fact that he’s just survived a mosquito attack of epic proportions and is in no state to talk…

By the way, do we REALLY think he put all those bandages on by himself? Just food for thought.

When Jumba and Pleakley finally decide to change gears and help Stitch and Nani rescue Lilo as opposed to bringing Stitch to task, they still aren’t really getting along, but the fire-forged aspect of their alliance stands out a lot more. There’s one more scene I really want to draw attention to here. During the spaceship chase, at one point, a blast from Gantu hits the ship in such a way that it nearly misses completely obliterating Pleakley. This is played for laughs, but the way it goes down, he freaks out about almost getting shot…

Then Jumba looks back over his shoulder at him after hearing the scream…

Then the shot cuts back out to the ships in pursuit.

The way this is framed stands out to me. They could have just done the shot of Pleakley’s reading being interrupted by him ALMOST GETTING INCINERATED for the joke, then cut back to the ships. Or they could have gone with Jumba looking back at him, then turning back forward to make some comment to Nani about the structure of the ship being compromised by the gunfire. But what comes across by this shot sequence is that Jumba looks back at Pleakley just because he heard him scream: just because he wanted to visually confirm that Pleakley was okay. I’m not sure if that’s what was intended, but that’s how it reads to me, and I think that shows just how far their bond has come. They started out as enemies forced to work together, but at the very least, they’re used enough to each other’s presence that if one of them cries out in fear, the other is going to check up on him.

By the end, they both move into the same house, which is a little surprising given the friction between them for the bulk of the film. Again, it speaks to the idea that a bond has grown between them due to all the time they spent together on their mission.

That brings us to the extended canon, where their relationship after the adventure that brought them together is actually ironed out and explored. There are a couple directions to go here. “Stitch Has a Glitch” is generally seen as taking place before “Stitch! The Movie” and the animated series, at least according to how the Disney Wiki seems to frame it and TVTropes refers to it. Disney itself views the animated series canon and “Stitch Has a Glitch” as alternate universes, but I like to put them under the same umbrella. In truth, I actually think “Stitch Has a Glitch” has to come LAST, after “Leroy and Stitch,” for characterization reasons that I will discuss when we arrive at that point. I won’t be going into anything regarding the “Stitch!” anime or “Stitch and Ai,” as I have little interest in either of those series and don’t consider them part of my personal canon. If you prefer them, then more power to you; I’m sure there’s a lot of subtext to dig up there for Jumba/Pleakley as well.

To go in the chronology I’ve specified, we’ll begin with an assessment of their relationship in “Stitch! The Movie.” When we start out, they’re roommates, but they obviously still have their differences. When Gantu comes calling, they have an argument over whether or not Pleakley should take and hide the other experiments; Jumba wants Pleakley to take his creations and hide in a box, obviously caring more about the safety of his creations than Pleakley’s well-being. Pleakley, on the other hand, doesn’t consider how much trouble Jumba is in because of the experiments, simply pushing them back because they’re “something evil.”

This is also the film that further’s Jumba’s personal character arc. It’s not done in any complex manner, but at the beginning, he claims to still be a lone wolf, and is surprised by the end to figure out that he actually is part of a family now, and one that is working hard to secure his safety, to boot. That falls right in line with how he and Pleakley interact at the beginning; we have proof positive that Jumba is thinking only of himself because he doesn’t think he could have a caring relationship with anyone at this point. Pleakley’s stance is more ambiguous, but it probably still carries some bad blood from how they used to be at odds. (Though we do hear Jumba use the term “little one-eyed one” on Pleakley after the argument, which sounds strangely like a term of endearment.)

When Jumba actually is taken, however, we see Pleakley more distressed. He begins his comical quest of phoning every single planet in existence to see if Jumba is on any of them (“Oh, I get it! Detention CELL PHONE!”). When he and Jumba finally do connect via phone, they’re visibly pleased to be talking to each other again. By the time Gantu and Hämsterviel interrupt the call, they’re completely off topic of the subject of Jumba’s capture; Jumba is in the midst of telling a stupid joke. Hämsterviel commandeers the call, and we’re given that side of the call from Pleakley’s perspective as he hears the demands Hämsterviel lays down. He relates the demands to Nani, and as he gets to “…or we’ll never see Jumba again,” he actually breaks down. While no tears are visible, it’s evident from his tone and body language that he’s either close to crying or he’s actually there.

Then, of course, when Jumba does return to Earth, he undergoes the revelation that yes, he is part of a family. During the hostage negotiations, we also see Pleakley there to bargain for his life, trying to talk Gantu out of shooting him because “He’s allergic to plasma blasts.” So, no, at this point, while the two of them are shippable, they still aren’t at a place where the subtext can be considered romantic. It does, however, speak to a friendship having developed. We clearly see Pleakley show legitimate concern for Jumba’s well-being since his capture. It’s not as obvious from Jumba’s end, but he does come to terms with the fact that he has people who care about him and, by assumption, people he cares about, and Pleakley falls within this group. And again, we’ve now seen him visibly brighten when Pleakley calls the Detention Cell Phone (I’m still not over that pun).

As we move into Lilo & Stitch: The Animated Series, their relationship becomes a good deal more filled with subtext. They still pick on each other; that element never goes away, but it’s much more light-hearted. (And, once again, speaking from personal experience, that can mean flirting.) I won’t touch upon every episode (pretty much just the ones I used for my fanfic), but I’ll try to hit the high points.

“Spooky” has Pleakley outfitting the pair in what are very obviously couples’ costumes for Halloween: once as Cleopatra and Julius Caesar:

and once as Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler:

(I find it difficult to imagine Pleakley actually LIKING “Gone With the Wind,” but he obviously digs the aesthetic.) This is relationship coding.

Then comes the infamous episode “Fibber.” This episode’s plot revolves around Pleakley’s family pressuring him to get married to a woman of their choosing. Pleakley tries to escape the obligation by pretending to be engaged to Nani, prompting his family to arrive on Earth to witness the wedding. When Pleakley’s mother arranges for an actual minister to make the wedding legally binding, Nani backs out of the scheme. Of all people, it’s Jumba who fills in as a replacement bride, dressing as a woman and showing up for the actual marriage ceremony. Keep in mind that Nani left because this marriage would have been legally binding. Jumba has no problem with this little catch.

This episode also demonstrates some of how much more physically comfortable Jumba and Pleakley have become around each other. There’s a gag in which Pleakley forces a human-sized wedding ring onto Jumba’s finger, which is obviously very painful. Immediately after that, we get this shot:

Which could be read as “I’m touching the person I’m supposed to be marrying in a convincing way to make it look like I can’t keep my hands off ‘her’,” but, given the timing, I actually see more as “I’m sorry I did that to your hand and this is the best comfort I can offer right now.” Later, when Gantu crashes the wedding to make chaos, as Gantu is wont to do, Pleakley’s first reaction is to leap into Jumba’s arms:

And Jumba’s instinct is to catch him.

The end of the episode also evokes a coming-out narrative, with Pleakley admitting to his family that he doesn’t want to get married (fit a heteronormative mold) and his family chewing him out before admitting that they accept him the way he is. Having this narrative play out juxtaposed with a sham marriage to a male character puts a little extra context around the fact that Pleakley and Jumba were very nearly married.

“Nosy” has what becomes the usual of Jumba and Pleakley acting like a married couple in public. In order to keep up their charade, or because they actually are that close at this point? But interestingly enough, when Nosy, an experiment obsessed with airing out embarrassing secrets, reveals the dirt he got on Jumba to experiment 625 (who is not yet named “Reuben”), he happens to mention that Jumba has a drawer full of love letters. He never specifies who the letters are to or from, but there are at this point only so many people, and one of the options is super obvious.

I have nothing to say about “Hunkahunka” because Jumba/Pleakley was pretty much the one pairing that DIDN’T occur and I will be forever bitter about this missed opportunity. (Just as bitter as I will be about there being no Huntsman+Gantu alliance in “Morpholomew.”)

“Skip” explores an alternate future caused by Lilo messing with time travel (for the second time in the series). Hämsterviel has conquered the galaxy, and Jumba is living alone in the repossessed and broken-down Pelekai house. As Jumba lists off all the woes of the world, he does mention that Pleakley has landed a job as a television fashion critic, and names this as the one bit of “good news” he has. It’s small, but significant in that he has actively seen Pleakley’s life turn out better than his own and calls it good news. He’s not jealous at all. He’s just happy because his other half is happy.

“Snafu” features an interesting B-plot in which Jumba and Pleakley admit that they do not fully understand the concept of “love” (which has interesting implications as to society in the Galactic Alliance outside of Earth) and set out to research it together. From the get-go, that’s already a ship trope: the duo who is always together sets out to find the true scientific meaning of love. What gets me is when Pleakley first proposes his study. He actually suggests the idea to Jumba while doing this:

Again, these two are very physically comfortable with each other at this point, and I can’t say I know many people who are “just friends” who would get into this position casually, especially while talking about the meaning of love. Anyway, Jumba shoves him off and rejects the proposal, but is brought back around to it when he realizes the power of love could potentially be used for evil. Somehow. Pleakley goes along with him on this. For most of the series, whenever Jumba brings up doing anything for evil, Pleakley uses that as a point of criticism; he still has a strong moral compass, while Jumba insists, even after three years of heroic deeds, that he is a villain (NOBODY BELIEVES YOU ANYMORE, JUMBA, SO JUST DROP IT ALREADY). However, even when evil experimentation is on the table, Pleakley is willing to drop the argument just so he and Jumba can work on the project together.

This culminates in the pair mixing several comical ingredients (stale Valentine’s Day chocolate, sand from a romantic beach, puppy saliva) into what they believe to be the distilled essence of love. Jumba then hands it to Pleakley, and Pleakley drinks it. I’m going to reiterate this; Jumba gives what he believes to be the DISTILLED ESSENCE OF LOVE to Pleakley, who DRINKS IT IN FRONT OF HIM. You have to wonder what they really EXPECTED to happen, knowing that love is a bond between two people. Of course, it does nothing. (Please do not try drinking melted chocolate, sand, and dog spit at home.) But if your first instinct upon holding the essence of love is to hand it over to your close friend to have him drink it, I think you already have a slight idea of what love is, and it has something to do with that friend.

For my final exhibit pre-Leroy, I want to talk about something that did not happen in the show proper, but, if sources are correct, almost did. It was by a very happy accident that I stumbled upon this original deleted storyboard for “Ace,” dubbed here by Ron “Keeper1st” O’Dell (who does a VERY accurate job of capturing each character’s verbal tics): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4QWt8Hbl4g

First of all, wow.

Second of all, WOW.

I’m still reeling from the very fact that the original plan was for Jumba not only to get kicked out of E.G.O. because he PERSONALLY went in to save Pleakley from drowning, meaning that he valued Pleakley above his reputation as an “evil genius” after all, but to say along the way about Pleakley, “His existence is meaningful to me.” That right there feels like a coded “I love him.” Do you know what I would personally give to have somebody say that about me?

Then there’s what comes after: the expressions they trade after Jumba states that family is more important. The toast Pleakley tries to make to Jumba to call out how kind of a person he actually is. And then, of course, because Jumba is a rascal who can’t just let someone call him kind and get away with it, he arranges for an entire strawberry pie to get smacked in Pleakley’s face. Some things never change. But the scene in total is very full of heart, and it’s also very in line with how we’ve seen the relationship develop over the series. Jumba and Pleakley obviously ARE very important to each other. They’re roommates, they almost got married, and even though they argue all the time, they always do try to come to each other’s rescue (Pleakley bargaining for Jumba’s life in “Stitch! The Movie” and Jumba chasing down and confronting Gantu to rescue Pleakley in “Poxy”). By now, their interactions are very sweet.

What really propels them into OTP water for me during this phase of the canon is just how much time they have to interact with each other. Even the big promoted heterosexual power couple, Nani and David, don’t show up in all that many episodes together, but Jumba and Pleakley are in pretty much EVERY EPISODE with something to say about each other, either good or bad. There’s always a new interaction to incite feelings, whether they’re relatably picking on each other or becoming closer in a heartwarming way.

But “Leroy and Stitch” is a whole other ball game. The conclusion of the series, canonizing it as having taken place over three years, it begins with the alien members of the Pelekai household becoming recognized as heroes by the Galactic Council and going their separate ways to realize new destinies. Jumba is reintroduced to his old laboratory, where he begins creating a brand-new experiment. Pleakley is given a supervising professor job at a university, which disappoints him because he thought he would be working with students, but that is not the case. And Stitch becomes a captain, piloting his beloved Big Red Battleship. One of the themes of the film is that while it is important for Lilo to learn to let her loved ones go, when they’re all apart from each other, they become miserable; the people they care about are more important than titles and honors.

With Jumba, however, this is realized in a rather telling way. Once he makes progress on his new experiment, take one guess who the first person is he calls out for to come see what he did. Yes: it’s Pleakley. Jumba specifically calls out for Pleakley to come look at his work before realizing that Pleakley isn’t there. Oh, wait, did I say Pleakley was the “first” person he calls out to? Make that the “only” person he calls out to. Because he doesn’t mention “626” or “little girl” at all. He calls for Pleakley, realizes he’s alone, and immediately pops in a record of “So Lonesome I Could Cry.”

Hämsterviel then takes him hostage, because it’s seemingly Jumba’s destiny to become Hämsterviel’s hostage at least once every three years. During this time, Pleakley is also coming to terms with the fact that he misses Jumba. He deliberates between whether or not to call Jumba by looking back and forth between a phone and…oh, what’s this?

A picture of Jumba and nobody else that has a permanent home on Pleakley’s desk!

When he makes the call, Jumba tries to get him to stay away without giving away Hämsterviel’s presence. This prompts Pleakley to try a line on him that has become INFAMOUS in the L&S fandom: “Are you sure you don’t want to talk to your Aunt Pleakley? I’m wearing the wig!” Okay, at this point, the writers aren’t even trying to hide the relationship coding. This is pretty much canon.

Hämsterviel forces Jumba’s hand, and Jumba tells Pleakley that he never wants to see him again. This results in a display on both ends of how much they care about each other. Pleakley fires off his own barrage of insults before the call ends, at which point he just lays his head down on his desk and cries. This angst lasts for all of five minutes, but I think you just can’t help but feel for him at this point. The other half of his dynamic duo just told him he never wants to see him again, and he’s reduced to an emotional breakdown. I personally think that Pleakley in general is in need of as many hugs as he can be given, but ESPECIALLY at this moment.

Jumba, on the other hand, says one of the most poignant lines in the entire L&S canon when it comes to their relationship: he tells Hämsterviel that making him be mean to Pleakley was the most evil deed of all.

I just want you to sit back and think about that for a minute when compared to how Jumba treated Pleakley in the first film. They were a fire-forged alliance, but Jumba also regarded him as a nuisance and wanted to be rid of him. We’ve now come so far that Jumba thinks Hämsterviel making him be mean to Pleakley is THE WORST EVIL OF ALL. He has to know that at the other end of the galaxy, Pleakley is having a breakdown. He knows Pleakley too well to NOT realize this is happening. And that has to be giving him his own version of turmoil.

But of course, saying “I never want to see you again” does NOT ACTUALLY STOP PLEAKLEY, who shows up at the laboratory not five minutes later, just in time to get captured by Hämsterviel as well. And then you have this exchange:

“I just wanted to make up!”

“Next time, send flowers.”

Don’t you tell me this isn’t canon at this point.

Anyway, let’s fast-forward to after the great Leroy vs. experiments battle until the very end. Once again, our heroes are presented before the Council for saving the galaxy. As the Councilwoman tries to present them with their honors, Jumba, Pleakley, and Stitch all decide to go back home to Earth instead. But Jumba and Pleakley’s body language as they say it is worth noticing here. Jumba tells the Councilwoman, much like in the “Ace” storyboard, that his ohana is more important than his evil genius status. But as he says this, he reaches out and…

He doesn’t make physical contact with Lilo or Stitch. JUST Pleakley. And it’s the timing of these things that makes a very important link. When he touches Pleakley while talking about how family is more important, he immediately associates the two concepts. Pleakley is his definition of family.

And Pleakley turns this right back around. He gets out of Jumba’s grip for a moment, telling the Councilwoman he quits his “non-teaching teaching job.” She asks him to clarify, and he yells, “Crazyhead! I wanna go home!” And as he says that, he does this:

Again, making the same association: he considers Jumba his definition of home.

Also, while I haven’t tracked every single instance in the series, you’ll notice that while the pair is very physically affectionate, Pleakley is generally the one who initiates it. This time around, it was all Jumba’s idea. This signifies to me that a sort of barrier is breaking down around Jumba; he’s always been okay with Pleakley touching him casually, but he hasn’t ever felt motivated to initiate the contact himself. Now, he feels the need to display his affection a little more outright, and that ends up carrying over into “Stitch Has a Glitch.”

Now, the reason I place “Stitch Has a Glitch” after “Leroy and Stitch” is because of the great stride made in the relationship. In the animated series, Jumba and Pleakley are dancing around each other. “Leroy” has their affection for each other become much more blatant. In “Stitch Has a Glitch,” they’re flat-out dating and you have no evidence to disprove this. And I have to say that “Stitch Has a Glitch” actually offers up the icing on the relationship cake that moves them from just a really cute ship with squee-worthy interactions to one of my incredibly valuable OTPs.

The premise of “Stitch Has a Glitch” is that, due to Stitch having faulty energizing at his birth, he is breaking down, having fits of physical violence that herald his eventual death. It’s sort of a metaphor for illness, physical or mental, and how it can change a person, in my eyes. During all of this, Jumba is the first one to know what’s going on, since it has to do with his work. And he was going to hide that fact away from the rest of the family. Because Poor Communication Kills and we needed a plot device? That’s the argument I see brought out a lot of places, but really, I think Jumba trying to keep it a secret is an important revelation about his character. He’s afraid of Stitch dying because of his failures, and he’s ashamed to admit that he’s the source. He wants to quietly solve this problem without it coming to light that he indirectly put Stitch in so much danger. This is new ground for Jumba, who we have so far seen as swaggeringly confident. We hardly ever see him at a loss emotionally, and seeing his armor be pierced is armor-piercing for the audience, at least where I was concerned.

As I said, he tries to keep it a secret. But Pleakley knows right away that something’s off, and when Jumba tries to slink away to the lab aboard the red spaceship, Pleakley follows him, begging, “Include me! Include me!” And after some light pestering, Jumba does. Yes, Pleakley did annoy him into it, but if Jumba REALLY wanted to shut him out, I think we all know he could have found a way. Instead, he opens up to Pleakley and Pleakley alone about his secret. He and Pleakley put their heads together to try and create the fusion chamber that will give Stitch back his life force, resulting in some comedy around them trying to hijack the necessary technology such as the toaster.

But the first version of the fusion chamber fails, and Jumba loses confidence that he can build one, as he admits the first one he ever used on Stitch was not even of his own creation. We finally see Jumba at his lowest, having lost all faith in himself. And here’s where it gets amazing. Pleakley is the one to talk him up, reminding him that he was the one to create Stitch in the first place, asserting Jumba that he not only can create the life-saving machine but is the only one who can do so. And this works.

When Jumba recreates the fusion chamber, he steps forward to turn it on, and falters. “What if it does not work?” he asks.

Pleakley responds by gently touching his arm and saying…

“It will.”

Pleakley has absolute and utter faith in Jumba, and actually succeeds in restoring Jumba’s own self-confidence, which he has never truly lost before, at least that we have seen. (Another reason why I think this film fits best in the canon going LAST, Nani’s job notwithstanding.) That’s what makes this relationship go from adorable to beautiful. These two aren’t just infatuated with each other. They’re just THERE for each other. They’ve left behind all the vitriol and hatred that they used to harbor for each other, and they’re ready to support each other emotionally. This is something that can get me to fall for any ship instantly: if the involved parties build each other’s confidence up.

And you wanna know the best part? The fact that it’s PLEAKLEY acting as the emotional rock for JUMBA. Because if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll recall that Pleakley is usually NOT emotionally stable. HE’S usually the one who breaks down at the first sign of trouble. HE’S the one more likely to cry, to lose his cool, to worry that the worst is about to happen. But when Jumba needs him to be strong, he steps right up to the plate.

We’ll just cover a few more interactions that all but canonize the ship in the final moments. As Lilo races toward Stitch in the spaceship, the others are scrambling to climb a cliff face to reach them in time, and let’s just say…did I mention that Jumba and Pleakley are VERY physically comfortable with each other?

And to a less in-your-face degree, after Stitch is revived by Lilo’s love, Pleakley asks how that’s possible, and Jumba informs him it isn’t:

And once again, this is Jumba initiating contact with Pleakley, showing how much his barriers have come down.

Finally, during the closing scene, we have the entire Pelekai family dancing together, especially Jumba and Pleakley:

Juxtaposed, I might add, with Nani/David, who are the overt “canon” couple showing PDA:

So, in conclusion, Jumba/Pleakley is a ship with a lot of development over the course of its universe. It starts out as a rivalry, develops into a fire-forged alliance, becomes a close friendship, and settles into an obviously coded relationship. These two have perfected the art of pretending they wouldn’t drop everything to protect each other when in reality, they totally would, and whenever one of them is in true distress, the other is right there, whether it’s the threat of Gantu and Hämsterviel or the loss of faith in oneself. We can’t objectively call it the greatest Disney romance (we’re all agreed that one’s Belle/Beast, right?), but it’s up there among the greats.

#jumba jookiba #wendy pleakley #jumba #pleakley #lilo and stitch

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emilydaisycontextual · 3 years

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Research - Storyboarding

After our recent lesson on storyboarding and its importance in the production stage, I thought I would be wise to do a little extra research on the topic, to make sure that, when it comes to things like further storyboarding for the Nik Nak sting, I know as much as I can. I’ve storyboarded before, in my eyes it’s always been the simplest and most accessible step in producing an animation, all it requires is your knowledge on how you want things to go. However, I haven’t ever created one purely to apply and change into an animation, and I want to be as prepared as possible. Additionally, I feel like if I can study in based on its history and background as a method, then I’ll also be able to learn a lot about how it has developed over the years, and how the oldest animators began their storyboards.

Once again, from what I could tell, there are a select few principles that people undertaking storyboarding swear by, listed and detailed below:

1. Draft as many copies as you can

When storyboarding, it is the literal conception of an idea, and so any direction or route can be taken. To limit yourself with just a single avenue from the get go eliminates a lot of potentially better ideas, and so storyboard artists choose to create several drafts of everything.

2. Keep the drawings simple

This sort of ties into the last point, being that if you do have so many different things to do, keep things simple so as to not overuse time. Storyboarding is generally used to get a rough idea of the scene and scenario, not the character appearances, since they can all be drafted afterwards, or may already exist. Placeholders for characters work just as well, and save time.

3. Remember to split things into scenes

This one is sort of self explanatory and is pretty obvious, that’s the whole point behind storyboarding, to draft different scenes into different sets of storyboards, but by consciously doing so, your scenes keep a nice middle number of panels and don’t get too overcrowded.

And below are just a few storyboard examples I could find, that employ their own little tricks and styles:

This storyboard from Disney’s Lilo and Stitch (my favourite series of all time), actually has more detail than I anticipated, but is an example of still simplifying character designs, especially when distanced, to save time.

This storyboard, for which I couldn’t find an author or a series, is an example of that very simple style I was referring to, and is the type of storyboarding I anticipate I will both be starting out with, and doing quickfire in any spare time I have.

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drkineildwicks · 4 years

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More BH6~

From BH6: Obake Itoko

Mood music~

Despite picturing it, despite expecting it, he still felt a surge of alarm at getting shot out of the seething mass of microbots, the reduced gravity induced by the portal allowing him to do a decently impressive backflip (he hoped)—

Hit a patch of violet and zoomed off, flailing a little to keep his balance as his microbots went skimming over Callaghan’s, leaving a trail of infected ones that immediately reversed course in their eagerness to serve their new master. Callaghan hadn’t noticed yet, Callaghan was still busy trying to stab Baymax out of the sky once again—surge of relief when he registered Hiro on the healthcare robot’s back—

Hiro spotted him in-between Baymax bashing away microbots, whooped in glee when he registered what had happened—Callaghan twitched, followed his line of sight—

Right in time for Obake to go surging straight up to him, flipping backwards in imitation of a winning soccer kick as his microbots swung up to knock Callaghan for a loop.

Tumble backwards as his microbots recovered and righted him—go sailing around in a wide arc, laughing as he gave a mocking bow to a dumbfounded Callaghan, hoping his posture perfectly telegraphed ‘and what are YOU going to do about it, punk?’

Because that number had hit the cascade point now, was shooting up rapidly—he couldn’t help laughing as Callaghan angrily sent sharp microbot jabs, only for them to be blocked by what he probably figured were still his microbots—

And in doing so left him wide open to the rest of the team, forced to go on the defensive, screaming furiously in his frustration.

*ahem* Anywho, more from that AU I’ve been working on (more here) in which we take Big Hero 6 and do a Lilo and Stitch flavored AU, with Obake filling a Stitch role (read it on FanFiction and AO3). Pretty sure we’re within five chapters of the end, so I’ll be knuckling down on finishing up the writing and art for it—wish me luck.

Did this in my sketch/color wash combo that I enjoy so much, with some different brushes for the background—and the microbots. Ended up making an entire new brush for the microbots I mean have you seen these things how do you easily translate them to 2D my gosh…but when I figured it out I had a blast. :D

And then based the general composition of the piece from that scene from the Sonic the Hedgehog movie—you know the one. And real talk: I enjoyed that movie a LOT more than I thought I did (also wrote an article on it for work—keep an eye out for my little Chao Bruno in one of the pics :D)—Mom enjoyed it too, which says a lot about it.

Another big bonus about the Sonic the Hedgehog movie—Jim Carrey’s gloves, with their little keypads that let him control his robots. Honestly I’m kind of glad my progress on this fic ended up delayed because I saw that and went that’d be PERFECT for Obake’s superhero outfit. Which also ended up entirely altering the climax from what I originally intended and it works so much better for it. :la:

Also on the topic of Obake’s outfit—yes I’m sure it looks familiar. Fred actually refers to Obake’s outfit as the Boneknapper a couple of times starting in Season One (which I need to kick into high gear once I finish this fic). The general idea when I started was imitating Obake’s canon logo and then going with white and black since those colors mean death and ill fortune—and then kind of ran with the bony look. Definitely took a little fussing to make sure it lined up with the rest of Big Hero Six’s designs, and it kind of acts as a bridge between Fred’s and the rest of the groups’, I think. :)

Looked up a nice group pic for Big Hero 6 for this, found a shot from the show that worked perfectly—first time drawing a lot of these guys in costume. And Obake’s What’re you gonna do about it punk bit from the literature selection? Yeah pictured this pic I found online completely. ^^

So y’all better brace yourselves because the new chapter’s about to go live on FanFiction and AO3—and AO3 gets the illustration. :D

Find it here on DA Eclipse, and be kind, reblog instead of repost. :D

Done in Adobe Photoshop.

#bh6 #big hero 6 #big hero six #big hero 6 the series #big hero six the series #obake #Obake Itoko #fanfiction #AdobePhotoshop #EEEEE I'M SO EXCITED :D

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threedservicesindia · 5 years

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Rotoscoping - Yesterday and Today

The Rotoscope is a device that permits animators to layout pics for animated movies. it is able to be used to inspire, following a filmed stay reference. it is able to be considered a precursor of the art of virtual movement capture. The rotoscoping is to attract each body of an animation film on an authentic drawing. This picture is transmitted to the herbal and sequential moves, expressions, lights, shadows and proportions typical of a movie.

It turned into invented by way of Max Fleischer, who used it for his collection "Out of the Inkwell" from 1912. Fleischer changed into helped by means of his brother Dave Fleischer, who used it for his series "Out of the Inkwell" from 1914.

The rotoscoping turned into finally used in a wide range of cartoons, the most superb "Cab Calloway", "Betty Boop" at the beginning of the decade of the 30's, and the animation of "Gulliver's Travels." Walt Disney used it in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" for animation of Prince captivating. Ralph Bakshi in the end used it in his model of "The Lord of the earrings" in 1978, but because of lack of budget the end result become now not desired and critics took umbrage with it.

A clear instance of the usage of this method was the video for the tune "tackle Me", the Norwegian group A-ha, which became stimulated via the art work of a student, with the rotoscoping gadget. The brilliant scenes (no longer animations) have been taken at Kim's Café and a legitimate studio, each in London, England. Tells the tale of myth in which a lady (played by means of actress Bunty Bailey) is a dreamy romance with the hero of his favourite comic (played by Morten Harket).

For the movie "The Lord of the rings: the 2 Towers and The go back of the King" in 2002 and 2003 respectively, the engineers have been forced via manufacturers to apply the approach of rotoscoping 3D for actor Andy Serkins all virtual character animations Golum, because the end result of movement capture animation or simple vectorization of the man or woman became rejected with the aid of incomplete and unrealistic required for this characterization.

The rotoscoping turned into frequently used as a tool for special effects films. for instance, mild sabers of "superstar Wars", which have been drawn on the previously filmed scene with actors sporting sticks.

The term "rotoscoping" is now broadly used for digital methods which are redesigned pictures on digital movie. The method used remains pretty unique instances, where a blue fabric chroma-key impact cannot be used successfully.

The rotoscoping, digitally talking, is aided via "movement tracking" and "onion-skinning software program."

A few movies that have this era.

These are some movies which have the rotoscoping method, once in a while used best in a few planes movie (The saga of "The Lord of the earrings" or the conventional Disney) and sometimes used as an animation approach for the duration of the film (Anastasia)

Tron

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Gulliver's Travels (1939 Fleischer Studios)

Superman (overdue 1940)

The Lord of the earrings (1978)

The Lord of the jewelry: the 2 Towers and The return of the King (2002-2003)

Tygra fireplace and ice

The Little Mermaid

Peraustrinia 2004

splendor and the beast

Aladdin

Pocahontas

Atlantis

Lilo & stitch

Anastasia

Waking life

A Scanner Darkly

Heavy metallic

American Pop

games that use this technique:

Prince of Persia

every other world

Commander Blood

Flashback: the quest for identification

The last express

lodge dusk: Room 215

ultimate Window: the secret of Cape West

the arena Ends with You

programs that use this approach:

proprietor software program Rotoshop

Rotoscope loose software

music films the use of the technique of rotoscoping:

the only That were given Away, Tom Waits tune.

tackle Me, A-ha track.

Heartless, Kanye West music.

shop me, Queen song.

#rotoscope music video #rotoscope #3d rotoscope

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quiverwingquack · 5 years

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Want the rollercoaster story of the family I pet and babysat for the past two weeks?

Let’s start with the fact both parents are artists, ok? They work with a lot of mediums but the mom mostly paints and the dad sculpts. They live in an old farmhouse built into a hill, so the main floor on the front is the basement in the back, second floor in front is ground level in the back, & the attic is above.

Last week I pet sat for six days, feeding their horses, cat, chickens, and taking their dog out every couple of hours since he’s not too good with the crate. They live a block away down a long drive so it was pretty spooky coming over late at night for the dog.

Here are a list of things I discovered about my neighbors of going on ten years now:

- After the dad’s success sculpting a realistic Bigfoot for a friend, he took that on as his project and COVERED his house in Bigfoot junk.

-There are approximately sixteen clay heads, presumably from the aforementioned Bigfoots(Bigfeet?) in a cabinet toward the back of the house.

-Also in this cabinet is a terrifyingly realistic bald eagle head whose eyes followed me everywhere as I walked around and played with their dog. I would’ve closed the cabinet, but the door was sliding glass and didn’t help much.

-There is a chalk Bigfoot drawn beside the front door, as their front wall is done in chalkboard paint for the kids to draw on. Distracted by the highly realistic eyes, I got the key stuck in the lock.

-The lock was already sticky, apparently, so they had a friend willing to help out when I called with the emergency.

-It took four hours for them to get my call but when they did Roy was ready.

-Roy is a mostly Spanish-speaking Mexican who communicated mostly through me on speakerphone to my neighbors as I took six years of Spanish.

-He got in through the third floor balcony which went into the attic. No ladders were involved and the front of the house is mostly stone. I think he scaled it. I hope so, anyway. I did not witness what happened.

-After letting me in, he unlocked a front window and I spent the next four days entering the house through it.

-Their dog’s name is Merlin. Merlin is not used to his crate, as one of them is usually home-there are five people in the family-to let him out. Merlin didn’t like me. I spent two days bribing him with Land-o-frost lunch meat and Pupperoni treats. Now he likes me.

-Merlin knows how to open the window. I brought my dog over for a bit of play the last day I pet-sat, and I had closed the window before unhooking my pup’s leash. She’s a naughty girl and will leave if given the chance. He sprinted out the window, having pushed it open and leaving a dog-booger smear across the glass.

-The family also has an outdoor cat. His name is the same as the dad’s. The dad finds it endlessly amusing that I call him “human Sam,” and though the first time was an accident, it’s now his contact name in my phone.

-Cat Sam spent two rainy nights in the barn, then snuck in the open window while I had the dog outside. I didn’t know this until I returned in the morning, twelve hours later, and he was calmly waiting for breakfast on the windowsill.

-They enjoy puns. Their salt and pepper shakers have Salt N Pepa on them, they have a stuffed avocado with a cat face-an avo-cat-do- in the window, etc.

NOW: babysitting.

The two parents are shooting a commercial, for what I don’t know, and needed a babysitter so they could pack in as many hours as possible and be done by Saturday(tomorrow). I agreed to babysit because I need money for my local con and honestly? I gotta get out of the house more.

-They’re “devoutly religious” and pray over every meal, but the kids HATE that and I’m... religiously confused, so we didn’t pray over the dinners I made this week.

-The youngest child is five. She’s definitely the spoiled baby of the family, but not too much to handle. She also believes she’s “fae.” Not a fairy. Fae. Her mother taught her the word recently, I think. She uses it a lot.

-She’s heterochomatic, which is to say one of her eyes is hazel, and changes from green to brown, like mine. The other eye is a solid blue. I think this is why she thinks she’s a changeling.

-Her name is Hazel. Hazel likes third person, eating half a granola bar and leaving the other half in various sinks-bathroom, kitchen, wherever-and sleeping in her parents bed. As I put her to bed this week I was the first to start the fight of “Hazel, you’ll be six soon, SLEEP IN YOUR OWN BED.”

-Hazel’s bed, like the two guest beds-one in the game room and one in the studio-is a queen. I have the top twin bed of my sister and I’s bunk beds. I envy a kindergartener.

-The brothers, one twelve and one ten, share clothes. I did laundry at one point and struggled to figure out whose was whose until they got home and explained to me. Apparently they don’t fight over this. My sister and I are older, but have the same age gap, and asking us to share anything is like asking a cat and a dog to share a bed. Doesn’t work.

-The brothers are friends of my little brother, who declared he’d be coming over to play while I was babysitting. Did not tell me, the other boys, or my mom. He also decided to come over right when they were backing the truck full of set supplies out. He almost was run over, and was sent home after fifteen minutes of my mother frantically looking for him until she thought to call me.

-The two brothers enjoy vegan iced coffees(why isn’t coffee always vegan? Explain that to me please.) They discovered you can make iced coffee in a water bottle while I was here, and both took it to school to sip during the day. The younger brother came home with a note from the teacher that he was caught “drinking a banned liquid.”

-Coffee is banned by the church, Mormon church. So is soda. The teacher wants the kid counseled. The boy told me “I’m throwing this away,” in reference to the note. I didn’t stop him.

-It rained, then snowed this week. I was told to keep the kids inside and warm. We binged seasons one and two of Total Drama.

-Also while it was raining, the mom needed to repaint a set piece and allowed me to spend some time in her studio instead of walking home, and then she would drive me.

-The roof of their house tapers to a point with beams running across. It’s painted with biblical murals, a different scene on each beam. The walls have movie scenes on them, including an impressive recreation of the Lilo & Stitch hammock scene with Nani, Lilo, and the flowers.

-The kids are allowed to play in the studio, so a classic swing made of a wooden board and rope is hung from the center beam. They swing out over the stairs and back toward a window. My anxiety increases if I think about it too long. One of the boys apparently fell once and spent Thanksgiving in the ER.

-I wish I could share this art with you. She doesn’t want pictures of it shared, but if I could, I would show everyone I know her Disney pieces. I have never admired anyone’s art skill more.

-I did a few loads of laundry, and almost all of their clothes have paint stains here or there. They’re all artists. I hope this is a glimpse into my future.

I could write entire books on these people. As is, I’m exhausted, so I’ll have to finish their story later. Goodnight.

#bigfoot #story #long post #artist

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leiflikesdisney-blog · 7 years

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How Disney’s Cartoons Are Changing the Game

The cartoon game, to be specific.

Disney is widely known for their animated feature films, and particularly for their princess movies. These movies are seen by thousands of children and adults alike. Disney’s films can greatly influence children, including how they think, dress, talk, and interact with one another, but it is common for children to see a movie in the theater once or twice, and move on to another popular media. While children may see a specific Disney film less than a handful of times, they are far more exposed to and influenced by the cartoons that they watch everyday. While I was growing up, this meant watching Kim Possible, Lilo & Stitch, and American Dragon: Jake Long. While these shows promoted racial and neurological diversity (to an extent), I never saw my LGBT identity represented in animation. Recently, though, Disney has been working toward stepping out of its comfort zone–both in its style of animation and storytelling, and in representation. Disney’s modern cartoons, including Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Gravity Falls, and Wander Over Yonder, are breaking the mold that years of Disney animation have set before them. For this essay, though, I will be focusing on Star vs. the Forces of Evil and its representation of women and LGBT characters.

“Star vs. the Forces of Evil”

“Star vs. the Forces of Evil” is a currently-running Disney Channel cartoon, which is my personal favorite of the recent generation of Disney cartoons. The show follows Star Butterly, a princess from another dimension who has been banished to Earth to practice her magical abilities, and her friends.

The show covers topics, including friendship, rebellion, living up to your family name, jealousy, and many other heavy topics that are not often covered in other cartoons.

Star vs. the Forces of LGBT Representation

In one scene, when the main cast is at a concert for the fictional band Love Sentence, the camera pans along the audience, and it is possible to see many same-sex relationships, as seen in the pictures below.

While the show does not have any canonically LGBT characters, it has mentioned that Star’s best friend, Marco, struggles with body dysphoria, and in multiple episodes, he is shown to have a princess persona that he acts as occasionally. Surprisingly, the show manages to handle this topic very maturely, as you can see in the clip below.

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In this clip, the audience can tell that Marco is entirely comfortable presenting as a girl, and he refers to himself with feminine titles and pronouns very naturally. Also, while it is quiet, at 1:58, it is possible to hear Marco say, “Can I stay in this dress?” This furthers the point that Marco is comfortable presenting as a girl, and possibly prefers to present that way. As you can see, Marco also uses the popularity of his princess persona to encourage rebellion against oppressors, and following one’s individuality.

For these reasons, Marco has stood out significantly to LGBTQ+ viewers of “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.” In fact, many people have interpreted Marco’s body dysphoria, desire to wear a dress, and comfort using feminine pronouns as being a nod to the fact that, later in the show, Marco may come out and become Disney’s first open trans character. This theory has become increasingly popular, with fans even creating a collection of clips (below) that they believe hint at transgender identities, and, more specifically, Marco being trans.

youtube

There is also a very concise post explaining the theory behind Marco possibly being trans.

While Marco being trans is entirely theory, he still shines through as positive representation for people who do not often fit society’s rigid gender roles. It is not often that a heroic male character is allowed to wear a dress or ballet shoes without being belittled by friends or being the butt of an uncomfortable joke. Many of the show’s fans have expressed their gratitude, both for the theory and for the blatant representation discussed above.

Unfortunately, much of LGBT representation can only be found in adult media, which focuses heavily on sex and/or death, and children are left to grow up without seeing that aspect of their identity on television. In fact, a personal account by a transgender woman shows just how important representation can be.

This article expresses that representation has been a great influence on Davies’ identity and transition.

“’I was 60 when it all came pouring out to my wife, she was very sympathetic and helped me all the way, but we agreed to keep it quiet,’ said Davies, who first learned about transgender identity from a TV show sometime in the 1970s.”

And later, the article goes on to say...

“Patricia was inspired to make the big change from male to female after seeing the romantic comedy film Boy Meets Girl, which features transgender characters.”

This is a sentiment shared by many trans people, who grow up knowing that they are different, but not having the words to describe it, and without being able to see a similar experience represented in their peers or on television, spend a great amount of time confused and wrestling with their identity. I recall Glee being the first piece of media I watched with a blatantly open gay character, but, because it is targeted towards toward specifically older teenagers, even that would be inappropriate to show your average child.

A Princess Song: Star vs. the Forces of Evil’s Use of Music in Storytelling and Female Representation

Disney’s princess films often use music as an aspect of story telling, and while Star vs. the Forces of Evil follows this tradition, it also diverts from the stereotypical Disney soundtrack. Many of the show’s songs sound like they either came off the radio or out of a rock opera, and it takes advantage of the moods these songs set in order to further their story and express the experiences and emotions of the characters. Many of these songs often come at the height of action and/or conflict, as another way to express intense emotions that might be more difficult to express naturally through speech. However, one of the most iconic example of use of song in Star vs. the Forces of Evil is during the episode “Face the Music,” when Star is forced to help write a Princess Song for herself for her Song Day Celebration.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil briefly mocks how women are often represented in media through Queen Moon’s “Princess Song.” The song expresses that women are often written without conflict or development, and many female characters (particularly princess) are idealized caricature version of what women are actually like.

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Star points out, “That song didn’t say anything about the real you! You could plug any name into that song, and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference.” This quote points out precisely what is wrong with many female characters in the media. While male characters may be allowed conflict and interesting development and traits, female character traits often include things like, “her hair is silky soft,” “her favorite color’s pink,” and “[she] smells like lavender.” This perfectly mimics how female character’s are often one-dimensional, in comparison to the complex male characters that appear in the same piece of media.

Star clearly expresses her distaste over this type of song and characterization, as she feels it is basically nondescript and doesn’t fit her. Star feels guilty writing a “puff piece” about herself, when she knows that she isn’t the princess that the kingdom wants, and that she and her parents have betrayed and lied to their citizens and High Commission. Do to this, she helps her Ruberiot, the Official Songstrel of Mewni, write a song that explicitly confesses to her and her parents’ actions.

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The contrast between this song and Queen Moon’s song also helps to highlight precisely how different Star is from past Disney princesses. While the stereotypical Disney princess may sit on the sidelines in order to remain soft, while their prince is allowed to be strong and hard to save them, Star does not fit that mold. It would be inappropriate to say that she is a polar opposite of the princess stereotype, though, and that is what makes her such good representation.

Often times, fictional women are expressed as either “feminine” or “strong.” Writers give their strong female characters lines expressing distaste for fellow women and their femininity, a trope often referred to as “Not Like Other Girls.” Star, on the other hand, breaks this strong vs. feminine dichotomy, as she is both strong and confident in her femininity. While Star’s wardrobe in the show almost entirely consists of dresses, she also has an affinity for weapons and both physical and magical combat. Star goes out of her way to fight villains and charge into battles headfirst, because she is confident in her abilities to hold her own. And, while Star’s reckless behavior leads to harm and her downfall in some situations, it is always presented as a “think before doing” issue, rather than a “girls shouldn’t fight” type issue. Star expresses a clear distaste when other characters don’t let her think for herself, as seen in the episode “Blood Moon Ball.”

youtube

She expresses to Marco her ability to take care of herself, as well as her desire to be trusted. These feelings are met with thought and understanding, which helps to express particularly how poignant Star vs. the Forces of Evil can be. Many teenagers struggle with the ability to come into their own abilities as they grow up, and often times, when they express that desire to others, they are met with misunderstanding and/or a lack of trust. This conversation between Marco and Star, though, is incredibly touching, due entirely to the fact that Marco makes an attempt to understand Star’s point of view, and he gives a genuine apology for upsetting her.

The New Modern Disney Cartoon

Star vs. the Forces of Evil has proven itself time and time again to be the type of cartoon that stands out among the crowd. It provides positive representation of LGBT identities and stereotypically queer traits, including body dysphoria and a male character having comfort in feminine clothing. Star vs. the Forces of Evil also presents a positive female role model that breaks away from many harmful traits that are often applied to Disney’s princesses. This show provides deeper themes, while still managing to stay child-appropriate and relatively light hearted, and I hope it is a sign for the direction Disney will keep going with their cartoons.

#star vs the forces of evil

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