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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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YYH Recaps: Episode 4 “Requirements for Lovers”

Hello, everyone! It's been quite a while, huh? Ah, the endless cycle of wanting to write and yet, astoundingly, not writing. I know it well.

Good ol' writer's block has skedaddled for a time though, so let's make good use of that and dive into Episode Four: "Requirements for Lovers."

Ohhh, YYH getting spicy with its titles 😏

Actually wait, I shouldn't be making dumb jokes just yet. First I want to acknowledge a slight change to future recaps: YYH, RWBY, and anything else I might try my hand at. Namely, a lack of pictures moving forward. A few weeks ago — months? I honestly can't keep track — tumblr implemented a new limitation where no post can have more than ten images in it. It's a move that, while I'm sure has its justifications, makes sharing analyses of visually-based media all the more difficult. I'll be doing my best moving forward to describe scenes as needed, as well as combining connected images together to stretch out my limit, but I'm not going to pretend that it'll be the same as getting the visual play-by-play we’re used to.

Tumblr certainly is a website, huh?

Anyway, we open on Yusuke once again lamenting the difficulty of hatching a spirit beast that doesn't immediately devour him from the head down. On the one hand this is an admittedly easy way to reset the story over the course of this arc — the storytelling equivalent of waking your character up each morning — yet I cannot deny that if I were undergoing a resurrection test, it would consume my every thought too. Can't really blame Yusuke for endlessly bringing the conflict up when the conflict is this deadly.

Well, deadly for a ghost, anyway.

Specifically, he's worried about how embarrassing it would be to get eaten by something that came out of an egg this tiny. I'm torn between reminding a fictional character that things grow — a pissed off chicken could kick my ass and it started out in an egg too — and just shaking my head over the absurdity of worrying about embarrassment when, you know, you would cease to exist. It's not even a matter of, "What if I die and then I'm embarrassed about it in the afterlife :( " Yusuke is already IN the afterlife. He's got nowhere to go but oblivion!

Luckily, Botan takes a more practical approach to these worries, pointing out that he'll be just fine provided he does some good deeds. Yusuke starts a rant about how do-gooders are only ever out for themselves.

Yusuke, you dumb-dumb, you're a do-gooder now. What was all that help for Kuwabara, hmm? As said, these early episodes exist in a semi-reset loop, where Yusuke needs to stew in his main character flaws for a while before any real growth starts to stick. Those flaws being, primarily, "I'm a pessimist" and "also I hate myself."

Case in point, Botan accuses him of always seeing the glass as half empty. Which, while true enough (outside of his confidence in fighting, anyway), by now we've got a pretty good sense of where Yusuke developed this attitude. He affirms this by talking about how Koenma's got him by the balls, "just another idiot abusing his power!" With an alcoholic mother and those teachers from last episode, it's no wonder Yusuke thinks this way. Mr. Takenaka's interest and Keiko's care aren't enough to combat the rest of Yusuke's experience, not when Takenaka is an outlier and Keiko is Yusuke's peer. Her desire to keep him on the right track reads only as an inevitability at best (the downside of having a perfect childhood friend), or a legitimate annoyance at worst. Or, as we'll continue to see in this episode, a way for them to flirt.

Is it any wonder Yusuke would sneer at Koenma's offer then, expecting the worst? The fact that Yusuke is still undergoing the challenge at all, no matter what he says, speaks volumes to me.

However, Botan is less than comfortable with his criticisms. She panics a bit at Yusuke insulting the (junior) ruler of the underworld so blithely. That, and the fact that he's carelessly tossing his egg around.

(Yes we’re using precious picture space for memes are you SURPRISED?)

Anyway, Botan isn't just concerned for the sake of concern. She cautions Yusuke against speaking too freely because there may be investigators checking in on his progress. No sooner does he ask what those investigators look like than one appears.

Thunder! Lighting! An energy so intense that Yusuke is briefly blinded! It is, as he says, quite the entrance. What kind of being could possibly be at the heart of such an astounding show?

Why, this teeny-tiny cutie, of course.

Remember, few appearances in YYH coincide with the character's true self. Would you ever assume this is the all-powerful investigator who holds Yusuke's future in her hands? Of course not. That's the point.

The investigator introduces herself as Sayaka and immediately demonstrates that she has no more patience for Yusuke's attitude than Botan does. "These damn kids," he mutters and my brain briefly blue screens because Yusuke. You're fourteen.

Plus, Sayaka and Botan clearly have some sort of eternal youth situation going on, so there's that too.

Sayaka is, in a word, fantastic. She pulls no punches with Yusuke, teleporting away from him with what can only be described as a shit-eating smile, all while refusing to tell him what exactly she's investigating. “I’m sorry, but that’s a secret!” However, Keiko is clearly at the forefront of her interest. She refers to her as Yusuke's "girlfriend."

Botan is more than happy to point Keiko out — because of course they're still following her around! — and pulls a Et tu, Brute? on Yususke, leading Sayaka right to her. Like most of the Underworld, Sayaka is rather shocked that the pretty, popular, scholarly girl is supposedly into the delinquent. It's the power of childhood friendship, you fools! Specifically, Sayaka references the "positive markings" that Keiko has accumulated, but the audience already knows by now that such markings are suspect at best. Yusuke himself is proof of that. So if his terrible marks don't preclude him from being a young kid's savior, should we really view Keiko's as proof of superiority?

I mean, Keiko is fantastic, but that's not really the point here.

Starting her own investigation into Yusuke's life, Sayaka begins with one hell of a bombshell: "There's no point in doing [the resurrection] if the people closest to you don't care." WOW. Not only is that a harsh assessment, it's one I don't think I can personally get behind. The offer to restore Yusuke to life is built on the acknowledgment that their system is flawed (even if there's no work to change or dismantle that system): they thought he was worthless, his sacrificial death seems to have proven them wrong, and now they want further evidence, in the form of this trial, that Yusuke is a good person at heart. The whole point of this challenge is to give him a second chance, with testimonies like Mr. Takenaka's emphasizing that Yusuke has always been capable of more, so long as he applies himself. This, as we'll see throughout the series, applies to relationships too. The Yusuke with one friend he play-fights with, a distant mother, and a school worth of kids who are terrified of his very name is not the future Yusuke they expect him to become, so... why base his resurrection on what he's already (not) accomplished? Granted, the show is very unclear about what, if anything, Sayaka will do if she decides that Yusuke doesn't have a life worth going back to (even if I have my own theory discussed at the end), but the fact that this is suddenly a factor at all seems grossly unfair, not entirely unlike Kuwabara's rigged promise. We as the audience know that people love Yusuke. Yusuke himself is beginning to acknowledge that. But if this fourteen year old delinquent truly had no one that wanted him back from the dead... isn't that all the more reason to allow a resurrection and give him the chance to build a life where he would be missed?

This stupid shonen got me thinking too much istg.

Yusuke, ever the self-deprecating pessimist, bypasses all of the above thoughts and jumps straight to, "It's clear if [Keiko] had any sense she'd want me gone." I'd find that attitude incredibly sad if I wasn't distracted by how cute Botan and Sayaka are, sitting on the oar together. The spirit girls who fly together, thrive together!

Botan starts teasing Yusuke about having a crush, which just feeds his temper and Sayaka's confusion. Deciding that she needs to gather more info, they follow along for an average day of school because these earlier episodes are, apparently, ghost-stalk Keiko hours.

We see her reading aloud in class from Heart of Darkness (not the easiest book for some middle schoolers), scoring a point during volleyball practice, refusing to let one girl cheat off her homework, but happily helping another who runs up with a question. So she's pretty, athletic, and academically successful, the trifecta for any good love interest. Sayaka is impressed not just with her "nearly perfect" scores, but also the maturity that Keiko demonstrates, such as maintaining her morals about cheating while remaining compassionate.

Actually, I really love the contrast this provides for us, the viewer. Meaning, Keiko is shown to be at her least mature when in Yusuke's presence. Not that her responses aren't justified, but watching her dramatically snatch gum from his mouth, slap him across the face, or pull crazed expressions as she yells at him is a far cry from this calm, poised, soft-spoken Keiko. It's a way to visually show us that she's comfortable in his presence, despite the suspect humor attached. Not that the Keiko we see at school is faking or anything — she is legitimately that kind and articulate — but we see that being with Yusuke allows her to relax in a way she doesn't with others. School!Keiko is, as Sayaka says, pretty much perfect, 24/7. Yusuke's Keiko is a little rougher around the edges, in a way that implies a multifaceted personality shining through.

However, the only conclusion our trio draws is that, given Keiko's accomplishments, any attraction must be one-sided.

Poor Yusuke lol.

In a plot move that is so ridiculously contrived, just as Yusuke is grappling with the accusation that Keiko couldn't possibly like him back, a "handsome boy" arrives to ask Keiko out. He says that he couldn't bear it when she stopped reading Heart of Darkness because he's fallen in love with her voice. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

Please excuse me while I lose my shit over how ridiculous this is. I legitimately straight up cackled when I watched this scene.

Luckily for Mr. Absurd, Keiko takes him seriously — and lets him down easy. She says she can't be his girlfriend and when he presses the "Why?", asking if she already likes someone else, Keiko confirms that she does. This is done through a shot of her feet. Not a POV shot given the angle, but close enough that it feels like we're stepping into Keiko's shoes (haha), shyly staring down at the floor in embarrassment and regret.

Rejection complete? The guy screams.

I mean he screams.

I mean this nobody we're never gonna see again unhinges his jaw and lets out an unholy shriek the likes of which makes me shriek in utter GLEE.

It's insane. It's wonderful. I'm going to use one of my coveted image spots to show you his face:

Look at that and tell me this show isn't amazing.

Okay, I'm focusing again. As Keiko runs off Botan and Sayaka start dragging Yusuke, teasing him about how Keiko chose him over that "charming handsome boy."

...Please scroll up and look at that image again. I find YYH's definition of "charming" and "handsome" to be hilariously wrong.

Yusuke, as per usual, throws himself into damage control, claiming that Keiko didn't say who she liked, so really it could be anyone. They're not buying it. “'I like Keiko' is written all over your face!” Botan crows. Meanwhile, Sayaka is scribbling in her little investigator's journal that feelings on both side are severely misunderstood. "Suggest serious counseling."

Fantastic idea, Sayaka. I'd personally suggest counseling for the whole dying/best friend getting resurrected thing... but relationship woes work too!

We cut to later when school is out and Keiko has gone over to Yusuke's. To say that Atsuko has done a poor job of keeping the house clean lately would be a serious understatement.

Keiko points out the old food and broken glass specifically, cluing us in that this isn't just a messy environment, but a dangerous one as well. This is proven when she accidentally knocks a stack of books over and a used bowl falls onto Yusuke's face. What's interesting is that Keiko says that things are "back to normal" now, though I'm not sure if that's in reference to the state of the house, or just the note Atsuko left behind, asking Keiko to take care of Yusuke while she's out. I'm inclined towards thinking it's just the note, partly because of Keiko's shock when she first arrives, because the house wasn't shown to be in this state prior to Yusuke's death (first image above), and because the note is accompanied by a great voiceover that makes Atsuko sound quite sloshed when she left. That's what's normal, the drinking and carefree attitude, not the state of her home. If we buy that reading, it allows for another fantastic look into Atsuko's mental state. If she's already an alcoholic, the trauma of her son's death and the following revelation that he's coming back might make her struggle in other ways. Like finding cleaning to be an impossible task.

She's depressed. It doesn't excuse the state she's left Yusuke in and, as previously acknowledged, YYH is definitely not a show interested in this nuance, but I still find it fun to take what little we've gotten and run with it.

However, Keiko is firmly on team "WTF Atsuko." She hurries to make sure Yusuke wasn't hurt by the falling bowl, bemoans him being "covered in garbage," and says that leaving him in this state should be considered a felony. Knowing it's far beyond her power to fix Atsuko's failings, Keiko swears to come here after school every day until Yusuke regains his body. It's as she's cleaning him of the dust that's gathered that Keiko becomes entranced with Yusuke’s features. Particularly his lips. The soft lighting returns, their theme song swells, and Keiko gets thiiiis close to kissing Yusuke for the first time.

Which is a little weird, right? I mean, we know why Yusuke is freaking out. Beyond the embarrassment of a middle schooler receiving his first kiss while two ghost girls eagerly watch on, he's made a hobby of denouncing his interest in Keiko to anyone who will listen. But for the average viewer — for Keiko herself — don't we care the he's, you know, dead? Or if not technically dead, very unconscious? Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the appeal of this situation in a generalized, cultural sense (with the side disclaimer that I'm reading a Japanese product through an American lens). Sleeping Beauty exists for a reason and there's definitely an element of that here: a gender-reversed setup where Keiko’s kills may break the "curse" of Yusuke's untimely death. Even his in-between state of being mirrors the "death like sleep" of the fairy tale. But when you strip away those Disney-esque thoughts, we're left with a girl about to kiss an unresponsive body, not as a common gesture of care (the parent who kisses their child while they sleep), but as a first time, romantic milestone.

It's a little weird lol.

But embrace the romance! As well as its inevitable interruption. Just as Keiko is about to land a peck, the neighborhood watch committee announces a heat and fire warning, startling Keiko out of her thoughts about Yusuke's "beautiful face." (There's another gender reversal for ya.) She gasps at her almost-action, conveniently remembers that her mom wanted her to do some shopping, and hightails it out of there before embarrassment can really kill them both.

So she runs off for food... in a sweater? The outfit is cute and all, but I wonder what the animators were thinking, putting Keiko in a puffy pullover during an episode all about a heat wave.

It's about at this point that the plot goes from cute romance to absolutely buck wild. The fires the neighborhood watch committee mentioned are not, in fact, due to the overwhelming heat, but an arsonist that's going around tossing molotov cocktails through open windows. Why is he doing such a thing? I don't know. Arsonists be doing arson, I guess. The important bit is that Yusuke's place is his next target, considering that Atsuko forgot to lock the windows when she went out. Within seconds all that garbage is set ablaze, quite obviously putting Yusuke's resurrection chances at an all time low.

"Wake up, stupid!" he shouts at his unconscious body. Mood, Yusuke. That's me every morning.

So this is a full scale emergency now and everyone is scrambling trying to think of something to do. Yusuke comes up with the idea to possess himself like he did Kuwabara — nice attempt at a loophole there — but since it would technically count as his resurrection, no dice. Botan decides to go get Kuwabara himself, even though he's too far away to do anything. It's still worth a shot. Sayaka, meanwhile, watches all this unfold with a somewhat clinical detachment. She's not quite indifferent and she's definitely not cruel... she’s just not as emotionally invested in this as the other two. Which not only re-emphasizes her purpose here, as an observer judging Yusuke, but also highlights the bond Botan is forming with him. As mentioned before in regards to her hanging out with Yusuke rather than ferrying souls, Botan is well past someone assisting Yusuke simply because it's a part of her job. He's her friend.

We get some shots of the growing fire which includes a hazy texture to the animation I quite like and then we cut to Keiko several blocks away, shopping bag in hand. Word of the new fire spreads, with one bystander mentioning that it's the twelfth today.

"This is eerie.”

“Yeah, I can’t help feeling we’re under attack.”

That's because you are! Someone stop that man!

Sadly, I don't think the arsonist is mentioned again, let alone captured. We'll just have to relegate that to my incredibly niche fic wishlist.

Keiko also overhears that the latest fire is on fourth avenue, which of course is where Yusuke lives. Recognizing that he might be in trouble, she takes off at a run.

Meanwhile, Botan finds Kuwabara practicing his kicks against a Yusuke dummy. Amazing resemblance, right?

Watching for the purpose of recapping, I'm picking up on a lot of details in the animation I quite enjoy. I don't think anyone would claim that YYH, at this point in time, has the most impressive or flashy animation (the fight scenes later are another matter entirely), but there's a clear love for the product that shines through. The scared expression on Kuwabara's dummy. His unexpectedly dainty kick, complete with pointed toes. Botan's more translucent coloring to emphasize her supernatural status compared to Kuwabara. There are a lot of nice touches despite the overall simplicity.

Plus, you can't forget the lovely irony of Kuwabara fighting a defenseless "Yusuke" while the real guy actually lies defenseless amidst a fire. We already know that despite his tough talk, Kuwabara would be horrified to learn that his friend rival had died (again) in such a manner.

Capitalizing on that transparency, Botan runs a hand through Kuwabara's back to catch his attention. He gets his "tickle feeling" and instinctively looks around towards Yusuke's house, seeing the smoke. "Something tells me I should go that way." Gotta love a guy who drops everything to chase a vague, supernaturally induced hunch.

As Kuwabara leaves we cut back to Keiko arriving at the house, staring in horror at the blaze. We get an audio flashback to her talk with Yusuke where she promised to take care of his body until he got back. So she tries to run in, only for a couple of the onlookers to snag her, quite correctly keeping her from undergoing a suicide mission. We learn later that Keiko absolutely would have died without Yusuke's sacrifice, so her "You cowards!" is born more of emotion than justified accusations. It's not cowardly to look at the raging inferno in a small apartment and realize that recklessly running in will only result in two dead teens, not one.

I mean, the flames are already right there, licking the door. Even if Keiko somehow managed to avoid burns, the smoke alone would do her in. Still, Keiko tries to mitigate the damage by dumping a bucket of water over her head. As a kid I remember thinking this was the smartest thing ever. Utterly inspired. Keep that in the back of your mind, kid Clyde, for future reference. As an adult... I have no idea whether this would actually help or not lol. Any firefighters doubling as YYH fans?

Recklessness and iffy precautions aside, I can't express how much I appreciate the story giving Keiko things to do. Yusuke recognizes that she's the only one with the maturity and open-mindedness to believe in his resurrection. She's the one picking up Atsuko's slack regarding his day-to-day needs. She never hesitates for a moment, heroically throwing herself into this blaze for Yusuke's benefit. Yeah, a lot of that still falls into the emotional/domestic sphere — what we expect of the love interest in a 90s anime — but too often action stories don't have a clue what to do with their non-action characters, not even when it comes to just supporting the fighters. They're simply... there. Keiko, however, isn't window dressing. Whether it's helping Botan survive an upcoming, supernatural plague, or cheering the team on at the Dark Tournament, Keiko is an important part of the story, despite lacking the fighting prowess of the rest of the cast.

Just as important, this episode establishes a core equality between her and Yusuke. We just watched Keiko reject a (presumably) accomplished guy for him, telling the audience that these surface differences — academics, power levels, popularity, looks — don't matter to them. Yusuke is not Keiko's lesser just because he doesn't have the same scores in Sayaka's book and Keiko won't become Yusuke's lesser just because she doesn't have spiritual power like he does. The only important thing here is that they love each other and they're both willing to sacrifice everything for the other. In the span of about ten minutes, Keiko nearly gives up her life for Yusuke and, in turn, Yusuke gives up his resurrection for her. The level of care they show towards one another is balanced, despite those differences.

They’re a good ship, y'all. Even if this recapping's got me noticing Yusuke/Kuwabara potential lol.

To get back to the plot, a drenched Keiko charges into the fire, yelling Yusuke's name for the drama of it because we all know he can't respond. Despite the audience (hopefully) recognizing Keiko and Yusuke's equality, that memo hasn't reached Yusuke yet. "You're a lot more important to this world than I am!" he yells, hammering home that despite everything — knowing he instinctively saved a child, watching his loved ones grieve for him, helping Kuwabara just because he can — Yusuke still, deep down, believes that he doesn't deserve to come back; that he doesn't measure up to those around him. The self-sacrificial nature this insecurity produces shocks Sayaka. She points out that if Keiko doesn't save his body, he's not coming back. "What's the point of being alive if Keiko has to get killed for it?"

Keiko means more to Yusuke than the rest of his living existence. Jot that down in your notebook, Sayaka!

Kuwabara arrives and runs into one of his friends who informs him that Keiko just went inside. “Yusuke’s girl? The one we saved from those thugs?”

BOY does that tell us a lot about their rivalry! I mean yeah, we've already established several times over that Kuwabara — just like Yusuke himself — is not the cruel street thug he'd like to present himself as. If these characters actually wanted to hurt each other outside of a martial arts challenge, don't you think Kuwabara would capitalize on the "Yusuke's girl" bit? Everyone seems to know that they have feelings for each other, but Kuwabara never once wields that as ammunition against Yusuke. There are no taunts about him not being good enough. Or rather, I should clarify there are no serious taunts — Kuwabara is well known for his teasing. There's also no attempt to steal Keiko out from under him, the common treatment of the love interest as a "prize" that many stories fall into. Indeed, later this episode YYH will deconstruct this a bit. Yusuke sees Kuwabara grab Keiko's hand and yells that he better not be getting "fresh" with her. But it's purely Yusuke's worries shining through. The audience gets a crystal clear picture of the situation and knows, categorically, that Kuwabara has only the most innocent of intentions in holding Keiko's hand.

(Well, running from the police isn't innocent, but...)

I keep getting sidetracked. Plot! Keiko makes it to Yusuke's room and finds that he is already on fire. She then proceeds to try and put it out by patting it with her hands. I take back what I said about Keiko's smarts in this scene. Now we know where that supposed recklessness comes from though. Apparently they're both immune to fire! Nothing to worry about here, folks.

JK she's actually in danger, despite the animation choices. By this point everyone, including Keiko, realizes that there's no way out: the fire has blocked the door. Sayaka then reveals that there is one way to save her. If Yusuke throws his egg into the fire, the energy of the spirit beast will release and guide her to safety. The catch? Hatch the egg early and it won't complete its intended function of guiding him back to his body. This beast is gonna guide one person and that is it.

Cue Yusuke's near immediate decision to sacrifice his life for Keiko's. Granted, it's not precisely one life for another. Yusuke's resurrection was always contingent upon the beast not devouring him whole — something Koenma claims would have happened at the end of the episode — meaning that it's not technically a fair trade. Yusuke might have sacrificed Keiko's life for his own... only to fail to get that life back anyway. (There's a tragedy for ya.) To say nothing of how Yusuke is currently dead and has been for at least a couple of days, whereas Keiko very much is not. There's some sort of philosophical discussion there about potential being pit against current reality.

BUT that's not the point! The emotional point is that he sacrificed his life for hers — the potential of his resurrection, the potential of that life he might have led — all technicalities aside. And I, for one, think that's very neat of him.

A blue light shines as the egg's energy is released, providing a lovely contrast to the fire surrounding them. A path forms to the door and Keiko, recognizing Yusuke's presence, follows it. "We'll make it, Yusuke," Keiko says, which is one hell of a sucker-punch now that we know she's just carrying a corpse. Unbeknownst to Keiko, Yusuke is very much not making it. That's the only reason why she is.

Kuwabara appears to help them the rest of the way which is also a pretty awesome thing considering that, from everyone else's perspective, the fire is still raging and blocking the door. Despite his spiritual awareness, Kuwabara gives no indication that he noticed this strange light, or Yusuke's hand in the rescue. Which basically means he lunged into a bunch of deadly fire for Keiko and doesn't question how in the world he isn't burned.

Keiko's hands are fine, Kuwabara's whole body is fine... fire immunity must run in the friend group!

Yusuke has another rare moment of vulnerability — "They're both okay" — and I cackle happily at the "both" because see. You love Kuwabara too, Yusuke! All this bluster about hating him and finding him annoying. The second he rushed into that fire you were crawling up the walls.

Except then that happiness gives way to something that sounds a little more shocked. Devastated. "Well, I sure am... relieved..." Kudos to Cook's voice acting. You can hear the exact moment Yusuke realizes what he's done. Not that he regrets it, but the consequences are finally sinking in. He's relieved that they're safe, yes, but now he's never going to be able to rejoin them.

As Yusuke has an(other) existential crisis, Kuwabara peels back the blanket Keiko had wrapped Yusuke in, revealing his face. “What are you doing with Yusuke’s body?! Are you some type of sick grave robber?” he shouts. God I love when a story actually keeps track of who knows what. Kuwabara, for all his recent involvement in the plot, doesn't actually know what's going on. From his perspective Yusuke died, he made a scene at the wake, he saved "his girl" from a bunch of thugs, lost a huge chunk of time only to wake up with her randomly hugging him (then slapping him), participated in a bet with his awful teacher and had a couple weird, Yusuke related dreams while studying, and has felt the presence of ghosts perhaps a little more frequently than usual. Now he's trying to help save Keiko from a fire only for her to reveal she risked her own life for Yusuke's body. Of course he's freaking out! What's she doing with that?

What's utterly fantastic though is that Kuwabara takes all of five seconds to process this and then enters immediate Ride or Die mode for Keiko. She's been hoarding Yusuke's body for undetermined reasons? Well, who is he to judge? The important thing here is that people are arrested for keeping bodies, so they've gotta skedaddle before the firefighters show up.

Hence, hand-holding and avoiding arrest.

As Yusuke starts threatening Kuwabara not to get "fresh" with her, Botan sadly reminds him that he no longer has a say in who Keiko does or does not fall in love with. The switch in tone is jarring. Whereas before Botan would have teased him mercilessly for the crush, now she knows that nothing can come of that — and it would be cruel not to remind Yusuke of that too.

"Oh no. I didn't think..." Yusuke whispers, further establishing that he knew the risks of using his egg, but hadn't allowed them to sink in yet. Now they have.

He gives a fake little laugh with, "Just when it was getting good" and I cry at the development in the span of just four episodes. Despite what I said at the beginning about the show resetting each week, there has been a lot of change thus far. Yusuke wants to live now! He wants to be there for Keiko! He looks down on his tiny family and screams at the unfairness of it all! They're talking about how they can't wait for him to come back and now that's never gonna happen!!

It hurts, friends. It hurts a whole lot.

During this conversation between Keiko, Atsuko, and Kuwabara, we see that a couple of hours have passed (it's nighttime now, the fire is out) and Atsuko is apologizing for putting them all in danger like that. And by that I mean yes, she does technically apologize with an "I'm sorry" and everything, but it's also a one sentence apology pit against... well, near death for the three people standing (and sitting) before her. Atsuko seems just as concerned by Keiko losing her hair as she does Keiko nearly burning to death and she kneels by Yusuke's wheelchair, baby-talking to him about how he forgives her, right? I love Atsuko, she's great, but objectively speaking she is not a good mother. Not right now, anyway.

Oh yeah, and just to reiterate that: Keiko's hands are fine after patting down Yusuke's on-fire body, but her hair, which I'm pretty sure never catches, has to be cut short. Ah, anime logic. Funny thing is, YYH isn't the only story to take the love interest and give her a cool, short cut thanks to a traumatic event. Anyone read Ranma 1/2?

During this conversation we also learn that, sometime between the fire and now, Keiko filled Kuwabara in on everything that's happening with Yusuke. Makes sense. He kneels beside the wheelchair, joining the others in telling Yusuke that they'll wait patiently for his return. Yusuke, above them, continues yelling about how they're waiting on a dead man.

“It can’t be helped. He made this decision on his own."

Except it can, in fact, be helped!

Just as all hope is truly lost, Koenma appears and announces that Yusuke will be returned to life. Why? Because sacrificing his egg for Keiko is a better indicator of his worth than the egg itself could have been. Despite feeding on his negative outlook and heading towards biting Yusuke's head off — something the animation backs up by showing us teeth during the fire

— Yusuke's act demonstrates a tendency towards being a "decent human being" that is "so rare." Wow. That's depressing. Still, yay that Yusuke has those qualities! And this, to my mind, helps explain Sayaka's presence. Koenma recognized that judging Yusuke couldn't be left to the egg alone and indeed, Sayaka took note of his worth before he ever threw the egg into the fire. First it was questioning why someone as amazing as Keiko would go for him, then it was solidified through the shock of Yusuke announcing that coming back to life was meaningless if she wasn't in it. Even if Keiko had somehow, miraculously escaped the fire before Yusuke's sacrifice, I bet Sayaka's report would have tipped him in resurrection's favor anyway.

Everyone is, of course, overjoyed and my heart swells at the intense gratitude Yusuke displays. My favorite part though is when Koenma cryptically says that “Your added experience with death could make you very useful" (a nod towards future events that goes right over Yusuke's head) and his response to this is a yelled, "YOU THINK I'M USEFUL?" This poor kid. The God of everything ever is chucking out revelations left and right, about resurrections and spirit beasts, but the only thing that really penetrates is the realization that someone thinks he's useful. Talk about relatable.

You know, I've been thinking about why this moment works so well. I mean, there are a lot of other stories where undermining the consequences our hero faces — either with humor, or by erasing them completely — can feel like the audience was cheated. I think YYH dodged that with a couple of crucial factors. First, Yusuke's consequence isn't something new that he's now avoided, it's just a permanent extension of something he was already dealing with. We did get to watch him inhabit the space between life and death, grappling with whether he'd ever be able to return. The story didn't deny us that growth, it just confirmed something we all instinctively knew: this tale won't end here with Yusuke permanently going to some afterlife. Second, the Deus ex Machina fix doesn't happen too soon. Yeah, it's only a couple of minutes in a single episode, but we (and Yusuke) still get to sit with that outcome for a while, soaking it in before its removal. Finally, there's no doubt that Yusuke earned this reprieve. Koenma's timing might be sudden and (if you're not genre savvy) unexpected, but looking back at the series as a whole thus far, we're able to agree absolutely that Yusuke deserves this. Far from feeling like we were cheated, this solution invites just as much celebration as we're seeing on screen, for the simple reason that we can buy into Koenma's reasoning. We know now that Yusuke is a good person. We saw him selflessly sacrifice his future for Keiko. We agree that he deserves a second chance.

Thus, the episode ends with Yusuke flying up to fill the screen in his joy, a far better, final shot than Harry Potter and The Prison of Azkaban managed 😰

And that's it for Episode 4, folks! See you later for Episode 5 💕

#YYH #Yu Yu Hakusho #YYH Recaps #mymetas

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tcheschirewrites · 3 years

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Happy New Year!

Part of me wanted to do a Year In Review post, like I’ve seen a few other creators do, but instead of talking about myself (which I do for the entire rest of the year anyway lmao), I’m gonna do a reclist instead, of the best fics I’ve read this year. A lot of it is BNHA, because that’s been my main fandom for 2020, but I did spend a decent amount of time in other spaces. If you see a **, that means there’s boning at some point – if the fic is in bold, then there’s a lot of boning. I @ed their Tumblr if I knew it off the top of my head, but I may have missed some.

BNHA

Don't Yuck Her Yum by rumblefish ( @rumbllefish) (League of Villains Gen)

Complete – A quick disclaimer, pia is a mutual and a friend. That being said, this is such a cute little snapshot into the LOV with everyone’s favorite Found Family trope. Now, I’ll admit to being additionally biased because pia gave me that sweet sweet Dadpress food, but her Spinner is also on point. Short and sweet.

the Issue of the Jeanist Corpse (the Jorpse) by Princeliest (Hawks & Jeanist Gen)

Complete – Witty and hilarious, a deleted scene when Hawks went to visit Best Jeanist before War Arc. I love how antsy Hawks is, and how fussy Jeanist. Also, I’m a sucker for putting a j at the beginning of everything for Jeaninst.

Queer Eye: We're In Japan! And There Are Pro Heroes Everywhere!! by night_of_the_living_trashcan (Background Erasermic Family)

Complete – I love a good Queer Eye fic, and this one is so spot on. The Fab Five couldn’t get a better candidate than Aizawa (well, almost; see below). And I’m a sucker for Erasermic family.

**Yesterday's Gods by Karzai (All Might/Reader)

WIP - Reader character is an ex-military doctor who comes to work at UA. If you’re a fan of very well-developed backstories, and reader characters that are their own people, then this is the fic for you. This fic gives me huge Newsroom vibes - we’ve got a past romance, and the tension after years apart. We get present day when they are older and more jaded, and we get the backstory of the reader character and All Might when they were young and spry.

**surrender (whenever you're ready) by OfMermaids ( @ofmermaidstories) (Bakugou/Reader)

WIP - Bakugou accidentally destroys a florist’s shop. Bar none the best Bakugou fic out there - his characterization is so on point. He is grouchy but so vulnerable, he’s coarse and soft and insecure and such a perfectionist. The relationship with the reader character develops very naturally, and the chapters are long. Bonus, we get some bangin’ Kiri as well.

**if i could keep cool by andypantsx3 ( @andypantsx3) (Todoroki/Reader)

Complete – I’m in love with the premise of the fic: a hired cleaner gets kidnapped due to a misunderstanding of the romantic variety. Andie’s Todo is well written, and the pacing of the story is nice and tight. An easy read.

**Subject: RAPTOR by Tainted_Wine ( @tainted-wine)(Hawks/Reader)

Complete – The villains have turned Hawks into a Nomu, and reader works collecting semen for the facility for breeding purposes. Bigtime monster-fucking, but it’s very poignant and well-done. Very long, but well worth the time.

**My Hero by HeroAssociation(Aizawa/Reader)

WIP – Reader character is a milf whose son enters a contest to meet his favorite hero and wins. The author’s Aizawa is really good, and the scenes with the reader’s son are very realistic for maternal love. And, I cannot emphasize this enough, reader character is a milf. It’s incomplete, and hasn’t updated in a while, but the premise is so cute I can’t not include it.

suffer the signs by advantagetexas(Aizawa/Reader)

Complete – Baby’s first hanahaki. Honestly a very cute little hanahaki – no angst or sads, just two idiots in love. A nice quick read.

But they're soft... by coffee_dessert (Aizawa/Reader)

Complete – Aizawa gets turned into a cat by a villain’s quirk, and the reader character takes care of him until it wears off. I’ve heard this premise is popular? But I haven’t seen too too many, and this one is very well executed. Aizawa’s characterization is solid, and the pacing is very good. A very sweet read.

**no grave to hold my body down by Hawnks (supermintfluff) ( @hawnks)(Shinsou/Reader)

Complete – Pro Hero Shinsou saves the reader character, and they keep running into each other. This one is a good character study on adult Shinsou, and Hawnks’ writing is always very clean and lovely. I recommend going through their entire selection.

Love Like You by Queen_Kai (Shinsou/Reader)

Complete – Color Soulmate AU with a villain reader. Very cute, and I adore Shinsou’s characterization in this one. I honestly wish there was more, but it stands on its own very well.

Naruto

**Maid with Benefits by awolangel (Akatsuki/Reader)

WIP – Reader is hired to be a live-in maid to the Akatsuki, and also have lots of sex. This fic is hilarious, and so well characterized. The pacing is actually really good, as well as the development of all of the relationships. There are some characters that get more attention than others, but we do get a nice spread. Very fun escapism fic.

Moonshine by Victopteryx ( @ancharan) (HashiMada)

Complete – Prohibition Era Bootlegging AU. Author’s handle on both Madara and Hashirama is incredible (and they draw their own fanart, and it’s also incredible). A whole-ass meal.

Tobirama Kicks Some Sense Into Konoha by allseer15 (Tobirama&Naruto Gen)

Complete – Tobirama gets sent back in time due to an accidental jutsu, and is horrified at the way Konoha is run, and promptly Rampages over it. Wonderful catharsis for anyone who wondered why it was okay for a rich-ass old man to just leave an infant a welfare check and a shitty apartment and dip out on his development even though he has the equivalent of a nuclear warhead in his upper intestine.

Misc

**Clouds by moriamithril (Star Wars Rogue One, Cassian Andor/Reader)

Complete – Reader character is a handler/assistant type figure to Cassian over a series of missions. We get a lot of emotions in this one – we get the tenderness of caring for someone who is ill, we get devotion, we get yearning, we get delicious jealousy. Well written and lovely.

Fresh Coat by scrapmetal (The Mandalorian, Boba & Din Gen)

Complete – Fantastic Boba and Din, the Mando culture representation we deserve. I’m love.

**A Far Greater Sin (Reader version) by Yavannie (The Mandalorian, Din Djarin/Reader)

Complete – Reader is a healer, and builds a relationship with Mando over the course of a couple decades. Great pacing, great RC development, and the author’s Mando is quite good. The premise/setting gives me wicked fantasy vibes, even though it’s obviously In Space, but that’s definitely a draw.

who's gonna save us now (when the ashes hit the ground) by chancellor_valdez (Ready or Not, Grace/Daniel)

Complete – My favorite of the “Grace and Daniel Survive Together” subgenere, this one is very raw with its emotions. There’s a lot of hurt, and there’s a lot of self-harming coping mechanisms. Recovery is ugly, and the author did a very good job showing us that. And their ending was lovely.

not your garden variety demon lord by rizahawkaye (Inuyasha, SanSessh)

Complete – Sango takes care of Rin sometimes, and gets confused when Sesshoumaru brings her gifts. The author’s Sessh is so good, and it’s a great exploration of a relationship we don’t see much of.

Mine Enemy by Ayrith (Inuyasha, InuSan)

Complete – I love this fic, okay. Fantastic character study in Sango and a lot of the rougher parts of her that canon shied away from, and the author’s Inuyasha characterization is fucking great. Just go read this, yes.

Frozen Plus One by Meowzy (Frozen, HansAnna)

WIP – Troll AU, ie the trolls cursed Hans and that’s why he is That Way. Look, this author has done such a good job with all of the characters. Their voices are very distinct, and it’s not a reach at all to see how it could have gone differently. And we get some sweet HansAnnaKris action, and it is just as we deserve. Honestly, this fic is so well written, it deserves the world.

Knives In by anomalation (Knives Out, Marta/Ransom)

Complete – My favorite of the Pen Pals subgenre, this one is a fantastic slow burn. Ransom is really forced to face himself, and Marta is such a babe. Meg makes a few appearances, and her confusion over her place in the world is really well done. A great enemies-to-lovers.

It's Not Anxiety, It's a Parasite by squadrickchestopher (Venom, Queer Eye)

Complete – Look, I’ve mentioned before, but I love a good Queer Eye fic. Eddie gets what he deserves, and the symbiote couldn’t be more happy. So funny and clever.

You Find Yourself in a Maze by FloaromaMeadow ( @zombiekaiba) (S0 Atem Gen)

Complete – Very short and very poignant, the style is modeled after text-based command games. It fits super well with the Season 0 aesthetic, and there’s so much punch in each command.

Gaud's Grinch x Tony Fix-it Fic by gaudy_writes ( @biggest-gaudiest-patronuses)

WIP – Look, I know, all right. Just read it.

#fic recs #i'm sorry but i don't feel like tagging alla that #maybe i will later idk lmao #in case anyone wonders what kind of fics i read in my spare time

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teazingsassy · 4 years

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I was wondering if you have any Law x Luffy fics that you could share.... or maybe any modern au ones??

At the End of the Day by Artificial_Starlight THIS ONE. THIS ONE. THIS ONE. i love this one with all of my heart and i cannot stress ENOUGH how good it is!!! it’s modern au and it’s written SO well i cannot emphasize this enough...

literally anything written by KivaEmber is so good and i cannot stress how much i love it

Keelhauled Into A Hurricane by Methoxyethane is so fucking funny another good ass read and is very good

i cannot stress enough how much i love these. they’re all written by fantastic authors. if you’ve read them once, you haven’t read them enough.

I AM OPEN TO YOUR SUGGESTIONS THO I LOVE READING UwU

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spnfanficpond · 4 years

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December Angel Fish Awards

Every month all of you fantastic writers work your asses off to post some truly incredible stories. Our Angel Fish Awards are the way for all of us, as a community of writers and readers, to lift each other up and give praise to those who have captured our attention and deserve a few kind words.

The monthly Angel Fish Awards are peer-nominated, meaning ANYONE IN THE POND CAN NOMINATE ANY POND MEMBER’S FIC. While the Pond was founded to support the Guppies, everyone in this community deserves to be showered with love and feedback, and we hope that by opening this up as a Pond wide system, we’ll be able to share the love as far as it can go.

NOTE: WE’VE BEEN HAVING OCCASIONAL PROBLEMS WITH ASKS GOING MISSING. Please use the Submit button when submitting your nominations and make sure you’re signed into Tumblr or your URL won’t show. (If the form asks for your name and email address, then you’re not signed in.) If you like, you can also send a message to Michelle or Mana to check and make sure we got your submission.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE ARE DECEMBER’S ANGEL FISH AWARDS!

Nominated by @princessmisery666

Gone (oneshot) by @there-must-be-a-lock

@impala-dreamer’s end of year quickie challenge was a great one but this on by @there-must-be-a-lock stuck with me. So much emotion in under 500 words :)

Why Can’t There Be A Santa (oneshot) by @risingphoenix761

This was kinda heart breaking and fluffy and sweet all at the same. I love me some fluff!!

Who’d Have Thought (oneshot) by @firefly-in-darkness

Daisy got me all hot and bothered with this one and then unexpectedly pulled my heart out of my chest!! Love a surprise ending and a bit of smut!!

Nominated by @flamencodiva

A Series of Firsts (series) by @fictionalabyss

I love her story a series of firsts! it is amazing to see the ups and downs and the alternate endings.

Wayward Hearts (series) by @foreverwayward

This has to be my all time series re-write! I think Brittney captures the story so well and is able to weave Riley into the story as if she is actually a part of the show! Brittney does a good job in her storytelling and the romance between Dean and Riley is so innocent and pure!

Moonstone (series) by @impala-dreamer

This is one of my favorite stories by Beka! it was one of the first ones and it wasn’t the last I have read of her work. I love the dynamic and the story she wove in. I’m also always a sucker for a hero and protective Dean.

His Property (series) by @negans-lucille-tblr

This is an amazing fic! I love the bdsm and the way Dean is set up in this! It is a great and hot story as well as a well woven story of angst and unrequited love in the underlying reading. The twists and turns of this story also have you on the edge of your seat!

Nominated by @wildfirewinchester

About A Boy (series) by @percywinchester27

The series is amazing, and it perfectly encapsulates Dean’s character. It also has enough hints here and there where you always think you know what’s going on (sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t), and then there’s a twist and you get to find out whether or not you were right! The idea is so original and I’ve never read a fic with the same premise. I’m always so excited when I see there’s a new part and I always have to read it right then and there.

Nominated by @sorenmarie87

Five Minutes (series) by @idabbleincrazy

This fic started out sweet, moved into angst and somehow rounded out with its ending. I won’t spoil it for those who want to read it but it was worth it :)

What Hurts The Most (oneshot) by @iflostreturntosteverogers

Carrie is great with writing angst and this fic, even though it was for a challenge, managed to do that with only 500 words.

Flip (oneshot) by @luci-in-trenchcoats

It’s no secret that I love A/B/O fics but I think this is the first one that I’ve read that involves body-swapping.

Nominated by @manawhaat

Who’d Have Thought (oneshot) by @firefly-in-darkness

Ok, the smut is lovely. Smut is always lovely, but what earns this a nom is the last fucking line. I was slapped in the face, hard, with the goddamn feelings. And as much as I hate that, I’m also a SLUT for that shit!

A Different Kind of Therapy (series) by @saxxxology

JESUS CHRISTO. There are only three chapters out right now but the whole premise behind this is just FASCINATING! I’ve read about different kind of meditative sex therapy, but the way this unfolds is really unique and honestly, I feel like this should be a fucking thing in the real world. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Nominated by @lovetusk

I’d like to nominate Special One (oneshot) by @evansrogerskitten & The marvelous lands of Sam’s chest (oneshot) by @focusonspn for the simple fact that I am a Sam girl and a total sucker for not only Alpha Sam, but also his chest hair. Yum.

Nominated by @impala-dreamer

Renegade (oneshot) by @princessmisery666

Very nicely done!! The descriptions were lovely and I heard Billie’s voice so clearly!

Bite Me (oneshot) by @maddiepants

OMGOMGOMG me toooooo!!! This is just perfectly delicious and naughty and… sames. Sames… the TEETH!!!!!

Ghost Rider (oneshot) by @squirrelnotsam

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! Such a clever idea! Like, of course he would attach himself like that! And he’s still so …DEAN. protective and sassy and Y/N is perfect. I loved this a whole bunch!!

Nominated by @thegirlwhorunswithwinchesters

Strong leader type having to physically fall down in order for people to see they’re exhausted (oneshot) by @imagineteamfreewill

I decided to start the new year off right by finding my way back into the world of tumblr spn fics after an unplanned hiatus. And what better way to do so than by spreading the love through these amazing awards? This is the first fic I came across and I immediately fell in love. Anything that emphasizes how amazing and hardworking Sam is - and how he deserves a break and all the love in the world - is something I’ll defend with my life.

Vision of Love (series) by @princessmisery666

Second fic I wanted to put a spotlight on is this prequel to an amazing series by an amazing author. I remember reading parts of this before I went MIA and I cannot wait to finish the series and find out what happened now that I’m back. For now, I’m reveling in the wonder that is this fluffy prequel.

The marvelous lands of Sam’s chest (oneshot) by @focusonspn

If this isn’t a mood, I don’t know what is. It’s hot, it’s sweet, it’s everything I’ll ever need. Yes, it is indeed so good that I felt the urge to rhyme.

Unstoppable (oneshot) by @evansrogerskitten

Talk about sexual tension. I love the idea of the reader hiding her true nature and the consequences that had. On top of that, the author’s writing is amazing as always.

Christmas Gone Wrong (oneshot) by @peridottea91

Next up on my mission to spread the love is this fun little domestic oneshot. I love the bickering and the jokes. Also, now I’m craving cookies.

Masterlist by @pink1031

I was so excited when I saw this author on the new pond members list, meaning I could nominate her. She’s an amazing writer and I couldn’t possibly pick just one fic to nominate, so I went for the entire masterlist instead. Besides a talented writer, she’s also just an absolute gem who works hard and deserves to be recognized for it.

Nominated by @slytherkins

Recompense (oneshot) by @thoughtslikeaminefield

Pretty tasty. Kinda makes me want to piss Dean off. (But that might just be my inner Brat talking.) <3

Nominated by @thelittleredwhocould/ @samsexualdeancurious

Old Man (oneshot) @manawhaat

This fic is a companion/sequel/alternate ending to one of my own fics and I LOVE it. I was so excited when Mana came to me with it. Some good old fashioned Alpha!John/Omega!Reader smut. So, so good.

Lucid Lies (oneshot) by @manawhaat

Fucking love this fic. So, so good. I’m a sucker for a good djinn-related story cos they’re the perfect vessel for the best angst and this is no exception.

Maybe (oneshot) by @manawhaat

Read this if you want to cry cos this has ALL the feels. All of them.

A Bed is a Bed (series) by @saxxxology

I think this one is inspired by a play and Saxxy was texting me when she planned it out. So, so good. Saxxy does a great job setting the scene and unf the smut. *heart eyes*

About a Boy (series) by @percywinchester27

I’m in loooooove with this series. I’ve never been big on young!Winchester fics but the premise of this is so good and the payoff is even better. I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

A stranger in need (oneshot) @percywinchester27

I love the AU in this fic and I’m not gonna tell you what it is cos that would give everything away! This is just so good. Sam is such a sweetheart and I just adore him.

Caught (series) by @thecleverdame

I’m just dying for the next chapter of this fic! The concept pulled me in immediately. There’s only two chapters on Tumblr so far but omg I just. Love it.

This is How (oneshot) by @mrswhozeewhatsis

Angsty angsty angsty angst. Love it. I’m not the biggest Amelia fan but I this peak into Sam’s thought process and feelings at the beginning of s8. So good.

Thank you all for the awesome work and great feedback!

As with the BFAs, these are not actual awards! This system is set up so everyone in the pond has a chance to share the love and promote a fic/author that has grabbed your attention. The more people that participate, and the more everyone remembers to submit their own fics after posting, the better this will be :D

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN, KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK, AND AS ALWAYS, HAPPY WRITING!

#afa masterlist #angel fish awards #spn fic rec #spnfanficpond #supernatural fanfic #fan fiction #fanfiction #fan fic #fanfic #spn fan fiction #spn fanfiction #sn fan fic #spn fanfic #supernatural fan fiction #supernatural fan fic #supernatural fanfiction #fic rec #supernatural fic rec

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thosegloriouspancakes · 3 years

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maaaaaan, shoutout to ALL of the writers that take requests for stuff, ALL OF YA’LL cater to the whims of others FOR FREE when you have busy lives and lots of responsibilities. you weave together worlds of comfort and sexy times and headcannons and angst and everything in-between just because you CAN, you bring so many of us joy and escapism and fantastical adventures and fluffy respite and you do it for FREE! (can’t stress that enough!!)

i CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW AMAZING YA’LL ARE!! I promise, you do NOT need to feel bad EVER for not getting to a request, and you NEVER have an obligation to do all requests! And if someone tries to make you feel bad or guilt trip you for not getting to theirs they are top tier GARBAGE (like, come on, there’s a difference between ‘hey did my ask get eaten?’ and being garbage)

and to all of you who feel like you’re entitled to someone’s time, work, and creativity for free, maybe take some time to write it YOURSELF, or, hey, even better, COMMISSION!! Life’s tough right now, I get it, but being a straight up ASS to writers is NOT the way to go about living your life. It makes you come across as an idiot who thinks all online artists are made of free time.

(also shoutout to all writers, even if you don’t take requests. the absurd entitled attitudes people on anon come at you with is exhausting and you deserve Better)

#i dunno how to tag this i'm just mad #fics #request fics #writers #writers of tumblr #i hope you writers know i love ya #even if i'm not in your fandoms

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mrneighbourlove · 5 years

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The Mask over the Man. The Demon over the Beast. Majora over Ganon.

I love both these villains. The N64 was my first console I delved deep into, and Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask introduced me to two of my favourite villains in gaming. Today though, I want to delve into why I see one of these characters as the superior ‘villain’. Just my opinion, but I hope to share my case strongly and passionately. I’ll go over each character, than why I believe that one reigns over the other, even if ever so slightly.

Ganon

The King of Evil. The King of Darkness. And the Great Calamity of Hyrule. I love the pig demon. His constant presence in the Legend of Zelda series cannot be ignored. Gameplay wise, he can be so much fun to fight against in the final battle for the sake of the world. Doesn’t matter if you fight him as a wolf, if he’s a wizard, or just a mighty beast. Story wise is where a have a slip with him. Ganon set the standard for me in the ‘Dark Lord’ archetype, however, he can sometimes feel simplistic in that regard, simply wishing to conquer the world. And as the beast, barring perhaps Link to the Past, he lacks any real character. It’s also unfortunate that most of the time you meet him, you defeat him immediately afterwards. The best he’s ever been as a threat to me, was in Breath of the Wild.

Calamity Ganon

This is Ganon as almost a force of nature. No real conscious we can see, having thrown away any shell of a man for hatred and malice. What really makes this Ganon work, is the relationship you *rediscover* with the old champions, and feeling the heartache at knowing they’re dead. The fact that it festered in Hyrule for over a century, is highly impressive. But the biggest complaint people had (and why everyone is going crazy over the mummified corpse of MummyDorf) is that because Calamity Ganon was just pure hatred, we lacked the relationship of the three Triforce users seen in past games. Which leads me talking about the man, the legend, the best part of Ganon.

Ganondorf

Making Ganon into Ganondorf did wonders for the character. His goals became more relatable, because we as humans can relate with another human being, or at the very least, understand the goal. Hailing from the Gerudo desert, there are two Ganondorf’s that I want to pick out. The Wind Waker split, and the Twilight Princess split. In Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is the best evil conquer he’s ever been, even without the long locks of Hyrule Warriors. He set out with a long purpose goal to take the Triforce and conquer the world. And he was the main focus as a villain. Ganondorf was also young, and brash. He had a flair, which made him a fantastic villain. He truly appeared to be the King of Evil. Upon his defeat, he gave a loud speech of getting revenge, very classic villain monologue. The next game we saw him was Wind Waker. I feel confident in saying that despite not seeing too much of him, this is the best Ganondorf becomes as a character. He’s far more relaxed in his evil plot. The man goes out of his way to make sure his kidnaped girls aren’t hurt, and when dealing with both Link and Zelda, he gets straight to the point with them, yet, he doesn’t kill them. And up until the end, he still has an air of menace when he wishes to be theatric, despite having more experience and wisdom. After the frightful Puppet Ganon fight, you learn why Ganondorf set out for power in the first place. His people suffered under the desert heat of day, and the icy cold nights. In his own words, the winds carried death. His desire for the Triforce was to bring back the old land of Hyrule. Despite what might have happened after he brought back the land, Ganondorf wanted to *restore* the old land of Hyrule from under the sea. That’s almost heroic. You emphasize with him. Which I argue diminished his villainous qualities in exchange for a more flushed out character. He only tries to kill Link and Zelda after his wish is denied and he snaps into insanity.

Then there’s Twilight Princess Ganondorf. A really cool Ganondorf. His design is awesome, I love his boss fights gameplay wise and musically, but this is one of the Ganon’s I’d place into the ‘cockblock’ section of Ganons. Real talk, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but I really like Zant as a villain. He was incredibly intimidating until you face him in the realm of Twilight. His relationship with Midna was interesting, and he carried a cool air not seen before. He was chill... until the very end into his sudden crazy decent. I feel that both Ganondorf and Zant suffer because of the formers sudden conclusion. Each character lost time in the game that could have been used to develop them more. Zant could have had more time to develop into madness as the final boss, or Ganondorf could have been established from the beginning, instead of being diet OOT Ganondorf. His evil goal of placing the world into Twilight didn’t have any drastic changes to the world either. Civilians didn’t even notice the danger they were in. At least OOT Ganon ruled Hyrule for 7 years, and Calamity Ganon was around for 100 years. When Ganondorf takes away time from other villains, it makes him a weaker villain as well. Which is why the Mask stood tall in such a unique story.

Majora

The entity of Majora’s Mask stands out to me as something insidious and inhuman. Unlike Ganondorf, you can’t identify with an unblinking Mask like you can a human being. It stands out as a villain that doesn’t need Ganon in its story or to take his form. The duel relationship with Skull Kid is interesting, as Skull Kid isn’t entirely innocent in his actions, but the transition Majora takes over Skull Kid makes you wonder who’s control until the very end. In my recent play through, I just discovered this, but in Day 1 or 2, the Skull Kid will do a little dance when you spot him in the telescope, and once you look back, he spanks his ass at you and jumps away. However, at Day 3, his head is sideways, looking at you, and constantly twitching, rooted to his spot. It’s like Majora is a drug to Skull Kid that has finally caught up. And that’s a terrible fate to think about.

What stands out to me the most about Majora over Ganon, is the stakes as a hero. First, looking at the world. Ganondorf ruled Hyrule for 7 years, yet villages like Kakariko are still around. The world hasn’t been ruined. Even with Calamity Ganon having been around for 100 years, he’s in a prison with Zelda, and civilization keeps ticking by. The moment you enter the world of Termina and you look to the sky, you can see Majora’s immediate tool of armageddon.

The Moon

This rock in the sky slowly falls to the Earth over a period of three days. The stakes are felt immediately. You either stop Majora from crashing the moon into Termina, or you burn with the rest of the world. Swept away by a wall of fire compered to an atomic bomb. If the ticking timer doesn’t remind you of your duty, the earthquakes on the third day, then looking to the sky will. Another peek of interest for me in the camp of villainy, is the people you meet along the way. The world of Termina is full of colourful characters that Link meets throughout his adventure. From Tatl to Pamela and her Father, you get heavily invested with them. And they all are aware of the danger of the moon. Almost all are directly or indirectly affected by the Skull Kid and the power of Majora that he immaturely wields. Mikau is killed by Gerudo pirates because they were influenced by Skull Kid to steal the Zora eggs. Areas such as the Woodfall Swamp, Snowhead mountains and Ikana Valley are cursed due to the Monsters Majora unleashes after sealing the giants away. Kafei is cursed into a child directly by Skull Kid and has his wedding mask stolen by a thief as a result. Cremina, god willing that you save her sister Romani from the “Ghosts”, drugs her sister with alcoholic milk so she sleeps through the destruction of the world. The acts of villainy Majora does ripple big and small. With Ganondorf and Ganon, you are given free room to take your time, you lose very little allies, and you have Zelda backing you up most of the time in a battle of destiny. With Majora, however, Zelda is no way involved, many people you meet die and suffer, some you can’t save even with rewinding time, and if you don’t stop the villain, he isn’t going to reshape the world, or control it in his own image, it’s going to destroy it. That is terrifying. Ganon has never truly terrified me. He’s just too human enough, and his villainous acts have never put me on edge. Unlike the champions of Breath of the Wild who you are avenging, the people of Termina are here and now, and that puts so much more tension on me.

Ganondorf is a great villain, but the inhuman characteristics of an entity that wanted to destroy all left a bigger impression on me. When you finally defeat Majora and save everyone you can correctly and within the time you’re given, including Skull Kid I might add, the credits feel so amazing because you truly saved the world, but more importantly, you saved the people that inhabit it. Defeating Ganon as a villain is a battle of destiny. Defeating Majora is a battle for everyone’s tomorrow.

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thethirdwheel404 · 4 years

Text

Med Rewatch Series (#13)

S3 E13: Best Laid Plans.

Episode description: When a mother makes a decision regarding care of her vegetative adult son, Dr. Manning and Dr. Halstead and find themselves at odds.

Literally when do they not.

I am watching this while doing a voice call with a friend, so we’ll see how distracted I get.

I am literally so tired.

Let’s get into it

- connor only now noticing ava doing something she has apparently been doing forever. boy get some eyes

- her talking to patients while under anesthesia is just, so endearing. so soft.

- this is another example of ava’s ‘high risk high reward’ idea. riskier procedure for better quality of life

- sarah is so pure

- ava wearing her lab coat and gloves will never not be sexy

- ava feeling bad that connor’s patient has very little hope

- sarah’s little ‘hmm, the plot thickens’. A dork.

- me, breathless, seeing ava with her lab coat sleeves rolled up: she is very pretty

- oh yeah, they fight over the heart

- noah gets shit on so much this season

- this sarah’s dad storyline goes so hard. it’s so tense, so well done

- why does connor always look like that. so agressive. always

- the noah story in this ep is actually really funny

- HOLY SHIT SURPRISE ANGRY AVA

- I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT

- fantastic

- god just look how mad she is. that is fantastic, she is f u m i n g

- and she has reason to be too, he went behind her back to support his patient (which, like yeah it’s smart, but too fucking smarmy)

- fuck connor. honestly. man needs to get stuffed

- ava watching karma bite the bitch boy in the ass

- she literally stands there, watching him flounder. power move

- ‘you can’t compare patients in need. that’s why there’s a list’ she is a logical person. she also follows the rules, she’s fair, and gets mad when everyone around her doesn’t (and commits malpractice)

- ava being shook when connor says ‘yeah, it’s all about the numbers’, condescendingly.

- this is the point where all the ava haters latched on to, bc out of context this makes her look heartless. looking at the numbers and not the patient. the point is that this is incredibly hypocritical, bc ava and connor both have attachments to their patients, and connor is implying that ava has no heart, just bc she isn’t giving in a giving him what he wants? when she is just??? also caring for her patient?

- come on man. it’s so annoying. ava is seen as heartless for not caring about her patient. real classic.

- here, ava’s face, in the canon of the show, she’s reevaluating herself so that she fits the show’s standard. (emotional to the point of being idiotic, and giving connor everything he wants. like every other character)

- however, i like to think that this is her realizing (bc it is a face of realization) just how hypocritical connor is being. and how much he sucks. she realizes his flaws

- connor looking ava dead in the eyes (no emotion, btw) and saying ‘I had the lab run it twice’

- straight people are so dumb

- this is the guy you choose?

- ava’s little floundering when she turns to goodwin after connor’s patient recovers enough for the transplant. it is fantastic. i love it so much. it makes my heart go brring

- LIKE IT IS SO ADORABLE. oh wow.

- i cannot emphasize enough

- like she is at such a loss! she looks so lost! so defeated!

- (this is a really good ep for emotional ava)

- ava really calls him out: “save your self-righteous hero speech for someone else” she sees through his bullshit.

- as she walks away you can see her bring her hand to her face--- wiping tears? pressing fingers to bridge of her nose?

- he doesn’t even feel bad

- i want to write something for this episode so bad. just. something. comforting ava. she deserves someone looking out for her. just... i want to fix this ep bc its so sad

- yeah, also, think about this: connor was her only friend, and she just got completely ostracized by him

- a lot of her work conflict comes from him! and she’s her only friend! she is not doing well! someone help her (me. through reese)

- STOP MAKING AVA OVERLY SYMPATHIZE WITH HIM

- LITERALLY SHE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CALLS HIM OUT ON HIS SHIT. DO NOT MAKE HER AGREE WITH HIM

- stop this

- HOLY SHIT SARAH’S CASUAL CLOTHES. wowie

- stop making her do bad things

- sarah’s dad has the same cups as the hospital. conspiracy

- rip off steve jobs

- YES SARAH DON’T SIGN IT

- ethan’s sister is adorable. her introduction is adorable. noah flirting with her is adorable

- i actually really like ethan’s sister.

- april being like ‘aw she seems fun’ is adorable

- ethan being embarrased is so in character and also such an older brother thing to do

- ethan being a distant older brother was one of the best things they did for his character

- brian tee is fantastic

Okay, cool. So this episode is great if you want to see Ava actually being stressed, and showcasing emotion, which I know you do. And yeah, we’ve established that she really does feel emotion (contrary to the writers’ opinion), but here we get to really see what she’s like when she’s frustrated, when she’s at a loss. That little bit of grasping at straws she does when Goodwin lets Connor’s patient have the rights is probably one of my favorite little Ava moments.

thanks for staying with it

#chicago med #med rewatch series #mine #best laid plans

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love-and-other-potions · 7 years

Text

A Blissful Revenge

Draco x Reader

Requested by @thestrawberryblondehobbitbatch

You’re walking down the hallway with your textbooks cradled to your chest and your gaze on the tiles beneath your feet. A nasally laugh causes the breath to freeze in your lungs. Before you can even look at the owner of the sound, your textbooks are slapped from your arms and strewn across the ground. Your anxious eyes meet the cold ones that belong to Pansy Parkinson. She has two girls flanking her. All three have the same haughty expression worn on their faces.

You swallow nervously as you pick up your textbooks. One of Pansy’s sidekicks sweeps her foot out and launches it across the hallway. You shakily step over to the far wall and bend down to retrieve it. The other sidekick is desperate to prove herself as she steps over to you and pushes you over in your half-bent state. You fall to the ground and the books that you’ve already retrieved fall to the floor once again. Pansy cackles and begins to walk away. Her sidekicks take the que and follow her with hollow laughs echoing throughout the corridor. You had never done anything to those girls yet they are cruel to you often. You don’t understand where their motivation comes from, but the source is limitless. Their humiliation has varied from casual shoves and glares to calling you detestable names in front of large crowds. Once they had even stuck gum in your hair resulting in you having to cut a large portion of hair from your head. You cannot fathom a reason that these girls think it okay to be this merciless to another human being. You’re getting sick of their mental torture. Soon, they’re going to have a rude awakening.

You walk into the Great Hall alone the next morning. As your face is seen, most of the Great Hall erupts into laughter and begin to snicker to one another. A flame spreads across your cheeks. You have no idea what’s going on, but it’s obviously directed at you.

You sit down at your table quickly. Your eyes dart around the students surrounding you. Most students are behind newspapers, which is odd. These kids don’t read the newspaper. You look at the next table over and catch sight of what has enamored everyone’s attention.

Printed largely inside of the newspaper, as if it is a poster, is a picture of you posing provocatively. The worst part is that the only thing you were wearing is the seductive smirk on your lips. You know that this picture is not real, but the rest of Hogwarts does not.

You choke on your own saliva as you twist to see everyone with these pictures and have their gazes turned on you.

Why doesn’t the Earth swallow you whole when you want it to? You think as you sprint from the room.

Hearty laughter echoes after your retreat. You run throughout Hogwarts with tear-filled vision. You turn into Moaning Myrtle’s laboratories.

“Hello Y/N,” she calls miserably.

Your reply is choked sobbing. She looks at you sympathetically.

“Are those wretched girls giving you a hard time again?”

You nod your head yes as you wipe your tears on your robe sleeves. She sighs mournfully.

“I understand what you’re going through. The only regret that I have is that I didn’t stand up to my bullies before I died. But now I have eternity to regret that.”

She sighs again before shooting herself into an open toilet. You stare at your tear-stained face in the mirror as contemplate what Myrtle had said. You jump when someone begins to knock on the bathroom door. You panic, thinking it was Pansy or the other girls trying to deepen the wound, but slightly calm down a bit when a male voice is heard.

“Y/N, are you in there?”

You stay quiet, hoping that he’ll go away, whoever he is. A sigh is heard.

“Okay, let’s try this again. Y/N, I know that you’re in there. Do you mind if I come in?”

“Go away! I have diarrhea!”

You step over to a toilet and flush it to emphasize your statement.

“Y/N, I’m not daft. I’m coming in.”

You pull your wand from your pocket as a guy steps through the door. Your mouth falls open slightly as you realize that it’s the notorious Draco Malfoy. He raises an eyebrow at you.

“You’ll raise your wand to the guy seeing if you’re okay, but not to the girls that spread your pornographic pictures across Hogwarts?”

You blush and lower your wand although you keep it in your hand just in case. “I’m fine. You can leave now.”

“I’ve seen the picture. I know you’re fine. I just wanted to know whether you wanted any help.”

You flush at the brash compliment.

“Help with what?”

“With growing a spine when it comes to Parkinson. I don’t know what you did to antagonize her-“

“I didn’t antagonize her! Me being alive antagonized her!”

He pauses.

“Oh, it’s that situation. I see.”

You raise an eyebrow.

“‘That situation?’” you repeat.

“Yes.” He begins to pace as he speaks. “She sees you as weak, as inferior. That obviously isn’t true, but that’s her thoughts. She’s toying with you. She messes with you to prove to herself that she’s better than you.”

You raise your arms in exasperation.

“And how do I change that?”

He pauses mid-step and turns to you with a smile on his face.

“You prove her wrong.”

For the next few weeks, you two meet often. He coaches you on most Slytherin’s weaknesses and how to prey on them. He shows you how to be ruthless with your words. He also becomes a friend, and very quickly at that considering the circumstances.

You plop yourself into a bean bag that has been Transfigured from a library book.

“I can’t believe I’m actually going to do it later.”

He grins from his slouched position on the bean bag next to you.

“I know. I’ve taught you well.”

“You’ve taught me how to be a ruthless asshole.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“And your point is?”

You laugh at him.

“That’s not a great friendship skill to have.”

“What if friendship isn’t what I’m aiming for?”

“Excuse me?”

His grin reappears although there’s an anxious edge to it.

“C’mon Y/N, don’t act so surprised. I saw this beautiful boy/girl being abused by this bitch that I’m ‘friends’ with and I go behind her back to train you in the ways of being heartless so that you may conquer your problem. If you haven’t noticed, Slytherins don’t turn on each other unless it’s a damn good reason. You’re a damn good reason.”

You stare at him for a long moment.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say,” you admit.

He laughs and his Adam’s apple bobs nervously as he does so.

“Well, you have two options. You can reject me or admit that you like me as well.”

A smile creeps onto your face as you lean in slightly and lock eyes with his mercury ones.

“How about this: if I survive this confrontation, I’ll confess my undying love to you. Deal?”

He nods slightly and closes his eyes. You lean in and kiss the tip of his nose. He opens his eyes and smiles.

“Then let’s get this over with, yeah?”

You return the smile and stand up. He stands up as well and follows you into the hallway. As you planned, the corridor is crowded because it is dinner hour. As your heart threatened to pound out of your ribcage, you scan the crowd. Towards the middle, you spot the one you want.

“Yo Parkinson!” you call.

Everyone pauses mid-step and crane their neck to gaze at you. Pansy turns to see who dared yell her name out in such a manner. Her eyes light up and a sinister grin upturn her lips when she spots you. The crowd splits as she stalks towards you.

“L/N, this is a-“

You hold up a hand to interrupt her. Surprisingly, she takes the hint.

“I will keep this message brief because I dislike speaking with you. It feels ridiculous, like conversing with a toad or a common earthworm.”

She looks at you in disbelief.

“Excuse me? Who do you-“

You hold up your hand again and fix her with a steely glare.

“I would keep quiet if you want to keep your teeth.”

She opens her mouth as if to say something, yet when you raise an eyebrow, it closes. You could hear a quill drop on the floor above because everyone is dead silent to attempt to hear what’s going to be said. You lock eyes with your tormentor for the past several years.

“I want you to listen carefully. Your attitude towards me is unwanted and will no longer be tolerated. That goes for anyone else that you may humiliate because you are under the illusion that you are better than them. Here’s the pin that may pop your ego: you’re not. Compared to myself and the others, you are a small, insignificant buzzing in our ears. I expect you to stop all your harassment. If I’m not satisfied, I’m going to kick your ass.”

There’s a silence before Pansy breaks it by laughing.

“What, you suddenly grow a backbone and you expect me to bow to your every command?”

You shrug.

“Okay, I tried this the easy way.”

You rear your arm back and punch her square in the face.

“Pansy, there are approximately 1,013,900 words in the English language, yet I could never string any of them together to explain how much I want to hit you in the face with a chair.”

She holds a hand to her nose, pulls it back, and looks at her bloody hand in shock.

“You’re psychotic!”

“No. I’m just done with you toying with me and anyone else. If I catch you being an ass to anyone else, there aren’t enough deities that you can pray to keep yourself safe from me. You understand?”

She nods and begins to shove through the crowd away from you. The witnesses surrounding you begin to clap. You smile at the acknowledgement and do a small bow. You catch Draco’s eye in the crowd to see him grinning and clapping as well. You motion with your head to the library door and he nods in understanding. You push through the people and enter the double doors. Moments later, Draco joins you.

“That was bloody amazing! You did a great job!”

You grin at his praise.

“Thanks, I had a fantastic teacher.”

He smirks.

“Yeah you did.”

You step closer to him.

“And as an amazing teacher, I think you deserve an award.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“And what would that be?”

You eye his plump, pink lips before leaning in and snagging his bottom lip between yours. He gives a small moan as you massage his bottom lip with your tongue. You pull away and lean your forehead against his.

“Draco, I’d be honored if you became my boyfriend. What do you say?”

He smiles.

“I say hell yes.”

You return the smile before leaning in and connecting your lips once again.

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fapangel · 7 years

Note

Like you just did. || The terrorist was born in Canada. Canada is not on Trump's ban list. He was nonetheless used by Trump('s team) to justify the ban. That is nonsensical. (And I ID'd him as the white Quebecois nationalist because the media had previously claimed that a Moroccan-descent Muslim the police had taken into custody was a (non-existent) second shooter, and because as a Canadian I have a moral obligation to shit on Quebecois nationalists as much as possible.)

Spicer never said that. Let’s see what the Press Secretary actually said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPxZC_vaWnk

At 1:16:

"It's a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant. And why the president is taking steps to be proactive, not reactive.”

"As I said in the statement, the president is going to be very proactive in protecting this country. ... That's the key point in this — how do we get ahead of threats? How do we keep America ahead of the curve, when it comes to people who want to do us harm?" [at 22:32]

He never said word fucking one about “the ban.” He spoke about Trump’s efforts entire; his timetable, his motivations for such - he never said “this attack is why we’re BANNING ALL DEM MUSLIMS LEL!!1!”

Oh, while we’re on the topic, it’s not a fucking “ban.” It’s a 90-day moratorium:

Note the word temporary. That’s a far fucking cry from a “ban.” I watched the entire 40+ minute press conference and found it interesting how much time Spicer had to spend shooting down the last round of horseshit the media had been been hashing out; something about excluding the CIA from the National Security Council meetings, prompting him to trot out Obama’s own memo authorizing the NCS from 2009 - which also didn’t mention the CIA. It’s telling that after spending half of that press conference correcting the lies of the media, the instantly latch onto a generalized statement of intent (”terrorism is bad and this is why we are working hard to stop it”) and start telling bald-faced lies about it:

http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/01/31/white-house-weighs-in-on-quebec-mosque-attack/

The lede of this story opens with a bald-faced lie. The travel “ban” hadn’t even been mentioned in the press conference yet, and wouldn’t for some time.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3214989/sean-spicer-hints-quebec-city-mosque-shooting-justifies-trump-travel-ban/

Checkout that freehanded supposition in the headline. Journalists are supposed to report facts, not their fucking intuition. And quoting people who are repeating the lies you wish you could tell, and nobody else, is just as bad. They also teach you this in school. This half-assing it comes from some no-name paper not big-time and old-school enough to go all out. If you want a blunt, bald-faced lie in the headline, go right to the big dogs:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/01/30/why-did-sean-spicer-suggest-that-the-quebec-shooting-validated-trumps-policy-initiatives/?utm_term=.ad74e504ebea

The biggest lesson here, however, lies in what you said about the shooter being a Quebecois nationalist. I cannot emphasize this enough: This is the FIRST TIME I have heard anything about the shooter being a Quebecois nationalist. The media down here in the ‘States hasn’t breathed word fucking one about that, but they have been gloating over him being:

* anti-immigrant

* white

* He allegedly “liked” Donald Trump on FaceBook

Not a single fucking word about this guy being aligned with literal ethnic-partisan domestic terrorists. Which, incidentally, is a fantastic argument in favor of Trump’s border wall, as Canada’s ongoing problems with this isolated, foreign-speaking cultural enclave that refuses to assimilate nicely demonstrates the risks of immigration without assimilation. I bet you ten fucking dollars that ninety percent of my generation don’t know shit about the October Crisis, or the Quebec Liberation Front. Here, for the uninitiated reading this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Crisis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_de_lib%C3%A9ration_du_Qu%C3%A9bec

Yes, a Communist/Quebecian nationalist terrorist group. But no, we don’t hear a fucking word in our media about this. We get told it’s the fault of Trump’s rhetoric.

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

Text

Spirit Airlines Wants to Win Back Customers by Being Nicer

Spirit Airlines has long advertised cheap prices with its "bare fare" campaign. But it is changing its messaging to embrace value, and trying to give passengers a better experience. Spirit Airlines

Skift Take: Spirit Airlines spent years angering customers with shoddy customer service. Now it wants those travelers to return, promising they'll find a kinder, gentler airline with an increased emphasis on on-time arrivals. But will they come back, or will they opt for deeply discounted fares from full-service airlines?

— Brian Sumers

When Vietnam War veteran Jerry Meekins learned five years ago he was dying and should not travel, he contacted Spirit Airlines and asked for a refund for an upcoming flight. That’s against the rules — how many passengers don’t know what “non-refundable” means? — but brands often make exceptions to save themselves from public embarrassment.

Not Spirit. Its former CEO, Ben Baldanza, blamed Meekins, who would die four months later, for not buying travel insurance. “This is a country and society where we kind of play by the rules,” Baldanza said in one television interview.

Eventually, Baldanza apologized. But in the decade he led Spirit, until January 2016, Baldanza repeatedly criticized passengers who complained about poor service, late flights, and lost bags. Once, he accidentally replied to a customer’s email by writing, “Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.”

Baldanza had a point. Until 2015, Spirit was in a class of its own. No other airline in the United States could — or would — sell one-way fares for $30 or $40 between major cities. Yes, Spirit charged for carry-on bags, drinks (even water), and advance seat assignments, but people who never thought they could afford airfare had an option, so long as they didn’t mind cramped seats that did not recline. In a cheeky web spot, Spirit advertised itself as a “cheap seat for a cheap ass.”

Passengers tolerated it, and Wall Street loved it. The airline’s stock price increased from about $12 per share on July 1, 2011 to almost $83 on Dec. 1, 2014.

The good times could only last so long. Spirit still makes money, but it’s under pressure from Southwest, American, United, and Delta. Now, in many cases, the Big Four sell discounted seats to match Spirit, meaning “cheap asses” have other options. Plus, Spirit has a new direct competitor: Frontier Airlines, which adopted Spirit’s ultra-low-cost model a couple of years ago, with the tagline “Low Fares Done Right.” Its CEO used to run Spirit’s marketing.

To win (or win back) customers, Spirit’s current CEO, Bob Fornaro, wants to create a kinder airline. It remains obsessively cost-focused, offers little legroom, and still charges for everything — because if it didn’t, it would probably go bust. Passengers paid about $53 in fees for each Spirit segment in the second quarter, only about $7 less than they paid for fares.

But Fornaro, who led AirTran Airways until it merged with Southwest in 2011, wants Spirit to stop angering customers. And when it does make them mad, he’ll apologize.

“We ran a very successful financial business, but we ran a very poor consumer business,” Fornaro said in an interview last week in Las Vegas, where he was speaking at the Boyd Group’s International Aviation Forecast Summit. “For the most part, you can only do that for a short period of time. We almost went out of our way to poke the customer in the eye. And once a business gets more competitive, you can’t do that anymore.”

Some wonder if it’s too late. Perhaps the Big Four finally have an advantage — something legacy European airlines never achieved against upstarts like Ryanair and EasyJet. Others suspect Spirit will be fine, but argue it should merge with Frontier, giving it better scale. Spirit has about 100 airplanes, more than 800 fewer than American, not counting American Eagle.

Spirit is not the only discounter emphasizing service — Frontier and Allegiant Air are also trying to improve — but Spirit may have more work to do than the others.

“The difference was, we didn’t treat customers well,” Lukas Johnson, senior vice president for commericial at Allegiant Air, told Skift. “But Ben was unapologetic about spitting in their face. And you can’t do that.”

Baldanza, who teaches at George Mason University and serves on the board of Wow Air, a Icelandic airline with a similar model, told Skift he does not regret Spirit’s service record. He noted customers agree to terms and conditions before buying tickets.

“When I was the CEO, we held firm to these rules in order to keep fares as low as possible for all,” Baldanza said in an email. “Waiving rules means that those who follow the rules pay for those who don’t. If asking people to follow rules they agreed to before buying is considered ‘spitting in their face,’ that seems completely wrong to me. If you are pulled over for running a red light, are the police ‘spitting in your face’ if you are asking to be let off even though you knew you broke the rules?”

Changing Market Dynamics

Spirit and Baldanza could get away with a lot because the airline had little competition.

For most of Spirit’s surge, American, United, and Delta were all in bankruptcy, emerging from it, or merging with another airline. Because big legacy airlines had high costs and other priorities, they rarely discounted as much as Spirit. And low-cost airlines, including Alaska Airlines and Southwest, had relatively little overlap with Spirit, so they let it grow.

Spirit’s strategy worked. Spirit entered American’s Dallas/Fort Worth hub in 2011, adding flights to many of American’s larger markets, including San Diego, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, New York LaGuardia, and Orlando.

For about four years, American chose to let its frugal passengers fly Spirit. American might charge a couple of hundred dollars for a one-way fare, while Spirit would want $40. But American, led by its then-new president, Scott Kirby, decided in 2015 to fight for everyone.

American’s strategy diluted its revenue, but the airline succeeded. Spirit remains in Dallas, but it’s no longer growing, with new management preferring cities like New Orleans that lack a dominant airline. Now, Kirby has moved to United, where he’s acting similarly. In July, on Spirit’s second-quarter earnings call, Spirit executives said they saw the most discounting in three United hubs — Newark, Chicago, and Houston.

United even has a new product to sell to price-conscious customers. This year, it followed American and Delta to introduce Basic Economy — a product that roughly mimics Spirit’s unbundled fares.

On all three major airlines, Basic Economy customers cannot choose seats in advance, nor can they change their tickets. They board last, and, if they’re frequent flyers, they’re not eligible for first class upgrades. On American and United, most customers may not bring large carry-on bags. (Southwest also often matches Spirit but gives passengers all the goodies — including two checked bags — for free.)

Even in their worst seats, the Big Four offer about two more inches of legroom, with seats that recline. They also give passengers free drinks and light snacks, and unlike Spirit, often have in-flight entertainment. There’s Wi-Fi too, though passengers pay for it.

“The problem is, customers do not want to fly [an ultra-low-cost carrier] if they can get the same price on a different carrier,” Kirby said at the Las Vegas conference. “As United or anyone else starts to get more price competitive, the business just doesn’t work in my opinion. It’s not because of United or what anyone else is doing to them. It’s because they have created a product that people don’t want to buy.”

A gentler Spirit

Perhaps Basic Economy isn’t beloved by customers either, but it makes United, American, and Delta better competitors, so Spirit is focused on improving its product and softening its image.

Spirit no longer charges military members for bags. And passengers who forget to pay for a carry-on in advance are no longer hit with a punitive $100 fee at the gate. It’s now a more manageable $65 — enough to persuade passengers to pre-pay at a cost of roughly $35 but not so much as to be ridiculous. And when passengers tell Spirit they need to postpone a trip for a medical emergency, the airline works with them.

The old hard-ass routine is over. “That was just part of the way the company wanted to portray itself,” Fornaro said. “It wasn’t necessarily good business. There wasn’t a whole lot of money in it. We just got rid of those things.”

Meanwhile, the airline is emphasizing personal touches. Flight attendants attend service training — something that never happened before. And Spirit recently turned over its Twitter feed to humans. It had been run by an irreverent robot, who shared witty responses but couldn’t help irate customers.

Advertisements evolved, too. Before, Spirit often ran tawdry ones, like one coinciding with delivery of the airline’s 69th plane. “It’s our favorite number – ever since we were 12 and found that magazine under our brother’s bed (the one with the fantastic articles),” the copy read.

Now, when adds a new plane, Spirit is more likely to use it as an opportunity to tell customers it has one of the world’s youngest fleet, a positive message the company rarely communicated before. “It was almost as if they were almost ashamed of saying something nice,” Fornaro said.

On-time performance had also lagged. Spirit is now in the middle of the pack for timely arrivals, after regularly finishing last or near the bottom a few years ago. A few years ago, frugal passengers might have tolerated tardiness for huge savings, but not anymore.

“The company got away with it very nicely, but the world doesn’t stay the same,” Fornaro said. (In his email to Skift, Baldanza said: “I applaud Bob Fornaro for improving Spirit’s operational performance.”)

More changes will come. Wi-Fi, which Spirit hadn’t installed because of its cost, is on its way, since many frugal millennial customers the airline wants to attract demand it. It’ll support video streaming.

Next, the airline will improve its website — Fornaro called navigating it “painful” — and its mobile app. As for why the airline didn’t invest in digital tools sooner, he said, “We were satisfied. Maybe we thought were were living in a world that wouldn’t change that much.”

The emphasis on improvement, Fornaro said, has improved employee morale, which may spur better service. “No one like to be last in every service category,” he said.

One outlier is Spirit’s pilots, who seek a new contract and a major raise. In April, pilots staged an informal work slow down, forcing Spirit to cancel about 850 flights. Spirit obtained a court order requiring pilots to work normally. Things have improved, but the issue still looms. Fornaro said he is hopeful a deal can be reached soon.

Investor Concern

Spirit’s stock is now about $34 per share, less than half its price in December 2014. Analysts generally like the company, but not as much as a couple of years ago.

After Spirit’s second quarter earnings call in July, when executives said other carriers were undercutting them on price, Hunter Keay, an analyst with Wolfe Research, wrote: “In that regard, things may only get worse for [Spirit] unless [it] finds new places to grow.” Keay has said he favors a Frontier merger.

Jamie Baker, an analyst with J.P. Morgan, said in a recent report that Spirit probably must “strike a balance” between competing in big cities and adding flights elsewhere. Baker has also recommended Spirit raise fares, arguing it probably wouldn’t lose customers, since other airlines would increase prices, too.

There’s some question about where Spirit should fly next. Under Baldanza, Spirit was obsessed with adding routes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas/Fort Worth. But it’s now expanding in markets like New Orleans, Hartford, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.

Lukas Johnson, of Allegiant, said he suspects Baldanza would still favor big cities — if only to prove a point. He said he wonders if big airlines will be more aggressive since Spirit has shown weakness.

“They drew down Dallas last year with the pressure from American,” Johnson said. “Guess what? Once you pull down when somebody pressures you, it’s going to happen again and again and again and again. To me, that’s different. Ben wouldn’t back down. Right or wrong, he just wouldn’t.”

Spirit has one major advantage: Its costs are considerably lower than the competition. Not including fuel, it costs Spirit about 5.83 cents to carry one passenger one mile, about five cents less than American. That means Spirit can make money more easily at lower fares than other airlines.

In his note, Baker said Spirit’s model is viable.

“We believe the U.S. airline industry will continue to take steps to ensure profitability and continued balance sheet repair,” he said. “We believe that this environment is generally more favorable to the large legacy carriers, but Spirit’s ultra-low-cost business model is compelling in its own right.”

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rollinbrigittenv8 · 7 years

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Spirit Airlines Wants to Win Back Customers by Being Nicer

Spirit Airlines has long advertised cheap prices with its "bare fare" campaign. But it is changing its messaging to embrace value, and trying to give passengers a better experience. Spirit Airlines

— Brian Sumers

Passengers tolerated it, and Wall Street loved it. The airline’s stock price increased from about $12 per share on July 1, 2011 to almost $83 on Dec. 1, 2014.

But Fornaro, who led AirTran Airways until it merged with Southwest in 2011, wants Spirit to stop angering customers. And when it does make them mad, he’ll apologize.

Spirit is not the only discounter emphasizing service — Frontier and Allegiant Air are also trying to improve — but Spirit may have more work to do than the others.

Changing Market Dynamics

Spirit and Baldanza could get away with a lot because the airline had little competition.

United even has a new product to sell to price-conscious customers. This year, it followed American and Delta to introduce Basic Economy — a product that roughly mimics Spirit’s unbundled fares.

A gentler Spirit

Perhaps Basic Economy isn’t beloved by customers either, but it makes United, American, and Delta better competitors, so Spirit is focused on improving its product and softening its image.

The emphasis on improvement, Fornaro said, has improved employee morale, which may spur better service. “No one like to be last in every service category,” he said.

Investor Concern

Spirit’s stock is now about $34 per share, less than half its price in December 2014. Analysts generally like the company, but not as much as a couple of years ago.

In his note, Baker said Spirit’s model is viable.

0 notes