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merlinbingo · 11 months

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Feels like it's only yesterday I did one of these, but here we are again, another month down.

We're halfway through the year and through the round, and so far we've sent out 149 cards. 71 participants have created at least one fill, nine have a bingo, and two have filled every square on their card and come back for more!

June is always a busier month for fills, and this year is no different - we got a fabulous 72 fills by 29 wonderful participants. 52 were fics, 14 were artworks, two were fics and art, and then we also got a podfic, a reclist, a gifset and a playlist!

Just as June tends to be busier, we tend to get a wider variety of ships this month as well, which I for one think is an excellent thing. There's the usual suspects at the top of the list (merthur at 29 and gen at 17), the rarer-but-still-reasonably-common-for-bingo pairs (Gwen/Lancelot, Merlin/Gwaine, and Merlin/Lancelot all at three, then Arthur/Gwen and Merlin/Morgana both at two), and then 13 different ships with just the one fill, which you'll find with other the other fills below the cut!

As always, fills are sorted by ship and then by rating, and we encourage you to check out the warnings and practice self-care before clicking on anything that might not work for you. Now, go give these lovely people some love!

Gen/no ship

Merlin's new clothes by Ace_Teagirl Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Gift giving, arguing, apologies, emotional hurt/comfort, canon era Summary: Arthur offers Merlin new clothes to celebrate the third anniversary of Merlin becoming his manservant and best friend. But things don't go as planned, when Arthur makes a rude comment about Merlin's current clothes.

black swan morgana by kairennart Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: digital art, black swan (movie) au Summary:

the weight of the world by mechup Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: panic attacks, hurt/comfort Summary: Merlin always deals with his panic attacks alone, until one day Arthur finds him in the middle of one.

[Podfic] Some Angels Don't Have Wings by Milky_Etoile Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Introspective Arthur Pendragon, Sick Merlin, Post-Episode: s02e13 The Last Dragonlord, Arthur Pendragon-centric, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes Summary: Arthur always has the best luck in life-and-death situations. He was aware of exactly why this was the case. - Set after s02e13, in the aftermath of the dragon's attack on Camelot.

Untested Fear by TheManTheMythTheLazy Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Canon compliant, POV Arthur Pendragon, Introspection, Light angst Summary: Arthur's relationship with his father was doomed from the start, but not for the reasons he thinks

4th Entry-M3 by theartsylillipad Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: merlin, bbc merlin, merlin bingo, mordred, Summary: For this prompt I depicted Mordred with a dark green background for the villain color motif. I combined dark colors with one of Mordred’s quotes and used that as a subtle second light source to the backlighting.

5th Entry-M4 by theartsylillipad Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: merlin, bbc merlin, merlin bingo, morgana, blueprint Summary: For this prompt I created a blueprint of Morgana’s hut.

I believe you by HadrianPeverellBlack Rating: General audiences Warnings: Choose not to use archive warnings Major tags: Canon compliant, Gwaine protective, POV Gwaine, POV Merlin, Merlin needs an hug Summary: Why did Gwaine look for Merlin, when he was searching any clues for finding Gaius? This is the scene we were robbed of.

Main Character Syndrome by Sage_Owl Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Canon Era, Crack, Breaking the fourth Wall, inner dialogue Summary: The most important character in BBC Merlin tells a little of their story.

ace gwaine by kairennart Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: digital art Summary:

Dinosaurs have feathers (and other things that shouldn't be real) by TheManTheMythTheLazy Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Modern Era, Alternate Universe - Modern Era, angst, immortal merlin Summary: Merlin was sentenced to life in prison before the Saxons conquered Camelot. Now in the modern age, he has been released on parole in the middle of a policy v. human rights shitstorm. While everyone debates the merit of a life sentence for an immortal, Merlin is realizing he must live in a world he's only seen through a window.

If I Just Lay Here by Sage_Owl Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Daemons, Self-reflection, nightmares, period-typical violence, POV Morgana Summary: Morgana contemplates her future.

1st Entry-C5 by theartsylillipad Rating: Teen Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence Major tags: bbc merlin, merlin fanart, famous art recreation, bbc morgana, uther pendragon Summary: For this prompt I used the painting Jael and Sisera by Artemisia Gentileschi, and chose Morgana and Uther as the subject matter. I’m super happy with the final product as the prompt, artwork, and original painting all work cohesively and translate really well to Merlin.

Who pays the price for revenge? by archaeologist_d Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: canon, dragon's call, introspection Summary: Mary Collins plots revenge for what Uther has done, and if Helen of Mora got in the way, so be it.

No Match for Morgana by archaeologist_d Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: pre-canon, canon compliant, BAMF Morgana, swordfighting with Arthur, kidfic Summary: Morgana had had enough of that prattish squire, Prince Arthur, and his hangers-on. She might just be a girl but she would show them what a real swordswoman could do.

Lightning Strike by archaeologist_d Rating: Teen Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence Major tags: angst, percival as a kid, pre-canon, grief, thunderstorms Summary: Percival’s village was slaughtered and him the lone survivor. Every time a storm hit, he remembered it all.

His Second-best Sword by archaeologist_d Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: angst, modern era, swords, merlin remembers Summary: The other archaeologists were all excited. They’d found a sword in the Welsh hillfort, brilliant and beautiful, associated with the Dark Ages and a time of legend, and wondered about whose sword it was. But Merlin knew. It was Arthur’s second-best sword.

Gwen/Morgana

Avalongate (aka She Sells Sidhe Spells) by Malu_3 Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic; Based on S1:e07 The Gates of Avalon; BusinessWoman!Morgana Summary: Morgana, on the eve of a big launch for Pendragon Cosmetics, has a dreadful dream about Arthur being attacked by a strange woman. Is it the result of too much Blue Stilton, or a true vision of peril to come?

Elena/Mithian

I'll be your Emmylou by willowsmarika Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: autumn, changing of the seasons, modern!au Summary:

Elyan/Mithian

Merlin Bingo Round Three - Prompt: Elyan/Mithian - Fill: 3 (+1) Recommendations by Malu_3 (but I'm @penaltykeks on tumblr where this is posted) Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Summary:

Merlin/Gwen

Mergwen as a Playlist by Crimson_Fanfic_Writer_7 Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Playlist, Platonic Feelings, Romantic Feelings Summary: It's just a playlist lol

Arthur/Gwen

spectacles of brilliant burning lights by Milky_Etoile Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Magic Reveal, Caring Arthur Pendragon, Everyone Loves Merlin, Golden Age Summary: Almost a year after Merlin revealed his magic and months after the repeal of the ban, Arthur wonders why Merlin still rarely does magic outside of combat situations and direct requests. The answers lead Arthur to arrange for magic lessons–for himself and for Merlin. This is a story of acceptance and of a love that nurtures like a warm, guiding light.

The Cool Kids by queerofthedagger Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Modern Setting, Bi4Bi Arwen, Pride Parades, Coming Out, Minor Internalized Biphobia Summary: Eventually, she pulls pack, holds the face paint up in question. He’s always beautiful, she thinks as he nods, but never more so than when he is brave. The blue and pink and purple suit him as if he was always supposed to wear them.

Merlin/Morgana

A puppet in your hands by HadrianPeverellBlack Rating: Teen Warnings: Choose not to use archive warnings Major tags: Redeemed Morgana, Mind control, Merlin &Morgana friendship, cour sorcerer Merlin Summary: Morgana kidnapped Merlin and controlled him. What will happen to the future of Camelot?

The Prophecy, Ch. 103: Courtly Love by VikingSong Rating: Teen Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Contains mentions of blood and injuries (not particularly graphic), references to past torture (also not particularly graphic), and a nauseatingly cheesy ‘love letter’ Major tags: Slow-burn romance; fake love letters; political intrigue; hurt/comfort; everyone knows about Merlin’s magic Summary: The latest chapter in this long S2-divergent fic contains a coded message disguised as a love letter which Arthur (who’s a disinherited fugitive) sends to Gwen in Camelot. Gwen and Morgana are working on an escape plan for Merlin (who is currently imprisoned in Camelot’s dungeons for sorcery and treason after being captured while protecting Arthur). Meanwhile, Merlin is recovering from serious injuries and having telepathic conversations with Morgana in which they dance around their unacknowledged feelings for one another.

Gwen/Lancelot

but thinking is a dangerous thing by lit-in-thy-heart Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Canon Compliant, Missing Scene, Light Angst, Hugs Summary: Following Lancelot's flight after he and Gwen are rescued from Hengist, Gwen allows herself to finally reflect on what could have been.

2nd Entry-M1 by theartsylillipad Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: merlin, bbc merlin, merlin bingo, merlin fanart, gwen/lancelot, Summary: For this prompt I based the style off of Disney’s Sleeping beauty, and used Gwen and Lancelot as the main pair.

A sunny day with friends by Laevateinn Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: slice of life, Modern AU, Pride, fluff Summary: “Stop moving, you idiot!” Chuckles resonated around Gwen, and she shook her head. She looked around at her friends, scolding them wordlessly, then turned around to face Gwaine and try to apply the finishing touches to his makeup. The sun was high, the air was crisp, Gwen and her friends were at Pride, currently sitting on the grass, waiting for the parade to start.

Ygraine/Uther/Nimueh

kingdom come undone by mechup Rating: Mature Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: pre=canon, power play, tentacles, bondage Summary: She felt her most powerful in moments like this one. How could she not, when she had the king and queen of Camelot on their knees before her, completely at her mercy?

Merlin/Arthur/Gwen

Not a girl, not a man either by Ace_Teagirl Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Non-binary merlin, queerplatonic Merlin/Gwen/Arthur, fluff Summary: Merlin comes out to Gwen and Arthur

Gwaine/Merlin/Percival

Sleepover by KingAni Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Summary:

Merlin/Arthur/Knights

Becoming Melody - chapter 3 by HadrianPeverellBlack Rating: Teen Warnings: Choose not to use archive warnings Major tags: Queer Themes, Morgana is a good friend, BAMF Merlin, Protective Gwen, Merlin & Morgana friendship, Summary: Merlin is tired for all the jokes the knights made about him Morgana had a simple solution

Arthur/Elyan

Queers of Camelot by King Ani Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Summary:

Mordred/Percival

Treasure by Malu_3 Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Alternate Universe - Canon; First Meetings; Episode s05:e02 Arthur's Bane Part 2; Post-Episode s05:e01-02 Arthur's Bane Summary: For most men, the mines of Ismere yield nothing but misery and despair, but that is about to change.

Gwaine/Lancelot

Pride and Liberty Guiding The People by Stelle Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: fanart, pride art Summary:

Gwaine/Percival

Can't help falling in love by Ace_Teagirl Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Falling in love, first kiss, not actually unrequited love Summary: Percival reflects on how his love for Gwaine is unrequited, before he is proven wrong and they kiss

Merlin/Leon

What's Presented in the Mirror by thetreeofwillow Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Pride, Trans Merlin, Ace Leon, body image issues, Modern Era Summary: Pride reminds Merlin of all he has to love about his appearance.

Merlin/Lancelot

lancelot helping merlin get aithusa by kairennart Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: digital art, canon au, mercelot week Summary:

shade lancelot by kairennart Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: digital art, episode: lancelot du lac, angst Summary:

and the ghosts that we knew by Imagined Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Episode Fix-it, Angst, Happy Ending, Magic Revealed, Canon Divergence Summary: “I lost him,” Merlin says quietly, and bows his head as the tears prickle annoyingly at his lashes. One of them drops into his stew; it ripples for a moment, and he stares at the dish. He isn’t hungry, really. “He would have wanted for you to be happy,” Gaius says, his voice kind and low. Merlin feels as though he’s a wounded animal, hiding away in the corner and shying away from all hands that want to help him—he can’t be helped. Lancelot was his friend, and Merlin couldn’t lose him, but he did. Or: Lancelot walks through the veil and towards his death. So everyone thinks, at least, until Merlin finds him trapped in the world between life and death. And there's very little Merlin won't do to get him back.

Merlin/Gwaine

6th Entry-M5 by theartsylillipad Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: merlin, bbc merlin, merlin bingo, merwaine, merlin/gwaine, Summary: Merlin and Gwaine huddling for warmth

A day together by HadrianPeverellBlack Rating: General audiences Warnings: Choose not to use archive warnings Major tags: Surfing, Established Relationship, Gwaine being Gwaine, Modern Era, Fluff Summary: Gwaine and Merlin enjoy some time together

Call me your friend, treat me like one by HadrianPeverellBlack Rating: General audiences Warnings: Choose not to use archive warnings Major tags: Dysfunctional Relationships, POV Gwaine (Merlin), Hurt Merlin (Merlin), Episode: s05e07 A Lesson in Vengeance (Merlin), Ambiguous/Open Ending Summary: Gwaine had only had one great friend in his life, Merlin. But had he been an equally true friend to him?

Merlin/Arthur

3rd Entry - M2 by theartsylillipad Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: merlin, bbc merlin, merthur, merlin bingo, Summary: For this prompt I depicted Merlin healing one of Arthur’s wounds.

Not Mine to Keep by Stelle Rating: General audiences Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: flowershop au, art with story Summary: After that, it became a regular thing. Arthur was visiting once a week, asking questions about flowers at first then it turns into them chatting, insulting each other sometimes and joking, laughing.

If you love me let me hear you by HadrianPeverellBlack Rating: General audiences Warnings: Choose not to use archive warnings Major tags: AU Lawer, Pining Arthur Pendragon, Getting together Summary: Merlon has a problem with notes. Arthur has a problem

And If It Isn't My Love by Sage_Owl Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Modern Era, Demisexuality, feelings realization, Evil Uther Pendragon, first dates Summary: Merlin, fed up with a string of miserable first dates, decides to put his feelings first and take some time for himself. His feelings have other plans.

Back on Track by kirani Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: idiots to lovers, mutual pining, modern au Summary: Everyone knows Merlin and Arthur have been dating for ages, though no one is exactly sure when they got together. But suddenly Merlin is giving some guy at pub night his number and Arthur is clearly trying not to freak out and Gwaine has no idea what is going on! Or: Gwaine resists the urge to smoosh his best friends' faces together like Barbies when he finds out they haven't actually been dating for the last five years

if you were just to hold me by Imagined Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Sickfic, Hurt Merlin, Getting Together Summary: “I think he’s awake,” Arthur calls out, and the noise bludgeons Merlin’s head like a hammer, and he presses his eyes closed as if to force away his ability to hear as much as his ability to see. It doesn’t work well for him, and he chokes on a breath. His throat is on fire as he starts coughing. Gods, he’s ill. He thinks he’s very ill.

When the Abyss stares back by feuxx Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: merpeople!au - size difference Summary:

The Poet Arthur Pendragon by diaryofamadtheatermajor Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Fluff, Humor, Idiots in Love Summary: Arthur writes Merlin a poem

A Burst of Love That Blinded Every Angel by Mischel Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: established relationship, fluff, light angst, alternate universe - angels Summary: Angel!Merlin canon AU. In order to be with Arthur, Merlin had given up everything. He’d given up his magic, his wings, and even his voice. The last one seemed like a cruel joke from his brothers and sisters in the sky, but Merlin loved Arthur more than his ability to speak, so he’d accepted it and kept the sadness to himself. For years, he’d lied to Arthur and pretended to be a normal human, but he can’t pretend anymore. Today, a month and a half before their wedding, he finally tells Arthur the truth.

it bent in the undergrowth (the road less taken) by Imagined Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Found Family, Modern AU, Demisexual Arthur Pendragon, Getting Together Summary: “We have a system for borrowing books, you know,” the librarian says. Merlin, his name tag reads. There’s a little smiley face behind his name, and Merlin leans over the counter to take the book out of Arthur’s hands. Arthur stares back, stone-faced, as Merlin looks at the cover. “I hope you enjoyed it, at least, if you went to all the trouble of stealing it.” “I don’t—” Arthur says, and presses his lips together. “It was fine, I suppose. If you like that sort of thing.” Merlin snorts. “What’s that, gay people?” Or: When Arthur comes out to his father, he loses everything. And then he meets a messy-haired librarian, and learns that there’s so much he never had.

A Non-Believer’s Guide to Magic by Sage_Owl Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Circus, modern with magic, angst with a happy ending, powerful Merlin, Bad Parent Uther Pendragon Summary: Arthur's experiences with magic, and how one pair of gold eyes ends up changing his life.

happiness blooms from within by slantedknitting Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Love potion, hanahaki Summary: On a hunting trip, Arthur and Merlin save a young princess and her father from bandits. Under pressure from his father to prove himself worthy of the throne, Arthur decides to pursue the princess, but she has plans of her own. When those plans unravel, it’s Merlin whose life is at risk.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match by archaeologist_d Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: fluff, canon era, fairies as matchmakers, Merlin is not amused Summary: Two fairies, the evil twins Merlin called them, were hell-bent on matchmaking their way through Camelot. Unfortunately, their first targets were Merlin and Arthur.

All That I Can (And Can't) Have by lavender_spice Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Soulmate AU, Self-Discovery, Mutual Pining Summary: When he was just a boy, Arthur was made to cover up his soul mark by his father. Soon, everyone else in Camelot followed along the trend, and by the twentieth anniversary of Arthur’s birth, there was nary anyone in Camelot who showed off their soul mark. And then a village boy with far too much righteous confidence for his own good tried to fist fight Arthur in the lower town and somehow, that changed everything.

Spit it out (Jot it down) by kirani Rating: Teen Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: epistolary, mutual pining, court sorcerer merlin Summary: Arthur and Merlin make an attempt to be more appropriate in the eyes of the court by turning to notes instead of arguing out loud as much. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

No one and nothing, chapter 9 by archaeologist_d Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence Major tags: canon au, magical reveal, BAMF Merlin Summary: Merlin saves Arthur’s life in front of the whole court and has to run for his life. But when Arthur shows up, asking for help, what was Merlin to do, say no?

So Take Me Somewhere by queerofthedagger Rating: Mature Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Modern AU, Friends with Benefits, Breaking Up & Making Up, Queer Themes, Angst with a Happy Ending Summary: Arthur has known for a while that he's bi. He's known for about as long that he finds Merlin attractive, too. They are friends though, and there are a hundred reasons why they cannot happen, no matter what Arthur otherwise thinks about it. Alternatively: a beginning, a fuck-up, and some hard-won reconciliation, told over the course of four weddings and one funeral.

Solstice by archaeologist_d Rating: Mature Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: modern au, solstice, stonehenge, arthur wants to take the edge off Summary: Merlin takes Arthur to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise on the Solstice. Never mind that Arthur had some ridiculous notion about orgies and standing stones and the rising sun.

match made in (heaven) by radioactivesunflower Rating: Explicit Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: idiots in love, attempt at humor, one night stands,masturbation, arthur pendragon is a little shit Summary: the one where merlin is a matchmaker and a big fat lair arthur likes to spend most of his time annoying merlin a love story between a matchmaker and client that share a past only one knows about

Worshipping You From The Darkest Of Corners (Like I'm Practicing My Own Private Religion) by lavender_spice Rating: Explicit Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Cyberpunk AU, Priest AU, Explicit Smut Summary: In a world ruled by the authoritarian organization who call themselves The Church, cold and emotionless PRIEST agents keep the public pure and obedient. But when Merlin and his group of rebels capture one of said agents, a special bond forms between Merlin and their captive. A bond that might lead to something previously thought impossible – turning one of The Church's most loyal servants to the rebel side.

Knots of Blood by SauraUnderscore Rating: Explicit Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: A/B/O Dynamics; Parenthood; Mystery-AU; Drowning; Angst with Happy ending; Explicit Sex; Knotting; Summary: Mordred’s birth was difficult. The first few weeks of their son’s life were the most challenging in Arthur and Merlin’s own. Not only did Merlin and Modred share the most powerful magic ever seen until now— but the pup hates his father’s Alpha smell. He yells and cries every time Arthur is near. So when Modred disappears one night from his cradle, Merlin accuses Arthur of murdering his own child.

The Symbols of Life and Death by SauraUnderscore Rating: Explicit Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Serial Killer AU; Dystopia AU; Mild torture; Corpses; No real Bloody descriptions; Minor Character Death; Explicit Sex; Hurt/Comfort; Mentions of earlier Prostitution (Merlin); Soul Bound; Magic Sex; Summary: All Arthur wants is to protect Merlin from the serial killer that is threatening the magical community. But Merlin doesn’t need Arthur’s protection. Who does Pendragon think he is? Just because when Merlin needs a lawyer, he pays his debt fucking him, doesn’t mean he’s going to get attached to no one else but the son of the one who started this fucking nightmare for the magical kin.

when doves cry by radioactivesunflower Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence Major tags: dark merlin, dark arthur pendragon, mob boss arthur pendragon, serial killer merlin, dark power couple Summary: when vigilante but mostly serial killer merlin is kidnapped by the all powerful mob boss arthur pendragon he is given a deal he can't refuse

In the Car by diaryofamadtheatermajor Rating: Explicit Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Anal Sex, Porn With Feelings, Oral Sex, Car Sex Summary: Merlin and Arthur have sex in their car

A Balanced Equation by SauraUnderscore Rating: Explicit Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Oblivious to lovers; Modern AU; Slight Sickness; Protective Arthur; Fluffy Fluff; Explicit Sex; Summary: When an informatic problem erases half the data of the most important project of Pendragon Co., Merlin and Arthur stay three days to recover their work. It does no good to the recurrent rumours of them being dating. Which is not true. Not at all. They are too immersed in their job to realise how stupidly in love they are with each other.

The Pool Boy by SauraUnderscore Rating: Explicit Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Explicit Sex; Unsafe Sex; Slight Non-Con; Dirty Old men; Morally Grey Arthur; Could be seen as Prostitution (Arthur) Summary: Cenred believes everything in his mansion belongs to him and exists for his pleasure. Business is done on the terrace, eating delicious foods, drinking expensive wines and ogling the young, almost-naked employees. One day Merlin, Cenred’s pool boy, has company at the pool. A young, half-naked blond: Arthur Pendragon.

What a Stud by mooonwaffle Rating: Not rated Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: mutual pining, crushes, flirting, nose piercings, tattoo parlor Summary: After years of waiting, Merlin finally schedules an appointment to get his lip pierced. Though, crushing on the body piercer was not part of the plan, nor was walking out with his nose pierced instead because a hot guy claimed it would look cuter on him.

#bbc merlin #merlin bingo #round three #round up #june round up #so many beautiful fills #i love you all #sign ups are still open if you want to join us

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emrys-rusts · 3 months

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As I'm trying to re-organize my tumblr blog, I've figured that I should re-introduce myself for any future followers!

Greetings, my name is Michael but you can also call me Mike or Emrys (the latter would be my artist name as well as my middle name, one that some people know me best by)

My current age is 17, I go by He/Him pronouns, and I've been on tumblr eversince 2021, at which time I mostly posted and interacted with blogs about classical literature, Dostoevsky specificly! As such, you might find this a re-occuring interest of mine on this blog, coupled with whatever else I'm fixating on!

My interests tend to be all over the place, and as such, decided to divide them into 4 main categories:

History

Classical literature

Fantasy

Current specific interests

History;

This can include any of my historically based interests I had from 2020-2022 and the ones I recently developed from 2023-2024 (now). This is a huge category as it ties into mostly all my interests, especially the longer lasting ones. Relating to this category would be things such as:

• 2020-2022, 18th-19th century

(Fashion, historical events, culture, literature, art-history, music, shows related, movies related)

• 2023-2024 (now), the 80s/20th century

(Subcultures, punk-rock, heavy metal, sub-genres, historical events, fashion, (fantasy) literature at the time, shows related, movies related)

Classical Literature (2020-2022);

This is a big one! Reading classical literature has defined parts of me since I was 13 years old. Though it includes various stand-alone works here and there, the two I most interact with on here would be:

• Dostoevsky (more specificly, the brothers karamazov)

• Frankenstein

This is due to the fanbases being rather large, although there's some wonderful works on dorian gray, shakespeare, any russian literature, horror fiction (E.A.Poe), greek mythology, dracula, moby dick, etc.

I have never found this site lacking on my favorite books! And it always feels like there is space enough for your own contribution :)

Fantasy;

This one is recent. It ties strongly into my 80s hyperfixation(s), though it's more of a pattern which makes me like the 80s so much! I've been interested in fantasy when I was very young, but at the age of 13 classical literature took up all my time for the next 5 years or so. I look forward to reading more literature on the subject! Some main ones would be:

• tolkienverse (lord of the rings, the hobbit)

• dungeons & dragons (I'm planning a campaign)

• anything related such as fashion, events, oc's, diy

• sci-fi (typically fiction, like the mechanisms, doctor who or star wars)

...the eldritch horror vibes I love are also somewhat related to this category! Fantasy horror if I had to put a name to it. Artistic horror. Guts and gore and a tragic story.

Current specific interests;

This list keeps updating, since I tend to hyperfocus on shows for weeks if not months, untill I find something else. Still, they always linger and re-occur, so I've decided to list the ones current. It'll be necessary to put them in an order from most to least interested;

The Magnus Archives (tma) (might actually develop into a longstanding interest)

The Mechanisms

Original Characters

On this blog, I tend to mostly reblog fanart and awareness posts (rarely), but in the future I'm hoping to solely post my own art and reblog fanart of my interests! As well as posts relating to them. It's what I usually do really, but my goal is to interact with this site more, through my own art!

I do not post any nsfw content, though I might reblog or post slightly suggestive content, if I find the artwork aestheticly appeasing. I'm ace so it's not a regular thing. I will also not tolerate any bigotry on my blog, for obvious reasons.

You can find me on insta under the same user name! DM's are usually open. I also can't promise to post regularly, but I will be trying my best!

Asks and art requests are open!!

Personal posts are tagged with #mike lore now

Extras

♤PLAYLISTS♤

• Henry Clerval/Victor Frankenstein playlist, made in 2020:

[source: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley]

• Pavel Karamazov Playlist, canon and AU, made in 2021-2022:

[source: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky]

• Dungeon Master playlist coorelating with Eddie Munson, In-Universe, made in 2023:

[source: Stranger Things/"better by you, better than me"—fanfiction by palmviolet on ao3]

• The Magnus Institute Playlist/Tim Stoker Playlist, In-Universe, made in 2024:

• Jonathan Sims playlist, In-Universe & set during season 1, made in 2024

[Source for both: The Magnus Archives written by Jonny Sims]

#intro post #literature #history #fantasy #might need to update this and make it less complicated #idk it all makes sense in my head but it doesnt #my interests have connections but they dont and aaahhh #Spotify

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ssj2hindudude · 2 years

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2nd Gen Pandavas Pt. 3

Part 2

Where are my manners? I completely glossed over the fact that I brought up the idea of our heroes as parents and didn’t even go in depth! (I mean, them getting married are different stories altogether, but I might have to save those for other posts).

Aru + Aiden = Abha

Aru would probably be a similar mom to Krithika only a thousand times more chaotic and cringey. Just imagine Eda from The Owl House. Nothing gets by Aru because not only has she seen most of the tricks a child can pull, she’s done most of them! Abha didn’t get high intelligence just from being Abhimanyu’s reincarnation, she had to evolve it so she can get past her mom. Speaking of Kritika, Aru regularly goes to her for parenting advice and half the time ends up with grandma dying of laughter when she’s told Abha pulled things kid Aru would’ve been impressed by. (Ex. “Stop laughing! Do you know how hard it is to keep a phone plan when she keeps wrecking them?!?” “Yeah, sucks doesn’t it?”)

Aiden basically falls apart whenever it comes to his little girl. He puts in all the effort he can to make sure he doesn’t turn out like his dad. True, both his wife and daughter make him ask “Why are you like this?” on a daily basis, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Aiden tries not to be a pushover, but instead of an "idea face" like her mom, Abha has that one face Aiden can’t say no to. And when Aru learned how to do it, he’s just powerless. They don’t try it during royal screwups, though. Last time that happened, for a month each, Abha lost her mystery privileges and Aru lost her Home Depot privileges.

Mini + Rudy = Priya and Suru

You know how Chi-chi from Dragon Ball Z and Hinata from Naruto went from shy wives to strict Asian moms? That’s Mini. There’s the usual love and affection, but Rudy and the kids know she is not one to mess with. In her 11 years of parenting, besides their birth, her kids have never been in the hospital (and considering Priya’s interest, that’s saying something). She doesn’t put them in a bubble of course. As long as they know the risks and take necessary precautions, she’s supportive of everything they want to do. But that doesn’t stop her from cleansing Suru head to tail whenever he gets back from one of his forest trips or grabbing Priya by the ear whenever she tries to hide another detention slip.

Rudy tries to be a fun parent but also supportive of Mini when she lays down the law. He can actually be just as tough when it comes to important things. Like one time, Priya almost took her hand off while tinkering with flammables and Rudy went full naga, knocked it in the air and covered her when it blew, then grounded her for three months. However, whenever he gets tough, he then cries on Mini’s shoulder when they’re alone. When it doesn’t put his kids in danger, though, he’s fully supportive of their interests and glows with pride whenever Priya’s friends call him a cool dad. He’s like Crush the Turtle from Finding Nemo.

Brynne + Hira = Ghata

Like Aiden, Brynne tries to be a better parent than her own and sometimes she doesn’t have to try. Ghata is actually a quiet kid and follows the rules most of the time. If she does get in trouble, surprisingly, they almost never do good-cop bad-cop. In fact, the only time they do that is when they’re doing a mass grounding with the other potatoes since the only time Ghata does something seriously bad is with her cousins. The worst thing she did alone was curb-stomping some homophobe that insulted her parents and even then Brynne’s reaction was “That’s my girl!” Ghata has taken up multiple martial arts and several sports and Brynne and Hira are always present at every event.

While Brynne is good at bringing out Ghata’s confidence, Hira is good at nurturing her and making her feel safe. She asked Aiden for singing lessons so she can sing her daughter to sleep every night. Ghata actually has an interest in some stuff that Brynne doesn’t (stuffed animals, make-up, jewelry, etc.) so Hira regularly takes her shopping with Brynne tagging along on occasion. Also, the family plays various sports together with shapeshifting allowed so sometimes any visiting Potatoes would walk in on an octopus, a pelican, and a baboon fighting over a basketball. (shoutout to Khufu from Kane Chronicles)

Part 4

#aru shah #the potatoes #the pandava quintet #aru shah headcanon #aru shah headcanons #aruden #mini x rudy #rudy x mini #brynne x hira #hira x brynne

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ninjago-bingo · 2 years

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June recap: introspective!

woot woot! We’re officially wrapping up our first month of ninbingo round 2, and I want you all to know that we have 40 submissions so far. Let that sink in. 40, and last year, we capped out our bingo at 50.

Are you guys excited, because I am!

Because there are so many entries, I’ve split this recap by genre into the broad categories of angst, fluff, and introspective. I separated the entries using my best judgement, but if you’re the creator and would like your work(s) moved, just lmk!

art (low res; click on the link to go to the original post):

Day off and time by @sebilini

The original four ninja have time off on the same day, so they met and are chatting about their old adventures. A lot of time has passed.

Lights and magic by @sebilini

Clouse’s last happy summer

fic:

A Little Brother (Of Sorts) by @ninjas-that-go. || tumblr || ao3 || prompt: small

Perks of being an older sibling number one: being taller than your little brother. For now.

Blue-Black by @k1ngtok1. || tumblr || ao3 || prompt: contrast

Sometimes, even when he was quiet, she could see flickers of green in between his fingers or licking at his heels with his quiet footsteps. They weren’t normally a part of his color palette, and it was only sound that set off the colors. Her gut told her something was up, and if Kai had taught her anything, it was that Smiths always followed their gut.

His name didn’t match his colors, after all. Green cursive didn’t complement blue-black.

Deep down you know, You weren't built for fighting by @unknownuncut. || tumblr || ao3 || prompt: protective

Five times the ninjas protected Lloyd and the one time Lloyd protected the ninjas.

My Papa’s Waltz by @/k1ngtok1. || tumblr || ao3 || prompts: parents and reveal

“Sorry for not telling you earlier.” Cole says in lieu of a response, “I was still trying to figure it out for myself, but-“ he pulls his father’s hands away from his face and holds them, “You might want to sit down for this. It might take a while to explain everything.”

“I canceled all my plans for the week after I saw the news. I’ve got all the time in the world for you.”

Cole revels in the warmth that spreads through his chest.

Sibling Bonding ft. Dragon Hermit by @/unknownuncut. || tumblr || ao3 || prompt: animal

“Kai!” Nya pushes through the crowd to get over to him. She stops before him and keeps wanting to reach out to touch him but kept her hands away. Almost as if she’s afraid to touch him. “You okay? You’ve been missing for an hour, the others said that you and someone else went into the mountain.”

“I’m fine, just tired.” Kai finally sat down on the ground with Nya crouched down so to help him if he needs it. “Just some idiot that wanted to see if the legend of the Flame Sword is true or not."

so he was sent to bed by @21st-century-ninja. || tumblr || ao3 || prompts: parents and acceptance

“Oh, Kai, why couldn’t you just have gone to a shop?” his mother scolds, once the doctor has left after prescribing a cleanser and instructions to call her back if the infection spread. “If you had to do that to yourself, dear, why didn’t you have a professional do it? It’s not like we don’t have the money.”

It’s true. Kai’s definitely got the money for it.

or:

the fine line between filial piety and puppetry, told in a series of vignettes about earrings.

Strong In The Real Way by @/unknownuncut. || tumblr || ao3 || prompt: strength

Normally, Jay would be dragging his feet and complaining to Zane, who would be sitting with his mother and helping with the paperwork. That’s when it’s just Jay and his dad but not today.

Kai and Cole had decided to come out for a surprise visit.

We’ve Come A Long Way From Where We’ve Began by @ace-of-spaces. || tumblr || ao3 || prompt: smile

Their time is up.

After thirteen years, eleven months and four days, Ninjago no longer needs them. It is able to protect itself now.

It was symbolic, in hindsight, that their last day as Ninja ended exactly as it had started all those years ago; just the four of them in the courtyard of the Monastery of Spinjitzu.

You’re Not Alone In The World…You Have Me by @/unknownuncut. || tumblr || ao3 || prompt: contrast

Lloyd couldn’t sleep and asked Cole to take them to the store.

@weekend-whip @crappy-coffee @grollow @master-of-cosmos @roantheboat @art-i-sticks @viioletpixels @miserable-flamango @frozensoapbubble @thepenguisalive7 @marsipain @destinymanticor @obsessedbee @master-of-fluff @legogeek33 @applecranberryjuice @abunnsburrow @mitzle @ice-emperor-zane @curious-corvius @ninjago4life @kumamoo-hq

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apostlearcana · 1 year

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I posted 291 times in 2022

74 posts created (25%)

217 posts reblogged (75%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bilbosama

@sword-and-lance

@katagawajr

@floralflowerpower

@saiyef

I tagged 229 of my posts in 2022

Only 21% of my posts had no tags

#persona 5 - 78 posts

#zenkichi hasegawa - 68 posts

#ren amamiya - 23 posts

#fan fiction - 16 posts

#danny phantom - 14 posts

#persona 5 strikers - 11 posts

#akane hasegawa - 10 posts

#myficx - 10 posts

#akira konoe - 9 posts

#adri's fic snips - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 103 characters

#alternative problem: i have written the exact fan fiction and i want to do it again with a little twist

My Top Posts in 2022:

sometimes you just wake up, see art, and your brain just goes on a journey that you end up writing about and don't know where it ends up.

---

He hated how used to the smell he was, his sword tip stuck in the concrete as he stared at the rolling clouds in the distance- how easy it was to get lost in the moment now, how small he felt when staring at where his family was being held captive because another god decided it was time to play with the humans once more.

Because some higher power wanted to push and pull and tear the threads of humanity… all on account of being bored.

When did his family go from being himself and his daughter to his daughter and- let’s see, a savior of humanity and his boisterous boyfriend, a cat, an Artificial Intelligence, a hacker and her gymnast girlfriend, an artist and his gorgeous model, a politician and her gardener CEO… and his boyfriend?

There had to have been a time with him signing custody paperwork somewhere. Not like he could remember it now.

He closed his eyes, inhaling softly and tying his hair back when he heard it: the familiar thunder that he had all but missed in the times when the others were fighting, and he was struggling with his own issues. Even all these years later, still trying to unlearn those old behaviors and slipping up; and yet, those damn kids were still patient with him.

Sure, they weren’t kids anymore, but…

Fuck it. He couldn’t help it.

‘He won’t touch them unless you are there. We know as much,’ his Persona rumbled. ‘He wants to see you break more than any of the others; he wants to have you crack under the pressure, more than you already did when he stole them away months ago. His plan was to keep you under his thumb and control you- not the people. Not society. You.’

“Never was the strongest out of those kids,” he admitted. “They’ve had their heads on their shoulders for longer than I have.”

The silence was thick, like the air around them.

“…do you think they’ll…?” He let the words hang in the air, staring at his sword.

The other self chuckled. ‘You doubt yourself even still.’

“I pushed them away,” he muttered, breaking his gaze. “I shoved them all away, told them that it was just you and me against the world. I told them I could handle it myself, and I…”

(and I ended up losing everything)

‘For as much as you claim them to be your family still, your doubt still rings clearer than any bell.’ It was a hum now, one that knew of the truth. ‘You don’t feel you deserve them- deserve their forgiveness, deserve any of their love- regardless of if they say it is real or not. For as much as you have told the others that they deserve it, you have not held up your own end of the same ideal.’

The man ignored the slicing pain in his torso- one painful reminder of too many mistakes he had made.

‘Still, you seek to go after them finally and take on the Dragon King himself. Even in the condition you are in, which- might I say- is rather awful.’

“Not like that’s stopped me before.” He chuckled wryly.

‘Touché. You can be a bit of a reckless one, even without your abilities.’

How true that was.

‘…well?’

“You told me, if I took it back, I’d have to relive my worst moments. The lowest points in my life. Right?”

‘Everything. Losing her. The case. The realizations, the end of it. Everything.’ The Shadow was grim. ‘And if you let go, you will not be able to endure it again. It is, quite literally, a gamble of all or nothing.’

Of course it was- just like the last few years of his life. “Big surprise.”

‘Only the most traumatic for you, naturally. The eldest of the Phantom Thieves, the one with the most baggage- the one with the most doubt.’

He was too tired for a joke.

‘Now then. Are you ready?’

He shook his head, reaching for Cartagena with a deep breath. He would never be ready.

See the full post

25 notes - Posted June 12, 2022

The calling card that served like an arrest warrant, a new and unfamiliar Thief proclaiming that they'd take his desires, the disappearance of her dad on the Change of Hearts case with a bunch of teenagers- it was all too much of a coincidence at once, frankly. And while Akane Hasegawa was younger than the other kids, she was far from stupid.

She didn't want some vague hand-waving answers; she wanted the truth from her dad's lips. About his job, about the summer case... about the possibility that he was actually a Phantom Thief.

And Akane was going to get them, whether Zenkichi was willing to give such answers or not.

- - -

Based upon this ask that has haunted my thoughts for some time. Finally I make good on my promise for father-daughter feelings.

30 notes - Posted January 9, 2022

"Daniel, stop. Think about the things I could show you- the doors I could open for you! You, Danny Phantom, and I- Vlad Plasmius. Together, we could rule."

So @speedsketch literally made me a custom Vlad Plasmius Funko Pop for my birthday. And I have NOT stopped geeking out about it.

41 notes - Posted July 11, 2022

mods are asleep, talk about zenkichi's fury scars and how worried the kids get when he's in casual attire and they see what Fury physically does to him.

53 notes - Posted July 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I kind of like my supportive parents universe with Jack and Maddie unlearning their habits for the sake of their son, learning what makes him tick, learning his powers, and being ethical about things.

Do they sometimes mess up? Oh yes. Absolutely. But they are apologetic and strive to learn from their mistakes about things, with Danny showing them things and cracking terrible jokes.

It slowly mellows out after a while, and they all have self-depreciative humor about things, but they get really close together as a family with Jazz being the big cheerleader for how things have become.

179 notes - Posted February 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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maudfs · 1 year

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It's that time again for the summary of art! 2022 is on its way out and it was certainly a year...

This was the year of the water tiger in the Chinese Zodiac. I enjoy using Zodiac things as prompts AND my birth year was of the tiger, so that is January's image. I used the lasso tool for a lineless look, it was fun.

February's image is a bunch of air type raptors of a species I have been thinking of for a while. I was trying to flesh out what markings they would have and what kinds of color morphs might exist. (front to back: rare (sunset), common (blue-jay), melanistic (dark), leucistic (light), and albino) Of course they are not finished (I guess headworlds are never really finished) but I would like to someday update my websites bestiary with all the characters and species I've created and these would be one of the featured ones.

March's image is for an Ovipets challenge that I won! It is a Catus with butterfly wings looking at butterflies in a field of clover.

In April I made a bunch of shuffle-style icons and little sprites for my characters for things like their toyhouse pages or my website... so basically a bunch a stuff that won't get posted by itself.

For May here is a sketch of Fulvina from Spectrobes (the thing my Fulvina is named after! I had to draw it eventually, but) I didn't finish it at the time because I was having trouble with the lines, though I do plan on finishing it. Spectrobes as a whole could use some more love!

June's image is Amdy as a Unicorn, as I was seeing Junicorn challenges but didn't want to draw something every single day. I also chose this because well, why do I have so many so-called shapeshifters yet I only draw them in one form? I should show what else they can do!

July is ArtFight month and this time around I found some very cool characters to draw including a dragon named Colors! This was very fun to draw.

August I created a character called Daemon, seen here. Haven't really fleshed him out much though XD.

September Flight Rising released a gene called Soap that makes the dragon extra shiny, and I knew I had to draw it. What better than a vaporwave dragon? Flight Rising has released a LOT of stuff this year now that I think about it!

For October, a WIP of Alban... didn't finish much this month. I wanted to draw some Halloween images and make a bat-sona but that didn't happen in time. Somewhat related, this is the third year in a row I started to feel depressed beginning in October and into the winter, DESPITE loving Halloween and colder weather, so I'm wondering if that's a sign of seasonal depression or something? Yeah.

November's image is more Ovipets, this time dogs (Canis and Lupus) playing in fallen leaves. Used lots of different CSP brushes in this one. (For the single purchase version, of course... as if I'd deal with a monthly subscription for an art program... I don't know who thought THAT was a good decision)

December I finished this piece of Cygnet. I was going to try to draw more for December, but the sheer cold of this country wide snowstorm(!) seems to have put me in hibernation mode, so I'm gonna go ahead and finish with this.

Now's also a good time to say that I still don't mess with ΝFТ's or АI art, (I don't consider either of these things to be “art” and I don't have the energy to argue about it) so I've been experimenting with new watermarks to try and combat that in a subtle way... still watching Twitter catch fire. Still wearing a mask (end date: undefined). Still love playing Legends Arceus... STILL too shy to socialize!! Come on, that's gonna end up being my new year's resolution for like, every year! Gosh XD But I must continue to try... I must..!

As always, thank you for coming by and reading. :3

#maudfs #summaryofart #summaryofart2022

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felassan · 4 years

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Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

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conarcoin · 3 years

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SMPEarth Fanfics

There really isn’t that much fic for SMPEarth so I decided to make a post with a bunch. Some of these are my own, but most aren’t. Long post, so under the cut. I haven’t read all of these myself yet.

MY FICS:

playing imitation games - JoshA20 character study, largely based on the ARGs of SMPEarth. (Oneshot)

and if they laugh at me, i’ll make your heart my home - In an AU where Deo is exiled from Business Bay and joins AE, he finds comfort in Wisp among his new cold & hostile home. (Oneshot)

i’m so sorry (returns) - Slightly canon divergent (just timeline changes, shifting events around). Wisp apologizes for abandoning Business Bay. Deo is upset. (Oneshot)

OTHERS’ FICS:

The Stars Still Love You (They Always Will) - c!Tommy gets sent back in time to SMPEarth. (40/?)

off with their head (wait, are you serious?) - Caught in the middle of the war between Business Bay and the Empire, Charlie has to face his friend, Wilbur, on the battlefield. (Oneshot)

To cure it of sorrow would destroy it - An immortal god, Deo, grows attached to a mortal named Tommy, and is devastated by his death at the hands of a traitor. (Oneshot)

we are the crossroads - Technoblade overworks himself on a particularly scary night at the Antarctic Empire. Phil helps. (Oneshot)

the criminal from korea - Charlie got banished from New Zealand, and lives alone in his country, Kpop. Jack, a leader of the island nation, pays him an unexpected visit to apologize, much to the dismay of the other two New Zealand Soots. (Oneshot)

step one, light me on fire - On Day 19 of Charlie's SMPEarth history, he was named the first and only criminal of New Zealand. (Oneshot)

Letters From Another Millennia - Tommy and his family move into a new house in a small village, it is said to have sheltered magical creatures hunderds— maybe even thousands of years ago. What happens when he finds old letters hidden underneath the floorboards and decides to write responses to them for fun, but ends up getting in touch with a certain someone from the past? (2/15)

Before We Get Older (Let’s Do Everything) - The happiest Deo has ever seen Tommy, he thinks, is right now, as he looks over at Tommy from where he’s lounging in the co-pilot’s seat. (Oneshot)

Misunderstood Emperor - The Antarctic Empire is a grand but isolated country. It plays by its own rules in the grand scheme of things, but one thing is for certain. They are powerful extremely powerful. Ruled by their Emperor Technoblade, who is a mystery to everyone. There are several legends that have told people stories about the great Emperor but none ever tell as much as people would have liked. As one of the immortals, he is a legend in that part. But it's something more for his people and the world. He is a god, The Blood God. He not human as he is above them. This is great and all but what happens when Antarctica is forced out of isolation and people really start to meet the ruler himself. Is he anything they thought him to be? And is being called a god as good as people imagine? We shall see... (2/?)

it’s just a waltz (i’d give you anything you wanted) - After a successful battle campaign across the globe, co-emperors Technoblade and Philza take a reprieve in their mountain palace they call home. A reprieve means a break. Avoiding work. Techno struggles with this, so Phil takes matters into his own hands, and orchestrates a simple, fun plan to help Techno loosen up. (Oneshot)

Moonglass - The Antarctic Empire has long since peacefully disbanded- really, there never was an Empire in the first place. A means to an end and nothing more, their work was done and they retreated back to where their simple work waited in the southern snow. That is, until one day, when Commander Philza Minecraft is nominated to be part of the first group of players to land on the moon. Just a simple trip to survey the land, to evaluate what could be built there one day.... The reports never mentioned the dragon. (7/7)

Snow Angel - The Angel Of Death, now more than ever, is faced with the prospect of eternity. He selfishly hopes he will not fly it alone. (21/21)

Earth and Its Connotations - If things were different, if time had been a little more fluid when her hands had set events into motion, then we might have watched a completely new story unfold from the start. Dream has a question to ask of one of his friends, and that friend has an answer. The butterfly beats its wings and a hurricane brews in the far reaches of the arctic north. (Oneshot)

The Cold Brings People Together - No one would question the bond between the leaders of the Antarctic Empire. Some would call them thick as thieves, birds of a feather, peas in a pod, bolder ones would even call them like a father and son, others would run in fear at the titles 'Blood god' and 'Angel of Death'. Everyone knew that to get to Techno you would have to go through Phil and to get to Phil you would have to go through Techno. The question on the more curious, more daring peoples' minds was, how did the two get so close? (Oneshot)

for dust thou art - The Antarctic Empire's civilization fell long ago, it's cities in ashes and it's kingdom fallen to dust. The ruins are precarious and no one dares trod to the arctic to pick them over. No one, that is, except for you. The ruins of an empire beckon at your mind like the claws of a beast. (Oneshot)

hell hath frozen over. - in a world where not one angel showed him warmth, techno finds life in the arctic thrall of Death. (Oneshot)

Why Did You Return. - And even as Deo brought the feared Midas sword to hiss neck, he couldn't find himself to feel any fear. The only emotion he could feel was raw regret, and acceptance. He knew he would relinquish his life to a God-slayer, a renowned fearless being, who would stop at nothing to protect those who he considered family. He would lose his life to TimeDeo, once a brother, now an enemy, and Wisp could not bring himself to feel any fear, only the relief that it was someone he still deeply cared for taking the anger out on him in a way he deemed justified, and there was no fear. Only the cold accepting that this was the end. (Oneshot)

I Wear The Chain I Forged In Life - “Oh,” Doomsday says. “We’ve run out of time.” “Doomsday, please, just tell me how to stop this,” Tommy begs. Doomsday does not meet his eyes. “I wear the chain I forged in life, TommyInnit. I made it link by link, yard by yard. Let us hope you’ve done the same.” (Oneshot)

old friends, old scars (new starts) - After betraying him during SMPEarth, Wisp joins the Dream SMP to offer his alliance to Tommy once more. (Oneshot)

After What I Did, How Could You Not? - Nobody had heard from this world-conquering Empire in quite some time. It had been months since Phil or Techno had spoken out for their kingdom and even Newfoundland had been wondering where they’ve gone. Tommy seemed to know, but he didn’t seem keen on sharing. (Oneshot)

#fanfic #smpearth #smp earth #antarctic empire #business bay #tommyinnit #timedeo #lukeorsomething #bitzel #wispexe #technoblade #philza #wilbur soot #josha20 #charlie soot #idk who else to tag #ok to rb

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mbg159 · 3 years

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5 Things That 5Ds Fans Have Claimed Are True About 5Ds’s Production

Inspired by this wonderful post.

- Crow was supposed to be the main villain of the Dark Signer arc, with the smoking-gun evidence being a piece of very early concept art by Takahashi that describes him as a guy who’s tried to steal Yusei’s D-Wheel before and is now his friend, with Rex Godwin's massive Nazca condor shirt emblem being a cleverly-placed red herring.

- Crow was made into a good guy because his cards sold well, in that set that came out a month after he debuted and was shown as a good guy and Yusei's never-mentioned BFF. Rather than the standard anime production cycle of a few months per episode, they created the episode in negative three weeks, paying very close attention to the card game the same way they did when they swapped out Kaiser's Cyber Dragons for the incredibly meta-relevant Cyberdarks.

- Aki Izayoi's role was reduced because her voice actress, Ayumi Kinoshita, was pregnant at the time of the show's run in 2008-2011. She would go on to get married in 2012 and give birth to her first child in 2014, setting the world record for Longest Pregnancy.

- The Roma-Sophie cult scandal, which went public in September 2010, affected the production timeline of the entire second half of 5Ds, which began in mid-2009. Having seen the future, they decided to distance themselves from the cult, and cleverly destroyed the Arcadia Movement building and largely ended its plotline in December 2008. They also excised almost all elements of the occult and shifted the series in the direction of pure sci-fi. Except for that part of the series and the whole-ass DS game, because they figured they could have a little cult stuff.

- The aforementioned cult also caused them to completely revert Carly Nagisa's long-running character arc, as her voice actress, Li-Mei Chiang, was a high-ranking member of Roma-Sophie. To accomplish this, they significantly downplayed her role in the series and turned her into a cheerleader for Jack Atlas. However, she was so nice around the office that they decided to raise her character from the dead, give her a prevalent, irritating running gag, and have her keep showing up and even get a filler recap episode that aired in October 2010, despite her having essentially no role in the ongoing plot and many other characters losing prominence or being written out in the transition to the WRGP Arc. They only recasted her part in that episode, which was near the end of the series, because she was literally under arrest at that point. It came as a complete shock to everyone, despite the fact that they had been planning for the eventuality for over a year.

These facts may have no apparent sources or citations except hoary decade-old internet rumors and fandom gossip one step above a friend’s dad who works at Nintendo, but they are definitely true. Because, as we all know, the idea of Yu-Gi-Oh shows downplaying or sidelining prominent female characters, reverting character development that might alter the status quo (especially when it comes to romance), rejecting cool occult elements that appeal to an older audience in favor of toyetic sci-fi that appeals to kids, and sticking the spotlight on completely unprecedented characters for no reason to the point of sidelining existing characters and plotlines, is utterly inconceivable. There has to be an outside explanation.

In seriousness, friends: sometimes a show just does things you don't want it to do. There's no reason for it. Nobody forced the writers to do it. There was no nasty executive sharpening a knife over their shoulder. The same writers who wrote the things you liked, can write the things you didn't like. This is especially true when you are a nostalgic twentysomething Western adult and the show is aimed at ten-year-old Japanese boys and therefore does things not meant to appeal to you in any way.

And I believed most of these myself at some point. I eagerly jumped on the idea. It let me construct a "true" version of 5Ds that existed in a mental covenant between me and the show's writers, who understood what was really good about the show. I could claim that, really, the last half wasn't bad, because it was just them doing the best with what they could under heavy limitations.

But there were no limitations. They wanted the show to be that way. They did it on purpose. It sucks, but it happens. Some people actually preferred the show that way, you know.

If it's any consolation, it's not new. Just ask a Dragon Ball fan about Gohan sometime.

#yugioh 5ds #aki izayoi #akiza izinski #carly nagisa #carly carmine #jack atlas #crow hogan #debunking

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angeli-marco-writes · 4 years

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Ann’s Old Masterlist

UNUSED AS OF JULY 2021 - Current masterlist here

Rules for my page. PSA.

All works are original and legally my own. Do not repost. More works coming soon: each Saturday currently, schedule will change.

Please read the warnings at the top of every post: Items marked 18+ are mature/smut, and I don’t recommend you read if you are under eighteen, but it’s up to you to mediate your media consumption. The warnings you heed are entirely your responsibility.

Disclaimer: I do not know any of the people I write about, nor do I claim to, and I simply write about fictional figments of them. The fictional worlds I write within (the MCU, Harry Potter etc.) I do not own either, I do not own the characters or the settings, but merely write about a further fictional figment.

I currently only write Fem!reader. Works marked Ღ are the most popular. My inbox is open to requests but they may take a while to get a response.

Ann's TS 200 blurb event! (Mini Masterlist)

Regulus Black

Romeo, Juliet & Quidditch

Summary: One very eventful Quidditch final can do more than Regulus and his Juliet ever imagined; strengthening family ties, Y/N's mind, and Reg's feelings all at once.

Charlie Weasley

Secret. (18+)

Summary: You have a secret regarding the dragon taming Weasley. The only issue is that he sees you as the child you were a few years ago. When you become legal, he seems to seek you out wherever you are. Maybe he has a secret too.

Couple Blurbs

Lily & James Potter - First Kiss.

Summary: When Lily sees a new side of James, she thinks maybe falling for him isn’t so bad after all.

Albus & Scorpius - Before You Go.

Summary: At the 5th year prom, Albus and Scorpius find they can’t hold back their feelings anymore. Just one dance, before you go

Bill & Fleur - Our Spot.

Summary: After the final task, Fleur finds herself in despair, and goes to the only spot she can think of to unwind, not expecting to be approached by a handsome stranger.

Dean & Seamus - At Last.

Summary: Years of tiptoeing around one another and hidden feelings come to a head when Seamus finds a stack of art beneath Dean's bed. At last, something might happen.

Doctor Stephen Strange

ᲦBaby Blues & Tattoos (18+)

Summary: After a tiring mission, the last thing you want to do is have to crash at a hotel, especially with the cockiest man alive. Will things change with the fact there's only one bed on such a sleepless night?

Loki Laufeyson

ᲦDress.

Summary: This dance between you and Loki has been going on for far too long. The night of the palace ball gives you the chance to make your next move, wearing the dress you bought only for him to take it off.

Peter Parker, Spider-Man

Everything Happens for a Reason.

Summary: Stark!Reader x Peter Parker, post endgame. Months after the death of your father, your aunt, and your uncle, you find yourself in a sticky situation, and to make it even worse, your childhood crush doesn’t even recognise you now. Then again, doing most of your growing up while half of the population is dead doesn’t exactly bode well for your love life nor your commitment issues. When things finally start to turn around while learning to live with a disability, will you still be taken away to live with your step mother, or will love pan out at last? After all, everything happens for a reason.

Steve Rogers, Captain America

Promise? (18+)

Summary: Being an apprentice at the Avengers Tower is never easy, especially not when you make a promise to your favourite person there and fail to keep it, through no fault of your own. In a matter of seconds, your world comes crumbling around, but Steve seems to come around in order to pick up the pieces.

Clint Barton, Hawkeye

Rough. (18+)

Summary: After the snap, you never think you’ll see Clint again. Hanging around the tower alone day in and day out becomes tiring, especially when your hormones are in overdrive and you can’t stop thinking about the one avenger you haven’t yet had in bed, until he walks through the door more attractive than ever. (Seriously read the warnings for this, it’s very kinky).

Tom Hiddleston

Ღ BAFTAs.

Summary: Tom thieves your panties after you rile him up the night of the BAFTAs, and he doesn't anticipate the consequences of keeping underwear in his pocket on the red carpet. (Definitely mature with heavy implications, but no explicit smut)

Ღ Stripped Sunday

Summary: Sunday's are always the best, especially when you and Tom walk around the house nude, but it's been a while. Too long a while. So, obliviously, you take matters into your own hands...

NSFW Alphabet. (18+)

Summary: An incredibly explicit NSFW alphabet about Tom Hiddleston, detailing his deepest fantasies and darkest truths; or how I imagine them to be, at least.

Tom Holland

Just Friends?

Summary: You and Tom have been best friends for a long time, and inseparable for just as long. The boys welcome you as one of their own, and you’re basically a part of the family. That’s your main issue, because when you begin to harbour feelings for your best friend, you’re not sure if he feels the same.

Harrison Osterfield

Quarantine. (18+)

Summary: Quarantine with a bunch of sex deprived twenty-odd year old boys isn’t your idea of fun, especially not when the only one you want refuses to pay even the slightest bit of attention. Taking measures into your own hands is only simple until you get caught.

A Happy Day (& A Puppy)

Summary: Today is the day you and Haz get a puppy. It's the next big step in your relationship, and despite your anxieties, you know it's a happy day.

Sebastian Stam

The Ballet Teacher.

Summary: Ballet teacher!reader. Sebastian's daughter attends a very prestigious ballet school, but when she's late out one day, the last thing he expects to happen is to meet her wonderful new teacher, who has him head over heels.

Timothée Chalamet

Ღ Concerto. (18+)

Summary: At a classical music concert, the last person you expect to meet is a young man as charming and suave as Timothée. And the last thing you expected is for him to invite you back to his flat. Turns out music really is food for the soul, and other things...

Fair Game.

Summary: Your boyfriend, Tim, has hurt you for the last time. You didn’t realise you could ever feel this broken, especially because of someone you once loved so much, but maybe, just maybe, it’s for the best.

Tom Felton

Risk.

Summary: After your break up, one that pained you to the bone, you try to escape and you find yourself taking that one risk you always thought you should, travelling. A simple day out, and the one person you don’t want to see is the one person who can help you with your car troubles. Could he help with your heart troubles too, over a reminiscent dinner perhaps?

Baby on the Brain.

Summary: Visiting Tom’s brother and his new baby should be a walk in the park, really, but some unwitting truths come to ahead that you can’t refute. You’ve always wanted a family, but does Tom? (Request for Tom Felton: you guys meet his brother's new baby and then decide to have your own.)

Elizabeth Debicki

Gorgeous.

Summary: Elizabeth is gorgeous, just look at her, the world can see it. A drunken night leads to some tipsy confessions, but does Elizabeth feel the same?

Christmas Morning. (18+)

Summary: Christmas morning in a hidden wintry lodge is everything you could’ve dreamed of. Then again, it’d be perfect even without the setting and the heating, because all you want for Christmas is Elizabeth, and that she gives you. Wholly.

Reunion Revenge. (18+)

Summary: At first, when your brother roped you into attending your high school reunion with your wife, you hated the idea. Now, all eyes are on you, all the focus on your career, and maybe this is the revenge you always needed, of course aided by Liz's quick thinking and hidden surprises.

Hailee Steinfeld

Live.

Summary: The first night of Hailee's tour, you're a guest singer... and her girlfriend. Everything will go to plan, surely, even when she looks that good and sings that well...

Sherlock Holmes

Ღ Kiss Me, Mr Detective. (18+)

Summary: After a fight with John leaves Sherlock feeling particularly down, he calls on the one person who is always there to support him. Only tonight, it’s different. Feelings come to a head, exploration ensues, but is this just a one time thing? That depends on whether she stays the night…

Chuck Bass

Safe.

Summary: A small British village version of Constance & St Jude’s. The aftermath of your drive home from Saturday’s house party becomes haunting and brings out a new side in you. Not that you’re complaining, especially not when you have the well-versed Chuck Bass as your friend and safety.

(Send in any requests to my inbox.)

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chenziee · 3 years

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Six: The Celebration

Day 6: BBQ/Movie night for @opnamizine‘s Tangerine Summer :D Barely grazed the prompts this time but in my defence, making up a video dial and coming up with some way for them to find one that made sense would be too complicated so you get an alternative xD

Heads up for minor LawLu again because I have no self-control.

[Read on AO3 | Read from day 1]

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“Here you go, Nami-san.”

The navigator smiled as she accepted the plate that was handed to her. “Thank you, Sanji,” she said, admiring the smell of perfectly cooked meat.

Honestly, Sanji had them all so spoiled, like dining at a 5 star restaurant three times a day plus snacks. And yet, he always outdid himself. Apparently, even something as simple as a barbecue could be made into a work of art, even when making it for all the people who had survived their raid of Onigashima—and not just their crew, Torao’s crew, the samurai, and the minks. No, it was for everyone they had picked up along the way as well. Including the Kid pirates, the rebels, the prisoners and the yakuza, and even some of the Beast pirates that were now somehow Tama’s pets, it was hundreds, thousands of people.

Even with help of many other cooks, Sanji still had more than enough work on his hands but… he looked like he was enjoying himself immensely and Nami was glad. When she remembered how sad, cold and unhappy he was when they had finally found him on Whole Cake Island, it was like he was a different person. Like he was alive.

“You don’t forget to eat, too,” Nami teased, chuckling when Sanji froze and blinked at her owlishly, eyes wide with shock.

“I— Thank you, Nami-san,” he said after a moment, looking away, and Nami was pretty sure that was a blush on his face.

It was cute how he always got caught off guard when someone looked out for him for a change. If this was a few weeks ago, Nami could just hear the ‘Aww, Nami-swan, you’re so beautiful when you’re kind!’ and see his dramatic, love-struck flailing. He always did that when trying to deflect and brush off things that might affect him but at last, it looked like he was putting in an effort to get used to it; slowly learning to accept the care and love his friends were giving him.

Nami smiled, a genuine, happy smile, as she nodded and turned away. They would teach Sanji to be kind to himself yet. After all, the Straw Hats were nothing if not stubborn.

That was a problem for later, however.

Tonight, they were celebrating.

The trip back towards the stage was short but given how the Komurasaki was one of the performing geishas and dancers, it was no surprise that the area beneath was packed. And with a plate overflowing with food, it was almost a miracle that she managed to make her way through the crowd and back to her friends without any incident.

When she finally sat down on the ground in between Robin and Luffy, she let out a relieved sigh. “Here, Sanji’s special barbecue,” she announced.

Immediately, everyone cheered quietly as to not interrupt the music and dancing too much before grabbing for the plate, in a hurry to steal some for themselves before Luffy could get to it.

But then… Luffy didn’t.

Exchanging a worried glance with the rest of the crew, Nami went to ask what was wrong but before she could so much as open her mouth, Tama spoke up instead. “Mm this is so tasty!” she said, the happiness in her voice almost tangible.

“I know, right?” Luffy grinned proudly. “Sanji’s cooking is amazing.”

“Aren’t you going to eat, big bro?” she asked then, her cheeks puffed up with all the food in her mouth.

Luffy shook his head, petting Tama’s head where she sat in between his legs and looked back at him questioningly. With a soft smile, Luffy finally replied, “Nope, I’m stuffed. You can have my portion if you want.”

Tama’s face split up in a blinding smile, nodding enthusiastically before she turned her focus back on the pile of meat in front of her. Luffy simply watched her, that soft expression still on her face and Nami… felt like the whole world turned upside down. Luffy letting someone else have all his food. Luffy. Unbelievable.

Blinking a few times, Nami noticed everyone else was staring at the scene with an open mouth, obviously just as shocked as she felt. It was only a long while later that slowly, she turned to her other side to exchange a look with Robin. The other woman was covering her mouth to hide a smile—or likely muffle her laughter, judging by the way her eyes danced with joy—and, guessing easily that they were thinking the same thing, Nami, too, had to laugh.

Shaking her head, she followed Robin’s example to look at Torao, who was sitting on Luffy’s other side. “I think your boyfriend just adopted your first child. Congratulations,” she told him sincerely, biting at her bottom lip to try and keep her expression at least remotely straight at the face Law made.

"I did not consent to this," Torao replied, frowning deeply as he glared at Luffy, then Tama, then Luffy again.

"I honestly don't think anyone ever consented to anything with Luffy," Usopp noted helpfully.

A large pout appeared on Luffy's face as he crossed his arms over his chest. "But you're fine with it!"

"Again, Straw Hat-ya. That's not the point." Law let go of a long-suffering sigh, looking so incredibly tired. Nami wondered how many years of his life this poor man had lost over the last two, maybe three months since they had run into him.

But well, that was just a part of the course with Luffy—or their crew as a whole, really. And even if everyone complained about it, no one could deny the post-victory celebrations were well worth all the stress and… adjusted plans.

Nami, for one, certainly couldn't.

Ignoring the bickering couple and laughing friends, Nami turned her attention to the entertainment. She had to admit, it was pretty obvious why Hiyori became the oiran; she was beautiful up there, even without full make up or her hair styled the elaborate way she used to wear before. It was as if she was born for the stage. And the happiness radiating off of her, the relief from Wano's hard-fought, finally achieved freedom, was only making her more mesmerizing. Just looking at her move gracefully as she played on her shamisen, full of energy and not fighting her wide smile, it made Nami so incredibly happy as well.

Ever since she had set sail with Luffy, Nami had witnessed several times the pure joy of a country being rid of their tyrants, thanks to Luffy. She had been one of the people he had saved this way. But seeing it, hearing it, being at the centre of it… it never got old.

And if the celebration came with amazing food and plenty of booze, friends and laughter, and gifts of golden dragon statues from the shogun's castle, who was she to turn away?

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spiras-stargazer · 3 years

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Hey all!

These are some Hannibal fic Ideas free to any home. I don't have time to write the full story down but I have these Ideas in my head that won't go away. At least this way they're free to live and grow. Take them as you please or don't.

Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham

1. Old West Time Travel - As they fall from the cliff they are teleported back to the old west (in my mind it Red Read 2 Online by Valentine; teleported by old gods or whatever teleports that guy in the single player from the 20's) Will arrives alone and becomes a bounty hunter (moves to Saint Denis figuring Hannibal will end up there.) Hannibal arrives months later and is nursed back to health by the owner of the ranch hand saloon/bar and stays in the area because it's the sort of place Will might like. When a few rude ranch hands go missing and a bounty is posted the two finally meet up again.

2. AU Hannibal did not become a serial killer and he struggles to find meaning or happiness in his life. After meeting with Alana he offers his services to the FBI and is called in to help on the Minnesota Shrike case. He meets Special Agent Will Graham, the rudest man he's had the displeasure of knowing but despite that there's something about the man that keeps drawing Hannibal in. And then someone starts murdering people and deliberately leaving idea kits for inspiration on how to turn the corpses into works of art....'This is Your Design'

3. HanaHaki Disease - after they recover in Cuba, Will is ready to admit to Hannibal that he has feelings for him, but Hannibal has started a rebound relationship with their one of their neighbors, another criminal. (Happy Ending please)

4. Frustrated Hannibal - Hannibal is inconvenienced daily by the depth of his feelings for Will and often walks away from anything they try to do together muttering to himself in Lithuanian. Will thinks he's making Hannibal angry so he turns on the charm. At this rate Hannibal might forget English completely.

5. Merlin AU/reincarnation- Merlin, or Will as he goes by these days, gave up on Arthur ever coming back and moves to America trying to find his place in a world where magic has been all but forgotten. Arthur, or Hannibal now, had been reincarnated but with no Merlin to guide or help save him, Hannibal is forced to save himself and gives in to dark urges of despair and loneliness after the events of his childhood. Fast forward to Hannibal meeting Will in Jack's office. He immediately warms to the prickly profiler because he's the closest person to Merlin he's ever found. When he catches a the familiar flicker of gold in Will's eyes he decides to do everything he can to keep Will close. And Will...well he hasn't met anyone that frustrated him this much since Arth...oh no...(bonus points for Will trying to step back into his servant role and still managing to be the worst servant Hannibal has ever had, but Hannibal realizing he loved Will for it)

6. Dragon Goes House Hunting/Hannibal crossover - Hannibal didn't imagine after leaving his home and the rest of the elves he'd end up in real-estate, finding homes for others when he didn't feel at home anywhere himself. He also didn't imagine that one day a rude blue dragon named Will would be particularly hard to house. Yet here they are, at the 63rd property and he already can tell Will is going to say no. If he didn't know better he'd swear Will is only interested in traveling with him for his company...

7. Lucifer/Hannibal crossover - Hannibal shifted uncomfortably, cell phone in hand "We need to go to Los Angeles." Will looked up over the edge of his tablet, "Whatever it is, order it online." "I...I owe someone a large favor and they have called in their marker." "I'll bite. Who in the world could you owe that kind of favor to? The kind that could get us imprisoned and/or killed." Hannibal visibly braced himself for Will's reaction, "Lucifer Morningstar." Will put the tablet down, "That's...the Devil." "He's apparently now God. He's getting married to a former police detective and wants me to be the head chef at his wedding." Will snorted and picked up his tablet again, "I knew it was only a matter of time before eating all that people meat made you crazy." "Will I'm serious..."

8. Merkin/Merpeople - Will is the demi-god son of Calypso herself and out of all her children, Will is the only one to prefer fresh water to sea water. When the sea goddess tells Will it's time to return to the ocean and come into his full potential, he refuses. Calypso is furious and she lays a curse on Will that forces him to transform regularly into his Merman from and bathe his body in the sea water he dislikes. As the curse worsens, Will calls in sick to work and reschedules his therapy appointments again and again. Worried Will is extremely sick, Hannibal goes out to Will's house and finds the merman trapped in a cramped, hastily constructed large wooden box, lined with trap and filled with sea water, half starved and completely helpless. Hannibal nurses Will back to health and then goes to Calypso to strike a deal to free his beloved from the curse. (Bonus points for Hannibal being a god/spirit of vengeance)

9. Cuddly Will - Hannibal notices Will loves to cuddle up to him but Will refuses to initiate any touches himself so Hannibal makes ridiculous excuses for Will to be close to him.

10. Tailor and the Carpenter - Hannibal always begins a new chapter in his life by taking up a new skill. Music, surgery, cooking, drawing, therapy, art restoration, languages...the safe house in Cuba was where he planned to become a tailor and sell his wares locally, maybe online. He assumed Will would spend his time fishing or volunteering at an animal shelter but then power tools and work benches start appearing in their garage, large pieces of drift wood take over the backyard and the shrill scream of a buzz saw covers the sound of the ocean. However it's all worth it when Will brings in his wild and dark stained crafts.

#hannibal #hannigram #fic ideas #merlin #spoilers #lucifer

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hpfluff-fest · 4 years

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HP Fluff Fest Masterlist

We would like to thank everybody who has made this fest such a success, whether as a prompter, creator, or reader! Both of us hope the featured fics and art have brought you happiness and warm fuzzy feelings. Now, without further ado, may we proudly present the HP Fluff Fest 2020 Masterlist.

Albus Severus Potter/Scorpius Malfoy

ART

🌻god, you're beautiful by lov-lyness || @lov-lyness, Traditional Art (G)

Scorpius and Albus are by a lake, Scorpius's soulmark is showing.

FIC

🌻Sticky Love by motherofmercury || @motherofmercury, 1.3k, (G)

Scorpius always leaves encouraging notes and reminders around their flat for Albus to find. Albus realises he's a messy person to live with. Cleaning and the discovery of Albus' romantic side ensues.

Bartemius Crouch Jr./Harry Potter FIC

🌻Coming Home Late by Firebull || @swampwitchkaterina, 525 words (G)

It had become a bit of a routine to them.

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter

ART

🌻K is for Kiss by Pinkelephant42 || @pinkelephant42, Digital Art (G)

Harry escapes the spotlight to teach young magical kids. Draco is charmed by his son's new teacher.

🌻Moving in together - shopping for laughs. by digthewriter || @digtheshipper, Digital Art (G)

Trying out mattresses w/ your partner leads to giggles in the furniture showroom.

🌻The Case for Borrowed Underwear and Morning-After Pancakes by toutcequonveut || @cequonveut, Digital Art (Comic) (T)

Harry and Draco have just Done the Deed™️ for the first time. After a truly fantastic night, Harry wakes up alone in bed and wonders where Draco has wandered off to..

FIC

🌻Age is just a number by gnarf || @gnarf, 1.5k (T)

Married for decades, their life is perfect. Until Harry gets a call and hears the following words: "Mr Potter, we caught your husband stealing ten large packs of King Sized condoms."

🌻And They Say Romance is Dead by static_abyss || @static-abyss, 9.7k (E)

Harry is in love with Draco Malfoy. This is, quite possible, the worst thing that could have ever happened to him. Not because he doesn't want to love Draco but because now that Harry knows, he doesn't know how he's supposed to tell him.

Or, five times Harry tried to tell Draco he loved him and one time he succeeded.

🌻Chasing Coffee by Yesimawriter || @foularcadebanana, 5.6k (T)

Harry's service dog, Coffee, is obsessed with a certain Slytherin prat, and Harry cannot figure out why. It can't be because Harry wants to spend more time with him, right?

🌻darling, your kisses are sweeter than honey by unicorninthelibrary || @unicorn-in-the-library, 1k (T)

No matter how many years have passed, waking up next to Draco is Harry’s favorite thing in life.

🌻Dear (For Want of a Better Idea) Diary by tigersilver || @stripedsilverfeline, 12.3k (M)

Draco likes his life; there’s not much not to like. He’s got himself a family of rescued kneazles and nosy Weasleys plus two fun jobs to keep him busy, which is more than he ever expected, post-Voldemort. But he’ll have a bash at keeping a journal, just as his boss George suggested. Who knows? It might even help him sort out what’s up with Potter, right?

🌻Disastrously Perfect by savant (teii) || @teii, 8.3k (T)

Neville figured that whatever was going on between Harry and Draco, he could quietly keep out of the way and observe from a safe distance. Luna, however, has other plans.

🌻 Duck And Cover by Drarrymadhatter || @drarrymadhatterstuff, k (T)

Draco is struggling with eighth year, until he’s forced to adopt a flock of ducklings. Harry, convinced his old nemesis is up to his old tricks, decided to find out what he’s up to. When he discovers his fluffy secret, he decides to have some fun with it. However, along the way, he starts to realise how much Malfoy has changed.

🌻Ferret Support Services by CoCo (cportera) || @cportera, 4k (G)

Harry discovers a ferret while hiding away from his friends. He adopts the furry animal telling him secrets, never knowing the ferret might have secrets of his own.

🌻If This is Happiness, I Don't Mind Having This by Orpheous87, 6.2k (G)

Eighth Year isn't going too well for Draco. He's isolated and ignored by his classmates. Then he stumbles across a flock of tiny ducklings that need a helping hand. What Draco doesn't expect is someone to offer him a helping hand.

🌻I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You by Ladderofyears || @clemandben, 20.7k (E)

All Draco ever wanted was to carry his beloved husband's baby. It had been a journey of years, of tearful nights and smiling while he was breaking inside. It was finally happening though. They've tried for so long. They're having a child.

🌻Just Like Potions by vivi1138 || @penguinanimagus, 2.3k (E)

Kreacher is on holidays. Draco thinks he can cook because he's so good at Potions. Hint: he can't.

🌻Let Your Heart Hold Fast by MoonlitMarauder || @moonlitmaruader, 7.1k (E)

After three years together you'd think Harry would have learned to let Draco keep his secrets, but Draco is up to something. He just knows it. Or That time when Ron had to give Harry advice on his love life.

🌻Love In Ikea by kai_blxck || @im-kaifused, 30.6k (T)

In all the trips Harry had made to Ikea, Harry never expected to bump into the love of his life?

Draco never thought Wizards could exist but here he is, falling in love with one.

🌻Misunderstandings are as easy as A-B-C by VeelaWings || @veelawings, 3.4k (T)

A slow blink and Potter seemed to catch himself, clearing his throat and nodding, his smile friendly and bright when directed at Scorpius and Draco. “Hey Mal—”

“Mr Potter,” Draco spoke up rudely, but necessary. “This is my son, Scorpius Black. He’ll be one of your students this year.”

Potter looked completely wrongfooted for a few seconds before his mind appeared to latch onto the most likely conclusion. His expression cleared up as Scorpius took a step forward and offered a tiny hand.

“Hello, Mr Potter. It’s nice to meet you,” Scorpius said, enunciation steady and practiced.

🌻Seeking: pet carer for Bartholomew (four-year old rescue greyhound, no special needs) by GallifreyisBurning || @gallifrey1sburning, 14.7k (E)

When Draco’s boyfriend ends their relationship rather abruptly (and, frankly, extremely rudely), he leaves Draco with full-time responsibility for their rescue greyhound, Bartholomew. Draco loves his dog with all his heart, but the long hours he works at his law firm mean that he can’t possibly be home as much as Bartholomew needs. Enter Sirius Pet Care, an app designed to solve this very problem! When Draco books Harry, he’s relieved at how quickly the man and his dog bond. He’s less relieved by how unexpectedly, distractingly attractive Harry turns out to be… and how Draco’s afternoon meetings keep being “mysteriously” cancelled, meaning that he JUST HAPPENS to be home when Harry comes by. After all, it’s not appropriate to ogle one’s employees… right?

🌻sign me up for that full-time by M0stlyVoid || @bonesliketambourines, 4k (T)

Harry should have learned by now to never trust anything the Weasley twins try to pass off as a thoughtful holiday gift, no matter how innocuous it might appear.

🌻Soft & Hard by DragonGirl87 || @drgngrl87, 8k (T)

In which Draco is forced to grudgingly admit that Harry does have some taste and Harry learns more about mattresses than any sane person should ever know.

🌻Some Assembly Required by peachpety || @peachpety, 6.5k (E)

A relationship must occasionally endure a test of strength, be it confronting an ex, or meeting the inlaws. Sometimes, however, an inanimate object can make or break a couple. Harry and Draco's relationship is put to the test when they attempt to assemble a piece of IKEA furniture.

🌻They were Once Young by acupforslytherin || @acupforslytherin, 6.4k (T)

Draco nervously expected for the worst when Harry invited him to Godric’s Hollow for the summer holidays. Little did he know, he was in for a delightful French dinner, two generations of embarrassing Potters, and a fascinating story of how Harry’s parents got together.

🌻Too Many Legs by vivi1138 || @penguinanimagus, 4.4k (T)

Draco is thrilled when his son produces a powerful bout of accidental magic. But unlike most children his age, Scorpius doesn't stop there, and soon Draco is overwhelmed. Harry just finds it funny.

🌻Too precious to share by slowroad || @slowroad, 1.6k (M)

Harry and Draco are several months into their eighth year at Hogwarts. They've been in a relationship for a while now, but no one knows about them yet and they like it that way.

🌻Whiskers and Kisses by MotherBooker || @motherbookerao3, 1.5k (G)

When rabbits trust and care about a person, they can be very loving and affectionate creatures.

🌻With a Bite and A Hiss (and Some Curry On Top) by Zandra Gorin || @zandragorin, 4.7k (T)

Draco keeps bringing animals home and keeps cooking curry for Harry. Harry is of the opinion that it has got to stop. Well, not the cooking curry part.

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter/Neville Longbottom ART

🌻Home is where the Bloody Plants are by Thunder_of_Dragons || @thunder-of-dragons, Digital Animated Pixel Art (G)

When Harry invited Neville and Draco to move into Grimmauld Place with him, his one condition was that they help him remove all of the old Pureblood artefacts. Draco was more than happy to agree, but he's determined not to let their drawing room become overrun by Neville's plants.

Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger

FIC

🌻Crookshanks and the Worst Weekend by Aneiria || @aneiria-writes, 2.1k (T)

In which Crookshanks' perfect weekend is ruined by the arrival of a tiny, annoying, infuriating kneazle kitten who follows him home, and the wizard who comes looking for it.

🌻Stranded Apart by In_Dreams || @indreamsink, 10.5k (T)

Lost in the wilderness without their wands, Hermione and Draco will need to learn to work together if they want to make it out in one piece.

🌻The Art of Seating Etiquette by inadaze22 || @inadaze22, 9.7k (E)

Hermione believes that every problem has a solution, and that solution can be found in a book. That is, until Draco starts sitting to her right every Friday. She has no answers until help comes in the form of an unlikely source: Ron Weasley.

🌻The Heart of Healing by niffizzle || @niffizzle, 5.1k (T)

Spending her Saturday volunteering at St. Mungo's was Hermione Granger’s favourite part of the week. Nothing would ruin that, not even Draco Malfoy showing up to complete his community service hours.

🌻The Importance of Being Honest by floorcoaster || @floorcoaster, 9k (T)

In the pursuit of the truth, sometimes nature lends a hand.

Draco Malfoy/Neville Longbottom

ART

🌻A Tattoo to Match by Pinkelephant42 || @pinkelephant42, Digital Art (G)

Tattoo Artist Draco Malfoy and Florist Neville Longbottom work next to each other, flirt a lot, and get matching tattoos.

Dudley Dursley/Gregory Goyle FIC

🌻Stranger in the bakery by toutcequonveut || @cequonveut, 3.6k (M)

The people of the town are confused. Dudley is confused, but then he isn't. Greg is confused, but he's in love and that's more important. Harry is very confused, but just goes with it.

Or: a glimpse into the morning after Dudley and Greg's first time, featuring bakery buns and other buns

Gen

FIC

🌻it seems to come down to us by porcelainsalt (bluedreaming) || @porcelainsalt, 1.1k (G)

Minerva takes matters into her own hands.

Ginny Weasley/Luna Lovegood

FIC

🌻Bluebells and Asters by goldenzingy46 || @goldenzingy46, 826 (G)

Luna braids Ginny's hair. Ginny complains about boys. Softness (and a little kissing) ensues.

🌻Morning Eggs by PhenomenalAsterisk || @phenomenalasterisk, 842 words (G)

Luna began her mornings with tea. Ginny began her mornings with Luna. With the first stirrings of consciousness, Ginny found herself snuggling into her beloved — Luna’s neck, her hair, her belly, wherever Ginny could reach, really, was free game for the morning ritual. Ginny would cling like a barnacle to Luna until she was lucid enough to function on her own.

🌻Sleepy Smiles by PhenomenalAsterisk || @phenomenalasterisk, 554 (G)

Luna’s eyes are still shut, though the corners of her thin lips are just barely quirked into a smile. “You missed the movie, love.” Ginny says quietly, pressing her lips against her hair in a brief kiss.

Luna tucks her head further into Ginny’s neck and murmurs back, “I woke up for the best part.” Ginny smiles. It’s not unusual for Luna to enjoy her wife’s strength, in the bedroom and otherwise, though she has never asked for something as indulgent as being carried to bed.

OR Ginny carries Luna to bed. Soft, sweet, and short bit of domestic fluff.

Ginny Weasley/Pansy Parkinson

FIC

🌻get off on whiplash by cjmasim || @lesbianlilyevans, 6k (T)

THE QUIBBLER'S 5TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY DRAWING

TWO LUCKY ENTRANTS WILL WIN AN ALL-EXPENSES-PAID WEEK-LONG TRIP TO PORTOFINO, ITALY

TO ENTER, RETURN THE FORM BELOW VIA OWL NO LATER THAN APRIL 17, 2004

Ginny manages to convince herself that entering the drawing was nothing other than a way to help a friend out by getting the numbers for The Quibbler's entries higher.

Naturally, she wins the drawing.

Harry Potter/Severus Snape

FIC

🌻How to See Without a Camera by RoonilWazlibMalfoy || @evenmyzefronposter, 11.7k (E)

Having returned to Hogwarts after his training to take over for Madam Pomfrey, Harry was just happy to be back home. He didn't even mind it when he realized he'd have to work closely with Severus Snape. One Kiss Cam incident at a Quidditch Match, however, left him wondering just how close he could get to the man.

🌻Quite The Perfect Sunday by HogwartsToAlexandria || @dwell-on-dreams, 751 words (E)

Spending all day in bed, every Sunday they could, had been on of Harry and Severus's traditions almost from the start. It was a moment just for them, which they cherished and made the most of every time.

Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood

ART

🌻Picking Daisies by dragontamerdrarry || @dragontamerdame, Digital Art (G)

Luna Lovegood has a terrace garden filled with Xenophilius Lovegood approved yellow flowers. Today, Luna’s picked some yellow daisies and is enjoying spending some quality time with her girlfriend (who has her nose buried in the hottest new Magizoology text in town!)

Hermione Granger/Narcissa Malfoy

FIC 🌻Life Is Good by Houseofmalfoy || @malfoylestrange, 1.2k (G)

Narcissa surprises herself with the number of times she thinks that little sentence, surprises herself with how genuinely happy she is with the way her life turned out, even if she’s no longer surprised at all by the person who gave it to her.

She’s happy.

Hermione Granger/Pansy Parkinson

FIC

🌻A Million Worlds Apart by SiriuslyThatBitch || @siriuslythatbitch, 13.6k (E)

After spending the bulk of her childhood fighting a dark wizard, Hermione was looking forward to a relaxing year. Too bad fate always has something else planned, including ancient spells, sarcastic roommates, and a suffocating amount of sexual tension.

🌻Exodus by cdav || @cdav, 6.6k (T)

After the war, Hermione finds herself drawn to Pansy Parkinson for reasons she can't quite explain. Parkinson is adamant that they won't work out. Hermione's determined to prove otherwise.

Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley

FIC

🌻The Perfect Moment by DameinToyland || @dameintoyland, 1.8k (G)

Hermione gets home late from work and witnesses story time with Ron and the kids. Ron is nostalgic, Hugo is excited, and Rose isn’t having any of it.

James Sirius Potter/Teddy Lupin

FIC

🌻The Waiting (Is The Hardest Part) by Ladderofyears || @clemandben, 1.1k (E)

Teddy is waiting to give Jamie a performance.

Remus Lupin/Sirius Black

FIC

🌻A Purrfect Match by captainegg || @im-captain-egg, 1.7k (G)

When Remus walked into the shelter that day, he expected to leave with a new furry companion and not meet the love of his life.

🌻Here comes the sun by PollyDarton || @polly-darton, 5.5k (M)

Honestly, screw the sun. For all I care the world revolves around you.

🌻Moonlit Reflections by MoonCat457 || @mooncat457writing, 6.4k (T)

Sirius has been pining for Remus for far too long and James is sick of it. So, when it’s James’ turn to go on a late-night scouting mission with Remus on the grounds to work on the Marauder’s Map, he sends Sirius instead with instructions to finally just admit his feelings.

#hp fests #hp fluff fest #masterlist #hp fanart #hp fanfic

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daesungindistress · 3 years

Note

The five hands pic was posted alongside a pic of his screen, noting the time on New Year’s. Maybe he was trying to mark a new beginning since it is a new year. But then, he's always been difficult to read.

Mark a new beginning by bringing back something old? You might be onto something ;) I’ll explain below.

Alright y’all, I’m back, and with a new take on his post. One that, though I had a half-formed idea about it the day he posted, New Year’s Eve my timezone, I didn’t have the peace of mind or mental clarity to make sense of it at the time, there in the thick of so much unexpected emotion, yours and mine.

While I’m undecided about how much stock I want to place in this, preferring to take a guarded approach to Jiyong and his characteristically cryptic Instagram posts from now on, I think it's worth considering. The few fans I’ve shared it with privately have agreed that it “sounds a lot like Ji.” Disclaimer: this is not an excuse for the disturbance he caused or the pain he inflicted, whether he meant to or not, whether he’s out of touch with fans or just doesn’t care. Think of this more as a genuine, good faith effort to understand what could be going through his head. Because, no, putting aside my initial impression heavily colored by the years (literally years!) of negative experiences here, I can’t agree with the shit stains of this fandom and their misplaced gloating. Jiyong did not “say BIGBANG is 5.” But he did say something. And I think his message without words deserves a closer look.

So here we go:

Quite a few VIPs are taking his post as a comeback teaser for a GD solo followed by BIGBANG. And while that may be the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if it... are you ready for it... had little to with G-Dragon or BIGBANG at all. Those two images side-by-side may have been a generic call for unity and cooperation for the world at large as we leave behind a year defined by distance and division.

First of all, it was his first post of 2021. The time stamp on his screen read 1:11 1/1/2021... really driving home the number 1. Unity, obviously.

In the background the painting Millionaire Nurse by Richard Prince is projected over him. He is wearing what appears to be a surgical mask, an instantly recognizable symbol of the sickness that dominated the year 2020, and a piece of protective equipment we carry with us into 2021 because, with cases still surging and restrictions tightening, the fight isn’t over. What’s more, of all the pics in this photoshoot, I noticed he chose one in which the word NURSE is highly visible in bright lettering across the front of his mask. A much-needed message of hope and healing for a world driven into quarantine by COVID-19. He hopes 2021 will be the year we’ll finally conquer this contagion that keeps us apart.

Still with me? Here’s where things get interesting:

In a recent interview promoting his Nike Paranoise 2.0 shoes Jiyong was asked about his one wish for 2021. “What is the 2021 'YOUTOPIA' you are hoping for?”

“I hope the world becomes healthier,” Jiyong answered. “I think that’s what everyone wants right now.”

Health and healing for the world. No mention of music, solo or otherwise. His mind is on the state of the world, not the state of BIGBANG. And he assumes everyone is on the same page.

But wait! There’s more:

That photo of interconnected hands was first posted to his IG back in 2016 but resurfaced recently in October 2020 when someone (presumably one of his or TOP's art friends, I’m not sure who this guy is) reposted it as a visual accompaniment to a rambling criticism of a country more fractured than ever before by politics and policy as its people grapple with this novel coronavirus. Jiyong came across it with his personal account and slapped a heart on it, liking it very much.

Thinking about it, trying to get a sense of where his mind may have been back then, this was roughly around the time his Paranoise shoes were being prepped for release, about which he explained, “Our footsteps are the result of our decisions. I believe you can completely change the meaning behind these sneakers depending on how you wear them.”

“Change the meaning,” he says. That isn’t limited to footwear, you know; depending on how it’s presented, it is also possible to change the meaning behind a photo. And that may be what Jiyong has just done. It's not about BIGBANG anymore, it's about something bigger than BIGBANG.

That IG post by Matt Carey Williams may well have been the first time Jiyong viewed that iconic photo from his past in a new light, through someone else's eyes, being applied broadly to something outside of BIGBANG. Perhaps he saved it and has been holding onto it in the months since, waiting for the right time to use it to make a similar statement of his own about the godawful year we’ve just left in the rearview mirror. One that will be remembered by (to name just a few) rigorous hand washing, religious mask wearing, and to the detriment of mental health worldwide (in an effort to preserve physical health)... widespread social distancing.

Like everyone, Jiyong is tired of the distance, done with the divide, fed-up with closed borders and stay-at-home orders. Fatigued by this seemingly endless cycle of self- and state-imposed separation. Family, friends, and fans advised (and in some cases required) to steer clear of each other? So this picture, this bold reminder in black and white of skin-to-skin contact, hands joined with other hands, connecting person to person... that is the return to normalcy Jiyong would like to see in the near future.

In another ask, anon observed, “It's entirely possible [Jiyong] just doesn't think Seungri has a right to infringe on his own memories or sense of ownership of BIGBANG.”

I thought that was insightful. And important to keep in mind going forward. Because unless they plan to ignore everything from their past and run from it forever (an impossible feat), sooner or later Jiyong, Youngbae, Seunghyun, and Daesung will have to take steps to take back BIGBANG. Take back their brand, their music, their art. Their memories together and their past work shouldn’t stay trapped with and tainted by their former member for the rest of their days.

This doesn’t have to be Jiyong signaling a return to the past, or even asking that we remember it; instead, I see it as him reclaiming it. Owning it in ways that are, well, his own, even if that means going about it with ambiguity. Infusing old things with new meaning in a new year ripe with the potential for new beginnings.

#and okay maybe it's a little bit about bb after all #2021 will be the year bb reunites... with vip #that fifth hand? it's ours now #😉#bigbang will be back as 4 and we'll be here to support them as such #and as always sr/ot5 fans can fuck right off 🖕#gd #ask #anon #also osen published a positive article about gd's new year's post and yg shared it to their website yg-life #yg who we can be quite sure will never acknowledge you-know-who's existence again #so I think it's safe to say koreans are not taking it as a sign of support for sr #maybe it's a cultural thing #and if kvips don't think it's cause for concern then I suppose I won't either... I'll try to be a bit more fair-minded from now on #also I wrote this like 4 days ago sorry it took so long to clean up and hit post

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scotrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (The Comic)

Hello, Hello, Hello scottaholics! And what a beautiful day it is: After decades lost in the lost woods, at least it had that catchy tune to keep it company, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The Game is FINALLY back and performing for you on all platforms!

Even Stadia, the platform most likely to disappear like this game did for a while! Cheap shots at the stadia aside as a huge fan of the franchise as a whole and of this game who played it back on the 360, and had since sold said 360 so I had no way to get it back or ever play the dlc packs. Seriously who didn’t want to play wallace but never got to? Everyone, everyone is the answer. But with those the entirety of what I consider to be the main cast is playable, it has online so you can beat up hipsters, guys in costumes and robots with your friends, it’s a good damn feeling. And since i’m in a celebratory mood, naturally i’m also feeling like a review. And since it just so happens the next volume up in my look at the comics is Vs the World, seriously I planned this review for this month without thinking to have it come out on the same day as the game until a week or two in, I felt there was no better way to celebrate the biggest day for Scott Pilgrim fans in some time.. and for Brian Lee O Malley as he’ll stop getting twitter asks about it. So with all the exposition taken care of LAST TIME, and the link right there if your curious, we can jump right in. On with the show!

After our opening titles, and yes this comic has opening titles, with Ramona sitting solmely in the rain.

And Scott caught in the title. The rain shot is real pretty by the way. But yeah once we get past those we’re taken back 7 years ago. Finn found out his father was an asshole, and voiced by Stephen Root so hey you take the good with the bad, Steven just learned the horrifying truth about Gem Monsters, Guardians of the Galaxy saved the MCU and I was trying to find work after college.. wait... sorry sorry that was 7 years ago from THIS year. The comic came out in 2005, though the comic takes place on a sliding timescale where only like 2 years pass so I dunno when this is. Let’s just say 98. Okay so 1998: Bill Cllinton’s sex scandal breaks, and puts way too much of hte blame on the young intern whose life came to be defined by one stupid mistake she made with a man who was way older and should’ve known better, the tide of the Monday Night War turned in favor of the WWF as Stone Cold Steve Austin became a household name, and it was an utterly standup year for video game relaases with Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, StarCraft, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, WWF: War Zone, Pokemon Stadium, Spyro The Dragon, Pokemon Yellow, WarioLand 2, Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Pokemon: Trading Card Game and Sonic Adventure. It’s like someone took a good chunk of my childhood and squeezed it into one year holy shit, I did not expect this when looking up what came out in 98.

And while the movie pool wasn't’ quite this amazing, we still had The Wedding Singer, The Big Lebowski, the dude abides, Batman and Mr Freeze: SubZero, The Truman Show, Mulan, the good one not the one made near concetration camps that makes her into a demigod, Saving Private Ryan, Blade, Simon Birch, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, Rushmore, Bride of Chucky, HalloweenTown, Plesantville, and the Prince of Egypt. And in music Weird Al changed from his first signature look to his second, getting Lasik and growing out his hair. Seirously had no idea that was this year. Good to know. Also Elton John got his knighthood. Super shooters. I could go on with 1998 triva for days but I cannot go on for 8 weeks so let’s get to the point here.. during alllla this Scott Pilgrim, age 16, was starting St. John’s Catholic School and a couple of guys who were up to no good started making trouble. . by threatning to beat him up for no real reason. A fight insues and we cut to the principal’s office as Scott’s still a minor and not allowed to get into death fights just yet under the people’s freedom of choices and voices act.

It’s here he meets Lisa Miler, a peppy and sarcastic blonde, who’s intrigued by the fact Scott somehow got beat up after being here just 15 minutes and wants to be friends. Naturally for scott next we see him he’s busy playing video games, and annoyed someone else is around and wondering who this person whose now in his basement is. God no wonder teenage me related to him. So for the next few pages we see their friendship in time lapse: Lisa joins him at lunch, then geninely wonders since Scott’s Untentionally a dick if he hates her.. it’s part of why I think Scott has some form of autisim. And not just because I tend to belivie a character is on the spectrum all the damn time, it’s because of the way he acts: while he is nice and charming at times.. he also clearly has trouble relating to people or realizing how his actions effect them and as seen here in a younger form can often be compeltely distanced from normal social queues, not getting how his actions might be seen until Lisa outright talks to him about it. I mean.. it’s not a huge stretch, and it dosen’t mean he’s nto responsible for his own actions, but it does EXPLAIN a lot of them better: why he just sorta forgets about Knives post-ramona but at the same time still cares enough he dosen’t want to hurt her despite you know, that ship sailing just by having moved on.

But now the two are friends and his parents, who we meet for the first time and sister inquire about her being his girlfirned.. and by next jumpcut his parents apparently don’t want him hanging out with girls? What exactly the fuck? Also they mention Laurence, Scott’s brother whose missing for most of the books and has no real payoff for not being around. Next cut we get KIM!

Thank you Prissy. And she’s.. not all that different, assuming, correctly that their partner project, how she meets scott will just result in her doing all the work.. which not only is how these things usually went when I was in high school a decade later, but reminds me of the time me and my friends curtis and justin were put on a project and when asked who the alied powers were, guessed “Germany?”.... you can understand my fear. And also Curtis punching him for getting nothing done.. and not hard or brutally mind you just once quick in the gut and with full warning. Ah... the adaquate old days.

So back to Lisa as, since Scott’s Mom has a guitar.. a fact I.. never honestly thought about. Seriously I never realized her children, since the Bass Scott has for most of the books is Laurence’s, getting into music was probably due to her. Also Lisa makes her case for WHY be a band: the school has a regular event called Lunchapalooza, where everyone goes to and since by teen logic, just being in a band is automiacally cool, she figures they can jump from not QUITE being in any cliques to being super cool. Which honestly yeah... while I didn’t know any bands in high school, the fact one of my friends, ironically named Scott, was a DJ automatically made him pretty damn cool once he got past his awkard phase. I never got past mine but somehow was loved by all except that one douchey kid in our group who mocked me for naming my Luxray kim, assuming it was based on Kim possible and not Kim Pine... though frankly how that’s an insult when Kim Possible was a fucking awesome show and character is beyond me but he was just 17 and also a douchebag, it didn’t have to make since it just had to piss off the easily pissed off kid with aspergers. So Scott poses how they can be a band with just their guitars and Lisa concedes drums WOULD help.. I mean it’s what MADE Shallow Gravy.

So while Kim wonders if Scott is dating Lisa, because teenagers don’t really get girls and boys can be friends without wanting to be together, though not often as teenage boy brains can be rather stupid and horny... can confrim from personal experince. So it becomes clear Scott has a thing for Kim, and when Scott tries broaching it with Lisa she dosen’t take it well and he backpedals to asking her to be her drummer and plans to monday, proving Scott has somehow not gotten better at reading women, or anyone after 7 years. Can relate.

So yeah he decides to ask Monday, same day as their presentation.. and thankfully missed the bus as he arrives to find the Benvy Tech boys came in, took everyone out and abducted Kim. Because yeah, just in case you were wondering Scott’s life was always like this.. or was it? Questions for later. So one Canadian Version of River City Ransom later, Scott’s made his way to simon... who, since most of you have probably seen the movie or art of the movie.. looks an AWFUL lot like Gideon. Hrmmm. Simon is naturally the final boss here and wonders if this is the best St. Joels can muster. Scott quips back as only Scott can.

So cue an unsuprisingly awesome actoin sequence. IT’s part of why I love these color editions: While they already LOOKED thoroughly fantastic the added colors really help the series shonen manga meets old school video game vibe REALLY fucking pop. So Simon pleads mercy which like Scott delivering a good quip.. should’ve really been a red flag to younger me and is foreshadowing for later in case I was too subtle. He then does what any noble hero would do.. kicks simon into the sunset, tells Kim how he feels and asks her to play drums. They then make out. Awwww.

Lisa suprisingly takes it well as the next montage shows.. granted we’ll learn in Feburary she wasn’t QUITE as over scott as it seemed, but the three, along with a friend of Lisa’s whose name I forgot and who DOSEN’T come back so I’m not going to bother learning, form their own friend group, Scott and Kim get an A, and Scott, Kim and Lisa’s band is dubbed sonic and knuckles, which is an objectively awesome band name. Something the series really does great: Video Game Based Band Names. Crash and the Boys, Sex Bomb-Omb, Clash at the Demonhead... we need more bands like this in the real world dammit. So then they play their big game, the two loose their vrigniity.. and then Kim asks scott “your moving to tornoto?” And.. for now.. that’s that.

While the framing of that will be VERY important in the last volume, as notice how KIM’S the one who brings it up and it’s not explicitly stated scott actually told her, this flasback is great. While it does contribute to the volume’s drifty pacing, more on that as we go, it brilliantly sets up a LOT of stuff for later, paticuarlly Lisa who I assumed wouldn’t be back and younger me’s jaw fucking DROPPED when she popped up in Volume 4. Granted i’m spoiling that suprise for you now but odds are most of you reading this have either alreaddy read these or were probably wondering if the girl from the animated short ever had any actual relevance in the books. So yes, yes she does. She’s also the pink haired girl you see pop up in the game in the background, as a nod to O’Malley’s comic strip style which had her and Kim as the leads. Also yeah for fans of the game or movie or even the comics who were unaware.. this prologue got an animated adaption on adult swim to promote the movie. Naturally Micheal Cera and Allison Pill reprised their roles as Scott and Kim, with Mae Whitman voicing lisa.. and honestly being perfect for the roll, and Jason Schrwartzman voicing Simon naturally. While the animation is slightly limited, it still looks decent and expertly translates O’Malley’s art, while sliming things down slightly where needed to fit a short, and the anmation takes a huge bump for the fight scene which like the comic is short but awesome. While it has no real bearing on the film as Kim’s former relationship with Scott never really comes up or has any impact, as the Film while good was based primarily on volumes 1-3 with small pieces of 4 (paticuarlly the iconic “Lesbians gag”), with Wright working off outlines and drafts of 5 and 6, so the last half hour or so is mostly Wright’s invention.

Not a bad thing as it’s still awesome and not o’malley’s fault but it means kim dosen’t get to do much, and is a big reason why I want an adaptation on netflix or hbo max. While i’d still want changes both because there’s no sense doing an adaptation if your not going to make some tweaks of your own and because it’d be intresting to update the series to modern day, both in societal conventions and so everyone stops saying the r word. Seirously the most telling sign of the series age is that word showing up quite a bit during the first half of the series. Point is there is merit in doing another remix of the story and doing a longer form one so we can get more of the characters, as well as flesh out ones like Steven, Neil (Who was done WAY better in the movie adaptation thanks to the wonderful Johnny Simmons), and Stacey who got the shaft in the books. Again, not slagging off the movie, it’s really great. Just saying there’s always room for more Scott Pilgrim content and we all know it.

We’ll get back to the comic proper, and the present day of 2005, after the cut.

So the story proper opens with Scott dreaming of playing video games... because of course he is with Ramona walking in. and finding it charmingly pathetic but wanting her boyfriend to you know, get out of bed. It’s 11:30. So with Scott’s ass out of bed, we find Scott, Age 23 idiot with a heart of gold and Wallace, 25 king of all gays, on the bus as they talk it getting warmer and Lucas Lee, movie star and jason lee stand in coming to town to film a movie.. and Scott being Scott gets him confused for Luke WIlson. He’s also seen Bottle Rocket which.. good on him. Seriously while not wes anderson’s best film, those were made long afte this comic was published, it’s still a damn good one.. where was his career at this point... looking it up life aquatic was his most recent films and is still one of my favorites. So yeah he was in a good place career wise.

Scott proudly talks about having Ramona over in a couple days so she can see his place and meet Wallace. But as explained by Wallace for those of us just tuning in, he already met her last volume. You know during that time Stacey thought she could magically make her date not be attracted to someone else.. and yes even almost a month later not letting that one go. Stacey should know better. Not saying i’ts right Wallace keeps poaching her boyfriends, but she still shoudlnt’ try and force a relationship with a guy or even finish a date with one who makes out with someone else, regardless of gender, mid date. She deserves better. In general not just in this one scenario but we’ll get to that.

Point is while Scott, as usual, is a bit pissy about this Wallace.. has no time for that and issues an ultimatium

And he’s not bluffing, as he fully intends to tell Ramona the minute she walks in the door if he dosen’t break up with Knives. It really shows Wallace off at his best and why he’s Scott’s closest friend: Kim and Stephen do care about him but Kim both has a LOT of unresolved issues and sexual tension with him and keeps eveyrbody including Scott at arm’s length. And Stephen.. while he will OCASIONALLY call Scott out mostly just enables him, either ignoring his college buddy’s shittier behavior or playing along with it and backing him up when Kim rightfully calls him on being a dickhead. While both love their friend they just aren’t the best at dealing with his shit or getting why he does the things he does good and bad. Wallace on the other hand geninely likes Scott. He’ll lock him out of the house and tell him to sleep elsewhere so he can bang one out, he’ll not wear pants if he dosen’t have to and he’ll certainly hit on Scott just to get a rise out of him, phrasing.. but he also genuinely cares for the guy’s well being. He lets him sleep in their house basically rent free since scott has no money, buys most of their stuff, and is, as we’ll see in this one, the ONLY one of his friends to take an active part in the fight against the exes, training Scott and researching his opponents when he can get info. He won’t baby Scott as seen here, but he will help him, and he will be the harsh voice of reason his friend needs. And he did TRY doing a softer approach last time, simply telling scott to break up with his fake high school girlfriend. Scott had every chance to dump Knives during the last third of the first book.. it’s just a combination of both Knives and Ramona being in the same place and Scott getting panicky meant he balked. He NEEDS to be pushed into leaving Knives or he’s not gonna. And he also gets it’s not just Scott being a shifty coward: Scott DOES like Knives.. he just found someone who actually challenges him, intrests him and connects with him on his level, versus someone who worships and adores him like a puppy who just happens to be skilled with knives. The relationship with Knives. was an ego boost, an unequal paring that gave Scott the illusion of moving on from Envy. Ramona is him ACTUALLY moving on and given how badly Envy fucked him up, which comes into play in this book and the next, Wallace recognizes that Scott does need her... but this relationship can’t go anywhere if Scott is seeing someone else, and they both know it. Wallace is just the one who’s willing to do something about it to force scott to do something about it. He’s doing this for Knives too: it’s very clear he cares about the girl, was against this from the start, and knew this was going to end in pain and the faster Scott rips off the Band-Aid the faster she can move on to someone closer to her age and far more equal to her. Scott.. takes this about how you’d expect, even calling Double Standard, as Wallace does sleep around.. and while Wallace will be a homewrecker to Stacey.. otherwise it’s not remotley the same. Wallace does his sleeping around either casually or when he does get a partner, with their consent from what we can tell. He never cheats or anything, he just likes to bone. So yeah Scott doesn’t have a leg to stand on and acts accordingly.

One of my faviorite gags in the series and one that’s etched in my head for keeps. So with a justified Ultimatium over his head Scott calls knives to hang out. Knives.. shows off that as adorable and trusting as she is.. she’s also kind of creepy and shows up just outside the phone booth he’s calling her from. So the two go to a record store and Knives tries to get Scott into Clash at the Demonhead, her faviorite band. But since i’ts you know, headlined by Scott’s ex as we’ll find out, he’s not into it. But before that can get awkward.. it gets awkward in another way as Knives invites Scott to dinner at her parents place. Which is an objectively bad idea even before you get into the fact Scott wants a way out and as Volume 4 will show us her dad is both not happy with the idea of her dating a white guy and willing to use a katana to prevent it so he dodged a bullet there. Scott TRIES weasling out of it, but his “I’m too old for you” thing falsls on deaf ears.. and actually explains why she thinks this is normal: her parents are 9 years apart. of course obviously two consenting adults with a decade between them is a mite bit diffrent than 5 years between a teenager whose taking this way too seriously and a grown man whose taking this not seroiusly at all and dosen’t get how effed up this is. But Knives is too naive to get that, and papers over any possible concerns about her parents not wanting her to date a white guy with i’m in love. Seeing that he has no EASY way out of this, as he shouldn’t, Scott just rips off the band aid and bluntly breaks up with her, saying it’s not going to work out. Knives.. is clealry devistatd. To her this was a serious relationship.. and Scott realized that too late.. and thankfully while he didn’t break up with her in the best way, at all, simply syaing i’ts not going to work out and confirming to her he means it, it’s clear from his face this hurts to do and he knows he’s REALLY hurting her and REALLY shoudlnt’ of dated her to begin with. IT’s why Scott dating a teenager dosen’t make him a morally rephrenisvie monster: because he was genuinely intrested, didn’t use her sexually, and there are tangible consequences for his actions. Knives just dosen’t disappear neatly into the sunset so he can be with ramona. The rest of the series covers her emotoinal recovery from being with Scott, and how she very horribly handles it and that’s why this plotline works at all: she’s not some act one contrivance to be thrown away, sh’es a human being, and more than that a young woman who got hurt REALLY bad and got way too in over her head with someone who just..wasn’t the one fo rher no matter how much she can’t admit that.

We also get one of my faviorite sets of pages as Scott relfects on things and the sheer devistation on Knives face, which credit to a series that even at this early point loves it’s big bold facial expressions.. her’s being more subded just makes it sting MORE.

This bit to me is vital to keeping Scott sympathetic and to his character. We see he really does regret what happened, dosen’t know how to process it and genuinely feels awful. As I said instead of some exgerated face that would still hurt him.. her face is quiet, clearly unable to process this and clealry lost and hurt.. and that hurts more than any fuck your or sobs he was probably expecting. Just her clearly not getting WHY he’s doing this or why he hurt her, and he KNOWS why he just knows telling her the truth would hurt her even more. But.. as he thinks.. his thoughts move to something else.. and the WHY of why he did this.

He did it for Ramona. Wallace was as harsh as he was right: he needed a clean slate to actually give this relationship a shot and the smile comes off less as him being a calous dick whose just happy to move on, I mean he is a little, but more jus tsomeone READY to finally move on. He found the right person, he let the wrong one go if clumsily.. he has a future to look forward to and he can smile about that.

Granted he’s still his usual unteitonally callous self and his way of telling his friends he and knives broke up is to casually say so and say “dont’ worry you’ll meet my new girlfriend soon.” Their reaction.. is my own.

Look just because Scott is a nuanced douchebag dosne’t stop him from being a Douchebag. It just means he isn’t intolerable to watch and you actually care about him growing as a human being is all.

So with that out of the way, it’s date night and Ramona is coming over.. also Scott is considering calling her Ramy which no. I'm genuinely in favor of a pet name that’s just a variant on someone’s name but a bit cute, as it’s just the right level of obnoxious, but no, just no Scott. No. Ramona enters, meets Wallace again and sits down while Scott tries to shoo him out.. because turnabout is fair play bitch. They also see Ramona’s new hair as she dyes it something new for the first time, in this case a very lovely two tone, the purple from last volume but with a darker purple bellow it. I honestly wish she went for multiple colors in her hair again, but likely didn’t since the book was originally in black and white... which still dosent’ make sense as it would’ve been EASIER that way. Regardless Wallace makes himself scarce proving that he’s more than willing to be equal in terms of one of them spending the ngiht elsewhere. What a guy.

Ramona finds out a few things about Scott: That his apartment is VERY small, just one room with a bed, a cabinet, a small kitchen and a bathroom, which despite what scott says I REALLY dont’ count as another room. Just common sense. She also learns that he can COOK. Yeah while you’d expect Scott to just get a wad of “I did the ultimatum thing okay now gimme” money and buy dinner but no.. he made the whole thing himself from his own recipe. And once we cut to them eating on the floor.. turns out yeah he not only can cook but is REALLY good at it. She wishes there was a table which, small as the place is.. fair point. I mean at least get some tv trays. You have chairs. Or at least the easy chair. You can get nice padded folding chairs so you have a second chair guys. I know your poor but come on. Also Scott leanrs bread makes you fat. Good stuff. Also Scott freaks out when , while making out with Ramona in bed later, she mentions his hair’s getting kinda long and could use a cut... which turns out to be a thing for him. He isn’t an ass about it he just panics a bit because he’s partially convinced his last relationship’s nightmarish breakup was because of a bad haircut he got. As we’ll see next week, that’s a no but as someone whose a touch neroutic myself I get blaming a larger issue on something trivial.

So we then get to the next chapter where it’s KIM’S turn to have a dream.. and the only time we see someone else's dreams. Honestly.. I really would’ve liked if it was a recurring device, even have Ramona pop into other people’s Not used ALL the time but I could easily see it being used with Knives to convey her obsession with Scott and her pain or kim again to help move her plots along or Wallace because I want to know what’s going on in his head. It must be a maze of male gentalia and fine liquor the likes of which has never been seen. It’s scotts funeral as Simon killed him and Scott’s corpse wonders if she dreams about this a lot.

So we see her get ready and wake up her roomate Sarah whose a bitch. And as we’ll see in one of the backups, so’s the rest of her roommates. So drifting into work. Hollie is a character I really liked... the past tense will be explained later. And the first scene is probably why as her and Kim banter effortlessly, with Kim suggesting maybe she was a happy kid... only to admit quickly no she wasn’t, she was pretty withdrawn and then pretty angsty over someasshole who will be named Scott. “Your a holy terror kim, and i’m glad your on your side”> It’s a short scene but the kind this series excells at: just realistic, fun little exchanges bursting with character. I also GENUINELY wish we got more of this kind of thing, as only Knives really gets these kind of scenes to herself for the most part. There ARE scenes without Scott, but not enough like this that just give us as look into what his friends lives are like during the moments they aren’t putting up with his dumbassery or watching him engage in mortal combat. It’s why i’ve been hoping a spinoff will happen even though it likely won’t SOON. I’m sure O’Malley will return to this world some day, but between Snotgirl and Wicked World, which will come out when it’s ready but should be good.. he’s just really busy. But i’d love to see more of Kim.. or Wallace or Knives. The latter two are a no brainer: Knives is the tritagonist of the books, and it’d be intresting to see what she’d be like 5 years at the book, at the same age and stage in life as Scott. And with Wallace it’s because we really DON’T see his friend circle, life or what goes on with him. We hear him talk about a new boyfriend, who we don’t meet until near the end of the series, though you can see him in stage 3 of hte game if your curious, we see him with some random friends in volume 4, but we really don’t KNOW what hyjinks and lojinks wallace gets up to. He’s pretty isoalted from the rest of the main cast, something I hope an adaptation could fix as while realistic i’td be curious to see what his relationship with Kim or Steven would be like. Just food for thought.

Point is this was a good scene. But as is typical for Kim’s life just when she has some serenity her ex crashes back in. In this case Scott needs to rent some movies, kim works at a rental store and god teenage me really wanted a clerks style spinoff.. but enough spinoff talk. Scott asks kim to bororw them, of course and explains he’s training for his fight with Lucas.. which Kim reacts to finding out her second best friend is in a series of death matches.

She has understandable questions such as how the hell doe she know that and is he stalking Lucas and just hoping he’s an ex.. which let’s face it would be a very scott move. But nope Wallace told him, likely learning in an interview he dated Ramona or is coming for scott because he knows everything. We also get one of my faviorite exchanges when Kim wonders why Wallace and Scott are roomates.. a valid question he deflects by saying i’ts a long story.

Also yeah, as much as casting Micheal Cera backfired for the movie.. that panel there proves there wasn’t another choice at the time. When you want a loveable, somewhat douchey, but also somewhat innocent and oblivious slacker.. who you gonna call. Also before we move on.. Kim.. how are you this suprised. You were there for the fight with Matthew. And Ramona giving out the exposition on why he’s there.. and you even did that whole weird space channel 5 thing no one ever did agian and to this day I will never understand what O’Malley was going for and only know the refrence by hearing that’s what it was. Point is you shouldn’t be this suprised. Anyways we next cut to Ramona and Stacey, as Ramona enters her workplace, second cup, and they talk and Scott’s spider sense goes off...

I mean it’s just a bad feeling but still.. weird. WE’ll get back to that later. Scott is in the middle of his training.. and I love the mentor side of Wallace and feel it didn’t get used enough as the series went on. As said before he cares about Scott, so he serves as his Shounen Mentor and a great one: he’s stern and makes Scott work, but he also gets his student and what Scott needs to work. I just wish he’d taught Scott some actual combat, but as we see Wallace’s combat skills boil down to yelling useless info from the sidelines.. I mean he can be useful, we’ll see that next week, it’s just he’s not an action guy. But spirtually he’s the guy scott needs to kick his ass into shape. That being said his “training” consists of watching Lucas’ movies, playing tony hawk and when Scott wants to play more Tony Hawk, having Scott do pushups while Wallace plays Tony Hawk. Before we turn... there is an elephant in the room I just gotta shoo out: Lucas.. is easily the worst setup of the 6 exes. Patel SEEMINGLY comes out of nowhere but his letter and email hint SOMETHING is coming up, and his flashy dynamic entry intro is damn cool and is what turns the series on it’s head, from an indie comic about a guy getting it together.. to that but with huge shonen dustups with epic visuals. Todd is introduced masterfully here, and is a presence from the start of volume 3 as a result, Roxie gets a slight tease in the free comic book day issue, and her not attacking for two months not only sets up tension but allowed for a red herring.. im’ not only hiding that the fourth ex is a she because anyone whose seen the movie or played the game knows the fourth ex is a woman. The cat’s out of the bag, no sense hiding it. The Kentangis show up pretty early on and Gideon is hinted at and built up, as this towering, mysterious figure, his relationship with Ramona, who he is, why he set up the league, and just how fucking strong he is is all obscured, with his only four apperances simply teasing the big final showdown and giving him that much more mysitque.

Lucas.. is just sorta intorduced like “Hey I gotta fight this guy”. There’s just.. nothing. Scott’s just gotta fight him because he’s next up and Wallace knows that because plot convience. It’s VERY lackluster given what comes before.. and frankly while I like Lucas, he’s the weakest plot and character wise. HE’s not even really EVIL, just a sellout and is more doing this because he has to I guess, and likely because of stuff we find out in Book 6 but sssssshhhhh. We’ll get more into that when the fight happens but it’s one of the books weakest points. The evil ex.. just feels like an afterthrought again despite there being no reason to. Thankfully this would never happen again as I said, but it dosen’t make this any less frustrating.

So we cut to Sex Bomb-Omb practice, and after that we get more tease for Clash at Demonhead. And Stephen.. is cool with them and entirely happy one of them made it, while Scott is understandably pisssed off about it and not happy one of his best friends is you know, promoting the band of his ex who broke his heart and as we’ll get more into next time, said rising career is what tore them apart. So yeah Stephen’s a dickhead, and I was wrong last time that he got better. He really.. dosen’t. He gets less CREEPY.. but out of the main 6 characters he’s the weakest: he dosen’t have much of an arc, does some very questionable shit in the second half, and his being around means we have to suffer through Julie. I’ll tear into him more on a case by case basis but for once Scott’s not overreacting. While Kim does nothing she also has no idea just HOW bad things were and Scott won’t tell her. Stephen was there the whole fucking time. He just saw Scott’s rebound with a teenager. He knows he was kind of messed up after this. Dosen’t justfiy knives but still he looses the moral high ground he tries to have at times.

So while Scott shops a song for Ramona to her, Knives calls Scott’s place clearly setting up another suprise apperance. Wallace.. figures out what sh’es doing quick and simply gives her a stern “You have to go” And to me it’s not him being a dick.. he’s both trying to save her from seeing Scott with Ramona and fucking her up worse... and is looking out for her. She needs to move on and moving up to stalking Scott’s not going to help that. Scott dosen’t WANT her anymore, and while he handled it bad, Wallace gets she needs to see that. Granted he could’ve you know explained it to her and tried talking, but as i’ve said he’s not a perfect person and he was also on a time table to get her out of there in case Scott you know, showed up with his new girlfriend and made things a billion times worse. And the two are indeed headed to his place to watch one of Lucas’ movies, and part of that weak setup is that Ramona.. just has no connection with him. It was high school. Scott also pretends he dosent’ remember his. You are a lying liar sir stop that. So they watch the film together hanging out, and it’s.. really bad. The good one was rented out. I miss rental stores.. a magical time. I mean i’ts better now, streaming means 80% of movies are avaliable if you have a bunch of services and even if you just have netflix or hulu or hbo max, you still get a pretty decent selection each month. Plus digital rentals are super easy. Do miss redbox though. I mean it’s still there I’m just warry of something that relies so heavily on touching things in a state with a lot of trump morons. You CAN get Covid twice and I don’t wanna. Also we get some dated Dialouge as Scott commenting on Lucas being hot, he is good taste Scott, is given a “good job convincing me your not gay”. He and ramona end up having sex though so .. yay? I dunno. The series has a really weird thing about not getting bisexuals exist and as someone whose bi, and really against bi errasure it bothers me, it bothers me a lot. Though given O’Malley apparently has not only far more queer rep in snotgirl but a bisexual lead, he’s clearly learned so i’m not going to drag him too hard on this. It was the early 2000′s. People were pretty damn stupid about this. Creators have gottten MUCH more important issues much worse.

So the next morning, Scott gets a call from his well meaning but ditzy mom, and reacts like you’d expect. His parents are in Europe to keep them out of the action and what not. Though apparently according to the last book his mom did read volume 3 at least. Or Wallace told her about the relevant bit. You make the call.

So i’ts Ramona’s turn to meet Sex Bomb-Omb. The group hang out and discuss Gordon Downie.

Look I don’t know indie bands. I have no idea who the tragically hip are I just know the name is really hipstery. We also get the recipe for Vegan Shepards Pie. None of them are vegan they just wanted to try it and I.. really want to make this some time. Just to see if it’s any good. But yeah it’s in general a fun casual scene, as Kim reveals she and Scott dated, just to break the tension, and Scott tries out Rammy but quickly backpedals. Just fun slice of life stuff. Oh and Knives is watching them from the window and takes Scott dating someone else as well as you’d expect.

So she gets some hair bleach to do some highlights and calls her friend Tamara over. We met her last volume as she dragged her along to the show, but it’s here we really get to know what she’s like.. i.e. the sane one in the duo, rightfully pointing out Scott’s not that great. Also Knive’s points out ramona’s “fat”, which is thankfully portrayed as petty sniping as while Ramona does have some curves it’s you know.. not remotely a bad thing and the kind of thing a teenage girl would harp on. Still she’s just in STEPS from this happening.

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But yeah.. it’s clear here Knives has some underlying issues to address and really needs therapy not to go after her ex’s current girlfriend with knives. I mean it’s in the name but still. Then again volume 4 has her dad going around with a katana or something like it wanting to murder her daughter’s older ex boyfriend he dosen’t realize is ex so it’s clear her whole FAMILY needs some therapy. But this does round her out and show there’s more to her.. a pretty violent and obessive side sure, but it shows she wasn’t just some one dimensional ego boost for scott but a person. One whose just as flawed as the rest of the cast.. but more sympatheic because they’ve all got about 6 or 7 years on her and at this age that’s a lifetime. And while Scott DID set this off by dating her which was objecitvely a bad idea... the rest of this isn’t remotely on him. He handled things BAD.... but all he wanted was for both of them to move on. Knives.. simply can’t admit Scott is not a nice person, was probably two timing her as Tamara points out, which as we know he 100% was, and is not some perfect guy she can’t replace: like Knives.. he’s just a person with faults and she’s too blind to see that.

So before we can get to the crazy stalker ninja fight, let’s instead get to Scott and Ramona hanging out where we meet Gideon, Ramona’s Cat who i’ll call Cat Gideon, both because I love steven unvierse and because it’s less confusing. This is a pretty slight scene as Ramona admits not a lot happened with Lucas and Scott’s apartment is a hole.. which yeah, yeah it is. Also she DEFINTLY dind’t cheat on him with any cocky pretty boys. Which would come off worse if it wasn’t for the pact Ramona was clearly doing it out of regret and Scott just liked like 50 pages ago about rembering his exes when one of them is his second best friend.. which neither would admit but you know it’s true. Stephen is third where he belongs.

So next morning it’s fight time, and Scott is glad wallace is going with him. It’s awkard going to fights alone. Which leaves me to wonder if before this comic Scott just.. fought random guys letterkenny style. Like they’d call up, schedule it and then he and one or more of his friends would go beat up a guy. It’s just.. hilarious knowing that this kind of thing is common in canda minus the ki attacks , flash effects, wizards, vegan psycics, ninjas, and roboticists. But damn I now want a scott pilgrimized letterkenny now more than ever. You know you do too don’t deny it. I”d love to see the hard right jay fight but iwth a loud “KO!” when he gets his ass knocked out. Also Casa Loma is a very real, very cool Toronto location, as I never realized as a kid, to the point that the lucas fight was filmed there for the movie.

So Scott approaches Lucas a bit star struck and upon finding out scott is.. punches him out as seen in the header image and throws him into a tower. When Scott regains conciousness, Kim and Neil have arrived and Lucas calls a time out. And it’s here we get to, while being the weakest of the 7, why I like Lucas.. he’s actually a pretty nice guy. At WORST he sold out. But the two have a pretty nice conversation over ritz and baby carrots, with it turning out, unsuprisingly Ramona did cheat on him with a cocky pretty boy, and while like Ramona he’s clearly moved on, it still hurts a bit and understandably so. He also warns scott while she might seem nice i’ts an act.

I mean it isn’t ALL an act, but she does have a tedency to put up walls and act pretty badly as we’re slowly finding out.. though given Scott does the exact same it only means.. she’s human. She’s not MUCH higher above him in terms of morality and this is where we get our first peaks into the fact the series isn’t just about Scott’s development but hers. But it’s understandably absent from volumes 1 and 2 since we need to know her first, and this volume is about getting to know her a bit and get a feel for who she is, something I ddin’t really get a grip on as a teen, but do now. We see more of who she is good and bad as the walls go down. She’s more SURFACE LEVEL functional than scott, but beneath it has a lot of the same exact issues. Lucas and Scott continue to GENUINELY bond, as Scott genuinely thinks the guy is talented and Lucas want’s an Oscar this year.. maybe not for the current film which is a romantic comedy with a teen star but hey, stars have done far worse in their Oscar years. I mean at least he’s not making a comedy about himself in a fat suit domestically abusing himself in a wig while he also plays an asian sterotype. He explains he almost didn’t get into the league but felt too important to ramona’s past.. plus he looks cool. Plus they let Patel in despite barely being in a relationship with her and being kind of a tool so they kinda had to let the handsome affiable movie star in. Scott wonders “wait league” and Lucas is understandably frustrated to find out Patel just sent a letter Scott didn’t read.. and at Matthew let’s be clear. I mean.. Gideon has to have known Scott wouldn’t read that since he’s been in his head. We’ll get to that in part 6. Point is they formed a league, hence why their organized enough to come after him like this and Scott understandably glares at Wallace for you know, having him play tony hawk and watch movies yet missing the fucking obvious clue they were all working together and they were only coming at him one at a time by choice.

Lucas offers to just.. take a bribe and SAY Scott beat him, Scott calls him a sellout jokingly and Lucas proves that while not AS bad as the rest of the League, he’s still a dick by telling him to kiss ramona’s sweet ass goodbye pilgrim. Okay either he’s seen her since high school or he’s fondly remembering a high schooler’s ass. Neither one is nice to think about. But Scott gets out of his ass beating by pointing out a ramp, real thing too used for the movie, and asking him to skate down it. Lucas says i’ts impossible, and Scott just whistles. So Lucas tries skating the impossible and dies via velocity. Yes really. Scott collects his change and gets a gift, a mytryil skateboard he.. can’t use because he dosen’t have a proficency for it and bemoans not picking it up in 5th grade. Also he didn’t get his autograph. He does get some coins though so neat. Yeah I mentioend Lucas was the least of the exes and I stand by it: He’s an intresting character, not a GREAT person but clearly a charming and nice enough guy who likely offered the bribe not because he’sd a sell out but because he genuinely liked scott, and is easily the best adjusted of the exes. But obviously a near non existant setup and a really hilarious and unsastifying finish just.. don’t really feel sastsifying. I mean i’t slampshaded, but after all the build up of her having 7 evil exes, the next one is just..filler. Not BAD, but not really anything special and giving Scott a an early pokemon victory, but unlike ash having done nothing to really DESERVE it. Thankfully both adaptations so far VASTLY improved on this. While Lucas is still affiable in the movie he’s also smarmy, if on better terms with Ramona, saying “he seems nice” after the tower throw and throwing in some stunt doubles. His fight goes from one of the least satisfying and weakst of the series, to easily one of the best of the movie. We’ll talk about that more there but obvious Chris Evans version is far superior, keeping the good traits while giving us an intresting fight.. and still keeping the skateboard death because it’s fucking hilarious and the movie improves on THAT too by having scott give flat wows as he slowly dies. The game likewise keeps teh skateboard death, if shortening it, and the skateboard, and while not changing his apperance does make him a hell of a tough boss. Took three tries and some online grinding to take him out. Still a hell of a fight. Point is while I genuinely like Lucas story wise.. this just dosen’t work for me and is pretty damn weak, even if it gives us some godo character insight we could’ve got that, and a fight and still had the finish we did.

That being said.. we DO get a fight instead, likely why the Lucas fight was so truncated. Next chapter and that evening or the next day or whatever, we pan over the real life tornto refrence library. It is a VERY nice touch thatt the comic and it’s adpations use either real places in toronto or reasonable subsittues. While not canadian myself I love the place and hope to visit Tornoto some day when the world isn’t a living nightmare and it’s really nice that like New York for Marvel, Brian Lee O malley really makes the city feel integral to the comic, like it’s own character. But Knives is ominously perched above. At second cup Scott is horrified to find Julie. Seconded. Julie takes the moment to give out to scott about him dating Ramona despite telling him no. Okay...

Yeah as you can probably guess I don’t like Julie. She’s not a good character. The movie did her better, with the bleeping gag and aubrey plaza’s performance, but in the comic.. she’s just the worst. She sucks bad. If she were an ice cream flavor she’d be pralines and dick. While she’s fine on OCCASION, and actually works in the next volume, outside of that she just gets more unplesant, more unlikeable, more bitchy, more unfathomabbly assholish every. damn. volume. I”ll give out about that a bit then too but I have to put up with her for the entire damn comic. Now her being bitchy to Scott is fair to a point: Scott is a mess, and she’s loyal to Envy in the breakup, and Scott’s own friends drag him on a daily basis. The problems are that she’s like that to EVERYONE, even Knives who isn’t about to stab her much as i’d like that. She’s unberable to Stephen whose tolerance for her is unfathomable, though the ending bits of volume 6 show maybe he just has terrble taste. She’s just a throughly unplesant, social climbing bitch who thinks she’s better than everyone. And it sticks out badly against the main cast; Scott is very bad with women and relating to people, but is also nice, charming and most of the damage he does is not intetional. Ramona puts up walls to keep others out but is also a responsible adult and often cuts through Scott, and at times others, internal bullshit. Wallace is an alcholic, but still a very responsible, very loveable guy who clearly cares about scott and supports him finacially and emotionally. Kim is VERY emotionally distant, very misntrhopic.. but also a good person who as we see as the series goes, has an inner light to her and often drags on Scott because she’s been putting up with his shit the longest and WANTS him to be better. Knives is an obessive and violent stalker.. who was also deeply hurt by an older man, dosen’t GET that her realtionship with scott was wrong and uneven, and is clearly not emtoinallyr eady for the deep feelings she’s having. And Stephen.. well he’s a talented guitarist but also enables scott and julie. Especially him enabling Julie.

Point is their all pretty well rounded, llikeable characters with flaws. Julie.. is just an ass. And this scene demonstrates that with flying colors. While Scott does ignore her because he’s too worried about his sister and girlfriend becoming friends, understandably given Stacey knows all his dark secrets, Julie spends two pages giving out and treating scott like some bad guy for persuing Ramona against her orders. And i’m going to break down why.. this dosen’t work.. on any level for her. 1) Ramona is not Julie’s property. She’s a big girl with her own free will. They aren’t even remotely close: Julie met her only barely before Scott, and given the dream thing probably not even that. And you could say Julie is just looking out for her... she dosen’t know Ramona well enough to KNOW if Ramona is still smarting over Gideon. She probably was.. but she readily, once the awkwardness passed, went out with scott and dove right into the relationship. While there’s still some scars as we’ll see.. she CHOOSE to move on and that’s her choice. If she wasn’t ready, she woudl’ve turned him down or broke it off by now realizing it was a mistake. 2) Scott has no reason to listen to her. She hates his ass, somewhat justifably but still, she hates him and has been against him since fucking colllege. She took his exes side in the breakup despite Envy still being partly in the wrong but paints him as some abusive dickhead and not just an insesntive dickhead. To him he’s just some villian she needs to reign in for her cool friend who wants nothing to do with her and grows to justifably hate her over time. Scott and Julie TOLERATE each other. They are not friend,s they do not like each other and never will. They are around each other because of Stephen. That is it. If Kim , Wallace or Stephen had asked, or at least made him wait for kinves. he probablyw ould’ve or at least considered it since while they take the piss out of him, they genuinely care about him and actually have shown they care about something other than themselves! Speaking of which the cou de gras 3) She’s a selifsh bitch: She is NEVER not in any volume seen as out for anyone but herself, and thus scott has no reason to trust her judgement. She berates Stephen, him and anyone who will listen, is only so loyal to envy because she’s famous, and as I said treats EVERYONE like dogshit. And given Scott is still a very flawed guy.. it takes a LOT for him to be so right and he runs out screaming when Julie mentions her.

So back at the library, Ramona brought Stacey along because the place is a maze. Scott calls Stephen and calls julie evil.. which given the last two paragrahs. Yeah. She is. She really is. But that goes nowhere as he dosen’t have Stacey’s number. He also thinks Julie was responsible for this which while she’s very much not.. would it REALLY be that suprising that if Julie were there she would’ve introdcued the two and set up their little hangout just to piss scott off? God I’m so sick of talking about her.

So the two after dropping off Ramona’s package decide to hang out a bit.. not long as Ramona’s got shit to do, but hey I agree with her logic i’m curious about this palce too. But before they can go up an elevator Ramona spots incoming.. and thus we get the fight of the volume. Though given the next one has two climatctic fights and one or two before that, they easily could’ve had both.. this is still the highlight of the volume. So Ramona snaps off a railing and before Stacey can give out about that she finds out WHY as Knives attacks with a pair of sais. And O’Malley did his homework as while you’d THINK it was just another dumb white person mistake.. O’Malley is asian, thoughw ether he’s candaian korean or canadian chineses, as his last name is korean but he has a large chinese cast in this very comic that might come from experince, I do not know and if you do know tell me. I’d like to refer to him properly as I don’t LIKE lumping all asian cultures into one basket. But not only that he did his home work, as Sai’s, while popularized in Okinawa Japan, were also used in other countries. I bring this up since I assumed it was just a simple mistake even knowing Brian was mixed-race, and was plesantly suprised to fine that know, I was the moron. And i’m fine with admitting that.

So we get a damn good fight.. and Knives figures out Scott WAS cheating on her. Granted she assumes so due to seeing Ramona at the refrence Library, before he actually cheated and clearly blames Ramona for it, but still, it fucking hurts. Plus while her attacking Ramona, who initally assumes she’s gideon’s doing, which.. yeah sending a teenage assasian just to mess with her head does sound like him. So while Stacey does complain “ramona you can’t just tear out art objects” to which I say... yeah high, Stacey? NOT THE POINT RIGHT NOW SCOTT’S EX IS TRYING TO KILL HER. SHE’S DEFENDING HERSELF. So we get one hell of a fight. It not only shows off that Ramona is one hell of a fighter herself, as is knives, but just how immature knives is, resorting to constnat fat jokes and taunts showing just how immature she is.. and unlike volume one where it was endearing and we just saw how sweet she was here it just comes off as mean, bitter, and uncomfortable. But again part of the series biggest charm is the main cast are all well fleshed out and throughly human. She’s doint this because she dosen’t know better and was raised in a house where, again as volume 4 will bear out, finding out her dad is going after scott with a samurai sword just warrants a “dad’s are so weird aren’t they” my point is her frame of refrence is a mite skewed. Plus this is a world where everyone but Stacey just calmly accepts big shonen fights break out, so it’s not that unsuaul to want to settle things with a fight and while i’ve joked about her killing Ramona we genuinely don’t know that was the goal> Could’ve been, easily given murder is peachy in this setting and just leads to a respawn according to O’Malley and would’ve just sent ramona back to her apartment. But I genuinely don’t think she has it in her to do it and while she could’ve planend to, she never would’ve. Plus Ramona easily leads the fight as while Knives uses hit and run tactics and tries make her follow.. Ramona is more annoyed than anything as she has shit to do. Knives only gets one hit in and while i’ts a pretty nasty scratch on the cheek, if thankfully not scarring.. Ramona shrugs it off when she brags about it and easily takes knives down with a potted tree. Knives runs and while she tells herself it’s to fight another day.. its really because her opponent was WAY stronger and way more ready for something like this than she probably planned on. She did defintely want a fight, she just wasn’t prepared to be outmatched so handily. It’s also a nice parallel to last book’s fight: Like with Scott and Matthew, while the fight SEEMS pretty even, in reality our hero/heroine was alwasy teh one in control and easily took care of the less experinced and less ready upstart, who likely wasn’t expecting a fair fight much less to loose.

So Ramona and Stacey wisely get out while Stacey explains Knives is indeed Scott’s ex, though is unaware of the cheating thing. Speaking of Scott he’s playing sonic and knuckles, and in fact kept wallace on the line before just to get advice because of course he did hence why stacey didn’t get through to him, but gets a call... from Envy.

This is easily the second best sequence in the boook, which was lovingly and wonderfully adapted to film and as a result I cannot read it without hearing Brie Larson’s voice for Envy , a nice mixture of seduction and condescension. It’s CLEARLY painful fo rhim, and we do get some things established as Envy toys with him, that it’s been about a year and that she left him for a cocky pretty boy, familiar.. and while Scott claims to not know what he looks like.. given Todd is clearly on her band cover... it’s not exactly hard to put two and two together. So after some awkard catchup and Scott telling her about ramona against his will, we get to the reason she’s here with Scott understanndbly being supscious and calling her a user.. which while Envy denys.. she ends up admitting to. She’s coming to town as estalbished and her opening act backed out, and since Scott has a band, and one that 2/3 of which she knows, she wants them to open for her. Scott naturally isn’t too intrested and thinks it’s just pity. The sequence. is masterful, using a watchmen style 9 by 9 panel layout and intercutting scott’s pained reactions and clear lack of comfort with flashes of envy on her side.. never showing her proper, but showing his memories or what he’s seen in magazines. It’s really striking and really sells the sheer discomfort Scott’s going through. So soon after Wallace gets home.. and finds Scott, drained and miserable on the floor, not even responsive. And this really is the scene that shows me that Wallace cares for the guy and cements that asshole he may be, he loves his buddy. He goes through possible scenarios that fit scott: Food poisoning, finding out Wallace saved over his final fantasy save (though he rules it out as last time that happened he was crying), that ramona dumped him.. before Scott let’s out a pathetic and miserable “Ennnnnvvv”. Wallace , who was at ground zero for that relationship as we’ll find out, realizes this and lets out a little shit, unsure how to help and pissed off at that bitch for once again hurting him like this. As I said it shows how Wallace knows scott in and out and loves him dearly.. and how he knwos about this paticuarly heartbreak better than anyone but Scott and Envy themselves. IT’s just a really tearjerking scene, as we get a sense of WHY scott spiraled into an ego boost of a relationship: His last one REALLY tore him in half, and he’s still not completely healed from the emtional bisection.

So Scott gets more bad news next chapter as Stacey tells him about the fight and he’s worried he’s going to loose ramona on top of this. I mean he desrves it.. .but it’s clear she’s the best thing to happen to him after a really rough year of denial and poor decisionss and loosing her will likely only make him WORSE. He also breaks the bad news, to him at least to the band about the gig. Stephen, being kind of a dick who while understandbly excited about a big gig fails to see his friend REALLY isn’t happy about this nor remembers you know, that the person offering this tore his heart out indiana jones style and while they should take the gig despite the risks, it’s too big an opportunity not to, he should be fucking senstive about this. Kim however... has a suprising and heartbreaking reactoin to this. Which is spread over a few panels but i’m gonna string into one image for convince sake.

Just.. DAMN. I honeslty missed this both as a teenager and as an adult when I read through the books last time but holy shit is this a heartbreaking little moment, even more with the development she gets in later books. Keep in mind, over two books so far, Kim.. really hasn’t shown a lot of emtion. The most upset she’s gotten was getting a bit pissed about another a girl drummer. The only other time we’ve seen her sad was at 17 when Scott left. Her only emotions that we could see were angry and surly. But here? She’s genuinely upset and we see her walls break down for the very first time.. and it’s with the clear indication she NEVER really got over Scott. She never got proper closure and while she hasn’t let it so.. it’s been VERY clear she's been grossly uncomfortable with how he just likes to brush off their history, something that very clearly still bothers her and understandably so: 6 years , while a lot of time, still really isn’t long enough to just .. FORGET your first boyfriend , how he made you feel or the fact he took your virginity and you took his. Stuff like that sticks with you.. I’m ony assuming on the virginity thing but my point remains: To Scott it’s SEEMINGLY nothing, when really he’s probably just trying to brush it off because he dosen’t like dealing with things and given how Kim is wrongly assumed she can’t feel pain. I mean to anyone else i’d be a fair assumption and even i’m not convinced if she touched a hot stove she’d burn, but that’s phsysical this is emotional. DIffrent playing fields. Point is Scott’s kind of a dick and not having ANY closure for anything, Kim is still smarting from him leaving as much as Scott is smarting from Envy dumping him. And it somehow gets MORE painful.... which should’ve been the tagline for Bojack Horseman now I think about it but yeah: her line is what cuts me up the most “I saw her on the cover of Now. She’s pretty”. It’s a little line, it’s easy to see why I missed it .. but the subtext really stings. It’s that despite being VERY pretty, I had a crush on her as a kid and I still do now.. Kim just can’t help but compare herself to someone whose now a glamrous rock star. Their equally attractive but all Kim can see is ANOTHER person who Scott cared about more than her. Which seems petty but again he just.. abnadoned her. His moving wasn’t his choice but his not telling her as was framed earlier sure as hell was. And then just.. look at the next people he dates: A glamorous rock star (She wasn’t at the time but that’s for next week), a much younger girl who can’t possible challenge him, and an ultra cool american. To her.. it must feel like he just looks right through her to every other person intersted in him and never even consdered her as a person anymore. I mean.. jesus christ that hurts.. and makes me hate Stephen more since you know he dosen’t notice any of this.. though at least unlike with Scott it’s a bit more understandable because Kim’s so unflappable and he’s already ignoring very obvious and transparent emotional pain why shouldn’t this be any diffrent. So yeah no one’s happy about this, and that ends up including Stephen as he’s so insecure about his band’s talent he’s pretty sure they suck when their probably at least adaquate.

So while Scott dosen’t say anything, it’s clear he’s at least consdiering the offer as when we next see him he and ramona are heading to Envy’s show. And honestly it’s just a really sweet scene as Ramona asks about envy and the two banter and hold hands. A really nice palletee clensar since hte last few pages were like I was the one lucas socked in the gut. Also she assures him she dosen’t hate him, and asks about how the breakup happened, turning down any offers to hear the good times. It was new years eve one year ago, and he mentions it was over her leaving to meet some guy named Todd.. and Ramona finds the story familiar but brushes off Scott wondering if her todd and Envy’s todd wer ethe same guy as a douchey joke. When prying about what happened otherwise, Scott admits it was all a blur.. Ramona isn’t ahppy with the answer.. but it’s nto like it’s that unresonable: he was in deep with Envy, and the breakup was damn bad to the point it took a year for him to recover and end up in the relationship he is now and the one before this was clearly a cry for help. It also helps reinfroce just how much Wallace was there for him and probably WHY Wallace hates Envy so much. They probably live together simply because Scott needed a place after college, was in zero condition to get a job or do anything given his zombie like state.. and Wallace just had him move into his bed, platonically and into his place. It’s probably why while Wallace will complain ocasoinally he isn’t that on scott to find a job. He dosen’t need a paying roomate, they do fine just on his sallary and he has a steady, secure job in some sort of calling office, probably working in medical stuff like my mom. He needs his friend to be safe and happy, then he can get on his ass about being functional, as he is in present day. If nothing else this volume made me realize just how good a person Wallace is. The one thing he CAN remember, to Ramona’s disbelif is a restraunt opening up, the job story he hinted at last volume: basically it was a fancy tex mex place called, and this is one of the best restraunt naems in the history of fiction brace yourself: The Gilded Palace of Flying Burritos. Naturally, as would I as I love tex mex and that name, Scott loved the place, ate there most of the week and like me with some places I liked waited impatietly to get a job. He did and they were even super generous as the food was FREE. Which is a euphoric feeling I relate to, though I also liked any discounts I got. seriously when I worked at Bagel and Bagel a good chunk of my paycheck was eating there for dirt cheap every shift. I miss that place so much. Like even after I left there I still like a good bagel sandwitch. And it wasn’t covid or anything it was just low staffed and slowly coming apart due to a lack of a solid manager after Crystal, the manager who hired me, transfered to a store closer to her home, which I do not blame her for.

Point is I get it even if Ramona thinks this is all made up. Anyways at Lee’s Place, based on the real life Leo’s place, everyone’s gussied up: Steven got an awful haircut and Kim...

But no time to dwell on how great kim’s..everything is.. who DID Neil bring to the concert?

While Kim is VERY much enjoying this, everyone else is a bit freaked with Ramona getting assurance her and Scott dated breifly, with Kim quipping her and neil will probably date even breiflyer, and Stephen.. freaking out, wondering if she seduced him, and asking if they should take him out back and kick his ass..

Just..... that’s a lot of douche to unpack and this review has been VERY long and suprisingly hard already.. but fuck it, we don’t have much left to go let’s do this. Okay one did she seduce him.. I mean I GUESS, but really let’s be clear here: Neil is a horny, lonely, monosolobic 19 year old who lives with his sister’s college friend and whose life revovles around said guys band. Knives is adorable. She likely barely had to flirt with him to get him to say yes .As someone who was a lonely 19 year old doofus, I guarantee no matter the red flags I probably woudl’ve said yes provided she was 18 instead of 17, despite the abudant red flags such as neil vaugely looking like scott, neil being the one single man within scott’s circle to get her way back in, as Knives hasn’t realized she’s bi yet or given how much she looked up to Kim, she probably WOULD’VE gone for it. As would any sane person, which neither knives nor I entirley are. So she didnt’ so much seduce him as offer him a girlfriend he didn’t have and him being too intrested in having a sweet, caring girl on his arm to see the giant army of adrestian soldiers needed to carry all the red flags this presents.

And as for “do we need to kick his ass. “ Stephen.. did you kick SCOTT’S ass? No, you fucking abetted him and only stepped in for the good girl thing. You did NOTHING to stop his relationship with knives or tell him he was screwing up or look out for that girl’s well being. This will bite him in the ass even harder in volume 5, but even now it just makes him look REALLY fucking bad that, even if he probably dosen’t mean it, that’s at all on the table. Also.. Neil, unlike scott is doing slightly less wrong. While he is 20 to her 17, three years.. it’s HALF of what Scott and her’s age diffrence is, and far more equal in power structure. It’s still not.. GREAT, but my point is you did NOTHING when Scott did this, for far flimiser and less forgiavble reasons.. but when NEIL, whose been nothing but weirdly loyal to you dates her, you want to kick someone’s ass. I mean yes he’s being stupid: in a clear role reversal of the Scott and Knives situation, it’s obvious just from her expression that KNVIES is the one in control here, and the one using someone to ease her own pain. Granted it’s wrong, if not as wrong as Scott should techincally know better and Knives very clearly dosen’t, as well as get into a show of her faviorite band. Is what she’s doing wrong.. yeah... while she can’t see it again it’s what Scott did just not QUITE as fucked up due to not being AS embalanced. Should neil probably be dating her after scott did ? No. But should you be threatning him and not scott for you know, setting all this in motion? No. Jesus christ you suck Steven.

Thankfully while Scott presumibly calms Stephen down, Kim spots Hollie and her roomate Joseph, who will be suprisingly important. He’s very gay, very quite, very bearded and is only hear because the bass player is hot and when prodded on it....

Well said. Also I read that with John Heder’s voice fo rsome reason.. don’t know why, his career ended as quickly as it began because he REALLY did not pick his films well. He saw that he was going to be in a film with David Spade and Rob Schinder and didn’t fire his agent for suggesting it. Meanwhile Scott and Ramona run into Sandra and Monique, Scott’s old classmates who just sorta.. show up every so oftne, often backing up Julie because every Alpha Bitch needs a posse. As Boscha has proven once you loose your posse you loose your bitchy powers. They also ask if Scott and Ramona are an item which leads to a fantagious visual gag.

Also Stephen awkardly talks to the new couple, about how much Knives loves the band, and because why start reading the room now just sorta.. CASUALLY slips in the fact he knows her is because she and scott dated.

Granted Knives action this book really EARNED her that curveball.. but still, it’s transparently clear she’s both not over Scott and Neil’s a placebo, and that she loves the band... how the fuck did you get through college, much less get two loyalish friends Steve.

Kim tries to hide when she runs into Sarah whose with.. someon O Malley does not know, literally captioning it “I don’t know htis girl”. Fucking love that gag even if SOMEHOW kim is the roomate they all hate. Despite hte fact as the side story will bare out, her roommates are all pretty obnoxious, so i’ts probably because she’s the only sane person in that group and their VERY lucky kim just dind’t set the place on fire on her way out and let god do what he should’ve a long time ago. Also we meet Lynette, the band’s drummer who smokes “She must be evil” “Still hot though”... both accurate. Also Luke wilson is there.. no really. Just holy shit that’s awesome. Okay so with all of that out of the way, it’s time for the show. So after a full volume’s build up , and a really cool build up in the page before we finally properly meet clash at the demonhead, and miss envy adams.

Heck of a reveal and not the only one as ramona realized what the audience probably already guessed....

Dun dun dun! And since I don’t like leaving a cliffhanger dangling lest I have to... we’ll be getting to this next week.. what you thought i’d say right now or tommorow? This was a lot. But no i’m not leaving you too long. Next week, Evil Ex Crossover! Ramona and Wallace become BFF’s! We learn what the deal with Scott and Envy is! Scott faces the Ken to his Ryu! And Wallace gets a boyfriend. All this and more next week. for now...

Final Thoughts: This one.. was a VERY rough one to review and it ties back to this volume’s biggest problem: it is not paced very well. Like the series as a whole it has a pretty easy going, slice of life pace. The only ones without this kind of easy pacing are 3 and 6, and even 3 has some slice of life bits, their just both more focused due to the events going on. This one... well....

Pretty much. While this one has very important stuff going on, Scott and ramona getting closer, ramona getting more fleshed out, Wallace showing how deep his character is, Kim also getting fleshed out quite a bit, Knives showing off her crazy side, setting up the next volume, the second ex fight.. it’s all just kinda.. jumbled together. It’s not really until the knives fight onward the book takes on some really solid pacing and really gets going.It’s not a BAD book: ther’es some REALLY good character stuff as I dug into.. but the pacing is just really loose and without the Evil Ex fight as an anchor and with ramona and scott just sorta.. getting to know one another, in both biblical and non biblical senses, it dosen’t have either of the series main narrative thrusts. Even the knvies subplot really amoutns to nothing for now, as Ramona dosen’t find out Scott’s a cheater, and only distrusts knives now. That’s about it. It does improve on book one in characterization, with eveyrone being MUCH cleearer in terms of who they are and settling into their iconic selves nicely. Wallace’s more selfless and protective side pops up, Ramona starts to show mroe of her personality good and bad, Scott’s better traits are mixed a bit mor eeven with the douche ones, Knive’s far more unstable and violet stalker side emerges, and Stephen.. well fuck him, point is things are coming together.. but O’Malley still isn’t quite at peak power yet. Not bad and still worth a read like last time, just a bit uneeven is all. That being said... if you want O’Malley at his peak.. well then come back next week. Until then i’ll be doing my usual buisness of reviewing birds, refrencing simpsons and letterkenny, and putting my eyes back in after kim’s look up there. For now the sun’s setting and i’m out of here.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #ramona flowers #kim pine #stephen stiles #wallace wells #envy adams #lucas lee #oni press #Brian Lee O'malley #knives chau #neil nordgraf

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