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clone-whore-99 · 2 years

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Troublemaker

Chapter 5: Talk about it

The Bad Batch x f!Reader

Warnings: a lot of angst, again. Other than that, pretty chill chapter. Everybody seems to be worried about Reader. LMK if I missed anything

Authors note: The reason for this chapter taking so long, is definitely not because I've spent hours upon hours reading wookepedia pages, studying screenshots and rewatching clips to make sure everything is as canon as possible. Definitely.

If you like it, please do let me know by liking and commenting and maybe even reblogging, it would mean a lot to me 🥺👉👈

Chapter 1: Arriving at Kamino

Chapter 2: Work, Armor and... Clones?

Chapter 3: Let it out

Chapter 4: You shouldn't have done that

Chapter 6: The 20 Questions Game

Chapter 7: Crosshair

Chapter 8: Echoes of the Past

Chapter 9: The Fight

Chapter 10: A Nice Change of Air

Chapter 11: Sore Muscles

Chapter 12: Heavy Rain Weights the Mind

Chapter 13: Waste of Time

The good news was, that the couch in your dads living room was finally being used, for something other than you watching trashy holo dramas. The bad news was, that it was being used to scold you and Crosshair.

Crosshair had been correct in the assumption that the two of you would make it back to the apartment, before your father would get off work. However, he hadn't accounted for Lazie - your dads service droid - being sent back to check up on you and make sure you got something to eat. Only for it to see that you were nowhere to be found and obviously it told your dad.

Hunter was standing behind your dad, waiting for him to finish so he could take over the scolding. The rest of the team was in their barracks. Your dad was pacing back and forth, yelling about how worried he was and when he asks you to go to your room he expects you to stay in the room and blah blah blah.

You weren't really listening. If Crosshair was, he wasn't showing it. He was sitting to your left, leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest and his right leg resting over the left one. You, on the other hand, was sitting with your elbows on your knees and with your head resting in your hands.

"Can we pleeease do this later?" you nearly yelled, while rubbing circles into your temples. It felt like your eyes would pop out of your head, if you as much as dared to open them.

Your dad scoffed. "You're the one always complaining that I -"

"It was my fault." Crosshair interrupted your dad. You felt the couch shifting, as he stood up.

"Don't think I'm not blaming you, Cross. You're lucky I like you guys, or I would've gone straight to your lead supervisor and have you decommissioned for kidnapping my daughter."

"I told you I was just going to have an honest heart to heart talk with her." Crosshair hissed.

"And I told you to leave her alone." Your dad poked Crosshair in the chest.

"If I hadn't interfered, Y/N would've gotten herself hurt."

"She's a grown woman, if she hurts herself in one of her little tantrums, then so be it! It's not your job to take care of her."

"No, it's supposed to be yours..."

Your dad looked like he was about to hit Crosshair, when Hunter finally jumped between the two men.

"Guys," his voice was low, but stern. "Let's have this discussion elsewhere, shall we?"

Hunter looked in your direction, causing the other two to follow suit.

After Crosshair got off the couch, you had let yourself slump down to lie in a fetal position, with your hands covering your ears to keep the noise out. Your eyes were still closed, and you trying so hard to think about anything, but the dunking pain in your head.

You thought back to the shooting range and how much fun it had been. How, when you first hit the center of the target, Crosshair had been forced to step back, so you could jump up and down in excitement. How proud he had looked, when you had managed to hit the center several times on your own. And how you had looked like a complete fool, jumping around and doing little celebratory dances every time.

It was such a shame that you had to stop, but you felt like you were going blind on your dominent eye. You had overstrained it and by the time your vision came back, your head felt like it was going to explode.

When you opened your eyes again, there was no sign of the three men, who had just been standing in front of you. Nor was there any sign of your headache.

It took you a minute to realise that you must've fallen asleep. At some point during the night, either your dad or one of the clones must've put a medpatch on you to help with the pain and a blanket to keep you warm. You couldn't help the little smile that appeared at the thought.

You decided to spend your surprise day off in a very productive manner. By lying on the couch, catching up on your favorite trash holo dramas.

It was rare for your dad to give you time off, unless it was in order to punish you. And when that happened, you were always just confined to your room. Though you had no proof, you were certain it was one of the members from Clone Force 99 that was the reason for your time off.

After having spent the majority of the day consuming trash, you felt like you needed a shower. Badly. You probably smelt like it too.

"Y/N, sweety?" Your dad called out from the entrance.

"In a minute, I'm in the 'fresher!" You yelled over the sound of the shower.

"Take your time, fruitcakes."

Oh no, he called you fruitcakes. He only called you that when something was wrong. Was that why he was back so soon? It was only dinner time, dad was never back by dinner time. What could possibly be so important, that he got back early from work and called you fruitcakes? Did something happen? Was he going to ship you away again?

You shook your head, trying to push away the millions of thought racing through your mind. So what if he wanted to get rid of you? You had wanted to get away from that force forsaken planet anyways!

Barely having gotten the soap washed off your body, you stepped out of the shower and quickly got dressed again. You took a couple of deep breathes, trying to calm your nerves before heading out to face the inevitable.

"What's up, dad?" your voice was way calmer than you.

"Have a seat sweetheart, I've managed to get us some Glowblue Noodles and Chav for dinner." Okay, this was freaky.

You hesitantly sat by the barely used dinner table. "Is something wrong?" No need to beat around the bush, might as well bite the sour fruit before it'll hurt too much.

"Not... Really, why?"

You shrugged. "You're home early from work. You're eating dinner with me. You called me Fruitcakes. You only call me Fruitcakes when you have bad news."

"I just managed to get a break from work and figured that we haven't really sat down and eaten dinner together in years, so..."

And whose fault is that?

For a moment, the only sound filling the room was that of cutlery hitting the plate. If it weren't for the anticipation of whatever your dad was trying to avoid telling you, it might even have been nice to sit like that.

"You're awfully quiet. Are, ehm, do you not like the food?" your dad finally broke the silence.

"No, it's fine." you were resting your head on your knuckles, while pushing the noodles around with your fork.

Your dad shifted nervously in his chair. "Y/N, sweetheart, fruitcakes... Did something happen?"

This caused you to finally straighten up in your seat and look at him. His eyes were filled with worry. "What do you mean?" You asked.

"Well, did something happen to you over the last couple of years?"

"You mean, besides the galactic wide war that's been happening?" you scoffed.

Your dad looked around the room nervously. "Both Tech and Crosshair says they've caught you having panic attacks... And with how hostile and - let's be honest - kinda promiscuous you've been acting lately, well Tech thought -"

"Panic attacks? I don't, panic.. and PROMISCUOUS!? I - I don't even know what to say, dad! What I do, when I'm... I can't believe you talked to the guys about this! I thought Crosshair was lying when he said you had told him I was sleeping around, but apparently not!" You were so mad you could barely think straight.

"That's not what I meant, Fruitcakes." He replied low, looking like someone who had just been caught red handed.

"So what? Have you been walking around, advertising to all the men here about how much of a whore your kid is?"

"NO! I WOULD NEVER -" your dad cut himself off right as he had slammed his hand on the table.

You stood up and started heading for the door, not wanting to be in the same room as your dad any longer. In fact, you weren't entirely sure you wanted to be on the same planet as him.

"Maybe," he whispered low, pinching the bridge of his nose with the thumb and index finger. "Maybe bringing you here was a mistake afterall..."

Your heart sank. There it was. The thing you had dreaded all night for him to say. "Of course it was." Your voice was shaky. "You hate having to spend too much time around me afterall, right?"

"That's not -" You were gone.

You didn't have any specific goal in mind, about where you were headed. You just knew you had to get away and preferably without meeting anybody on the way. Which was near impossible in a place such as Tipoca City.

After having walked in what felt like forever, you sat down for a quick rest. The last couple of corridors you had gone down had barely been populated and the few that did walk by, didn't even acknowledge your existence.

Untill a pair of boots came at a halt right next to you. The boots turned from facing you to face the opposite wall and you heard a quiet 'clank' from the armor colliding with the steel wall.

Silence.

You were waiting for the person next to you to speak, to tell you off, tell you how you couldn't just run off when you got mad or you couldn't just sit in the middle of the hallway, but he didn't.

He just stood there. Waiting for you to make the first move.

With a soft sigh, you finally gave in and broke the silence, "Do you always play with your knife around women, or am I just that special?"

That earned you a soft, but honest chuckle. "I almost thought you hadn't noticed me. Too busy staring at that wall,- not that I blame you. It is a pretty interesting wall." It was a blinding white, bare wall.

Hunter sat down next to you, accompanying you in your staring contest with the wall.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," You hugged your knees to your chest.

"Alright."

Silence. Again.

The only noise was the low swish sounds the vibroblade made, whenever it twirled around between Hunters fingers.

"Are you going to bring me back?" You didn't have to ask why he had come. You knew why.

"Do you want to go back?"

"No.."

"Then no."

This caused you to turn to face him in shock, though Hunter was still maintaining the stare-off with the wall.

"Then why are you here?" You asked in disbelief. The only reason he had to have come, was because your dad asked him to find you, right?

"You seem like you needed company." He tilted his head in your direction.

"I don't want your company." You muttered, going back to stare at the wall again.

Now it was Hunter's turn to look away from the wall and towards you. "What you need and what you want are two different things."

You just huffed in response.

Not letting silence fall over the two of you again, Hunter put his knife back in it's holster and then gently nudged you with his elbow. "I don't think the wall is going to get anymore interesting than this. What do you say, we go somewhere else?"

You shrugged. "Fine, I guess..."

That was all he needed, before Hunter was back on his feet and holding a helping hand out to you.

"So, what weird adventure are you going to take me on?" You asked, while grabbing his hand and letting him pull you up on your feet.

"Adventure?" Hunter raised his eyebrow quizzically.

You smirked at him, then held your hand up to count on your fingers, as you walked side by side. "So far, Wrecker has brought me to the cantina, Tech brought me... Well, I don't know where he brought me, but it was dirty and smelled weird, and Crosshair brought me to a shooting range. So, where are you bringing me?"

Hunter nodded along with your listing. "Well, since you don't want to go home, I was thinking about bringing you to our barracks. If that's okay?"

You felt the blood rush to your cheeks at the thought of being in their barracks, though you still nodded. "Okay."

"-You see the problem?" You asked Hunter, when the door to their barracks opened up and you were hit by the odd smell, you had only experienced once before.

"I'll have Tech make you a map." Hunter assured you, as he led you inside the room.

"A map over what?" Tech asked, but before you could answer, Wrecker jumped up from the couch.

"Y/N! Ad'ika!" If Wreckers loud voice hadn't woken up the men sleeping, your shrieks from being picked up by the waist like you weighted nothing would.

You were spun around in the air before Wrecker pulled you in for a big hug. "I've missed you!"

"You've only known me for one day!" You giggled as you wrapped your arms around his neck. "But I guess I've missed you too."

"A map over what?" Tech asked again, this time more annoyed that he had to repeat himself.

Wrecker put you back down again and Hunter placed a hand on your back to steady you, as he finally answered Tech: "Tipoca City. Y/N says she's still struggling to find her way around here."

"You still haven't figured that out?" Crosshair sneered. He was sitting in his bunk, wearing nothing but his body glove and was clearly irked that he had been woken up for no reason.

"Y/N didn't grow up here like we did, so it's to be expected that she's going to struggle figuring out her way around the structure of the city, especially when it all looks so similar to the untrained eye." Tech defended you, with a raised finger to bring home his point. Or, at least you think he was defending you.

"So, can you make me a map?"

Tech looked almost offended that you would even dare to ask such a thing. "Obviously. I'll get to it, once I'm done with this," and just like that, his attention went from you, back to whatever weird thing he was tinkering with.

"What are you working on?" You maneuvered to your best extent through the mess of the room, towards what looked like a make-shift worktable that was placed in front of what you could only assume was Tech's bunk.

Tech looked at you searchingly, as if he was doubting whether or not you actually wanted to know. However, once you tilted your head in curiousity, he went back to focus on his task.

"The medics on Anaxes removed all of the nonessential moderations that the Techno Union had added to Echo, but ever since then, he's been complaining about pains and hearing problems on his left ear. I am looking at the device, which was attached to his ear when we found him, in an attempt to figure out if it had anything to do with these complains, and if so, how to replicate and improve it's uses."

Tech was explaining it, as if you had been along with them on their mission and therefore all of this should just be obvious. You just nodded slowly, as if you understood.

"Echo is the reason we're back already." Hunter explained with the same assumption that you just automatically knew who - or what - Echo was.

"Yea, and then it's back in action!" Wrecker added, hitting his fist into the palm of his hand as a display of strength.

You instantly noticed the absense of Crosshair, who had previously been sitting on the bunk not far from the couch Wrecker was resting in. You quickly turned around, to find him leaning against the wall right behind you, giving you his usual devious smirk. You knew he had planned on startling you again.

Even though you had caught him, Crosshair still leaned dangerously close to your in order to tease you, "Echo's the reg sleeping in the hammock."

"Or at least trying to," A voice errupted from the red hammock behind Techs workspace, before a very frail looking man sat up. "If you guys weren't so noisy."

You couldn't help but to feel bad. The poor guy looked like he hadn't eaten, slept or seen the sun in a long time. His appearance could best be described as that of a love child between a human and a droid. You wanted nothing more but to hug him.

"Sorry... I-I shouldn't have come." You quickly stepped backwards, away from the three men.

You let out a small yelp, when you accidentally bumped into Hunter. He didn't seem to mind though, as he placed a supporting hand on your shoulder and turned you to face him.

"I invited you here, Y/N, so you don't have to leave, unless that is what you want to." Hunter tried to assure you, while bending down in an attempt to gain eyecontact.

Echo let out a tired sigh. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, mesh'la, I'm just not really used to this new look, I guess."

Your heart sank at Echo's apology. The last thing you wanted was to make him feel bad about himself. "You didn't scare me, it's just.." You shook your head. "It's been a long, dumb evening, that's all."

"Do you not have anywhere to stay?" Echo asked. This caused the rest of the squad to exchange glances, while your face turned red with embarrassment.

"N-no, I do, it's just -"

"Y/N is Laquans kid." Tech interrupted you.

Echos eyes went wide with the realization, before he awkwardly looked away.

Almost as if Hunter could sense your blood starting to boil with anger before you could, he quickly placed an assuring hand on your shoulder again. "We don't have to take this talk right now."

The muscles in your body started tensing up again and Hunter tightened his grib on your shoulder in an attempt to keep you grounded.

You glanced up at the long haired soldier, who in return gave you a look of worry and care. You then let your gaze discretely wander from man to man, before closing them and letting out an annoyed sigh.

"Can you guys please stop looking at me, like I'm about to explode any second now? It's not really helping.." You say with a humorless laugh.

They all apologized in their own weird way, before going back to whatever they were doing before you walked in. All except Hunter, who was still holding tightly onto your shoulder and seemingly trying to figure out what to do with you.

You looked back up at him again, with heavy, tired and pleading eyes. "Is there any where I can sleep for the night, that won't require me going back?"

"You can have my bunk, I'll sleep on the couch."

You shook your head. "I'm not gonna steal your bed, Hunter. I'm a guest here, so if anything, I should be the one sleeping on the couch."

"Or you could stay in my bunk," Crosshair added, already sitting on the edge his bunk again. "I won't mind sharing."

You turned your head to give the marksman a tired glance. After thinking about it for a second, you let out a deep sigh and asked: "Do you promise not to have any wandering hands?"

"I'm not gonna do anything you wouldn't want, dollface."

You looked back at Hunter, who gave you a weak nod. "He's not going to try anything. And if he does, I'll know it right away and put an end to it."

With a weak nod, you made your way over to where Crosshair was sitting. The look in his eyes told you, that he wasn't actually expecting you to take him up on the offer.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Dividers by: @djarrex and @firefly-graphics

Taglist: @zoeykallus @rain-on-kamino @thebadbatchscyare @thebahdbitch @salaminus @mybigfatspoonielife @tararosebloodthorn

Please do not hesitate to ask, if you want to be added to the taglist of the series ❤

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incorrectosomatsu · 2 years

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Yo! 👋 wanted to do that ask meme you posted! If this is too much feel free to answer them separately, or just pick out the ones you want, but I'm real curious...

💖💕👌🔥😍🌈🏆☔👀💬🌚📷📚

My stupid phone didn't have all the ones I wanted, but hey! This is a start lol 😂 thanks fam!

Thank you for asking so many! I'm having a lot of fun answering these. q(≧▽≦q) I'm going to skip any I've already answered, though.

💖 Who is your favourite matsu?

Ichimatsu is my absolute favorite, but Karamatsu and Choromatsu aren't far behind. I just have a thing for stoic, depressed characters, I suppose. >w>

💕 What are your favourite matsu duos?

Iro is my absolute favorite, I can't get enough of those two idiots. o((>ω< ))o I think they have a really fun dynamic that I just love to see. Second favorite is sokudo, I love Choromatsu playing the straight man to Osomatsu's idiocy. Third favorite is nenchuu, I think they're a very interesting and unconventional combination! I think it's funny that they're intimidated by each other. Honorable mention goes to choukei!

👌 What are some matsu duos that you think are underrated?

Nenchuu. Absolutely nenchuu. I see no fucking nenchuu content and it makes me so sad. (┬┬﹏┬┬) That's the one I crave to see more of the most. I also think 110 is super underrated. I never paid them much mind, but a friend of mine is writing a 110 fic and it really got my attention. Oh, and cyber! I've taken an interest in cyber lately as well.

🔥 What’s an aspect of the show that you think is underrated?

Ooh, tough question! I don't know if this really count as an "aspect", but I think a lot of people don't like the dub and that's a shame. Among the people I interact with in the fandom, a lot of them seem to dislike the dub pretty strongly and I'm like (っ °Д °;)っ

🌈 What’s your favourite skit/episode to rewatch?

I'm so goddamn predictable, but my favorite is The Ichimatsu Incident. Surprise, surprise, the iro stan loves the iro episode. Shocking, isn't it? >v> If I had to give a less obvious answer, I would say Choromatsu And Ichimatsu and Campaign Starting Now.

🏆 What’s a skit that you think is underrated?

I don't see people talking about Campaign Starting Now very often, but I think it's delightful. I love seeing Ichimatsu pop off when he's normally so blasé about everything. Plus, I really love hearing Ichimatsu shout "Hey guys, shut the fuck up!" in the dub.

👀 If you had to show someone a clip or episode to get them into the show, what would it be?

Oh god, this is another difficult question. If I get to pick a whole episode, I'd probably go with episode 15 of season 2, the one with Jar, Karamatsu Taxi, and Totty Quiz. I think those skits really encapsulate the type of humor the show utilizes, and Jar is a really solid crash course on the personalities of each of the sextuplets given how short it is.

📸 Drop a screenshot from the show.

📚 What are some of your favourite fics?

Most of my recommendations are not quite appropriate for this blog, to be quite honest. =v=;;;; You can always DM me if you want *those* kinds of recommendations.

As for what I CAN share on this blog, I highly recommend Ichi-month by Gnattine! Ichimatsu is my favorite, and this is a really delightful collections of vignettes about him. They do plan on finishing it eventually, and I eagerly await that day! The characterization is exceptional, and it's just really wholesome and cute, I go back to it frequently.

One other recommendation I have is Closing Time by Lunarmatsu. I'm admittedly not caught up with it, but I still would be remiss not to highlight a rare case of a Matsu x MALE Reader fic! I never read x Reader fics because they're almost exclusively female readers and that triggers my dysphoria, so it's such a breath of fresh air to have an x Reader fic that I can enjoy. o(≧∀≦)o

#not a quote #about the admin #thank you for asking so many questions!!! i enjoyed answering them

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maschotch · 2 years

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hi! just gonna make an intro post for those interested~

im rewatching criminal minds from the beginning and capping every episode as i go along. ive seen rewatched every cm season at least 3 times, and this blog is mostly to avoid sending my friends the same clips with the same comments every time i watch lol. its just all of my thoughts and ramblings for my favorite moments

im 22 and i try to avoid interacting with/following minors. asks are fine, just no dms. my main is @aarcn but this is where everything cm related is. i’m not into x reader fic, especially the explicit stuff, so if you post a lot of that i probably won’t follow you back. and if i unfollow all of a sudden, its probably because of that. nothing personal! i just dont really want to see it.

i’ll tag anything you need, just shoot me an ask and i’ll start tagging it no problem. its criminal minds so the subject matter can get a little dark so i totally understand :)

currently tagging:

cm crit—anything critiquing the show itself, usually the writers/creators

char crit—anything critiquing characters (anything jj critical will be tagged here but lmk if you’d like a more specific tag)

sa mention—any in depth analysis of foyet will also be tagged here

anti jj—critical of jj specifically, only if its in the actual post. if its in the tags im not gonna bother

feel free to send asks, anons always on, or dm me! i love talking about criminal minds and hearing different interpretations of characters <3 its just a fun funky show that im way too invested in

below the read more are links to the different kinds of posts:

i have a queue currently running with character caps from random eps but other than that most of the posts are chronological. photo post limit is 150 a day and i hit that pretty regularly, but i try to upload episodes as i watch them.

cm caps - these are just screenshots so you dont have to credit or anything, but i’d appreciate if you tagged me in or send me what you made! it makes me happy that people find uses for them

cm icons - these are edited caps, so if you do use them please reblog or credit. feel free to send requests! i have lots of character caps from eps i’ve done so far

cm writings - stuff i write! i dont have much bc im really not much of a writer anymore but fics, mcs, and extended meta will go here. may not use this tag often bc i tend to ramble in tags anyway so theres usually a mini-essay below every post

cm fics - specifically fics i write! @t4thotchniss and i have our own little cm universe that i’ll write stuff for sometimes, so you may want to check out his summary for the general gist

cm parallels - caps from different moments (though sometimes the same episode) that make me crazy 🤪 probably my favorite tag

cm comp - compilation posts, usually divided by season. again these are just caps so feel free to take and use as you will!

im open to requests for any of the above post types, so feel free to shoot an ask or dm. if you want something from an episode that i’ve done so far i probably have caps already so i’ll gladly do it! if you want something from a later season (or for characters i dont cap as much like jj, reid, rossi, etc), please be as specific as possible with your request. episode numbers would be great.

for shipping stuff i’m pretty open to most things. i do have some common romantic pairings i really do not like and view as exclusively platonic: hotch/reid, hotch/jj, hotch/elle... those are his kids lol

love for criminal minds has faded, so im not gonna try to push myself until the obsession returns. feel free to send thoughts/opinions/questions, i still have My Takes that stay in my brain forever <3 for now tho the only original posts are just gonna be queued character caps. ive got 1000+ drafts so its not gonna run out any time soon

#i went back and checked post type tags.. i wanted a 'cm fav' section but honestly it was just everything i post ajksdhglksjghlas #the brainrot runs deep ig

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kawaiichibiart · 3 years

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Okay, so, Wishmaker.

Man, was that episode hard to watch. Not because it was bad, far from it, I loved it. It was so fucking random to me. What's bad is, I have to watch YouTube videos on 144p. Because we're changing our internet provider and recently got rid of our WiFi box. I can use mobile data, it's how I can watch Miraculous content and post here, but I also exceeded my mobile data limit last month, and am currently on reduced data. So, things are either: slow, lagging/buffering, not showing up, or a combination of the three.

To give y'all an idea, it was 3am when I looked up the episode and clicked on a video. It was 4am by the time I finished the episode. All because I had to constantly pause each part, because a full upload was taking a bit too long to actually start. But I still managed to watch it.

And, again, it's such a fucking random episode??? Seeing what everyone wanted to do/be as a kid. Like, the first guy who wanted to become Santa? I wheezed.

Cucumber person made me all sorts of wtf, because I now headcanon that Rick and Morty is a show in the Miraculous universe, and someone saw Pickle Rick and was like, I wanted to be something like that when I was kid, only I wanted to be a cucumber, not a pickle.

Jaggedile was fun. And can I just say, kid Jagged was really really cute in his crocodile onesie/costume. Also, can I just, I need to ask:

Far as we know, Jagged never had a cat. That is a cat kid!Jagged is chasing. So...did he chase random stray cats as a kid whilst dressed as a crocodile??? (Also, yes, I did rewatch the clip of him revealing his childhood dream in 1080p just to get a good screenshot. Even if it was kinda a bitch to do so.)

Marinette being a knitting fairy is very funny but also kinda cute, not gonna lie. Like, can you imagine, little baby Marinette Dupain Cheng going up to her parents and telling them she wants to be the Knitting Fairy. Hey, at the very least, knitting needles make for good weapons (??? me thinks????). Stab someone's eyes out.

Adrien. Oh, Adrien. Honey, sweetie, cariño, if your childhood dreams were to be what your parents wanted, and so far, everything they're making you do, is something you don't want do, especially in the long run, Adrien, mijo, calling you a puppet would be wrong. You're a doll. Something to be dressed up, modeled, made to look pretty and looked at. Puppets at least have the aspect of being entertaining and making people laugh. But a doll? A doll is usually just, kept pretty. Something to look at. And you, my dear sunshine boy, are that porcelain china doll that is kept on display. And Gabriel, and maybe even Emily who knows, are the ones keeping you behind a glass door, only taking you out to change your clothes so you can continue to be pretty.

Honestly, the one firefighter who was like, I wanted to be a firefighter and a cowboy resonated with me. Because I too wanted to be many, many things as a kid. My mom told me my brother always had his eyes set on one goal, changing his career in mind once, but me? I was constantly changing. So, fuck, I would be a MESS.

And, Alec. Man, did I feel bad for him. We know now that he shaves, so, do you think we might see him with his afro again? Because I think he looks good with big hair. Also, congrats on having one of the better akuma looks.

And I'm finishing this post off with just, how much I loved Luka this episode. He was just...wow. ( ´ᵕ`* )‪‪❤︎‬( ´ᵕ`* )‪‪❤︎‬( ´ᵕ`* )‪‪❤︎‬( ´ᵕ`* )‪‪❤︎‬

#ml spoilers #wishmaker spoilers #wishmaker #jagged stone #marinette dupain cheng #knitting fairy marinette #luka couffaine #viperion #adrien agreste #cat noir #chat noir #alec

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kieumy-archive · 3 years

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just finished s5 (and now nearly done w s6) of druck and i wanna know ur opinion of the prodigal daughter's* actions in 5x10... what's ur take on her making out with that random guy that finn brought to the friendsgiving party?? i'm a lil confused on why she did that- did she like fatou at that time or no? ur input wld be appreciated as ur the only person i follow who watches druck 😭 lmao

*❤️❤️❤️ u know who i'm talking abt :')

First I love how we’re calling her the prodigal daughter lol.

When I watched that episode and I was also confused as to why she would make out with a random guy. But now after watching s6 I think it kind of makes sense.

I believe she had feelings for Fatou, I mean she gives her this look, which I believe was meant to indicate she likes her

(Gif courtesy of yours truly)

Now something interesting that I caught just now while rewatching the clip

Fatou and Kieu My are talking

She tells Fatou she’ll go get a drink

Then we cut to Finn and Zoe playing around

And Kieu My pauses and observes them

Then she moves again and goes to sit with the guy

Then we know what happens, she makes out with him and Fatou sees them

I think Kieu My panicked. We know Kieu My has recently come out as bisexual, and before Fatou she’d never been in a relationship with a girl. She’s inexperienced. At this point she was probably scared of her growing feelings for Fatou.

Another thing that makes me believe this is this conversation they had in s6

She could also been afraid of what her friends (coughcoughconstantpaincoughcough) would say.

She called their New Years kiss a stupid after constantly annoying wouldn’t stop pestering her about it

(I love you miss Vu, but that wasn’t okay. But also I get it)

The instas are supposed to be the cool kids. Kieu My has this whole thing about being cool, that’s why they call her the ice queen (but we know she has insecurities, she’s actually a nerd and a big softie). She probably didn’t want them (read constipation) to make fun of her.

Tldr. Kieu My liked Fatou during Friendsgiving, but a combination of being inexperienced, feeling like she has to choose a side, and being scared of what her friends would think made her kiss that guy

Of course this is my interpretation and anyone could have another interpretation, which is just as valid

(Screenshots taken from drucktranslations on YouTube)

#this got long #also sorry if some parts don’t make sense english can be really hard #thank you for the ask i love talking about kieu my fatou and kieutou #ask #answered #anonymous

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selenityshiroi · 4 years

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Fairy Tail Game Final Thoughts

67 hours in and I’ve gotten all achievements, all my characters are maxed with max bonds and I’ve limit broken half the characters (limit broken Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, Erza, Jellal and Gray TWICE).

The only thing for me to really do is look for all the special Unison Raids :)

Not all the partnerships have specially animated Unison Raids. The only ones I’ve found so far are the Jerza, Nalu and Gruvia ones (the Gruvia one having been the plot one anyway).

I’m guessing that Lucy and Juvia will have their canon one, Sting and Rogue, Wendy and Sherria...maybe Natsu and Gray?

But Wendy and Erza DON’T. Neither does Lucy and Erza, Lucy and Jellal, Natsu and Wendy, Erza and Natsu or Mira and Laxus.

Gameplay wise, there isn’t much left for me to do. But I do have the catalogue of all the bond dialogues and the FMVs I can rewatch at lesiure!

Good timing for this game to release when I had two weeks off work hahahaha!

Mini review: As a huge Fairy Tail fan, I loved all the character stuff we got. Some of it was a little flanderised (particularly Juvia and her love for Gray, which they really went over the top with and didn’t spend enough time NOT bringing him up during her character moments-a lot like the anime used to do, and also Wendy and her despair over having a small chest (which ewwwww she’s a child stop it)) but overall they had a really good grasp of the characters, the relationships AND also gave us some nice moments between characters we don’t see interact that much.

But I really wish the plot hadn’t been an adaptation of the source. It should have been an original story. I did like how the magic skills evolved and unlocked mostly through the story (rather than through levelling up as in a traditional RPG) which obviously they could only do through retelling the actual plot. But they could have easily worked around that (magic dohicky at the beginning takes all their power and they slowly regain as time goes by...maybe you could have even done optional levels to unlock specific magic again by replaying scenes from the manga and fighting the associated bosses-like fighting a memory).

The gameplay was actually really fun. I turned off battle animations when farming to speed things up, but otherwise I really liked the way the fights looked and I loved how the magic worked (with different areas of effects, elements, power, secondary attributes etc.)

There are some UI issues (having to go back to the request board between every single quest instead of being able to stack a few is annoying), and there is some repetitiveness-particularly with the enemies. There are around 10 non-boss enemies and they get pallette swapped for more variety.

But the biggest, biggest drawback is when they didn’t adapt a part of the story and you get anime screenshots and Lucy narrating and telling you what they missed. Like, really? They also didn’t model some characters and used anime screenshots for when they can’t completely remove them from the plot (HISUI). It makes the game look REALLY CHEAP in those places. Like something you’d expect from a mobile phone game and not a full blown platform release. Which is hugely disappointing because other parts of the game look so good.

I also feel like they rushed through way too much story. I felt like they could have focused completely on the GMG arc and done more with it alone (mini levels with the games they skipped and more fights) or done more work on the maps and levels and enemies. And then maybe release the next arcs as DLCs.

There are also a few clipping issues (Wendy’s hair and her alternate costume is particularly bad) and a lack of interactivity with the environment (you can’t enter a single building that isn’t the guilds/inn).

BUT...overall I really enjoyed the game. I enjoyed it as a Fairy Tail fan and I enjoyed it as a fan of RPGs. It’s not the best game that I’ve played, but it’s not done a bad job and it is certainly a nice addition to the franchise! I probably wouldn’t have played it (certainly not to 100% completion) if I wasn’t a Fairy Tail fan but I don’t think the fandom needs to be ashamed of it :)

#fairy tail rpg #spoilers #also i'm a massive shipper and there is a crapload of ship tease #of course fairy tail is basically one massive ship tease #that's what you get when the author is very character based

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fly-pow-bye · 7 years

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Memory Lane of Pain”

Written by: Haley Mancini, Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: Phil Jacobson, John West, Andy Cung

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

There are far too many easy jokes to make here.

The episode starts with Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup flying back home to talk about their latest adventure. While the original would actually show this battle, the reboot is fine with just having the Puffs talk about it instead. Then again, it was about fighting boxes.

Buttercup bumps into a box, and that unseen battle gives Buttercup the excuse to eye laser it. This box was held by the Professor, who was in a position where the eye laser would have went right through his body. Thankfully for him, his lab coat is heat resistant!

SCIENCE!

UNNECESSARY!

The Professor is actually sorting together photos and other momentos for a "Hall of Fame-ily"! The show takes the time to point out how its own pun is unfunny. His excuse for making it? So they can remember what happened after that accident with the amnesia ray! My first instinct is that this is yet another excuse for why the reboot is different they'll never mention again, much like the giant guinea pig that destroyed Pokey Oaks.

This confusion expands even further when Blossom pulls out an old photo of her facing off against a zombie magician! And not just any Blossom or zombie magician, either...

...but it happens to be a screenshot of the original show’s Abracadaver! This even comes with a rendition of the original show's theme song as well.

Blossom: Man, I looked so different back then. And better written. And more badass! Man, I should aspire to be this good again!

Okay, she really only says the first line. While it’s not “Teen Titans Go making fun of the haters by making a fake tease for Teen Titans Season 6” or “Teen Titans Go calling people who hate the show crying babies”, it’s not exactly a tribute either. Thankfully, this is the only time they drag out the original; a good decision on their part.

By the way, if they were affected by that amnesia ray, how come Blossom can remember this? I guess this amnesia works just like those stock amnesia plots. A better question: why keep talking about the original if this was supposed to be a reboot? Buttercup wet willies Blossom with a tentacle to make the viewer forget this. No, context will not make it better.

While Blossom and Buttercup are happy looking at their many memories, Bubbles can’t seem to find memories that she can look at fondly. The Professor tries to tell her what she did, but as the loving father that he is, he can't seem to recall. He does find some newspaper clippings, but the news wasn't too kind, either.

Yeah, they really are trying to make it seem like Bubbles, or the "Pig-Tail" as she's apparently known, is the worthless one of the three. In order for this plot to work, we have to ignore Boogie Frights, Bubblevicious, Mime For A Change, Bubblevision, and Three Girls and a Monster. If Abracadaver is canon, so are those. Even if we only count the reboot episodes, because “LOL, amnesia ray”, there’s Power-Up Puff, Viral Spiral, and Splitsville. Splitsville shared all but one of the writers and storyboarders of this episode, so there's no excuse.

Blossom tries to call back to a time where Bubbles was helpful, and pulls out a dolly of Salvador Dali. Some may be thinking that this episode is going to turn into City of Clipsville, as it already has the "box of mementos" theme going on. They'd be slightly right, though a more accurate title would be "City of Episode Ideas We Couldn't Stretch Into Twelve Minutes...Ville".

We see a new villain named the Rubber Bandit, who uses rubber bands to steal things. He's at a Salvador Dolly store, which sells dolls based on the famous artist! It's funny because Dolly and Dali sound alike!

The Powerpuff Girls, disguised as the dollies, reveal themselves, ready to stop this madness. The Rubber Bandit tries to defeat them by flinging rubber bands at them, and I'm surprised it doesn't work. As a Plan B, the Rubber Bandit offers them one of the Salvador Dollys with a new frilly purple dress! Blossom and Buttercup aren't too interested, but guess who is!

Bubbles is so happy, we get this lovely frame of animation. She thinks it's so cute, with it's dress and the ticking noise it makes. It then explodes, revealing it to be retrofitted with a rubber band bomb that ties them up in giant rubber bands they can't get out of. Yup, tie them up, and they're as helpless as Olive Oyl. Rope, rubber bands, I'm sure you can tie them up in dental floss and I wouldn't even bat an eye at this point.

He then gets away, but not before bumping into a window first. I think this is supposed to signify that the Powerpuff Girls could have easily handled this villain, if it wasn't for that useless pig-unnecessary hyphen-tail!

Suddenly, a clock turns into a face, which then melts like the famous Salvador Dali painting! We cut to the present for a second so Buttercup can say that wasn’t what happened. It's that joke from Green Wing, except instead of senility, it's...

Blossom: Shh...amnesia ray!

The "amnesia ray" explanation isn't just to explain why the Reboot Puffs are so different from the 1998 ones; it also gets episodes out of plot the holes it writes themselves into. They suddenly get out of the shop with no explanation on how they got out of the rubber bands. That amnesia ray is never mentioned again, and to be honest, it shouldn't have been mentioned at all.

After that, the Rubber Bandit gets away in his monster truck. This plot must have came from the crew's Mad Libs session. Blossom has an idea: use a rubber band slingshot to throw a giant lobster telephone sculpture that adorns the shop to stop the getaway vehicle. At least that's a Salvador Dali reference!

They crush the car, making the Rubber Bandit fly out of the car. Blossom flies in to grab him and flies him right into the ground.

A rare action scene in this superhero comedy. Unfortunately, the Rubber Bandit wasn't harmed by this, because...

Rubber Bandit: I'm rubber, and you're glue!

Blossom follows that with a one liner that is totally not a placeholder joke they decided to keep in.

Blossom: Actually, I'm laser eyes!

Rubber Bandit, likely confused by the lack of actual wit, gets eye lasered by Blossom. While he himself is unharmed, the rubber bands that made up his overalls have melted him into a rubber ball. She then bounces it like a basketball, and throws it across town.

It then gets dunked by Salvador Dali himself! Because he's wacky! Blossom short end, Bubbles is unhappy.

Bubbles is upset because that story didn't make her look good, and Blossom responds that she confused herself with Bubbles. The Professor agrees. In a lot of episodes, I agree, too. It's a problem with this reboot; especially in episodes with the rascally little green princess in the spotlight, Blossom and Bubbles usually play the same role. It's usually Penelope Pitstop. Speaking of which, both on the green girl and Penelope Pitstop...

We flash back to a time where the Powerpuff Girls faced off against Popsicles, which is pronounced pop-see-clees. While spelling may be tough for them, at least I can’t fault them for a creative use of pronunciations. He likes to turn people into ice cream! The Powerpuff Girls show up, and Blossom does a pun!

Blossom: Justice is about to be served...soft served! Buttercup: Ha. Nice. (fist bump)

That might as well be the show's laugh track.

Bubbles tries to repeat what Blossom does by using her knowledge of physics and using a fire hose to hose down Popsicles! Hey, copying Blossom's strategy; it's just like what she did in Splitsville! It's too bad if she was actually successful, it would be pretty bad for this episode's plot of making Bubbles completely useless, so all she does is cover the entire town with water. It also covers Blossom in water, which Popsicles freezes, trapping Blossom in her own element.

Blossom then gets turned into one of those ice cream bars. Then Bubbles gets turned into an ice cream bar, too.

While Bubbles and Buttercup got to help out Blossom in her story, Buttercup's story is yet another "girly ones become damsels in distress" plot. There is a key difference: Buttercup doesn't have to learn a lesson. The whole point of this episode is to make Bubbles look bad, after all.

Much like the actual ice cream bars!

Popsicles, apparently never getting the idea of shooting Buttercup with his ice cream-ification rays, rushes forward to do an all out popsicle sword battle. Buttercup uses her sisters, which seems like a way to make Blossom and Bubbles more useful. It turns out, popsicles are stronger than ice cream bars, as they quickly get dented and start to fall off the sticks. So much for that!

This especially doesn't end well for this episode's punching bag, who melts in the street. I should be happy that the Reboot Puff that is most often a jerk is getting the short end here, but I'm not. They're not making fun of her for being a jerk, they're making fun of her because she's the most childish and least smart of the three. Mean spirited jokes happen throughout the entire episode, and it never feels good.

Buttercup gets sick of all of this, and just decides to use a flamethrower aura to melt him down. She could have used her eye lasers for the same effect, but I guess we needed a reminder that the reboot Puffs still have Green Lantern powers.

Popsicles goes out pretty violently, too, as we get to see his popsicle stick skeleton as he quotes the Wicked Witch of the West. Again, a good scene by reboot standards. Two words that probably shouldn't exist together: reboot and standards.

When Popsicles gets melted down, everyone gets turned back to normal. Except for Bubbles, whose ice cream pigtail was eaten by a dog. Buttercup plot over, and Bubbles is still unhappy because that didn't make her look good, either.

This unhappiness continues to the next morning, as Bubbles eye lasers her alarm clock at 9 in the morning. Blossom and Buttercup tell her to get up and look outside, but she keeps complaining that she's useless and unintelligent.

We had a short where Blossom saved the day, and a short where Buttercup saved the day. The logical next step is to have a third short where Bubbles saves the day. It can even be used as a satisfying ending, making new mementos and a new stride to make a difference. However, they decided to throw a curve ball instead. And by curve ball, I mean they threw the ball straight up and hit themselves in the face.

She comes out and sees a bunch of people cheering her! See, Bubbles was already being helpful, not by doing anything impressive, like convincing a monster to not destroy the city by talking to it or taking a laser beam up to 11, but saving cats and joining barbershop quartets! The Professor, who once couldn't even figure out what Bubbles has done that was good, tells her that she's good for being an "everyday hero".

Considering the rest of the episode, "everyday hero" seems to be a codeword for "joke character", especially for a hero that's supposed to be super powerful. This "twist" is so forced, I almost expected them to reveal that this was a total lie, and that these people were forced to act like Bubbles did something to make her feel better. It may as well be, considering we never see Bubbles do any of these good deeds. Bubbles is happy anyway, as the episode ends with Bubbles taking a picture for the Hall of Fame-ily.

Which falls down. I don’t get it, is this supposed to signify that this was a bad idea? They’re not wrong.

Does the title fit?

A good chunk of the episode is flashback. Of course, the word "pain" fits perfectly here, but it would fit most episodes of this reboot.

How does it stack up?

It's good to see the Powerpuff Girls actually fight crime in this episode. That's the one positive every episode should have, which is not something I can say for the reboot.

The two flashbacks aren’t horrific, but not beyond okay at best, either. The first was just random humor. The other is just another "Buttercup saves her sisters" plot without any point. The framing device that contains these shorts is mean spirited at worst, and the ending didn't convince me that it wasn't.

I wondered if an episode made to hate on my least favorite Reboot Puff would be satisfying, and I can say it isn't. That Bubbles ice cream picture would be a good rating for this episode, but I'd rather keep my ratings consistent. This is not an episode I'll put on my Hall Of Fame for this show...which mostly consists of dust bunnies.

Next week, could it be the return of Sapna Nehru?

← Home, Sweet Homesick ☆ Spider Sense →

#fpb reviews #fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network

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threelxttledxcklngs · 5 years

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((Gooood morning tungle, I live, and so I’ll be giving my thoughts on Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance in the cut below. Got a lot of thoughts on DDD so it could get lengthy uwu

I...probably don’t have to say this, but below the cut are spoilers for both games, mostly for DDD.

Starting off with Re:Coded, from my understanding, it’s the most hated game in the fandom, and I don’t really understand why? I guess I can understand the platforming being an issue, but I really liked everything else about it. The gameplay was ever-changing, making the worlds unique, even though you visited them all before in literally every other Kingdom Hearts game, the story was a little plot-break, but not to the point where it was completely useless to us, and, uh, hello??? My son(s) have a bigger role than shops??? Always a fan of that. I love my blue baby duck son uvu.

But seriously, I love how the story of this game isn’t completely required to the overarching plot of the series. What I mean is: in any LoZ game, you can just pick it up and play it, and you won’t be lost as to what’s going on. Kingdom Hearts might actually cause your brain to explode if you tried to do that. Except maybe Re:Coded. You can either pick up Re:Coded and play it without even touching the other games, or you can just not play it at all, and you won’t be missing much. The most important development in the story is what leads into BBS (I assume at least), and when Maleficent talks about the Book of Prophecies. Not to say that Kingdom Hearts’ method of overarching storytelling is wrong or bad, but as someone who wanted to play the game when it first came out, it can be frustrating to have to catch up now, nearly 15 years later. Ultimately, I really just like the plot of this game in general as well, but that may be just because it reminds me of this show that used to be my hyper fixation as a kid: Code Lyoko.

Basically, I think Re:Coded is shat on more than it deserves to be, and it’s a good game that anyone can play, be they a hardcore KH player, or a casual gamer.

Now for KH:3D DDD

Okay, I’m going to get the negatives out of the way first, as per usual, because there are some things that seriously bother me, but don’t worry. Once I’m done shitting on the game, I’ll clean it up, I think I have more positives than negatives.

Truthfully, most of the negatives are from me personally. You see, the 3DS is my favorite system I think. Probably because much like Scrooge’s No. 1 Dime, the 3DS was the first major purchase I ever made on my own, earning money from my own job. I got my 3DS in 2013 with a little game called Kid Icarus: Uprising.

This is an image that is produced by this game. I know damn well what this baby is capable of. Kid Icarus Uprising was released on March 22nd (23rd outside of Japan) 2012. Kingdom Hearts 3D was released March 29th, 2012. So very similar release dates. You’d expect that the same company that made this possible on the DS

Would produce the same kind of quality that KI:U would have on the *3DS.* Right? Right? In the opening cutscene, we get some amazing looking clips like this

So the gameplay must look awesome, right?

Look how awful it looks!!! It looks so terrible!! Terrible in comparison to how it should look!! Like I said, I know what my baby can do, and it can produce some amazing quality!! Look at the difference between the basic gameplay of KI:U

And then a serious cutscene on KH:DDD

It looks like DDD was planned and programmed for the DS, but then moved to the 3DS at the last second!! Seriously?? Pokemon X/Y looked better than this!!

It’s disappointing to say the least. Fortunately, there is an HD Remake that looks worlds better, but I still can’t help but feel disappointed in the low graphics quality.

Sora is also way dumber than he should be, and I find it an odd choice that Riku became the Keyblade master over him, but not necessarily a bad one.

And there’s one thing that demands an explanation. Well, two, technically, but I’ll settle for one of them.

In the end, while Riku is still asleep, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are all having a tea party. Why. And why is Sora wearing this?

LITERALLY, WHY??? FUCKING WHY??? YOU CANT JUST NOT EXPLAIN THIS!!

Now that I’ve gotten all the negatives out of the way: THE SOUNDTRACK THE SOUNDTRACK THE SOUNDTRACK THE SOUNDTRACK!!!!! Oh my GOD, this soundtrack is amazing!! This is by far my favorite version of Traverse Town, and Traverse Town might just be my favorite hub area in Kingdom Hearts thus far. Traverse Town and The Grey Area. Traverse Town and Prankster’s Paradise both look super fun as well!! I also like the addition of Neku and the gang, and once I’m done with the KH series, I’ll be checking out The World Ends with You.

The addition of Flow Motion also makes the game look super fun, and all the worlds are different!! Something sorely lacking in most of the other KH games. I was really getting tired of hearing the same songs and going to the same worlds over and over and over again, especially in the case of the Colluseum, where you literally just...keep doing the same thing over and over and over again? Maybe that’s fun to play, but I’m at the disadvantage of watching. All the worlds I guess maybe with the exception of The Grid and Riku’s version of Prankster’s Paradise but shoosh are unique, new, and fresh! It’s so refreshing!! And the Country of the Musketeers???? And Fantasia’s world? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MADRE DE DIJOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was quite the surprise lol. Oh! And the travel method, where you drop between the worlds, looks super fun!!

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM SO HAPPY FOR AXEL/LEA IM SO GLAD HES ALIVE AND WHOLE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

AND HE HAS A KEYBLADE??????????? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

SON SON SONS ONS!!!

Ultimately, there are only a few Kingdom Hearts titles that I can actually play. 358/2 Days, Re:Coded, and Dream Drop Distance.

358/2 Days doesn’t look very fun, Re:Coded, although I do enjoy it, isn’t something I’d want to go out of my way to play, but I’d gladly take it if someone offered it to me as a gift, or even for a cheap price. Dream Drop Distance? I want it.

I legitimately want to get Dream Drop Distance to play on my 3DS, it looks fun super fun, and ultimately, that’s an element in any video game that’s more important than story.

Oh, and if you’re curious about my thoughts on the story of KH3D, I’m told that it’s super confusing, but like...I understand it? It’s something I’ll have to go back and rewatch to be able to explain it, and I really just don’t feel like doing that, but I understand it. I think. At the very least, I don’t see why everyone is saying it’s so confusing. I mean, the overall goal of the Organization beyond “let’s make 13 Ansems/Xehanorts” is a little blurred. Obviously, there’s some connection between that and the X-Blade, otherwise the naming scheme would be different. Lea became Axel, Sora became Roxas, Ansem became Xemnas, all the member’s names are anagrams of their previous names, with an X added. Makes me wonder what mine would be, considering there’s only one vowel in the name I usually go by. Going by my full name, it’d probably be Zaxibeth or something, and that sounds badass.

I’m getting sidetracked. So far, DDD is probably one of my favorites in the series, but I have a feeling, based off the one screenshot I keep seeing floating around on Tumblr with Goofy, Sora, and Jack Sparrow, that III will change that.

~ Double Z))

#Out of Trouble #((Double Z Watches: Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded))#((Double Z Watches: Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance))

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marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer · 7 years

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MTVS Epic Rewatch #156

BTVS 6x07

Obligatory soundtrack to make your reading expeerience better :)

Stray thoughts

1) I have to be honest, this was probably the most difficult recap I’ve written so far (other than The Body, which I skipped altogether and asked for submissions instead.) OMWF was the episode I was most looking forward to rewatching. It’s my favorite BTVS episode. It’s my favorite episode of anything/everything ever, period. I’ve watched it probably more than 50 times (I watched it three times just as part of this rewatch, just so you know.) And as much as I love this episode, I was really clueless about how to write a review about it. Like, what can be said about one of the most talked and written about episodes in the history of television? What can I say about it? How can I honor my love for it and what it means to me in my review? Do I write my recap in a different format? What am I bringing to the table? The truth is, I didn’t have the answers to any of these questions so that’s why I’ve been kind of quiet on Tumblr lately. I just couldn’t get around to writing this recap. At the same time, I wanted to move forward and I wanted to rewatch this episode again and gif the hell out of it. So I said fuck it. Let’s just write a regular recap and be done with it. Anywho, I tried to break down the episode by scenes/songs but you’ll also find fun quotes and the usual stupid things I do with screenshots and whatnot.

So on with it!

TL;DR: I love this episode a whole lot and I didn’t know how to write a recap about it.

2) Opening Credits

When watching TV, there are certain clues that let the viewers know they’re about to watch something different, if not special or momentous. The first of these clues is very straightforward: if a TV episode starts with a “previously on” clip, you know something’s about to go down. If the storyteller is purposefully reminding you of events that have transpired in the show, there must be and there usually is a good reason for it. It typically means that said past events will bear a certain relevance to the episode’s plot. It may also serve to remind you exactly why everything is going to shit at present? Either way, as a TV viewer, whenever I start watching an episode that begins with a “previously-on”, it kind of makes me go “Oh oh, something’s up.” A second clue is the lack of a teaser (i.e. that short clip before the opening credits that literally teases what’s to come and makes the viewers want to continue watching the episode) because that breaks the standard structure of a TV episode and it kind of raises a red flag: if the writer didn’t want to tease anything about what I’m about to watch, then it must be huge. There’s also a third clue: the opening credits may be somewhat altered, which has written “special episode” all over it. And if that weren’t enough, the episode may get a special title card just to finally hammer the point home that this is not your typical episode. These techniques serve to raise the viewers’ expectations. OMWF implements all of these, and it succeeds not only in raising the viewers’ expectations but also in exceeding them. Suffice to say, when I first watched this episode I was pretty much freaking out by this point (even though I watched the show as it originally aired, or rather a few months after it originally aired because that was when it aired in my country, I didn’t consume any media about Buffy other than what I watched on my TV, so I wasn’t privy to the fact I was about to watch a musical episode.) But I hadn’t lost it yet, that was just a couple of minutes away...

3) Opening scene

The opening scene has no dialogue and yet it is extremely effective in conveying Buffy’s depression. We see what “A Day in the Life” is for Buffy, and it is not pretty. The first scene says it all, actually.Buffy has clearly been awake for hours – if she has been able to sleep at all. And then the alarm clocks starts blaring, and she stares at it because it is basically reminding her that she has to start pretending all over again. It’s yet another reminder of everything she’s lost and how hard it is for her to just be alive. She picks up the clock and continues to stare at it, but she never turns it off. She just lies there, staring at the blaring alarm clock. This is exactly how Buffy has been feeling since she came back: just there. No emotions and no feelings other than pain and sadness. Sometimes not even that. She’s mostly numb.

Meanwhile, everything around her is life and movement and happiness. We see Tara making the bed (and finding the little “present” Willow had left for her the previous night…), Willow getting dressed and Dawn hurrying her so that she can take her turn to get ready. And Buffy…

After a few minutes, Buffy is still there. Barely. This shot is relevant not only because it depicts Buffy’s state but also how everyone around her was pretty oblivious to how she was feeling. Yes, Buffy did pretend to feel fine. But a person can keep up the happy façade for so long, there are always cracks, and others can notice those cracks if they pay enough attention. Unfortunately, it was easier for the Scoobies to buy the “I’m happy and grateful” discourse than to own up to what they had done to their friend.

The scene at the magic shop is pretty much the same: everyone is going on about their own lives, and Buffy is barely there. And worst of all, no one even notices how barely there she is.

I’d said this before and it’ll probably be the last thing I say with my dying breath: Buffy’s depression was the best arc in the whole show. Fight me.

4) Going Through the Motions

Buffy’s day ends, as per usual, with her patrolling the cemetery. And this is the moment I lost my shit and never got it back...

I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing! Buffy was singing a song? About herself and how she felt? What was this and what had I done to deserve it? Was I in heaven? (of course, naive me thought: “a musical episode! this should be fun!”)

Season Arc Relevance: “Going Through the Motions” is your typical Disney princess song, which works perfectly in that it is a juxtaposition of how Buffy thinks life should be (music/style) and how life really feels to her (lyrics). She should be the princess in her own story, except she has kind of lost her will to live? In this song, Buffy is addressing her depression, acknowledging it to herself more than anything. She knows she’s been playing the part, going through the motions in her personal life and her “work.” Buffy is suffering from PTSD and depression, and it has affected how she experiences her slayerness. Throughout the prior 5 seasons, Buffy had gone through different stages as regards her status as a slayer and what it meant to her. She had quit more than once, run away from it, almost gave herself up to its darkest side, tried to figure out what it meant for her, and finally embraced it. It is expected, considering it was such a huge part of her identity. But never along the way had she ever felt indifference or apathy towards her slayerness, which was how she was currently feeling. She didn’t see it as a burden, she kept doing it because she knew how to and it was just something else to do. But the purpose had been lost the moment she lost herself. The rest of the season will be a quite painful journey till Buffy finally feels alive, and, more importantly, rejoices in being alive.

What I love about this song: even if Buffy has lost that drive and motivation, even if she is just going through the motions, she still yearns to feel otherwise. And that just goes to show how strong she is, you know? She could be curled up in her bed, crying about everything that she’s lost or was taken away from her. She could so easily let herself die or be killed. But even if she doesn’t really know how to get that drive back, she keeps trying, she never gives up.

What I hate about this song: is the fact that Buffy gets the sympathy and understanding she’s been looking for in her friends from some demons. I mean, the fact that the freaking demons get precisely what Buffy’s been like lately shows exactly how oblivious her friends were.

Foreshadowing: By the end of the episode, Buffy would look for a way to feel alive...

Favorite lyrics:

I don't want to be Going through the motions Losing all my drive I can't even see If this is really me And I just want to be Alive!

And you gotta love the Disney-princess-like finale, right? I do :)

5) At the Magic Shop

BUFFY: So, uh, no research? Nothing going on? Monsters or whatnot? Good! Good. Uh, so, did anybody... uh... last night, you know, did anybody, um... burst into song?

XANDER: Merciful Zeus!

WILLOW: We thought it was just us!

GILES: Well, I sang but I had my guitar at the hotel...

TARA: It was bizarre. We were talking and then it was like...

BUFFY: Like you were in a musical!

TARA: Yeah!

GILES: That would explain the huge backing orchestra I couldn't see and the synchronized dancing from the room service chaps.

WILLOW: We did a whole duet about dish washing.

ANYA: And we were arguing and, and then everything rhymed and there were harmonies and the dance with coconuts.

WILLOW: There was an entire verse about the couscous.

XANDER: It was very disturbing.

This whole dialogue actually proves Giles’s point that people tend to rationalize what they can’t understand or explain. I mean, here we have a group of people who have been dealing with the supernatural for years - one of them for centuries - and when confronted with an out-of-the-ordinary situation their first instinct wasn’t to go “hey, something supernatural must be going on!” but rather to dismiss it as a weird, isolated incident. Instead of thinking “It must be a demon” they thought “It must have been a gas leak” (after all, it’s always a gas leak in Sunnydale. Or a PCP gang. Or both.)

So far, Buffy seems to be the only one affected by the “sing your secrets out” part of Sweet’s spell. It is implied that the Scoobies weren’t really singing about any existential stuff (I mean, I don’t care how much you love couscous, I don’t think couscous is on the same level of “I just wanna feel alive”, you know?) Giles immediately picks up on Buffy’s silence as everyone shares their musical numbers and questions her about her song. Of course, Buffy claims not to remember...

6) I’ve got a Theory

What I love about this song: I mean, what is there not to love? It’s the first ensemble song, it’s fun and upbeat and even if each character gets only a couple of lines, all of them shine and show their essence in those few lines. It’s also worth noting Buffy’s role in this song, or more precisely, her lack thereof. Even if Buffy is the one who brought up the issue, she immediately takes a step back when everyone joins in throwing theories around. They are having fun, this is the “fun” part of hunting demons. Buffy, yet again, is dettached not only from her friends but also from her duty. Oh, she will patrol and slay. But she’s not invested in it.

I also love the callback to Nightmares: “I've got a theory / Some kid is dreaming / And we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare.”

What I hate about this song: We never got to hear Tara’s theory :(

Foreshadowing: Giles figured out what was going in the first line of the song.

I've got a theory That it's a demon A dancing demon! No, something isn't right there.

7) Bunnies

What I love about this song: It’s a fucking heavy-metal song about bunnies. How can you not love it? And it’s so Anya because she may lack finesse (although she disagrees) and tact and she might have trouble with the whole range of human emotions sometimes, but at the same time she often gets hang up on the silliest things and blows them out of proportion (like this song, or the fact that she’s worried about her songs not being hits...)

What I hate about this song: there’s nothing to hate about this song, how dare you?

8) If We’re Together

Season Arc Relevance: Buffy falls right into the role she’s been playing so far in the season: pretending. She plays it perfectly because this is exactly who she used to be, and she remembers it. We can see that Giles is not really buying her optimism, so she picks it up a notch and does a very Buffy joke (”Hey’, I’ve died twice.”) and ropes him in.

What I love about this song: Even if on the surface this song is about Buffy taking her role as a leader and bringing everyone together, there’s a dark depth to it. Buffy’s theory is, after all, “it doesn’t matter.” And she reinforces this idea by saying “Why should we care?” Even if Buffy is pretending, you can still see the cracks there. She indifferent, apathetic, she doesn’t see a purpose to any of it all. She’s making a point about how it’s always the same, and that’s not necessarily an optimistic view considering it usually ends in death and occasionally it’s her own.

What I hate about this song: the Scoobies not reading in between Buffy’s lines, as per usual.

Foreshadowing: In hindsight, this song is rather ironic considering they’re singing about how they can face anything together and well, everything goes to shit this season precisely because they don’t trust in or rely on each other. Also, Anya’s line “There’s nothing we can’t face / except for bunnies.” sort of foreshadows what happens in Tabula Rasa with Giles and Anya at the magic shop.

Favorite lyrics:

We have to try We'll pay the price It's do or die Hey, I've died twice.

9) Giles is not completely sold on Buffy’s optimism, however.

BUFFY: So what is it? What's causing it? GILES: I thought it didn't matter.

She contradicts herself immediately, and Giles picks up on it. But yet again, Buffy is quick to keep up the pretending and she makes a great point about why they should figure out what’s going on (and delivers one of my favorite lines in doing so...)

BUFFY: Well, I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish yet affordable boots, but there's definitely something unnatural going on here. And that doesn't usually lead to hugs and puppies.

10)

ANYA: Well, is it just us? I mean, is it only happening to us?'Cause that would probably mean a spell or...

11)

DAWN: Oh my god. You will never believe what happened at school today.

BUFFY: Everybody started singing and dancing?

DAWN: I gave birth to a pterodactyl.

ANYA: Oh my god, did it sing?

12) Tara and Willow awkwardly pretending they’re not about to have sex is everything.

TARA: Tha-That's right! The, the volume. The text. GILES: What text? WILLOW: The volume-y text. You know? The, the (mumbles) report. XANDER: The what now? TARA: Oh, there's just a few volumes back at the house that deal with mystical chants, bacchanals.

13) It’s Tuesday. Dawn is:

A) shoplifting.

B) in danger.

C) all of the above.

14)

WILLOW: ...those guys are checking you out. TARA: What? Wh-What are they looking at? WILLOW: The hotness of you, doofus. TARA: Those boys really thought I was hot? WILLOW: Entirely. TARA: Oh my god. I'm cured! I want the boys!

15) Under your Spell

Season Arc Relevance: I think the most significant line in this song - other than “I’m under your spell” - is “Something just isn’t right” because it sums up where Tara and Willow are at the moment. Underlying the romantic theme of the song, there are some issues regarding their relationship. Tara is admitting that Willow and her relationship with her have given meaning to her life. There’s a bright side to this, of course (“how you’ve set me free, brought me out so easily”), but there’s also a negative side to it. Tara’s whole existence revolves around Willow, and Willow has – quite literally and for different reasons – taken control of Tara. (“I’m under your spell, nothing I can do, you just took my soul with you.”) That’s not healthy, to say the least. And I think it’s yet another reason why Tara and Willow needed to spend some time apart. Tara needed to find herself, to know that all of this that had come to the surface since she had started dating Willow wasn’t only Willow’s influence or power but it was all Tara’s, beautiful things that had been buried beneath the surface waiting to be freed. And as much as the fandom likes to focus on how abusive Spike was in this season, which I agree with, we tend to overlook the fact that Willow was pretty abusive of Tara as well.

What I love about this song: It’s the typical love song in any Disney movie, except this time is not about a prince and a princess but about two princesses and I fucking love that. Amber’s angelic voice dear lord!

What I hate about this song: This song gets a whole different meaning once it really sinks in you that Tara is literally under Willow’s spell and that by making Tara forget their fight, Willow has removed her consent and agency. Willow has abused of Tara twice: the first time when she wiped her memories, and the second time when she had sex with her. After all, if Tara remembered their fight, she wouldn’t be exactly singing a love song to her girlfriend, let alone be having sex with her...

Again, I’m not a fan of how the show uses magic as a metaphor for anything to serve the plot. And this song sort of piles on the magic = something metaphors. Here magic means love and lesbianism and sex.

For the longest time, I was in awe at the fact that Joss had gotten away with having a FF couple having oral sex on mainstream television. And that he had even included the “you make me COMplete” bit to top it all off. Now, tbh, I really wish the first FF oral sex scene in mainstream television wasn’t one of dubious consent… I have to hand it to Joss, though. If we remove the whole “are they really having consensual sex?” thing and just focus on the synthesis of the images and the lyrics, this is probably one of the most sensual sex scenes in TV history.

Foreshadowing: “Something just isn’t right” because duh!

Favorite lyrics: (disclaimer: I’m a dirty pig)

You make me COMplete

15)

DAWN: Come on! Songs, dancing around. What's gonna be wrong with that?

(I’m Sweet)

16) I’ll Never Tell

Season Arc Relevance: It’s quite obvious that this song explores the relationship problems that will lead to Xander leaving Any in the altar. Even though they mention a lot of issues ranging from the ridiculous but relatable (Xander’s snoring or Anya’s skeezy cheeses) to the potentially problematic (Xander always relying on Buffy, Anya being clingy and greedy), the real issue is their well-founded fears and insecurities. Anya starts singing about how she has basically given up her whole identity and how now she’s mostly defined by her relationship with Xander. She’s embracing it, but it makes you wonder if she had really considered what would happen if Xander was no longer a part of her life. What would there be left? She didn’t really have a life of her own. Xander’s first lines are about his physical attraction to Anya, which justifies her own insecurities when it comes to Xander loving her once she’s old and no longer beautiful and how long-term their relationship actually is. Xander, on the other hand, fears Anya thinks he’s ordinary and that him not becoming successful (i.e., making big money) may be a problem for Anya. It is Xander, though, the one who admits to being petrified...

What I love about this song: This song marks a change in tone in the episode and the songs. So far, they were mostly upbeat and other than Buffy’s “Going through the Motions”, one had to read between the lines to get to the underlying themes and understand their true meaning. It’s halfway through this song that that changes and the lyrics start matching the characters’ true feelings. They start revealing their inner secrets and fears, in spite of themselves.

I really like the old-school musical style both in the song and in the scene, and it does really fit Anya and Xander’s relationship. They do love each other, but they are constantly bickering and picking on each other’s flaws.

The callback to Pangs! (”His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe!”)

Also, this:

What I hate about this song:

Foreshadowing: Anya literally describes what will happen in Hell’s Bells:

I've read this tale There's wedding, then betrayal I know there'll come the day I'll want to run and hide.

Favorite Lyrics:

BOTH: You know... XANDER: You're quite the charmer. ANYA: My knight in armor. XANDER: You're the cutest of the Scoobies With your lips as red as rubies And your firm yet supple- Tight embrace!

(I do love all the sweets things they say to/about each other)

17) The Parking Ticket

18)

SPIKE: Oh. So that's all. You've just come to pump me for information. BUFFY: What else would I wanna pump you for? ...I really just said that, didn't I?

19) Rest in peace

Season Arc Relevance: This song marks the change in Spike’s attitude towards Buffy in this season. So far, he had been nothing but supportive and understanding (yeah, yeah, you may say his intentions weren’t good - even though I disagree - but the bottom line is he was there for Buffy in a way no one else could/would.) Here, however, Spike starts showing his true colors. “Rest in Peace” sums up perfectly Spike’s approach to “love” and women: confessing his feelings and undying love one minute, and acting aggressive and petty and abusive the next. He feels Buffy has been teasing him, which is not the case, and very a la White Male™ he feels he’s been “patient” enough and that Buffy should either give him what he wants or leave him be - but not really. We should also bear in mind that this is literally the only kind of relationship Spike knows - abusive and unhealthy. This, of course, does not excuse his behavior, it simply contextualizes it.

Spike gives Buffy an outlet to feel something, he’s willingly offering it so why not just take it? It would make everything so much easier. And it won’t take long for Buffy to take him up on his offer.

What I love about this song: First of all, I love the fact that both Buffy and Spike feel exactly the same way about Spike breaking out into song.

Even if Spike is, to quote Buffy, such a pig there’s one thing that you have to admit: he tends to read Buffy quite well, sometimes even better than her own friends: “ You're scared / Ashamed of what you feel / And you can't tell the ones you love /You know they couldn't deal. - You know, you've got a willing slave / And you just love to play the thought like you might misbehave” Of course, this “ability” is something that he will use to his own advantage later on in the season, making her believe he’s “reading” her when in reality he’s manipulating her...):

What I hate about this song: It’s not so much about the song but about the scene. Spike pushes and throws people around, what about the freaking chip, writers?

*falls to her knees and shouts at the skies*

WHAT ABOUT THE CHIP??!!

Foreshadowing: They will misbehave indeed...

You know, you've got a willing slave And you just love to play the thought like you might misbehave

Favorite Lyrics:

I know I should go But I follow you like a man possessed There's a traitor here beneath my breast And it hurts me more than you've ever guessed If my heart could beat, it would break my chest But I can see you're unimpressed So, leave me be

20) Can you imagine as a fangirl breaking up your OTP?

DAWN: I'm glad you guys made up. TARA: What? DAWN: That fight you guys had about magic and stuff? It gives me belly rumblings when you guys fight. TARA: Dawn, Willow and I never fought about- DAWN: It's okay. It's just... you guys are so great together. I just hate it when you... But that was the only fight I've seen you guys have anyway. But I'm still glad it's over.

21) Dawn's Lament

What I hate about this song: it’s cut short and we never learn what Dawn would’ve sung about.

22) Dawn’s Ballet

Tbh, I’m not a fan of this scene. It’s pretty much the only moment of the episode in which I’m kind of waiting for it to be over. There, I said it.

23) What You Feel

What I love about this song: Best Big Bad introduction ever! And I think it ties with Giles “Exposition Song” from Restless as the best, well, exposition song.

What I hate about this song: Why do villains insist on dressing Dawn up in gowns?

Favorite lyrics:

Something's cooking, I'm at the griddle I bought Nero his very first fiddle

24) “ I'm just worried this whole session's gonna turn into some training montage from an 80's movie.” - that is quite literally what happens.

25) Standing

Season Arc Relevance: Parenting is hard, especially if you’re not really a parent and your child has died twice. Giles is torn and is trying to figure out what’s the best role he could play in Buffy’s life to allow her to become an adult. He reaches a decision with the information he has so far and how he interprets Buffy’s behavior, and it’s his decision to leave her when she needs him the most that pretty much leads to Buffy’s downward spiral.

What I love about this song: I like that it’s kind of bittersweet because it’s about how much Giles loves Buffy and how deeply he wants to help her but how at the same time he feels the only way to help her is to leave her. I love the fact that this song shows what I already knew: Giles is the only one who is not completely oblivious to Buffy’s plight. He doesn’t fully grasp it, but at least he knows Buffy well enough to know that something is off.

This is probably my favorite scene in terms of how it was shot. I just love how Buffy’s movements are in slow motion as Giles walks around and sings her out because it clearly shows the distance in their relationship and it conveys the fact that he’s singing to himself.

What I hate about this song: There’s nothing I don’t like about the song, it’s its implications and consequences I have problems with. Giles feels he’s standing in the way of Buffy growing up but the thing is, this wasn’t a case of Peter Pan syndrome. There was a very valid reason for Buffy’s apathy and lack of drive, as he would learn towards the end of the episode. And that’s why I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND GILES LEAVING AFTER LEARNING BUFFY WAS IN HEAVEN AND THAT SHE WAS SUFFERING FROM SEVERE DEPRESSION. It’s one thing to take a step back because you feel you’re preventing your child from making her own decisions and growing up. It’s quite another leaving your child to fend for herself when she’s clearly suffering from depression and PTSD. Buffy wasn’t relying on Giles just because she was lazy and didn’t want to grow up. She was relying on him because it was all too much for her. She could barely deal with being alive, let alone with taking care of others and the fucking world. So yeah. Forever angry at this.

Foreshadowing: Giles leaving, obviously.

Wish I could stay But now I understand I'm standing in the way

Favorite Lyrics:

I wish I could lay your arms down And let you rest at last Wish I could slay your demons But now that time has passed Wish I could stay your stalwart, standing fast But I'm standing in the way I'm just standing in the way

26) Uh-oh...

27) Under Your Spell/Standing - Reprise

Season Arc Relevance: It’s the breaking point for both Giles and Tara in their relationships with Buffy and Willow respectively.

What I love about this song: Anthony and Amber should sing together in everything ever okay?I love how Giles’ song is basically repeating some lines and Tara’s “Under your Spell” has acquired a whole new meaning now that she knows the truth and the lyrics match exactly how she’s feeling.

I love the fact that it’s a break-up love song, but it’s about two different kinds of love, fatherly and romantic.

I appreciate the fact that Whedon chose to reprise “Under your Spell” and give it the literal meaning implied in the original version in the lines “I’m under your spell” and “You made me believe.” I would’ve liked Tara’s lines about Willow’s transgression (to put it mildly) to be more unsubtle... (”Playing with my memory / You know I've been through hell / Willow, don't you see? /There'll be nothing left of me”)

What I hate about this song: the fact that I can’t sing both parts at the same time fucking sucks.

Foreshadowing: Giles leaving and Tara breaking up with Willow.

GILES AND TARA: Wish I could stay Wish I could stay Wish I could stay Wish I could stay

Favorite Lyrics:

TARA: Wish I could trust that it was just this once But I must do what I must I can't adjust to this disgust We're done and I just

GILES AND TARA: Wish I could stay

28) I love how anti-climatic this moment is…

SPIKE: Works for him. Has a nice little story for the Slayer, don't you? Come on, then. Sing.

29)

BUFFY: So. Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday.

30)

BUFFY: Oh, it's not your fault. So what's the plan? XANDER: Plan, schman. Let's mount up. GILES: No. ANYA: Uh, Dawn may have had the wrong idea in summoning this creature, but... I've seen some of these underworld child bride deals and, and they never end well. Well, maybe once. WILLOW: We're not just gonna stay here. GILES: Yes we are. Buffy's going alone.

Buffy’s going alone?! What? Why? How would this accomplish anything? It’s not the monsters that she has problem facing, it’s her own inner demons!

31)

WILLOW: A little confusion spell could- TARA: No! I mean, I don't think it'll help.

I included the screenshot because I can’t help but read Willow’s expression as if she were thinking “Tara’s not acting the way I programmed her to act…”

32) Walk Through the Fire

FYI, if you don’t sing all the parts at the same time, you’re not a true Buffy fan. Your membership card will be removed. I’m not kidding.

Season Arc Relevance: Just like “I’ve got a Theory” at the beginning of the episode, “Walk Through the Fire” conveys how distant Buffy feels from her friends and how hopeless and apathetic she feels in general. While in IGAT she is reluctant to join her friends in song but is physically there and ultimately chooses to play the part, in WTTF she’s both physically and emotionally distant from them, which allows her to drop the facade and sing her true feelings into the void. Even if she claims to want the fire back, ultimately she still doesn’t care (To save the day or maybe melt away / I guess it's all the same.) Winning the battle or dying, it’s all the same to Buffy. And it will be a long time before she feels otherwise.

What I love about this song: E V E R Y T H I N G. The way is shot, the juxtaposition of voices and images, “I think this line’s mostly filler”, the Scoobies marching to the rescue, the fire trucks in the background as the Scoobies finally complete the line “let it burn”. It’s pretty epic, don’t you think?

What I hate about this song: that Riley is not there so he can go up in flames as the Scoobies sing “let it burn.” JK. Sort of. I hate this:

WTF SPIKE?! I’ve always found this so funny because like dude, how many times have you been to the Bronze? You’re telling me you don’t know how to get there?

Foreshadowing: Spike saving Buffy at the end of the episode:

First, he'll kill her, then I'll save her

The whole season, summed up:

Everything is turning out so dark

Favorite Lyrics:

And we are caught in the fire The point of no return So we will walk through the fire And let it Burn Let it burn Let it burn! LET IT BURN!

33)

34) Something to sing about

Season Arc Relevance: This song and Buffy’s revelation that she was in heaven will be the breaking point - to a greater or lesser extent - for all the events to come: Spike and Buffy’s relationship, Willow’s downward spiral with magic and her break up with Tara, Giles leaving, and Buffy distancing herself from her friends.

What I love about this song: This and “Going Through the Motions” are my two favorite songs from this episode. To begin with, I love the contrast between the upbeat rhythm of the song with the ironic lyrics. During the first part of the song, Buffy’s is seemingly gleefully repeating all the cliches about life she’s learned are not true. You can see her frustration building up at the lie behind the words as she beats up the minions, until she kind of glazes over...

...because there’s no number of demons she could possibly beat to a pulp that would make her stop feeling miserable. From this point onward, she drops the happy act and while the song is still upbeat in rhythm, the lyrics get gloomier and gloomier. It’s the most honest Buffy’s been in a long time. Until she finally opens up and admits what she’s been hiding from her friends all this time:

There was no pain No fear, no doubt 'Till they pulled me out Of Heaven So that's my refrain I live in Hell 'Cause I've been expelled From Heaven I think I was In Heaven

Now, my knowledge about music is pretty much non-existent, but I know that the score in this song works perfectly because every time Buffy’s voice rises and falls as she says “heaven”, I die. Every single time. (seriously, I just watched it again and I’m crying.) It’s a fucking punch in the gut because it reminds you everything she had earned with her sacrifice and which her friends took away from her because they couldn’t live without her, they couldn’t move on. And then she begs Sweet one last time to give her something to live for, and he swiftly shakes his head no. That’s the breaking point for her, I think. She has just opened up about how she’s been feeling and why to her friends, and she knows that now there will be endless questions and more burdens she can’t take, and she knows there’s no easy way out. Except dancing till she burns...

And then Spike stops her and delivers a heartbreakingly honest speech. It’s not encouraging per se, and it’s not really uplifting. But it’s real, and it’s telling her she’ll get over this with no void-of-meaning cliches.

Life's not a song Life isn't bliss Life is just this It's living You'll get along The pain that you feel You only can heal By living

Of course, Dawn had to deliver the final blow by quoting Buffy’s own words back at her… (”The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.”)

What I hate about this song: The fact that none of the Scoobies thought of stopping Buffy from combusting.

Favorite Lyrics:

There was no pain No fear, no doubt 'Till they pulled me out Of Heaven So that's my refrain I live in Hell 'Cause I've been expelled From Heaven I think I was In Heaven

35) And in another episode of “Guess who fucked up AGAIN!”...

36)

37)

What a lot of fun You guys have been real swell And there's not a one Who can say this ended well All those secrets You've been concealing Say you're happy now, Once more with feeling Now I gotta run See you all in hell!

38) Where do We Go from here?

Season Arc Relevance: This song pretty much sets up the tone for the rest of the season in that they are all kind of lost and don’t really know how to relate with one another anymore. Giles’ sentiment in the line “The battle’s

What I love about this song: it’s a great ensemble song to finish the episode. I love the choreography and the way it was shot.

What I hate about this song: that it’s kinda short?

Foreshadowing: Buffy and Spike’s kiss

The curtains close on a kiss

Favorite lyrics:

The battle's done and we kind of won

GILES AND TARA: So we sound our victory cheer Where do we go from here?

I love A) the fact that Giles admits they “kind of” won because they didn’t really defeat Sweet, he just decided to leave on his own, and B) the fact that their “victory cheer” is rather depressing.

Understand we'll go hand in hand, but we'll walk alone in fear

39) Coda

This isn’t real but I just wanna feel

40) It’s really not that difficult to understand why this episode has such an impact on viewers. It definitely has to do with the songs and the fact that it’s not the expected genre for a TV show, let alone a TV show of the characteristics of Buffy. But the songs in themselves are not great. They are good, and somewhat catchy. And not all of the actors are exactly what one would call gifted singers. But what makes it all work in the end, what makes the songs and the lyrics resonate so much with the fans, is that OMWF is about the characters and characterization. This episode wouldn’t have worked so effectively if it hadn’t been for the fact that Joss had been laying the groundwork for these characters to reach this point for six seasons. Because, you see, Giles leaving Buffy wouldn’t have the same impact if we didn’t know how their relationship had grown from strictly business to friends to father/daughter. Willow using (or abusing of) magic to manipulate the person she loves the most wouldn’t make any sense if we still didn’t remember and love season 1 Willow. Xander and Anya’s relationship problems could be regarded as shallow if we didn’t know these characters so well and why they fear the things they fear. All the jokes and references to previous episodes and events would fall flat. And Buffy’s revelation that she had been torn out of heaven by her friends wouldn’t make us cry every time if every time she sang those lines we didn’t remember everything that led her there and all the sacrifices she had made and how much she fucking deserved her heaven. So yeah. OMWF is extremely rewarding for viewers because of the kind of in-depth knowledge that it takes to comprehend the scope of this episode. You can’t get this episode without getting everything that transpired before. Ultimately, it highlights the show’s main strength – its characters and their arcs – and it does so in the most marvelous, unexpected and unforgettable way.

#Buffy the Vampire Slayer #BTVS #Joss Whedon #Once More With Feeling #television #OMWF #MTVSepicrewatch #BTVSrewatch2015 #recap #mine #btvsrecap

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