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#alas I had to watch a dubbed version
bonbon-bonny · 2 months
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I don't usually write a whole lot but I wanted to talk about this for a moment
Ahem. *flips through notes*
So I loooove Sailor Moon. Specifically the 90s version. It was my favorite show growing up. My home life was difficult and to see someone like Usagi with a perfect family, a perfect boyfriend etc. getting to live her best life despite the fact she herself wasn't perfect was too easy to become a bit obsessive over ^_^;
well, let's just say I wanted to be Usagi just a bit too much because my world, my family (Side note: I looove my family! They did the best they could to take care of me growing up, but we had to deal with an unusual circumstance that made it hard for all of us), heck just even being myself didn't feel good enough and frankly it left me having to confront a lot of issues just to be okay with who I am now.
And of course ,naturally, I looooved Tuxedo Kamen XD. On the outside to me, he seemed perfect; a knight in shining armor.
But I always kept running into a particular conversation which is "why do you like him so much tho? He seems like a jerk. He seems so different from her. He never shows her affection. She'd be better off with someone like Seiya who's more on her level. He's useless. He's bad for trying to help her because she's a girl boss and doesn't need to be rescued." Like, seriously the amount of criticism I've heard towards this character is wild and he literally gets attacked no matter what he does.
And you know I get it. If you just look at it from a surface level it's easy to maybe get that impression of him but after one particular conversation I was having with a friend of mine about it I stopped and asked myself why. Why does she like him? why does he like her? how can two people who outwardly look so different from each other ever be in a healthy relationship? what could the two of them possibly have in common?
So I did what I do best and I watched the show I grew up with carefully. I observed him. I watched the things he said and did. And in the end I reached several conclusions.
Mamoru isn't perfect, at least in the beginning, but he's always trying to do his best to be. With almost anyone else in the show he's usually calm, collected and somewhat reserved. The only person besides Motoki he seems to act out a bit with if you can call it that IS Usagi and half of the time it's not even that he's actually being mean.
[IF you watch the Japanese version with subtitles, because in the English dub? Ooph! they changed so much of his dialogue and gave him such a smirky voice it's hard to listen to him without wanting to punch him in the face imo.]
It's that the way she perceives him is off. Also, sometimes it's not even HIM that starts the arguments.
Sometimes SHE'S the one who starts their spats and he snaps back at her. Sometimes she hits him with shoes and papers and doesn't seem to care.
One episode that comes to mind is the Dreamland episode where the toy train stops and she rams into him. All he did was look at her and say hi and immediately she got defensive and started making fun of him.
Making fun of an orphan sitting on a toy train who most likely was just trying to do something fun that he never got to because he didn't HAVE a family to take him as a kid.
Seriously. If you were to be in his place, going through this world, it's rather scary, stressful, terrifying, and uncertain.
He didn't get a magical talking cat to walk him through his powers. Instead he got seizures and psychic visions, and a past life version of himself that took over his body without consent until he finally got the rainbow crystal and understood what was happening around him.
He gets amnesia not once but twice, kidnapped several times, and gets trapped in his own mind twice ala brainwashing by beryl and Nehelenia and by stars I wouldn't be surprised if half of the reason he went to study abroad instead of staying with Usagi is because he was afraid if he did he'd only continue to be a burden for her, because the man hardly has any dialogue and seems almost catatonic.
Also let's be real here. As amazing as it was for him to meet and talk with his future self it probably scared him. The responsibility of literally being King of the world, of making decisions that could impact the lives of everyone in tremendous ways. Of being the kind of partner and provider he thinks Usagi deserves or being a good father for Chibi-Usa when he didn't get to have parents to show him what those things looked like.
He didn't get a loving family to support him or tell him that they loved him, he was an orphan who probably hoped someone would eventually rescue him but no one ever did.
He probably feels in his heart that he doesn't deserve to be loved by anyone, and even if someone were to pursue him romantically he probably couldn't reciprocate in any meaningful way because he's most likely too closed off emotionally to be in a healthy relationship with anyone.
Heck the guy only for the most part has only two best friends. Motoki and Saori and frankly I'd hardly even call Saori a best friend since she literally just shows up in an episode in Super S as "Romantic competition" for Usagi and then just ups and vanishes and is never mentioned ever ever again.
So how does someone like him see Usagi and wind up constantly sacrificing his life over and over again for her?
Three words:
She. Sees. Him.
Once she starts to look at him a bit differently instead of seeing him as some tall guy running around with his stupid green jacket with his prickly personality, once she realizes that it was him trying to rescue her when she was so close to the brink of death on occasions and getting injured in the process, once he opens up to her about his struggles she sees him. Not just because he's a hero, but because even if it's hard for him he still tries to help her. A lot of times he even gives her really sound advice that she winds up listening to even if at the time he tells her she doesn't seem to understand him and takes it the wrong way.
He probably also deep down worries that he truly doesn't deserve someone like her.
Even if we don't always see it from the outside he adores Usagi because she sees him for who he is and doesn't ask him to be more outgoing or different.
Usagi adores him because he doesn't ask her to be anything other than who she really is.
Both of them accept the other as they truly are inside. THAT is true love.
You don't really get the chance to see what their relationship looks like from the outside. But he smiles a lot when he's with her which is certainly not something he really ever did with Rei or anyone else from what I could tell. And I bet when he does take her out on dates he's embarrassed and flustered and stumbles but he also probably takes off his mask and tries to make her happy and have a good time.
Also I'd like to add some notes on King Endymion and the violet. Why so much violet? Like....an overwhelming amount of violet XD I never understood why when I was younger but as I've grown up I've spent some time delving into subjects such as Psychology, Spirituality, and Philosophy.
Ladies and gentlemen, Violet is the color of the crown chakra.
https://www.chakras.info/crown-chakra/
Crown chakras deal with the mental and the spiritual. They are a gateway to enlightenment and in my opinion perhaps one could even say that the journey of mental health and enlightenment are two sides of the same coin.
So I'd like to think that for as much as Mamoru might struggle with his mental health, he also walked the path towards true enlightenment. Such a man truly should be King of the World and is more than deserving of being Usagi's partner.
And I'd die for a relationship with a man who is brave enough to confront the things which makes him suffer because I'd know that he'd have the clarity of mind to be a good partner, to treat me with kindness and compassion and show me the kind of love I've always dreamed of having, and that's something only someone who has love for themselves and others could ever possibly be able to give. He doesn't need to be perfect, because perfection is unattainable. He just needs to be brave enough to try even if it makes him deeply uncomfortable at times.
So,
To the men who truly and deeply identify with Mamoru, know I'd marry you in a heartbeat if you asked. That if you showered me in chocolate and flowers I'd do the exact same thing for you because you deserve it. Anyone who is brave enough to do the work necessary to heal and grow, to have kindness and compassion for others, to show me that even if I'm not perfect that it's still okay to be myself around you deserves every happiness in the world.
Not everyone is brave enough to do such a thing and I've come to a point in my life where I'm not interested in what someone can give me externally as much as I am in the kind of person they choose to be and what their values are.
Maybe some people might look at someone like Mamoru and judge him, but Usagi most certainly never would once she got to know him; and considering I've always wanted to be her I'll die on this hill defending him. Out of everyone, Usagi WOULD defend him from the judgement, from the criticism, of the need to be perfect and wear masks, or be something other than what he truly is on the inside.
Mamoru is more than just a knight in shining armor,
He's beautiful imperfection; and I'd choose that over anything else any day.
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@heavyheartedprinceofearth
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setphies · 1 year
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i love games like this so im gonna give you team mimikyu + judai, whatever questions you want to answer
YIPPEEE i’m gonna start w team mimikyu (just ocelot raikov and eva fake bc. idk if the world is ready for the others)
when i started to like them
i liked ocelot from when you first told me about him bc he was so funny. then i played mgs3 and he’s just so likeable in that. in a weird, gay cowboy way
didn’t care for raikov until eva theory now he is a beloved blorbo
when eva fake said "i only get off my bike when i fall in love… or fall dead" holy shit.
favourite outfits
ocelot has quite a few i think his best is his mgs1 look tho? my least favourite is his mgs4 outfit. no red 😟
eva fake‘s outfit in mgs4 is nice. i wish she’d been in v so we could have how she dressed in the 80s… alas
secret they have they’ve never told anyone
LITERALLY THEIR WHOLE LIVES
ocelot seems to operate on a "need to know" basis i highly doubt anyone knows what he was up to off screen, working for every government in the world
eva fake and raikov have plenty i can’t imagine them sharing :(
when they acted the most ooc
raikov in mgs3 but we know why /joke
eva has some really bad lines in mgs3 that are so "ok hideo kojima i’m gonna take her away now".
ocelot is not really himself in mgsv. which i know there are justifications for but. where’s the flamboyance. the gun tricks. come onnn
-
OK judai time judai time :)
first impression
well, that’s not yugi 🤨. i didn’t really know who he was? other than. protagonist who is not the other protagonist i know all about. oh and i watched the dubbed version before subbed, so actually my first impression was of jaden yuki. get your game on…
when i started to like him
when i actually watched gx lmao. he’s sooo cute in season 1 you just can’t hate him no matter how silly he is. just a little guy
song that reminds me of him
kind of a weird one- backdraft by deco*27 in a weird metaphorical way. it just gave me mental images and supreme king thoughts so. here i am. it’s not my fault and triage also do this? the power of milgram trial 2 ig
favourite ship
i am a dedicated spiritshipping enthusiast they are just. everything to me. johan was so good for judai’s character development too. "all the love you gave me… does it all belong to him now?!" GOD. also while it is most prevalent in s3, that s4 tag duel was really sweet. the existence of rainbow neos just makes it for me jfdhdfjhfd. i like soulshipping too. super polymerisation marriage.
favourite friendship
sho, kenzan, asuka, edo, manjoume… he’s got so many friends lol. but the dynamics are all different and fun. those last two especially
best storyline
SEASON 3 oh my god. i could write essays on that. sorry we ambiguously killed your boyfriend. yeah you have to go on a horrible journey which may not even have him at the end. yeah all your friends are gonna die. we might make you go evil too. sorry
funniest scene he had
in bonds beyond time when he blew up that stage w yubel and then laughed joyously as people ran away screaming. king there’s something wrong with you!!
OH AND WHO COULD FORGET
"i love you. i love you more than anything in the world, judai"
"i set one card and end my turn"
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commentaryvorg · 2 years
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Digimon Data Squad Dub Comparison Episode 46 - The Truth About BanchoLeomon
This is a companion to my commentary on the original Japanese Digimon Savers! Reading my commentary on the original version of this episode (which you can find here) is recommended before reading this dub comparison.
Original name ~ Dubbed name
Masaru Daimon ~ Marcus Damon
Yoshino Fujieda ~ Yoshino “Yoshi” Fujieda
Tohma H. Norstein ~ Thomas H. Norstein
Ikuto Noguchi ~ Keenan Crier
Yggdrasil ~ King Drasil
Professor Suguru Daimon ~ Doctor Spencer Damon
BanchouLeomon ~ BanchoLeomon
Craniummon ~ Craniamon
Chika Daimon ~ Kristy Damon
Yukidarumon ~ Frigimon
Mercurimon ~ Merukimon
Dukemon ~ Gallantmon
[Since several characters share the same name between the original and the dub, quotes from the dub will always be in italics, while quotes from the original will not, in order to distinguish them.]
  Here’s another time where I’m briefly mentioning the preview of this episode that played at the end of episode 45: it showed nothing of the flashback parts and instead had a whole chunk from right near the end of this episode? Weird choice. Do they not think people would be interested to see that they’re going to learn more about Spencer and BanchoLeomon, having just had that bombshell dropped?
Craniummon:  “I… have always been troubled. I incessantly pondered over whether Yggdrasil’s way of justice was true or not.”
~~~~~
Craniamon: “I’ve always debated in my heart over King Drasil’s decisions… But in the end, I’ve always sided with the King, and kept my pledge of loyalty to him intact.”
Except for the part where, in the dub, it didn’t seem quite so much like Craniamon was siding with King Drasil simply out of loyalty, but rather because he’d actually been persuaded that humans suck and deserve to be annihilated.
Craniummon: “But… You must have wanted to tell me such thoughts were wrong.”
~~~~~
Craniamon: “You must have wanted to tell me that you thought the King’s way of justice wasn’t justice at all.”
In the original, it could almost be interpreted here like Craniummon thinks Suguru was trying to tell him he shouldn’t have been deliberating about Yggdrasil at all and should have just mindlessly gone along with it, which definitely wasn’t right. I appreciate the dub being clearer about it.
Craniamon: “Isn’t that right… Spencer Damon?!”
Craniamon sounds almost angry here, which… he really shouldn’t, at all? What is with his voice acting giving completely the wrong impression in some of his lines in these last couple of episodes and making him sound like he’s still an antagonist, come on.
Garudamon: “Spencer… Damon…?!”
Craniamon: “Your daughter should be able to tell that this is he.”
This is phrased oddly like he’s saying Kristy is Garudamon’s daughter, since he refers to Spencer as “he” at the end of the sentence, making him sound like a different person to the “you”.
BanchoLeomon:  “Craniamon, why? Tell me!”
The “tell me!” is weirdly demanding of him considering that he’s asking for the why of something Craniamon literally only just started doing.
Craniummon:  “I wanted to try believing once more… in the infinite possibilities that humans and Digimon can create together!”
~~~~~
Craniamon:  “I wanted to try believing once more… in the potential that humans and Digimon can live together.”
Craniamon’s “potential” here is only talking about the possibility of them living together in future. It’s got nothing to do with that idea of “unlimited potential” power that human and Digimon partnerships can bring out, even though… that was the entire point of Craniamon’s episode with the shield. The dub literally made it the title of that episode… but suddenly they’ve forgotten about it, apparently.
Cutting right from BanchoLeomon watching Craniamon hold up the worlds (which is technically a flashback) straight to BanchoLeomon standing in front of Marcus in the present is a little bit awkward when there’s not an opening in between to split them up. Alas.
BanchouLeomon: “When you were a little boy… you fell off the monkey bars and hit your head.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “Remember falling off the monkey bars on your sixth birthday?”
Marcus’s… sixth birthday? Which was at least ten years ago, for Spencer to have been there? Uhhhhh.
Was anyone still waiting for the punchline to this joke I set up wayyy back at the beginning of the dub commentary? Because here it is, at last. Remember how I went out of my way to establish that Marcus’s age had to be fourteen, because he’s in eighth grade and hasn’t been held back a grade based on the exams episode? And how Thomas’s age is also fourteen, because the only information we have on his age is that it’s the same as Marcus’s?
EXCEPT… apparently Marcus is sixteen, according to this episode. So I guess he’s just magically simultaneously either fourteen or sixteen, depending on which episode you’re watching! And therefore so is Thomas, who is the same age as Marcus, whatever age that is! Good job, dubbers, a round of applause for how much of a damn you give about keeping details straight.
(And no, one can’t argue that they could both be correct if we imagine the events of the series took two whole years, because his dad was established to have been missing for ten years at the very beginning; this line here means that Marcus has to have been sixteen at the beginning of the series. In which he was also fourteen. Magically.)
Also, in the original, this is Suguru referring to an event that Masaru actually mentioned back in episode 20! But in the dub, he didn’t, because the dubbers were too busy making a reference to one of Marcus’s VA’s other roles, so we miss out on that fun little connection there.
Suguru:  “If you’re a man, then bear with it!”
~~~~~
Spencer: “Everybody falls down, son. What’s important is to get back up!”
Since we couldn’t keep the manliness, this is a decent equivalent! It also gets across a sense that this might have been very instrumental into shaping Marcus into the unendingly determined person he is today.
BanchouLeomon:  “A BANCHOU NEVER LIES!”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “BANCHOLEOMON NEVER LIES!”
This was Suguru was unknowingly quoting something Masaru said in episode 30. In the dub, this was indeed the exact dub version of that same line from episode 30. It’s a little odder that Spencer happens to unknowingly quote it, though. A general sense of “a banchou is the kind of person who wouldn’t lie” is plausible for both father and son to believe, but it’s a bit more out of nowhere for them both to insist that this specific person never lies, completely separately. It almost reads like Spencer is knowingly quoting that line of Marcus’s, but he can’t be, because he wasn’t there for it.
Gaomon:  “He’s alive?”
BanchouLeomon:  “I won’t die that easily. That’s because this body has two lives dwelling within it.”
~~~~~
Gaomon: “You’re still alive?”
BanchoLeomon:  “I would hope you’d have more faith in me than that. Inside my heart… my body is supported by two life force energies.”
It perhaps makes more sense that having twice as much life force energy makes him harder to kill, rather than simply having two consciousnesses inside him. Though, I guess this has just casually established that, hey, that sparkly yellow life force energy stuff that Kurata was harvesting from all the Digimon he killed? Humans have it too, apparently…? I’m not sure that’s the case in the original.
It's kind of odd, though, that BanchoLeomon expected Gaomon to have “more faith” in his survivability, because he has two life force energies inside him… when Gaomon didn’t know that.
Suguru:  “But I have an important mission to meet Yggdrasil, the God of the Digital World!”
~~~~~
Spencer:  “I am only passing through your territory on my way to find King Drasil, the ruler of the Digital World.”
While Suguru was being pretty polite about this in the original, there was still a certain determination in his tone, which matched his facial expression for this line here. Spencer’s delivery, meanwhile, is so calmly polite that it doesn’t match the expression at all and seems kinda off.
BanchouLeomon: “What?”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “King Drasil?”
BanchouLeomon narrows his eyes as he questions this. In the original, it just reads like he doesn’t see that as enough of an excuse for Suguru to pass through his turf without a fight. In the dub, because he specifically mentions King Drasil, it sounds like he has some kind of personal investment in the King that makes him more interested in Spencer because of it – which I’m pretty sure isn’t meant to be it. Most Digimon aren’t even supposed to be sure it exists.
BanchouLeomon:  “A banchou or a god… Who is greater?”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “I’m afraid not. Not without a fight.”
Because the dub made zero attempt to localise the concept of a banchou, they couldn’t keep BanchouLeomon’s ridiculously manly-dork line, and instead had to have him ask for a fight in a much more normal way.
BanchouLeomon:  [narrating] “A battle between men has no need for a reason. We simply fire up our fighting spirits as we mutually display our fierce pride.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: [narrating] “When two immovable forces meet, sooner or later, something is going to have to give.”
Because there’s no manliness in the dub either, this line also had to change. It doesn’t really work as well, because it makes it sound like Spencer only got into the fight with BanchoLeomon because he was physically forced to in order to get past? Except, he wasn’t; he could literally have kept walking and left. It fails to properly get across the idea that he simply shared BanchouLeomon’s worldview about fighting and decided it’d be a fun challenge to test their strength against each other – that he did it because he wanted to.
Suguru:  “Well fought…”
BanchouLeomon: “You threw some pretty good punches yourself…”
~~~~~
Spencer: “Well done…”
BanchoLeomon: “Thanks. You got a few good licks in yourself.”
This is a fairly direct translation of the original here, but what it isn’t in the dub is a delightful callback to what Agumon and Marcus said to each other after their very first fight, because those lines were completely different in the dub of episode 1. Naturally, the dubbers did not watch ahead when they were dubbing episode 1 to realise those lines would get a callback. (Agumon’s line was “You’re pretty good… for a human”, which wouldn’t work here at all considering that the human and Digimon roles are swapped in this callback.)
What this does at least have going for it in the dub is that both Damon-Digimon bonding moments have the same BGM of Probably Marcus’s Theme: Heartwarming Acoustic Guitar Edition, whereas they had different BGM pieces in the original. So there’s that!
BanchouLeomon: “I’m a banchou. BanchouLeomon.”
Suguru:  “A banchou, huh? No wonder you’re so strong.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “Around here they call me… BanchoLeomon.”
Spencer: “Nice meeting you, friend. Better your friend than your foe.”
Oh hey, remember how when we first met BanchoLeomon in episode 28, he wouldn’t stop yammering about his friends? He hasn’t been doing that at all here, in this scene where it’s definitely him and not Spencer, in which he’s about to make a friend. Spencer is the only one who brings up this notion of friendship in a vaguely similar way, and only briefly. Yep, they totally dropped that out-of-nowhere character trait when they realised it didn’t fit his character, didn’t they.
(Given episode 28’s form, this bit here still kinda smacks of that “oops we need to replace the banchou stuff with something else, ummm, FRIENDSHIP”, but at least it’s not overdone and feels natural here.)
BanchouLeomon: [narrating] “And that’s how we completely hit it off with each other.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: [narrating] “And that’s how we became friends.”
Bah, far more boringly low-key about it here, like normal people. They only “became friends”, rather than completely hit it off with each other like ridiculous manly dorks.
BanchouLeomon: “MASARU! LISTEN UNTIL SOMEONE FINISHES TALKING!”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “Marcus! I wasn’t done talking!!!”
This isn’t phrased like stern fatherly advice, but it does at least still have the sternness in the tone, so I guess it’s similar enough.
Spencer: “We’re not laughing at you. We’re just glad!”
Really? Because the way Spencer’s laugh was voice acted, it really sounded like he found something absolutely hilarious, rather than that he was just happy and relieved to hear proof that King Drasil exists.
I’m still not a great fan of Spencer’s raspy voice, by the way. I didn’t notice it as much in King Drasil’s lines because the computery filter helps cover that up, but now that the VA’s actually being Spencer again, I’m just, eh. He doesn’t have nearly as much of that sense of presence and determination that Masaru’s dad ought to have.
BanchouLeomon: “Don’t sneer at the humans!”
Craniummon: “What?”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “Why do you insult humans?”
Craniamon: “Why not?”
Okay, so Craniummon was being a dick either way (he called Suguru a “lowly human” in both versions), but here in the dub he’s just being extra dickish about it, like he thinks insulting humans is fun or something.
BanchoLeomon: “Humans have the power of emotions inside them, something we Digimon lack.”
And then we Digimon feed off those emotions deliberately to power ourselves up, so it’s really not that much about the humans’ input anyway! No, I’m still not going to stop ragging on this change, ever.
BanchoLeomon: “When a Digimon combines itself with a human’s emotions, unlimited potential is born.”
Combines itself? That doesn’t sound too objectionable at a glance, but that’s really not quite the same idea as feeding off them, is it. This is one of those times the dubbers are just keeping the explanation the same as in the original and awkwardly hoping you don’t notice this isn’t actually how they established this to work in the dub.
BanchoLeomon: “BanchoLeomon Burst Mode engaging!”
Whoops, they had too much lip-flap for BanchoLeomon calling out his Burst Mode, so he had to awkwardly add in that extra word that’s not usually there.
Burst Mode music even for this short bit, by the way, wooo! Not that it lasts long.
King Drasil’s natural, non-Spencer voice is decidedly deep and masculine, as opposed to the androgynous one it had in the original. It has some kind of filter over it, which may or may not be the same filter that’s been over Spencer’s voice. Hard to tell. I do not know much about sound design.
BanchouLeomon: “But…! A disaster occurred at the worst timing!”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon:  “I still remember the day Kurata attacked the Digital World! Sad…”
That “Sad…” at the end does not hit right and just comes off as kind of silly. Plus, this makes it sound like Spencer actually witnessed that massacre himself, but he shouldn’t have done; he should only be frustrated that it happened at the most inconvenient time. (This is actually the commercial break’s fault; the dub put one in between the end of the flashback of meeting Yggdrasil, and here, and so they put the line about the bad timing before the commercial break and added in this new one afterwards.)
Huh, they completely cut the brief recap clip of Frigimon being shot. Did they just not want to bother to go back and find their edit of the laser or something? Come on, guys, this is not the first time you’ve had to (attempt to) keep edits consistent in flashbacks of reused footage, it’s just lazy to remove it entirely.
Craniummon: “Yggdrasil has commanded us to wreak vengeance against the human world.”
~~~~~
Craniamon: “King Drasil has ordered your imprisonment while we retaliate against the humans for their unprovoked malicious attack.”
Craniamon mentions Spencer’s imprisonment, which the original didn’t feel the need to do, because one could already figure that out from watching him be thrown into what looks like a giant-tree version of a prison. Based on Craniamon’s phrasing, it also sounds a little bit more like they could be retaliating against just the humans who actually did the attack, and not disproportionately against every human in the human world?
Suguru:  “Please! Stop your attack! Humans and Digimon can appreciate one another! They can cultivate friendships!”
~~~~~
Spencer: “Please, don’t! It was one human acting alone! You can’t punish a whole race because of one madman! Humans and Digimon can live together in peace!”
You know, Spencer makes a good point that Suguru didn’t! But also, that does beg the question… how did he know that it was only Kurata, when he shouldn’t have been there to witness it? (Plus, Kurata wasn’t completely alone; it was all his plan and his idea, but he did have a lot of lackeys helping him.)
(I guess Craniamon’s line is still very much supposed to be implying they’re going for vengeance against the entire human race then, fair enough.)
Unfortunately, though changing Spencer’s line to include the part where it’s only one human is neat, the dub doesn’t follow up on it, and Craniamon’s response – that there could never be peace after how much the Digimon have been hurt by humans – is the same as in the original. He appears to be completely glossing over Spencer’s really very persuasive argument and focusing entirely on his last point about them living in peace. He even uses “they” to refer to the humans who did this, despite Spencer having told him it was just a single one.
Craniummon: “What?”
Suguru:  “BanchoLeomon!”
~~~~~
Craniamon: “Whose side are you on, BanchoLeomon?”
This is the response to BanchoLeomon’s (identical) line about hatred only breeding more hatred. Suguru’s reaction in the original implied he was kind of surprised and moved to hear his Digimon friend backing him up on this. Here, more emphasis is put on Craniamon feeling like he’s siding against Digimon.
Craniamon: “Your life?”
In the original, Craniummon’s delivery of this is surprised, taken aback that Suguru’s willing to put such big stakes on this. But in the dub, he sounds condescending about it. What is it with the dub voice acting of Craniamon just making him sound significantly more villainous in several of his lines.
Craniummon: “But…”
~~~~~
Craniamon: “It’s not up to me.”
Craniummon’s brief line here in the original almost implies that he doesn’t like the idea of Suguru – whom he must know is innocent in all this – putting his life on the line for something like this. In the dub, that’s not there, and instead he’s passing the buck of responsibility for this onto his King (which, to be fair, is also an in-character thing for Craniamon to do).
Yggdrasil:  “I shall trust your word.”
~~~~~
King Drasil:  “I will hold you to your promise, human.”
Not only is King Drasil being more implicitly threatening about this with that added “human”, this actually has a different meaning. Yggdrasil’s saying that it trusts Suguru’s insistence that this won’t happen again (though whether it actually trusts that is another matter). But what King Drasil’s saying is not that it necessarily believes that part, but rather, that it’s going to hold Spencer to his promise to be killed if he’s wrong. Like it’s expecting him to be proven wrong sooner or later.
That’s… you know, actually, I think I rather like that? That’s some on-point Yggdrasil characterisation the dub’s managed there, whether by luck or judgement (probably luck).
There really is a noticeable difference in the voices, though. Yggdrasil’s calm, androgynous voice makes it come across, at least on the surface, like a seemingly-benevolent, rational force that’s theoretically trustworthy. King Drasil’s deeper voice just… sounds evil. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having it be subtly manipulative about this, when every time it speaks it’s like there’s a neon sign pointing at it saying THIS IS A VILLAIN.
Spencer: “What? Merukimon?!”
Craniamon: “He’s gone.”
Not killed, though, of course not, can’t have that!
BanchouLeomon: “It’s true that I was the one, at that time, who put in a good word for you to Yggdrasil. But… A man must keep his promises!”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “Even though I vouched for you to King Drasil, you know deep down in your heart… that you must keep your word, as a man.”
BanchouLeomon’s “but” in the original line could read as a little weird, because his good word to Yggdrasil was specifically about the part where Suguru would keep his promise, so the two halves of his line aren’t actually contradictory enough to require a “but” between them. I think what he’s trying to say here, though, is “it’s true that it’s largely my fault that you’re in this position where you absolutely have to keep that promise, but, hey, you would absolutely have to keep that promise even if I hadn’t said anything, you know that, you’re a man.”
The dub version reads somewhat different, because there’s no “I was the one” in there, so it feels less about BanchoLeomon feeling somewhat guilty for putting his friend in this position. Instead, the only way to read it is that somewhat contradictory “even though I told King Drasil you’d keep your word, you must keep your word”, which… why is there an “even though” there.
It also just strikes me as weird that he’s only saying Spencer knows this “deep down in his heart”. Surely his manly principles would be closer to the surface than that?
But wait, oh no, no they aren’t, because this is the dub, and there’s no manliness in the dub. Except for suddenly right now, apparently! The Manliness Police were sleeping on the job again, it seems. Sure lessens the impact of Spencer’s manly promise to stake his life on this when he’s never showed any kind of investment in what a Man does for the entire rest of the time we’ve known him.
Suguru:  “A man doesn’t… go back on his word…”
~~~~~
Spencer:  “I know you’re right… But…”
And here, they go right back to watering down the manliness, because they don’t even have Spencer cite that concept while agonising about how he knows he should do this but doesn’t actually want to. I suppose the end result is that it comes across in the dub like BanchoLeomon is the one imposing this idea of manliness onto Spencer, who only sort of buys into it and not quite in those exact words.
Spencer: “Marcus… Marcus…! MARCUS!”
Okay, so I’ve moaned about Spencer’s voice actor a lot, but I did enjoy his delivery of this part, yes good.
Gallantmon:  “It is time to begin Spencer Damon’s execution.”
Wow, they actually called it an execution, I’m amazed the dub was willing to use that word. They didn��t in episode 30.
(I’m not… actually sure this is Gallantmon speaking based on my vague recollection of his voice in the two episodes he’s been in, but it’s Dukemon’s line in the original. If it isn’t Gallantmon’s voice here then it’s some other Royal Knight whom I can’t hope to recognise from one line, so whatever.)
Suguru:  “I don’t want to die.”
~~~~~
Spencer: “Please don’t.”
Because the dub isn’t allowed to use the word “die”, instead, Spencer is actively asking them not to do this. That’s not necessarily what Suguru was doing, even as he was spending his final moments admitting that this isn’t what he wanted.
Suguru:  “I want to make my son into a fine young man…”
~~~~~
Spencer:  “I wanna be able to mould my son into a fine young man…”
“Mould” is a slightly sinister way of phrasing it there, Spencer. Feels a bit… controlling, which should very much not be his intent.
Suguru:  “…so I can’t die until then.”
~~~~~
Spencer:  “I can’t leave this world until then!”
Again with the not being allowed to say “die”. This’d usually be an acceptable substitute, I guess, but it is a little awkward in the context of this story in which people have been hopping between two different “worlds” all the time. He means it in a rather different way to usual.
Craniummon: “You dare to make those words your last at your dying hour? If you’re a man, then don’t make such unsightly utterances!”
~~~~~
Craniamon: “You dare to use your last words for the purposes of begging? How can you call yourself a man?!”
He literally didn’t, though! It was only BanchoLeomon who ever did, in this version! Manliness Police, what are you doing.
They do keep this line consistent with the fact that Spencer was outright begging in the dub when he wasn’t in the original. Craniummon in the original nonetheless thought that Suguru spending his final moments openly full of fear and regret wasn’t very manly of him.
Dukemon:  “Do it!”
~~~~~
Gallantmon: “Execute him…”
Whichever Royal Knight said that in the dub had a really dark and vicious tone to his voice, wow. I am, again, gobsmacked that the dub is letting itself use this word and be this direct. (But, of course, Spencer’s still not allowed to say the word “die”, that’d be too much, right.)
(I am still not convinced that’s the Gallantmon voice from his previous two episodes. Then again, his voice was extremely generic back then, and it’s been like five episodes since he’s had lines, so perhaps his voice actor just completely forgot what voice he gave him.)
BanchouLeomon:  “I would merely like to, as his friend, send him personally to the other world.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon:  “My deep friendship with this man prevents me from allowing him to suffer his fate at the hands of the Royal Knights.”
That’s a really weird way of putting it? He’s making it sound like he’s physically incapable of letting the Royal Knights kill Spencer, rather than that he just wants to be the one to do it himself, as a friend.
(Okay, in defence of that earlier line about “leaving this world”, it seems the original did also use “other world” language to refer to dying here, too.)
The burst of energy out the other side of Spencer’s body as BanchoLeomon punches him is not edited out; I’m kind of surprised. What they do edit out is a sort of scorch mark on his front where the punch connected, and on his back once he’s collapsed. So the energy still went all the way through his body, but… it didn’t leave a mark, somehow.
Suguru was silent in the original, but Spencer is still groaning quietly as BanchoLeomon appeals to King Drasil to stop the attack again. Which is actually appropriate, since he’s dying but not quite dead yet!
King Drasil:  “To honour your friendship with the human, I will grant your request, BanchoLeomon.”
Yggdrasil didn’t say a word here, other than to glow in acknowledgement; this line is added in. I’m not sure how much we should be believing King Drasil’s claim that it was inspired by BanchoLeomon’s friendship with Spencer. I’m also not entirely sure whether or not the dubbers realise that King Drasil probably shouldn’t truly mean this. I think I prefer how Yggdrasil just left things at an ambiguous silence here.
BanchouLeomon: “That’s the only way to fool Yggdrasil’s eyes.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “It’s the only way we’ll be able to fool King Drasil.”
By not phrasing this as King Drasil’s “eyes”, aka those things it doesn’t have, there’s a bit less of an obvious problem here that he’s overlooking, heh.
BanchouLeomon:  “By uniting with me, you can also watch over your son, Masaru, in the shadows.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon:  “If you unite with me, you’ll be able to watch over Marcus as he grows, although you’ll only be watching from inside my heart.”
Uhh. Is the “from inside my heart” implying that Spencer was never in control of BanchoLeomon’s body this entire time? Because that sure sounds like what it’s implying. Except that’s literally contradicted by this very episode, in which BanchoLeomon in the present has had plenty of lines that are very clearly Spencer speaking. What the hell. That’s not what he meant by “in the shadows” in the original; presumably he just meant that it wouldn’t be obvious that it was Suguru.
The part about Marcus “growing” makes this sound more long-term, like BanchoLeomon’s hoping to let Spencer continue to participate in the Damons’ normal family life this way, rather than just help out with the Kurata stuff. The Damon family, now with a lion dad.
Marcus: “Then you… really are…? My dad…”
That last little “my dad” is so quiet and soft and awestruck and it’s pretty adorable, aaa.
Masaru:  “Why?! Why did you keep quiet about such an important thing until now? Dad!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Hey! Why’d ya keep it a secret? Don’tcha think you shoulda told me about this sooner? I mean, really! Come on!”
Marcus sounds a lot more just annoyed about this, like his dad’s simply been kinda stupid, rather than feeling desperate and confused and hurt like Masaru was. Marcus, now is not the time for your more-of-a-jerk side to come through.
BanchouLeomon: “Yggdrasil always kept us under watch.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon:  “I had to hide it. If King Drasil found out I told you, I could never have returned to you again.”
This added line in the dub potentially goes some way towards presenting this situation more like the bribe it should have been, by stressing that it was about Spencer wanting to return to Marcus and get to be a family with him again. …Though, on the other hand, since the dub also just had that bonus implication that BanchoLeomon was willing to use his body to let Spencer be Lion Dad for the Damon family if it had to come to that, the fact that it was Spencer’s body on offer here shouldn’t matter so much.
My god, every single line of King Drasil’s in this voice just screams VILLAIN, I cannot get over this.
Yggdrasil: “You are both fools for thinking you could deceive a god.”
~~~~~
King Drasil: “Fools! Did you really think you could deceive an all-knowing being like myself?”
Ah yes, kings, those beings well-known to be omniscient. This is one of those instances in which King Drasil being referred to as a king rather than a god doesn’t quite work as well.
Yggdrasil:  “I have now taken this body hostage.”
~~~~~
King Drasil:  “As your punishment, I will now take this body as hostage.”
Okay, so, despite that earlier line that slightly helped to get across the idea that Spencer hid his identity because he wanted to be able to live a normal family life again, the dubbers evidently didn’t quite grasp that this should mean this was effectively a bribe on King Drasil’s part. Not only did they keep it calling the body a “hostage”, they laid it on even thicker by also calling this a “punishment”.
Yggdrasil:  “If you ever tell anyone about your true identities, or directly involve yourselves in battle, I shall destroy this body at once.”
~~~~~
King Drasil:  “If you ever tell anyone that you have Spencer Damon’s life force energy inside of you, then I will destroy this body forever.”
It’s pretty weird that they’re talking about “life force energy” in this context! In that earlier context, about how he wasn’t going to die so easily, it made some amount of sense that having twice as much of that would help. But here, we’re talking about Spencer’s consciousness. That’s… not the same thing as life force energy, surely? It’s not like Kurata was harvesting all of those murdered Digimon’s consciousnesses when he sucked up that yellow sparkly energy. They were already dead by then!
Also, quite an important oversight by the dub: King Drasil never orders them to not involve themselves directly in battle. Which means that, though Spencer was hiding his identity because of this threat/bribe, there’s absolutely no justification for why he wasn’t helping them fight in the dub. He was standing around on that building doing nothing when he could have been helping for literally no reason. Good job, dubbers!
King Drasil: “Until then, I will enjoy it for my own purposes.”
This is an entirely new sentiment to the dub, and we’re just about to get into what it apparently means by this. “Enjoy” is a very weird way for it to phrase this, though, given what this is actually about.
Gotsumon:  “Why… Why would Yggdrasil do that?”
Tohma:  “It’s a trial from God. Yggdrasil wanted to test them! It was all to determine whether or not we humans were a positive existence to the Digimon!”
~~~~~
Gotsumon: “But why? What need does King Drasil have for that body?”
Thomas:  “It was a test. He wanted to know if humans were worth saving. If King Drasil could see life through human eyes, then maybe he would change his mind. I guess he didn’t see enough.”
So this is not remotely what’s going on here in the original. Gotsumon’s “why” in the original was never even about why did it take this body, but rather why did it force BanchoLeomon and Suguru to not help. However, it seems the dubbers (potentially?) misinterpreted this completely and thought Gotsumon was asking about why the human body, and so they took a completely different angle on Thomas’s line.
Yoshino:  “That’s too selfish of him!”
Lalamon:  “That’s right! Does that mean he doesn’t care if masses of humans and Digimon get hurt in the process?!”
~~~~~
Yoshi:  “I think… his eyes are closed!”
Lalamon: “Yeah! He’s not living life as a human – he’s just living as a Digimon in a human body!”
Okay but King Drasil literally isn’t even supposed to be a Digimon in the first place, screeeeeee
Cough, ahem, that aside. Lalamon’s original line here made it clear that Gotsumon’s question was never about why the human body. Tohma was really talking about the “test” being whether humans except for Suguru were good enough to defend Digimon from Kurata, even though forcing Suguru to stay out of the fight would get more Digimon killed.
Lalamon’s line in the dub takes this in a completely different direction, significantly enough so that this might not even be the dub misinterpreting the original conversation? It’s possible that this was a conscious change, and somehow they decided that King Drasil needed more reason to take on a human body other than just to hold it hostage.
Except, as Lalamon points out here, it was a pretty pointless reason, given that it didn’t actually do anything human with that body to try and understand a human’s point of view. You’d think, if we’re really supposed to believe that it did this to give humanity a chance and try to understand them, it would have actually, you know, tried to understand them.
I suppose one could argue that this is that manipulativeness I’ve been talking about – that this is King Drasil going “look, see, I’m giving the humans a chance, I’m trying to see things through their eyes, and I still see that they’re not worth saving!” while not actually having really tried at all. But I’m not convinced that’s meant to be it, because I don’t trust the dub.
It’s also just weird that this pretty out-there approach of King Drasil’s is entirely explained by other characters, who are really just making a huge wild guess out of absolutely nowhere, yet we’re clearly supposed to think that they’ve got it right and this was indeed what it was doing. Based on that, I can’t help but think the dubbers also want us to assume they’re right about King Drasil having actually been serious about trying, rather than that we ought to be reading between the lines and taking Thomas’s assumption with a grain of salt.
Yggdrasil: “Exactly.”
~~~~~
King Drasil:  “I *have* seen enough!”
And yes, King Drasil certainly seems to be corroborating Thomas’s assumption that this was about it genuinely trying to see things through human eyes.
Yggdrasil: “You worthless humans… Even when you are confronted with this unprecedented crisis, not once have you reflected on the error of your ways. All you do is run around fretfully. Your actions are truly the height of stupidity.”
~~~~~
King Drasil: “You worthless humans. You’ve created chaos and violence throughout your history, never stopping to realise that you’re the very cause of your own troubles! I don’t need to live in a human’s body to realise that. That’s why… you must go.”
Yggdrasil’s angle here was still about the idea that it’s all of humanity who are totally responsible for the Digimon massacres, and so they’re all stupid and bad for not realising how terrible they are and that this current crisis is totally their fault. King Drasil, meanwhile, has suddenly started going on about how humans are violent and warlike in general, within their own world. While that may be slightly more of a valid point, it’s like, none of the Digital World’s business? It’s kind of weird that King Drasil has taken it upon itself to get rid of a species from a totally different world just because of that.
(At least the dub’s still very much leaning into the fact that King Drasil wanted humans gone anyway, destroyed barrier or no.)
Ikuto:  “There are plenty of people who are working hard to protect the worlds from this disaster!”
~~~~~
Keenan: “You wrong! There are many people working hard to end violence forever!”
Because King Drasil’s complaint about humans got completely changed, Keenan’s line defending them also has to be changed to something very silly. We get a brief shot of his parents working hard to fix the barrier here, but… that’s not “working to end violence forever”? What even? How would Keenan even know whether there’s any humans doing that, with his limited knowledge of the human world? And if there are, it sure isn’t his parents.
Oh hey, did you want to know that Falcomon has That Voice? Because he just said Keenan’s name in worry, almost his only line in the episode, and I was suddenly reminded that he has That Voice.
King Drasil: “Humans are unnecessary.”
This line is the same as in the original, but it feels different considering the difference to the big contemptuous speech about humans just now. Yggdrasil was going on about how they don’t understand anything, they just run around in a panic, they’re so stupid, which fits well with it thinking they’re pointless. You’d have thought, with King Drasil’s more vicious point about how humans are violent, it’d have something a bit more to say about why it wants them gone than just them being “unnecessary”.
Masaru:  “Like hell we’d accept that self-centred decision of yours!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “You’re only the ruler of the Digital World! We don’t follow your laws!”
Marcus kinda has a point here, that, violent or not, humans don’t deserve to be punished for that by the go – uh, ruler – of a completely different world!
I suppose that’s vaguely along the lines of Masaru’s original point of calling Yggdrasil self-centred, but I did like the particular Masaru-ness of that comment.
Agumon:  “You don’t know anything!”
Yggdrasil: “What?”
Agumon:  “I have fun being with Aniki! I like fighting strong guys and getting stronger myself! It’s exciting!”
~~~~~
Agumon: “Y’know… You’re not a King!”
King Drasil: “What did you say?!”
Agumon: “The King of Digimon would know what the other Digimon want! And I want Boss to live! I like humans! You’re not my King!”
I kinda like Agumon’s point here! It’s similar to that “shouldn’t get to call himself a god!” speech of Masaru’s from episode 40 (which the dub actually kept intact). King or god, they don’t necessarily have to understand what their subjects want – but still, to be a good one, they should.
I am a little sad that because of that we lose Agumon being a fighty dork and talking about how he enjoys fighting and getting stronger with his Aniki, which gets shortened to a much less distinctive “I like humans”.
Gaomon:  “Me, too! I am proud to be fighting alongside my master!”
~~~~~
Gaomon: “The King of Digimon should know that humans and Digimon fight best when they’re side by side!”
Gaomon in the dub makes this less personal to himself, not citing that he loves fighting with his mas – uhh, just Thomas I guess – which is less Dog of him.
Lalamon:  “Me too! I love my human partner Yoshi!”
Lalamon’s platonic I-love-you is kept, though! Aww.
Falcomon:  “I agree! Keenan is my closest friend!”
Oh wow, Falcomon’s voice was especially yikes in his line here. Apparently indignant insistence is not a tone that works well in that accent. He somehow managed to make this sound obnoxious.
King Drasil: “You speak treason!”
Uhh. I mean, I guess disagreeing with the King of Digimon might count as Digimon treason, if King Drasil decides it does?
Masaru:  “What should we do? What should we do to stop Yggdrasil? Dad!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “He’s too strong! Whadda we do now?!”
Though Marcus still looks to his dad, I miss the fact that Masaru actively called out to him to solve this situation like his bestest strongest dad obviously could.
BanchouLeomon/Suguru: “There will come a time in a man’s life when he must accomplish something at the risk of his life. Now is that time.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon/Spencer: “Comes a time… when a man must risk his life to keep a promise he made to his friends. Now’s that time.”
This… isn’t keeping a promise he made to his friends, though? What promise? When? What friends, even? His only friend he’s been with for the past ten years has been BanchoLeomon, mostly. And the only promise he might have made would have been to do with harmony between humans and Digimon, which is not what this sacrifice is about so much as just saving the human world. That whole part’s out of nowhere. In the original, this was just about how sometimes there are things that are important enough to risk dying for – it didn’t need to be more specific than that.
I guess we finally have Spencer himself citing manliness. Doesn’t really hit much when this is literally the first time he’s done so.
Masaru:  “Dad…!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Dad, no…!”
Just pointing out some more lip-flap stuff, thanks to “Dad” being two syllables in Japanese.
BanchouLeomon: “You’re coming with me to the bottom of Hell.”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “Consider your rule… overthrown!”
Yeah, I didn’t expect the dub to be willing to talk about Hell. I suppose this works fine as an alternate badass one-liner, though it’s a bit of a shame that it doesn’t contain Spencer implicitly admitting that he’s also going to die with this.
BanchouLeomon: “Now, Masaru! Destroy my body along with Yggdrasil!”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon: “Now, Marcus! Use your DNA Charge! Destroy the two of us, now!”
It’s not really going to be Marcus’s DNA Charge doing this? I mean, technically, indirectly, but. Bit of a weird way to phrase it.
I suppose I shouldn’t complain about the “destroy” this time because the original also used that word, but to be fair, it flowed a little better in the original, since Suguru was talking about destroying his body, aka the vessel that Yggdrasil’s inhabiting. Here in the dub it’s just yet another find-and-replace for “kill”.
The BGM here is just some general tense dramatic music, nothing like Believer, and there’s no particular musical cue on the moment where Marcus has that shocked, negative-colours face in response to this, so that doesn’t have as much impact.
BanchouLeomon:  “Do it! You’re a man!”
Masaru:  “But…!”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon:  “Do it! It’s the only way! You have to!”
Marcus: “But…!”
BanchoLeomon:  “No buts! DO IT!”
We can’t have the manliness here, so this loses a bit of nuance – Suguru invokes Masaru’s manliness because that ought to make him strong enough to do this, and should mean that he knows that sometimes you have to make awful sacrifices like this for the greater good. Instead we get Spencer kinda just… yelling at him a lot.
Masaru:  “Dad…!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “But, Dad…!”
More “Dad” lip-flap, I don’t know why I feel the need to highlight every single one of these, but I do.
YO, they’re actually using the Burst Mode music for this, even though it’s not literally Burst Mode? I appreciate that! It makes it feel extra-momentous, as it ought to.
Marcus’s delivery of his more subdued “DNA Charge… Overdrive!” is pretty good, too. There’s a kind of desperation in that last word that I enjoy a lot.
Yggdrasil: “Let go! You’ll die, too, if you stay like this!”
~~~~~
King Drasil: “Let go! Why would you possibly want to sacrifice yourself for a human?!”
Uhh, King Drasil? He literally is a human, half of him – the half that’s clearly in control right now. Get with the program, come on.
BanchouLeomon/Suguru: “When we revealed to them who we really were… We were already prepared for death!”
~~~~~
BanchoLeomon/Spencer: “You said if I ever told this secret, you would destroy Spencer’s body. We’re gonna make sure you keep your word.”
Kind of a badass way to frame that – like, maybe all of a sudden King Drasil might want to conveniently back out of that threat, now that it’s in danger. Whoops, too bad, they’re making it happen anyway.
Okay, I was going to comment on how the evolution BGM inevitably gives a completely different tone to this compared to the haunting Burst Mode piece in the original. But the dubbers clearly knew that, because it cuts out completely to silence and then a much sadder piece as Marcus has flashbacks to his time with his dad. It’s a bit weirdly abrupt, but then, that’s what you get when you insist on using the evolution BGM literally every single time somebody evolves, and it’s probably better than having the painful flashbacks over amped-up battle hype music.
The flashbacks also have the actual voiced lines, while they were silent in the original. Oh no, can’t have anybody moving their mouth but not speaking, not ever.
Masaru:  “Dad… Dad…!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Oh, Dad… Please, no…”
More “Dad” lip-flap creativity, I enjoy this, Marcus’s voice acting is a good.
The evolution BGM fades back in as he finds the strength to have ShineGreymon attack, huh. There’s a part of the Burst Mode version that has a bunch of rising notes to increase tension which actually works quite well in conjunction with Spencer and BanchoLeomon’s final thanks and Marcus’s desperate scream.
Chika:  “Dad…”
~~~~~
Kristy: “Daddy…?”
Speaking of “Dad” lip-flap, I guess the simpler option works for Kristy, because she’s younger. It’s actually kinda cute that she’d think of him by that name in this moment when she’s somehow sensing him probably dying.
Hmm, okay, that Royal Knight who had some lines earlier in the episode definitely was Gallantmon, because his voice is similarly deep here. I’m not sure I remember it being quite that deep in his previous episodes, but I don’t know if that’s my memory being off or his voice actor forgetting how he voiced him before.
Falcomon:  “We defeated Yggdrasil…”
~~~~~
Falcomon:  “I don’t believe it… King Drasil has been… defeated…”
In the original, Falcomon was amazed and relieved, but in the dub, Falcomon somehow sounds like he’s devastated about this. As if he cared at all in any way about King Drasil, just because it’s the King of his world? Most Digimon weren’t even sure if it existed!
Overall differences
Overall the episode’s reasonably similar, but there’s a few things that stick out.
This episode casually establishes that Marcus’s age is sixteen, except that earlier episodes in the series already established that he was fourteen if you pieced things together. Meaning that Marcus is just simultaneously fourteen and sixteen throughout the series depending on which episode you use for reference. And so is Thomas, because all we hear about his age is that it’s the same as Marcus’s. Welp.
Spencer and BanchoLeomon’s meeting has a bit less of that bombastic over-the-top banchou dorkiness to it, because the dub is terrible at localising both manliness and the concept of a banchou. Manly principles are a pretty important notion in the original episode in general, with how Suguru stakes his life based on them and is conflicted at wanting to go against them for Masaru’s sake – meanwhile, most of the framing of this being about being a Man is lost in the dub. …Except for in a few lines where it suddenly randomly isn’t? Only, because there’s been almost no manliness anywhere else, for the entire series, those lines are just kind of out of nowhere and don’t hit as well.
The part near the end where they discuss Yggdrasil’s motives was changed (probably on purpose because it’s such a huge difference?) into this whole thing where King Drasil apparently took on Suguru’s body because it wanted to see things through human eyes. Based on the way it’s presented, it seems like we’re supposed to believe that King Drasil was serious and genuine about attempting this, which makes very little sense, because it did literally nothing while in that body that would actually help it to understand humans. It’s just bizarre and out of nowhere and did not need to be added.
King Drasil also goes on about how humans are violent and warlike within their own world, which should really be none of its business and have nothing to do with its reasons for wanting them gone. This leads to an utterly ridiculous line from Keenan about how some humans – implicitly, his parents – are working to “end violence forever”. What even.
For that matter, King Drasil’s own voice sounding different in the dub qualifies as a significant change. In the original, Yggdrasil’s voice was androgynous and sounded calm and theoretically reasonable, but King Drasil’s deeper masculine one just blatantly screams VILLAIN, which inescapably changes the effect of every line it has in that voice.
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jjr1971 · 5 months
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Attended the English Dub screening of The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (Japanese: 夏へのトンネル、さよならの出口) last night courtesy of HIDIVE. 2nd watch in my native language was an entirely different experience than seeing the Japanese sub version at Otakon 2023 this summer (premiere). From the voice performances to the ADR script choices, this 2nd watch I actually believed their growing relationship...I got a better sense of her falling for him, and his developing fondness just spending so much time with her all the time, investigating the nature of the Tunnel. When I saw the subtitled version her falling in love seemed under-developed...but rewatching in English helped to sell me on it; I believed it this time. It's a happy ending if we hand-wave past the reality of a woman in her early 30s reuniting with her long lost High School love who is still a teenager...something something time dilation, transcendent love, yada yada. Same vibe as RaXephon...in the RaXephon movie Haruka even bears him a child. The female lead is an aspiring Manga artist who is disowned by her parents for wanting to pursue that dream because her grandfather was also a manga author who never found commercial success despite his artistic merit. The male protagonist encourages her not to give up. He also proceeds into the magical Tunnel to reunite with his long dead sister. If their dead parakeet could come back from the spirit world then maybe? But alas the Tunnel does not seem to allow that....and his sister's ghost tells him she wants him to go fall madly in love with a girl in the real world. He's finally able to make peace with his sister's death and leaves the spirit realm to rejoin his long lost love, who in the meantime has become a successful magaka but is hitting writer's block just before his return from the great beyond. Both of them are alienated from their parents. Kaoru's parents divorced in the wake of his sister's death and his abusive father fell into alcoholism. Anzu's parents, as mentioned, disowned her and now she lives in her uncle's condo while he is away. The main cast are largely newcomers to HIDIVE productions; I did recognize Shelly Calene Black as the voice of their homeroom teacher, but that's about it as veteran VAs go that I could pick up on. Shannon Emerick voices adult Anzu's assistant but in the theater I though it was Meg MacDonald. Had to check later and I was wrong. The show is beautifully animated and it was nice to see it on the big screen a second time.
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Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (215): Sun 16th Oct 2022
A while back there were reports that a movie Bill Murray was acting in has been postponed because Murray sexually harassed a woman on the set. They didn’t go into specifics at the time but now the details have emerged and it appears Murray straddled a woman and tried to kiss her and the woman complained which led to production being halted. It’s also been revealed that the woman on question accepted a payment of £100,000 in order to stop the matter going any further. I remember watching Murray on The Graham Norton Show where he had Paloma Faith sit on his lap then grabbed her arse and flipped her over so he could have a good look at it. I’ve always had mixed feelings about Bill Murray. I’ve enjoyed his movies and found him to be incredibly funny but I’ve also heard the rumours about him being and arsehole for years. It always seems like more of a disappointment when extremely talented people turn out to be dickheads because talent, especially the ability to make people laugh is something most people would like to have and those people must be so pissed off that someone who acts like such a dick has this gift. Murray has released a statement saying “I’ve come to the realisation that what was funny thirty years ago isn’t acceptable today”. Which to me doesn’t really read like an apology because he’s saying that thirty years ago straddling a woman and kissing her was funny and apparently hasn’t taken into account that it was never funny but it’s only now that women aren’t so afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs. It’s also telling that he says he’s “come to a realisation” that forcing oneself on a woman isn’t okay like it was thirty years ago. So he’s not necessarily sorry that he did that but he’s reluctantly admitting that he’s just going to have to move with the times. My guess is that he’s just famous enough for his career to survive this. He’s apparently quite selective when it comes to taking roles anyway so it’s not like he’s constantly begging for work plus he’s like a billionaire so he doesn’t even have to work anymore. It’ll be interesting to see how Marvel reacts to this news since they just cast him in a major role in one of their new Avengers movies. They can’t exactly recast and reshoot like that Kevin Spacey film did. What they could do though is just put a load of static imagery over Murray’s character and just say it’s a new villain made of static and have Dan Castalleneta or some other famous voice actor dub his lines. What I don’t understand is why Murray didn’t just use the “I was improving excuse”. He’s a trained improv comedian so he could have just used this to get out of it. If he kissed the girl and she likes it then job done but if he kissed the girl and she didn’t like it he could have gone “I was in character. It was improv”.  Saw this because I’ve seen multiple improv shows where the male comedians take full advantage of the fact that they’re in “a scene” to make it a scene where their character decides to fondle one of the female performers. Either that or he could have claimed that he was asleep and occasionally “sleep straddles”.
Watched a trailer for a new film called “Lynch / Oz” which will apparently look into David Lynch’s fascination with the film version of The Wizard of Oz. I’ve heard that Lynch is “obsessed” with the movie before but to be honest the only references I can find to it is in his movie Wild At Heart and the main characters in Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway basing the characters in their dreams on people they know in real life like Dorothy does in the film. Maybe this film will be like what the Room 237 documentary is to The Shining, a bunch of fans speculating over supposed meaning that may or not be there.
This evening I got a notification about the new OSW Review but alas it was just a recap of the pre-show. I love this show but the time in between videos absolutely drags and I have serious withdrawal in the way that I imagine sports fans have in between seasons. To mark the ten year anniversary of this blog I’m going to start doing a podcast where I review AEW Dynamite,  pay per views and wrestling news. Hopefully that will start to hold me over in between OSW videos.
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horrormoviecws · 3 years
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Rusalka: Ozero Myortvykh (The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead)
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“A water nymph falls in love with a woman's fiancé and aims to keep him all to herself in her underwater kingdom, where she is cursed to spend eternity.”
animal death (fish), contortion, drowning, eye trauma, face, strangling
alcohol
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psychewithwings · 3 years
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Relflections
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hello, hello,
welcome to the dark side... this is my second collab with bnharem. Please, please, read through the rest of the collab list HERE. I am so grateful to be working with so many other talented writers and artists on this. Special shout out to @doinmybesthere for beta reading and for @kuso-deku whom I dedicate this piece fror giving me the Mirio brain rot...
TW: NSFW, 18++++ Villains, dub-con moments, sex, violence, YANDERE MIRIO, two crazy people, inter dimensional travel, killing, mentions of blood, dirty talk, some cum play
Around 7000 words
Breaking news: We have yet another report to add to the slew of attacks this month, this comes just days after we broadcast rumours of villains running rampant over the city. This spate of attacks has put the entire metropolitan area at a standstill, road closures and damaged property making it difficult for commuters to get to work in the morning. Road maintenance endeavour to do its best to keep the city running, but it seems futile when these attacks continue to increase. The entire city was brought to a standstill by the mysterious villain who has still not been named, but reports show they are nothing like we have ever experienced before. Where are the heroes now? Who will save us from the terror overwhelming our city? Every day the crime toll continues to rise and we have no one here to protect us. The Hero Public Safety Commission assured us earlier in the week that the crime rate would go down, that the top Heroes are out there protecting our city, but if so, where are they? Is it really safe to go out anymore, who can we trust? Would you put your life in the hands of a Hero today? When they have proved our streets are no longer safe. We still have no information on what is going on, or who is involved but we must remain observant. We will continue to report the latest news as we receive it, but for now, we must implore you to heed the warnings of the city-wide curfew that is soon to be implemented. If anyone has any information on these occurrences in the city please send them to us or contact the police, you can remain anonymous. The safety of our citizens is what is most important, stay vigilant and don’t go out unless it is absolutely necessary. One thing we know for sure: we can no longer rely on Heroes to protect us. The streets of our once-great city are no longer safe, we are no longer safe.
You flip off the television and rise from your seat on the couch. Your roommate and the object of your affection had already left for the night. Mirio would never obey that curfew, not as long as there were people he could be saving. That’s Mirio for you… always being the hero, even if he’d lost his quirk ages ago. But ever since the onslaught of new villains, and heroes turning to the darkside you’re patching him up more than normal… He returns with wounds more serious now, the scars abundant on his once smooth skin. He is becoming a reflection of the ruin and carnage that floods the streets. This is why you had come up with, planned out, and prepared for a way to fix everything. You could never stop him from being a hero, it was who he was… but you can get his quirk back… 
You check your pocket one last time… it’s there, wrapped in that small blue handkerchief. You examine the strange item one last time, careful not to prick yourself with it by mistake. It’s shaped like a sewing pin, only slightly larger. One prick, that’s all it takes, one prick and it will absorb the power from the first thing that it touches. Then one more prick, and the next thing it touches will absorb the gathered power. One chance, that’s all you have. 
You grip the chain around your neck and pull the locket out from inside your shirt. You read the engraving on the back, as you always do, and you smile. 
Come back to me ~ Mirio
It had been a gift, something to help you when you were learning how to use your quirk. The going part had always been easy, it was the returning from your travels that had been difficult. You open the locket, one side is a watch, the other a mirror. You check the time and write it down to the second on your arm in biro. 
7:43. 26 PM
You have 8 hours exactly and you fear you’ll need much more time than that. But your quirk’s limits are not forgiving in the slightest. A second longer and you’ll die. 
You take a deep breath, eyes now focussing on the mirror side of the locket. You’d returned this way ever since Mirio gave you the locket, but never once travelled forward through the mirror before. You meet your own eyes and start to feel the familiar pull, your face turning that strange shade of blue. 
Please let this work. Please, take me to Mirio. 
The gravity in the mirror builds and you can feel the surging power of your quirk. You feel yourself meet your reflection, becoming one with it for a split second before you’re absorbed to the other side of the mirror. 
You land in a darkened alley. The smell of stale beer and piss invading your senses, making your head swim even more than normal. The thickness of the summer air does nothing to help. It doesn't matter how many times you use your quirk, it always leaves you dizzy, disoriented. But that was to be expected when travelling to another dimension. Your quirk was dubbed Mirror Image, it allowed you to travel to different dimensions by looking at your own reflection. 
You check your pockets again… it’s still there. The “quirk extractor”, that’s not really what it was called but you’d forgotten the actual name of it. It had taken trying quite a few different dimensions to find something like it. It was very possible that you might never find that place again. You had to treat this like it was the only one in existence, afterall, it was the only one in this existence. But where exactly was this existence?
You blink, vision clearing and you examine the alley. It looks like a regular alley, slimy brick walls, dumpster, broken liquor bottles. A few people walk past on the main street, their laughter echoing off the alley’s walls. A lightbulb buzzes over a shut metal door. But there was no Mirio. The plan was to find a mirror Mirio, a Mirio that had never lost his quirk... extract this Mirio’s quirk and bring it back to your Mirio, the Mirio you loved. 
You had done enough dimensional travel to know that every version of the self was weirdly connected. That’s why you had travelled forward through the mirror he had given you this time. You had hoped it would bring you to another Mirio, since the mirror had never failed to take you back to him… even if you were in a strange corner of the universe. But alas, it was like travelling through any other reflection. As usual, you stand in an unknown location, trying your best to figure out where you’ve ended up. 
You kick a stray tin can in frustration as you walk towards the more populated streets. You laugh at your own stupidity. You knew the real reason you were doing this. Maybe, this act of love, retrieving his stolen quirk would change his mind. Maybe he would take back what he had said all those years ago… the words that would never stop ringing in your ears.
You’re standing on the sidewalk, trying to decide which way to go when the sound of rusty hinges snaps you from your thoughts. You turn to look back down the dim lit alley. A man with shaggy blue hair exits the building, his red eyes gleam and your heart drops. It’s hard to see but you’d know his face anywhere, he’s practically taken over your city, Shigaraki Tomura. Take a few steps to where you’re concealed by the wall of the building. He speaks to someone who is still inside the building. You angle your head to try and hear over the busy street. “They’ve just been getting in the way is all, and I need you to get them out of the way… see?” 
Why did your quirk take you to Shigaraki when you had specifically thought of Mirio? The streetlight’s shadows help to hide your shape. You peek around to see who he is talking to. Your breath hitches in your throat as you see the tall blonde exit from the building’s wall. Mirio. You watch as he leans his shoulder against the brick from which he just emerged. He looks taller, stronger, and still has his quirk… would your Mirio have looked like this if his power had never been robbed?  His grey tshirt is pulled tight around his body and his usually done hair is ungelled, almost messy, bangs hanging just above his eyes. “That’s easy, you have anything actually worth my time?” he jokes. Shigaraki looks unamused, eyes closing in annoyance.
 “Just do it, and don’t make it so messy this time… you tend to leave a trail wherever you go,” Shigaraki scolds. Mirio grins, but it’s not the same warm smile you’d grown to love, this smile is darker, more sinister. “I’ll take care of it boss, sheesh, you worry too much,” he rolls his shoulder on the wall until his back is flush against the brick. He pushes off of it and heads towards the end of the alley. You panic as he heads your way. “It’s that hotel on the corner of Roosevelt and Third,” Shigaraki screeches after Mirio who gives him a wave of his hand. “If you weren’t so useful I’d kill you,” Shigaraki adds. Mirio’s laugh bounces off of the alley walls. “You could try,” he calls as he rounds the corner, just passing you as you crouch near some bags of garbage praying he doesn’t notice you. But he passes you, languidly walking towards the destination he was just given by Shigaraki Tomura. That’s when it hits you… by going through Mirio’s mirror, you have found yourself a mirror Mirio. An exact opposite to the man you know.  
The thoughts are swirling around in your head but there’s no time to sort through them… you have to follow him. You slowly rise from your hiding place and melt into the crowds of people. It’s lucky that Mirio is so tall, it makes him easy to follow from a safe distance away. The crowded main streets turn to less populated side streets and you have to maneuver accordingly to stay well hidden. Mirio approaches a building with a neon sign that spells out HOTEL in red letters. A glowing arrow points to the double doors at the front of the building. He hurries up the steps before slipping inside.  
You follow close behind to make sure not to lose him inside but leave a long enough gap so that it isn’t too obvious. Upon entering, you’re met with the old red carpet that should have been replaced twenty years ago. Dust clings to the fabric of the sofa and cobwebs dangle from the antique crystal chandelier. The floor is well polished however, reflecting the lights that hang from the ceiling. It’s strange that there’s no clerk at the desk but a few people piddle about the lobby. A man makes eye contact with you, furrowing his brow in confusion. A woman in a short, low cut dress slips her hand below another man's belt and whispers something in his ear. No one blinks when Mirio makes a beeline down the hallway to the left. This was not an ordinary hotel. You walk calmly after Mirio and peer down the long dark corridor. There’s not sight of him but you watch the door at the end of the hall close. There. The lights in this section of the hall are off and everything seems quiet, whereas the hall to the right was lit and loud. Sounds of pleasure and partying spilling from underneath each door. You curse Mirio for walking down the more sinister path and follow begrudgingly. 
The hall is dark save one room where hysterical cries seep out. You don’t want to know what was going on and instead keep your eyes trained on the small bit of light that pours from the window inside that end door. Upon closer inspection there is a coating of condensation on the glass. This must be the pool. 
You retrieve the quirk extractor from your pocket and remove it from it’s wrapping, careful not to prick yourself.  You slowly open the door he had gone through just moments ago. You slid inside the door slowly and carefully, making more sound than you would have liked, but it can’t be helped. Any sound easily bounces off the water of the glistening blue pool. The smell of chlorine is overwhelming and you start to realise that there aren’t very many good hiding places in a place like this.... And Mirio is nowhere to be found. You grip the quirk extractor as you hear a door towards the back of the room slam shut. Another exit… your footsteps echo far more than you would like for them to as you head towards the door. 
“Gotchya.”
The voice startles you. Your grip on the quirk extractor falters, coupled with the way you jump… you watch as it slowly descends into the water, effectively pricking the pool. The ball at the end of the extractor emits a green light as it sinks to the bottom. “You idiot!” you shout before you can think better of it. Mirio steps from the wall and quirks an eyebrow up at you. “Me idiot? You’re the one following me with the stealth of one of the 3 stooges.”
He looks even more dangerous up close. A long scar descends from his chin down his neck. And while his eyes are the same colour, there’s a glint in them which your Mirio lacks. He’s faster as this version of himself, and you don’t have time to think before your back is against the cold tile wall. “So gorgeous, gonna tell me what that thing was and why you’re following me… or will I just rip the answers out of you one by one.” You’re too confused watching as he looms over you. His expression is half pleased, half irritated. You inhale to speak but the words don’t come. The smile on his face right now… it’s the expression of someone who has killed and enjoyed it. It’s never something you could have pictured to play across Mirio’s face and it jars you. A chill runs up your spine and goosebumps prickle on your arms. He’s terrifying but also so beautiful. 
One of his hands moves up to grip your throat as he growls, “I’m waiting, bitch.” You flail as his grip tightens, scratching your nails into his arm in hopes that he will let go.  “Please Mirio, I-I’m sorry.” His grip loosens suddenly but his hand stays around your neck. “What did you call me?” You cough and inhale, then meet his eyes. There is a familiar curiosity within his gaze but it’s joined by something else, that same strange glint. Is it amusement or something much more sinister? You can’t put your finger on it. “Mirio, your name is Mirio,” you murmur. A sly smile crosses his face as he moves closer to you, his hips pinning yours to the tile. “Yes, but how do you know that?” 
You stutter, trying to find the right words, a sigh haphazardly escaping your lips as the heat from his body becomes intoxicating. “You been sent to spy by the heroes?” You shake your head and try to wiggle free, but only succeed in grinding against him. A low laugh bubbles from his throat as he pins your wrists above your head with one hand and stills your hips with his other. “That’s real cute, but not gonna get you out of trouble with me…” His eyes flick down your body then back up. “Quite the opposite actually,” he teases. Your face feels warm and your eyes dart down and away. “Aww you’re so shy now, makes me wanna eat you up.” Mirio tilts your chin upwards so you’re looking at him. His eyes have softened slightly. “Just tell me,okay? I don’t wanna have to hurt ya.” There's a strange pleading in his tone, a sincerity you didn't expect. “We know each other, Mirio… well sort of,” you match the tone of his voice. A smirk breaks on his face, “are you my stalker?” You roll your eyes, he still had a sense of humour in this universe. It’s nice to know some things never change. 
“No, no we’re friends, but I know a different… you.” He blinks before his eyes narrow. He starts to speak but you continue to explain… about your quirk, the Mirio you know, and how you’d planned to steal his quirk. You show him your locket, the engraving. He still seems suspicious as he turns it over in his hands, examining it. “You’re a crafty little liar, I’ll give you that, had this made and all, but now I’ll have to pull the truth out of you, and like I said, I really didn’t want to have to do that to you.” “Wait… I can prove it, just let me use the mirror… then I’ll leave you alone.” Mirio looks you up and down again before opening the locket and holding it out for you. 
You focus on your reflection and watch as your face turns that strange blue black colour. Guilt seeps from your mind and travels down your spine as you’re pulled towards your reflection. The quirk extractor was sitting at the bottom of the pool, now carrying within it the power of chlorine… You hadn’t helped Mirio, only discovered a dark side to his existence… which wasn’t all that bad it seemed. He hadn’t harmed you at all, just threatened you slightly and even then it had seemed he was teasing and flirting more than anything. Your Mirio had never flirted with you… on purpose. The pull of the mirror became stronger and there was a strange sadness, a feeling that you would miss this version of Mirio. This version of Mirio was void of the sunshine that the original Mirio held within him at all times, but this Mirio seemed to see you. This Mirio had given you more in a few seconds than the original Mirio had in years. You shut your eyes as you began to fall into the mirror’s reflection. The original Mirio’s words that he’d said to you that day still hanging heavy in your heart. You laugh at your own pathetic nature for the second time today. You fantasies of Mirio were just that… just fantasies. In all universes. 
A hand pushes you backwards away from the mirror. The impact is so strong you stumble, but the same hand catches you and pulls you into him. You gasp for air, your head reeling from being ripped from the portal. Mirio holds you close, rubbing a hand up and down your back. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just- I didn’t want you to go.” His voice is riddled with guilt, shaking slightly. You fist your hands into his shirt, gripping the fabric as you struggle to stand. “Whoa whoa, hey,” he consoles as he sinks to his knees, bringing you with him. He wraps his arms around you and pulls you into his lap. “I really didn’t mean to- I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “I’m okay, I’ve just never been pulled from a portal before,” you stutter. His thumb brushes over your face temple. “You remember your name?” You state your name and he repeats it, “Y/n… I love it.” A smile plays on your features, cheeks heating once again upon hearing the compliment. “Hey, what’s 2 + 2?” 
“4,”
“Damn, well I guess you’re a math wiz.”
Your eyes flutter open and he smiles, “there she is.” You squeeze your eyes shut then open them once more in an effort to stop the room from spinning. “Are you gonna kill me now?” you drawl. Mirio pouts, “well that depends, are you still gonna steal my quirk for other me?” You laugh and roll your head away from him. “I can’t, it’s in the pool now, it’s absorbed the fucking power of chlorine.” Mirio laughs, “well whose fault is that?” You look up at him, there’s an intensity to his gaze when you meet his eyes. Your heart hammers against your chest… “yours.” You start to sit up, his arms still cling to you. “You’re the dummy who let go just ‘cuz I scared you.” You hum considering his words, “you don’t scare me Mirio.” 
His arms relax around you and you move to lay down on the tile floor. Your back relaxes against the floor and you move your arms over your head to rest your head in your hands. “You should be afraid, I’m a whole different me, sweetheart,” he remarks. He moves to lay next to you, mimicking your position. “You’re still Mirio,” you sigh, your eyes taking in the blank space of the ceiling. “You don’t know the things I’ve done, my body count, nothing.” “You’re still Mirio,” you insist. Laying like this you can hear the echo of your words bouncing off of the water. “He’s lucky, other me… to have a girl like you.” His last few words are whispered, failing to bounce around the room. They hang over you, adding weight to the atmosphere. “Ah well, the Mirio in my universe doesn’t see it that way,” you deflect. Mirio rolls to face you, his head laying in the crook of his arm. “I know we don’t know each other… not really, but it’s strange, I feel like I’ve known you forever.” You turn your head to look at him. His eyes are practically on fire now, that small glint having grown into a flame. “In a way we have, I know a version of you… what I’ve come to find is every universe has overlaps of some sort… you and the Mirio I know will share some things… memories even.” Mirio’s face lights up, “yes exactly, I feel like I’ve seen you in a dream or something…” You shrug, “it’s possible.” Mirio smiles, it’s a familiar smile, a sincere happiness that the Mirio of your universe wears often. Much different than the smiles this Mirio had even just a few moments ago. 
“Why are you a villain?” you ask him. Mirio clutches his chest in mock pain. “That hurts, sweetheart… Just because I don’t accept the truths the rule makers of our world have given me… that’s what makes me a “villain”?” You narrow your eyes, “I meant more that you’re a hitman working for Shigaraki Tomura.” He laughs, “heard that did you? Guess you were following me for longer than I’d realised.” He pauses and moves closer to you. “I have no problem getting rid of a few people who won’t contribute anything of value… most lives are a total waste, I’m merely an exterminator… getting rid of the bad to make more space for the good…” He says it so casually that it makes chills run up your spine. “So does that make you the good or the bad?” He laughs again though this time he is less amused with your question. “I’m just a sacrificial pawn, sweetheart… can’t be good to make space for it.” 
You reach out and touch his bare arm. His skin is hot against his fingertips. “You didn’t hurt me… when you thought I was lying, you can’t be bad…” He smiles, “That’s just because I see how good you are and I want to protect that… protect you.” His hand begins to mirror yours, stroking up and down your arm with light fingertips. “If you can see the good, then that makes you good.” 
His fingers grip into your arm and he pulls you closer to him. He reaches for the back of your neck when he notices the smudge of ink on his hand. He examines your arm and finds the numbers. “What’s this?” he asks. You sigh, “it’s the time I have to go…” He pulls your face closer to his, your noses almost touching. “You can’t stay?” You shake your head, “Only for 8 hours, else I’ll be torn apart by the universal pulls… I’m not really supposed to be here ya know,” you joke. Mirio’s face falls, “Can you come back?” You shrug, “I can but the time I can stay is deducted every single time I return to a universe until I can no longer visit anymore…” Mirio’s thumb rubs soft circles into the flesh of your cheek. “What should we do then?” he asks. You smile sadly before sitting up. You give him an impish smirk. “Well, there’s a pool, I say we swim.” 
You start by removing your top, slowly peeling it away and discarding it to the floor. Mirio follows, taking off his grey tshirt. His figure is chiseled, each muscle toned and defined. You start unbuttoning your trousers when you feel the heat of his chest flush against your back. “Can I?” he asks as his hands rest on your hips. You nod and he slowly pulls your pants down your legs. He helps you step out of them before throwing them towards the growing pile of clothes. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmurs into your skin, trailing kisses up your thighs. You grab his face with two hands and pull him to standing. “My turn,” you smirk, looping your fingers in his belt loops and pulling him towards you. You undo his pants, kissing down his chest. Savoring the taste of his skin. He groans at your touch and you feel the heat pooling low in your belly. His pants removed his stands only in grey underwear, while you remain in your bra and panties. 
You teasingly move away from him and stand on the first rung of the ladder in the deep end of the pool. You look back to where he stands, calling him to you with your gaze. He groans as he moves towards you. “I’m really holding back you know,” he growls, pressing his chest against your back, his a. “Why hold back? You can have whatever you want… Just take it, make it yours.” Mirio trails his lips up your neck, ready to suckle a mark into your skin, when you add, “if you can,” and step off the ladder into the blue water. 
As soon as the water touches your skin you’re swimming towards the other side. You hear Mirio dive in after you and know that this has all been futile. He grabs your hand and slings you gently towards the wall. He places both of his hands on either side of your body, pinning you. You wipe the water from your eyes before wrapping them around his neck. “You caught me so fast… I thought you’d chase me around more,” you provoke. He shakes the water from his hair and moves his body closer to yours. “Chasing you is a waste of fucking time right? I want to have you,” he growls. You open your mouth to say something but are silenced by his lips on yours. 
The kiss is needy, sloppy. He kisses you like he’s starving, finally being fed. His tongue draws circles around yours before sucking it into his mouth. You moan into the kiss and he responds by pulling you closer, grinding on your clothed cunt with his hardening cock. He moves to run his tongue along your bottom lip before nipping at it. You sight into the kiss, turning your head to deepen it. You pull away a wry smile on your face. Mirio’s pupils are blown, that unfamiliar glint in his eye now having a name for it, desire. 
“Miri, I want you,” his hips stutter against yours upon hearing this. “Fuck princess, I won’t be able to hold back anymore if you keep looking at me like that.” You pepper kisses to his face, tasting the chlorine on his skin. “Don’t hold back,” you whisper, “I trust you, you’re good to me, I’m yours if that’s what you really want.” His breath shakes upon hearing this and he presses his forehead to yours. “Mine? All fucking mine? Like this me?” You nod and kiss him again. This time you catch his bottom lip and suck it, pulling on it just to hear him moan. 
He helps lift you to where you’re sitting on the edge of the pool. He peels your panties down your legs before spreading them. He kisses one of your thighs before massaging the other. “So fucking perfect,” he praises, “all fucking mine.” He trails his hand and mouth up the inside of your thigh. He spreads your folds, drinking in the sight of your bare cunt. “Fuck, you’re perfect,” he sighs. “I’m gonna make you forget about any other versions of me, you’re going to be all mine.” He presses a kiss to your clit, “gonna be all fucking mine, princess.” 
He drags his tongue, slow, up your slit and circles it around your clit before sucking on it gently. You stifle a whine and you can feel him smiling in pride. “That is princess, lemme hear those sweet sounds.” He does the same move again and this time you don’t hold it in. Your sounds of pleasure echo around the pool, bouncing around and finally landing back on your own ears. But you don’t hear them, as you’re too lost in the pleasure. Mirio grips the wall of the pool with one hand while the other comes up to rest on your lower abdomen. His thumb starts rubbing soft circles on your clit while his tongue circles your hole. “Tastes so fucking good,” he growls and then shoves his tongue inside. The muscle is hot, wet, and he slowly begins to add more pressure to your clit while tongue fucking you. You’re completely overcome with a mind melting pleasure as you fall back onto your elbows, your hips grinding against his face. You aren’t sure how, but you can already feel that familiar knot forming in the pit of your stomach. You’re close and Mirio seems to know as he picks up the pace. “Cum all over my face- wanna taste you-” His permission was all you needed and soon you’re clamping down around his tongue, calling broken syllables of his name. He kisses your cunt as you come down from your high. “Such a good girl for me, cumming when I say.”
He lifts himself out of the pool and removes his underwear. He’s thick, incredibly so and long. The head is red, leaking pre cum. You groan at the sight, cunt aching to be filled. You reach for him, pulling him on top of you. He kisses you, deep, passionate, with lots of tongue and teeth. You can feel his cock, thick and hard pressing into your thigh. He ruts his hips into yours, his cock sliding along your thigh. “Please,” you beg. He growls and flips you to where you’re on top and he sits pressing you to him, cock wedged between the two of you. You grind against him in anticipation. “Please Miri,” you plead. He lifts you and in one swift move, you’re impaled on his cock. 
You cry out, and it echoes back to you. The stretch is incredible, a pleasurable, dull pain that makes your eyes roll into the back of your head. He carefully thrusts up into you, and you crumble, burying your face in the crook of his neck. “I don’t wanna hurt my baby,” he coos, body stilling. You shake your head, “no it feels good, y-you're just so big.” He laughs darkly, “you love the pain, don't you?” He gives another thrust to test your reaction and this time he can feel it. Your pussy dripping down his cock.He looks down, eyes blowing at the sight, “fuck baby look, I’m not even all the way inside…” You look down and moan, his cock is a little over half inside. It’s too big to fit all the way. “You cute little cunt keeps throbbing on my cock, and when she does, she drools.” He wipes up some of your combined juices with his thumb and rubs into your clit again, just as he had before. Then he starts to move. 
He starts slowly bouncing you in his lap at a gentle pace, but soon his eyes change and his thrusts become harder and faster. “I’m sorry princess, but you feel too good, I need more of you, need all of you.” Mirio fucks into you harder, his cock so big he hits every spot inside of you that makes you weak with each thrust. Your cries become louder and more desperate. His cock kissing your cervix with each thrust causes you to disintegrate in his lap. The lewd sounds of his hips smacking into your ass fills the pool. Mirio’s eyes flick down and he growls. “Look at that baby, ‘m all the way inside now, doing so good, so fucking perfect taking every inch I have to give. God you’re fucking made for me.” You sink your teeth into his neck in a desperate effort to stave off your orgasm, to savor the moment you’d waited so long for. The moment where you and Mirio Togata become one. But it feels too good, the pleasure so intense that you’re pushed over the edge again, clenching tightly around Mirio’s fat cock. “Fuck baby, do that again, milk my cock for me while I fuck you into my shape.” 
His thrusts become sloppier but he manages to continue to hit all your spots, driving his cock into you at a bruising pace. You’re shaking in his lap, body convulsing from your last orgasm as another starts to build. “Fucking hell baby, you’re so fucking perfect, and you’re mine, all fucking mine.” His hips start to stutter but his pace quickens. “I’m all yours Miri, yes, I’m yours,” you moan. He pulls your head towards him and kisses you with that same hunger as before, teeth gripping at your lower lip and him sucking on your tongue. You moan into his mouth as your orgasm washes over you, white hot. It’s too much and sends him over the edge. “That’s it, milk my cock, milk my fucking cock,” he pants, pouring his cum deep inside you. “I’m gonna get you pregnant, gonna make you mine forever,” he growls as his hot ropes of cum still paint your walls. 
Your body is shaking, the post orgasm cold mixed with your wet body has goosebumps prickling your body. He pulls his cock out and groans at the way his cum drips from your hole. He smiles, “you’re even more beautiful now that I’ve claimed you.” You smile against his skin. “I feel more beautiful,” you reply. But Mirio’s words ring in your ears. You sit up quickly but wince. “I hurt you, I’m so-” “No, that isn’t it…” You lay your head in the crook of his neck. “The longer I’m here in this dimension the weaker I become… but I’m okay, don't worry.” You nuzzle into him, trying to steal some of his warmth. He caresses your back, “I wish you could stay…” “I-I have to go back, we can’t be together forever, even though it’s all I want,” when you finally say the words you start to cry. Mirio wraps his arms around you. “You’re cold,” he says. He helps you up holding your hands, “can you stand?” You nod and he walks you back towards the shallow end of the water. He eases himself in first and then takes your hand to help you do the same. 
He cradles you to him, “but you can go back to other me, and when you make love to him, you can just think of me… we’re the same.” You look into his eyes, face pleading, “that’s just it Mirio, you aren’t the same at all… he will never love me.” Mirio’s face darkens, anger, pure anger resides in his features. “Why not?” You take a deep breath. These were the words that haunted you from the moment the other Mirio had spoken them. “He told me, I will always love you, but I will never, ever, love you like that.” You whisper this secret to him.
Mirio can see it, the weight you’ve carried in your heart. That Mirio might save people all day long, be an actual hero, but he’s the one that’s more fucked… evil. Breaking the most perfect girl he has ever known into small pieces. No, Mirio could never let such evil exist, even if that evil was technically himself. “I’m gonna kill him,” he vows as he cradles you protectively. 
Your eyes widen, and you grip onto his face. He looks at you, smiling. “Miri, do you really want to be with me forever?” He nods and kisses you, “more than anything, you’re mine now, I’ve claimed you, you belong to me.” “I belong to you,” you echo and press your forehead against his. “I think I know a way,” you inform, the grin breaking over your face. He awaits an explanation with wide eyes. “You can come back to my world with me.” Mirio narrows his eyes in confusion, “won’t that kill me? Like it kills you?” You shake your head, “no… that just has to do with the limitations of my quirk… I’ve brought someone back with me before, the only thing is… that there’s already a Mirio in my universe, which could technically throw time and space out of balance. But there’s a small window where it wouldn’t… and if you really want to kill him… then there would only be one again.” You smile and hold his face, peppering it with kisses. “You can kill him and take his place!” 
You’re met with Mirio’s grin and another sloppy kiss. “I knew I was right about you, you’re perfect.” You both climb out of the pool and dress in your clothes again. You put the locket around your neck and open it focussing on your reflection. For the first time, holding the mirror, you don’t feel the weight of the other Mirio’s words. This Mirio, now your Mirio, has filled the void that the Mirio of your universe put inside your heart. You wonder now if you’d really loved him all this time or if it was a disguised hatred and rage. You’d always found blood somewhat disturbing but now you were excited to see it. Excited to watch the man who hurt you bleed out and be destroyed by the man you loved. Excited to watch him die. 
 You grip Mirio’s hand in yours, finger interlaced. “Just don’t let go, no matter what, okay?” Mirio kisses your hand. “I won’t, swear,” he confirms. 
Your face begins to change and you feel the gravity sucking you back into your reflection, but this time, you won’t be returning to him alone and in pieces. You’ll be returning to him whole.  This time… it would be him lying in pieces on the floor. 
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digitalgate02 · 2 years
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The funniest thing to happen in a Digimon Brazilian dub.
Children of all ages, sit down. I’d like to tell the very very surreal experience what was Digimon Data Squad Brazilian dub’s Citramon case.
Like I said on twitter, I will never get tired of telling this tale especially because no I wasn’t watching some JP RAW with the dub audio on it. The logo of the TV Station was there, implying this was actually a TV rip.
Anyway... When you think about Data Squad BR dub... You might think this was dubbed from the US dub, right? Since the name is not “Savers” but “Data Squad”...
... No, it’s just Savers with dub names for everything.
This shocked me because before learning anything about this dub, I thought it was the first case of a BR dub using US material as source for a TV series, but it wasn’t. The first and only TV Series to be dubbed from the US dub is Fusion. Which means, Fusion and Digimon: The Movie are the only stuff dubbed from the US, while Adventure to Savers were dubbed directly from JP.
Which leads us to this peculiar case for Data Squad episode 7. Yes, the one everyone makes fun about it because the US dub censored a digimon and turned it into the legendary Citramon.
You may be curious about the BR dub about this episode right? Well, I was ages ago and I found somewhere, a TV rip of this episode. Yes, a TV rip. It had the logo of TV Globo (a most known Brazilian TV Station) right in the corner of the screen, to make sure i wasn’t watching some edit which used the JP RAW footage with the BR dub audio on it.
So, Citramon is... Not like you think it is. It was kept everything unedited and untouched. So BomberNanimon was dub named “Citramon”, and since EVERYONE has dub names in Data Squad BR dub (unlike Adv-02-Frontier case where they mixed dub names with OG names; with Tamers being the only series to keep every OG name kept if i’m not wrong) this well... hilarious.
So you see BomberNanimon on screen, Thomas looks at it and then reports to DATS as “it’s just a Citramon” and there also no juicy/fruit puns, nothing is altered. EVERYTHING follows the JP version of this episode -- footage, dialogue, etc. EXCEPT well, names.
It’s really surreal and it will never leave my mind, also it’s fun to tell people this experience because now i wish i could find the TV rips of Data Squad BR dub to watch this wonderful thing all again.
(i don’t know any person who witnessed this when it aired, alas...)
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kursed-arcana · 3 years
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Sailor Moon Eternal Part 1 review
So the dream arc is my favorite story arc of sailor moon. I even adore the supers adaptation of it. The first movie does an excellent job of adapting the begining of the dream arc. It has beautiful animation and character designs, a beautiful soundtrack with some nostalgia thrown in and a fantastic story.
So the dream arc is generally considered as a fluffy and fun, light interlude to the stars arc where things get extremely dark. As a result the story is less serious and offers some backstory and world building, highlts the individual guardians, with this firts movie focusing on the inners and offers some fun character fanservice (not the lewd kind). Each guardian gets a chance to shine against the dead moon circus and pices of their past and dreams are revealed. It's basically what crystal was lacking do to its pacing problem, cuts and bad changes. If you love the inner guardians, you'll love the content this movie offers.
Alas, for all this movie does right, it's tight run time hinders it. The film goes by at a rapid pace. You'll want to give it your full attention so you don't miss anything. Sadly the movie, much like crystal cuts some fun moments, as well as some backstory and explanatory content. If your left slightly confused by anything, I encourage you to give the manga a read to fill in the blanks. My honest oppinion though is that you'll comprehend everything fine.
For example, I believe this will be the first time in crystal we see Rei's grandfather. Which is rather tragic considering he was supposed to have appeared at least once before. For those of you who are familiar with the 90's anime, the manga grandpa is quite different in both design and personality. Sadly Rei's arc also slightly suffers from not having had Cassablanca memories adapted into either anime story. It's a side story that greatly expand on her background and character. It would offer a little context to the information we're given in this movie for her background.
For those of you wondering, Helios and chibiusa are portrayed excellently here. Their romance is truly a highlight and a personal favorite of mine. The old anime dragged out his reveal for far too long but the dream arc quickly reveals him to be a young boy and not a horse. Hopefully this will appease those who took issue with their romance in the old anime. Id also like to point out that both him and chibiusa are centuries old, but in the bodies of a 11 year old and 13 year old (give or take a year or 2 for both). Just want to shut that discussion down fast.
Now the soundtrack, anyone feeling nostalgic should definitly watch the credits. An update on Baby baby love plays after the first song. If you want those 90s chibiusa x Helios feels give it a listen. Then go on youtube and search sailor moon love is in ny heart for the english dub version. The original singer recently uploaded some clean performances for it and a few other songs she did. I also encourage you to check out the official sound track of the movie. It has some great character songs like Minako's I want to be an idol and a duet between chibiusa and Helios
There is also an aftercredits scene
Anyway 10/10 for me cause favorite arc and beautiful animation
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nerdyfangirl67 · 4 years
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My Angel - Phantom of the Opera Reader Insert (Chapter 1)
Pairing: Phantom/Erik x reader 
Warnings: Sad!Phantom🥺
Word count: 1783
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—Chapter 1—
You wake up in the middle of the night, shivering and wondering where you were. Feeling around with your hands you could tell it wasn’t in your bed. You were on the ground, which not only was cold and hard, but also damp.
Memories of the night before came crashing back to you. You remember finding your way into the tunnels, following the call of your musical angel, and finding the master behind the notes that were never just in your head. Your heart started beating quicker at the thought that you had a real angel, albeit one dressed in entirely black but an angel nonetheless, that had created music that seemingly only you could hear. A musical angel solely for you. The thought alone had your cheeks heating up rapidly.
You cringe at the stiffness in your joints from sleeping on the ground as you pull yourself up, bringing your apron with you. Something is urging you to look into the cavern and you do.
A tight feeling seizes in your chest as you see the figure you have dubbed your angel asleep on the four poster bed, half covered in shadows as many of the candles have been diminished. He was lying flat on his back, his arms strewn out at strange angles, but the only part of him that looks relaxed, even in sleep. Lying in a pile of broken glass and wood fragments, half hidden in the shadows is the mask. Even though he isn’t wearing it, you are too far away to make out any features of his face, which disappoints you, but also intrigues you further. His cape is hanging from one of the posts at the end of the bed, like a satin covered ghost.
After another long, lingering look at the man, you turn and try to find your way back to the well-lit chambers of the Opera Populaire. You don’t struggle as you find you remember the trip through the tunnels quite clearly. As you come to the small, weathered door separating your reality from your angelic dreams, you heave out a soft sigh. You wonder if it would be possible to stay here in this place where your music lives, and where you aren’t alone. You deeply wish you could shut that door, keeping your days of lonely darkness locked away. Alas, you could not, and with your trouble keeping track of time, you must return to reality, for tardiness could mean the loss of your job, however much you disliked it. 
You pull the rickety door open slowly, not wanting to reveal this secret passage to anyone who may be on the other side. After reentering the opera house you see that the door is virtually undetectable from the other side, causing you to wonder if you stumbling upon it was merely the accident it seemed. 
Nonetheless, you hurried back to your room, which was now much easier to find as the early gray light of the morning was seeping in through the skylights of backstage. You enter your room, revealing one of your still sleeping roommates, which means you were on time, as she was always a bit slow at waking in the morning, regardless of possible unemployment. You grab your only other apron, casting aside your dirty, damp one from the day prior before hustling to check-in with your work overseer. 
The day drags by slowly as your mind is consumed with the music of your angel. You feel the music within you, dancing along your bones, twinkling along your nerves, mingling with your soul. The music holds so much more meaning to you now that you know someone was creating it just for you.
You’d been caught daydreaming multiple times by the time you were finished for the day. Your overseer wasn’t happy and had told you quite plainly to get your head out of the clouds and come with a clear mind for work the next day. 
Being a weekend evening, the opera house was currently packed as droves of people, dressed in their finest clothes came to see the beloved soprano, performing not only one or two, but three solos in the performance. The crowd was buzzing with anticipation and created the perfect distraction for you to sneak back into the tunnels.
You had been vibrating with excitement the entire day, knowing that that evening you’d be returning to a concert performed just for you. And as you maneuvered through the tunnels, you could barely keep yourself from running in unrestrained exhilaration.
You finally reached the small cave that you dubbed the ‘balcony’, as you felt like a socialite in your private viewing balcony as you watched your angel perform.
The music was different today even though the core of the composition remained the same. There was a jarring contrast between the rhythms and the key in which it was being played. Instead of being consumed by feelings of joy, comfort, and warmth, the song now left you cold, melancholy, and lonely. 
A hand to your cheek had you realizing that tears were streaming down your cheeks. Seeing the hunched over form on the organ, much different than the confident, almost frightening figure that had sat there the day before.
It was as if everything inside you was calling you to his side, to take him in your arms and say sweet nothings in his ear. To let him rest his head in your lap as you sing to him. To take away the sorrow that was infecting him in such a way, it was bleeding through to his music. You didn’t stay long as the tone of his music effectively doused your excitement and it physically hurt you to see him so dejected, so you had left after only an hour. 
That night you lay in bed, silent tears falling as the pain, both physical and emotional, kept you awake. 
——
You didn’t return to the tunnels for days after that. You couldn’t bring yourself to see the pain your angel was in and not do something about it. And you knew, if you went from hiding in the shadows to revealing yourself to him, you would lose him.
When you finally decide to return, you bring an old journal you had received from your parents before they passed, as well as your favorite fountain pen. You also bring your cloak, as both times you were in your ‘balcony’ room, you were quite chilled in your dress alone. 
It doesn’t take you long to get settled, and once you are, you watch your angel as he plays. This composition is new. The melody is dark and full of hate, entwined with a rhythm reminiscent of the sorrow filled notes you had last heard him play. His apparent pain has your heart aching and before you know it, your feelings are flowing out of you and onto the paper.
My angel,
Your pain is my pain. The darkness and melancholy you are emanating through your music, I can feel deep into my soul. I feel like I have suffered the agony and insults that you have.
I may never have met you but I feel that I know you. Your soul is connected to mine, through some magical force. I’m drawn to you because I have seen that you could be, nay, you are my future. All I want is for you to see me in your future as well.
I feel that your music is my driving force. All I have heard since I have arrived at the opera house is your music. It lingers in my mind and I can hear you in everything I do. Your music is there when I clean the soprano’s chambers. It is there when I trudge through the long dark tunnels to you. It is there when I slowly make my way back to my room at night. I realize that I am never alone because you are there, inside my mind. 
You may never know I exist, but I feel you. You have become a part of me.
Forever and always
You fold the letter up and place it gently in one of the envelopes you brought along. You return your attention to the music, listening and memorizing each individual note. It is not long before the music lulls you asleep.
----
Hours later you wake, warmer than you had ever felt in the tunnels before. You slowly rise up, analyzing your surroundings as you do. You can tell it is later in the night because the lighting from the cavern is a dim soft glow. You notice nothing different in the room you are in, but when you strain your hearing, you hear it. The music, which is noticeably quieter than before, is something you recognize. Your angel is playing the composition that he had been the first time you travelled through the tunnels. 
It is the composition that dances intimately around in your head each and every day. It is not the remade, dark toned version that you had heard the day after, the version that had kept you away for days. 
After observing your angel play the composition you have begun to call your own, you reach towards your feet, looking for the letter you had written prior to you drowsing off for a short time. The more you search, with no luck, the more frantic you become. You rip off your cloak in an futile attempt to see if the letter was sticking to you as a result of static. 
Coming up empty handed yet again, you huff out a heavy sigh. You begin to wonder if you had even written the letter, or if it was all a dream. You still haven’t found it after five minutes of looking and are starting to feel the lack of a good night’s rest. You reluctantly give up on finding the letter before heading back through the tunnels in hopes of catching another hour of sleep before work. 
----
The cloaked figure bent down to pick up the slightly damp envelope that was precariously perched on the steps up from the underground river. The handwritten title is smeared beyond recognition and after a careful moment of consideration, the phantom of a man delicately opens the envelope. He unfolds the piece of parchment from the envelope, and slowly reads the words. Reading these words causes the biting rage of doubt to consume him as he does not believe that there is someone who would write these words as anything but a joke. He does not know though, that these words, this letter, will forever change his life. 
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kari-a-la-tari · 3 years
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The (Unneccessary) Lore of the WG Spanish Dubs
Aka me being like this meme for an entire post
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OKAY so a couple of weeks ago I had just learned that there existed a Spanish version of Wordgirl called “La Chica Supersabia” which is honestly super cool cause who doesn’t wanna hear their show in a different language?
But alas, this ended up taking me into a much deeper rabbit hole than I was expecting and it’s honestly pretty interesting so I thought I’d share it with y’all!
DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert by any means nor do I intend to come off as one, this is simply an elaborate essay of what I’ve found through my informal research. I will also be translating anything in Spanish to the best of my extent, so I apologize if I mess up a bit with the wording since it’s not my native language.
So then *places a baseball cap with glued lightbulb on my head* let’s get started shall we?
Okay so first things first, there are a couple of select episodes of La Chica Supersabia (I’ll use LCS from here on) available on the internet. The most reliable source that I’ve found is on an old Facebook account here where a fan would upload LCS episodes based on when they aired. However, the only episodes available are a select few from season one.
Now this got my mind thinking “Hey, what if there’s more episodes?” So naturally, I started scoundering on Google (like the rat I am) to see if there was indeed more. And according to this one site there are only two seasons of LCS that were dubbed.
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Translation: In Latin America, the first season premiered on Discovery Kids August 3, 2009, while the second season premiered on the same channel January 11, 2010, being the only two seasons issued. (Source)
However, later on I discovered that there was some mislead in that info because someone else found a Spanish episode that was from season 3, which doesn’t make sense because why would there be another season available when it clearly says that they technically shouldn’t exist? (Btw I tried finding it myself cause I did see that episode before but for some reason now I can’t find it dhdvvdbdvd 😭)
At first I thought maybe this is just some info added from a fan. After all, that statement was posted on a Spanish Wikipedia page so it is possible. So I began looking for other articles that talked about the Spanish dubs, but they all said the same thing. Well, until I came up with this site that said two very intriguing things:
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Translation: The series actually had 3 seasons and is dubbed in Caracas, Venezuela. On May 2012 the series stopped running on daytime hours and was removed from the programming one year later, on June 17, 2012. It is unknowns if it will be aired by another channel or come back to the Discovery Kids programming, besides only the two first seasons were dubbed in Spanish. (Source)
I was a little bit confused here with the wording because it still didn’t confirm my original questions; if anything it left me with more. But then I read the next section below which got me completely off track.
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Translation: The series received negative critics and complains on behalf of parents of families in Latin America that claimed that it wasn’t appropriate for the objective public of Discovery Kids. Without doubt in the U.S. the series had been well received and even won an Emmy award for Jack D. Ferraiola, writer and coproductor of the series together with the creator of the same show, Dorothea Gillim, who declared the following in respective to the series: (Source)
Now this one took me by a whirlwind: WTH why was this version hated by people in Latin America while it’s adored by everyone in the U.S.?? And I watched some episodes of LCS and while the dubbing is pretty funny (lol) there wasn’t anything inappropriate about it. For the most part they stuck on script with the original episode they had to dub.
So I dove even deeper...
And o h m y g o d there is an answer to this.
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Translation: The program premiered in Latin America on August 2009 on the Discover Kids channel, aiming at pre schoolers. Although the channel gave a lot of promotion for the show during the final months of 2009 and the majority of 2010, at the end of the year they decided to change the programming to nighttime hours because the show received a lot of critics from parents saying that the show was too “violent” and that it encouraged kids to lie to their parents (due to the obvious fact that Becky had to give an excuse everytime she had to leave to turn into WordGirl and save the day), and they complained constantly on the message boards now deleted of the channel. The program was eliminated completely on June 2012, without doubt, PBS maintained the Spanish dubs so that they would use for SAP (Second Audio Program) in the U.S. in a different studio (Dubbing House in Mexico and later Lorry Post in Miami, FL), but the program no longer returned to Discovery Kids until August 2014. (Source)
And DUDE no y’all this was just a complete hilarious yet ridiculous slap to the face. I mean..what the, why was that the reasoning as to why it was hated so much? Just cause of some literal PG kid friendly cartoon violence? And what do parents mean when they say it teaches them to lie to their parents?? I mean with all due respect, who was Discovery Kids target audience they had in mind vs. what it actually was? Because if there actual audience was very very young kids, they okay sure I can understand the need to point fingers at them in that sense. But if it was for slightly older kids (8-10 years old), then I think that parents can probably show kids at that age the reasoning behind why Becky lied in the show (not to mention that most kids at that age can understand what’s going on for the most part).
“Now is this actually true?” some of you may ask, which is understandable since this is coming from a wiki page. Well, I think it’s about time I put another disclaimer: sadly for the most part, the majority of these sources that I’ve attached have broken links when it comes to their references. And the ones that aren’t broken don’t mention anything about the topics that have been discussed here. But there are some smaller sources I’ve found here (look at the last three comments) and here that do indeed confirm that the show was canceled due to the force of parents.
However, the current grey area I’m in still is on the Spanish dubbing listing. See, I originally thought that there were three different dubbings according to this one post below (M&M Studios, Dubbing House and Lorry Post). I even thought I cracked it since according to this chart below the rest of the seasons were under the Dubbing House studios! However, it turns out that one of the studios Lorry Post doesn’t actually exist. Like nothing related to dubbing came up at all when I searched it up.
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Translation: Dubbing Studio 1 - M&M Studios (Seasons 1-2). Dubbing Studio 2 - Dubbing House (Seasons 3-8). Dubbing Studio 3 - Lorry Post (Season 8 - final episodes). (Source)
And then that’s when I took a harder look at this website and realized that it’s part of a Spanish Wiki page called “Propuestas de Fans de Doblaje” (Fan Proposals for Dubs). *insert facepalm emoji* And just...I honestly feel so dumb that I didn’t notice that detail when I did my initial research cause that would’ve saved me a lot of time 😤. Anywho so that explains the Lorry Post mystery, but then lies the other question: do the other dubs exist?
Well, this is where I draw the line. See, on that same wikipage, it mentions that LCS had completely different voice actors for each of the dubbings. The first dub (M&M) is from Venezuela and after looking at the VA’s, they can be traced back to LCS. But after looking at the VA’s for the second dub (Dubbing House) in Mexico, there is nothing related to them and LCS or WG. Not even on movie databases.
“Now are you gonna give up on this idea?” you may ask. And the answer is......
No.
Why? Well, it’s mainly because there is a compellingly set of evidence that proves that the first two dubs do actually exist, which is...
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THIS VIDEO, which shows that there were not one, but two variations of the LCS Spanish theme song. The first one is the Spanish version, and the second one that plays is the Venezuela version. And if you can remember, there were 2 dubbings of LCS; one located in Mexico (Dubbing House) and another In Venezuela (M&M Studios)!
Anywhosole, that is where I conclude this elaborate essay of mine. There are still a couple of loose strings here and there that I wanna check out myself but I’ve already tired myself out with this essay. I hoped you liked seeing me lose my mind speculate on the LCS episodes! This was honestly pretty fun ngl, maybe I’ll try doing this again in the future if something else interesting pops up! If you have anything you wanna add or maybe point out something that I may have forgotten, please by all means bring it up!
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hyperfixatinglove · 3 years
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💫 Ushio 💕
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One "baby you're my angel" meme later
He's such minor character in card game anime but he's the protagonist of my heart. It's not even That Deep with lore but I always imagine and wish it were Deeper.
Anyway he lives in this dystopian city called Neo Domino which is divided to this major city with skyscrapers and slums called Satellite. Satellite is home to criminals and orphans and poor people and those the elite consider trash, while the proper Neo Domino has celebrities, psychics and those who don't duel.
At the start of the series these two places are only connected by simple, one single trash pipe but later it's connected by fancy bridge.
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He works for Sector Security (it's called by way longer title in OG Japanese which is what version I watch and like but Security is just easier to remember) and his job is keeping people of Satellite out of the city. Later in the series it's reformed into just general police force as the Director (the head of the city) gets replaced bc he was a villain. Thus his work becomes more of that of investigator and general cop stuff. He also provided the final obstacle/exam to people who wanted to drive motorcycles and duel at the same time so it seems like his job is pretty board and versatile.
Yes this is the cardgames on motorcycles anime.
He starts as this one off antagonist who loses to protagonist in first ep but he keeps coming back to hunt them (ala inspector javert i've heard-) and had quite bigoted view of those living in the slums until he sees how tough the life is there and visiting local orphanage. After that he changes into better man.
He also obtained his cheek scar by trying to arrest the protagonist but he was buried under the trash bc he was chasing the protag in the same trash pipe that connects the two main areas. Thus at least we know he tends to be reckless with his job as he also chased protagonist into a lift. With bikes.
At least he's relentless and has determination I guess. But does he have death wish like Deacon?
There isn't much we know of him in canon, he has crush on his co-worker, later boss who in earlier seasons is Director's secretary but later seasons she can go out and about which I'm happy tbh she deserved more. We know nothing about how he lives, for example. He's this ally/friend to the main group that sometimes asks for help (but doesn't like to do it) and there's this mini-subplot where he gets into hospital bc he crashed his bike.
English dub at least mentions he has a cat that I've taken as canon but those dubs add so much that isn't present in "original" so I usually don't take anything from dubs as canon.
Oh and he was in fancy party once as bodyguard type of work. Versatile like I said. And most likely busy.
He's my "he's good now but he used to be bastard" love of my life. ♥
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vampiregirl1797 · 4 years
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Desiderium
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For My Masterlist, Click Here
 GIF not mine.
 Minor smut, 18+ only.
 Soulmates had always been somewhat of a fairytale when I was a little girl. I used to snuggle underneath my pale blue comforter that was decorated with daises—it had been something my father had made when my mother told him she was pregnant with me— being snuggled up underneath it when my mother used to narrate how she discovered my father was her soulmate always made the story that much more magical to me. Why? Because your soulmates first words to you would be imprinted onto your skin, almost like a tattoo, but apparently much more painful. Because the words weren’t just engrained onto your skin, but burned onto your soul.
 The first thing my father said to my mother was ‘What’cha doin’ down there darlin’?’ because she had been kneeling at the edge of the grass on her parent’s property, staring longingly at the field that stretched out somewhat endlessly towards the horizon. Daisies blossomed out across the field along with wildflowers. She longed to climb the fence that separated her from the only sight in her life that bought her some semblance of peace, and away from the societal expectations her mother and father were placing on her shoulders. Marrying well, having children, being the perfect wife. Her parents weren’t even soulmates. They had married for prestige and wealth over true love. My mother hadn’t wanted that, but alas they refused to listen. She sighed in response to his question and said, ‘watching the daisies sway with the breeze.’ After a beat, both of them were screaming in pain as the words appeared; my mothers on her chest over her heart, and my fathers along his inner arm, starting at his wrist and falling just short of his inner elbow. They had ran away the next day, and lived happily ever after.
At least that’s how my mother told it to the child version of me. I was absolutely fascinated by the concept of the universe creating someone who was completely perfect for you in every sense of the word. Perhaps my interest was aided by having parents who were soulmates, some of the kids in my classes at school didn’t, and therefore didn’t see what I saw. I couldn’t dispute that you didn’t have to be soulmates to love someone. But young me saw the way my mother and father looked at each other, how they shared a myriad of looks, ranging from soft, to sad, to angry. How they seemed to know what the other needed without a word needing to be said. How they seemed to only be completely content when they were touching in someway, whether it was holding hands or cuddling together. It was a kind of love I didn’t see anywhere else, and I hadn’t seen except in other soulmates throughout my life. Even before knowing a couple, you could tell by observing their behaviour, whether they were destined or not. Some were content to never meet their soulmate, while others longed desperately to find their other half.  
 But as I grew and lost my parents to a house fire at the age of eleven, my desire and hope started to fade. How could I long for love when I knew how much it hurt when you lost them? Growing up in the foster care system made it easy to keep people at arms length, including the families I was placed with. At least until I turned seventeen and Gerard, one of the foster parents in the new family I’d been paired with, had hit his wife. I hadn’t even thought, moving faster than I thought I ever could, I put myself between them. And when I’d held my hand up somewhat defensively, he’d gone flying into the wall behind him, the force enough to knock him out cold. I had stared at my hand in confusion and when Amy, the woman I’d been about to take a punch for had practically shoved my out of the door while screaming that ‘freaks weren’t allowed in this house’, a sense of dread ran through my veins.
 Freak.
 I was a freak.
 It was then that my desire for a soulmate dissipated completely, and over time my insecurities extended to everything. My body. My laugh. My intelligence. Everything. I grew to hate myself, and I knew that if I couldn’t love me, how could I expect someone else to love me? Even someone who was supposedly destined to be with me would see all of the flaws that I did. It was hopeless.
 What I didn’t know was that not only would my life change for the better in the following years, but also I would be introduced to my soulmate whether I wanted to be or not. Fate was funny that way.
 Five years later.
 ‘Good morning sunshine!’ Steve Rogers practically yelled at me as I shuffled into the kitchen.
 I simply groaned in response, my footsteps towards the coffee maker becoming more insistent when I caught a waft of the java goodness. I pulled out my own personal mug—it was absolutely ginormous and covered in cartoon Captain Americas wearing the old uniform Steve had worn before the ice. Tony had given it to me for a gag gift a few years ago at Christmas and I’d laughed harder than I had in a long time when I opened it. That had made Steve’s embarrassment cool somewhat, and I think that was why the mug hadn’t ended up ‘accidentally’ smashed afterwards. That being said, big, blonde and broody always, very dramatically, rolled his eyes when he saw it and it always made me chuckle and wink at him as I sipped my hot beautiful beverage.
 After I’d poured the mug as close to the rim as I dared, I added three sugars and practically inhaled half before finally taking a look around to see who else was up. The tower had become home to me when Tony had bought me here just after I’d turned eighteen. I’d been on the streets for almost a year at that point, and after I’d intercepted someone trying to fire a bomb at Iron man by using my magic, and redirecting it to the one who’d fired it, I’d been dubbed an unofficial avenger. The snarky genius had taken me under his wing, he hadn’t pushed me for anything, for company, for information, he hadn’t put pressure on me to use my powers for his team. He’d simply been there, even when I didn’t know I needed him. Eventually, I’d warmed up to him and started to trust him with stories of my parents, about what happened to them, about the foster families and eventually, how I’d ended up homeless. His eyes had darkened with rage at that story and he’d scooped me up into a hug and assured me that I wasn’t a freak, that I was special and that was absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. I’d basically collapsed into his arms after that, my tears cascading down my cheeks after being held back so long by the numbing dam that Tony had managed to shatter.
 It still took me a while to warm up to new people, and my insecurities were still there concerning soulmates, but I had a home and a family now. Which was more than I ever could have asked for after losing my parents all those years ago.
 ‘Morning kiddo!’ Tony grinned and gave a little wave from where he was, which was currently on Steve’s lap as the super soldier gently ran his fingers through my dad’s hair.
 That was another thing—I didn’t know when Tony had started to become dad to me, but he had. I hadn’t said it to him yet, mainly because I didn’t know how he would react, I didn’t want him to feel like I was forcing a responsibility onto him that he didn’t want or ask for. So I kept it to myself.
 ‘Morning,’ I smiled, my mood much brighter after I’d basically inhaled half of my cup.
 My eyes filtered over to the only other person who was up at this time and a huge grin split across my face when I realised whom it was. My cup was placed aside and I ran and basically launched myself onto the sofa where the giant god of thunder was sitting. He’d become an uncle to me over the years, and when he returned from Asgard it never failed to make me happy.
 ‘Thor! When did you get here?’ I yelled in excitement, my arms winding around his neck as I hugged him hard. It had to have been six months since I saw him last.
 ‘Not too long ago, little one.’ Thor chuckled, settling me onto his lap and affectionately running his hand through my hair.
 ‘I hope you’re staying longer this time.’ I gave him a look because the last time he’d dropped in, he’d only stayed for a few days.
 ‘I will be here for at least a week.’ He promised.
 Appeased by his words I dropped my head to his shoulder and closed my eyes and took a moment to inhale his scent of rain and power (which shouldn’t be a kind of smell, but if anyone was going to smell of power it was going to be a god), and sighed happily as it soothed the part of me that always acted up whenever someone I cared about was gone. It was like a thread around my heart that burned enough to be uncomfortable, but not painful. My mother and father’s thread always burned, but that was okay. It reminded me how lucky I had been to have them in my life; there were many who couldn’t say the same.
 Now that Thor and I were silent across from my Dad and Steve, I found myself smiling again when their conversation drifted over to us.
 ‘I told ya.’ Steve sounded smug.
 ‘Well if Thor hadn’t been here, I’m sure she would have come to us for morning snuggles like usual. She hadn’t seen him in like six months, it makes sense.’ Dad snarked back, and when I glanced over I could see him handing Steve a crumpled note.
 I chuckled, but otherwise didn’t comment, knowing their relationship was unique in the way only soulmates could be, and it worked for them. It was obvious how much they loved and adored one another, the same way my parents had. Thor’s hand moved gently up and down my spine and I was helpless to stop my eyes from fluttering shut, as I drifted into a content sleep.
 //
 ‘Shh you’ll wake her!’
 ‘It’s not fair! We’ve all missed good ole’ thunder too! We shouldn’t have to forgo cuddles just because she fell asleep on him!’
 ‘Don’t be such a child, you know how she gets when one of us are away.’
 The voice softened, ‘right. Sometimes I forget.’
 I stirred, blinking against the light that was filtering in through the floor to ceiling windows that outlined the living room. I was a little disorientated, but I settled when I remembered I was with Thor, a glance over to the loveseat told me that my dad and Steve must have left at some point. And when I focused I realised Clint and Tasha were the ones arguing not too quietly in the kitchen. With a fond shake of my head I carefully manoeuvred myself off the god’s lap and used my powers to lay him down so he would be more comfortable. If he’d only landed this morning then he would need a lot more sleep. After placing a blanket over him and making sure his head was supported with a pillow, I kissed his forehead and walked up to the deadly red head and sassy Hawkeye.
 ‘Is it still morning?’ I asked sheepishly.
 ‘Yes, honey. It’s about ten thirty.’ Tasha smiled warmly, like she always did when she greeted me.
 I nodded through a yawn and kissed her cheek and Clint’s before asking, ‘where’s Tony?’
 ‘Down in the lab. Steve went out for a run with Sam so he thought he’d tinker on the birthday present he got for him.’ Tasha grinned, her eyes sparkling knowingly.
 ‘Okay.’ I frowned, knowing that probably meant it was something sexual which I absolutely did not need to know about.
 After I refilled my coffee mug with some fresh warm java, I left the two spies with a parting kiss to the cheek and a promise to Tasha to meet her in the gym for some sparring at noon.
 ‘JARVIS can you let Tony know I’m coming down to the lab please? Tasha’s look upstairs tells me that I don’t wanna know what he’s doing down there for Steve, so I’d like for him to have some time to put away what ever he’s making for sexy times with his husband.’ I practically shuddered at the thought. Just thinking of your parents ever having sense was just… wrong.
 ‘Of course Y/N.’
 ‘Thank you, JARVIS.’ I smiled, knowing the Al couldn’t see me but I had a soft spot for the computer nonetheless.
 By the time I’d made it downstairs, Dad was hunched over and tinkering with something that just looked like a bunch of metal to me, so I felt safe going in and taking the empty stool next to him.
 ‘Morning.’ I mumbled kissing his cheek and wrapping my arm around his waist, ‘whatcha working on?’
 He kissed my cheek and dropped what he’d been working on, before twisting his stool so he could wrap both arms around me. I smiled a little and placed my mug down before reciprocating the gesture.
 ‘Nothing really, Sherbet.’ He replied softly, the nickname one I’d acquired after an embarrassing incident on the first Halloween I’d spent at the tower. I frowned when dad sighed deeply, something he only did when he was really upset about something. Usually it happened when Steve and he had fought. But things had seemed fine earlier, and I know Tasha would have mentioned an argument to me.
 ‘What’s wrong?’
 ‘Steve’s gotta leave for a little while.’ He sighed again but pulled back and started tinkering with whatever the hell he was making.
 ‘On a mission?’
 ‘No. You know how we’ve been working on bringing his friend Bucky home after Steve saw him a few months ago?’ I nodded and he continued, ‘well the software I created has picked him up in Russia, so Stevie is gonna go and get him and bring him home.’
 ‘You’re allowed not to be okay with that, you know.’ I took one of his hands in mine and squeezed it comfortingly, ‘I mean, I know you understand that he’s been reconditioned and controlled for so long and he had no idea what he was doing, or no choice in the things he did, but that doesn’t mean you have to be okay with him just coming to live here considering everything.’
 ‘I know I don’t have to be, but I am.’ He smiled, his eyes softening at my concern for him, ‘I’m a little upset over knowing that he killed my mom and dad, instead of believing they died in a car crash like I’d originally believed for so long. But like you said, he didn’t know what he was doing and I can’t hold that against him.’ He shook his head vehemently at the thought.
 ‘Then why do you seem so sad?’ I frowned, confused.
 ‘Because Stevie is gonna be gone for at least a week. That’s if things go well. It could be longer. Much longer.’ He sighed again, his brown eyes dimming, ‘I hate to be away from him while he runs, but being away for that long. It hurts.’
 ‘It does?’ I asked tentatively. My mom and dad never had to separate for such a long time, so I didn’t know anything about the parting being painful.
 He nodded and squeezed my hand in assurance, ‘it’s hard to explain, but it kind of feels like he takes a part of me with him, and the part of me that’s tethered to him is just reaching out to try and pull him back.’
 ‘That’s awful. I’m sorry.’ I murmured, my heart squeezing at the thought of someone I loved being in pain.
 ‘It’s okay, Sherbet. It’s all worth it, trust me.’ He winked, and just like that we fell into a comfortable silence.
 I sipped on my coffee and watched him work; still having no idea what he was trying to build. Occasionally one of us would pipe up with a question and a comment and we’d chat for a little while before falling into the quiet again. At around eleven I ventured upstairs and after showering and getting dressed for a workout, I went to the kitchen and made my dad a ham and mustard sandwich. I also grabbed a bag of lightly salted chips and a bottle of water. After dropping them off at the lab with strict orders for him to eat and drink something that wasn’t coffee, I left for my workout with Tasha. On my way I couldn’t help but wonder about something I hadn’t let myself properly wonder about for years. I briefly let myself think about what I would like to be loved the way that my dad and Steve loved each other. The way that Tasha and Clint, Thor and Bruce and Pepper and Sam loved each other. For a moment I remembered why I’d been overcome with the romantic idea of finding the perfect person, but that came to a screeching halt when I caught my reflection in the mirrors that lined the back of the gym. I wasn’t beautiful. I wasn’t funny. I wasn’t interesting. I was disgusting. I didn’t deserve a soulmate.
 With that reminder, I cleared my throat and met Tasha in the ring with a forced smile, ready to focus on something that didn’t make my heart drop to my stomach.
 //
 It took Steve three weeks to come home. One week was spent tracking the other super soldier down, and the other two was spent in Asgard with Thor after the god assured Steve that the healers on his planet could remove the conditioning put in place by Hydra and remove the Winter Soldier completely. At least, remove the existence of the other personality that had been forced into his brain. The memories however would remain, and I only hoped that the memories of who he was before helped remind him of who he was, and not who he was forced to be. I couldn’t imagine what he would be going through, and my heart squeezed in sympathy for Steve’s best friend.
 The whole time Steve was gone was spent sparring, practicing my powers, and looking after my dad. Whether that was making sure he ate three meals a day, or forcing him to go to bed and refusing to let him stay in the lab between the hours of 11pm and 7am to assure he wouldn’t come back (JARVIS helped with that), I looked out for him. Because it was obvious how lost he was without Steve, we were all missing the Captain but of course, no one missed him like my dad.
 He finally returned at 12:30am exactly three weeks and one day after he left. I had been asleep on the couch at the time, and the sound of the elevator sliding open had stirred me awake. Once I’d registered who it was I took off in a full sprint and launched myself at him. He caught me with a laugh and just hugged me tight, knowing I needed a moment to absorb that he was back. I inhaled and the scent of soap and roses made me relax contentedly.
 ‘I missed you.’ I mumbled pulling back enough to kiss his cheek before resting my head back onto his shoulder.
 ‘I know, kiddo.’ He stroked my hair and I felt myself dozing again, helpless at resisting sleep when I felt so safe.
 //
 I managed to sleep until 6am. I’ll be honest I could have cried when I rolled over and saw the red numbers mocking me, but I knew that now I’d opened my eyes I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. With a resigned sigh I rolled out of bed and after I pulled on my unicorn slippers and grey fluffy robe, I made my way to the kitchen. The smell of coffee bought a smile to my face as I immediately headed for my mug to pour myself a cup of the stimulant to get my brain working.
 Usually at this time, I could count on Sam, Steve and Tony to be up. The former two usually returning from their run, and the latter usually rolled out of bed in time to greet his husband. But I wasn’t surprised to be greeted by an empty living room. Dad and Steve would take the time to catch up, and Sam probably wouldn’t have gone for a run without the super soldier there to wake him up. With no one to cuddle, I finished my cup of coffee with a sigh and decided to go for a run. It was better than sitting around and doing nothing. I wondered if Sam would appreciate me waking him up to go with me…
 //
 ‘If this is your way of apologising for waking me up at the ass-crack of dawn, then I forgive you.’ Sam murmured around a mouthful of pancakes.
 ‘Oh thank Thor, I never would’ve survived without your forgiveness.’ I teased from the stove—I’d already eaten mine, and we were nearing 8am now, which meant the rest of the team would be waking up soon, so I was making enough to feed everyone.
 ‘Morning Cap.’ My head snapped up to see Steve walking into the kitchen, dad shuffling a few feet behind him. I smiled when I saw that they were holding hands, and with Tony rubbing at his sleepy eyes, it was easy to deduce that it was only the super soldier’s guidance that was leading him forward.
 ‘Morning!’ I said cheerfully, placing the frying pan I’d now finished using into the sink and leaping into his arms. His free hand came to my back to hold me in place and I smiled wider when I noticed he hadn’t let dad go to hold me.
 ‘Morning Pumpkin.’ Steve chuckled and kissed my hair, ‘I see you dragged Sam out for a run.’
 I glanced over my shoulder to see Sam falling asleep on the table, his head resting on his now empty plate.
 ‘I did. Woke up early and I didn’t wanna go alone.’ I explained, shaking my head fondly at the Falcon before turning back to the super soldier, ‘I’m glad you’re home.’
 ‘Me too, kiddo.’ Steve kissed my forehead and placed me gently on the floor, where I then moved to hug my dad.
 ‘Where’s your friend? I don’t remember seeing him last night.’ I commented as I plated up enough food to feed them both.
 ‘He’s still sleeping. He’s been slipping a lot since they removed the conditioning.’ The blonde explained, pulling out a chair and placing Tony onto his lap.
 ‘That’s not surprising, it must have taken a huge emotional toll on him.’ I said, placing two plates in front of them both and then coming back with a mug of coffee for dad and some orange juice for pop.
 ‘Thanks honey.’ Dad and Pop said together.
 ‘You’re welcome.’ I smiled, sipping from my fresh cuppa Joe.
 It was much later that Steve’s friend made an appearance. At around noon as Bruce and I were dishing up our infamous homemade pasta dish to feed the whole team, he made his way into the living area, looking sleepy and uncertain. No one aside from me seemed to notice him lurking at the door, looking in at everyone settled at various points throughout the room: Steve and Tony were cuddled up on the love seat, Thor was chatting with Sam on the sofa, Tasha was sat on Clint’s lap at the dining table as they spoke in sign language and Bruce and I were putting the last touches on the meal without having to verbally communicate because we’d done it so many times. It hurt my heart to see him so lost and uncertain so when Bruce moved to place the two huge pots of pasta in the centre of the dining room table, I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and slowly approached the soldier. As I approached, his attention snapped to me and the emotion in his stunningly blue eyes made me want to hug him and assure him that everything was going to be okay. I didn’t of course, as I didn’t know how he would react. Instead I handed him the beverage I was holding and placed my hand on his arm, ignoring his astonishment when I didn’t cringe away at the feeling of metal, and led him encouragingly to the seat next to Steve, knowing that was where he would be most comfortable.
 By then, the rest of the team was sat around the table, Thor sitting next to Bruce, the god placing a kiss to his love’s cheek as a thanks for the meal and smiling softly when the scientist blushed. Tasha had shuffled into her own seat, but she and Clint were still holding hands and had their chairs close enough together that their legs were pressed together. Sam was sitting on the other side of Thor, trying not to glance at the elevator too often as he waited for the appearance of Pepper, the strawberry blonde would take the empty seat next to him when she arrived, which was also on the other side of Steve’s friend. I sat in my usual seat after I’d bought the garlic bread over, which was on the other side of my dad. Once everyone was seated—Pepper arrived after five minutes and settled in after kissing the Falcon in greeting—we all dug into the food.
 Conversation flowed easily, as it always did, though I preferred to sit, listen and observe. I did chime in occasionally, but more often than not, I remained silent. Though, I wasn’t the only one—I didn’t hear Pop’s friend speak a single word throughout the meal, although he did eat three bowls of pasta, half a stick of garlic bread and he drank the bottle of water I gave him as well as the other two Pop had replaced for him. There was nothing wrong with being quiet, but I had a feeling that he wasn’t aware of the conversation happening around him at all. His eyes seemed unfocused as if he were somewhere else, and I found myself overcome with the desire to bring him out of it, to offer him something else to focus on, but I held back. I knew better than anyone that sometimes you just needed to work through things on your own, and being pushed only made you close up more. It had taken me years to open up enough to care about anyone again and to let anyone care about me. So I refused to rush his process, besides I didn’t know him, the one better suited for looking out for the mysterious soldier was Pop’s—he knew him best.
 //
 After about six months Steve’s friend seemed to settle into the tower, at least to a point. He ran with Steve and Sam in the mornings, ate breakfast with the team, worked out with Thor or Pop’s, hung out in the lab with Tony and Bruce, and he ate dinner with us every night too. He seemed to be developing friendships with everyone in the team, but he was of course most comfortable with Pop and Dad. I knew for a fact that Dad telling him that he didn’t blame him for killing his parents was a huge relief for the soldier. Pop had told me he’d fell to his knees in relief and Dad had fallen right with him, hugging him close until he was ready to get up. That had been a turning point in their relationship, and now more often than not if the super soldier was anywhere, he’d be with either of my parents.
 It was a relief to see him smiling, well it wasn’t so much of a smile, more of an upturn of his lips, but it was nice to see that paired with his brilliant blue eyes sparkling with mirth instead of the uncertainty that had shone in them when he’d joined us all those months ago. He teased Pop’s constantly, and developed a kindred banter with Sam that both insisted was an arch nemesis relationship, but we all knew the truth. He always had a smile for everyone and those he wasn’t comfortable with, he was polite.
 The only member of the team that he didn’t seem to get close to was me. I couldn’t really place all the blame on him—I avoided him as much as he seemed to avoid me. It was ridiculous really, but every time he was near me I just couldn’t concentrate on anything. My mind went blank and my heart rate picked up, so to avoid what would most likely be beyond embarrassing interactions that I would never hear the end of from the team, I evaded him. I was sure he wasn’t eluding me for the same reasons, but I hadn’t really given it much thought. Honestly, I didn’t think anyone had even noticed that we’d never even spoken a word to each other in the past six months, and that was perfectly fine with me. Why you ask? Because if he spoke directly to me in that deep, Brooklyn accented voice, I might just die of a cardiac arrest. So this was the way it had to be for now, I was sure my apparent crush would go away at some point, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
 ‘Happy Christmas Eve!’ I grinned as I walked into the common area, yelling the greeting to everyone where they were settled in to watch a film in the living room.
 ‘Happy Christmas Eve!’ Dad responded with as much enthusiasm, Pop shaking his head fondly at his husband.
 ‘Come on Pumpkin, we’re just about to start watching a movie.’ Pop’s said and I made my way to slide underneath Pop’s right arm while Dad was curled up to his left.
 ‘I love this movie.’ I mumbled as the opening scenes of Home Alone 2 started playing on the T.V.
 ‘We know you do, ya filthy animal.’ Clint teased, though everyone erupted into laughter when a cushion hit him in the face with an oomph with a wave of my hand.
 I laughed with everyone else, but I couldn’t help my gaze from lingering on the other super soldier sat on one of the armchairs to the left of me. His eyes were sparkling in amusement and the tension that had been present when he’d first arrived at the tower was nowhere to be seen. His hair was pulled back in a bun, which helped to show off his face, and the grey Henley he was wearing stretched wonderfully across his arms and his abdomen. He was gorgeous of course, but he also looked calm and relaxed and it was beautiful. I forced myself to look away before he or anyone caught me staring and focused on the movie.
 I sunk further in to Pop’s side, the warmth that surrounded me making me sleepy and content. I remember reaching out for Dad’s hand as Kevin McAllister arrived at Duncan’s Toy Chest, and then I fell into the darkness.
 //
 I awoke to voices around me, and it took me a moment to recognise who was speaking and what was going on. The first thing I registered was that I was being lifted and held by someone who was very warm. I couldn’t help the happy hum that fell from my lips as I snuggled closer and mumbled something unintelligible. I felt whoever was holding me chuckle lightly and a small smile settled on my face at the sound. I felt myself falling back into the darkness but before I could surrender completely, the talking started again.
 ‘Careful you don’t drop her.’ That was Pop’s voice, which was confusing because if he wasn’t the one holding me, who was?
 ‘Watch it, punk, I’m easily twice as strong as you, and I would never drop her.’ He replied softly, but the soft rumble underneath my ear assured me that he was the one holding me, as did the coolness emanating from his metallic arm.
 If I had been more conscious I probably would have frozen and fully woken up at that moment. But for whatever reason, I settled further into him and further into sleep. I dreamt about the ocean, rolling in and crashing against the sand. The moonlight reflected on the waves and lit up the whole area enough that I could see someone standing close enough to the tide that the water brushed over his toes. I walked towards him, apparently my subconscious recognised him, and just as I reached out my hand to entwine with his—he faded away into the night air.
 When I woke up the next day, I didn’t remember the dream, but I did feel the ache in my heart as if something was slipping away from me.
 //
 My eyes snapped open at six am on the dot on Christmas Day, and after asking JARVIS who was awake in the tower, I practically sprinted from the bedroom to Tony and Steve’s room. I had a cardboard box about the size of an A4 piece of paper tucked under my arm—it was wrapped of course—and it was my present for the two men who I’d come to think of as my parental figures. I was a little nervous about giving it to them, so I thought it best to do it now, before anyone else was around. After a quick knock on their door and pausing for five seconds to give them time to move from any compromising positions, I entered the room.
 ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!’ I screeched and launched myself at the foot of the bed, careful not to ruin the present I’d bought.
 ‘Merry Christmas Pumpkin,’ Pop’s said with a smile and a ruffle of my hair.
 I swatted him away but gave them both a hug, before settling in between them, but facing them rather than being in the middle against the headboard like they were sitting. I crossed my legs and bit my lip nervously. This present… it was big.
 ‘What’s wrong honey?’ Dad’s voice was gentle and he shuffled forward enough to squeeze my hand comfortingly.
 ‘I have a present for you both. Well I have more for you under the tree, but this one is for the both of you and I wanted to give it to you in private because it’s well… it’s serious.’ I explained, barely remembering to breathe as I rushed to get my words out, ‘I want you to know that you can say no, I put this together because I want you both to know how much you mean to me.’
 Pop’s and Dad looked a mixture of confused and soft as the super soldier took the present from me, tearing away the paper for my dad to gently remove the lid. I held my breath when I saw them stare at the top paper in shock and I had to force myself not to start rambling an explanation and an assurance that they didn’t have to sign them. But the rational side of me told me that this was a lot to process and silence didn’t have to be a bad thing.
 ‘Is this real?’ Pop’s asked, his eyes were glassed over with tears and I felt my own reciprocate as I replied, ‘yes. It’s real. I had Pepper help me draw them up.’
 ‘Honey,’ Dad’s voice was clogged with emotion and I had to hold back a sob at the love I could see shining in both pairs of eyes.
 ‘I understand if you don’t want to. It’s a lot of responsibility, I know, but I’ve come to see you both as my dad’s and how much I love you won’t change if you decide you don’t want to sign.’ I picked at an imaginary piece of lint on the comforter, too scared to meet their eyes.
 ‘Pumpkin, we would be honoured to officially adopt you.’ Pop’s assured me, scooping me up and placing me in between them so they could both hug me.
 ‘Of course we would.’ Dad agreed, kissing my temple.
 ‘I love you both so much.’ I murmured quietly, tears streaming down my face as my body fought for an outlet for all of the emotions that were running through me, ‘I don’t say it enough, but I do.’
 ‘We love you too, honey.’ Dad and Pop’s squeezed me tighter and for a long time we just stayed there, in a cocoon of love as we all cried tears of happiness and gratitude for being blessed with this moment, and this relationship of fathers and daughter.
 //
 Everyone else woke up at around ten, all sluggishly making their way to the kitchen where Pops and I were preparing breakfast while Dad sat on the counter, occasionally tasting some bacon or pancake batter and stealing kisses from his husband.
 ‘Merry Christmas beautiful people.’ I grinned, saluting them with my glass of orange juice and champagne.
 ‘Ugh oh.’ Clint said deadpan, ‘how many of those has she had?’
 ‘Only two,’ I pouted, not knowing that Pops was holding up five fingers behind me.
 Everyone chuckled but took their seats at the dining table anyway. I plopped myself rather ungracefully on Bruce’s lap after Dad and Pops waved me away when I offered to bring in the food. Bruce just chuckled and placed a hand on my waist to avoid me falling, and Thor lifted my feet and placed them on his lap.
 ‘Do you know, I really think that you’re adorable, you know like cuddly?’ I said, taking a sip and not noticing everyone else watching with expressions of amusement and fondness, ‘but also I think that the Hulk is pretty too.’
 ‘What?’ Bruce squeaked and I let out a rather un-ladylike whelp when he nearly dropped me in his surprise, but thankfully he caught me in time.
 ‘It’s true! I haven’t told you before because I didn’t wanna make you upset or uncomfortable but I think the Hulk is pretty.’ I said, taking another sip of my drink, I lowered my voice to a whisper that everyone could still definitely hear, ‘I think it’s because he’s green and that reminds me of nature, which is also really pretty.’
 A round of chuckles erupted around the table but it was the smell of bacon that caught my interest. I placed my drink onto the table and grabbed a couple of rashers and munched on them happily. I offered some to the still shocked Bruce, but he shook his head politely.
 ‘I can’t believe she’s this drunk on five glasses. They’re only tiny flutes and mostly orange juice!’ The hunky super soldier exclaimed to no one in particular, his eyes sparkling in amusement. I hid my blush behind a handful of strawberries. Damn super soldier looking like an Adonis god and making my heart beat out of my chest.
 ‘What did you just say, honey?’ Dad’s eyes were sparkling wickedly and I frowned in confusion as I tried to remember what I said last.
 ‘Hulk is pretty?’ I offered.
 ‘No, no.’ he waved his hand, looking over to Sexy Bun next to Pops, ‘after that.’
 ‘Dad, I didn’t say anything after that.’ I chuckled taking another sip of my drink, ‘and I thought Pops was supposed to be the one with bad hearing.’
 The table went silent in that moment, but I dipped my strawberry into my cream and munched with a satisfied hum.
 ‘What did she just—?’ Tasha started but cut off at the sudden emotion that clogged her throat at the look on Steve and Tony’s faces. They both looked absolutely… honoured and grateful. There was no other way to describe it.
 ‘I’m confused… you have a daughter?’ Sexy Bun was looking at Steve in confusion.
 I grinned big and happily exclaimed, ‘that’s me!’
 ‘Yes it is, honey.’ Dad chuckled fondly, and with all the grace in the world, I managed to lift myself up and over the table to plop myself in pops’ lap. I giggled at the feeling of flying as Dad lifted my feet onto his lap, both of them smiling at me fondly.
 ‘That’s our daughter.’ Pops kissed my forehead.
 ‘The lightweight.’ Dad agreed and laughed at my pout.
 ‘I’m not a lightweight.’ I mumbled around a bite of pancake.
 ‘Of course you aren’t little one.’ Thor’s voice rumbled in amusement and affection, while everyone else murmured their agreement.
 //
 Later on that night after all the presents had been opened and the left overs from Christmas dinner had been consumed, we all settled into the common room, each of us doing different things. Dad was showing Pops how to use the new phone I’d gifted him; the super soldier was completely overwhelmed and the billionaire was shifting between teasing his husband and patiently explaining each function to him. Bruce was sitting on Thor’s lap, his head on the demi-god’s shoulder as he snored softly. The God of thunder was quietly talking to Pepper, the red head in a similar predicament as Sam’s head was on her lap, him having been asleep for as long as the scientist. Both Thor and Pepper alternated between their conversation and looking down at their significant others in complete adoration. Clint and Tasha had retired about five minutes prior, the archer practically carrying the assassin to their bedroom after the redhead mentioned another present she wanted to give him in private. I was sat on the loveseat with Bucky, both of us just quietly observing everyone. I couldn’t tell you how we’d ended up on the same seat, sat so close that our upper thighs were pressed solidly against each other’s, but here we were. It should have been awkward, seeing as I’d never even spoke to the man, but it wasn’t. For the first time his presence wasn’t making my heart rate erratic, my palms weren’t sweating and I wasn’t struggling for words. I was completely calm, but it was a different level of calmness that I’d never felt around anyone else before, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I didn’t want to.
 ‘This has to be my favourite day of the year, every year.’ I mused, looking up at Bucky so he would know I was talking to him.
 I saw the surprise in his eyes when they met mine, and my heart skipped a beat at meeting his stare.
 He cleared his throat before he replied, somewhat shyly, ‘after everything that happened when I fell, I never believed I’d have the opportunity to be surrounded by family again, especially at Christmas. So I know exactly what you mean, the time of year amplifies the love.’
 We shared a soft smile and I was just about to ask him a question about his Christmas’ before the war when my chest felt like it was burning. A whimper of pain fell from my lips, and without even thinking about it I lifted up my pyjama top and stared at the words that were now inked to the left of my chest in shock, disbelief and… relief. I jolted in surprise when Bucky’s metal hand caressed the words with such tenderness that I felt my eyes sheen over with tears as I looked up to him. He was staring at my soulmate mark with such gratitude, adoration and shock that I couldn’t help but mirror when I caught my mark on the forearm of his flesh. My fingers reached out without my permission and traced the letters, revelling in the spark that shot up my arm, in the warmth of his skin and the way the letters were bumpy against his flesh.
 My eyes met his again when he gently lowered my top and took my hands in his. I held on tightly, overwhelmed with what had happened. I never thought I’d meet my soulmate, and even after I’d convinced myself that I didn’t deserve someone, a small part of me had always hoped. Hoped that I’d find someone who would love me the same way my mother loved my father. The same way my dads loved each other. I just never believed it would happen, and I hadn’t let myself indulge in the idea since my parents had passed when I was a child. But now, I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t deny the affection, adoration and love that I felt for the man in front of me. I couldn’t deny the intensity; I couldn’t deny the desire to solidify our bond, to make our hearts one for always.
 ‘I lost hope that I would find you years ago.’ Bucky admitted in a whisper, his metal hand wiping away the tears that fell down my cheeks.
 ‘Me too.’ I told him, mirroring his volume. By some miracle, no one had taken notice of our conversation and I wasn’t about to be the reason that our bubble got burst.
 ‘I knew it was you.’ His fingers ran through my hair and he smiled as my eyes fluttered at his touch.
 ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’
 ‘Because you seemed wary of me, I didn’t want to push it and make you more skittish around me, especially if I was wrong.’ He explained, his hands returning to holding mine.
 ‘I wasn’t afraid of you, if that’s what you were thinking. I wanted to talk to you, it’s just every time I tried, I couldn’t get any words out and eventually I stopped trying because I didn’t want you to think I was a stuttering idiot incapable of speaking to you.’ I blushed but felt my eyes soften at the sound of his chuckle and the mirth in his beautiful eyes.
 ‘Oh, doll, I would never think that,’ he promised, his eyes trailing over my face and darkening when they reached my lips. They started to tingle under the attention and it took every ounce of will I held not to lean forward right there. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, but I had a feeling if we started, we wouldn’t stop until the bond was solidified and I didn’t want to do that in the presence of my family.
 ‘We should…’ I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence, but it didn’t matter he knew what I meant anyway.
 ‘Yes we should, sugar.’ He winked, the dilation of his pupils made my knees weak, ‘I’ll go first and you follow in a few minutes.’ He squeezed my hand and after a wave and shout of ‘goodnight’ to the room, he was gone.
 It felt like time was mocking me and purposefully ticking by as slow as possible as I waited for the clock to show that five minutes had passed, once it had, I had to physically force myself not to leap eagerly out of my chair and casually shuffle over to my dads and give them each a kiss on the cheek. After that I waved to everyone else and practically sprinted when I’d turned the corner out of sight. When I’d reached the corridor that our bedrooms were on, I had a millisecond to wonder where he would be when his bedroom door opened and he gently but firmly snatched my wrist and pulled me inside before closing and locking the door with a click. I couldn’t tell you who moved first, but I can tell you that as soon as our lips met, I felt… complete. Our lips moved together effortlessly, as if we’d kissed a million times before and the sparks that seemed to echo throughout my body at his touch made me moan. He lifted me up, my legs wrapping around his waist out of instinct and I felt myself shudder when his metal arm slipped under my top and caressed the warmth of my back. My own hands moved to his hair, grateful that he’d removed the hair tie as my fingers moved through the silky strands without interference. I both felt and heard him groan when I gently scratched my nails over his scalp.
 He gently lowered me onto the bed, his body resting perfectly against mine as his hands worked to remove my top, his lips following and kissing each inch of skin as it was revealed. He lingered on my soulmate mark for a moment longer, placing an especially tender kiss to the marked skin before removing my top completely.
 ‘You are so beautiful, and all mine.’ He growled and my thighs clenched around his waist in response.
 He smirked in satisfaction at my reaction but I paid it no mind as I reached forward and practically clawed at his Henley, desperate for the feel of his skin against mine. Once all of our clothes were removed and we were moving together, I knew right then and there that I had been wrong about me not deserving a soulmate. Bucky showed me how ignorant I was without having to use words. It was in how he touched me; gentle and deliberate. It was in how he looked at me as if I were the most important person in the world to him. It was in the way our bodies, our souls recognised each other and eradicated any feeling that wasn’t contentedness. I had been wrong about not deserving a soulmate, another half, a best friend, because I knew despite the minimal time we’d spent together and the minimal knowledge we had of one another, I had all of that and more in Bucky.
 As our bodies reached a climax together in a myriad of fireworks, I couldn’t help but think; I’d never been happier to be wrong.
 //
 ‘Good morning, doll.’ Bucky’s husky voice bought me out of my slumber gently, but I couldn’t help but snuggle closer to him and his warmth, desperately trying to chase the sleep I’d been pulled out of.
 ‘Morning.’ I mumbled against his chest, relaxing even further into him as his meal fingers began drawing shapes into the bottom of my back.
 ‘We should get up soon.’ He said, kissing my hair.
 ‘Why?’ I wondered, moving so I was directly on top of him now, my hands curling around his shoulders and my head directly above his heart, ‘I’m perfectly content right here.’
 He chuckled and the sound was fond, ‘Me too, sugar, but if we don’t move soon people are gonna start wonderin’ where we are, and I personally wouldn’t like them to find out about us by walkin’ in and seeing us naked in bed together.’
 ‘I know I should care about that, but I’m simply too comfortable and warm right now to process the validity of your comment.’ I mumbled, nuzzling into his neck and sighing happily at his scent. He smelled like sugar and spice—it was addicting.
 He laughed again and I felt my lips curl up into a grin at the sound, unable to stop myself for placing a chaste kiss at the side of his neck, ‘I love that sound.’
 Bucky didn’t say anything but he kissed my hair and held me a little tighter, his hand moving up and down my spine, causing me to practically melt into him. I was just on the cusp of sleep again when he sat up with me wrapped around him and sat me on the edge of the bed. I grumbled and rolled myself up in the sheets as I tried to fight the cold that wrapped around me without him close.
 ‘Come on, sweet thing,’ He sat me up again and caressed the side of my face, smiling gently when my eyes met his. I puckered my lips for a kiss and he leaned forward and pecked my lips softly, pulling back when I tried to deepen it with a chuckle.
 ‘Easy, baby, if you start that we’ll be in this bedroom all day.’ He kissed my forehead and my lips again.
 ‘Okay.’ I gave in standing up and stretching, when I looked over to him I saw his blue eyes had darkened to molten, ‘you’ll have to hold that thought for later, honey. I’m gonna go shower and then get dressed.’ I kissed him goodbye and slipped his discarded Henley from the previous night on before darting to my room across the hall.
 It was strange; we were only twenty feet apart at the most, but my heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest, an invisible pull willing me back to him. This must have been what Dad was talking about. If this was how it felt, I had no idea how my Dad and Pop were able to stay apart for weeks at a time, because I was already yearning to go back to him.
 //
 After I’d showered and pulled on some sweatpants, Bucky’s shirt and a sweatshirt I ventured out of my room with my hair still wet. It wasn’t like me not to dry my hair immediately, but I favoured getting back to my soulmate over spending the time getting my hair dry. He wasn’t in his room anymore, so I headed to the common room and found him sitting in the loveseat, quietly chatting to Pop and Sam who were sat side by side on the sofa across from him. Pepper was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t surprising—she often rose late on the rare days she had off. Dad was making breakfast and kissed my forehead as I moved past him to grab my mug and pour myself a cup of coffee. I noticed that Thor and Bruce were sat at the dining table with Clint and Tasha across from them, both couples speaking quietly to their partners. Without giving it much thought I walked over to the loveseat and cuddled into Bucky’s side, his metallic arm lifting without prompt and allowing me to move as close as possible. His hand came to rest on my waist, his thumb rubbing circles into my hip and making me practically melt into a state of relaxation into his side.
 I lifted my mug to my lips and took a gulp before resting the cup against his thigh as I snugged into his chest, inhaling his scent. Bucky’s lips met my damp hair and I felt his chest rumble underneath my ear as he mumbled, ‘you smell good, Sugar.’
 ‘So do you.’ I sighed, my eyes falling closed.
 We’d been so lost in each other that we hadn’t noticed the room fall deadly quiet. The only sounds coming from Bucky and I, as well as the sizzling of the bacon on the frying pan. Tasha and Clint weren’t surprised, Thor and Bruce were a mixture of amused and astonished, but Tony, Steve and Sam were downright shocked. The latter was staring at the newly bonded couple with their jaws hanging open, and their eyes wider than they had ever been. Their surprise was understandable, of course, as before this moment the pair had never been seen speaking a word to each other, and now they moved, spoke, and looked at each other with the same intensity and adoration as each bonded couple on the team. It was a few more minutes of the team observing the couple snuggling together, looking more relaxed than anyone had ever seen them, before the shock seemed to subside and allow for a vocalised reaction.
 Tony cleared his throat and said, ‘um, honey?’
 ‘Yeah dad?’ I responded, too relaxed to open my eyes.
 ‘When did you plan on telling us that you and Bucky were soulmates?’ His voice was casual and that was purposeful; he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea if he allowed his shock to leak into his voice.
 ‘Now?’ I said sheepishly, peeking an eye open and burrowing further into Bucky in an attempt to hide when I saw everyone was staring, ‘we found out last night.’
 ‘We would have said something, but everything happened so fast from there.’ Bucky said, sounding sheepish himself, but his hold on me didn’t waver, if anything he held me a little tighter and I felt a small sigh of contentedness leave my mouth in response.
 ‘Well,’ Clint stood up, pulling out a piece of paper from his back pocket and unfolding it to it’s full A4 size, ‘Bruce and Thor had Christmas day.’
 A frown of confusion formed on my face as everyone groaned in disappointment.
 ‘You couldn���t have waited until new years eve?’ Sam complained, but it was all in good fun, ‘The pot was up to ten grand, Pep and I could have rolled around in that money.’
 ‘Well it looks like I and Bruce will have the honours.’ Thor announced proudly, kissing his mate chastely but passionately.
 ‘You were betting on us gettin’ together?’ Bucky clarified.
 ‘Yup.’ Clint nodded as he returned to the room, handing the demi god and scientist a black metallic box.
 ‘For how long?’ I asked, bewildered.
 ‘It was after about a week of Bucky being here, after Tasha noticed the looks you were both stealing at each other.’ Pop admitted.
 ‘You and dad were in on this?’
 ‘We were, Pumpkin.’ Pops said, looking slightly guilty.
 ‘You punk.’ Bucky shook his head in mock disapproval.
 ‘I know, we feel terrible about it.’ Dad said, standing behind his husband and placing a hand on his shoulder.
 I gave him a look and he admitted, ‘okay no we don’t, we just thought you two would be perfect together and we were routing for you to be happy!’
 Pops nodded in agreement, entwining his fingers with the billionaire’s.
 Bucky looked down at me, mirth shining in his eyes at the situation. I smothered a laugh behind my mug as I took a sip, giving my soulmate a slight nod as I told him he could decide what to do. He sent me a secret wink before fixing the team with his scariest Winter Soldier glare, and to my amusement everyone except for Tasha and Thor stiffened in concern for what was going to happen next. He had them squirming for a few more minutes before he let the laughter slip, I joined him in an instant, beyond amused at the annoyed and relieved expression on almost every face in the common room.
 ‘It’s fine.’ I shrugged once we recovered.
 Bucky took my empty mug from me without me having to ask and placed it onto the side table beside the love seat. My hand entwined with his once the task was complete and I blushed when he placed a kiss to the back of my hand, his eyes staring into mine with such intensity that I felt my heart skip a beat.
 ‘Well I was right.’ Pops said proudly, ‘they are perfect for each other.’
 ‘They sure are, Stevie.’ Dad agreed, placing a kiss to his husband’s cheek before returning to the kitchen to finish breakfast. Although, it was more of a brunch now, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was the content and happy expressions both his daughter and Bucky were wearing. He felt something settle inside him at the sight—it was about time they both got their happily ever after and Tony couldn’t be happier that they’d found it with each other.
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commentaryvorg · 3 years
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Digimon Data Squad Dub Comparison Episode 3 - The Return of Thomas!
This is a companion to my commentary on the original Japanese Digimon Savers! Reading my commentary on the original version of this episode (which you can find here) is recommended before reading this dub comparison.
Original name ~ Dubbed name
Masaru Daimon ~ Marcus Damon
Yoshino Fujieda ~ Yoshino “Yoshi” Fujieda
Tohma H. Norstein ~ Thomas H. Norstein
Sayuri Daimon ~ Sarah Damon
Chika Daimon ~ Kristy Damon
Captain Rentarou Satsuma ~ Commander Richard Sampson
PetitMeramon ~ DemiMeramon
[Since several characters share the same name between the original and the dub, quotes from the dub will always be in italics, while quotes from the original will not, in order to distinguish them.]
In the original, Masaru’s VA is always the one reading out the title card, but the dub mixes it up with different characters depending on the episode. This time, we get Miki and Megumi reading it, complete with fangirl squealing over Thomas. Uh, thanks, dub.
Sarah:  “I think Agumon has been a really good influence!”
Marcus & Agumon: “More, please!”
Sarah: “See, he even says ‘please’ now.”
Agumon giving Marcus a reason to wake up early on a non-school day, that makes sense, but Agumon giving him a reason to be more polite? I dunno.
As you can see, there is no dub equivalent of “Agu-chan”. This is understandable and not the dubbers’ fault since English lends itself a lot less to casual terms of endearment like that, but it is a shame.
Marcus: “You served him first?! What did you do, adopt him while I wasn’t looking?”
Marcus says this like it’s not exactly what she’s literally done, and also like it’s not what he’d want. Don’t you want Agumon to be your new little brother, Marcus?
Sarah: “Keep it up, tough guy, and I’ll give your portion to him, too.”
Her affectionate ribbing calling him “tough guy” is cute.
Sarah: “After all, Agumon is a growing boy.”
A neat little nod to the time Agumon said that about himself in episode 1 (even if it didn’t make sense for him to have known that human phrase, but).
Agumon:  “I won’t hand over the last of Sayuri’s fried eggs, not even to you!”
~~~~~
Agumon: “Boss, the only way to get this last fried egg is to take it out of my belly.”
Alas, since dub-Agumon is only referring to this particular last fried egg, we lose the future relevance the original line will have. The dub is not watching ahead to be able to pick up on these things.
Chika:  “What a child…”
~~~~~
Kristy: “What a doof.”
Similar snark – he definitely is a doof – but there’s something I like about Chika calling her older brother a “child” that isn’t quite there when all she’s calling him is a doof.
Most of Thomas’s shower scene is cut. I will grant the dub that one improvement it consistently makes is doing its best to remove all the unnecessary fanservice bits.
[as Agumon tumbles from the bike basket]
Kristy:  “…Doof Two.”
Agumon: [sighing] “I guess…”
What do you mean, Agumon admits and agrees that he is a doof (and implicitly agrees that his boss is one as well). Original-Agumon would not have nearly enough self-awareness to acknowledge that.
Marcus: “Why can’t you travel in the Digivice like all the other Digimon?”
Agumon: “Those other Digimon just show up when they’re called, but you’re lucky. You have me all the time, Boss!”
Unlike in the original, Marcus does actually bring up how Agumon ought to be in the Digivice. But Agumon doesn’t protest with “but I don’t like it in there”, despite him having made even more of a point of not liking cramped spaces in the previous dub episode than he did in the original. If the dub was going to have them discuss this onscreen, it would have been better to take the claustrophobia angle and show Marcus respecting Agumon’s wishes than to make it seem like Agumon’s just being contrary for the heck of it.
Marcus: “This one? No? Oh, just press everything!”
I enjoy the dub being even more obvious about how Marcus figures out which button on his earpiece is the right one to press.
Street punk #2: “Nothing’s going on at all…”
PetitMeramon: “Nothing at all!”
~~~~~
Street punk #2: “Nothing ever goes on around here any more…”
DemiMeramon:  “I agree!”
This is significantly different – here, the DemiMeramon isn’t just parroting the dude’s words, it’s definitely expressing its own opinion about things. The implication here is therefore that it starts setting things on fire because of its own boredom, and these dudes here who happen to also be bored have nothing to do with it. That is categorically not how this is supposed to work.
Masaru:  “Let’s fight!”
PetitMeramon: “Fight…”
~~~~~
Marcus: “There it is! Fightin’ time again!”
DemiMeramon:  “Oh yeah?!”
Again, it’s not parroting his words; it’s responding on its own terms like it’s lucid and thinking for itself. Not how this should work.
Masaru:  “You’re not solid enough, damn it! If I could just hit you once, I could get Agumon to evolve!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “It’s not solid enough to land a blow! But I’ve gotta punch it to start the DNA Charge! Otherwise, Agumon can’t Digivolve!”
The original version of this line sounds reasonably naturally like Masaru is just expressing his frustration at the PetitMeramon. But in the dub, it reads a lot more like awkwardly stilted exposition just to make sure the audience understands why this is a problem.
Marcus:  “Stop setting things on fire! I just got these shoes!”
This is one of those dub additions for comedy, but I’m not sure I like the resulting impression that Marcus is somebody who cares that much about what he wears, because Masaru definitely never seems to be that kind of person.
Agumon: “Now be a nice fireball and let us punch you!”
Pfft. This episode in a nutshell. More of that dub-Agumon trait of saying things that would be snarky if it didn’t sound like he obliviously means them completely seriously.
Gaomon:  “Yes, Master!”
~~~~~
Gaomon: “Sir, yes sir!”
“Yes, Master!” (spoken in English) is Gaomon’s catchphrase in the Japanese, and… I have no idea why the dub couldn’t just keep it exactly as-is. “Master” is a perfectly reasonable thing for him to call Tohma (especially since he’s a dog!), and it even comes already translated.
Instead, he calls Thomas “sir”, which on its own is… fine, I guess. But in particular, the “sir, yes sir!” catchphrase just makes dub-Gaomon come across as some kind of army grunt, rather than as the very good and loyal dog that he is.
Masaru:  “Damn it… That thing pissed me off…”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Urghh… I am exhausted. Whew!”
Masaru here is complaining that he didn’t win, but Marcus is basically just neutrally expressing being exhausted without any sense that he’s specifically frustrated at the DemiMeramon for getting away from him. Since the entire ensuing several scenes are supposed to be a lot about Masaru’s frustration that he’s not good enough, the dub is not starting this off on the right note.
Yoshino:  “Well, I didn’t think it would go easily for you from the start.”
~~~~~
Yoshi: “Don’t worry, Marcus, you didn’t let us down! No-one here at DATS actually thought you could do it anyway!”
Yikes, that’s some way more backhanded reassurance than she gave originally. And also, why does she even feels she needs to “reassure” him? Marcus was not expressing any sort of notion that he felt like he’d failed in the first place.
Agumon:  “Hi there, pal.”
[Gaomon ignores Agumon and walks past him]
Agumon: “Hmph! No birthday present for that guy!”
How does Agumon even know about birthdays, and birthday presents, and the concept of giving birthday presents to people you’re on friendly terms with? These are not things he should reasonably have learned about yet when he’s only been with humans for like a week.
Masaru:  “You bastard! You took away my prey!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Hey, you! When we talk, you listen!”
It makes perfectly reasonable Masaru-ish sense for him to be mad about Tohma winning what was supposed to be his fight. But Marcus? Isn’t even thinking about the fight, apparently, and is instead just being a jerk.
So far, all Thomas and Gaomon have ignored is Agumon’s greeting and a brief “who are you, blondie?” from Marcus (the “blondie” part is dub-only, unsurprisingly), which is a little rude but not really warranting this response already. Heck, “when we talk, you listen” implies Thomas has been ignoring something substantial that Marcus has been trying to say to him, rather than just a question and a greeting.
There’s a record scratch in the BGM as Thomas ignores Marcus’s attempt to challenge him to a fight and just walks past him. I liked the comedic record scratch they had in episode 1, but this one feels a little cheesy and unnecessary.
Megumi:  “His stern-looking profile is so wonderful!”
Miki:  “It really is!”
~~~~~
Megumi: “He’s so on top of things!”
Miki:  “He so is!”
I appreciate the dub changing the topic of Megumi and Miki’s fawning into admiring Thomas’s work ethic, rather than the original admiring of his appearance. (He is fourteen, you are adults, please stop.)
Tohma:  “…it seems rather peculiar that there are a large number of Digimon detected in this country lately.”
Satsuma:  “Is the frequency not as high in EU?”
Tohma:  “No. It must be because it has a larger area.”
~~~~~
Thomas:  “It seems there have been an unusually large number of Digimon appearances lately.”
Sampson: “Hmm. So do you think these numbers could eventually overwhelm the Data Squad?”
Thomas: “No. But of course, that all depends on having the right team in place.”
Seems the dub is ditching the fact that it’s specifically this country that’s been getting so many more Digimon appearances. Instead, Thomas just takes the opportunity to be a passive-aggressive jerk about Marcus sooner than in the original.
Satsuma:  “Oh, let me introduce you. This is…”
[Tohma barely even glances at Masaru; Masaru gets angry]
Masaru:  “Hey! I don’t care if you’re called Tohma or Tonma… but around here, I’m your senpai! I’ve only been here for three days, but make sure to call me ‘Daimon-san’ or ‘Daimon-senpai’!”
~~~~~
Sampson: “Oh. Go ahead and introduce yourself, Marcus.”
[Thomas barely even glances at Marcus. Marcus gets angry]
Marcus: “Say what?! Why doesn’t *he* introduce himself to *me*?! I’m the one with seniority, even if it’s only three days.”
This reads a lot less like Marcus getting angry has anything to do with the way Thomas just barely even looked at him, and more that he’s mad at Sampson for thinking he ought to introduce himself first. In that vein, it’s somewhat more reasonable for him to go ranting about seniority, I suppose. However, I liked the way that Masaru suddenly ranting about that with no real provocation was unreasonable and was very transparently him trying to assert some kind of superiority, not really about the appropriate-honorific-respect that he tried to insist was the point.
Marcus: “Who does he think he is, anyway? Look, kid! Agumon and I are the top fighters around here, and don’t you forget it!”
Meanwhile in the dub, the lines specifically asking for honorifics have no English equivalent, so we get this to fill the gap. I guess it has a reasonably similar effect and is a similarly uncalled-for assertion of superiority.
(I do like the “kid”, trying to make Thomas seem beneath him despite their equal age.)
Satsuma:  “Already blazing down the warpath, eh?”
~~~~~
Sampson: “You are completely out of line.”
Satsuma was being reasonably tolerant of Masaru’s argumentative nature, accepting that this is just how Masaru is and he’ll hopefully be able to rein it in if he just understands the situation better. But Sampson is simply having none of it.
Sampson: “Marcus, Thomas is *your* superior. Deal.”
I guess it’s a lip-flap issue, but Sampson just telling Marcus to “deal” sounds weirdly colloquial for him. Also, “superior” is not quite the same thing as having seniority in terms of just having more experience. This implies that Thomas is going to have the right to give Marcus orders and Marcus will be obligated to follow them, which is not quite it.
Marcus: “You mean I have to take orders from him?”
…Okay, apparently that literally is what the dub wants us to think, even though this is not how things are actually going to work here.
(This is in place of the line establishing that Masaru and Tohma are the same age, but that will be a fact that gets mentioned in a later dub episode.)
Satsuma:  “Be sure to get along with each other, as you are colleagues.”
~~~~~
Sampson: “Unlike some teams, *they* have got discipline.”
Satsuma was trying to mediate between the two, but instead Sampson is very clearly taking Thomas’s side, which he really ought to know is only going to rile Marcus up more.
(If Marcus and Agumon’s lack of discipline is really such a big dealbreaker for you, Sampson, why did you even want to recruit him in the first place?)
Tohma:  “I think it will be futile to do so, Captain Satsuma. There is not a chance that this person could benefit DATS.”
~~~~~
Thomas: “Commander, please allow me to say a few words about the new recruit. Based on my first impression, I feel he could never benefit DATS in any way.”
Thomas is being a lot less out of line here, asking politely to speak his opinion and qualifying it as being only based on a first impression. This is also not him pointedly refusing to even try and get along like Tohma was, since Sampson didn’t ask him to. The blame in the dub version of this argument is a lot more heaped onto Marcus’s side rather than equally with both of them, and Sampson obviously siding with Thomas doesn’t help matters.
Masaru:  “Say that to my face! Look into a person’s eyes when they’re talking!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Say that to my face! Look me in the eye! If you have the guts!”
There’s slightly less emphasis on Marcus caring about people looking him in the eye when they’re talking to him, since he turns it into a general jab about Thomas not having any guts, but I do appreciate that it’s pretty much still here and unchanged.
Marcus: “What fighting skills does Your Highness possess, you royal jerk?!”
Ehh, I don’t really like Marcus bringing in jabs about the nobility thing at this point. Thomas has just insulted his fighting strength, and in that particular fighting context, Masaru would not care about anything except his opponent’s strength and would not make uncalled-for jabs at something unrelated.
Yoshino:  “This is the worst… Go ahead, do whatever you want.”
~~~~~
Yoshi:  “Oh well… Good luck. Protect yourself.”
This is after Marcus refuses to put on his headgear in the boxing ring. Yoshino sounds like she’s just exasperatedly washing her hands of his self-destructive recklessness, because hey, at least she tried. But Yoshi still seems to be genuinely trying to help him, even as the “protect yourself” falls kinda flat because he literally just refused to do so. (It doesn’t sound especially sarcastic – the “good luck” at least sounds very genuine.)
Tohma:  “Why did you join DATS?”
Masaru:  “Huh?! It was so I could win, obviously!”
Tohma:  “Against who?”
Masaru:  “Against strong guys!”
~~~~~
Thomas: “What made you join DATS in the first place?”
Marcus: “Huh? It was so I could meet guys like *you*!”
Thomas: “Seriously?”
Yoshi:  “He means, he wanted to fight. Strong guys, like you.”
Marcus: “Not him…”
I think what the dub is trying to get at with “guys like you” is similar to a change they made last episode, in which Marcus apparently specifically wants to beat up bad guys, and Thomas is totally one of those, right. I guess props to the dub for at least trying to keep that vaguely consistent? Even though it’s a change that I very much do not like.
I presume the “not him” after Yoshi just said “strong guys like [Thomas]” is Marcus wanting to insist that Thomas isn’t strong, because it otherwise wouldn’t make any sense for him to deny the thing that he literally just said himself.
But, hey, notice something else here? Yoshino doesn’t have a line here in the original. They edited the footage to take away Marcus explaining his own goals and put those words into Yoshi’s mouth instead. Why? Why would you do that. I’d say that maybe they only did so to remove some of the punching from the fight because oh no violence (there will be some Issues the dub has with removing punching from this anime which is very heavily about punching), except they still keep the bit where Thomas punches Marcus in the stomach, so that can’t be it. They actually keep all the punches in this fight uncut, which is Rare for the dub.
Tohma:  (He’s beyond help.)
~~~~~
Thomas: (I’m getting tired of this.)
Thomas’s thought is a lot less unreasonable than Tohma’s. Thomas is still coming across as significantly more in the right than Marcus in the dub, rather than them being equally as bad as each other.
Masaru:  “A fight doesn’t end until one side admits defeat!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Sorry ‘bout that. Why don’t you run along and catch up with Sampson. Maybe you can read a report together.”
Ughhh, I really, really don’t like this. The dub has apparently decided that, since Marcus is A Jock™, he must be disdainful of Nerds™ like Thomas and make jabs about that. Masaru doesn’t frigging care! He does not give a damn in the slightest how book-smart and workaholic Tohma is; the only thing that would ever matter to Masaru is how he fares in a fight.
And we get this instead of that fun line showing Masaru’s philosophy about street fights, giving more insight into why he insisted on getting up and continuing the fight even after the “match” had ended.
I also don’t like Marcus’s “apology”. He is very obviously not sorry for deliberately punching Thomas, and trying to act like he is when he obviously isn’t is such an insincere dick thing to do that would never even cross Masaru’s mind.
Yoshino:  “Tohma’s beaten Olympic champions in the past.”
~~~~~
Yoshi: “I’ve seen Thomas routinely beat Olympic champions in that very ring!”
…What, in that ring in the gym that’s presumably at DATS? Even if this is the dub assuming it’s not at DATS and is just some gym somewhere nearby in town, you’d have thought that if Tohma had fought champions, he’d have gone to them to do so, rather than inviting them to him. To them, he’s just some random rich kid; why would they go that far out of their way for him?
The “routinely” also serves to make Thomas’s talent sound even more ridiculously over-the-top than it already was.
Yoshino:  “Really, the only things worthy of a gold medal around here are your pride and your competitive attitude.”
~~~~~
Yoshi: “Marcus, I’m not impressed by your bragging, and Thomas isn’t even in the room!”
I miss the snark. A lot of characters the dub makes snarkier, but Yoshi kinda becomes a bit less so, it seems.
Kudamon:  “If even a small flame from PetitMeramon’s body remains, it has the ability to develop and multiply in a short time. It should have been prevented from doing so earlier.”
~~~~~
Kudamon:  “A DemiMeramon can regenerate itself over and over again, multiplying a hundred times in as little as half an hour. Apparently, the area wasn’t sealed off earlier.”
The dub manages to completely leave out the part where this is Masaru’s fault because embers from the PetitMeramon were scattered everywhere from his failed attempts to punch it and then he ran off and left things on fire for new PetitMeramon to regenerate themselves from.
Instead, apparently DemiMeramon can just multiply… whenever? It doesn’t do so from the flames it leaves behind, it just copies itself? Except, if Thomas secured the single DemiMeramon that there was to begin with, it literally should not have been able to do so. Sealing off the area would have been irrelevant once it had been safely turned into an egg. The only way it could have multiplied itself like this is if it did so before Thomas neutralised it – but it clearly didn’t do that in front of Marcus, so this is hardly his fault.
Marcus has the same flashback to punching the DemiMeramon and the same thought that this is his fault, but this makes absolutely no sense with the information the dub has given us. Great job there, dubbers.
Sampson: “And now, the DemiMeramon has been left on its own to multiply at will!”
Um, dub? Do you not remember the part where Thomas brought in the DemiMeramon’s egg? It was not left anywhere. That is not how this happened and not why this is (supposed to be) Marcus’s fault.
Masaru:  “Wait! Those fireballs are ours to beat!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “Hey! Hold on a second, that’s our case!”
They really are watering down any sense that Marcus sees this as being about finishing his fight. Instead he’s apparently invested because this is a case, like he ever really cared about the official DATS investigation side of things.
Masaru:  “Damn right! We’ll pull it off somehow using our spirits!”
~~~~~
Marcus: “You bet! And we’ll do it with style, too!”
I miss the “somehow”, making it clear that Masaru has absolutely no idea how he’s going to do this and is willing to basically admit that, yet still wants to throw himself into it anyway.
Marcus: “You two can’t handle that many alone! We’ll help!”
The “we’ll help” is a dub addition, but I am surprised by the notion that Marcus sounds willing to just help Thomas, essentially working together with him. That definitely shouldn’t be something he’d want to do right now. (Suddenly the dub is making Marcus come across as more reasonable and less of a jerk than it’s been doing the entire time, because what is consistency.)
Megumi:  “His lightning-fast techniques look great!”
~~~~~
Megumi: “His reflexes are lightning fast! And he’s cute!”
Okay, never mind what I said earlier, I guess the dub is still keeping the idea that the computer ladies think Thomas is cute, adding in a reference to that where there wasn’t even one originally.
Agumon:  “Wow…”
~~~~~
Agumon: “Cute?”
And because of that, we also lose Agumon being in awe of Tohma and Gaomon’s performance and accidentally making Masaru feel worse, in place of him simply irrelevantly questioning Megumi’s comment.
Kudamon:  “Aren’t you going to stop him?”
Satsuma:  “Leave him alone.”
~~~~~
Kudamon: “You’re not going to say anything?”
Sampson: “Not yet.”
So apparently, Sampson is planning to give Marcus some kind of talking-to about this at some point probably fairly soon. We’re really losing that sense from Satsuma that he understands that Masaru will be Masaru and is being patient and giving him space to sort his issues with Tohma out on his own, which I enjoyed and am sad to lose.
Agumon:  “Aniki… Why are you angry?”
~~~~~
Agumon: “Don’t be upset, Boss! Just because Thomas is better than you!”
Originally Agumon didn’t really understand what was going on in Masaru’s head. Meanwhile, dub-Agumon seems to have Marcus figured out perfectly – and yet is also tactless enough to outright say the thing he’s already realised is upsetting him.
Agumon:  “Well, I think Tohma and Gaomon are nasty guys too, but…”
~~~~~
Agumon: “Boss, I’m sorry I said that about Thomas. You’re better than him.”
At least dub-Agumon realises this and apologises after Marcus is clearly not thrilled by it, but his “you’re better than him” reads as pretty empty reassurance when he just said the exact opposite.
(Meanwhile, original-Agumon still didn’t realise this had anything to do with who’s better than who and just thought it had to be about Tohma being kind of a dick, while still being confused at how that would make Aniki this upset…?)
Masaru:  “No… It’s myself that I’m mad at, not them.”
~~~~~
Marcus: “No, I’m not. I’m just pig-headed and I let my pride get in my way.”
Marcus, like Masaru, is capable of realising that the problem is himself here… but he goes way further than Masaru does as to why that supposedly is.
And the thing is, this isn’t actually supposed to be the problem in the original! Originally, Masaru’s issue was that Tohma is “better” than him simply in the sense that he’s a stronger and more capable fighter, making Masaru face the fact that he might not be as strong a fighter as he thought he was. But here in the dub, apparently the problem is that Thomas is “better” than Marcus because of Marcus’s personality, because Thomas is supposedly just a better person than some pig-headed arrogant jerk like Marcus.
Which is not the point! Masaru can be reckless and prideful sometimes, but it’s never in a way that makes him a bad fighter or a bad person. He’s been a bit of argumentative jerk in this episode in particular with regards to Tohma, but Tohma himself has been equally bad in that regard in his own very different way. The original was great in having both Masaru and Tohma be equally the problem in this clash between them, in very parallel ways.
Yet apparently the dub wants us to think that, no, Thomas is a perfectly reasonable guy and the problem really is that Marcus is such an arrogant jerk compared to him. Which I guess is somewhat consistent with some of the small changes they’ve been making to the rest of the episode to make Marcus slightly more of a jerk and Thomas slightly less of one, and having Sampson clearly come down on Thomas’s side, to make it look like Marcus’s attitude alone is the problem.
But, urgh! I hate that the dub is doing this to Masaru’s character, presenting Marcus as more of a jerk and as if this is his biggest character flaw, when that has nothing to do with what’s going on with Masaru and just makes Marcus significantly less likeable! Why would you ever think this was a good thing to do with the story’s main protagonist, seriously.
Masaru:  “Damn it! What am I doing? Really… what the hell am I doing?”
~~~~~
Marcus: “It’s time I realised it. I still have a lot to learn. Face it. I’m not the ultimate fighter.”
And now, while originally Masaru was unable to properly articulate what it actually was that was frustrating him about himself, Marcus has just fully completed this 100% self-aware reflection. From this, what you’d assume it’d lead into would be, presumably, Marcus trying to be less “pig-headed and prideful” and more like Thomas, since apparently Thomas’s way of doing things obviously makes him better than Marcus as both a fighter and a person?
Yeah, raincheck on that supposed character development. I’m sure you can already tell that’s not what’s going to happen here, since it isn’t in the original, because it doesn’t freaking need to be.
Also, remember how I made a point of how the original changed Masaru’s “already the number one street fighter” into Marcus’s “trying to be the ultimate fighter” in episode 1? That’s becoming extremely relevant right here.
This whole episode is a bit of a wake-up call for Masaru in terms of realising for the first time that maybe he’s not actually the greatest fighter like he thought and there’s still more growing he can do. But Marcus? He’s supposed to have already known that. “Face it, I’m not the ultimate fighter”? You literally never said you were in the first place. You were supposed to already know you had a lot to learn, so why is it only just now “time I realised it”?
There wouldn’t necessarily be anything inherently wrong with the dubbers changing Marcus’s ultimate fighter thing into this if they’d made sure to follow through on it and also change every character moment he gets to be consistent with the new version. Buuut they’re not doing that. I don’t think they realised how meaningful of a change it even was to make in the first place.
Old man:  “It’s hard lighting up a fire… The sparks go out easily whenever the wind gets a little too strong.”
Masaru:  “Well, obviously!”
~~~~~
Old man: “I’m having trouble starting a fire, though. Y’see, the flames keep dying out on me because the wind’s too strong and it keeps blowing it out.”
Marcus: “Yeah, that’s happened to me, too.”
Unlike Masaru, who was just expressing exasperation at this old guy telling him something obvious like he didn’t already know that the wind blows out flames, Marcus appears to be… getting the metaphor? His own experience that he’s referring to could just be his literal problem of not being able to punch fire, but based on what he’s just been reflecting on a moment ago and also judging from his tone of voice, that doesn’t seem to be it.
Which makes me sad! Masaru is a ridiculously straightforward doofus who wouldn’t know a metaphor if it punched him in the face, and I am disappointed to see the dub water down that delightful part of his character and make Marcus into some kind of regular person who can actually recognise that kind of thing.
Old man:  “But… once I get a larger flame going, it burns strongly no matter how much the wind blows. Fire is an interesting thing, isn’t it?”
Masaru:  “…This is…”
~~~~~
Old man: “Well… If you learn to use the wind instead of fighting it, you can make the fire burn brighter than ever before. Harness power, don’t extinguish it.”
Marcus: “…He’s right!”
But then, the dub’s version of the metaphor becomes something quite different. Instead of saying that Masaru’s “flame” will soon get so strong that no wind can blow it out, he’s saying that Marcus should harness the “wind” to make his “flame” stronger.
Originally, the metaphor was basically meant to be a reassurance to Masaru that he’s already doing fine – that he just needs to keep going as he has been and continue to grow and soon enough nothing will be able to stop him. But here in the dub, the metaphor appears to be prompting him to take new action of some sort, warning him that his flame will keep getting blown out if he doesn’t do whatever “harnessing the wind” is supposed to mean.
It’s ambiguous exactly what the “wind” could represent here. If it’s something that was getting in Marcus’s way until now, is it meant to be his “pig-headed pride” that he was just thinking was his big problem? Is the point of this supposed to be the old man telling Marcus through metaphor that actually he should keep being exactly the way he is and should just do that harder?
On the one hand I’d be okay with that because hey, guess what, newsflash, there is actually nothing wrong with Masaru being the way he is, and the dub is wrong to try and act like his personality is the issue and to distort his personality into being more of a jerk to make it an issue. But then that just serves to completely undermine the supposed realisation that Marcus had back in the tunnel and set him back on the track of not trying to change at all. (Which, yeah, again, spoilers, he’s not going to; of course he’s not going to be actively trying to make himself more like Thomas, because that’s not something that Masaru would ever do. Masaru has very strong convictions in who he is and wouldn’t change that for anyone.)
And somehow, despite this metaphor being a lot more metaphorical and ambiguous than it was in the original, and despite this being Marcus, he appears to completely understand what the old man is trying to say to him and take those words to heart. Whatever those words actually are. Somehow.
…I suppose it’s possible that actually the “wind” in the metaphor is supposed to represent Thomas, and that this metaphor is trying to encourage Marcus and Thomas to work together to make each other stronger. This would sort of make sense, since GeoGreymon uses fire-based attacks while Gaogamon uses wind-based attacks, and we’ll actually be seeing some metaphorical stuff being done with those attacks of theirs in the next couple of episodes. Still, if that’s the case, it’s nonetheless definitely not what Marcus gets from this metaphor right here.
But you know what else this dub version of the metaphor very much isn’t? It is not remotely useful literal advice about how to punch fire. At no point does it explain the part where a stronger flame won’t be blown out by anything (and will therefore be punchable). So whatever Marcus is getting from the old man’s words here, it isn’t that. This is kind of important for what’s about to happen next.
As Marcus hears about the trouble at the gas tanks and rushes off, the old man has an added line that’s just silence in the original:
Old man: “See what good fire does?”
…which makes even more of a point that this is definitely only meant to be some kind of metaphor. Though, wasn’t he trying to say that the wind would do Marcus good? Marcus already is the fire in this metaphor, so stressing that fire is good seems besides the point. I’m getting increasingly convinced that the dubbers just didn’t have an actual meaning in mind for their version of the metaphor at all and were half-assing this entire conversation. (Yet they somehow still felt they knew better than the original writers enough to change it at all.)
Thomas: “There’s no chance he can secure the DemiMeramon. There’s too many!”
[cut to precisely *three* DemiMeramon flying around]
Yep, sure, three of them is totally too many. Originally the “too many” comment wasn’t there, and Tohma thought Masaru couldn’t do this simply because he hadn’t shown he could handle any PetitMeramon at all. Numbers are not supposed to be the issue here, or at least not the primary one like Thomas is making it sound like it is.
Masaru:  “Fire sparks easily go out whenever the wind blows on them. But… Once they burst into flame…!”
[Masaru leaps to punch the Meramon quite solidly in the face and lands with his Digisoul flaring]
Masaru:  “They won’t be extinguished so easily!”
~~~~~
Marcus:  “Just like the old man said, a fire can be blown out by the wind. Then again… you know what I always say…!”
[Marcus leaps to punch the Meramon quite solidly in the face and lands with his DNA flaring]
Marcus:  “You gotta fight fire with fire!”
So… yeah. In the dub, the old man’s words were not actually advice on how to solve this problem, and Marcus’s decision to deliberately make the DemiMeramon stronger had nothing to do with what the old man told him. He had no reason to believe this would work. He really was just being dangerously rash and hot-headed with no sense of actual plan or strategy, and it really did only work out of sheer luck.
(I mean, okay, maybe he could have just figured on his own that making the fire stronger would make it punchable. But Masaru is definitely not supposed to be the kind of person who could figure that out without being nudged in the right direction by someone else. And if Marcus really is perfectly capable of figuring that out on his own, why did he not do so the first time?)
Thomas: “Marcus made Meramon Digivolve on purpose so he could activate his DNA…”
It is very debatable that this was on purpose here, Thomas.
Megumi:  “Not bad!”
~~~~~
Megumi: “Marcus proved he could do it!”
Thanks, dub, we needed it made obvious that this fight was about Marcus proving himself, because we couldn’t figure that out on our own.
Thomas: “Don’t get cocky. You just got lucky this time, that’s all.”
This line is basically unchanged, but guess what? Thomas is right to say this, where Tohma wasn’t.
Tohma:  “Don’t be absurd. You don’t come up with any strategy or tactics. Do you think using force all the time will let you win at everything?”
Masaru:  “Hah, sounds like a sore loser to me.”
~~~~~
Thomas: “Just as I thought, you had no plan and no tactics, just raw power.”
Marcus: “Hah. For a genius, you’re a real sore loser.”
Still basically the same, but again, Thomas is right this time, not being a sore loser. In fact, the added “just as I thought” (and this line comes after the cut back to HQ, so there was conversation prior to it that we didn’t hear) suggests that Thomas has just heard from Marcus himself that, yes, he really did just recklessly charge in with no plan.
I mean, sure, in a sense Thomas is still being a sore loser because Marcus’s raw power still worked. But the point of the sore loser line in the original was that Tohma insisting that Masaru used no tactics in and of itself was him sorely refusing to admit that maybe Masaru actually did have some idea what he was doing after all.
Tohma:  “What did you say?”
Masaru:  “Wanna make somethin’ of it? I’ll knock you out with one hit to the face this time!”
~~~~~
Thomas: “What did you say?”
Marcus: “Oh, just this: I’ll take my raw power over your tactics any day!”
Granted, outright saying he’d prefer raw power over tactics is definitely something Masaru might also say (of course he would; look at how he never tried to point out that he actually did have a strategy because he doesn’t care about that). But this is a bit of a different way for the dub to show Marcus having his confidence back, since his “conflict” this episode was apparently about “oh no what if raw power is bad and I should be more like Thomas”.
(…Did the dub actually deliberately remove the part where the metaphor was literal advice about punching fire so that Marcus could win through nothing but raw power in order to facilitate this complete backpedal in what briefly appeared to be some ill-advised character development? Ugh, but even if that was on purpose, it’s so much more interesting to show that Masaru actually can do strategy sometimes, and it’s just that his strategies are a lot more risky and head-on than Tohma’s!)
Tohma:  “You want me… to act alongside him?”
Masaru:  “You’re joking! I’ll never accept him as my partner!”
~~~~~
Thomas: “But sir, he’s completely undisciplined!”
Marcus: “This clown?! I’ll never be his partner – he’s way too annoying!”
Thomas and Marcus get given specific reasons to object to working together in the dub – and while Thomas’s complaint of “undisciplined” is perfectly reasonable, Marcus’s complaint of “annoying” seems rather beside the point. Too pompous, too uptight, (too makes-him-feel-like-maybe-strategy-and-not-just-raw-power-might-be-useful); something like that would be more relevant to Marcus. Is this supposed to be another Marcus Just Hates Nerds™ thing? Because ugh.
Overall differences
Oh boy. There’s a lot going on in terms of changes in this episode, and basically all of it is bad.
Rather than Masaru and Tohma both being presented as equally out-of-line for their own reasons in their initial arguments, the narrative firmly comes down on Thomas’s side by making Thomas less unreasonably harsh in his comments and by having Sampson clearly taking Thomas’s side.
The bit where they explain how DemiMeramon multiplied makes no sense and certainly doesn’t logically leave it as being Marcus’s fault at all, yet he still claims it is for no reason and we’re just expected to believe that.
Then there’s Marcus’s whole, ahem, “character arc” for the episode, if it can even be called that. Rather than some delightful subtle exploration of how Masaru deals with the realisation that he’s not necessarily the strongest fighter out there like he professes to be, it becomes this heavy-handed thing about how Marcus’s whole problem is that he’s Such A Big Arrogant Jerk. Marcus is way more self-aware about his supposed exact problem than someone like him really ought to be (including admitting he’s not the ultimate fighter when he never said he was), and for a moment it seems like his character development is going to be about him learning to be less of a jerk and more like Thomas. Except it won’t, because this won’t happen in the original, because this is not remotely Masaru’s problem in the original.
Then there’s the old man’s metaphor. Originally he was effectively saying that Masaru is doing fine the way he is and just needs to keep growing and getting stronger like this. Here, the metaphor is changed to imply that Marcus needs to take some kind of new action, except what new action is extremely unclear and is not actually going to happen, because, again, not how it went originally. Marcus apparently somehow gets this metaphor, which is ridiculous because I’m not even sure what it was on about, never mind that Marcus should be the last person who’s any good with metaphors, just like Masaru is.
And then there’s the part where the old man’s changed metaphor had nothing to do with teaching Marcus how he could literally punch fire and defeat the DemiMeramon. So his victory in the climactic fight really was complete boneheaded reckless luck without a semblance of strategy, and Thomas was right to call it that.
This entire dub version of the episode firmly wants you to come down on Thomas’s side and agree that Marcus is a huge dumb arrogant jerk whose personality is the entire problem here, and, urgh. I hate it. I hate it so much. I hate that the dub writers consciously chose to do this to Masaru’s character. Masaru does not deserve this.
(You’re probably starting to see why I’m actually quite glad that Masaru has a different name in the dub. Marcus may be a somewhat different character that the dub is insistently making worse, but at least Masaru will always be untainted and separate from the dub’s nonsense.)
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mi6-cafe · 4 years
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Fuck Yeah Friday: Dr. Madeleine Swann
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The one Craig-era character the fandom loves to hate.
Probably not what you might have expected to come of this new segment we’re trying out, Fuck Yeah Friday, right? After all, who wants to celebrate Madeleine Swann?
Well, I (Christine) kind of do. I want to celebrate what little bits of her I enjoyed and mourn the lost potential. (THERE WAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!!!)
Because let me tell you, guys: Dr. Madeleine Swann could have been great.
She is smart.
- Would have to be, right? You don’t get credentials like hers without brains and determination. (Sorbonne, Oxford, Medecins sans frontiers , the exclusive Hoffler Klinik wouldn’t take but the very best)
But do we see her use her brain in the movie? Beyond the initial interview with Bond? No, we don’t. Poor Madeleine gets to accompany James Bond to a hotel room in Morocco, show off her gun handling, fight off a goon on a train and then stand and look increasingly lost and desperate in Blofeld’s lair and all the way to London to Blofeld’s trap. Grrrr.
She is brave and self-confident.
- We actually do get to see glimpses of it in the movie. (Miracle of miracles!) She doesn’t take any of Bond’s shit, even when she doesn’t know for a large part of the movie that he won’t just turn around and murder her. She’s ready to disappear and start a new life, when she leaves the MI6 squad in London.
She is really interesting.
- Come on, guys! I want to know more! Don’t you want to know more? This is a woman who grew up with an assassin for a father. I want to know about her childhood. She seems well-adjusted, right? (at the start at least)  What was her mother like? (Did her mother know about all the assassinating dear hubby did?) Could her mother still be alive? If she’s not, did Madeleine cut off contact with her father and got where she is all on her own without any contacts or help? Did she enjoy her work at the Klinik or was Bond right in assuming she was just hiding there? What exactly was her plan after she left Bond and the squad in London before Blofeld kidnapped her?
 Now let me share my favourite scene with Madeleine.
The first one. I went and rewatched the Madeleine SPECTRE scenes to prepare for writing this thing and it was then, that I smelled the potential, when I made myself forget just how altogether useless and bland Madeleine came out of the movie.
Just look: (this video also contains the scene with Q in the bar, if you stick it out past the halfway point, hint hint)
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She is completely in control of the situation and herself. Very professional, even when Bond goes: “Drool-drool. I didn’t notice the view, I was looking at your titties,” and then once he starts his “I read your CV and I don’t approve of your choices, tut, tut” bit. In fact, you can see she senses something is wrong and catches on to why Bond is there pretty fast. You have to wonder at her absolute confidence that she won’t get murdered by Bond as she throws him out of his office. I mean, I didn’t notice any weapons? Did you? And that quiet moment of vulnerability by the door? Lovely.
 Now if only she had, at that moment, taken out a pen and paper, written out an address for the hotel and ran for the hills. (I want to see a version of Spectre where Madeleine does this and is then chased by Bond and Spectre henchmen, who each have problems with a) catching up with her b) explaining why exactly they need her for their plans. )
Alas, poor Madeleine.
 Still, her choices up until after the train can make sense if you look at them from her perspective.
She stays with Bond and leads him to L’Americaine. Could she have just told him where to find it? Yup. But maybe she’s choosing the lesser evil; Blofeld might send more men after her. (Though, why, exactly, do they need her?) And maybe she doesn’t think Bond would let her leave.
To be honest, why she keeps on travelling with Bond after that is still a mystery. But ok, she does. (It would make sense if she was a villain. So much more of Spectre would make sense if she was a villain.) She helps him in the train, why wouldn’t she? (Would have been cool, if she hadn’t and had turned out to be a villain.) She doesn’t want to die. And then she sleeps with him. Which... 🤷‍♀️ adrenaline? working off energy? Bond isn’t exactly hideous? (Bee tee dubs, this wouldn’t have happened if she was a villain, because Bond would have been carried off to Blofeld without there being any need to have them stand and wait for a car to show up and then have 007 voluntarily give up his gun and let himself be led into super-villainous super-lair and-)
But then we come to her hugging Bond’s head (after the famous drilling) going: “I LOOOOOVE YOU.” where we have to pause and say: “You do? Since when?”
And the rest, is history.
Now, I have no idea what exactly the writers will try to do with Madeleine in NTTD. Let’s hope they give us and her something more to do than just having her be dragged from place to place, before she gets to sit on a chair and watch a relative stranger get his head drilled, or sit on a chair and wait until she blows up.
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casual-eumetazoa · 4 years
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thanks for the prompt @confused-android​ ! oof, took me longer to write this than i thought (or actually it took me like an hour but i postponed it till my exams were almost over). first - the word “enthralled”? i vibe with it. second - this kinda turned into a vaguely brotzly piece with some autism acceptance on the side, hope that’s okay. third… hope you like this! so here goes
———————
The Case of the Stolen Flower Basket (as dubbed, unofficially, by Dirk) started out on a more relaxed note than most of their cases: in a flowershop, with a stolen basket. A basket, mind you, that was stolen in broad daylight from a closed room, under mysterious circumstances.
It also started with Dirk ending up in a flowershop, accidentally, while he was trying to find an ice-cream place. And it wasn’t even a case then, as much as Dirk’s brief but intense obsession with closed room mysteries, but I digress.
Point is, a basket was missing, a basket thief was at large, and the holistic crew of the holistic detective agency found themselves in a huge abandoned storing space, following up on a “lead”. Todd, Dirk and Farah walked the damp bleak corridors, opening any block that seemed suspicious. Most of them did, and most contained a truly bizarre collection of items.
One was filled up entirely with broken IKEA furniture. One was stuffed to the brim with an assortment of left shoes. And, perhaps most unsettling, one consisted of nothing but headless dolls of various shapes and sizes, along with some disfigured plush animals.
-What the hell was this place? – Todd wondered, prying open yet another door.
Behind it was an empty space, containing exactly one chair with exactly one empty jar perched on the edge of its seat.
-The warehouse of a profoundly odd collector. – Dirk proclaimed. – He… had an excess of money, and wanted to collect things, but the normal things people collect like stamps or candy wrappers were too boring for him, so he did this instead.
-Found anything important? – Farah’s voice echoed against the crumbling walls.
-Yes! – Dirk yelled back.
-No. – Todd corrected, then turned back to Dirk. – An eccentric collector then huh? – Evidently, he had decided to entertain Dirk’s guess. – What about this one then?
He pointed at the nearest door and immediately proceeded to kick it down. It was meant to be a slight push, but instead the door caved in completely, slipping off its hinges and crashing against the floor with a deafening metal rumble.
-Sorry! – Todd bit his lip.
He saw Dirk wince and then almost shrivel up at the sound, arms pulled suddenly towards his chest, as if trying to protect himself from the noise.
Noises. Dirk did not do well with them. And Todd knew that all too well.
-Sorry. – He repeated. – I didn’t mean to do… that.
-It’s fine. – Dirk mumbled, trying his best to shake off the feeling and get back into investigative mood. – What’s in it then?
They stepped over the dilapidated door and into the tight storage space. Inside it were a few pieces of old furniture, half a dozen sealed boxes, at least a whole heap of sawdust, and…
-Todd! – Dirk really did try to tone down the enthusiasm, but alas. – Look!
First, Todd noticed Dirk’s flapping arms, and the smile on his face, and felt his own lips stretch into a grin. Only then he turned to check what was in there, and realized that the wall of the storage space was lined up with various musical instruments. Guitars, mostly; electric, acoustic, even toy ones…
-It’s your thing! – Dirk beamed.
-Yeah. – Todd agreed. – It’s my thing.
He approached the wall and picked up one of the guitars.
-It’s expensive. – He declared, and checked the instrument for any signs of wear and tear. – And new. Damn. – He went slowly through the collection. – Well, these aren’t the very top of the chain, but they’re fancier than I used to have.
He took one of the electric guitars – a slick, bright red beauty – and held it gently in his hands. He hadn’t played guitar since he bashed his last one against the wall of the Ridgley building… that happened less than a year prior, and yet it seemed a lifetime away.
-Can we take some? – Dirk asked, then, not waiting for a reply, picked out one of the guitars at random. – They’re no-ones so it doesn’t count as stealing.
-I guess I could take one or two. – Todd agreed. – They’re as good as thrown out at this point. No use for them collecting dust in here.
-Where the hell are you two? – Farah’s voice chimed through the corridor.
-Over here! – Dirk shouted back.
-Ugh. – Todd muttered. – I have to pick now. Wait. Actually… - He looked at the guitar he had in his hands, then the one Dirk was still holding, and smiled with the corner of his mouth. – Those two are good. Let’s go.
-Guys. – Farah nearly avoided a collision with the broken door as she entered the storage space. – You should see this. Now. – She paused. – I think I found a skeleton.
The guitars were then stashed in the corner, and waited patiently for their new owner to crawl on all fours into a basement, poke some human bones with a stick, and emerge – dusty, exhausted, and deeply confused.
*
The evening was slow and peaceful. While Farah was busy making phone calls and trying to arrange for someone to examine, discretely and unofficially, a mysterious unidentified skeleton, Todd and Dirk stayed in Todd’s apartment. Or, rather, at the apartment that used to be Todd’s. He didn’t remember the last time he had a dinner there, and besides, Dirk spent more nights than not in the guest bedroom, so it was really their apartment.
-Do you have any ideas about how the basket connects to the skeleton yet? – Todd asked, placing two cups of tea on the table.
He didn’t have to ask Dirk what he wanted; he knew his (rather narrow) range of food and drink preferences by heart.
-Not a clue. – Dirk admitted, and raised his gaze to the ceiling, staring attentively at some smudge. – I think we should go to Claire’s house.
-Why the owner’s house? – Todd asked.
-Feels relevant. – Dirk shrugged, eyes still focused on the smudge. – Oh. – He turned in his seat suddenly. – The guitars! Can you play for me?
Todd sighed. He anticipated this happening.
-Well, - he said, - I can’t play the electric one cause you need equipment for it and we didn’t steal any, and I haven’t played an acoustic guitar in like two years, but…
-I don’t care if it’s not your best or some equally stupid excuse. – Dirk interrupted him. – You know I’ll be impressed no matter what.
Todd laughed shortly, and nodded. It was true – Dirk was impressed and excited by seemingly everything, from the fluffy blanket assortment at Walmart (he had to touch every. single. one.) to the Sacred Wisdom shared with him by Todd that the number on the package of pasta tells you how long it will take to cook it. Dirk was also somehow oblivious to his own talents, insisting that connecting eleven entirely unrelated pieces of information into a complete narrative was “simple” and “obvious”.
-Fine. – Todd caved in, and got up to fetch the acoustic guitar. – But I probably won’t know the cords of the songs you like.
Considering that Dirk mostly listened to obscure European rock music, 80s pop, and Disney soundtracks, it was hardly surprising.
-Not tuned at all, probably. – Todd, the guitar now in hands, returned to his seat and gave the strings a test stroke. – Yep. – He nodded. – Gimme a few minutes.
He tuned the guitar as best as he could, and tapped his fingers on the table, trying to decide what to play. Dirk had watched him with curiosity and was now sipping his tea, waiting for the music to start. Todd paused, took a deep breath in, and began to play the first song that he was sure he remembered – “Behind Blue Eyes”.
The music flowed; Todd focused on the movement of his fingers, on the vibration of the string, and the metal at his fingertips. He sang the words softly, almost as an afterthought. He had forgotten how good it felt to make music happen. The song was in the air, brought to life by the motion of his hands, and the night was young, and he was lost in the moment. He skipped the electric guitar solo and went straight to the final reprise of the chorus.
Then the music stopped, and silence fell on his shoulders. He kept quiet, not saying anything, waiting for Dirk to react. That is when Todd realized that Dirk wasn’t talking – and Dirk was always talking. He talked over movies, and news on the TV, and shop assistants and, on one memorable occasion, over a talking parrot. It’s not that he was rude - it’s just that his head was so full of words, constantly, that they had to be let out.
But Dirk wasn’t talking now. Now he simply sat in his place, eyes transfixed on Todd’s hands, blinking.
-Are you okay? – Todd asked.
There was a pause.
-Mmm? – Dirk blinked faster and looked up, meeting Todd’s gaze, startled slightly, as if waking up from a pleasant dream. – Yes. Yes of course I’m okay.
-You kinda zoned out a little bit.
-I did?
-Yeah.
-You play really good music. – Dirk smiled softly.
-Thanks. – Todd smiled back.
-It’s nice to not be… attacked by sound for a change. – Dirk added.  – Can you… keep, playing, please?
-Sure. – Todd replied. -I mean, I don’t remember that many songs, and…
He remembered enough songs for a whole mini-at-home concert.
*
It doesn’t end there.
Together, they spend many an evening consumed by music, music brought to life by Todd, for Dirk, specifically for Dirk, and for him only. Todd plays everything – every song he has ever loved, acoustic versions of Mexican Funeral pieces, approximate renditions of whatever is on the radio these days…
Dirk makes requests. Todd googles guitar tabs and practices while Dirk is still asleep, in the ungodly early hours of the morning, sitting on the windowsill of the apartment block while people leave for first shifts at work. He has performed in front of huge crowds, and music journalists, and many girls (and guys…) he was trying to impress – but nothing has ever felt as personal, crucial, tender, as playing for Dirk.
The skeleton is identified, and the stolen basket is discovered. The convoluted twists and turns of the story, which involves a near-extinct flower, a 77-year-old Russian spy and an actual African prince, come to their natural close. The excitement and danger are over, if only for a brief respite, and peace is restored. A new case will arrive soon enough… but until then, they have their tiny apartment, and Todd has his guitars, and music lingers in the air, and Dirk is enthralled with the music, still and speechless in his seat.
They look at each other, and they understand each other precisely, and, for once in his life, Dirk has no words, and needs no words, and wants nothing else but to listen. God knows, his life is never safe or simple, but now Todd is here, and the world is really not that bad, and he is happy.
The Earth continues to spin. New bizarre, perplexing and astonishing things will happen. Songs will be played, and words will be said in time. Maybe, in part at least, because someone ran, and never looked back, and left behind all their belongings, even their very expensive guitars…
Sometimes – most of the times – the Universe wants them to help it. But, on this occasion, it is gracious enough to help them in return.
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