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scenesofobx · 2 years

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A Broken Promise

Summary: The best night of your life takes an abrupt turn...

A/N: I'm proud of this, I wrote it in an hour! The inspiration for this came to me from this Insta post.

Note: in this fic Custer isn't there and neither is Faye.

Warnings: mentions of blood, violence, guns, bullets, death.

Word Count: 1.7k

Also, click the link under the word "stunned" - it was a random thought I had when proofreading this, lol.

I was two years into my relationship with Fez, recently he had been speaking a lot about the future, one full of complete love and utter euphoria.

Tonight he was putting a start to our dream life, one that we had both discussed included us as husband and wife living on a farm with a few kids running around (Ash too, of course), living a simple but fulfilling life.

"I love you and I don't ever want to live without you", Fez said to me out of the blue while we were sitting on the couch watching old reruns of Friends.

I looked over at him, smiling widely, "I love you too baby, and don't ever want to live without you either", I placed a gentle kiss to his lips.

"I can't wait to call you my wife, to spend the rest of my life with you", he said to me, a soft smile on his face.

"I can't wait to call you my husband", I said to him, mimicking his beautiful smile.

"We're going to have the best life, you and me. Just us, Ash, our kids and a few animals, living the best life away from all of the drama and chaos.

"I cannot wait", excitement coursing through my veins at the thought of our perfect little life. His comment about the drama and chaos that was our lives made me ask him to promise me something, to secure our future, "I need you to promise me what we'll have that life, that we'll get married here with our friends and family and then leave this life behind and start the rest of our lives"

"I promise you, our lives are going to be so easy my love, so simplistic and absolutely perfect", he paused, fiddling in his pants pocket and pulling out a sparkling diamond ring, "For step one of making the promise come true, will you marry me?"

I was stunned, this was the happiest moment of my entire life, the best days of my life were about to begin and nothing could ruin this for us, not now, not ever because as long as we had each other, everything would be okay.

"Yes, of course, yes!", I squealed, Fez laughing loudly at my enthusiasm, placing the gorgeous ring on my left ring finger and gave me a kiss filled with so much passion, promise and love.

The entire evening so far was so beautiful and magical, we spent the next hour talking about our future, about how many kids we wanted and what we'd name them. I had to veto a few of Fez's choices and he had to do the same for me but what we had agreed on and what we decided was that our first son would have 'Ash' as their middle name and our first daughter would have 'Marie' as hers, a homage to the two other most important people in his life.

Everything was like a dream come true until I loud knock on the door had startled us, Fez going to stand up and pausing half way when we heard "SWAT, OPEN UP!" being yelled from the door. Shit!

We were being raided... again and I was fucking terrified.

Ash was upstairs playing video games, all of us had been taking a night off from the normal hustle and bustle that our lives bought.

He came down at the noise and shot us a questioning look.

I swallowed down my nerves and fears and tried my best to comfort my boys.

"Okay, let's breathe, it's going be okay, we just have to work with them, alright? We have nothing to hide, alright?"

Fez nodded at my statement, shooting a small comforting smile towards Ash and then placing a kiss on my temple.

"OPEN UP!"

Fez struck into action at the sound of the SWAT yelling again, while he was walking to the door I glanced at Ash, I hadn't noticed the shotgun in his hand until now... my eyes went wide, shaking my head and mouthing "NO" to him. He mouthed back "I'm sorry" and ran to the bathroom and closing the door.

"ASH!" I called out, running after him I tried to open the bathroom door but it was locked. "Ash, please!", I begged.

While I had been focusing on Ash, Fez had removed the lock on the door and opened it.

Immediately being yelled up to put his hands up, he did and then they instructed for him to walk towards me.

His voice calling out for me bought me out from my dazed focus on Ash and back to the harsh reality of the situation.

"Y/N/N!", I turned around at the sound of his voice, coming face to face with multiple guns being pointed at me.

"Walk towards me slowly baby", I did as he asked taking slow steps. One of the breaching officers taking me by the hand and moving me behind him. Clealy these men weren't after me but my boyfriend... correction fiancé and my favourite kid.

Fez kept yelling how Ash was just a kid and didn't deserve to be killed, he was facing the door of the bathroom now, trying to talk Ash into surrendering. His brother instead shooting a bunch of bullets, trying to take down the SWAT team members. They shot back almost instantly, an intense gun fight insuing. Fez was the middle man, literally... he was stuck in no man's land between firing guns.

Suddenly, someone left out a sharp, bloodcurdling scream.

I was completely horrified by the heartbreaking noise and confused as to who was just shot. Looking around I couldn't see anyone in pain and I couldn't see anyone bleeding.

I looked up to Fez still faced away from me, I called out to him, "Fez?", he slowly turned around to face me, revealing his crisp white t-shirt had a huge patch of blood on it, a hole in his shirt, my brain was going a million miles an hour...

"FEZ!?", I screamed, my voice breaking and my eyes wide in absolute fear.

He looks at me with furrowed brows asking why I looked so scared, I glanced at his shirt and back into his eyes, he got the hint and looked down, the realisation that he had been shot hitting him in a split second.

I saw his body falling towards the ground in slow motion, rushing and catching him just in time. I sat down on the floor with him, placing his head in my lap. Both of my hands immediately going to put pressure on his wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

Fez put his hand out for me to take.

"Baby, I can't hold your hand right now, I'm so sorry but I have to put pressure on this!"

"Y/N... stop, it's okay.", a beat of silence, "just hold my hand please!"

"I can't stop Fez, you'll bleed out!"

"Y/N/N..."

"I can't stop!", I said to him, voice breaking as I spoke.

"Please hold my hand... please baby, please...", he was pleading with me, my brain was going haywire... I keep my pressure on the wound and I potentially still lose him or I definitely lose him but get to hold his hand one last time... "Please!", his voice was breaking now too, my heart breaking along with it.

"Okay, okay love", I took my hands off his wound, blood seeping out at a faster pace than it was but I tried not to focus on it, instead choosing to focus of the beautiful blue of his eyes, his eyes... my favourite thing in the world. I could get lost in them over and over, I hope to get lost in them over and over for the rest of my days, or at least for the rest of his.

I gently took his warm hand in mine, squeezing it softly to show him I was here with him. He squeezed my hand back. My other hand was supporting his head, which was resting in my lap. I stroked my thumb calmly across his cheek, watching as his face moved from one of pain and sadness to one of calmess and inner peace.

"Its going to be okay, you're going to be okay baby, just stay with me, okay? Just stay with me", I begged him to hold on, to not go towards the light but to stay here in the moment with me, to hold on until the paramedics arrived and he could get the help he needed.

"Ma...", he whispered.

"I love you, I need you to hold on. I cannot live without you Fez, I need you to stay with me... please!", I was yelling now, not at him but at the situation, yelling my anger at the universe for pulling such a sick joke.

"I love you", he whispered, softer this time.

His eyes closed after that. His breathing increasingly slowing down...

His grip on my hand lessened and lessened until it was no more. His once warm hands were now so cold and lifeless.

I placed a kiss to his forehead and whispered over and over that I loved him and would always love him.

I was frozen in this moment of time, my brain not registering what was happening. I was waiting to wake up from this cruel nightmare, but it didn't happen. It never happened... Not when the paramedics arrived, not not they wheeled away Fez's body, not not when they wheeled away Ash's, not when the police were questioning me, not when they offered me emotional support and options for grief therapy, and not when they took his and Ash's bodies away from me... forever.

The tears finally stopped falling after everyone had left me alone on the floor next to a pile of my soulmates blood, I had cried out every possible tear avaliable. I wanted to cry, to let every emotion out but I physically couldn't, my body and my mind were too exhausted to continue, to feel anything.

I looked down at my engagement ring, now covered it blood and wondered how so much pain and heartbreak could have occurred in the two hours.

The best day of my life had so abruptly turned into the worst one I'd ever had and will ever have.

Fez, my best friend, the love of my life, my fiancé... he was gone and he wasn't coming back.

He had broken his promise to me.

Taglist: @storytellingwitht @dreamsinshadesofblue @iamasimpingh0e @zeida

#fezco x reader #euphoria #fez euphoria #fez x reader #fezco euphoria #euphoria fez #euphoria fic #angst #fezco angst #fez angst #euphoria angst #sad fic #this is depressing

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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gta5-catlady-ao3 · 3 years

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Things we might have forgotten in GTA5

In many fanfics scoping the internet, I had to compile a list of things some players tend to forget. Many of them are small, but others are pretty good for character enhancements, I hope you enjoy it!

(Also most of them are about Trevor lmao, but I tried to stretch it for all of them)

Franklin went to prison prior to the events of the game causing him to want to reevaluate his life and eventually getting a real job with Lamar.

Michael was a football quarterback in his youth.

Trevor played hockey and golf growing up.

Trevor had a brother (named Ryan) who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, some believing Trevor had been the root behind it, but nothing was proven.

Both Michael and Trevor where criminals from the beginning, but Michael had been the one who influenced Trevor first. Leading to the infamous story of the flare gun in someone’s eye. They both got sick and threw up after disposing the body.

Amanda had been a stripper and it’s hinted that her name had been Krystal. Michael had met her at a strip club and bought her plastic surgery to enhance her boobs.

Trevor has tattoos on his hands. A pentagram on the back of his right hand, a scorpion at the bridge of his right thumb, a skull on the back of his left hand, and a pair of pilot wings on the bridge of his left thumb. Also the words “Fuck You” written on his knuckles. (I believe he’s also the only character to have in-canon tattoos without the influence of the player)

Franklin’s dad had been abusive and left before Franklin was even born. Franklin’s mother had also turned to cocaine and died when he was very young leaving him with his grandparents until they too died, leaving him with his aunt.

Trevor was prepared to kill an officer when he finds out cops had racially profiled Franklin. Despite Franklin taking it as a joke, Trevor is still disgusted.

Michael calls Franklin “son” many times in the story line solidifying the father-son dynamic they shared and proving that Trevor had been correct by saying Franklin was “the son he never had.”

Trevor actually didn’t like Brad, confessing to Franklin (while drunk) that Brad wasn’t the best and he was only going to leave with him since Michael could no longer pull jobs.

Michael and Amanda grew up in a trailer park somewhere in the mid-west, most likely North Yankton. While Trevor grew up on the Canadian-American border.

Trevor had been there for the birth of Michael’s kids, coming to even be known as “Uncle T” by his kids. (This is pretty common, but it’s cute, can you imagine the fics around this time???)

Franklin is never seen wearing purple, the rival gang’s colors as homage to his own affiliation. (He wears mainly green, but every store you take him will never actually give you a choice to buy anything in purple.)

Trevor is very intelligent. He’s not a stupid hick, he’s excellent at math and even shows how he can pull off whole heists (successfully too) without help.

Michael is a sharpshooter, which means he’s excellent at darts.

Trevor has track marks up and down his arms, and he also has a cut scar right above his stomach, though it’s never implied on what the cut scar had been from.

Franklin is still in love with his ex-girlfriend despite her announcement of an engagement, he has a photo of the two of them in his bedroom at his aunt’s house.

Michael’s son, Jimmy, had been a baseball player sometime in his youth.

Tracy knows how to bake.

All three protagonists smoke cigarettes (as there are packs throughout the character’s bedrooms and homes), but you only ever see Michael light up a cigar.

Trevor is a serial killer. Known for taking drifters and hitchhikers.

Michael is the only character to graduate high school, Franklin had been expelled, and Trevor dropped out.

After GTA:5, Trevor moves to LS and became a “lifestyle coach,” but it’s still hinted he is still in the drug business.

Trevor’s mom in Mrs. Philips, had most likely been some form of hallucination, as it’s implied that she may have died, or was still in prison.

None of the character’s family, other than Trevor’s brother, Ryan, have been named.

Trevor tends to be interested in older women.

Michael should still have a scar from being shot all those years ago, but I can’t find it nor is there proof of it online.

If I remember more I’ll post a part 2 :)

#GTA5 #Grand Theft Auto 5 #grand theft auto #grand theft 5 #trevor philips #michael de santa #franklin clinton #imagines #x readers #headcanons

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corpsentry · 3 years

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WHEN THE WAR IS OVER AND I AM LYING AMONGST ANGELS, WAITING FOR YOU TO FIND ME: a spoiler-filled addendum

because i buttfucked the timeline harder than nintendo and That’s Mildly Concerning ao3 link

q: what the fuck is this a: this fic is the answer to the question, ‘how can i reconcile the events of breath of the wild and age of calamity into a coherent narrative?’.

q: what the fuck happened a: age of calamity was a dream zelda had while partying in ganon’s apartment for a hundred years.

q: [you point a nerf gun at my head and smash my knees in with a hammer concurrently] what the Fuck happened a: link has a line near the end of chapter one which goes something like ‘my mother used to say dreams are the memories of people from another world’. this is the core concept of the story. while age of calamity is a dream to botw zelda, who saw it unfold over the course of a hundred year nap, it’s also real. in my incredibly fucked up version of things, it happened- just not in the same universe as botw. when botw zelda settled in to drink cheap beer with ganon for a hundred years, her consciousness drifted across time and space to the age of calamity timeline, where she proceeded to live out someone else’s life for a few months. are the other characters in aoc aware of this? link is. at the end of chapter two, when he pleads with zelda to ‘rebuild the old world with [him]’, he falls out of character. he betrays the real purpose of this timeline and his place in it, which is to salvage what botw could not.

q: what the fuck is up with the space-time continuum thing a: inspired by the multiverse theory (note that i know nothing about multiverse theory apart from the fact that there are multiple verses), i decided it would be fun if i added a third dimension to the botw/aoc pair. the inhabitants of this third universe are aware of the existence of multiple worlds. they are also aware of the prophecy of calamity ganon’s return, but for the purpose of this essay it does not matter if calamity ganon will rise in their world. the primary concern of zelda in this third dimension is whether she can engineer a universe where link does not die. as she says in chapter two, there are a thousand possible outcomes, but only two fulfill her requirement: the outcomes that constitute botw and aoc. we can assume she went to enormous lengths to uncover these universes, as described by impa, who says with some disbelief ‘you destroyed the space-time continuum for a boy?’. zelda destroys the space-time continuum. she moves through timeline after timeline, tweaking dialogue and moving the hour-hand ever backwards, and at the end of it all, for all her suffering, what does she actually achieve?

q: okay so what the fuck is up with the scene where link kisses zelda and is like i had a dream where i died and then nothing happens a: first of all, you’ll find this scene near the end of chapter two if you’d like to take a second look at it. as for who exactly this zelda and this link are, it’s unclear. maybe after botw zelda woke up, the original aoc zelda and aoc link lived happily after the war. maybe the zelda in the third dimension missed a positive outcome in her thousand-bullet-pointed list. maybe this, too, is a dream someone had, while lying in a field of flowers somewhere. your call.

q: rabbit???????? a: the story about the rabbit is a framing device. first introduced at the end of chapter one when link tells zelda a story on the bridge at night, it eventually comes to parallel botw zelda’s experiences, but in reverse. the rabbit is happy in her reality. she has a dream where everyone she loves is gone, becomes immersed in it, and is eventually saved by the voice of some-god-or-another. zelda is not particularly happy in her reality (botw). she has a dream where everyone she loves survives, becomes immersed in it, and is pulled out of the dream by some-god-or-another. the important thing to note here is the second rule the rabbit lays out in the story, which is that you, as the dreamer, can’t tell anyone that you’re dreaming. self-awareness is a sin in these lands, but the greater and far worse sin is to attempt to share that self-awareness with someone else. this is why link is so adamant that zelda not finish speaking at the end of chapter two, when ganon is defeated and they are standing on the balcony. he wants her to stay. he’s in love with her. he doesn’t want her dream to end because in a way her dream is his dream too; they want the same things (peace, living champions and family, each other). unfortunately for him, zelda has to leave the aoc world behind, because even a hundred year nap has to end, and so she says what she has to say, she says it feels like she’s dreaming, and she wakes up.

q: please explain, in plain english, whatever the hell goes down in chapter 2. a: chapter one is a relatively straightforward retelling of the first four story chapters in hwaoc. chapter three returns the reader directly to the botw timeline, where link shoots a glowing arrow at ganon’s ass, killing him instantly. chapter two is the glorious fuck that lies in between. in short, it splices the events of aoc and botw together with overlays and meta commentary from the third universe mentioned above, where zelda is trying to engineer a happy ending, and the ambiguous fourth one where link is the one who sees the dream. i made use of several batshit devices here, but the most prominent one is, i hope, the encore. the [ENCORE] is initially used to signal that a scene will be set in the botw timeline. it makes its first appearance before botw zelda and botw link’s journey down from mount lanayru, which, as we know, does not take place in aoc. this is played straight up until the halfway mark or so, at which point i swap out ENCORE for encore and finally ****** (still says encore though). this distinction is lost altogether once impa begins dragging link’s body up to the great plateau. up until now, ENCORE and [these brackets] have been used to distinguish the botw timeline from the aoc one, which is not an encore and is not in [these brackets]. the next segment, concerning the battle on the great plateau, flips them. now impa and co’s funeral procession is ‘real’ and the charge zelda leads to the temple of time is ‘fake’. i wonder why.

q: ‘the lights are BLUE or YELLOW or PINK’. explain. a: what’s a play? a pretense. what does it take to pretend? actors. what is zelda doing? dreaming.

q: fourth wall breaks. explain. a: the interview segments are an homage to the seven thousand articles about age of calamity i read before playing age of calamity because this game was effectively my reason to live for the months of october and november. sooga talks about google maps because he’s dead (possibly dlc?) and dead people have the right to say fuck-all. every device in this story was implemented for a vaguely coherent reason. and then i fucked it up for fun.

q: what is the state of zelda and link’s relationship? a: in the botw timeline i imagine they’re involved with each other even before calamity strikes. in the aoc timeline i imagine they’re working their way towards something, but several important trigger events in botw don’t take place in the aoc timeline and the stakes overall feel significantly lower, so i’d hesitate to say their relationship develops to the same degree it does in the botw timeline. this is all personal conjecture, so you’re free to disagree.

q: why does the last line sound like a hannibal lecter line? a: [dab] god’s plan

q: why does zelda say there are a thousand possible outcomes, and only one where link lived in chapter 3? a: the first rule of time travel: don’t.

this is everything i can think of off the top of my head that might have confused people, but i did unfortunately write this thing so if there’s something else that made you go ‘the fuck?’ please don’t hesitate to drop me an ask or a line in the replies, i’d be happy to help. also, if it isn’t clear as day, i have a lot of fucking feelings about both of these games, so if you want to talk lore, theories, or just miscellaneous zelink fuckery, hit me up. i’ll go sleep now. take care everyone.

#fic blogging #my stuff

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vaguely-concerned · 3 years

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The Mandalorian Chapter 13 rewatch thoughts; the reduced salt edition

or at least I’m trying to be more constructive with the salt in this one let’s goooo

- god I miss the armourer so much. look at how fucking cool she looks, this is the mando design I hunger for so deeply, WHY would you give me boob plates back instead haha

- I will say with the way it’s presented this place feels way too small to be called a city lol (and I think that limited scale hurts how much I’m willing to accept the magistrate as a credible opponent to go toe to toe with ahsoka freaking tano. maybe if we’d seen directly the extent of the magistrate’s power and influence and not just the burned out wasteland that power leaves behind I’d be more on board with it. canonically she’s clearly been extremely rich and influential on a galactic scale, while the aesthetic filoni takes from samurai movies in this has a lot more to do with local warlords and smaller stakes. this is not the only time the adherence to that aesthetic without adapting it for the emotional story at hand or giving it a spin for novelty hurts the episode #hot take. it’s empty homage without quite understanding why the moments you’re emulating work so well in the context of the story they serve.)

this might be because how it’s filmed makes it seem like there’s just one big main street towards the magistrate’s palace, it’s implied to be quite a bit bigger from the establishing shot as the crest comes flying in?

- LOVE the implication that din lets baby play with the silver ball pretty freely while they’re on the ship but sets the (completely sensible tbh) boundary that he can’t bring it with him somewhere outside where he might lose it for good. that seems like reasonable dad-ing, din, well done.

anyway my heart is hurting because that silver ball is like a comfort item for the kid and it’s pretty clear from the very start that he has some kind of understanding of what might happen on this planet and so does NOT want to go out there, but also... that thing is narratively introduced as the baby’s way of saying ‘dad, don’t forget me, don’t go’. it’s what made din go back for him the first time, and that’s a connotation it still has both in the audience’s mind and for the characters. and I need to go cry in a corner for a while be right back

- not for nothing but in this scene of the baby being faced with din and a jedi standing side by side as if to present a choice, din literally has the sun right behind his head like some kind of fucking halo

gee I wonder what the baby’s choice is going to be fsadfjkhasdkjfhs. (he! loves! his dad! so much!!!!!!!)

- I wish they’d done more with the bored punch clock villain, hey-I’m-just-here-for-the-paycheck-man vibe of the guard captain guy and maybe given his nonchalance a bit of a darkly comedic tint, I think it would’ve made a better moment when he’s facing off with din towards the end if he had more... character. make him a bit more of a dark mirror of the soulless gun for hire people have seen din as in the past (and as the magistrate seems to now), do something interesting here. maybe even make it more of a mexican standoff with him holding a gun on an innocent or something so there’s something here for din to lose, it still does the western thing and lets you have that ramping tension you need for when you cut between the sword duel and this. hell, have him actually give up and walk away to show that he doesn’t fucking care about any of this, he did evil for money without any driving passion or conviction behind it, and let din decide if he’ll let him walk away scot free or not after what he’s been part of, that’s a neat subversion of the trope as well! as it stands it’s just so... empty

- baby says ‘mada! mada!’ again when they try to approach the vendor who appears to be serving foodstuffs! so maybe a word he has for food or maybe something like ‘lady person!’? (he says it when frog lady is gone on the ice planet and also as she’s walking into the razor crest for the first time. he did seem more interested in the eggs at that point, sooo lol)

din reacts to him speaking too, he glances down at him <3<3<3

- the baby seems to sense ‘ooof this is scary, time to hide’ on his own before they go into the magistrate’s place, din doesn’t appear to signal anything to him

- there’s a lot of deliberate silence in this episode, but the sound design that gets space away from the music somehow isn’t as immersive to me as it usually is on this show? I have no idea why, though

- ‘a jedi plagues me’ is somehow so fucking funny to me. the tl;dr for a lot of star wars villains through the ages

it also still cracks me up that din is immediately like ‘ma’am you can’t afford me’ fsdhfaskf

- I’m so happy din talks to and reassures the baby when he puts him down in these situations now, I remember being SO SAD when he didn’t back in chapter 7. he’s learning all the time!

- I think we should all be very happy this fight is cut off almost as soon as it begins, because I’m pretty sure ahsoka could kick din’s ass real bad and that would be terrible because I love him (listen din definitely has his moments, but up against a force user for the first time and said force user being one of the most powerful and battle-experienced jedi alive? probably not huh, if he survives that it’s on pure fatherly love and desperation and nothing else)

- this seems to be the baby asking ahsoka to carry him back to be with din (mando certainly seems to be what they’re ‘talking’ about right before) and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen

din’s fingers are also doing the nervous curl-uncurl thing as she puts the baby down, and it remains the sweetest goddamn character tic, he’s adorable

in the long pause after he tells her “he needs your help” he’s sitting SO TENSELY, it’s only when she at least promises to test the kid that he relaxes a bit

baby (well, grogu, but he’s also baby) recognizes yoda’s name and seems to almost ask ahsoka ‘yoda is here???’, and her blink in response is like ‘no, I’m sorry’

- I still deeply dislike how it’s actually done in the episode, it’s so clunky and it annoys me on a craft level, but I do like the overarching thematic narrative of both mando and the baby being on this journey towards specificity and remembering themselves, of reclaiming the particular nuances of an identity that make up a self after a series of traumas have stripped it away from them. at the start of the show neither of them has a name (and din doesn’t even have a face) and they’re basically presented as broad archetypes, The Mandalorian and The Child. and now we’re slowly unearthing things that make them this specific child, grogu, this specific mandalorian, din djarin. it’s rediscovering parts of yourself you might have thought lost as you heal from trauma and I do like that very much, it’s touching and the emotional throughline this show should never lose sight of

- oooooh no baby glances over at din when she asks him to push the stone back ;______________; it’s so awful because you can just tell... he understands that if he does this thing din might leave, but also people have clearly tricked him into using the Force before and given him this traumatized kneejerk association that if he uses it where people can see him Bad things might happen

oh okay so I think din just subtly misunderstands the baby’s appeal to him here, he thinks that look towards him means ‘dad help I don’t understand what’s being asked of me’. I guess he doesn’t have any way of knowing how complicated the baby’s past is with this yet, it’s a good try

- I’ve seen people take ‘he understands’ as baby understanding everything that’s said to him all the time, which is patently not true haha. he understands quite a lot, in the way toddlers actually understand quite a lot of what’s going on around them, even a bit of words spoken to them before they’re especially verbal themselves, but he clearly mixes up his colours still sooo

I also suspect he’s played this game before -- surely that must be one of the most obvious activities the jedi would do with the smallest children, playing Force catch basically? but he still doesn’t trust it, or her. (on the other hand he does trust that din would never hurt or trick him. help me I’m drowning in my own tears)

- personally and from anything else in this show I don’t think din would be this impatient with the baby after hearing, less than half a minute before, that he’s terrified

but hey I’m not the man in the cowboy hat what do I know (yes I’m bitter characterization matters okay lol)

- it’s both funny and so sweet that the same music plays during this father and son playing catch scene as when baby lifted that mudhorn fkdfha

- for my money din reacts exactly perfectly to grogu finally Force pulling the ball -- he’s excited and happy, signalling that this thing doesn’t have to be scary and dangerous and that when shared with the right people it can be a good joyous thing, he moves over to the baby so they can share in this victory and attune, and crucially he doesn’t demand more afterwards, which the baby must have gotten before from some of the assholes who’ve been experimenting on him. it’s just the celebration and satisfaction of having done the thing without demands or threats or any ulterior motives. HIM!!! DAD!!!!

tattoo this straight onto my heart... the way baby cheerfully offers it back to din... sdkjafhksdfhsakdjf

- din breaths out roughly and unevenly through his nose almost like it’s been punched out of him and starts fiddling with the silver ball (which is still his primary tell for anxiety/stress!) when ahsoka says “he’s formed a strong attachment to you” :) listen if I have to know that all of you fuckers are going down with me

- see the thing is... if you don’t know who ahsoka is in pretty deep detail, you might take her at face value here instead of understanding that she’s actually projecting her own feelings and traumas onto this. if you absolutely have to use this character for this part of the show you have to set her up better specifically so someone who’s never seen a single episode of clone wars can grasp the basics of where she is emotionally and what her motives are, so that her role in this story makes sense. as it is it’s sort of a compromise between pleasing old fans (who can do quite a bit of inferring to figure it out) and approaching audiences who don’t know anything, and it falls flat

(for the purposes of this show I aggressively do not care where thrawn is, and so I’m just annoyed when we find out what this was actually all for haha)

- still feel reluctant to discuss too much about ahsoka because of the whole... situation with dawson, but I do like that she lets one of the guards leave after disarming him because he’s cowering and giving up, and that she still has her padawan braid wound into her belt. also I think the effects on her and her outfit are completely fine, my problems with her this episode are all writing craft and real life stuff

- when you get first the jet pack sound, then din coming down kicking that dude in the face, then the mando flute kicking in as he lands properly... the only time the action in this episode made me go ‘fuck YEEEAAAAH’ it’s awesome

- again, just like with the idea of having a samurai/ronin movie standoff and a western standoff at the same time: having the scene be mostly silent except for the almost musical sounds of the light sabers hitting the beskar spear is such a cool concept, and it does not work in action. I don’t know enough about filmmaking to tell you why it doesn’t, but it doesn’t.

there’s also something about... the ahsoka vs. morgan scene apes the deliberately staged, ritualized, exaggerated almost like how you’d perform it in live theatre aspect of the duels in the genre, but in an empty way? why are they acting like this, what’s their relationship to each other, what’s their individual code of honour that makes them let the other person slowly theatrically disrobe before going for them? just plucking the aesthetics out of a tradition and plopping them down in your own thing without thinking about the whys or original context of it leaves it without meaning

(also let morgan express something of her own character other than I Am Evil rather than having ahsoka drop the entire exposition on her. maybe you could have her snarl some illuminating lines while they’re fighting so you get the feeling of the bitterness and brokenness that has fuelled her and burned the woods of this whole planet. in some ways she’s not that unlike din and ahsoka, she lost everything in the clone wars too and was motivated very differently by it than they were, play that up so the situation’s relevant to our protagonists! I’m sorry for all this nitpicking but I HAVE to figure out how this could have been done better for my own sake haha)

- ooooooh the way din says “I can’t accept” when offered the spear is in fact almost an exact echo of when the armourer offers him the signet in chapter 3! I thought it sounded familiar, it’s delivered in such a similar way. huh. din has some Feelings about earning things and when he hasn’t earned something, doesn’t he

- din also cares A LOT about not breaking his word, to the point of being willing to stoop to some quite dishonest methods to avoid giving his word in the first place, and I find it utterly delightful

- baby closing his eyes again after din wakes him like he’s thinking ‘maybe if I don’t wake up dad won’t go’ or even ‘at least this way I won’t know it happened until later, when it’s over’... pure emotional torture :) thank god din’s entire soul is clearly howling in protest and he took the slightest chance ahsoka gave him to not actually go through with it

- so this is the second time we get someone telling din he’s like grogu’s father. well, the armourer gives it more like a command/almost a religious obligation, ‘until it is of age or reunited with its kind you are as its father’, ahsoka is stating what’s obvious at this point but says ‘you are like a father to him’... maybe they’re doing a rule of threes thing and the last time it’s ‘you are his father’ and it sticks?

- anyway din cradling the baby so close to his chest with both arms all the time instead of the more practical way he carries him around in the crook of his arm sometimes... my suffering is deep and endless

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian meta

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introvertguide · 3 years

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Pulp Fiction (1994); AFI #94

The most recent movie for review was the Quentin Tarantino crime thriller comedy (probably more things) Pulp Fiction (1994). It is a very complicated story that is told out of chronological order and focuses on scenes of meaningful character interaction. This confusion meant it lost out to movies with a more straight forward time line at the Oscars, since the move was nominated for seven awards but only took home one. The single win for best screenplay was well deserved and I still believe it is one of the most creatively written films of all time. I want to go over the plot to show what I mean, but let me do my standard due diligence:

SPOILER WARNING!!! I AM ABOUT TO GIVE THE BASIC DETAILS OF ONE OF THE MOST COMPLEX STORY LINES IN MOVIE HISTORY!!! IT WILL NOT LIKELY SPOIL MUCH OF ANYTHING, BUT I AM STICKING THIS WARNING ON JUST IN CASE SOMEBODY FINDS SOMETHING!!!

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The film begins with what is pretty much a prologue but what turns out to be about the middle of the film chronologically. A couple is at a diner and they are talking about robbing banks. They only refer to each other as Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer). They discuss the best kind of places to rob and they decide that a diner would be a good change of pace. Impulsively, they pull out guns and hold up the diner and...title card with awesome spaghetti western music!

Two hitmen are talking about Europe as they go to do a job. Vincent Vega (Jon Travolta) talks about his adventures with Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) as they pull up at an Los Angeles apartment complex. The two discuss their boss Marsellus Wallace and how touchy he is about his wife. The boss has apparently sent them to get something from a bunch of guys. Jules and Vincent call on an apartment with 3 college age men and intimidate them into giving over a briefcase with something glowing inside. The case is what they came for, so the hitmen take it and kill two of the men at the apartment...

Flash to a new scene in which Vincent is going to get some drugs from his dealer (Eric Stoltz). Vincent is a heroine user despite cocaine being the popular drug. It turns out Vincent was asked by his boss to take out his wife...the one he is very protective of. He just needs to hang out with her so she is not bored and not get into trouble. To accomplish this, he shoots up some heroine and goes to meet the wife named Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman). They seem to get along and he drives her to a restaurant called Jack Rabbit Slims. The place is fantastic, all the waiters are dressed up like American movie icons and the booths are repurposed cars from the 50s (if this place actually existed, you can be sure I would search it out and go there at least once). The two bond over dinner and then volunteer for a twist dance contest.

Mia and Vincent go back to her house and Vincent goes to the restroom to talk himself out of trying to score with Mia. She is pretty cool, but not worth dying for. While he is away, Mia finds some heroine in the pocket of Vincent’s jacket and thinks it is cocaine. She snorts it and immediately starts to overdose. Vincent panics and decides to drive her to the dealer’s house. The dealer has a nurse kit that comes with a giant needle full of adrenaline which Vincent stabs her with. She wakes up and Vincent takes her back home and is glad that he will live another day...

We jump to a flashback of a young boy who is has lost his father in Vietnam. An officer is visiting that has a gift. Apparently, there is a family watch that belonged to the boys great grandfather and had been passed down through the generations. His father had it when he was captured and gave it to the officer before the father died in the POW camp. The officer escaped and found the boy to give him the watch...

A boxer named Butch (Bruce Willis) wakes up from a dream. He is the boy all grown up. He is about to throw a fight for Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), the same boss that everyone is afraid of. Butch does not throw the fight and accidently kills the other boxer. It turns out that he bet on himself and now he needs to get out of town before Marsellus Wallace catches him. He goes to a hotel where his rather dumb girlfriend is waiting for him. They go to bed and then are about to leave the next morning when it turns out that she forgot his watch. Butch freaks out and goes back to their old apartment to get the watch (note the very long take following Bruce Willis as he takes a back way to get to the apartment). Vincent is there waiting for him, but Vincent is in the bathroom and Butch is able to get a gun and kill Vincent as he is coming out of the bathroom. Things seem good so Butch drives off...

As Butch drives home, he sees Marsellus crossing the street in front of him so Butch hits the gas and runs down the boss but also hits an oncoming car. Both men are injured but Marsellus gains his senses and chases Butch into a shop where both are captured by a weird redneck with a shotgun. Butch and Marsellus are tied up in the basement of the shop and a man named Zed shows up. The shop owner has a gimp in a box (all leathered up and everything) and other fetish things downstairs. After a quick game to pick who goes first, they take Marcellus into another room to rape him. Butch manages to escape and is running away...but he decides can’t leave somebody to be assaulted like that. He grabs a weapon from the shop and kills the shop owner and frees Marsellus from Zed. Marsellus is not happy and says he will go “medieval” on Zed and allows Butch to leave town. Butch collects his girlfriend and leaves immediately...

Flash back in time (we know this because Vincent is alive) to right after Vincent and Jules shoot the guys with the case. Another guy in the other room jumps out and unloads six rounds at the two and misses every shot. The hitman kill that man, but Jules is shaken and decides to give up the business. They take a fourth gut with them in the car to go back to see Marsellus. On the drive over, Vincent accidently shoots the passenger while going over a pothole. The inside of the car is absolutely covered in blood and brains, so the two have to find a safe house. They go to the home of Jimmie (Quentin Tarantino) who will help them but says they have to get out in a couple of hours before his wife gets home. They call Marsellus, who sends over a cleaner named Wolf (Harvey Keitel). They are able to get everything cleaned up in time and leave with the car and the body. Jules and Vincent have to change out of their bloody clothes and decide to take a cab out to a diner for some food before seeing Wallace.

The two are at a familiar looking diner discussing whether their survival was a miracle and whether Jules should quit. Vincent goes off to the bathroom and, while he is gone, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny from the beginning declare it a robbery and it is evident that we have circled in time back around to the beginning. The couple hold up the diner, but, when they get to Jules, he takes Pumpkin hostage and devises a plan for everybody to leave. Jules allows the couple to leave alive with all the wallets, then the two hitmen follow quickly behind them before any police can show up.

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I put a spoiler warning at the top, but there is so much to this film that there is no way you could spoil everything. I find new things to enjoy about this movie each time that I watch it and the watch count has to be at least two dozen times at this point. This film is so rich with allusion and homage to movies of the past that you might never see everything. Tarantino is truly a lover of old films and he worked every reference he could into this film. This is truly like candy for a cinephile.

I have, however, had a love hate relationship with this movie: I love this movie and I hate it when people tell me it is too violent. There was a lot of negative response to the films toxic masculinity, romancing crime culture, incredible amount of swearing, drug use, extreme gun violence, and very adult themes. There is a very famous interview between Quentin Tarantino and Jan Wahl in which she accuses him of using excessive violence and he tells her it is because it is a lot of fun to watch. His stylistically gory violence stems from exploitation films of the past and there is an established audience that enjoys it. He makes his movies for himself and this group of people.

Kind of like the comedy of Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin, you have to wade through a sea of swearing to find the comedic banter. The things that Jules and Vincent say to each other are some of the funniest stuff I have ever heard, but you really have to pay attention. Their attempts to express their feelings while maintaining their hard exterior persona is ridiculous. This is probably why many people enjoy the scenes with Vincent and Mia: there is a lot more courtesy which reduces the tirade of cursing.

The violence is very very over the top, but it is no where near the level of gore that Tarantino has become known for over the years. I must admit that he likes his torture scenes and this film is no exception. I would like to note how clever the torture scene with Butch and Marsellus is because they are both tied up and facing camera so only the audience can see the mischief that is being prepared behind them.

The soundtrack for the film is well worth mentioning as it also pays homage to 50s, 60s, and 70s exploitations films. There is a lot of silence in the film with sudden bursts of fast paced music that help with transitions. Most famous is the intro music after diner prologue, a surf rock classic by Dick Dale and The Del Tones called Misirlou. It is pure speed guitar riff along the lines of Wipeout and transitions the scene perfectly. Take a listen for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8

Maybe the biggest thing about this film and Tarantino in general is the inspiration of the slick gangster dialogue. There had been a push for more melodramatic dialogue or the complete absence of much talking. Tarantino added in this slick, fast moving comedic dialogue that is said over extreme violence and adult situations. Marsellus Wallace talks about having some crack heads torture a man to death immediately after being raped in a basement. The hitmen talk about appropriate manners while cleaning out brains from the back of a car. Jules talks about the meaning of the bible during a robbery. Everything seems out of place in the real world but perfectly acceptable in Tarantino’s world. This is probably why I have no problem with the violence in the film.

So should this film be on the AFI top 100? Absolutely. It is an homage to film history while simultaneously introducing a sub genre that mixes current dialogue and exploitation touches to grindhouse action. It is fascinating and fun. Would I recommend this movie? If you are old enough. I can’t emphasize enough how fun I find this film, but I cannot deny that it is filled with adult situations like drug usage followed by driving, secret dungeon rape, and cold blooded murder with no consequences. If you can differentiate between Tarantino’s world and the real world, then this is great. If you can’t, then maybe try something else with slick dialogue like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

#miserlou #pulp fiction #samuel l jackson #Quentin Tarantino #john travolta #violence #action #90s movies #academy award winner #dialogue #cinematography #introvert #introverts

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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wordywarriorwrites · 4 years

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Chapter 16: Exsanguinate

Masterlist: The Boss of Brooklyn A03 Story Link Author: @wordywarriorwrites Summary: When it comes to being The Boss, James Buchanan “JB” Barnes rules with an iron fist. For him, there’s no room for sentiment, and certainly no time for distraction, even if it is in the form of an old flame. Steve Rogers had bowed out of the life a long time ago, but a twist of fate brings him right back into the fold, and face-to-face with a man he once loved. When a game of cat and mouse turns into a matter of life and death, both will be forced to decide whether they’ll be loyal to the business, or faithful to each other. A/N: Bucky Barnes Mob Boss AU. Stucky. For: @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan Star’s Multi-Fandom Follower Celebration with the prompt, “Why did you do it?” & @sherrybaby14 Sherry’s Fall Into You Challenge with the prompt, “Show me. Prove that you can handle me.” Warnings: Language, violence, drug use, alcohol, smoking, explicit sexual content, illegal activities. *Re-blogs are welcome. Plagiarism isn’t. *

It had been five months since the sit down in Bermuda.

Twenty-three uneventful weeks since Fury said his goodbyes. 155 days since the leadership restructure was cemented. 3,720 profitable, peaceful hours, and Steve hadn’t been required to do anything more than provide status updates to Natasha.

But the respite ended via a hand-delivered missive he’d hoped -- in vain -- not to receive.

An envelope made from heavy paper stock; his name etched in calligraphy across the front; a wax seal with a bygone coat of arms for the Families on the back; and inside, a hand-carved announcement that displayed birthday celebration details for James Buchanan “JB” Barnes. As a standing member of the Families, Steve was required to make an appearance and pay homage. He couldn’t ignore or decline it, because if he did, it would be an insult, and he had no desire to deal with the fallout or consequences of issuing a mere -- albeit well-deserved -- snub.

All arrangements had been made in advance, and the only thing Steve had to do was arrive on time, and comport himself appropriately. Seventy-two hours later, he was off to New York, and during the five-hour flight, he meticulously planned and timed everything. Get there at nine; shake hands and make nice with the appropriate people; appear in a few photos to prove he’d been in attendance; duck out before they cut the cake; and be back in the West Indies before anyone noticed he’d left.

It should’ve been that simple, but as with all things concerning the Families, it wasn’t.

Thor hemmed-and-hawed and attempted to push one of his less-than-stellar newbies off on him. Tony wanted his opinion about the cops they had on their payroll and whether or not they should be compensated even more because of the additional heat the expansion brought on. Clint needed to know if there was a more expedient and cost-efficient route for shipments, and if he had a preferred contact at the Port Authority out his way. Wanda insisted on going over the quarterly financials, and wanted to introduce him to a man she guaranteed would be a perfect match for him professionally and personally.

By the time he’d extracted himself from the Families and their nonsense, Rhodey, Carol, and Scott had arrived. They weren’t obligated to make an appearance, but they’d surprisingly showed up, which meant his escape timeline got thrown off even more. It was his duty to make appropriate introductions on their behalf, and those presentations had to be finessed and unhurried. Sam had also tracked him down, and though Steve enjoyed catching up with him, he really just wanted to leave.

“He wants to see you,” Natasha informed as they posed for the photographer. “Privately.”

“Not going to happen,” Steve bit out through his faux-smile.

As soon as the camera stopped flashing, Steve dropped his arm from around Natasha’s waist, and placed his untouched champagne flute on a nearby table. He eyeballed the nearest exit and checked the time on his phone; it was fifteen-minutes to midnight, which meant the guest of honor would arrive soon, and he needed to get gone.

“Don’t even think about it,” Natasha warned.

Her veiled threat was easily ignored, but he wasn’t able to disregard the arrival of two, fully-armed security guards. Whether Steve liked it or not, they would fulfill their orders, and he knew they had no qualms about using force. Since it was neither the time nor the place to cause a scene, Steve chose to go quietly, and followed them to the elevator. The three of them flanked him all the way up to the penthouse suite and announced their arrival by two-way radio. Another bodyguard opened the door and patted him down before they were ushered inside.

The entryway opened up to an expansive room with tasteful artwork, expensive furnishings, and floor-to-ceiling windows. A flat-screen television was mounted above the fireplace with a built-in wet bar on one side and a chaise lounge on the other. A glass-top desk was situated to the left of the sofa. To the right was a set of stairs, tucked behind a half-wall that separated the bedroom from the rest of the space.

A muffled rush of water; a turn of a doorknob; a heavy footfall. Bucky was heard before he was seen, and when he stepped out of the bathroom, Steve pointedly kept his eyes focused on the skyline view.

“Anything else you need, Boss?” one of the guards asked.

The dismissal must’ve been a silent one, because a few moments later, all three hired guns left the room. Natasha stayed behind only long enough to remark that she’d left the paperwork on the desk, and then, promptly departed. As soon as the door was closed and they were alone, Bucky poured himself a drink, took a seat, and picked up the folder.

“I want you to take a look at this,” he ordered.

Steve sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, “What is it?”

Bucky’s clipped response of, “Take a seat and see for yourself,” set off all sorts of warning bells in his head. The glare he received when he impolitely snatched the file out of Bucky’s hands didn’t bode well, either, and Steve barely got through the first two pages of the dossier before his knocking knees forced him to sit down hard in a chair on the opposite side of the desk.

With the death of the betrayers and Fury’s departure, the entire matter should’ve been put to rest, but Bucky apparently had an axe to grind, and hadn’t let it go. Based on what Steve had reviewed, he knew the additional skeletons in the closet had been uncovered on Bucky’s order, and as he continued to read, he learned the Families had been exceptionally and dangerously thorough.

They’d found Steve’s connection to Phil and paid both him and Bruce to go down the rabbit hole. The two of them had pulled on every, single thread until the entire web unraveled. Every misdeed and act of duplicity had been unearthed, and it showed that at one time or another, each member of his own crew had either sold out, overthrown, or was somehow indirectly or even outright directly responsible for the death of their previous Bosses.

The only person Rhodey, Carol, and Scott hadn’t betrayed was Fury, but that didn’t matter, because their past transgressions were being seen as a preview of things to come. They’d been in the game awhile, but didn’t have generations upon generations of history and convention and blood keeping them loyal. And the Families – well, they believed one bad apple could spoil the whole bunch, and given what Maria had done, they weren’t going to allow anyone else the chance to stab one of their own in the back again.

It was the reason for the pre-arranged travel. It explained why Thor, Tony, Clint, Wanda, and Sam had monopolized him from the moment he’d arrived. It clarified why everyone Steve had introduced his people to had been curt or downright indifferent. Natasha had purposefully extracted him so he couldn’t save them, and under the guise of protecting the Families interests, Bucky had them wiped out.

People had been informed. Funds had been re-distributed. Contracts had been drawn up. Sam, Bruce, and Natasha would be sent to the West Indies as replacements. The only thing left to do was ensure Steve signed off on the already-completed execution orders.

He couldn’t say he was surprised by the turn of events, but the last few pages did shock him, and the formal verbiage in the declaration was clear. Should Steve wish it, he could vacate his seat without penalty, keep what he’d amassed, and receive an even better retirement package than what Fury had been given. If he didn’t fight it – if he kept his mouth shut and put ink to paper – he would be free.

“You’re going to let me go?” Steve wondered incredulously.

Bucky retrieved a pen from his pocket and placed it on the desk, “Don’t mistake this for anything other than what it is.”

“Then, why?” Steve demanded lowly. “Why did you do it?”

“Because you’re mine,” Bucky asserted as he polished off his drink. “And I don’t let people fuck with what’s mine.”

Steve closed his eyes and shook his head. Those words would have made him drop to his knees five years ago, but now? Now, those words didn’t mean shit to him, because they didn’t come from a place where statements like that should come from. It wasn’t primal instinct, passion, or hell, even affection that made him say it.

The man sitting across from him wasn’t Bucky anymore – he was JB – Boss of bosses.

And this was just business.

He nodded his head toward the contract, “You said you were ready. So, show me. Prove that you can handle me.”

“No,” Steve bit out as he tossed the paperwork down on the desk and got to his feet. “Not this way. Not like this – not now, not ever.”

Bucky stood up, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he retorted. “And on top of that – go fuck yourself.”

When the gun was unholstered, Steve didn’t even flinch; instead, he made himself an easy target, extended his arms, and tauntingly jutted his chin.

“We’re not friends and I sure as hell do not belong to you. So, come on, JB, do it – pull the trigger.”

Bucky’s three-piece suit, Steve’s faded jeans, and two pairs of unflinching, narrowed blue eyes. An opus of bitterness; a symphony of raging regret; a sonata of past sorrows; a melody of carnality atop silk sheets. The tick, tick, tick of the miniature grandfather clock on the desk and a hiss as the air conditioner kicked on. The faint scent of cigars from a previous sit down mixed with a hint of bourbon.

“I think you should reconsider the offer,” Bucky equivocated. “And how you speak to me. I’m not a man to be trifled with.”

“If you were any kind of man at all, you wouldn’t have even put that piece of shit contract in front of me,” he fumed. “It’s an insult and you know it.”

“You never could separate business from pleasure.”

Steve pressed his lips together and swallowed hard. It was a sucker punch and he refused to react to it. With nothing more to say, he headed for the door, but before he left, he paused at the threshold. If he walked out, there would be no turning back, but before he resigned himself to that cold fate, Steve looked over his shoulder at Bucky one, final time.

“You’re right, I never could separate it,” he acknowledged quietly. “But at least I would’ve put you first.”

What the slack-jawed, wide-eyed expression on Bucky’s face meant, Steve would never know, because with those parting words, he opened the door, and walked out.

Chapter 17: Deliverance

Everything: @jennmurawski13 @nerdy-bookworm-1998

Steve Rogers: @patzammit @hearttoearth The Boss of Brooklyn: @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety @captain-rogers-beard @lilliannaansalla @captain-s-rogers

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Boy Meets World’s Slasher Episode Was Scarier Than it Had Any Right To Be

https://ift.tt/31fmu6t

Blood-curdling screams. Taunting phone calls from a psycho killer. Creepy, ominous music with lyrics like “Here’s a knife. Here’s a gun. There’ll be fun for everyone. Death is on the menu tonight!” Elements of a forgotten ‘90s slasher classic? Nope. Just some highlights from the most memorable episode of ABC’s family sitcom Boy Meets World.

With the launch of Disney+ and ample time to get nostalgic and revisit old movies and TV shows due to the pandemic, many older millennials are diving back into Boy Meets World, which ran for seven seasons from 1993 through 2000 as a staple of ABC’s TGIF lineup. The show centered on Philadelphia teenager Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) navigating life with his best friend Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong), his love interest Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel), and brother Eric (Will Friedle), while perpetually receiving life lessons from longtime teacher and eventual principal Mr. Feeny (William Daniels).

Boy Meets World had no shortage of standout moments and episodes, like WWE wrestler Vader appearing as the father of a misunderstood school bully, a young Linda Cardellini being the girl who almost destroyed the Cory and Topanga love story for good, and Peter Tork (who briefly played Topanga’s father), Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones staging an impromptu Monkees reunion. And who could forget when Ben Savage’s famous brother Fred guest starred as a creepy college professor and was shoved through a glass door?

But perhaps no other Boy Meets World episode made a bigger impact to impressionable young minds than the fifth season highlight “And Then There Was Shawn,” a format-breaking homage to the popular slasher films of the moment, like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer (the latter of which hit theaters just four months earlier). Serving as a metaphor for the fear and uncertainty Shawn feels over the recent breakup of Cory and Topanga, the episode is a mini-horror movie that operates in dream logic and features shocking cast deaths, zeitgeisty jokes, and a big ‘90s teen idol cameo. Many young fans were genuinely frightened by the scares conjured up in the episode, while older fans loved the campy, winking references and the change of pace storytelling.

“And Then There Was Shawn” writer Jeff Menell was typically happy to do what was asked of him on the series, but he jumped at the chance to write a horror-influenced episode. “I’m a diehard movie fan. I have been my entire life. But as a writer on set, I just did whatever I was told,” Menell said in a phone interview with Den of Geek. “I never went after anything. But I begged to write this one because I just knew I could do it.”

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The episode finds the high school-aged cast members serving detention with Mr. Feeny after a fight, springing from Cory and Topanga’s recent breakup, disrupts the class. Things quickly take a turn when the kids see a message in blood written on the chalkboard that reads “No One Gets Out Alive!” and hear a discomforting jingle with menacing lyrics playing over the high school’s PA system. Initially, the kids believe that Mr. Feeny is playing a prank on them, but things take a turn for the serious — and scary – when classmate Kenny is murdered in the dark by the masked killer wielding a pencil (prompting a very timely “You Killed Kenny!” reference). None other than Mr. Feeny himself bites the dust shortly thereafter via scissors to the back.

“You know, usually you go off for two weeks and you go write this draft and you bring it back, and then the room rewrites it. That always was the process. I wrote this one like in two days, and I had to pretend that it took longer because if you’ve written the script in two days, they assume it sucks, or that you didn’t really care or make an effort,” Menell says.

When Menell brought the initial draft to the writer’s room, however, there were minimal changes to his script. The episode’s director, Jeff McCracken, was impressed.

“Jeff (Menell) went out and wrote his episode and when it came in it was perfect. It was an absolutely perfect flow of the script. He just nailed it.”

Emulating classic slasher film elements, McCracken had to approach the filming of “And Then There Was Shawn” differently than a typical episode.

“It was so much fun,” McCracken says. “Because it had all these special sequences, we really had to shoot it like a film. We rehearsed for two days, then shot it for three, and then we showed it before a live audience. The film style is generally single style or two cameras, but I shot a lot of it with three to four cameras so that we wouldn’t have to do multiple retakes. You couldn’t have done the whole thing in front of a live audience because it would have taken too much time to set everything up and run through a show with an audience sitting there.”

The pencil kill is the most memorable moment from the episode, but McCracken nor Menell can take credit for it. “I remember the one gag that was not in the script, the one gag that Michael Jacobs (creator/executive producer) came up with, which was genius, was the pencil dynamic,” McCracken recalls. After classmate Kenny is shown impaled through the head with a pencil, his body slumps down the wall, leaving a lead pencil mark behind him. Cory quips, “We’ll always remember he was this tall.”

Kenny and Feeny’s deaths are bloodless, but they leave a mighty impression for a network family-friendly series. Both writer and director knew that they’d have to tread lightly if they were going to be faithful to the slasher genre (“I’m surprised they let us have Feeny with (scissors) in his back, to tell you the truth,” Menell says) but they both made a concerted effort to surround the kills with humor.

“We had to make it funny,” McCracken says.” I mean, you put (scissors) in someone’s back, it can be very disturbing for a young audience. You can’t traumatize them. We did it with some sense of humor and it wasn’t so graphic.”

Part of the humor was derived from the very specific references made in the episode. Like Scream standout character Randy, Shawn makes meta references to the rules of the horror genre, telling his friends that virgins are the only ones who are safe. Eric says, “I’m dead,” Jack says, “I’m dead,” and Shawn says, “I’ll get as sick as you can without dying.”

This slightly scandalous joke wasn’t anything new for the series, but the violent nature of the episode led to “And Then There Was Shawn” receiving the show’s first TV-PG-V rating. According to Menell, Michael Jacobs had a way of pushing the boundaries with network executives. “He got away with a lot more stuff than most people because he could really browbeat some network executives at times to get what he wanted.”

One major addition to the cast for “And Then There Was Shawn” probably helped Jacobs catch the network in the right mood. Jennifer Love Hewitt, coming off Party of Five and at the height of her scream queen powers, guest stars as new John Adams High student Jennifer Love Fefferman. Hewitt at the time was dating Will Friedle and it’s believed their relationship inspired her cameo.

“We maybe asked him to ask her, because obviously she was in I Know What You Did Last Summer, so having her there just adds horror film credibility to it,” Menell says. “She was great. She was such a great sport, and it was fun having her on.”

McCracken concurs: “It was such a pleasure. It was one of those things that you don’t know how a major star walking in on your set, how they’re going to be, what their demands are going to be, what their personality is going to be like, what their disposition for the script’s going to be like, and she just came in full guns blazing and just had a blast and that made everything just wonderful. She was game for anything.”

One thing that Hewitt was game for was a big makeout scene with Friedle’s Eric, that may or may not have been improvised. “I don’t think we wrote that in, I think they just wanted to do it and we let it,” Menell laughs.

Amongst all of the horror homage fun, the episode ends with Shawn removing the killer’s mask to find himself starring back, having gone through this whole slasher bit just to get his friends back together. It’s quite the philosophical ending for a show primarily aimed at tweens and teens.

“When it did get serious with Shawn at the end, it was more poignant than it was scary and it was also a great reveal that it was him,” McCracken says. “It was metaphorical in the sense that that component of Shawn is in us all and it’s always lurking and it’s always out there. And so, be vigilant.”

The Jeffs knew that they had a special episode on their hands with “And Then There Was Shawn,” but who could have guessed the episode would have this sort of longevity 22 years later?

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“We got a few letters from people that were so scared, couldn’t believe we would kill Feeny. And we got some people that were upset,” Menell says. “But we had no idea until years later when the internet came on how popular that episode became. We did some crossovers, some time flashbacks, and some other really cool episodes, but this was a show that was nothing like any other episode we had aired or would air. It was probably the most fun … it’s certainly the most scary.”

The post Boy Meets World’s Slasher Episode Was Scarier Than it Had Any Right To Be appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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lesbian-ashe · 5 years

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hey guys... I wrote a fanfic... baby’s first... it’s about a Velafitine’s Day celebration

title: Velafitine’s Day 2: Rehashing words: 1693 rating/warnings: T for some bad words and mentions of alcohol and mildly suggestive moments maybe? pairing/summary: none but Markus kisses a lot of people like the himbo he is

It was the morning of the 14th day of 2nd month. A normal, mundane day to any other, but to a certain Markus Velafi, it meant so much more. It was another of his surely made-up holidays that he forced all of his friends to participate in, one he dubs Velafitine's Day, and he had a grand plan for it. As they walk into the bar, our party notices Markus setting up a peculiar booth. Curious, a little suspicious, Ashe says "Hey Markus... Whatcha doing there?"

"Don't you remember Ashe? Why, today is Velafitine's Day!" he says, spinning around to face her.

"Oh gods..." she sighs, remembering last year. "Please don't sing another song. Not like the last one, please."

"Oh no, not a song this time. I have a new idea!" Markus, with coy expression, twirls his sign in his hands, faced away from the party. Ashe eyes the sign suspiciously. He places it gingerly atop his stand, revealing the bright, glittery (too glittery) pink writing, reading '♡Kissing Booth♡'

In unison, Ashe and Thog’s faces contort with exasperated expressions. Kyr and Gregor, however, both gleam with excitement.

Markus steps behind his booth, placing a smaller sign on the counter, ‘♡1 gold = 1 kiss♡’ “Step right on up!” he cheers, seeming all too pleased with himself. Gregor excitedly steps up to the booth, placing a single gold piece into the jar (covered in glitter and paper hearts) on the counter. “One of your finest kisses please!” he beams. Ashe looks a little worried at this, but sighs a breath of relief as Markus gingerly grabs Gregor’s face and gives a chaste peck on his cheek. Gregor twirls around with an exaggeratedly dizzy motion. “Wowza!” he chimes, fixing an imaginary hat and tie. Markus and Ashe, despite herself, chuckle at this.

“Okay…” Thog sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What are you hoping to accomplish with this, Markus?” Markus puts on his best innocent face, offset by his horns and gently swaying tail. Batting his eyelashes, he says “Why Thog, I’m merely trying to spread the cheer of the holidays!” “The holiday you made up.” Thog interrupts. “Because,” Markus scoffs. “I just have so much love and appreciation for my friends, and I want to share that! Is that so wrong?” Thog rolls his eyes. “And! It also serves the purpose of raising money for Nine Shrines Adventures and Dines bar!” Thog grimaces at the terrible name, frown deepening further as Markus scribbles ‘♡Booze Money♡’ on the coin jar.

“Me next! Me next!” Kyr shouts, bouncing excitedly and shoving Thog to the side. He slams a handful of gold pieces onto the counter, sitting up on it and peppering Markus’ face with about a dozen kisses. Both are smiling like fools as Kyr hops down. “See Thog? I think this was a great idea.” boasts Markus.

Other patrons begin to flock to the bar. Many familiar faces, acquaintances and friends. Their home is livelier than usual. “Friends! Good to see you got my invitations! So happy to see you all!” beams Markus. Thog grumbles. Of course he invited everyone again, just like last year. Kyr and Gregor are busy excitedly greeting all of their friends, (and Rat… gods, why did he invite Rat? Thog’s gun hand twitches as his shrill giggles fill the room.) while he and Ashe are dreading the rest of their day. They look around and take notice of garish pink and red decorations, and glitter, so much glitter, positively everywhere, as is typical Markus fashion. Thog groans yet more knowing it would take forever to de-glitter the bar. In addition to the ostentatious decor, the bar itself is lined with various drinks (fruity liquors, and bottles of sparkling juice for Gregor) and carefully crafted treats, a sign in front reading “♡My Treat♡” Ashe smiles. She supposed she did feel appreciated, and perhaps this wasn’t actually just another of Markus’ ploys to irritate the hell out of them. Was Markus up late preparing this? She nudges Thog to join her at the bar for a pink beer. He seems to perk up, or at least stop scowling.

Several guests make their way over to Markus’ booth, greeting him and giddily offering coins, accepting chaste kisses on noses, cheeks, foreheads. Dont, Kyl’il, Moren, Horaven, even some random bargoers pay their homage. Markus is grinning contentedly. He’s alerted by a small tapping on the side of his stand. He looks down to see Charoth offering him a handful of dry beans and some pebbles. He laughs, picking up Charoth and setting him to sit on the counter. Markus sticks his offering in the jar, and gives him a little “kiss” of rubbing his nose against Charoth’s beak. He seems delighted, and raises his hand at Markus, who very excitedly high-fives it. Charoth hops down and scampers off. “Ashe! ASHE! Charoth high-fived me again!” Ashe gives a non-committal hum and ignores him, sipping her beverage. Markus pouts in her direction, but his pouting is interrupted by a curly-haired and bandaged individual approaching him.

"Colvin! What a pleasure to see you today, on this day of friendship and romance!" greets Markus.

"Day of friendship and romance? Is today something special? Is that why you invited us here?" asks Colvin.

"I'm so glad you asked, my dear! Today is Velafitine's Day, a day to celebrate love in all its forms! I've decided to celebrate with my humble booth here, and you're more than welcome to partake." he says, looking at Colvin with a flirtatious expression.

"Hmmmm... your sign says one kiss is one gold, what will twenty gold get me? It's all I have on me." he inquires, holding up a twenty gold piece. Markus' eyes light up.

"How about you hop on over here and I'll say when?" says Markus, waggling his eyebrows.

Colvin, taking the word 'hop' as literally as he takes everything, leaps over the counter, tackling Markus. He would have complained about his now sore ass, but his mouth is crushed against Colvin's, in a rapid flurry of rough and passionate kisses. Markus is caught off-guard. How is Colvin such a good kisser? Colvin? Of all people? He wouldn't have even thought the man had kissed anyone before! But here he was, caught in this assault of passion, lips, and just the right amount of tongue and teeth, Colvin's body pressed against his on the floor. My gods! He was in heaven! From the front of the booth, Markus' legs could be seen flailing, tail swaying excitedly, and his muffled noises filled the bar. Ashe and Thog look over a bit disturbed. Thog takes a swig from his drink. Kyr is flashing a big smile and two thumbs up.

Just as quickly as Colvin’s attack started, however, it was over. Colvin withdrew and stood up. Markus shakily stood and gripped the booth, a dazed and very pleased expression plastered on his face. “Well,” starts Colvin, “I think I got my money’s worth, but I don’t have anything else on me.” He turns, starting to leave. “Wait!” Markus shouts. As Colvin exits the bar, he shouts back “I have to find some more gold!” “We’re running a buy-one-get-one-free special right now!” Markus calls after Colvin, but he’s already gone. Markus slumps disappointed onto his counter.

Thog walks over. “Hey, cheer up Markus. Y’know, I think I’ll donate to your cause too.” he says, flipping the coin he took from the booth while Markus was distracted by Colvin in his palm. Ashe noticed, but hides a chuckle and says nothing. Perking up a bit, Markus leans over and waits for Thog to kiss him. But to his irritation, Thog simply pecks him lightly on the lips and withdraws. A smirk on his face, Thog says "Unsatisfactory. I want my money back."

But before Thog can pocket the coin, Markus grabs him up by the collar, pulling him forward.

"I said buy-one-get-one special!" Markus kisses Thog hard and deep. Surprised, Thog can’t bite back his moans. The kiss shifts into a tender one, passionate and wanting. Thog, shuddering, places his hands on Markus’ hips, but to his dismay, Markus pulls back, grinning smugly, knowing he’s gained the upper hand on Thog. “Thanks for your patronage.” goads Markus, taking the gold from Thog’s limp hand. He can only stare back at him red-faced and dazed. He doesn’t register Ashe cackling in the background. Without a word, he places a five gold coin tip in the jar and walks away. “Come again sometime!” Markus calls to him, waggling his fingers in a taunting wave.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Time passes. The day goes on, chatter filling the bar. Its’ patrons seem happy, talking amongst each other. Markus chats with his guests and his friends, drinking with them and generally having a good time, but soon he sighs as he notices people ignoring his booth in favor of mingling with each other and sampling his pink-dyed liquors and red wines. Then, the metaphorical lightbulb (or perhaps not so metaphorical, as a small flame flickers to life above him) goes off over Markus’ head.

“Attention!” Markus announces, marching over to his booth and tipping over the ‘♡1 gold = 1 kiss♡’ sign. “It is now free kiss happy hour!” Markus darts off after his friends, one by one, most of them laughing and running off, like playing a game of tag. Ashe and Thog tried to act irritated with him, but couldn’t help laughing and smiling as Markus peppered their cheeks. After all of his friends have been sufficiently smooched, he settles down to drink and talk, all of them smiling. Today was a good Velafitine’s Day after all, they decide.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Unexpectedly, someone kicks the door to the bar open, startling the patrons. It's Ballast McGee.

"So what's this I'm hearing about a kissing booth?" he says with his usual sleaze, eyes half-lidded and brows waggling.

Markus grabs his money jar, sets the booth on fire, runs through the bar, pushes Ballast over, jumps through the window and runs.

#thrilling intent #markus velafi #diana's rad art #writing #fics #pleasa lemme know what you think I'm VERY shy about my writing

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randomlynormalgirl · 5 years

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Joker Movie Thoughts

this is a bunch of jumbled, unstructured thoughts about the joker movie because I can’t stop thinking about it and I needed to write at least some of my thoughts down. might add to it every now and then. hope you enjoy it anyway if you end up reading it :)

MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!!!!!

watching the ‘joker’ movie felt like a very visceral experience for me. the movie manages to hold and intertwine many complicated themes alongside the plot so eloquently that I am not surprised it received an 8 minute standing ovation. I will be personally outraged if Joaquin phoenix does not receive an Oscar for his portrayal of the joker character because he manages to perfectly display the descent into madness as well as the tragedy of the movie. This movie manages to make you want to sympathise with Joker because the course of events leading up to him becoming the joker is very tragic and given the right circumstances would turn any sane man mad, yet you know you shouldn’t empathise with him because you understand he is mentally ill and that he sees violence as the only way to exact his revenge. Every scene in the movie is a trailer moment yet I didn’t feel like the movie was spoiled for me in any way.

Another aspect of the movie I liked is that Joaquin Phoenix manages to use his acting skill so well that he can subtly show how the joker’s descent into madness builds to a crescendo so spectacularly. How the first dance he does after his first kills is slow and controlled compared to that when he is fully embracing his madness and dancing on the steps so freely, because in his madness he is set free. It reminds me of Midsommar in that way slightly. Also, Joaquin’s body during the movie was also a strange sight and the dedication he put into the role to make himself look that skinny and ill simply astounded me. also, knowing that Joaquin improvised the dancing in the bathroom after Arthur's first three murders makes the scene all the more eerie to me. i hope he looked after himself after he finished filming for the movie because i dread another heath ledger situation, i don't think my heart could take it

I also appreciated that despite the amount of violence in the movie, a lot of the deaths are actually not shown. I think it’s a sign of good acting and good directing when the audience can guess what’s happened behind the scenes just from a few context clues (such as the end of the movie when he leaves the therapists office trailing bloody footprints)

I saw someone on twitter say that the joker movie is just Marxism in practise and honestly I can't fault their logic. The working class leading a violent revolution against the top 1% because they want better than the shitty lower hand they have been dealt, the fact that the newspapers in the film literally call it the 'kill the rich' revolution, the fact that Thomas Wayne literally calls them all clowns and it only ends up spurring on the revolt further. i mean, i can definitely see it.

The story is heartbreaking because it is believable. Watching as a mentally ill man is pushed to the extreme due to funding cuts for his therapy which ultimately stopped him getting the medication he needed to stay sane, poverty, an abusive childhood, a mentally ill mother whilst also living in a classist society where the working class are oppressed by people like Thomas Wayne. A good example of this to me is his first trio of murders; he only killed them because the three Wall Street type guys were going to beat him to death had he not pulled out the gun to kill them, yet it is certain that if Arthur had been killed by those men no one would care because he was not someone worth reporting on in the eyes on the media. In short, anyone below middle class in Gotham were considered nobody and they had enough. Arthur merely sparked the rebellion.

I enjoyed how the joker didn’t plan to become a political figure in the movie. He unintentionally becomes a martyr to the people of Gotham and how that tied in with the origins of batman was a very cool moment for me as part of the audience.

To add to this, the ending of the movie being dubious was an interested touch. Throughout the movie we learn that we cannot always trust Arthur’s perspective. From his fantasy of being on his idol’s TV show, down to his delusion of the romance between him and Sophie. So, the idea that the end of the movie suggesting it was all in his imagination was interesting to me. I, however, don’t subscribe to such a theory because I think the final flash of Bruce with his dead parents was the director giving us that subtle hint that this time the joker wasn’t just dreaming of being successful and loved by many, it was real this time. A slightly less important note but the aesthetic of the whole movie was just very grainy and gritty and fit the film? like the old school format, the cinematography and the fucking SOUNDTRACK. 'that's life' by Frank Sinatra is one if my favourite songs and the fact is features so heavily in this movie was a really cool moment for me? i also really liked the whole riot scene; it just felt really raw and gritty and like a true climax to the joker's story as he finally becomes the persona fully and finds his new identity as the figurehead for this revolution in Gotham

Of course, I cannot talk about this film without mentioning my beloved heath ledger and his depiction of the joker, and the references and similarities between the two. Let me make one thing clear; phoenix’s and ledger’s joker are nowhere near the same. I remember reading that Joaquin and heath were very good friends, and that Joaquin did not in anyway want to impose on heath’s legacy. He understands how legendary that role was and said while he loves that portrayal he didn’t want to be a cheap imitation. I believe he has fully achieved such a feat but I cannot help but compare. Some ‘Easter eggs’ or possible homages to heath that I recognised were:

-the scene where Arthur is in the back of the police car reminded me very much of that scene in the dark knight where joker steals the cop car (ledger / phoenix). I realise that is is also supposed to parallel the scene earlier where he is sat all sad on the bus compared to how happy he looks in the police car but i didn't quite get it straight away.

-Arthur using his own blood to paint the smile on his face (x) after the car crash reminded me of the ledger makeup look

-Arthur saying to Sophie that he ‘had a bad day’ reminded me instantly of when heath ledger’s joker said something along the lines of ‘everyone is just one bad day away from being like me’

none-Ledger related Easter eggs I noticed too were:

-the protesters laying Arthur across the hood of the crashed cop car Jesus-style to signify that he's saintly to them was a nice touch -Bruce coming down the fireman’s pole was reminiscent of the Adam west batman series where they had to come down the fireman’s pole

-the joker being attached to the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents (although less directly in this depiction)

-the font of the late night talk show is the same as batman the animated series

-I’ve seen some people say that the backdrop of the talk show is the same during the titles of the animated series too

-joker killing the host was reminiscent of the dark knight returns where joker kills the audience of a TV talk show

-apparently the look of this joker is similar to that of one of his video game iterations but I can’t find that -the sort of reference to the inspiration behind the entire joker character by having Arthur have a condition where he can't help but laugh in certain situations, when the joker was based on the film 'the man who laughs' where a man is cursed to never stop smiling no matter how much he tries -major inspiration from taxi driver, which also features Robert De Niro so its a cool touch -some kind of reference to the movie 'the king of comedy', a movie centring around a person obsessed with a tv show host which has similar plot points and also features robert de niro again which is pretty cool

#joker #joker movie #joaquin phoenix #dc #dc comics #batman #joker spoilers #joker review

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rapuvdayear · 5 years

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2000: “Ghetto Qu’ran (Forgive Me)” 50 Cent (Trackmaster Ent./Columbia)

It’s been over a year since I teased the idea of doing a post about my favorite 50 Cent tracks, so I guess now is as good a time as ever to get around to it!

With the exception of maybe Kanye, I can’t think of another rapper with more raw talent whose career has been more disappointing. Obviously both Ye and Fiddy have been monstrously successful, but IMO they either burned brightly before descending into white supremacy apologia (Kanye) or never achieved their best possible trajectory (50). It’s not an accident to put them together in this way, either; just 12 years ago next month they faced off in what turned out to be a very underwhelming battle over whose album would sell better (this was back when album sales, not streaming numbers, still meant something). In many ways, it was a crossroads for each artist: Kanye dropped what I believe was his magnum opus, then followed it up with his fourth-best album, third-best album, and second-best album, before dropping off a cliff, while 50′s release basically removed him from the conversation about who was relevant in rap (“My Gun Go Off” and “I Get Money” are honorable mentions for the list below, but otherwise Curtis is entirely forgettable).

These days, 50 has gone the Ice Cube route and is probably more recognizable as an actor than as a rapper. So, it’s hard to remember that once upon a time he was the savior of gangsta rap and (co-)author of one of the 25 greatest albums of all time. He beat the odds to survive a shooting, link up with the two heaviest hitters (at the time) in the rap game, and even be included on some GOAT lists. He also essentially established the “flood the streets with mixtapes before your album drops” strategy of self-promotion that Gucci, Weezy, and even Drake would follow in the days before Soundcloud was the go-to resource for building a rep. He singlehandedly destroyed a rival’s career, launched a clothing line, video game, and music label, and made a halfway-decent biopic. And then... he just sort of petered out.

But! 50 is also responsible for some of my all-time favorite raps, which is why it’s so frustrating to me that he never lived up to the buzz surrounding him back in 2003. These are my five favorites, listed chronologically, with some commentary:

1) “Ghetto Qu’ran (Forgive Me)” (2000) Before the G-Unit days and before Eminem and Dre helped launch him to superstardom, Curtis Jackson was an up and coming rapper from Queens who had attracted the attention of another rap legend, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay. A mutual friend introduced 19 year-old 50 to Jay back in 1996, and the veteran producer/DJ gave him a crash course in how to write songs and signed him to his fledgling label. The business relationship didn’t work out, but it helped lead 50 to Columbia Records’ Trackmasters imprint where he recorded Power of the Dollar in 1999. However, this debut album would never see the light of day after 50 was shot nine times while sitting in a friend’s car and subsequently dropped by Columbia. In the wake of the shooting--and then later, after 50 blew the fuck up in 2003--it became a sort of “lost cult classic” among rap fans. “How To Rob” got the most attention at the time, a funny-yet-vicious song demonstrating 50′s hunger through fantasies about sticking up famous rappers and R&B stars (the song was also clearly an homage to Biggie’s unreleased “Dreams,” and provoked an oblique diss from Ghostface). But “Ghetto Qu’ran” has had a more lasting impact, primarily because of how it was rumored to be the source of 50′s shooting, Jam Master Jay’s murder, and the Ja Rule/Murder Inc. beef. While all of that intrigue is important to rap lore, it distracts from the fact that it’s a near perfect rap song from a technical perspective: a catchy hook, a fantastic beat and sample, an effortless flow, and a well-crafted story that is equal parts celebration of the Queens underworld and subtle shots at street legends. Seriously, this is akin to what traveling bards used to do in medieval Europe, what poets in Ancient Greece wrote, what west African griots did/do, and what narcocorrido artists do now. If you want to learn about the Supreme Team, Pappy Mason, the Corley Family, and the Rich Porter/Alpo crew in Harlem, then this is a good place to start; as 50 puts it, “consider this the first chapter of the ghetto’s Qu’ran.” The secondary title to this track--“Forgive Me”--has a double meaning now. It was initially a plea to forgive 50 for the pain he caused in his criminal life but in retrospect an appeal to the figures whose names he drops. Also, it’s interesting to listen to this first and then compare 50′s voice with the next four tracks: this was recorded before the shooting, which left a bullet fragment lodged in his tongue that affected his speech and gave him his now-distinctive flow.

2) “Heat” (2003) There are several standouts on Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (“Many Men,” “Back Down,” “What Up Gangsta,” “Patiently Waiting,” and “Poor Lil’ Rich” spring to mind, and I will always love “21 Questions” for the “I love you like a fat kid loves cake” line alone) but this one has always been my fave. It’s a perfect distillation of the image that 50 was trying to project when he burst onto the scene: a hood-hardened gangster who wouldn’t hesitate to do his enemies harm. And given his recent history, you could believe him, too! There’s really nothing about this song that should be praised in any way, but I’ve been thinking about the gravity of the following line a lot in the past month or so: “The summertime is a killing season/ It’s hot out this bitch, that’s a good enough reason.” Also, 50′s boast “the DA can play this motherfucking tape in court” *has* to be one of the inspirations behind this great Key & Peele sketch, right?

3) “A Baltimore Love Thing” (2005) The Massacre was incredibly disappointing on the whole. I can remember clearly sitting around with my friends in a dorm room at the Shoreland listening to it all the way through the day that it dropped, wanting to love it but slowly realizing that it wasn’t going to live up to our expectations. “Ski Mask Way” could be an honorable mention on this list, and “Piggy Bank” is kind of funny, but otherwise it’s a steaming pile of shit. “Baltimore Love Thing,” though, is a masterpiece. It’s incredibly dark, rapped from the perspective of heroin itself (sort of like what Nas’s “I Gave You Power” does for guns) in order to detail the destruction that addiction--and, by extension, drug trafficking--leaves in its wake. Even more fucked up, 50-as-heroin voices an abusive partner addressing a woman, threatening her should she ever try to leave him. For my money, “You broke my heart, you dirty bitch, I won’t forget what you did/ If you give birth, I’ll already be in love with your kids” is one of the coldest lines in the annals of rap, full stop. In the second verse, he switches to the flip side of an abuser’s mindset: “I never steer you wrong, if you hyper I make you calm/ I’ll be your incentive, your reason for you to move forward.” All in all, it’s a great concept song that shows off 50′s range as a rapper... and is a testament to what he could have been.

4) “Hustler’s Ambition” (2005) Goddamn, I fucking love everything about this song! The beat is fantastic (great sample, btw), prefiguring the sound on a future great mixtape from the G-Unit crew. 50′s flow here is flawless, arguably the best, smoothest he’s ever been. This was basically the “theme” for 2005′s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ film, and tells the story of his come up in the drug game (or, at least, 50′s version of his carefully constructed hagiography). The lyrics are the true gems here, so I’ll just let a few of the standouts speak for themselves:

“Check my logic: fiends don’t like seeds in they weed, shit/ Send me them seeds, I’ll grow ‘em what they need”

“I sell anything, I’m a hustler, I know how to grind/ Step on grapes, put it in water, and tell you it’s wine”

“I made plans to make it, a prisoner of the state/ Now I can invite your ass out to my estate”

“Pour Cristal in the blender, make a protein shake”

and finally

“The feds watch me, icy, they can’t stop me/ Racists pointing at me, ‘Look at *****race’: Hello!”

5) “Ghetto Like A Motherfucker” (2011) I remember first encountering this track on a Tumblr compilation (I think?) called Don’t Fuck This Up, Curtis! and allowing myself to get excited that the old 50 was back! As the compilation’s name implies, around that time 50 had been releasing a string of online-only singles that were better than anything he’d put out in five or so years, and so there was some hope that he’d soon be making a triumphant return to the rap game. Sadly, this was not to be. But I still bang this track every month or so. The idea here was that 50 had written something, set it to a very sparse, stripped-down beat, and posted it online as an invitation for DIY rap producers to play with it and layer their own compositions on top of it. In that sense, it represented a melange of rap’s earliest roots--dudes spitting over vinyl cuts in basements and parks, just fucking around and having fun--and the possibilities afforded by the digital age and rap’s embrace of online platforms for mixing and remixing material (on a side note, I like to think of this as part of 21st century rap’s “punk rock” aesthetic, and would argue that this genre has done it better than any other). As with “Hustler’s Ambition,” “Baltimore Love Thing,” and “Ghetto Qu’ran,” this track gives 50 a chance to really showcase his talents as a writer and a rapper. The lyrics are as grimy as the beat, painting a picture of urban poverty and pre-fame 50, and 50 switches up his flow at multiple points throughout. Here are some of my favorite lines:

“Slim chance I’ma go back to killing roaches/ Be quiet, you can hear the rats in the wall/ Make you wanna pump crack ‘til you stack racks”

“Dice game, shake ‘em up, praying’ for a 6/ The wolves out there hungry, they lookin’ for a lick”

“****** pissed on the staircase, in the elevator/ Now I’m pissed cuz I’m starting to smell like piss, player”

and

“All a ***** need is a block and a connect/ And a box of 9 MMs to load in the TEC.”

50′s last two studio albums--Before I Self Destruct and Animal Ambition--honestly weren’t half-bad; I would venture so far as to say that they were both better than The Massacre and Curtis. But for 50 it was too little, too late, really. Too many rappers had come along since then doing what he did, only better and fresher. This is a Migos world now; we’re just living in it. And so, I’m left to ponder what could have been.

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ebaeschnbliah · 6 years

Photo

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Last week I read another one of @sagestreet 's wonderful metas. Darth Vader ('Sherlock') In my comment I refered to the Klingons and the Cowboys in black hats, who are also mentioned in that scene in TFP. If 'Darth Vader' is of meaning (which I'm convinced of) then the Klingons and the Cowboys with the black hats are most likely of meaning too. This thought wouldn't leave my head. Until I remembered having already seen a Klingon wearing a black hat .... Lieutenant Commander Worf from the starship Enterprise. I rewatched the episode where this occurs and now I'm a bit blown away.

Some keywords ...

Klingons - black hats - fathers and sons - the android who desires to feel emotions - positronic brain malfunction - empath in the role of the mysterious stranger - the Wild West - a son in prison - a son abducted - crossdressing - inside a created story - suddenly it's not a game anymore - character shifting - reluctantly wearing a hat to play a role - no, no, no, this is too easy - Spot the cat ....

Favourite Quote: Data when asked about Geordi's slowly growíng beard:

"As is the case with many natural growth processes, it is difficult to envision the end product based on an intermediate stage."

In case you are interested, feel free to engage in Star Trek TNG, Season 6, Episode 8:

A Fistful of Datas

________________________________________________________________

About Lieutenant Commander Data

Data is an android - a machine - who desires nothing more than to become human one day and to experience emotions. Data is also a great admirer of Sherlock Holmes. Especially of his ability to solve mysteries by careful examination of the available evidence. He loves to quote Holmes (x x) and he played that character on the holodeck (x) However, Sherlock Holmes doesn't feature in this episode .... but maybe the episode features in Sherlock BBC. Unless, of course, it's just coincidence ...

A sheduled appointment is postponed for two days. Many members of the Enterprise are taking advantage of the delay to pursue their own projects.

La Forge and Data get the permission to experiment on a new interface between Data’s positronic brain and the ship’s computer. This would allow Data to act as an emergency backup in the event of a ship-wide systems failure. Soon it turns out that this experiment causes some computer problems. Parts of the ship’s computer get altered and are replaced by Data’s personal programming. Systems affected by the malfunction are the library, the replicator selection and the recreational programming ... the holodeck. Nothing critical, it would seem.

As a result ….

a piece of Mozart changes to Dvorak’s The Slavonic Dances, because Data had been analysing the collected works of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak.

a theatre play is replaced by Data’s poem 'Ode to Spot’, dedicated to his cat.

the replicators on some decks are producing nothing but the cat food Data had been formulating for Spot. (X)

an interaction between Data’s personal programming and the programming of the holodeck occurs. It replaces parts of Data’s memory structures with the files that are currently activated. Files related to the nineteenth century American West. Suddenly Data's behaviour changes and he starts talking like someone out of that time, using terms like ... 'Howdy, Commander' ... 'You got it, partner' ... 'Vamoose, you little varmint' ... 'Commander. You just sit tight. We'll have this all fixed up in time for supper'

About Lieutenant Commander Worf and his son Alexander

The relationship between father and son is a difficult one. Alexander was raised by his mother K'Ehleyr, a half-human half-klingon embassador of the Klingon Empire. Worf, an orphan himself and raised by humans on Earth, didn’t know for years about the existance of his son. Soon after K'Ehleyr revealed the truth to Worf she got killed. Worf acknowleded his son but sent him away to Earth to be raised by his own former foster parents. Some time later Alexander is brought back to the Enterprise. Worf learns that there are difficulies, problems with adjusting, that his adoptive parents feel too old for the challenge to deal once again wth a Klingon child … in short, Alexander needs his father. At first Worf doesn’t feel ready nor competent enough to deal with the new situation. He decides to send Alexander away again. This time to a Klingon school. Then he reconsiders the decision and both - father and son - agree to face their relationship problems together. This is why - one day - Alexander programmes an adventurous play on the holodeck which he can take on together with his father …. who is not very enthusiastic about it.

Deadwood. Nineteenth century Earth. The Ancient West

WORF: What is our function here? ALEXANDER: You’re the Sheriff and I’m the deputy. WORF: So, we are in law enforcement. ALEXANDER: Right.

And so the programme starts like many Western stories …. a little town under a glaring sun ... a sheriff and his deputy are walking slowly down a deserted main street.

The sound of a gunshot from the saloon ... a man on the piano ... poker players ... a mysterious stranger ... some bad guys who aren’t really a match for sheriff Worf. Alexander doesn't like it.

ALEXANDER: No, no, no. Computer, freeze programme. WORF: What is wrong? ALEXANDER: That was too easy. It has to be harder to beat the bad guys. Otherwise, it’s no fun. Computer, increase programme difficulty to level four. Go back to where my father and I first walked into the saloon. Come on, Father.

Alexander and Worf leave the saloon and the programme starts once more. This time the bad guys are clearly more dangerous and not as easy to subdue. The owner of the saloon is a woman called Annie.

Unexpected for Worf - not for Alexander - they receive help from a woman with a gun. She is DeannaTroi, who serves as ship’s councelor aboard the Enterprise. As a half-Betazoid, Deanna Troi is capable of extra-sensory empathy. Alexander asked her to join them because Counsellor Troi loves Western stories.

TROI: My father used to read me stories from the Ancient West when I was a little girl. I must admit, I always wanted to play the part of the mysterious stranger.

Eli Hollander, the bad guy, gets arrested. Sheriff Worf, deputy Alexander and Durango, the mysterious stranger, lock him up in the prison cell. As it turns out, Eli Hollander has a dad as well.

ELI: Frankly, I don’t think I’ll be around here that long. Not after my old man hears about this. WORF: What old man are you referring to? ELI: My pa. When he breaks me out of this tin can, the gravedigger’ll be working overtime.

At this point things start getting out of hand because of the experiment Data and La Forge are cónducteding. Deputy Alexander goes missing.

In the saloon sheriff Worf meets Frank Hollander, Eli’s dad, and learns that the man has abducted his deputy. Most alarming is the fact that Frank Hollander looks like Commander Data.

DATA-FRANK: I ain’t in the mood for games, Sheriff.

And indeed, this isn’t a game anymore. The holodeck safeguards are out of order. Worf gets shot in the arm and is actually injured. They are in trouble and it gets worse. When Worf comes back to the prison, Eli Hollander has also transformed into Data.

Desperately but without success they try to end the programme. There is only one hope.

TROI: We have to remember, even though the holodeck safeguards may be off, this is still a programme. If we can just get to the end of this story the way it was designed to play out, the programme will automatically terminate.

And so they play along as best they can. Data-Frank Hollander visits his son Data-Eli in prison to comfort him and to propose an exchange with the abducted deputy Alexander.

DATA-FRANK: You sit tight, boy. I’ll have you home in time for supper. (to Sheriff Worf) I’m going to give you one more opportunity, Sheriff, to avoid a ugly situation. Release my boy. WORF: I have reconsidered your offer. I will release your son in exchange for my deputy. DATA-FRANK: I thought you might have a change of heart. Meet me in two hours. You be in front of the saloon. I’ll be in front of the livery station. Strangers ain’t invited.

Two fathers and two sons meet under the glaring sunshine in the middle of a deserted main street.

Deanna Troi’s warning words turn out to be true … that villains in Western stories can’t ever be trusted.

TROI: They’re not concerned with honour, Worf. This is the Ancient West. There’s a gunfighter out there who has the speed and accuracy of an android. And in two hours, he’s going to try to kill you.

Data-Frank Hollander doesn’t come alone to reclaim his son. Another two outlaws are lurking near the street … behind a door, on top of a roof … waiting to interfere. And both of them have turned into Data’s as well.

Then the gunfight is over. As mentioned by Deanna Troi, the computer programme should automatically end now. Surprisingly, it doesn’t. It seems the story isn’t quite over yet.

To Worf’s utter shock and surprise, Annie, the lady who owns the saloon, approaches him. She hugs and kisses the sheriff enthusiastically …. and she too looks now like Data ….

DATA-ANNIE: Sheriff! You’re as handy with a shooting iron as you are with a woman’s heart. WORF: (panic-stricken) Computer, end programme! Computer! Now!

After that strange adventure Alexander heavily doubts that his father will ever again engage with him in a similar play on the holodeck. Turns out … he is mistaken …

WORF: The town of Deadwood may face danger once again. If they do, they will need a sheriff and a deputy.

And back in the main room ..... in front of the mirror .... :)))

.... while the Enterprise flys off into the sunset of an alien star ....

Some intersting background information

The director of this episode is Patrick Stewart.

The episode title is an homage to the Clint Eastwood film A Fistful of Dollars.

The original title was The Good, the Bad and the Klingon, a paraphrase of the title of Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The plot is a homage to Rio Bravo.

In an interview Stewart mentions that for this episode he watched the movie Shane for inspiration regarding westerns. A scene from Shane was taken by Stewart and copied as the one where Alexander looks out of the bottom of the saloon doors.

I leave you to your own deductions.

Source of script (X) Wikipedia (X) Memory-Alpha (X)

Mai, 2018

@gosherlocked @sagestreet @raggedyblue @possiblyimbiassed @sarahthecoat @221bloodnun @loveismyrevolution @sherlockshadow

#a fistful of datas #star trek #tng #klingons #black hats #the final problem

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

Text

Missed Classic: Borrowed Time – Won! And Final Rating

Written by Joe Pranevich

It seems like only two days ago that we started our look at Borrowed Time, the first game by Subway Software and a fun diversion as I prepare for Batman Returns. This is the first adventure game created by “The Game Doctor”, William Kunkel, during a brief period where he transitioned from game journalist to game designer. We left off last week after an extended chase sequence as my character, the hardboiled detective Sam Hawlow, survived an attempt on his life.

The plot thickens right away. As soon as I step out of the bar where I had fled, my assistant Iris finds me. Someone has kidnapped my ex-wife Rita; Iris recommends that I search Rita’s apartment for clues. I learned a few minutes earlier that Rita was on good terms with one of the thugs, Fred Mongo, so I do not understand why she was kidnapped. Was she double-crossed? Is this a setup intended to lure me to my death? Was she so upset about the unpaid alimony that she would seek out the mob, only to end up in over her head? I’ll have to play some more to find out. Although my character should know where her apartment is located, I will need to explore the city to find it. Let’s see what we see!

The dogs kids love to bite!

Rather than give you the usual boring play-by-play, let’s cut to the chase and I’ll summarize each area as I found it. The streets are in a grid so explaining the layout isn’t so bad:

First Avenue, running west to east, is where my office and the bar are located. Walking down the street to the west, I discover Hawkey’s newsstand, a vendor selling hotdogs, and a shack at the end of the road. Hawkey insults his own newspaper and won’t sell me any of them. In contrast, the hotdog stand is happy to sell me a weiner, but we eat it immediately rather than stashing it in inventory for later use. I’ll return to the shack in a bit. The hotel that I raced through at the beginning of the game has been closed due to “vandals”, but my office is still open. Shame there’s nothing new there.

The next street to the south is Sixth Avenue, so thank heavens for narrative compression. From east to west, that street features a police station, a park, Bruce Light’s house, a Medical Office, and a pile of trash at the end of the street. The park consists of two rooms: a statue of George Washington and a shed with a combination lock on it. I’ll be on the lookout for a combo. The trash at the end of the street hides a bone, which I pocket in true adventure style. Bruce’s house can’t be explored without a search warrant, but we catch a glimpse of some pill bottles on his table.

Not completely animated, but these scenes give the impression of a living city.

To the north of First is Polk Street, a residential area. I find a house guarded by a “bruiser”, Rita’s apartment, the offices of a company named “G&W”, and a parking lot. There’s a brief scene the first time you arrive at the guarded house: a woman goes, but comes out quickly flanked by a couple of goons before they all get into a cab. I don’t recognize her or the thugs so I have no idea if this scene is significant.

The only location not on those three east-west streets is a post office, tucked away between First and Sixth. The post office has a long hallway of locked PO boxes which seems promising. My bet is that I will find a key to one of them later.

I had to work all of that out over several restores. There seems to be an internal timer where if you don’t trigger some action to advance the plot every few turns, the mob catches up to you and eventually kills you. This gives the game a constant forward pressure, but it makes exploring difficult and is unfair to someone just trying to get the lay of the land. Before long, I got into the habit of saving whenever I think I found a clue, then using that to iterate until I find the next one. I use that trick to also ensure that I move from clue to clue as efficiently as possible, just in case there is an overall timer too.

Not the Kidnap Victim We Were Looking For

While I explore, I stumble onto some situations that warrant further investigation. The first of these is at the shack on First Avenue. Fred Mogo steps out just as I arrive, but hails a cab and speeds away before he sees me. The door to the shack is locked, but a little bit of shoulder-pressure knocks it down easily enough. Inside is the tied up figure of Mavis Brown, the barmaid who gave me advice then ran at the beginning of the game.

I admit that I had a complete “blue screen” moment when I arrived. Had I won the game already? Did I find my kidnapped wife without even trying? No! My ex-wife’s name is Rita Sweeny. Mavis Brown was also kidnapped, although we didn’t learn that until we found her here. Checking out the place, I also discover a white tube and a novel, Babes and Bullets by Bob Tucker. I free Mavis and she tells me that she was kidnapped because she was seen talking to Doris Maglam. Who is that? Doris had told Mavis that Fred has to see someone about a car, but why that information is so sensitive as to warrant a kidnapping is unknown. She believes that Fred thinks she knows more than she does. It sounds like I’ll need to see Doris myself. The tube contains medication for Fred from Dr. Lafferty, but it’s not clear what the medication is for. The novel doesn’t seem important, but Fred was using a receipt from Stiles Safe Park– including a license plate number– as a bookmark. Is this the car that Fred is interested in? Mavis heads out in a few turns and I follow suit.

Let’s pause a second to talk about Bob Tucker. Unless I miss my mark, this is a reference to a famous fanzine and science fiction author from the 1930s through the early 2000s. “Bob” Tucker was a pen name used by Wilson Tucker while writing fandom materials starting in the 1930s. I have tracked down twenty novels and many short stories that Tucker sold starting in 1941, but no “Babes and Bullets”. Given Kunkel’s deep experience with fan magazines and fandom communities, I would not be surprised to learn that this was a “deep cut” and that Tucker really did have a self-published story or novella by that name, even in 1934. Even if not, it’s a nice homage.

I head to the police station to tell them to arrest Fred, but they tell me that they need to catch him red handed. I saw him leave the scene of the crime. There is a witness who would testify that he locked her up, plus we found prescription medication in his name at the scene of the crime. What more could they possibly need? I resolve to ask at the doctor’s office next.

HIPAA Violation

With a map of the area, finding finding the doctor’s office is no sweat. I head inside and am confronted by a nurse. She asks if I am a patient and I honestly answer “no”. She asks me to sit in the waiting area… and I wait and wait and wait. I eventually restore and tell her “yes” instead. She then immediately leads me into a consultation room. I search it to find some bandages in the desk, but what’s more important is what I see through an open doorway into an examination room: Fred Mongo is here, being treated by the doctor for something; I can see the doctor bandaging his hands. This must relate somehow to the prescription that I found in the shack, although I am not sure how yet. If I try to confront Mongo or even stay too long in the consultation room, some goons ambush me and drop me unconscious back into the street. Any further attempts to get into the office results in the receptionist threatening to call the cops on me. I hope I found everything I needed.

Next door to the doctor’s office is Bruce Light’s house– I know this from the description but I have no idea who he is. He lets me in when I knock and I am shocked to discover dozens of pill bottles out in view on his front table. He blocks any attempt to go further into his house without a search warrant. I’m not sure how or if it connects to Fred’s doctor issues, but he seems like he’s up to something. I’ll come back later.

Visiting the Ex

Getting into Rita’s apartment is easy if you apply a little bit of force: we have to break down the door. Immediately after entering, someone attacks me from behind and I am knocked unconscious. When I wake up, I am dangling from the ceiling pipes with my hands tied above me. There’s not much exploring that I can do in this situation, but luckily a nearly table contains some matches and a candle. Using absolutely superhuman feats of skill, I am able to pick up both with my feet and toss them up to my tied hands. It seems impossible, and the game text plays off the silliness of completing this action. With the matches, it is easy work to light the candle to burn the rope that holds my hands to the bar. I drop to the floor unharmed and continue investigating.

My first observation is that everything is covered with dust. Either Rita doesn’t actually live here or she doesn’t clean much. I search the kitchen and come up with my next clue: a receipt for some burn salve. It costs exactly the same about as the white tube says on the label so they must be one and the same. That answers a few questions but opens a few more: Rita must have been helping Fred Mongo. After he burned his hands, he sought medical treatment and needed Rita to help him buy or apply the salve. Was he at the doctor getting his bandages replaced? Fred and Rita must be in cahoots– but why? And how did Fred burn his hands?

This is the point in the game where the inventory limit is starting to matter. We are able to hold eight items, two of which must be our wallet and gun. That leaves six slots but my hands are already full. I drop the glass shard so that I can pick up the receipt; I doubt I will need that again.

I wish I had found these earlier…

Case Files

Although my screenshots are of the Amiga version, up to this point I had been playing the DOS version. Realizing how much nicer the Amiga was, I figured out FS-UAE and downloaded the correct disk image. In the process, I end up playing over the whole start again and producing the lovely screenshots that you see above.

But in the second pass, I find a major missing font of knowledge, right at the start of the game: my case files. In your office, you can browse your records to get a list of open and recently closed cases. They shed a ton of light on what is going on in the game, so much so that I am surprised that I worked out as much as I did without them.

They are:

Case #1 – We are investigating Fred Mogo for the arson of Acme Paper. We’ve seen Fred twice now, first when we saw him leave the shed where Mavis was being held and then in the doctor’s office. The burn salve that we found (and connected to my ex-wife, Rita) must be to help him heal from wounds that he received during that attack.

Case #2 – We investigated F. Nagler for his political activities at the request of his employer. We found him innocent, but I’m not sure what kind of “political activities” he could have been involved in. Unionizing? Gosh, is he a socialist?

Case #3 – We investigated missing money at the Dublin Rose bar next door, discovering that Ms. Athlea was nicking from her employer to buy a sports car.

Case #4 – I am helping the FBI gather evidence against “Boss” Farnham. They are 90% sure that he is a mob boss, but need help to pin it on him. Doesn’t a nickname like “Boss” give it away?

Case #5 – G&W Inc. hired me to track down an embezzling employee. I worked out that it was Jim Schuman, but they demote rather than fire him. Case closed, even if that was a terrible decision on their part.

Case #6 – Morris Motors hired me to investigate Doris Maglam who was 60 days late for her car payment. We found her and the car was repossessed, now sitting at Stiles Park. Doris is who Mavis was talking to when Fred nabbed her; he seems to be interested in this car and I should find that parking lot.

Case #7 – We are investigating R. M. Donald, a “burger bandit” who is on the run. I’m sure he’d eat like a burger king, if he just went in (and out) of a Wendy’s. Robble, robble!

Of those, we know that we are dealing with #1, #4, and #6. I’m not really sure how pertinent any of the others are, but #7 is clearly just a fast food joke.

Duking It Out in the Parking Lot

When you arrive at the parking lot for the first time, there is a scene where Jake, the parking attendant, and Fred Mongo are arguing. Jake refuses to release a DeSoto to Fred because it’s been repossessed. My guess is that he left something in the car that he doesn’t want anyone to find, possibly pointing to his arson case. If I come back later, the argument is over and Fred is gone. At that point, I try to show Jake the receipt to find the car, or just to search around and see if I can find it myself, but neither does anything.

But here is where I get stuck. I can find nothing new to do. I cannot get past the thug into the townhouse, find a key to the safe deposit box, or anything else. I resolve to take a hint: I need to break up the argument.

I have to restore to catch the argument in progress, but that is not too big of a deal. If I flash my gun at Fred and Jake, they stop fighting. Jake tells me that Fred was trying to take burned gloves and three cans of lighter fluid from the impounded car including. Aha! That is proof that Fred was involved in the arson. A turn or two later, Jake calls the police and they tell me that I have to show them evidence. When I show them the burn cream, the receipt, the lighter fluid, and the gloves– one at a time– they tell me that they are interested but there isn’t enough evidence. When I show the last item, they are satisfied and arrest Mr. Mongo for arson.On his way to the big house, Fred rats out his former boss Farnham. He says that he hid a key in Rita’s apartment that opens box 999 at the post office. He says that there is enough evidence there to send Farnham away for good.

Seeing Fred taken away in handcuffs is oddly satisfying.

The Chase II: More Chasing

Searching Rita’s again, I find a key hidden behind the stove. Fetching it is more difficult than it looks since I burn my hands and drop everything. I need to apply the bandages before I can gather up my things and continue.

Using the key at the post office, I am surprised to only discover a poem: “In the country, in the city, under the father’s eye, dig six feet and you’ll have all that money can buy.” It’s not a particularly good poem, but it does have the number 6316 written on the back. What could that be used for? The shed! I head to the shed in the park next and try that combination on the lock. It works! Unfortunately, that only contains a shovel. But “under the father’s eye” is pretty clearly a reference to the George Washington statue so I go there to dig. I discover a suitcase!

Founding father!

Unfortunately, thugs emerge from all directions. I don’t have time to do anything except run; any other action kills me. I head north and find thugs coming from up the street. The only safe direction I can go is west but when I arrive at the end of the street (where I found the bone earlier), I am killed when I turn north. It takes more than a minute to realize that I can “hide” in the trash. Inside is a very angry dog, but he calms down when I return his bone. Leaving the pile too quickly gets me killed, but I can head east once the thugs pass.

The way east leads to the police station and that is where I head next. I tell them to arrest Farnham based on the evidence in the case and they take me to his headquarters. I hand over the suitcase as well as the folder describing embezzlement that is contained inside, but they are not enough. The police accuse me of sending them on a wild goose chase. Farnham stays a free man and I’m stuck.

Alas, I was unable to arrest him this time.

Taking a Hint

After thrashing about a bit and remembering that I’m supposed to be playing Batman Returns, I give up and consult a walkthrough. It’s not as satisfying, but it does get me to the end. I am satisfied that I came close to solving the game, but I needed two more bits of evidence to send Farnham up the creek.

The first thing I didn’t do properly was handle the thugs in the bar. They scared Mavis out and into the street where she was picked up by Fred, but I would not have thought to threaten them with my gun… twice… to learn where Lebock’s hideout is and how to get in. I wasn’t even thinking about Lebock. My only note on him is that he is “Farnham’s man” and that he was last seen with Rita and Fred. After the second threat, they tell me that the password is “tinplayer”. I head up to the building guarded by the bruiser to try it out.

This leads me into another “escape” puzzle. When I arrive at Lebock’s place, he is sitting in a chair by the fire. He kicks me out immediately unless I run east into his dining room. There, I can grab a candlestick and use it to knock out the thugs that are following me. I can then proceed further east and out the back door to emerge at the street. Any deviation gets me shot. All good so far? No. I missed some evidence! What I needed to do was immediately lock the door. Somehow, I don’t get shot or kicked out and Lebock acts defensive. That gives me time to search the fireplace for a piece of partly-burned paper documenting his wrong-doings and then I flee east as before.

The second bit that I missed was due to a mapping error. There were rooms west of the parking lot and that lead to the mob headquarters and another house. If you visit Farnham without the police, you can watch him say “hiyo” to his dogs to calm then. He won’t help me because he’s a mob boss and I’m a detective, but the “hiyo” is what I needed to get past a group of vicious dogs guarding the other house. Inside, I find Rita and Mr. Wainwright which is doubly impressive because I didn’t realize he was kidnapped or know who he is at all. If I talk to him after the rescue, he hands over an audit report that proves money laundering. I take all that evidence to the police (with the rest that I had found earlier) and I win! Farnham is going to jail for a long time.

Time played: 4 hrs 00 min

Nothing but the best minimum-security prison for you!

Final Rating

That was fun, if not particularly long. I’m used to the deep writing and twists and turns of an Infocom adventure and this wasn’t quite that. It reminds me of Scott Adams-style adventures like the Questprobe ones that I played, but more sophisticated in its approach to storytelling. There is a very rough sophistication here that I can’t put my finger on but which demonstrates a promise for future games. Let’s see how the score comes out.

Puzzles and Solvability – Overall not bad, if a bit unfair at times. The highlight (of a sort) is the three chase puzzles where you have to escape from thugs. While it was a rough way to begin, it was more fun than challenging. I only struggled with the second chase at Lebock’s place because I would not have thought that locking the door would have stopped him from killing me. Beyond that, identifying what evidence you needed for the police was nice and the little riddle with the poem was cute, if not particularly difficult. Having to flash around your gun to get people to listen to you fooled me twice– I just don’t think of that sort of thing. My score: 4.

Interface and Inventory – You know, I want to give a nice score here because the game looks polished… but it’s really not. The mouse is available but pretty much useless. The noun and verb lists do not update throughout the adventure and seem to be broken. The game is worse off for having those useless panes taking up so much space. Add to that a strict inventory limit which played off poorly with the timing-based puzzles and I just consider this a well-intentioned failure. Better than Curse of Enchantia though, right? My score: 2.

My completed map of the game.

Story and Setting – The game drops you into a world with a lot of names quickly, but once you work out how to read your case files it gets easier to understand how everyone connects. Solving one unrelated kidnapping while you are researching a second really threw me off in terms of what was going on. On the bright side, all of the cases led together back to the mob and the ending scene specifically calls out that you stripped Farnham’s allies one by one before taking him on. I was going to go lower, but I like the effort that went into creating the interlocking cases. My score: 6.

Sound and Graphics – The animation touches are nice and the images are fantastic… on the Amiga. Some of the scenes seemed a bit repetitive, but nowhere near the image reuse that we’ve seen with similar games in the past. This is nice as far as illustrated text adventures go. My score: 4.

Environment and Atmosphere – The chase sequence gave us a tense beginning to a game that never ceases pushing you forward. While I do not always like that from a puzzle standpoint, I do from an atmosphere one. The city itself was well-designed, if not that large, but the naming of the streets gave you the impression of someplace bigger. Nicely done. My score: 4.

Dialog and Acting – The text used in the game was limited, but what was there was fine. I wish that there had been more attempt to clarify who all of the names were that got thrown around at the beginning. My score: 3.

Add it all up: (4+2+6+4+4+3)/.6 = 38 points!

Looking over my scores, that puts it right around Spiderman and Hook and that feels about right. It was a bit of a transition game from text adventure to illustrated ones, plus the first game by a fledgling design house. It was an enjoyable few hours and I have no complaints.

Up next will be our regularly scheduled program: Batman Returns (1992). My copy of the game (and instruction manual) have finally arrived. Tune in next week: Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-borrowed-time-won-and-final-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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aaronmaurer · 5 years

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Movies I Liked in 2018

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

I may have seen more movies in theatres in 2018 than any other year of my life, thanks to MoviePass during its unsustainable height and now AMC’s A-List. Even so, aside from some genuinely classic new blockbusters, this year’s indie and prestige fare didn’t make as much of an impact on me as 2017’s offerings.

I typically rank 10 films, but this year, due to an abundance of parallels and no clear favorite, I decided to share my recommendations in pairs that might make some interesting Double Features.

Fresh Takes On History

The Favourite

A riveting and ribald take on the costume drama that brings English history to vibrant (and at times, anachronistic) life, The Favourite excels not just through its script and performances, but also through its unique cinematography, using wide lenses to capture entire rooms. The cast is all terrific, led by Emma Stone in arch mode, Rachel Weisz playing manipulative and commanding, and Olivia Coleman as a daffy and indecisive Queen Anne. It’s compelling stuff and far from the genre’s typically stuffy Oscar bait.

First Man

In the tradition of The Right Stuff’s auteur-driven impressionistic history of NASA’s beginnings, Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic eschews easy crowd-pleasing in favor of scenes that put the audience right inside the claustrophobic and frankly, terrifying, cockpits of the experimental airplanes and mission spacecraft that astronauts piloted. Armstrong was known as humble and reserved and Ryan Gosling does a great job of humanizing him with nuanced depth. Claire Foy is his captivating equal as wife Janet, left dealing with the homefront while her husband ventures into uncharted territory. As a sucker for movies about the space program (and a fan of Chazelle’s prior films), this was right up my alley, but I was unprepared for the sheer artistry and realism of the entire endeavor, including its hauntingly beautiful score and POV cinematography.

Gorgeous Cinematography and Radical Empathy

If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins’ adaption of James Baldwin’s novel is a feast for the eyes – stunning cinematography, costuming and production design combine to create one of the most vivid films of the year, justly earning its Wong Kar-wai comparisons. The plot bounces back and forth in time, revealing a love story of boundless promise that is interrupted by systemic injustice and institutional racism. Moments of beauty and hope are contrasted with the dehumanizing reality of a criminal justice system that seems to exist merely to beat those out of people. A harsh reminder of how little has changed since the book was written decades ago.

Roma

Alfonso Cuarón is a master filmmaker and his meditation on his own childhood in 1970s Mexico City is spellbinding. Shot in stunning black-and-white, the compositions and tracking shots employed present a uniquely realized sense of place. Although the film is available on Netflix, I had the opportunity to see it screened in 70mm film and highly recommend viewing on the largest screen possible to fully appreciate the beauty of its filmmaking. Of course, the visuals would be meaningless without a story to serve, and Roma showcases the daily life and sacrifices of an indigenous housekeeper to an upper-middle-class family, fully immersing the audience in her world in all its small pleasures and large heartbreaks. An indelible tribute to the incredible strength and selflessness of women and caretakers everywhere.

Marvel Superhero Domination

Black Panther

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continued to expand this year with Black Panther’s title film following the character’s debut in Captain America: Civil War. Look: you probably saw this movie. What is there to say? It’s very very good. The Afrofuturist art direction and costume design is absolutely fantastic. The CGI is kind of weak (my guess is most of Marvel’s resources were devoted to the next film on this list). It works as a stand-alone feature but still effectively ties into the greater MCU, and it serves as a glorious tribute to black excellence. ’Nuff said.

Avengers: Infinity War

The payoff of a decade of interlocking films featuring dozens of characters could have been absolutely terrible. There are probably plenty of people who think Infinity War fits that description, but I am deeply impressed at how deftly the filmmakers handled everything, balancing a lot of plot with winning character moments. The fact that this movie is essentially a hero’s journey from the perspective of the villain is a clever upending of expectations and the ending (for now) is a pretty audacious move on Marvel’s part.

The Hollywood Machine at Its Best

A Star Is Born

The most compelling aspect of the latest rendition of A Star Is Born is the way director/star Bradley Cooper puts the audience in the middle of the action, allowing us to share the stage at giant music festivals, the Grammy Awards and Saturday Night Live, among other venues. It’s the most authentic concert film I’ve seen (probably helps that Live Nation co-produced it). The soundtrack is solid and Cooper and Lady Gaga are excellent in their roles, though I often felt at a remove from them, like watching a series of excellently curated vignettes without fully experiencing their inner worlds. So while I like this film a great deal (and it’s an example of what big studios can do best), it lacks the immediacy and intimacy of 2007’s much sparer indie Once, still my benchmark for “two-artists-making-a-connection-and-bringing-out-the-creative-best-in-each-other” stories (see also: La-La-Land).

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

There’s a mournfulness to the latest M:I (my favorite action franchise) that pervades the moments between breathless tension and pumping adrenaline. Though character development has never been central to this series, there’s a greater sense here of what Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has given up and the character’s inner goodness. Not wanting to sacrifice even the one innocent person for the sake of millions and willing to expend himself over and over, he is a classic Christ figure, kenosis personified. He may be a cipher, but we see the pain and weariness behind his eyes. Fallout is all the more powerful for it. Oh, and the helicopter chase (in IMAX!): that was badass.

Quirky Tales With Depth

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

As a collection of standalone Western-themed shorts (originally conceived as an anthology TV show), The Ballad of Buster Scruggs initially feels like a lesser Coen Brothers effort but proves to have a lot of staying power. Suffused with the standard Coen wit and moralistic existentialism, the chapters range from comedy to tragedy and all points in between with no shortage of idiosyncratic characters. The penultimate tale, “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” is one of the strongest and most moving, with an ending that reveals itself to be more complex the more you reflect on it. While the vistas look great on the big screen, this is another Netflix production, so it’s easily accessible and revisitable from home.

The Old Man & the Gun

In the Old Man & the Gun director David Lowry pays homage to 70s-era caper films, putting Robert Redford’s infinite charisma to use in the role of a serial bank robber and prison escapee who could be a latter-day version of his character from The Sting. Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker, the film explores the tension of its protagonist’s draw toward heists and desire to settle down once and for all. The terrific supporting cast includes Sissy Spacek as Tucker’s love interest and Casey Affleck as the detective who puts the case together and becomes engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with him throughout the film.

Like Those? Here Are Some More Worth Your Time:

Innovative Animation - Isle of Dogs / Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

Family-Friendly Tributes to Decency - Won’t You Be My Neighbor? / Paddington 2

Environmentally-Conscious Indie Dramas - First Reformed / Leave No Trace

Explorations of Police Brutality Featuring Members of the Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton - Monsters and Men / Blindspotting

#film

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apprenticemages · 6 years

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Hinamatsuri once again hits one out of the park… I take a look at this week’s carrots… and I try my hand at poetry! All this and more after the jump! The shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics. Question marks denote shows not watched yet (during the premiere weeks), and strikethrough marks dropped shows.

3D Kanojo / Real Girl Ep 8

What a mess… Turns out that Iroha isn’t as cool as she thought with Tsutsui being anywhere near Ayado. Even just holding her hand while he’s treating a burn sets her off. And of course, from her point of view, it’s all Tsutsui’s fault… There’s been hints all along, but I think this ep cements my thoughts that she’s got a streak of self centeredness. She keeps expecting him to change – and while he’s trying hard to work things out, he honestly is socially inept. And she just doesn’t get that, she isn’t even trying.

I did enjoy watching Takanashi stomp Ishino’s advances into the mud. She has become something of a friend to Tsutsui & Co., but she’s also shamelessly using them for her own ends. She deserved that.

Anyhow, cliffhanger time… Iroha ran off into the woods after seeing Tsutsui trying to help Ayado, and now she appears to lost.

Comic Girls Ep 7

Poor Kaos-chan. One step forward, one step back… she just can’t catch a break. Every time she makes progress, she discovers another flaw in herself.

Why did it take me so long to figure she’s a HUGE idol otaku? I mean we’ve all seen her figure collection any number of times. And if you look over the left, though you make have to look at full size, that grouping of three looks to me to be a Love Live homage.

Best Girl Tsubasa rocks her glasses… And speaking of her, both she and Ruki outed themselves as otaku this episode. That leaves only Koyume (and I guess Fura-senpai) not outed. I guess I should have expected that.

Crossing Time Ep 7

This week… a girl composes haiku while waiting at the crossing. I spent most of the episode cringing for two reasons… First, what she was composing was much closer to senryu than haiku. Second because they were just so awful. Though it’s hard to tell how much was the intention of the production staff, and how much was an artifact of translation. That is, was it translated literally or poetically? I suspect the former.

Though I did appreciate her frustration with not being able to produce a finished poem in one go. It took me a long time to appreciate just how much work goes into even a simple haiku. Actually, I think any Creator can appreciate that.

If you’re wondering what she was going on about when she was talking about a seasonal word – that’s called a kigo, and is vitally important in classic haiku.

Her final poem… I think there’s something good in there, but after fiddling with it for a couple of days I haven’t been able to find it with certainty. What I ended up with was this:

Snow drifting A crossing gate bars love

It drops the sense of love than cannot be restrained… But maybe brings in a sense of impatient waiting? Or maybe not. And yes, I know the syllable count is off, it’s a work in progress. If anyone cares to take a swing in the comments, feel free! I’d love to see what folks come up with. (More information about haiku from a previous posting.)

Hinamatsuri Ep 7

Hina’s segment was laugh out loud funny… I’m impressed as hell that they can keep returning the same schtick and still make it so engaging. Nitta and Utako’s segment was… I don’t know quite how to put it. Happy and sad, but not bittersweet? Nitta has certainly transitioned from player to seriously looking to build a family, but doesn’t quite grasp that it’s not quite that easy.

And someone on Twitter pointed out… The end title card has changed. On the left, the original – with Utako behind the bar. On the right, she’s absent after this week’s events. What’s going on here? will she still be in OP next week?

But once again… Anzu steal the show. Not a tearjerker like last week’s ep, but no less powerful. OK, OK, when she was bathing the onion ninjas weren’t attacking in force but there were a few scouts sneaking around.

I’ve seen a name plaque on a kid’s door in plenty of anime… But it was a real kick in the feels for Anzu’s to be the one from the shed she lived in at the homeless camp.

Worth reading: Matt & Irina’s joint review of episodes 6 & 7. Be sure and stick with it all the way to the end.

My Hero Academia 3 / Boku no Hero Academia 3 Ep 7 (Ep 45)

It turns out that the League Of Villains has adopted a new strategy. They’re not out to kill heroes (or at least that’s not now the whole of their strategy), they’re out to destroy them. And by handing the pro Heroes a decisive defeat and kidnapping a student, they’ve succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The public is questioning and criticizing UA. The teachers are UA are questioning and criticizing themselves. Of course, discrediting heroes is an ancient trope in the comic book world, but I find myself curious to see MHA‘s take on it.

The split between the students is interesting… It was pretty predictable that Lida would take the “let’s follow the rules” position, but the others appear to be wavering. Deku of course won’t waver long – he’s never let the rules stand in the way of doing what is right.

And it’s very cool to see Yaoyorozu’s powers be used in interesting new ways.

Worth reading: Luminous Mongoose over at Anime Junk takes a look at the ‘edgy’ characters in MHA, and what makes them so: Revelry in the Dark – The Refined Edginess of My Hero Academia.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori Ep 6

As I said last week, I was about ready to give up… But this week gave us a ton of history and backstory on Rokuhoudou, Kyousi, and Tokitaka. We knew Sui had a business background, but I found it interesting that Tokitaka has been (still is?) an artisan (a potter) rather than a salaryman. I don’t find it all surprising that he became Rokuhoudou’s cook, almost all of the talented artisans I know IRL are also very good cooks. All the talented Makers I know love nothing better than the see stuff meant to be used actually being used…* The fusion of seeing someone enjoy the food you cooked on plates you made? That just has to be powerful as all hell.

A few years back our local SCA culinary group was the pastry/bread team for a feast and we all had to bring our own rolling pins. Of the twelve pins, eleven of them had come from the hand of the same woodturner. He was at the feast, and when I told him about this he had to come to kitchen and see… and was grinning like an idiot the whole time. Pleased as punch to see his stuff getting used.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Ep 6

OK, we knew Pito was messed up… But who could imagine that messed up? Though M-san (who we know have a name for – Asougi Goushi ) himself isn’t exactly a shining example of mental health.

Either way, now we know at least the basic plot for the remainder of the season.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai / Tada Never Falls in Love Ep 7 Tada-kun has reverted to its usual way of doing business… All about the loves and emotions of everyone who isn’t the show’s main couple. This week, a quadruple dose of unrequited love. And while Nyanko Big can’t vocalize his feelings, there’s no damm reason why none of the three humans can’t do so.

Yata at For Great Justice dropped Tada this week, and I’m starting to get mighty tempted myself. I listed it as a keeper mid-season because last week’s ep seemed to show they were going to start making progress, but this week blew it.

However, this is cool:

https://twitter.com/Surwill/status/999725355333226496

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Ep 9

This week’s carrots… Being bet during a game of Blind Man’s Bluff. And am I the only one who thinks that “This Week’s Carrots” would be a cool name for a band?

Anyhow, this week – another training camp ep. (They’re really pounding the tropes in here, aren’t they?) And finally Trainer-san gets off his dead ass and acts like a trainer with a clue. Seeing that Spe-chan‘s consideration for Silence is holding them both back, he finally confronts them. And they both realize that the other is not only their dearest friend, but their closest rival. Both of them run their little horse girl asses off – and handily beat the others, even with their head start.

It’s kinda annoying sometimes… Uma Musume seems to really badly want to be a proper sports anime, but doesn’t (or won’t) put in the work to sustain the tone.

Also, just now… Arby’s (who has a history of anime references on Twitter) tweets about Uma Musume…

https://twitter.com/Arbys/status/999681432166350848

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Ep 6

Honestly, this week’s ep seems to have been mostly forgettable… When it came time to write this review, I pretty much couldn’t remember anything other than the gift scene at the end. Looking around the rest of the web, it becomes clear that I couldn’t remember because pretty much nothing happened.

I should be clear though… In this kind of semi-anthology/slice-of-life romance series, that’s not actually a glaring flaw. It’s pretty much par for the course in that genre.

I do sympathise with Nafuji though. I’m the oldest of five, and there’s seven years between me and my original youngest brother and sixteen years between me and my actual youngest brother. (Which sounds funny… But the explanation is simple, my parents had an unexpected late life (by the standards of the day) child.) I was in fourth or fifth grade when I grasped the truth about Santa – but my parents made it Very Clear that I was to keep my lips zipped for the sake of my younger siblings.

=========

And that’s this week! Remember, between the holiday weekend (which we traditionally spend geocaching) and preps for and recovering from the Kitsap Medieval Faire, there will be no weekly posts on the 30th and the 6th. I may or may not get some editorial content out, that just depends on time and energy.

So, what did you think of this week? Care to take a swing at poetry? Drop a comment and let’s chat!

Spring 2018 – Week 7 Hinamatsuri once again hits one out of the park... I take a look at this week's carrots...

#2018 Spring Season #3D Kanojo #Comic Girls #Crossing Time #Cutie Honey Universe #Hinamatsuri #My Hero Academia #SAOA:GGO #Sword Art Online #Tada-Kun #Uma Musume #Wotakoi #Yotsuiro

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shanghai-dublin-blog1 · 7 years

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Some Background Guidelines On Central Issues Of Game Fishing Equipment

Some Guidelines On Selecting Issues Of Game Fishing Equipment

Awesome game fishing equipment

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