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lightfulonion · 1 year

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hello @skijjiki!!! thanks for tagging me friend!!!!

Favorite time of year: every single day that i grace this beautiful planet ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ I unironically love Christmas so much. I love the cold and I love the fact that we can slack for a little bit and I love having an excuse and indulge myself by seeing and meeting with my loved ones. I also love spring! (<- spoken with the privilege of someone who only has mild allergies) And summer when it isn't boiling outside!

Favorite drinks: boba, COFFEE, ginger ale, wine (the semisweet ones and especially semisweet red wine ❤), fresh squeezed orange juice, HOT MILK WITH HONEY and generally whatever has sugar in it

Collect anything?: Littlest Pet Shop!!! When i was in kindergarden there was that one kid that had SACKS of lps and from then on i decided that it was my fate to defeat them... (i just said to my mum to buy me lps whenever she could and i also asked her every christmas to tell santa claus i needed the big packs with them) I also have collections of rocks and shells from different beaches that i went to! Lately i try to collect stickers from cons and such (<-literally has went to one (1) con so far) and chupa-chups cans bc they look pretty 👉👈 (not sponsored)

Favorite fics: OH BOY OH BOY! DO I HAVE THE FICS FOR YOU! I'll try to be brief: 💼 OK NO JOKE, I'll try to be brief: (in no particular order, except for the first one) 1) it's not living (if it's not with you) by brella (hq!!) TOP 1!!! IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS FELLAS! Legit, tsukkiyama isnt even my thing but this one ticks all my boxes: desperate lead? check. the grumpy one mellows out for the sunshine one? check. the inherent value of change and becoming better by loving and wanting to express it properly and by that becoming a better person? check. GROUNDHOG DAY AU?? YES PLEASE! It's.. It's very good. Please give it a read if you want. (brella has written many good hq fics btw please check them out!) 2) Work-Related Risk Factors by parkernoir (mp100) Case fic, angsty and probably my favourite mp100 ever! It has Serizawa! It has Tome! It has Reigen trauma! It made me cry my eyes out in agony! I have a very soft spot for this. It has serirei in it but mostly it's gen if i remember correctly? yeah 3) beginners by silvercistern (mp100) fair warning it's about sex and it doesn't have just steamy scenes, it discusses generally sex and stuff. That being said it has ace Reigen in it and it made me cry 👍 4) The Negligible Self by ch_am (mp100) anything and everything by camp is a gift honestly. Angsty generally, full of whump specifically, it makes the soft, tender moments hit better and it's still in progress! Join the fun as i lose my mind with every single update! Yay! (people in the comments in ao3 are also trying to find out what is going on and it's fun) (it has a prequel too which is really good and canon-adjacent) 5) Kintsugi by SpicyChibi (mp100) it took me a week to recover from reading this. mp100 fanwriters have a way of capturing the vulnerability of serirei in a way that physically hurts me. Tender, good, I love them, I love them, I love them. Ongoing and 90,000 words so far. 6) Like A Cheap Suit, You Can Wear Me Out by Vulcanodon (mp100) written like a romantic comedy and made me laugh at every twist and turn of the plot. The last scene is forever ingrained in me and it actually makes me emotional. Case fic again and a very fun one 7) Heart Rate Rapid by Justkeeptrekkin (mp100) teacher au, all the children in one class, ongoing, literally finshed it yesterday, ACE REIGEN BELOVED. (so far no explicit content so don't pay too much mind to the rating, there are discussions of sex but only briefly and on a surface level) I love their banter and the transition from friendship to something more... sigh 8) where the night goes by bigspoonnoya (hq!!) 'the sad gay with the happy ending' tag got to me. I love bittersweet stories with happy endings (can you tell) and this one has kagehina in it.... utterly head over heels for stories where they meet many years later. 9) fake it, make it by zadderlee (hq!!) FAVOURITE KAGEHINA FIC RIGHT THERE! ongoing since good old 2019 but the author has said they are going to continue it at some point! good characterisation, i had forgotten how good it is but i keep getting back to this. 10) That Baby Does Not Belong to You (But It Could) by multifascinate (talkativelock) (hq!!) bokuaka with baby hinata. need i say more. oh, yeah and they are 20-somethings. And in college. the romance aspect is there but it mostly focuses on other things. And i love it.

anyway these are my ao3 recs bone apple teeth (pay attention to the content warnings and the tags. thanks!)

Favorite video games: i am an awful gamer but generally the story-based ones intrigue me and the ones that are fun to play together with friends! Disco elysium, Ace attorney, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros and animal crossing!

i tag @livingonyoghurtandspite @horson @raph-red-fan and whoever wants to do this ✌ ( cough please give me fic recs i beg cough)

#there is this one kyouhaba bakery-patisserie (?) au fic that i think about ALL the time and again by bigspoonnoya and #the courtship ritual of the hercules beetle by kittebasu (chanyeol) GOD THIS ONE IS SO SO GOOD BEST IWAOI FIC #but i didnt want to take too much space lol #i tried SO HARD. SO. HARD. to make it to 10 and no more #anyway i failed lmao #please tell me if i need to put this under a read more #get tagged #onion talks #:]#i am so normal and cool about my interests cant you tell #most of my fic recs are romcoms bc i am weak and these make me weaker #LOVE YOU CICADA WISH YOU A WONDERFUL DAY #this will probably be posted on january so i wish everyone a very beautiful 2023 and a very smooth transition to life after the holidays #this post is so long i am so sorry #i should have recced some ml fics too... darn it...#i havent read any tmnt fics which is???? idk why this happened #probably because i turn to fanfics for romance mostly since i am kinda picky on the gen ones? idk idk #this was an excuse for me to talk about my favourite fics actually #i am sorry for being annoying but i am not sorry for my wonderful taste in fictious literary content 😔#also if i didnt tag you please feel free to write your own faves and then tag me #i never know who to tag in these things and i dont want anyone to feel some kind of obligation to reply #i try to treat it as a 'free pass'#you can use it if you feel like it #if you read this so far mwah mwah a kiss on your little head

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thehyperrequiem · 1 year

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Into the Eye of the Storm transcript: Beginning of Episode 3

So anyway, boredom strikes and I decided to do a transcript for the Beginning of I was a Teenage Weather Report where we left off from Episode 2, so anyways, what you are about to see- er, read will give you quite the thrill! So yeah, enjoy!

(Scene shows clips of the previous adventure as the Narrator comes along)

Narrator: Hello everyone, have you had fun in the beach sun? You should be, because our hero has managed to save the beach from the terrors in the deep and retrieve back the treasure in the last episode, oh the fun and the nice atmosphere. *recap ends with a fade to black screen* But not all places in the dreamworld are friendly to Weather, as he now arrives to his next destination; the mall…*scene fades to a entrance as a familiar figure walks his way out of the door* where it will turn his shopping trip *scene shows that the figure is Weather Report, the hero/star of the game* upside down. *he continues walking until…*

???: (offscreen) Hello there, new shopper! *Weather stops walking and turns his head around to see a hooded robed figure with brown eyes next to a Free Samples table that is showing small cups of orange juice as the scene shows what he is seeing* I see that you look foreign and a little thirsty, wanna try out some free samples of juice? *scene cuts to Weather who has his head and body turned around to face the free samples table and walks towards it* It’s full of *scene cuts back to the robed figure* vitamin C, potassium and B-Complex Vita- *a shadow covers the figure and he look at the customer in surprise* O-Oh my! *scene shows that Weather’s height is towering over the figure’s height* What a tall fella you are! And a tall fella like you should need a drink. *the big boy leans his head towards the figure, earning a little squeak from him*

Weather Report: *whispering* Free samples?

???: Si Signore, it’s our special orange juice! Wanna try? *the big man shifted his gaze to the small cups and then, back to the figure*

Weather Report: (whispering) Sure. *he backs away from the figure and go to the free sample table, where the scene changes to the figure looking at Weather Report in awe*

???: Wow, he must have a masculine built, *scene cuts to Weather drinking his sample with the camera going from the bottom to the top* I wonder how he got that body looking così affascinante, I must inform this to the boss. *he makes the familiar phone impression as he looks around for something* Oh! That must be him! Now where is that phone? *continues making telephone sounds* *scene cuts to meanwhile with the Buffalo hat man finish drinking the sample, he throws the cup away and turns his head around only to find that the figure is talking with a shoe on the side of his head like if it was a phone*

Weather Report: Strange fellow, but nice offer though. *he turns to face the front direction and out of the scene, then it cuts to him continue walking* Now where could Speedwagon be? He said he would meet me here. *then, right when his guard is down, BONK!! He was hit on the back of his head by a shoe, knocking the man out as he fell on his frontside with a THUD coming from the impact of his landing on the floor in unconscious, then scene cuts to his body being covered by a familiar shadow*

???: Buona notte Buffalo man! *An evil cackle is heard from a different male voice*

??? 2: Good work, my little 👎︎□︎◻︎◻︎♓︎□︎, they always fall for the free samples tray, and they get unexpectedly attacked by you. Così credulone!

???: Grazie Boss, I knew that this shoe would come in handy!

??? 2: Yes 👎︎□︎◻︎◻︎♓︎, a frying pan is overused when it comes to knocking victims, besides the only thing you had with you the whole time was a shoe you took from a display of the shoe shop you were just in minutes ago.

???: I should put it back to where it came from, but first, what shall we do with the buffalo man?

??? 2: Let me handle him, he will make a fine part for the clothes store all thanks to his well-built masculine body you told me about just minutes ago, and pretty soon, he will be just like the others. *An evil cackle is heard from him along the shadow shifting shape as the scene fades to black as soon as after a hand grabs the back of Weather’s suit and drags him away*

Narrator: What you have witnessed is the start of Weather’s new journey in the mall, but how would he escape from this strange mall? And what does the spooky voice mean by others? Well, you’re about to find out, in Episode 3…”I was a Teenage Weather Report”! *dramatic music plays as title card shows saying “Episode 3: I was a Teenage Weather Report” as the screen fades to black, making the music end with a dramatic sting, and then, it continues as we see Weather’s point of view, through Eye Cam he is laying at the same spot where he is knocked out*

Weather Report: *grunts*…my head..*scene cuts to his legs getting up off the ground as he stood up, rubbing the back of his head* what just happened? *he looks around and turns around to see that no one’s at the table, which he let out an exclaim* Hey sir…*he runs to the free samples table to check on the figure unaware of his feet not touching the ground when running*

Weather Report: Excuse me sir, did you see- *scene zooms out that no one is there, only a robe on the ground*-that…? *he picks up the robe* He left his robe on the ground, where did he go? *he talks in inner monologue* Shoot, it looks like whoever attacked me from behind might have gotten the friendly free samples man, but why does my body feel lighter like air all of the sudden? *then, cue his eye shot looking at his hands after he drops the robe, they do not seem to look like his skin color at all, making a huh? escaped from his throat while doing a inner monologue* Wh-What the?! My hands, they’re different! What’s going on- *scene cuts to his point of view as he sees a glint of light reflected from the dark, with no questions asked, he rushed to the source as we see his point of view and then, he stops and sees that he has found a mirror and he look at his reflection, and see that he looks like a combination of himself and his stand*

Weather Report: What the…heck? *he looks at the reflection and then, himself* Am I a cloudy mass of a humanoid like Weather Report? How on earth did this happened? Did the juice turn me into this? *before he can say anything, David Rose’s The Stripper plays in the background while he is posing at the mirror and checking his body as he looks at the speakers playing it* *deadpanned* Really? This song at a time like this? *groans in annoyance, and then, he heard someone calling his name from the distance as he recognized the voice after looking around and turns around* Speedwagon’s here. Perfect, I gotta tell him about my condition that I am in, maybe he knows the cure and who’s behind my new look before something unexpected happens.

[End of Transcript]

(If any of you read Wingdings and got the name right, you get a cookie! 🍪)

#jjba #jjba part 6 #weather report #jjba weather report #Into the Eye of the Storm #ItEotS #spinoff game idea #what if #transcripts

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cammotea · 1 year

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I’m Currently Watching...

Bernie Madoff

A new Netflix docuseries details the crimes of the man who crafted a $65bn Ponzi scheme – and those who protected him? release on Jan. 4 2023.

The documentary traces how Madoff was born in a middle-class Jewish neighbourhood in Queens, New York, in 1938. Along with his brother, Peter, he saved a few thousand dollars from working as a lifeguard and installing sprinklers, before setting out to conquer Wall Street.

By the 1980s – the era of Gordon Gekko and The Bonfire of the Vanities – the brothers were running a legitimate business buying and selling stock from an office in midtown Manhattan. Madoff made history by launching Nasdaq, the first electronic stock exchange, and advised the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the system.

Berlinger, 61, a self-confessed stock market “geek” whose past works include Conversations with a Killer, Crime Scene and Brother’s Keeper, observes: “He’s a guy who largely is responsible for computerised trading, which led to these off-exchange dealers all coming together and creating one computer screen, so to speak, which is the origin of the Nasdaq.

“Bernie Madoff is largely responsible for legitimising that market, the electronic exchange, that today Google, Microsoft, Apple are part of. The irony of this is he was a great innovator, and that certainly is why people trusted him. But there were just too many red flags to ignore.”

The SEC failed to spot those red flags. In a separate office, Madoff was secretly robbing Peter to pay Paul, using cash from new investors to pay returns to old ones. An IBM computer churned out monthly statements showing steady double-digit returns, even during market downturns. By the end of 2008, the statements claimed that investor accounts totalled $65bn.

The trades were fictitious: no securities were ever bought or sold. But seen as a respected elder statesmen with a Midas touch, Madoff was able to burn thousands of investors, including Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, director Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon, baseball legend Sandy Koufax and businessman Fred Wilpon, as well as retired prison officers, teachers and dentists. Many were Jewish; many lived in Florida.

Berlinger says: “At the end of the day, he’s a financial serial killer, and the reason I say that is serial killers don’t have empathy. There’s no way you can look a widow in the eye at the Palm Beach country club and assure them that their life savings will be fine, give me your funds, I’ll take care of you, and then do that to people. He’s somebody who lacks empathy; therefore can’t be remorseful.”

All the while, Madoff and his wife were living the high life. They owned a luxury apartment in Manhattan, an $11m estate in Palm Beach, a $4m home on the tip of Long Island and a home in the south of France. They also enjoyed private jets and a yacht. Like another boy from Queens, Donald Trump, Madoff had elbowed his way into the Manhattan elite.

Berlinger adds: “Of course, greed was some element, but I don’t think he was blinded by greed. He’s a poor kid from Queens who longingly looked over the river towards Manhattan, wanted to be a big player, and just loved being the guy, being successful.

“One of the reasons the Ponzi continued and got ramped up on steroids is his legitimate business was starting to fail, and so he used that Ponzi money to shore up his legitimate business, because he wanted to be Mr Wall Street. Ego and a sense of belonging to the big club of rich fellas that run the world. It was less about greed and more about status and position.”

Madoff claimed he acted alone, but the film highlights his “big four” investors, including Jeffry Picower, a Florida philanthropist who made more money from the Ponzi scheme than Madoff himself. Picower was found dead in a swimming pool at his mansion in Palm Beach in 2009. His widow later agreed to return $7.2bn.

Madoff outfoxed regulators. He also weathered economic storms in the 1990s and the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. But he was finally undone by the financial crisis of 2008, when banks that had made reckless bets on mortgage-backed securities collapsed and investors scrambled to pull money out of the stock market.

Spooked investors also started making withdrawals from Madoff’s investment fund, but he ran out of money to give them. While his books said his fund was worth $64bn, most of that money did not exist.

Berlinger says: “The scariest thing of all to me in this story is that nobody brought him down. Regulators missed it. People who are very sophisticated investors, who should have known better, who should have known that a conservative option strategy can’t produce those kinds of results, didn’t ask the right questions.

“None of that brought Bernie down. What brought Bernie down was a black swan event – the financial crisis. And I believe if the markets had just gone in their normal cycles, he might still be doing it today.”

Knowing the game was up, Madoff held a meeting with his sons and admitted his business was “all just one big lie”. A lawyer for the family contacted regulators, who alerted federal prosecutors and the FBI. Madoff was arrested in December 2008 and became the focus of public fury over the wider financial meltdown.

He was sentenced to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to fraud and other charges. He died while incarcerated at age 82 in 2021. His ashes remain in a box in a lawyer’s office because the family refused to receive them.

One of Madoff’s sons, Mark, killed himself on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest in 2010. Madoff’s other son, Andrew, died from cancer at 48 (he had got better in 2003 but blamed the stress of his father’s crimes for its return). Madoff’s brother, Peter, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012, despite claims he was in the dark about his brother’s misdeeds. In February last year, Madoff’s sister and her husband were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

A trustee was appointed to recover funds and to date has returned about 70% of lost funds to investors. But questions persist over regulation and oversight.

JP Morgan Chase, which served as Madoff’s bank for more than 20 years, came to a $2bn settlement with government agencies over its relationship with him. Berlinger remains sceptical: “JP Morgan Chase: here’s a checking account with billions of dollars going through. If this was an account with a Mexican name on it, they would assume it’s drug cartel money and every $10,000 transaction would be analysed and there would be suspicious activity reports. It’s Bernie Madoff? We’re not going to worry about it.

“I don’t think JP Morgan knew there was a Ponzi scheme going on, but I certainly think they knew something was not right and they just chose to ignore. Everyone chooses to ignore. That wider culpability to me is a story that nobody’s really pulled together to provide this picture of the immense collapse of any kind of oversight and regulation that should have happened.”

Senior SEC officials were grilled by Congress, with members of both parties asserting that Madoff’s fraud exposed systemic problems. The SEC made rule changes, including in how the agency carries out inspections of investment advisers and brokerage firms.

However, Berlinger draws parallels with cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, awaiting trial on charges that he swindled investors and looted customer deposits on his FTX trading platform. “I feel people should take more responsibility for their personal finance, understand where their money is and understand that this can happen again. And guess what? It just did with FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried.

“Not that that’s a Ponzi scheme, but the similarities are striking. You had a charismatic guy who just talked and talked, and people believed without actually looking into the details. You had very sophisticated investors taking other people’s money and giving it to FTX, where FTX then used it to shore up its failing hedge fund. Those people who are taking innocent people’s money and giving it to somebody to invest should have known better.

“Just like with Madoff, the regulatory oversight was nonexistent, in part because that’s a fundamental problem with crypto that has to be fixed. There was more oversight in place to deal with Bernie than oversight in place to deal with crypto so it’s not an apples to apples comparison but in some ways it is. Regulators should have known better and innocent people suffered.”

Source: The Guardian

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samstree · 3 years

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How about ‘The No-Good, Very Bad Day’ for your title-to-fic ask?

Modern Assassin AU, cw: violence, domestic abuse

Geralt is the most infamous assassin in an underground organization called The Wolves of Kaer Morhen.

Infamous because of his ruthless methods, also because a few years ago, one client going by the name Stregobor ended up dead on the Blaviken beach right after hiring him.

Rumor says he's the one who did it. It doesn't matter. He's the best among all the wolves, so business goes on.

And Geralt is having a no good, very bad day.

The job was supposed to be simple. Find the target, disrupt his pacemaker, make it look like a heart attack, and get out.

The target recognizes him. Oh shit, now he's trying to flee from the window.

Geralt catches him by the wrist and tries to pull him up. He needs it to be a clean kill and a body all over the pavement is not clean.

The guy ends up on the pavement, people start to panic. It makes getting out very difficult with all the bodyguards and police gaining on him. By the time he makes it back to base, he's collected several wounds all over him. And a massive headache.

It gets worse.

The most famous popstar, Valdo Marx, appears by Geralt's doorstep with a photo in his hand. A blurry image of a man with white hair fleeing from the scene. It's unmistakably him.

A blackmail then.

"I'm very willing to destroy all copies of this photo, white wolf, as long as you help me dispose of a... mere inconvenience."

The inconvenience turns out to be his husband, another musician going by the name Dandelion, although much less popular. Geralt vaguely remembers their wedding pictures on the covers of magazines.

Geralt is suspicious of Valdo immediately. "All you needed was a simple request, and money, which I assume you don't lack. Why all the fuss?"

"I've heard some rumors, rumors about your moral code with what happened at Blaviken. You see, white wolf, I can't risk it."

Geralt hates being blackmailed.

The same night, he finds this Dandelion fella in a pub he's performing at. Geralt hides in the crowd and listens to this young man sing a few hit songs from Valdo’s album, and to his surprise, notices that Dandelion is better than the original cover. The emotion is deeper, letting the nuances in the lyrics shine through.

It’s like he understands these songs with his soul. Like he lives and breathes through them.

Curious.

A public figure's spouse can't end up dead at the back of an alley. It will draw too much attention. It’s another inconspicuous job. He'll have to befriend this guy, find out how to make it look like an accident.

"You are singing your husband's songs." He approaches Dandelion as he packs up the guitar.

"My husband's songs, yes, of course," he chuckles tightly. There's a hint of bitterness in those words, akin to regret. "Call me Jaskier, and you are?"

The smile he gives Geralt is blinding. For a moment, Geralt looks into those blue eyes and thinks about the ocean, and the cloudless sky above, stretching all the way into the horizon. And then, he notices a darkened shadow by Jaskier's hairline. It's faded to yellow now, but Geralt can recognize a half-healed bruise anywhere.

Now that he sees the signs, he's seeing them everywhere: the too-long sleeves Jaskier is wearing, the way his collar is buttoned to the top, the too-thick foundation on his face, and even the slightly rigid movement of his arms.

Jaskier is still waiting.

And smiling.

"Name's Geralt." He takes Jaskier's hand and shakes it gently. The metallic touch of a wedding ring burns into Geralt's palm.

Geralt can't tell if his no good, very bad day is looking up or down, but a silent decision is made as Jaskier murmurs his name back. He never knew his name could be said...almost beautifully. Like the name of a poem. A song.

So he smiles back.

Blackmail or not, Valdo Marx is going to become the next Stregobor. That much he is sure.

#geraskier #geraskier headcanon #thanks for the ask!!#<3 #sorry it took so long #i come up with plot very slowly and write slowly #assassin!geralt #dark geralt #hurt jaskier #cw: domestic abuse #cw: domestic violence #cw: violence #cw: blood #geralt x jaskier #I will not write this so the prompt is open to anyone

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thaern · 2 years

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Here I'm with my thesis about my loves Stede and Ed.

Through the entire series we saw Stede fighting with the constant fear and disappointment that he was for his family that he leaves behind. The only moment where he's happy and don't worry about that is when he's with Ed.

That's because in the moment Ed blame himself about the captains death he feels again that he failed, he failed to the one he likes, the only one who is his friend and since the beginning of 1x09 he blame himself at the point that he confirms that he killed the man.

Later, when he realised that his family could be suffering and seeing Ed without the beard, knowing that he basically delete his most great characteristics he comes and blame himself.

In the beach scene he's charging with the blame and disappointment, that when Ed kissed him he's happy, but also with fear. Imagining a whole life with his partner, be part of his life it feels like something he doesn't deserve, but he's happy because that's what makes Ed happy.

He was running away with him.

Until that shit of a general comes up and again put thoughts of fear, disappointment and guilty, he makes that Stede accept his death because he thinks that he deserve it, but no because he killed a man, no. This time is because he thinks that he ruin the lives of his dears one, specially Ed.

When this shit kills himself it's the breaking point, you can heard it in the scream of Stede. He could run away, find Ed and travel the world, but, another person is dead because of him, he ruined again.

So he don't come back to Ed, not because he doesn't want to, if not, because if he leaves with him all the great history of Blackbeard would be ashamed because this little English fella.

That's because I don't blame him, he did what he thinks correct but also impulse by the guilty. I cried a lot in that moment, I cried because of Ed broken heart, because the charge of guilty that Stade have.

But at the same time I like that he comes back with Mary and the children, not because it was correct, but because that letting him a closure.

He always thought that he do bad with his family, but that moment show himself that his departure was ok, that he doesn't have to blame himself for nothing.

And most specifically, that moment makes him realise that he's in love with Ed, that he belongs to Ed. And I love that he realised by talking to Mary, they make a closure, a ending at the good way.

And in the last dialogue that Mary says is show, Stede is free, he's free of guilty, of the charges, he's free of making with his life whatever he wants without the pressure of guilty.

That ends is a bittersweet end, it makes a Stede closure with his past life but at the same time that separet him from Ed.

I like this, I really do. I wanted to do it about Stede because everyone is talking about my little boy Ed and I understand, the way he face the leaving, the vulnerable position and the cruelty way to go on but the pain in disguise is a beautiful arc, but at the same time I wanted to make a perspective from Stede view.

I'll be waiting for another season, watch how they go through all this, if there's gonna be more guilty or only resignation, but as a fan of a ship that literally his fave trop is one of them leaving another for guilty, well, I'm quite used to it.

And yes, I'm looking at you when I say this Bagginshield

#Our flag means death #stede bonnet #Edward #blackbeard #stedebeard #Amazon #taika waititi #rhys darby #david jenkins #lgbtq #Lovers #Pirates #queer relationships #Love #Guilty #character study

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saby-chan · 3 years

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Why the ATLA comics fail when it comes to Zuko and his family

To whom ever took their time to actually stop and read this post, thank you in advance for not skipping my post and willing to stay and read my humble opinion! I hope I won’t disappoint you!

As a relatively newcomer to the ATLA fanbase since 2020, I’ve come across a lot of interesting debates, comments and rants about the show, characters and fandom in general, but nothing has captivated me as much as the dumpster-on-fire that are the ATLA comics, more specifically: The Promise and The Search.

On one hand we have the hardcore fans who want them to be animated or serialized into the Netflix live action, praising the comics for the new views and subject matters they’ve brought into the show’s lore, while on the other hand we have the furious Azula fandom who is really angry for the fact that best girl didn’t get the redemption arc she rightfully deserved so much after the painful event that was the Last Agni Kai and the even more angry fans of the Urzai ship (yeah, the people who actually ship Zuko’s parents unironically) who hated the retconning of the show’s cannon since the comics basically took a huge fat dump on what was previously established as official cannon, when the Search entered the scene, but between these two sides, who has the more valid point? In the end, are the comics good cannon or bad written fanfiction?

Well... Here are my two cents on this matter since I myself happen to be an Azula and Zuko fan and had huge expectations from these comics (since I wanted more from my fave hot-headed fiery siblings duo) but ended up disappointed: the comics are indeed a huge mess and actually bad written fanfiction when it comes to Zuko and his family! Don’t click off yet, because I actually documented the reasons why exactly the comics fail in this area:

1. The author of these comics is not part of the BryKe duo

Yes, I would like to start with the fact that if you actually take a second to look up who in the heck took the time to write these two books, you won’t find Bryan, nor Mike, but a fellow man named Gene Yang. This is important because while the wiki of both The Promise and The Search state BryKe as the creators, that doesn’t mean that they were the actual minds behind these comics, but rather because ATLA is their “baby” and these comics involve their characters, over which they have copyright. Mr. Yang here is the actual brain behind the plot, as the main writer, which explains why we find huuuuge inconsistencies between the show lore and the comics, especially Zuko wise.

My main issue with Mr. Yang isn’t that he isn’t BryKe specifically, but because he did an unforgivable mistake in his writing process: He projected himself into Zuko’s character, based on the relationship Zuko had with his father. This is a documented fact from an interview in which he explains that he sees himself and his dad’s relationship into Zuko and Ozai and used that when writing their interactions and built Zuko’s character in the comics. And this is wrong because when you have an already very developed and complex character such as Zuko, you can’t just come in and be like “Oh, I was an angsty teen just like him in my teenage years, fighting with my dad and whatnot, so he must have the same thought process as me!”. NO! This is bad fanfiction writer behavior! Zuko has his own personality and philosophy, which he developed over the course of 3 seasons and is not defined by only 1 unfortunate aspect of his past, so you can’t just base his whole mindset and actions off of your own personal experience just because you had the same daddy issues he had!

2. The whole “Promise that you will kill me if I turn out like my dad!” nonsense in The Promise

Reason number 2 why these comics fail and go under the category of “bad fanfiction” is because they fail to convey the core essence of the source material. The whole point of Zuko’s redemption was that he realized the wrongdoings of his ancestors and his own mistakes. He outgrew his desire of gaining his father’s acknowledgement in favor of choosing his own destiny. Having him worry that he’ll turn into his father is utter nonsense and feels like poor angsty drama material for the sake of angst. At this point in time, Zuko has overcame that obstacle in his life a long time ago and should be at the level where he himself is the “Uncle Iroh” for other people and in no way someone concerned of becoming their own worst enemy!

Not only that, but the whole point of Aang’s journey and the story of the show as a whole was to teach us, the viewers, the importance of forgiveness, empathy and love in life. Aang didn’t spare Ozai, aka “the ultimate evil” just to flex in front of his pals or because he is a “ 12 y/o vegan pacifist monk kid”, but because he knew that killing someone, no matter of what they did or wanted to do, wouldn’t restore balance into the Universe, on the contrary, him killing the villain would have meant perpetuating the “endless cycle of hate” that plagued the world. So having Aang promise to kill his best friend in case “they turned into an evil maniac like their dad” contradicts Aang’s whole character and it’s a nonsense that throws into the trash what we’ve learnt throughout the entire TV series.

3. Azula deserved (and was supposed) to have a redemption ark

This might still be pure speculation, but I count it as a documented reason because I’ve heard quite a few people saying that there should’ve been a book 4 in the show, aka “Book 4: Air”, and no, it wasn’t The Search, but actually Zuko and Azula’s journey as Zuko helps his younger sister heal her broken mind by being her very own “Uncle Iroh”. Sure, they prolly were going to end up looking for Ursa, but the journey should’ve ended with them actually being happy and a family again and not the bs we got in The Search where a still very unstable Azula runs away and becomes the “Next Joker”! The only problem is that M. Night had to pop up and curse the world with his movie, which forced BryKe to delay the project (and eventually abandoned it in favor of Korra).

All in all, either if BryKe had this preplanned or not, it made sense for Azula to get a redemption ark, she deserved it because she was just a broken 14 y/o child! If Katara’s mom’s murderer deserved to be forgiven, so did this poor child who had no fault for what happened to her since she had a dysfunctional family! What Gene Yang did in his poorly written fanfiction was to just antagonize a broken child, turning her into a monster for the sake of friggin angst!

4. The Search is the worst of the two, being flat af character wise

And finally, getting to the point that I personally find the most annoying about these comics: The Search. This one... This one is a mess on a hella lot many levels, and just to list a few: characters are flat as fudge, being either black as vanta black (like Ozai and Azula) or pure white like Gene’s Gary Stue OC, Mr Ikem (or how I like to call him, IKEA man) and his ‘victim’ rendition of Ursa, Azula gets to suffer more for no reason (see reason number 3 to why I find this as a no no), Ursa’s whole character sucks ass (man, I could write a whole thesis on why Yang’s version of her is terrible and doesn’t match the strong woman we got in the show) and Zuko does morally wrong stuff (my man literally used his unstable sister to bribe their dad into spitting info about Ursa... Show Zuko would never do that!;-;)

Oh boy, as a person who’s seen a ton of anime and other media and read many books, I can’t begin on how much I despise this type of writing: flat characters are the worst!

ATLA characters in the show are nothing close to being flat! What I mean by that is that none of them fall perfectly into pure white (aka goodest of good characters with no imperfections) or vanta black (aka lowest and darkest twisted monsters out there), each of them are various shades of grey (like Aang who is a very light grey because despite being a very kind and nice character, he still isn’t a “perfect hero” since he ran away from his duties, practiced tax fraud with Toph, had insecurities and even threatened to kill people on ocassions like with the sand benders who took Appa) and this is a good choice because that prevents them from becoming what’s globally known as Mary Sues and Gary Stues (aka those either “perfect” characters with no flaws and/or unlimited power, or the twisted monsters full of flaws).

And the other reason why many other people hate The Search: it literally negates previously established cannon. And here comes my short essay on why this comic fails Zuko’s family (since we’ve already talked enough about Zuko himself).

In cannon and even interviews with BryKe, it was clearly stated that Zuko’s family was “once happy”. Where is this “once happy” family in The Search? All I see is pain, deception, lies and betrayal, nothing close to anything that resembles happiness. Okay, some of you might come in and say that “It’s because it was never the case! It was only lies and Zuko trying to convince himself that he didn’t live in hell forever!” and here is WHERE YOU WERE ALL WRONG! And why? Because, my dear fella, where were depicted the flashbacks of Zuko’s “happy family” in The Beach? Ember Island. And what do we know and had been even quoted in the show? "Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you." (direct quote from the show). Exactly, no matter who you are or how hard you try, you can’t hide your true self when you are on the Ember Island, best example being Azula, who’s impenetrable though shell cracked and revealed the true vulnerable child that was underneath. If Azula couldn’t resist the “spell of the island”, no one can. So this means that Zuko’s family was indeed happy once and yes, Ozai wasn’t always the douchebag we got to know in Season 3 (I have a whole nother essay on my theories regarding what could be his real past story and why he’s actually the “Zuko” of his generation, based on stuff I gathered from old wiki entries and character analyses I made, but that’s for another time, lemme know if ya’ll are interested).

And what I guess is the biggest proof why The Search did this family’s past trash is comics Ursa herself. My dude, if this woman were indeed the victim of years of endless abuse and never loved her husband, I guarantee you that she would’ve been closer to what we saw in Todoroki’s mom from BNHA and Zuko would’ve gotten that scar or even worse long before the Agni Kai, not from his “daddy dearest”, but from “mommy dearest” herself, because no sane woman would be soo affectionate and attached to a child that’s the perfect copy of their abuser, sepecially appearance wise (again see Todoroki’s mom’s case from BNHA because the stories are really similar) and in no way would’ve she been willing to sacrifice her life for said child’s sake. With this ocassion, I remind ya’ll folks that according to the ancient ATLA cannon wikis on Nick’s site, Ozai was designed with Zuko’s appearance in mind, being meant to be like a “grown up scarless version” of Zuko. So yeah, remember this with a grain of salt that whenever you simp over grown up Zuko, you involuntary simp for Ozai too.

So yeah, I guess this kinda concludes my “not so short” rant about why the comics fail and are bad fanfiction. Lemme hear your thoughts in the comments and if you agree, feel free to leave a like and even reblog.

Bye bye and remember that Momo is the true strongest character of the show!

Saby out.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla comics #zuko #azula #ozai #ursa #fire siblings #the promise #the search #atla rant

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flowerbloom-arts · 3 years

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Welp, since two people asked (@xanzusx and @ratdaduniverse ) I suppose I have an excuse to do an unnecessarily deep dive into a character literally nobody cared about that much or bothers to draw before I came along with my thing for all too unpopular characters!

Let's start with a quick tl;dr :

Aunt Jane is (probably, this is more speculative than anything) a victim of capitalism and misogyny working together to create a damaged woman with anger issues and a toxic relationship with money.

How, you may ask? Well, let's take a close look at her titular, starring, and only episode of the 90s series;

episode 27: Aunt Jane

In the beginning of the episode, Moominpappa receives a letter from an aunt from his father's side and it's made immediately clear that he is not a fan of his aunt or the reason she sent the letter to him, it's also stated that Aunt Jane had no one else to turn to besides her nephew to "discuss money matters" as the episode puts it. Moominpappa says that he isn't really scared of Aunt Jane herself (though she is quite scary and a not-great person as MP himself describes, being bossy and not letting people have a moment of peace) but it's the money he's afraid of, he's afraid of having to discuss something he knows nothing about with someone he dislikes, so he takes it upon himself to leave before she arrives. (sidenote: this may tie into some fear Moominpappa has of looking dumb and ruining his ego, aswell as generally not being able to put up with people he finds unpleasant for very long)

Then Aunt Jane arrives on a rowboat down the Moomin Valley river with someone else rowing for her (cool detail: her boat actually matches her umbrella! We can assume she owns the boat based on this and the rower is either an employee or some guy she paid [his mustache is delightful by the way, I love the round little fella]) and she just has this... Very odd blank stare as our very first shot of her? It's an odd first impression for the viewer to be sure.

Jane gets off the boat and the rower simply continues down stream without her, Jane notices Snufkin fishing and asks for directions to Moominhouse, Snufkin gives her the tip and then Jane asks Snufkin if he could carry her suitcase of gold coins for her. Snufkin politely declines, saying he's busy, and then Jane attempts to bribe Snufkin by offering a "handsome reward" in a very confident manner, almost as if that trick has always worked before. Snufkin still declines, saying he just wants to fish. Aunt Jane is legitimately shocked at Snufkin not wanting money, now a first-time viewer might interpret this as Jane being vain with her wealth but it actually ties into how everyone in her life would simply be interested in her money (which is something that'll be elaborated further on) so Snufkin is perhaps the first person in a long while to not be interested.

Jane has little time to let that sink in as Sniff (the ultimate capitalist of the show) runs in, introduces himself as simply someone to help take her to Moominhouse and goes to help Jane carry her suitcase, to which Jane simply acts like a more poised individual and bimbles behind Sniff.

They arrive at Moominhouse right after Moominpappa had already left in the previous scene, Aunt Jane adjusts her glasses and says "A round house? How stupi- typical of my nephew." which establishes that Jane... doesn't like her nephew (and considers round shaped houses as being dumb [which I think a couple architects/engineers would agree but correct me if I'm wrong])

Jane gets welcomed by Moominmamma and after Moomintroll introduces himself Jane's attention immediately goes to Little My, assuming that My is a child of the family, she says that My's too small for a daughter (her expression says that she's bothered by it more than anything), then Moominmamma explains that Little My's not related but lives with them and My says she won't get any bigger, to which Jane simply squints at the small creature in a strange but I guess concerned manner? It's easy to assume that there were some strange beliefs about daughters that she was raised on.

Jane then asks where her "worthless nephew" is (again, she doesn't think highly of him), Moominmamma barely manages to not tell her the truth and Moomintroll saves her by saying Pappa's away to find inspiration for his work. Jane says "When has he ever worked? I'm here to see him!" (Score 3 for putting down her nephew) and Moomintroll suggests she should talk to him instead, Sniff butts in saying Moomintroll knows nothing about money and Aunt Jane simply says "In that case it's about high time he learned! As for his father, I may still disinherit him." (Score 4), Sniff says he's a member of the family and she can talk to him about money, Moomintroll says he's a great friend of his, and Jane adjusts her glasses then says "But hardly a member of the family" (we can see here she only really cares about relations more than anything when it comes to others taking care of her money, perhaps the money was passed down through generations and she wants to uphold that tradition, which is only one major reason she wants to get rid of it)

Snork and Snorkmaiden walk in, Snork introduces himself and explains how his sister is a "special friend" to Moomintroll and basically that they might get married someday, thus merging the Snork and Moomin family together, thus making them practically family already (Which I find just so utterly hilarious, he can be such a weasel I love him). Jane doesn't accept that as an argument (OBVIOUSLY) so Snork explains that he needs money to fund his flying ship project, and then Mr. Hemulen walks in with a very happy confidence (that chaotic metallic theme [you know the one if you pay attention to the soundtrack] cues but then stops shortly, I got so hyped and it just ended like that :( ) and he tells Aunt Jane about himself and asks her to fund his scientific research (assuming Sniff had already told her about it) and Sniff tries to save it by explaining that they could grow a greenhouse of orchids and roses and sell them to make money, he corrects himself by saying "I mean you'll make alot of money!" instead of "we'll" which he thinks might make her more lenient to the idea, but Jane shuts it down by saying she already has plenty of money (showing that she really isn't interested in hoarding wealth, she's satisfied with what she has especially since the whole point of going to the Valley was to shove her money-related issues onto her nephew)

The three guys try to talk over eachother trying to explain themselves, Jane is overwhelmed and confused so she stops them and asks Snork to clarify that he's Snorkmaiden and it goes downhill from there, Snork asks if he's explained his connection to the moomins well enough, Sniff says he's a friend of Moomin's, Mr. Hemulen asks Sniff if he could explain his research to her for him, and they all talk over eachother, Aunt Jane looks back in forth in a confused and overwhelmed manner and then gets angry, then she yells "BE QUIET EVERYONE!" with an overhead shot of Moominhouse (this sort of sets up Jane's anger issues which builds and builds until the climax of the episode)

Moominmamma escorts Jane to her room and tells her that she can call if she needs anything before leaving Jane alone, Jane more or less just observes her surroundings (it's clear she wasn't used to such a simple environment but she isn't opposed to it either) and then sits down on her bed with her eyes closed, looking peaceful for literally less than two seconds before Sniff knocks and she stands up instantly with her hands held in front of her like a "proper woman" sort of pose. Sniff stumbles in the room with the suitcase of gold and sets it on the floor, Jane thanks him and then Sniff stands there and looks around as if he's looking for something and goes "Ehem". Jane sees this and unenthusiastically asks "What is it? Want a reward?" (This is like the most telling scene of the episode and shows that this kind of thing is something that she's used to) Sniff lies at first but then admits it after a second thought, he hesitates and looks around if anyone would eavesdrop on them, Jane tells him to make up his mind and then Sniff gets close to her and whispers that he knows where Moominpappa is, Jane dismisses it saying she knows that he's on a trip (atleast she's willing to believe it? Doesn't revert any of her put-down points tho), Sniff corrects her by saying he's actually nearby and Jane is immediately interested and asks Sniff where he is, Sniff says Pappa said not to tell her where he is since it's a secret and after teasing it with her Sniff says he'll be taking a risk if he tells her so Jane asks "Oh, how much do you want?" knowing full well Sniff wanted to get paid for this without him even saying it, Sniff plays it safe and says she can decide how much she'll give him.

Sniff leads her on the beach, Snufkin notices this and runs to the cave to warn Moominpappa before she arrives (what a champ, that Snufkin) and then Sniff and Jane enter the cave with it's watery floor, Jane thanks him with a singular silver coin, Sniff asks if that's it and then Jane replies (with a very angry tone) that yes that's it until she actually sees her nephew, the two enter the cave with no Moominpappa in sight, Sniff is bewildered by this and Jane is very angrily disappointed that her "worthless nephew" (Score 5, though it's just a repeated insult, it still counts) isn't there, Sniff says "this is very strange!" while desperately looking for Moominpappa and Jane assumes Sniff had tricked her and takes away Sniff's one coin as punishment and simply leaves despite Sniff's desperate cries that he has to be there somewhere.

Jane goes back to Moominhouse and enters the kitchen to ask Moominmamma where Moominpappa is hiding, Moominmamma gasps and tries to reiterate the lie Moomintroll said, but Jane says she wants to know the TRUTH, so Moominmamma stutters and Jane tells her to hurry up, Mamma sadly admits that Moominpappa is hiding in the cave but Jane says she's already been there and didn't find him. Mamma is suddenly hopeful and is like "Oh so he really must have gone on a trip!", Jane proceeds to ask why Moominpappa would want to hide from her anyway, Moominmamma "suggests" that maybe Moominpappa is afraid of her, and Jane gets legitimately surprised and furious over this and asks "But why!?", Mamma says that he's mostly afraid of money matters, Jane exclaims "Incredible!" and contemplates "Afraid of me because of money matters...?" and then storms out of the kitchen saying "He must be utterly mad!" (Score 6)

Jane sits down on the table in her room and talks to herself about how this family is so confusing and only Sniff seems to know anything about money, Little My enters smuggly and shits the behind her, saying she knows where Moominpappa is at that moment, Jane assumes Little My wants gold from her and My says she couldn't care less about her silly gold, Jane strangely enough seems to try and defend the thing by saying "My 'silly gold' indeed! With my 'silly gold' I can assure you you could do just about anything you want!" and My claps back with how it isn't helping her find Moominpappa, this arouses Jane and My continues saying she should forget about her money. Jane responds by turning around in her chair to look at Little My directly and says "Young lady, money isn't something you could just forget about! It needs constant looking after- that's why I must talk to Moominpappa at once! Now take me to that rascal nephew you of mine if you really know where he is, you hear me!?"

My and Jane walk down the dirt path and see Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden being all lovey-dovey with eachother on a tree stump, saying how they love eachother and such, Jane scoffs "Oh, how frivolous!" and My smugky responds with "Not really, if I could find a small enough boyfriend, I'd be frivolous just like them too!" and starts to walk away, Aunt Jane turns to her and says with a very strong sense of longing "Ah well, Fredrick and I were frivolous once..." (With an inexplicable voice change by the way) and My just teasingly says "Really? If you says so! Suppose I'll have to believe you!" while still walking away, and Jane gets so mad at this dismissal/mockery that she almost snaps her umbrella but stops herself and stomps forward to follow Little My. The marshmallow couple notices the two and follow them.

Little My interrupts a game of chess between Snufkin and Moominpappa in Snufkin's tent, she introduces them to Jane as a "special guest" and Snufkin is shocked by her presence, he says Moominpappa's name and he looks up to look at his very angry aunt, Moominpappa runs out of the tent and Jane chases him with her umbrella around a tree and stomps on the ground with enough force to make Moominpappa, Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden hop off the ground (OKAY I'M NOT GONNA GET INTO THIS PART SINCE IT DOESN'T REALLY TIE INTO THE THESIS THAT MUCH AND WOULD BE TOO SPECULATIVE BUT HOLY CRAP??? HOW??? WHY DOES SHE HAVE THAT KIND OF STRENGTH??? IS IT SUPERNATURAL??? HELP????), this causes Moominpappa to fall over on the ground and Snufkin intervenes by saying Moominpappa was just coming back from his trip and stopping by to play chess with him, Moominpappa tries to go along with this but Little My says it's no use since Moominmamma already told her the truth, Moominpappa gets all defeated and Jane asks him why he's afraid of her, Moominpappa says it's not that he's afraid of her, he's afraid of her money. Jane gets enraged by this and stomps of the ground again to send everyone hopping, she then tries to "reason" with Moominpappa on this by saying "It's perfectly good money and all in gold coins! Listen nephew, I'm depending on you as my only relative!" (For some reason her voice gradually gets higher pitched in this line? But anyway this just confirms Moominpappa is literally the only family she has left), Moominpappa echoes "Yes, yes, depend." and Jane continues with "When I get too old to do it, you must look after my gold for me! I'm relying on you!", Moominpappa gets spooked by this and desperately suggests they should just give it away to people who need it, Jane blurts out "HOW UNGRATEFUL!" and turns red from rage but then is subsides, the red fades away and Jane, probably after having a thought, breaks into actual sobbing and falls to the ground to cry even more, Moominpappa tries to comfort her and suggests that maybe they should put it in a bank, Jane retorts through her sobbing that her money would hate being in a bank and it's a terrible idea (which is the start of her talking about it like it's a person/entity which follows to the very end of the episode), Moominpappa reassures her by saying banks are so nice these days and Jane looks up asking "They are...?", Moominpappa continues by describing how they have "Flowers and shiny little piggy banks and paintings on the wall!" and Jane lifts herself up asking "Is that really true...?", then Moominpappa tells everyone they should go home and fix a welcoming party for Aunt Jane, the scene ends with a shot of a sad Aunt Jane looking around everyone, possibly confused or even sorry.

We cut to the dinner party when Mamma is putting the cake on the table saying it's her grandma's best recipe (I have to note that Aunt Jane's face here is just... So sad and guilty-looking), Moominpappa gets up and says to drink a toast to the only millionaire in their small circle and how he hopes she'll live a long and happy life. Everyone drinks except for Jane who simply looks around and then looks down at her glass to sigh, Moominmamma asks what's wrong and Jane says "Never in my life have I and my money felt ourselves so welcomed before, I'm so happy I could cry" (jeez woman that is actually sad to hear considering just earlier that day 3 complete strangers went to her asking for money and her nephew literally tried to hide from her before she even arrived, that must've been one heck of a welcoming party) and then she genuinely starts crying saying "And once you start crying- you just wanna go on and on-" and proceeds to sob a bit and says "Oh dear- oh deAr- Moominmamma-" and looks up "Moominpappa-?" Moominpappa answers and she says "I'll put some of my gold in a bag, but you must look after the rest when I'm too old!", Moominpappa hesitates and then Jane snaps into anger mode by asking "Why not?" and slamming her fists against the table, Moominpappa sheepishly describes how they'll take care of it and Jane says it's not what she had in mind though it does sound nice and sufficient, but then she says how the money will miss her. She decides then and there that she'll leave the suitcase of gold to Moominpappa so they can "get sorta used to eachother" and use it as they please, even complimenting the flying ship and botanical research funding as rather splendid. Everyone is happy except Sniff who laments he should've gotten a better idea than flowers, and the episode ends with Jane smiling and a pan out of the house as the narrator closes off the episode.

Alright so already we have quite alot to unpack here and it's all gonna get a bit rambly and jumbled if I don't segment it into specific parts so let's do that. We're gonna put allllll of that baggage into 5 parts

1. Moominpappa and the lack of a family

2. Money is not a good partner

3. A woman millionaire

4. A bitter, lonely maiden

5. Conclusion

1. Moominpappa and the lack of a family

It's been stated twice that Moominpappa is Aunt Jane's only relative, and it's said that they relate through Moominpappa's father.

(Side note: We'll be going by the 90s cartoon canon because Aunt Jane is a moomin comic strip character and in the comic strip Moominpappa wasn't left at an orphanage I don't think, so it's logical to assume they just met eachother because they're family. But we're talking about the 90s canon where Moominpappa WAS left at an orphanage like in Moominpappa's Memoirs/Exploits of Moominpappa)

It's really unclear on the backstory of their relationship. It's unclear how these two met, it's unclear when they've met, and it's unclear how they knew they were related. Moominpappa clearly met her atleast without anyone in his current family (esp. Moominmamma) and hasn't talked about her ever since (given how literally nobody INCLUDING MOOMINMAMMA knew who she was) which to me signifies that their encounter was both somewhat isolated and unpleasant given how he describes her as bossy and not letting people have a moment of peace (which only brings images of some kind of business setting when they met in my mind, and knowing how Moomin stories operate Moominpappa probably found himself as one of her employees somehow). Whatever happened between them has certainly put a sour taste in eachother's mouths, making Moominpappa believe Aunt Jane to be unpleasant enough to avoid at all cost (he probably also witnessed the horrors of wealth which is why he's scared of her money) and Jane believing Moominpappa to be incompetent, worthless and idiotic.

Pulling back from whatever encounter they had... Was Aunt Jane aware of her nephew's existence before then? We don't know the circumstances which lead to Moominpappa's parents leaving him at an orphanage in a paper grocery bag (if the person/people who left him ever WERE his parents), and since him and Aunt Jane are the last members of their family, it's easy assume something tragic most likely happened to the parents. And not only that, the rest of Jane's family would've been gone aswell, leaving Jane as the sole heir and possibly not knowing about her orphaned nephew. Can you imagine being in such a position? Your whole family is gone for whatever reason, you're the only one left to your knowledge, and you have all the money you could ever want in the early 20th century. You are responsible for millions of [money unit] in gold coins. Jane is responsible of that kind of money. And what is that to her?

2. Money is not a good partner

Aunt Jane's relationship with money is extremely weird but clearly somewhat toxic in a sense. We know she has it in the millions and she's not interested in making more of it (though we do have to ask if she runs a business or if all of it is inheritance and nothing more, does she turn in a profit? What business does she work in? How big is her paycheck? Does she work with employees? Why is it all in gold coins? Where does she even live? Nobody knows! It's all vague and unspecified and there really is no point in speculating something like this because there's literally no evidence to speculate about)

Anyway, money is 3 things to her: it's something people use to get what they want, it's a burden and it's something that needs to be taken great care of. It's both a commodity and a child to her, she doesn't particularly "like" having it yet she thinks it's in need of care by someone she knows she could trust, it's a pet she doesn't want since it attracts so many people who want to pet it. By the end of the episode she treats her money like it has feelings, it "hates being in a bank" (presumably because it's "uncomfortable" since Aunt Jane is swayed as Moominpappa describes how nice they are), it "has never felt so welcomed", it "will miss [Jane]" and it "needs to get used to Moominpappa", the thing is she hasn't treated it like an entity with feelings until her breakdown near the end of the episode. Moominpappa's "ungratefulness" broke her so much that she resorted to characterizing her money, and it's unclear if she ever has done this before in her life. It's odd to me, but her life does revolve around the thing, for all we know she's gone for extended periods of time talking to her money when she feels particularly unsafe/alone, but I digress.

Aunt Jane has presumably spent alot of her life taking care of her money and fears growing too old to do so anymore, so she turns to the only person she believes she could trust to continue that legacy. She has enough wealth to do whatever her heart desires, And what is her social reward for having such wealth to look after?

3. A woman millionaire

Misogyny exists. Yes, even in the moominverse, it sucks but it's true even if it isn't explicit sexism. Jane is presumably single, she had someone by the name of Fredrick who she was "frivolous" with but clearly that didn't work out as implied with the tone of her voice when she drops that information, Jane is alone in her wealth and that leaves her open to many people who believe they can get themselves some cash for whatever venture they want to pursue. It has happened plenty of times before in her life and it has happened within the episode when 3 males come up to her asking for funds, of course they didn't seem to care that she is a woman, not a word of it was even mentioned, but it's an issue that may be less present if she wasn't. Nobody is intimidated by her aside from Moominpappa who has met her, Snork and Sniff think they can weasel a family inheritance if they just do enough logical leaps, Mr. Hemulen just assumes she'd be interested from his botany credentials alone, and none of them really listen to her, they just talk over eachother trying to convince her to give them money until she bursts out yelling at them to shut up.

And she has to have some traditional feminity instilled in her, given the way she stands when Sniff knocks and gets in her room, how she arrived to Moomin Valley under a pink shade with curtains, having someone else carry her suitcase for her, being bothered at how small Little My is, her whole outfit among other small things, she seems to have been raised on traditional values, and those values, well, they don't lend well to someone of her status. She can be bossy and terrifying (and surprisingly powerful) but she's not respected by anyone that we know of, nobody's explicitly treated her kindly besides Moominmamma and maybe everyone at the welcome party if you count that, everyone only cares about her because of her money. Moominpappa is scared of her money and every other male only cares to get it from her for their own gain, she just can't win as a millionairess because any care directed towards her is actually care directed towards her money. And what does that treatment leave her as?

4. A bitter, lonely maiden

Jane is very, very alone. Nobody likes her as a person and the fact nobody likes her as a person only makes her more bitter and unlikable, it's a feedback loop. She doesn't seem to have anyone, and I mean, literally ANYONE. We have her rower but he's just a random guy she pays for all we know, she just sits there and stares blankly at the pink curtains until the guy rings the bell and she gets out, she just has no personal connection with anyone even by the end of the episode. Speaking of the end of the episode; she literally cries because she hasn't felt so welcomed by anyone IN HER LIFE (side note: I know I'm not supposed to bring up the comics but she actually cries when Moominpappa uses the word fond on her and it makes me so upset because she's treated even worse there too)

She's angry and alone because people use her for her money and don't care about her, everybody cares only about her money including herself, the only times she'd pay mind to her own self as a person is when she's flabbergasted at Moominpappa "BEING AFRAID OF HIS OWN AUNT!?" or when she feels disrespected by My teasing her about how she used to be frivolous with someone, Little My doesn't really care about her, she just takes her to Moominpappa to view the chaos that would ensue at such a meeting of two worlds. Moominpappa says she doesn't let people have a moment of peace yet it looks like she doesn't have a moment's peace herself, there's literally one moment and it's the one second she sits on her bed before Sniff knocks on the door.

Aunt Jane is both pitiful and somewhat sympathetic, she's an antagonist who's clearly not a good person but she has her own very understandable reasons as to why she's the way that she is. And what do we take from this?

5. Conclusion

I don't know if you know this but uhm, capitalism is bad, folks. It really just brings out the worst in people wether it's the scummy ways they gain money or the problems money causes for your mental health, and in Jane's case it's the latter. It's unclear how she got the money to begin with, I assume it's inherited but I could be wrong obviously, though I don't think that question could truly be answered. Aunt Jane is insistent on keeping her wealth and only giving her wealth away to her own family even if it's the root of her problems, but also Snork and Mr. Hemulen only ask for her money so they can continue with their hopes and dreams, Sniff is well, Sniff, but I'm pretty sure he's traumatized into believing he's only worth the wealth he has so that's another capitalistic problem.

Moominpappa is happy the way he is without the money, the Moomin family is decidedly non-capitalistic and Moominpappa knows nothing about how it works, so he chooses to simply not have it. They simply don't need it with the way things are.

And I suppose that was the appeal of the Moomins franchise that got people hooked into the fantasy of living there, it's pure freedom from an oppressive system that doesn't even give people what they're worth, it's being able to be yourself with a small, loving and accepting community.

But Aunt Jane never had that, which makes her feel out of place in this valley more than other outsider characters do in the show. And like the weirdly smooth and good animation that was clearly outsourced to a different studio for this one specific episode, being rich looks nice, but the cutthroat system of how it's made probably doesn't make it worth it.

#moomins #moominvalley #aunt jane #character analysis #character essay #long post #the moomins #tanoshii muumin ikka #screenshots #this is literally 16 words away from being 5 thousand words #what's a life and where do I get one? /j

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lazyliars · 3 years

Text

Thinking about Tales from The SMP...

So, If I’m interpreting things correctly, Karl canonically doesn’t get to choose when or where he time travels to, meaning that something, or if the books are any indicator, someone, is deciding where he goes, and what “story” he experiences.

“Stories like todays can show that not everything necessarily has to end in misery.”

So, setting aside the obvious question of Who, I’d like to take a moment to consider some of the Why.

Namely, why are the stories that Karl is experiencing necessary for whatever it is he’s doing/going to do?

The Masquerade makes the most sense as of right now - It gives Karl forewarning about the Egg, how it operates, and that it’s old.

It, interestingly enough, doesn’t give us more than that. The only new piece of information the viewers get is, as previously mentioned, that the Egg has been around for awhile.

This lets the theorists narrow things down a little, but the general viewership doesn’t get much out of this nugget of information, so we have to assume that the narrative purpose this serves is to bring Karl up to speed on the Egg stuff.

The Lost City of Mizu again reaffirms the information we already have. In it’s climactic reveal of the Dream Room, we learn that Dream was worshiped through blood sacrifice, and that Ranbob might have murdered the entire city, which reminds Karl and the audience that Dream’s Not A Good Fella.

We could also extrapolate that this is a warning from the In-between that Ranboo is compromised and/or has a connection to Dream, but we’ve yet to see them interact properly so that’s just speculation for now.

The other episodes are less clear in their intended message, lesson, or warning.

The Town that Went Mad gave little to no concrete links to the modern day SMP (until Ponk began to tie it into his lore, which is baller btw go check him out, but which afaik was not planned during the writing of the episode so I’m not counting it to be safe.)

Tubbo/Robin also drops a line about the “Red-Eyed Village Wars” which some have linked to Egg plot. The time period could easily line up with the Masquerade and The Wild West, but there’s every chance that this was a throwaway line from Tubbo, and completely unplanned. We just don’t know.

But more than lore drops, The Town That Went Mad shows Karl an eerily familiar scene - a community of people tearing themselves apart to root out the source of conflict. It’s not quite a 1-1, as the town did have more clear cut “bad guys” then the current SMP, but the similarity remains.

I’ll only count The Town That Never Was as tentatively part of the tales canon. It was the pilot episode, and it doesn’t involve time travel, at least as far as we know.

As for what it has to teach, it’s a clear recreation of the destruction of L’manberg. I don’t know what this teaches, but, uh, yeah.

Then there’s the Beach Episode... It’s got that early installment weirdness, Karl is still very obviously working out the kinks in his storytelling style and voice, and it’s clear that he hasn’t fleshed out what he wants this to be yet. As a consequence, the following theory is tenuous at best, please take it with a grain of salt.

At first glance, the Beach Episode seems to have no lore-relevance. It’s just a fun jaunt between a group of friends.

But, this was streamed on Jan 9th - a time at which Dream had just blown L’manberg up with Techno, and was hiding outside of the SMP lands. This episode also features Ranboo and Dream, the former of which has stated that he and Dream haven’t spoken once, meaning that either he was in Enderwalk when this happened, or this episode not only doesn’t fit into the timeline, but it doesn’t fit into the canon at all.

Now, there’s a good chance that this is just meant to be taken as a filler episode, and we should ignore the canon inconsistencies. However, I’m have adhd that want thing be deeper than it is.

I propose that this Episode is canonical, and takes place in an Alternate Universe - visited by Karl to teach him that, despite how horrible things are right now, they could be better, even idyllic, where a group of friends can cavort around a beach and look for treasure without a care in the world.

This explains the inconsistencies - In this Universe, Dream either didn’t blow up L’manberg, or Ranboo and the rest of the dteam + Bad didn’t mind him doing so.

This opens the door for other AU themed episodes though - silly ones, serious ones... I for one would love to see an over-the-top “darkest timeline” episode, where everyone talks in a low, gruff voice and tries to be darker and edgier than each other.

More lore-oriented, we could see canon-divergence - maybe a “Pog 2020 wins the Elections” story, or a “What if Eret never betrayed?”

I feel like this would give a lot of freedom and give some opportunities to people to explore their current characters on the SMP in ways that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It also serves the narrative, giving Karl reason(s) not to mess up the timeline, lest he get these strange offshoots.

Anyway, I would love to hear what people think about this, and any ideas for AUs that could be explored through the Tales format...

#tftsmp #tales from the smp #dream smp #Karl Jacobs

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silentlylovingyourwork · 3 years

Note

hi! i've been following your blog bc of harringrove for a while and i really resonate with your taste in fic so, since i've just recently dipped my toes in lawrusso... could you rec me a few of your fav fics for the ship? i always feel pretty overwhelmed when starting in a new fandom, so i thought i would ask. thanks in advance! 😘

Hi!!

I am honored (and terrified) to help you get ankle deep in lawrusso fics.

Under a cut because it was a lot of scrolling when I made this.

in the business of date-crashing by narcissablaxk, T, 4706 words

“Spotted: newly divorced Mr. LaRusso at Home Depot at nine a.m. on a Saturday,” the message said. The picture was blurry but there was no denying that he was looking at a picture of Daniel LaRusso, in jean shorts and a baggy flannel shirt, his hair mussed and, if he looked closely, a streak of grey by his temple.

It was a good look.

“DILF,” was all Hawk’s reply said, and then a flurry of little picture emoticons that Johnny didn’t understand.

He had to use the Google to figure out what a DILF was.

Probably the first fic I read in this fandom. It's very fun.

He's My Karate Husband by lostmagician, E, 1945 words

What the hell was going on? Was this another one of Johnny's pranks? The worst part was that Johnny seemed unfazed whenever he said it—like he was just stating the way things were.

(Or: the one where Johnny keeps calling Daniel his karate husband, and Daniel doesn't understand why)

Also a fun story.

Safe Word: Cobra Kai by Zerrah, M, 5288 words

In a bout of overprotectiveness, Daniel follows Sam to an unconventional club, and gets more than he bargained for.

One where Johnny totally knows what Daniel really wants.

Love by Amymone, G, 1165 words

Johnny just wants to tell LaRusso that he loves him. What could possibly go wrong?

It's cute.

The Last Coors Banquet in the Valley by LulaMadison, M, 29436 words

During the zombie apocalypse Johnny Lawrence searches for the last Coors Banquet in the valley, but instead he finds a 16 year old kid living alone in an abandoned apartment block. He decides to teach the kid how to be a badass Zombie killer.

(I know some people don't like major character deaths in fic, but there are no 'on screen' character deaths in this fic, although any person not listed in the tags above is assumed to be a zombie or missing. Spoiling it slightly, but any character listed in the tags above isn't going to die.

There also isn't a lot of horror in this because it's not really about Zombies, it's about finding love and family at the end of the world :-P)

A much-needed zombie au.

I Can Give It All To You, Baby by succor_punch, E, 10873 words

Daniel finds the photos. *** Whatever pervert directed this photoshoot knew what they were doing. The next pose has Johnny leaning back against a rock wall with his leg half-hitched up and he looks every inch like a prime, sex-on-a-stick alpha male. White baggy trousers that offset his tanned chest, which is... shiny. Did they fucking rub him down with oil?

It's good and also now a series.

We have been down together in my sleep by trinityofone, E, 4226 words

Listen, it wasn’t Johnny’s fault that he never realized how much he’d love getting fucked.

Lovingly what it says in the description.

Fellas, is it gay... by momma_66, T, 1933 words

To goad your karate rivial into asking you to prom and then both of your egos are too big to back out? Is it gay, fellas?

A fun take on rival daring each other to go to prom together and finding the pics +30 years later

Paler than Grass by the_sound_of_inevitability, E, 4047 words

It’s just the two of them. He told himself he didn’t need an entourage to hand over the damn form, that he was going to keep his cool.

His cool lasted all of two seconds under LaRusso’s gaze.

But then, it never lasts. Whenever he sees LaRusso it’s like an electric charge.

Inspired by the deleted scene of Daniel asking Johnny why he likes intimidation. Canon compliant... until it isn't.

What if Johnny bullying Daniel was a thing they got off to?

Tit For Tat by t_time, E, 2487 words

“I can fix the car for you, at no cost. All I need in return is a little favor.”

Johnny tensed. “What kind of favor?” He asked slowly, not sure he wanted to know.

Daniel leans forward now, smile sliding off his face. “Suck my dick, Johnny.”

In which Johnny is as broke as his car is, and Daniel wants his dick sucked. Written for a Kink Meme prompt.

A bit of a darker Daniel here.

When the Fires Burn Low by petofi, T, 7113 words

A couple years after high school ends, Johnny is lonely and touch-starved. He goes to a beach party where, deep into the night, people will start putting on a blindfold and undressing while other people touch them.

One night Johnny puts on a blindfold, not knowing that a certain karate rival is watching from the other side of the bonfire.

Poor touch-starved Johnny and a kind Daniel.

Snake pit by dedlit, E, 49098 words

Sets after season 2.

1st Arc: Daniel strikes a deal with Kreese and starts loosing control over himself...

2nd Arc: Johnny is back in town, Daniel's downward spiral continues...

3rd Arc: Daniel and Johnny recover, heal and slowly something new can start...

A much darker fic, so well written, poor Daniel, but it does work out

little larusso is a cobra by narcissablaxk, T, 3844 words

When Anthony asks Johnny to teach him some karate to take care of a bully, Johnny agrees, even if it means keeping it a secret from Daniel. That is, until he finds out who the bully is.

It's good and fun.

Bonus:

Functional Flexibility by LMT, M, 23692 words

“How about you, LaRusso?” Johnny says. “What’s *your* secret weapon? Your crane kick of sex?” Knowing that the conversation will go nowhere good, Daniel just tells him that he will never, ever find out. Even if he buys shots all night. ************************** ((After Daniel and Johnny discuss some newfangled ideas about sexuality, which were definitely not in vogue when they were kids, things get weird.))

It's not Lawrusso, but it is a fascinating look at their relationship and both Johnny and Daniel as characters.

#anonymous #asks #fic rec list #so many good fics so little time #i tried to give you a bit of variety #lawrusso #if you're looking for more specific genres let me know #also i am still trying to work out how to format these rec things #i also cannot explain why i like things beyond 'it good'#may you find something you like #you adorable human you #there a lot (a lot) more good fics out there but try these?

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housamo-side-blog-2 · 3 years

Text

HARUMO EXPOSED.

This is a story about Harumo..

{SPLASH OF WATER}

Harumo:...bloo...bloooo..blo...blah.......*gasp for air*.

You gasp for air, as you have just made a jump from 10 feet,

Shiro: Harumo, you just jump from 10 feet,are you okay?

Harumo: Yeah,im okay.

Shiro; Thank goodness,you landed with perfect form, if not, then you would have just felt the most painful slap in history.

Kengo: Is it really that painful, i bet i could take it on.

Shiro: Coming from you loudmouth,

Kengo: Its true, I’ve felt way more painful punches that those pathetic slaps,right partner?

Harumo: Ahh, yeah, i guess?

{Lil Salomon appears}

Lil Salomon: Hello Master!,...Whoah!, you”re in the sea, care to explain you’re wherabouts?

Harumo: Wanna take a dip?

Lil Salomon: I’ll pass, i was checking in on you.

Harumo: Well thats a surprise...

Lil Salomon: You see, I have a very personal project that i want to complete, so i was just checking, if you’re in need of me,

Harumo: I think we’re good for now.

Lil Salomon: Oh good, well then, see you later then!

Harumo: Hey wait Sal-..

Your question goes unanswered, to brush your curiosity, you float on your back, and met the piercing gaze of the sun, with its brightness, you close your eyes and just float,.....

COMPLETELY UNAWARE OF SOMETHING IS OFF.!

????: HARUMO WAKE UP !

Harumo: ....What is it you Guuuuuuuuuuuuuyyyyyysssssss!

Shiro:*BLUSHING* AGYO AND KIJIMUNA DON’T LOOK FOR THE LOVE OF YOG-SOTHOTH!

Agyo and Kijimuna: HEY, WHAT GIVES?!

Kengo: HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!

Ryota: *BLUSHING LIKE A TOMATO*

Moritaka:*BLUSHING* Harumo?

Shino:.*BLUSHING*..THA--UGH--.. FILIAL ONE! HOW DARE YOU LOOK !

Moritaka: PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

Toji: *blushing* Uhhhmmmmm.....

Harumo:*BLUSHING*AHHHHHHHH!!! WHERE ......ARE .....MY TRUUUUUNNNNNNNKKKKKSSSSS?!

{CAW,,,CAW,,,}

{END SCENE}

*Yesterday*

{SUMMONERS SAFEHOUSE}

The safehouse is the the place where guildmates attend to conduct their guild activities, strategy meetings and also.

EVERYONE: AIR CONDITIONING!

Thats right, today is an usual very hot for Tokyo today, and according to the broadcast its only going to get more and more hot tomorrow, And due to the intense heat, classes today are suspended as most school don’t have air conditioning,luckily,

EVERYONE: THANK YOU SHIRO!

Shiro: All right, i understand all your feelings but, hold out on the touching.

Ryota and Harumo: YOU’RE THE BEST SHIRO!

Shiro: O,,Well,, Thank you Harumo. im glad you say that.

Kengo: So much for holding out on the touching.

Shiro: What was that?!

Toji: Purchasing an AC is a wise choice Shiro Motoori, if not, we’re probably boiled eggs already.

Agyo and Moritaka: AHHHHHHHHHH!! SO COOOOOLLLL!

The two fluffy fured Canis therians sit infront of the the lifesaving air conditioner in a proper sitting position.

Shiro: Its a good thing, i bought it,just incase if their is a heat wave, Agyo and Moritaka would be alright.

Ryota: Oh yeah, Canis Therians are probably the most affected in this heat wave, i hope they are okay.

Agyo: This is much more better that waving fans around in the Land of Wa,

Moritaka: Yes, When there is a hot day, we would just sit under a tree.

Moritaka: Though i have to say, its not the least effective during this intenese heat.

Harumo: .....Wait a sec...i get the feeling somethings off.

Shiro: Really?!, what is it?

Harumo: Hmmmmmmmmm......

{Hexagram flashes}

Lil Salomon: Hello Master, cooling down i see.

Harumo: Hey Lil Salomon,

Ryota: Hello, Lil Salomon, how are you doing?!

Lil Salomon: Hello to you too, Ryota, im doing fine, thank you for asking.

Harumo: He said Hello to you too Ryota and he’s doing fine.

Ryota: Yay!

Kengo: Hey, whats with the yay Ryota?

Ryota: Lil Salomon showed up.

Kengo: You mean that invisible guy.....Hey Salomon guy,

Toji: Who are you all taiking to?

Moritaka: Everyone, what seems to the commotion.

Agyo: And who are you all taiking to?

Harumo: Oh yeah, i haven’t introduced you to everyone yet.

Lil Salomon: Well, it seems i to make an entrance.

The floating gray fured butler,fixes his tie and dust off his butler his uniform to prepare his long awaited introduction to the rest of the Summoners.

Harumo: Lil Salomon, everyone can’t see you.

Lil Salomon:....AHHHHHH!, i EVEN DUST OFF MY SUIT,

Again, only the one wearing Salomon”s ring can see the small butler that accompanies you everyday.

Toji: So... who are we going to meet again?

Harumo: Everyone, i would like to introduce Lil Salomon here.

Moritaka, Toji and Agyo: .........

Harumo: He’s the first friend that i met ever since i arrived in Shinjuku Central Park, and he’s my butler.

You put your hand under Lil Salomon, to help them see where he is,even though they can’t see his form,

Lil Salomon: Its a pleasure to meet you Toji, Agyo and Moritaka, Thank you for protecting my Master in times of trouble.

Harumo:{ Relays what Lil Salomon said}

Agyo: You mean?.....HE IS A GHOST?!

Moritaka: Agyo, i think thats not it, maybe Harumo is the only that can see him.

Moritaka: That amazing!, to think you have a butler on your own.

Lil Salomon: Thank you Moritaka, i have to keep my master safe, even though he always go to trouble.

Toji: Huh, that explains some questions.

Lil Salomon: Oh.. Master, i should inform you about Kijimuna, you promised to take him to the safehouse to meet everybody.

Harumo:............I TOTALLY FORGOT!

EVERYBODY: AHHH!.

Shiro and Kengo: Harumo, whats wrong?!

Harumo: I totally forgot about Kijimuna, {Remembers about Kijimuna}

EVERYBODY: KIJI...MUNA?

Harumo: He’s my friend that i met during the time i was stranded on a deserted island.

Everybody:...Eh?

Harumo:......

Everybody: WHHHHHHAAAAAATTTTTTTT?!

Shiro: You were stranded?!

Ryota: Deserted island?

Everybody: ALONE?!

The news comes a shock to them, to know that they’re friend,the one that saved them, was stranded on a island in the middle of nowhere, everybody is still processing your crazy trip, but what would they think if you told them about your other out of this world adventures.

Shiro: When..did this happened?

Toji: How did you get out of there?

Ryota: More importantly, how did you get there.

Harumo: Guys, calm down...{If i told them about the rest, they surely will go crazy}...uhm...anyway i better go pick up Kijimuna.He’s with Mr Triton, so it shouldn’t be far.

Shiro: We are going to have a taik with you later.

Harumo: Uh...O-okay Shiro.. See you all later.

Shiro: This explains a lot of questions.

Kengo: What do you mean.

Shiro: Do you not notice Harumo suddenly disappearing all of a sudden? like that time with the treasure hunt in Nakano.

Toji: I forgot to tell about that time, Shiro Motoori.

Ryota: What do you mean?

Toji: Remember the day we were discussing about the treasure hunt that was famous in Nagoya.

Shiro: I thought they were only rumors.

Toji: Yeah well, We have an exam that time, and i heard Harumo mumbling about something.

Ryota: What did they say.?

{FLASHBACK}

Harumo: Something about a treasure ship.....

Toji: Hmmmm.

Harumo: Didn’t we go sailing that time.... .. I wonder how everyone is doing?

[END FLASHBACK}

Toji: Then after school, They went to Nakano. i don’t the rest of the details after that. but it sounds like they have some other accquaintances,

Shiro: I see... hmmm.... when Harumo first arrived. we have been making a lot of friends with other people lately.

Ryota: Yeah, They are the reason how i met Maria and led us to Daikanyama Academy.

Kengo: Yeah, same goes for me. and also Claude is way over heels for them.

Kengo: Back in the war,

Shiro; War?

Kengo: It was like a war that time, The three main guilds of Tokyo, for the first time fought side by side, i was shocked to see the Tycoons lending a hand.

Shiro: And the reason for their unity, was Harumo..

Ryota: Yeah.. we all saw them. Harumo never backs down whenever he sees someone hurt.

Kengo: You got that right, during our first fight back in the Coloseum, They never gave up and..{Remembers what they said}... They said im their friend..

Shiro: After that, you never have absent again. what made you change your mind. You were always so stubborn.

Kengo: Shut up nerd!, I-its because!,,,i ....wanted to be with them.

Ryota: Guys!, I think the reason we’re all here, .Its because of Harumo.

Shiro: None, of this wouldn’t have happened if Harumo weren’t here.

Kengo: Because of them. I got to fight much more stronger opponents!

Ryota: They are also the reason why have friends!

Agyo: Harumo is also the reason, how i have found my purpose,

Shiro; Harumo made big changes in the people they have come across with. even to us. ..

Shiro: Right. Toji?

Toji: Do not misunderstand Shiro Motoori, the only reason i stick with Harumo, is because i swore to protect them, nothing more nothing less.

Ryota: They are also the reason we met you!

Toji: Tha--...*sigh* fine,say what you wish,

{Door opens}

Harumo: Hey guys, im back!

Shiro: Welcome back Harumo!,...where’s Kijimuna?

Ryota: Come on!, i want to him too!

Agyo: I wonder if he is my age?

Kijimuna: HELLO EVERYONE, NICE TO MEET YOU ALL! ...are they your friends Harumo?

Harumo: Yep, Everyone, I would like you all to meet Kijimuna, he was the first person that i met when i was stranded on his island.

Agyo: He’s taller than me!

Ryota: You’re so cute!, i wanna hug him already!

Kijimuna: Yay!, HUGS!

Ryota and Kijimuna: HAHAHA!

Shiro: Hahahaha.... Hello Kijimuna, my name is Shiro Motoori. Nice to meet you..

Kengo: The names, Kengo Takabushi, sup there little fella.

Moritaka: I pleasure it is to meet you Kijimuna. My name is Moritaka Shino Inuzuka!

Agyo: And my name Agyo, im the protector of this place.

Kijimuna: WHOAH !, you’re a protector?, like me?

Agyo: You’re also a protector?

Kijimuna: Yep, i protect the Banyan Tree that has been growing on my island for years......Oh sorry,... Its a pleasure to meet you all.!

Everybody: PLEASURE TO MEET YOU TOO !

Shiro: Wait.. you mean...you have been alone in your island for how many years exactly?..

Kijimuna:*counting his fingers* More than these!

Everyone: Wha?!.

Agyo: You have been a protector for so long?

Kijimuna: Yep, Then i met Harumo. who washed up on the beach side of my island! and then i we met a lot of new people!

Shiro: I see..

Moritaka: Thats most impressive,to be able to protect something from a young age is most astounding!

Kijimuna: No one ever shows up,so there’s not a whole lot of protecting.

Kijimuna: You see. {Tells his life story before Harumo appeared}

Kijimuna: And thats when i met Harumo. and after that. i’ve became friends with so many different people and it was fun everyday in the island!

Ryota: *sobbing* whaaaa!

Harumo: R-Ryota?, are you okay?

Ryota: To be alone for so many years! WHAAAA!, *HUGS KIJIMUNA*

Kijimuna: O-okay.. calm down.. Ohhh how about we play together!..sound fun?

Ryota: *Sobbing* y-yeah okay.

Shiro: He was all alone for so many years..

Kijimuna: Do you wanna play too Uhmm...Agyo? is it?

Agyo: Playing is for little kids!

Harumo: You’re also a kid...

Agyo: Im not!

Kijimuna: *giggling*

Agyo: Are you making fun of me?!

Harumo: I think you two are going to get along really well.Since you both are protectors.

Kijimuna: *Extends his hand* i hope we could be great friends Agyo!

Agyo:......*Extends his paw* Y-Yeah!, I think so too!

Harumo and Ryota: AWWWWWW! SO CUTTEEEE!

And so,Kijimuna finally have friends that he could have a bond with,even in this hot day, the warmth of these ordeal, makes the room both cool and comfortable.

OR IS IT.....

{A LIMO DRIVES BY INFRONT OF THE SAFEHOUSE}

Agyo: Hmm.. Hey.guys i sense someone in our territory.

Harumo: I wonder who could it be?

Agyo: Its a long,black car and....oh someone got out of it.

Shiro: A limousine?

Ryota: WHOAH!, Only rich people get to ride those!

Kengo: I have a bad feeling about this..

Moritaka: Why would someone come here all of a sudden?

Toji: {Could they be after Harumo?.}

The driver of the car immediately went out with an umbrella opened as if to protect the important person sitting in the backsit. however the driver of the seat is non other than..

Harumo: Xolotl?!

Shiro: That means..

Kijimuna: Hey...is there something wrong..?

Harumo: That means Hakumen!

Xolotl the loyal servant to one of the excecutive members of the Tycoons, His Master is the owner of the famous Casino, that is blowing millions, with its extraegance.

Hakumen:HMMM....So.. this is the safe house of my liege?

Xolotl: Yes,Mistress Hakumen, according to one our sources,their safehouse is located here.

Hakumen: Oh.. i see.

Harumo:*Opens the door* Hakumen?!,

Hakumen: Oh...MY LIEGE?!

The nine tailed fox quickly went to her beloved liege in a dust,

Harumo: W-what brings you here Hakumen?.

Hakumen: Well..you see.. its pretty hot today ...and im throwing a grand party at my resort!,

Harumo: Wow!, You own a resort?!

Hakumen: Off course i do!, who do you think for?...Ahem. my liege its pretty boring since the guests will be members of the Guild and some other a-accquaintences that i invited. and i would love to personally invite you and your guild to this party..

Harumo: Hmmmm....

Shiro: If i may interrupt....

Harumo: Shiro...

Hakumen: And who are you supposed to be?

Shiro: Im Shiro Motoori, the adviser of the Summoners, Pleasure to meet you.

Hakumen: Oh.. i see...so my liege will you come?

Shiro: Forgive my rudeness, but,do you have an ulterior motive for inviting Harumo?

Hakumen: Hahah!, Well, Sorry to burst your bubble,but i have no plot to accomplish, My only wish is for beloved Liege!, to attend my party..

Shiro:Hm...

Harumo: Okay, we’ll definitely go!

Shiro: H-Harumo.. what if she has something planned?

Harumo: She wouldn’t come here in this intense heat, just to plan something bad, i think this is sincere. so lets give her a chance..

Hakumen: OHHHH,, The way my liege cares for me!, is so loving, that makes want you now even more!.

Harumo: We’ll come Hakumen!, Count on it!

Hakumen: Very well my liege, the party starts tomorrow, i’LL have the men in the entrance know your coming.

Harumo: Okay, its settled, we’ll be there Hakumen..

Hakumen: I’LL be waiting my liege!

Hakumen, goes back to her limo and drove off.

Harumo: ..Welp.. Looks like we got a party to attend to!

Shiro: Im still skeptical about her.

Ryota: Harumo,Shiro!, what happened?, what did she say?

Harumo: *explains to them*

Toji: You invited you outta the blue, Im agree with Shiro Motoori, this sounds fishy.

Ryota: C’mon guys, We don’t normally get invited to this types of parties and also i want try their food!

Kengo: You just wanna eat their food don’t cha!

Agyo and Kijimuna: Hey,whats going on!

Ryota: We’re going to a party!

Agyo and Kijimuna: Really?!, with lots of delicious food and fun games!

Harumo: I don’t think they have games, but their pool could be super fun..

Ryota: All right... We’re going to a party, try fancy delicious food and a have pool party!..Oh man!,, im so excited!

Kengo: Even though, Its cold here, I nice outing in the pool is much more enjoyable than doing nothing than sitting here in the cold.

Moritaka: Indeed,, this is going to be so much more fun than i imagined it to be..

What will happen in the party hosted by the foxy vixen Mistress Hakumen, is there a hidden plot in it or is there something instore for Harumo find out in the next part!

OKAY, THATS GOING TO BE IT FOR FIRST PART OF THIS STORY RIGHT HERE, AND THE FAMILIAR FACE PT 2, IM CURRENTLY WORKING ON IT, DON’T WORRY, AND AS ALWAYS LIKE IF YOU LOVE IT AND IF YOU READ IT BUT DIDN’T LIKE IT THEN YOU LIKE SO THATS FOR TODAY AND THANK YOU ALL FOR READING.THANK YOU VERY MUCH.....

Self-proclaimed writer: THANK YOU FOR READING EVERYONE..

Harumo: THANK YOU ALL FOR READING EVERYONE..

#housamo #tokyo afterschool summoners #mc5 #Harumo #story #fanfics #Summoners #Harumo exposed part 1 #Thank you all for reading #kijimuna

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asavt · 3 years

Text

Warm Canary Yellow

By Notebook

“Ooooh. So you’re looking to redeem yourself, Huh? Well, I suggest that you first head over to the city you terrorized for over three months. You know… The desert city where you made an army of dancing toads that you kidnapped.”

“Yes, I know.”

“The city where you reburied the Shroom Temple and forced the temple’s DJ to play music for you.”

“Yes. I know.”

“The place where you-”

“Would you just give me the damn ticket already!”

——————————————————————————–

Hole Punch gingerly rubbed the side of their cheek as they walked around, the newly named, Shnroomfit City. Yelling at the ticket agent for not giving them their ticket, somehow warrants them to throw their metal box towards one’s face, but whatever.

While getting their bearings together from that experience, Hole Punch looked around the area they were in, finding dozens of casinos, stores, and bars. Each one either gaudily decorated with LED or Neon lights or barely noticeable from the dimly lit sidewalk.

Memories from months prior flooded Punch’s mind, as they continued to traverse the city. Memories of Toads giving them strange looks when they first entered the city, to Toads running for their lives when they began taking out the metal punchers. Toad’s, from the nastiest parts of the city, tried to come up to beat the snot out of them, only for them to either run away, get their snots beaten out, or become one of the dancing toads.

Hole Punch even remembers one particular fella, who had tree trunks for arms and a hardened look in his eyes, who tried to kick them out of a nightclub they liked. They responded to the older toad by toying with him, then punching his face out, literally. The fella wasn’t even a bad fighter either, it was just at the time Hole Punch was, and still is, a much stronger fighter and way more ruthless.

Just thinking about what they used to be, brings chills to Hole Punch’s spine. All those toads they traumatized just for being toads and all the sleepless nights they most likely caused after being defeated. They aren’t even sure if forgiveness or redemption is even possible for them, but they have to try. Why else would they come to the Oasis of Sandpaper desert?

Not wanting to dawdle any longer, Hole Punch lifted their yellow hoodie and walked towards the first homeless shelter they found.

Baby steps.

———

“Your name is what! No! Why would I let you volunteer here! Get out of my sight, or I’m calling the police!”

“Err….sorry, you can’t volunteer. You’re far too dangerous.”

“Are you that that hole punching, f#$cker? Cuz if so, get the f$%k out of my soup kitchen.”

“You’re a sick bastard, you know that.”

“S-sorry. I can’t let you volunteer here. I’m worried for the kids’ safety.”

“I hope you perish in the desert and never be found.”

“You already have the temple of the shrooms! What more do you want from us?!”

“Nope. You’re too much of a risk.”

“I wish Mario would have destroyed you when you were just a small pathetic hole puncher."

"Nope.”

—————

Sitting in an empty alley at the edge of the city, with little light to spare from the bulbs above, Hole Punch slumped their head in defeat. They knew that the Toads would still be a bit upset from what happened seven months ago, but they had no idea that their hurt and hate would last this long. Even the Snifits, who barely knew about Hole Punch’s existence, wouldn’t want to associate with the former Legion.

The Toads sure made the Snifits wary about the disco dancer who took faces for fun. Not that Hole Punch blamed them, but do they hate and fear him that badly for this long? Or is it a select few and Hole Punch just got unlucky? They aren’t sure anymore.

As the former Legion continued to ponder on their predicament, they heard a ruckus near from where they were sitting. It sounded like two people fighting each other. One sounded a bit off and coarse, while the other sounded both terrified, angry, and absolutely done with life, all at the same time.

Hole Punch got up from their sitting spot and ran towards the sound. As they got closer to the source of the commotion, they began to hear what the two were screaming.

“You….You! Must Pay! You must pay for what you’ve done!”

“I didn’t do nothin, you crazy bastard!”

“Yes. You. Did! You ruined my life of mine! You had your job! One job!”

“For the last time! I don’t take requests!"

(Slam)

"Guhh!”

Right, when Hole Punch turned the corner of a building, they saw, far into the distance, a larger figure hit the smaller figure off the roof of a three-story building. The smaller figure hit a few things on the way down and landed in a pile of soft but frigid sand.

The smaller figure limped out of the small sand crater, while the larger figure jumped from the roof and landed near the smaller figure. The larger figure walked towards the smaller figure and lifted them from near the neck of their hoodie. The smaller figure swung their good leg and kicked the larger figure’s chin. The larger figure dropped the smaller figure but retaliated by swinging their steel rebar towards the smaller figure. The rebar smashed against the smaller figure’s mask, causing the mask to fly off the smaller figure’s face and land on the cold desert sands next to them.

The smaller figure tried to stand up and run to gain some distance, but their leg was badly damaged from the fall. Not wanting to go down easily, the smaller figure grabbed a stone nearby, while the larger figure walked up towards the smaller figure and lifted the rebar above their head.

The smaller figure was about to throw the stone towards the larger figure’s face when someone grabbed the rebar from behind the larger figure and threw it far from all three of them.

“Huh?”

The larger figure turned around and before they could react, the third figure punched the lights out of them. The larger figure dropped to the sands below, while the smaller figure merely stared in shock. They pelted that Toad with steel poles, shovels, bricks, and even a broken concrete block, and that still didn’t slow the rampaging Toad down.

Yet, a single punch from the person in front of them managed to knock the Toad out cold. Whoever this person was, they must be far, far worse than the unconscious Toad next to them.

Not wanting to find out why the person knocked out the Toad, the bloody Snifit desperately tried to run away from the figure. However, thanks to the multiple wounds and a possible broken leg they gained, the smaller figure didn’t get too far before the third figure caught up to them.

The smaller figure tried to fight off the third figure as best they could, but due to their injuries, all they could do was weakly hit the third figure as they lifted them from the sand.

Just as the Snifit were about to try and wiggle their way to freedom they heard, “Hey, It’s ok. I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Huh?” the Snifit responded in confusion as the third figure began to jog towards the city.

“I saw a hospital on the way here,” answered the figure, “They should be able to treat you there."

The third figure explained as they began to head towards the hospital on 5th street. As they drew closer to the more inhabited parts of the city, the lights on the streets slowly grew in luminosity.

It was not long before the street lights above bathed the two in light.

It was then when the Snifit was finally able to see the person who was carrying him.

The mystery person wore a yellow jacket with small light designs and a hoodie in which they covered their head, along with a sun-like necklace around their neck. They wore a black shirt underneath and black pants. Their hair was a chocolate brown with bits of yellow sprinkled near the ends of their hair. Their hands had faint circle markings on both sides and their height towered over them.

It didn’t take long before the little Snifit realized who was carrying them. It was the one person who his coworkers and friends constantly warned him about, the one person his boss greatly disliked, and the one person many Toads, and some Snifits feared till this day.

It was the Legion of Stationary, Hole Punch.

The Snifit froze in place as the Legion carried them to who knows where, thinking that this might be their last night.

While the Snifit expectedly froze in place when they saw who was carrying them, Hole Punch continued to jog towards the hospital. Running could lead to the little Snifit’s injuries getting worse, so jogging was the best option.

When the hospital was in viewing distance, Hole Punch was finally able to glimpse at what the Snifit looked like, as well as the extent of their injuries.

The Snifit’s dark burgundy hair was covered in dust, sand, and dried blood, while their honey-toned hands and cheeks were covered in cuts and bruises. Their leg was drenched in blood, swollen and purple in color, while their yellow jacket was full of tears with patches of fresh and dried blood all over it.

Yeah, the Snifit was in a worse condition than they thought.

As the two neared the hospital and entered through its door, the Snifit finally dared to look at Hole Punch’s eyes.

To the Snifit’s surprise, their eyes were not the cold, sickening yellow that his coworkers often described but rather… a warm canary yellow.

The type of yellow that reminds the Snifit of the sun that shines over the sky or the sunflowers that grow near the beaches of Noki Bay.

Someone so dangerous shouldn’t have such warm eyes.

"What’s your name?”

The Snifit looked bewildered for a bit at the Legion’s question. Wondering why the fearsome Hole Punch would ask for a random Snifits name.

Before the Snifit could answer, the nurses and doctors took the little Snifit from Hole Punch’s arms and placed them onto the gurney.

Hole Punch quickly left the scene while the Snifit was wheeled to the emergency room. Hole Punch knew that if they stayed there any longer, the nurses and doctors would assume they injured the poor little Snifit.

Deciding to retire for the night, Hole Punch scrounge up what little money they had and rented a room for the night. The sleepy former Legion fell onto the bed like a sack of bricks and slowly doused off to sleep, wondering if the little Snifit was alright.

—————

“Hello. I’m here to see Lyrik,” Djei said to the main nurse who was working the morning shift in Sand Valley hospital.

The nurse browsed through the folders for a bit before finding the correct one. She then pointed towards the elevator before giving Djei instructions on how to get there.

“Just head up to the 5th floor, turn to the right and keep moving forward until you hit the nurse station. Ask for David. He’ll show you the way.”

“I see. Thank you.”

Djei waves the nurse goodbye before walking towards the elevator and hitting the 5th-floor button. As the elevator slowly rose to the fifth floor, Djei thought to himself on how in the world did Lyrik manage to get himself to the hospital with several knife wounds, a broken leg, and other minor injuries. Djei figured that when he got to the room, the Snifit would explain everything.

When the elevator doors to the 5th floor opened, Djei stepped out of the elevator and headed towards the right for the floor’s nurses station. When Djei arrived at the nurse station, It didn’t take long for David to arrive and show Djei the room Lyrik was in.

Once Djei washed his hands for safety purposes, he was allowed into room 207. There Djei found Lyrik lying on the hospital bed with a cast on his leg and bandages all over his body. The Snifit was watching the clouds roll across the sky, ignoring the world around him. Lyrik was brought back to reality when Djei tapped his friend on the shoulder.

Lyrik turned around and smiled.

“Djei! Long time no see, buddy. What’s up?”

For the next hour or so, Lyrik explained to Djei what happened last night and how he ended up in the hospital.

——————————————————

Lyrik was walking home from his shift at the Sunburst when a certain Toad came stomping towards him. The Toad, who was smack talking about how he ruined their chance of getting a date, was the same Toad whom Lyrik denied a request for a particular song. The Toad demanded an apology from the DJ, to which he responded with a stern no.

Turns out the Toad didn’t quite like that and tried to beat the living tar out of the DJ. Unfortunately for the Toad, Lyrik had some experience with street fighting and managed to dodge and parry some of the Toad’s attacks.

At first, Lyrik had the upper hand but after a while, the Toad began to get more aggressive, as well as unpredictable. Knowing when to fold em, Lyrik turned tail and ran. Unfortunately for him, the cumbersome Toad was much faster than they looked. They slowly caught up to the Snifit and once again tried to bash the Snifit into the ground.

This game of cat and mouse went on for quite some time, with both sides receiving damage from either a pocket knife, broken bottles, bricks, and whatever else the two could get their hands on.

It wasn’t before long when Lyrik found himself on top of a three-story building with the Toad right in front of him. They exchanged blows while spitting venom at the same time. As the fight wore on, the Toad became furious at Lyrik’s refusal to apologize for what he did, as a result, the Toad kicked Lyrik off of the building.

Lyrik hit a few air conditioners and the remains of a fire escape on the way down, which resulted in his leg getting broken and torn up.

The Toad soon jumped down from the roof of the building and smack Lyrik’s face with the steel rebar they acquired on the roof. Luckily, the mask took most of the damage but it still left Lyrik with a nasty head wound.

With few options left for the Snifit, Lyrik found a stone nearby and grabbed it. The plan was to try to hit the Toad’s nose and hope it either breaks or causes it to bleed enough for the Toad to get distracted so that the Snifit could get away. Before the Snifit could put their last-ditch effort into motion, with the Toad ready to smack him again with the rebar, someone grabbed the weapon from the Toad and threw it towards the sands far from the three of them.

Next thing Lyrik knows, the Toad is knocked out from a single punch and the mystery person carries them all the way to the hospital, and that’s when Lyrik found out who was carrying him.

——————————–

“What!” was all Djei could muster at the revelation on who carried the Snifit to the hospital.

Lyrik slowly nodded his head in agreement as he looked towards the window.

Like all the other toads in this city, Hole Punch left a bitter taste in Djei’s mouth, especially when the former forced the latter to DJ for him while Djei worked at the Shroom Temple. The two weeks that the Toad was forced to entertain the Legion, or else have their face punched out, was the worst two weeks of the Toad’s life.

Lyrik still remembers when Djei refused to touch any hole punchers for a solid 2 months or when the Toad broke out in a cold sweat when they looked at a CD. It took a while for the poor Toad to finally use hole punchers and look at CDs without a major reaction.

“It’s true,” Lyrik said to break the silence between them, “I was just as shocked as you were when I first realized who they were… yet… when I looked into their eyes. They weren’t cold or ruthless but…. um… warm.”

“What?”

“I said that-”

“I know what you said. It’s just that. You called the eyes of a hole punching maniac, warm.”

“It’s because they were. Look, when I realized who they were, I was terrified the entire time they carried me to the hospital… yet when I finally had the courage to look into their eyes. I didn’t find the eyes of a ruthless Legion, but instead the eyes of someone who is trying to find something… it’s hard to explain but… Their eyes were warm… Warmer than anyone I’ve met so far.”

“………. Look. I see that you’ve lost a lot of blood, so I’m just going to head out now. I’ll get you food when I come and visit tonight. Later, Lyrik.”

Djei waved goodbye to Lyrik as the Snifit laid on the hospital bed and dozed off. Dreaming of DJing at the exclusive Desert Jewels at the center of the city.

Meanwhile, Djei tried to process what he learned from Lyrik. Not only is the Guard for the Yellow Streamer back but apparently the Legion is looking for something within the city that never sleeps.

Whatever the Legion is looking for, Djei hopes they will never find it.

======================

Djei you will regret those thoughts--

I love this, I love how you characterized Devil, man, it’s great....

#fanterature #submission #Hole Punch #DJ Toad #DJ Snifit #pmtok #origami king #HolePunchxDJToadxDJSnifit #we need a better name for this ship #tw: injury #tw: violence #if you guys want me to put other twigger warnings just tell me #I JUST SAYING THAT yeah I characterize Devil that way but GOD YOU JUST.... NAILED IT MAN YOU DID #And the description for their eyes #I'm in love~~

31 notes · View notes

theravennest · 3 years

Note

Hey, I saw your post about 3 will be free and binged watched it one night! I'm confused though, did Neo, Miw, and Shin got together at the end, or were Shin and PP a thing? Is it like a poly open relationship? Also, if Shin kept working in his dad's business how is he "free"? Shin deserves better🥺 I'm so confused istg😭 help a fella over here, will you?🥺

@nerdinacoolway

It’s def up for interpretation but let’s do a bit of scene dissection, shall we?

Shin lives and works primarily in Bangkok but visits the resort. How often he visits up to the point of the epilogue, who knows? But Neo and Miw weren’t in any way shocked that he showed up nor did they react like they haven’t seen him in months, so it seems he visits enough. They only teased him about his fancy outfit (that deep, sexy V that the costume director keeps putting him in).

Shin mentions that he wants to visit more often and is there to buy a house nearby. Since there’s nothing else on the island I can fathom he’d care about, this makes me believe he’s moving closer to be near Neo and Miw. Neo then says he should stay with them since their place is his home and place to eat. Shin smiles and gives a kind of head nod like he welcomes the idea even if he doesn’t verbally decide on if he’ll take them up on the offer yet.

That’s when PP comes in. When PP flirts with Shin and insinuates he helps Shin with “personal” business too, Shin wasn’t embarrassed or shy. Instead he gave PP a small glare to censure him. Was it because Shin didn’t like that PP was flirting in general...or because he was flirting in front of Miw and Neo, Shin’s partners?

At the very least, Shin’s reaction when Miw and Neo were teasing him definitely makes me believe him when he says he’s not interested in PP at this time. If that will change in the future, again, who knows?

Then our trio moves out to the beach to reminisce about the last time they were there. Neo especially brings up when they all kissed and had sex. Miw scolds him and says that he shouldn’t be explicitly talking about that since the islanders already can’t stand them. Neo counters that it shouldn’t matter who talks about them nor does it matter who they love or how many they love. Shin agrees with Neo and Miw finally gives way. Then the three start playing in the water.

Since I don’t see why the islanders would give a damn about Neo and Miw being in a relationship given they are a man and a woman, I took this to mean the whole island knows Shin, Neo, and Miw are dating and many of them disapprove of the arrangement.

Based on these context clues, I genuinely believe that Neo, Miw, and Shin are in a relatively open poly. I don’t believe Neo and Miw would ever date anyone except each other and Shin but they are ok with Shin also dating PP if he wants. They’ve both expressed disliking putting restrictions on their relationships with Shin both before the finale and again in the epilogue.

But, hey...maybe that’s just my wishful brain wanting them to be a confirmed, stable poly-V.

Now, onto the second part of the ask: whether Shin is “free” since he’s now taken over his father’s mafia...

This is also up for interpretation but I think there are degrees and qualities of freedom that the main characters all achieve. I think all (including Ter and Mae) have fairly bittersweet endings, some more bitter while others are sweeter. Ter and Mae have the bitterest endings, for sure.

Ter finds spiritual freedom from his violent habits and life of crime by embracing Mae but he doesn’t get true freedom as he is brutally killed before he can find happiness with Mae.

Mae finds freedom from her grief and pain over Phon, finds freedom from her own self doubt about standing up for herself, and finds freedom in having the transition surgery she’s wanted for years. Despite this, she still loses Ter and is plunged into grief, rage, and vengeance all over again. The only freedom she gets after that is exacting her revenge on his killer. So...sour.

Neo is freed from the danger and fear of running from the mafia. His life of poverty and disenfranchisement is behind him and he finds the monetary, spiritual, and emotional stability with Miw and Shin that he’s craved his entire life. Regardless of Neo’s hard won bungalow freedom, tho, his brother was still murdered because of choices Neo made. He likely won’t ever fully find peace with that.

Miw’s ending was the sweetest, I think. She was able to completely face her past as someone who killed her abuser, she reconciled somewhat with her step-uncle before he died, cleared her name, came to terms with her relationship with her mother, found love with Neo and Shin, and calmed the internal storm that always urges her to screw over others and run away. Miw came out on top, for sure.

Shin’s ending is the most complex outside of Mae’s, in my opinion, maybe more so since they gave more time/importance to his journey. His freedom is found with no longer being under his father’s thumb. He is completely in control of his own destiny. That he chooses to take over his father’s mafia is not necessarily a sign that he’s not free, I think. Not only is he clearly good at what he does, since Neo implies that Shin could buy the whole island, but his new empire also grants him authority and monetary security. Plus we don’t know that he’s not working to legitimize his business and clean up his father’s dirty money so maybe he won’t be a mafia don for long.

Shin has also gained the emotional and spiritual acceptance of Neo and Miw. He struggled through the whole show in finding peace with his sexuality and with his difficult relationship with intimacy, duty, and responsibility. There is definitely a bittersweet-ness to the implication that he’s given up his dream of being an artist or at the very least has set it aside as a career goal.

That said, Shin seems genuinely self assured and content in the epilogue. He’s making plans for his future with Neo and Miw, plus he allows himself to be openly affectionate and playful with them. All in all, not bad for him.

I think there’s definitely a way to finish 3 Will Be Free and feel that the end wasn’t what you wanted. Certainly some characters had more positive endings than others. I definitely don’t want to invalidate that takeaway for people. The impact of any artwork is deeply subjective, after all.

For me, the only character that got truly shortchanged was Mae. After all the tragedy and trauma she went through, I personally wish we’d at least seen a glimpse of her years later too, preferably happy in her life.

I was satisfied with where the principle 3 characters ended up. I think a show that had such a morally and emotionally complex journey earned an equally complicated denouement, so to speak.

I’m sorry to just dump this whole essay on your ask but once I started writing I couldn’t stop. lmao

#3 will be free #3wbf #thai drama #polyamory #nerdinacoolway #replies

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youareinlovees · 4 years

Text

Taylor & Joe in 2018

January 12th – Taylor likes this Tumblr post following the release of the End Game music video (x)

January 27th – Taylor was spotted in Italy ordering coffee, the same week that Joe was there for a Prada event (x) (x)

January 28th – In an interview, Todrick is asked about Taylor’s relationship with Joe (x)

“I think that they've done a really great job at being very secretive and keeping that as a personal thing between them. All I can say is that I have met him and he is a lovely, lovely person.”

February 9th – The BTS of the End Game video is released, and Taylor talks about how she’s playing online scrabble against Joe (x) (via tayorswift)

“Oooh he played me in Scrabble. I’m about to– It’s a tight game, no I can wait, I can wait. I’ll make him wait. It’ll make him sweat, his game will get, you know, he’ll get stressed, he’ll be like ‘what’s she gonna play next? Is she gonna get that triple word?’”

February 21st – It is theorised that Taylor gave Joe this Patek Philippe watch for his 27th birthday. (x) (x)

February 27th – @ss_shans posts photos of Taylor in Big Sur, California from the previous week (x)

It is rumored that she was there with Joe and they were celebrating his birthday together (x)

A video from their trip is later included in the Lover lyric video.

March 7th – Taylor and Joe are seen hiking in Malibu (x)

March 12th – The Delicate music video is released, and a “Joe’s Deli” sign can be seen in the background of a scene. (x)

April 13th – Taylor covers September by Earth, Wind & Fire, and changes a lyric to “Do you remember the 28th night of September?”

In the original press release article by Spotify, Taylor says she chose to cover the song for sentimental reasons. (x)

She’s always loved the classic tune by Earth, Wind & Fire, and notes that the month of September is especially meaningful to one of her relationships.

April 17th – Taylor likes this Tumblr post (x)

April 24th – A family friend of the Alwyns says in a Tumblr post that Taylor gets on really well with Joe’s family, and she turned up to help paint Patrick’s room once. (x)

April 26th – The same family friend also talked about Taylor meeting Joe’s parents for the first time (x)

Apparently Joe’s mum didn’t realise who she was and told the two of them to go for a walk in the park because the food wasn’t ready. Taylor was like ‘I can’t….’ and Joe’s mum was like ‘what no don’t be silly’ and Taylor had to be like ‘no seriously I really can’t’

May 6th – Taylor likes this Tumblr post (x)

May 7th – Taylor and Joe post matching cacti pictures on Instagram.

May 8th – Joe and his mom attend the opening night of Rep Tour in Glendale, Arizona. (x) (x) (via joealwyndaily)

Taylor singing Gorgeous to Joe (video)

Joe watching Taylor perform Gorgeous (video)

Taylor singing King Of My Heart to Joe (x) (x)

Taylor pointing at Joe during Dress (video)

Joe clapping at the end of the show (via dallas_dante)

Joe and Jack Antonoff hug as they leave the stadium together (video)

Taylor and Joe backstage after the show (via nessa007)

In Rep Room, there were J necklace cookies

Taylor talks to a fan about how she plays Scrabble with Joe all the time

May 19th – A YouTuber named Lauren Lipman meets Taylor backstage at Rep Tour Pasadena and says she’s so happy for her and Joe, and Taylor replies “aww thanks he’s the best” (x)

May 12th – Taylor tells a fan (xiwantyourmidnightsx) in Rep Room that Joe is “the best” and “such an amazing person.”

“He calms me down whenever I see something mean someone says about me, he just takes me right out of it all. And he’s been my longest relationship!!! We’ve been together for 20 months now. When we get to two years, I’m going to freak out. I’m going to be so obnoxious about it.”

The fan also asked Taylor about this polaroid in the rep magazines, and she said people in England have bonfires all the time and she and Joe just hang out in his backyard burning stuff. Taylor also said Joe takes pictures of her all the time and confirmed that all of the pictures in the rep magazines were taken by him.

May 16th – Taylor releases the Delicate vertical video, in which she points to her J necklace during “you must like me for me” (x)

May 23rd – Taylor likes a chain post of fans recreating Joe memes (x)

May 30th – Taylor likes a Tumblr post about how she can relate to You Are In Love now (x)

May 30th – Taylor and Joe are seen leaving The Flask Pub and Restaurant in North London, after a fish and chips lunch. (x)

June 2nd – At night 2 of rep tour Chicago, Taylor sees a cardboard cutout of Joe in the crowd (x)

(via afterglowws)

June 9th – Joe and his brother Patrick attend night 2 of Rep Tour Manchester (x)

Patrick, Andrea and Joe in Club Meredith

Taylor smiled and winked at Joe during Gorgeous (via swiftiekyle)

Taylor waving at Joe during Bad Blood (x)

In rep room, Taylor tells a fan that it calms her so much knowing that Joe is in the audience (x)

June 16th – During night 2 of rep tour Dublin, Taylor says to a fan that her favourite fast-food restaurant in London is LEON. (x)

June 19th – Taylor posts a video of Meredith on Instagram, and Joe’s laugh can be heard in the background (x)

June 22nd – Joe and his family and friends attend night 1 of Rep Tour London.

During Taylor’s opening speech, she talks about how she spends a lot of time in London (x)

“This is my first time looking out into a crowd like this at Wembley Stadium (…) I spend a lot of time in London, so I know there's so many things you could be doing tonight - and yet you've decided to spend your Friday night with us here at the reputation stadium tour, thank you so much.”

Taylor singing Gorgeous to Joe (video)

Club Meredith during End Game and Bad Blood (video)

June 23rd – Joe and his family and friends attend night 2 of Rep Tour London.

Tom Hooper (the director of CATS) entering the stadium with Joe

Taylor smiling at Joe during Gorgeous (video)

Taylor singing King of My Heart to Joe (video)

Taylor during Dress (via paths-of-my-childhood)

Taylor pointing at Joe during “flashback to when you met me, your buzzcut and my hair bleached” (video)

Taylor pointing at Joe during Call It What You Want (via paths-of-my-childhood) (x)

June 23rd – Taylor talks to a fan about how she and Joe have a “relationship band.”

It is theorized that the band is The National because a lot of their songs are on Taylor’s playlists.

Taylor thanks a fan for the proud signs and says the project made Andrea and Joe so emotional

June 24th – In an interview with Metro, Niall Horan talks about performing at Wembley Stadium with Taylor. (x)

“When we caught up backstage we were talking about how she’s doing, where she’s living and what she’s up to. I haven’t seen her in about a year and a half so it was kind of a catch-up, how things are going with the new fella – just general chat.”

June 28th – Taylor performs at an AT&T fan event in Chicago and talks about reputation.

“It’s legitimately an album about finding love throughout all the noise."

She also says that she jumped into a freezing pool fully clothed two New Year’s Eves ago. (via speaknow)

June 28th – Taylor talks to a fan (keep-him-forever-vendetta) about Joe (x)

I told her that Ryan and I started dating around the same time and her and Joe and she goes “WAIT when” and I said it will be two years in September! And she said “YES that’s right! See the media thinks they’re sooo sneaky and they say ‘oh that’s her NEW boy’ and that we met in May. HA. They don’t know he’s been around!”

Her face literally LIT UP when she talked about him. Also I asked her if she had a great time in the UK and if she got to see Joe and his family a lot and she was like “oh I’m there like all the time!! Like this was just for work, but I go there literally all the time.”

June 30th – Taylor meets a fan in Rep Room Louisville who had a Joe meme on her sign. (x)

July 3rd – Taylor and Joe are spotted walking along the beach in Turks and Caicos (x)

July 4th – Taylor and Joe are seen snorkeling in Turks and Caicos (x)

July 10th – Several fans saw Joe and his mom in the soundbooth at night 1 of Rep Tour DC (x)

July 10th – Taylor says to a fan in Rep Room that Joe taught her everything she needs to know about the World Cup (x)

July 20th – In rep room at Metlife night 1, Taylor mentions how happy she is in her current relationship

July 22nd – Joe and his family attend night 3 of Rep Tour Metlife.

Taylor winks at Joe during Gorgeous (x)

During King of My Heart, Taylor can’t stop looking and pointing in Joe’s direction. (x) (x)

Joe singing along to Don’t Blame Me

July 27th – During night 2 of Rep Tour Gillette, a fan holds up a Joe meme at barricade (x)

July 28th – Taylor invites two fans with “Joe’s Deli” costumes to meet her backstage in rep room.

In Rep Room, Taylor also talks to another fan about Joe.

August 4th – Taylor performs Come Back Be Here acoustic in Toronto, while wearing the J necklace. (video)

In the last chorus, she changes the lyric “I guess you’re in New York today to “I guess you’re in London today” because Joe is in London filming.

In rep room, a fan talks to Taylor about how they both have initial necklaces (x)

August 17th – At rep Tour Cleveland, Taylor talks to a fan in rep room about Joe

August 22nd – Taylor and Joe go on a double date with two of their British friends at a restaurant in Covent Garden, London. (x)

September 19th & 21st - Joe mentions in several interviews that he wants to keep his relationship with Taylor private (x) (x)

September 28th – On Taylor and Joe’s 2-year anniversary, Taylor attends the NYFF premiere of Joe’s movie The Favourite, as well as the afterparty.

Afterwards, they are seen returning to Taylor’s NYC apartment. (x)

September 29th – At Rep Tour Houston, a fan met Taylor in rep room and wished her and Joe a happy belated anniversary. (x)

October 5th – Backstage at night 1 of Rep Tour Arlington, Taylor tells Ryan Hurd that she loves his song Love in a Bar because it was especially meaningful to her relationship with Joe. (x)

[Taylor] said, “I love that song” and something about her and her boyfriend and referenced my song and I was like, “That’s cool.”

October 8th – In an interview for W Magazine, Joe is asked about his Patek Philippe watch.

“It was a present,” he says with a wicked grin.

October 18th – A reporter asks Joe about his thoughts on Taylor taking a political stance (x)

“I think it’s great, I think it's important”

October 28th – Joe posts a picture on Instagram that was taken on the rooftop of Taylor’s NYC apartment (x)

November 15th – Taylor and Joe attend the after party for Mary Queen of Scots held at Chateau Marmont in LA (x) (x)

November 16th – Taylor was seen at the an afterparty for The Favourite LA premiere held at Baltaire Restaurant. (x) (x)

November 16th – A video of Taylor playing the guitar is filmed, and is later included in the Lover lyric video.

November 22nd – On her Instagram, Taylor posts a compilation of all of Joe’s scenes in The Favourite and calls the movie phenomenal.

She also posts about it on her Instagram story (x)

November 24th/25th – Taylor and Joe were seen hiking in Nashville

November 26th – In a GQ interview, Joe talks about how Lykke Li is one of his favorite artists. (x)

Some of Lykke Li’s songs, such as bad woman and utopia, have been featured on Taylor’s Spotify and Apple Music playlists. (x) (x)

December 4th – Joe is seen leaving Taylor’s NYC apartment (x)

December 4th – In an interview with Esquire, Joe is asked whether he sought out guidance on his relationship with Taylor (x)

“I didn’t seek out advice on that. Because I know what I feel about it. I think there’s a very clear line as to what somebody should share, or feel like they have to share, and what they don’t want to, and shouldn’t have to.”

December 5th – Taylor plays Delicate at the Ally Coalition and sticks her tongue out at Joe during “you must like me for me.” (via taylorswifh) (x)

After the show, they are seen returning to Taylor’s apartment together. (x)

December 8th – Joe posts a picture of him and Jack Lowden from inside Taylor’s NYC apartment (x)

December 10th – Taylor is seen at the London premiere of Joe’s movie Mary Queen of Scots (x)

December 13th – Taylor spends her 29th birthday in London. A clip of her blowing out the candles on her birthday cake is later shown in Miss Americana (x)

December 24th-25th – Taylor and Joe celebrate Christmas together with both of their families at Glin Castle in Limerick, Ireland. (x)

December 25th – Joe posts a picture on Instagram that fans theorize Taylor took.

December 30th – Taylor, Joe, and some of their British friends go for a walk in the West Village to visit Taylor’s old Cornelia Street rental (x)

December 30th – Taylor, Joe, Abigail, Matt and Patrick are seen going out to dinner in New York City.

Joe turns his whole body and walks backwards to block Taylor from the paparazzi.

December 31st – Taylor throws a childhood heroes themed party for New Year’s Eve, and Joe is spotted in the background of some pictures (x)

Taylor is dressed as Ariel and Joe is dressed as Zorro (x)

2016 // 2017 // 2019 // 2020

#taylor swift #joe alwyn #taylor and joe #joe and taylor #tay and joe #jaylor #toe

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gremlin4goro · 3 years

Note

Okay then please do yakuza now :P

Yayyy, time to ramble! This post does contain some spoilers throughout the series but nothing too detailed, be wary.

the first character i ever fell in love with: Majima. The first scene where he appeared on Yakuza 0, that was the moment I fell in love with him. This dude just gives 0 fucks, and that's why he fucks. Also I like me some long-haired guys, always have.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: Nishiki is the first that comes to mind. In Y0 he was young, innocent lad, maybe a bit cocky but in a good way. YK1 did him dirty. That is not the man I knew, that's some nasty fuck that looks like Nishiki.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: Majima/Sagawa. Not OTP but I read it quite a lot, mostly 'cause there was this one author who did it pretty well. But now that I've started re-playing Y0, I just can't look past just how much of a jerk he is to Majima.

my ultimate favorite character™: I think this one should be clear by now. Obviously it's Majima (this also includes Goromi).

prettiest character: Goromi, hands down. Seong-Hui deserves a mention. Oooh and Joon-Gi Han. Zhao's not pretty but he's very sexy in a slimy rat kinda way.

my most hated character: Shimano and sorta Sagawa as well because don't treat my baby boy (who's twice as old as me) like that!! Also Mirei could've been written into story sooo much better, she kinda felt, well not irrelevant but... very meh.

my OTP: Kazumaji.

my NOTP: Just like the last time I replied to this, I'll say anything involving Haruka. She's just a baby. Since she's older than Nanako I could give a pass to some cuddly fics with boy around her age but other than that, no. (I know she's older in later games but to me she'll always be a baby.)

favorite episode: Not appliciable so I'll say karaoke.

saddest death: Yakuza 3, where the young fella gets shot at the beach. Spoiler in case you didn't catch that: Rikiya. Oh yeah and Yakuza 7 ending!!!

favorite season game: Yakuza 0. My first game of the series and I just love it so much.

least favorite season game: I mean I do love them all but if I had to pick one I guess it'd be Y5? The plot is a mess and I didn't understand half of it even after my bf explained it to me.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: Again, not hate, but I never understood the hype around Daigo. To me he's just meh.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: Majima! Literally piece of trash. To some extent Ichiban as well.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Kaoru deserves bigger role in the games. I wanted to see more of her. Also Kiryu. His life's been a rollercoaster of shitstorms, just give him a rest will you?! Or at least a therapy session or ten.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: Okay remember how I said Majima/Sagawa is gross? Slap in Nishitani and it gets so much better.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Majima/Saejima. I read it every now and then but never gotten around to create anything about it myself (yet). Also Kiryu/Kaoru and Majima/Makoto. I don't read that but I liked how those ships got presented in the games.

#yakuza

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nellie-elizabeth · 3 years

Text

Supernatural: Inherit the Earth (15x19)

That was somehow simultaneously a crowded mess, and a complete anticlimax. I'm literally just like... super confused and afraid about what the finale is going to be now.

Cons:

Sam's the dog person. That's part of canon. I liked the moment when Dean found the dog, or whatever, but I wish Sam had gotten a moment with the puppy too, before Chuck took it away. A small thing, but one of those typical wrong details in Buckleming episodes, where it just honestly doesn't seem like they know the characters very well.

Lucifer and Michael have a fight in the Bunker and Michael takes Lucifer out really, really easily. So like. Remember when the first five seasons of the show were the buildup to the Apocalypse, and Sam sacrificed himself for an eternity in Lucifer's Cage to stop it from happening? Apparently a fight between the two archangels is just a bit of fisticuffs, nothing to get worked up about. That annoyed me. But I guess consistency has never been something this show has cared much about...

Also just... Lucifer in general, coming back for like five minutes so he can mug at the camera and then be unceremoniously killed? Here's the thing: we had Billie as Death, and she hated them but maybe it would have been interesting to see her and the boys team up to figure out Chuck's ending... but instead, she's gone, Lucifer gets a pointless return, provides us with another Death, who is there for two seconds, says a couple of vaguely funny lines, and then dies... and we still never find out what's in the book.

The fight with Chuck was so badly edited! It was so weird to see him just wail on Sam and Dean, and repeated shots of him hitting them, and them getting up, while he kept saying "okay fellas, enough, please stay down" over and over again. Given that the whole "erasing the people from the world" thing was so much like Infinity War, I kept comparing this fight with God to the climax of Endgame. In that instance, you have a small group of intrepid fighters going up against a big bad evil, and then just at the moment when they're run down and helpless, the whole crowd of friends returns and joins in the fight. Instead of that, it's just Jack showing up and absorbing God's powers, and then they leave him begging on the beach. Not a bad ending for Chuck, which I'll get to in a moment, but the epic-ness was seriously missing from this final showdown.

So, when Jack returned the world to its normal state, did he bring back all of their friends, too? I want to believe this was something that Covid took away from them, where instead of seeing shots of Charlie and her girlfriend, of Donna, Jody, the girls, Bobby, Eileen, they were forced to use stock footage of just random people around the world returning. Would have been cooler to see the epic return... and also super weird that Sam and Dean sit quietly in the bunker talking about free will, and we don't see Sam pull out his phone and call his girlfriend, like... I get not wanting to muddy the ending of the episode with a lot of fallout stuff, and I'm sure we'll get that next week? Like, I hope, anyway? But as it stood for this hour of television, it was super weird to me that the boys didn't immediately want to check on all of their friends to make sure everyone had returned from the dead.

Jack becoming the new God is actually a totally appropriate ending, people were speculating that he'd be the new God or Death or Empty, or some cosmic entity, anyway... and this honestly felt very fitting... BUT, I will say that there are two really, really stupid things about it. One, his "I'm everything and everywhere now" speech was super cheesy... "I'm in the air and the rocks and every drop of rain" or whatever. Such a cliche, I was almost painfully embarrassed listening to him. I honestly would have preferred less is more, here. Like, what if he'd said the stuff about how humans can be their best when they need to be, that was a good line... and then Sam says "what if we want to see you? Grab a beer?" And Jack just says "I'm around" and then vanishes, leaving it vague? I think the idea of a hands-off deity is perfect, of course... makes sense for the "free will wins the day" ending we've got going here, but I didn't think stating it outright was the best move.

The second reason Jack becoming God was rendered kind of comedically awful in the way it happened is... well, elephant in the room, let's talk about how Cas was handled in this episode.

Here's a quote from last week's review:

"I'm worried that Cas dying is gonna get swallowed up with everyone dying and not get its due, thus making the confession completely isolated. Like, here you go, gays, have this one scene, which, in isolation is quite heartfelt from Cas' perspective, but can be carefully boxed up and not touched for the last two hours of the show. If they don't want to touch on how this would affect Dean specifically, they don't have to. He can be generally angsty and sad about Cas, but they could get away with never bringing it up again, and that is some grade-A level bullshit right there, my friends."

And... yeah. Look, I know there are people on Tumblr right now saying that this episode being the "brothers only" ending means that next week we'll get Cas back and Dean will confess his love or whatever... but y'all, it's not going to happen. I'm sorry. I'd love to be wrong. If I'm wrong, I will gladly eat crow and celebrate along with the rest of you, but I just... I've been burned before. I know what's going on here, and it's not what you think it is.

Dean was undeniably devastated in this episode. We see him drinking to excess, falling asleep on the floor, grasping onto tiny moments of joy like with the dog and then being furious and upset when they fall through. But that devastation was not textually about Cas specifically. Sure, there were moments, like him telling God to bring everything back, and then namedropping Cas specifically. Or the way he ran up the stairs when Cas' voice was on the phone. But what I'm saying is? Those are crumbs, there for those of us who care to gobble up, easily ignored and subsumed by the larger losses the boys are suffering. Sam is devastated too, guys. About his girlfriend, about Charlie, about Donna, and Jody, etc. etc. etc. Who's to say their grief is any different from one another, even though they're handling it with different coping mechanisms? The "I love you" wasn't even on the "previously on".

Like. There's a universe where Dean does get a moment of Cas-related catharsis in the finale, even though Misha's not coming back. Maybe he has a private moment to grieve just for him, to contemplate that specific loss. But I'm telling you: I don't care if an openly gay man wrote 15x18, I don't care that Misha found it moving. The bottom line is, Cas confessing his love for Dean was the moment of catharsis the show was willing to offer us. We ain't getting much else.

So going back to Jack, why on earth does nobody suggest that maybe when he's popping the rest of the world back to the way it's supposed to be, he also brings Cas back? This is what I'm talking about with contrived sacrifices. Last week, they could have written a way for Dean to get out of that scrape without Cas dying. And this week, Jack's determination to be a "hands-off" God is not enough to explain why he wouldn't restore his father Castiel from the Empty. Especially since Chuck brought Lucifer back from the Empty, proving that God can do that. Even though that contradicts earlier lore but whatever. The point is, I'm saying it's sloppy. Cas' death, Cas staying dead, does not feel like an earned inevitability to me. I'm prepared to eat my words if they bring him back in the finale, but even if that happens (which it won't), he's not going to be smooching Dean Winchester on the mouth, y'all. He's just not.

So then that ending. "Finally free," says Dean, completely unaware that he's echoing the theme from the end of season five but making it hopeful now for some reason? And that end montage felt like an ending 100%, and I won't say it was bad to see it, see all the memories, the characters... I mean, Charlie dancing in the elevator, getting glimpses of Ellen and Jo, Bobby, Crowley... I'm not going to complain about that, it was honestly quite fun, but it also felt extremely anticlimactic and gave us no sense of where the characters are going to go from here. And yes, I know we have an episode next week, it's just...

Here's the thing I'm scared of, and I'm going to go ahead and put it here in the "cons" section because I don't know where it belongs yet. Despite my complaints about this episode, thematically there was one thing it got right: the answer to defeating Chuck wasn't destined, it wasn't in a book of preordained endings. They had to come up with it by themselves, using the tools at their disposal, and they won, and they get free will now, they get the release from having someone else tell their story. Great. So... what does that leave us next week?

As mentioned above, I really don't think the final 43 minutes is going to be an epic gay love story where Dean fights to get Cas back, I really don't. That leaves us two options: either a tepid re-tread of the themes already established, an epilogue of sorts where we just get to see a life in the day, a new normal for the boys. I wouldn't be furious about this, but I also think it won't really feel like closure for me. They just keep hunting? They keep saving people? That's fine, I guess, but they can't really walk back the fact that God is their son, can they? When they die the next time, do they go to the Empty? Who is Death, now? Are Heaven and Hell okay? Are we meant to be convinced that nothing will ever come back to bite them in the ass, they'll live long lives, and a benevolent afterlife is waiting for them when it's over? I'm not convinced I believe in things being that simple, so it sort of seems like the show would end by saying "okay, and more of the same."

The second possibility is worse, though, that being a total status-quo shift, like the end comes and the Empty is after them and they have to become the new Death and Empty as some speculated, or some wild harebrained plot twist gets thrown in at the last second and undoes the actual good parts of the theme established here. I hope for the first, but I don't know that it'll make me happy, to be quite honest. I really don't want it to feel this way, but Cas being gone is the big elephant in the room, for me. It truly is.

Pros:

I did like the earlier parts of the episode, the eeriness and the helplessness of them being alone. Continuing with the Avengers comparisons, it was very similar to the long, slow opening to Endgame, where we see a lot of grief, a lot of helplessness, an lot of directionless moping. That felt appropriate and it made it all the more invigorating when Michael showed up, giving us a spark of direction in which to move.

While I thought the fight with Chuck was edited really strangely and didn't work for me, I did like this ending for Chuck. Very much like the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Chuck doesn't die, which he honestly would have found a satisfying, creative ending for his story. Instead, he gets to live on as a normal human, sans powers, and be forgotten. Brutal and appropriate! It ties back into the free will thing. Chuck can do whatever he wants with his remaining time, but he can't steal other people's choices from them any longer. It's the black and the white, the good and the bad, of being just... human. Which ties in with Sam and Dean being more or less hopeful about their outlook moving forward. (God, I'm so fucking scared they're going to screw up the few things I liked about this episode in next week's finales.)

Like I said, I did find Jack becoming God an appropriate ending for him as a character. It's the right type of bittersweet: he's there, and we can imagine that in the future, he does go visit Sam and Dean for a beer. Or maybe he doesn't, and that's okay too. Knowing he's at peace, knowing he's benevolent, and that he'll do the best he can for the people of the world(s). It's nice, a comforting deity instead of a manipulative overlord. And the fact that his benevolence and kindness and compassion are born out of a human mother, and two human fathers, and an angel who embraced humanity with everything in himself... instead of from Lucifer, who tried to create him in his image? Well, that's a lovely resolution for a character that became a surprising favorite over the years.

As I think I mentioned last week, I'm willing to let this show manipulate my emotions here at the end, when it can manage to do so. So yeah, of course I loved that Cas and Jack's names are added to the table along with SW, DW, and MW. Obviously that's adorable as hell. And as I said, the montage worked for me, it was certainly quite lovely. I just... like I said at the start of this, I'm just frankly terrified of what's coming next week.

I mean, here's the thing, I want an ending that honors Sam and Dean as the protagonists of this show, but I want it where they live in the bunker, and Eileen and returned-from-the-dead-Castiel live with them as their partners. If someone told me I couldn't change a thing about what's happened so far, but I could decide how the last episode went, that's how I'd end it. Showing a network of hunters getting support and able to live more stable, reasonable lives while still doing a dangerous job. Sam embracing his intellectual prowess and running things from the bunker, Dean and Cas going out on the road, Sam and Eileen going out on the road, or any combination therein. Jack watching over them benevolently from above. Jody and Donna and the girls living their best lives. Kaia and Claire as a couple, onscreen. A glimpse of a more stable afterlife, now that Jack is there to run things, the confirmation of a peaceful ending whenever our human protagonists do finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Peace, but change, too.

I just don't believe that's what we're getting. I can't believe it, and that makes me really frightened for what comes next week. I'm prepared to be pissed off. Quite frankly, I'm expecting it.

6/10

#review #supernatural #supernatural review #spn 15x19 #spn

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