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Boys Planet Episode 9: Master Post and General Episode Recap

Hey, fellow Star Creator!

It’s time to talk about Episode 9! 

This post is actually just going to be a master post for the episode, in which I cover:

The great reshuffling of the teams

The beginning of the show (fans outside, returning trainees, etc) 

The field day 

The visit with the parents

An overview of what’s going on with the teams

I’m going to cover the five teams’ rehearsals and performances in separate posts, which means that Supercharger and En Garde will be ready soon, while the other three teams will be covered later.

So, let’s go!

If you want to skip the preview and whatnot, the episode actually starts at 2:37.

We start the episode at the end of the previous elimination ceremony, watching the boys hug and cry and say goodbye to each other. We see a few of the boys sobbing disconsolately, including Brian and Lee Yedam. It’s pretty heartbreaking. 

Later, the surviving boys go back to their dorms and talk. They seem to be gathering in little bunches for comfort. Kim Tae Rae is sitting with Lee Jung Hyeon -- they’re both WakeOne trainees and came to the show together, along with Lee’s good friend, Mun Jung Hyeon, who was just eliminated. TaeRae is telling his younger friend Lee to keep going and keep trying on Mun’s behalf. 

In another room, Kim Guyvin says that he wants to win first place in something so that he can “call the names of the eliminated trainees one more time.” That’s sweet and everything but it sounds like he’s in the Hunger Games. I am kind of worried about Gyuvin -- he was so confident when he arrived and the judges seem to have beaten him down to pulp. He’s always so bummed out and nervous now. I want to see that confident mop-headed kid again. You’re still in there, right Gyuvin-ah? 

That’s my little cousin Kum Jun Hyeon in the bed on the left, and the one curled up in the corner is Lee Seunghwan, based on his pajamas, which we saw in the Ggang segment, but I can’t see the others clearly enough to recognize them. The sign over the middle bed says something like “one chicken per person.” 

But then… in the next scene, it’s a bright and cheery new day! All the sadness is gone completely!

3:48 The Great Re-shuffling Begins 

So, it’s time for THE GREAT RESHUFFLING. Some teams were left with too many trainees, and some teams were left with too few, and now some teams will have to kick some of their own members out, a process that’s so stressful that people actually feel kind of sorry for the team whose entire contingent of ten survived. 

The stakes are pretty high here. There are at this point only three or four days before the actual performance. Changing to a new song at this point could be disastrous for anyone who is slow to learn choreography or lyrics. Also, the song with the most open spaces is Supercharger, which is not only a terrible song,* but also features choreography so difficult that even Haruto had trouble with it after many days of working on it. Anyone who gets kicked out of their team has approximately a and you have a decent chance of being stuck with Supercharger.

*So, I ran a poll on the topic of the song Supercharger, asking people if they liked it or not. A lot of people said they genuinely liked it, so… I guess I stand corrected. For me, just the fact that it got stuck in my head doesn’t mean that I like it.Being sticky isn’t the same thing as being good. I mean, I’ve had honey get stuck in my hair. That doesn’t mean I want it there. But yeah if you like Supercharger, that’s cool -- you do you, boo. I like Danger by Wooah and Firetruck by NCT and Obsession by Exo and Wing Wing by Kepler and a bunch of other weird songs, so I get it. People should like what they like! I’m still not adding Supercharger to my playlist, but I understand why maybe someone else would. 

Anyway, so here’s our team status report:

Team En Garde, wearing light pink, have 7 members remaining and need to lose 1. 

Currently on the team: Kim Gyu Vin, General Park Gunwook, my little cousin Kum Jun Hyeon, Hui, the formerly blue haired Park Hanbin, that peach Lee Seung Hwan 🍑, and Hiroto.

Members who have gone home: Lee Yedam, Oh Sungmin, Ji Yunseo

Team Over Me, wearing white, have 8 members and need to lose 3. 

Currently on the team: Chen Kuan Jui, Jay, Keita, Lee Jeong Hyeon, Ricky, Wang Zi Hao, Yoon Jong Woo, Zhang Hao

Members who have gone home:  Lim Jun Seo, Ma Jing Xiang

Team Say My Name, wearing black, have 10 members and need to lose 5

Currently on the team: Cha Woong Ki, Han Yu Jin, Kim Ji Woong, Kim Tae Rae, Ollie, Seo Won, Seok Matthew, Sung Hanbin, Takuto, Yoo Seung Eon

Team Supercharger, wearing purple, is down to just Haruto from the 11 members it used to have. The team needs five more members.

Members who have gone home: Bak Do Ha, Chen Jian Yu, Cong, Jung Min Gyu, Lee Da Eul, Lee Dong Yeol, Mun Jung Hyun, Park Hyunbeen, Park Ji Hoo

Side note: For this scene, MNET uses piano music that is so over the top dramatic sounding that it would be appropriate for a story about a family losing everything they owned in a house fire. Because it’s so over the top, a viewer will probably subconsciously disconnect with the very real and reasonable pain and anxiety Haruto is feeling right now. Nice work, MNET!

Team Switch is just Na Kamden and Z-Bo, kind of sitting there looking uncomfortable. The team needs 4 more members.

Members who have gone home: Anthonny, Brian, Cai Jin Xin, Choi Woo Jin, Dang Hong Hai, Jung I Chan, Krystian, Lee Dong Gun, Wumuti, and Zhang Shuai Bo

The teams aren’t totally sure how they will be reshuffled because it has worked in different ways in different seasons. The leader of team Over Me, the comeback kid Yoon Jong Woo, suggests voting. Woongki on Say My Name is worried that it might just immediately be decided by ranking, which, ha ha, it kind of will be!  And everyone is slightly worried that the surviving members of Supercharger and Switch will get to come steal the people they want. 

And in to En Garde’s rehearsal room comes Haruto with big glasses and a clipboard. I love this guy. 

I love how Kamden and Z-Bo can’t quite keep up with Haruto’s complete commitment to his bit. Good stuff. So yeah, Haruto manages to almost convince the teams that he and Kamden and Z-Bo get to steal whoever they want from the other teams and make them join Supercharger or Switch. Of course, they can’t. They can make their sales pitch, however, and they do, trying to poach some of the higher ranked team members with promises of big parts like main vocal or the Killing Part. Haruto will peel off that Killing Part sticker right now and slam it right on your solar plexus if you will just join him in Supercharger, assuming you are Park Gunwook.

So En Garde has to figure out who to eliminate. The team is really strong, and its members survived in a convenient distribution, with one person per part, except for the Killing Part and Main Rapper.

Looking at the roster, I theorize that the team would have voted out Hiroto (who is not only the lowest ranked on the team but by total unrelated coincidence the only non-Korean member of the team) and then made one of Gunwook or Gyuvin the main rapper, and then given the other one the Killing Part + Sub Rapper 1.

But that’s all theoretical. Looking at the part distribution gives us a hint as to what really happens, because Park Hanbin, who won top spot in Law, who led both his teams to victory, who was given All Star ranking both times, THAT Park Hanbin, is currently subvocal 3 with 10 seconds of center time? 

Um, no. 

Park Hanbin tells his team that he has decided to just walk away and join team Switch. 

Naturally, Kamden and Z-Bo are delighted to have him join their team. I think team En Garde is just glad that they don’t have to vote someone out. 

You guys, the story is going to get even better but we’ll get there.

Next, the recruiting teams go to Over Me and pull the same stunt with their clipboards and self-assurance. Kamden makes a passionate play to try to recruit his friend Jay, offering him the main vocal part. It’s like, 10% cringey, but I don’t mind too much.

So, after Hiroto and co. leave, the Over Me team talks about it. No one wants to leave, so they have to vote to decide who will be kicked out. Each of them makes an argument for why they should stay, and Yoon Jong Woo’s mini speech is about how he’s poured himself into this, deciding on costuming, choreography, etc. Hmm. 

Here’s the team as it stood, with their rankings -- those with the Killing Part are marked with a *:

*Zhang Hao             2

*Keita                         8

Jay                         12

Ricky                         14

L - Yoon Jong Woo 15

Wang Zi Hao             19

Chen Kuan Jui 22

Lee Jeong Hyeon 24

They vote for the teammates they want to keep, and Haruto and co. wait in the hallway to see who will be kicked out.

The first to walk out is the smiliest man on earth, 😁Wang Zi Hao😁. Haruto is so happy to him, because if anyone in this whole show can handle Supercharger, it’s 😁WZH😁.

Everyone is shocked to see Keita when he comes out of the rehearsal room, but I really can’t tell if Keita is surprised or not. He’s smiling in a way that is hard to interpret. Last to emerge is Yoon Jong Woo, who is clearly so shocked and angry at the betrayal that for now all he can do is smile.

I have theories on how each of them ended up getting kicked out, because it obviously wasn’t just ranking. Shall we walk together for a while? We shall! Here we go. 

My theories on all this:

First off, Zhang Hao wasn’t going to get kicked out -- he’s Zhang Hao. Jay’s voice is super well suited to this song and they need him. Ricky is well suited to the vibe of the song, as well. Chen Kuan Jui is a fantastic dancer who can dance in this style, and also, he’s really good friends with Zhang Hao. 

As for why they kept Lee Junghyeon, my theory is that it was in part because he’s their maknae and they care about him, in part because he wrote that rap for the song already and they feel like he has to do it, but mostly because even though he’s good during the performances and won’t ruin anything, he isn’t a threat to steal votes from them. 

So in some ways, those who got kicked out are just those who weren’t those five. But I think there were a few other factors in play.

I went back and rewatched the bits of the team interacting from Episode 8, and I noticed that when they circled up for a group convo, Wang Zi Hao ended up sort of on the outside, and they didn’t open the circle for him. 

 Also, look at them sitting in the producer’s office, also from Episode 8:

Left to right: Wang Zi Hao, MJX, Lee Junghyeon, Ricky, CKJ, Zhang Hao, Jay, Lim Jun Seo, Keita, Yoon Jong Woo

I don’t know what order they sat down on the couch, but look at how cozy Hao is with Jay and CKJ. Look at Yoon Jong Woo inexplicably taking up too much space on the couch so that Lim JunSeo has no room to move his elbows? Does JongWoo not notice or not care? Why doesn’t JunSeo say something? And look at Wang Zi Hao sitting politely to the side, just completely separate. So much to unpack…

You guys? I think they voted out Wang Zi Hao because they’re not friends with him. It’s just that simple. I’m sure he could dance in this style, and we heard him singing in the previous episode and he can actually sing just fine. They don’t dislike him, I mean who would dislike him? -- but he’s not their friend. 

Now, Keita. It’s my belief that they voted out Keita because he’s a fucking THREAT. Plus, I don’t get the feeling he’s really their friend, either. 

Consider, in episode 8, when they were voting for the Killing Part. Keita, being honorable, voted for Zhang Hao for the killing part. Who did Hao vote for? Chen Kuan Jui. Come on. We all love CKJ, but in what world is he better at a killing part than Keita? I really believe that Hao is smart and strategic enough that he voted for CKJ not because he thought CKJ should get it, but rather to waste his vote and make it less likely that Keita would get it. And it worked, in that Keita ended up coming in second in the vote. 

And, now that they’ve both survived, Zhang Hao must be worried he might lose the Killing Part after all. So. Remember how Zhang Hao and Ricky are friends from the same agency (Yuehua)? They’re likely to team up. We’ve also seen how much Zhang Hao and CKJ get along -- they’re really good friends. It wouldn’t have shocked me if Hao, CKJ, and Ricky got together the night before and agreed to vote for each other to stay, and to make sure that Keita was out. They might even have gotten Jay in on it.

I actually think that Keita didn’t see this coming. He’s really smart, and he must have known it was possible, but I think that maybe he isn’t as good at social engineering as he is good at literally everything else. He strikes me as a direct and honest kind of person, so maybe it never occurred to him that his team would do this to him because he himself would never try to vote out the best teammates. He’s friendly and always appreciates how good everyone else is. Yet you rarely see anyone hugging him, you know? I think everyone likes him, but not a lot of people are close friends with him. So he’s not in the cool kids clique, and when push comes to shove, he gets the shove. 

So what happened to Yoon Jong Woo? Well. I have a lot of answers to that. 

First and foremost, I think he was a threat too. I think he really really suits the style of this song, and he’s a great dancer, and I think he would have been great at this. He might have even won the vote on D-Day. They weren’t going to risk that. Plus, he keeps climbing up the charts. They don’t want him climbing up into top 9! Tossing him out and having him risk landing in Supercharger is a sure way to sabotage him and keep him out of the Top9 so there is more room for Ricky. 

Also, I think -- and this is wild speculation on my part but -- I think they were getting sick of him. I really do. I think that Jongwoo’s aggressive attitude toward MJX made the rehearsal room a little unpleasant to be in, and I think stress has made him a little anxious and sharp. His little speech about how he was contributing so much to the song was designed to make them want to keep him, but maybe it reminded them that he’s doing too much (in their opinion)? Something like that…

So yeah, those are my thoughts on what happened with that team!

Anyway. 

Back to the reshuffling!

Next, Haruto and co. go see team Say My Name and again, they make their pitches. Here are the ten Say My Name trainees, along with their episode 8 ranks:

Sung Hanbin               1

Han Yu Jin               3

Seok Matthew               4

Kim Ji Woong               5

Kim Tae Rae               7

Yoo Seung Eon   17

Seo Won               18

Takuto                           25

Cha Woong Ki               26

Ollie                           27

The only one who seems interested in the sales pitch is Matthew, who listens to Switch to see if he likes it, but then also jokes that his name is Seok Woohyun (that’s his Korean name, apparently) and that he doesn’t know who Matthew is. So no Switch-switch there.

However, as we find out, Kim TaeRae does in fact want to switch to Switch, saying: “I think this team [Say My Name] has a lot of members who can do a better job than me. In order to show my strength more, it might make more sense for me to join them.”  His choice is quite interesting and I will get to it in a bit. It’s not clear how he ends up on Switch as opposed to Supercharger, but maybe since presumably all five trainees wanted Switch, the Switch team was allowed to pick the trainee they wanted. Or maybe because TaeRae was was ranked the highest, or because he volunteered to leave, he was allowed to choose.

The other four SMN teammates who get kicked out are coincidentally the four lowest ranked, Takuto, Ollie, Seo Won, and Woongki. I’m sure you’ve noticed that they are the four cutest on the team, so it could also be theorized that they were kicked out for being a threat, but I don’t think that Takuto was a threat. 

I actually think that Takuto and Ollie in particular were kicked out because they’re so young looking. I know that Ollie is older than Han Yujin, but even so, and even though he’s so tall, he comes across as younger. Knowing as I do now that the team is going to go for a ���high teen” concept, you can’t have actual teenaged looking people on the team or they’ll make Sung Hanbin look old (he’s not, but he looks older than his age [21], in my opinion). 

If you watched Girls Planet 999, you might remember this performance of Yes or Yes, with the 25 year old Wen Zhe and the like, 15 year old Kim Sein. This is also a high teen concept, and having little Sein there made Wen Zhe look like a 35 year old, which in kpop is the same as being an actual brontosaurus. It made the whole team feel out of balance, too. 

So yeah, it made sense for the Say My Name team to kick the "little kids" out. 

As for Seo Won and Woongki, I really think it was mostly that they’re low ranked. I don’t think that the team viewed them as a threat either, because they’re low ranked and don’t stand a chance at winning the vote compared to them. I mean, Woongki couldn’t win the vote against Z-Bo in Feel Special, you know? I love Seo Won and Woongki too, and think that after the show they will probably have tons of offers to be on reality shows and stuff, because they’re lovable AF! But I still don’t think their teammates viewed them as a threat. 

In any case, all four of them end up on Supercharger, much to their intense chagrin.

Ollie is being sort of comical about his distress, but he also kind of means it. It’s cute to see his friendship with Haruto, but it also makes sense. Haruto is completely fluent in English, as we see in this episode, and Ollie seems to speak English possibly as a first language, so it makes sense that these two friendly, English speaking dancers would have gotten close. In any case, this team is going to have a tough time, as we’ll soon see.

Ok, so here is a final list of the trainees and their songs they ended up in. I include the song they originally had if they switched. Incidentally, everyone originally had the song they asked the audience for, except for Lee Seunghwan, who originally wanted Say My Name but ended up in En Garde. 

En Garde: 

Kim Gyu Vin            

Park Gunwook

Kum Jun Hyeon

Hui                        

Lee Seung Hwan

Hiroto

Over Me:  

Zhang Hao           

Jay                      

Ricky

Chen Kuan Jui

Lee Jeong Hyeon

Say My Name: 

Sung Hanbin

Han Yu Jin

Seok Matthew

Kim Ji Woong

Yoo Seung Eon

Supercharger:         first team 

Wang Zi Hao           Over Me

Seo Won           Say My Name

Takuto                       Say My Name

Cha Woong Ki           Say My Name

Ollie                       Say My Name

Haruto                       Supercharger

Switch:                      first team

Park Hanbin           En Garde 

Keita                       Over Me

Yoon Jong Woo Over Me

Kim Tae Rae             Say My Name  

Na Kamden             Switch

Zhang Shuai Bo Switch

Or, if you prefer an infographic:

And thus ends… t h e   g r e a t    r e s h u f f l i n g.

Then from 17:10 to 17:40 it’s just a preview of the performances, so you can skip that if you want. 

After that, we visit each of the five teams for 4-8 minutes each, to see how their rehearsals are getting started. 

Supercharger (average rank: 21.8)

At 17:40, we visit team Supercharger for almost six minutes.

The gist of what’s going on is that they’re super discouraged, since most of them don’t feel like they’re a good fit for the song. They’re also worried about learning new and incredibly difficult choreography, and they’re sad that they got kicked out of the group they’d been in, especially Woongki, who had a ton of ideas for Say My Name.

For a more in-depth review of their rehearsal and performance, click here.

Say My Name (average rank: 6)

At 23:30, we endure the gut-churningly uncomfortable atmosphere at team Say My Name for a solid eight minutes.

The gist of the situation is that Matthew wants to have a big part and makes everyone feel bad when he is given a smaller part, even though (a) it’s not a tiny part and (b) it suits his voice so much better than the original part that it actually is a benefit to him as well. I know some people think this is “evil editing.” But this is stuff he’s actually doing, and if anything the show seems to be on his side, as far as I can tell. 

It’s ok if you still like him -- in fact, good for you for showing such grace and kindness to him! We all deserve kindness when possible. And his negative behavior is a consequence of an extremely stressful environment, and doesn’t mean that he’s a “bad person.” I am not saying that Matthew can never be forgiven or that I hate him. But I am saying that he’s being immature, entitled, oblivious, and just an enormous pain in the butt right now.

I’ll talk about this a lot more when I post my in-depth review of their rehearsal(s) and performance. When it’s ready, you’ll be able to click here. (It’ll be posted when Ep 10 is up.)

Switch (average rank: 14.5)

At 31:45, we visit with team Switch for four whole minutes!

The gist of what’s going is that Park Hanbin has already learned the choreography to the song, because he pretty much planned all along to switch to Switch. This shit is amazing. He ends up with the killing part, because that’s how good he is at the choreo already. Kim Tae Rae, who has switched here from Say My Name, ends up with the main vocal, so a win for him as well. He also ends up having a bit of trouble with the choreo in the very first lesson, which is hardly surprising in any way. He’s a main vocal, folks. And…? 

I’ll talk about all of this a lot more when I post my in-depth review of their rehearsal(s) and performance. When it’s ready, you’ll be able to click here. (It’ll be posted when Ep 10 is up.) But I’ll tell you right now that I’m super excited for this performance!

En Garde (Ave rank: 14.2, but without Hiroto would be 11.4) 

At 35:50, we visit team En Garde, and spend about 7.5 minutes with them, most of which are unnecessary.

The gist of what’s going on is that they need to pick who will get to keep the killing part, and they choose Gunwook over Gyuvin. Then later on they prank Gunwook and tell him that they’re taking the killing part away and he’s actually pretty nice and mature about it, and then they reveal that it was a prank.

Then Hui says something interesting. “I worried if things were going too well.” Why would you worry about that, Hui? Hmmm…

I’ll talk about this a bit more when I post my in-depth review of their rehearsal(s) and performance. When it’s ready, you’ll be able to click here. (It’ll be posted when Ep 10 is up.)

Over Me (Ave rank: 14.8)

At 43:13, we visit with team Over Me for about 4.5 minutes. The gist of their situation is that they’re trying to shake off the guilt of having gotten rid of Yoon Jongwoo, and they do just that by electing Zhang Hao their new leader and re-distributing the parts. Jay is confirmed as main vocal, and Hao get the killing part. Again, we don’t see them rehearse at all. 

I’ll talk about all this a bit more when I post my in-depth review of their rehearsal(s) and performance. When it’s ready, you’ll be able to click here. (It’ll be posted when Ep 10 is up.)

Time passes, and now it’s…

Showtime (47:50)

Fans are waiting outside the studio, holding up signs, excited for the show. There’s a sign that just says “Yujin” and one that says “Park Hanbin” in Hangul and then in English “PHANBIN”. 

I know most of you can’t read Korean so here’s a few screenshots with translations of whatever I was able to read:

By the way, I’m doing my last editing pass on this and I just noticed that that light blue rectangle that says “Lee Sunghwan” in the top image should be in the middle of the bottom image, over that light blue sign in the middle. Don’t know what happened there. Sorry. Oh, and the red and black sign says Keita I think.

There are signs for Kim Gyubin, Ollie, Lee Sunghwan, Zhang Hao, Kim Tae Rae, and tons of other trainees. There are Na Kamden signs in English, Keita signs in Japanese, and look, it’s Haruto’s mom with a group of Haruto’s fans! Aww, she looks so much like him! (That’s his dad in the back, with the tinted glasses.)

As the fans go inside, we spot some of the eliminated trainees, here to see the show and perform in it, too.

In the top photo, that’s Wumuti waving, then Choi Woojin in the dark jacket, then Lee Hwanhee partly hidden by Jung Mingyu (who is wearing a white shirt). I can’t quite place the guy in the blue and white shirt or the guy in the middle with the reddish hair. 🙁 In the bottom photo, that’s Hwanhee, Brian, Ji YunSeo, Wumuti, and the guy in the blue and white shirt again. If you know who he is, or who the guy with the reddish hair is, let me know! I feel bad that I don’t recognize them. 

Mingyu says that they will get to show off the performance they’ve been practicing, which is nice! From what I’ve heard there are lots of long pauses in these performance stages while the show is filming reactions and stuff back stage, so while they’re doing that, management could let these guys perform to entertain the audience. It’s win/win! 

So, then the teams start entering. Switch team is super brightly colored. I’ll have to see what it looks like when they’re in motion -- I mean, Exo’s Obsession outfits were a LOT but they worked on stage. 

Then Team En Garde comes out, in military-esque leather outfits that aren’t thrilling me, but I reserve judgment. Supercharger jumps up and down with the audience, who seem happy to see them. And then the Say My Name team come out in a “cool school boys after school” look -- a  style they call “high teen” in Kpop land. It’s designed to be immediately loveable to the majority of the age groups and sexual preferences of the audience. Finally, Over Me comes out, and Chen Kuan Jui sees something in the audience that really gets his attention. 

Click to enlarge

It’s such a weird moment. Ok, he’s been making hand half-hearts and stuff, right, but then he stops and almost reflectively makes a butterfly hand gesture, while staring in amazement, then his hand goes to cover his mouth while he continues to stare. It happens at 49:20 or so -- I can’t figure out what he saw. I assume a fan was holding up some sort of fan art of the Butterfly performance, or was dressed like a butterfly, or something…? I wish I knew! It obviously really surprised and touched him. 

We see that each fan has been given a light wand that they can also use to vote.  I’m not going to say what I think those light wands look like, but they definitely look like sex toys.

The boys are all gathered on stage, and it looks like the performances will start any minute…

… but nope. Instead, it’s time for… 

52:09 A special video of a special surprise fan meeting

The boys are out at a sort of field day event and find out that they have a surprise fan meeting later that day. They have to win prizes they can use to prepare for the fan meeting.

It’s hard to recap this kind of thing because there’s no point to it, so I’ll mix recap with just random stray thoughts!

🌟I thought it was funny when boys joked that they might have to be in a “zoning out competition” and we see a montage of Na Kamden zoning out. Fun fact -- I showed my fella the dance practice of Switch and he was like, “that guy” (Kamden) “needs to show a facial expression of any kind.” 

🌟I loved Woongki going “woooOOOOoooh!” 

🌟What happened to Keita? Why does he have a band-aid on his nose? 

🌟I’m glad that they’re all performing as a big team instead of competing against each other. Yes, a common enemy!! Co-op board games keep me and my fella from getting too competitive! Co-op games for the win! 

The game where they wore party hats over their eyes to restrict their vision and have to try to match childhood photos to their subjects was pretty cute. They end up getting 5, which means they get to give their fans some tissues. I love how at the start of the game, the staff tells them that the other boys can’t help the searchers, and how they do anyway and no one cares.  

I also love how someone says, of elementary school aged Hui, “He looks like he would’ve liked potatoes.” I have no idea what that means or if it’s a Korean saying or what. But I love it and am going to start saying it about people given the slightest opportunity. 

🌟Aww, Ricky says of his 11 or 12 year old photo, “I was so ugly.” Every human being is a little bit ugly at that age. And he already had great eyebrows! I bet girls had a crush on him. 

🌟Aw, Woongki was the same as a kid! But hold on, I’m still not clear on whether or not that kid in the swimming pool really was Hiroto. 

Next game is a quiz game, whether they’re shown random photos and have to recognize them -- other trainees, the judges, etc. They managed to win the mics. I think the show threw the game to make sure they at least got mics. 

The third game is to win food for the visitors -- they have to throw each other candies and catch them in their mouths. If they get 20, they win a steak dinner; if they get only 15, they get galbitang, which a beef short rib soup; if they get 10, they get only gimbap, which if you’re not familiar, is a bit like sushi in that it’s seaweed wrapped around rice, but it has a really different flavor -- there isn’t vinegar on the rice, it’s sesame oil instead, and the fillings can vary a lot. It’s tasty and all that, but it’s considered a sort of casual comfort food in Korea -- not exactly fine dining. It’d be a bit like serving your guests PB&J (USA) or beans on toast (UK) or whatever the version of that meal is where you live. Anyway, turns out Jay is really good at catching candies in his mouth, and catches 11, and hey, gimbap is better than nothing. 

🌟 I liked them joking that it would have been great for TaeRae to be the one who catches the candies, because his mouth is so big, and TaeRae just being like, yep. 

Then all of a sudden they tell us that the boys won hair and makeup and costumes in games we didn’t get to see…? What the everlasting fuck, MNET? Was Haruto just too charming in the bit that you had to cut it? 

So, with the field day over, the boys return to the dorms to get ready for their show and put on regular but nice looking clothes, then get their hair and make up done. Then they go to the venue and hang up balloons and other decorations for their guests. But who will their guests be? 

When the guests are revealed, my first thought was, “there’s more men than I thought there’d be.” My second thought was, “wow, they’re all middle aged, or a little older -- where are the screaming teenagers?” and then I was like ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s their families!

🌟 I love Haruto’s mom -- of course his mom would be so outgoing and silly.

🌟 Park Hanbin’s mother is saying, “Our son became this pretty? Our son became so pretty!” First, if you’re not aware by now, the Korean word translated as "pretty" (it sounds like "yeppo") is applied to men and women alike in Korea, so don’t be throw off by the word choice or think it's a veiled insult. Second, hey, Hanbin’s mother, he’s always been pretty!! And he looks just like you so…. I mean… 

🌟Seo Won’s parents make bunny ears at him -- he looks almost irritated at them. Maybe it's a family joke he's really sick of.

🌟We get to see 😁Wang Zi Hao’s😁 dance teacher, who is named Trix. In an interesting coincidence, my fella recently sent me a video of this dance crew called Monster Woo fam. Well, Trix is a member of that crew. Since he’s Korean, it's probably much easier for him to come to something like this than it would be for 😁WZH’s😁 parents to come, and I'm glad that 😁WZH😁had someone to support him, but I'm sorry it couldn't be his family. It's also kind of interesting that he had a Korean dancer teacher, but seems to still be not that great at speaking Korean. Maybe he understands a lot more than he can say. 

🌟Keita’s dad, who looks exactly like MMA star Choo Sung Hoon, is also there. (My fella came in while I was writing this and was like, “wait, why is Choo Sung Hoon on your Korean singing show?” My fella watched Physical 100 and recognized him from that.)

🌟 Wumuti is also there! Wumuti is everywhere. Wumuti is IN YOUR BRAIN. I love that Wumuti is so glad to see who is on team Switch -- it’s like, he can relax knowing that if Keita is there, it’s going to be ok.

🌟Woongki is crying, and in a kind of a surprise, so is TaeRae. TaeRae’s mother, who totally has his exact cheekbones, is like, “Oh no, our TaeRae is so sensitive.” P-Hanbin is also tearing up. 

🌟15 year-old Han Yujin says “my heart just felt strange” when he saw his mom. I can imagine that -- you kind of build up a wall and almost convince yourself you’ve never been anywhere but here, and then you see people from your old life and the wall crumbles down. Side note: his mom is really pretty. She looks like she could be an actress or something. 

🌟Na Kamden has an identical twin brother! Wild. Kamden is the younger of the two (by however many minutes) so has to call his twin “hyung.” 

🌟Ok, this is weird -- when the staff is bringing out the gimbap, we see that Haruto’s manager and Dongmyeong from k-band Onewe (check out their song “Gravity”) are there. That’s random. But Dongmyeong’s been on ALL the reality shows so maybe he’s just there because he gets it? But I really don't understand -- Haruto is under WakeOne and Onewe is under RBW, and I double checked but neither of those companies owns the other so really, this is super perplexing.

They’re all nervous to perform in front of their parents and other family members. Keita says it’s the first time he’s ever performed for his parents, which seems wild to me -- they’ve never seen Ciipher perform? 

🌟We find out that Kamden’s brother came all the way from the US to be here. And I love the way the two of them greet each other -- like vague acquaintances. I have cousins who are twins, and they’re like that with each other. They ask the brother if he’s ever seen Kamden’s “aegyo” (over the top cute behavior) and the brother is like please no.

🌟TaeRae is crying so much he almost can’t sing. 

🌟Oh, that’s Cai Jin Xin in the audience! Maybe some of the Chinese trainees had a hard time booking the flight home or had a flight home scheduled for some weeks from now, so they’re stuck in Korea for the time being -- something like that? Anyway, CJX was on the original team Switch and can’t help but dance along. It's cute. Both CJX and Wumuti look great styled in their natural personal style (I assume). I'm low-key obsessed with CJX's bizarre hoodie cape thing.

🌟Oh, Keita’s mom is also so pretty. Keita says he had a hard time preparing for this mission, and I think he’s just so exhausted on every level, giving it his all this whole time. I'm voting for you, sweetie.

When it’s time for “Over Me,” I couldn’t help but think about how embarrassing it must have been for the trainees to perform that song in front of their parents! Here are some sample lyrics, from the video on a youtube channel called ms start+ . The parts that were in English originally are in green -- the rest is translated (kind of poorly, I think) from the Korean.

I swear that I won’t leave without you / this breathless emotion is through/ come closer and hold me tight, tonight with you / I want to stay with you … Burning more and more we’re on fire, you and I are going to the end of the night. / We don’t need to hide our desire/ to wake up with you over me

Doesn’t matter whether you speak Korean and no English, or English and no Korean, you’re going to understand this song. Seriously, I would be so uncomfortable performing this in front of my parents. I noticed that they didn’t use the red fabric ties -- did they just not have them, or did they scrap them at the last second to make the dance less overtly sexy?

🌟We see that Zhang Hao and Ricky’s agency manager is here, watching proudly. She’s wearing a gray hoodie over a white turtleneck with a black coat over the hoodie, so I hope she’s warm enough. We also see that some of Yoon Jongwoo’s chingus are there, finding the whole thing pretty cringey. Love that.

Then they do this awful thing where they make Han Yujin tell his mom he loves her, and he cries, and I hate all of this, but his mom is also really pretty! So is Gyubin’s mom -- we see her at 1:14:53. Aw, all the moms are pretty. Yay! But no one is eating the gimbap -- ha ha. First time I watched this I may have been a bit... lofty... and I was like, damn, if you guys don't want that gimbap, give it to me...

So the families all love the performances, and then the boys are told that this is actually an evaluation performance and that their families will be filling out evaluation sheets. The boys go back to their rehearsal rooms to read their evaluation forms. The show seems to vastly overestimate how much suspense they can eek out of this as the trainees react to the eval forms. It’s so obvious why they’re reacting the way they are, I mean, duh, MNET. Shock of all shocks, the families really just wrote notes of support and love instead of criticizing them harshly! WUTTT?????? It’s still really cute and made me tear up a little because as you know, I’m a light touch.

🌟We never see Takuto reacting to any of this -- I think maybe his parents weren’t there? If they had been, I think that the show have focused on that. Poor Takuto, not being able to see his parents! He's like, a high school sophomore. He's not even old enough to take the SATs.  

Side note: we get to see a bit of the note that Keita’s dad wrote for him, and it’s almost all in hiragana. That’s a Japanese syllabary, kind of like their alphabet, as opposed to the kanji characters, which are the more complex characters that have been adapted from Chinese. It’s considered a sign of good education to use kanji where applicable, and just supplement with hiragana as needed to conjugate verbs and stuff. So Keita’s dad is either maybe not super well educated, or is just writing very casually to his son and chose a more simple method of writing. I remember in a few animes, characters being made fun of for writing in just hiragana -- like Sailor Moon, noted ditz, only uses hiragana -- but I don’t want to base my cultural understanding just on anime, so if anyone knows the sort of ins-and-outs of writing quick notes in Japanese, and whether people are likely or unlikely to use kanji in a casual note, let me know! The reason I’m interested in not at all to insult Keita’s father -- it’s more that knowing that Keita comes from a more working-class background makes what he’s doing all the more special. So many idols come from super upper class backgrounds -- Jay from Enhypen, Tzuyu from Twice, Wendy from Red Velvet, Umji from G-friend, those are just a few that pop into my head. Keita being able to develop his talents without the financial backing of rich parents -- that’s just extra cool. We stan a self-sufficient talent. 

Anyway, that was a cute interlude, but I’m glad I was able to skip it when I watched the episode the first time to get to the next segment! I don’t mind filler per se, but when you’re dying to see what happened to team Supercharger, you just want to go to…

1:21:28 Supercharger

The team introduces itself as “96.” Subtle. 😛We see their rehearsals -- a study in misery, desperation, and hard work -- and then their performance, which is… surprisingly good?  We all knew Haruto would nail it, but this is the first time I feel like I saw Wang Zi Hao look like an idol, rather than just a really good backup dancer, and everyone (but poor Takuto) really pulled it off.  I’d say Woongki surprised me, but he didn’t really -- if you watch some of his performances with T01, you’ll see he can totally rock this kind of thing. Hiroto comes in first with 852 votes, which is well deserved.

For my more in depth discussion of their rehearsals/performance, click here.

1:41:57 En Garde

The team introduces itself as "En! Butter." It’s apparently kind of a reference to redbean butter bread, and makes sense with the name of the song. This team really had nothing to worry about, so they kind of invented problems to overcome (at least, that’s my take on what happened) and then put on a perfectly good performance that oddly doesn’t sway me much, despite the fact that I like all these performers a lot. I think it’s just that the song is kind of boring to me, personally. I know other people like it and that’s totally cool. We all like different things. Gyuvin comes in first with 742 votes -- I suspect this is controversial because apparently a lot of people don’t like Gyuvin, but I like Gyuvin just fine and don’t mind. 

For my more in depth discussion of their rehearsals/performance, click here for my En Garde recap!

1:58:43 Say My Name (not really)

We see the team backstage, then immediately flashback to their rehearsal time. It’s all really uncomfortable. I know people probably are curious about what I have to say about Matthew, but I don’t want to go into too much detail here and now. My short answer is, again, I don’t see this as evil editing. I see this as immature unpleasant behavior from Matthew. It’s not unforgivable or beyond understanding, and there are times that certainly we can see that he’s trying his best, but overall, I don’t love what I see here. I mean, his team is still super uncomfortable even as they go up onstage! 

I’ll talk more about it in a separate post, linked in the episode 10 recap!

Side note: Ok, hey, LipJ, like, I thought it was kind of funny how you found the boys attractive, but back off from Han Yujin, ok? He’s a child. You’re twice his age. It’s really not ok. Alright! That’s enough of that. 

Interim ranking posting:

And then the show posts a few of the current ranks, just enough to achieve some nefarious purpose. This is what they show:

?

?

?

?

?

Keita

Ricky

?

?

?

?

?

?

Park Hanbin

Lee Jeongyheon

Kim Gyuvin

Yoo Seung Eon

Cha Woonki

Enhh. You guys, the purpose behind this seems so obvious I almost feel like I don’t need to say this, but I’ll just say it anyway, in case you’re thinking the same thing as me and wondering if you’re imagining things. You’re not imagining things. MNET revealed that Keita and Ricky are ranked so high in order to hurt them, and revealed that those five Korean trainees were ranked comparatively low in order to help them. The idea is that people won’t want to vote for the trainees that are ranked high, because they don’t think they need help, and will want to vote for the trainees that are ranked low, because they think they DO need help. And no, it’s not a coincidence that the higher ranked trainees are foreign and the lower ranked trainees are Korean.  

So, that's my ep 9 general recap. Here's a link to my general recap of episode 10! As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned! You're the best.

#boys planet #boys planet recap #haruto #keita #ricky boys planet

[nenasspot]

for all the peeps who have followed me recently bc of my boys planet posts, i welcome you and i hope you realize I don't have a chill button when talking about survival shows

#i was really thinking about video chronicling this time #on like youtube or summat #but ofc it's airing its first 2 episodes during the first time i'm abroad travelling seriously in like 3 years #we'll see #if i'm excited enough i might still do a recap once i'm back-- it rlly depends on mnet's formatting too #nena talking into the void #kpop #boys planet 999 #boys planet

[wearepurplejackets]

Little recap of episode 4 of season 4 of Wakfu

Look at this!!

You saw this beautiful smile???? This smile can stop babies from crying (and Nora). This smile can revive a puppy.

You saw it???

Well, I hope you did because I think we'll not see it in a really loooooooong time~ (maybe 9... Or 10 episodes.) The storm is coming... violently with a bat.

(BEHOLD SPOILERS OF EP 4 OF SEASON 4 OF WAKFU)

I remember Tot said season 4 was gonna be sad a f*ck and that Yugo will have to pass some kind of "hard trial" (AGAIN) in this season because this kid will never have a good rest. Not even a breath. Stop. Give this little boy some holidays c'mon, the lord is always testing our little angel to the limit. (And by lord I mean Ankama I'm looking at you...)

So it's very likely that Yugo will start to suffer even more in the next episode. And of course, in the entire season :))))))) Let this boy have something, someone precious by his side more than an instant and stop take it from him in the next second, I beg you. (He just found his family... And... Qilby I guess. And Adamai just abandoned him already to investigate by his own way...)

Just seeing how the kings and queens of every nation were so disrespectful in front of him and just called his mother a monster and made her cry, well. (I want to riot! When Joris said they were "quite tense" he fell short.)

Okay, yes, I understand the eyes in the sky~ are pretty creepy and of course I don't trust her either, at least, like this is so suspicious for sure, no one was born yesterday even when she is trying to be so kind and helpful monitoring the entire planet (yeessss mom, way too much).

But, c'mon, this is a goddess as tall as... I don't know, as much as she wants, girl she is made of f*cking magic. If she wanted she could erase you from existence. She didn't have to give a f*ck about anyone and HERE WE ARE~

The best thing you can do is looking for a fight with her in the moment you meet her with no hesitasion? Do you want to die that much? Do you know about survival? Did you skip that class maybe? (I'm going for a tea BECAUSE-)

It was so necessary to (be a little racist dear rich people and) insult the giant blue mother of your hero in his f*cking face and the people who are at least trying to do your job (which any of you losers did well, like ever, btw. When Sadida kingdom was about to be destroyed by the chaos of Ogrest what did you do?? Eh, where were you???)

Jobs like protecting and saving your citizens from, nothing, being robbed and I don't know: imminent death??? I mean, really? Was that all you thought about in this situation? Being a d*ck was your best choice.

These same guys here were talking about stolen freedom?? What freedom? The brotherhood of Tofu had to save your asses for like 3 season. 3 ovas and dozens of comics. The same people who criticize others actions but never assist and reunite when they are needed, Cause I don't know Rick, it seems a little fake....

Yugo just met his mom and his sis and he already has the world of 12 hating them... Like wow, the rulers are all going to die in the hands of that kind of white demon/zombies of TLOU/soul suckers or whatever they are. And I really don't give a f*ck for any of them, ladies and gentlemen. Only the crowns are going to remain. (Down with the monarchy.)

Weeeeeeeell.

You know what? I don't care what Yugo will do from this point. Nop, not a bit. But I'm with him to the end of everything. I will support you honey, I will defend you no matter what. I mean, I'll be totally okay if he decides to save the world for the third f*cking time and I also will be okay if in the end he prefers to let all these motherf*ckers die in an instant with no mercy and no regre-

And it could even happen that Yugo loses someone important in season 4... (The same way I will lose my mind.) Hope that never happens, I just swear to god-

Anyway, Yugo fans, unite and brace yourselves.

#rip yugo's smile #you will be missed #wakfu season 4 #wakfu yugo #wakfu #yumalia #wakfu amalia #amalia sheran sharm #wakfu spoilers #wakfu s4 #as a yugo fan im always scared #wakfu season 4 spoilers #ankama #spoilers #eliatrope #wakfu evangelyne #recap #wakfu adamai #where the f*ck are you #adamai #yugo #wakfu qilby #qilby #nora #eliatropes #tristepin #wakf ruel #dofus #socorro #im spanish my grammar is a mess

[moongothic]

The reason I ended that Crocodad AU where he finds Baby Robin-post where I did was because I actually just don't know what would happen next, where things would go from there. Let's talk about that.

Also apologies in advance, this post got obscenely long. Again. I don't know how this keeps on happening.

(If you wanted the minimum context without having to read the whole OG post, just scroll down to the Plot Section and read until the end from there)

But just to give a minor recap: They're in the tombs of Alubarna, Cobra's dead and the second the guards notice their king has gone missing they're going go searching for him. So there's no time to mess around, Crocodile and Robin need to leave as soon as possible before they're discovered, otherwise they'll risk getting reported to the World Government for assasinating Cobra and boy howdy Croc's not going to be a Shichibukai for long if that happens. The two are there to just get what they want. Crocodile wants Pluton. And the Poneglyph says its in Wano Country

What the hell are either of these two going to do? In this scenario?

'Cause on one hand, there's Robin, who could be scared shitless of Crocodile and unsure what to do next.

If Robin tells him, will Crocodile kill her because he doesn't need her anymore? Because he got what he wanted?

Or might he lash out at her and kill her because the weapon isn't in Alabasta as he had assumed?

But if she refuses to tell him, he'll kill her anyways, won't he?

She can't run away from him anyways, he'd catch her in seconds.

Should she lie and give him a fake location nearby in the hopes of creating an opportunity for her to escape?

But even if she managed to escape, she'd be back on the run from the Government all over again, fighting for her life, all alone.

(Minor note but it's worth pointing out that Robin probably wouldn't know about Wano's takeover, she might not know who Kaidou is, let alone what the Yonkou are, or where Wano even is. Like we know it's a bombshell of information, but Robin wouldn't know where on The Scale of Bad News it'd land, and that could also add to her fear of telling the truth)

Like I think those would be the kinds of thoughts that would run through Robin's mind, and even I can't tell what she'd do.

And on the other hook, we have Mr Murderdile. How the fuck would he even react to whatever Robin would do?

I mean I don't think he'd actually kill Robin if she told him the truth about what the Poneglyph says. I do think he would Fucking Furious and deeply hurt if she'd refuse to tell him, if she'd lie or tried to flee, as these would be acts of betrayal and we know Crocodile would not take that well. Would he kill her for betraying him? Possibly? Since he could see her as a threat to his son's life (the priority), I don't fucking know man. That could very much turn into like a "Doflamingo killing Rocinante" moment for Crocodile in this AU.

But what the fuck would he do if he found out Pluton was in Wano?

Mind you, by this point the country would've been freshly taken over by Kaidou, and it's only been 2-5 years since Crocodile would've had his ass kicked by Whitebeard in the New World. Like that trauma would be Quite Fresh in his mind. I don't think Crocodile would be stupid enough to try to go to Wano. It'd be stupid fucking dangerous, and surely he'd know that. And not just in the "he could get killed by Kaidou" kind of way, but because surely Crocodile would realize Kaidou was sitting on top of Pluton as they spoke. Even if he didn't know about it yet, if Kaidou found out about Pluton being directly beneath his gigantic ass, it would be Fucking Bad. And thus going to the island with the only person on the planet who could reveal the exact location of the weapon would be a stupid ass move. (Of course, without the heir of the Kozuki Clan Pluton can't be released and Momo has just been yeeted into the future, so even if they did go they wouldn't be able to open the borders of Wano, but unless the Alabastan Poneglyph explained that then neither Robin or Crocodile would understand that)

So if Crocodile's only goal in life at this moment had been obtaining an Ancient Weapon so he could nuke the World Government and then go be with his son (since nothing in the world could threaten his child anymore and force Crocodile to keep his distance to keep him safe)... And he found out he was far, far too weak to even obtain that weapon... What would Crocodile do? Knowing he wouldn't be able to do what he wanted, that he wouldn't get to be with his son ever again?

(Mind you. There is a whole discussion to be had about whether or not Crocodile was suicidal during Impel Down/Marineford and if his petty revenge against Whitebeard was a borderline suicide mission. Because unironically I think there's like a 40-50% chance that could be the case. And I'm pointing this out because if Crocodile was canonically suicidal after failing to take over Alabasta, how would this scenario in this AU be different? Aside from the obvious time commitment, and the way Crocodile's traumas would be much more fresh at this point compared to canon)

Like. What can he do anymore? What's there left for him to do?

Fall into absolute despair and give up? Allow the royal guards to find and capture him, and let the WG throw him in jail for assassinating King Cobra for no reason? Or just kill himself on the spot because what would it matter, he'd die eventually anyways? God knows, even if he wanted to keep on opposing the WG, between the Dragodile Divorce (and however the fuck that might've played out) and Crocodile probably not approving of Dragon's methods for revolution (too idealistic, soft, and slow), ditching his Warlord-status and fully joining the Revolutionary Army wouldn't suit Crocodile either. He's a pirate, not some hero of justice. And he's never going to be strong enough to defeat the WG himself, all alone. That's what the Ancient Weapon was for to begin with.

So, what would he do now, when his final option had been crossed out, labeled impossible. Would death be the easy way out, and at least give him the peace of mind knowing his son could never be linked back to him and put into danger because of him?

But what would happen to Robin?

If Crocodile allowed himself to become captured and go to jail, Robin would be doomed too. Between his hatred of the Government and Robin being an innocent child, surely he didn't want the Government to get their hands on her, they'd just put her to death. But what else could he do? Tell her to run? Leave her to fend for herself all over again? Alone? Would he have it in him to tell her that?

Or would Crocodile's anger and spite at the Government be more powerful than his despair? Would he rather flee with Robin for now and figure things out later, when they're not in some ancient tombs with the corpse of a king where they could be found out any second and be in far deeper shit than they're already in?

And I think this is where we circle back to what Robin would do, first. Because even if Robin told Crocodile the truth, there's still multiple ways she could do that, and depending on how Robin went about it, that could influence Crocodile's reaction too, couldn't it?

If the two hadn't become too fond of each other yet, and Robin very calmly told Crocodile Pluton was in Wano, I think he could just become kind of catatonic in shock and horror, falling into despair. Maybe without saying a word he'd just walk out of the tombs straight to the guards without ever looking back. Abandoning Robin and leaving her running for her life again, alone.

But Robin is at this point a 12 year old child***

The sheer intensity of this situation could become too much for her. And if she had become fond of Crocodile, if despite everything she still wanted to stay with him because he had been the only source of safety she had had in three years... what if she just burst into tears, and told Crocodile she was afraid of him and what he might do to her because he might not like what the Poneglyph said? What would Crocodile do then? How would Crocodile react to that? To this child being not just brutally honest, but emotionally vulnerable and showing him that she WANTED to trust him? If Crocodile had been emotionally flipflopping between trying to remain emotionally unavailable to Robin because he didn't trust her, and trying to be caring (partially because he was intentionally trying to manipulate her and partially because he genuinely felt bad for her)... Would this become the moment Crocodile himself realizes he has to decide if he's going to be a cruel pirate who only cares about his son's safety, or be Robin's guardian? Either demand her to just spit it out if she knows what's good for her, or comfort her and tell her he would never hurt her regardless of what the Poneglyph said? And... almost regardless of what Crocodile would choose, could Robin's outburst still like... both soften the blow of the bad news and emotionally ground Crocodile? So that he wouldn't fall into despair?

If so... Guess the two would just have to flee then. Leave their hostage (be it the (unconcious???) pregnant queen or baby Vivi) behind, and just leave Alabasta. There'd be nothing left in that country for them anyways, nothing but people who could catch Crocodile and report him to the World Government for assasinating their King (mainly Shaka who could probably tell their king was murdered by a heavy smoker thanks to his DF and then realize it was Crocodile if he ever gotten within sniffing distance from him), leading to his Shichibukai Status to being stripped from him. Escaping and never coming back would be their priority.

Whatever the fuck would happen next is a bloody mystery though

Like IDK maybe, after getting over whatever emotional turmoil he'd be going through, Crocodile could start building an organization of some kind?? But this time with the intent of wrecking Kaidou's ass and taking over Wano himself????? (Roccoco Works wouldn't nececarily have to be a secret organization either since if he wanted to take over a non-WG Affiliated country from some pirate... He could just do that. The WG shouldn't care. He would have to be extremely careful though to make sure nobody ever found out his sweet little assistant/secretary Miss Sunday was actually Nico Robin. Also if he was the Rev Army's Secret Sugar Daddy he'd have to be extremely careful who he would hire to work for him. Like the hiring process would be extremely selective still, if not more-so than with BW?) Also he could spend a fuck ton of time just working out to get as swole as humanly possible. Because god knows he'll need to if he wanted to actually fight Kaidou and survive with all his limbs still in-tact. Maybe try to get friendly with Moria too knowing Moria has some serious beef with Kaidou and could be down for getting revenge one day. But mind you, this would be A Whole Process which would no doubt take years if not decades.

All while looking after Robin. Because he was all she had and he couldn't possibly abandon her now. He's in too deep.

And this is where my brain finally hits a brick wall with this AU, I can't imagine how shit would go down from here on. Because IDK, this whole thing started out more as a thought experiment (of "how would things be different if they met earlier") and the further you go down the timeline it stops being wild what if-speculation and more just a fanfic lmao

***(Look if I'm not wrong, the year Luffy was born Robin should be going 11 turning 12, right? (And Croc 27 -> 28). But if enough time has passed that Vivi has been born, well, Robin's birthday is a few days after Vivi's, so she could've turned 13 by now. Or hell, this whole shitshow of a scenario could take place on her birthday if you wanted to be really evil) (But if I'm wrong and Robin was 10 -> 11 the year Luffy was born, then she'd be around turning 12 at this point) (This shit is so complicated aaaaa 😭)

One more note because I might as well put them in the same post

So in my mind, if Crocodad Real IN GENERAL then it would make perfect sense to me if Crocodile's reason for wanting his funny little military nation and to obtain Pluton was to nuke Marijoa and just delete the World Government so his baby boy would be safe. Because god knows if the Government found out Dragon had a son (or that he had been involved with the Revs/plotted against them and that he had a son), that baby boy would become a target for the WG. Thus he couldn't even take his child with him and raise him like Bege or Big Mom did with their kids. Like it wasn't even an option. And because that's like my default headcanon already, I'm obviously applying it to this silly Crocodad AU.

But it raises a fun question; what would Crocodile tell baby Robin about his motivations?

Like, I can perfectly imagine Crocodile explaining to Robin that he hates the WG and wants to destroy them, and that not only would Robin be safe with him (not just in the "I won't hurt you or turn you in to the Marines, we're on the same side", or the "I'm stronk and can protect you from danger" way, but also "the WG can't find you if you're under my wing" way), but also if she helped him find an Ancient Weapon, she could help him defeat her greatest enemy for once and for all and become free herself.

And that's not a bad deal, now is it.

But even if Crocodile explained that to Robin when they'd first meet, just to get her to agree to coming with him, surely it would take Robin some time to actually start trusting Crocodile, after spending the past three years on the run. 'Cause in her mind, either the Government Approved Pirate was lying to get her guard down (so it'd be easier to hand her over to the WG), or the Government Approved Pirate was explicitly admitting to being a backstabber and couldn't be trusted. But hey Papadile could maybe win her trust with some time, plenty of books and maybe a few plushies

However.

I'm sure Robin would wonder WHY Crocodile wanted to destroy the World Government. And Crocodile sure as fucking hell would never tell her it was because he had a son, god knows he would not trust her with that information. I'm not sure if Robin would ask about Crocodile's motivations, and even if she did, I'm sure he'd find a way to respond in a truthful way without telling her anything (Like arguably he isn't free from the WG either, he can either play and pretend to be on their side until they decide they have no more use for him, or try to eliminate them first and ensure his own safety. So he could tell Robin that as an excuse) (Kill-or-Be-Killed is not a great life lesson to be teaching Nico Robin Age 12) And you know, not knowing why this Scary Pirate wants a weapon of mass destruction would raise alarm bells in anyone's mind. Robin isn't stupid.

And now we circle right back to the begining of this post. Again. This post is a fucking timeloop, there is no escape. What would Robin do when Crocodile would ask her to read him the Poneglyph. Because there is that option that she could try to ask him Crocodile why he wanted to destroy the WG, then and there. Possibly defiantly, possibly calmly, possibly with tears running down her little face because she's scared out of her mind and wants to have faith in her guardian, but is unsure because the situation she's found herself in is a train wreck and Croc's on thin ice. And would she start with the question right away, or would she first tell the truth and then, after seeing Crocodile's reaction, ask him about it? And would Crocodile tell her? The TL:DR; of it? That he had a son whom the WG would want dead if they ever found out about it, a son he wanted to protect? That that's what this all was about?

And how would Robin feel about such a revelation?

Because on one hand, it could be calming for her, to understand that Crocodile wasn't out for world domination like a cartoon villian or anything, that his motivations were actually understandable. He just wanted to protect his family. But on the other hand... if Robin had been (conciously or subconciously) hoping to find a father figure in Crocodile... would finding out that Crocodile had his own son, his own family somewhere out there... Would that knowledge break Robin? Because in her mind, even if she hadn't wished for it conciously, Crocodile could never become a father for her? Because if/when Crocodile would get what he wanted, he'd just go be with his son?

Keep in mind. Robin's core fears and trauma come from not just betrayal, but also abandonment. A fear of being alone. Even if it was for Robin's own sake, her mother left her behind. She wasn't able to find friends or community in Ohara at all, even with the people of the library she felt left out because they wouldn't allow her to participate in the Poneglyph research (understandable on their part) And even when Robin's uncle and his family "adopted" her, she was treated as an other in the family. An unwanted burden, a servant. Not a real member of the family.

Finding out Crocodile had a family he wanted to return to could in her mind mean she was going to become abandoned again, left behind to fend for herself. Even if the WG wasn't out to get her, that would still be absolutely soul crushing for a child. And even if Crocodile did decide to adopt Robin, would she not be afraid of being treated as an other in that family too, because she wasn't his daughter? That he'd never love her the way he'd love his own son?

How would the truth behind Crocodile's motivations actually make Robin feel?

And one final gut punch before I go:

Would Crocodile struggle with some kind of guilt and shame over looking after Robin when he had his son somewhere out there? Would he be beating himself up inside because he couldn't stop himself for caring so damn much about this poor kid, but didn't want to treat Robin like some kind of a replacement for his own child? And would those feelings get even worse after finding out he couldn't even get Pluton because the bloody thing was hiding under Kaidou's ass? Would Crocodile feel horrible about how he had to abandon his son seemingly forever and then found himself looking after some other child instead?

Also. If the Dragodile Divorce was bad, especially in the "Dragon wasn't particularly accepting" kinda way, and if Crocodile had this deep fear inside of him about whether or not his son would ever accept him as his other dad and/or be upset about not having a mom (a fear that could get worse over time since he wouldn't have been with his baby from the begining, that he'd have to show up in his child's life later, praying for acceptance and forgiveness for having to leave him behind)... Would Robin potentially expressing that she saw Crocodile as a father-figure kind of break Crocodile (in a good way)? Not just because of the gender affirmation (for the recently transitioned guy mind you), but also because it'd mean that there was at least one person in the world who looked at him and thought they wanted him as their father? And could that happiness then like ADD ON to whatever guilt Crocodile could also be feeling?

These two are such broken people. I can not help but to wonder if they'd be able to navigate through their complicated emotions and find the healing and comfort they both so desperately need.

Anyway yeah that's the post, hope you enjoyed The Thoughts

#Moon posting #OP Meta #Sir Crocodile #Nico Robin #Crocodad #Not sure I can say ''back due to popular demand'' but close enough I guess #I am just Haunted by Thoughts #This really got obscenely fucking long jesus christ #Feels wrong to tag this with Crocodad but this is an AU based on it and it's like relevant so??? It's there for blacklisting if nothing els #Good god my Activity Feed has Not Been The Same since I posted that fanart on my main though oh my god #I'm glad y'all enjoy this AU concept as much as I do. We can suffer emotionally together lmao

[eyesthecolorofarson]

Lower Lifeforms

Someone has broken into The Batcave. They don’t know how, but suddenly two lifeforms were detected in the middle of the Batmobiles runway. Lifeforms, Tim noted, not humans. They all rushed into the cave, and were met with two Damian’s.

They could tell who their Damian was by the Robin costume so not a shapeshifter, but he was wearing a black suit with white gloves, boots and cape with a pulled down hood. His hair took the form of a flame, and his eyes were glowing red. Despite this his facial features were identical to Damian’s, even the scowl directed at them looked to be pulled right off of Damian’s face.

He heard Jason shout and turned to see a girl, also identical to Damian and more so with the other one, fighting Jason and Dick at the same time. She was wearing a suit similar to the other, just the top was cropped and half was white and the other half black. Tim joined the fray, but they were quickly defeated. Ice was wrapped around their arms and legs, and Damian was already iced to the floor. The girl whooped and jumped over them playfully.

“Great,” he heard Jason mutter, “more demon brats.” The girl paused and turned, as did the boy. They tilted their heads in sync, the boy looking far more annoyed and the girl amused. “‘Demon brat’,” she repeated thoughtfully, “Is that a new slur humans are callin us?” The boy scoffed so much like Damian and walked towards the Batcomputer. “Wouldn’t surprise me.” He turned towards them and glared.

“It’s just as uncreative as the other ones.” He turned back to the Batcomputer and started typing. Ok, Tim thought, let’s recap. There were two kids who looked identical to Damian in the Batcave. These kids were a different species that had interacted with humans before, and all these interactions had been bad enough and gone on long enough that there were human slurs for their species. These Damian-lookalikes wanted information on all the meta laws and extraterrestrial species laws in place on earth, from what he could see the boy looking up on the Batcomputer.

“It’s not! Really it’s not! It’s just that—“ Dick didn’t get to continue. The ice around his arms extended to cover his mouth, stopping just below his nose. The same happened to them. “Hey!” The girl whined, “I wanted to hear what he’d say!” The boy scoffed. “Humans don’t have anything good to say about us, so I don’t understand why you always want to hear them talk.” The girl huffed and went to the boys side.

“It’s history! We can put it in the books ‘humans called us this for this reason, and it meant this’,” she mimed reading from a book, and the boy huffed. “We already know why they call us names. It’s not any important as the other ones.” It was silent as he typed quickly, and more information came up. Earths relationship with the Martians, the Tamaraneans, Kryptonions, magic users and ultraterrestrials. So they were from off planet.

“What if they’re nice?” The girl asked, and the boy sighed. “Have you ever met a nice human?” The girl answered no. “Have you ever heard of a nice human?” The girl thought, then answered no. “Has any human even pretended to be nice to you?” The girl answered no again. “Humans aren’t capable of being what we know as ‘nice’ or ‘kind’; kindness is a form of higher cognitive ability and empathy, something human brains haven’t developed over the hundreds of years they’ve had the chances to. What they instead developed is a higher level of aggression.”

The boy touched screen, and the Batcomputer glitched as something green spread into the boys hand. He pulled his hand away, and turned towards them. The ice around their mouths and Damian melted away, leaving no water behind. “What are you?” Damian hissed, and was easily knocked to the ground. “If you hate us so much, why not kill us?” The boys scoffed and leaned in close.

“Because we are better than you. The only thing humans see as an answer is war, is blood and death. We’re capable of more than the senseless violence you’ve built your societies on.” He stood smoothly and walked down the way they’d appeared. “Da⃠nella,” he called, “let’s go.” Da⃠nella waved and the rest of the ice melted, and they scrambled to follow.

The last they saw of Da⃠nella and the boy they were walking into a bright green portal.

#dan phantom redemption #dp x dc prompt #batfamily #dp x dc crossover #dan phantom #danielle phantom #Ghost are different species au #Ultraterrestrials au #If you want to continue this please do!

[eriexplosion]

Here's How Shrimp Trooper Theory Can Still Win

This is as fringe as it gets folks.

I've done my very serious Tech lives essay now it's time for my actual wild theory. Plus @katara-stan-club wanted the shrimp trooper essay and I will take any opportunity to yammer. Please don't take this extremely seriously as it is just something that I'm spinning up for entertainment and is almost certainly not true. (Unless!)

So the opening to Confined is... Odd to me. I've mentioned this in a post before but just to recap, it is definitely the odd man out of the three season starters.

Season one of course we intro with Caleb, who then leads us directly to meet the batch and get our first character appearances, along with convenient introductions. A fun, action packed little scene before things immediately go to hell.

Season two we intro with the batch in the middle of a job, which gives us another fun action scene that shows us how much Omega has grown, as well as the current status of the batch itself.

Season three though? Season three starts us off with a ship going down in a lightning storm and all the stormtroopers inside assumed to be eaten by the giant monsters that lurk in Tantiss' jungles. (Going by Omega's tally marks later in the episode, we're about 20 days post plan 99.) Nothing to do with the batch at all, though we do get a glance at what's in the jungle, and a tiny bit more of Hemlock being a bastard of course.

Now, seemingly, this scene is the set up for episode three, when they make their escape and head for the downed ship.

Except it's completely unnecessary. When they get to the ship, it turns on but it's incapable of flight and the comms are still down and non functioning. The ship they end up taking and using to escape is the ship that came in pursuit of them. The plot would have gone down exactly the same if they had just picked a direction and fled without the downed ship. It's a complete red herring for how they ultimately end up escaping.

So why is it important enough to open the season on if the ship essentially functions as nothing more than a destination point?

Enter Shrimp Trooper Theory.

Going back to the stormtroopers. We have four of them inside the ship, the pilot and three others. We're going to be focusing on our boy on the far right of the second picture.

The pilot speaks before the ship goes down so we can confirm he's a rando. Our fellow in the middle speaks next, identifying himself as TK-343, another rando. The one on the far left talks about wild beasts proving himself, you guessed it, a third rando. But our boy on the far right doesn't talk at all through this whole scene, leaving his identity up in the air.

So we'll take a closer look at him and brighten the scene up a bit.

Now, seeing this guy hobble his way out of the ship, I thought that he looked somewhat familiar. Specifically.

That shitty ass posture. (Forgive the sloppiness of the edit I did this comparison once before and I am not remaking it)

We do not actually see the troopers all get eaten, we cut to the interior of Tantiss before it happens. Theoretically there is nothing stopping this shrimp shaped man from being Tech.

The timeline of shrimp trooper theory:

Tech falls from the rail car and manages to survive the landing but he's severely injured. He crawls away/gets scraped off the ground by Saw.

Roughly 3 weeks pass in which he is recovering and healing yet unable to comm out as, per episode 4 of season 3, Imperial planets monitor long range communications. But, he is able to gather information from the flights going in and out of Eriadu to determine which ones are being assigned to Hemlock's secretive lab. Once he is able to confirm this, he steals some stormtrooper armor and boards.

Ship goes down because gravity hates him in particular and he is almost eaten by a Beast.

Now stranded in the jungle on Tantiss, Tech finds his infiltration plan foiled by the fact that he is being continually hounded by even more Beasts.

Several months later, Batcher is released and for some reason goes straight for the wrecked ship. Somehow she survives out here, but we're not sure how - potentially she had help?

Tech IS the mystery clone X that we see but rather than being brainwashed he has finally managed to get inside Tantiss and yet again begins to Steal Clothing from others.

Crosshair and Omega immediately break out without him leaving him stranded in Tantiss where he presumably still is, attempting to avoid detection and continue to gather information that will aid in the eventual liberation of the other clones.

Is this unlikely? Yes! Is it overly complicated? Absolutely! Am I endlessly entertained by it anyway? You bet!

Benefits of Shrimp Trooper Theory include, but are not limited to:

A living, non brainwashed Tech! The most important feature one could have!

An extremely ridiculous Only In Star Wars series of events!

Retroactive explanation for why the ship going down was an important scene to start on.

Hemlock ruining his own life by not sending someone out to recover the team and just assuming they'd totally be taken care of by the wildlife.

More giant monsters than Wrecker could shake a stick at.

The possibility of Tech and Batcher offscreen shenanigans.

Tech thinking he's finally found Crosshair and making plans to retrieve him when, SURPRISE, OMEGA'S HERE TOO AND THEY'RE ESCAPING. RIGHT NOW.

Seriously just imagine the epic sigh Tech would let out as they flew away completely unaware of his presence. His life is a series of difficulties.

He can simply turn up with the coordinates to Tantiss because god knows how else they're going to manage to get them.

This is my conspiracy theory that I'm allowing myself to believe in as a treat. It will almost certainly not be what occurs but the thought of it makes me happy.

#the bad batch #the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers

[honeyedmiller]

Fate, After All | Joel Miller —

Part Five (Finale)

warnings: tooth-rotting fluff (of course), no outbreak!Joel, Joel and reader are literally so in love it makes everyone SICK :’) , smut (fingering, unprotected piv [wrap it up y’all], f oral receiving, tongue fucking, spitting, literally just rough dirty sex [don’t look at me omg]), no use of y/n. 18+, minors dni.

word count: 9.8k (I'm so sorry omg)

series masterlist

-

Not long after you and Joel confessed your mutual feelings for one another, the older Miller brother had asked you to move in with them. Sarah couldn't have been more excited, because that meant instead of talking to you on the landline when you weren't around, she could just walk down the hall to her dad's bedroom or downstairs and you'd be there.

She never really spoke about it aloud, but she was thrilled to finally have a mother figure around in her life. She loved her dad so dearly, but there was just some things that she couldn't talk about with him. She was sure his 'papa bear' mode would kick in if she ever even mentioned boys or wanting to use tampons or anything of the sort. Not only that, but just having a woman around to guide her in life as well was something every young woman should have, and now, she had it for real.

Joel on the same hand was eager for you to start moving your stuff in. You sold a lot of your furniture pieces because you wouldn't be needing them anymore, and truthfully, you being sort of a minimalist made the move-in process easy for everyone. You always kept your space tidy and de-cluttered frequently. Joel's heart swelled at the fact that his double vanity in his bathroom and master bedroom was finally taken up halfway with someone he loved so much. He literally smiled at the sight of your toothbrush every morning, as a reminder that this was all real—you're here, you're his, and there's no one on this planet he'd rather be with than you. You were his dream woman. He'd thought he lost out forever after he chickened out and failed to ask you out in high school, you leaving for college and not keep in touch with him. Boy was he glad to find out he was terribly wrong.

-

It'd been a couple of years after your initial move-in, and you'd just gotten home from a long day of work. You closed the front door softly, slipping off your heels to the side of the entryway while hanging your coat on the coat rack. Hushed whispers were coming from the kitchen, as if you weren't supposed to hear the conversation that was happened.

"You think she'll like it?" Was all you caught before Sarah smacked her dad lightly on the arm as she heard your footsteps approaching, luckily not seeing the two of them and how quickly Joel had to slide the velvet box over to his daughter, to which she tossed in her backpack.

"Hey you two." You beam, taking your hair down from your claw clip as you approached them.

"Hey honey." Joel smiled, pulling you in for a hug and a kiss. You moved to Sarah as you kissed the top of her head as she greeted you, moving to the fridge after to get a bottle of water.

"What were you two talking about before I came in?" You ask, eyebrow raised quizzically.

Joel's face nearly turned beet red, but Sarah stepped in before he could come up with a lame excuse.

"We were just discussing if you'd like takeout for dinner, or pizza." She shrugged, and you narrowed your eyes for a split second. A headache was already brewing in your frontal, so you decided to let it go and nod.

"Either's fine. Don't really have the energy tonight to cook, truthfully. I have a headache I can already feel." You sheepishly smile, and Joel's lips formed into a small frown.

"Go lay down for a bit honey. We can wake you when dinner's here." Joel encouraged. You untwisted the cap to your water bottle, taking a gulp before recapping it and nodding.

"Alright." You nod, smiling softly as you move past them both to make your way upstairs.

"Alright, give me the thing back before you lose it." Joel whispers when he thinks you're out of earshot, but again, the headache you have is growing by the minute so you couldn't be bothered to even think twice about what he just said.

You plop yourself down on your side of the bed once you reach your shared bedroom, right after changing into a long sleeve and some sleep shorts. You snuggle under the brown comforter, drifting off into a much needed rest to alleviate the your headache. It felt like you'd only closed your eyes for five minutes before you heard Joel's rather heavy footsteps—loud enough even if he was trying to be quiet—approach the bedroom door.

He shuffled to where you laid, peaceful and silently begging him in your mind to let you rest just a little longer. "Baby, wake up. Food's here." Joel softly brushes loose strands of hair out of your face, cupping your cheek gently. Your eyes flutter open to meet his, and he has a sincere smile on his lips.

In a sense, Joel was grateful that you went to go lay down. He was disheartened that you were in discomfort, but glad he had enough time to elaborately plan out the night he was going to ask you to marry him. He'd already talked everything through with Sarah—you and her were going to have a 'girl's day' to get your nails done and have her help you pick out an outfit on Saturday, and then Sunday, if all went well and according to plan, he was going to take you to surprise you with three things before he popped the big question.

Sarah'd helped him pick out the ring about a month prior while you were at work, and they both came to an agreement that the beautiful teardrop ring with tiny diamonds surrounding the front of the band was the perfect ring for you. Classy, elegant, and beautiful.

You sat up from the bed slowly, breaking Joel from his thoughts. You stretched and yawned, the feeling of your headache significantly subsiding.

Joel stood up to his full height to offer you his hand, and when you took his, he brought yours up to his lips to kiss the back of it. You smiled sleepily and dragged yourself up, bones cracking in the process.

You both silently made your way downstairs and into the kitchen, where Sarah was starting to pile her plate with the yummy local Chinese takeout down the street.

“So, I was thinking,” Sarah starts, looking at you pointedly. “What do you think about a girl’s day Saturday? We haven’t had one in awhile.” She offers, and you realize it’d been a few months since you’ve had one with her.

“I’m in.” You nod, and she grins at your agreeance.

The three of you ate dinner with Sarah chatting for the most of it, but you never minded. You loved to hear her talk about her day or the funny things that happened at school. She was a junior in high school now, and you just couldn’t believe how fast time flew. She was sixteen already and on the varsity soccer team. She had really good grades, a good group of friends, and had a boyfriend (with a little protest from Joel, but you had to remind him of how you two were when you both were her age).

She was a really good kid with a good head on her shoulders, and as you’d told Joel multiple times he did a wonderful job raising her, he insisted on saying you helped to contribute. He told you that she saw you as a mother figure, and she couldn’t have been happier with who her dad had picked to start dating those few years ago.

It’s funny, because Joel did always think you were the most mesmerizing person, even back in high school. He always thought you were smart, sweet, funny, and just downright beautiful—and if someone told him he’d been planning on proposing to said person in just a few days? He would’ve never believed them. He always thought he’d pretty much just end up alone, which of course made him a little sad, but he’d finally accepted that truth. And then, you came into his life. Just when he was content with being alone, you showed up and bewitched the older Miller brother mind body and soul, and he fell head over heels fast.

A few hours after dinner, Sarah had gone to bed and you and Joel were enjoying some time to yourselves in the living room. You were laying down on the couch with your legs tossed over Joel’s lap, as both of you read in silence—you, Pride and Prejudice, and him, a potential new client and their contract they’d want to discuss with Joel sometime within the next week. Joel and Tommy’s contracting business really took off after a big investor saw their handiwork and what they could both do, and started giving them bigger projects to work on in Austin. Financially it was amazing for both him and Tommy, but sometimes Joel would be gone for nearly the whole day. You and Sarah both missed him dearly the times he was gone longer than usual, but you both understood that his bigger clients needed his full, undivided attention. He was working on hiring more people to take over some of his responsibilities so he could free up his calendar, because every time he was on the job, he’d open up his wallet to look at the picture of you and Sarah he’d taken one winter day when the three of you decided to go ice skating downtown. His heart would ache with the fact that he couldn’t just be with you two all the time, and he knew you both understood his disposition, but he still missed you both so much nonetheless.

Joel was running his fingertips softly over one of your shins when he cleared his throat, and you dog-eared the page you were on before closing your book to look at him.

“Would you ever want to have any kids?” Joel asks you, and you sit up on your elbows to look at him. His eyes were soft yet curious, and his hand movement on your shin halted so he could rest it on you.

“Sarah feels like my own kid too.” You explain, and he chuckles.

“I love that you feel that way, baby, but I meant have another one. A baby. With me.” His grip on your shin tightened in the slightest, gaze never wavering from yours.

“Oh,” You paused, thinking it over for a second. You pictured yourself having a kid or two when you were in your early twenties and figured you’d have them by now, but given your previous track record for dating before Joel, nothing ever worked out. Since Joel came into your life and introduced you to Sarah, having a kid of your own hadn’t ever really crossed your mind… until now. “Yeah, I would.” You answer, sitting up completely now and setting your book on the coffee table.

“You don’t sound so sure.” Joel smiles softly, but you can tell there’s a sort of sadness in his eyes.

“I just really hadn’t thought about it recently, until just now.” You move your legs off of Joel to maneuver yourself, taking the contract gently from his hand before setting it down on the coffee table next to your book. You swing a leg over his lap so you’re straddling him, and his hands instinctively rest on your hips. He starts to rub small circles into your skin, and you push your body flush against his so your face is mere inches away from him.

“Is that something you want, Mr. Miller?” The playfulness in your tone seems to shift his mood into a slightly happier one.

“Yeah, actually, I’ve been thinking about it and I really do miss having a little one running around.” He kisses the corner of your mouth, before pulling back to gaze at you once more.

“Do you think Sarah would be okay with it? That’s a big age gap. I know she’d be the best big sister, but you know.” You say, raking your hands through his soft curls.

“She’s been hinting that she wants a little sibling for some time now. Not sure she’s hinted to you, but to me, she certainly has.”

You laugh at that piece of information, because it’s something Sarah would definitely do.

“Alright then. I guess when the time comes, we’ll talk to her about it.” You nod, moving down to kiss him. He immediately responds to you by molding his lips to yours, hands moving up so they press against the small of your back.

“I love you, sweetheart.” Joel murmurs against your lips.

You smile softly, cupping the side of his face. “I love you too, handsome.”

-

Saturday had seemed to have come at a snail’s pace, but when it did, Sarah wasted no time in getting you both up and out of the house in record time. It was ten in the morning when you both got to the nail salon, and since it was rather early for the weekend, you and Sarah got taken in right away.

The kind nail technician asked what design you wanted for your nails, and just as you were about to pick a color, Sarah piped in.

“You should get your nails round with a French tip.” She suggested, and you contemplated. You’d never gotten French tip before, but it was cute and looked nice. You went along with her idea, and the nail tech got to work. After an hour and a half, you were both done and out of the chairs. You were about to pay when Sarah stopped you.

“Dad said this one was on him.” She smiled, pulling out a card that she used for a joint account between him and her.

“That’s very kind of him.” You say to no one in particular, putting your wallet back in your purse.

After she swiped the card, she looked back at you with a grin. “Let’s go shopping for a new outfit!”

Her ecstatic nature made you smile, loving that she didn’t think she was ‘too cool’ to hang out with people older than her. She had many friends, yes, but she also valued spending time with Joel, Tommy and you as much as she could.

After driving to the mall, she insisted you both go into a fairly new boutique with gorgeous clothes that were unfortunately on the pricier side.

“Sarah, honey, this place is a little out of my budget.” You confess sheepishly, because you didn’t like to tell her no. Joel told you it was okay to say no to her, but she genuinely never asked you for anything ridiculous or out of the ordinary.

“I know, but let’s just look around for a bit to see if we can find anything.” She smiles softly at you, and those green eyes of hers were so bright and hopeful that you couldn’t resist.

You’re such a sucker for her, Joel’s words rung in your head. You shake your head slightly, looking through a couple of racks before your eyes landed on the most beautiful dress—floor length champagne color that flowed beautifully. It had a slit where the right knee was, and it was fitted on top with spaghetti straps.

Sarah caught you staring at the dress and nodded in encouragement. “You should try it on.” She suggests, and you break your gaze away from the dress to look at her.

“Honey, this dress is over a hundred dollars. I don’t know…” You trailed off, never to be one to spend that much money on one piece of clothing.

“I just wanna see what it looks like!”

“Fine.” You knew you couldn’t argue with her because she was always firm on her stance.

You took the dress off the rack and went into the dressing room, trying on the delicate material. You’d be lying if you said it didn’t fit like a glove. The dress was perfect, like it was made for you. You couldn’t help yourself, so you fished your phone out of your purse to snap a picture (which was poor quality, of course, given the technology of flip phones), and sent it to Joel with nothing but a heart emoticon.

Joel rarely checked his phone while he was on the job, so you hadn’t anticipated a speedy reply. You tossed your phone back into your purse and stepped outside of the dressing room so Sarah could get a look. She gasped in awe, motioning for you to do a twirl.

“You look so beautiful. Wow.” The look in her eyes was telling you to get the dress. You suppose it could be worn for a fancier date night out with Joel, though you could literally be wearing a burlap sack and he’d still think you were the most beautiful person in the room.

“It does fit me good, huh?” You ask, gnawing at your lip. You sigh, giving in and deciding to get the dress. You change back into your regular clothes before bringing it to the front counter to check out. You were about to get your wallet out of your purse, but again, Sarah beat you to it and swiped her card instead.

“Sarah!” You gasp, looking down at her with furrowed eyebrows. She looked up at you sheepishly, shrugging.

“Dad said!” She held up her hands in defense, and you pinched the bridge of your nose.

“Please don’t be mad,” She started as you thanked the sales associate as they handed you a bag with the dress inside. “Dad told me he wanted to treat you.”

“I’m not mad, just… he shouldn’t be spending this kind of money on me.” You sigh, getting back to the car. You were definitely going to have a talk with Joel, because he loved to spoil you and Sarah both, but you felt bad when he spent a lot of money on you in general. You and Sarah both got lunch, which you made sure you paid for, before driving home. To your surprise, Joel’s truck was already in the driveway.

You both entered the house, only to find Joel in the kitchen once you both made your way through the living room.

“Hey dad.” Sarah greets him, giving him a hug.

“Hey babydoll. How was girl’s day?” He asks, looking between the two of you. The Millers both gave each other a certain look, as if they had a secret to hide, but you figured it was another insider between them so you brushed it off.

“It was great. Got our nails done and found a pretty dress for her,” She poked your arm, causing you to smile. “But I’m tired. I’m gonna head upstairs and take a nap.” She bid you both goodbye, before marching herself upstairs and closing her bedroom door.

“I have a bone to pick with you, Mr. Miller.” You cross your arms over your chest and raise an eyebrow at Joel, who’s looking at you with a smug smile.

“And what would that be?” He trapped you between the kitchen counter and his body, both arms flexing to cage you in on either side.

It was hard to concentrate when his tall, broad frame was just yearning to be touched in front of you. He had already taken a shower, so he smelled like fresh pine, cedar and mint.

“Why’d you spend so much money on me? Sarah tricked me twice and swiped her card before I could even get my wallet fully out of my purse.” You huffed, gaze never wavering from his.

“What, I can’t spoil my woman?” He asks, dipping his head to kiss you on your exposed collarbone.

“That was a lot of money, Joel. I love you and appreciate you wanting to spoil me, but–”

“No buts. I wanted to pamper you a little and make sure you had an outfit for our date tomorrow night.” The smug look he had on his face never faltered.

“We’re going on a date?”

“We’re going on a date.”

-

Sunday evening rolled around, and as promised, you and Joel went on said date. Joel took you to the nice Italian restaurant you two had rekindled at. You’d realized then that you hadn’t been there since that day, so you thought it was sweet he was bringing you back there. Although you were enjoying the food and the company you were with, you felt a bit overdressed. Joel even swapped out his usual plain t-shirt or flannel for a nice black button-up shirt with some slacks. You’d never seen him so dressed up in all the years you’ve known him.

He seemed to be really fidgety too, like he was nervous. His eyes kept averting every which way, and when you asked if he was okay, he’d just say “‘M fine, darlin’.”

After dinner, Joel took you to your favorite street market where they had the best crepes. He ordered you both one to share, and luckily, you were able to capture the moment he had whipped cream on the corner of his mouth with a huge smile, looking so handsome under the warmth of the string lights above. You’d brought your digital camera with you just in case you wanted to capture memories like that one in particular.

After dessert, you and Joel took a stroll down to a little gazebo overlooking the creek. This time, though, you noticed there was rose petals on the ground that led to the gazebo. This couldn’t be for you and Joel, could it?

“I think someone decided to have their romantic evening here.” You laugh, and Joel closes his eyes in bliss at the sound, but also in nervousness as it coursed through every part of his being. Joel’s hand was in his pant pocket fidgeting with the velvet box restlessly.

“Let’s go see.” Joel pulled you gently into the direction of the gazebo.

“Joel, I don’t think—” You were cut short when he pulled you up on the platform, engulfing you in such a loving and heartfelt kiss. You were weak in the knees when he pulled apart, and the look in his soft, loving brown eyes held so much emotion you couldn’t even begin to comprehend. If it was anything similar to what you felt for him, then, well, you’d definitely have a clue.

“My sweetheart,” Joel started, taking a small step back as he intertwined both of his hands with your own. “Out of all the years I’ve known you, from when we were just teenagers until now, I’ve gotten the absolute privilege of get to know what a wonderful person you are. You’re so kind, caring, loving, and god, so patient. I always thought I’d never get to have a love like we do, but then just when I’d about given up on love, you walked into my life. You’re the love of my life; my soulmate; the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I know bein’ with me hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows, but you’ve loved me through and through nonetheless. I want to spend the rest of my waking days for the rest of our lives showing you and telling you what a beautiful soul you are and how much you mean to me.”

Tears were already in your eyes at his speech, and when he let go of one of your hands to dig out a velvet box from his pocket, you lost it. He got down on one knee, and with teary eyes and a hopeful smile, he asked you the big question.

“Will you marry me, sweetheart?” His voice trembled ever so slightly, and truthfully, you didn’t even look at the ring because you were nodding your head vigorously, tears flowing freely down your cheeks.

“Of course I’ll marry you, Joel.” You choked out, and he stood up again to slide the ring onto your finger, embracing you into a tight hug. You kissed him feverishly, raking your hands through his neatly done curls.

You sobbed against him, trembling from the adrenaline. He kissed the tears off of your cheeks and cupped your face with his hands.

“I love you so, so much darlin’.” He kissed the tip of your nose, and your hands moved to slink together around the back of his neck.

“I love you too.” You sniffled, pure bliss overtaking your features.

You stared into each other’s eyes for a few more seconds, not wanting anything to ruin the perfect moment. Right now, you two were the only ones that existed.

“Wait, let me take a picture.” You smiled softly at him, and he nodded in encouragement. You got your camera out of your purse, holding up your hand with your engagement ring. You sported a huge smile with teary eyes, and Joel kissed your temple as you snapped the photo. This was definitely a memory you both would never forget.

-

About a year later

The wedding was nearing in just twelve hours. Your parents had kindly offered their couple-acred backyard for the ceremony and reception which was perfect, because a small intimate wedding is exactly what you and Joel wanted.

“Can you believe in less than a day I’ll be able to call you Mrs. Miller?” Joel murmured into your shoulder, kissing your soft skin a couple of times before moving his gaze to you.

“It seems so surreal,” You caress his face, shifting your weight on top of him. “You’ll be my husband.” Your heart rate picked up at the thought, butterflies soaring through your stomach.

“I don’t wanna say goodbye for the night.” Joel fake pouts, embracing you even tighter. You’d been lazing with him in bed all day, enjoying each other’s company before you both had to get ready for your bachelor and bachelorette parties. Joel wanted nothing more than to just have a few beers with his brother and closest friends (which funnily enough included your father and brother) at the house, while your mom and sister were throwing you something cute and intimate at your parent’s house. Sarah was coming with, and although Joel was a little apprehensive, he figured he needed to loosen the reigns a bit. She was turning eighteen soon and heading off to college, so he figured if she was going to be around any ‘adult’ things, he’d rather it be with you.

“I don’t either, honey. But you’ll have fun tonight. Hopefully my dad doesn’t give you too much of a hard time.” You sweep the curls off of his forehead, and he grins at you.

“C’mon baby, you know your dad loves me… now.” He teases you incredulously, earning an eye roll from you.

“Yeah yeah, Miller. You and that damn Southern charm, hm?”

“Got you to where you are with me now, didn’t it sugar?” He rolls you both over, grinning boyishly down at you before moving to leave a trail of soft kisses down the pulse point on your neck.

You sigh in pleasure before gently grabbing his face and holding it before yours, “That’s right.” He leaned down to you to capture your lips with his, pleasuring you one last time before he can call you “wife.”

-

Today was the big day, and fuck were you nervous. Not nervous in the sense that you were getting cold feet, but it was moreso having multiple people’s eyes on you watching you walk up an aisle and marry the literal love of your life. Little anxieties also crept up as well, like tripping while walking down the aisle or not being able to say your vows correctly.

You were surrounded by your bridesmaids and your mom, as they were putting the finishing touches on you. You felt like a literal princess—you had the dress of your dreams, all of your family and friends around you on yours and Joel’s day, and the man of your dreams waiting for you at the end of the aisle.

“You look beautiful, honey.” Your mom said, holding you at arm’s length with tears in her eyes.

“Oh, mom.” You chuckle, bringing her in for a hug.

“I love you baby. I can’t believe you’re getting married today.”

“I can’t believe it either. It’s finally happening.” Tears start to form in your waterline, and Sarah fans your face.

“None of that! Can’t ruin your makeup.” She exasperates, making everyone laugh, though she had tears in her eyes herself.

“You ready, babydoll?” Your dad knocks on the door, pausing to take you in. A proud and sad smile forms on his lips. “My little girl. Can’t believe you’re gettin’ married today.” He sighs, and you move to give him a hug.

“You and mom are two peas in a pod.” You offer him a soft smile as your bridesmaids line up, moving downstairs to meet the groomsmen.

“Let’s get you married, babydoll.” He offers you his arm, which you take before you hear the music start to play—a soft, sweet melody to introduce the groomsmen and bridal party. Your dad led you down the stairs before Sarah and Tommy could walk down the aisle, and you took a deep breath. This was it.

The melody you chose for when you walked down the aisle started to play, and your dad led you to the beginning of the soft white runner. Your eyes immediately locked on Joel’s, who was already teary eyed with the widest smile on his face.

It’s like your feet were floating off the ground as you made your way to him. His tall and broad stature was clad in a crisp tux, hair neatly combed to the side, sporting an unwavering smile on his face. You kissed your dad on the cheek as he presented you to Joel, who took your arm carefully and led you to the very end of the aisle before the officiant.

Joel kissed you on the cheek, lips lingering by your ear for a second. “You look absolutely breathtakin’, my love.” He kisses your cheek one more time before standing straight up, looking down at you with nothing but love and pure adoration. Those big brown eyes that held a galaxy of emotions in them have captivated you for eternity. You smile up at him, tears forming in your eyes again.

“You all may be seated.” The officiant says, and you and Joel join hands as listen to his ‘we’re gathered here today’ speech. Truthfully, almost everything in the world was drowned out to you in this moment. It was just you and Joel.

“I believe the couple has agreed to exchange vows.” The officiant said, turning to Joel who curtly nods before clearing his throat. He gave your hands a small squeeze before smiling down at you.

“Sweetheart,” He starts, a slight nervous edge to his voice. “When we were just teenagers, all I could think about was how pretty you are every time I was around you. You always lit up a room without even trying. Always had me at a loss for words, which is why I never spoke much around you to begin with,” He chuckles, shaking his head. “Just like you lit up a room when we were measly teens, you did the same thing to my life once you walked right back in it all those years later. Though I never had the courage to ask you on a date in high school, I’d say things worked out pretty well considerin’ the fact.” The audience before you both laughed, and a happy tear slipped from your eyes.

“You’ve been such a light to not only me, but to Sarah and Tommy as well. Thank you for loving my girl like she’s your own. Thank you for teaching me such patience, making an honest man out of me, and provin’ me wrong when I thought I’d be alone for the rest of my life. You’ve changed my life for the better, have bewitched me body and soul, and there’s no one else I’d rather be standin’ up here with right now. It’s you, darlin’; it’s always been you. I vow to love you for eternity in this crazy thing called life, until my last dyin’ breath. Through thick and thin, trial and error. I love you, sweetheart.”

You wanted to sob like a baby at his words, but kept your composure as you sniffled and took a deep breath. The officiant turned to you, signaling it was your turn.

“If anyone told me four years ago that I’d be standing at this altar right now with the love of my life, I would’ve laughed right in their faces. I was so content with being independent and ready to give up on dating, until you showed up at that restaurant in all your glory. From that point on, you’ve turned my life around in the best way possible. You had me hooked from the start. You’ve been nothing but kind, supportive, nurturing, and most importantly, you showed me how to truly feel loved. I thought I knew what true love was before, until you proved me so wrong. I’ll spend the rest of my waking days thanking you forevermore. I was half the person before you came back into my life, and now I feel like you’ve made me whole again. You’re my person, Joel. My soulmate. I’m so grateful that that one blind date ended up not showing up, ultimately working out in my favor after all. Thanks Ma,” You glance at your mom, and everyone chuckles. “I love you, Joel Miller. Today, tomorrow, and for the rest of eternity.”

The glint in his eyes was nothing short of pure love, and you were certain they reflected the look in your own.

“Joel, repeat after me,” The officiant starts. “I, Joel Miller, take this woman to be my lawfully wedded wife.”

Joel repeats his exact words, gaze never wavering from yours.

“I promise to love you for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to have and to hold for as long as we both shall live.”

He repeats the words once again.

The officiant says your name, and tells you to repeat after him.

“I take Joel Miller to be my lawfully wedded husband. I promise to love you for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to have and to hold for as long as we both shall live.”

Joel pulls you closer to him, wrapping his arm around your waist. The ring bearer presents the rings, and you slide Joel’s ring onto his finger. He replicates your actions as he slides your ring onto your ring finger, giving your hand a small squeeze.

“By the power vested in me and the state of Texas, I now pronounce you as husband and wife. Mr. Miller, you may kiss your bride.”

Finally.

Joel wastes no time as he dips you down softly, kissing you so gently yet passionately. You had your hands wrapped around the back of his shoulders, clinging onto him as he continued to kiss you. The guests cheered for you both, and he pulled away to murmur “I love you, Mrs. Miller” against your lips. Heat flooded your body at your new name.

Mrs. Miller.

Mrs. Miller.

“I love you too, Mr. Miller.” You reply breathlessly, a tear slipping down your cheek. Joel was quick to wipe it away as he stood you upright again, pecking your lips softly.

“Why are you cryin’, baby?”

“I’m just so happy. I love you. I love you so much.” You cup his face, kissing him again. You nearly forgot about the people that were watching you both in this intimate moment, so you shuffled back a little until he grasped your hand and you both made your way down the aisle.

You stepped back into your parent’s house with Joel, both of you laughing breathlessly. You take a second to stop and look into his eyes, enjoying your first moment alone as husband and wife.

“I’m the luckiest woman in the world to be able to call you my husband.” You murmur, running your hands up his biceps.

“I think you got it twisted, sweetheart. I’m the lucky one. I’ll remind you of that every single day until it’s my last.”

-

The next day, you and Joel hopped on a flight to Hawaii. As a wedding present, your parents gifted you an all-inclusive trip to a beautiful resort. The only thing your mom said when you asked her how you could repay her was ‘give me some grand babies!’

So that’s why Joel carried you over the threshold to your resort room just mere minutes ago. You made your way to the balcony which overlooked the resort, and the Pacific Ocean. After Joel got the bags from the bell hop, he caged your body between the balcony and his own.

“It’s so beautiful.” You whisper, nodding your head out to the ocean. The bright sun was glistening down on the ocean, making it sparkle.

“Not as beautiful as you, darlin’.”

You huff a laugh at Joel’s words. “Ever the sweet talker, Mr. Miller.”

“Only for you, Mrs. Miller.”

You turn around so you’re facing Joel, a beaming smile on your face.

“I’ll never get tired of hearing that name.” You reach up and run your fingers through Joel’s soft hair, hands knitting together at the base of his head.

“Good, ‘cus I’ll never get tired of saying it,” He pulls you in for a soft kiss, cradling your face gently. “Now c’mon baby. Let’s get ready for dinner.” He ushers you back inside, and you rummage through your luggage that you brought for a pretty, bright colored dress to wear to dinner.

You spent a bit of time doing your hair and makeup, wanting to make sure you looked good. You wanted to make yourself irresistible to Joel, because you’ve been secretly pining to have your hands all over each other. You both held out last night and didn’t have sex, mainly because you both were dead tired.

Joel had the same thing in mind when he got dressed for this dinner in some khaki pants and a white linen shirt, leaving the first few buttons undone. He was planning on having some mind-blowing sex with you, and he was getting restless just thinking about it. He had to keep himself in check though and remind himself that you both also came here to enjoy the romantic side of being newlyweds. All those thoughts went straight out of the window and drowned in the Pacific when you stepped out of the bathroom.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away—you were simply the most breathtaking woman. The dress you’d put on hugged your curves, and with slits that exposed most of your legs, it made Joel even weaker. He wanted to drop to his knees now and worship the ground you walked on. Your makeup enhanced your features more than it usually would, but it looked stunning. You had a certain glow to yourself that Joel couldn’t get enough of.

You felt the same way about him, too. You stopped in your tracks when your eyes landed on the man you loved, khaki pants fitting him perfectly with the white linen shirt that purposefully had a few buttons undone. The white cloth contrasted beautifully against his smooth, tan skin. The shirt clung to his biceps in the right places, easily showcasing the muscle that he had. He was wearing nice brown boots too, which added an inch or so to his height. You could feel yourself nearly drooling, panties dampening the longer your stared at him. He looked delicious. You almost wanted to cancel dinner and just jump his bones right then and there.

“You look…” He trailed off, moving to stand in front of you.

“Yeah, you too.” You said breathlessly, and you both chuckle.

“Let’s get outta here. Dinner starts soon.” Joel takes your hand after double checking he has the room key card, and you both make your way downstairs.

Dinner ended up being really delicious with a beautiful show, and to your surprise, Joel asked you to dance with him after. Joel wasn’t much of a dancer, and this wasn’t slow dancing. This was more like being in a club, so he had your body pressed up against his and your back met his front. His strong hands held your hips firmly as you swayed them to the beat of the song, and Joel could feel himself getting harder by the minute.

Truthfully, you were grinding yourself on him to tease him, but he knew exactly what game you were playing at so he did the same to you. You nearly moaned as he pulled you into him, the feeling of his hardness evident through his pants. Usually, you’d both be stubborn to see who would break first, but you couldn’t wait anymore. You spun around in his arms, eyes filled with lust and body buzzing with sexual tension.

“Joel,” The tone in your voice was surprisingly not as needy as you expected it to be. He looked down at you, eyes nearly black as he studied your features. “Let’s go upstairs.”

He didn’t need another word of confirmation as he clasped your hand and practically dragged you up to your room. You had to nearly jog as his long strides to the room didn’t let up. He fumbled with the key card, opening the door to the room swiftly before you both stumbled inside. He wasted no time as he tossed the key card and his wallet onto a table near the front door, grabbing your face and smashing his lips to yours. He pushed you up against the door, moaning into your mouth. Your hands found purchase in his soft curls, tugging teasingly.

He moved his hands to the back of your thighs, signaling you to jump. You wrapped your legs around his waist as he caught you, bringing you over to the bed. You traced his neck with hot, wet, needy kisses before he set you down. He released you, and looked down at you as he towered over you. The look in his eyes was very telling that you two weren’t going to get very much sleep tonight.

Your chest was heaving up and down, body nearly trembling with need as Joel loomed over you, taking you in. You reached out for him, wanting to feel his body on top of yours. He happily obliged as he slotted himself between your legs, caressing your cheek before kissing you again. Your hands trailed down the front of his chest, nails slightly scraping his hot skin. You unbuttoned the rest of his shirt before discarding it onto the floor. You ran your needy hands all over him until they made their way down to his belt buckle.

Joel chuckled at your eagerness before pushing your hands away. You protested with a small whine before he nipped at your neck, just below your ear. “Let me take care of you first, darlin’.”

Joel slid the dress slowly up and over your head, making sure to trail his hands over all of your curves as he did so. He moaned at the sight of the pretty white lace set you had on for him.

“All for me baby?” He asks, dipping his head to kiss the soft flesh of your breasts right above the bra you were wearing.

“Yes.” You’re breathless. It would be embarrassing to you in any other instance, but fuck’s sake, you needed your husband desperately.

Joel’s eyes trail down your torso until they settle on the thin white lace underwear that covered you. His hooded eyes looked back up to yours as he rubbed circles into your thighs.

“I promised myself I’d say my vows twice. Once at the altar, and once with just my tongue buried in your pretty pussy. Word. For. Word."

You gasped at Joel's bluntness, feeling your arousal pooling quicker into the only thing that separated you from his sweet tongue. You stared at him, doe-eyed and wanting, just waiting for him to take the leap. Maybe you should make the first move. Your arms could move quicker than your brain could process your own actions, and you started to reach out for him.

"Mm mm, baby." Joel stops you, grabbing both of your wrists in one of his hands, holding them above your head.

"Fuck." You whine softly, hips involuntarily bucking up into nothing.

He wickedly grins at you as he moves down to kiss you, easily moving his free hand to cup your mound before pressing his thumb to your extremely sensitive clit. You inhale sharply at the feeling, instinctively closing your eyes.

"Look at me, baby. Wanna see those pretty eyes on me when I make you feel good." Joel's voice is soft and loving, but has a stern edge to it. Your eyes peel open to look at him as he moves the thin lace of your panties to the side. He looks down, seeing you already covered in your slick. He groans at the sight and takes his middle finger, swiping up and between your folds. He moves his slick-covered finger to his mouth, eagerly tasting you. He hums in pleasure, and you can see clear as day that he's rock solid in his khakis.

He releases your wrists from his hand, but you don't dare to move. He skates his hands down your body gently, kissing your soft flesh along the way before grabbing either side of your panties. He gently taps your hips, so you lift them up for him as he slides the white lace down your legs. He discards them somewhere on the floor behind him, his focus solely on you.

He maneuvers his face between your legs, biting some spots on your inner thighs softly before kissing the spot after. He continued to move at a slow, torturous pace, making his way up to your aching pussy.

"My beautiful wife. I love you." He says, and you run your fingers through his hair as you look down at him.

"I love you t-oh," You start, but were cut off by Joel poking his tongue out to circle your clit, dragging it down to your entrance, then back up again. "Fuck!" You gasp, gripping his hair slightly. He moaned into you as he got to work, and god, he wasn't fucking kidding when he said he'd say his vows twice. His tongue moved slowly, carefully finding a rhythm that drove you insane.

You started to grind your hips upward, writhing beneath him. He hummed into you, moving a hand to press down on your abdomen to keep you from moving.

Joel shifted himself in the slightest to bring his ring and middle finger up, slowly entering you as his skillful tongue never broke contact. A broken cry left your mouth, eyebrows threaded together and breathing labored. His tongue flicked your clit continuously as his fingers languidly pumped in and out of you, reaching that sweet spot every single time. If he kept this up, you knew you wouldn't last long.

You felt the crescendo of your orgasm building up rather quickly, heat in your lower abdomen tight with anticipation. Both of your hands flew into Joel’s hair when the his hand on your abdomen pressed down, applying more pressure. He truly went to work on you and ate you like a starved man, not letting up once. He wanted you to come all over the lower half of his face, wanted to feel your legs shake as you cried out his name for mercy.

And oh, what Joel wanted, he got.

Your orgasm rushed over you, internal flames licking you from your head to your toes. Joel lapped you up, fingers slowing down until they came to a halt. He pulled them out of you slowly, but his tongue was unforgiving as he kept slurping and licking at your sensitive heat. Your body jerked in overstimulation, trying to wriggle away from him, but he clamped his hands down firmly on your hips.

“Jesus Christ, Joel– f-fuuuuck.” You whined loudly, tears springing to your eyes. Just as quickly as your first orgasm came, a second one was already building up. Joel felt it with the way your body was tensing, and to add to the pleasure this time, he moved his tongue down to dip inside of you, moving at a deliciously torturous pace. He moaned against you, feeling you flutter around his tongue. He brought a thumb over one of your thighs, rubbing tight circles over your clit.

If you thought you were seeing the stars above before, you were seeing the whole fucking galaxy this time around.

“C’mon sweetheart, give it t’me. Let me see my beautiful wife cum on my face again.” His dirty words came and went quickly as he got right back to tongue fucking you, your release right on the edge.

You moaned so loudly as your second orgasm coiled tightly and snapped like a cable right through you, your whole body shaking with pleasure as Joel’s name rolled off your tongue like a prayer on Sundays. Joel cleaned you up once more, kissing your oversensitive pussy before dragging himself upwards. Pure lust clouded his eyes and his overall expression. His pupils were blown, eyes seemingly’ve gotten darker.

He moves a hand up to tug your chin down. “Open your mouth.” His demanding tone sent tingles down your spine, only adding fuel to the fire. You obey him immediately, and he spits directly into your mouth.

“Swallow.” Was all he said, and you complied. Your eyes nearly rolled to the back of your head with how dominating he was being right now. You tasted yourself as you swallowed what he’d given you, eyes glossy as you awaited his next move. He stood up from the bed briefly, only to discard his shoes, pants, and boxers.

His erection sprung free and hit his torso, precum smearing as his tip was leaking and begging to be touched.

“My handsome husband.” You praised, only mirroring his words of affection to you earlier. He offered you a soft smile, climbing over you again. He rested his elbows on either side of you, face hovering mere inches above yours.

“Tell me now, baby. Do you want to make sweet love? Or do you want to be fucked roughly? You choose.” You laugh softly that he’s giving you an option, but there was all the time in the world for sweet love making on this trip. You wanted to be fucked senseless and take advantage of this domineering side of Joel.

“The latter, baby. Into oblivion.” You flash him a wicked smile, and that’s all you need for him to get off of you and reposition you so you both were facing the mirror that hung on the wall.

“Want you to see yourself getting fucked, sweetheart.” His voice is dangerously low. He climbs onto the bed as you arch your back, giving Joel a perfect view of your plump ass. He leaned down to kiss you on one cheek, before his hand cracked down on the other, giving it a fairly harsh slap. You gasped, eyes wide and mouth agape as you stared at his hungry expression in the mirror. The sting of the slap only added to your arousal, making your toes curl in the slightest.

“You ready, darlin’?” He asks, rubbing your ass tenderly. You nod in the mirror, but he shakes his head.

“Words, honey. Lemme hear you.” He presses, and you swallow thickly.

“I’m ready Joel. Please, fuck me.” Your begging alone nearly made him come undone, but he sucked in a breath as he positioned himself with your slick entrance.

He grabbed your hips, sliding into you with ease, courtesy of your arousal. You both moaned loudly, being filled up from this position always hitting deeper than usual. Joel’s cock felt heavy inside you as he gave you a minute to adjust to him. After all these years together, it still took a little time to adjust to his size. In doing so, this was the first time you both didn’t use any form of protection, so you could feel every single ridge and vein on his swollen member.

Joel had to concentrate on not cumming right there as he was buried in your tight warmth. The feeling of no protection was heavenly. You started to move your hips forward, giving him a silent signal he was good to go.

Joel moved almost all the way out of you, before snapping his hips forward to fill you completely again. You cried out at the pleasure as he set an unrelenting pace, fucking you senseless into the mattress.

“Look so fuckin’ pretty getting fucked dumb on my cock like this, sweetheart.” Joel grits, voice strained with pleasure.

“Feels—” You gasp for air, choking your words out. “Feels s’good. Y’feel so good, Joel. So good.” You praise him, fists clenching the fabric of the white comforter beneath you.

“Eyes up here, honey.” He moved a hand away from your hip to wrap around the front of your throat, pulling you up while applying the tiniest bit of pressure. Your eyes met his in the mirror, and you’d truly never seen such a pornographic sight in reality. You both looked so fucked out, so ravenous, so hungry and desperate for each other as his hips collided with your ass at an unrelenting, brutal pace.

Joel had an idea to add more pleasure to the mix, but it was borderline teetering a limit for you. You told Joel awhile ago that you’d try anything (well, almost anything) once, and if you didn’t like it, you’d let him know. He knew what he was about to do was truly obscene and filthy, but it was worth a shot. He moved his hand up your jaw and ran his thumb over your bottom lip, tugging at it. His thumb made its way into your mouth and you eagerly sucked on it, giving him the lubrication he was seeking. After a minute, he let his thumb out of your mouth with a small pop.

He looked into your eyes through the mirror, and then looked down, where your other hole was completely exposed to him. He was hesitant for a moment, but bit the bullet and spit right onto it. Your eyes widened and you gasped, wondering what the hell he was going to do… but then it clicked. He moved his hand down to your ass, resting it tenderly on your cheek as his thumb swiped over his spit there.

“Can I? If it feels like too much you can tell me to stop.” He said, thumb hovering right over the spot you both became so curious about. You trusted Joel and knew he’d never do anything to intentionally hurt you.

What the hell, you thought. Worst thing that could happen is you tell him to stop. You nodded slowly, and heat rose to your cheeks as he kept bucking his hips into you. His face displayed pure concentration, eyebrows threaded together as he slowly pushed his thumb into you. It felt really odd at first, but that bit of pressure alongside the weight of his cock pounding into you was pure fucking bliss. Your pussy clenched down on him, and you both moaned in unison once more.

After Joel gained his full concentration back, he used his other free hand to wrap around your throat once more. You couldn’t believe how much Joel was holding back before you two got married, because fuck, this was truly some of the most mind blowing sex you’ve ever had.

The only sounds heard in the room was his hips slapping into your ass repeatedly, the wet squelching noise of you taking him so well, and your heavy breathing mixed with a couple of scattered moans. Your head was completely empty from every thought you’d ever had, except for Joel. Your mind was just Joel Joel Joel.

“Fuck, baby, you feel so fucking good around me. You were made for this cock,” Joel groans. “I’m gettin’ close.”

He moved his hand from your throat down to your clit, rubbing tight circles again. You cry out at the sensation, one of your hands moving to grip Joel’s forearm. You dug your nails into him unintentionally, causing him to hiss. He truthfully didn’t mind the slight pain that it brought though.

“Fuck Joel, I’m gonna cum.” You choke out, and he moans in response.

“Me too, baby. Y’gonna cum with me?” He rasps, but before you could even answer, you were clenching down on him as your orgasm shot through you once more.

“Fuck, sweetheart, where do you want me?” He asks, his own release just seconds away. He removed his thumb from you to steady himself against you with his hands, his face contorting into absolute pleasure.

“In me, please, baby– fuck.” Bliss takes over the course of your whole being as you cry out his name. A string of curses comes out of his own mouth, mixed with your own name, as he painted your insides with his seed. Your eyes were trained on him the whole time, so turned on by your husband blissed out because of you, that it elongated your orgasm. Your legs were shaky and done for as he stopped moving completely, his tan chest rising and falling rapidly to catch his breath. He wrapped his arms around your torso as he slowly pulled out, making you groan at the loss of fullness.

He brought you down on the mattress with him, tucking your head gently beneath his chin. You both spent a few minutes trying to catch your breaths, enjoying the peacefulness of being wrapped into each others arms.

“You did so good for me. I love you, baby girl.” Joel kisses the crown of your head, thumb stroking a spot on your arm softly.

“That was incredible, my love. Didn’t know you were holding back on me.” You chuckle as you kiss his chest, nails scratching his beard.

He huffs a laugh, clasping his hand around your wrist gently. He kissed the palm of your hand, resting it over his heart when he was done.

“I’m so fuckin’ happy, darlin’. So happy I get to call you my wife, and so happy I get to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you so, so much.”

You tear up at his kind words, pulling his face down for a sweet kiss.

“I love you too, my sweet husband. Forever and always.”

You’ve thought it and said it a million times before, and you’ll think it and say it a million times again—the universe really had a funny way of aligning things in life.

It really was fate, after all.

#joel miller imagines #joel miller #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller series #joel miller fic #pedro pascal imagines #pedro pascal imagine #joel miller fluff #joel miller smut #joel miller x reader #no outbreak!joel miller #no use of y/n #joel miller au #Joel miller mini series #joel miller imagine #joel miller x female reader #joel miller x afab!reader #husband! Joel miller

[lightwise]

TBB S3 E4 Recap and Reaction

- Poor Crosshair keeps getting stuck on cold planets.

- Batcher banging on the chair ready to get out 🤣🤣

- These shuttles are really interesting to me. It’s rare to see a ship that size that can be piloted by two different people.

- Baby girl, I totally understand your logic in wanting to pull the data logs to see where Tantiss actually is, but given how tactful we know Hemlock has been so far in keeping his location hidden, most likely it wouldn’t pull up anything.

- What a dreary spaceport. Feels very Andor and very like Norwegian Star Wars.

- The level of snark that Omega is giving back to Crosshair is cracking me up. We don’t see her showing this level of talking back or being sarcastic with any of the other Batchers, which proves my theory that Crosshair’s constant level of highly annoyed at everything around him brings out the sarcasm in everyone else he encounters.

- Love that his knowledge as a former imperial is coming to play to help them.

- Also love that Omega was the one to recognize that they need different clothes (and the obvious pan of the camera on the clothes hanging on the line in the first shot of the spaceport to accentuate that fact).

- Quilted clothes in Star Wars is my fave (yes more Andor parallels).

- The uplilt and little scoff that Omega gives and the look she gives Batcher after Crosshair snarls about bringing “the hound” along is PRECIOUS

- Also Cross and Omega cross their arms the same way. Okay okay I’ll never be over their dynamic here.

- Crosshair’s trucker hat/scuba apparatus is hilarious. He doesn’t look too bad though. Surely he’s at least warmer now.

- The credits negotiation omg. I love how Cross is just waiting for this to play out before he makes a move.

- YES omg are my baby girls strategy skills FINALLY coming back into play??

- Oh no no no no no this kid is going to rat them out isn’t he. You guys need to be more mindful of your surroundings!! Ahhh (okay I’m glad this didn’t happen).

- Honestly at this point Crosshair would be me as well. Just lots of very annoyed sighing.

- I love that Crosshair is getting to see all the things about Omega that the other boys know already, but he hasn’t had a chance to witness yet. We know she can wipe the floor with most people on strategy games/gambling.

- Yep nope this captain is not good news. Don’t get distracted by ranting about Imperial bribery, don’t do it, don’t….*sigh* I hate the Empire so much.

- Oh no this is so bad! I swear WHY is every imperial such a slimy self aggrandizing POS.

- Aww Crossy hunched down at almost table level ready to tear the room apart if anyone touches his baby sister. Adorable murder kitten. 😸

- Also Crosshair when all of this is over: where the HELL did you learn to gamble like that!?! Omega: 🤷🏻‍♀️😇😁

- Also also what game are they playing? Those cards are beautiful.

- Oh no they’ve found the shuttle already. Dear god this episode is so stressful!!

- CROSS!DAD IS OFFICIALLY CANON lmao

- Okay I was hoping Omega would let him win bc this isn’t going to go over well

- Whoa I didn’t actually expect him to concede. Maybe he’s not quite as slimy as I thought. Doesn’t matter though, the shuttle will give them away regardless.

- Of course. There it is. Let all the seedy businesses thrive as long as you get your fine out of it. Ugh. This is paralleling a lot of imperial activities in Rebel Rising and the Ahsoka novel as well.

- I also love how Omega uses touch with Crosshair to calm him down and communicate with him.

- Whoa I did not expect Omega to throw the credits and basically give Crosshair the choice of abandoning her or not. Nor for him to actually have to think about it for a moment.

- “My skills are being wasted” the boy does not like feeling helpless. I understand.

- This is going to give Cross some understanding of what Hunter has been going through the last few years. Especially if he ends up losing her.

- “Don’t push it” and the extra head shake after lmao.

- Geez this man is just lining his pockets every which way isn’t he. Despicable.

- “Alright, let’s try things your way” “Finally” I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

- Animal stampede!

- Oh gosh is Cross going to get left behind??

- Aw he finally called her Batcher.

- We are clearly seeing how much Omega has actually been tempered by the rest of the Batchers being around her until now. The unfiltered combined powers of Omega and Crosshair at their most unhinged is maybe more than the galaxy is ready for 🤣🤣

- Also a very Andor reference with the captain being stampeded almost to death and having his gun kicked away from him in the melee

- NO WAY WE FINALLY GET AN IMPERIAL GETTING THEIR DUE BY CREATURE DEATH once again *cough cough* not a kids show

- Awwww Batcher licking Crosshair’s face. He’s so done for.

- They got away. Wow. I actually wasn’t expecting that. And with most of the money too.

- Okay. Smart girl. She did not pick Pabu.

- What an ending. Wow. So. Similar to Mando season 3 (which is also scaring me) — what the heck is the rest of this season going to be about?

- This reunion is everything. 🥹🥹🥹 the hugs. The running. The tears. The worry. The anger. The hesitation. The fear. The literal and metaphorical distance between their ships that someone will have to cross. They better not fast forward a millisecond when the next episode picks up I swear.

#the bad batch #star wars #tbb #tbb season 3 spoilers #tbb season 3 #tbb spoilers #the bad batch season 3 spoilers #the bad batch spoilers #the bad batch season 3

[ohdudedhesflirting]

Everything about the final of boys planet that made me feel (good or bad) :

In remembrance of Moonbin

Zhang Hao & S Han Bin looks at each other during the signal song

Most of the eliminated trainees being there

Zhang Hao in his inrtoduction/ recap of himself when he played the violin

Jongwoo explaining he had always been lonely

All of the fans in the audience with their banner, voting

Haruto :( Wumuti :( Kuan Jui :( Woongki :( Mingyu :( Hwan Hee :( Seung Hwan :(

The modified version of Here I am for the stars masters

The letters of the star masters for the trainees "Your smile make people happy"

ZeroBaseOne/ZB1. Its not pretty but not as ugly as a wifi password typpa name, could have been better, could have been WORSE

Kamderella #KamdenYouWillAlwaysBeFamous

"My jelly noona" Seok Matthew, 2023

All of the PR videos are just some guys with a camera, a budget, and their little guy minds

Bummed that Matthew didnt get the killing part but Hao slayed it so (also kinda figured it out when they were pushing that narrative lol)

Jelly Pop was genuiely so cute and felt so good

Hot Summer team only thinking about foods when doing shopping for their pr video (they just like me fr)

The disclaimer before the hot summer video ?? Staff did NOT want to be associated with what the trainees did

Bummed that Ji Woong didnt get the killing part but it was expected. He truly slayed every little bit he had.

JiWoong vocals. Thats it.

The screams whenever Ricky performed ? So true

Just Tae Rae existence is a blessing and I needed to talk about it.

Staffs giving us the videos of the snoring that took place in the dorms. Truly exposed them.

The performance of Not Alone. I cried. Cried even more when I saw that the trainees were crying.

Learning that Zhang Hao & Jiwoong only started to talk to each other during the Say My Name era

Jiwoong debut !!!

Jiwoong forgetting the name of his group

Yum Seo breaking down when the debut of Gyu Vin was announced. At this point I was sobbingwith him

Gyuvin sobbing while learning the new, giving his speech while sobbing. I cried X100 harder at this point

Gun Wook : "Jun Hyeon I made it. Thank you so much" SOBS

Gun Wook : "I'm happy with just becoming friends with you" I was at my second pack of tissues

Ricky : "I feel awesome " (Please I would have loved Zhang Hao reaction with him taking the joke that far)

Him giving us the meaning of his tatoo (which mnet always covered up) ???

Matthew debut !!! Ppusamz will live on <3

Matthew having a snot problem during his speech

Jiwoong and Matthew <3

Han Bin pat to Matthew and their hugs

Zhang Hao ranking first (I did NOT expect that) (Not complaining tho cuz imagine a violin solo on his solo ???? Take my money) he slayed

Kuan Jui breaking down on the floor on the news of Zhang Hao #1 god im gonna miss them together so much

S Han Bin & Zhang Hao bowing to everyone simultaneously which made it look it they just got married

JiWoong giving butt pat to litteraly everyone when they were getting up the stairs

The eliminated trainees hugging each other

When the show ended and we saw ZB1 going down the stairs to hug the trainees my heart broke definitely

#i will miss you all #cant believe it is over #i need those pr videos tho #boys planet final #boys planet #mnet boys planet #mnet #zerobaseone #zb1 #zhang hao #kim gyuvin #seok matthew #kim taerae #sung han bin #ricky #park gun wook #han yujin #kim jiwoong

[spacemagicandlaserswords]

The Bad Batch 3.4 ‘A Different Approach’ Recap

Gif from this post by @azertyrobaz because despite my efforts, the Tumblr gif search function is trash and I couldn't find any gifs from this season.

They’re back together again! But oh boy, is that going to be one tense and fraught conversation when they finally stop staring at each other from across the large space between them that is doing an excellent job as the visual metaphor for the vast chasm that’s opened up between them. Obvious symbolism aside, onto the live blog reaction recap part.

Well that shuttle isn’t going to last long

Aw, the first thing Omega thinks to do is contact Hunter T_T

“I can see that.” — LMAO the sass XD

This shuttle feels a lot bigger than it looks. How does it have 2 levels? Tardis shuttle?

Down we go!

That’s the shot of Omega piloting a ship from the trailer

A cold planet and all they’ve got is what they’re wearing? Not good

Yus, Omega wants to go back to free the other clones! I’m glad someone hasn’t forgotten about them. They’re totally going to go back to Mount Tantiss, though Crosshair absolutely (and understandably) does not want to. I still think a theme for this season is going to be something related to what Rex is up to and freeing the clones from the Empire.

Crosshair just magically acquiring a backpack somehow

That’s the shot of the crashed shuttle from the trailer

Still really curious as to what Scorch and all the commandos with the glowing visors are up to

Nala Se regretting her life choices

“That is most surprising.” — LMAO, suuuuuuuure

Hemlock is not falling for her nonsense at all

“False positives are to be expected.” — ahahahahahaha that is a desperate deflection. She is are so screwed

“Your future, however, is less certain.” — yes good excellent tear the bitch apart

Well that clothing on the line is totally going to get stolen

Painfully clear in two shots that the locals are friendly with the Imperials

It's Star Wars, so of course that means, ponchos!

Omega and Crosshair are wearing Imperial clothing. How are they not getting spotted immediately?

“The hound” — Crosshair, her name is Batcher. He’s totally going to slowly warm up to her over the season though, culminating in finally calling Batcher by her name. Similar to Crosshair finally calling Omega by her name.

Lol called it. Clothing stolen off the line

“No.” — CACKLING 

Crosshair, wtf are you wearing?!

I think we had that shot of the shuttle flying over the town in the trailer as well. They’re really going through a lot of what was in the trailer, which is to be expected as Disney has a track record of only putting footage from the first half of a season in trailers.

Crosshair is very keen to shoot first and ask questions later

“I can hardly wait.” — More cackling. Loving Crosshairs utterly done sarcastic sass

Lmao subtle Omega xD

Crosshair is looking very dystopian sci-fi zombie apocalypse in his natty little outfit with ridiculous head tube thing

“Sounds like a you problem.” — Lol which writer has been on the internet far too much?

“Well that went well. Stow it.” — CACKLING

“Then quit wasting time complaining.” — ahahahah I’m loving Omega’s sass as well. She’s not taking any of Crosshair’s nonsense

“Of course you do.” — LMAO Crosshair is so done XD

Hmmm, that street urchin is definitely going to be important later

Crosshair is so unimpressed. What have they been teaching her while I was gone?

Really like how the only thing you can really see clearly of Crosshair’s face in his outfit is the reflection of his eyes. That’s also plenty for the tapetum lucidum fandom headcanon to run with.

Omega’s making excellent use of appearing like a cute, sweet, innocent little child in her scamming.

Why is the bartender droid Scottish?

Crosshair lurking in the shadows with about as much subtlety as Rex was in Cid's bar in season 1

Are these stormtroopers clones or natborns? I don’t think we’ve seen any clones in clone trooper armour yet this season. They do turn up eventually because you can see some of them behind Wolffe in that shot of him during the trailer. I’m guessing they’re using this as a way of visually representing the difference between the clones and stormtroopers? 

Crosshair clicking his tongue 👀 That’s going to send the Crosswhores absolutely wild.

“Never seen you or your dad around before” — He said the thing! He said the thing! CrossDad confirmed!

Scottish bartender droid has turned into exposition droid

“You seem to have misunderstood your enemy.” — hmmm, why do I have a bad feeling about this that this is going to come back and bite everyone in the ass later on in the season? 

Does anyone know what this card game is? I not sure if it’s sabacc

This Imperial Captain really is a ridiculously OTT caricature of a slimy, corrupt officer. And why does he sound like a character from Wallace and Gromit?

Those 5,000 extra credits are totally going to get swindled out of them

Crosshair ready to throw down with a kid 

Lmao doubly called it! That street urchin was gonna turn up again and the extra credits were lost almost immediately

What on earth was that cockney street urchin accent anyway. What is this, Oliver Twist?

Crosshair don’t even kid yourself, there’s no way you’re going to abandon Omega

Why is the Empire keeping even more animals in cages?

Lol of course he wasn’t going to abandon her

“But my skills are being wasted.” — Crosshair really wants to shoot things

“Noted.” — LMAO

Did the machine operator just spot Omega and Crosshair?

“Shouldn’t we free the other animals too?” — She’s totally going to free the other animals. Omega’s already done that once before when she freed Muchi as a distraction during season 1. Crosshair sounds so done XD

Well that’s gone well, and predictably

Lau? What’s Lau? Who’s Lau? Is Lau the planet they’re on? Or the town they’re in? Or is Lau the name of the Wallace and Gromit captain? What is this Lau?

The upside down cone hats on the locals look familiar. They kind of remind me of some of the hats the Neimoidians wore

We keep getting shots of that stormtrooper at the top of the tower. Are they going to be important?

Noticed that the stormtroopers seem to have 2 small vertical grey lines on the top left side of their helmets. I wonder what these signify? Or if they signify anything at all?

“Let’s try things your way.” — Time for Crosshair to shoot some things! That “Finally” was almost purred

Oh no, shaking hand. It is the one he shoots with as well

Lol called it again, Omega frees all the animals so they can escape in the chaos that ensues

Was that a rubber chicken noise?!

More shots of that stormtrooper on the top of the tower. Hmmm, who are you?

Rip the Wallace and Gromit captain. The tentacles got him

Lol @ the stormtrooper getting blasted off the top of the tower

New ship acquired! +10 space grand larceny points

Is this still Scorch talking to Hemlock at the shuttle crash site? Scorch, what are you doing? What are you up to?

“Notify all our operatives” — What operatives? Is this where the bounty hunters come in?

“I’m heading to a remote location,” — nooooooooo not Pabu

Omg are they actually going to reunite in this episode?

That was surprisingly gentle from Crosshair

Oh, not Pabu then. Random isolated moon? Where is this? Omg what if this is the same moon the Tribunal crashed on?

Aw, there’s the Marauder! Though not for long, going off what was in the new short trailer that was released today.

The music here is beautiful

Omg they’re actually reuniting. Legit tearing up

Aaaaaaah the way Wrecker hugged Omega *sobbing*

Aw they’re both crying

“Five.” — oh fuck

All the tears

Bad Batch theme?

“I had help.” — here we go

Omg the look on Hunter’s face as he looks over Omega’s shoulder

The long shot of Crosshair descending the ramp of the cargo ship on the left side of the frame and Wrecker, Omega, and Hunter on the right side of the frame is so, so good. The cinematography and framing in this is just fantastic

…Wrecker?

Oooookay, this is tense. Omega’s picked up on it too.

You can see Crosshairs face briefly look almost open before he immediately hardens and closes himself off and almost braces for a fight

Asd;flkj you can’t leave it there! Talk to each other!!!

Tbh I wasn’t expecting that reaction from Wrecker. Hunter, sure, but not Wrecker. Cautious and wary maybe but not almost openly hostile. That is going to be one awkward and fraught conversation next episode.

I’m really glad they actually showed Wrecker crying. That it’s ok for men to cry and show emotions.

#the bad batch #star wars #tbb #tbb s3 spoilers #bad batch #the bad batch spoilers #the bad batch season 3 #tbb s3 #tbb season 3 #sw tbb #star wars the bad batch #tbb omega #tbb crosshair #tbb wrecker #tbb hunter #omega #crosshair #hunter #wrecker

[armageddon-generation]

Justice for Brandon Routh: Everything Cut From Superman Returns that makes it Great

Ultimately it's good Superman Returns didn't get sequels because of Bryan Singer & Kevin Spacey, but I'm kinda obsessed with the forgotten middle-child of Supes' movies, and it's infuriating how the movie's thematic spine and most of its best character-beats got cut.

The Theatrical Cut of Returns is literally half a movie. Brandon Routh deserved so much better.

Sources:

Deleted scene compilation (+Return to Krypton)

The Shooting Script (available to buy)

Superman Homepage deleted shots Page 1 and Page 2    

Novelisation by Marv Wolfman (this, the graphic novel & junior novelisation all used the 2005 shooting script.)

Superman Returns: The Visual Guide (available to buy)

Chew Chan comic art

Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns

Prequel Comics (based on scenes from early drafts, with stories by writers Singer, Dougherty & Harris):

Prequel Comic #2: Ma Kent

Prequel Comic #3: Lex Luthor

Prequel Comic #4: Lois Lane

Comic book recap

‘78 opened with a boy narrating an issue of Action Comics. Returns pulled back red theatre drapes on a comic narrated by Clois’ son, Jason. 

Actor Tristan Lake is recording the voiceover in Requiem for Krypton

From the Script (p.1):

RED THEATRE CURTAINS, drawn shut. The kind found in classic movie houses of yesteryear. The slowly open ... the film flickers to life, fading in on an old comic-book

SUPERMAN. A BOY'S HAND reaches into frame and opens it.

JASON (V.O.): On a distant planet orbiting a red sun, a wise scientist predicted his world's imminent destruction. Despite overwhelming evidence, his pleas to evacuate the planet were ignored, leaving him and his wife no choice...

He turns the page to a panel of JOR-EL and his wife, LARA

JASON (V.O.) (CONT'D): ...but to place their only son into a spaceship and launch it to another galaxy, in hopes of finding the child a new home. A child destined to become Earth's greatest protector...

“In Golden Age style art, Kal-El is placed in the rocket by Jor-El and Lara, comes to Earth, grows up with the Kents, & learns that he possessed amazing powers.”

The script cuts the Smallville part because it’s covered later in flashback.

5 years on, Superman has been mythologised. In-universe, to kids he seems as make-believe as comic books are to us.

This develops Jason’s POV of Superman. He was supposed to have this comic (from 'Uncle Jimmy') when he meets Clark in The Daily Planet

This could be why Smallville was cut; the public only knows about Krypton

The opening scene of Gertrude Vanderworth’s death was originally replaced by:

Prequel: Lex in prison 

Lex’s cell is covered in Daily Planet clippings. He nonologues to henchman Stanford

LEX: I didn’t get you visiting privileges to my private suite so I could repeat myself … My work was more than mere greed … It’s a calling. Why can’t they see the danger? He’s a vanguard for an invasion of super-powered beings. I knew. I always knew. Making sure there was a line of defence against him. The Conquistadors carried a plague that decimated entire civilisations. Who knows what kind of spaceborne diseases he carried? Oh, they may not appreciate my genius now, but they will worship me for delivering them from this menace they so affectionately embrace.

Kitty Kowalski & Gertrude Vanderworth

Lex has a medical exam before his release. His henchwoman Kitty is the nurse. She flirts with him but complains Superman is all Lex thinks about 

Lex burns his old toupé to “cleanse” himself

In flashback, Kitty sees Lex kill an inmate in self-defence. Lex threatens her to protect his perfect record. But Kitty says she’s his “biggest fan” & anger becomes lust 

This is in The Visual Guide (p.26):

"She witnessed Lex murder a fellow inmate. Kitty refused to squeal to the guards, and she and Lex made clear their attraction for each-other."

Kitty is the Vanderworth widow's maid & suggests Lex write to her

She doesn’t like the name Kitty: “My name is Katherine”

An imaginary Superman hovers above, watching Lex leave prison.

Gertrude Vanderworth is waiting outside:

LEX: Gertrude! I’m dying in here. I’m dying without you. Please, take me home. If only you could imagine the grotesque living conditions I’ve been exposed to, dear, sweet Gertrude. You’ve rescued me from Dante’s Inferno, from the depths of human depravity.

Shows how prison changed Gene Hackman’s Lex into Returns’ philosophical maniac

Characterizes Kitty as Lex’s ‘Harley Quinn-lite’ & makes her more active

Stronger explanation for Lex's escape than Clark missing his court date 

The comic's final panel is Lex looking up at the imaginary Superman in the sky, zooming out into space, then leading into...

The Opening Titles as Clark’s journey to Krypton:

(from the Script):

“Stars interspersed with DAILY PLANET HEADLINES tracing Superman’s history, many by LOIS LANE;

“METEOR SHOWER BAFFLES SCIENTISTS”

“CAPED WONDER STUNS CITY”

“I SPENT THE NIGHT WITH SUPERMAN”

“SUPERMAN STOPS CRIMINAL MASTERMIND, LEX LUTHOR”

“LEX GETS LIFE THANKS TO MAN OF STEEL: SWEARS REVENGE”

“ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER KRYPTON INTACT – SIGNS OF LIFE FOUND”

And then the biggest headline of them all:

“SUPERMAN DISAPPEARS”

More headlines follow as the world is besieged … war, famine, crime. Soon, these headlines push Superman to the back pages. Within years, he’s all but faded from public consciousness. Finally, one last headline:

“WILL HE EVER RETURN?”

IS IT KRYPTON? (p.12), LUTHOR GETS LIFE (p.24) & VANDERWORTH TOPS THE FORTUNE 500!! (p.22) are in The Visual Guide

This gives the indulgent title-sequence a purpose. It sets up the consequences of Clark leaving, his history with Lois & Lex, Krypton’s discovery, and the Vanderworth fortune Lex will steal

This transitions into:

Return to Krypton

Concept art by Ben Proctor

The script describes “the remnants of this great civilisation… cities, monuments… all made from the same crystal technology” not in the filmed scene

Clark finds the House of El crest in the “VALLEY OF THE ELDERS . . . a VAST CANYON OF CRYSTAL MONOLITHS arranged in a circle” with more family crests.

Clark's escape is more visceral (Script pp.2-3):

“GIANT SLABS whiz by ... thousands of pieces of glowing kryptonite are hurtling towards him ... Parts [of Clark’s ship] shatter and break off ... The crystal immediately GROWS BACK ... more kryptonite smashes against the window, cracking it. Crystals work quickly to repair the damage, but it keeps coming.”

The filmed version puts Vibes over story: 

The Valley of Elders returns on Lex’s New Krypton in the finale. 

Without the other House crests the El one feels random

Showing Krypton's achievements validates Lex’s plan to resurrect it.

Clark’s ship self-repairing introduces ‘growing’ crystals immediately

Opening an action beat is important because the next one isn’t for 40 mins

Famously, this scene cost $10 million. Videographer Rob Burnett said:

“This was always meant to be the original opening [it] explained why he was so weak when Martha found him [&] that Kal-El sweats in the presence of kryptonite which Luthor notices later ... It wasn't cut until some last-minute test screenings … people unfamiliar with Donner's Superman films & Kryptonian crystals/tech found this dialogue-less opening confusing & uninteresting”

To solve this dialogue problem it was suggested Clark bring his mother Lara's memory crystal with him. She would narrate Krypton's history as Clark explored, contrasting its past glory with its current ruin. But the scene was already finished & Singer decided:

I didn’t feel it ... No-one told me to do it. I had no time restrictions or pressure whatsoever. I just felt the movie doesn’t need this."

But Marv Wolfman did something similar when retelling Jor El and Lara sending Clark away in Chapter 1 of his novelisation:

“It had been a timeless city, strong and powerful. It survived the vast armies of three great nations waging war on its bloodied streets. It stood proud as the signing place of an everlasting peace . . . [Lara] spent her early years dreaming of living where Krypton’s earliest founders had once walked, did not want to believe that this magnificence and all it stood for would soon be gone. She had spent her first year out of university touring the city . . . She trekked out to the Valley of the Elders . . . the fabled roads that Sor-El, Kol-Ar and Pol-As, the chosen representatives from the three warring nations, must’ve taken when they created the original laws of humanity that governed Krypton. From the ground, those crystal monolith towers, reflecting the full spectrum of light, looked to Lara like hands raised in reverential prayer. Kryptonopolis had been grown from a single crystal more than 10,000 years before ... shaped by the earliest Kryptonians into vast cities millions of buildings strong"

The Visual Guide also explains the Valley of the Elders is “Where Sor-El, Kol-Ar, and Pol-Us established the laws that governed Krypton" (p.79)

This is a great parallel to ‘78's opening. That was Clark’s origin. Returns is him mourning

Seeing Krypton contextualizes Clark’s arc. We understand his alienation instead of being alienated by him

It bookends the movie with New Krypton, and gives Returns’ oft-mocked climax ‘Superman Lifts a Big Thing’, thematic weight: Clark is excising the grief that drove him from Earth

Lara's narration about the wonders of Krypton both heightens the tragedy & establishes what their tech can achieve, crucial to Lex's plan

Writer Dan Harris said:

“Lex Luthor’s trying to turn this world [Earth] into the dead world, the place [Clark] can’t live, so it becomes a person’s search for identity and home and their place in the universe.” (The Shooting Script interviews p.27)

Martha Kent and Ben Hubbard play Scrabble 

Martha spells ‘Alienation’ (THEMES!!) & touching Clark’s name carved into the table is lovely visual storytelling

Ben is there when Clark crashes. Martha stops him calling the cops.

BEN: Martha-

MARTHA: (firm) Tomorrow. Bingo.

She looks at him, stonefaced. He takes another look outside – and at her, and realizes what’s happening. He sighs and shakes his head.

BEN: A meteorite?

She nods.

BEN (CONT’D): Martha Kent, I knew you’d be trouble

There’s a blooper of this scene in Requiem for Krypton & it's mentioned in The Visual Guide (p.20)

Gertrude Vanderworth's death, and Lex stealing her fortune, is shown after Clark passes out in Martha’s arms when he crashes, followed by Lex taking the yacht to the Arctic

Lex Finding the Fortress

Cool details about the Fortress' warm crystals & creating protective weather patterns, explaining the storm around New Krypton in the finale

While exploring the Fortress they find Clark's garage:

From The Visual Guide:

"Lex lingers in a cavernous chamber he dubs 'the garage', where he sees evidence of the construction and launch of Superman's spaceship"

KITTY: So did he?

LEX: Did he what?

KITTY: Take off for his homeworld?

LEX: (looking at Stanford) Well… We gave him a little push.

In the novelisation (p.89)

Lex’s First Experiment

After plundering the Fortress, Lex would test the crystal immediately- “he created a kind of giant Fortress of Solitude in the ice” (Script interviews p.28), destroying the original. Such a great way to raise the stakes!

Extended Clark waking in his childhood room

Clark waking to his starry ceiling & the Kent family photos give his return more emotional heft

Extended Young Clark’s first flight, 

Which leads into…

 “Little Secret”- Clark finds the Kryptonian ship as a boy

From The Visual Guide (p.11): “When he holds the Father Crystal, Clark feels a primal connection to the vanished world of his ancestors”. Martha’s prequel comic shows Jor El & Lara reflected in the crystal.

The Father Crystal is the key to Lex’s plan, so it's important to see its importance to Clark.

'Little Secret' leads into: 

Martha Kent Prequel: The Kents tell the truth

The Kents find Clark on the cellar steps with the Father Crystal, staring at his ship.

They talk in the kitchen:

MARTHA: … I wish we could tell you more… well, anything about your real parents

CLARK: You are my real parents. Those other people, the ones that gave me away… They mean nothing to me. [he bends a fork in half]

JONATHAN: I understand that you feel that way now, Clark. But I have something to show you. [He leaves the room to get something]

CLARK:Ma, I- I… Am I even human? Am I some sort of monster?MARTHA: Clark Kent, bite your tongue! You are our son and we love you. That’s all that matters.

JONATHAN: Clark? This is yours. You were wrapped in it when we found you.

He gives Clark the cloth he was wrapped in when they found him - blue fabric with the “S” shield

This is a big change from ‘78, where Clark didn’t find the Father Crystal until after Jonathan dies. Martha wasn’t there & they didn't discuss it. The Fortress of Solitude made his suit.

Clark's anxiety is more in-line with MoS (“Can’t I just keep pretending to be your son?” / “You are my son.”). Rejecting Krypton is important, as his adult desire for a home drives him from Earth

Here we see Clark feel the alienation he fears for Jason in his final speech ("you will be different..."). Parenting is a big theme of Returns

Clark reads Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman in the Kent barn 

In the script, Clark taking the tarp off his ship leads into the Little Secret flashback- which the deleted scene cuts around. The shots following him back to farmhouse include this voiceover (Script pp.13-14):

LOIS LANE (V.O.): For five long years, the world has stared into the sky, waiting, hoping, and praying for his return. We have spent our days asking where he went, debated why he left, and wondered if he’s even alive…

People have always longed for gods, messiahs, and saviors to swoop down from the sky and deliver them from their troubles. But in the end, these saviors always leave, and we are faced with the same troubles that were there from the beginning.

So, instead of facing them ourselves, we wait for the savior to return. But the savior never does, and we realize it was better had he never come at all.

Reading WTWDNS is referenced in The Visual Guide (p.29)

Articulating Lois’ POV makes her more than a bitter ex. Even the Junior novelisation has this!

In the Theatrical Cut Clark returns to the Daily Planet trying to reclaim the old status quo, until he learns Lois has a family. Here, he faces consequences for leaving before learning Lois has moved on, so he’s less selfishly motivated, and returns to the Planet to actively reconcile with her

Parallels Young!Clark finding the Father Crystal- the inciting moment of ‘78’s plot

Martha encourages Clark to return to Metropolis / Clark meets Ben Hubbard 

This is a cute scene, humanizing Clark

Martha is selling the farm & moving to Montana

(Script p. 76), cut dialogue in purple

MARTHA: Clark, dear… No one will ever replace your father. But, Ben and I have found something special. Together. And, well, this might all come as a shock…

Clark gives her a look. Just level with me.

MARTHA: I’m selling the farm. We’re moving to Montana.

CLARK: Montana?

MARTHA: The lakes are great. And we love the fishing.

CLARK: Fishing?!

MARTHA: Clark, you’ve been gone a long time. And not even you can stop the world from spinning.

In the novelisation (p.76)

Building this subplot from a background character from ‘78 is neat.

It expands Returns’ narrow emotional scope: It's not just Lois moving on

Superman suit in Clark’s case & changing in The Daily Planet closet 

As Clark puts his suitcase in the janitor’s closet he opens it, revealing his Superman costume & a Kent family photo.

So, when he rips his shirt open there’s "NOTHING. Where's his suit? He panics, then remembers." . He must change in the Daily Planet janitor’s closet. As he leaves he "catches a glimpse of his reflection in a window -- he's still wearing GLASSES" (the Script p.44)

Love Superman in glasses as a metaphor for the transition from Clark to Supes. 

The Theatrical cut emphasizes Lois’ POV of Superman’s return but this is more balanced & impactful for Clark 

Lex and Stanford discuss Superman’s return

When Lex learns Superman is back he & Stanford discuss luring him away. You can see Stanford running to catch up with Lex before the Theatrical scene cuts away. Deleted dialogue in purple:

STANFORD: So, what are we going to do?

LEX: You’re going to modify it and attach it to the stern, I don’t care of the instructions are in Russian

STANFORD: You know what I mean, Lex. He’s not stupid. How long do you think it’s going to take him to trace all that stuff back to me– and you. He was supposed to die up there.

Stanford paces. Lex clenches, obviously stressed. He hears the WHIMPERING of Gertrude’s dog. 

Infuriated, Lex hurls the newspaper at it but misses. Enraged, Lex snatches a heavy crystal off the desk, when he STOPS. He stares at something on the NEWSPAPER

Lex bends down and picks up the paper. He smiles, and hands it to Stanford.

LEX: Stanford, you worry too much.

Stanford looks at the article, intrigued.

“WORLD’S LARGEST COLLECTION OF METEORITES TO EXHIBIT AT METROPOLIS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY”

Lex & Stanford faking Krypton’s discovery makes all Clark's problems his fault. Clark did nearly die, & it makes Lex a more formidable villain

It makes the plot more cohesive 

Clark being tricked by his nemesis > ‘he just left lol’

Lex’s desperation gives him depth. Stealing Kryptonite is now a response to Superman, where in the Theatrical cut it’s so underplayed it seems like just the next step of his plan.

Stanford and The Daily Planet

I can’t find it, but Mr. Sunday Movies  cites an interview where the actor revealed Stanford was a disgraced Daily Planet science correspondent, & wrote the articles about Krypton. 

More plot cohesion, connecting The Daily Planet & Lex plots. If Lois recognises Stanford when she’s on Lex's yacht, she could figure out Clark was tricked, helping her forgive him. 

Extended Clois outside The Daily Planet

Deleted dialogue in purple, (Script pp.58-60):

CLARK: Well … Maybe saying goodbye was so hard because he didn’t know whether it would be goodbye for a little while … or goodbye forever.

Lois doesn’t seem to be listening

CLARK (CONT’D, QUIETER): And maybe he had to go and he wanted to say goodbye, but he couldn’t find the guts to do it, because maybe if he saw you, even one last time… Well, maybe he was afraid that if he even looked at you just… once… he would never be able to… leave (beat) Maybe it was too difficult for him.

. . .

CLARK: So… Do you want to grab a quick bite? Catch up? My treat.

LOIS: Oh I’d love to, but Daddy took the car and it’s my turn to ‘cook’ the family dinner, which means I’ve got just enough time to get back to the ‘suburbs’ and order the Chinese

CLARK: Suburbs?

LOIS: Yeah, we have a really nice place on the river. You should drop in sometime.

CLARK: I’d love to.

Brandon performs this dialogue for a screentest in Requiem for Krypton

Much better reason for Clark not saying goodbye. Corny, but if your gonna justify an OOC decision, do it with the romance at the heart of your movie. 

Lois is much nicer & less dismissive of Clark. Theatrical Lois seems to actively dislike him.

Hints Lois feels stifled as a suburban mom

Lois Prequel: Writing Why The World Doesn’t Need Superman

The ‘Lois at home’ scene begins with a flashback:

Perry tells Lois to write a piece for the 5th anniversary of Superman leaving. She struggles with writer’s block at home, & goes out to smoke. She thinks Clark blows out her lighter, but she’s imagining it & realizes she must move on. That night she writes WTWDNS

Then Richard asks about I Spent the Night With Superman, then Clark is revealed to be watching at the end of the scene.

[After Clark flies away, Script p.63]

Lois picks up some food, then suddenly stops and turns to the window, staring into their backyard. Beat.

RICHARD: Lois? You okay?

Lois snaps out of it.

LOIS: Yeah, sorry. Hey, didn’t I have four won-ton’s?

Jason stuffs a won-ton into his mouth.

LOIS (CONT’D): JASON!

Lois & Richard dive, trying to snatch it from his mouth

A cute Jason moment, & Lois ‘sensing’ Clark makes his spying a little less creepy, selling their 'stracrossed lovers' connection

Superman On Patrol

Two scenes are omitted from the script (p.64) before the ‘Bulletproof’ bank robbery. Presumably they formed a full crime-fighting montage, like in ‘78.

The Visual Guide describes two cut sequences that perfectly fill that gap (p. 60):

“In Switzerland, he saved 12 stranded climbers from the peak of the Matterhorn. In Venice, he prevented the famous canals from flooding the city streets. Superman seems to be everywhere at once, but nowhere is he more prominent than in Metropolis…”

Full Deli Robbery Segment

MONTAGE REPORTER #3: Sir, after he captured the men trying to rob your Deli, did he do or say anything?

DELI OWNER: He tried the hummus. He said he liked it – and Superman never lies!

More action! More wholesome Superman! Expanding the scope of the movie beyond Metropolis!

Lex’s Plan

Higher-key Kryptonite heist where Lex’s gang fool guards and witnesses

The movie needs more energy. Like the stolen missile earlier, in the Theatrical Cut Lex’s plan is afterthought bullet-points 

When Kitty returns to Lex after Superman saves her, the stolen missile is being disassembled. Lex takes its explosive & the kryptonite he’ll stab Clark with 

Lois Prequel: Why she resents Superman and meeting Richard

After Perry demands Lois interview Superman we flashback to him doing the same thing after Krypton was found:

But Superman never shows. Months pass until “the world had to admit” he was gone.

The world turned to Lois as their 'Superman expert.'

JIMMY: Miss Lane. You okay?

LOIS: I will be once Perry lets me cover something over than Superman. He left. He's gone, and maybe he's never coming back. How many different ways can I write that?

JIMMY: I know Miss Lane. I miss him too.

The world refusing to let Lois move on by pigeon-holing her as ‘Superman’s Girlfriend’ is important context.

Now Perry refusing to let Lois cover the blackout is part of a sexist cycle she’s fought for years

Lois escapes to the roof for a smoke: "Even as the days kept passing, I held out hope. I mean, he never disappointed me before, right?'

Richard White introduces himself just like Clark:

RICHARD: Those things will kill you, you know. Hello, Lois. I'm Richard White.

LOIS: White, huh? Did Perry even read past your last name on your resume?

RICHARD: I won't deny what it looks like, but my uncle hired me because I'm damn good at what I do. And with you I see wasted talent. The Superman story is old news. The Planet's best reporter should be used elsewhere.

LOIS: You're certainly more insightful than you look, White.

Directly parallels Richard and Clark

And contrasts the rooftop interview with Superman immediately afterwards; we now know she waited here for Clark to return every night until she met Richard

Clark Visits the Fortress of Solitude

When Clark visits the Fortress of Solitude he has cut voiceover (Script p.89):

SUPERMAN (V.O.): Father... It’s been a long time since I’ve come to you… But I’ve never felt so alone.

EXT. FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE - SAME TIME

Superman lands & approaches the console. The crystal has been taken. WITH A VOICE ECHOING THROUGH THE ARCTIC LIKE THUNDER:

SUPERMAN: FATHER!!!

FATHER!!! Is OTT but important when Superman has so little dialogue

Clark is now clearly driven to the Fortress by Lois’ rejection. In The Theatrical Cut, he just checks in because it’s time for Plot to happen.

Losing Jor-El emphasizes the theme of parenthood- Clark loses a father as he gains a son- & justifies Jor El’s voiceover later

Lex's Fortress

In an earlier draft, Clark found the new Fortress Lex grew in his first experiment, and "Clark sunk it and put it underwater"

Originally “Richard & Lois flew there with Clark to investigate & take pictures" (Script interviews p.28) but later on these became satellite pictures that were delivered to the Planet. Lois saw them & understood what Clark had lost.

Lois seeing & understanding Cark's losses is important

Clark destroying Lex's Fortress would be an impressive action beat & Returns is desperate for those. Showing Lex's impact through action!

Extended dialogue on the yacht explaining Lex’s plan

LEX: It’s not just an island. It’s an entirely new continent. Virtually indestructible and self-sustaining. For lack of a better name, it’s Krypton. An extinct world, reborn on our own.

LEX: I’ll have ADVANCED alien technology thousands of years beyond anything anyone could throw at me. Weapons, vehicles, you name it. 

Gives New Krypton more credibility & makes Lex's plan more concrete, especially after Return to Krypton showcased Kryptonian tech

Saving Metropolis

Earlier drafts of the ‘Saving Metropolis’ sequence had “monster waves surging in every direction” (The Visual Guide p.70) Dan Harris also mentioned "waves coming in" and Clark “pulling a subway train out [of the ground]”. (Script interviews p.28) The script omits several sections that could fit these moments.

The script includes Clark saving people from cars set on fire by the gas explosion.

Again, Returns copies ‘78, but that earthquake was way bigger - a dam explodes, a bridge collapses, a train derails. Clark shifts tectonic plates to stop it.

Perry White meets Superman

I understand why this was cut but it’s still cool

The Missile Explosive

After Jason kills Brutus, the deleted scene of Lex finding Brutus’ body is followed by (Script pp.113-114):

INT. YACHT - PANTRY Lois & Jason sit against the far wall, exhausted & worried. The door swings open, revealing LEX. He looks at Jason & winks.

LEX: Catch.

He tosses SOMETHING into the room, wrapped in the handkerchief. It rolls towards Jason’s feet. LOIS CHARGES just as Lex slams the door. Jason removes Lex’s handkerchief, revealing the EXPLOSIVE from  the missile.

LOIS: Honey… don’t move.

Lois is panicked, searching for any way to get rid of the explosive. Finally; a SMALL AIR DUCT. She kneels & pulls at the VENT COVER. It won’t budge. She looks around & finds a LARGE METALLIC SOUP LADLE.  SHE JAMS THE LADLE INTO THE VENT, using it like a crowbar. 

JASON: Mommy?

LOIS: JASON DON’T MOVE!

Lois strains to pry the vent away. After what seems like an eternity, it finally pops off. She approaches Jason VERY CAREFULLY.

LOIS (CONT’D): Okay Honey, stay still…

Lois THROWS IT into the air duct … grabs Jason & rushes him to the other side of the room. The explosive drops down a series of air ducts … Silence. Lois and Jason open their eyes, relieved.

Then – BOOOOOOM! THE BLAST ROCKS THE ROOM. A burst of flame shoots from the vent. Lois shields Jason. The flames are followed by a GEYSER OF SEAWATER. The room is tipped upward. Water is streaming in. Lois tumbles backwards into the water, struggling to reach Jason, but she’s STUCK.

ANGLE UNDERWATER: Lois’ leg tangled in a LIFE PRESERVER.

LOIS: HELP ME! Oh God…

Water floods into her mouth. She disappears under the surface when the DOOR is RIPPED OPEN, AND THE SILHOUETTE OF A MAN STEPS INTO THE ROOM. He dives underwater.

The man rips Lois’ leg free from the cables and pulls her to safety. Lois finally opens her eyes and comes face to face with… RICHARD. She and Jason are stunned.

LOIS (CONT’D): How –How did you get here?

RICHARD: (obviously…) I flew.

Lex’s response to Superman’s son here is more appropriate & threatening.

Another setup & payoff with the missile explosive gives the film more structure. Plot, y'know?

Makes Lois more active

Richard/Clark parallels

Jason recognizes Clark 

[in the seaplane after Superman saves them from the yacht]

Jason curiously looks up at Superman.

JASON: Hey, you look just like–

SUPERMAN: (Cutting him off) Can you fly?

For a moment, it looks like Superman is speaking to Jason – then he turns his head to Richard.

Also in the novelisation (p.285)

More Jason/Clark connection & more payoffs (Jason suspected Clark's identity after seeing him next to Superman on TV earlier)

Context: New Krypton

The script describes it as “almost identical to the ruins of Krypton ... Unlike the ruins, this place feels like it could be full of life – what he hoped to find when he went to Krypton,” with buildings “resembling the Fortress of Solitude”.  made of the Fortress’ glowing white crystals, presenting the facade of life.

Clark confronts Lex in “an exact reproduction of the Kryptonian VALLEY OF ELDERS" (where we saw the El Crest in Return to Krypton). Flickering x-ray vision reveals “IN THE GROUND AND WALLS are pockets and veins of kryptonite” 

From The Visual Guide (p.79):

“New Krypton recreates its planet of origin according to an ancient blueprint, beginning with the vanished capital of Kryptonopolis ... [it] will eventually replicate the towering face of Mount Argo, the bottomless depths of the Xan Chasm, & the polished dome of the Krypton Science Council”

Superman hears something else in the wind, coming from inside the structure: a VOICE. Faint, but familiar. Maybe JOR-EL? LARA? It’s joined by other ghostly whispers before another familiar voice calls out:

LEX (O.S.): See anything familiar?

The ghostly whispers are a cool detail

Now New Krypton is literally a ‘dead world resurrected’, not just some land, & will terraform the whole planet. It brings the movie full-circle- Krypton followed Clark home

After beating a powerless Clark, Lex reveals the truth

LEX (CONT’D): Look, buddy. We sent you there to die, but ya’ had to come back…

Superman looks at Lex, his expression turning from agony to realization.

LEX (CONT’D): Oh yeah. All those photos? Those stories about Krypton still existing? It was me. (Beat) And him.

ANGLE ON: Stanford.

LEX (CONT’D): Thankfully the press doesn’t check facts like they used to. (Beat) Hey, you took away five years of my life. I just returned the favor.

In the novelisation (p.297) & literally every other adaptation of the story. Why the fuck would you cut it?

As Clark drowns:

“Crystals are growing towards him from every direction. ALL GLOWING GREEN from Kryptonite. He tries swimming to the surface, but he’s too weak. He’s trapped ... A mesh of crystal walls are closing in around him, over him like a tomb."

The tomb is a thematically resonant image (New Krypton = graveyard) & heightens the crystals’ threat

Jason ‘senses’ Clark instead of seeing him from the plane window

In the script, Jason wants to help Clark too- not just Lois & Richard deciding.

Jason looks out the window, pointing down to the water.

JASON: There.

He turns to Lois. Beat. She can’t see anything.

LOIS: You’re sure?

Jason nods. He’s certain.

While Clark in hospital, Lois names ‘New Krypton’

it's gone “into orbit somewhere between Mars & Jupiter. Supposedly it’s laced with Kryptonite & still growing”. 

Again, creates a thematic bookend with 'Old Krypton' in the beginning

Outside the Hospital

Ben Hubbard waits with Martha Kent- you can see his shoulder next to her in the Theatrical Cut

There are shots of Lois, Jason & Martha talking while they're in the crowd- presumably Martha offering support without Lois knowing who she is

Martha meets her grandson! The two mothers of Kryptonian sons talk!

Bringing Martha & Ben back ties the Smallville section of the movie back into the plot

Final Clois Exchange

SUPERMAN: Thank you, Lois.

Tears well in her eyes, struggling for something to say.

SUPERMAN (CONT’D): It’s alright.

It’s what she’s wanted and needed to hear for years.

It’s such a small thing, but gives Clois closure, and Clark more lines

OTHER CHANGES

Color-grade: Returns’ drab sepia look ruins beautiful cinematography. The original color-grade in the teaser trailer (which is like 70% deleted footage) is much better, as is this color-corrected shuttle sequence

A tighter edit to compensate for the action-light script. They went for a classic, unhurried edit, but you could shave multiple seconds off most shots without losing anything. The Superman Restored fanedit re-inserts 25 mins of deleted scenes and is still 8 mins shorter than the Theatrical Cut

Tldr;

Returns is inherently slow-paced. Even with a faster edit, adding all this would push it past 3 hours. Regardless, Singer shot his own film in the foot because his priorities were wrong: Outlined above is a more balanced, cohesive story with richer themes. The Lex and Krypton subplots are complete. Clark feels like the main character, & Lois is more sympathetic. 

Brandon deserved so much more.

#superman #superman returns #brandon routh #clark kent #lois lane #clois #cbm #richard donner #superman: the movie #superman ii #deleted scenes #krypton #lex luthor #martha kent #dc comics #dc movies

[boysplanetrecaps]

Boys Planet Eps 9-10 Recap: Say My Name

Hello, beautiful people! As you may know, I already wrote a recap/master post for episode 9, and another one for episode 10. This recap focuses just on the stuff that’s relevant to team “Say My Name” -- so their rehearsal period and their additional focus/footage in episode 9, as well as their rehearsal footage and performance in episode 10. Just say “read more” and all will be revealed.

The Trainees

Here’s a list of the trainees in this group, and their ages, along with their rank as of episode 8 and their two previous missions:

Sung Hanbin - 21 1 / Love Me Right/ Tomboy

Han Yu Jin  - 16 3/ Back Door / Law

Seok Matthew - 20 4/ Kill this Love / Love Killa

Kim Ji Woong -24 5 / Back Door / Love Killa

Yoo Seung Eon - 19 17 / Very Nice / Home

The First Rehearsal Segment

At 23:20, we endure the gut-churningly uncomfortable atmosphere at team Say My Name for a solid eight minutes.

The editing is really pushing the drama, by beginning in medias res, with Matthew saying “Really? If only I knew, I would’ve been better off to join team Switch. I feel like you guys are ditching me a bit.” Then, crying, he gets up and leaves the room. No one follows him. Sung Hanbin’s perfect face is hard to read -- a mixture of sadness and determination.

WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED? 

We jump back in time to find out. The team is having their first rehearsal after T h e G r e a t R e s h u f f l i n g, and they need to redistribute parts. 

The team agrees that Yujin should keep the Killing Part -- Kim JiWoong says that Yujin would look yeppo (pretty) in the part. 

(Side note: They mention that Ollie was the other one with the Killing Part -- I’m sure the team never had the plan to let him keep it. Poor Ollie. He would have done great with it, for what it’s worth.)

The bigger battle is, who will be main vocal? Yoo Seung Eon, the titanium voiced cutie pie, says: “The main vocalist of this song should lead the choreography rather than showing off vocal skills. I think it’s about getting the feel right. I think Hanbin should be the main vocalist.”

Let’s take some time to let that sink in. Seung Eon, the lowest ranked on the team, whose major claim to fame, really his only claim to fame, is his voice, is giving up the main vocal part. And not just any main vocal part -- a main vocal part that is practically the killing part or center or whatever you want to call it. Why? For the good of the team. He interviews, “Of course I wanted the part. But I thought things would go smoothly if I just switch my position.” Aww! What a sweetheart.

So. Now, what part will he get? Does he want Sub-Vocal 1, with its 41 seconds of singing time?

That’s been Matthew’s position, and after a pause, Seung Eon says, “I think Matthew fits in that part well,” and agrees to take Sub Vocal 2. No one wants to have any more drama today, so the team decides to just go with it rather than have auditions or even discuss it further. 

In an interview, Matthew says, “I was thinking of asking [Seung Eon] if he wants to give [sub vocal 1 ] a try. But Sub-Vocal 1 is the part I wanted the most. I thought it’d be weird to tell him to go for it too.” Production asks, “Were you afraid he’d just take it?”  Matthew replies, “I was a bit scared because he’s so good.”

The comparison is so obvious and in our face that I barely need to point it out -- but I’ll point it out anyway. Seung Eon gave Hanbin an extremely desirable part because he thought that Hanbin would be better at it. Matthew was scared that Seung Eon would steal “his” part because Seung Eon would be better at it. Their motivations seem diametrically opposed.  

Later, the team is practicing singing the song. It’s becoming obvious that Matthew’s part is a bit too high pitched for him, and Seung Eon’s part is a bit too low pitched for him. 

Leader Hanbin takes time out of his schedule of taking care of baby bunnies to give an interview, in which he says that the parts were distributed wrong because the team was in a hurry, and he’s “not used to negotiating things.” Then a thousand daisies spring up at his feet, so he picks them and finds some lonely elderly ladies to give them to.

The next day, Hanbin is still trying to think of a non-confrontational solution to the problem (confrontation would startle the flock of white doves that flutter around his head!) when Kim Ji Woong suggests the solution -- that Matthew and Seungeon switch parts. I mean, it’s obviously the solution, if Matthew’s part is too high and Seungeon’s part is too low.  Hanbin asks them to try each other’s part, and it sounds so much better. 

Hanbin tries to sell it to Matthew, saying that Sub-Vocal 2 has more character than the “basic” main vocal and sub-vocal 1 parts, and Ji Woong points out that Matthew will shine more in a part that suits him better, which will be better for the team, too. Matthew isn’t buying it. In fact, he thinks the whole thing is a hidden camera prank. Everyone says it isn’t, but he doesn’t believe them. 

Oh boy. On the one hand, I can understand why Matthew would maybe think it was a hidden camera prank. After all, En Garde did that to Park Gunwook, and maybe Matthew heard about it and they do that kind of thing all the time on the show. Also, he wanted this part so much, it’s almost as if he’s going through the stages of grief -- denial and bargaining and all that. I can understand that. But it’s really hard to watch. 

As Matthew begins to think that maybe this is real, he says that he’d be "doomed" if he lost Sub-Vocal 1. He interviews that Seung Eon can do high pitched adlibs, and he himself cannot. He says, “If I become sub-vocalist 2, I’d just be gone! There’s nothing! I can’t do it! I’m just someone passing by. I’d just be like, ‘Hello.’” 

Here, Matthew is hampered at least a little by his comparative lack of ability to speak Korean -- he’s explaining himself as best he can, though, and I think his point is clear. He feels like if Seung Eon is on sub-1, and he himself is on Sub-2, no one will notice him. 

Matthew is again motivated by anxiety, which is completely in keeping with what we’ve seen of him so far on the show. While I can’t fault him, as this must be the most awful environment for an anxious person --- like, I want to reach for a bottle of diazepam just thinking about what it would be like to be on this show  -- it’s also absurd for him to be threatened by Seung Eon. Matthew is ranked in 4th place currently, and yes, that is a drop from where he was in episode 5. But oh my God, Matthew. At the second elimination, you had almost three times the voting points that Seung Eon had. And it’s not as if you’re going to win the audience vote in this song. You’ve got to know that Hanbin is going to win, right? He’s going to smile at the audience, and everyone in the theater will pass out in bliss and wake up cured of all disease, and that’ll be that. So why stress about it? 

Also, Matthew, sweetie, what on earth makes you think that the Star Creators at home vote based on how you do in the performances? If that were the case, wouldn’t Takuto have been eliminated in Episode 5? Wouldn’t Lee Yedam still be on the show? Listen to BPR-Noona, ok? You’re doing all this so the audience will like you, but in doing it, you are making the audience not like you. You’re creating this hell for yourself. 

Nothing Matthew does is unforgivable or anything. But I’m not going to pretend that this is anything other than what it is. I’m bummed for him, because if he had just switched parts right away, and been sweet about it, it would have worked out so much better for him. As it is, a lot of people in the audience are probably getting really frustrated with him for being unable to accept reality (“I STILL think that this is a hidden camera!” gets pretty irritating after a bit) and for being so selfish in comparison to the saintly Seung Eon. 

Second Rehearsal Segment

Ok, so let’s skip to 1:58:42, still in episode 9. 

It’s performance day, and Key introduces the Say My Name team. We pan the audience and see signs for Han Yujin, Kim JiWoong, and others, along with many signs for Matthew. 

Because it’s kind of fun to be able to spot the signs, you might want to be on the lookout for certain Korean letters/symbols. Seok Matthew’s name written in Korean looks like this: 속매튜 Or you might see it just Matthew, 매튜. The square in the first symbol of Matthew is the M, and the thing that looks like a skinny H is an “ae” sound, and the thing that looks like a capital letter E is the “t” sound. So compare that to Kim Tae Rae 김태래 -- you can see the M in the bottom of the first symbol, the T at the front of the second symbol, and the “ae” at the end of the second two symbols. And that’s your Korean reading lesson of the day! 

The point, though, is that the audience is losing its shit over Matthew, which serves to remind us that his anxiety is kind of unfounded.

The team is backstage, ready to perform (they won’t actually perform until episode 10, of course). They look anxious. 

We cut to more rehearsal. The team is sitting around uncomfortably. Matthew is saying that he wishes he had gone to the “Switch” team if he was going to have to do Sub-vocal 2. He’s saying it with a big smile on his face, which is something he tends to do -- say something like it’s a joke when it’s serious. No one else is smiling. Hey Matthew, I bet someone on Supercharger would still switch places. Go ask Woongki. He’d be delighted to be sub-vocal 2 on Say My Name. 

Thing is, smile or no smile,  Matthew is angry. You can tell. And saying this, when it’s no longer possible to switch, is clearly just an attempt to make everyone else feel bad. 

That’s an angry face, my friends. It’s not a felony. I’d be angry too. But he IS angry.

And then, Kim JiWoong, with his superior emotional intelligence says, “But Matthew, you need to consider the teammates you’re working with. I don’t think now is the time for you to do only what you want. I think someone who fits the part should do the part.” Oh my god, JiWoong, thank you. It had to be said. 

Matthew interviews that what JiWoong said hurt him, and I was thinking, “oh, because you realize that you’re being kind of immature and entitled and you feel bad about it…?” but no. He is sad because he wonders if they all “didn’t believe in [his] ability.” 

JiWoong says they have to think of the team. Matthew says that him keeping the part he wants is for the good of the team. Hanbin tells Matthew again, that this isn’t all about Matthew. And Matthew can’t believe that his friend has turned against him, because again, this IS all about Matthew, for Matthew. 

It’s hard for Matthew because he feels like he has no choice in the matter, but like, that’s how this always works. When you try out for the Killing Part or Main Vocal and the team votes for someone else, you can’t just decide “well guess I’ll take the part anyway.” And yeah, you had the part, but now you’re losing it. That happens. 

I am not being mean on purpose, you guys. I don’t want to pointlessly bash Matthew when he’s making kind of an ass of himself on an international stage. I’m going to take this moment to be profoundly grateful that no one was recording me at those moments in my life that I made a complete ass of myself. Let’s all be profoundly grateful for that, right?

Yoo Seung Eon speaks up, apologizing for not speaking up earlier about wanting the part (not your fault, Seung Eon) and just being sorry in general. Seung Eon’s complete sweetness gets through to Matthew, who is now crying. He says, “Seung Eon, you have no reason to feel sorry. This happened because you’re good.” 

The thing is that that’s not totally the case -- Seung Eon is good, of course, but the bigger issue is the pitches, and I wish Matthew understood that. Seung Eon doesn’t sound great as subvocal 2 any more than Matthew sounds great as subvocal 1. Keeping them in their current parts would be like choosing the super tall person to be on your baseball team, and choosing the person who can throw 100 mph to be on your basketball team. You want to put the right person in the right position.

Matthew goes out into the hall to kind of deal with his feelings, which is a good idea. And then he interviews that the reason he wanted to sing Subvocal 1 is that the lyrics were mostly in English, and he wanted his mom to enjoy listening to him sing in English. 

Argh, I am trying so hard not to be mean about all this but I mean, I can’t not know that this is a lie. He’s lying. 

Consider the following: 

Matthew’s first reaction on hearing he was going to lose the song wasn’t, “oh no, my mom…” but “I’m doomed.” In what world does missing out on a special thing you wanted to do for your mom equate to being doomed? 

Matthew said in an interview, “If I become sub-vocalist 2, I’d just be gone! There’s nothing! I can’t do it! I’m just someone passing by. I’d just be like, ‘Hello.’” That’s all unequivocally about wanting center time. There is no second interpretation of this comment.

Matthew is very close to Hanbin and fairly close to JiWoong at this point -- if this mom thing was true, he would have felt comfortable talking to them about it. 

Now, the “doomed” comment -- I can see one interpretation of this that isn’t just about wanting center time to avoid elimination. It might have been a reference to Matthew’s difficulty in learning Korean lyrics -- he may have been worried about having to learn the lyrics to a whole new part. But if so, say so! That’s a valid concern -- why lie? What is that? 

Another issue is that Matthew’s characterization of Sub-Vocal 1 as being “half English” is a massive exaggeration. SV-1 has one line fully in English (“can I be your boy? Can I love you more?”) but otherwise is mostly in Korean.

Here’s the complete lyrics that SV-1 sings (not including parts where they all sing or where SV1 and SV2 sing together).

Eeny, Meeny 이제서야 Your turn Let me let me know 말해줘 Baby 매일 아침마다 / 이미 우정엔 금 갔지 더 고민해 봤자 시간만 / 떨림이 말해주네 대답은 그걸로 충분해 Can I be your boy? Can I love you more? 네 주위 아무것도 아닌/ 애들도 난 거슬리지 Just say my name 늘 부르던 부르던 세 글자 Say my name 또다시 두근거려 시간이 멈춘 것 같아 / 떨림이 말해주네 대답은 그걸로 충분해 / 친구 말고 Love oh baby

Here’s the complete lyrics that SV-2 sings (again not including parts where they all sing or sing together). 

Just say my name, Just say my name 네 옆에서 언제까지 Yeah 해야 할지 남사친 그거  초코우유 나야 / 재고 또 재는 손 크기 그냥 확 잡으면 어떨지 / 어제 이름과 좀 다르게 설탕 한 스푼 더 추가해  / 네 모든 걸 다 기억 자신 있어 Come here 어제 이름과 좀 다르게 (Changer!) 설탕 한 스푼 더 추가해 (Special!) 이 순간 흐르는 잠깐의 정적 어제 이름과 좀 다르게 (Changer!) 설탕 한 스푼 더 추가해 (Special!)

They’re both mostly Korean. Even that line at the beginning of SV-1, “Eeny, Meeny 이제서야 Your turn/ Let me let me know 말해줘 Baby” -- Eeny meeny isn’t real English and having that be mixed in with so much Korean, your ear stops distinguishing English lyrics and sort of just hears sounds, with the “baby” at the end, you know? It’s not this overwhelming English sound that you hear. 

So yeah, the mom excuse is just a lie, and for me, that’s the part that really bums me out, because I want to like Matthew. I kind of naturally root for the North Americans, because I am one, you know? And if he had just said, “I’m so sorry and embarrassed I made this uncomfortable for everyone. I should have been more understanding about why we had to change parts. I don’t have any excuse, I was just so anxious about everything” -- if he said something like that, I’d forgive him immediately because again, the pressure they’re under is absurd. It’s natural to feel that way. Just own it. But instead, he lied. 

And one reason that I say that Matthew is not being evil edited is that the show seems to be presenting this obviously false explanation as true. 

Look at the screenshot above. He’s talking about how Sub-Vocal 1 has so many words in English, and the on-screen images are backing him up. What they’re NOT showing is the lyrics in SV-1 that are in Korean, which is a lot of lyrics, nor are they showing the lyrics from SV-2 that are in English. They show him crying while talking about his mom and they play stirring violin music the whole time. The show is sympathizing with him. 

I’m still not saying that he’s a bad person or that any of this is unforgivable. He’s a human being and it’s natural to be defensive and anxious and all these things. It’s cool if you forgive him. Just face reality, is all I’m saying. 

Anyway. 

Ok, so we see the five trainees doing their intro bit on stage, and as I expected, they’re clearly doing a high teen concept, complete with a school setting on stage and all that. But we’re not really going to see the performance yet -- we’ll have to wait for episode 10.

Final Segment

We’ll skip to episode 10, at 49:30. Key introduces the team again, and the boys come up to introduce themselves. 

We see Lee Hwanhee in the audience for a picosecond, holding up this sign:

I think it says “Ji Woong-ee hyung”. 

The team says they want to be your first love -- they’re team Say Yes!  Then Key makes  Han Yujin say “noona I love you” over and over and I want to call Child Protective Services. 

Then they ask Matthew about his rehearsal experience, and we go into flashback mode. This isn’t just a flashback, this is a flashback to what we’ve already seen -- the team explaining that he’s not a solo artist, and him going to sit down in a lobby area. The on screen captioning is again defending him, saying “he understands his teammates, but he can’t calm down.” 

Then the on screen captioning says “one hour earlier”, but I’m almost certain that they really mean one hour later, or else nothing makes sense. MNET, can you just tell the story in order and not jump around so much for no reason?

Hanbin gives his team a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (baked goods spontaneously generate whenever he laughs) and tells them to take a 10 minute break while he checks in on Matthew, who is hanging back.

It says Soek Matthew on the left, and Sung Hanbin on the right. (By the way, the little symbol that looks kind of like a ^ symbol, that’s the S in Korean, so on the left that’s the S for Soek and on the right it’s the S in Sung. As a reminder, the square is an M and the E is a T and the H is an “ae” sound.)  

Anyway, Hanbin is checking in on Matthew, who he senses is having a hard time. Matthew denies that anything is wrong, but he’s obviously kind of sulking. They try to rehearse together as a team, but Matthew is still not feeling it.

JiWoong interviews that he feels bad for doing what he had to do, that he’s not sure how to treat Matthew from now on, and that this has been hard on him too. JiWoong has the necessary emotional intelligence to do the hard work between friends, but that doesn’t mean he likes it. Look, I’m happily partnered and am not looking to date anyone else, but my friends, that is some boyfriend material right there. Being too passive to the point that you can’t even communicate about what’s on your mind just allows things to fester. Nothing against Hanbin, who is truly trying his best and doing a decent job, but JiWoong is the hero of this story. Find yourself a person who can communicate like that. 

We cut to dance rehearsal with the psycho dance teachers, who ask Hanbin and Matt about their bromance. Turns out they never actually performed together on the show. Leader Hanbin shoos away a herd of passing unicorns, then explains that the group has been training for a week, but that they just changed some parts today. 

The dancing doesn’t go well -- the judge yells at them because the mood "isn’t cute" -- especially Matthew, who isn’t “managing” his facial expression. They try again, and Matthew continues to sulk. The dance teacher reminds them that they have to not let any conflict between them show on stage. They try a third time and it still doesn’t quite work. 

Matthew’s interview comes in like a voice over, narrating over the scene, saying that he feels bad that he made the mood like this and got his teammates in trouble. He says, “I realized that I can’t keep being like this. At this rate, I might screw up our performance.” Good, Matthew, good start. You’re on your way! Keep it up.  

The fourth time through, they manage to pull it together. 

Later at the dorms, JiWoong goes to visit Matthew. JiWoong is wearing what appears to be pinstriped pajamas. Of course he is. JiWoong asks if Matthew is ok, then adds, of course you’re not. Matthew is still held back a little bit by not being 100% fluent in Korean, so it’s hard for him to explain his exact feelings, but it’s something similar to betrayal. You know, that feeling that Woongki and Seo Won and Ollie and Takuto probably felt when you voted them out of the team? I mean, just sayin’, there’s plenty of betrayal going around, and it’s probably better to count your blessings.

JiWoong says, “I considered all day whether or not I should talk to you. In any case, I should apologize to you since the parts were changed [so late].”  Matthew says he understands why JiWoong did what he did and that his (Matthew’s) reasons for wanting SV-1 were selfish. (We don’t see any further mention of the Mom/English lyrics story.) 

JiWoong says he needs to be a good hyung (older brother figure) to Matthew, but it really goes beyond that -- he’s the embodiment of forgiveness and patience. He said what he needed to say and now he doesn’t hold a grudge. Next time someone pisses you off, think, WWJWD? And unless that thing is showing your nipples, do that thing. I mean, unless it’s a good time to show your nipples. I don’t know your life. 

Matthew commits to Sub-vocal 2 and begins working on the lyrics. They’re tricky for him, which backs up my theory that part of his issue was fear at having to learn a new set of lyrics. 

We see the team rehearsing and they all seem to be getting along much better. At dress rehearsal they do a great job, and Matthew is all smiles. The judges cheer. Matthew interviews that he has finally realized that the team is the most important thing. Good! 

Honestly, I really can forgive Matthew for all of this, but the whole Mom/English lyrics bit was really… icky. Just come out and say it, guy -- say, “I wanted the big part because I’m anxious because my rank fell a lot from 2nd to 4th and I’m worried that I won’t debut after all and it’s all I can think about.” That’s fine, that’s a normal way to feel. Sigh. But I guess he thought that the audience at home wouldn’t forgive him for that so he made up the Mom lie? 

Anyway, it’s finally time! 

The performance begins.

My take: Well, the thing is, I’m not really into this kind of song -- new jack swing lite, I guess you could call it -- but I try to critique songs within their genre, and for a song of this genre, it’s ok. It’s cute. It doesn’t grate or irritate. 

What’s more relevant is that the boys do a really good job with it. Their dancing is lively, their singing sounds great, their on-stage chemistry is convincing, and while I know they had an MR, I think a lot of their vocals were live and really, it was good. The staging didn’t compete with the performance, and their outfits made them all look cute. It all came together really well. The part where they all say their own names at the end is really cute, too.

I think that Matthew and Seung Eon did the best job in terms of stage presence. Weirdly, Sung Hanbin’s smile didn’t really convince me -- I saw stress on his perfect face, rather than cute happiness. He's still preternaturally charming. Han Yujin seemed to be holding back, but I’ve always thought that about him. And Kim JiWoong seemed a little uncomfortable. That’s just how they seemed to me and maybe I’m the only one who thinks that. I still think all five of these guys are super talented and I can see why someone would like them and vote for them. 

After I wrote all that, I showed the performance to my fella and asked him what he thought, and he said that he thought the “chaotic teenager” energy they gave off suited the song. He picked out Matthew as the best one, picked out JiWoong as not fitting in (he said that the rest looked like they were confessing a crush, while JiWoong looked like he was promising a good lay), and said that Hanbin looked really exhausted. I swear that I didn’t tell him about the tension in the group, or that  JiWoong was known for doing sexy concepts! He just picked up on that anyway. He’s not really into vocals or dance specifically so he was mostly judging based off of vibe. 

I *am* into vocals, and I just want to say again how good of a job I think Yoo Seung Eon did. In other performances, I found his voice to be a tiny bit too thin and screechy for my taste, but he sounded much better here. I think he’s quite a talent and I’d love to see how his singing continues to improve as he matures and gets even more training. I actually think he’s ready to debut now but I also don’t think he’ll make top 9, so we’ll have to wait for the Yuehua boy group coming in, IDK, 2024. Seriously, I’m so looking forward to it! 

Am I sad that TaeRae wasn’t the main vocal of this song? Yes. Yes I am. But I don’t hold it against them. Hanbin sang well, especially since he considers himself a dancer first. 

Congratution on your gradution! 

The Edit I think the edits on these five mission stages will all be kind -- we’re at the point when the show wants us to like every performance. Mostly they just show the performance, without a ton of instant replays or reactions, but they did have to interrupt a few times to see the audience losing their shit for Matthew. They even threw in a shot of Key smiling. When the song is over, they really dwell on the audience reaction. The audience is LOSING THEIR SHIT.

Afterwards  Backstage, the boys are really happy and proud. Then Key walks by and says “you remind me of me when I was younger,” which is probably a moment that they’ll take out of the memory bank and stroke like a soft blanket on sad days. 

We don’t find out who came in last, which was also the case for En Garde -- MNET jiggery fuckery again.

And who do you think wins the audience vote? Come on, take a wild guess! Was it... maybe... Sung Hanbin? Yes, indeed, it was -- with 826 points (so Haruto still has the highest individual score). It’s this Hanbin's first time coming in first -- he lost to Hui in Love Me Right and lost to Zhang Hao in Tomboy. 

Am I crazy, or does there still seem to be a bit of awkwardness between Hanbin and Matthew? JiWoong talked it out with Matthew and cleared the air, but I think Matthew and Hanbin need to have a similar conversation at some point soon, or there will be awkwardness in their friendship for a while to go.

And that’s about it for this recap. Thanks as always for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one!

#boys planet recap #boys planet #sung hanbin #seok matthew #kim jiwoong #yoo seungeon #han yujin #say my name

[rainofaugustsith]

Bad SWTOR choices

I accidentally reblogged and replied on a post I didn't mean to, but I did want to talk about this - how many times the LS/DS choices in SWTOR and particularly KOTFE and KOTET seem completely off base. Top four: The reactor in KOTFE chapter 3. 

Okay, to recap: the Outlander has just been freed from carbonite, where they were slowly being poisoned to death. They are doing so poorly that Lana has to help them walk at some points. They are on a planet they know nothing about. There's a nuclear reactor Vaylin has ripped from its moorings, and the actual nuclear physicists who tend to the thing have given up on it. So of course it's perfectly reasonable to expect the half-dead Outlander to fix it, and to treat them like a monster if they make the sound decision to not try to learn nuclear physics in two seconds. 

Better decision: give the Outlander a choice to try to help people evacuate and make that LS/DS. That would still fit with Koth's desire to help people and could still be used to influence his opinion of the Outlander, but would be more realistically and logically in line with what could be done. Since nobody knows what the Outlander looks like at this point it could also be used to create more conflict/nuance for Zakuulans. They've been told the Outlander is a monster but - this person who looks just like the Outlander saved them. Could Arcann be lying to them?

Senya in KOTET chapter 1. 

So the planet of Voss is being bombed to pieces, and Senya doesn't give a single fuck about that. She just wants you to save her son, the dictator. Who has shown zero remorse and has literally run the Outlander through with a lightsaber. Your two choices: let Genocidal Dictator Boy join the Alliance and work right alongside the people he's actively tried to murder, or refuse and be considered a monster. Choices, choices. 

Better decision: Refuse to save, imprison for war crimes, save, save without joining Alliance. All of which should be neutral. They could have even branched this off further - does Arcann go off to atone through his actions of trying to help rebuild? Do you just let him flee and become a ghost? Is he turned over to the factions and put in jail? Or do you execute him?

SCORPIO in KOTET chapter 5.  HOW many times has SCORPIO lied to you, tried to do away with you and otherwise caused extensive trouble? Bonus for Imperial Agents, how many times in the class story did she casually mention she eventually wants to murder you? Of course, by all means, let her merge her consciousness with the homicidal cyberplanet who has just tried to murder you and has horrific weapons at its disposal. I'm sure no harm could come from that. After all she promised she won't bother you. It's not personal. 

Better choices: - Let SCORPIO merge with the promise of helping you destroy the faction of your choice later (DS - hey, I SAID it's a dark side choice so let's go for the goalpost with it) - Kill SCORPIO (neutral), - oho, what's this? You've been able to completely neutralize SCORPIO and contain her in the Gravestone with the super special top secret program Doctor Oggurobb has been working tirelessly on for months since you learned SCORPIO wasn't dead?? Whoohoo! Victory without death! (LS). 

Dramath in KOTET chapter 7. 

Because you haven't been subjected to Valkorion's family enough, here comes Daddy Dramath. Who is imprisoned in a holocron in a max-security basement crypt and swears, up and down, that he will go away and not bother you if he's set free. I mean, you have so many reasons to take Family Valkorion/Tenebrae at their word, right? It's not like this could be a malicious Force ghost. You've never run into any of those, nope. And it's not like you're on a planet that has been corrupted into something terrible in the Force (or lack thereof) which might make it even more dangerous to release ghosties you meet. 

Better decision: - Free (LS), - Keep - but swear to release after you've defeated Valkorion and keep that promise(LS), - Imprison and tell Dramath he's your servant forever, mwahahaha (DS). Let that be the differentiating factor in whether he helps you or not in KOTET 9. 

#swtor #anti Arcann #rain talks swtor #kotet spoilers #kotfe spoilers

[theworldvsyoshiko]

Every time I look at the ideoligions of this planet I find myself thinking that it's probably the biggest variety I've seen. I'm used to 80% of them being Supremacist/Raider Our Foundational Myth Is Fuck You, Give Me Your Stuff. So let us take a tour of the belief systems of the planet Al Chertan, which is apparently its name.

We've got

the eldritch bushido pirates of course. That's just a recap.

'Bugs aren't just people but BETTER people and if you disagree we will FUCKING KILL YOU.' I like how this myth doesn't give any justification for why bugs in particular are good.

The medieval societies follow some kind of anti-slavery communism whose foundational myth is death metal music video shit, which kicks ass.

Half the societies on the planet follow Germ Animism.

Whatever the hell this is. I think if your myth is five sentences long, you shouldn't use one of them on 'Once our founder saw a dog growl at a boy.'

All of the Vikings are like 'racism is bad and also I think that the only ethical society is one in which I can transplant a second dick onto my forehead without judgment.'

'The spirits don't like it when you wear pants. It's as simple as that.'

#the dancing flock loves you unconditionally

[soulpunchftw]

UNCOMFORTABLE ADVANCE WARS RECAP

We got:

* Orange Star! Pew pew, ‘Murica! Just like in real life, they’re the main characters of everything. Our commanders include President Hot Aunt Vibes, Ash Ketchum with wrenches, Steroids Man, GI Jane, and a little old Japanese shop keeper for some reason.

* Blue Moon! Russia but without the unrelenting horror! So many vague communist aesthetics but without anything to show for it, you’d think it was the Democratic Socialists of America. Our commanders include Actual General Winter, Lazy Cowboy, and a rich nepotism baby who fights with human wave tactics (which might be the most Russian thing ever put in a game).

* Gold Comet! Imperial Japan but now with 100% fewer blood-curdling war crimes! Originally called ‘Yellow Comet,’ but someone at Nintendo finally realized that this was a REALLY questionable thing to call an Asian country. Our commanders include an emperor who proves that it’s possible to be both Japanese AND a weeb, the only intelligent person in the entire series, and Grandpa ‘Nam Veteran.

* Green Earth! Slutty Eurotrash with tanks! Very insistent that nothing whatsoever happened between 1933 and 1945, thank you very much. Our commanders include Blitzkrieg Bishonen, the lovechild of Stede Bonnett and Jimmy Buffett, and tank lesbian.

* Black Hole! They’re the Bad Guys! They appear to be aliens, Nazis, and/or Hot Topic mall goths- but their similarities to the people of New Hampshire end there. They’re here to conquer the planet, despoil the environment, and make angry YouTube videos complaining about ’forced diversity.’ Commanders include Literally Darth Hitler, the obligatory dumb brute that every bad guy squad is required to hire thanks to Affirmative Action, Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, a sexier Marilyn Manson, and Scar Fullmetal Alchemist.

Dual Strike, which is (honestly thankfully) not included in the remake, also adds the following commanders: Nuclear Nepotism, a white boy trying to become a rapper, another rich communist, Kamikaze Wario, Don fucking Quixote, meme robot, hobbit ninja, Karen, and Somehow Palpatine Has Returned

#advance wars #advance wars 1+2: re boot camp #advance wars hype #nintendo

[minniesmelody]

Hi it's my birthday ( I know, that last thing I said is not that important ) , but I love your fan fic, especially if they all have Gareth as the main protagonist, I would like to know how is Gareth socializes with a girl, who tries to get friends on her first day of school , girl of which no one takes importance because that typical nerd , as Gareth would approach her to strike up a conversation with her.

First impressions

𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 : Gareth Emerson x Fem! Nerd!Reader

𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: first day of school in the town of Hawkins was many things, Y/n never expected a warm welcome by curly headed boy to be one of them.

𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝘀: pure fluff. Some cussing but very little.

𝗣𝗼𝘃: first person- Gareth

𝗔/𝗻 : happy birthday my love! I can absolutely write about that and thank you for your kind words! I hope today treats you good and hope most of your birthday wishes come true, with love- 🐭🎀 x

It was a normal boring school day. It was a Wednesday for crying out loud, one of the worst days of the week if you ask me, and the fact that-

“Gareth, hey Gareth” Jeff said to me as he caught up with me, as I walking to first period, it’s too damn early for this.

“Yeah man, what’s up?”

“Did you see the new girl?” He asked, a twinkle in his eye.

New girl? Who? What? Where? Huh?

“Wait- have you not seen her yet? She is in the same grade as you dude, she made quite the first impression” Jeff said, a small fit of giggles escaping him afterwards.

“What do you mean quite the first impression?” I asked.

“She tripped on the stairs and fell on top of Carver when she first walked into the door, I kinda feel bad cause she did sorta embarrass herself not even a whole Minute of into the school” Jeff explained to me.

Yeah no that does sound kinda bad.

“Well this is my class, see you at lunch” Jeff said as he parted ways with Gareth.

Gareth soon reached the math classroom which was assigned his first period and took his usual seat in the back row. Class had started, usual boring nonsense of numbers and symbols filling his ears. All of that was interrupted though when someone had entered the classroom.

“I’m sorry but is this classroom B29?” The person said, voice belonging to a girl.

“Ah yes, you must be Y/n, the new transfer student, got lost is my guess in why you are late to my class?” The teacher asked her.

“Yes ma’am, I’m sorry it won’t happen again”

“Yes well, welcome to Hawkins high Y/n, please take a seat somewhere, I was just recapping everyone on how to get the area of a triangle”

I slowly looked around me…damn…the only place left to sit was next to me in the back row. She spotted the seat and took it, slowly sitting down and get trying to get comfortable.

Her outfit was simple, jeans with a red fuzzy cotton sweater and a pair of converse. She had managed to make something so simple look absolutely amazing.

I had caught myself staring, only because she must have felt my eyes burning onto her that she turned her head towards me and shot me a small smile.

Time felt like it froze, like If the world had become Ice.

I didn’t even give her a smile back, just quickly whipping my head back to the chalkboard and trying my hardest for the entire period to keep it that way.

That was the first time I saw her.

The next time was 3rd period, science.

And of course, Mrs. Smith, had placed us next to one another.

We didn’t say anything to one another. But during the class I frequently looked over and watch her. She was doodling in her note book for most of class, different things from stars, to planets, and she even drew a perfect detailed picture of a light saber. What I didn’t expect her to draw next was little dice, mostly D20s, and then it donned on me.

‘Holy shit’ I thought to myself, this girl likes dungeons and dragons. I’ve never met a girl who likes the game, most girls wouldn’t call it a satanic game, the game of the devil in other words. But this girl…not her.

That was the second time I saw her that day. The next was last period. I hadn’t seen her in the cafeteria at lunch, if I did maybe I would have picked up the courage and introduced myself but she wasn’t there, so I didn’t get the chance to.

Last period was P.E, my least favorite class. Coach had given us a free day to do whatever we liked in the gym, I looked over and saw her take that opportunity to go and sit behind the bleachers.

Not very athletic huh? It’s okay, I’m not either. That being one the main reasons why I failed P.E, everyone else ended up with 80s and 90s, while I was stuck between 50s and 60s. But that’s not important right now.

I decided this would be a open chance to introduce myself, so I slowly followed her, stopping a few times along the way to make sure coach or no one else saw me.

There she was, sitting there, a book sitting in her hand, sitting crisscrossed on the floor underneath a bleacher.

She looked so…calm. So care free. Like she was in her own bubble or world, one that included only her and her thoughts. The sight was almost an-

“You know I can see you right?”

My head shot up, I wasn’t expecting her to say something, let alone say something without even looking up, without taking her eyes off the book.

“I- uh- I’m- I just-“

Good job Gareth. Stuttering and making a complete fool out of myself was most definitely the best way to go.

She finally looked up. Her eyes burning into my own. Her eyes were beautiful.

“Hi” she said, a small smile forming on her lips “I’m Y/n”

Y/n. Why did it sound so…good? It definitely fit her. Pretty name for a pretty girl I guess.

“I’m uh- I’m Y/n….WAIT NO..I’m sorry you are

y/n, I’m um…I’m Gareth…”

Good. Fucking. Job. Gareth. Emerson.

“Nice to meet you Gareth” she said with a small giggle.

How did my name sound so good from her? I’ve never loved the sound of my name so much in my life.

I looked down and there sat the book she was reading, it was a Dungeons and dragons guide.

She followed my eyes, hers landing back on the book.

“Dungeons and dragons huh? You play?” I asked her.

“No but I always wanted to play, most people aren’t fond of the game so no one really is up to play”

“Hellfire” I said as soon as she was done saying what she needed to say.

She gave me a puzzled look “sorry?”

“I uh- hellfire, it’s the club I’m in, we play it, Eddie our DM, I could ask him if he could consider you joining” I offered

She just gave me the warmest smile I’ve ever seen “I’d like that”

I knew after that I would try my best to make her feel as welcomed, excepting, and loved to the best of my abilities.

Promise.

#stranger things #hellfire club #gareth emerson #stranger things imagine #gareth stranger things #gareth emerson x reader #dungeons and dungeons #dungeons and dragons #nerdy!reader #gareth the great #minnie speaks🐭🎀 #pls i love this request #hawkins high #corroded coffin #unhealthily obsessed with this man