#but the romance made me feel nothing and the entire dynamic was a bit bland imo | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lizacstuff · 3 years

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Your thoughts on the epi? And the trailers? I'm loving the in love Edser! We've waited so long for this!!!

This episode was so fun and fluffy! I don't know about you, but I am enjoying the tone during this second season. A lot. I don't care how stupid the audition process was for the spot in the school, it gave us some very good comedy and a lot of USTy, sexy, flirty goodness.

And like you, I also love in love Edser!

Thankfully this episode was dominated by Edser, and with Kiraz at Granny's house we even got some alone time. The supporting characters were used to good effect this episode, Engin and Piril were the funniest they've ever been, Kerem and Pina served to poke Serkan about his mentoring style, and it was actually nice to have an excuse for Ayfer and Aydan to share a storyline again.

(more under the cut)

However, we'll start with Burak and Melo. UGH. I mean I love Melo and Elcin has done a really good job of showing Melo's heartbreak and trying to hide her melancholy behind her usual bubbly personality, but I really can't stand that it's over such a dud of a character. I know I'm a broken record here but Melo deserves better than this fool. Honestly, he's such a bland sad sack I don't really get why Melo loves him, Eda wants to be friends with him and Ayfer thinks he's so great she wants him for a nephew-in-law. Well, for Ayfer the only qualification is that he's not Serkan, so never mind that question.

However, maybe there's some hope? Before this episode it seemed certain they were heading in a romance direction, but the way he told her she was like a sister to him? Is there really any coming back from him saying that after he remembered kissing her? On the other hand we're barreling towards the end here and there's not really enough time to introduce anyone new for Melo (and no indication from spoilers that they have) and I'm pretty sure Ayse and the writers want to give her a romantic happy ending (although I'd be fine if they didn't and instead had her go off and do something entirely for herself like go back to school or travel or open a shop). So we'll see, because even with the sister line they left some room open because Kerem was the one who suggested he say that (it wasn't necessarily his own idea) and with Melo he seemed to be coming from a place where he assumed he had forced himself on her and she was angry because she didn't want it. Which we know is not true, so might be a misunderstanding that leads to something more. Anyway, I guess we'll just have to endure whichever way they go.

Personally, I like the Serkan-Kemal father storyline. I think it's a good way to add a bit of drama in the waning episodes, gives Serkan a bit of an identity crisis, interestingly mirrors his own situation with Kiraz, and it just makes sense with everything we know of the characters. Because were we seriously supposed to believe that someone as sniveling as Alptelkin sired Serkan? I mean Serkan is the epitome of BDE, he has an inherent charismatic and commanding presence. Sorry to the actor who played Alptekin, but he didn't really have any kind of presence, however Sinan who plays Kemal, does. They've done a great job of casting, because it just feels true. I believe Kemal and Serkan share genetics.

However, even before that storyline starts in earnest, it's interesting that Serkan was being a big baby, not wanting his mom with a man she clearly loves. I wish Eda would have pushed back at him a little more when he was going off that Aydan shouldn't pursue love at her age! Does he think he'll be out of love with Eda by the time he's in his 50s and 60s? Of course not! I'm guessing Eda, though, is just letting him blow off some steam and come to accept the relationship on his own terms. Don't get me wrong, though, after all the meddling Aydan's done with Edser, she more than deserves to have Serkan's opinion of Kemal negatively impact her!

Loved that Kiraz and Can found out first that Kemal is Serkan's father! Cat is out of the bag, Aydan, you can't make a deal with a 5 year old, lmao. It put a nice ticking clock on the whole thing and gave us some good comedic moments where Kiraz is speaking the truth and everyone thinks she's just really fond of the dude. Hee.

Also I enjoyed the Aydan and Ayfer moments. To be honest, I also used to enjoy their true friendship moments when we got them, like when Kemal first appeared and Aydan was freaking out and needed Ayfer and Seyfi around her, and when they were trying to hunt down Deniz after the fake wedding turned real. After so much animosity, it was nice that Ayfer recognized that Aydan was truly in distress and needed a friend and they were able to actually talk. Also we got some (mildly) funny comedy with the two of them and the school lady. Speaking of Ayfer, thankfully she finally realized some consequences to her actions in pushing Burak at Eda. She hurt Melo! Glad she finally opened her eyes to see what should have been obvious to her (Eda never saw him that way, and Melo obviously did) and apologized to Melo. I'd like it if she would apologize to Eda as well, (and Burak deserves an apology as well because she most definitely gave him false hope) but since Eda wasn't influenced by her we probably won't see that.

Switching to Eda and Serkan this episode gave us lots of good stuff. This was a great episode for showing us where each of them stood. Eda is terrified of getting hurt and trying to hold him at arm's length even while he clearly is inching back into her heart, and Serkan is dreaming of their future together, and taking every opportunity to tie them together. How much did I love Serkan admitting he was poking at Eda, and doig things to make her angry, just so she would talk to him? Interesting that he's doing it and love that he's being honest and admitting it to her. One of my favorite relationship dynamics between them is around "talking." In the very beginning Serkan did a lot of complaining about how much Eda talked and how she never shut up, but starting around episode 18 all he wanted was for Eda to talk to him. And this is just more of that. The thing he wants most is to talk to her.

Plus watching domestic Edser is just so much fun, I could watch their full grocery shopping trip in real time and be perfectly happy, lol. At the age of 35 it's time that Serkan learn how to do a few things for himself, I don't care how rich he is, so it's nice that we see him evolving a bit as he embraces the dad role.

The jealousy gambits, even as mild as they are, are getting pretty eye roll worthy since Eda and Serkan are living together, care so much, and obviously are still so hot for one another. It's a bit more understandable from Serkan since Eda is the one creating the barrier between them, but are we really supposed to believe that Eda is jealous of Deniz when Serkan is so obviously in love with Eda and planning their future together? Especially when he clearly can't stand Deniz and tries so hard to avoid her? I suppose it's to show us that Eda is in a jumbled state, her head is trying to keep space with Serkan, while her heart wants him badly and is scared he's going to take her rejections seriously. Even so it was quite irrational for her to get angry at Serkan for having lunch with Deniz when she ordered him to leave with her. Poor Eda is in emotional turmoil.

It was hard to tell with shaky translations, but I guess Serkan claimed to have been injured while rescuing Eda and that's how he talked his way into her bed? Impressively done, Serkan. Love it because it meant we all got to wake up to snuggly family, snuggling together. This gave us another glimpse into Eda's psyche, she wakes up first, and is clearly enjoying it and feeling at home in his arms, until the sleep clears enough and her head realizes she's not supposed to be enjoying it. But once again Kiraz knows how to handle her parents and their complicated relationship beautifully and fixes everything with a pillow fight. That is one smart cookie.

One of my favorite moments of the episode is when Eda is trying to convince Serkan to go to Aydan about the school. Eda knows that her big eyes still work on him, and they did. He still can't say no to her, another one of my favorite relationship dynamics of theirs. I'm super glad some things never change. Speaking of their visit to Aydan's, how great that they went to meet the horse without a name as a family, and then Serkan finally came up with the perfect name. Definitely a star.

Love, love, love that Serkan and Eda beat Engin and Piril when it came to the 'how well do you know your spouse' game. They may have been separated for 5 years, but they both have a genuine interest in the other, so they remember things, and they always made a much more compatible couple than Engin/Piril who have absolutely nothing in common. Of course I adored all the fake married hijinx this gave us, not to mention all the opportunities for Serkan to touch, kiss, and hold her. SO MUCH UST!

The heart-to-heart on the bench was well done and it finally gave us Eda opening up and telling him what's been holding her back. She's scared. Of course she is, the poor thing. Serkan might have thought he was doing it for her own good both times, but he ripped her heart out twice (not even counting all the heart ripping he did during amnesia) how could she not have fears? Of course she's afraid! Whenever she lets herself love him and be loved by him, it's ripped away horribly, and often in ways that feels like it's him doing the ripping. She can take into consideration the circumstances, which she has or else he wouldn't be anywhere near her, and still need time to be sure she's not just setting herself up to get emotionally demolished again.

For Serkan's part all he can do is keep being there, being honest with her, and showing he's in it for the long haul, which I think he's doing and which is why they are where they are at the end of this episode.

Engin and Piril's dance practice is probably the first Engin/Piril alone scene that I thought was genuinely funny and fully enjoyable. I can't think of another... message me if you think there is one, lol. Elsewhere, I saw some folks saying that Engin and Piril should have won the dance competition, because they actually danced, and Eda and Serkan didn't. LOL, you think? I'm pretty sure that was the point. That Eda and Serkan didn't really dance, all they did was get up there and turn their sexual tension and intense smoldering towards one another up to eleventy and won because it's that powerful.

It's sort of a metaphor for this whole series. Sen Cal Kapimi is 100% powered by their chemistry. Of course they can win any competition by just pressing their bodies against one another! They can turn a ditzy Turkish summer romcom that probably should have gone 13 eps into an international hit that's going on 50 episodes, just by looking at one another.

I'm glad that the school officials overheard their conversations and dismissed them, any organization that requires this of the parents, is going to be a lifelong pain-in-the ass, lmao. Also it was good to see Edser and EnPir make up by the end.

Now, on to that ending. I'm glad the subject of the tatoos was brought up, interesting that Eda kept hers until a few months ago. Also interesting that she moved it... can't blame Serkan for wanting to see it. Was that one great seduction line, or what?

I join with everyone who thinks it was a slightly awkward place to leave the episode. We only have 13 (probably) episodes this season, and we've only had one kiss so far. That was definitely a moment for a kiss. Part of me thinks they were going for the cliffhanger, what will Eda do? Will she kiss him or slam the door in his face? Tune in next week to find out! Except that audiences have to wait no time at all for the fragman and that makes any such cliffhanger moot. So what's the point? Have her pull him in, kiss him, and the show can end with them passionately making out and the door slamming with the camera outside the house.

Oh well, it is what it is, and we can only hope they pick up next week right where they left off. As for the fragman, obviously they are fully back together for this episode which means she lets him in to hunt for her tattoo. (please oh please give us that internet ozel because I don't think I can stand being online in this fandom if they don't. Thankfully I'm traveling next week and will be too busy to spend much time on twitter.)

As I said in another ask, I'm not surprised Serkan is barreling them straight towards marriage. When you know, you know, so why wait? Once they emotionally commit to one another, they need to just get married. No waiting for psychos to interfere, family to meddle, or tragedy to strike!

Seriously can't wait for a full episode of them together and Serkan figuring out how to propose. I'm also looking forward to the Kemal/Serkan stuff, it will be interesting to see how he reacts once the news sets in... should be a great episode!

#Sen Çal Kapımı #Sen Cal kapimi #edser #sckask #sck episode discussion #edser discussion #sck 2x46 #serkan bolat #asklizac #architecture

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stargleam-star · 3 years

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Time to talk about Leopardstar's Honor. Spoilers below! Also I share my controversial opinion so be aware of that too. Strap in folks, this is gonna be a long post.

Alright I am gonna start this shit off by confessing: I am not a Leopardstar fan. Like at all. But I was hoping her super edition would change my mind. It worked with Crowfeather's. So I thought "finally, I'll get to understand why everyone loves Leopardstar so much". But this book didn't change my opinion of her at all. In fact it might've made it worse. However, I do think at the very least Leopardstar was written dynamically. She's complex in that she wants what's best for the clan, but does the worst things possible and winds up getting clanmates killed as a result. Her personality sucks, but that's completely my opinion. I don't like people who think and act like she does. The whole book she was like "I'm special uwu" which is annoying. But that doesn't make her a bad character.

Beyond the characterization of Leopardstar, I think the world around her felt a little bland. Especially in compare to how it was described in Crookedstar's Promise. In that book I felt like I was actually walking through Riverclan territory with Crookedjaw. But in this super edition I felt confused at times.

Now to rant about my biggest disappointment with the book: Leopardstar's relationship with other characters. Once again the erins decided to treat foster siblings like they aren't actually family. I kinda liked that Skykit was a little shit towards Leopardkit in the beginning, but I hoped they'd grow to be close. They didn't. In fact Leopardfur barely mentions her foster siblings once she's an older apprentice then warrior, except to refer to them as clanmates. Also Frogleap was Silverstream's foster brother, yet the erins write him as having a crush on her?? Gross. I have a lot more thoughts related to Silverstream, but more on that later.

As for Frogleap, I liked him. He was charming and nice. I was constantly rooting for him to have a good life. I don't like that Leopardfur was in love with him though, it felt forced. But the erins gotta throw in an unnecessary romance somewhere so *shrug*. I liked Leopardfur's relationship with Sunfish though, I thought that was fun. Sunfish was sweet and was a good choice to be the opposite of Leopardfur. They balanced each other out. I was sad when she died. I have no feelings on Whiteclaw though tbh

I didn't like how Mudfur was portrayed in this book. I understand Leopardfur is an unreliable narrator so his behavior seems shitty on purpose. But beyond that, he just comes off as bad. He spoiled his daughter rotten from a young age, constantly telling her how special she is (which fuels her self righteousness) then when she grows up to be greedy and hot headed, he treats her like she shouldn't believe she's more special than anybody else. Like dude you created this monster, and now you're gonna do a full 180 and claim its her fault she's such a brat? Cmon dude

Next, a Silverstream rant. I really wanted Leopardfur to have more of a connection to her. They were both born under the same circumstances (mother wasn't well, and died after giving birth). Theyre both the sole survivors of their litter. Also, they were both born to an important cat in th clan, and spoiled when they were young. And so I thought, maybe Leopardfur would form a fondness for Silverstream because of all this. They could have been written as opposite sides of the same coin. Leopardfur grew up to be ambitious and greedy. She wanted to rule her clan. Silverstream also grew up greedy, but wanted to find happiness with her mate ratherthan her clan. It would have been interesting to see how Leopardfur would handle a cat who was almost just like her. But no, we don't get any of that. Instead somehow Leopardfur finds out Silverstream is dating Graystripe. So the only interaction these two ladies have is over Silverstream's stupid teenage romance. Then Leopardfur has bitter thoughts about Silverstream's kits their entire lives. "Oh I should have looked out for Silverstream more" *proceeds to treat her surviving children like crap because their dad was born someplace else*

I wanna talk about another bit of wasted character relationship potential. Leopardfur's connection to Mistyfoot and Stonefur. Is nonexistent. We hardly get any interaction between those three until Leopardfur is close to becoming leader. Then we start seeing more of Stonefur and just a little bit of Mistyfoot. But barely. It feels as though Leopardstar picks Stonefur outta nowhere, especially when she has deeper connections with other, more experienced cats. Like Beetlenose, and her foster siblings Skyheart and Blackclaw. Hell, even with Loudbelly! Leopardstar doesn't care about Mistyfoot until after Stonefur gets killed on her watch. It's ridiculous! It's wasted character potential. Nothing infuriates me more than wasted character potential.

I will say though, Tigerstar definitely lived up to his full potential in this book. He was cruel, manipulative, cunning, and believably deceiving. I hate Tigerstar as a person. But I love how he was written here as a character. He felt fleshed out and well rounded. And I should hope so, given he's warrior's biggest villain up until the last book of Omen of the Stars. Though I didn't like the implication Tigerstar made about being interested in being Leopardstar's mate. That was gross, just cause he sucks and that makes Tigerstar×Leopardstar canon. Way to go, erins

Finally, I want to talk about the story's writing... god it was a mess. The pacing was terrible. The first couple of chapters were long as hell. The time skipping (especially after chapter 2) could be a bit jarring. And then the later chapters felt short af. The book seemed to fly past the events of TPB rather than giving us a chance to think about and digest Leopardfur's feelings during this time period. And they retconned Oakheart's death which ruins a big plot point of the first warriors arc. There were way too many spelling and grammar errors. The book was sloppily written and you can tell the erins threw everything together as quick as possible without double checking thrir work. I understand the time limit they're given to finish books, but they really should have been more thoughrough with proofreading especially with how large of an editing team they had.

Overall this book was a disappointment. Definitely up there with the worst warriors books ever written. It was a nothing burger of a story. And its such a shame it had to happen to such a beloved character's story. Leopardstar, sweety, you deserved so much better. Im sad I couldn't become a fan. And Im sorry the erins did you so dirty 💔

#leopardstar's honor spoilers #LH liveblog

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Darkwing Duck Reviews Halloween Special: Fungus Amongus and Ghoul of My Dream

Happy Halloween! Halloween Havoc races to the finish with another Darkwing Double Feature! Love is kinda crazy with a spooky girl like Morgana, and in this case “kinda crazy” means a board of ghouls stealing pizza, sentient mushrooms, grumpy spiders, student lone debt, and a gremlin who somehow sees himself as a valid romantic option. It’s a Darkwing Duck Halloween under the cut.+

We’ve made it! While I got less Halloween reviews done than I would’ve liked, I’m still happy with the ones done and there’s still two more to get in the pocket before the day’s up. So with Halloween today it seemed fitting to talk about the Justice Ducks resident sorcerer and Darkwing’s Girlfriend, Morgana Macawber. Morgana was the only one of the four to stick around as a recurring character out of the four Justice Ducks: Gizmoduck would show up once more after the four parter, and sadly Neptunia and Stegamutt just seemed to vanish but the crew clearly liked Morg a lot and her relationship with Darkwing, so she stuck around for the rest of the series, and is even the focus of the final episode “Malice’s Restaurant”, as well as a sizeable part of the comics. And it’s easy to see why as Kathie Sourcie had great chemistry with Jim Cummings and Morgana’s very presence, being a sorceress raised by the munsters and living in a creepy mansion, allowed for diffrent stories than what Darkwing usually dealt with. While magic didn’t feel like it contrasted with the world, as Darkwing’s world feels like your standard superhero fantasy kitchen sink where anything is possible, most of his foes were either super villains or the kinds of super spies you’d find in a comic book. So fighting ghoouls, goblins, and Satan himself, yes that’s an episode that actually happened, no it’s sadly not on Disney plus, and yes I will be covering it eventually, was a nice out of genre experience and a nice way to put our daring duck of mystery out of his element.

She brought something diffrent to the table, both forcing Darkwing to grapple with letting someone into his life, and with having something to focus on other than Gosalyn or crime. So I wanted to see how this plays out, so expect me to cover all her episodes and not just the Satan one or the Valentine’s Day one, though like my Tom Lucitor retrospective, expect this one to also take some time. So with that all set up, Halloween is the perfect time to begin our journey with her first two episodes.. and Morgana’s Villian Career. Yeah while she only had about 9 episodes to her name, 2 of them are as a Catwoman or Black Cat style antagonist, someone whose likeable and who are hero is attracted to, but is on the wrong side of the law.

She eventually came around, but it’s still an intresting way to start things and an intresting dilema for our hero I wish stuck around for just a smidge longer. These aren’t bad episodes with Ghoul of My Dreams being a pretty good one. If I had to guess though the reason the dynamic fizzled out.. is they simply didn’t have a lot of ideas of how to use her as a bad guy. Part of the reason i’m covering these two episodes together is that they follow basically the same plot beat, the only differences being Darkwing meets Morgana in the first one and they know each other in the second, and that the evil entity who ends up turning against her she works with is different for both. The third act is also entirely unique to each episode, so it feels less like them lazily repeating themselves on an episode and more like they genuinely realized they didn’t have a ton of ideas for Morgana as a villain and thus had her reform with the Justice Ducks two parter. And I can’t blame them: fan would get annoyed if basically every Morgana plot played out the same, and this way she could know Drake’s secret identity, and thus allow the stories to use Gosalyn, though I do wish she’d shown up in one of the villian ones just to see how that played out. But still her time as a Villian is there, and is even a plot point in the valentine’s episode, so let’s see how it played out and see what I think.

Fungus Amongus

The plot here is fairly simple: there’s been a rash of mysterious thefts in St. Canard, and Darkwing is stumped.. until Launchpad asks if they can go for pizza, because he’s hungry and Darkwing is the terrible kind of boss that doesn’t’t care about meal breaks. It makes our hungry hero realize that each of the thefts are connected to PIzza Toppings, and after thwarting the bats and spiders stealing some anchovies, figures there’s only two left: Green Peppers and Mushrooms, and so he decides it’s time to split up gang and while Launchpad guards the peppers, Darkwing goes to visit the head of the mushrom company, who naturally turns out to be Morgana. The two end up taken with one another, to the board’s annoyance as Darkwing is onto them and could stop their whole evil plan and they want to just murder his ass and be done with it. But Morgana proves seduction’s a bit more useful as she sweetalks our hero into leaving, and points out given he’s also a creature of the night in a sense, she plans to turn him.. or kill him if she has to. More on that in our next episode. The facade dosen’t last long as Darkwing goes to help launchpad at the pepper place, and ends up finding out oh no the hot lady he met five minutes ago is bad! While the board plans to feed Launchpad to mutant mushrooms, while Morgana seemingly turns Darkwing into her mindless slave.. but really just played the board and switched sides, not wanting to hurt the guy she just met because he’s cute, they defeat the mushrooms and the board who turn into mushrooms in the light because....

The day is saved though we do get the one standout bit of the episode. Darkwing despite his attraction to her, wants to turn her in, while Morgana simply teleports her house away. And thus the dance begins. As for the episode... as you can tell by how brief I was... for one i’m not doing my usual died in wool recapping for these two to get them out on time. And i’m also not because this one.. is pretty thin. The mutant mushroom and boards’d esigns are cool and Morgana is intresting.. but having seen Ghoul of my Dreams first.. it’s just not as fun, funny or good on the Morgana Darkwing dynamic. Morgana just decides because she wants to ride that dick she’ll be good for a moment, and throw away her hard worked scheme, and the board is turned into mushrooms because.. well see the lex luger pic above. It’s not a TERRIBLE episode, just not a terribly intresting one. It has good elements, but they just don’t come together well and the pizza scheme isn’t as funny as the episode thinks it is. I can kinda see why this one was buried deeper into the series and Ghoul of My Dreams is where they put focus. I just don’t have a lot to say about this one, it’s just bland and uninteresting. It’s kind of why I just sorta plopped it next to Ghoul, I needed to review it for completion’s sake, but lord if I can think of a lot to say about it that isn’t tied into the next one. So since I can’t...

Ghoul of my Dreams:

Now this is better. The basic plot is still simple but allows for a lot more intresting set pieces: It’s a slow night in St. Canard, to Darkwing’s natural annoyance, until a bunch of fire fighters start sleepwalking and throwing gold to some spiders and bats. Something is afoot and since the bats belong to Morgana, Darkwing goes to investigate her. Granted we just MET eek and squeak, but it’s easy enough to assume Morgana struck again off screen and some time has passed. And i’ts honestly what makes this episode more interesting: now it’s more of a cat and mouse game, with Morgana using their chemistry against him, but still being genuinely drawn to him and not wanting to hurt him. It’s better than “I met you five minutes ago might as well throw away my money for you”. Instead Morg truly likes Drake, but wants to keep doing crimes to, in easily the best joke of the entire series “Finally pay off my student loans”.. which makes her already not really a bad guy. I may not haves em but I know people who do. Those loan people do not play around. It’s investing and Sourcie and Cumming’s chemstiry really makes it pop. Sourcie really is what makes the character, giving her energy, sedcutivness when called for and a really sympathetic quality that makes her face turn, sudden as it is, believable. It’s why I really like the character. And I get why some don’t: Her romance with darkwing is sudden, her face turn is even more sudden, and she gets in the way of Drakepad shippers. The first two are valid criticisms, while the last one is understandable.. depending on motive. If your just bummed this relationship you don’t like is forced into the show and gets in the way of the one you actually enjoy.. trust me...

BEEN THERE. And far far worse.. I didn’t start up an entire retrospective on the guy who DIDN’T get the girl here for nothing. But if you say “oh well it’s homophobic or you hate gays” if you don’t ship drakepad, which I have actually heard for both this ship and delpad.. kindly go fuck yourself and stay away from my posts. It’s NOT homophobic to ship a character who is CANOCIALLY into women, with a woman. Launchpad had a girl of the week or two in ducktales, Drake’s attraction to morgana is canon and he also had some ship tease with Neptunia. They both like women.. but there’s nothing saying they DON’T like men, don’t want to date men, or aren’t attracted to them.

Been waiting to reference Schitt’s Creek at some point here now i’ve started watching it. It’s biphobic to say this sort of harmful shit, and it doesn’t’t help there are plenty of gay people who genuinely believe bi and pan aren’t sexualities and harm their own community by doing so. Saying this kind of shit just fuels their fire and bi people like me and pan people like my firend have a hard enough time with straight people being dicks about this. You should know and be better. Don’t bring that shit into this fandom. We’ve already ridden incest out on a rail we don’t need this. I already put up with enough bullshit being a loud house fan and having to deal with ACTUAL homophobic ships like Sam/Lincoln, aka setting up a character you don’t know to be anything but gay, versus her girlfriend whose canocially been shown to be bi if preferring women, whose the proment and well like love interest of a woman, and pair her with her younger brother to clearly troll people. Now that’s a homophobic ship and that you shoudl be angry about, not “oh no the person who likes women in canon.. LIKES A WOMAN IN FANON”. It’s part of what made shiping delpad hard at times because people got really dumb about it to the point someone drew some very horrible fanart just to clog up the tag. Knock. it off.

And if your curious for my actual thoughts on Drakepad: in the classic series.. i’m not a fan, but I get it, and I do think they could work... it’s just. that Drake treats Launchpad really bad, including throwing him out of the house for a year without telling him why over something that really wasn’t his fault, not feeding him, not treating him as an equal after a while. This would have to change for them to work but I could see it happening, as the comics and one of the peisodes make a point that Drake can be a pretty shitty partner to Morgana too.

And just to show i’m equal opprtunity, despite shipping Delpad in the past, i’ve moved on to Penpad and Drakepad , ironcially enough, i’m not as big a fan anymore. LIke the above, Della just dosen’t respect launchpad as a human being. She was willing to keep the Halloween thing up JUST to scare children, looks down on him, and whie is his friend, is not all that close. I could see them happening, and do still think it’d be cute, it’d just take a ton of work and there are better ships for both. And yes I do ship Drakepad in the reboot, but there the two aren’t employer and employee, but equals who genuinely love and respect one another, listen to one another, and value each other. In the Reboot they have genuine chemistry and I could see them together, while in the original Launchpad and Morgana both really deserve better.

Now that’s settled, we get a fun scene of the two primping for each other. then flirting a bit, though Morgana, in AWFUL looking black lipstick wins with the move above and has her spider web launchpad, who hates morgana.. which is one part common sense given how darkwing gets around her and one part ho yay. But yeah this is pretty much Launchpad for both these episodes.

And darkwing dick is calling the shots so fair enough. But Morgana is once again nto wokring alone and is working with a creepy, well designed gremlin, named Nodoff... eh i’ve heard worse, whose giving her sleeping dust to knock out her targets and hits on her constnatly. Naturally he plans to betray her as soon as he can, and is likely only tolerating her because he wants to hit that. There dynamic boils down to this.

There’s also tons of fun dream sequences including one at the top with darkwing being confronted by his enitre Rogue’s gallery before seeing morgana, NOdoff using baseball on Morg’s next target and some great ones at the climax. It’s part of hwy I like this episode better: While someone using dreams for stuff has been done a lot, it’s given a creative spin here as instead of killing them, Morgana’s simply using them to steal. Good stuff.

Darkwing foils their first attempt, though gets blamed for it because St. Canard is about as grateful as New York when it comes to superheroes. Morgana knocks darkwing out with some dust via Eeka and Squeak and admits Nodoff is working for her, though fobids him to harm Darkwing. This.. dosen’t last and we get another great setpiece, of sarkwing on a high dive. Thankfully, Launchpad finds him, and they find Morgana, who gives off the student loans comment. But in the struggle to stop her, Darkwing accidently puts her and the city to sleep.. and Nodoff is now super powerful and imprisons morgana. Darkwing i s back at her house, wondering what to do, but the bats give him a clue.. by flying him thorugh the door to fight Nodoff. It goes about as well as you’d expect with him freeing Morgana.. then trying to murder them both. Darkwing however pulls an Elm Streett 3 and says to think happy thoughts and take control of the dream.. which ends up at Darkwing’s Wedding to Morgana to his horror..... remind me whose the hero again. The woman who, while doing crimes is trying to pay off unfair debts, or the guy who finds the idea of commitment horrifying.

Anyways we get some more great bits, I brush over them so I don’t ahve to talk about them conantly, including darkwing getting a cake on him, before Darkwing turns the tables by finding the hourglass full of the dust.. and in a clever finale, loading it into his gun and firing it on nodoff. This puts him to sleep.. which puts him in the real world, while Launchpad uses a giant alarm clock to wake everyone. They throw NOdoff back into the dream world.. for some reason.. and the episode ends iwth morgana kissing darkwing and the episode possibly having been all a dream.

This one, while I was again breif, is a classic, with a much more interesting dynamic. Instead of a morgana who goes from willing to kill we get one whose conflicted over things, who clearly wants to be a crook but may like darkwing more than that, as evidenced when he talks her out of taking Nodoff’s offer of riches. It’s good stuff and the gags are back to the show’s usual top notch level. It’s a creative, fun episode that really helps Morgana come into her own and I look forward to more of her. Overall i’d recommend skipping fungus amongus, but DEFINTELY check out ghoul of my dreams, as it’s throughly fantastic. I’ll be back in a bit for one last Halloween review and as always you can find my backlog on my blog. i recently covered Tiff of the Titans and there’s regular ducktales coverage every monday. Until then make sure to vote, wear a mask and check your house for gary busey till we meet again! Play us out Gerard Way!

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#darkwing duck #drake mallard #disney afternoon #morgana macawber #launchpad mcquack #halloween #drakepad #drakegana

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sherrybaby14 · 5 years

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Who Am I Chapter 20

Summary: You believe your Alphas rejected you, while they believe you no longer want them.

Warnings: Angst, smut. This is a non-con/rape story. Please do not read if this offends you. A/B/O Dynamics

You sat at your lab station and tried to look busy, but you kept glancing toward the door. It had been a week since you laid eyes on another soul and were eager for Bruce’s arrival.

Imagination and wishes were starting to blend. It was easy to view the door opening and it not being Bruce.

“Hey Doll.” Bucky struggled to keep the smile off his face.

“What’s wrong?” Steve stood behind him, never trying to hide the look of concern.

“I’m sorry.” You couldn’t get the words out before you ran over to them and jumped in their arms. “I’m so sorry.”

You blinked and the images vanished. What would happen if you did apologize? You never really got the chance. Maybe they would forgive you? But that would mean risking rejection, and even though you tried to fight it, their lack of contact with you was not normal for an Alpha. It wasn’t normal for your Alphas either.

They were staying away because they wanted to because they didn’t want you. “Stop.” You yelled at your brain. This was why you needed to keep busy or else this was all that filled your head.

Finally, the sound of keys made you rise from your workbench. The door was locked on the outside, but you could push it open from the inside if you wanted. You smiled as Bruce walked into the room carrying shopping bags. It was nice to see him, but the fact it wasn’t Bucky and Steve reminded you how silly your fantasies were becoming.

“Been keeping busy?” Bruce’s voice echoed across the space. “It’s sort of creepy down here.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” You looked around and saw most of the area was dark. “Did you bring me the chemicals?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Bruce dropped some bags by the fridge. “And some food too.” You frowned, carrying more about your cell splicing theory than the bland groceries.

“Your list was a little strange. How would bromine help with your pills?” Bruce set the other bags on your work table. “I’d love to hear your theories on its impact.”

Of course, Bruce would try and interpret your list of requests.

“Maybe someday.” You tried to shake it off. “Once I’m finished.”

“Right.” Bruce nodded. “You probably don’t have time for scientific discussion. I know you Y/N, eager to get back to work.”

“Yep.” You nodded your head in agreement. At least the old you was obsessed with work. The new one still valued science but was starting to seek more of a balanced life.

“So any breakthroughs? Anything I can help with?” Bruce looked down at your lab space.

“I don’t think so.” You didn’t want him checking out your set up and asking questions. “What’s going on in the outside world?”

“You haven’t searched google?” Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Are you working non-stop? Two minds are always better than one. Why don’t you walk me through what you’ve done so far?”

“I meant how are Steve and James?” You blurted out the first question that popped in your head and cringed, immediately regretting it.

Bruce’s brow smoothed and his lips parts, softening his features. At least his eyes were on you and not the table.

“I haven’t seen them.” He tilted his head. “Do you want to see them? Send a message? Anything?”

“No.” You dropped your gaze. “Just making conversation.”

“Y/N. I guess we’ve never really talked personal before.” Bruce scratched his head. “I know I’m a little awkward with this stuff, but I’m here if you need to talk.” Bruce tried to sound sweet, but you knew he would rather discuss particles than romance. Your relationship had always been professional. When he came to see you after your heat he couldn’t even say the word.

You shook your head.

“When you broke up with them they were pretty devastated.” Bruce pulled out a chair and sat down. “I brought you back here because you needed an Alpha, I didn’t know any others and I figured with your past they were the best bet.”

“And I thanked you.” You put on a fake smile, wanting this conversation to end. “But I should get back to work.”

“Look, I don’t know much about this Alpha-Omega stuff.” Bruce held his hands up. “But based on what I know, I would say the ball is in your court.”

“Excuse me?” You knew that Bruce was missing a lot of details about how things went down with Bucky and Steve, but in what world could he think that?

“You broke up with them. Being with an Avenger was too dangerous, right? I realize that it never occurred to me, do you want to go back to them? Because I can ask.”

“Don’t.” You squinted your eyes shut and put your hands on the counter.

The last thing you wanted was to explain to Bruce about your detoxing situation with your Alphas, or how you told Loki and Tony. Plus there was no way he could comprehend their absence after your heat. It was too much.

“You’ve done enough, really.” You put on the fake smile again. “But, I am eager to get back to it.”

“Alright.” Bruce stood up. “And you’re sure you don’t want any help?”

“I’ve got this.” You went to the bags and started unpacking. “I’m fine. Really.” “Not to add pressure, but how much longer are you thinking?” He glanced at your workspace.

“No clue.” You shook your head. “I’m trying my best, but nowhere near figuring out the compound.”

“Well, keep e-mailing me. Call if you need anything. I’ll check on you next week?” Bruce gave a half smile.

“Uh-huh.” You tried to keep moving your hands to stop any sort of shake from showing.

“Okay then.” Bruce let out a loud breath and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Good thing you’re not scared of the dark.”

He walked away, his footsteps echoing. You glanced up at him as he left, then looked around the giant empty floor. It was pretty dark, but you’d never noticed.

You shut your eyes and threw your head back, feeling guilty for lying and endangering him and Tony about the pills and some relief that you’d bought yourself another week.

~~~ “Ugh.” There was a poke in Steve’s shoulder.

“See. He’s alive.” Tony sounded far away.

Steve blinked a few times and was met with a splitting headache. He groaned and sat up, pulling his head into his arms.

“What the hell did you two do?” Tony’s voice cleared.

Steve dropped his hands and glanced at the mess. The brand new table was splintered, there were pieces of drywall on the floor along with human-sized dents in the wall.

Bucky let out a groan and rolled to his side.

A light flashed in Steve’s eye and he brought up his arms, shielding the flash and seeing Bruce with a doctor’s pen aimed at him.

“I don’t need a check-up.” Steve started to stand. “Enhanced remember? I’ll be fine in a few hours.”

“Oh, I walked in and saw this mess, ran and got Bruce.” Tony took Steve’s arm and helped him up. “But not because you needed a doctor, because I wanted someone else to witness this scene to prove I wasn’t dreaming.”

Steve steadied himself as Bruce helped Bucky to his feet.

“Just so we’re on the same page, you two did this to each other right?” Tony pointed back and forth. “There’s not another villain on the loose in my tower?”

“It’s nothing.” Bucky walked towards the kitchen. “We needed to let off some steam.”

Steve heard the water going and walked over to the sink. Bucky placed a glass out for him and he took it, slamming the entire thing.

“Is this about Y/N?” Bruce looked shocked.

“It’s private,” Bucky answered.

Steve leaned against the counter.

“I’m guessing ten thousand in damages?” Tony held his arms up. “You do realize a large chunk of the building is currently under construction? You two are paying for this.”

“A bunch of stubborn morons.” Bruce shook his head. “Do you guys want to see her? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. Maybe communicating with words is better than kicking the crap out of each other?”

Steve looked to Bucky. He’d taken the lead on things and they ended up here. His best friend locked eyes with him and Steve dipped his chin.

“Like I said.” Bucky took another drink of water. “It’s private.”

Bruce’s mouth hung open and he slapped Tony’s arm. Steve knew Bruce didn’t have the entire story and was certain if he heard it they would be dealing with the Hulk in a manner of seconds.

“Well like I said.” Tony pointed at them. “You two are paying for this. Hire your own contractors.”

Tony turned and Bruce followed him. The two of them started whispering and Steve knew it was about him, Bucky, and Y/N. Betas could never understand. Bucky came up and leaned on the other side of the counter.

“You said no?” Steve knew Buck was the more sensitive one, for those few seconds he held out hope his friend would follow his heart and they would be reunited with their girl.

“You were right. I don’t want to force anything on her again.” Bucky sighed. “She had a choice, and she didn’t pick us.”

Steve stared at the ground. The feeling of dread worked its way into his bones. If Bucky felt that way too he knew what was coming soon: acceptance. It terrified him to let her go. ~~~ This time you were prepared. Your chemicals were set out exactly on the counter and you had a story for Bruce regarding your lack of progress.

Unfortunately this week you had a bit of a breakthrough on your side experiments and wished you could run your theories by him, but there was no way you could explain why you were working on that and not rediscovering your pills.

“Hey.” Bruce didn’t have any bags with him.

“Hi.” You stood up straight, trying not to look nervous.

“Make any progress?” Bruce came to your table.

“Yeah, actually.” You looked down. “I think I have it narrowed down to twelve isolated variables.”

“Good.” Bruce nodded and leaned against the table.

“Do you want me to walk you through them?” You had spent yesterday practicing.

In reality, you spent your week YouTubing hobbies some more. Meditation was never something you could master, but you were getting braiding your hair down. Your favorite had been the scientific stuff, but again you needed more supplies.

“I can’t stay long.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “Y/N, are you sure this is what you want?”

“Yes.” You gave a nervous laugh. “Why?”

“You seem…happy? Not being on the pills I mean. Are you sure you don’t want to head to an Omega home?” Bruce was trying so hard to seem relaxed you saw right through it. “No offense, but you’re living alone in a dank dark basement without going crazy. You used to be a little more uptight?”

“No. Not an option. I’m sorry it’s taking so long. I’ll try to hurry it up.” Adrenaline flared.

Creepy basement or not, this was the first time you’d ever gotten to know yourself without any outside influence. Besides that, if they forced you out of here before your heat hit you would never get a chance to see Steve and James again.

“Did you bring what I asked for? I think the acidic base could create an entirely new component.” You needed to change the subject.

“Right.” Bruce nodded. “Actually I had another idea. It’s Tony’s birthday this weekend. We’re all going to celebrate in Napa.”

“You’re joking right?” This was a trick. “I can’t leave the tower.”

Were they going to drag you away? Your heart raced so hard it felt like it was going to beat out of your chest.

“Oh no.” Bruce held a hand up and waved it. “I meant, his penthouse will be empty. I thought you could use a few days of sunlight, even if its through windows. Take the weekend off. Refresh.”

“Are you sure? I thought isolation was best? What if someone sees me?” This still felt like a setup.

You glanced towards the door and wondered if authorities were on the other side.

“It’s the weekend, most employees are gone. All of the Avengers and close SHIELD agents are leaving for the party. I think you’ll be safe. You can trust me Y/N.” Bruce stood up straight. “A lot of them left already. My flight is in thirty minutes so I can take you up now or you can stay down here and I’ll bring your stuff on Sunday.”

“Should I change?” You had on a pair of yoga pants and a white tank. It was your uniform since that was all that was in the bag of clothing provided to you. Twenty pieces of the same clothing and undergarments. “Or bring anything?”

“No. Tony knows you’re coming. It was his idea.” Bruce waved his hand over his shoulder. “Sort of a mea culpa.”

Bruce started walking and you followed. This was happening too fast. You stopped.

“Y/N, you have nothing to worry about.” Bruce kept moving when he got to the door. “But remember Tony has a pool. Live a little, take a few days off.”

You were too familiar with Tony’s pool. After spending time with Bucky in there you assumed you were on the banned list for not following his rules.

Analyzing every situation was how you’d always operated. Bruce was operating too fast.

“Or stay down here, alone. It’s up to you.” Bruce held open the door.

Your heart lurched and stomach knotted. Bruce dipped his chin.

“Come on Y/N. Let’s go.”

Even though it didn’t compel you it was easier to listen to him and leave the basement than let your mind run over every option known to man.

You walked down the long hallway to the elevator. The box was waiting and both of you headed inside.

“I wasn’t expecting this.” You didn’t want a silent elevator ride to fall back into your thoughts. “Why didn’t you mention it over e-mail?”

“Spur of the moment.” Bruce shrugged.

“So I’ll be all alone?” You weren’t sure if you were making small talk or trying to find out if two other people were going to be in the building.

“Steve and Bucky are coming to Tony’s party.” Bruce glanced at you. “Sure you don’t want to talk to them?”

You hated it that he went there. This small talk needed to drop. You looked forward and nodded.

“I know I said you looked happy down in that basement, but there was one other time I saw you happier.” Bruce kept his eyes straight ahead.

The memory made you cringe. You were wearing Bucky’s clothes and probably looked freshly fucked in front of a colleague.

Your reaction reminded you of what you had come to know though. You weren’t you on the pills and you weren’t you after being intimate with your Alphas.

There was more you cared about than pleasing them or focusing on your job. Omega or not, you were a person. You’d learned more about yourself in two weeks than you had in your entire life.

The elevator came to a stop and you braced yourself, still scared this was a trick. Instead, it opened up to Tony’s plush apartment.

“Loki.” You said the name as you walked out, remembering the last time you were here.

God of mischief was an appropriate title for him since he started this whole thing. “You don’t have to worry about him.” Bruce was a few feet in front of you and pointed up to the balcony. “Upstairs on the left is Tony’s room. Stay out of there. The right has two guest rooms. Pick whichever you like. Otherwise, you’re on your own.”

“Just like that?” The ceiling was at least sixty feet high. The huge windows showed the dark blue skyline, skyscrapers starting to light up. “You’re leaving?”

“I’ve got a flight to catch.” Bruce put his hands on your shoulders and leaned in, placing a kiss on your cheek. “Enjoy yourself.”

The gesture was uncharacteristic of your fellow scientist. But the touch almost made you cry. You were enjoying getting to know yourself, but that didn’t make you any less lonely.

Lonely. Even thinking the word made you gasp. You could lie to a lot of people, but when the truth slipped out in your mind it was hard to deny.

Bruce walked back to the elevator. You were still processing your thoughts.

Maybe you should call out, stop him, have him take you to Bucky and Steve. Maybe they would forgive you, maybe the three of you could find a way to work. Maybe it was worth a shot.

Before you could raise your concerns the ding sounded and Bruce disappeared, leaving you alone in the giant apartment.

You deserved solitude, but at least your Alphas had each other and we're going to have their friends this weekend. You could take some solace in that fact. The window called to you and you walked over to it, pressing your hand against the pane. You were about to lose yourself in your min when another ding sounded.

Bruce came back. You looked over your shoulder, unsure if you should tell him to get your Alphas or keep with the plan.

When you opened your mouth to speak you froze. It wasn’t Bruce.

Steve stepped out first. He had on dress pants and a blue button down. Bucky was right behind him dressed all in black.

“Are we the first ones?” Steve glanced around the apartment, his eyes stopped moving as soon as they landed on you.

You looked to Bucky who had also spotted you and was now staring. The dark-haired Alpha’s lips parted in shock. Steve’s eyebrows were raised too. Neither of them expected to see you.

They were about twenty feet away from you, but it felt like there was a thick ocean separating them. A small gasp escaped your throat and you shut your mouth, not realizing it had been hanging open.

“Y/N.” The sound of Steve’s voice was stronger than you remembered and it made your knees start to buckle.

This was too hard, you missed them and seeing them without being in their arms, without knowing everything was alright was too much. Even though you didn’t want to look away you had no chance of keeping it together if you kept looking at them.

It was too late though. Your legs gave out and you crumbled to the floor as a sob escaped your lips.

“Y/N, you have to calm down,” Steve spoke through gritted teeth.

The harshness of his voice made you look up. Twilight was setting in, but you saw it clear as day, his pupils starting to turn black.

Would that be so bad? Triggering their Alpha to take care of you? Like the first time. If that was going to happen you wanted to get a chance to apologize before they vanished again.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” You blurted out between sobs. “Forgive me. I’m so sorry for what I did to you two.”

“What?” Bucky stepped forward.

“I should never have left. I should never have involved Tony. I understand why you hate me, but you’re still so good you helped me and I didn’t deserve it.” You were still on your feet but needed to put your hands on the floor before you fell. “I’m so sorry. I’d give anything to take it back.”

“Hey.” There were hands on your back and under your knees, scooping you in the air.

Immediately you hands went behind Bucky’s neck as he carried you over to the couch. Feeling his body next to yours was making you melt even more. When he left this time it was going to be harder.

He walked you over to Steve, who also had his arms out. When you reached him you stretched and pulled him close and his hands went to carry you as well. Both of them leaned their heads towards you as the held you in the middle of the apartment.

“I’m so sorry.” You sniffled.

“It’s alright Doll.” Steve kissed the top of your head. “We’re sorry too.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything wrong.” You lifted your chin and glanced between the two of them. “All you did was try to help me.”

“I think we should all sit down.” Bucky kept you close as he pulled you away from Steve.

The two of them walked over to a couch and set you so you were half on each of their laps, both of them twisted slightly toward you. Steve took one of your hands in his and brought it to his lips, giving your knuckles a light kiss.

“We thought you didn’t want us.” Bucky’s metal arm snaked around your waist pulling you further onto his lap, but twisting you so you both faced Steve. “Especially after you didn’t ask for us.”

“What do you mean?” You looked over your shoulder at him. “You mean when you helped me through my heat? I thought since you weren’t there when I woke up, you were just doing your duty to help an Omega.”

“Never Doll.” Steve kissed your hand again, making you look towards him. “We gave you a choice. We wanted you to make it without any influences. I told you before we left, all you had to do was ask and we would come running.”

“I don’t remember.” You glanced between the two of them. “I didn’t remember anything from my heat. Only flashes, and feelings. I knew you were there, I knew it was you, but I was like an animal. I don’t remember any conversations at all.”

Bucky let out a small grunt and Steve went from looking shocked to sheepish. You couldn’t help but giggle.

“What?” Steve tilted his head. “How is this funny?”

“We’ve all spent the last two weeks without each other for no reason.” You shut your eyes and felt like the weight of the world was lifting off your shoulders. “So you want me?”

“More than anything.” Bucky kissed your head.

“Always.” Steve’s other hand squeezed your knee. “And you? You want us?” The warm tears formed as you tried to think of what to say, but there weren’t words so instead, you nodded furiously.

“Yes.” You kept nodding and took a breath. “I love both of you. I love you so much it hurts.”

Steve broke out in a smile and Bucky pulled you even tighter.

“Can we go home now?” You looked over your shoulder.

Bucky was smiling and he stood up, pivoting you so he was cradling you once again.

“Let’s get out of here before the rest of Tony’s guests show up.” Steve held your hand as he rose from the couch. “I want it just us for the next few days.”

“You mean the people going to Napa?” You asked. “Bruce was leaving for the plane. He told me I would be alone here all weekend.”

“Clever Betas.” Bucky laughed.

You smirked. A few minutes ago you were certain this was a setup, and it was. You rested your head on Bucky’s shoulder as you walked into the elevator. Steve hit the down button and the doors shut.

“Good evening Mr. Rogers, Mr. Barnes, Dr. Y/L/N. I have a message from Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner. They say: ‘all three of you are stubborn idiots and you’re welcome.’” The AI’s voice filled the elevator.

You pinched your eyes shut with embarrassment as Steve and Bucky laughed. “I hate it that I’m putting them in danger by being here. Unmated Omega.” You wished they had claimed you during your heat.

“We’ll take care of it during your next cycle.” Steve rubbed your back. “We promise.”

“Who knows when that will be.” You wanted it now.

It was worth the wait though, trying when you weren’t in your heat would make it next to impossible for them both to claim you.

“We have plenty of time to practice.” Bucky’s eyes danced down your face.

He steadied his gaze on your lips and licked his own. Your body flashed with lust at the simple gesture. A purr came from Steve, who continued to rub your back. There was no way it was going to be anyone but the three of you for the next several days. ~~~ You were carried up the stairs, still cradled to Bucky’s chest with Steve walking in front of you. You had never felt safer in your entire life. A warmth was spreading through your body. You were home. Not because you were back in the apartment, but because you were with the two of them.

Steve opened the door to his room and all three of you went inside. The anticipation of what was to come made wetness pool at your core. You pressed your legs together, aware that the scent was making its way to your Alphas.

Even though you knew you were protected there was a slight shake to your body when Bucky set you down on the edge of the bed.

“Are you scared?” Steve knelt in front of you placing his hand on your knee, while Bucky took a seat, putting his arm around your shoulder.

“No.” You lied and shut your eyes.

Both Alphas let out low growls and you popped your lids open. They knew you were lying.

“Yes.” You let out a whimper.

“Why?” Steve leaned down and kissed your knee at the same time Bucky kissed your shoulder. “We’d never hurt you.”

“We can tell you're getting excited.” Bucky kissed down your arm, lifting it in the air to meet his lips.

“In a way, this feels like the first time.” Your legs parted as Steve kissed down your thigh.

“Relax Doll,” Steve spoke between light kisses. “Let us take care of you.”

“There’s nothing we want more in the world.” Bucky reached your wrist at the same moment Steve came to your apex.

You gasped as Bucky lifted your arm in the air and Steve rose your behind from the bed. Both of them worked quick. Bucky pulled your tank top over your head at the same time Steve pulled off your pants and panties. Bucky’s hands went to your back and unclasped your bra right when Steve tugged off the bottoms, making you fall back into the bed, completely nude.

Both of your Alpha’s rose and looked down at your naked form. Instinct made you move to cover yourself but again they each growled.

“So beautiful Doll.” Bucky started unbuttoning his shirt.

“Our perfect Omega.” Steve untucked his and ripped it over his head.

The sight of his body rippling with the motion made you moan and even more slick gather between your legs.

Steve leaned down and grabbed one of your ankles. You pointed your toes as he lifted your leg to his mouth and started kissing. His lips felt like they were burning your skin and comforting it at the same time. The position made you fall back on your elbows, with your other knee bent on the bed and legs slightly parted.

“I bet you taste better than you smell.” Bucky’s voice made you look towards him.

You got a glimpse of his equally perfect bare torso before he fell forward, his head landing right between your legs.

“Ah!” You let out a small noise when his tongue ran up your slit.

Steve kissed down your calf, before dipping your leg and wrapping it around Bucky’s shoulder. His tongue flickered against your clit making you moan. He kept the light pressure, and you found yourself trying to use your heel to pull him closer.

“Patience Doll.” Bucky chuckled.

The bed dipped and your eyes snapped back to Steve. He came down over you and pressed his mouth to yours. You did not hesitate to open your lips and take his tongue against yours. At the same time, Bucky pressed himself harder against your pearl and you moaned even louder into Steve’s mouth.

It was like the two of them were aware of exactly what the other was doing. Steve’s tongue rolled against yours in a deep wave while Bucky used his to bring your body to life.

Steve’s hand went to your stomach while Bucky repositioned himself so that each of his arms wrapped around your thighs. You brought your other leg around his shoulder and put your arms around Steve’s neck as you fell completely back into the bed.

Fingertips ran up your stomach and the same time as another set loosened its grip on your thigh. Steve’s traced upward until they reached the bottom of your breast while Bucky’s swooped down until they lightly glazed your entrance. “Mmmm.” You whimpered into Steve’s mouth.

You found yourself trying to arch your back into Steve’s touch and flex your pelvis into Bucky’s finger at the same time. The movement was impossible and resulted in receiving either touch further while lessening the other. “Mmmmppph!” You cried out again, but Steve only deepened the kiss.

Both of them touching you, but neither giving you exactly what you wanted was driving your crazy, making you wiggle underneath them in a constant, erratic movement. Finally, you couldn’t take it anymore and flipped your head to the side, ending the kiss.

Before you could speak you started to pant.

“Please.” You panted again. “Please. I need more.”

A hand was on your chin, whipping your head back towards Steve. You gasped and another wave of excitement shook your body when black eyes looked down at you.

“That’s what you want.” His fingertips applied more pressure and started to work up your breast.

“We know what you need.” Bucky looked up from between your legs.

His eyes were just as black as Steve’s. Seeing them like this made you moan and drop your head back. It was you causing this. The first time you were so scared, but now you understood the control you had over them, your body forcing each of them into the Alpha state. It sent a surge of power through you. Right when Steve’s fingertips reached your nipple Bucky’s finger slid into your canal. Steve pinched while Bucky filled and you squealed, arching your back. Steve leaned over you and started to kiss your neck while Bucky’s wet tongue pressed against your clit again. You dropped one hand and ran it through his hair while you brought the other to Steve and did the same.

Bucky’s tongue pulsed, while Steve rolled your bud into a hard pebble. Then Bucky started to curl his finger and your legs shook. Steve used the opportunity to kiss down your clavicle until his mouth replaced his fingers.

He sucked your nipple into his mouth and began teasing it with his teeth, alternating between biting and lightly grinding the nerve center. His other hand went to your neglected tit and began giving it the same amount of attention with his fingertips.

Bucky clicked his fingers inside of you, bringing your fleshy patch to life while his mouth sucked your bundle on nerves to the point it was almost too much. The attention began to gather at your core. Everything they were doing to you traveled to the single place and piled up. Each of their motions made you climb higher and higher. It was tightening, to the point, you were a moaning mess on the bed, incapable of focusing on anything but the release that loomed over you. Steve sucked harder and Bucky clicked faster. The buildup scattered as you through your head back, the orgasm sending the pile of pleasure through your entire body.

“MmmmmMmMM!” You tossed your head to the side, certain that you were going to lose consciousness.

All the nights you missed this, missed them only intensified the orgasm. Your body craved your Alphas and you had been denying yourself far too much. Bucky’s finger slid out and Steve’s head disappeared. You curled on your side, unsure if you wanted to ecstasy to carry you into sleep or try to fight it down for more.

“We’re just getting started Doll.” The mattress dipped and hands were on your hips. “I missed you.”

You forced your eyes open as you were lifted in the air. Bucky position you so you were straddling him. He bent his knees and set your back against them, giving you the support you needed since you were still reeling from the orgasm. His hand went between the two of you, while the metal one stayed on your hip and lifted you. His cock was at your pussy, pressing against your hole. You closed your eyes as his head pushed inside of you.

“AH!” You almost fell forward, forgetting how large he was.

“So beautiful Doll.” His metal hand pushed you down.

You were soaked from the previous attention, but still felt every bit of him as your pussy stretched down. He was thick and your walls started to convulse. You whined, unsure if him filling you was causing a residual orgasm or you were struggling to accommodate him.

“Eeeee!” Either way, you let out a screech.

Your thighs slid apart as you were impaled. All of your nerves were scrambled, but there was no doubt the sensation was amazing.

His other hand returned to your opposite hip and held you upright while you settled.

Even though he was holding you up, your shoulders started to slouch. You expected to keel over, but a hand touched your chin.

You opened your eyes and looked to see Steve kneeling next to Bucky. His cock was rock hard, and right in front of your mouth.

You barely had a chance to lick your lips before he pulled your head forward. You opened your mouth and tried to relax your jaw while he pressed against your tongue.

“Good Omega.” Steve purred.

Bucky’s fingers dug into your hips and he flexed up, making you pop and take Steve further into your mouth. When the dark hair soldier lowered you back down he didn’t give you a second to recover before he lifted you up again. This time Steve’s cock went even deeper, you had to press your tongue down or risk gagging. You brought your hands to Steve’s thighs to brace yourself and moaned.

Bucky slid you up and down his pole, and every inch that left your pussy an inch of Steve entered your mouth. The taste of Steve’s precum was more delicious than you remembered and you found yourself hungry for more.

It was enough motivation to start flicking your tongue. Bucky must have sensed the eagerness return and began bouncing you faster. The stuffed feeling was sending you into overdrive and you started to rock your hips, making his cock bump into your G-spot with each thrust.

You continued working your tongue against Steve, wanting to taste all of him. The thought of his cum hitting the back of your throat, floating down into your belly made you whimper. You needed that.

So you began bobbing your head faster, desperate for all of him. Saliva started to pool at the corners of your mouth. You were desperate to taste him. “Ahhh.” Steve let out a groan.

Then you felt it. Your eyes popped open and you almost fell over, taking Steve down your throat in the process, as Bucky’s metal finger pressed against your clit.

You had been so focused on getting Steve off you forgot about the giant cock spearing you. Bucky’s finger brought you back to your own pleasure as he began rubbing circles.

The attention was too much and you cried out, trying to jerk your hips backward. You were met with Bucky’s knees, keeping you from getting away from his touch.

You jerked your head back to drop Steve from your mouth and tell Bucky you were too sensitive, but Steve’s hand grabbed your skull before his tip fell. You looked up at him with pleading eyes but were meant with the black ones staring back at you.

“Remember. We know what you need.” Steve’s voice carried a warning.

They were the Alphas. They would never hurt you. You gave your head a nod and Steve lessened his grip.

“Good Omega.” Bucky purred this time.

Your body shook in response to the praise. Bucky flexed his hips up again as his finger pushed even harder and your eyes rolled into the back of your head.

“That’s it Doll. Give yourself to us.” Steve rubbed your head, his cock still in your mouth.

Bucky was working your body too much and you could no longer concentrate on blowing Steve, instead, the only movement from your mouth was the result of Bucky lifting and dropping you

The coil of pleasure began to form again. This time you didn’t try to meet it. You let Bucky remain in control, guiding your body to its release.

Whines and moans left your lips, but they were all stifled by Steve’s cock pressing against your tongue.

“That’s feels so good baby girl.” Steve ran his hands over your hair.

“Mmmmph.” You didn’t even know what you were trying to say.

“So good Omega.” Bucky chimed in and pressed down hard.

His finger was torturing your clit at the same time he was sliding you up and down his shaft. When their praise mixed in you couldn’t take it any longer. The coil burst free and euphoria spread over your entire body.

It felt like you were falling and gasping for breath at the same time as you were flying and exploding. You had no control over your body whatsoever. And you were grateful if it meant feeling this way.

Suddenly your lungs burned and the passion continued to works its way through your veins, but it brought on the blackness as you gave over completely to the orgasm.

A hand was rubbing your back. Your breathing was heavy. You struggled to open your eyes, but the chest underneath your started to vibrate. You were cocooned by two arms, pressed tight against your Alpha.

“Such a perfect Omega.” Bucky’s voice calmed you.

Your senses started to return and you lifted your head. His hands left your back and went to your cheeks and he pulled you down for a kiss.

His tongue slid into your mouth and you barely had control of your jaw as he started to kiss you. You sighed, but he kept at it, coaxing you into action. The rest of the world started to settle in and you realized he was still buried deep inside of you, his cock slowly pulsing while his tongue moved. Your body was still tingling with pleasure.

Hands were on your hips, urging you to start to rock yourself. They must have been Steves. You whined in protest.

“You can handle more Baby Doll.” Steve encouraged you. “Trust me.”

His encouragement made you lift your hips slightly and then slide back down. You’d already cum twice and neither of them had. Even if you couldn’t take anymore you were not going to leave them wanting.

“That’s it.” Steve’s hands vanished. “Doing so well. Our good girl.”

You moaned and started moving faster. You wanted that: to be their good girl. You slid up Bucky further before impaling yourself again. Every nerve in your pussy was fried and you felt every inch of him. It was almost Utopia.

Bucky continued to kiss you, holding your face to his as your body was bent over him. There was a movement behind you and Steve’s hands slid up your thighs to your ass. He caressed your cheeks before spreading them apart.

Panic filled you as you sucked in a breath and tried to pull away from Bucky. He responded with a low growl.

“Do you trust us Y/N?” Steve situated himself behind him and you felt a coolness at your rear. “You need to relax. We only want to give you what you need.”

The adrenaline had brought you back to life, but the panic was starting to fade. You responded by returning Bucky’s kiss.

“What a good girl.” Steve’s voice was so commanding it made you relax even more. “That’s it Doll.”

You didn’t tense when you felt his head press into your passage. He pressed forward and you groaned into Bucky’s mouth. It wasn’t the first time you’d taken both of them, but it was the first time you were this aware.

Every push of Steve’s cock into your ass only made your body more aware of Bucky in your pussy. Your groan turned into a moan. It felt like your entire body was alive, even places you never knew existed anymore.

Steve kept his descent slow. You knew it was for your benefit, but it made a slow pleasure pop through you. Igniting something you weren’t sure you could handle. You tried to sit back, wanting him to enter faster.

“Grr.” Bucky pulled his tongue out and brought a hand to your side as he sat up, pushing you down with him.

“AHHHH!” You didn’t hide the scream as your through your head back.

Bucky’s movement had set Steve’s entire cock in your ass. The blond Alpha adjusted himself so his arm was on your other hip.

All three of you sat upright, with you sandwiched between them. You’d never felt this full in your life, literally or figuratively.

You reached behind you and pulled Steve’s head forward. His mouth went to your neck, just like you wanted. You moaned when Bucky dipped his head to your chest and started kissing and licking at your breasts.

Both of them were moving their cocks too slowly. You lifted yourself and them dropped back down, getting moans out of both of them. You repeated the action still feeling completely stuffed, but it didn’t stop the ache from forming.

“Ohhhh!” Your head dropped to Steve’s shoulder as you got into a rhythm. You were the one guiding it, but your Alphas worked together. Diving at the same rate. Your bodies were being guided by instinct and all they needed was each other.

“Eeeeeemmmm!” You weren’t even making coherent noises.

It was pure passion driving your beings. You were going to cum. They were going to cum. Bucky lifted his head at the same time as Steve and you lowered yourself one final time, exploding.

Before any of the sensations could be comprehended both of their mouths hit your neck again and teeth sunk in.

“AHHHHH!” You let out a blood-curdling scream.

They both hit your bonding marks at the exact time your body shook from the orgasm. Their cocks pulsed inside of you filling both of your wholes as their claim spread through your body. It was indescribable, but you tumbled over and over again into pleasure.

At that moment you sunk down and rocketed away. Pure love was filling every atom in your body, heart, and soul.

You weren’t capable of forming a coherent thought and didn’t care if you were ever able to have one again.

Pressure fell on your back and you collapsed, welcoming the free fall. ~~~ When you woke up your head was heavy. Your neck ached and your hands pulled in and touched both sides. Your fingertips ran over teeth marks. Claimed. Bonded. Mated.

Your eyes popped open. You were being cuddled by two Alphas. No, by YOUR two Alphas. It worked. You weren’t in your heat and it worked.

They said it was a one in a million chance, but you were a one in a million couple. Both of them were fast asleep as their arms draped over you, chests moving with deep sleep. You wouldn’t wake them.

All this time you were so concerned with who you were, trying to define yourself in any way possible. But now that you accepted your make up you realized that was never a question.

Every mistake you had ever made, every choice had led you to this point. And it was all worth it. You were an Omega, you were a scientist, you were smart, you were emotional, you were loved, you were in love, you were safe, you were protected, you were cherished, and you had a long, happy life ahead of you with two truly beautiful Alphas.

You were you. And that was all you hoped to ever be.

WHO AM I?

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! This was my first Marvel story so it really brought me into the fandom. I am so grateful to have people reading my stories, it means the world to me. Thank you again! Xoxo

#stucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #marvel fanfic #omegaverse

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too-lit-for-fanfic · 4 years

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The Dead Don’t Die; A Review. (Spoilers - it was shit a disappointment)

Hey guys! It’s Roen, one of the owners of this account! I’ve just watched ‘The Dead Don’t Die’, directed by Jim Jarmusch and honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in a film for a long time, and that’s saying something. The star-studded cast was completely wasted, the talented likes of Adam Driver, Bill Murray and Steve Buscemi have some enjoyable scenes, though they were few and far between, and at the best of times barely raised a smile to my face.

Let’s start on a high note, the cops. Genuinely stole the show for me. Driver and Bill Murray? Yes please. They worked so well off each other and the chemistry was really good. The dynamics between their two characters was very refreshing as well, unlike the same bland emotionless voids everyone else (aside from Buscemi) appeared to be. Loved the little nod to Star Wars, the red car scene was probably the best in the movie, actually enjoyable to watch the two with their bits of banter, actually believable characters. Just get rid of the female cop, I’m all for diversity and inclusion, but again; she added nothing to any of the scenes she was in and had little to no chemistry with the other cast. You can’t have the entire set of characters acting nonchalant and then have one just fucking bawling their eyes out all the time. Got annoying real fast. The romance between the female cop and Ronnie (Driver) was not believable at all to me. I think they were aiming for a relationship like Tim and Dawn from the UK The Office but it fell so short. Not a fault of either actor, they did the best they could with the material given, however it just seemed like a pointless side piece left out to dry in the sun for too long.

Steve Buscemi, aka Farmer Miller was probably the best consistent character. I am a massive fan of a Buscemi so that probably has something to do why I liked his performance so much but i believe the little bit of *flavour* to his voice, the passion, the anger, just made the character stand out so much more from the rest. I would have loved to have seen more of his character, he only had like three scenes which was a massive injustice. I feel as if the framing/filming of the movie could have been done so much better than it was. It may just be the directors style but it felt as if there were so many pointless scenes, like the extended amount of silence in the car with the three fucking hippies that amounted to absolutely no character development that didn’t even fucking matter because they died practically the very next scene. It was just so infuriating how so much screen time was wasted on insignificant details (like any scene with the alien, the unneeded bonding between Bill nd the delivery man, the extra bit of the two diner workers just chit chatting, the hippy trio section) when it could have been spent on actually interesting characters like Miller. Also, that hat was comedy gold.

The homeless dude pissed me off to no end. What even was his purpose? He was like some bootleg token The Lorax, wandering about the woods high off of mushrooms commenting on the capitalist ideology of the townsfolk. Did he offer anything to the plot? No. Was he interesting in the least?!for the first five minutes. Could he be removed form the story by a disembodied Martin Freeman voice? Absolutely. I don’t know if this is just the directors style but what the fuck. The last bit on phones and technology and capitalism was such a slap in the face to the audience. Propaganda. Like okay, we’ve payed to sit here and wasted over an hour of our lives to watch one of the most disappointing movies recently released, with fucking Scottish aliens, even though it was marketed as a zombie movie, to be lectured on the usage of technology? Fuck off. Pick a genre and stick to it. So much valuable screen time wasted. I think the problem with this movie in particular was, there was such an abundant cast that the movie couldn’t really spend that much time on any of them, not allowing itself to develop their characters or for the audience to form an actual bond with them. If you are to do this with such a large cast some groups must eventually merge in order to provide a semi coherent story. A big downfall on the directors behalf.

I don’t really have much to say about Bill or Hank. They were okay, bu weren’t given enough screen time for me to actually care about them dying. Their characters needed some more spicing up. I’m not dissing the actors for this though, they matched the tone of the movie very well, some things are just irreparable. Could have been done better, could’ve been done worse. The beginning scene with the delivery man and Bill was unnecessary and devoured valuable screen time, so did the awkward as hell interaction between him and the Selena Gomez character.

I don’t even know who the three teen actors were. I’m not throwing shade, but for such a star studded cast i would of thought all man members would have some notoriety. Maybe they do, please correct me if I’m wrong, I just didn’t recognise them form anything I’d seen. Their acting was alright but the few scenes they had were just so pointless. They added nothing to the story and didn’t influence the plot in anyway; at least the Scottish alien lady inadvertently got the two main characters killed, that was something. Was this part of the political propaganda the film was trying to push? If so it went completely over my head unlike all the other in your face narration. Ate up valuable screen time that could of been spent developing far more interesting characters. What even happened to them anyway? The just sort of ran off screen and that was the last we saw of them. Maybe the director forgot about that side plot, I don’t blame him, they were just as forgettable to the audience.

Don’t even get me started on the fucking.. i don’t even know- Scottish Alien?? I thought this was a zombie movie but okay. She’s literally the token badass that just fucks off in a spaceship after ultimately leading the main characters (the cops) to their death by requesting they meet her there for no apparent reason than to flex she can be free and they can’t. Honestly, personally I think this was just an excuse to subvert expectations and throw a curve ball in there for the audience. I’m sorry but just because something’s shocking or doesn’t necessarily fit doesn’t mean it’s going to wow audiences, plot twists have to make sense. If they don’t it’s just bad writing and incoherent story telling. It was worse than the *subverdion* of Game of Thrones.

Overall it was such a waisted potential and an actual chore to get through. Would not recommend, at all. If you like this film I’m genuinely happy for you and glad you’ve found something else to enjoy. However, I feel that this is the long awaited final nail in the coffin for zombie movies (which is a shame because I love the likes of Shaun of the Dead). No matter how talented the cast, and by-god did they try to make the script work, if you have lousy material and a dead story there’s only so much they can do. As a Brit, however, I do feel it may be partially down to personal preference (although the shady plot and general inconsistencies are universal) particularly in relation to the comedy. Not to be insulting but I think I was expecting more witty/intelligent humour akin to Blacladder of Shaun of the dead, the contrast with the laconic style just really didn’t do it for me. Don’t think I laughed once apart from that red car scene. However if you enjoy that type of humour good on you, it’s just it something I connect with very well.

REVIEW ENDS HERE, BELOW IS MY INTERPRETATION OF EVENTS.

‘Oh it’s easy to throw criticism, I beg you couldn’t have done any better.’ Is an argument I am anticipating, so let me pitch to you my possible plot for the movie. First of all, get rid of the three juveniles in that delinquent-prison - seriously, what the fuck was their purpose in this film? Offered nothing to drive the plot forward, didn’t effect the story, had no even slightly funny scene - and replace their screen time with the buddy-cop-duo of Adam Driver/Ronnie and Bill Murray/Cliff. Just get rid of the female cop, the chemistry was better without her input. Bill and Hank? Had potential but I think they should’ve partnered up with Steve Buscemi’s character Miller to form an unlikely passive aggressive, comedy gold, getting by on the scrape of their teeth, trio. The homeless man, again, had potential. Instead of having him as some fucking narrator with a sociology degree I would have placed him along with the Billy-Hank-Miller trio. There could have been some great scenes filled with tension between Miller and him. Out of town hippy trio? Still a thing, but for two scenes max.

Now that the playing field has been set let’s get into my rendition of the story. We start off in the diner with Harry and Frank watching the news and having some not so friendly banter. Insults based on race, lifestyle and beliefs are thrown (the hat, which was hilarious, stays) to establish character dynamics. Scene ends with Frank/Buscemi leaving the diner as the theme tune begins to play. Cut to Ronnie and Cliff stood in a cell looking over the dead woman, Ronnie’s flippancy should remain whilst Cliff should behave like a much more real human, this adds a conflict of character that the movie only briefly explored. The two are in the midst of passive aggressively talking to one another over the body - Ronnie forgot to call the people to collect it - as a client steps into the station. Cliff engages in conversation with the client who is informing him of Miller/Buscemi and Homeless dude getting into a fight on Miller’s driveway. In the background, Ronnie, in an attempt to hide the dead body, drags it off into the background, horribly failing at subtlety.

Once the client is gone the body is placed in the receptionists chair, to ‘make it look like they got around to hiring that new member of staff’ and the duo drive to the scuffle. In the car they briefly chat about the scientific events occurring with the theme playing in the background, develops the world they’re in and further establishes their dynamics and relationship. Once they arrive Miller and Homeless dude are close to throwing hands, Miller with one chicken in his arm and a shot gun in the other and homeless dude with a skinned animal in his. Ultimate cop duo extinguish the scene with jokes thrown in, homeless dude just fucking slaps Miller with the skinned rabbit, Miller nearly shoots him, that hat gets briefly confiscated by Cliff. Scene ends with the four parting ways, cops in the car, Miller up to his house in search of the rest of his chickens and homeless dude off into the wilderness.

Diner deaths happen, but the lady screaming with the mop is considerably shortened. The following scene with cops pretty much stays the same, except the female officer is no longer present. That tiny red car for the absolute tank that is Adam Driver? Absolute gold we are keeping that. Homeless dude, who had seen the dead the night before absolutely fucking recks the crime scene losing his shit trying the convince Cliff. Ronnies already on board but must maintain the law. Homeless bro gets detained by Ronnie but manages to run off with only one hand cuffed. Immediate cut to Hank talking with Billy about weapons and zombies yada yada yada except this time he’s actually a traumatised old man. As Billy goes on a tangent about zombies I imagine Hank to be like ‘Moose’ played by the old guy in Jumaji: the next level. Completely gormless but hanging off of every word.

Scene at motel happens, along with the amazing line ‘fuck farmer Miller’ delivered perfectly by Murray.

Skip to night time; cop buddy duo set out on the town with a load of guns and other assorted weapons they managed to scrounge up, their mission is to keep the poeple of the town safe, do they succeed? No. Cliff accidentally drives someone over believing them to be a zombie. At the same time Miller, absolutely fuming about his chickens, is off in the woods behind the store Billy and Hank are camping out in in order to catch the homeless dude in the act of skinning a chicken. Billy and Hank have completely boarded up the front door but unlike in the film, they realise there’s a back door because Miller comes bursting through searching for another shot gun, the undead right on his trial. The trio officially buddy up, gather weapons and set off into the woods, absolutely shit but sumultaneously amazing fight scene ensues as they make their way out of the town.

Our unfortunate trio stumble across homeless guy literally eating one of Millers chickens in the woods. Miller tries to shoot him but is stopped. Banter is tossed, a mini argument happens, everyone has some chicken (Miller begrudgingly). We cut bsck to the cops who now discover the hippy trio dead at the motel, that scene is the same. Cutting back; At the prospect of teaming up Miller throws his chicken away and stomps off into the woods, Billy and Hank following. Homeless dude chases them and attaches himself with the one free hand cuff to Miller. He now has to come.

At some point Cliff absolutely totals the car, I’m not against keeping the zombies in wheels scene. And the two cops are backed into the graveyard. The amazing four are already there struggling to survive. Miller and homeless man keep trying to run in different directions and falling over, Frank has no idea what to do with a pair of branch cutters, Billy is far too happy to be able to finally use his vintage sword that turns out to be pretty shit in the end. Fight scene ensues.

Miller and homeless dude are the first to go, they couldn’t get along if their lives depended on it, which it did. The group scramble and in the process the pair can’t make up their minds. They die arguing. Something along the lines of ‘thank god for that’ but funnier is said by someone idk who. The next to go is Billy. His flimsy sword actually brakes and he’s left weaponless. Hank goes next, he’s been bit and Murray has to shoot him. I picture the scene from Shaun of the Dead, with Ronnie telling Cliff he has to shoot him.

The final scene is when Cliff and Ronnie finally reach another town, beaten up and evidently bruised. The only problem is, the towns already been overrun. The two share one last exasperated look before they charge in to battle, the screen fading to black as the theme song plays. Akin to the ending of Balckadder season 4 But less emotional.

(I know it’s not perfect but by god it’s not any worse than the actual fucking film. If anyone else has any thoughts or ways they think the story should have progressed please message me! I’d love to hear what you guys think!)

#bill murray #steve buscemi #selena gomez #the dead dont die #jim jarmusch #the dead don’t die movie #the dead don’t die #tilda swinton #tom waits #danny glover #ronnie #caleb landry jones #adam driver

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unlikely-allies · 5 years

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****WARNING contains SPOILERS****

4/5

To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo is a new take on The Little Mermaid. Imagine Ursula as Ariel’s mother and Ariel as a blood-thirty siren. Lira, the daughter of the Sea Queen is a siren known for collecting the hearts of princes. Sirens are to collect human hearts once a year during their birth month as an act of retribution. Long ago, the sea goddess Keto was killed by humans and it is in her honor that the sirens collect the hearts. Lira’s murderous nature is the product of her mother’s brutality. When Lira makes the mistake of hunting before her birthday and in failing to kill the human prince Elian, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into a human as punishment. The Sea Queen commands Lira to bring her Elian’s heart or to face her wrath instead.

Elian is a prince with a pirate’s soul. He is the captain of the Saad and of a crew who he considers to be family. Elian has made it his mission to hunt sirens, specifically Lira. During one of his trips to his family’s kingdom, Elian learns of a crystal that has the power to put an end to the sirens. The crystal is hidden on a mountain in one of the coldest places on ear, and requires a key and ritual to access it. Unwavering in his mission, Elian sets out to find the crystal even if he must bargain away his soul to do so.

Early into the journey, Elian and his crew spy a woman floating in the water. Elian brings her aboard and unknowingly invites the Sea Princess into his crew. After hearing about the crystal, Lira plans to take it as her own so she can replace her mother as the Sea Queen. As she as Elian grow closer, Lira yearns for a peace between their two species, and plans to use to crystal to obtain it. When Elian discovers Lira’s true identity, he is hurt and angry and confused. Lira’s allegiances only become clear once, in battle with the sirens and the Sea Queen, Elian realizes that he is immune to the sirens’ song. Lira had previously told Elian a myth that stated that if a human were to take a siren’s heart, they would be unaffected by any siren’s song. In realizing that he is unaffected, Elian knows that Lira’s heart, and loyalty, lies with him.

Though the idea of the story was not a novel one, the story itself was enjoyable and had enough differences from the original to make it unique nonetheless. Elian is the epitome of a sarcastic and charismatic male lead. He has just enough darkness to compliment his hero-ness that he avoids being cliché. He reminds me a lot of Nikolai from Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels. Elian and his crew are the best part of the book. Kye, Elian’s best friend and pseudo-bodyguard, is part older brother and part mischievous sidekick with touches of sarcastic humor and dry wit. Madrid, Elian’s second-mate and Kye’s partner, is an ex-assassin and current badass. Madrid shows more open affection to her crossbow than she does to Kye, and I believe we would get along just fine. The trio have some of the best interactions in the book and are easily my top 3 favorite characters.

This also leads us into my least favorite part of the book: Lira. Lira’s character is a bit bland and seems underdeveloped. She lacks elements that would make her character as dynamic as Elian’s, Kye’s, and Madrids. She either is something or she isn’t something; she lacks the ability to feel/be anything in the shades of grey range that would make her character much more interesting. At the beginning of the book, Lira is proud of her murderous nature and of all of the princes’ hearts she’s collected. She too quickly makes a complete 180, believing that her mother is the sole driving force behind her behavior and acts as though she was being forced to kill the entire time. She goes from hating Elian and wanting nothing more than to rip his heart out to being in love with him. There was no real transition, no real time of moderate tolerance prior to the drastic change over a relatively short period of time. Honestly, it made their romance a lot less interesting.

One other issue I had with the story was that no one seemed to realize who Lira was before it was revealed when she retrieved the crystal. She hates Elian right after he saves her, speaks the rare outlawed language of the sirens, has a siren necklace, knows details about the myth of Ketos, and makes general references related to sirens pretty often. You would think a crew that does nothing but sirens would realize that she is one, especially Elian. This may have just been obvious since we’re told Lira is a siren at the beginning, but still.

Character flaws and obvious hints aside, To Kill A Kingdom was an enjoyable read. Elian, Kye, and Madrid alone as enough to make it worth the read. Fans of the original tale of The Little Mermaid will enjoy is YA adaptation. It is also one of the few standalones that was interesting enough to get me invested in the story and the characters without needing to be involved in a series to adequately be immerse in the world the author has created.

#YA YAFANTASY YA FANTASY KINGDOM TO KILL A KINGDOM BOOKISH REVIEW MERMAID SIREN PIRATE BOOKSTAGRAM SPHYNX #yafantasy #kingdom #to kill a kingdom #book nerd #booklr #bookish #review #sphynx #siren #mermeid

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de-boeldieu · 6 years

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My Aviation Films List

I know some of you might be wondering why I did this to myself, and the answer is simple; I’m bored and I like movies, and I stumbled across so many films that I felt it was my duty to watch some regardless of quality. Oh boy did this prove to be a challenge.

There were a total of 22 movies on the list. Two films I was unable to watch Journey Together ( 1945 ) (anything on the film seemed to be lost, unfortunately), and a 30 minute Hitchcock French propaganda short called Bon Voyage ( 1944 ) (version I watched was slightly screwed up, and some of the English subtitles were translated incorrectly).

However, I was able to watch every other film on the list! Granted, completing this took a LOT longer than I anticipated.

I’m not quite sure how I should go about writing, but I suppose I will rank each film to my own personal opinions of what they were like, with a brief summary, and any small notes I had whilst watching. If you’d like a more in depth summary or any additional details I had while watching the film, ask me, or look the name up if it interests you.

Also I’d just like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to anyone who takes the time to read some of these. You’re ace.

In order, from my favorite to least favorite:

1. La Grande Illusion ( 1937 )

Oooh my god you guys, this film made me cry so hard. Trust me, the dramatic music on the title card is there for a reason. A French film set in WWI, where French pilots get captured and sent to German POW camps where they make attempts to escape. It also has low key socialist sentiments. Some parts are a little cheesy because it’s a 30s film, but still amazing.

The only thing I was not terribly fond of was the last half hour or so, just really wasn’t my thing. But overall? Absolutely brilliant.

2. Dark Blue World ( 2001 )

A Czech film about two WWII Czech RAF pilots and their friendship, both loving the same woman. This one will also make you cry. Really beautiful film.

I was super worried that the romance in it was just sort of going to be thrust in there, but it certainly was not. Drama was great and all the characters were super memorable and had their own personalities. Highly recommend this one.

3. Riders In The Sky ( 1968 )

Another Czech film about WWII Czech RAF pilots. About the dynamic between a bomber crew and how they cope with the war, and the Battle of Britain. It’s adorable and I highly recommend this one too.

4. Into The White ( 2010 )

A Norwegian movie based on the story of how an RAF bomber crew and a Luftwaffe bomber crew both get shot down in the middle of Norway, and then had to learn to get along and work together to survive. What a wonderful film. Some parts can be predictable, but as a whole good. An interesting character study. Also it gets bonus points from me because it has a ginger, Scottish RAF Air gunner.

5. Wings ( 1927 )

A VERY long silent film. Takes place during WWI, two American fighter pilots, both in love with the same girl, and another girl is in love (requited) with one of them. About their rivalry and friendship, and how they deal with training and the war. The training scenes were delightful. I was worried I was going to get bored, but it was actually super excellent (and sad too). The camera work was brilliant and the musical score was amazing. It also has the first ever on-screen same-sex kiss. A really great film, even if silent films aren’t your thing, there’s SO much drama in this one. If you already love silent films, you will adore this movie, but I’d recommend it to most anyone.

6. The Dawn Patrol ( 1930 ) & ( 1938 )

About an RFC commander during WWI, who is distraught over casualties, an RFC captain, and his friend. The captain lashes out at the commander over the casualties as well after the death of a friend. Eventually the captain replaces the commander and starts to understand the stress of the job the previous major had, as his friend begins to lash out at him.

I thought it was an interesting take on both the pilots and the authorities in the RFC during the war. Both provided interesting perspectives.

I can tell you right now, unless you’re dedicated like I am, the 1938 version of The Dawn Patrol is MUCH better than the 1930 one. I’d recommend watching that version, if this movie interests you.

7. The One That Got Away ( 1957 )

About the only Luftwaffe pilot to ever escape from British POW camps. Usually I’m very wary of films that have WWII German characters, but this was very well written and remained predominantly neutral through the whole thing. Lots of clever escapes. If you like Luftwaffe pilots, escape films, and / or old movies, you will adore this film.

8. The Dam Busters ( 1955 )

A damn fine film. About the invention of the RAF “bouncing bomb” used to destroy German dams in WWII, and the RAF Squadron that flew the Lancasters to drop them. The writer of the movie was R.C. Sheriff, the original author of the play Journey’s End. Really enjoyed every aspect of the movie, my only complaint is that it was dreadfully long. Overall, a good movie, if this sort of thing interests you.

9. One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing ( 1942 )

Hands down the most intense opening scenes I had watched in any of these movies. About an RAF bomber getting shot down over Nazi occupied Holland, and they have to escape to England without being caught.

I remember being really engaged in this movie and I quite enjoyed the witty British banter. A good movie, if you like old ones.

10. La Grande Vadrouille ( 1966 )

A French WWII war comedy film about two Frenchmen who help a British bomber crew who crashed in France escape to Britain. Very strange? But also funny? But also a little dated but also incredibly hilarious? I was just really intrigued by it honestly. Reminded me of a few Monty Python sketches, despite this film being made years prior. You will either really enjoy it or not at all, but if it interests you, I’d recommend giving it a watch.

11. The Eagle And The Hawk ( 1933 )

Takes place in WWI and is about two American pilots, and various other ones, and how the war affects them, some more than others. I remember this movie surprising me quite a lot, which I think is good for a war film dealing with the sudden deaths of your comrades. Good movie, although not as well executed as The Dawn Patrol.

12. Reach For The Sky ( 1956 )

This one is LONG. About Douglas Bader, pretty much. A cute film though. You will like it if Bader or famous World War aces are your cup of tea.

13. Aces High ( 1976 )

So this movie was based off Journey’s End, except with aeroplanes. It also draws from Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis (a book I’ve been meaning to find and read). If you know the plot of that play (and now more recently a movie), you will know the plot of this movie, except the names are changed. It’s a character study of three RFC pilots during WWI and the life expectancy of “Green pilots” AKA newly trained pilots.

Was a cute movie, not as good as the Journey’s End film from this year however. A lot of awkward silences and I really didn’t understand why? There was also a L’Armée de L’Air Officer who was having NONE of the British banter.

But if you liked Journey’s End and wished there were more pilots then you will enjoy it. The movie might be an interesting watch for those of you who are fans of the original play and / or movie as well.

14. The First Of The Few ( 1942 ), also titled The Spitfire

About the invention of the Spitfire fighter plane. Good if you’re really into aviation. Really liked the witty banter, however.

15. Johnny In The Clouds ( 1945 ), also titled The Way To The Stars

A romance drama. Takes place during WWII in Britain. Initially about two RAF pilots, one married and the other one with a girlfriend that he goes through a serious of hardships with. Then the 8th USAAF come, then it’s about two USAAF pilots and one RAF one, and the widowed wife. One of the USAAF pilots looks and acts like a Tarantino character. Really boring until the Americans come. I’d recommend this to people who like period romances and dramas, but the cultural stuff between the Brits and Americans was pretty good. An alright movie that takes a little bit to get into.

16. Memphis Belle ( 1990 )

REALLY CHEESY. About 8th USAAF in Britain, the bomber crew of the B-17, Memphis Belle. Except it’s not actually the crew, it’s just characters based on them. I remember the dialogue being cheesy, but still somehow better than Flyboys. Also felt pretty entertained the entire thing. A nice detail I liked was that all the bomber crew had their own individually painted A-2 jackets. Characteristic of mostly American bomber crews, and I thought that was a unique touch.

If you like cheesy, feel-good, American WWII movies, you will really like this film.

17. The Red Baron ( 2008 )

About Manfred von Richthofen. Not super accurate, but a decent amount of research done. I remember it being boring, but some of the camera shots were beautiful, looked like paintings. Boring though.

18. Angels One Five ( 1952 )

About an RAF Squadron during the Battle of Britain, except it’s more about the superior officers in that Squadron rather than the pilots. Boring, but the camera work was super high quality for a 50s film? There’s a scene where a Hurricane crashes into a base home. But mostly just officers talking and ordering folks around.

19. Twelve O’Clock High ( 1949 )

Incredibly dull and boring. Nothing but USAAF generals talking, then a bomber scene that was also boring. Flat, bland, and uninspired camerawork. Would not recommend.

20. Flyboys ( 2005 )

I’m sure many of you lads have seen my rant on this film. It’s an ugly, awful, waste of film. I can’t describe the plot of the movie, because there really isn’t one, except that a group of American volunteer pilots, called the Lafayette Escadrille, go to war. That’s it.

I found myself either laughing or yelling at the absolute ridiculousness of this film. It’s dreadful, but depending on your sense of humor, it’s VERY entertaining.

Would recommend watching it drunk, for an even more enhanced experience. I’d also suggest it if bad, horribly inaccurate, and ridiculously American action movies are your thing, you’ll have an absolute blast.

Thank you so much if you took any time to read even just one of these. I super appreciate it, this list was loads of fun and a rollercoaster of emotions. Thank you to those of you who enjoyed hearing my ranting about these bloody things.

#AHHHHH ITS DONE LADS #FINALLY #its been MONTHS im so sorry #what a fantastic journey this has been #i am not a critic these are just my opinions!#anyways i hope this was at least a very interesting read #c’est moi

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thatbookcritic · 5 years

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+α no Tachiichi

Title: +α no Tachiichi

Media: Manga

Author: Yuu Geni

Criticism written by: Kai

Editor: Julie

The Review:

Howdy folks! Kai here, back with another review for you all! This time, I’ll be reviewing a manga that I honest to god hate and I think it’s a piece of garbage. It truly is a waste of time and I’m only really reviewing this in hopes that I spare all of you guys, our lovely followers, the time and effort in reading it. Now… I’m sure you are all curious as to what this manga is all about. So… let me tell you then.

+α no Tachiichi is another classic example of every other isekai manga. Our protagonist, Satoki Houma, is your typical Japanese high school student who was suddenly transported to another world with her classmate, Haruka Toudou. As expected, the priestess summon them because they were looking for the holy maiden who would save the world from the forces of evil! Just by a glance, the priestess automatically assume that Haruka was the holy maiden because Haruka is a cutie while Satoki is supposedly ugly af. In an odd twist of fate though, it seems like Satoki has the holy maiden powers! Not Haruka! What will our protagonist, Satoki to do?!

Well… if you were guess “prove everyone wrong”, “vengeance”, or “save the day”, then you are very wrong. The correct answer is “Nothing a normal person would do!” As we already established, Japanese heroines are nothing normal. They may look human but they don’t think like humans. And Satoki is no exception to the rule. After being sidelined by everyone in the entire kingdom, tossed around like an object, and overall be treated rather poorly compared to Haruka, Satoki still decided to help Haruka in the end by doing this whole complicated act of pretending Haruka is the holy maiden while Satoki is hiding in the shadow. The reason why Satoki is doing this? A) Because Haruka treated Satoki nicely for ONE time by defending her against the big ol’ meanie knight (but we all know that was a romance flag for Haruka and the knight… basically turning Satoki into an object yet again) and B) Satoki doesn’t believe that she could be a proper holy maiden because she isn’t pretty enough. First of all… WHAT?! These are such stupid reasons that it makes me wonder if Satoki was dropped on her head as a baby. It’s the only possible explanation as to why Satoki stupidly believe in such bullshit. Let’s break down these reasons.

First, Haruka being nice to Satoki is really fucked if you look at it from a different angle. For one, Haruka was only nice to Satoki only once throughout the entire manga. It was basically just so the hot tsundere knight would go, “Oh doki doki. This Haruka girl is different from the rest! She treats both the ugly and pretty the same! What is this feeling!” And yeah yeah, y’all can argue that Haruka never intended that but that’s what the author intended. Satoki was nothing more than a plot device for Haruka’s reverse harem. After that, Haruka just sort of tossed Satoki away to enjoy her little harem and the shower of affections she recieves for being pretty. While Satoki is concern for Haruka’s well being and coming up with all sort of plans to make sure that Haruka’s image doesn’t crumble, Haruka here (who promised to watch out for Satoki might I add) is off dicking around like it’s summer vacation. It’s like Haruka forgets that Satoki even exist and hardly bother to come asking if Satoki is fine or if people are treating her well. Instead, Haruka only seems to remember that Satoki is a person when Haruka needs that “generic best friend side character” to run off to and gush about all her own personal drama and ask who she should chose in her bland love triangle. Like damn bitch, Haruka reminds me of every fake friend in a group. Yet Satoki just eats this shit up, my dudes. Despite being clearly treated as a lamp, this just drives Satoki forward in wanting to “protect her friend!” Being a reader, you just feel so bad for Satoki as you read the two girl’s interactions and how Haruka basically forces Satoki to be a cuck. Oh, did a mention that Satoki is basically a cuck? Besides clearly not receiving any praise for helping fight off the demon army or protecting the castle, Satoki is always awkwardly stuck between romantic scenarios between Haruka and her harem. Satoki would awkwardly be hiding under a table or some shit while she listen and watches Haruka make out with some random pretty boy. Like, Christ Almighty. I don’t understand what’s fun about that? These scenes just hurt my heart because usually what follows before or after these “romance scenes” would be Satoki being berated or treated like an object. It’s like looking at heaven and hell side by side. The comparison is just awful. And it’s not like this is a comedy scenes either. At the beginning of the manga, sure. But then these scenes became serious and down right vicious soon after. Yet Satoki just takes it! What’s even worse, was when the story was at a big dramatic point and Haruka points a finger at Satoki and blame her for ruining things. Bitch says what now??? After Satoki went through all that hardships for Haruka and Haruka putting Satoki through an emotional ringer, Haruka had the gall to call Satoki a bad person and that Satoki manipulated her. The one moment Satoki needed Haruka the most, Haruka turns her back against her. Some “protection” that was, huh?

While Haruka is an awful person and their relationship is fucked, the real problem here is Satoki for putting up with all that and more throughout the manga. Now, there’s nothing wrong in writing a protagonist with low self esteem or lack of confidence. But what’s important is if the author plans to do ANYTHING with those traits… AKA character development. You would expect that from a manga like this but nope! Satoki enter this world as a doormat and left it as a slightly proud doormat. There’s a reason why you don’t make your main character a static character but a dynamic one (remember these vocabulary words from English class?). At most I would imagine having a static character for a one shot or a short story, but a full on manga? Nah son. That just ain’t right.

Having Satoki’s core issue be about her looks is just fucked and honestly shame on the author. At the beginning of the manga, we see that Satoki doesn’t really believe in that issue 100%. Yes… she might say it at first by going “Oh, there’s no way I could be a protagonist because I’m not pretty enough!” But this seems more like a self deprecating joke more than anything. Satoki might believe it just a little but not entirely. We can see it by how she wanted to first speak up to the priestess when Satoki first realize that she has the holy maiden’s powers. But as time went on, how the world treats Satoki just hammered in these insecurities and made Satoki submissive to all these actions. The world turned “Ha ha ha. I can never be a protagonist because I’m not pretty enough!” into “What’s the point? My looks define me as a person and I can’t do anything about it.” With Satoki’s already doormat personality, it wasn’t hard for her insecurities to become more apparent- Oh my god! Satoki is a dynamic character, she just went backwards! My third eye has been opened. Oh gosh… sorry everyone. This revelation just shook me. The story is still shit though. Let me get back to talking about Satoki.

After reaching rock bottom with her insecurities, it was Satoki’s allies who kept her head afloat in her sea of despair. Well… I guess saying that they keep Satoki positive is a bit of a generous stretch. On one hand what’s Satoki’s oresama teacher who helped keep Satoki’s abilities a secret and (sort of) looked out for her. I guess the teacher would have been fine if he wasn’t such a dick. Every word that comes out of his mouth was just a jab towards Satoki. At least he kept his end of the bargain in watching out for Satoki (I’m looking at you Haruka). Next is the bootleg holy maiden. You see, in the manga, the prince’s younger brother came up with a scheme of making up several holy maidens to confuse people (yeah it was a stupid plan) and there was this chick. Satoki and Ms. Bootleg were forced to work together and eventually they became “friends”. Ms. Bootleg was some vain chick with her own self interest but she does bring up some good points to Satoki for her to self evaluate her life. I guess the teacher and Ms. Bootleg were supposed to prompt Satoki to self evaluate and gain confidence but honestly, they did a shit job and Satoki hardly grew as a person. At most, they gave Satoki the confidence to “do what you want to do” bullshit but in the end, what Satoki wanted to do was to continue helping Haruka. “But she help Haruka on her own accord. The end.” BAH! BULLSHIT.

In the end, I’m not sure what sort of lesson Satoki or we, the audience, was supposed to take away from this story. Anything special about Satoki was just ripped out of her hands by the author. Haruka was the holy maiden all along and that Satoki’s power was just her link to the world. Once Satoki used up all her power, she basically gets sent back home. Hell! Satoki participated in the war but she never got a chance to see who won! What a load of horse shit. Haruka and Satoki’s relationship was easily “repaired” with Haruka forgiving Satoki’s deceit (Bitch, how vain are you???) And everything is now alright in the universe… my ass. Honestly, my head hurt as I recall all this. We started at point A and never left it. Seriously… what’s the lesson, moral, or entertainment value about this? From a writer's point of view, this is an example of cool concept but awful execution. Main character is a static one and all other side characters are just plain hateable. Any “interesting” plot development are shown off screen since Satoki is technically the side character for Haruka’s main character and it was just an angst-fest of Satoki being whipped around like a doormat. I would have more fun watching paint dry… at least I get the satisfaction of the paint actually drying in the end.

Overall Score: 0/10

(Kai’s note: Btw, the art isn’t bad. It’s pretty nice actually and I don’t see why Satoki is “ugly”. She’s a bit masculine but it doesn’t take away much from her look. I also find it annoying that the author never really approach it by having Satoki prove other’s her usefulness or prove them wrong or something. In the end, people just sort of shrug at Satoki’s appearance in the end. Once again, shit story telling.)

#+α no Tachiichi #Yuu Geni #manga #review #opinion #going through this manga triggered me all over again #what a waste of time smh

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shadowtearling · 7 years

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January is over! I’m both glad and surprised it came and went so quickly. I feel proud of myself for reading as much as I did this month!!!! I think the new year is always a good motivator to read read read. I love it. I’m doing a better job so far this year of reading whenever I can and taking advantage of my spare time in between and before classes. PLUS the long commute helps. Last year, I constantly found reason to NOT read, and this year, it’s like I can’t get enough! I also apparently can’t get enough of the exclamation point. Is it too much? Also! Do you all like this new banner? Any font suggestions? I’m clearly terrible at picking fonts; too indecisive. :( Anyway! On to the books!!!

Rating system: 2017 is the year of reading critically if I want to add diversity to my list of priorities for the kind books to be reading. This means also being a little more stingy with my ratings. (I don’t feel bad about this actually. I found I feel guiltier giving out five stars willy nilly, so this is an improvement!). This rating system is still arbitrary, so three star ratings don’t always have the same weight to them. As always, I rate based on my own thoughts and feelings, and as always, these are my opinions (unless I’m speaking about my marginalization(s). Don’t argue lmao).

Rating Scale: 🌟 - 1 whole star ⭐️ - ½ star

Nichijou: My ordinary life (Vol. 1 & 2) by Keiichi Arawi - 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 3/5 (for both) This is a manga series about high school everyday life, but with a twist! (she said with sarcasm) There are a bunch of girls in high school and one of them happens to be a robot who just wants to fit in and be human (and her child scientist companion). One of the girls also happens to love making puns, one of them is the typical deadpan-type of characters, and the others are the normal ones. Some jokes were funny, most of them were not. I love puns, but this just had really terrible ones. The characters were supremely uninteresting, and I really don’t care about any of them. That said, while I was reading this, I guess I was entertained for the time being. This helps pass time quickly, but not the greatest manga I’ve ever encountered.

Sweetness and Lightning (Vol. 1) by Gido Amagakure - 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 3/5 What’s better than food-related manga? Nothing! Except, I can find better food-related manga out there than this lmao. This was fun to read, but I found all of the characters were bland. I couldn’t find myself too invested in their stories. I also feel like this is going in the direction of student-teacher relationship (younger me would have loved that, but me now is absolutely creeped out by the idea of it). The child is adorable, though. I also do really love the positive relationship between the child and the dad, so that’s one redeeming quality. I don’t think I’ll continue with this series, though, unless I find copies of this for cheaps.

Orange (Omnibus Vol. 1 & 2) by Ichigo Takano - 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 5/5 (for both) Out of all 12 books I’ve read this month, these are the only two five-star reads! I’m stingy lmao. Anyway, this was soooooooo good! Basically, this series is about this girl, Naho, who on the first day of her junior year (I THINK... don’t hold me to this), she receives a letter from future her telling her what will happen on those days and what she needs to do versus what she should avoid doing. She dismisses that letter until the contents come true! So this series then entails what happens with those letters and Naho & her friends. I cried so many tears and felt so many feelings. I related so hard to Kakeru even though our struggles were not the same. I also really loved the ending (even though I know a lot of people didn’t like how open-ended it was). I appreciated that aspect of the story because it feels true to the kind of tale it’s telling. It perfectly depicts how friends first react versus how they should react to other friends’ struggles. I really love the dynamics between every person, and I can only wish this series was longer to explore the different friendships we were introduced to. I HIGHLY recommend this series. Please go read it! (And then tell me so we can binge-watch the anime together!)

Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz - 🌟 🌟 🌟 ⭐️ = 3.5/5 A story with a Filipina lead?! Sign me up! This tells the story of Jasmine who is the perfect student and is set to kick ass in college until she learns that her and her entire family have been illegal immigrants the entire time, and this super awesome scholarship she was supposed to get can no longer help her. I really loved getting to see my own culture reflected in this story (this is an #ownvoices ;) so go check it out). I didn’t appreciate the little jabs at other cultures though I do understand where it comes from. I also think there was so much happening? I feel like Jasmine and her fam were trying to tackle so much all at once (it’s realistic bc what POC doesn’t go thru so much in so little time), but also it made for a messy story. OH! I hated the writing lmao. It was tacky and not my style. I also think I’m just hella tired of YA contemporaries, but as of right now, they’re the biggest source for diversity in any YA category. Fantasy is still far too white lol. I still would recommend this because it is an important story that helps humanize immigrants, but beware lmao.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli- 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 3/5 I really enjoyed this story, but I was expecting so much more than what I was given. I hear everyone always raving about how fantastic this book was, but I think this was way too overhyped for me, which is why I didn’t like it as much as everyone else. I feel like the tension between friends was either unnecessary or done poorly (I’m talking about Leah here). HOWEVER, I still do like it. Simon was a fun character, and Blue was also really interesting. I also really love the discussion around consent and identity, and I think it was done well.

Welcome to the Shadowhunter Academy (#1) by Cassandra Clare - 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 3/5 Simon felt reaaaaaally out of character in this novella. Maybe that’s bc of what happened at the end of TMI and that’s a valid excuse, but it makes me uncomfortable. Simon was one of the better characters in that series, and I really feel like he got butchered here. With that said, however, I do think that this novella shows improvement in CC’s writing because I still surprisingly enjoyed it. I just don’t think I’ll continue on with CC’s works? I think this is me breaking up with the Shadowhunter chronicles. She’s also highly problematic, so there’s that.

The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi - 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 4/5 LOVE This! An #Ownvoices fantasy about Mayavati whose horoscope entails a marriage with death and destruction. I buddy read this one with one of my really close friends (she doesn’t read too often), and we both really enjoyed it. Maya is this really dynamic character that, as the story progresses, really matures in a realistic way. The writing was phenomenal but I do think it was a bit out of place? Idk I always have problems whenever the writing is sophisticated but then it’s first person POV. Like.... I’m pretty positive that my brain cannot conceive even half of those words to describe what’s happening around me. I’d see a tree and I’d describe it as “green and really tall...” So there’s that. I also think that the writing kind of made it difficult to fall in love with the couple. I didn’t totally buy the romance, despite me loving both characters individually. I love the incorporation of different aspects of Indian culture as part of the fantasy elements of the world. I would love more from this story, but as it stands, this is where Maya’s story ends (the next book is actually a companion........). I highly recommend it! (Even though it sounds like I didn’t like it lmao I promise I did).

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake - 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 4/5 I absolutely loved this. First of all, I appreciate that I can tell each sister apart from one another because they have such distinct personalities (Arisonoe is my fave as it turns out even if she has a dumb ass name). It’s a super slow book that basically builds up to the fight to the death (it doesn’t actually happen in this book). I knew that going in which is why I wasn’t salty when it didn’t happen. Basically, we get introduced to the sisters in this book, find out that there are some hella issues going on with their missing powers, and it gave us time to get used to the world all while introducing us to the characters. My number one biggest giant complaint is that I realllllly fucking hate Joseph. He’s an asshat and I hope he dies in book two. Katharine please kill him. There was an unnecessary love triangle lmao like fuck off with that shit maybe. I also hated Pietyr. So basically, the dudes are assholes and the girls are fantastic. Maybe that was the point? This is a matriarchal society so I guess it worked. Highly recommend if you really like politically-driven books and a large cast of characters.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seannan McGuire - 🌟 🌟 🌟 ⭐️ = 3.5/5 The writing is quite calming. Also confusing. This is another one of those far too hyped for me to love in the same way everyone else does. i appreciate the amazing concept and the wonderful conversations taking place in this book about identity, sexuality, gender, and mental illness. However, it was too short for me to really love any of the characters. I certainly failed to connect with the MC and didn’t feel for her anguish. It also left a bad taste in my mouth that the first person to be killed off in the murder mystery aspect happens to be POC when there were like 20 other white kids lmao........ NOT THAT I CONDONE MURDER but why we gotta kill POC for....... Idk. Proceed with caution I guess.

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe- 🌟 🌟 🌟 = 3/5 This was funny as hell. Basically, it’s about this lady whose name we never really know because she keeps changing it to suit her needs. She was born in a prison, so she’s set up to fail in every aspect of her life bc poor and no family. HOWEVER, this is the story of how she eventually says fuck you to everyone and succeeds anyway bc why not. I read this for class, and I highly enjoyed it. Problems: there were literally zero chapter breaks, random ass capitalization (why must 17/18th century authors do this to me), too many much cataloging of goods (though that was literally the point is to be excessive... I get it... pls stop), and the author basically just said to the plot “GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO” without taking a break. If you like classics similar to Jane Austen (but without the romance part bc she just basically scams all her husbands lmao), I think this is a really good one to check out.

Thank you, lovely, for reading through this mess of a post. I love you and I hope you have a wonderful February reading month!

#wrap up #2017 #january 2017 #january #books #book #bookish #booklr #book reviews #read #reading #readingwu #readingwu 2017

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sleepymarmot · 7 years

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DS9 season 4 liveblog

[Season index: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PS]

The Way of the Warrior

they changed the music! I liked the original arrangement better. I guess they decided that if they have to change the opening titles, better redo them from scratch?

I love how the Klingon general dramatically cuts his hand. It's like looking at the origins of an ancient ritual which real and very important meaning has long been forgotten. Tbh I thought the crew would do the same in the previous episode, but they went for the less dramatic blood tests :D

How was the Obsidian Order destroyed? The Dominion destroyed the fleet that the Order wasn't even supposed to have. What about all of their normal agents, infrastructure, gathered intelligence?

"Not like you? Impossible" (note: as I prepare to publish this post, having just finished season 5, it seems this line was the last time they ever shared a flirty moment... rip garashir 1993-1995)

finally!

please stop reminding me about that awful movie thanks

Poor Worf is so awkward as usual

"And I find you offensive. Now hold up your arm, or I'll have the security do it for you"

"Captain Sisko bet me that you would thank him for the rescue before you started complaining." "I lost."

The Visitor

I have a hard time becoming invested in stories like this, when I know that the entire timeline would be undone by the end. The final scene did manage to make me tear up a bit, but overall I'm not impressed. At least it's not outright terrible like The Inner Light...

Hippocratic Oath

Wait, did Bashir get promoted between seasons?

I don't think that joke about Keiko was very good :\ But this is the second time Miles comes really close to confessing his love for Julian... what's up with that

seriously, why does the new theme have such a messy rhythm? it's as if the beat is out of sync with the melody

Odo is such an unusual security officer, of course there's conflict between him and Worf. I'm glad they're addressing this!

of course O'Brien does a transporter trick

oh come oooon O'Brien do you really need to be such a jerk this week

Sisko is nicer to Worf than I expected

the last scene between Bashir and O'Brien is very poignant

Indiscretion

The runabout scene with Kira and Dukat is unsettling because this rhetoric is too real...

The Worst Field Trip(tm)

Julian & Jadzia's Judging Corner: priceless

honestly the absolute last thing i expected was for Dukat's butt to get so much attention...

Ziyal looks much younger than someone who was 13yo six years ago

halfway through the episode I thought Ziyal would be that Cardassian girl from season 2, I mean there was a reason for that scene, right? right?

great episode

Rejoined

Oh, Dax got promoted too

Trill society sounds dumber and dumber with each episode

Kahn is so beautiful, charming and well-dressed. damn

how did my mom manage to walk into the room just as they kissed? is that a special parent talent

;_;

"your work produced the first artificially created wormhole in history" not counting, you know, THE wormhole

welp. a romance episode finally made me cry :(

Starship Down

Wait, is the alien played by Odo's actor?

this is like a really boring version of "Disaster"...

Dax knows Bashir now better than a year ago? He hasn't changed much over the past year, the difference is rather between seasons 1-2 and later ones, plus they seemed pretty good friends in season 1 already, not like "she was avoiding him" -- in fact, I thought she was his only friend at the time. Their body language is cute as hell though.

Damn, I could hardly keep track of the plot in this one... or why the characters were saying what they were saying... how dull

you know what was the selling point of The Disaster? characters in unusual combinations and roles! I see none of this here...

Little Green Men

ew using someone else's tooth sharpener

omg Odo! :D

what, Klingons and Vulcans didn't have warp drive by 20th century?

The Sword of Kahless

what, this was the little boy we saw in TNG? Klingon children sure grow fast...

is this sword telepathically infected or something?

So, when Worf was acting OOC he wasn't under outside influence? okay... I enjoyed this episode, but under the assumption that Worf's dishonorable actions would be explained

Our Man Bashir

Bashir's taste is about as lame as Picard's...

"I think I joined the wrong intelligence service"

"This is more than I ever wanted to know about your fantasy life" same tbh... it's enough to remember these gross tropes exist somewhere out there, I don't need them in Star Trek reenacted by my faves

This just made me remember how much I dislike James Bond... We just had a cheesy 20th century pastiche two episodes ago, but at least I don't have anything against that genre. Not to judge what people do behind the holosuite's closed doors, but it's pretty offputting to see a 24 century man so enamored with this sexist fiction. And I have pretty much the same reaction to kisses with not-Kira and not-Dax as in the Mirror Universe episode, though to a lesser degree; that was pretty gross and exploitative. It's as if someone decided that the show wasn't straight enough after Rejoined and decided to compensate...

Also I think this was the first time ever that Bashir wasn't happy to see Garak. It feels strange and sad...

I expected Garak to spend all episode making fun of silly tropes, but the little he said was pretty weak. Though I liked the confrontation in the end and the way Bashir repeated Garak's speech.

And I don't think they even took advantage of the J. B. initials. Come on! :D

Homefront

"I prefer Klingon beliefs. Our gods are dead. Ancient Klingon warriors slew them a millennia ago. They were more trouble than they were worth." I think I prefer Klingon beliefs too...

Why did Sisko put on TNG-type uniform?

Is that Leah Brahms?

Very relevant story about security vs civil rights, and it's very fitting for Odo to be here -- not just because of the plot. I really like the thematic unity between the changeling storyline and Odo's personal issues as a character.

Come on, it's so easy to deprive the entire planet of power?

Paradise Lost

This title is very ominous...

Cadet Shepard haha

I think I've heard this boast... "We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?" "Four." "You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?" "We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek!"

So, Earth and DS9 can communicate in real time? But in the previous episode, DS9 "received a recording of a high level diplomatic conference that took place on Earth a few days ago". I assumed the delay was due to the distance, but apparently not -- was the recording just classified before someone decided to send it to Sisko?

Wait, what President's speech? Did I miss something?

I liked the first part better. So, the changeling terrorist attack on the same week was just a coincidence? Everyone seemed to forget about that...

Crossfire

Odo/Kira scene is cute instead of irritating for once

"You could hear that?" "*points to lobes* Hello?"

"I have reason to believe someone is planning to assassinate First Minister Shakaar" and by someone you mean Winn?

Odo and Worf discussing security and order!

are they replacing Odo/Kira/Bareil with Odo/Kira/Shakaar? How many nice but bland Bajoran dudes can be in love with her?

"Frankly, I don't care whether you and Major Kira end up living happily ever after or not. I just want to see the situation resolved" same

ok, I get it, falling in love makes you very upset, bad at your job, and is sad and frustrating to watch on tv screen. nothing new here

Return to Grace

"Is that what you kept track of during the occupation? No wonder you lost"

"It bothers him, you know. Very much. He talks about it sometimes" crocodile tears... literally

some men just won't take a hint...

wait, since it was previously mentioned that Cardassian flirting is bickering, does Dukat genuinely misinterpret Kira and think he's got a chance here??

so much for keeping Klingon secrets from the Cardassians...

There's something about this dynamic I really appreciate, but I can't yet articulate it. The way Kira confidently and unflinchingly deflects all the bullshit he sends her way? How she is allowed to be right in her unforgiving stance? That being civil and working together with someone and seeing their better side does not mean all their past (and present) misdeeds are forgotten and they're suddenly your friend? Maybe this is the infamous "grey morality" done right -- not the indiscriminate tolerance and moral relativism, but allowing the other side to plead their case without losing sight of what made them "the other side" in the first place.

Sons of Mogh

Jadzia has a great "I'm gonna fuck that" face

"Charged with murder?" Have these people never heard of assisted suicide?

"I don't give a damn about Klingon beliefs, rituals or custom" ohhh so when we talk about Bajoran religion we all have to be tolerant and culturally sensitive and understanding, but Klingons are not allowed to perform their own rituals among themselves?

Wait, did Kurn consent to this or?...

A second good Klingon episode in the season that is tainted by the heroes' inexplicable immoral decisions. Last time Mr. Honor attemped murder in the most dishonorable day possible; this time ritual assisted suicide was deemed outrageous but likely nonconsensual mindwipe is an acceptable solution. The former can be headcanoned away with the assumption that the sword had some curse on it. My headcanon for the latter: people other than Sisko wouldn't have objected to the ritual (Dax canonically, O'Brien was implied to), so they accepted Worf's other solution on the same grounds.

Bar Association

Haha, Odo brings up Rascals, one of TNG's most ridiculous security failures :D

"Have you have any idea how bored I used to get sitting in the Transporter room waiting for something to break down? Here, I've a half dozen new problems every day. This station needs me" Damn, I hoped he got to do something interesting that we just weren't shown...

Wait, O'Brien got into a physical fight with Worf of all people?!

"If this was Ferenginar, I'd have you all taken to the Spire of the Tower of Commerce, displayed to the crowds in the Great Marketplace below, then shoved off, one by one. Small children would bet on where you would land, and your spattered remains would be sold as feed mulch for gree-worms" lol remember Quark's little speech about Ferengi not being barbaric?

I really care about this messed up family...

Yaaaaay I'm so happy for Rom! :D

Ferenginar sounds no less oppressive than Cardassia. I want a revolution! You know what, now that the Dominion has kindly disposed of the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order, can it take the FCA next? I, for one, would welcome our new gelatinous overlords in this case...

(I'm not a fan of that Leeta/Bashir background noise, thank you very much.)

Accession

"Quark, did you hear? Chief O'Brien is having a baby!" "I thought your females carried your young."

people from the past should stay in the past... apparently only 50 years ago Bajor was a pretty oppressive place too...

"Maybe you never realised this, Captain, but we would've tried to do whatever you asked of us when you were Emissary, no matter how difficult it seemed" well that's creepy

oh come on Kira, don't follow your religion so blindly...

O'Brien and Bashir is the real love story of this show istg

oh god they have an untouchable caste too

and of course the aliens can't tell which is the true Emissary because the word "first" isn't in their vocabulary lol

The aliens say "First. Later. They have no meaning to us." -- and in the same conversation use grammatical tense to indicate the order of events: "This IS the one that WAS injured." "He WAS injured" "We KEPT him with us" "The Sisko TAUGHT us" -- so they must have some perception of time

"We are of Bajor" oh? since when do you even know that word? did the poet teach you?

these two are so awkward that poor Keiko has to play matchmaker for her own husband :D bless her

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the direction of this story... Sisko was completely right to feel uncomfortable as a saint for a religion he doesn't believe in of planet he's not from, but it turned out he's so awesome that the Prophets chose him over the man from this culture who fits the descriptions in the sacred texts. Because only an enlightened human can lead the silly natives -- by following one of their own they'd go back to the dark ages! Yuck.

I've seen more than half of the show now... time flies fast.

Rules of Engagement

Courtroom episode!

I like the clever cinematography & editing

Hard Time

Poor O'Brien...

Well. This was really upsetting. I've been crying for several minutes now.

TNG repeatedly failed to show the recovery after a character's traumatic experience -- specifically, Picard's loss of time in The Inner Light and imprisonment and torture in Chain of Command. DS9 finally delivers an episode just about that -- even if the next week the status quo will be restored and I'll have the same complaint.

What Miles goes through is completely horrific -- so much that I can't imagine how one can survive that. Even as a viewer I want to wipe this from my memory and pretend it didn't happen... For my own peace of mind I'm gonna pretend O'Brien's friend was a part of the simulation, and later he managed to erase it all from his mind somehow.

Now I kinda want a story where the characters become self-aware and O'Brien decides to get away from his sadistic writers (and Bashir helps him, sacrificing their friendship for O'Brien's well-being).

Shattered Mirror

Always nice to see Worf's hair loose

Well, at least Dax is angry at Sisko for the rape by deception...

Why is Kira still wearing that shit...

at this rate you won't have any characters left for the next episode

The Muse

will this adult woman leave Jake alone

poor Sisko

Odo: "Actually, I have some free time and I was wondering if you wanted to take a walk." Worf: "I would." Odo: "I meant Lwaxana."

"Well, just don't go do what I did. Look for someone to fix your broken heart then end up pregnant and on the run." "I don't think there's too much danger of that happening."

aah Odo makes her a blanket! (well, I guess he owed her a night of sleep on his lap...) this entire scene was so sweet

eww not the pedo woman again

why must I watch this

Odo and Lwaxana playing hide-and-seek!!! this is the best thing ever

oh my god this is such a fanfic trope

ew can I just fast-forward through this?

"If you don't mind, this is a very special moment for me"

"You know, for a minute there, I really believed you wanted to marry me" ahh poor Odo's face :( even when he literally declares he wants someone in his life, that person thinks he didn't mean it...

aaaaaah! the goodbye scene!!! Lwaxana is so good! this is so significant and beautiful, this is Lwaxana recognizing and preventing her biggest negative trait/habit (pursiung and harassing disinterested men) with one of her more rarely shown positive traits (compassion and emotional intelligence)

i don’t know what to say about an episode where the main story is 0/10 but the side story is 10/10

For the Cause

Finally, some info on replicator sharing policy! "The Federation only gave Bajor two CFI [industrial] replicators”

"If she's really a Maquis, then she's no longer a Federation citizen" wait what?! I thought this was the entire reason Starfleet had to keep them in check -- because they were Federation outlaws! have they proclaimed their own state while I wasn't looking?

have they recast Ziyal? she looks different

I don't appreciate all this UST

"I would not become a terrorist. It would be dishonourable" "I wouldn't say that around Major Kira if I were you"

she... invites him... to a SAUNA??! ohhh my god whyyyyyy who wrote this

You go Kira!

okaaay I definitely missed something major about the Maquis formally leaving the Federation

well at least Cardassians enjoy their saunas fully dressed, that's a relief. the idea of lizard people lying around on heated rocks for relaxation is actually really cute, though

To be honest, I was dreading Garak's scenes in this episode. It seems that the writers ran out of Mysterious Past and Unclear Motivations to hint at, and stripped of that he's just... not particularly interesting. Plus, this episode confirmed my unpleasant impression that starting with this season, the producers/writers decided to forcibly drag Garak and Bashir away from each other and throw girls at them no matter how random and/or inappropriate it looks. At least they recast Ziyal so now she actually looks 19 instead of 13! (The problem is, in the previous episode she acted like a child, too, and you can't forget that she's a generation younger, so it's still pretty gross.)

Eddington's point about assimilation would have worked better without the rest of that inane speech. "Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you" -- They're obsessed because you're a threat to their foreign relations, what's so hard to understand about that? "We've left the Federation" -- When? When?! Left Starfleet, sure, but the Federation?! Isn’t that the entire reason Starfleet is pursuing them -- because the Federation is responsible for handling its citizens and stopping them from committing crimes against its neighbor!?

To the Death

Iconians -- that's from "Contagion", right?

I like this guy...

"What is the point of doing battle if you cannot enjoy the fruits of victory?" "You mean sleep?" :D

I love how Whatshisname casually gives out the white, rolling his eyes and barely moving attention from his plate -- so different from the Jem'Hadar perspective we saw in Hippocratic Oath!

"I didn't know that was public knowledge." "You told Commander Dax." "Well, that explains it."

O'Brien's answer to the Jem'Hadar! "I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. I'm very much alive and I intend to stay that way"

The Quickening

bwahaha

whoa, a city? if it the first one we've seen in the Gamma Quadrant? lovely matte painting

of course they make everything worse. Because being Culturally Advanced and Civilized won't always instantly solve any problem, and hospices and euthanasia aren't evil.

"I was so arrogant I thought I could find one in a week." "Maybe it was arrogant to think that. But it's even more arrogant to think there isn't a cure just because you couldn't find it." Good one, Dax! We're really going back to the pivotal traits of his character in this episode. (Someone on the writing staff: "Hmm, we haven't mentioned Julian's arrogance and hero/savior complex for a couple of months...")

He swallows his pride and decides to stay! I'm proud

I did have a suspicion that the pregnancy would solve everything...

I'm really glad the local doctor wasn't villainized! When Bashir was setting up his clinic I was afraid that he'd raise the townspeople to destroy it or something.

Bashir has more luck with medical episodes than Crusher and Pulaski...

Body Parts

Jadzia's female solidarity!

Alright, how is this one episode going to fit in Keiko's pregnancy (and presumably childbirth?), Quark's condition, Brunt, and Garak?

Federation technology is amazing...

Second time someone calls DS9 a "Cardassian monstrosity". That would make a good tumblr url... Wait, it's not even taken -- I'm very tempted...

of course Brunt bought him, why else would he be in the opening credits? :D this is so beautifully malicious

finally an episode that makes Quark look like a good person

Garak's face says "Killing you sounds like a great idea" :D :D

This is the most delightfully bizarre way to handle an actress' pregnancy :D

QUARK SHOPPING FOR MURDER-SUICIDE OPTIONS WITH GARAK = AMAZING

(not to mention very relatable...)

This is Garak's best outing in the entire season, tbh :D

Don't forget to undo your contract with Garak...

aww

This was a blast! This is a huge step in Quark's character development: following Nog and Rom, now he decides to break his society's rules. I'm very happy. ...But what about Garak, though?

Broken Link

Poor Odo...

aw encouraging Quark

"I'm thinking of asking Julian to come live with us. Even things up a little" Is that the only reason? ;)

"Captain, I want to be judged. I'm the only changeling who's ever harmed another. I've spent most of my life bringing people to justice. Now that it's my turn, how can I run away?"

"Don't tell me you'd object to a little genocide in the name of self-defence?" This is such a Cardassian line...

Why human and not Bajoran?

Oh Odo, just as he got comfortable with his identity as a shape-shifter... :/

General impressions:

Bashir in season 4, a summary: "Friendship ended with Garak, now Miles O'Brien is my best friend" Seriously, though... O'Brien and Bashir's relationship has become one of my favourite parts of the show. They got lots of good content this season: countless casual/humorous scenes, conflict in Hippocratic Oath, need for each other's company in Accession, talking down from suicide in Hard Time... And Garak was the most underwhelming part of the season for me, both himself and his relationship with Bashir -- or lack of it. I'm not even asking for shippy stuff, I know it's not going to be canon, but can't they just share screentime and enjoy each other's company, like they did before and Bashir does with O'Brien now?

And while the writers seem unsure what to do with Garak now, Dukat continues to be incredibly entertaining. Need a personification of Cardassian oppression? An unwanted ally the protagonist(s) would barely tolerate? A pompous prick to make fun of? A dangerously charismatic speaker -- or a windbag who thinks himself much cooler than he is? A relatively sympathetic opponent to provide "grey morality"? Well, here's all of that in one character! And my favourite thing is that despite being so immoral, he's not actually an enemy plot-wise (at least so far), so instead of fighting, defeating, and getting him out of the picture, the heroes just keep telling him how much he sucks. An interesting antagonist with a decent amount of screentime -- the dream. But all of that was about the character in general, and my favourite thing about his two episodes in this season is that he's self-aware of his status as a Complex Antagonist and completely overestimates the "complex and sympathetic" part, and (mis)casts himself as some kind of sexy byronic antihero whose deep and rich inner world will eventually win over the feisty heroine. Meanwhile, Kira is really not into villain/protagonist pairings and just wants the creepy guy responsible for genocide against her people to leave her alone. This was filmed twenty years ago but looks like a parody/deconstruction of currently popular ships like reylo or solavellan -- I find it really hilarious. (Maybe I’d feel more grossed out than amused if his behavior disturbed Kira more -- but she seems so gloriously unimpressed!)

I generally like Klingons and was glad to see Worf again, all of his episodes had something that stopped me from fully enjoying them.

It was my impression that Kira’s screetime got reduced because of Nana Visitor’s pregnancy -- and it was actually a good thing for the show! I feel bad saying this about one of the only two main female characters, but Kira is obviously the writers’ favorite, and got the most attention over the past seasons, so stepping back a bit let other characters shine more.

#star trek #ds9 #blah blah blah

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phoenixotaku1990animeversem-blog · 7 years

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Series: Hana Yori Dango

Other Titles: Boys Over Flowers

Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shojo

Series Run: 51 Episodes (aprox. 22 Min per)

Distributors: Viz Media, Discotek Media

Requested By: Janie

I make no secret of the fact that I am a hopeless romantic who has a taste for the dromatic. So, when the lady of my life requested that I review one of the few anime she has seen within the genre I was ecstatic. Moreover, the fact that it is a shojo in a high-school setting made me wax nostalgic about our own romance so I was all-in. While I don’t regret my gunge-ho approach to this series there were some moments that went way over the line of what was acceptable and made this an uncomfortable watch. But I will address that later in the review.

On a personal note, Dear I hope you like this one.

The Story

Hana Yori Dango is a school-life anime surrounding the exploits of Tsukushi Makino, a new student at Eitoku Academy who happens to be of lesser means. Desiring nothing more than a low-profile existence among the upper-crust of society Tsukushi’s world is turned upside down when she encounters an elite clique of popular men known as the F4. From here, she begins a chaotic, fish out of water story where the boys are constantly involved. In the midst of this, she manages to fall for two of the Flowers Four creating a romantic triangle with two distinct flavors.

The first relationship is your standard aloof love interest angle with Rui Hanazawa. I like the quiet, kind, artist, nature of the character and his dynamic when opposite Tsukushi elegantly done despite the lack of dialogue between them However, this ceases to be when their growing relationship is subvert by his returning flame, Shizuka Toudou. While Shizuka was a welcomed addition providing exposition on the F4’s history, a humanizing character for the group as a whole, and a sort of guide for Tsukushi she felt more like a protagonist in her own right rather than a supporting character. But, by far, the worst thing the writers of the anime could have done was use the sympathetic character to remove Rui as the love interest for the secondary alternative.

The secondary Romance begins with the leader of the F4. Tskasa Domyouji. To say that I despise this character is a gross understatement. His personality shifts between childishly lording his status over characters to picking on Tsukushi to being uncharacteristically nice to her. Worse yet he seems to have an almost incestuous fixation with his sister who happens to look like our main heroine. As if to feed into the creep factor he holds her down and nearly RAPES her in an early episode.

While he does mature throughout the series the and eventually becomes worthy of the love interest role the aforementioned moments irredeemably corrupted the character to such a degree that I cannot stand his on-screen prescience. Even after he redeems himself by softening up I still detest the character I am supposed to root for. In short I found him to be a pretty face with little more than a base understanding of social functions that was easily overshadowed by almost every other character.

this brings me to the side-characters which can be summed up in the phrase as bland as white bread. In fact, the only two character’s whose names I remember without consulting MyAnimeList ar Soujirou and Akira and their main functions were to act as the F4’s exposition and voices of reason. Otherwise, every other character in the series is a direct embodiment of their trope. The childhood friend is a cookie-cutter childhood friend. Tsukushi’s family seems to be the cliché poor family composed of the overbearing mother, the pathetic father, and the annoying little brother. After that every other character just blends into the background until they decide to cause trouble or just randomly speaks up. To remind Tsukushi of her place.

The focus on the pauper-versus-prince wealth disparity that persists throughout the series is a glaring weakness in storytelling. While this is a universal plot element that transcends its medium it actually weakens the relationship building aspect of the show. Combine this with the night-and day dynamic between Tsukushi and Tsukasa and the viewer gets a dysfunctional relationship that feels forced and unrealistic. Sure, one might see it as a clear case of opposites attract but, Boys Over Flowers executes this poorly.

Thus I come to the shows worst flaw of this entire narrative. its execution If the story of an independent woman finding herself in a high-society prep school featuring a cast of bishounen men is familiar to you have likely seen a reverse-harem anime in the last 20 years. While the show’s formula is well-trotted ground for many anime fans at this point the story’s progression is painfully slow providing the viewer with very little pay-off. For any romantic plot steady character growth and interaction is key. Hana Youri Dango’s characters grow at a snail’s pace making its run a slog to get through.

Style:

Alongside the painfully weak story Hana Yori Dango suffers from an eye-ruining animation style that seems to be a halfhearted attempt to simply colorize the cells of the original manga. While the muted colors and stark background would have translated well to the manga format the same cannot be said for animation. In fact. I found the lack of vibrancy and life in some scenes to be somewhat distracting at times. Aside from that character movements seem a bit stiff which forces some of the dialogue-heavy moments feel more like poorly animated GIFs rather than properly animated sequences. But, discounting my nitpicking, I feel that character and background designs are beautiful when assessed separately as portraiture.

Sound Design:

Much to my delight, Hana Yori Dango scores highest in the category of sound design. Unfortunately, this applies to the series’ soundtrack rather than its vocal performances. While they can be taken separately, I feel the two are inexorably linked and aides the viewer in suspending their disbelief. For their time, the talent did a passable job of bringing the characters to life. But, it is important to remember that the 90s were an awkward time for anime dubs and this anime suffers greatly from the growing pains of the time. Thankfully the music does a great job of distracting us from the flawed delivery.

For the most part, the music of Hana Yori Dango does quite a bit to amplify the high-society feel of the show. The opening and ending themes are light and airy J-pop pieces that connotes a relaxed and energetic tone. This does a great job of setting the tone as a slice of life piece. Intermittent pieces like Tomaso Abononi’s Symphony No. 5 adds depth to the upper-class feel of Eitoku Academy. Together, classical and popular styles fill the gap created by poor voice acting. Sadly, it isn’t enough.

I watched the series in its English dub as distributed by Viz Media as instructed by the one who requested this review. While it was nice to hear popular 90s era voice actors like Micheal Adamthwaite and Stephen Park in the roles of Tsukasa Domyouji and Rui Hanazawa I feel that Kelly Sherodin was completely miscast as Tsukushi. This led to my great dismay as her pronunciations of the name Rui as Luis grated on my ears. Alongside this, some dialog was stiff and stilted leading to an overall flat delivery. The lack of compelling delivery forces me to dislike the dub but only slightly.

Recommendations:

I do not usually give my recommendations separate from my conclusion but since the following are TV dramas rather than anime I feel obligated to break form and inform you as to the existence of two great shows. If you wish to see this concept done properly I point you to the Taiwanese Drama Meteor Garden as I believe the acters Vic Zhou and Jerry Yan provide the best characterizations of the two male leads. While the Karean variant has its merits, I find it slightly less appealing. Still, feel free to check both out for yorself as this is a matter of preference to me.

Final Thoughts:

In conclusion I feel that Hana Yori Dango suffers from a lack of proper execution. But, it is still a salvageable piece. In many ways it is the progenitor to great series in its genre and I encourage fans of pieces like Ouran High School Host Club to check this out, The dub is currently licensed by Viz Media and is available at Rightstufanime. Please feel free to enjoy Boys Over Flowers and stay tuned here for more reviews.

Anime Review: Boys over Flower Series: Hana Yori Dango Other Titles: Boys Over Flowers Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shojo Series Run: …

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