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kaiowut99 · 8 months

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 99-101 Subbed (Finalized) - Fixes/Edits Breakdown (Part 1)

Since it’s 2023 and Tumblr still has a dumb link limit in posts, I’ve made this separate post supplementing my 99-101 Release Post with my usual animation fix/edit breakdown for the interested, since I did still want to give folks a more visual idea as I’d been doing--except I had to split it into two parts to cover everything thanks to said link limit. 🙃 Details below the cut! (Part 2 with 101 here.)

*Note: for 100, there were multiple instances of errors where the video footage suddenly jumps up in the frame, causing a black bar to appear on the bottom right half of the screen. These do seem to mostly happen where ghosting was involved, but all were generally fixed the same way, as I slightly cropped the entire scene and then moved the part of the shot where the jump happens back down into place. I had figured it might've just been an issue with the Astral_Union DVDRips I've been using, but this also happens in the Crunchyroll upload and the YES-uploaded rip on Nyaa.si. To their credit, 4Kids applied similar fixes for the dub, as these issues don't pop up; I imagine they were probably given the same masters that were used eventually for CR and had their video team touch up accordingly. In the list below, I'll still note where they happen/etc, but mentioning this up top to keep things a bit more concise.

Fixes/Edits! (99)

After the commercial break, having survived Ojin's triple Satellite Cannon onslaught, Judai starts his next turn; he draws Fusion and activates it, but as he swings his hand out to do so, we get a look at his hand, which... is looking a little too stacked with extra copies of Fusion for some reason. As I mentioned here, we did see his hand earlier in the duel, so I was able to fix this by first making proxies for OCG-art Featherman and Burstlady (which I'm pretty sure I had before--thanks, SSD drive failure last year) and both Change of Hero -- Reflector Ray and Contact in Photoshop, then throwing them into AfterEffects to apply into the footage, masking Judai's thumb over the cards. (As I noted in the post, funny that the dub kept this when they were in the area to dubify the Polymerization card and somehow missed it, lol.)

Later, after Ojin summons Satellite Laser Balsam, Shou and Kenzan from the stands think that Judai can't lose to it with Shining Flare Wingman's 3100 ATK, but Asuka notes Ojin's calmness and suggests he might have something for him--Kenzan and Shou then turn to her in surprise, but Kenzan actually starts moving a frame before Shou does, meaning Shou ends his turning a frame after Kenzan. Fixed this in Sony Vegas by masking Shou's position as he starts to turn out and timing it with Kenzan's, masking in the chair and a bit of Asuka's collar behind him to blend him in.

During the 100 preview, we see Saiou summoning The World, with Ed and his field being blown by the wind and impacts from the summoning, but the Defendguy and Dunkguy on his field have their Defense-Mode cards under them facing incorrectly, with the effect boxes facing Ed's right; should be their name boxes to his right to match their Disk positioning. I fixed this first for 100 and then applied the fix here, but because of the ghosting going on in the video here, I had to work with that by slowing the footage down a bit and carefully masking in the fix; think it came out nicely considering. (The CR upload and the one in the YES torrent also had ghosting going on.)

Fixes/Edits! (100)

During the recap back to episode 98, I reprised a fix I did to Ed's dad, during his plea to Ed to defeat Bloo-D and go to Saiou, moving a frame before the screen starts to move as Ed slides in on a split-screen; fixed as done there by holding the frame just before over this early-moving frame.

During the 99% OP for this ep, we get a bunch of the footage jumps I mentioned up top, first with the clip during Judai's showcase of Kagurazaka's Black Magician attacking him, with the footage jumping slightly as the Black Magic attack gets let out. As this happens repeatedly throughout the OP, my solution was to grab the OP from episode 99 and use that for the majority, with the leftover issue being the episode preview clip--which was also bugged because a footage jump also happens there (and in-episode) as we see Ed moving to activate his face-down card in response to The World's attack. To deal with that, as I'd recreated this preview clip for use with the textless video I'd sub my English credits onto and fixed the jump, I first used Photoshop to cut the Japanese lyrics out of the shot and into a transparent .png which I then slapped on top of this recreated clip in Sony Vegas; I did try to see if I could just find the font used for the lyrics, but that proved to be fruitless, so thought that would be the next best thing so it blends in. And it does nicely, considering.

Into the episode proper, the first shot we have is of Ed and Samejima's helicopter charging towards Duel Academia, where a footage jump happens going into the heli close-up showing everyone inside that I fixed.

After Ed's flashbacks to meeting Saiou and their conversation about his fate, we see their helicopter getting closer to the Academia, but another footage jump happens a few frames into the shot, which I fixed.

Once the helicopter's close enough to the White dorm, Ed makes his dramatic jump out, but as we see him diving down, another footage jump happens which I fixed.

After Ed lands inside Saiou's room and runs off to try and find him, Samejima looks on from the helicopter, but another footage jump happens as we see lightning about to strike the helicopter, though this time it's complicated a bit as, while the lightning shoots down to the helicopter, we see that the helicopter isn't fully drawn, with its right side leading to its engine being incomplete (though it's fully drawn once the lightning hits it). I fixed this by first applying the footage fix I'd been doing--cropping the shot slightly as it the video ghosts between Samejima and the clouds rumbling--then cropping/zooming the shot a bit more right as the lightning starts to shoot out until the lightning hits the helicopter, zooming back out to how it originally was as the lightning connects, to crop out the heli's undrawn part.

As Ed confronts Saiou about Bloo-D and the Light of Destruction being in him now, Saiou confirms it, and a surprised Ed asks what he means, but as he does so, he drops his outstretched right arm with his hand holding Bloo-D, and we see it's reversed in his hand, as it was upright in his hand when showing it to Saiou a few shots earlier. Fixed this by making a proxy in Photoshop that I then applied in AfterEffects, masking in Ed's thumb over it.

[continued below, just split thanks to stupid text-block character limits]

(8) After the duel starts, after Saiou summons The Empress, its card starts to rotate to decide its effect--but as Saiou slides into an expanding split-screen, saying that Ed can no longer stop fate and that it'll stop while upright, there's a quick frame as the split-screen expands where the sliding compressed split-screen line in the frame just before is still there. Fixed this in Vegas by using the following frame, masking in just enough from what's in the split-screen there to cover up said line.

(9) After Saiou summons The Chariot, knowing it'll land upright, Shou and Kenzan click into a split-screen to note that it's upright (Kenzan finding it low how he's making them work for him), but they split out of their split-screen a bit unevenly which makes Shou's split take a frame longer than Kenzan's to slide offscreen, along with a coloring error with Shou's mouth/face. Fixed this in Vegas by masking out Shou's full split and redoing his slide-out so that it's timed more closely with Kenzan's, fixing the coloring error in the process.

(10) A bit later, after The Chariot destroys Diamondguy, Ed bounces back and activates Destiny Signal, but the shot zooms out a bit too much; we end up seeing that Ed's legs aren't fully drawn in. Fixed this in Vegas by slightly cropping the shot to hide the undrawn section.

(11) As Ed summons Defendguy in Defense Mode through Destiny Signal, another footage jump happens a few frames into its materializing that I fixed; the footage gets restored to normal as the shot zooms out and he takes his pose.

(12) After Saiou uses The Chariot to summon Diamondguy to his field, Kenzan and Shou are shocked that Saiou has as many Monsters as he does after three turns--but as Shou speaks after Kenzan's line, Kenzan's mouth suddenly opens back up for three frames near the end of Shou's "that many Monsters" line. Fixed this in Vegas by masking out Kenzan's closed mouth and masking it over his open one.

(13) On his next turn, Ed summons Dunkguy in Defense Mode, triggering The Empress's upright effect; he tributes The Empress and Diamondguy for his Tribute Summon, but as the two are tributed, another footage jump happens a few frames in that I fixed.

(14) In the very next shot, Saiou declares his Tribute Summon for The Moon, which materializes behind him as he says so--but as it does and the screen pans up to show it, another footage jump happens that I fixed, then used the last three frames of the upward pan to zoom it back out to where it was originally before the ATK counter shows up.

(15) After The Moon lands upright and Ed sees that Saiou's trying to get more Monsters out for a Tribute Summon, he uses Dunkguy's effect to hit Saiou with Effect Damage, but as Dunkguy gets a [really good] close-up while preparing to fire at Saiou, another footage jump happens as he jumps to kick up some damage at him, lasting from that shot to it connecting with Saiou, that I fixed.

(16) On his next turn, after getting a Moon Token, Saiou prepares to Tribute Summon ZA WARUDO The World, holding out its card, but as the shot transitions into the next one showing his Monsters being tributed for it, another footage jump happens that I fixed.

[another split thanks to stupid text-block character limits]

(17) After said shot of Saiou's Monsters being tributed, we see Ed bracing himself as the summon kicks up wind at his field, but the Defense-Mode Defendguy and Dunkguy on his field have their cards reversed under them, with their name boxes facing his left when they should be facing right to match their Disk placements. Since I needed this for 99's 100 preview, this was the first fix I worked on for 100, which I fixed in AfterEffects by applying their correctly-facing proxies over the cards and tracking them throughout the panning shot, masking Defendguy and Dunkguy over them and also tracking their movement over the cards throughout; I also used a layer of solid grey/white coloring, which I masked according to the shape of the wind over the cards as the shot panned, to recreate the wind blowing on top of them. (I then applied this fix to the preview in 99, though I kept trying to figure out a good way to do so given the ghosting there, and tried downloading a different encode of the episode hoping for no ghosting, to no avail; after working on the other fixes, I went back and worked on it as noted above.)

(18) After The World lands upright, Saiou declares The Emperor and The Moon's attacks, but as the shot ghosts into the two attacking, another footage jump happens that I fixed.

(19) A few seconds later, The Emperor's attack connects with Dunkguy and destroys him, but as the shot ghosts into The Moon firing its attack on Defendguy, another footage jump happens that I fixed.

(20) A few more seconds later, Saiou uses The World for a direct attack on a now-wide-open Ed, and as The World's attack closes in on Ed, another footage jump happens as the shot ghosts into Ed activating his D-Fortune Trap that I fixed; the jump lasts until Ed's done swinging his arm out and the shot starts to pan down to his Trap, at which point I cut back to the original footage.

(21) After Saiou uses The World's upright effect to skip Ed's next turn, Saiou has it attack him directly again, and the attack closing in ghosts into Ed's being hit, another footage jump happens--but luckily, 101 recaps this exact scene, not only without the black bar/footage jump but without the ghosting, so to fix this, I just used that footage instead for this scene.

(22) The preview for 102 starts with Ed and Saiou in a split-screen that splits apart to show The Devil behind them, but Saiou's split takes an extra frame to slide off. Fixed this in Vegas by just masking part of the next frame in which both are gone over it. (I wish the same shot in 101 was free of ghosting like this one.)

(23) A few frames later, The Devil fires its attack at The Emperor, summoned to Ed's field by Saiou as we'll see in 101, but as it does, another footage jump happens with all the ghosting that I fixed, this time moving the frame down slightly and using the equivalent shot in 101 to cover up the missing pixels up top as a result of the move-down. The jump lasts from The Devil firing its attack to some frames into The Emperor exploding from it, at which point I cut back to the original footage.

Fixes/Edits! (101) phew

[continued here, due to aforementioned link limit...]

#fix/edit breakdowns #subbing rambling #proper release post now pinned on my blog~

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kyeomblr · 2 years

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light a flame in your heart

#svtgifs #svtsource #svtdaily #svtcreations #svt #seventeen #dokyeom #seokmin #dk #mingyu #the8 #minghao #m:gifs #g:dk #*mine #i'm sorry if the coloring is too intense i really hate coloring anything that has a red background </3 #edit: fixed to credit the right op !

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Risk”

Welcome back, everyone! I have a lot of mixed, complicated feelings about today's episode and I'm already sure this recap will miss a great deal that should be said. There's a lot to digest, we need some time to do that, so until things have settled I think that the one, entirely confident claim I can make here is that our writers weren't BSing the fandom on twitter. The last few days have seen a number of big claims made regarding "Risk" —

— and whatever else we might have to say about the episode, it certainly delivered in terms of shocking content. From confessions to reveals to a new plan in place, there's a lot to unpack.

So let's get started.

Our first shot is a problem.

I don't want it to be! But I've got to work with what I've got. We open on Salem's flying monkeys — or gorillas, if we're being technical — and my immediate thought is where in the world they came from. I mean, obviously I know where. We ended Volume 6 with the post-credit scene of Salem adding wings to an army of Beringels, Hazel commenting that she'll lead the invasion herself. When Salem arrived at the end of Volume 7 and we picked up where we'd left off in Volume 8, the fandom was obviously expecting an attack led primarily by flying, transformed grimm. That didn't happen. For ten episodes the plot forgot that the Beringels existed, focusing instead of the Hound, the grimm soup, then the Whale, then the ground grimm the Whale was producing. Months back I encountered a number of posts asking, "What happened to the resource we know Salem brought to this fight?" and those questions are partly what inspired the "Introducing new grimm that are then quickly abandoned" spot on the bingo board. Now, suddenly, the Beringels have re-appeared and that is a good thing. Though it's too little, too late, as is so often the case with RWBY. Getting something you expect has a sour taste when it arrives months past when it was needed, especially when that something only exists for a second on screen.

This is doubly true given that we saw Oscar eliminate the grimm last episode.

At least, I thought he had? Pretty much everyone I've spoken to thought he had. This last week's discussions have centered around RWBY nerfing the stakes, taking out a whole army of grimm in one, magical blast. That's far from great. Yet now we see that we were apparently wrong. Atlas remains overrun with grimm, this problem remains a problem... so, yay? But we're once left with a tradeoff. RWBY has no longer eliminated the stakes with a deus ex machina as we had originally thought, but in its place we're left with a badly executed scene last episode and an assumed problem that is "fixed" with an enemy we should have been dealing with since the start of the volume. The road to the Beringels has been messy indeed and all they've done so far is fly across the screen.

Which reminds me: if this army of grimm still exists — and absolutely existed prior to Oscar's blast — how come not a single one is attacking the Schnee manor? This opening is in Atlas, the skies are overrun, we've seen a few grimm show up to help out the Hound, yet miraculously nothing bothers the group while they freak out at the dining table, or freak out as Penny tries to leave. That's a whole lot of grimm and a whole lot of negativity... yet somehow these two things never meet in a way that would inconvenience our characters. While from a writing standpoint I can understand not wanting to interrupt all these conversations and feel good moments, the show can't simply ignore the rules of its world whenever it's convenient. If anything, given that Atlas' population is currently hidden beneath the city, Schnee manor should be even more of a hot-spot than it normally would be. There is one (1) group of people out in the open for them to target.

Yeah, we're a single shot into this episode. It's a doozy.

Moving right along, those Atlas citizens (and, let's not forget, a large number of Mantle evacuees too) are still huddled in the tunnels, listening to Ironwood's insane broadcast. They're obviously terrified, as are those down in Mantle who are staring execution in the face. Fiona bursts into tears.

It makes me wonder why we didn't get the airship subplot now. As I've mentioned extensively in the past, that decision didn't make much sense and I think the writers knew it didn't make much sense because they chose not to reveal what Ruby and co. planned to do with the citizens once they were on board. The point was never to come up with a feasible plan, something the audience would put to the test, but rather to just make it seem like the group was doing something Smart and Heroic before Ironwood inevitably derailed it. Don't look too closely at the man behind the curtain. Normally, I'd comment that yes, it's damn hard to come up with a brilliant plan to save others in a situation like this — our characters can only be as smart as our authors! — yet that sympathy dissipates when we hit this episode and are given a scenario where airships would have been great. Ironwood has threatened to nuke Mantle. Suddenly, it is imperative that the civilians leave the safety of the crater as soon as possible (whereas before it was not). So Whitley remembers that they have access to these ships and the group hatches a plan to sneak them down while Ironwood is distracted, get everyone up into Atlas so he can't use Mantle as a bargaining chip anymore. Then they're spotted, the plan revealed, and Ironwood shoots their ships down, leaving them devastated that their attempt to help the citizens has literally gone up in flames. We're still left with the problem of why Ironwood wouldn't just allow a continued evacuation now that Salem is briefly out of the mix and the Schnees have provided extra resources — the writing really took a sledgehammer to his characterization — but the group trying to get people to Atlas to avoid death by bomb at least makes more sense than them trying to move the citizens to an undisclosed location, for unestablished reasons, when they were already relatively safe. The bomb is what makes those airships a necessity.

It really makes me wonder how much editing goes on and how much time the writers have before they finalize scripts.

Regardless, we cut from terrified people to Ironwood himself, accompanied by Winter. The animation has some nice parallels going on here, what with the same black, white, and blue color scheme, hands behind their backs, the need for robotic accommodations, and steps perfectly in synch. As we're about to see though, Winter is very good at looking the part of a loyal soldier while actually bending the rules.

However, are we really going to ignore that she betrayed Ironwood last episode? Betrayal from his perspective, that is. Winter was given a direct order, disobeyed that order, pissed off Harriet in the process, and wasn't able to give a good explanation for her actions — she was too busy being creeped out by Ironwood's reaction. For all intents and purposes she should be considered disloyal right now. Or at least under suspicion, yet Ironwood acts as if everything is fine. We've skipped over any meaningful fallout between them, or a reason why Ironwood would dismiss her betrayal. This ties into something I'll bring up later in the episode: namely, that RWBY introduces too much too quickly and doesn't have time to satisfyingly tackle — or tackle at all — the plot points they've introduced, simply because there's always a new one to focus on. We dropped the "Winter went against Ironwood at great personal risk" plotline to make room for the new "Ironwood has randomly threatened Mantle" plotline, which likewise doesn't do Ironwood's characterization any favors. I don't just mean the obvious "Omg he's willing to murder a whole city now" issue. Ironwood used to be smart, yet his unfounded trust in others makes him look foolish now: first trusting Watts, now Winter. Alongside that, the story and fandom have both pushed the idea that Ironwood is paranoid, yet that "paranoia" has only ever been attached to justified threats. If he were actually paranoid then Winter's actions would have caused him to mistrust all of the Ace Ops now, labeling everyone near him a disloyal enemy, despite evidence to the contrary (especially when it comes to Harriet). Yet across two volumes Ironwood has continually been "paranoid" only in regards to things like Cinder and Salem — proven threats — while simultaneously trusting known villains and ignoring when his subordinates straight up say, "She let our enemies go free." There’s little rhyme or reason to any of his decisions here.

Still! A nice, meaningful shot lol.

As Ironwood and Winter get closer we see the Ace Ops discussing the threat. "Of course he's not going to do it," to which Marrow pushes back with, "So what? He's bluffing with a whole city?" This is a really, really important moment that I don't think the writers realize is important. See, everyone is shocked when Ironwood reveals that he intends to go through with the threat. The Ace Ops, Winter, Robyn, our heroes... everyone grapples with the idea that this is actually happening. Everyone has some moment of, "It's just a bluff, yeah?" and I don't think that's just denial. The characters' shock tells us that Ironwood normally wouldn't be a man who'd do something like this. Ever. That shock has to stem from something, such as an ingrained understanding that Ironwood is a protector, not a murderer. Note the difference between the fandom and the characters' reactions. Whereas a good chunk of the fandom went, "Of course Ironwood means it. We all saw this coming! Remember how he..." and then proceed to list various things — persuasive or otherwise — that prove he was always a bad guy in the making. Yet no one in the RWBY world is inclined to use those moments as evidence. Winter doesn't go, "He's not bluffing. I saw him shoot the councilman just for speaking up" and the Ace Ops don't go, "Oh, he'll do it. This is the man who destroyed his arm to take down Watts. He'll stop at nothing." After everything they've seen — the same things we've seen — there's still some instinctual, nebulous knowledge that goes, "No. Ironwood wouldn't. He's one of the good guys." We can certainly talk about real life people getting swept up in horrible institutions, unwilling to admit how bad things actually are until they hit a specific line they can't cross... but I think this is less a comment on some sort of bystander effect (RWBY isn't that deliberately nuanced lol) and more an unintentional acknowledgement that until the very sudden and entirely unexpected shooting of Oscar, Ironwood actually wouldn't have done this. The Ace Ops are reacting to a man who absolutely existed until the writing erased him and they believe the core of that man still exists. To my mind, he should, but because our show can't actually have Salem as the main villain right now, she's conveniently blown up and Ironwood takes her place.

So we've got some loaded implications there, as well as Vine's comment that he hopes "the kids" see sense now. I am begging RWBY to pick a lane already. Are they kids, or are they adults? Because that answer makes a big difference and we can't continue to have it both ways.

Ironwood and Winter arrive were Ironwood orders that she prep drones with the "payload." That's the moment Winter and the others realize he's serious. Cue that shock all around. The revelation is the last straw for Marrow, prompting him to start yelling some excellent points about how Ironwood is doing Salem's job for her. See, this accusation works. Telling a guy threatening to blow up a city that he's as bad as their villain is accurate. Having Oscar tell that same guy that he's as bad as their villain because he wants to save a city full of people... is ridiculous. Totally different setup here and RWBY got it right this time. The only line that didn't work for me was Marrow asking the Ace Ops if they believe in anything. Uh... yeah. They believe in saving Atlas + all the Mantle evacuees they got. That's pretty well established. I swear, most RWBY speeches are padded with generic, heroic-sounding lines that don't actually mean anything, or are outright falsehoods we’re meant to ignore.

We'll see more of that with renora.

Marrow attempts to leave and his eyes go wide as he hears the click of Ironwood's gun. Remember I said that Winter is good at playing the obedient soldier? It's after Ironwood aims that she tackles Marrow.

On the surface it looks only like she violently disarmed him, but in reality she got him out of the bullet's path and kept Ironwood from firing at all. She saved his life, choosing to play up how she'll “take this traitor to the brig” where he belongs, rather than watching him die. A really nice moment in terms of strategy and one of the few lately where I've actually felt like I'm watching smart characters.

However, I cannot deny the uncomfortable implications in this scene. Smart or not, necessary or not, it hasn't escaped anyone's notice that one of our darkest characters was a) nearly killed by a white man and b) beat up by a white woman. To say nothing of Marrow's status as a faunus. I was cringing during his line about loyalty: “I used to wear this rank with pride. Now I see it for what it really is: a collar."

Honestly, I don't have the qualifications to unpack all that, so let's just acknowledge that the scene, while good in some respects, was massively insulting in others. I’ll let others in the fandom defend or damn it as they see fit.

We get a shot of how shocked the Ace Ops are that they nearly watched their team member get executed for speaking up against a bomb threat. It once again highlight's RWBY's strange depiction of violence and when it's deemed appropriate. Harriet has threatened people a couple of times now — here telling Marrow she'll shut him up herself — yet her reaction tells us that she never would have killed him as Ironwood nearly did. Threats, then, mean little... unless Ironwood is making an exaggerated comment about shooting Qrow. Then it's evidence of evil intent that's bound to come to the surface eventually. So does that mean Harriet will be trying to bomb cities herself someday? If so, it once again leaves our heroes in an awkward position, considering that Ruby started the fight Harriet wouldn't, Weiss stuck her weapon in Whitley's face, etc. If it says something awful that Winter would punch a minority — even to save his life — what does it say about Qrow that he would punch a child in anger? Outside of the easy to label actions like Ironwood's bomb threat and shootings, there exists this gray space that asks, “When are you justified to use violence? When is a threat forgivable?” The problem is, the show keeps coming up with contradictory answers. I bring this up not because Winter's punch or Harriet's threat are the most significant examples of this that we've seen, but because the themes of forgiveness and violence take center stage at the episode's end... and RWBY completely drops the ball. Keep these complications in mind.

Before that though, the group is crowded into the dining room and no matter what else "Risk" might give us, I'm reminded that I really like the design of the Schnee manor. I'm glad the episode found an excuse to show us this room again.

My initial thought upon entering the scene was, "Are we going to talk about Penny's hack? The silver-eyed grimm? Ozpin's return?" and to RWBY's credit it touches on all of these, though I stand by my point about plotlines coming too quickly. Any one of these should have been given the space to grow, not fighting for space against the potential destruction of Mantle. If you don't acknowledge these things in "Risk" you've lost your chance (much like how "Oscar is kidnapped" replaced "Oscar has to deal with Ozpin's return," resulting in a scene where Oscar was just... randomly okay with Ozpin again. We lost the chance to deal with the first conflict introduced because we barreled into the second), yet if you do spend episode time on these issues, it feels like the characters aren't dealing with the immediate threat. Questions of silver eyes, what to do about Penny, and Ozpin's return needed to be given their due before there was an hour time limit resulting in thousands of deaths. Now, you have to wonder why Yang and Ruby are talking about their mother when a city's safety is ticking away. Where were these questions and reassurances years ago?

I think this is why this episode — maybe even this whole volume — simultaneously feels too full and too boring. We're being introduced to lots of Big Things, but then putting them off to focus on other, smaller stuff, and by the time we circle back around it's no longer the right time. We're constantly focusing on the least interesting, least important thing in the room. Why is the group sitting around with their tea when we could have moved the Hound plotline up and started this groundwork earlier? Which means we're doing that work now instead of worrying about Mantle or Penny. All of which is connected to Salem herself being here, yet Ironwood is our villain instead... We're just introducing new idea after new idea, dropping each to focus on something else when the viewer is already emotionally invested in the last conflict. It makes the show feel overly packed with problems we don't have time for while simultaneously having too much time in which the characters do nothing of importance. We're never dealing with these issues at the right time. Talking about a silver-eyed grimm while Salem is here feels like Too Much and having the girls unpack that now, with Mantle’s life on the line, feels like Too Little. Stop sitting around while you've got less than an hour to save half a kingdom! We needed this conversation in a different episode, one not already driven by a problem that’s objectively more important.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're in the dining room and the group is listing all the stuff that has gone wrong lately. Blake mentions that Qrow and Robyn are still in custody, because we definitely want Blake remembering that Qrow exists, not one of his nieces. Ruby, meanwhile, is having a meltdown. "So then it's impossible!" she yells, head in her hands.

Emerald sneaks in an insult: “See? If Ms. Hero here with all the answers doesn’t have one..." and the others, of course, jump to Ruby's aid. But Emerald is right! It's entirely Ruby's fault that Atlas didn't get the chance to escape with those they had. Her actions and lack of a plan led to where they are now. I'm not saying she's responsible for Ironwood's insane decisions — that's like saying he's responsible for Qrow's in relation to Clover — but Ruby indeed played the part of the hero who had all the answers... without actually having any answers. Now that things are worse than how they started, her only answer is to say it's all "impossible" and throw up her hands. Ruby is an absolutely terrible leader right now and someone should indeed be calling her out on that, it's just too bad it's Emerald, someone technically still presented as an untrustworthy figure for the next couple of minutes. (More on that later.) Any and every criticism of Ruby is dismissed out of hand. Don't believe Ironwood because he's crazy now. The Ace Ops? His boot lickers. Yang has things to say, but once Ren agrees with her she does a 180. Now Ren is heading towards an extra special apology for daring to doubt Ruby. May calls her out, only to also change her opinion the next episode. Now here's one more person, but she's a bad guy. The show has never once encouraged us to treat these criticisms seriously — never allowed them to stick, let alone lead to change — and at this point I'm done with everyone falling over themselves to absolve and praise Ruby. By making Emerald the criticizer and having Ruby throw herself a pity party, the writing ensures that the conversation goes from, "Yeah. You messed up big time and now have a responsibility to fix things" to "Aww, don't be so hard on yourself! We won't let mean Emerald insult you anymore."

Ruby makes herself the victim here. She gets so upset and acts so defeated that all anyone can do is reassure her. The focus turns towards her, a focus centered around hiding against the table, or cowering on a staircase, so that it feels cruel to call her out on her deadly mistakes when she's so clearly upset. But they still should have, especially since cowering and tears have never protected anyone else from the group's criticism. Ozpin is proof of that.

What I'm getting at is that Ruby runs away. She's faced with the consequences of her actions, is informed she needs to help come up with a solution, and instead of braving that decides it's "impossible" and literally runs from the room. While they're on a time limit. Keep this moment in mind for just a bit longer. These choices become doubly important later.

So Ruby can't handle the responsibility she violently ripped from others and the group goes out of their way to comfort her in this. Especially since the writing again decides to conflate Emerald and Ozpin through a comment of Oscar's, demonstrating that it still has no decent sense of what "responsibility" or "villainous acts" means. These scenes are three years in the making and every step getting here was dogged with problems, so the fact that the end result is a mess isn't exactly surprising.

We (thankfully) leave Ruby for a bit and instead turn to Jaune. He's amplifying Nora's aura, but admits that he can't get the scars to go away. That makes sense. After all, they're scars. His semblance helps people heal, but at this point Nora has already healed. Those scars are the result of that.

She says it was “Just another ditzy move from Nora” and I'm glad we're acknowledging that, even if it is all framed through the lens of Nora being incorrect in that assumption. Once again, the writing continually makes statements about characters, but fails to have their actions reflect that. Nora wanted to do more than just hit things with her hammer without thinking them through... and we showed that by having her hit a door with her hammer without thinking it through. Was it heroic? Absolutely. Did it lead to any growth? No. I'd much rather someone acknowledge that yeah, she did the same thing she always does, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Nora's impulsivity is a part of her and, given the talk of teammates here, she could have gotten reassurance that she'll always have people around to help her temper those impulses. Instead, we're (again) told that she shouldn't do A anymore, watch her do A anyway, the writing presents it like it’s B, Nora admits that she did A, and everyone rushes to assure her it was actually B. Just let these characters make mistakes for once, especially mistakes made in an effort to help someone. This should be the easiest and kindest way to criticize the group and RWBY can’t even manage that.

Which brings us to Ren. Ren, I am so sorry. You deserved better than this. Nora rips into him, saying, “We were supposed to be a team, but that didn’t matter to you! You shove people out so you don’t have to feel things that are hard!" and again we have RWBY making grand statements that are meaningless. Did Ren keep things bottled up in Volume 7? Yes... and no one tried to help him with that. Instead, Nora decided to bypass his problems completely and try to kiss it better. When that (shockingly) didn't work, Ren was finally forced to open up at Yang's insistence and was abandoned for his perspective. That's what that was, literally and metaphorically: they walked away from him and made it clear that so long as he believes these things, he's not welcome. What were those things? We've made mistakes, Ruby made mistakes, we're not ready for this stuff. That's it! "We were supposed to be a team" makes it sound like Ren betrayed them in the worst possible way, when in reality all he did was acknowledge that they're imperfect and that things are a mess right now. But of course, that is the ultimate betrayal for this group: acknowledgement that they’re not perfect. Everyone can call themselves out to generate sympathy — Nora does it, Ruby does it — but as soon as someone else agrees and implies that they should make changes, they’re dismissed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the refusal to question Ruby makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Is this as bad as Ironwood shooting someone who questions him? Of course not, but that doesn't make it good. The group has made it clear from Ozpin to Ren that if you put a toe out of line, that's it. You're gone. You are not a part of the group until you are willing to back the group 100%, no matter what horrible things they might be up to. That Nora yells at Ren for questioning and Ren learns to keep his mouth shut, apologizing to both her and Jaune for speaking his mind is... well, it's horrible. That's not friendship. I know the fandom doesn't want to hear that given how much we otherwise love these relationships, but it's not. If you can't question and voice concerns without about serious topics like this without the threat of abandonment — literal or otherwise — then that's not a friend group you should be sticking with. Ren’s "biggest failing as a teammate and a partner" is that he didn't agree with the others and didn’t immediately change his mind when they demanded it. There are awful implications attached to that, especially since Ren’s perspective was a good one. He’s not out here slinging horrific views like, I don’t know, homophobia at the bee’s non-relationship. He just went “We made mistakes” and the group responded “Absolutely not. Absurd. Fuck you.” They didn’t even consider that position, which speaks to both a lack of respect for Ren and a level of arrogance that keeps getting them into trouble. But these issues are easily overlooked given everything else that surrounds them. Outside of Ren's apology, I quite liked the renora moment. We got a detail about Nora's backstory! She called Ren pretty! We got an "I love you"! He booped her nose!! It's all very cute and wholesome... and soured by the knowledge of what Ren had to do to get here.

Outside of these generalized responses, there are three other points I wanted to make about this scene:

Yes, more obligatory humor to ruin an otherwise serious moment. Jaune could have just smiled softly and slipped out. Or have him leave before the conversation started (because Ren shouldn't have been apologizing to him in the first place...) Instead, we got multiple seconds of him being awkward, including a bunch of funny sound effects.

I'm legitimately happy we got that "I love you" — outside of the problems since arriving in Atlas, I've always enjoyed the ship — but coming on the heels of last week's episode, it makes the bee's forehead touch look even worse. Renora has been confirmed multiple times at this point, but we still can't get something overt for our one, queer ship.

On the one hand, I really like that Nora set a boundary here — a surprisingly mature conversation for RWBY — but I'm confused as to what exactly the boundary is. She says she needs to figure out who she is without Ren, but what does that translate to on a practical, day-to-day basis? Normally, when a couple needs to figure out who they are they separate, but renora can't do that. They're still on the same team, stuck in the same war, presumably off to do the same things they've always done together. It sounds great on paper to say that Nora is going to discover who she is without Ren, but unless they separate again I don't see how that can happen. More likely, we'll get a volume or two of them looking and acting exactly as they always have, but when it comes time for relationship drama again, Nora will insist she's a different person who is now ready to be with him. That she's changed. But change requires, you know, making a change, so is renora actually going to look any different moving forward?

While these two confess their love but also decide to be separate (is that what happened?), Qrow and Robyn have knocked out some guards and retrieved their weapons. Robyn watches four security feeds, whispering, "He's... really gonna do it." See? Even Robyn, someone who never liked Ironwood and considered him dangerous from the start, is in shock that he would go this far. Qrow doesn't want to talk moral downfalls though, he's all action: "Not if we stop him first."

You know, at least Qrow is doing something. What he's doing is stupid, particularly given his motivations, but with the volume we've had I give him props for coming up with a plan and sticking to it. That's more than many of the others have done.

Yet then, suddenly, Robyn doesn't want to kill Ironwood. ...Since when? Robyn has been the most trigger happy of the lot while Qrow initially wanted to talk. Now they've switched places for no reason I can see, with Qrow all murder happy and Robyn cautioning restraint. Which admittedly isn't uncommon. Remember how Nora was all about protecting Mantle and then randomly decided to help with Amity instead? Remember how Yang was critical of Ruby and then decided to defend her to Ren? Remember how Hazel was pro-Salem until he saw a blue naked lady and decided to defect? At this point, characters just do things at random.

Robyn says that Qrow isn't trying to kill Ironwood because that's the right thing to do, only because he wants revenge. A true enough assessment. But then she follows it up by claiming that Qrow is a better huntsmen than Clover because he does the right thing. Without rehashing all my arguments regarding how Clover was not the devil incarnate for refusing to let two potential criminals walk free — especially after they attacked him — we're really playing the dead guy card now? Clover was murdered. Robyn and Qrow were participants in that murder. Now Robyn is making sweeping claims about who is the better person when Clover quite obviously isn't here to defend himself? That's all kinds of messed up.

Before they can bash the dead guy anymore though the elevator arrives. We see Qrow and Robyn's shocked expressions at whoever is behind the doors, presumably Winter and Marrow. It seems likely that Winter didn't really intend to take him to the brig. They're defecting and have now found two more allies to help them. Robyn wants a plan other than run upstairs and stab Ironwood? Winter will likely provide one.

We return to Ruby who, as established, is wallowing in the most dramatic position on the staircase. Obviously things are legitimately horrible right now and if Ruby had been given a storyline different from what we've seen since Volume 6, I'd feel sorry for her. As it stands, it's just frustrating to watch her look like the maiden of a Victorian novel while Mantle's time ticks away.

The conversation between her and Yang is great though. At least, it is for the first few sentences. I love that the show remembered they're sisters and have them talking again. I love that Yang tries to cheer Ruby up by saying she outshines her big sis in regards to the Hound. I love that she nevertheless acknowledges that the Schnees were a part of that defeat, giving them their due rather than putting all the praise on Ruby. We establish that Yang has learned what the Hound really was. This conversation is going strong...

...but then.

"That's what happened to mom."

Really? Really? In eight episodes we went from, "Lol just because the Hound spoke doesn't mean Summer was secretly made into a grimm. That’s a crazy theory" to "Summer was absolutely turned into a grimm. That's canon now!" Except because it was made canon by Ruby just announcing it one day, we can expect for an even bigger "twist" in the future: Summer is still alive. Why wouldn't she be? The Hound was untouchable outside of silver eyes, so we have little reason to think anyone has defeated her in the last 14 odd years.

I'll admit the timeline works out better than expected (I think) with Salem killing SEWs during Maria's time before switching to experimentation, but there's no emotional weight to this. I just don't care and frankly I don't think the fandom cares either. Oh, there's plenty of excitement over the reveal, but that's all for the version of Summer Rose people have built up in their minds for the last eight years, not anything that exists in the show. If you strip away all the headcanons and fics, Summer isn't interesting because she barely exists. We know nothing about her as a person and therefore we have no reason to care that she's likely another Hound. Worse — because maybe this could be smoothed over if we just care since Ruby cares — everything else surrounding this reveal was badly done. Summer, as said, has been a non-character for this whole series. Yang only just remembered two episodes ago that Summer is her mom too. The only evidence of experimentation we've seen is on other grimm, not people. There was more mystery surrounding why Tyrian was interested in Jaune, not why he'd kidnap Ruby (Big Bads always want to kidnap heroes). We have no idea who this silver eyed faunus was. We have no idea why Salem would randomly start experimenting when she doesn't need additional weapons. We don't know why she would keep these weapons to the sidelines when she’s apparently had them for over a decade. I don't even buy that Ruby, someone who we never see thinking about or questioning any of this, suddenly put all these pieces together to hit on the revelation.

None of this adds up because it wasn't planned. Summer was dead, added to the series purely because having a dead mom is interesting, and she was treated as dead for seven years. Not just by the characters, by the show. Then, suddenly, the narrative raced to remind everyone that she's supposedly a Very Important Character so we could get this twist. It’s awful. Not because the idea itself is horrible, but because it was shoved into a story that wasn't prepared for it and certainly doesn't need it. The group has Salem herself attacking the kingdom, Ironwood threatening destruction, three Relics still to discover, not to mention all the other personal conflicts going on — Emerald walking around the mansion, Ozpin is back, Penny is being controlled, Oscar has finite magic now, Nora is still recovering — but we're going to introduce another subplot to deal with? RWBY acts like it's terrified that if it doesn't add something new and flashy every third episode, its viewers will jump ship. Despite its hiccups, there's a reason why the arcs of Volume 4 worked well overall: characters were given the time to explore specific problems, like Yang's PTSD and the destruction of Ren's village. Now, in episode 11 of 14, RWBY reveals that two of the characters' mom was turned into a literal monster, but there's only time for a tiny bit of comfort because Penny is escaping and they have less than an hour now to save Mantle. There is way too much going on and we're not devoting enough time to any of it.

Hell, even the conversation can't afford to stay on the Summer reveal for more than a few sentences. Ruby segues back to her self-chastisement, saying that she wasted time on Amity. She did, but not because people didn't come. She never should have made that terrifying, nonsensical announcement to begin with. But just like Ruby never thought through the pros and cons of telling the world about Salem, she apparently never thought about the logistics of getting help. She's written the world off now — so you just know help will appear in the finale — yet she never considered how long all this would take. Our timeline is (supposedly) two days, so how long would it take a kingdom to digest the information she gave them, decide on a course of action, get people and resources together, then fly all the way to Atlas? After Ruby used most of the first day just to send the message? As I and others have pointed out, the answer is “way longer than the group has.” It shouldn't be possible, yet neither Ruby nor Yang realizes basic facts like, "What's the flight time between Vacuo and Atlas?" Like Qrow blaming his semblance rather than his decision to team up with Tyrian, Ruby blames the world for abandoning them rather than her terribly thought out plan. Both have reached the right emotion — regret — but not for the right reasons.

Also, Ruby says that Amity fell. Are Pietro and Maria okay??

Yang talks about blind optimism vs. no optimism at all, something I could really get behind if the group hadn't been governed by blind optimism this whole time. Also if what the rest of what Yang said made sense. She fires back with, “And in case you didn’t notice, my plan for Mantle didn’t work either." Uh... what plan? As far as I recall there was no plan. They just went down to do any tasks that needed doing: supply runs and grimm killings. What plan is Yang talking about?

This conversation is a disaster. We circle back around to Summer with Yang saying she also took a risk (the title is very obvious this episode) but "she's still my hero." Is she? Because the only thing you've ever said about Summer is that she baked great cookies. Regardless, Yang lays her head on Ruby's shoulder and they cry some more.

Then Jaune hurries down the steps because Penny has woken up and broken through a window.

Again: how were they planning to deal with this? Did anyone discuss it? Because it looks like Klein said, "Hey, that friend of yours powered up and could have hurt us," Nora said, "Hey, Penny was fighting some sort of control," and Whitely said, "Yeah, she wanted to open the vault and then self destruct" and everyone just left her alone in some room, deciding they'd worry about that later. If Penny had just snuck out a little more quietly the group would have been screwed.

What I do like though is the teamwork to keep Penny from flying off. It feels like we get so little teamwork nowadays, which makes everyone piling on others' range weapons, or Jaune boosting Weiss' glyphs, really enjoyable. Even Emerald gets in on the action because apparently they gave her her weapons back!

We're going to talk about this nonsense in a second.

For now, Ruby implores Penny to fight it, which is exactly what I said we'd get. Penny insists Ruby kill her though, saying that if she does she'll ensure that the power passes to her. I find this to be a weird priority. Does the group really care about who gets the Maiden powers right now? The threat here is that Penny will successfully open the vault — which shouldn't even be that much of a worry. Just let Ironwood leave instead of trying to destroy Mantle! Keeping him here has made things worse! — and that Penny will self-destruct. That feels like the biggest worry: that Penny will die. So they're going to prevent her death by... killing her themselves? Priorities and motivations really feel shaky this week.

Luckily, Ruby remembers that Penny is A Real Person and tells Jaune to amplify her aura. The fact that she has a soul keeps the virus from overtaking her. Hurray!

That's like saying my sense of self will beat off rabies. Just believe that you're your own person and nothing can touch you. They go so far as to say, “That’s who you are. Our friend, not a machine” and that feels like such an erasure to me. Penny is a machine. She is! And that was great back when this was accepted as a good thing, not something to ignore. Remember this?

You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me?

Here, Ruby acknowledges Penny's difference and reaffirms that she still has worth. Now, the group denies Penny's difference in order to prove that she has worth. She has worth because she's supposedly not a machine and supposedly can't be controlled like one... even though she is a machine and is being controlled. It's only Jaune's semblance that keeps her from going under again. The concept of Penny's personhood is now connected to her ability to resist a machine-based virus and she has failed to do that. This doesn't confirm Penny's humanity, it tells Penny (and us) that humanity is distinct from the machine parts of her, rather than a concept that includes it, and the moment she is too influenced by that machinery she ceases to be a person. The group isn't accepting her here, they're encouraging Penny to ignore and deny the parts that make her Penny.

If you want an example of how to do an arc like this far, far better, go watch The Next Generation with Data. He's what Penny could have been.

Regardless, the virus has been held at bay, at least so long as Jaune has aura. Which seems to be endless given that he was exhausting himself in the whale, but is now boosting Nora, Weiss, and Penny without any difficulty.

At least that's a minor concern in the grand scheme of things. What we're about to get? Not so much. Honestly, I'm 7k into this recap and I just don't have the energy that these two scenes deserve. Which scenes? The one where Emerald is welcomed into the fold with laughter and Ozpin has to grovel for forgiveness.

Emerald first. Last week I said:

“However this fight ends, we could really use someone like you, [Emerald.]” That’s it then. Discussion over. We knew as soon as it started that blindly trusting her was being presented as the “right” thing to do and now here we are, deciding that conclusively, despite Jaune and Yang’s complaints. By the time the group reaches the mansion, Oscar is defending Emerald from Ruby. We’re supposed to just accept that she’s a part of the group now, only minimal pushback allowed.

and I was right. Over the course of the last week I spoke with a number of friends, many of them working under the belief that this was just the start of an arc for Emerald. Obviously the show wouldn't instantly have the group trust her after all this. They'll need to warm up to her first. She'll need to prove herself. Well, I was far more pessimistic, arguing instead that I thought this was it. She was already being presented as a perfectly trustworthy figure. I'd briefly thought I'd been mistaken when the group turned on Emerald for her comment to Ruby, but then suddenly she's been given her weapons back. It's not even a matter of "You should be able to defend yourself, but you're still not trustworthy" (which would still have problems, but). No, she makes a comment about "switching sides" and that's it, trust achieved. That's all it took — nothing at all.

Now, some shows do function on a second chance policy. We can name hundred of stories where heroes instantly forgive antagonists and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is that RWBY is very much not that show. In the exact same scene Ozpin apologizes to the group and begs that they try to trust him again:

“I’ve failed all of you. I should have trusted you with the truth and I should never have run the day you discovered it."

This is complete and utter bullshit. Sorry, I'm not mincing words for this one. Two years we waiting for the group to come around, hoping that there would be apologies on both sides, but there wasn't. The group doesn't physically or verbally hurt Ozpin anymore — they do accept his request — but it's done with expressions that say this is what they are owed. You’d better apologize.

I could rehash all the arguments I've already made about how atrociously they treated him, how Ozpin had no reason to trust a bunch of teenagers, how important it was that both sides admit their mistakes, but if you're reading this recap you're likely already familiar with all that. Rather, what I want to emphasize here is that our opinions on Ozpin don't even matter here. Even those who take his apology at face value — fully believing he did fail them, he should have told them everything from the start, and that him leaving was "running away" rather than being driven off — even if we accept for just a moment that Ozpin is as guilty as the show says and heinous as the fandom claims... surely he's not as bad as Emerald? In roughly chronological order she has:

Tried to ally herself with Adam along with Cinder and Mercury

Helped to attack Amber, resulting in injuries that would have killed her if Cinder hadn't gotten to her first

Helped kill Tukson

Pretended to be a transfer student and Ruby's friend for the rest of the semester (that’s a lie that would breed mistrust)

Tricked the world into thinking that Yang had attacked Mercury unprovoked

Uses her semblance on Pyrrha, causing her to unintentionally kill Penny

All of this was in service of the Fall of Beacon, an event that destroyed a school, killed an unknown number of students, killed Pyrrha, and lost Yang her arm

Participated in the attack on Haven which, beyond the intent to further Salem's goals, nearly got Weiss killed

Came to Atlas to assist in the next attack

Went after Penny, Pietro, and Maria — two of whom might still be in trouble depending on if Amity literally fell out of the sky

Listened to Oscar being tortured, hemming and hawing for a while before realizing that, if the whole world is in danger, she's in danger too

Finally jumped ship

Emerald is one of the bad guys. All the sad looks over the years doesn't change that. Yet somehow an antagonist we've had since Volume 1 is considered more trustworthy than Ozpin, a man who hasn't intentionally helped kill their friends and who has been helping and apologizing for months now.

Yang "Aww"s when Emerald speaks. Just sit with that for a second. The woman who went through all of that horror because of Emerald, who just last episode was correctly saying they can't expect her to forget all that, is going "Aww" after... Emerald helped hold Penny for two seconds? This is ridiculous. These are the faces of the group when talking about Emerald's trust

whereas these are their expressions when talking about Ozpin's

It’s not a matter of who deserves trust or not, here it’s purely a matter of comparison. Emerald should not be more quickly forgiven than Ozpin.

Now toss in the story Ozpin tells. Unsurprisingly, it's another fairy tale — we've gotten a little heavy-handed lately — about a young girl who flees the consequences of a choice and, having never learned from her initial failure, spreads even more trouble. That's Ruby. That is Ruby to a T in this episode and the last three volumes. She is literally a young girl who has caused staggering consequences, literally ran away from the conversation about those consequences, and is now poised to continue making those mistakes because everyone keeps reinforcing her flaws. That's Ruby, yet somehow the show thinks it's Ozpin. He positions himself as the young girl here, as if he didn't face his consequences generations ago when he left the cabin, didn't learn from his mistakes by keeping Salem's secret, and hadn't been driven away by the very people he's asking for a second chance. This scene has everything backwards and while normally I'd grab hold of the possibility that maybe things will right themselves later on... we're done. This is the ending of that arc. After two years of saying, "Maybe, maybe, maybe," Ozpin has been taken back into the fold after begging his way back in. There's no more time to correct things. RWBY missed its chance. Weiss says that "Trust is a risk" and that's how Ozpin is forgiven. They have taken the risk of trusting him again after months of reflection, life-saving actions, and apologies. Emerald is granted the risk of trust in under an hour. I’ve heard so many people say they’re dropping RWBY this volume and scenes like this are precisely why.

Ugh. Heavy stuff, folks! I feel like I need to lighten the mood. Here, let's take a moment to acknowledge that the Schnees and Klein only marginally know what's happening.

Someone help them.

That is, to all intents and purposes, the end of our episode. Ruby has some sort of epiphany about actually handing Penny over — "That's actually a risk we haven't considered" — and Ironwood will no doubt fall for whatever plan they've concocted because he's stupid now. He receives a call from Ruby saying they agree to his terms, Watts is attempting to get communication of his own up and running, and Neo arrives to do... whatever she intends to do. Idk, I have assumed she wanted Ruby, but Cinder obviously doesn't have her yet for a trade off. Regardless, Neo is ready for a fight while Cinder just smiles. Team up 2.0?

As for bingo, I'm using my free space for "Worst redemption arc I've ever seen," with an honorary nod to Hazel too, and Ozpin's square gets blacked out in exes because that was just #bad.

This bingo board is a mess. Appropriate lol

Three more weeks, everyone. Hang in there! 💜

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby risk #mymetas #rwby recaps

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blueprint-han · 3 years

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So I’ve finally decided to make this post and (officially) open gfx requests! This is a decently long post, so please read through carefully, especially the rules section! And before you ask, any banners I make will be completely free, I am not accepting commissions for banners. I just like making them.

If you wanna check answered questions about gfx reqs, click here, or ask me! Don’t be afraid to dm if you have doubts, I don’t bite. :)

If you’re already using my gfx and want to see the proper rules for using it, go to the section “credit rules”.

apps: open!

RULES:

↠ give me a grace period of 3 weeks to complete your project. This is because I am a university student, and studies may cloud up my schedule from time to time. Of course, I will rarely take more than a week to complete a project, but just in case.

↠ Owing to the fact that I am doing this for FREE, please don’t get too greedy with the requests. You are limited to 3 requests a month and 15 graphics spread between those 3 requests, and if I feel the number of graphics you’ve requested is too high for me to complete, I will DM you so that we can negotiate. More info regarding this in the form itself.

↠ I will reach out to you to let you know whether your request is accepted or not! :D Please be patient.

↠ If you’re gonna request with specific photos, please make sure that if it’s a fansite picture, the op allows editing and that it’s not a sasaeng photo.

↠ Should I reach 5 requests, I will close requests and reopen them once I’ve cleared it all!

↠ I will only accept requests through the google form. This is because I have an exact idea of what you’d like on your graphic, since I ask a lot of specific questions. However, if you have some questions before filling out the form, feel free to dm/ask!

STUFF I’M WILLING TO MAKE:

↠ banners

↠ icons

↠ mobile/desktop headers

↠ carrd graphics

↠ stuff for sites other than tumblr like twitter

↠ mostly anything else too! Just send a dm to clarify :)

CREDIT RULES:

Failure to adhere to these rules will result in you losing the rights to use my graphic on your blog, and you will be politely asked to remove it or fix whatever you’re not following.

↠ when using a fanfic banner, you must credit me with an @ under the banner. Don’t throw the credit far down the post in the notes section. Credit must be clearly viewable to any users without having to go through any other stuff or a read more. If the banner is for a series. then you must credit me with an @ on every post you use the banner on. Including the masterlist and every chapter.

↠ DO NOT crop out my watermark under any circumstances. I usually leave hem very faint on fanfic/masterlist banners in case it’s stolen from you. Don’t credit me in the tags of the post, or credit me simply using my name. Meaning, “credit to dawn” is a wrong way to credit. You must mention me in the post with an @ that redirects the user to my blog. This is non-negotiable under any circumstances.

↠ The rules in the first point (and the second, for that matter) apply the same to masterlist banners.

↠ When using a mobile header/icon made by me, you must credit me either in your bio, or a pinned post with an @. Like I said, the link needs to be viewable without having to go through multiple sections or other stuff to access it. In your bio, simply using my url is fine, since I do understand many people don’t know how to link their posts onto their bio. However if you do know how to, it’s very appreciated if you link my url to redirect to my blog. 💞

↠ For external sites like carrd, twitter, etc. You must credit me with a link that redirects to my blog on tumblr. Again, it should be a link, if that’s possible; and should follow the rule of “it should be viewable to the user easily without having to click through multiple times or shouldn’t be hidden under a cut”.

↠ If you have any doubts regarding credit rules, feel free to send me a dm with your question! :) I promise I don’t bite. <3

DISCLAIMER:

↠ I will not create graphics for fanfics that have content that make me uncomfortable, including stuff that contains full smut. (Suggestive is fine, but please read my carrd before deciding to request).

↠ I have every right to deny your request, and more likely than not, I will tell you why. Please do not question me on this if I happen to deny your request. <3

↠ I own the right to add a watermark on your graphic. In fanfic banners, it will be very faint, but it will be very clear to view on mobile headers. DO NOT crop this out.

NOW THAT ALL THE BORING STUFF IS DONE, APPLY:

↠ If you’re here after all those sections wdiufhru thank you for considering this request! I appreciate you and your willingness to adhere to my set rules a lot <3

𝙏𝙊 𝘼𝙋𝙋𝙇𝙔:

↠ Follow me.

↠ Reblog this post.

↠ If you want to look at some of my edits before requesting, you can check the tag #*dawn.gfx, and if you’re too lazy/don’t have the time to scroll through all those edits/are on mobile so tag linking doesn’t work properly, you can check out my portfolio!

↠ Fill out this form! This form does not collect your email address, so you can be assured that your security is as promised.

↠ Send me an ask saying “I filled out the gfx form”. You could be on anon or not, I don’t mind. This is because I’m a forgetful dumbass and might forget to check the form responses daily. Please do this step so that I can get to your request at the earliest.

↠ When the banner is released to the public, please reblog that post I’ll tag you in! ^^ You’re only helping me and fueling my love for editing, thank you. <3

↠ If you, for some reason, decide to not use my banner, please let me know! I won’t mind at all!

↠ AND, please don’t make any extra edits to the graphic without my permission. If you need anything, just let me know, since I will be saving the psd files for your graphic. For e.g, if you have any url changes, want some color changes, etc.

#aaaaa its finally done omg #skz #stray kids #skz edits #stray kids edits #skz headers #stray kids headers #skz icons #stray kids icons #skz fanfic #stray kids fanfiction #hyunjin #chan #skz chan #skz hyunjin #tagsplswork #*dawn.gfx

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that-bajan-kid · 4 years

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Boku No Hero Academia Chapter 269 SPOILERS

(Since the three of us couldn't be here allow the two of us to kick your ass on his behalf)

All aboard the LoudEraserMic angst train!!!

(Edit: Not that much angst but still sufficient to make an impact on my heart (T^T))

Right so, Enji is checking over Miruko's wounds and he's like "This shits pretty deep fam imma have to cauterise it" and Miruko says "Inside" cause Shigaraki is only important thing in this situation apparently. Enji then says it hasn't even been 5 mins since she first radioed in. I thought it was much longer. There is no way she did all that damage in less than 5 mins.

(Edit: Oh shit guys Miruko's leg ain't looking to good. And by that I mean it's barely hanging on. Is my prediction about her loosing a leg coming true? I knew her fucking leg in the colour page last chapter looked too metallic. Horikoshi and his goddamn foreshadowing)

Enji starts to cauterise the wound, a skill he really should teach Shouto how to do, and tells Miruko he still owes her for Kyushu so please don't die. Miruko, who is still having her wound cauterise btw, responds with "what do I owe you now" and this nice moment is abruptly and rudely interrupted by the fucking Feme Fatale Noumu istg.

Noumu can you fuck off for five fucking minutes? Can't you see he's actually doing something productive. Shit.

NO FUCKING THANKS TO YOU!

Crust you useless peice of shit you haven't done a single thing since you showed up on screen. Why are you even here? How are you the No. 6 hero in all of Japan? Istg I'm gonna jump through this screen and kill him myself.

Anyway, Miruko tells them that Shigaraki ain't your average villain no more and that they should really make sure he doesn't wake up. She also tells them about the Doctors remote for waking the Noumu and that they should probably go get it.

Again, I don't know why Miruko was so hellbent on breaking the tank if she didn't want Shiggy to wake up but I'm not the badass heroine here.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this very important announcement: Aizawa Shouta is sexy as fuck. That is all.

The last time reinforcements were on their way Miruko lost an arm and maybe a leg cause that shits mangled to all hell, and got a wound so bad Enji had to set her on fire to fix it. So yeah those few seconds are definitely gonna be a huge problem. If BNHA has taught me anything it's that you can't depend on your backup to show up in time to actually help.

... Aizawa, listen. I know your a badass. I know that. And if these were regular villains I wouldn't have a problem. But these aren't regular villains, these are Noumu. You know, like the one that beat the shit out of you at USJ. Except it's not cause these are stronger!

"I almost died taking on one Noumu, so the only logical decision to make in this situation is to send off my fellow heroes, who both have long range combat oriented quirks, and take on these three Noumu, who are much stronger than the one that almost killed me, all by myself. I'm sure nothing bad could possibly happen." Are you fucking stupid? Did you hit your head too hard on something? Do you really think Enji can't handle this by himself? I mean he probably can't but that's not the point! Come on man, you're smarter than this Aizawa. And you really think Mic is gonna be ok with Mister I-haven't-done-anything-usefull-yet Express over here?

Oh so he can throw the shields Captain America style. Literally the only productive he's done since his first appearance.

Crust if you let my man Aizawa die-

"I'm counting on you..." I'm scared for them. They're both teachers and we all know how shows like this likes to treat mentors and teachers.

Mic strikes a pose, presumably getting ready to yell and Ujiko starts going off about how most of his equipment is done for but the data is still there and, oh shit, he's gonna wake up Shiggy before more damage can be done.

OH SHIT! MIC SAID I THINK THE FUCK NOT AND USED LOUD VOICE ON THESE FOOLS! He completely ablitarated the lab.

But a lass, he shattered the tank and I'm not ok with that. They realise that when they do that there's nothing stopping him from waking up by himself, right?

Ha, Ujiko looks like a balloon that got caught in a wind storm.

Shiggy is on the ground unconscious but we don't care about him rn.

Oh boy.

Mic is winding up for a punch while thinking back to presumably before they left for the raid. Aizawa says if Yamada is going then he'll follow and I don't think my heart can handle this much emotion.

YES! BEAT HIS ASS HIZASHI! DJ PUNCH!!

My man Mic really said "Clone check" lol. Also roll credits.

Uh... so Express went to pin down Shiggy and, in a genuinely shocking turn of events, Shiggy isn't breathing and his heart isn't beating. He is, essentially, dead and I really don't know how I feel about that. Ujiko said he put Shiggy in "a state of suspension to lighten the burden of stabilisation" and that the tank was supposed to accelerate the process, support his system, and then resuscitate him when he's ready. Whoops.

Ujiko starts crying saying he lived for Shiggy's sake. I don't buy any of this. Horikoshi wouldn't just hype up his main villain to be super OP and then immediately kill him off. This is Shigaraki fucking Tomura we're talking about.

The other heroes are finally here, after the main threat has supposedly been dealt with. The heroes are all like "THIS IS THE END..."

Despite what the heroes may think, I'm quite certain this isn't over. For one, it's too anticlimactic. And two, we haven't seen the main protagonist since the raid first started. We have no idea how the evac is going. And don't even get me started on Hawks and Tokoyami.

I want to see how my babies are doing Horikoshi-sensei (T^T)

Until next time.

#boku no hero academia #boku no hero academia spoilers #bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha manga #bnha manga spoilers #bnha chapter 269 spoilers #Chemistry is kicking my ass #send help

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incomingalbatross · 4 years

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Tonight’s the night for more Catholic Batfam headcanons because I say so.

As outlined in this post, in this world Bruce was raised Catholic, drifted away somewhat in adolescence, and regained his faith and active practice during his Training World Tour. Further thoughts (some of which I’ve already stated, but put together a little better, I think):

Bruce doesn’t have a regular spiritual director in Gotham. Instead he just goes to Confession to a few different parish priests he likes—taking precautions so that people don’t see Bruce Wayne in the Confession lines just to be safe—and starts every Confession with “I’m Batman” because he feels it’s necessary context. This feels logical to me but also highly entertaining.

When he moved back into Wayne Manor and started fixing it up, his first big project outside of the Cave was converting one of the ballrooms into a family chapel. (Yes, the Manor had two ballrooms. Yes, Bruce also thinks that was excessive.) It’s dedicated to St. Michael, with side niches for statues of Our Lady and St. Joseph, and other saints along the walls/in the new stained-glass windows. He can’t keep the Eucharist there, of course, but there’s a Tabernacle built into the altar just to be thorough. Mass could be said there.

He also sets up outdoor Stations of the Cross in the Manor grounds, though that comes later. There’s landscaping and a path to take you through them. He prays the Stations every Friday.

Alfred is a practicing Anglican, BTW. He and Bruce have agreed to disagree, but they don’t hesitate to share their common ground. Alfred does make use of the chapel. (I believe St. Michael is his Confirmation saint here, actually. Which Bruce knew when he designed the chapel.)

When Dick comes along, he’s very much a non-denominational Christian. He was baptized and his parents read the Bible with him and taught him to pray, but living on the road didn’t give them a lot of formal religion. They did have informal services at Haly’s on Sundays, though.

Bruce didn’t want to push him (partly because he’s oversensitive to the idea of “making a kid go against his dead parents”), so he didn’t really actively try to convert him. Dick went to church with him or Alfred, growing up, and remained a believer, but I don’t think he had a deep or a formally religious spiritual life. He does have a great deal of respect for Bruce’s, though.

Then Jason came along.

Jason is a FIERCELY Catholic little Irish-American with a battered rosary he was given for his First Communion and a strong devotion to the Holy Family (because Catherine Todd was a deeply pro-life Catholic woman and raised her boy accordingly, and I will die on this hill). I’m not sure if he’s ever had an opportunity to be an altar server but I know he WANTS it. One of the first and biggest ways he and Bruce click is through their shared Faith.

Bruce has his own chapel! Bruce talks to him about religious things, and helps him get to Mass and the Sacraments, and signed up for regular serving duty at their parish! Bruce buys him saint books and listens to his half-articulate spiritual troubles and understands.

Bruce, meanwhile, is equally blown away by this tiny street child’s vehement love for Our Lady and the Blessed Sacrament and the beauties and stories of the Catholic Church, the way he clings to Holy Mother Church all the more for the absence of an earthly family, and how hungry he is for a stronger spiritual life. Bruce wants to give him everything.

Of course, Jason is far from a perfect child—he struggles with anger, anger which is founded in his hatred of suffering and injustice but which he doesn’t always know what to do with, or how to handle. He loves God deeply, but sometimes—especially as he starts maturing, becoming more and more aware of the world beyond his own life—he finds himself angry at Him, raging against the cruelty and injustice in the world and asking how? why? Why would You allow this?

On the whole, though, Jason is doing okay. He has Bruce, and he has his Faith. He’s confirmed at thirteen, a year after meeting Bruce, and he picks St. John Bosco as his patron saint. He prays to him for help in directing his passions to help the poor and vulnerable, rather than falling into anger and ill-will.

He doesn’t mention it to Bruce, yet, but as he keeps growing up he starts to feel like... maybe... he wants to be a priest? Maybe THAT’S what he’s supposed to do with his life? He keeps thinking about it...slowly, because it’s a Big Deal and he keeps doubting himself and he IS just fifteen, still, and having struggles with his temperament and the effects of of his past. But he keeps feeling more strongly like this is the right path for him.

And then he finds out his mother, who loved him and raised him and gave him everything he has, isn’t his mother. And he goes investigating this, because he has to, he has to know who his other mother is and if he can get to know her.

And then he is murdered, betrayed and and beaten, and still trying desperately to save the woman who sold him to the Joker.

(Jason Todd died a hero’s death and this is ALSO a hill I will die on.)

I haven’t figured out what quirk of the multiverse made Jason NOT 100% dead (the Lazarus Pit can’t bring back really-quite-sincerely-dead people or it would be way too OP and also HORRIFYING), but there’s something. Bat-Mite meddling? Superboy Prime punching the universe is dumb, but it’s DEFINITELY better than Talia stealing Jason’s corpse.

Anyway.

Quite frankly, at this point, Bruce’s faith is the only thing that keeps him sane.

He has his boy buried in the family cemetery, with the funeral Mass in the chapel.

He was really hoping one of his boys would be married there, first. Or even that Jason would say a Mass there, someday.

(He didn’t know Jason had thought about that too, but a parent hopes this kind of hope anyway.)

But no. Jason is buried. Bruce struggles with his own rage, and grief, and despair. He spends a lot of time in the chapel. ...Sometimes it helps.

And then little Tim Drake shows up, INSISTING that “Batman needs a Robin!” And things change again.

Tim (since this is focusing on the religious aspects of characters) is not Catholic. I BELIEVE he’s Protestant (don’t know which type), and likes starting debates with Bruce when things are too quiet. Bruce only engages sometimes, because when it gets too earnest he can be painfully reminded of his discussions with Jason—keep in mind, Jason is the first kid he really DID discuss religion with—and his childishly wholehearted Catholicism and Tim’s cheerfully stubborn Protestant opposition can make for a jarring contrast.

It’s good, though. Bruce doesn’t have anyone to share the fullness of his faith with, again... but that’s just one of the many smaller losses involved in his loss of Jason. He adjusts.

And Tim is earnest about his own faith, even if he doesn’t talk about it much to anyone other than Bruce and Alfred (who he knows also take Christianity seriously and will treat his views with respect). He doesn’t use the chapel as much as either of them—or even Dick, who grew up with it and goes there to pray or even just think things out whenever he’s in residence—but he does use the space sometimes, when he wants guaranteed quiet and a prayerful atmosphere.

He also somehow becomes church friends with Clark Kent, who as an archetypal Midwesterner is PROBABLY Protestant here.

Do he and Clark convert Kon between them? Again, PROBABLY.

...This is very long and it’s getting late, so I will stop here for now. I’d like to do another post on Red Hood and Damian and Bruce’s “death” at some point... we will see how that goes.

EDIT: Also, I forgot! Credit to @why-bless-your-heart for Protestant Tim—all I knew about Tim was that I didn’t know what to do with him, but her take was Good and so I have adopted it. But I should give credit where credit is due.

#batfamily #jason todd #bruce wayne #catholic #catholic batfamily #dick grayson #tim drake #i feel like making the gordons catholic too #purely because i can #no detailed headcanons on them or steph or cass though #or anyone else cause i don't know the other characters like. at all #and yes i am absolutely using bruce wayne to vicariously live out my Rich Catholic dreams #long post #cw child death #(i mean it's jason)#(so if you start reading this you know where it's probably going)#(but yeah)

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littlepurinsesu · 4 years

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V Watches MagiReco - Episode 5 Review

*Spoilers for Magia Record Anime Episode 5*

I won’t deny that I was both extremely nervous and excited for this episode at the same time. There was just so much building up and so many vital things to introduce this week. I was anticipating an interesting conversation between Yachiyo and Mifuyu, a much longer and more difficult Rumour battle, Iroha’s doppel, and a possible Mami appearance.

And I can say for sure that not only did we get all of that, but we got them all done very well, with a few unexpected twists and additions, too!

I feel that they’re deliberately making Mifuyu and her relationship with Yachiyo extremely vague for now; it’s hard to judge as a game player because I already know everything, but I do wonder how anime-only fans feel about Mifuyu, what with how little they’re telling us so far. The scene with Yachiyo and Mifuyu really goes to show how shackled to the past Yachiyo is, which is a nice irony when we consider the short lecture she gave Iroha last episode about being a prisoner of her past. The whole Seance Shrine ordeal basically showed that if anyone’s a prisoner of their past, it’s definitely Yachiyo, and the contrast between how she and Iroha respond to the fake Mifuyu and Ui is a great way to illustrate that. All the symbolism and visual imagery going on while Yachiyo and Mifuyu spoke was also really, really well done. I especially liked the little detail of how much Yachiyo’s hand was shaking when she was trying to purify her Soul Gem; this is probably our first time seeing her so disturbed and shaken up, which really goes to show how important her relationship with Mifuyu was to her.

I was not expecting such an amazing fight with Mifuyu, though! It’s always amazing to see these characters fighting outside of the fixed actions and movements shown with their game sprites, and I really love how graceful and agile Mifuyu is shown to be, jumping and gliding all over the place with such little effort. Yachiyo’s spear going right through her chest was OUCH EW, but I did enjoy that powerful moment from Yachiyo, who shows that she isn’t completely lost in her longing for their past relationship and does retain some good sense after all.

The Rumour looked slightly different from what I imagined (which is okay), but what I really appreciated? Finally a battle of some sort that doesn’t end way too quickly and easily; we finally see characters other than Iroha struggle with a monster that actually puts up a real fight. Iroha is continuously portrayed as weak but very eager to help out regardless, and I like that a lot about her character, even if I’d be just as frustrated as Yachiyo if I were in her position xD I’m really looking forward to seeing Iroha finally growing in strength and becoming a magical girl who can hold her own against the Kamihama Witches and Rumours!

As for the Doppel? I LOVED IT. I’m glad they went into detail about what went on inside Iroha’s mind before it happened, rather than having the monster suddenly exploding out of her with no explanation. The imagery with the bandages was done very well, too, and the creepy face “dark Iroha" makes before the Doppel is released has a very distinct PMMM style to me. My only slight complaint is that I would have liked a good look at the Doppel before she went up, up, and away and tore that Rumour to shreds xD The eerie bird-like sound effects were a very nice touch, but it was a little difficult to see what the Doppel was doing sometimes because everything happened so quickly with so much movement; I had to rewatch the scene a few times and pause on some frames before I understood what exactly was going on ^^;; (Iroha looks super pretty with her hair out, though! ♥)

It’s also really interesting to me that the anime shows that the Doppel doesn’t just effortlessly disappear like no big deal after the big attack. We see that even after the Rumour is destroyed, Iroha’s Doppel is still very much active and rampant, which makes me wonder what it exactly takes for a magical girl to “control” and “rein in” the Doppel and return back to normal, since, in Iroha’s case, it’s interrupted by the appearance of a very familiar magical girl!!!

When Mami appeared with her signature theme and chanted “Tiro Finale,” I legit felt chills down my spine (♥ω♥*) What an entrance!!! I also loved how they presented the tension between Mami and Yachiyo, both of them being the oldest and most mature of their respective groups and one of the most respected magical girls in their city. I think they have a very nice balance between including the original characters enough to keep old fans happy and allowing the new characters a chance to shine on their own, and I really hope they keep up this balance in future episodes :)

I know there’s been a few jokes in the past about Ui sounding like a broken record with how she repeats the thing about magical girls being saved in Kamihama. But this episode takes that idea and turns it up a few hundred notches to present one of the creepiest and most disturbing sequences I’ve seen in this anime so far. There’s something especially unsettling to see Ui looking all cute and happy and “normal” while sounding... well, like that. The fast-paced editing really adds to the urgent, almost claustrophobic kind of atmosphere, and builds up an even greater sense of mystery surrounding her character.

And the final part at Yachiyo’s place? We finally have our first glance at Mikazuki Villa! ^___^ It’s nice to see Yachiyo showing a much more gentle and caring side; she’s not as cold and brash as we’ve seen her, but there’s still a good bit of coolness and an aloof attitude that will defrost slowly as the characters get introduced one by one and the quintet forms :) Iroha sleeping in Mifuyu’s room was also a really nice and bittersweet touch, and I do like the way they’re using this kind of symbolism to set her up as a “new partner” for Yachiyo. Seeing all those mugs (and a quick Kanae cameo!) did hurt, but I like that the story will slowly allow Yachiyo to break free from the burden of her past and welcome a new and loving family. I do, however, wonder if that final scene of Mifuyu’s “ghost” or “spirit” would make anime-only fans think Mifuyu is dead or something xD

And that post-credits scene... OKAY I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT. That was one of the weirdest yet strangely entertaining scenes I’ve seen in any anime in a good while. I know Kaede summoned her Doppel, but... was the incident even real? Is she “still a Doppel” in the end, and not quite back to human yet? Was that the real world, or a labyrinth? Why was Mitama there? I take it that this is the first time Kaede has ever released a Doppel and doesn’t quite know what’s going on? And the last shot is most likely emphasising how the Doppel purifies the magical girl’s Soul Gem? The entire scene was just super trippy and things didn’t really make sense, yet I loved every second of how strange and wrong it all felt. This is probably one of the most “original” things the anime has done that wasn’t in the game (apart from Kuroe), and if they can somehow make sure that it all makes sense and ties in well together, then I’m all for these kinds of deviations if it means we get an even better and more suspenseful story!

I absolutely loved this week’s episode, and I was definitely not let down even with all the expectations and hopes I had for it. Many people say that the fifth episode of an anime is what “seals the deal” on whether someone will continue watching or end up dropping it, and even if it’s not accurate for me, being a game player and all, I do feel that I’d definitely stick with this series to the end if I was experiencing the story for the very first time.

Looking forward to Felicia’s debut next week! And... could that possibly mean that Kyoko will be showing up, too? (⊙ꇴ⊙)

Oh, and as a sidenote: I knew from the very first time I watched the OP that they would slowly add characters to the last part where Iroha turns around and runs towards Yachiyo >:) Sure enough, we see Tsuruno join them this week, and I can’t wait to see the full team slowly assemble! ^3^

#magia record #magireco #puella magi madoka magica #puella magi madoka magica side story #pmmm #fandom #mine #anime #review #magia record review #v watches magireco

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canaryatlaw · 4 years

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okay, well today was pretty good. Up at 8:45 for another day of training stuff, it was a pretty heavy day topic wise and the mid-morning one was regarding dealing with suicide which was obviously a lot but also something I know a good deal about from working with TWLOHA and life in general. There was one point where the presenter had asked this very carefully worded question that she would presumably then explain but by how she worded it I knew exactly what the answer was so as soon as she ended I just unmuted myself and said it and she was like “yeah, that’s exactly right...guess we can move on now” so that brought me a small bit of amusement in a heavy topic (she had asked we thought more men or women were effected by suicide, carefully worded with the “effected” because the answer is women attempt much more but men are more successful, using “effective” covered both categories, so I was slightly pleased with myself for getting that right). anyway, we broke for lunch and I wanted like soup with small pasta in chicken broth (which generally would be pastina which is what I grew up with but I can’t find it here for my life (I should order more off amazon, that’s what I did last time) but then now I was running out of the small pasta that I did have so I like, ended up breaking up some egg noodles into pieces and putting them in, and it definitely did not have the same effect and was quite bland. oh well, I’ll have to fix that at some point. afternoon stuff was good, finished up around 4:15 after which I chilled out for a bit and ended up putting Seinfeld on as background noise because I watched like 10 minutes of one of the hulu comedy shows called like “Pen15″ that was supposed to be like funny middle school stuff except the main two actresses are being played by adults, and it was all just really cringy and un-enjoyable so I changed that pretty quickly. at some point in the afternoon I was replying to opposing counsel on a case and whenever I have OC I generally google their names to see what type of law they do, because we get all different types of lawyers handling OP cases for the Respondent, so I had googled this guy’s name and was then like I should google my own name, so I did, and the first few listings are like linkedin (not that I have any actual info on there other than job) and facebook, but then down a little more an imdb page popped up???? Which was definitely news to me haha so I clicked it and it had one credit from this film I worked on in college that had made an imdb page and in crediting the actors ended up creating a page for them (or for me at least, a few of the other actors had other credits because they were all older than me, I was the kid on that set lol). so that was an amusing find, not that it means much but it’s nice to have. around like 5:30 or so (I think) i walked over to friend’s apartment because it was raining and she didn’t want to come to mine, so we hung out and watched kpop videos and talked, and got chinese and then I convinced her that we should get ice cream because I haven’t had ice cream in soooooo long and we ended up getting the Jeni’s pints that they sell like nationwide but we have like an actual ice cream shop from them. I guess I was like hungry still, but I ate like the entire pint and the calorie count was BAD so oops, guess I’ll have to be better about that. I left at 10 pm and walked home, put the news on for a few before going to more kpop videos friend didn’t want to watch, then to Jimmy Kimmel for a few moments before deciding that since I had seen the one film I’d worked on on the imdb page I wanted to see if I could find the other one I was in that should be on the internet and I found it, and good lord the production value if fucking terrible because it was a 48 hour film challenge film (meaning you write, shoot, and edit to present a finished product in 48 hours) and the category had been “kung fu movie” so some of it was intentional due to that, and just the fact that it was a very quick turn around, BUT the film itself is fucking hilarious and I wasn’t cringing like the entire time I saw myself on there so I’d call that a win. It kind of needs some context to explain what’s going on, but it does have a lot of other little funny moments. after that I watched Seth Myers for a few minutes and then went to shower and start getting ready for bed, and somehow now it’s 2 am and I have a 9:30 call with my boss so I should really be getting to sleep now!! so that is what I will do. Goodnight my dear ones. Stay lovely.

#daily journal #June 2020

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kaiowut99 · 4 years

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5D's Episode 27... with an “Uncut” Dub?! (Re-Edited 4Kids Dub/Japanese OST - Revised)

“A World Without Light -- The Dark Synchro Frozen Fitzgerald!”/”A Web of Deceit (Part 1)″

Everybody listen!

Took long enough to finish up and polish (partly because of work and activism life actually picking up a bit), but here’s a brand-new “dub-uncut” episode! With my first few takes in episodes 23-26 newly revised, I was looking forward to working on 27 and starting fresh again, lol. In case this is the first you’re hearing about my mini-project here, let’s get you up to speed:

So, the official Spanish YGO channel on YouTube flubbed a few uploads of the 5D’s dub such that they ended up uploading a few episodes of the English dub instead of the Latin American dub (21-29)–but with none of 4Kids’s background music! Which meant that I could swoop in and re-insert the original Japanese soundtrack (which I did by matching each track to how it was looped in the episode), but I wanted to do more by also tweaking the dub itself so that not only was it matching the original footage, but the dialogue was more in line with the original dialogue timing-wise (since I couldn’t salvage much of what they changed). Hence, the “dubbed uncut” gimmick here. To this end, I’ve also used dialogue from Duel Links where applicable, or even borrowed audio from other episodes with the vocals isolated to lend to that effect.

Check out the masterpost of episodes I’ve done here!

Check out this episode’s WIP videos! WIP #1 WIP #2 WIP #3 WIP #4 WIP #5

So, this one was fun to do particularly because overall, save for the, er... butchering that happened on explaining the Dark Synchro mechanic (4Kids wut) and the rewrite of Carly’s interaction with her Editor-in-Chief (and making Carly a “blogger” lol), the dialogue was already more or less in line with the Japanese version, which meant that I was more or less just removing a lot of the fluff as I added back the OST. As I did in 22, 24, and 26, I added subs for the scenes where 4Kids rewrote things a bit too much for my taste (so, the scenes I mentioned above, but also the occasional line or a few), but of course these subs will be optional in the MKV I release on NAC for this. I also added back some SFX and tried to remove the dub’s replacement SFX in most cases, though I had to swap out the SFX as Speed Warrior was tuning with Junk Synchron since 4Kids had a tendency to add some new one over the original SFX and made it too loud to work with the Yusei chant I put there. And I translated the OP/ED credits in Last Train and CROSS GAME, revamping my singable lyrics a bit for Last Train while drafting new ones for CROSS GAME which I’ll post soon; you can see my Last Train translation in the second WIP video and CROSS GAME’s here. Full process breakdown below the cut.

Also, major thanks to yugidmx5 for providing A+ rips of the “The Day Begins/Tenpei” theme in the Carly/Angela scene, the “Vision of Tragedy” theme as Yusei and Ruka talk about the Satellite’s future, and the alternate “Dark Signers” tune which plays as we first see them and then again between the Dark Signer drones recruiting and Yusei chasing Dark-Signer!Dick down (before it transitions to the OST-released version once Yusei gets to the building under construction); I know that since these came out well, he’s working on better rips for some or most of the unreleased OST, so stay tuned there (I also drafted up a full version of the alternate DS theme, but had to get creative since they didn’t play all of it in this alternate style; will post soon). And thanks to Tiny Spider Productions, who provided the “shock” SFX playing as Carly sees Yusei’s arm actually glowing in her car, some inspo here/there for dialogue fixes, and provided CurtisH from CastingCallClub’s recording he did voicing a line from Tanner translating the original line about the four Signers they know which 4Kids cut short.

I hope folks enjoy! Just breezing through 28 often for lines to use here, I can tell it’s going to be a headache because they did throw in a lot more jankiness in the dialogue... So, fun. 🙃 Once I handle finalizing my subs for GX 56 (and possibly 57 due to how long this took), I’ll start drafting it out; stay tuned~

(And if you're able to reblog for visibility, it’d be appreciated given Tumblr’s suckage with links 🙏🏽)

Breakdown, breakdown~

So, I used Duel Links audio for the twins to handle the Noteworthy/Showcased Cards bit (we’ll see if I still can in 28... And as the twins are voiced by Eileen Stevens in Duel Links but not yet in 5D’s [that happens in 65], bear with me lol), and I also translated the sign for this hardsub in Photoshop, masking in the Fitzgerald card and Rua and Ruka’s heads over it in Sony Vegas.

Moving to the episode proper, a second was trimmed from the shot of the stadium in the TV Rally/co are using once it tunes in, and I couldn’t properly loop the “Yusei!” shouts to cover it, so I just filled in the audio with the crowd just cheering. In the Carly/Angela scene, I removed Angela’s extra lines about her makeup and hair while Carly was getting ready, then tweaked Angela’s line on camera to remove her last name (which we never learn originally) and move her lines about “Fusei Yudo” winning to play sooner while removing Carly’s “one journalist to another” as she walks up to correct her (as this scene was rewritten, there are subs to show the original dialogue). Looped chants of “Yusei!” to remove his internal “pointing out the obvious” monologue before the OP.

After the OP, I used the JP audio to keep the doctors moving Jack quiet (hopefully you don’t notice the chants changing lol), then as Yanagi runs over, I replaced his bit about Yusei having “a brand new enemy” in the media with “we should all get going” from 26. The Godwin/Lazar scene stays the same since it was accurate, but I did have to put the end of Rex’s “that’s the only thing that matters” line on another track so Lazar’s gasp would play when it should (they added a second to his talking in the dub). The Yusei/co scene in the tunnel stays mostly the same, just switched to the JP audio as the flashback to the Satellite vision happened, then as Yusei had a quick one before gasping, I recycled a gasp and a “hmm” from elsewhere to cover the commercial-inducing monologue they gave him in the dub. For the press conference scene, I thought about removing the one “That’s right, Ted” reporter’s line since he’s quiet originally, but thought “whatever,” and then I spaced out Carly’s line as she reads her fortune to match her Japanese line’s pace and remove some of the fluff. I switched to the JP audio after Carly asked about Yusei’s arm glowing to remove Rex’s comment over it, then stitched up a “Perhaps; still, I didn’t see that” mixing his line there with a “still” from 23. Carly’s line as she’s excited about Goodwin dodging her question (originally just “I’ll keep moving forward too!” [she references her fortune a lot more]) was longer in the dub, so I cut out the “which means I’m onto something” for use later. For Carly’s chat with her Editor-in-Chief, I included subs because of the rewrite, but I did shorten Carly’s line just before “bring some dirt and you might still have a job” which was lengthened by 4Kids. Removed a lot of Carly’s fluff as she began to watch the Yusei duel footage via the JP audio, then stitched together “Goodwin tried to give me that bit but [the whole world will know what Goodwin’s trying to hide]”, the latter bit coming from Carly’s monologue as she’s running at the end of the ep, then switched to the JP audio to remove Carly’s fluff about living in her car. Then, as we see the Dark Signers looming, because 4Kids removed the commercial break here, I kept only Demak and Kalin’s chuckling and Roman’s “lower the curtains” line over the desk shot, then looped some of his laughing from after the eyecatch to lead into it.

After the eyecatch, I made use of his “Goodwin assembled his Signers” bit, recycled a little chuckling, then cut Roman’s reference to Shakespeare to just the “tangled web” line (thanks to yugidmx5 also providing the SFX for this scene, I was able to move Roman’s laughing to play where it should after he releases his spiders). Moving to Yanagi drawing the Crimson Dragon, I only kept his “saw it the once” line while using Japanese Rua and Ruka’s interested gasps to fill a fluff gap, then combined two bits of audio to get a [slightly] awkward “t[ail]” to fix 4Kids’s dumb error claiming he had the Head birthmark; accordingly, made Leo say “What about it?” instead of “What about the Head?”. CurtisH’s line for Tanner comes in here, with a slight tweak or two to match the lip-flaps more, then JP audio as we see all the Signers so far to remove Leo’s dialogue. Meanwhile, for Jack’s hospital scene, I translated the “No Visitors” sign Mikage walks past (along with fixing “Atlus” to “Atlas”). The Dark Signer recruitment scene also gets some subs, then I used the JP audio from when we see Dark Signer!Dick walking to Yusei’s birthmark beginning to glow; yugidmx5 providing the SFX was a big help here, too. Yusei runs out to chase Dick down, and then when he sees him inside the under-construction building, I took “Who are you” from later in the episode, but added a more question-ending “u?” to flesh the sound out a bit (since the line was “Who are you and what’s going on”). I took “Fine, then” and “What are you planning to do to the Satellite” from 28 (which I’ll likely cut as it was added offscreen dialogue), and TSP provided a vocal-isolated cut of Dick’s line about his master (because 4Kids cut his shot short by a second or two and played it as the SFX for the zoomout as his Disk activated played).

They begin the duel, and here I just kept “What’s going on?” from the line I noted earlier, recycled some laughing from Dick to match the JP script, then shortened his line about their being offered up “by the light” to work with the new timing. Dick begins his turn, but I recycled an “It’s my turn now” line from later for accuracy, then his setting-a-card line is cut short at his ending his turn as Yusei looks on. Carly, driving nearby and seeing lights from the duel off in the distance, gets her reference to the Goodwin “sheen from Yusei’s Runner got in your eye” line that I cut replaced with the “I’m onto something” I noted before. Yusei gets a recycled “It’s my move!” line from 24 to start his turn, tweaked to remove the drawing SFX that happens in it, then to remove a dub SFX I used a Duel Links line to fill out “I activate the Tuning [Spell Card]”. “I summon Junk Synchron” comes from 24 (and “Level-2-or-below Monster from my Graveyard” comes from his Graceful Revival explanation in episode 3), then--thanks to Arian over on NAC reuploading some HQ dub episodes--a better-quality vocal rip of his “Level-3 Junk Synchron, tune with Level-2 Speed Warrior!” line from 87, along with a better-quality rip of his “From two come one” chant and “Form the road of light!” from Duel Links. Yusei shouts “Battle!” from Duel Links, then I slowed down his line at “[Attack his Blizzard Li]zard” to end it there (and remove the “warm Satellite welcome” fluff). As Blizzard Lizard’s effect activates, I combined an “I activate,” “Blizzard Lizard’s special ability,” and “now” for a better line than “Blizzard Lizard’s special ability is going on.” Yusei’s lines after being damaged and realizing he damaged Dick too are spaced out to match the JP script, then I borrowed Yusei’s line on setting two cards from episode 3. Then, when Dick plays Ice Mirror, I stitched up an explanation (since the Card Interruption does it for him) combining Call of the Haunted’s explanation with a few other pieces of dialogue (thanks to TSP for the inspo). I cut Dick’s “Now I’ll play” line there to remove the dub’s zooming-in SFX, and then made Dick’s line about his third Blizzard Lizard end right before the split-screen with all three of them to remove the dub’s split-screen SFX. I thought about replacing Yusei’s “three’s a crowd” line with “What’s that all about” from later, but couldn’t figure out a way to fill the line in before that, so I left it, but didn’t let Dick acknowledge it by just recycling “With that done” to replace “Well, how about [I release]”, then after Yusei reacts to his Dark Tuner, I recycled some chuckling to match the JP script and trimmed his line about its “power to extinguish;” the Dark Synchro “explanation” gets some subs to actually explain it, then I looped Carly’s panting as she runs to cover the “Goodwin’s trying to hide” line I moved to earlier, and recycled/amplified Dick’s laughing at various points through the ep to remove Yusei’s episode-ending monologue.

In the preview, I just recycled Yusei’s “No way...” and “A Dark Synchro Summon?!” while borrowing Carly’s lines about the Dark Tuner from 28, then Yusei’s line about getting his answers to end it. I had to speed up the OST version of the preview tune to match the pace here, then trimmed it and ended it with the JP audio for the quick fade-out.

/phew

#yugioh #yugioh 5d's #yugioh 5ds #ygo #ygo 5ds #ygo 5d's #5D's #yu-gi-oh 5ds #yu-gi-oh 5d's #my work #5ds dub uncuts #woot glad this is finally done #now to finish up that edit for GX 56 and then get to working on the script~

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scribeofmorpheus · 5 years

Text

Dangerous Liaisons Part 6

Catch Up here!

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader

Words: 3888 (It’s a long one guys)

Rating: L for Strong language! Is that even a rating?

A/N: Okay, this took me a while to finish because I kept getting distracted. Editing? What editing? Just ignore my errors for now! But! I really enjoyed the dynamics in this one. Writing for Karen and Ward was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Especially, the dark side of our heroine! Not a lot of Billy sadly, but he’s front and centre in the next chapter... and so is the prickly family dynamic! (I also tagged some new people to this update, hope you don’t mind). Don’t be afraid to ask to be tagged! Sidenote: I’ve been waiting forever to use this gif.

***

You made your way through the busy offices of the Bulletin. The room was buzzing with life. Employees in middle-class dress smarts hovered around from desk to desk. Some had files in hand, others typed away brutally at the clunky, old computer keys. The atmosphere was electric… productive. As a kid, your father had spent many hours dealing with interviews and alike, but always in the comfort and security of his own home. He always liked having the high ground, made reporters feel uneasy in unwelcome spaces. Except for this one reporter, Ben Urich.

You had been barely out of your teen years when you had watched through ajar doors as your Father lost his iron-clad composure after being accused of something malicious by the straight-shooting reporter. You had never seen anyone rattle your Father to that extent. Ben Urich had gained your respect in that moment, and it wasn't until this very moment that you realised just how much you admired him for that. The irony of Karen Page working for the same newspaper as the one reporter you respected did not escape you.

"Can I help you?" asked a balding man with a salt and pepper beard and drooping eyes. He was cleaning his glasses using his tie as he stood like a man of authority next to a door labelled: 'EDITOR' with a name underneath written: 'Mitchel Ellison'.

"Mitchel Ellison, I presume?"

"Just Ellison," he extended his hand once his glasses were fixed back onto his face. You shook it. "Still haven't answered my question." He said plainly.

"Ah, yes sorry. My name is Y/N Y/L/N." He raised a brow at the mention of your last name. He recognised you then.

"Ah, the elusive heiress to Armistice Security," he said knowingly.

You shouldn't have been surprised. Your Father was Carl Kurogawa, CEO and founder of one of the leading military contracting companies. The press loved him and after Henry's death… well, more and more people were digging into your family's history. That's one of the reasons you legally changed your last name to your mother's maiden name.

"Since my Father and I don't share the same last name, I'm inclined to correct you on that front. I have no affiliations with Armistice Security," You said rather harshly.

"If that were true you'd have sold your shares a long time ago," he retorted quickly. No doubt Ellison had a hard time trusting people, but at least he called things as he saw them.

You sighed, "I'm here to see Karen Page. I called earlier about giving her an exclusive."

"What about?"

You smirked, "Sorry, that's privileged information. You'll just have to find out about it in the editorial room." Ellison huffed lazily, you amused him a little.

"Her office is right through there," He pointed down the hall and to the right.

"Thank you." You smiled flatly.

You knocked on the door with a sign covered by masking tape with the name Karen P. written on it. It was obscuring the name of whoever owned this office space before her.

"Just a second," a soft female voice spoke out.

Impatient, as always, you opened the door anyway. Karen was about to speak from behind her laptop screen, but upon seeing you, her face had a confused look plastered on it.

"Who?--" She squinted her eyes trying to remember. She didn't seem to recognise you. Being in a room full of reporters who usually could pick you out in a crowd, this was certainly a refreshing first. A laugh tried to trickle out of you but you held it back and instead chose to introduce yourself.

You held out your hand, "Y/N Y/L/N. We have an appointment today..." Karen still had a hard time placing you, this time you did giggle. "The Rand Enterprise exclusive about expansion in Hong Kong."

And suddenly, like lightning hitting its mark, Karen finally put two and two together.

"Of course, sorry," She returned your handshake. "I've been swamped lately, and as you probably deduced for yourself, I'm a little new at this." She gestured to her desk filled with overflowing, loose paperwork.

"Reporting or an efficient filing system?" you joked. She laughed awkwardly.

"Both," she sat down and gestured to the chair in front of her desk for you to have a seat. "Which is why I am a little apprehensive as to why you chose me to handle such a story. In fact, why the New York Bulletin? Isn't the Hong Kong expansion something a business magazine would kill to get an exclusive on?"

You smirked, "Oh, it is. Which is why I'm not giving the exclusive to a business magazine. Also, I read some of your other stories. You tend to be discrete about who your sources are when they want to keep things hush, hush."

Karen pulled out a notepad and pen, clicking it once to jot down something on her notepad.

"Why the secrecy? It's not like you're reporting on anything the company doesn't want the world to know… right?"

"I'm just… beating a colleague to the punch," You felt proud at the prospect of Ward reading this exclusive in a small newspaper after he had spent months preparing to give this exclusive to the Wall Street Journal. The look on his face when he finds out he doesn't have an exclusive anymore filled you with delight.

"Sounds alarmingly ambiguous."

"It sounds like an exclusive."

Karen took hint of your tone and cleared her throat, "Okay, so what can you tell me about Ward Meachum's new merger deal?"

You crossed your legs and leaned back, but made sure not to look too comfortable. "For starters, I can tell you it's not Ward Meachum's merger. He shook hands and posed for photo ops but they were my contacts and it was my project. I worked in Hong Kong for several years before I returned. Suffice to say, I had the means, Ward had the poster boy look."

Without skipping a beat, Karen jotted down on her notepad in shorthand. You were curious to read what she had written down, but this story wasn't what was important right now. You needed to gain her trust and get her guard down before asking about the incident with General Schoonover.

"Why did you leave Hong Kong?"

"I'm sorry?"

Karen plastered on a genial smile, "You mentioned your posting in the Hong Kong offices as being your primary qualification for spearheading this merger. If you managed to accumulate such good connections, why leave such a promising post? Wasn't accepting the post at Rand a step down?"

Karen was a sly one, this explained why someone with no background in journalism got ahead so quick. She was fishing for two stories in one interview. The Rand scoop and why you were offering her the Rand scoop. You made a mental note not to underestimate her. "This story isn't about me, Miss Page."

"Is it not? You’re not a disgruntled employee as far as I can tell. And giving a small newspaper access to such an exclusive doesn't make much sense unless you're trying to gain all the credit, but that wouldn't exactly help moral at the workplace if they found out you leaked the story. And unless you're Mr Meachum's scorned lover--"

You snorted a little at the insinuation of you being Ward's scorned lover. "You want to know what I get out of this. What my angle is."

"To be frank, yes."

"That's easy Miss Page. An ally at a respectable paper. That's something of great value in my line of work."

"In corporate legalities or military law?"

You smiled. Karen had just given away her ace in the hole. She had done research on you, which meant she knew exactly who you were when you walked into her office. She really was a sly one. "In a competitive corporate world."

You both exchanged a look that carried the fake pleasantry smiles not uncommon with most of your social interactions, but both you and Karen's eyes held a glare that spoke volumes. It was a look of respectful rivalry and cautiousness.

"Look, Miss Page--"

"Karen is fine."

"Okay, Karen. We can spend hours going round in circles, continuing this verbal detente with one another, or you can ask what you really want to ask me and save us both some time."

"It's the same question. Why me? And no bullshit. Why come to me, out of all the other more qualified and respected reporters? Why come all the way down to Hell’s Kitchen?"

"To be honest. My father hates this newspaper. And my boss is an ass. So if I can manage to serve a big ol‘ 'fuck you' to the both of them, it's a win-win for me." Karen seemed pleased with your answer. "But, there is one other reason."

"Yes?"

"The Punisher."

Karen froze for a second, you noticed her battling for control to remain unreadable.

"Whatever do you mean?" She asked, trying to seem oblivious to what you were implying.

"You are the one who wrote of his demise, did you not? It was quite the… unexpected angle. You framed his narrative to be more sympathetic than most other news outlets."

"I wrote Frank's story. Everyone else had already written about the Punisher."

"And weren't you assigned his case when you worked for… Oh, what was their name again? Murdock and Neilson?"

Karen's brows knitted together and she straightened her back to appear slightly taller than you, "Nelson and Murdock." Karen huffed. "And here I thought I was the one conducting the interview here."

Strong-arming Karen was proving to be ineffective. It was time to play a different angle. You sighed and stood from your chair, gathering a file from your purse and presenting it in front of Karen.

"Look, Karen. I'm not here to accuse you of anything. If anything I commend you for writing the real story about Frank Castle. It shows your willingness to bring the truth to light. It's the reason I thought you could help. You worked with him and I know you were at the scene of General Schoonover's murder."

"How?" Her eyes skittered between you and the file.

"I also know that you've read up on me. You and me have something in common." Karen broke eye contact for a brief moment. "I just want closure. And I think… I think you knew the Punisher better than you let on. And everything that happened, all the people he killed… I think they were part of something bigger. Schoonover, Frank and… my brother’s death." You had to pause to take a breath. "It's all connected. And I've hit a dead end. You're the last thread I can pull. I know you know something. I'm just hoping..."

Karen looked at the file you gave her. It had your brother’s name printed on the yellow jacket. She sighed and slid it back to you. "I don't know anything. I'm sorry."

You smiled with disappointment, sliding the file back to Karen. "I've got more copies. Keep it." You grabbed your bag and headed for the door. "My numbers on the back. In case you suddenly remember something." As you walked out the door, you caught a glimpse of Karen burying her head in her hands and whispering a soft "Fuck" under her breath. That made you smirk slightly. Now you just had to wait and see if she'd call.

Even though you knew full well that you and Karen had kept your voices more than professional, you couldn't help but feel eyes on you as you walked out of the Bulletin's doors. Specifically, the judgmental eyes of Mitchel Ellis.

***

When you got into your car, you finally let the tough as nails act slide away and suddenly you felt limp. You closed your eyes and looked up at the car's roof feeling particularly aimless. As the seconds turned to minutes, your mind kept trying to make sense of all the puzzle pieces that didn't fit together in your investigation. Then, your phone chimed from inside your pocket. You half expected it to be Cecil and the other half… well, you reprimanded yourself for wishing it was Billy. What you didn’t expect to find was an email from Ward. Not just any email, a letter of notice.

He was firing you.

Over a fucking email.

The damn merger story hadn't even been put to print yet, even if it had, your name would remain anonymous. Which leaves the very probable reason for your contract termination being the result of a hurt ego and rejected advances.

"Asshole!" You swore. Rage bubbling to the surface, you typed away at your phone and sent a message you knew you'd come to regret, but your anger had gotten the best of you.

"Karen. About keeping my name anonymous, don't bother." You hit send and without missing a beat, you dialled Cecil's number. If Ward wanted to play dirty, you had no problem playing it his way.

"Heyyo," Cecil answered in a drowsy tone.

"Hey, I need a big favour."

***

You stormed your way up to Ward's office, ignoring the protests of his assistant clomping after you in heels she wasn't comfortable running in.

"Ma'am!" She whisper-shouted frantically after you as you burst into his office. Ward had turned to you with a shocked expression mid-sentence. A room full of important busy-bodies craning their necks to look at who cause this disturbance. Ward glared at you menacingly and then eyed his assistant who swallowed loudly. "I'm sorry Mr Meachum. I tried to stop her."

"That's quite alright. We're just finished in here," Ward buttoned his three-piece suit-jacket and motioned for the men to exit the room. A fake smile tugging at his lips. When you were finally alone, Ward closed the door behind him before walking over to his desk. He leaned his tall frame against it languidly. When he didn't speak, you did.

"A fucking text, Ward? You don't have the balls to fire me yourself, you had your assistant type up the fucking thing?" You tried to keep a handle on your temper. "What was the reason? Please tell me there's a better reason than your hurt pride!"

Ward gave you a cheeky smile, enjoying your anger a bit too much. "Well, you mean despite you showing up late to the meeting the other day, then feeding me some bullshit excuse of traffic being the reason you were late? And don't even get me started on all the other times you've put off work hours to do God knows what!"

"You're firing me for tardiness? I'm the one who spearheaded this expansion project in the first place. Without me-"

"I'm firing you for unprofessional conduct. You can do whatever you please after office hours, but social calls the same day you're late to the closure of the project you were in charge of? That's unacceptable."

"So this is about your dumb fucking ego!"

Ward's eye twitched and you could all but see his professional disguise begin to crack, "I expect you to remove yourself from the premises immediately before I call security. You can collect your things from rece-"

Before Ward could finish his threat, you took out your phone and pressed send on a video file. In an instant, Ward's phone chimed from his desk. He glanced over at it and saw your name on the email.

"The fuck is this?" Ward asked, an eyebrow arched.

"This is me choosing to stoop to your level, Ward." Your words were saturated in disgust.

"Is this a threat?" He gawked at you, completely surprised.

"Open it and find out."

Ward did as you suggested and his face went pale. The video showed him rifling through his desk drawer and pulling out a small tin, before proceeding to empty it of its contents and snort the white powder that came from it.

"I think that camera angle suits you. Does those cheekbones of yours the justice they deserve." You held up your own phone which played the same video.

"You bitch!" Ward snarled.

You took a step back and held up a single finger, "I'd be very careful about what you do next, Ward. One press of a button and I send this video to a very respectful reporter whom I was just in talks with a few hours ago. Then the whole world will know that the respectable and business savvy, Ward Meachum has a coke problem."

He clenched his fists till they went white, "How the fuck did you get your hands on that? Are you spying on me now?"

You laughed, "I have better things to do, Ward. But don't forget, I'm great at making connections. And this is a video from your security cameras in your office. I just know a guy who's good with computers."

"What do you want," Ward's words came out hesitantly.

"My job back for starters. I've worked too hard for someone like you to get in the way of it. Shouldn't be too hard to do, I'm guessing you hadn't consulted anyone about it. We can just keep your email between you, me and your lovely assistant."

Ward folded his arms and took a tentative step forward. He was trying to reassert his position of power, but you didn't budge. "And how do I know you aren't bluffing? I have a PR department available around the clock. We can spin this video however we want."

"Read tomorrows paper," you said snidely. "And once you realise I'm not bluffing. Add a raise while you’re at it." You added before walking out of his office. Adrenaline soaked your muscles and you felt powerful. As the door closed behind you, you heard a crash coming from Ward's office. His assistant looked at you with wide-eyes.

"Might want to hold off Mr Meachum's appointments for the day. Something tells me he won’t be in a very cooperative mood today." You winked at the assistant and rode the elevator to the carpark.

***

As you walked to your car, your phone rang. You sighed and rolled your eyes. "Jesus, I can't catch a break today." When you saw the caller ID you were pleasantly surprised. "Mom?"

"Honey, hey! I was worried I wouldn't get a hold of you, busy schedule of yours and all that," she rambled quickly in that shaky tone that had become her new default in the last couple of years. "I- Uh…"

Your heart began to race with worry, "Is everything okay?" You interjected.

"What? Oh, oh, yes! Everything's fine. Why wouldn't it be? I'm calling because there's something important I have to… Umm. Why don't you come home for a bit and I'll explain everything."

"Mom, what is this about?"

"See you soon," she said hurriedly, cutting the line straight after.

"What?" You stood dumbfounded and slightly worried. You made your way to your car at a jogging pace and set off for the family mansion.

When you arrived, you were surprised to find a car parked by the driveway. You didn't pay it much attention, you were more preoccupied with finding out what that weird phone call was about. You rang the doorbell and the house butler answered the door. He seemed baffled to see you. To be fair, you were surprised you hadn't talked yourself out of driving through that accursed gate brandished with your father’s initials.

"Weathermire." You greeted him professionally.

"Miss Y/N. It's been a long time. I last saw you at the--"

"Gala. My mother called me. Do you know where she is?"

"The kitchen I believe, miss."

"Thank you," you made your way through the grand opulent mansion with familiarity.

"Would you like me to inform your Father-"

"No," you said almost instantly. "It’s better he doesn't know."

When you got to the kitchen, you were greeted by the image of your mother and several cook staff preparing food.

"Oh, Darling. You got here quicker than I expected," your mother said gleefully. She walked over to hug you, wiping her wet hands on her apron. She looked elegant as usual. Weathermire entered the kitchen just then and with a simple glance, she instructed him to go off and do something. He complied with a simple bow.

"Mom, what's all this? When you called, I thought…" You didn't know what to say, you honestly didn't know what to make of her phone call. You shook your head. "Why did you call me here?"

"Oh, well I figured we could have a little family dinner. I have been sat at an empty table for weeks now. Your father always has his meetings, you always have yours. I figured today there would be no excuses for you to be antagonistic towards each other."

You snorted, "Whatever brought that idea on?"

Just as your words escaped your mouth, Weathermire opened the doors to your father's study and your father and his guest stepped into the kitchen. Everyone's expression -except for your mother's- was that of being caught unawares.

"Billy?" You asked in shock. But as soon as you said his name, you regretted it.

"Do you two know each other?" Your father asked with a stiff tone.

You shot Billy a look you hoped mirrored 'Don't tell them about us'.

Billy, like the chameleon he was, flawlessly kept his composure and replied, "Yes, we had the pleasure of meeting at your Gala a few weeks ago." He smiled at your parents dashingly.

"You never told me you knew my daughter," Your father said.

"Your daughter?" Billy pretended to be caught off-guard. Now it was Billy's turn to shoot you a knowing look, "It never came up."

"We only talked for a brief moment. There wasn't any polite way to bring up my parentage to a complete stranger." You said through gritted teeth.

Your fathers eyes squinted in your direction and your mother cleared her throat, "Come now, we can all get to know each other better over some food."

Billy and you simultaneously tried to object but your mother interrupted, "Hush, you're both staying for dinner and that's the end of it."

You put on a painful grin. Something in Billy's expression found this whole exchange humorous.

"You two go set up the table, we'll be right over." You mother ushered them out of the kitchen.

You sighed when it was just you and your mother in the room. "How long have you known?" You asked her, not even bothering to deny you were more than acquainted with Billy.

"Since I saw the two of you leaving the Gala together." She had a smile on that showed she was proud of her meddling. "When he came over to discuss business with your father… well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a reason for the both of you to be civilised and enjoy a meal with your mother while she got to know this very nice man I've heard nothing about, by the way."

"There's nothing to say. We went out for drinks once."

Your mother eyed you for a moment, not believing you for a second.

"Okay, maybe twice. But he's not--"

"I'm not what?" Billy asked.

Chapter Seven!

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Tags:@songtoyou @rainyboul @itsjaynebird @delusionsofnostalgia @andreiaafaria @500daysofbecky

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#Billy Russo #readerinsert #reader insert #Billy Russo x Reader #The Punisher fic #Marvel Fic #Ward Meachum #A lot of cat and mouse in this chapter #Karen Page #Listen I love Ellison's cameo #scribescribbles #ben barnes #the punisher imagines #billy russo imagines

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clairen45 · 6 years

Note

Hey :-) In the new Anidala comic there is a interesting thing: the actress's museum is called "thousand faces museum" and I was never a believer in the reincarnation theory but in my opion, this is telling. Anakin and Padmè, both of them walking through this museum, which shows important moments of history. And on top of that, there is a picture of the place where Anakin and Padmè had married, but this picture is still "work progress" What do you think about all this new stuff?

Oh dear anon, these two issues from Star Wars adventures, issues 12 and 13, are so ripe with meta textuality that it’s not funny. This comic blew me away with the clever references and jokes. It’s all about reverse Anidala and the Skywalker saga coming full circle with Reylo. From the cover of 12 that looked so much like Rey and Kylo fighting back to back, to all the winks in there. This stuff is so great.

Ok, museum of the 1000 faces. Fans of GOT could love that one too because you have this idea of a character being able to wear the face of someone else and become this character in order to fulfill a mission, right? Given that the TV show (not sure what the book series will do) is following the path of descendants fixing the mistakes of the past (fire and ice, Starks and Targaryens), and of chosen ones coming back (Azor Ahai, the Prince that was promised), this is also a noteworthy parallel. Even more so that Arya, the one whose arc goes through the hall of faces, also becomes an actress (in the TV show she is fascinated by plays but does not become part of the troupe).

The idea in the Star Wars comic is that Madam Synata is a versatile actress that played all these many characters: hence the Thousand Faces Museum. She is also two-faced in real life since she is actually working for Dooku.

Funny anecdote, she is supposed to be this great famous actress in the galaxy, yet she is introduced to Anakin in the comic through an obvious parallel with faded silent film star Norma Desmond from Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard

Besides the pose, the staircase, the dramatic walking down the stairs, actress Gloria Swanson, who plays Norma Desmond, would have favored this kind of feathered dress and hat…

I think the reference is here to point out everything that does not work out about her. She gets her facts all mixed up and wrong, as repeated over and over again in the comic, as we can see here for instance:

And of course:

If Risha does not get the end she was expecting because “she was not the hero of the story”, the idea that there are “two sides” to a story is still an essential one in the saga. From Obi Wan’s “certain point of view” sentence to the scrolling credits to ROTS that boldly state that there are “heroes on both sides” of the war. This is not minor and it indeed matters. So even if Risha gets it all wrong (beginning with the side she chose), there is still some value to take away from this story. And mostly, this comic raises a lot of question about where the Skywalker as a whole is headed and offers a bridge between the PT (where this story takes place) and the current ST.

Let’s come back to this Thousand Faces museum. Contrary to GOT’s Hall of Faces, the point is not really about the diversity of faces exhibited. Even though you get different dioramas of scenes presenting mannequins or animatronics with various settings, the point of the museum is to showcase Risha’s face in various poses and costumes over and over and over again. So these thousand faces are really just the one face of Risha in 1000 different settings, poses, and costumes. As you can see there examplified:

In terms of the ST, this should ring a bell. We got a thousand faces and yet only one face represented on screen, right?

And interestingly, Risha belongs to the Dark Side, like the cave on Ahch-To, and acts like a mirror, reflecting everything wrong: her stories are never accurate. Another huge wink at Rey we get earlier (so that Risha dons both Padmé and Rey’s costumes or attitudes in this comic) :

So what else do we get that should give us matter to pause and ponder upon?

You very rightly, dear anon, pointed out the “work in progress” reference to Naboo.

The comic is not even subtle about it, commenting right away about the meta aspect of this: our PT love story is a tragedy, we are a work in progress. Ok, gotcha. But what the story tells us too is that Anakin and Padmé are unfinished business, right? A part of a bigger story that still requires completion. Like a PT that can be completed with a ST? So what scene needs to get completed? The wedding scene of course, the exchange of vows, what normally constitutes the climax and perfect ending to any self-worthy fairy-tale.

Unfortunately, that is a fail for the PT, as we well know. Since Risha usually gets stories wrong, though, it’s a good thing this story still needs to be completed. Padmé bets that Risha would have ruined the scene with a tragedy, which, given that Risha gets things inverted, means that the story would have ended happily. Nope. So better leave it unfinished. The couple missing on the painting is not Padmé and Anakin. Possibly it hints at Rey and Kylo (though not necessarily wedding on Naboo, this is just symbolic). Also again, inversion of the story: Anakin poor boy falls for royalty, and Kylo royal boy falls for poor girl. Ummmm, subtletly be damned. Work in progress indeed, since the ST and the saga are not completed and are currently shooting.

More stuff. Funny how this sentence is repeated over and over again, even by a Yoda animatronic:

Padmé has escaped many dangerous situations and assassination attempts. Sure, she will still escape this time around, but eventually, we know that she won’t. It’s like the ticking of a clock, and clock ticking, well, that’s another way of talking about the need felt by some women to have babies…

Even better stuff; Have you noticed these little sceneries as our heroes run down the hall?

Ok… So they are running from Tatooine to Endor!!! Tatooine is the passageway to their escape. Sure, it’s the transitional planet between the PT and the OT, the only planet that they both feature. It’s the last one we get from ROTS and the first one we get in ANH. The Ewoks and Ewok village that’s unmistakably ROTJ. So the characters have escaped the setting of the PT to run through the OT (and the planet that sees the funeral of Anakin). What is the next scenery we get?

A snow planet. I would not necessarily pay any attention to the characters in the background. but look at the way Anakin and Padmé are flying about in a snow-covered landscape… Do you remember Kylo chasing Rey on Starkiller base?

And then in the next issue, it’s like going backward with this scene that could TLJ’s Canto Bight (which is oddly enough totally unrelated to Kylo or Rey):

And straight to the beginning of PM with Naboo’s sea monsters:

“We’re close”… meaning close to the final act, the end. And what is the final act about in this story?

Which does not work out for Risha, of course. Which does not work out for Anakin, but certainly did work for Luke in the OT and is bound to work for Kylo in the ST.

Cross this with this very important line from the TLJ graphic adaptation:

So we keep on saying the same references to the circle, to repeating history, to getting it right after many mistakes and failures, be it in litteral sentences or through the actions of the main characters. So, of course, Reylo. Look at the next two pictures depicting Luke’s death:

The light of two suns…Which fuse into one. 2 suns meeting to “step into a larger world”. This is not death, this is rebirth, this is birth. Womb/Tomb. The cave entrance. Death feeding life, right? This was an important part of the first lesson Luke gave Rey on that very spot. The utlimate metaphor of the two suns fusing, like two people becoming one through love, a wedding, sexual union, and creating life. A work in progress?

There is a lot to cover in these silly cartoons that are actually incredibly clever and thoughtful. I also love the tongue-in-cheek quality of such a line:

Does Star Wars produce too many shows?

And I had to edit this OP with the very important note made to me by @toawaterfowl. What work did Lucas credit for being essential to the concept of this saga? Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Of course!

#star wars comics #star wars parallels #elsa charretier #reylo fandom #reylo evidence #reylo meta #inverse anidala #reylo and anidala #star wars adventures

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keepcalmimthecupcake · 5 years

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Life Is A Highway part 1

This is a co-op story with @fandomoniumflurry It’s from a roleplay story that we did and are going to resume.

Summary: What if the Impala was made human? Enjoy the antics, angst and humor we have in store for you!

word count: 2379

warnings: Just some swear words for now.

If you like our work, consider buying us a coffee. :) My link: https://ko-fi.com/kappukeki Her link: https://ko-fi.com/fandomoniumflurry

edit by @fandomoniumflurry

He remembered he had parked her right outside the door. There was no way you could miss her. She was sleek and shiny after a wash and a wax. She was locked up tight, even warded so there was no way anyone or anything could break into her. There weren't signs of tire marks or broken glass either. She should have been sitting right there the moment he walked out that motel door. And the fact that she wasn't left him hyperventilating and screaming Sam's name over and over.

Sam came rushing out the door, a towel haphazardly wrapped around his middle. He held up a gun as the panicked younger brother came to Dean's aid. Only to stop outside the door pointing his gun at nothing. Just an empty parking lot. A brow lifted as his gun lowered and he turned a glare at his brother. "What is it, Dean?"

Dean's eyes shot wide, his head turning to look up at his wet and half naked little brother. "What is it?? WHAT IS IT?! Is there anything wrong with this picture, Sam?!" His voice was high pitched and hoarse from his anxiety as he screamed at his brother. His hands flailed wildly in front of him, gesturing to where his precious Impala was supposed to be. "Anything missing??? Hmmmmmm??!" The eldest Winchester was clearly upset and it finally dawned on his brother.

Sam didn't seem as upset, he was actually a little annoyed that the missing car was Dean's reason for his outburst that led him outside in just a towel. "Did you just park it somewhere else?" He questioned getting an indigent look from his brother. Sam averted his eyes as he muttered an apology and his hazel eyes began to scan the parking lot and the surrounding area. The black beast would be easy to spot. And if they couldn't find it, maybe they could go to the police.

When Sam turned around, his mouth opened to say something to Dean, but the eldest was already bent over heaving. Dean saw spots and his heart was racing, causing him to feel dizzy. Quickly, Sam grabbed hold of his brother and dragged him inside, making him sit on the bed. "Dean, breathe." Realizing he hadn't taken a breath in a while, Dean sucked in a sharp breath until he felt lightheaded, then let it out slowly. When his head turned to look out the open door, it all washed over him again and next thing he knew, everything went black. Sam's face fell deadpan when Dean passed out and fell backward on the bed. He sighed before closing the door and going to finish getting dressed.

She wasn’t sure what had happened. One minute, she was parked in the lot in front of the motel room her boys were staying in tonight, and the next she was waking up on a bench in the park across the street. She sat up for a moment and panicked. Why was she cold? Dean had been sure to keep her filled with antifreeze because Montana in November was cold. She raised her right front……hand? What the….? Where were her wheels? What happened to her bumper?

She looked down and saw legs clad in tight leather pants and a matching jacket. She had….appendages? And what were these bumps under the shirt that was much too tight for her liking? Dean would have fixed any dents in her. When she heard chuckling behind her, she looked and saw a man leaning against a tree eating a candy bar. “What is going on?” she asked, surprised as she heard her own voice.

“I want to have a little fun with your boys. Especially Dean. Imagine the look on his face when he finds out his precious Baby is now a hot chick.” He looked over across the street and a malicious grin appeared on his face. “It looks like he’s discovered your disappearance.” She followed his gaze and her eyes widened in horror as she spotted Dean. He did not look well. Even from this distance, she could see that there was a sheen of sweat on his face and he looked pale. She had to get over to him, let him know that she was not missing. But….how would she explain her current appearance? Turning back to the man at the tree, she began to speak, but he was gone.

She stood up and took a shaky step. This walking thing was going to take a little getting used to. She hoped she wouldn’t fall while crossing the street. There was no time to waste. Her Dean was not well. It had always been her job to make him feel better again, whether it be a nap in the back seat, blasting music from her speakers or just a long winding drive with the wind in his hair. With each step, she got a little better with walking, and she was almost standing upright when she approached the motel room door. There was a thing under the bumps under her shirt and it was making weird things happen. She supposed they were human emotions. She would have to learn what these were. She knocked lightly on the door and waited.

Sam's eyes rolled at the sound of the knock at his door. At least this time he had managed to get his pants on. His hair was still damp and he grabbed a plain button up on his way to the door. He was in the process of putting it on when he looked through the peephole. His forehead wrinkled when he saw the woman standing on the other side. Looking back at Dean, he wondered what chick he’d had fawning over him last night when he left her high and dry. It wasn't like he could ask him. The eldest was still passed out cold. His gun was tucked into the back of his pants and he kept a hand on it as he opened the door. One couldn't be too careful, especially when you're a Winchester.

After a few moments, Sam opened the door. She smiled brightly. They were still her boys, but seeing him through these eyes, human eyes, it was much different. “Hello, Sam.”

This only caused his face to wrinkle more when she spoke his name. "Um, hi. Can I help you, Miss?" His head turned slightly when he heard his brother muttering in his sleep but most of his attention remained on the strange woman in front of him. If this woman knew his name, then she could be a hunter or even some kind of monster. As much as he wanted to check on Dean, he also didn't want to get their throats sliced. "Look this really isn't a good time."

Of course, Sam wouldn’t recognize her in this form. She wasn’t sure how to explain to him who she was. Would he believe her or think she was some crazy person? “I….well. I’m the reason Dean is passed out. He thinks I’m lost. But I’m not! I’m right here.” She stumbled as she tried to stand there straight. She grabbed the door frame to steady herself and she took an innocent expression like nothing happened as she looked up at the younger brother. “Don’t you know who I am? It’s me! Baby!”

Sam's brow only further wrinkled as he looked at her. He looked between her and his brother. "Um..." He wasn't sure what to say to her or what she was trying to say to him, actually. His mouth opened to say something but then she stumbled. Instinct told him to help her, hands reaching out with intent to catch her. His eyes were wide as he watched her with concern and he kept a watch on her as she steadied herself quickly. He dipped his head to look down at her, checking on her with those sympathetic puppy dog eyes he always had. Even a stranger received his sympathy, whether she proved to be supernatural or not. His hand reached out to rest against her arm, but he was still aware of the pistol against his back. He opened his mouth to speak but his jaw dropped when she said she was Baby. "Uh, what?"

At the sound of his precious car's name, Dean shot straight up in bed. "Where's my car?!" He was dizzy with how quickly he uprighted himself and he quickly shook his head. A hand came to rub at his eyes before fingers ran through his hair. With a deep breath, his head turned to his brother and the redhead at the door. His eyes narrowed and head tilted as he surveyed the scene before him. "Did she say something about Baby?!" He shot to his feet and joined his brother's side. Sam gave a slight bitch face when his older brother pushed his shoulder to get the taller man out of the way so he could address the woman. "You know where my car is??!"

She smiled when he helped her to stand upright. It was nothing less than what she would expect from the tall man. He had such a good heart. Both of them did, even if Dean didn’t believe it. They’d had a hard life. She’d been right there through it all to soothe their souls with the wind blowing through her windows, music blaring through her speakers and the lullaby of her motor purring as they sped down the highway. But there was nothing the elder Winchester wouldn’t do for her. “Nothing is too good for my Baby.” he’d said on several occasions. He didn’t allow anyone to harm her and should she get a dent in her, he’d have her metal shining smooth and dent free before long. She’d gotten only the finest oil that his fraudulent credit cards could buy.

So when she saw the elder Winchester walking toward them, her eyes sparkled with adoration at the owner who had treated her with such care for so many years. She wanted to thank him for his attention, and to let him know that he wasn’t a bad person like he was always saying. She knew. Because she knew the real him, maybe better than he did. She’d been there to witness his tears when he’d lost Sam, when he’d wake up in the back seat in a cold sweat after a nightmare about his mother, when he muttered her name in his sleep, sounding so lost and afraid.

She knew that would be too overwhelming for him, at least for now. It seemed that Sam didn’t believe her. Would Dean? Would he somehow know she was telling the truth? How would she answer Dean’s question? She thought that short and to the point would be best. “I do.” she spoke softly. “I’m right here.” Her eyes bored into emerald orbs, as if trying to speak telepathically to him.

Dean's eyes stared at her expectantly, anxious to hear what she had to say. Sam had stepped back a little but still stayed close, leaning against the door as he chewed on his bottom lip. When she finally answered, it took them a minute to even figure if she had said anything. Her answer was quiet and they almost thought they had heard her wrong. Dean blinked a few times before tilting his head at her in confusion. "Excuse me, what?"

Sam's eyes rolled. "That's what I said. At least she's sticking to her story." Dean's head shot back when he felt her eyes trying to pierce through to his brain. His face wrinkled as he turned his head toward his brother, gesturing slightly in her direction.

The two boys had a silent conversation before Dean turned back to the girl with a big fake friendly smile. His hands clapped together and gestured in front of him. "Alright. I'd say someone had a little too much to drink. What did you do with my car, crazy lady?"

Her brows furrowed as an emotion she didn’t yet understand overcame her. It made the thumping thing under the bumps feel weird when Dean didn’t believe her and called her crazy. “I have never had alcohol. Except for when you spill it on me.” she said, her tone slightly indignant. “I am not crazy! My name is Baby! I was parked in the lot right in front of this door then next thing I know, I woke up in a body at the park across the street. A human body! With hands and stuff!” She stumbled again as she attempted to take a step toward him.

“Whoa!” She fell into him and grabbed his arms to catch herself. Her cheeks flushed as she righted herself and stood before him. “Sorry.” Her eyes lifted to his and took a deep breath. “Honest. I’m not lying. The man by the tree said he wanted to mess with you and Sam so he made me human. I can’t even do the walking thing right. I almost fell in the street coming over here.”

Her explosion and sudden surge of emotion caught the men off guard. They both looked at her wide eyed and deadpanned before they glanced at each other. They listened to her, mainly because they didn't know what she would do or what she was capable of. And they didn't feel like dealing with a whole lot of crazy right now. Sure, she knew where the Impala was parked, but it wasn't hard to miss. And who doesn't spill alcohol every once in a while. But the idea that she was claiming to be the human version of his car was not something he was easily wrapping his head around. He was about to just close the door on her but her sudden stumble caused him to act on his instinct as well.

He caught her and he actually grinned softly when he saw the color in her cheeks. He kept a hold of her arms until she seemed to stand fine on her own. Sam side eyed him and Dean simply shrugged before turning to listen to the girl once again. The boys both wrinkled their brows and spoke in unison. "What man?"

#life is a highway #supernatural #spn #dean winchester #sam winchester #impala

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 5 years

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Morose Mononokean II 4

Aw, another little fuzzball to steal away my heart? I’m being spoiled, aren’t I?

For some reason, this episode was meant to be really emotional, but I felt pretty restless while watching it. Probably because I was thinking about playing Merc Storia all that time.

Mob Psycho 100 II 4

Didn’t expect Shinra to be back after his previous appearance…

Notably, you’d expect Matsuo’s name to have the kanji for “pine tree” in it, but it doesn’t - it has the kanji for “demon” and then one more.

I loved it when FLCL and SGRS went into manga mode, but for some reason, the transition into manga mode didn’t land as well here…hmm.

“I’ll go inside her…With an out-of-body experience.” - That sounds majorly wronggggggggggg, Mob, y’know? Even with context.

I find it interesting Mob perceives himself to be naked…as in, unguarded. He’s fine as he is and doesn’t need to change…in some ways, anyway. He could probably do with a few more emotions, but you get what I mean.

Wha-wha-wha-whoaaaaaaaaa. You mean, Mogami just got rid of Mob’s powers??? That is a nasty cliffhanger!

My Roommate is a Cat 4

Just seeing Hiroto near Kawase’s armpit…so unfazed…it’s kinda funny, but only mildly.

Tuxedo cat…ergh. The differences between American and British English never ceases to trip me up…I mean, the term makes sense…it’s just the differences between the types of English I’m annoyed at.

If you observe the OP, you’ll see Haru has that collar…I’m not sure if that’s meant to be a spoiler then…

Haru basically has the mindset of Kaguya and Shirogane, which makes this hilarious (and yet it’s still justified due to being a believable mindset for a stray!).

S-Smug dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get out of the way of Haru-chan!

Shield Hero 4

“Draw your swords!” – Wasn’t there a rule saying Naofumi can’t use a sword anyway? Plus, Motoyasu has a spear, not a sword…

Balloon? Now, that’s funny!

Using magic to intervene is the cowardly action, methinks, Myne.

I find it interesting Naofumi sees Raphtalia as a little girl – it’s a perception of vulnerability, potentially weakness – when things are shown through his perspective.

Falling Through Starlight is beautiful, y’know that? Be-a-uuuuuuuuuuu-t-i-ful!

Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka 4

Interestingly, Francine kinda looks like Mami (Madoka Magica).

Wait, is this woman Miura? (Sorry, I’m just wondering why Abigail – the blonde evil magical girl – would choose to use yakiniku to threaten people…)

Oh dear…it’s that train question (save one or save many).

Neding authority before you can actually do anything legal…now that sounds like Double Decker.

“Chef”? I was mortified when it came to the rusalka scene…but I think we already know why Povar is a chef…

CQC? Close quarters combat? Ooh, I’ve never heard it abbreviated before.

Well, I like how Povar and Rusalka Man (can’t spell Russian to save my life) always keep their salaries in mind. Makes them easier to see as evil.

Egao no Daika 5

Oh, this series has two moons? Kind of like Double Decker’s two suns, yeah?

I just realised Lily’s the only one with a skirt on her suit…

Morose Mononokean II 5

I don’t think I’ve seen a Fuzzy-centric episode ever since the first time we met the furball…

That hand on neck thing is apparently a CIA technique if I interpreted it right…just, it’s applied to a purple/white lion, so it’s hard to tell whether it’s the real thing…

Fluffy tadpole is best tadpole. All fluffy things are cute to me, even the lethal ones…I guess.

Seriously, if someone doesn’t call the animation of the Executive sakuga, I don’t know sakuga! That crow is some fancy animation!

Hanae’s mother is scarier than most youkai, given she can give me a nasty jump scare!

Mob Psycho II 5

This episode’s called Discord…which maks me think of the chat program of the same name…weird, huh?

Notably, it’s Dimple’s voice coming from Mob’s mouth…hmm.

That episode was real cool…it’s too bad by turning off the volume at the wrong time, I missed the Sajou no Hana song…

My Roommate is a Cat 5

Roku, Nana, Hachi…haha.

I noticed Haru has smaller eyes than Hachi…aside from the collar of course.

Aw…reunion too cute. I honestly think that this show has a fairly effective use of “filling in the gaps”, as it were, and thus making good use of cuts.

Double Decker! EX 1

Yep, we’re back with Double Decker!!! I’m glad to see it back, really.

Wait…ohhhhhhhhh. So Double Decker! doesn’t just refer to the bus in this show or the system. It means “2 Detectives” in Japanese (in a codeswitching sort of way). It was wordplay all along! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! I get it now!

This Deana assassin stuff must be a lie…

(after the commercial break) C’mon, Kirill, buddy. You’re drunk, y’know that, right…? Right??? Update: Oh, not drunk, dreaming. My mistake.

Oh, I was just saying that My Roommate is a Cat dos a nice job “filling in gaps”. Didn’t realise Double Decker did it as well. Also, how the heck is Doug unpopular with women???

So…Kirill actually got hired based on his feminine looks? Geesh, that Travis…

The thing I missed about this show was not being able to play the ED after an episode, so I’m glad to have it back!

Spec Ops Asuka 5

Having Kurumi fix up Nozomi’s arm kind of erases the consequences…but that’s what Kurumi’s for, right?

Barber Scissors…? Is this what happens when you take Kill la Kill way too seriously?

Wowee. Din’t think Sacchuu was capable of dealing nasty punches as well.

There’s gotta be some sort of parallel between Abigail and the queen vs Asuka and Kurumi…

Post-credits segment. Keep watching.

Shield Hero 5

Headbutt to the nuts! Oof!

When it comes to races, the one tune that comes to mind is one from the Dog Island (track 22 from this YouTube playlist).

I swear there was CGI during the race…on Filo.

Please don’t make jokes about Naofumi liking lolis, people. This is not that type of show…

Mononokean 6

Is it just me, or has this epiode been relying on the use of blue speech bubbles for humour more than normal?

It’s Mononokean: Sports Anime edition!

For some reason, I find the name “trashboat” hilarious. It was probably just “ponkotsu” (piece of trash) in practice, but the variation in English is really something to behold…

Ashiya sleeps like an old man, LOL. It must be cosy in that bed…

Moja is just adorable in whatever scene it appears in! Even Moja being dragged down a stream is cute~!

Relaxing your shoulders, huh? That reminds me that that’s a destress technique I haven’t used in a while. My head’s been spinning while I was trying to watch this episode, so I should probably get back to trying to do that stuff…after this episode, of course.

Price of Smiles 6

You think Spec Ops Asuka looks bad? Look at Price of Smiles melt in this “Yuni! You should recover!” scene.

For some reason, this one dude (I forget his name) being a father surprises me. He looks like the type to be single…

The female version of the name “Noel” is Noelle…get that right, people!

Layla’s right when she says one of the main causes of war is the struggle for resources and wealth.

Mob Psycho II 6

I noticed instead of a Mac or something, the computer is a “One” computer.

The board says something a lot more complicated than Saitama’s routine…which means One likes exercise. Maybe…probably.

“Codomo” phone, LOL.

The last time I heard of tofu in anime that I remember…was Boueibu. Something about Ryuu killing a man with tofu.

Somehow it didn’t occur to me until the eyecatch was over but the block…was tofu!

How do you even get drunk when there’s no alcohol in the drink??? (LOL)

Oh! Shinra again!

…Also Jodo Kirin!

Shield Hero 6

Naofumi is giving 0 f**ks about the dressmaker’s love of Filo.

Why is Filo CGI…? It looks unnerving, to be honest with you.

My Roommate is a Cat 6

Eleventh grade…16? 17? Heck, Yugo looks 27, not 17!

Notably, “Comic Polaris” is the name of the magazine that publishes the manga of this. Hence “Novels Polaris”.

Heck, Subaru. In the internet age in particular, people write to affect others. I should know, as someone who did just that just a few years ago!

Oushitsu Kyoushi Heine movie

Yay, we’re back! Crunchyroll bringing over movies is definitely increasing my workload for these commentaries, so with all the new things I’ve added to my lists of priorities as of late, I wonder if I can keep up…

Hitting us with CGI in the first minute of the movie…oh man, how far does CGI go these days???

Honestly, in my brain Wagner (Classicaloid) = the twins (this movie) = the Beppus (Boueibu LOVE! LOVE!). They’re very similar in terms of personality…

In the same way, Bruno = Schubert from Classicaloid (but swap one’s Sensei for the other’s Senpai).

Licht = Motz.

It seems like someone liked ponytail!Licht enough to keep him here. So it really wasn’t just me, huh?

Seriously, what’s this “God of War” stuff anyway???

Man, vocal exercises? This takes me back to my piano-playing days…I was a sightreader and only had to do one of the two (out of sightreading and vocal stuff), but there was someone else who had to do both.

This piano is bugging me. Its white keys are black and its black keys are white!

Somehow, Heine’s small top hat suits him. It’s probably because he wears a small beret in that same position usually.

More CGI background characters…*sigh*

Hmm…soft power at its finest(?)

Seriously though, why did that evil Duke guy appear in this movie again??? He has zero use plotwise. Sure, he was important in the first season and if we ever get a second he’ll be important there, but here? Nada!

Have you noticed Heine is in all those dance positions a girl would normally be in??? Hmm! Interesting! But still…if there’s one thing I ever missed from the anime’s experience, it would be-oh, scratch that! This is my cue to watch the cheesy live-action dance ending! I missed it so much!

Egao no Daika 7

Seriously…who is Eins talking to??? Whose emperor???

They still haven’t revealed what this new guy’s name is, even after his introduction…well, technically he was introduced at the River Deese, but we still didn’t learn his name then. (Did we?)

Spec Ops Asuka 6

Is Mia just this show’s version of Kyouko (from Madoka Magica, but American of course)???

Oooooookay, that (with the kissing and stuff) is so not what foreigners are like, people…

Oh, goodness. Have I really been living with this stuff (girl x girl teasing, with Kurumi in particular being one of the more extreme examples I’ve seen) in my magical girl anime for years now? I mean, Suite PreCure is laced with the stuff…

If ordinary rigor mortis business is at work, then I’d say the heater is to speed up the rotting of the corpse…

LOL, there’s Halloween-class…and then there’s Voorhees-class…how appropriate for Disas.

“Only one of the Magical Five would’ve known about that phrase.” – My bets are on Peipei, but we’ll find out for sure…someday.

Mononokean 7

As much as I found the pillow fight scene with Fuzzy in it funny, I swear Abeno is a bit too sadistic for my own good. What is it with some women and their sadistic kinks…?

Abeno calling Ashiya “hunk of junk” makes me think Ashiya isn’t much of a Sousuke (from Classicaloid), but they do have a lot of similar character traits, now that I think of it…hmm.

For some reason, I think Abeno knew the conditions of the deal and what the deal entailed in advance, hence the training camp.

Seiza…means sitting on the floor in the position Ashiya was in (knees to the floor etc).

Mob Psycho II 7

“Cheeseburger Tornado”, LOL.

When Reigen got angry at the TV, I was just like, “It’s Shield Hero (Mob Psycho version)!” I.e. you con the conman and not turn the conned into a conman…or something like that.

Those microphones are so obviously CGI, people…

I know I’m a fan of Yuzuru Tachikawa, but episode 5 actually didn’t do too much for me, to be honest (even though it was visual spectacle, which is Tachikawa’s strong suit). However, while episode 7 looked less punchy overall, it was miles better…

“First-press limited edition? That is the absolute best decision.” – What is that referring to??? Update: It’s referring to the BDs...or DVDs...or both.

Update: Forgot to add Double Decker to the title and tags.

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secretsofthemasquerade · 6 years

Text

What the fuck is happening with V5, neonazis, and shits.

So, first, terminology. Everything I am going to be talking about here concerns the company White Wolf Publishing, which is the Swedish company created by Paradox Interactive for when they bought back the IP from CCP.

This DOES NOT include Onyx Path (with whom I have grievances, but they are mostly a question of taste and some of their business practices I am somewhat disapprove of, but this has nothing to do with them), and their classical authors, whom have nothing to do in the thing. So don’t go about telling Richard Thomas he’s a Nazi asshole okay? They’re clean in this matter and their statement is genuine and honest, and their statement matches their actions and publications. This also does not involve By Night Studios.

Basically, White Wolf Publishing (new version, the one in Sweden, owned by Paradox) has released a preview for V5 (corebook, which is due in three weeks), and they presented neo-nazis in a way that is controversial to say the least, in the clanspread Brujah for V5, which is in their V5 preview.

Some see it as "wwp trying to make neo nazis play their game", some are saying "lol sjw are being sensitive and ruining everything", some are saying "it's ok to explore dark themes but this is poorly worded and looks like they're glorifying it", and some are all censorship and stuff.

The spectrum of answers are very wide, with assholes on both sides, and death threats being sent to everyone by everyone. Including OPP people who are completely out of the loop on this one (altho some may argue that since they’re licensing the IP from WWP that makes them a level of complicit/quiet acceptance; that argument can be heard, but I am pragmatic and I understand they don’t want their company and their livelihood to sink into oblivion because Ethics are superior to Food)

Here’s the catch. People aren’t pissed just about the Brujah issue, that places neo-nazis at the same level as any other character concept and definition of the Brujah, without an ounce of self awareness, and using terminologies that clearly appeal to gamer gaters (the use of terms such as “fourth wave feminists” and others...). They’re pissed and worried because this isn’t the first WWP offense, they have multiple times allowed themselves to poke towards such people, more or less willingly.

There's been plenty of other signs by the WWP crew that they may be integrating alt-right and neo nazi elements in their games, not because they are saying they're a thing, but also somewhat inserting (willingly or not) some propaganda elements, not as a way to criticize them, but normalizing them or even misrepresenting them as "rebels with a cause" (aka Brujah, which makes little sense nowadays, current day neo nazis and alt rights are in positions of power and are very much accepted if not encouraged by our political systems, much to my screaming French ass).

They somewhat normalize and even glorify them. Despite being a game about monsters (lol u know what vamps are?? have said many people on those threads), it isn’t a game about BEING a monster. It is a game about Dealing with It and their Humanity.

WWP says it's to "acknowledge the state of the world today" but other elements such as dog whistle elements for neonazis, as well as the use of hate groups types of phrasings (euphemisms, like, clearly derogating terms like "fourth wave feminism" mocking tone like) are pushing non-straight non-white, non-male players out of their base. And oddly, almost everyone defending their edge-approach are.. yes, regular white dudes.

Add in their hiring of Zak S for their video game from February 2017 and the overall lack of research, + their apology / non apology / defense about all of these issues altogether up to now about the whole ordeal when people bring out the issues, and you've got a massive shitstorm of suspicion about whether they are actually openly welcoming neo-nazis and alt-righters into the games, especially when public comments made by WWP staff implies "they are very fine people” and “both extremes are horrible”, putting into equal footing antifascists and neonazis. That in and out of itself is suspicious, but arguable to some degree. Plenty of comments have been made both by the horrid fanbase, but also by WWP staff on the matter, as such they cannot really deny their hands being dirty (looking at you, MR-H and Ericsson, receipts are provided all over reddit and the FB threads from WWP but also from the VtM groups, including this one).

Just because they state they condemn racism, sexism and xenophobia, doesn’t mean that their writings and actions match those statements. They still sign “Blood and Souls,” their letters and posts, which is ODDLY similar to “Blood and Soil”, a known Neo-Nazi chant. The integration of 1 4 8 8 as a dice roll result may be completely meaningless and a sad occurrence, but there are SO MANY other occurrences that giving them the benefit of the doubt is hard. Especially when you add the fact that the lead dev has written books about nazis (so has done research, and when you research, 1488 comes up easily).

I’m always willing to blame ignorance and stupidity over Malice, and I am doing it for V5 write-ups, but their apologies and defense instead of listening to our concerns takes away their credibility. Their reaction should have been to listen and fix it.

In Game, there is also a BIG BIG PROBLEM that the authors didn’t even research. The Alt Right and neonazis are NOT in a marginal position of protesters anymore. They are in power. They are very much allowed, encouraged, protected by the system, at least in most Western Societies. They are no Brujah hunting ground, they are great Ventrue targets!

There’s a difference between allowing the themes be used and explored very darkly and grimly and glorifying them as a good thing (the little red book or Leni Riefenstahl’s movies), and doing the same but with careful research, expert consulting and making sure your intent is clear as a content creator (like the Handmaiden’s tale or 1984). You can’t objectively say that Wolfenstein is a game that approves of nazis despite being all about nazis, nor Far Cry 5 about wtf is going on in Far Cry 5, or that Just Cause approves of American Intervention in island nations or Latin American countries, or that Tropico approves of banana island dictatorships. Cartel Ciudad Juarez or many modern warfare games, on the other hand, do not manage this and are clearly not aware of what their game is saying (not unlike a RPG like Fatal... :p).

Then the article archived and linked above was made and shared, and that’s where all shit hit the fan. I do not believe the author is fully right about everything in the contents, especially when it comes to Zak S (who is an asshole by all means, but he is neither a gamer gater nor an alt righter), but there are solid elements that put together some of the various “uh” moments. The article has since been removed due to the harassment, death threats and worse.

Oddly, Reddit is doing okay (x, x) but Twitter has also given us frowny things about upcoming W5...

Do I think they are openly and willingly trying to pull one past us? No. Do I think the WoD has brought in lots of neonazis as players and has been a problem since the 1990s? Yes, for Vampire and Werewolf for sure. (Werewolf in particular is plagued with them despite the Revised attempts at fixing certain things...). Do I believe the 20th anniversary edition were made to glorify those days? No. Not at all. Do I think Ericsson and co are neonazis? No. They’re not. Do I think WWP is trying to be edgy to cater to anti-sjw and unapologetic show offs? Yes. Do I think WWP wants to openly cater to neonazis? No, but they’re not doing anything to make a stance against them buying and using their games. If their idea of Mature Themes is punching down and glorifying monsters, they are wrong and we should let them know. If a mature theme is exploring the dark sides of the world in a thoughtful manner, having Horror as a key component of VTM, then yes, that is what we want, but it has to be presented properly and fine-tuned. Right now, it’s “oh, wouldn’t it be cool/grim if...?”. They need to consult experts. They need to hire sociologists. Psychologists. Game Theorists. They need to SEE what Chaosium has done with Call of Cthulhu. They need to

I’m just also going to say that the two FB WWP threads are insane (here and here), full of fanboys and fangirls defending WWP and telling them they shouldn’t apologize, they even made a petition saying they did nothing wrong. I do not want to give up, and I do not want to let my voice be silenced by these assholes for a game I love and care about even if I am such a critic of it.

Let me be very clear. The problem is -not- the inclusion of asshole character concepts in the write up, it is the WoD after all... The problem is that they are presenting them under a good, acceptable, apologetic light even. The problem isn’t exactly the content of the game, the problem is how little research and how little awareness they’ve had about their publication, and the responses that they have given when we have raised questions and concerns about these issues. The problem is Accidental Indoctrination. The problem is Propaganda Games. What are your mechanics saying? What are your actions saying? What is your game saying?

https://youtu.be/4jKsj345Jjw

https://youtu.be/UP4_bMhZ4gA

(Yes they’re video games but it’s he same thing)

And in opposition, extra credits did also an episode about the Shoah book for Wraith. https://youtu.be/EDEgXUqHL9Q

So, do we want great quality mature content, serious gaming material, or shock for shock value? Do we want This War of Mine, Papers Please, Dead of Winter, CupidVN, Spec Ops the Line, Bury Me My Love? Or do we want Hatred, DARK, WoD Preludes, Ciudad Juarez or even Dante’s inferno?

Games Matter.

Education Matters

We matter.

Tyvm

If you have any questions, they’re going to do an AMA on Twitch on July 13, here’s the info.

Let’s try and be numerous to voice our concerns. EDIT: Blood and Souls actually references Elric, it was my bad and I apologize for it, but you’ll understand that sometimes, when it sounds and moves like a horse, it’s hard to see it’s a zebra. Especially considering all past elements from the different eyebrow raising worth of edge for edge’s sake.

I still do not believe they’re deliberately calling neo-nazis but considering their AMA’s comments of people who just don’t want to be respectful and do basic research when treating mature content in an adult way, and be like “hell no, DARK STUFF, don’t steal my dark stuff!”, there’s honestly all the proof we need that that’s the kind of crowd they’ve accepted was using their games as entertainment. Jason’s answers were clear, and did not bite the whole “but what about antifaaaa”. I’m cautiously optimistic, and I’ve chosen, like many others, to keep publishing in the Vault to show them we can do better, and that it’s in the community’s best interest they listen.

They also confirmed Mark Rein Hagen was just a “consultant” and isn’t part of the team in anyway ;)

#vampire the masquerade #world of darkness #wod #v5 #drama #white wolf publishing #vtm #long post

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