#legitimately cannot remember why I started making it

[queenburd]

I played Zending last night and got to hear lines I’ve literally never, never heard before. It actually hurt.

Anyway here’s Zending fic. Im like. Neutral about it. It feels all over the place. Whatever.

—

He’s trembling.

Stanley sits at his desk, staring at the blinking green marker on his computer screen. He barely sees it.

(“I just wanted us to get along.”)

He stands abruptly. He steps out of his office.

“Where were all of his coworkers? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room—perhaps he had simply missed a memo.”

The voice is steady as ever. It does not waver. It does not whimper. It does not snarl.

Stanley will not be sick. Stanley will not crumple like wet cardboard.

He walks down the hall.

Takes the door on the left.

Goes to the boss’s office.

Turns off the mind control facility.

Steps outside.

Walks down the hall.

Takes the door on the left.

Goes to the boss’s office.

Turns off the mind control facility.

Steps outside.

Walks down the hall.

Takes the—

Both the doors close.

“Stanley, much as I appreciate you playing my game to its proper completion, I can’t help feeling like you’re not absorbing this the way you ought to.”

But—but Stanley is trying to, to play this properly. He’s trying to do what the fellow tells him to.

(“I just wanted us to get along.”)

“Your heart’s not in it, I can tell you that much. No, the story isn’t leaving the impression on you that it’s supposed to. You’re not getting anything out of it, which renders it moot.”

Stanley’s hands are balled up into fists. He grits his teeth tight to the danger of hurting himself. None of this should matter. None of it ever matters, he knows that. It always ends with him in his office, staring down a hall, a voice waiting for him.

“Well if it’s so meaningless, then why are you so adamant to play it?” The voice is offended, it’s clear by how it enunciates its words.

Stanley tries to breathe properly, a boiling anger making itself known.

(“I just wanted us to get along.”)

“And that! What is that, that you keep almost remembering? What in Heaven’s name has you so worked up?”

So it hadn’t bothered him, then? His voice breaking as he begged, pleaded—

Stanley grabs his temples. Squeezes his eyes shut. He doesn’t want to think about this. This is his enemy. It was a ploy, nothing more. He’s fallen for it, sure, but that doesn’t mean he needs to remember the vivid details of his shame.

“I don’t understand. What ploy, Stanley?”

Why was he pretending he didn’t know?! Does he enjoy mocking Stanley for being so gullible and weak? That Stanley would fall for such a cheap trick, some waterworks? Yes, fine! He may not like the fellow, but he’s not cruel and heartless! He—

“Stanley!” The voice interrupts, sounding honestly alarmed. “I’m not mocking you, I legitimately don’t understand. I—you’re starting to concern me, really!”

Stanley clutches his head and tries to control his breathing. The voice carries on, clearly anxious.

“I really don’t know what’s gotten into you. I know we went through the red door, saw the stars—did that ending really upset you so much? Because I—well,” it continues, sounding a bit put out, a bit disappointed. “I thought it was lovely. You didn’t like it?”

What part of throwing himself to his death repeatedly was Stanley supposed to like?

A long silence. Then:

“… what are you talking about? What does that mean?”

Wh—

He doesn’t remember?

“Stanley, what don’t I remember? What am I supposed to be remembering?”

He doesn’t remember.

A weight falls off Stanley’s shoulders.

“Stanley? Stanley, tell me what I’m supposed to remember!”

He inhales shakily to let out a sigh of relief. Okay. This changes things. He hasn’t ruined everything beyond repair.

“Stanley, don’t avoid the question!”

No, he doesn’t want to. He wants to play the game. He wants to move on.

“I cannot believe this! You’re behaving like a child! Just tell me what you’re hiding!”

No.

The narrator seethes. Stanley’s face is beautifully blank.

It’s for the best, honestly, that the narrator cannot remember. It’s a miserable thing, to remember. So Stanley doesn’t want to think about it, and that’s much easier to do when the other party can’t hold it over him.

“Fine. Fine. But you listen to me,” the voice hisses venomously. “I will find out what you’re keeping from me, if I have to rip it from your very skull. You try to keep your little secrets, Stanley. You’ll see. You can’t hide anything from me.”

The doors swing open with a bang. Stanley takes the door on the left.

He behaves all the way to the on/off switch, and then slams the ON button.

Alright, look, the fellow can work out some frustration. Stanley will press buttons in the meantime. They can both work off some steam and do something new. Win-win.

(“I just wanted—“)

There’s a low, dangerous chuckle.

“You don’t have the power you think you do. You never did, and you never will.”

There is no timer. The bomb goes off.

Stanley feels like he is flung into his office chair, and then he feels something—someone—pry its large, sharp claws into the fragile mass of his mind, and tear it open down the middle to rifle through the contents.

—

“If we just stay here, right in this moment, in this place… Stanley, I— I think I feel…. Happy. I actually feel happy!”

Stanley looks up at the stars. He watches the lights drift up.

It…

Fuck, but he has to hand it to the fellow. It is beautiful. Really, honestly beautiful.

But he can’t help how his eye keeps getting drawn to the staircase down to a door. Can’t help being curious.

“No… wait. Where are you going?” The voice is shaken from its reverie when he steps out of the room, like it was so entranced it almost hadn’t realized he’d slipped away.

He just wants to see what’s around the corner. They can go back, he just—

“Oh, no!”

Stairs. Stairs that go nowhere. Stairs that go up and up and up, with no other way but down.

Stanley feels his stomach drop. He steps back, through the doorway into the hall, and then turns on his heel and bolts to the room with the lights.

“Right,” the narrator says, clearly trying to recover, still frazzled. “Where were we?”

Lights. Lights. Stanley is staying here.

“Right. If we just stay here… we just have to stop moving.”

No moving. Okay. Okay.

The voice goes quiet. Stanley stays and looks up at the lights for a long time. His heart rate slows, his breaths deepen.

Okay. He’s feeling a lot more put together. And he can see that the narrator does want to show him something beautiful. He’s willing to try to compromise. He’s willing to play along, to meet in the middle.

The voice says nothing.

Very slowly, Stanley feels himself growing cold.

“We would both be so much happier if we just stopped.”

Oh. Stanley thinks he understands. It frightens him.

There is no story here. There is no progression. There is just this room. There is only the trap of happiness here, like the lotus eaters of the Odyssey. The cursed sweet fruit that keeps you from moving, from progressing.

That’s not a life. That’s not living. It’s only escapism. And all this means is that Stanley will never be happy here.

And, and the voice, quiet, lured in, eating the lotuses forever, will not reset, no matter how Stanley pleads. It thinks it knows what’s best.

Oh, god. He has to—

He has to—

Stanley inhales a shuddering breath and gets to his feet. Move. Move. Don’t think about it. Just move without thinking.

He makes it to the bottom of the stairs before the voice finally seems to come to its senses.

“No! What did we talk about?! You’re risking everything we achieved here!”

Stanley takes another breath to brace himself.

“Please, no, Stanley! Let me stay here! Don’t take this away from me!”

It pleads. It begs. When he doesn’t die from the first fall, it takes shuddering breaths and tries again to coax him to see reason.

God, he wants to. His steps are slow—pain creeps up his body.

But Stanley can’t. He knows he can’t. He knows that he’s not just fighting for himself.

He has to do this for both of them.

“I can’t go back to the way I was before!”

God, he’s sorry. But this isn’t living. He feels like he’s trying to hold an addict back from a drug, and it’s cruel, but it has to happen, it has to.

Stanley… is not this thing’s friend. He’s not. It tells him again and again that he has no power. He’s just a plaything for it. A toy. It keeps him in this unending prison and tries to break him when he does anything it deems a distraction.

But he likes to think he’s a good person. He doesn’t act out of malice. Mischievousness, maybe. It’s a little fun to see the fellow fuss, since he’s so dramatic. But cruelty? Stanley doesn’t act out of cruelty. It never grants him the same regard, it’s plenty cruel to him, but he doesn’t take any sick pleasure from trying to return the favor.

But this is cruel.

The voice cracks. With each fall, it loses hope. It gives up on him.

“I just wanted us to get along. But I guess that was too much to ask.”

Stanley wishes he felt angry. He wishes he could feel a spark of resentment at that statement, when the narrator has done so much to him that would dissuade any sensible person from considering that getting along was still an option.

He wishes it all the way down.

But all he feels is shame.

—

“I—“

The presence reels back, away and out of Stanley’s memories, out of repulsion or horror he cannot tell.

Stanley wants to scream. He covers his head and neck with his arms and braces for retribution, for the rage he expected when he first woke up after those stairs faded from his vision.

He had expected anger. Cruelty. Vengeance. He had tried to play along, to ease his punishment if he could. To maybe show his remorse.

(“I just wanted—“)

Fuck, fuck. It’s going to hurt him.

“I…”

He hadn’t done it to be cruel, he hadn’t done it to be powerful, he’s sorry, he knows he let him down, and he wishes the fellow could have just been happier not remembering. He could have kept this burden to himself.

“Why don’t I remember?”

It’s not directed at him. The voice is asking itself. It seems lost.

“I…”

There’s the rustling of papers.

“We. We go into the room,” the narrator starts haltingly. “We come to an understanding. And then I reset. I—that’s what it says. It says that I—but I didn’t—“

Stanley is shaking.

“But I… I couldn’t….”

Please. He’s sorry. He knows it’s going to hurt him, but please, don’t hurt him too badly.

“Oh, Stanley.”

It seems only now to notice him, his terror. His withdrawal. He doesn’t think it’s ever seen him so afraid, not even in the ending with the bomb. And of course it hasn’t. Because that’s just death. Death is scary, but quick.

Pain can last. When done by experts, it can last a long, long time.

(“I just wanted us to get along.”)

“Stanley?” The voice is small. It’s said the same way it was said when it asked him to please, please go back to the other room. “I’m… it’s. It’s okay. You’re okay. It—it’s going to be fine.” It strengthens a bit. Clears its throat. “It’s just an ending. It’s over, alright? We’re none the worse for wear.”

He gets the sense that, if it could, the voice would be placing a hand so gently on the spread of his back, between his stretched shoulder blades, in an attempt to get him to relax. Try to bleed the tension out of him.

“The lotus-eater comparison was… quite clever,” the narrator offers, a small olive branch. “I’m not angry with you, Stanley. After all, I did just see it all through your eyes. I know you weren’t being intentionally cruel.”

It doesn’t make things better.

“Well, no, but intent does matter.” The narrator sighs. “Gosh, you really weren’t kidding about that being miserable. Ignorance really is bliss, sometimes, isn’t it?”

Stanley chokes on a wet laugh. Understatement of the century.

God. It’s so unfair that the most beautiful place in the game so far is so dangerous.

“You liked it that much?” The narrator’s voice is hopeful and perhaps a bit shy.

Yeah. He had.

The fellow preens a bit, humming happily. “Well, I’m sure I can come up with something just as good. And—maybe—maybe I’ll remember now. Maybe we can go back.”

Stanley shivers.

“Oh, no no no, not now. Certainly not. Mustn’t be too careful. Poor fellow. What I mean is—if you need a break. Since—well, since we dealt with this far from that room, I’ll be able to keep this experience in mind. Maybe then I won’t make the same mistakes.”

Stanley doesn’t know. He’s not up for risking it right now. And the fellow doesn’t listen to him much, so he doubts that his prodding would have much effect, not if the narrator is so deeply entranced again.

The voice heaves a sigh again. “Well. It is your choice, in the end. Lord knows I can’t force you.”

The quiet drifts back in. After a long pause, where Stanley wonders if it’s retreated back into the hall, the voice speaks up again.

“Stanley,” it says, very very gently, as though trying not to spook him, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

His reaction startles both of them—he bursts into tears.

It’s just a release of the tension, he thinks distantly, while his body heaves and shakes. He was so unimaginably scared and ashamed, that the final acknowledgement means all that emotion needs an outlet.

Stanley cries. The narrator stumbles over his words.

“Oh, oh damn it all, I’ve made it worse, haven’t I? Stanley, I don’t know what I’m doing! I’m not good at this!”

No, no. It’s okay. He just needs to get it out. This is a thing he needs to do for himself.

“I. Okay.” The fellow clearly doesn’t understand, but he’s trying valiantly to give Stanley what he needs. “I’ll just, wait outside until you’re ready to continue the story.”

Fine. That’s fine.

Stanley lets it all shake out of him. It exhausts him, hollows him out. He comes out the other side feeling cleaner, if a little raw—like fresh skin under the dry peeling sunburn.

“There you go,” the narrator greets when he finally exits the office. “Ready to continue?”

The fellow sounds nervous, though it’s evident he’s working to hide it. Stanley scrubs at his face one more time, then gives a thumbs up.

“Alright.” He clears his throat. “Where were all of his coworkers? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room—perhaps he had simply missed a memo.”

Stanley takes a deep breath.

And then he hops out the window.

“Wh—“

There’s a palpable befuddlement to the voice, but it persists, working to stay on script. Stanley can’t help the sigh of relief.

He needed to be sure. He needed to know he wouldn’t be hurt for disobeying again.

The narrator huffs, strums his guitar, and insults him sternly, but the protagonist gets the sense that he’s just as aware of Stanley’s fears, and just as eager to provide him the proof that, yes, he is going to be okay.

(“I just wanted us to get along.”)

They are going to be okay.

#may writes #tsp #the sparrow parable #everyone and their dad has written Zending but #I hope this is a somewhat refreshing take #it’s earlyish in their history so the narrator can be capricious as all hell #but anyway. vague jazz hands #tadaaaa.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

One more time with feeling . . . Ignore the polls!

November 6, 2023

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

    We are one year out from the 2024 general election, and media outlets are busy predicting a future they cannot know. I routinely advise readers to “ignore the polls,” so whenever I write about the polls, readers tell me I should follow my own advice. Fair point. But the poll by the New York Times released over the weekend prompted dozens of readers to send panicked emails asking me to “Talk them off the ledge.” The NYTimes poll will get more coverage in the Monday news cycle, so in anticipation of hundreds of additional panicked reactions, I will once again address the issue of polling. It is a scourge that we will live with for the next year, so occasional reminders that the only poll that matters will occur on November 5, 2024, is in order.

          In short, the NYTimes poll found that Biden is trailing Trump in five of six swing states and that Democrats are losing ground among young, Hispanic, and Black voters. Many voters believe that Trump is better able to manage the economy, that Biden is “too old,” and cannot identify anything that Biden did to improve their lives. Go figure!

          Nothing I write below should be interpreted as saying that polls do not contain valuable information. They can (depending on their quality). Polls include information that helps campaign managers and candidates focus and refine their message. They are NOT predictions. Remember Nate Silver’s article in FiveThirtyEight in 2011, “Is Obama toast? Handicapping the 2012 Election.” If polls taken one year before elections were meaningfully predictive, then each of the following candidates should have quit their first campaigns: Carter, Clinton, Obama, Biden—and Trump.  

          So, why should we not panic over the polls? Indeed, is there a silver lining? (Spoiler alert: Yes.)

          Let’s start with a lesson that we must not forget: The old paradigm of “horse-race” polls no longer applies. Why? Because such polls assume that two legitimate candidates are competing for votes within the system. We have never had a candidate who seeks to overthrow the system. Or who attempted a coup. Or who plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on the first day of his next term. Or who called for the execution of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Or who will use the DOJ to persecute his perceived enemies. Or who was found liable for sexual assault. Or who will support a nationwide ban on reproductive liberty. Or who views Putin as a friend and NATO allies as adversaries and leeches.

          I have not studied the NYTimes methodology, but I am confident it simply asks some variant of, “Which candidate do you support in 2024?” Faced with that limited construct, it is easy to be seduced into making a forced choice without regard to the fact that Trump is an anti-candidate. That error is compounded because the poll does not highlight Trump’s fundamental desire to destroy the system but instead asks about Biden’s age.

          As I have written before, believing that most voters will walk into the polling booth in 2024 and vote only for “Biden vs Trump” is simplistic—and beneath the NYTimes and its expert pollsters. When WaPo/ABC published a poll that was subjected to nearly universal derision for its flaws, I wrote the following:

          The 2024 presidential election features two candidates who are surrogates for different visions of America: Democracy versus autocracy; liberty versus tyranny; dignity versus bigotry; science versus disinformation; personal autonomy versus subservience to Christian nationalism; sustainability versus ecological disaster; safety versus gun violence; global stability versus confrontational isolationism. All of that—and much more—is on the ballot in 2024. The WaPo/ABC “horse-race” poll captures none of that.

          Three more points and then I will stop paying attention to the polls (as I recommend).

          First, Dan Pfeiffer’s article in The Message Box on Substack explains why the NYTimes poll shows the path forward. See Dan Pfeiffer, How to Respond to the Very Bad NYT Poll. If you are worried about the poll and want more details, I highly recommend Dan’s article. Pertinent passages include the following about “double haters” who dislike both Biden and Trump:

Perhaps the simplest explanation of Biden’s political challenges is that he has done a lot of good, popular things, and almost no one knows about them. Navigator tested a series of messages about Biden’s various accomplishments, including allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug costs, the bipartisan law to rebuild roads and bridges, and efforts to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Guess what? All of this stuff is super popular. Medicare negotiating drug prices is supported by 77% of Americans, including 64% of Republicans. The bipartisan infrastructure law has the support of 73% of Americans and a majority of Republicans. Every accomplishment tested in this poll had majority support. It’s hard to overstate how impressive that is in a deeply divided, highly polarized country at a time when the President’s approval ratings are in the low 40s. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news: according to the poll, a majority of Americans heard little or nothing about the accomplishments tested. There is a yawning knowledge gap. Now for more good news (think of this as a positive sandwich); the poll shows that when people are told about what Biden has done, his approval rating goes up. The voters most likely to move are the “Double Haters.”

          My penultimate point: The 2024 presidential election matters a lot. But so do congressional elections, gubernatorial elections, state legislative elections, municipal elections, and more. If—heaven forbid—Trump wins in 2024, a second Trump term with a Democratically controlled Congress is radically different than if Republicans control Congress. And states can be bulwarks of individual liberties if Republicans are able to pass national legislation. So, let’s not put every hope and aspiration into the presidential election. We should do everything we can to win up and down the ballot.

Concluding Thoughts.

          Although I did not intend to devote the entire newsletter to the NYTimes poll, I will stop here. We will be dealing with bad polls, handwringing, and negative press for the next year, so it is worth drawing a line in the sand and saying, “Enough!” The election is not over until it is over—notwithstanding the media’s best efforts to declare defeat a year in advance. And while I am criticizing the media, shame on the media for normalizing Trump as a legitimate political candidate. He is not.

          We will prevail over the long run, no matter what happens in 2024. (To be clear, I believe Biden will win re-election.) But if we have confidence that we will ultimately prevail, we can set aside the apocalyptic fears that we wrongly ascribe to a single election in 2024. We don’t need to panic over every poll.

The NYTimes poll reminds us that we have plenty of work to do in spreading the good news of Biden’s accomplishments. So, rather than needlessly fretting a year in advance about 2024, let’s recognize that we have a year to achieve

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #political #NYT poll #polling data #Robert B. Hubbell #democracy #media #Mike Luckovich

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

Laughter Leaves the Perfect Opening for Heartbreak

I read this somewhere and I cannot for the life of me remember where now. But I have taken this to heart.

Writing a good, silly, funny character is hard. Sometimes you go too far and they're more irritating than funny. Because laughter is a legitimately hard emotion to evoke in people. A lot of comedians have opening acts because you have to warm up the audience - get them in the mood for laughter. Because to make someone laugh intentionally when you know maybe they're not feeling like it - that's hard. When they know a joke is coming, people guard themselves - so the joke has to be really, truly funny.

And when you get people to laugh - honest and sincerely laugh? Boom. Straight shot to the heart. The walls are down. Move in.

Because when you're dealing with a sad character, you know you're gonna be sad. Going through a sad story that starts sad just becomes an exercise in endurance. Which isn't necessarily "oh this made me sad" but like "Im already sad and Im trying to be different". Tragic is a gut punch when its a status change and not like an ongoing status effect.

There's a thin line between comedy and tragedy, but not just in a comic scene could easily be twisted as a tragic scene. The thin line is also all the ways a comedy sets an audience up for tragedy. When the audience is all warmed up, they're easier to affect - their emotions are loose and for the molding.

Which is why Sam is So Good. His perfectly tragic characters are those that make you really happy - take you up and up and up. So it's a hard fall down.

FCG/Loquacious are perfect tragedies because they're supposed to be shy of ridiculous.

#critical role #cr spoilers #theres sad characters that start from the bottom #so your brain kinda goes oh yeah thats sad #and guards itself so it doesnt get sadder #its So Much easier to go down if you get a bit more leverage #happy characters that make you sad #thats the best #my one true goal in storytelling #is to make someone laugh so hard that they just dont stop crying

[goingravager]

okay i am going feral over this. it's 2023 and no one was going to point out to me that the title doesn't translate to Revolutionary Girl Utena wtf

like. i legitimately never noticed. idk how obvious it is if you're a native Japanese speaker, or if it's actually acceptable grammar to put the adjective after the noun and this is just an alternate way to say Revolutionary Girl, but... growing up with so many "Magical Girl X" shows, "Revolutionary Girl Utena" sounded so normal to me that I never looked at the Japanese.

and like, the French subtitle that they throw in there is la fillette révolutionnaire, which does translate to Revolutionary Girl

but, thinking about it, if it really is that, shouldn't it be "Kakumei Shoujo", not "Shoujo Kakumei"...??

so the reason this has me feral: if it's true, it's yet one more bait-and-switch they threw in there, right up front, and it was in plain sight all this time. caution: heavy spoilers for the plot of the show follow.

so like. it's my opinion that the OP, both song and video, of Utena are an extremely clever bait-and-switch. in that they make one kind of sense going into episode 1, and they make a completely different kind of sense once you've finished the show.

like. when you first watched Utena, and you saw the intro, wasn't it basically exactly what you thought the show was going to be like? two girls having a meet cute, there's duelling, fairy tale elements, Utena is badass, and oh no she's going to have to struggle to hold onto Anthy metaphorically because of the Rose Bride thing, which could tear them apart at any time!

it's delicious, it's dramatic, and it's... not what the show ends up being.

but then you watch episode 39 and you realise. the intro is a complete description of the entirety of the show. two girls meet, they have some cute romantic moments early on, there are duels. Utena fights everyone. the castle collapses. they storm the heavens, Utena on her princely white horse of innocence and ignorance, Anthy on her dark horse of... being the dark horse of the plot, lol. Utena cannot be the one to save Anthy, she both metaphorically and physically cannot lift her out of her burdens, and Utena is left alone, curled up on the ground beneath the self-imposed weight of her defeat.

meanwhile, the song. the song!! going into the show cold, "rinbu revolution" seems like a pretty standard song for someone like Utena. but it's not Utena's song at all. it's Anthy's.

Even if I dream, even if I cry, even if I get hurt... ...reality keeps on coming recklessly. I wanna find out where I am, the value of being me. Gonna take who I've been up till now and find the strength to throw it all away. Strip down to nothing at all. Become like a rose petal blowing free! Even if the two of us are ever torn apart l swear that I will change the world.

who, in the plot, finally accepts the reality of her situation? who starts out lacking self-worth and struggles to eventually carve out, with her own hands, the place where she belongs? who heroically finds the strength to throw it all away, stripping herself of her prior role?

not Utena, who up until the very last clings to her "princely" ideals, into which she has placed all her worth and sense of self. in the last episode it's made clear that she hasn't changed the world one bit, nor brought revolution, as the world quite literally forgets her and goes on without her exactly as it was.

except for Anthy. Anthy remembers Utena, the only one who does, even though they are torn apart. she frees herself, changes her own reality by escaping the cycle of abuse to which she had become conditioned. Utena undoubtedly gave her strength and inspiration, but she could not lift Anthy out of her suffering, and believing she could (and had to) was her downfall.

let go of me, Anthy says, as their hands part, to an Utena who firmly believes that she can only make a difference by playing the hero. i'll go my way. the revolution is hers, not Utena's.

which is why, if the title is purposely misleading, it's so damn brilliant. we start out thinking, "of course! Utena is a revolutionary girl! She wears the boy's uniform* and duels, and she'll surely bring the revolution and save Anthy!" but what occurs is simply a "girl revolution", a Shoujo Kakumei, that is completed by Anthy herself.

*(no she doesn't, it's actually a unique uniform design. neither this nor that but a third thing.)

but maybe we can go deeper.

we know that Utena means calyx, while Anthy means flower. a calyx is the tough, protective outer layer of a flower bud, matching Utena's role in relation to Anthy. once a flower blooms fully, the calyx is no longer needed to protect it, and retracts or withers. i'm not a native Japanese speaker, but from what I have studied, it would seem that "Shoujo Kakumei Utena" could be read as "girl-revolution protector". not the one who brings the revolution, but the one who protects/shields the revolution-bringer, who nurtures Anthy while she is vulnerable. then Utena, the calyx, crumples, and Anthy blossoms in her own time.

and i think that's beautiful.

#revolutionary girl utena #shoujo kakumei utena #god this show gives me brainworms

[shaunamilfman]

Speaking of Christmas, I’ve been in the holiday mood because, as I mentioned, me and my firehouse sell Christmas trees each year. So tonight while the Christmas music was bumping and we had some downtime between customers I wrote up some holiday HCs for Jackie/Shauna that I had off the top of my head.

- Jackie is the type of girl to start celebrating Christmas the day after (American) thanksgiving, blasting holiday music throughout the house, whereas Shauna will scream back at her “IT’S LEGITIMATELY STILL NOVEMBER, TURN IT OFF”

- Jackie absolutely has a checklist of things that she makes you all to do so she can have a good holiday. Baking cookies, decorating a gingerbread house, watching specific nostalgic Christmas movies and TV show episodes etc. Shauna will only barely tolerate this because it makes Jackie WILDLY happy.

- Jackie hangs mistletoe up around the house, and will run to meet you or Shauna under it when you’re passing by.

- Holidays aside the only thing that really makes Shauna happy during this time is when you guys take a walk while it’s snowing. She loves watching the snow come down and the relaxed down time with you because you don’t put as much of an emphasis on every moment leading up to the holiday as Jackie does. But you will always agree because seeing Shauna with a bunch of snowflakes caught in her eyelashes and hair makes your heart stop.

- Ms. Jackie Taylor CANNOT cook for the life of her, leaving the holiday dinner up to you and Shauna. Jackie decides to occupy her time with decorating because she was asked to leave the kitchen when something burned because she was left in charge to watch the stove while you and Shauna were trying to wash dishes and she’s j sat on the table texting while smoke billows out of the pot. When you and Shauna finally emerge from the kitchen you see the house is decorated so well it’s like the set of a hallmark movie and Jackie is just sat on the couch nonchalantly waiting for you both.

- Jackie will try to convince you and Shauna to take one of those “matching pajama, family pictures” to send out for holiday cards. Jackie is able to say very little of her plan however, before Shauna shuts her down.

- The holidays are probably really draining for Shauna as she has to split her time between her mom and dad, so she needs a lot more quiet time with you or Jackie. Just laying in bed, lights off, cuddled up to each other where no one talks, possibly watching a holiday movie.

- Shauna has to talk Jackie out of buying every holiday candle scent cause she can’t decide between “Walk in the Snow”, “Christmas Cookie”, or “Pine Wood Forest”

- On Christmas morning Jackie will act like an excited child, waking you and Shauna up at the ass crack of dawn because she’s so excited to give you both your gifts.

- Shauna I can see as a very sentimental gift giver without even knowing what she’s doing. Will give you like a book with information about all the dates you guys had been on with pictures, movie tickets, drawings etc and will be clueless as to why you burst into tears and hugged her.

- Jackie will get you very thoughtful gifts but they’re definitely more, materialistic things. Don’t get me wrong, by no means is it just any expensive thing she thinks you’ll like, she 100% clocked that you wanted something in like April and remembers to get it for you.

Sorry for flooding your inbox with Headcannons of these two, I have JackieShauna brainrot atm. Hope you’re doing well pookie, love ya <3

doesn't everyone start their christmas celebrations the day after american thanksgiving? thats when we always put up christmas lights and stuff. its when they start playing christmas music and shit i think shaunas just a hater on this one lmao

oh god jackie would want to fully celebrate every holiday im with shauna the hater on this one fr.

jackie purposely puts it up in your favorite areas of the house so she can kiss you and you're like "but you could just kiss me anyways?" and she'd just blush and shake her head

shauna loves that it gets dark so early during the holidays fr. she enjoys staring out the window as the snow comes down all broody and shit. i love being shaunas holiday escape omg that's so good. shauna looked so pretty in the snow scenes i cant imagine what she'd look like actually happy in the snow lmaooo

jackie burned water once but she runs the gingerbread house decorating like the navy. shes playing the sims with that icing bag fr fr. you walk out of the kitchen to see jackie standing on like a step ladder on top of a chair trying to put decorations up and both you and shauna are like "!!!!! jackie plssss"

jackie buys shauna the pjs and tells her they're for her. shauna reluctantly wears them and is like "oh hell no" when she sees you both wearing them and tries to run upstairs. yall get the picture but both you and jackie had to wrestle shauna to the ground. the pic is like you with your arm around shaunas neck while jackies pinning her legs down and strewn across her lap. you're both smiling but shauna looks fucking deadly. it's your favorite picture of shauna and you make it your pfp for months.

ugh jackie's ass would burn sugar cookie and pine forest at the same time and make the entire house smell awful. jackie walks in the living room to see you and shauna on the floor gagging while holding the blanket over your noses.

i absolutely do think jackie buys you super sentimental and meaningful gifts that show how well she knows you. shauna is so an experience/sentimental gift giver. she gets you tickets to do something you'd like with her or makes you super sentimental gifts for sure. i love the idea of shauna giving you like little poems shes written about you over the year.

absolutely flood my inbox bro i love talking jackieshauna. i'm doing very well, thank you!

#soffsh #shauna thoughts 💙 #jackie thoughts 🩷 #jackieshauna thoughts 🩷💙 #yellowjackets x reader #shauna shipman x reader #jackie taylor x reader

[womaninwinter]

For The Intruder

7. What inspired the idea for the plot?

16. What was the easiest scene to write?

20. What is something you wish more people noticed about this fic?

26. Wild Card! I'll tell you a fun fact about this fic!

intruder my beloved! You know how all parents are like "i don't have favourite children" and then they lean in and go "but actually..." Well. I don't have favourite fics. But The Intruder is my "but actually..."

7. What inspired the idea for the plot?

Hm. It's been a while so I don't fully remember, but I know I read another fic that involved using the Other Side as a means of time travel, and somehow this got me thinking about using the Other Side to travel between alternate universes. But what it was that made me decide that the difference between these universes should be Lucy being dead, I cannot remember. I also don't know why I decided to make alt-LW half-starved and feral, apart from the obvious reason that I am sicko and it gratifies some part of me that is best left unexamined.

16. What was the easiest scene to write?

This prize goes to two scenes from future chapters, so I cannot share it I'm afraid. However, I will say that one involves Altwood getting a long-overdue hug and the other is him telling the story of what happened in Combe Carey. Which will be insanely angsty and I am so excited for the day when I can finally share it.

20. What is something you wish more people noticed about this fic?

I think I've said this before, but I wish people picked up on the fact that Lockwood's interpretation of Altwood as a threat is legitimate (IMO anyway). He knows himself well enough to know how dangerous he can be when he puts his mind to it (remember TEG? "Some day I'm going to have to kill him"? "I've been holding back until now"?), and he also knows himself well enough to see signs that he's not in control. So yeah, his responses to Altwood aren't just jealousy over Lucy (although that's a big part of it lol) but a genuine awareness of the risk he presents.

26. Wild Card! I'll tell you a fun fact about this fic!

Hhhhuuhhh I'm bad at fun facts. Um, how about I decided to have the gang call Altwood "Anthony" (despite hating the trope where Lucy/anyone other than his parents or Jessica calls him Anthony) because I found it incredibly awkward to write "the other Lockwood" all the time. Or, here's an actual new fun fact: I didn't have a plan originally for why Altwood would hate Quill Kipps, just that their relationship would never have had a chance to warm up if Lockwood's development essentially halted after Combe Carey. But then people started wondering why he was so vehement in his dislike of Kipps so I was like, shoot better come up with a reason, and I now have a very angsty reason for him to hate Kipps. Which I also cannot wait to reveal. Ugh. I miss writing the Intruder.

#fic talk #my fic #lockwood and co #the intruder

[hellomisst]

I'm never moving on from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The angst. The yearning. Incredible.

Adeline LaRue was a young girl from a small town dreaming of a world bigger than what she sees. Then, out of desperation, she made a deal with the devil.

Or is he the devil?

“I am not some genie, bound to your whim." He pushes off the tree. "Nor am I some petty forest spirit, content with granting favors for mortal trinkets. I am stronger than your god and older than your devil. I am the darkness between stars, and the roots beneath the earth. I am promise, and potential, and when it comes to playing games, I divine the rules, I set the pieces, and I choose when to play. And tonight, I say no.”

And so her wish of freedom was granted... with a price. She has all the time in the world to enjoy life and to not be bound by anything. Being unbound, then, means no one would remember her. Such is the price when you make a deal with the gods that answer after dark but you do not know what you want and you do not clear up your own conditions, rules, and limitations.

Spoilers past this line.

Addie named Luc, and by doing so, she humanized him.

I CANNOT MOVE ON from their dynamic. For years, decades, centuries, no one can remember her. No one can mention her name, not even Addie herself. Only Luc who has been taunting her, pushing her to give up her life.

Now, let me clear this up: I DO acknowledge that the power dynamics between them play a huge role in their relationship. Her craving love and attention stemmed from the fact that no one else can know her deeply enough to create a legitimate human connection, affection, and relationship. Thus, her growing feelings for Luc became inevitable. Luc had full control over her and her life, while all she wanted was freedom to live. With this, let me expressly say that I fully understand and support Addie's scheme in the end (...but I cannot deny that I'm rooting for Luc once and for all admitting defeat, and Addie and Luc having a healthy relationship 😭).

OKAY. So. WHEN THEY STARTED FLIRTING??? I KEPT WANTING TO THROW THE BOOK TO THE WALL!!! Like, DAMN!!! WHY CAN'T Y'ALL JUST BE TOGETHER???? Luc's rizz is undeniable as fuck. And Addie's stubbornness mixes well with his smoothness, thereby successfully intoxicating me.

Luc lifts his glass. "Happy anniversary, my Adeline." She looks at him, lips parting with their usual retort, but then stops short. If she is his—then by now he must be hers as well. "Happy anniversary, my Luc," she answers, just to see the face he'll make. She is rewarded with a raised brow, the crooked upturn of his mouth, the green of his eyes shifting in surprise.

Now, I know that when she was with Henry, they were really healthy. Sure, even Addie does not know if it was love or if it was all just because he was the first human to ever see her as she is. I thought they would be together and overcome Luc's deals. But no.

Even then, Luc can really sweep you off your feet. One thing I hate is how they blame Luc for everything. He is the darkness. In our current world, he is what we call the devil. Of course he is an opportunist. Of course he would always take the upper hand. The bad side of their deal came up because they would not look into the intricacies of the deals they are making. I also acknowledge that Luc always comes in times when one would not really be in the right mind to make a serious deal... so there's that.

BUT. The angst really comes in to take over you. It was chapters in the making. It's a slow burn you wouldn't notice

"You told me once that we were alike," he says, almost to himself. "Both of us... lonely. I loathed you for saying it. But I suppose in some ways you were right. I suppose," he goes on slowly, "there is something to the idea of company." It is the closest he has ever come to sounding human. "Do you miss me," she asks, "when you are not here?" Those green eyes drift up, the emerald even in the dark. "I am here, with you, more often than you think." "Of course," she says, "you come and go whenever you want. I have no choice but to wait." His eyes darken with pleasure. "Do you wait for me?" And now it is Addie who looks away. "You said it yourself. We all crave company." "And if you could call on me, as I call on you?" Her heart quickens a little. She does not look up, and that is why she sees it, rolling toward her on the table. A slim band, carved of pale ash wood. It is a ring. It is her ring. ... "Put it on, and I will come." Luc leans back in his chair, the night breeze blowing through those raven curls. "There," he says, "Now we are even."

The way my stomach erupted with butterflies! The slow confession. The subtle dropping of hints of their feelings here and there. Everything keeps you on your toes. "Will they or will they not? Is there something or not?"

"At least he keeps me company." Those emerald eyes trail over her skin. "So would I," he says, "if you wanted it."

And so I was kept thinking. Will Luc ever confess? Will Addie ever... agree to it? Accept it? Forgive him?

What's been keeping them apart is the fact that Addie sees Luc as the devil. As the one who made her life miserable. Which is true, to be fair. So I won't ever blame her. Trauma is there and they are bonding.

Like I said, I understand Addie and I understand that there's power play here. Her walls are up, she keeps her guards up, she's hostile towards him, and she's very suspicious because he does not play fair. He never did. But then he started to open up. He started equalizing their position and power.

From what I understand, throughout time, Addie became less and less human, and she learned to hate more and more because the only one who became constant in her life is Luc. On the other hand, Luc became more and more human, and he learned to love and understand more and more because (probably) the only person he has ever spent time with constantly is Addie.

THEN.

"Even if everyone you met remembered," Luc says, "I would still know you best." She searches his face. "Do I know you?" He bows his head over hers. "You are the only one who does." ... His voice, molded to the hollow places in her as he says, "I want you." And then, again, "I have always wanted you." Luc looks down at her, those green eyes dark with pleasure, and Addie fights to hold her ground. "You want me as a prize," she says. "You want me as a meal, or a glass of wine. Just another thing to be consumed." He dips his head, presses his lips to her collarbone. "Is that so wrong?" She fights back a shiver as he kisses her throat. "Is it such a bad thing..." His mouth trails along her jaw. "...to be savored?" His breath brushes her ear. "To be relished?"

I SCREAMED. Internally. BUT IF I WAS LIVING ALONE, I SWEAR TO GOD. If I didn't care about the book and if it wasn't so expensive (fuck inflation), I WOULD'VE THROWN THIS TO THE WALL SCREAMING.

Anyway, Addie's stronger than me because I would've fallen for him and his tactics over and over again...

"I love you." They are in New Orleans when he says it, dining in a hidden bar in the French Quarter, one of his many installations. Addie shakes her head, amazed the words do not turn to ash in his mouth. "Do not pretend that this is love." Annoyance flashes across Luc's face. "What is love, then? Tell me. Tell me your heart does not flutter when you hear my voice. That it doesn't ache when you hear your name in my lips." "It is my own name I ache for, not your lips." The edge of his mouth curls up, his eyes now emerald. A brightness born of pleasure. "Once, perhaps," he says. "But now it's more." She is afraid that he is right.

I TOLD YOU????? BUT. Does that mean... that is how Luc feels when Addie says his name... when he hears Addie's voice...?

BUT. It also means Addie already feels something. Again, it might be because he's the only constant thing in her life. He's the only one who remembers and that's because he made it that way. But, he did offer to change the terms... Only that there was a misunderstanding because of everything that has happened and how she understands he, and his actions, works.

In the end, Addie's suspicions are justified. Sad for Luc, yes, but Addie has been suffering and it's because of him. If he can change—if he's willing to change—and he grants Addie's freedom with no consequences, no strings attached, and Addie gets to choose her own life in her own terms and who she wants to be with, then maybe when she chooses Luc, it can be healthy...

"I will give you what you want," he says. "If you will do one thing." "What?" she asks. Luc holds out his hand. "Dance with me," he says.

This part was very sad for me. It was clear that Luc has real feelings for her, yet Addie can no longer trust. Damage has been done. Their lines intersected, and from here, they'll only grow apart... Not physically, but emotionally.

But I think it's fitting. Luc is not human, though he is growing more human. Addie is human, but she is becoming more scheming... less human. They really cannot be together because Luc will always hold power and Luc is (or was?) manipulative. And Addie cannot find it in her to trust him again. Though Luc might change, to Addie, he is only the devil. And that is justified (though sad).

"What a hard lesson it must be for you," she says. "That you can't have everything you want." "Want?" he sneers. "Want is for children. If this were want, I would be rid of you by now. I would have forgotten you centuries ago," he says, a bitter loathing in his voice. "This is need. And need is painful but patient. Do you hear me, Adeline? I need you. As you need me. I love you, as you love me." She hears the pain in his voice.

Before we continue, may I just say one thing. LUC ALWAYS CALLS HER "ADELINE". Not "Addie" but "Adeline". And I think that means something.

Addie has always wanted to be "Addie", the name Estelle gave her. Since before, she did not want to be "Adeline". But, as she lived her immortal life, she kept wanting to go back to her old life. She yearned to be remembered again, even if it meant being tied down... But then she kept remembering she never wanted to be married and to just stay there forever. So even if she kept yearning for her life as "Adeline", she would still always want to be "Addie".

And Luc... calls her "Adeline". Easy explanation: Luc always says that she's always been his. That's because she traded her soul for freedom. This means she is really his, her whole being and life, whether as "Adeline" or "Addie"; but her birth name is "Adeline", and so her real, purest, and barest being is "Adeline". "Addie" came from "Adeline", whether it's just her name or her being.

But in my head: Being "Adeline" is being home, and Luc offered her just that :))

Another interpretation in my head (sad): Luc only sees her and/ or he keeps her as her former self, when Addie wants to be "Addie" aka free. He keeps her as "Adeline", the person who was desperate and in need, when she wants and needs to be "Addie", a person who is free. Thus, Luc is the shackles that hold her back from being free; they had a deal and she is still bound to him. As long as she is kept within a deal, she can never be free. Addie has to be free from Luc to be truly free.

"They can have the story," he says. "So long as I have you."

The ending. Henry did not have a happy ending with Addie because Addie is now with Luc. Yet, in the book's ending, Addie is scheming to make Luc hate her so that he would (unintentionally?) set her free, based on the new deal they had.

Should her plan work, then it will be true to her character: stubborn as a rock, and only wanting freedom. By extension, it highlights her true freedom as no man will ever own her or have her; fitting as she wanted to escape marriage long ago.

However, let us remember that The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, in the book, was written by Henry... and he never knew the true ending. Of what happened to Addie. Where she is. How she is now with Luc. How she and Luc treat each other. So we can also interpret that as Henry attempting to make a good and open ending for Addie :))

For me, I'll try to think and think about this because I'm clearly never moving on!! Maybe Luc can change and Addie can accept that. Maybe not. Maybe she will be free but Luc will still try to pursue her. Maybe after a long time, she can realize that he really has changed. Maybe they can be together. Maybe not because they have been toxic.

Who knows :))

#book #dark academia #the invisible life of addie larue #addie larue #ve shwab #adeline larue #book review #book recommendations #angst #yearning #slow burn #enemies to lovers

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for having a lot of resentment for my father, and trying to move on from him after his death?

I should at least introduce myself and provide some background first. I (24, F) am best known for joining a company that my father (50s, M) founded that invaded planets. This stopped happening ever since a peculiar young being that we'll call K (10, M) destroyed our spaceship. I've managed to make amends with K, though, some time after I turned around and implored him to stop the machine that went haywire at the end. Nowadays, I am friends with K as he's long forgiven me for the invasion, and thus I think that situation has been resolved.

Now for the actual matter at hand here. My father is dead. You'd think that I would be mourning him after he died, and I actually have! As a matter fact, I have in fact had grief over it! It was me that was responsible for his death... I killed him by pure accident, and for a while I've felt absolutely horrible about it. I still regret it even now!

.... But while I've indeed mourned him, I also just cannot help but legitimately resent him at the same time, and that's affected my grief over time. Let me explain why I have resentment for him:

He treated me like shit. You would not believe what he was like at times. I was stuck in a horrible place that was dimensions apart from my father for a long time, and when I finally returned to him, he forgot about my existence entirely. I tried to give him a hug upon return, but he brutally rejected it and told me that I was a freak for trying to hug him because he considered me to be a stranger.

I tried this multiple more times, and the outcome never changed.

I also tried so many other things. He did at least offer me to become his secretary, so I took the offer, but it didn't fix things at all. I tried singing a particular song for him that I thought would've gotten him to remember me, but it failed. I'd also have deliberately done other things like making gifts for him, but that never made him change.

I gave him everything, and he gave me nothing back.

I didn't even always get along with him. He was often a pretty harsh, mean-spirited and demanding 'boss'... it's embarrassing to think that this was my relationship with my dad. I was supposed to be his daughter, not his employee that he wasn't even very nice to!

He essentially spat in my face every time I tried to do something to try to get him to remember me being his daughter. He even called me rude things like 'weirdo', 'degenerate', and the aforementioned 'freak' that I said earlier. And he always had an aggressive tone every time he rejected all the hugs I tried to give him. As if I wronged him for it.

... I'll never forget all of that! Especially the first time it happened when I came back from that dimension. This has all just been so, so stressful that I honestly just can't forgive it. It hurt too much!

What kind of dad coldly refuses hugs from his own daughter?

He wasn't my dad anymore, really. More like a stranger that managed to steal my dad's body. He was a mockery... an insult.

I felt absolute disgust at what he became and how he treated me.

Now, I feel like his memories got erased. I've felt like the machine had something to do with it... it's partially why I tried stealing it from him in the first place, but I don't understand how it got to that point before I came back to him? Why was he using it after I disappeared?

Did he purposefully let the machine eat away his memories? Did he decide to just stop caring about me after the portal accident? Or... I wonder if there's a possibility that he deliberately got rid of me from the start. Like he was pretending to love me at the start and then made his move at some point.

... I don't know. I have no idea what happened to him while I was gone and I certainly hope it wasn't the last possibility I mentioned. I can hardly even remember what he was like when I was little. It was so long ago. I question if he ever loved me in the first place, and if it was all just a fluke if he 'did'. I didn't want to believe that... the reason I've even mourned him to begin with is because I wanted to believe that he loved me before, but I can't say that I'm convinced he ever did.

And if he never loved me, then I think that'd mean that I was stupid for mourning him. I don't even know if I'm supposed to miss him since I don't even know if he ever loved me at all to begin with.

I wish I could better remember the times before the portal stole me away from him. But I just can't.

It also just stresses me out to constantly think about it. I've been trying to heal and move on as time has been going on... at least things are easier in life now since I'm not in a twisted dimension anymore, nor am I hamstrung in harsh and demanding conditions as a result of being my dad's secretary.

I've revived his company and resorted to different practices. Not invading planets anymore, at least.

I also have friends now. The friends I'll give a shout out to are the aforementioned K that I talked about earlier, as well as a spidery guy (25, M) and some blue-hooded alien guy (28, M) that owns a big blue ship that's actually a really impressive piece of technology.

These friends actually care about me. Way more than my dad ever did, I think.

The spidery guy also lost someone, and at first he didn't understand why I wasn't as openly grieving my loss as he was until I explained it all to him. Thankfully, he came to understand, and was generous and caring enough to act as support for me nonetheless.

I actually don't make my daddy issues known to a lot of people. I have a feeling a lot of them would find a way to judge me or weaponize it against me, or they'd just paint me as some heartless monster for having resentment for my dad and I'd have to sit them down and explain it all for them to get it. But I'm simply not interested in letting that situation happen. And besides, I don't need to have my very personal business be known to people that aren't my closest friends.

... Although that's also part of the reason why I might be TA. Like I should just blindly grieve my dad to the fullest without any complications. I wish it were that easy, but what happened between me and him is much too complicated for there to not be resentment. I can't shake off the feeling of resentment after how he treated me ever since I came back to him. Doesn't help I barely remember him before the horrendous accident.

AITA, or am I justified to handle my dad's death the way I have?

(Sorry that this was long, by the way)

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality

[ethantheannus]

So, update. I binged basically the entirety of Slugterra. I'm missing the Ascension stuff and one of the movies, but I've basically seen it all. ( I don't even remember the Ascension stuff. I'm assuming I stopped watching before it was y'kno, a thing. ) And oh my god. I completely forgot how?? Batsh*t this series gets?? Like. Ok. The premise itself is pretty wild. It's like Pokémon but the Pokémon are live ammunition and we are firing guns at each other--we are also hundreds of feet under the earth, also you can straight up just die. That, in of itself, is a pretty unhinged concept. What I wasn't expecting was for it to progress and get somehow even more unhinged. Like. I'm sorry. You're telling me. Essentially, hell is real? But it's like, Doom hell. And we have to fire guns loaded with our pets to fight them off. Also also. Shane's dad is alive, and he was just in hell the entire time. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the evil slug? Yeah. The evil slug who possesses people. Can't forget that. The slugs are also really important but nobody treats them like they're important. Like. Guys. I get they're ammo. But they're also the core reason why Slugterra is still alive?? I guess?? And there's elemental slugs that every other slug is connected to?? I cannot believe I retained ANY of this. This isn't even half, pretty sure. I was watching it while hella sleep deprived ( I was at the point where I was blurting things out that didn't make sense, I should've stopped and just slept but it was like I was entranced. ). I definitely missed something, but oh my god. How did I forget how... how WILD this series was!?

The best part of me watching it was when the part of me that likes spec-bio started trying to figure out how the slugs turn larger when under a high velocity. Like I said, I was hella sleep deprived.

its legitimately bonkers man. theres a whole like. mini-movie about eli BEING POSESSED??? AND THEN THE EASTERN CAVERNS HAVE MULTIPLE PEOPLE WHO'VE BEEN POSESSED??? like my brother in christ.

the whole mall episode too with saturday. where hes zombifying people. thats HORRIFYING. why is there a slug that can DO THAT. not to mention the implications of ghouling??? and how horrific that is???

slugterra is batshit in everything it does, it fucking rules.

#slugterra

[beginningobserver]

Heyyo everyone. I wrote a new Rui-centered thing.

⚠SPOILERS FROM THE MOVIE AHEAD ⚠

Bonds

[AO3 version]

Summary:

Rui is invited to try Daisuke's new ramen recipe with the rest of the group.

Rui + 02 kids • Canon-compliant (KenMiya/Kenyako included) • Post-movie events.

----------------//-----------------

A few months after meeting Daisuke and the others, Rui started to visit them a little more while he waited for Ukkomon’s egg to hatch. He was patient and optimistic that everything would be fine now.

He was invited by Daisuke to eat his newest ramen-creation with the other five. But would they still want to tag along with him? Rui had no idea what true friendship was, because he believed every friend he made after meeting Ukkomon were just manipulated by the digimon like his parents had been.

It could mean that this group he just met would be his first and legitimate friends. Right?

He stood in front of the Ramen Yamatoya building, his hands shaking out of anxiety. He thought -- Should I get in? We were just strangers and I don’t come here too much to not… Bug him--

The door opened from inside and it was by V-mon.

“HEYYOO RUI!”

“A-ah… Hello.”

“Wow, you came really fast!!” the blue digimon exclaimed, and looked outside to see if anyone else was coming, “Really fast!”

“I… I was around, my workplace is in this area.”

“Oho! What do you do for life!?”

“... I work at--”

“THERE YOU ARE!!” Daisuke pooped out from the door, “HEY-WELCOME! GET IN, GET IN!!”

He was interrupted by Daisuke’s energetic voice. And dragged inside. He didn’t manage to answer V-mon’s question and at this point V-mon had lost interest in it, because he tried to answer it again and V-mon just started preparing the counter and led to the stool reserved for him.

He felt like a celebrity with that reception, and this really felt awkward -- Do friends do things like these…?

“Here’s the menu!” and V-mon handed him a card with the stuff included in Daisuke’s ‘Ramen Motomiya’ business;

“Oh, thanks…” he gently took it from V-mon’s hand.

“Hey V-mon, this isn’t needed! Everyone will come here to try out my new creation!”

“What is this new… menu item you were talking about?” Rui asked, out of curiosity.

“It’s a top secret! I’ll reveal its details once everyone is here!”

“Oh, so it’s a surprise…”

“Yup!” Daisuke smiled, “But no worries it’s not sweet! I mean, I know you’re not a fan of sweets so… I had to find the perfect balance of flavor that would make everyone satisfied.”

“Hmm…” He didn’t know what to say, it felt a little odd someone thinking of him and his preferences… But it made him relieved that Daisuke cares enough about him to pull things like these -- This is… True friendship right?

“Iori hates tomatoes,” V-mon explained, “So when Daisuke cooks stuff for everyone he has to remember to not add tomatoes on Iori’s portion.”

“I see…”

“And If someone is lactose intolerant I have to know beforehand so I can prepare a special version of the recipe! Or if they’re vegan. Or if they’re allergic to gluten. Lots of things, culinary school prepared me for this!”

“Yeah!” V-mon nodded, “And that so we cannot get into legal issues! I mean, the boss wouldn’t like to have this place closed because of a little mistake!!”

The door opened and the others came in. V-mon greeted them the same way as Daisuke did before -- Maybe it’s part of their business' greetings? -- and they all got reunited at the counter.

Hikari also came in with her backpack stuffed with something. Rui didn’t know why, it just felt a little… strange??

“So, what is the menu for today, chef?” Takeru chuckled, “You said you created something new.”

“Hehe, glad you asked” Daisuke had the sunglasses on and did the ‘anime glasses thing’ with the light reflection, “V-mon, please.”

“Alright!” and then V-mon served the bowls to the six people, “Bone appetit!” 

“It’s not ‘Bone’ !” Daisuke babbled, “Man, Takeru didn’t ya say it was something like ‘good meal’…”

“Oh, yeah” Takeru nodded, “V-mon it’s ‘ Bon’ , which means ‘good’ in French. And ‘bon appetit’ means ‘enjoy your meal’ ”

“Okay but why is Daisuke using French out of nowhere?” Patamon blinked.

“It’s good to know a bit of each language if I want to open my business in New York!” Daisuke explained, “And maybe I’m considering the idea of doing deliveries later.”

“Is it because of my suggestion?” Iori asked and then Daisuke nodded.

“With the digital gate we can go everywhere!!” V-mon added, “So! We can do something cool like this!!”

“This is just one step to be made!” Daisuke bragged, “Now, enjoy the bowl. I’ll be waiting for your feedback on my most recent creation.”

“Don’t forget to describe the flavors!” V-mon added excitedly.

“So uh, what’s different in it?” Miyako raised an eyebrow, “It doesn’t seem different from the usual bowls you served before…”

“Just… Try it first,” he pouted.

“Will you keep using the sunglasses indoors?” Tailmon seemed quite bothered by that. Even Takeru had taken his beanie off!!

“Well, I’m not a real ramen chef if I don’t have them on.”

“It’s missing the spirals, dagya!” Armadimon commented.

“... I left them at home,” Daisuke shrugged.

“YOU HAVE SUNGLASSES WITH THOSE ANIME SPIRALS!?” Everyone seemed pretty surprised by it. Except V-mon, of course.

“Yeah, and they’re mine!” V-mon replied with a grin.

“THEY BELONG TO V-MON!?”

“I don’t think that should be a surprise” Daisuke took the shades off, “Takeru does the same thing, but with hats!”

“Ah, that’s true,” Wormmon blinked.

“Takeru-san has something equal to that too,” Hawkmon replied with a nod.

“We should quit arguing and start eating!” Takeru babbled nervously when everyone glanced at him, “Or else Daisuke will be even more upset than he is right now!”

The only person not taking part in that discussion was Rui, who was just sitting in the corner and already eating his bowl. Somehow him being this quiet made them all forget he was there… But he didn’t mind it either. He’s still just a stranger, maybe Daisuke only invited him out of courtesy…?

“...”

It’s good -- Rui thought. He didn’t expect something so simple to be good. But isn’t this what Daisuke is in a nutshell? Simple-minded and a box full of surprises. Now he had to compliment that, which is the hard part. The group were already chatting and even arguing about fashion accessories… He felt it would be rude to interrupt them all.

But… This is really good.

He felt even more awkward…

“AHEM!” Daisuke managed to spot he wasn’t involved in their shenanigans, so he just called everyone’s attention to the main subject, “Now, really… Just eat it. And tell me what y’all think about it.”

The group looked at each other and then to Rui sitting there in silence eating. V-mon noticed Rui was… crying??

“Oh no-- is it too bad!?” V-mon gasped, mortified “Daisuke, you made something so horrible he’s--”

“No.”

“Huh??”

“It’s good,” he said, quite awkwardly.

“Then why are you crying??” Patamon asked.

Why am I crying…?? -- Not even he realized the reason for those tears. The group then tried their own bowls, trying to understand Rui’s reaction to the food.

“Oh! It’s tasty!” They all commented.

“See the difference?” Daisuke chuckled.

“What did you do this time??” Hikari asked, impressed by the flavor.

“It’s a secret~”

“He was bored last night and accidentally dropped the wrong seasoning to the broth and then he tried it and got… this new ‘BOOM’ okay??” V-mon explained.

“So it was an accidental discovery,” Iori mused.

“What seasoning was?” Tailmon asked the next question.

“It was…”

Seriously, why am I crying by eating something tasteful? -- Rui kept wondering why a simple ramen bowl could bring him tears. Was it the spice? Was it too spicy? Or too salty?? It didn't make any sense, because he didn’t feel it was too spicy or salty… He just sat there eating in silence and trying to get it, why was he…?!

“Oh, I know! Is it love??” Patamon asked.

“Can you put love in a bowl?” Wormmon asked, innocently.

“Well, putting it that way, yeah it had a ton of love while preparing it for my best pals so…”

“Excuse me,” Miyako stared at Daisuke, “I’m the one who got the Digimental of Love here. Better you teach me your secrets.”

“Then, better you give me your Digimental of Love because I deserve it now.”

“Not a chance!”

They all laughed.

“...”

Meanwhile Rui, oh poor Rui… He was so confused about what the heck is going on with him that he was feeling like spacing out again. He didn’t even realize he finished his bowl quite quicker than the others.

So now he was just watching the empty bowl and thinking how can he describe those feelings and flavors and -- WAIT WHY ARE THEY ALL LOOKING AT HIM NOW?!

“Wow…” Wormmon exclaimed.

“Well… It was d-delicious!” He babbled aloud. Dang it, he’s feeling like a fool…

“Hey, take it easy” Daisuke said, “So uh… How’s that?”

“... It was good.”

“And?”

“... I don’t understand why, but eating this bowl gave me joy… Something I haven’t felt for a long time ago.”

“Oh, so you liked it!?” V-mon gasped.

“V-mon, crying does not always mean sadness” Ken started explaining, “It can mean joy too. Like when Daisuke says something dumb and funny, making everyone cry out of laughter. It can also be out of relief, and so do other reasons as well.”

“... I think I was crying because…”

“... You feel happy to be here, right?” Daisuke tried to guess it.

“H-huh?”

“How’s Ukkomon’s egg going?” Miyako asked, “Did it hatch already?”

“... Not yet,” and then he showed the tiny watch-clock sized egg from his pocket. They all looked at it, “I always take him with me, just in case…”

“That’s a good signal,” Tailmon smiled, and then looked at Hikari, “You have to never lose hope, he will come back. Right, Hikari?”

“Yes, We never lost hope so that’s why we were able to meet each other.”

“... I feel safe with you guys,” Rui blushed a bit. Oh so that’s why he felt a little nervous, right?

“We can help you form connections,” Hawkmon said this time, “But sometimes you need a little push.”

“??”

“Yeah, so that’s why I got you here, dude” Daisuke chuckled, “We want to know more about you!”

“And we want you to know more about us, dagya!”

“... Oh.”

“Ah, I have something to show to everyone!” Hikari then took the stuffed backpack and opened it. Then Tailmon handed each of them a knitted scarf “I made those!!”

“That’s so cute!!” Miyako exclaimed with glee.

“Wow, it has cool details on them!!” Daisuke was in awe, “It reminds me of my Digital World’s jacket!!”

“Mine is Patamon-themed” Takeru commented, then looked at Hikari, “You made all of those, with details… All alone?”

“Oh I helped too” Tailmon started to brag, “I evolved into Angewomon and helped Hikari to knit. So they have an angel touch, haha~”

“Literally an angel touch… (dagya)” The digimon repeated together.

Rui also had one in his hands. It looked like Ukkomon, somehow. Hikari is really nice to give him something too, isn’t she? He kinda needed a little more color in his wardrobe… He had just started to wear some black-and-gray tones after the day he discovered Ukkomon had been hijacking his parents’ bodies (and possibly the rest of the people he had contact with?)… He kinda liked his usual outfit, but this was kinda giving him the will to risk changing a little.

So he put it around his neck. Somehow the colors were too bright for his dark clothes… But he was feeling happy with that humble present. He looked really funny and just felt like a tiny puppy with a new dog collar and wagging his tail happily.

The others just looked at him being more relaxed and comfortable, but Daisuke had to hold his laugh. Yeah, it was a little funny to him. And if he laughed now he could give the wrong message. But that made them all just feel the barrier between them and Rui had turned a little less thicker.

“I can’t use it right now, it will get dirty!!” Daisuke said, blushing, “B-But I will do it later!! And I won’t take it off ever again!”

“It will get stinky and we won’t let you approach us!” Patamon pouted.

“I… I will wash it though!!”

“You can’t wash it if you don’t take it off!”

“I didn’t mean literally not taking it off!!” Daisuke’s awkwardness increased. At least no one was paying attention to Rui feeling so warm and happy with those people taking him to eat ramen and giving him a gift!

More laughs.

“T-thank you…” it was interrupted by Rui simply thanking Hikari, “I… I appreciate it.”

“When Daisuke-kun said he wanted to gather everyone to try a new recipe, I decided to knit those. Now we all have matching scarves. Isn’t it fun?”

“This is the closest to having your crush give you a gift,” V-mon nodded sagely.

“HahahahaHA-- WHAT DO YA MEAN, V-MON!?” Daisuke panicked.

Daisuke-kun is acting weirdly… He probably likes her -- Rui thought. He wasn’t disappointed, but he was now frowning?

“I appreciate it as well, Hikari-chan” Ken thanked her, “Thank you.”

“Yeah, everyone here agrees, right?” Takeru smiled. Everyone agreed in a nod.

“Oh, there’s one more inside” Patamon noticed a 8th scarf in the backpack.

“This one is for Wallace,” Tailmon explained, “He’s part of our friend circle too, don’t forget it.”

“Wallace?” Ken and Rui asked.

“He’s a friend from America,” Hawkmon explained, “But uh… He tends to flirt with girls.”

“He was flirting with Miyako when we first met him,” Daisuke added with an annoyed tone.

“He what ?!” Ken gave Daisuke a legitimate ‘Kaiser-like’ look.

“I think now that you and Miyako-san are dating he would respect that” Iori tried to calm Ken down. He could present the sadistic Kaiser just by that reaction.

“Better he does,” Wormmon said, also sounding very… creepy?

Ichijouji-kun and Wormmon are scary… -- Rui gulped in silence. That murderous glare and the group trying to calm them down… Oh yeah.

“Anyway,” Daisuke slammed his hands on the other side of the counter, “Better you give me your notes. I need approval from this team here. And this includes you too, Rui.”

“... Ah, right… I think I liked it…?” 

“The flavors were well balanced,” Ken said nonchalantly, “and your presentation of it looks refined even if you’re just starting this business. And I think it would’ve been good if…”

They watched Ken just rambling about Daisuke’s ramen  like a legit restaurant reviewer and it made Rui quite impressed.

“... And serving it with a good shot of the client’s preferred drink could improve the experience.”

“Is… Is Ichijouji-kun a food critic…?”

“He tends to do those long reviews,” Tailmon shrugged, “You will get used to him.”

“Yeah, he’s a nerd” Daisuke rolled his eyes. Ken blushed out of embarrassment.

“But we love him so he’s our nerd!” Miyako added, and the blush in Ken intensified.

“Sooooo… Do y’all approve this one?”

“Yeah!/Yes!/Mhm!” They all said.

This group of people and their digimon seem so refreshing… Is this what friendship means? Is this… what having real friends means?

Rui felt his encounter with those people and digimon had helped him to start healing his heart. Somehow… He realized what Ukkomon had said back in time, on his 8th birthday.

The ‘friends’ Ukkomon couldn't bring that time… They weren’t his classmates.

It was those people. It was exactly this group of people, apparently.

He took the egg from his pocket and looked at it, with a calm and warm smile:

Thank you, Ukkomon. For leading me to them.

#digimon adventure 02 the beginning #ohwada lui #motomiya daisuke #ichijouji ken #inoue miyako #hida iori #takaishi takeru #yagami hikari #ni's digiheadcanons

[koalas-koalas-everywhere]

Anyone else remember how Percy literally stole the Senate from under "Conspirator Extraordinaire, Literally Pointed As The Politician By The Book" Octavian's feet, like, my boy did that. "I'm so glad you asked!" Get rekt.

Actually, no, I'm including the full quote:

"The camp is safe,” Octavian continued. “I’ll be the first to congratulate our heroes for bringing back the legion’s eagle and so much Imperial gold! Truly we have been blessed with good fortune. But why do more? Why tempt fate?” “I’m glad you asked.” Percy stood, taking the question as an opening. Octavian stammered, “I wasn’t—” “—part of the quest,” Percy said. “Yes, I know. And you’re wise to let me explain, since I was.” Some of the senators snickered. Octavian had no choice but to sit down and try not to look embarrassed.

"You're wise to let me explain, since I was." LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Also, that dig about his loyalty earlier, that everyone likes to bring up because of Percy's outrage? A direct response to Percy making a convincing argument (convincing for his audience) for allowing the quest when they were all ranging from hesitant to scoffing about it:

Finally Senator Larry stood. “I know what Mars said, but that’s crazy. Alaska is cursed! They call it the land beyond the gods for a reason. It’s so far north, the Roman gods have no power there. The place is swarming with monsters. No demigod has come back from there alive since—” “Since you lost your eagle,” Percy said. Larry was so startled, he fell back on his podex. “Look,” Percy continued, “I know I’m new here. I know you guys don’t like to mention that massacre in the nineteen-eighties—” “He mentioned it!” one of the ghosts whimpered. “—But don’t you get it?” Percy continued. “The Fifth Cohort led that expedition. We failed, and we have to be responsible for making things right. That’s why Mars is sending us. This giant, the son of Gaea—he’s the one who defeated your forces thirty years ago. I’m sure of it. Now he’s sitting up there in Alaska with a chained death god, and all your old equipment. He’s mustering his armies and sending them south to attack this camp.”

I have to say. Does this sound as an argument Percy would find compelling? He doesn't say so in the narration, but right here he is definitely working his crowd. And then he doesn't acknowledge the veiled accusation of treason that immediately follows the above quote like I cannot overstate that Octavian saw Percy as a threat and jumped to undermine him, proving not only his awareness of when he's being provoked, but the ability to control his temper in such situations (as seen before when Chiron asks him what he'd think of being though of as a story about children who lose their mothers and when he first meets Ares, when he's feeling his influence but doesn't have any legitimate reason to resent him), and succeeds in distracting even Octavian from his attempt to throw dirt on him.

He does something similar later when Octavian argues that they shouldn't provide any aid for the quest:

An uneasy murmur passed through the crowd. Frank jumped to his feet. Before he could start a fight, Percy said, “Fine! No problem. But at least give us transportation. Gaea is the earth goddess, right? Going overland, across the earth—I’m guessing we should avoid that. Plus, it’ll be too slow."

He saw the futility of the constant arguing and negotiating in circles and 1) made a show of good faith by accepting some of Octavian's conditions while 2) including his own request. The way he phrased it, at least to me, came across as rhetorically presenting himself and his friends as stoic Roman heroes to the Senate, going off in part from Octavian's own description and in part from the appeal he made earlier (second quote), while also pushing Octavian into a position where he had to meet him in the middle with the transportation (Should he have done this instead of pushing for more help? Possibly. That's a good question that, not knowing how the conversation would have gone in that case, I can't answer. I'm pointing out that Percy was very much thinking about the best way to direct the meeting here.)

He also showed how unflinching he could be under pressure when Reyna unfairly (both to Percy and to Frank, the actual leader of the quest — although, to be fair, Percy and Hazel were the ones doing the heavy lifting with the Senate in that scene while he stood back, probably cowed by his hurricane promotion and the constant reminders Octavian made about his supposed inadequacy for the role) puts responsibility on him for defending the quest and laying out a plan for it. He even calmed her when he saw her start to flounder.

“First things first.” Percy tried to sound confident, though he could feel the level of panic rising in the room. “I don’t know who the seven are, or what that old prophecy means, exactly. But first we have to free Thanatos. Mars told us we only needed three people for the quest to Alaska. Let’s concentrate on succeeding with that and getting back before the Feast of Fortuna. Then we can worry about the Doors of Death.”

Bolding mine because Percy has to be worried. He doesn't really know what to do besides what he outlines here. In the previous paragraph he's thinking of all the awful things that could happen in monsters can't be reliably killed. However, just like in this quote, he's thinking about it in reference to how it affects other people. If it was up to him, he'd be in one of his "this is so hopeless, we're gonna die, we have no clue, the world sucks" brooding sessions, but, because he's talking to a desperate crowd —one that's deciding whether anything will be done to solve the dangerous situation at all, which is one thing Percy is always in favor of— he puts on his big boy toga and leads them all to a more optimistic, active and effective outlook.

All of this to say... I can see why Reyna sought to recruit him after this.

#PJO #Percy Jackson #politician!Percy Jackson #Octavian #praetor!Percy Jackson #praetor!Percy #pspspsps let me run your campaign king

[idleorbitals]

only friends ep 3 watch through (part 1/2)

!! the mess is here. the mess is here and so am I

we open on nick catching even more feelings over bostonnick sex montage. oh this is painful to watch. lmao @ the of directors being the ones to give nick the tweet replies he doesn't want to hear though

I have to say I am such a sucker for the kind of aw noise boston makes at 2:26 it would get me too. but right after this he sits up and says the most manipulative shit about ~we might become something more~ nick baby. get out of there

raysand softest wake up together scene. this is very tender for a one night stand situation. my expectations for what we're supposed to want for them keep getting overturned. what I want for them has remained consistent but not bc of anything rational just bc I'm a simp

moment of silence for first kanaphan special acting ability where he manages to look like he's gazing softly up at khaotung's character while towering over him

moment of silence for sand who is already gone for ray and realizing it a little

moment of silence for ray who is still flirting having fun and feeling fancy free. oh boy when you torpedo this everyone will suffer you included

The Friends (tm) are eating and planning a pool party. they are having a fun chat about all the crazy things the cctv they want to put in is going to pick up. you know when you create all these opportunities for the narrative to screw with you it will babes.

ray remembers he knows a hot musician and volunteers to take care of the djing in a way that is so sus that the rest of the friends get comic whiplash sound effects and an eagle scream about it

topmew date time. sorry legitimately the only thing I can think about in this scene is how if everyone is dancing to different music everyone will look foolish as heck. forcebook really selling it here

I lied I have another thought and it's that these lyrics they are singing make me feel like the narrative is slapping me in the face

everyone regards me as a bad guy / I'm a villain, no matter how much I love you, I must die eventually / in the end, he's the one who has your love / I want to be a hero, but villain is my role

ok calm down top

if some of that's not metaphorical tho...yikes yikes

*begin vid section [2/4]*

an old familiar hookup comes to flirt with top in front of mew. can't totally read this dynamic. mew is clearly a little jealous but doesn't really have the standing to say anything. much like top's encounter with boston in the shower last week he's pushing away just a little but not putting his arm into it. top what is your game here?

nick getting boston to help him move lmao. that's right use him babe

sand is connecting dots. about bostonnick and about the hostel. ding ding ding baby you're all tangled up in this thankless situation. I wish I could have hope about sand and nick being good for each other bc they seem like the two most sympathetic characters this storyline currently has to offer but unfortunately my guess is they will both be too hung up on other people to be any real help to one another. and/or nick's going darkside idk you guys I'm starting to wonder. more on that coming up

ray wants to hire sand for ~party fun times~ so he goes to his work mom yo to clear it with her first. she says /why are you trying to get me wrapped up in your mess I'm a pure character/ and ray, about his intentions toward sand, rasps out "nothing is suspicious" while clearing his throat and shaking his head very quickly to indicate that nothing is suspicious.

yo's bf arrives on the scene to act as another character pointing out ray's day drinking. sorry ray the narrative agrees it's problematic to hang out at a bar all day when you're not sleeping with someone on staff. yo and bf have a cute moment and ray goes sweet and starry eyed about it.

ray: "can I get one like that?" p'yo: "here comes sand"

sorry I legitimately cannot continue without taking a moment for sparkly princess ray here. wtf. this look is, of course, aimed at sand but honestly that's not even what's important to me right now

cut to sand doing some of the most inefficient chopping work known to man while ray stands around flirting prettily with him and asking for favors.

trailer teasing us yet again on their dynamic. ray is the first one to say "you think I want you as my boyfriend? of course not!" while sand takes a long sip of his water and stares into the middle distance. oh sand.

sand calls him an asshole (affectionate)* again and gets up to go. ray grabs him by the arm and asks with feeling if he is really okay with this, which is the narrative reminding us that we are still allowed to sympathize with him even when he's being a little shit bc he understands consent. they have a nice little ~what are we~ conversation which, like—even though we know it's not actually going to work out ok for either of them even over the course this episode—is some pretty healthy communication, especially stacked right up against everything we've had from boston and nick this week. I'm honestly consistently surprised ray is being allowed to be a decent person but I'm not complaining

*nearly every time the subs say "dickhead" "asshole" etc what the characters are actually calling each other is สัตว์ "animal". I get that this is a more commonly used insult in thai but I think it almost holds up as a direct translation in terms of relative weight and I sort of wish it was glossed more consistently somehow. idk someone come tell me more tho

back at the pool nick meets top, who he recognizes from the photo booth pictures he found at boston's. they get a set of villain zooms, one each top and nick. nick baby don't do anything sand wouldn't do ok?

back to one of nick's online-in-a-dark-room moments. he's stalking top and finding boston comments all over his ig. the camera is not looking kindly on him here. something something the toxicity of jealousy and obsession. nick has real feelings involved so he's already at a disadvantage in his dynamic with boston, but suddenly I get the sense that boston is not necessarily safe, even if he's not going to catch feelings

how is sandray of the messy unrequited friend thing the only safe dynamic of the Big Three

(part 2) (all ofts watch throughs)

#ofts #only friends the series #sandray #raysand #firstkhaotung #ofts meta #part 2 incoming #next week shorter i'm promising myself now. next week the recap might just be sandray + other scenes of note bc there's Too Much Happening #ofts watch through

[thephantomcasebook]

Dyana returning for s2 and possibly being involved in jaehaery's death and thus ultimately making it "aegon's fault" is kinda funny when otherwise the blame would've mostly been put at aemond's feet (daemon's hit on the children aside. and let's be for real, it's definitely going to be daemon's hit, and rhaenyra will look like a hapless bafoon). I never "blamed" aemond for b&c reading f&b, but it very much read as a situation of one thing leads to another. aegon's "involvement" now muddies the waters, which can be interesting, but considering aegon's track record on the show it just seems kinda overkill at this point.

I honestly think that a lot of the ground work of vilifying Aegon and creating the fiction that Aemond is a bad person - despite the fact that no one has ever came at me with a reason that Aemond is a bad person in Season 1. It is all in service of trying to justify "Blood and Cheese" and exonerating Rhaenyra from any blame.

Cause, on the surface, in Fire & Blood, there is actually no justification for the murder of the children. Luke was sent into dangerous territory for a dangerous mission, armed - You are always armed when you're riding a dragon. And he got caught up in a personal grudge and duel of which he is he 100 percent responsible for starting and fostering over near a lifetime of resentment.

The murder of Jaehaerys is supposed to be a monstrous act condoned by monstrous people who are unquestionably the villains of the entire dance. And if you still don't believe that, than all you have to do is look at Viserys II basically putting a Taboo on his own parents names - barring his children and nieces and nephews from ever naming or recognizing Daemon and Rhaenyra as legitimate in any way. And why all of Daemon's children defied his legacy by marrying into his rivals families and continuing their lines.

GRRM has a ton of inconsistencies (Shoutout to @duxbelisarius Military Breakdown series) but he has always baked into the narrative that Rhaenyra was a monster and a villain - and is forever remembered that way by the ASoIaF Universal history, not because of sexist historians, but because of her own children who survived.

The main issue with the telling of this story is that it is being told in the 2020's, in which leftist political activism has become the orthodoxy and official opiate mainstream religion of Hollywood and London entertainment industries. Thus, because of inter-sectional feminism reaching cult like devotion in writers rooms and board rooms throughout mainstream entertainment, they cannot show a woman, a protagonist, becoming evil and acknowledging it as evil.

Don't get me wrong, they're still evil characters doing evil things, it's just that these corrupted and morally bankrupt people think that what they're writing is moral. That in their fucked up algebra "Tragedy" + "Justification" X "Girl Boss" = Morality.

Therefore, as long as they give every woman that has been wronged by Aegon and Aemond justification to avenge a tragedy by being proactive girl bosses, than anything that happens to Jaehaerys is morally right.

Thus, in our minds, what happens in "Blood & Cheese" is an unforgivable and purely evil act of savagery that everyone in Westeros for all time condemns as monstrous.

But to nut jobs like Sara Hess, Olivia Cooke, and Emma D'arcry (Or any "activist" in general) - who is only interested in their political and social agenda - Rhaenyra, Dyana, The White Worm, are villainized by sexist historians for being women of their age with power or agency and that they were justified in their evil acts because they are powerful women. In fact the idea that them being women, in general, is justification enough to do terrible things and see it as morally good, because, they were women.

It's the kind of sociopathic behavior rampant on this site with a bunch of weirdo window lickers cuing over "Let women do crime!" which is fine, but those same people also don't want those same women to face the consequences, to face condemnation, to face justice, for the evil they do.

So, to sum up, I disagree with your premise that Rhaenyra will be in the dark about "Blood & Cheese". What I think is that they're building up moral justifications through villainizing the male characters of Team Green of why Rhaenyra is justified in doing what she and Daemon plan to do.

#House of the Dragon #Aemond Targaryen #Aegon II Targaryen #Anti Rhaenyra Targaryen #Sara Hess

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Have you read the NYT piece on Taylors sexuality? Would love to know if you have any thoughts?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/opinion/taylor-swift-queer.html

I didn't think it was a good piece - and I think it was wildly inappropriate for anyone to write that for the NYT or the NYT to print it.

The piece is far too long and because of that length it has many contradictory ideas. This is probably best seen through the fact that it seems to want to argue that reading Taylor Swift is queer is legitimate (it's possible to do a great version of that article), present proof that Taylor Swift is queer, and argue that it's a problem that people aren't reading Taylor Swift as queer. Given current understandings - it's impossible to make a coherent argument for all these at the same time and the arguments frequently undercut each other.

You can see this in the many false endings of the piece there's a paragraph above the picture of Taylor in her reputation outfit - which is basically 'queer readings must be seen as possible'. Perfectly fine ending, reasonable thing to say. But then the last section opens: "I remember the first time I knew I had seen Taylor Alison Swift break free from the trap of stardom." And the certainty is never undermined, even though the argument is incredibly flimsy (basically there is only one possible understanding of Hits Different).

The Hits Different argument - which doesn't seem to consider the possibility that the narrator could be talking about herself with the line 'argumental antithetical dream girl' is part of a really unsophisticated reading of Taylor Swift's work. The reference to anti-hero - which turns the sexy baby/monster on a hill into a statement about how she's supposed to look rather than how she feels - simplifies the song massively.

The fundamental problem (as is so often with these sorts of pieces) was that this was someone whose thoughts had been developed in fandom and was responding almost entirely to fandom discourse. Fandom works in binaries - there is only one legitimate reading and therefore in order to prove your argument is legitimate you need to show that other readings aren't. But that's definitely not a cultural discussion of queerness and celebrity. It reads to me like she's not self-aware enough to separate what she desperately wants to say about fandom, and what is a cultural argument that is appropriate for this forum.

**************

And I disagree with some of the really basic premises of the argument - that she's too cowardly to make explicit - which is that outting is OK.

Taylor Swift has not come out - and this article includes a list of reasons why this person thinks she's gay - and ends with a claim of knowledge.

Lets stick to basics - if you think there's reason to believe that a celebrity was going to come out and didn't - then it's totally OK to talk about that with your friends. It's not OK to write an article about it in the New York Times. If someone doesn't

Likewise - the point of queer coding is that only people who are familiar with queer culture will pick it up. It's a fucked up thing to do to translate queer coding to a wider audience - because the whole point is that the person doing it only wants to speak to those who know.

One of the bizarre things about the article is that it seems to take as a starting point that things only exist if they're talked about in the New York Times. It asks the question about what queer people who see queer themes in her work are supposed to do and suggests the answers are: "Right now, those who do so must inject our perceptions with caveats and doubt or pretend we cannot see it (a lie!) — implicitly acquiescing to convention’s constraints in the name of solidarity."

The idea that the only options are lying or talking about why you think a celebrity who is not out is queer in the pages of the NYT is completely bizarre - and erasing so much of queer culture. Speculation about the sexuality of prominent figures is definitely queer culture - but not done on broadcast - done within queer communities. To me that so invalidating of what happens within queer friendships and queer communities to say that the only options are lying or stating your opinion in the pages of the New York Times.

There is nothing wrong in seeing queerness in Taylor's life and work. There's nothing wrong with talking about the queerness you are seeing in Taylor's life and work - even for major publications. But the certainty - the idea that your responses are only valid if you can prove that you're right about someone else's experience - I think that's damaging for the person that is making the argument, the person they're talking about, and queer culture more generally.

#I feel like there's so much more that I could say about some of the terrible takes of that article #But I'll leave it there for now #I saw that the Bad Gays podcast suggested doing a Gaylors episode on twitter #I'm fascinated about their take

[artzychic27]

After reading about the Science Kids demolishing the Akuma Class at dodgeball… What other sports can they dominate in?

PAINTBALL!

Marinette: Okay, everyone, I know they destroyed us at dodgeball, but this should be easy. We go to the paintball arena on Saturdays, we practice. We’ve got this in the bag.

Ivan: Uh, I don’t know. The other team seems… Intense.

Marc: What do winners do when life gives them lemons?! *hands Ismael two halves of a lemon*

Adrien: Uh... make lemonade?

Marc: No! Shut up! You’re not a part of this!

Zoé: They squeeze them right back into life's fucking eyes!

Marc: RIGHT! So, do it!

Kim: What?

Juleka: He is not-

*Without hesitation, Ismael squeezes the lemon halves, squirting lemon juice into Marc eyes*

Marc: AAAAHHH! Hahahaha! YEAH!

Akuma Class: …

Alya: I am legitimately terrified. Even Simon is getting really into this! *Points to Simon praying*

Simon: Dear, Lord… Give the the strength to smite these little punks and make them bleed the forest green paint I shall shoot them with. Amen.

Marinette: Remember, don’t be intimidated, and-

Cosette: Hey! *Slides their finger across their neck and points at Nino*

Nino: That demon is gonna be gunning for me!

Chloé: *Slaps him across the face* Don’t show fear, Lahiffe! They all can smell it on you!

*Later in the forest, the Akuma Class and Science Kids stand in position, clad in armor and equipped with paintball guns*

Aurore: Okay, people! First one to capture the flag wins. You get hit, you're out! You’re out, you walk home in shame and tell your parents you’re a loser! *Looks at the Akuma class*

Adrien: Why are you looking at us?!

Marinette: Look, if we win, then… You guys have to play team sports like normal people!

Akuma Class: Yeah!

Nathaniel: I didn’t mind the dodgeball game.

Kim: Because they went easy on you!

Jean: Oh, sure. We’ll do that… if you win... *Applies black face paint on his cheeks*

—

*Kim and Max are walking precariously through the forest until they hear paintball gunshots, quickly followed by Nino screaming. They take cover behind a tree. Kim aims down his paintball gun's sights, and sees Nino lying against a tree. He is breathing heavily through his mask*

Max: *Rushes over and inspects the paint* Magenta. This is Cosette’s work. Nino?

Nino: Please... take off the mask... *Max removes the mask and he gasps for air* Oh... thank you. Smelled like other people's faces.

Kim: What happened?

Nino: I didn't even see her... *A lavender paintball hits him square in the chest; he gasps and then pass out*

Kim: FUCK! *He pulls Max to the ground as a barrage of lavender and magenta paintballs come at them from all different directions* They’ve got us cornered! What do we do?!

Max: … We die like men, Kim. *Takes off his mask and sticks a cherry lollipop in his mouth*

Kim: Max, don’t talk like that- *Gets shot in the back by a magenta paintball and passes out*

Max: … Do it.

—

*Denise’s laughter echoes around the forest, but Ivan and Myléne cannot see them. Mint green paintballs start peppering their area. They scream as they streak past them, and run away. Ivan smashes into a tree and falls to the ground, and as Myléne helps him up, Alix and Adrien fall from the tree as well. As soon as Adrien hits the ground, he starts shooting blindly with his eyes closed*

Adrien: *Screams* Please leave us alone! I can't take it anymore! *He continues shooting, but does not hit Ivan or Myléne, who are standing directly in front of him; his paintball gun dry fires*

Alix: Chill out, it's only Ivan and Myléne.

Adrien: *Opens his eyes and sighs* ...I'm scared.

*Blue and hot pink paintballs rain down on the the four of them, and they run screaming, then dive behind a fallen log; the paintballs continue to fall*

Adrien: They’re all evil!

Ivan: Look, if we stick together we can beat them. All we need is a little time to come up with a pl-

*A grenade lands in front of them*

Alix: PAINTBOMB!

*They dive away as the grenade explodes, forest green paint getting everywhere. Simon cackles, cooking grenades and flinging them at the group, and eventually, they get caught in a blast*

Simon: *Takes off their mask and walks over to the bodies* … Hm. *Noticing Alix reaching for her gun, he kicks it away and points his at her*

Alix: … Do it.

*Without so much as hesitating, Simon hits her with a green paintball and leaves*

Simon: Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral… Too-ra-loo-ra-li~

—

*Marinette, Alya, Sabrina, and Chloé scream as they narrowly dodge sky blue paintballs and finally seek cover behind a tree. Everything suddenly calms down*

Alya: I think… They’re out of ammo. *No one responds* Guys?

*Alya notices Sabrina looking at the ground, and sees her foot on a rope, connected to a splinter. They look up and see a large navy blue balloon, which would explode if she steps off the rope*

Sabrina: … Go on without me.

Chloé: Sabrina… If you go down… So do I.

Marinette: Same here.

Alya: I’m with you, too.

Nathaniel: Guys?

*They turn to see Nathaniel standing across from them*

Marinette: Nath, we’ve made up our minds. You're the only one who can save us all from insanity. I saw the flag... it's just over that hill.

Nathaniel: No... no, don’t say that!

Alya: Just go! Just go... Go on! Get!

Nathaniel: *Hesitates, then runs away*

Sabrina: … Ready, guys?

Chloé: Do it.

Sabrina: Okay… One. Two- *Marinette, Alya, and Chloé get shot down by yellow paintballs* What the-

Zoé: Oh, Sabrina… *Cocks her gun* You didn’t think that trap did anything, did you?

Sabrina: … *She steps off of the trap and finds that it does nothing* No… NOOOO!

—

*Nathaniel sees the flag on a hill*

Nathaniel: Thank you, Marinette. *He rushes to the flag, but then hears a twig snap in the bushes and starts shouting at it* AHH!

Nino: Hey! *Comes out of the bush with his hands up* I'm out of the game! I was on my way to get a sandwich! *Walks off angrily*

Nathaniel: Sorry! Okay, let's end this. *Hearing footsteps, he prepares to shoot, but sets his gun down when he sees Juleka and Rose*

Rose: Nath! You’re okay!

Nathaniel: I hid the whole time!

Juleka: No shame in that. They were really- *Gets shot down by a red paintball and passes out*

Rose: JULEKA! *A red paintball hits her in the back, and she collapses on top of Juleka*

*A gun cocks behind Nathaniel, and a whistle is heard. Nathaniel looks behind him to see Marc*

Marc: Looks like you led me right to it. Now set the gun down and put your hands up, sweetie.

Nathaniel: No! Enough! I won! The game is over!

Marc: Not until you've grabbed that flag. Or better yet. Forfeit the game. You’re out, and your team loses.

Nathaniel: Nope! I’m not doing that! *Points his gun* You can’t use your boyfriend mind tricks on me! So, just drop your gun because I am literally five feet away from the flag!

Marc: … *Tosses his gun aside* Fine, but… Could I at least kiss the winner of the game before he shoots me down? *Bats his eyelashes*

Nathaniel: … Alright, fine. *Pulls Marc in for a kiss and is about to go for the flag, only to hear snickering behind him* What the-? *He turns and finds the Science Kids laughing* What’s happening?!

Cosette: Dude! That lipstick paint idea was genius!

Lacey: I did not expect him to fall for it!

Simon: Hey, if it’s Marc asking for a kiss, he’ll do whatever.

Nathaniel: What?!

Ismael: Nice lipstick, red!

Nathaniel: … *Feels his lips and looks at his fingers to see that instead of leaving lipstick behind when they kissed, Marc left red paint* … You didn’t.

Marc: I didn’t smear some of my own paint on my lips in the event I run into you? No, I’m sure I did that. Anyway! *Grabs the flag* Another victory for the best class at DuPont!

*The Science Kids cheer and fire their paintballs in the air*

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #akuma class #science kids #paintball #answered ask #ask me stuff #sports #dodgeball #sports arc

[medea10]

My Review of Tales of Little Women

Do I want more World Masterpiece Theater? Yes, please. Okay, let’s watch the one story that is a world-renown novel that’s been adapted over and over for the past 100 years.

Even if you have never read the Louisa May Alcott novel, there’s a good chance you have at least heard about the story. It has been adapted many times with stage productions, TV mini-series, musicals, and yes, the movie adaptations. There are four prominent movie adaptations that are well-known and three of those were either nominated or won an Academy Award. One with Katherine Hepburn, one with Elizabeth Taylor, one with Winona Ryder, and a more recent one with Emma Watson. Everyone has their go-to version or they just stick to the novel and fuck off with them movies.

Asking my mother, she told me that she prefers the novel, but thought the 1994 version was fine by her book. Me, I have never been able to get my hands on any film version prior to watching this anime. I didn’t go see the 1994 version with my mother. I was 8 and my attention was squarely on The Lion King and Clueless. And as for reading the novel. Um, mumble, mumble, insert something about my Autism as an excuse why I never read this…You know, some shit like that. But I digress.

There were a few anime adaptations of Little Women. There’s the first one from 1981 animated by Toei. Then, there’s the 1987 adaptation done by Nippon animation. And finally, the sequel to the Nippon version in 1993. For this review, I will start with Nippon Animation’s version due to availability’s sake. Yeah, I said the word “availability”. This series made it to the U.S. If I’m able to get my paws on the Toei version of Little Women, I might review it one day. That version is unrelated to the Nippon version. Same story, different rollout. Okay, let’s get started!

This story follows the March sisters in their daily lives living in the time of the Civil War. These little women live at home with their mother, Mary March while their father is off fighting for the Union in the war. First, there’s the eldest daughter Meg. She is coming of age where she’s close to making important decisions for her life. Next is Jo, she’s spunky and a tomboy who has ambitions of becoming a great novelist one day. After that is Beth, who is shy and timid but won’t hesitate helping anyone or anything in need. And then, the baby of the family Amy. I know in most versions, Amy is more fleshed-out with a love for art. Here, she loves art…she’s just a very precocious brat.

Trouble arises fast as the battle between the union and the confederacy was getting closer to where the March family lives. Before they knew it, they left everything they knew behind to go north to Newcord. Not before the confederates set the town of York on fire! After leaving their old life behind, the March family made their way to the new town up north where they meet new friends and connections. The March sisters are doing the best they can in their day-to-day lives and shooting for their own personal goals.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: I never thought that I would ever see a legitimate dub for a World Masterpiece Theater anime. But here we are! This anime was licensed and dubbed by Saban Entertainment back in the day. Does that name ring a bell? Think of Digimon Adventures, Samurai Pizza Cats, and so many Power Rangers. This even landed a spot on HBO in the late 80s and early 90s. And yet somehow, I never ran into this series growing up and we had HBO. I only remember watching Little Lulu and Lifestories: Families in Crisis. Yeah, I’m a complicated batch of a person. Today, it is available to watch on Amazon’s Freevee. However, and I cannot believe this has to be said about something not Pokemon related, only the English dub is available for streaming. Keep in mind that this only applies to the 48-episode series. The 1993 sequel was never licensed or dubbed.

As usual, the Japanese cast had many veterans from other World Masterpiece Theater classics like Eiko Yamada. As for the English dub…ooh boy, you can tell that this is early, early, back in the day, cringe AF, stiff as a board English dubbed. Add to that, they redubbed the opening and ending themes.

Yeah, I don’t think the west was willing to have the original opening theme as 10 seconds of it had Amy getting spanked by her father.

Instead, you get an English dub 45 second song of the synopsis. While it was easy for me to watch this dubbed, it was difficult to find who voiced who. Even the credits at the end of the episode show me nothing. Granted, there are a lot of familiar anime voice actors like Wendee Lee, Richard Epcar, Dave Mallow, Barbara Goodson, and Rebecca Forstadt.

If you’re anything like me, you can recognize Forstadt’s voice in nearly everything she’s in. She’s usually found playing little girl characters. And she continued doing that for the next 30 years after playing Amy here. I’m not joking, she did that up until her retirement. Seriously, all her characters sound the same! Amy March is just Suiseiseki, who is just Mihoshi, who is just Rika Furude. That’s not something I want to say in a review. I wish I could list out the English cast here, but only Jo and Amy’s voice actors are known and the others are a mystery. Instead…can I go off on Hannah’s voice for a quick sec? I love Barbara Goodson so much. This role…NOOOO.

JAPANESE CAST: *Meg is played by Keiko Han (known for Prof. Ivy on Pokemon, Luna/Queen Beryl on Sailor Moon, and Mito on Hunter x Hunter)

*Jo is played by Eiko Yamada (known for Mai on DBZ, Anne from Anne of Green Gables, Tsubasa on Ranma ½, Lavinia on Princess Sara, and Yvonne on Trapp Family Story)

*Beth is played by Mayumi Shou (known for Young Chi-Chi on Dragon Ball)

*Amy is played by Rei Sakuma (known for Daisy on Pokemon, Jiji on Kiki’s Delivery Service, Shampoo on Ranma ½, Funaho on Tenchi Muyo, and Peorth on Ah My Goddess)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Hands down, Beth wins me over from episode 2 when she saves Milky Ann. She gets an automatic pearl point.

DISLIKED CHARACTER: You know what? It would be so easy to put up the easy answer here like Aunt March’s weaselly nephew David. I agree, he is detestable. And there are several instances where I wish Jo would have just slugged him in the face. But one, nagging, pesty, sneaky little brat kept creeping up on my annoyance meter.

Amy March, the youngest of the March sisters. When I saw that an episode was going to be titled “Amy’s Revenge”, I thought that she was going to take revenge on that snot-nosed classmate of hers that tattled and got Amy in trouble. This happened the episode before this one and I was ever-so curious to see what was going to happen. Much to my dismay, it was not that. This revenge came at the end of the particular episode and it wasn’t to someone who deserved it, it was to her own sister.

Because Amy was getting over a sickness, her sisters Meg and Jo forbad Amy from going to a play they were invited to. It was absolutely reasonable. Amy wasn’t over her sickness and they only had the two tickets for the elder siblings. I know I shouldn’t hate on Amy because she’s a little kid. But speaking as a late-30’s, single lady with no babies, fuck them kids and that brat needs a spankin’! Because Amy was told to stay home and wait another day, Amy gets angry at her sister Jo. So much that she goes up to her room and burns her entire story that Jo wrote in the fireplace.

This here is the moment where all my sense and reason for Amy went right the fuck out the window. I know I’ve been mean to little children in shows of the past and should rethink my logic because they’re kids and don’t know any better. I know that Jo and Amy were able to mend their relationship after Amy almost drowned, but that was just wrong of Amy. That action alone sky-rocketed Amy to the top of the “I fucking hate you” mountain. Before, I was just annoyed by her because Amy’s a little kid. This, did not help her win any points with me.

SHIPPING: Going into this, I’m curious to see if Jo winds up with Anthony of the newspaper or the boy next door Laurie. I’m leaning on Laurie heavily since I think Anthony is an anime-only character. So, I hope nothing changes…

Medea reads what really happens with Jo x Laurie

I really should start the original source material before jumping into the anime. Silly Medea, when will you ever learn your lesson? Never. I never learn. At least I was right about who Meg was going to end up with. I actually saw that coming a mile away. But the Jo x Laurie thing…I’m not going to be over this for a while. Jesus “Tap Dancing” Christ, they better not show…Laurie marrying HER. I know it works in the novel, just not in the anime. As it turns out, readers were also not digging Jo’s decision of turning down Laurie and then marrying this new guy. I guess Alcott saw Jo and Laurie as nothing more than friends.

Let’s talk about Meg now. Meg has been constantly reminded from several people throughout the series to marry a rich man. Mr. Brook is a kind man, but not one of wealth. And suddenly, I’m reminded of the daughters from Fiddler on the Roof in this instance. Tevye wants his eldest to marry the butcher, but she listens to her heart and marries Motel the tailor. But I digress.

Remind me if I ever talk about Fiddler again to make sure I have a shot of hard liquor in my system.

Well, time to drop the 150-year-old spoiler here. Jo meets and marries a fella while in New York. Fritz doesn’t even appear in the first series. Despite many objections and everyone’s opinion on the matter, Meg and Mr. Brook are engaged at the end of the first series and eventually married. Laurie is turned down by Jo, but still winds up with one of the March sisters. He marries Amy. And as for Beth…she’s in the loving comfort of Sem E. Terry.

Medea, that’s morbid even for you.

ACCURATE OR NOT: Ooh boy, let’s see if I can keep my uncomfortable faces and collar tugs out of this conversation.

*The ages. I can’t recall how old Meg and Jo are in the anime, but I figure they are around the age of 16 and 15 like in the book. Can’t say the same for Beth and Amy. There’s no way that their anime counterparts are 13 and 12. Beth, maybe! Amy in the anime is definitely elementary school-aged. And this here is the reason why I will never accept Laurie hooking up with HER in this anime. I’ll accept it in nearly every other media. Just not in this adaptation.

*There were several name changes between here and the novel. Most notably are the March parents, Richard and Margaret. In the anime, they are renamed to Frederic and Mary. But only people outside the family call her Mary March. She’s still called Marmee by the girls. While I’m still on the subject of name changes, John Brook’s name was different in the Japanese version. They changed his name to Carl Brook. But then, his name turns back to John in the sequel. Okay, give a point to the Americans here.

*Hannah the maid…I knew something was going to make me tug on my collar. Okay, let’s rip off this bandaid. In the novel Hannah was really Irish and Caucasian. I’m raising my eyebrow at this fact here. I know sites say the change could have been made to show the audience the plight of African Americans during the time. So, I’ll calm down for now. But then I see Asia the cook in the sequel…I got nothing. Really couldn’t find anything on her. I’ll still stay calm, but my eyebrow is going to stay up for a while.

*There of course is no town named Newcord. That was for some reason changed from the novel. It’s Concord! The name of the town is Concord! Don’t ask me why they changed it to Newcord in the anime. And don’t ask me why it suddenly changed back to the name of Concord in the sequel.

*There are several characters not in the novel. Yes, that includes Milky Ann. It’s always the animals. To be fair, several adaptations did have cats. There were several anime-only characters like John, the runaway slave and several people in Newcord like Anthony and Mr. Murdoch. Most notably would have to be Aunt March’s nephew, David. Thank God, because I don’t think I can go through watching all four movie adaptations knowing this chizzler is in it.

*Amy was not yanked out of school after her teacher punished her. In the novel, after that incident with the treats and the scolding, Marmee took her daughter out of school to be home-schooled. Here, it seems that Amy stayed in school.

ENDING TO THE FIRST SERIES: If you watch the series on Amazon’s Freevee, you’ll notice that they split the series into four parts. Each part has 12 episodes. I know this isn’t Amazon’s doing, but each part starts and ends with something big happening that I just find that fascinating. Anyways, the start of the final 12 episodes came with some unfortunate news. The patriarch of the March family has fallen ill. Since the beginning, it’s been well-established that Frederic March was fighting in the Civil War. At this point in the story, he was injured and developed an illness on top of that. Marmee ends up going to Washington D.C. to be by her husband’s side, leaving the girls on their own. During this time an unfortunate incident occurred.

The girls took over the responsibilities their mother usually does. One of those tasks was looking after a poor family known as the Hummels. The quiet child Beth took on that job. As a result, she witnessed the death of a child due to Scarlet Fever. And then, Beth contracts it. This illness really took its toll here. Amy was sent away to stay with Aunt March since she’s young and never had the virus before. In a week’s time, Beth was severely ill. Marmee braved a snow storm to take the train to go back home. Even the doctor was pessimistic about Beth surviving. Luckily, Beth’s fever broke. Beth gets to live and none of her belongings were thrown in the fireplace because she infected the entire house.

And I thought the “Sem E. Terry” joke was too much. Medea, it is never okay to bring up Time’s Arrow from Bojack Horseman.

I apologize for nothing.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of talk surrounding Mr. Brook and Meg. It was clear from the halfway point of the series that Mr. Brook had his eye on Meg. While Mr. Brook escorted Marmee to Washington to be with her husband, he would send notes back to the family and also special notes just for Meg. Unfortunately, Laurie decided to speed up the process as he’s in favor of them getting together. This did not go well. Meg could tell that Mr. Brook didn’t write a certain letter and got horribly upset by the ordeal. Jo and Marmee were also agitated by what had happened. Let the two love-birds figure out what to do. And that’s what they did! When Mr. Brook returned to Newcord, he told Meg he loved her and they end up engaged.

Meanwhile, Jo was asked by Anthony from the newspaper to go to New York with him. Keep in mind, Jo does go to New York later on, just not with Anthony because Anthony doesn’t exist in any other media. By the end of the final episode, Jo does go off to New York. Through some connections, she’s able to stay with a family friend and earn money by looking after their kids. This news seemed to go over well with the family. The only objectors were Aunt March and Laurie. Aunt March because she’s always going to find fault with everything. She highly objected to Meg marrying Mr. Brook. But Laurie, we know how he felt. It’s just that this series never had neither Laurie or Jo say anything romantic wise to the other.

So, we’ve got Meg engaged to Mr. Brook and Jo going to New York. Anything else? Beth is getting stronger every day after her bout with Scarlet Fever. Frederic March returns from war. Frederic also makes amends with Aunt March after many decades. And the Civil War is finally over. Merry 1865 everybody!

Okay, so this first series gave us a happy ending. Let’s see how the sequel shits on that!

JO’S BOYS: Several years after the release of the first series, Nippon does a sequel to Little Women. For the literary buffs, it’s not what you’re thinking. The original 48-episode series mostly covered everything from Alcott’s first book to Little Women. Yeah, there’s a second book to Little Women that covers what happens to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy after the end of the Civil War. Jo’s Boys is more of Alcott’s book that came after that, “Little Men”. If you start this series immediately after watching the original series, you might get whiplash.

You turn on the first episode and you see a bunch of kids that don’t look familiar to you. Except for maybe one. One of the kids is definitely Meg’s child. There’s this guy who is definitely not Laure Lawrence with Jo. The town all of a sudden has the right name of Concord. And you’re wondering where Laurie, Marmee, Meg, Amy, and Beth are the whole time. Again, second novel! Why is Japan skipping over some major plot points from the second book?

Okay, time to drop some 150-year-old spoilers again. If this series isn’t going to cover it, then I will.

*Jo and Laurie never hook up. Jo meets a gentleman by the name of Fritz Bhaer while in New York. There was some back and forth if Jo and Fritz actually wind up together. They do. They marry and have two sons.

*Meg and Mr. Brook do marry each other and have twins, Demi and Daisy, as well as a baby named Josie.

*Laurie was of course friend-zoned by Jo. But he does end up getting together with Amy. They marry and have a child as well. Laurie for some reason his complexion seems lighter in his series compared to the first one. Also, don’t expect to see Amy nor this child of theirs in this series.

*Despite the sunny optimism we’re filled with near the end of the first series about Beth, that bout with Scarlet Fever really took a toll on her body. She dies a few years later.

*When Aunt March passed away, she left Jo her old home (which is known as Plumfield). This is when Jo and her husband Fritz turned Plumfield into a school and become the teachers. Plumfield is the main setting to this story.

THERE! Was that so hard to put these stories to ink and paper? If you are wondering if there are other adaptations to Little Men, there seem to be a couple of them. They’re just not as popular as the Little Women movies.

Jo March is now a teacher to a special school known as Plumfield along with her husband Fritz. Most of her students are either family members (like her sons, niece, and nephew), orphans, or special recommendations. One of those special students is a girl named Annie (Nan) Harding. Nan is a tomboy, possibly even more so than Jo was back in her younger days. Jo’s lessons are a little unorthodox when compared to other schools, but gives the students important life lessons and special responsibilities.

Aside from Nan, there are of course Jo’s two sons, Robb and Teddy. There’s also Jo’s niece and nephew, Daisy and Demi (Meg’s children). Fritz also has two of his own nephews there, Franz and Emil. There’s a kid named Tommy who’s a bit of a shit-starter and has a crush on Nan. A fat kid with some kind of stupid name like Georgie-Porgie or Double-Stuff Oreo. Ah well, it don’t matter. Some other boys that if you blink, you’ll forget them like Ned and Jack. Later in this series, we are introduced to two orphaned children, Nat and Dan. Nat was a meek boy with an ear for music. And as for Dan, he’s more of what you would call a “Prodigal Son”.

For accuracy notes, I only have one. It looks as though Nat and Dan came to Plumfield before Nan in the novel. In the anime, Nan is introduced first as she arrives to Plumfield in the first episode. Nat comes a few episodes later and Dan doesn’t get introduced until about 10 episodes in.

DO WE SEE THE ORIGINAL CAST HERE: Short answer, kinda. Obviously, any elders in the original series are dead and gone by now. Aunt March is definitely gone by this point. Laurie’s grandfather should be, but then I saw someone who looked like him at a funeral scene. I’ll leave it at that. At the beginning of this sequel series, we get an introduction kinda reminding us of the March family where we see Jo, her sisters, and her parents. In an early episode, Jo talks to Nan about her youth and mentions a moment when she worried Marmee. That’s all we get of Marmee. Every so often, there’s a visit from Laurie. He continues to be helpful to Jo as well as to the children at Plumfield.

Now for the March sisters. We do not see a single sister until 33 episodes in (of a 40-episode series). Meg and John Brook finally appear to see their kids, Demi and Daisy. Beth gets no mention except for one sentence spoken by Jo near the end of the series. And as for Amy, one shot of her at a funeral and that’s that. After all the narrating she did in the first series and it amounts to just one second of screen time at a damn funeral. I know, I hated her in the first series, but give us a chance to see if she’s still a pain in the ass.

ENDING: Future choices. Jo has been giving these children every opportunity in the world to persue nearly any dream they chose to follow. These kids have learned and done so much. Nan decides she wants to become a doctor when she grows up. Although, throughout the series, she’s seen wanting to become different things. Just a few episodes prior, she wanted to be an engineer for a train. Let’s pause this dream for a second and see some familiar faces.

As it is Daisy and Demi’s birthday, Jo takes some of the kids over to her sister Meg’s home for a birthday party. Normally, it would be a big blowout with all of the kids from Plumfield. But due to Meg’s husband’s health, it’s best to keep it small. While watching this cutesy party, I can’t help but think during this episode that John Brook is going to die soon. By that episode’s end, he has a heart attack and during the following episode he passes away. Of course, everyone has taken the news differently. It’s just that it seemed to affect Nan more than one would think. As it turns out, John Brook had the same heart condition that took away Nan’s mother. With this, Nan came to kind of detest doctors overall and souring her outlook on becoming a doctor now.

Also, after John Brook’s death, Jo reveals what novel readers have known all along, that Beth died, Amy married Laurie, and Meg happily married John Brook despite him not being a well-off man. Yeah, thanks for just dropping those facts like they were nothing. But because of this sad moment, some of the kids are preparing for their own future. Daisy and Demi are ready to take on more responsibilities in the family now that their father passed away. One of Fritz’s nephews is ready to leave and go off to college. Tommy’s father has made plans to have his son study in Boston. And Dan is getting the opportunity to travel to Brazil. All of these sudden and upcoming changes really put Nan in a real depressive mood. But, she was able to shake it off after hearing everyone’s dreams for their future. Despite being sour about doctors after John Brook’s death, she decided to stick with that future plan. But there is a pretty big roadblock in the way of that dream.

Keep in mind that this is the late 1800s. The idea of there being a girl as a doctor is considered absurd and unheard of. A scholarship was put up with thanks to the late John Brook to help aspiring young students wanting to become a doctor. Unfortunately for Nan, she’s far too young and even if she was of age, her gender comes into question. She even confronted the mayor of the town about this and was laughed off. Jo knows first hand about this kind of unfair treatment of young women, especially in the first series when she was putting out the short stories in the paper. What do they do?

Jo learns to ride a bike.

Mmkay…I guess that’s sticking it to the mayor because he made a crack about girls riding bikes too. I don’t expect much to change in the gender gap situation as there’s only one episode left and we’re a good couple of decades before women could even vote. Hell, it’s 2024 and there’s still no equal pay and old white men have more say about my cooch than I do. But I digress! The final episode was focused on the final day of Dan being at Plumfield. Besides Ann, Dan was a really big character due to his rough debut, all the bad vices he came to the school with, his fall from grace, his redemption, and now he’s going to travel around the world. I know this series showed so much of Tommy liking Nan, but I’m seeing more Nan x Dan.

Spoiler alert, I think the only ship that came to be in this series was Nat and Daisy.

But Nan chasing down Dan to give him a ring before shouting goodbyes to him was a notable moment. In the final moment, we get to see all of these children grown up and doing what they want to do. Happily enough, Nan was able to become a doctor. I only say that because she’s wearing the lab coat to prove it. She stops by Plumfield after several years and meets with Jo. Also, we see adult Nan in the first episode too and…oh, that’s the end!

Okay, I was fine with both series by themselves. Yeah, it’s weird. After a while, I just came to accept Jo’s Boys to be its own separate story. And I guess that’s how the author and even the World Masterpiece Theater people wanted it. First, I’ll discuss the first series. I was curious to see what was going to happen next. It was a cute story that I just couldn’t stop watching it. Despite some of the lows the March family dealt with throughout the story, I’m satisfied that they ended things on a happy note. I know most of the film adaptations go further past where the anime left off, but I have a theory. Most of the World Masterpiece Theater animes try to end their animes on a happy note. We end with Jo starting a new life in New York, Meg engaged, Beth survived her bout with scarlet fever, and the patriarch to the March family home from war. I know, I constantly complain about so much being left out of Jo’s Boys, but I saw the first series ending fine the way it did. And now for the sequel…

I’m a little upset by the lack of time spent on certain characters. There were some children that really weren’t focused on as much. But the biggest disappointment would be Jo’s husband Fritz. We see him in nearly every episode and I just feel like there’s not much we know about him. I just saw this man as nothing more than a man with a bible in his hand and a beard on his chin.

If you understood this last sentence, you’re awesome.

They could have at least had one episode dedicated to learning about how Jo met Fritz. A love story episode would have been perfect for Daisy as she’s the one who’s more domesticated and romantic than all the other students. There was an episode where the kids saw a picture of Jo and Fritz on their wedding day. How disappointed was I when I realized that this episode wasn’t going to consist a flashback of that? VERY! In that process, we could have learned more about Fritz’s two nephews who also have less done with them than Fritz. Be honest, does anyone even remember Fritz’s two nephews? The answer is no.

And yes, I was kinda annoyed at the fact that there was a major brush-off of all the characters from the original series. Amy only got one scene where we see her for one second at a funeral. Barely any mention about her being married to Laurie (whom we see every now and then). Meg has a happy ending in the first series only for shit to get real in the second series where we only see her worried for her ailing husband and becoming a widow seconds later. Only one mention of Beth is just unacceptable. Beth is best girl and I will fight anyone about that. And now, let me lay on Jo for a bit. There’s a giant leap in her character between 16-year-old Jo and 30’s Jo. Mainly, the sequel didn’t discuss Jo’s writings and we just leap into Jo being a teacher at Plumfield.

Okay, how about something nice? I really enjoyed all of the development of Dan. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the kids did a lot to make me forget my unresolved gripes. It’s just that Dan pretty much carried this show. Dan was a bit of a jerk when entering Plumfield. He was living on the streets of Boston prior to this and had to steal in order to survive. Unfortunately, he didn’t soften up until doing some terrible things like give the other boys booze, cigars, and a hook for gambling. Oh, and almost setting the house on fire. After being sent away for a time, he does turn around for the better.

My advice is to treat both Little Women and Jo’s Boys as two separate shows, if possible. And if you want to watch the first Little Women series, Freevee through Amazon Prime has all 48 episodes available for streaming. You might have to do some digging around for Jo’s Boys.

Next anime…will NOT be chosen by me. This time, I went to a higher authority. I asked my mom which story should I choose, Heidi or Ann of Green Gables. Didn’t even need to think about it, she said Ann of Green Gables. This is the first time I ever asked my mom’s input in an anime. So, I hope she steers me right.

FINAL THOUGHT: My favorite of the four live-action films? Well, I was only able to get my hands on one of them. So, the 1994 version it is! It gets an extra point with me for having Mary Wickes.

#anime review #little women #tales of little women #josephine march #jo march #meg march #amy march #beth march #theodore laurence #laurie laurence #ai no wakakusa monogatari #fritz bhaer #little women jo's boys #nan harding