#lloyd is pretty and no one can tell me otherwise okay??

[ying-doodles]

... I'm so sick and tired of people calling lloyd ugly fr- the bit died years ago, stop using it!!

and the webtoon certainly doesn't help with those fcking ghastly expressions they keep putting in ugh,, like who decided to add this in the adaptation?? it has like nothing to do with the novel!! I fcking hate it!!

#ying talks about tged #the greatest estate developer #tged #and listen i know i've done it before but that was /one/ time and it will be the only time i do it!! #lloyd is pretty and no one can tell me otherwise okay?? #i'm in a bad mood rn sigh..

[lasagnaeatsu]

NINJAGO MOVIE AU

(Repost cuz my phone is being dumb)

OKAY SO NINJAGO MOVID AU W ARIN, SORA AND WLYDFYRE SO HERE WE GO! But first big thanks to my friend @imotakkun who helped me come up with some stuff for this au 🤩‼️

First off, the ninja, when we saw them in the movie they were all highschoolers. But if we'll still applying some rules from the show we can assume they're all adults by now.

Now, at first, I was gonna have them be in college, but we have to take in how the movie ended. However, I did more thinking, and ninja's identities have been revealed, so it's safe to assume college and any part of their daily aspects have been affected.

So what happens? Well, first, I'm trying to figure out something equivalent to the merge, but I'm not sure if it's gonna an actual event this au as I don't want it being exactly like the merge.

But for the ninja, I came up with an idea. However, it's quite angsty. Well, Garamadon is now good, so the ninja have no one to defend ninjago from? What if this caused them all to slowly distance themselves, but before the final blow, what if Wu went missing? Wu going missing is what can be the final straw, and the ninja go there separate ways.

Yeah, that'd be pretty painful, I think.

Now I'm thinking that right after Wu disappears, something happens that like the merge can happen and cause all these people to go missing, and can open a new book of possibilities? But I'm still thinking, so if anyone has any ideas, please feel free to share!

Anyways so after this event, that's the end of the original ninja, and years go by and no one has seen them. Like in series I'll add a timeskip, but this one will be confirmed (lol) I'll say 5 years.

Now something like the merge has happened, all these new developments in Ninjago City, all these new people, and the world has adjusted. So when this big event happened Arin and Sora could be like 10 then after the timeskip they'd be 15.

OKAY, now to Ninjago High School!!! Let's start with Arin and Sora. In the series they seemed to get along with people well in the crossroads, so I would like to apply this to this au.

Let's start with Arin, first off, he's a huge ninja fan, who doesn't like the ninja!? I would like to imagine that the school has a ninja fan club which he'd absolutely be the president of.

Also, he's extremely friendly, so I think he'd be pretty popular having a great personality, being a ninja fan, and making some pretty delicious pies.

To add on, he'd also definitely be into an elective where he can bake, he'd also most likely be a huge history nerd. (Since in the show tells Lloyd about all the types of pie crust, also ninja fan sooo)

Now, to the angsty part of Arin, in the big event, like in the show, he lost his parents. And well, I'd kinda wanna make this au a tad more realistic, so, following the disappearance of his parents, the world's all in chaos. However, after a while since school is mandatory here, perhaps one of his teachers caught onto this and he was put in foster care.

Unfortunately, his current foster parents aren't all too nice :( So he spends most of his time in school anyway. Not that he minds, it just gives him the chance to better his school record for college.

Luckily for him he has a great best friend!

Sora!!!

Let's dive into her story. So to start off, she's definitely a stem girl, loves stem, is a huggeeeee stem nerd. I'd imagine she's as popular as Arin. They're just seen as that duo in the halls. I mean, why wouldn't she be popular? She's super skillful, independent, and smart! (Perhaps trans? 👀)

She's also really easy to get along with. She reminds me of those nice popular girls you see around school who are crazy talented and in all these extracurricular activities.

Speaking of Sora most definitely loves all things cats, and is a huge music nerd you cannot convince me otherwise. Though I can also see her being a huge gamer so she'd definitely be I'm her school's esports club.

Now, as to her backstory...like in the show, she's a runaway, and she often compares how much better her new school is compared to her old one. Especially since her hometown sucked.

Now, no one really knows where she came from. She was just there for freshman orientation. Since she'd good at tech stuff (and she's a good student), she'd be able to escape getting put in the foster system. Whenever someone checks her records, she can just hack them.

Now, for where she lives, this would be kinda tricky, but I'd like to imagine her working at a library, and her boss (Mr frohicky) let's her stay in the library over night.

And it's not all bad! Sora even discovered a secret room hidden in the library, which she turns onto her own room. (think of Amitys secret room in the library from the owl house) She just really loves it, and it's definitely her safe space.

Sora often has sleepovers with Arin in the library. The two get a bunch of books and blankets and make a tiny fort.

And since the library has computers and free wifi it's the ultimate spot for sleepovers.

Arin would often geek out about the Ninja and ninjago history, showing Sora books, videos, photos, and stories of the ninja.

And in return, Sora would show Arin a bunch of video games, music, and her current experiments.

The two talked about everything! Heck Sora even offered to hack Arin out of the foster system, he denied, though, as it was too risky, plus he didn't want her getting caught and also being put in the foster system.

But it was fine, as they spent most of their time in school, the two did almost everything together. They were the it duo of the school. They were friendly, skilled, and straight A student, so it was a no-brainer when they were called into the office to show the new student around!

Wlydfyre, well, she's wild, I mean, what can you expect from a kid who grew up in the wild? She would often go to the nearest junkyard and do what she could with what she found. Sometimes, she'd get caught, but she's too slippery to actually get caught. She'd often use her powers, too, which appeared out of nowhere, but she didn't question it. How did this girl never get restraint? Who knows?

Until she found someone like her, a guy with fire powers?? Kai had found the girl and, after a bit of talking, decided, 'I'm adopting this child', and without all the paperwork! It was a win-win situation, adopt kid, no paperwork, yayy!!

So Kai being Kai... sent her to a highschool...yeah kinda questionable on his part, but eh governments have done worse.

But that's a story for another time. What Arin didn't expect was seeing his best friend gain these magical tech powers?

It even shocked her. You see, they were in a tight situation, causing them having to defend themselves, so Arin did his fanboy spinjitzu, and Sora discovered her magical tech powers. Through this baby dragon??(where had he come from?)

After the two got away, and the baby dragon just?? Disappeared, they were wondering if they were both collectively hallucinating. But that thought would be broken when the police appeared and ARRESTED THEM?

Welp can't do much when you're in jail. Both were in a sort of panic as Arin didn't want to deal with his foster parents, and Sora had no parents, so she'd definitely get caught.

Luckily for them, they were released by their older cousin.

...

EXCEPT THEY HAD NO OLDER COUSIN? It seemed to be this blonde guy? They couldn't really see his face as he wore a hood, but something about him was familiar to Arin.

After they left the station, both Arin and Sora were pretty cautious because...well, stranger danger? But he did bail them out.

That was until the guy took off his hood which made the two do a double take.

It was THE green ninja, Lloyd Garamdon?

Lloyd had gone years without seeing any of the ninjas, that was until he and Kai had recently found each other again. And when he found out Kai had found a kid from the wild? And he took it under his wing. He definitely didn't think he'd see the day where Kai was taking on a mentorship kinda role, yet here they are.

But anyways Lloyd was lonely, and to put it lightly really, really sad. He had been alone for about five years. He'd often visit his parents, but they were currently off on a vacation, so it was just him. Man he really missed his friends.

He decided to be the sneaky ninja he was and go out at night and see what's up.

Well, what he didn't expect to see two figures, one doing spinjitzu and the other had..Elemental powers? Before he could go up to the two, the police got to them first.

Good thing he was a master of disguise.

Once he got them out of jail, he did NOT expect to see just two lil teenagers. It reminded him of when he was in highschool and well.

I'm assuming you've all watched the ninjago movie.

So when asked who was doing spinjitzu and using Elemental powers during the street fight. The two younger duo were well surprised.

Especially Arin, poor boy, was about to faint. As the two explained that it was, in fact, them, Lloyd was getting confused now.

They both achieved these skills, WITHOUT training?

He silently cursed Wu in his head. Well, he thought he could take them under his wing just like his uncle had done! How hard could it be? Right? Right?

Everyone screamed when the baby dragon from earlier appeared out of NOWHERE.

Yeah, Lloyd had his work cut out for him.

OKAY SO THATS WHAT I HAVE SO FAR, sorry if the writings not that good...I've never made a full au before EVER, I'll try and make some art for it when I have the chance. I kinda wanted to add some type of realistic affect to this au this yk talking about foster system and just generally child services (as i and ppl close to me have experinced it sooo) ALSO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. Heads up stuff abt this au is bound to change, AND IF ANYONE HAS ANY QUESTIONS OR IDEAS FEEL FREE TO SHARE!!!! but yeah that's it for now :D (also I need an au name so hand em over 😈)

#lego ninjago #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #ninjago arin #sora ninjago #kai smith #ninjago dragons rising #i love ninjago #ninjago wyldfyre #lloyd ninjago #ninjago au #ninjago movie #if you saw the first one no you didnt #lego ninjago movie #idk what else to tag #I LOVE PASTERY DUO

[ninjastudioart]

Answer Questions

(Part 2 of Sleep Schedule. Special thanks to @silentslxmp for the lovely ask)

School had been over for an hour, but the ninja had yet to start training. Wu had gone to get more of his weird tea and the ninja decided to clean the weapons in Wu's closet for him. To be fair, they were already pretty clean but they knew Wu would appreciate it. Especially since Lloyd had yet to get back.

Zane had become very nervous about that. Lloyd had said he'd be back by late Tuesday, and Zane had assumed at latest he'd be back early Wednesday. It was Wednesday, close to 18:00, and there was still no sign.

He tried to ignore it, focusing on his friends talking and just wiping the dust off the various weapons. He was sanding the wooden handle of one when the door slid open.

The ninja jumped up to see who it was, and to there joy it was Lloyd. Though, the joy faded almost immediately into shock.

The bloody sword clattered across the floor, cracks forming in the dried body fluid. Lloyd stumbled in, limping on his right leg. His suit was torn in various spots, and under the cloth in some spots you could see wounds in the process of healing. Glowing green despite the blood being pink-purple. But the largest shock was the obvious chemical burn across his chest and stomach, damaged skin with bits of what remained of his suit and leather-armor melted in.

Kai and Nya ran over, grabbing Lloyd by the arms as his injured leg buckled under his weight.

"Oh my FSM Lloyd!?! Wh-what happened?!" Nya asked, face etched with worry as Kai grabbed at Lloyd's mask. Zane noted it seemed to have been crudely repaired, and he saw why when he saw the burn across the right side of his face.

Jay, already up, ran to grab a first aid kit, followed by Nya who ran into a different room to grab the hydrogen peroxide.

"Cole, help me carry him to the kitchen!" Kai could lift Lloyd alone in terms of weight, but he was worried about hurting him more. So Cole ran over, signaling Zane to follow.

Lloyd was unconscious by now, probably from pure pain. Cause not only had he been hurt, he would have had to come all the way back to Ninjago...on horseback.

He accepted the med-kit, and immediately started to work.

Wu talked to the ninja in the background, but it was all an auditory blur for Zane as he carefully pulled another piece of fabric from Lloyd's skin. He was glad his friend was unconscious, since this would be a very painful experience otherwise.

He dropped it into a small bowl filled with alcohol, and moved back for another shred. One finger formed into tweezers, he carefully poked and prodded at the skin to find something else.

"Zane?" Zane nearly jumped out of his fake skin, making sure to pull his arm up so he didn't accidently cause more damage.

His blue eyes darted to meet Lloyd's, well, his one eye since the other was unable to open. He looked tired, and tears beaded at his bottom lid. His mouth was slightly ajar, but only on one side. The other was still melted together.

"Lloyd! You're awake! I'll tell the-" A cold hand rested on Zane's, and he immediately stopped and looked at his friend.

"I'm sorry...for what I-I said. Didn't-didn't deserve to be-" Zane placed his free hand on Lloyd's, smiling at his friend.

"Lloyd, it's fine. You don't need to apologize for anything. If you'd like we can talk about it AFTER we finish here, okay?" He seemed to accept the answer, if not just out of tiredness, and closed his eye.

Zane smiled, before jumping back into his work. He grabbed a piece, but looked to Lloyd before he continued.

"This will hurt."

And then he pulled it off, Lloyd squirming and biting back a scream.

Jay paced back and forth. Nya watched him...pace back and forth. Kai layed on his back staring up into the eternal abyss of the universe.....hidden by the ceiling. Cole also watched Jay pace while doing jumping jacks. Overall...not a fun atmosphere. Especially since Wu was scribbling a message asking what the hell happened since in his own words, "the mission wasn't anything crazy sounding."

Zane walked into the room, instantly met with all the attention of each member.

"So, is he alright?" Kai, tried to sound calm, but he was clearly worried.

"Yes, he's fine. I just need to bandage him up." Wu smiled at Zane, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll bandage him up, you go ahead and rest. Thank you for everything Zane." Zane gently grinned, then moved to join the others, preparing to answer their questions.

"I'm guessing he was awake?" Zane only nodded. Despite biting back the screams in impressive fashion, having cloth and leather torn from your skin wasn't the best thing to have happen while trying to stay quiet.

"Will he be okay?" Nya grabbed his arm gently, face usually drawn in nonchalant-ness now scratched with worry for their leader.

"Yes, he was already healing. I was more worried about his body healing AROUND the fabric and leather. He'll heal fine now, it may take a few days though." The last part still felt wrong, but they had watched Lloyd have his spinal column snapped in half, only for him to wake up 4 days later, able to walk and everything. He knew Lloyd would recover quickly, well, physically at least.

Zane was still curious, and worried, so he decided he would see if Wu needed help. He slid out of his blanket, and stood from the thin mat he slept on, laid across from Lloyd's. He carefully avoided any objects strewn across the floor, not wanting to wake his friends, before leaving the room.

It was quiet, other than the sound of muffled voices coming from Wu's room. Zane stopped, listening for a moment.

"Lloyd I would appreciate it if you DIDN'T keep getting hurt with chemicals."

"Those bastards had be cornered, I had no choice. Besides, I've done it before."

"I would rather you didn't mix up a batch of acid and then dump it on yourself."

What did that mean? What had Lloyd made? And why did he make acid?! That was the better question.

"I didn't TRY to get it all over myself, but when I poured the bottle and dropped it, one of them grabbed it and threw it back at me! Fucker was lucky, there was still shit in there."

Zane, puzzled, decided to keep listening, intrigued by how open Lloyd seemed with Wu.

"...so why did they corner you?"

"Fucking prick, did what he asked, but that pompous shithead decided to send his guard dogs to play fetch." Zane was even more confused, until realizing Lloyd was being sarcastic. There were no actual dogs, which was good since Zane didn't think dogs could throw bottles of acid at people.

"Fucker got what he deserved though, his little commanders gonna have a rough day after seeing that dickhead strung about his room."

"Lloyd please don't give me that imagery. Bad enough seeing you."

"You've seen worse!"

"I'm aware I've seen you before."

Zane found himself smiling at the playful banter, leaning against the wall. He wondered how long Lloyd had known Wu, or if that even mattered.

"...Those kids...they're okay right? Had to leave in a rush...mask was ruined."

"Yes. I got the message back from the Imperial Palace. They said the kids were safe and had been returned to their families. They will be sending a diplomat to "guide" the district leaders heir. Make sure he doesn't do the same as his predecessor."

"Good, then everythings fine. What's a little burn as long as they're okay..."

Zane's smile faded a bit. The sentence itself was mostly fine, but the way it was said. It reminded him of the way Lloyd joked about himself. It was clearly meant to be seen as positive. But the tone. It was so...sad? So...sincere.

He wondered if all the jokes, all the statements of uselessness and self-hate, were not jokes at all. But a way Lloyd tried to cope, to seem okay.

It made him feel somewhat guilty, but Zane brushed that off. How could he know? Only Lloyd knew if the jokes meant more.

Zane decided he was done spying, not wanting them to realize he was there, and opened the door.

Lloyd nearly jumped into the great beyond, Wu having to hold him still as he tightened a bandage.

"Lloyd calm down please. It's Zane." Wu turned with a smile, his beard tossed over his shoulder, probably to avoid getting a bandage stuck to it.

"Hello Zane, can I help you?"

"Hello Wu, I was just wondering if you needed help. I also wanted to make sure Lloyd is okay and healing properly!" Zane stepped around, getting a look at Lloyd's face.

It was mostly bandaged, though his mouth was visible. It was still deformed, but where Zane had cut the lips apart was looking better already.

"I'm just about done bandaging him up, but if you'd like to examine him go ahead."

Lloyd seemed betrayed as he looked at Wu, eyes swearing to make him pay for that. But Wu only smiled, shockingly smug as he wrapped bandages around Lloyd's neck.

"Thank you Wu." Zane kneeled down on the floor with Lloyd, smiling in an attempt to not make Lloyd more uncomfortable.

"How are you feeling Lloyd?"

"Lloyd's face was nigh-emotionless as he spoke.

"Bad."

Zane stared, unsure what to do with that information.

"Can you be more specific?"

"Like I got the shit beat out of me and then got acid dumped on top of that?"

Zane could only blink rapidly as he did his best to imagine how that would feel. And, in all fairness to his friend, bad was a good word for it.

"Do you feel any different? It has only been a few hours, but some of your burn should be healing." He knew Lloyd's body would prioritize the burn at this point, so he hoped that meant the pain was mitigated.

"Itchy, but-" He motioned a hand at all the wrapping, and Zane nodded.

"I wouldn't recommend scratching it, your claws may breach the gauze and expose the wounds to the air." Could Lloyd get infections? His body fought against literally anything it deemed un-belonging, but he wasn't sure. Maybe he'd ask later.

Wu cleared his throat, standing.

"That's all the bandages done. Now, I am heading to the store to get some more since-" He pointed at the sheer amount of wrappings on Lloyd's damaged body, "so you're done Lloyd. But Zane should examine you to make sure you'll be alright."

Lloyd seemed unimpressed with that course of action, but nodded in agreement before Wu left the two alone.

Zane watched him go, wondering if Wu was aware Lloyd largely needed nothing at this point other than to rest. Or if he was just extra concerned.

Zane, confused once more, turned to see Lloyd scratching at his scalp.

"Are you alright? Did you get any cuts on your scalp?"

"Huh? Oh, nah. Just itchy since I'm probably filthy." Zane nodded, staring for a moment. Lloyd would probably be dirty for awhile, since he couldn't really shower with all the bandages in the way.

"If you'd like, I have some dry shampoo! It isn't the greatest fix, but it might help!" Zane suddenly popped open his chest cavity, reaching in and pulling out a bottle.

Lloyd, initially perturbed by the sudden horror, smiled.

"Thanks Zane."

He went to reach for the offered bottle, before realizing his range of movement had been fairly limited, even with his freakishly long arms.

"I can do it for you if you'd like, but I'd like to brush your hair first if that's okay." Lloyd seemed to pull away a little, but he stayed still, looking away.

"You don't-you don't have to do that. I'm fine, not like I haven't been gross before, kinda my usual state, heh." It was clearly meant to be a joke, but it made Zane feel a little sad.

"I want to help you, besides, your hair needs as much help as it can get with how little you brush it." Lloyd mockingly acted offended.

"I brush it every morning and most night. Not my fault it decided to be this thick."

Zane smiled, moving to sit behind Lloyd, slowing down when he saw how his friend tensed at the sudden movement. He reached into his chest, again, and removed a brush.

Zane loved Lloyd's hair. Despite its messy and untamed appearance, the hair itself was like silk, or cashmere, and it was thick with lots of volume. He had some trouble thanks to that last compliment, but persistence worked to get through most of the tangles.

Lloyd seemed content with the brushing, and Zane could see he had his eyes closed in the mirror sat in front of them.

His hands moved slowly through the platinum blond locks, enjoying how it felt. Even his dyed hair had retained it texture, a shock since it was some pretty dramatic dye work.

He pulled the brush through again, resting one hand on Lloyd's head and scratching his scalp. Or what he assumed was his scalp. It was impossible to see due to all the hair.

He heard a humming sound, or a sound like an engine, but realized it was Lloyd purring as Zane scratched his scalp.

It made him smile, how strange yet endearing Lloyd could be. It was a stark contrast to how he carried himself at school. From an intimidating and violent "jerk", to a purring kitten. It made Zane smile, and he felt more relaxed by the fact he seemed happy.

Lloyd opened his eyes, realizing he was purring, but unsure how to stop it. He looked into the mirror, seeing how Zane smiled softly as he brush and brushed the mop of hair on his head. For some reason, it made him feel guilty. Like Zane had forced himself to accept he'd be hear for awhile.

He hated to be a bother to his coworker, especially after he'd done so much to rip shreds of cloth and armor from his skin.

" Alright, I'll just spray some in and try to rub it into your scalp since, well, I can't really get to it heh." Zane seemed amused, but for some reason it made Lloyd feel...bad. He felt the all-to-familiar lump in his throat, burning as he looked down at the floor.

Zane began his work, but quickly stopped as he realized Lloyd seemed to be shaking. He looked into the mirror.

Lloyd was crying.

The false magma dripped down his face, burning orange and yellow as it fell, hissing into a cloud of, smoke? Zane didn't know what Lloyd's tears were, like liquid fire he guessed. But that was beyond the point. His friend was crying.

"Hey, did I say something wrong? I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, for-for being a nuisance. You should just leave...I can take care of myself." Lloyd pulled away from Zane's hands, crouching, preparing to leave.

His hair fell over his eyes, shadowing his face. But his ears hung to the sides, drooping down as the tears only fell faster and harsher.

Zane stared for a moment, debating. Should he let him leave? He made his decision pretty quickly.

Lloyd felt every muscle in his body tense as two arms wrapped around him. Every warning sound was blaring in his head, every alarm designed after his years in this city. His years in this life really.

Zane pulled him back, and Lloyd realized his teammate was hugging him.

"Why?" He managed to choke the word out as Zane held him close, comforting him. But that made him feel worse.

"Why are you being nice to me?! I'm a-I'm a monster. I'm an asshole who-who HURTS people! Why would you-" He was cut off as he choked back a sob. He was shaking, and the feeling of nausea was creeping into his body.

"Because you're my friend, and you're upset? Besides, it not like the kids you fight don't deserve it. Last I checked threatening to 'skin and hang you from a meat hook' is a pretty fair reason to fight someone. Not a justifiable reason maybe, but a good one."

Lloyd didn't know what his mind was more stuck on. Zane defending his awful habit, or being called a friend.

Did he consider Zane a friend? Did he consider any of the ninja friends? He tried to keep it professional. Refer to them as his team, his coworkers. But was that how he felt?

Did he deserve friends? Zane seemed to consider him one, but why? He didn't deserve that, he didn't deserve anything to be honest. He was a monster, and monsters like him only deserved to suffer.

But he couldn't make himself pull away, not when he had already been a jackass to Zane. Which reminded him-

"Zane...what did you ask me again? B-before I left..."

"Lloyd we don't have to talk about that-"

"You-you asked me why I don't sleep, right? I-you got my note right? I-wanted to answer that question."

Zane would have felt happy, if not for the fact Lloyd was crying his eyes out and only telling him out of some weird obligation he had created for himself. He wanted to know, but he wanted it to be on Lloyd's terms as well. This felt like it wasn't.

"Lloyd I want you to tell me when you-"

"I'm scared."

The words were so simple, yet crashed through Zane's mind like a crossbow bolt.

"What?"

"I-m scared, scared of.... I don't want to see the memories anymore."

#ninjago lloyd #ninjago #ninjago au #ninjago hc #ninjago zane #ninjago fanfiction

[slashingdisneypasta]

Horror Villains And: Period Sex

oh that is the perfect gif I totally forgot all about it but oh boy. thanks billy for your service to this blog.

Warnings: Obviously, menstruation, blood, and smut. I’m dealing with a particularly uncomfortable period (for me at least) and just want some e m p a t h y about it.

~~~

Who LOVES it:

Freddy Krueger: ABSO-MOTHER FUCKING-LUTELY. It’s a struggle to keep his hands off you (on a normal day) during your period. He can smell it.

Kieran Wilcox: yes please mommy, he’s waiting.

Luda Mae Hewitt: This is her secret kink.

Michael Myers: B l o o d  p l a y? Any kind of bloodplay, Michael is into it. If you weren’t already bleeding, he would probably make you bleed, with his (Actual) knife.

Mickey Altieri: Bring it. Jesus christ, Mickey thinks its so hot. Getting his cock or his fingers coated in your slick and your blood (Seeing the string consistency between his fingers), seeing you in a total mess from your period and being fucked to oblivion? Oh yes.

Midnight Man: He just likes it. I dunno. I don’t have a logical reason, extension or explanation of my vibes here but I am getting them from him.

Patrick Bateman: Oh my god it is his favourite kind of sex. Yes yes yes. Please please please. He marks your cycle in his calendar, with special notes about flow and mood. Soon enough he’s figured out your whole period every week and knows exactly when the iron is hot enough to strike. Any w h e r e, any t i m e .

Both Pennywise’: Ooooh, watch their eyes glow and their hair get more luscious when you tell them. Their teeth get sharper and the whites of their eyes get whiter- they’re horny as fuck now. Be a good sport and give them a lil taste, won’t you? A smell at least? That, or have them trailing you like lost puppies for the rest of the week, and curling up to/around you as tightly as possible when you’re sleeping.

The Clown / Jeffrey Hawk / Kenneth Chase: Where else could he possibly go on this post, honestly.

The Man (Hush): Yep.  He’s favourite time of month.

Who is like ‘a b s o l u t e l y  n o t’:

Jerry Dandridge: Do I really need to comment? I mean, he can control himself being around you on your period, but you cannot let that blood smell hit the open air. Your controlled, classy vampire bf will disappear in an instant and will be replaced with… well, Evil.

Yeah no thanks:

Debbie Loomis: She’s not vehemently against it, but still… nah? Thanks for the offer tho. And it won’t happen when she’s on her period either, c e r t a I n l y not. Don’t even touch her when she’s on her period, jesus christ.

Jennifer Check: Yeah she just got a new manicure. Over her dead body will you stain her new French tips with your coochie blood. And if she puts her mouth down there, it might excited t o o much if you get what I mean and you will become a real snack.  

Is indifferent towards it:

Bo Sinclair: You’re sure into him durin’ this time o’ month, aren’t you? Eh… whatever. Hop on. He’s happy to help his partner, especially if its in such a gratifying way! I mean he won’t buy you any fucking pads but he will do this and there’s Bo as a boyfriend for you.

Chucky / Charles Lee Ray: I mean sure? Blood doesn’t scare him and it is, in fact, a turn on for him of course so sure. Plus, you’re less likely to get pregnant at this time, which is great! Doesn’t see what the big deal is, here. (Although, weirdly, I see past Chucky from Curse to be very much in the next category)

Inkubus: It’s not even a big d e a l, man, its cool. He likes all kinds of sex. Go wild.

Jason Voorhees: Jason is basically ace in the way he conducts himself on a general basis but if it tuned out that he was interested in sex and/or was willing to do it with you, then some blood leaking out of your private parts because of some natural causes is not going to change his mind. Is this not normal??

Jedidiah Sawyer: ???Alright??? He wears a mask made of skin, your natural bodily functions are not going to scare him away. Besides, the knowledge that it could lessen menstrual pain for you is a nice bonus. He’s gotta take care of his family.

Roman Bridger: It’s really not a big deal to him. We’ll just put down a darker sheet, or some plastic. You both need this sometimes (Him for emotional support when he’s stressed, and you of course cuz you’re on your damn period) and a bit of blood is certainly not a deal breaker. Besides, he finds the easy thrusting to be nice and comfortable. Preferred sometimes, actually. Just some nice, lazy, relieving sex with your director boyfriend.

Sheriff Hoyt / Charlie Hewitt: A little bit a’ blood aint gonna turn me off, sugar. Don’t you worry bout that.

The Djinn: See Inkubus. Except, our dear Wishmaster is so much more of a tease about this.

Is enthusiastic when they learn that orgasms lessen period pain:

Bubba Sawyer: He doesn’t care about exposure to blood, obviously, and he doesn’t see it as gross at all but he was still concerned about whether that was safe during your… monthly thing… but once he found out that it could help you with cramps he got on board immediately! ^^

Lester Sinclair: Oh boy, well okay then, let’s give this a go then!!

Mayor Buckman: He knows the drill; Boone gets terrible cramps. Don’t worry, he’s got you.

Pamela Voorhees: Oh of course she’ll help you out when you’re hurting ^^

Stuart Lloyd: Well… don’t get him wrong, for sure there is the part where it helps you in a seriously uncomfortable time… but then there is also the fact that he is a lil bit of a secret freak and menstrual care is a good excuse for him. (So he also belongs in the first category ^^)

The Deathslinger / Caleb Quinn: Blood doesn’t bother him, and if it’ll give you a hand with yer monthly problem then you just need to ask him. You’ll be on the bench in the saloon with your thighs spread without a second thought, like asking for a glass of water. (Except of course Caleb’s a lot more hands on about the whole thing of course (; ) He’s happy to help.

The Huntress / Anna: Oh!! Really?? It’ll help? Okay, then, sunflower. Remove your pants. Let’s go !!

Vincent Sinclair: He’s just very supportive and helpful through all areas of your period. He doesn’t understand, but he can still be sympathetic and help the way you say would be good ^^

Is curious and will try:

Billy Loomis: Is really curious and excited to try it. I mean, he likes blood? He likes sex? And this is both those things?? Fun lubricant, yay.

Chop Top Sawyer: And when I say that he’ll try and I REALLY MEAN IT, MAN. Like, go big or go home. He’s going to eat you out at this time and he’ll end up really enjoying it. Buckle up babes, you’ve awoken something buried pretty damn s h a l l o w l y inside him.

Granny Boone: Similar to Chop Top except with him, you had to tell him you were on your period and all so it would be different and all, while with Boone she was the one sniffing it out and *cough* hunting you approaching you about trying it.

Jill Roberts: For the same reasons as Billy. Plus, she wants to be able to say ‘well I did it for you- you have to do it for me.’

Leslie Vernon: I mean, he’ll give anything a shot once. What’s the harm?

Piper Shaw: Same as Jill.

Stu Macher: Super enthusiastic to try!! XDD Just, like, dyed lube- right?

Is c a u t i o u s:

Carrie White: … periods have always been difficult for her… But she’s willing to give it a try as long as you’re willing to return the favour! ^^

Thomas Hewitt: Tell him, if whatever he does hurts you. He is very serious about this. He wants you to feel better, but he doesn’t really know this works and does not want you hurting in his vein attempt at making you feel better. So, please. Tell him how you’re feeling. He’ll get really good at making your cramps and discomfort go away.

They may take some convincing:

Drayton Sawyer: I mean, he’s of course not afraid of some blood but… uh… Well, I mean, he doesn’t really have a big, or even moderate sex drive in the first place so any sex of any kind takes some warming up to. Maybe if the stars aline and you catch him on a good day. Otherwise, he tells you to just suck it up.

#tw: blood #tw: periods #Slashers x Reader #Horror Villains x Reader #Horror Villains and Period Sex #Smut #Drayton Sawyer #Thomas Hewitt #Carrie White #Stu Macher #Piper Shaw #Leslie Vernon #Jill Roberts #Granny Boone #Chop Top Sawyer #Billy Loomis #Vincent Sinclair #Bo Sinclair #Lester Sinclair #Bubba Sawyer #Sheriff Hoyt #Charlie Hewitt #Luda Mae Hewitt #Chucky #Charles Lee Ray #Kieran Wilcox #Roman Bridger #Debbie Loomis #Mickey Altieri #Michael Myers

[nonbinarykai]

Okay you know what, I’ve held this back far enough

Why I hate canon Kailor sm

Tw:// misogyny ment, incest ment

Im not gonna tag Kailor on this for obvious reasons plus this is kinda a long post, I don’t mind fanon Kailor mostly because tbh I don’t think it’s really a big thing and most I have seen of it is fine. Don’t read this if you like Kailor and don’t want to hear it bashed

Okay listen, s4 is my favorite season out of all ninjago, but if theres one thing I hate about it the most is Kailor. This ship has always been really annoying to me throughout the show, and I’ve hinted towards that in my blog. But why?

1. It’s basically jaya redone

Kailor brings nothing new or interesting to the table because honestly? It’s literally just the same dynamic as jaya. Socially awkward guy simps for usually unimpressed girl until she eventually caves in and they start dating.

Not only has this already been done before with jaya, but is also completely out of character for Kai to do.

While I admit seeing Kai as a flustered dork is kinda funny, once you realize the context of the situation that they’re in it’s pretty clear that Kai would never actually do this.

Reminder: Kai JUST found out his dead friend is alive and is forced to recognsizle with friends in order to get him back

Usually when Kai is presented in a situation like this, what he normally does is set himself dead first on the task at hand and usually ignores any distractions. He’s mostly distance and seemingly uncaring

((note this is after Zane died and Kai ran away from the ninja because of cole and jays bickering, knowing him he wouldn’t be the most excited to be back. His arc should have revolved around coming to terms with lost friendships due to death or distance but that never happens)).

What Kai DOESNT do is immediately fall head over heels for a girl he JUST meet to the point where even when he sees his DEAD FRIEND ALIVE AND WELL he completely ignores that for a girl he meet less then a week ago

This is something JAY would do, not KAI, Kai is a loyal friend who do anything to save his friends, he cherishes them and would fight god to help them with anything they need, he doesn’t forget them for someone new

It also does skylor unjustice as well, but we’ll get there when we get there

2. It adds nothing to the characters and is otherwise never mention again

You know how bad you fuck up a relationship if the best aspect of it is how it’s rarely on screen

Even considering the fact Kailor is just jayas dynamic, the connection between skylor and Kai feels completely non existent or one sided

Most of Kailor revolves around Kai simping for skylor

They have no common interests, common goals, they rarely actually talk outside of lloyds plan to overthrow chen

The whole relationship feels forced every time it’s brought up because of how disconnected they both are to eachother, Kai only likes skylor because she’s hot and that’s it, nothing else about her is actually interesting to Kai in anyway ((again sort out of character for him in this situation))

Skylor and Kai don’t form any genuine bond with eachother, it feels hallow and empty

Let’s compare this to lava, wait no that would be to easy, let’s compare this to pixane

Pixal and Zane both genuinely like and respect eachother, they both share bonds outside of being robots, they both care about eachother enough to know when they’re uncomfortable or need help

Kailor is barely mentioned past s4 and most of it in s4 is Kai being a creep

Oh yeah let’s get to that

3. It’s really really creepy

Im sorry I don’t find incest jokes funny ninjago, it’s just really uncomfortable and creepy

Hopefully this goes without saying but Kai thinking skylor is hot, figuring out they might be related and no longer finding her hot, and then finding out they aren’t and thinking she’s hot is really weird and creepy

Not to mention scenes like, Kai looking into her room without her knowledge or consent

Or Kai fighting people for her when it’s not necessary

Or him trying to impress her everytime he sees her

This isn’t cute or funny, it’s gross, privacy invading, and overall just very creepy and uncomfortable and most definitely not healthy

Again, this is REALLY out of character for Kai, Kai knows when to back off and respect people’s privacy

Literally the season before this he didn’t get involved in the love triangle probably because he knew that would make Nya’s situation worse

So for him to suddenly become this privacy evading perv is so grossly out of character for him and makes the whole relationship feel off and unhealthy

And finally

4. The whole thing is misogynistic

During this entire thing skylor doesn’t get a choice in the show once, she follows the commands of her dad before Kai tells her not to like her dad and follows his lead.

She doesn’t come to disliking her dad by her own thought, she was told to by Kai

She doesn’t get to do anything that SHE actually wants to do until LITERALLY the VERY END

She’s told by guys around her what she should do constantly, even without her being a love interest that’s just screams misogynistic to me ((Afab speaking anyways))

Everything about her character, down to the way she talks, who she’s allied with, and even sometimes how she looks is determined by male characters

Conclusion

If canon ships were shrek movies then kailor is easily shrek the third, a constant tired unfunny mess that caused everyone to think that these ships were shit ((to be fair Jaya is kinda bad to but at least it tired to get better))

There’s nothing redeeming about it to me, every time it’s viewed in a romantic setting it makes me groan or upset

What’s even more frustrating is how people constantly say lava can’t be canon because of it

Im going to go on a side tangent so you can just skip this part as it doesn’t add any actual substance to my argument

But it’s so frustrating to see people say that

Cole and Kai have had a much healthier relationship and would be a lot better for there characters

But no, this stupid misogynistic creepy ship where one side isn’t even consententing to it half the time is the one that has to stay canon because “it’s what the creators intended”

Lava isn’t the superior possibly canon relationship because it’s gay, it’s superior because it’s closer to a healthy working relationship in show then kailor has been ((fanon lava and kailor doesn’t count here because they’re isn’t any better fanon ship, Im just talking about in show))

But no it can’t be canon and it’s unfair for people to want it to be canon because tommy created this rlly shitty straight relationship for Kai instead

TLDR; fuck kailor

#ninjago #kai smith #ninjago kai #long post

[rosiehunterwolf]

little things

Prompts: Hugs and Crying

Word Count: 3,251

Characters: Lloyd and Kai

Timeline: Immediately after episode 18 (Child's Play)

Trigger Warnings: Trauma, Brief panic attacks

Summary: "Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things."

-Kurt Vonnegut

Lloyd’s tired of being left behind. How is he meant to be the green ninja when he always has to work harder, train better, and wait longer to go on missions with his team? He wants nothing more than to be their equal.

At least, that’s what he thought he wanted.

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Tumblr work under the cut

The trip back to the Destiny’s Bounty that night was thick with tension. No one spoke, but Lloyd could feel Kai’s gaze boring into him.

He wished the fire ninja would look at something else. He didn’t want to think about what he was looking at.

It had been Lloyd’s choice, and he knew it. Not that his range of options had exactly been wide when a huge, ninja-eating monster had been looming over them, but he had made the choice nonetheless.

He just hadn’t expected it to be like this.

He had thought that not being a little boy anymore meant he got to become stronger, fight better, and, of course, accompany the ninja on their missions.

But he hadn’t thought about the way his legs would become so much longer suddenly, forcing him to concentrate so he wouldn’t trip. Or how his hair would dangle too-long in his face, or how the green gi, on which the sleeves and pant legs had been rolled up a ridiculous amount of times, now fit perfectly. Reminding him too much of who he was and what he was meant to do.

Most of all, though, he hadn’t expected the gaping ache in his chest, like someone had ripped out his heart. He didn’t understand where it came from or what it meant, only that the sparkling display racks in the windows of Doomsday Comix had never felt more distant than they did now.

Their arrival at the monastery couldn’t come soon enough, and Lloyd began to dart down the hall, anxious to get away from the prying eyes of the others. Before he could get far, however, a hand snatched his wrist, and he looked back to see Kai staring at him apprehensively.

“Hey, bud. We’re here for you. You don’t need to go running off on your own.”

Lloyd shook his head. “I’m not. I just wanna go take a shower.” The voice that came from his throat wasn’t his, it was too deep. He didn’t even recognize himself anymore.

Lloyd repressed a shiver of dread, realizing Kai was still looking at him expectantly. “I got… there was a lot of rubble and dust when the Grundle caved in the roof, I just wanna get clean. I’m fine.”

Kai stared at him for a long moment, and for once Lloyd couldn’t read the expression in his eyes. Relenting, he let out his breath, dropping Lloyd’s wrist. “You’re not. But whatever.”

Lloyd merely nodded, realizing that wasn’t the most reassuring answer he could give, but being reluctant to hear his own voice again.

Forcing himself to turn away, he headed down the hallway, passing the ninja’s cabin and heading towards his room a little way down.

Uncle Wu had cleared out the small storage room for him that first night he had stayed on the Bounty, and it had been his ever since. He had appreciated the gesture, to have his own space away from the others, and it had always been a comforting little place for him.

But now, as he gazed around at it, the room itself wasn’t the only thing that was small anymore. The bed in the corner was no longer large enough for him, the mirror mounted on the wall was too low down, the Starfarer comics piled on the nightstand were too juvenile and suddenly much less interesting.

Lloyd sighed, rubbing his hands over his eyes. There was no point lingering here. He might as well go take a shower like he had promised Kai.

But when he pulled open the drawer on his dresser, he paused, gazing down at the clothes.

Everything was too small. Of course it was.

Lloyd took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair as he tried to push down the bubbling panic in his chest.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Letting out his breath again, he grabbed a pair of old, baggy pajama shorts that had always been too big on him anyway, and an undershirt from his gi.

Slipping through the halls, he made it to the bathroom at the end of the ship and quietly pulled the door shut behind him.

As he undressed, all he could focus on was his body, how it was bigger and older and different now. He forcibly shoved the thoughts out of his head before he had a breakdown and stepped into the shower.

Lloyd turned the shower as hot as it would go, barely even noticing as the water scalded his skin. He didn’t know how long he stood there, only that the water kept getting colder and colder until his teeth were chattering. Not even bothering to wash his hair, he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a bath towel, pressing his face into it.

He couldn’t do this. He had thought he could handle it, but he couldn’t. Lloyd was barely clutching on to the last threads of his sanity, and he needed to get out of here.

Quickly changing into the shorts and undershirt, he walked over to the window and carefully pushed it open. Stars twinkled at him from the dark sky, and he glanced down. The bathroom was at the top of the ship, just behind the bridge, so it was about a twenty-foot drop to the ground- easily enough to break a leg.

Biting his lip, he grabbed onto the window frame and pulled himself out, gripping onto the side of the ship as his feet found purchase on the windowsill. As he slowly stood, he accidentally caught sight of his face in the reflection in the window and nearly slipped, gasping sharply as he just barely caught himself from falling.

Get yourself together, Lloyd. You’re still yourself, just a little older. Stop being such a crybaby.

Reaching up for the edge of the roof of the bridge, he hauled himself up and crawled back from the edge a bit. Staring out over the trees, the soft glow of the city in the distance, he glanced down at his hands. Fingers too long, palms too rough.

He hadn’t known it was going to be like this. All he had done was age up a few years. It was a small sacrifice to make, seeing as the Grundle would’ve killed them all otherwise. It shouldn’t have been that big of a deal. Lloyd shouldn’t have been acting so selfishly.

He wrapped his arms around his legs, curling up into a ball.

For the first time that night, Lloyd let himself cry.

---

Kai paced back and forth across the hallway. “Ugh! Why do I let him leave? I know he always locks himself in his room and never comes back to talk to me!”

Zane frowned. “I know this is difficult and confusing for you, Kai- it is for all of us. But Lloyd’s always been much less straightforward than you. Perhaps we should try a less direct approach.”

“You’re saying I should just let him sulk alone for the rest of the night?”

“What I’m saying is that maybe we should just give him a little time to himself, time to process, before we all go barging in to speak to him.”

“Just because Lloyd thinks he wants to be alone doesn’t mean he should be. Isolation isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Kai,” Cole sighed, “that’s not what we’re saying at all. This is just a sensitive situation for Lloyd, and we don’t want to provoke him the wrong way.”

“A sensitive situation?” Kai barked. “Don’t you think I know that? But I’m telling you, he needs someone! Don’t you see? That’s what he does! He tells us he’s fine, but he’s not! Of course he’s not! And- and I want to help him, but I can’t. When he needs me most, I have no idea what to do. Augh, why did I let him come with us? I knew it was too dangerous!”

“Kai,” Zane put a cool hand on his shoulder. “Calm down. There’s nothing you could’ve done.”

“Nothing I could’ve done?” Kai blinked up at him through watery eyes. “I was supposed to protect him.”

Nya squeezed his hand. “You can’t blame yourself for this, Kai. You can’t.”

“I’m not trying to. It’s just… hard. This isn’t some small little mishap we can go back and fix. This is big.”

“I know, but he’s strong. He’s going to get through it. I think Zane’s right, we should tread lightly. Although,” she paused, her brow furrowing, “I am starting to get pretty worried about him. He’s been in there a long time.”

“Wait,” Jay frowned. “In his room?”

“No, the bathroom.”

Kai’s head snapped towards her. “Wait, what? Did he go in there again?”

Nya shook her head. “I’ve been watching the door. He never left after he went in the first time.”

Cole glanced between them. “How long has he been in there?”

Kai’s gaze darted anxiously towards the bathroom door. “He went in there to take a shower nearly an hour ago.”

Cole’s eyes darkened. “Yeah, that’s too long. Let’s go.”

They hurried over to the bathroom door and the others hovered anxiously behind as Cole rapped his knuckles on the wood, leaning his ear against it. “Lloyd, you okay in there?”

There was no answer.

Cole knocked harder, and Kai could feel the anxiety building. “Lloyd? Bud? We just wanna talk.”

“Okay,” Nya breathed after a moment, “Lloyd’s as stubborn as a mule, but he doesn’t purposely worry us like this. Something’s wrong.”

“Zane,” Cole said, the struggle to keep calm evident in his voice. “Can you pick up anything?”

Zane stilled for a moment. “My sensors don’t detect any sign of movement.”

Kai’s heart skipped a beat. “Get me in.” Shoving past the others, he lunged for the door handle, yanking on it- but it didn’t budge. “He locked it! Why would he lock it?”

“We need a lock pick!” Jay yelped. “Nya, do you have a bobby pin?”

“I can get one, I’ll be right back!”

“Lloyd!” Cole yelled, banging on the door. “Open the door! Don’t do anything dumb!”

“Talk to us, bud!” Kai cried. “Please!”

“I’m back,” Nya huffed, skidding across the floor and holding out the pin. Jay snatched it from her hand and jiggled it in the lock, gritting his teeth. The others waited apprehensively as the seconds ticked by.

Jay pulled back with a sigh. “It’s not working.”

“Lloyd,” Kai moaned, “Open up!”

Cole glanced at them. “Should I break the door?”

Zane hesitated, then nodded. “Do it. We can always replace it later. Lloyd is more important.”

Everyone except for Cole stepped away from the door. The earth ninja held up his fists, and they glowed amber, the light spreading down his forearms.

“Stand back, Lloyd! I’m coming in!” Cole lunged forward, punching in the door and sending splinters of wood flying.

Kai darted to his side and stared into the bathroom, his breath caught in his throat.

Jay stepped around them, pulling back the shower curtain. Empty.

Just like the rest of the room.

“He’s not here?” Cole asked. “I just destroyed the door for nothing?”

“That’s impossible!” Nya yelped. “I saw him go in, and he never left! I’m positive.”

Kai’s eyes lingered on the far wall. “I know where he went.”

The others followed his gaze towards the open window, and Jay’s eyes widened. “He went out the window? That fall could seriously injure him!”

Kai shook his head. “He didn’t go down, he went up.” Glancing back at the others, he added, “Perhaps Zane had a point about the whole subtlety thing. Let me go talk to him first.”

The others exchanged reluctant glances, but stepped back.

Kai pulled himself out the window, balancing carefully as his fingers found the edge of the roof’s shingles. A chilly breeze hit him in the face, but he ignored it, hauling himself the rest of the way up with a soft grunt.

Lloyd was sitting a few feet away, curled in on himself as he stared off into the distance. Kai slowly eased his way over to him and the two sat in silence for a while.

Kai forced himself to look at the boy and felt a tug on his heartstrings. The way he sat there, so quiet and still, was as unlike Lloyd as his new appearance.

Kai shook his head. He couldn’t allow himself to think like that. No doubt Lloyd already had enough of those thoughts going through his head. This was still the same person. He was still Lloyd. He was still his little brother.

Kai leaned closer, allowing his shoulder to lightly bump against Lloyd’s. The green ninja gasped suddenly, as if just realizing he was there, and quickly scrubbed at his eyes. The action made him seem more like the young child that had been left behind. That, and the fact that he was shivering.

“Dude, you’re freezing!” He glanced down to see Lloyd was only wearing a pair of baggy shorts and a light tank top. “Why aren’t you wearing any proper clothes?”

Lloyd’s cheeks flushed, and he dipped his head, muttering under his breath.

“What?”

“I don’t have any proper clothes, okay?” More quietly, he added, “Nothing fits me anymore.”

Oh, Lloyd. “Hey, why didn’t you come to me? Y’know I’ve got way more clothes than I’ll ever wear, me and the guys would be more than willing to share stuff with you. And we’ll take you shopping, too, so you can pick out some stuff of your own. How does that sound?”

Lloyd sniffed, wiping an arm across his face. “Yeah, that sounds… that sounds good.”

“Here.” Kai slipped his sweatshirt off and draped it over Lloyd’s shoulders. “It’s not exactly warm out. Don’t make yourself sick.”

“Thanks.” Lloyd pulled the sweatshirt tighter around his shoulders, and Kai felt a small swell of relief as he noticed it was still a little big on him. So his little brother hadn’t grown up completely yet.

“Bud,” he said gently, “it’s fine if you come up here, but tell us before you do next time, okay? We were worried about you.”

Lloyd looked down, still refusing to meet his gaze. “Sorry. I just… didn’t really want anyone to follow me.”

“I know, but you can’t be alone forever. It’s not going to fix anything.”

“Being together isn’t going to fix this, either.”

Kai winced. “Not physically, no. But we’ll be here for you emotionally. We’ll help you heal.”

“But I can’t-” Lloyd stopped, sighing. “Sorry. I’m being selfish.”

“Selfish? How is any of this selfish?”

“Because! You guys were risking your lives, and I made the decision that saved you, yet I’m regretting I did!” “First of all, you’re not regretting you saved us, you’re regretting the other consequences that came out of the choice. Second, it wasn’t much of a choice at all. The Grundle backed you into a corner- literally- and that was the only logical solution at the time. It’s not fair. It shouldn’t have been you. You shouldn’t have been there. You shouldn’t have been forced to make a decision like that. But you were. So you have every right to be upset, every right to complain. That is not selfish.”

Lloyd finally turned to look at him, a helpless, floundering expression on his face.

Kai took pity on him, putting an arm around him. “Lloyd, I’m here. Whether you wanna talk, or scream, or cry, or just need someone to lean on, I’m here.”

“I… I don’t know what to do, Kai. I don’t feel like myself anymore.”

“You are. You’re still the same Lloyd, still our friend, our little brother, our charge. This changes nothing between us. We’re gonna take care of you, okay?”

Lloyd sniffed, putting his hands over his face, and Kai elbowed him gently. “It’s okay to cry, y’know. No one’s gonna judge you for it.”

“But I… I’m not a little kid anymore.”

“So? Everyone cries! It’s natural, and it doesn’t matter how old you are! I’ve cried, I’ve seen Cole cry, Jay cry, I’ve definitely seen Nya cry, and Zane- well, actually, I haven’t seen Zane cry. But that’s only because he’s a nindroid and physically can’t cry. He still gets upset sometimes, though.”

“I know, but… I just feel like I should be able to handle things better.”

“Are you crazy? I’d go insane if I suddenly just aged several years in the span of seconds. Compared to me, you’re handling it like a champ.”

Lloyd didn’t look at him. “Not really. I feel like a wreck right now.” His last words caught on a sob, and Kai glanced over at him, apprehension budding in his chest.

“Are you okay?”

Lloyd blinked rapidly, trying and failing to stop the tears spilling from his eyes. “Not really.”

“Can I hug you?”

Lloyd hesitated but nodded, and Kai wasted no time in wrapping his arms around Lloyd’s shoulders, pulling him close.

Kai didn’t know how long they sat there, but it was a while before Lloyd broke the silence. “Do you think the Final Battle is coming sooner, now that I’m older?”

“I don’t know. But whenever it is, I’m gonna be there. Even if that means I have to kick Garmadon’s ass for you.” He bit his lip, grinning sheepishly. “Shoot, I didn’t mean to say that in front of you.”

Lloyd snorted. “I already know that word.”

“Wait, who taught you that? Was it Nya? I bet it was Nya.” “It wasn’t any of you. I grew up at Darkley’s, what do you expect? That isn’t the only choice word I know.”

Kai’s eyes widened. “Don’t you dare tell Zane, he’ll have a fit.”

A brief smile flickered across Lloyd’s face, the first once Kai had seen all night.

“Hey, if I’m grown up now, I should at least get to use some bad words once in a while.”

“Not happenin’, bro,” Kai grinned. “You’re not that grown up yet.”

“I could be fifty and you’d still say that.”

“What can I say, you’ve got a baby face,” Kai smirked, putting his hands on either side of Lloyd’s head.

“Stop that,” Lloyd grumbled, pushing him away. “‘M not a baby.”

“You are, and no dumb tea can change that.”

Lloyd bit his lip, trying to look away, but Kai forced his head to turn, looking him in the eye.

“Lloyd. It’s okay. You don’t have to pretend like it’s all fine. Let it out.”

Lloyd gasped, half falling into his lap, and Kai gripped him tight. It’s gonna be okay, he told himself. He’s going to be okay. We all are.

Lloyd’s path had been difficult from the beginning. It wasn’t fair that all this had been thrown on him- he was just a kid, even now. But it had been, and Kai had an awful feeling that this wouldn’t be the worst hardship his youngest teammate would have to endure.

But next time he would do better. He was one of the four elemental masters of the elements of creation. It was his job to protect Lloyd, to keep him safe.

It made his heart break to see Lloyd, usually so spunky, so unshakable, like this, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure it didn’t happen again.

But for now, he just hugged the green ninja.

He hoped, with time, it would be enough to heal him.

#ninjago #ninbingo #my fic #rosie writes #ninjago lloyd #ninjago kai #the 👏 show 👏 needs 👏 to 👏 give 👏 the 👏 ninja 👏 more 👏 consequences 👏 for 👏 their 👏 actions #seriously there's no way lloyd just walked the whole child's play thing off #he wasn't even phased in the next episode! #something had to happen in between change my mind #yes yes it's angsty but it had to be done #thanks for reading! #reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!

[asharkapologist]

May the 4th (Star Wars Day) Special Post

Happy May the 4th, everyone! Although I don’t post too much about Star Wars, believe me when I say that Star Wars is one of my favorite movie franchises out there, and The Clone Wars is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. So, in order to celebrate Star Wars Day, I decided to be positive and say at least three nice things about every live-action, theatrically released Star Wars movie, including Solo and Rogue One. So, let’s begin.

The Phantom Menace

Call me crazy, but I actually like the political stuff. Maybe that’s because I like political science and history, but I honestly don’t mind the Senate scenes at all. I think that, for a film trilogy that takes place when the Jedi were still around and working in tandem with the soon-to-fall Republic, political scenes were needed to worldbuild and set the setting.

Duel of the Fates. Need I say more? One of the best musical scores and duels in all of Star Wars--maybe even movies in general.

The podracing was very well done, in my opinion. If you ask me, it still looks convincing by today’s standards, and is suitably thrilling, and Jake Lloyd’s acting was pretty decent in the podracing sequence.

Attack of the Clones

The scene where Anakin’s mom dies and he slaughters the Tusken Raiders is very well done. And it’s excellent (and more violent and chilling) in the novelization. (In fact, I would fully recommend reading the prequel novelizations, they are excellent).

Across the Stars is a beautiful love score that communicates the love that Anakin and Padme have for each other, as well as their very tragic fate.

There’s a really good deleted scene where Anakin and Padme visit Padme’s family that I wish they had kept in the movie. It’s very cute, fleshes out the relationship between Anakin and Padme, and I really like how Padme’s family interacts with Anakin.

Revenge of the Sith

Palpatine is incredibly entertaining in this movie. You can tell Ian had a blast playing him.

The scene where Padme tells Anakin that she’s pregnant and his reaction to the news is perfectly written and acted. Hayden does such a good job with his line delivery and facial expressions--you can tell the emotions he’s going through as he’s reacting to the news that he’s going to be a father so, so well.

This movie does not hold back on the emotional trauma. When I first saw RotS, I cried incredibly hard, and I think the scene that really started the waterworks was the scene where the score “Padme’s Ruminations” play, where she and Anakin are looking out their respective windows during sunset, right before Anakin makes the choice that will change the course of galactic history forever: going to interfere with Palpatine’s arrest. There’s no dialogue in the scene, save a brief voice-over of Palpatine, and when Anakin starts to cry in that scene, so do I. The music is chilling, and, once again, Hayden’s acting is excellent. He doesn’t have to say anything for you to know what emotions he’s feeling.

Solo

Donald Glover KILLS it as Lando. Stole the show.

It’s a small background detail, but I really like the Imperial propaganda posters/videos/holograms you can see in public transit places. It definitely adds to the overall immersion and worldbuilding of this point in the galaxy’s history. 

Okay I kind of liked the way that Han got his last name. Unpopular opinions, but I think it was funny. Love how some random guy created the last name of one of the most influential people/heroes in the galaxy.

Rogue One

The music? Super underrated. The score “Your Father Would Be Proud” makes me very emotional and suits the scene very well.

K-2SO is the best droid in the franchise. Yes, he is better than C-3PO and R2. You cannot convince me otherwise. 

Like, Revenge of the Sith, this movie does NOT hold back. It straight up kills all of the main characters, and shows that just because you do something heroic doesn’t mean that you’re going to get a happy ending. And it shows that you don’t have to be a space wizard, politician, or part of some important lineage in order to make a difference within the universe. 

Bonus one because this is one of my favorites: The hallway scene with Darth Vader. Enough said.

A New Hope

I mean…this is literally the movie that started it all? Without this movie, we would have no Star Wars.

Han, Luke, and Leia play off each other better than any other main characters in the franchise. I love their back and forth as they’re escaping the Death Star.

I really love the meeting scene with all of the commanders, moffs, important people, etc. are talking about the rebels, the Force, etc. I think that scene perfectly establishes the character and organization of the Empire, and it’s interesting, since it shows that Vader respects Tarkin, even though he could easily kill him. (I really love how The Clone Wars built on this.)

The Empire Strikes Back

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s hard to pinpoint specific things that I like, because, like, everything is borderline perfect.

It has one of the greatest plot twists in all of cinema history. Like, sure, Vader being Luke’s father is common knowledge now, but when it first came out? Nope. I would have loved to be in the cinema, watching that scene for the first time, and getting my mind blown. 

The duel between Luke and Vader is so underrated, in my opinion. Like, sure, it’s not as flashy as some of the duels in the prequels, but the stakes are high, and I love how Luke and Vader utilize their surroundings to fight. (Doesn’t beat Darth Maul using a hallway to fight in TCW, though). It’s probably my third favorite duel in the franchise.

Bonus because I love this move: it shows that Leia is Force Sensitive. Her using the Force in the sequels did not come out of nowhere.

Return of the Jedi

The celebration music is SO GOOD. One of my favorite Star Wars tracks of all time. It’s one of the few times a Star Wars movie has a definitive happy ending, and it’s so satisfying seeing the characters celebrate and have fun together, having won a war that was going on for over two decades.

Again, call me crazy, but I love seeing Hayden’s Anakin as a force ghost. That tied the prequels and original trilogy together wonderfully.

The scenes in the throne room of the second Death Star is some of the best scenes in Star Wars. There’s real drama, danger, and other powerful emotions. The Emperor really shows how evil he is here.

The Force Awakens

Finn is such an interesting character, and is perfectly used in this movie. Humanizing a stormtrooper, who, previous to this movie, had been nothing but blaster fodder that the heroes easily and effortlessly gun down was a cool concept.

Hux is at his best here. That speech? Perfectly acted by Domhall Gleeson.

Honestly, I’m glad that they made the main character female. Like, say what you want about the sequels or Rey’s abilities, but, even if her character wasn’t written perfectly (well--it was written perfectly, which is a bit of an issue lol), it was good to have a female Jedi in a live-action movie. Some people say “well, the prequels had female Jedi.” Yes, but those Jedi were on screen for such a short amount of time that you could literally blink and miss them. “Clone Wars had female Jedi.” Yes, they did, and Ahsoka is one of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time. However, a lot of people who go and watch Star Wars in the movies don’t go out and watch side TV shows or read the comics/books. And if you ask me, you shouldn’t have to search side material if you’re just a casual Star Wars fan to find female representation. I am genuinely glad for all of the women who are Star Wars fans who only choose to see the movies (and that doesn’t make them any less fans than people who watch the shows and read the books/comics) who felt empowered seeing a main character who was a female Jedi. 

The Last Jedi

Kylo Ren is written excellently here. His inner conflict is SO. WELL. ACTED. By Adam Driver. That man carried the sequels.

Rey, too, is at her best. In this movie, she fails. She struggles to get through to Luke, and she fails to turn Kylo to the light, and she loses the fight against Snoke. But she grows, and in this movie, she’s very compelling.

I love Luke and Kylo’s fight. Not only is it well choreographed, but the dialogue between the two of them is top-notch, too.

Rise of Skywalker

Honestly? I really like the back and forth dialogue between Poe, Finn, and Rey. Those actors have really good chemistry.

I do appreciate Palpatine quoting Revenge of the Sith, since Disney likes to pretend the prequels don’t exist.

The movie is very fast-paced and makes for a very energetic viewing experience

Well. That’s it. Happy May the 4th once more!

#star wars #may the 4th be with you #star wars movies #star wars prequels #star wars original trilogy #star wars sequels #star wars prequel trilogy #star wars sequel trilogy #the phantom menace #attack of the clones #revenge of the sith #solo #rogue one #a new hope #the empire strikes back #return of the jedi #the force awakens #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker

[ninjakitten1699]

More Oni headcanons that I wanted to add on

to @ambrosial-tea post but I forgot until now!

There are different tribes of Oni as stated in the last post. Aka Oni (Red), Ao Oni (Blue), Shiro Oni (Pale/White), and our Kuro Oni (Black/Dark).

We don’t know too much of the Dark Oni we got but we do know that Oni were originally intended to be guardians between Material Plane and Spirit World when the two began overlapping (possibly The Grasslands/Departed, and Cursed Realm before they began separating). Put a tribe of Oni on the Material Plane for a couple years and they’d splinter into subraces of Oni and become more corrupted by the years. Dark Oni became one of the tribes corrupted.

Aka Oni are the most common type of Oni with their dark red colors, large size, and toughness. They’re slightly bigger than the rest of their kin, more violent, unfocused, and pursue immediate satisfaction, disregarding long drawn out plots and schemes. They’re mostly known for strength too.

Ao Oni are known for their unnatural cunning and aptitude for magic, smaller than their red kin but larger than pale, and have different shades of dark blue. They’re the ones you’d catch calculating and meticulously pursuing lofty goals like power and knowledge.

Shiro Oni are known for their aloofness and connections to the spirit realm. They’re the smallest of the main three tribes and the fewest of members. They vary from pale white to light gray. (They may as well adopt other Oni who share their colors and hopefully teach them their ideals.) Pale Oni would rather keep things in balance between the material plane and spirit world as the ancient Oni intended. They guard their locations but will adventure for artifacts of the spirit world and mend balance. If we take that into account perhaps they are another reason why Realm travel is difficult to Oni who try to cross through the any of the realms involving afterlives.

While Oni have no concept of gender since they have both reproductive organs, they also have no concept of sexualities either. Honestly they just didn’t have a name for it when one didn’t feel the need to have sex or when another felt more attracted to the same sex aspects of their partner. (If anything, their type of relationships or way of thinking would be looked up upon because they felt closer to their spirituality and their true selves.) Again they sometimes don’t mate for reproduction but just for the vibes of their partner.

They probably didn’t have a name for having multiple partners at the time either. If one Oni wanted to be a part of what the other two had and they were content with the feel of them, then it was okay. Plus more hands to help raise the cub personally. (Essentially that’s what PolyGarm would basically be. They make Garm happy, they’re happy with him, and Lloyd would basically have more than two parents. At this point Lloyd would just have more dads and Koko is just the one good mom he deserves.)

The second Oni learn what kisses are and how they work, they find it just as addictive as they do with other acts of affection.

Oni are more closer to their family than they are to strangers because in most Oni’s belief, strangers brought suffering to the family. In turn they displayed their family’s name first before their own, showing pride in them and hoping to intimidate any strangers with ill intent towards them.

Speaking of Oni names, they don’t usually have any but when they do their names would be what positive traits the parents wish the child to take on. For example, a son could have “Akihiko”. “Aki” meaning “bright” and “hiko” meaning “boy/prince”. They could want him to be someone brighter than they ever hoped for. For a daughter, “Asuna” with “asu” meaning “tomorrow” and “na” to “greens” or “apple tree”. Maybe the parents are hoping the Oni daughter would lead them to a more plentiful day. And then there’s the family names. The most famous ones are “Hideyoshi” and “Ishikawa”. We’ve heard of these names and the history behind them, I wouldn’t want to come across any of their descendants that carry their name with honor.

Ironically “Harumi” is actually a name for a female Oni in some home brewing lore. One of her meanings is “govern/rule” and “beauty”. Goes to show how far she would take her name literally.

Shiro Oni/Pale Oni don’t have names, but it’s because they don’t want to be too close to the material plane while they guard the spirit realms. They would refer to themselves and each other as “that/this one” instead like how gargoyles in the old days would. If they come up with names, it’s for the sake of working with others on the material plane, but even then it only happens when they really trust the people around them.

Oni have a large appetite that could put the Pythor and the Anacondrai to shame. They could honestly compete against the Great Devourer and other wyrms.

An Oni’s pair of horns are a sign of honor. No pair of horns are alike, not even the closest siblings’ horns look the same. They all have their differences. Their horn length is their pride. Having them sawed off is quite literally shameful to the owner of them but they did do something to deserve it.

It’s possible that some Oni were confused at Garm’s horns not being there at first but they hear about the first time they grew out of his head he quite literally broke them off and bled for a good long while to the point of passing out. (Blood vessels actually go throughout the antlers/horns in animals which is why they aren’t busted right off easily. Why wouldn’t they to Oni horns?) Come to find out it was the FSM’s hate for Oni that made Garm hate himself and how he looked so Garm had them filed down to his scalp or small enough to hide in his hair. It honestly almost hurts the Oni’s look on the FSM even more but hey who hasn’t he hurt? It takes a couple more decades and some therapy before he finally let’s go of his internalized self hatred and trauma that he grows out his horns and finally has pride in himself like most Oni already do.

So it’s not uncommon for Oni to live among other races, whether secretly or not, due to their shapeshifting abilities, however sometimes they’re immediately shunned when their true form slips out. Unless they proved otherwise to the most accepting of inhabitants, they’re allowed to stay. By then they’d have a hybrid appearance with their horns out, either out of their kindness to ease the others’ fear of them or for their own personal benefit.

Oni that do live on their own choose to live in the wilderness or in the mountains. If living in society but still wanting some sort of solitude, they’d either be closer to the outskirts or deep in the downtown where you’d either have to ask directions to specific people to find them or already know where they are. Hence Mistaké with her small tea shop and Wu being able find her.

As stated before Oni have no problems with Half-Oni at all. They’re just welcoming another cub into the pack and it’s just the fact that they are a child of an Oni who fell in love with another humanoid. Although there are some cases of Oni being chased out by the other race with their cub in their arms and they just run until they find the closest tribe. They’d be welcomed into the tribe and the cub is basically adopted by them.

Again half Oni isn’t a problem to them, but they do have a problem with any particular wizards experimenting on Oni breeding with any other humanoids. The know it’s not the parents’ fault neither is the cub’s. If neither parent want nothing to do with them, then the half Oni cub is taken off of their hands by another Oni who was grieving at a loss of a cub (or the realization they couldn’t have any) or a pairing who wouldn’t mind another. The cub won’t have a terrible environment, the parents won’t have to unwillingly interact with the child until they resolve their own issues or they wish to visit and see them grow.

Meanwhile, those wizards will never know peace again until the day they die, even other tribes, who they could be at war with, will catch wind of what happen and help in taking them out. By the time those wizards die, even the Pale Oni who have no ties with Omega or any other tribes won’t be forgiving to them. They won’t do anything too harmful to them, but they will lead them to the terrible part of the Cursed Realm and those wizards proceed to stay there until they fade out of existence entirely.

Enough angst there and let’s go back to fluff. I bet Oni would love dice. Like not even for games but for the click-clack sound. (“Lloyd. They’re metal dice. You cannot have—.” “Shiny sparkly metal bits make pretty sounds! :D” “Garmadon please tell your son not— Not you too!” “Wha~ It does sound pretty.”)

Y’all know how like adult lions play with their babies? They pretend to be hurt and that the cub is super strong to help build up their confidence. Hear me out, Oni do that too. Big goddamn Omega really be taking hits from tiny little cubs, Mistaké be playing with little Garmadon and playing dead on him, then Garm just does the same thing for little Lloyd. (“Koko, sweetie, help. It’s the battle of the century in here. Help, save me. He’s too powerful!” “*tiny war cry*”)

Someone makes a baby Oni cry one time and boy it’s absolutely over. It’s on sight for that person. I’m telling you On Sight!

Oni can purr loud enough to the point where it rumbles in them like a motor and that’s how cubs feel their parents’ purring. Then there’s baby Oni just babbling and the adult Oni just pretend to have a whole conversation with them. Don’t get me started on them playing soft flute music to help the toddler Oni sleep.

We probably only got a few words out of Omega when they first appeared because we were hearing them through human ears. Lloyd’s Oni brain would click on and translates what he knows while Garm in full Oni form can get full sentences out of Omega.

Oni are willing to learn a different language if it helps others understand them and their intentions. Now let’s just think of Lloyd connecting to his Oni side of the family (since let’s face it, the Oni are going to be around longer than most of his friends are) through teaching them sign language.

They also try to teach him their Oni tongue but he can only grasp a few words at a time easily. When he finally learns the language, next thing you know he’s going to be cursing and only Oni will understand. Some (aka Mistaké) want to scold him and others (*cough*Garmadon*cough*) find it hilarious.

Garmadon’s Oni-Dragon hybrid brain wants him to decorate his significant others and now I think of Oni just sharing the precious items they hoard with their mate. Wait till they figure out they can make jewelry and have their significant other wear it.

#lego ninjago #ninjago #ninjago omega #ninjago oni #oni #lego ninjago garmadon #ninjago garmadon #garmadon ninjago #garmadon #lego ninjago lord garmadon #ninjago lord garmadon #lord garmadon ninjago #lord garmadon #oni garm #oni garmadon #lego ninjago lloyd #ninjago lloyd #lloyd ninjago #lloyd #lego ninjago lloyd garmadon #ninjago lloyd garmadon #lloyd garmadon #oni lloyd #ninjago headcanon #headcanon #ninjago headcanons #headcanons

[lloydskywalkers]

hey idk if you’re doing requests but if you are can you give us the fluffy kai and lloyd sibling content we deserve?? like ummm maybe kai helping lloyd to do homework or something even tho they don’t go to school lmao 😂 i just need something pure :)

i am so very behind on replies but!! in my defense, i started a response for this, got about 10K words in, then realized i needed to give it an actual structure. this is not the 10K words one, but it is, technically, fluffy Kai and Lloyd sibling content? i hope it’s something along the lines of what you wanted :’D

Lloyd decides he wants his ear pierced at three forty-five in the debatable hours of the morning, which isn’t the oddest thing Lloyd has ever decided he desires at that time. But it isn’t usual, either, so Kai decides he probably does, at least, need to ask what brought this on as he begins superheating the edge of the needle so neither of them end up with tetanus, or something.

He’s a responsible brother, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to tell Lloyd no. That would require Kai pretending his own piercing never existed, which is impossible, since Lloyd was the one to help him out back when it got infected and Kai almost lost his entire upper ear.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Lloyd rolls his eyes. “You were just being a baby about it.”

“Oh yeah?” Kai shoots back. “Look who’s talking. I haven’t even touched your ear yet and you’re already wincing.”

“You’re taking forever,” Lloyd says testily. “Why can’t you just pierce it already?”

“Excuse me for trying to make it look good,” Kai says. “But if you really want an off-center piercing, be my guest.”

“No, no, make it look good,” Lloyd protests, straightening where he’s sitting across the bedroom floor from Kai.

Fortunately, they’re in the monastery tonight, otherwise they’d be crammed into the bathroom, or wherever else in the Bounty they wouldn’t wake everyone up. They’ve stashed away in Lloyd’s room, since he’s the furthest from Zane and therefore the least likely to be caught, if something goes wrong. Not that anything’s going to go wrong, of course, but you can never be sure, with them.

“Where’d you want it, again?” Kai asks, as he squints at the tiny earring stud they scavenged from Nya’s bag. He figures she’d support this as a worthy cause enough not to mind. Hopefully.

“On the right side?” Lloyd drums his fingers on the edge of his knee, a bit anxiously. “I sleep on my left more often, so yeah, the right. Just — just the normal ear piercing, for now.”

“For now, huh,” Kai mutters, carefully measuring out rubbing alcohol over the earring, before deciding to drown it in the bottle, for good measure.

“Well, I might decide I want another,” Lloyd crosses his arms. He winces. “Unless Sensei or the others kill me for this, first.”

“Lloyd, if piercing your ear is the worst thing you ever do as a teen, I’ll give you all the piercings you want myself,” Kai says. “And if anybody gives you trouble about it, just make some snarky comment, like, ah—”

“An earring is better to be stabbed with than a knife?”

“…FSM’s sake,” Kai sighs, staring at the bottle of rubbing alcohol and briefly entertaining how it’d taste. “Sure. Why not.”

Lloyd doesn’t look entirely reassured, even with his fun little jokes. “It is better than being stabbed with a knife, right?” he asks. “Like, I can do knife-stab pain, but I was kinda hoping it wouldn’t hurt that bad, you know…?”

Kai rolls his eyes. “It’ll hardly hurt at all,” he assures him, as he reaches for the little cotton balls and soaking one in alcohol. “I promise. You’re a ninja. With the pain tolerance you have, you’re probably not even gonna feel it.”

“Uh-huh, if you say — hey!” Lloyd flinches back from his hand, eyes wide in betrayal.

“Would you relax, it’s just the alcohol,” Kai frowns, going for his ear with the cotton ball again.

Lloyd makes a face, but lets him dab the alcohol on this time. “It’s cold,” he complains.

“Keep whining about it and we’re going back to the clip-on earring plan.”

“No, no, I want them pierced,” Lloyd says quickly. Kai smothers a laugh at how he attempts to appear relaxed, swiping the cotton ball over his earlobe once more for good measure. Satisfied that Lloyd, at least, won’t suffer any immediate crippling infections, Kai grabs for the needle they’re using, soaking the tip in alcohol.

“You…you know what you’re doing, right?” Lloyd asks, suddenly apprehensive now that the needle’s come into play.

“Of course I do, who do you think I am?” Kai says. “I pierced Nya’s ears when she was younger. I would’ve pierced Jay’s the first week we met, but he chickened out last minute.”

Lloyd presses his lips together, hiding a laugh. “If you’d come up to me with a needle the first week we met, I probably would’ve booked it, too.”

“I wasn’t bad,” Kai huffs, kneeing him in the side.

Lloyd runs a hand through his hair, spiking the edges up as he scowls, pitching his voice deeper. “I’m gonna be the green ninja, and none of you losers better get in the way—”

“I never said that!” Kai exclaims, swatting Lloyd across the head as he cackles. “You watch it, or I might slip up with the needle.”

“Sounds like something a green gi-stealer would say.”

“You’re such a brat,” Kai grumbles, hiding the heat rising in his cheeks by busying himself with the earring packaging. “I never sounded like that. And you’re one to talk, with that squeaky little evil laugh you used to do.”

“Alright, I’m dropping it, I’m dropping it,” Lloyd says hastily, his teasing faltering at the threat of turning the tables.

Kai smirks, shaking his head. “Alright,” he says, flexing his wrist once. “I’m gonna ice your ear so it’s numb, then do the actual piercing. You want a count down?”

“Surprise me,” Lloyd says, his hands fisting anxiously in the edges of his sweatshirt.

“Sure thing,” Kai nods absently. “So,” he starts conversationally, as he presses the ice to the back of Lloyd’s ear. “What did bring this on? And don’t give me the teen rebellion thing — seriously, this time.”

Lloyd hesitates, then sighs. He bites his lip, his eyes staring somewhere beyond the ceiling. “I dunno,” he mutters. “I just remembered, the other day, that I’d thought they were super cool as a kid.”

Kai stifles the urge to remind him that he’s still a kid, and continues to listen instead, nodding at him to go on.

Lloyd makes a face. “I don’t know. The mission today was — it was dumb, and I didn’t like how I felt afterwards, so I guess I wanted to do something stupid.”

“Ah,” Kai exhales quietly. He’d had a feeling it was about the mission, but he couldn’t be sure. It hadn’t even been that bad, on the whole, but the sound of Cole’s head cracking against the floor was enough to escalate it right into terrible territory.

Kai’s still thanking his stars that Cole’s got such a thick head. Concussions aren’t fun, even when they do have the chance to treat them immediately.

“I just…I thought maybe it’d be nice to mess up on purpose, for once,” Lloyd continues, his voice quiet. “When I wasn’t trying not to.”

Kai’s frown deepens at that one, his hand hovering where he’s caught the edge of Lloyd’s ear, his thumb pressed against the end of the needle. His sudden concerns over Lloyd’s potentially earring-destroying, Oni/dragon blood are swept away by the plaintively depressing tone Lloyd’s using. He opens his mouth, then shuts it, hesitating.  

He understands the sentiment, of course — probably too well to really put into words. Kai’s not exactly a stranger to messing up. He’s definitely not a stranger to beating yourself up after you mess up, either. He also understands, too well, how it can all build up sometimes — the constant fear of failure, the pressure not to mess up.

Sometimes you’re just struck with the irrational desire to mess up on purpose out of pure spite. Kai gets that. And Lloyd’s at least rational enough to pick something that won’t hurt anyone, and is more likely to get a laugh out of them all, if anything. Kai tries not to roll his eyes fondly.

Plus, Kai would be lying if he said it doesn’t warm his heart that Lloyd’s come to him for it. Which he should, of course, Kai’d better have first dibs on Lloyd’s first piercing, but still. The sentiment, and all.

“Well,” Kai finally says, realizing he’s left Lloyd hanging. “I don’t know about messing up, because this looks pretty rad. But it was definitely your call, so remember to tell Sensei that when he sees it.”

“Yeah, sure.” Lloyd takes a breath, squeezing his eyes shut. “Okay, I’m ready. Stab my ear, Kai.”

“I already did, moron. Did you miss what I just said?”

Lloyd’s eyes pop open, and he blinks. “Huh? For real?”

“Told you,” Kai snorts. “Ninja pain tolerance. Ear piercing’s got nothing on Cole when he scores a hit on you in practice.”

Lloyd’s frozen for a moment, then he scurries over to the mirror, brushing his lengthening hair away so he can get a proper look at it. Kai hovers behind him, suddenly slightly anxious.

“Do you, um, do you like it? You can always take it out, if you don’t. It’ll close over on its own, and you can like, get an actual professional to do it—”

“Shut up, Kai, I love it,” Lloyd beams, tracing his finger over the little silver stud. “I look cool.”

Kai lets out a tiny breath of relief, smirking in satisfaction instead. “As close to cool as you can get, beansprout.”

“Whatever,” Lloyd rolls his eyes, before returning to admiring himself in the mirror. “You’re just jealous I have a super cool piercing, and you don’t.”

“Hey, I gave you that piercing,” Kai scowls. “Just wait until my ear finally heals, I’ll show you cool.”

“Gee, yeah, I can’t wait to see what cheap skull earring you infect yourself with this time.”

“Alright buddy, you’re toeing it dangerously close to the line,” Kai grabs Lloyd in a headlock, digging his knuckles into Lloyd’s thick hair as he yelps, struggling to pull himself free.

“Ow, hey, Kai, watch my ear—”

“Little jerk,” Kai finally releases him with a huff.

“Too bad you’re stuck with me forever,” Lloyd replies, making a face as he brushes his hair back into place.

“Plenty of time to watch you make more mistakes, then,” Kai replies, easily.

Lloyd briefly tenses up, his expression working. Kai slings an arm around his shoulder, briefly squeezing.

“It wasn’t your fault, Lloyd,” he says, gently. “Cole’s gonna tell you the same thing, ten times over.”

“Y-yeah, okay,” Lloyd murmurs, staring at the rug. “I got it.”

Kai eyes him for a brief moment, then shakes his head, carefully flicking the edge of his ear. “This, however? Is definitely your fault. So don’t go selling me out when Sensei bites your head off for it.”

“I’m not a sellout,” Lloyd huffs. “This’ll be nothing. Wait ’til you see what he says about my tattoo, that’ll be the real meltdown.”

Kai barks a laugh out at that, sweeping the cotton balls back into the bag. He then pauses, Lloyd’s word choice hitting him.

“Hey, what do you mean, your tattoo.”

“Oh, would you look at the time—”

“Lloyd, I swear to FSM, if you went and got a tattoo without me—”

#answered #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #kai smith #tumblr pleASE format this right for once #my fic #bees-go-buzz

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales: The Treasure of the Lost Lamp Movie Reviewcap! (Patreon Stretch Goal)

Hello all you happy people! And we have a special review today for two reasons. The first is that this is my second patreon stretch goal review, having hit the 15 dollar goal back in march thanks to my wonderful friend Emma, the same patreon whose responsible for the Green Eggs and Ham Reviews,  who helped me hit the 15 dollar goal.  As a result you fine people are getting three movie reviews each based on a Disney Afternoon Movie with Treasure of the Lost Lamp today, a goofy movie at the end of the motnh for  a weeklong tribute to my favorite dogmandadguy.  Extremley was going to be part of it but the length of this review convinced me otherwise, but I will be doing it this summer so keep an ear out. If you want to help me hit my next stretch goals do yourselve a favor and zip on over to my patreon YOU CAN FIND MY PATREON HERE. My next stretch goal at “OH Look 20 Dollars” would give everyone patreon and not, a monthly review of Darkwing Duck as decided by my patrons, reviews of BOTH season 2 mini series from Ducktales 87, introducing Fenton to the world and blighting it with Bubba before the 2017 series fixed him, and as a brucey bonus added last month a review of Danny Phantom the Ultimate Enemy. And if that wasn’t enough if you help me get to the goal after that at 25 unlocks another trilogy of disney film reviews, this time for the proud family and recess movie and the best kim possible movie, and dcom period, so the drama as well as Bryan Lee O’ Malley’s two stand alone graphic novels, lost at sea and seconds for you Scottaholics in the audience.

The other reason now the shilling’s done. is that the plan WAS to review this back to back with Treasure of The Found Lamp, to the point the orginal review had a whole thing about that, why it was delayed etc... but now that review’s been scrapped all together as something sudden and wonderful happened. After just kinda giving up someone came through with a translation of Della’s first apperance so presumibly i’ll be doing that as part of the build up to mother’s day, and since I still want ot do maternal instincts too, and already had to let the Floyd Gottfredson birthday special slide away as well... it had to go as I want to leave the only open space on the schedule for the lovely person who found the story for me. But this review is still done, i’m very proud of it so join me under the cut won’t you?

Behind The Scenes: Before I get into it i’d just like to note this article from SyFy Wire. It , along with articles I found via wikipedia citations, was an invaluable resource. 

The film was an experiment: It was an experiment to see if one of their tv properties could bring in theatrical money, to see if a movie made on a cheaper budget and still rake in decent money, to see if a film could be made being outsourced to several diffrent places, and to see what one of those places, their recently aquiried french stuido, could handle this kind of work. 

The film, if succesful would be the first of Disney’s MovieToons line, a series of films based on their shows. As you can tell by the fact only this movie and Goof Troop happened and the Movie Toons label wasn’t applied to that one it very much failed. While the film was warmly recevied by people who liked the show general audiences didn’t turn out for it. As a result the MovieToons label was scrapped, future projects with it were canceled.. but the stellar work put in by the french stuidio lead to it perserviering for several more decades and lead to them working on the Goofy Movie, which we’ll get to later this month but needless to say was a MUCH bigger hit with a much bigger budget. 

As for why the film failed... I have two theories. THe first is that parents were stupid back then and didn’t want to pay to see something on the big screen they could see on tv’s. This is a stupid mentality to me as generally a movie of a tv show puts in a ton of extra effort and usually goes bigger and dosen’t go home. It’s a likely theory given most liscened films of the era didn’t do quite well, with all three hasbro films tanking. And look I get Transformers the Movie is cheesy and killed a lot of people’s childhood toys, but damn if it ain’t aweosme.. and also something I need to cover at some point. Thankfully this died out by later in the 90′s with Rugrats getting a hugely succesful if flawed film, a better sequel and a third one that was also a crossover with the wild thornberries. 

And even now in 2020 we’re getting the Loud House and Rise of the TMNT movies sometimes this summer, we were SUPPOSED to have gotten the bobs burgers movie this summer but arne’t because Disney is being a dick about it.

And we got a phineas and ferb movie last year. With this trend hopefully thsi means we’ll get a Ducktales 2017 movie at some point since season 4 left a huge sequel hook laying right there to grab for a feature film.  One final note: The film was conceptually thought up as a 5 part serial like “Treasure of the Golden Suns”, “Catch as Cash Can”, “SuperDucktales” and “Time is Money, something that DOES show as the movie weirdly has act breaks. In a feature film. Yup. 

The Guest Cast:

I won’t go into the full cast since I’ve sung Alan Young and Russi Taylor’s praises PLENTY on this blog before, and I plan to go into Beakly and Launchpad’s actors when they show up in the pilot movie. But i’d be remiss if i didn’t talk about our three guest actors for our three new parts. 

First up is Merlock voiced by legend and if I had a hall of fame, hall of famer Christopher Lloyd.. I need to get me one of those. Lloyd is of course known for playing Doc Brown in back to the future but has done countless other films, voicework, and other good stuff. Among his MASSIVE filmography includes The Back to the Future Trilogy (Already mentioned it but it bears repeating), Star Trek III, Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the pants destroyingly terrifying Judge Doom, The Addams Family duology as fester, a role rip torn would ironcially play for the animated series made to captalize on said movie, Hey Arnold! The Movie, The Oogieloves in The Big Ballon Adventure (Look everybody needs money sometimes okay?), and Art of the Deal: The Movie, which was not, thankfully an ego filating nightmare made by trump himself but a film made by funny or die parodying his terrible book and having Llloyd return as Doc Brown. TV Wise he’s known for Taxi, Back to the Future the Animated Series, Cyberchase and he most recently popped up on Big City Greens. How I missed that ep I.. do know as I haven’t watched season 2. Gonna fix that later this month. Lloyd is utterly awesome, a great guy and thankfully still alive at the time of this writing, so I was happy to have him here. 

Less familiar to me but still known is Rip Taylor, a comedian known for his flamboyant unique way of speech and his marvelous mustache. He showed up in things occasionally and always seemed like the nicest guy and his passing in late 2019 truly is sad. He does a terrific job here but more on that in a moment. 

Finally we have Richard Libertini, a comedian I never really saw in anything besides this who according to IMDB was most famous for his ablility to do a foreign accent. I REALLY hope all of them aren’t as horribly racist as this one. We’ll.. get to that in a sec as it’s time for the plot!

A Treasure Uncovered:

We open our film gorgeously. The animation is great in the film, having some rough edges I chalk up to the film’s hectic production, the studio being new at working at disney properties, and the film not being meant for HD. That being said a few rough spots here and there aside.. the film looks ungodly gorgeous. Like most theatrical films based on a cartoon it takes an already great style and makes it look great. It feels like a more fluid evolution of the cartoons look and it’s a shame we didn’t get more movies in this style for both this show and others, ESPECIALLY Darkwing Duck. Can you imagine a Darkwing Duck movie with this lush animation? Hopefully we’ll get one eventually. 

So our heroes are going to somewhere in the Middle East. That’s.. that’s all wikipedia gives me and all the film gives me. As usual Scrooge is after treasure in this case the Treasure of Collie Baba, the greatest thief there ever was based obviously off Ali Baba from 1001 nights and that one Beastie Boys song. 

It’s here we find the WORST thing about the film, the thing that makes this a hard one to watch depsite otherwise being pretty good, and that makes my skin crawl knowing i’m a white man and a BUNCH of white guys, Ducktales series creator who did the voice casting for this character, the writers who wrote him, the direector disney them fucking selves who thought this was okay. 

The film has some horrible steroytping. It starts with a bunch of backgorund guys surronding Scrooge, with crooked teeth and steotypical voices. This on it’s own is odious. 

It somehow gets worse. Then we meet one of our antagonists. We meet Dijon. 

This Fucking Guy 

Djon is horribly offensive reminding me of other such luminaries in being ungodly offensive yet somehow getting put to film as Jar Jar Binks (With all respeect to his poor actor Ahmed Best, this is not his fault), Rob Schinder as a Sterotypically asian preist, Skids and Mudflap, Rob Schinder as a sterotypically mexican bandit, The Whitewashed cast of The Last Airbender, and Rob Schinder as a stereotypically asian preist. What i’m saying is Djon is an AWFUL, horribly offensive character.. and that Rob Schinder should be shot up into space, not to watch cheesy movies, he’s not funny enough for that, but instead to be sent to a satlitie that’s liveable, but also filled to the brim with spring loaded boxing gloves. Just tons of boxing gloves that feel like getting punched by a heavewight boxer all hidden... they could hit his legs, his face, his nuts, his face and his nuts, the point is he’s in constnat pain unless he moves carefully. 

And lest you think i’m exaggerating for starters this is his design. 

It just screams “vaugely but sterotpyically middle eastern” along with cowardly. The fact he’s also a literal rat is just the icing on the cake made of broken glass, shrapnel and broken DVD’s of Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen. They say if you eat a reveng eof the fallen dvd John Tutoro appears at the foot of your bed and watches you while you sleep.. and by they I mean me. It was a bad bet. I got rid of him with some insese and a bribe of five dollars. 

Oh but that’s just design.. when he talks it’s MUCH worse. His voice is like if they took Apu from the simpsons and said “This but MORE offensive”, and his perosnality is WORSE. He’s a thief.. and not in the endearing loveable rogue way but he’s a pick pocket and a running “Gag’ is that he’ll often grab eveyrthing within reahc. As the deisgn shows he’s a coward running at every opportunity. Oh and to top it all off he’s the willing servant of the white coded, given all ducks in this series are white coded and voiced bby white actors, big bad. And the actor is naturally VERY white to make this cocktail of offensivness so complete that if Disney ever got rid of this film I GUARANTEE the republcian party would be running in with accusations of cancel culture gone amok and never shutting up about this like they did the muppets. Which for the record THEY DIDN’T CANCEL THEM, YOUR POINT IS ILLEGITMATE, THEY JUST WANTED TO BE SENSTIVE YOU GHOULS. 

I do have a reason for bringing up Disney’s content warnings... most damming of all given just how DEEPLY uncomfortbale this character is.. there isn’t one for this movie. I double checked: There isn’t even wanring notes on the website. It’s just.. on there. And given just how ghastly a sterotype Djon is.. that’s not right. Seriously they DID put them on certain episodes of the show, theyk now this sort of thing is wrong and they done wrong.. but for NO reason they haven’t done so for a film released 31 years ago. Around the same time as the series and just offensive as that show at it’s worst if not more so. This is flatly inexcusable.. par for the course for Disney’s incompetence but still horribly furstrating, disgusting and shameful.. which has been the theme of the last three days really. I expect better because when it comes to putting that warning label on this stuff, they usually are better. First the scheduling mixup and now this. You already do a handful of things wrong Disney why add this to the list?!

It’s just draining not only to run into another Disney Fuckup after a weekend of dealing with one of their worst in recent memory, but just to watch Djon. To see this horrible caractrure saunter onto the screen and go on with his harmful schtick, to see that THIS is what Ducktales 87 reduced non white people to more often than not.  It’s remarkable just how throughly and awesomely Frank and Matt completely and totally reversed this. Instead of horrible sterotypes in the reboot, we got TONS of loveable people of color, an endearing latino hero, a smart african american buisness woman who takes no shit but is still a consumate professional, and an egyptian HERO with an intresting story and a strong moral code instead of this horrible reminder that racisim in media was such an afterthought not ONE person brought this up during the scyfy wire stuff or in any inteview i’ve seen. No one cared. Djon was POPULAR enough that he got three episode sin the series. THREE FUCKING EPISODES. This film could be GOOD.. but it’s just so bogged down EVERY FUCKING TIME this artists interpreitation of what Tucker Carlson sees when he looks at a middle eastern person I had to pause to compose myself and had to take a break writing this review to avoid tyiping this in all caps and using the phrase YOU RACIST MOTHERFUCKERS every other sentence. And again i’m white, I get this is second hand offensiveness.. I do... but it dosen’t mean I can’t be offended other white people were so callous about other cultures behaviors this happened.

And what makes me feel worse.. is that I just sorta... never thought about white people voicing non white characters. Things like this I noticed sure, I realize now part of the reason I didn’t like this movie the first time I saw it was this alex jones version of a looney tune, but I do feel shame for not noticing or caring long before this. Sure I loved it when a character of color got played by a person of color.. but I didn’t realize just how deep that problem was and how LONG it went on for before the outcry post george floyd and the call to action lead to most shows still going course correcting. It’s why stuff like this extra botehrs me: because THIS was just as okay at the time. No one blinked twice about this and odds are the creators involved still haven’t. And that.. that’s just terrible and it hurts to think about and  I still have most of the movie to go.  

The Pyramid of Peril:

So we do get a gorgeous unvewling scene of a box Scrooge found out about from Collie Baba’s horde that should lead them to the treasure. This scene reminds me of Indina Jones.. and I bring this up because the poster was specifically made to mimick an indinia jones poster, to the point of getting drew struzan to do it. THe creator of Ducktales objected..l but I do not get WHY. While I”m not sure if he had yet, Speilberg flat out admits the Carl Barks comics were an inspiration for Indina Jones, with the iconic bolder chase coming from a similar scene in one of Barks Stories. Gotta cover that too. So yeah I don’t get not wanting an indina jones style poster when both were inspiried by the same work and it’s just simple logic and it looks so neat. Thank you. 

Scrooge finds seemingly just clothes.. and a map. Jeff Dunham’s Most Racist Puppet reports to his master, Merlock. Merlock is a.. meh villian. Christopher Lloyd does try.. but Lock is your standard evil overlord wants to take over the world type. He dosen’t have much depth, or personality and only his style saves him from dragging the film down along with Dana Carvey’s most racist disguise in master of disguise. He does have a deent shape shifting gimick and being played by Christopher Lloyd means he’s acted TREMENDOUSLY. Alan Young was apparently in awe watching him work and that’s wonderful to hear. The guy did his best. Weirdly Merlock would show up in tons of other works, mostly video games.. but even weirder he NEVER showed up in ducktales 2017. Both Djon and Gene would, Djon thankfully renamed we’ll get to all of that tommorow thank god. I need it after this. But Frank has outright said they didn’t use Merlock because there simply wasn’t anything they could do with him they couldn’t dow ith magica. My likely guess is the might of found a way to revamp him EVENTUALLY, it’s not like radical revamps weren’t there thing come on, they just had way more stories with Magica and didnd’t get around to it before the show was canceled. Just make him some sort of evil god or something. it’s what I might do. There’s a lot of angles with him. Though I would’ve still gotten christopher lloyd back. I mean most of the recasting is good but he’s still alive and deserved a better shot at things. 

So Merlock sends Djonn to go with scrooge as his guide to find the treasure, as there’s something of imense power within it. And I gotta ask WHY does Merlock need a minon. No really. This isn’t a situation like reboot magica where he’s trapped in another realm. He can shapeshift into any animal. We only see him use falcon, rat, cockroach and bear but theoritically he can become anything and bear alone is still a LOT. Why does he need this sterotype even other sterytopes ar eashamed of? The film dosen’t NEED Djonn. Just let Christopher Lloyd monologue and leave this post 911 propogranda cartoon at home. 

So our heroes nad rejected jar jar prototype head into the desert, and seemingly find nothing before finding a small pyramid all while Merlock follows desecretley as a mighty hawk. 

Scrooge makes the boys and Djon dig... because they clearly forgot the “work hard” part of his ethos. 

Our heroes unveil the pyramid... and while Merlock SAYS he searched the desert and I get it’s hard to see thourgh all of that.. the dude is immortal, had decades to search and had Mickey Rooney there on standby to force him to go comb the desert. I have an artist rendering of that hang on

So our heroes enter the pyramid and it goes.. really how you’d expect: there’s a bunch of traps our brave explorers have to pass, the boys minintpret a juinor woodchuck saying about loosing your marbles to mean using the ones they actually have which geninely comes in handy as they trip the traps and Rob SChinder as a carrot stumbles into one. Also launchpad is wearing a hawaiin shirt and shades. This has no baring on the plot, but it does bring the movie up a notch in my book and I question why the reboot never used this outfit. Then again they also never properly used Donald’s Quack Pack Outfit (Which bad show or not, is objectively awesome), or his Quack Shot Indiana Jones Riff Outfit, so  it’s not like there isn’t a presdecnt for not giving a character a cool costume change from a previous medium. I really should do a top 12 missed opportunities list for the 2017 cartoon.. the ideas for stuff are really piling up. 

OUr heroes eventually find the treasure which has insidiously clever security the more I think about it: at first I thought it had none, just a pit with some... scorpions? I mean their supposed to be but they look like they crawled out of the same stygian hole in the sky Doofus crawled out of. And if your asking me “wait which Doofus” the answer is both. Both these abominations crawled out of a stygian hole in the sky.

But the treasure is on a platform surrounded by scoprions with the only way out being the trap filled way they came in. Unless someone comes in with a full team and a bunch of lootin sacks, they aren’t getting out with EVERYTHING. They can steal SOME of the treasure but there’s no way to get any signifigant portion... and the team thing itself is an issue, something Collie defintely predicted being a thief himself: while some thieves can work well as a team, hence why we have four oceans movies 3/4 damn good, and for the record 12 is the bad one, 8 is how you do a soft reboot and a female led reboot right, a good chunk of professional crooks will turn on each other or try and swinldle... and tha’ts dangerous in a trap filled temple but hey some criminals ain’t so smart.  If they all were Rudy Gulliani wouldn’t have two razzies for preparing to pull his pants down, and have waved his phone around on tv like a dare for future adminstrations to arrest the shit out of him would he? 

But Scrooge has his family so they get loading. But not before Webby finds the lamp. Not knowing about it Scrooge has no intrest in it, but Webby does. We also get a really simple but hilarious gag where SCrooge dickers over the idea for a second.. before Webby picks up a Jeweled tiara to possibly take instead. The best gags to me are often the ones that just let the character’s perosnalities take the lead and bounce off each other. It’s why when I reviewed the four lilo and stitch crossovers recently I harped on character interaction as their biggest weakness: it’s what MAKES a good work for me. It’s why my faviorite comics and shows often follow a loveable group of disfunctional misfits. I like a group of big personalities who despite in theory should NOT be able to work making it work anyway. And it’s honeslty what’s made Scrooge last so long: Scrooge on his OWN is awesome.. but iwth the boys, donald, and in the case of this series and the reivival Webby and Launchpad, with people to bounce off of who he contrasts heavily with, from Launchapd’s buffonery to Webby’s inehrent sweetness in both versions, to the boys genuine honesty and sense of adventure.... it makes him truly stand out. He’s a great character on his own, don’t get me wrong.. but it’s the people around him that give him chances to show WHY. A good character on it’s own is fine and dandy.. a good character with other good characters around them is where it gets truly special. 

Merlock naturally bursts in and in a VERY Black Heron move needlesly outs what micheal bay sees when he closes his eyes as a bad guy... no really he grabs the guy with his talons as he captures the treasure and reveals he’s a bad guy. I don’t even get why keep Djonn alive. He’s done all Merlock possibly could’ve needed and Merlock is ruthless... this makes no sense and only happens because they need Djonn for later in the plot.

Our heroes barely escape, rafting out on the platform itself in a thrilling sequence.. but it’s the one right after that catches my attention. Scrooge utterly defeated, having searched for this treasure for forty years and unresponsive to everyone else. The anmation, coupled with the incomprable Alan young’s acting makes this the highlight of the film for me. Beneath the armor of wealth and skill.. is only a poor old man who just lost something he’s been chasing after most of his life. Scrooge tries his hardest not to be vunerable and both shows and the original comics all use that so when he truly is devistated like this, and i’ts belivible since this treasure is a personal goal of his and as someone who has had things that they seek out specifically, loosing them always hurts. It hurts to ALMOST reach a goal only to have it crumble out under you

But while this alone is good.. what’s next makes it great. Webby sweetly offers up the lamp. Scrooge turns it down, and her genuine gesture reinvgorates him and reminds us of who he is “I’ll find it if it takes another 40 years”> Scrooge may be bitter, mean and selfish a lot of the time.. but deep down, he’s a good man and one who will not give up, and a momentary setback can only stop him so long as long as he has his family to remind him of who he truly is.. and what’s truly important. It’s genuinely sweet and to me is also a reminder of why 87 Webby is a good character: Shes’ not perfect, her main personality trait is often Girl Sterotype”.. but she’s a genuinely sweet small child with a huge heart. It’s telling that while 17′ Webby is almost completely diffren,t and far better, that heart remains her biggest strength. Sure her reboot self could kill a man nad no one would ever find the body, but it’s her heart and empathy that makes that possible and makes her Webby.  That inherent loving nature is what makes Webby webby wether she’s a toddler having a tea party or a tween getting ready to intergoate a guy with a meat tenderizer while saying ‘Cute girl stuff”. 

Gene Genie Let’s Himself Go:

It’s a few days later and this is the point where it REALLY becomes obvious this was written as a bunch of episodes. Though to the film’s credit while it does ake this feel like a compliation movie as a result... it dosen’t hamper the film’s quality, condiment from Rush Limbaghs’ hot dog stand does that just fine, but once you notice it it’s impossible to unotice it. Weirdly though it seems chunked up into four episodes rather than the usual five, likely cutting down an episode, though I can’t see where they cut out material frankly if they did and i’ts just as likely they woudl’ve had to make one to fill in the space.

So Scrooge is in a mood, being grumpy with his secretary Mrs. Featherly, quackfaster in all but name, and having to be sent home. So while Duckworth goes to fetch him Webby polishes her treasure at long last readying for a tea party, something the boys roundly reject because their sexist little twits and swo were the writers or executies who assumed all little boys act the same. It’s easily my biggest pet peeve with the series as a whole: anytime this crops up with the boys it turns them into the worst dicks imaginable. It’s telling this, being mean about her wantin ga tea party with her surrogate brothersi s TAME. Normally they’ll say she can’t do things because she’s a girl or mock her hobies outright instead of just be mildly dickish. And while she dosen’t look much younger Webby is VERY CLEARLY, in this series anyway, supposed to be say 5 or 6 to the boys 8-10. 7 at most. SHe’s a small child and while it is realistic for older kids to bully younger ones, it’s not fun to watch. It’s why I get annoyed at all the big sibling bully characters.. some work, but most aren’t fun to watch because there’s nothing funny or intresting about it. It’s the same deal here. 

Thankfully that quickly goes away as the lamp moves when Webby rubs it and does so again to prove it did move. Huey finishes it and we’re introduced to Gene, the best part of the film.  Gene is a Genie and he takes a second to dart around before messing with the appliances in the kitchen, as he was last around during the time 1001 Nights Came About. Cleverly though, and so we thankfully don’t have 80 dozen fishout of water jokes that have already been done before. As you can probably guess i’m not a huge fan of time travel fish out of water stuff. Now from another dimensoin or planet, i’m on board with with Star Vs, Steven Universe and Sym-Bionic Titan being great examples of this, as is the comic resident alien. (Despite having the wonderous Alan Tuduk the show sounds way more mean spirited and misses the entire point of the comic as given by the author in the credits, i.e. that the alien is supposed to NOT be a threat and just be gently waiting for a ride) The inverse is also good with Amphbia and owl house, taking a human and plopping them into our world. But time travel stuff just usually runs the same beats of “look at the shiny thing” and what not. The only time i’ve sene something SIMILAR work is with thor where their society is SIMILAR to vikings time but still it’s own thing.. it also gave us a classic gag in..

So yeah i’m glad they dropped this and instead had a clever way around it: Gene reads the encylopedia at the mansion. Granted it’s Scrooge so I don’t know how current it is and given this came out in 1990 thus HOW racist it is. It’s not a questoin of IF it was, but how much.

But having caught up the kids confront him with the fact he has to grant wishes. This lamp runs on what I now realize are Aladdin rules: Whoever currently holds the Lamp is the Genie’s master, they only get three wishes, and that dosen’t reset if it changes hands. The only big diffrence from the usual is Gene dosen’t have to TELL them about the wishes like Genie did, and Gene very begrudginly agrees to it. He also seem’s phsyically pained when doing so. 

So since all 12 know about him, each of the kids gets a wish though it seems unfair with HDL. Their one person, they shoudln’t get 9 wishes just because their brain is spread out over three bodies. 

This film continues the weird simliarties to Aladdin by attaching rules though they instead come up as a result of our heroes talking rather than the Genie just flat out tleling them: both share the “you can’t wish for more wishes” thing, a common rule in these stories and usually only broken nowadays as a clever twist as the rule is SO common place, not having it is a twist. But it is there for a reason: to limit the sheer power of a reality warping wish. The wishes can also only go so far. In a nice line, when Huey, Dewey or Louie suggests wishing for peace one earth, Gene says “No pipe dreams’ He can’t bend people or reality on THAT scale. He can bend reality as we find out, but it’s smaller scales like turning someone’s possesions over ot someone else, warping the bin into a castle, or bringing inanitamte objects to limited life. Still HUGE feats worth of a genie, so Gene’s power isn’t so nerfed it’s unusuable, but it does explain why his evil pervious ownder Merlock, more ont hat in a bit too, didn’t just wish to have eternal dominon over the earth or something. Gene can do just about anything but he can’t change the world on a fundemental level. 

And I do LIKE having rules in wished based stories like this, I chalk it up to growing up with Fairly Odd Parents... though they eventually went too far in the oppsoitie direction, pulling rules out of their ass to suit the episode, instead of simply having some very standard, very understandable rules that still pose challenges but don’t outright cheat so the episode can happen. 

So Webby does her first wish.. and wishes for a Baby Elephant, something Gene is against as he prefers they keep the wishes small: otherwise he gets found out, and the fight over him begins. So one of the boys wishes him away. Or Webby does. Point is it’s gone though not before Beakly sees it and Scrooge smells something is up. Our heroes try to hide gene, but gene thankfully simply dresses up like a modern kid and thus is able to pass as a friend of there staying for the night. 

So with the rules established and what not the kids find a clever solution: they simply go a ways away from the mansion into the woods, far enough from town to avoid any suspcion, and same iwth the mansion and just wish for all kinds of stuff: a giant bunch of ice cream toys, standard kid wish fufillment but it’s nice... in part because the kids treat Gene like one of them. Wihle they STARTED asking him about the wishes, this starts the bonding process. Soon he will be part of the hive mind.. SOON. 

Until then though after using another wish to make scrooge not mad at them for coming home late and missing dinner, that night we find out Gene’s backstory.... and it’s an utter tearjerker. As it turns out Merlock wants him back because he’s Gene’s former master and as you’d guess.. it was NOT a happy existnace, used contstnatly to do horrible things with no power to stop himself. Pompeii and Atlantis were both directly Merlock’s fault and it was only Collie Baba stealing the lamp that put an end to his hell. He also answers the two obvious questions botht he audeiince and the boys have: How the hell is Merlock still alive and shoudln’t he be out of wishes then? The first is simple. Unlike pretty much every DBZ Villian whose WANTED to do so, Merlock wished for immortality first chance he got, taking the Zamasu route instead and thus leaving him free. 

As for the wishes thing it turns out his amulet, in adition to shapeshifting, also gives him extra wishes becuase fuck it. 

But the boys sweetly offer to protect him. 

The next day, Apu’s Cousin let’s Merlock know the maps in the mansion and Merlock has him help sneak in with Merlock taking rat form. This backfires as Mrs. Beakley notices the form and chases after him with a broom

Meanwhile Webby has her tea party with Gene after he and the boys played cops and robbers earlier, and he’s bored.. though nicely not because it’s a girly thing, but because the stuffed animals aren’t alive and she naively has him fix that. This leads to 

Which sadly is jsut scrooge vs a duck toy but admit it, you want that movie for Disney Plus yesterday. Call Charles Band Disney. CALL CHARLES BAND! 

Whelp Scrooge Still Sucks:

Scrooge takes for a turn for the obnoxious in the next part, but i’ts fine by me as it’s part of the plot. Naturally this reinactment of Cult of Chucky has lead to Scrooge finding out about the Genie. To his credit, Scrooge is tactical about his wishes. As said by the Duck himself “I could wish for a diamond, no the world’s biggest dimaond, no ten world’s biggest diamond, no a diamond mind, no the MINING INDUSTRY!”

The sheer power this gives him is TERRIFYING, both because of his status.. and because unlike the kids who all wished for simple kid stuff and used up their wishes quickly, he both gets how much he can do with this and could conquer the world economy if he truly wanted to. 

The obnoxious part comes in as he treats Gene as not a person, figuring he’s just there and forces him into the lamp despite the kids protests after Gene grants his first wish: Collie Baba’s treasure. It also dosen’t feel like the wishing nor him using the lamp to get the tresure back goes against his hard work ethos: for the former while he is getting all this magically, he’s still having ot use his wits to get the most out of it, and he did earn the lamp itself square. For the latter, he already earned the treasure square too and had it stolen. He’s onlyg etting back what’s by all rights HIS. Granted he plans on giving most of it up for a tax break but still it’s his by right. 

However the reason his assholery works is twofold: first it’s Scrooge. While he’s not a TERRIBLE person, in the comcis and this cartoon he isn’t a GOOD person either. He DOES have a good heart and will usually do the right thing, but his first instnct is always to get more money and to be a cantakerous old bastard to eveyrone and everything. While he’s subtly grew out of “I hate eveyrone and everyone hates me” as his guiding principal, it’s still his defualt reaction to most situations. But he first relents by letting Gene attend the party, part of why the Collie Baba thing stung so bad was that he’s told the historical society he’d get the treasure for years only to come back empty handed, if shrunken. But he still manages to have a good time while Asok and Merlock infiltrate.. well I’mRunningOutofINsultingNIcknamesCanYouTell steals the silverware. Yes... that.. that really happens. 

Look we’re almost done, i’m almost free of this racist mummies curse. Let’s continue. Gene sees melock and freaks and drags SCrooge with him and while at First Scrooge is cranky...

No but now I want a Donkey Kong Country crossover too dammmit. And to talk about those games. Another thing for the list. But Scrooge is righ tot be a bit surly...

Okay now your just pushing it. As Gene whisked him away without telling him anything other than vauge worries... but then he gets a full idea of why Gene’s so terrified when Merlock shapeshifts into a bear and starts breaking the door down. Eh, could be worse. 

Gene shrinks them to escape and Merlock leaves thinking they fled but leaves Skids Minus Mudflap to go look for them. Scrooge sneaks out but bumps into a cart running from the photo you see when you look up stereotype on google. I mean I assume.. let’s try it. 

Huh you know I HOPED but I never expected... 

So Google Proving My Point plans to give his lamp to the master because of his weird Torgo-Esque obession with helping a man who clearly wants to murder him but takes his sweet time doing so because plot, and Gene figuring this COULDN’T POSSIBLY go as bad as Melock getting him urges the dummy to keep him and make his own wishes.

This goes about as well as you’d expect....

Wiped Out With A Wish:

Scrooge returns home to find Watto has wished to take his poessions, fortune, everything and Scrooge gets thrown in jail for breaking into his own house. We get two great moments back to back. The first is Scrooge lamenting loosing his fortune in jail, and realizing the sheer power and risk of the lamp, especially since he worked hard to earn it, every bit of it.. and Sam Wilson’s 70′s Backstory came in and took it all in an instant. 

The second is Scrooge’s family coming for him, including Launchpad , Beakly and Webby obviously and bailing him out. Though Beakly is UNGOLDLY annoying in this scene, sobbing hysterically and adding nothing and it’s not nearly as funny as the  film thinks. Turns out Goliath getting buried wrapped in chains threw them out. 

Scrooge takes a bit to rebound from all this.. but eventually realizes something: he knows the security of the bin inside and out. He had it put in after all. So it’d be easy enough to break in. So they gotta break in to break out the lamp, undo this nightmare, and END THIS MOVIE. Seriously this review has taken two days  as is I do NOT want to miss my invincible review. 

So they break into the bin, and it’s a tightly paced Scene, scrooge going in one way while the kids go the other and we even get a nice callback as the marbels come in handy to get past one of the traps. It’s just a good scene. it’s only real flaw is that Launchapd just sorta disappears as does Duckworth despite the fact their in a plane, and the bin later gets turned into a floating castle. Kinda a plot hole to not have Launchpad crash in to save htem just saying. 

Scrooge eventually does get to Djonn, whose been ignoring the imminent threat of Merlock while Gene sweats it out... and this backfires horribly as Merlock hitched a ride as a roach (Though there was a hilarious scene of him getting fried constnatly by lasers when Louie went through a laser hallway, as while Louie had the directions, it dind’t take into account passengers on your head. 

So Merlock remanifests in full gets the Lamp and unleashes his wrath on Tin Tin in the Congo and turns him into a wild pig. 

Not you sweetie. He then forces Gene to turn the castle into a fortress and float it back to his home in parts unknown. It’s a DAMN cool scene with impressive and horrifiing animation as the bin melts and crumbles into thte castle and the kids barely make it up the stares as they shift and disolve. Really top notch stuff.

Scrooge stands up to Merlock... and this naturally goes poorlyw ith Gene begging Merlock not to respond.. and Merlock having him blow scrooge off the top of the forgtess storm eagle style, though scrooge understands. And this is the true reason why scrooge being a dick didn’t bother me so much. Because it helps create a great contrast between him and Merlock. Both thought of Gene as a tool rather than a person.. but Scrooge grew to realize he was wrong and what he was dealing with wasn’t some magical goodies creator.. but a child forced to constantly grant wishes, in sheer agony to do so no less, likely so sick of it because again and again and again people used him as a slave to get what they wanted and to hell with what Gene wanted. He realized he was terrible for making this poor boy into his slave simply because that’s his job. In contrast Merlock could give no shits and is a malevolent monster who glefully uses Gene despite the pain the wishes put him through and his protests. It’s why Gene is the best part.. he’s  athroughly likeable, throughly inncoent character with tons of personality and a truly tragic and horrifying backstory and Rip Taylor acts the hell out of every scene with the guy. 

Thankfully the marbles come in handy one last time and Huey, Dewey or Louie snipes the lamp away and a struggle for it insues between Scrooge and Merloc mid air. it’s fucking awesome.. and it get sbetter in how scroogewins. He simply gets rid of Merlock’s amulet, taking it then throwing it. Grante dhe COULD’EVE used it for unimited wishes.. but it was too risky to do that and as we’ll see in the ending , Scrooge realized the Lamp was too powerful to keep around for much longer and too much of a tempting target for his rogues.. not that we see them this movie as the crew wanted it to bea ccesaible and thus kept hte cast to the main cast from season 1 and just made new vilians and a new supporting character, but still. 

He does use his second wish though to undue the damage Merlock had done and the bin and clan mcduck are returned to duckburg in good condition.

Time for our ending, which is genuinely and wholly touching. With the lamp too dangerous to use Scrooge considers just sending it to the earth’s core, which horrifies the kids as it’d mean Gene would be trapped there forever... if the molten lava iddn’t just outright destory the lamp and probably kill him. But Scrooge.. isn’t the bastard he likes to potray himself as. Instead he makes Gene into a real boy. He gives the poor kid HIS wish, which designrates the lamp and undoes all the spells... so Merlock is PROBABLY dead but he does return for some games so maybe not? 

And so we end on two things: Gene happily playing cops and robbers with the boys finally free.. and Birth of A Nation grabbing all the loot he can in his patns and running off. Ha ha ha thank god i’m done with this prick. And no I will not be looking at his ducktales episodes unless I have to. 

Final Thoughts:

This movie is OKAY. It has a solid plot, gene is a wonderful chacter, the animatoin is pretty prettay pretty good, and the voice acting as usual is excellent, with Rip Taylor being the standout. 

But as my paragraphs of rage shoud’ve made Clear Djonn is just BAD. Easily the worst character i’ve encountered in my year of reviewing and some of the worst writing i’ve ran into. And that writing includes a goblin man voyerstically forcing two teenagers to make out, making jokes about santa renaming himself Clem the sceneafter he tearfully confessed to letting the elves and ms. claus die, accidental transphobia via the u-men, and Bryan Lee O malley thinking we needed more than one volume of Julie Powers being around.  This was disgusting, even by 1990 standards and especially by 2021 standards and it drags the film down considerably. Without it the film is okay.. with it the film is just VERY hard to watch any time he pops up.  He made getting through the movie a nightmare and while I pause a lot becaue it’s a bad habbit I did so more simply because as I said earlier in the review I could not stand him. 

It makes it a hard film to recommend. If you can stomach the racisim, then it might be worth it, but be aware of what your putting up with going in. But if you can’t.. there’s no shame in that, it’s carbombya levels of bad. Which yes was a real fictoinal country. It was so bad Casey Casem quit transformers over it. True story. So yeah, it’s an okay film, on par with the series at it’s best for the most part.. but Djonn just spoils it for me. 

If you liked this review, like it, share it around that sort of thing and if you want MORE disney movie reviews, in addiiton to the goofy movie one later this month, if you help me hit my 25 dollar stretch goal on patroen.com/popculturebuffet, i’ll do reviews of the Recess, Proud Family and Kim Possible MOvies (Well so the drama anyway), so help me out would you and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#ducktales #ducktales treasure of the lost lamp #ducktales 87 #scrooge mcduck #rip taylor #christopher lloyd #launchpad mcquack #webby vanderquack #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #duckworth #bentina beakley #merlock #djon #faris djinn #movies #disney plus #disney

[clockworkouroboros]

hey this must seem like a really slime brain question, but how do you start/where do you start/where can you start reading the edas? i’ve been meaning to ask someone for a while you just seemed the least threatening

Not slime brain at all! Tbh you must have read my mind, anon, because I was just thinking about putting together a bit of a guide to the EDAs recently. I’m super excited about anyone reading these books because I do so love them, so I definitely was excited to get this ask!

As to the “where” of reading the EDAs, I’m not going to share a link to download PDFs in a post like this, but I am definitely willing to share such a link privately. While some of the books are definitely worth buying physical copies (in my opinion), it gets expensive. I mean, there are over 70 books in the series. (Especially with a lot of the really good books; I spent something like $50USD to get Interference Books I and II.) I think literally anyone on this website who talks about the EDAs has a link to PDFs, so asking literally anyone would be a safe bet. The rest of this post is going to be under a cut, because this is gonna get lengthy.

So. Reading the EDAs. There are a few questions to keep in mind: are you a completionist? Are you interested only in specific companions or specific story arcs? Do you just really want to see why everyone is talking about this Fitz dude and why he’s so in love with the Doctor? Do you just want to know which books aren’t really worth your time? Do you just want pretty Paul McGann? (which is totally valid, by the way.)

So, uh. I’m just going to go through the EDAs and make notes, which is why this is gonna get long real quick.

The Eight Doctors: I know it’s the first book in the series, but it’s more than okay to skip it. There’s basically no plot, it’s weirdly sexist, and although it introduces a companion, it fails to actually, y’know, introduce her as a character very well.

Vampire Science: Yes! Good book! Properly introduces Sam, the companion. Has a lot of things, including Eight with kittens, Eight baby-talking to bats, butterflies!, and great characters.

The Bodysnatchers: Not...that...great. If you’re a huge Litefoot stan, go for it. Otherwise, feel free to skip.

Genocide: Would recommend. The beginning of some good character development for Sam, a fairly short book, and again, interesting characters. 

War of the Daleks: Well. Uh. Imagine Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, but boring. And there’s a sleazy guy who tries to hit on the Doctor’s underage companion. And Daleks. If that’s your cup of tea, go for it. 

Alien Bodies: First of all, this is a great book. Fantastic. Showing just how good experimental Doctor Who can be. It’s also the start of a very big arc that doesn’t fully resolve until The Ancestor Cell. Would recommend, and if you’re interested in the War in Heaven/Faction Paradox arc, this is your starting point! I have a physical copy of this one.

Kursaal: Unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed Kursaal. It’s not objectively great, but it’s fun. Featuring pretty Paul McGann, insulting people in Latin, and truly impressive displays of gardening. And, uh, gore. There’s some nasty gore. Not important in terms of arcs, so feel free to skip.

Option Lock: Listen, I love Justin Richards as much as the next person, but this book isn’t that great, nor is it all that important in the grand scheme of things. Not terrible, but probably not your time if you just want the highlights.

Longest Day: Okay, uh, I kind of detest this book, but it’s also the beginning of a mini arc that goes through Seeing I. All you need to know is the Doctor and Sam get separated. I wouldn’t really recommend.

Legacy of the Daleks: Not worth it.

Dreamstone Moon: A good read! One of those solid but not spectacular stories. Just good Doctor Who.

Seeing I: definitely would recommend. Featuring some much-needed Sam character development and an important thing for Eight (*cries*) that will come back in a bunch of other novels. Also refers back to some of the events of Alien Bodies. I have a physical copy of this one.

You can skip both Placebo Effect and Vanderdeken’s Children. 

The Scarlet Empress: Yessss, it’s really good. Standalone and a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, plus it introduces Iris Wildthyme, who is amazing and I love her. I have a physical copy of this one.

The Janus Conjunction: Unpopular opinion, but I liked it. It’s not amazing or anything, but it’s solid sci-fi pulp. Featuring pretty Eight. And a lot of gore. It’s by Trevor Baxendale. He kind of specializes in great descriptions and lots of gore.

Beltempest: If you’re into experimental Doctor Who, try this. If not, it’s not arc-important to anything, and it’s really, really weird, so feel free to skip it. I like it, though.

The Face-Eater: Kind of gross. Not that memorable. 

The Taint: This book isn’t objectively good, but it introduces a new companion, and that new companion is Fitz Kreiner, so I still have to recommend it. I just love Fitz so much. What a loser.

Demontage: A good story, and another good look at Fitz as a character! Standalone.

Revolution Man: Very important Fitz character development. And a good story. I have a physical copy of this one.

Dominion: There’s one scene that’s kind of gross, but beyond that, I believe it’s important for Sam. And it isn’t a terrible book, either.

Unnatural History: Yes. Yes yes yes. This is one of my all-time favorite Doctor Who stories. It’s important to the arc begun in Alien Bodies, so you’ll want that and Seeing I as prior reading. It’s. So good. I have a physical copy of this one.

Autumn Mist: Autumn Mist isn’t bad, but I’d say it’s skippable. Addresses some of the hanging threads in Unnatural History.

Interference (Books I and II): So uh. Interference comes in two books, both written by the same person. The story is fantastic. There’s a lot of torture, especially in the first book. Sam leaves. Fitz, uh, has some important character things. It introduces Compassion, a new companion. Resolves some of the arc begun in Alien Bodies and expands on it. I have physical copies of both books.

Most of Compassion’s novels are really good. I would feel awful about telling someone to skip The Blue Angel, The Taking of Planet 5, Frontier Worlds, Parallel 59, The Shadows of Avalon, The Fall of Yquatine, and Coldheart. Of that whole group, I’d say Parallel 59 is the most skippable? Maybe?? But the long and short of it is that all these books are really good. The Taking of Planet 5, The Shadows of Avalon, and The Fall of Yquatine are all important to the War in Heaven arc.

The Space Age and The Banquo Legacy are skippable. I know a lot of people who like the latter, though so maybe give it a try! I personally didn’t like it, but that’s only my opinion, which is very subjective!

The Ancestor Cell: Uh. Resolves the story arc that’s been going on since Alien Bodies. So if you’ve been following that arc, yeah, it’s important. Do I like the book? Well, that’s a different question. I like parts of it. It also has a few very big very important Spoiler-y things that are important to the rest of the series.

The next five books are all part of a new arc, usually called the Earth arc. The Doctor (SPOILERS, but it’s Eight, so is it really?) has amnesia, and he’s stuck on Earth. I’d say four of the five books aren’t really bad, but some are more worth reading than others. They’re all interesting in that they examine an amnesiac Doctor really well.

The Burning: skippable. I don’t remember most of the plot. I vaguely recall the Doctor being really, uh, violent? (Part of the whole amnesiac thing.)

Casualties of War: super gory. Not terrible, but not a favorite of mine. I have friends who enjoyed it, though!

The Turing Test: yes pleasereadityesit’ssogoodplease - uh. A great queer novel, actually? Featuring Eight and Alan Turing? Made me cry, but like, it’s good?? I still haven’t bought a physical copy but I’ve been meaning to.

Endgame: Terrance Dicks, who’s an old hand at Doctor Who and also wrote the first EDA, the one I said not to read? He wrote this. And it’s amazing. Pretty standard Doctor Who fare, with characters that Dicks created but only he ever used, but it’s real good. Real real good. I loved his characterization of amnesiac Eight.

Father Time: warning: I kind of hate this book. It’s in my three least-favorite EDAs. I have...a lot of issues with it. That being said, it’s apparently a fan favorite. A lot of people like Father Time, and that’s okay! It’s a highly rated EDA that I just so happen to detest! If you want to try it, go for it, just know that I personally wouldn’t recommend it.

Escape Velocity: This book ends the earth arc, brings back Fitz, and introduces the new companion, Anji. It’s also not that great of a book, but hey, it’s important because it gives a lot of background for Anji’s character that will be instrumental in her character development.

EarthWorld: a lot of these upcoming books are standalone, and a lot of them are pretty good. EarthWorld is no exception. Would recommend. Lots of great hijinks.

Vanishing Point: Not a bad book, not a favorite. I’m not recommending it, but I’m also not trying to dissuade anyone from reading it.

Eater of Wasps: Uh. As the title suggests, maybe don’t read the book if you have a bee/wasp/stinging insect phobia. No, I definitely don’t know this from personal experience. :)))))) Other than that, though, a good book.

The Year of Intelligent Tigers: Yes. 100%. Read this book. Please. You won’t regret it. Eight has a composer boyfriend named Karl, there are giant tigers, this kind of solidifies Eight/Fitz/Anji as a favorite TARDIS team for me.

I’d say that The Slow Empire and Dark Progeny are both skippable. Not that they’re bad, but they’re not on the same level as a lot of the other books being put out in the series at this time.

City of the Dead: so good. I don’t know if you’re an Eight audio fan, anon, but Lloyd Rose also wrote the audio Caerdroia, and she brings the same kind of humor to this novel. Gosh. It’s so good. 

Grimm Reality: very dense, but enjoyable. It takes most people forever and a day to finish, though, just because there’s so much going on.

Adventuress of Henrietta Street: this is where the new arc begins. :) It won’t hurt you at all. :) If you’re interested in any of the Sabbath-related arcs, this is the starting point. :) There are various ending points for this arc, alternatively at Camera Obscura, Timeless, and Sometime Never.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen: ridiculous and good. If you just read Adventuress, you need a book like this. And it’s good, anyway. Talking poodles. From outer space. Standalone.

Hope: important character development for Anji!

Arachnophobia: A bit scary. Still would recommend. Standalone.

Trading Futures: it’s really telling how good the books are at this point that this is the weakest one in my opinion. I just have a chip on my shoulder about Lance Parkin EDAs, apparently. (He wrote Father Time, as well.) It’s not bad, but if there’s one in this whole sequence that I would consider skippable, it’s this one.

The Book of the Still: Yes. Please. Heck. The best description of Eight I’ve ever read, and there are a lot of good ones across the 74 or so books I’ve read featuring Eight. Also, if you’re a huge Eight/Fitz shipper, this is the book for you! I spent like $30USD on a physical copy it’s definitely worth every penny.

The Crooked World: Yes. Ridiculous and goofy and silly and also surprisingly deep. Try to imagine the Doctor and co. landing on a cartoon world, with cartoon physics. Now imagine that, but it’s got an interesting and heartfelt plot underneath the cartoon hijinks.

History 101: A good book, and important to the Sabbath arc started in Adventuress! Would rec.

Camera Obscura: Another Lloyd Rose book, one that kind of ends a large part of the Sabbath arc, and just really good. Heck. So good.

Time Zero: this one will rip your heart out in the first few pages and you’ll thank Justin Richards for it. Also begins a new arc, but of all the arcs you could read, I’d recommend this one the least. Each book after this through Timeless is part of this arc. It gets pretty depressing.

The Infinity Race: Not bad, not good. Take it or leave it.

The Domino Effect: Wouldn’t recommend. Seriously.

Reckless Engineering: Not...terrible. But depressing.

The Last Resort: Super confusing, very arc-heavy. Not that it’s bad, just that it’s not good.

Timeless: ends the arc started in Time Zero and has some good bits. Anji’s last EDA, so if you like her, I’d recommend it. Also introduces Trix, the new companion! (Sort of...)

Emotional Chemistry: If you like Fitz, read this book. There’s other plot, but a large part of it is Fitz character study. And I love it.

Sometime Never...: One of my favorite Justin Richards EDAs. Great character work. Fun story. Ends the Sabbath arc.

Halflife: If you ship Eight/Fitz, read this book. Otherwise, it’s not a bad book, but you could do better things with your time. I vaguely recall some Trix character development, but the Eight/Fitz is what really sticks with you.

The Tomorrow Windows: Douglas Adams Lite. Not as funny as Douglas Adams. Overall impression: meh.

The Sleep of Reason: Wouldn’t recommend. Trix is referred to as “the blonde bitch” 90% of the time, the Doctor and co don’t even make any appearances until nearly 100 pages in, and it’s just kind of disappointing. Martin Day, the author, has this weird fascination with mental institutions? Weird and kinda yikes.

The Deadstone Memorial: It’s Baxendale, so it’s gory. But it’s not bad! One of the better late EDAs, imo. And for the subject matter, it’s surprisingly wholesome.

To The Slaughter: Now this, this is what I’m talking about. One of my top Eight/Fitz/Trix stories, alongside Emotional Chemistry and Sometime Never. (And what the hell, Halflife. What can I say: I love Eight/Fitz.) It’s got some great Fitz characterization, I love Trix, and I love Eight. Really the half-a-brain-cell-at-best team. We stan.

The Gallifrey Chronicles: Nah. Don’t bother. Not really worth your time. Unless you want to read it and cry about the vore with me.

So there you have it! A ridiculously in-depth look at my EDAs recommendations! Uh. You can always start from the beginning, or you can go based on recommendations or what looks like it will suit your fancy, or you can pick an arc and read it through to the end. There’s really no perfect way to read them. Please, please dm me or something if you want a link to PDFs of the books, I’m happy to share it, and I hope you enjoy the EDAs!!

#asks #anon #edas #doctor who eu #eighth doctor #fitz kreiner #sam jones #compassion #anji kapoor #trix macmillan

[only-lonely-stars]

The Future is Bright, Chapter 4

[Chapter 1 (Beginning)] // [Chapter 3] // [Chapter 4 - you are here!] // [Chapter 5] // [Chapter 10 (End)] (FFN)

Cole and Jay have a bro talk in this installment... maybe a refresher would be nice. After all, it’s been years since they saw their futures.

Summary: What would happen if Cole had indeed had a reflection in the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master? How would that have changed his life later? What would it have been? This story follows what might have happened if he had seen something, and what it was; who he would have become. What if his future was already decided?... (Rated T for safety. Alternate title: the Cosmic Spoilers AU.)

Chapter 4: Late Night, Early Morning

When the Ninja at last returned home from Shintaro, it was very late in the evening.

That night, everyone went to bed quickly, content with sleeping off their accumulated exhaustion. Their time under the mountain had worn them down, breaking their defenses and walls of fortitude with a quick strength that was rarely found elsewhere. Now they were tired beyond belief– most of them were too tired to think.

When they arrived at the Monastery, Cole tried to rest as well. He went to bed and readied himself for it... but quickly found he couldn't sleep. He was tired, but his mind wouldn't rest.

In his defense, Cole had a lot to think about. His mother, the temple of the Masters of Earth, the Geckles and Munce, the Sorcerer… Vania… his future. There was so much to wonder about, so much to ponder and process. It was certainly too much for a sleeping Cole to process, clearly... so he didn't manage to rest at all.

Some time around two in the morning, Cole eventually roused himself from bed. It was defeatist to try to sleep now, so why try any more? He wandered around the Monastery, looking for rest, but found none. Even a glass of water and a slice of ice cream cake from the freezer didn't help, although it did wake him up, so he went back to wandering.

As he wandered, Cole eventually spotted a dim light in the living room. He headed to the doorway to see who it was.

When he poked his head in, Cole spotted Jay, lying on the couch with a comic book and a reading light that was entirely too big for what he was reading. Jay's face was the picture of focus, and he read with intense ferocity, completely engrossed. Cole stifled a snicker. That was his brother, all right, completely stuck in his own world. This was the perfect chance to get his revenge for that night in the palace!

Silently, with all the stealth a master ninja should muster, Cole snuck up behind Jay. He was thankful for the low amount of light, because he didn't cast a shadow that night. Jay didn't notice his presence at all, only turning another page in blissful ignorance... he was the perfect prey.

For a moment, Cole primed himself. After he was sure in his footing, he grinned and took a breath. Then he tackled Jay.

"EEK!" Jay screeched, landing on the floor with a hard thump as Cole landed on top of him, the comic book and light falling face-down on the floor. Jay immediately started to struggle against Cole's grip. "WHAT IN THE FSM!"

Cole burst into laughter and grabbed a pillow, whisper-shouting in Jay's face. "For Shintaro!" After saying so, he immediately whapped Jay in the face with it.

"Oh my word– COLE!" Jay grabbed the pillow, using it as a shield. "Let me up!"

Cole only laughed more, having pinned him. He would've kept laughing if Jay hadn't smacked him in the face with the pillow, knocking him to the side enough that he could get up. "Cole! How dare you!"

"Easily!" he retorted, still laughing a little.

"Okay, for one, that was completely unfair," Jay pouted, throwing the pillow back on the couch and grabbing his book to point the light at Cole. "For two, I'm gonna get you back for that. Way to scare a guy!"

"Yeah, I know." Cole grinned shamelessly, adrenaline settling already. "That's why I did it."

"Seriously! Thanks a lot," Jay pouted.

"Sorry." He got to his feet, not feeling that sorry. "I just saw the opportunity and took it."

"It's fine," Jay drawled, ruffling his already-messy hair. "I should've been paying more attention. Then I could have gotten you into a grip hold and made you yield!"

Cole snickered more. "Like you could've heard me! I'm the quietest of all of us."

"I don't agree, but whatev's." He rolled his eyes. "Is there any reason for you being up this early besides to scare me?"

Cole sighed, his thoughts coming back around to the forefront of his mind. His coherency dried up as he struggled to put them to words. "I, uh… I never went to bed, actually."

Jay's jaw dropped. "Seriously? Why not? You're exhausted!"

Cole nodded dumbly, feeling dumb. "Yeah, uh…" He gesticulated wildly. "You know. Future stuff. Shintaro. The thing with the tomb. Couldn't sleep."

Shock gone immediately, Jay instead raised an eyebrow, gleeful. "Oh, I see. Do you mean your crush on Vania, or hers on you?"

"Jay!" Cole groaned. "I do not have a crush on Vania, okay? Stop saying it!"

"Sure, sure you don't. I believe you."

"It's true!"

Jay nodded, clearly disbelieving. "Mhm. It's totally true. One hundred percent."

"Come on!" Cole felt like he was pleading with him. "I'm telling the truth."

"What, do you expect me to actually believe you? It's obvious!"

"Wh– yes, I expect you to actually believe me! Why would I lie?!"

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe because you don't want it to be true!" Jay laughed. "You're the one literally losing sleep over it."

Cole hesitated. "...You got me there."

"I got you with all of it. Don't lie to me."

"You're the one accusing me of lying about how I feel? That's rich."

"Not the point!" Jay crossed his arms. "Just out with it. What's really wrong here? Otherwise, I'm going to assume it's because you didn't get Vania's phone number before we left."

Cole glared at the floor, silently retorting that yes, he actually did get her number. It wouldn't help his case to say so, though...

"Fine." He looked up at Jay, feeling exposed. "I just– you know I don't want this, Jay. I just want to know what it meant and to get past it so I don't have to deal with the future hanging over me. I can't stop thinking about what will happen."

Jay sighed and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Cole, just because you don't want it, doesn't mean you can avoid it. The future comes no matter what we think, after all..."

"I barely even remember it, though."

"The vision?"

"Yeah. It's been years, after all."

"Hm… well, that could be a problem," Jay mused.

"You're telling me."

The two lapsed into comfortable silence, but Jay broke it a minute later by clapping, startling Cole. "I know! Let's just go back to the tomb and get a second look!"

Cole looked at him, wide-eyed. "What? Can we do that?"

"Sure, why not? We just have to borrow R.E.X. again. It could be fun!"

"Well… it could," he conceded, starting to plan. "Helpful, too. Would we bring the others? Nya and Lloyd never got to see it."

"We could ask." Jay shrugged. "Lloyd probably won't want to– he's seen the future enough, why would he want more prophecy?– but I'm sure Nya would. She always wants to be involved with that kind of stuff."

"I guess it couldn't hurt..." Cole sighed heavily. "Anything to figure out what the heck I actually saw is good."

Jay nodded, but as always, had to say more. "What'll you do if it's what you think it is?"

"I guess I'll go back. Maybe Vania can help me figure it out from there." He shrugged. "I can draw it so she can see, actually."

Jay shrugged. "Either that or show her yourself. Maybe she'd want to see her future?"

Cole shook his head immediately, the idea completely unwelcome. "No way. I don't want to make her have to see that. She already knows what she's stuck doing, being the queen and all that. She doesn't need one more thing telling her what to do."

"I doubt she sees herself as being stuck doing it, but okay." Jay fell back onto the couch. "Suit yourself, don't show her."

Cole shrugged, sitting next to Jay a lot more gently while wrestling with his thoughts. How could he convince Jay? "I mean… Well, y'know. It's not exactly fun wondering about the future, much less not knowing if you even want the future you'll have. It doesn't leave you a choice."

Jay scoffed. "Well, here's the thing." He turned and gave Cole an uncharacteristically serious look. "Think about this, Cole. If your future is to live in Shintaro– which is really awesome, honestly– with someone you love enough to spend your life with, would you accept it? It's practically a dream come true."

Cole paused, thinking about it, and hating how his thoughts always seemed to settle on one person. Internally, he blamed the fact that Vania was the only girl in Shintaro he really knew, but he still didn't like the fact that his mind always went back to her... It was always her, with her intelligent eyes and cheerful smile. What was it that had made her stick in his head so much since they'd left?

Eventually, he sighed. "I guess. It couldn't be that bad."

"You… guess?" Jay stared. "Wow, you really are against this."

Cole threw his hands up in exasperation. "Is it so bad that I don't want to leave Ninjago? We've protected this place for years. It's my home– pretty much everyone I know and love is here."

"I guess not, but…" Jay trailed off. "If there's a girl you'd die for, just to keep her safe, wouldn't you want to be there with her? Wouldn't you want to keep her safe?"

More silence fell between them, still enough to hear a pin drop. Cole struggled to sort through his emotions, and for once, Jay was quiet.

"Yeah. I guess I would."

"Then there you go." Jay leaned back against the arm of the couch. "Most of the time you can't control who you love, Cole. If there's a girl who makes you feel everything at once when you're with her, you'd want to stay. I know you'd choose her over Ninjago, and that's okay."

"You really think so?"

"I know so. It's better than just thinking."

Cole snickered. "Yeah, okay. I'll take it from you." He elbowed Jay good-naturedly. "Seeing as you know all about that."

Jay elbowed him back, grinning. "Oh yeah. I've had tons of experience with this."

"Lots of it with that one girl. So much."

"Oh, shut up! I think I can count my almost-messed-it-up-so-many-times romance as 'lots of experience.'"

"Yeah, okay," Cole laughed. "You and your fairytale romance."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jay rolled his eyes. "We're talking about your love life, not mine. Don't change the subject."

"I'm not changing the subject!"

"You just did, like, two minutes ago." Jay grinned. "Anyway. I'll ask Lloyd and Nya in the morning, you talk to Ronin about R.E.X, and we'll all get going as soon as we can before you chicken out."

Cole rolled his eyes and stood up. "Okay. Sounds good to me. For now I'm going to go to bed."

"Yes you should. Go to bed, child; it's good for you."

"I'm older than you, Jay."

"Shush! Bedtime." Jay shooed him out the door. "Go!"

"Ha! Go back to your comics, child."

"I will, thank you."

Cole rolled his eyes. "I'll see you in the morning, Jay. Thanks for the pep talk."

"No problem." Jay pointed at him meaningfully. "Oh, and Cole? FYI, I'm going to get you back for tackling me. Not tonight, but I will."

"Sure you will. Tomorrow." Cole snickered. "See you in the morning."

"Yes, see you in the morning!"

Cole chuckled as he left, not looking back as he went back to bed. He wondered... was Jay right? Maybe seeing the ice caves really was how he'd get closure.

#OLST fanfic #ninjago #ninjago fanfic #ninjago cole #ninjago jay #cole brookstone #jay walker #ninjago vania #princess vania #vania #cole x vania #vania x cole #vanillacake #vanillacakeshipping #colania #the future is bright

[sykilik101]

Colloyd Week Day 2: Outfit Swap

Colette didn’t know the details, but from what she could gather, Lloyd had lost a bet.

Off on the other side of the campsite, just out of earshot, the swordsman was currently ranting at Zelos and Genis, neither of whom had lost their impish grins for the past few minutes. His expressions ranged from flabbergasted to irate to flustered, throwing his hands every which way as if hoping they would get across whatever point he was trying to make. Clearly it wasn’t working as the other two crossed their arms simultaneously, with Zelos poking a finger out towards the campsite.

Lloyd’s face fell as he scanned the rest of the group, though for what she wasn’t sure. His eyes slid over to Zelos, mouthing something with annoyance before his legs began carrying him forward. A flush adorned his face, his lip tucked between his teeth. It was a look she rarely saw on her friend, and she wondered if maybe there was something she could do to help, but before she could stand up she watched him make his way towards Sheena.

The girl looked up from the book she was reading, wearing a smile that was in stark contrast to the anxious one Lloyd donned. His hand found its way to the back of his head, his lips creating words that looked like they tasted funny in his mouth. In a flash Sheena’s gaze turned from jubilant to confused and eventually to exasperated, shaking her head and mumbling something with a wave of her hand. Lloyd nodded as if he’d expected her reaction, waving apologetically.

The next minute consisted of Lloyd repeating similar interactions with the Professor and Presea, although the Professor looked a bit more annoyed than the other two. He had turned back to Zelos and Genis, both of whom were reduced to snickers with each girl he talked to. Colette watched as Zelos held up a single finger and said something. Lloyd’s shoulders sagged, and slowly his pleading gaze turned to her.

Endless possibilities about what Lloyd could be going through consumed her imagination, and as he slowly approached her she couldn’t decide which one she wanted to believe. She opted to paste an inviting smile on her face, hoping that whatever was troubling him, she’d have a way to help.

“Uh, h-hi, Colette.”

The stutter was uncharacteristic to her normally cheery companion, and she was starting to worry that maybe his situation was more dire than she’d expected. “Hey, Lloyd. Is...something the matter?”

“Well, no, not really. I just...have a weird favor to ask.”

A gleam of optimism sprouted within her, taking solace in the notion that she’d be able to aid him after all. “What is it? If there’s anything I can do to help, just ask.”

He looked unsure of what to do with his hands, opting to let one rest on his hip as the other scratched his cheek. One of his feet tapped against the ground, wisps of dust blending with the rest of the dirt on his boots. If restless was made incarnate, Lloyd was it, and it didn’t seem to ease up as he dragged his gaze back to hers.

“I sort of lost a bet with Zelos and Genis, and now I have to wear girl’s clothes.”

She’d expected all sorts of responses, but of all of them, this was far from what she could have predicted. Still, the idea of Lloyd in a dress tickled her fancy, and she covered up her incoming laughter with an endearing curiosity. “I didn’t know you owned girl clothes, Lloyd.”

His eyes narrowed by the tiniest margin, clearly sensing her hidden merriment. It was enough to undo her inner restraints, allowing a giggle to escape her. His face relaxed at this, resting both his hands on his hips. “As a matter of fact, I don’t, which is why I need to borrow some.” Some of his fluster sparked back into his cheeks, his eyes shifting to the side.

Colette tilted her head to the side. Borrow some? From who-

The nature of his predicament suddenly clicked in her head, a pouty blush creeping up on her. “Oh. So...you mean we’d have to trade outfits?”

Saying it aloud seemed to make his apprehension more potent, his mouth twisting in humiliation. “Yeah...something like that.” He turned back to her, waving his palms at her. “But if you don’t want to, it’s okay. It’s kind of a dumb thing to make me do.”

Even in his awkwardness she found an earnestness in his eyes that had drawn her to them for all the years they’d known each other. Deferring to Lloyd was a common occurrence for her, and her desire to see him relieved of his discomfort sent the words to her vocal cords before she had a chance to stop them. “Well, if you really want to, I’m okay with it.”

She couldn’t tell if he looked more surprised or confused at her reply. “Really?”

“Mhm. Besides, it’s not good to go back on a promise.”

“I don’t know if I’d call this a promise…” he mumbled, turning to glare at the duo with the playfully optimistic eyes. Holding up a weak thumbs up caused the pair to exclaim excitedly, whooping and cheering on their own.

Colette giggled once more, still perplexed at this ritual between the boys but amused all the same. “So where should we get changed?”

His already rosy cheeks flourished further as he glanced around the campsite, searching around for wherever the two could exchange clothes. He exhaled sharply as he raised his finger towards a pair of boulders off in the distance. “We should be able to get some privacy behind those.” His face twisted and a wave of apprehension washed over him. “I promise I won’t peek or try to look!”

The concept of Lloyd trying to peek at her as she changed was so unbelievable that she almost collapsed into another fit of giggles, but she imagined her assurance would work better for him than her laughter.

“It’s okay, I trust you, Lloyd.”

xxxxx

It hadn’t taken much effort to slip herself into Lloyd’s outfit, given that he had a few sizes over her. With her arms at her sides the cuffs of his jacket slipped over her hands. Despite his suspenders his pants waist band refused to cling to her hips, forcing her to grasp it to keep them from drooping too far down. It was a miracle she was able to walk from behind the boulder without tripping over, given how large his boots were over her feet. In spite of how silly she felt, deep down she savored the warmth of his clothes around her, as if Lloyd was embracing her, protecting her like he always had.

She was surprised to find the entire group standing before her, sans Regal who was in charge of dinner that night. Genis and Zelos grinned approvingly at her before turning back to Lloyd’s boulder, clearly far more interested in his wardrobe exchange. Presea seemed generally unphased by her appearance, but Sheena held her chin in her hand, head gently cocked to the side.

“It’s kind of big on you, but you actually pull those clothes off pretty well, Colette.”

She meant to move her hand atop her head out of flattery, but the excess sleeve fell over her head and flopped against her ear, adding more fuel to the giggle that had already been bubbling inside. “Hehe, thanks!”

The Professor, however, appeared less than thrilled at their antics. “It’s fine that Lloyd’s clothes cover you well enough, but I’m concerned about how he’s supposed to fit in yours.”

“You know, when you put it that way, I almost don’t wanna see him in Colette’s clothes,” Genis shrugged with a shake of his head.

“Yeah, I’m kinda with you on that one,” Sheena chimed in, resting her hand on her hip.

“Oh, I’m sure it won’t be that egregious,” Zelos chuckled, though his comment did little to assuage the concerned looks of his companions. Rather than acknowledge their lack of faith in him he instead cupped his hand over his mouth. “Hey, Lloyd! You having some trouble over there, bud?”

“I’m fine...I’m just...trying to get this to fit…”

Not knowing which article of clothing he was referring to tickled at Colette’s fancy, though Zelos and Genis were clearly more amused. Between their snickering, Presea looked to the girl. “If Lloyd accidentally damages your clothes, I’m sure I could repair them without any trouble.”

The kind gesture warmed Colette’s heart and pulled the corners of her lips upwards. “Oh, that’s okay, I’m sure Lloyd is being really careful with them.”

“He’d better be, otherwise we’ll have a wardrobe malfunction on our hands, and I don’t think any of us want that.” Genis placed his hands behind his head, rocking side to side.

“Perhaps you or Zelos should go make sure everything fits properly before he comes out,” Raine responded, gently giving the boy a shove on the back with an amused grin.

“Not it!”

Their voices harmonized perfectly, prompting laughter from the rest of the group as they glared each other down. Before either could offer the first argument Lloyd’s voice rang from behind the boulder.

“Guys, I don’t think this is gonna work out.”

Zelos pulled himself away from his staredown with Genis, reviving his previous merriment. “Oh, come on, Lloyd, it can’t be that bad.”

As if to answer him, Lloyd inched himself out from behind the boulder. Colette’s top wasn’t especially snug on her, so Lloyd had some leeway as far as fitting into it, but it still clung tightly to his arms and chest. However, he clearly hadn’t managed to fit his legs into her tights or shoes, standing there pantsless and tugging at the bottom of her top to allow himself some decency.

Colette felt her face go hot, taking an unexpected extra second to take in the sight before looking away. Zelos and Genis howled with laughter, clutching their sides as they fell to the dirt. Sheena made a noise as her face went aflame, covering it and turning to the side. Presea also averted her gaze, though with far less theatrics than the Mizuho native. It was the Professor, however, who was the most incensed at his appearance.

“Lloyd Irving, cover yourself up this instant!”

“I’m doing the best I can, Professor!” He pulled harder at the hem of the top, looking to the cackling duo with shame and fluster in his glare. “Zelos, how long do I have to keep this on?”

I took a few moments for the redheaded Chosen to regain his composure, wiping a tear from his eye. “Well, I would hate for Raine to get mad at me for this, so you can get your clothes back after dinner. Is that alright with you, Colette?” he asked, turning to the girl.

She nodded, still at war with the heat and second-hand embarrassment coursing through her. “Okay.” It was all she could manage to say, still coping with the reality that she and Lloyd had (mostly) traded outfits.

Lloyd looked to her, his grip on her top tightening. “I-I’ll do my best not to mess this up, okay?”

In spite of everything entertaining about the situation, all Colette could do was grin softly. “Okay.”

Seemingly satisfied with this response, Lloyd grit his teeth, meandering towards the campsite. Sighs and residual chuckles resounded as the party watched him trek forward, though all shared a laugh at the sound of Lloyd’s voice erupting. “It’s because I lost a bet, Regal!”

Zelos was the first to begin heading back. “Let’s go get dinner over with so we can put Lloyd out of his misery.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, though some were more at unease than others. As footsteps trekked away from the boulders Colette held her place, rubbing the cloth of the jacket between her fingers. She could still smell his scent in the fabric, still imagining the way the sleeves moved and stretched as he fought. With the others gone she allowed a wavering sigh to escape her. Her eyes closed and snapshots of the ways Lloyd walked, worked, played, and lived raced through her mind. Oxygen tasted sweeter as she pulled his outfit closer, savoring her private indulgence.

“Colette, come on, we’re all waiting for you!”

Genis’s voice ripped her from her reverie, the mental hue of brown eyes vanishing in an instant. Her throat tightened for a moment as she prayed that the ruby tint of her cheeks wasn’t noticeable from afar. The boy stood there curiously, oblivious to her swordsman musings. “Coming!”

The images wouldn’t leave her as the fireplace grew closer, but the sight of her friends focused on making cracks at Lloyd’s predicament gave her blush the perfect camouflage. Between the banter and how much food Lloyd could eat, it was likely she would have more time with his clothing than she expected. A small smile worked its way onto her lips; perhaps she could intervene, stall a little. She didn’t intend to embarrass Lloyd any further, but maybe she could delay dinner from ending right away. Maybe she could keep him close to her, just a little longer.

xxxxx

I actually had a lotta fun with this one. I’m not the most satisfied with some parts, but as a whole, I really like this story.

#colloyd #colloydweek #colloydweek2020 #lloyd irving #colette brunel #tales of series #tales of symphonia #fanfiction #fanfic

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

Arr, me mateys! I may have work to do in the day, but I consider myself a wee fast crewman! They even ran out of work to give me so I finished the day with long hours to spare. And since I got the time, ye bet I decided to use it to explore new depths of Ninjago with Skybound!

Okay, I won’t do that for the whole post. But honestly, I thought Skybound was...decent, but does have some drawbacks from how ambitious it was. Let’s just go through it.

-Jay...hmm. Two minds about him. His arc at the start of the season (lasting about halfway) was clearly intentional and setup for his later redemption, and his character after that point is the best kind of Jay. And the reason for said start of season funk does make sense (unlike Home). On the other hand, yeah, the first half is pretty much Jay at his worst with bits sprinkled in to remind you that they still remember his good side. It’s not like giving him that sort of flaw is bad, but it pretty much dominated his entire character for that duration so at some point you just want to punch the little git. Also his parent arc is a bit undercooked, but he’s got plenty elsewhere so that doesn’t really bother me, especially when Ed and Edna ultimately get to have the crucial pep talk.  -Nya has a similar problem to be honest, although part of hers was also fabricated by Dareth being an absolute dick at the start (despite his moment in season 4). After that, it was fine for her up until she starts the whole fucking thing by being stubborn in such a perilous situation. And then halfway through they calm it down and make her realise she’s taken it somewhat overboard. Once that halfway point crosses it’s a lot easier to get behind the both of them, but mileage may vary on how much you can stand before then. I did like the lunchtime scene though.  -Zane doesn’t get much this season, but I did like his sass, it was a good check. Otherwise, not much happening with him aside from one scene that people immortalise due to how out of character it was for him, but since that has zero consequences I just brush that off as a one time gag. Pixal had like two scenes but they were both great scenes for her.  -Lloyd had more going for him this seasons than prior ones at least (even Possession), but he was still on the more bland side. I think every character got an attitude increase in this season though. Seriously, even the one-scene characters. But let me tell you; Lloyd Garmadon is no Rex Fury, that’s for sure.  -Cole and Kai...I think were on some substance or other during this arc, at least at the start. -Kai has Project Arcturus’ issue of playing his vain side up to the point where it’s actively jeopardising the mission (and actually could be considered as much responsible for starting the whole thing as Nya), but at least this time they reign it in to turn it into something of a clever tactic. And of course this is all absent when he’s freed from the Sword of Souls because Kai typically gets characterised into two modes at this point in the show. -Cole has a similar thing. I mean, eating tools...what? It’s mostly comedic and not that detrimental to begin with (aside from him straight up ditching Jay at the theme park. Not out of spite or anything, just because the plot wanted an extra minute I guess). Then Kai gets trapped and suddenly his character is all about being Jay’s best friend, which in of itself is fine until it again gets way heavy-handed about it. I’m assuming that the writers just wanted any potential remnants of Cole and Nya as a pair to just die (hence why he has no reaction to Jay revealing things about the caves despite Jay’s worry over it, and why this is the season he starts really taking potshots at Nya), but surely Versus was enough on its own combined with Jay and Nya’s arc in this season? Plus the ghost thing is almost entirely wasted this season, only serving a point where his invisibility comes into play (oh, and I guess a threat when he walks the plank).  -Despite the much bigger cast of characters, they don’t really get to do that much. The standouts are easily Soto (who’s just funny throughout), Dareth (who despite having a really bad start with being a misogynist for no reason, gets much better when he comes in second time) and Ronin (who I guess was still a writer darling at this point). Anyone else? You might get a moment for some of them (mainly Misako and Echo Zane), but eh. It’s a shame because Jay set up the ninja replacements like it would be this shining moment for them, but not really, and they just end up as fight fodder. And being a gag for hating Jay for being annoying despite him not doing anything to at least a couple of them. Also because of my other LEGO interests, every time I see Ronin whistle for the R.E.X, I expect the Rexcelsior to just come down and crush everything. That would have been a bad time for Kai and Nya.  -One thing I didn't mention in Possession is how the villain and lackey dynamics are developing into something actually worth investing in (beyond the tension between Pythor and Skales), and Skybound takes it even further. This is the first season where the villains are just as investing as the heroes, and I like how its a slow burn from Nadakhan and his crew having comradery, to Flintlocke slowly realising that Jay was telling the truth, to him and Dogshanks playing key roles in the final confrontation. -Speaking of which, Nadakhan was an interesting villain. I don’t like him as much as Morro, but he’s still got plenty to him. What I find most interesting is how the Jay seasons like to play parallels with the villains, what with Nadakhan being a reflection of Jay’s romance thing and Jay using his abandonment to find a way to connect to Unagami. Also the fact that he doesn’t even seem to care that much about doing evil in Ninjago at first. He does evil stuff, and they’d certainly need to find a way to fix Wu and Misako’s situation, but it’s just as a means to get home. Once he finds out that home is just about to die? He loses the plot entirely, and that’s fun to see.  -Ironically, the interactions I liked best this season were the more understated ones. For example Jay and Zane’s conversation early on (which doubles as foreshadowing to Zane’s demise) was really nice for characters who don’t usually get time to speak to each other one on one, and I wish more of the interaction in the season felt as natural as that in the first half. As a bonus, it wasn’t even wiped out at the end so that conversation still happened! -Yeah, plot. The story was interesting once we got to the Sky Pirates, not quite as engaging as Possession but it was clearly aiming at more individual dynamics than looking at the whole group and it definitely managed to balance that with the actual story and giving the villain perspective. The framing arc was less interesting, if only because even for this show everyone suddenly turning on the ninja without giving them more chance to defend themselves is laughable at this point. And as for the ending...eh, I’m ambivalent on it. Jay and Nya’s arcs remain no matter what so at least that stuff stuck around (by design). But you do lose the existence of the other Sky Pirates who made a good chunk of the good stuff. I guess the other biggest thing you lose is all the scenes where Cole reaffirms that he is Jay’s best friend, but he can do that in future seasons and not just drop it because they’ve settled the score on the love triangle...right? -Once again, it felt like a pretty dry season in terms of tone. I think this is a running theme. -At least the annoying slow-mo seems to finally giving way. It was used twice. One was random, the other was thematically appropriate. 

Overall, this season can be described as “heavy-handed”, moreso than any other story-heavy season so far. When it’s in this mode, it’s pretty annoying even if not terrible. But it still has elements to keep it going, and ends up in a pretty good place. Definitely comes down to individual taste on how much of said elements you can stomach, so I’m not surprised it has a marmite reputation. Out of the non-Possession story-heavy seasons I’ve seen so far this is the better one, but it’s still below S1 and S2 for me. 

Next time, I will not be doing a season. The writers seems to want to end Cole’s ghost arc and that’s exactly what they’ll do in Day of the Departed.

#ninjago #ns6 #VEDJ-F talks #vedj-f reviews #for the record I've always like ninjas more than pirates #ns12 spoilers

[fabrowrites]

That’s Ninja Swag (it’s nothing new)

So this is technically a continuation to Flashing Back, which I do recommend reading before this one.  Crossposted on ffn.net.  Enjoy!

"Hey Ky. Ky."

"Huh?"

Ky looks up from where he's busy planning how best to take his nap. Lloyd raises an eyebrow at him. He's clearly going for nonchalant, but there's this tenseness in the way he's sitting that immediately puts Ky on guard.

He shifts to face Lloyd better. "Yeah, sure bro, what's up?"

Lloyd smiles, but there's a crease between his eyes. "Hey. I was wondering if you'd meet me in the library later?"

Oh. Oh. Ky sits up straight and pushes all plans of sleep to the back of his mind. Because if Lloyd wants to talk to him, then it could be about… that. No, scratch that, it's almost definitely about it.

Ever since that trip to the Museum of History a couple of days ago, Lloyd's been acting… strange. And Ky doesn't mean his usual brand of strange -how anyone could eat steak cold is beyond him. No, he's acting shifty. And Ky plans to get to the bottom of it.

"Yeah, sure thing," Ky says. They're some of the first to the classroom; none of the others are here yet. "I'll let Noa know, she'll tell the others-"

"No." Lloyd's hand on his arm stops Ky in his tracks. "Don't tell them. Or at least, not yet. I, uh, I want to look into something by myself first. Make sure I'm not going crazy." He mumbles that last part under his breath, but Ky still hears him.

"Can do," Ky says, electing to ignore that last part. Lloyd has a tendency for self-deprecation, after all.

Lloyd gives him a thankful grin. Ky grins back. Lloyd turns back to his seat and Ky's grin settles into something more thoughtful. What's Lloyd got to say that's that important? He shifts back and tries to get comfortable. He's not getting that nap today.

At the end of the day, Ky shoves his books into his locker and heads for the school library. When he arrives, he almost doesn't find Lloyd behind the ginormous pile of books at his table.

"What the heck is this?" Ky asks, gesturing sharply at the stack. It truly is impressive, and Ky would be more impressed if he wasn't so crestfallen. "You didn't tell me we would be reading," he whines. "You should have asked Zach or someone else to help you with this. I'm terrible at reading."

"But I wanted you," Lloyd says matter-of-factly, not looking up from his book. He pats the seat beside him. "Come on, stop complaining and help."

Ky goes over, ignoring the warm feeling in his chest. "What's got you all interested in this history stuff all of a sudden?" he asks.

Lloyd shrugs evasively. "Just curious."

Ky stares. That almost sounded like a believable lie. Lloyd does not do almost believable lies. He doesn't do halfway believable or even -what's the word for half of a half? oh yeah!- or even quarterway believable lies.

"Okay," he says, slamming his book down. "What has gotten into you?"

Lloyd flails. "Gotten into me? Nothing! Nothing's gotten into me!" He props his elbow on the table and gives Ky the fakest grin ever. "Uh, what makes you think that?"

Ky squints. While that sounds more like the Lloyd he knows, that grin isn't fooling anyone. "You never stay at school longer than you have to," he points out. He sits down. "So what are we researching? Mongooses? Puberty?"

"You think you're so funny," Lloyd says dryly. He sighs. "No. I'm- it's the original Ninja Force."

Ky shoots up so fast he knocks his chair over. "Aha! I knew this was about what happened at the museum!"

"Ky!" Lloyd hisses, pulling him back down. He glances around the library and glares at him. "People could be listening!"

"What people," Ky grouses. "There's no one here. I checked as I came in."

Honestly, Lloyd needs to trust him more. It's not like Ky evacuates buildings all the time for a living or anything- well, not for a living exactly, but you get the point.

Lloyd's brow pulls together, but he concedes the point. "Just be more careful," he says.

"Got it, chief." Ky picks up his chair and sits down again. "So did you find anything? You said you didn't know why you were glowing when I asked." He has to fight to keep the hurt out of his voice. Lloyd wouldn't lie to him about something like that.

Lloyd shifts. "I didn't know exactly why," he hedges, "but I had a hunch. Did you hear what the tour guide said? Right before I, uh, started glowing?" His face turns pink.

"You know I didn't," Ky says, "otherwise I wouldn't be asking questions."

Lloyd nods. "Right. Okay. He said that those golden weapons on the wall- you saw them, right?"

Ky nods too. He'd thought the sword with the dragon eating flames had looked pretty sick.

"He said that they react in the presence of the Green Ninja."

Ky feels his eyes widen. "So that's why you- but- how-?" His mind seizes the strongest response- anger- and he runs with it. "That idiot! He could have given away your secret identity!"

"He didn't know!" Lloyd defends. "And it's not like anyone else made the connection."

"Still," Ky says, for the principle of it even though he knows Lloyd's right. He breathes out. "Wow. So, like, at least now you know you're the green ninja for sure."

"You've got that right," Lloyd says in a strange tone. Suddenly, he's looking hard into Ky's face. "Have you been, uh… Have you ever felt deja vu before?"

Ky shrugs. "Sure, I guess. Hasn't everyone?"

Lloyd searches his face a little while longer. Ky fidgets. Apparently that's not the answer he was looking for, because Lloyd sighs and turns away. "Yeah, I guess so. Nevermind."

He checks his watch and stands, stretching. "We've gotta go. Master Wu expects us for training in half an hour."

Ky follows him out, wondering what else he was supposed to say.

Three days later finds the whole gang sans Jay at the pool, soaking up the last of the summer heat. Ky lounges in one of the deck chairs, sunglasses perched on his nose and arms crossed behind his head. The sun is warm on his bare chest. He sighs contentedly.

A little ways away, Lloyd floats in the water. He's on one of those blowup chair thingies, the ones that everyone love but just make Ky's skin feel sticky. Well, at least he seems happy. This is one of those rich people pools, so there's an entire area dedicated to kids with spray guns and buckets. Kai squirts Lloyd with water just to see the way he scowls at him.

Also on dry ground are Noa, Zach, and Colton. Zach can't get in the water for… obvious reasons, and Noa's taking a break from the water to pass a bright yellow frisbee back and forth with him. Colton has a stupid drink hat on and an ever-present earbud tucked into one ear. He's the reason any of them are even allowed in the rich people pool, so Ky will hold back from mocking him. Probably.

Ky leans back again. There was just a Garmadon attack two days ago, so according to Zach, they're in the clear. Hmm. He could take a nap, wouldn't that be nice…

"Lloyd, think fast!"

Ky opens his eyes right as Noa tosses a frisbee in the air. Everything after that happens in slow motion. Lloyd reaches up for the frisbee, overextends. He topples off his float, which would be fine if he were anyone else. But Ky sees the panic in his eyes as he goes under, his complete terror-

And Kai. Doesn't think. Doesn't hesitate. Doesn't do anything except fling off his sunglasses and jump into the pool. Water rushes up over his head but he can't think about that now, can't think about the lump of panic that rises in his own throat. He has to get to Lloyd. His hand brushes something and he seizes it.

They break the surface, gasping, but very much alive.

"Lloyd!" Nya's face appears in front of his. The girl is wide-eyed with horror. "I'm so sorry! I didn't think-"

She starts to haul him up and exhausted, Kai can't do much more than let Lloyd go into her care. He clutches at the side of the pool as images flash through his head. What's happening to him? Why is he seeing:

Himself, bent over an anvil.

Himself, looking out of a volcano from the inside.

Himself, a staff in one hand and a ball of energy around him.

Himself, opening the door to a hut in a swamp.

Himself, with gold weapons laid out at his feet and a dying forge at his back.

A thousand pictures flash through Ky's mind, a thousand memories, and he lets out a whine as he clutches his head. It feels like he's dying. Or maybe he's being born again. Oh FSM, what Lloyd must have felt going through this alone-

Lloyd!

Ky clambers out of the pool. He doesn't realize he's shivering until Zach drapes a towel over his shoulders and starts spouting off facts about human death rates from falling into pools. Which, number one, is a lot higher than Ky would have thought, and number two, not important right now. He pushes past the teen, not unkindly, and goes over to the chair they've set Lloyd in. Lloyd looks up as he approaches.

"Kai?" he asks.

It sounds exactly like his name, but Ky knows- he doesn't know how, but he knows- that it's meant for the other him. "Yeah. Yeah, Lloyd, I'm here."

Lloyd's face crumples. "I thought I was alone."

And ouch. Ky tries not to let his hurt show on his face. "Alone, Lloyd? With all of us at your side?" He gestures widely to their group of friends, who are not so subtly eavesdropping on their conversation. "Any of them, us, would follow you into battle without question. Don't try and undermine that."

Lloyd must see how much he's affected him because his eyes go wide and a flurry of 'sorry's spill from his lips. Kai rubs a hand over his eyes. Yeesh. Combine his Lloyd's tendency to apologize for anything and everything with this Lloyd's tendency to blabber and this is what you end up with.

"No, no, sorry," he says. "I know you didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah," Lloyd says softly. "So you remember-?"

"Most of it," Ky says. "It's really weird. It's like I've got a whole other life inside my head." He wrinkles his nose.

"You kinda do," Lloyd says, but not mocking.

"Okay," says Noa, hands on her hips. "Is anyone going to tell me what the heck is going on here, or will I have to-"

The warning sirens cut off whatever she was going to say next. The five of them look at each other and collectively groan.

"You are not getting out of this conversation," Noa warns.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Ky says. "C'mon, let's go!"

#ninjago #ninjago fanfic #ninjago fic #kai #lloyd #WHY DID TUMBLR DELETE THIS

[malicerewatchesdoctorwho]

The Underwater Menace - Episode Four

Written by – Geoffrey Orme Director – Julia Smith Producer – Innes Lloyd

Episode Four

("It's only the wee things outside that are, well, alarming." - Jamie on his first adventure.)

Likes

- Huh, So the king who is called Thous didn't die from being shot last episode.  Will have to go back and change the death count for last episode.  Hah, nice.

- Jacko being given the job of moving people to higher levels so the lower levels can be flooded. Sean will be his helper this time.

- Pfff, Ben getting the Doctor and himself into the generating station by bluffing the first guard by stating that it doesn't matter if he has the password or not, look at the Doctor and tell me he doesn't look like a prisoner.  Then getting the actual password out of him to say to the other guard. So funny. 

- How dedicated to his plan Zaroff is.  He thinks that everything the Doctor says is a lie to keep him from enacting his plans and doesn't take into consideration that the place is literally flooding by the sea breaking in.  Idiot genius.

- The workers in the lab running for their lives the moment they hear the sea has gotten in and will drown them.  Smart cookies.

- Lolem just hating Zaroff so much he will try to kill him.  He should never have insulted the Goddess Amdo.

- Jacko surviving. Didn't really care for Sean, but I am glad that Jacko lived.  He was a nice guy.

- Everyone laughing and teasing the Doctor for not knowing how to properly control the TARDIS. Lovely little bonding moment between team TARDIS.

Dislikes

- You live in an underwater city.  You'd think swimming is one of those things all children there are taught because of the real danger of a flood and everyone drowning otherwise.  Unless disability stops them, there is no reason anyone there shouldn't be able to swim.

- Zaroff willing to work his slaves...er, I mean, his men and scientists to death even though they're too busy panicking about having no food and starving to death.  They're not going to do very good work in that state anyway.

- Where did Ben get the cable cutters from?

- Polly's little breakdown while climbing to higher ground in the tunnel system.  Where did that come from?  From what we've gotten from Polly so far, that's OOC for her.

Awesome

- I still really like the look of the lab equipment.  Too bad we didn't get that last episode.

- The generator.  I don't know why.  I would have loved to see that generator just going all over the place by the sound effects alone XD

- The sound effects. Love when they use good sound effects to go with actions, makes it easier to imagine it in my head during recons.

- The still shot of the fallen idol of Amdo.  Would really have liked to have seen that in motion.

- Hahaha, the recon I am watching is so bad that the microphone Zaroff is using to tell everyone to stay where they are and keep working looks like a thin vibrator. That's hilarious XD

- We get the shot of Zaroff going under the water level stuck in his lab in motion, hahaha.  Yes.

Shitty

- It's missing. 

- The magically appearing cable cutters.  Just...what?

- So, did the Doctor start the radiation leak, or was it naturally occurring?  On the shitty list simply because it wasn't that clear to me at all.

In Conclusion

I actually liked this episode even through the shitty recon I was watching.  Especially when the place started flooding and everyone was in danger of dying without the help of Zaroff trying to blow them all up.

It moved at a much faster pace than the last episode, as things were happening all over the place. Zaroff is delightfully mad.  And shoots someone else.  Did Lolem die from the shooting?  Who knows? 

This was also a good episode for the one shot actors.  Sean didn't annoy me so much this episode, Jacko lived, yay, and the others all get small moments (with the exception of Ara, who I couldn't tell even survived or not by the end, as I only saw still shots of the men...)

An enjoyable episode.

Body count - 2.  Lolem, the High Priest and Zaroff.  Lolem is shot or drowned, can't be too sure which with the recon since Zaroff seems to be the worst shot in history while actually shooting someone with a gun.  And Zaroff drowns.  

The Underwater Menace as a Whole

All up I would count this one as okay.  Not great, not bad, but okay.  Half of it I enjoyed, and the other half just was meh.  It kind of balances it out as a full story I think.  Also one meh was in full motion while one of the enjoyable episodes was a recon, so yeah, balanced pretty well between the two.

I think it a pretty strong Ben story, as he gets to do a lot in it with acting his way out of problems and succeeding.  Not very good for Polly, though she has her moments. 

Jamie by this point was a surprise addition and it pretty much shows.  Sometimes he is forgotten about entirely in dialogue.  Like Ben worried for Polly but not even mentioning Jamie.  But he gets some lovely moments especially at the start and end while the TARDIS team is relaxed and joking around with each other or exploring the beach. 

All up I wouldn't really recommend unless you want to see the fabulousness that is Zaroff in action (or inaction as the case may be in recons.)  He hams it up to eleven in this and it is glorious.  If that is your kind of thing, then yes, watch it.  Or listen to it.  

#Classic Doctor Who #doctor who #The Underwater Menace #episode four #epic rewatch #Second Doctor #Polly Wright #Ben Jackson #Jamie McCrimmon #atlantis #Mad Scientist